//------------------------------//
// The mysterious Illness 
// Story: Identity Theft 
// by Ravebrony42 
//------------------------------//

	"A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step." There, I wrote something on this page. Now onto the fic. Special thanks to my editor youngxuseless.
_______________________________________________________________________

Pinkie Pie was bouncing in her seat in the chariot. She had never been to Fillydelphia before, and now she got to go with two of her best friends. "So are you really going to race the Voltic Thunder?" she asked her blue friend who was flying next to the chariot. 
"Only if he accepts my challenge," Rainbow responded. "He's the fastest earth pony in Equestria, and even clocks in slightly faster than some of the Wonderbolts. I didn't know earth ponies could run that fast... except for you, Pinkie." Pinkie cocked her head to the side as if she didn't understand what Rainbow meant by that.
"Some scientists in Canterlot say it could be possible with the proper allocation of magical stimuli," chimed in Twilight from the seat next to Pinkie. "Earth pony magic is used subconsciously to grow plants, commune with animals, and fortify their bodies. But if an earth pony could focus his magic on just one thought prossess he could lighten his body, while strengthening his leg muscles."
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash just looked at Twilight in silence as if she had just spoke in a different language. One the guards pulling the chariot had to nudge the other one to get him to focus on flying again. "He may subconsciously use magic to make himself faster," Twilight stated flatly. 
"Oooh," Pinkie and Rainbow exclaimed in unison. Twilight was happy to have her friends along for this assignment, even if it did put a little extra weight on the pegasi guards pulling them. Twilight was given a mission from her mentor to examine a strange illness that had afflicted a pony in Fillydelphia. The illness was unlike any thing the doctor's had ever seen and assumed it had to be magic related. Rainbow had heard of Twilight's trip and saw this as an opportunity to travel to Fillydephia to challenge the Voltic Thunder.
Pinkie heard of this and asked to come along to provide Rainbow with a cheering section. She seemed to think that Voltic Thunder would have his own cheering section in his hometown. Twilight had no doubt that Pinkie could make enough noise to make up for an entire cheering section. She even had a set of rainbow pom-poms and a tiny skirt. She had brought one for Twilight too.
They soon touched down in Fillydelphia, and Rainbow immediately flew off with Pinkie to find Voltic Thunder. Fillydelpia was only slightly bigger that Ponyville so they figured a celebrity like him wouldn't be hard to find. Twilight immediately took off for the hospital.
Upon arrival she was taken to the patients room. She opened the door and came face to face with a growling timberwolf. "Gaaaaah" Twilight screamed upon seeing the wooden beast. The wolf was growling at her as if she was threatening its pups. She began focusing on a protection spell when a gruff voice rang out. 
"Willow, down!!!" the timber wolf lowered it's ears after being yelled at and moped its way to the corner. Twilight took a second to recompose herself and entered to room. It was a typical hospital room, white, clean, smelled so clean that it was actually distracting. She took quick notice of the stallion in the bed. He was a unicorn with a golden coat and bright red hair. He was in very good shape, and might have been rather handsome if it wasn't for three scars running from the corner of his left eye to his ear. 
"Spear Shaft I presume."	
"You can call me S.S. if you like," the new unicorn said, "or some of the ladies call me The Shaft." An awkward moment of silence passed between to two. "That joke never gets any laughs," S.S. lamented. Twilight grinned at the unicorn's failed joke. "So I assume you're the magic specialist from Canterlot?" he asked.
"Ponyville, actually."
"I didn't know Ponyville had magic specialists"
"They don't besides me," Twilight admitted with a little bit of pride. S.S. looked a little skeptical of the only good magic user from a rural town. She didn't like to play this card, but it would help put his mind at ease."I'm actually the personal prodigy of Princess Celestia."
"Oh," he said amazed, "they sent the Princess's protegee out here just for me?" 
"That's right....The Shaft," Twilight said wryly. S.S. winced slightly at that name. "Now," Twilight said wanting to get to business, "could I please take a look at the infected area?"
S.S. solemnly lifted the hospital sheet to reveal his cutie mark, or rather where his cutie mark should have been. The spot wasn't blank, it was just black. The was clearly the outline of a spear, but it had no color. It was like an impression of were the mark should be; a shadow of a spear. 
Twilight had read about the condition in the letter the princess sent her, But it was still startling. "It's quite a sight isn't it," S.S. remarked. Twilight looked up at the stallion feigning jovialness. 
"So besides the appearance what other side effects have you been experiencing," Twilight asked, wanting to hear it from the patients mouth.
"Well...I can't use my special talent anymore, at all. I can still levitate things, but that's it."
"What exactly is your special talent?"
"I defend Hollow Shades. It's little town out in the forest. Some creatures are kinda violent and I fend them off. I'm..." S.S. trailed off. "I was able to conjure magic spears. But, now I can't even remember how. I can't even remember how to fight off the creatures without my spears."
"That is a very special talent," Twilight remarked, "I kinda thought it had to do with animal taming." Twilight turned to look at the timber-wolf in the room.
"Oh, yeah, I kinda raised Willow when I found some manticores had shredded her parents."
"Oh my, that's awful," Twilight remarked.
"Yeah, but she's a tough girl. She was with me when I blacked out, when I came to she was knocked out. We were returning from a trip into the forest, and it suddenly felt like something had struck me in the back of the head. I awoke in the hospital here in Filly. They don't have one in Hollow Shades. 
"Did you get a good look at who hit you?" Twilight inquired.
"No, I didn't see anything before the pain set in. I'm also not sure it actually hit me."
"What?"	
"I felt a pain in the back of my head, but when I woke up it wasn't sore. The doctors even said I showed no signs of blunt force trauma."
Twilight pondered this for a moment. She was sure she had heard of an incapacitation spell that caused physical pain in the cranium. It was hardly used because there was easier painless ways to knock out a pony, and they were easier to learn and use. The only reason somepony would use that spell is if they wanted to inflict pain to the victim. But, that's assuming this was a unicorn. 
-------

Twilight left the hospital quite perplexed by the whole affair. She had take some fur samples from the blackened area where S.S.'s cutie mark had been. Assuming this was magic, it was a kind Twilight had never heard of. What spell could remove a cutie mark? A cutie mark was precious to a pony, what kind of monster would even make a spell to rob a pony of there identity?
She had just decided to find Rainbow and Pinkie when she heard a scream off in the outskirts of the town. She quickly began galloping off in that direction. She'd heard her scream enough to know when Pinkie was really scared. 
There was a lot to take in when she got to the scene. It was a large field just outside of town. It seemed like the perfect place for a race. However, no race was taking place. Pinkie was tending to an unconscious earth pony. Twilight knew from descriptions that it was Voltic Thunder. He had dark blue fur and an electric yellow mane that seemed to shoot out in every direction, like sparking electricity. 
Off several feet from them Rainbow was angrily stomping on top of a magic force field. In the force field was a lanky golden unicorn with a dark red mane. He was holding his hoof up too his face. Floating in his hoof was a 2-dimensional image of a blue and gold lightning bolt moving horizontally. Twilight didn't need to see the blackened image on Voltic's flank to know it was his cutie mark. The unicorn turned to look at Twilight. He had cold, sharp, eyes that instantly told Twilight, 'this kind of pony would rob a pony of their identity.' Upon seeing Twilight, he smirked.