Catching Upchuck
Neigh York – Bucklyn – Apartment Balcony
Four stories below, a quartet of firefighters speedily drew a water-wagon down the street, sirens blaring. Pegasus taxis flew overhead while construction crews hammered away at pavement in the distance.
All of this background noise melted beneath the weight of Lightning Dust's laughter.
"Hah hah hah!" She slapped her knee, leaning precariously off the edge of the fire escape. "Yes! Yes! Now that's the Flash Sentry I know!" She grinned aside at the stallion. "As soon as I heard about those yaks getting their teeth in, I thought 'That's exactly the kind of shit only Flash could pull off!'"
"Hrmmmff..." Flash Sentry perched atop a rusted flight of stairs, staring dispassionately across the rooftops of Bucklyn. "News travels way too fast these days."
"Uhm... Dude..." Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow. "Manehattan Daily News is all over that 'Northern Yakyakistani Aggression' shit. Plus... there's television." She smirked. "You've seen television, right?"
"What's a 'television?'" Flash droned.
"Pfffft... even you can't be that stiff. Then again... guess they don't have the latest Equestrian technology up in the Frozen North." Lightning Dust began tight-rope-walking across the fire escape's railing. "Don't worry, dude. Your bromance buddy—Shining Armor—didn't give away any names when he was interviewed by the press. He just said that one of his subordinates 'acted out of line, but was nevertheless instrumental in saving the innocent hostages of the Crystal Empire.'"
Flash bit his lip.
Lightning saw it. "What's that I see?" She twirled about—balanced on one agile hoof. "Is that an ounce of pride trying to leak out?"
"My C.O. is far too forgiving..." He gulped, staring down at the alley far below the fire escape. "It's... distressing to hear him putting his own reputation on the line for me. I should have been dishonorably discharged for my actions."
"Bullshit. If you ask me, you should have been promoted, dude." Lighting Dust hopped up, then landed on another single hoof. She stretched her wings out, balancing. "You took a stupidly absurd situation in your own hooves and saved a bunch of innocent lives!" Her teeth showed in a wide grin. "It's the exact same thing I would have done in your situation! That gives me hope, Flash."
He looked up—if only to frown at her. "Don't even pretend to compare the two of us."
"Heh heh heh..." She chuckled raspily, tight-walking forward. "Why the Hell not?"
"I let my frustrations out on an irredeemable bunch of meatheaded yaks," Flash grumbled. "You put half-a-dozen innocent ponies in unnecessary danger just to make yourself look good to the Wonderbolts."
"Pffft... so maybe I showed off a bit too much."
"They kicked you out of the Academy, Lightning Dust. You were a dangerous wildcard."
"No. I was unique." She tilted her nose up. "And just because those flankholes couldn't appreciate my badassery, they threw me out of their sissy little camp. Pffft... big frickin' whoop." Her muzzle scrunched as she playfully leaned back and forth. "All I hear is that the Wonderbolts are a bunch of shitty hypocritical try-hards anyways."
"Lightning Dust, when are you ever going to realize that there are rules that must be adhered to in life?"
She smirked, her eyes twinkling. "You mean like the ones you royally tossed to the wind when it came time to collect yak teeth?"
Flash sighed, rubbing his face. "I bucked up... okay? I let anger and emotion get to me..."
"Heh... that's not the way I see it." Lightning Dust jumped, forward-flipped, and landed on the metal platform beside him. "I think you just rediscovered your spark." She punched him in the shoulder. "This stiff stallion is reconnecting with the slick bastard he left behind at the gates to the Canterlot Armory!"
"That 'slick stallion' is no more," Flash insisted. He snorted. "I've worked very hard to get where I am, Lightning. I'm not about to throw it all away."
"Uhm... correct me if I'm wrong..." She blinked. "But didn't you kinda sorta do that already?"
"Rmmmff... I'm on extended leave," he muttered. "Not... quite sure what my fate is yet."
"Yeesh." Lightning Dust blinked. "You're right. Your CO is forgiving."
He sighed, staring off.
"Heh... sore spot?" She smiled, trotting around to catch his eye again. "Let's face it, Flash. Those crystal ponies? I hear they're super big on hero worship. Probably explains why they all became the proverbial bitches to Sombra to begin with."
"Do you have a point?"
"Shining can't strip you of your commission. Not if he and that pink faerie he's married to both want to keep things all hunkey-dory between the Empire and the rest of Equestria. That place is gonna be merged with the Monarchy sooner than later, and the stewards gotta play nice to the locals. So... how's that gonna happen if they shit all over their newest hero?"
"I don't feel like a hero," Flash Sentry muttered. "Maybe if you were in my place, Lightning, you'd pat yourself on the back. But..." He shivered slightly. "...I can't get the look of disappointment on Shining's face out of my head."
"You gonna invite me to your honeymoon or what?"
"Ungh... Lightning..."
She chuckled, leaning back with a smirk. "Relax, Flash. The way I see it... this is a much-needed vacation."
"I'm a soldier of the royal guard," he said with a frown. "It's not my place to relax."
"You're doing a good job so far."
"I'm supposed to protect the citizens of Equestria and abroad," Flash said. "And I can't be doing that if I'm breaking the rules set before me and the rest of the Guard."
"And what if the rules themselves just... y'know... suck?"
He looked at her. "Huh?"
"Seriously, Flash, since you seem to be doing a whole lot of soul-searching as of late... think about it..." Lightning gazed his way with a sincere expression. "What have all these rules done to protect the ponies most important to you?"
He was dead silent.
"I'm not a complete and total bitch, y'know." She took a deep breath. "I... liked them too, Flash." A hard swallow. "Not as much as you did, of course... but you were their son. I just... can't imagine how much it must burn inside to look back on that day in Canterlot." She shook her head. "You did everything by the book and still what did it get you?"
"Unfortunate things happen..."
"Yeah, but that's gravity, Flash." Lightning Dust gestured. "Face it. Your parents never asked to be wasted away by a bunch of changelings. Just like those crystal ponies never asked to be imprisoned by yaks—but look at what a little bit of initiative can accomplish!"
Flash stood up, suddenly fuming. "My parents were crushed to a pulp under a collapsed archway, Lightning!" The tips of his ears burned red. "Even me at my best couldn't fend off the swarm that tore up that district of Canterlot!"
She grimaced. "Okaaaay... so... uh..." A gulp. "Sucky analogy. My bad. But... you g-get it, right?" She put on a nervous smile. "No, you can't stop all the bad stuff. And it's healthy... y'know? That you can admit that—especially about your parents."
"Grfff..." Flash rubbed his face. "Why are we even having this conversation...?"
"Becaussse..." She leaned forward. "I know you, Flash. And I know that you joined the Royal Guard not because you wanted to follow rules... but because you wanted to make things right in this nasty world."
"Spoken by a pegasus who likes to do everything wrong."
"Hey!" She rested a hoof over her chest. "I'm ambitious. And ambition requires a keen eye! And I have been keeping an eye on a lot of the shit going down in this city and—well..."
"Well what?"
"How would you..." She looked around, then drifted closer, bringing her words down to a murmur. "...like to do some truly heroic stuff for more 'unfortunate ponies?'"
Flash blinked. He narrowed his eyes. "What are you getting at?"
"What else?" Lightning Dust wagged her eyebrows. "The real reason why I'm here?"
"Now you're being truthful with me?"
"Shhhhhh!" She motioned him closer, then whispered in his ear: "How would you like to kick some really... really evil tail?"
Flash stared at her. He breathed tightly. "How evil...?"
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I foresee a conflict between Flash and LryLis.
7484618
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I like.
Flashilante is a go, with Lightning Dust as a sidekick. I approve.
BatFlash or Punishentry?
Oh yeah Flash is going to be a hero that opposed Lyra and Chrysalis as well do to thinking he is doing the right thing do to his last.
That's one hero origin story we now have down.
Wonder how many others are going to pop up.
Aww, they didn't get to feast on them, that's just inconsiderate.
7484714 So... which of them is Batman? Both of them have dead parents.
Oh wait, so does Bon Bon. And she has all the cool gadgets, so she's probably Batman.
I'm torn. On one hand, Lightning Dusk is, canonically at least, an iffy character at best, and advising a soldier to ignore the rules and do his own things seems like a dangerous road; that's how war crimes happen. But by the same token, we all know Lyra's gonna go the vigilante route, and Flash could be a powerful ally.
I'm tentatively willing to see what Lightning's up to.
7484833 Everyone has dead parents. Dead parents fic!
Lightning Dust? Just go away. Forever. In a ditch.
Hmmmm this could go so many ways here, is Flash going to try to break the rules and get burned leading him to be a stickler for his own moral code or are the rules going to screw him up again making him abandon them completely. This is going to determine how he deals and interacts with Lyra I think.
Lightning Dust is a random out of rules wild card, but she sure as heck aint Mel Gibson.
Lightning Dust will take Flash Sentry to Las Pegasus and will make him fight a donkey gang that took her weapons.
I've never understood why "try-hard" is supposed to be insulting...
In any case, looks like Flash just got the call to adventure. Reckless, ill-advised adventure, but that's the sort you should expect when Lightning Dust is the messenger. This should be fun.
7486494 hope you don't mind the belated answer but:
1.) trying way to hard to be something you are not eg. trying to act like a pro while failing miserably (usually while constantly blaming others for your failures)
2.) sucking the fun out of games by constantly trying to turn a harmless friendly and fun competition between friends into a hardcore esport event while constantly berating everyone around you for even the slightest mistake and getting mad if not everyone plays on pro-levels.
basically there are people like me who just want to enjoy playing a game at our own pace or to try out stupid things sometimes just for the heck of it and constantly being berated/insulted by gamers who expect everyone to always play pro-level competitions with no real reasoning behind it is just incredible annoying. it's fine if you want to give your best, but just accept that there are also people playing who just want to have fun and respect that.
God how I mssed this story. Sucks I missed out on these ‘as they come out’ releases. I can’t believe I missed out on best pegasus’ debut appearance in this story, she works so well with Flash here and she kept that badflank ‘hey it took two to tango’ attitude. Heck she doesn’t even care to make an excuse!
Those Blunderdoltz wouldn have just held her awesomeness back anyways. Can’t let jealous ol’ dashie take any blame for stuff she had no guts in saying no to despite stupid ponies flying into restricted airspace outta the blue and getting themselves nearly killed all because of a mentally challenged overly obsessed pony wanting to deliver a cake. lol Hypocrites indeed!
Now let’s do some REAL crime fighting, Lightning Dust style! x3
Lightning Dust! Lightning Dust! WOOOT!
You go Flash! Team up for the good of flankkickery everywhee!
Goad I got back into this story. Best chapter <3
@KM
No you. She was awesome. Still is. She was just victim to bad writing. It took two to make that tornado and no one asked the mane six to trespass. Pinkie deserves a good chunk of that blame and especially Rainbow Dash for her inabilityto swallow her own pride and jealousy to say no.
Bad moral ending was bad. Even if Lightning Dust did say egotistical stuff and acted overly defensive especially when hypocritical Dashie got into the blame game to cover her own flank and Shitfire who was once promoting LD’s behaviour suddenly started kissing mane6 flank over something that could have costed her job.
Anywho, enough pretending to be involved in super old commentary to a chapter in a story. lol