Lightning Strikes Twice

The Canterlot Equis Dictionary clearly states the definition of a hangover as being:

Hangover
noun
A feeling of illness with a moderate to severe pain in the head coupled with common side reactions such as the feeling to vomit after a pony has drunk too much alcohol.

As Lightning Dust's head was banging more than a YakYakistan's war drum and her stomach was lurching like it was going for its dozenth time around the world most loopiest roller coaster; it was pretty much safe to say that Lightning was severely hungover. Lightning Dust felt like crap warmed up however she as her senses slowly returning to her Lightning realised several things, the first being that she was lying down on some sort of soft surface, one that reminded Dust of her old bunk that she had back in Wonderbolt Academy. Lightning tried lift her eyelids to try and find out where she was, but at the moment they were just too heavy with the feeling of being held down by weights; probably something to with being hungover, Lighting reasoned.
Her mind was working a bit more clearly now however there was still a dull pounding going around her head. Lightning could feel a slightly rough material covering her all the way up to her mid-barrel, mentally shrugging it off when she would be able to see again, Lightning focused on her other senses to try and get a feel of where she was, just like her dad ha-
No! I-I won't relive that again. Focus Lightning!!!

A extremely strong smell of disinfectant and soap was filling her nose, so unless that bar had finally got a good scrub down (well, enough to wash away the years worth of funk, stale alcohol and other assorted unmentionable smells) while Lightning had been knocked out, she could pretty much safely say that she was somewhere else. Maybe Spitfire or Solar had something to do with that?
Well, I'm going to guess that I'm not at the bar anymore. This for-lack-of-a-better-word 'bed' feels much better than that floor.
Considering that Dust's ears were ringing like Hearth's-Warming bells she couldn't hear much apart from a couple of muffled voices too far away from her to catch any conversation, discarding hearing then Lightning tried her last remaining sense; taste. Unfortunately the only sensations that were there happened to be an extremely dry throat coupled together with the aftertaste of cheap two-bit cider, go figure. But hay, it couldn't be worse.
Well, that didn't do much. What now?

To any other pony lying in a bed not having to do anything would be very relaxing, sadly Lightning Dust wasn't just any other pony. She had always been one to keep moving. Groaning slightly, Lightning slowly shifted upright, and with her eyelids not feeling like lead weights anymore she tried opening them. Bleary eyed and blinking rapidly Dust realised she didn't like light at the moment and considered closing her eyes again. Looking around she was greeted with a lot of white with a blurry blob of orange moving towards her, unfortunately that was all that Lightning could gather before her stomach already extremely sensitive to everything at the moment choose to protest her sudden movement, churning rapidly Lightning could feel its unhappiness towards her actions being forced back up her.
Oh, crap....
Shoving a foreleg in front of her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop it, she noticed that the orange blob had moved a smaller grey blocky blob in front of her. Distantly Lightning heard someone trying to talk to her.

"Aim for the bucket."
Lightning Dust lasted another two seconds before she gave up and puked out the entire contents of her stomach into the grey bucket.

After two minutes of throwing up, Lightning Dust didn't know if she felt better or worse. On the one hoof seeing as the bucket was pretty much full with what had been cheap two-bit cider and the previous day's liquid lunch and dinner but she plus could actually see properly now instead of just blurry fuzzy images in front of her and her ears were no longer ringing quite as heavily. However on the other hoof Lightning had burning tears in her eyes from the experience and still felt like crap warmed up, plus she now had the acidic aftertaste of sick in her mouth; which did mean that her stomach was now empty and no longer her worse enemy (or at least it had no more ammunition against her).

Taking a look around her surroundings, Lightning Dust realised that she had been right in thinking that she was no longer at the bucking dive bar. She was now in a slightly off colour white room, Dust noticed that was a faint ray of sunlight streaming in from a couple of windows, she had been right in thinking that she had been placed in a bed around her were various pieces of machinery that Dust recognised to be medical equipment this included an IV dip having been attached to her foreleg. She spotted that her tattered Wonderbolt uniform had been folded up as neatly as possible and placed on her bedside table, next to a plastic jug of water and some empty paper cups. Lightning also noticed there were similar set ups opposite her which really only meant one thing, groaning Lightning realised where she was.
Greeeaaattt.......I'm in a freaking hospital.

"Lightning, how do you feel?"
Taking note of the voice talking to her, Lightning turned to look at Spitfire standing a little away from her bed looking very concerned at her.

"W-where am I?" Dust's was hoarse and scratchy.

"First things first, let me take that back." said Spitfire, pointing at Lightning.
Looking down Lightning realised that she was still holding the bucket that was full of what had been in her stomach, and that was dangerously close to been spilt over her and the bed. Grimacing Lightning carefully past the bucket back.

"Corporal Enter Prise." Spitfire called out towards the other end of the room. Immediately a beige coated unicorn stallion with a brown mane came trotting into Lightning's field of view, he was dressed in military doctor's uniform with the sleeves on his forelegs rolled up to his elbows. His corporal rank was displayed just under a white band with a red cross attached on his right side, while the insignia of the Equestrian Medical Corps was present on his left.

"Yes, Captain Spitfire?"

"Corporal, get rid of this for me." replied Spitfire turning around to him to hoof over the almost full bucket.
The corporal grimaced but removed the bucket from Spitfire with his magic, Lightning swore that she could hear him mutter under his breath as he turned back to leave.

"I'm a doctor, not garbage disposal"
Spitfire could apparently hear him as well, as she rolled her eyes at the comment. She instead addressed Lightning.

"Lightning, currently you're in the Brazen Hawk Medical Wing on the central campus of Equestrian Military Academy West Hoof."

"W-w-west Hoof!?" stuttered Lightning hoarsely, her eyebrows had shot up in surprise; she never thought that she would ever step hoof in here, well not until she became a Wonderbolt that is. A dream very likely not to be fulfilled, Lightning thought woefully.

"Yes, EMA West Hoof." responded Spitfire, passing a cup of water over to Lightning.
Lightning wasted no time in downing the water offered to her; partly because she was severely dehydrated and partly to remove the now ever present taste of sick from her mouth. After Lightning pasted the cup back, Spitfire refilled it and offered it back up.

"How did I get here?" asked Lightning genuinely curious.

"Me and Solar carried you. It wasn't easy as half way here you started trying to fly on own, but it was like it was the first time you had used your wings you know like a filly."
Lightning Dust just groaned loudly at, moving a hoof to cover her eyes in embarrassment. But removed it quickly as she scanned the room again and realised that somepony wasn't there.

"Where's Solar Wind?" Lightning asked.

"At the moment, dealing with West Hoof's Command Structure; apparently they don't like to be woken up at 3 in the morning by two military captains regardless of being both the Royal Military and the Wonderbolts." frowned Spitfire.
Lightning let loose a half chuckle.
Hay, at least I don't have to deal with them. Although I do feel slightly bad for Solar.

"So, how are you feeling?" inquired Spitfire directing the conversation elsewhere.

"Like I just took the Dizzitron at full speed to then slammed into the ground, hard." groaned Lightning, pretty much all of her still ached but at least her throat was a little bit better. "How long have I been out?"

"About 5 hours. It's currently around 0600."
Groaning again, Lightning made to ask another question, but Spitfire beat her to it.

"Lightning, how much do you remember from last night."

"Errrr......not much. Ummm...being forced into talking to you and Solar, getting into another bar fight, then...then...errr." Lightning Dust looked at Spitfire questioningly to try and gain some clue of what happened after.
Spitfire answered questioning look to what happened to her.

"You were hit with some kind of magical spell, but to be honest I've never seen a black coloured aura before."

"So, you're saying that there is nothing wrong with me." Lightning rolled her hoof to suggest that they should sweep the topic of her health under the rug.

"Lightning I'm being serious here, you have been hit with an unknown spell with unknown symptoms from unknown magic. The medic's performed all the standard tests as well as couple extra on you currently you show nothing wrong except maybe a current diet change." said Spitfire sternly, her expression hard again.

"Great, that's just freaking great....." muttered Lightning under her breath.

"Lightning...." Spitfire let that hang in the air, she was quickly running out of patience with the patient. Taking a breath to try and calm herself, Spitfire continued. "Look, I know we're not on the best of terms at the moment, but I'm trying to look after you."
Lightning Dust narrowed her eyes in suspicion, since when was Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts the type of pony to admit a mistake. Never; that was the answer. Spitfire winced as Lightning's gaze bore into her. Lightning Dust could feel some satisfaction at making her old boss cringe but Dust would have probably have felt more satisfied if a certain question hadn't been burning in her mind since her final day at the Wonderbolts' Academy.
Spitfire seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Lightning as they both waited for the other to make a move.

"Why?" asked Lightning after several minutes of tense silence between the two pegasi.
Not looking at all comfortable Spitfire sighed in defeat.

"Because I didn't want you to become like Meltdown."
Lightning frowned in confusion, the name sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't place it.

"Who's Meltdown?"

"A former Wonderbolt who was the Captain before me. He...he wasn't very well liked."
Dust thought back to all the Wonderbolt history that she knew. But she still couldn't place the name, as far as she remembered the previous Wonderbolt Captain before Spitfire was the retired High Flyer.

"But the previous Wonderbolt Captain was-" responded Lightning.

"High Flyer? Yeah, he was the Captain before Meltdown; the records were never changed to include him on the Captain's list. The reason being that he was only captain for less than two months and almost destroyed the entire squadron." explained Spitfire

"What? What happened?"

"The power went to his head. He was only concerned with himself believing that the squadron should revolve around him, tartarus it got bad that he refused to act on an appeal for help in dealing with a wildfire. Instead he ordered a squadron parade to go ahead in 'honor' of him, that caused a split in Wonderbolts as a number of us including me, Soarin and Fleetfoot resigned on the spot. It took Gen. Firma sending Solar to sort out the situation."

"What, General Firma!?!?" exclaimed Lightning. "But what? How? Why?"
Spitfire lifted a hoof to stem the flow of question from Lightning Dust. To Lightning, Spitfire seemed to contemplate her decision before deciding on her answer. Lightning had never seen her like this, she had ever only known the tough commanding exterior that Spitfire exuded; but now, now Spitfire seemed like she wasn't sure or second guessing herself.

"Look, Lightning I don't want to say much here. But I promise if you listen to the offer Solar was going to explain to you, I'll tell you about it." answered Spitfire.
Half a minute passed with Lightning trying to piece together this mystery. Until finally...

"Ok..... I'll trust you" said Dust uncertainly, not really sure what to think at this moment. Could she wait or just try and force the truth from the mare in front of her.
Celestia damn it! No, I said that I trust her. I may be many things, most of them debatable but I am a mare of my word!
Spitfire looked slightly relieved at Lightning's answer.

"Right Lightning, here's what Solar is offering you....." started Spitfire.