As the small town came into view, I gave a small sigh of defeat. This was my sixth town, and I was hoping it would be my last. My parents had died on my fourth birthday in a storm, relinquishing me to the mercy of the foster care programs. I had finally been adopted at twelve years old, having been through countless homes with very few treating me as more than a means for income. I would be lucky to get more than a peanut butter sandwich for a meal, and even more lucky to get more than one meal a day. I would spend most of my time digging through trash, hoping to find something to help sustain me, and I can honestly say that if I hadn’t I would have died. But I would rather live in any of those foster homes than the one that adopted me. I would get a loaf of bread to eat each month, the stallion of the house was extremely abusive and very good at hiding it, I might add, and his marefriend was a hopeless drunk. There would be fights every night between the couple, and I’m pretty sure that the friends of my ‘father’ would bring home some poor mare at least once a month to rape.
Picture perfect family, right?
Well, my fifteenth birthday I finally decided that I had had enough, and so I ran off in the middle of the night during one of the couple’s drunken brawls. I had been their only source of income, though, and I may or may not have taken 200 bits to help me get started on my new life. So naturally, ‘dad’ sent a group of thugs to catch me and bring me back. My wings hadn’t gotten much use in my years as a foster child, so while I was still able to fly, I was rusty and unable to outfly even the slowest of pegasi. This ended up getting me chased down by some faster earth ponies, but luckily they were junkies and too high to give me much of a chase. I hurried onto a train and headed to the nearest town.
This leads me to my problem. Even though it had been almost a year and a half since I had run off, they were still looking for me, and the law wouldn't protect me until I was eighteen, seeing as they are technically my parents. The first town I only had about a month there, where I got a job and made some money, before one of "dad’s" lackey’s found me. He tried to capture me to take me back, but I was able to escape to the next town. I was there for two months before it happened again. Two weeks in the third. The fourth broke the record with me being there for thirteen months, the fifth being only two weeks again.
You would think that after all that time they wouldn’t be able to recognize me, right? Well, not quite. I haven’t really seen many more colts out there with pink highlights in their mane. I wish I could say that it was dye or some sort of fashion craze, but nope, it just had to be naturally pink. It was something that I got teased on for a lot. I mean, a stallion with pink in his mane? Not exactly a very manly thing. At least I like pink. Not my favorite color though, that's purple.
Other than my mane I looked pretty generic, at least that's what I thought. I've been called handsome a few times, but I'm pretty sure they were just trying to make me feel better. Blue fur, green eyes, normal height. Well, I guess my eyes were a bit weird in that they changed color, but there is no way I'm going to complain about that, it's something that I inherited from my parents and honestly only helps to hide me. My eyes tend to like to stick around green, but sometimes they will turn a bright or dull blue, sometimes even gray, and anywhere in between. I had gained quite a bit of muscle since I ran off, seeing as I was finally getting the correct amount of calories to keep my body in shape. It also helped that I tended to exercise much harder than most ponies would.
I was brought out of my musings by the small white pegasus filly cuddling with me. I smiled at the fond memories I had shared with her, and though the circumstances I had met her under weren't the greatest, it was definitely the best day of my life. I had been running from "dad's" thugs when I quickly slipped away into a small space between two buildings. They ran past, clueless of where I was hiding. That's when I heard it. A sound was coming from behind me, and as I turned around to inspect the cause of the noise, I saw a small pegasus filly barely eight years old, whimpering and cowering in the corner, looking as if she hadn't eaten in days, and so I pulled an apple out of my saddle bags and rolled it over to her.
"What's your name, little one? What are you doing out here?"
She made short work of the apple, making timber wolves look tame by comparison with how quickly and violently she devoured the apple.
"I'm Pure Bliss," she answered, sniffling and looking at the ground sadly, "but I obviously didn't live up to the name, or I would still be with my parents. I'm a bad pony. I stole some of mommies needles, I didn't want her to stab herself with them because she always gets really angry when she does."
I put a hoof under her chin and made her look into my eyes, anger obvious in my features, my hoof trembling with rage. "You are not a bad pony. You cared for your mother and didn't want her to get angry or hurt. She is the one that is bad. She kicked you out because you tried helping her? Then she doesn't deserve you. How would you like to come with me? I have some money and I can care for you, you wont miss another meal. And I promise your mom will never hurt you again."
And just like that her sad features became excited, and she looked at me with hope in her eyes, something that hadn't been there earlier. "You would do that for me?" At my nod she squealed and hugged my leg with strength that betrayed her small size. Not a moment has gone by that I haven't been happy that I had offered to take her in, nearly eleven months ago. We had gained a bond that day that can never be broken, the bond of families. She became my little sister that I never had, and I cared for her since, even schooling her. She was at a level in math alone that would confuse a senior in high school, and math was her worst subject. It was amazing just how intelligent a young filly could be.
I looked out the window again to see that the train was stopping. I nuzzled her cheek and whispered in her ear, "Bliss, we're here." She gave a cute yawn and looked at me with a grin before turning her attention at the little farming town before us, looking peaceful and beautiful in the morning air.
I put my saddlebags on and Bliss hopped on my back, digging her face into my mane, eliciting a chuckle from me at her cuteness. I started trotting into Ponyville, going down the main road and almost immediately running into a very energetic pink mare. As she saw us her eyes bulged and she disappeared. A little confused about what just happened, I shrugged and kept walking before she appeared out of nowhere in front of me with a huge smile plastered on her face.
"SWEET MOTHER OF CELESTIA!" I jumped up, wings flaring in the fight or fight response, disturbing the filly on my back and causing her to fall off me. "How-" before the question was able to come up though, I was cut off by her talking a mile a minute, and usually you would mean that figuratively, but this mare somehow made it litteral.
"You're a new pony! I know because I haven't seen you before my names pinkie pie what's yours? Oo, wait let me guess your name is Flash and the fillies name is Pure Bliss and you're moving to ponyville and looking for a job right now wanna be friends I'm everypony's friend and we should be friends because you have pink in your mane and I have pink in my mane!"
I just sat there stunned, confused as to how she knew all that without me telling her anything. She smiled wider and came in closer until our noses were practically touching. Uncomfortable with my current position I decided that it would be best to just say yes to her question and be on my way. "Umm... Yeah, sure, we can be friends."
"Yaaay!"
I found myself staring at a slowly fading vapor form of Pinkie Pie.
"Well, that was... interesting."
"More like weird! No, it was beyond weird! It was just plain RANDOM!" As soon as the last word left her mouth we were on the ground with uncontrolled laughter, earning us a few stares from ponies walking on the streets.
"Welp, we should probably keep looking." As I got up I noticed a note in between my front hooves.
Silly me! I forgot to tell you, you should join the weather team! From what Rainbow tells me it's easy and has good pay, and it gives her lots of time to practice her routines! And be at sugarcube corner at noon, I have a surprise for you! Sugarcube Corner is the big gingerbread-looking building, by the way. Impossible to miss!
-Pinkie Pie
I looked around for a clock and noted that it was ten-to-noon.
"We should probably start looking for Sugarcube Corner, Bliss."
"Hay yeah we should! I want to see what this surprise is!" I chuckled at her enthusiasm as we took to the air and looked around for the gingerbread building that was described. I had started practicing and honing my flying skills since I ran away. I remember the day that I finally got my cutie mark like it was yesterday. I knew that I enjoyed flying and was good at it, but a few weeks after I took Bliss in we started flying together. One day she saw me practicing and after a few hours I had noticed her sitting on a cloud watching me, amazed. I flew over to her with a huge blush on my face and asked her what she was doing. She just stared at me amazed for a few uncomfortable minutes before she finally came to. She started jumping and yelling about how awesome that was and how I was the best and fastest flier she had ever seen. That was when I realized that flying was my special talent, and my cutie mark appeared just moments later, a blue wing crossed with a pink bolt of lightning.
I spotted the building after a few seconds. I tapped Bliss on the shoulder and pointed to the building. She smiled and nodded to me before flying in that direction. As we touched down, the first thing I noticed is there were no lights on. I also noticed that nopony was to be seen inside the building or on the streets in sight. Bliss and I cautiously started walking to the store. I put my hoof on the handle and saw that it was unlocked. With a light push I walked in and looked around the dark building a bit. Bliss found the light switch and flipped it on.
“SURPRISE!”
“PURPLE!”
“...What?”
I looked around the room and saw it packed with ponies. With a blush I lowered myself from the rafters. I opened my mouth to see what this was, but before I could Pinkie answered all my questions as though she could read my mind... well except for how she could read my mind.
“This is your welcome to ponyville party! I even got to throw a double one because both you AND your sister are here! Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah. You know you didn’t have to do this, right?”
“Yes I did silly filly! It’s in the town laws! Now LETS PARTY!”
Pinkie grabbed my hoof and pulled me over to a table with five other mares and a dragon.
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I run the library and study magic.”
“And I’m Spike, her number one dragon assistant!”
"Nice to meet you Twilight, Spike." I mentally took note that both Spike and Twilight were purple. Why? Because its frigging PURPLE.
"My name is Rarity, and might I say that you and your sister have amazing manes! You simply MUST stop by the boutique some time!" Purple mane. Purple.
"Ah'm Applejack. Ah work over at Sweet Apple Acres, yah wont find sweeter apples anywhere in equestria!"
"Well my sis and I had better make sure to buy some then!" No purple. Want purple.
"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all equestria, performer of the famous sonic rainboom, and future wonderbolt!" rainbows have violet in them. Violet is purple. Yay.
I noticed that the yellow mare in the middle hadn't spoken yet and seemed to be hiding behind her mane. "What's your name?"
"She's Fluttershy. She's a little... well, shy." Said Rarity.
"Oh, okay. I'm Flash, me and my sister are moving here from Manehattan. Nice to meet you all. And Rainbow, Pinkie tells me that I should try to get a weather team, and that you're the mare for that."
"Yeah, sure thing. I'll just need to test your sky clearing skills and give you some paperwork. Nothing too hard. Be sure to be here at noon tomorrow, the sooner we get this over with the better, I hate paperwork." I nodded my head and stared at Twilight for a bit. Purple.
The rest of the party went fairly easy, and I've got to say, Pinkie knows how to throw a party. I ended up meeting most of the ponies in town, but mainly just hanging out with the girls, as they were good company and had purple in their numbers. I love purple. After the party my sister and I found a nearby inn and rented a room for a week. The beds were comfortable and the prices were fair. We slept that night cuddled up on the bed, wondering what the next day would bring. I hoped this town didn't have any of "dad's" thugs in it, or anypony connected to him.
~~~~~
"Alright, let's get started. First show me how to make a cloud." With a nod I flew up a ways and felt the moisture in the air. I flew around collecting it and soon a fluffy white cloud started forming. "Not bad. Now turn it into a thunder cloud."
I stuck my hoof into the cloud and used my pegasus magic to create some static within the cloud. After a few second the cloud started darkening signifying that it was indeed now a storm cloud. Dash came and prodded it for a bit to check how well-built it was.
"Not bad. You sure you didn't have a job as a weather pony before? This cloud is almost as good as mine, and it isn't overly charged, which is a hard thing to do except for some of the most experienced weather ponies."
"Yeah, I'm sure, I just used to read books on the subject a lot. I'm not particularly one for studying, but for subjects like this where I learn some things I can do myself? It's more interesting then you would think."
"Egghead." Dash snorted. "You passed, by the way."
"Sweet. And yeah, alright, I can be a little bit of an egghead sometimes. So, what do you want to do now?"
"Hmm... I'l race you to Sweet Apple Acres. It's over there, first to that hill wins. Readysetgo!"
A little surprised I quickly recovered and shot after her rainbow trail, catching up with her with little difficulty. She looked at me a little shocked, not expecting that I would catch up to her. I smirked and flew a bit faster, gaining a few meters. She recovered and put on some more speed, passing me. I started pouring some more strength into my wings, going faster and faster until I finally caught up with Dash. We reached the hill all too soon, her winning by about a meter.
"That was the best race I've had in a while," she said, grinning while she tried to catch her breath. "By the way, how did you do that with your etherealization? I figured yours would be green and pink, not pink and purple."
"Oh, it's a trick I learned a while back. It's what the wonderbolts do to change their individual trails, albeit their suits are enchanted to enhance it quite a bit. It's a little hard to do at first, but after a while it becomes as natural as flying itself. It involves some shifting in our pegasus magic, but other than that I dont really know how to explain it, you would probably need to find the book I did to get a good idea of how to do it."
"Pfft, like I'm going to read a book to do something as useless as change my already amazing trail. And why did you choose purple?"
"Well it's easier to decide on a color and stick with it rather than change it. It's difficult to explain, but imagine it like a cupcake. You put green food coloring in it as you bake it, so it's green now, right? Well imagine doing that, but now you want to change the color, so you put purple frosting on it. Of course it's not completely covered, but it's enough that unless you take the wrapper off, in this case the pink, you can only see the purple on the cupcake. Now imagine trying to put, say, yellow frosting on that purple frosting. All you end up getting is some weird color and an ugly, destroyed cupcake. It's possible to change it, but it's harder. And I put purple frosting on the cupcake because it's purple and I love purple, I mean come on, it's PURPLE!"
Dash chuckled a bit. "Is that why you were staring at Twilight hungrily for the entire party yesterday?"
I blushed as I realized how that must have looked to any bystander. "Yeah. No pony was supposed to see that... Oops." Dash, unable to hold in her laughing anymore, fell down and literally rolled on the floor laughing. Or, well, grass in this case.
"Oh man, looks like somepony has a crush on Twilight! I thought this day would never come! This is priceless!"
I felt my cheeks getting even warmer as my blush went from pink to crimson. "I do not! Oh, this is hopeless." I rolled my eyes and took off, flying back to ponyville and away from the rainbow maned pegasus. All in all, the place looked much more pleasant than the others I had been to, and the out-of-the-way location made it less likely that my father would think of coming here. Then my thoughts drifted to purple, the most wonderful color in the history of ever.
Author's Note
Ponycode for Flash in pony creator v3 is WW0GG0a07AyVgVO8SX9FAun183700260AcT/t//08Vp/C/t//21
Yeah, I put that in there mostly for me.
Here's a picture of Flash, by the way!
Yeah, so I'm bad about writing. This is probably the first time I've been able to finish a chapter; I will get started, do good, then one day I wont work on it and it's hard to pick it up again, even when I want to, so I'm counting on you guys here: give me a reason to stop being lazy and work on this! I've got plans to make this story great, and I think that I can pull them off, in fact I'm already thinking of a sequel and I've just finished the first chapter! And sorry if his personality is confusing or spontaneous, I ended up kinda writing my personality into him, and no matter how much I try simplifying it people always have trouble getting a grip on how my mind works. Let's just suffice to say I will be writing in probably the most serious mood I've ever been in and half a second later be more hyper and insane than Pinkie Pie. My mind confuses even me.
Also, if you liked the story, then like it. If you saw an obvious problem, point it out. If there's something that interrupts the flow of the story, for heavens sake, just TELL ME! lol. Like that, I was completely serious and now I'm attempting to be funny. Why do you hate me, world? But yeah, I've been told that I'm eccelent at writing if I can just get through with it to the end, which I plan to, and I plan on this being an epic story. May mess around with the tags and stuff, maybe add a character on it here or there, etc. Anyway, thanks for reading!
-Shame
