When the Lightning strikes

“I-Is he going to be okay Doc?” Rainbow asked, standing over the sleeping form of her alleged brother.

“Yes, he’s going to recover, don’t you worry. All of our tests indicate that he’s malnourished; he probably hasn’t eaten anything in a while, let alone anything healthy. Keep an eye on his diet for while after he’s discharged, make sure he gets three squares a day with plenty in between, get some meat on him. He should be back to normal in a few days.” The gruff sounding doctor replied without any interest. “And make sure he doesn’t go on any more long train rides, he doesn’t seem to do very well with those.” The sarcasm in his voice was almost dripping from his mouth.

But Rainbow Dash didn’t notice, nor did she notice the doctor trotting off to deal with other patients. All she cared about was that Lightning would be okay, and that everything could go back to being the way it was before.

“We have to talk Rainbow.” Her head swiveled to find her friends standing at the door, Twilight at the head. “About your…. “brother”. I didn’t want to say anything earlier, and I’m sure you’re still upset by what happened at the station, but I think you owe us an explanation.” The lavender unicorn’s voice was mixed between worry, confusion, and a hint of betrayal.

“Y-Yeah… Yeah, I guess you’re right. Where do I even start?” she asked, not sure what to say anymore.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning, and work your way to the last time you saw him?” the soft voice made them all jump a little bit, Fluttershy’s quiet nature making it easy to forget she was there.

“It’s… Kind of a long story. It all started back when I was just a filly. I was the coolest in flight school, until….
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Until my parents died. I came home to find the Cloudsdale police at my house, that yellow tape they use was everywhere, and the outside of the house looked completely trashed, like a tornado’d hit it or something, I don’t know. They wouldn’t tell me what happened, or let me in, so I did the only thing I could think of.

I broke into my own home, running past the police and through the front door, just to…. Just to…. find my parents, laying in p-p-pools of blood….

After that, I ran right back out and took off, trying to get as far away as possible. My wings weren’t fully developed yet though, so I couldn’t go too far at a time, and when I reached Canterlot I was beat. I just couldn’t fly anymore. I ended up staying in a box more than once, and I hated it. I hated everything about that place, but I hated the ponies there more than anything. They always looked down on me, called me an urchin or something like that, and would spit on me whenever they felt like it.

One day, a couple of colts found me, and decided it’d be fun to play “Let’s kick the crap out of the poor little homeless filly”, and started beating on me like their life depended on it…. It went on for what felt like hours, and just when I thought I was about to die, it just… Stopped.

Leave her alone, you miserable little shits!

I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, I was still trying to cover my face, but it was close enough for me to know who was getting yelled at.

Or what, you filthy beggar? I doubt you know enough magic to even lift a quill, blank flank! Did you even go to school?

They all laughed at that, but I risked a peak at what was going on. They were all surrounding him, so I didn’t get a good look, but I thought he was going to get worse than I did. After all, seven against one blank flank is not the best odds in the world. But then something happened…

I said leave her alone ass hat…

He wasn’t yelling anymore, not really. It sounded like he was scared, terrified, but his horn still started glowing this bright blue, I’m still not sure what for.

Oh, so you have learned a trick or two, bravo sir, bravo. Now colts, let’s show him what we can do.

They all jumped on him at once, just pounding on him, using their magic to throw him this way and that way, against the walls, the dumpsters, the ground, before just using their hooves to grind him to a pulp. It was brutal, I couldn’t watch, I just couldn’t. The only pony to try and help me since I showed up, and it was probably going to get him killed, or at least pretty messed up. But I never heard him scream, or yell, or say anything else the whole time.

They just… Beat him down so hard. But when they stopped, he stood back up, looking like something out of a comic book. He was bleeding from everywhere I could see, he was covered in cuts and bruises, one of his legs was… It just didn’t look right, let’s leave it at that.

Is… Is that the best you’ve got? C-Come on, my dad’s dead and he still hits harder than you, pansy.

At that point, I was backing away as slowly as I could, so they wouldn’t notice me, but apparently he was trying to distract them so I get out of there. He didn’t tell me that until later on though.

I’m sorry, what was that? Please sirs, beat me some more? I don’t want my mother to recognize me when I meet her in Tartarus? Well, since you asked so politely, I guess we’ve no choice but to oblige, now do we?

That’s when it happened. They were all closing in around him again for another round, and his horn started to glow again.

What’s this, another trick? I hope it’s better than the last one, all that did was bloody your nose a bit. Let’s be good sports, and watch him fail at the only thing he even could be good for, shall we?

They all laughed and agreed, just standing there while he did whatever it was he was doing. He had his eyes closed, and looked like he was concentrating really hard, just trying to do something, anything. But when he opened his eyes, they were different, they were all glowy and green and magic… -iy.

“That’s not a word Rainbow.”

Shut up, you guys wanted to hear the story, so I’m telling it! Now, where the hay was I… Oh yeah, now I remember.

They all noticed it too, and started backing up a bit, but they didn’t get far. Suddenly these bolts of lightning shoot out of his horn, going everywhere, and he starts screaming like it hurts more than a manticore sting. The other colts ran for the hills, but he kept going after they left, and eventually I guess he just ran out of juice. The lightning stopped, his eyes went back to normal, and he just kinda… Collapsed there on the ground, breathing really heavy. I walked up to him and poked him a couple times, trying to get him up.

H-H-Hey, a-a-a-are you okay?

Y-Yeah, I’m fine kid, no worries. H-H-How about you? They were beating on ya p-p-p-pretty hard back there.

I’m okay I think. I-It doesn't hurt that much anymore.

Good… Good.

He wrapped one of his hooves around my neck and hugged me close, like my parents always did when I was sad.

We gotta look out for each other now, alright? Ponies like us stick together, we’re like a family.

And I’ll never let you be alone again. I promise.