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// Meet Firestrand 
// Story: Revenge of the Shunned 
// by Prisoner 24601 
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	It was a beutiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the flowers were in full bloom. But where was everypony? The answer could be found in our next mental picture, imagining the last scene, but with a fireball being plunged through the area, singeing the flowers, and burning the birds. Why was there fire? Firestrand, a pony who devoted his life to exacting revenge, was running amuk through Ponyville, burning anything, and anypony he saw. But why? To answer that question, we must go back into the days of Firestrand's foalhood, and work our way up from there.
It was a less beutiful day. The sun was hidden beneath raging couds, the birds were hiding in their nests to avoid the cascading snow, and the flowers had died for the winter. Everypony was drearily living their lives in the gloomy town of Ponyville. As the snow came down more, more and more ponies left their wandering of the streets, and hid away in their homes. One family of ponies were at the hospital, awaiting the arrival of their new colt. Mr. Gorge was standing at the side of his wife, Spitfire.
Over a series of disgusting events that neither I or anyone else reading this story really wanted full detail of, the new colt was born. Spitfire and Soarin' named him Firestrand, after his glowing red hair. His coat was also a derivitive of red, but a darker, almost maroon, shade. in a slim chance of almost 200,000,000 to 1, both pegasus gave birth to a unicorn. It was a miracle, and only at age 3, Firestrand started glowing his horn, and fire erupted from it. He burned down their summer home, and Soarin' and Spitfire were forced to give him up to child serivces. They took him to a foster home, where he met three new friends: a Pegasus named Canus, a Unicorn named Maccieveli, and an Earth Pony named Willow. Canus and Willow were Fillies, but Maccieveli was a colt. One day, Firestrand saw a larger colt, named Basalt, bullying Willow.
Firestrand shouted to him in his small, but stern voice, "Get away from her, you big bully!" 
Firestrand charged at him, but Basalt grabbed his leg, hung him upside down, and said, "Nice Try, whelp" and he threw him aside. Firestrands rage built up inside him as he regained his footing, watching as Basalt stole Willows possesions and belongings. He let out a fearful cry, even at his stature, and charge Basalt again. He leaped onto the bully's back, and grasped himself around his neck, still screaming as he did so. But Basalt simply bucked him off in one try. He and the other bullys laughed as he and Willow could do nothing to stop them.
Basalt took from Willow her saddlebag, and started rummaging through her stuff. "Hey!" she shouted, with fear in her voice, and threatening to shed tears, "Give it back!"
Basalt only reached the saddlebag high above Willow's head, looked down at her, and said, "Make me."
Firestrand regained his footing again, glared Basalt down with his eyes, and concentrated all of his willpower. His horn started to give off a faint redish-orangeish glow. Basalt's face curled into a smile as he mocked, "Oh, No! The little Unicorns gonna use his magic on me. I'm so scared!" and he erupted into laughter, much to the enjoyment of the goons behind him. But Firestrand still summoned all his willpower, and finally, a few sparks started jumping from his horn. Even Basalt was beginning to have second thoughts, but it was too late now. He only gave a nervous laugh, and said in a fake gloat, "Ha. Is that all you've got?" Firestrand finally brought upon himself all of his energy, and a fireball was launched from his horn, onto Basalt. The bully screamed in pain, as he galloped down the hallway at top speed. The other bullies just looked at Firestrand, awe in their eyes, and then turned to run after their leader.
Willow turned to Firestrand, and said, "That was amazing." Willow had always been Firestrand's crush, but now that she was talking to him, he froze up. He had no trouble defending her from Basalt, because his adrenaline was pumping. But now it had died down, and Firestrand just kept his eyes off of the filly. "Thank you." she said in a fragile voice, then she pecked Firestrand on the cheek! The colt immediately looked up, but realised that that would only give away his feelings to Willow. He hung his head down again, and managed to say through nervousness, "A-any time."
*****
When Firestrand was a teen, he was still in foster care. Basalt had been hurt badly, but not too seriously. From that day on, nopony ever bullied Firestrand or his friends. Now that he and his friends were older, Firestrand had learned to control his anger, and had only burned a pony once or twice until now. He was walking down the hall with Maccieveli, the unicorn like him. He had been who Firestrand told everything to. He was his best friend, and he was the only one who knew about the crush on Willow. But Firestrand knew some things on Mac as well. He knew that if he concentrated hard enough, he could actually move the moon an inch or two in the sky. And Firestrand knew that he wasn't alone on his crushes, as Maccieveli had sort of a thing for Canus.
"Sooo," said Mac, trailing his voice out in a friendly manner, "How goes it with willow?"
Firestrand knew this to be usual conversation between him and Mac, so he replied, still looking straight ahead down the hall, "About as well as it's been going between you and Canus." he smirked.
"ah. Not that good." Said Mac, playing along in the belittling of himself. "Can you still not talk to her?" he asked.
"I've told you before," said Firestrand, explaining his theory, "As long as all four of us are together, I don't need to talk to her, because you can. And you don't need to talk to Canus, because I can." he finished, then got back onto Mac's questioning eyes, "But no, not yet."
This brought upon chuckling from Mac, who said, "Speaking of Canus and other Pegasi, you remember about our guest speaker?"
Firestrand almost forgot, that today at the foster home, there was a guest speaker: Spitfire! Captian of the Wonderbolts, wife of Soarin', and, unbeknownst to Firestrand, his mother. After all, Firestrand was taken from his parents before he could even speak; he would have no memory of even their faces. He was stoked to hear from the captain of the Wonderbolts!
Just as they left the Foster home to go to Sugar Cube Corner, Canus flew oerhead. She wasn't a fast flyer like Rainbow Dash, but she did enjoy flying. She landed next to Maccieveli, who's Indigo coat matcher her dark cyan coat, and white hair. Mac had purple hair, though, so on that ground, they differed grately.
"Hey, Mac!" she said playfully as she walked along side him.
"H-hey..." Said Mac, turning his head away, all of sudden shyer then Fluttershy.
Firestrand couldn't help laughing a bit, much to Canus' curiosity. "What?" she asked, defending Maccieveli a bit.
"Notihng," said Farestrand, swallowing his laughter. He didn't want to ruin his frinds chances with Canus. "N-nothing at all."
Canus just grunted, and continued walking alonside the other two. They walked into Ponyville, passing ponies they knew, and eventually, Willow appeared down the street. She waved to the group, and cantered toward them hapilly. Once she reached them, she saw the nervousness in Firestrand's eyes, so she decided that he was stressed, and instead walked over to Canus. "Hey, Canus. Hey, Mac."
Both Maccieveli and Canus replied with a mellow 'hey'. Canus turned her attemtion from Mac to Willow, and the group became two little subgroups: the colts, and the fillies. Maccieveli walked closer to Firestrand, and said, "Beutiful, isn't she?"
Firestrand smiled and said, "Which one?"
Mac chuckled with his friend and replied, "Canus. You think she'd ever like me?" he asked, worried about his answer.
"Of course!" he said, a little too loudly, which cought the attention of the girls, who continued talking. Firestrand replenished the conversation, "Why wouldn't she? You're smart, you're a stallion, and..." he tried to think of something to add to all of that. He was even making a stretch with the stallion business, "You're smart." he said. "Canus would fall for you like that! You're only problem is getting to talk to her."
Mac sucked on his lips as he thought. "Well," he said, "Might as well give it a shot. When do think I should do it?"
Firestrand became greately confused, "Do what?" he asked.
"Ask her out. You know what you said, she'd fall for me like that, as long as I spoke to her. I think I have it ine, but when should I do it?"
"I dunno," said Firestrand, out of ideas, "I guess up here at Sugar Cube corner would work." changing the subject, he said, "What about Willow? How do you see this thing between me and her working out?"
Maccieveli looked ove the beutiful mare Willow. on her flank, there was the image of a willow tree, which was very fitting. She, aside from Firestrand, was the only one of the group who had a cutie mark. Firestrand's was a picture of a flamethrower, which was also fitting. Willow also had beutiful amber hair, and a golden coat. As far as Maccieveli was concerned, she was perfect. "Hm." he grunted, "She's pretty. I think she likes you. If you could only talk to her, she would be yours."
"Looks like we have the same problem, Mac," Said Firestrand, "Neither of us talk to our crushes."
Meanwhile, Canus ans Willow were discussing the colts. "So," began Canus, "What about Maccieveli?" she glanced at him, while he appeared to be sucking on his lip. He was Canus' dream date: Smart, nice, and handsome. She looked over the colt, who had now begun to explain something to Firestrand. She glanced up at his violet hair, then at his Indego coat, and finally at his black-rimmed spectacles.
Willow replied, "He's cool. The one I'm after is Firestrand. I thought he would see how I felt about him, after that kiss. But apparently not. He doesn't even talk to me. Mac seems more interested in me than he does." Willow frowned.
"Are you kidding?" asked Canus, "Mac totally digs me. not you. He may not speak, but I think that's because Firestand likes you." Canus turned her attention away from Maccieveli, just as he was looking their way.
Willow turned her head to Canus, and said, "Well, that may be true. He might just be too nervous to talk to me. I don't know, but it looks like," Willow glanced at Maccieveli, "Mac's plotting something."
"I guess we just have to wait and see" said Canus, admiring the colt with every step they took.
*****
When the four arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie wasn't there, and instead Mr. Cake was at the counter. "Welcome, Firestrand." he said. Firestrand was a frequent customer, along with his friends. They came there almost evryday for lunch. "I assume to get the usual."
"You got it" said Firestrand, losing all nervousness now that he was in public with Willow. It was only when they were alone that Firestrand froze up.
The four friends sat at their tables as Mr. Cake went into the kitchen. Firestrand sat with Mac, and the girls sat on the other side of the room. The others started talking, but Maccieveli couldn't keep his eyes off of Canus. Firestrand nudged him on the shoulder and whispered, "Now's your chance." Fire strand sat back as Mac gulped, got up, and walked over to the girls. He said a few things quietly that Firestrand couldn't hear, and Canus gave a violent nod.
He had done it. Firestrand got a smile across his face, as he saw Willow looking his direction. He could almost see her thoughts, and he didn't like them.