//------------------------------// // Lightning Bolt // Story: Born For Loyalty // by Admiral Q Ponyform //------------------------------// Born for Loyalty By Admiral Q Ryan Danver was in his element. The wind plaster rain on his windshield and the thunder booming nearby. AH, this was the life. He was a stormchaser. He made a good portion of his money recording the seasonal tornadoes that appeared in the middle of the country for various science labs. That was the money reason anyway. Ryan LOVED seeing the wildness of nature, the sheer force of it. And today nature was giving him one heck of a tornado, easily going to be a F5 level. This one also was littered with lighting strikes to. “Gonna get some wicked pictures from this one.” He said to himself as he closed in on the tornado. Minutes later he was guessing at where the tornado would go and he wasn't liking it. It looked like it was going to swing to the road and he'll have to back off. Other people fleeing the area seemed to have also guessed this and were already turning. Sadly people were paying too much attention to the tornado then each other as he saw a crash in front of him. One car was okay, he saw it separate and flee, but the other was clearly totaled. He saw a mother and a couple of kids inside the wrecked vehicle. With a glance at the tornado he knew it was going to hit the car, so he raced over, got out and managed to get to the wrecked car and opened the door. “Lady, the tornado is heading right here. Get you and your children inside my car.” he manage to yell over the thunder. She grabbed one of her kids and took the other by the hand and raced to his car. He did a check to see if there was another kid, but didn't see anything. He started for his car when there was a flash of multicolored light. He felt a burning sensation, before feeling nothing more. * * * * * * Ryan didn't feel so good, he was all tingly and his body felt wrong. The concrete, at least he thought it was concrete, felt so soft and fluffy. With a groan, which did not sound right, he manage to open his eyes. What he saw caused him to pass out (not faint, there is a difference. Don't ask me what it is, just that there is a difference). The last thought through his head was. 'Did I just see a crayon colored horse?' * * * * * * When Ryan woke again he found himself in a strange room. It was a bright white and was painted to look like it was made of clouds. 'Odd for a hospital.' He thought. He observed his room. He did spot some medical equipment but he mainly saw more of the cloud motif. That and it was so brightly colored, sure it was white but never seen white this bright before, except on clouds or old kids cartoon shows. But what got his attention was the feeling of hair moving on his neck when he looked around. His hair was not THAT long. He reached behind him to grab it but he couldn't feel his finger for some reason. Besides that he managed to get the hair in view and that was when he was shocked. Instead of the brown hair he expected, instead he saw......a rainbow? He also saw a cyan colored hoof where his hand should be. He tried to wave his hand around but the hoof mimicked it exactly. Ryan started to hyperventilate. He started looking himself over. His entire body was lying on what looked like a bed made of clouds. But that wasn't his biggest worry right now. His body was covered in cyan fur, his TAIL was rainbow colored like his hair. He had to check one critical area. So he did. His scream was reported to have been heard through half the city. 'He was a horse. A FREAKING cyan colored FEMALE horse with rainbow hair... that would be mane now wouldn't it? Screw that he was a female horse! The door burst open and another crayon colored horse came in. “Well you're awake. Please calm down, you are safe.” Ryan heard it but wasn't paying attention. He just looked at his hooves where his hands should be. “Now honey what's wrong with your hooves?” Ryan felt something touch his shoulder. He looked up to see the horse right in front of him trying to do a smile to comfort him but all he saw was a horse head only a foot away. He scrambled away till he hit the wall. “Now dear it's okay, nopony is going to hurt you.” Ryan was having none of that. For all he knew THEY did this to him. He batted her away. She frowned and tried other means to calm him down. Eventually she sedated him and he fell back into blackness. * * * * * * When Ryan awoke again he could tell it was later with the sunlight going orange, and now he would like to think he was calmer. He was likely struck by lighting during the storm. He should have been either in a hospital back home or dead. Instead he was here as a cyan colored horse with a rainbow mane...and female. How did he get here? How will he get home? Why was he a weird colored horse? He needed answers. Judging from size it seems fate pulled another one on him. If the horse that came in earlier was an adult here it meant he was in a kids body. Great, he was a little girl. He got up and started walking around on the bed trying to get use to this body. He was going to have it till he found a way home. He couldn't even tell these creatures the truth either. Would you believe a kid that claimed to be a horse from another world? I think not. He'd have to figure this out on his own. He tripped and fell a couple of times but he soon got a rhythm going. He noticed a clipboard with a paper next to the bed. Walking up to it he began to read aloud, might as well get use to the voice. “Patient 11-20, Tribe: Pegasus.” Ryan looked behind him and noticed the wings on his sides. He tried moving them around a bit but all he got was some twitching. 'Have to figure those out later.' He looked back at the board. “Gender: female, Age: unknown, estimate five years old. Just great, I lost 20 years. Condition: good. Hhhhmmmm, not much there.” He started walking back to the middle when the door opened again. He saw a cart with a tray and a drink of water followed by the horse from before. “You're awake again I see, calmer now sweetie?” She asked. Ryan frowned and replied. “Don't call me sweetie.” “Okay, I won't. I brought some diner since you haven't eaten since you got here.” Ryan's stomach growled and he looked at her sheepishly. “I thought as much.” She used her hoof, wait..... her hoof!? Yup, that was a hoof she used to lift the cover off. 'How did she do that?' She then put the tray on her wing and used the wing to bring it to Ryan. He eyed the food. It was a simple sandwich and carrots. He put a fore hoof on top of the sandwich and tried grabbing it. Didn't work, he tried a couple more times before he manage to grab it. He was about to bite before it fell off the hoof. He couldn't help it, it was all too much. Tears started forming. “It's okay dear, you probably still recovering from the shock of that lightning bolt.” That got his attention. “Can you tell me what happened?” “Well there was a strange rainbow colored lightning bolt that struck main street, but it should have be too far away from the weather factory to have formed there. Anyway you were found where it struck and were raced here. You had the typical response to a lighting strike and are otherwise fine. However you had no ID on you so we don't know your name or who your parents are. Could you tell us who your parents are?” Ryan couldn't answer that, it would give more away that he was not one of them. But the lightning bolt story disturbed him. If it was odd for them then maybe they would have no clue to get him home either. “I can't.” he said. “I'm sorry dear. Well can you tell us what you do remember?” “I remember a storm. A family was in trouble. Then there was a flash of light and then I woke up here.” He kept as truthful as he could for it. “Thank you dear.” 'Okay that's getting annoying.' After she left with the tray Ryan decided to look out the window just to see where he was. It was quite a sight. He saw the sun setting, at least that's what it looked like. It's dipping below the horizon but that horizon wasn't ground as he expected. No it was clouds. This is exactly what he saw on planes when he traveled. It's one of the things that got him into the storm chasing, was the views such as these, but this was from no plane. This was from a city. These horses have built a city in the clouds, literally. The building he was in was not stylized after a cloud, it WAS one. They also seemed very Greek based to. He had to admit it, this city was FREAKING awesome! * * * * * * The next few days Ryan saw several of what he now knew as ponies. Many to his surprise were unicorns. What kind of world is this!? Anyway these unicorns did a bunch of magic voodoo, but the frowns they had wasn't good in Ryan's eyes. Since these unicorns seemed to be magic wielders and they couldn't figure out just how the lightning bolt had appeared here. If they can't figure that out then how can he get home? Could he be stuck like this for the rest of his life? Then there was nothing to do in the hospital, he could only stare out the window for so long. “UUGGHH! I'm so bored!” He said and he pushed his body with just his rear legs. That's when the regular nurse showed up with a new pegasus female. “Good morning Rainbow.” Yes he forgot, since he couldn't tell them her name they gave her one. And of course they called him Rainbow after his freaking mane. He also what they called themselves. Heck his usual nurse was called Healing Wings. Seriously they name themselves that? I wonder if a pony was ever named wrong, like naming a pony Melody Harp who couldn't sing or play the harp? “Morning.” Late morning thankfully, Ryan was never much of an early bird. “Well I have some good news and bad news Rainbow. The good news is that you can leave the hospital now. The bad news is we haven't found your parents so you have to go into an orphanage now. My sister Tender Wings runs a nearby orphanage and will be taking care of you.” The other pegasus, green fur and pink mane, seriously? Tender Wings walked up to Ryan. “Hello Rainbow, nice to meet you. You certainly are a cute little filly.” Ryan made a gag face to that. Tender just chuckled at that. “Let's just go Tender Wings.” Ryan said and hopped off the bed. His wings instinctively opened and he glided to the floor. 'That was kind of cool.' Ryan followed them out of the room and Healing Wings escorted them to the door. She waved goodbye to them and Ryan got his first real look at the city. Cloudsdale was set up in layers. He saw a store front 50 feet in the air from his position. He saw pegasi flying in every direction. Some were going to various stores, shops, and likely houses. Ryan had to admit, it was beautiful. And of course all in the Greek style with columns EVERYWHERE. He also saw a stadium in the distance and a massive structure that had rainbows and thunder clouds around it. Was that an amusement park of some kind? After a few minutes, they arrived at a three story building with the sign 'Twilight Ray's Orphanage' above the door. They entered the building and Tender Wings lead them up a grand staircase that covered all three floors, it was a prominent feature of the main room as well as a large desk in front of it. They got up to the third floor and walked down the hallway to a room at the very end. “This is your room Rainbow.” Tender said as she opened the door. Ryan looked in and saw a cloud bed, a dresser, and a desk with a small cloud for a chair. There was also a closet for, he guessed cloths but considering he saw nearly every one of these ponies naked, he didn't think they would have much need for it. Heck it took him a couple of days to get use to the idea. “The bathroom on this floor is in the center as it is for the other floors.” Ryan thanked God that he had a private bathroom at the hospital. It would be embarassing to have an accident here. “The kitchen is on the main floor should you wish something to eat. Breakfast is at eight in the morning, lunch is at noon and dinner at five. School classes are from ten to two.” She then showed him the kitchen and the main dinning hall. The main floor also had a sizable indoor play area while the second floor had the class room. Behind the building was a small play area. Ryan assumed that space was at a premium in a cloud city. That reminded him, if this city's mayor was Lando Clarrissian he was going to laugh so hard. After the tour, which he met a few of the orphans who greeted him warmly, he was led back to his room. “Now Rainbow dinner will be in an hour. If you want you can have it with the others or I can bring something up if you still need time to adjust.” “Nah, I'll go down and get something then and bring it back up.” “Okay, I know this can be hard, but you can talk to any of the carers here, and Guiding Ray's job is to help you deal with loss.” Ryan said nothing as he hopped on the bed. Tender closed the door behind her as Ryan stared out the window. * * * * * * It had been a couple weeks since Ryan had been moved to the orphanage. He was polite to the kids here. They had a rough lot like he did but he didn't get close to them. School was a breeze for the most part. History was the area he really paid attention to. It was fascinating. These ponies practically had to deal with racism much earlier then humans did. Sure there was likely some racists still around but they have no real power. Equestria, as this country was called, seemed like a nice place. Since he breezed through the other classes so well, and rather not sit there and be board, he was free to do what he wanted. He used this free time to head to the library that he was shown days after he arrived at the orphanage. There he looked for any book that could have the means of getting him home. However any that could have a chance needed a unicorn's magic. That was it then. His life as a human was over. He couldn't trust these ponies with the truth, they wouldn't believe him if he tried. Not with a body of a kid. He was very tempted to throw the book he had in his hoof, but denied the temptation. Back in his room he pounded the bed and couldn't help the sobs that followed. He will never see his family or his world again. He was stuck here in a world where he had no friends or family, in a body of a female pegasus with a rainbow colored hair. No one will ever call him Ryan again. He will live and die as Rainbow.