Chapter 33
Rainbow and Blaze looked at each other in shock. "Your Starbolt?" Blaze asked? "The real Starbolt?"
She nodded her head. "I am the real Starbolt. Not some wretched changeling." she said. "I heard an explosion a few hours ago...Where's Rook? Is he alright? How's my Rocky?" she asked shakily.
Blaze lowered his head and walked to the chair that stood next to Starbolt. "Rook...Rook didn't make it. The explosion..." Blaze couldn't finish the sentence. Starbolt stared at him with unblinking eyes. Blaze took her hooves in his and held them. "I'm so sorry." Rainbow walked over and kneeled next to Starbolt.
"He was a great soldier. And a great pony. In the explosion that killed him, he saved the lives of two other soldiers. They are young and have their whole lives ahead of them." Rainbow said. She told her everything that had happened to the army. She spoke of all the things that Rook had done. "He has done so much for this army. I am proud to have served next to him in the time I knew him."
Starbolt looked at them both with teary eyes. "He thought I was dead...I was too. Did he tell you? About how I died?" she asked.
"Yes. It's the reason he stayed in the army. To avenge your death. He received a letter from you a few weeks after you died." Blaze said. "Star...I don't want to pry...but how are you alive now? He said you were stabbed through the heart..."
Starbolt nodded her head. "May I ask what your names are?"
"I'm Blaze, and this is Rainbow Dash." Blaze answered.
Starbolt nodded her head again. "I was stabbed in the heart. Chrysalis pierced it. But there was another pony there. In the background. North Light. He brought me to his house and with help from a friend of his, a unicorn, was able to bring me back with an ancient spell. The spell involved rekindling my remaining life force. When we die, our life force clings to our bodies for a short time. It killed the Unicorn, but North saw what happened to Rook. I don't know much about the Unicorn. All North said about him was that he was old and that his last wish was to help some other pony." Starbolt said. She pulled a folder out from underneath her cloak.
"I came here, hoping that the army would make it this far. I've been here for a long time waiting. North came with me and we were taken prisoner. North had a little anger problem. He saw all the ponies here that were tortured and beaten. He almost lost it. He would've died had it not been for his amazing artwork. He started drawing portraits of the ponies. Not only did this keep him calm, but it worked as a way of keeping track with a few of the ponies here. After the riot that took place here, most of his drawings were destroyed. He died in the riot. North was struck by a stray bolt." She handed Blaze the folder as she explained.
"This contains some of his drawings that I was able to salvage. He had a great way of making them seem less dark." Starbolt said. Blaze took the drawings out and looked at them.
"Wait. Starbolt, I had a friend who was a Unicorn. She was the best user of magic in all Equestria. She couldn't even do that. There's more to it..." Rainbow said. Starbolt looked at her.
"Ok. I may have exaggerated the fact about me being the real Starbolt. I'm...part of a cloning project. The Leasath were trying to find ways to increase their numbers very quickly. They had all the components perfectly arranged. They just needed a test subject. I don't know why they chose me. It may have been to see if they could recreate personal memories and make them just as accurate." she explained.
"I wasn't the first one though. It took them many failures before I was created. You see, they took her blood and some cells and started to recreate them. The first nine were failures. They were either too unstable or not smart enough to handle basic functions." she said. She moved the left side of her cloak revealing stitches with a glowing red hue where her heart should be. "They started putting in Cyber-genetic parts into the clones. They found out that they could use one cell with a piece of metal that latched on to that gene. After a few failed attempts, I came along. They found a way to where if you gave the subject blood from the same species that the metal latched on easier."
"So what your saying is that you aren't the real Starbolt and that Chrysalis had you cloned so they could start making a huge army?" Blaze asked. "And how do you know all of this if you are a clone?"
"They made a mistake. They hadn't perfectly separated my memories from what they wanted to keep, and what they wanted to leave out. They had told the previous clone everything. They thought it was the perfect clone. Until it went mad and killed it's creator." she said. "But that doesn't matter now. Iron Will is here to help me with something. Yes, I am a Cyborg and yes I have the knowledge of how to clone a body part, but during the riot, the lab containing all of those instruments were destroyed. I can't help you get a new wing. But I can give you a mechanical one. It won't be pleasant, but it'll help you fly." she said to Blaze.
He looked at her, unconvinced. "How do I know that you can get me a wing that will let me fly? How do we know that it'll work?" Blaze asked.
Starbolt sighed. She pulled her hood back, revealing her horn. The bottom half was a horn, but the top of it was a bright metal that gleamed in the light of the room. "They tried to see if they could harness magic in a metal for their injured soldiers. They got it right on their first attempt with me. I can use magic just as well now as I could before." she said. She made the folder levitate in the air in front of Blaze. "That's your proof." she said as she ended the spell and pulled her hood back up.
Blaze lowered his head and Rainbow walked next to him. She put a hoof on his shoulder. "You want to go through with it? It could help us win this war." Blaze looked up at her and gave a smile.
"I'll go through with it, but it's not just because of the war. I miss the feel of flying. It's only been a week, but I miss the feel of the wind through my wings and the feeling of weightlessness. And I'll admit it, I want to drop a bomb from a mile in the sky and watch the rubble soar in the sky with me." he said. He looked to Starbolt. "Let's do it."