//------------------------------// // Down a Peg // Story: PONYVERSE // by TopWanted //------------------------------// Down a Peg ===E8DB When she was sure Pinkie was fast asleep, Rainbow ducked out of their room and into the street. It was certainly late but she needed answers. This place was familiar enough that it could only be her home, but something had gone wrong while she was away. The pegasi and the ground troops were acting erratically and she needed to know why. Was this one of Fluttershy’s plans? She slipped out of the hotel and stayed to the shadows as she skulked through the camp. Taking flight would attract too much attention and seeing the way they greeted her last time, they might just try shooting her out of the sky. She saw a pair of soldiers walking out of a bar and decided to follow them. They seemed to be talking up a storm and she might get some intel. She kept her body close to the shadows and even jumped to the roofs out of sight when possible, she didn’t learn nothing from watching Mare Do-Well and Applejack. “So how long you have till your service is up?” one of the soldiers asked. “Another five months,” the other grumbled in reply. “Eight months for me.” “I am just so sick of being stuck here beneath that damn fortress.” “Tell me about it. And with that Stormbringer around attracting all the clouds it makes me want to go up there and give them a piece of my mind. Cowardly Pegasi.” Rainbow frowned at the comment but something sparked her interest. Stormbringer? What could that mean? A loud boom echoed out above and Rainbow and her tails looked up. Something streaked through the night sky leaving a trail of vaporous clouds in its wake. It was pretty fast so she couldn’t really make out what it was. Then another boom echoed and she saw it. The thing sped up in such a short amount of time that it created a sonic boom. The shockwave seemed to push the clouds around it away but then they seemed to coalesce into an even thicker trail behind the figure. It continued to do this making booms and gathering more and more clouds around it. Odd, thing was though, it didn’t seem interested in the clouds it made. More like it was doing tricks and the clouds just followed and propogated behind it. A pegasi perhaps? But what pegasi was that fast and skilled? It began to rain lightly from the increased amount of rain and the soldiers moaned. “She’s at it again!” “If those Wonderbolts seriously don’t do anything about that hotshot, well, the guys are talking about using the catapult.” The other soldier frowned. “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” The first soldier placed a hoof on the other’s shoulder and grinned viciously. “They gotta learn somehow, right?” For a brief second, Rainbow almost thought she saw the soldier’s eyes flash with some sinister light. The other soldier’s expression turned angry. “Yeah!” Rainbow decided to let them on their way. She had heard enough for now. It was time to get some answers from this Stormbringer. She waited until the spotlights were too focused on the aerial display above and then shot into a dark patch of the sky. Circling the enormous air strip from below she emerged from the other end of Sky Glaive and lighted down on the tarmac. At first she did it because it would probably be too dangerous to fly this late without knowledge from the higher ups. She could be mistaken for an enemy combatant. But there was nopony here either. No guards or watchmares anywhere. Lights were on in some of the barracks and the officers’ quarters so ponies were here but for some reason they just weren’t doing their duty. “Something is seriously wrong here,” she muttered to herself. Another soft boom caught her attention and she spotted the amazingly fast figure of the Stormbringer flying past. It had now begun to rain lightly and it looked like the clouds the Stormbringer attracted were making lightning as well. They seemed to be in a holding pattern right now so this might be the best time to talk to them. She flew up toward the figure and approached as carefully as she could, staying inside the cover of the clouds. She popped her head out of a particularly wet cloud, her uniform getting amazingly drenched, and peeked on the figure standing still in the air. This was the first time they had slowed down enough for her to get a good look and she thought something looked familiar. That golden mane. “Lightning?” Lightning Dust was dressed in a much darker version of the Wonderbolts costume. Not Shadowbolt but some kind of modified version of her old uniform. Electric blue zigzag lines coursed across her body and legs in a pattern like the squares of a finish line flag. She didn’t turn to confront her. “Please, no autographs,” she mumbled. “And I thought I told Spitfire to tell all recruits to stay at least a hundred meters away.” Rainbow emerged from the cloud. “No, Lightning, it’s me!” Lightning’s head perked up and she turned with a frown, but her eyes widened as she saw her. “Rainbow?” Rainbow couldn’t hold her emotions back. She rushed over to her friend and hugged her. Lightning seemed a bit disconcerted by this but inevitably hugged her back. “They searched for so long. Where were you?” Lightning pushed her away and smirked. “Where was I? Where were you? I come back after all this training and they tell me you just went awol!” Rainbow cursed herself for not thinking to leave a note. “I’m really sorry about that. Something… really important came up and some ponies needed me.” Lightning raised a curious eyebrow. “Needed you for what?” Rainbow turned her head down, Pinkie invading her thoughts. “Nothing in the end.” She looked back at her and smiled as she admired the new look. “So, Stormbringer, huh?” Lightning’s face beamed and she rubbed her chest proudly. “I managed to beat your record the day I came back. Blew it out of the park actually.” Rainbow scoffed in a friendly manner. “Yeah, I’ll bet you did.” Lightning didn’t seem to take the humor. “No, seriously. I’m so much faster than you ever were.” There was something about the way she spoke. Resentment? Rainbow frowned slightly. “Hey, I… I didn’t mean to leave like that. Really. Especially without having found you. We were all just led to believe that-” Lightning made a dismissive grunt and waved her off. “I don’t care about that. Getting swept up in that whole business probably helped me out in the end. Gave me some perspective. So what do you say? Wanna have a race?” Rainbow laughed. “A race? Lightning there’s a lot more important things we have to talk about.” What was she saying? The old Rainbow never would have given up this chance to duel a rival that had gotten so good. “For one, what’s with the clouds? And why does the ground troops hate the pegasi up here?” Lightning gave her a disappointed look. “Seriously? That’s what you want to talk about? We just reunite and you want to throw yourself into another goose chase?” Rainbow was beginning to get peeved. “Fluttershy was not a goose chase.” Lightning rolled her eyes. “You still don’t get it. She attacked our home. That makes her a criminal. Even if you found her, brought her back, she would still have to face charges. Not everypony was saved that night.” “I… know that. But Fluttershy is my friend.” “I thought I was your friend!” “You are! That’s why I want to save you both!” Lightning’s eyes widened then hardened in a glare. “I see. Still playing the first wing. Gotta be the main character, don’t you. The hero.” She flew up and poked her in the chest. “Well, I’m not in trouble, Dash! You know what the problem is you insist on seeing? Everything is fine! You know who chased off the Shadowbolts? Me. You know why those dummies down below are so riled up? Because they haven’t seen action in over three months! It’s camp tension! It happens. There’s no plot! No evil scheme! No damsel to save!” She was a hair’s breadth from her now, her angry eyes filling Rainbow’s vision. “Lightning I didn’t mean it like…” “Race me.” The command was succinct and told her all she needed to hear. Lightning was demanding a fight. And by all means she had earned it. Rainbow couldn’t help but remember how she pulled her friend into the events of that night when Fluttershy attacked with the Shadowbolts. Just what had she been up to since then? Maybe this race would help clear up some answers. “Fine.” Lightning smiled and pointed up. Right now they floated in the center of a lightly swirling eye in sea of clouds. The opening from the stratosphere was nearly forty thousand meters above. “Endurance race. First to the top wins.” Rainbow nodded resolutely and set herself next to her old rival. “I won’t hold back, Lightning.” The mare smirked. “Trust me, I know.” They waited for a thin wisp of cloud to pass the top of the hole. Rainbow gave one last look to Lightning seeing the determination in her eyes. She has gotten good. I need to go all out right off the bat. The cloud ended its arc and in an instant the two mares were gone. Two shockwaves exploded outward from where they once were, one a rainbow pattern and the other yellow. They soared higher and higher, the wind pressure and gravity trying to push them back down. Rainbow glanced back and forth at her opponent. Lightning was truly neck and neck with her, their speed almost equal. The hole quickly approached and they exploded from it into the mesosphere. It was a tie. Rainbow was about to slow down to a stop since it had been a draw but Lightning continued to fly up and up, her eyes determined. Rainbow flapped her wings a little harder to keep up. “Lightning! What are you doing?” The mare didn’t seem to pay attention as she seemed to explode with a new vigor. Rainbow could already feel ice crystals beginning to form on her eyelashes as they climbed higher and higher. The mesosphere was falling away and they were quickly approaching the thermosphere. It was getting harder to breathe. “Lightning!” She began to fall behind and Lightning kept on going. This had gone on long enough. Both of them could die if they continued. She stopped and hoped that Lightning would do the same. She was wrong. Lightning continued to rocket into the sky like she was determined to reach orbit. Rainbow was about to yell at her again but the breath was knocked out of her when a wave of water slammed into her back and pushed her up. It took her a moment to sort her thoughts but she realized that it wasn’t water that had hit her but a giant cloud. She had to hold her breath as many clouds surged upward into the mesosphere like a geyser with her riding the spout. Lightning was actually pulling the clouds with her into the sky? That was impossible. Rainbow broke the surface of a cloud and tried to take a deep breath, only realizing that in fact she could. This was impossible too. Shouldn’t there not be enough oxygen this high? She stared up at Lightning’s retreating form and then back down, finally realizing something. She broke a hole in the atmosphere. The livable sky from below had somehow followed her up and into space. A small shockwave issued out from above as Lightning finally stopped. The cloud Rainbow was on slowed to a halt and she sat there in stunned silence gazing out at the billions of stars in the night sky. Down below the planet glistened like a blue jewel. She took a tentative breath and found all the oxygen she needed. Lightning lighted down next to her, a slight look of superior disdain on her face. “I…” The mare looked back to the stars and huffed. “Don’t you dare look down on me again.” --- They flew back down, Rainbow completely silent as she didn’t even seem to dare look at her. Lightning had never felt so superior to her. It felt good. It almost made the unbearable pain worth it. She watched as Rainbow quietly flew away without another word. Deep down she kind of felt sorry for her. But the pain silenced her guilt. When Rainbow was out of earshot Lightning let out the trembling breath she’d been holding. The voices flooded back shouting at her for not trampling on Dash’s ego more. Crushing her fragile state. Even doing more horrible things to her. “Shut up,” she mumbled. She had been living with this power, the dark pool of energy she’d stolen from a dying Shadowbolt. She didn’t know why she could harness the power more than those ponies that attacked on the One Night War could, but she was satisfied. She even made sure not to return to duty until she had mastered it. But steadily, day by day, it was getting harder to control. She gritted her teeth and lifted a trembling hoof to her face focusing on getting it to stop shaking. After a minute or two of intensive will power she made it stop. She took a focusing breath and felt the pain subside for now. It’s not like this is your own power, the voice got in one last line as it faded. Rainbow Dash managed to keep up with you even for that short a time without any help. It wasn’t help, she thought back at it. This is my power. I took it and earned it. You can’t claim this power anymore. It’s mine. She was back in control. “I’ve got to check in with Spitfire. Cloud control is done.” She began to fly back to Sky Glaive, the slight twitching in the back of her head still there but manageable. --- Rainbow opened the door to her and Pinkie’s hotel room. She glanced at the mare who was now tucked pretty tightly under the covers of the one bed. Her white and purple striped super suit lay off to the side in a heap. Honestly, Rainbow wasn’t that far away from doing the same thing. She had never felt so… humbled? No, that wasn’t the word. She couldn’t even put what she was feeling into a sentiment. Lightning was like her. She was good, they both were. That’s why they became fast friends. But the disdain in her eyes, in her voice, it gave Rainbow pause. Had her friend really changed so much. Gotten so much better when she herself had been through so much and changed so little? Her thoughts drifted to Fluttershy once more. ‘You were right about the monster thing! I’ve known it for a while now. The thing is… I don’t know if I want to change.’ Her old friend’s words rang in her ears. She had regretted calling Fluttershy a monster the moment she said it. Lightning didn’t seem all too happy with her words as well. If she confronted her again, would she be going down the same path that led her previous friend astray? Could she even get her words through to Lightning who was now so incredibly above her? She slumped in a cushioned seat and threw her goggles onto the dresser beside it. Pinkie stirred only slightly at this. She let out a long sigh and rubbed her eyes forlornly. “I know you won’t talk to me, Pinkie,” she muttered. “But… I kind of just need to talk to somepony right now.” The mare didn’t respond. “I just feel like every decision I make is the wrong one. Going off to join the Wonderbolts and leaving Fluttershy led to her joining the Shadowbolts. Leaving with you guys led to Lightning overtaking me and I know she’s swept up in whatever is going on here, whether she knows it or not. I was even wrong about Luna when I confronted her in that other world.” She paused but Pinkie didn’t respond with anything as expected. “I want to help my friends. Fluttershy. Lightning… You.” Another pause. “But I’m not smart like Mare Do-Well or Applejack. Heck, you’re probably smarter than me. I just… wish I knew what to do.” She looked at Pinkie as she hid under the covers but still found no response. She gave another sigh and leaned back in her chair perhaps thinking to get some rest. “I should have listened to him.” Rainbow’s ears perked up and she saw Pinkie peeking her eyes out of the bed. They looked disparaged and red from crying. Her mane was a limp mess too. Rainbow frowned. Was she talking about Mr. 4 when he offered them their heart’s desires? “You shouldn’t think like that, Pinkie. Mr. 4 was and is a snake. Whatever he wanted was too big a cost.” Pinkie shook her head. “Not him.” Rainbow cocked her head. “I should have listened to Humdrum. To Spike.” She made eye contact with her and pulled the sheets down to reveal her entire face. “Will you listen to my story?” Rainbow nodded.