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The back story to handyhooves. How he became the pony he is today, loosely based off my own, altered to suit the ponyverse.

Handyhooves Ro was the first son of a couple who lived in the nicer district near Baltimare, a private neighborhood known as Foalton. His mother, Sort `n` File, was a earth pony with raven mane and tail, except a few strands of white from the stress of her work. Her fur color was a light hue of blue, and hazel eyes. His father was a unicorn named Data Link, who had many skills, but did best with anything involving computers. He was a buff stallion with a bit of a gut, he had a light brown tail, and he would shave his mane as he preferred the look with his scruff on his chin. His fur color was a rustic orange, and he was a head strong pony that was proud the day his son was born. Handyhooves was a care free colt, getting into mischief that often lead to scrapes and bruises. When he learned to first use magic, his father taught him everything he knew how to make or fix, and his mother had him do house whole chorus to better control his magic, which was only levitation at the time. In later years, Sort `n` File gave birth to Handy`s younger sister, a earth pony named Duck Tapper. Duck Tapper had a fascination with tape, and being the older brother, Handy would always watch out and cared for his little sister. Years had past, and Handy was no where near finding his cutie mark, despite everything his parents taught him. To help Handy discover his cutie mark, they enrolled Handyhooves into a Tradespony Academy, and so Handy went away to see if the Academy could help.
At the Academy, Handy was learning to become an electrician pony, like his father once was, in hopes that it would lead to him learning his special talent. months would pass and still came up empty hoofed. During one of Handy`s finals, the heads of the Academy would observe a qualifying test to see every unicorn’s potential at levitation spells as a evaluation of their skill, and possible candidate for magic learning. The test goes as this, in front of the filly or colt, is an assortment of tools, and they have to levitate and use as many different tools as possible at the same time. For most unicorns at the school, they can use 1 to 4 objects at the most, and that was it. In rare cases, they could use 6 or more tools, and when a young unicorn experienced magical overdrive, none could use more than 20 different tools at the same time. Handy and another colt named Gear Twist however surprised the aristocratic heads of the school. Handy found that he could easily use 10 different tools at the same time with his magic, and when he concentrated hard enough, he would go into magical overdrive. He of course was unaware of himself, but he was observed by the heads that he used 40 different tools at the same time, and seem to start building a structure with any nearby materials. 
Handy and Gear Twist were held onto by the Heads of the school, both of them branded with a marking of the academy’s secret club, Darksmiths. The club consisted of three academy heads and a few teachers who feel they have the right to royal positions in the Canterlot kingdom. Their symbol was a horse shoe and a gear, impaled by a sword, with wings around the objects at the base, which was very painful for Handy and the other unicorn to get branded with. Covering their tracks by sending letters to their families stating that they received a scholarship to a magic school in canterlot, the two were brutally trained by wizard ponies to fully find their full magic potential. Handy under a lot of stress from the Darksmiths and their training, along with still not finding his special talent, sent Handy in a deep depression. The Darksmiths planned to use Handy and Gear Twist as magic warriors who had the combined magic potential of 80 or more unicorns, and be able to construct and deconstruct anything to get through the royal guards and threaten Celeistia into give in to their demands.
While in his depressed state, Handy had a dream of an iron pony that was 10 times the size of a stallion. It would stand 3 stallions tall, and would breath fire out it’s mouth and armed with various weapons while it’s armor was strong enough to withstand a dragon’s assault. He then found himself to be the very pilot of this iron pony, able to fight off dragons and armies of changelings with ease. When he woke up, Handyhooves drew his dream up, naming it the Iron Trojan, and hid it away, hoping one day to serve the Princess in such a mighty creation.
After years of training, Handy could only use illumination, and levitation spells, he couldn’t grasp any other spell, and his come to life spell would end up having bad effect when in use. Gear Twist showed more promise, the Darksmiths question if Handy would be any useful at all. Their plans were ruined one day, when Gear Twist was suddenly kidnapped by a group of stallions who ended up burning the school down for unexplained reasons. Handy being among a group of survivors from the school burning, left strained. The fire drew attention to the royal forces, and they came to put out the fire and rescue the survivors. 
Handy meet a guard that was helping them out, and noticed the guard’s armor was scratched up and dented. With a file and a small hammer that Handy found, he fixed the guard’s armor as thanks. Armor good as new, the guard thanked Handy for a job well done, and suddenly it happened!
Upon Handyhooves` flank, a crescent wrench glowed, and he realized his special talent. Handy liked to use his skills of fixing and making stuff for ponies he wanted to help! Handy returned home and revealed his cutie mark to his family. Inspired by the guard who helped him, Handy joined the Royal Air Force as a maintenance pony. As time carried on however, Handy quickly discovered that the work was extremely stressful to him while on base, and he ended up in the mental ward of the nearby hospital, after a year of service to the R.A.F. As he was examined for acute sensitivity to stress, he met a young dragon named Bellow, who was in for anger management. The two became fast friends, and after getting discharged together, they formed a partnership to make a name for themselves together in a craft shop. They went to Baltimare, but found out that many other tradesponies were doing the same. Feeling crowded, they left together and search Equestria for a place where they can make a living and a name with their craft shop.