Iron Mare

The following morning, Gabriel was still fast asleep on Lightning Dust’s bed.

Suddenly, a slightly robotic male voice said, “Good Morning. It’s 11:52 AM on May 27, the weather today will be sunny with scattered clouds. Surf conditions are fair with waist to shoulder high lines. High tide will be at 3:30 PM."

Gabriel got up and put his pants on.

"Lightning?" he called as he wandered through the mansion. Gabriel saw a small panel on the wall. But, when he touched it, the voice said,"You are not authorized to access this area."

"Holy Faust," said Gabriel.

"That would be JARVIS, he runs the house," said a Pegasus stallion with a gray coat, a dirty blonde mane and tail, and wearing a white collared shirt and khakis. "I've got your shirt here, it's been dry cleaned and pressed, and there's a car outside that'll take you anywhere you want."

"You must be North Star," said Gabriel.

"Indeed I am," said North Star

Gabriel smirked as he took his shirt. "After all this time, Lightning still has you picking up the dry cleaning," he said.

"I do everything that Miss Dust requires. Including, on occasion, taking out the trash. Is that all?" said North.

~

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About an hour and a half later, we find Lightning Dust working on the engine of one of her cars while listening to one of her favorite songs..

"Give me an exploded view," said Lightning as she held up a scanner to the engine.

"The compression in cylinder four appears to be low," said JARVIS.

"Log that," said Lightning just as North Star came in and muted the song just as it got to Iron Mare lives again!

“Please don’t turn down my music,” said Lightning, not even looking up at North as she kept working.

“You’re supposed to be halfway to the other side of the world right now,” said North Star.

“How’d he take it?” asked Lightning.

“Like a champ,” said North Star.

“Why are you trying to hustle me outta here?” asked Lightning.

“Oh, no reason, only that your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago,” said North Star.

Lightning frowned. “Weird. I thought that since it was my plane it’d just wait for me to get there,” she said as she turned to face North.

“Lightning, there’s a couple of things I need to talk to you about before I get you outta here,” said North as he looked over the clipboard he had.

“And those are?” said Lightning.

“Larry called, he’s got another buyer for the Sapphire Paulk in the wings, do you want it, yes or no?” said North.

“Well… is it a good representation of her fall period?” asked Lightning, rubbing her chin in a thoughtful manner.

“Uh, no, The Falls was where Sapphire Shores lived and worked before becoming the pop sensation she is now, not ‘fall’ as in the season,” corrected North Star.

“And?” said Lightning.

“Well, I think it’s a fair example, but it’s way too pricy,” said North Star.

Lightning smirked as she got up and made her way to the her fridge for a Pepsi Next. “Well, I’ve got the money and I need it. So, buy it and store it,” she said.

“Okay… the MLP commencement speech-” said North.

“Is in June, don’t bother me with stuff that’s way, way down the road,” said Lightning as she uncapped her pop.

“Well, they’re bothering me, so I’m going to say yes-” said North Star.

“Try deflecting and absorbing it instead of transmitting it back to me,” said Lightning.

Completely ignoring Lightning’s comment, North Star pressed on. “I need you sign this before you get on the plane,” he said.

Lightning signed the paper and asked,  “Why do you want me out so badly? You got plans or something?”

“Actually, I do,” said North.

“You know I don’t like it when you have plans,” said Lightning.

“I think I’m allowed to have plans on my birthday,” said North.

“It’s your birthday?” said Lightning, raising an eyebrow.

“Weird, isn’t it? It’s the same day as last year,” said North Star.

“Well, then get yourself something nice from me,” said Lightning.

“I already did. And it was both stylish and expensive. Thanks, Miss Dust,” said North.

“You’re welcome, Mr. Star,” said Lightning, before she downed the rest of her pop and made her way out the door.

~

About 24 hours later, Lightning Dust stood before several important members of the Equestrian Military, including the “Giant Hunter” himself, General Liberty Belle, at a Saddle Arabian weapons test site. To Lightning’s left was a missile launcher

“Tell me, fillies and gentlecolts,” said Lightning as she walked is it better to be feared, or respected? I say, what’s wrong with both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Dust Industries Liberty Line, and no, it’s not named after you, General Belle.”

Lightning’s comment drew snickers as General Belle smiled and blushed, adding color to his powder-white coat.

“All right, as I was saying, this missile system is also the first to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire, I respectfully disagree. I favor the weapon that you only have to fire once. That’s how my dad did it, that’s how Equestria does it… and so far it’s worked out nicely,” said Lightning. “Find any reason to let one of these puppies off the chain, and you have my word that the bad guys won’t even put a toe out of their caves.”

Lightning nodded to the pony operating the missile launcher. One of the huge missiles launched into the air, and while it was still airborne, it deployed several smaller missiles.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, for your consideration… the Hailfire,” said Lightning, spreading her arms and wings as a huge cloud of dust caused by the smaller missiles’ detonations blew over them.

~

After the demonstration, Lightning grabbed a glass of some kind of liquor from what seemed to be a cryogenic cooler.

“I’ll throw one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!” said Lightning.

Just then, her phone rang. It was Silver Soul.

“What are you doing up?” asked Lightning as she made her way towards a humvee.

“I couldn’t sleep until I found out how it went. So, how’d it go?” asked Silver.

“It went great! Even The Giant Hunter was impressed,” said Lightning.

“That’s my girl! So, I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” asked Silver.

“See you then,” said Lightning as she got into the humvee.

“Lightning!” called Rainbow as she walked up to the humvee Lightning was in.

“Sorry, Dash, but this is the ‘funvee.’ I believe the ‘hum-drum-vee’ is back there somewhere,” said Lightning.

“Good job,” said Rainbow.

“See you back at the base,” said Lightning.

And with that, the ill-fated convoy began...