Dusting Off

by Knight Tyrfang

Chapter 2 - Getting Up

Chapter 2 – Getting Up

For the next few days, Lightning followed a routine. At sunrise, Lightning got up early to do some flight training. The pegasus always did that every morning ever since she had gotten out of flight school, rain or shine. She was really devoted to her dream of becoming the best flier in Equestria. But after being kicked out… Lightning wasn’t sure why she continued, but she did anyways. Despite the bad feelings associated with why she was training, the teal pony still was able to find some comfort in the routine.

During the day, she usually liked to watch the gryphons that were milling about in Clawdney. To Lightning, it was interesting to see how similar the gryphons lived in comparison to the ponies back home. In fact, even the weather was controlled in the exact same way. The only difference she found was the way they dealt with thunder. After eavesdropping on a conversation between a married couple, she found that for whatever reason the storm clouds here aren’t made to produce any sort of noise. So instead, some gryphons are assigned to make the thunder by roaring. The weather-gryphon’s voice was almost inaudible while complaining about how badly they were stocked on throat lozenges.

In the afternoon and night after Gilda got off work, Lightning was dragged around to see the sights of Clawdney. Whether it’d be a cider house, or a club, the two always found something fun to do. The night life of the sprawling city reminded the mare quite a lot of Manehattan’s night life, from when she last visited there. Bright lights, gryphons letting loose, and the smell of food wafting out of restaurant doors as ovens and fryers were being fired up. It was almost enough to get Lightning to relax and forget her problems, and just completely let loose and have fun. Almost.

No matter how hard Lightning tried to forget the memory of being kicked out of the Academy, it always lingered on the edge of her mind. Every time she went to bed, she woke up later in the middle of the night from the same nightmare. It was an old one that she used to have, a silly one at that too. Being forced to go back to flight school because she messed up badly at something, which was terrible because she was one of the worst fliers there back when she was attending. Lightning was made fun of for it, it wasn’t a pleasant memory. But the ones she was having were a little different this time. Those old nightmares always ended with her flying away. Going into a part of the yard that she used to practice on her own to get better, and fly high up where the teasing couldn’t reach her. But when she went there now, she saw two familiar faces.

Her parents.

The Dusts are a respectable family from Canterlot, like most of the ponies that lived there. And they were as snooty too, without exception. Lightning hadn’t seen her mom and dad in years, since their last meeting had ended without kind words.

Like most parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dust wanted Lightning to follow in their footsteps. As the owners of a chariot company, an industry that had started to thrive ever since the famous Fancypants took fancy to traveling the world. Left and right, the highest class of ponies started buying chariots and hiring drivers to transport them to whatever destination desired quickly, and comfortably. They wanted their daughter to succeed them in their business, after she finished school.

However, Lightning had other things in mind. She’d always been the type of girl that liked to be outside, the sun shining overhead as she enjoyed the fresh air. The filly loved to fly, even though she wasn’t the quickest of pegasi. And like most aspiring fliers, she wanted to join the Wonderbolts; something of which her parents didn’t approve of. The Dust family was a very traditional family, wanting Lightning to be a prim and proper lady, not some tomboyish urchin infected with the ‘Wonderbug’ they called it. They tried to squeeze that out of the teal filly in any way possible, and hoped to get her back under control by teaching her the proper lessons of ladyship.

So the day Mr. and Mrs. Dust learnt that their little girl secretly signed up for flight school, they kicked her out the door and disowned her on the spot. It was the last sign to them that she was a hopeless case, so they just gave up on her. No matter how much she pounded and cried, they wouldn’t let her back home. Lightning had to stay with her grandmother, who passed away not long after the young mare had graduated flight school.

So seeing her parents always shocked Lightning. And it was even more surprising to see them looking so proud of her, in the very place that was the reason for disowning the mare.

But every time the teal pegasus tried to approach, they always stayed the same distance away. No matter how hard the pony tried to reach them, no matter how fast she was flying, she could never reach those open arms.

Lightning always woke up after that, tears in her eyes. And she’d just lie in bed, staring at the ceiling until sunrise, tempted to go back to sleep by how tired she was, but afraid she’d fail again in getting that hug from her mom and dad. But she was even more scared at what would happen if she actually did get that hug, and what she would have to face when she wakes up afterwards, and they not being there.

Because of the nightmares, the mare lost a lot of sleep. It was starting to wear on her a bit, her energy not as high as usual and her endurance while training fell quite a bit much to her frustration.

“…So whaddaya wanna do Dust?” Gilda asked as usual after work, acting chipper as usual. “Crash the clubs again? Get some drinks? Or… Pull a prank on somebody?”

The gryphon’s beak broke into a mischievous grin at the last suggestion. But that faded immediately at Lighting’s response. Instead of her usual modest response at her being okay with anything, she gave a rather unenthusiastic shrug. Gilda quickly looked the mare up and down, and noticed she looked haggard.

“Yo Lightning, what’s up? You look like what came out of the rear end of a manticore.” The gryphoness said bluntly, but concerned nonetheless.

“Huh?”

Lightning looked a bit confused for a little bit, but then realized slowly what Gilda was talking about. The mare had looked in the mirror early this morning, and she realized that she did in fact did look like crap. Bags under her eyes, mane not as kempt as it could be, and her feathers weren’t preened properly either. Her coat wasn’t as sleek and shiny as it used to be, looking quite grungy.

“Oh crabapples, Gilda noticed.” Lightning’s thoughts raced in panic. “I don’t want her to worry … What do I do? Uh… um…”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She lied, instinctively trying to cover up her appearance before she came to a conscious decision. “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

“You sure? You kinda look like a wreck…” Gilda frowned, looking very doubtful. “Hey maybe we should take it a bit easy today, I mean-”

“I’m fine.” Lightning said flatly. “…Look, I can prove it to you. I’ll race you back home, and I can prove to you that I can beat you as well as any other day.”

Usually, Gilda would’ve gladly risen up to the challenge, earnestly willing to try and beat the speedy pony after so many losses. However, much to Lightning’s surprise, she almost looked a bit reluctant.

“Well, I’m not sure… You sure you don’t want to just-” She started, looking a bit uncertain, eyeing the teal pegasus carefully.

“Come on, don’t be chicken!” Lightning said, almost aggressively. “Won’t be hard, so let’s just hurry up!”

Gilda looked shocked, and her eyes narrowed. But she still had that same frown from before, and fell silent. After quick deliberation, she finally said “…Fine, but only if you take it easy on me. I’m a bit tired from work.”

Something seemed to snap inside Lightning, and she glared at her gryphoness friend. Just that request for the mare to take it easy made her mad for some reason, and she didn’t know why.

“Tch, there’s no way that’ll happen. Go hard or go home…” She growled, clicking her tongue. “I’ll get there before you even start. …threetwoonego!”

She shouted quickly, and then bolted off before Gilda could even react. Lightning even ignored Gilda’s call of protest, and was just blitzing on straight down the road. But her usual agility was gone from her body, she had a few near misses with various gryphons and ponies walking about. Until finally, her ballistic flight ended when suddenly a large black and yellow object came right into her flight path, and she collided straight into the side of it. The mare went flying from the collision, her unconscious form being flung through the air, in a graceful arc like a sack of apples, hitting the dusty road with a loud ‘WHUMP’.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

I think she got hit by a chariot. Irony strikes again.

[Seether00]

Look out for the school bus.

[VampDash]

WATCH OUT FOR THAT- *whack!* never mind.

[Smug Anime Girl]

MOAR!