End of the Line

by Sunlight Rays

Chapter 1: Beginning of the Line

Here I stood on a ledge. Empty. Broken. Disabled. I looked over the edge, towards the horizon. Canterlot’s a beautiful city, I must say. Especially when it’s snowing. From the highest point of the palace, I could see the lights of everypony’s houses, decorated by a layer of white powder covering their rooftops. Far away in the distance, I saw specks of light gathered together. Is that… is that Ponyville? It’s been a long time since I’ve been there. And I won’t be going back. Forever.

I looked down. The ground seemed like it was a mile away, with ponies crawling on the surface like ants. My way to freedom. The only way of ending this. I sighed into the cold winter night. My breath condensed in front of me, obscuring my vision of Ponyville. My vision blurred. I closed my eyes, and took my final steps.

---

My name is Lux Cognito. Yes, I know. A funny name for a pony. I mean, who uses ancient Equestrian as their name these days? Not that I know. But then, what do I know?

…

Nothing. Never am I certain about anything. Everything I’ve believed in has been shattered, so how can I be so sure about a damn single thing? What does it matter when no matter how hard you try, you can’t make it? Nothing matters. Nopony cares about me. And now, I don’t care about myself either.

I wasn’t like this from the beginning. They made me like this. They turned me into a, a… whatever I am, who tears himself apart from the inside. A worthless creature, who decided that if he can’t get everything to stop, he should at least stop himself.

It all started six years ago. I was nine years old when I left Ponyville and came to Canterlot. I entered the School for Gifted Unicorns, or the School of Magic. Whatever you wanna call it. The point is, I was a little colt, full of dreams and hope, eager to learn a great deal of magic. When I took the entrance exam, I was asked to hatch an egg. It was a blue egg, about the size of a chicken egg. Princess Celestia and two other judges were there, watching. Pretty typical, thinking about it now. So I closed my eyes, concentrated my magic to my horn, and directed it towards the egg. As I felt the magic contact the egg, I listened to the baby inside the egg. As I gave my magic more power, I could “hear” it move about, ready to be hatched. I gave more power, and when I opened my eyes, the cutest bird was there, chirping about.

“Wow, that’s impressive. That’s the fastest anypony’s hatched an egg!” Princess Celestia exclaimed, a smile on her face.

“So… does that mean I pass?” I asked, both excited and nervous.

“Of course! You’re a talented unicorn, Lux. Welcome to the school,” said Princess Celestia.

Huh. Talented. I don’t think I’ve heard that word used to describe me in a long time. Anyways, at the time, I didn’t know what would come after the test.

So I yelled, “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!”

If I had known what would happen next, I might have not signed up for it at all.

---

So it turned out to be that I could keep the bluebird I hatched for myself. It was the loveliest thing in the world, the adorable thing. I named it ‘Echo’, because the first time it chirped, the sound just filled my room and heart with its echo.

After I got my dorm room assigned, unpacked my stuff, and got my books, I went to class. Miss Hackney introduced me to the class, in which there were about seven ponies. When she introduced my name, one of the ponies said, “Pfft, Cognito? What kind of a name is that?” in a bossy tone.

I looked at the pony who said that. He had dark brown fur, with even darker mane. His forelegs were crossed against his chest while he leaned backwards in his chair. The thing about him that surprised me the most, however, were his eyes. His orange eyes seemed to possess fire in it, an uncontrollable energy ready to be released the first chance it got. For a moment, our eyes locked, his flaming orange eyes staring straight into my ocean blue ones. Then our gaze broke.

“I don’t know. My parents named me like that,” I replied.

“Wow. They must have some pretty bad naming skills.”

“Alright, that’s enough! Lux, you can sit there, in front of Boss Gang,” said Miss Hackney. I sighed inwardly; I already began disliking this pony when he poked fun of my parents.

I levitated my books with my horn and walked to my assigned seat while getting a good look from the ponies in the classroom. As I tried to sit down, still levitating my books, the chair suddenly disappeared from below my haunches. I fell down, losing my magical grip on the books in the process. The next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the floor covered in textbooks. I sputtered and got up while laughter came from everypony in the classroom.

“That’s enough! Boss, you will see me in my office after class!” the teacher shouted. The colt behind me pouted and shoved my chair back into its original position.

As I climbed into the chair, I thought, Geez, life here is going to be tough.

---

And life did take a rough turn. From that point, I had to deal with Boss poking and teasing me from behind throughout class time, as well as calling me names like “Cog” or “Shux” during break time. Some of those names stuck, and soon a lot of ponies started calling me by names.

I mean, Cog? I’m kind of okay with that. But Shux, I definitely don't like it. Some of the nicer ponies were kind enough to call me by my real name, but then others weren’t so kind. They would always call me “Shux”, having noticed that I wasn’t particularly fond of the new “nickname”.

Fortunately, those were easy enough to deal with. During classes, I would place a deflective shield on my back so Boss wouldn’t be able to poke me. During break time, I would wear a pair of earbuds so I wouldn’t be able to hear what other ponies were saying. During recess time, I would retreat to the library, find a cozy corner, and snuggle myself in with a book in my hooves, while everyone else was outside, messing around in the playground. Sure, it did prevent me from communicating with others, but at least it helped me deal with the teasings. Not that I had much to talk about with others anyways. All they did was chat among themselves or tease me by calling names, which I thought was really stupid. And when I think something is stupid, I usually ignore it. Well, at least I try to.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t try to stand up to them. Heck, I probably yelled at them more times than I can count. It just didn’t work. To be honest, they seemed to enjoy my reactions, and teased me even more. So, I gave up on trying to get them to stop on my own, although I did occasionally let out a burst of anger whenever things got too annoying.

Have I ever told the teachers about this? Yes, definitely. Multiple times. Didn’t change a thing. The bullies would get a scolding from Miss Hackney, or some other teacher, and guess what, they would be pecking at me like a horde of flies five minutes later.

If only I had known what would come next. If I did know, I might have called it quits. And that would have made things much easier. For everypony.

Comments

[Sparkle Cola]

Oof. Sounds like my experience in 7th grade... without the yelling in anger part. Just an awful year.