The Diffrence Ch1

Chapter 1
A Mysterious Beginning

                The crackling sound of burning wood and the hiss of electric popping was all he could hear around him. The young foal opened his eyes, he could see many stars but the smoke from the burning embers were covering a few of them. The colt tried to sit up but it was no use, his body felt completely drained. He turned his head to look around, he was lying on his back in a crater of scorched plants, and every other second he could see some kind of electric arc come off the ground and make contact with a scorched stump or even a part of his body. In the shadow on the outside of the crater, he could see glowing eyes of some kind of creature, hidden in the shadows. The colt was afraid but he was too weak to get up and run. As the creature got closer, it put its paw on the edge of the crater. Almost immediately, an arc of electricity jumped out of the crater and hit the monsters paw. When this happened, the large creature that was still hidden in the shadows, jumped back in fear. Then it gave up and walked away, vanishing into the forest. The young colt was relieved to see that he was safe, but the fear he felt only further exhausted him so the colt closed his eyes and faded into a deep sleep.

                Later when the colt woke up, it was morning. The sky was blue but he could only see what was over the crater, all around that the thick trees covered everything. When the colt sat up, he felt an immense pain in his left wing. When he looked at it, it was double jointed, in other words it was broken. As he continued checking the rest of his body, he saw an assortment of bruises, scrapes, and cuts along with that, he also discovered his cutie mark. A Star with lightning stretching from a cloud in the center, to each tip. He knew it was called a cutie mark, but he couldn’t remember why it was important, or what made it so special.

                As he picked himself up off the ground, an arc of electricity jumped from his mane to the ground. This surprised him and mad him jump, but since it didn’t hurt he didn’t pay too much mind to it. He could feel the ground had a large amount of electricity stored in it as if he were standing on top of a massive thundercloud, but like the small arc, he didn’t pay much attention to it since it didn’t seem to have any effect on him. When the colt climbed out of the crater, he looked around, “Where am I? I don’t know this place. I… I don’t know…”
All of a sudden, he could hear growling in the brush near him. The colt looked at the brush as he slowly backed away, “Hel-hello?... is… is anypony there?”
The young colt didn’t know what to do. He continued backing up until he started to see the eyes of whatever it was that was making the noise. When the eyes looked directly at him, he immediately reacted by turning and sprinting away. At that moment, a massive manticore jumped out of the brush and started chasing the terrified colt.

                The colt galloped as fast and as far as he could but the manticore was quickly catching up to him. The colt was too afraid to think straight, feeling that this was the end, he turned his head to look back at the manticore but while he was looking back, he didn’t watch which way he was going and he tripped over a log on the ground, and rolled a few feet. When this happened the manticore jumped over both the log and the rolling colt, passing them both up, so he slowed down to turn toward his small prey. By this time, the colt had shuffled to his hooves and started running back the other way. This only angered the manticore more. The terrified colt galloped into a small clearing where he could see some weather pegasi working in the clouds. The Young colt stopped and yelled as loud as he could, “HELP!!! SOMEPONY, ANYPONY!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!”
It didn’t seem like the pegasi could hear the terrified colt, the colt continued trying to call to them, “HELP ME!!! PLEASE SOMEPONY!!! PLEASE HEL…”

                At that moment, the enraged manticore jumped out of the bush and attempted to pounce on the little pony. The young colt ducked towards the manticore, ran through its legs and back into the forest. The colt was tired, terrified, and wounded, but despite all that, he ran as fast as he could to get away from the terrifying creature. While he was galloping, the colt saw a log on the trail, when the colt jumped over it he failed to realize that on the other side was a steep hill that he couldn’t land on. He tried opening the one wing that worked but it didn’t help, the young colt landed, lost his footing, and rolled down the hill making his broken wing hurt even worse. When he stopped rolling at the bottom of the hill, the colt used every bit of strength he had just to pick himself up off the ground, the pain in his wing made him tear up, but he knew this wasn’t the time to cry. When the colt looked up the manticore landed in a small clearing near the base of the hill. The colt knew that he couldn’t run anymore, if he was going to survive this he had to fight first. The colt reached for a branch that was on the ground next to him and readied himself for an attack.

                The Manticore circled the brave colt, watching his every move; it wasn’t going to let its meal get away this time. When the manticore stopped circling it jumped into the air toward the foal, the colt reared the branch back, ready to swing but before the monster got close enough, a bolt of lightning came from above and struck the ground between the him and the beast. The manticore jumped back and looked up. When the colt did the same, he saw three pegasi, a black one, a blue one, and a brown one, all hovering near a cloud, the blue pegasus spoke “Hit him again!”
The black pegasus kicked the cloud as hard as he could causing a bolt of lightning to strike the ground near the manicore’s paws. The manticore roared in anger at the pegasi but instead of attempting to fight back, it turned and ran back into the forest.

                The three pegasi landed near the relieved colt, then the brown one spoke, “Wow that sure was a close one.”
The black pegasus spoke next, “You ok colt? You’re lucky we saw you when you ran from that clearing at the top of the hill. I gotta say, you got guts taking on a full grown manticore like that.”
The young colt put the branch down and shrugged his shoulders, “I… uh… I didn’t know what else to do so I decided to try.”
The colt felt embarrassed as the three pegasi laughed at his reply, then the brown one spoke again, “Well at least you tried, say what is your name little one?”
The colt replied, “my name is… uh… my name… is… wait, what?... what is my name?”
The three pegasi looked at each other then looked back at the colt. The brown pegasus spoke again, “Wait, Wait, Wait. Hold your horses now. You mean to tell us that you don’t know your own name?”
The colt lowered his head in embarrassment, “No… I… I can’t remember… I can’t remember anything.”

                The three pegasi looked at each other and started talking over the situation, the blue one spoke, “What should we do? Should we take him to his parents?”
The black replied, “If he can’t remember his own name, what makes you think he’s going to remember his parents?”
The brown one sighed, “Look, Cloudsdale is only 3 miles from here, if we take him to the royal guard office there, then they will handle it in the best way, right?”
The other two replied, “Right!”

                 The grouped looked back at the colt as the brown pegasus asked, “Do you know how to fly little one?”
the colt lowered his head and replied, “I think I do, but it wouldn’t help.”
The blue pegasus replied, “Why is that?”
The young foal turned to his side and exposed his broken wing to the three pegasi, the brown one spoke again, “ouch… well that settled it. You’re not going to the royal guards, you’re going straight to a doctor for that wing of yours.”
“But how will I…”
“Don’t worry little colt we got this completely covered."
 The three pegasi flew into the sky and grabbed a wide cloud, then they pushed it to the ground in front of the colt. The brown pegasus smiled, “Hop on colt, it’s a good thing you’re a pegasus, this wouldn’t work if your were an earth pony or a unicorn… then again if you were one of them, then we would be leading you to Canterlot, but that’s much further than where we’re going.”

                The young colt felt nervous as he stepped onto the cloud, it looked so soft and weak, could this white ball of fluff really carry him without falling apart? As the pegasi pushed the cloud off the ground and into the  sky, the colt became amazed by how the world looked form that height, he didn’t know if it was the first time he ever flew this high before, but this was the first time he could remember being that high. As they continued on their trip through the sky, a large flying convoy flew by. On it there where a large number of pegasi wearing armor, both leading and following a carriage that held two alicorns, one was a tall white mare with a rainbow mane that can only be described as mystic. The other was a beautiful blue mare with a mystic blue mane. Just looking them, was enough for the colt to know that they were important. As they flew by both mares looked at the colt and smiled.

                The colt smiled back, then asked the brown pegasus, “Who are they?”
The pegasus smiled as he replied, “They are the royal sisters, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. It’s an honor to be acknowledge by them, you should feel proud.”
The colt felt embarrassed, “Why? Who am I to be acknowledged by princesses? Who am I, period?”
The black pegasus replied, “You’re the brave little colt who survived an attack from a manticore and still had the courage to fight back! Don’t down talk yourself little guy, with your bravery, there aint no telling what your talent is. I mean, I have never seen a cutie mark like yours before, whatever your talent is, it’s something truly special.”
The colt felt a little better after hearing what the pegasus told him, but it didn’t help much, he still didn’t know anything about himself… to include his talent.

                While watching the princesses’ carriage, the colt noticed that they landed in the area near where he woke up. He could only wonder what it was that caused that area to look like it did. The crater, the electricity in the ground, the charred and burned trees all around that area, all leading to what could have caused him to lose his memory. Whatever happened it caught the interest of a few princesses so it must have been something big. The black pegasus pushing the cloud, called out, “There it is straight ahead. Welcome to Cloudsdale little stallion.”
The young colt looked into the distance but there was no town in sight. The colt looked at the pegasus and asked, “Where?”
The three pegasi smiled as they looked at each other, then the blue pegasus pointed up, “Cloudsdale is in the clouds, try looking up.”

                The colt turned and looked in the direction the pegasus was pointing, but he couldn’t believe his eyes. Above his head was an entire city floating in the clouds. The colt watched in awe as they flew over a portion of the city and stopped at the hospital. Shortly after the three pegasi checked the colt in and had his wing patched up, the doctors started asking the colt series of questions. The colt felt embarrassed that the answer he gave to most of the questions where either “I don’t know” or “I can’t remember.”
This made the colt feel uncomfortable, but in hopes that the doctors could help him, he answered every single question as honestly as possible.

                After staying with the colt for most of the day the three pegasi decided, it was time to say good-bye and wish the colt good luck on finding more information about himself. As the sun went down, the doctors had no reason to keep the colt since his wing was already bandaged, so they took the next legal action and sent him to a nearby orphanage where he would be staying until his parents were found. When the colt arrived there, they sat him in a large office, and then an old pegasus with glasses trotted in and looked at a file.

                The old pegasus read a little from the file he had, then he removed his glasses and spoke, “hmm, it says here that you don’t know your own name… is this true?”
The colt felt a little nervous as he replied, “Y-Yes sir, that’s true”
the stallion smiled, “Oh, a polite one. Well, you will be welcomed here. My name is Mr. Myer, I'm the caretaker for this establishment. If you keep yourself out of trouble than you won’t see much of me, but don’t think I'm a mean pony. My days are usually busy so most of the time I'm off working while Mrs. Myer, my wife, takes care of you and the other foals. She is nice though so don’t be afraid of her. Now down to business, from this point on, you will be staying here so I would like to set up the basic rules, one, I will not tolerate fighting, or bullying others. Two, while you are here you will be respectful to anypony who enters this facility, I won’t have you scaring ponies away if they are looking to adopt. And three, if you are asked to do something by my wife and especially me then I suggest you do it. we won’t have you do anything that will cause any harm to you or anypony else. But we won’t have you disobeying us. Is that understood?”

                The Colt nodded his head, “Yes sir.”
Mr. Myer continued, “Although there are rules, there are also privileges. During the day, you may go outside in the back and play whenever you like however, you will stay inside the fence, I don’t want anypony flying over it. Next when you are a responsible age you may go outside and into the city so long as you stay within the boundary of this facility and you are back before nightfall. Last but not least. When ponies arrive looking to adopt, you have the choice to see them if they ask to see you. I don’t want to send you home with a family that you are too unsure about. However breaking these rules will make these privileges vanish before your eyes, so I’d suggest you follow the rules, is that clear?”
The Colt nodded again, “Y-yes sir.”

                The stallion looked back at the file, “You’re a special case though. For the first year or so, I won’t allow any parent’s to request to see you, just in case your real parents happen to show up. However, we need to do something about your name; do you have any idea at all, about what your name was? Anything at all.”
The colt lowered his head in embarrassment, “No, I don’t know anything about myself, name, age home… I… I just don’t know.”
The old pegasus replied, “Well, for now it’s just best to wait until some of your memories come back, until then I would suggest you should spend the next few days deciding your own name, it just might come in handy later down the road. First, you should go and see the rest of the grounds; I have a lot of work to do, so I'll leave you to explore the grounds on your own. If you need any, help understanding anything you should ask my wife. Mrs. Myer, you can finder her doing basic duties around this place. Now off you go.”
The old pegasus shook his hoof in a shooing manner as the young colt trotted to the door and exited the room.

               As the colt made his way down the hall, he though hard about what the caretaker said, “Will somepony try to find me? Will I ever find out who I…”
Just then much older colt bumped into him and knocked him to the ground, “Hey why don’t you watch where your goi… wait a second, you’re the new colt here aren’t ya? Yea I heard of you, you’re the one who can’t remember his own name right?”
The colt picked himself off the ground and nervously replied, “Um… yea it’s nice to meet y…”
“Spare me the intro and listen up Mr. no-name, around here I'm in control so you better wise up fast and stay out of my way because I'm the toughest pony here, and nopony, not you, not Mrs. Myer, not even Mr. Myer can do or say anything to stop me, you got that no-name?”

                With that said, the bully pushed the colt back down on the ground and trotted off with a pleased smile on his face. The young colt didn’t like anything that the older pegasus said, but he knew that even if he tried that pegasus was too big and strong for him to stand up to, so he thought the best course of action would be to keep his distance for now. As the colt entered the large room where every pony seemed to sleep in he noticed that all the other foals where getting ready for the night except for a filly who sat in the corner of the room alone with a depressed expression on her face. Feeling sorry for her, the colt approached the filly to talk to her, but as he got close enough, she snapped at him before he had a chance to say hello, “What do you want!”

                The colt was surprised by the irritation in her voice so he replied, “I… I was just wondering… if you’re ok. You seem depre…”
“I don’t need your pity! Are you here to make fun of me too like the others? Just leave me alone!”
The colt felt surprised at how mean the filly was acting towards him, “I only wanted t…”
The filly looked at his cutie mark then interrupted him again, “Oh… wow… looks like you already have your cutie mark huh… you think you so special don’t you. Just because you know your special talent doesn’t mean you’re better than anypony you know.”
The colt lowered his head and shamefully mumbled to her, “I… I don’t know my talent.”

                The filly gave him an uninterested look then she replied, “So you’re the new colt everypony is talking about huh… I heard you’ve lost your memory, well you’re not the only one with problems you know… so don’t think I'll feel sorry for you. Why am I still talking to you anyway? Go away and leave me alone!”
The mean filly turned her head away from the colt as he kept his head lowered, turned around, and slowly trotted away. Then a mare approached him, you must be the new little colt who arrived here this evening, my name is Mrs. Myer, are you enjoying your first day?”

                The colt looked up at the mare and shook his head no, “So far everypony hear is mean.”
The mare looked at the colt then she looked in the direction he came from and sighed, “Oh I see… you met Gem Stone. The poor dear just recently lost both her parents in a fire near Dragon Mountain about a week ago. The other foal where criticizing her for tying a bandanna in her mane every day so she started being cold to them. I hope it’s just a part of her mourning phase, I would hate to think she will be like this indefinitely.”
The colt felt bad about what happened to Gem, then he thought to himself, “What if the thing that created the crater in the forest killed my parents?”
Mrs. Myer kneeled down to speak with him face-to-face, “listen here little one, if you continue to think like that then you will start to lose hope. Next, you will lose your will to continue. You can’t let it affect you like that. Stay strong and stay positive. In time things will get better.”
The young colt looked back at Gem Stone and focused on the depressed look on her face, “I… I hope you’re right…”