When the Lightning strikes

A/N Hey everyone, I just wanted to take a second really quick to thank a bunch of people for their help on this, for giving me original characters to use, I really appreciate the help! Here's everyone who contributed, not just to this chapter but the entire story, and their character; Mythic Spell - Mythic Spell, Colt in the Moon - Quicksilver, Flora Spectrum - Feather Note, ThatGirl2147 - The idea for Boulder, and Doctor_N - White wing. Thanks guys, I really appreciate it so much, you've helped out a ton!

Later that day, he brought me to this little camp in the middle of nowhere. We were still in Canterlot, but we were so deep in the back alleys that there was no way anypony would find us there, hay, I could hardly figure out how he knew where he was going. There were a bunch of tents around, made of old newspapers, tape, sticks, one of them made out of comic books, and a few of them had other foals in them, all of which were obviously older than me.

“Well kid, welcome to your new home. I’ll introduce you to everyone when Mythic and Feather get back. Until then, you can stay in my tent, its right over there.” He said, waving his hoof towards one of the few unoccupied ones. “You should get some rest for now. I’ll give you the whole rundown in the morning, but for now just remember this; we’re a family here. We look out for each other, always.” He sighed, looking sad. “Always. Now, I know it’s not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but you’ll get used to it.” he led me over to the tent, and it honestly looked like the most comfortable thing ever compared to where I usually slept.

“T-Thanks mister.” I said. I’ve never really been the best with words, and I was still nervous, and scared, so I wasn’t really sure what else to say. But he just smiled at me and ruffled my mane a little bit.

“You can thank me by calling me Lightning, kid. Speaking of which,” he said, looking kind of embarrassed. “what’s your name? I don’t think I asked earlier.” He was being really quiet, so I guessed that the other kids were sleeping. I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t exactly right either.

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” I tried being quiet and excited at the same time, but that didn’t exactly work. What came out ended up somewhere between a yell and the sound a pot of boiling water makes when it’s really far away. “and someday, I’m gonna be the best flyer in all of Equestria!” He just laughed a little bit as I collapsed on what I’m still guessing was his bed.

“I’m sure you will be Rainbow. Now get some sleep, you’ve got a long day ahead of you kid.” I just yawned at him, exhausted and sore from what’d happened earlier, and soon enough I was out like a light.

When I woke up, it still wasn’t morning, but I heard voices outside of the tent. One of them was really angry, but the other sounded like it was trying to calm the first one down.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” the first one said, “Bringing in another stray, the fuck is wrong with you? We barely get enough to go around as it is, yet you think it’s a good idea to bring in another mouth to feed!?”

“It was either that or leave her to get beat to death by those stuck-up brats, I didn’t have a choice!” the other one said with a huff. “Besides, yeah she may be another mouth to feed, but you know how this works; everypony does something to get some cash, everyone pulls their own weight around here.” I heard a snort, but I’m still not sure who it was from. “Except you. No, you always do your own thing, make your own money, spend it on your own things, you don’t give two shits what happens to the rest of us, so why the hay are you bitching about what I do!?” he was getting pretty angry too, but they were both trying not to be too loud for some reason, I still don’t know why.

“I’m bitching because what you’re doing is stupid!” The first voice was getting even angrier, and was actually starting to yell. “You shouldn’t have even brought in any of them, but I kept quiet, and now your little ‘family’ is getting bigger, and bigger, and if you keep going on like this you’re going to do something so damn stupid that even Princess Celestia will facehoof and ask what the hay you were thinking, and you’re gonna get so fucked over that you won’t even know who the hell you are anymore, and when that happens I’ll be right there to say I told you so!”

“Keep your voice down damn it, you know we can’t be too loud here. Besides, the others are sleeping, and we’ve got a long day coming up, so why don’t you get the hay out of here and go back to your own camp Boulder?” I looked up a little bit and saw Lightning standing there, face-to-face with another colt around his age, maybe older. The other colt, Boulder, was a dark brown earth pony, I think he had a white mane, maybe a couple streaks of purple, I don’t know, but he looked really angry at Lightning.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go back to my little corner of Tartarus, you and your shit stains can stay here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you how this is gonna end Lightning.” He just walked off into the dark after that, and I never saw him again, but the others mentioned him sometimes. Lightning just sat down and sighed, shaking his head, and I fell back asleep.

“Hey kiddo, come on, rise and shine!” I heard Lightning say in the morning. He was laughing like somehow waking me up was the funniest thing he’d ever done. “Got a big day, remember? I’ve gotta introduce you to everyone!” I was still really tired, so I just kinda rolled over and swatted at him a little.

“C’mon, just give me five more minutes, I don’t wanna get up.” I’d barely said it when I was picked up and thrown on his back.

“Nope, sorry Rainbow, but there’s work to do, and not much time to do it in.” He said. I was really awake at that point, having just been given a heart attack. “Now, let’s get down to business.” He turned around, and I saw a really big group of colts and fillies, more than the ones I’d seen the night before, and they all smiled and waved at me.

“Welcome to the family!” said a pegasus who was right in front of me. He looked older than he was, kinda like Lightning did. They all did. He had a really dark blue coat, and his mane and tail were the same color as my coat. “I’m Mythic Spell, it’s nice to see a new face around here!” he was pretty energetic, but his eyes… They just looked so tired.

“Hey, someone my age! Finally!” I looked over to see a white colt, with short orange hair. He was an earth pony, but he looked like the closest to my age so I felt a little less alone. “My name’s Quicksilver! What’s yours?”

“Hold on now kiddo, we don’t want overwhelm to poor filly.” Lightning said, levitating me off of his back and setting me on the ground. “Everyone, this is Rainbow Dash, I picked her up last night. Rainbow, you’ve already met Mythic and Quicksilver,” he said, waving his hoof at them. “Mythic can help you learn to fly, along with White Wing over there,” he said, pointing to a black pegasus colt with a black and white mane that was leaning against the wall, wearing a white vest that I’m still not sure how he kept so clean. “Quicksilver can teach you the tricks of the trade we work around here, just don’t get him started on comic books or he’ll talk your ear off.” He said with a laugh, causing the colt in question to frown a little. “I’m just kidding Quick, don’t take it personally.” He said, laughing even harder as he ruffled Quicksilver’s mane, and they both laughed.

“Anyway, moving on, clinging to my leg at the moment is your fellow flying student, and resident con-artist, Feather Note. Say hello kiddo, come on, she’s not gonna hurt you.” He and I both looked at his back legs to find a small pegasus filly, barely my age, latched onto him. When she noticed me looking at her, she hid her face behind his leg and whimpered a little bit. She had a coat that looked a lot like yours, Twilight, but her mane and tail were this shade of pink that I can’t really describe. It was then that I realized that Lightning was the only one without a cutie mark; Feathers was a music note or, something like that, with wings on it, Mythic’s was some kind of book, I never asked about it, Quick’s was a comic book, White Wing’s was, well, a white wing with its silhouette, and mine, well, that’s obvious.

“Hey Lightning, where’s Boulder at?” Mythic Spell asked. “Isn’t he usually around for this kind of thing?” Lightning sighed again, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Yeah, but you know how he is. He’s probably just busy doing… Whatever it is he does. He’ll be back eventually. Anyway Rainbow, that’s everyone, this is your new family.” He said with a smile. “There are a few rules though, and these are important so listen up.”

“Oh jeez, here he goes again.” Mythic said, I’m pretty sure he was joking.

“Hey, I did it to you guys; it’s only fair that I do it to her.” Lightning said back, not really expressing anything as he knelt down to my level, Feather running off to go do something. “Now, the first rule is nopony goes hungry. We all pull our weight; we all do something to bring in money for food, that’s just how it is. Rule number two, is nopony is left unhappy. Mythic over there is the family’s nut-job comedian, but even he gets down sometimes. You see somepony unhappy, you try to make them happy; we’ll all do the same for you. You understand so far?” he asked.

“Y-Yeah, I think I get it so far.” I said, nodding pretty hard. He just laughed and ruffled my mane again.

“Good, because this last one is the most important. Rule number three; nopony gets left behind. We all look out for each other, no matter what happens, we always stick together. Always.”