A life long lessonby LevshuChaptersPrologue: Introduction, and Early childhoodChapter 1: Growing UpChapter 2: High SchoolChapter 3: The Magic of a Friend Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic Prologue: Introduction, and Early childhoodMy name is Mad Bolt. I am a 22 year old unicorn with an electric blue coat, a cyan mane and tail, with yellow lightning shaped streaks within them. My cutie mark is a ball of electromagnetic energy with four lightning blots shooting out of it. This symbolizes my talent with electricity and it's limitless uses, as well as my crazy.personality. I am somewhat of an inventor, and a rumored mad scientist. I guess it doesn't help much that my first name is 'Mad'. Thankfully, not all rumors are negative. Some people think I'm somehow related to my hero Nighkola Tesla, the inventor of the modern light bulb, radio, and my personal favorite; the Tesla Coil. But enough about history, (that's for a later story). I am 1 in a family of 6. My mother; an earth pony named May Flower, has a cream coat with a brown/red mane and tail. Her cutie mark is a newly bloomed flower symbolizing her talent of growing beautiful and delicious flowers. She was an amazing mother growing up. She always wanted what was best for me. One time she nearly sued a school because a bully was picking on me at recess. It took my dad a few days to calm her down to think of a logical solution, so in the end I transferred schools. When we found out I had a learning disorder, she dedicated herself to finding a good therapist, and a good program at school. Unfortunately, she wasn't always supermom. Most of the time she would be constantly nagging me about a few bad habits I had like my weird speech patterns that fixed itself with time, how I was always chewing my hooves. One day I developed an intolerance for the sound of hooves scraping on hard surfaces, a bit like the sound of styrofoam rubbing together, but more like the sound of ponies playing basketball. Anyway, after all that nagging, it got to the point to where my brain stopped caring about any other possibly annoying sound, and focused all it's hatred on the sound of my mother's voice. All the way to the point that it became physically painful to listen to her talk for too long. This was painful true when she was first teaching me how to pull a cart around, always telling me to keep my pace steady as to not spill my load, and how if it's too heavy I need to find somepony to equal out the yoke. It was maddening! I was sometimes tempted to topple the cart when she was riding just to shut her up. My father was an earth pony, named Quick Fix. He has a brown coat with a plain black mane and tail. He had a cutie mark of a hammer and a monkey wrench making an "X" across a black circle with a white center symbolizing his talent of building, fixing, and improving pretty much anything other than magical stuff. He was a very masculine pony, or he thought very low of feminine things such as the color pink, but under his brute exterior, he had a heart of gold. He always knew what to do in a sticky situation, and he always knew what to say to make you feel better. He was a solid rock in an earthquake. The world could be ending, and he would remain level headed and logical. Seriously, when Nightmare Moon came back he was the one who kept our family together. Even though my brother was in. Cloudsdalle, my dad convinced a baby dragon to send an urgent message to tell Swift to keep calm, and find a safe house while dad got us to an underground bunker he had prepared for emergencies. We were prepared to survive for months, thankfully, it only lasted a few hours, and there was even a village-wide party the next day. I remember as a colt, my siblings and I would always be so excited when dad came home from work. We would always have a competition to see who could get to him first. Then we would tackle him until he yelled uncle. The funniest part would always be how when my little brother was a foal, he couldn't walk yet, so he would always be the last one there, crawling along the floor as fast as his little legs could carry him. Even when he started to walk, he would always be last with his little stubby legs barely carrying him. My older brother is a Pegasus. His name is Swift Witt. He has a sky blue coat with a silver mane and tail. His cutie mark is a brain with a graduates hat on, basically meaning he's a know-it-all, (but seriously, his talent really is easy, well rounded learning, perfect memory, and quick reading/great comprehension). My parents are always scolding him for correcting them all the time... even if most of the time he's right and they just won't admit it because of their pride. He usually keeps to himself, and doesn't like it when I want to play with him too much, but sometimes when he's in a good mood we'll sit down together and play a fun game of Battle Clouds. Growing up, even though we had our differences, he was always there for me. He always tried to help me be the best pony I could be. Even though our minds worked differently, he always had good general advice, I guess it went with his cutie mark. He's currently living in a dorm room at a college in Cloudsdalle. My little sister, Melody is a brown coated earth pony with a yellow/red mane and tail. Her cutie mark is a violin surrounded by musical notes, take a wild guess at what it means. By the time she learned how to talk she had started annoying the whole family to no end. I was amazed her special talent wasn't yelling, or complaining, as that was what she seemed best at. The thing that frustrated me the most is how she always seemed to target me later on in her life. I guess it was only natural as we were both middle children so she saw me as the easiest target. So ya, classic sibling rivalry. Finally there's my younger brother; Star Flash. The only other unicorn in the family. His coat is a bright yellow with a blue and silver mane and tail. His cutie mark is a 5 pointed star with each point having a different color of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. This represents the fact that he is extremely well rounded in pretty much everything. He's extremely smart, he likes sports such as riding his scooter, and Hoof ball/aka soccer, he has tons of awesome friends, he has a great work ethic, and on top of all that, he's a self taught sorcerer. He was barely out of infancy before he started levitating anything he could get his magic on. He was also the quickest to get their cutie mark in the family at the age of 9. The only negative aspect of his personality is his temper, but then again, what kid doesn't have a short fuse at a young age. What matters is that he harnesses his potential to have a great life. He could do anything; become the next Captain of the royal gourd, get a job teaching at Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, become a star athlete, the possibilities are endless. For now though, he.still has to finish up school. Lets start out with my earliest memory. Well... not so much a memory, as a story I've been told 1,000 times over that it has become a replacement for what I can't recollect. For, you see, when I was just a foal, no older than 2 years, I was on a family outing. All I've been told were there were; my parents, my older brother, and my uncle, buo knows how many others were there. Anyway, we were at a pool and from what I can piece together, I got a little too excited about it as I ran after my brother I tripped and fell on my head. From what my brother said, I had looked like a zombie as blood trickled down my head. From what my parents tolled me, I they rushed me to a foal's hospital where they put surgical staples in my head which fell out once my skull healed. They were still a bit worried, as I was the only unicorn I'm the family. Well, my father's father's mother's mother was a unicorn, and my father's mother had a few unicorn ancestors, but I was the only one in my nuclear family. Both my parents are earth ponies, and my older brother is a Pegasus, so they didn't know too much about how to raise one, so they were constantly worried that they had messed me up, but they were still awesome parents. Anyway, they had worried my magic wouldn't develop right, but, lo and behold, I stand today as proof against that theory. After that It's just a bunch of still images and short clips of life, as well as a few prominent nightmares that still scare me out of my horse shoes. So I'll try to condense it into a coherent story starting with the beginning. My family started out living on the outskirts of a large city on the west coast. I can't remember the name though. Anyway, I remember visiting both sets of grandparents on many occasions. My father's parents had a large farm house with a giant back yard of fields, Berry bush's, trees and the like. My mother's parents were more modest. Her father was a local blacksmith who made high quality metal furnishings, spare parts for wagons, and many countless other contraptions. They had a small back yard with a large tree where they built a play structure which my brother and I always enjoyed playing on. All my grandparents were earth ponies. And I only had one or two unicorn cousins. When I was about 3 we stopped visiting my mother's parents, I didn't know why at the time, but later I had found out that they were a part of a small cult that believed Celestia was corrupt and needed to be overthrown. So, not wanting their children to be corrupted by such lies, we moved away to a small village and lost contact with them. It took a toll on my mother, but she got through it eventually. Even though we moved to an entirely different city, we did keep in touch with my father's parents. We even made semi-regular visits over the years, almost like vacations. We had moved to a small village of farmers and other hard working ponies. It was called Ponyville. My dad got a job at a wagon repair shop and quickly rose through the ranks quickly becoming an assistant manager. We didn't stay in Ponyville for long. My dad soon got a great job offer in Manehatten. Shortly after we moved to the big city I started school and made some friends. My little sister; Melody, an earth pony, was born around that time. She was my very fist YOUNGER sibling, I was no longer the youngest. It felt good. Now even after all this time my parents kept in close contact with my dad's parents. Soon I was introduced to my older cousin, Light Drift. He was a Pegasus like my brother, so I felt right at home with him. He had an orange coat with a shaggy black mane and tail. His cutie mark is a leaf drifting in the breeze symbolizing his ability to adapt to all the changes life throws his way. He's a bit nomadic that way. He was born to survive in rough conditions, much like how a leaf is subject to the will of the wind and it's direction. It also helped that he was also super awesome. He felt like a second older brother to me. Whenever we hung out I felt special because we always hung out as a team me, my older brother, and my cousin. It felt awesome to be included in the older colt's games. Especially since my older brother was usually trying to keep my out of his circle of friends, but when Light Drift came along, the age line disappeared. There were times when they would go off and do their own thing, but when they did, I didn't mind, because they usually tolled me all about it, or even decided to later include me in it. Unfortunately, he lived in the same city as my grandparents, so we only got to visit on small occasions. Back home in Manehatten, I did have a few friends, so life was still good. We moved around quite a lot in the city. By the time I was 7½ my younger brother; Star Flash was born. I was really excited because not only did this mean another younger sibling, it also meant I wasn't alone anymore because he was a unicorn! My childhood was awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing so well in school. I could never pay attention for more than a few minutes at a time, I was confused with half the stuff I was learning, and I had started to understand the concept of bullies the hard way. It. wasn't until about a year later that my mom decided to take my out of public school, and start homeschooling me. At first it was really fun. I got to sleep in, I did school in pajamas, my recess was bully free, and I got to choose to do extra work in order to finish early. Unfortunately, my mother was still an earth pony, and beyond the basics, she couldn't properly teach me how to handle magic. So she signed me up for basic unicorn magic training. I did pretty well there. I even made a new friend. Later, when I was about 10, Light Drift came to live with us. It was so awesome! Just like the good old days back at my grandparents' house. Life was awesome. Unfortunately it couldn't stay that way. Author's Note The first part of what you just read was a basic introduction to me and my family. I wrote this to give you a feel for how my life is in the present, as well as a few details that I might or might not/have or have not gone in depth, or will be revealing/have revealed about my life. There is one major event that I will never straight out talk about, but ill be referencing it a lot in this story. It has to do with the biggest and worst mistake of my life which actually helped make me a better person. As you may have noticed later in the story, I meet new ponies. I'll just be giving a short description/story about new ponies in my life on the spot, also depending on if they play an important roll in the story I'm telling about my life; for example, my cousin Light Drift, as well as others like my friends that I meet along the way. Some characters may not get a description until they become important to the my life and choices I make; for example, my grandparents. My mother's parents might not even get a description, as for my father's parents, it's just a matter of time. There will also be ponies who won't get mentioned because they weren't significant enough, such as my aunts and uncles. I'll mention them later, but mainly for events like family reunions and such. I will however be mentioning one of my aunts later on who had a large impact on my life, not in a good way though. I hope this story helps other ponies get to know me better. Please let me know if there's any way I can help you understand my story better by leaving comments. If you are interested in my story, let me know by giving me a thumbs up, and a favorite. Chapter 1: Growing UpSoon my cousin; Light Drift, had to move back with his parents. Now, that wasn't the end of the world or anything, and it also meant one less mouth to feed, but it was still sad to see him go. Anyway, we stayed at that house for a couple more years. I had a few more found memories in that time. For example, teaching my little brother basic levitation, seeing my older brother get his cutie mark by discovering his great talent for learning, remembering, and reciting facts, and learning a new spell that allowed me to generate a small field of electromagnetic energy around my horn in order to shoot out small bolts of electricity. Well, eventually we moved out to yet another house. Here I finished up the year of homeschooling, and I went back into public school. Let me tell you, the transition was NOT fun. Not only did I not have my cutie mark yet, I also had just come out of home school. On top of all that, I had recently been diagnosed with a mental disorder known as OAHD or Over Active Horn Disorder. It meant my horn would always try to act out my subconscious thoughts. Normal unicorns have a part of the brain which separates their subconscious from the part that controls the horn, but I was born with a weaker version of that organ, so if I let my attention waver too much, things go crazy. I've had outbursts my whole life, but my parents always dismissed them as natural development. Unfortunately, I had passed that stage of my life and still had outbursts, so I then had to go into a special class with other fillies and colts with disorders like pegasi who can't fly yet, or earth ponies who have an extreme calcium deficiency and have to move around in a wheel chair. I made a few acquaintances along the way, but never any real friends. Whenever I tried to make friends, they would always be annoyed by my over active horn. They would always treat me as less of a pony because of it. So I stopped trying to reach out to people altogether. The closest thing I had to friends outside my family were the kids I ate lunch with, but only because they were the only ones who would even consider being around me, and even then, they thought of themselves as better than me, just because I couldn't completely control my magic. It was humiliating, at least the pegasi could flap their wings and the earth ponies could move their legs. I however, couldn't even control my most basic ability. Sometimes they would think I was intentionally messing with them because my horn would usually shoot out little electric shocks which would sometimes hit them. I can honestly say that they were all (mostly) accidents. Sometimes I would get really mad at them and my horn would shock them. I would always apologize, but I didn't always mean it. More to the point, most ponies just started avoiding me, but who could blame them? After all, wasn't I a monster who didn't deserve friends? That's how ponies treated me, so that's what I became. So while I was struggling with school and my social life, my parents were trying to help me cope with my life at home. Their efforts were unfortunately in vain. I had become a bit of a hermit. I lost all interest in making friends, and I spent the majority of my time reading comic books, practicing my control techniques, experimenting with my magical abilities, and listening to music. Soon though, everything was about to change. For better or for worse, I was going into high school, as a blank flank. Chapter 2: High SchoolHigh school was strange, to say the least. Literally everypony had their cutie marks except me, well there was this one colt who still didn't have his, thank Celestia. He was the one who re-introduced me to the magic of friendship. In a world where I was almost always the odd one out, I found another pony who felt the exact same way. It was lunch time and I had just finished scarfing down my fruit salad when I noticed a pony sitting next to me. He was a Pegasus with a midnight blue coat, and silvery blue mane and tail. His eyes were as crimson as blood. The strangest feature about him however, were his wings. His feathers were the same color as his mane and tail, the color of his coat slowly faded as I traced the tendons of his wings and found there was such a grey area (so to speak) that I couldn't tell the line between blue and silver. It looked as though the blue was being sucked out of the wings to be slowly replaced with silver. He was one of the most amazing ponies I had ever seen. I've only seen pictures of Celestia, but I doubt even her magically flowing mane could compete with the specimen I was sitting next to. Unfortunately, I realized too late that he might be sensitive about his appearance, and I've been starring at him for the last minute. I've always struggled with social situations. So to break the tension, I introduced myself. "Hey, my name's Mad Bolt. What's yours?" I asked lamely. To my surprise, he seemed to perk up at that more than a little colt on Hearth's Warming morning. "Wow, you are the first pony I've ever met who greeted me with your name instead of making fun of my eyes or wings." He replied before sobering up a bit and then looking strait up sad. "But I bet your still making fun of me in your head, you were starring at me like some kind of monster... my name is Shadow Storm by the way." He finished with a mix of sadness and anger. That got a strange reaction out of me. "I WAS NOT! I was marveling at how amazing it is that your so different from the average pony! I've never met anypony with your color scheme before and it is magnificent!" I yelled passionately. Okay, I sounded WAY too defensive than those sentences deserved. "Whatever. I've never met a single pony who has ever been able to stand me for my appearance. Plus there's the fact that ponies seem to get depressed around me." He said coldly, and with a hint of apathy. "I can't imagine why." I mumbled under my breath. "Anyway, why should I even believe you? Your most likely lying to either spare my feelings because your one of those ponies who thinks if somepony isn't as nice as you, you should still try to not show it, or your trying to fake me out because you're a jerk. Well guess what? I don't give a flying feather! Just leave me alone! Nopony has ever genuinely wanted to be my friend, and nopony ever will!" He finished that last sentence with a hint sadness in his voice, and water in his eyes. This struck a nerve in me. Was he mocking me?! Was he making fun of my life?! I had reached the point beyond reason, and my horn started to glow. "HOW DARE YOU! I'VE BEEN MOCKED AND BULLIED FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS BECAUSE OF A MENTAL DISABILITY! Now here you come sobbing about how nopony wants to be your friend, when I've never even had a real friend!?" At this point a few sparks started generating around my horn. "Everypony I've ever met has always thought I was really weird, and it all got worse when I found out I have OAHD!" The sparks got bigger. "Now people have a reason to avoid me! I can't completely control my bucking magic!" At this time you could see sparks flying through the air and striking random spots on the ground leaving a charred circle of grass. By the time I finally realized what was going on, it was too late. My magic had already gained to much momentum. The next thing that happened was the strangest thing I had ever witnessed. Now, this had never happened before, sure, but it's what happened next is what made literally no sense. All my magic had been released, and it had hit Shadow Storm, but what could have killed him, or at least have him spasming uncontrollably, just struck him square in the head, right between the eyes, all at once, and then his wings started flipping out. It looked like they each had a mind of their own, and they were having an argument about who was crazier. The next thing I knew, his wings went stiff, and pointed to a near by cloud. Then they released what was once a deadly charge of electromagnetic energy, but is now a charged storm cloud. A few minutes passed by before anyone said anything. I broke the silence. "How did you do that!?!?" Was all I could say. "I don't know, I thought you did that." "I can't control my magic like that, if at all during fits of strong emotion, especially negative emotional fits." At that point, I noticed we had drawn quite a crowd in our fight, and I could see teachers heading our way. "Well buck." Was all I got out before we were whisked off in a teacher's magic. Chapter 3: The Magic of a Friend Chapter 3: The Magic of a Friend After the school nurse examined us, and made sure we were functioning properly, we were sat down at the councillor's office. It wasn't an average looking councilor's office; it had a desk, and a file cabinet, but it was also decorated with drawings, upon questioning the councillor, I found out they were by previously graduated students. Some looked intriguing, some looked strange, and others looked down right creepy. Once everypony got settled in and seated, the councillor asked Shadow Storm and I a few questions. "Okay so, what seems to be the problem here." She said with a stern, but understanding tone. Shadow went first. "Life is pointless, so what's the point in trying? All you're gonna get out of us is how we both hate each other because of certain reasons, then you'll say something generic about how we should learn to get along better-" "Then you'll send us on our way, with us just cooperating to get out of this room and go back to silently hating each other to the point that we end up in another fight and we repeat this entire process... all... over... again." It took a moment for it to sink in, but Shadow beat me to the punchline. "You just finished my sentence saying exactly what I was thinking." He said ominously. "Unless you can read minds, the only other way you could have known that is if you know this process by heart. The only reason for that is if-" "This isn't my fist winter wrap up? Ya, this has basically been the story if my life for the past few years." "STOP FINISHING MY SENTENCES, IT'S WEIRD!" "Weirder than the two of us combined? Because I'm gonna take a wild guess that one of the most frequent and reoccurring names you've been called is weird, same here." "At least YOUR colors are normal for a pony! Look at my wings!" "Yes, as I said before, they are amazing!" "NO THEY AREN'T! I'M A FREAK, AND NOPONY WILL EVER GENUINELY THINK OTHERWISE!" "Wait. Your wings, they shot out my lightning. How did they do that?" "What? Oh ya. Uh, I don't really know." With a halfway hopeful glance at his flank, he was halfway disappointed to see nothing there. "It isn't my special talent, that's for sure." He said bitterly. "Actually," the councillor finally cut in, "that's something I might be able to clear up." I had almost forgotten she was in the room. She was a light brown Pegasus, with a white mane and tail. I couldn't tell if those were her natural colors though, because she seemed to be a bit older than the average mare (if you know what I mean). Nonetheless, I was interested in what she had to say. "As you may already have learned in basic anatomy; pegasi have the ability to control the weather." She said matter-of-factly. Shadow Storm just rolled his eyes and said "Well no duh, Sherlock. What else is new." Despite the rude comment, the councillor continued on as if nothing had been said. "Pegasi, with their weather controlling abilities, have control over more than just clouds, they have control over their contents; more specifically, lightning. I believe that when you were struck with that lightning from his horn, your body thought it was a stray bolt, so then it locked onto the nearest empty cloud and let the charge go." I was surprised that the councillor knew so much about this stuff, even as a Pegasus herself, she's a councillor, not a meteorologist. In any case though, she was making a lot of sense, even Shadow seemed dumbfounded. "Well, it's just a theory, it may have just been a freak accident caused by unicorn magic, and that's something I just can't explain. As you might know Mad Bolt, trying to explain magic to a non unicorn, is like trying to explain color to a blind pony." "Well, this was an interesting and unique experience." I said rather awkwardly. "Ya," said Shadow Storm, "I never thought I'd ever actually learn something in a councilor's office." "Well, I don't want to keep you too long. It seems you both have had quite an experience today, and I hope-" "-that we don't get into any more trouble." Shadow and I said in perfect unison finishing her sentence for her. "Well, okay then..." she said a bit taken aback. "I'll-" "-be contacting our parents." We finished again. "Can we go now?" Okay, this was getting creepy. On our way back to class, I decided to take a shot in the dark. "You wanna be friends?" We both stopped in our tracks a the statement. I had said it, but the words felt strange in my mouth. What happened next though, came as a complete shock. "Huh... I guess so..." was what he said, but what he meant, and later said was, "I mean, we do seem to have a lot in common, and we both have no other friends... it seems I have no other choice." And that's how it all started, that is how I first met my first, and best friend. Kind of strange isn't it? One moment I hate him, the next I invite him to my house, but I guess when life hands you explosive oranges, you make a lemon tree. Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic It wasn't long before Shadow Storm and I had become "thick as thieves"; a phrase here meaning that we enjoyed hanging out more than just keeping to ourselves in a dark corner. We had grown to trust each other completely, and unquestionably. Life was going pretty good, and the best part is that I hadn't had a single magical outburst since the fight with Shadow Bolt. To make things even better, I had made some new friends. They all had their cutie marks, but I guess they didn't mind hanging out with a blank flank regardless. Incredibly enough, I met them at lunch, seemingly the most social time of the day, who would have guessed. Anyway, things didn't start as roughly as with Shadow Storm, but they still started with a disagreement. It all started one rainy day when I had noticed that there was a pony sitting on the other end of the same empty table as me, and she seemed just as lonely. For you see, on this particular rainy day, Shadow wasn't here; he had to help his parents and all the other pegasi arrange the storm, so I was all alone, just like all those times before. Now, what was really out of place here is that this particular pony was usually accompanied by at least one friend, but usually about 3 on an average day. Fortunately though, today was not average, I didn't know it then, but this was the day that marked the beginning of the greatest years of my life. Now, before I met Shadow, I would be perfectly content to spend time alone, but now I felt an emptiness inside. I could only imagine how this pony was feeling. So I decided to act on the situation at hand. I walked over and sat next to her. She didn't notice me at first, and when she did, she seemed kind of shy about it. She was a pink earth pony with a slightly curly, golden brown mane and tail, as well as chocolate brown eyes. I couldn't quite tell what her cutie mark was; it was some sort of animal. It looked a bit like a timber wolf, except not made out of wood. It was also rainbow colored. In order to break the increasingly thickening awkward tension, I decided to ask the first question that came to mind. "Hey so, what's your cutie mark supposed to be?" I asked her. She seemed to perk up a little bit. "Oh, uh, well, um, it represents my love of animals, as well as my talent in art." She replied in a soft voice. Then she went right back to shying away. I wasn't about to lose this momentum. "What exactly is it?" I asked. "I mean, it looks like a timber wolf without the timber." "Well, that's because it's a regular wolf." She said a little bit less shy. "They're like Diamond Dogs, except they can't talk, they have a lot more fur, and they are actually friendly." She said with a small smile working its way onto her face. She seemed to be about to go on a tangent. "They are my FAVORITE animal! In fact, I have a pet wolf named Moon. She is so cute! She's a snowy wolf, which is my favorite breed of wolves." She said as if she were a little filly explaining how delicious candy is if you combined it with soda. "I also have a pet fox, she is also very adorable!" She said with gusto. "She's unusually small with a giant fluffy tail four times her size." She paused at this and looked around and motioned me to come closer and she whispered in my ear. "Her name is Tai-Tai and-" Just then, a fox of her recent description jumped onto her head from her saddle bags. "Ugh... and that is why I was whispering. Even at the very mention of her name Tai-Tai seems to come out of nowhere and jump on my head." She said with anger slowly subsiding in her voice. "Fortunately for her, I can't stay mad at something so cute." She said cooing at the fox before removing it from her head and squeezing it in a bear hug. "Unfortunately for her, I can't resist hugging the feathers out of something so adorable." The fox struggled, but she finally got free of her master's grip in order to launch herself back into the saddle bag from wince she came. "Oh hey, I almost forgot to tell you my name, how forgetful of me!" She said as she face-hoofed. "I'm Wolf Light, but my friends call me Blondie, that's with an 'ie' at the end, not a 'y'." She said defensively. "Anyway, what's your name?" "Oh, me? Uh, my name is uh, Mad Bolt... I'm not crazy by the way." I said awkwardly. I couldn't help but notice that a few sparks were flying off my horn and flying off in random directions. (That was strange, I wasn't angry, or sad. What could have caused that?) I wondered. "I didn't think you were crazy." Said Wolf light. "In fact, I think Mad Bolt is an awesome name, it suites you." She said happily. It was at this time that my horn started to faintly glow a light blue as tiny sparks flew out and hit Wolf Light. "Oh my Celestia! I'm so sorry!" I blurted out quickly. "I probably should have told you, but I sometimes have random fits of magic, and I can't always control them." I said sadly. "Please don't hate me!" "What? Why would I blame you for something you can't control?" Wolf Light asked. "Plus, what's the big deal anyway? It's just a bit of magical electromagnetic shock." She said plainly. "Wait, so you don't think I'm weird?" I asked, almost in shock. "Well of course you're weird, but that's what's awesome about you. I'm a bit strange myself with my love of my two abnormal pets. Plus, I'm also a bit cray, but in a good way. So I like weird, I think more ponies should be weird, that way, nopony would feel bad about it, and the world would be a lot more fun." She said with a smile. "Huh, I never thought of it that way before... thanks." "What for?" "For accepting me for who I am, instead of shunning me, or expecting I follow some stupid set of behaviors." I said giving off a bit of a smile myself. "Well why would anypony do that?" "Well because apparently, if a pony doesn't fit into certain social norms, they are to be shunned and labeled as a bad pony." I said with anger bubbling up in my voice. I would have started ranting if Wolf Light hadn't kept talking. "Well that just doesn't make sense. Just because somepony doesn't act like you, doesn't mean they're bad, it just means they're different. It's fun to be different, if everypony acted exactly the same, the world would be too boring to live in." She said matter-of-factly. "Well, I just wish the rest of the world thought that way. Maybe then I could be accepted by more than one pony." "Wait, are you telling me you only have one friend?" She asked surprised. "Well, ya." I said a little depressed at what I had just confirmed. "Well, we're friends, aren't we?" I was a little shocked... No, not quite shocked, but more than surprised. It just occurred to me that I had held a meaningful conversation with another pony for a substantial amount of time, and I was enjoying their company. This pony also seemed to enjoy my company as well. Could it really be that easy to make a friend? No, there HAD to be a catch! Or did there? Is it really possible? I had to be sure. "You really want to be my friend?" I asked cautiously. "Well, ya. That is if you want to be my friend. I hope you do, you seem like a really nice pony, and I can also introduce you to all my other friends. Then you can be friends with them, and that means my group of friends will be even bigger, and everypony likes more friends!" She might have kept going if the bell hadn't rung; signaling the end of lunch. "Well, I guess I'll see you later Mad Bolt. I hope my other friends come tomorrow, you are gonna love them, I promise." She said as we stood up to leave. "Well I guess we'll see, but if they're anything like you, I'm sure you're right." I said optimistically. Things were starting to look up for me.
Prologue: Introduction, and Early childhoodMy name is Mad Bolt. I am a 22 year old unicorn with an electric blue coat, a cyan mane and tail, with yellow lightning shaped streaks within them. My cutie mark is a ball of electromagnetic energy with four lightning blots shooting out of it. This symbolizes my talent with electricity and it's limitless uses, as well as my crazy.personality. I am somewhat of an inventor, and a rumored mad scientist. I guess it doesn't help much that my first name is 'Mad'. Thankfully, not all rumors are negative. Some people think I'm somehow related to my hero Nighkola Tesla, the inventor of the modern light bulb, radio, and my personal favorite; the Tesla Coil. But enough about history, (that's for a later story). I am 1 in a family of 6. My mother; an earth pony named May Flower, has a cream coat with a brown/red mane and tail. Her cutie mark is a newly bloomed flower symbolizing her talent of growing beautiful and delicious flowers. She was an amazing mother growing up. She always wanted what was best for me. One time she nearly sued a school because a bully was picking on me at recess. It took my dad a few days to calm her down to think of a logical solution, so in the end I transferred schools. When we found out I had a learning disorder, she dedicated herself to finding a good therapist, and a good program at school. Unfortunately, she wasn't always supermom. Most of the time she would be constantly nagging me about a few bad habits I had like my weird speech patterns that fixed itself with time, how I was always chewing my hooves. One day I developed an intolerance for the sound of hooves scraping on hard surfaces, a bit like the sound of styrofoam rubbing together, but more like the sound of ponies playing basketball. Anyway, after all that nagging, it got to the point to where my brain stopped caring about any other possibly annoying sound, and focused all it's hatred on the sound of my mother's voice. All the way to the point that it became physically painful to listen to her talk for too long. This was painful true when she was first teaching me how to pull a cart around, always telling me to keep my pace steady as to not spill my load, and how if it's too heavy I need to find somepony to equal out the yoke. It was maddening! I was sometimes tempted to topple the cart when she was riding just to shut her up. My father was an earth pony, named Quick Fix. He has a brown coat with a plain black mane and tail. He had a cutie mark of a hammer and a monkey wrench making an "X" across a black circle with a white center symbolizing his talent of building, fixing, and improving pretty much anything other than magical stuff. He was a very masculine pony, or he thought very low of feminine things such as the color pink, but under his brute exterior, he had a heart of gold. He always knew what to do in a sticky situation, and he always knew what to say to make you feel better. He was a solid rock in an earthquake. The world could be ending, and he would remain level headed and logical. Seriously, when Nightmare Moon came back he was the one who kept our family together. Even though my brother was in. Cloudsdalle, my dad convinced a baby dragon to send an urgent message to tell Swift to keep calm, and find a safe house while dad got us to an underground bunker he had prepared for emergencies. We were prepared to survive for months, thankfully, it only lasted a few hours, and there was even a village-wide party the next day. I remember as a colt, my siblings and I would always be so excited when dad came home from work. We would always have a competition to see who could get to him first. Then we would tackle him until he yelled uncle. The funniest part would always be how when my little brother was a foal, he couldn't walk yet, so he would always be the last one there, crawling along the floor as fast as his little legs could carry him. Even when he started to walk, he would always be last with his little stubby legs barely carrying him. My older brother is a Pegasus. His name is Swift Witt. He has a sky blue coat with a silver mane and tail. His cutie mark is a brain with a graduates hat on, basically meaning he's a know-it-all, (but seriously, his talent really is easy, well rounded learning, perfect memory, and quick reading/great comprehension). My parents are always scolding him for correcting them all the time... even if most of the time he's right and they just won't admit it because of their pride. He usually keeps to himself, and doesn't like it when I want to play with him too much, but sometimes when he's in a good mood we'll sit down together and play a fun game of Battle Clouds. Growing up, even though we had our differences, he was always there for me. He always tried to help me be the best pony I could be. Even though our minds worked differently, he always had good general advice, I guess it went with his cutie mark. He's currently living in a dorm room at a college in Cloudsdalle. My little sister, Melody is a brown coated earth pony with a yellow/red mane and tail. Her cutie mark is a violin surrounded by musical notes, take a wild guess at what it means. By the time she learned how to talk she had started annoying the whole family to no end. I was amazed her special talent wasn't yelling, or complaining, as that was what she seemed best at. The thing that frustrated me the most is how she always seemed to target me later on in her life. I guess it was only natural as we were both middle children so she saw me as the easiest target. So ya, classic sibling rivalry. Finally there's my younger brother; Star Flash. The only other unicorn in the family. His coat is a bright yellow with a blue and silver mane and tail. His cutie mark is a 5 pointed star with each point having a different color of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. This represents the fact that he is extremely well rounded in pretty much everything. He's extremely smart, he likes sports such as riding his scooter, and Hoof ball/aka soccer, he has tons of awesome friends, he has a great work ethic, and on top of all that, he's a self taught sorcerer. He was barely out of infancy before he started levitating anything he could get his magic on. He was also the quickest to get their cutie mark in the family at the age of 9. The only negative aspect of his personality is his temper, but then again, what kid doesn't have a short fuse at a young age. What matters is that he harnesses his potential to have a great life. He could do anything; become the next Captain of the royal gourd, get a job teaching at Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, become a star athlete, the possibilities are endless. For now though, he.still has to finish up school. Lets start out with my earliest memory. Well... not so much a memory, as a story I've been told 1,000 times over that it has become a replacement for what I can't recollect. For, you see, when I was just a foal, no older than 2 years, I was on a family outing. All I've been told were there were; my parents, my older brother, and my uncle, buo knows how many others were there. Anyway, we were at a pool and from what I can piece together, I got a little too excited about it as I ran after my brother I tripped and fell on my head. From what my brother said, I had looked like a zombie as blood trickled down my head. From what my parents tolled me, I they rushed me to a foal's hospital where they put surgical staples in my head which fell out once my skull healed. They were still a bit worried, as I was the only unicorn I'm the family. Well, my father's father's mother's mother was a unicorn, and my father's mother had a few unicorn ancestors, but I was the only one in my nuclear family. Both my parents are earth ponies, and my older brother is a Pegasus, so they didn't know too much about how to raise one, so they were constantly worried that they had messed me up, but they were still awesome parents. Anyway, they had worried my magic wouldn't develop right, but, lo and behold, I stand today as proof against that theory. After that It's just a bunch of still images and short clips of life, as well as a few prominent nightmares that still scare me out of my horse shoes. So I'll try to condense it into a coherent story starting with the beginning. My family started out living on the outskirts of a large city on the west coast. I can't remember the name though. Anyway, I remember visiting both sets of grandparents on many occasions. My father's parents had a large farm house with a giant back yard of fields, Berry bush's, trees and the like. My mother's parents were more modest. Her father was a local blacksmith who made high quality metal furnishings, spare parts for wagons, and many countless other contraptions. They had a small back yard with a large tree where they built a play structure which my brother and I always enjoyed playing on. All my grandparents were earth ponies. And I only had one or two unicorn cousins. When I was about 3 we stopped visiting my mother's parents, I didn't know why at the time, but later I had found out that they were a part of a small cult that believed Celestia was corrupt and needed to be overthrown. So, not wanting their children to be corrupted by such lies, we moved away to a small village and lost contact with them. It took a toll on my mother, but she got through it eventually. Even though we moved to an entirely different city, we did keep in touch with my father's parents. We even made semi-regular visits over the years, almost like vacations. We had moved to a small village of farmers and other hard working ponies. It was called Ponyville. My dad got a job at a wagon repair shop and quickly rose through the ranks quickly becoming an assistant manager. We didn't stay in Ponyville for long. My dad soon got a great job offer in Manehatten. Shortly after we moved to the big city I started school and made some friends. My little sister; Melody, an earth pony, was born around that time. She was my very fist YOUNGER sibling, I was no longer the youngest. It felt good. Now even after all this time my parents kept in close contact with my dad's parents. Soon I was introduced to my older cousin, Light Drift. He was a Pegasus like my brother, so I felt right at home with him. He had an orange coat with a shaggy black mane and tail. His cutie mark is a leaf drifting in the breeze symbolizing his ability to adapt to all the changes life throws his way. He's a bit nomadic that way. He was born to survive in rough conditions, much like how a leaf is subject to the will of the wind and it's direction. It also helped that he was also super awesome. He felt like a second older brother to me. Whenever we hung out I felt special because we always hung out as a team me, my older brother, and my cousin. It felt awesome to be included in the older colt's games. Especially since my older brother was usually trying to keep my out of his circle of friends, but when Light Drift came along, the age line disappeared. There were times when they would go off and do their own thing, but when they did, I didn't mind, because they usually tolled me all about it, or even decided to later include me in it. Unfortunately, he lived in the same city as my grandparents, so we only got to visit on small occasions. Back home in Manehatten, I did have a few friends, so life was still good. We moved around quite a lot in the city. By the time I was 7½ my younger brother; Star Flash was born. I was really excited because not only did this mean another younger sibling, it also meant I wasn't alone anymore because he was a unicorn! My childhood was awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing so well in school. I could never pay attention for more than a few minutes at a time, I was confused with half the stuff I was learning, and I had started to understand the concept of bullies the hard way. It. wasn't until about a year later that my mom decided to take my out of public school, and start homeschooling me. At first it was really fun. I got to sleep in, I did school in pajamas, my recess was bully free, and I got to choose to do extra work in order to finish early. Unfortunately, my mother was still an earth pony, and beyond the basics, she couldn't properly teach me how to handle magic. So she signed me up for basic unicorn magic training. I did pretty well there. I even made a new friend. Later, when I was about 10, Light Drift came to live with us. It was so awesome! Just like the good old days back at my grandparents' house. Life was awesome. Unfortunately it couldn't stay that way. Author's Note The first part of what you just read was a basic introduction to me and my family. I wrote this to give you a feel for how my life is in the present, as well as a few details that I might or might not/have or have not gone in depth, or will be revealing/have revealed about my life. There is one major event that I will never straight out talk about, but ill be referencing it a lot in this story. It has to do with the biggest and worst mistake of my life which actually helped make me a better person. As you may have noticed later in the story, I meet new ponies. I'll just be giving a short description/story about new ponies in my life on the spot, also depending on if they play an important roll in the story I'm telling about my life; for example, my cousin Light Drift, as well as others like my friends that I meet along the way. Some characters may not get a description until they become important to the my life and choices I make; for example, my grandparents. My mother's parents might not even get a description, as for my father's parents, it's just a matter of time. There will also be ponies who won't get mentioned because they weren't significant enough, such as my aunts and uncles. I'll mention them later, but mainly for events like family reunions and such. I will however be mentioning one of my aunts later on who had a large impact on my life, not in a good way though. I hope this story helps other ponies get to know me better. Please let me know if there's any way I can help you understand my story better by leaving comments. If you are interested in my story, let me know by giving me a thumbs up, and a favorite.
Chapter 1: Growing UpSoon my cousin; Light Drift, had to move back with his parents. Now, that wasn't the end of the world or anything, and it also meant one less mouth to feed, but it was still sad to see him go. Anyway, we stayed at that house for a couple more years. I had a few more found memories in that time. For example, teaching my little brother basic levitation, seeing my older brother get his cutie mark by discovering his great talent for learning, remembering, and reciting facts, and learning a new spell that allowed me to generate a small field of electromagnetic energy around my horn in order to shoot out small bolts of electricity. Well, eventually we moved out to yet another house. Here I finished up the year of homeschooling, and I went back into public school. Let me tell you, the transition was NOT fun. Not only did I not have my cutie mark yet, I also had just come out of home school. On top of all that, I had recently been diagnosed with a mental disorder known as OAHD or Over Active Horn Disorder. It meant my horn would always try to act out my subconscious thoughts. Normal unicorns have a part of the brain which separates their subconscious from the part that controls the horn, but I was born with a weaker version of that organ, so if I let my attention waver too much, things go crazy. I've had outbursts my whole life, but my parents always dismissed them as natural development. Unfortunately, I had passed that stage of my life and still had outbursts, so I then had to go into a special class with other fillies and colts with disorders like pegasi who can't fly yet, or earth ponies who have an extreme calcium deficiency and have to move around in a wheel chair. I made a few acquaintances along the way, but never any real friends. Whenever I tried to make friends, they would always be annoyed by my over active horn. They would always treat me as less of a pony because of it. So I stopped trying to reach out to people altogether. The closest thing I had to friends outside my family were the kids I ate lunch with, but only because they were the only ones who would even consider being around me, and even then, they thought of themselves as better than me, just because I couldn't completely control my magic. It was humiliating, at least the pegasi could flap their wings and the earth ponies could move their legs. I however, couldn't even control my most basic ability. Sometimes they would think I was intentionally messing with them because my horn would usually shoot out little electric shocks which would sometimes hit them. I can honestly say that they were all (mostly) accidents. Sometimes I would get really mad at them and my horn would shock them. I would always apologize, but I didn't always mean it. More to the point, most ponies just started avoiding me, but who could blame them? After all, wasn't I a monster who didn't deserve friends? That's how ponies treated me, so that's what I became. So while I was struggling with school and my social life, my parents were trying to help me cope with my life at home. Their efforts were unfortunately in vain. I had become a bit of a hermit. I lost all interest in making friends, and I spent the majority of my time reading comic books, practicing my control techniques, experimenting with my magical abilities, and listening to music. Soon though, everything was about to change. For better or for worse, I was going into high school, as a blank flank.
Chapter 2: High SchoolHigh school was strange, to say the least. Literally everypony had their cutie marks except me, well there was this one colt who still didn't have his, thank Celestia. He was the one who re-introduced me to the magic of friendship. In a world where I was almost always the odd one out, I found another pony who felt the exact same way. It was lunch time and I had just finished scarfing down my fruit salad when I noticed a pony sitting next to me. He was a Pegasus with a midnight blue coat, and silvery blue mane and tail. His eyes were as crimson as blood. The strangest feature about him however, were his wings. His feathers were the same color as his mane and tail, the color of his coat slowly faded as I traced the tendons of his wings and found there was such a grey area (so to speak) that I couldn't tell the line between blue and silver. It looked as though the blue was being sucked out of the wings to be slowly replaced with silver. He was one of the most amazing ponies I had ever seen. I've only seen pictures of Celestia, but I doubt even her magically flowing mane could compete with the specimen I was sitting next to. Unfortunately, I realized too late that he might be sensitive about his appearance, and I've been starring at him for the last minute. I've always struggled with social situations. So to break the tension, I introduced myself. "Hey, my name's Mad Bolt. What's yours?" I asked lamely. To my surprise, he seemed to perk up at that more than a little colt on Hearth's Warming morning. "Wow, you are the first pony I've ever met who greeted me with your name instead of making fun of my eyes or wings." He replied before sobering up a bit and then looking strait up sad. "But I bet your still making fun of me in your head, you were starring at me like some kind of monster... my name is Shadow Storm by the way." He finished with a mix of sadness and anger. That got a strange reaction out of me. "I WAS NOT! I was marveling at how amazing it is that your so different from the average pony! I've never met anypony with your color scheme before and it is magnificent!" I yelled passionately. Okay, I sounded WAY too defensive than those sentences deserved. "Whatever. I've never met a single pony who has ever been able to stand me for my appearance. Plus there's the fact that ponies seem to get depressed around me." He said coldly, and with a hint of apathy. "I can't imagine why." I mumbled under my breath. "Anyway, why should I even believe you? Your most likely lying to either spare my feelings because your one of those ponies who thinks if somepony isn't as nice as you, you should still try to not show it, or your trying to fake me out because you're a jerk. Well guess what? I don't give a flying feather! Just leave me alone! Nopony has ever genuinely wanted to be my friend, and nopony ever will!" He finished that last sentence with a hint sadness in his voice, and water in his eyes. This struck a nerve in me. Was he mocking me?! Was he making fun of my life?! I had reached the point beyond reason, and my horn started to glow. "HOW DARE YOU! I'VE BEEN MOCKED AND BULLIED FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS BECAUSE OF A MENTAL DISABILITY! Now here you come sobbing about how nopony wants to be your friend, when I've never even had a real friend!?" At this point a few sparks started generating around my horn. "Everypony I've ever met has always thought I was really weird, and it all got worse when I found out I have OAHD!" The sparks got bigger. "Now people have a reason to avoid me! I can't completely control my bucking magic!" At this time you could see sparks flying through the air and striking random spots on the ground leaving a charred circle of grass. By the time I finally realized what was going on, it was too late. My magic had already gained to much momentum. The next thing that happened was the strangest thing I had ever witnessed. Now, this had never happened before, sure, but it's what happened next is what made literally no sense. All my magic had been released, and it had hit Shadow Storm, but what could have killed him, or at least have him spasming uncontrollably, just struck him square in the head, right between the eyes, all at once, and then his wings started flipping out. It looked like they each had a mind of their own, and they were having an argument about who was crazier. The next thing I knew, his wings went stiff, and pointed to a near by cloud. Then they released what was once a deadly charge of electromagnetic energy, but is now a charged storm cloud. A few minutes passed by before anyone said anything. I broke the silence. "How did you do that!?!?" Was all I could say. "I don't know, I thought you did that." "I can't control my magic like that, if at all during fits of strong emotion, especially negative emotional fits." At that point, I noticed we had drawn quite a crowd in our fight, and I could see teachers heading our way. "Well buck." Was all I got out before we were whisked off in a teacher's magic.
Chapter 3: The Magic of a Friend Chapter 3: The Magic of a Friend After the school nurse examined us, and made sure we were functioning properly, we were sat down at the councillor's office. It wasn't an average looking councilor's office; it had a desk, and a file cabinet, but it was also decorated with drawings, upon questioning the councillor, I found out they were by previously graduated students. Some looked intriguing, some looked strange, and others looked down right creepy. Once everypony got settled in and seated, the councillor asked Shadow Storm and I a few questions. "Okay so, what seems to be the problem here." She said with a stern, but understanding tone. Shadow went first. "Life is pointless, so what's the point in trying? All you're gonna get out of us is how we both hate each other because of certain reasons, then you'll say something generic about how we should learn to get along better-" "Then you'll send us on our way, with us just cooperating to get out of this room and go back to silently hating each other to the point that we end up in another fight and we repeat this entire process... all... over... again." It took a moment for it to sink in, but Shadow beat me to the punchline. "You just finished my sentence saying exactly what I was thinking." He said ominously. "Unless you can read minds, the only other way you could have known that is if you know this process by heart. The only reason for that is if-" "This isn't my fist winter wrap up? Ya, this has basically been the story if my life for the past few years." "STOP FINISHING MY SENTENCES, IT'S WEIRD!" "Weirder than the two of us combined? Because I'm gonna take a wild guess that one of the most frequent and reoccurring names you've been called is weird, same here." "At least YOUR colors are normal for a pony! Look at my wings!" "Yes, as I said before, they are amazing!" "NO THEY AREN'T! I'M A FREAK, AND NOPONY WILL EVER GENUINELY THINK OTHERWISE!" "Wait. Your wings, they shot out my lightning. How did they do that?" "What? Oh ya. Uh, I don't really know." With a halfway hopeful glance at his flank, he was halfway disappointed to see nothing there. "It isn't my special talent, that's for sure." He said bitterly. "Actually," the councillor finally cut in, "that's something I might be able to clear up." I had almost forgotten she was in the room. She was a light brown Pegasus, with a white mane and tail. I couldn't tell if those were her natural colors though, because she seemed to be a bit older than the average mare (if you know what I mean). Nonetheless, I was interested in what she had to say. "As you may already have learned in basic anatomy; pegasi have the ability to control the weather." She said matter-of-factly. Shadow Storm just rolled his eyes and said "Well no duh, Sherlock. What else is new." Despite the rude comment, the councillor continued on as if nothing had been said. "Pegasi, with their weather controlling abilities, have control over more than just clouds, they have control over their contents; more specifically, lightning. I believe that when you were struck with that lightning from his horn, your body thought it was a stray bolt, so then it locked onto the nearest empty cloud and let the charge go." I was surprised that the councillor knew so much about this stuff, even as a Pegasus herself, she's a councillor, not a meteorologist. In any case though, she was making a lot of sense, even Shadow seemed dumbfounded. "Well, it's just a theory, it may have just been a freak accident caused by unicorn magic, and that's something I just can't explain. As you might know Mad Bolt, trying to explain magic to a non unicorn, is like trying to explain color to a blind pony." "Well, this was an interesting and unique experience." I said rather awkwardly. "Ya," said Shadow Storm, "I never thought I'd ever actually learn something in a councilor's office." "Well, I don't want to keep you too long. It seems you both have had quite an experience today, and I hope-" "-that we don't get into any more trouble." Shadow and I said in perfect unison finishing her sentence for her. "Well, okay then..." she said a bit taken aback. "I'll-" "-be contacting our parents." We finished again. "Can we go now?" Okay, this was getting creepy. On our way back to class, I decided to take a shot in the dark. "You wanna be friends?" We both stopped in our tracks a the statement. I had said it, but the words felt strange in my mouth. What happened next though, came as a complete shock. "Huh... I guess so..." was what he said, but what he meant, and later said was, "I mean, we do seem to have a lot in common, and we both have no other friends... it seems I have no other choice." And that's how it all started, that is how I first met my first, and best friend. Kind of strange isn't it? One moment I hate him, the next I invite him to my house, but I guess when life hands you explosive oranges, you make a lemon tree.
Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic Chapter 4: Friendship is Magic It wasn't long before Shadow Storm and I had become "thick as thieves"; a phrase here meaning that we enjoyed hanging out more than just keeping to ourselves in a dark corner. We had grown to trust each other completely, and unquestionably. Life was going pretty good, and the best part is that I hadn't had a single magical outburst since the fight with Shadow Bolt. To make things even better, I had made some new friends. They all had their cutie marks, but I guess they didn't mind hanging out with a blank flank regardless. Incredibly enough, I met them at lunch, seemingly the most social time of the day, who would have guessed. Anyway, things didn't start as roughly as with Shadow Storm, but they still started with a disagreement. It all started one rainy day when I had noticed that there was a pony sitting on the other end of the same empty table as me, and she seemed just as lonely. For you see, on this particular rainy day, Shadow wasn't here; he had to help his parents and all the other pegasi arrange the storm, so I was all alone, just like all those times before. Now, what was really out of place here is that this particular pony was usually accompanied by at least one friend, but usually about 3 on an average day. Fortunately though, today was not average, I didn't know it then, but this was the day that marked the beginning of the greatest years of my life. Now, before I met Shadow, I would be perfectly content to spend time alone, but now I felt an emptiness inside. I could only imagine how this pony was feeling. So I decided to act on the situation at hand. I walked over and sat next to her. She didn't notice me at first, and when she did, she seemed kind of shy about it. She was a pink earth pony with a slightly curly, golden brown mane and tail, as well as chocolate brown eyes. I couldn't quite tell what her cutie mark was; it was some sort of animal. It looked a bit like a timber wolf, except not made out of wood. It was also rainbow colored. In order to break the increasingly thickening awkward tension, I decided to ask the first question that came to mind. "Hey so, what's your cutie mark supposed to be?" I asked her. She seemed to perk up a little bit. "Oh, uh, well, um, it represents my love of animals, as well as my talent in art." She replied in a soft voice. Then she went right back to shying away. I wasn't about to lose this momentum. "What exactly is it?" I asked. "I mean, it looks like a timber wolf without the timber." "Well, that's because it's a regular wolf." She said a little bit less shy. "They're like Diamond Dogs, except they can't talk, they have a lot more fur, and they are actually friendly." She said with a small smile working its way onto her face. She seemed to be about to go on a tangent. "They are my FAVORITE animal! In fact, I have a pet wolf named Moon. She is so cute! She's a snowy wolf, which is my favorite breed of wolves." She said as if she were a little filly explaining how delicious candy is if you combined it with soda. "I also have a pet fox, she is also very adorable!" She said with gusto. "She's unusually small with a giant fluffy tail four times her size." She paused at this and looked around and motioned me to come closer and she whispered in my ear. "Her name is Tai-Tai and-" Just then, a fox of her recent description jumped onto her head from her saddle bags. "Ugh... and that is why I was whispering. Even at the very mention of her name Tai-Tai seems to come out of nowhere and jump on my head." She said with anger slowly subsiding in her voice. "Fortunately for her, I can't stay mad at something so cute." She said cooing at the fox before removing it from her head and squeezing it in a bear hug. "Unfortunately for her, I can't resist hugging the feathers out of something so adorable." The fox struggled, but she finally got free of her master's grip in order to launch herself back into the saddle bag from wince she came. "Oh hey, I almost forgot to tell you my name, how forgetful of me!" She said as she face-hoofed. "I'm Wolf Light, but my friends call me Blondie, that's with an 'ie' at the end, not a 'y'." She said defensively. "Anyway, what's your name?" "Oh, me? Uh, my name is uh, Mad Bolt... I'm not crazy by the way." I said awkwardly. I couldn't help but notice that a few sparks were flying off my horn and flying off in random directions. (That was strange, I wasn't angry, or sad. What could have caused that?) I wondered. "I didn't think you were crazy." Said Wolf light. "In fact, I think Mad Bolt is an awesome name, it suites you." She said happily. It was at this time that my horn started to faintly glow a light blue as tiny sparks flew out and hit Wolf Light. "Oh my Celestia! I'm so sorry!" I blurted out quickly. "I probably should have told you, but I sometimes have random fits of magic, and I can't always control them." I said sadly. "Please don't hate me!" "What? Why would I blame you for something you can't control?" Wolf Light asked. "Plus, what's the big deal anyway? It's just a bit of magical electromagnetic shock." She said plainly. "Wait, so you don't think I'm weird?" I asked, almost in shock. "Well of course you're weird, but that's what's awesome about you. I'm a bit strange myself with my love of my two abnormal pets. Plus, I'm also a bit cray, but in a good way. So I like weird, I think more ponies should be weird, that way, nopony would feel bad about it, and the world would be a lot more fun." She said with a smile. "Huh, I never thought of it that way before... thanks." "What for?" "For accepting me for who I am, instead of shunning me, or expecting I follow some stupid set of behaviors." I said giving off a bit of a smile myself. "Well why would anypony do that?" "Well because apparently, if a pony doesn't fit into certain social norms, they are to be shunned and labeled as a bad pony." I said with anger bubbling up in my voice. I would have started ranting if Wolf Light hadn't kept talking. "Well that just doesn't make sense. Just because somepony doesn't act like you, doesn't mean they're bad, it just means they're different. It's fun to be different, if everypony acted exactly the same, the world would be too boring to live in." She said matter-of-factly. "Well, I just wish the rest of the world thought that way. Maybe then I could be accepted by more than one pony." "Wait, are you telling me you only have one friend?" She asked surprised. "Well, ya." I said a little depressed at what I had just confirmed. "Well, we're friends, aren't we?" I was a little shocked... No, not quite shocked, but more than surprised. It just occurred to me that I had held a meaningful conversation with another pony for a substantial amount of time, and I was enjoying their company. This pony also seemed to enjoy my company as well. Could it really be that easy to make a friend? No, there HAD to be a catch! Or did there? Is it really possible? I had to be sure. "You really want to be my friend?" I asked cautiously. "Well, ya. That is if you want to be my friend. I hope you do, you seem like a really nice pony, and I can also introduce you to all my other friends. Then you can be friends with them, and that means my group of friends will be even bigger, and everypony likes more friends!" She might have kept going if the bell hadn't rung; signaling the end of lunch. "Well, I guess I'll see you later Mad Bolt. I hope my other friends come tomorrow, you are gonna love them, I promise." She said as we stood up to leave. "Well I guess we'll see, but if they're anything like you, I'm sure you're right." I said optimistically. Things were starting to look up for me.
