Hopes and Aspirations - Part 1 of 3

by That Pokemon Freak

First published

A story about a young colt's life, how he came from nothing, no mother, no father and he had lost his sister, one day hoping to achieve his life goal and find his parents.

After being abandoned by his parents and the death of his sister, Bass Line was alone in the world, he shut everyone out at the orphanage, he only had friends when he reached primary school in cloudsdale. He goes about his life steering clear of other ponys, only talking to the few he had made earlier in life, but if he wants to succeed in his chosen carer line then he will have to change.

Some characters tagged will not appear until later chapters.
This is my first fiction so any improvements or constructive criticisms will be appreciated.
I would like to thank tidicuses for helping me, he was the first proof reader and he gives me alot of improvements for the fiction.

abandoned

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Chapter one - Abandoned

The streets were blocked by the constant and heavy down pour caused by the Pegasi and there weather machines. A young looking Pegasus, fifteen at most, hurried through the dark, lonely streets, clutching her new born colt and filly in here hooves as she went. Screams echoed through the streets and the colt and his sister cried for their mother’s attention, be it food, or just plain love, she would not answer their calls, she just looked straight ahead, the only thing she cared about was reaching her destination. The primrose orphanage on the outskirts of ponyville.

We need to go back nine months to see how this began, a young mare had snuck out of her house after being grounded for staying out to late in the first place. She had found her way to her colt friend who was already out later than he should have been, they made their way to a harsh part of town. “I don’t like the look of this place, every corner has a sleazy looking mare on it.” Said the mare with a sense of fear in her voice, “Don’t worry babe, it’ll be fine if you stay with me.” Reassured the colt, bringing her closer to him.

The couple found their way to a run-down bar filled with ponies that the upper class would say looked ‘unsavoury’, the mare took a careful, uneasy seat at the bar with her colt friend, he had a pitch black mane and royal blue coat and pink eyes, his cutie mark was of a set of drum sticks, he was the drummer of a small time band that got the occasional gig to pay the rent, She had a solid green mane and a gray coat with deep amethyst eyes that could make any pony fall at her grace, her cutie mark was of a red cross symbolising her set future career of nursing, she was already in training at a special school dedicated to teaching particular medical skills . They each pulled out fake ID’s to give to the bartender so they could order the shots that they were so desperately craving.

About ten shots later both of the ponies stumbled out of the bar “I *hik* have no idea *hik* how I’m gonna get *hik* home” slurred the mare, who could barely stay on her hoofs.

“Why don’t you crash at mine babe, it’s just around the corner and my parents are out wink wink.” Suggested the colt.

“Oh *hik* yeah” the mare started to rub up against the colt.

The two stumbled through the door, uncontrollably giggling at some forgotten joke that was told on the way home. The colt made his way to the record player and blasted out a piece of old dance music that most clubs have probably forgotten about, the colt bought the mare to her clumsy, drunken hooves to dance she looked into his hazy pink eyes and could see the alcohol at work, numbing his brain cells.

“Your *hik* druuuunk” laughed the mare.

“So are you silly filly” said the colt as he bought himself closer to her “How about we make this a private dance, in my room?”

“That’s a *hik* plan” answered the mare, as she started to stroke her colt friends mane.

Later on that night, in the colt's bedroom, the two started to get frisky and one thing led to another. Over the next two weeks the mare noticed some things, she was extremely tired all day and she had incredibly bad back aches, but the thing that scared her the most, she had missed her period.

The mare made her way, with her colt friend down the seemingly endless hospital corridor to the waiting doctor, the colt was made to wait outside the ultrasound room as they were not married or were a blood relation.

She left the room not knowing what to think, a flood of emotion ran through her as she walk up to her colt friend, who had almost warn a trail into the floor where he had been pacing around in anticipation of the possibly life changing news.

“Well, are you?” the colt questioned with a scene of fear on his voice.

“Its twins” the mare whispered just loud enough for the colt to hear her, but she could not look at him, she just stared at the ground, the colt stumbled slightly at the news but quickly composed himself, he walk over to the mare, who was close to tears, and out a reassuring hoof around her “We are gonna get through this” whispered the colt, the mare look up at his kind, warming smile and gave one back.

Over the next couple of months the effects of the pregnancy got worse and worse, the mare's parents were very accepting of the mare's pregnancy, helping in anyway they could, but the colt on the other hand was freaking out, how was he going to do this at such a young age, he couldn't cope with it, he had to get out of this town. That night he managed to climb through the window to the young mare's room, he left a small envelope on the bed side table, gave her a gentle kiss on the head and climbed out the window and left town, for good.

The next morning, the mare's mum did her normal morning routine of waking her daughter up for breakfast, but this time it was different. The small envelope caught her eye, she hated to be nosey but her curiosity got the better of her.

“I love you, I always will, but I can’t do this, I’m to young and it’s too much to handle, I’m leaving town and I’m not coming back, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

The mare was shocked to her core, she woke up her daughter and handed her the letter “what’s this mum” said the tired mare, as her eyes scanned the page her smile slowly dropped, a sudden waterfall of tears streamed down her face and along her muzzle “How could he do this to me?” she asked with a quiver on the voice, her mum quickly ran over to give a reassuring hoof. That was it, she may as well have been on her own now and she knew, she could not do this without him.

seven months had passed since the colt left, She could not afford nor was she ready for a new born in her life let alone two, hell she didn't even have a colt friend to help her through it. She was drenched from head to hoof, trying to keep her little foals dry and free from the cold, but it seemed that she was sheltering one more than the other, not on purpose of course, she just didn't notice. The colt had inherited his mothers gray coat, but that was as far as it went, he had a dark, green and black mane, his eyes were... strange, they were as gray as stone, the same colour as his coat. This was rare for ponies as more common eye colours were blue, green and pink. The little filly on the other hand had a white coat with big, beautiful pink eyes she got from her farther and a light blue mane.

As the mare reached her destination, a flood of tears rolled down the side of the face, she looked at the little foals in her hooves, who were still screaming their heads off, and she whispered in their ears “No matter where you are, why you are there, or who you are there with, I will always love you from the bottom of my heart.” She place the foals down and wrapped them in one big blanket for warmth, but the little filly was shivering from the cold due to her not getting the full effect of the blankets much needed warmth during the travel. She knocked on the small blue door leading to the orphanage and ran, as if for her life.

An elderly mare answered the door, looking around at first to see if the knocker was still there, it being all too common for ponies to drop their foals as if they were ‘cargo’ and run for the hills, the mare looked down to see the little foals screaming for their mother, she picked them up and took them inside. She placed them on the desk and removed the blanket, a titchy set of wings unfurled from the colts sides and flapped franticly, as if to fly away and search for his mother, but he didn't move, he was not yet strong enough to lift off. The mare noticed something about the beating of his wings, she could see little waves of sound and what sounded like a bass line, as if from a dub-step song, was being emitted from his wings. That along with his strange eye colour made for a mystery of a foal. She instantly gave the little colt a name, he was appropriately named Bass Line. But as for the filly, she didn't move, she was hardly breathing. The old mare quickly found a new dry blanket for her and then took her into a warm room to try to stop the spread of hypothermia, but she was too late, the filly’s body had all but shut down and it was only a matter of time before she died. The little colt was on his own in the world, he didn't have a mother, nor a father, and now her had lost his sister, his only sister, he truly had no one.

After six months the colt had started to grow into a healthy young foal, but he didn't seem to want to interact with other foals, he preferred to play on his own and he shunned other foals who tried to interact with him. He was a quick learner and he was able to use his wings at a young age but only to have fairly controlled exploration ventures around the orphanage, discovering new places to hide away from the world. He was starting to get the hang of speaking singular words like “wing” or “leave” and he had got the hang of names, well his own and Mrs primrose that is. When it came around to sleeping, well there was very little, he would stay wake at night looking at the stars and trying to catch a glimpse of cloudsdale’s beauty in the night sky.

After one year he could form basic sentences like “food please” and “Leave me alone” but mostly he would just give blank stares to any pony that tried to communicate or play with him. He had near enough mastered his wings and could speed around the orphanage a bass line thumping as he went.

There was one place that he had never been and had been instructed by Mrs Primrose never to enter because it was dangerous, that was the attic, but the other foals were being persistent today for him to join in with their games and he needed a new place to hide from the rabble, he flew up and pulled the leaver to open the attic. With a creek and a puff of dust the trap door slowly lowered, the little colt slowly flew in and landed.

There were many different things in the attic that would attract the attention of any pony, but Bass was attracted to one thing above any, a large contraption that was a mixture of buttons, shifters and keys. Bass noticed the words “Bass m-m-mast-t-ter, hmm I wonder what it does” the young colt eagerly muttered to himself. Bass climbed up onto the stall that was placed in the centre of the contraption, he scanned the surface of the contraption noticing the two large disks with needles resting on their surface, he then did what any other foal would do In his situation, press the biggest button he could see and hope it does something, and it did. The machine roared into life, the disks started to spin and as they did, the foal discovered his calling in life, a light music beat kicked in, the little colt started to bob his head in time with the music and every increasing grim emerged on his little mouth, the beat started to get louder and louder until it abruptly stopped, and then, the bass line dropped. A wave of pure happiness rolled over his body and the heavenly music was cut off when Mr Primrose pulled the cord out of the wall.

Bass got an earful that night “how could you be so reckless”, “you could have got hurt”, he was not allowed to leave his room for a week. But he would never, ever forget the day he got his cutie mark, a speaker bellowing out musical notes symbolising his love for bass and his dreams of being Equestria’s most famous DJ, he couldn't have been happier.

The first friend

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Chapter 2 – The first friend

“NO! For the last time, NO!” Basses words echoed through the yard of the orphanage.

“Fine be that way, we just wanted to be kind,” mumbled one of the foals as the small group of 5 wandered away back into the main part of the yard to continue play hide and seek.

“Can I get one moment to myself in this place?” said the colt under his breath. There was a new policy in place at the orphanage meaning that all foals had to spend at least an hour outside to get some fresh air, this was accepted well amongst all of the foals that lived there, all but one lonely little pegasus.

“Bass, could you come and see me for a second please?” called Mrs. Primrose, with a slightly concerned tone mixed in with her usual angry sounding voice.

“Do I have to?” answered the foal.

“YES! now don’t give me back talk you little trouble maker or ill lock up the turn table again.”

“Fine, I’m coming, I’m coming.” The little foal trotted up to the old earth pony and fluttered up so that they were face to face.

“look, Bass, I understand that you are not fond of other ponies, or playing, but you need to start making friends, you’re 3 now and you have been accepted into Cloudsdale primary school for next year, if you don’t learn how to make friends now then I fear that you never will.” Lectured the old mare, the usual anger in her voice switching to a mixture of kindness and sympathy. The little foal landed and stayed silent for a minute.

“I....I don’t need friends, all I need is my music and I will be fine, now stop worrying over me. Please?” Replied the little colt, with a quiver on his voice but maintaining the sense of anger above all.

He flew off to one of his many outside hiding places, this time it was his roof to perch, this was his favourite spot. There were only two pegasi in the orphanage and the other one was new, and therefore rather timid and unadventurous. The majority of the foals there were earth ponies, there were a few unicorns but not near as much as the earth ponies. Bass stared down at the foals playing on the different, predictably boring play ground equipment: swing set, slide, see-saw the works. The yard spanned around three sides of the complex, the back was the main and biggest part with all of the equipment in it. The other two sides were just thin, strips of grass with benches at the far end. The whole place was walled off by a 10 foot tall brick wall, it was rather daunting to the little foals, and persuaded them to behave.

As Bass was drifting off into one of his many day time naps, which made up for his lack of sleep at night, he heard a noise that was unsettling to him.

“No, leave me alone, I don’t have anything on me, please, I’m telling the truth.” Squeaked the voice of a little colt. The sounds were coming from one of the side alleys of the yard, too far away for Mrs Primrose to hear her.

“We don’t believe you, do we boys?” one of the voices retaliated quickly to the little colt making him shriek a bit
“Nope, not one bit Swift Hoof” said the other two voices in unison.

“Swift Hoof, that guy is a jerk” mumbled Bass softly to himself. Bass had to get a look at what was causing the dispute, an earth pony and two unicorns had cornered a little pegasus.

“Look just give us any bits you have on you and we will let you go, right boys?” said the earth pony.

“Yeah sure Swift Hoof” said the two unicorns once again in unison, as if they had rehearsed this scenario.

“I told you, I don’t have any bits.” Replied the colt, with a very quiet tone as to not get his muggers into trouble with Mrs Primrose, which would just make things worse.

“STOP,” Swift’s hoof smashed the wall next to him “.....lying to me, okay.” Said swift with an ever increasing tone of over whelming anger on his voice.

“Please stop, please.” The colt broke down into tears, the group of muggers started to laugh which made the foal cry more.

“I gota help him!” said Bass as he readied himself for a charge, he spread his wings and lowered his head along with the rest of the front of his body. He leaped off of the roof of the building and straight for swift.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

All of the foals looked up to see a haze of gray, black and green heading straight for them. Bass struck Swift and knocked him down; he was now standing between the group and the now startled little colt.

“Back off, I don’t want to have to do serious damage but I will if I have to!” said the pegasus, standing in a position to attack any pony that made a move for him or the colt behind him.

“Come on guys, a few bits aren't worth this.” Said Swift as he steadied himself. The trio walked back into the main part of the yard and mixed back into the rabble of foals playing their games.

Bass turned to face the frightened little colt, “are you okay?” he said with a reassuring tone on his voice. “They didn't hurt you did they?”

“N-no they didn't. T-t-thank you!” the little colt ran to bass giving him a hug. he had a gray coat, much like Basses, a red and purple mane with red eyes, he had yet to get his cutie mark.

“Hay there, no need for that. What’s your name?” said Bass, Pealing the little colt off of him.

“Static Shock and you?”

“I’m Bass Line, how old are you; can you use your wings yet?”

“Not very well, I’m only one” the little colt blushed.

“Well could you fly up to the roof?”

“I don’t know, I could try.”

“don’t worry, I will be right beneath you if you need me, let’s go.”

The little colt nervously made his way off the ground closely followed by Bass, they ascended to the roof with no problems and they landed safely of the flat layer of tiles.

“So how long have you been here?” Bass asked “I haven’t seen you around much.”

“I just came in two days ago, my erm.., my parents were alcoholics and some colts in black suites brought me here, they said it would be safer, guess they were wrong.” The small colt let out a small chuckle and gave a smirk.

“Don’t worry kid, stay with me, and I'll protect you. See me as your big brother; I won’t let anything happen to you” Bass gave a smile

“Okay.....Bro.”

First day of school

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Chapter 3 – First day of school

“BASS!!!! HURRY UP, YOUR GOING TO BE LATE!!!!” Mrs Primrose screamed up the winding stairs of the orphanage.

“YEAH, YEAH I'M COMING!” replied the pegasus.

“Now i’m going to be gone most of the day, so you’re not gonna have me to help you out.” Said Bass to his little colt friend, Static.

“Why do you have to go? Stay please!” whimpered the little colt, tears welling up in his little red eyes.

“I have to buddy, don’t worry anyone gives you trouble tell me when I get back and I will ruff them up” chuckled Bass as he started to leave.

“Okay Bass, have fun.”

“I wouldn't get your hopes up for that.”

“BASS, DONT MAKE ME COME UP THERE!!!!” shouted Mrs Primrose once again.

“ugh.”


Bass felt the small blue doors close behind him, he was on his own. The other pony’s went to Ponyville elementary, whilst Bass was going to Cloudsdale elementary, he lifted off the ground, took the Foalcandy headphones out of his satchel, which he had saved up for using his measly pocket money of 2 bits a week, and flew off, in no hurry, to his school.

Two beats were emanating from him this time, one from his wings and the other from the overly loud music coming from his headphones. He was dreading school, he hated interaction with other foals, except static he was an exception.

He landed on the front playground of the rather large looking school. The school its self was made up of seven class rooms, a teaches lounge and a head mistresses office, plus the 3 sectioned play ground surrounding the school. The little foal took off his headphones and placed them around his neck, he was dreading every single moment of this, it did not appeal to him. There were small groups of three or four foals, mostly same-sex groups them not yet realizing why filly’s and colt’s would EVER be friends. Bass found a quiet corner of the playground, sat down and put on his headphones once again until ushered in by a nice looking mare.

He entered a reasonably sized class room filled with exited four year olds, a.k.a. hell. The teacher lined all of the foals at the back of the class, one stood out more than the others though, she was a rather small filly with a cyan coat and pink eyes, but she had the most colourful rainbow mane.

The same mare as before stood at the front of the class, she had a light green coat with very pale blue eyes and a brown coat. “Okay class, I am Mrs Evergreen and I will be your teacher for the remainder of your time here. Now we are going to go along the line and introduce ourselves, say your names favourite colour and your hobby if you have one, you at the end with the rainbow mane, can you start please?”

The little filly spoke up “Hi, I’m Rainbow Dash, my favourite colour is red and I love to push my limits at flying.” She said in a cute and squeaky, yet extremely confident voice

A few more pony spoke, then the line came to a rather lanky filly with a butter yellow coat, blue eyes and a pink mane “H-h-hello, i’m flu....” the rest of the sentence was muffled by her hair as she had opted to hiding behind it.

“I’m sorry dear, could you speak up?” asked Mrs Evergreen in a sweet, loving tone.

The quite voice perked up a bit “I’m Fluttershy” she stopped there refusing to go further.

“I suppose that will be enough for now, thank you dear.” Said Mrs Evergreen “and next, the colt with the headphone around his neck?”

“Hi, i’m Bass Line, my favourite colour is green and I like to listen to music, alone.” Said the colt, in a deep and rather depressing tone.

“O-okay then, thank you.” She said with an uneasy smile on her face. “Next please, the Filly with the gray coat and golden eyes.”

The first lesson of the day was simple introduction activities that Bass hated with a deep fiery passion, especially because he didn't get to speak to this, Rainbow Dash filly, that he found himself strangely drawn to, she seemed to be loud and confident with whoever she spoke with, colt or filly she didn't care, “she is.... amazing,” Bass mumbled to himself and let at a small smirk.

Break didn't come around soon enough, as Bass when to put his headphones on Mrs Evergreen intervened “Bass, no tech is to be used on school ground, take them off please.” He slid the headphones off and into his satchel. He again found a quiet corner to sit and be alone; he just watched the other foals play around, not a care in the word. Soon his vision was blocked by a wall of cyan.

“Hey!” said the rainbow filly “Why are you over here all on your own?”

“I like it.” Were the only words that the filly got.

“W-what?” laughed the filly “You don’t like other ponies?”

“Not really.”

“Have you ever given them a chance?”

“No, and I don’t want to.”

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“Will you give me a chance?”

The colt thought for a minute, he wanted to because of his fascination of this filly, but he didn't because he wanted to be left alone.

“Ugh, I don’t see why not.” Said the colt with a smile.

“Cool, come with me.”

“Where are we going.” Said the colt as he was dragged out if the corner he was so fond of.

“We are gonna go to the flying track and have a race”

“Erm, okay if we have to.”

“We do, now tell me about yourself Bass. I haven’t seen you around cloudsdale before.”

“I don’t live in cloudsdale, I live in a place called ponyville, on the surface.”

“Oh that’s cool, what are your parents like?”

“I erm..... I don’t have parents.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know, I live in a big house with a bunch of other foals called an or-orphanage.”

“That sounds fun! I bet you have lodes of friends.”

“No, I only have one, who is more like a brother to me than a friend.”

“That sucks, well now you have two friends.” The filly looked behind her and gave a warming smile to the colt, who gave one back.
“Where here!” said the filly almost shouting it due to excitement, this was going to be her first race that wasn’t with her dad. She did have other friends but they didn’t have the same passion for speed that she did.

“Come on, come on, come on let’s go!” she shouted, her voice squeaking even more due to the shear excitement of a real race.

“Ok, keep your mane on!”

The two lined up next to each other, ready to race.

“Ready”

“Set”

“GO!”

The two shot off at fairly equal speed, the two were neck and neck round the first lap. Bass’s wings producing the Bass line that was now his trade mark noise, Rainbow herd this and started bobbing her head to it and smiling.

“wow, your fast” huffed Rainbow “but not fast enough” the rainbow filly let out a massive burst of speed, darting ahead of Bass, the was not a chance in hell he was going to catch up to her, not in a million years.

After the race the two walked back to Bass’s corner only to find that it was occupied by the nervous butter coloured filly from earlier.
“Umm, excuse me?” said Bass in a soft tone as not to frighten the filly that was not aware of their presence, she jumped anyway.
“oh, umm I’m sorry, is this your spot, I’m sorry I'll go.”

“WHAT?!?!” the loud words made Fluttershy shriek a bit “Na we’ll just sit with you, no bother.” Insisted rainbow.
“Oh, ok then.” Whispered the filly.

Rainbow and Bass started to talk about Bass’s orphanage and Rainbows parents.
“So what’s the surface like?” asked rainbow.

“Erm, did you say the surface?” piped up a small voice form behind the pair.
“Yeah, I live there” replied Bass.

“That’s amazing, I have heard that there are strange animals of the surface that have legs and no wings, is that true?
“Yeah, there are lodes.”

“Oh how wonderful, I would love to go there someday and see some.”
“Tell us more about the surface.” Demanded Rainbow.

For the rest of their forty-five minute break Bass told them all he knew about the surface ,and all about ponyville and its inhabitants, well all he knew from his not so frequent visits. But they soon had to get back into their class; this wasn’t that bad now as he had made a couple of friends that he could sit next to. The rest of the day went without a hitch. At the end of the day the three ponies agreed to meet at the same corner every school day, well two were, one was quietly declining to the offer but the other two drowned her out, but she desperately wanted friends so she made herself agree in the end .Fluttershy and Rainbow flew off in the same direction waving good bye to their new friend and he waved back

“What a story I have to tell Static today” mumbled Bass to himself as he slid his Foalcandies over his ears.

The start of problems

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Chapter 4 – The start of problems

It’s been five years since Bass started school, for the most part, he liked it, he had two good friends he was doing well in his subjects. It was his last year of primary school before he left for his new school, but he still had to last another year.

It was just another average day, the rooms of the orphanage were woken up by the simultaneous ringing of alarm clocks. But as per always one of the many foals of the orphanage was all ready up, he didn't usually get much sleep or in some cases none at all, this was one of those nights and it was a school night, so that made it all the worse. The little foal trotted out of bed and into his place in line for one of the bathrooms of the orphanage, after waiting what seemed like an eternity he went into the bathroom to have a short shower and to brush up and his hygiene.

As he trotted down the stairs he met up with his buddy Static as they always did in the morning to have breakfast together, a bowl of oats and a choice of fruit was the meal of the day, well actually it was the meal of every day. The two spoke and joked for a bit before Bass had to head off for school. Bass wouldn't of minded school, if it wasn't for a colt named Acrimony joining at the same time he did, he hated everything and everyone, it was unfortunate because the one thing he did like was music, same as Bass. Acrimony was a bully, for some reason he specifically targeted Bass and made his school life a living hell.

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“Right” said Bass “I’m off, don’t get into trouble at school.” He gave Static a smirk and flew out the door. Static didn't get into Cloudsdale School so he went to the nearby Ponyville Primary. He had made some friends that walked home with him, Bass would see him wave good bye to them, one was an orange pony with a golden mane and green eyes she had the end of her mane and tale in hair bands and spoke with Southern accent, the other one was a white unicorn with a purple mane and blue eyes, she had a very upper class accent.

Bass waved good bye to Mrs Primrose as she looked on from the second floor window. She knew about Bass’ bulling problem by seeing his bruises and scrapes, it wasn't difficult to put two and two together, and she was trying to confront him about it but could never find the right time or place.

Bass could only dread what was going to happen today. His best bet was to stay close to Rainbow and Fluttershy and speed the way home to avoid the bully.

Lessons passed with no problems, but they rarely did, but close to the end of the lesson, Rainbow was causing trouble, there was no change there but this time she decided to start a paint fight in arts and crafts, this got a her a break time with the teacher as punishment, which throw Bass’ plan all out of order.

“How is this gonna work now, I can’t defend myself against him and Fluttershy is about as helpful and a leaf trying to put out a furnace.” Bass thought to himself. “I’m gonna die, the last few times Rainbow stepped in before things got to serious but she isn't here this time, i’m screwed!”

The bell rang, the little chimes echoed in the mind of the young colt “oh god” he whispered to himself as he left the class room and into the playground. He scanned the vast space for his tormentor but he was nowhere to be seen, relief filled Bass followed by skepticism “what if he was being let out late, what if he is waiting for after school, what can I do?” Bass frantically thought to himself.

“G-guess it will just be me and you today Bass.” Said Fluttershy “I don’t know why Rainbow gets into trouble all the time.”

Bass pushed the thoughts of getting beaten up to the back of his mind. “Yeah I know.” Replied Bass “You've been round her house right?”

“Yes, once”

“Did her parents seem fine, any fighting?”

“No not at all, they all seemed very happy.”

“hmm, oh well. What do you want to talk about?”

“Oh I don’t mind, whatever you want to talk about is fine”

The two sat for the beak talking and laughing almost forgetting the absence of Rainbow. The thought of Acrimony was festering in the back of his mind throughout the whole day, and he showed it. All throughout the break he seemed somewhat distant form the conversations with Fluttershy, she would ask if he was fine but he would just shrug it off with an “oh yeah, just tired” but she knew something was wrong.

The end of the day came around and every one said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

“R-rainbow?” said Fluttershy

“Yeah?” Replied the rainbow pony

“Have you noticed anything.... different about Bass?”

“Yeah, actually now that you say it I have.”

“I’m very worried about him.”

“Maybe we should follow him home?”

“umm, if you think it won’t be invading his privacy.”

“Na, we are doing this to help him.”

The two made a sudden u-turn in the direction of Bass. They stealthily followed him home, hiding behind clouds.

Bass got about half way home before he was stopped in his tracks.

“HEY!” shouted Acrimony

Unfortunately Rainbow and Fluttershy fell behind after getting lost on a swarm of rain clouds, now they were searching for him round the sky, as far as they thought he would go.

“What do you want?” replied Bass

“To hurt you!” said Acrimony with a sadistic smile pasted across his muzzle

Acrimony flew closer to Bass he had only one goal and that was senseless violence, Acrimony had something wrong with him, he was not all there he just craved violence.

Bass darted off, trying to get away from Acrimony hiding behind clouds and swooping down to the ground weaving between houses but that didn't work.

After a five minute chase Bass’ wings started to tire, Acrimony grabbed Bass’ hoof and threw him down on a cloud, it was hard impact rendering Bass unable to move. Acrimony landed on top of Bass kicking him in the stomach as he landed, Bass let out a loud scream, coughing up a little blood as he did. Rainbow and Fluttershy herd the scream and flew off in its direction. Acrimony landed a hoof on Bass’ cheek, Bass let out a groan. Bass retaliated with a sharp hoof to Acrimony’s chest in an attempt to get him off but it didn't work, all it did was prompt a more violent response from Acrimony delivering a hoof to the stomach, another groan was let out by Bass. Acrimony readied his hoof for a knockout blow to Bass’ temple, He raised his hoof when a flash of multicolored filly smacked Acrimony off of Bass soon after delivering a volley of hoofs to Acrimony stomach, he pushed off the rainbow pony and flew away.

When Rainbow turned around Fluttershy was already with bass, trying to pull him up to his hooves. Rainbow dashed over to them also going to the aid of Bass. As he stumbled to his feet he coughed up a small amount of blood and pushed the two fillies away.

“I’m fine, just let me stand.” Snapped Bass

“Okay dude, don’t get angry at us!” said Rainbow

“I’m sorry, thank you.” Bass looked up at them both giving a smile

“Do you want us to fly you home?” asked Fluttershy

“No, thank you, I will be fine”

The colt clumsily fluttered back to the orphanage Mrs Primrose was waiting on the door step, Bass was a bit later than usual and she was worried. Bass stumbled to the floor in front of the old pony. She hastily picked him up and bought him inside shouting “Clear the way!” and gently shoving foals out of the way.

Bass was fine; he had a few bandages and a day or so off of school. The school sent a message to Mrs Primrose informing her that Acrimony had been expelled from school and we being tried in a young offenders court for premeditated GBH and he was looking at two years away in a young offender institution. But, after that day Bass changed, he was quieter, more seclude, he seemed so angry, but sad at the same time.

In the following weeks Bass stopped starting conversations, he would respond to people, but he was quieter when he spoke, and his sentences were not as long or as detailed as used to be. Static was the first to notice these changes.

“Moring Bass, how are you doing today?” asked Static

“Fine, thank you.” Replied Bass almost at a whisper

“First day back at school, right?”

“Yeah.”

“cool, cool.”

“yeah, I better be off, see you later.”

“Yeah see you later.”

Bass flew off to school; he was dreading this day coming around. He couldn’t bear to face his friends, he was mortified for them to see him like that, so helpless.

“Hay Bass, you’re back. Great to see you buddy!” Yelled Rainbow from across the playground

Something was telling Bass to not show his emotions, to stop showing his true emotions all together when he is around people, just lie.