Lightning Strikes Twice

by Solent Spray

Rating: teen
Tags: Lightning Dust, Slice of Life, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 10717

Lightning Dust hits rock bottom and offered a chance back out of her slump.

Recently been kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy on grounds for endangering lives. Lightning Dust now hits rock bottom of her life, hard.

Attempting to nurse the pain and humiliation of her actions, Lightning resorts to a dive bar to console herself. There she is gifted a second chance.
However it is up to her whether or not she chooses it.

Published 2015-09-24 00:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2020-09-24 00:02:46 UTC

Three drinks of whatever won't kill us.

"Are you sure that she came here?"
The voice originated from a female pony, the mare was wearing a cloak with the hood drawn up obscuring most if not all of her features, the only exception being a faint raised outline on her back indicting the presence of wings.

"I'm mean even for Lightning, this is desperate."
A slight movement of her headline indicated that she was looking around at her surroundings, which were at the moment a rundown side street in the back alleys of Manehatten. This being a particularly unsavory part of the city, the Pegasus mare was keeping a constant vigilance out for any sudden movements from any direction; especially as they were a fair while away from any main road.

"Anything?" questioned a second voice, querying the actions of her.

"No, fortunately not." was the answer given back.
The second voice came from a stallion, he too wore a cloak in a similar fashion to the mare; the hood drawn up and hiding most of his features as well. Similarly to his companion, the stallion had a faint raised outline of wings protruding through the cloak on his back.

"I don't mean to question where you get your intel nowadays, Wind. But, its just..." commented the pegasus mare.

"Fire, I know that Lightning is here." answered Wind.
Fire just grumbled at her partner.

"We're here." Wind pointed to an entrance to a back alley bar in front of them; it looked like it was even more run down than the street itself was.
As the pair entered the establishment, it was made clear extremely quickly that they were not welcome. Everything from the shabby interior decor to the rough as Tartarus patrons to the all the conversations being stopped halfway as every single pony in the bar turned to eye the newcomers. There were exactly 7 different ponies in the bar staring directly at them; 3 unicorns, 3 earth ponies and 1 pegasus including the earth pony behind the bar were judging the two newcomers with wary apprehension, as Fire and Wind stood in the doorway both noticed a slight movement in the back room behind the counter indicating a seventh pony out of sight.
But visually sweeping the scene again around the establishment they had just entered in it showed that not every single pony was staring at them; right at the back of the room with a couple of empty bottles lying on the table and on the floor around her, her turquoise head and amber mane slumped facing away from the bar entrance on a table in utter defeat was the mare that they were searching for; Lightning Dust.

She looked an absolute mess.
Lightning Dust looked possibly even worse than the bar itself; which was saying something as the bar had been worse than the street outside, a street littered with the refuse of a city thirty years old. Yet Lightning still wore her cadet uniform defiantly, however it was far from factory new condition. Her mane wasn't its usual bright amber as it dulled and muddied down with all manner of things including dirt, mud, grime and at least one patch of dried blood. Her light cyan coat hadn't fared any better either; even with the tatters of what was left of her Wonderbolt Cadet uniform, Lightning's coat was still several shades darker than it was usually through a combination of unwashed dirt and grime and what was even more patches of dried blood on her. It was debatable whether or not the blood was her own or not but in short it looked like Lightning had been in a pretty heavy pony bruise-up and lost.

"Bar first, then Lightning." Wind said bluntly.
Although nopony could see it Fire rolled her eyes, but followed Wind to the bar.

"Three drinks of whatever won't kill us." Wind asked of the bartender.
In response the earth pony behind the bar merely grunted and opened three bottles of cider. The bottles weren't from Sweet Apple Acres, but they'll do.

"18 bits." grunted the bartender again
Fire bristled under her cloak but stayed silent (she wouldn't even pay 18 bits for Sweet Apple Acres Cider let alone the crap the bartender was selling them), Wind ignored her by dropping a rough approximation of bits onto the counter and not bothering to wait for change, picked up the drinks to move over to where Lightning was sitting. Both Wind and Fire could see as they approached Lightning that she was giving off small subtle movements from her posture that meant that she was just mimicking being passed out from drinking but instead she was moving to get ready to attack them, sensing that Lightning was going to strike first Fire pushed past Wind to stop Lightning before she hurt herself.

Lightning was quick brandishing a small switchblade on Fire (the knife had been concealed by her slumped form), Lightning aimed at the other mare’s neck hoping to get the first and only strike in the fight. However, where Lightning was quick, Fire was quicker; knocking the knife out of Lightning's hoof before it was anywhere near Fire's neck, she then whipped out a golden fore hoof to strike a pressure point on Lightning’s left-side shoulder causing her left fore leg to go completely numb and collapse from under her.
Gasping in shock both at being disarmed so easily and her fore leg losing all feeling, Lightning glanced up at the pony who easily beat her trying to see a face instead she was met with an orange hoof that pretty much forced her back up on the rest of her hooves then shoved Lightning into her previously vacated seat.

"Lightning, we need to talk." said the mare who had downed her.

"Buck you! Whoever you are." spat Lightning. "I told your boss before I ain't paying up."
She tried to stand again but with her numb fire leg coupled with Fire's own very forcefully hoof against her wings meant that she that didn't get very far, meanwhile as this tussle went on Wind had taken the seat opposite to Lightning's and moved the three drinks on to the table. Fire was still fighting Lightning to get her to stop moving, she had even resorted to hitting Lightning's pressure point again.

"I'm part of the Wonderbolts hear me, let me go or you'll have my whole squad on you faster than you can say military precision!" raged Lightning desperately at the mare currently holding her down.

"Lightning, shut up. I am fast running out of patience!"
Unfortunately that prompted Lightning to struggle even harder to take down the mare holding her in place.

"Sit. Down." Wind's voice cut through their struggles like a knife through butter, looking through his hood to Fire giving her a extremely cold stare that even though she couldn't see it Fire shivered. "Both of you."
Grudgingly Fire let go of Lightning and took a seat next to Wind,

"Damn it Wind, don't do that." said the slightly shivering Fire

"Sorry about that Fire but it was the only way to break both of two up quickly." Apologised Wind passing a bottle of cider over to Fire, who took it with a nod.
Wind also passed the last cider bottle to Lightning, who luckily hadn't chosen to bolt after Fire had released her instead she was staring at Wind (or more appropriately at Wind's hood, seeing as she couldn't see his face) frozen with complete and utter shock, almost like a deer caught in headlights. Lightning was stuck in a loop between saluting or galloping away in fear, after a couple more seconds she finally realised that a cider bottle was being waved infront of her face, shakingly Lightning took it.

"Lightning Dust, it's taken awhile to track you down." stated Wind taking a swig from his cider, now he wished that was Sweet Apple Acres Cider.

"W-what ever your sellin', I ain't interested!" stammered Lighting trying to reclaimed some for her previous swagger.

"Ah yes, because you're doing so well on your own." Fire stated sarcastically taking another look over Lightning and her tattered appearance.

"Well I would be if it wasn't for that backstabbing Rainbow Dash!" Lightning was practically shouting at Fire, going so far to try and stand back up regardless of her completely numb fore leg. Apparently this was a touchy subject for Lightning Dust.

"Lightning I read the report, now I'm asking you to tell your side of the story." regarded Wind.
Lightning raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the wording of his response but the chance to rip on Rainbow Dash to ponies willing to listen was too great for her to pass up.

"I was destined to be the next greatest Wonderbolt!" Lightning began, she couldn't see it but both Wind and Fire rolled their eyes. "I had everything; I was naturally gifted with a placement at Wonderbolt Academy, I was lead wing pony in my whole flight, I was the envy of every other Pegasus who couldn't keep up with me and my speed!" Lightning's expression shone with hope for a second as she recalled her ego-infused memories then suddenly changed into an look of jealousy and hatred quicker than a pegasi aerial cloud sprint.

"Then she came along and ruined everything; Rainbow Dash, Rainbow 'Danger' Dash, Rainbow 'Element-Of-Loyalty' Dash, Rainbow 'Look-At-Me' Dash, Rainbow 'Rainbowed-Haired' Dash, Rainbow 'Aren't-My-Wings-Pretty' Dash, Rainbow-"

"We get the picture." interrupted Wind holding up his hoof to stop Lightning from complaining about Rainbow's name.

"She, Dash, she ratted me out to the Wonderbolt Captain. Spitfire said that I was reckless! Me! Reckless!!!"
Considering that her career path had significantly taken a severe nose dive and the fact that she was currently in a back alley bar telling her whole life story to complete strangers, the concept of irony was apparently lost on Lightning.
Fire shifted in her seat uncomfortably, Wind shot her a look even through the fabric of her cloak that made Fire cringe however Lightning was ranting about Spitfire's name now and had complete missed what was going on between the two ponies seated across from her.

“…Spit 'Academy-Record' Fire, Spit 'Bitc-”
A low growl from Fire drew Lightning’s attention and cut her off from saying anymore.

“What's it to you?” Lightning question challenged Fire. “You gonna defend the mares who ruined my life?”

“It sounds like your ego make the your decisions.” Fire said through gritted teeth.

“Ego!!! I give you ego!!!” Lightning made to stand up again to continue their previous dust up but collapsed again as soon as she put weight on her still numb and useless leg, Fire didn't move as Lightning crumpled under her own weight and just watched as she had to physically climb back into her seat.

"Lightning Dust, back to point. Do you know why you were discharged?" asked Wind, drawing Lightning's attention back to him.

"How in Tartarus should I know, maybe something to do with civilians in Wonderbolt airspace....." shrugged Lightning nonchalantly going back to her cider bottle.

"You endangered not only your flight detail but 5 civilian VIP's with an illegal and life-threatening aerial maneuver."

"Yeah so? Civilians in military airspace, even if they were VIP's that would be a breach of Wonderbolt regulations." shot back Lightning, quoting from the Wonderbolt handbook (memorised back when she was a little filly watching her first Wonderbolts live show). "The only civilians allowed anywhere near military airspace is..."

"The Elements of Harmony." stated Wind cutting through Lightning's argument. "That's who you endangered, Lightning; Miss Fluttershy, Miss Applejack, Miss Rarity, Miss Pie and Miss Sparkle."

"Oh......"
Lightning couldn't think, she had jeopardized 5 of the 6 most important mares of recent history. Suddenly she realised how badly Rainbow Dash had flipped out at her, no wonder Spitfire had kicked her out; it was that or a military tribunal. But Wind wasn't finished with Lightning.

"Did you know that Miss Sparkle is the protege and personal student of Celestia herself?"
That like a punch in the gut for Lightning. Princess Celestia? Forget the military tribunal, she was lucky that she wasn't being bought in front of the Princess in chains. However Wind somehow seemed to what Lightning was thinking.

"No, Celestia is not personally after you. Otherwise you would be 'talking' with her and not us."
Shocked and surprised, Lightning looked at Wind's hooded features trying and failing to piece together the enigma behind her two companions seated with her.

"W-who are you guys?"
Lightning wasn't sure she had even asked the question, she wasn't even sure of anything more. Fire turned and looked half inquiringly half asking at Wind, who simply nodded. Lightning watched stunned as Fire removed her hood with her yellow hoof to reveal an equally golden coat to match a set of dark amber eyes looking at her, a mane of vivid orange with light brilliant amber stripes, Fire was apparently the Wonderbolt Captain; Spitfire.
But Lightning's attention was drawn from her old captain to Wind who was removing his own hood to reveal of a coat of pure steel gray and a mane of jet black but what drew Lightning was his eyes; a set of piercing emerald green eyes were staring at Lightning, she couldn't read anything behind them. Lightning knew who this was, although she had never met him before she had heard the stories circulating around the military about the stallion sitting across from her. This was Captain Solar Wind of the Royal Equestrian Military.

Author's Note

Any comments/queries/suggestions please leave in the comments.
Also I'm sorry that this is really, really late. I had real trouble with these bar scenes as I kept frittering between three different ideas.
Estimated time for next chapter: Two weeks (Sorry :fluttershysad:)

Revised: 24/09/2015

You’re joking, right?

This was the original opening to the chapter, what do you guys/girls/ponies think? Which opening is better?

Lightning's brain had officially stopped working, but it more like it her brain had handed its resignation form into its supervisor, then proceeded to enter its boss's office then smash everything in there with a sledgehammer then left while flipping the boss off, going to find the nearest hardware store to buy a flamethrower (don't ask me how) returning to the aforementioned office to then burn the smashed pieces of wreckage to the ground.

What The Buck!!!!!
This was pretty much the extent of Lightning's thinking at the current moment of time, Dust was further hindered in her rational thinking as the singular thought was on loop, playing over and over again in her mind. Spitfire and Solar Wind were glancing at each other before looking back to Lightning, neither of them unsure of the entire situation anymore, in all the scenarios that could've happened when Lightning figured out who she was actually talking to; this was not one of them.
What The Buck!!!!!
What The Buck!!!!!
What Th-

“Ow!”

A swift punch to her numb leg jolted her out of the loop that Lightning was experiencing; even though Lightning's forehoof was numb and unusable, it still stung like Tartarus. Regaining her senses to find out what had just happened, Lightning realised that it had been Spitfire (the closer of her current drinking 'buddies') who had punched her. Shooting her an indignant look Spitfire merely shrugged while Solar rolled his eyes.

“What? It’s quicker than waiting for her to finally realise how bucked up this situation is.” Spitfire said, defending her actions. Unfortunately this riled Lightning’s anger towards Spitfire back up again.

“The situation!? The ‘situation’ is that I was a Wonderbolt until YOU kicked me out!” replied Lightning spitefully, pointing to Spitfire with her (working) forehoof. This seemed to work as Spitfire cringed slightly at Lightning’s words.

“Lightning.” Solar said firmly, drawing Lightning’s attention back to him. “I know that there is some… …animosity between you and Spitfire. But if she hadn’t of discharged from the Wonderbolts, as I said before you would have been bought in front of Celestia and Luna to explain your actions against the Elements of Harmony, which from their point of view would has been an act of violence against Equestria itself.”
Lightning made to interrupt Wind by opening her mouth, but he raised a hoof to stop her.

“Let me finished. Yes, I agree that it could have been handled better; both from you and Spitfire as well as Cdt. Dash.”
Spitfire shot Wind a cold look, he ignored her.

“But, if you had been taken to Celestia, especially if had resisted which I would guess that you would.”

Lightning allowed herself a small smile, imagining a scene where she was surrounded on Mane Street in Canterlot fighting off roughly 10, no 20, no 50! Royal Guards refusing to be taken down or taken in alive! All leading to an epic final confrontation to the Princess of the Sun herself in the middle of her throne room, the battle was long and fierce and way too epic to even put down into words. But the duel between Lightning and Princess Celestia could only have one winner, and who else could be as epic as Lightning Dust! She stood victorious over the Princess, wearing all the Elements of Harmony and being crowned the new ruler of Equestria as the new Princess of Epicness! Lightning Dust looked over her new kingdom as her marefriend approached her with nothing but love and adoration in her eyes and know else would Lightning take as a partner than Princess Cadence but Cadence had abstained from her royal title to become nothing more just Lightning’s marefriend as nothing else could compare to Lightning. Princess Lightning Dust waited for Cadence to profess her undying love for her.

“Lightning, I know what you’re doing. So, stop it.” Solar Wind’s flat unamused voice had replaced Cadence’s.
And with that Lightning’s daydream/delusion was shattered into a million little pieces as she was mentally pulled back to a dingy back alley bar somewhere in lower Manehatten.
It was quite actually amusing to watch Lightning go from one moment being Dust’s eyes completely glazed over and faraway gaze as she constructed a make-believe Equestria fit to contain Lightning’s ‘epicness’, to next with Lightning desperately trying to salvage some pride in front of two ponies who currently holding her life at a crossroad.

“As, I was saying before you went off daydreaming about Princess Cadence. Celestia would have had no choice to banish you from Equestria completely.” continued Solar, ignoring Lightning’s redding muzzle and sheepish look. Dust was slightly curious and confused to how Solar had been be able to read her fantasies about Princess Cadence like a book, unfortunately for Lightning she didn't realise that she tended to mumble when she daydreamed.

"Yeah, and?" Lightning said extremely flustered, trying to defend herself again. "Means I that got the sky completely to myself!"

"The only two kingdoms that would even consider granting you asylum would either Griffonia or Zebrica." shot back Spitfire.

"Ha! You're forgetting Sa..."

"Saddle Arabia? Lightning, do you not understand how much power and sway Princess Celestia has? If she had exiled you, the Saddle Arabians' wouldn't have touched you with a 10 hoof pole!"
It was amazing how cold Spitfire could actually be sometimes.

"Look, we are getting off topic here." stated Wind, trying to bring some sense back to the conversation. "The point is that your discharge, Lightning was final. Celestia did have control over that much and as well as preventing you from any future try-outs for the Wonderbolts."

"WHAT!!!!! I'M BANNED FROM THE WONDERBOLTS!!!!!" screamed Lightning, even managing to stand for a few seconds on three legs to try and reach over the table to strangle Solar Wind. She only got halfway across the table when her numb hoof gave out on her again.

"Calm. Down." replied Solar to Lightning's outburst.

"HOW CAN I BE CALM!?!?" shouted Lightning, directly in Wind's face. "Yeah, sure I'll be calm while my dream of being a Wonderbolt is shattered in front of me!"
Lightning was trying once again to pick herself up and launch herself across the table at Solar.

"There is still a way that you could become a Wonderbolt."
That stopped Lightning completely, whatever she was going to scream next at Solar whatever she was going to do was instantly forgotten when he had said that. Slowly and careful Dust lowered herself back in her seat.

"How?" asked Lightning in barely anything more than a whisper, glaring suspiciously over to Solar.

"You join as an officer, not a cadet."

A total of three seconds passed, where Lightning just stared at Solar as if he had gone mad. In Lightning’s defence, it did sound like he had. She didn't know whether to start laughing at him or go back to try and strangle him again.

“You’re joking, right?”
A very deadpan stare from Wind was the reply.
“Look, Lightning you have two choices-” began Solar. But Spitfire interrupted, her voice quiet but the tone of her statement was raised with alarm.

“Hostiles. 4 O’Clock.”
Solar glanced quickly at Spitfire; she was looking over his shoulder back to the main area of the bar as well as the entrance. Cursing himself for seating with his back towards the entrance, Wind had to resist turning round to see the situation behind him; instead now he had to rely on Spitfire for information.

"1 U, 2 E's. Enter Block. Possib More."
This was usual military code used by both the Wonderbolts and the Royal Military. Its meaning; One Unicorn, Two Earth Ponies were now approaching their table. The Entrance (and exit) for the bar was being blocked and if a fight was started it was likely that Solar, Lightning and Spitfire would be outnumbered. Slowly Solar moved his forehoof to the neck of his cider bottle, in the corner of his eye Spitfire is doing the same but moving to the back of her chair, even Lightning had tensed up again. Sensing that something was wrong, she moved her usable forehoof off the table towards the floor to find her dropped switchblade.

“Tink that yo’s lot are in like the wron neighbawhood. Get outta hea.”
An extremely gruff voice with a thick Manehattan accent sounded out behind Solar; although they had just butchered the Equis language with that statement it provided an excuse for Wind to turn round to gauge the newcomers.
Unsurprising the unicorn and the two earth ponies all looked like that they had been visiting the gym way too much; all were thick set and burly, in short they were the perfect bunch to be hired as local muscle for some crime family or syndicate. But as it was common for ponies their size they always had major weakness; they always tended to rely on intimidation rather than an actual ability to fight to get what they (or their bosses) wanted. While this would work for shakedowns or against local authorities, it had no chance in Tartarus of working against two specially members of the military. Spitfire and Solar Wind, for example.

“Lightnin, you aw late with repayin the boss.” The unicorn heavily addressed Lightning. She gulped and opened her mouth to respond, but Solar cut across her before she could answer.

“She isn’t paying.”
The unicorn sneered down at Wind.

“What do yo mean like she aint’ payin?

“Exactly that, or would you prefer if we spelt it for you?” answered Spitfire sweetly, clearly goading the unicorn into trying something stupid. Snarling, he took the bait, looking over to Spitfire while charging his horn.

“Then yo’s lot gotta be taught a lesson, in mindin yea own damn business.”

He didn’t get the chance to even finish the spell. A split second after the unicorn took his eyes off Solar, a cider bottle smashed into his horn; the spell which had been forming was instantly disrupted sending the magic straight back into his horn. A small boom coupled with a shockwave blasted the unicorn away; he flew straight across the room into the bar behind him, the unicorn was unconscious before he hit the ground. One second of shocked silence rippled through the air, and then all Tartarus broke loose.
Roaring at the same time the earth ponies launched themselves at the three pegasi in the corner. Solar dropped the remains of the cider bottle and met one of them head on; the earth pony swung a hoof towards Solar’s head, the attack was so obvious and slow to Solar it may have well been standing still, easily Wind’s raised his hoof to block and deflected the punch; there was a sickening crunch as the hoof went straight into the brick wall behind the pegasus. The earth pony’s hoof was completely broken; howling in pain from his injury, he trained his eyes on Solar Wind he grunted in both angry and pain as closed the distance between the two of them. The earth pony raised his head to crack it down on top of Solar's. Wind knew what he was going to do, as soon as his opponent had lifted his head and exposed his neck Wind lunged, striking the windpipe hard and fast; a strange gurgling like sound was emitted from the earth pony as he choked for air. Reaching for his now bruised and airless windpipe with his non-broken forehoof unfortunately forgetting the other one was broken, and as soon as he put weight on it he crumpled onto the floor. Gasping for air and balance, the last thing he saw was Lightning delivering him a swift kick to the head knocking him unconscious.

The second earth pony was a bit more calculated than the one that Solar and Lightning had dispatched. Instead of going in like a bull elephant, he hung back and regarded his opponent for a second. Unfortunately his opponent was Spitfire and one second was all she needed, feigning right throwing the earth pony off balance to intercept a fake attack; Spitfire changed direction to her left side sticking his unguarded side with a swift jab before pulling back out of hoof reach. The earth pony who had teased up after being tricked by Spitfire regarded her unsurely, her jab was hard yes, but for the earth pony it wasn't the best punch that could have been thrown. Smirking, thinking that was the best the pegasus had to offer, he took a step to close the gap between them and press an advantage against her.
His smirk lasted another two seconds as he instantly collapsed under his weight, glancing up he saw that it was Spitfire's turn to smirk. Her attack while not completely a full punch had hit one of his pressure points rendering his front right side completely useless (Coincidentally it was same pressure point that Spitfire had hit on Lightning Dust). Trying to deliver a extremely wild haymaker in the vague direction of Spitfire, the earth pony was out of options and could only pretty watch as Spitfire quickly and swiftly punched two more places around his barrel with the same precision as her first punch, locking up all his muscles preventing from him moving or feeling everything apart from his head.

"Look sorry about this. But don't worry it's not permanent, it'll wear off in about an hour or so." She spoke down to him.
He was perplexed, why should she be worried about him, he and his brother had failed to carry out the boss's orders.

"Hey, ummm... What's your name by the way?' She asked, slightly nervously.

"Direct. Direct Stance." He managed to grunt out, although he really didn't know why he was telling her his name.

"If you get the chance and if you want to make something of your life instead of just being of a hired thug, come to Canterlot and look me up" the pegasus answered.
Before he could answer with a retort she reached inside her cloak producing a small card and stuck in his mouth.

With the unicorn and one earth pony both knocked out and the other paralyzed and thankfully the rest bar partons hadn't made a move to join in the fight, the three pegasi relaxed and were ready to go back to their conversation.

"Ohh, Yeah!!! Who else wants a piece of the Lightning!"
Or not.
Solar and Spitfire quipped around to face Lightning Dust, both were giving her extremely hard glares of 'Why in Tartarus did you just say that?'.

"What?" Dust said defensively.
But before anypony could say anything or do anything else, a jet black bolt of magic shot through the window at rapid speed straight at the group.

"Oh......"
The last thing that Lightning saw was the magic bolt flying straight at her, the shocked faces of Solar and Spitfire being covered as her vision was filled and overpowered by a pitch black light.

Then she fell into darkness.

Author's Note

This came out later than I intended, for that I'm sorry guys! :fluttershysad:
But I wasn't happy with the first draft of the chapter so I completely re-wrote it, by that everything in the chapter was re-written. The only part that survived is the quote back at the top the page, again if you guys like it; comment and I'll keep it. I'll also try to put more oddball humour in the future as well.

Anything else, again write in the comments section and I'll try to input it into the story. Cya!

Revised: 14/10/2015 25/10/2015

We both know where he is.

"Weeeeee!!! Faster Daddy, faster!"
A small light blue coated filly was screaming in delight, her golden mane blowing the in the wind behind, her tiny wings buzzed frantically trying to gain enough lift so she would be able to fly herself. She was on the back of a pegasus stallion with a similar appearance except his coat was a darker blue topped with a grey mane. Currently they were soaring through the clouds of their home town; the pegasi cloud city of Windy Peaks.

"You ok back there, Dusty?"
Lightning Storm looked back to make sure that she was alright which meant that he had to slow down to get a good look at his daughter. Lightning Dust appeared to be having the time of her life, until she realised that she was going slower than she had been promised.

"Daddy! You said that we won't stop 'til I got tired!" huffed Lightning Dust.

"And we haven't stopped, I'm just checking that you're alright back there."
Lightning Dust pouted in annoyance, true Storm hadn't stopped, only gone slower. But going slower was almost like stopping and to Dust that was a no-go, she loved speed and going as fast as possible.

"Daddy!!! Please, you promised!!!"
Lightning Dust even went as far as jumping up and down on his back to emphasise her point.

"Humh, fine then. As fast as possible, but no ice cream after this!" Lightning Storm said and after making sure that his daughter wasn't still bouncing on top of him, started to pick up his lost speed.

"YAY!!!!!"
Lightning Dust didn't care; ice cream couldn't compare to this! Suddenly, a massive rainbow soared across the sky above them, Lightning Dust could feel the magic across her cyan coat. Weird, Dust remembered the Rainboom happening on the day she lost-

"Daddy~" singsonged Dust

"Yes...." answered Lightning Storm warily, even though he knew what she was about to say.

"I can see the Frosty Snow's store for here~"

"Ohh, that's nice..." He had to feign interest and not look into her pleading eyes, if he did that Storm would be lost in the depths of cute filly sadness. For that there was no known cure.

"I can see that her ice cream parlour has a sale on~"

"Ohh, that's nice as well..."
Keep her talking and get back to the house quick! Storm was frantically thinking to himself.

"You know how you love me!~"
Damn, she was using the big guns for this fight.

"Daddy! Look, I got my cutie mark!" Lightning Dust suddenly squealed with glee, causing Storm to suddenly to whip his head excitedly around to get a good look at... his daughter's pleading eyes.
Arhh, It's a trap! Their sadness is too strong, guilt factors rising. Dusty, you cruel filly fiend; this revenge from earlier I know it. Must. hold.. out... a.... little..... longer......

"...f-fine, we'll get ice cream." Storm admitted in utter defeat, hanging his head in shame at being beaten by his own daughter.

"YAY!!!!!"
Lightning Dust didn't care that had completely guilt tripped her father, ice cream would be worth it!

"Mmmm...chocolate chip...." Lightning Dust was savouring her 'hard won' ice cream while Lightning Storm had to make due with normal vanilla. Seeing as the parlour had a sale on literally all of the ice creams, most of them had run out already. After several minutes of eating Storm turned to look at Lightning Dust obviously with something on his mind.

"Lightning Dust, is this how you remember your fillyhood? Stop lying to yourself."
Dust paused from her vanilla treat to stare perplexed at her father, confused on why he had called by her full name and he had never called her Miss before either. He always used her nickname he had given her, even when she was in trouble.

"D-daddy? W-what do you mean?"

"Dusty, I said; How do you like your ice cream?"

"Umm..."
Lightning Dust stared at her perfect chocolate chip ice cream and took another bite, suddenly it didn't taste as sweet as she remembered. Something was wrong but she couldn't think what it was. Lightning Storm suddenly pointed to the school playground opposite them.

"Hey look Dusty, it's your school friends. Why don't you go play with them?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Hear, I'll hold your ice-cream while you go play." Storm reassured her.
Something was definitely wrong, as far as she remembered Windy Peak's school and its playground had never been across the road from the Frosty Snow's Ice-Cream shop. But somepony was shouting her name, it was Cloud Kicker standing on top of the swings waving at her. Funny, Lightning hadn't seen Cloud Kicker for years......or was it yesterday?

"Lightning!!!!! Oh My Gosh, come play with me!"

Lightning was starting get a headache from her drinking......wait, wasn't it ice cream? Lightning Dust found herself sitting on the swings with Cloud Kicker listening to her talk endlessly.

"-and then I said 'I'm Cloud Kicker not Cloud Kickys!' and then he was like 'Fine, I'll call you both Cloudy then!'"
Cloud Kicker burst into laughter at her own joke but Cloud stopped as soon as she realised that Lightning Dust wasn't paying attention, slightly confused at her friend's actions, Lightning was her best friend since like forever and she always paid attention and laughed at Cloud's jokes.

"Hey, Lightning. Are you ok?"

"Huh, what?"
Lightning Dust was snapped out of her thinking to glance across to Cloud Kicker.

"Sorry, Cloud. I wasn't listening what did you say?"

"Lightning, stop deluding yourself. You'll never be fast enough." Cloud Kicker's comment had splintered though Lightning Dust. But it wasn't just what Cloud had said, it was the way she had said it; her voice was detached, cold and unfeeling.

"W-w-what?"

"Wow, look at that!" shouted Cloud Kicker excitedly pointing at the sky above them, a massive arcing rainbow was heading over them at extreme speeds. It was a Sonic Rainboom, Lightning had seen it before when she was a filly.....wait, no she was a filly and she had never seen something like that before.
But if that was so then how did Lightning Dust already know what a Rainboom was and called.

"Umm, Lightning why are the buildings are on fire."
Lightning looked at where Cloud Kicker was pointing. She was right; the cloud buildings were on fire, it looked around the downtown district of Windy Peaky that was where the Weather Factory was, where Lightning Storm worked. Dust looked across the street expecting to see him and Frosty Snow's Ice-cream parlour, but they were gone. Wait, no that was wrong Lightning Dust had just seen them...right?
Getting a slowly creeping feeling of dread Lightning Dust somehow knew the her father was in danger. As the cloud fire spread towards the Weather Factory, Lightning took off running towards it leaving the school playground and Cloud Kicker behind.

"Wait, Lightning!" Cloud Kicker called after her, but Dust wasn't listening.

Lightning Dust tore through the streets galloping as hard as she could, veering around and through passing bystanders as best as she could. As Lightning ran passed two ponies she heard a brief snipet of their conversation.

"....e fire is all across downtown. Ponies are saying that it has surrounded the Weather Factory."

"Is anypony in danger?"

"I don't know. There is no news coming from over there."

"Where are the Wonderbolts? They should be here to he-"
Dust's mind was full of questions such as if her daddy was ok or not, why the fire had started, how the fire had started, and why wasn't anypony running to help. But she couldn't concentrate on them now, she had to keep running. Lightning Dust was pumping her legs as fast as they could go but her breathing was getting labored, and her legs were getting tired she wasn't built to run over long distances or over any long periods of time; after all she wasn't an earth pony, she was a pegasus. A Pegasus! Lightning Dust's only chance to make it in time was her wings. But she was a filly, she had never flown before, not on her own, not without help.
She had to try!
Flapping her wings in a steady rhythm just as her father had shown her had been difficult when she was standing still but now she was galloping as hard as she could making the task infinitely more demanding. Lightning was pushing herself to beyond her limits, slowly but surely Lightning being feeling weightless, looking down she noticed that her legs were galloping in midair as she was now at least 6 hooves of the ground. Renewed at finally being able to fly Lightning Dust stopped moving her legs, tucking them in to make herself more streamlined; she poured more energy into her wings determinded to go faster. She was now blasting past ponies like a cannonball, her wings were a blur of speed as they pulled every bit of energy from Lightning to keep her going. Lightning Dust was now easily the fastest moving pegasus in the whole of Windy Peaks, she was going at speeds that would make Wonderbolts jealous. A faint trail of aether and pegasus magic was building behind her coalescing into a blue and yellow thunderbolt streaked light trail.

Just a little faster! Lightning was thinking to herself, I'm almost there, I'm here to save you daddy! Lightning Dust felt a slight burning sensation on her flank, glancing back Lightning was shocked to she a mark there consisting a yellow lightning bolt on top of three white stars. But right now Lightning Dust couldn't spend anything on the discovery of her cutie mark, she had to keep going. She was almost there.
She could see Windy Peaks Weather Factory now, it was already completely ablaze. Lightning Dust couldn't see her father anywhere however a pegasus mare was shouting at others to clear out the surrouding area, the mare looked severaly disheveled; her snow white coat and silver mane were marred with soot and ash from the surrounding flames this made the mare's silver eyes standout like polished diamonds. Lightning Dust flew up to her seeing that she was the only other pony that wasn't losing their heads.

"Hey! What's going on here?" shouted Lightning at her.
The mare did a double take Lightning Dust.

"Storm's filly? It's Dust isn't it? You need to get out of here, now!"
The mare pointed at Lightning to get back from the burning buildings. But Lightning wasn't backing down.

"Where is my daddy?" she screamed.

"We both know where he is." The mare voice was cold and monotone just as Cloud Kickers' before, she slowly turned towards the burning factory. Her movement was almost robotic, there was nothing natural about her at the moment.

"But it's too late, you're too late Lightning. You weren't fast enough." She said as the mare looked up at the building high flames, half-turning back around to face Lightning Dust, the snowy mare's eyes had turned from silver to a slited green. Lightning Dust shivered, she had seen those eyes before but she couldn't think where...

"Hmm, your loyalty.....even after all of this you still what to save him, don't you?"
Confused Lightning nodded slowly.

"Very well, I'll give you one more try. Better hurry..."

Gritting her teeth, Lightning Dust had heard enough and blasted straight past her into the blaze.

Author's Note

Quick update, I recently updated the previous chapter (You're joking, right?), the only important change is this.

But before anypony could say anything or do anything else, a jet black bolt of magic shot through the window at rapid speed straight at the group.

"Oh......"
The last thing that Lightning saw was the magic bolt flying straight at her, the shocked faces of Solar and Spitfire being covered as her vision was filled and overpowered by a pitch black light.

Yes, trust me it's important.
Also, shout at me to the next chapters out sooner, seriously my upload periods has slipped up to three weeks. I know that its important that I need time for my writing to still make sense, but I just think that for first week of writing is not used well just for playing Skyrim. :applecry:

Aim for the bucket.

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.

Y-you would not believe how many ponies have done that.

When a ponies' offer sounded too good to be true, it usually meant it was. But no matter how hard or closely Lightning thought about Solar's proposition she couldn't find his angle or game. And to Lightning who had received way too many of these kinds of offers before (seriously way too bucking many...), she knew when she was getting conned. But right now...
...right now she just didn't know.

In though Spitfire had told her a couple of hours ago and left (something to do with not letting Soarin and Fleetfoot burning down her academy.), the only thing that Lightning could think about was what she had said, what Solar had offered. To Lightning Solar's offer was frigging miracle; join the Equestrian Military under Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's authority and protection...
...or be hunted by the Equestrian Military under Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's authority and power to be bought before them and be publicly tried with attempted murder of the majority of the Elements of Harmony, not to even mention Princess Celestia's prized student. Hay, Lightning herself didn't like her odds against the pretty much the entirety of the Equestrian military especially with Captain Wind leading the charge for her arrest if it was the case Lightning would like her odds even less. Seriously some of the stories that had surfaced about him even her in brief stay in the Wonderbolts were scary; and those stories came from Rainbow Dash.

To be honest Lightning already knew which choice she was going to pick, which lead her back to her original thought; Why?
Why was Solar doing this? Why did he care about this for her, for a pony he barely knew? Why was there some angle that she was missing? Why was there a hoof being waved in front of her face?
...
...
...
Wait, what?

Lightning blinked, in front of her was standing a beige unicorn mare with a brown mane tied back into a rough ponytail was waving her hoof in front of Dust's face. Judging from the military uniform she was wearing along with the sleeve patch of Equestrian Medical Corps as well as the rank of lance corporal displayed on her, Lightning Dust guessed that she was another of the West Hoof medical team.

"Heh, heh, heehhh.....Y-you would not believe how many ponies have done that." she said in a slightly high-pitched cheery voice.

"Try me..." challenged Lightning through gritted teeth, moving herself into the most aggressive stance possible while still in a medical bed.
The medical unicorn gulped hastily trying to retracted her last statement, failing completely she had no choice but to move onward with her patient.

"H-Hi there, I'm L-lance Corporal Triage." the mare said still with an excessively high bubbly note offering a hoof to Dust even giving a really wide bright smile towards her. She tried to surreptitiously glance at a clipboard grasped within her magic, needless to say in Lightning's opinion she failed; for one it was in her magic (something about a pale green magic aura around an object generally tips another pony off) and apparently this Triage mare thought it would be a good idea to hold the clipboard up in front of her face obscuring her view of...

"Ligh-Lighttnnning D-duuust." Triage could practically spell Dust's name out in thin air with that description, from what was presumingly Lightning's patient notes.
Seeming not noticing the raised eyebrow her patient was sporting now, Triage appeared from behind her clipboard with extra gusto, her smile seemed appeared to be even more forced now.
Lightning blinked, something about her seemed off. Her locked joints, the almost robotic way she moved, the small beads of sweat on her forehead and the nearly creepy way she still held her overlarge smile.

"Ummm....oookkkk........" reply Lightning slightly unsurely, her earlier harshness receding slowly. Dust would be lying if she said that she was worried by the mare in-front of her. Wait, worried? Lightning doesn't do worried, concerned maybe-possibly but not worried!

"S-s-so..." The mare faulted. "...h-how are you doing?"
Lightning just looked at her deadpanned. Really... I mean really? That's the question you're going with, what am I your first patient or something?
Triage gave a extremely nervous chuckle, and nervously rubbed her left foreleg behind her right.

"Y-y-you know that you're t-technically my f-f-first patient, s-so don't worry even though I haven't had much e-experience with y-you know ponies I've got a lot of k-knowledge, knowledge in you know medical knowledge not like other knowledge. I mean what kind of doctor would I be if I didn't have medical knowledge, not that I don't know other stuff cause like I'm in the military but I'm also a doctor and and and.... oh sweet Celestia I'm rambling now....." Triage ranted to Lightning.

Triage's breathing had slowly become heavier and heavier to point where she was now hyperventilating, Triage was literally having a panic attack in front of Lightning's eyes. Triage was now shaking violently with fear even muttering to herself quietly, the clipboard fell as her magic fizzled out, her foreleg reached up started playing with the end of her mane fillytail which now looked even more unkempt than it did a couple of minutes ago. If Lightning didn't do something quickly then the current doctor/patient roles would be reversed. Hay, if another pony walking into the situation right now they would probably question why the doctor was in bed and the patient standing over them. Dust had to take charge of the situation, annoyingly she thought that the last time she had been a position of authority back when she was lead wing pony at the academy.

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind, Dust placed her foreleg firmly on Triage's shoulders and forcing the panicking mare to look directly into her eyes, luckily Triage was still next to Lightning's hospital bed. As soon as Lightning had forced Triage to look at her, the mare had instantly froze, locking completely up. Dust just about noticed that Triage was so petrified that she had stopped breathing as well.

"Calm Down. Breathe." said Lightning forcefully.
Triage acting act the command released the breath she was holding before she started suffering from oxygen deprivation as she very slowly relaxed. Lightning let go of some of the pressure on the mare but didn't stop holding onto Triage's shoulders. Triage took the first chance she got to fix her gaze away from Lightning's eyes, shifting her eyes to stare firmly at the floor.

"...T-t-thanks." Triage managed to stammer out, Lightning let her do the talking for the moment. "I-I'm not very good w-with p-ponies. I-I-I've s-social a-anxiety."
Dust frowned in confusion. Doesn't like social situations, yet became a doctor.

"Y-you must t-t-think t-that I'm a joke..." sniffed Triage, her eyes started to glisten she looked like she was about to cry.
Lightning sighed, she was not the mare for this situation. Triage tried wiping her eyes in futile effort before she started to cry.

"Look..." Dust started, before she realised that she had forgotten the nearly sobbing mare's name. "Errr...name?"

"Tr-Triage." Triage said helpfully.

"Look, Triage." Dust started again. "First off, I don't think that your a joke. But, you're all over the place, bucking relax and ignore what other ponies think and say about you."

"U-ummm yeah..." confirmed Triage, somewhat confused on what Lightning was saying, this was going against what she was taught back but she was making a connection with her patient there was no reason to stop now.

"Free word of advice, trust your instincts and maybe, occasionally, sometimes listen to your squadmates once in awhile, maybe..." said Lightning to Triage, oddly sagely for her.
That's how I did it, back at the academy. Dust thought to herself.

"O-ok, y-yeah, got it." said Triage gaining more confidence with each word she spoke.

"Right." Dust responded. "Take control of a situation before it takes control of you."
Triage seemed to bolster with each word spoken to her, until she visibly deflated and looked back to Lightning for guidance.

"Ummm, c-could you teach me?" asked Triage slightly pleadingly, trying to hide her eyes behind her mane.
Lightning Dust sighed, knowing that she could refuse and leave Triage to figure how to command herself on her own. But to honest Dust was bored from bed sitting already and there didn't look like there would be anything better coming along to motivate her anyway, so she rather annoying agreed.

"Alright fine, I'll go over the basics for you. But that's it!"
Triage simply broke out into the real smile Lightning had seen for her.

Author's Note

Hey, if anyone reads this; Hello!
Ummm, yeah I'm gonna be honest I've had this chapter in limbo for like 5 years now. If you're interested in story continuing, I'll try but I can't guarantee anything.