//------------------------------// // Grab The Bull(y) By The Horns // Story: New to Ponyville; A Young Colt's Adventure // by AxtontheMechanist //------------------------------// Another day had started in Equestria, and the CMC walked down the paths in Ponyville once more towards their school, chatting animatedly. The weather was sunny once more in the peaceful town and all seemed well. Or at least it seemed. As the CMC were casually walking towards their school, they were interrupted by a small, but nonetheless loud group of young ponies. Or rather, three ponies and one griffin. As they walked past, they snickered at the angered faces of the CMC, laughing at their dismay. “Hey look, Bolt, it’s the Blank Flank Crusaders!” Jackhammer laughed in a booming volume at his own joke “Weak little things aren't they?” He leered at the CMC. In a sense he was right that they were little. At least to him. Jackhammer wasn’t all that small like other colts and fillies, as he was rather large for his age, and what he lacked in brains, he made up in brawn. Lightning Bolt laughed at the CMC beside him, while Diamond Tiara grinned maliciously. Silver Spoon was a different case however, as she looked discomforted and had a look on her face as though to say ‘I’m sorry about this lot. I don’t like the way they’re bullying you... I just want to seem cool.’ Axton noticed this, but kept it to himself, eyeing up his opponents wary of the suspicious new students. While Jackhammer was strong, admittedly Axton would be a fool to tangle with him; he lacked in brains and thus could be easily outwitted. Unfortunately, Lightning Bolt was a different case as his face betrayed nothing behind those dark gold eyes; he was gonna be a tougher cookie to crack. “Look” Axton spoke “We don’t want any trouble, so why don’t you lot clear off?” He stood his ground against the bullies, not wanting anyone to get hurt. Unlikely, as Jackhammer strode up to him, looking down upon the colt. “Look at you, little colt. Can’t fight I bet. Why don’t you take you and your little wussy fillyfriend and get the hay out of my way? Huh?” He leaned in towards Axton, hot breath slowly going against Axton’s face. Axton looked around at Apple Bloom, seeing if she was insulted. While her friends surrounded her, he could still see a small trickle of tears run down her face, a small waterfall out the surface of her eyes. Big Mistake. “Y’know what, Jackhammer? Buck you.” Axton growled a low growl, which emanated from deep inside him. Everypony heard it, and cowered a little. Everypony except from Jackhammer, who got right up in Axton’s face. “What did you say, punk?” Jackhammer bellowed into Axton’s face. That was strike three, and the last straw for Axton. Axton collected his thoughts ‘Alright, big flank bully in my face. What to do? Oh, I got an idea. Not sure whether this will work, but I remember Vinyl saying voice magic was easy if you got it right. Always wanted to do this...’ Axton remembered his favourite video game as his magic grew up inside of him, confusing Jackhammer who let out a “Huh?” before backing away a little. Unfortunately, he was not out of Axton’s magical range and before he knew it, Axton bellowed, using a huge amount of voice magic for his newest attack. “FUS RO DAH!!!!” Axton shouted, remembering the lessons Vinyl had given him in voice magic, something that Twilight couldn't teach him in his time at Ponyville. He felt absolutely epic as he saw Jackhammer fly back through the air, forced back by the large grey shock wave that emanated from Axton’s mouth, sending everyone into silence. Everyone just stared at the magical phenomenon that had happened before their eyes, awed by the sudden show of power. Jackhammer got up slowly and snorted angrily “Y-You aren't gonna get away with this!” and with that, he strode off in fury, with the rest of the bullies. “What in th’ hay was that?” Apple Bloom asked, her voice a mixture of awe and admiration. Axton turned to her with a small smile, before going up to her and kissing her on the lips and replying. “Voice magic, Vinyl taught me. The whole ‘Fus Ro Dah’ thing wasn’t really necessary, but it felt pretty epic anyway. You okay?” Axton asked, worried that the bullies may have hurt her feelings. “Not in front of everypony, Axton...” Apple Bloom blushed “And yeah, ah’m fine.” She gave him a peck on the cheek in reply as they carried on walking. “Axton” Iris walked beside him and saw what had happened “Did you just make a ‘Skyrim; The Equestria Scrolls’ reference?” She smirked at him, surprised at Axton’s evident gamer instinct. He rolled his eyes and laughed as they walked down the street, saying it was ‘too good of an opportunity to pass up’. Twenty minutes later, Ponyville Schoolhouse... “All right class, feel free to go to recess for now. Remember, class resumes in ten minutes!” Cheerilee sat down at her desk, humming away happily to herself as she marked the papers handed in from recent homework assignments. As the young ponies (and other species) filed out of the class like ants, Silver Spoon had walked up next to Axton and gotten his attention. She looked worried, and glanced around herself before speaking. “Uh, Axton? Could I talk to you for a minute?” Silver Spoon asked, worriedly. “Uh, sure, ok. What’s it about? I saw you acting a bit strange when that jerk Jackhammer was picking on me and the rest of the crusaders.” His voice was bitter as he remembered how Jackhammer’s words had stung Apple Bloom like an angry wasp. “I... I don’t wanna hang out with Diamond Tiara anymore. The bullying she’s doing with the others is wrong.” Silver Spoon blurted, before composing herself once more “I was going to ask whether I could stick with you guys from now on. That is, if that’s okay with you.” She gave a small lopsided smile to Axton, a request for his friendship. Axton hesitated for a moment, pondering on her request. After all, her words seemed sincere, and he HAD noticed that she seemed uncomfortable with Jackhammer’s bullying. After a while, he nodded and replied “All right, I’ll explain to the others about this, as long as you promise to not associate yourself with those bullies any more. How does that sound?” He spoke evenly as he wanted to make sure that she was telling the truth. “All right, that’s probably for the best. The only reason I was like that was because... well, I wanted to be cool and accepted. I guess that being cool isn’t everything, huh?” She smiled at him as he nodded, agreeing with her. As Silver Spoon walked out into the playground, following Axton, a single thought flashed through her head. ‘Time to start anew’.