//------------------------------// // 6. Lightbeam // Story: The Legend of Friendship - Harmony // by Danieru //------------------------------// Cloudsdale... As the sun was going up on the horizon, one pony was happily watching it. It was a Pegasus mare with a light blue coat, a white and light blue colored straight mane, light orange eyes and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark. Almost hypnotized by the beauty she saw in the far distance, the mare was resting her head on the window ledge. "Oh!" She then said once she saw something interesting appearing in the distance. Far, far away, a rainbow was showing up. The colors were slowly appearing and got brighter by the second, which eventually ended in a really colorful image that one would usually see in well-drawn pictures. This view was taking away the breath of the mare that was watching all of this unfold in front of her eyes. Seeing something like that lifted the mood of her, which was high up, to begin with, and started to fill her with cheer happiness. The mare began to smile and raised her head in determination. "Alright!" She simply said before she ran out of her room. In the meantime, in the same house, a stallion was still sound asleep and quietly snored his worries away. It was Nightsky, who as usual, liked to spend his days more relaxed and quiet. This happened to be one of those days and he wouldn't change for anything now. Unfortunately, his rhythm was often disturbed by his more than energy filled and bubbly little sister. This was exactly one of those moments. The stallion's eyes popped open as soon as he noticed how someone was jumping up and down on his bed. Something that happened a lot. "Wake up! Wake up!" The mare said happily, without noticing how she was waking her brother up a little too abruptly. "You just missed a really beautiful rainbow!" She mentioned as she continued to jump on the bed without a care in her mind. Despite this commotion, the stallion remained relatively calm and gave a collected response. "If I already missed it, then why do I need to be awake now?" Nightsky pointed out while he tried to ignore his sister's rampage as best as possible. Suddenly, realization struck the mare and she sat down on the bed. "Good point," she simply said before she started to calm down again. Nightsky began to sit up now and rubbed his eyes. "Lightbeam, I like a good rainbow too but I also got home a few hours ago and need some sleep to catch up," Nightsky explained. He was referring to his job as a weather pony, where he occasionally had to do work at night. Somepony had to take care of the weather late as well after all. Lightbeam quickly explained herself. "Sorry! I just saw a rainbow which means that this day will be great! After all, rainbows are always a good sign!" She explained casually with a big smile on her face. "Yup," Nightsky agreed. He probably didn't want to question it so that his sister wouldn't switch back to her previous mood again. Lightbeam expected more of a response from her brother. "You're just gonna sleep through half the day, right?" She asked with little emotions in her voice. "Yup," Nightsky replied before he laid back down on his back and covered his face under his bedsheet. Lightbeam flew down from the bed with a sulking expression on her face. "Can't believe this," she whispered under her breath before she raised her shoulders. "To spend a beautiful day like this inside is just a huge waste!" She said as she walked over to the window and opened it wide and flew outside in front of it. "I'm not gonna sit here and let this day go to waste!" Nightsky looked over to his sister who was flying right in front of the window. He saw how determined she was looking up to the sky as if she wanted to vow to the sky itself that this day would be amazing. "From now on, this day will be aweso-" She said before she was interrupted by some heavy rain that came pouring down on her on cue. That little interruption certainly ruined her moment. "That doesn't count!" She exclaimed angrily with her mane covering her eyes now. Nightsky didn't even say something and he didn't even get a chance anyway because Lightbeam flew away before he could. All he was doing was keeping his view at the window from where Lightbeam left. As soon as she was gone, however, the stallion yawned heavily. "I'm going back to sleep," he said before he turned around to continue his nap again. It was not as if he could change his sister's plans anyway, even if he wanted now. All he was hoping for was that she would be okay with whatever she was planning to do now. Later... Lightbeam tried her best to make her words come true and walked through the streets of Ponyville open-minded in hope to find something that could make her day. She had no idea what it was but she just knew that seeing the rainbow earlier in this morning was a sign for good things to come. The mare walked through the streets of Ponyville and kept her eyes and ears open to not miss anything. "Let's see...what could be happening to turn this day into a simply wonderful one?" She asked herself as she was scanning her eyes through the ponies that she walked past by. "Everypony looks happy...but just This day is relatively normal happy and not This day is absolutely awesome happy!" The mare mumbled to herself as she looked at all the ponies on the side while walking aimlessly through the dirt road of Ponyville. This eventually ended up with her being too focused on the ponies around her that she accidentally bumped into somepony. The stallion that she bumped into turned around in surprise and looked at the mare with an annoying expression on his face. "Watch where you're going!" He said angrily, causing the mare to shrug her shoulders for a second before the stallion walked away. "S-sorry!" She said after him but it didn't seem as if he cared about it and he just continued to walk away. "He sure was angry..." Lightbeam figured. "Must have not realized that this is a really amazing day yet..." Lightbeam did feel a little bad for this encounter but she was confident that this was just an unfortunate exception. Maybe the amazingness of this day hasn't kicked in yet, is what she told herself. She then was surprised to hear her belly grumbling a little all of the sudden. "Oh! That's it!" She then said in her realization. "I haven't eaten anything yet! Of course! There is no way that a day can become good if you forget to eat breakfast after all!" She explained to herself while nodding her head repeatedly as if she wanted to make herself look more convincing for herself. "Now...should I go back and make something?" She asked herself confused. But the answer came with some shouts from nearby. A mare was screaming through the streets of Ponyville to sell something to everyone who walked by. It was none other than the pink Party Pony Pinkie Pie, who was working in Sugarcube Corner. She stood in front of the shop and advertised something from the looks of it. "Special bake sale in Sugarcube Corner! Only today!" She screamed through the streets while randomly throwing around some flyers at some ponies that walked past her, sometimes right into their faces, much to their dislike. Lightbeam had to admit that the cheerful behavior of this mare quickly affected her and even convinced her to go and fetch some of those sweets. "Sweets for breakfast might not be the best idea but then again, this is a very awesome day soooo..." Lightbeam said in a poor attempt to put reason into her next action, only to go with what she wanted anyway. The mare had a quick talk with Pinkie Pie and she found out that Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the owner of Sugarcube Corner were going away for a few days and wanted to make sure to get all their sweets sold before that. Lightbeam actually didn't really put too much care into this information, all she heard was Special Bake Sale and she was sold to go inside to grab some sweets. However, as soon as she stepped hoof into the shop, she was surprised to see a huge line of ponies in front of her. For a moment, she was worried but then she calmed herself down again with some positive words. "Don't worry, Lightbeam. There might be a lot of ponies in front of me but as long as I can get some sweets, that doesn't really matter!" She said optimistically before she put on a smile and started to wait in line. It couldn't take that long after all. Later... Before the mare realized it, she was standing in the line for around an hour now. Waiting was not Lightbeam's strong suit so she quickly got bored, which ended up her resting her head against the mare in front of her, much to her dislike of course. It eventually became too much of a nuisance for the mare and she walked a few steps forward, causing Lightbeam to fall over and wake up in an abrupt manner. "Wha...!?" Lightbeam said in surprise before she found herself on the ground. She quickly got up again and wondered how much time had passed since she started to stand in this line. She released a yawn and looked as if she was about to fall asleep again but then she realized something that she thought she wouldn't see anytime soon. The line was gone and she was next. "Finally!" She said with a wide smile on her face before she rushed to the counter in front of Mr. and Ms. Cake who both stood on the other side. Lightbeam stood there wide a wide smile on her face and was about to tell them what she wanted but Mr. Cake was a little faster. "Sorry, it looks like we are out now," he said after realizing that indeed every shelf was empty and that everything was successfully sold. "I can't believe that we managed to sell everything in time," Ms. Cake expressed happily. "Yeah! Looks like Pinkie Pie made a good job telling everypony," Mr. Cake replied happily before he put a little sold sign on top of the counter and walked away, not realizing how Lightbeam was still standing with a wide smile in front of him. The mare's face seemed to be stuck in this smile because she probably didn't want to accept what just happened. But whether she accepted it or not, she had no choice but to walk outside again with a frown on her face. "I can't believe this," she said in a sad tone. "I thought this was supposed to be a good day..." she added before she then quickly shook her head in denial. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm not giving up! So what if this was a waste of time? There is still much to come for today!" She said to talk herself into a good mood again. The mare still desperately believed that the rainbow from this morning was a good sign and that this day was going to be good as well. She just had to take a closer look and be patient until that. Later... Lightbeam was still determined to turn this day around. She was standing in front of the Ponyville Spa. "Alright! Happytrade always goes to this place and she always comes out of it well-rested and relaxed so I'm sure I will have a good time in there as well!" She said determined to have a good say from now on. After she will get a good and relaxing massage, she was bound to be happy again. At least that's what she was telling herself. It actually didn't take long until it was Lightbeam's turn to get a massage, which was welcome considering how much time she already wasted in Sugarcube Corner. Lightbeam did find herself getting a nice massage eventually and could finally relax and even consider this a good time. After the massage was done, however, Lightbeam still didn't seem to be as happy as she would expect. "If you are not satisfied yet then maybe you should order another massage?" One of the spa sisters asked as soon as she noticed how Lightbeam wasn't completely satisfied. "Here, we just recently invented a few new kinds of massages. Maybe there is something that would be to your liking?" She offered before she gave Lightbeam a list with a menu on it. "Thanks!" Lightbeam replied before she took a look at the menu. "Now, this massage was actually really good...but it wasn't awesome day kind of good...so I think I can find something on here to make this even better!" She said full of determination to find an even better massage on the menu. She didn't take too long to find something on the list that grabbed her attention. "This sounds good. I'd like to take the extra strength hot stone deep tissue massage," she said with a smile on her face. The spa sister happily nodded and left the room, probably to prepare the massage for Lightbeam. Just judging from the length of the name she assumed that this massage would give her extra strength for the rest of the day, this alone would be good enough to turn everything around. If she didn't have too much fun so far, then at least she would feel amazing and call it a day. Lightbeam waited patiently in the room before somepony would come and start the massage. She had to admit that she was kinda curious about how this massage would go. The answer was actually coming towards her at this very moment. The room started to shake as if something really big was moving straight towards her. She was beginning to get a little nervous but she also told herself that she was just imagining things and calmed down again. However, as soon as she was calm again, something came busting through the wall and jumped right in front of the mare, leaving her in a state of shock. A huge Pegasus stallion with a white coat, a blonde mane, red eyes and a dumbbell as a Cutie Mark stood right in front of her. For the size of this pony, he actually had really tiny wings on his back, which would make him look kind of silly if it wasn't for those huge muscles that kind of intimidated the mare. "I heard you ordered a massage!?" The stallion asked in a loud tone that made Lightbeam shrug her shoulders for s moment. "Are...are you my masseur?" She asked, fearing to hear the answer that she didn't want to hear at all now. "YEAH!" The stallion screamed right into Lightbeam's face. "Let's get to it right away!" He added before he lifted the mare up in the air with only one hoof before he walked outside to another room to get the massage started. Lightbeam screamed for help as she was carried to the next room but the stallion seemed to ignore that and just proceeded to walk into the next room. He actually laughed and explained that most of his customers behave like that at first and assured that everything will be fine. Lightbeam believed that this was a lie. Right now she was completely sure that she wasn't expecting this when she saw that rainbow earlier this morning. All she was praying for was that whatever was about to happen, wouldn't last for too long... Later... Once again, Lightbeam was walking through the road of Ponyville. Walking might be wrong in this case though since the mare was actually stumbling through the town. The massage from earlier had a lasting effect on her body. She was actually surprised that she could move at all after all the unspeakable things that were done to her in the spa. "I'll never go back there again..." she mumbled with some pain in her voice as she continued to think what else she could do now. "So much for the best day ever..." she said annoyed, as she started to feel like that there was no way that this day could be saved anymore. "Hey, Lightbeam!" Then a stallion shouted after her, causing her to turn around to see who it was. "Summershine?" She said once she saw the orange coated Unicorn walking towards her. In an instant, her mood completely shifted and she started to get happy again after realizing something. "Of course! No wonder that I haven't had a good time yet! A day can only become awesome if you spend it with a good friend!" She figured, starting to see some hope again. The mare quickly rushed towards the stallion and stopped right in front of his face, ignoring his personal space completely and smiling widely, much to Summershine's confusion. "Please tell me that you want to spend some time with me on this wonderful day!" She excited but also with a slight hint of frustration in her voice. Summershine was a little confused by her behavior but he decided to ignore that and explained. "Well, kinda. I need your help with something, in fact," "Perfect!" Lightbeam exclaimed cheerfully before jumping up and down on the spot. "Helping a friend in a crisis can always make a day worthwhile!" "I wouldn't exactly call it a crisis," Summershine pointed out before he cut to the chase and explained everything to her which in return caused her to help Summershine out with his problem. Later... Summershine had to do some work on the town hall of Ponyville but he needed some help, and Lightbeam was happily agreeing to help. The mayor of Ponyville asked of Summershine and Steel Hammer, a local carpenter pony to take care of the building. Normally, Steel Hammer would have somepony else to help him but this pony just happened to not be around in Ponyville for a while so Summershine agreed to help out. However, since he wasn't exactly the best in repairing things, he decided to get some additional help, which is why he asked Lightbeam. "Alright then, it's this time of the year again, where we have to repair this old building," Steel Hammer said as he was overlooking the building for a while. "Wait, you have to repair this every year?" Lightbeam asked confused. "Of course!" The stallion replied. "Ponyville doesn't have enough money to fully repair this thing so we always have to come back to it and do some small repairs so that it wouldn't collapse or something," he explained. "That's why we would appreciate every help that we can get," Summershine added. "Don't worry!" Lightbeam said optimistically as she saluted eagerly to help out the best she could. Some time had actually passed and the three ponies actually managed to get some repairs done really quickly. If Steel Hammer alone would have done this, then it certainly would have taken some time but luckily, he had two more ponies who were helping out. As a Pegasus, Lightbeam could easily work on places that were hard to reach for the two stallions. The mare was flying up into the sky to the top of the building. She was flying near the roof and replaced some of the roof tiles, one of the last tasks that had to be done for today. And while it was almost over, Lightbeam still had a bored expression on her face. "Well..." Lightbeam said in her boredom as she placed another tile on the roof. "This may not be the most exciting thing to do but that doesn't matter!" She said with a more determined tone now. "If I help out the town by repairing the town hall, then all of this has a much deeper meaning! I might don't be the one who has the most exciting day in the end but everyone will be happy to get a much better-looking town hall!" She said excitedly before she reached out her hoof to pick up another tile to place it on the roof only to find out that it wasn't there anymore. "Huh, I could swear that I put it somewhere..." she said before she noticed how that one tile was sliding down the roof. She panicked a little and jumped after it but it got away and fell down from the roof. Luckily, Summershine and Steel Hammer were both too far away to possibly because they were already ending their work. There was no way that they would get hit by that tile, even if it somehow flew in their direction. "I'm sure that won't cause too much damage," Lightbeam said with some worry in her voice as she watched the tile fall down the roof. Instead of falling down to the ground, however, the tile managed to hit a flag pole that was on the balcony right below the roof and knocked it down, which caused it to drop the metal ball on top of it to fall down and roll over to the other side of the balcony, where a workbench that was placed by Steel Hammer was at. The metal ball knocked over the table to the side, making a hammer that somehow managed to get wrapped up in a rope to fall down the balcony. Once the rope straightened, gravity did its job and the hammer came flying towards the building again and hit a pillar one floor below and knocked it over, which then caused half of the side of the building to collapse. After those almost cartoony set of events were finally over, Steel Hammer and Summershine looked over the destruction that was accidentally caused by Lightbeam. The mare slowly levitated towards the ground with a nervous smile on her face and realized the shocked expressions on the two stallions. "Sorry...." She said nervously while lowering her head in embarrassment. "But you have to admit that this was kinda awesome!" She added with a smile on her face in order to save the mood again. It didn't work though. Summershine had a warning expression on his face as if he wanted to prevent her from saying that. That was because he knew that Steel Hammer wouldn't think that this one remark wouldn't be funny at all. And he was right because the stallion glared over to the mare. He certainly did not appreciate how she just created more work for him that would most definitely get him into some trouble with the mayor. "Okay...I just...go...maybe?" Lightbeam said nervously as she walked slowly away from the scene. The two stallions were not stopping her at all because they now had to worry about the work that they needed to do in the town hall. Which was a lot ... Later... Once again, Lightbeam walked through the streets of Ponyville, this time with a lowered head and a frown on her face. That last attempt to make turn this day into a good one was enough for her to give up at last. That was of course until she cheered herself up again with some motivating words. "It's alright, it's alright!" She said in a determined tone. "There might have been some bad things happening today and not everything worked out perfectly but!" She said before she looked up to the sky to make a stand again. "I still believe that this day will most certainly be-" But her words were then cut short as soon as lightning could be heard in the sky and rain poured down on her. This time, however, it was not just her who was rained on. Everypony ran home as soon as the weather changed so suddenly. But Lightbeam stood there with a determined expression on her face which slowly turned into a frown. "Or maybe not...who am I kidding..." Lightbeam then said with a frown on her face. She finally seemed to accept that this day might not be as great as she initially thought. Or maybe she accepted it even earlier and didn't want it to be true. The mare simply decided to go home now. Being rained on like that was certainly something that she didn't want now. Later in Lightbeam and Nightsky's home... After getting a good round of sleep, Nightsky was up and spending the rest of the day inside, taking it easy. At the moment, he was sitting on a couch in the middle of the living room, reading a book called, "Daring Do and the Abyss of Despair" an entry of his favorite book franchise. He seemed very invested in the story of the book but the sound of the lightning that came from outside was distracting him a little bit and he looked outside of a window to see how heavy it was raining. He instantly thought about his sister and hoped that she was okay. After he flipped through another page he suddenly heard someone entering his home and he moved his head towards the door to check who it was. As expected, it was his little sister Lightbeam, who was soaking wet and silently closed the door behind her. "Oh! You're home?" Nightsky replied after his sister entered the door. "Yeah...I'm home..." Lightbeam replied as she dragged her body inside with a frown on her face and with water dropping off from her head, which didn't seem to bother all that much. Nightsky instantly offered his sister a towel so that she could dry herself again. Even after she was dry again, however, Nightsky could tell that his sister wasn't happy at all and took a wild guess at how her day went. "So...I assume, that your day didn't go the way you thought?" He asked. Lightbeam just leaned her head on the table in the middle of the living room. "Not at all," she said depressed. "Why? What went wrong?" Nightsky asked. Lightbeam gave a quick and frustrating answer. "Absolutely everything!" She replied frustrated as she buried her head under a pillow from the couch to hide her face and continued to speak in a muffled tone under the pillow. "I thought just telling myself to have a good time was enough to enjoy this day but that didn't work and it turned out the complete opposite," As a big brother, Nightsky, of course, listened to everything that his sister was telling him. From what she told him, he could actually understand how this day was probably taking its toll on her. But then again, there was one thing that he didn't quite understand. Something that would have probably avoided all of this frustration. "You know, Lightbeam, I really like how you always keep a positive attitude but...don't you think that you were aiming a little high? I mean, if you would have set your goals low, then you would have probably not been this upset now," he advised, even though he knew that she didn't want to hear this now. Lightbeam raised her head again a little. "Maybe..." she just said. Nightsky sat down on the couch next to his sister. "Why exactly did you want to make this day so amazing? I know you saw a rainbow this morning but still..." he asked trying to figure out an answer of his own. But Lightbeam was answering that question. "It's just...that rainbow from this morning...it just reminded me to the one that we saw all these years ago," she replied. Nightsky was thinking for a second but he quickly knew what rainbow she was referring to. "Oh!" Nightsky said in his realization. "You mean that one?" Judging from Nightsky's reply Lightbeam started to smile since she knew that he remembered now as well. "Yes! The one were all of us seven met!" She mentioned happily. "I thought that after seeing a beautiful rainbow like that again, that something great and life-changing would happen again," she shared with excitement in her voice again and no trace of sadness anymore. Nightsky began to chuckle a little. "Looks like you were aiming really too high if that's the case," he said jokingly, hoping that Lightbeam would get cheered up by it. "Maybe," Lightbeam replied childishly while sticking her tongue out. She seemed to have gotten over the events that took place on this day. After thinking back, she actually thought it was kind of funny how all those events unfold. The two even laughed a lot after she shared those stories again without a sad tone in her voice. As they were talking, they slowly noticed how the rain outside was starting to stop and how it was quiet again. They both walked up to a window and looked outside. The rain clouds started to go away and the sun came out again. "Hey! Look!" Nightsky said while he pointed at the distance, causing Lightbeam to look at it in awe. She started to smile widely after witnessing what Nightsky was pointing at. "Beautiful," she just said after seeing another pretty rainbow just like the one that she saw this morning. It instantly made her forget all her troubles and was happy again. The mare then turned around happily. "Well, tomorrow is another day!" She said excitedly, awaiting the next day to come and hopefully make it better than this one. But either way, she was not worrying too much about it this time. Nightsky was happy seeing his sister like this again and watched her going into her room. He looked back out of the window again and smiled at the sight of this rainbow now as well. He remembered back how he saw an even better rainbow all those years ago with her and the rest of his friends. At that moment, he could understand how Lightbeam was reminded too that day and how she believed that it was a good sign. However, Nightsky was already happy enough with how his life was right now. But then again, maybe something life-changing would happen again someday. Something for the better, hopefully. But if that wouldn't happen then he wouldn't care either. And he had a good guess that Lightbeam was the same in that regard.