One Split Vein
Brave Soul exhaled. Here he was, going to what felt to him like the very essence of pain and torture: school.
Now, it was not that Brave hated school itself; rather, he was strange, in that he actually enjoyed learning new things and studying them intensely. He loved the education part.
What made life a living Tartarus, however, was the ponies. Not all of them, but three of them.
Brave was born an alicorn. One would think that was grounds for ponies to swarm him, in awe of this completely new occurrence, right? Well, not so much. Brave was an outcast. His parents hid his wings while he was out with them; nopony needed to know, for he was not royalty. The doctor said, when Brave was born to his two unicorn parents, that a rare genetic mutation occurred within him as he was developing which gave him fully-functioning wings.
At first, his parents were excited! Imagine, being the parents to Equestria's first common alicorn. But a family meeting years later with his mother's sister said all they needed to not know:
"You... do realize that he might be labeled as an outcast, right?"
Brave's parents shuttered as his aunt began to dig through a closet. She came out with a brown vest and said, "Here. I'll give him an old vest of mine. Given you're both unicorns, this should hide his wings." This brown vest fit Brave for a while in his colthood. It was his shield to the world.
However, when the time came for his education to begin, Brave's parents, Guitar String and Palm Tree, had a discussion.
"Do you really think he needs it anymore?" queued Palm Tree.
"Honey, we've had him in that vest for far too long. I mean, one year was enough, but five? I think we should at the very least let him go a little bit without wearing it," replied Guitar String.
"I mean... I suppose you're right... But what if he gets bullied at school?"
"How many plays have we showed him that taught to go to the teacher for help? At least sixteen? He doesn't need the vest anymore, Palm. If, Celestia forbid, some punk does bully him, he'll know what to do."
"Well... Alright. He'll have to shed the vest eventually, I suppose. Brave!" called Palm.
Quick hooves began running down the stairs of their Ponyville home as Brave emerged, standing front-and-center in front of his parents, full saddlebags at his sides. "What is it, mama?"
"Your father and I have decided that you don't need your vest anymore. I'll hang it in your room just in case you need it, but I don't think you will. I have a good feeling that the ponies at school will adore you as much as we do. I mean, an alicorn at their schoolhouse? Imagine!" Palm replied with a reassuring smile, hugging Brave.
"They'll think I'm the most coolest pony ever!" Brave added.
"You're darn right they will!" Guitar String replied. "Now get out there. Show 'em what a brave soul you are!"
"Yeah!" Brave jumped up in excitement and began running out the door. "I love you guys!"
"We love you, too!" Guitar and Palm called back, closing the front door.
Brave heard whispers as he approached the schoolhouse.
"Is that an alicorn?" "Is he a princess?" "What is he? A changeling?"
Brave flushed some as he heard the whispers. He was always bashful and shy, seeing seclusion as his closest friend. He was always bookish, and making friends was difficult, especially in such a wide town as Ponyville. But perhaps that would change. Just maybe...
Stepping into the schoolhouse, Brave sat in the back of the class. Nervous, he opted against removing his saddlebags; it was his first time out in public without his vest. One by one, ponies began flowing into the schoolhouse. A few looked at Brave, but kept whispering amongst themselves. Thankfully, not about him, as far as he could tell.
"Okay, class, sit down, sit down!" said the teacher, a somewhat pudgy light blue unicorn mare with a brown beehive mane. The students obeyed her command. "My name is Chalkboard Stick, and I'll be your teacher for this school year!"
Brave looked all around the room silently. There were ponies of all races, least of all unicorns. Brave smirked some, seeing as the teacher was part of the minority.
"I think we should all introduce ourselves and get comfortable with each other!" said Chalkboard.
Brave could feel his body tense up as ponies introduced themselves, going around the room in a snake pattern. It even felt like a snake was slithering, getting closer to Brave, getting ready to eat him up.
"You, the brown unicorn in the back. What's your name?"
Brave was at maximum tension, struggling to find words. "Umm... I'm... Brave Soul..." he said, wishing he was still at home with his books. Books don't talk.
"Brave Soul? I like that name. Could you please remove your saddlebags?"
"I... don't wanna..."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Brave, but it's school rules to not have saddlebags on." Chalkboard noted.
Brave, ready for the end of life, slowly removed his saddlebags as his confounded wings flared out for all the ponies to see. He closed his eyes shut, ready for laughter.
All he heard, however, was a collective gasp.
He opened his eyes and blushed as everypony was smiling at him.
"An alicorn?! That's so cool!" "My ma and pa told me there were only three!" "Woooow!"
Brave was astonished. Ponies... liked him for his wings! He smiled slightly as ponies began talking with one another, discussing the elephant in the room.
Three, however, snickered.
"Wow. He's not even a prince? Some alicorn he is."
Brave's smile sank some with these words. He looked up and saw three ponies looking at him with smiles oozing with malice. One was a pegasus, big, with a black body and brown mane and tail, bangs perfectly divided down the middle, barely tangenting his eyes. Another was an earth pony, yellow coat, black mane and tail, mane done up in a slight fauxhawk. The third was a light blue pegasus, blue mane and tail, with an average haircut for a colt. Brave took note of them, as the class went back to normal.
Seven months had passed. Winter Wrap-Up had just finished, and the playground was open again. Brave was shy, and poor at making friends, but he didn't mind too much. Meant he could test himself more often.
The slides area had three slides, two on one tower and one on another. They were separated by a small gap any colt or filly could easily jump over. Brave was ready to jump across this gap, when two hooves pushed him. The sudden force pushed him across, nearly sending him down the spiral slide on this tower. He tripped and fell, rolling on his side and almost going down. He heard obnoxious laughter from where he once was.
"Ooooh, the freak almost makes it! Haha!"
Brave looked up, tears in his eyes. The large black pegasus from before, Quarterback, was standing there across the gap, his two cronies behind him, also laughing.
"Awww, is the widdle foal gonna cwy now?" mocked Quarterback. "C'mon, just cry!"
Brave almost did, admittedly, but he did not. Despite his hurt sides, he was a strong colt. An alicorn! He was not going to cry for these cragadiles, as he called them.
That was where it started. For three years, Quarterback's group would harass Brave Soul. At first, it was simply roughhousing. Then the next year, it was plucking his feathers and forcing nulllifier rings onto his horn.
Brave had gone to Chalkboard, then to a newer teacher, Cheerilee. Both teachers talked to Quarterback and his cronies. But nothing changed. It was the same treatment. He had even talked to his parents, but seeing as Brave did not know where Quarterback lived, there was nothing they could do.
Finally, the beatings started. At first, it was just a simple hoof to the shoulder. Soon after, Quarterback would punch Brave in the back of the head. Then, it was full-on beatings. Quarterback and his friends would team up on Brave, focusing blows to his horn and midsection.
"Tried to get me in trouble? You should've known this would happen, Prince Lame Soul!" Quarterback snarled, kicking at Brave's sides as he was down. The last time, they left Brave a broken mess, barely limping home across Ponyville, bruises all across his body.
Along the way, night fell. Shops closed, merchant stalls were left vacant, the market was dead silent. Brave looked around and found a stall he'd never seen before: a weapons stall. Looking around, seeing if there were any ponies or guards present, he snuck behind the stall to marvel at all the various knives, swords, daggers, "Oh my!" he said.
He spent a solid minute (with the occasional glancing for guards) looking at these weapons before finding a small dagger, small enough to conceal in a wing, but large enough to do solid damage in a fight. Brave marveled at it, observing it's simple yet sleek design, the glint of the moonlight radiating off of it. Looking around one final time for guards, he tucked the weapon behind his right wing and made his way home, slightly less sore from the beating earlier.
Now, he was ready. Just have to keep my wings closed until there's an opening, Brave thought.
Brave walked through the door to school, dagger tucked behind his wing. The day began normally. As ponies flowed in, so did Quarterback. "'Sup, Prince Lame Soul?" he jeered, smacking Brave in the face as he trotted by. Brave grunted. "Hmph."
The rest of the day proceeded normally until recess. Brave, tense, eased up against a wall, observing the ponies frolicking and playing on the jungle gyms and slides. Then Quarterback came in, followed closely by his cronies.
"Just as lonely as you always were," he said, a smug look on his face.
Brave sighed. "I've heard these insults a million times. Come up with something original for once."
"Ha! Look at this little princess, thinking himself a big colt. It's a thousand years too early for you to be as cool as me!" Quarterback replied, inching closer as his cronies surrounded him.
"Look, just go back to whatever hole you crawled out of! I don't want any trouble!"
"Oh, there was trouble when you were born, Brave. Get him!" Quarterback said, before striking Brave mightily in the face, magical physiology holding his teeth together, as Quarterback and the other two ponies ganged up on Brave. Kicks and punches were given to his belly and sides, blood beginning to trickle out of his mouth.
Here goes everything...! thought Brave as his wing opened, revealing the dagger. Without thinking, Brave, eyes shut tight, grasped the dagger in his magic and swung at Quarterback's hooves. A sickening SCHICK! was heard as the ponies finally climbed off him. Screaming could be heard; then, silence before the sound of a pony falling echoed.
Brave finally opened his eyes, gasping for breath with injured lungs. Quarterback's limp body was beside Brave, blood squirting like a fountain, coming from a cut in his right forehoof. The two henchponies of Quarterback stood back, horrified looks on their faces, as ponies began to run over from all over the playground. Most were screaming, but they were slight echoes in his mind as Brave looked with bated breath at Quarterback. Is... Did I... thought Brave, before he was picked up, the rough voice of a custodian stallion jabbed into him.
"Principal's office. NOW!" he said, dragging the stunned Brave into the schoolhouse.
And just then, Brave's cutie mark appeared. Two swords, crossed against one another.
A week had passed as Brave sat at home, expelled for the rest of the school year's remaining six months. Ponies he knew from school avoided him. From what he heard, not only was the dagger he stole returned to the shop owner, but Quarterback was put into a coma, the slice Brave gave him severing a major artery. Brave was barely eating, let alone sleeping, worried he may have killed a pony. He was a bad pony, he thought. But... I just wanted him to stop. I don't want him to die!
Brave's parents were surprisingly lenient on the young colt. After hearing the story told from a guard (who was called to the school for Brave to give said story), his parents grounded him from books for a month for stealing and endangering the life of a pony. "Just hope to Celestia in Canterlot he doesn't die," they said.
Brave sat in bed and cried, looking at his cutie mark. It was a curse. A blight. A constant reminder that he was dangerous. Not to be trusted, like a snake in the grass. Through tears, he looked at the window of his second-story bedroom. He opened it and looked down. Then he began to think; think about what such a fall would do to his little colt body. He climbed onto the windowsill, ready to find out, when Palm Tree called.
"Brave! We just got a flyer! There's a new princess about to be coronated in Canterlot!"
Brave jumped back into his room from the windowsill and trotted downstairs. Approaching the dinner table, where the flyer was, Guitar String urged him: "Read it. I knew her parents once, when I lived in Canterlot. They said she was very antisocial and into books, kinda like you!"
Brave looked at the flyer top to bottom at least three times.
Here ye, all you ponies of Equestria!
Come to Canterlot and bear witness to the newest princess of these lands, one
Princess Twilight Sparkle!
"I've heard about her, I think. Hasn't she saved Equestria, what, a gazillion times already?" Brave said.
Palm responded. "I'm not sure, but the coronation of a new princess is a very big deal, Brave. Your father and I have already made plans to go, and we're bringing you along!"
Brave smacked his lips and stamped his hoof. "I don't wanna go out in public! Look at my cutie mark! I'm a danger to Equestria!"
Guitar now responded. "Brave, I know you don't wanna go out there because of what you did. But it may be good to go. Like I said, her parents said she was a loner, like you. Maybe you could make a friend?"
"I... fine," Brave replied.
"Let me just say, Melody, that was the most important day of my life."
Melody looked at her coltfriend with a sad, yet hopeful look in her eyes. "Did he live?"
Brave looked somewhat downtrodden. "Yes. He woke up about a month later. But he lost the use of his right forehoof for several years."
Melody nodded, then snuggled Brave.
Brave, snuggling her back, then said, "I was ready to jump. To end myself right then and there. But when my parents told me about Princess Twilight, how antisocial she was, and then I saw how she and her five friends saved the world many times, I thought to myself, What if there really is magic in friendship? So I went out and started over. I was more social. I began making friends. Glitzy Glam, Awakening Sonata, Vanilla Mocha, you."
As they snuggled, Brave smiled warmly.
"And now I know the true magic of friendship."