//-------------------------------------------------------// Heartstruck -by Duskfall_Pony- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter One //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter One          "Have a nice evening, class!" Miss Cheerilee called out to all of us fillies and colts leaving the school.     "Thank you!" I chimed as I passed by her, trotting anxiously away from the school.     My name is Rain Shade. I am a small unicorn filly, smaller than most.     I had been told by my mom I had to head home and drop off my school supplies and any homework I had before going to my best friend, Molto Tempest's house.     He was a charcoal black earth pony who had a steel gray mane. his eyes were a brilliant shade of copper.     He followed beside me, chatting about a project he was working on with his dad. Something about the metal works that they ran, in which I understood almost none of.     After our walk, which lasted all of a hour, we arrived at my house. It was a small structure resembling more of a shack than an actual house, but it's all my mom could afford for us. The roof had small leaks in it and some of the hardened clay that made up the outside around the studs and baseboards had cracked. It was intact, but needed repair.     We quietly stepped in, checking to see if ShallowShine, my mom, was asleep. She was. She worked late nights and always came home early in the morning, but stayed up late enough to pack my school bags, comb my mane straight, and send me off to school with loving notions.      She was all anyone could want from a mom. She loved me to pieces and always looked after me, providing the best she could, and I loved her for it.     I crept into my room and emptied my school bags out onto the small table liked to call a desk. Then I carefully packed my drawing supplies into my bag and re-buttoned the flap. I also grabbed my guitar, careful to hang it off my torso in a way it wouldn't hit the ground.     My two favorite hobbies were drawing and guitar, even though I was horrid at the latter.     Using my magic I wrote my mom a note and taped it to the door stating where I was if she had forgotten, and that I loved her extensively.     We left the lot and began trotting our way out to Molto's.     It was well over an hour before we arrived, and we were slightly tired and immensely thirsty. We stepped into his dad's house and he greeted us in the deep rumbling voice he always had.     "Hello again, Shade," he called to me, using the nickname he and my mom had given me. I spent most of my weekends at home, sitting in my room, or out here at Molto's.     "Hello mister Tough Gleam" I called back in my tinny voice.     "How was school Molto?" he asked, moving up and hugging his son.     "It was alright... Kinda boring though" he responded.     "I can't blame ya," he let Molto go from their hug. "Well, You two have fun, I have some important work to do for an important buyer," he told us with a stern glance at Molto before trotting out of the back door and to where they kept their "Smeltery". I didn't know why it was called that. At the time all I thought it did was burn metal out of rocks.     I helped Molto set up the spare blanket in his room on the floor. It wasn't comfortable, but It wasn't unbearable either.     After we sat aimlessly in his room for a few minutes, we went outside, where I layed down, and with the careful strokes of my horn and pencil, began to draw, for the 7th time (I had counted), The beautiful landscape spanning out behind their home, dipped down into a valley.     I felt Molto saunter up and lay beside me his cock hard. He watched as I drew, focusing on my sketchpad, looking up every so often to survey the details of the land.     The sun was beginning to set and the sky was morphing into a near beautifully evil shade of crimson-orange.     "You are amazing at drawing... You know that?" He told me, admiring what I had finished by dusk.     "its... Its really nothing special... Just a hobby..." I tried to correct him, but stuttering at his comment. Nopony had ever complimented my drawing skills like that, other than my mom.     "But thanks anyway..." I smiled.     soon the stars began appearing in the moonlight. We sat and watched the beautiful spheres of Celestia's gleaming fire until it became cold.     Molto helped me up off the ground, and we slowly trotted inside to go to bed.     We made it up the stairs, and I brushed the dirt off of my deep violet coat, then crawled under the blanket on the floor. I could hear Molto snoring softly before I fell asleep myself.     The next morning we both awoke with a start to the banging of hammer-against-metal.     I stumbled downstairs in a sleepy daze with Molto and found my mom sitting at their kitchen table.     "Mom?" I asked, "What are you doing here?"     "I'm sorry Shade, but we have to go. There's somepony who is mad at mommy and wants to hurt her. He has other ponies who will hurt other ponies for him, and we have to go," There was a severe tone of worry in her voice. "I used all our extra bits to hire a couple stallions to haul our belongings in some carriages to where we'll be living for a little while."     "B-but mom?" I stared up into her eyes. "Who would want to hurt you?"     "It's nopony you know or need to know about." she responded apologetically "Now come, I’ve already talked to Molto's dad, we must go." she let me grab my sketchbook and my guitar before she shuttled me out and down the road.     8 years later.     I'd had a horrible day today, mostly from other ponies at school. I am 14, and had already stopped growing, and my body was a size smaller than a normal mare's.     There were insults, teasing, punches, bucks, and so much more thrown towards me today.     Previously I had been a loner, sitting in the corner at lunch, not having many friends, always getting picked on.     But for the past few weeks, it was really bad. I had gotten a date, exactly 19 days ago, with a cute, golden haired pegasus mare named Lightning dust.     She was known to be cocky and commanding, always testing everypony's patience, and pushing herself athletically harder than any of us. And I had given her a chance.     It was late after track practice in the shower rooms, after I had rid myself of sweat and dried off.  She was stuffing her headband and some other items into her locker when I approached her.     I had never had intimate feelings for a mare before, and this wasn't the start of them. I just thought she was exceptionally cute, and decided to be the one nice person in the whole school and give her a chance. I walked up and stuttered the words that gave me my first love, and my first heartbreak.     Earlier today, she approached me with a sorrowful  look in her eyes.     "Hey Dusty, What's up" I asked her, putting a hoof on her shoulder.     She brushed it off and looked into my bright magenta eyes, staring back, her eyes with their usual sun-like glow.     "R-rain Shade..." she bowed her head slightly "I'm... I’m breaking up with you"     My heart shattered, and then he ghost of Celestia came and stomped all over the pieces, then discord put it back together, and slowly sawed through it.     "W-What?.. Why?" I started to sob.     "It... It's not you... It's just... We're not going fast enough..." she explained.     she slowly walked off, leaving me at the wake. I found an empty classroom and laid down in the corner, sobbing, my face in my hooves.     I loved Lightning Dust, she was the first mare I had grown to love... and now she was gone...     Eventually the final bell rang loud and prominent, and I sauntered my way home, leaving tears in the dirt behind me.     My mom was gone when I got home.Today she had days off, and must've gone into town go grab some groceries.     I plodded into my room and closed the door.     Later my mom came home, carrying some paper bags in her magical grasp, and setting them down on the table. I trotted up and threw my hooves around her neck. There was a strange scent coming from her, particularly her back and flanks.     "Mom... What's that smell?" I asked, breathing in the rank spunky odor again.     "I... uh..." she stuttered for a second. "Oh... there's no use hiding it anymore... Shade, I have to tell you something important. But can it wait until I get myself cleaned up?" she asked softly.     "Whatever you need mom" I let her go from the hug.     I went into my room and about the third time I re-tuned my guitar, my mom stepped in quietly and sat down on my bed.     "I... Shade I need to tell you some bad things mom has done in the past... and more recently..." she began to explain, "You know how I told you I work at the bar in town?"     I nodded.     "It's true... but not the whole truth... I could never find a decent job, and i wasn't good at anything relevant so... I was forced to become a prostitute..." she sniffed a bit, I gasped at the word "Prostitute"     "It's an incredibly shameful job... and really dangerous. Remember the night I had come home bleeding and said I just grazed myself on the cupboard door?" she asked me again.     "Y-yes..." I answered sheepishly.     "One of my clients got into trouble and a stallion with a knife chased us. I tripped, and my client was able to stab him before he could do any real damage..." she pushed back a wide strand of her long mane , revealing the scar on her shoulder.     "M-mom..." I was sad for her, not at all enraged. I hugged her tightly, only being able to imagine the struggle.     "It's okay sweetheart..." she held me close and pet my mane softly.     "So... how was your day..." my mom tried to make conversation.     "Horrible... Lightning Dust dumped me..." I confessed.     She let out a small gasp and continued to hold me, my tears beginning to stain her midnight blue coat. "I'm so sorry Rain Shade... I thought you two had something..." One Year Later...     Hello anybody brave enough to read my horrible story, how is your day going? Great!     Anyway, just a little author's note at the end, this is not over, Nowhere close, like maybe 20 chapters from done! This is one of the two intro chapters I'm implementing, jumping from when Rain Shade was a 6 year old filly, into her early twenties. I kinda wrote this in a scheme similar to the intro of Fallout 3 in Vault 101 (you are awesome if you know that reference, if you don't, you're still awesome), but it's a new writing style for me so please give some feedback. I will be writing more, but you probably won't see any more for a while, because I like to write in bunches and then upload all at once, so sorry. Anyway, let's get this crappy author's note  over with and end on a happy note.     -Sean. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Two //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter Two     It was one of my weekends over at Molto's again, and this time, I was busy drawing him working at the small forge his father had built him over the past spring.     My pencil worked with a magical level of detail (probably because I was using my horn) and increased the fidelity of the sketch with every stroke of the paper.     It was a sweltering summer evening, and the sun was painting the sky an evil red. Molto was pulling a hot bar of near-molten steel out of the pit of combusting coals and shaping it with rough hits from his hammer.     The sparks twinkled in the darkening atmosphere and there was a shadow that would soon overwhelm the scape that I was drawing, so I released the paper out from under the pencil, and stuffed both into my saddlebags.      I had a small stereo that I had bought with a years of my saved up allowance playing one of my many DJ Pon3 CDs. I swayed my head to the beat of the high tech music spewing out of the speakers.     A moment later Molto set down his hammer, and came over to lay in the grass beside me. "The sky is beautiful,  isn't it?" He asked.     "It's amazing some of the shades the sun can give the sky..." I stared up at one of the blackened shadowy clouds.     I was in a daze, marveling at the beauty of landscape and skyscape in front of me. My daydreaming was not a sign of being ready for what happened next.     "Rain Shade..." Molto said sheepishly.     "Yeah?" I responded. We both looked at each other for a brief second, me staring into his coppery eyes, and him towards my violet retinas.     "W-will you..." he stuttered. My mind clicked into gear at the first two words of a question I hadn't expected from him. "Will you... Go out with me?" he asked quietly, blushing profusely.     "I- wait...," that registered in my mind for a second. I hadn't gone out with anypony for more than a year... since Lightning Dust... and this was... This was Molto, what in Celestia am I thinking, He's a colt!     "I can't..." I started. I glanced towards him and seen a shocked look on his face. "I'm really sorry Molto... I like mares... not colts."     How hadn't he known? He had been there for me way before Lighting dust, and I talked about it every so often...     "That, and I love you already..." I came out with something I never thought I'd ever say. "I love you like a brother. You're the only friend I've ever had, and you've always been there for me... I just couldn't. You are the one pony I can say anything to and not be judged, and I love you for it... just not... intimately. I'm so sorry..." I explained, pulling him closer into a soft hug. I could feel his damp cheeks from tears, close but not to the point of crying.     "I-it's okay...," he voiced. He sounded heartbroken.     "I'll always be here Molto..." Three years later, Summer of 1242.     Today is my twentieth birthday! I'm so excited. I was almost hopping up and down the walls of the current abode my mom and I were living in.     I was so ecstatic because I was going to a concert! My first concert at that (and probably the only one...). Ever since I was a teenager I had fallen in love with DJ Pon3, better known as Vinyl Scratch. Mostly her music was what drew me in, but she was a very well built mare in my eyes.     She was young when she started her career as  DJ, around sixteen, when I was fourteen. I listened to her music non stop, and sometimes I even tried to cover her music with my guitar. Her dubstep was my haven.     I was going to a DJ Pon3 concert tonight!     it started at around 6:30 PM at the Equestrian Center for Musical Arts concert stadium.     Sadly, I was going alone.      My mom, who recently got a new job as an alloy metallurgist for minor and major metals could only afford my ticket after all of our debts were paid off and we gave payment for our little two-bedroom apartment. She had money left over, but not enough for another ticket, so mom also purchased a backstage pass only available to like 20 ponies! *Squee*     It was a Sunday, and I was enrolled in Manehatten University on a scholarship of arts. I passed school, but not with straight As... more like Bs and Cs. I wasn't great at school, but drawing and music were my mojo. I probably should've been studying this weekend, but I thought I deserved some time off of school for once. It wasn't going anywhere, and neither was I.     I decided I was gonna bring a few if my drawings of Vinyl along with me to get them signed.I had tons of said material to bring, but I chose my three favorite pieces. Vinyl, raving hard at her mixing table, spectacular lights flickering everywhere while everypony thrust one of their fore hooves in the air to the beat, A self portrait of her, and then one of her and her marefriend Octavia, lounging on a blanket at night, watching the stars, as Molto and I did on occasion.     Soon came the time to leave. Just as I was about to step out of the door, my mom stopped me.     "I love you sweetheart." she said, kissing my forehead before she pulled me into a hug.     "Don't talk to strangers, and stay out of back alleys!" she called as I stepped through the door and swung it closed with my magic.     It was a twenty minute trot in normal Manehatten Sunday sidewalk traffic, and the closer I got to the stadium, the more dense the crowd of ponies became.     Finally, after an onslaught of weaving through the bodies of other pedestrians, I reached the ticket booth.     A guard pony took my saddlebags off of me and rummaged through, looking for any weapons or illegal substances, the usual for a concert, or any event really, and then set me on my way, clipping off a third of my ticket.     I only brought my drawings, and a large bottle of water with me in my saddlebags, but it was all I needed.     Soon i was ushered into the main concert hall by extravagant blue signs and red ropes blocking off zones of no entry.     I was seated near the front of the crowd. Did I mention that I love my mom? Because I really do. A lot. Like more than anything.     The hall was huge, and filled with very cushioned seats. Concerts in Equestria weren't to rowdy, but sometimes had their faults, so I could see why they let us use the normal fancy musical recital chairs instead of hard plastic ones, and I was grateful.     I waited for another fifteen minutes or so as more and more ponies shuffled in, taking their seat and conversing between themselves and others. I was just sitting there, giddy and waiting.     Moments after they closed the doors, they dimmed the lights all except for one spotlight trained in a door leading backstage.     A loud voice screamed through the speakers.     "Ladies and Gentlecolts, are you ready for the DJ of Destruction?!" It shouted happily.     The whole audience, including me, screamed back in various versions of yes, or yeah, or some ponies who were just shouting back     "Are you ready for the loudest, baddest, most jaw dropping concert in all of Equestria?!"     "YEAH!!!"     "Then say hello to, DJ PON3!!!!!" it gave one last shout before the alabaster mare burst through the backstage door, and trotted up to the center of the stage, behind her mixing table.     "LETS DROP THIS SHIT" she yelled, flipping a few switches on the table, the records spinning to life, and the beginning of one of her tracks blared through the speakers.     To me, it was almost orgasmic. I jumped and shouted with the rest of the crowd, smiling bigger than I ever had before, feeling the bass vibrate through my body, from the tip of my horn, to the flats of my hooves.     ///***\\     Once the concert was over, it was well past 10 o'clock and the crowd was weening out.     There was only about one of the probably 8 thousand people still in the hall when the last few trebles of the final song died out.     "Thank you Manehatten, Love you all!" she said into the mic at the base of her mixing table.     "I'll be in the back for you special pass holders to sign your... well anything" she trailed off.     "Keep the wubs rolling!" she left us with that and exited off stage.     the last of us shuffled out of the door, manes and brains rustled from the rapturing bass.     Okay, last one of these, I swear (no, I'm lying). This will be the last chapter that has any time skips and it should be going steady from here. There might be minor jumps forward, like a week or two, and maybe some flashbacks, but that has yet to come. Thanks for reading everypony! Feedback is appreciated!     -Sean