Stars in the Sky

by Book_Wyrm

Lightning

Chapter 10

It was raining. The storm pounded outside as Starry and her friends sheltered in a cave near the road. Water poured from the sky and thunder boomed. At times, forked white bolts of lightning arced across the sky. The clouds were a deep gray, covering the sun and coating the land in a shadow.

Amethyst and Shadow sat at the mouth of the cavern. Starry wandered over to join them. “It’s so wet and dreary,” Amethyst commented when she approached.

“Now, don’t act like that,” Starry chastised, somewhat mockingly. In all seriousness, she added, “The rain isn’t all bad. Ponies used to say such things of the night, too. Look where that got us.”

“But there is no alicorn of the rain,” Shadow grumbled. Don’t be so sure of that, Starry thought. She sighed.

“Didn’t you play in the rain when you were little?” She smiled at them, “We all do that, and have a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, but the thunder always frightened me,” Amethyst insisted.

“Don’t look at the rain and see only the bad things,” Starry told her, her. “When you only see the bad things, life loses its meaning. Look for the good things: the rhythm of rain on the roof, the feel of letting it pour down on your face as you laugh, the joy of splashing in the puddles as a child. Keep those things in mind, and the world will seem a little brighter.”

“Huh?”

“What I’m trying to say is, don’t feel so sad. There’re plenty of good things about the rain.” Starry trotted out of the cave, getting splashed thoroughly by the drip from the overhang. Lightning flashed, and Starry laughed. “Oh, you want to play now, don’t you?” She dashed out onto the empty field, grassland spreading before her.

“Is she trying to kill herself?” Shadow asked.

“I’m honestly not sure this time,” replied Mystic from the back, “I’ve never seen her do this before.” The three unicorns and the hippogriff stood at the cavern mouth, watching. They trialed their eyes on the gray mare as she galloped, springy grass bending.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot out of the clouds. It hit where Starry was running. Or had been running. The mare leapt out of the way of the bolt, her legs propelling her just out of the strike zone, a shield protecting her. She laughed. “That's the best you could do?”

“Definitely has a death wish.” Mystic commented.

Starry took off. Lightning followed in her wake. Each bolt nearly struck her. Her small audience watched in terrified awe. Each blast was shockingly close. The smell of ozone filled the air. Wach had to look away as the nearby lightning flashed in their eyes, leaving bright spots across their vision. Even then, they could not turn away from the spectacle for long.

Suddenly, as Starry leapt away from a lightning bolt another one jumped down from the skies, hitting her just where she had landed. Amethyst gasped, and all four rushed out on to the field in a panic. They galloped to where Starry lay, knocked to the ground, small amounts of ash covering her, her mane sticking out on end, and an unholy grin on her face.

“What the in Celestia’s name were you thinking?” Mystic yelled as she looked down on the gray mare. Starry smiled back up at her.

“I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I’d actually get hurt,” she mumbled as Wave Dancer dug out her little kit of medical supplies. “Nothing like the inside of a star.”

Wave Dancer rolled her eyes, “Now I'm sure you’ve messed something up. Starry, did you hit your head or something?”

“Nah, I’m all right,” Starry batted the hippogriff’s claw away. “I shielded myself well, and that wasn’t even a strong bolt.” She stood up, shaking little bits of ash off, and running a hoof over her mane. “That game is never played maliciously.” She smiled at Wave Dancers confused expression. “It was nothing you’d be able to follow.”

The hippogriff still appeared skeptical. She looked over at Mystic, who shrugged, giving her a glance that said, that’s her. You'll get used to it.

The woods were silent. The companions walked in peace and silence. As soon as the rain had ended, they had moved on, and in two days had come to the very tail end of the Everfree Forest. The southern end of the forest was far more peaceful than the north, so there were far fewer monsters, strange plants, and other dangers.

Starry walked in her own thoughts. Her rare play with a thunderstorm being a foremost. Oh, how close to slipping up she had been. The fact that a lightning bolt had not hurt her was probably enough to raise warning bells. Of course, ponies were not very suspicious by nature. Neither were hippogriffs. They may have bought her lie about the shield. In truth, the bolt had hit her full on. That much electricity and heat was a little dizzying, even for her. She had said some things she shouldn’t have, but she could hope they dismissed it as senseless rambling.

Amethyst and Shadow were conversing with Wave Dancer about a book of shared Equestrian and Hippogriff history in her bag. Starry was fairly sure that by that point the hippogriff had most of her companions thoroughly confused.

The gray alicorn looked up. The sunlit sky was bright. Suddenly, from the trees ahead came a massive flash of light. A flock of birds rose up into the sky, their exodus spreading in all directions.
“What was that?” Wave Dancer asked.

“I have no idea,” was Starry’s only response. Whatever it was, it was definitely magical, and she wanted to see what it was. She kept walking, heading towards the second flash that occurred, sending more birds flying.

“Wait, you’re going to head towards whatever that is?” Shadow questioned.

“Sure, why not?”

Shadow groaned as the group trotted towards the burst of magic. Inside a clearing, they found the source. A young teenage unicorn was sitting in the glade, crying. They watched for a moment. Her horn lit bright, and another flash. She collapsed, tears running down her face.

“Oh dear,” muttered Starry, “I’ve rarely seen one this bad before.” The unicorn was very obviously having a magic flare. Occurring during the teenage years, Magic flares were the result of a unicorn’s power growing into its full potential. Much like the magic of an infant, the flares were uncontrollable. The bigger the flares, the greater the magic. This young unicorn would obviously be very powerful, but for now, they had to control or contain the flare somehow, in case it became destructive. She remembered clearly one of the worst of her own flares, during which she had nearly destroyed a public garden.

Looking at the other unicorns in the group and seeing that they recognized the symptoms, Starry strode into the clearing. The unicorn filly peeked up, saw her coming, and pulled herself into a sitting position.

“You’re a unicorn,” she said as Starry approached, “Can you figure out what's going on. My horn started doing this. Mother and Father kicked me out, said I couldn’t come back until it stopped. Is something wrong with my horn?” The words came bubbling out, filled with desperation.

“Hush,” Starry told the filly, sitting beside the filly. “Nothing's wrong with your horn. You’re just having a magic flare. Has nopony told you about it?”

The filly shook her head. “Nopony at home is a unicorn. But my great grandfather was, on my dad’s side. And my great-great grandmother, on my mom’s.”

Thinking about complicated pony genetics, Starry shook her head. “Well, miss... what’s your name exactly?”

“Lighting Flash.” the blue coated filly answered.

“Well, Lightning Flash, magic flares happen as your magic develops. Every unicorn goes through this. What your giant flares are saying, is that you’ll be very powerful one day.”

“Really?” Lightning asked.

Mystic wandered out of the tree line and sat next to Starry. “Really. Now, it's been a while. What's the cure for a magic flare again? I can’t quite remember.”

Amethyst and Shadow walked out. “You’ve got to take your magic and spread it through your whole body. To do that, you have to sink to your power base.” Shadow answered, looking at the filly.

Lightning nodded. She closed her eyes.

“Next,” Shadow continued, “You have to find where the power flare is. You can see it, right?” Another nod. “Take all that power, and let it spill through your body, spread it around, lessen the impact of the increased power flows.”

It was obvious that Lightning was doing what she was told. After a few moments, her body began to glow slightly. When she opened her eyes, the unicorn filly was smiling shyly. “It's gone now. Oh, thank you all so much.” She got up, trotting into the forest.

“What town did she come from?” Mystic asked.

“There’s a little earth pony village near here.” Starry replied. “I can’t think of its name at the moment. I passed it by not needing supplies or distractions.”

“Wait,” Wave Dancer pulled out the most complex map of Equestria Starry had ever seen. “This has been taking up a lot of space in my bag. It's time to put it to use.” She scanned the map. “I think this village is called Greendale.” The hippogriff went to put the map back in her bag.

Starry held up a hoof. “I’ve got space in my bag.”

“Okay,” Wave Dance handed the gray mare the map.

“I think Greendale is too small to have heard of us yet. We should stop, discreetly, to get more supplies.”

“Consider how our last resupply went. We could always stop at the inn ten miles south. I don’t think they realize Mystic or Wave Dancer are with us yet.” Shadow muttered under his breath.

“Oh, it’ll be fine.” Starry smiled. “It's actually a shortcut.”

“You know the saying. Short cut’s make long delays.” He told her.

“She smiled again, “But inns make longer ones.”

Six mares wandered through a swamp. The three with wings flew, while the others walked along.

“This place is dreadful,” Rarity complained. “Who would want to come here?”

“A criminal on the run and trying not to be tracked,” Twilight responded from above. “It’s what I’d do.”

“I hope we catch up to them soon,” Rainbow ash muttered. “This is booorrinng.”

“Twilight looked back at her. “We will. But I want to follow her trail as well as we can. We’re one step behind, and maybe I’ll find a clue to put us ahead.” The others nodded.

“Dang it,” Applejack muttered as she stepped in knee high mud. “When we find her, ahm gonna give her something to remember us by. For all this trouble.” The earth pony had a special dislike of those who committed seriously dishonest acts.

Fluttershy flew up to Twilight. “Are you sure we can’t reform her? Is there only the option of arrest?”

“She committed a horrible crime Fluttershy. We can try, but I’m not sure it will work. I think Starry Sparks doesn’t want to be saved. Though, if it comes to it, we can try the Elements of Harmony. Maybe they’ll reform her, maybe they won’t.”

Fluttershy nodded. Twilight hoped they could convince Starry Sparks to come back with them. If not...

Author's Note:

I’m back. This was one of my top three favorite chapters to write, along with one and four.

New version of book recommendations. Now I’ll be doing both books and fanfics. Yes, you can recommend fanfics. Yes, you can recommend your own. Keep it FSW please. I will read them to decide whether to put them on here.
Fanfics:
Divine Entertainment Orthoros
Spectrum of Lightning Seriff Pilcrow
Necromancy for Foals Queeen Sanguine Dreams
The Forest Pony EverfreePony

And thats all