//------------------------------//
// Dark Beginnings 
// Story: The Raging Thunder Act-1 
// by Thunder Bolt 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 1


Throughout the land of Equestria, a disturbance is felt in the air. Several miles away from the pegasi home of Cloudsdale, a storm rages. Thundering and blasting lightning, darkening the skies, splitting trees, scattering the water of lakes. One might see the largest cumulonimbus cloud of their life time, reaching as high as the highest flying pegasi. This cloud itself it not the disturbance, but what is going on inside. Deep inside the cloud, within a room created by a protective barrier are two ponies. A pegasus named SparkWave, and his wife, a unicorn named FireLight. It has been a long eleven months, and because of the volatile nature of his wife’s magic, SparkWave chose it best for the two of them to find a secluded place to bring their little wonder into the world.
As she screams in suffering pain from the midst of labor, a fiery ray of magic continually bursts forth from her horn, blasting through her own barrier that she painfully struggles to keep up, to keep her magic from causing any chaos beyond the walls of the massive cloud, that barely manages to extinguish her flames before they breach into the outside world. The heat inside this barrier would be unbearable for any pony who was not as dedicated as SparkWave. He stays valiantly by her side and does all he can to comfort his screaming wife, holding her by the hoof and keeping her breathing. Time passes, as seconds turn to minutes, and minutes turn to hours, as hours begin to feel like an eternity.
It is after a long period of the painfully agonizing suffering, that the final push has come to pass, and the cry of new life fills the ears of the awaiting parents.
“It’s a boy, I have a son!” Says the father.
“Let me see him.” Says the mother. She grasps her new born close to herself and looks into his beautiful hazel eyes, all the while taking in his deep red fur and silver-gray mane.
“He looks just like his mother.” The father says warmly, admiring the miracle that has just occurred before them and his newfound status as a father, all the while the mother simply breathes and takes in every moment of this occasion.
“From merely a dream to becoming a part of existence so quickly, you will surely make use of these wings one day I am sure. You are my little ThunderBolt.” SparkWave looks at his wife and smiles, expressing his approval for this name as well. He lays next to his wife as they watch their new child rest after a long day of work.
It is at this point, that something has become apparent, and it is that not all is right. The storm around them has not calmed, but has in fact grown worse. The cloud within which they chose to reside has continued to gain mass and thunder even more violently than before. It is one loud blast that brings the two back to reality, and panic thus ensues. FireLight has exhausted her magic at this point, and her barrier begins to fade, along with the only thing holding her in place. As she begins to sink, SparkWave manages to grab her, and carry his family across his back, but before he can even search for a safe way out of the cloud, he hears his child come to consciousness, and disaster strikes. A hole is sprung open into the heart of the storm, and a massive light engulfs the unfortunate family. To any pony witnessing this event from afar, what they would see is a bolt of lightning, larger than any other shot out by the storm, jolting directly through the poor trio of ponies. SparkWave can no longer hold himself up and the three plummet, far and fast, and as they fall, SparkWave takes advantage of his only opportunity and reaches for his son. The two of them land in a deep area of water, but FireLight, is not as lucky. The last thing she saw was her son and her husband’s face, expressing utter sorrow and apology, and her last action, was to smile, to smile and nod her acceptance of how this sick twisting of fates was to turn out. 


It is some time later when SparkWave returns to consciousness, and finds himself on the edge of a lake, grasping his child close to him. Trying to recollect the last moments of those so unfortunate events, he determines that he must have used the last of his energy to haul his child and he to the shore before passing out. He slowly sits up atop of his tail, setting his son gently in the sand. It is after making sure that his son is still breathing, that he realizes his child has changed. The infant foal no longer has the deep red fur and silver-gray mane of his mother. His fur has been darkened to a much browner color, and his mane has been scorched, becoming a soot black. Under normal circumstance his original colors would return with time, but something seems odd. These new colors that his son possess, appear to show as though they exist within his very follicles.
SparkWave stands up and looks around at his surroundings, witnessing the devastation and chaos caused by the storm which he assumes was present the previous night. He is then struck with another realization, and begins to run and search for his wife, or at least whatever may remain of her. Sometime later after searching from the air, he drops down next to something he has spotted. It appears as a matted mess of red and silver hair, stuck between the branches of a fallen tree. He couldn’t bare the sight and could think of nothing to do but flee. All his life SparkWave thought himself to be a strong noble pony, as did every pony else,  but when he came face to face with this grim reality, he could only flee, and attempt to cling on to images of the happy life he used to lead, when not even his nightmares were this horrific.
He flew away as fast as he could, back to his son, who he placed gently on his back before flying off into the rising sun, away from Cloudsdale, away from Ponyville, away from Equestria. He had to save his son from the life he was born into. He had to save his son from the pain, agony, and torture that he knew his mind would succumb to. SparkWave new what really led to this devastation, but dared not to admit it to himself, yet the truth was unavoidable. This child possessed a rare strength amongst pegasus ponies. One that drew that lightning to him, or more accurately, caused the lightning to seek him out. It was a display of power, brought forth by the rage of a newborn child. One day this pegasi may even be able to have direct control over a vast expanse of weather systems, something that not even the most skilled of pegasi can achieve.
If he returned this child to his home, he would be shunned and cast away from every pony for his entire life, all because of an undesired power. So out of the love for his child, SparkWave decided the only choice he could make, would be the one that any pony would deem heartless at the same time. SparkWave had to abandon his child, and hope that not only would he be safe, but never return to his place of birth. So he flew, never resting and never halting, mile after mile and day after day. He flew beyond the reaches of Equestria and the land just outside. He flew until his wings could no longer maintain flight. It was when he spotted a small pool of water, that his wings finally gave out, and he placed himself upon the ground.
After taking a long drink of water, and managing to feed some to his son, he looked around at where he had landed. It was a barren place, with hardly any trees in sight, save for the one beside him, and short scraggly grass going on for as far as the eye could see. What an unfortunate place to land, but he could go no further. He placed his son in a small bed of grass in the shade of the tree, and dug out a message in the sand.

Help me, I am all alone.
-ThunderBolt

It is at this point that SparkWave turned and began to walk away, but just as he was doing so, he spotted a shadow approaching from far off in the distance. Acting quickly to not be spotted, he ran fast and hid behind a dune of earth. He witnessed as the pony-like figure approached his child. He watched as it spotted him, read the message, and after a few heart pounding moments, lifted ThunderBolt onto its back and began to walk away.
“Goodbye, my son.”



···································································································


The sun beat down hard on poor little ThunderBolt’s face, as he laid there in the sand with his eyes held shut. He could hear a faint breathing, and then some panicking, a small gust of wind, and then silence. A few moments later he heard sound again, a rustling and sobbing, then he felt something. He felt himself being lifted and hauled upwards, high into the sky and he felt himself being taken somewhere quickly. For the longest time this was all he felt, the gusts of wind through his mane and against his back as his face was kept down against a soft warm mane. A long time later he felt himself descending, and the gusts of wind ceased to be. He was thirsty, and his throat was dry. It hurt. This being his first real sense of pain, it was soon relieved as he felt cool water splash against his mouth, which he opened and drank gratefully. Soon, the silence returned to him, after being lifted once more and placed into something soft. The last silent sound he heard was a rustling, and something fleeing. Was there danger? He could not know if there was, as the young foal could not even yet grasp this concept.
A few silent moments passed, and he heard the sound of something approaching. He could not open his eyes to see, but he felt as the shadow of something passed over him.
“My oh my, you poor dear” He heard a voice say.
“Who would leave you way out here?
Well, I can’t just leave you in such a place, so I’ll take you with me as I travel,
And maybe one day, this mystery we’ll unravel.”
The young foal giggled from the rhythmic sound of the voice, and felt himself lifted onto some pony’s back, which he clung to gratefully, the warm sun and the soft fur comforting the lost little foal as he was taken away to a new life.


End of Chapter 1