In her youth Lightning Dust was a bitch to everypony she had known. She thought she was above the rest of them. It wasn't until that day at Wonderbolt training that she got a cold dose of reality. And she still didn't learn her lesson right away. She had to walk away from that with a bruised ego. As far as she was concerned Rainbow Dash was the one that should have been expelled. Rainbow's friends were just in the wrong place at the wrong time Dust thought to herself. She didn't think that anything that bad had happened.
There was a part of her though that knew Rainbow had a point. She had been reckless and nearly gotten somepony killed. Lightning pushed that voice to the back of her mind and decided to just go get drunk at the bar instead of working on fixing her problems. She was so obsessed with getting back at Rainbow that she didn't see the delivery van until she heard the air horn that alerted her to get out of the way. She stumbled backward in the process and landed on her flank.
A grey mailmare asked if she was alright and she told them to get out of her face. She also bluntly stated that she didn't need help from a wallflower. The mare stood there for a moment and stared at the ground before continuing on her mail route. All she could do was look back in disdain and mutter something under her breath.
"Nice to see you to Lightning Dust,"pausing for a moment before muttering,"you bitch."That mare was Derpy Hooves. She hadn't seen LIghtning Dust since their days at Junior flight school. She, as well as Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash used to hang out together. It was also hard for her since had realized that she wasn't into Stallions like most of the other mares there. Something that she got picked on for constantly.
"Your still stuck up i see," she thought to herself. She wanted to haul off and knock her one just for all the pain she had caused her when they were younger. She figured she'd see her again at some point and lay into her then. She had rounds to make. Lightning just stumbled past her without hearing she had said to her.
"Huh," Lightning thought," Why does she look familiar?" Whatever, the mare said to herself as she entered the bar she had ended up in front of. She pushed the door open and found the nearest table and sat down. A waitress approached her and asked her for her order.
"I'll take a Wild Pegasus Whiskey on the rocks, oh and some hay fries if you have any." With that the waitress walked back to the service bar and put in the mare's order. She came back five minutes later with Lightning's order. The fries were just as she remembered from the last time she had been there. It was one of the few places that served ponies like her at this hour. They usually closed soon, but this time it had been extended because of the Wonderbolt races that were being held this week.
"Wonderbolt," she thought," I'd be out there with them if hadn't been for that bitch Rainbow," She took a sip of her beer mug before slipping back into her stupor. She really hated her right now. She hated everything about Dash. Her smugness, her so-called loyalty to her friends. They could have been something great in Dust's eyes. Was this anger, or jealousy and lust that she couldn't have Rainbow Dash all to herself? That she wanted to ravish her in so many ways that it would make the princesses blush a deep crimson.
Too bad Lightning would have some competition in that field. She would have to make sure no pony else could get to Rainbow. The mare didn't realize that Derpy was also after Rainbow's affection. And that she wanted to back at Lightning for she had treated her all the way back in flight school. Her bullheadedness was going to be an obstacle right now. If she wanted any chance with Dash, she'd finally have to admit she was an idiot back at the Wonderbolts Academy and own up to her arrogance back then.
Of course, Lightning Dust thought it was a worthy attribute that any mare would want to see in another. Rainbow Dash didn't. She had just taken a break from dating Twilight and had told her that she just needed to clear her head on something things. They decided to see other ponies until they were both ready to commit to each other. After leaving the bar Lightning Dust decided to stop by Ponyville and at least try and talk to Rainbow. She found herself in town later sitting on a bench with another mare.
One that kept glaring at her for the longest time. It was getting on her nerves so she decided to speak up. That was when it hit her. Wait, she thought, i know her. Lightning looked her up and down and her old habits started to kick in again. She had taunted her becuase she thought that Derpy just needed a good kick in the sides to get her to toughen up. If she only knew what was going through that mare's head right now she'd be running for the hills instead.
Derpy liked Rainbow, a lot. She wished that she been stronger back in those days and just rell Dash how she really felt. She was a bit clumsy though and just internalized her thoughts to the point she was like that twenty four seven and just held it all in. The moment Dust had sat down next to her, she wanted to take her mail bag and slap the mare over the head with it. What was she doing here Derpy thought to herself?
Derpy had come here to talk to Rainbow and ask her out for dinner sometime. Derpy figured that they could at least do something here as friends if Rainbow was already seeing some pony. She had always felt safe around her. Like she was the only one that cared for her.
And the only one that ever showed some interest in her was Rainbow Dash. She had come to Derpy's defense on so many occasions that some of the other fillies and colts started to think that they were dating or something. Derpy actually wanted to ask Rainbow that but refrained after she saw Rainbow tell another mare that she wasn't sure what her interests were to be honest.
On a small patch of cloud lay a rainbow-maned Pegasus. This was Rainbow Dash's usual nap time, but she couldn't help but look below when she heard a familiar voice talking. She snuck the cloud closer to the house that it was overhead of and peaked over the edge.
Rainbow Dash saw two familiar ponies sitting on the same park bench, neither one speaking to the other. She decided to stay quiet lest she was seen eavesdropping on them. A part of her wanted to swoop down and pull the grey pegasus into her hooves. She knew that one had been picked on as a filly for being 'different' when it came to certain standards that were expected from Pegasi.
"Maybe now's a good time to tell Derpy how I really feel,", Rainbow thought to herself as she lay on her small cloud. The more important thing that crossed her mind was how Twilight would feel about all of this. After meeting her the two of them had begun dating. How would she feel if it were revealed that there was another that was after Rainbow Dash's heart.
She kind of didn't want to find out seeing how she'd seen first hoof how unhinged Twilight could get when that mare obsessed over something. She also wondered if her wanting to romance Twilight had come from her exposure to the Want it Need it spell that Twiight had used on her smarty Pants doll over a year ago. Seeing just how out of hoof Twilight had gotten was enough to make her take pause.
The two of them had decided to take it easy and see other ponies for now. Rainbow needed to get something off her chest and that pony that she wanted to discuss it with was now right in front of her sitting on a bench.
In truth, Rainbow Dash never got the chance to tell Derpy that she felt the same way about her. No pony else knew this, but she respected Derpy. If anypony deserved recognition it was her. Derpy used to follow Dash to school when they were fillies. Their houses were next door to each other in Cloudsdale. Not even Dash's Parents knew that she and Derpy were more than just friends.
It was embarrassing for her to admit it, but Derpy was the one that kissed her goodbye when she moved to Ponyville. In fact Derpy didn't know this, but after Derpy had moved there, Dash was the one that suggested Derpy for the Post Office after what happened at Town Hall a few years ago. Rainbow also felt in her heart that it was good way to keep in touch with the mare.
It was almost like Rainbow went out of her way to shield Derpy from most of the Harassment she got in the past. She stopped at that single thought and continued to listen to the two below her.
On a bench outside of a tannish-looking house sat a blonde-maned and grey coated pegasus mare. Most of the town came to know Derpy as the local mail mare that would sometimes make mistakes when it came to her mail deliveries. Most except a certain rainbow-maned pegasus.
Rainbow Dash had never told anypony else that Derpy was one of the few other pegasi from Cloudsdale that was she had been close to. Some had thought that they were dating... But that was just a rumor after all. Derpy sat there for the longest time, her thoughts flying around her mind like a storm of words and thoughts.
There was a time in her life when she used to be able to keep up with Rainbow Dash when it came to the races she used to enter. She couldn't help but smile a bit when she thought of those days. There was another pegasus sitting on the same bench with her. Of course, the other one didn't seem to recognize Derpy at all.
The pegasus in question had been kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy just over five years ago to the day. Even if she did recognize Derpy, it would have been hard for her to saying anything to the mare, given their history.
Goddesses I was such a bitch to her back then, the mare thought.
She had picked on Derpy for not just being wall-eyed back then. She had also singled her out for being, ' Different', as it had been called back then. Derpy never really showed any interest in dating stallions. So Lightning ripped on her for being a les- pony, or so the other pegasi had thought at the time.
No pony ever asked her if she was after it was made evident that Dash kept sticking up for her. More so then she for Fluttershy. She got downright defensive everytime she found out that somepony was targeting Derpy.
The darker it got outside, the more afraid she started to feel. It had only been a few months since something like this had outright affected her at all. All she could do was sit there and recall all the times she had been picked on and teased for the way her eyes had ended up being.
Her eyes hadn't always been that way. Her eyes used to be normal. For the past several years when she was a filly Derpy had entered into nearly every race in Cloudsdale that presented itself.
Cloudsdale
Junior Speedster's Flight School
"Hey Wall Eyes," Lightning Dust shouted," You gonna fly into any more buildings?", Lightning Dust teased the mail mare. Derpy's eyes weren't always this misaligned. There was a time when she could see as straight and narrow as the rest of them. She had been one of the top fliers in her youth. She had even competed against Lightning Dust, Rainbow Dash, and Spitfire in one of the top tier races that were held for young pegasi.
When you had more confidence in yourself.
"Leave me alone,", Derpy looked Lightning in the eyes as she said this. She would have smacked Dust across the face if she had felt like it. She wasn't the kind of pony to do stuff like that, but she could defend herself if it came to it. Derpy really just wanted to go home right now and cry herself to sleep, and preferably into her favorite pillow right now.
"Aww, what's tha matter?,", Lightning was like this all the time, of course so was her alleged coltfriend, Hoops, but that didn't matter right now. Derpy didn't like feeling weak. At least that's what she had been called on multiple occasions by some of the other pegasi fillies as of late.
It wasn't entirely her fault that her eyes were becoming this bad. She had tried to get surgery for it, but it ended up costing too much for her family to afford.
Before Derpy could utter a single word, a cyan colored hoof appeared in front of her, followed by a scruffy rainbow mane. The moment Lightning Dust saw who it was, she backed up a bit. As much as she knew about Rainbow Dash from racing her, she also knew from what her colt friend Hoops had told her that Rainbow Dash also had one hell of a temper.
"Back off Lightning,", Dust could see the anger building in Rainbow's magenta tinted eyes.
"Fine, Crash, I'll leave your " friend" alone for now,", she spat back.
There was a rumor going around Flight Camp that the two of them were dating. A rumor started by Hoops and his friends. They poked fun at how defensive Dash got over Derpy. More defensive then she had gotten over them picking on her friend Fluttershy.
Of Course it was just a rumor.
Right?
Back to the Present.
Lightning finally turned to Derpy and laid into her. She had no idea that Rainbow Dash was above both of them, listening to the whole thing.
"I only did that stuff back then to get you out of your shell, wall eyes.", She didn't bother smiling at that, she could stare at Derpy and wait for a comeback.
"You. You don't have your coltfriend to back you up either, and it's not my fault my eyes are like this. I have an eye condition that I couldn't afford treatment for,", Derpy was still incensed by Dust's earlier comment but she hoped that what she just said would shut the mare up.
It didn't.
"At least your friend isn't here to see what happens next. I can fix those eyes for you if you want,", the way she said that Derpy couldn't tell if she was being a bitch or being sincere. She wouldn't have to worry about it as she heard a voice call out from above them.
"All these years later and you still haven't changed for the better Lightning,", Rainbow let out as she landed on the ground next to the bench.
Lightning Dust looked as if she was gonna explode right then and there. It wasn't that she hadn't changed, it was that she had always felt that Derpy needed tough love, not somepony to constantly shield her from everything that life would throw at her.
"Nice to see you too Crash,", Lightning spat at her. That was about the time that she then found Rainbow's clenched hoof hitting her in the face. What surprised her though was when Spitfire landed next to Dash and smiled at the mare.
Lightning drew her right hoof back when Dash wasn't looking at took a shot at the mare, connecting with Rainbow's left cheek. Before she could collect herself to throw another punch, Spitfire had thrown her hooves around Lightning's neck to restrain her while Dash bolted off to get The Wonderbolt Security division that been recently assigned to Ponyville. When Rainbow came back with them, she bore a look of utter disdain and disappointment that bore into Lightning's mind.
"Guards, hold her,", Spitfire instructed.
As they restrained her, she didn't bother fighting them, she knew right at this moment she had finally been broken. And what Spitfire said next shattered any chance at getting back into the Academy.
"You Just assaulted a captain of the Wonderbolts Lighting Dust."Spitfire gave her an incredulous look as she said that.
As they led Dust away to be put in the local jail, Spitfire walked over to Derpy and hugged her. Rainbow Dash came back over as well. It was like a small reunion if you could call it that.
"It's good to see you Derpy,", Spitfire said as she let go,"I need to get back to the Academy, don't be a stranger alright?", and with that, she headed back towards Cloudsdale.
Derpy had always been awkward when she was younger. Her eyes used to be properly aligned when she was a filly and as she got older they had been more or less the same until junior flight school. She suffered an accident that caused her eyes to become misaligned later in life. She had struggled with a lot of things later on.
Why was this so hard Rainbow thought to herself? She was usually cockier around other mares and her friends. Her recklessness had been toned down in recent years after certain events. During a magic experiment, while helping out Twilight, the two of them were exposed to an alternate reality where the two of them had gotten married after meeting for the first time.
When they got back to their own reality the two mares could only stare at one another and wonder if there was a spark like that between them here. Twilight and Rainbow both decided not to overthink it for right now. They were just friends after all. The next few months would test that notion and push it beyond its breaking point. Especially when it came to a certain mail mare that used to know Rainbow back when they were small fillies.
As Derpy and Rainbow stood next to each other, there was one thing on Rainbow's mind. she couldn't keep denying this any longer. After everyony else, even Spitfire had left and gone back to Cloudsdale, she turned to look into Derpy's eyes.
"This is hard for me to say, Derpy," Rainbow exclaimed," But there's a reason I kept sticking up for you back then, buck, even now,", She could see something in those amber eyes, something that felt familiar.
"What, what is it Dash?", Derpy was curious now, that was when Rainbow Dash leaned in.
"I love you.", she said as she placed her lips on Derpy's.
After the initial shock wore off, Derpy couldn't help but smile. It had taken Dash this long to confess to how she felt about the mare.
Well, here she was in jail again, and still not letting it sink in that striking Dash was not the smartest thing that she should have done. LIghtning had pretty much ended any chance of getting back into the Wonderbolts by this point. She kept telling herself that she was trying to show Derpy the tough love that Dust's parents had shown her all her life. It didn't help that they had died when she was younger and had left the cloud house to her and her siblings.
She smacked herself in the forehead with her left hoof.
"Celestia damn it,", she muttered afterward. It wasn't the first time she been behind bars. The last time she had been here had been just after she had been escorted off of the Academy grounds. Soarin had been one of the Wonderbolts that escorted her off the tarmac, and for a reward Dust smacked him in the face with her left wing.
"Not smart Lightning," he had scolded.
"eat my Cloud trails,", Dust muttered under her breath before she decided to just spit back at him. " Like i need you giving me life choice advice,", she retorted.
"What you need Lightning, is a good hoofslap right up side the head,", she could hear the hostility in his voice.
"Take it from someone that used to date Rainbow Dash, she's better off now then she used to be,", he told Dust while he escorted her to the jail cell.
Soon after she had found herself sitting in a jail cell in Cloudsdale. All she could do was think of how she was gonna get back at Rainbow Dash. And now after all of that time she had still never learned her lesson from back then. It finally started to creep in, maybe she wasn't Wonderbolt material at all.
Maybe she was a failure.
No, Lightning thought to herself, I am not a failure. She knew full well where ' Failures' ended up. And that was not the place she wanted to eventually end up seeing. The one place that frightened not only small pegasi, but even Wonderbolt trainees. A Place that was operated outside of the jurisdiction of the Weather Factory. She had to get her life straightened out soon, or she was bound to keep making the same mistake over and over.
For one of the first times in her life Lightning Dust was going to have to swallow her own stubborn pride and accept the fact that Dash was right. That her actions had endangered the lives of others and that she had put herself over that of her fellow ponies and the other cadets at the Academy. They released her from the cell when she told the guard that she had learned her lesson. He looked her over before deciding she was being honest with him.
It was almost like there was a storm raging inside of her. And in the midst of that storm she could see a singular path. Lightning had to admit to herself that she had to seek comfort in anothers hooves. She had always been a loner for most of her life. She never wanted to feel the pain of being hurt again, so she cut herself off from others. The only other one that she looked after was her brother Sky Stinger. After their parents had passed away, they were left taking care of the house and the finances. She never told him what really happened regarding the Wonderbolts Academy. One of these days she would have to sit his flank down and explain it to him.
She had become a bit of a drunk after that incident. She never really got over it. It was more then just Rainbow being her Wing pony. Dust looked at her reflection in the Jail Cell's window and understood that she was in love with the mare. She wanted Rainbow's flank to herself. Back at the Academy she and Dash were showering together after a few times on the training course and she couldnt get that sight out of her mind. Seeing the water glide off of the mare's wings and her back seemed to turn Lightning Dust on. Before she could say anything the bell rang that signaled it was time for the final exam test. Everything in her life went to Tartarus after that. She could barely hold down a normal job.
She was constantly getting into fights with other ponies and still in the back of her mind, was that scene in the Locker room. And the one mare that seemed so far out of her reach that it nearly drove her nuts just recalling it. She had to tell Rainbow how she really left. She didnt care if it damaged what anypony else thought of her.