//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Lightning 
// Story: Thunder & Lightning 
// by Jetto 
//------------------------------//

After what seemed like the longest twenty minutes in lives of entire town, the rest of the day went by in almost an instant. Not everypony stayed too long in town for the after-race-party, as there was only so much bad weather any of them could stomach on open tents for hours without catching ten kinds of flu in the process. Eventually the numbers thinned, ponies went back to their homes, others divided into smaller parties spread out around the entire Ponyville, while the the most hardcore party goers turned to their favorite party house available, which of course happened to be the new and improved Sugarcube Corner, now with even more space inside, just enough to somehow fit about two hundred ponies. Somepony said it was bigger on the inside, but only Doctor and Ditzy ponies laughed when they heard it. 

And throughout next few hours, Thunderlane had more fun than in his entire life combined. There was barely a moment when he allowed himself to sit down and catch a breath, before another pony, a mare at that, asked him for a dance again and again. Pretty much any mare he knew by name was here and for once paid him any attention, if only because he was at the top, thus he couldn't be ignored anymore. It was a weird feeling, as if he just resurfaced on the relationship map after years of being locked in a, well, prison was a bad word to use, but he had troubles coming up with a different one. He'd usually blame lack of imagination on alcohol, but this was a Pinkie Party, it had no such thing anywhere close. The party pony made sure the fun comes from the fun, not from the third party, after which she'd make a long rant about word party having too many meanings, including wondering where the second party was, losing any cohesion, after which she'd give someone a cupcake. 

Thunderlane shook Pinkie and her parties out of his head. He took his two minutes of free time to sip some juice and observe others from the distance. Pinkie Pie herself was hard to miss, as she was almost literally everywhere he looked, having a time of her life, which happened to be her entire life. He always envied her- always in the middle of her own domain, doing what she loved and bringing joy to others. He saw Cloud Kicker as well, talking with the executives of the foundation. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, but judging from their smiles it wasn't the last time they collaborated (even after paying for all the damage he accidentally caused). Raindrops was close by, keeping watch on her partner, making sure she's fine. Her face was stern, but once in a while she revealed a smile. She would never admit it, but she enjoyed Kicker's company more than she was willing to admit.

His friends were just being themselves, almost all of them gathering their fair share of popularity. Soarin was Soarin, Shiny was his awkward but surprisingly adorable self, Blue handled himself like a true gentlecolt, while Big Macintosh, while lacking in words, had a wingmare who had his back all this time. And by wingmare, we of course mean Applejack, shooting down any potential candidates with extreme prejudice. Among his friends, only Doctor wasn't surrounded, though it wasn't a mystery why. Like himself a short time a go, he's out of reach as a bachelor, though unlike his complicated situation with Blossomforth (who, as expected, was not here), his relationship with Ditzy was a big question mark even to his best friends. He knew they had a very rich backstory together, but that topic was always shot down as soon as it came up, so they stopped bothering them with personal questions. Doctor had his secrets and they have long accepted it.

And speaking of the pair of devils, Ditzy approached him.
"Having fun there, Number One?"

"I will be, after I catch my breath."

"Well, somepony got popular all of a sudden. Just don't let it get over your head!" She extended her hoof and stroked his head, trying to destroy his mohawk. Sadly, her hoof wasn't doing any more damage than twenty minutes of stormy weather before her. "We're going back home. The kids are getting a little too tired."

"Sure, thanks."

"No problem. But remember: you owe me something."

"I know, I know."

"No, you probably don't know," she shook her head and looked him in the eye, all smiles suddenly dropped.  "you really, REALLY owe me."

"... huh?"

"Don't you 'huh' me, mister," she prodded his chest with a hoof "you owe me a bunch of muffins. A bunch of FREE muffins."

"I still don't..."

"This thing..." she pulled out a ticket "is useless, thanks to your latest hijinks. And I don't like hijinks when it comes to my muffins!"

All of a sudden, his old, Grumpy-Lane face was back in an instant. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, when he noticed something on the ticket.
"Wait, you voted for Rainbow Dash? Even AFTER I joined the race?"

"Oh no, don't you try to turn this around, I still need my free muffins!"

"You paid ten bits for that ticket."

"My DISCOUNTED muffins, then." He eyes narrowed. "I love you like a brother I never had and I would normally always support you all the way, but... muffins! Heavily discounted!"

He stopped resisting and rolled his eyes anyway. Ditzy had a special talent of being smarter than she looked, then turning this fact around its head when it came to muffins. He hesitated if it was just a harmless hobby anymore.

"Why do you even need those? You can make much better ones, for cheaper than that!"

"Oh no, don't you dare! My muffins aren't made out of your faulty logic!"

The two stopped arguing for a moment and looked each other, eyes to eye, two to one. They stood like that for a few seconds, before bursting in the laughter.

"Fine, I'll get you some later," Thunderlane started "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today!"

"Nah, no need for that. Doctor will share his anyway. Come to think of, I'd share mine too, so I guess there's nothing to argue about." She shrugged.

Thunderlane blinked.
"Are you mocking me, Miss Doo?"

"Yup!" She giggled. "Just try not to get too cocky. Like somepony else we all know and love regardless. Speaking of, have you seen your two rivals lately?"

"No. Dash probably locked herself in her house, too ashamed to look at anypony. And Lightning Dust, well... come to think of it, I never really noticed when she was gone."

"She's surprisingly humble, I gotta say. You'd think she would make a fuss, but she took it well. A little too well."

"Yeah, that's... not what I expected." He hummed and brought back the memory of that last hoof shake they had. And now he couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Right, I'll better go now. See you around."

And with her gone, Thunderlane was free to enjoy his party once again. He had enough time to catch second, or rather tenth by now, wind and carry on, definitely not thinking about Lightning Dust at all...





Lightning Dust was about to go to sleep, after finishing all her chores and work. But all of a sudden, she heard knocking on the door. Not knowing who to expect, she opened her door and noticed somepony she didn't want to see the most.

"If you start bragging I'll smash this door right into your face! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, fine." Thunderlane nodded. 

Lightning Dust had two very obvious questions to the stallion. She didn't feel the need to ask how his mohawk was still alive after all this time (though it was bugging her a little), so she skipped to the second one.
"Why are you here?"

"Just wanted to, umm... talk?" He scratched his head, not sure what to say. He could swore he thought at least a few good opening lines on the way, but he couldn't remember a single one of them. "Can I come in? I've had enough of rain for today."

Lightning Dust sighed and let Thunderlane in, closing the door behind him. As soon as he entered the room, Thunderlane could feel something really familiar. It was a long time since he entered a room that felt this empty. She lived in an small, single room apartment. He was standing a bedroom, living room and small kitchen in one, with doors to bathroom just nearby. It reminded him more of a dorm room than a proper house, but it seemed cheap at least. Aside from a bed, he only saw a dining table with two chairs, few cabinets and a fridge next to a stove in the corner. As far as he could tell, it was almost pristine clean, but that wasn't the first word that entered his head. The proper term would be soulless. Walls were covered by a blank, white wallpaper, floors made out of solid wood and as far as he could see, nothing that stood out immediately. Walls begged for some pictures or paintings, desks had nothing on them, even though a potted plant or two would liven up the entire room tremendously. If Blossomforth taught him anything, it was that even a house of two macho stallions (one still in making) could use some greenery inside.
The only thing even remotely interesting was a large, packed bag next to the bed. As he looked more, there was something at the table by the bed. A single frame with a photo.

He couldn't give it any more attention, as he was hit in the face with a towel. At least it was clean and dry.

"So," Lightning Dust started "what do you want to talk about?"

After drying himself a little bit, he looked at her and couldn't find any words to say. Why did he come here, indeed, that was a question he should be asking himself right now. He coughed, trying to at least start the conversation before things get too awkward.
"I just wanted to, you know, check if you were okay after the race and all."

"I'm fine. I would be sleeping by now, but somepony interrupted me."

"Sorry." So much for not ending up on an awkward note. He coughed and continued. "You don't seem too worried about losing today."

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
"Because I'm not worried. I wanted to see if I'm any good and lo and behold, I'm not. I'm used to losing all the time." She blinked, then her eyes narrowed. "Are you here to pity me? Because I swear to Celestia..."

"What? No! Of course not!" He rose his hooves and shook his head. "I'm really surprised you took it that well. I expected you to be more... umm..."

"Like Rainbow Freaked Out Dash?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not sure why everypony wants to compare me to little miss perfect. I know what losing feels like. Today was just another one of those days. No use crying over spilled milk, there's always tomorrow and all that other motivational junk." She shrugged and shook her head. "Or maybe she was just too confused and too scared about what happened. She was worried a lot."

"Worried?" Thunderlane asked, raising an eyebrow. Rainbow Worried Dash weren't common words to be used.

"When you disappeared in the second half. She stopped and went out looking for you."

"She was looking... for me?"

"Yeah. She stopped the race and made me look around with her. Just for the record, I knew you were fine, but I thought you just gave up." Her eyebrow raised. "Didn't you see us there? You passed right through, almost smashed into us too."

"I... I didn't really see too much when I was flying." He smiled sheepish. He could swear there was something on his way that he made a conscious effort to avoid, but couldn't tell what it was, neither did he care. He was too busy being awesome. 'Great, now I think like Rainbow Dash!', he lamented in his head.

After that little tidbit of knowledge, he felt a little bad for telling off Rainbow Dash after the race. Then again, that was nothing compared to years she brought onto him, so she had it coming. That'll teach her to grow a thicker skin at least, like he now has. Also, they stopped the race to look at him, which meant he could've lost anyway, despite launching like a sound breaking rocket. Nopony was able to tell if that made a difference though.

"So..." Lightning Dust stopped the awkward silence "want some tea or coffee? I don't have any snacks, so sorry about it."

Thunderlane's first instinct was to say just yes and later confirm that yes meant tea, but he stopped himself as he got another look at that room. Chills went through his spine, even though it wasn't cold at all. This place was giving him a bad feeling, much more amplifying the already stiff atmosphere around them. His eyes wandered to the bags. What were they? What was inside them?
Then he shot a glance at the photo that he noticed earlier and took a better look at it. 

"Do you mind," he asked, looking back at Lightning Dust "if we get to my place instead?" 

"What?"

"I have some cookies, if you'd like."

"I'm not into sweet stuff."

Thunderlane blinked. "I have salty pretzels too, if that's any better?"





That day Lightning Dust couldn't believe she was convinced by a bag of pretzels. They were delicious and salty, like it was promised, but deep inside she felt there should've been a better reason to go to his house. Late in the evening. On a day of the biggest storm this month. Right after a race he beat her at. If only she had a better reason to stay home, other than "I don't feel like it". Instead here she was, stepping on unfamiliar floor in a house. 

"Don't even TRY anything funny here."

"It's alright, I have a terrible sense of humor." He reassured her, as he finally opened the doors ad let them inside. "Sorry about the mess, I didn't have much time to clean today." 
'Because I was too busy wallowing in self-pity because of what you said', was what he could say, but he spared her that comment.

She blinked as she looked around the kitchen.
"Yeah, sure. Once I find any, I'll be sure to forgive you immediately."

Much to his surprise, the kitchen was not in the same state it was when he left house. Gone were the dirty dishes and cereal boxes. He smiled brightly, realizing there was only one pony who could do this while he was gone. He made a mental note to praise Rumble once he's back home.
They sat by the kitchen table, as Thunderlane put a kettle on the oven and prepared them some tea, making sure to remember to bring the pretzels with him. 

"So," Lightning Dust started "nice house."

"Why thank you." 

"I hope there won't be any misunderstandings with, you know who..."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean." He grabbed a single pretzel from the bowl.

"What I mean is," she paused, "I'm not sure your wife will approve--"

CRACK!

Dentists around the world cringed, as Thunderlane performed the hardest crunch on a pretzel since pre-Lunar banishment times. At least he wasn't drinking anything- after yesterdays mess he could do without spit-taking his tea on the floor.
"W-what? Wife?" 

Lightning Dust blinked, then covered herself in blush as the realization slowly got to her.
"That white pegasus, pink mane, freckles... the one you kept bickering with and..."

"She's not my wife!" He jumped from his chair, equally as red and steaming as her, right when the kettle whistled. "And to be sure, I don't really know what we are anymore, she and I..." He took a deep breath as he took the kettle of the fire and prepared their teas. 

Even though they were in the "off" phase of their relationship currently, he still couldn't help but feel a little guilty over inviting somepony else home. A mare. While his brother is away. He shook his head. He was allowed to invite whoever he wanted, he did that only because her apartment was too empty and eerie and he had pretzels and no weird plans towards Lightning Dust. In fact, he could barely stand her and the entire point of this visit was to get to know her better to avoid further misunderstandings and improve their relationship. Which sounded even worse now that he was thinking about it.

"Umm..." Lightning Dust scratched her head, fully realizing how much the tension a simple question created. She looked for a different topic. "So, that colt at the finish line..."

"My little brother, Rumble."

"Oh," she hummed "he's just your brother then."

"What is that supposed to mean?" His eyes narrowed.

"Nothing." She averted her gaze, trying to hide a weak smile.

"How old did you think I was?"

"No comment."

The two stood or sat in silence for a moment, until both burst into giggles and finally laughter. As far as they could tell, the ice has been broken and toasted with their tea.

"So, can I ask about something?" Thunderlane asked.

"Shoot."

"That picture in your room..." he recalled the contents of it. It was unmistakeably Lightning Dust, except much younger, twelve or so years, along with some other pony. An adult, brown unicorn. Both were smiling. "Was that your father?"

Lightning Dust didn't reply immediately. She shifted and looked in the distance.
"Nah. That's the pony I actually care about." She earned an eyebrow raised. She groaned. "Let me rephrase that: no, he's not. But I kinda wish he was."

Thunderlane gulped. This seemed like... no, it WAS a touchy subject, one he should probably avoid. A pony with this kind of attitude had to have some bad experiences growing up. He could tell just by looking. There was something off all this time and this was probably the closest he ever got to it... but he didn't want to know too much. It was her own life, she was under no obligation to talk about it with a relative stranger, especially after a day like that. Take it slow, don't let it turn into a confession marathon and life exchange program. He didn't need to know her that much.

Meanwhile, Lightning Dust sighed deeply and elaborated anyway.
"He was a councilor who helped me a lot when I was growing up. He had to fix a few... mistakes my parents made. Like for example, he took me to my first Wonderbolt Derby when I was a filly. That's when I realized who I wanted to become and I've been training ever since. Even got my cutie mark shortly after!"

Councilor. He gulped once again hearing a word that shouldn't be associated with fillies barely in their teens. The smart thing would be to just stop this conversation here, forget about it and concentrate on some other stuff, but this is where he hit the snag. He already knew too much and he couldn't stop thinking about it. There were so many questions to ask, so many details to elaborate on, so much to find out. And from the looks of things, his guest didn't have any visible blocks that prevented her from talking about it. He could already feel regret from ever coming to her in the first place. 

He couldn't do it like it. At least, not sober. With that in his mind, he walked towards the furthest drawers, opened them and took out the universal conversation aid, in liquid form.

"Is that a... tequila?" Asked Lightning Dust, as she raised an eyebrow at the bottle that now stood on the table before her.

"I just spent hours on a sober Pinkie Party," he uncorked the bottle "and I don't drink alone."

"I dunno..."

"Not even a little toast?" 

"To commemorate your smashing victory?"

"Actually, to seal the beginning of a new friendship... but your idea's cool too."

"F-friendship?" She stuttered at the sound of it. 

"If what we've been doing last ten minutes is not friendship, then I don't know what is. So, you're drinking or not?"

Lightning Dust analyzed her options carefully. It wasn't often somepony was referring to her as a friend. In fact nopony did that in a very long time, yet here she was, talking casually with a stallion that surprised her many times past few days. In a good way at that. She smiled and grabbed her glass.
"Ah why the hell not, to friendship!" She rose her glass up.

"And victory!" He did the same. 

Few sips later, two glasses smacked on the table with an audible thud, while two ponies almost choked on what seemed like gasoline poured down their throats, followed by lighted matches and possibly a jar of industrial glue. For a split second both wondered why this poisonous thing was so valuable and sought after. Then Thunderlane refilled both glasses, still gasping for air.

"I just remembered why I don't like drinking!" Lightning Dust lamented, as she grabbed her glass again, ready to down it in one go once again.

"Don't think of the taste. Remember, it's for friendship!"

"I'm not sure it's worth it."

"It's worth way more than that!" And so he downed another glass, Lightning Dust reluctantly following him shortly after.

This time their throats didn't feel like they were on fire, merely scratching and burning a little bit. And among the misery and tears they could even taste it. Both started wondering if the taste would improve the more they consumed. Thunderlane was already refilling to test that theory.

"Should we, I dunno, bit on an orange with it?" Asked Lightning Dust.

"No, I don't think so."

"Or was it lemon with salt?"

"Why would I eat lemon with salt?"

"I dunno, that's what I heard in college."

"Well too bad, I don't have either."

"Not even salt?"

"Lemons and oranges. I have salt, but I dunno if we should eat it raw..."

The two pondered this idea for a while longer, wondering when the alcohol will actually kick in. So far they felt nothing outside of the awful taste in their mouths. Then again, neither was a drinker at heart. Thunderlane limited himself to only drinking at special occasions, though lately he grew fond of Apple Family cider, if only because it didn't taste like bear piss. Or at least he hoped so.





One glass.

"...and then she's all 'it's all your fault, Thunderlane, so I'll blame you for the shit I keep doing'. That's why we had to beat up snow clouds all week long!"

"Pfft, what a jerk of a boss you have."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it!"

"I have time..."





Two glasses.

"...and he's all, like, going back with smiles and stuff! And he was all 'yo dawg, I just swaggered two filly-foolers'."

"No way!"

"Yes way! He even said '-dary'!"

"Woah... you sure yer not making this up?"

"Woah, are you tellin' me I'm lying?"

"I'm sayin' your drunk!"

"I'm not drunk!" Yer drunk!"

"Yer face's drunk!"

The two looked each other in the eyes, then burst into laughter, as another glass was being refilled.

"So anyway, I'm all like 'gotta be Zebra magic or stuff'..."





Three glasses.

"So, I was wonderin'..." Lightning Dust pondered, as she looked at his direction, but her eyes were locked on a giant, yellow stain on the wall. For a moment she was about to ask about it, but had more concerning matters. "...how is your mohawk still alive, after all this time?"

Thunderlane sighed. It had to come to this eventually.
"You see, I know this guys in Horsetown..."

Lightning Dust's eyes widened, she regretted asking. They both needed more help. In liquid form.





Four glasses.

"And one more thing, Slander Frame."

"It's Thunderlane!"

"Damn! I didn't mean it this time!" She groaned and shook her head, covering in blush.

"Whatever. What do you want to know?"

"Ok, see, this thing you did today... the whish whoosh thing..."

"Whish whoosh?" Eyebrow raised.

"What's it even called? Turning into a lightning bolt and flying at mach... 3 or 4, I guess? Maybe more?"

"I didn't 'turn' into lightning. Just got a bit too, well, thunderized?"

"Thunderized?" Another eyebrow raised.

"What I mean is..." he coughed, trying to compose himself enough to form a proper explanation for phenomenon he had very little experience with. Unlike Lightning Dust, he was pretty sure he was already drunk, but details like that never stopped him before. "I got hit by a thunder and that gave me super-powers... sort of."

Lightning Dust blinked once. She grabbed her glass to have another shot, but it was empty.
"Rrrrright... so you won because you made a rookie mistake and didn't avoid it in time?"

"Wha... no! Of course not! I LET IT hit me."

When reminiscing this moment weeks later, both agreed they regretted having empty glass then, losing the potential for the most epic spit take this year. Instead, Lightning Dust's reaction was limited to a blank stare and mouth agape. 

"Well, it's official," she calmly announced "you're the biggest moron I ever met. And I've been to college."

"It's not like that! I knew it would work! Sort of..."

"You KNEW getting hit by lightning gives ponies super-powers? Because I don't think pegasi work that way."

"Well I do!"

"Where did you even get the idea? Did you wake up this morning thinking 'gee whiz, I should get some powers, let's have lightning strike me so I'll get a super speed like some stupid superhero' ?"

"First of all, nopony says 'gee whiz'. Ever! Second, he's not stupid! They even gave him a series and it's really good! And third, most important, I knew what I was doing because it happened to me already... once. When I was thirteen."

"Ooookay... if you could do this all this time, then why didn't you win with Rainbow Overrated Dash already, huh?" She asked, trying to look him in the eyes, while he did everything to avoid her glare. "Well?"

It took Thunderlane some time before he finally gave an answer.
"Because... before I could, my parents died."

As expected, the room was now slowly getting filled with silence. Lightning Dust blinked, before slowly burying her face behind hooves.
"Ffffffffffuuuuuuuudge!" She groaned and scratched her head. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."

"Well, it's not something to brag about," he shrugged "don't worry about it. It was a long time ago."

She didn't say anything in response and lost any interest in keeping the eye contact. It was about time to refill their glasses.





Five glasses.

After a longer moment, Lightning Dust was the first one to break it.
"So, what were they like? Your parents, I mean."

"Hm? Well, they were good, I mean..." he coughed "...they were always there, they supported me, but were kinda strict, especially when I did something stupid. Which was a lot. I miss them, but I moved on. I have more important things to do than mourn."

Lightning Dust took a while to reply.
"Good to hear. You were a lucky pony then. Unlike some other." She sighed, locking her sight in the once again empty glass. Thunderlane gulped, as could sense a story incoming. 
"My parents were... well, they were strict, to be sure. As in, nothing I did satisfied them, ever. Not smart enough, not funny enough, not pretty enough, not colt enough, not filly enough, whatever that meant, and stuff. And they let me know every single day, usually with words. Sometimes with a rolled newspaper. Or a stick. Until it broke, that is." 

Thunderlane was at a loss of words, as he looked at Lightning Dust talking with relative ease, if not counting the trembling hooves under the table, stomping in a simple rhythm. Meanwhile he tried to imagine her, except in Rumble's age, undergoing through a childhood that was just described to him and before he knew it, his hooves were trembling as well, perfectly complimenting hers, creating an unusual melody together.

Lightning Dust sensed the tension becoming a little too much, so she stopped her hooves and continued, much louder than before.
"So I did them a favor and ran away! They should be thanking me, now they had one less mouth to feed, ain't it nice? Good thing I'm a single foal, made it all easier to just board a random train and forget them. At least, I hope I'm the only foal. Last time I checked I was, but that was, well, then." She shuddered. "Ugh, I'm getting jitters just thinking of them having another foal! Poor little guy. Or gal."

That was about all Thunderlane could stomach. He thought being drunk would make it a lot easier, but apparently it made things even worse. He tried to shake it away and stop the conversation right there, right now, but apparently his brain melted and sudden movements only increased his headaches. 
"Okay, I'm hard enough!" He protested, raising one of his hooves pointing at her to stop, and other to hold his aching head.

"You're that happy to see me?" She teased, giggling.

"S-shut up!" As his mind caught up, he covered in blush and quickly corrected himself. "I mean, I had enough!"

"But I barely begun!"

"I know. And it's too much!"

"Am I boring you?"

"N-no, I'm just..."

"Yo mister, listen to me," she stood up from her seat and leaned over to look at him with her golden eyes "I'm just pouring my soul here, the least you can do is listen!"

"B-but..." He tried to object, but two things stopped her. One, her breath was smelling of tequila, not in a good way. Two, her eyes, as bloodshot as they were, were too hard to resist.

"Don't you but me, mister! I'm talkin' here, so you listen! Yer the second pony I'm telling this, so be honored, damnit!"

He looked at her, too tired to argue anymore, but he had to reach at least a small compromise. 
"All right, fine! But you have to listen to MY story too!"

"Fine!"

"I'm warning you, it's gonna be a sappy one! With tears and stuff!"

"Oh, it's on, buster!"

Their eyes narrowed and locked into each other for a moment. Once they stopped, Thunderlane went back to the bottle and started refilling their glasses, as Lightning Dust was starting to continue her story.
"So anyway, that train took me straight to Canterlot..."





Few glasses later nopony was counting anymore. Treating their tragedies called teenage years as a game of 'one paragraph of my life, then yours', they emptied both the bottle of tequila and their souls of any stories they accumulated over the years.
As they talked, one thing became clear- they weren't that different at all. Not because they were orphans (Lightning Dust only technically, she was a runaway instead) struggling with their lives since childhood, but because they shared a dream. 
He lost it the day the tragedy struck. She got it because of her own tragedy. 
And right now, they were together, a pair of lightweights, smashed after just a single bottle shared among the two.

"C'mon Thundy, one mo'!" She nagged him, as he tried to pour some more liquid courage into their glasses, but failed to squeeze even a drop.

"I'm tryin', but it'sh empty!" He looked up the bottle, wondering where did all the tequila hid itself, resulting in the last drop falling right into his eye. He screamed, dropping the bottle as he tried to rub his burning eye. Meanwhile Lightning Dust didn't even bother to hide her amusement, laughing hard on her seat, barely holding onto it. He could only scowl at her, not even trying to give her a glare, just rubbing the hurt out of his eye.

"So that'sh it," Lightning Dust lamented, looking at the fallen bottle, which thankfully stood intact "t'was a good one!"

"Yeah, it was." He smiled at her, getting a smashed, drunken smile back. "I had fun talkin'."

"Yeah, we should do dis more often!" She nodded, her eyes wandering at the clock by the door, trying to catch it before it flew away. "Damnit Thundy, yer time's running too fast, I can't see where it is!"

Thunderlane looked at the clock as well, but Lightning Dust was right- it was running very fast, neither was able to stop it, so they just assumed it was very, very late. Or early morning, whichever. Thankfully both had a day off next day, so they didn't care.

"Well, I think I gotta go back home... hit the hay... and shtuff..." She announced, slowly taking of the chair. 

As all four of her hooves reached the ground, she swayed to her left, smashing into the table instead, almost smashing her glass in the process. 
"You okay, Dusty?"

"I'm fine, shut up!" She shook her head, regretting it later, as the stone it turned into banged into her skull and gave her severe headaches. She ignored them, along with a nickname she hated, stood back up and took a few slow steps towards the exit. "I'm alright, shut up!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"I'm fine, shut up!" She repeated, still trying to advance a few steps forward, but the door kept relocating and going all the way, like the clock, meanwhile her hooves turned into literal marshmallows. And she didn't like sweets.

Thunderlane sighed and despite the warnings, stood up from his chair. His hooves were also made out of marshmallows, but he endured eating them, as he needed them right now. Not that he would ever eat his own hooves. He had to watch out for wild Pinkie Pie out of nowhere, though. You never knew. With that caution in his mind, he trudged towards Lightning Dust as well, slow as he was.
"Here, lemme help you." He extended his hoof, but was swiftly rejected.

"I don' need yer help!"

She tried to raise her hoof and push him away, but her weakened hooves were no match for a solidly built stallion and so she fell back. In one last act of desperation, she clutched her hoof at first thing she could grab, which happened to be Thunderlane's wing, hoping the stallion would be enough to keep her balanced. Sadly, he was only slightly more stable than she was right now, and having nothing to hold onto himself, he could only try to regain his balance by frantically flapping his other wing in hopes it would be enough. 

It wasn't.

SMACK!

The list of things that hurt both pegasi has been doubled. Not only were they light on their hooves and had severe headaches, now Lightning Dust had an aching back, along with at least a few bones she counted as one crushed, courtesy of an adult stallion falling on her, while Thunderlane on his part now sported a few beaten ribs along with a sprained wing, courtesy of his new drinking buddy who claimed she needed no help. 
He slowly opened his eyes, massaging his aching head. As he lazily opened his eyes, he saw the turquoise mare right under him, one blushing face looking at another equally blushing one. His first reaction would be to get out of the way, apologize, help her up, apologize again and hopefully not get slapped. But he was too exhausted to get up. That, and he couldn't stop looking at her pure golden eyes. She was also staring at him, her only reaction was growing an even bigger blush. 

"U-umm... I-I..." He tried to form a sentence, or at least look away, but both proved to be too hard to do right now.

"Y-you're kinda... heavy..." She slowly said, equally shaken.

"S-sorry."

"S'okay."

Moments passed in silence.

"So..." She started again and coughed "...c-can you get of me?"

"Y-yeah, sorry."

"S'okay."

Another moment passed, but none of them moved a single muscle and just kept staring at each other for a while longer...





Next day, Soarin woke up with a big yawn. Considering he woke up by himself, without help of any alarm clock, he was safe to assume it was weekend already, a news that he welcomed with open heart. His muscles were still aching after yesterdays party, so he felt no obligation to get up just yet. Trying to close his eyes and get back to his dreams proved futile. He sighed and decided to just laze around at least for a few more minutes, maybe hour if possible. He leaned to see outside his window. The weather was only slightly better than yesterday. Instead of a deadly storm that could sink ships, it was just raining, with sun being blocked by dark clouds. In any case this would be called a dreary and boring day, but he couldn't wash the smile from his face. Not after last night.
Part of the reason he didn't wish to get up just yet, was because he had no heart to remove the light blue hoof wrapped around him, or disturb the amber maned mare, whose head was resting on his chest. He smiled at her and gently stroked her head. 
He grew rather fond of Cloud Kicker at the race. Sure they didn't agree to a few things, but he couldn't hold a grudge to her, especially after all the fun he had commentating along with her, finding her to be a fun mare to be around. He met her at the Pinkie party later, once she was done with the business side of the event and then things happened as they usually did and before he knew it, they were back home where the magic happened. 

She woke up few minutes after him, slowly opening her eyes and looking him, both smiling.
"Good morning." He welcomed her.

"Mornin'." She answered lazily, yawning. "So, is this the moment when you ask me why I'm still here?"

"What, you don't want to stay for breakfast?"

"Hmm," she hummed "ok, but only because you asked so nicely." She leaned toward him and gave him a kiss at the cheek, then got back to resting her head on his incredibly warm and comfortable chest.

The two spent the next few minutes in complete silence, neither sleeping nor moving, just relaxing on a very good Saturday morning, unaware it was already afternoon. Their pleasant silence was disturbed by the noise coming from the hallway. At first they thought it was Cloud Chaser and Flitter 'going at it' again and contemplated on 'accidentally' disturbing their together time. But as the noise got louder, turned out that among the hoofsteps was a sound of conversation. Two of the voices were obviously his sexy roommates, but the third one was definitely more masculine.

"I told you, you can't barge into our house like that... hey, I'm talking to you!" The voice belonged to Cloud Chaser and got progressively louder.

"It's an emergency, let me through!" The male voice was muffled and fairly weak, but very familiar to both of them.

"No, don't..."

The door slammed open, revealing the all familiar black pegasus with the ever present mohawk, though a little too messed up than usual.
"Soarin, I really, really need your he--..." He stopped mid-sentence as his brain registered the view he just witnessed. His friend, along with his co-worker, sharing the same bed, early in the morning, together, under the same blanket, both looking at him weird. "I-I-I-I..."

"Hi Thundy!" Cloud Kicker awkwardly waved to him, receiving a confused wave back.

"To be fair," Soarin started "are you really THAT surprised?"

Thunderlane rose his hoof and was about to say something, but decided against it and shook his head.
"No, not really." He took a moment to scratch his head. "A-anyway, I really, really need to talk."

"I dunno, can it wait a moment?"

"Please!"

Soarin was finding it harder to decide. On one hoof, a very pretty mare at his hooves length, on other a friend in need, with a face terrified of something other than a simple view of his best friend with his employee. His head went from one to the other, until Cloud Kicker stopped him.
"Just go," she said "he needs you more than I do right now."

Soarin smiled and nodded gratefully. They parted with a kiss, before Soarin stood up from the bed and guided Thunderlane towards his office. They passed by confused Flitter and Cloud Chaser, both of whom were wise not to ask too much questions. 

"So," they saw Cloud Kicker walking towards the two mares "what's for breakfast?"

They blinked and looked at each other, then at the mare in question.
"Kicky, it's 2 PM." Said Flitter.

"Oh." Cloud Kicker scratched her head. "What's for dinner then?"