Lighting Can Strike Twice

Chapters

Chapter 1: First Flight
Chapter 2: First meeting
Chapter 4: Guilt
Chapter 5: Canterlot
Chapter 6: Dinner With Royalty
Chapter 7: Returning to Ponyville
Chapter 8: Nightmares and Cutie Marks
Chapter 9: Requiem for a Rainbow
Chapter 10: Rhymes and Remedies
Chapter 11: Lies
Chapter 12: The Party
Chapter 13: The Hangover
Chapter 15: Out of the Frying pan...
Chapter 16: And into the... Gravy?
Epilogue
Prologue
Chapter 3: The Storm
Chapter 14: Revelations

Chapter 1: First Flight

That tree was where it all began, I thought as I sat, staring at it, at the kitchen table. My head resting on my front hooves.
"Light"
I mean, a lot of ponies in Hoofington were born at Ponyville hospital due to Hoofington being small, the only pony even close to a doctor was my mother.
"Light!"
In my opinion she wasn't really a doctor, I though her to be more of a herbalist.
"LIGHTNING!"
The sudden use of my full name brought me out of my reverie as a small feather duster with a pale silvery aura around it dusted my face.
"Yes mother?" I questioned as I turned to face her.
"Here I am dusting the house top to bottom and here you are literally gathering dust!" She replied with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She brought the duster to a photo frame hanging on the wall.
"How long are you gonna keep that clipping hung up?"
Within the photo frame was a newspaper clipping with the headline 'Wedding of the Century', with an image of two unicorns, one wearing a regal uniform of the royal guard, with a white coat with different shades of blue in his mane and tail. The other was pale pink and had pink, lavender and a very pale yellow in her mane and tail, and wearing a beautiful wedding dress.
"It's never coming down"
"Mom, why do you need it up? Both you and dad were at Shining armour's and Princess Cadences' wedding". This was down to Princess Celestia requesting my dad to make the frame that was then decorated with flowers which stood behind her when she performed the ceremony.
The mare made a small frown at her son.
"What have I told you? Her name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!"
"Yes but she even told Princess Celestia that Cadence was fine"
"Even so, it's good to have proper manners"
"Whatever, I'm off to the tree" I replied as a trotted towards the door
"Oh wait!"
"Yes?" I replied
"Could you go see if your father needs any help at the shop?"
"Sure, no problem" I replied, closing the door behind me.

I stood on our doorstep for a moment while I allowed my eyes to adjust to the sudden change of light. I stretched forward with my front legs and unfurled my wings. Why do I keep stretching them? I don’t use them. I started down the street towards the centre of Hoofington where my father's workshop is. My dad's a very strange pony, in fact the entirety of my dad's side of the family is a bit strange. Even though all of my father's fathers were pegasi, they hated flying. They believed solely on keeping their hooves on the ground. It just so happens that all of them have been world renown for their carpentry skills

Once again, I had become so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed that I had already made it to my father's workshop. 'The Wooden Wings' was chiselled into a pair of… well, wooden wings hanging just above the entrance. I pushed the door open with my side and stepped in. A strong smell of sawdust and varnish barraged my nose as I recoiled slightly from the intensity. I wandered through the labyrinth of wood to reach the workshop at the back. I could see the door when my back leg knocked a neatly piled stack of two by fours and flinched as an almighty CRASH echoed throughout the entire building.

A dark crimson pegasus with a grey mane and moustache came rushing through the door to find me entangled within a pile of two by fours. "For Celestia's sake" he sighed.
"Mom sent me in case you needed any help".
"No" my father said with an unimpressed look on his face. "Listen Light, I'm gonna be closing up soon, so why don't you just go home?"
"Are you sure? I can stay if you wa-".
"Oh no no no!" he interrupted "I'll be fine".
"Okay" I replied, slightly disheartened as I slowly walked outside. I couldn't manage more than an amble as I made my way to the tree. I've stopped acknowledging people's stares and giggles as they walk past. I mean it isn't fun being sixteen years old and not having a cutie mark. Most ponies receive theirs around eight years of age so it is quite humiliating to not have one at my age.

I Make it to the tree and drop to my haunches. Even though people do make fun of me for not having a cutie mark, everypony in town knows that this tree is Lightning's tree. I come here when I'm happy, when I'm sad, When I don't know what I'm feeling, I just come here and think. I go over what my mother told me what happened when I was born. When I first heard it, I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I had been struck by lightning and survived! I don’t think there is a single pony around that can say that!

Relishing in the thought, I looked up at the cloudless sky wondering what it would be like to soar through the air, to have the wind in my mane and the complete freedom that flying brings to a pegasus. There have been times where I did try to fly, but my dad found out one way or another and grounded me, literally. I just stare and hope for the day I do fly.

This is it! Today's the day! After months of preparation this is it. Today is the day I fly! I have been studying like crazy, reading every book I can get my hooves on with the slightest reference to flying. I got up before the sunrise to get ready, tossing my saddlebag on the bed. Running all over my bedroom collecting to gather items for my flying session. A blue book labelled "Flying 101", a pair of goggles, and a necklace that my parents gave me for my tenth birthday, it was a piece of metal worked into the shape of a lightning bolt I peered at it in the mirror as I brought it over my head. My mother thought it as a good luck charm, hasn't worked for me yet but that didn't stop me believing. I pull the saddle bag on and rush downstairs to the kitchen to find my mother dusting. "Ugh, don't you ever stop dusting?"
"It's good manners to have a dust free house" she replied musically. She turned around and stopped in surprise to see me 'saddled up' as it were. "Where are you going?"
"I'm off to Ponyville to pick up some stuff, will probably be out all day" I said nonchalantly as I grabbed some apples of the kitchen table and stuffed them into my bag. She raised an eyebrow gauging the reliability of my cover story.
"Okie dokie!" She replied "have fun!"

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief and shouted "Love ya" and I left the house. I hated lying to my mother, mainly because she was so good at spotting when ponies were lying. I started to make my way down the road out of town towards Ponyville. I started going through a mental checklist for my flying session, weather; sunny and slightly breezy, check. High visibility, check. Flying 101 which included notes taken from Wonderbolts air shows, check.

I found a secluded part of the road, both Ponyville and Hoofington were just specs on opposite sides of the horizon. I settled down my saddlebag and started bringing out the contents. Leaning 'Flying 101' against a rock so I could read whilst stretching my hardly used wings. My wing's ached as I unfurled them, because they had been unused for so long I had to slowly spread them bit by bit. Once they were fully spread I started to read 'Flying 101' to refresh my memory.

When starting to fly, any pegasus needs to have these three basic necessities before they flap a single wing. The first to make sure that they are in a wide and open space, it is not a good idea to practice indoors or in an enclosed space, as you don't want to be breaking anything in your environment as well as yourself.

The second necessity is to make sure that your body is ready for flying. Many first starters would just start randomly flapping their wings and end up pulling a muscle. So make sure that your entire body is fully limbered up before you attempt a take-off. It helps if you have been using your wings not really for flying but at least in other activities to strengthen the muscles and get the wings used to constant movement. One more piece of advice for your body; make sure that your legs, mainly your hind legs are strong enough to give you a decent push-off when taking off, otherwise you will most likely cause damage to yourself.

The third is mind. Not only do you have to be physically prepared for flight but you have to be mentally prepared too. Flying for first timers can be extremely difficult if they haven’t learnt to shut out distractions. Being distracted on take-off is one of the most common reasons for botched flights. Flying can be a very heavy strain mentally for a pegasus, you have to keep in check where you are, where everypony else is, how high you are, how strong your flapping your wings, and also how and where to land.

If you have managed to gain, to the best of your ability, all three of these qualities, you are now suitable for flying.
Well, I've already failed part of that, looking at my thin, unused wings. Oh well, never mind I thought as I stretched my forelegs and wings. Severely shaking down my hind legs, which weren't in the best of condition but the muscle tone was helped by myself bucking the two apple trees that we have in our garden. "That will have to do" I told myself out loud, as I made my way to the small but steep hill just off the road.

After several slightly embarrassing attempts at taking off I had managed to take off and glide to the bottom of the hill. This was the first tutorial in the book, it didn’t have any diagrams of take offs due to the fact that every pegasus has a slightly different technique of taking off but in any case next was a slightly harder task, taking off and hovering. My wings and back muscles were already aching from the strain. I wanted to stop but thought that I can’t give up now, I want to fly. I need to fly.

Standing at the top of the hill I crouched slightly, wings up and prepared. "Okay, after three."
"One," I cleared all distractions from my mind.
"Two," I crouched a bit more, with tension building up in my hind legs
"Three!" I pushed down with my legs and flapped down with my wings at the same time and launched myself into the air. But I forgotten the most important step, to keep flapping and I crashed to the ground. After a couple more attempts I had managed to become confident in the hovering technique. Now came the hardest part. Actual flight.

From what I read from Flying 101 and the notes I had taken, instead of flapping downwards when airborne, the pegasus should flap diagonally when wanting to gain altitude and to flap almost completely parallel to themselves when wanting to fly at speed. I started with a simple take-off and flapped diagonally, but unfortunately having to look at my wings to get the angle right made me plummet back to the ground. Eventually after several repeats, I simply decided to just guess at the angle my wings were at. I took off again and this time flapped down but slightly behind me, I could feel the air on my hind legs as I flapped and used this as a gauge. After gaining about ten meters I started to level out and flap horizontally to gain speed. After the initial momentum kicked in I realised, "in Celestia's name! I am flying!" I feel a large grin erupt on my face as I start gaining speed and turned around and came in for a landing, the sudden rush of adrenaline had suddenly made me hungry.

After eating the apples from my saddlebag I continued to read Flying 101.

Chapter 3
Advanced Flying

By now you have become familiar with flying and what it entails. If not, get out of this section you silly pony, get back to the basics! Anyway, if you're here it's because you want to get to grips with more advanced flying techniques, these probably won’t get you into the wonder bolts but they will look very nice to newer flyers.

After reading details on moves such as the loop-the-loop, a barrel roll and a corkscrew, I felt that I could attempt at least the loop-the-loop and the barrel roll. I took off again and started to climb to give me enough room for a loop-the-loop. I levelled out and started to gain speed. Soon enough the adrenaline kicked in again and I said to myself "one, two, three!" on which I started to change the angle of my wings and I saw the horizon drop and saw the deep blue sky to the full extent and then started to arch back around seeing an upside down Ponyville zoom up and behind me completing the loop.

CRASH

I wasn't quite sure what happened but I think I collided head first into something… cyan? Either way I was falling uncontrollably and only just manage to notice the same cyan blur dive down towards me as my head fell back and I lost consciousness.

Chapter 2: First meeting

"Ugh, what happened?" I asked myself, my voice groggy and unfamiliar. My head splitting like a cord of firewood, bringing up a hoof to try to relieve some of the pressure, feeling a bandage around my head. "Okay… this isn't good". I finally stop to take in my environment, I appear to be in a well kept, cosy cottage and in one of the most comfortable beds I have ever been in. I notice that the door is slightly ajar and two shadows are taking to each other.
"Well what do we do with him?" Asked the first voice, it sounded nervous.
"Ah Reckon y'all should wait for the others tuh get here, then we can all deal with him properly" replied the second voice.

Oh ponyfeathers. I've read enough mystery novels to know where this is going. A wave of terrifying scenarios started rushing through my head. What if they want to use me for slave labour? Or they are going to ask my parents for a ransom and send bits of me until they do? They could torture me by pulling out all of my feathers one by one and leave me starving and weak in the Everfree Forest! I needed to get out of here. I quickly but quietly leapt out of bed and started to formulate a plan. "Right I need to get out, the door is a no go, they're right outside, I'll have to use the window!" I silently opened the window and leapt through. The first flap of my wings erupted in a twinge that crippled my flight and a fell to the ground. "Okay, looks like I'm walking" and I started down the trail away from the demon cottage.

After 5 minutes of full sprinting I found myself in Ponyville. I walked towards town hall, stopping at a newspaper vendor selling new issues of 'The Ponyville Express' and saw that the date is the same. Good, it's still the day I left, I heard a clock strike and I searched for the source, the large clock tower near the school. I walked backwards as to take in the time, "Good it's one pm, I've only been unconscious for a couple of hours". I continued to walk backwards as to take in more of the sights of Ponyville. I had been walking for about ten seconds when I bumped into the back of somepony, I wheeled around readying a quick 'scuse me' but I was silenced by what I saw before me. On the ground in front of me was a yellow and pink lump shaking and emitting almost inaudible squeaks.

"Er, are you okay?" I asked the lump, bending down so that my face had become level with it.
"I'm s-sorry I b-bumped into you, here, t-take all m-my b-belongings as c-compensation" it said in a light, whispery voice while a yellow hoof poked out holding a saddlebag. Within her voice I could sense fear, what? I had frightened her so much that she became a quivering wreck? I noticed that the pink appeared to be her mane and tail. Following one of them led to a pair of ears, into which I spoke softly "hey, no it was my fault, I walked into you, miss?..."
"flu……y" she mumbled.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Flutt…y".
"Huh?"
"Fluttershy" she replied as a pair of large cyan coloured eyes rose out of the mass.

"Well, miss Fluttershy, as I most clumsily walked into you, I shall be happy to help you finish your shopping." I don't know how I became so courteous, usually I can be quite impolite to other ponies, usually because they would stop and laugh or point at my blank flank. However, this pony had completely shattered that part of me, all I wanted to do was help her. Fluttershy rose to a full stand and I could actually see all of her meek, quivering form. She was a pegasus too, and she had three pink butterflies for a cutie mark. I looped my head through the saddlebag in front of me and tried to loosened the straps, Fluttershy was quite a small filly and the saddlebag was a bit constricting. I was starting to struggle for breath when I felt the saddlebag loosen and air return into my lungs. I turned my head to see that Fluttershy had loosened the straps and was now pulling them to fit.

I turned to face her and was about to thank her when another wave of headaches, probably brought on from the panic of being strangled, hit me and I kneeled down, bringing a hoof to my bandaged head. Fluttershy had noticed the bandage, sped towards me and looked around my head worryingly. Within 5 seconds her demeanour had changed completely, instead of being frightened and nervous she was careful, attentive and worried. "Oh you poor thing! What happened?" she asked.

"I collided with something… hard" I muttered as she brought herself under my left foreleg, I was surprised she was able to take such weight, looking so fragile. "Here, let me help you, you need to get some rest" she said as we started walking to what I was hoping was help. We walked in silence for a few minutes before Fluttershy surprisingly broke it, "so, w-what's your name?"
"Lightning…"
"Oh, that's…nice."

Then a sudden though hit me, 'where's my necklace?' my right hoof suddenly sped for my neck, causing me to fall face first to the ground. "Oh my!" Fluttershy remarked, "is there something wrong?" both of my hooves were searching round my neck. My lightning bolt necklace was gone! My mind started darting around in memories trying to find its last location. Where could it be? When did I lose it? Who could have it now? My mother would be heartbroken if she found out I had lost it, not really for how much it cost but the sentimental value it held. My vision started to become blurry and before I could reply to Fluttershy, I slipped out of consciousness again.

Rising up from the bowels of consciousness wasn't pleasant the second time as I slowly opened my eyes, allowing more and more levels of light through, though unfocused. Even though my vision was blurred, I couldn't ignore the large pink blob hovering inches from my face. It seemed to have noticed me open my eyes as it moved away from me slightly and suddenly rolled away chanting "He's awake! He's Awake! He's awake!"

Recovering from the sudden burst of excitement, my eyes started to focus only to reveal a familiar-looking cottage bedroom. I started to panic again when sudden speech from my left cancelled it "If I knew you were gonna take off, I would have kept an eye on you." I looked to my left to see a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane sitting on a cushion next to my bed. I turned to look in the direction that the pink blob disappeared to "Oh, don't worry about her, that’s just Pinkie Pie. She's probably off getting her party cannon or something".

Before I could enquire about what a 'party cannon' is, the door swung open violently, making both myself and the cyan pegasus jump in surprise. "It's about time y'all woke up!" shouted an orange pony with a long blonde mane with a large brown leather hat atop her head. I winced from the sheer volume that the pony's voice carried and pulled a hoof up to my forehead, knocking a damp flannel from my head. The pegasus seemed to notice and told the orange pony, "Applejack, could you speak a bit quieter, he just woke up!" The pony called Applejack seemed to be a bit hurt by what the pegasus said and replied "WHAT? Ah ain't allowed tuh speak tuh the new pony?". I sat up and mentioned to Applejack "It's alright Applejack, I just have a headache".
"Applejack, why can't you be quiet like Fluttershy!" Contested the pegasus.
"Ah would be quiet, but Ah didn’t know Ah needed tuh be quiet, Rainbow". Retorted Applejack.
"He's been unconscious! Of course He'd need quiet!" Rainbow shouted.
"Ah'm sorry that Ah'm not thuh most medically knowin'!"Applejack shouted back
"LADIES!" I interrupted. "Can I have some quiet please?"

Both of the ponies fell silent, giving each other angry glares. "I vote for quiet" whispered a voice to my right. I turned to see that Fluttershy had been sitting next to me, holding the flannel that was on my head, she saw me looking at it and seemed to take the hint and lay it on my head. We all sat in the room in an awkward silence for several minutes before a voice at the door broke the silence. "We're Here!" A sultry voice sang. Looking at the door noticing the purple and white unicorns at the doorway. The purple one had a lavender mane with a stripe of dark purple and pink in a neatly cut line. The white unicorn having an expertly coiffed light purple main with a twist in her tail.
"Now then, My name is Twilight Sparkle" announced the purple unicorn. "Would you mind telling us how you came to becoming unconscious in my friend's care?"

"Sure" I replied. I told her that I was out practicing some moves, didn’t need to tell her that I was breaking rules. From the look of her, I could tell she like rules and organisation. She seemed to be writing down everything I was saying on a floating clipboard and pencil floating a foot away from her. I told her that I had just finished a loop-the-loop when I crashed into something and woke up in this room. I mentioned that I thought that they were gonna do bad things to me and they all stood, stunned for a couple of seconds before Twilight asked me to continue. I mentioned how I 'bumped into' Fluttershy in town and offered to help her and then panicked when I couldn’t find my necklace and fell unconscious again and woke up not long ago.

"I haven't seen you in Ponyville before" added Twilight
"Yeah, I'm from Hoofington, it's about ten miles south of Ponyville".
"Ah yes! I remember delivering an order there just before Cadence's wedding!"
"Light blue with lavender trim?" I asked the white pony who was called Rarity.
"y-yes… how did you know?" she said looking slightly puzzled.
"That was my Mom's dress for the princess' wedding" I answered.
"Ah! A pony with good taste!" Rarity said with a smile growing on her face.
"Ugh! Forget the dress!" interrupted Rainbow "Listen, Lightning, I'm really sorry for flying into ya like that, I guess I should have shouted you before coming over" she said as her cheeks slowly became redder and redder. She seemed to have noticed the shocked expressions on her friends faces, "err… I gotta go do, uh weather, erm… stuff." She panicked as she bolted out of the nearest window.

"What was that about?" I questioned, still looking at the window that rainbow used to escape. "Well, Rainbow ain't the kinda pony tuh say sorry tuh anypony like that before" answered Applejack.
"Usually it’s just a quick 'sorry' before she rushes back to what she was doing" piped up Fluttershy.
"You musta' really made an impression on her tuh like ya that much!" Said Applejack and I could feel my cheeks change to a bright crimson.
"I wouldn't think so, I was just being clumsy" I managed to speak quietly before almost shutting down with embarrassment.
"Alright girls, I think it's time we let Lightning get some rest" Twilight said calmly, I looked at her and she gave me a wink. "I you ever need anything, come up to the library and I'll see what I can do". I simply nodded and pulled the covers up to my eyes and rolled off into sleep almost instantly. I hadn’t realised I had been so tired.

It felt like only minutes had passed when I felt something poking me in the side, I just ignored it and tried to get back to sleep. Without warning two solid stumps almost penetrated my abdomen as they collided with such force causing spasms of pain throughout my body, jolting me awake shouting "OW!". I turned my head to see the culprit to find that it was Rainbow, what was she doing here? Before I could ask she reached behind her and brought out something shiny, squinting my eyes to get a better look, I saw that it was my Lightning bolt necklace! I whisked it from her hoof and hugged it, thank god somepony had found it! "After we collided, when I caught you I noticed it shining on the ground and I thought it was yours, so I collected it with your saddlebag and brought you here".

"Thank you so much Rainbow" I whimper as tears start to well up in my eyes.
"You're Welco-" she couldn't finish her sentence as I had leapt from the bed and enveloped her in a great hug. "Thank you" I whispered. I felt a hoof start to stroke the back of my head and another reach around my middle, Rainbow was hugging back.

"You're Welcome" She replied softly.

Chapter 4: Guilt

Rain drummed down hard on the living room floor as I stood there, staring in shock at my parents lying almost serenely underneath the huge tree trunk. "No…" was all I could manage to say, trying to choke back a torrent of tears. I reached out and grabbed my parents hooves within mine, both of them were smiling. Strangely my mother seemed to read my mind "It's not your fault" she said calmly

"Mom…" I whimpered, tears welling up in my eyes.
"There was nothing you could have done to prevent this" my father said, his deep but kind voice made me feel worse. Guilt was weighing down in my heart like a ton of bricks. Of course there was something I could have done, but because I was so selfish, and going off to try and fly I left them to fend for themselves, leaving them to their deaths. I kicked the floor with frustration. "Don't be angry at yourself" my mother cooed. Her soothing face wrinkled as she coughed, drops of blood landing on the flooded floor.
"You know that we love you more than anything in Equestria, nothing you do will change that." My mother said as she squeezed my hoof tighter. "There is one thing I want you to do" my mother said struggling to speak. "Yes? What? Anything!" I said desperately.

"Make some friends" she uttered back as her eyes closed and her grip loosened. Tears were already streaming down my face, mixing with the rain as her hoof fell out of mine. To me, time almost stood still, I didn't want her hoof to hit the floor but all I could do was watch it fall in slow motion. I winced as her hoof splashed onto the hardwood floor and that’s when I completely lost it. I was trembling all over partly due to the freezing cold rain but just from the fact that both my parents had died in my hoofs because of my selfishness.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, I looked to find Rainbow standing there, just as soaked as I was, looking at me through wide and sad eyes. "It's okay" she said calmly. That statement from the cyan pegasus caused something unexpected within me. I became filled with anger with this pony. I whipped round to face her anger burning in my eyes, her look of surprise and fear did not douse the fire in my heart.

"Okay? OKAY? YOU THINK THIS IS OKAY?" I shouted

"BECAUSE OF MY SELFISHNESS THEIR DEAD! I HAVE KILLED THEM! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS LIKE! MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY BEFORE YOU SAY IT!"

Ignoring the tears welling up in Rainbow's eyes, I took off before she could reply and angrily flew in a random direction. Tears were still streaming down my face and the rain emphasised just how hot I was with rage at Rainbow. Who does she think she is telling me it's okay? I just kept flying, blinded by rage, before coming to a realisation, I now have no parents, no home, no money and no food. I have essentially become a homeless pony overnight. I decided to stop and take my bearings, I had seen that I had flown several miles East, so I decided to turn left and fly North towards Canterlot. Maybe there, complete strangers would be kind enough to donate a Bit or two…

Chapter 5: Canterlot

I was wrong, strangers in Canterlot are not willing to lend a Bit or two. I don't actually remember the day I left everything behind, I haven't counted the months that have passed. Having only managed to survive on scraps that the fancy restaurants threw out into the alleys. Alongside food to worry about I have to keep out of the Canterlot guards' way or they would kick me out of the city.

After dodging the local patrol, which I seem to have memorised instinctively, I hid behind one of the bins in the alley behind 'Chez Pony' at the same time every other day they throw away the scraps in the alley. As usual, an orange pony wearing a smeared apron came out with a bucket of bits of food left by customers and threw it into a trash can, he turned and went back into the restaurant muttering "no good freeloader" before the door clicked close.

Peering into the bin was an action I was regretting, the smell of rotting food filled my nostrils and made me feel incredibly sick, but I had to push through the smell if I wanted a bite to eat. I ate up what looked like remnants of a pasta dish, some hay fries and a slightly mouldy end piece of a loaf of bread. The rest looked too far gone to even attempt to eat. I sat back down by the bin and started to feel my stomach not agreeing with its newest meal, it's been like that since I came here.

I decided that a walk would hopefully calm my stomach, I was wrong. It groaned at me as if to say, 'why did you eat this?' 'I don't know', I thought back, 'you were hungry'. I walked up Mane Avenue towards the Castle, not knowing why I was going this way just walking randomly, though randomly enough to avoid the guards. I was ambling along when I hear an "I say!" from my left. I turned my head to see a white unicorn wearing a full suit and professionally styled mane with a look of shock on his face. "Whatever happened to you?" he asked but before I could reply he continued "You look half starved, here" he said as he pulled out a small bag of what sounded like Bits and tucked it into my dirty saddlebag. I had recognised the stallion from a shrine to him in Rarity's back room, which I thought to be a little bit creepy. His name is Fancy Pants, and apparently one of the most famous ponies in Canterlot. I could only manage to utter out a quiet "thank you" before he had turned and walked off. I looked in the bag of bit Fancy Pants donated and counted the Bits, fifteen.

With Bits in tow I started looking for restaurants that were in my budget, It took me a while but I managed to find a quaint little donut shop called 'Pony Joe's Dunkin' Donuts!' I walked through the door and ignored the faces of disgust and horror of other customers and stopped at the counter. A large pale yellow stallion turned around, took one look at me and plainly said "Sorry bud, but you're gonna have to leave, you're scaring off my customers" I turned to see ponies wearing different suits and hats running for the door to try and get away from my smell and dishevelled looks. My head drooping I walked out of the door and towards the castle sculpture garden.

The sculpture garden seemed the only place where I could roam without ponies gawking or running away from the sight of me. I could feel that I wasn't that clean, my coat felt greasy and filled with dirt. My mane messy, knotted and greasy too. I looked at one statue that I had stopped by, I had the head of a pony and body parts of all sorts of different things. It looked like it was terrified of something, putting it's paw/claw out to stop whatever was coming at it. I looked down at the plaque underneath,

'Discord: Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony'
'Recently Defeated by The six Elements of Harmony'

I thought it was quite ironic in a single day my whole life had been turned upside down in a single day and now I have chaos not only in everyday living but also in my heart. I sat down behind the statue and just started thinking like I did when I was under the tree. The tree that killed my parents, that I let it kill my parents, it was all my fault, I was selfish to want to fly, even more so for doing it, but if I hadn't have flown I could have saved them! Tears were streaming down my face and I hit the ground with my hoof, Why? Why did I do it? "AAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!" I screamed in anger. I stared at my wings, the reason for all of my pain. With my teeth I ripped feathers out in bunches, I didn't care about the pain, it could not amount to the pain in my heart. I just continued pulling feathers out, blood trickling down my side and pooling underneath me. After pulling a lot of my feathers out, my wings were sore and bleeding, but I didn't care. I curled up into a ball and started to cry again. It had been several minutes before I heard a familiar voice say "Lighting?" I ignored the voice and carried on crying. I heard hoofsteps come closer, "Lightning!" the voice exclaimed, I looked up to see a purple unicorn with a purple mane looking down at me worry and concern in her eyes. "T-Twilight?" I asked weak from pain and hunger. The unicorn nodded and asked "what are you doing here? What happened to you?" She looked at my wings and gasped, she picked me up in a magical aura and carried me off to the castle.

I awoke to an enchanting aroma filling my nose, and my stomach growled again. I opened my eyes to reveal an elegant room with drapes on the walls, which were a brilliant white a door to a balcony was open letting fresh air in. I was lying in a four poster bed with purple covers, that had a gold trim. Wondering where I was I looked to my right, resting on a small table was a bowl of what looked like soup. Picking up the bowl with my hooves, the bowl at room temperature I gulped the soup down without pause, hunger had gotten the best of me. The soup tasted amazing, I had never tasted anything that good before, it was a smooth soup but I couldn't put a hoof on what was in it. I returned the bowl to the table, "You must have been hungry" said an soft yet powerful voice. I looked where it came from and stood in the doorway was Twilight and towering above her was Princess Celestia. "Princess…" I began lowering my head in respect but she held up a hoof to silence me. "No need to speak, Twilight has already filled me in on who you are and why you are in her private quarters. Get some rest we shall talk later over dinner" she said calmly she turned and walked out of the room leaving Twilight and myself in the room. "err nice room you have.." I said awkwardly. "Thanks" she replied with shared awkwardness. She looked around the room trying to avoid my eyes and she blurted out "I'llgoseeifPrincessCelestianeedsanything" and quickly exited the room.

Chapter 6: Dinner With Royalty

There are trees all around me, trees and darkness. I stood up, and looked at my wings, I feel a look of confusion on my face, they're healed? I stared at my wings in disbelief when something caught my eye, I looked straight ahead again and saw there was a strange light floating nearby. I walked towards it and it started moving away, I moved closer and it carried on flying away. Following the light for several minutes we reached a clearing which was lit fully with light from the moon. The light zoomed to the centre of the clearing and slowly sank into the ground "No! Wait!" I said running towards the spot in disappeared. Wondering what to do, I thought that I should head back to where I started in this forest, but looking around the clearing, all of the trees looked the same. I Started back towards where I thought we came from when a voice stopped me in my tracks. "L-Lightning?"

The voice sounded familiar and yet somehow different. I slowly turned around and my eyes widened in surprise. There standing where the light had sunk into the ground was my mother. She was standing stock still, her eyes were nothing but white orbs in their sockets. She looked pale, like she was ill. "Mom?" I asked "What are you doing here?" She didn't move or even acknowledge what I said.
"Lightning?" her voice was weak and wavering, "W-why did you k-kill me?" She asked
"What?" I exclaimed.
"Why d-did you k-kill me?"
"No, Mom" I said backing away slightly tears welling up in my eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Why, did, you, kill, me?" She demanded.
"No Mom I didn't mean to kill you! I just wanted to fly" I whimpered tears streaming down my face.
"You killed me!" My mother screamed.
No! I shouted back grabbing her and shaking her "I didn't kill you! It was the tree!"
"It was you!" she said her voice distorting and mouth opened. Suddenly her features began to run like a painting left out in the rain. The horror struck me as her flesh started falling off her bones until she was nothing but a skeleton which then started to disintegrate.

"Nooooooo!" I screamed as I woke with a start. Sitting up, struggling for breath, I was covered in a cold sweat. What kind of a dream was that? When I slept in the streets I didn't have nightmares like that. I was still in Twilight's bed, Looking out the window it was dusk, candles had been lit around the room. I rose out of the bed, afraid to go back to sleep, anyone would after a nightmare like that. Maybe a walk would clear my head, I left the room and started to wander around the castle. I met very few ponies. A guard or two who gave me a quiet nod the occasional servant and a very kooky and old pony in a pointed hat.

After a while I felt my stomach start to grumble in hunger. Looking around there doesn't seem to be any signs or directions to places. "Where the hay is the Dining hall?" I asked myself out loud.
"You're looking for the dining hall?" came a voice from behind me I turned to see a green pony wearing what seemed to be a cape with the celestial crest on. A servant. "Yeah, Would you mind taking me there?" The servant nodded, gestured to follow him with a hoof and walked off and I followed suit.

The castle was enormous, larger than I thought it was. I got completely lost on the path we took to get to the dining hall. The servant could see the confusion in my eyes, "We all get lost for the first few weeks, eventually we manage to remember the layout of this place. Ah here we are sir" commented the servant. "Thanks" I mentioned as I pushed through the door, the servant seemed surprised that I thanked him, but before I could ask he hurried off mentioning something about mopping up the corridors.

The dining hall was huge, an extremely long table ran through the middle, laden with candlesticks and cutlery. I walked along the table and chose a random spot near the end of the table furthest away from the door. As I sat down a servant came and placed a glass of water in front of me and a bowl of bread. I turned to say thank you to the servant but then realised how hungry I was and turned back to eat a piece of bread when I noticed a flowing mane and jumped a little in surprise. "What's the matter? Are you not pleased to see us?" asked Princess Luna.
"That's not it" I defended "I was just surprised to see you princess".
"We are wondering why you are here strange pony" Luna asked.
"I'm meeting Princess Celestia and Twilight here soon and I couldn't get to sleep so I came here early"
"Ah yes you are the one that 'Tia mentioned, 'Lightning? Are we right?'"
"Yes your highness" I replied
"Please, call me Luna"
"If you insist"

"Getting acquainted are we?" asked Princess Celestia Who had walked up behind me without me noticing. She came into view and sat next to Luna.
"Luna was just wondering why I was here early"
"Really, and why are you here early? If you don't mind me asking"
"Well I couldn't sleep and I needed a walk to clear my head so I decided to come here"
"If that is the case the-"
"Princess Celestia! Lightning is missing! Quick we must get all the guards searching the grounds!"
"Twilight my student calm down"
"How can I calm down?! He could be anywhere by now!"
"Twi-" I began but she interrupted me
"Not now Lightning! I have to find Lightning to make sure he's okay" She started to pace up and down behind my seat mumbling to herself.

"I'm going to assume he hasn't been here before so the only way he could leave the castle is via guards or servants but I've asked every single one to make sure that he doesn't leave, so he could be wandering around the castle comple-". She stopped mid-sentence slowly turned and locked eyes with me, I let a huge grin erupt on my face as if to say 'been here the whole time'. Twilight brought a hoof to her face and sighed, "I'm so sorry everyone" she apologised. Only Celestia managed to speak, "Now that everyone is here how about we start dinner then" she said, clapping her hooves. A large pair of doors behind the princesses opened and servants carrying trays and platters of food came out placing them on the table.
I reached out and pulled a couple of daisy sandwiches, some tomatoes and potato salad. I ate very little mainly because I was in the presence of royalty but also from months of eating very little my appetite wasn't exactly the best. Glancing around everyone else's plates I saw that I was the only one eating.

"So Lightning", started Celestia "Would you mind telling us everything? It would help us a lot to get you back home." My heart twinged a little bit when she mentioned home.
"Well where do I start? When I was born I was hit by lightning, hence the name 'Lightning'. My father was a carpenter owner of 'The Wooden wings' in Hoofington, My mother was a herbalist, she would use plants and herbs to make remedies for ponies with all sorts of ailments. Our family has one rule: no flying, my father and his father never flew, they never saw the point in flying so they banned it. I haven't discovered my special talent yet which is why I don’t have a Cutie Mark. And several months ago, not exactly sure when, I broke the family rules and started to learn to fly, then is when I met your friend Rainbow. When I left to go home it was stormy and Rainbow got panicky about me flying alone so she escorted me home and when I got home…" I choked, tears were started to run down my face. Twilight placed a hoof on my shoulder and said reassuringly "you don't have to finish if you don't want to"

"No, I want to" I replied "When I got home the tree which I was born under had crashed through my house, killing my parents" all three of my audience gasped, and looked at me more intently. "Rainbow was also there so she knows that they died she told me that it was okay and then, and then, I shouted at her saying that she thought it was okay, that my parents dying was okay, I screamed at her, shouting at her that she had no idea what it was like. I shouted at one of the only people that could have helped me that night. Then I took off and came to Canterlot to beg for money and after several months I decided to go to the statue garden. In the statue garden I felt the pain, and guilt that I killed my parents and I ripped the feathers out of my wings since they were the cause of my parent's death. That was when Twilight found me."
My audience sat there stunned for a couple of minutes, I just looked back down and continued eating. "What do you make of this Twilight?" Asked Celestia.

"Hmm" replied Twilight bringing a hoof to her chin. "That's quite startling about you being struck by lightning, all ponies are born with some magic within them, but within each, the magic behaves differently, with earth ponies it manifests into brute strength and willpower. With Pegasi it manifests into their wings and giving them the ability to walk on clouds and within unicorns it stays stored for them to use via their horns. That magic that was within you must have saved you from the lightning!" she explained, her smile melted away as I looked at her. " Oh yeah, I'm really sorry about your parents".
"Thanks, that's kinda why I left your room early, I had a nightmare about my mom" I noticed Luna cringe a little bit as I mentioned nightmare. I explained to them what happened in the nightmare. "I can sense the overwhelming guilt and sadness in your heart " said Celestia, calmly yet softly. "But I must tell you, that it isn't and never will be your fault. It was nothing more than a freak accident, there was nothing you could have done"
"Hmm" I chuckled, "that's what my dad said"
"He was a smart pony, I wish I could have thanked him for his work." Said Celestia Lowering her head slightly.
"You knew my dad?" I asked.
"Of course, in the thousand years ruling Equestria I have relied of your family's carpentry skills for personal requests, most recently, the archway at Cadences' and Shining Armour's wedding."
"Wow dad never mentioned anything about you using the family workshop for your personal Carpentry requests!"

I sat back amazed by the fact, but one thing still nagged in the back of my mind. "But wait, now that I have no money, no family, no friends, and nowhere to live, what am I going to do?" I moped, putting my head in my forelegs.
"Hey don't be so hard on yourself, you can always stay with me" Twilight offered "and I'm pretty sure that Applejack and Big Mac could use some help on the farm, it being near Zap Apple season".
"And I wouldn't be so sure about having no friends Lightning" interjected Princess Celestia. "Twilight wouldn't just let anyone recuperate in her quarters. You must have made a rel impression on the few hours of contact with Twilight and her friends for her to help you like that. Blinking in surprise I glanced at Twilight who was blushing in a magnificent shade of red.

"Oh, how is everyone?" I asked to try and ease the awkwardness.
"Oh, er Fluttershy somehow has become a bit more forward and assertive. She's now doing talks at Ponyville Elementary about assertiveness. Rarity has taken to designing clothes for the lower class pony, Pinkie Pie is still Pinkie Pie, and Applejack has been learning to pay more attention to detail and care when it comes to stuff off the farm. Rainbow has changed the most though". She added, her brow furrowing, trying to remember "Since she came back from Hoofington she hasn't been herself, she's been quiet, even quieter than Fluttershy. She would take long trips away, saying it's a flying convention and when she returns she goes straight home and we don't see her for days."
I bow my head, knowing the exact reason why she changed.

"But do you see what I mean?" Celestia asked "You have changed these ponies lives for the better all within the space of a few hours, I would say they were your friends, and they would do anything to help you get back on your feet."
I started to smile, maybe it wasn't so bad after all, maybe these six can help me, and I'll help them anyway I can!

Chapter 7: Returning to Ponyville

Being homeless and having very little possessions, my belongings had already been packed, so I sat to the side of Twilight's study as she galloped to and fro gathering all her things. Unlike me she had brought a lot of books and personal possessions to Canterlot. I could see her getting more and more frantic as she continued to search. I looked at the Grandpony Clock on the far wall, "hmm, 2 pm, Train will be leaving in half an hour" I mumbled under my breath, didn't particularly want to place something else to worry about on top of everything else in Twilight's stacked and well organised mind.

"WHERE THE HAY IS THE MAGIC OF PONIES?" Shouted Twilight as she Stomped her hooves in frustration. I looked around me, on my left, on top of a neatly stacked pile of books 'The magic of Ponies: A Reference Guide'. I picked the book up off the stack and laid it on the floor. I turned and bucked the book across the floor towards Twilight, I turned round to see the book skim in between her legs and come to a stop just in front of her. She peered down at the book that appeared in front of her and a smile exploded on her face. "Finally! I knew I would find it eventually!" she said with a proud air about her as a purple aura engulfed it and it flew into a purple suitcase with the initials 'T.S.' at the top. The suitcase slammed shut and whizzed across the room towards a porter who was awaiting his cargo, only just noticing the suitcase in time to brace for impact. "Come on Lightning!" Twilight exclaimed with sudden urgency as she trotted past, towards the door. "If you don't hurry up we're going to miss the train!" I grabbed my saddlebag and chased after her, trying to defend myself "But… I… Oh never mind" I huffed, as we left Twilight's study and headed for the train station.

While sitting on the platform, waiting for the train to arrive, I notice the uncomfortable and disgusted stares from other ponies as they notice my dishevelled form. I look at my back, so see the fur matted and filled with grime. My mane wasn't any better, almost slicked with greasy, with it splayed out in all directions I probably looked like somepony who went crazy. I look down at my front, bones showing very prominently emphasising how under nourished I have become. I bow my head in sadness, how did my life come to this? My entire life was changed by a tree for pony's sake! Twilight seemed to notice my demeanour as she commented, "don't worry Lightning, we'll get you cleaned up, and get you back on track, it's the least we can do" she smiled as the sound of hissing came into earshot as the train turned a bend and pulled into the station.
As the train arrived in Ponyville I saw four searching pairs of eyes. But when Twilight and I stepped out onto the platform the eyes met mine and smiles erupted from underneath. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity all ran over to envelop us in a huge hug. Well, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie did, Rarity noticed how dirty and scruffy I was and recoiled from fear.

"How ya bin Laghtnin'?" asked Applejack.

"Yeah, howwasFlightcamp? Didyoulearnanyneatnewtricks? Meetanyponyspecialwhileyouwere there? Huh?huh?huh?" Demanded Pinkie, speaking at a million words a minute.

"Flight…Camp" I said slowly, looking at Twilight She looked at me apologetically and rolled her hoof as if to say 'roll with the cover story'.

"Err yeah" I replied, quickly turning back towards the others, jaw slack, as my mind spent all its energy to come up with a convincing story. "Err yeah, when I went they said I was too old to be in the younger divisions so they made me an assistant demonstrator. I would demonstrate the moves and techniques that the instructors were explaining to the students" I rattled off as they stood still with amazement.
Fluttershy surprisingly, was the first to speak "Wow you must have been really good if you were showing the students how to do stuff" she said in a quiet but amazed voice.

"Really good?" interjected Rarity in her high strung voice. A vibrant, canary yellow hat with unusually large feathers waving out of it, sitting delicately on her head. A bit unnecessary for meeting someone at a train station in my opinion. "They only let experts teach at flight camps from what I hear" She said beaming "I can't wait to hear all about it while we are at the spa".
My ears pricked up when I heard that word. "Spa?" I questioned.

"Why yes my dear" She said as though it were an obvious choice "how else are we to get you… ahem, cleaned up." I could tell she was trying to be delicate in the fact that I looked atrocious and probably smelled just as bad. Just when all the embarrassment was at its peak, I noticed something. "Hey" I asked. "Where's Rainbow?"
"Ah" replied Rarity, "our dear friend Rainbow Dash is out of town, she is at an air show, apparently the Wonderbolts are going to make an appearance. I will say, Rainbow has been to a lot of shows and trips lately, I wonder why?" she pondered, bringing her hoof to her chin, playing the great thinker.

"Yeah I wonder why" I replied, knowing exactly why. "So…" I said, wishing that I hadn’t brought up the subject "You said something about the spa" I mentioned to Rarity. "I would love to go, but I have no money, I can't afford spa treatment."

"Oh darling, Don't worry about a thing, this spa treatment is on me" she said smiling. "But first we need to head over to the boutique for something." She added, almost shaking with anticipation.

"O-okay er let's go" I said, wondering what the 'something' was.

I don't quite know why but it felt really awkward walking through Ponyville, maybe from all of the stares of other ponies or that I was a huge contrast to the well kept, styled cohort. It was gratifying to finally reach Carousel Boutique, Standing in the shop front, seeing the dressing rooms and the ponyequins around with fully fledged dresses and suits while Rarity was clattering around in the back searching for the 'something'. Standing in the room, I notice a strange smell lingering around, it stunk of sweat, grease and guilt. Was that really what I smelt like? By Celestia, no wonder the girls were a bit put off when I arrived.

"Ta da!" Chimed Rarity from behind me. I turned to find her standing there holding a Royal Blue saddlebag. The bag had cyan stitching around the edges and a Lightning bolt buckle clasp which I thought was nice touch. "Wow Rarity, that looks amazing, who's that for?" I asked, though I probably already knew the answer.
"Why silly, it's for you". She said "after you've cleaned up of course" she commented with an air of authority tone.
I nodded, "sure let's get to the spa" as we turned and headed out of the door.

The spa was filled with the enchanting aroma of Lavender and cherries. Burning incense sticks placed all around the room giving off scents to promote relaxation. Soothing music was also playing around the foyer, just sitting on a cushion was extremely relaxing, I was almost falling asleep. I could see the discomfort on a pink maned, blue pony which apparently went by the name of Lotus Blossom, probably because, like Rarity, felt that my form wasn't exactly the most appealing to behold. Rarity was speaking to another spa employee named Aloe who looked like an opposite of Lotus Blossom with a blue mane and pink coat. I didn't hear all of the conversation, but I did hear something about a 'level 5 emergency'. After which Aloe looked shocked, grabbed me and dropped me into a large tub. I think I lost count of the amount of different oils and lotions she poured into the water, It was a weird sensation, I sat in the tub so long my hooves went comically pruny. After the long soak, Aloe wrapped me in a white dressing gown and lay me on a massage bed, on which she proceeded to slowly massage my back and shoulders, but obviously avoiding my bandaged wings.

"So Lightning," asked Rarity who was getting a massage from Lotus Blossom on the bed next to me. "What happened to your wings" She asked, nodding to my bandaged wings.

"Oh err… I… err sprained them, both of them while attempting an advanced move"

"Well it's a good thing you're getting a massage" butted in Aloe, she spoke with an accent but couldn't quite put where it's from. "It should help those muscles onto the road to recovery."

"great" I said sarcastically as she continued to massage my back.

"What are you going to do in Ponyville, Lightning?" Asked Rarity, "Where are you going to stay?"

I started to become worried. Why do these ponies keep asking questions? At this rate, holes are going to appear in my cover story. "Err I think Twilight was going to let me stay with her until I get a place of my own. And I'll see if AJ wants any help on the farm to get some income and to stave off boredom."

"Ah well that'll be nice for dear Applejack, it's coming close to cider season and they always seem to be short. Hopefully with you they mind be able to make enough this year" she said smiling.

The rest of the spa session, continued in an awkward silence as Rarity had hoofacures, horn filing, mud masks, and her mane styled while I sat next to her, keeping her company and transferring all of my belongings from my old saddlebag into the new one Rarity made. These belongings were little bits and pieces that I always treasured, a picture of my parents holding me and a baby, my lightning bolt necklace, the small sack of bits that Fancy Pants gave me, and the limited edition Wonderbolts poster that I got at a flight show when I was really young. Looking at all this now made me realise that I haven't done anything with my life, I haven’t become a doctor, or a carpenter like my dad. I haven’t saved a pony's life or done charity work. I just did nothing.

I stuffed the old saddlebag into the new one. "Scuse me Rarity, I need to go. Thanks for the spa treatment" I said as I slung on the new saddlebag and walked out the door. I can’t sit around moping anymore it's time I took control of my life and made it better. I made my way towards the library to talk to Twilight, when an orange filly on a scooter rounded the corner at quite a velocity and ploughed straight into me…

Chapter 8: Nightmares and Cutie Marks

Clouds whizzed past as I was soaring through the sky, I had no idea how I got here as the last thing I remember was crashing into a young orange pegasus and losing consciousness. But that was at the back of my mind as I soared past brilliant white clouds. I can't ever remember a time when I was happier. I continued to zip around the clouds, performing loop-the-loops, barrel rolls, and quite an over-compensatory Corkscrew. All of my excitement was suddenly shattered when a flash of lightning broke into the scene. The lightning not only changed my mood but also changed the entire scene, all the clouds turned dark grey, almost black, and shrouded together to form a thick canopy. Another lightning bolt streaked down, this time a few feet on my right. I quickly reacted and dived, hopefully there will be some cover on the ground.

When I reached the ground, there was no grass or buildings, the ground was alternating Light and dark blue squares. I landed and something felt weird, the ground didn't feel like it was there, I could see it but I couldn't feel it, "okay, that's not weird at all" I thought aloud. What was also weird was that there was lightning and thunder, yet there was no rain. "What in the hay is going on?" I say, Lightning flashed through the scene again "I sure could do with some cover" I ask. The ground shook and a tree sprouted from the numbing ground. Without thinking I ran over and dove underneath the tree. Another bolt of lightning ran from the clouds, this time it struck the tree causing it to fall. I only just manage to dodge it in time as it crashed to the patchwork ground. The tree stump that was left behind had caught fire but I didn’t think anything of it until a spark landed on the tree trunk and ignited it. As fire danced all over the trunk all the way up to the leaves, I felt some heat at my flank. I turn around to find my tail had caught on fire too! I waved it, patted it on the ground to extinguish the flames but that only made the fire more powerful. It slowly crawled along my tail, when it reached my flank the fur also caught fire. The pain was unbearable as the flames engulfed my entire body, I screamed out in pain. I could see the flesh melting off my flank, the pain becoming beyond imaginable as I closed my eyes tight.

I screamed out in terror.
"What's the matter, mister?" something asked. My eyes shot open to find me lying on a blanket in a very small wooden room. Feeling the blanket it was sodden wet, as I looked around an orange pegasus was holding an empty bucket, What I thought was me being on fire was actually this pegasus throwing water on me to wake me up. "I said what's up mister?"
"Nothing" I gasp out "Bad dream" I look out the window, seeing nothing but green foliage. "Where the hoof am I?" I ask.
"Oh you're at the Cutie Mark Crusaders Secret Clubhouse".
"The Cutie Mark Cru-what now?"

She spoke slowly, as if I were really stupid "Cu-tie… Mark… Cru-sa-ders… Sec-ret… Club-house…"

"Yeah, alright please don't insult my intelligence".
"Sorry" the young filly apologised.

"So what are the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" I asked.

"Oh, well we're three fillies who are on a mission to get their cutie marks, no matter what, I'm Scootaloo."

"Ah'm Applebloom"

"And I'm Sweetie Belle"

I sat up on my haunches and looked to my right to find a pink maned yellow filly, with a huge pink bow knotted in her mane at the back of her head. Right next to her was a white unicorn, looked about the same age, her mane was split into half lavender and the other half a pale pink.
"Err hey, how you doing?" I said, slightly nervous, "hey wait a minute, Applebloom, are you related to Applejack?"

"Yeah, she's mah older sister" she said beaming with pride.

Sweetie Belle looked at me sceptically "How'd you know that?" she demanded.

"Err" I said Looking between the three fillies who were bearing down on me with angry faces "Err lucky guess?"

"oh" said Sweetie Belle "Okay!" She said a large smile erupted on her face.

"How did I get here?" I asked looking at the quite professionally painted tree house and the carpentry was almost at the level of my dad's.

"Oh yeah" said Scootaloo, blushing. "I kinda accidentally crashed into you near the spa, Sweetie Belle was nearby so I asked her to help me carry you here."

"right okay, who built this place? The decoration and furnishings are amazing" I say in admiration.

"Oh that was Applebloom!" Sweetie Belle blurted out.

"shush, Sweetie Belle, it's not that good" Applebloom said, looking down at her hooves.

"Applebloom" I said putting a hoof on her shoulder. "My dad was one of the most talented carpenters in Equestria, when I say they are amazing, I mean they look as good as my dad's work".

"Really?" She asked wide eyed.

"Really really" I replied.

"But ah don’t wanna do that, ah'm gonna help mah family with thuh apple business".

"And I'm going to follow in my sister's footsteps and become a fashion designer" added Sweetie Belle.

"And I'm going to become a famous singer!" Scootaloo piled on.

"okay, this is a technique that my teacher taught our class about how to find out what our special talents are, all of you sit in a triangle." They positioned themselves as a weird lopsided triangle. "Okay, now Sweetie Belle, talk about what you think Scootaloo is very proficient at." Sweetie Belle looked at me with confusion, "good at" I sighed.

"Oh, well I think Scootaloo is really good at doing tricks on her scooter" She said smiling.
"Okay, Scootaloo, what do you think Applebloom is really good at?"

"Well, She's really good at home decorating" She replied.

"All right then, Apple Bloom, what do you think that Sweetie Belle is really good at?"

"She's got a really good singin' voice"

"okay, there we go, now as you can see what your friends are saying, what they think you are good at are very different to what you want to do. Many of my class mates found that their friends were correct, and they received their cutie marks within a month of the exercise, well except for me" I said, looking down at my blank flank, all three of the Crusaders look down at my flank too and smiled.

"You're a blank flank?" they question in unison.

"Yeah" I sigh "I've gotten a lot of ridicule for it too"

"huh, tell us about it" Scootaloo said with equal enthusiasm.

"But that has never gotten me down, now listen, for all those fillies that laugh at you for being different, you laugh at them for being normal. From what I've seen, it's boring to be normal, it's exciting to be different, ponies only make fun of you because they are jealous themselves. You can go out there and you discover who you are meant to be, but don't forget that you don't need a cutie mark to be special." I said, tingles spreading all over me, I've never been so deep, the fillies sitting in front of me were looking up at me in wide-eyed admiration. All four of us were sitting in complete silence before I broke it.

"Err anyway thanks for err… waking me up, I gotta sort stuff out with Twilight, see you around Cutie Mark Crusaders!" as I walk out of the wooden tree house.
While walking away from the Clubhouse I began thinking about what I can do to earn my cutie mark, but then I remembered that I had been trying for ten years of my life before I thought that I had no special talents. I walked through the throng of apple trees before realising something, I haven't set one hoof on the Apple's farm. I literally have no idea where I am. I stopped and tried to get my bearings but unfortunately, it was later in the day than I thought, the sun was already setting. Without hesitation I started to sprint towards the sunset hoping to find something. I could feel the last rays of sunlight as the sun disappeared below the horizon. I looked around in the dwindling light and saw a ridge that rose through the apple trees. I ran to the ridge and all the way to the top. There was a single apple tree and the highest point of the ridge, I trotted up and sat beneath it and lay down to sleep.

CRASH! I woke with a start. Looking around bleary eyed, seeing a strange mist hanging around the orchard and a bright light in the distance. I leapt to my hooves and started running towards the light, conveniently, there was a path made through the trees well, gauged through the trees. The ground in the path was all dug up and thrown all over the place. I navigated my way along the dodgy path towards the strange light, keeping my eyes on my hooves, hoping not to twist an ankle on the extremely uneven ground. As I was walking along the path, I saw an object move across the path, it was long and thin, it looked like it had wings, but it looked like it also had horns which left me puzzled. A flash caught my eye and I noticed that the bright light had intensified, I carried on slowly towards the light, suspicious of what lay ahead.

Chapter 9: Requiem for a Rainbow

As I approached the light, new smells and sounds were emerging. I could smell smoke but it wasn't from a coal fire, it smelt like it was from wood, and I could hear a low roaring sound, not like an animal but like some unstoppable force. The path curved the left a bit and then opened out and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A town engulfed in flames. I walked down the burning streets, how did this happen? Looking around seeing book stores with burning shelves in the windows and burning ponyequins in boutique fronts. A scream pierced through the rumbling sound of the sheer volume of fire and I dashed to the voice's source. And sprinted past burning mail boxes and flowerbeds when I spotted a tree, it looked familiar but I couldn't place it. The scream echoed out again, it seemed to be coming from the tree. Studying it closer I saw a door and the right hand side and barged through forcefully.

It was almost impossible to breathe in the tree, the smoke was so thick I could have cut it like butter, it seemed to have the same consistency as it entered my lung s and left me coughing and spluttering for cleaner air. I looked around to find the owner of the scream as I moved from what looked like an entrance hall into a main library. The walls of the library were dancing with red hot flames, the books acting as kindling for the blaze. I noticed some stairs and blearily climbed up them, my vision was starting to blur from the lack of clean air but I pressed on. I rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and saw what looked like a balcony, "Oh goody" I spluttered as I made my way out of the double doors and breathed in cool, clean air. Another scream. Louder, scarier this time, I turn to my right and see a purple unicorn "Twilight?" I ask.

"Why did you do this?!" she screamed at me.

"What? I didn't do anything!" I defended, honestly having no idea what was going on.

"How could you side with him!?" Twilight demanded, tears welling up in her eyes and running down her cheeks.

"Who?" I questioned.

All Twilight could manage to do was lift a hoof and point towards the sky, before she passed out and fell off the balcony. I turned to see what Twilight pointed at only to see a weird snake/dragon thing flying away and laughing malevolently when I heard a deep but slightly menacing voice said "Soon Lightning, very soon all will come to light...ning " It chuckled after the last remark as fiery branches above me snapped and crushed me.

"Aaaaaaahh!" I shouted as I bolted upright. I was breathing heavily and covered in a cold sweat. Staring down at the ground and then looking around to take in my surroundings. I was still on the ridge in the middle of the orchard. I could make out the tops of the apple trees in the light of the full moon which was making its way slowly down towards the horizon. I sighed a short breath of relief, only a dream, but how come I keep having these dreams of death and destruction? I didn't like them, but I didn’t like the idea of my friends finding out. A branch snapped on the other side of the tree I was leaning on and my sense snapped to attention. I bolted into a standing position and held my hooves in a make shift kung fu pose.

"S-stay back!" I shouted nervously, "I-I know k-kung fu!"

"No you don't". Replied a voice in an arrogant tone. A dark figure came around the tree and into the moonlight and I noticed the cyan coat and a flash of rainbow behind the head. "Oh, Rainbow" I said lowering my hooves into a more comfortable standing position.

"Hey Light" Rainbow replied "How ya doing?" she asked as she sat down in the moonlight. I walked over and plonked myself next to her.

"Oh, I'm… fine" I said before realising how lame it sounded.

"Really?" She asked "didn't sound like you were fine" Rainbow commented.
"Oh, you heard that huh?" I asked.

She nodded and I sighed.
"It was… a bad dream, and it's not the first." I said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"What do you mean?" she asked, inquisitive eyes staring at me in the moonlight.

"Well, I've had several bad dreams since running into twilight in Canterlot and coming here to Ponyville. All of them have been horrible and scary."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow wondered

I looked at her with a serious face. "Are you sure you want to know? I asked.

She nodded enthusiastically.

"All right then", I sighed, "I'll start from the beginning".

Rainbow was extremely quiet while I was explaining everything to her. She started to become teary eyed when I got to my parents death and when I broke down in the Canterlot castle sculpture garden. But she stayed quiet and patient until I finished explaining my most recent nightmare.
"Wow" Rainbow uttered. "You've been through a lot haven't you?"

"Yeah, but that still doesn't change how badly I treated you, Rainbow" I said, looking deep into her magenta eyes. "I'm so sorry I shouted at you. I shouldn't have done it. I was wrong. I cannot forgive myself for what I did. And I don't expect you to either. Tears welled in my eyes as the guilt rose from the depths of my heart.

"Lightning I-…"

"No Rainbow! There's nothing I can do to redeem myself!" I said loudly, turning my back to her.

"Yes there is". She said quietly.

"What? How?!" I replied desperately.

"Just sit there and listen." She began, "Five years ago me and my parents were flying home from a Wonderbolts air show. We were almost home when we flew right into a thunderstorm. My parents were cool about it but I wasn't, I’d never flown in one before we always avoided them. I was flying around panicking and somehow I left my parents behind. They tried to catch up but before they could gather speed my Dad was hit by lightning, and because my Mom was close by the lightning arced over and hit her before it bolted to the ground. All I could do was watch their lifeless bodies tumble down and hit the ground. I sat with their bodies until the storm let up and then I buried them where they landed. Since then I make trips to their graves on the anniversary, but since I met you I went every other week, I didn't want the others to know so I lied and that I was going to conventions. I'm not angry at you for shouting at me. You had every right to do so, you were angry. But…" She turned and stared me dead in the eyes "I fully understand what it feels like to see parents die right in front of you, so don't you ever think that I don't. YA GOT THAT?!" she yelled.

"Oh Rainbow" was all I could muster to say, the full force of what the mare explained stunting my vocabulary. The only way I could convey my sympathies was in a big, teary hug. She hugged me back and whispered in my ear "Apology accepted."

A couple of minutes had passed before we broke off the hug. The sun had peeked over the horizon making the whole sky a brilliant orange. The warm beams of light felt refreshing as they hit my face, lighting up my face and my heart.
"I suppose I'd better see Twilight, She's probably rushing all over Ponyville wondering where I am" I said with a small grin on my face
"Yeah", said Rainbow. "Let's go" as she walked down the ridge and away from the sunrise.

We made our way into Ponyville and it seemed to be the normal hustle and bustle of a market day. Ponies left, right and centre were selling various fruits of their labours. "Where does Twilight live?" I asked Rainbow, who had cheered up a bit. I liked to see her happy, I don't know why but I was happy to see that she's happy. "Oh, she lives at the library with spike" she giggled, her mane shaking.

"What's so funny?" I ask completely puzzled at her attitude.

"Well… she's, an egghead! Isn't it funny that a really smart pony like her is living in a library?" She said looking at me as though it were obvious.

"I guess…" I replied, not really seeing the funny side of her comment as we continued towards the library in awkward silence.

When we got to the library I was surprised by what I saw, I didn't realise the library was in a tree. I stood there, temporarily stunned before realising that I had seen this tree/building in my dream. I don't know why I'm surprised to see this building since I've seen it before. But also how could I see this in a dream if I've never seen it before? Thinking this sent chills down my spine and give an involuntary shudder. Rainbow didn't seem to notice as she burst through the small doors at the base of the tree and I followed suit.

Chapter 10: Rhymes and Remedies

The smell of paper and lavender hung around the library, enhancing the serenity that was associated with it, well mostly. This library however was in chaos, books were strewn everywhere, some in attempted piles others laying open on random pages. A wooden bust stood on a small round table in the centre of the room. Over near the window was a desk that was covered in parchments quills were frayed and scattered on the desk and surrounding floor. "I thought this was a library" I commented, looking at Rainbow who had the same look of confusion.

"Err hello?" Rainbows voice echoed around the room "Twilight? Spike?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm here" replied a voice from behind me. A scaly purple creature with green spines pushed between us carrying a large pile of books… wait, spines? Scales? The only thing that has those are… DRAGON!! As this realisation struck me, I leapt up from fear, and flattened myself against the ceiling, shaking like crazy. The dragon and Rainbow looked up at me confused.

"Err is he okay?" The dragon asked Rainbow pointing a claw at me. "It's like he's never seen a dragon before" he chuckled as he carried the pile of books to other piles in the corner. Rainbow failed to hold back a laugh as I unstuck myself from the ceiling and crashed in a heap next to her.

"When you said Spike, I thought she meant like a dog or something, I wasn't expecting to Spike to be a dragon" I mumbled Grumpily.

"Hey Spike, Is Twilight in?" Rainbow asked still giggling.

"No she's not, after reading pretty much every book in the library she then rushed out, talking about lightning being late or something. I mean how can lightning be late? It's not like lightning has a schedule." Spike ranted. He stopped when he spotted the bandages on my wings.

"Hey Rainbow, is your friend okay?"

"Oh yeah, he just sprained his wings". She improvised. Spike rubbed his chin with a claw, playing the great thinker.

"Zecora might have a special brew to help with that" he commented before his eyes widened in realisation, "hey! Twilight gets some special tea from Zecora, maybe she's there!".

"Uh yeah sure" said Rainbow looking at me weirdly "Let’s go Light".

I followed her out the door and wondered why she made that face as we trotted in silence towards the edge of town. "Where's this Zecorum live?" I asked, trying to break through the stonewall the Rainbow had placed.

"Zecora lives in the Everfree forest but she still freaks me out"

"Why does she freak you out?" I asked but she didn't reply, she just continued walking towards a large forest in silence.

Inside the Everfree Forest wasn't easy on the eyes, not that much was visible, the canopy of leaves overhead blocked out all sunlight leaving a dark mist everywhere. Without the sunlight, the cold forest air held the humidity.
"Just stay on the path, most of the monsters stay away from it" Rainbow instructed. I nodded and looked down to see a gravel path winding in-between the trees. The crunches of hooves on gravel echoed throughout the forest. There were not sounds of birds chirping, or creatures rustling in the undergrowth "R…Rainbow?" I asked. She sighed as she turned her head to look at me. I was stood stock still, my eyes darting around to take in my surroundings quietly mouthing 'we're being watched'. She nodded in agreement as we continued along the bendy path.

We reached a small wooden hut on the left of the path and Rainbow made her way towards the door. I only just noticed that the both of us were dripping wet from the humidity, it hadn't seemed to have bothered Rainbow Dash. I looked back at the forest, giving me chills thinking about what could have been watching us. Rainbow knocked hard on the wooden door and I heard a heavily accented voice speak inside

"Who could that be, Twilight my dear?"
The door swung open to reveal a black and white striped… pony? It looked like a pony but not quite. She wore a large gold ring in her right ear, she also had gold rings around her neck, as though they were extending it. And she also wore gold rings on her left foreleg. It was quite stunning to see but I was even more surprised by how she spoke.

"Why Rainbow Dash, What're you doing here?"
"Was wondering if Twilight's here," she replied walking into the hut, I followed but was immediately stopped as Zecora caught me in a deadly stare

"Who is this? A thief?"
"Speak now I will be brief."
"If you try to take something of mine,"
"I will buck you back into line!"

I backed away slowly at the striped pony's threat. But Twilight had zipped in-between us and put a foreleg over each of our shoulders.

"Oh Lightning, there you are, I've been wondering where you've been all morning!" she smiled tentatively "Zecora this is a friend who has just moved to Ponyville"

"Err yeah I was wondering if you could help me?" I ask, trying to win her over. "I need some help with my wings."

"Yes, Zecora, we were wondering of you had anything that could re-grow feathers" Twilight piled on.

"Oh, well if that is what you seek,
At your wings, I'll need to take a peek." Zecora rhymed as she made her way to a small table off to the left. I sighed and plonked myself on the other side with my back to Zecora. "Twilight, could you take my bandages off me please?" The unicorn nodded as her horn glowed with a purple aura and I could feel the bandages unravel themselves and folded themselves into a neat pile on the table. Both Rainbow Dash and Zecora gasped at what they saw and I could feel my cheeks start to burn crimson.

"Oh my, how did this happen to you?
Did this happen, last time you flew?"

"Err no this was… self inflicted" I uttered out shamefully.

"Why?" Rainbow asked. I turned my head to look at her and I could see she was staring at my wings in shock horror.

"I was angry, at what happened with my parents, that I couldn't help them and for what I said to you. So because I thought my little flying session was the reason they died I kinda went a bit nutty on my wings and ripped my feathers out."
I looked around, all three of them were standing there blankly staring, trying to grasp onto my logic as I slowly drowned in embarrassment.

"Anyway my dear" said Zecora nervously.
"I have a remedy, have no fear!" she smiled as she went to a table on the left wall and began rifling through the many bottles, boxes, crates and drawers of different ingredients to make the remedy.

"Add a little bit of iron for strength and some cloud for weight,"
"Then we need a feather for the bate." She turned and plucked one of the very few feathers that were left on my wings and dropped it into the brew. Sparks erupted out of the bottle in a huge fountain, illuminating the entire hut.

"Well that's quite new,"
"That has never happened before you." Zecora rhymed, looking puzzled.
"Anyway, drink a bit of this a day for a week,"
"And your feathers will grow back, strong and sleek." She finished as she corked the small bottle and placed it on the table. I picked it up and looked at the Cobalt blue liquid swilling around the bottle before taking a quick swig. The liquid felt hot as it ran down my throat, it stung a little, causing me to cough slightly. I reinserted the cork and tucked the bottle into my saddlebag.

"Thanks Zecora" I said, giving her a hug, taking in a strong scent of herbs and spices.
"Do not worry my dear new friend"
"On me, you can always depend" she smiled as she walked us to the door.

Rainbow, Twilight and I walked along the path in silence as we walked back towards town. My clean bandages that Zecora gave were uncomfortable and itchy, compared to my previous ones which were from the royal infirmary.

"So Lightning, What happened to you last night? I was getting worried when you didn't come to the library." Twilight asked as we cleared the trees.

"Oh, well after I had finished with Rarity at the spa I-"

"Wait, wait, wait, you? Went to the Spa? With Rarity?" Rainbow grinned.

"Yeah, when spending three months living on the streets of Canterlot, there weren't really a lot of chances to bathe" I snapped back. Rainbow stopped smiling and huffed at me grumpily.

"Anyway…" I continued "After the spa I bumped into the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we talked about earning cutie marks and then I left to try to get to the library but I had no Idea where I was so I stayed in the Apple family Orchard over night. When I woke up I met Rainbow and she showed me the way back to the library, but you weren't there, just Spike the grumpy dragon."

"Yeah, sorry about Spike, he can get a little annoyed when I do a crazy amount of research, I tend not to tidy up after myself" she said, looking off to the distance before she stopped in her tracks. "That reminds me! I spoke to Applejack yesterday, I asked her if she needed any help on the farm, especially seeing as it's nearly Zap Apple season and apparently she really needs the extra help this year." She smiled, "You'd better go and see her, she'll probably need to fill you in on what you need to do" Twilight added.

"Okie Dokie" I answered as I waved the girls goodbye and turned left on the track towards the large orchards outside Ponyville.

Chapter 11: Lies

As I made my way to Sweet Apple Acres, my mind went through potential jobs I could do. I probably couldn't do ploughing; I've never really had the body strength for that. I could buck apples, having been bucking the apple tree in the back yard for the last 5 years. I don't think I'd be good a painting anything, every time I painted something, the floor would be covered in a multi-coloured mess. But I guess I'll find out when I get there.

I rounded a bend to see a huge red barn sitting in the middle of a large farm. To the right was a large hen house, seed was scattered all over the ground. Hens were scratching at the seeds, pecking and clucking around. To the left were rows of corn, ready for harvesting. In the distance, behind the farm I could see a building with a large carrot above the door, rows of carrots lay all around the house. I trotted up to the barn and rapped a hoof on the door. I stood there looking around the door taking in every detail, the dust around the edges. The little scuffs and scrapes around the bottom half of the door. The top swung open to reveal a wrinkly old green mare shaking slightly, squinting to see me.

"C-can ah Help you?" she wheezed, her voice sounding old and dusty.

"Err yeah, is Applejack in?" I asked.

The mare looked at me suspiciously, as though she were gauging what I'm like. She must have thought I was all right as she screamed into the house "APPLEJACK! YER BOYFRIEND'S HERE!". Then she wobbled back into the house before I could argue that title. An orange mare wearing a brown leather hat poked her head around the kitchen door and stopped when she saw me.

"Hey applejack," I said waving a hoof. "Twilight told me that you told her that you've got work for me?" I asked.
Applejack just stood there in the doorway. Something was off; she was a kind of dull orange, not covered in dirt, as though her colour had faded. Her eyes darting all over the place, scrunching her mouth closed like she was afraid something would escape from it.

"Nope" She blurted out "Nope, Ah didn't tell Twilight nothin' about no work. Nope not a thing." She said, still avoiding eye contact. "Now Ah can't help you so, Ah think you should leave, right now." She finished as she came towards me turned around and bucked me with her hind legs.

Pain exploded in my left foreleg as I was sent hurtling away from the barn and out of Sweet Apple Acres. I crashed and skidded along the ground just outside the farm. I coughed and spluttered from the dust that was brought up from my landing. I stood up to leave but immediately fell from pain. My left leg, it was burning with pain, what the hay did she do to me? I slowly made my way onto my three good legs and limped towards Ponyville. My mind raced. What do I do? Who do I see? Applejack has lost it, it wasn't like she was politely asking me to leave, and she just literally kicked me off her land.
"L-Lightning?" Quivered a light, airy voice. I turned to see the speaker to see the flowing, light pink hair that belonged to Fluttershy.

"O, he-ow… Hey Fluttershy." I said, trying to force a smile through the pain.

"Are you okay?" She asked inquisition sparkling in her eyes. Showing the true innocence of her nature, it was actually quite cute.

"No, I'm, ow, not all right, I think my leg is broken" I said lifting up my left foreleg slightly. She stepped back slightly in surprise before the surprise drained from her face and the serious face of a carer appeared and she immediately flew into action. She crawled underneath me and balanced me in-between her wings. She then flapped then with the power to carry us but the grace and care to not shake me in any way. The wind howling past my ears, we were going fast, faster that I thought she could fly, especially with me on her back.

"Fluttershy!" I said loudly trying to speak over the wind "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you somewhere to fix your leg, a place of peace and healing and niceness."

"No, no, no, just put a splint on it, I'll be fine" I objected. I would have liked to have a painkiller like what my mother would make but I will have to endure it.

Fluttershy turned her head, giving me a deadly glare, fire burning in her eyes. She spoke loudly and with anger in her voice.
"YOU WILL COME WITH ME SO I CAN HELP YOU!" She yelled. I just laid there, wide-eyed in surprise and slight fear.

"Okay". I whimpered as we continued to zoom towards her cottage.

By the time we got to Fluttershy's cottage, it was getting dark, candle light flickering in the windows. She led me inside to a sofa with a curvy back. I sat down as she quickly floated around gathering bandages and safety pins. She landed in front of me; she was in her nurse mind-set, calm, focused and slightly curious. She slowly felt up and down my leg to find the break, I winced as she poked a point above the knee. She noticed and felt around the area, I could see that it was already starting to bruise. She felt around a little more and sighed; she stood back and looked at me.

"Well, the good news is that it isn't broken, but there could be a fracture, I'm going to put a splint on it. You'll need to try and keep your weight off it to stop it getting worse. Okay?" She finished with a large smile.

"Thank you so much Fluttershy, this is the second time you've brought me into your home, used your medical supplies and expertise to help me. Thank you." I said, giving her a hug with my good foreleg. "Now I need to get to the library, I'm exhausted" I added, sliding off the sofa. I winced as I put some pressure on my fractured leg; I walked around Fluttershy's living room to get used to the splint. But as I kept walking the pain started to increase, I sat back on the sofa to relieve some of the pain. Fluttershy seemed to notice as she came towards me and looked at me sympathetically.

"You can't walk all the way to the library with that leg; here let me fly you there." She said, turning her back. I climbed on her back resting in a comfortable position; after the both of us were comfortable she walked outside and took flight.

"So what happened to you Lightning? Did you trip on something?" inquired Fluttershy.
“No, this is what happens when an orange mare in a funny hat bucks you 30 feet.” I replied with a hint of sarcasm. Fluttershy dropped a few inches from surprise before regaining control.
“What? No, Applejack wouldn’t do something like that. She’s kind, honest and hardworking; she wouldn’t do it on purpose. You must have gotten in-between her and an apple tree”. Fluttershy reassured me.
“Well, I’m not lying.” I insisted. She didn’t reply, just carried on flying in silence.

Fluttershy touched down just outside the library, the large tree standing as a large ominous shadow in the darkness. I clambered off her clumsily and stood looking at the dark tree. “That’s weird.” I commented, “Shouldn’t there be lights on? It’s at least another few hours before it’s closed.” I walked towards the door and pushed it open. The darkness in the building was so thick it was almost solid, I turned to Fluttershy, ”See if you can find a candle” I ordered but before she went to find one, light burst into my vision and a hundred voices chanted in unison “SURPRISE!” As I was pounced on by something pink.

Chapter 12: The Party

I laid sprawled on the floor with the large pink mass still pinning me down, but as my eyes focused I saw the familiar light blue eyes of Pinkie Pie.
“Sowhatdoyouthink? Youlikeit? Iplannedthispartyespeciallyforyou! A‘welcometoPonvyville, Lightning’party!” Pinkie babbled.

“Wha- er yeah, thanks.” I replied “Oh and Pinkie…” I continued.

“Yeah”? She asked her face puzzled.

“Could you get off me please?” I asked trying to push against her pin.

“Oh sorry” she said as she took her hooves off my chest. I tried to right myself with little success.

“Little help?” I asked and Rainbow swooped over and together with Fluttershy they flipped me the right way up and slowly let me down on my feet. I looked around the large main room, it was full of ponies talking, drinking, and eating party nibbles. “Thanks for the party pinkie, guys can I have some help getting somewhere to sit?” I asked, looking for a chair or large cushion. The girls brought me to a brown, low back couch right next to the snack table. With my good leg, I grabbed a cupcake with fluorescent blue icing. I bit into it and was surprised from the explosions of flavours. The cake was the fluffiest, sweetest and most delectable cake I’ve ever tasted. And the icing was laced with blueberries. “Hmm blueberries, my favourite” I commented, smiling.

Pinkie Pie returned a smile to me “Thank you Lightning, I just new you had a thing for blueberries, everyone does.” Twilight ambled past the couch and noticed Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie huddled around me.
“Lightning! There you are! Where have you been? This is that second time you’ve been a lot longer than you should’ve been.” She scolded. She looked down as she saw Rainbow put a box with a cushion on underneath my splinted leg. “And how did that happen?!” She demanded, pointing a hoof at my leg.

“Well, I went off to see Applejack, like you suggested; when I was there she denied all knowledge of telling you that she was looking for farm hands. And then she bucked my leg into oblivion when she literally kicked me off her land” I finished. Rainbow’s and Twilight’s jaws were hanging in shock.

“Applejack?” Twilight asked. “Hardworking, honest Applejack?” She looked at me puzzled. “She wouldn’t do anything like that. It’s not in her nature”.

“Well it was today.” I replied grumpily.
An awkward silence hung around the group for several minutes before Applejack wandered into the group “Hey ya’ll what’s goin’ on?” she said immediately pursing her lips when she finished the sentence. She was still the dull orange when she kicked me. Her eyes were darting around trying to avoid locking onto anyone else’s.
“Applejack! Did you do this to Lightning?” Rainbow demanded. Applejack leaning back slightly from the pegasus’ accusations.

“Ah didn’t kick nobody”. She protested “Ah’ve been at the orchards, bucking all afternoon.” With this new lie; the other four mares looked at me suspiciously

“What?” I Questioned.

“Now Lightning, we’re not saying you’re lying, but maybe you fell down the stairs or something?” inquired Twilight.

“No…” I said plainly, “Applejack bucked me”.

“Now lookie here Lahghtnin’, Ah din’t buck nobody” she protested. I was sensing the group was become more agitated with me as they stared at me with disapproval in their eyes.

Pinkie looked around the other mares and her face broke out into a smile. “Whoa guys” she grinned. “Let’s not waste this awesome party!” she said wrapping forelegs around them and pulling them off away from the area.
“Well that sucked” I muttered to myself. I reached over to the table next to me and grabbed a mug of something yellow bubbling. I sniffed the suspicious liquid, wondering what it was.
“I didn’t know you liked cider” spoke an elegant voice as the owner sat down beside me.

“Oh, hey Rarity, wait this is cider?” I asked her looking at her in her grey-blue eyes. She nodded and I looked back at my beverage. I tipped my head back and gulped down the entire mug-full. My taste buds exploded with delight at the taste. The apple drink was sweet with a hint of cinnamon. The bubbles tickled my tongue as they popped. I reached over to the table and grabbed a mug of cider and offered it up to Rarity. She looked at the cup and became flustered, “Oh, no darling. I don’t like cider that much, I only really drink it when Applejack offers it. I prefer to drink wine” she said pushing the cup away. I shrugged in acceptance and gulped down the cup, my head starting to feel funny, but it didn’t feel bad.
“Are you okay my dear?” Rarity asked, pointing at my splinted leg.

“Oh, I, err, fell… down some stairs” I said embarrassingly.

Rarity gasped and grabbed the splint tightly, “Oh my! Does it hurt?” my leg exploded with pain as she pulled in in and hugged it. My eyes were almost tearing up as I managed to mumble out “a lot”. Rarity heard what I said and released her vice-like grip of my leg. I looked at Rarity and noticed something strange. She was faded grey kind of like Applejack but actually grey.
“Hey Rarity, are you okay?” I asked. She looked at me with confusion.

“Why?” she asked.

“Well, I just thought you looked a little… pale” I replied.

“Well, now that you mention it I really want something”. She replied leaning in to me.

“What’s that?” I asked having no idea why she’s leaning on me. She brought her head close to mine. She gently blew into my ear, tickling it and making me feel weird. She then whispered in my ear, “you”. In my mind, the penny dropped. I could feel my cheeks flushing and sprang to my feet standing near the couch. Rarity slumped on the sofa with; she reacted and leant on one leg seductively. “What’s the matter Lightning?” she asked in a light, amorous voice adding to the seduction.
“err nothing, err look there” I shouted pointing behind her. She looked around to see what I was pointing at. With the distraction I hobbled away, through the myriad of ponies. I looked around the party for someone to talk to. I looked behind me to see if Rarity was following me but suddenly bumped into somepony. I looked around and saw that the pony was the brown one I met when I was last in Ponyville.
“Hello Lightning!” he exclaimed. He looked at me and smiled as though he knows me.

“Hey, err, Doctor” I said, only just remembering his weird name. “What’re you doing here?” I asked.

“Oh, well, I’m Twilight’s plus one” he defended. “Plus making sure that the Cyberponies don’t gate-crash.”

“What the heck are those?”

“Oh, only cybernetic beings with no emotions that have intents on dominating the universe by assimilating all beings into the
same design.” He said care free.

“Oh, well, you have fun with your imaginary friends, I need to find Twilight.” I said starting to edge away from him.

“she’s gone to her room, apparently she’s conflicted.”

“Yeah she’s not the only one.” I said to myself as I waded through the ponies towards a small round door labelled ‘Twilight Sparkle’. I pushed it open and swung my head around the door. The whole room was completely dark, apart from the beam of light that the open door made.

“Twilight?” I asked the darkness.

In the darkness I saw a small purple aura glow and candles dotted around the room flickered into life. The room came into focus and revealed that the walls were covered in more bookshelves but with a large nook in the opposite side of the room which looked like a bedroom. I wandered through the dim light towards a small set of stairs that led up to the nook. The stairs looked like they were carved out of the actual tree, and smooth, as if they have been used for many years. At the top there was a wooden carved bed, with purple sheets with stars on. Opposite the bed was a small dressing table with brushes and hair clips on. In between the bed and the table was a small pet basket on a purple, oval rug. I walked around the bed and saw Twilight hugging a pillow and a sad look on her face.

“Hey what’s up?” I asked as I hobbled over to her and lay down opposite her.

“I’m just so confused, I’ve known Applejack for several years now and I completely trust her to tell the truth, we’re best friends. But you’re my friend too, I trust you as well but I don’t know what to believe. Whether Applejack kicked you or not.” She said tears slowly gathering in her eyes. I placed a hoof under her chin and lifted her face so we were looking into each others eyes.

“Twilight, it doesn’t matter to me who you believe, I think you should choose whoever make you happiest. You have had an amazing life, I don’t think something trivial as ‘did somepony kick somepony’ should ruin it. ” She stood up and rubbed her eyes, it was kind of adorable in a way.

“Thanks Lightning.” She mumbled as we came in for a hug. We hugged for a few seconds before we broke off.

“Come on, we don’t want to waste the party that Pinkie planned.” Twilight said.

“Sure let’s go” I said smiling, as we walked through the door, to the rest of the party.

Chapter 13: The Hangover

My head span as I opened my eyes, light blaring straight into my eyes. I winced slowly tried to raise a hoof to block the bright rays. But something was on top of me weighing my arms down. I squinted to try and see what was on me and saw a flash of colour. My eyes widened, I winced as gallons of sunlight crashed into my eyes, and squinted and I saw a sleeping Rainbow Dash, sprawled out on top of me, lightly snoring. It was actually pretty adorable.

“Hey Rainbow” I whispered, feeling a tiny bit guilty waking her abruptly from her slumber. She didn’t stir from her sleep. I decided to up the ante. I leaned my head towards her left ear and took in a long breath.

“HELLOOOOOO RAINBOW DASH!!” I yelled in her ear. Her eyes bulged open as she wriggled about in surprise.
“Wuhbuhblehuh” she babbled as she searched for the source of the noise. She looked down and her face instantly changed from dazed confusion to terrified anxiety. She sprang onto her feet, shouting out, quite loudly, "What the- Lightning! What they hey do you think you're doing?" She demanded, giving me a piercing look. I spluttered and stumbled trying to remember what happened at the party last night.

"Uh, er, I didn't do anything! Well I don't remember-"

"Well you'd better start remembering" She interrupted, with a terrifying glare in her eyes.

A door to our left burst open suddenly, revealing Spike staring at us with a slightly mischievous grin.
"Hey you two, erm Twilight wants to see you in the main library" he smiled as he disappeared back into the main library. Rainbow and I looked at each other in confusion, she gave me a disapproving look and flew through the open door. I rolled over onto my front and slowly got up, as I did the room started to spin uncontrollably. I spread my legs to stable myself as I slowly wobbled towards the door.

The main library was warm and slightly dusty, the remains of last night's party had already been cleaned up, apart from the odd streamer or balloon dotted around the shelves. In the middle of the room in front of a small table stood Twilight, who's usually neat and tidy bangs were in complete disarray. Fluttershy who had angry eyebrows scrawled in ink above her eyes. Rainbow was trying to wrestle a barrier of Duct tape around Pinkie's muzzle. Spike was attempting to untie Applejack who lay hog-tied on the floor with an apple in her mouth and Rarity was sat next to her holding a bag of peas to her left eye. "Oh hey guys" I smiled looking around the ponies which quickly disappeared as they gave me angry looks. "What the hay happened?" I asked Twilight as I sat opposite her. Her horn glowed as a brush appeared in front of her and it started brushing her hair and mane.

"Well, first off when we got back to the party you started to drink loads of cider and as you did, your behaviour slowly got worse and worse. You kept patting my head saying "No! Mom! Don't die! Don't worry! I'll save you!". After a couple more Ciders you drew those angry eyebrows on Fluttershy". When her name was mentioned Fluttershy buried her face in her hair. "After several more you grabbed some duct tape and wrapped it around Pinkie Pie's mouth screaming "SILENCE CHATTY PINK BEAST!". I chuckled after hearing that, that probably would have been hilarious to watch.
"After a couple more ciders you challenged Applejack to a lasso duel, and when you lost, you decided to just physically tie her up, we still can't untie the ropes. Then finally after I think it was around ten ciders total you tied your bandage around your splint planks and made nun-chucks. After which you proceeded to swing them around and then hit Rarity in the eye". Rarity's glare reached a new level of piercing as Twilight mentioned what I did to her. "And then afterwards you danced yourself sick, When you threw up Rainbow escorted you to where you are sleeping and that's the last we saw of you until now" I stood there in horror from sheer embarrassment, trying to take in my drunken behaviour.

"I am so sorry, to all of you. Last night was the first time I had cider, but also it was the first time in month's where I've been truly happy." I look at their faces as they became even more angry. Inside my head I slapped myself in the face, 'brilliant now they think I enjoy their misery'.
"No! I mean before the cider, you guys have made my life so much better. And now I think I need to go walk off this hangover and extreme guilt." I said as I made my way towards the door. "And jump off a bridge" I mumbled as I stepped out of the door.

The air outside the library was cold and damp, a thick, eerie fog was wrapped around the houses. I made my way through the fog, wondering how it came around so quickly. I looked around but I couldn't recognise where I had just been. I turned back around and started walking again but stopped as the fog started swirling in front of me. A creepy, crackly voice echoed through the fog.

"Lightning… " The voice whispered. "They hate you Lightning… You've hurt them in a way no-pony ever has… They'll never let you back after this…" The voice faded away through the fog as the swirling fog became stronger as something erupted from it and plonked itself down in front of me, it was tall, and had horns but retreated back into the fog almost immediately. "Lightning!" shouted a familiar voice to my left. I looked as saw Rainbow Dash speeding towards me. "Rainbow, how did you find me in this fog" I asked

"What fog?" She asked back.

"This fo…" I stopped speaking as I turned away from her and motioned to bright sunny blue skies.
Rainbow failed at holding back a chuckle. "I think your eyes need testing" she said as she poked my forehead. "Anyway" she said, Twilight wants to talk to you" She finished as she started to fly slowly towards the door of the library which was only about 50 feet away. I started to follow Rainbow Dash as the creepy fog voice laughed sinisterly. I stopped and looked around to see the source of the voice. There wasn't a single pony or in fact any creature at all around Ponyville. "Hey Lightning, you okay?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah" I answered, "I thought I heard something."

"Wow Light, that must be some hangover." Rainbow teased.

Before I knew it my entire body was in shock, I couldn't move, but a tear started rolling down my cheek. Rainbow landed next to me and put a hoof around me, her warmth was comforting and eased the shock in my body. "Hey, Lightning I was only joking" She smiled. I looked at her with a heavy feeling in my heart.

"My mom was the last pony to call me Light" I whimpered.

Rainbow's smile immediately disappeared and she enveloped me in a full hug.
"Lightning, I am so sorry" she said as the hug broke. "Anyway, Twilight wants to see you". She finished. I nodded and followed her back to the library.

As we were walking back, Ponyville was bustling with ponies as they perused the market stalls and shop fronts. It was a bit weird how five minutes ago it was deserted and foggy and now it's as though the fog was never there. The library came closer and closer until I was outside the door. I paused for a minute and entered.
In the library there was a cushion on the floor with seven more cushions in an arc in front of it. Twilight and the others were dotted around the library reading books or just sitting relieved of the torment that I provided. I walked over and sat on the lone cushion.

Twilight looked up and saw me and smiled. "Hey Lightning, we all need to talk." She said, motioning to the others. They all made their way to a cushion, well most did, Pinkie cart wheeled over to hers. Twilight took the central cushion with Spike on the cushion to her right. "We really want to help you…" Twilight started.
"Ah don't" Interrupted Applejack.

"Anyway, we can't help you if you if all of us don't know everything, it's about time you tell everyone why you're really here." Twilight reiterated.

Pinkie's eyes opened wide "oooohh, Why are you here? Are you a secret super spy? Or a superhero? Or maybe a secret superhero spy?" she rambled "Or maybe he's a hmm hhmmm hmm hmm…" Rainbow had put a hoof over pinkie's mouth to stop her talking.

"He's not any of those things.

"hhmm hmm hm hmmh hhm hhm hhmmm?"

"Especially that" Rainbow answered.
The six ponies and dragon looked at me, awaiting the reason that I'm here.

"All right then" I sighed, and began my story.

Chapter 15: Out of the Frying pan...

Around us floor boards and pieces of wood started flying around and snapping together in front of us snapping to length, rearranging until it formed a platform. Above which a mouth materialised, just a mouth, enlarging into a large grin, it spoke with that weird creepy voice I've been hearing.

"It was so much fun, I couldn't resist." The mouth spoke. Twilight stepped toward the mouth boldly.
"Show yourself, you demented trickster!" She demanded. The floating grin faltered slightly before returning back.
"Oh okay, you got me" the mouth admitted. A pair of yellow eyes faded in above the mouth before the rest of its body faded into existence, it's body a mismatch of different creatures, but with one tooth protruding out of its mouth.
"Ta da!" It announced spreading its mismatched arms laughing happily. The creature seemed familiar in a bad way.

"Discord!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Wait… D…Discord? I thought he was d…defeated!" I stutter in anger and pain.
"How did you escape this time?" Twilight asked.
"Well you have the one on your left to thank for that" he replied simply grinning in victory. Twilight's head slowly turned towards me, a look of shock on her face at this new information.
"L…Lightning? W…why?" She asked, giving me a sad look of confusion, I return a look of confusion back to her.
"I don't know. How could I have done something like that?"
"Well it seems that the amount of conflict and turmoil I caused within his heart and mind was enough to break me free." He said simply.
"WHAT?!" I shouted. "YOU'RE THE REASON?!"
"Why yes my dear Lightning, I needed a failsafe for when I'm imprisoned, so I made a plan sixteen years ago to make sure there was a way I could escape. When I struck you with that bolt of lightning you were imbued with a lot of powerful magic, but not just that but Chaos Magic, the kind of magic I use. When that happened, it tagged you permanently, radiating out from you. Any ponies or objects in which you have prolonged contact would be tagged as well, eventually allowing a chaotic event to occur."

"What?! That's insane! The odds of something happening for you to escape a astronomical!" Twilight Exclaimed.
"Yes well, A; it happened, so there's no point in calculating the odds, and B; logic and physics have no effect on Chaos magic, hence how this magic can make any kind of phenomena occur." Discord replied counting the points he made on his lion paw.

"Discord, you said about doing this was fun, why? You are powered by conflict, not by sadness." Twilight explained`
"True my dear Twilight but when sadness turns to guilt, and in turn creates conflict. And that becomes more potent within one pony rather than two, there's nothing more powerful than a heart that contradicts itself."
He smiled at his explanation, looking around as red clouds started to rain blobs of pink ice cream. The wooden panels of the stage he was standing on merged together and he sank slightly as the stage turned into a large sponge.

Discord raised himself up in the air and snapped both of his fingers, gathering bigger clouds overhead.
"Now if you don't mind there are some elements of my plan I need to take care of." He mentioned before he snapped his finger again.
"Wait!" Twilight ordered running to the sponge, but he disappeared with a flash. "Damn" she exclaimed "he could be anywhere right now"..
Twilight and I stood there looking at the empty air where discord had stood unable to move for anger and confusion. I manage to overcome my shock and look at the ground tears starting to well up in my eyes
"That Bastard" I mumbled angrily "He finds this kind of pain is fun? This pain makes him stronger? And he thinks that I'm just gonna sit here and take it? well NOT ANY MORE! " I screamed at the floor. "I'm gonna make that bastard pay for what he did" I proclaim "I WILL FIND YOU, AND PUT YOU DOWN DISCORD!" I yell at the sky. As I finish the last syllable of my threat, a bolt of lightning streaked from the sky down towards Twilight. The world was almost in slow motion as she looked up and her eyes widen to see the bolt. Without thinking my hind legs lean back and then spring, launching me forward to intercept the bolt. I look down and see Twilight's wide eyes, filled with fear widen Ever so slightly more to see me in the bolt's path.

The lightning bolt hits me like an icicle in my back, right in-between my bandaged wings. As I flop to the ground I can feel heat around my wings and can see a faint orange light coming from my back. A cold sensation drops on my back, causing the heat and light to vanish, just before I slip into unconsciousness.

Cold specks dotted around my face as I lay on the ground, they warmed up from contact to me and I could feel the warm blobs trickle down my face, and pooling on the ground underneath my chin. I open my eyes to see that the sky is still filled with red clouds but the ice-cream is now brown, pink and a pale yellow. I slowly raise myself from the Neapolitan puddle and look around to see the ice cream covered remains of my house, the sponge was large and bloated from absorbing the melting ice cream. Twilight seems to have disappeared probably gone to pursue Discord.

I turn to try and find the road through all the ice cream, I start walking towards a large light in the distance. The ice cream has now become almost a swamp with a mixture of melted and whole lumps. Just walking through the thick blend of colours was taxing. The light is the distance was growing larger, in the darkness I could just make out large black lumps rising from the light. As I got closer, the ice cream became thinner and thinner, the air was warmer too. Soon enough the grass all around was just different colours. The light flickered and sent large black clouds into the dark sky
As I walked into Ponyville the destruction was unbelievable, tall flames engulfed the buildings. Ponies with terrified looks on their faces ran around in terror. I slowly walk around the blazing town as though the flames were not there, wandering around with no destination. That is until I see the library, flames dancing around the tree branches, give the tree the look of a huge flaming torch. I burst through the slightly open door.

It was almost impossible to breathe in the tree, the smoke was so thick I could have cut it like butter, it seemed to have the same consistency as it entered my lung s and left me coughing and spluttering for cleaner air. The walls of the library were dancing with red hot flames, the books acting as kindling for the blaze. I noticed some stairs and blearily climbed up them, my vision was starting to blur from the lack of clean air but I pressed on. I rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and saw what looked like a balcony, "Oh goody" I spluttered as I made my way out of the double doors and breathed in cool, clean air. A scream echoed out into the air. I turn to my right and see a purple unicorn "Twilight?" I ask.
"Why did you do this?!" she screamed.
"What? No! it was Discord! It must have been!" I said, denying her accusation.
I notice that her mane and fur was a dull version of the original colour of herself much like Applejack and Rarity. Was this more of Discord's magic?

Twilight mustered herself and her horn glowed, her face focused, thinking of the spell in her mind but was interrupted as a large branch fell in-between us. The balcony creaked with this new, sudden weight and broke off from the tree. As we fell, Twilight's horn glowed again and a pink sphere enveloped her and she teleported before the balcony hit the ground. I hit the grass covered ground hard, my head bouncing between the ground and the balcony wall, and I fell unconscious again.

Clouds swirled around in my mind, contorting and forming objects, white columns and stained glass windows depicting various battles, a long, elegant red carpet streaked up to the end of the room. The room elongated into a long throne room with a glowing figure at the throne. I walk towards the end of the room and the glow ebbed away to reveal the identity of the figure to be princess Celestia. She was sitting down on her haunches, her face looking at the ground with her eyes closed. I stand there, confused about how I got to, wherever this is and what Celestia's doing here too.

"Princess Celestia? Where am I?" I said looking around the room. Her face raised to look at me and spoke as she opened her eyes
"I am not Princess Celestia, and you are within your mind" she said calmly.
I stood ready to charge at the figure "Are you Discord?" I demanded, expecting the figure's demeanour to change, to reveal himself.
"No" the figure replied sharply.
"Who are you?!" I shout.
"I" replied the figure, standing up "am the spirit of the Elements of Harmony"
I stand in surprise, thinking what that meant.
"Hold on, I though Twilight and the others were the spirits if the Elements of Harmony"
"That is true, except that they are the physical manifestations of the individual spirits, however, I am the spiritual manifestation of the elements as one."
"Then why do you look like princess Celestia?"
"I take the form of Princess Celestia for the reason that her spirit was the last that could harness all of the Elements of Harmony as one."
"Wow, I knew she was powerful but that must have taken some doing."
"Every thousand years, a spirit is born with the magical capabilities to use the Elements of harmony as one. When this occurs, not only do the Elements of Harmony become stronger but a new Element is created from the spirit's heart." The Spirit explained.

The spirit carried on speaking.
"The most recent Element to be created was Kindness, this was created when the Nightmare Moon Spirit was banished by the Princess Celestia Spirit."
"Oh yeah I remember reading about Nightmare moon returning a couple of years ago. Twilight and the others took away her dark powers and restored her to Princess Luna. Oh and they also stopped Discord"
"Indeed, the six spirits defeated the Nightmare Moon and Discord Spirits. However the Discord Spirit was able to successfully corrupt the six spirits on their first encounter. An ability which he has repeated effectively."
"What?!" I exclaim at what she said, "How?"
"The Discord Spirit spread chaos into their minds by hypnotising them into the opposite of themselves, because of that, they have become a permanent source of chaos for the Discord Spirit to feed off and become more powerful. There is only one Spirit who can defeat the Discord Spirit now." The spirit finished as she walked towards me and stopped just in front of me. She lifted a hoof and stopped it inches from my forehead.

"Go young Spirit, awaken" she said as she poked my forehead. When her hoof made contact a strange tingling feeling spread over me from the point of contact as her hoof and the world started swirling and folding into each other into a speck. The space around me was dark wondering what to do. Pain shot down my side and back, wrenching me back to reality.
I slowly opened my eyes as sunlight burst into them. The smell of smoke and burnt wood filled my nose, and crackling echoes in my ears. I try to stand up but something weighs on top of me. I turn my head and see a large blackened branch laying on top of me, as I'm lying here I feel something dripping down my side. I turn my head and see a trickle of red run down my side and pool underneath me, I can feel the heat on my stomach but as I lay there the world started to spin. I place a hoof on my head to steady it and avoid passing out. I start sliding to the right to try and remove the branch in my side, but the pain almost incapacitates me and an involuntary shout of pain escapes my mouth. I hear the thudding of footsteps behind me and a scratching. The great weight is lifted off me and the branch in my side slides out painfully.

"OW! What the-". I start getting up but something sharp pokes down on my back forcing me to lie back down.
"Stay still, you've already lost a lot of blood." Said a familiar voice. More scratching sounds come from behind me. It stops, then something dabbed my side, cleaning the blood around my wound.
"S..Spike, is th..that you?" I groaned weakly.
"Yeah, " he said abruptly "What the hay happened? I was taking a nap in the library, and when I wake up its burnt to a crisp! Oh and this bit might sting." He added.
"Well Dis… YAAAAHH!" I jumped at the sudden heat searing into my wound "D…Discord has escaped, and he's hypnotised Twilight and the others, he made them the opposite of themselves or something. And I… What the heck did you just do?"
"What? Oh, well I kinda had to cauterise the wound, it wouldn't stop bleeding so I used my fire to DISCORD'S ESCAPED!?". The sudden change in volume made me jump. "TWILIGHT AND THE OTHERS HAVE BEEN HYPONTISED?!" He shouted again.
"YES!" I shouted back, Slowly standing up, the seared flesh stretching and acclimatising to movement. "What happened last time Discord escaped?" I ask the small dragon.

"Well" he said, sitting down on a pile of glowing embers, his dragon instincts still intact. "Last time, Princess Celestia sent all the letters that Twilight sent her back to Twilight to remind her about friendship, after that she performed a memory spell on the others and they worked together to imprison him again. But we haven't got any letters back so I don't know what to do." He finished his last sentence sadly and lowered his head. I look down at the small dragon, he is covered from head to toe in soot and ash.

"First off, are these Elements of Harmony safe? I think we're gonna have to use them… somehow." I ask.
"Yeah, they're in a secret part of the library that Twilight put a spell on, nothing can get to them except for me or Twilight, the spell even protected them from the fire." He smiled
"Good" I said "you get them and meet me in front of the library, Then we need to find discord."
"All right!" Spike cheered at the formulation of this terrible plan and ran into the wreckage of the library. While I made my way to where the front door would be, thinking of what to do when we find Discord.

Chapter 16: And into the... Gravy?

Spike ran towards me through the wreckage of the tree, his short stubby legs throwing up ash and burnt paper. He was clutching a blue box with gold edging; gems were glowing on the sides and lid of the box, its contents rattled around from the dragon's erratic run.
"Got 'em" he announced as he stopped in front of me.
"Right, okay now to find Twilight and the others. Last time I saw her, Discord had already changed her, she thought I burnt down Ponyville and she then teleported away." I lowered my head in depression. "She could be anywhere." I finished hopelessly.

I tried to think of where Discord could be instead; maybe that search would prove more fruitful.
"Where do you think Discord would be?" I asked Spike "He wouldn't go back to my house, that's too much of a cliché".
"Hey don't count that out so quickly! That's the kind of thinking that Discord relies on!" Spike reassured. "But how are we gonna use the Elements of Harmony without the others?" he asked himself.
"Well that's the thousand Bit question" I answered. "But I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it." I finished as I turned around towards the road, the road home.

The walk to Hoofington was long, I sensed something within me, down in my heart, there was a strange feeling, and it ached and itched at me to do something spontaneous. To make it worse, an unbelievably awkward silence hung over us both. Neither Spike nor I spoke at all but when our eyes met every so often I knew we both thinking the same thing. How the heck are we going to defeat discord with just us two?
As we were getting closer to Hoofington the feeling became stronger, more alive and more chaotic. Wait a minute… Chaotic? That's it!
"Spike!" I yelled out, making the dragon jump and accidentally letting out some green flames.
"What?" he yelled back after checking that he hadn't burned his precious cargo.
"I still have some Chaos magic inside me," I said smiling, Spike looked at me with a confused look.
"Err, how is that a good thing?" he asked.
"Well it seems that Chaos magic is attracted to other sources of Chaos magic, almost like they empower each other, it's acting kinda like a compass" I figured out.
"How does that work?" Spike wondered aloud.
"I dunno, it's chaos magic, the normal laws of magic don’t apply to it" I blurted out.
"Oh great" Spike finished sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he continued towards Hoofington. As I turned down the dirt road, the dark brown dirt morphed into grey sludge, as I started to sink, I could feel it getting thicker, as it did it started to dry out and crack from the movement of my legs, I sunk a little further before realising what the substance was.
"Spike!" I yelled, as he turned his head, his eyes widened upon seeing my situation.
"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed as he ran towards me. I quickly brought up a hoof for him to stop.
"Don't come here!" I ordered. "If you get stuck, then we're both doomed!” Spike immediately stopped and looked all around to assess the situation. He rubbed his chin with a claw, thinking of a solution.
"I remember reading up on quicksand but I can't remember how to get out of it"
"Well it doesn't feel like quicksand" I urged as I started to wriggle trying to escape. However these efforts were for nothing as I sank in further until my legs were completely submerged.

Spike came to the edge of the grey sink-hole and dipped a finger into the goop and brought it to his mouth.
"How is tasting it going to help?" I demanded.
"It helps because it's not quicksand, it's porridge!" Spike announced, licking his lips as he brought his hands together and dived into the sludgy mess, chomping his way through it. After ten minutes of munching and slurping down on porridgy sludge, Spike lay at the edge of the crater with a look of content on his face, rubbing his overly stuffed, round belly. It was quite astonishing how he ate all of the porridge, and in such quick timing. Right now the amount of porridge was at the stage of a puddle, but it still provided some resistance as I waded through it.
"Are you okay?" I asked the rotund dragon.
"Yeah," he said, in a daze, He stopped rubbing his belly to try and push himself to his feet, however his full stomach limited his movement, and he rolled backwards onto his back.
"Uh, I'm about to slip into a food coma at any second, I'm sorry." He said as he passed out. I patted him on the head
"Thanks Spike, don't you worry, I'll get Twilight and the others back." I promised, bucking the box of Elements onto my back and trotted towards Hoofington.

As some houses started to come into view, so did Discord’s changes. There were several gingerbread houses dotted around the village. The bell tower swayed from side to side, the huge bell making quiet tinkling sounds. However the entire village was surrounded by a moat of a thick brown liquid. I dipped a hoof in and gave the thick liquid a lick… gravy? I shook my head to clear my confusion, and waded into the gravy moat, clumps of mashed potato floating around the brown moat. As I cleared the moat, I laid the box on the ground and shook myself clean, hoping no-one saw me clean myself like a dog. I brought the box back on my back and headed into the town square.

The town square was a complete disaster. There were arrows firing archery targets at bows which were nailed to trees. Orange juice was falling from green clouds. Confetti erupted from the clouds as a loud barking sound erupted in the sky. I stopped as I saw what the brick road led to. The road ended with a huge amphitheatre made from bones. A chill ran down my spine as I saw the horrible, monolithic building. I gulped, and stepped through the large archway.

The amphitheatre had a round stage in the centre and rows of seats ascended up above the entrance, the seats wrapped around half of the stage and capped and the very centre of the top row was a throne which looked distinctly like the one in Canterlot castle. And sprawled across the arms, napping was...
“DISCORD!” I shouted at the creature angrily. He opened his eyes wearily as if he were exhausted, he stretched his arms and yawned as he sat up in his throne.
“Well well well,” he said as three wells popped into existence around me “What do we have here? Aww, has whittle Whitening come to wescue his pwecious fwiends?” he mocked, with a pouting face.
“Yes”, I announced sharply and I knocked the box off my back. Discord’s eyes followed the case as it fell to the ground and grinned menacingly.
“Really? You plan to defeat me, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, with the elements of harmony? Considering that the six ponies who can wield them all can’t stand to see each other” he laughed. “You’ve got no chance”.
He was right, even with six ponies using the elements, he managed to escape. And here I am wanting to take him on by myself…

No, I’m not going to let him win, I thought as I opened the box. I strapped the element of kindness onto my right foreleg, the Element of honesty onto my back right leg, the element of generosity onto my back left leg the element of laughter onto my front left leg. I fastened the Element of loyalty around my neck and put the big crown thingy on my head. I began to think of how the use them, I’m pretty sure it’s easy for them. Before I thought of an idea, I just charged up the stairs towards Discord. He looked at me with a look of disappointment.
“You’re kidding right?” He said just before he snapped his eagle claw, summoning a huge block of cheese right above me. As it fell, Discord smiled.
“Goodbye Lightning. You’re no longer entertaining.” He said disinterestedly.

However as the cheese fell it started to slow down and the colour started to fade from the world until everything was back and white and no longer moving. I looked at the huge dairy block above me, it was close enough for me to reach up and poke it with a hoof.
A bright light erupted to my left and Princess Celestia appeared.
“Princess Celestia?”
“Why are you doing this?” She asked.
“I want to defeat Discord.” I replied simply.
“No, that is what you are doing.” She said looking around “Or rather not doing” she joked bluntly. “Whenever a pony uses the Elements of Harmony, they are trying to protect something, whether it’s their life or social status maybe a reputation, a loved one or for personal beliefs. The motives may be completely different, but in the end it’s the same desire to protect something. What are you trying to protect?”
“Equestria?” I asked.
“No, if you need to ask someone whether you are protecting something, you are not protecting it. You need to decide for yourself what it is you are protecting. Only then can one use the Elements.” The princess informed before she started to fade away. I started to think, why am I doing this? I came to help Rainbow and the others, I mean Rainbow is really the only one that can fully understand what it’s like, and she’s been so supportive…

As the world started to move again and the colour fade back in I decided what I am protecting. And As I did the Elements Exploded with light, which brought the world back into full colour and motion. The light streaked off in beams, one hit the huge block of cheese which immediately popped launching cheese everywhere. Discord stood there, his face filled with shock and confusion.
“But, what? That’s not possible!” He denied. The Elements heated up slightly and then started to reform around my body. After it finished forming, it cooled down, and as the glowing subsided the features became prominent. All over my back was the elements, which acted like armour, a small band from the back looped around my neck, and on the front of the neck piece where the six element symbols around a large green heart.
“I know what I want to protect.” I said looking at Discord, no longer filled with fear or doubts. I thought for rainbow and the others to be here and all of a sudden they popped into existence in front of me.
As I walked over to them Twilight looked at me, slightly confused.
“Lightning?” She asked.
“Don’t worry; I’ve reversed what Discord did to your minds.” I said still staring down Discord.
“Stay Here” I ordered them just before I turned to stare down Discord.
Discord still looked at me confused.
“What? but how can this happen? You’re just one pony! No-pony on their own can wield the Elements of Harmony!” he screamed.

“That’s where you’re wrong” I replied. “Every thousand years there is one pony with enough magical potential to use all of the elements by themselves.” I explained, suddenly breaking into a gallop towards him. “So I’m going to defeat YOU!” I shouted, thinking about my parents and their smiles. “And I’m gonna take Pinkie Pie!” I proclaimed as thoughts of Pinkie ran through my mind, the party, her bounciness, her laughter.
“And Rarity!” I shouted as I thought of Rarity, asking me to pose for her, her giving me the saddle bag, her generosity.
“And Applejack!” I snarled, thinking about applejack by my bedside, her reassuring me, her honesty.
“And Fluttershy!” I yelled, thinking about Fluttershy looking after me, being brave and her kindness.
“And Twilight!” thoughts of her friendship, her intelligence, her magic,
“I’m going to take Rainbow Dash!” I roared thinking about her, staying with me through all of my problems, through all the crap I did to her, her loyalty.
“All of My friends! And bring them home safe with me!” I thundered “I won’t lose to you!” I finished as I leapt forwards and butted Discord in the face with the Elements Symbols on my front. The moment the elements touched his head, His eyes widened as his body started to freeze and his feet started to turn to stone. My eyes also widened as they glowed white at the peak of the Elements power as a green wave exploded out of the connection and spread out quickly through the surrounding area. As it did the alterations that Discord made disintegrated into nothing revealing the original scenery. An intense white light enveloped us both before I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes and saw nothing but white, there were no discerning walls or floors, but I was standing on something, it was strange. A something rested on the back of my neck, I looked to see Celestia, or at least it looked like Celestia, with her hoof on the back of my neck.
“Well done,” the Celestia congratulated. “You found what it was you wanted to protect most.”
“It was less a matter of what, more like whom.” I corrected.
“Very well, through your want to protect someone dear to you, you’ve created the element of love” she said raising a hoof to point at my chest. I looked down to see a necklace much like the original elements of harmony, except the symbol was that of a green heart.

“And we couldn’t be more proud” chimed two voices behind me.
I turned around, and my entire body and soul was lifted by who I saw
“Mom! Dad!” I cheered as I galloped to wrap them in the tightest hug I’ve ever given. “You’re Okay!” I cheered, as I grabbed my mom’s hoof and started to walk away. However, my mom’s hoof tugged in mine, I turned to see both of my parents, smiling at me, but with a slight sense of discomfort behind them.
“You know we can’t come with you, no amount of magic can resurrect the dead” stated my dad.
My heart dropped like a stone after hearing those words, but it also brought confusion with it.
“But, wait how are you here?” I asked.
“You brought us here, you’ve replaced the mistaken guilt of our death, with the will to protect your friends” my mother said calmly, “Because of this, all three of us can continue on our journeys.” They both finished, as they enveloped me in a warm hug, before walking slowly off into the vast whiteness.
“Wait! Wait!” I yelled, holding out a hoof, but they had already faded away.
“Lightning spirit” started the Element Celestia, “You need to continue, there are ponies that need you” She said as she raised a hoof to my head and poked my forehead, sending back into reality.

As I opened my eyes, I could see another pair of magenta eyes inches from my own. They teared up slightly when meeting mine.
“Thank goodness you’re okay” sighed Rainbow Dash as she clambered off me. As I sat up, Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all breathed a sigh of relief.
“What happened?” Asked Twilight.
“Well, Initially, I wanted to take revenge on Discord for killing my parents, however, the elements of harmony made me realise that revenge wasn’t what I wanted, instead I defeated discord for you guys, I wanted to protect my friends.” I explained. When I told them this their faces lit up, but after a second Rarity’s face, altered as if she’d just remembered something.
“But darling, where’s Discord? You didn’t… you know” she said, making a beheading motion with her hoof.
“What? Oh no! I took a leaf out of Celestia’s book. I thought a thousand years in the moon may do him good.”
The moment I finished the last word, Rainbow’s eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed, the others were shocked, and I was straight to her side, holding one of her hooves in mine.
“Rainbow?!” I shouted, using my spare hoof to try and shake her awake “Rainbow?!”

“Rainbow!!”

Epilogue

Hoofsteps echoed down the dimly lit corridor as a figure made its way towards the end room. A light at the end flickered, casting strange shadows behind the equipment scattered along the hallway. The figure stopped in front of a door, paused slightly to compose them before they knocked a hoof on the door. A wispy sound and a purple aura enveloped the door handle on the inside and then turned. The door swung open to reveal a purple unicorn standing near the door, and six other ponies around a bed. Rarity and a doctor were sitting at the foot of the bed; Pinkie Pie and Applejack were sitting on the right side of the bed. Lightning and Fluttershy were sitting on the left side of the bed, beams of light leaking through the blinds behind them. Lightning rested a hoof and his head on Rainbow’s left hoof.

“Princess Celestia!?” Twilight confusingly announced.
“Hello there everyone,” she said regally before she looked at the bed, and her mood dropped. “How is she?” Celestia asked the doctor that was standing at the foot of the bed, reading a clip board.
“Well, medically, she’s in perfect condition; however she’s pretty deep in a coma, something’s happened in her mind, her psyche has almost completely shut it down.”
“Is there any whay we cun wake ‘er up doc?” Applejack asked
“There’s the problem, if there were something physically wrong we could do something about it, but because it’s within her mentality, there isn’t much we can do other than wait and hope.” The doctor bluntly stated.

Lightning’s head lifted, and gave the doctor an angry look. “Wait and hope?” He questioned furiously, “Your only suggestion is that we just sit here AND HOPE SHE GETS BETTER?!” he yelled, grabbing the doctor by the scruff
“Bu- but there’s n-nothing else we can d-do” spluttered the doctor. Lightning’s anger intensified as he pulled a hoof back in preparation to hit the doctor.
“Lightning!” exclaimed Twilight as her horn glowed and she popped out of existence and instantly popped back in-between Lightning and the doctor, pushing them away from each other.
“You can’t blame ponies for situations that are out of their control!” Twilight scolded as the doctor ran from the room
“No I can’t” he huffed as he slumped back into his chair and looked at the still figure in the bed. “However what happened to Rainbow was entirely my fault.”
“You Don't Know tha-” Twilight started to ask but Lightning interrupted her.

“I’m the one that did this. I’m the one that let my Mom and Dad die, I ‘m the one that released Discord, and I used the elements on Rainbow’s mind. It must’ve activated something that Discord had hidden, almost like a failsafe, he used me as a backup plan to escape, and maybe this is like a revenge for defeating him.” Lightning babbled on logically. “DAMN IT” he yelled, slamming his hoof on the bed next to Rainbow Dash.
An awkward silence filled the room, until it was broken by Rarity.
“Well darling at least you’ve earned you’re cutie mark” she said, pointing at lightning’s rump where a white cloud with two bolts of lightning streaked out of it lay.
“Yeah, but no cutie mark is worth the loss of a close friend” Lighting piped back, shooting down Rarity’s enthusiasm.

Another awkward silence engulfed the room for several minutes.

“Come along my little ponies, maybe some fresh air will do us some good” interjected Princess Celestia. She pointed a hoof toward the door as a yellow aura engulfed the door handle and proceeded to turn it. All the ponies the left through the newly opened door leaving Lightning alone, moping at Rainbow’s bed side.

After several silent minutes Lightning perked up and remembered something.
“You know what rainbow, when I was a foal, my mom used to sing me a song when I was falling asleep, it’s the one thing about my mother I’ll never forget” he mumbled, choking back tears as he started to sing.
“Spread your wings, come with me we’ll fly away,
Ride high in the clouds, ‘cus I ain’t afraid to say
I love you.
Touch the sky with me,
Skim the clouds can see,
Take me high with those,
Beautiful blue wings.
I could never dream such amazing things,
I love you and your, beautiful blue wings.
Touch the sky with me,
Skim the clouds can see,
Take me high with those,
Beautiful blue wings.
I could never dream such amazing things,
I love you and your, beautiful blue wings.”

As Lightning finished the last line of his mother’s song, he let his head fall into his hooves; his heart aching and tears streaming down his face. The room filled with the sound of crying as he couldn’t control himself anymore, he wanted Rainbow Dash, and he needed Rainbow Dash. She was the only one who understood his pain, could help him through the emptiness that has overcome his heart. Somehow Lightning managed to muster himself and mumbled something as he grabbed Rainbow’s hoof.

“Please Rainbow, please wake up.”

Prologue

"Why does Ponyville need to have a storm right now"? Exclaimed a panting Pegasus as he sheltered a stumbling Unicorn, who could hardly move more than a brisk stroll, with his left foreleg. The mare had a pure white coat with a pale pink mane with white specks in. On her rump was the image of a Pestle and mortar. The colt on the other hand had a proud dark crimson coat with a well-kept yet greying mane and moustache. This colt had the image of a hammer, nails and a carpenter's square on his rump.

The mare collapsed, but the colt was prepared for anything, quickly manoeuvring himself underneath the mare but carefully enough not to disturb the large mass at the mare's abdomen which has slowed her. "Come here darling" he cooed, leading her underneath a large Oak tree.
"We're not going to make it to Ponyville in time" said the mare nervously.
"Don't worry about the baby, if it comes to it. I'll deliver it right here, right now" he said reassuringly as both he and the mare lowered slowly down to their haunches.
"Oh A-Brace!" screamed the mare as she clutched her bulging abdomen as a wave of contractions fell upon her
" The baby!, it's coming!"

After what felt like hours for the mare but in actuality were mere minutes, the Pegasus called A Brace clutched a bundle of towels with a newborn Pegasus inside. "It's a boy!"
"Oh A-Brace!" replied the mare. "He's beautiful", the young pegasus' coat was a bright Cobalt Blue and alongside that his mane was a magnificent Azure and Cyan mane and tail. The mare sat there leaned against the tree staring at the foal in her forelegs "what should we call him?" She asked A-Brace, "hmmm" replied A-Brace, scratching his chin with a hoof,
"how about Jack Hammer, after your grandfather?" replied the mare.
"Are you sure?, what about your father?"
"what kind of pegasus wants to be called Happy Remedy?"
"Good point" chuckled A-Brace.

A loud crash of thunder shattered the mood as both pony's ears dropped from the noise and they moved closer together sheltering from the storm.
The mare's eyes panned towards A-Brace. "Let's discuss this at home". A-Brace nodded in agreement and helped his wife to her hooves. A-Brace went to the road to try and spot anypony who could help them. A sudden CRACK of lightning almost made the colt jump out of his horseshoes he turned and started back towards the mare who held a face of stunned horror. "WHAT IS IT? WHAT'S WRONG?"
He exclaimed as he searched her for any injuries she said nothing as she held out the bundle of towels. The edges were singed as though they had been too close to a fire. He looked deeper in the wrappings and saw sparks of energy arcing over the pegasus.

Their newborn colt had been struck by lightning.

Chapter 3: The Storm

After Rainbow left, a couple of hours had passed before I had another visitor, Fluttershy had come in to change my dressing and refresh the cold flannel on my forehead. She performed these tasks with silent precision, though there was always the feeling of care and kindness emanating from her. Occasionally our eyes would meet but she would emit a quiet 'squee' and quickly look away. After she had finished she got up and made towards the door without saying a word. Had I done something wrong? Had I done something to upset her? I was about to sit back and ponder these thoughts when I noticed to my surprise that a small wooden tray had been left on my right, with a glass of orange juice and a daisy sandwich resting on it. I quickly shouted out a polite "Thank you!" before the door Fluttershy had just exited through had clicked closed.

The daisy sandwich had reminded me of how famished I was, having only eaten two apples in the morning, I had completely devoured the sandwich within minutes and gulped down the orange juice. Being a little bit grateful that nopony was around to see my not-so-spectacular table manners. A lot of the pain that was around my abdomen had been alleviated by the sandwich and my head was starting to clear. I decided that I was probably well enough to walk around so I got out of what I guessed was Fluttershy's bed, neatly folded the covers, slung my saddlebag on and my necklace over my head. Grabbed the wooden tray with my teeth and made my way downstairs.

Fluttershy was sitting downstairs brushing a white cat, it's coat looking beautifully groomed with a purple bow and matching collar. The cat was loving being groomed by the yellow pegasus and plainly ignored my entrance into the room. I placed the tray lightly on a table and suddenly a strange feeling came to my nose, I tried wiggling it to get rid of it but it grew into a situation shattering "AAAAAATTCHOOOOOOOOO!!" Fluttershy shot out of her chair and was clinging upside-down on the ceiling and the cat shot underneath Fluttershy's chair. "B-b-bless you" whimpered Fluttershy,
"Sorry Fluttershy!" I said flying up to her and gently guiding her back down to the floor.
"It's alright" she replied, "you just startled me" she gave me a small smile emphasising that she's okay and reached under her chair to retrieve the cat.
"That's one beautiful cat you have" I commented as she sat back down with it.
"Oh, Opalescence isn't my pet, she belongs to Rarity" she said as she looked up. Suddenly her eyes widened as an idea hit her. "I have a lot of animals to take care of today, could you take Opal back to Rarity for me… if you don't mind" she completed the last part of her sentence quietly and looking down at her hooves as though she were ashamed of it.
"Sure" I replied nonchalantly, "Where does she live?"

I kept repeating Fluttershy's directions out aloud to remember; "turn right onto road into Ponyville, keep waking till I get to the market, hang a left at the asparagus stand, turn right at the spa and it should be on the left, if I've hit Sugarcube Corner I've gone too far." Unfortunately for my poor mind, repeating such a list of directions had muddled it up into ' turn right onto road into Ponyville, keep waking till I , hang an asparagus at the market, turn left to hit Sugarcube Corner and go too far to the spa.' Opal didn't seem to mind me so much to dislike me but I could tell that all of my dawdling and talking to myself had started to irritate her.

A brown pony with a brown mane and tail was ambling past me looking quite cheerful, he was also wearing quite a dashing pinstriped suit. I noticed that his cutie mark was an hourglass and I shortly wondered what his talent was before a growl from Opal reminded me of my current task. I heard the brown pony say calmly "Ah, Ponyville is quite nice when the Cyberponies aren't trying to assimilate it". Not really thinking about what 'Cyberponies' are, I walked up to the brown pony and politely asked "Excuse me, can you direct me to Carousel Boutique please?"
"Certainly" the brown pony replied, "Just go through the market, at the asparagus stand turn left, turn right at the spa and it should be on the left"
I smiled with gratitude "Thank you…, mister?"
"oh, I'm the Doctor" the brown pony declared
"Well thank you Doctor", I said as I waved goodbye and proceeded to follow his instructions.

Surely enough, thanks to the Doctor's directions I had made it to Carousel Boutique, the dress shop that Rarity owns. I pushed the door open and was amazed at the sheer beauty of the store, there were dresses on pony manikins that looked like they belonged to royalty. I just stood there, jaw hanging in awe of the quality of clothing made by Rarity. I set the basket containing Opal down and she climbed out and started to rub her head against my leg as if to say 'thank you for bringing me home'.
"Ooh a customer!" piped a voice from the back room and Rarity walked from it, stopping when she saw that her 'customer' was me. "Well hello Lightning."
"Hey Rarity, I brought Opalescence for Fluttershy" I said starting to turn to leave. Rarity had noticed and her demeanour changed
"Wait! You can't go yet! I really need your help!" she said, desperation all too apparent in her voice, she came up to me and gave me a the sad puppy dog face that swayed me into helping her.
"Fine, what do you need help with?" I sighed hoping this wouldn't take hours.

I was wrong. It did take hours, or days, or weeks, the amount of time and boredom that had passed felt like an eternity. I Casually looked at the clock hanging above the door and my jaw dropped, 2 HOURS?! It's only been two hours? I had physically lost count of how many suit Rarity had pushed on me to take pictures for her new clothing range, it was all male, with an array of suits, coats and ties. Even though they did look very well made, fashion really wasn't my passion. After trying on a tweed suit with leather patches halfway down the arms along with a bowtie and strangely a fez I had to get out, I also needed to get home, if not, I wouldn't get dinner, plus dad would probably ground me. I walked up to Rarity, who had her back to me searching through a rail of suits, quickly thinking what to say.
"Hey Rarity?" I asked, slightly quietly, Fluttershy must be rubbing off on me.
"Yes Lightning?" she replied without turning around.
"Er, I, kinda, need to get back home now so…" I hadn't though quick enough but Rarity seemed to understand
"Of course you can go, you have helped me a lot with these pictures besides I heard earlier that the pegasi were preparing a thunderstorm later."
"'Kay" I said noting that the storm should be avoided. And walking out of the boutique into heavy downpour. I sighed and started to make my way towards the south road.

After fifteen minutes of trudging through the torrent of rain I noticed that I hadn't even made it out of Ponyville yet. After letting out an "ARGH" of aggravation, an idea struck me, what if I flew? My wings should be okay now, I brought them out and gave them a couple of test flaps, no pain, let's go! I took off and started flying south, oh this was so much easier, instead of walking around all the building I could just fly over them! Within minutes I had reached the edge of Ponyville but unfortunately the storm had gotten heavier. I was about to set off when CRASH of thunder made me jump and shatter my concentration and I fell to earth. Or at least I landed on something, not earth, soft but strong. Looking down I see a familiar cyan coat, Rainbow had caught me.
"What are you doing out here?!" she exclaimed, concern running through her voice.
"Getting home?" I replied in confusion
"Flight camp Rule number four! Never fly alone in lightning storms! It's far too dangerous!" she explained.
"Fine…" I sighed.

We both took off and flew south towards Hoofington in silence, but as we flew the storm seemed to get worse, my ears flattened as a second roll of thunder echoed in my head. Within seconds a bolt of lightning streaked from the clouds right in front of me, barely giving me time to swerve left to avoid it. Something felt wrong, this storm felt… unnatural, other lightning storms didn't have much lightning, but as I flew closer to home, more and more bolts were appearing from the clouds. Rainbow seemed to notice as she gave me a look which read 'this isn't right', I gave her a nod in agreement and focused on the dim lights of Hoofington. After dodging several more bolts we managed to get to Hoofington, I landed round the corner from the house so that dad couldn't see me land. Rainbow landed next to me and I turned to speak to her.
"Thanks for coming with me, see ya around Rainbow." I dismissed.
"Uh, I'm not flying back in this" she said pointing a hoof at the sky.
"Oh, Well I guess you could stay at mine until the storm clears out" I suggested, dreading the conversation with my mother, I've never had any friends no matter girlfriends and I'm sure that no matter what I say my mom will assume that Rainbow is more than a friend. I started walking around the corner onto my street and trudged through the almost boggy road.

As my house came into view, I could not believe what I was seeing, the tree, under which I had spent 14 years of my life, under which I was born, was laying on its side blocking the road, I looked at the base of the tree and saw that where the tree broke was burnt to a crisp, I guessed that it had been hit by lightning. I followed the trunk of the tree and saw that it had fallen through my house. I leapt onto the tree and ran along the trunk to see the damage to my house, it had fallen through the roof and first floor and was resting across the ground floor through the living room and kitchen.

"L-Light?" Something groaned from underneath the tree

Dreading what made that sound, I followed it and almost couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.

My mom and dad were underneath the tree.

Chapter 14: Revelations

Throughout explaining the entire history of my whole life, all the ponies just stood there, captivated by the flow of information being released. Much like the princesses, they didn't speak a word just sat there quietly taking in the information. It was quite amazing. Twilight was sat there staring at me but the activity was will a quill and parchment as she used her magic to make it scribbled down notes, with Spike on her right, peering at the parchment. Applejack sat next to her, looking in my general direction but still avoiding eye contact. Pinkie pie was leaning toward me completely immersed in my tale, if she leant any further forward, she would fall over. Rarity sat on her cushion with an elegant air around her but she was eyeing every single object in the room. Rainbow was sat normally, however she would fidget just a tiny bit, every time I mentioned my parents. Fluttershy sat Closer to Rainbow Dash than Rarity with her hair covering most of her face, but one eye was peering out and looking at me telling my story.

As I reach the end of my story I wonder how many times I'm going to have to repeat it. I trust them enough not to tell it to anypony else but I don't think I can take repeating it any more. in unison 5 of the 7 members of my audience sat normally on their cushions as they start to take in and understand the information they had just absorbed. There was complete silence in the library, probably so quiet that you could hear the books creak with age.

Surprisingly the one to break the silence was Fluttershy, as she got up and drifted over to me and envelope me in a hug.
"I'm really sorry Lightning, but if there's anything you need, or you need help don't be afraid to ask".
I can feel that she's wearing one of her delicate and kind smiles. We don't break from the embrace, just sitting there in a clutch of reassurance, but as we break we're forced back together as other pairs of hooves wrap around us. I look to see that the others had come in for a group hug. As the group hug breaks I see that the ponies had gotten a bit teary while we were hugging.

The mood in the library is amazing, it feels like there is nothing else outside this room. It's almost euphoric, I want this feeling to last forever. As I think this Spike's face puffs up, I dive to the floor hoping to dodge whatever he ejects. He belches and a small amount of green fire erupts from his mouth. But then the fire whirlpools together and POOF! The fire morphs into two scrolls and they drop onto the floor and inch away from my nose. I can feel that every living thing in this room is looking at me in confusion.#

A magical aura collects around the scrolls and the start floating upward and past me I pick myself up and turn to look where the scrolls went. They stopped about a foot away from Twilight's face.
"It’s been a while since Princess Celestia sent me a two-parter letter."
She said as the letters unfurled themselves. She looked at both letters and moved her head back slightly in surprise.
"This one's for you" she said, not even attempting to hide the surprise in her voice as the letter about faced and floated over to me. When it stopped, still floating by Twilight's magic. I read the letter in my head, but I can't help but speak some of the words silently with my mouth.

Dear Lightning,

It has been five days since you left Canterlot and I am writing to see how you are fairing in Ponyville. I have not received any letters from Twilight since your arrival. I hope that the both of you are doing well. While you are performing duties around Ponyville, please do not forget about the elements of friendship, for they can help you in any situation.
Awaiting your reply
Princess Celestia

I finish reading and look around the room and realise that I was completely absorbed by the letter that I shut out my surroundings as Spike was carrying a large stack of books towards Twilight. One large book at the bottom of the pile had large golden letters spelling out "Weather and it's Magic".

"What's up Twilight?" I ask as I make my way over to her, but as I do the other ponies start filing out of the library.
"Princess Celestia wants me to go investigate something" she says as the pile of books rose into the air turned over but stayed together and almost wrestled their way into Twilight's saddlebag. Unfortunately as they do the bag splits apart letting the books and the pieces of leather flop into a big heap on the floor. I start to think how the bag can be repaired before a better idea pops into my head I rush into the side room where my belongings are, I empty my saddlebag's contents onto the clump of blankets left for me and rush into the main library, saddlebag in tow. I plonk it onto the ground next to the heap of books and leather. And tap on Twilight's shoulder, she turns and see's my gesture and returns a smile of gratitude. The saddlebag that Rarity gave me was much bigger that Twilight's as the books easily slide into the pockets, e few more objects whizz into the bag. The bag then starts to rise and then settle on Twilight's back.

"Is Spike going with you?" I ask politely, wondering what it is she's going off to investigate.
"Nope" she replied bluntly, "you are". A saddle bag dropped onto my back and she stepped out of the door into the midday sun. As we walk through Ponyville, everything seemed to be normal, and what felt very strange was that no-one was staring at me. I guess that I was so used to people staring at me that it feels weird when people aren't.

We start walking out of town and just at the outskirts we stop. And Twilight holds out a hoof.
"Please hold onto my hoof as I teleport us to our destination it's easier if we teleport as one object rather than two". I place a hoof on hers and grasped it slightly. Her horn started to glow and a pink bubble of energy started to form around us. When it completed itself the bubble collapsed in on itself and we disappeared. The sensation was very strange, I couldn't feel anything it felt like I was just hanging around in nothingness. The area around us was dark and unlit though I could see objects fly by us. I couldn't feel any air currents nor was my mane reacting to the speed. After several seconds of strange flight the pink bubble returned to envelope us and implode.

My eyes react by the sudden appearance of sunlight shutting them to wait for them to adjust. After they adjusted I looked at my surroundings Twilight was next to me, my hoof still grasping hers. There was a huge tree in front of me lying on the ground. I followed the trunk up to a building that it was lying in. The building looks familiar as I search my brain thinking about what it is. I walk up to the house and see a sign my jaw drops as I see what was on the sign "The stables"
"This… this is… my home… " I turn to Twilight, choking back tears I angrily charge towards her "Why are we here?" I demand.
"We're here because Princess Celestia has thoughts on what happened with the tree. As we all know, natural lightning never strikes the same place twice. So… logically the only way lightning can strike twice in the same place is?" she asks me, raising her eyebrows
"Err… magic?" I guess.
"Yes" she nods.

At this piece of information, something clicks in my mind
"Hang on, this would mean that either I was struck by lightning on purpose or…" I can't bear to finish my own revelation
"Someone could have… murdered your parents" Twilight said cold and decisively.
I lay down on the ground facing away from the ruins of my home and scream out in anger and pain. As I do, large, cold drops of rain spattered my back. And soon turned torrential. I continue to scream in pain. Twilight's hoof rests on my shoulder, but she doesn't say anything. I stand up with an angry look on my face and scream at the rain.
"WHY DOES ALL THIS CRAP HAPPEN TO ME? WHO WOULD DO ALL THIS? AND WHO WOULD KILL MY MOM AND DAD?" my last question I scream louder expecting the rain to answer. I stand there rain splattering in my face.

The silence broken by a crackly, sinister voice.

"Because... it was fun".