//------------------------------//
// Path of honor part 2 
// Story: The Legend of Lightning Ace: Childhood 
// by LightningAce7 
//------------------------------//

             It had been a month and a few weeks since Lightning had met Flash. They had become fast friends, always hanging out. Derpy and Fluttershy couldn't possibly be in safer hooves, the bullies dare not make fun of them now. Lightning was now locked in a bitter rivalry with Rainbow Dash, which left Lightning asking why. Not to mention how. It was obvious that she had become much more competetive, but something felt off about the whole thing. Today was a special day though. Today the coach had put together a race to test everypony as to how good they've become at flying.

It was now breakfast as everypony gathered in the cafeteria. Lightning and company had sat down. "I can't wait for the race!" Flash said.

"I can. I just know what will happen. Dash will once again out fly everypony but me. It always comes down to us two." Lightning said, on the brink of ranting. Suddenly, Lightning found that a muffin was rammed into his mouth, effectively denying him the ability to rant.

"Thanks Derpy" Flash said. Derpy squeed in response.

"He needed a muffin." Derpy said.

After breakfast all the foals made their way to the track. It was midmorning now, and the top fliers of all three teams had moved up to the line. Steel himself had taken position at the side of the start line with a flag propped against his foreleg. The crowd was quiet with anticipation. They already knew the two ponies that would wind up neck and neck. The racers had taken their positions. The track now before them. Among the racers were of course Lightning Ace and Rainbow Dash. They simply gave eachother a blank stare, like they expected eachother to say something. "On your marks..." Steel yelled. Lightning could feel the adrenaline. "Get set..." The foals coiled, ready for launch. "GO!" With that the little racers took off.

In the starting stretch the pack quickly thinned as Lightning and Rainbow neared the first turn. Meanwhile Flash and the others cheered him on as he passed them. A quarter through the track and the pack had thinned out to only a few ponies. The rest were still rounding the first turn. At the halfway point most of the racers had fallen way behind, it was now just down to four. As they made another turn through the next cloud ring one of the two foals in back crashed through the ring while trying to pass the other. Now there were only three. The final turn and it was down to Dash and Lightning. They swooped down into the final stretch at full speed. The final stretch was essensually a long, steep nose dive. Both Dash and Lightning entered the dive. Both Lightning and Dash started to dive faster as everypony watched in anticipation. Suddenly a very small mach cone started to form on both of them. There was no going back now, it was crash into the ground or follow through with a sonic boom with enough altitude to break the dive. The Sonic Rainboom came to mind. In the legend, during the few precious seconds following it, it is said that unlike a normal sonic boom, the Rainboom allows you to pull turns that would snap the spine of anyponyelse. Neither one could do it, so timing was now everything. One wrong move and somepony wouldn't be flying for months. Assuming they survive. Their speed only increased as the ground started coming up at an alarming rate. The time was now. They both started to try to break the dive. 

Only, something went wrong.

"My wing!" was all Lightning could yell before a shooting pain radiated from his right wing. He then remembered the beating he got a month or so ago. They had nearly broken his wing. And now a month of wear had taken it's toll. Rainbow Dash had already broken her dive, and was climbing back up towards the finish. Lightning's right wing was now entirely in pain as it started to cramp up. "No...No!" He cried as he continued to fall. There were few clouds at this low altitude, and he instinctly aimed for them using his still functional wing. He managed to hit them but it only slowed his descent. He was running out of sky fast.

"Lightning!" Flash yelled as he spotted the colt free falling towards the ground. Without a second thought he dove straight down. He flew as fast as he could but was unfortunately too far away to catch him in time.

Lightning had perhaps one last option to save himself. He had to try to use his good wing to attempt to half glide. It was a long shot but it was his only option left. He stretched his wing as far out as it could extend an tried to lean into it. The plan worked, but it would not be a safe landing.

By the time Flash got to him, Lightning lay limp and unconcious on the ground. There was blood on his coat and running down his face. "No! Lightning! Get up!" He yelled. Derpy had now joined him as they looked in horror at the crippled form that was Lightning Ace.

"Lightning!" Derpy cried. They needed to get him help fast. He was quickly losing blood. "Get help! I'll stay with lightning!"

Flash flew up and quickly scanned the horizon. The only town for miles was Manehatten. And there was no way in Tartarus they would be able to fly him all the way back to Cloudsdale. Flash flew back down. "The only place around is Manehatten." Flash said. Derpy got under Lightning and tried to stand. Flash helped and they managed to get him off the ground. Now they seperately needed to stop the bleeding. Derpy still had a towel from camp...though nopony knew why she had it. Still it was perfect for the current situation. Lightning was on Flash's back, he used his wings to keep Lightning from falling of. Derpy tied the towel tight to Lightning's wing. The bleeding stopped. After a sigh of relief, they faced their next daunting task, getting Lightning to Manehatten.

to be continued...