The Good Old Days

pretty sleepy so i'm gonna smush a lengthy and convoluted headcanon into bullet points

-Despite being a unicorn, Clear Sky has always had a fascination with flying, especially Equestria's most elite aerial acrobatics squad

-As a teenager she became president of her town's Wonderbolts fan club. She entered and won a fundraising contest where the prize was to attend a real life Wonderbolt gala, and sit at a table with legendary hotshot flier Wind Rider. Clear was so excited that she could've walked on clouds herself, despite not being a pegasus

-Clear Sky meets her hero. Wind Rider meets a pretty, naive, and excited young girl. Do you see where I'm going with this. Am I saying Wind capitalized on their differences in age and life experience to manipulate her into certain situations? Yes I am. Would Wind ever admit that? Nope. He'd say he found her sweet and adorable, and was drawn to how young he made him feel. Certainly Clear herself was smitten with him, 100%.

-Clear is 19 when she finds herself pregnant, whoops

-Wind contemplates bailing but is nervous about what would happen to his career if word of this broke out. Also, he's maybe a little hesitant to straight up ditch a young girl and his kid. He does love Clear, and she's completely frightened right now.....so let's get married, why not

-The first few years of marriage are happy. Lightning Dust is adored by both parents. But there's a clear power imbalance in the relationship between Clear and Wind. Wind slowly returns to his globetrotting playboy lifestyle, not home as much as he should be, leaving Clear to deal with lil Lighty, and ignore her growing dread about how her husband winks and grins at other mares. She tries her best to grin and bear it

-She grins and bears it for many years

-until

-she just

-can't.

-anymore. It takes her a long time to pluck up the courage to have a talk with Wind, who says wow, if this really bothered you, why'd it  take you so long to pipe up? Also, what'd you expect? I'm a Wonderbolt, and you're just some nobody from nowhere that got lucky. That baby is your mealticket, so be good and pipe down, little girl.

-Clear is shocked and hurt, nothing Wind has ever done has hurt like that

-She decides to prove him wrong and leave, and show she wasn't using him by refusing to demand alimony or child support. She just wants to go home, she just wants her daughter.

-Wind panics at being the idea of being left alone. He may not be able to force her to stay, but he does have one last pawn he can use

-Turns out Equestrian courts are way more likely to hand custody over to a charming rich superstar than some clearly hysterical girl from nowhere

-Wind takes Lightning so he won't be alone, and he'll have someone that will love him unconditionally, someone to shape in his own image

-Clear is broken

-Then to add insult to injury, she discovers months later that she's pregnant again

-The father can only be Wind

-Maybe this is a good thing. Surely Wind will agree that Lightning should be allowed contact with her new sibling, and that way she can see her daughter again, maybe. In a show of good faith, she names her new foal Wind Sprint

-Unfortunately Wind Rider isn't having any of this. He refuses to believe the foal is his, thinks it's all some last petty trick. He turns Lightning to his side. Lighty was already devastated by her mother leaving, and now she's been made to believe that Clear did it on purpose, that she doesn't love her anymore, that she had a new baby to replace Lighty. Wind allows just one visit, in which Lightning tells her mom that she never wants to see her again.

-Clear has had it. She nabs a lawyer and slaps Wind up the ass for child support and state-mandated visitation

-Predictably, this only further sours Wind's attitude. He does not care about this new little filly and whenever she's over for her stupid visits he just dumps her with an assistant or his new girlfriend of the week, and keeps her pacified with toys and other kiddie bullshit

-Wind Sprint is nonetheless mesmerized by her dad's flying talent and wealth and grows to idolize him. It's a vicious cycle of deifying an abuser, just a gift that keeps on giving

-Lightning meanwhile resents the hell out of her "little sister" and also hates her mom (though really it's less hate and more unbearable pain and wondering why she was abandoned). She pours herself into chasing her dad's affection and becoming a better flier than he ever was. Clear Sky keeps making efforts to bridge the divide with Lightning but is routinely thwarted by Wind or rejected by Lightning. Clear tries her entire life to be a good mother to her daughters but it is so, so difficult, why did she ever enter that stupid contest goddamnit

-And they all lived happily ever after, the end i am very tired