//------------------------------// // Ponyville Pt. 1 // Story: Lightning Aura Strike // by Mischievous Blue //------------------------------// Ponyville Part 1 Lightning woke with a start, sensing something was wrong about the environment. There wasn’t any rustle of wings or the snuffle of a sleeping Everfree monster. As her vision cleared, her pupils slowly grew to twice their normal size and her ears flattened against her head in awe. All around Lightning, were shelves and shelves of books. She had never seen so many books in her life. As she was not much of an avid reader, she had rarely set hoof in the vast Canterlot library. She preferred to have the books she required sent to her via mailmare. As she continued looking at the numerous volumes adorning the walls of this new place, a figure on the second story stirred and Lightning heard a groan and a yawn. A light mulberry unicorn with a sapphire blue mane bisected by a violet and rose streak down one side soon appeared descending the stairs. Her cutie mark was two 6-sided stars, one rose and one white, stacked on each other surrounded by five smaller white stars. “Good morning,” Twilight Sparkle greeted Lightning. “How did you sleep?” Still gawking at the walls of the house, Lightning didn’t say anything. Twilight looked around and smiled. “It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? When I moved to Ponyville, Princess Celestia gave me this library and the job of librarian. She increased the number of books here when I took the job.” She giggled lightly. “I’ve read all of them at least twice.” Lightning was able to find her voice at last. “Where am I? And who are you?” Her voice was laced with the sound of light static, like thunder just before a storm. Twilight finished descending the stairs and went to stand next to Lightning. “You came out of the Everfree Forest with a timber wolf right on your tail. If I hadn’t been there with my friends, you may not be alive right now. As for who I am and where you are, my name is Twilight Sparkle. As well as the Ponyville librarian, I am also Princess Celestia’s private student. As you may have guessed by now, this is my home, as well as a library.” She turned and smiled at Lightning. “By the way, how’s your wing? It was badly bruised, but nothing was broken. A broken wing can take months to heal, depending on how severe the damage is, and even with magic, it would still take at least three weeks to fully heal.” Lightning looked down at her wing and extended it. It unfurled flawlessly with no pain. “Thank you, Twilight. I didn’t notice. It seems perfect.” She folded her wing back against her body and gave Twilight a small smile. Twilight blushed heavily and looked down embarrassed. Her eyes flicked to Lightning’s flank. The four small lightning bolts lay there with no hint of light at all. “That’s a unique cutie mark. When you ran past us out of the Everfree, I could swear it was glowing.” Lightning instinctively covered her cutie mark with her tail, much the same as Twilight had once seen Apple Bloom’s cousin, Babs Seed, do it. “Yes. For as long as I can remember, whenever I feel I’m in danger, it starts to glow. My parents said it was to help me find my way out of dark places. But I feel it’s just a beacon for monsters to find me.” “I see,” Twilight thought for a few seconds before turning to look directly at her guest. “I’m afraid I didn’t get your name.” “I’m Lightning Strike. I’m from Canterlot.” “Ohh. That would be the reason I haven’t seen you around before. Did you happen to hear about the explosion at Canterlot castle a couple days ago? I’ve been dying for information but nopony here knows what transpired up there.” Lightning Strike tried to think about what happened, but there was a gap where that information should have been. She remembered entering the Grand Galloping Gala with Moon Gem and Sunset Breeze, but that was the last thing she remembered before being chased by Canterlot guards. “No. I’m afraid I can’t remember what happened that night. Sorry.” “All I’ve heard is that several ponies were killed. Wherever they were, the explosion couldn’t have been more than ten hooves from them.” Upon hearing this, Lightning collapsed to the floor, breathing hard. Twilight looked down at her in concern and knelt down. “Are you alright? You look a little green.” Indeed, Lightning’s face was starting to take on a greenish hue, which contrasted strongly with her red coat. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she jumped up and made a dash for the door and got it open before she vomited all over Twilight’s front steps. Twilight rushed over and after a bright flash from her horn, the mess on the steps vanished. She looked over in time to catch Lightning as she fainted and dragged her back inside. === Twilight was replaying the conversation she just had with this new pegasus in her mind when she thought of something. The red pony had flicked her eyes at the floor when she said that she didn’t remember anything about the Canterlot explosion. Twilight got an idea and turned her face to the top story. She called out to her assistant, Spike, asking if there was a book that would allow her to look into a pony’s mind that didn’t require a mentor nearby to monitor the spell in case it went awry. “I’m sure there is, Twilight,” the baby dragon groaned from his bed. “You’ve got half the books in the Canterlot Grand Archives in here.” Twilight blushed and started rummaging through her massive collection, picking up books with her magic, flipping through them, and throwing them aside. As she worked, the door banged open and Rainbow Dash flew in. “Heyya Twilight. Watcha’ doin’?” the light cerulean pony with the polychromatic mane inquired as she almost flew into a pile of books swaying precariously. She landed and nearly trotted on the passed out Lightning Strike on her way to stand next to Twilight. “Whoa! It’s her. What happened to her? Is she dead?” Rainbow hovered over Lightning and tapped her on the head a couple times with her hoof. Lightning remained motionless. “She’s not dead, Rainbow. And as to what’s wrong, I’m not sure. I told her what I knew about the accident at Canterlot three days ago and she fainted. I’m not sure why that would have that large of an impact on her, but it probably means she knows more than she says she does. And please stop poking her. It’s not doing her any good.” The hovering pony stopped prodding Lightning and gave Twilight a quizzical look. “Why not just ask her if she knows anything?” “I did, Rainbow. She said she didn’t know anything about it, but she looked a little guilty when I asked. Now, I figure she’s either hiding information or she really doesn’t know anything. I figure that there’s no harm in trying to figure out the truth. Either way, I want to be certain before I send my report to Celestia about taking a mysterious pony in. She’d want to know all the details. After all, we all know how well that turned out the last time we did that.” Rainbow didn’t say anything. She just set herself back on the floor and continued to watch Twilight skim through books before adding them to the already large tower. Every couple minutes, Rainbow would pick up a book off the floor and flip though it before throwing it aside. About a half hour later, the red pony on the floor started to recover. Lightning shakily lifted her head, and slowly got to her hooves. She looked at Twilight, the ever larger growing tower of books, and the new pony in the room. Without warning, her eyes grew a vibrant yellow and a small black thunderbolt replaced each of her irises. Images started to pass before her eyes, images of that night at the gala. She saw hundreds of the fancy dressed ponies of Canterlot, standing around, talking, eating, and laughing. She saw herself trotting from group to group, joining in the conversation or just listening and laughing with everypony else. As the images stopped, she saw a transparent purple aura disappear from Twilight’s horn. Lightning swayed slightly, trying to get used to the strange feeling she just experienced. “Sorry Lightning,” Twilight said, “but that memory spell can only be used on and an unsuspecting or willing pony. I should have asked your permission, but I figured you would just fight it. You’ll feel a little queasy, but it’ll pass quickly.” The strange feeling soon left Lightning and she looked around again, catching sight of Rainbow Dash out of the corner of her eye. She turned toward Rainbow and asked, “Who are you?” Rainbow smiled and jumped into the air, startling Lightning into stepping back several hooves. “Me? I’m only the most awesome pony in all of Ponyville, probably even in all of Equestria. The name’s Rainbow Dash, but you can just call me Rainbow, or Dash, or…” She caught sight of Twilight’s irritated look. Sheepishly, Rainbow lowered herself back to the ground, and approached Lightning. “Just call me Rainbow. Everypony else does.” “I think I’ve seen you before. It was at the Best Young Flier’s Competition a year ago, right? You were the one who did a Sonic Rainboom and saved the Wonderbolts and that falling pony.” Twilight moved forward. “That was our friend Rarity. On the day of the competition, she convinced me to give her wings so she could fly around Cloudsdale while we waited. But unfortunately, she registered for the contest and flew too close to the sun. The wings caught fire because of their flammability. That’s when she fell.” “How many other friends do you have?” Lightning asked. Twilight sat down and told her about the other friends that she made while in Ponyville. She talked about Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. As she talked, Lightning’s eyes never left Twilight’s face, hanging onto every word she said. Hours later, after many stories with Twilight’s friends were retold, with many suspenseful stories from Rainbow Dash, Lightning wanted to get out for some fresh air and flying. She hadn’t flown for several days and her wings were getting stiff. Twilight was hesitant at first, but reluctantly agreed, on the condition that Rainbow never left her side, even while flying. Lightning agreed, and she and her companion left the library and walked around for a little bit, admiring the sights, sounds, and smells. Rainbow suggested that they head over to Sugercube Corner, as she had some cupcakes ready for pickup. She also said that Pinkie might be there so the two could finally meet. A bell chimed as the pair walked into the delicious smelling bakery. Everywhere were cakes and pies of all different shapes and sizes including, from what Lightning could see in a back room, a large wedding cake, easily several ponies tall. A blue mare with tall pink hair came trotting into sight from behind a door off to the side. “Oh hello, Rainbow Dash. Here to pick up your cupcakes for Pinkie Pie’s party today?” “You bet, Mrs. Cake. Speaking of Pinkie, is she around? I wanted her to meet this new pony.” She put her hoof around Lightning and pulled her to her side. Mrs. Cake dropped a package off onto the counter and took the bits from Rainbow Dash and put them into a cash register. “No, I’m afraid you missed her. She left just minutes before you came in. She told me to give you this note though.” She slid a note across the counter to Rainbow before turning and disappearing into the back room. Rainbow grabbed the note and package and left the bakery with Lightning in tow. They headed to the middle of town, and stood looking at the town hall. The two looked up to see a light grey pegasus jumping up and down on a dark cloud. “Who’s that?” Lightning inquired of the bizarre spectacle. Rainbow grinned. “That is Derpy Hooves. She’s sort of a strange pony. Her eyes have been sort of everywhere except straight as long as anypony can remember. Doesn’t affect her mail route as far as I know. Apparently, she’s the best mail carrier this town has had.” She grabbed Lightning suddenly and pulled her out of the way of a bolt of electricity that slammed into the ground right where Lightning had been standing. Lightning looked up again and leaped into the air and flapped her wings. She continued to climb until she was hovering at eye level with the grey mare. “Excuse me, Miss Hooves? You should really stop jumping on that cloud. You’re sending lightning bolts at the ground that could hit another pony and cause severe damage.” The silly grey pony continued to jump and lightning continued to pound the ground below. Lightning suddenly got an idea and let herself fall back to the ground. She positioned herself below the cloud, spread her wings, and waited. It wasn’t long before a bolt propelled itself at the red pony below. As the bolt passed between Lightning’s wings, she slammed them together and with a crack like a cannon, the bolt zoomed back up into the sky. It went through the cloud Derpy was jumping on and slammed into her. She gave a spectacular jump as several bolts zapped her from different directions. She stood there for a few seconds, smoking slightly, before she took flight and flew off with a silly grin on her face. Rainbow gaped at Lightning in awe. “How did you do that?” Lightning smiled and blushed slightly and looked at the ground. “It’s a little trick I picked up several years ago. A friend and I were walking down a trail when a storm started up. We started to run home when we were stopped by some bullies. They started shoving us around and prevented us from reaching home. We tried pushing our way past them, but they would just grab us and throw us back. They started picking on my friend and the storm was about as bad as it was going to get. I started running towards them when I was hit by a bolt of lightning. Instead of weak, I felt exhilarated and fully fueled. That was the day I discovered I could absorb lightning to replenish my strength and heal my wounds. When I felt that strength, I ran toward the assailant ponies so fast they didn’t have time to look around. I turned around and bucked one of them and, with a flash, he was thrown at least 60 hooves. The other pony backed off and fled. I tried to help my friend stand until I realized she had a broken leg. I looked up in time to see the sky light up and an enormous lightning bolt flew down at us. I jumped over my friend to protect her, my wings opening automatically. I realized they were open and snapped them shut just as the bolt landed between them. There was an ear-shattering CRACK and the bolt flew back into the clouds.” Rainbow continued to stare at Lightning in amazement. The scarlet pony giggled lightly as she said, “What?” Rainbow found her voice at last and exclaimed, “That. Is. So. Awesome!! You need to teach me how to do that!” Lightning started walking again as she said, “I don’t think I can teach you that trick. It’s extremely difficult and dangerous. It’s kind of like your Sonic Rainboom. Many have tried it, but very few have succeeded at actually accomplishing it. And like your Rainboom, I earned my cutie mark after accomplishing that trick.” “Bah. What’s so dangerous about trying to conquer lightning bolts?” Lightning whirled on the cyan pony. “It’s extremely dangerous. If you are late by even a microsecond, you’re dead. Lightning contains several billion joules of energy, which is enough to push you through several layers of concrete as easily as you fly through clouds. The only reason I did it without the consequence of death is because I absorb electricity, and because it was done by accident. I didn’t even know it was possible, and after looking in all the myth books I requested from the Canterlot library, it doesn’t seem like it’s even been done before. The Sonic Rainboom was in almost all of them, though.” She spun back around and resumed walking. Rainbow humphed. She looked at the sky. The sun was getting low and most of the sky was already full of reds, oranges, and yellows. “We better head back to Twilight’s before it gets too dark.” Lightning agreed and they both unfolded their wings and flew back to Twilight’s tree library as the sun made way for the moon to begin another night.