4.2 Girl on Fire
Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.
In His Memory Chapter Two:
The Girl on Fire
“I can’t believe you threw me in jail.” I pouted as Twilight escorted me out of the Canterlot Juvenile Penitentiary the next morning.
“I threw you in juvenile detention,” she corrected. “By all rights, you should be in there until you turn eighteen.”
“I hit a bug, what’s the big deal?” I asked. “Nothing important was hurt.” It took me a few seconds to notice that she had stopped walking. I turned around and cocked an eyebrow at her sad look. “What’s that look for?”
“You,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe that there is so much hate inside someone so young.”
“I’m thirteen,” I said, “gay, and spent most of the last four years being constantly bullied for the latter. You’d be surprised what children are capable of.”
“You’re right,” she replied. “I would be. It’s been many years since I was as young as you.”
I scoffed. “Nobody’s getting any younger, Twilight,” I said. “Foals change. Just like last generation’s adults are different from this generation’s, the children of yesterday are different from the children of today. They’ve become vicious, nasty things.”
“Maybe in Tall Tale,” she said. “In Ponyville, they’re kind and respectful.”
“The side you see,” I replied. “What do you think about Diamond Tiara?”
“She can be a bit bratty, but she’s a good filly,” Twilight responded, confused. “Rarity and Applejack hear a lot of complaints about her, but it sounds like any foalhood feud, so what she does is probably trumped up.”
“She’s a sadistic bitch that enjoys making the other kids obey her unquestioningly,” I corrected. “If the other foals aren’t afraid of her, they’re kissing up to her.”
"That doesn't sound like the filly I've met," she said slowly.
"She's the only daughter of the richest stallion in town," I reminded. "A single father, I might add, with a job that requires him to travel. Because daddy gives her whatever she wants to make up for his absence, she is a spoiled brat that believes she is entitled to whatever she wants, and she wants obedience."
"Okay, then which are you?" Twilight asked. "Do you fear her, or are you sucking up?"
"Neither," I said, grinning. "She is afraid of me. As long as she leaves the Crusaders and me alone, I don't have an issue with her."
"How did you get her afraid of you, then?" she shot. She was grasping at straws, and we both knew it.
"I summoned myself a dad from another dimension," I shot back. "She's a small time schoolyard bully. I would win if she ever pushed too hard."
"Would you ever hurt her?" she asked.
"If she pushed, I would push back," I said. "I wouldn't kill her, at least."
"Small favors," Twilight muttered.
A quick train ride was all it took to get home. Whatever 'home' meant without Dad. I guess Rainbow became my de facto guardian, since she was pretty much my mom, already. I know one thing: if the matron sent someone from the orphanage to collect me, I'd go along.
Then I'd hitch a ride back after burning the bitch alive.
It was a liberating feeling, not fretting about being angry. I didn't have to worry about controlling my emotions anymore; all I had to do was express what I felt. It felt right. It felt. . . normal.
And isn't that what I wanted all along?
It was too late to do pretty much anything when we arrived in Ponyville, so I sat in my room and cried. When Sunday morning arrived, I didn't feel much better. I did, however, feel the need to go to school. For once in my life, I wanted to go to Cheerilee's class. It was strange, but I was just getting in the habit of listening to my gut instead of my head, and it would be a bad idea to fail already.
Most of Sunday was spent waiting for Rainbow. Hell, I'd even have appreciated a visit from Twilight at that moment, but it was not to be. I was left alone the whole day, and probably because they thought I wanted to be.
I have to say, though, the look on Rarity's face was priceless that next morning when I left the house early to join Sweetie on the walk to school. "What are you doing?" Rarity exclaimed.
I looked at her like she was crazy. "Going to school? Am I not allowed to do that anymore?"
"You–your father died days ago!" she exclaimed. "We haven't even seen Rainbow since she left, and you're going to school like nothing's happened."
"Maybe she wants to pretend," Sweetie said, glaring at her sister. "She wants to live her life as normal as possible and pretend that nothing's wrong. What's so bad about that?"
I nodded. "The faster I move on, the better."
"You aren't even going to grieve?" she asked softly.
"I can do that in private," I said. "With friends." She flinched as I said that, and I knew that I got my displeasure from being abandoned the day before across. "Now I'm going to go to school." I turned and started walking down the road. I didn't have to look back to know it was Sweetie that caught up with me after a momentary pause.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"As okay as I'll ever be," I replied. "At least for a while."
She sighed, looking forward. "She worries about you, you know," she said. “They all do. She won’t tell me anything, but she’s worried about you.”
“Probably because sometime within the next week, Twilight’s finding me a War Magic teacher,” I said nonchalantly.
“War Magic?” she asked innocently.
“Magic to kill with,” I replied. Once again, I noticed that my conversational partner had stopped moving while I wasn’t paying attention. She had a look of horror on her face when I looked back at her. “What’s with the face?” I asked as I stopped, getting a major feeling of deja vu.
“Kill?!” she squeaked. “Why would you want to do that?”
I sighed. I knew she wouldn’t understand. “Sweetie, Starswirl murdered over two hundred ponies two days ago, one of which was my father. He deserves justice, and nobody else will give it to him.”
She stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. “Alright. I get where you’re coming from. I don’t agree, but I understand.”
“That’s all I can ask,” I said with a small smile. She did her best to return it.
After a pause of a minute or so, she added on, “Just make sure that it is truly justice you are fighting for, and not vengeance.”
The rest of the walk to school was filled with an awkward silence.
If Rarity’s reaction was good, Cheerilee’s reaction was amazing. Within two seconds of me walking into the room I was back outside and being drug back towards my house. Sweetie and the other Crusaders were at her heels while my neighbor tried fruitlessly to convince her to drop me and let me come to school. As we neared my house—I don't know how she knew where I lived—she stopped and looked at me. "Who has been taking care of you for the last few days?" she asked.
"Myself," I replied. "I kind of don't have parents again."
Her gaze softened. "I heard," she said. "That's why I don't think you're in any way ready to come back to school so soon."
I shrugged. "I actually want to be in your class for once in my life, and you're kicking me out?"
She sighed. "Look, just take the next few days off, would you please?"
"And do what?" I asked. "Cry? Retreat into myself and brood? Lash out in anguish and wreck the house?"
"No," she sighed again. "Just give it a day before you come to school. Let the news spread."
"One of Equestria's largest cities was reduced to rubble days ago," I reminded. "Thousands died. If they don't know already, one day isn't going to change anything."
"I'm not changing your mind, am I?" Cheerilee asked.
"I'll follow you back to the school unless you tie me down, then we would have a whole new host of issues," I said. "That would either be abuse or more kinky than I am comfortable with."
That earned me a look from all four of the ponies around me. "What the heck?" Scootaloo asked. "That was the exact opposite of what you would have said a few days ago."
I shrugged. "People change."
"Yer a pony, not a people," Apple Bloom said.
"Ponies are people," Sweetie corrected. " 'People' is a species-neutral term."
"Sweetie being a word nerd aside," I steered the conversation back on topic, "I want you to give me one chance. If you still think I'm not ready after today, I'll stay home for however long you want me to."
"I just don't know," Cheerilee said.
Time to bring out the big guns. "Please," I said. "It's all I ask for."
That was all it took. I watched as her stern teacher facade cracked and crumbled, revealing the child-loving mare inside. "Okay," she said. "But one day."
It took us double the time to get back to the school that it took us to get to my house. She had been moving like a bat out of hell on the way over, it seems.
We were greeted at the school by Featherweight. "Miss Cheerilee!" he exclaimed. His eyes widened upon seeing me. "Star?" He shook his head. "Not the time to question my luck! We need your help!"
"Help?" Cheerilee asked, ears perking up in alarm. "Why?"
"Diamond Tiara instated herself as the leader of the classroom when you left," he explained. "She rules with an iron hoof, I barely escaped, and she terrifies me."
She shook her head. "She tries to help, but always goes around it the wrong way, doesn't she?"
"Miss Cheerilee—" Featherweight started.
"Not now," Cheerilee interrupted. "I have to take control of my classroom back.
In short order, Cheerilee was reinstated as the ruler of the classroom. Diamond Tiara got thanked for her 'help' because all adults are blind. That spoiled brat looked at me with the most smug face I've seen on her since she first tried to push me around.
That should have been my first sign.
All in all, the little escapade took a quarter of the school day. Thankfully, lunch—and therefore recess—came twice as fast because of that.
Unfortunately, with recess came Diamond Tiara.
"Look who it is," her rage-inducing voice said from behind me while I was hanging with Sweetie. Bloom and Scoot had decided they needed to race to determine who was the more athletic—or something like that—so they weren't around. "If it isn't two of our favorite blank flanks."
"We have a deal, Diamond," I said without turning around. "You leave us alone, we return the favor."
"I don't think so," she said. I looked back at her with a cocked eyebrow.
Silver Spoon was at her side, as always. What was different about today was the nervous shuffling. "This isn't a good idea, DT," she said.
"Of course it is," Diamond Tiara said, brushing off her friend. She turned back to me. "So what will it be, blank flank? Do you feel like groveling now?"
"Should I get Miss Cheerilee?" Sweetie asked with more than an edge of worry.
I snorted. "Don't waste your time. They aren't worth it."
"Excuse me?" Diamond snarled. "Care to say that again?"
"You are a spoiled, insignificant brat that thinks because Daddy has money she has power," I said.
Diamond snarled as Silver Spoon started backing up. "I knew this was a bad idea," she muttered. "Bad, stupid, horrible idea."
"At least I have a dad," Diamond growled.
I jumped to my hooves. "Say again?" I snarled. "Say that one more fucking time, I fucking dare you."
"Your father was so useless that he couldn't even avoid getting killed with a city that he wasn't even inside," she said with a smirk.
That must have been what Dad talked about. That lack of emotion that drove his kills. "Sweetie, go get Cheerilee." I didn't even have to look to know she was sprinting towards the school.
"Getting the teacher?" Diamond kept pushing. "I can't blame you, since you can't run to Daddy anymore."
"That wasn't for me," I said flatly. "I just didn't want Sweetie to see what I'm about to do to you."
"Ooh, scary," she chuckled. "What are you going to do? Hit me?"
"No," I said. "I'm going to incinerate you." As I finished my sentence, my horn flashed orange.
Silver screamed, "DT! Your tail!"
The brat whipped her head to stare behind her and screamed. The tip of her tail was adorned with a dancing flame, and it was slowly crawling closer towards her flesh.
"What is–Diamond Tiara!" Cheerilee yelled as she ran out of the school. “What happened?”
"Star lit me on fire!" Diamond screamed. "Star lit me on fire!"
“Someone put her out!” Silver bawled. “Get a bucket of water or something!”
“Next time, keep your fucking mouth closed!” I yelled at Diamond as she ran in circles around the playground.
—*~*~*—
“I can’t believe you actually threw me in jail this time.” I pouted as Twilight escorted me out of the Canterlot Penitentiary the next morning.
“You lit someone on fire!” she snapped. “Did you learn nothing from the last time you were in detention? Hurting ponies is never an okay thing to do!” She stared forward as we walked down the street towards the courthouse. “You’re lucky the Princess pulled some strings, or you could have been in that cell for months before going on trial.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” I yawned. “It’s like any foalhood feud, isn’t it?”
“Foalhood feuds don’t involve attempted murder!” she growled sharply, keeping her voice low. “What were you thinking?”
“That I really, really wanted to light her on fire, but I didn’t want to kill her,” I said simply. “If I wanted to kill her, she’d be dead, and if I wanted, so would half the town. There are some lines you just don't cross, and she danced across one with glee.”
Twilight’s gaze softened. “I understand how you feel—”
“No, you don’t,” I interrupted. “You understand jack shit.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes hardened to their previous state. We were approaching the steps of the courthouse, and would soon not be able to talk for quite some time. You know, assault trial and all.
“You sit in your library and act like you know things, like you understand the rhyme and reason behind things,” I said. “All you do is read. You don’t experience. Maybe that’s why you let my dad slip right past you and into Rainbow’s hooves, isn’t it? You didn’t know what to do. Your books were blank.”
“Shut up,” she said softly.
“There is no title on how to seduce a stallion away from your best friend, is there?” I continued. “No informational text on how to keep a friendship going when a stallion gets in the way.” I paused in a fake pondering pose. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be good at? Friendship?”
“Shut. Up,” she snarled.
“Then you can watch passively as he dies, holding the mare he chose over you onto the ground to keep her from following him,” I said. I could see her eye twitching as she struggled to keep herself contained. “That was the best part, wasn’t it? Finally being able to keep Rainbow away from him. Finally knowing that he’ll no longer end every single day in her hooves, with a big smile on his face. What book gave you that piece of advice?”
“SHUT UP!” she screamed, her horn lighting up. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
I stared at her for a few moments as she panted. Eventually she powered down her horn, taking deep breaths to calm herself. “You know what separates us, Twilight?" I asked, shaking my head. "It’s not skill; you have much more of that than I do. It’s definitely not talent, since you have an overabundance of that. You learn faster than I do, you cast better than I do, and you definitely have more power to draw from than I do. Despite this, you will never, never be better than me. Better than Starswirl. Do you know why?”
“Shut up,” she snarled once more.
“We have the will to use it,” I said. “We not only can use magic, we do. Mull on that for a while and see if you can find where you went wrong.” I turned to a random guard in armor. “Which way to courtroom six?”
He pointed down the hallway I had just been walking down. “Take the second right. It’ll be the first door on your left.”
“Thank you,” I said as I started walking. I cared not if Twilight followed me or not.
“Represent yourself,” Twilight called after me. “I was doing this out of the kindness of my heart, but I find good will to be lacking.”
“Then I’ll just find Rainbow,” I retorted. “She seems to know how to apply the comparatively miniscule amount of knowledge she has better than you.”
She had no response to that.
The courtroom was fairly bland, truth be told. They should fire their decorator. Bad choice of words, given why I was here, but still. It was a flat, matte off-white over the entire room, and the chairs were unstained and probably just as cheap as they could get them and still keep up their image. Tacky drapes covered the walls, and I had been spending too much time with Rarity. 'Tacky.' I don't say tacky.
“Are you ready?” a voice barely holding back a tinge of nervousness said from beside me, pulling me from my mulling.
I turned to face Luna, who had walked up while I was examining the room. “What is there to get ready for? I set her on fire. Case closed.”
“Do you not regret it?” Luna asked. “Not at all?”
“I only regret that I saw the look Sweetie gave me when she saw what I had done,” I said.
“Next time, keep your fucking mouth closed!” I yelled at Diamond as she ran in circles around the playground.
“Star!” Cheerilee yelled at me. “Put it out at once!”
“Hey, it’s real fire,” I defended myself. “I’m not sustaining it in any way, shape, or form.” My eyes drifted to the school—for whatever reason—and felt the first shred of remorse for my actions. Sweetie was looking out the window, a look of complete disappointment written across her face. Her sad eyes shone with unshed tears, and she mouthed a single word to me.
”Why?
“But not the action?” Luna’s words drug me out of my thoughts.
“Why should I?” I asked. “I did what I thought was right, and here I am. Do you want me to lie? Do you want me to tell them that this was all a misunderstanding, and that I was expelled from school for some other fire-related event? Are you going to pull some strings and get this case thrown out?”
“There are only so many strings I can pull out of respect for your father’s memory,” she said. “After this, I’m afraid you’re on your own. I cannot keep bailing you out each time you get in trouble. That’s twice I’ve had you removed from prison after only a single day.” She looked around the room. “Where is Twilight Sparkle?”
“I’m representing myself,” I said. “She pulled out at the last second. Something about her not knowing how to actually apply any of the knowledge she spent her life gathering.”
Luna sighed. “Somehow, I sense there was a disagreement between the two of you.” She waved her hoof. “No matter. Take your place, court is about to start.”
It was going to be a long day
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So... This isn't the sequel to something?
4301567
No. The first chapter is the first chapter of the whole story. If the whole "book" thing confuses you, they were originally going to be posted as separate stories, but I got lazy. Think of them as story arcs, if that helps.
I remember someone commenting along this vein before. I guess it is kinda confusing. Maybe I should fix it?
-HB
It's kinda sad to see Star fall into this state but i fell like i understand her better for it. Nice
character development.
4302879
I hate doing this with her, frankly. However, I like this version better than the one-dimensional version of her that was in the last book. She still has quite a ways to go, and don't think that Twilight or Rainbow will be gone for too long. As long as I don't overestimate my abilities as a writer—which I admit I do a lot—the rest of book four will be interesting.
-HB