Being Brave Part I

"I didn't really have what you say a happy childhood. I was born into a family that didn't want me. My mother and father were extremely violent towards me as well as each other. In fact they hated me."

"Didn't you have any relatives?" asked Applebloom.

"No. They were all dead from either an accident or illness. Me and my parents were really the last of our kind and my only living relative would not speak to me.

The patience my parents had with me was like a ticking time bomb. I seemed to always get blamed for everything, sometimes I'd be just sitting there doing nothing and get punished for it. Whenever I started crying one of them would slap me across the face telling me to shut up and sit down. I remember asking them why they hated me so much, and my father responded by punching me in the face and telling me to go to my room, reminding me of how much of a failure I was going to be. My mom even told me if they killed me now, no one would mind. One day, at the age of 10, we were at the airport, and they noticed there was a flight heading for a warm beach in Miami. So, they...just...abandoned me at the souvenir shop. I've never seen them since. "

Everypony dropped their jaws in shock and disbelief.

"They... abandoned you?" asked Applejack.

Cory nodded in shame.

"With nowhere to go, I was taken straight to the orphanage. I waited everyday for just somebody to pick up and welcome me to their new family. But they never came. My careless bunk mate said that people only want to adopt babies and that I was to be there until my 18th birthday. But just when I thought it couldn't get worse a group of orphaned bullies shared the same room with me, where each night they would taunt me, force me to ground and beat me up. I always looked outside, watching and waiting for someone to take me away from it all, wondering if the next car that passed by was the one for me."

"Didn't you have any friends to help you?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yes, I did. Some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. Their names were: Joanna, who owned a farm, Camden, who was a fashion expert, Tony, who belonged to a family of clowns, Rachel, who was a pro athlete, and Katie, who loved the environment as much as she loved us. Come to think of it, they were much like you guys. We all met one day at school when I was eleven and a half years old. Though we had different tastes, we all shared one thing in common: we were all social outcasts. Each one of us was teased or ridiculed in some form or way. Joanna was bullied for her farm life, Camden for being gay, Tony for being an accidental troublemaker, Rachel for her broken up and abusive household, and Katie for her love for animals. We did everything together. We played games, formed our secret club, ate lunch together, even exposed our talents together. I was even able to find my own. You all might probably know what it is. My friends always used to help me find stuff in the town junkyard and assort them into a masterpiece, though we had to immediately take it down for fear of getting caught. They we're so generous and so open hearted that they even let me stay at their homes instead of the orphanage. I would alternate between houses every week, but I didn't really care. Each house was a welcoming place where I could belong. "

"But the worst was yet to come. You see, when we entered 8th grade, we started attending this Middle/High School that was ruled by very fierce and unforgiving principal named Stiffson. It was a no nonsense academy where fun was strictly outlawed. There were no arts, no theater, no music, not even after school activities. There was also no talking, humming, or wandering off, and if you disobeyed any rules, you would either serve a grueling detention, or be immediately expelled. I always seemed to get it the worst out of all the students. I would get blamed for almost everything. It was probably because I sucked at reading writing and math. The teachers, who were equally vicious, would always scream at me for getting a problem wrong, and whip me on the back with a switch for failing on an assignment, something I became far too familiar with."

Cory then turned his back towards them and lifted his shirt up to reveal lash marks all over his back. Everypony gasped in horror.

"So that's why you leaned to the edge when we were givin you a wash." said Applejack solemnly.

"All the teachers, principal included, had firmly pressed clothing, polished shoes and trimmed haircuts. But the part I remembered most about them was they all had green eyes with either a red dot or a turquoise diamond for a pupil, and whenever they got mad, I would swear a purple mist came out of their sockets."

Red Dots, Purple mist. Just like Sombra thought Twilight.

"My friends and I tried so hard to impress them by being better at these basic skills that most people had. But whenever we tried to find help, we'd get scoffed at and told to get over it. We weren't allowed to talk about our problems at this school no matter what the circumstances were, because to them, it was a sign of being sorry for ourselves and that we were acting like babies. We weren't even allowed to cry or shed or tear, at the risk of getting slapped in the face for it. I would crack under the pressure of writing an essay, or worse, solving a simple math problem. Though I tried my best to be good at math and english, I still sucked at it. I couldn't even solve a single equation right or even write an essay without dozens of grammar, spelling and punctuation problems."

"Another thing that I was terrible at was physical education. I was always the last person to be picked on a team, I could barely throw a ball a few feet, I couldn't even do a few monotonous exercises without passing out. The classmates as well as the coach would tease me and scream at me for this and they would always chant: 'LOSER LOSER, CORY IS A LOSER.' They would even force me to call me a loser. It was even worse in the locker room where a bunch of older bullies would slam me against the wall, pull my pants down, and....." He gulped heavily "Stick their privates into my privates. Whenever I tried to tell this to the teacher, they just brushed me off and told me to man up and stop being a pussy. Even the nurse was unsympathetic, who would just give me painkillers and go back to her business."

"But the worst part about them was they firmly believed friendship was a waste of time and interference with etiquette."

"What?!!!" Everypony asked in unison.

"Friendship a waste of time?!!" asked a stunned Pinkie Pie

"Interference with etiquette?" asked Rarity. "That is the most absurd thing I've ever heard, and I am an etiquette dictionary."

"I'll never forget the day the principal took my friends away from me. The day that started the loneliest year of my life. My friends and I were playing a few instruments on the school grounds to protest the banning of music. A hall monitor caught all but me and they were dragged to the principals office. I still wonder why they didn't run with me. Maybe it was to save my skin. Later that day, the whole school marched in single file and in almost perfect unison to the auditorium. The principal then ordered my five friends onto the stage as he grabbed the mic. 'I want all of you to take a good look at these five imbeciles on the risers behind me!' he said with a booming voice 'These idiots have committed an act that has disrupted this school and intimidated you. They have failed to realize that music, along with arts, and theater is one of the key habits to drugs, alcohol, and death. They have wasted the school space, and poisoned these walls with the clambering nuisance of friendship. There is no detention this time for these hopeless causes. This is the end. You are all expelled. You are dismissed. You are out of here forever. Goodbye, and good riddance.' I immediately rose from my chair and ran up to the stage, begging him to reconsider. My friends ran up to me for a big hug, just before the hall monitors threw us apart shoved me away from them, dragging me down out of the hallway and into detention. It was the last time I ever saw my friends."

"After that, I endured perhaps the worst year anyone could endure. I suffered every kind of abuse imaginable,physical, verbal and spiritual from both my peers and teachers. I headed back to that dreary orphanage where I was the only resident. The owners were too busy signing papers and filling out statements to even know that I was there. Almost everything was gone and lost for me, including hope.

"One night, after the usual beating, I took a bed sheet, turned it into a rope and decided to end it all. But just as I was about to hang myself, I noticed a strange light coming from outside the window. It was off in the distance as I walked towards the sill. At first it was hard to make out what it was. But as I looked closer with a keen eye, it looked like a star surrounded by five smaller ones. Then all the sudden, it transformed into a rainbow cyclone of all the colors of the world. It all seemed to be coming from the direction of a high school named Canterlot High."

Star with five smaller ones, Rainbow cyclone, Canterlot High Thought Twilight.

"Then, it exploded into a blinding light all across the sky, filling with it with a wondrous display of every hue imaginable. And just as fast as it appeared, it vanished. I don't know why, but for some reason that unexplained phenomena gave me a sense of hope. So I came up with an ultimatum. I would give this life one more chance. If I could go through one whole school day without being so much as scoffed or yelled at, I would stay. But if it turned out to be like all the other days I would pack my things and leave, never to return, and hoping to seek out friends somewhere else."

"Apparently, it didn't go as planned. I was still healing from all those bruises and cuts I got from those bullies from the other night, and all my clothes were torn up and ruined. The principal found me in this pathetic state and grabbed me by the arm, dragging me towards his office. He dug his fingers so hard into my skin that he tore a big, bloody gash. I knew the deal I made the other night, so I yanked my arm out, kicked him in the groin and ran out the front door. The last thing I remember him screaming was 'YOULL BE DEAD IN A YEAR CORY!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!! YOU'LL BE DEAD IN ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!.

"I ran with all my might not knowing where my feet would take me, but a voice kept saying in my head 'just keep running, don't look back, just keep running, don't look back.' Finally, I reached the other side of town where I came across an old shack me and my five other friends used to hang out in. As I ran towards it and opened the door, I tripped and rolled over to the back wall. Next thing I knew, I ended up here where I hid in the Ponyville junkyard, was found by Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, and...well...I guess you know the rest. There. Now you know."

Cory got up and walked away in a huff, leaving everypony burning with grief and bewilderment.

"I can't believe his own folks would just dump him." Said Applejack

"UUUHGH!! I oughta press that guy into jerk cider for taking his friends away from him." Said Rainbow Dash.

"I'm still amazed at how he never got violent." Said Spike

"He must have a big heart to endure all that." Said Rarity.

"If I was him, I'd snap like a twig." Said Fluttershy

"WAAAAAH!!!" Cried Pinkie Pie under a fountain of tears. "That's the saddest story I've ever heard!"

"Is there anyway we can help him Twilight?" asked the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Twilight thought for a moment. "Let me go talk to him."