Lightning
Chapter 1: Thunderstruck
It was another raining night in this hell, not that anypony expected it to be different. The weather always seemed to coincide its best efforts with the masters harshest treatments. The thunder rumbled above the wooden structure, a mere shanty hastily constructed by its inhabitants. Tonight seemed like another storm to topple this sorry excuse for living space yet again. Why did they even let them try and build these? And further yet, why did they allow them to stand? They must’ve found it funny, worthless ponies like them struggling to make their lives better in hell designed just for them.
But he couldn’t blame them for it. He would laugh too, in their shoes. He glared at the dark clouds above, who seemed to respond with their own glare back as an arc of blue lightning shot across. This land was truly strange. How many places on this planet could say they saw 7 different colors of lightning? And each deadlier, rarer, and purer than the last. It probably had do something with them being Elementals. Perhaps this was one of the oddities that caused their normal pony counterparts to force them out oh so long ago. It was one the few things he remembered from history class. And he didn’t remember much, years in this forsaken place doing nothing but the hardest of labors and being forced to live with the disgrace that had placed him here all hours of the day. He even erased his own name from memory, as repeating it only brought the memories of his fathers anger towards him. The rolling thunders of the skies beyond him seemed more than happy to help the dark flashbacks begin.
11 years ago…
He was only 6 at this time, returning to his bedroom once again after school. If only he’d known then how bad the day was to become. Not that he had many bad days. Being one of the Archduke’s sons came with so many benefits that having a bad day actually required effort. From his saddlebags he took out his notebooks, placing them on his desk and arranging them to be parallel with his wingtip as he fished a pencil from the bags as well. Gently placing them beside the chair, he jumped up, and began to study the notes.
“Six Elements, Fire, Water, Rock, Ice, Air, and Lightning.” He moved his eyes down, to the first question that was to pose as homework for them.
“Which element are you? Lightning.” He happily wrote that as his answer, as it was blatantly obvious. As full of pride and themselves as they were, being a Lightning Pegasus and not knowing was akin to trying to push a mountain. It simply was not possible. Although, he was a bit different. One of the few in the tribe born without the endowment of the element. At least, not that had been seen yet. He was the only of his brothers to have not shown their holding the element so far. Despite the concern of his advisors, his father insisted he was simply a late bloomer, and that when he did eventually bloom, he would be the strongest they have seen in their time. His father always argued this, though recently, he seemed less and less confident of his words. Even his own brothers were beginning to believe he was just a normal pegasus.
While not being born with an Element in many cultures was fine, in most of the Pegasi cultures, it was pretty bad to not have it. Especially if your father was the Archduke of all ponies. Having a son who could not bear the element he bore allegiance to in the royal family was, suffice to say, an incredible disgrace to the reign of that ruler. And his father was not about to be called disgraceful. In his eyes, he’d waited long enough, and his time was up. The door to his room burst open with sudden, and violent force. There was his father, looking at him, it was almost a glare. And even stranger, several guards were with him. The young pegasus raised an eye to the sudden presence of his father, and more concerningly, the guards.
“Is there a problem, father?” His question was innocent, as one would expect from a child. He was innocent, had done nothing wrong. Or so he thought.
“Actually, there is. And we’re going to be taking care of it right now.” His father looked to the stallions on either side of him and nodded. Without hesitation, the entered, and seized the colt. As anypony would have done, no matter their age, he began to panic. What was his father doing?
“F-father? W-what’s happening?” The colt struggled in vain against the two stallions that held him.
“What’s happening is that i’m cleaning this family, and my name of the disgrace wrought upon it. You should be glad, now you won’t have to disgrace us all with your pathetic existence. Get rid of him. Now.” The colt began to squirm and resist as fiercely as he could, but the guards had no trouble at all restraining him. Tears clouded his eyes, as he looked, in disbelief, and pleading innocent eyes at his father. No, no… this wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be, could it? His father has always defended him. He would never do this! He flailed and shouted at himself to wake up. But no such thing happened. Either this was the most intense nightmare ever experienced, or it was painful reality.
“Father, why? Why?”
“I just told you why. You’re a useless disgrace to us all, and now we will be rid of you.” His father stepped from the doorway, and the two stallions carried him out, down the stairs, and out the Palace. Where were they taking him? And why were they walking towards the prison tower? It was a Tuesday, and for the prison tower this was a special day. Every Tuesday, slave traders gathered in the city to pay for new merchandise. This was a practice done by many of the tribes, due to financial struggles. And they were only carrying him closer. Surely they couldn’t be…? His thoughts were broken as they violently threw him into the cart. He looked up dazed, surprised, and still not believing any of this… this… madness? No, even madness could not explain this. What parent would sell their own child into slavery? The slave trader confronted the guards about this. He had no qualms with taking a child, but he didn’t have the money to pay for another. The guards happily smiled and told him quite simply,
“This one’s free, courtesy of the Archduke.” The two stallions turned away and abruptly left. It was even worse… it wasn’t being sold into slavery. No, he was being given away into it. His own father didn’t even see him as worth a single bit. Not one. And that was it, the day that began hell as he knew it.
Present…
The thunder continued rumbling. Infact, a number of others had crowded around the window. What were they looking at, it was just a storm. One of the colts turned to him, disbelief on his face.
“Kid, did you see that? did you SEE THAT!? That was White Lightning! WHITE LIGHTNING! Holy crap!” The mysticism of this seemed to be captivating everypony, to the point where the began leaving the small shanty. For once the placed actually seemed to have size to it, now that he was alone in here, everypony having left. He figured he’d had enough flashbacks for tonight. With a groan from the aching muscles in his body, a vivid protest as they tried to ground him, he forced himself up, and joined the others outside. He pushed between them, to the front of the small crowd, staring up at the enraged sky above them. His white coat was more grayish/brown from the dirt he lived in, yet his mane still retained a vivid electric blue color to it. Needless to say, this excluded him from any nighttime sneaking about, as the reflective color would have him spotted in seconds. But with everypony outside, he didn’t care. The thunder grew louder, and another white arc bounced through the clouds. The spectacle earned a gasp from the literally captive audience.
Moments later, the real storm began. The wind picked up, angrily pushing against the shack in a battle of wills that nature was always going to win. The rain struck down at them like millions of liquid needles, giving them the closest thing to a shower in weeks. It was probably months, even, who knew how much time went by here? As his coat was slowly washed of the scars of his work here, he couldn’t help but feel a sort of rage boil in him. Suddenly, without any real thought, or warning, he did potentially the dumbest thing in his entire life. He spread his wings, and with a look of pure determination and apathy at the misty-electric demon above him, launched into the sky. Sure, he would likely die. He knew it. But he didn’t care, his life was nothing to want to continue, and he was ready for his judgement day. Blasting through the clouds, he hovered, waiting to be struck. Several bolts whizzed past him. He may want to die, but he wasn’t going to let nature have an easy kill. He rarely got to fly, and he was going to savor it as long as possible before his life was torn from him. He began to fly through the clouds, weaving through them, dodging natures attempts to bring him down. It wasn’t like he had no experience flying. Despite being a normal pegasus he had a surprising amount of grunt in his wings. This meant that on the occasions when a captive elemental pegasus was unable to do it, he would be tasked with flying carts of produce to their destination with armed guards making sure he didn’t try to run. This didn’t stop him from trying, and once he escaped for 2 weeks. He did almost nothing but fly during that time, until one day he was recognized, and found himself surrounded by 5 Lightning Pegasi. Quite understandably, he was returned to his masters without a fight.
Now, it felt almost easy, too easy, dodging the lightning. Surely nature could do better than this? Unable to take down a worthless disgrace like himself? This storm was truly pathetic. It was then, it seemed, that the storm had read his thoughts, and accepted the challenge. From the corner of his eye, a white spark was born. He turned and looked right at it. Still, it was nothing more than a spark. He huffed at the display, and as if on cue, it suddenly charged forward into a proper lightning streak. His eyes widened, and he narrowly managed to avoid it pulling up hard. But nature wasn’t kidding when she said challenge accepted. The very same bolt, Celestia knows how, stopped, and made a sharp, angular turn and started straight at him again. What in the hell? He dodged it again, and again it turned on a dime and arced back at him. So he evaded, again, and the bolt followed, again. Getting tired of this charade, he pulled down, spiraling, and then straightening for a brief moment and pulling up, rolling over, spiraling again, and began to pitch down. He could do this all night, and he would happily do just that. But, once again, nature simply was not the joking type. The bolt diverted course again, but by this time, he was already spiraling. All he saw was the bolt as it blazed in, scraping across his chest and arcing through him. Oddly, he wasn’t dead instantly, and he noticed something stranger, it didn’t continue out of it. It was one thing to be struck, but it always continued out and to the ground, its final destination. This particular bolt, though, simply blasted volt after volt into his body for unimaginable seconds. Eventually, it ended, seeing the tail end of the bolt, if such a thing existed, and from what he saw apparently they did, slammed into him with an ear drum shattering clap. And that is when all went dark. Unconscious, he fell from the sky. Thousands of feet, before his eyes weakly opened. What… happened? Why am i falling? The confused pegasus tries to lessen his fall with his wings, but they barely move, as does the rest of his body. He wasn’t how the lightning didn’t kill him but as this speed he was going to be a pancake in seconds. He closed his eyes, as the ground drew nearer. There was a loud smack, and then nothing.
“Wake up yah bastard….” He was poked in the head with a stick again. He slowly woke up, again, and more confused than ever. How in the buck was he alive? Infact, how was he not a pancake, let alone that he didn’t even have any bruises. How is this at all possible in the realm of… well, anything, to be frank.
“Would ya look at that, he’s alive after all. What’s yer name you sack of shit?”
“I don’t have one.” He replied with a growl, still barely able to move.
“Well, we going to have fix that. You see what he got hit with up there?”
“Looked like white lightning. Even though nopony has ever survived a strike from it.” Which was true, no one has ever survived being struck by white lightning. The reason being, it was the purest, deadliest, rarest form. How he survived any of this was a mystery.
“Well, he did. So, we’ll name you after what couldn’t kill you, not sure how it didn’t. White Lightning, yeah i think that’ll well in the colosseum…” Colosseum… what?
“If he can survive that i don’t think he can die at all. I guess it’s finally come, eh? Our big break, an unkillable Pegasus. Hehehe.” White Lightning simply stared at them, not really caring at this point what happened. Whether they killed him, tortured him, made him into mincemeat, all were fine by him at this point.
“Well, Mr. Lightning, its time to begin your new career as a different kind of slave. Welcome to the world of gladiators, you runt.” The two stallions lifted him up, and threw him into a cart full of hay. Shortly thereafter they began their journey again, to a large city in the distance. Even from here, the colosseum could be seen over the walls. He had substituted one hell for another. And all through the most un-amusing joke ever, of surviving the unsurvivable. Clearly, the universe hated him alot more than he thought. Groaning at his luck yet again, he resigned to sleeping once more, as if there were anything else he could do.