--Welcome to Ponyville--
Lightning had just woken up from a deep sleep, when a group of students showed up at his door. All he heard however, was a few mumbles and voices, because he likes to sleep with his bedroom door closed.
As he walked out and down the stairs, all the other students made room for Ms. Diver to walk by.
She walked over to Storm, and began talking about where they were going, and how long, while Lightning walked out to the group and found Lunar and Spitfire. After a bit of looking around, he couldn't seem to find Dash anywhere with them. He figured Dash must live pretty far away, due to his absence from the group. Ms. Diver then grouped her students together, as she lead the way to Dash’s house.
Spitfire flew closer to Lightning and whispered,
“I heard a few of the recruiters for the Wonderbolts were looking for you, probably because of that little stunt you pulled at the show.”
A bit startled by her rumor, he began to think carefully about what to do if he was confronted by a recruiter of the sort. One one term, he liked the idea that they were interested in his flying skills. However in all sincerity, he didn't want to join. He did however, have a good idea if he ever met one of the recruiters. Perhaps, just by a very slim chance, he could help Spitfire achieve her dream.
“Are they really? I’ll keep an eye out. I’ve got something to tell em!”
She nodded with a look of envy in her eyes. Lunar then flew over right in between them and said loudly,
“whatcha guys talking about?”
Lightning laughed and punched him.
“Ssssstuff.”
“Yeaaaah sureee.”
They then both laughed, and kept trailing behind their classmates, whom seemed to be lacking in the endurance of flying. Along the way, they flew over a few shops and restaurants that were in the center of the shopping district. A couple students waved to their parents, or shopkeepers, and others just kept focused on flying, just wanting to get to Ponyville as quickly as possible.
Although the class today only consisted of five or six, It was still a lot for Ms. Diver to keep track of. After all, Ponyville was a good distance away from Cloudsdale, and had some serious risks while making their way over.
Along the way, the group would have to make a few stops, probably because unlike Lightning and his friends, the others didn't have the privilege of attending flight camps to help build their strengths of flight. After a few minutes, the entire group had arrived at Dash’s small home. One observation Lightning had made, was correct. Dash lived on the complete opposite side of town from Lightning, meaning the flight from his house, to Dash's, would be a few minutes average.
As he and Lunar walked up to the door and knocked, his mother came out and looked at them both. She was a cyan mare, with a white and pink mane, along with light blue eyes.
“Sonic, your friends and classmates are at the door!”
They heard a mumble, followed by a bedraggled Dash. He must have forgotten today was the field trip.
“Not the morning pony are ya, Dash?”
Lightning and Lunar had laughed, as he walked outside and gave his mom a quick hug. After a few warm-up flaps of his wings, he had woken up completely, and they were ready to depart to Ponyville. As Ms. Diver took off to lead the class, the four stuck in the back to keep from getting in the way of the others. They could easily tell the students in the class needed as much space as possible, due to their carelessness and exhaustion in the air.
As Spitfire flew near Lunar to tell him something, Dash looked at Lightning in a funny way. The kind of way that would infer some sort of attraction Lunar had for Spits, or rather anypony at all.
Ha! As if!
Lightning figured the last thing on Lunar’s mind was fillies. At least they would be behind cookies and tea.
The thought made him laugh a bit, as he came to a small stop on a nearby cloud. Even though Lightning had more advanced training than other ponies, he too, suffered from exhaustion. One reason why it affected him more than Lunar, Spitfire, and Dash, was due to his wing shape. Basically, the swept-wing shape allowed for higher bursts of speed, and sharper turns, as the delta wing shape captured more air, and gave better control, along with more efficient flying. Lightning could, and may very well be the fastest pegasus in Cloudsdale, but he would be smashed in a long distance race to a pegasus with the delta wing shape, because of their natural endurance. One such pegasus, was Lunar.
As he too a quick look around, he could see plenty of open space, untouched forests, and unhampered fields. Obviously, this whole region was perfect for the start of a new town, and not too far from many different mountain ranges and rivers flowing down those ranges. A few minutes had ticked by as they continued their flight over the clouds, and between a good sized mountain valley. The sky was beautiful. Clear, calm, and open, which was just the way Lightning liked it. In time, they had finally arrived at what seemed like a small settlement, with a few ponies walking around a bit. Making their descent, all the other earth ponies looked at them in surprise. Probably because they aren't very used to seeing a large group of pegasi randomly land in their town.
As soon as Lightning came to his landing on the ground, he heard a funny voice from behind.
“Well howdy, sunny!”
He immediately turned around, and saw a green earth pony with a long and flowing white mane. She looked to be middle aged.
“Yall new round here? Maybe I can help!”
She walked over to Ms. Diver, and shook her hoof.
“The name’s Smith. Gran Smith!”
Ms. Diver had replied,
“Good afternoon! It's a pleasure to meet you,”
“Awww fiddlesticks! No need for the fancy-pants talking here! Now then, I bet you would like directions around the town! The mayor’s house is over that way.”
She pointed to a circular building with small trees blooming out of it. They seemed freshly planted, and blooming straight up into the sky.
“And over thata way is our newest farm and orchard, Sweet Apple Acres!”
Ms. Diver nodded, and thanked Gran.
“Take care yall! Come back soon, ya hear?”
And just like that, she walked away in the direction of the orchard.
Earth ponies are strange...
. . .
Ms.Diver began to lead her class towards the town hall. Perhaps she figured that it would hold some sort of educational purpose. Along the way, they passed a giant tree with a sign hanging from it.
[Library in progress.]
A town library without any more then ten or eleven residents? Seemed a bit early for that, but reading was a big thing among pegasi. Perhaps it was a big thing to all other ponies as well.
As they reached the town hall, the mayor trotted out, almost as if she was expecting the class to be visiting today. She was a brown mare with a well kept white mane. She was also very young.
“You must be visiting from Cloudsdale! Welcome to our little town of Ponyville!"
Ms. Diver nodded and smiled.
“Thank you, I’m here to show my students around and see what I can teach.”
The mayor nodded and offered to show a few new structures and farms being set up. Taking a tour around the small town, they saw a few buildings being placed on frames and foundations.
“Over here we are building our own bakery, Sugarcube Corner! Hopefully, we can find a good pair of bakers to make the finest baked goods in Equestria!”
The thought of a bakery reminded Lightning of the storm that had hit them as very little colts. What exactly could have started a storm like that? He pondered for a few moments, as the mayor lead the way to a large building of white stone.
"And this is our party lodge. We can hold celebrations and festivals in this building once we get more ponies coming in to live!"
Lightning took a quick glance around and spotted the giant tree library again.
“Um Ms. Mayor, why did you put a library inside of a large tree?”
“Well young one, when books are around buildings of stone or thin wood walls, they can be damaged by the air around them. In a tree however, the books are insulated, protected, and have plenty of room to be organized and checked out!"
Lightning nodded and took a closer look at the library. Something about it, seemed peculiar. Almost as if he felt like something or somepony important was going to happen here. Lightning simply shrugged if off and continued the tour.
As they walked towards an open field, they came across a large barn, and a copious amount of apple trees. This must be Sweet Apple Acres.
The guess was confirmed as the same green mare came trotting out.
“Did ya fellers like the town? its gonna be a doosie once we finish!”
“Yes, the town is very cute, and looks like a great place to live!”
Ms. Diver gave her a smile as she lead her students around the fields and trees.
“Alright my little ponies, you’re all free for a lunch break. Meet back here in an hour, ok?”
They all nodded, and flew in their separate directions. With freedom from the class in affect, Lightning instantly flew up to a nearby cloud, and laid out on it as he grabbed his oats and fruit. Strawberries straight from the fields of Fillydelphia.
He nibbled a couple down for a few minutes, then stretched out and tried to take a small nap. A few minutes seemed to tick by swiftly, as he laid in a calm, peacefully slumber. However, he was soon awakened by a surprise attack by Spitfire. She tackled him onto another cloud and laughed triumphantly.
“Hey there sleepy, how was your nap?”
Lightning groaned and rubbed his mane a bit.
“It was good until I was mauled.”
She laughed again.
“Well maybe you should keep more alert huh?”
She helped him up and jumped off the cloud. Lightning didn't even hesistate to follow her, leaping off the cloud, falling straight down towards the ground. The feeling of free falling was unique, because he never had much of a chance to feel falling from more than the height of a crib, and the occasional stray cloud looming over Cloudsdale.
As he neared the ground, he spread his wings out and qucikly pulled up, soaring just slightly above the ground. Out of impulsive excitement, he performed a few barrel rolls, and soon began to feel nothing but the air around him.
The air around Ponyville was so much more open, because not many pegasi had come to settle just yet, meaning there was no homes or obstacles in the way to impose a flight threat. He began to glide above the clouds, while taling a quick look around. Way out in the distance he could see the castle city / capital of Equestria, Canterlot; A place for rich and sophisticated unicorns, and also the home of their dearest Princess Celestia. Although, the idea of fancy living seemed too restricting to Lightning. He couldn't be happier as he was, flying freely among the clouds with nopony to tell him he his doing it incorrectly.
Taking another quick look around, he could see a few other students flying around a large cloud, and another group flying back towards their rendezvous point. Out of curiosity, he flew over to the group that had been flying around the large cloud. There, he saw Lunar sitting on a cloud nearby.
Immediately, he flew over and greeted his friend with a hoof-bump.
“Why are you over here by yourself?”
“Those colts over there think they're expert fliers because they can circle the cloud and make a small funnel. So I've been thinking about how much we could totally show them up with what we could do.”
Lightning laughed at Lunar's cocky confidence. Lunar was a confident one alright, but with no doubt, his statement was true. Lightning and his friends were on a whole different skill caliber than most other pegasi because of their advanced training.
“Just leave them be dude, they are probably just having fun.”
Lunar shook his head and began to fly in their direction. With a reluctant rolling of his eyes, Lightning followed him closely.
“What do you guys want?”
One of the colts asked.
“I bet they're here to tell us how awesome we are at flying!”
The second colt snorted and hoof-bumped his friend. Their conversation was painful. Arrogance at its finest.
“You both know we could beat you in a race with two hooves tied behind our backs!”
The two colts snarled at Lunar’s comment.
“You’re on!”
Lightning was a bit worried. He didn't really like to show off any sort of skills to other colts. He figured he should keep below his average speed to spare them the grief of humiliation, even though Lunar was most likely going to go all out to shut them up.
Lining up along the cloud, each had turned to each other, and nodded. In perfect sync, they all leaped off the cloud, and started plummeting to the ground. The two colts spread their wings and began to fly above Lightning and Lunar. Lunar turned to Lightning and gave him a quick nod, and began to pick up a bit of speed. After getting a solid velocity, he began performing his trademark barrel rolls, and soaring right in front of the other colts. Lightning flew right beside them closely to examine their faces. Priceless!
Seeing Lunar spinning wildly right in front of them, and at a faster speed as well, gave them each a look of beyond belief. Lunar always had a way of making even the most confident and cocky look incredibly plain and dull. The two colts both grew an angry expression in their faces, and smashed right into Lunar, knocking him down towards the ground. Lightning’s eyes shot open as he immediately flew right down to catch his friend. The two colts snorted and said,
“catch ya later losers!”
Lightning was flying as fast as he could manage to try to get to Lunar in time. Just before the air began to shake around him, he flew right under where Lunar was about to crash, and braced himself.
Lunar had collided with Lightning's shoulder and arm at full force, making Lightning yell sharply in pain. Instantly, Lightning was knocked straight into the ground, sending a huge cloud of dirt and sand into the air. He landed on shoulder first, taking a horrendous blow. The kind of crash that could completely end the pursuit of advanced flight careers.
Lunar however, recoiled from the collision, and bounced back up to the other colts, soaring right behind them them. Shivering in the pain, Lightning had slowly picked himself off the ground, and yelled out to Lunar,
“show them who is REALLY the best fliers around!”
Lunar nodded quickly, and flew right in front of them. Again, they had the same look of utter shock in their faces as he soared right past them.
When Lunar reached the finish cloud, the other colts were just getting to the last stretch of the “race.” Lunar was not happy at all. Building an angry expression in his face as the other colts landed, he began yelling,
“Ok if you guys want to challenge us to a race, that's fine. But when you cheat to win, that's just pathetic. Is this how you always win? By cheating? Sounds like you guys are a talented bunch.”
Even though he wanted to hit both of them, he knew it would be better to just keep calm. After all, he didn't want to hurt them TOO bad, and the consequences were not the most appealing.
Lightning had then flown over to him still wincing in pain. Although, when Lunar looked over, he gave an accomplished smile and fell onto the cloud. Lunar bursted over to him.
“Are you ok bro? did you hurt anything bad?”
Lightning shook his head and said quietly,
“I think we showed them huh?”
They both laughed and hoof bumped, although Lightning could barely stand from the hit he took.
“Hah... That didn't feel too pleasant... ow..."
He had then collapsed onto the cloud beneath him, increasing Lunar's concern even farther.
"You seriously didn't have to do that for me! What were you thinking!?"
"It's ok Lun! I didn't want you to get hurt."
Lunar nodded and helped his friend up.
“Well, we should be getting back to the class, or else they might leave us here.”
The idea of being left here didn't seem so bad to Lightning. The sky was a haven for flight here, and also provided a calm lifestyle. In fact, Ponyville seemed almost perfect to live in for any young pegasus.
Lunar had then picked Lightning up off the cloud, and slung him over his shoulder. Without hesitation, Lunar started to fly back to the rendezvous point, and see if Ms. Diver may be able to help. The other two colts however were flying slower; either because they felt bad, or because they know they just got decimated by Lunar.
Making his descent to the ground, Lightning got off Lunar’s shoulder and laid down on the grass.
“Thanks bud, i’ll be fine i just have to take some pressure off it.”
He had taken the severity of the hit to the shoulder, but knowing Lightning, he would forget about it soon. It was probably just a small bruise or sprain anyways. Ms. Diver had noticed Lightning on the ground, and immediately ran over.
“My goodness Lightning, what happened!?”
“Oh you know, I just... fell.”
Lunar laughed a bit, but tried his best to retain it. Laughing would make him look suspicious, and both he and Lightning didn't want him to get in trouble for something that really wasn't his fault. Also, Lightning didn't want to tell Ms. Diver about the colts who had caused the accident, because if they were to have gotten in trouble, they would probably plan a "revenge" scheme to get them back with.
“Well if it hurts too much to walk, we can just leave Ponyville now, and get you back to Cloudsdale as soon as possible.”
Lightning shook his head and quickly responded,
“Oh no no no, I'm fine I promise! I just have to fly around a bit more now.”
She nodded understandably, and began to group her class together.
“Alright my little ponies, we can either head back home now, or we can head back into town.”
The class all agreed they wanted to head back into town, most likely so they could burn more time away from school. Ms. Diver had then walked back over to Lightning and said,
“go get yourself checked out at the hospital, and meet us by the library whenever you’re ready. Ok?”
Lightning nodded as Dash and Spitfire ran over to him in shock.
“Woah dude are you ok!?”
Dash’s voice was a bit frantic as he stood next to his friend. Lightning had nodded and told him,
“Yeah I just got a ding or two.”
Spitfire looked over in disbelief.
"I think something happened to you...”
Lightning tried to shake his head, but the pain in his eyes, and his facial expression gave away the answer.
“Lightning, what happened?”
Lightning looked at Lunar, and they both nodded in agreement.
“I’ll tell you both at the hospital.”
Lunar put Lightning back on his shoulder as he and the other two flew towards Ponyville General Hospital; A brand new building still under construction by a few construction pegasi. As they walked in, Lunar told the mare at the front desk,
“my friend is a bit hurt and we just need to have him checked out.”
She looked up and saw him hanging onto Lunar, wincing a bit in pain. She then nodded and called in the nearest doctor.
After a few moments the doctor walked up, started looking around the room a bit, and called out,
"Mr.Chaser?"
"Over here!"
Lunar had called the doctor over quickly, and asked him what was wrong.
"Well let's find out, shall we?"
He then had Lunar carry Lightning down a hallway, and into a brand new room with large beds. It was a giant relief that even thought the hospital still isn't finished, they still at least have a doctor on duty while it was being built. Lunar then set Lightning down on the bed, and turned to the doctor, whom was flipping a couple pages on his clipboard. He then told them,
“I'll be with you shortly, just hang tight.”
Lunar, Dash, and Spitfire all gathered a few chairs and sat around him. Immediatly, Spitfire began with her interrogation.
“So what exactly happened?”
Lunar took a deep breath and calmly began talking.
“Ok, so Light flew over to me when I was watching two other colts fly around a cloud. I told him I wanted to challenge them to a race so we could show them who the best fliers are. He agreed and flew over with me. At first, we let them fly above and ahead of us so we could shock them stiff. And it did work. I flew up and started spinning quickly, and next thing I know those colts flew right into me. I was spinning too fast to control where I was going, so I figured I would slam into the ground and break my arm or something. But when I closed my eyes, I hit something soft and bounced right back. Then I heard a yell of pain from Light, and next thing I knew I saw Lightning wobbling a bit and telling me to go finish the race. So I did. And we beat them. But I just hope I didn't hurt Lightning too bad...”
Lightning looked over and told him,
“I’ll be fine dude! It was worth it to see the looks on their faces!”
Everypony but Spitfire laughed at his statement. Spitfire had grown an angry look and told them,
“You guys shouldn't have let them get to you, but whatever. I think that was the two dumb colts that sit in the back.”
The whole group let out a collective “oh” in realization. Those two always seemed to be getting in trouble, never paying attention, and were most likely to fail each test.
Within a couple mintues, the doctor walked back in and began to talk to Lightning.
“Alright Mr.Chaser, let's see what the problem is.”
He walked over and examined his arm, lifting it slowly and cautiously. He gritted his teeth in pain, and kept from letting out a gasp of pain. The Doc took a few more examinations of his arm, twisting it, and moving it in awkward ways, and came to a conclusion.
“Well it seems you have severely sprained your arm, bud. We'll have to wrap it in a cast or bandage until it can heal.”
Lightning looked surprised by the severity of his injury. With a bit of shock he uttered,
“How long will it be sprained?”
“Oh no longer than a week or two. Should be fine, it just seemed like it was much worse than it actually is."
Lightning let out a sigh or relief and nodded. After all, he didn't want to be stuck in a cast for months. Especially not with the Wonderbolts hot on his trail. He wanted to look as normal as possible for his idea to work.
As the Doc walked over to a counter to grab a few things, his friends were all making jokes, trying to lighten the atmosphere. In truth, Lightning didn't care much, because he just felt better knowing Lunar didn't take a severe crash. The Doc walked back over with a sling and a bit of bandaging material. He lifted Lightning’s arm a bit and began wrapping in a bit. Midway through wrapping it, he slipped the sling around his other shoulder and fit his arm inside nicely, then adjusted it to fit. Now, Lightning had no control of his right arm, however the sling soothed his pain a bit.
“Alright bud, just keep off that arm for a while and you should be good!”
“Thanks Doc. I’ll try and keep from getting injured more often.”
The Doc laughed a bit at his promise.
“Hey, accidents happen. Not much you can control.”
Lightning nodded as he flew out of bed, and hovered over the ground, while his friends exited the room. Lunar left a few bits on the front desk for the medical charge plus a small tip. Lunar then turned to said,
“now it's time to break the other!”
They all laughed as Lightning punched him.
“You can't break what you cant touch!”
Lightning took off and flew as fast as he could away from Lunar, and Lunar immediately chased after him, with Dash and Spitfire laughing as they tried to tail Lunar. The sun began to gradually set over the Ponyville horizon, with the light of dim stars coming out for the night. Luckily for them, Ms. Diver was just departing as they rejoined the group. Even though Lightning had a serious injury to his arm, it still never dragged his spirits down. Nothing could, as long as he could keep on flying freely.