Lightning squeezed Rainbow tightly as the prismatic mare shot across the country, going faster than any living thing had any right to, and making the Pegasus hold on for dear life, for fear of falling off. Right now, she doubted she would be able to overcome the fear that was pinning her wings to her body in time to catch herself before she hit the floor.
Eventually however, the pair reached the outskirts of Ponyville, and Rainbow mercifully slowed her bike down, beginning to circle around as she looked back at Lightning with a stupid grin on her face.
“Still think you’re ready?” She chuckled.
“Nothing should move that fast.” Lightning muttered.
“I’ll let you in on a secret. That was sixty percent power. I can get it up to ninety nine percent before going to Rainboom speeds, and let me tell you, that is fast.”
“You’re kidding right? That wasn’t full power?” She asked incredulously.
“Not even close.” Rainbow laughed, before bringing the bike down towards her cloud home, landing and allowing Lightning to get off, before setting the bike to hover just above the cloud layer and hopping off herself. “Come on” She smiled, gesturing towards the door and holding it open.
“Did you make this or buy it?” Lightning asked, looking around Rainbows house in awe.
“Six of one, half a dozen of the other.” Rainbow shrugged. “Easy to make a house out of clouds if you know what you’re doing, but making furniture is hard, got it from Cloudsdale.”
“Must have set you back a few bits.” Lightning mused.
“A few, but being the head of Ponyville weather has its perks.” Rainbow agreed. “But enough about this, you look exhausted.”
“Not all of us have fancy bikes or tech to help with flying, some of us still have to do things the old fashioned way and walk or fly normally.” Lightning chuckled, stifling a yawn.
“Come on, I’ll show you to the guest room, you can get some sleep here.” Rainbow smiled. “We can talk more in the morning.”
“Are you sure about this?” Lightning asked, following rainbow up the stairs. “I mean, you just came and found me out of the blue, and now I’m staying in your house. I’m not…”
“Don’t worry about it Lightning.” Rainbow assured her. “We can settle our differences in the morning if you really think its what we need to do, but right now, you need sleep.”
Rainbow looked in at the room she was offering to Lightning, smiling as she saw all the various pieces of detritus that were scattered around the place. She hardly used this room for anything other than storage, old posters of past Wonderbolts, flags brought from various flight demonstrations, and other such pieces of paraphernalia.
“Tidy.” Lightning remarked with a coy smile, before walking over to the bed. “Thanks Rainbow.”
“Hey, we stick together remember, from the academy. We had a rough patch is all.” Rainbow smiled.
“A rough patch? Sure, and Canterlot is at the top of a small hill.” She chuckled, before lying down on the bed. “Night.”
“Goodnight Lightning.” Rainbow nodded, before turning and heading towards the entrance to the house.
Reaching the edge, Rainbow flared her wings, before taking flight and soaring out across the fields towards Ponyville. Luna’s moon was already in the sky, watching over the ponies as they slept, but Rainbow had something important she needed to arrange, something only a certain pony would be able to do for her.
***
Lightning groaned as a smile crept across her face, the pony rolling over in the bed she had spent the night in. A sweet smell crept into her nose, pervading her senses and rousing her from her slumber.
“What’s cooking mum?” She mumbled, cracking her eyes open slightly.
“I knew I was older than you but really?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oops.” Lightning muttered, before rolling back over. “Can’t I sleep for a bit more?”
“Wait a second, I know that attitude. Give it back.” Rainbow said indignantly, but she failed to hide the grin that spread across her face. “Come on, get up.”
“Five more minutes.”
“Oh well, I tried.” Rainbow sighed, before walking over to the bed and giving Lightning a sharp shove with her head, pushing the turquoise mare out of the bed and onto the soft cloud-floor.
Lightning finally cracked her eyes, looking up at Rainbow with a disapproving look. She stayed resolutely on the however, folding her hooves in defiance.
“That was rude.” She pouted.
“It worked.” Rainbow replied, sticking her tongue out, before turning and walking towards the doorway. “We’re going into town, I’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.”
“Into town?” Lightning asked, finally sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “But aren’t you cooking downstairs? Seems like a waste.”
“You don’t know me to well if you think I can cook. Trust me, even Sweetie Belle is better than me. Outside, ten minutes.” Rainbow chuckled, before walking from the room and disappearing from sight.
Getting up from the floor, Lightning walked over to one of the mirrors in the room, briefly wondering why one pony would need four mirrors in one room, before remembering who owned this house, and realising that she was probably that there weren’t more scattered around the room. Her mane was a mess, but that was nothing a bit over vigorous rubbing with her hoof couldn’t fix, and soon her mane looked how she liked it.
Ok, so it looked even more unkempt than before, but at least it was her choice now, a mane-style that said ‘I don’t care about convention and will walk around with messy hair’, rather than ‘I just got out of bed and didn’t bother to brush my mane properly’, which while true, was not really something Lightning wanted to advertise to the world. Given the choice, she would always choose the latter option.
Walking down the stairs, Lightning peered into what she assumed was the kitchen, grimacing at the mess that was around the room, all giving off a deceptively delicious smell, but she doubted that anything that looked like what was in there was even edible, let alone palatable. Wet pastry hung from the ceiling while a glass of thick brown liquid rested on the table.
“See, what did I tell you?” Rainbow asked, walking up beside her. “Cooking isn’t exactly my strongest area of expertise.”
“What exactly is this?” Lightning asked, giving the thick liquid a sniff. It didn’t smell bad, but when she stuck out her tongue to actually taste it she found that her belief that nothing that looked that bad could taste good was confirmed.
“Oh that? That’s hay bacon and a few lentils.” Rainbow said dismissively.
“How do you turn hay bacon and lentils into a liquid?” Lightning asked incredulously.
“With skill, that’s how.” Rainbow giggled, before grabbing the glass and downing the liquid. She shudder at the taste, but still managed to finish it, placing the glass back on the table. “Got to get protein somehow eh Lightning?”
“There are easier ways. Ways that won’t rot your inside.” Lightning shot back.
“Possibly.” Rainbow agreed.
“Anyway, so where are we going? You said you want to show me something in town?”
“Yeah, come on.” Rainbow nodded, gesturing towards the door.
“You’re not going to clean up?” Lightning asked as she followed Rainbow.
“Gees, first you think I’m you’re mum, then you think I can cook, now you think I’m going to clean. Do you even know who Rainbow Dash is?” Rainbow laughed, before flaring her wings.
Lightning noticed for the first time that Rainbow had forgone the comfort of her armour, showing her body off in all its scarred toned glory. Rainbow had mentioned how uncomfortable she was with her new look, how she hated it and the looks it drew, and honestly, Lightning couldn’t really fault her for that, knowing that she would hate to look like that. Whatever she was leading her to, it meant something big to Rainbow, and if Rainbow could face it without her armour, Lightning didn’t really have an excuse to back away from it.
Leaping after Rainbow, the two Pegasi soon reached Ponyville, touching down in the main street and looking around. Turning around a corner, the pair laid their eyes on Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow had always thought it looked tasty, and had been meaning to find out if it was really made of sweets, but it never seemed to come up, and she could hardly just go up and bite the cakes place of work without their permission.
“Is it usually this empty?” Lightning asked, looking around at the scant few ponies who were walking around the town, throwing looks their way that were a mixture between being quizzical and fearful.
“No, but to be fair it’s still relatively early and a Sunday.” Rainbow said quickly. “I’m sure ponies just want to sleep in.”
“I know the feeling.” Lightning replied dryly. “I’m guessing we’re going in there?” She asked, pointing at Sugarcube Corner.
“Indeed we are.” Rainbow nodded.
“Let’s go then.” Lightning sighed, before placing her hoof on the door and pushing, allowing it to swing open, revealing the dark interior. “Are you sure we’re supposed to be here?” Lightning checked, turning back to Rainbow.
“Yes, I’m sure, now come on.” Rainbow nodded.
Walking into the darkened room, Lightning peered around, trying to see through the inky blackness, but having little luck, even less when Rainbow pushed the door shut behind her.
“Oh come on Rainbow, now we really can’t see a thing.” Lightning hissed. “What are we even…”
“SUPPRISE!!!!” shrieked a voice from beside Lightning as the lights flared on, momentarily blinding her as she leapt into the air, not seeing the doorbell that jutted out above the her and slamming into it, before flopping back to the floor.
Shaking the stars from her vision, Lightning looked around in shock and confusion at the scene that now greeted her. All of Rainbows friends were standing in front of her, the pastel pink one she remembered as Pinkie Pie was literally bouncing in excitement, while the others had varying levels of enthusiasm as they looked on at Lightning.
Behind them was a host of other ponies, all standing beneath a large banner, proclaiming this as a ‘Welcome to Ponyville and also thank you for not being a meany show-off anymore party’, on what had to be the longest banner Lightning had ever seen. Below it hung another banner, this one proudly stating that this was also a ‘Welcome home Dashie party, and also sorry that this is a bit late.’
“Wha..?” Lightning tried, before she was tackled by a pink blur, finding herself on the floor with Pinkie Pie standing atop her and staring straight into her eyes.
“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you, well, I threw it for Dashie as well, but it wasn’t a surprise for her because she helped me to plan it last night, so I guess it’s a surprise party for you and a not-so-surprised-but-still-awesome party for her.” Pinkie said in a single breath, slightly overwhelming Lightning.
“Ummm. What’s going on?” Lightning whimpered.
“Sorry about that.” Rainbow laughed, flying over and wrapping her hooves around Pinkie, who was still talking rapidly about something to do with having to throw a party for someone she hadn’t seen for years. “Come on Pinkie, we can talk to Lightning without jumping on her, just like we practiced.”
Placing Pinkie down, Rainbow turned to look back at Lightning, a goofy smile spreading across her face.
“Well? What do you think?”
“I don’t know what to say.” Lightning said softly, looking around.
“May I strongly suggest nothing?” Rarity piped up.
“Ok, let’s party!” Pinkie shouted, wriggling free from Rainbows grip. “Vinyl Scratch, spin that…”
The last word Pinkie uttered was drowned out as the glasses wearing DJ moved up the mixing station, levitating a disk onto the turntables and pumping out a heavy tune. Instantly, the ponies who had all been staring at Lightning began to move about the room, pouring glasses of punch or playing pin the tail on the pony. It was an altogether surreal experience for Lightning, the music being more at home at a late night piss-up, whereas the games would have been seen at the a foals party.
Rainbow and the rest of her friends had already made their way towards the dance floor, bobbing in time with the music. Once again, it felt odd to have such a party this early in the morning, but then again this was Ponyville, and from what she had heard about this place, this wouldn’t be the weirdest thing they did.
Walking over, Lightning began to bob and sway to the music, but it wasn’t for her, and she made her way over to the edge of the party, grabbing a glass of punch and a cupcake, before sitting down on one of the many chairs around the room. It wasn’t like she didn’t like parties, but this was all a bit intense. She hadn’t expected anything like this when Rainbow had invited her to Ponyville. Truth be told, she hadn’t known what she was expecting, all she knew was that this wasn’t it.
“So Lighting Dust,” the purple mare that Lightning recognised as Twilight Sparkle began, walking over to Lightning, “how do you like Pinkie’s efforts?”
“A bit much don’t you think?”
“Pinkie is an eccentric one, but she means well.” Twilight nodded knowingly. “I wanted to talk about you though.”
“What about?” Lightning asked in interest.
“You met Rainbow just after she came back in Ponyville didn’t you?”
“We crossed paths there yes.” Lightning nodded.
“And it was the pair of you who ripped up bits of Canterlot with Rainboom’s, correct?”
“Unless the rest of the Wonderbolts decided to do it, and seeing as nopony else knows how to do them, yes. You know all this, why are you asking?”
“I’m trying to work out how you went from that to coming back to Ponyville in less than a day.” Twilight said thoughtfully. “She left us all to go looking for somepony, who I had a sneaky suspicion was you, but I thought she was just going to apologise and part ways. Next thing I know, she’s back in Ponyville and asking us to set up a party for you. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that you’ve made up slightly, but I just wanted to see it from your angle.”
“Truthfully? I made a mistake, she made one, but the pair of us are in the wrong. If she could be the bigger pony and come to me to say sorry, it would have been pretty low of me to refuse her.” Lightning explained.
“So what do you think of her? Now that you’ve stopped your argument?”
“She’s odd, an anomaly in Equestria.” Lightning sighed, looking over to where Rainbow was dancing. “She’s trying so hard to be who she once was, that she’s overshooting it and being somepony new, somepony who could potentially snap at any moment. What do I think of her? I think she has gone through more than we can know, and she’s come back relatively intact. Do I think she’ll stay that way? I worry that she could snap and go crazy. And there wouldn’t be a thing any of us could do to stop her.”
“Do you really think that that’s likely?” Twilight asked.
“No.” Lightning shook her head. “But you asked me what I thought, and I told you. The truth is all we have once we strip away everything else.”
Nodding to herself, Twilight began to wander off once more, stopping to talk to other ponies on the way. Lightning tried to get involved, but she couldn’t find the drive to, and instead slipped out of the house, sitting down on the steps and watching as the sun lazily moved across the sky.
“Hey Lightning, What are you doing out here?” Rainbow asked, sitting down beside Lightning.
“Oh, hey Rainbow.” Lightning nodded. “Just, needed some fresh air is all.”
“Yeah, Pinkie sure can throw ‘em.” Rainbow chuckled. “Since you’re out here anyway, I wanted to ask you what you plan on doing now.”
“You want to ask me this now?” Lightning asked. “You sure you don’t want to go enjoy your friend’s party.”
“Nah, she throws them all the time, but this is important.” Rainbow shook her head.
“I don’t know really. Get a job in weather somewhere? Maybe follow my dad’s advice and join the guard? It’s not too late to join up yet.”
“You could do that.” Rainbow nodded thoughtfully. “A job in weather sounds good though, but where would there be a team with a spare space? I’m not sure the team in Los Pegasus is taking on anypony new.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Well there is this one town, apparently their captain went AWOL a couple of years back. They promoted a new one from what I’ve heard, but they never got around to filling the spare spot on the team.” Rainbow said casually.
“And would you happen to know this new weather captain personally?” Lightning asked.
“I’d say she does yeah.” Thunderlane smiled, walking up beside the pair. “Rainbow.”
“Lightning Dust, allow me to introduce you to Captain Thunderlane. Thunderlane, Lightning Dust.”
“Wait, so that’s why you brought me here?” Lightning asked suddenly. “You knew about this?”
“I did some poking around earlier, mostly to find out what happened to my old job and found out that there was still a spot on the team. I was going to apply, but then I found out about your situation.”
“Don’t you need a job?” Lightning asked.
“With my skill set I could join the guard quite easily, and remember, I’m still on the Wonderbolts flight demonstration team. You need this more than me.” Rainbow replied.
“And you’re ok with this Thunderlane?” Lightning asked, turning to the black Pegasus.
“Rainbow here vouches for you, and you say you have some experience. I think I could give you a try-out at least.” Thunderlane nodded.
“Very well then, I accept your offer.” Lightning smiled.
“0800 tomorrow, town square. Don’t be late.” Thunderlane said simply, before flaring his wings and taking flight.
“Can you believe he was as much of a slacker as me a few years back?” Rainbow laughed. “Now look at him, running the weather team better than I ever could. I should have let him take over before all this.”
“Whoa, was that you admitting that you aren’t the best at everything?” Lightning chided with a grin.
“Cut it out.” Rainbow grinned back. “Come on, there’s still some partying left to do.
With that, rainbow lead Lightning back inside Sugarcube Corner, closing the door behind them.
***
Hours later, the ponies finally began to leave, eventually leaving only the element bearers and Lightning remaining in Sugarcube Corner.
“Who-ee, this will be one heck of a job to clean up.” Applejack whistled, surveying the mess that had been left behind after the party.
“It won’t take that long.” Pinkie assured her.
“I’m sure if we work together, we’ll be able to get this cleaned up in no time.” Twilight agreed.
“Why do I feel like there should be a song here?” Spike asked, scratching his head.
“But wait, I want to hear the rest of Rainbow’s story.” Lightning said, looking at the cyan Pegasus. “You’ve almost finished it after all.”
“Well, the princesses might want to hear about it…” Rarity began.
“Spike, send a letter to the Princesses, asking them if they will be alright with us finishing the story here in Ponyville.” Twilight said, turning to the young Dragon. “We can clean up while we wait.”
***
“See. It didn’t take long at all.” Twilight smiled as she surveyed the work they had done.
“Fix it up. Yeah it’s all right.” Pinkie hummed, before placing the broom back behind the counter.
“Well done my faithful student.” Celestia smiled, walking into the room with Luna in tow.
“Princesses.” Twilight smiled, dropping to her knees, followed by the other ponies in the room.
“Rise my faithful subjects.” Celestia smiled. “Now, I believe you still have a story to tell us Rainbow.”