Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Lightningbringer - Part 3

Electricity cascaded around the pegasus' body, over their skin and hair and feathers. They felt it moving through their mane and tail, sliding harmlessly past them as the lightning struck the ground below. One moment later it was all over again, and rain began to once more dampen Firecracker's coat.

They released the breath they'd been holding on to, as their heart kept pounding in their chest. It had been different, that time. Maybe it had been the lack of shock that had been there before, but it had almost felt as if they could see through the lightning as it passed over them. Not blinded or disturbed by it as much as they had been previously.

They were still there, hovering in the air, unscathed as the storm continued around them. Slowly they looked up at the clouds, as thoughts kept rushing over each other in their head. They flew a little higher, moving slowly, then with more confidence. It wasn't a quick process, they had to account for how strong the wind was and could only fly up so far, but still they did manage to get decently far above their previous position. And there they stopped, watching and waiting.

They felt it again, starting on the back of their neck. Their breath slowed down. Deep breaths, their wings beating to the same rhythm, as the tingling sensation built up. They closed their eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked up with a jerk of their neck. Their wings came down hard and fast as lightning struck through their body again, and onto a tree down below. Firecracker's heartbeat had gone up again, and it began to relax.

It was strange. Not entirely unfamiliar. A part of it, at least, was much like what a pegasus could normally do. But there was more to it.

Another hard push with their wings, another lightning.

They could feel it sliding over the tips of their feathers, curving to follow the bend of their wings. They could see it moving just a bit to the side as it fell to the ground, off-course relative to where it had been coming from.

A deep breath, a push of their wings. Lightning cracked down, feathers bent, joints turned. It split, two separate bolts hitting the ground.

Firecracker's heart was pounding again, for different reasons this time.

They looked up at the clouds. Moving away from the storm couldn't be done while flying too high, not with winds pushing them from side to side unpredictably. Moving perpendicularly to the wind was another matter.

In a moment they were speeding up, gaining height, flying straight towards the centre of the storm. They felt another lightning coming, and let it pass through them.

Their hooves pierced the clouds, and the rest of their body followed. Their eyes couldn't see, and the pegasus let their sense of gravity tell them where to go. Sparks and bolts of electricity went off all around them as they moved through the cloud, building up over their body, coiling around their limbs as they kept flying higher and higher. Soon the sparks were melting together, growing larger, fusing with each other until the pegasus was fully enveloped in one singular agitated mass of electricity streaking behind them.

Firecracker gave one last push with their wings. Light hit their eyes as they pierced through the top of the clouds, and they stopped. Thunder echoed around the empty blue sky, above the raging storm, as a whiplash of lightning shot upwards from the clouds and through the pegasus, and spread out like a flower towards the Sun.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Fascinating. Though I admit, my first thought was this:

Somehow I doubt there will be an Equestria-ruling AI, nanomachine-enhanced mercenaries, or a rapidly aging clone to worry about in this story... but I can't rule out the possibility.