Strands of Light

by OathOfCalm

New Friends

Chapter 6: New Friends

The first day of school for a foal that had recently moved to a new town is always one filled with apprehension. Several times during Little Shine's school years back in Manewood, new students from other villages had joined his class. He had always regarded these new foals with little interest, preferring to keep within the comfort of the small circle of friends that he had. Today was a very frightening day for him, as today he was the new foal.

Little Shine was stood stationary at the door to the classroom, his eyes darted around inside. There were already fillies and colts sitting in the many desks that resided within, and could feel the strong bonds of friendships between certain groups. They were chatting and laughing among each other, leaving Little Shine feeling very out of place. He tentatively took several steps inside.

Almost immediately, Little Shine could feel eyes on him. Whispers began to filter throughout the room, pondering the appearance of this new colt. Little Shine wanted to shrink into a hole and hide. He never imagined that this experience would be so awkward. A tiny giggle of laughter drew his attention to a pink filly with a purple and white mane. She looked beside her to the grey filly with glasses, whispered something, looked back at Little Shine and laughed again.

Little Shine felt his face burn like a sun. Involuntarily, he took a step backward, and was met by a spasm in his hind hoof. No. Not now. Anytime but now!

He shuddered, but managed to stay on his feet. Unfortunately, his blunder did not go unnoticed as the pink filly shrieked with laughter.

"Wow! Here I was thinking that you were just another pathetic blank flank, but you're a total klutz, too," she said.

Little Shine closed his eyes. He was used to such teasing, but coming from a filly was something completely new to him, he wasn't prepared to deal with it. He didn't cry, nor did he run away, but just stood still with his eyes closed. It was almost as if he was weathering a storm, and barely holding firm as the hurtful word washed through him. The vibration of laughter ranged through his ears.

"You're not going to cry are you, blank flank?" the pink filly said.

"Hey! Leave 'im alone, Diamond Tiara."

Little Shine opened his eyes. A filly across the room had risen from her seat and was narrowing her eyes at his verbal aggressor. She was yellow in color, with a red mane topped with a pink bow tie. The most prominent feature that caught Little Shine's eye, however, was the lack of a cutie mark on her flank.

Diamond Tiara huffed and slunk back deeper into her chair. The yellow filly turned to look at Little Shine, and her expression softened. "Hey, why don't ya sit 'ere with us?" She waved her hoof to an empty desk to her right. On the other side of her was a white unicorn, and beside her was an orange pegasus.

Little Shine smiled weakly and trotted over to the desk. He pulled out the chair far enough for him to sit down in it. "Thanks."

"Aw, don't worry about it. What's yer name?"

"Little Shine."

"Pleasure to meet ya, Little Shine. I'm Apple Bloom," -she motioned her hoof toward the other two fillies- "and this is Sweetie Belle, and that's Scootaloo."

Sweetie Belle smiled at Little Shine. "Don't worry about Diamond Tiara. She's nasty to pretty much everypony around here."

"But she won't tease you now that your with us," Scootaloo piped up. "She doesn't like to tease us anymore."

Little Shine stared at her. "Why not?"

Apple Bloom chuckled. "Well, last time mah cousin, Babs Seed, was over, she laid into her pretty hard. Threatened to tell on her mother and such. She's pretty much left us alone after that."

"Wow, that's amazing," Little Shine said. He paused for a moment to picture that image in his head. "So, who's our teacher? Is she nice?"

"Oh, Miss Cheerilee? She's the most awesome teacher in all of Equestria!" Scootaloo said.

"Ya, she's really nice. She really cares about us," Sweetie Belle agreed. She looked over at Diamond Tiara and made a face. "Even her."

"My old teacher was pretty nice. She was a little dull, though," Little Shine remarked.

"Oh ya, your new, aren't you?" Scootaloo said.

Apple Bloom planted her forehead firmly on her hoof, and Sweetie Belle just shook her head.

"Well, duh. That's why we're introducing each other and stuff," Sweetie Belle said. "So anyway, where are you from Little Shine?"

"Um, well. . .I,"

Little Shine hadn't anticipated that talking about his home would be so difficult. Although, he realized that it shouldn't be so much of a surprise, considering that the cataclysm had only happened eleven days ago. After sorting out a few things in Canterlot, notably arranging an official guardianship under Fluttershy, he had traveled straight to Ponyville. Arriving at the beginning of the weekend, he had had a few days to familiarize himself with his new home before starting school. It had been a quiet few days, and Little Shine was so caught up in the experience of being somewhere new, that he had temporarily forgotten about the tragedy. Sweetie Belle's innocent question, however, brought back the memories.

Little Shine slowly rested his head on the desk and stared at the chalkboard. "I'm from . . . I was . . . from Manewood."

A soft gasp escaped Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's eyes widened. Scoolaloo covered her mouth with her hoof.

"Are you the orphan that Applejack told me about? The one stayin' with Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked.

Little Shine responded only with a short nod, refusing to take his eye off the wall.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked back and forth at each other, unsure as to what to say next. Neither of them had ever dealt with that kind of a loss before, and this lack of experience rendered them unable to find the right words to comfort Little Shine. Apple Bloom, on the other hand, could relate. She slowly reached out her hoof and took Little Shine's. Her gentle touch was enough to bring his eyes away from the wall, and into her own.

"Ah'm so sorry," She said. "Ah know what it's like to lose someone. Ah lost both my parents when ah was really young."

She's lost family, too? Little Shine never considered the possibility that he would ever meet somepony else that had shared his experience, let alone on his first day of school. Radiant Wing had always told him that dealing with difficult situations in life were always much easier when there was a friend who could relate.

"Thanks." Little Shine said.

Sweetie Belle perked up suddenly. "Hey. Do you want to join our club?"

Little Shine tilted his head. "What's your club?"

"Well. Obviously you don't have a cutie mark, but that's okay. None of us have one either. We call ourselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Sweetie Belle explained.

"Ya! We do all sorts of fun and awesome things to try and get our cutie marks," Scootaloo added.

"We even have our own club house in an old area of Sweet Apple Acres," Apple Bloom said.

"What do you say, Little Shine?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Little Shine thought for a moment. His first impression was that these fillies were going about it the wrong way. A cutie mark was supposed to come when it was ready to happen, not by trying to find it, and that a pony should just let it come on its own. But if it lets me spend time with Apple Bloom. . .

"Sure, I'll join."

His response was met by a sharp squee from Sweetie Belle. Little Shine couldn't help but smile. For the first time in eleven days, he felt like he was a part of something again, and not drowning in a sea of uncertainty.

Hoof-steps caught the attention of all the students as a purple and pink mare entered the classroom and stood in front of them all. She had three smiling flowers on her flank.

"Good morning, class," she greeted.

"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee," the class responded.

"I hope everypony had a very good weekend. Wasn't the sun just gorgeous? Anyway, before we get to our lesson, I would like to introduce you all to a new student. Little Shine, if you could please stand?"

Little Shine didn't much like the idea of being the center of attention, especially after his rather unpleasant entrance. But he didn't want to disappoint, either. Slowly, and with much effort, he rose to his hooves.

Miss Cheerilee smiled at him. "Everypony, this is Little Shine. He just moved to Ponyville this weekend and will be in our class from now on. Make sure you introduce yourself to him and make him feel as welcome as possible."

Diamond Tiara met Little Shine's eye, and stuck her tongue out at him. Little Shine ignored her and looked back at Cheerilee. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Oh, you're very welcome, dear. Now, on to the wonderful world of mathematics. Today we are going to. . ."

* * *

The doors to the Ponyville Schoolhouse burst open, and a tidal wave of young ponies rushed forth into the sun. A torrent of dust puffed up from the earth as scores of hoofs trampled the ground. Ponies scattered in all directions, eager to get on with the more exiting portions of their day.

Little Shine trotted along with the Crusaders down the road leading to the center of town. Scootaloo let out a sound somewhat between a sigh and a grunt.

"Don't get me wrong. I like Miss Cheerilee as much as the next pony, but that math stuff is just booooring." She stretched out her little wings and flexed them.

Sweetie Belle looked over at Scootaloo. "It wasn't that bad."

"Really, you actually like that stuff?" Scootaloo questioned.

"Hey, I didn't say I liked it. I just said it wasn't that bad," Sweetie Belle said.

"Ah just don't understand it. All the numbers and symbols get all jumbled in mah head," Apple Bloom said. "It's not bad enough that we gotta deal with normal numbers, but now we gotta add up parts of numbers? It makes no sense. Ah don't even remember what they're called."

"Fractions," Little Shine said.

"Ya, that's the ones."

"Ugh, let's not talk about school. We have to whole day of adventuring to do!" Scootaloo said. She look at her friends. "So, what should we do?"

"Well, obviously, we have to get ready a membership ceremony for Little Shine," Sweetie Belle declared.

"Of course! Just like we did with Babs," Apple Bloom agreed. "It'll be great."

"And we have to make him an official Cutie Mark Crusader cape," Sweetie Belle said. "I'll see if Rarity has some extra fabric."

"And I'll see if Twilight has any extra quills and scrolls for the speech," Scootaloo said.

"Sounds great. What do you think, Littl-" Apple Bloom stopped in mid sentence. Little Shine was several feet back from them. He was breathing heavily, staring at the ground, and wasn't continuing forward. His body was shaking, and looked to be on the verge of collapse. "Hey, Little Shine. Are you alright?"

Little Shine looked up. "Sorry. You're. . . just going. . . too fast. I can't. . . keep up."

The Crusaders looked questioningly at one another. Apple Bloom trotted back to where Little Shine was huffing. "What's wrong?"

Little Shine's breathing was stilling, but he squeezed his eyes shut. His body was still trembling from his exertion, trying to keep up with the fillies.

"I look pathetic, don't I," He said. A single tear slowly traced his eye.

"Ya, you kinda- ouch!" Scootaloo was stopped dead by a quick hoof jab from Sweetie Belle. Her glare was boring into Scootaloo's brain.

Apple Bloom positioned herself so that her and Little Shine were face to face. Her face wore an expression of concern, and her voice dropped to a soft whisper. "Yer not pathetic, Little Shine. Please, tell me what's wrong. Ah want to help. That's what friends do."

She. . . She's already calling me a friend? A warm glow radiated in Little Shine's heart upon hearing her words, and in that moment, all his feelings of self doubt were washed away. His condition was not one that he commonly confided into others, he hadn't even told Fluttershy. But now, he felt confident enough to share.

"I'm. . . I've always been different to the other colts. I tried to be like them. I tried to do sports and play games with them. But I could never do what they could do. It feels like," Little Shine paused for a moment to think, "whenever I try to do something, my body is purposely resisting me. You know that feeling when you get super tired because you've been playing a really hard game, or doing a really long chore? It only takes me a little bit of work and that's what I feel. Even getting up to my hooves takes so much effort."

Appleb Bloom listened to every word he said with worried interest. She had never heard of any such condition in a pony before. "Do you know what's causing it?"

Little Shine shook his head. "No, my Mom and Dad took me to the doctors in Manewood and had me examined head to hoof. My muscles are working perfectly and nothing seems to be wrong. They said that, if we wanted, we could see a specialist. I can't remember where. Canterlot or Manehatten or somewhere. Anyway, we didn't go because we didn't have enough bits to spare for the train ride. And it isn't life threatening, so. . ." His voice trailed off.

Apple Bloom didn't say anything for a moment. Then, she shifted herself so that she was right beside him. "Well, we'll just walk slowly with you then."

Little Shine looked at her and smiled. No pony in Manewood ever did that for me. Well, other than Stone Pillar and Mom and Dad, I guess.

"Thank you, Apple Bloom. That's means a lot to me."

"Yer welcome."

With that, they trotted onward, slowly. Several minutes passed before they reached the center of town, and it was there that they were ready to part ways.

"Okay, Little Shine. We're going to have yer ceremony of joining tomorrow, so remember to ask Fluttershy if you can come. Ah'll come over around five-o-clock to show you to the clubhouse, alright?" Apple Bloom said.

"It's going to be awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Thanks, guys. I'm really excited," Little Shine said.

"You better be," Sweetie Belle said.

"Oh, I will. See you all then!"

"Bye, Little Shine!"

"See you, Little Shine!"

Apple Bloom smiled, "Don't forget to ask."

Little Shine returned the smile

"I won't."

Comments

[-Brutus]

Excellent chapter :), but I think Little Shine is recovering too quickly after that kind trauma that he went through at Manewood.

[OathOfCalm]

2581534 He thinks he is ;), don't worry, i'm not done with his emotions yet.