AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, this is just the prologue, so it's going to generally tell a background behind Hi-Rez and what's led him to be what he is today.
It's going to get a lot better in chapter 1.
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Hi-Rez was born into a family of photographers on October 7th, 1994. Even at birth, his parents could tell something was wrong. Their child had been born with peculiar eyes, which made them think that he could have had some sort of disability.
It's too bad they didn't realize how right they were.
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Growing up, Hi-Rez had a problem. He was blind, which made life a lot harder. He couldn’t see what everypony else could see, so he was often forced to ask what things like a ‘tree’ or the color ‘blue’ or other things were. It didn't help that he was born into a family of photographers, who relied on their eyes for adjusting photos and drawings.
His parents, Snap Shot and Quick Shot, had done their best to pass down their talents to their blind son, and at times it seemed futile, but Hi-Rez slowly learned. He learned how to use a camera, and that made his parents very proud. He eventually started into the photography business like his parents, but a mishap involving a broken light bulb caused their home to be burned down. The company they ordered the bulb from sent them a refund, but it didn’t really help at the time.
The family bought a house closer to the center of town, and had it specially constructed so their blind son could navigate easier. Special floor tiles were placed around the house, each having a different surface from another so Hi-Rez could feel his way around the house without getting lost, like he used to. It was shortly after this that Hi-Rez took an interest in magic.
Shortly after the construction finished, a support beam fell on his father, crushing him to death. The medical response arrived five minutes too late, and his father had bled out.
Hi-Rez was only five at the time, so he couldn't completely comprehend what was occurring. His mother told him that his father needed to leave for a long time, but she never implied that he would return. This explanation was sufficient to keep Hi-Rez calm for a few years, before the evidence finally came back to bite.
Hi-Rez had been strolling through the cemetery at age 9, not too far from his mother at the time, and was feeling gravestones. He had a bundle of flowers wrapped up in his tail, and was feeling around to see if he could find the name of a passed friend of his mother, but instead, his hoof came across a name that was too familiar to him.
HERE LIES SNAP SHOT
PHOTOGRAPHER
FATHER OF ONE
MAY HE BE REMEMBERED ALWAYS
Hi-Rez didn't stop crying for days, and his mother didn’t know how to comfort him, but she tried her best.
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Hi-Rez’s first hospital visit was after a failed magical experiment. Whatever he was trying to cast blew up in his face, literally, giving him a concussion. He was rushed to the hospital where they discovered no damage, but they did find something peculiar. After the incident, magical energy seemed to flow through him like a catalyst. It would even show in gleaming ‘veins’ in his hair, which would sparkle like the sunrise. These developments weren’t particularly harmful, but others around him sometimes made fun of him for it.
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Hi-Rez, at age 10, had devoted a lot of his time to his family's business, as he tried to live up to his father's name and keep their business alive. He also started to put more and more time into the studies of magic, and at the age of 11, he invented his own magic.
He invented a spell that could latch onto an object from a distance away, and teleport it to the user. News of this spell and evidence thereof quickly spread through the town, and a news reporter had even written an entire paper on it. Hi-Rez wasn't sure why everyone was so excited over his spell, when all he used it for was to recall his camera.
He quickly became known for the spell, but the fame only lasted a week as other magic inventors quickly began drawing the attention away from the original spell by inventing new and improved versions. Hi-Rez didn’t really care, so he just continued on with his life.
He later became popular again, but only in minute amounts, with a fan here and an inspired inventor there, nothing big. A sudden surge of popularity did come later, however, when he invented a new spell to help keep his balance in case he tripped on anything, which he did a lot of on account of being blind.
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By the age of 15, his mother had gotten a new job, but Hi-Rez was still in the photography business. He did his best to uphold the family reputation, but things fell out of hand before too long, so he hired an assistant. His assistant was named Lens Cap, and she sure had a tendency to ruin photos, but she learned over time.
As time went on, Lens Cap and Hi-Rez Shot became good friends, and usually did a lot of things together. Lens helped Rez around the town a lot, since Rez was still blind.
Shortly after Lens and Rez became great friends, Rez invented a sort of ‘walking-stick’ spell, which allowed him to use the telekinesis spell as a pole, letting him detect when there is something in front of him so he doesn’t just walk directly into it. It doesn’t always work, but it stops him from running into too many ponies throughout the day.
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Now, at age 17, Lens Cap has needed to move away with her family, leaving Rez without a friend to guide him. He has grown proficient with magic and has invented at least two other spells. He sets out into the town to make friends and snap some shots of ponies, but he’s mostly looking for someone to help him around. What he ends up finding is not something to be found, but instead, is something he loses.
And that’s where we start.