Lightning Master

Manehatten Train Station 5 hours later

"Really, it's back here of all places?" Drake asked as he looked around for any signs that anybody had seen BlackStreak around but all seemed calm. As it had turned out, Tonoe had actually brought a device that would have helped him tracked down BlackStreak just in case he wasn't brought anywhere near Drake. After all, Drake and BlackStreak were never too far from each other so if he found her, he also found him.

"What? Did something happen here?" Tonoe asked as he was right behind Drake, taking in the sights of the sprawling city.

"Not particularly, just the place I landed in the middle of when I was brought here." Drake said as he made it sound as though it was no big deal as he was looking towards the tracker. He was still a little baffled at the fact that the device managed to get an map layout of Equestria without having satellites or anything of the sorts to get a readout of the country and transmitting it to the small machine, but he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth and didn't worry about it too much. . . . .for now.

"Well it seems you didn't cause too much damage if they aren't freaking out at seeing you back here." Cadance remarked as she too observed the ponies around the group.

"That or they see a royal guard captain, one of the princesses of Equestria, and all the bearers of the Elements of Harmony nearby, and we can't about Spike as well Tonoe, who everypony probably thinks is another dragon. So yeah, I don't think that they're going to be too scared of him." Gleaming shot towards her marefriend who glared at her, to which the effect was ruined by the cute pouting lip.

"Gleaming be nice, it's not like Drake meant of any of thing that has happened, happen." Twilight admonished her older sister.

"I'm just saying that could very well could be a possibility, I'm not saying that, that is what is going through their heads." Gleaming shot back at her with her tongue sticking out. Drake threw his hand up before anybody else could say anything and garnered their attention towards the tracking device in his hands.

"So I managed to get this thing to pinpoint BlackStreak's location from here and before we set out to find it I felt like I should ask is this place," He shows everyone the forest that was displayed on the trackers screen where the final member of Drake's team was. "Has anything special about it that may prevent us, mainly me and Tonoe, from getting BlackStreak?" Everybody looked at the map before them as they spotted where, they thought, they were located and looked towards the direction it was telling them they would need to go, then looked away from the map and towards said direction and spotted nothing more than one of Manehatten's huge parks going towards that way.

"Sooo,"

"Either ponies here are blind or just don't care because it's literally sitting in the middle of that park." Spike said as expressed what everybody was thinking, sans Drake and Tonoe, the former of the two having developed a twitchy eye. He then walked towards a metal pole with everyone's eyes on him, and when he reached it he grabbed ahold of it with both hands and proceeded to. . . .bang his head against it. The action had gotten reactions out of all who saw the site, they were either amused by the man, or had raised eyebrows as confusion took over their thoughts, with Tonoe, Gleaming Shield, and Cadance being a part of the first group as the others bore confused looks. Drake stopped after a good ten minutes and walked off towards the park to get a hold of BlackStreak and heading back to Ponyville without bothering to wait for the others, who all ran after him when they realized he wasn't going to wait for them.

"Feel any better?" Gleaming asked with a shit eating grin, that is before yelping as she got her answer in the form of a small crimson bolt to the ass.

"Now I do." He stated with his own grin as Gleaming glared at him. He chuckled before moving behind her as she yelped with a blush lighting up her cheeks as Drake decided to alleviate some of the pain by massaging her ass in front of everypony. "No hard feelings, right Gleam?" Drake asked as she tried to hold back a moan.

"Ahem," Drake's ministrations stopped as soon as he heard the noise and looked behind him to find seven blushing mares and two reptiles staring at him with 'Really!' looks pointed towards, though Tonoe and Cadance also had a bit of wanting mixed in there. Drake shrugged before he grabbed Cadance and got her on his back, who understood the gesture and wrapped her arms and legs around him, before wrapping his arm around Tonoe and grabbing Gleaming's hand before continuing on to the park. The others quickly got over their embarrassment and followed behind the three as they opted to having a pleasant stroll through the park since it seemed that Drake nor Tonoe were in much of a hurry.

"Sorry Tonoe, I know this probably isn't what you wanted but I wasn't going to leave you out." Drake said to his best friend, soon to be girlfriend, as weird as that still sounds to him, as he held onto him tighter.

"Don't worry about it Drake, I'm perfectly fine with this," Tonoe placed his hand atop of Drake's as he moved in closer to his side. "In fact it's perfect." He smiled lovingly up towards the man that had long since captured his heart and couldn't wait till Cadance was able to use her spell on him so that he and Drake could be together like he had wanted them to be for so long, with the two additions to their little family.

"Sigh, if you say so. So what kind of condition do you expect BlackStreak to be when we find her?" Drake asked for curiosity's sake.

"Mostly likely in better condition than we think. In fact I pretty she's mostly with just a couple things actually being busted. Unfortunately I suspect those things are also what kept her from letting you know where she was initially and that the auto repair function just now fixed her up to be able to do so." Tonoe stated which caused Drake to face palm, briefly letting go of Gleaming's hand before she greedily snatched it back. "You forgot again, didn't you?" Tonoe asked, knowing why Drake performed such an action and got a nod which solidify his thoughts.

"Even after all this time with the ridiculous shit we've been through that I would remember something so fucking important." Drake berated himself.

"What are you two talking about?" Cadance asked from over his shoulder.

"We implemented a self repair function into BlackStreak so that in a case like this where her communication systems is damaged, she is able to repair automatically and send out a distress signal letting us know where she is." Drake explained, giving her and Gleaming a more general explanation on another one of BlackStreak's functions.

"So why only fix the communication systems?" Twilight asked from behind the group.

"Well she actually is programmed to fix herself the best she can but communications takes priority since she is all around tough to damage period. The kind of impact that she must have taken when we came through that portal would have been enough to destroy just about all of our smaller craft while the bigger ones most likely would have had whatever compartment it landed on be demolished as well." Tonoe answered her before Drake took over.

"BlackStreak was made to be tougher than most of the ships that you would see around the Forge that more often than not that I would use her as a battering ram to punch hole through any of the Rippers ships whenever I had to go out and put a stop to their shenanigans and she would come out of the whole ordeal still all nice and shiny. Can't say the same about their ships though." Drake threw an evil smirk over his shoulders towards the girls and Spike that made them shiver. Before Gleaming could smack him upside the head for that they all heard the tracker go off.

The signal from the tracking device was getting stronger as was made evident by the beeping noise it made becoming faster. While the everybody else seemed to have their attention on the device that was now in Tonoe's claws, Drake was more focused on the sight up ahead as a big grin stretched across his face. Up ahead he spotted the red-tinted golden glow that he had known to only come from one source. It was with this in mind when he decided to change into his energy form and go towards said glow, unaware that he had dragged everyone with him in the process (not that knew and thought he could do that in the first place). When they all appeared just a short distance away from where they were, they were disoriented and unaware as Drake spotted the missing member of his family.

There before him laid BlackStreak in a shallow crater in the middle of what was once an area that was once covered in lush plant life. BlackStreak's condition wasn't all that bad like Tonoe had said as it only had a few pieces that were out of place or barely hanging from some loose wiring. "Huh, I guess you were right after all Tonoe." Drake said as he and Tonoe made their way down to it. "Hey girl, how you doing?" Drake asked as he got there first and laid a hand upon BlackStreak's control panel. Just then the sound and sensation of the engine being revved up coursed through as though BlackStreak was actually was answering him, something that stunned Gleaming and Cadance. "Yeah I know, sorry about leaving you alone for so long, especially in this state but don't worry one little bit. Me and Tonoe are here for you now so
you worry about a thing, we'll have you fixed up and looking good as new in no time at all." And once again BlackStreak seemed to have responded with a series of revs and other such noises.

"Hey, that was totally uncalled Black!" Tonoe shouted as he jumped up from him crouched position and pointed an angry claw at her. The two mares that were standing off to the sidelines heard what sounded like mechanical laughter come from the machine at Tonoe.

"I was expecting it to be bigger." Came the response from Pinkie Pie as the others had finally caught up with them after Drake took off.

"Wow, I can't wait to study it." Twilight said excitedly as a quill and notepad materialized out of nowhere.

"I can't wait to race it and show Drake that nothing in Equestria is faster than me." Rainbow stated as her competitie streak took over.

"Hmmm, well it does look rather fascinating though I'm not so sure about the color." said Rarity as she looked over the still mostly intact BlackStreak.

"I-I don't know Rarity, it looks pretty s-scary to me." Flutter stuttered as she hid behind AppleJack.

"Scary or not but the fact that that thing is this in that good of shape after ah fall like that says alot of how that there machine of theirs is." AJ replied.

While the girls were all looking over BlackStreak, Drake and Tonoe were assessing the damage that she had sustained. "That must have been a pretty hard fall for the girl to have taken this damage Drake, I'm surprised that you aren't still in the hospital if you both fell from the same height." Tonoe stated as he went to the back of BlackStreak and opened up a compartment that contained a swirling mass of swirling energy that almost resembled a black hole. He reached into it and pulled out some tools and spare parts and went over to Drake to hand him some so that they could begin on repairs.

"May not have really needed to have been hospitalized but fucking eh was I sore when I woke up not too long after the fall." Drake began on his own set of repairs, the two completely ignoring the others as they worked together to get their friend back up and running.

They diligently worked for a few hours getting Black Streak operational while the ponies and drake watched the two work on this piece of otherworldly technology with precision and concentration with the only brake being taken after Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack had gotten lunch for everyone. Now we find the group huddled closer to the three as it appeared that Drake and Tonoe were almost done with the repairs.

"Aaaand done!" Drake yelled out excitedly as he inputted the last part that needed to outfitted to Black Streak which caused a shockwave of energy to be felt, and seen, spreading through the crater and a bit beyond as Black Streak started up with a dull roar from her engine and hovering slightly above the ground. Drake reached out to touch her and placed his hand on the front of Black Streak, whom seemingly responded to said touch with a bright sapphire light appearing from the tail end and converging to his hand. "I missed you too girl." Drake said with a fond smile directed towards the vehicle.

"It's good to see her up and running again eh Drake?" Tonoe commented as he stroked Black Streak's side tenderly.

"Yeah, what do you say we take her for a spin?" Drake smirked as he already knew the answer.

"Do you even need to ask?" Tonoe replied as he reached into Black Streak's storage compartment and pulled out a helmet.

"Hey! What about us?" Rainbow shouted out as Drake took his position at the controls.

"You'll all get your chance so calm your tits Rainbow." Drake said nonchalantly with Tonoe hopped in behind him and wrapped his arms around Drake's waist, making sure to hold on tightly knowing how fast Black Streak can move. "And I suggest you be ready for the ride of your life when we get back Gleaming and Cadance." Drake added in with a smirk as he revved up Black Streak, the sound that was made from doing startling everything within a five mile radius. Drake shot them one more look before pointing Black Streak up at a ninety degree angle and punching it, taking off at faster than the speed of sound as a sonic boom blew the group back.

Drake and Tonoe are in the sky's of Manehattan grinning like maniacs as they zoomed through the air at speeds that pegasi like Rainbow Dash could only dream of reaching. "Ready bud!?" Drake shouted back at Tonoe."

"Ready Drake!!" Tonoe shouted back. The others watched as the two zoomed through the skies., performing various stunts and dangerous looking maneuvers before they suddenly shot straight up going higher than any of them thought to be possible.

"Where are they going?" Rarity asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"Well Drake did say that Black Streak was capable of interplanetary travel so I think he may be wanting to see what it's like beyond our world." Twilight concluded, which seemed to be proven as they watched the three pick up even more speed; so much in fact that it left a black streak in the sky that lead straight towards them as they disappeared out of visual range.

~With Drake and Tonoe~

"So Drake?" Drake turned to look back at the reptile as they were now just simply cruising after having broken through Equus' atmosphere and into the space beyond.

"What's up Tonoe?"

"Well I was wondering if you've really just accepted living here for the rest of your days?" Tonoe asked as he looked towards the star that made up the sun that lit up Equus everyday, oblivious to the fact that Princess Celestia is said to control its movements.

"To be honest. . . .Yes, yes I was." Tonoe was about to say something but had closed his mouth when Drake put a hand up. "The only thing that would have done before you showed up was to find a way to either bring you here or find a way to help you find a way to me which it seems I still did." Drake smiled at his oldest friend warmly who returned that smile with the same warmness.

"Hehe, yeah I guess you did. . . . .could I ask you something else Drake?" Tonoe asked timidly.

"You just did but sure." Tonoe punched Drake in the arm as he merely laughed before Tonoe returned to being timid and shy.

"Did you really mean what you said about us being able to finally be together?" Drake turned away from the control sand smiled softly at his long time friend and future lover.

"Of course I did Tonoe." He started as he spoke softly towards the Meancepan. "If anyone deserves to be loved it's you for everything you've sacrificed to be by my side through all of this, especially after I basically abandoned you during the war and I feel honored that you choose me of all people to love."

Tonoe laughed lightheartedly as he stared into Drake's eyes. "You know I should be the one saying that."

"Why, just because I'm the 'Lightning Master' or 'The Hero of The Forge', bleh. Tonoe those are just titles and you know, and if you're referring to everything I've done since then those are nothing compared to you. I may have my crimson lightning but without you I wouldn't have been able to control it as well as I do, shit I wouldn't be as beloved in The Forge as I am today without your help seeing as you've stopped me from making stupid decisions or made some kind of gadget to help me out in one way or another, one of them we're currently on right now." Tonoe blushed at the praise and compliments he was receiving but Drake wasn't done. "Tonoe you're amazing in your own right and the fact that no one else seemed to notice is a damn shame, for them that is. There are so many thing that I love about you that I don't ever want to lose, that it made me want to give a relationship between us a try even though anyone else I would have rejected in a heartbeat and why I was just as heartbroken about breaking off as you were when I wasn't willing to go any further than just simply holding hands when we were dating." Drake gently took Tonoe's face into his hands and brought it closer to his as he pressed his forehead up against Tonoe's. "I love you Tonoe and I always will and when Cadance is able to perform her spell I'll be sure to make up for lost time when everything is said and done, I just wish that it didn't have to take you changing yourself so much in order for me to show it to you and for that I'm sorry." Drake tearfully confessed as he held Tonoe closed to him, he also having some tears pooled into the corner of his eyes, though these were that of happiness rather than sadness.

"Don't you worry about that Drake, after all it was my choice to go through with this and to be frank I've always kind of felt like a woman in a man's body anyway." He joked as he hugged Drake harder. "But in all seriousness though you really shouldn't beat yourself up for it. I know you tried your hardest to overcome those boundaries to make me happy and I appreciate the effort but I wasn't going to force you to go through that which is why I suggested we break it off." Tonoe told him as he cuddled into Drake's embrace. He spoke up again before Drake could put in his say, "And I don't want to hear anymore about it from you. I've chosen to do this and you no longer have say in the matter, got it?" Tonoe said sternly which caused Drake to sigh and nod. That was how they stayed for awhile longer as they drifted through the vast void of space.