AN: Excuse the shortness of this chapter, I just wanted this to be the setup for the next upcoming chapters, sorry!
Lightnings mad dash led him to an open field, about thirty minutes away from Sevens' humble abode, and two hours if he weren't running. He probably would've been there quicker if he had just teleported, but that wasn't clear on his mind when he was on the run.
Now, his broken hoof did cause a bit of a hiccup on the way there, but he remained steady in allowing it to heal by himself, he was never one to have everything bad happen to him be solved by magic, but he eventually relented and fixed it a little bit by mending the bone itself. It still hurt, but it was much better than before.
The point he was looking for in particular was a spot which had a but more rays of sunshine than the rest, and– much to Lightnings annoyance and glee– it was an absolutely perfect hiding place on a sunny day, and even then, who would look for a ray of sunshine on a cloudy or rainy day?
Fortunately, for Lightnings sanity, the rays were extremely graceful and let him find them within the ten-minute mark, and with that, his horn lit up.
His eyes squinted in concentration and his horn glowed brighter, and a ringing sound could be heard as his concentration grew, and it was broken at the sound of a rustling near him. He could feel the door close slowly, but shrugged off the sound for a wild animal, and started again.
This time the thing that interrupted his concentration was the Pegasus, and two guards that accompanied him falling in front of him.
The three groaned in pain. Skyler was the first to stand, wobbling a little bit. "And that's why you prepare yourself, at any time." The guards behind him groaned in response, standing up a few seconds after him.
Lightning gazed at the three with a tilted head, wings twitching a little bit. He quickly trotted up to the three, prepared to ask them a question, but was silenced by Skyler shushing him. "There was something in the castle, it took out about a third of the active guards on duty," he said.
"So that's why you wanted me to- wait, something's inside?" Lightning said with a shocked tone, gazing at the doors. "How? Did something manage to get inside without the doors?"
One of his guards shrugged. "We were too busy trying to run after your friend here that we couldn't pay much attention," she explained.
"Too busy," Skyler snorted, "You mean running away from the slightest noise?"
"You were doing the same thing," the other guard said. "I seem to recall you jumping at the slightest noise, or was I just imagining things?"
Skyer turned a slight shade of red at that, grumbling something like, "Let's see who's jumping at your payday."
Lightning shook his head. "Listen, I'm trying to make sure that no one here gets hurt in any way, now, tell me exactly what happened."
Skyler looked at the alicorn and sighed. "We didn't see who or what it was, but I can assure you that when you return, guards will be dead, strewn about like toads after a week's worth of hard rain- remember that? I remember you slipping on one that landed on the steps leading down to the main road that time we left to walk around down here!"
Lightning quickly gave his advisor a smack with a wing. "Alright, C'mon, I can take you to where I'm staying," Lightning said, turning to the two guards accompanying Skyler. "You two, what're your names?"
"You don't need them, sire, we'd do just fine if we weren't on a first name basis," the stallion said.
"I'd suggest otherwise, orders would be easier if our king addressed us by name so we could do specific commands," the other argued.
"But we're merely here to protect him, and we have signals we use to-"
"Just. Give. Me. Your. Names," Lightning grumbled, making both of them stop arguing.
"Thorn, that's my name," the mare said, bowing her head.
"Captain Spear," the stallion grumbled.
Lightning nodded at both of them and spun around to face the fields behind him. "So, somethings compromised the castle, we have nowhere to go, and there's a danger lurking in my castle," he summarized. "Why don't we find a new place to just recover, then we'll return and see what's inside, yes?" Lightning said, the wind blowing in a way that made the scene a lot more dramatic than it actually was.
"That was our plan Lightning, the problem is where do we go, we haven't exactly made ourselves known, the closest we've gotten is that one time you dropped by the castle just to annoy the inhabitants- which by the way was a very dumb idea- but still, we have nowhere to go." Skyler
"Seven might let you in, though that depends if she's on a good mood," Lightning replied, stretching a wing.
"And if we're lucky?" Skyler asked, walking up to stand beside Lightning.
"You'll sleep on a mattress," came the simple reply.
The two ponies behind them let out a groan, but quickly returned to a neutral stance when they were given a glare by their ruler.
With the situation defused, Lightning let the walk back to Sevens abode, whistling to himself as they walked, Skyler joining in after a bit.