"Hey. Open your eyes already twerp," Keen Wit heard Lightning Dust call to him.
He was still holding onto her neck tightly with his eyes closed. They had been closed ever since he heard his dad call his name. He just didn't want to let go of her. So he shut everything else out. He didn't even listen to what his mother was saying when he heard her voice.
"How do you expect me to teach you how to fly when you won't even open your eyes?"
"Huh?" He thought she was carrying him to bed but when he saw the sky behind her he was shocked. Looking down, he saw the town rolling by and they were up high in the air.
"Whoa!" he called out, gripping her even more tightly. His hat flew off from the sudden jerk down that Lightning Dust did when he tightened his grip.
"My hat!" he called in panic, his horn suddenly exposed.
By the time he had said 'hat' he was already being jolted around from Lightning Dust swerving to reclaim it as it gusted over in the direction of the Everfree Forest. After a quick bout of speed that nopony down below would have been able to follow, she had managed to grab the hat with her mouth and plant it loosely upon his horn keeping his secret safe once more.
"Let's get that fixed up first. Then we can get to the fun part." She gently dived down into the Everfree Forest, right next to Zecora's hut. Still hovering in midair, she approached a vine on a tree at the edge of the small clearing.
"Grab it and fix your hat up right. You're gonna have to do it. My hooves are full carrying you." She patiently waited for him to ease up his grip on her neck then grab the vine.
After they got his hat fixed up right, he put his front hooves around her neck again and they flew off.
The zebra in the hut witnessed the spectacle. "Not for nothing did I fret. It seems there is hope for her yet," Zecora said to herself as she returned to her work preserving the ingredients she bought in town the day before.
She was not surprised to see Keen Wit's horn. She knew he was a unicorn from the time she had given him medicine for a fever. It was a different kind of medicine that reacted to unicorns far more quickly than earth ponies or zebras. The fact that he was up and playing again within the hour left no room for doubt.
She also knew he kept his horn hidden for a reason. So she never spoke of it needlessly. Shamans didn't betray the trust of a patient without a good reason, especially not the fragile trust of a child. Sometimes the best medicine she could provide was simple kindness and consideration.
"Well they should be up there for a while. Now that they're out of sight there's no point in waiting up for them," Serra said with a lingering smile. "Care to help me with dinner Campfire?" She turned to go back into the house.
"Um... Sure," Spitfire answered back. Dinner was as good an excuse as any to get the dozens of questions that were suddenly buzzing through her mind answered.
Back up in the air, Keen Wit asked Lightning Dust, "Why are you leaving?"
She just smiled and glanced at him before returning her gaze to her task. "I have no intention to. She will have to pry me away from you first, but don't think about that right now. Wait until we are back on the ground for that. Right now this is your special moment. I can't ever give you this again so just enjoy it."
"Enjoy what?" He asked, cluelessly.
She looked directly at him and widened her smile. "Your first taste of the skies."
She flapped a bit harder and flew up to and over the large cloud that had been used for rain earlier that day. She knew from her lessons with Sunny Rays that it was empty and had no energy for lightning in them. It was safe for him to be near. She tilted her flight to let the tip of her wing scrape the surface. She was careful to do it only at the surface where the cloud was thin and soft. If she went any deeper it would have been trouble.
"Whoa..." he said in awe.
He just stared as the tip of her wing pushed through it like it was solid. It threw whole pieces of the cloud out of the way instead of it swirling around like water or mist. She leveled out as she felt the momentum that was keeping her aloft waning.
"Hey twerp, I have you. Do you mind letting go of my neck already?" She could tell he wasn't enjoying it right. She needed to get him relaxed.
He was hesitant to do it, but after a moment of looking into her warm smile he finally did.
"And you trust my niece that much?" Spitfire asked from the table.
"You said she was inconsiderate," Serra responded in a simple fashion. "That might have been the case at one time. I can't deny I see it in her." Serra paused for a moment and smiled. "But from what I have seen she has been very considerate and careful around town, increasingly so as time has passed."
Serra placed a new pepper on her cutting board and continued her work. "I think having a rough time on her own probably cooled her down quite a bit. Even if she is a little-" She paused for a moment. "Spicy," she said as she lifted up the cutting board slightly to show the peppers as an example, "I know she has a good heart just under the surface."
Spitfire thought back to the run in with Nurse Redheart. 'She's still Lightning Dust though.'
"And I could see she cared about him even before she realized it," Serra added with a knowing look in her eye. "I know she won't do anything to endanger him."
Keen Wit immediately regretted letting go. The moment he had, Lightning Dust flung him high in the air and swooped away from him, letting him free fall through the large, empty cloud. He was screaming the whole way.
Just seconds after he fell through the bottom of the cloud she caught him again, still screaming. After a few moments, he realized she had him again. He looked at her confused and frightened.
"See? I told you I have you. Now stop worrying about falling and enjoy yourself," she said warmly yet mischievously. "Or do we have to do that again?"
He pondered while looking at her. His front hooves still gripped his hat even though the vine held it in place firmly. "Maybe just one more time?" He finally let go of the hat. Lightning Dust was beginning to wonder if keeping the hat safe was so conditioned in him that it was second nature now.
"Now you're getting it!" she said with glee as she flew up to do it again. With him finally loosened up she could let him enjoy the experience. She thought she saw something in him at that moment but she had to make sure.
About an hour later back at the inn. "And she thinks she can get back in?" Spitfire asked, having been told about Lightning Dust's desire to rejoin the Wonderbolts. She gestured Wayside over to her work.
"She doesn't think that," he answered as he walked towards her from the table. "She doesn't expect them to take her back, but by the way she described it to me, as long as there is even the slightest chance, she has to go for it." He taste tested the sauce that Serra had put Spitfire in charge of. "Like she couldn't live with herself if she didn't try." He gave a hesitant nod of approval to the sauce.
A memory played through Spitfire's mind, "Don't feel afraid of failing at it Lightning Dust." She was recalling the night she had tried to teach her niece how to fly. "Just be afraid of not trying. Push your limits and be happy that you did your best. Reach for what seems impossible." Spitfire's wings flared in pain as she remembered the camping trip, yet again.
"You gave Lightning Dust her child's flight, didn't you?" Wayside asked, looking at her in as she was in deep thought.
"How did you know?" she asked in surprise. At that moment she saw the same intelligence in his eyes as Lightning Dust did on her first night in Ponyville.
"The way your wings went stiff as if they were sore gave it away. You still feel it, don't you? The pain?" he asked curiously.
She gave him an odd look for a second. "From time to time," she answered, trying to empathize with him. She could understand how he was so curious. He longed to perform a child's flight but knew he would never be able to. "Even though I stayed up longer than I should have, my wings are just fine. It only flares up when I think back on it."
His face shifted to show some joy from the answer, yet some curiosity remained. After a moment he asked another question, "Do you have any regrets?"
She looked him square in the face with far more confidence this time. After a short moment she opened her wings slightly to look at them. Folding her wings back to the resting position, she looked back at him. "I will never regret that night. The pain is a welcome reminder."
A little over half an hour after dark, Lightning Dust and Keen Wit finally came back down to the ground, vine discarded shortly before. Lightning Dust was exhausted more than she thought was ever possible. Her strength hadn't fully returned and she was once again paying the price. Nevertheless, the smile on Keen Wit's face was worth every last bit of the pain in her wings and legs.
She was glad she stuck out the last hour to let him see the night sky, if only briefly. She had to see how he reacted to not being able to see anything but the stars. No ground, no lights from below. Nothing but the stars and free flight. 'I have no doubt about it now. He really does belong in the air,' she thought as she let him down gently on the ground. She was remembering the twinkle in his eye as he enjoyed it. It was the same look she had at that age when she was first learning to fly. She didn't know what it looked like per say, but she could still see it there. The spirit of a flyer.
"Whoa... Just whoa... That was so awesome," he said, not even able to come out of the daze he was in.
Lightning Dust sat down on the bench outside the inn to re-gather her strength. Keen Wit didn't even skip a beat and jumped up on the bench beside her.
Lightning Dust was still breathing heavy to catch her breath from the prolonged Child's Flight with Keen Wit. Somehow it had winded her even more thoroughly than when she fled town yesterday.
It was not as demanding at any one moment. Instead, a more subtle, unquenchable need to catch her breath ravaged her lungs relentlessly. It was like all the air she was absorbing from them was being sucked away to debts unknown as fast as she could breathe, barely leaving her enough air to sit there on the bench, slouching lazily and breathe again. Her muscles were feeling the pain too.
She had to let her wings drag because they were so tired. Even trying to lift them for a moment made them burn in pain wildly. The only reason her legs were working long enough to get to the bench was because she wasn't using the muscles in them that she had used to carry Keen Wit.
"That was... Just whoa. We have to do that again some-" He stopped in mid-sentence then looked at her sadly and asked, "Why does that mean lady want to take you away?"
She looked at him funny for a moment. "That's right, we're on the ground now, aren't we?" Sitting up from her slouch, she started explaining it to him as best she could through the gasps of her exhaustion. "She's worried about me... To put it in a nutshell I pretty much ran away from... home a few months ago. The whole time, my family... had no idea what I was doing or where I was... They didn't even know if I was alive. I just disappeared."
She took a moment to breathe and put the next few thoughts together before she continued. "I still don't know how my aunt found out where I've been... but she wants what is best for me and... she thinks taking me home is for the best."
Keen Wit sat there beside her for a moment with the look of several thoughts going through his head. Lightning Dust thought that he might finally understand and be able to let her go. She didn't really think she could convince her aunt anyway. So it would be a long time before she could come back and she needed him to understand this.
"I don't care!" he suddenly yelled, standing up on the bench.
'Well that threw that out the window.'
He yelled out to the street as he vented his feelings. "You're my friend. I don't want you to leave," he shouted with anger in his eyes. "I can't imagine not being able to hang out with you anymore and she wants to take you from me," he continued to shout with his anger coming to a boil. "She can go to Tartarus for all I care."
Lightning Dust was surprised to hear him speaking this foully. Tartarus was an actual place and not considered a bad word in conversation, but to wish it on another was a different matter entirely. Hearing it come from such a mild mannered colt was shocking.
"She is the meanest, nastiest old lady ever-" He paused with the sudden realization of something. "And her and mom are right behind me, aren't they?" he said in a much quieter voice. He lost his confidence and began to shake in fear.
Lightning Dust became aware of a presence behind them. After turning around to look into the darkened hallway window, Lightning Dust saw the silhouettes of two ponies looking out from the darkness of the inn. A light flipped on and sure enough it was her aunt Spitfire and the innkeeper Serra.
"Keen Wit. Did you enjoy your time with Lightning Dust?" his mom asked in an overly sweet tone that clearly had an underlying meaning waiting to come out. The happy grin on her face made it all the creepier.
He turned his head and body just enough to stare at her in dread.
"Keen Wit. Did you enjoy your time with Lightning Dust?" she asked again in the same sweet tone to imply she wanted an answer.
"Y...y-yes?" he answered shakily, not sure what she had planned.
"Good. Now go get some dinner and get ready for bed," Serra told her son, still perfectly calm and sweet.
"And don't worry. This 'mean and nasty old lady' won't take her away before you get a chance to see her again," Spitfire said in a comforting tone, just as overdone as his mother's sweet one.
Keen Wit hopped off the bench and shakily trotted back to the front door to do what his mother told him. Spitfire looked at Lighting Dust and said, "Stay there. I'm coming out. We need to talk," with a calm voice that was neither warm nor cold, but simply spoken. Lightning Dust couldn't read it. This made her even more afraid of what her aunt was going to talk about when she got outside.
Keen Wit did as his mother told and ate his dinner. He didn't even check to see if peppers were in it. He just closed his eyes and ate. There weren't any. They must of set them aside because he could smell them lingering in the air. Though the sauce was a little off, it was made pretty much the way he liked it. This made him dread what his mom was going to do all the more. He just wanted her to get the punishment over with.
He got his before bedtime routine done in his private bathroom. Living at an inn had some cool perks at times. He brushed his teeth, combed his mane and tail briefly, as she told him to do to keep it from getting tangled. It was still tricky doing it with hooves instead of his horn, ever since the doctor told him not to use it. He even made sure his school pack was ready for in the morning. He was glad he didn't have any homework that day. That would just give his mom more to put over his head.
As he was climbing into bed, his mother came in. 'Time to pay the piper,' he thought to himself. She came over to him to tuck him in, then gave him a firm hug and a kiss goodnight. She then simply turned around and walked to the door. She hadn't said anything to him.
"Aren't I going to get punished?" he asked in confusion.
"For what dear?" she responded, with just as sweet a voice as before.
"For saying all those nasty things."
"Hmm." She pretended to think. "No. Just go to bed and try to have some nice dreams." She came back over to him then gave him a second kiss goodnight. "We can talk about it all in the morning."
Spitfire had told Lightning Dust to walk with her once she got outside. Though it took time for them to walk at a pace Lightning Dust could keep up with using her sore legs, they had managed to walk to the park where they would have some privacy.
"Wayside and I talked while you were up there," Spitfire stated calmly to finally strike up conversation. "He told me how you wanted to rejoin the Wonderbolts. Is this true?"
Lightning Dust didn't look at her. She just kept her head to the ground. She was having trouble keeping up from the throbbing in her legs and didn't have the energy to run from her. She barely had the energy to walk. Even if she even had the energy to spin a lie she had no idea how much her aunt had learned from Wayside. She was trapped. Struggling would only make it worse.
"Yes..." she answered with fear of what her aunt would say.
"It's because of how I wrote out your discharge papers isn't it? 'Inexperience' isn't a dishonorable reason for discharge. You can still try again."
"That's part of it..."
Still staying perfectly calm and unreadable, her aunt continued her questions in the same manner as they walked.
"You know you will have to take the remedial course along with all the other second round cadets?"
"Yes..."
"You also know that nopony has passed that course in generations?"
"Yes..."
"And that I'm not high enough rank to know what the secret is. So I can't help you pass?"
"I didn't want your help with it..."
"Many ponies think it is a fool's errand now. Including me."
"I know..."
"You thought that-" Spitfire turned to look back at her niece as she walked up to the bridge. "-if I knew I would have hogtied you and taken you home the moment I saw you. Or something just as bad?"
"..." Lightning Dust didn't answer. She didn't need to.
Reaching the ark of the bridge, Spitfire stopped and let her niece stay at the bottom of the bridge. "I might have, but there is something else now. Something in this town has changed you, Lightning Dust."
Lightning Dust started to look up past her aunt's hooves, which had been the only part of her aunt that she had been staring at up to this point. Slowly she raised her head to meet her aunt's gaze. It wasn't a gaze of anger, pity, disgust or sympathy. It was one of curiosity. Her aunt looked away and out towards the horizon while she jumped up to lean on the railing of the bridge.
When Spitfire spoke again she spoke nostalgically. "You used to be the most considerate and modest filly I knew. You would always make sure to mind us." Spitfire looked down at the water with a smile that she just couldn't contain. "When the other fillies wanted something of yours you didn't mind giving it to them. You were very generous." She gave an embarrassed titter of a laugh. "To a fault. You didn't want to show off. You loved spending time with me when I foal sat you or when I tried to teach you to fly." She turned her head just enough to look at Lightning Dust with one eye. "We almost succeeded before I left."
Her tone turned sad and she looked back at the pond. "But after I was forced to go back to work full time your mother tried to get you to forget about flying and work the restaurant." The smile on Spitfire's face was long gone. "You grew bitter. You made every attempt to pull away from her." Spitfire tilted and bobbed her head slightly for a moment. "And in time even me for some reason. You spent more and more time venting your frustration in the gym. At least that's what your father told me."
Jumping off the rail, Spitfire walked down off the bridge to her niece again then looked her in the face. "Every time I managed to visit I saw a little more of the niece I remembered missing."
Closing her eyes, she recalled more recent events. "I still remember the day I approved your application with only your father's signature on it." A naughty smile appeared and she had to suppress a laugh. "Your mom was outraged with both of us but there was nothing she could do. Though it was very difficult for me to get approved without both signatures, it still technically required only the signature of one guardian." She opened her eyes and looked at her niece again with admiration. "You were finally living your dream, but it was too late."
Her look of admiration turned to one of sorrow. "You had grown bold, arrogant and uncaring. I had hoped you would just work out the bugs and calm down again. Then you went and used the tornado..." With her voice breaking up, she stopped and looked down at the ground frustrated.
Returning her gaze back at her niece, Spitfire had a look of great sorrow. "Please understand," she said in a voice to match the look in her face. "I wasn't acting as your aunt when I kicked you out. I was acting as your commanding officer."
Spitfire paused for a moment after hearing what she said. She looked down again and corrected herself. "No. That's not entirely true. I knew that if I just reprimanded you it would only make you angrier. You had learned to snap at things that threatened you. I had to act before you did something stupid enough to have you thrown out dishonorably."
She came up to her niece and held her shoulder as gently as she could. "Do you know what happens to ponies that have been dishonorably discharged? It would have been impossible for you to find any decent job anywhere, get insurance, find a place. You might as well of been a criminal in their eyes." Worry for Lightning Dust became unmistakably apparent in her aunt's face. "You really would have been stuck at your mother's restaurant for the rest of your life.
"I was able to pull a loophole to have you discharged on the reasoning of 'inexperience' not because of your lack of this-" She opened her wings. "-but a lack of this." She took the hoof off her niece's shoulder and poked at her niece's heart.
Seeing the confusion in her niece's still exhausted face, she dropped her hoof and explained. "The three main focuses of a Wonderbolt's training are bravery, teamwork and skill, in that order. The reasoning of inexperience can be placed in any of these three categories. Though it usually means skill, I managed to get it approved for your discharge through the category of teamwork."
She paused for several seconds, lightly shaking her head in an attempt to think of a way to explain it better. "Do you remember the story of when the Wonderbolts were first formed? It was what you did for the school play, right?" Spitfire asked, motioning her niece to answer her.
As if quoting a history lesson she had memorized long ago, Lightning Dust answered her aunt as best she could. The need for air was still almost as strong as before and she still had to speak slowly between gasps. "A monster escaped from Tartarus... The princess had a hard time finding it before it would run off... but some acrobats were able to work together to stall it long enough for the princess... to catch up and banish it... When she saw how useful they were... she created the first Wonderbolts from those acrobats."
Spitfire looked at her niece patiently as she quoted the story. Once it was finished, she continued her explanation with a strong sense of hope in her voice. "Not the full story, but enough. You hit the point I was trying to say. No one pony could do it but as a team they did. We aren't just an air show. That was only made to keep our skills sharp. We are, at our core, a strike force. When danger comes we are the ones that step up to meet it before the armies can mobilize. We are the ones that put our lives on the line to buy civilians the time to flee to safety. When we don that uniform the last thing that should be on our minds is ourselves."
She emphasized with her hoof that she wanted her niece's full attention, as she got to her final point. "The Wonderbolts are a team, Lightning Dust. You didn't understand this back then-" She smiled slightly. "-but I think you're starting to now."
Spitfire took a moment to gather her thoughts after a long speech. "I still think you trying out for the Wonderbolts again is a fool's errand but it's not the only thing that's driving you anymore. Something in this town has changed you, Lightning Dust."
Spitfire Looked Lightning Dust square in the eyes with the same look of curiosity she had at the beginning of the conversation, yet paired up with a strong sense of admiration. "I can see you're still very rough around the edges."
Knowing her niece didn't have the strength to fight a sign of affection meant for foals, Spitfire gave in to the urge she was feeling. Coming up to nuzzle her as she used to when her niece was a filly, she continued while showing her affection. "But right now, at this exact moment, you are more like the filly I knew back then than you have been in years."
Lightning Dust didn't fight the sign of affection but didn't return it either.
Backing out of the nuzzling, Spitfire looked at her niece square in the eyes yet again. "You said that I think that dragging you home is for the best? Well I did think that for a time, but now..." She took a pause to look up and out at the town. "Now I think the best thing for you is to stay here and keep doing whatever it is that's changing you."
Lighting Dust stood there for a moment as she let her aunt's last line sink in. After she made sure she heard that last line right, she looked at her aunt with disbelief. "You mean?" she started to ask.
"But," Spitfire interjected, seeing she had her niece's full attention, "I have some conditions and every last one of them will be met or you will be going home after all."
"Oh!" Lightning Dust looked around uneasily for a brief moment then returned her attention to her aunt. "Um... OK I guess. What are they?"
Spitfire looked at her niece warmly. As Lightning Dust looked at her, she felt as if she was somehow seeing her aunt both as she was in the past, loving, and as she saw her more recently, strict and stern. It was scary to gaze upon her with such opposite extremes working as one, yet Lightning Dust couldn't bring herself to look away as Spitfire explained her conditions.
"First and foremost, you stay in contact with me. I expect you to keep me in the loop on how you're doing." Spitfire waited for her niece to agree with this. Lightning Dust nodded after a moment of indecision. "Second, you will keep yourself well fed. No more of that 'prison food.' It goes in the garbage when we get back." Spitfire gave her a 'this isn't negotiable' stare after she took a little too long to nod again. "My final condition is that you keep a roof over your head. I'll do what I can to help you find a place, but if we can't then I'm still taking you home."
She tilted her head and continued, not forcing her niece to hollowly agree to the last condition. "If I think you aren't being honest in your letters or calls or if I think you aren't taking care of yourself, that's it. I will come back and take you home. But I want you to know-"
She took a deep breath and stopped acting like an officer. She reached up for the sky with one hoof and stared at it. "Even if I have to take you home, I'll still be rooting for my special star chaser when she tries out for the Wonderbolt remedial course." She looked back at her niece without dropping her hoof. "Don't you forget that."
"Now come on." She dropped her hoof and walked back towards the direction of the inn. "We should finish our walk and get to bed. We need to get started early tomorrow morning if we are going to find you a place to stay when I leave."
Her niece stared at her, still panting. Gratitude practically flowed from every inch of her tired face. All of it was directed at the source of her joy: Her childhood idol who once again believed in her.
Lightning Dust walked up beside her aunt and leaned up against her affectionately, though she would later claim that it was due to the fatigue. She muttered a soft, "Thank you," as they started walking again. It was the last thing spoken from either of them that night.
The next day at breakfast. "She's staying! She's staying! She's staying!" Keen Wit shouted cheerfully while he jumped around the table after hearing the good news.
"Keen Wit! Calm down!" Serra commanded her son as she put down Spitfire's plate. "Or do you want me to add peppers to your food too? I have enough cut up to spare," she added threateningly as she went back to the stove.
He paused for a moment in worry. He soon smiled at his mom and said, "Go ahead! I don't care!" He then continued to bounce around while shouting, "She's staying! She's staying!" His mom, surprised at this, took him up on the offer and put peppers into the pan, knowing it was a rare opportunity to get him to try it.
"What's with all the spicy food?" Spitfire asked as she looked at her plate.
"In a nutshell? A family tradition. You don't want to know any more than that," Lighting Dust answered hastily, not wanting to be distracted.
"...I'll take your word on it. So what does the paper say? Any leads?" Spitfire asked her niece, who was looking at the paper borrowed from Wayside to look for a place to stay.
"A few." Lightning Dust flicked an ear in concentration. "A lot of them are asking way too much for the rent."
"You could ask for an advance," Wayside piped in.
Spitfire set down her fork and looked Wayside right in the face. "I know I shouldn't be saying this while eating at your table, but she has gotten enough charity from you. She needs to be able to afford the rent herself. If she needs help with a deposit we might pitch in a little." Spitfire looked over at her niece, still re-combing the paper for anything subtle that she might have missed. "As much as I want to help her too she has to stand on her own."
As Spitfire and Lighting Dust finished their breakfast, Keen Wit had calmed down enough to eat his, panting as he did his best to not complain about the peppers that were making his eyes water.
Spitfire put enough of her own bits on the table to let Wayside buy a new paper and took his as they left the kitchen.
The few places they tried from the paper weren't any good. Without any more leads, they decided to spend the day combing the streets to see if there were any unlisted rooms open. They still didn't have any luck. By the time they had gotten home that night, their prospects were starting to get pretty bleak.
Spitfire started to look worried as they settled down for bed at the in for the final time before the deadline came.
Seeing her aunt looking at her, Lightning Dust rekindled the fire in her belly. "No! You gave me three days and I still have one left!" she said sternly. She jumped into bed and turned out the light before her aunt could even reach the bed.
Spitfire knew the last day would be a waste of time in any practical sense after they got Lightning Dust's paycheck. "Reach for what seems impossible.", "Like she couldn't live with herself if she didn't try." She decided to still let her have it anyway.
* * *
The final day arrived. Spitfire and Lighting Dust had trouble cashing her check at the bank. "I'm sorry, but if you do not have an account with us I just can't cash it," the bank teller explained. "I know you work for the city, but if I break the rules then somepony else could try to use it as an excuse and try to force a bad check on us."
"So you're saying my check is un-cashable?" Lightning Dust asked the bank teller in frustration.
"Anywhere here in Ponyville for now, until you set up an account, yes but-" He gestured them closer to the window. "You didn't hear this from me, but the Central Bank of Cloudsdale is able to cash them. They don't like doing it but they can. They're the bank the weather team's checks are based out of and the paperwork says they are obligated to cash them once they confirm the check number with their records." The bank teller looked at them worriedly as if he was about to get in trouble. "Just don't abuse it."
Lighting Dust backed up out of the bank teller's window, grimaced and turned to her aunt. "You've been to Cloudsdale before, right?"
* * *
After spending a few hours taking a slow flight to and from Cloudsdale, Lightning Dust and Spitfire returned to Ponyville with Lightning Dust's refilled bit bag in tow. The last few days hadn't been kind on her weakened stamina. Her wings were still burning slightly from the child's flight. Hopefully she would be able to rest and it would finally subside. Wayside had already arranged for substitution for her at work for the next few days.
Their search for a place for Lighting Dust to stay continued but they had ran out of options, even the farfetched ones.
"Ghuhh!" Lightning Dust groaned in frustration. She stomped the ground. "This isn't over yet!"
"Lightning Dust. I know you are passionate about this, but let's face it. You can't afford any of the places available right now and nopony is going to magically kick out their tenant just to open up a room for you."
"I said I'm not giving up!" Lightning Dust retorted in stubborn defiance. "I'm going to find some place to stay today, even if it kills me."
"Lightning Dust-" Spitfire started to say before she was suddenly interrupted by a noise in the house next to them.
"Nooooooooo! Noooooooo!" screamed a mint green unicorn as she was drug out the door and along the ground. She held on to the back hoof of what must have been her landlord.
"What? Oh dear Celestia, not her!" Lightning Dust exclaimed as she saw who was screaming. It was her second least favorite pony in Ponyville. The eccentric, freelance artist, Lyra Heartstrings. To top it off she definitely wasn't in a calm mood like before, the only time she was tolerable.
"Please BonBon, no!" Lyra balled at her landlord. "I'll pay you what I have. I'll get the rest soon. Just please, please don't kick me out. BonBon. BonBon!"
Looking more closely, she saw Lyra was holding onto the leg of the candy shop owner, Almond, or BonBon, whatever her name was. Lightning Dust wasn't sure. 'This must have been what she was looking for a job for. Looks like she didn't get it.'
"I said no, Lyra!" the landlord said in the same voice that Lightning Dust heard on the day Steel Will introduced himself. "The rules are there for a reason. You don't have the money and it is due today."
She picked up a sign on a wooden stake and slammed a rock into the stake to drive the sign into the ground at the front of her front yard.
On the sign it said:
ROOM FOR RENT.
TERMS NOT NEGOTIABLE.
DETAILS AVAILABLE
UPON REQUEST.
Spitfire looked at her niece like something impossible just happened. Lightning Dust didn't ask questions. She jumped at the opportunity as if her life depended on it.
"I'm going to the bank to get your deposit. I want your stuff out by then," BonBon said coldly. Lyra didn't respond except for continuing to cling to her friend's back leg and beg.
"Excuse me?" Lightning Dust called, trying to get BonBon's attention. "I hate to rub salt in your friend's wound,-" 'sort of' "-but what are the details of the room?" she asked as she pointed back to the sign.
Still ignoring the whimpering pony attached to her back leg, BonBon stopped and answered the question blandly, "It is a room that is comfortable for one pony or crowded for two on the second floor. The bathroom upstairs is allotted for the tenant's personal needs, but the bathroom on the ground floor is mine, period. The rented room is expected to stay clean at all times. The common area can be used for your needs so long as you don't make a mess, but if I ever need it, I get it, no arguments."
After a pause to inhale slowly, she continued just as blandly. "The rent is not much, but in exchange you have to deal with my... oddities. They aren't anything dangerous, just strange. The rent is one hundred and fifty bits a month."
Lightning Dust looked at her aunt. One hundred and fifty bits was dirt cheap. About half that of what average rent might be. "I can afford that."
"With a deposit of eighteen hundred bits," she added, once again speaking just as blandly as before.
'I should have known it was too good to be true' Lightning Dust thought as she winced from hearing the deposit. It was just as high as the rent was low. Even with Wayside and Spitfire both backing her there was no way she could afford that deposit. "I can't afford that though."
"Very well. Good day," she responded in the same bland tone as she continued to drag the blubbering unicorn—that still refused to let go of her leg—down the street and towards the bank.
"What are you doing Lighting Dust? Go get her!" Spitfire told her pointing at the landlord.
"But I can't afford the deposit," Lightning Dust responded in a slight confusion to her aunt's demand.
"Well you don't have to!" Spitfire retorted with urgency.
"What?" Lightning Dust asked, cocking her head at this.
"Here, let me take a shot at this and you'll see what I mean," Spitfire said as she turned away from Lightning Dust. Walking up beside BonBon, Spitfire tried her luck. "BonBon was it?"
"That is... what I am called, yes." BonBon said without breaking her stride any more than she was before. Her voice still bland and uncaring.
"You said the room was comfortable for one pony but cramped for two, right?"
Lightning Dust following behind them suddenly got a pit in her stomach. She knew where her aunt was going with this. 'No. Not that.'
"I did," BonBon said, recalling how she described the room. "What of it?"
"Your sign said the terms aren't negotiable, but you didn't say how many ponies could rent the room. Is it possible for the current tenant to split the rent with my niece?"
BonBon stopped in her tracks and Lyra jerked her head up from her pleading at this thought.
'Please no,' Lightning Dust silently pleaded in her mind. 'Not with her.'
"They would have to share the upstairs bathroom and I'd expect both tenants to keep the room tidy."
'Unacceptable! She's just too wild!'
"Then it's settled," Spitfire said with a nod.
Lyra jumped off the ground and hugged Lighting Dust, covering her with the dirt from the road that she had picked up. "Yay! New roommate!"
Lightning Dust did her best to back out of the hug. "Hold it! Y-you expect me to share a room with her!?" This pony was almost as eccentric as Pinkie Pie. Seeing her around town was one thing, but living with her? That was asking a lot.
Spitfire shook her head in frustration. "We can always fly back home to Manehattan, Lightning Dust. You need a room. Here it is. We're out of options." She craned her neck to look back at her niece coldly. "Now how badly do you want to stay?"
Lightning Dust Looked at her aunt staring back at her, expecting her to make a choice. She looked at BonBon looking back at her, just waiting indifferently for her to make her call. Finally she looked at Lyra, still snuggling her neck awkwardly.
Pushing, then prying and pushing Lyra off of her so she could think, she tried to remember why she wanted to stay. The Wonderbolts had always been her dream. This would get her aunt off her back but this seemed a bit much even for that. 'It would be easier to just run away again and find another town. As long as I don't return here she wouldn't find me again. I just can't bunk with somepony that crazy.'
She was about to say no when her eye caught something. Discarded and brushed to the side of the road lay the vine Keen Wit had used to keep his hat tied down as she held him up in the air two nights ago.
'Keen Wit,' her mind whispered to her as something else tugged at her reasoning.
She remembered the admiration in his eyes when he asked if she would be his big sister. She remembered the anger in those same eyes when Iron Will threatened her, burning with the desire to protect her. She remembered the fear in them when she had discovered his fool's errand of a dream, the desire to fly on his own power. She remembered the joy in them when she agreed to teach him and the promise she made on the name of the royal sisters to him. She also remembered the love that was in his eyes when they were in the air together two nights ago.
Most importantly, she remembered the pain in his eyes when he heard about her leaving.
She had never felt so torn in her life. She cared for the colt but she couldn't stand the idea of sharing a room with anypony, especially a nut case like Lyra. She absolutely hated eccentric ponies and made a vivid point to avoid them like the plague.
She stood there for a long moment. "I... won't... do it," Lightning Dust said as she pulled her head up with closed eyes and a disgruntled face.
Spitfire seemed to slump at this. She started to turn around and head for the edge of town. "Come on then Lightning Dust. We need to fly-"
"I won't leave him!" she yelled out in a burst of frustration. Her aunt turned her head around to look at her in shock.
"I won't... I..." she sniffled as she fell to the ground with a broken spirit. "I just... can't leave him. I'll... I'll take the room," she finished in a shaky voice as she tossed her bit bag towards her new landlord.
Lyra was all giddy at this and, despite Lightning Dust's obvious discomfort, tried to hug her again.
"Don't touch me!" Lightning Dust shrieked at the unicorn with a face of sheer fury, stopping Lyra in her tracks. "Don't... Don't touch me..." she said again. Her face shifted back to sadness as she looked back down.
Lightning Dust sat there on the street, crying and hugging herself in self-loathing at the choice she just made. Her aunt had picked up the bit bag and was counting out Lightning Dust's half of the rent for her. Both pride and sorrow was on her face as she did so.
'This is beyond humiliating. Find a room if it kills me?' Lightning Dust thought as she began to shake and sob uncontrollably. 'It just might. Why did I have to get so attached to that twerp?'
* * *
A few hours later. It didn't take long to move Lighting Dust's things in the room once she finished crying. She just had to go grab her supplies from the inn and plop them down in a corner of her new room. Before they left the inn, however, Spitfire pulled the fixed tent out of the saddle bag and gave it to Wayside. "Donate this. Throw it away. I don't care," Spitfire told him firmly, "But it doesn't go with my niece."
After a little work, they managed to get the second half of the bunk bed out of BonBon's garage and secured tightly onto the first half that was waiting in Lightning Dust's new room.
The odd part was when Lyra wanted the top bunk. When ponies shared a bunk bed and one was a pegasus it was normally the pegasus that got the top bunk, but Lightning Dust still was in too down a mood to argue.
She finally cheered up a little when they went to get Keen Wit from school.
"Good news, twerp," she said to him as he came up to her, trying her best not to sound flat. "I found a room I could rent. My aunt isn't taking me away."
"Alright!" he cheered as he jumped to hug her. Despite the action being almost identical to Lyra's earlier, she didn't fight it. Instead, she wrapped a foreleg around him in return. With her broken spirit she soaked up the affection like a dry sponge, yet she still felt somewhat empty.
"It's getting time for me to get back, Lighting Dust," her aunt said as she broke the hug. "You have some good ponies looking out for you here, and if Zecora is still anything like she used to be she will look out for you too. I couldn't leave you in better hooves. Just don't forget to keep in touch or you know what will happen."
Lightning Dust nodded soberly, unable to form words. Spitfire turned around and got ready to take off before pausing. Turning only her neck around, she added one last thing.
"Oh! And one more thing. Keep an eye out for him and his tall tales. When we first met, he said you promised to teach him how to fly so that he could be the first non-pegasus Wonderbolt. Crazy, isn't it?"
Lightning Dust looked at her aunt in surprise at this. Spitfire mistook it for shock and took off.
Keen Wit looked up at Lightning Dust happily for a moment as she looked back down at him with a look of shock.
"Wonderbolt?" she asked rhetorically.
Keen Wit's eyes suddenly grew wide and he looked down in embarrassment and worry.
"Heh. It's not that crazy a tale," she told him with an earnest smile, easing his worries.
She sat down close to the colt, watching her aunt fly off to get back to work for a few seconds. She remembered the poster of her aunt she saw in his room, but hadn't thought about at the time. "Hey, Keen Wit."
"Ya?"
"You're a Wonderbolt fan right?"
"Ya."
"Well, can you keep a secret?"
"What kind of secret?" he asked, looking at her funny.
"Like-" she bent over and whispered into his ear, "a 'could you not tell anypony about my horn' kind of secret?"
"I... I think so." he answered, not sure where she was going.
While still whispering in his ear, she asked him, "Have you ever wanted to meet Captain Spitfire?"
"You bet I have!" he yelled with great enthusiasm. "Sorry," he added, seeing her yank her head back in pain.
Shaking the pain off and accepting the apology in stride, she returned to whispering in his ear. "Well remember it's a secret. You met her just now."
"What?" he asked as he scrunched his face in confusion.
"My aunt Campfire is actually Captain Spitfire in disguise. I'm Spitfire's niece."
He laughed as she backed out of his ear, "Ha! Ya right."
She just looked at him calmly, waiting for it to sink in.
"Wait..." A look of uncertain thought came to his face. "Really!?"
After a moment of giving a warm smile to the twerp she realized that she had grown to love, she answered him calmly, "Yes. Really."
Keen Wit turned to look in the direction that Spitfire had flown off to with a grin. "Sweet."
Seeing his smile filled Lightning Dust's emptiness a tiny bit more. 'Maybe, just maybe, I made the right call today.'
As Spitfire flew to a place that she could finally wash the dye out of her coat now that the magic would wear off soon, she thought back on what her niece said.
"I just... can't leave him. I'll... I'll take the room." Her niece was growing up. It took a child to do it. Not a stern mother, not a drill instructor, not even some stallion. A child. A child that wasn't even hers.
She remembered a line from a book that she had once read to her niece. 'To find your path in a tempest you need not a strong ship nor a great sail, only the courage to stay afloat and a compass that points you true.'
"You've always had that courage, Lightning Dust. But, after all these years you've finally found a new compass. I'm happy for you."
After a moment of thought about Nurse Redheart she said something else, "But you had better not screw this up or tell anypony else about me."