Something New

by VilkaTheWolf

Five Years Later

It had been five years since it had happened. Green Lightning had since received his tertiary artificial aging process, which made him now resemble an adolescent stallion gotten a new manestyle, which very much resembled a mare's mane and bangs with a straight fringe and a choppy cut at the back. It was still black and white; he hadn't wanted to change that. He had also somewhat started a relationship with Scootaloo, although they weren't quite ready to call it dating yet.

Scootaloo had also grown into a very strong willed and beautiful mare. She had gained her cutie mark after finding her passion for dancing and also encompassed her love of scooters: An orange wing extruding from a red scooter wheel, with pink and orange lightning bolts inverted over the top. She had also improved on her flying. Granted, she still wasn't reaching break-neck speeds, but she could fly higher from the ground for longer periods of time.

Both of them were currently snuggling on the cloud couch in Green Lightning’s home when Rainbow Dash trotted upon the couple’s intimate moment. Lightning raised his head from the couch carefully, making sure not to wake Scoots.

“Hello, Mother,” he sneered at Dash.

“Oh, uh...Lightning, son...of mine...hi,” Dash managed to say, flustered somewhat by his derision.

“I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone now, hehe.”
With that she turned and backpedaled to the stairs which she walked up, backwards, and went into her bedroom.

Green Lightning began to reminisce about what had happened in the last five years.

The real Twilight became a princess, Discord the lord of chaos was reformed, Ponyville became infested with the Everfree Forest, Twilight defeated the evil centaur, Lord Tirek, and banished him back to Tartarus where he belonged. On top of all that, she now has her own castle, as the Golden Oaks Library was destroyed by Tirek. Green Lightning had also been incident free for that time as well, although he still heard Blitz in his head from time to time. It was a faint voice, mocking him, but it was definitely there. He also felt as if there was a massive hole in his chest, like something was missing.

Green Lightning was pulled from his thoughts by a certain orange Pegasus shifting in his forelegs.

“Oh, hey, Lightning,” she said groggily.

Suddenly, her eyes widened.

“Oh! Hey!...Did we uhhh...do anything...last night?” she asked, jumping off Green Lightning in the process.

Lightning gave her a puzzled look.

“No,” he answered, perplexed.

“Oh...ok,” she mumbled, sulking.

“Did you expect us to do anything last night?” He asked, curious.

Scootaloo blushed furiously.

“NO! I mean...no, I don’t...didn't. Uh! Whatever, I’m going down. I need some air.”

“I...ok, well as I don’t need air to survive I’ll stay up here,” he announced, kind of confused.

“Fine by me!”
With that, Scootaloo walked out, slamming the door and hovering down to Ponyville.

For the next couple of hours Green Lightning did everything he could to keep his mind off of what had happened earlier. He didn’t know why she was so annoyed, and worrying about it wouldn't help anyone.He reread all the old Daring Do books, in preparation for the movie adaptation.

After finishing the last book he looked up and realised Scootaloo still wasn't back. Although this wasn't unusual, this wasn't necessarily her home, Green Lightning still felt worried.

Which was also unusual. Green Lightning had noticed that he didn't actually feel the need to express emotions, though he sometimes did so anyway.

After he had finished contemplating his emotional state, he decided to go to Ponyville and look for Scootaloo himself.

“Hey Mum!” he shouted out, “I’m going out to look for Scoots, be back soon.”

“Okay! Have fun!” came the reply from upstairs.

*****

Green Lightning landed just outside Ponyville. Even though he had his disguise (green lightning bolt and a cloud cutie mark decal), he still felt wary about going through the streets of Ponyville alone. He hid behind the first building he saw, looking from around the corner he saw Scootaloo, and she was talking to a suspicious looking chestnut stallion with an hourglass for a cutie mark. Or he was talking to her. It was hard to tell.

He saw Scootaloo nod in understanding, and then fly off in the direction of Rainbow Dash’s house. Lightning would follow her soon enough, but first he had to find out who this mystery pony was. Lightning crept around the corner to where the stallion had gone only to find a... blue box?

Lightning warily approached said blue box, and noticed that it had two doors.

There was writing on the sides that read ‘POLICE CALL BOX’.

He cautiously raised his hoof to knock on the door when it opened.

“Oh, Hello.”

Lightning looked up to see the chestnut stallion he had been looking for.

“Green Lightning, right?”

‘How did he know my name’ Lightning thought in a panic.

“W-w-who are you?” he stuttered.

“Oh, you don’t know me...yet. But I’m The Doctor.” answered The Doctor.

“Why do you have a Police Box if you’re a Doctor?” was the question that followed.

“Why?” replied The Doctor, somewhat confused by this answer as if he wasn’t used to getting it.

“Umm...yea...why, why isn’t it like a Hospital Box or something...cos, you’re a doctor...?” he said, his voice lowering in volume until it was almost inaudible.

“Well, that sure is the first time anypony’s asked me that before.” responded The Doctor.

*****

Scootaloo landed gently on Rainbow Dash’s cloud home and shook her head slightly. She’d overreacted a little, and thought she should apologise to Lightning for earlier. Just as she was about to walk through the door, she heard what sounded like flames.

She quickly opened the door to see if Dash and Lightning were okay.

Only to come face to face with an insectoid looking pony. It took a moment for her to realise that this creature standing before her was a changeling. It looked somehow familiar.

“Ummm...oops…” it muttered before a sharp pain caused Scootaloo to fall into unconsciousness…
’It hit me, but when? The changeling hadn’t moved...Had it?’

****

She awoke to muffled yells.

“She deserves to know!” came Lightning’s voice, muffled by the thick cloud walls. she got up from the couch. How she got there escaped her.

“...sorry… found out, do you...five years ago?”

The second voice was a lot quieter than Lightning’s and didn’t quite make it out to Scootaloo, but she assumed it was Rainbow Dash’s. It sounded weird though. She hesitated.

‘Either one of them could be a changeling...well...not exactly either one...the only reasonable one to suspect would be...Rainbow Dash. But why?’ Various thoughts came rushing through Scootaloo’s mind; scenario after scenario flashed before her.

“She would have found out sooner or later,” Lightning argued, “and we can’t erase her memory again, doing that too often is extremely bad for a pony’s psyche!”

“She can’t find out,” came Rainbow Dash’s voice, though there was an odd air to it that Scootaloo couldn’t quite figure out.

“She’s not an idiot,” came Lightning’s rebuttal, “what if she were to walk in here right-”

Lightning stopped dead in his tracks as Scootaloo turned the corner.

“Oh dear,” he said softly as Scootaloo surveyed the room.

Lightning was standing, frozen, in the center of the room, pointing a hoof at somepony else. The other figure was facing Lightning, but had turned their head to see what the issue was. There, staring at her, was…. the changeling from before! Who was too late to resume the guise of Rainbow Dash.

Author's Note:

Well here we are again, almost two years later. Hopefully that terribly long hiatus allowed my writing skills to grow. And if you are confused again, all will be revealed in the next chapter!