The Awesome Tale of Lightning Dash

by PLAYBRONY

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe
Length: 1355

His name is NOT Rainbow Dash. Never again.

Lightning Dash - Star Flier of Manehatten. Everypony knows his name, yet nopony knows where he came from. But seeing an old friend on one of his tour shows may end up changing his life, and opening old wounds...

{Light-Use AU Tag.}
Content warnings for: transphobia, homophobic and transphobic language, and minor violence.

Published 2016-07-14 03:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-07-14 03:00:01 UTC

Before

He flies fast, the wind in his ears all he can hear. It is usually a comforting sound, associated with good times and fun flights - but not now. Not now, accompanied by that yell. He can still hear it - ghostly, carried only by the wind. The scared call of the pony he left behind, yelling out a name he refuses to accept any longer. If she couldn't accept him, then...Then what does he have left here? He loved her, she said she loved him back but, does she even know him at all? Turning him away when he tells her thing, spilling his heart in a way he had never done before...Surely, his other friends wouldn't accept him either. He can't stay here, not now.

So, he flies.

He doesn't stop at his house to collect things, he doesn't stop to say goodbye - he doesn't stop at all. He just flies.

He flies and flies and yet he can never fly high enough, fast enough, to escape that sound in his ears - that horrible name that he tried to hide behind for so long, that he got so used to hearing that he can't stand to hear anymore. But there it is, haunting him even when he's alone.

He lands, eventually, on a set of stone steps. He looks up before collapsing - exhausted, tired - in the doorway. The old castle, deep in the Everfree. He supposed it would...well, it would have to work, for now. He manages to drag himself inside, kick the door shut with the last of his energy and then he lays still. Quiet, still, in pain. He doesn't know how long he lays there, crying alone, yelling with no sound - but when he gets up, the moon is peeking through the window. It taunts him, cold and unknowing of his problems, staring silently down through the ragged curtains. He feels as if it, too, is judging him.

He turns, trudges up the stairs - he knows there's a bed somewhere in these old stone halls, and he might as well sleep on something that isn't the floor.

He decides that night, staring at the mossy cobbled ceiling, that he wouldn't go back. Not to that town, with its smiling faces holding lies of friendship, with its fake friends who accept you if you deffer from the norm - not to that mare, with her beautiful smile and kind eyes, who promised the world but refused to accept the soul that loved her without end.

No.

Never, EVER again, would he return to that place where they would only call him by a dead name.

He falls asleep holding on to that thought, grasping it tightly - for right now, it was all he had.

He develops a plan the next morning, pacing around his impromptu bedroom.He doesn't want to be recognized. He wants to be brand new, a stallion popping out of the mists who nopony will recognize.

He considers the name he has always wanted to use - Rainbow Blitz. It was his dream, really - ever since he had realized his real gender, it was the name that had stuck out to him, that he planned to use when he came out. But since things hadn't gone according to plan...

He decided to scrap the dream-name. It was too recognizable, too...Well, something he would pick. 'Rainbow' had always been his thing, was his brand recognition so to speak, and he couldn't pick another rainbow name.

He thought for awhile longer.

He licked his hoof and drew names into the dust on the wall, trying to see what worked the best.

He stood around, sat down, rolled on the ground - he even fell asleep for a little while. But his name evaded him still, mist on the wind that he was trying to catch.

Eventually, around sunset, he decided.

It was flashy, it still held bits of who he used to be - more than he had been planning, actually - and it just...Fit. It wasn't as good as Rainbow Blitz, but it was...well, it was a close second.

Lightning Dash.

It had a nice ring to it, he thought. Lightning Dash. Memorable, but wouldn't immediately call Rai- The other name, to mind as soon as you heard it.

He wipes his name ideas off the wall, ignoring the dust it coats him with. In much larger letters he writes his new name upon the wall, cementing the occasion.

Lightning Dash grins, sad and excited and nervous and thrilled all at once.

Time for the next stage of his plan.

^^^

The lights were blaring tonight, all focused on a single stage - a large wooden landing platform, with columns at each corner. The columns were covered largely by giant posters, emblazoned with with a pegasus stallion's silhouette in sky blue. The each bore a title - "LIGHTNING DASH'S BIG START-OF-TOUR SHOW!"

There were numerous bleachers, each filled to bursting with ponies of all ages. The crowd was roaring as the star stepped out onto stage - a short but well-muscled stallion, with a spiked blonde mane. He reared up on his hind legs and spread his wings, yelling to the crowd.

"Louder, guys! I can't hear you!" The roar grew immense, everypony standing in their seats and stomping or clapping, yelling and cheering all the while. The blue stallion trotted to the front of the stage, striking a pose once he got there.

He stopped to position his microphone, and the crowd fell nearly silent. "Ladies and gentlecolts, fillies and foals, ponies of Manehattan!" He yelled, his voice booming throughout the grounds. "Welcome to Lightning Dash's Big Start-Of-Tour Show!A s you all are aware, this is my last flight show before I leave for my world tour! So lets make it a great one!" He turned and bucked the microphone of the stage, before running at high speed toward the back of the stage.

The crowd went crazy.

He took off from the ground at high speed, going at a direct upward angle. The show was dazzling - the lights followed him through the air, illuminated to show off the solo act perfectly. He feels excitement like never before - this is his biggest show yet! His loops and twirls and tricks are filled with grace, his body fueled by the crowd. For those several minutes, he is one with the sky - and there's no place he'd rather be.

The show ends in a flurry of fireworks, and he lands with a roll onto the ground. His grin is wide, even as his muscles ache and his sweat-soaked fur drips onto the ground. He gives a short goodbye speech to the crowd, never much one for long public speeches.

Lightning Dash trekked back behind the curtains, exhausted, grin still on his face. He collapsed onto his pull-out bed, intent on resting for a moment before having to go sign autographs. He blinks open one tired eye, glancing over at his calendar on the wall before settling in for a ten-minute nap.
Just twelve days until his show in Canterlot, he thinks as he drifts off. Should go smoothly...

Author's Note

THIS STORY IS GOING TO BE VERY FAST-PACED, AND FILLED WITH TIME-SKIPS AND FLASHBACKS. IF THAT ISN'T YOUR THING, TURN BACK. Flashbacks are marked with ***, time-skips are marked with ^^^.
Also - Rating may go up later.

I was meaning to post this on my normal account but accidentally started writing it on my porn account so. Oh well.

I hope this does't seem too ooc?? Its all just raw emotion, the unfiltered internal dialogue of a very upset pony.

Also - guess who the asshole ex is. ;)

Something else - HOLY FUCK DIDDLY i have so many switching-between-tenses problems. I am so sorry.

**NOTE - Any transphobia in the comments will be DELETED. I will issue no warnings. This stands for all chapters of this story - if you be blatantly transphobic, your comment will be deleted, and you will deserve it.