Pardon My Dust

by Piccolo Sky

Second Segment

All thoughts of caution toward maintaining stamina before the sun got too high left Rainbow Dash's head and, apparently, Lightning Dust's as well. The two pegasi were now in a straight-up race as they blazed across the dunes of the San Palomino desert. The only time either of them paused was to look at the other one, but they soon discovered that, give or take a few inches every now and then, the two were effectively flying in parallel. Now either one was pushing themselves harder with the hope that the dryness and the increasing heat from the rising sun would make the other give out of exhaustion first. Yet twenty minutes in neither of them were giving.

"Heh, just as good as the academy!" Dust called out to her finally, "I thought you'd have gotten faster since becoming a Wonderbolt!"

"Ha! Think I need to try my best just to whip you in a race?" Dash shouted back.

Dust didn't answer, focusing ahead again. Dash wouldn't admit it, but she didn't want to waste the energy bantering more either.

About five minutes later, the first markpoint came up. As it was too dry for clouds in the desert normally, the pegasi had, for once, relied on magic in conjunction with the oases within the San Palomino desert to create rings of lasting fog. There was one over the small pool of water bounded by two small shrub-like trees just up ahead. As it came into view, both pegasi dove down together for it. However, when they finally struck the ring, Dust inched forward just enough to cross through first.

She laughed as they headed back into the air. "Check it out! Did you catch me hitting a new record for fastest time ever to the first markpoint, 'Lamebow' Dash?"

Frowning and looking a bit angrier, Dash paused only long enough to orientate herself toward the next markpoint before devoting her full attention to flying faster. Dust wasn't able to relish her victory for very long as she still found herself neck-and-neck with the other pegasus, and the harder she flew the more that Dash matched her. Both were beginning to feel straining in their wings as the sun rose higher and the heat began to come up to bear, but both ignored it and kept pushing.

About thirty minutes later, the second markpoint, which should have taken them over two hours to get to, showed up on the horizon. Both tore for it as fast as they could, but, as sweat began to burst on both of their brows, Dash applied a burst of speed and used it to dive early. Seconds afterward she passed through the markpoint first and was back in the air again.

"Ha! Well who's gonna care about the best time on the first markpoint when you still end up trailing me for the rest of the race?" she forced herself to shout back, in spite of breathing a bit heavier, "Lightning Dirt?"

Her own face tightening in anger, Dust flapped after her more fiercely; never easing off full speed for an instant.

The next leg of the race was the farthest, and by now the sun was getting rather high and the day distinctly warm. The dryness and the heat were no longer unmistakable, and both of them were beginning to feel the strain. Under a normal race, the two of them would have long since leveled off to conserve stamina, but by now neither of them were thinking about the race anymore. They were spending about as much time glancing at each other to see how they were doing as they were flying onward.

Both were so obsessed with beating one another that they both failed to notice something on the horizon to west. Yet finally, around halfway to the next markpoint, Dash caught it out of the corner of her eye. Dust soon followed suit.

A solid wave of low-lying "clouds" was sweeping across the desert and coming in fast, threatening to cut right in front of their path. One look at them made it clear to the pegasi that this was no normal set of rain clouds. Neither was it any sort of thunderstorm. In this part of Equestria, it could only be one thing.

"Sandstorm!" Dash exclaimed.

"The weatherponies must have not expected any of the racers to get here so soon!" Dust shouted.

Dash began to grow nervous. Some pegasi were brave enough to go into tornados or thunderheads, but none were foolish enough to try going into a sandstorm. Sand would get blasted into your feathers, eyes, and mouth and send you to the ground in an instant or, barring that, could smack you around senseless and then carry you for miles. And she had been so focused on Lightning Dust she hadn't seen how fast it was coming in. From the moment she spotted it, she realized she only had a minute before it crossed their path.

She glanced forward, then to the rapidly-closing storm, and forward again. She winced at the sight. "Darn it...it'll be a pain to try and fly over it, but I don't think we can make it before it crosses our path!"

Dust glanced forward and to the side as well, seeming to reach the same conclusion. Yet on looking back at Dash, she gave a devilish smirk.

"Well, you're the Wonderbolt here." Abruptly, she veered to the side, taking advantage of Dash slowing with her distraction, and broadsided her. "Let's see you take care of it!"

The impact was sharp and jarring, and Dash gaped as she flew wild to one side for a moment. She stabilized quickly enough, but the blow hadn't been light and she was still sore afterward. She wheeled on Dust angrily.

"Hey! That hurt!"

An instant later, she flew up and broadsided Dust even harder, actually making her cry out a little as she was knocked out the other way. She stabilized herself as well with a bit more difficulty and glared furiously at Dash. "Oh no, that didn't hurt...this did!"

She snapped her body up and gained altitude as she flew at Dash this time, allowing herself enough leverage to lift up a hoof and clonk it down on her head. Dash went wall-eyed a moment as she was knocked out of the sky a considerable distance, but on recovering she snapped her head up and bared her teeth. "Back to your old tricks again, Lightning? How about I see how good I am at them?"

Flapping her wings hard, she took back to the sky and drove her head into Dust's abdomen. Her eyes bulged as some of the wind was knocked out of her, and she actually had to stop flying a moment as she was too stunned from the hit. Dash tried to pull ahead in the interim, but she was still dizzy from the first hit and unable. Moments later, Dust recovered only to lose her temper completely.

"Alright, that does it, you goodie little two-shoes!"

She flew forward again, this time slamming into Dash in a side charge and attempting to shove her out of the sky all together. Dash reacted in pain a moment before she grit her teeth and shoved her back just as strongly.

"Bring it on, you thoughtless jerk!"

The two forgot about the storm again as they began to slam into each other repeatedly. They collided several times before they lashed their hooves out as well, catching a bit of wing, body, or face with each strike. They got so into it that they failed to notice their speed dropped to practically nothing, ruining any chance of outrunning the storm or climbing over it.

It wasn't until the shadow of the cloud began to fall over them both that they finally paused and looked up, only now noticing the roar of the approaching sand and dust coming over them. They pushed away from each other, but by then it was far too late. An instant afterward, both pegasi were enveloped by the storm. Both only had a moment to cry out once before they felt themselves violently thrown into one other far more sharply and roughly than either had managed before now, and immediately afterward both were swept away into the sandy gale.

---

When the sand storm had finally passed, one could hardly tell it had ever been there in the first place considering the barren desolation of the landscape. It was just as untraceable and featureless as it had been before.

Suddenly, one of the smaller dunes erupted as Rainbow Dash, coughing and gasping, burst out from it covered with sand. A few seconds later, only a short distance away, another dune erupted as Lightning Dust did the same. For a few moments, both of them merely hacked and choked as they struggled to recover. They shook to clear sand out of their eyes and manes before tilting their heads and struggled to knock it out of their ears as well. As soon as both recovered, they looked around and spotted one another.

Both of their faces to creased in anger again.

"You big oaf! Look what you did!"

Both of their eyes widened on seeing they had both yelled that at the same time.

"What I did?!" Dash echoed back. "You're the one who picked that fight with me!"

"Only because you're the one who joined the race just to make sure that I wouldn't win it!" Dust retorted.

"Because you kept bragging about how you were going to unseat a Wonderbolt from holding the record!"

She scowled and rolled her eyes. "Whatever... I just hope you didn't just make me lose any chance of nailing that record now. I've got to get back in the race..."

Dash looked incredulous. "Are you kidding me? You just got us swept into that sandstorm and you still only care about winning that race?"

Dust didn't answer as she fully stood up and looked around. She groaned again. "Just great... That storm blew me completely off course! There's no landmarks anywhere!"

"Well, duh," Dash muttered as she got out of the sand as well, "this is a desert. Only thing to do now is fly around and try and find one... Better get started..."

She stretched out her wings to take off, only to instantly cry out. "Ow!"

Turning to her left wing, she saw it was slightly crooked and not fully extending. She tried to straighten it, only to wince in pain.

"Oh, great! My wing's busted because of you!" She glared daggers at the other pegasus. "...Again!"

Dust smirked at her misfortune. "Maybe that'll teach you to stay out of my way next time! Later!" She extended her own wings to take off, only to cry out as well the moment she did. "Ow!"

Turning her head, she saw that her own right wing was in the same shape as Dash's: slightly crooked and forced to collapse.

Now it was Dash's turn to smirk. "How do you like another pegasus hurting your wing for a change?"

She grit her teeth angrily. "Well this is just great! Now we're both stuck in this desert because of you!"

"Hey! We're here because you're the one who bumped me first!"

"That was just a little tap! Besides, I only did it because you wouldn't lay off! You didn't even want to join the Atacanter Crossing until you knew I was going to be in it!" Dust began to walk up to her. "What pony joins a race just to make sure another pony doesn't win?"

Dash began to step up as well. "Somepony who's loyal to the Wonderbolts and wants to protect their reputation! Which is something you'd never understand or care about!"

"Well if being loyal means getting yourself stuck in the middle of a burning desert, then count me out!"

The two came to a halt, practically snout to snout and glaring at each other. They stared for a few fateful moments.

Finally, Dash exhaled and calmed first, stepping back and turning away. "Well...this isn't gonna get us out of here, so we better get moving."

Dust snorted. "What...'moving'? Pft. I'm not going anywhere."

Dash wheeled back to her. "Are you nuts? You can't just wait out here!"

"Why not? I'm more likely to be found if I stay put rather than wander off aimlessly. And if I spot the other racers, all I'll need to do is go the same way they're going."

"That's crazy! We could be miles away from the other racers! And it could be days before they even realize we aren't still in the race!"

"Then I'll just take it easy until my wing's good enough to fly on again."

Dash rolled her eyes. "Uh, yeah...and when'll that be? Before you dehydrate, starve, or get roasted by the sun? It's already getting hotter."

She glared back at her. "And wandering the desert getting ourselves more lost is so much smarter? Do you have any better ideas?"

Dash frowned. She looked around herself for a few moments, then to the two of them. She glanced at her own body, seeing her intact wing and her injured one. Then she looked at Dust, seeing her intact wing and her injured one. She noticed they were opposites.

The mere thought made her wince. "Just one...and I don't like it."

---

A few minutes later, Dust was baring her teeth so hard she was practically hissing as Dash ruefully finished using the ties for their numbers to lash themselves together as best as she could. "This is lame. I've never heard of two pegasi that even like each other pulling it off...let alone one pegasus that hates the other one's guts."

"Well, the feeling's mutual, but if it's this or being stuck in a desert I'm willing to go with this," she grumbled as she finished tying. She exhaled and extended a wing. "Alright, follow my lead..."

"Um, why do we need to follow your lead again?" Dust retorted. "This isn't Wonderbolt Academy anymore."

"Well, between the two of us, I'm the one who's the professional Wonderbolt."

"Oh, that's right. And since I'm not a Wonderbolt, that means I don't have to listen to you. I'm the one who's practiced desert takeoffs." She began to extend her own wing. "Let's follow my lead."

She immediately began to flap, causing Dash to be yanked to one side and nearly off balance. Quickly, she struggled to flap her own wing to keep up, but it was irregular, and the two clumsily lolled one way and the other before, nearly collapsing on themselves, they began to slowly lift off the ground.

"Flap harder!" Dust shouted. "You're not keeping up with me!"

"You're flapping irregularly! We have to synchronize with smaller flaps! Like this!"

She began to flap differently, causing them to begin to roll in air unstably. Dust went wide-eyed.

"Are you trying to do a corkscrew or something? You're not evening out with me!"

"I'm starting out with a gradual hover!"

"You can't take off from this kind of terrain like that!"

"Ugh, you're pulling against my sore wing!"

"Ow, you're grinding into mine!"

The two continued to banter and struggle until they were wavering one way and another in midair, scraping their hooves against the dirt or rolling around 90 degrees. Finally, after fluttering around a bit, they pitched forward suddenly. Both cried out before they smashed themselves face-first into the nearest dune.

Dust yanked her head out first, sputtering and shaking. "That's it!" she snapped, quickly reaching her teeth over to untie herself. "This was a stupid idea to begin with!"

Dash yanked her own head out and shook just as Dust freed herself and began to walk away. "It wouldn't have been if you
had worked with me!"

"Forget it! I'd rather be lost in the sand than be stuck with you all the way back to the start anyway! That sandstorm came in from the west so obviously it blew us to the east. The sun's not fully up yet so if I go that way I should come back across the leg of the trip we were on."

Dash frowned. "Yeah, assuming we're still on that leg after being blown around."

Dust wheeled on her. "Oh, and you know how to survive in this desert so much better than me?"

She opened her mouth, but caught herself. Her angry look turned into a hesitant and nervous one. "Well...uh... My friend told me all about what to do before we got here!"

Dust half-smirked. "Oh really? What'd she say?"

"Uh..."

---

"That sounds like a great idea, Rainbow! I'll start with the race itself! Now, in modern days, the Atacanter Crossing is blah-blah-blah. Each markpoint has a set of fireworks that a racer can blah-blah-blah in case they can't continue so they can get some of the blah-blah-blah to come help. But historically it was much blah. There were these special blahs called blah. Blah-blah-blah are very blah for every blah in addition to blah. Not to mention blah, blah, and also blah. Blah-blah-blah...extremely-long-and-boring-lecture-by-me...blah-blah-blah...Rain Barrel Cactus...blah...water...blah-blah-blah...even-LONGER-and-MORE-boring-lecture-by-me...dreaded Antlions...blah-blah-blah...Daring Do...actually I'm not saying anything about her at the moment but that's all you're thinking about right now...blah-blah-blah...and that's how Cyclone Sky got her record!"

---

Dash shook her head. "Well...I know we're better off if we stick together at least."

Dust snorted. "Get real. I'd never follow you anywhere." She turned and began to walk in one direction.

She only walked a few steps before she realized she heard other hoofbeats behind her. She turned around and saw Dash was trailing her and frowning.

"Then I guess I'm following you. Like I said, we're better off if we stick together. At least we can help each other out if something goes wrong."

"Still always worried about other ponies, huh? Well, suit yourself."

Looking forward she began to walk again. While she still grimaced a bit at the fact she was stuck in this situation, Dash followed.

---

By the time noon came around and then sun was beating down at its worst, neither of the pegasi were doing too well. Both were heaving and panting, sweating profusely, and needing to use their one intact wing apiece as a head covering of some sort as they slowly plodded along.

Dash realized she had pulled up closer alongside Dust, and that she was doing just as badly as her.

She frowned. "I thought you...had been practicing...for this...?" she spoke between pants.

Dust grit her teeth as she kept walking. "I practiced...for staying in the air...not having other pegasi get me grounded...and forced to walk..."

She didn't answer, instead looking forward again. Soon after she blinked. While the expanse around them was mostly just sandy ground with the occasional dune, she noticed a small growth just a bit farther along: a cactus. Specifically one shaped like a tiny little barrel, even ridged in such a way to look like it was made of wood.

She lit up. "Whoa, hang on!"

Dust looked up just in time to see Dash shoot by her and to the cactus up ahead, crouching next to it. She raised the solid part of her hoof and began to knock the spines off of the side. The turquoise pegasus frowned. "What are you doing? That's just some cactus."

"I think this is one of those Rain Barrel Cacti that Twilight was telling me about!" As soon as most of the spines were clear, she grabbed the entire plant and yanked it off of the ground. "If it is, that means we can get water out of it!"

Her hoof struck the top of it, knocking it open like it was a notch on a can. She held it to her head and kicked it back.

Just as she hoped, a stream of water came out and into her waiting mouth, lighting up her eyes. "Sweet!"

She took another mouthful and swallowed, then held it out to Dust. "Here, take a drink and we can save the rest for later."

The pegasus took it from her. Dash herself looked forward, wiped her mouth, and got up again. "Alright, hopefully that'll last us until we find another one or some other pegasus looking for-"

She heard a thunk on the ground behind her; cutting her off. Turning around, she nearly gasped.

Dust, smiling a little, was wiping her mouth with a satisfied smirk as the now-empty cactus rolled on the ground away from her. "That really hit the spot, Rainbow. Thanks a lot."

Dash continued to gape, looking between her and the cactus, before fuming. "We were supposed to share that!"

"You were supposed to share that...I never said I would," Dust calmly answered as she walked right by Dash and began to lead the way again. "Looks like one of us is going to be a lot better off today than the other one. Coming?"

Dash grit her teeth and glared at her as she calmly kept walking. Yet fighting and arguing would accomplish nothing now. The deed was done. Instead, she turned to the empty cactus and angrily crushed it in frustration, only to yelp as she ended up sticking herself with one missed spine.

---

As the sun started to lower again, it was still horrendously hot and both pegasi were sweating and breathing hard. The dunes around them were growing higher again, forming small valleys and rifts. Lightning Dust continued to lead the way as they moved in between them, but suddenly came to a stop.

Dash was so tired she nearly ran into her, but stopped just short of shoving her face against her tail. "What's wrong?"

Dust was quiet a moment. "...You know, I was thinking. Since you didn't get as much water as me, I should let you set the pace." She stepped to one side and gestured forward. "Sound fair?"

Dash stared at her in puzzlement, as well as distrust. "What's the catch?"

"Oh, no catch. I'm just fine with letting you lead the way for a while if you're so hung up on sticking with me."

She held a moment, but in the end didn't question it. She weakly smirked, not so much out of appreciation out of a sense of some relief.

"Alright. Sounds good to me." She started walking again, passing her by and walking up ahead into the valley. "Not like I really need it, though. I can get by on just a few sips of water no problem. I wouldn't be much of a long-distance flier if I..."

She slowly trailed off as she realized something.

"Um...is it just me...or is the world rising...?"

Sure enough, the dunes about her seemed to be getting taller. She was baffled only a moment before she realized what that meant. She looked to her hooves and saw that they were steadily sinking into the sand.

"Ah!"

Immediately, she thrashed about madly and wildly struggled to yank herself out of the sand. As a result, she only sank faster.

"I'm sinking! Help!"

She continued to frantically reach out and try to find purchase as she went lower, but her hooves scraped away at nothing but loose sand as she kept going down. Her face filled with desperation and terror, realizing this could be the end...

When, as she got to just below her shoulders, she suddenly stopped. She kept struggling and thrashing about for a moment until, freezing in mid-struggle, she looked down at herself and saw she was partially buried but wasn't going any lower.

Dust looked over it all with a bemused smile. "Huh. So there was a sand trap just up ahead. Doesn't look like it was a deep one, though."

Casually, she hopped from the ground and onto Dash's back, using her as a stepping stone to cross to the other side. Dash herself winced from the pegasus putting her weight on her, and as soon as she landed on the other side looked up twice as angry as before.

"Well, wade on over to the other side and get out already, Rainbow. I want you to stay ahead of me for this part of the trip."

Dash grit her teeth together so loudly they sounded like stone scraping steel.

---

By the time the sun was beginning to set, the two pegasi were both looking rather sore, tired, and dirty in spite of one of them having a bit easier time than the other. The only real difference was that Dash was still upset over both times Dust had used her and was burning holes into the back of her head with her gaze.

The turquoise pegasus had just led them down a slope into a basin of flat ground when she halted. She glanced around at her hooves for a moment. Dash slowed to a halt behind her and frowned.

"So what is it this time?"

"I think we should probably go back and go around."

The rainbow-maned pegasus snorted. "Yeah right. You're just trying to bait me into doing something else to get you an easier time. Well this isn't a sandtrap, so I'm going."

She trotted right past her, causing Dust to look up in alarm. "No wait! Don't stamp your hooves so-"

Just as she said this, Dash's hoof clomped on some of the ground in particular that had teeny, tiny tracks from dozens of tiny legs crossing it. As soon as she did, the ground broke nearby. Dash stopped and look down, and her pupils shrank in fear as she saw a sizable scorpion crawl out. Its tiny red eyes creased in anger as it glared at her. Moments later, the ground cracked all around both her and Dust. She grew terrified as she saw three dozen of them were emerging.

Dust's face sank. "Loud."

A moment later, a unified hiss and what sounded like a "shink" of metal rang out as the scorpions brandished their claws and angled their tails in unison. All of them began to skitter for the two ponies. They tensed up and frantically tried to think of what to do. There was no easy path to get out now and the way they were surrounded they'd be cut off in moments. Finally, Dash noticed one break in their lines that seemed possible to get through.

"Follow me this way!" she called behind her.

An instant later, pushing her already taxed body, she dashed for the gap. The scorpions all spun to her and angrily lashed out with their tails at her hooves as she ran by, but she was too far away for most of them and the few that were close enough narrowly missed her. She tried to keep going straight, looking to the open space on the other side, but before she could get through the ground in front of her burst again. A new scorpion inserted itself right in her path. Crying out in surprise, she quickly pivoted and tore away from it before it could intercept her with its stinger, but she had to leap again soon after as she nearly crashed into three more.

The stall cost her. The rest of the scorpions quickly moved in on the path, now seeing where she was going, and she was forced to wildly hop in order to evade them this time. Worse yet, more scorpions were emerging on the other side, filling up the open ground she was running to. Suddenly, two appeared in her path, cutting her off completely. Wincing, she froze in her place for a moment and glanced about. They were all headed for her and the open ground was almost covered. Having no other choice, she took a deep breath and made a standing jump. Just barely, her rear hooves cleared them and landed safely on the open ground beyond.

She still wasn't out of the woods. She was still surrounded and still in the basin. To get clear of them, she realized she'd have to make another jump right out of the basin itself. She barely had enough running room to make it, and what little she had was quickly closing up, but there was no other way.

Priming herself to move, she glanced behind her briefly to see if Lightning Dust was keeping up, and her jaw nearly hit the ground.

Dust hadn't moved when she told her to follow her. Rather, she had let her run ahead, and now that every scorpion was headed for Dash she was left with a clear path. By now she had easily gotten around them and was leaping out of the basin herself.

The rainbow-maned pegasus was so infuriated she felt like her eyeballs nearly lit on fire with the intensity of her glare. Unfortunately, her rage made her waste precious time as more of her running room was covered up. Looking back down, she quickly pushed the incident out of her head and charged forward as fast as she could to build speed, but she no longer had a good amount of space. She was forced to closer to the scorpions than she wanted to build enough momentum.

When she made her jump, it was just an instant too late. Right before her rear hooves could leave the ground, one of the creatures lashed out and tagged her in the ankle with its stinger.

Dash cried out all the way both from panic as well as pain as she sailed through the air. Nevertheless, while she ended up landing by sprawling out roughly in the sand, the momentum was enough to clear the edge of the basin and anchored her in safety.

She let out a low groan before slowly and tiredly starting to pull herself up again. Yet as soon as she got her legs underneath her, she stumbled and went face-flat into the sand once more. Frowning, she looked at her backside. A swollen red welt was on one of her legs.

"Just great..." she grumbled as she forced her three good hooves underneath her and started to push up, "now one of my hooves is numb... I can't walk on all four legs or fly now!"

While she was already weakened from the day's walk, she slowly managed to push herself up; holding her injured rear hoof limply off the ground. Just as she did Dust walked over to her. Dash turned to see her smiling face and felt her temper boiling more than ever.

"Great job back there," she smirked. "I see how you got to be a Wonderbolt. That diversion you ran was awesome! I didn't have to dodge so much as one scorpion!"

Dash face turned red as the veins in her neck bulged. That was the last straw.

"You really are the worst, you know that? I've never known a pegasus as rotten as you in my life! You got us into this and I've been trying to help you all day, and all you're doing is using me!"

"Oh yeah? Well guess what? For all your 'loyalty' and 'pride in the Wonderbolts', I'm still better off than you! I got more water, I got around the sand traps, and I don't have a scorpion sting to worry about slowing me down now! So who do you think is going to get out of this desert between the two of us?"

Dash began to quiver, almost ready to buck her in spite of not able to afford to waste the energy.

"And you're the one who wanted to follow me to begin with! Just like you joined the race just to keep me from winning! If you don't like what I'm doing, get lost! I never wanted you around me in the first place!"

She turned and began to walk, but Dash wouldn't let her off so easily.

"And you actually have the nerve to still be so bitter about being expelled from Wonderbolt Academy..." she sneered. "You only got yourself to blame for that! You don't care about anypony but yourself! They never would have let a selfish pegasus like you fly with them!"

On hearing this, Dust halted. Suddenly she wheeled around and, to the rainbow-maned pegasus' surprise, her own angry glare was now trumping hers. She held such raw hate that it actually caused her to take a step back.

"No...YOU'RE to blame for me being expelled from Wonderbolt Academy! All that loyalty stuff you care so much about and looking out for other ponies... Spitfire didn't care anything about that! She only cared that I was breaking academy records!"

She started to advance on her, her temper rising further.

"I worked to be a Wonderbolt ever since I could hover! I'd participate in every race I could, spend all night flying laps at the track, do wing strength training until my feathers molted... I wanted it more badly than anypony out there! And what did you do? You ruined me in five minutes! Do you have any idea what it's like to have your dream stolen from you like that?"

Dash was stunned at the outburst. She opened her mouth to answer, but found herself speechless at her last question. In her own case, she had been willing to give up her own dream, but that wasn't the same thing here. Even though she felt Dust was definitely in the wrong and got what she deserved, she thought for a moment about how she would have felt if somepony else had done something that would have ruined her own chance of ever becoming a Wonderbolt. Spitfire hadn't always cared so much about loyalty to comrades either, including after that incident. There was a good chance if she hadn't made that outburst in her office and turned in her wings, Lightning Dust would have ended up being in the Wonderbolt Reserve after all. She might have even been a full Wonderbolt instead of her.

Dust was now close enough to jab one of her hoofs against her chest. "Even if I wanted somepony's help, you are the last pony in Equestria who I'd ever ask for it! I'd rather spend the rest of my life in this desert than that!"

Whirling about, she'd began to storm off again.

Dash watched her go quietly. She was still quite angry at her and now she was stuck on three legs and in pain for the near future. Yet as she stared at the pegasus' back as she walked, that wasn't the only reason she stayed behind.

And she found she wasn't looking at her quite as angrily either.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Yeah, I threw in a "Blazing Saddles" joke. I figured it was fine for a Y-rated show.

Comments

[Ri2]

....Yyyeah, fuck you, Lightning. You're still a pretty terrible pony.

And the fact that Spitfire probably wouldn't have kicked her out for her stunt says volumes about how terrible the Wonderbolts are, too. Why's Rainbow still want to be a part of them?