//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Always second 
// Story: Thunder & Lightning 
// by Jetto 
//------------------------------//

"THUNDERLAAAAAAANEEE!" 

The voice coming from around the school building was loud enough to raise the dead, or be head in Horsetown, or even Canterlot. Or raise the dead in Canterlot and Horsetown, if the local business owners are to be believed. The one in question stopped what he was doing and glanced at the two colts that just stopped with a large slide, sending dust across the entire sandbox. Now there were three colts coughing and fanning the dust away.

"What? Can't you see I'm busy?" Thunderlane asked, glaring annoyed at the two. His threats were ignored, as the tan coated colt entered the sandbox, unknowingly stepping on what was going to be a front wall of an already impressive sand castle, lacking only one tower and plastic pony soldiers that sat in the box nearby. Thunderlane was about to yell at Caramel, but he didn't have to say anything to bring him to tears, as he already was.

"Thunderlane! You gotta help us!" He cried, pleading with his hooves joined. His blue coated friend, Blues, also joined in.

"You're our only hope!"

"Help with what? What hope?"

"It's the new girl!" Caramel started sobbing "She's all big and scary and stuff... and..." he started sobbing again. Blues patted him on the back, calming him a little bit.

"And she called Caramel a loser!"

"Can't you just tell Ms Fluffy Ink?"

Two colts gasped in terror.
"We can't tell on her!" said Blues "She's a girl!"

"Yeah," Caramel nodded "other girls will take her side! We're outmatched!" 

Thunderlane nodded. As much as he hated fighting with girls, he couldn't leave his friends behind. Out of the class of twenty, there were only three colts, so when one was being picked on by girls, they had to all stand together. The appearance of a new filly in the middle of the year didn't help, as she was the worst out of them all. 

"There you are, losers!" Speak of the devil, Rainbow Dash appeared along with her girl posse, consisting on at least half the class, all taken by her daredevil charisma (read: girls like bad boys… and girls). "I thought you ran away to cry to your mommies!" She laughed, joined by other cruel, cooties filled fillies. Thunderlane stood up and faced the bully.

"Leave them alone, Rainbow!"

"Stay out of it, Bumper Plane!"

"Thunderlane!"

"Whatever! I beat those two, fair and square! I want my six bits, losers!"

Thunderlane's eyebrow rose. He looked at Caramel and Blues, now smiling sheepish and whistling. One nasty glare however from, however, and both cracked and spilled it.
"W-well," Caramel started "I bet two bits that I would beat her at hoof wrestling, but..."

"Then I bet four bits that I can beat her to win back Caramels bits, but..."

Thunderlane rolled his eyes.
"Just give her the bits and get it over with!"

"Yeah, do what you promised and I'll leave you alone," Rainbow Dash said smugly "no point in picking on the weaklings. Unless you want to try yourself?"

"Pfft, why would I..."

"Oh yeah!?" Caramel interrupted Thunderlane "You'll be sorry when Thunderlane's done with you!"

"Yeah!" Blues added "He's the strongest colt in the school!"

"That's not saying much." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"He can beat you anytime, no sweat!" 

"Guys, I don't want to..."

"He just doesn't want to make you cry!"

"Oh really?" Rainbow raised her eyebrow and walked to Thunderlane "Challenge accepted! Bring it, Bomber Mane!"

"I am not competing with you! And it's Thunderlane!"

"Whatever. What is it? Are you afraid?"

Thunderlane stopped in place. His eye twitched.

"Oh uh!" Caramel and Blues gulped and took a few steps back, just as the posse of fillies, along with the rest of the class, which by now surrounded the two pegasi in a circle.

"What did you just..."

"What's that? What are you?" Rainbow smiled and looked him deep in the eyes "A chicken?"

"I AM NOT A CHICKEN!" He yelled, scaring everypony else in the process, as all the fillies and colts stepped away to a safe distance. Everypony, except Rainbow Unabashed Dash, who stood still and smiled smug. The tension was rising; the spectators started biting their hooves off, witnessing the staring battle of the century, until...

"Children, behave yourselves!" an old mare from the school building looked at them from behind her thick glasses. That Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash a reaction.

"Yes, Ms Fluffy Ink!" they both replied and stepped away from each other, still glaring.

"Maybe you can have a race?" asked a white coated unicorn filly with gems on her flank.  She was one of the few fillies outside the posse and they could swear they remembered her openly dismissing the idea of following Rainbow. "You are the best fliers in the class, right? Why can’t you just solve this in a more civilized way?"

Rainbow looked at the purple maned whatsherface and smiled at the idea.
"Yeah, sounds alright. Let's race to that tree. Unless you're..."

"It! Is! On!" Thunderlane replied, spitting on his hoof and extending it towards Rainbow. She did the exact same thing and bumped her wet hoof against his. 

The unicorn filly from the crowd blinked.
"But... that's my line!"





Soarin blinked slowly. He tried his best to pay attention to every single word he heard. From their first meeting at the school, going to the same high school, eventually working in the same place, throughout all this time, time and again, the two would compete and race each other over and over again. And the result was always the same.

"Just once!" Thunderlane lamented, while making himself comfortable on the sofa. "I wanted to beat her just that one little time! But no, I was always second on the finish line. Heck, even when there were others besides the two of us, I always ended up just after her! And every single time, she would rub it in my face and I couldn't do ANYTHING, but swallow my pride and let it go. I mean, it's just a competition, who bucking cares if she's better than me?"

Soarin looked at the clock. There was still a lot of time before he closed for the day. Having no more appointments, his time was free to use as he wished and he promised Thunderlane a talk and advice, at least until an actual client appeared. Or he could just tell him to go away, which would definitely work. But try and tell that to a pony you considered a great friend, who been with you through the worst times and helped avert the apocalypse, who just opened to you after months of hanging out.

"But whatever about the stupid rivalry," Thunderlane continued "I had a life outside her, you know. I had to take care of Rumble first, then there was Blossomforth and then the paper factory," he shuddered just thinking about his time in that soulless place "but then a slot opens in Ponyville and guess who's in charge?"

" I wonder who?" He deadpanned.

"Rainbow Inflated Ego Dash."

"What a shocker."

"And at first it seemed cool, you know, working with an old friend, and Blossom and Raindrops were there too. But then she gave me my first assignment- a stack of papers! A stack she was supposed to do herself, but didn't feel like it. So of course I refused!"

"Mhm."

"But then she went back to her smug self, kept bragging about how she's too awesome for paperwork and has to train some stunts and there were dozens of ponies for my position but she picked me, being a good friend and all. Yeah, turns out my predecessor went through the same thing, so he jumped at the first offer to transfer. Even Raindrops and Blossom refused a promotion to avoid this crap!"

"Mhm, sure."

"I mean, I needed this job more than anything! Seriously, the only thing that keeps me sane is the fact that one of these days she'll become a Wonderbolt and leave us forever, thus making me the actual manager. And the only thing that'll change, is me getting a raise, new desk and a proper nametag!"

"Cool."

"And until then, I'll have to just get on with it, grit my teeth and survive the crap she makes us go through. Like yesterday, she had us reshaping the snow clouds she ordered by mistake!"

"Mhhm, yup."

"Not only that, but she humiliated herself and me in front of the new consultant, which by the way, she had no idea about until today and blamed it all on me... Soarin, are you listening to me?"

Thunderlane looked at Soarin, but instead of meeting his gaze, his was instead focusing on a multicolored puzzle box he was tinkering with.
"Every single word. Rainbow is a jerk, yadda yadda, something about promotional material, stuff about weather, you wanted to be a Wonderbolt and uh..."

"Soarin, pay attention!"

"Fine," Soarin rolled his eyes and threw the cube away "but seriously, what was that about you becoming a Wonderbolt?"

"Not me, Rainbow Dash!"

"Oh, so you didn't want to become one?"

"Not since I was fourteen." He shrugged, earning himself a raised eyebrow. He rolled his eyes to explain. "I was an athletic colt with wings, of course I wanted to become a Wonderbolt! Who didn't?"

Soarin blinked and refrained from answering that question. It was time to ask some difficult questions.
"Thunderlane, I need you to answer me something, just say what first comes to mind, okay?" he asked, receiving a nod from his friend. "Rainbow Dash, is she hot or not?"

Thunderlane blinked.
"Soarin, you met her, you know already."

"I know, but what do you think?"

Thunderlane groaned and rolled his eyes.
"This isn't one of those 'you two compete and bicker a lot, so you must be in love' stuff, isn't it? We've been over this, there is nothing between Rainbow and myself! Take it from a pony who stared at her plot and never got passed it even once... STOP LAUGHING!" But Soarin couldn't even hear him, much too busy rolling on the floor. Thunderlane covered himself in blush, realizing how it must've sounded "When I was chasing her, when we were racing! You know what I mean!"

Minute passed, while Soarin still struggled to close his mouth and calm himself, but failed time and again and kept bursting with another fit every once in a while. Eventually, he lost his breath and was forced to calm down, struggling to climb up his chair, breathing slowly, still grinning madly.

"Are you done?" Thunderlane asked, crossing his hooves.

"I was going to make a joke, but I don't need to anymore!" Soarin took another deep breath, coughed and went back to semi-serious mode "You know, as much as I, ekhem, enjoy our little chat, I can't help but feel disappointed. See, when you first came to me and wanted to talk about mares, I was kinda hoping you meant Blossomforth."

"What about her?"

"That's my line. What is up with you two?"

Another eye roll later "Nothing's up with us. We just had a little fight. We'll be fine, like always."

"Yeah, that's the problem. I've seen some quarrelling couples, but this is just ridiculous! I mean, you're not even married yet"

"Look, I know how it looks on the outside, but that's just how we roll. Sure, we get a little feisty at each other every once in a while, but we're always there for each other. I don't know what I would've done without her when my parents... you know. Besides, we have each other’s backs, like when I need somepony to take care of Rumble..."

"...or if somepony is turned to stone, gotcha." Soarin nodded. He could relate to that, if nothing else. He still couldn't grasp it himself, but it wasn't him that was in love with an emotional ticking bomb, that apparently look like a color swap of Shining Armors sister with more freckles, if photos are anything to go by. 

"Can we go back to Rainbow Dash?" Thunderlane asked. Soarin sighed and shrugged. "Because yesterday was the worst! She had me cover for her in front of the new consultant, because she messed up her work. She had me LIE to her!"

"Wait, her?" Soarin's ears perked. "Thunderlane, you need to answer another question!"

"Soarin..."

"Is that new consultant hot, or not?" He lookd at Thunderlane, longing for answer, but instead got death glares. "Come on, it's a simple question!"

Thunderlane finally gave up and shrugged.
"She's okay, I guess."

"Ginger?"

"Kinda? I think so."

"Drat!" 

"Well, anyway..."





"So wait," Lightning Dust scratched her head "are you trying to tell me that you didn't know I was coming?"

Raindrops shrugged and started answering.
"Rainbow Dash didn't te--UGHH!" But had to stop, when a certain hoof jabbed her at her ribs, pretty hard. Everypony at weather patrol looked over at agonizing Raindrops, then at Rainbow 'Sweating Like Crazy' Dash.

"Of course we knew!" Rainbow donned her biggest, most fake smile imaginable "Haha, time sure flies, I didn't realize it was Monday already! We were really looking forward to meeting you, Lightning... ermm..."

"Dust."

"Yes, Lightning Dust! Welcome to Ponyville's Weather Patrol branch!" Saying that, she spread her hooves around four necks of her co-workers and hugged them closely, forcing them to bow their heads with her. Once they were down and within uncomfortable distance of smelling her minty fresh breath, she muttered through her teeth "Play along or you're all fired!"

"You can't fire us!" Blossom whispered. Rainbow ignored it.

Once their heads rose, Cloud Kicker was the first one to smile genuinely and walked towards Lightning Dust, extending her hoof.
"Welcome to Ponyville, Dusty! I'm Cloud Kicker!"

"Don't call me that." Dusty replied coldly.

"I sure am glad to see a new face around the place, heh nice rhyme," she hung her hoof around her neck "we're gonna be the best buds, ever! Even thought I kinda wish you were a stallion, we don't have many of them these parts, but oh well. Come on, I'll give you a tour!" Then she dragged Lightning Dust away from others. Her victim tried to shake the mare away, but sadly, her threats were ignored and physical prowess was no match for Mixed Martial Arts of a certain military dropout. When they were walking away, Cloud Kicker turned to others, made sure Rainbow Dash was looking at her before giving her a playful wink. Rainbow nodded back and smiled.

"Sometimes I remember why I didn’t fire her already." 

"Again, you can't fire us!"

"Okay gang, huddle up!"

Four sets of hooves joined in a circle, then had to break it and reassemble to make sure Thunderlane and Blossomforth weren't too close to each other to avoid issues. Once they were sure Lightning Dust was too busy being annoyed by Cloud Kicker (for once, Raindrops sighed with relief), they started the briefing.
"Okay everypony," Rainbow 'Serious' Dash started "we need to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't find out!"

"Find out what, Dash?" asked Blossom "That you don't know what you signed? That we weren't informed of anything? That you're a terrible manager?"

"Yeah, yeah, dig me in deeper, sheesh. For the good of all of us, we need to work together and solve this, as a team!"

"Huzzah." Raindrops deadpanned, still rubbing the aching ribs.

"We have to make sure she doesn't see anything out of ordinary, act like this is normal and totally planned! Which is why we're having a slight change in plans! Raindrops, Blossom, take Cloud Kicker and start reshaping these clouds, fast. I'll stay here and look through the files for a copy of that document. And Thunderlane, since this is all your fault..."

"Really? Still not over it?" Asked Thunderlane, completely ignored by everypony.

"...You'll take care of Lightning Dust!"

"What? Why me?"

"Because," she peeked over at the mare in question, being playfully assaulted by Cloud Kicker, desperately trying to shake her of her neck, failing miserably, yet still maintaining the illusion of being a completely innocent show of affection. Cloud Kicker was a pro at it, but there was a limit to her abilities "the less time Cloud Kicker spends with her, the better. Blossomforth is out too because right now she is an emotional time-bomb ready to explode any sec--..."

"BUCK YOU I'M NOT!" She yelled. A moment passed, she smiled sheepish. "Sorry!"

"And Raindrops is too ordinary."

"Stop saying it like it's a bad thing!"

"And what about you?" Thunderlane asked "Why don't you take responsibility?"

"Because," she started, then paused for a moment "because I'm the only pony who knows where the copy might be! Yeah! And looking for it could take hours and we still have a schedule to keep! Those snow clouds won't reshape themselves!"

"Can't anypony stay with you and help? To make it faster?" Asked Raindrops. 

Rainbow blinked, then looked at the rectangular box at the desk, still screaming at her. She gulped.
"Not an option."





Thunderlane hated lying. He had a reputation of being cynical and rude at times, but that was just the kind of pony he was, whether it was his natural disposition, or just effects of heavy stress his everyday life puts in front of him. He wasn't perfect, but at the very least he had a clear conscience and an internal reassurance that he was being honest with himself and the rest of the world. Sure, a lie here, fake smile there and his life would be so much easier, but he didn’t want any fake friendship. He cherished those few friends he had right now, knowing they were with him despite anything. That's how he lived his life and that's probably why Element of Honesty chose him.

And now he had to throw everything away in order to keep another one of Rainbow's crazy schemes from falling apart.  Urge to kill was raising.

He was told to show Lightning Dust around the town, including borders with Everfree forest. Since Nightmare Moon came back, there was a higher risk of forest getting out of control. If that would happen, obviously Princess herself would intervene, but for now they settled on sending another worker to Ponyville, except instead of local pegasi with minimal training, they sent a specialist, trained to deal with harshest and most unpredictable weather anomalies. Thunderlane wanted to get qualifications in these areas as well (that would warrant a hefty raise), but couldn't be bothered to more time in school and had to find a job, ASAP. That said, he probably had way more experience with Everfree weather in the tip of a single feather than Lightning Dust could squeeze out of all the books.

Lightning Dust whistled at the sight of Everfree. They were high in the air, sitting on a cloud within safe distance from forest entrance. They still couldn't see further than a mile, as the deeper the forest spread out, the darker it was getting, with erratic, random clouds moving on their own.
"Wow, no wonder they needed a specialized consultant nearby. This baby right there looks like it could blow up any second now!"

"It's not that bad," Thunderlane reassured her, leading her back on the ground "at worst we get a giant storm or a tornado. Nothing that can't be contained without some help from HQ."

They fell into silence for a longer moment. Thunderlane tried to find some other topic to keep the conversation going, but anything that came to his mind was too close to work and dangerously close to topics he was desperate to avoid. Now he felt like Shining Armor. Awkward and despising every moment of it. He just needed some ice-breaker, anything.

"So," Lightning Dust started. Thunderlane jumped and slowly turned to Lightning Dust. "What exactly is there to do in Ponyville, anyway? I mean, I'm going to spend some time here, might as well have some fun."

Fun. Thunderlane had a sudden urge to smash his head over a wall for not thinking about a topic as tried and safe as 'fun'. There were no walls nearby, so he had to do that once he was back in town.
"Well, there is a nice restaurant, don't remember the name thought."

"I said fun, not eat."

"Oh. Then I guess local bakery is out too," Thunderlane scratched his head and tried to think of some other places "There's a bowling parlor,"

"Meh."

"A tennis court..."

"Boring."

"...Balloon tours..."

"Yeah, so exciting when you have wings!"

"...There's a nice bar between Ponyville and Horsetown..."

"I don't drink."

Thunderlane raised his brow. This was harder than he thought. He was already out of places he enjoyed. Not that he had much time or disposable income for any more elaborate hobby. He usually hangs out with his friends and read books.
"We have a well stocked Library?" He proposed. She gave him an 'are you serious?' glare "How about a spa?"

"Do I look like a some frou-frou fashionista to you?"

He didn't answer that question. So much for an easy topic.
"Well, there's always Horsetown, they have a lot of cool stuff there, I think."

Lightning Dust hummed, then shrugged.
"You know what, I don't really have time for fun anyway. This is all I need!" She extended her hoof all over the area. Thunderlane blinked and looked around. They were standing on grassy plains, surrounded only by trees of Everfree forest on the one side and road to Ponyville on the other. Other than that, the area was as empty as it could be.

"What, you mean Everfree forest? I wouldn't go there if I was you."

"No, not the forest. The space!" she flew up and did a little twirl. "There's so much free, unoccupied space here! And the grass is so soft, I could fall from a mile and end up with a mildly broken bones at worst, unlike Canterlot's stone streets, where you would, you know, go splat! I knew I picked the right place for a transfer. This is a perfect place for training!"

"Training?"

"Yup, training," she landed right in front of his face, smiling smugly "to join the Wonderbolts!"

Thunderlane couldn't help but roll his eyes. Most fillies and colts grow out of their Wonderbolt dreams by the high-school, once reality hits them and they realize how much hassle and risk there is to it. Some don't, like Rainbow Dash. And right now there was a new one in town. These ponies were rarely a good thing. He only ever started tolerating Soarin once he left them. Technically, he never really disliked him, but didn’t truly open to him until after he left.

"Well, good luck with that."

"Don't need none. I'd rather ponies wished me skills. And fame, that helps."

His eye twitched. ‘Celestia’s plot, there are two of them!’, he lamented in his mind. But it was only just beginning.

"Anywho, you seem like yer close to Rainbow Dash, right?"

"What gave it away?" He deadpanned "The constant bickering, blaming or death threats?"

"What's she like? When I was browsing through the job offers, I heard somepony mention she's a nasty, incompetent, lazy slave driver..."

"Sounds like Rainbow Dash, alright."

"... but she's really good at flying, like, lightning fast. Or should I say, rainbow fast!" she chuckled at the lame pun she just made. Thunderlane didn't comment on it. At least it was better than half the puns Soarin makes.





"HEEEY!" Soarin pouted.





"So I dug a little deeper," Lightning Dust continued "I asked some ponies. Apparently, she's always been an ace in the skies, kept winning awards as a teen, all golden medals."

"Yeah, I know." Thunderlane mumbled. It probably wasn't the time to mention that most of these competitions had more ponies on podiums, like himself, always second and he had a wall full of silver medals for prove it. He doubted it would impress her, though.

"Not much in turn of academics, but in this line of business nopony cares about your knowledge, but what you can do with clouds. I'm not even gonna comment on how her parents are big wigs in the HQ. Like, whatever, her parents won't be worth buck when she's in front of Wonderbolts anyway."

Thunderlane looked around, anywhere that wasn't staring at her eyes. Just few minutes of chatting and he already had so many questions, but didn't feel comfortable knowing what the answers could be. Most importantly…
"Why do you know so much about her?"

Lightning Dust waited with her answer, before shrugging and turning away and walking a few steps.
“No reason, really. Well, okay, maybe it’s because she sounds like somepony that I’ll have to compete with, eventually. And unlike some other ‘potential’, and I use this term lightly, candidates, she actually has something to go with.”

“So what, you transferred here to become her rival?” He asked. She turned to him once again and smiled smug, perfectly mimicking what he saw his entire life, except with more colors of rainbow.

“More like see if Rainbow Overhyped Dash is half the mare they claim she is. And honestly? She has a lot to prove after what I saw today. I mean, why would anypony order ten tons of snow clouds in the middle of summer?” She asked, glaring at Thunderlane. A moment passed and awkwardness level increased, signifying that this wasn’t a rhetorical question at all. He had to find an answer and fast. He recalled his memories from before. Rainbow Dash told him how to handle it if asked…





“I dunno,” Rainbow scratched her head “just say something that’ll make me look good, for a change, like, say…”





“It’s a training exercise!” Thunderlane answered. He earned himself yet another raised eyebrow and a glare clearly noticing his giant beads of sweat he currently produced in mass quantities. It was either ‘tell the truth and ruin her reputation’, or ‘carry on and lie like crazy’. As much as his gut, sanity, conscience and magical necklace locked in Canterlot told him to stay true, he had friends honor to save before eyes of a high ranking employee.

“See, with Everfree forest being around, we never know when we’ll get unscheduled snow fall,” He explained, which much to his relief, was actually true, Everfree magic was known to cause snow sometimes “so she had us practice in case of emergency,” his eyebrows twitched as he repeated Rainbow’s bullcrap story “because there was nothing in our schedule for this month.” That part was also true, but that’s how it always was in Ponyville. “Besides, these snow clouds were leftovers from past few months anyway and were going to be reshaped anyway, so she saved factory trouble by doing the job for them!“ 

He ended the explanation with a wide, totally fake smile he wasn’t nearly as good at as he wanted to be. He expected the worst. He regretted saying it and expected Lightning Dust to call him out on it, but surprisingly, she didn’t say anything and her face wasn’t betraying any emotions. After a longer, awkwardness filled, while she sighed deeply and turned away.

“Okay, sure. Whatever you say.” She shrugged and started slowly walking away. That was the last thing she said to him that day. Normally, he would be glad to have this conversation over, but he didn’t feel right. 

He hated lying, especially for a stupid reason like this. And as much as he wanted to blame Rainbow Dash for forcing him to do it, this time it really was his fault. And that was just the beginning.