kOuRIGINS

There was darkness, warmth, and a growing noise. Then there was light, somepony in white, and the noise was his own, at first. More noise joined in, though, and he didn’t understand what it meant.

"What’s wrong with his eyes?” a female voice asked, a hint of worry. He would come to find out this was his mother, but he was far too young to know that today.

“Well… I wouldn’t say WRONG, really… He seems to have heterochromia, which just means they’re different colors. It’s a bit unusual, but… it shouldn’t cause him any problems in the long run,” the stallion in white, the doctor who delivered him, offered.

“Yes, the aqua and pink do look rather dashing against his coat…” his mother said, the worry gone.

She was allowed to hold him, and the worry returned. “Doctor?” she called, “His eyes, again… not the color, but… the direction. Directions,” she corrected herself.

The stallion in white leaned in, taking another look at the eyes of the foal. “Could just be a little bit cross… but let’s get him back here in a few weeks, and get a better look at things, just in case. Alright?”

The female was worried still, her heart raced next to the foals head, pounding, pounding, pounding away, but she agreed to come back, and tried to calm herself.

She did, in fact, take him back to the Doctor, though he remembers none of it. It was discovered that he had Strabismus. The doctor did what he could, but any attempts at correction failed.

The next thing he remembered, the colt was walking, his legs shook with every step. He was encouraged to continue, fell to the floor, and encouraged again. When he finally spoke…

“No.” His first word. His parents were dismayed at the lingering sound as it hung in the air.

“Is… is that alright? It just seems so… negative…” his mother questioned with worry.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s his first word, I doubt he has any idea what it means. Isn’t that right, Koukatsu?” his father reassured her, and asked the colt facetiously, though he was a bit disturbed by it as well.

A short time later, they began sending him to school. He watched the other foals, and tried to join in on the things they did. He seemed to enjoy himself, but the colt really knew better. He was already too smart for his own good.

There’s no STRUCTURE, they ignore the RULES to games… These foals are simple, and chaotic… As the thoughts twisted around in his mind, he saw something. Somepony had brought a toy. That’s… the MegAlicorn from the Mighty Morphin’ Pony Rangers?  That’s AWESOME! The hypocrisy of the two trains of thought would not dawn on the colt for many years.

He grabbed the toy from its place, and played with it. The colt made silly robot noises, and ‘pew pew’ sounds for laser beams, attacking a monster that nopony else could see. Another colt made his way over, and decided he wanted to play with the same toy, despite that fact that it was presently in use.

“No,” he told the newcomer, as the colt attempted to take it without a word.

The newcomer scrunched his face, and started yelling. “Give it, give it!” he wailed.

A few moments passed by, and finally, he handed over the toy with a sigh, finding the banshee wails of the other colt more annoying than the toy was fun. He wandered through his days having what fun he could, though the antics of the other colts and fillies did not always amuse him.

In time, they all began to grow and mature in their own ways. It was interesting to watch as the changes occurred, day to day, week to week, watching everypony grow over months at a time, especially at home. His mother and father had announced that he would soon have a sister, and it seemed she was very nearly here.

As time went on, his sister came into existence, and the other colts and fillies of his class were seemingly more disciplined. It was easier for him to find friends among his aging peers, even if it did still require some patience. It came as quite a shock the first time somepony came in with their new cutiemark, almost as shocking as when he'd gone home to find his new sister was there waiting. Once he fully understood how one received it, though, the surprise was gone, and he was simply left with the desire to find his, but no idea how to get it... Though the mystery of pony creation and birth was still out of his reach.

Among his friends, he was still distant. A small number of ponies even started to bully him a bit. Taunting him for his different colored eyes, for the fact that they didn’t look in the same direction. "What does that have to do with anything?" he would respond, "The colors of my eyes doesn’t change the colors I see in the world… and the alignment doesn’t mean much. I’m used to looking in two directions now, so who cares?" But they teased all the same, and a small flame of hatred was kindled in his heart.

It wasn't just the school foals, either. As his sister grew, she seemed to have almost immediate disdain for her brother, causing him to deal with the teasing at home as well. It really didn't help that she got her cutiemark before she was even old enough to go to school, but it made perfect sense when he saw what it was. His parents were always doting on the filly. To put it simply, they thought she had a better chance in the real world than he did, and they showed it. Whether they knew it or not, he did not know, but it was an infuriating realization.

So he moved through his youth, walking on eggshells, simply wanting to be left alone. He would rather be alone than be picked on, and picking a fight with the fools who teased and taunted him simply wasn’t worth the time or energy. Likewise, it was easier to get by at home by keeping to himself. Let them spoil her, he would think to himself, I'll come out strong, struggling, EARNING my place in the world...

A few weeks after the bullying began, he was forced to give up his free time during the weekends, to attend a 'special flight school for Pegasi', though it seemed more like something to get him out from under the rest of the families hooves. He learned quickly, and managed to outpace the rest of the Pegasi in his class. A number of them were impressed, and even tried to befriend him, but he was already shut off from the rest of them, unwilling to risk the teasing and bullying he already had to endure at school and home. Why open up, only to be turned on?

He kept to his studies, and practicing his flying, spending minimal time at home, and what time he did spend there he spent mostly alone. He always placed first at the flight school. Being the fastest flyer in the little school was an excellent way to avoid everypony, after all. When the flight lessons did finally end, he'd managed set a number of records at the flight school.

Once he was back to doing just his regular schooling, everypony moved on, the bullies slowly losing interest in him. His classmates became further developed, their personalities more uniquely defined, more and more of them getting their cutiemarks. As they grew, everypony grew distant, avoiding the quiet pony with the weird eyes.

The few ponies he had made friends with were the last to drift away, and he was lost, adrift at sea. He floated through the rest of the school days, thinking he was fine. It didn’t matter if he had anypony, or what the others called him when he was the only pony in class without a cutiemark. Nor did it matter what they called him when he was the only pony in his age group without one, either. He was his own pony. All his blank flank meant in his own eyes was that, whatever it was meant to be, his destiny was great, and such greatness REFUSED to be found in such a podunk, one horse town like Gilbit.

Still, even his own parents were becoming upset that he didn't have a cutiemark.

"Why can't you just find what you want to do with your life?" his mother would ask.

"You should open up more, spend more time going around town, find what you should be doing for the rest of your life," his father would tell him.

Finally, he graduated from school. It took years, but felt like lifetimes. His once loving parents didn’t go to the graduation event. Their advice had become nagging, and turned to shame in the end. They were ashamed to be the parents of the only blank flank to be graduating, even if he the first in the entire history of the school to do so.

Once he was finally free of that dungeon-like institution, he kept himself busy, doing odd jobs for bits, and saving as many of those bits as he could. He was going to need them to escape the town he’d known all his life, and be free of the wretches that haunted him.

As he toiled and saved his bits, he put up with everything his parents and sister piled on. All the gripes about how embarrassed they were, having a son who had no cutiemark. All the praise for his sister, and her cutiemark, nevermind that it was a cloud raining bits. Nevermind that she was fulfilling her destiny by having everything handed to her, and having everypony spoil her. The once small flame of hatred that burned in his heart had grown, and the raging flame that now filled his chest kept him strong enough, and healthy enough, to keep raking in the bits.

All those other things, those distractions from his work, they didn’t matter. He kept toiling away, the dream of leaving this all behind fast approaching.