New beginning.

by zman123

chapter 5

When Ligtning Dust woke up, Twilight was nowhere to be found.
She had gone downstairs to look and when she saw the other ponies gone too, decided to question Starlight who for
sat reading in the library.
Sitting next to her was what appeared to be a small purple dragon, about the height of a few month old filly.

Lightning's first guess as to his name would probably have been very close to Spike, even if Fluttershy had
not told her about him when she introduced Lightning to her friends. The green spikes on his smooth, scaly
back were after all the most particular quality to his visage.

Most ponies who were not firmly acquainted with Twilight and her friends would have almost fainted in shock
at the sight of a dragon, even one this small, living in such close proximity to one such as princess Twilight.
Dragons were by nature, not amiable towards the equine races. They preferred to live with their own race in
their capital, built upon a set of caves around a rumbling volcano, and the more solitary ones went so far as to
confine themselves to mountains and crevasses which they had claimed entirely as their own territory, wasting
no time in brutally mangling any trespassers foolish enough to set foot on their domain. At least that
was what Lightning knew from the time she spent around the captain's table with Spitfire at dinner.

Bittersweet memories, the only relics Lightning had not relinquished from a bygone era.

It took the bravest of knights, or the most foolish of ruffians to try and even set eyes on a dragon, even a
newly hatched one as tiny as Spike, but then Spike was an exception.
According to Fluttershy, Twilight had been tasked with hatching him as part of an entry exam into
Celestia's magic school and since then he had served Twilight wholeheartedly ever since as her only friend
before she came here to study friendship.

The general reaction of any pony upon seeing a dragon, was to either scream and run far, far away or to rub
their eyes to ask whether they were wide awake or dreaming.
Lightning would too, but something made her instead politely wave and greet hello instead.
Spike was Twilight's friend and any friend and by extension Fluttershy's friend.
And any friend of Fluttershy's was also her friend now.

Spike glanced up briefly and was about to respond in kind when he noticed who this was. It seemed to take
a colossal effort from the young dragon not to wave his arm to shoo the new stranger away or to simply
turn his attention back to the book he was reading and pretend this was all an illusion of his mind and
that if he didn't acknowledge Lightning, she would simply vanish and leave him in peace.

But the fit was only momentary and though his distrusting eyes did not soften one bit, he managed somehow
to bade the new visitor welcome in a polite, if somewhat cold voice and to introduce himself as Twilight's
number one assitant and the revered saviour of the Crystal empire twice over.

"It's nice to meet you Spike" replied Lightning happily, but she may as well have replied "You smell like dirt and
make me want to rip my eyes from their sockets because of how ugly you look" for all the difference it made.

Spike clearly did not trust the pony good Rainbow Dash had warned his friends about, and even if Twilight
had told him not to be too hard on this newcomer, a polite greeting was all she would get from him and nothing more.
Twilight could make him tolerate this thug, but to make him actually like her was asking way too much.

Spike contented himself with gesturing at the thick volume he held in his claw.

"Excuse the interruption. I'll leave you to your book." said Lightning as she left him eagerly, sensing
that she was upsetting him.

She walked over to Starlight, and stood patiently waiting while she finished the last page of what
appeared to be a spellbook of sorts from its thickness and elaborately designed spine and bookmarks.

"Fluttershy and the others left on another friendship mission. It's just me here. Breakfast is in the living room
if you want anything."

"That's fine. I'll leave you to your reading."

"Well you know where to find me if you need anything."

Lightning nodded gratefuly and left to seat herself at the royal table, stuffing herself with a hearty
meal of croissants and perfectly grilled fresh fruit crepes garnished with a nectar like sauce, allowing
herself to pretend for a moment that she was not some common scum who had been released early from
her dungeon out of pity so that she might walk among ordinary ponies despite not really being one anymore.

She closed her eyes as she savoured the feast bite by bite, and allowed herself to pretend that this was in
fact her castle and not Twilight's. That she was the Wonderbolt's new leader now and that Spitfire
had stepped down.

But her dream was brief. The ambrosia like meal reached an untimely end when Lightning reached for another bite
to find there was no more and her confident smile reverted to the regretful frown that had long since replaced it.

The next time she had anything to do with the Wonderbolt's was in her dreams and the next time she owned a castle
would be when she was playing monopoly.

Lightning considered her options as she stared sadly at the ground.

Starlight was clearly busy with her reading, not wanting to be disturbed.
Spike clearly wanted nothing to do with her and prefably to be kept at arms length from her.

The others were away for at least the day according to Starlight and as tired as she still was, she did not feel
in the mood to go back to sleep anymore than she did to sit down and read.
She didn't need to be told that touching any of Twilight's books was a big no no from the way Spike had glared at her coldly.

She sighed. The only thing left for her to do was to wander around town.

She had heard good things about Ponyville from Fluttershy and to a lesser extent from old partner Dash.

The mouth watering deserts from Sugarcube corner, the lovely clubs and disco's that were bound to be playing
the hottest tunes even now, and a whole ton of other great things.

But of course these things were not for Lightning to enjoy. Take one step into any club or public gathering and she'd be thrown
out so quickly her mane would catch fire.

But that did not stop Lightning from slipping on a hooded cloak she had found in Starlight's room and from
tiptoeing out into the town, smiling joyfully as she watched from a distance several Pegasi like her about to race each other
around the park.

She stood silently peering from around the corner of a building as colts and fillies played and frolliced without a care in the world
not one pony left behind. This really was the town of friendships, sighed Lightning. Twilight was right to come here.

Beautiful shops, each one filled with more dazzing displays than the last and a schoolhouse sitting cosily in the corner surrounded
by a large playground which must have cost no small fortune to build.

Then she saw the Rainbow Dash fanclub. A small treehouse filled to the brim with ponies of all kinds clad in blue masks
with pained manes made to look just like the Rainbow.
Lightning wanted desperately to walk in with the crowd too and to pay her respects to her good partner.
And if Rainbow Dash was by some chance around, to beg for forgivness.

The same feeling of wanting to join the crowd, returned when Lightning saw Vinyl Scratch's beautiful club, the sound
of the loud metal tunes eminating from it once again managed briefly to revive Lightning's long dead smile.

When Lightning saw free samples of lovely smelling cake being handed out to a line of ponies at sugar cube corner,
she had to fight to resist the urge to rush forward. She too, loved cake.

Cider day. Today had to be cider day. Ponies sat slurping the thick and heavenly treasure down mug by mug.
And today just happened to be cider day.

Lightning could tell that the two ponies who sat pumping cider into mug after mug at the stand were none other that Applejack's
older brother Big Mac and her younger sister Applebloom, who had just recently gotten her cutie mark.

Fluttershy had told her more than she would probably ever admit, but she had clung tightly to every little detail.

Once again Lightning almost teared up as she dashed away stealthily, taking care to keep her hood over her face so that it
was obscured and so that no pony could see who she really was.

Ponyville was a town for nice and friendly ponies, and Lightning was far from a friendly pony.
If the element of loyalty thought this, likely so did every pony else.

Lightning may have been released from jail early, but this did not make her any more of a normal pony.

To herself at least, Lightning was not even a pony but a creature with the appearance of a pony.
A creature that lived beside ponies, never to be accepted as one itself.
A creature that could be treated well or badly, fed or left to starve as the actual ponies saw fit.

So with a heavy sigh, Lightning finished her tour of Ponyville with a quick sip of cider she had managed to salvage
from an empty bench unable to help herself.

She then darted back into Twilight's castle, unnoticed by any pony, replaced her cloak as she found it
and sat by a window on the top floor to pass the time watching the scenery.

She watched as Twilight and the others headed back from their excursion clearly worn with fatigue.
The other ponies gathered in a crowd and cheered as Twilight and Fluttershy told them that another friendship
problem had been solved.

The crowd roared with applause.

It was then that Lightning realised what she would have to do to truly win Twilight's trust. To truly show that
she was more than able to earn her keep.

She would have to convince Twilight to let her go too on the next friendship mission.

A true test of her skills from Wonderbolt's academy was what she needed now to show that she hadn't quite lost her touch.

But if Twilight refused, Lightning would still go.
It was the only way her friendship with Fluttershy's friends would ever work and the only
common ground they would ever find between them.

And for Fluttershy's sake, she had to try and bridge the gap between them.