The story begins at night-time in the land of Equestria, where there was an infant left on the front doorsteps of an orphanage in Ponyville. This infant was a unicorn colt with a yellow coat, and he had an orange mane with a white stripe in the middle. He was laying in baby clothes in a basket, with a note on top of him.

A hooded stallion left him there, and he knocked on the door and left.

A grumpy old stallion Earth-pony came to the door, saying "who's there!"

He looked to his left, and then to his right.

The grumpy old stallion said "darn door-ditchers!"

Then the grumpy old pony looked down and saw the infant unicorn colt.

He picked up the basket with his teeth and front left hoof, and took him inside.

The basket, with the baby inside, was laid onto a table, and the grumpy old pony took out the note and read it aloud.

The note said:

"Dear Whoever Reads This,

This is my child, he is a unicorn, and a very special one at that. I'd like you to take care of him, so he may grow up to be happy and healthy. He's more precious to me than anything else. I'm trusting you to make sure he is safe. His name is Stardust Blaze, my son. He was born one week ago."

"What!?" the grumpy old pony said "the pony who wrote this didn't even bother to say what his or her name is!?"

So the grumpy old pony discarded the note and told the baby "well, I'm gonna look after ya now, Stardust Blaze. So ya better like it. I'm the pony who runs this orphanage, and my name is Grumpy Acorn. Ya better remember that, or else!"

Just as anyone would guess, Grumpy Acorn was a very grumpy old pony.

So seven years have passed, and Stardust Blaze is now seven years old. He's living with the other orphans in the orphanage.

One day, Stardust was busy washing dishes.

But one dish was hard to wash no matter how hard Stardust tried, because there was a spot that was hard to remove.

So Stardust gave up.

"Giving up?" Grumpy Acorn said as he entered.

So Grumpy Acorn looked at the dish that was hard to wash, and saw the spot that wasn't removed.

"Stardust" Grumpy said "Our children aren't raised to hide their failures."

So Grumpy took the dish and threw it against the wall, breaking it.

"As punishment, Stardust, you'll work for that ruined dish by doing extra chores for exactly 12 hours, starting with cleaning up that dish that you just broke."

"But you bro-" Stardust said.

"YOU TALKIN' BACK TO ME!?"

"NO! NO! I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"

"THEN GET TO WORK!"

So Stardust cleaned up the mess that was made after Grumpy Acorn broke the dish. After that, Stardust did more chores for 12 hours straight, like doing laundry, mopping the floors, dusting the windows.

But during Stardust's chores, the other orphans would pick on him.

One orphan, a Pegasus colt with a tomato-shaped cutie mark, came up to him and said "hey Stardust Blaze. Ya doin' chores? Grumpy's orders?"

"Yes, Rotten Tomato, I am".

"You know" Rotten Tomato said "you're a unicorn, but you are terrible at magic."

Then a female unicorn filly about the same age as Stardust, with a diamond-shaped cutie mark, came in and said "yeah, Stardust. I'm the same age, but I'm practically a master at magic. Besides, Rotten Tomato and I both have our cutie marks and you don't".

Then Stardust looked at his flank and noticed that he doesn't have a cutie mark yet.

Then a third foal, an Earth-pony filly with a robin-shaped cutie mark, came in and said "yeah, and you know what every-pony in the orphanage is calling you?"

"What!?" Stardust asked.

Then the three foals went towards Stardust and said "Star-dumb Blaze! Star-dumb Blaze! Star-dumb Blaze! Star-dumb Blaze!"

So Stardust screamed and ran off.

Then, Grumpy Acorn stood in front of Stardust, stopping him, and said "I thought I told you to do your chores for 12 hours."

"I was, but they were-"

"DON'T PIN THIS ON THEM! JUST FOR THAT, YOU ARE TO SLEEP IN THE BASEMENT WITHOUT DINNER, AND YOU WILL STAY IN THE BASEMENT STARTING NOW! SO GET IN THERE!"

"Oooh"" said the three other foals. "Star-dumb's in trouble."

"You aren't gonna punish them, too?" Stardust said.

"GET IN THE BASEMENT! NOW!" Grumpy shouted.

Then Grumpy pushed Stardust to get him to walk.

So Stardust sat in the basement, where he would do nothing but cry and sit in a dark corner.

"STARDUST!" Grumpy shouted "SHUT UP AND STOP CRYING IN THERE!"

There was a little hole in the basement with a window in the hole.

There was a pony looking through the hole as she saw Stardust in pain.

That pony was Princess Celestia herself.

"Stardust Blaze" Celestia said to herself "It saddens me to see you in so much pain."

Stardust tried to stop crying. Then he remembered the filly with the diamond-shaped cutie mark saying "yeah, Stardust. I'm the same age, but I'm practically a master at magic. Besides, Rotten Tomato and I both have our cutie marks and you don't".

So Stardust thought that he wanted to escape from his abusive orphanage. And the way he wanted to escape is to practice unicorn magic.

So Stardust spent his time in the basement practicing magic, he started by trying to levitate a pair of weights.

After a couple tries, Stardust was eventually successful at it.

Stardust lived in the orphanage for a few more months, but the other orphans, as well as Grumpy Acorn, were even more cruel to Stardust than before.

But during Stardust's free time, he would continue to practice magic by attempting to levitate heavy objects with his unicorn magic.

However, he was not so successful at it.

So one day, Grumpy came upon Stardust practicing magic and said "You! I saw you've been practicing magic! If you like it so much, then how about you join Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns! They have an entrance exam."

"No thanks" Stardust said. "I'm not ready to-"

"Too late! I already enrolled you!"

"What!? But, but don't I get a say in this!"

There was silence. Then, Grumpy Acorn walked away.

But then he stopped, and he turned around and told Starudst "if you fail this test, you'll be banned from the orphanage, forever!"

Then Grumpy Acorn left.

Then Stardust Blaze got onto the ground and started crying.

Then, Stardust, the three orphans, and Grumpy Acorn, were waiting at the train station for the friendship express to go to Canterlot.

But then, Stardust came up with an idea.

He thought to himself "I never faced Grumpy. I'm too scared. But if I want to be better than the other orphans, I'll have to".

"Grumpy Acorn" Stardust said "I'm not going to Canterlot."

"What!? But you've been practicing magic, and-"

"I'm not ready!"

"Don't you talk back to me! I've raised you for a long time, and no orphan of mine has ever, EVER, talked back to me! Maybe I should teach you another lesson! No more dinner for a month!"

"NO! If that's how you're gonna raise me, by giving me more punishments for things I didn't do or can't help doing, then I'm outta the orphanage!"

Grumpy scoffed and said "fine with me! But don't come cryin' back to me when you learn that you can't make it on your own!"

So Stardust ran back to the orphanage, where he packed his belongings in a pair of saddlebags. Then, he left the orphanage, where he would never come back.

Stardust Blaze, who was now a runaway, was walking through the Everfree Forest.

But then, he heard the howl of Timber-Wolves.

Then, he looked to his left, and saw a silhouette of a unicorn stallion passed by from a distance away.

"Hello!?" Stardust said. "Is some-pony there!? I don't exactly know where I'm going!"

There was no responds.

But then, Stardust heard a twig break from behind him, so he looked behind him, and saw a bush moving.

The bush kept moving, and moving.

Then, all of the sudden, a Timber-Wolf came out of the bush and tried to run after Stardust Blaze.

So Stardust Blaze ran off as the Timber-Wolf was chasing him.

Then, from the Timber-Wolf's right, another Timber-Wolf arrived next to it.

Then, from the center Timber-Wolf's left, a third Timber-Wolf arrived next to it.

So now there were three Timber-Wolves chasing Stardust Blaze.

But then, Stardust Blaze reached a dead end: there was a cliff above him, but he was too small to reach the top.

Stardust looked back at the Timber-Wolves, and saw that this meant the end for him, or so he thought.

Then, his life flashed before his eyes as the Timber-Wolves came closer and closer to him.

Stardust thought that this was the end.

But then, a magical beam was shot in front of Stardust, and a unicorn stallion jumped from the cliff above Stardust and landed safely on four legs in front of Stardust.

It revealed itself as a green unicorn stallion with golden eye pupils, a long white beard, and a white flowing mane and tail.

The unicorn stallion cast a magic spell on the Timber-Wolves, and said "be gone!"

Then the Timber-Wolves cowered away in fear.

Stardust sobbingly hugged the stallion and said "Oh mister, that was so scary! I was in the Everfree Forest, and I was chased by Timber-Wolves, and I thought I was gonna be Timber-Wolf Food."

"Shh" the stallion said as he hugged Stardust, caressing his mane "it's okay, little one. You're safe."

Then the stallion looked at Stardust with an upset face and said "what are you doing out here?"

Stardust answered "I used to live in an orphanage, but every-pony at the orphanage was mean to me, even the one who ran the orphanage, Grumpy Acorn."

"Grumpy Acorn? I know him"

"You do?"

"Yes, we used to be friends, until we got in a fight and we stopped being friends. But he decided to move to Ponyville and run an orphanage. He's not very nice. When I was his friend, I was mean, too. Of course, later I learned that what I was doing was wrong, so that's when we got in that fight and stopped being friends."

Stardust looked at the ground, and he started crying.

He said "They're right. I can't do magic. Every-pony at the orphanage teased me because I'm terrible at magic. It's true, I hardly get better at it, and I may never be good at magic. (sniff) I think ... I think I may never be a great unicorn. Even Grumpy knew that, which is why he forced me to take the Entrance Exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, because he expected me to fail."

"Did you fail?"

"I didn't take the exam, I ran away before I could take it."

The stallion looked at Stardust with an upset face.

Then he said "You know, you're right. You'll never be good at magic."

"Really?"

"Really. You'll never be good at magic ... if you don't believe in yourself."

Then Stardust paused.

"If I don't believe in myself?" Stardust thought in his head.

No one's ever said that to him before. It's like this stallion was encouraging Stardust to keep practicing magic in order to get better.

"My name, by the way" the stallion said "Is Silver ... Silver Lining. Do you have a name?"

"I do" Stardust said "It's Stardust Blaze."

"Stardust Blaze" Silver Lining said. "That's a great name. You should be proud of it."

"Really? Because the orphans kept calling me 'Star-dumb Blaze'."

"Forget what those orphans said, or even what Grumpy Acorn said. All that matters is your own opinion. Whether you believe it's right or wrong, no matter what, you shouldn't be afraid to have your own opinion. Remember that, now."

Stardust smiled.

He thought to himself "no-pony's ever been this nice to me before since ... forever."

"Tell you what" Silver Lining said. "You won't do very good on your own. So why don't you stick with me. Plus, if you want to learn more about magic, I can teach you. I'm a graduate from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

Stardust thought for a moment.

Then Stardust hugged Silver Lining and said "thank you, Mister Lining, sir."

"Please" Silver Lining said "we're friends. You don't have to call me Mister Lining. You can just call me Silver Lining, or Lining for short."

At that moment, Stardust Blaze realized something. He gained something he always wanted: Stardust gained a friend.

Little did Stardust or Lining knew that soon, the two of them would become close friends. Next Chapter: A New Home Estimated time remaining: 6 Minutes