The Ponyville Weather Office was a wide cloud structure set at the edge of a hill just South of town. Equestrian flags fluttered at its corners, the building’s exterior decorated with columns in the Cloudsdale fashion. Lightning never liked the architecture of Cloudsdale. It seemed to austere, too self-serving. That was part of why she didn’t like how all the Weather Patrol Offices in Equestria used Cloudsdale’s building style; it was almost like the city was reaching its fluffy claws out to encompass Equestria.
Not that there was anything wrong with Cloudsdale. It was just a feeling she had.
Lightning had woken early so as to make sure her directions to Octavia’s were accurate, so she was one of the first to arrive at the office. Today was set to be a long one, and she was grumbling under her breath about working too many hours. When she spotted Rainbow she let out a noisy groan; what was she doing here so early? She usually didn’t come in for another four hours!
Determined to ignore Rainbow, Lightning headed for the Assignment Office where Cloud Kicker gave out individual jobs and assigned teams for the week. She got only a couple steps before she winced; Rainbow was calling her name. She considered pretending to not hear, but with a sneer and a silent curse she turned about.
“Yeah, what is it now?” Lightning grumbled as she walked up to her boss.
Rainbow was flanked by Cloud Kicker and Airheart, who both looked worried. She didn’t seem to take offense to Lightning’s grumpy response.
“Say, you’re from Foal Mountains, ain’t ya?”
Lightning sneered. “What of it?”
“How good are you at working with wild clouds?”
That caught her attention. Lightning thought back on her time in Appleloosa – a period she mostly tried to forget – and further back to Foal Mountains. There was one small success. “I’ve wrangled one or two in my time. Why?”
“There’s a monster of a cold front moving in from the Everfree,” Rainbow replied. “I’ve never really seen anything like it; we don’t work much with wild weather around here.”
Lightning frowned, understanding her boss’ meaning. “So I’m the closest thing you’ve got to an expert, huh?”
“More or less,” Cloud Kicker acknowledged. “We sent word to Cloudsdale, but they probably won’t send a response before the front gets here.”
Lightning tilted her head, eyes going each of them in turn. “I don’t get it. What’s so bad about this thing?”
Airheart stepped forward to explain, “Usually some pegasi are sent to the edge of the forest to hold the front at bay and only let so much of the cold in. This is much bigger than we’re used to, though.”
“We can’t stop a cold front,” Cloud Kicker admitted. “The cold’s going to come whether we like it or not, but we can slow it down. You know, make the change more subtle so that it’s not too rough for everypony.”
Rainbow shook her head. “But this ‘winter storm’ or whatever is huge. I’m not sure we can even do that this time.”
“Hmm…” Lightning wondered what it might be like for a severe winter storm to hit Ponyville. It still seemed a little early for that kind of thing; according to Ponyville’s weather charts, it was a solid two weeks before winter really hit.
“We were hoping you could provide some insight,” Cloud Kicker said. “Foal Mountains has rough winters now and then, right?”
Lightning thought back, visualizing the times when she was cooped inside because of severe blizzards and winter storms. The orphanage had been nice and warm, but Lightning had always hated having to sit inside all day. Just the thought of staring out the window for hours made her wings twitch.
“We had a rough time or two. It probably won’t be half as bad as what I’m used to, though.”
Cloud Kicker glanced to the side, her eyes faded with thought. “Even so, I think this one’s far more intense than what Ponyville is accustomed to. We might have to sound some sort of alert.”
Rainbow wrinkled her muzzle as she thought. “That’s taking it a bit far, don’t ya think?”
They all considered the situation for several seconds. Lightning was no expert – she’d only been on the weather team a few weeks, after all – but certainly had experience with winter storms. “Perhaps I can get a closer look.”
Cloud Kicker tilted her head. “You wanna scout it out?”
Lightning nodded. “I’ve been through a storm or two. Maybe I can get a feel for how bad it will be.”
“Not a chance,” Rainbow replied. “That’s waaay too dangerous. I mean, we’re talking about wild weather. It’s bad enough to go down in the Everfree where it’s hard to be found. You do it in that kind of weather and ya might not get back.”
Lightning grimaced. “I can handle it.”
“I said no.”
Rainbow leveled Lightning with a commanding glare, but Lightning fired one right back. “You need more information about this thing! What if it is too big? Ya don’t have enough pegasi here to slow the storm down and warn the town. I can go out there, figure out the storm’s strength, then come right back and tell you which is more important.”
Her rival considered this, expression harsh. “I dunno. It still sounds dangerous.”
Lightning grimaced. “Then… give me a wing pony.”
Rainbow blinked. “Wait, are you actually asking for a partner? You hate having a partner!”
A low growl came unbidden from Lightning’s throat. “What, now that I’m offering to do things your way you wanna argue? Is Lightning too dangerous for a partner? Make up your bucking mind!”
Her rival sneered and shook her head. “I’m trying to keep you safe, ya lamebrain!”
“No,” Lightning snapped, “you’re just getting in my way again.”
“Getting in your—!” Rainbow clamped her mouth closed, cheeks going red. She jerked away from Lightning and simply stood, making unpleasant sounds. Cloud Kicker moved close to her and was whispering in her ear, one peering eye locked on Lightning.
Lightning just stood and waited, seething with anger. What was Rainbow trying to do now? She kept telling her to be a team player, but now she wasn’t going to let her have a wing pony? This just proved that she was intentionally making things difficult! Lightning couldn’t believe that the captain of the weather team was putting this petty grudge in front of a very serious weather issue. It was irresponsible beyond belief!
If only she didn’t need the damn bits…
“I’ll be her wing-pony.”
Lightning blinked. All eyes went to Airheart, who blushed at the attention. “Let us try, Rainbow.”
Rainbow and Cloud Kicker exchanged wide-eyed glanced. “You sure about that?” Rainbow asked. “You have any experience in wild weather?”
Airheart nodded, trying her best to look confident. “I have to cross the wildlands to visit my sister in Las Pegasus every now and then. It’s not a winter storm, but it’s something.”
Cloud Kicker raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you usually take the train?”
Airheart winced, her confident veneer cracking. “N-not always…”
“I can work with Airheart.” Lightning shot Rainbow a firm, confident look. “We flew in a squadron together in Appleloosa.”
Rainbow sat and crossed her legs, lips set in a taught frown as she thought. Cloud Kicker looked between Lightning and Airheart before saying, “We do need more info.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her, but finally sighed. “I guess we do.”
Lightning launched to hover over them. “Great! Come on, Air, we’ve got a front to catch!”
“Hold it.” Lightning, already set in full flight pose, cringed and glanced back. Rainbow stood and said, “Wait till the others get here. I want every available pegasus at the edge of the forest, ready to do her part.”
“Sounds good to me,” Airheart admitted.
“But we could be investigating the storm while you’re gathering ponies!” Lightning waved her legs wildly. “We save time this way!”
Cloud Kicker rolled her eyes. “And if one of you goes down while nopony’s around to see it?”
“Isn’t that why there’s two of us?” Lightning snapped, gesturing at a shifting Airheart. “For buck’s sake, it’s not like we’re going to commit suicide!”
Rainbow stomped a hoof, face firm. “You’ll wait, Lightning!”
Lightning ground her teeth, fighting to keep the vitriol from exploding out of her mouth. She made no attempt to hide her anger. Airheart flew up to set a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on, we can practice flying together. It’s been a while, after all.”
Lightning’s glare was so harsh the pony shied away. She shot one last snarl at Rainbow before letting out a frustrated “Fine!” and darting out the door.
Lightning hovered at the edge of the forest, gazing in solemn wonder at the massive clouds in the distance. She’d only seen a formation like that once before, when she was a filly. Foal Mountains had a rough winter season that year…
“It’s a lot bigger than I expected.” Airheart was just beside Lightning, head lowered a little at the sight of the cold front.
“Me too,” Lightning admitted, her voice determined. She kept her eyes locked on the clouds directly ahead, focused on this ‘opponent’. That was how she needed to see this force of nature, as an enemy to be defeated.
She had no intention of losing.
“Alright,” Rainbow called as she approached them, expression stern. “Everypony’s here. Not sure what good it’ll do us against that thing, though.” She shot a concerned look at the pair. “You guys sure you wanna do this?”
“We got this.” Lightning lowered herself to a ready position.
“Y-yeah.” Airheart imitated the stance, albeit with a less enthusiasm.
Rainbow’s faced twisted with uncertainty. “Remember, all you gotta do is figure out how strong the storm is. Find out and come right back, got it?”
Lightning growled through her teeth. “Come on, already!”
“We’ll be careful,” Airheart added.
Rainbow sighed and waved a signal. “Good—” Lightning was gone in a blur! “—luck.”
Lightning burst through the invisible edge of the Everfree skies and immediately felt the shifting winds on her wings. Her body tilted a little, but she was able to adjust and flow with the new air, instinctively finding a current to ride along.
She heard a cry and looked back to see Airheart just passing the edge of the forest, her wings flapping wildly against the winds. For a pony who claimed to have been through wild weather before, she sure wasn’t putting on a good display.
Lightning sighed and banked, coming about and dropping to Airheart’s elevation. “Don’t fight the winds, use them!”
“G-give me a second.” Airheart's body rocked wildly as she struggled with her wings. “I don’t fly the wilds that much!”
Lightning moved ahead of her. “Come on, follow my lead.” Her wings beat slowly, feeling at the air as she descended at a shallow angle. “Feel with your feathers, not your muscles.” She glanced back to see her wing-pony not far behind, wobbling but managing to keep up.
A strong wind touched the tip of Lightning’s right wing and she banked into it. The winds caught her and lifted her high.
“Whoooa!”
She glanced back and grinned at Airheart’s wide eyes as she was brought up in the same way. “Feels weird the first time, doesn’t it?”
“V-very!” Airheart followed as Lightning beat her wings to gain a little more altitude over the currents. She knew from a lifetime of experience that a calm region had to be right above them, and after a couple hundred feet she found it.
“Come on, get up here,” Lightning called, circling as the inexperienced pegasus flapped up to meet her in a clumsy display. “How often did you say you flew in wild weather?”
Airheart let out a relieved sigh as she entered the calm region high above the forest. Catching Lightning’s wry smile, she blushed and rubbed the back of her head. “Umm… twice?”
Lightning facehooved. “So why the hay did ya offer to come along?”
Airheart flew slow circles around her, experimenting with her wings. “It just seemed so important to you. You’re always trying so hard. I know it hasn’t been easy.”
Lightning crossed her hooves and sulked. “Maybe if Rainbow would get off my rump…”
Airheart moved to fly past her with a concerned frown. “Why don’t you like her?”
“You’ve gotta ask?” Lightning rolled her eyes and flew past, making for the clouds ahead. “After all the crap she puts me through? She’s been trying to destroy me ever since I got here!”
Airheart followed behind and Lightning slowed to let her keep up. “Really? I never noticed anything like that.”
“How could you not notice?” Lightning glowered at her wing-pony. “Every time I try to do something worthwhile, she tells me I’m reckless. I try to speed things up a little, and I’m not a team player. I actually offer ta fly with a partner, and I’m too dangerous to do so! Nothing I do pleases her!”
Airheart had an almost panicked look in her eye. “But… but she’s just trying to keep you safe, right? Rainbow’s not a bad pony, she just has a lot of responsibilities, and—”
Lightning turned so she was flying sideways, waving her hooves at the pony. “How does she have all you ponies fooled? Everything she does is designed to make me look bad!”
Airheart’s ears lowered and she chewed her lip. “If you really think so, why are you still working for her?”
The lead-pony sighed and turned to face the looming clouds. “Because I really need the bits. I have my own responsibilities.”
Airheart flew even with her and offered a smile. “Maybe you two just got off on the wrong hoof! I’m sure if you just ta—aaah!”
They tumbled, Lightning’s mind snapping into focus as her horizon spun wildly in her vision. “Pressure pocket!” she cried, expertly working her wings so that she was at least falling straight and facing down. She looked to find Airheart caught in a dizzying display of whirling and flipping.
“What do I do?!” Airheart eyes were wide and her pupils little more than pinpricks. “L-Lightning, I don’t know what to do!”
“Stop flapping.” Lightning rolled her eyes. “Take a deep breath and calm down. Don’t flap.”
Airheart did as she was told, though her teeth were clamped tight. Her spinning slowed as she kept her wings rigid.
“Loosen up!” Lightning called, aware of the rapidly approaching ground. “Remember, feel with your feathers! Let the winds even you out.”
It took several seconds, but at last Airheart’s rotation eased and she was falling alongside her partner. She wobbled and tipped, but managed to stay facing down. “Wh-what now…?” She was trying her best not to panic, eyes locked on the forest below.
“In a second we’ll come out of the pocket,” Lightning told her, focusing her attention ahead. “When it does you—”
She sucked in a deep breath as a strong wind hit her from below, signifying exactly what she’d been about to warn Airheart of. Her wing-pony let out a surprised cry and dropped a few hundred feet below the already-stabilized Lightning, but was able to recover now that they were back among the currents.
Lightning descended to meet her halfway, a big grin on her face. “See? Wasn’t that fun?”
Airheart was breathing heavy, a hoof to her chest. “Exciting? Yes. Fun? Not so much.”
They were a lot closer to the cold front now, and Lightning was beginning to have doubts as to whether Airheart would be able to handle it. She didn’t want to get the pony hurt… “Come on, let’s get higher. Don’t want to hit another pocket at low altitude.”
“I can’t believe you grew up in this kind of weather,” her partner said as they ascended once more. “Wasn’t it hard, learning to fly?”
“Not really.” Lightning was eyeing the clouds. “When it’s what you’re used to, it comes naturally. My first time flying in calm weather was a real eye-opener, though. You ponies got it easy, even if ya do have to form a whole government organization to keep the weather going.” They leveled out at a significant elevation.
“I’m more impressed now than I was back in Appleloosa! Oh my…” Airheart's voice weakened at the sight of the cloud bank rising high over their head. “I didn’t realize we were so close… H-how do you stop and hover with all this wind?”
“You don’t, not this high up. Ya gotta circle.” Lightning demonstrated, cutting a wide arc through the sky. Airheart clumsily followed suit. They eyed the clouds that moved towards them with surprising speed. It would overtake them within a few minutes.
“Hey,” Lightning called, “are ya sure ya wanna do this? There’s no telling what kind of weather we’ll encounter in there.”
“I can’t let you go in alone,” Airheart called back. “We’re supposed to be a team, remember?”
By now Lightning was confident her partner wouldn’t be able to handle what was coming. “We just need one pony to go in and get a feel for the thing. Let me do that. I’ll pop in and come right back out, then we’ll head back to Ponyville.”
“B-but what if something bad happens to you in there?” Airheart wobbled, sucking in a sharp breath as the winds began to pick up.
They were running out of room. Lightning wasn’t about to back out of this, but she couldn’t let Airheart go in, either. She spread her wings just enough to get the drag necessary to drop back so she was flying by her wing-pony. “I’m going in. Don’t follow me, Airheart!”
“Wait!”
Too late; Lightning turned sharply and made for the cold front. “Don’t follow me!”
A frigid wind blasted Lightning in the face the instant she hit the clouds, which quickly had her tumbling. Her world was full of grey and her ears were filled with noise. She tried to level out, but the winds were ferocious! It took her several seconds to find a proper current, and even after she’d leveled out she was having to constantly adjust her wings to keep from spinning again.
A few seconds was more than enough for Lightning to decide this was a bad idea. She couldn’t remember having flown through such winds! Even with her wings constantly adjusting to the rapid changes in the air, she nearly flipped on several occasions. It was impossible to gauge elevation with the constantly shifting pressures, but she thought – hoped! – she had a good idea of her bearings.
This cold front was far too dangerous. She struggled to bank and turn back for the edge, trying to follow the brighter portion of clouds. The winds were pushing her from all over, but most of them went in a single direction, which she knew had to be the way the front was moving. She could follow that to get out…
“Help!”
Something pink and orange flashed by just within her vision, dropping like a rock.
“Airheart!” Lightning tucked her wings in and dove. What the buck was she doing in here?!
The fierce winds buffeted her and she had to fight against them to stay on course. Her partner grew closer, screaming as she was sent rolling by chaotic gusts. “L-Lightning! I can’t… I don’t… Help me!”
A freezing rain abruptly filled the air.
“Open your wings!” Lightning called over the fierce winds. “Try to slow down!”
Airheart’s wings spread and she was instantly sent tumbling sideways by the furious currents. She let out a shout as Lightning fought to adjust her path. Airheart flapped, but her efforts were pointless; every motion just sent her in another random direction.
This was getting them nowhere! Worry filling her, Lightning thought up a new plan as fast as she could. “F-fold your wings! Airheart, fold your wings!”
“B-but you said—”
“Fold your wings now!”
The terrified pegasus closed her eyes and did as she was told. Lightning pumped her own wings, her face stinging as the ice-cold rain pummeled her. They couldn’t be far from the ground by now, but she was not going to lose her partner!
“Hold on! I’m coming, Air!”
She zoomed in, letting gravity pull her closer to the tumbling pony. Airheart’s eyes were firmly closed, her lips working in what Lightning could only assume was a silent prayer. She could get to her, they would get out of this! She stretched a hoof out, tried to grab a leg…
A strong gust struck and she was knocked sideways. The distance grew between them and Lightning let out a furious curse. She flapped her wings, wincing at the pain in her side as she struggled to make up the distance. There was no way to know how far they’d fallen. Lightning was starting to feel a very real fear.
“Come on… Come on…” She gritted her teeth against the biting rain and freezing winds as she closed on the helpless pony. “Air! Air, reach for me!”
Airheart’s eyes fluttered open and locked on her even as she spun wildly. “L-Lightning!” Her hooves flailed, unable to reach for all the twirling.
Another powerful gust hit them, but this time it knocked Airheart right into Lightning. They tumbled, a chaotic mess of legs and fur, but soon Airheart was hanging on tight to Lightning’s hind legs. The lead-pony spread her wings wide and fought to right their flight path, but with the extra weight it was proving difficult. She’d never be able to ascend like this…
“Tree!”
Lightning saw it, letting out a surprised shout as she fought to change directions. She pulled it off, but forgot to account for Airheart. She felt her legs jerked down as her partner smacked against a limb with a pained cry, and Lightning dropped. Mind working fast, she dodged another tree, barely avoided a massive trunk and hit the ground on her knees, bouncing along the Earth painfully. She smacked the ground on her side, rolled and went whack against a tree.
She bit her lip, tears in her eyes as she clutched the scar under her wing. Goddess, did that hurt! But she could still move her legs, so she knew the muscle would be okay. She couldn’t strain it like that again…
She forced herself to her hooves, wet fringe plastered to her face. Her partner was nowhere to be seen and Lightning's view was blocked by a veritable wall of trees. She called for her wing-pony, but could hear nothing over the torrential storm. Grinding her teeth, she limped in the direction from which she’d fallen, scouring both limbs and Earth for Airheart.
She found the pony clutching to a tree limb for dear life. It took several tries to catch her attention. Airheart dropped, nearly smashing against the tree’s trunk from the winds. “Lightning! Am I glad to see you!”
“Are you okay?” Lightning sat and held her side with a grimace.
“I think so.” Airheart turned a small circle as she looked herself over. “Thanks for coming after me.”
Once the pain had receded to a mere throbbing Lightning grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “What the buck were you thinking? I told you to stay out of the storm!”
Airheart shrank back, ears low. “B-but we’re partners. I’m your wing-pony. I couldn’t let you go it alone, that’s the whole reason I’m out here.”
“I was doing just fine on my own!”
“How could I know that?” Airheart shook her head, tears in her eyes. “A wing-pony is supposed to look after her partner!”
“How could you be so stupid?” Lightning rolled her head back on her shoulders with a shout. “You should have known you couldn’t handle this thing!”
“I’m sorry!” Airheart sat and sobbed. “I had a plan, I really did! But you went charging in before I could explain, and… and I panicked! I’m sorry!”
A plan? Lightning glared at Airheart, but her simmering anger was beginning to change targets.
There was no time to think on that. “We have to get back.” Lightning stood and scowled at the sky. “This storm is way too strong. The weather team will be crushed if they try to stop this! We have to get to them before the storm does.”
Airheart rubbed her eyes and nodded, unable to meet her partner’s eye.
Lightning dropped to a launch position, ready for a second attempt. Her wings opened wide—
—and she fell to her knees, crying out in pain. It was as if somepony had jabbed a red-hot knife in her side! She felt at it with tears in her eyes, hoof tracing the scar under her wing. There was no way she could fly in a storm like this…
Airheart leaned in close. “What’s wrong?” Lightning observed her and saw the concern on her face. That expression filled her with guilt.
“I can’t fly,” she shouted, raising a hoof to shield her face against the rain. “My wound’s acting up!”
Her partner’s eyes widened with alarm. “S-so what do we do now?”
“Not ‘we’.” Lightning pressed a hoof to Airheart’s chest. “You!”
“What?” Airheart shook her head violently. “I can’t! You saw me, I dropped like a rock!”
“If ya can’t fly, then run,” Lightning snapped. “Rainbow needs to be told!”
“B-but I’ll never move faster than the storm!” Airheart sank low and shivered in the rain. “I’m not good enough!”
Lightning groaned. She looked up at the stormy skies, the trees swaying wildly in the gusts. This was bad…
She set her hooves to Airheart’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “Listen to me. You’re the only pony available. If you can’t do this, nopony can! Ponyville needs to be warned; this thing will knock every pegasus in town out of the sky, just like it did you. They need you, Airheart!”
Airheart trembled as she raised a hoof against the rain. “I... w-what if I don’t make it?”
Lightning shoved her away with a snarl. “You can either stay here and mope or you can try. At least if you go you can say you did your best! Which do you think will make you happier tomorrow?”
The pony chewed her lip, taking a hesitant step back. “But what about you?”
“Go!” Lightning pointed over her partner’s shoulder. “For buck’s sake, go!”
Airheart ducked as if to ward off a blow and turned to run. “I’ll be back, Lightning! Please, stay safe!”
“Go on, get out of here!”
She stood for several seconds after Airheart had gone, huffing and sneering at the forest. The frigid rain combined with the wind made her shiver and she silently cursed her situation. A slow, cautious stretch out her left wing made her wince. It snapped back to her side when the sting became too much. Goddess, she hoped that wouldn’t take long to heal.
She began to limp into the woods, head low and mind seething. She couldn’t believe Airheart had come in after her! They could have been practically out of the forest by now if she’d just listened! Why were all the ponies in this town such do-gooders?
No. She shook her head with a snarl; she was not going to pin this one on Airheart! She really was a good pony, and one of the few to put up with Lightning’s brooding. She was the only pony to be nice to her back in Appleloosa and Lightning had never forgotten it. If she hadn’t—
No! Lightning whacked herself over the head. “This is not her fault!”
She sat and let out a deep sigh. In the end, she had to admit that this was actually her own fault. She charged in, just like she always did, and Airheart had nearly been killed. Why couldn’t she learn to slow down and listen? She needed to be more like Keen.
She resumed her walk, occasionally forced to sidestep when a strong gust would hit. She had to get back to Ponyville as soon as she could. Keen would be worried sick if she didn’t show up on time at Octavia’s, so she trudged along and tried to ignore the sting of her hip.
But her anger wouldn’t fade. She wanted to lash out and hit somepony! Airheart would get to the others, and then she’d be a hero. Lightning would be stuck as the bumbler, as always. She ground her teeth, cursing as she nearly fell from an icy blast of wind. Second place. Why was she still in second place? Even Airheart would be better than her. Not that Airheart wasn’t a good flier, but compared to Lightning? This was almost insulting. No, it was insulting!
What was she thinking? She shook her head, leaning against a tree to keep from being blown backwards. She hadn’t come out here to be a hero. She’d come out here because it needed to be done! What did it matter if it was Airheart or Lightning who warned the others, so long as the deed was done?
But it did matter. She wanted to be recognized, to be known!
Fury began to mix with her misery. Why couldn’t she do anything right? She fought against the winds, bitterness driving her ever onward. The chill was seeping into her, but she wouldn’t lose to this. She had nothing else to take her anger out on, so she focused it all on the storm. She screamed at it, fought for every step, glared into the icy rain as if expecting to see some physical entity that she might pound on!
There was no telling how long she pressed through the storm. She tried to make sure she was walking towards Ponyville, but with all the chaos around her there was no way to gauge her direction. It was all pointless. Her side wasn’t hurting so much, but her legs were growing sore and she still couldn’t spread her wings without that searing pain. Her anger remained, but her energy was fading.
She had to keep on. She had to at least prove that she could do this much!
“Lightning!”
No.
“Not you!” She didn’t even bother to look. Maybe if she kept going she could prove it to be a horrible trick of her mind!
But it was no illusion; Rainbow appeared, landing at her side. “Come on, I’ll get you out of here!”
She reached for Lightning, but was shoved back. Rage was billowing up in Lightning’s mind as she fired her most malevolent glare at the pegasus.
“I will not be rescued by you!”
Rainbow backed away, her mane covering her face in the harsh winds. Her eyes were wide as she called, “What are you talking about? We’ve got to go!”
“No!” Lightning turned away and forced her legs to move. “I can do this! I don’t need you! Find Airheart!”
“We already did!” Rainbow moved close to Lightning to shout in her ear. “She’s okay! Ponyville’s being warned right now. So come on, I can—”
She set a hoof to Lightning’s shoulder, but it was knocked away with a violent swing.
“Keep away from me!”
Rainbow hesitated. “Lightning, what’s wrong?”
The wounded pony was seething, her fury like a white-hot sword in her brain as she stared her old foe down.
“Never. I will never be the helpless victim to your hero! I’m not giving you anything else to lord over me!” She backed away, a snarl escaping between her bared teeth. “I’ll show you! I can do this. I can! I have to be able to do something without you making me look like a bucking foal!”
Rainbow gaped at the enraged pony, not understanding what she was seeing. “LD… I never meant to—”
“Shut up!” She turned and pressed against the winds once more. “I can do this! I’m supposed to be able to do this! I can be a hero, I should be a hero! I have all the skills, all the gifts! For once in my bucking life, let me do something right!”
“Lightning!” Rainbow ran close once more to plead in her ear. “This is not the time or the place. You’re hurt! Put your pride aside and let me help you!”
“I refuse!”
A powerful gust struck and Lightning’s legs gave way. She fell back and hit a tree, clutching to it to keep from moving any farther. She had tears in her eyes as she ducked her head under her foreleg to block against the stinging rain. She tried to push herself forward, but her body wouldn’t go any further.
“No! Damn it, not now! Not with her here!”
Rainbow leaned against the tree and glared at her. “You idiot, are you trying to get killed? I am not losing a single pony on my weather team, do you hear me?”
Such a good reason. Such a nice reason. Why was it always layered with sugary kindness? It was more than Lightning could stand. Her anger was fading to depression as her energy finally succumbed to the emotional storm within her. “P-please… not by you. Anypony but you…”
“Come on,” Rainbow called, her voice a little calmer. She reached for Lightning. “Take my hoof, I’ll fly you out of here.”
Lightning stared at the appendage, tears mixing in with the frigid rain her cheeks. She didn’t want to. It would mean admitting defeat. She couldn’t accept Rainbow’s help, she just couldn’t. This was the pony who was trying to destroy her! It was one more knife in the back, one more opportunity stolen away, and always under such gentle pretense.
“I j-just wanted to prove myself…”
Rainbow set a hoof to her shoulder. “You never had to. Please, Lightning.”
She was such a good pony. Lightning hated her so much… but she grabbed the hoof. Rainbow offered the other and she took it, too.
“Hold on!” Rainbow launched, carrying Lightning beneath her as they were battered about by the storm. She struggled to get them above the treeline, wobbling dangerously in the dense grey clouds.
She wasn’t used to wild weather, that Lightning could see. But Rainbow was a gifted flier, and she was able to stay aloft and moving. It was sickening to think that Rainbow was that skilled. Lightning bowed her head and trusted in her hated savior to get her home…
They were almost to the edge of the Everfree Forest when they finally burst out of the cold front, soaked and half-frozen.
“Thank Celestia!” Rainbow cried, descending to a nearby hill where some other ponies were waiting.
Lightning had been in a bitter, miserable stupor the entire time, but now that they were out in the warm sunlight she began to shake off the doldrums and pay attention. She noted the trio of nurse ponies and grimaced; the last thing she wanted was to see a doctor. “You called for an ambulance?”
“Not me,” Rainbow replied.
“Lightning!” Airheart was there, flying alongside them and looking the injured pony over. “Thank goodness you’re alright. You can’t imagine how worried I was!”
Lightning huffed in response, not meeting the pony’s eye.
Rainbow gently let her down in the grass next to the nurse ponies. They immediately started checking her, asking questions and running tests. Lightning stepped back with a growl. “I don’t need it, I’m fine!”
“Let them look ya over, LD,” Rainbow instructed even as a nurse began checking her out.
Lightning grumbled, but let them do their thing. She answered their questions through gritted teeth and let them run their stupid tests. They had her medical record, and she was forced to reveal the pain in her side. When she did they insisted that she be brought to the hospital to have her old wound looked at for extra damage. She bit down her objections and let them throw her on the stretcher. She was a little worried about it, after all.
It took nearly two hours of poking and prodding and testing before the Ponyville doctor at last concluded that there was no permanent harm done. She even managed to convince them to let her gone home, which was an intense relief considering she didn’t want to saddle Octavia with Keen for a night.
Speaking of whom, she was surprised to find them waiting in the hospital lobby with Airheart and Rainbow. She paused to give them all a wide-eyed look. “What are you doing here?”
“I got Octavia for ya!” Airheart declared, beaming.
“And of course I had to bring Keen to see you,” Octavia added, head high as she offered a soft smile. She was wearing a thick-looking raincoat, but even that looked strangely flattering on her.
Keen approached her guardian, moving slow with ears tucked. “Lightning? You’re okay?”
Lightning saw that face and felt her heart skip a beat. She dropped to her knees and gestured with a grin, and Keen moved in for a hug. “I am now. Just a little bruise, kiddo. Nothing to worry about.”
She caught sight of Rainbow and leveled a dull frown at her. The fury she'd felt in the storm bubbles in her brain like a pool of magma waiting for the volcano to erupt. “What’s your excuse?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “I told ya, I look out for my crew.”
“Well I’m fine,” Lightning snapped. “So go back to doing whatever it is you do when I’m not around.”
Rainbow let out a frustrated sigh and turned away. “You’re welcome!” She left the hospital without further ado.
Airheart winced and gave Lightning a sad look. “You don’t have to be so mean. She sacrificed a lot to go help you.”
“Yeah right,” Lightning said, turning to snuggle Keen a little more in hopes that it would cool her off. “She got the chance to be a hero.” Again.
Airheart winced. “B-but what about her house?”
Lightning blinked. What did Rainbow’s house have to do with anything? She tilted her head at Airheart.
Her partner hesitated. “She was out helping you, so she didn’t have time to secure her place afterwards. The top two floors of her place are gone.”
Lightning gaped. “Gone?”
“Gone.” Airheart nodded. “She can easily remake the floors, but her possessions…” She drooped and shook her head.
Lightning groaned; this was her fault too. Why did everything she tried to do always go wrong? She sagged and rubbed her forehead, wishing she could learn to think before acting.
Keen looked up at her with big, fretting eyes. “It’ll be okay, right?”
“I hope so.” Lightning patted the little unicorn on the head. “I really do…”
“I’m sure everything will be just fine,” Octavia assured them. “Rainbow won’t let a setback like this bother her for too long.”
Lightning eyed her, noting how she was soaked, then took a look at the dry Keen. “Thanks for bringing Keen along, Octavia. I was kinda worried about her.”
“Oh, it’s no problem,” the Earth pony declared with a grin. “I brought an extra raincoat for you, if you’d like.”
“That would be great, thanks.”
Airheart walked up to her with a frown. “Umm… Lightning? I’m sorry about today.”
“Sorry?” Lightning stood and gave her a questioning look.
She nodded. “If I hadn’t panicked and chased after you, things wouldn’t have gone so poorly. It’s all my fault and I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Lightning stared at the pony for several seconds, noting her genuine anxiety. She was serious! She actually thought this was all her fault. Lightning knew better; if she’d just waited to form a plan, or at least properly explain her intentions, none of this would have happened. Airheart was a good pony and she didn’t deserve any of the blame.
But she was offering to take it. Lightning chewed her lip and thought, a feeling of guilt creeping into her. She eyed Octavia, who was watching expectantly, and then at Keen, who was hiding behind Lightning’s legs from Airheart. What should she do in this situation? It was Lightning’s fault, but she didn’t want to look bad in front of the others, especially Keen. She needed to set a proper example, didn’t she? Was it better to show forgiveness or honesty?
“Y-yeah… it’s okay.” She patted Airheart on the shoulder and offered a grin. “It could happen to anypony! I’m not mad at ya or anything, Air.”
Airheart sagged with a relieved sigh. “Thanks goodness! I was real scared. I mean, you seemed so mad when we were in the storm…”
Lightning chuckled to get past the sick feeling in her gut. “That was just the heat of the moment, that’s all.” She paused as a thought occurred to her. “Did you really manage to beat the storm out of the Everfree Forest on your hooves?”
It was Airheart’s turn to chuckle, her face going red as she averted her eyes. “N-no, not really. Rainbow lead a small squadron to look for us when we didn’t come out of the clouds. They found me as I was making my way out. But I tried, and that’s the important thing, right?”
Lightning saw her hopeful eyes and grinned. “Exactly! I’m sure they’re singing your praises all over Ponyville, right now.”
“Who cares?”
Lightning blinked. “What?”
“Who cares?” Airheart repeated with a grin. She hugged the stunned Lightning. “All that matters is we’re both safe and so is Ponyville!”
She really believed that? Lightning fought to keep from staring as her partner stepped back.
“Y-yeah, of course.”
The storm wasn’t so severe in Ponyville, the peaceful nature of the region steadily forcing the wild winds to calm as they spread out. Lightning thought it fascinating; storms in Foal Mountains could go for a week being powered by the inexplicable forces of nature, but out here there was no natural weather patterns to guide it. Without pegasi to keep it going, the cold front would run out of energy and be mopped up by the combined weather teams of Cloudsdale, Ponyville and Canterlot in a matter of days.
But for now the winds continued to rage and the rain went on. Keen and Lightning watched it through Keen’s bedroom window, their faces reflected back at them from the water-streaked glass.
“You really flew through that?” Keen's muzzle was pressed against the glass.
Lightning chuckled. “Sure did. Makes that storm you and I went through look wimpy, huh?”
No answer. Lightning just assumed Keen was too busy being fascinated by the storm. She tucked the filly a little closer with her wing and watched the swaying apple trees in the orchard.
“Lightning?”
“Yeah?”
Keen lingered, head low as she gazed through the glass. “Nevermind.”
Lightning raised an eyebrow, wondering what was bothering the filly. “So. Umm… did you like Octavia’s?”
Seconds ticked by. “She’s nice.”
Lightning latched on to this news. “That’s good! Did she play any music for ya?”
The filly nodded. “She’s very good.”
“So you’re okay with staying with her every couple days?” Lightning dropped to her belly and nuzzled Keen’s long mane.
“It’s… okay.”
Lightning raised her head and tilted it at the filly. Something was wrong, but what? “Keen? Are you really okay with staying at Octavia’s?”
Keen nodded again. “I am.”
What else was there to ask? Lightning stared at her charge for some time, trying to think of something else. Keen was bothered, and that bothered her. But what was wrong?
The tiny unicorn looked up, her blue eyes catching Lightning’s through the window.
“Why don’t you like Miss Dash?”
Lightning thought her heart might have stopped beating. She stared back blankly, frantically fighting down the urge to panic. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to explain this?
“I… Well…”
Keen turned to give her a curiously ominous frown. “You really don’t like her.”
The pegasus opened her mouth, closed it again. This was not a topic she wanted to broach, not when she was still angry about what happened. “It’s… hard to explain.”
Keen set a hoof to her chin, eyes dropping to the bed. “Is she a bad pony?”
Bad? Lightning wanted to blurt out ‘yes’ and had to keep her lips tightly closed to control the urge. Once certain she had control, she finally answered, “It’s not that she’s bad… but she’s not really good, either. She’s… our relationship is…” What was the best word? “Complicated.”
“But didn’t she save you from the storm?”
Lightning sagged, bitterness and sorrow mixing in her mind like the wild winds of the storm. “I just don’t know how to explain it. It’s not so easy as her being good or bad.”
Keen thought on this, brow furrowed in confusion. “Did she do something to you?”
Her guardian blinked. Keen looked up at her, her eyes unusually sharp and focused.
“Y-yes. She did something that hurt me a long time ago, back when we first met.”
Keen tilted her head. “What did she do?”
Lightning chewed her lip, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Why did the idea of Keen knowing the truth hurt so much? “You don’t need to know that,” she whispered. “Just know that it hurt a lot, and I’ve not forgiven her for it.”
Keen’s brow furrowed once more. “So she is bad.”
“No!” Lightning dropped to her belly once more so that she could be closer to eye-level with the unicorn. “No, Keen, I don’t want you to think that. Rainbow’s not bad, she just made a bad decision. She thought it was the right decision, and maybe for her it was, but it was bad for me.”
Keen seemed even more confused than before, scratching the side of her head with a deep frown. “So she doesn’t know she hurt you?”
Lightning felt that familiar anger simmering within her and turned her face away so Keen wouldn’t see it. “Oh, she knows. Trust me, Keen, she knows.”
Keen sighed. “I’m confused…”
“I know.” Lightning turned to nuzzle the filly, though it didn’t help her own lost feelings. “Keen, it doesn’t matter if a pony is good or bad, she can still hurt others. Two ponies can be very good and still not like one another.” She recalled Airheart and was hit by an intense wave of guilt. “Rainbow and I are trying to be good ponies, but sometimes we don’t think things through and ponies get hurt. A mistake was made today, and we both suffered for it.”
Keen gave her a surprisingly intense look. “Who made the mistake?”
Again with that sickening feeling. Lightning cringed and shook her head. “That’s not important. The point is…” She had to pause and collect her thoughts. What kind of lesson could she try to give Keen about this? She wasn’t exactly a fountain of wisdom. “The point is… I don’t want you thinking Rainbow’s a bad pony just because I don’t like her, okay?”
The filly frowned, her eyes locked on the bed with an intense focus as she tried to think on this. Lightning didn’t know what else to say, and it left her feeling useless. This was not a subject she felt at all good passing advice about. She waited for Keen to say something, but the filly just kept on thinking. She couldn’t take the waiting for long, so she finally nudged the unicorn with her hoof. “Time for bed, kiddo.”
Keen said nothing. She only walked to the pillow, head low and eyes still focused in thought. Lightning tucked her under the sheets and gave her another small nuzzle, not sure if she was doing it for Keen or herself. “It’ll all make sense someday. Promise.”
Keen’s frown deepened. “I hope so.”
Not sure what else could be said, Lightning left her to her contemplation.