Chapters “Punk! Where the buck are you?!”
Hard Rock was looking around for his brother, soaring through Cloudsdale to in hope of finding his younger brother. He reached the limits of the cloud the flying city stood on, and there was his brother. Punk Rock was sitting at the ledge of the cloud, his large wings folded as he stared at the ground below. Hard Rock flew next to his brother, walking up to him only to be snapped at.
“What are you doing here.”
“Looking for you! Today is our flight test and you weren’t at school at all! Do you REALLY want to fail?!”
“What’s the point!?” Punk spun around, his wings extended in his rage, spread out wide as part of his mane covered half his face. “You’ve always been the strong flyer! I can barely stay off the ground and YOU expect me to fly like you can? Get away.”
The tone was cold. Hard Rock just looked at his brother, letting the words sink in.
“So what do you plan on doing? Just keep looking down at the ground? Your sister s are looking for you also. Could you at least come to watch…?”
Punk snorted and folded his wings again, spitting into the cloud beneath him.
“Why? So I can just feel worse about myself? I always came to you three when I need to learn how to fly, but I had to learn all on my own. I was ALWAYS neglected by you all… But even then I stayed at your sides… Being loyal to you all and still being there when YOU needed me. Whenever I needed one of you, you all just flew off knowing I couldn’t catch up.”
Hard Rock grew silent, taking a few steps back, tears starting to appear in his eyes from his brother’s words.
“I’m going to Ponyville.”
Before Hard Rock could say a thing, Punk jumped off the ledge of the cloud, taking a free fall for the ground. Hard Rock was in shock for a second before jumping off also and flying straight for his brother. Punk unfolded his wings and took flight, more so gliding then actual flying. The air stream let Punk go much faster than ever before, going straight for Ponyville. Hard Rock narrowed in, hoping to catch up with his brother before a rainbow bolt struck him from the sky to the ground. Punk Rock still flew, heading straight for Ponyville.
“AHH!! Who the BUCK hi-!! …”
Hovering above the grounded Hard Rock was the rainbow mane anypony could recognize.
“I did. Fly back to Cloudsdale and let Punk go. You were never there for him anyway.”
Rainbow Dash bolted off back towards Ponyville, Hard Rock stumbling up and rubbing his head, the impact shaking him up a bit. He looked around, being in the middle of the Everfree Forrest. He quickly flew up and looked at the direction of Ponyville, closing his eyes and flying back sorrowfully to Cloudsdale.
***
“Hey sport… How you holding up?”
Rainbow Dash went up to Punk Rock who was curled up on top of Twilight Sparkle’s house. The brown Pegasus turned to Rainbow Dash and closed his eyes, curling up again.
“I feel so betrayed… Like I lost the only friends I ever had…”
Rainbow sat next to Punk and put a wing around him. “Not all your friends. You still have me, Twilight, and Black Veil. You’ll be fine here in Ponyville, I know it.”
“Just leave me be for right now Rainbow…? I need sometime alone…”
“Of course sport. See you later,” she said as she flew up and flew off into the sky. Punk stayed curled up hidden in the tree, having no intentions of leaving for a while.
“Any luck, Pop?”
“None at all… What about you Metal?”
The Pegasus shook her head, having just met up with her sister in front of the testing arena. Hard Rock flew in, his head hung low, tearing slowly sliding down his cheeks. Both rush to his side, asking what sounded like hundreds of question about their brother, only to be responded with a sorrow filled and cold “He ran.”
“He… What?” Pop’s voice grew even more worried as Metal growled a bit.
“Where’d he run?! I’m going after him!”
“No… Metal… He needs some ti-“ Before Hard Rock could finish his sentence, he was tackled to the ground by Metal who was breathing in his face.
“Where did our brother go?!”
Pop started to walk to them to try and break them up before Hard Rock opened his mouth, “Ponyville…”
With that word said, Metal rocketed off through Cloudsdale and to the ledge, looking down at the ground before dive-bombing from the city. She straightened herself to take aim at Ponyville to retrieve her brother. Rainbow Dash came up next to her, keeping a small distance between them.
“Never seen you around here, who’re you?”
Metal bucked Rainbow Dash away, flying even faster to the small town, only to stop in the air and look all around town for any sign of her brother. Rainbow took her from behind and threw her into the ground.
“HEY! I asked you a question and you just buck me?! Who are you?!”
“Heavy Metal,” she responded before kicking Rainbow off her. Rainbow recovered in the air and growled before a familiar orange pony with a big red stallion came between the two pegasai.
“Woah nelly! Rainbow, what exactly is going on here? And who’s your friend?”
“That chick said her name is Heavy Metal, Applejack. She attacked me twice!”
“I have no time for this… I’m finding my brother!” Heavy Metal shouted before taking flight, only to be stopped by Rainbow shouting.
“Punk Rock? YOU’RE his sister? No wonder he wanted to run away…”
Metal glared at Rainbow, flying straight at her before being pulled down and onto the ground a lasso from Applejack. The orange mare held both of Metal’s wings down, the pegasus now not being able to move from Applejack’s strength and weight.
“I swear… I’ll beat all of you if you don’t let me go!! Let me see my brother!!”
“Ah might let ya go if you promise to not come back,”
Rainbow looked a bit confused at Applejack’s remark, Applejack not even knowing what was going on, but that look on AJ’s face showed she could tell Metal would only cause trouble. Rainbow flew down and walked up to the clipped pegasus, staring at her, her red eyes piercing through Metal. Metal only looked at the three ponies around her before admitting defeat.
“…Fine… Let me go… I’ll leave…” Applejack smiled and let go of Metal’s wings, only to be knocked down by a buck from the pegasus pony. Big Mac put his massive hoof on Metal’s back, applying enough pressure to keep her down. He lowered his head to her level and gazed right into her.
“Touch my sister again, and you’ll be dealing with me.”
Metal could feel the massive weight of Big Mac pressed on her back. She nodded defiantly yet sheepishly, not admitting defeat but knowing she had no other choice. Big Mac took his hoof off, just enough to let Metal dart off away from Ponyville and back to Cloudsdale.
“I’ll come back brother… I will…”
“Twi… You don’t have to give me your bed.”
Punk’s head was lowered, now being inside Twilight Sparkle’s tree house as she pulled another bed for herself and placed it across from her bed.
“Listen. You just RAN AWAY from your home, siblings, and have to restart. The least I can do is give you my bed for a night. Now sleep Punk, I’ll be going to sleep soon myself,” Twilight’s voice was stern, like a teacher, but calming. She spoke her mind and truth, which Punk could sense. He nodded and crawled into Twilight’s bed, curling up and closing his eyes, almost passing out immediately. Twilight smiled as she and Spike turned off all the lights and locked up their home.
“You sure it’s a good idea to let him stay here, Twi? I trust him but I don’t trust the ponies that may come because of him…”
“Spike, don’t worry so much. I’m almost certain very little will change because of Ponyville having a new guest,” Twilight jumped and snuggled into her blanket, looking over at Spike who didn’t budge from the stairs. “Silly, go to bed also. Tomorrow is a big day.”
“I guess so… Night Twi.”
“Night Spike; night Punk.”
***
First day in Ponyville for Punk. Waking up early from a nightmare, he looked over at Twilight and Spike who were still sound asleep in their beds. He refused to go back to bed, instead walking lightly to the door and leaving the tree house for a better look outside.
“This is home now. Only place I really belong.”
He walked the streets, absorbing the town more completely now. On his visits, he’s only really been at either Twilight’s tree house or a barn in Sweet Apple Acres (without the Apple family’s permission). Taking in the scenery before everypony was awake, he made his way to Sugarcube Corner, remembering that Twilight told him that Pinkie Pie worked there and some of the best sweets in Equestria were sold there.
“I’ll have to definitely come back at some point and try them.”
He began to make his way back to Twilight’s house, his head dropped low, and thinking of his nightmare and the events of the previous day. The thoughts and images plagued his mind, unsure of what is going to happen. Punk knows that Rainbow and Twilight accepted him enough, and he meet Black Veil on accident, but what about other ponies? How would they take to him?
“I just want to… Be myself…”
Finally making it to his temporary home, he entered the tree house and returned back to bed, falling back into a restless sleep for hours.
