//------------------------------//
// haunting 
// Story: Mapping Manehattan 
// by The Red Parade 
//------------------------------//

It didn’t take Lightning very long to get out of the quarantine zone. She doesn’t really know where she is going, but she feels that she has to fly. Maybe if she flies fast enough, she can forget about Fiddle and their stupid argument.

Eventually, she lands on a rooftop somewhere near the edge of Manehattan. Lightning wonders if she could still catch up to Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts. It’d be a long flight to Canterlot, but once she finds them…

Lightning pauses. She doesn’t know what she’ll do if she goes to Canterlot. Join up with Spitfire and… do what, exactly? Start a brand new life? 

She’s not… comfortable with saying that. Because Lightning realizes that she doesn’t want a new life. She doesn’t even want her old life back, not as much as she did yesterday. Right now she just wants Fiddle.

Lightning falls onto her haunches as she stares out over the city. She thinks about when they first met that one night outside of the hotel. She thinks about everything they’ve done and all the things they’ve been through.

She’s not sure how long she sat there and thought. But Lightning snaps out of it when someone pokes her side. 

Lightning turns around to see Whitey staring at her with a tilted head, draped in a yellow rain poncho. Lightning doesn’t even know when it started raining, but the water sends a shock through her system.

Whitey asks if she’s alright. She’s been sitting there for a while.

Lightning shrugs. She says that she has some stuff going on with Fiddle. Just some arguments. Mostly Fiddle’s fault, though.

Whitey takes a seat next to her and sighs. She points out that nowadays, everypony’s carrying some emotional baggage. Everyone around is marked up with scars that they don’t always show, and they’re haunted by ghosts that never leave.

They don’t flinch as thunder rocks the city. Whitey isn’t saying that whatever Fiddle did was right, of course, but she is pointing out that Manehattan’s a graveyard, and tombstones are everywhere. They can try to rebuild, but they can never forget the things they’ve seen.

Back when she was a paramedic, Whitey remembers that they saw a lot of ponies suffering from survivor’s guilt. The belief that they shouldn’t be alive when so many others have died. Whitey says that the guilt gnaws away at ponies and haunts them every day. She wonders if Fiddle suffers from this. 

Lightning thinks about that. She’s been through hell herself, sure, but what about Fiddle? Has she seen things too? 

It shocks her that she doesn’t know. Now, Lightning feels horrible. 

But Whitey points out that it’s not too late to fix it. All she has to do is talk it out with Fiddle.

Then the realization hits Lightning: she’s just left her marefriend to fend for herself in the most dangerous part of Manehattan. 

She hurriedly thanks Whitey and takes off into the air: hopefully it isn’t too late.