Lightning Strikes Twice

by Solent Spray

Three drinks of whatever won't kill us.

"Are you sure that she came here?"
The voice originated from a female pony, the mare was wearing a cloak with the hood drawn up obscuring most if not all of her features, the only exception being a faint raised outline on her back indicting the presence of wings.

"I'm mean even for Lightning, this is desperate."
A slight movement of her headline indicated that she was looking around at her surroundings, which were at the moment a rundown side street in the back alleys of Manehatten. This being a particularly unsavory part of the city, the Pegasus mare was keeping a constant vigilance out for any sudden movements from any direction; especially as they were a fair while away from any main road.

"Anything?" questioned a second voice, querying the actions of her.

"No, fortunately not." was the answer given back.
The second voice came from a stallion, he too wore a cloak in a similar fashion to the mare; the hood drawn up and hiding most of his features as well. Similarly to his companion, the stallion had a faint raised outline of wings protruding through the cloak on his back.

"I don't mean to question where you get your intel nowadays, Wind. But, its just..." commented the pegasus mare.

"Fire, I know that Lightning is here." answered Wind.
Fire just grumbled at her partner.

"We're here." Wind pointed to an entrance to a back alley bar in front of them; it looked like it was even more run down than the street itself was.
As the pair entered the establishment, it was made clear extremely quickly that they were not welcome. Everything from the shabby interior decor to the rough as Tartarus patrons to the all the conversations being stopped halfway as every single pony in the bar turned to eye the newcomers. There were exactly 7 different ponies in the bar staring directly at them; 3 unicorns, 3 earth ponies and 1 pegasus including the earth pony behind the bar were judging the two newcomers with wary apprehension, as Fire and Wind stood in the doorway both noticed a slight movement in the back room behind the counter indicating a seventh pony out of sight.
But visually sweeping the scene again around the establishment they had just entered in it showed that not every single pony was staring at them; right at the back of the room with a couple of empty bottles lying on the table and on the floor around her, her turquoise head and amber mane slumped facing away from the bar entrance on a table in utter defeat was the mare that they were searching for; Lightning Dust.

She looked an absolute mess.
Lightning Dust looked possibly even worse than the bar itself; which was saying something as the bar had been worse than the street outside, a street littered with the refuse of a city thirty years old. Yet Lightning still wore her cadet uniform defiantly, however it was far from factory new condition. Her mane wasn't its usual bright amber as it dulled and muddied down with all manner of things including dirt, mud, grime and at least one patch of dried blood. Her light cyan coat hadn't fared any better either; even with the tatters of what was left of her Wonderbolt Cadet uniform, Lightning's coat was still several shades darker than it was usually through a combination of unwashed dirt and grime and what was even more patches of dried blood on her. It was debatable whether or not the blood was her own or not but in short it looked like Lightning had been in a pretty heavy pony bruise-up and lost.

"Bar first, then Lightning." Wind said bluntly.
Although nopony could see it Fire rolled her eyes, but followed Wind to the bar.

"Three drinks of whatever won't kill us." Wind asked of the bartender.
In response the earth pony behind the bar merely grunted and opened three bottles of cider. The bottles weren't from Sweet Apple Acres, but they'll do.

"18 bits." grunted the bartender again
Fire bristled under her cloak but stayed silent (she wouldn't even pay 18 bits for Sweet Apple Acres Cider let alone the crap the bartender was selling them), Wind ignored her by dropping a rough approximation of bits onto the counter and not bothering to wait for change, picked up the drinks to move over to where Lightning was sitting. Both Wind and Fire could see as they approached Lightning that she was giving off small subtle movements from her posture that meant that she was just mimicking being passed out from drinking but instead she was moving to get ready to attack them, sensing that Lightning was going to strike first Fire pushed past Wind to stop Lightning before she hurt herself.

Lightning was quick brandishing a small switchblade on Fire (the knife had been concealed by her slumped form), Lightning aimed at the other mare’s neck hoping to get the first and only strike in the fight. However, where Lightning was quick, Fire was quicker; knocking the knife out of Lightning's hoof before it was anywhere near Fire's neck, she then whipped out a golden fore hoof to strike a pressure point on Lightning’s left-side shoulder causing her left fore leg to go completely numb and collapse from under her.
Gasping in shock both at being disarmed so easily and her fore leg losing all feeling, Lightning glanced up at the pony who easily beat her trying to see a face instead she was met with an orange hoof that pretty much forced her back up on the rest of her hooves then shoved Lightning into her previously vacated seat.

"Lightning, we need to talk." said the mare who had downed her.

"Buck you! Whoever you are." spat Lightning. "I told your boss before I ain't paying up."
She tried to stand again but with her numb fire leg coupled with Fire's own very forcefully hoof against her wings meant that she that didn't get very far, meanwhile as this tussle went on Wind had taken the seat opposite to Lightning's and moved the three drinks on to the table. Fire was still fighting Lightning to get her to stop moving, she had even resorted to hitting Lightning's pressure point again.

"I'm part of the Wonderbolts hear me, let me go or you'll have my whole squad on you faster than you can say military precision!" raged Lightning desperately at the mare currently holding her down.

"Lightning, shut up. I am fast running out of patience!"
Unfortunately that prompted Lightning to struggle even harder to take down the mare holding her in place.

"Sit. Down." Wind's voice cut through their struggles like a knife through butter, looking through his hood to Fire giving her a extremely cold stare that even though she couldn't see it Fire shivered. "Both of you."
Grudgingly Fire let go of Lightning and took a seat next to Wind,

"Damn it Wind, don't do that." said the slightly shivering Fire

"Sorry about that Fire but it was the only way to break both of two up quickly." Apologised Wind passing a bottle of cider over to Fire, who took it with a nod.
Wind also passed the last cider bottle to Lightning, who luckily hadn't chosen to bolt after Fire had released her instead she was staring at Wind (or more appropriately at Wind's hood, seeing as she couldn't see his face) frozen with complete and utter shock, almost like a deer caught in headlights. Lightning was stuck in a loop between saluting or galloping away in fear, after a couple more seconds she finally realised that a cider bottle was being waved infront of her face, shakingly Lightning took it.

"Lightning Dust, it's taken awhile to track you down." stated Wind taking a swig from his cider, now he wished that was Sweet Apple Acres Cider.

"W-what ever your sellin', I ain't interested!" stammered Lighting trying to reclaimed some for her previous swagger.

"Ah yes, because you're doing so well on your own." Fire stated sarcastically taking another look over Lightning and her tattered appearance.

"Well I would be if it wasn't for that backstabbing Rainbow Dash!" Lightning was practically shouting at Fire, going so far to try and stand back up regardless of her completely numb fore leg. Apparently this was a touchy subject for Lightning Dust.

"Lightning I read the report, now I'm asking you to tell your side of the story." regarded Wind.
Lightning raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the wording of his response but the chance to rip on Rainbow Dash to ponies willing to listen was too great for her to pass up.

"I was destined to be the next greatest Wonderbolt!" Lightning began, she couldn't see it but both Wind and Fire rolled their eyes. "I had everything; I was naturally gifted with a placement at Wonderbolt Academy, I was lead wing pony in my whole flight, I was the envy of every other Pegasus who couldn't keep up with me and my speed!" Lightning's expression shone with hope for a second as she recalled her ego-infused memories then suddenly changed into an look of jealousy and hatred quicker than a pegasi aerial cloud sprint.

"Then she came along and ruined everything; Rainbow Dash, Rainbow 'Danger' Dash, Rainbow 'Element-Of-Loyalty' Dash, Rainbow 'Look-At-Me' Dash, Rainbow 'Rainbowed-Haired' Dash, Rainbow 'Aren't-My-Wings-Pretty' Dash, Rainbow-"

"We get the picture." interrupted Wind holding up his hoof to stop Lightning from complaining about Rainbow's name.

"She, Dash, she ratted me out to the Wonderbolt Captain. Spitfire said that I was reckless! Me! Reckless!!!"
Considering that her career path had significantly taken a severe nose dive and the fact that she was currently in a back alley bar telling her whole life story to complete strangers, the concept of irony was apparently lost on Lightning.
Fire shifted in her seat uncomfortably, Wind shot her a look even through the fabric of her cloak that made Fire cringe however Lightning was ranting about Spitfire's name now and had complete missed what was going on between the two ponies seated across from her.

“…Spit 'Academy-Record' Fire, Spit 'Bitc-”
A low growl from Fire drew Lightning’s attention and cut her off from saying anymore.

“What's it to you?” Lightning question challenged Fire. “You gonna defend the mares who ruined my life?”

“It sounds like your ego make the your decisions.” Fire said through gritted teeth.

“Ego!!! I give you ego!!!” Lightning made to stand up again to continue their previous dust up but collapsed again as soon as she put weight on her still numb and useless leg, Fire didn't move as Lightning crumpled under her own weight and just watched as she had to physically climb back into her seat.

"Lightning Dust, back to point. Do you know why you were discharged?" asked Wind, drawing Lightning's attention back to him.

"How in Tartarus should I know, maybe something to do with civilians in Wonderbolt airspace....." shrugged Lightning nonchalantly going back to her cider bottle.

"You endangered not only your flight detail but 5 civilian VIP's with an illegal and life-threatening aerial maneuver."

"Yeah so? Civilians in military airspace, even if they were VIP's that would be a breach of Wonderbolt regulations." shot back Lightning, quoting from the Wonderbolt handbook (memorised back when she was a little filly watching her first Wonderbolts live show). "The only civilians allowed anywhere near military airspace is..."

"The Elements of Harmony." stated Wind cutting through Lightning's argument. "That's who you endangered, Lightning; Miss Fluttershy, Miss Applejack, Miss Rarity, Miss Pie and Miss Sparkle."

"Oh......"
Lightning couldn't think, she had jeopardized 5 of the 6 most important mares of recent history. Suddenly she realised how badly Rainbow Dash had flipped out at her, no wonder Spitfire had kicked her out; it was that or a military tribunal. But Wind wasn't finished with Lightning.

"Did you know that Miss Sparkle is the protege and personal student of Celestia herself?"
That like a punch in the gut for Lightning. Princess Celestia? Forget the military tribunal, she was lucky that she wasn't being bought in front of the Princess in chains. However Wind somehow seemed to what Lightning was thinking.

"No, Celestia is not personally after you. Otherwise you would be 'talking' with her and not us."
Shocked and surprised, Lightning looked at Wind's hooded features trying and failing to piece together the enigma behind her two companions seated with her.

"W-who are you guys?"
Lightning wasn't sure she had even asked the question, she wasn't even sure of anything more. Fire turned and looked half inquiringly half asking at Wind, who simply nodded. Lightning watched stunned as Fire removed her hood with her yellow hoof to reveal an equally golden coat to match a set of dark amber eyes looking at her, a mane of vivid orange with light brilliant amber stripes, Fire was apparently the Wonderbolt Captain; Spitfire.
But Lightning's attention was drawn from her old captain to Wind who was removing his own hood to reveal of a coat of pure steel gray and a mane of jet black but what drew Lightning was his eyes; a set of piercing emerald green eyes were staring at Lightning, she couldn't read anything behind them. Lightning knew who this was, although she had never met him before she had heard the stories circulating around the military about the stallion sitting across from her. This was Captain Solar Wind of the Royal Equestrian Military.

Author's Note:

Any comments/queries/suggestions please leave in the comments.
Also I'm sorry that this is really, really late. I had real trouble with these bar scenes as I kept frittering between three different ideas.
Estimated time for next chapter: Two weeks (Sorry )

Revised: 24/09/2015

Comments

[Blagdaross]

That was pretty good. A few minor technical errors, but great imagery and enough mystery that I want to read the next chapter now.

[Telaros]

The world needs more Lightning Dust art.

[Solent Spray]

6455781 Thank-You for reading and enjoying!!! If you do spot any errors just shout it out to me and I'll try to change them!

6455852 I'm really really really seriously bad at drawing and artwork...

[Telaros]

6456585 Ah, well it was mostly just lamenting how often that one is used for a cover art. Especially since this story feels like could use a more fitting badass Lightning.

Far as the story goes? Yeah, Fire can get pissed all he wants. Spitfire only served to encourage LD to push harder and praised her ingenuity and creativity. And RD, Captain of a bloody Weather Team who knows the dangers of messing with tornadoes is 100% just as responsible for not speaking up sooner. LD is faster, more agile, but likely not as strong as RD. Hard to say but RD certainly had the stamina at the very least to continue a bit longer in the tornado.

I like that LD still has her spunk in this one. Well, here's hoping LD can find a nice way to throw something back in Spitfire's face some. And show that backstabbing Rainbow Dash who threw all the blame on her for something that no pony could have predicted. Seriously, if Fire got that upset over LD making fun of Spitfire's name then he'd be trying to outright kill if he heard what I thought of her. xD

Fun story so far. I'll chalk up Wind being faster then Lightning due to her being out of shape/not 100% sober. Looking forward to more. ;3

[Solent Spray]

6456788 Yeah, I know that the artwork currently is super generic but it was the best I could come up with. If I find another that suits the story better I'll probably change it.
Thanks for taking a liking to the story and LD! I'm probably going to have go back and watch the Wonderbolt Academy episode again, but thanks for pointing out LD/RD/SF points out to me!

6456885 Cheers for pointing this out to me, I always appreciate constructive criticism! Yeah, rereading these quotes I realise that some bits could be cut down slightly. If I make any others next time just let me know!