Its a funny thing really. I mean, here I stand at the Gala. A  few years ago, this is the last place I thought I would be.But you don't know what Ive been through.What i have seen, done, even heard. You don't know anything about me. Not even my name. So lets just start with that. My name is LightningRain. I am a white coated, white and black maned, Colt Pegasus with ADHD. So now that we know each other a little better, how about I speak to you a bit about my past. That sounds fair enough right? I'll see how far I can get before my contract gets here.

      I grew up in Ponyville, well at least for 7 years I did. I had the basic family life for a Pegasus, that is other than the fact that the rest of my family members are Unicorns. We are all blood related, I just resembled my grandfather on my mothers side. So most of my elders on my mothers side have been mixed breeds. But as I was saying, my life was pretty normal. I had an older sister and of course father loved her most. The old man would hit me if she were to do something wrong. But it wasn't her fault. She would plead until he would stop his lashing of me. She was a good sister, well is a good sister but I will get to that later. I think you might be better acquainted with her than you are with me actually. You might even know her. Her name is Rarity. Her name suits her to the core too. She was always about fashion and such things as that. I'm not gonna lie to ya. She has given me a few tips that have helped with the Filly's. Mother on the other hand, she was always there for me. When ever I was scared. lonely or just wanted to hang out, she was always there for me. I was a hard core mama's boy. Well now that you have gotten a taste of my old home life, how about I tell you where my story really started. The day I got my cutie mark.

Chapter 1: Sacrifice

    The day started out like any other day. I woke up in my room with my window wide open. I liked to sleep with it open. Most ponies would call me crazy for saying this but it having it open made me feel safe. But then again, most ponies aren't afraid of their dad. I sat up and looked out my window. The sun was just coming up. I could feel the air getting warmer as the sun got higher. I was completely relaxed. But then I heard the sound of hooves coming from the hallway, outside my door. My sister, Rarity, then appeared in my doorway. "Good Morning Lightning!" she said with a smile. I was so used to this that I didn't even have to ask why she was in my room, so early in the morning. I was forced out of bed before noon because Rarity wanted me to go help her find some damn diamonds. I was never sure how but she always fooled me into doing the hard work. I got used to it after awhile. A day of hard work is good for a growing colt. My mother always told me that. I usually got something out of it in return though. Anyways back to the story. I got up out of bed and cleaned up. When i got down the stairs I found Rarity standing in the middle of the room with the spade and bucket I always used for diamond hunting. "Come on dear little brother! Those diamonds are not going to hunt themselves" she said.

        "Well whats in it for me sis? What do i get in return of doing the messy work this time? You know I'm not gonna do this for free." I said with a slight laugh. She promised that she would pay me with 25% of the findings. When any young colt is offered diamonds you would expect something like "EWW! DIAMONDS ARE GIRLY!! WHY WOULD I WANT THOSE?!?" But not me. I was smart. I knew that if I had diamonds, I could get money for them from a jewelry trader in town. With the right diamonds, you could get over 200 bucks with just 5 of them.

     We then headed out the door and in to our front yard. Rarity sparked her horn up and fallowed her seances. I fallowed her, telling her that we had better find something good or I would never help her that early in the morning again. Eventually, after traveling a 3 mile trail out into the middle of B.F.E, we got to where her horn had led us, but then she sparked her horn off and yelled at me to stop. Being the ADHD fellow that I am, I wasn't paying attention. I was staring up at the clouds, walking forward. I then tripped over a log and fell just a few feet in front of my sister. "You idiot! I told you to stop! Don't you know where we are heading into"? I didn't actually. It looked just like any old forest. Trees of different colored leafs, moss, flowers, grass. It seemed legit. No different than any of the others we had gone hunting in. "What is so bad about this forest sis? Your horn led us here. Why would it lead us to a bad place?" I asked.

"That's the Everfree forest! We can't go in there!"

"Why not?"

"Most ponies say that it's not natural!"

"Uh sis, we aren't ponies. I'm a Pegasus and your a unicorn."

"Still. What if we go in and something bad happens?"

"What could happen? We go in a little ways and get some diamonds, leave. End of story sis."

"I don't know Lightning. What if........"

"Come on! I'm not gonna let anything happen to my favorite sister". I told her this as a joke. Most of the time whenever she was down, scared or just plain nervous, a joke such as that one always cheered her up. "Well ok. But I don't wanna stay longer than one hour". She said.

"Alright then, lets go get some diamonds". I said as I began to skip along the forest path, enjoying the crunching sound the fallen leafs made. Looking back now, I wish i would have just stayed in bed that morning. We walked inside the forest. We found a diamond infested area. It was incredible. Every few feet, diamonds. If anyone was to of ever actually hit the mother load, by hell we hit it. " BLUE, SAPPHIRE, GREEN, PINK, OH MY!" Rarity shouted with pure excitement. If i were to have made it to a trader that day, I would have been the richest colt ever.  An hour had passed and my bucket could no longer hold diamonds. Then sun was now in plain sight. "OK Rarity, this accursed thing can't hold another diamond. I think it might be time to head back home." I said these words while panting from exhaustion. She then Smiled and congratulated me on a hard days work. We were going to sort out my payment when we got home, but then it happened. We heard a lowed noise off in the distance. "Get down and stay silent." I said as I quickly pushed Rarity into the closest bush I could find. I hid in the bush next to the one I had thrown my sister into.

"What is it?" Rarity asked.

"I don't know, just stay silent until I say otherwise". Whenever I gave her an order, she knew it was given with full on seriousness. Then a group of fierce looking dogs came out of nowhere and began to walk in our direction. They were not aware of our presence just yet. There were 3 of them. One was very tall and ripped. He looked like a bar bouncer. Not the kinda guy you would wanna get in a fight with. The 2nd out of the three was kind of a short guy. He had an eye patch over his left eye. He wasn't really ripped but he wasn't really skinny either. The last guy was tall, thin and carried a bat. An iron bat with dents and fresh blood dripping from it. After having spotted the blood, I turned to Rarity and warned her that these guys were bad news and that we may need to stay awhile longer until they were out of sight. She gave me a look of understanding with a slight nod. We always kinda had a sort of telepathy with each other. If one was hurting, the other automatically knew. When the 3 got closer I noticed something eels. The tall, ripped one was carrying two cages. It looked like there was something in one. Surely enough there was. The cage in the dogs left hand was holding a young, colt unicorn, shacking with fear. Rarity noticed the it second I did and let out a shriek. The tall, ripped dog quickly turned to the bushes. "What the hell was that" he said. The tall, thin dog with the bat began to walk over to the bushes. I then jumped out of my hiding spot and forcefully pushed Rarity, out of hers and down a hill. She rolled to the bottom screaming. She regained her balance and stood up. "DON"T JUST STAND THERE SIS, RUN!" I shouted.

"I am not going to leave you at a time like this Lightning"! Rarity replied.

"DON"T ARGUE WITH ME! PLEASE JUST RUN HOME!"

       She knew I was right. She then looked up at me and shouted " PLEASE FIND A WAY HOME! JUST PROMISE ME YOU WILL MAKE IT!" I turned my head from her and faced the dogs.

"Rarity..........go home..........I can't promise i will be there but please, GO HOME!" I shouted. Tears began to run down my face. I had no idea what was going to happen to me. But I wasn't about to let those bastards take my sister. My older sister. The best damn friend I have ever had. I then heard her shout out that she loved me and then, galloping. The sound of her running away to safety made me realize what I was put on earth for. Protecting the ones closest to me. What happened next, even surprised the hell out of me. "COME AT ME YOU BITCHES IN HEAT!!! I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU!"  EEEYUP! (I need to stop hanging out with Big Mac so much). My first line of vulgarity was spoken at the age of 7. I'm not gonna lie to you. I felt epic.

    "That's some big talk from such a little filly." said the eye patched dog. I then ran full force at him, only to be met half way by the dog with the bat. The next thing I felt was a smack to the skull and then..............blackness. I was unconscious for the next few hours. I then woke up in the cage that was clutched by the dogs right hand. I then looked at my flank only to realize that I had obtained my cutie mark. I didn't know what it said at the time for it was written in another language. I would tell you what it means now but. We will get to that eventually.