It was a normal Sunday afternoon at home. Everyone was off doing their own thing. Rarity and Citrine were at the hair salon getting their manes done, Jade was listening to music in her room, Ruby was playing with her toys in the living room, Spike was watching his favorite show, Onyx and Obi were laughing their heads off at their latest prank and Topaz?
Topaz was walking in pain with his underwear full of mud and pulled over his head. The twins thought it would be hilarious to hold him down and give him a "mud wedgie" while he was trying to read. This kind of treatment was nothing new, though. The twins were always jerks, especially to Topaz. As much as he tried to get the underwear off his head, it was snagged tightly on his horn.
"Very funny, guys!" the young colt yelled out to them. When he hobbled into the living room, his dad saw him and knew instantly what had happened.
"What the?! BOYS!" He got up from the couch and yelled at them.
"It wasn't us, Dad!" They called back in unison as they ran down to the basement that was their bedroom.
Spike groaned in frustration. "Come here. Let me help you with that," he said, yanking the ruined underpants off of Topaz's head.
"Thanks, Dad," said Topaz, feeling so much better.
"You go throw those out and put on some fresh ones. I'll take care of those two."
"Yeah. Good thinking."
The young unicorn headed upstairs to change while Spike knocked on the door of the two troublemaking twins.
"Nobody's here!" Onyx called from inside. Spike opened the door and barged in anyway.
"What did I tell you guys about picking on your brother?" He said angrily as he closed the door behind him.
Topaz made his way to up to the second floor of the house. There were five rooms upstairs. One was a bathroom, one belonged to his parents, one was his sister Citrine's, one was Jade's and one was his that he had to share with Ruby. He entered his bedroom. On one side was Ruby's stuff: her bed, toys, dirty clothes and posters of baby animals. On the other side was the closet and Topaz's stuff: his bed, desk, books, study materials and his own dresser.
The book on his desk was still open to the page he had been reading before he was so rudely interrupted. It was a book about advanced magic and it was open to a chapter on animation spells, designed to temporarily bring objects to life. He couldn't wait to get back to reading it, but first, he had to take a shower to wash the mud out of his hair and put on some clean underpants.
Topaz loved to read and study things like science, history and especially magic. It was his goal to someday be one of the greatest mages of all time like Starswirl the Bearded or even his aunt Twilight Sparkle, who was all too happy to give him a lesson whenever they saw each other. He already had a few colleges in mind with great magic programs that he wanted to go to when he got older. For now, though, he was stuck in a house with two idiot brothers who made fun of him, picked on him and gave him mud wedgies.
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The next day, Topaz rode with his mom on his way to school, which wasn't much better for him when it came to being picked on. His parents were, of course, very proud of him for being so smart and studious, but often wished he would socialize more often with other kids his own age. He tried from time to time to make a new friend with somepony who shared his interests, but more often than not, he just couldn't form much of a connection with anypony. Either that or they would get freaked out by his reptilian eyes and pointy teeth and just not want to talk to him. Worst case scenario, though? He had to deal with bullies at school who teased him both for being part dragon and for being an "egghead."
As they came up to the school's football field, Topaz decided that they were close enough that he could walk the rest of the way.
"You can just drop me off right here, Mom," he said.
"Oh, don't be silly," she replied. "We're almost there with plenty of time to spare."
"Really, it's okay. I can walk," he persisted.
"What's the matter? You don't want to be seen with your mother driving you?"
"No, it's not that. It's just..." he couldn't think of what else to say since it kind of was that. Suddenly, Rarity had a thought and put on a sly smirk.
"Is it a girl?" She teased, making his cheeks turn bright red.
"What?! No! No, there's no girl! It's just...! You're-You're crazy, Mom!"
The white mare giggled. "Oh, relax, honey. I'm just teasing.... Although, if it was a girl, I'd be more than..."
"It's not a girl, Mom!" Topaz exclaimed defensively.
"There's no need to shout, young colt," she said with stern expression.
"Sorry," he said recoiling.
Finally, they pulled up to the front of the school, where buses and other cars were dropping off kids for the day. Topaz grabbed his backpack and opened the door.
"Have a good day, sweetie. I love you!" Rarity said as her son stepped out of the car.
"Love you, too, Mom," he replied, closing the door.
As Topaz walked up to the front door, he suddenly noticed two colts taller than him standing nearby, waiting for him. He kept walking and pretended not to see them, hoping maybe he could at least get inside without much trouble.
"Hey, Topaz!" One of the colts called out to him. "Where you going, buddy?"
Topaz groaned internally, still trying to get to the door. "Just trying to get to class, guys. I don't want any trouble."
"Aw, come on, dude. That hurts," the other colt said sarcastically. They both stopped him and turned him around to face them. "We just wanna have a little fun with you before class."
"Yeah. Come on. Why don't you show us your teeth?"
"I'm gonna be late." Topaz tried to walk away, but the two bullies grabbed him by the shoulder.
"No, no. Come on. Let's see those teeth," the first one ordered, forcing his mouth open.
The two bullies laughed at his sharp dragon teeth as he struggled to get free. The held him for about six seconds before they let him go.
"Leave me alone, you guys!" Topaz demanded angrily.
"Why? What are you gonna do? Breathe fire on us?" The first bully mocked, making Topaz even more mad.
"Yeah. Go ahead," the second one said. "Burn us alive right now with your scary dragon breath."
Just one more reason for the blue colt to feel different. Unlike his dad and all his siblings, Topaz couldn't breathe fire. Even Citrine could do it and she was mostly a pony herself. He would love to be able to burn those smug, stupid grins off their faces, but he just stood there and glared at them, watching them laugh when nothing happened.
"That's what I thought," the second bully said.
"There's a good little freak," the first insulted, tussling his hair. Then they both headed inside. Topaz was so aggravated. As if getting that kind of treatment from his big brothers wasn't bad enough. He had to take it from those two idiots everyday, too.
His bad mood started to quell when he saw a young pegasus filly with a mint green coat, blue and yellow mane and tail and silver colored eyes sitting alone on a stoop and reading a book. He knew her from the four classes they shared each day. Minty Gold. That was her name. And what a beautiful name it was.
Topaz had often admired her from afar, as he'd always thought she was rather pretty, but something new caught his attention this time: the book she was reading. It was the same advanced magic book he had been reading the day before in a more condensed size. In all the times he'd seen her in class, Topaz had never taken Minty for the type to be interested in magic. Mostly because she wasn't a unicorn.
Suddenly, he found himself even more attracted to her than ever before. He debated whether or not he had time to go over and talk to her before the bell rang. He kept going back and forth in his head until finally, he decided that he didn't have time to hesitate any further. He finally steeled himself enough to go up and talk to Minty, when suddenly he heard a loud voice.
Topaz turned and saw his mom waving at him from in front of the car, his lunchbox in her hand.
"Yoo-hoo! Topaz!" She called to him, causing several of the kids in the courtyard to turn their attention to her. "You forgot your lunchbox in the car, honey!"
As Rarity jogged over to him to hand him his lunchbox, she didn't realize that she was inadvertently attracting the attention of several of the preteen colts (and one or two fillies) around her. While Topaz merely watched in complete embarrassment, the others watched in total admiration as her shiny lavender hair bounced and billowed in the breeze. Her curvaceous hips swayed and her ample bust bounced with each skip she took. To a bunch of young ponies on the cusp of puberty, she must've looked like an angel from heaven.
She finally stopped running when she reached her son, who was trying his best to hide his shame. He took the lunchbox from her hand and said "Thanks, Mom," trying his best to sound sincere when he was in fact dying a little more inside with each passing second.
"You're welcome, sweetie," Rarity said, giving him one last humiliating kiss on the forehead before trotting back to the car with everypony still staring at her.
When his mom was back in her car and driving away, he looked around and saw everypony, including the two bullies, staring at him as they walked inside. Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling that it was now time to get to class. He looked back at Minty, whom he noticed giving him a light giggle as she got up to head to class. Now that Topaz had been thoroughly humiliated twice in one morning, he was not having high hopes for the rest of the day.