In Her Shadow
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Following Rainbow Hair
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This never used to happen. It shouldn’t be happening now. The Washouts had played a kick ass set, they should be soaking in praise! It had been such a great night that Lightning Dust had left the backstage area to hang out at the merch table. Mingle with some fans, sign some autographs, just show she cared.
And yet… Lightning Dust glanced over to the Bitchette merch table. None of the band members were even there, and it was still swarmed with fans while the Washouts table was largely ignored.
Lightning Dust drummed her fingers on the table and looked over at the guy who usually ran the merch table. “Is it always this dead?”
He shrugged. “This is a slow night, but what do you expect when Bitchette played such a great show? They were in peak performance tonight, hard to top that.”
Lightning decided she didn’t want to talk to him after all and turned her attention to straightening their display. Bitchette was in peak performance? Please, Lightning knew The Washouts had blown them away. She didn’t understand why no one else seemed to see it.
But whatever the reason was, no one else did seem to see it. The fans all flocked to buy Bitchette merch, while no one cared about The Washouts. She wasn’t even sure what she was still waiting around for. She should just go backstage where her friends were…
All of a sudden, the crowd started to make more noise and swarm even more towards the Bitchette table. Lightning Dust craned her neck to see what was going on, but all she could see was a mob of people surrounding the table. Something had them all riled up, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
And then she saw. Just a flash of rainbow-colored hair, but that was all she needed to see. Great. Rainbow Dash had shown up, and no one was going to give a shit about Lightning Dust for the rest of the evening.
“Huh, Rainbow’s out,” the roadie said. “That’s pretty cool of her.”
Lightning wanted to point out that she’d been out to personally greet fans all night, but she bit her tongue. She knew it was different when a star as big as Rainbow came out to greet their fans. She knew because that used to include her, back when she played for Bitchette.
“Uhm, excuse me?”
Lightning’s head snapped up. There was a fan who had clearly just come from the Bitchette table since she was holding their debut album, but fuck it! So what if she went to see Bitchette first, she had still come to the Washouts table.
Lightning Dust plastered a grin on her face. “Hey there. Interested in some Washouts merch?”
“Uhm…” the fan shifted in place. She was clearly starstruck, it was amazing. “You’re…”
“Lightning Dust, in the flesh!” Lightning shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Lead singer and bassist of The Washouts, the superior punk band.”
“I was, uhm…” the fan held out the Bitchette CD. “Could you sign this?”
Lightning’s grin fell away a little. She just wanted her to sign a Bitchette album she played on? She didn’t care about The Washouts at all…
But she was still a fan, and Lightning was a professional. “Yeah, sure.” She took the CD from the fan, pulled out the booklet, and signed her name underneath Rainbow Dash’s. That seemed to be where she belonged, after all.
The fan’s face lit up. “Thank you so much! Now if I can just get Lemon Zest and Windfall to sign…”
Lightning shrugged. “Sorry, don’t know what they’re up to right now. Probably meeting fans backstage.”
“Oh, right.”
Swallowing the last of her pride, Lightning motioned to the merch behind her. “But uhh hey, while you’re here, how about you grab something from The Washouts? I could sign that too, and I could probably track down the others to get their signatures.”
“Oh, well, I only brought enough money for one thing… Sorry…”
“Oh, right. Of course. Well, hope you enjoyed the show at least!”
“I… showed up late and only saw Bitchette.” The fan hid behind her CD as if Lightning Dust was going to come after her.
She sighed. This night sucked. “Nah, that’s cool. Just check us out online sometime. We…” she glanced over at where Rainbow was still surrounded by fans. “We have a duet with Rainbow Dash.”
“Oh! I’ll have to look into that!”
Lightning felt anything but cheered by the fan’s newfound enthusiasm. Still, if she could turn her into a true fan through Rainbow, that was worth it, right? “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you.” The fan smiled. “I’ll look up some Washout songs when I get home.”
Although she just wanted to disappear, Lightning forced a grin. “Trust me, it’ll blow that CD out of the water!”
The fan laughed, then waved and walked off. Lightning remembered the days when she was surrounded by fans. Sure, being the bassist meant she never had as many as Rainbow, but she did have her own fans back then.
Now… now she was lucky to get Rainbow’s hand-me-downs. She turned to the roadie. “I’m gonna head backstage.”
“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on things out here.”
Lightning rolled her eyes. “Try not to die of boredom.”
She took one more look at Rainbow and sighed, then walked away. It had been such a good show, but now she was just ready to put the whole thing behind her. Maybe she’d just head back to the hotel, get away from everything.
That was what she would do. Rather than walk backstage, Lightning just walked out of the building, pulling out her phone to order a ride. Not like anyone would care anyway. There was nothing waiting for her here.
Why did a restaurant even need an open mic night anyway? Sure, it was kind of a hole in the wall, but it wasn’t a bar. The owner was an idiot who didn’t realize that without copious amounts of booze, things like this were intolerable.
As always, Lightning Dust tried her best to tune out the schmucks that got on stage to do their karaoke bullshit, or their stupid and unfunny comedy sketches, or worst of all, that one guy who tried to lead the whole restaurant in prayer.
Oh great, this chick brought a guitar. An electric guitar, what an idiot. Electric guitars weren’t usually solo instruments, any decent guitarist should have an acoustic guitar she could bring to something like an open mic night.
Just like everyone else, Lightning tuned this newcomer out. She was introducing herself, but she lacked the stage presence she needed. It was pathetic. And anyway, Lightning had shit to do. She sprayed down the table in front of her and started wiping it down.
A single power chord rang through the restaurant, causing Lightning’s eye to twitch. It was going to be hard to ignore this one. As much as she hated the whiny folk singers bitching about their love lives, at least they were quiet.
The girl on the stage though, no, she was loud. She stole everyone’s attention just because her amp was turned up so damn high. From the chord, she moved to quick strumming, then she stepped up to the microphone, and she sang.
Standing out in front of the sea
I notice everyone move on without me
I’m alone on this raft being left behind
All I’ve got is this guitar, but I will shine
There was something familiar about her… Lightning Dust stopped cleaning to watch her. She definitely stood out, with her blue skin and rainbow-colored hair. She was young, probably a few years younger than Lightning Dust, so maybe she was one of her sister’s friends? Lightning didn’t think it was someone she had gone to school together; this chick was probably still in middle school when Lightning dropped out.
The song wasn’t exactly anything special. It was a by-the-numbers punk song. A safe sort of a song from a novice writer might come up with, hardly breaking new ground. Still, her guitar work was well done, and her voice worked for the genre.
No… it didn’t just work, it worked well. It was raspy, but still melodic. It had the obligatory edge for a punk singer, but it was the kind of voice that could be on the radio. The music she was playing wasn’t anything special, but competent guitar work mixed with a voice like that made Lightning Dust stop to actually listen to her.
Oh, you can not catch me
Oh, you can not stop me
Because I’m too awesome
Hope you like my music, cause I’m gonna rock some
There was potential there. Give it another few years, and this kid might actually be someone worth listening to. Maybe it wouldn’t even take that long if she hooked up with someone who could teach her a thing or two about writing punk music.
She finished the song and posed dramatically with one hand in the air. It occurred to Lightning Dust that while she didn’t seem to have much stage presence at first, she seemed to find herself as she performed. She grinned as the audience clapped, and Lightning Dust found herself clapping too. She might not look twice at this kid in a professional setting, but she was just starting out. What harm could a little encouragement do?
“Thank you, my name’s Rainbow Dash! I don’t have a band right now, but keep an eye out for me!”
Lightning rolled her eyes. How was anyone supposed to do that if she didn’t have a social media account or something? Whoever this Rainbow Dash was, when she walked off the stage and went back to her friends, Lightning Dust knew she’d never see her again.
It was probably just the alcohol. Lightning Dust had definitely had more than her fair share of booze, a reaction to the party being more boring than she expected. No, that wasn’t true, she expected it would be a shit time. Too many kids fresh out of high school, but it was within walking distance to her house and the booze was free, so she’d showed up just to get plastered.
And she wasn’t the only one. Some shitty cover band was playing, if they could be called a proper band with just two members. A guitarist who sang – if that noise from his throat could be called singing – and a drummer who played a variation of the same beat on every fucking song. They sucked, but they were the band, and that meant they were getting drinks all night.
The drummer looked like he could handle his alcohol at least, but the guitarist…
Well, it didn’t come as a surprise when he stumbled and fell to the floor. Lightning Dust scoffed as a few of his friends picked him up and took him home. So lame.
She was going to leave after them, sure that without the music, the party was over. But before she could make it out, she heard a voice speak into the mic, “Anyone mind if I pick things up?”
Maybe it was just because the speaker sounded relatively sober, but Lightning Dust turned to look and see a familiar head of rainbow hair behind the mic. She picked up the singer’s guitar and set it off to the side; it seemed she’d brought her own.
Lightning put her hand on her hip and watched as the girl whose name she couldn’t remember turned to say something to the drummer. They seemed to be agreeing on a song or something, then she started playing. He was quick to join in, and the music was back on. It was a notable improvement.
Still, it wasn’t exactly enjoyable. This girl, she was playing the lead guitar part on the song they were playing. All she had for a rhythm section was some shitty drummer who couldn’t even keep time. It was better, but they weren’t a band.
Lightning knew she should just leave, but for some reason, there was something about the girl that made her want to watch. Her opinion didn’t change. They played through a song, then another, and Lightning Dust knew things weren’t getting better.
Not without help, anyway. It was probably the alcohol that made her do it, but Lightning Dust waited until they were between songs, then stepped up and grabbed the blacked out singer’s guitar. No one said anything as she strapped it on, then Lightning turned to the rainbow-haired girl.
“So what are we playing?”
Waking up with a hangover always sucked, but waking up hungover at someone else’s house? That fucking blew.
Lightning Dust rose, realizing she was in a bed, and did not know whose bed it was. She was still fully clothed, even her socks were still on, so she doubted she’d done anything to be concerned about. She put her head in her hands and groaned, trying to remember the last night.
There’d been a party. It was at that weird dude’s house, the one who bought booze for the eighteen-year-olds because they treated him like he was the coolest fucking guy around when he did. She had gone to mooch off his booze, and then planned on walking home.
This wasn’t his house, and she lived in walking distance, so what the fuck was she doing here? Did… did she get up to play guitar? She remembered doing that. Oh yeah, it was with that rainbow-haired chick. They sounded pretty good, if drunk Lightning was to be trusted.
“Finally awake?” someone said from the doorway.
Lightning turned, and wasn’t really surprised to see a head full of rainbow hair looking back at her. “How much did I drink last night?”
“No idea. Here.” She tossed Lightning a bottle of water, which she drank from greedily. “You were pretty much sloshed when you stepped up to play, then you kept drinking the whole time.”
“Why the fuck did I come to your place though?”
The girl shrugged. “I didn’t think you should be driving.”
“I lived down the street from that dude.”
That one got a laugh out of her. “Really? Well you didn’t remember that last night!”
Lightning fell backwards and pressed the water bottle to her head. “You know, I kinda remember that. Didn’t I try to get you to come hang out at my place?”
“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t know it was down the street. I thought you were trying to drive us there, and I was not getting in a car with you behind the wheel.”
“Yeah, fair.” Little by little, the pieces came back. “We stayed up talking about bands and shit, right?”
“Yeah, then you passed out so I kicked you out into the guest room.”
“Huh. Cool.”
The rainbow-haired girl walked into the room and sat down on the bed. “So I was thinking, we sounded pretty good last night!”
“Sure.”
“You maybe wanna jam for a bit? I have a spare guitar.”
Lightning’s head hurt and she was tired. She didn’t really feel like jamming, honestly. But… she knew this girl had potential. She was going somewhere, and Lightning wanted to see where she wound up when she got there.
So this time, she couldn’t even blame it on the alcohol. She turned to the girl and grinned. “You got a bass?”
When the hell did Lightning Dust learn Rainbow’s name? She couldn’t really remember, but she knew it wasn’t for a while. Things just kinda went from there. A jam session turned into a songwriting session, and then into another, and then they were looking for a drummer, and then Rainbow came up with their band name, and, well… things just happened.
And now Lightning Dust was in a different band, but she still found herself following that rainbow-haired girl around.
‘I guess I got to see where she wound up… Too bad it’s just miles ahead of me.’
There was a knock on her door, so Lightning went to answer it. She was met by Rainbow Dash, who was grinning. “Hey, Dust. Why’d you leave?”
Lightning shrugged and walked into the room, Rainbow following. “I dunno. Just kinda wasn’t feeling it tonight.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. But man! You guys put on such a kickass show tonight!”
Lightning smiled a little. “Thanks, Dash. But Bitchette stole the show anyway.”
“Nah, you blew us out of the water.”
Lightning rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“Hey, I’m serious. What, you don’t believe me?” Rainbow frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Nah, it’s just…” Lightning motioned for Rainbow to follow her to the balcony. She opened a sliding glass door and stepped outside, the wind immediately cutting up as she stepped out of the room.
Rainbow followed her out and stood beside her. “What’s going on, Dust?”
“This view kinda kicks ass, yeah?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Sure.”
“Wouldn’t get a view like this without Bitchette.”
“Dust…”
“No, don’t bullshit me, Dash. Everything we have, we have because of Bitchette. If we did a solo tour, we’d be down at the local roach motel, or even sleeping in the van.”
“We did that too, you know?”
“No shit, I know. I was there, Dash. That first tour was rough.”
Rainbow nodded. “Exactly. You were there. Dust, you were always there, from day one. Before there was ever a Bitchette, you were there. You built this every bit as much as I did.”
Lightning leaned on the railing. “I guess.”
“I know it sucks. You’ve gotta start all over, and we get to keep building momentum. But you know, you’re not here because of us. You’re here because of you. Remember Ringo?”
“I try not to.”
“If he started a new band, you think he’d be on tour with us? Fuck no! You’re not just here because you were in Bitchette, you’re here because you’re still part of our band family.”
Lightning laughed a little, just to cover up any other emotions that might come out. “Well, don’t go fucking soft on me.”
“Nah. I’m just saying, you know, you deserve to be up here. And anyway, The Washouts are gonna have their own headlining tour before long, I’m sure.”
Lightning was quiet for a moment, then she asked. “You really think we outplayed you guys tonight?”
“Totally. Come on, you think I would ever say that if it wasn’t true? When have you ever seen me say someone did better than me?”
Lightning nodded. “Yeah, point taken.”
Rainbow punched Lightning on the shoulder. “Hey, you sure it’s not you going soft?”
“Pfft, yeah right. Don’t forget who taught you everything you know.”
“Okay, mom.” That comment got Lightning to punch Rainbow back. “Anyway, you wanna be alone?”
Lightning’s mouth worked between a frown and something else. She turned to Rainbow and found it curve to a grin instead. ‘What the fuck am I moping around for?’
“Wanna do something cool?”
Rainbow flashed a grin of her own back. “Whatcha got in mind?”
“Let’s grab some guitars and find an open mic night, just make all the patrons shit themselves when they see who shows up.”
Rainbow laughed. “Hell yeah, that’s the Lightning Dust I know! I got mine in my room.”
“Do you fucking sleep with that thing?”
Rainbow laughed. “I like to have it around, just in case.”
Lightning laughed, and she followed Rainbow out of the hotel room. Because really, when it got down to it, there were worse people to follow around.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading! This was written to be a bonus in the eventual print edition of Thicker Than Water, but don't expect that for a long time. It was also written based on a prompt from the writing club in my Discord server, which is open for anyone who wants to join.
The lyrics to Rainbow's song were written by applejackofalltrades 
Who We Become is a story that takes place across two worlds. The human story and the pony story happen concurrently and affect each other, but they can also be read as standalone stories.
In Pieces is the next main entry in the series, taking place in Equestria several months after Thicker Than Water. It’s the next recommended story for those interested in the full series.
The Open Road is the next EqG story. It takes place approximately a year after Thicker Than Water and features Sunset, pony Twilight, and pony Fluttershy going on a road trip in the human world.
The end credits song is "The Friendship Song" by Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers:
