One of a Kind

by cpthitsugaya

The One and Only

--The One and Only --

---

Two years have passed since Lightning and his friends left the intermediate training camp with Mr. Storm. Lightning was growing taller, and stronger. Now a colt of ten years old, Lightning was growing quickly into a fine stallion. His mane began to seem to spike around his forehead, then spike upwards near the back. As he flew over to his friends, they all walked up to the ticket counter of the Cloudsdale Colosseum, to buy their tickets. The Wonderbolts were performing today, so the group eagerly rushed to get the best seats. Lunar galloped up to the ticket mare and said,

“Four of your best seats!”

“450 bits, please,” said the mare.

Lunar then proceeded to pull out four-hundred and fifty bits. How he got that much is beyond Lightning, but he knows not to question the ways of Lunar. They all hoof bumped Lunar, then ran inside to find their seats. Although the show isn't supposed to start for another hour, they were all too excited to see their favorite fliers perform live. Along the way however, the group got lost inside the large structure. Slightly panicked, Spitfire began to run around to try to figure out just where they were.

“Does anypony know where our seats are?” wondered Dash.

They had all shrugged and looked around. Lunar quickly spotted a large door along a small corridor. He then pointed to it and said,

“I bet that’s a shortcut! Let's take it!”

“But, won't we get in trouble?” asked Lightning.

“Hey, I paid for these tickets, so I can go wherever I want in here!”

Lunar then ran over to the door and began to attempt at opening it.

“Wow this thing is heavy...”

He took a deep breath and pushed the giant door open. It made a loud creaking sound, and the four ran in together. They followed what seemed to be some pathway leading downwards, and to the center of the stadium. But in the dark corridor, nopony knew where they were going. Except Lunar, of course.

Knowing this, the group tailed Lunar closely.

“Ok, I bet the next door we find leads right to our row!”

They then stumbled upon a small door, and pushed it open inconspicuously. When they walked in, they stumbled upon a few chairs, water bottles, and what seemed like flight outfits. In that moment, they came face-to-face with them: the one and only Wonderbolts. They all looked up in awe, as Slipstream walked over to them.

“You fellas look a little lost. Whatcha doing in here?” he asked.

“Um well, we followed a door down a pathway and...” started Lunar

Slipstream chuckled a bit at the stunned group, and said,

“Don’t worry fellas, we don’t mind ya back here. In fact, it's nice to have some fans to talk to sometimes.”

They all smiled and asked each member questions they had.

“How long have you been in the group? How fast can you fly? I bet you cant do better then me at inverted loops!”

Spitfire walked over to Slipstream as the colts were trying to make friends with their heroes.

“Hey there, bud! What's up?”

“Sir, uh, I just wanted to tell you that you’re my favorite Bolt, and I uh... I just... I really want to... uhh... I really hope I can... uh... join you one day.”

She was usually the very calm and collect one, but given the circumstance, even the mighty Spitfire fell to sputtering statements. Slipstream gave another chuckle and said,

“If you practice hard every day, keep training your skills, and do your absolute best, I promise you can make it in! I’ll even put in a good word to the boss for ya!”

She looked up in pure amazement and smiled widely.

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed.

She then lunged at him, giving him a tight hug.

“Haha, no problem sport! But, you gotta promise me you will work your absolute hardest, ok?”

She gave a quick nod, along an anticipated look. Slipstream trotted over to Whiplash, and whispered something in her ear. She looked at the group and nodded.

“Alright fellas, how about you come out with us during the entrance!” said Whiplash.

They all had shot open in surprise, and exploded at once,

“AWESOME!"

Going crazy with excitement, the Bolts had all laughed, as Slipstream gave them the run-down on proper entrance. They were all way too excited to sit still, so the fact they even were capable of listening was astonishing. Slipstream beckoned them behind him, as Whiplash and the other Bolts walked right behind the group.

They followed a corridor filled with many plaques, trophies, and pictures of other Bolts. As they reached the end of the corridor, they could hear the fans' loud cheers and claps. Lunar then turned to Lightning, and gave him a good punch to the shoulder.

“Now’s our chance to show them our stuff!” he said.

Slipstream turned around and looked at them.

“I heard that!” he said.

He laughed a bit, turned around to face the group, and said,

“Just let us bust out the entrance, and you fellas can follow right behind. That is, if you can keep up!”

His look was the kind of look one would use during a challenge, rather than giving a challenge. As Slipstream turned back around, he began running towards the end of the corridor, right along with the other Bolts.

They then started to dash at their fastest running speed, and swept their wings back to bullet their way out of the corridor, whizzing by the many cases and shelves stocked with their past success, with absolutely insane speed.

Lightning however, was not one to lose in a speed challenge that easily.

The group of Dash, Spits, and Lunar, tried to follow closely, but had quickly began to fall behind the Bolts. They all spread their wings out, trying to compete in the contest of pure speed. Lightning spread his wings out far, and back, as he flew out the corridor into a stadium of thousands all cheering at him.

He could see the Bolt’s trail; storm clouds with lightning bolts zapping around it closely, and intensely. Dash, Spits, and Lunar had tried to follow the Bolts closely, but Lightning followed closer. He could feel it: those same vibrations he felt in Mr. Storm's camp. Those same rushes of adrenaline kicking in that he first felt off the crib, and in Ms. Starshine's camp. Lightning was being unleashed from the cloud that contained him. Rather, that cloud was being completely decimated.

As the sky in front of him began to focus on one single point, he barely caught a glimpse of Slipstream, as he bolted by.

The crowd had fallen almost silent as Lightning had completed a sharp pylon, then began to fly almost straight down. From those split seconds, time began to slow once more. He saw the Bolts simply frozen in place, and his friends still catching up to them. Beginning his descent, the vibrations became fierce. The wind was whipping his mane back, as he lost all control, and fell into the desire for speed.

He closed his eyes and smiled in an sudden rush of adrenaline. Just before he had to pull up, he had found, and hit a terminal velocity. The whole sky seemed to shake violently, rocking him back and forth painfully, while the wind knocked back his ears, and mane. Merely a moment afterwords, the air around him had stopped shaking, and became much smoother, and calmer. Looking back, he noticed a shockwave of white and navy.

. . .

From his viewpoint, nothing could be heard. The moment was exhilarating, flying at his true speed. He was no longer being shaken by the air around him. He smiled wide as the adrenaline began to wear out, and the sky around him began to speed back up once more.

As he pulled straight up, the wind began to shake him violently once more, and he could hear the air rushing and whipping around his ears and mane. He spread his wings out as far as he could and began to create a stall in mid air. He could feel the air hitting him straight on while coming to a stop. looking down from where he was in the sky, he had noticed something rather peculiar: a trail of white and navy blue. Although it was disappearing quickly, he still had to wonder what exactly what it was. At the same time, he also noticed the arena was almost completely out of view, while a couple high level clouds had floated by. Just how fast could he have been going to get so high up?

He then stopped flapping to free fall the rest of the way down, but kept his wings spread out to keep from losing control of his speed. The Colosseum came back into view little by little, and the Bolts had flown up to him with an extremely panicked look on their face. Lightning was panting extremely hard, and dripping beads of sweat, due to the speed he was flying at. Although, he still hadn't lost his smile from that moment of smooth flight.

Slipstream tackled him in mid-air, and brought him down safely back down to the ground level of the Colosseum. The whole crowd was dead silent with indescribable expressions on their faces. His friends had the exact same look.

Slipstream put Lightning down and looked at him.

“Are you ok, fella?" he asked, "What did you just do!?” Lightning started laughing in excitementas he answered,

“That was awesome!”

Slipstream gave a good laugh as he let out a sigh of relief.

“Well... Uh... I don't exactly know what you did bud, but you made the whole Colosseum shake, and next thing we knew... there was this giant shockwave along with a loud "boom" sound, and all we saw after that was a trail of white and navy shooting straight up into the sky!” Lightning’s eyes grew big in curiosity as he asked,

“Wh-wait... what does that mean exactly?” Dash and Spitfire ran over and tackled Lightning to the ground.

“It means you just beat the Wonderbolts at their own game!” exclaimed Spitfire.

He laughed a bit at her comment and started,

“No no, i was jus-”

“Just nothing!" interrupted Dash, "That was awesome!”

Lightning looked down in embarrassment as he wondered why they were so amazed at him simply flying. The whole Colosseum then burst out in cheers and claps. They must have thought it was just part of the show, but what Lighting experienced... It was just completely unreal- and he liked it! Lunar walked over, gave him a small hoof bump, and said,

“One day, I'll get faster than you. I promise you that!” Lightning laughed and gave a competitive look to his best friend.

“Let's see you try!”

Whiplash then looked over to the group and told them,

“Alright, fellas, we still have to finish this show. So just hang tight, and we'll get back to talking with ya!”

They all nodded as the Bolts took off and started their routine stunts. Dash ran in front of Lightning and looked him dead in the eyes.

“I want to know how it felt," he said.

Lighting looked puzzled. “How what felt?” he asked.

“You know, flying after the giant shockwave!” said Dash.

Lighting looked back into his memories. The feelings of the vibrations and the air around him were still vivid, as he began to re-tell his experience to Dash.

“Well, I just remember the wind shaking me like crazy, then next thing I know, I can't hear anything, and the air became as smooth as the clouds in the morning!”

“I need to try to get to that speed to see for myself!” Excalimed Dash.

He looked very determined, but Lightning knew he would probably never get to that point. Dash wasn’t born with the swept-wings that Lightning had. He was born a purebred, perfectly shaped wing pegasus: balanced at flying in agility and speed. Lightning then walked over to the wall and sat down, sighing a sigh of exhaustion, as he looked up to watch the Bolts as they began some intense aerials. Lunar sat next to him and told him,

“I bet they won't ever be as fast as us!”

They both laughed as Lightning said,

"I don't know... They train everyday of their lives to be the fastest, most talented fliers... I think they can beat you, Lun!"

Lunar seemed rather rustled at Lightning's comment, but he laughed it off, instead of smoldering over it. Eventually, they had focused completely on the show, and watched for a good amount of time before the Bolts began to wrap up their performance. They are truly something else, those Bolts, Completing inverted loops, followed by rigorous twists and helices.

As Whiplash and his co-Bolts flew down to land, and took their bows, they walked over to the group of four.

“How about we go grab some water?” suggested Whiplash.

They were all exhausted, breathing heavily as they walked back over to the corridor. As they walked back down the corridor, they all noticed something: the glass that once held the many trophies and plaques, was completely shattered. Everypony looked around at each other in curiosity.

“What the hay happened here?” asked Spitfire. Lightning looked over to Lunar, and jokingly said,

“Were you trying to make off with a trophy?” Lunar laughed and hit Lightning playfully.

“You know I wouldn't until everypony was gone!”

They laughed a bit more as the Bolts shrugged off the mystery, and continued down the hall. As they reached the break room, and Slipstream tossed each one a water, then crashed down on a chair.

“Alright, alright. Lightning. What the hay happened out there?” he asked.

Lightning looked up at him and answered the best he could, telling his experience in vivid detail. He was quick to hook each pony in the room into the story, as if they were right alongside him.

“Wow... sounds to me like you were flying faster than sound!” said Slipstream.

All eyes went wide. That’s crazy! How could anypony possibly fly faster than sound?

“There’s no way," argued Whiplash, "Slipstream, he’s just a colt!”

“Then you try explaining the shockwave, and the trail of color he left!” rebuddled Slipstream.

Whiplash decided it was in her best interest to keep quiet after that. However, the other members had started getting into fairly deep arguments over what exactly he did. Lightning tried to blend into the background, only to be pulled right back out by Spitfire, who said,

“Look Lightning, I don't know what you did, but you have to keep practicing it! You’re the only one ever to pull something like that off! If you can do that even more you could so easily make the Wonderbolts!” Lightning shifted awkwardly in discomfort and told her,

"I honestly don't want to be in the Wonderbolts. I would rather do something else.” Spitfire had an insane amount of disbelief in her eyes.

“Y-you don't?” she stuttered.

In her mind, it was a slight relief, eliminating the competition and all.

“Oh my bad!...Haha... but seriously, don't stop practicing! You gotta keep doing that!” He nodded and walked over to Lunar, although Lunar seemed more interested in the trophies.

“What a day huh?” asked Lightning

“Well, I didn't plan on paying 450 bits to watch you show me up, but; yeah, it's been crazy.” Lightning chuckled and said,

“Maybe one day you can keep up.”

He gave him a smirk and Lunar laughed at his confidence. The next hour or so wa spent with conversation between the young ones and the Bolts. Turns out, the Bolt’s old trainer was actually Mr. Storm. Although that comes to little surprise, because they could still remember the many Wonderbolt posters and such in the rooms at camp.

As the group all walked out of the Colosseum, they noticed the glass of the ticket counter was also shattered. In quick reaction, the group strayed as far away from the stand as possible.

They gathered at the statue out front of the stadium, and said their goodbyes, as they flew off in separate directions. Lightning spread his wings out and began flying in the direction of home. All he could think about was that moment of smooth, quiet flight he had. In his head, he promised himself he would practice that every chance he got - away from windows, of course