//------------------------------//
// Lightningbringer - Part 1 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
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It was raining, hard. The sky was near black, streaked with white and blue when lightning flashed through the clouds. Firecracker's coat, wings, mane and tail were soaked, heavy with water. Still, they kept flying, looking for a safe place to land. The shelter of the trees underneath was not enough with rain so heavy, and the side of the mountain was not a place they trusted with that weather. Lightning was one risk, but more than that they feared a mudslide or worse. If the storm kept going long enough, it was bound to happen.
And so the best thing to do was get away from there. Flying in the rain wasn't fun, but it beat walking through it on muddy ground, and was faster too. They had to keep low though, close to the treetops. The winds were too strong and unpredictable higher up, and losing control in mid air was the last thing they needed at that moment.
It came and it went before the pony had a chance to realise what had happened. One moment they were flying, the next everything had gone white and loud. A moment later, they were flying again. Breathing heavily from more than just the strain of moving their damp wings, they stopped and turned back, staring at the smoking tree still glowing orange where the lightning had struck it. The rain had already put out the fire itself, but the trunk was charred, like a giant ember embedded into the ground.
The lightning had barely missed the pegasus. They could have hovered there wondering how it was possible for them to be unscathed, but they decided it was a much better course of action to not stay still in the middle of the storm and leave the reflections for a later point in time. They turned again, still panting, and returned to flying away as fast as they could comfortably manage. The odds of being that close or closer to a lightning strike were probably low, but that was not a valid reason to tempt fate.
Firecracker didn't have much time to reflect on that either, though. Not a minute after, everything went white again. This time, they weren't flying when things cleared. The pegasus managed to catch themself just before hitting the top of the trees, and go back to a stable flying position after falling through the air. There was a ringing in their ears, and their breath was heavy, but nothing else felt any more wrong than what the rain already made it feel like. They actually took a moment to check their heartbeat, and make sure it was indeed still there.
Had they been hit? That couldn't be right. Maybe it had gone off right in front of them, and merely disoriented them. Being a pegasus meant being more resistant to electricity, but the little sparks of small pony-made clouds were not the same as what full storms put out, especially not natural, uncontrolled ones. As they mentally wandered on the issue and searched for the point where the lightning had landed, they happened to look up. This time, they actually saw the bolt come down. But by the time they realised where it was heading, it had already hit them in full.