Chapter three
A flaw in the plan
Author notes: FINALLY! My mom has had internet lockdown in my house . anyway I'm not going to babble on how my life is. Here is the new chapter enjoy.
Lightning didn't step out of his house until the sky started to turn orange. He now walked with his hood off but he still wore his cloak hiding his wings. He walked through the town looking at the stores trying to see if he missed anything when he had explored the town in shadows.
"why hello there lightning runner" a voice said from behind him.
Lightning looked behind him seeing rarity carrying bags stuffed full with cloth and other sewing accessories. Her saddlebags seemed to weigh her down.
"rarity, right" lightning asked.
Rarity's face scrunched up as she tried to reposition her saddlebags,"yes,that is me"
Lightning looked around to see if any ponies were watching. There were at least five ponies on the street. "um rarity ...here let me help you" he said taking that saddlebags and dropping them on his cloaked back.
Rarity looked at him,"oh thank you lightning. I have to admit I may have bought too much today"
"it's no problem" he said trying to smile, "come on where is your house"
"its right over there" she said pointing to what seemed to be the edge of a park. There sat a building that looked almost like a cake. Lightning carried rarity's saddlebags to her shop, the heavy bags pushed down on his wings making them extremely sore. As they entered her boutique lightning asked where she wanted the saddlebags.
"over on the desk should be fine dear" she said. He walked over to the desk and slowly set the heavy saddlebags on the desk, hearing it creak under the weight.
"well if that's everything, I'll be off" lightning said trying to head for the door only to be stopped by rarity.
"rubbish" she said, "look at you! Your cloak is so...dull and in need of great repair" her sewing instincts took over her.
"actually rarity I prefer if you don't fix my cloak" lightning said trying to sidestep her.
"but I must!" she protested and tried to remove the cloak from lightning's back. She succeeded in grabbing a corner of his cloak, but the cloak itself stayed tightly tied to his neck.
Lightning let out a sort of gurgling, choking sound as the tied knot pulled against his throat,"agh! R...rarity...stop" he pulled his body to the side yanking the cloak out of rarity's mouth. Lightning fell on his back his cloak falling from his side revealing his wings.
Rarity rubbed her mouth and looked at lightning seeing his wings. She stared at him,"yo...your an alicorn" she slowly asked.
Lightning looked down and saw his wings were indeed exposed to the white unicorn. "I ...I...uh..." he stammered. He quickly got up and covered his wings.
"lightning" rarity said, "why do you hide your wings"
"why" he looked at her with his green eyes, "you want to know why! Okay fine I'll tell you why! As a filly I was always made fun of because I'm an alicorn"
"but.." rarity tried to say.
"you also know something else! Even my own parents denied me as their son because I'm an alicorn! I never had any friends because I'm an ALICORN!" he yelled, "hats why I hide my wings!"
Lightning stormed out of rarity's boutique. "lightning wait" rarity yelled after him.
He ignored her as he stretched out his wings and flew at unbelievable speeds towards the everfree forest. As lightning flew by the town most ponies didn't know it was him as all they could see was a long streak of grey with blue in the middle streak past the town.
Lightning flew through the tree canopy and landed near the edge of the everfree forest edge. He adjusted his cloak to cover his wings again as he walked deeper into the forest. He walked for a bit before he came to a wide clearing in the middle of a ring if trees. In this clearing was a manticore wondering about looking for a meal. The manticore paid no attention to lightning as he walked by only to sit next to the it.
The big beast turned around faced lightning with a curious look.
"ah don't worry you big baby. I ain't going to hurt you" lightning said and offered his hoof to the manticore. The feared beast looked at lightning's extended hoof and slowly shoved its muzzle underneath the hoof asking to be rubbed.
"you know. I don't see why ponies fear you. You are just a big puppy" he said rubbing the manticore. The beast rolling around like a big dog having his belly rubbed. The manticore produced a deep purr as lightning continued to rub its muzzle. Lightning smiled at the the manticore,"big baby" he whispered.
Back in town rarity had ran to twilight. She burst through the library door seeing twilight her face shoved into the contents of a book.
"twilight" rarity said,"its lighting runner he...he's a ..."
Twilight looked up from her book, "a unicorn? I'm pretty sure we all know that rarity" she shoved her snout back into the book.
"no...he's not just a unicorn" rarity said.
Twilight looked back up again, "okay rarity what is he" she asked.
"he's...he's an alicorn" rarity said.
Twilight looked at her confused, "a...a alicorn?...where is he"
"he took off into the everfree forest after I discovered what he was"
Twilight moved to a window,"alright then, we are going after him"
Lightning and the manticore were having a blast. Playing games such as chasing each other and wrestling. The manticore won most if the time to no surprise. But now lightning was sitting under a tree the manticore laying next to him.
"hey" he tapped the beast.
The manticore lifted its head and looked at lightning, "bet you can't beat me to the other side of this clearing" lightning challenged it.
The manticore rose to its feet and got into a starting position as did lightning,"alright on three. One...two...THREE" lightning took off his wings flapping as he flew inches off of the ground. The manticore however remained in the ground a few paces behind lighting.
Lightning slowed down a bit to allow the manticore to catch up, "what the matter big boy? Can't keep up with me" he mocked it. The manticore lunged to the side tackling lightning to the ground. The manticore and lightning rolled on the ground for a few feet until they came to a stop. Lightning laid next the manticore as it muzzled him to rub it again.
"that was dirty" lightning smirked at the beast. He could have sworn that he saw the beast produce a smile.
"hey I found him" a voice ranged out from the sky. Lightning looked up to see rainbow dash hovering there pointing at him.
"come on you better leave" he said to the manticore,"I'll come back some time later"
The manticore got up and looked at lightning with sad eyes. Lightning only smiled and waved after the lumbering beast.
"whoa! It is true" rainbow said flying down to him.
"what do you..." he looked around and saw that his cloak had ripped off when the manticore had tackled him. Without his cloak his pure white coat was exposed as well as his cutie mark.
Twilight ran up with the other ponies behind. She stopped in front of lightning. Lightning ignored twilight and looked at rarity, "you told them" he asked.
Rarity only nodded.
"lightning...you have a lot of explaining" twilight simply put.
Lightning looked straight at twilight with emotionless eyes, "I have nothing to explain twilight sparkles"
"look lightning. Here in ponyville an alicorn usually has royal blood in their veins" twilight said
"and I'm supposed to be honored by that remark? You look twilight! I wasn't born in equestria! I wasn't born in perfect harmony like you were! I was born where an alicorn was the outcast of everypony" lightning said, his temper rising.
"I came to this town for reasons of my own. I didn't come here to get questioned by you or any other pony" he said, "this is why I didn't want friends" as he finished that last sentence his horn began to glow and with a bright flash he was gone.
"what is it he's hiding from us" twilight asked.
"twilight. Maybe y'all are pushin him too much" applejack said, "try to let him settle in and warm up to all of us"
"you are right applejack" twilight said, "I guess I have been a little pushy on him"
The six ponies gathered their wits and walked back to town.
Back in his house lightning was pacing back and forth, "I can't...I can't do it" he slammed his forehead into the wall, "why can't I kill her! No...,no. I have to kill her. I have to. Screw the third step. I'm killing her tonight"
Lightning walked up to his room and retrieved the small device and activated it again. The same spiral of smoke appeared and the figure spoke to lightning.
"ah lightning runner! How goes the mission"
"I'm striking tonight. I need my armor now" lightning laid it before the figure.
"are you sure you don't want to earn their trust first? It will make the assassination easier"
"just send my armor"
"very well. Remember lightning runner. Don't fail" the smoky figure collapsed into a cloud of dark smoke that quickly formed into bits and pieces of armor. The smoky armor soon solidified into real present armor.
The armor floated above the small device but fell when lightning touched it. Lightning then went through the small time period that it took to dress himself in the lightweight armor. The last pieces of the armor were a small curved dagger that attached to his leg and a long barbed sword the was to be slung at his side.
Now dressed in his armor that only produced the lightest clank, lightning wore his helmet with a snout guard, the top smooth, the big armor plate that covered his back was curved perfectly to his body, his breast plate had his cutie mark of a biohazard symbol on but was painted in dark red paint, his hooves covered by steel boots that had no bottom so they won't produce much sound, and the last part was a dark black cloak that concealed the light armor.
Lightning took the dagger and attached it to his front leg, then he took the barbed sword and slung it at his side. He walked down the stairs in his house and was about halfway out the door when rarity walked up with a worried look on her face.
"lightning I just wanted to apologize for twilight being so harsh, she" she stopped mid sentence as her eyes rested onto lightning's armor covered body. To her lightning looked as dark and as evil as nightmare moon in his armor. His expression that of a statue and his stance was firm and seemed as nothing could move him. The only reason rarity didn't run away was because she knew that lightning would never hurt her.
Lightning heard her and flinched, his armor clanking, "rarity! I... I" he quickly started to tear off his armor tossing it back into his house, "it's...I" he continued to stammer.
"lightning runner" she said softly, "I really need to know what's going on"
"I..." he turned around and went back into his house. Rarity followed after him without asking.
When rarity entered his house she saw that the armor he had tossed inside was now gone and she heard lightning talking from upstairs. She walked up to lightning's room and pressed her ear to the door.
"I've decided I won't kill her tonight"
"smart choice lightning" she heard another voice say, "very well contact me when you are truly ready"
With that she heard lightning pick up something and he opened the bedroom door. He saw rarity there.
"how much of that did you hear" he asked surprised that she has been listening.
"I heard you are going to kill some pony" she said worried, "lightning please tell me what's going on"
Lightning looked at the ground and shook his head, "if I tell you, you have to promise me...don't treat me differently"
Rarity nodded slowly, "I promise"
Author notes: I'm going to give some story credit to shiningshadow1965. He helped me and gave some ideas for the plot, sooo I think that deserves some credit and recognition.