Another thunder strike could be heard outside the building, though barely audible, muffled by thick walls and shut first class, soundproof windows. But what some learned to ignore years ago, other registered as the most hellish sound, the scariest thing that sparked imagination of countless horrors. One mare learned this lesson the hard way, after trying to put her newborn baby to sleep, only succeeding after one entire hour, way after she exhausted her entire repertoire of bedtime stories and lullabies and now had to make them up on the spot. Some were a grumbled mess, other had some logical errors and plot holes (which the foal probably noticed and expressed his dissatisfaction quite vocally), but two of them were genuinely good, if a little cliche. She was particularly proud of one where Princess Celestia announced she hated tea and her kingdom fell into chaos, as outlandish as that sounded (though knowing pony society, it wasn't impossible to happen). The other one was even better, but she was too tired to remember what it was about. All she remembered is that it involved Diamond Dogs taking some random magician mare as their queen, but the details escaped her. She suppressed a yawn and finally got up from the chair by the cradle and took one last look at her small pride. Once he finally stopped being a pain in her neck (literally, that chair was not comfortable in the slightest) and calmed down, she remembered that he was the most precious little thing that ever existed.
"Please grow up faster, my little angel," she whispered as she lowered her head to kiss it's forehead "mommy wants to sleep sometimes too, you know." She sighed and went to the door, snapping the lights out as she said her goodbye.
"Sweet dreams, Rumble!"
The sensation of being able to fully stretch your limbs and freely walk in the hallway was always taken for granted, until you're a mother of two and you finally get a chance to get separated from your baby, even if he's going to wake up in an hour or two, tops, to kindly cry for more milk. Such were the joys of parenthood. Even though her bed was calling for her, chanting her name in the sweetest, most alluring voice a bed could muster, she shook her head and instead went downstairs, just in case. Down there she witnessed her husband, just entering the house, his raincoat and wings soaked in rainwater. He was alone and his face wasn't the one that brought good news.
"He's gone..." He muttered quietly.
"Darling?"
"He's gone! I-I looked everywhere! He's not at any of his friend's, or Blossom, not in the Sugarcube corner or anywhere... he's gone!"
"Oh no!" She gasped and went towards his husband to hug hum, wet coat be damned. "Are you sure he didn't hide somewhere? Maybe the school...?"
"It was closed. And empty."
"Maybe... maybe he has some friends we don't know about?"
"Maybe..." he sighed deeply and looked his wife in the eyes "...look, he's a lot more mature than most colts his age. I'm pretty sure he's waiting the storm out in somepony's house."
"Yes, he probably does," she nodded, smiling weakly. The two stood there in silence, interfered only by muffled sounds of thunders roaring outside the house. Their new found calm stopped after about ten seconds.
"I'll assemble some help," he said, zipping his coat back "I'll ask mayor to help, and some weather ponies should be..."
SMACK!
The couple jumped up and turned towards the suddenly opened door, letting in the cold wind and rain from the outside, while a small, shadowy silhouette looked at them, as another flash of lightning exploded in the background. The figure stepped forward and they could clearly see numerous sparks flowing around it. They huddled together and resisted the urge to scream out of terror for long enough for the figure to enter the lit hallway.
"MOM, DAD!" The oddly cheerful colt ran towards his huddling parents, "You'll never believe what just happened!"
"T-thunderlane?" They asked the colt and looked at each other, then at their son again. Earlier worries already forgotten, now their attention was brought towards his even more pronounced than usual mohawk, standing still in more directions, a feat also duplicated by his coat as well, making him appear much bigger and fluffier then he ever was.
"...and then I was all WHOOSH! And before I knew it, I was in Horsetown, where weather was still nice!" The colt finished his story, as his lungs begged for a short breather, but heart and mind had a lot more to express and only barely let him take some much needed air. "Man, going back took forever!"
His parents looked at their little darling, their firstborn, and raised their eyebrows. They didn't get most of what he was saying, but were more shocked to see him express so much enthusiasm about anything at all. It almost made them smile and want to hug him tightly and congratulate him for... they weren't exactly sure what, but he seemed proud. That said...
SMACK! BZZT!
"Ouch!"
"Oww!" Thunderlane massaged the back of his hurting head, while his father recoiled as his hoof was shot by a fairly powerful static shock. "What did I do?"
"What did you...?" His father waved his hoof a few times to make the pain go away, then stepped forward to face his son. "We were worried sick about you! We thought you got hurt, or lost, or..." He groaned and resisted the urge to smack him again, and this time not because of the static. "Thunderlane, what did we tell you today morning?"
"To, uhm..." He shifted, looked left and right, then down. "...to go back after school..."
"Ah, so you do remember."
"But...but the race is in a week and that was the last time I could practice and... and... this time I can do it! I can beat Rainbow Dash!"
His parents exchanged looks and sighed. His mother smiled and walked towards him, extending her hoof to hug him, only to be attacked by another static shock.
"Ouch!" She took her hoof back and opted to keep some distance. "Honey, I know how much you want to win, but you won't achieve anything if you get hurt. There will be another race, but if something happens to you... oh, I don't even want to say it!" She tried to hug him again, but once again got shocked. "Ouch!" She lamented on her inability to cuddle her own foal, which was one of the few reasons why she ever agreed to be a mother.
"Okay, I'm sorry."
"You should be," his father looked at him "because you're grounded for a week!"
"WHAT?!" Thunderlane yelled in response, while the thunder outside accompanied his whining. "But that's not fair!"
"Well, life's tough, get used to it," his father shrugged "and just so you know, moaning and complaining won't change my mind. Now shower, dinner and bed. In this order. Do I make myself clear?"
"...yes, father." The colt went towards bathroom with his head down. He was so deep in his muttering that he failed to notice that a lamp he passed by lighted itself on. Despite being unplugged.
"We should do something about that." His mother remarked. Her husband nodded.
As expected and predicted, once they turned around the Canterlot mountain, the entire race changed and turned from endurance match into a straight dive down with the current, which meant they were going to reach the finish line a lot faster then usual. It was also the part that Thunderlane was the worst at and they knew that all too well.
"Don't get lost there, Glumper Flail!" Lightning Dust yelled without turning her had back.
"You're not even trying anymore?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Cut me some slack, I'm a racer, not a poet!"
"Whatever," Rainbow Dash had an urge to shake her head and shrug, but considering her current speed and position, she settled on rolling her eyes. "Don't listen to her Thunderlane, I said I'm not accepting anypony else as my second! You got that?" She smiled, as she bumped her pace, watching as Lightning Dust was only slightly behind. It took her a few seconds to realize something was missing.
"Thunderlane?" She asked back, expecting her old friend to yell back, throw some playful banter or insults at her, like he always did. But for some reason he was silent. Too silent. She took the considerable risk and turned her head back, fully aware it would slow her down enough for Lightning Dust to use it to her advantage. In this time of the day, weather and overall darkness, Thunderlane wasn't the easiest pony to notice, but she never failed to spot him before. Not so much this time.
"Thunderlane?!" She stopped her wings, taking a few seconds to stabilize herself mid-air. Once stationery, she turned back and had a better look at the locations around the mountain, but saw no familiar black blur anywhere.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, we have another report!" Cloud Kicker, always fast to rebound even after the worst injuries or embarrassing events, was back to her perky, commentating side. "They just reached the third checkpoint and... uh..." She scratched her head and hesitated on relaying the message. As previously established, she was horrible at Horse code. She turned to Soarin just to be sure. "Please tell me it doesn't say what I think it's saying..."
Soarin gulped. He had a feeling she got this message right for once.
"I'm afraid it does..."
She knew he was slow and would fall back during this phase, but she expected him to at least keep closer and not fall back as badly. She knew she could still feel his presence back at the turning point, yet no matter how much Rainbow Dash looked, he was nowhere to be found.
"Crap!" She swallowed as she squinted her eyes and kept searching the area for anything else, trying to see or hear anything else then thunder, falling rain and her rapidly beating heart. "Crap crap crap crap!"
As she was hovering, panicking, she heard somepony else fly towards her from the other direction.
"What the hell Dash, why did you stop?" Asked Lightning Dust, crossing her hooves with irritation. "If you wanna give up, just say so!"
"He's gone..."
"Dash?"
"T-Thunderlane's gone! Just a moment ago, he was flying with us, but now... now... crap crap crap!" That said she started flying all over the area, searching while shouting his name out loud. Lightning Dust meanwhile smacked her face and loudly cursed to herself, as a booming thunder drowned her dissatisfaction.
"Umm, seems like Rainbow Dash is still in the lead and Lightning Dust is just a moment away, but... uhm, no mention of Thunderlane. Apparently he never crossed it, at least not yet."
All of a sudden, the crowd seemed to calm down the enthusiasm, but only to make place for some fearful murmurs amongst themselves. Before she would make a hasty decision, she turned towards Raindrops, now in charge of communicating back with the checkpoints. All she got from her for an answer was a reluctant shaking of her head. She looked at the signals herself to find out that at this point the race stopped entirely, as even Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust stopped and hung around the third checkpoint, which could mean only one thing.
Ponies were very emotional creatures by nature, thus a simple mention of something out of place was enough to spark panic in one pony, who passively instigated it in another, starting a chain reaction which Cloud Kicker knew exactly where it would lead. But the entire crowd didn't matter as much as one particular little colt. Rumble didn't say a word since it started. He was firmly standing on his four hooves, looking longingly at the direction of Canterlot. She could swear she saw a few beads of sweat pass through his forehead, as hard as it was to notice on a colt dressed in a raincoat, on a rainy day no less. He was trembling, his eyes were fighting the urge to let the tears go. Thankfully, Ditzy Do was just beside him, lying her wing on his back for comfort, but also probably to stop him from rushing in and doing something he would regret.
And speaking of rushing in, she turned towards her co-commentator, who now dropped the glasses on the table and stood up, extending his wings. She rushed towards him and grabbed his tail with her teeth just the same second he was lifting off, stopping him mid-air.
"Cloud Kicker, let me go!" The ex-Wonderbolt yelled, trying to get away. Unfortunately for him, despite relatively lower mass and fairly helpless demeanor, she proved to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of sheer strength. She managed to pull him closer, yanking him like a bull with a lasso, grounding him on the podium and stepping on his tail, if only to free her mouth to be able to say something.
"Ah hell no, Mister Pretty Flank! There's enough ponies in danger as it is!"
"Let me go, damnit!" He tried to force his tail from under a hoof, but it proved to be much than he realized. "My best friend is out there, probably in danger!"
"That's why we have rescue squads at the checkpoints!"
"Well, they could use some hooves and I have four, which are wasted here doing NOTHING!"
"Crap, THUNDERLANE!!" Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to spread her voice across the valley. The numerous thunder strikes and falling rain didn't help matters and muffled her every time. She could barely hear herself right now. "Thunderlane, I swear, if you’re out there, show yourself so I can KICK YOUR ASS FOR MAKING ME WORRY!"
There was no answer.
"IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU, I SWEAR I'LL RIP YOUR WINGS JUST SO YOU WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!"
She stopped in her place and took a deep breath to calm her nerves, maybe stop her heart from beating at her chest with sledgehammers. She considered a few possible outcomes:
-He passed them and got a major lead... no, it was impossible, not in million years.
-He got above the clouds somehow and is flying over them... again, not possible. Even if he did managed to break through that much electricity, he still has to pass by checkpoints to win the race. And Thunderlane would never cheat.
-He's lost his way... also impossible, this was Thunderlane she was thinking about, he went to Everfree during storms and never once lost his way in air there.
-Something else happened...
"I should've known," said Lightning Dust, flying with crossed hooves around Rainbow Dash "just for the record, I never challenged HIM."
"You're NOT helping!" Rainbow Dash yelled back. "Start already!"
"Fine!" She groaned and shook her head. "The race's a bust anyway!"
"Ugh," Rainbow Dash groaned and flew towards Lightning Dust to look her in the eyes "forget about this stupid race! He could be in danger!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know! I'm just saying that it wasn't ME who let him join!"
"Wait, so it's my fault?"
"Well, it's not mine!" She went closer to Rainbow's head, almost bumping into her midair. "I saw the look on your face, when your old loverboy..."
"H-he's not..."
"WHATEVER! I saw how you looked at him when he wanted to join! You were 'this' close to kissing him when he declared he's mucho-macho for interfering in OUR race! Argh," she grabbed her head and turned around "why do I even bother? Everypony will blame everything on ME anyway! Because 'how dare I yell at him and make him feel sad'! For all we know, he probably just gave up and sips some tea in Canterlot as we speak."
"HEY!" Rainbow Dash circled around her to face Lightning Dust once again "He's a lot of things, but he's NOT a coward! He'd rather get his plot hooved to him than give up! And if you knew ANYTHING about him at all, you'd know that much!"
"All I know is that he talks a lot and nothing else! And from what he showed me today, I'm still not impressed!"
Rainbow Dash was about to explode and reply once again, dragging the pointless argument further, wasting even more time. But for once, she shook her head, took a deep breath and sorted her priorities.
"If you don't want to help, at least stop bothering me! Just go to the finish line and win, if you want this so much!" She turned back. "I'm not leaving until I've found him!" With that said, she went back to her search.
Meanwhile, Lightning Dust smacked herself for the last two minutes.
"Ugh, why do I even talk!"
She still didn't care about 'whatshisface' and didn't feel any guilt over his supposed demise. He brought this on himself, again. Nopony forced him, nopony pressured him, he did this to himself, despite knowing the risks. The only regret she had was agreeing to let him join. In a hindsight, she'd rather be called a chicken than have anypony risk his life for nothing.
She was about to join Rainbow Dash and help her, if only because her reputation wouldn't get any better for leaving in times of need, when another thunder boomed in the distance. She was used to them by now, at least ten exploded with great noise when she was just talking to Rainbow a moment ago and none of them bothered her. Not like this one. This one wasn't just loud- it was deafening, like a giant explosion that could level a city, and for a moment she was afraid that was what was happening. She noticed Rainbow Dash hearing it as well, also blocking her ears with her hooves, looking around in panic, first at Ponyville, then Canterlot, then the directions of any other nearby cities, expecting a giant ball of fire in the distance, signifying a great evil coming back to Equestria with vengeance.
Nothing. At least nothing out of the ordinary storm she was experiencing past fifteen minutes or so. She looked at Rainbow Dash again. The two exchanged looks and shrugged. Then their heads turned upwards, in the direction of clouds above Canterlot, where something appeared. A very bright, glowing white ball, rapidly approaching them at a speed of, what seemed like, light.
"WATCH OUT!" Lightning Dust screamed at Rainbow Dash, who hovered where she was, blindly staring at the small, but fast meteor coming right at her, paralyzed by fear, or something. Lightning Dust didn't think much when she flew straight at her and slammed into her at her full speed, tackling her at the last moment, as the object passed by them.
After they tumbled in the air for a moment and regained their altitude, Lightning Dust realized one thing. She was wrong. She miscalculated. That thing was a few meters away from where Dash was, she was never in any danger, aside from getting hit by the air pressure it left behind. And Rainbow Dash realized another thing.
"W-was that...?" She started, but couldn't finish her sentence, while the object moved in direction of Ponyville.
While Cloud Kicker struggled to keep Soarin grounded, and he struggled to get away from her grip, his friends ran towards the podium.
"Are you sure he's gone?" Asked hastily Blueblood. "This isn't another mistake, right?"
"I'm afraid not," Cloud Kicker shook her head. Now that other appeared, Soarin held his horses and calmed down, prompting her to finally release his tail. He didn't rush out, but clearly wanted to. "all the weather ponies at checkpoints are already looking for him. Damn, I hope this is just a misunderstanding."
"Yeah, me too..." Blueblood nodded. He looked at his friends and they could already tell what he was thinking.
They knew Thunderlane well. He survived Everfree forest, used clouds more vicious and unpredictable than what they had today as a very powerful (ultimately futile, though) weapon against Nightmare Moon and wouldn't fall if five hit him. He was tough, too tough to fall to just a stray lightning. And he was too hot-blooded, proud and stubborn to even consider giving up. That probably meant something else completely. Something none of them were prepared for. He heard about various ancient, evil entities, some were defeated using Elements of Harmony and no doubt they would like to strike them back when they're vulnerable, exhausted and alone.
He shook his head. This was a very long stretch, even for their standards. Yet no matter how much he wanted to convince himself that it was something else, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was exactly it. He could name a few such beings that could be able to do that, given they escaped from whatever prison they were held.
"I need to find a scroll and quill, right now!" He announced to everypony, as he started searching around frantically.
"Why?" Cloud Kicker asked, tilting her head. Usually they were very careful about keeping their 'national secret' a secret, but they were allowed some leeway in case of emergency. And this seemed like one.
"I need to send a letter to my Aunt, something really big must've happe--"
He couldn't finish his sentence, as a sound of a giant explosion muffled any noise nearby. The noise was like no other thunder they had today. This one was deafening, and everypony in town knelt and blocked their ears, sharing the mutual, noisy agony. As expected of large gatherings of ponies in one place, panic ensued almost instantly- foals were crying, adults grabbed any children they had and started running around senselessly. Tables were flipped, stalls were ruined, hundreds of pastries ended up on the muddy ground, in puddles of rainwater mixed with hot and cold drinks.
Everypony expected apocalypse, some great evil appearing and declaring them their slaves. To be fair, this town already experienced something similar not too long ago, so their fear was not that irrational.
Those few ponies not joining the panic were able to spot something appearing on the horizon. An object, light, not too big glowing something, that flew straight from Canterlot towards the town and was rapidly growing bigger for them.
"It's a monster!"
"No, it's a meteor!"
"No, it's a giant fireball!"
"No... it's something else!" Blueblood hummed, swallowed and magically summoned a pair of binoculars and looked through them. His friends (and Cloud Kicker) didn't get a clear answer as to what it was, but his jaw dropping to the floor level was an indication of something else entirely. Cloud Kicker dived towards him and grabbed the binoculars.
"Pardon me!" She pardoned herself as she took a better look at it. Her reaction was similar to Blue's, but after her jaw came back to her original form, a big, happy grin appeared on her face. She threw the binoculars away and rushed back to her seat. She opened her mouth to start saying something, but ponies were ponies and kept on running amok around the place, getting nowhere even close to a safe place. She rolled her eyes and used her last resort.
SCREEEEEEEEEECH!
Another nasty sound went into the air, stopping everypony on their tracks as they once again had to block the hellish noise from breaking their eardrums. This time instead of explosion, the sounds resembled more a fork scratching the small chalkboard coming from the speakers. And that's because that was exactly what it was.
"Do I have your everypony's attention?" Asked Cloud Kicker, looking at the stunned crowd. She didn't get any answers but at the very least they stopped and looked at her. She shrugged and threw away the chalkboard and fork. "Good, because you wanna see this!" She paused then added. "Oh, and I'd get as far from the finish line as possible if I was you."
One small light bulb after the other lighted as the entire crowd got the idea of what she meant. Now everypony's attention was on the approaching unidentified object, getting closer and closer, now resembling something different. Something familiar. The last ponies to get the hint were, unsurprisingly, located near the finish line. And once they got the hint, they dashed away, just as the object crossed it with enormous speed. The entire crowd of spectators had to hide their eyes from incoming air, dust and static electricity, that gave new haircuts to several unlucky ones that were too close. The object smashed itself into the ground, flying at it at a very sharp angle, making a large crater where it landed. It didn't stop there and kept going, plowing the muddy ground, smashing countless objects, popping all the balloons along on the way, thankfully every pony on the way managed to jump away in time.
Many tables, tents and various other things destroyed later, it finally stopped, though it was impossible to identify due to dust mixed with confetti, combined with rain, fog and slowly decaying bolts of electricity running around it.
Everypony now ran towards the object, but kept a safe distance, only looking and waiting for the revelation, curiosity taking over the fear. The stallion six (minus one), along with Cloud Kicker and Raindrops ran forward a little closer. All the metal objects in the closest area, be it forks, toys or tables, still had some electricity flowing through them.
The closer they got, they could hear some quiet noises that weren't energy currents. Gasping, very fast breathing, as something, or somepony, tried to catch their breath after the biggest workout they had in their lives.
As the visibility increased, they were able to see a silhouette of a pony. A dark, black figure, with long, electrified hair, standing up as expected after generating this much energy. Then they noticed his face, in particular his eyes. They were wide open, as his mouth, still gasping for air. His entire body was trembling, once in a while jittery, though it was impossible to tell if it was from pain, exhaustion, shock or something else, or everything combined.
Soarin gulped and took a few steps closer.
"Thunderlane?" He asked the stallion in question. He didn't dare get closer then few feet, if only because that electricity looked painful. Not to the stallion inside, but to everything else.
Thunderlane blinked. Once, then again, then a few times more. He slowly turned to Soarin and tried to mutter something.
"What's that?" Soarin asked, as he got a bit closer again. "Can you say it again?"
Thunderlane took a few breaths, then tried saying something.
"Ah... ah-am... a-am..."
"Come on, you can do it!"
"A-ah... am... am I..." Thunderlane swallowed, "am... am I..."
"Are you what?"
"Am... I... am I... am I dead?"
Everything stopped. Soarin blinked, Thunderlane didn't. A few sparks still hung onto Thunderlane, but aside from some shivers from time to time, along with messed up mane, nothing stood out. Aside from the dirt trail and small crater he left, of course. Soarin smirked, then snorted.
"I don't think you were ever more alive!"
"...I guess." Thunderlane smiled as well, as the two exchanged glares and it was only a matter of seconds before the two started laughing. After the shock subsided, everypony slowly started realizing what just happened. Cloud Kicker went forward and despite not having a microphone with her, managed to talk loud enough for everypony to hear.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, I hope the awesomness didn't blind you, because you just saw the impossible happen! The true miracle, the most amazing feat recorded in history of flying (in Ponyville)! The true darkhorse victory! The title of
THE!
GREATEST!
FLIER!
"...goes toooooooooo..." She reached to grab Thunderlane's hoof, but was zapped with electricity instead. She recovered her hoof and instead took a step backwards and pointed at him "THUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDEEEEEEERLAAAAAAAAAAANE!!"
Not a second after she lost her breath, the crowd went nuts. Everypony started cheering louder then they ever were, stomping the muddy ground, making more mess than actual sound, but nopony cared for that at the moment. Fireworks shot up everywhere, courtesy of Pinkie Pie (whose only regret was not being able to use more than one color, effectively wasting the entire rainbow of fireworks). Even though the place was about as clean as a post-nuclear wasteland, with half the tables either turned upside down, broken in half or shattered into small pieces, even despite the heavy rainfall, cold and thundering booms in the distance, nopony had any other obligation then cheering for the winner. Even those few ponies who were really looking forward for the pastry coupons or chance to win a spa visit quickly forgot about their loss.
And in the center of all this, was one stallion who, for the first time in his life, stood still, surrounded by a crowd dedicated to him and only him. He couldn't say anything or even move, much too busy with slowly moving his eyes over every single, smiling face. Nopony could see it from that afar and in this weather, but not all water that fell from his face was coming from the sky.
Few ponies rushed through the crowds and came towards the crater, all smiling and cheering along the way.
"That was..." Blueblood approached him first "I-I don't know what that was, but that was amazing!" He tried to pat him on the back, but was instead shocked. "Ouch!"
"We knew you could do it!" Doctor got closer and was zapped as well. "Ouch!"
"Alright, you showed them!" Shining Armor also couldn't get closer before something zapped him as well. "Ouch!"
"Eeyup!" Big Macintosh kept his distance and congratulated him from safer distance.
But even more pronounced them his friends, was a little colt, flying towards his brother. Rumble was still a relatively weak flier and still learning, but that wasn't enough to stop him from tackling his brother at speed that rivaled his sibling.
"THUNDERLANE!" Rumble screamed through the tears, as he embraced his brother very tightly. "I always knew you could do it! Everypony said you would lose, but I always knew you were the best! And I totally wasn't worried about you, because I knew nothing would stop you!" Some sparks could be heard, but the colt didn't even budge.
"Woah, doesn't this hurt?" Asked Thunderlane, regarding the electricity that now apparently attacking his little brother.
"Not that much." Rumble muttered back. Thunderlane couldn't couldn't help but laugh and pat his head, sending even more sparks.
Surrounded by all his friends, brother, along with entire town's population and then some, Thunderlane felt like he should be the happiest pony in the existence. He would be, he should be, but there was something missing. Something wasn't there but he couldn't put his hoof on it. He found out what it was about two minutes later.
"WHAT? THE! BUCK! WAS? THAT?!"
The booming voice of Rainbow Dash was powerful enough to get through the insane cheering of the crowd and silenced everypony immediately. Everypony's attention turned towards Rainbow 'Confusedly Furious' Dash and Lightning 'Oddly Stoic' Dust as they just landed nearby. Thunderlane looked his rivals in the eyes, then let go of his brother and slowly walked towards them. Nopony in the crowds had the guts to stand in their way or even say anything, nopony daring enough to break their moment, watching carefully as the situation unfolded. Especially Cloud Kicker couldn't help but grin harder then ever, rubbing her hooves and awaiting something really, really amazing to happen.
Once the three were in the close distance, Thunderlane cleared his throat and started.
"Rainbow Dash, I..."
"What the heck just happened?" Rainbow Dash quickly interrupted him. "One moment you were there, then you were gone, we thought you were, I dunno, shot by a lightning and hurt and stuff, but you... what? Just... what? A-and, now you're here, but you were like, huh, like... what! When did you learn to do... that? And what is... that, I mean... WHAT?!" She took a small breather.
"Rainbow Dash, I wa--"
"I mean, we thought you were gone! Scratch that, you were gone! We stopped the race, but you just got and... and... HOW DID YOU... WHAT!?" She shook her head and went closer, nudging him in the chest, getting zapped in the process. "Ouch! Oh, hell no, you're not! I demand rematch! There's no way you would... no way you could... you cheated, did you? That's how you turned into a... living pony lightning bolt thingy, right? Fess up buster, it's some weird magic stuff, right?" She turned towards his friends, all five of them instantly got covered in sweat, despite being innocent (thankfully). "It was the Blueblood guy, right? He's Princess's student, he used some weird spell on you! Right? RIGHT?!"
In the crowd, Prince Blueblood gulped and looked around himself, noticing that some of the eyes from the crowd were onto him.
"T-that's preposterous, I-I don't know any spells like that!"
Thunderlane sighed and couldn't help but roll his eyes. He didn't even say anything to that, it was clear that Rainbow 'Desperate' Dash was just too shocked to think straight. She knew him better than to accuse him of cheating.
"Come on, Lightning Dust!" Rainbow turned towards her other rival. "You were there, say something!"
As for Lightning Dust, she stood there, silently, only humming to herself and observing as the situation resolved. Once the attention was at her, she only sighed and went towards Thunderlane. Nopony could tell what she was thinking about as she glared at him.
"I guess I really was wrong about you," she said "and I admit defeat. Congratulations on coming first, Thunderlane."
"W-wait, so you do know my name... I mean," he shook his head and coughed "I mean, thank you."
"You showed some guts and skill," she extended her hoof "I lost again."
Thunderlane stood there, mouth agape, for a short moment more, until he got a hold of himself and also extended his hoof in a friendly hoof shake. Several sparks went over to Lightning Dust, just like every other ponies before her, but she didn't seem to notice, as the spark went over to her body and dissipated a moment later. The crowd cheered some more, until Rainbow Dash started talking again.
"What the heck are you...? But... but..."
"We lost fair and square." Lightning Dust replied towards Rainbow. "No other way around it."
"B-but..."
"I told you he was fine." She rolled her eyes, making Rainbow even more confused and lost.
"Rainbow Dash!" said Thunderlane, as he walked dangerously close to Rainbow Dash, looking her deep in the eyes. Rainbow 'Perplexed' Dash gulped and took a step backwards, before his gaze completely paralyzed her limbs. "There's something important that I wanted to tell you ever since we first met."
The crowd cooed in unison. The tension in the air was strong enough to melt the falling raindrops into fog, all of which seemed to surround Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane, creating a world for just the two of them. She blushed heavily, as his deep, golden eyes pierced through her like a thunder, a true one. She gulped, scared of what she was about to hear.
"Y-yeah?"
"How do I put it..." he hummed to himself, then took a deep breath and extended his hoof towards her nose. Close enough that she saw the sparks still flowing through him, but far enough that none of them hit her nose. "I'll just say it straight. I wanted to tell you..."
He took a deep breath.
"IN."
"YOUR!"
"FACE!"
And as that declaration ended, the crowd went nuts once again. Rainbow opened her mouth and wanted to say something. She tried and time and again failed, until all she could spell was a complete mess of gibberish. Eventually, she turned around and flew away, no doubt in tears. As he observed her running away he couldn't help but pity her a little. First loss had to hurt a lot, especially after all these years of being undefeated. He almost felt bad for her... but he was too busy being happy too right now.
Amidst all the cheering, Pinkie Pie somehow managed to grab a microphone.
"Hey everypony, do you know what this calls for?" She asked the crowd.
Thunderlane knew the answer. And for the first time really, he really was looking forward to it.