Forever Fell Short

by The Red Parade

If You Jump

“So are you gonna fly?”

Lightning threw her hooves up in frustration. “For the last time, Rolling, I’m just going to watch!”

Rolling ruffled her wings in frustration. “Seriously, Dusty? This is the biggest flight event of the year and you’re gonna sit on the sidelines?"

Lightning growled, pawing at the ground in irritation. “You’re the one that cares about this stuff, not me!”

Rolling frowned, jabbing a hoof into Lightning’s chest. “Where’s the Lightning I grew up with? Where’s the Lightning Dust I’d fly head-on into right gnarly storm clouds with? Where’s the Lightning Dust that wasn’t afraid to live a little!”

Lightning shoved Rolling away. “Buck off! You don’t get it!”

“I don’t!” Rolling shouted. “I don’t get what happened to you!” She spat on the ground in anger. “Enjoy the rest of your life as a nobody from nowhere, because Celestia knows you’ll never get anything done being safe.” With that, she ruffled her wings and stormed off, leaving Lightning alone amongst a crowd.

Lightning radiated with anger, scowling and kicking at the dirt. But somewhere buried beneath her rage was shame. Shame at the kernels of truth in what her friend had said.

“Lightning! You came!”

She turned to see none other than Derpy trotting towards her with a wave, a young foal on her back and a teenager by her side.

“This is Lightning Dust, say hi!” She instructed the two. The teenager gave an awkward wave and the foal yawned, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

Lightning chuckled, some of her anger melting away. “Are these your kids?”

“The lights in my life,” Derpy replied, chest puffing out in pride. “This little one is Dinky, and this is Sparkler.”

The two gazed at her curiously, and Lightning offered a wave in reply.

“Are you going to help out with the hur-i-cane?” asked Dinky tiredly, her pronunciation getting a smile from Lightning.

“Uh…” Lightning shrugged. “I dunno, it seems like they’ve got a ton of ponies already.”

Lightning blinked when Derpy put a hoof on her shoulder, smiling as one eye drifted to the sky. “That’s okay, Lightning! I know Rainbow would love to have more ponies, but if you don’t want to, then she won’t force you.”

“Yeah.” Lightning sighed, dragging a hoof across the dirt again.

“This is gonna be so cool!” Sparkler declared, hopping from hoof to hoof. “This is, like, once in a lifetime, right mom? I wish I had wings, then I could fly right up there with all those pegasi!”

Derpy was quiet for a second. When Lightning met her eyes again, she saw both of Derpy’s filled with concern and sympathy. It only made her feel worse inside. But before Derpy could speak, a streak of white cut into their conversation.

“Yo, Derpy!” declared the newcomer. “You ready?”

Derpy giggled as a wing slapped into her back. “Hi, Whitey! How are you this morning?”

“Ready to get this done,” the mare exclaimed, pumping a hoof into the air. The newcomer was practically vibrating with excitement, her wings pumping fast and sporadically. In contrast to Derpy’s tall and lanky build, this pegasus was shorter and stubbier, her brighter colors clashing with the black and green jacket she wore.

Derpy laughed, and her bubbly voice was infectious enough to melt away Lightning’s bitterness.

“Whitey, this is Lightning Dust. Lightning Dust, this is White Lightning,” Derpy said, pointing a hoof at each and crossing her forelegs in an attempt to gesture to each.

White Lightning gave a salute before turning to Derpy. “You better check-in with Rainbow, chief. She's eager to get going.”

Derpy nodded. “On my way! Come on you two, let’s go say hi to Rainbow Dash!”

As the two foals followed Derpy into the crowd, ‘Whitey’ began to look Lightning over. “So, Derpy scout you too?”

“What?”

“Did she ask you to join up?”

Lightning shook her head.

“Oh. Sorry, I thought we were about to get another teammate. You’ve got good form, too. Did you do comp flying before?” asked Whitey eagerly.

Lightning shifted on her hooves. “Not really. Used to do storm chasing but… well, I had a pretty bad accident. Haven’t really done much of that stuff since then.”

Whitey winced. “Oooh, yeah. I feel that. Have you ever considered getting back into it though?”

Lightning ruffled her wings in irritation. “No.”

Strangely, Whitey smiled. “Ah. I think I get it now.”

Lightning raised an eyebrow, but Whitey didn’t reply further: she only hovered close to Lightning with a strange glint in her eye and a placid smile on her face.

When it was clear that Whitey wouldn’t elaborate, Lightning spoke up. “So… you’ve worked with Derpy for a long time?”

“The boss? Oh yeah! She’s great, really knows how to pick someone up. She’ll take you under her wing like you were one of her own.” Whitey sighed, glancing over to where she had gone. “She’s saved lives, you know. Celestia knows she saved mine.”

Lightning stared at her inquisitively.

“See, I… kinda fell out of touch with life a while ago. Dead-end job, considering moving… I wasn’t in a great place,” Whitey said as she rubbed a foreleg. “But when I met Derpy… I found hope again. She reminded me about what I loved in life. What it meant to be alive again. That’s just what she does. Gives us back what we lost.”

Lightning blinked at that, not expecting a fairly eloquent answer. “Huh.”

“Yeah, she’s great,” Whitey finished. The two looked up as a shout echoed across the crowd. “Well, looks like Rainbow’s ready to go. Are you joining us?”

“Uh, nah. I’m sitting it out,” Lightning answered automatically.

Whitey shrugged, spreading her wings and following the pegasi. “Suit yourself!”

Lightning watched as flocks of pegasi took to the air, circling around Rainbow as she shouted instructions to them. Looking around on the ground, Lightning realized she was an oddity amongst the spectating earth ponies and unicorns, which only added to her tumultuous insecurity.

She sighed, going over to a nearby tree and trotting in a circle. Every couple of seconds she would ruffle her wings, and a few times she even splayed them out with her eyes cast at the group. But every time a memory would stab through her heart, and she’d wince before quieting her wings and sulking.

Eventually, the pegasi sans her began circling over the reservoir. As they continued to circle over it they began to build up a marvelous force, and it wasn’t long before the water began funneling upwards.

Lightning trotted forwards, casting her eyes on the storm. The pegasi became blurs, whirling bits of color against a dark gray tempest. Wind began to whip through the air, sending leaves and dust flying through Lightning’s mane and into her eyes.

She heard a whoop overhead and caught a blur of purple. Lightning spread her wings again, reminded of old times. Of diving off of clouds into thunderheads with Rolling, cheering and whooping as they felt the electricity tingling through their primaries. Of having fun for once.

But every single thought was followed by another: a flash of lightning, the roaring wind, and a searing, unbearable pain.

With a frustrated growl she dug her hoof into the ground and squeezed her eyes shut. But her ear twitched at a distant shout, and when she looked up again, Rainbow Dash had broken from the hurricane. Rainbow flew over to a nearby hill, where Lightning saw Twilight Sparkle standing next to a complicated machine.

Rainbow pulled off her goggles and her eyes bulged at the machine’s screen. Twilight waved frantically and prattled off a string of words, leading Rainbow to shrug and shout something back. As their argument continued, Lightning saw Derpy break formation and join them.

Twilight again gestured first to the machine then to the clouds above, and Derpy turned to say something to Rainbow. A swirling twinge of uneasiness, much like the hurricane wind itself, began to swim through Lightning’s stomach.

As she lifted a hoof to trot over, there was suddenly a violent flash of lightning and roar of thunder. Lightning threw a foreleg up to shield her eyes as a chorus of screams flooded over from the hurricane.

When she looked up again, the hurricane was still there, but the pegasi around it were mostly gone: they now littered the grounds around the reservoir like dead leaves around a summer tree.

Twilight shouted something again and Rainbow and Derpy took to the air.

But they didn’t get far before there was another crack of thunder, and to Lightning Dust’s horror, the hurricane moved.

In seconds it had eclipsed where Twilight, Rainbow, and Derpy were standing: passing through them as if they didn’t exist. Lightning squinted, seeing a bright flash of magenta but nothing else.

Then, she caught it: two blobs were flung out from within, flying like arrows without a target. To Lightning’s horror, neither seemed able to recover as both spiraled into the ground, disappearing behind the treeline.

The pegasi around Lightning began to recover, but without any of the leaders, their actions were uncoordinated and mismatched: several tried to fly towards the hurricane while others pointed to where Rainbow and Derpy had ended up.

“Alright!” shouted a voice that Lightning recognized as Whitey’s. The mare flew to the front, gathering the attention of the remaining airborne pegasi. “Three teams!” She barked. “Team one, gather the wounded! Team two, find Rainbow Dash! Team three, with me, we need to get that hurricane under control!”

“W-wait,” Lightning said, flying over. “What about--”

“Fluttershy, take point on team two! We need Rainbow Dash here now,” Whitey said, not hearing Lightning. “Come on, come on! We need to stop that thing before it wipes out Ponyville!”

“--Derpy…” Lightning trailed off as Whitey darted off, a small army of pegasi following close behind.

Lightning bit her lip as ponies scattered around her. A few pegasi lay crumpled on the ground, crying or screaming in pain with their wings bent out at awkward angles. She cringed, but for once something besides fear and guilt rang in her mind: worry. Worry for Derpy.

“Mom!”

Lightning looked over to her right to see Dinky and Sparkler being ushered away.

“M-Mom!” cried Dinky, tears in her eyes. “Where’s mommy?!”

Her mind set, Lightning spread her wings and headed for the forest where Derpy had fallen, keeping a wary eye on the inferno roaring nearby.

“Derpy?”

Lightning shivered as the howling wind echoed through the trees. She glanced up and saw the top of the hurricane peeking over the treeline. Pegasi circled it uselessly like bees, their forms tiny and insignificant. Movable forces against an unstoppable object.

“Derpy!”

Lightning shuddered as a herd of rabbits shot through the brush nearby. She swore beneath her breath, sticks crunching beneath her hooves. “Derpy? Where are you?”

She ran forwards, skidding to a halt at a fallen pegasus. “...Snow?”

Snow Violet glanced up at her, biting her lip. “Lightning! I… Rainy Day’s hurt!”

She moved, and Lightning saw two more pegasi behind her.

“It’s… nothing,” Rainy muttered, holding her left foreleg up limply.

“Don’t move,” hissed Sunny Delivery, digging through her bag for bandages. “Lightning… what do we do?”

Lightning slumped forwards. “I… I don’t know. I think Rainbow’s hurt.”

The three gasped and huddled close together. “But… but there has to be something we can do,” Snow gasped, tears welling in her eyes.

Sunny sighed and gently took Snow’s head, guiding it to her shoulder and nuzzling her. “Hey, Lightning is going to get us out of this… right?”

Lightning only bit her lip in response. “I… try and get Rainy some help. I need to find Derpy.”

With that, she turned away and continued through the forest, doubts tearing at her mind and drowning out the calls of her coworkers.

“Stupid stupid stupid,” Lightning muttetred. “What do they think I could possibly--”

She froze and squeezed her eyes shut as anxiety shot through her system.

“Dammit. Justbreathejustbreathejustbreathejustbreathe,” she muttered, trying to stem the fluttering in her heart.

“Lightning?”

Lightning’s eyes shot open. “Derpy?”

“H-Here,” a voice called weakly from nearby.

Lightning bolted to the source of the voice and found her: propped up against a tree and breathing heavily, goggles dangling from her neck.

Derpy coughed, tears trailing down her face. “Hey,” she replied, her voice somehow still carrying it’s typical cheer. She grimaced as she tried to adjust her position, and Lightning’s eyes widened when she saw Derpy’s right wing splayed out at an awkward angle.

“Your wing,” she stuttered dumbly.

“I think it’s broken,” Derpy replied through gritted teeth.

Lightning gaped at her, wondering how she could shrug an injury like that off so easily. “W… what happened? I thought Rainbow had this under control!”

Derpy laughed bitterly. “It turns out… Rainbow overshot, badly. Turns out her advertising campaign… worked too well. The estimates she gave Twilight were rounded down, so the storm we created was far more powerful than we thought.”

“What now?” asked Lightning.

“I… Where’s Rainbow?” Derpy asked, wincing as she tried to sit up.

Lightning winced. “She… got hit by it, same as you did. Whitey sent a group to find her, but last I heard they still don’t know where she is.”

“Then they need a replacement flyer.” Derpy looked up, locking both her eyes on Lightning. “And… I think that replacement is you, Lightning.”

A chilling wave washed over Lightning. “M-Me?!”

“Rolling told me about that wingpower test you two took,” Derpy continued. “From what I heard, you’re as good a flyer as Rainbow Dash, and Celestia knows they need everyone they can get.”

Lightning’s eyes darted around the forest. “I--I can’t! I just… I don’t think I can do it.”

“I know you can,” Derpy insisted. “Lightning, you might be their only chance.”

“No!” Lightning blurted, grinding her teeth together. “You don’t get it! I… I can’t fly again!”

“Rainbow’s probably as banged up as I am!”

“You’re not listening! I! Can’t!” Lightning pounded a hoof into the ground for emphasis, her vision starting to blur as desperate tears began to form.

Derpy frowned, squeezing her eyes shut. “You’re right.” When she opened them again the kindness and warmth were gone. In their place was steel and iron: and a fire that Lightning had never seen before. “I don’t get it.”

She heaved herself to her hooves, never breaking gaze from Lightning.

“Who says you can’t fly? You’ve got two wings, don’t you?”

“I… The last time I tried something like this, I almost died,” Lightning replied, taking a hesitant step backwards.

“Oh? You know, I almost died three times before I got to where I am now,” Derpy shot back, narrowing her eyes. “Are you saying I should have quit after I failed the first time?”

Lightning blinked in shock. “It… it’s different!”

Derpy gave a mirthless laugh. “You think it’s different to my daughters? You think you can sit here and look them in the eye before saying you did nothing to help?”

“I…” Lightning bit down hard on her lip.

There was a crash in the brush nearby, and Lightning turned to see a team of pegasi led by Fluttershy, carrying a limp Rainbow Dash in a makeshift stretcher.

“Look at me!” Derpy shouted, causing Lightning’s head to whip around. Her glare softened a bit as she grabbed both of Lightning’s withers. “You can’t let your feelings control you Lightning. I wish I had more time to help you overcome this, but we don’t have any left. Even if you don’t believe in yourself, I believe in you.”

Her words stirred something inside of Lightning. The wind whipped around them, and the voices and screams of pegasi sounded around them. Lightning turned around to look at the hurricane, tearing through the trees and heading for the town.

She swallowed, shook, but nodded. “O…Okay.”

Derpy slapped her on the back. She pulled her goggles from her neck and put them in Lightning’s hoof. “Then fly, filly, fly!”

And Lightning Dust flew.

Drops of rain hit her face as she took to the air. She spared one glance behind her, but Derpy had been enveloped by medical personnel and was being ushered to the safe zone.

She was on her own now.

But it didn’t feel terrifying anymore.

She stretched out each wing as she flew, old pre-flight checklists kicking in on instinct. Lightning knew her limits, and she knew that without a proper warmup she was treading on thin ice. But Derpy’s words rang true in her head, pumping through her blood and into her veins.

As she approached the maelstrom she saw two figures on its edge arguing.

“We can’t give up now!” cried Rolling Thunder. “That thing’s gonna level the entire town!”

“We don’t have a choice,” Whitey shot back, gesturing to the storm. “We’re down too many ponies, unless Rainbow Dash can get in the air again, our best bet is waiting for the Wonderbolts to show up!”

“Wrong,” Lightning shouted, getting their attention. “Your best bet is me.”

Rolling gaped at her. “Lightning! You came?”

Lightning nodded, tightening the straps on her borrowed goggles. “Derpy talked some sense into me. You guys need every pony you can get.”

“Darned right we do,” Whitey affirmed. “But being honest with you? I don’t know if we’ve got enough power to fully stop this thing, not until we get some serious reinforcements.”

“But we’ve got to try,” Lightning answered, her own voice unwavering. “At the very least we could try and hold it in place until we can dissipate it.”

Whitey and Rolling exchanged a glance. “Sounds like a plan,” Whitey said.

“Right on, mate, “ Rolling agreed. She exchanged a hoof bump with Lightning, a wry grin forming on her face. “Just like old times, eh?”

“Yeah,” Lightning answered with a short breath. “I’ll try not to die this time.”

“That’s the spirit!”

With that, the three flew towards the storm. As they neared it, Lightning could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins. The wind whipped by her mane and her goggles clouded over. She vaguely made out the forms of other pegasi around her, but the combination of fog and tears in her eyes made it difficult to parse out details.

It felt as if the air was being sucked from her lungs. Her wings flared out as they beat violently, electricity shooting down her primaries as they struggled to find a suitable current. Leaves, sticks, and rocks smashed against her coat, but Lightning was unstoppable.

As she gasped for air, the storm threatened to crush her whole. But she wasn’t afraid.

She felt alive.

Lightning Dust let out a guttural yell and surged forwards.

Comments

[RangerOfRhudaur]

Twilight again gestured first to the machine then to the clouds above, and Lightning turned to say something to Rainbow. A swirling twinge of uneasiness, much like the hurricane wind itself, began to swim through Lightning’s stomach.

Do you mean Derpy turned to say something to Rainbow? Lightning's too far away to hear what they're saying, if I'm reading the surrounding text correctly.

“H-Here,” a voice called weekly from nearby.

"Weekly" should be "weakly."

Other than that, fantastic story. The emotion Lightning feels is palpable in every chapter, from the almost trapped sense of frustration early on to the adrenaline of taking on the storm. Also, this Derpy is best pony, change my mind.