“You did that to yourself”.

Dust is out for blood

Typical Lightning Dust, quick to blame everyone but herself.

“What do you got to say to that, Dash? Huh? Anything to say in your defence?” Lightning Dust taunted the other pegasus, who felt her lungs burn.

It was with great difficulty that the squirming Rainbow Dash managed to utter a pathetic “I’m sorry” in respons.

“You’re sorry? YOU’RE SORRY!?” Lightning Dust was more incensed than appeased by the apollogy. “I lost EVERYTHING that day. While you went on to become a famous star flyer, I had to cope with forever losing out on my one chance to realize my life-long dream. AND YOU’RE SORRY?”

The pressure on Rainbow’s throat increased, as her vision began to darken. She could hear a mild sobbing from Lightning Dust, her words barely piercing through the faint ringing in her ears.

“What other words of wisdom you got for me, huh? What else am I supposed to take away? Tell you all’s forgiven, we can shake hooves and it’s all water under the bridge? Life isn’t some fairy tale, Dash, where everypony just forgives one another and the power of friendship will fix everything. I lost my shot with the Wonderbolts. I’m never getting that back. No matter how many sorries I get from you.” At last, Lightning Dust relaxed the grip on Dash’s throat, allowing her to breathe.

Dash gasped, as her sore throat struggled to bring her back from the brink of consciousness. She was still pinned underneath a very angry Lightning Dust, who was not letting her back up. Not that Dash felt like it. Everything ached. Though Lightning looked just as disheveled, Dash had made a big mistake in chosen fight over flight this time.

“So what now then? What have you got to say? I’m very curious to know what other cliches you have for me. What other excuses are you going to make?” Lightning insisted.

“Nothing.” Dash muttered regretfully, knowing Dust was beyond calming.

“Oh, so that’s it? Nothing but the cold, hard truth that you don’t know, and I’m still straight out of luck then? Well thank Celestia for being frank and earnest with me, Dash! Way to flippin’ go!” Her mocking tone obscured any relief she might have felt.

“Then what is it you want? For me to tell you you weren’t being reckless, endangering visitors to the academy? You want lies?” Dash tried to shout, only for her voice to break in the process, making for a pretty hilarious whine.

“What kind of fool do you take me for, Dash? You think I haven’t come to terms with that already? Yes, I was wrong! I got carried away. I knew that if I wanted to be a Wonderbolt, I had to excell. Stand out from all the other rookies, so I pushed myself and you to the extreme! That damn captain Spitfire and her staff all set such a high bar, I felt we had to go beyond what was recommended to clear it. It’s no excuse, and I know that!” Lightning Dust explained all, sincere regret readable on her face.

“Then why? Why come back after all that time and beat the everloving snot out of me?” Dash was growing just a tad angry that despite her newfound self-awareness, Lightning Dust was still blaming her.

“Because YOU didn’t say ANYTHING!” Lightning Dust spat in her face, quite literally by the spraying of saliva. “You were my wingpony, my right hoof, my closest confidente! You lied to me that everything I did was fine. I could brush your protests aside like air beneath my wings, and you were too much of a chicken to tell me yourself what you really thought of me. It’s exactly that mindset of not rocking the boat that I despise of you, Dash! You… you should have been honest!” Her hardnosed facade was cracking, as the first tears started to well up in her eyes.

“Lightning… I didn’t know.” Rainbow Dash was as confused as she was startled by this revelation, but at least Lightning was no longer trying to kill her.

Instead, Lightning Dust finally released Dash and stepped away, turning her back on the other pegasus.

“The first sign I got that I had screwed up was when you tattled to Spitfire, and I was expelled. No second chances. No amount of regret would get me back into the academy. I’d lost the dream, and had to watch you rise through their ranks from the sideline. Left with nothing but what could have been.” Lightning complained, still not looking back at Dash. “I’m done kicking you butt. Go pick yourself up and leave. Unless you want to have a round 2, which I promise isn’t gonna end well for you.”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to argue for a rematch, as she had been thouroughly wiped the floor with. Dust might have looked as much worse for wear, but she’d already demonstrated that in a fight, they were not equals. Still, she continued to lie there, attempting to puzzle out what she could possibly do or say to make things right.

“Could have been?” Somehow, for as clueless as she knew she could be, there was something in her that stung even worse than a failed career in sports flying.

“Do you really want me to spit it out for you? We weren’t just a team, we were friends. I felt a kindred spirit in you, Dash! Someone just as willing to excell at flying and become a top ‘Bolt! I knew the moment we met, I’d found a soulmate. Dash, I’m…” After hesitating, Dust spun to face her, now crying openly as she yelled out. “I was in LOVE with you, Dash! There, now you know. Lightning Dust is a filly fooler! You happy now?”

The gears in Rainbow Dash’s mind seemed like they were stuck, until moments after that confession, at finally clicked in her mind, and the truth dawned on her. Awkward and uncomfortable as her face, as it contorted into a puzzled expression. “Wha?” was the most coherent comeback she could manage.

“Yeah, go ahead. Just let out that laughter I bet you’re no doubt suppressing. Lightning Dust is a dyke! She said it herself. Why not shout it from the town hall of Ponyville? Go on, don’t bother to hold back your disgust. All you Wonderbolts are just a bunch of jocks anyway.” Lightning raged, letting out a scream of frustration. When Dash refused to do anything she had dared her, she calmed down and felt like elaborating. “I thought maybe, after training, we’d be able to get to know each other. Go flying, hit the clubs, have a cider together, watch the stormball match. Whatever you do with a mare who understands your hobbies and interests.”

“How was I supposed to know?” Rainbow exclaimed, still not able to grasp how she’d managed to atract another mare to her.

“You weren’t, you idiot. That’s why I never said a thing. I wasn’t ready for that. I had to put up with to much “Geeh, that Lightning Dust sure is butch. Betcha she’s a full on lesbo!” while I was in school. I was not going to prove those bonehead bullies right about me. Not in the middle of an academy whose primary outputs are flight athletes and homosexuals.” Lighning Dust’s face contorted in disgust as she uttered the latter. “You think I need that kind of horsefeathers in my life?”

“Dust, I’m… sorry that’s what your impression was. You don’t think I can relate? I’m a bucking pride flag!” Dash gripped a lock of her hair with a hoof. “How do you think that is, going through puberty? I got called all sorts of disgusting things! And a baby colt blue coat? “I bet she’s trans”. Well, I’m not! I’m a mare, a real mare!”

“So you do know how it feels.” Lightning Dust scoffed, kicking a clump of dirt. “And why I wasn’t comfortable coming out to you. You would have felt sickened and hated me, and soon the whole academy would be in on it. That’s what it felt like. Nevermind the possibility you might be just as much of a pervert, with that obvious mane colour and a level of romantic obliviousness only a stallion is capable of.”

“Oh, don’t you start! I am not a guy!” Rainbow was gnashing her teeth. This hurt her worse than the bruises and black eye.

“Guess you weren’t the only one who wasn’t honest in this relationship. I didn’t want to ruin our short friendship just to spit it out. But when you ratted me out and I was expelled anyway, it no longer mattered. I’d lost you, and I never got the chance to tell you how I felt. I’m such a coward!” Dust pounded the wet sand, sending up a clump of mud.

“A pretty big risk taker for a coward.” Dash joked, only for the short moment of mirth to subside at the burning question. “Where does that leave us?”

“I don’t know.” Dust sounded resigned, and out of steam. Finally she turned around, spreading her wings in preparation to fly. “There’s no way we’d be anything but enemies after this. If there was ever a chance you felt the same way, we’ve pretty much screwed it all up. Just like how I screwed up with the Wonderbolts. We can’t undo this. I can’t undo that fact I tried to kill you minutes ago! How can I ever look you in the eyes and see love instead of fear, pain and imminent death? This is over, Dash. Just like my fillyhood hopes and dreams. Just so much as dust in the rain.”

Without giving her a chance to respond, Lightning Dust flew away, into the skies. Leaving behind a sore and saddened Rainbow Dash. She didn’t know what to make of all this. She’d already decided she wasn’t getting the guards involved, even though charges of assault and attempted murder were in order. She wanted to believe it was never too late to change. She didn’t know if she was gay or just broken in a romantic sense. Reciprocating the feeling Lightning Dust had allegedly once felt was an even harder question. But to accept Lightning’s screw-up was permanent? Something you could never set right? She didn’t want to think such a thing was true. Even if it was.

She finally got to her hooves, watching the receding form of Lightning Dust. Unsure wether to hate, or to pity her.

Lightning Dust looks a bit worked up. She needs a Snickers bar.