The Best Flyer in all of Equestria
Chapter One
I Believe I Can Fly
***
A failure.
A powerful gust of cold night air rushed through Lightning Dust's mane, sending it to a state of severe dishevelment as she flew above the sleeping city of Manehattan, soaring through the thick dark clouds. She'd got used to piercing the clouds easily, without a wince or a grunt, adjusting to the wet and sticky substance. In some way, it had some strange soothing effect on her, just flying like that, without a care in the world.
You're a failure!
The green pegasus winced, shaking her head, trying to get her mind off the recent conversation... if it could ever qualify as a conversation, that is.
"You're a failure!" Silver Dust yelled, stomping his hoof against the ground angrily, glaring at the young mare with those frightening brown eyes of his.
"B-but dad!" Lightning tried to protest, averting her gaze, as she always did while addressing her father.
"Shut your mouth, little miss!" The orange stallion glared at his daughter in disgust. "You were a lead pony! A lead pony - a pride of the Dust familly! And what are you now?" He chuckled, and carried on in a poisonous tone, "A failure. They kicked you out of the Academy! Kicked you out - like some worthless good-for-nothing pegasus you are!" The stallion huffed, trying to catch the green mare's look. "Didn't I train you to be the best of the best?"
Lightning Dust remained quiet, receiving a harsh slap on her cheek.
"Didn't I give you all money could buy so you could practice to actually *achieve** something?!"*
Another slap. She didn't even wince, but replied with stoic silence. Stoicism was one of the traits a Dust should possess. Stoicism. Strength. Determination. Not a single show of weakness. Always aim to be the best. That's what Lightning had been told, day by day, until the guidelines were firmly printed into her subconscious. That's what she believed in. Be the best of the best. Whatever it takes.
Finally, after a few more degrading slaps - not too painful, but humiliating enough - Silver Dust turned away from his daughter, stepping inside the spacious cloud house that had been passed on from generation to generation and preserved cautiously and caringly by the Dust family.
"I'm not expecting you to dinner tonight," he said, holding the door with his big, muscular wing, the wing of a flyer, but never the wing of a father; a wing that could carry tons of weight on its hard, albeit empty, bones, but not a wing that would be used for a loving hug, or a bro-wing.
"But dad!" Lightning Dust exclaimed again in a pathetic attempt to bring her father round. She knew only too well than such attempt had always been, and would always be, in vain.
He didn't reply; he didn't say a word. He just slammed the door shut, leaving her at the doorstep, disheartened and beaten down, to gather her thoughts and decide on her future.
Future. Lightning winced as she thought about the word. Future was something she had never thought about. Being a heir of rich parents, she had never had to care about making ends meet; all that she wanted, she got. All to make her an ultimate flyer, a machine that knew no fear, no pain, no fatigue. All to make her father proud.
And everything was going to be perfect. Of course, she had got accepted to the Academy - was there ever any doubt? She had passed all the tribulations that separated her from her goal; and she had almost achieved her goal. A lead pony - that was basically an invitation to the Wonderbolts' team! All lead ponies became Wonderbolts, sooner or later. But she just had to ruin her life.
Lightning Dust gritted her teeth in irritation, pondering over the recent events. Rainbow Dash. For a moment, she thought she had found a partner, a rival - maybe even a friend! But that cyan mare just had to ruin her perfect career at its very beginning! If it weren't for her, she, Lightning Dust, would have remained the Lead Pony, and soon be promoted from a cadet to a Wonderbolt!
Maybe Dash was envious? But of course she was! Envious of her achievements; envious of her speed; envious of her position. She had planned the incident with her friends, who, to make matters worse, turned out to be the Elements' Bearers. Only that sole fact had made Spitfire throw her out of the Academy, Lightning was sure. If those hadn't been the Elements, the Sergeant surely wouldn't have kicked her out. Surely she would have seen that Lightning was definitely not the type of pony to mess around with!
But what was she to do now? The green mare came to a stop, resting her body on a small, soft cloud. She couldn't just pour out her anger on the world. She needed a goal. Just thinking about the problem never helped, she had learned it through experience; moreover, she wasn't a 'thinking' type of pony, no sir! She was a mare of action, for Celestia's sake!
Lightning straightened her posture, warm determination filling her from the inside, cleansing her mind. She wouldn't put up with the situation. She would make change. She would return to the Academy, whatever the price. Given that she couldn't return home now - not that she wanted to - she knew exactly what to do.
***
"So, you are coming here, at the end of my shift, and telling me that 'you want to come back'?"
Lightning Dust winced before the steely gaze of Spitfire as the sergeant walked around the green mare in circles, probably pondering whether she should waste her time here or just disregard the young pegasus completely and go to sleep.
"Yes, ma'am," Lightning replied firmly, looking at the wall before her, adorned with shiny medals and diplomas, all of them awarded to Spitfire, the best of the Wonderbolts, the irreplaceable leader of the fastest flyers in all of Equestria.
"You failed as a Lead pony," the orange pegasus remarked blandly. "I am just as sure you will fail as a Wing pony." She frowned, circling the bold ex-cadet.
Lightning gulped, a bead of sweat forming upon her forehead. No... She just couldn't leave the Academy like this! She had to stay! She had to stay right here... even if it was for the sole fact that she had no other place to stay in...
"Try me, ma'am," the green mare said with that imperceptible hint of defiance that her voice carried every time she needed it. For now, that was a leap of faith. She could either pull it off or fail completely.
She heard Spitfire chuckle behind her back, followed by a sound of metal clacking against something... wooden? Lightning Dust turned round, only to see the grinning pegasus standing next to an empty metal bucket, a lonely broomstick inside it.
"All right, cadet. Your first task - clean the floors of this building till they shine like Celestia's shiny fla- sun," the sergeant corrected herself, chuckling at the shocked Lightning.
"Ma'am?" She blinked. Surely Spitfire couldn't assign such a... dirty task to her! There must be some kind of mistake here!
"Now!" Spitfire barked, making the green pegasus jump up and grab the bucket in her teeth, galloping away to perform the task.
The orange pegasus laughed and looked at the desk, noticing a Lead pony badge left there by some clumsy cadet, who would certainly get a good shout-at in the morning. The mare approached the desk and took the badge. She sighed, eyeing the golden lightning emblem.
"Some day, Lightning..." She smiled. "Some day..."
