//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Brushed Off // Story: Dusting Off // by Knight Tyrfang //------------------------------// Chapter 1 – Brushed Off                                  Lightning Dust’s stomach growled and she immediately stopped flying, just realizing how hungry she was becoming. She had left the house in such a rush, that she skipped breakfast. The sun was already high up in the sky, and the teal pegasus wasn’t willing to skip two meals when she was planning to fly for many hours without pause.                   Landing on a cloud with a soft ‘pomf’, sending little clouds of… clouds in different directions, she took off her bag and took out some carrots she had grabbed. While she was munching on some lunch, she also pulled out a map, and begun to look it over.                   The map was pretty detailed, as it was drawn for any avid fliers who wanted to be able to go anywhere in the world. Lightning hadn’t really planned on where she wanted to go, and really just flew in one direction, while brooding.                   “Hrm, let’s see…” The teal pegasus thought to herself, as she played around with the carrot leaf in her mouth. “If the sun is there… And I’ve been flying this fast… I should be somewhere near… Accithera. …Wow, I’m already out of Equestria? That must be a new record somewhere…”                   Lighting had only been flying about half as fast as she possibly could. But that was still much faster than any normal pony. Plus, her practicing had gotten her to the point where flying long distances at very high speeds wasn’t that much of a challenge either. All of it was preparation for Wonderbolt Academy… which was now out of her grasp.                   “…Well, since I’m here, I might as well go to Australeo. Always wanted to go there, heard they’ve got one of the top flight camps in all the world.” Lightning put away the map, and picked up her saddlebags. Spitting out the leaf, she looked to the sky, when a thought came to mind.                   “Hrm… If I go at the same pace, It’ll be dark by the time I get there…” She mumbled to herself, and scratched her head. “…Won’t be much time to do anything, or even find somewhere to sleep…”                   “…Buuut, if I go really fast, I could make it there in just an hour…” She thought, her eyes widening at the idea. An impish smile began to form on her face. “…Hehe, Let’s see if I can do it in less time.”                 Confident, the pegasus stretched out, and popped her neck to loosen up. She then stretched out her wings, and extended them to their full span. Pawing at the ground, her eyes narrowed as she put the flight goggles on.                   “Alright, here we go…” Lightning muttered to herself, as she strung a stopwatch around her neck. “Three… Two… One…”                   *Click*                   With a powerful kick, the mare rocketed into the sky, the cloud she was resting on obliterated into mist. At blistering speeds, the daring pegasus hurtled to her destination, blasting any cloud in her path.   ***                 Like Lightning had said, within the next hour she could already see the coast of Australeo, and picked up her pace. She hurtled past the beach, and soon she was on her way to her first planed stop. The capital city of Clawdney.                   “Hehe, right on time.” The pegasus mare thought confidently, her destination getting closer and closer.                   Suddenly, what looked like a gryphon doing mail delivery came out from behind a cloud, unaware of the missile hurtling straight toward him. Lightning saw the gryphon, and tried to slow down, to no avail.                  “…Oh crabapples, I’m going to fast! Gonna crash!”                   And in the next moment, Lightning collided straight into the gryphon with a loud squawk, and the two went hurtling toward the city below… ***                 With a thud, the tangle of bird-beast and pony bounced and skidded down one of the few dust paths that curled around the metropolis’s outskirts. After a bit of struggling, the two separated, both looking a bit haphazard after the collision.                   “Hey! Watch what you’re doing dweeb!” The gryphon growled angrily, pushing herself onto her paws. “…Aw, look! You moron, you made me drop the letters I gotta deliver! They’re everywhere now!”                   Rubbing her head, Lightning was about to retort until she noticed that the grumpy gryphon was already trying to pick up the scattered envelopes, muttering about how she was already slightly behind, and now definitely wouldn’t be able to make delivery in time. Almost guiltily, the pegasus frowned at what she had just done. The delivery pony knew how it felt to drop all the letters she had to deliver, which always seemed to happen whenever that clumsy grey-pony came from Ponyville. She never seemed to watch where she was going. At least she was willing to apologize, and help try to fix her mistake afterwards.                   “…Hey, Sorry.” Lighting said sheepishly, while starting to pick up some of the letters. “All my fault, wasn’t looking where I was going… Here, let me help.”                   The gryphon gave Lightning a suspicious look, but when she noticed that she was actually trying her best to pick up as much as she could, she fell silent.                   “…Hey no, it was partly mine.” The delivery gryphon spoke up, much to the teal pony’s surprise. “I was a bit in a rush, so I wasn’t paying attention. Could’ve easily gotten out of the way in time if I wasn’t so focused on finishing the job on time.”                   “Ah no, mine entirely. Shouldn’t have been flying so fast.” Lighting said, handing her the letters she had picked up. “…Hey, how ‘bout I help you out with your delivery? We can call it even-stevens that way.”                   “Ha ha, what? What can you help about delivering mail?” The gryphon said, doubtfully. “You don’t even look like a local, so I doubt you’d be able to deliver any of them no matter how long you had!”                   “Hey, I work in the post office back in Equestria!” Lightning protested, almost a bit insulted at the challenge. “Give me a map, and half of what you gotta deliver, and I bet I could deliver them faster than you could!”                   The gryphon raised an eyebrow at the challenge, and the started laughing. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a pile of letters, along with a folded up piece of paper.                   “Here, this is a map of my route. I already memorized it, but I still keep it on me anyways. I gotta get these all delivered in the next hour, so meet back at the post office here.” She explained, while pointing at a red dot on the map. “First one there owes the other a mug of cider!”                   “Uh, okay-” Lighting nodded, while placing the parcels in her saddlebags. “Wha- Hey wait, I said we’d be even stevens! Why are we betting on it?”                   “Haha, that’s because the race is enough to be even for me!” The gryphon grinned. “Anyways, threetwoone go!”                   Rocketing off without a chance for Lightning to react, the gryphon was off, already starting to do her deliveries.                   “Hey, that’s cheating!” Lighting roared, looking almost gleeful, and sped off to do what had just been assigned for her.   ***                 Not long later, the two speedsters arrived at the post office at the exact same time. Lightning had done a pretty good job, but got lost once or twice after misreading the map. It turned out the whole ‘not know the local area’ was actually a big disadvantage for the young mare, as she had to focus more on where the deliveries where, rather than on speed. By the time she was back, she was just panting slightly.                   However, the gryphon was panting extraordinarily heavily. She was having a bit of trouble talking, her throat was too dry, so that the two temporarily forgot about who won for a moment while Lightning galloped in to get her a cup of water.                   After quickly gulping the cool liquid down, along with a few more cups of it, she seemed to recover.                   “…Aaaah.” The gryphon let out a satisfied sigh. “How’re you not tired?”                   “Well, I got lost, so I had to take it easy a little bit…” Lightning said guilty, not happy with her performance. Very frustrated with herself, the young mare was disappointed that she wasn’t able to push herself with a simple race like this. She made a vow to learn the streets a little better, so she could have a better performance next time a challenge like this came around.                   The gryphoness gave Lightning an incredulous look. “You… You were taking it easy?! Do you train?!”                   “Yeah, quite a lot!” Perking up quickly from that question, Lightning puffed her chest out with pride. “Anytime I got free time, I’d practice my flying and try to go faster than any pony before!”                   The mail-gryphon stared at the teal pegasus long enough to make her feel a little self-conscious, and embarrassed about saying something so corny. But Lightning did at least feel that was true, she always tried to push herself more than anypony she knew. She certainly was the fastest, until she went to Academy…                   As Lightning was pushing the thought of Wonderbolt Academy out of her mind, the gryphon burst out laughing. “Pfft, haha! Wow, really? Man, I remember when I used to be so devoted to flying like you. ...I wonder, would I be that fast and fit if I continued…?”                   Mumbling the last part a little unsure of herself, the gryphoness shook her head. “Ah, not important. You’re a tourist right? Do you need a place to crash?”                   “Huh? W-well, I was gonna go stay in a hotel…”                   “Nah, don’t stay in one of those stuffy places. Why don’t you stay over at my place, free of charge? I like you, so it wouldn’t be a bother.” The gryphon said, while putting a claw on the pony’s shoulder. “…The name’s Gilda, what’s yours?”                   “…Lightning Dust.” The pegasus responded, smiling.  She liked this girl’s spunk. “Hey, why not? It’d make it easier for me at least.”                   “Great! Anyways, I think I’m off my shift now…” Gilda thought aloud, while looking at the clock for verification. Nodding, she then started to steer Lightning towards the door. “Come on, Let’s go get some cider. …Looks like it was a tie, so I guess we both owe each other a drink!”                 Though unsatisfied about the outcome of the race, and the fact that she didn’t win, Lightning laughed at how Gilda saw how the outcome meant. No matter what, it’d look like they’d go for drinks. Normally the mare would dispute the victory, but… Well there was something about the gryphon’s manner that stopped her.                   “Sure, I’m okay with that. So long as you know a good place.”                   “Are you kidding? I know the best places in the city!” Gilda said, mock insulted.                   Again, Lightning laughed.