Only Chapter
Dinky dragged her hooves on the dusty road ignoring the commotion of the market, with vendors and customers both adding their voices making up most of the cacophony.
The little unicorn filly had just gotten out from her late class at school, meaning at this point the market was closing up; the afternoon sun was also on its way to its descent, casting long shadows and giving the sky a slight tinge of red and orange.
Halting in her hoofsteps just in time, Dinky narrowly avoided getting run over by a wagon laden with assorted greens, though the dust from the wheels stung her eyes.
The stallion that had been pulling the cart had not even given her a backward glance and continued on his way. Dinky brushed her messy blond mane with her hoof and looked around at all the adult ponies at the market.
“They all suck,” Dinky thought savagely, “This entire town sucks.”
Normally Dinky wouldn’t be having this foul mood, she was always the happy little filly who always saw the best in everything. But a few months of a custody battle and the Equestria Games changed all of that.
Ditzy Doo was charged with being an unfit mother by inspectors from the Foal Protective Services after nearly two years of trying to prove herself to be a capable parent.
The Doctors finally found a reason to implicate Ditzy as a burden to Dinky’s wellbeing: she was an accident-prone nightmare.
After almost destroying town hall due to a lightning mishap, the Equestrian Family Services were given permission to take Dinky from the custody of Ditzy Doo and given to the care of her unofficial aunt Carrot Top who had recently decided to move in with her coltfriend Written Script; Ditzy Doo, her real mother, had to move in with her cousins and to make sure that daughter and mother would not reunite.
Dinky remembered watching her mother being dragged away by those ponies in white labcoats, crying and thrashing as she tried to reach out to her daughter who just stood at the window like a statue. The ponies in white coats attributed Dinky’s state as shock, and said that eventually she would ‘get over it’ and then handed the reins of parenthood to Aunt Carrot Top and her fiancé Written Script.
The days after that Dinky seemed to be unresponsive to anypony else, being aloof to her new parents was one thing but not answering when called upon or participating in class really hurt her grades.
Carrot Top and Written Script tried counseling Dinky reasoning that she was still traumatized by being separated from her real mother, and would attempt to get her to open up.
All they got from the small filly was a vacant stare.
Even after losing her mother the rest of the fillies in class would hardly show her much sympathy other than Tootsie Flute, one of the few friends Dinky ever made.
Today at school had been especially bad, already souring Dinky’s mood to a new level. The Equestria Games were coming up, and everypony was especially excited since they would be taking place in the recently rediscovered Crystal Empire.
The day had been pretty much like any other day at the Ponyville Schoolhouse until Cherilee made an announcement: the class would get a special visit from Ms. Harshwhinny, the head of the Equestria Games who would announce that as part of tradition, each town or city would handpick a few of its fillies who would participate in the official flag-bearing for their respective hometown for the upcoming games.
Ms. Harshwhinny, along with Rainbow Dash, divided the class into separate teams so as to pick who would represent Ponyville and see whose act was the better.
Dinky was at first confused about this. Shouldn’t all the fillies and colts be able to represent their hometown? Why did it have to be a huge competition?
Nevertheless the class was divided into groups, with Dinky paired up with Archer and Tootsie Flute.
It wasn’t a huge surprise to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stick together, as those two were as thick as thieves and the biggest bullies in the school. They would always find someway to get an insult in at Dinky and her mom, whom they belittled for being retarded.
Dinky hated that word almost as much as she hated those stuck-up fillies.
So where was Cherilee in all of this? As the teacher of the school Miss Cherilee was supposed to rein in the bad fillies and deal out punishments, but all she ever did was give out stern warnings and talks to any troublemakers and that was it. Tiara and Spoon always came back nastier than ever, it didn’t matter if they were disciplined or not. Maybe Filthy Rich and Regal Cut kept paying off Cherilee to go easy on their daughters, Celestia forbid that they receive any comeuppance.
Then there were the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Now Dinky really didn’t have anything against them, in fact they were even nice to her at times which couldn’t be said for most of the fillies in class. The fact of the matter is that Dinky was jealous for them.
The three were famous, or rather infamous, for their shenanigans in getting their cutie marks that often ended up with multiple counts of property damage. The worst incident had to be when they gave Big Mac and Miss Cherilee Love Poison, which ended up destroying the Carousel Boutique and moving Berry Punch’s house a few blocks in the process.
Yet for every act of mischief the terrible trio seemed to always get off free. Being related to two of the Elements of Harmony got them special privileges; they even got to be flower ponies at the Royal Canterlot Wedding, an event that would have been impossible to get into for ponies outside of Canterlot!
When the teams were chosen to do routines in order to represent Ponyville, Archer and Tootsie Flute wanted to do one based on athleticism. Dinky couldn’t contribute much since she wasn’t really athletic and was a third wheel to the group, not that she didn’t care that much.
Their whole routine consisted of Archer taking up her namesake and shoot arrows at the bullseye that was being levitated by Dinky. Tootsie Flute in the meantime would be throwing horseshoes into the air, which would catch the arrows and hang from their shafts as each of the arrows would hit the bullseye.
It seemed like a great idea at the time, each of the fillies would have a chance to contribute something into the routine, only their was a problem: Dinky had yet to learn exercising her magical stamina.
When their turn came up, all that Archer could shoot were two arrows and Tootsie Flute missed her targets entirely, leaving Dinky to run away from the incoming arrows after losing focus.
Ms. Harshwhinny was the one who was judging their performance, and wasn’t too pleased what they had to show, and jotted down something on her clipboard. Dinky and her two partner’s were not chosen to perform at the Crystal Empire Stadium, and instead had to see off the others who would be able to perform for a massive audience.
She remembered the looks of disappointment on Tootsie Flute and Archer, their ambitions of being at the Crystal Empire crushed. Dinky didn’t even acknowledge the failure. It was as if Equestria had turned its back on her, so why would struggling make any difference.
But what really made her want to grind her tenth were the finalists ending up being the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who would get the all the honor in carrying the torch to the stadium. Once more they had received all the recognition, just like the Element Bearers who got away with everything.
Her frustrations nearing a boiling point, Dinky let out a low growl and made a 180-degree turn to kick out at anything that would help alleviate her bad mood.
Her hoof met the front door of her house.
A few seconds later the door opened revealing a unicorn stallion with a purple mane and a gray coat. It was Written Script.
He winced as he looked down and saw Dinky giving him a cross look, “Oh! Dinky, you’re home early. So . . . how was school today?”
Dinky gave a bored look at the nervous stallion and sighed, squeezing past him as she went inside.
“O – okay, just let me know if you need something!” she heard Script titter, making her eyes role. Way to pick out a parent, Equestrian Family Services.
Trotting up the steps to her room, Dinky threw her saddlebags to the side near her dresser and flopped onto her bed. Letting out a sigh she had been keeping in since walking into the house, Dinky stared up at the ceiling. Unlike her life, the ceiling and her room remained unchanged: a bookshelf with assorted picture books, her filly-sized bed, and hoof-me-down toys piled in a corner.
Turning over to her left side, Dinky stared out of the only window of her bedroom. Through the hazy and dirty glass she could barely make out the other ponies walking by tending to their business, no doubt in a better mood she was in.
There was a tentative knocking on the door, “Dinky, is it okay that I come in? It’s . . . Carrot Top.”
Dinky groaned and buried her head into her pillow, “Come in . . .” her voice muffled. Whether or not Carrot Top heard her or not, the mare came in anyway.
Pushing open the door slowly, the orange-haired carrot grower came into the room with her husband soon-to-be. Looking at each other nervously, the two foster parents edged closer to the side of the bed facing Dinky’s back.
“Dinky, is everything going okay?” Carrot Top was the first to venture the question, being bolder than her fiancé.
“Everything’s fine,” Dinky said abruptly.
Written Script coughed politely. “Ahem – well we heard differently from Cherilee, your teacher? She says you have been more distant lately and have been failing to turn in any of your assignments.”
“Really, so she actually cares?” Dinky let out a bitter laugh, “I’m really surprised since she likes to focus on other ponies besides me.”
Carrot Top and Written Script gave each other worried looks. They never thought Dinky to be snarky.
“Well . . .” Script spoke hesitantly, “Your teacher has given us a report of your behavior in class, and we need to talk about that.”
“Can we . . . just not?” Dinky mumbled.
“Dinky, face us when we’re talking,” Carrot Top finally managed to act stern in response to her foster child’s rude behavior.
“Look dear, maybe this isn’t the best time . . .” Written Script cautioned her, “Maybe we need to let her – “
“No Script,” Carrot Top spoke firmly, “Dinky can’t keep us shut out forever.”
“Watch me,” the young unicorn filly thought grimly.
“Dinky,” Carrot Top, “I know that the last few weeks have been rough, but you can’t keep bottling up your emotions like this. We need to know what is going on at school.”
“Everything is fine,” Dinky was growing more frustrated with her foster parent’s continued presence, “Can you just leave me alone?”
“Not until you tell us what is going on at school,” Carrot Top spoke a little more harshly than intended, causing Written Script to flinch.
“No!” Dinky blurted out as she sat up in her bed. She glared at her foster mom with as much intensity as she could muster.
Carrot Top looked mortified, “Don’t you dare raise your voice to me, young filly!”
“You’re not my mom!” Dinky yelled angrily, “And you and Script will never be family!”
There was silence, with both Written Script and Carrot Top staring at Dinky in bewilderment in contrast to the little filly’s tear-stricken face.
“W-what?” Carrot Top spoke with a soft voice.
Dinky knew she had gone too far but was past caring, “I said the two of you will never be family!”
Carrot Top stared at the little filly unblinking. Written Script was a stiff as one of the statues in the Canterlot gardens. Dinky remained sitting up in her bed staring defiantly at the two older ponies.
Seconds passed before Carrot Top heaved a strangled sob before she stomped out of the room, with Written Script hesitating before giving retreating after his mare.
Dinky felt sick to her stomach, knowing she had just gave her foster parents more incentive to schedule more psychiatric visits. The doctor would always prod her and ask her a bunch of the same old questions from the last visit.
Every time Dinky would give him the same answers, the Doctor would give her a different set of prescribed meds.
Why did she need medicine when she was clearly not sick? Did they think she was like mommy?
Dinky clenched her eyes shut as she tried to stem the tears. No, Mommy was never sick, all she had was ‘strabyssimus’ which made her eyes all funny. She was still a normal pony.
The little filly huffed, thinking back to what Cherilee said back at school after her group’s routine failed, “I know the three of you tried your best, so don’t let that get you down!
Even though the door was closed Dinky could hear the muted sobs of Carrot Top and even hear the soft-spoken Written Script saying something to her. They were either discussing how to deal with Dinky when she came around, or send her somewhere else.
Dinky felt her tears leaking from her eyes and dribbling onto her pillow. She pulled the sheets over her head and before sleep claimed her, one thought ran through her head.
“ ‘You tried your best’ she said. Well, my best was never enough.”