Minor Turbulence

Minor Turbulence Part 1: Troubled Past

Chapter 3:  The Plunge

By: Midway Bridge

Man, looking back at flight camp almost everypony was a complete dick then (including myself).  I know for a fact practically everyone grew out of it and straightened out, but Hoops, Dumbbell, and Quarterback proved me wrong; they're still the three little brats that should be beaten something special on a daily basis.

Since I was on the B-Team, I started with basic flight poses, just taking off into the air and the most important part of flying: how to land.  I was good at the first two; the latter was a bit of a trouble spot for me.  I always came in too fast and crash or I'd spiral out if control and crash anyways.  To say that it wasn't fair that we had to do actual work while the A-Team had fun and games would be correct; we were doing the basics and actual flight practices while the A-Team got to play sports and do races.

I know that I couldn't fly very well at the moment and the games aren't easy, but still, the thought that we were less than them was a bit degrading.  Not to mention the fact that a select few members of the A-Team felt the need to mention it every time they passed by us with banters and snickers to which I had colorful responses to.

The work itself was leisurely and slow paced making sure no pegasus was left behind the rest of the class.  With that in mind, coach Windshear decided that it would be best if we had partners for all of the lessons.  Guess who my partner was.  I'll give you a hint; she was one of the only pegasus who actually tries their hardest to be friends with you despite all of the odds.  Not good enough?  How about the fact that her eyes never were level with each other?  That's right, Ditzy Doo was my partner.  Every.  Single.  Time.  It wasn't that I didn't like her, she was great now that I look back at it, it was just I wasn't ready to let somepony get close to me.  If no one is your friend or family, you can never have a reason to feel sad when they abandon you.

Take my parents for example.  I never knew them; hence they weren't close to me.  Am I sad they abandoned me and practically left me to fight if the big bad world on my own?  Hell no!  I'm pissed off more than anything else since I don't have actual faces to be mad at.

Anyways, flight camp had plenty of things to be mad at.  The foals who couldn't get things the tenth time around, the jerks that picked on everypony, the fact that everything came so easily to Rainbow Dash… that was the worst.  She didn't even do it intentionally she never tried; she performed, always putting on a spectacular show to watch.

However, she DID brag about it which tipped me off the deep end.  What she felt was naturally easy, others like me had to practice so hard and fail multiple times before getting it right.  She would just fly in lazy circles over us whistling the same tune over and over again.  It's like she doesn't know the feeling of true hardship.

What made her so special?  What made her life perfect and mine horrible?  I know I wasn't the best friend to anypony, but usually I'm not even given a real chance.  It’s like a relationship with me is just predestined to spontaneously combust into flames.  Not for Rainbow Dash, everyone (with the exception of the jerks) wanted to be her friend and she loved every moment of it.  Heck Celestia knows I somewhat wanted to be her friend, but she never gave me a second glance.  I guess if you start your life flying high you forget that there are those who dwell below wondering why they're stuck there like me.

Rainbow Dash aside, above everything else I loathed with every fiber of my existence the assistant coach Mr. Thunderboom.  Oh boy was this guy was one piece of work.  His short grisly facial hair, dark red coat, his flaming orange mane, and his face perpetually stuck in an angry scowl made his stick out from the crowd.  Not to mention he was only a few inches taller than the rest of us (and we were still growing), so he always felt the need to stand on something whenever addressing us, be it bleachers, chairs, buckets, or once when he stood in somepony's back.  (An additional note that if you should meet him, never mention his height as some unfortunate student learned the hard way.)

One thing you immediately learned about him is that he loves his whistle.  A lot.  He would blow it not only to get the attention of others but also before anytime he said anything.  Sometimes he would whistle to signal some unfortunate soul to fetch him some coffee.  It always was scalding hot and he required them to fly when they retrieved it instead of walking, leading to some nasty incidents with the weaker flyers.  He said it “built good character”.

Turns out the only thing louder than his whistle was his voice.  Oh everpony hated that Celestia damned voice.  When he yelled directly next to your ear it was like covering you head in a cast iron cauldron and someone took a good swing at it with a giant wooden mallet.  Once he actually triggered Wheezer to have an asthma attack just by his voice alone.  That takes skill and honestly in some sick way, I was impressed.

And he yelled often; he has a very, very, short temper.  Rumor has it that he was forced to take anger management but they were forced to give up on him when he basically told them he loved being angry.

Since there were two teams and the head coach had to oversee both, he and Mr. Thunderboom would trade off after lunch break.  While coach Windshear was rather kind and slow teaching he usually had to baby me and the rest of B-Team through the lessons sometimes getting nowhere in an entire day, Mr. Thunderboom was loud aggressive.  Nopony liked his methods, but he yielded results, and fast too.  I can easily say that I learned much more from him than Windshear but I didn’t enjoy any of the sessions with him.

On the first day with Mr. Thunderboom we had the dreaded drop training.  Basically we were positioned on a very high platform and he kicked us off.  Good thing I had already learned how to fall properly.  I fell with grace and style landing surprisingly on all fours.  Fluttershy didn't fair so well she just flailed her legs about before slamming the cloud below.  Since this was a joint team activity, the jerks started a stupid chant to humiliate her further.

"Fluttershy!  Fluttershy!  Fluttershy can hardly fly!"   I joined in eventually jumping into the bandwagon.  It was stupid, but kind of catchy.  I didn't see how much this traumatized her, nor did I know that she cried herself to sleep that night.  If Ditzy hadn't told me I never would have known.  After that I felt horrible.  I was just as bad as the jerks.  No, I was worse Fluttershy was my teammate and I wasn't that good of a flyer either.  I was a hypocrite.

Then there was the way everypony treated Ditzy Doo.  When she talked to them they would cross their eyes and go "derp," hundreds of times.  When a group of them did it, it was worse than annoying.  Yet she never let it show that it bothered her even though I knew she hated it.  She hung out primarily with me, spending all meals and breaks around me.  She considered me as a friend, but I couldn't say the feeling was mutual.

The worst thing about Ditzy was the fact that she always was smiling and happy.  When she messed up, she didn't get mad; she just laughed dusted herself off and tried again.  I couldn't be like that.  I was constantly berating myself for making mistakes easily getting frustrated when it didn't come to me the second or third time.  Sometimes I'd kick things to vent off my steam. I'm still not sure what she saw in me that made her want to be my friend.  We were so different, but I think that's why it sort of worked out.

The first few weeks were easy save for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  We would have these group lessons where both teams were present.  Whenever a B-Team member would screw up somepony on the A-Team was sure to point it out.  Usually the three jerks, but occasionally Rainbow Dash would too.  I didn't expect it to come from her at first since she absolutely hates Hoops, Dumbbell, and Quarterback.  I think she was honestly trying to be helpful, but to me she always seemed to be condescending and patronizing.

I remember after a particularly bad run on the obstacle course where I got a few penalties for hitting the rings on top of getting a really high time the whispers of my nickname started.  Turbulence.  How I despised and welcomed such a stupid name.  It caught on quick too, spreading like wildfire through the ranks of both teams.  I don't know who started it, but soon it didn't matter; everypony used it.  They would say things like "Nice flight pattern Turbulence!" and then mimic my wobbly flight on the ground and then 'crash' like I did.  Sometimes before I start whatever the lesson was, they would announce "fillies and gentlecolts, please remain seated as we might receive some minor turbulence."  It wasn't even that witty, but for some reason they laughed anyway.

Minor turbulence.  That’s all I amounted to at flight camp.  Just a kind of problem you experience when flying.  An inconvenience in their otherwise perfect life.

I don't blame them; my flight was wobbly at best of times and looked like I was spastically flailing about the rest of the time.  I got much better as the days progressed, I even surpassed a few lifelong fliers, but first impressions always last.  No matter what I did how well I flew after that I was the colt who couldn't fly straight, a feat that Ditsy could accomplish.  I became known as the world’s worst flyer.

It wasn't until later that I knew why I had trouble; the air around here seemed so strange to me.  The updrafts and strong winds were foreign concepts to me since I was a land dweller and most of the others actually from Cloudsdale and were used to the sort of thing.

I liked Turbulence in a bittersweet kind of way.  It fit me and my attitude perfectly.  Stormy "Turbulence" Weather.  I made that name for myself, a name that had meaning to me rather than the one I was christened as.  And like hell I made Turbulence for the rest of the class.

Objects would disappear only to be found in possession of others who had no idea how they glt them.  That always provided a good laugh for me since they would usually get in fights.  A firecracker in the bathroom always caused some hectic chaos, and once resulted in a hilarious situation involving, a toaster,  a soup ladle, and a liquid lunch.  Needless to say somepony's day was ruined after that.  Ditsy didn't approve of my pranks, and didn't think they were funny.  But what did she know about having fun?  She never did anything fun to my knowledge.  Honestly she was a bit of a bore at times.

Days and soon weeks flew by.  A few were decent enough but for the most part they were filled with grueling work, disappointment, and sore joints.  I remember the worst day of it all, it was the day of the final test and so far my progress with flying was insufficient in my opinion.   To make up for my lack of skill, I decided to wake up early that morning thinking that I could work the basics while nopony else was looking or judging me by how well or poorly I did.

I took a warm up lap run around the track to get my blood moving.  The day was a bit cooler than the rest.  Too cold to be summer weather.  It was usually colder up here in the clouds than on the surface.  I guess it had something to do with the altitude or something else I should know if I paid attention in class.  The dew from the excess rainwater formed droplets on the surface of the bleachers and rails that bordered the track.  I could see my breath in front of my face.  After completing my lap around the track I decided it was time to fly.

I stretched my large wings and checked to make sure they didn’t have anything stuck to them since once some smart ass decided to hang toilet paper streamers in-between my feathers.  I took off the ground in one powerful flap amounting to a speed that usually took others a few seconds to build up to.  I never had a problem with speed; I was probably the third or fourth fastest one on either team, Rainbow Dash of course being the fastest halving already completing her sonic rainboom and earning her cutie mark.  That was a day to remember certainly many lives were changed that day, mine was.  I knew now what I wanted to amount to.  If I could do a sonic rainboom I was the on the same ground as Rainbow Dash.

I ascended higher till I felt I was a safe distance from anything that was solid or would hurt it I hit it repeatedly.  First I did a simple turn by turning my body while keeping my wings parallel with my body.  Done easily enough if you have sufficient speed to do it.  I pulled to a full stop and hovered bit midair.  Funny enough this was hard for me to do since my powerful wings usually over pushed my weight so I would sort of bob as I floated.  Next I did a loop in the air, a basic stunt flying move that Dash did at every opportunity.  I did dives, turns, loops, until I was bored.  Then I tried coming in for a landing.  I folded my wings and went into a freefall drop until the clouds drew nearer.  I unfurled when I felt was a good time to slow down but I was going faster than I thought.  By the time I realized it was too late I had no choice but to brace for impact.

I smacked he ground with a sickening thud.  Bits of loose clouds flew into the air as did a stream of choice explicative’s.  I could never land correctly coming out of a dive.  I tried again and again, failing in more spectacular fashions as my frustration built.   Landing was my problem and since most of the final test was taken in segments it meant landing was important.  I wasn't aware that I was being watched by prying eyes.

"Hey do you want help?" asked a raspy feminine voice.  I knew immediately it was Rainbow Dash's.  This was the first time she ever spoken to me since the first day.  Obviously her opinion of me changed since then.  No longer was it cynical and judgmental, but like one teammate to another, despite us literally being on two different teams.

"I don't need your help, I've made it this far by myself," I said stubbornly.

"You have natural skill, but you lack control."

"You're the last pony I need to talk about control," I spoke rashly without thinking.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She suddenly got defensive, if not aggressive.  Her wings unfurled and she tried to bulk up her figure even though I stood a good inch or two above her thanks to my lanky legs.

"Nothing really," I said passively trying to avoid conflict.  She was always a bit of a hot head and took offense far too easily.

“You’d had better.”  She relaxed a bit but kept her eyes squinted as if she was trying to figure something out.  “If you ever need help don’t be afraid to ask me.”

“Okay.  Whatever."  I flew off of the ground in a burst of speed leaving Rainbow Dash in the wake.  I looked back to see that she was rushing after me.

"What's your problem?" demanded Rainbow Dash.  She flew in front of me blocking my path.

I barely stopped and almost careened out of control into her.  Luckily, I maintained my balance and prevented a potentially embarrassing moment.

"Honestly, I have many problems," I replied after I steadied myself.  "You wouldn't understand any of them.  Your life is so… perfect."

"Turbulence, really my life is far from perfect."

"That's not even my name."  I could care less what the others called me, but it made me feel better to make her feel bad for not knowing it.  It had the intended effect.  She was acting as if she insulted me.  After all, she was being called Rainbow crash which she hated.  It wasn't even relevant to her; she never crashed once.  Though, Rainbow Crash was kinda more creative than Turbulence I suppose.  It's like everypony had a nickname at summer flight camp.

"Anyways, what are you doing out here?  It's not like you need any extra practice." Aside from flying, if there was anything above sleep that Rainbow Dash loved, I didn't know it.  She was usually late to practice because she 'overslept'.  If she was out this early in the morning there had to be a reason why.

"I wanted to warm up for the big day today.  Final testing is a big deal around Cloudsdale.  Most of the pegasai schools check your flight score, and I want mine to be the highest it can be.  Maybe I'll even get a perfect 100."

I wasn't convinced by her answer.  Rainbow Dash never warmed up to my knowledge, but I kept my trap shut.  There's always a first for everything right?

"What about you?  What do you think you're going to score?"

"Why do you care?" It came off a little more hostile than I wanted it too, but I wanted to get back to practicing.  I didn't bother to wait for an answer.  "I have to fly.  See you later."

"Wait!"

I kept flying.  I didn't stop.  Whatever she was going to say to me was lost in the sound of the rushing air.  I didn't have time to talk.  The testing began at 10:00am and I had no time to spare.

--=====--

10:00 AM

At the start of the final testing we were given a large prepared speech from the judges about why there were there, what schools they represented, and the importance of the whole process.  I honestly fell asleep twice.  And if it weren't for Ditzy I would have caught up on my lost sleep over the last month.  After the 'inspirational speeches' from the judges we were all ushered down to the practice field to let the long trials of the day to begin.

The judges weren’t an interesting mix of pegasai, all of them came off as stuffy, bureaucratic, and condescending; all of the traits that didn’t mean well for those who couldn’t fly well like me.  There wouldn’t be any leeway with these guys.  All of us knew exactly why they were here though.  They were recruiters looking for the young and aspiring who were particularly skilled so they could get them to join their company / team.  I recognized the Cloudsdale postal services insignia on a mare.  Ditsy told me that she wanted to be a mail mare since that’s what her mom did.  I didn’t see the thrill in delivering letters, but, to each their own.

I think everypony was nervous that day, even Rainbow Dash who, how did she word it? She 'played it cool'.  If she didn't futz with something, be it her mane, tail or feathers, every 5 minutes, I wouldn't have noticed.

The first test was a wing power test.  This was more of a formality and actually didn't factor into your final score in anyway, but it usually got the judges attention focused on you if you did well on it.  Unfortunately it also makes the judges have a higher expectation of you, so you had to back it up with a good run in the rest of the events.

The list went alphabetically so since my last name was Weather I had to pretty much go last.  I was gradually getting more anxious as I waited.  The others scored anywhere between 4-7 which was generally the average and what was expected of a pegasus my age.  Rainbow Dash had a stellar 9.6.  Ditsy clocked in around a surprising 5.7.

I had no idea what my wing power was; Coach Windshear didn't let anypony measure with gauges so they couldn't brag or poke fun of others.  I personally would have liked to know beforehand what my wing power was so I could see a margin of improvement, but it was a sort of unspoken expectancy to know your wing power before arriving.

It didn't take long to get to my turn.  I lined on the track and flexed my wings a few times before setting down into the ready position.  I waited with uncharacteristic patients for the wind to die down.  I took a deep breath and exhaled in a puff of warm mist.  It was still cold but the sun was now nearing the middle of the sky.

When ready, I took off with a practiced launch springing into a full speed sprint to the gauge.  I whizzed by the small fan-like contraption.  The breeze created by my passing by spun the fan around.  I slowed down and landed into a canter slowing my momentum.  I waited as one judge read the meter.  He smiled and scribbled a note down.

"10.4."

A wave of excitement washed through the crowd, judges, and coaches alike.  Nopony my age ever has 2 digit Wing power.  There was a mix of dropped jaws and congratulations.    I was just as shocked as them.  I knew I had some power behind my wings but 10.4 was staggering to even reckon.

Rainbow was upset that I basically dethroned her from her position above the class.  And I have to admit, it felt damn good to do so.  I knew I had the judges attention now all I had to do was follow up with something at least subpar.

The next event came the cloud weave, which is basically a few thin clouds that you had to zig-zag through without hitting them in the shortest time possible.  Needless to say, agility wasn't my strong suit.

When it came my turn, I was close to the course record.  The record for the number of clouds hit, that is.  Immediately felt the disappointment in the judges.  They held high hopes for me and I failed to meet them.  The feeling stuck with me and as the day went on, snowballing with each passing event.

I botched the race, the hoop flythrough, and all of the obstacle courses.  I recovered with the events I was good at like the sprint, 100 meter dash, and the long jump. I even surpassed the high score for the long jump with a distance of 26.3 meters.  The long jump was great for me since it was a gallop and once you hit the white line, you spring and flap your wings once then free fall as far as possible.  I didn't have to worry about landing or turning or anything that I had difficulty with.

The last event was the free-style. This was usually angled so a pegasai could display their talents fot what sort of work placement they wanted in the future.  Rainbow obviously showed off acrobatic feats with loops spins and turns.  I watched the judges as she performed, they all smiled and watched commenting to each other probably on how much better she was than the rest of us.  They didn't even write down notes as if they didn't need any more convincing that she was awesome.  They all wanted her to work for them.  When she finished, many congratulated her and asked if she would consider working for them after she finished her schooling and possibly college (which a few offered to pay for).

Others showed off speed and agility, Ditsy simply flew lazy circles in the sky to simply show that she enjoyed flying.  I guess she didn't realize that the class was competing to see who got the best scores, but honestly I didn't care about what she got; most likely I'd never see her again after it.  Which was kinda a shame really, despite all of the randomness and strange conversations, I was beginning to enjoy her company.  Sure she still got on my nerves from time to time, but those times became less frequent as we hung out more.

When the wait was over, and my turn to 'show off' came, I knew right away that I had no hope of getting a good score.  The judges were tired at this point and their eyes drifted off to different places as the last few flyers put on their best effort to impress them.  One of them actually fell asleep and was nudged awake.  I had to do something really special to make a lasting impression on them.

There was no other way.  The only way I could fix this mess was if I could do something downright amazing.  Pulling off a Sonic Rainboom was the only thing I knew would work.

I never asked the universe for anything but if I could do this just this once, I know I would try to be a better friend to everyone.  Even if they are more fortunate than I and I am colored green with envy.

With my mind made up, I flew up higher than before I hoped for the best, and prepared myself for the worst.  Of course the worst did happen, and I wasn't prepared.

I piked down into a deep dive straight towards the earth.  The wind rushed against me.    I beat my wings and held my form firm.  I saw the wind cone starting to form.  I thought I was going to do it, hell I knew I was going to do it.  My vision started to go black from the blood rushing away from my head.  I was going down too steep.  I tried to pull up but I was going to fast to change direction, and I went into a stall.  I started spinning out of control and smacked into the cloud with a bone cracking crunch.

There was a brief moment of silence save for my screams of agony. Nopony said anything, too shocked to utter anything.  The coach was the first to recover; he cleared out the crowd that gathered around the crash zone.

"Mr. Thunderboom calls the paramedics."  He sounded calm but I knew it was his ass on the line, at the moment, if anything bad happened he was legally responsible.

I could hear the others in the distance mumbling to themselves.

"I knew he was going to botch that."

"He tried to do a Sonic Rainboom like Dash."

"What an amateur."

"Did you see that corkscrew?"

"Are you okay?"

"Really Derpy?  He nosedived into a solid cloud.  Or was one of your eyes not watching?"

"It's a miracle he didn't land on his neck."

"Looks like Turbulence has struck out again," said Hoops.  I'm sure if I wasn't in so much pain I think the others would have laughed.   When he didn't get the intended effect on the others he shrunk back into the crowd.

"Get inside everypony," ordered Coach Windshear dismissing the crowd so he could get to me. "How many wings do you see kid?"

My vision was completely blurry and the coach seemed to swirl around and multiply as I looked at him.  "Six?"

"Close enough."

"How did I do?" I coughed a bit.  Who would have thought falling from that height yielded a scratchy throat?

"You took a dive into a construction cloud at a ridiculously fast speed.  Thank Celestia that you're not dead kid."

"I mean score-wise."

Coach Windshear looked at the three judges.  I could barely see them in the corner of my eye, most looked like they were shaking their heads as they scribbled notes down.

"I can't speak for them," he hesitated and I knew it wasn't good, "but I think you did great."

"Good.  At least I finished the course." I knew he was lying, I could see it in his eyes.  I always liked Coach Windshear for being nice when there was no hope.  I closed my eyes happy that the ordeal was over.

--=====--

Luckily for me I only fractured two ribs and had an injured wing so I didn’t even have to go to the hospital.  I didn’t look forward to dinner that day.  The cafeteria was where everypony judged each other on how well they did, who was good, who was bad, who was horrible.  Not to mention the scores were posted on the bulletin board right next to the door.  There was a large crowd gathered around the board so being the impatient jerk I was I shoved my way through receiving an abundance of complaints and a few choice words.

I looked for my name.  Once again the list was alphabetical hence mine was at the bottom but I couldn’t help but look at what some of the others got.  It came to me as no surprise that Rainbow Dash got a 98.  She flew magnificently.  I looked all the way to second from the bottom.

Stormy Weather: 38

“Great,” I said with bemused sarcasm.

Next to my score was a smaller number scribbled in a different ink.

27th

I then realized some smart ass decided to write where everypony sized up to each other.  I was 27 out of 29 (used to be around 30 but Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen for the last week).

"If you want you can have my muffin, it'll make you feel better." She held the unwrapped pastry in front of me.  It smelled of sweet cinnamon and apples.   Somehow she always managed to have a muffin with every meal she had.  Where she got them will always remain a mystery to me, but there were always there.

"I'd rather not."  I never had a muffin before but I imagined that they were quite good, they always smelled nice and put a smile on her face, and this one was no exception.  I didn’t want to feel better today.

"I really think you need it,” she insisted. “It’s always the best if you eat it right away.”

"I don't want your stupid muffin Derpy!" I lashed out loudly.  I angrily flipped my tray letting its contents spill onto the floor.  The entire room had their eyes on me.  You know what I didn’t care one bit.

"I get it your angry now; we'll talk later when you calm down."  Her voice was shaky and fragile.

"Calm?!" I was screaming now my voice dominating the room bouncing off of the walls.  "I am calm!  You can forget later, I don't want to talk to you ever."

"Never?" Her crossed eyes welled up in tears now.

Tears.  I hated it when ponies cried.  But I hated it more when I realized I caused it.

"… I-” I stammered for words.  Any word following I would do.  The word 'sorry' would have been a novel idea to throw in there but for the life of me I couldn't choke it out.  Instead I opt for sprinting for the door and slamming it behind me.  I slump down against it pushing my full body weight against it.  Soon I hear the entire lunchroom slowly return to its usual buzz.

I spare one last look in the room.  Ditzy sat alone her head sunk inside her hooves as her back heaved up in down.  Her apple cinnamon muffin was on the floor rendering it inedible. It must have slipped her grip when I flipped the tray.  I realized that she had nothing to eat besides that ruined large cinnamon apple muffin, and to offer it to me… that meant a lot from her.  So I did the best thing I could for her and for me.  I ran away, or rather flew away.  This is why I never make friends; the only thing that comes from them is losing them followed by years of regrets.

The flight to nowhere was a difficult one.  I had no idea of where to go so I just started with getting away from Cloudsdale Flight Academy.  I didn't care about the storm that was brewing.  My wings were powerful enough to beat against the strong winds, but only just so.  It was a tiresome process.

Thunder rolled in the distance and I was a lone flyer.  First rule of flight camp was never to fly alone at night.  Well screw you flight school!  I was flying alone, at night, with blurry vision.  Ever since I left the academy I was, well… I was, crying.  I hated it when others cried, but there is no word to describe the deep feeling of anger and shame I felt when I cried.

Laugh it up all you want.  Go on.  Jest at the imbecile that was my past self.  I was pathetic then.  Weak.  Thanks to our cultural upbringing and gender roles males who cry aren't accepted by society.  Crying is for the ones who don't have backbones. For those who are cowards.  Colts never cry.  But if I was crying does that make me less of a colt than the rest?  I guess it does.

Why am I telling you this?  You don't want to hear the sad sob story or what sorry excuses for rational thoughts I was thinking.  I was a distressed colt with more issues than I could care to count.

Simple choppy Ideas crossed my confused mind.  Flying.  Alone.  Storm.  Regret.  Home.  That's where I decided to head.  Home.  The orphanage where I was the unnoticed colt in the back row who said nothing.  Unattached to anypony or anything.  Where Mrs. Sunshine was; the only soul in the world who actually cared for me.  Safe from the jerks banters, and the jealousy of Rainbow Dash's perfect life.

The clouds grew thick, the rumblings louder.  I knew that flying in such inclement weather was dangerous.  Why was there even a storm in the first place?  There weren’t any forecasts or orders for one, yet here it was, floating above and around me, raining down upon both my body and spirits.  I felt my mane stand on end.  I was too distracted to notice what was happening, oblivious as to the amount of pain I was about to experience.

The lighting shocked without mercy.  Shooting 10,000 some volts to circuit through my body.  Time seemed to freeze as asphyxiating pain washed over my body.  I knew it lasted less than a second but it felt like minutes, or even hours.  I fell to the ground like a rock, sinking through the rushing air and rain.  My mane smoked on its ends.  I saw the earth rush towards me at a horrifying rate.  I tried to spread my wings to at least break my fall, but they flapped aimlessly at my sides trembling from uncoordinated and electric induced spasms.  My jaw was clamped shut not allowing vocalizing my horror leaving me only to silently scream in my mind.  This was it.  I was going to die.

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Disclaimer: I am not Laruen Faust incognito, and henceforth I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. I make no claim for Hasbro’s characters or world. I am just a humble fan fiction writer, nothing more.  Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in the comments below so I can better myself as a writer and enhance your experience as a reader.