He was different. Everypony knew it... He knew it.

The, not- so little for his young age, Pegasus sat with his back towards the other young fillies and colts of his school as they pranced and giggled around the playground. With only a few more minutes left of recess, the aloof colt felt hope that nopony would bother him today.

Ever since that first day, when his deceased foster mother found him... He was different. Ponies who are different are treated different, that's how it worked in his 'home.' Some days the abuse was verbal, some days it was physical, and some days both. Then there was the one who got under his skin like nopony else could.

"Hey!" A familiar voice called out.

A light brown earth pony with a dark brown mane entered his vision.

"How's my favorite fat ass blank flank doing?"

The large Pegasus colt grumbled, "Just cause I'm larger and stronger than you doesn't mean I'm fat Quake..."

And what did the adults do about it?

Quake glowered for a second then his face bore a cruel smirk, "Well I'm an earth pony and you're a Pegasus, last time I checked pegasi were slim and aerodynamic, and you are not." Quake stopped for a moment and saw the colt was being unresponsive. To remedy that, Quake shoved his own face into his victim’s. Despite them being the same age and Quake being an earth pony, the colt towered over his assailant. "You know what that means right?" Quake chuckled, "You're not even a real Pegasus, Brimshit." The colt's eyes snapped wide open. Not only did Quake just make a mockery out of his name, but also broke his very core, his pride as a Pegasus. This was the last straw; he was done with Quake, and slugged him in the eye, the sound of cracking bones barely audible as Quake flew backwards.

Nothing... Why?

They were both escorted to the principal’s office immediately after going to the nurse for Quake. The principle gave them a stern gaze and scolded them, "What in Equestria happened!?" He broke his stern gaze for a moment and looked at Quake's eye. Seeing this as an opportunity, Quake quickly exaggerated his pain and spoke in a dramatic voice, "Well I was just trying to be friendly with Brimstone here, and I guess he got angry for no reason, and instead of asking me nicely to go, he hit me right in the eye!" Brimstone spoke up against Quake, not wanting him to be left unpunished, "That’s not true... He was being cruel..." The principle sighed. "I'm sorry Brimstone, but the other students and teachers saw you two talking, then they said you punched him. I'll decide on your punishment later, both of you go back to class."

Because he was himself, he was very different, strange, unnatural in their eyes, not much was known about him,and the unknown brought fear. Fear brought discriminatory action and irrational thoughts. For Brimstone's superstitious town, fear banded them together against the unknown, against him, even the few rational ponies thought the same way, even if they didn't believe as strongly.

The next day as Brimstone walked onto the school property something charged into his side. He barely moved but it took him by surprise and prevented him from breathing for a few moments. He looked to the side, staring into the glowering eyes of Quake, his face scrunched in pure rage.

Quake's eye was swollen shut and there were thin lines of black and blue branching from his eye socket. "It's school property Brimshit, you can't hurt me..." Even though he had just rammed into Brimstone no physical harm had been done besides for him losing his breath, and there was no proof of that.

"Ya know," Quake started, "I've always wondered where your parents were..." Brimstone flinched as Quake continued "oh, right, I forgot, they left you. Not that I can blame them, I mean just look at you. You're barely a Pegasus, you're way too big, you're teeth are shar--" Quake was interrupted as two well-placed punches connected to his chest and stomach. A crack and snap could be heard and he fell to the ground wheezing and gasping for air. Each breath was painfully forced, his chest and rib cage were obviously shattered leaving shards of bone to stab his lungs and heart each time they expanded.
Before Quake could recover, a forceful hoof was brought down right between his shoulder blades. His scream was loud and painful enough so that teachers came running. As soon as they processed what was happening all the staff were trying to pull Brimstone away with little effect as he kept beating on Quake, even managing to rip chunks of flesh out from Quake's body with his sharp teeth. After a few minutes Brimstone calmed down and saw the bruised, bleeding, and broken Quake in front of him. There was blood gushing from his nose, mouth, ears and even a little from his eyes. He was so distracted that he almost missed the white light coming from his flank. All the school staff backed away and as he looked at his flank his excitement disappeared. His cutie mark... It was a symbol of Tartarus...

Brimstone just stood there frozen from surprise and fear. As he looked at the face of the school staff, there were mixed emotions on each of their faces as they tried to keep the curious colts and fillies from seeing the mangled body of Quake. Fear, surprise, anger, and so many more emotions were flashing across everypony's faces. But Brimstone's attention was turned away as a terrifying thought crossed his mind. What happened to Quake, was he alive? Brimstone looked around quickly his eyes resting on Quake. A wave of unexpected relief washed over him after seeing the colt's body rising and falling slowly. Brimstone then ran away, towards the main town, knowing he had to get food and water before word spread. He dove into his foster parent's home gathering supplies in an old bag. As he turned to leave though, he merely stood looking at the walls uttering final goodbyes until he heard commotion outside. When Brimstone heard it he immediately checked the time.

Not much time had passed, but it was enough to let a crowd of angry ponies gather. He jumped out the door taking the crowd by surprise as he pushed through causing any unicorns to stop their combustion magic.

Brimstone sighed, "Crud..." There was a wall of angry ponies.

A few ponies yelled out, "Kill the demon colt!"

"Send it back to Tartarus where it belongs!"

"Feed the demon to Cerberus!"

"Don't get ahead of yourselves everypony." A sky- blue earth pony walked through the crowd, followed by four more earth ponies. Every pony cleared a path for them as they marched towards Brimstone, his gold eyes glistening and his dark blue mane and tail were swaying in a light breeze.

"I was told that you beat Quake within an inch of his life. Is that true, Brimstone?"

"Yes Mayor Fissure..." Brimstone tried to look away but found himself unable to break away from Fissure's stare.

"Within an inch of his life!" Fissure yelled, his voice radiating authority. "We have a death penalty for murder, not for assault! Brimstone will be jailed until our doctors can determinate if Quake will survive! If he dies then Brimstone dies! So then brimstone, will you come with me, you will not be killed."

"Unless he dies..." Brimstone muttered then glared fiercely, "I will not go..."

"Brimstone, if you do not come I'll let these ponies have their way with you..."

"No!" Brimstone yelled and pushed away from Fissure. He spread his wings. Brimstone had never truly flown before, he'd lifted off the ground and hovered or glided, but never flown. However it seemed that flying was his only choice. He galloped ahead picking up speed and getting ready to launch into the air.

"Capture him alive!" Fissure yelled.

A few yards away from the edge of the sea of ponies Brimstone flapped his powerful wings bent his front legs, lifted his hind legs and smashed them on the ground at the same time that he pushed off with his forelegs, it wasn’t a very fluid motion, he'd have to practice if he lived, and he flew high into the air. Pegasi surrounded him and unicorns shot beams of concentrated magic at him as the storm of pegasi attacked.

Brimstone was bombarded by the ponies and no matter how many he managed to shake off there were more. That is until the unicorns started shooting again. Some magical beams hit the pegasi and others scattered to avoid them. Only two pegasi remained who didn't flee because being afraid of getting hit with one of the non- lethal beems. Brimstone kicked one of them in the throat and the stallion fell to the ground, dead. Brimstone expected to feel sorrow... Maybe even some remorse. But no, all he felt was excitement, anger, and exhilaration and a single thought in his mind. He wanted to do it again, even if it was unintentional. After all it was his life or their's. After biting the other pony's neck and ripping his throat out, the dead pony caught on his bag, breaking it and getting rid of his food.

Another brave Pegasus charged at him, this time ready to kill. Brimstone looked at the pony, a mare this time, with blood dripping off his fangs and out of his mouth. He charged at her quickly and bit around her eye. He swung and lurched until the chunk of flesh that he was holding onto, including the eye, was torn off and sent her plummeting to the ground. Brimstone rushed away with the flesh in his mouth.

After a few days of rough flying Brimstone found a town. He needed to eat something besides that small chunk of flesh that he ate out of desperation. Unfortunately, he forgot about the blood that was staining his coat. He was driven out and had to sneak in at night to steal food. At every other village, even after cleaning himself, his cutie mark made the other ponies become aggressive. Eventually he decided to take a hooded black cloak to cover his face and cutie mark. It was time to start his new life as a wanderer. He would no longer tell ponies his true name. From now on he would go by other names. And even though it would always be his real name, he was no longer Brimstone... He'd give a fake name if somepony asked. But he could not afford to be that pony anymore.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed.