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// Chapter 14 
// Story: With the Shadow of Lightning 
// by oneupthextraman 
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Chapter 14
Rarity walked worriedly down the street of Pony Ville with Lightning following close behind. Rarity had a saddle bag with a some-what large book in it. Lightning found his mind wandering.
‘What a lovely day. The sun is shining, the birds are not attacking me, and I am following such a lovely mare….wait Lighting. Don’t get caught up in her magic drink! You must fight it! She tried to poison us! US? I didn’t know there was more than one of me. Keep it together. KEEP IT TOGETHER!” Lightning could feel his mane getting more messed up as the pair walked down the street. “And what is wrong with Rarity? She is a lovely pony! She took care of us while we were injured, and she hasn’t kicked us out yet. She is so generous. There’s that us again.” Lightning shook his head.
Rarity stopped and waited for Lightning to catch up with her.  She walked alongside Lighting. “You ok there?”
Lightning jumped at the seemingly sudden appearance of Rarity next to him. “I think so dear…Rarity.” Lightning cleared his throat. “I’m just a little tired.”
Rarity nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m taking you to Twilight, and she will be able to help us with your issue.”
“What issue? We started walking before I told you about being tired.” Lightning stopped walking. Rarity stopped shortly after. “Was that tea poisoned?”
Rarity laughed a weak laugh. “Of course not dear. That would be silly. No, I’m referring to….your night terrors.”
Lightning frowned. “Oh darn. I thought I had those cured.” Rarity continued walking, and Lightning quickly followed behind. They walked a short distance, and Lighting found himself staring at Rarity’s flank. Lighting smiled a bit. She sure is a pretty pony. Lightning became memorized. After a few more moments, Lightning found the flank swaying more than before, and then it stopped, and turned around. Rarity had turned to face Lighting with a sad look on her face. “Why so glum my dear?” 
Rarity turned away a little. “I hope it’s nothing long term.”
Lightning gave his warmest smile possible, and walked up next to Rarity. “I have faith Rarity. But, where are we going?”
Rarity motioned to the tree they were at. “Here! I’m going to talk to my friend Twilight, and you are going to wait here.”
Lightning raised an eyebrow. “Why wait here?”
Rarity thought fast. “Well, um. I don’t think Twilight likes you very much. And I need to convince her to help us with your night eating problem.”
Lightning started to suspect something. “Sure Rarity.”
Rarity smiled, and walked into the library. Lightning sat down on the ground and observed his surroundings. Such a lovely day. Lighting’s stomach started turning. It felt like something was gnawing at him. Lighting looked around some more. There was a jewelry store across the way. Lightning started to get up, and slowly walk toward the store. It looked like he was stuck in peanut butter. Other ponies looked at this weird cold slowly walking toward this small jewelry store with a big smile on his face.
Meanwhile, internally Lightning was yelling at himself to stop. “ARGH! What are you doing!? You don’t want to marry Rarity! Sure, she is awesome, and generous, and such, but your mind has been tampered with. You can’t trust your opinions in this state of mind! STOP IT!”
Lightning continued to walk across the surprisingly wide street. After getting rather close to the store, Rarity appeared. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!....dear?”
Lightning continued to look at the store with a smile on his face. “Oh, I just thought I would pop in there and get you an engagement necklace.” Lightning gaze shifted down to Rarity, with a menacing gaze on his face. “What do you think of that?”
Rarity seemed torn between letting Lighting continue, and stopping him. After a few moments, Rarity responded. “There will be time for that later darling. Now I have to get you to Twilight’s lab.” 
Lightning smiled an evil smile, and whispered, “You may try.” Lighting then continued his slow walk. Rarity was having none of this, and started pushing Lighting backwards. It was an awkward sight. Many of the ponies walking by stopped and looked at Rarity pushing a colt away from the jewelry store toward the library with her head. 
Some pony in the crowd asked the question, “Why doesn’t she just use her magic?” Rarity heard this and did just that. 
In a few moments, Rarity carried Lightning down to Twilight’s basement. The room was filled with science things, and the like. There were test tubes, and papers, and books, and some weird sketches on the wall. 
Rarity presented Lighting. “We’re here!”
Twilight looked up from her book to see Lightning being levitated. “Why are you floating him there?”
Rarity sighed. “He was going to buy me an engagement necklace.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “And you stopped him?”
Rarity was caught off guard by this comment. “Of course. I want to make sure he is of right mind if he makes a choice like that.”
“Ok, put him on that table, and strap him down.” Twilight pointed to a table with straps on it designed to hold a pony down.
Lightning was amused by this. Rarity started tightening the straps. “Oh, kinky, eh Rarity?” Lightning raised an eyebrow at this, and Rarity blushed. “So, what are we doing?”
Twilight walked over, and stared attaching sensors to Lighting. “I’m going to study you and see if there is something we can do about your…” Twilight paused and sighed. “...night eating.”
Lightning nodded. “ok, but you are aware that I could just use my magic to escape, right?”
Twilight asked, “Why would you want to escape?”
Lightning smiled. “To be closer to Rarity.” Lightning smiled a bright smile to Rarity. 
Then Twilight pulled out a black ring, and placed it over Lighting’s horn. “There, no more magic for now.”
Lightning had a playful frown on his face. “Aww Twilight. You’re no fun!” Lightning pretended to pout.
Twilight walked over, and placed some electros on Lighting’s head, and stomach. She then used her magic to flip a switch, and some of her equipment sprung to life. Things started humming, and making all kinds of sounds. Electricity started…doing things that electricity did. Lightning looked around. Rarity and Twilight had communed at the far side of the room. They were discussing something. Even with Lightning’s spy training, he could not hear them as the hum of the various devices made that impossible at the distance he was at. 
Then, an idea occurred to Lightning; contact princess Celestia, and have her help him! It was such a good idea! Surely she would be able to help Lightning with the feelings he was having. Lighting looked around. There was nothing nearby in which to use to cut the straps holding him down, and the magic restrictor limited his magic a great deal. With no other options, Lightning started chewing on the leather straps that held down his torso. Thinking if he could get enough leverage, he could fling the ring off of his horn, and be home free.
With so much focus on the bighting of the leather strap, Lightning failed to notice that Rarity had walked back over to the table, and looked at him with a confused look. “What are you doing?”
Lightning tried his best smile. “If I said escape, would you be offended?”
Rarity replied with a flat “Yes.”
Lightning frowned briefly. He had to think of something fast. Nothing came to mind. “Then I was doing nothing.” He smiled a smile like a young colt who had gotten away with eating too much candy with candy still in hoof.
Rarity was not impressed. “Well, anyways, Twilight said that it will take some time to analyze your test results. So she recommends I duct tape you to the wall so you don’t get into any more trouble.” Lightning chuckled lightly until Rarity produced a small box full of rolls of duct tape. The laughing immediately stopped. “Can’t tell if I am kidding, can you?”
Lightning asked, “What kind of trouble could I get into?” He paused. “Also, I thought we were trying to deal with night terrors? Unless I fall asleep, I doubt I will be terrified.”
Rarity was caught off guard by this little bit of continuity, and the fact that he was right. Unless she told him about the tea, she would have no reason to tape him to the wall. Rarity thought about this. “Then I guess I had better let you go?”
Lightning smiled. “Sounds like a plan.” Rarity slowly started undoing the straps that kept Lightning down. She was still trying to come up with an idea to use the surprisingly large amount of tape she had gotten from Twilight. Why Twilight had so much tape, she did not question.  After a few moments, Lightning bolted from the table.
He smiled. “Shall we be off?”
Rarity smiled. Lightning walked up the stairs.
Twilight galloped over.” I thought you were going to duct tape him to the wall?”
“When he asked why, I couldn’t come up with a good reason.”
Twilight replied.  “Well, you had better chase after him. He may try proposing to you. And we don’t want that to happen.” Rarity started putting some sincere thought into that one. “If you say no, it could kill him. And, you don’t want to be married to a colt under a magic spell, do you? That could be bad.”
Rarity snapped out of her dream of a wedding, and quickly agreed, and ran after Lightning. It seemed he already left the library.