A lot has happened in the last seven chapters. Only 2 days till Hearts Warming Eve and Hawthorn, a 16 year old unicorn has gained dominative control over the schoolhouse in Ponyville, declaring himself Lord and Master, ruling with an iron hoof. With a legion of minions at his disposal, and with help from his assistants: Metal Hooves, Quicksilver and Onyx Charmer, hope seems grim. Hawthorn has imprisoned the entire student body and detained the teacher's staff to a deadlock. Cinder Gold, a goblin and a weasel named Pepper are riddling around somewhere in the heart of the schools ventilation system. Poor little Patch Work is locked up in the cold attic and Lemon Blossom is forced to cook in the kitchen. Candlebright and Vintage Scripture remain undetected in the library. Wolfee has turned up MIA as Cinder continues to search for her friend. As for Hand Grenade, he stands to be charged and judged in court for treason against Hawthorn's rule. And what is to become of the tragic story of the young and innocent lives of Thespian Moon and Stunning Stitch?

All this and it's not even noon yet.

Will Hawthorn continue to rule Ponyville School unchallenged?

Will Cinder Gold find her friend and sound the alarm in time?

Will Onyx Charmer get his 1000 bits he was promised?

Lets read on, and find out…

Chapter 8

The Pony Express 501 plowed forward, speeding through the wintery white countryside of Equestria, cutting a new path through the unblemished snow.

Beneath the gloomy, gray overcast, the rolling hills were blanketed with shimmering snow for as far as the eye could see. Towering high above the meek hill view loomed the grand Canterlot Mountain peeks, rising high into the heavens. A light snowfall descended upon Equestria this after noon.

WHOO-WHOOOOOOOOO! The trains whistle blasted, giving warning for anything in its path to make way.

Lightning Runner sighed to himself as he gazed out the train's window, resting his head on his hoof. He stared back at the sad white pegasus in the reflection of the window.

Unbelievable! He said to himself, this day could not get any w-

Lightning Runner caught himself before finishing the thought, fearing he may jinx himself and his situation further. He had been saying it all day long. Ironically, his day has been getting worse all day long also. He didn't even believe in silly superstitious mumble-jumble, but precautions never hurt.

It's been a non-stop nightmare ever since he had left his house this morning (Chapter2) on his way to school. When Bramble descended down from the sky and ask a simple question: "can we count on you?"

I should have flown away as soon as I saw him.

I should have said 'no' to him.

I should have flipped him the hoof and told him to get lost. But I couldn't, I'm not brave. Not like Wolfee. He stood up to Hawthorn AND two of his cronies, to defend Cinder Gold (Chapter4).

He fought for somepony else. I can't even fight for myself.

It's not fair! I can't fight like he did. So what was I supposed to do? If I had said 'no' to Bramble, I would have been in the same place the other students are right now; beaten and tossed into a classroom guarded by minions. What good would I be then?

Lightning Runner shook his head. Grief ate at him. He betrayed his classmates by doing nothing. I deserve to get beaten up, he thought miserably to himself.

What am I going to do now? I'm helping the wrong ponies… and I can't do anything about it. Now I'm on this train going to St. Ponysburge to free Jet Streamer. The worst pony in the world.

Sighing deeply again Lightning Runner looked out of the corner of his eye. Sitting directly in front of him sat Kunai, the sandy colored earth pony. Kunai had been watching him since the train had left the station with his cold, calculative eyes. As if he was peering into his soul. Figuring out what makes the white pegasus tick probably.

In many ways Kunai seemed so much worse than Hawthorn and he didn't even know why.

Sitting directly next to the Lightning Runner and Kunai respectively were two, muscular minions, what were their names? Buff and Tuff, Lightning Runner recalled. Funny names. They were so much alike that they could have been brothers. They kept themselves occupied by taking turns punching each other in the shoulder as hard as they could.

Buff pulled back a stout hoof, took aim and swung. Smacking Tuff in his sore shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain.

Buff laughed.

Tuff then raised a tense hoof and smashed the flat part of his hoof into Buffs shoulder, forcing tears to swell in his eyes.

Tuff laughed.

Lightning Runner rolled his eyes. They've been hitting each other stupid since they got on the train. Not the brightest ponies.

He noticed that Kunai was still watching him. Lightning Runner quickly returned his gaze back to the window. How much longer will this go on for? Why was Hawthorn causing such torment? I just want to go home. I don't want my mother to worry about me. It's already hard enough for her as it is being a single parent. How will she react when she finds out the school is being held hostage?

What then?

"Miss home?" Kunai said, as if he had heard exactly what Lightning Runner was thinking.

"What?" was the only thing he managed to say.

"You miss you home, don't you? You're not from around here, right." Kunai said coolly, nodding his head to the snowy view outside the window, still not taking his eyes off the pegasus. "I've never seen anypony slip in the snow as much as you do."

"Ponyville? Oh, no, I'm not from Ponyville. Actually we just moved here from Las Pegasus. It doesn't snow there." Lightning Runner said shyly.

"Las Pegasus? Big city. Would you rather be living there still?"

Lightning Runner almost laughed at the question. I'd rather be anywhere in Equestria. Anywhere but here.

Kunai narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. As if he was looking through the pony. Oh-on! He was taking to long to answer again… or the earth pony was reading his mind.

"I-It's okay here. I guess. I just don't like how cold it gets," he said hastily. "I've never seen snow before."

"Ya've never seen snow?" Buff said shocked. Buff and Tuff had stopped their game to listen in on the conversation.

"Uhm, yeah. It's too warm in Las Pegasus for snow. It doesn't even rain much either."

"So ya likeded it better over there?" Buff asked.

He nodded. "Yep, it was the best. All my friends are there too."

Buff looked up to Tuff with a sad face. "I couldn't neva leave ma best buddy behind. It musta've been hard fer ya to leave ya best pal, huh?"

"It was hard. Leaving my best friend wasn't easy. We had some amazing times together. We were thick as thieves, the two of us," he said with a sad smile.

"I bet ya think of him all the time?"

"I do think of her a lot," Lightning Runner corrected him.

Buff and Tuff's eye's lit up and they leaned in closer. "Ooooh! A filly friend!" Buff smiled.

"Was she pretty?" Tuff winked.

"Did ya like her. Ya know, like, liked her liked her?" Buff added.

"Well yeah, but not like -" Lightning Runner tried to explain before getting cut off.

"Was she a pegasus like ya or a unicorn?"

"She's a unicorn. But what does that matter?" Lightning Runner shrugged.

"It matters a bunch! Unicorns are so much more prettier."

"They are… I never really put much thought into that."

"Yes in deed. So did ya guys hold hooves?"

"Well, not exactly."

"What about kissing? Did ya two kiss a lot?"

"What! N-No."

"Did ya use tongue when ya kissed? I bet ya did!"

"NO! STOP! I never said I kissed her!" Lightning Runner said in defense.

"Did she let you touch her horn?" Kunai asked curiously.

"WHAT!?" he said offended and shocked, blushing dark red at the thought.

"She did, didn't she, ya lucky stud you." Buff held out his hoof to Lightning Runner for a bro-hoof.

"NO! I would never do any of, of that… stuff. We were best friends. And we liked each other as friends," he said, ignoring Buff's hoof.

Buff and Tuff exchanged curious looks. "Then what did ya guys do then?"

"We hung out all the time, and talked. We talked about everything."

"Boring." Tuff fake-yawned.

"I wasn't finished. We used to explore Las Pegasus. There was always something new and exciting going on. We used to sneak into theatres and watch the ballet performances and watch plays. We used to pretend to be college students and sit in on lectures. We would always get kicked out because we couldn't stop giggling. We had so many fun times together.

Kunai spoke thoughtfully, "It wasn't Las Pegasus you missed. It was your friend."

Lightning Runner nodded, tapping his hooves together. "We were both so sad when we found out that me and my mom had to move to Ponyville."

"That's rough man." Buff patted him on the shoulder.

"I wish I had a filly friend I could be with like that." Tuff said.

"What about me Tuff?" Buff pointed to himself.

"Ya're not a filly, stupid."

"Oh yeah." Everypony laughed at Tuff.

Kunai raised a hoof. "Wait a second. You said you and your mom moved to Ponyville. What about your dad?"

Lightning Runner went blank for a moment. Then turned his head away, looking back out the window. "I-I don't like to talking about it."

There was an awkward silence, before Tuff inconsiderately blurred out, "they got a divorced, right."

"Shut up moron." Kunai smacked the thoughtless minion upside his head.

"Ouch!" He rubbed his temple. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Lightning Runner sighed, "I need to stop being so sensitive about this. I just never really told anypony about my dad. My father he…" He looked back to the others and said, "well… lets just say that my mom and dad never got divorced."

The message sunk in.

"So he died? How?" Tuff carelessly said.

"Idiot!" Kunai smacked the colt in the same spot again.

"OUCH! Sorry, sorry."

"Kunai, it's okay," Lightning Runner pleaded. "It was an accident at his job. I was so young at the time. My mom tried to avoid telling me about it."

"She didn't want to tell ya?" Buff was confused.

"She wanted to protect me. So I wouldn't get hurt… if that makes sense?"

They nodded.

"What about ya mamma? Does she still miss him?" said Tuff.

"I don't know. I know mom still thinks about him though. She always stops to look at a picture of him that's hanging in a hallway. Some times she doesn't even notice that she does it. She'll just stare at it."

"So it's just ya and ya're mom living together?"

"Yeah, we have lots of fun. Whenever she's not working at Ponyville Bank, we go out and do stuff."

Kunai sat up suddenly. His face went serious and his ear pointed straight up and alert. His eyes darted around the train.

"What's a matter ninja-boy? Ya find yaself a filly," Buff joked.

Kunia quickly raised a hoof to silence them, almost threateningly, then said in a cold voice, "Buff, Tuff, get ready to fight…" His ears rotated back and forth. "We were followed."

Just then the lights in the train cut off. Passengers cried out in the dark. Red emergency lights flickered to life as two forms ascended from the overhead.

Kunai smiled. I live for this

Thanks for reading everypony. I'm so sorry that I didn't get the chance to use any new characters this chapter. The plot is just taking off and soon all your OC's will be jumping onto the Bully War train.

All aboard for action, adventure and romance. Fight the good fight and brony on.