The ex-friend of my ex-friend is...something
Friends of a Feather
Chapter 1: The ex-friend of my ex-friend is…something
Lightning Dust couldn’t even bring herself to go back home. All she really had there was things pertaining to the weather service job she had quit and reminders of her lifelong dream, a dream that had just come to an unceremonious and undignified end.
Now she was trotting aimlessly around the mountains. With all the boasting she did back at home there was no way she could ever show her face there again. To top things off by now the story on how her stunt involved the Element Bearers would have spread across Equestria by now. Lightning was positive that any town she would come across would try to chase her to the Badlands.
“Things can’t get any worse…” she moaned inwardly.
Then an apple hit her head.
“Ha, ha, ha, what a dweeb!”
Lightning Dust’s melancholy had vanished and was replaced with anger as she turned to face the mocker and she found a female Griffin wearing purple eye shadow.
“Hey pony why the long face? Ha, ha, ha!”
“I do NOT need this!” said Lightning Dust. “A Pegasus I thought was cool had just cost me my only shot at being a Wonderbolt and having fruit thrown at me is not helping!”
The griffin smirked. “I’d say she did you a favor, if kept you out of the Wonderdolts.”
“How can you say that?!?”
“I use my beak.”
“The Wonderbolts are the best!”
“No they only take the best and parade them around in stupid outfits. I mean in the last three years what have they really done? They got knocked out by a unicorn they were trying to save and needed rescuing themselves, a gala crashed down around them while they panicked, they got trapped by a dragon like bugs in a jar and they didn’t lift a hoof when Pegasi were risking injury to bring your Cloudsdale rainwater.”
“And you would have done something about all that?”
“Why would I? I know I’m awesome and that’s all that matters, if you need to join some lamers to prove yourself then you’ve got nothing to prove. Those who know they’re the best don’t need to prove it to anyone.”
Lightning Dust reached into her saddle bag and pulled out her most prized possession, a very old action figure of Blue Blazer the mare who was the leader of the Wonderbolts when she was a filly, her inspiration. Everything the Griffin was saying had struck a chord. Kicked out, cast aside for what? Being reckless, standing out, in other words being herself. The other foals laughed at her when she said she’d be a Wonderbolt, her parents always kept saying that she should keep her expectations realistic. She wanted to show them all and what did it get her, a broken dream and a wasted life.
Lightning Dust was starting to look at her hero differently, she was known for being a leader but now Dust just saw her as a mare needing to stand on the shoulders of others. She began to see the same of Spitfire and even less of Soarin, Fleetfoot, Rapidfire, Rainbow Dash and all the rest. If she had to give up being herself to join the likes of them was it ever worth it?
“If you’re so good what do you do?”
The Griffin flew down to her and began circling Lighting Dust on the ground. “Whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, however I want to whoever I want. Flight isn’t sticking to some rules to get the petty accolades of losers. Flight is freedom, the freedom to go anywhere, to push the limit until it breaks, to stop and take it all in and if you don’t fly for only yourself then you might as well not have wings at all.”
Lightning Dust dropped the doll which broke into pieces on the ground. The childhood keepsake that was only hours ago her most prized possession now meant less than nothing, the dream that was denied her was now a shackle that lay broken.
“I want in, I’m sick of dreaming being an idol to a bunch of snot nosed brats, I’m sick of wanting to be a just another face in a smaller herd. I want to live like you, answer only to myself and buck everypony else! From now on this bird flies solo!”
The Griffin smirked. “You remind a lot of a so-called friend before she got all lame, Name’s Gilda.”
“Lightning Dust.”
“Ok Dust, from now on you and I are our own squadron! It will be just you and me against the world! If we want to do something we do it, if there’s something we want we just take it and if anyone gets in our way we walk over them!”
“That actually sounds like fun.”
They both took off and soared over Equestria. For some reason the sky seemed more open to Lightning Dust, like she spent her whole life flying in a box, now those walls had fallen. Spitfire said being a Wonderbolt was about pushing yourself in the right direction, now that she abandoned her crushed dream she could now push herself in all directions with nopony to say no. Gilda was right, flight was freedom and Lightning swore to herself then and there she would never follow anypony’s rules ever again.
“Yeah this is more like it! Don’t hold back and look out for number one!”
“Then look behind you because here comes number one!” Gilda said. The Griffin caught up from behind and clipped her passing.
Dust shook off the hit after a second and caught up. “Did you just hit me?!”
“Rule number one: there are no rules. If that bothers you go back to pushing clouds or something.”
Dust then kicked a nearby rock face causing a landslide that Gilda had to slow down to avoid.
“Are you crazy?!”
“Rule number one: there are no rules,” Lightning Dust said with a wink. “So what else you got?”
“Stick with me Dust, this is only the beginning.”
~
In Ponyville Rainbow Dash was showing a poster to her friends. “Cloud Cover is the most experienced, reliable and maybe even the most skilled of the Wonderbolts and now she’s hanging up her flight suit for good…”
“Oh Dash I’m so sorry,” said Fluttershy.
“Isn’t it great?! There can only be sixteen Wonderbolts and with Cloud Cover retiring to help with her grandfoals I’m a shoe-in to get her spot!”
“Way to keep things in perspective,” groaned Rarity.
“Oh you know what this calls for?” said Pinkie Pie. “A party!”
“You may want to hold off for a little Pinkie. The Wonderbolts will be coming here in couple of weeks so Cloud Cover can hoof over her position to the newest Wonderbolt, yours truly so the party would about twenty percent cooler if you threw it then.”
“Are you sure they’re going to ask you?” said Applejack.
“After how awesome I was at the Academy? It’s not like anypony else could have been competition after Lightning Dust was drummed out.”
“Well it looks like the ceremony is going to be the day after that trade summit Princess Celestia is going to hold in Ponyville with the Griffin King,” said Twilight. “So it should be alright as long as the setup of for the ceremony doesn’t interfere with the negotiations I don’t see a problem.”
“Great, in two weeks all of my hard work will finally pay off! This going to be a day no-pony forgets!”