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From the image CRISIS: Rainbow Dash, by StarlightSpark.

***

Rainbow Dash could taste the lightning on her tongue. That was the thing about controlling lightning: it got everywhere. You could kick a cloud and get a little jolt in your feet and up your legs. Hell, the Wonderbolts let it trail along behind them during some of their performances. But when you were controlling it, really taking it by the reins and making it yours, lightning flooded your entire being. There was no better feeling to Rainbow Dash. Not pulling off a wicked trick, not a kiss from a long-time crush - even the Sonic Rainboom (old hat now for Equestria's Number One trick-pony) was second-best to lightning.

Snow flakes were whipping through the air around her. Rainbow could feel the cold biting at her wings as she dropped.

Winter was the best time to try for lightning. Something about the cold made the electricity flow better, made it more squishable, or something. Rainbow had tried to explain it to Twilight, but the egghead'd lost herself in a book trying to figure out what Rainbow meant. The pegasus laughed to herself, sparks dancing across her teeth. Twilight meant well, but books were no help up here.

Flaring her wings wide, Rainbow pulled up out of the dive and soared back into the clouds. Darkness pressed in on every side, the clouds angry and bursting with frost and electric force. Above the storm now, she looked over the rippling waves of black and grey, and grinned. She'd built up an intense negative charge on several passes through the storm, and now it was time for the finishing move. Rainbow pointed her hooves, tucked her wings in, and fell.

Gravity caught her almost immediately and her organs gave up trying to stay inside her. She loved the thrill of falling, of knowing that there was nothing between herself and certain death but her own two wings. Clouds burst around her as she plummeted into the storm. Her mane and tail were crackling behind her, and she knew just what to do. She spread her wings and legs, letting as much of her body touch the sky as she could. Electricity flowed into her like water into an empty glass, filling every part of her completely. It was pulsing in her hooves, pounding in her eyes, dancing between her feathers and then back to her tail. No more waiting. No more preparing.

A cyan streak in the sky, the mare fell again, this time clear of the cloud layer and towards the ground. Almost there, she thought. Wind streamed over her, coat bristling with static. Almost there!

She hit halfway between the ground and the storm and flung her wings out wide, bringing herself to a complete halt. The charge, built up to impossible levels, now had a place to go. Several bolts coursed out of her and fled towards the ground, sending up huge plumes of dirt where they struck the empty field. Another arced across the sky to strike a tree, which burst very suddenly into flame. Still more went back up into the clouds, disappearing with a roar of thunder into the place that birthed them.

And all at once, it was over. Rainbow, her ears deaf and rose-colored eyes blind, corkscrewed down to earth, wings catching random gusts and twisting her body here and there. Fear tried to creep up out of her gut, which had suddenly decided it was inside her after all, but Rainbow squashed it. This was all part of the trick. In a moment, her vision cleared and she landed crazily (but safely) on the ground. She sunk down into the ground and let the snowflakes land on her back. There wasn't a single part of her that didn't ache, that didn't cry for the warmth of a blanket and the softness of her cloud bed, but Rainbow didn't move. It was a hard thing, controlling lightning. It needed a certain finesse, and willingness to risk everything, to throw yourself on the mercy of the storm. It took a lot out of you.

In a minute, she would get up and walk back into town, find Twilight, or Pinkie Pie, or even Rarity, and spend the night there. She'd tell them all about this tomorrow. Pinkie'd probably throw a party for her. But for now, she let the wind and fury of the storm wash over her.