Chapter 1
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Cold Bonds

Chapter 1

"Hahaha how's the water, Swirl? Need another dunking? Alright if you say so!"

"No wait, Buc- blrphph!" The pony known as Swirl had his head dunked into the toilet once again, the smell of piss could be smelt among the ponies present.

"Buck, let him go. Now."

The voice of a new pony present made the bully whirl around, thinking he was caught by an adult, he stopped giving Swirl a swirly. But as Buck made eye contact with the new earth pony figure, he relaxed and began laughing to himself. "Oh, it's just you, Band-shit. What do you want?"

Bandit stood by the entrance of the restroom, his face was in a scowl. "Buck, I've told you time and time again to stop messing with Swirl. You and your guys better leave or things will get ugly for you. Remember last time?"

The mention of their last engagement made Buck growl. "That was nothing, you got the drop on me last time. Now I know what to expect", his face lightened up, "Look, me and Swirl are buddies, see? He's having fun! And besides, his name is Swirl, so obviously he loves being swirlied." The mentioned light blue unicorn was dripping soaked from the piss water.

"Buck. Leave." Bandit hardened his scowl at the bully. He wasn't going to leave until Buck and his croonies left the restroom. After a few moments of intensive staring, the bully finally relented. "Alright, Band-shit, I'll leave. But you best watch yourself, you might have an 'accident' coming your way."

"The only accident here is you, Buck. Now run along."

The bully gruffed and with a motion of a hoof, his two partners in crime followed him out of the restroom. Bandit, still in the doorway, moved slightly over to let them out. Buck came right up to his side, staring at Bandit one last time. Buck ended their stare with a smock-like smile, and then walked out.

Bandit let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He could have definitely taken Buck down alone, but the other two goons backing him up would no doubt be a problem. Even though he's an earth pony, three Pegasi would be more than enough to take him down. He's just glad the whoopin' he gave Buck last time was fresh in the bully's mind, else the dumb goon wouldn't have been so scared to realize he outnumbered him. Remembering the pony he was in the bathroom for, Bandit made his way over to the wet unicorn. The smell of piss was prevalent in the room.

"You alright, Swirl? Other than the obvious?" Bandit reached down to pick up his friend's glasses off the ground.

Swirl gave an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, I'm okay, Bandit. Phew, I smell horrible."

Bandit scrunched his nose. "Yeah, you definitely smell. Let's get you to the locker room, you need a shower, dude." Bandit hooved over Swirl's glasses back to him. The two made they're way out of the restroom and made they're way to the locker room. Bandit made sure to escort Swirl so no one would mess with him along the way. Bandit was missing class at the moment because of this, but he didn't care much. His friend was more important than some homework.

Swirl was a very smart pony, for his age anyways. Both the little ponies were in 6th grade right now, though Swirl skipped a grade, so he's younger than Bandit. But because of his intelligence, he doesn't have to go to all his classes like everypony else. Swirl and Bandit both became best friends after Bandit needed help with math homework and Swirl helped him and tutored him. Although they have very different personalities, they get along great and both have the same interests.

After some time walking in the halls in silence, both Bandit and Swirl arrived at the intended destination. "Alright, go ahead and do your thing dude, I'll wait over here." By over here, he meant on the benches outside the shower area. "Yeah, I'll be quick."

"...Take your time." Bandit made a gag sound at the smell of the piss. With that, Swirl went into the showers to get off all the gross piss water off of him. Mean time, Bandit opened his saddlebag up and took out his new Magix Game-Toy.

During the summer of last year, a company called Magix made a gaming system called Magix Game-System, its a new device that let's you play a virtual game. For Bandit's birthday last year, his mother got it for him. Although he was extremely excited and thankful for it, he also felt bad for how much it costs. It is not a cheap item. So, without his mother's knowledge, he worked up enough money (she assumed he was just getting money for other things) to repay her back. But when he tried, his mother told him to keep it for himself. She gave him a present, not something he had to pay back. So with the money he earned, he saved it. Over the year until last week, he earned and saved his money. But last week Magix released the Magix Game-Toy. It's a smaller version of the Game-System, and works very well.

Pulling out the Game-Toy, Bandit began to play one of his games to pass the time. The game was about a mercenary in space who fought off space pirates, evil overlords, and even themselves. It was the new hot game around.

Meanwhile, Swirl began to wash himself off, though he had no soap or anything like it, so he tried his best to be thorough. Standing on his hind legs to reach them better to clean, Swirl leaned too far forward and fell straight on his face. The crashing sound snapped Bandit's focus from his game. "You okay, Swirl? Sounded like that hurt, dude." His friend didn't respond right away, but after a moment he heard Swirl speak up. "Yeah, I'm good, kinda slipped." Bandit shook his head in amusement. Swirl has always been an awkward clumsy colt. Its a wonder how the colt managed to have a fillyfriend despite being so weird.

Finally finishing up, Swirl exited the showers, his entire body soaked. Because he didn't have a towel, Swirl ended up shaking like a dog to get all the water off of him. Hearing his friends hoofsteps, Bandit turned off his Game-Toy and put it back in his saddle bags. "You good, Swirl? I better get to class, teacher isn't going to be happy with me ditching." Swirl put his glasses back on. "Yeah, I'm good. Oh yeah, you probably should head to class. I'll see you at lunch, we still need to go over your practice test. You need to pass math or you're going to be held back." Bandit gave a sigh, "I know, I know. I'll see you at lunch, dude." With that, the two ponies exited the locker room and parted ways.

To achieve the most amount of time possible, Bandit walked as slow as he could back to class, even taking the long way around. He didn't necessarily hate school, or learning. What he hates was how boring everything was. So boring in fact, that he falls asleep in class. A lot. After some time was wasted wandering the halls, Bandit finally reached his science class. Opening the door, he walked in and headed over to his seat. The teacher's lecture halted as she looked at the newcomer in class. Everypony's eyes were trained onto him. "Finally nice to see you in class this time, young stallion. After class we need to have a talk." The other foals in the class let out a series of Oohs, Bandit just rolled his eyes. "Yes, ma'am."

Bandit made his way over to his seat, the desk was in the front row on the end of the classroom. Being up front helped a lot when he did decide to listen. Taking out his notebook and a pencil, he began jotting down the notes on the board so he wasn't totally behind in the lecture. After trying, and failing, to listen to the lecture, Bandit began to tune everything out and got lost in his thoughts.

Bandit was abruptly tossed out of his thoughts when the pony behind began shaking the chair he was in. The unicorn filly behind him would start and stop the shaking of the chair, clearly trying to get his attention. "Ugh, what does she want?" Bandit briefly turned around to see what the filly behind him wanted. The filly's name was Mirror Light. She's a new pony here at Canterlot Elementary. She's a white furred filly with a light purple mane and tail, and very pretty blue eyes. She gave a cute smile and leaned forward in her desk. "So you're the Bandit I've been hearing about?" Bandit was a bit confused about this. Ponies talk about him? "Yeah, I'm Bandit. What do you mean about hearing about me?" She ignored his question and formed one of her own, "So, uhm... I was wondering, uh.. I'm new here and I haven't been given a tour around the place yet. I was wondering if you could show me around." She seemed embarrassed asking him this.

"Sorry, but I'm meeting up with a friend of mine to help me study." Bandit paused for a moment and thought about it. "She's new here and likely doesn't have any friends." He looked at her, her face seeming down and dejected for some odd reason. "...Actually, if you want to join us for lunch, you could. Don't think my buddy will mind much. His fillyfriend will be hanging out with us too." The filly's face lit up and she smiled. "Okay! That sounds good to me."

With that, Bandit turned his attention back forward, to try to listen to the lecture again. Though, because of how monotonous Ms. Shrub talks, he just tuned her out again. After some time, the class ended, all the foals rushed through the door for lunch. Bandit tried his best to sneak out with the other ponies, really not wanting to talk to the teacher. "Bandit, I can see you trying to sneak off. Hey, I know you can hear me, young stallion!" He sighed, no escape from this one. He looked over to the new filly, "If you want to wait for me, I'll try to be fast." She nodded and gave a silent 'okay' before stepping out the door to wait for him. "Yes, ma'am?", he asked as he trotted over to the teacher.

"This is the seventh time you have been either late to class or not even bothered to show up. What could you be possibly doing that's more important than class?" She gave the young colt a look, waiting for an answer. "Or what she calls 'an excuse', ugh".

"I was helping one of my friends out with some stuff. I'm sorry for being late." He wasn't sorry for being late. She sighed in frustration. "Look, if you miss anymore of my classes, I'm going to have to request that you be held back, Bandit. Just come to class, learn something, and just go about your day. You're a good colt, but I have to follow rules just as you do. Don't miss anymore of my classes without permission, you hear me? I'll be talking to your other teachers to make sure you show up. I won't call your parents this time, but anymore incidents and I'll have to tell them what I told you." Bandit gave a wordless nod, "May I go to lunch now, Ma'am?"

She nodded her head, "yes, you can go to lunch". With that he turned and left the classroom. As he walked out, Mirror Light was sitting playing on a Game-Toy in the hallway, obviously waiting for him. "A Game-Toy? She likes video games?" Alright, we can go to the meet up stop now." Mirror put her Game-Toy away in her saddle bag and both Bandit and Mirror walked to meet up with Swirl and his fillyfriend.

"So, what are you studying?", Mirror asked him, trying to start a conversation.

"Math. Swirl is the only reason I'm passing right now, he's a pretty smart pony." He didn't respond with anything else. Bandit wasn't really good with small talk. They continued to walk in silence, until they made it to the gym. Walking in, Bandit spotted Swirl and his fillyfriend, Star Mist, sitting on the benches doing their homework. "Hey dude." Bandit sat beside them. Swirl glanced at the two arriving ponies. "Oh, who's this?" Swirl pointed his head in the direction of Mirror. "That's Mirror Light, she's new here. She wanted to come along. Thought maybe she could hang with Star while we do our thing."

"Sounds cool to me. Alright pull out your practice test so we can begin. You said you got a 78% earlier? That's better than last time, but if you want to pass the real thing, you're going to have to really bunker down and study."

"yeah I know, I have the practice test right here", Bandit pulled out the test from his folder in his saddle bag, "I don't know how I got these wrong, I was honestly sure I got them right."

As the two colts talked about the practice test, the two fillies got acquainted with one another. "Hi, I'm Mirror Light. I really like your saddle bag!"

"Awe, thank you. I'm Star Mist, its nice to meet you! So you're new here?"

"Yep, I used to live in Fillydelphia. My parents moved here for work, they're business ponies."

"Oh, that makes sense. Well, let me be the first to welcome you to Canterlot."

"Thank you, so far it seems to be a pretty nice place to liv-", suddenly a voice rang out in the gym, interrupting both the fillies and colts from what they are doing.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Swirly, his stupid filly friend, Band-shit, and- oh what's this? Never seen you before, pretty filly.

Bandit immediately stood up, a scowl now on his face. "This makes it twice today, what do you want Buck? Another ass-whooping?" The bully just laughed, "remember when I said you might find yourself in an accident? Well, that accident is about to be my hoof in your stupid face."

"Buck, I'm giving you and your little buddies one chance to turn around leave."

"Hmm.. How about, no. Its been a long time coming, you made a mistake crossing me, Band-shit."

With that, the bully walked over to Bandit, ready to pound his face in. Bandit held his ground on the gym benches, "I'm not going to fight you, Buck. Please dude, just go away." The brown Pegasus laughed at Bandit, "What's that? To scared to fight me, coward? Pshh, what was that about becoming a guard? Looks like to me you don't have what it takes. Probably should continue the family business and go whorsing around!"

Bandit glared with anger. "Don't you dare talk about my mother like that, Buck."

"Oh, but I never said anything about your mother, guess that means its true then!" The bully and his goons mocked with laughter. Bandit glared even harder, if it was even possible. "Buck, quit it before you say something you'll regret." The bully stomped his hoof and continued his assault despite the warnings of the earth pony. "Regret what? Saying the truth that your mom is a -"

Bandit jumped down and stomped over to the bully, "Buck, I swear to everything holy, If you continue that sentence, I'm going to knock your teeth out."

The bully just stared at Bandit with a large grin on his face, and after few moments of silence, he spoke up again.

"-Whore."

With a sudden and swift strike, Bandit punched his hoof full force against the bully's face. A whole tooth now missing from its original resting place. The hit caught Buck by surprise, despite the several warnings from the livid earth pony. The bully, fully bleeding from his mouth, was in sudden, overwhelming amounts of pain. The Pegasus began to cry infant tears.

"I told you I would knock your teeth out."

Bandit now sat in the office of the disciplinary action administrator, waiting for his punishment for punching another colt in the face and getting into a fight with two other colts. A tall, grey unicorn stallion sat in his chair writing on piece of paper. This was Mr. Shock, he was in charge of disciplining the students here. Both Mr. Shock and Bandit see each other a lot. Mr. Shock was writing out a slip for Bandit to give to his mother, telling her about everything that transpired today and what disciplinary action he was giving Bandit for his actions. "Alright, you're going to give this to your mother, she's appointed to come tomorrow after school hours to have a meeting with the principle, to decide what to do with you." He gave Bandit the slip and sent him on his way.

Making his way home, he was worried about how his mother will react to all of this. He decided to put on a brave face and tell her everything that happened.

Finally reaching his home after a while of walking, he opened the door to see his mother making dinner. He put down his saddle bags and brought the slip to give to his mother. "Hello, sweetie! How was school today?" His mother asked him in a very happy tone. Without saying anything, he hoofed the slip over to his mother. "What's this Banny?" She looked over it, her once happy face turned into a disappointed frown, then one of frustration. "Bandit, what did I tell you about getting into fights?! I've been over this a million times with you! Not everything needs to be settled with a fight, there are other ways to handle things! I-", she was cut short by a soft mumble. "What did you say Bandit?"

"... I'm sorry"

"Saying sorry isn't going to fix thi-"

"He said bad things about you, mom! I tried to tell him to stop, I tried to not fight, but what he said about you.. it... it made me so mad!" Bandit sat down on his flank and kept his head down. His mother sat down next to him and brought him into a hug. "I know how angry it must have made you feel, Banny, I know. But you have to take control of your anger. Every action has a consequence, honey." She paused, thinking what to say next. "Baby, I know you watch the guards all the time. The have to have a lot of self control to be as good as they are. They have to judge whether or not they need to engage a threat, or direct a peaceful approach. Banny, I love you, and I don't fault you for doing what you did. But understand that you must always have self control, no matter how hard it gets."

"... Okay, I promise I'll have more self control from now on..." She didn't reply, rather, she gave her son a loving hug, and they continued they're night as normal.

As Bandit got ready for bed, he wrapped himself up in his blanket, laid his head down on his pillow and fell asleep, only leaving one thought in mind, like every night.

"Goodnight mom, goodnight dad."

Author's Note

Hey dudes and dudettes, hope you guys like this story so far. I appreciate any constructive criticism. :)