Rainbow Dash hopped up to Fluttershy's cottage feeling cheerful. She had eaten a delicious Zap-apple jam sandwich and therefore wished to try to break the sound barrier again!
She knocked on the door totally unprepared for what waited for her on the other side of it. She waited a few seconds before Fluttershy opened the door.
"Hey Fluttershy how's it-" she cut herself off seeing the closest pony to the door "Sky Stinger? What are you doing here?" she asked looking confused glancing in another direction to see Vapor Trail bouncing excitedly,
"Rainbow Dash you're here!" Vapor Trail then yelled dashing over to hug her.
"Vapor Trail? Can't breath!" Rainbow Dash forced out, The room was spinning, Sky Stinger seemed to be on the floor than on the wall.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Vapor Trail gasped letting go of her captive "I'm just excited that's all. Can you forgive me?" She begged not noticing the green pegasus that was slowly backing into the shadows.
'What do I do? What do I do?' Lightning panicked taking in the room.
She decided on trying for the staircase.
Moving slowly she made her way to the first few steps, not even daring to open her wings she made it about half-way up the staircase when a little white rabbit from hell ruined everything.
Angel Bunny took one look at Lightning Dust grinned and pulled Fluttershy's hair.
The innocent buttercup pegasus leaned down to the living nightmare and asked: "What is it, Angel?"
Those words sent a chill down Lightning Dust's spine. Looking back she saw Angel pointing at her and thought 'I'm going to kill that demon rabbit!'
In a flurry of feathers, Lightning flew up the stairs, into the guest room and slammed the door.
Breathing heavily she leaned against the wood and tried to listen through the door for sounds of pursuit. She could hear them talking but it was muffled by the distance and the door.
She cursed under her breath unsure if they had noticed her flight or not.
Spinning back to the room she looked around for another escape, promptly tripping over Sky's empty suitcase and landing on her side. Rubbing her sore shoulder with her wing she headed for the round window and forced it open.
Peeking outside she sighed, they still seemed to be inside.
Suddenly Lightning could decipher what the muffled voices, that sounded like they were coming closer, were saying,
"I'm sure she's fine." The Familiar voice of Vapor Trail said as the hoofsteps came in contact with the stairs. "Maybe she just needed to use the washroom?"
Lightning started to pull herself out. She only got passed her wings before she actually struggling to pull through.
"Are you sure?" Asked the concerned voice of Fluttershy, "She looked kind of, I don't know... Scared?"
Lightning stopped pulling for a second a shocked expression creeping onto her face. 'I'm am not scared!' she was quite annoyed now and started putting her wings into the struggle of getting her hindquarters out of the house.
"Come on, come on!" she whispered to herself trying to get at least one of her hind legs through the frame. "This is stupid!" she growled thinking of all the things Sky Stinger would say about it and how much he would tease her if he saw her in this state.
The voices were right outside the door now, "Who are you guys talking about?" Lightning knew who that was. Panicking she chomped down on a tree branch and pulled.
She heard the door open and that gave her a flurry of energy, flapping her wings as hard as she could, With a pop, she came loose and blasted away.
A few moments earlier Fluttershy had watched Lightning fly up the stairs and then heard the slamming of a door.
"Oh, my... " she said quietly remembering the look of horror on Lightning's face. Concern riddling Fluttershy's face she turned back to the other Pegasi in the room.
Sky Stinger was now hoof-bumping Rainbow Dash while Vapor Trail was beaming.
"Um, guys?" Fluttershy whispered trying to get their attention. They didn't seem to notice.
"Rainbow, It's good to see you again!" Sky Stinger exclaimed he hadn't noticed his sisters escape and was thoroughly enjoying speaking with the wonderbolt.
"So are you Fluttershy's cousin?" Rainbow asked stepping back to look at the dark teal stallion.
Sky Stinger shook his head "No, Vapor Trail is." gesturing towards the light green pony. "But we have been friends with Fluttershy for years!"
Fluttershy was now tapping on Vapor Trail's back, trying to get her attention.
"Vapor Trail?" She asked, still quiet as to not disturb Sky Stinger and Rainbow Dash's conversation. "I think something is wrong with Dusty." Their cute nickname for Lightning Dust had for the last few years been a code word for 'Lightning Dust needs help but we can't tell her that or else she'll blow up.' As Sky Stinger put it when he wrote that letter to Fluttershy and when he told Vapor Trail.
So when Fluttershy used that word she gained Vapor Trail's full attention.
"What do you mean?" Vapor Trail asked worry evident on her face as she glanced around for the orange-maned pony only to see she was nowhere to be found. "Where did she go anyway?" She said, looking at Fluttershy the worry was evident on Fluttershy's face.
The butter-cream pegasus gestured up the stairs "She went up there." Her voice was still hushed as to not disturb the excited chattering of Sky Stinger and Rainbow Dash. "I think I heard a door slam."
Sky Stinger had taken notice of the two light shaded pegasi who were now starting to trot upstairs. He then found that his sister was no longer in the room.
Rainbow Dash's only concern then was that Sky wasn't paying attention to her story about how she won her last race. She thought that it was very interesting and was a little offended that he seemed uninterested.
"Hey! Don't you want to know if I won?!" She exclaimed as she was close to the end. "You seem distracted." She finished as she followed Sky's gaze.
It falling on the two mares heading upstairs.
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" She questioned her story forgotten at the moment.
They didn't hear her as they were close to the top of the steps still whispering to each other about the teal mare upstairs.
Rainbow Dash couldn't hear most of what they were saying but she heard the words 'I'm sure she's fine.' and 'She looked kind of... Something.'
So she did what any curious mare would do. She flew up to them and asked, "Who are you talking about?" As they were opening the first door in the hallway.
Rainbow Dash didn't get a good enough look to confirm what she thought she saw, but it looked like a Cutie Mark with a lightning bolt with three stars beneath it.
Rainbow thinking it couldn't be but her thoughts interrupted by Vapor Trail exclaiming,
"Lightning Dust wait!" The concern seemed to drip down from her mouth her foreleg extended towards the open window, her wings opened to take off after her, and Vapor's pale blue eyes widened to process what had just happened.
Rainbow was still trying as well. Then her brain caught up to what Vapor said. Surprize and realization pricked at her than she yelled.
"What?!"