When Fluttershy told Rainbow that her cousin was coming to visit and bringing some friends nothing could be better until they got there that is...
Rainbow meets Fluttershy's cousin and her friends only to find she knows them all already. And one of them isn't very happy to see her. Lightning Dust has given up on anything hopeful and although her brother and friends try to help her she doesn't think that there truly is a thing as True Happiness...
Fluttershy was sweeping her kitchen all the while Angel was standing the table, He started stomping the table annoyed that Fluttershy was ignoring him, Fluttershy wanted her house to look top notch for her cousin Vapor Trail and her friends Lightning Dust and Sky Stinger visit the next day she could hardly contain her excitement she hadn't seen Sky Stinger or Lightning Dust for years and she hadn't seen Vapor Trail since only last Hearth's Warming!
Suddenly a large mass of colours and fur crashed through the window and onto the table throwing Angel across the room and causing Fluttershy to jump into the air gripping onto the rafter in a terrified state, Calming herself she glancing down to find Rainbow lying amidst her now wrecked kitchen and Angel on the ground with Rainbow Dash's around his head. Sighing she flew down and straightened the table before helping Rainbow Dash up.
"Hehe sorry Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously glancing at the mess she had made "Guess I shouldn't have tried that last move huh." she continued watching as her friend fixed up the rest of Rainbow's mess! Rainbow Dash looked around noticing that Fluttershy's whole house seemed to sparkle with cleanliness "Hey what's the occasion? Your house hasn't looked this good sense well the holiday! No offence." she quickly stated not wanting to hurt Fluttershy's feelings.
"Oh, you see my cousin is coming to visit tomorrow and she's bringing her friend's, Kind of a sleepover thing... Oh, I don't think you've met her have you?" she questioned now finished cleaning Rainbow's mess and flying over to her and sitting down in front of her "You should come meet them tomorrow! Trail would love to meet you!" she said excitedly giving Rainbow a hug "Can you come?"
"Of course Fluttershy, When should I come over?" Rainbow Dash said flying over to the door "Is after lunch okay?"
"Oh okay I was thinking a little later but that's okay," Fluttershy whispered slipping into her usually kind state.
"Okay gotta dash!" Rainbow Dash quickly stated before 'dashing' out the door. Sighing again Fluttershy shut the door, Picked Angel up and set him back on the table and went back to cleaning.
Far from there, Near the weather factory Sky Stinger was practically begging his sister to keep her promise she had made a month earlier, "Come on Lightning you promised you'd go see Fluttershy with Vapor and me!" he said trying to drag her off the cloud bed, But to no avail Lightning Dust had always been a stronger flyer than him, Even though she hadn't been getting her usual exercise for Celestia knows how long!
Lightning Dust herself was a mess she'd given up on bathing for some time, Her mane had strands loose everywhere she had bags under her eyes and stank like a Timberwolf! Her emotional state was no better, She spent her time moping and looking out the window with a longing look in her eyes thinking about what had happened two years ago, It was the most important day of her life and she screwed it up!
Sky hadn't given up though, Flying out of the room he brought back a raincloud and kicked it sending water onto the depressed pegasus!
Sputtering Lightning yelled "Okay fine I'm coming! There was no need for that! Storm clouds Sky!" After she said the insult she got up and entered the bathroom to at least make herself presentable. After cleaning herself up, sighing all the way, She walked over to the mirror and forced herself to stare at her reflection, She stared into her amber eyes, Oh why did they have to look so much like Spitfire's? Tears welled up in her eyes as she relived those horrible moments once again.
"Lightning Dust?" the white pegasus with honey coloured eyes and blue shades stated roughly staring at her "You are to come with me." at that he turned around, Catching his cap before it fell off.
"Is something wrong?" she questioned suddenly worried, He didn't respond 'That's bad definitely bad!' The thought made her stomach clench as she was escorted out of the academy bunks and onto the runway. She could see other pegasi training, A black pony doing wing ups glanced her way blowing her yellow and black mane out of her face seemed uninterested and went back to exercising.
Lightning Dust looked ahead, Her wing pony Rainbow Dash was there talking to Spitfire with a stern look on her face 'What's going on?'' she thought to look at the blue pegasus, She was vaguely aware of other ponies behind Rainbow Dash but dismissed them from her mind. Her two escorts parted and Spitfire turned around, her eyes pierced Lightning's very soul as the Wonderbolt captain ripped the badge off of the uniform that she had worked so hard to earn. Surprise filled her eyes as Spitfire pointed for her to leave, Turning to go the green pegasus looked back with all the sadness that she now felt and walked away, After walking a few more yards she glanced back at her childhood hero and saw the same badge on Rainbow Dash that she herself had earned!
As Rainbow Dash flew away from the reality of what just happened crushed her heart like a pegasus kicking clouds.
Lightning Dust shook the memory out of her head and looked back at the mirror 'I'm not like her, I'm different,' She thought then she remembered all the flying routines she had done with her, The Dizzitron, The flag hunt, The obstacle course, The tornado. 'But I am.' Her mind turned over the thought that had plagued her mind for years, And the sobbing followed.
Vapor Trail opened her eyes feeling sluggish, She rolled over to go back to sleep when she saw the note she had left for herself, She had always had a tendency to forget important things especially early in the morning! The note said:
Dear Me,
You get to go visit Fluttershy with (you know who) today you should get up!
From Me.
"Oh!" she exclaimed jumping out of the bed with a blanket still on her head, She shook it off as she reached for her suitcase and flew out the door, She hoped she could get to Sky's house fast enough!
They were already waiting for her as she landed on the porch though "Sorry if I kept you waiting, I kind of slept in!" she said apologetically throwing the suitcase onto the cloud "Are you both ready?" she said, It was all she could do to keep from jumping up and down from excitement!
"Yeah, I'm ready." Sky Stinger said excitedly before seeing Lightning Dust's expression, She didn't even look up when Vapor's suitcase crashed in front of her! To say that Sky was worried about her would be an understatement. He had heard her crying the night before and had knocked on the door, He had asked: "Dusty are you okay?" The sobbing turned into an enraged yell,
"Go Away!" She had yelled, Her brother startled had walked out of the hall hoping he could talk to her later. She had never told them about what had happened at the Wonderbolts academy but it had damaged her mentally and emotionally Sky was sure of that! He wished that he could have some idea of what happened.
She usually looked at them with jealousy not that they ever saw though. Depression gnawed on her soul every minute of every day, The only reason she was going to visit Fluttershy was that she knew Flutter's would understand better than anypony else would.
Grabbing her own suitcase Lightning Dust flew up into the air.
It had been some time since she had been on a flight. For a few moments nothing mattered, She was flying, The wind blowing her mane away from her face, The lightning streak behind her, She wanted competition!
She looked around for her companions she saw them behind her, Then she remembered.
They were in the Wonderbolts not her, They were good enough and she wasn't, She wasn't enough for them.
That moment of joy ended leaving her (If it was possible) in a deeper depression than she already was. Slowing down till she was flying behind them.
Sky Stinger had his hopes up when he saw her flying like she used too. That lighting streak that ran through their family almost all of their cutie marks are bolts! Watching Lightning be herself was the happiest thing that had happened since Vapor and Sky had gotten into the Wonderbolts academy!
Then Lightning looked back at him and when he saw the joy leave her eyes something inside of him shattered into a million pieces.
As she slowed down he flew over next to her "Hey are you okay?" he asked concern filled his voice, "Can't you just talk to me?" He finished, Flying over a cloud in their path.
Lightning Dust looked away as Vapor Trail flew down beside them. Her nearly white coat glistening in the sunlight as she almost dropped her suitcase doing a flip. Looking sheepish she nudged Sky Stinger "I've read every single letter that Fluttershy has written to me again, And guess what!" she said hardly noticing Lightning Dust falling behind.
"What?" Sky Stinger asked his eyes trained on Lightning Dust as they flew over Fillydelphia.
"Fluttershy is best friends with Rainbow Dash!" She said not glancing back to see what her friend was going through.
After Lightning Dust heard the name she almost dropped out of the sky catching herself before she did, Her heart was now pounding the adrenaline created sweat on her brow 'No, No not her!' she thought as she saw the small town up ahead 'But there's no turning back now.' they were practically in town now. luckily Fluttershy lived on the sidelines of Ponyville close to the Everfree forest for the animals of course.
Now wary of the sky she landed hurriedly running up to catch up with Sky and Vapor.
Vapor Trail rapped on the door grinning from ear to ear. The door opened promptly revealing the yellow pony behind it.
"You're here!" Fluttershy nearly yelled trying to hug them all at once "Come in, Have any of you eaten breakfast yet?" she asked gesturing to the piles of pancakes that she had been working on since she got up.
"No, we haven't." Sky Stinger said looking at the syrup that he so desperately wanted to drizzle all over the heavenly mixture.
"May we have some?" Lightning Dust asked seeing her brother starting to drool "Should we put our bags somewhere?" she tried to sound casual but felt like she was failing horribly 'Just like I do with everything.' she thought as she looked at Fluttershy expectantly.
"Oh, of course, Sky you get the guest room Dusty and Vapor you're in my room! You know if that's okay with you." Fluttershy said picking up Lightning's suitcase and walking into her room and placing it next to the nightstand Vapor Trail followed suit while Sky Stinger just through his bag into the guest room and flew back to the table waiting for the mares.
As they enjoyed a good breakfast so many thoughts ran through Lightning Dust's mind, 'She's a Wonderbolt now! But then again my brother and friend are both Wonderbolts in training, So that explains how they know her right?' she hoped that she wasn't sweating but she was afraid that, That ship had sailed.
The rest of the morning was spent playing games with Fluttershy. Lightning Dust almost forgot about Rainbow Dash, Almost.
It was still itching at the back of her mind like she should do something about it, But she didn't know what.
They were eating a simple lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when there was a knock at the door, "Oh she's here!" Fluttershy yelled excitedly.
Before Lightning Dust could react Fluttershy opened the door and the colour drained from Lightning's face.
There flying a few feet off of the ground was the last rainbow coloured pony she wanted to see.
Rainbow Dash hopped up to Fluttershy's cottage feeling cheerful. She had eaten a delicious Zap-apple jam sandwich and therefore wished to try to break the sound barrier again!
She knocked on the door totally unprepared for what waited for her on the other side of it. She waited a few seconds before Fluttershy opened the door.
"Hey Fluttershy how's it-" she cut herself off seeing the closest pony to the door "Sky Stinger? What are you doing here?" she asked looking confused glancing in another direction to see Vapor Trail bouncing excitedly,
"Rainbow Dash you're here!" Vapor Trail then yelled dashing over to hug her.
"Vapor Trail? Can't breath!" Rainbow Dash forced out, The room was spinning, Sky Stinger seemed to be on the floor than on the wall.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Vapor Trail gasped letting go of her captive "I'm just excited that's all. Can you forgive me?" She begged not noticing the green pegasus that was slowly backing into the shadows.
'What do I do? What do I do?' Lightning panicked taking in the room.
She decided on trying for the staircase.
Moving slowly she made her way to the first few steps, not even daring to open her wings she made it about half-way up the staircase when a little white rabbit from hell ruined everything.
Angel Bunny took one look at Lightning Dust grinned and pulled Fluttershy's hair.
The innocent buttercup pegasus leaned down to the living nightmare and asked: "What is it, Angel?"
Those words sent a chill down Lightning Dust's spine. Looking back she saw Angel pointing at her and thought 'I'm going to kill that demon rabbit!'
In a flurry of feathers, Lightning flew up the stairs, into the guest room and slammed the door.
Breathing heavily she leaned against the wood and tried to listen through the door for sounds of pursuit. She could hear them talking but it was muffled by the distance and the door.
She cursed under her breath unsure if they had noticed her flight or not.
Spinning back to the room she looked around for another escape, promptly tripping over Sky's empty suitcase and landing on her side. Rubbing her sore shoulder with her wing she headed for the round window and forced it open.
Peeking outside she sighed, they still seemed to be inside.
Suddenly Lightning could decipher what the muffled voices, that sounded like they were coming closer, were saying,
"I'm sure she's fine." The Familiar voice of Vapor Trail said as the hoofsteps came in contact with the stairs. "Maybe she just needed to use the washroom?"
Lightning started to pull herself out. She only got passed her wings before she actually struggling to pull through.
"Are you sure?" Asked the concerned voice of Fluttershy, "She looked kind of, I don't know... Scared?"
Lightning stopped pulling for a second a shocked expression creeping onto her face. 'I'm am not scared!' she was quite annoyed now and started putting her wings into the struggle of getting her hindquarters out of the house.
"Come on, come on!" she whispered to herself trying to get at least one of her hind legs through the frame. "This is stupid!" she growled thinking of all the things Sky Stinger would say about it and how much he would tease her if he saw her in this state.
The voices were right outside the door now, "Who are you guys talking about?" Lightning knew who that was. Panicking she chomped down on a tree branch and pulled.
She heard the door open and that gave her a flurry of energy, flapping her wings as hard as she could, With a pop, she came loose and blasted away.
A few moments earlier Fluttershy had watched Lightning fly up the stairs and then heard the slamming of a door.
"Oh, my... " she said quietly remembering the look of horror on Lightning's face. Concern riddling Fluttershy's face she turned back to the other Pegasi in the room.
Sky Stinger was now hoof-bumping Rainbow Dash while Vapor Trail was beaming.
"Um, guys?" Fluttershy whispered trying to get their attention. They didn't seem to notice.
"Rainbow, It's good to see you again!" Sky Stinger exclaimed he hadn't noticed his sisters escape and was thoroughly enjoying speaking with the wonderbolt.
"So are you Fluttershy's cousin?" Rainbow asked stepping back to look at the dark teal stallion.
Sky Stinger shook his head "No, Vapor Trail is." gesturing towards the light green pony. "But we have been friends with Fluttershy for years!"
Fluttershy was now tapping on Vapor Trail's back, trying to get her attention.
"Vapor Trail?" She asked, still quiet as to not disturb Sky Stinger and Rainbow Dash's conversation. "I think something is wrong with Dusty." Their cute nickname for Lightning Dust had for the last few years been a code word for 'Lightning Dust needs help but we can't tell her that or else she'll blow up.' As Sky Stinger put it when he wrote that letter to Fluttershy and when he told Vapor Trail.
So when Fluttershy used that word she gained Vapor Trail's full attention.
"What do you mean?" Vapor Trail asked worry evident on her face as she glanced around for the orange-maned pony only to see she was nowhere to be found. "Where did she go anyway?" She said, looking at Fluttershy the worry was evident on Fluttershy's face.
The butter-cream pegasus gestured up the stairs "She went up there." Her voice was still hushed as to not disturb the excited chattering of Sky Stinger and Rainbow Dash. "I think I heard a door slam."
Sky Stinger had taken notice of the two light shaded pegasi who were now starting to trot upstairs. He then found that his sister was no longer in the room.
Rainbow Dash's only concern then was that Sky wasn't paying attention to her story about how she won her last race. She thought that it was very interesting and was a little offended that he seemed uninterested.
"Hey! Don't you want to know if I won?!" She exclaimed as she was close to the end. "You seem distracted." She finished as she followed Sky's gaze.
It falling on the two mares heading upstairs.
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" She questioned her story forgotten at the moment.
They didn't hear her as they were close to the top of the steps still whispering to each other about the teal mare upstairs.
Rainbow Dash couldn't hear most of what they were saying but she heard the words 'I'm sure she's fine.' and 'She looked kind of... Something.'
So she did what any curious mare would do. She flew up to them and asked, "Who are you talking about?" As they were opening the first door in the hallway.
Rainbow Dash didn't get a good enough look to confirm what she thought she saw, but it looked like a Cutie Mark with a lightning bolt with three stars beneath it.
Rainbow thinking it couldn't be but her thoughts interrupted by Vapor Trail exclaiming,
"Lightning Dust wait!" The concern seemed to drip down from her mouth her foreleg extended towards the open window, her wings opened to take off after her, and Vapor's pale blue eyes widened to process what had just happened.
Rainbow was still trying as well. Then her brain caught up to what Vapor said. Surprize and realization pricked at her than she yelled.
There are some things that are not a very good thing to do.
One of them is to get on the ponies of Ponyville's bad side.
Another is to put all of your strength into the takeoff of a flight.
Lightning Dust knew this well and was regretting putting that much effort into getting out of that window sill.
She was now currently soaring completely out of control over the rooftops of Ponyville. A few other Pegasi were flying around doing various duties and going different speeds.
So when something flying at such a high speed that you can't see what it is and it's coming straight for you. The best thing to do is to drop out of the sky. Or that's a least one of the things they had discussed a little while back.
The citizens of Ponyville had a meeting just a few weeks ago about all the crazy things that always seemed to happen to their little town.
It had gone well at first. Each race had figured out what to do in a few different emergencies.
The Earth Ponies had started keeping an extra storage of food in their own homes, Big Macintosh was, in fact, the one to suggest this idea and everypony agreed with it.
The Unicorns were conflicted for a while, they couldn't think of a singular thing that they could work together on to help with emergencies. That's when the argument started to get heated. There were two mares who were the centre of the yelling.
One was named Lyra Heartstrings, her colouring was very similar to Lightning Dust's with amber eyes and a teal coat. The main difference between the two was Lyra's mane, that was white and a paler teal and that she was a Unicorn.
The other was known by a few names, her friends called her Vinyl Scratch but others knew her as DJ pon-3. She was used to being called both names and didn't have trouble when someone called her one after the other.
She was a white Unicorn with two different shades of blue in her spiky styled mane. Her eyes were usually covered by her purple shades so nopony really knew what her eye colour was.
Their Cutie Marks were both music related, Lyra's being a Lyre and Vinyl's an Eighth Note.
Despite all this, they were in fact not friends even though everypony else said they should be. They're best friends always tried to get them to like each other but there had been no success.
Lyra wanted the Unicorn's to be in charge of preparing places that ponies could stay if the situation got that bad. But Vinyl had argued that they should just have extra blankets, pillows and first aid at the ready.
They shouted reasons about how the others Idea was stupid until a very uncomfortable silence was spreading across the room until they were the only was saying anything.
Lyra smiled awkwardly glancing at a cream coloured earth pony, disapproval seemed to radiate off of her. Another Earth Pony that was standing next to her had sighed, walking over to Vinyl she had said with a tone that sounded to the white unicorn like 'We will talk about this later.' But what came out of her mouth was, "Those both sound like great ideas! Why don't you two figure out together which Unicorn's do which?" pushing Vinyl closer to the greenish Unicorn.
The Cream coloured Earth Pony nodded at the words now pushing Lyra over too. "Yeah you two work together you'll do great being in charge!" Everypony in the room could see the mock enthusiasm that clearly meant 'If I was your Mother you would be grounded.' And started nodding in agreement all thinking relatively the same thing, 'They need to learn to get along!
Lyra Heartstring's and Vinyl Scratch promptly gave out assignments while ignoring each other, and didn't make eye contact for the entire rest of the meeting.
The Pegasus Thunderlane who after the shameful display of the unicorns got up and suggested that the Pegasi should help everypony with whatever their ideas might be for helping with preparing for disasters. He thought his Idea would be shot down as quickly as he thought of it but to his surprise, everypony liked the idea of it.
His little brother Rumble shot his hoof in the air and shouted, "We could also help with saving up rainclouds and stormclouds!" A few ponies stifled giggles at the sheer volume of his voice. His ears drooped thinking that no one liked his idea.
But perked back up when his brother said, "I hadn't even thought of that!" grinning down at the grey colt.
"Yeah, great idea Rumble!" A youthful voice had called from across the room. Rumble recognized the orange filly named Scootaloo and kicked at the ground flustered.
Other Pegasi agreed and started making plans with the Earth Ponies and Unicorn's to put both plans to work.
And this is what the Pegasi of Ponyville were doing that fine morning that Lightning Dust was spinning out of control towards a particular group of Pegasi who were moving a ridiculously large box.
As soon as most of them saw the green and orange blur coming towards them. They shrieked and dropped the box as they all sped in different directions.
The box now had a cracked down the side showing the crushed watermelon rinds that were now splattered on the road. Red mush leaking onto the dirt.
A pink coated mare with a green mane was laying, fainted, right behind the crate, the box had almost crushed her like the crushed watermelons and had simply gone weak at the sight of the red juice.
Luckily the pegasi got out of the way before Lightning Dust got to where they were flying before.
Except one.
The grey mare looked around confused about what had just happened and where everypony went. Her tan mane obscuring the Pegasus coming towards her from view.
A great smack is all the other Pegasi heard as they were trying to salvage whatever they could from the crate.
The poor cross-eyed mare was brought right along with Lightning Dust's rush across Ponyville.
Lightning as soon as she felt the impact, guilt bubbled inside her. She could tell that they were going to hit that hill that was coming ever closer.
So in a last attempt to do something right for once, she twisted her body so that she was between the hill and the pony she dragged with her.
The impact sent searing pain through Lightning Dust's right wing and shoulder. Her left side was bruised from the other Pegasus who, because of Lightning, only felt a sliver of the landing.
Lightning Dust pushed the mare of her and looked her up and down.
"Are you okay?" Lightning Dust winced, just moving her jaw ached. But she ignored it as best she could.
The grey coated pony got up off the ground and looked at Lightning Dust and nearly yelled, "Oh no I did something wrong again didn't I?" The poor Pegasus looked down at her hooves or as close as she could to it, her head was lowered towards her hooves.
Lightning Dust's eyes widened hearing what this grey mare said and tried to reach out to pat her shoulder but that only resulted in more pain. "No, no it's my fault oka- ahh, ow!" She cried out clutching her right hoof to her chest.
At the sound of the green mare's distress, the cross-eyed one eyes started to well up with tears. "I'm so sorry!" She gasped between sobs.
Seeing this, Lightning Dust, ignoring the pain, leaned over to embrace the crying mare.
This startled her out of her tears for a moment before hugging back, lightly as to not hurt her more.
"It's not your fault that I made a rookie mistake." Lightning Dust whimpered tears welling up in her eyes too.
The grey mare realizing that her crying had made this Pegasus mare cry too, she tried to put a smile on her face, she was used to faking a smile so it was easy.
She stepped back choking out, "I'm okay." Then walked over to the green mare's side to try to see how bad it was. "I'm Derpy by the way!" She said as she tried to focus on her companion's wing.
"Oh, I'm Lightning Dust." Lightning forced out she was now focusing on the pain. "Sorry I hit you." She mumbled now looking down at herself.
"But you didn't mean to, so there's no reason to apologize!" Derpy replied looking Lightning Dust in the eye. A real smile on her face now,
Lightning's face turned from one of self-pity to one of concern, "Are your eyes okay?" She asked, worried about her.
Derpy's eyes moved directions a bit, Her face still held that ever-persistent smile. "Yeah, my eyes have been like this for a long time." Trying to look at Lightning's side again her smile turned sheepish, "Uh, I can't tell how bad it is." She admitted looking in the general direction of Lightning Dust's head.
Lightning nodded in understanding taking her own look at her wing. It wasn't a pretty sight.
It was bent in a way it shouldn't be, it was scratched a bit but it was bleeding only a little bit.
But the sight of her broken wing was sickening in of itself and a bit of bile arose in her throat when she laid her eyes on it.
It takes a very powerful force to break a wing. It is the most magic filled part of the Pegasus body. The same goes for the Unicorn horn and the entire Earth Pony body. So to have it broken means that Lightning could have been a lot worse off if she hadn't landed wing first.
"It- it's Broken." She strangled out as she looked at her bruises that were all over her right side, besides her wing of course. She thought that she should probably be grateful that she wasn't hurt more than that, but she didn't like the idea of being grounded until her body built up enough magic to heal her wing. It wouldn't take long. Lightning Dust had an impressive amount of magic in her wings. That was a lot of why she flew so fast. She still didn't like it.
Derpy frowned for a moment knowing that a doctor couldn't help it. So she trotted over to the only tree on the hill reached into the hole there and pull out some sheets.
Lightning eyes widened at the spectacle as Derpy returned with the sheet.
"Why was that in there?" She questioned gesturing towards the white fabric.
Derpy looked up at her "Oh, Pinkie Pie told me that she keeps things all over Ponyville in case of an emergency!" She turned back to the sheet ripping off a big bandage for the broken wing.
Pulling it over to Lightning Dust's side she gently opened her wing.
Lightning winced almost pulling her wing back as Derpy began to wrap her wing up and pulled it tight.
"There!" Derpy exclaimed folding Lightning's wing slowly as to not hurt her, "How does that feel?" She said as she started folding the rest of the sheet back up. It was crooked and sloppy but it worked.
"It feels a little better." Lightning said "Thanks." A little smile found it's way onto her face.
"Oh, you're welcome!" Derpy responded then she seemed to ponder for a moment before asking, "I don't think I've ever seen you in Ponyville before, Where are you from?"
The question caught Lightning Dust off-guard. She sat on the dirt road that was a few steps away from where they had landed.
Derpy saw this and thought she had upset her. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" But she was cut off by Lightning Dust who exclaimed,
"No, no, no it's okay I just-!" She stopped not sure what to say. Then finally reached a decision.
She told Derpy everything, starting with what happened at the Wonderbolt Academy. Sometimes through tears other times just keeping it together.
In the end Derpy was silent for a few moments, then she reached out to embrace the crying Pegasus. And Lightning Dust hugged back.
