Beyond the Thousand Year Change: Lightning Dust

by Darthvalgaav

Tests and Crashes

As time moved on, Lightning Dust found herself following a very predictable rhythm. She would wake up at the crack of dawn to begin a workout regimen. While she was in no way out of shape, she felt time she needed to improve her speed seeing that Shiny the jerk had managed to capture her. And no, she wasn’t going to let the excuse of ‘he used magic’ fly with her. She knew that she should have been able to fly out of there so fast that if the guards had blinked then they would never have known what had happened. So, every morning she would do wing push-ups, lifting weights with her wings, and then several high speed laps around Ponyville ending only while she heard Spike calling out that breakfast was ready.

After one of the dragon’s surprisingly good meals, Lightning would spend most of the day working with Twilight unless she had something else to do. Usually it had something to do with her friends or some magical box that a tree gave her…for some reason. Seriously, if this Tree of Harmony wanted to keep them safe after surrendering the Elements, why didn’t it just give them something that didn’t involve trying to locate keys in order to open the thing! Or at least give them a hint on how to locate the keys.

The only other thing Lightning noticed Twilight doing a lot was working on the device that was connected to the mirror. She often did this secretly, when she thought Lightning and Spike were asleep in their beds (thankfully a regular bed and not a crystal one or a basket). Lightning had woken up a few times due to the rustling noise that the purple princess’ wings still made as she went down to the lower level of the library and landing on the ground with a thud noise. With Lightning’s level of skill she was able to silently glide down and follow her down into the basement without being noticed. She only watched Twilight for a few minutes as she worked on something new to add to the mirror before going to bed. However, there were a few times when Twilight would bring out a purple crystal before attaching it to one of the new devices. With the delicate way she carried it, and the way she kissed it from time to time, made Lightning suspect that this was very important. In the end, whatever she was working on was clearly brainiac stuff that didn’t involve her so she didn’t really care. Lightning just shrugged before returning to her bed.

As for when they were working together on the armor, well it wasn’t as exciting as Lightning would have hoped…

“Beginning test number 377,” said Twilight from behind Lightning, who was sitting in the salon like chair with the bowl pressed against her head. “Ok Lightning, I want you to focus on your right side.”

Doing her best not to roll her eyes, Lightning turned her head to the right. There, taped to the wall, was a bright red target. As she focused on this, she could hear paper coming out from the back of her seat as well as Twilight’s hums as she read the readout. And for several long seconds, nothing else seemed to happen. Just like every other time she had done this since she had arrived.

“Ok,” said Twilight finally in a cheerful tone as she walked in front of Lightning who looked back at her with a bored expression. “We are making some real progress! I believe that soon I will have enough information so that we will have the interface system working. Isn’t this exciting?”

“Yeah,” yawned Lightning with a deadpanned expression. “Real exciting.” Oh, how Lightning missed being outside all the time. She missed being active, doing things rather than sitting on her flank. Lightning wished she could do something more exciting, something more in line with what a guard should be doing.

“Oh come on,” said Twilight who refused to let Lightning’s lack of enthusiasm detour her good mood. “Don’t you realize how close we are to completing step one?! Soon, with a mere thought, you will be able to direct and fire your suits weapon systems as well as its other features!”

“No princess, I don’t know,” said a very annoyed Lightning. “All I know is that I have been sitting here in this stupid chair everyday looking at targets you put up around this ‘lab’ while you keep telling me we’re making progress. Except we haven’t!” Lightning then used a hoof to move the dome bowl on top of head out of the way so she could stand. “All we have done is waste our time! Tell me, what does any of this have to do with making armor!? What kind of weapon would need something like this!?”

Twilight looked startled as Lightning began to pant from her outburst. Yet she didn’t back away, something that Lightning would have been impressed by if she wasn’t so upset at the moment. The alicorn just stood her ground as the door leading to the upstairs opened.

“Twilight!” called Spike as he began to run down the stairs. “I heard yelling! Is everything ok?” By this time, Spike was standing between them while looking as if he were willing to become Twilight’s personal shield.

“It’s fine Spike,” said Twilight calmly as she put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. The dragon turned to look at her, leaving his expression hidden to Lightning who watched things unfold. “I should have seen this coming.”

“Twilight, she yelled at you for no reason,” exclaimed Spike before he turned his head to shot Lightning a nasty look. He then crossed his arms, his narrow eyes never leaving Lightning. “After everything you have done for her she-”

“Spike,” interrupted Twilight firmly, getting the tiny dragon’s attention. “I forgot that Lightning is different from the other one. That she wouldn’t realize the importance of what we’re doing and the exciting things that it will lead to.”

“Wait,” said Lightning with an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean by ‘different from the other one’?” That caused Twilight to look up at her and Spike to turn around so he could do the same. Lightning kept her focus on Twilight who was biting her lower lip.

“That’s, uh,” began Twilight as she began to sweat slightly. “A topic for another day. Yes! A topic for another time. For right now we have better things to discuss.”

“Oh no you don’t,” said Lightning as Twilight lit up her horn. “You’re keeping something from me and I want to know what-” Lightning was interrupted as a silver object that looked like a thermos with its cap taken off was shoved in her face. “What is this?”

“So glad you asked,” said Twilight with her voice slightly raised. “This is going to be one of the weapons for your armor. It’s called a blaster.”

Lightning looked at the ‘weapon’ and gave it an unimpressed glance. “Really? This is a weapon? It’s too small to be a cannon and there’s no arrows sticking out of it so it can be a crossbow! And how have the tests I’ve been helping you with connected to this…blaster?”

“Well,” began Twilight with a look in her eyes that Lightning had come to dread. Lecture mode! “For starters, do you know how unicorns fire magical energy blasts?” Lightning shook her head no. “It’s really very simple. All a unicorn has to do is gather up their magic into their horn and focus it while releasing it at the same time. It can be tricky, however, because if something goes wrong the horn can blow up and then you’re in the hospital for three WEEKS MISSING CLASSES AND WONDERING IF YOU MISSED A TEST AND-”

“Whoa Twilight, calm down,” said a slightly alarmed Lightning Dust as she took a step back.

“Yeah Twilight,” agreed Spike as he placed a clawed hand on her side. “You need to let that one go. Remember, you weren’t the only one who messed up that spell. Half of the class had to have their horns repaired so classes were put on hold. It was like a mini holiday.”

“But I shouldn’t have messed up Spike,” said Twilight as she rolled her eyes. “I was Princess Celestia’s student. I had bigger expectations.”

“That you put on yourself,” remarked Spike.

“So,” began Lightning as she placed a hoof on the device. “Nice to know how magical beams work and all that, but what do they have to do with this thing?”

“Oh,” blinked Twilight as she returned her focus to Lightning. “Simple. The blaster is basically going to give you the same thing. Think of it as an artificial unicorn horn, firing off energy blasts once enough power has been stored into this chambers. Or, if you like, its a cannon that will fire pojectiles the size and accuracy of arrows but with the force of a cannon ball.”

Lightning blinked at this information. “What?” was all she could say.

“Well the part we are working on right now is to control this,” said Twilight as she moved the blaster back and forth. “Once we get it all sorted out, you will be able to move the blaster, pick a target, and then fire concentrated energy at said target all with your mind.” Lightning saw Twilight open her mouth to continue talking, but the pegasus moved directly in front of her so that their eyes were mere inches apart.

“That. Sounds. Awesome!” said Lightning, hyping each word before stepping back. “Why didn’t you say you were making me into a warrior alicorn? This is like the best thing ever! I’ll be blasting enemies like ‘bwee’ ‘bwee’ ‘bwee’ and they’ll like ‘aaawwwww’ and then…”

“Well not exactly like that,” admitted Twilight as she talked over Lightning. However Lightning was no longer listening. She was up in the air, pointing her hooves at objects in the lab and making booming noises while she imagined them blowing up. She couldn’t believe that this was what was going to happen! It suddenly made all that boring sitting around seem almost worth it if she could wear armor that would let her do that kind of stuff.

“Well what are we waiting for!” exclaimed Lightning as she zoomed back to her seat. “Let get this thing going!”

-x-

“Now remember what we talked about Lightning,” said Twilight for what felt like the hundredth time as she finished securing a few straps across the pegasus’ barrel. Currently Lightning was wearing what looked like a black spandex vest over her upper body. Several straps had been added to keep Twilight’s blaster in place on her right side. She was also wearing a metal cap that had several dozen thin wires running out of it and into the blaster.

As Twilight continue to talk, Lightning was doing everything in her power to keep her hooves on the ground that was part of the apple orchard that was Sweet Apple Acres. However, this proved to be difficult due to the fact that for the last several weeks since Twilight had told her about what the armor would hopefully do, she had dreamed of nothing else. Ever since that day, Lightning had done everything in her power to help Twilight along with this project. She knew that the faster the princess worked, the sooner she would be able to try out this new toy.

After they finally finished mapping Lightning’s brain waves, they began to train her to move the blaster with her mind. Like before, she sat in her chair and was told to focus her attention on various targets Twilight had placed around the room. What was different was the blaster was hooked up to the chair as well. Each time Lightning focused on a target and it didn’t move, Twilight began to check the machine, the connections, and so forth before they tried again. This proved to be very time consuming with Lightning sitting in her seat for hours before they were ready to try again. It took six whole days before the blaster could move.

While those tests continued, Twilight began to check out various types of metals she could use to make the armor. She wanted something sturdier than the standard stuff they used so she began to order small samples of metals. Once they began to arrive, Twilight would halt the testing with the blaster to ask Lightning fly around with each sample. Then, when Lightning would land, Twilight would begin to ask her various questions that would determine if the metal would be used or not. So far all of the metals they had looked at were simply too heavy. Sure, they would protect Lightning from most attacks, but they would hinder her ability to fly. And that was something that didn’t sit well with either of them.

“Lightning!” shouted Twilight, causing the pegasus to jump slightly. “Are you paying attention?”

“Ahhh,” was all Lightning could saw as she looked into the tired and annoyed expression of her princess. It was clear to her that Twilight was pushing herself to do everything. From making the armor, her secret mirror project, and spending time with her friends Twilight was trying to do it all. In fact, Twilight had just returned from Rainbow Falls to see in Ponyville would be able to qualify for the Aerial Relay in the Equestria Games. And, as she could tell just by looking at her heavily lidded eyes, Twilight Sparkle was suffering from travel exhaustion.

In a way, it was because of this that had caused Lightning Dust to respect Twilight. Twilight was driven to do the things that mattered to her, giving it her everything. Lightning never liked ponies who half-flanked things, quitting when the job became too much or not even trying to see what they could really do. The best had to give it their all; it didn’t matter if you were a racer or a princess.

And Lightning was going to give this job her all as well.

During the time Twilight had been gone; Lightning had been sent to Canterlot to get some weapons training from Captain Shadow Blade. Personally, Lightning really like the bat stallion much more than Shiny the jerk. Rather than have her do standard drill with everypony else, the close combat expert had come up with a something tailor made for her. He showed her how to use her speed in combat, so she could take down several enemies before they blinked. When she left, he had written down several exercises that he wanted her to practice on while she was back in Ponyville that would serve her well.

It was hearing Twilight’s tired sigh that brought Lightning back to the situation at hoof. “Ok, one more time,” said the tired princess. “Since I haven’t figured out a proper power source that won’t weigh you down, I have the blaster connected directly to your pegasus magic.”

“This is going to be awesome!” exclaimed Lightning as she began to focus on a tree to her right. Slowly, the blaster pointed itself in the right direction causing Lightning to feel a slight tingle throughout her body. It was an odd sensation, but she still managed to smile with wicked confidence at the thought of what she could do with this weapon.

“This is just a test run,” stated Twilight as she stepped into the path of the blaster. “I want to see how long you can go flying around while blasting several targets I’ve set up around the farm. It’ll give me a good idea if this is a practical option. The moment you feel like you’re getting weak or something feels off, I want you to return to this spot. Is that understood?”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Lightning as she saluted Twilight with a wing. “I read you loud and clear. Now, can I please try this bad boy out? I’ve been waiting for an eternity.”

“Well I suppose so,” said Twilight, with a hint of hesitance in her voice. However, Lightning didn’t care for she was in the air as soon as Twilight finished her sentence.

As she soared through the air, Lightning took in a deep breath of fresh apples ready to be picked before she began to look for her first target. Her eyes began to scan the ground and the trees as she zipped around so fast that she was a blur leaving behind her trademark zigzag pattern. Then, soon enough, Lightning spotted a wooden bucket with a target painted on its side.

Smirking, Lightning focused on the center of the target and willed the blaster to fire. Once more she felt the tingle as the blaster moved followed by something else. It was like a draining sensation that was almost impossible to put into words. She suddenly found herself moving slower as a blast of light green energy fired from the blaster. With her eyes open wide, Lightning watched as it hit the side of the bucket rather than the center like she had wanted. Still, the bucket was destroyed, bits of it flailing into the air before falling back to the earth below.

“I guess that wasn’t too bad,” muttered Lightning before she spotted another target. “Ok, let’s see if I can’t hit a bull’s-eye!” Once more Lightning focused on another bucket with a target painted on it. Like before, she felt the tingle and the draining sensation as she moved slower. There was another blast of green energy that flew in front of her decelerating body only to miss the target completely. As she flew over the spot, Lightning saw that there was a deep indent in the ground that looked completely scorched.

Lightning let out a growl as she felt sweat appearing on her brow at a rate that should have alarmed her. However, the mare ignored it as her eyes narrowed; pushing past the exhaustion she was suddenly feeling as while looking for another target. She knew she had focused her aim perfectly. Everything seemed to be working fine so what was the problem? Why was she missing like this?

“Lightning!” called out Twilight, her voice being magically amplified so that it could carry across the orchard. Lightning turned her head to glance behind her to see the princess hovering above the trees while looking in her direction. “I’m noticing a rapid decrease in your speed. Head back towards me.”

Lightning knew she was moving slower than ever. Looking below her, she would now make out each and every leaf on the trees which, when she had started, had been nothing more than a blur to her. Her wings ached and sweat was now dripping off from her hooves. Not even the Wonderbolts Academy had caused her to feel like this even after a long day’s training. This from only firing the blaster twice. Perhaps it would be best to do what Twilight said.

As Lightning turned around, ready to return to Twilight, she spotted something just up ahead. Three buckets with the target symbol right next to each other in a neat little row. There they were right then, ready to be blasted to bits. Ready to be destroyed by the blaster on her back. Despite how tired she was feeling at the moment, she knew she could do a little bit more. Maybe one or two more shots. Besides, didn’t Twilight need all the data she could get? Two shots hardly seemed like enough info. Yeah, more is always better! And this was for Equestria after all. You had to give it your all and then some!

Grinning slightly, Lightning took aim at the center bucket while trying to fly as fast as she could. She could hear Twilight calling out her name, but Lightning tuned it out. Right now she needed to focus on the only thing that mattered, taking aim and then firing. As the blaster moved the tingling sensation returned, but now it was almost painful. Heart beating a little faster now, Lightning pushed through it so that she could focus everything on firing. There was another draining sensation, causing Lightning to feel her eyelids become heavy. As the green energy left her blaster, Lightning’s body became sluggish. She became aware of how badly she was panting and feeling light headed. It was becoming difficult to keep her wings flapping and her eye open.

Lightning could now barely see anything as she felt gravity pull her downwards. Her eyelids had grown so very heavy, it was taking an effort to keep them focused on the buckets. Off in the distance, she thought she heard Twilight yelling something but it was too far away for her to make out what she was saying. As the ground drew closer, Lightning saw the energy blast hit one of the buckets yet only singeing it a bit. Internally, Lightning swore before her head impacted something hard. And then everything went black.

-x-

“-told you that mare was reckless,” came a voice, rousing Lightning back to the waking world. Slowly the mare opened her eyes, only to wince in pain. She slowly opened them again, mindful of the bright lights and the white colored walls. She tried to move her head, but at the moment her body felt like it had been dipped in bronze, refusing to move an inch. She knew she was on her side for directly in front of her was a nightstand like the ones they have in a hospital. There was a tray of food there as well as several colorful ‘get well cards’.

Moving her eyes around, she noticed a door that was open just a crack. Most likely that was how she had managed to hear the mare speaking. Looking through the crack, Lightning could see a blue uniform that looked just like the one a Wonderbolt officer wore.

“I’m just relieved that the doctors say she’ll make a full recovery,” came the familiar voice of Twilight. Even as tired as she was, Lightning could still make out the weary traces mixed into the warmth of her voice.

“What about the weapon?” said the first voice, Lightning now recognizing the hoarse tone that belonged to Spitfire. “Is there any chance you can salvage it? Repair it with your magic?”

“I’m afraid not,” replied Twilight as Lightning felt guilt wash over her entire being. “As I stated in my report, the blaster took a nasty fall along with Lightning. When she hit the tree, it must have come loose because it landed on a few jagged rocks.”

“That is…regrettable,” said Spitfire slowly.

Regrettable was an understatement and Lightning knew it. All of Twilight’s hard work was destroyed because of her. If she had just listened to her when she had called her back then she wouldn’t have to remake the darn thing again. If Lightning hadn’t tried to make that shot, then she wouldn’t be in this bed. But at least she was ok and, according to Twilight, would make a full recovery. Yet, it didn’t make her feel as good as she thought it would. All she could think about was how she let Twilight down.

“So what do you plan to do with you ‘guard’?” asked Spitfire after a while. Lightning would have cringed if she had the strength. She knew this was the part where Twilight would toss her out on her sorry flank. There was no way that she would forgive her after something like this.

“Well first off I have some questions for her once she’s gotten enough rest,” began Twilight. “I need to know what exactly happened out there so that we can prevent something like this from happening again.”

Lightning blinked in confusion. From the way it sounded…

“That sounds like you aren’t tossing her out on her flank,” said Spitfire angrily. “Princess, I read the report you submitted. In your own words you said that Lightning was not paying attention to you and, when ordered to return to you, she deliberately disobeyed that command.” There was a pause that made Lightning gulp. “Princess, there is a reason I blacklisted her from any division of the E.U.P. Think what could have happened in you hadn’t had the foresight to make sure the area was clear. She could have crashed into one of the farm ponies who worked in that orchard or blasted one of them by mistake. This project is far too important to allow her to have any part in it, even if it’s just getting you hot chocolate! Look, if you really want a pegasus to be a part of this I know of a number of capable Wonderbolts who you can replace her with.”

“You mean, like how you tried to replace Soarin’?” asked Twilight harshly.

There was another long pause and when Spitfire spoke again it sounded like she was barely keeping her anger in check. “Are you going to throw that into my face again?! Lecture me about what I did and-”

“No Captain,” said Twilight in such a commanding voice that it stopped Spitfire in her tracks. “I see no point if discussing that ordeal ever again. You learned a lesson from that and I believe that Lightning Dust deserves the same chance so she can be a better pony.”

“And if she makes the same mistake and somepony else pays for it?” snarled Spitfire. “Like one of your friends or one of their little sisters?”

“Then I will share the blame with her,” said Twilight. “And take responsibility alongside my friend.”

There was another pause before Lightning saw Spitfire turn around. “I will be giving Princess Celestia my own report on this matter. Perhaps I will be able to get her to see reason.” And with a fluttering of wings, Spitfire took off.

For a moment, Lightning continued to lay there as so many emotions ran amuck inside of her. Anger at Spitfire as well as a sense of validation at the fact that she had been blacklisted from getting a job within the Royal Guard. Heck, at the time Shiny the jerk had been Captain of the Guard and would have seen it, allowing it to color his opinion on somepony as awesome as her. There was relief that she was not being kicked out of her new home within the library and was happy that Twilight was giving her another chance. She felt worried for Twilight, hoping that Princess Celestia wouldn’t be too hard on her.

Then…there was something else. Something that Lightning couldn’t place a hoof on. It was something warm and refreshing that came deep inside her when Twilight not only stood up for her, but also called her a friend. She had, of course, had friends before. But none of them had ever done anything so touching for her. She felt like she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time which made no sense to her. And, oddly enough, she suddenly found herself feeling a thousand times worse for messing up.

“Lightning! You’re awake!” cried Twilight who Lightning just noticed was standing in front of her. Strange, she had been so lost in her own emotions she hadn’t heard her come in.

“Yeah,” was all Lightning was able to say as she tried to sit up. Tried being the key words for it was next to impossible to even try and lie on her back. No matter how much she grunted, groaned, and gritted her teeth Lightning still found herself unable to move.

“Lightning, please stop,” said Twilight quickly as she looked down on the pegasus with a worried expression. “The doctors believe that you depleted your pegasus magic too much too quickly, causing your body to shut down like this. Later today they’re doing to try and use a few spells that should help you recover. If all goes well you should be out in a few days. Of course there’ll be some follow ups after that.”

“Right,” breathed Lightning, feeling helpless.

“If there is anything I can do, just let me know,” said Twilight as she tried to smile. Oddly enough, it didn’t have the effort she was going for. Instead of it making Lightning feel better it only made her feel worse.

“Twilight,” said Lightning as she looked up at her princess while feeling something burning in the back of her throat. Like that wad of cotton she had tried to swallow as a filly. “I-I’m so sorry. What I did back there was stupid. I…I really let you down after everything you’ve done for me.”

Silence feel between them, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock. Lightning waited with baited breath for Twilight to begin laying down the law on her. To rub her mistakes in her face in the hopes that Lightning would learn her lesson. To threaten if she ever did anything like that again she would be back in that dumb crystal prison. To use her magic in order to cause her more pain. In the end, however, what she said was something Lightning would never have expected.

“It’s ok Lightning,” said Twilight.

“B-But aren’t you angry?” demanded Lightning, her voice somewhat timid and confused. “I set you back so much. Because of me the blaster was destroyed and you’ll have to build another one! Y-You might even get in trouble with Princess Celestia.”

“I’m not angry, just slightly disappointed in you,” replied Twilight firmly. “Lightning, the work we have done will continue. The blaster can be rebuilt. There will always be new data and upgrades we can do. But there is one thing that can never be replaced and that is you. There will ever only be one Lightning Dust in this world. So in the future, try not to be so reckless with your life.”

Lightning gulped as best she could as her throat suddenly became very dry, her eyes feeling like they were going to tear up. For the moment, she found herself unable to form any words as she looked at Twilight for what seemed like the first time in so very long. The purple princess looked beyond tired. There were dark lines under her eyes and it looked like she was doing her best to stay awake. Yet despite that, she looked more relieved than anything.

“I…I promise,” said Lightning sincerely.

“Good,” replied Twilight with a weak smile. “Now then, I want you to get some rest. I promised Spike he could have the next two weeks off so you’ll be taking over his duties. Think of it as your punishment for what happened during the testing.”

Lightning managed a smile herself, happy that she had lost neither her home nor her friend.

Comments

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

Interesting use of powering the blaster that makes sense

[Hye]

The last part of this was adorable and heartwarming!