//------------------------------// // The search // Story: Identity // by Hyper44 //------------------------------// Princess Celestia walked out on her balcony as the night ended. She yawned and looked up at the tower that held the castle’s massive telescope. Luna came flying out of the dark and waived at her before flying in through the opening in the roof of the tower. Celestia waived back and then looked at the horizon. Her horn began to glow as she stood up on two legs. A faint glow appeared over the horizon. It grew brighter and brighter until the top of the glowing orb began to rise. It slowly crept up over the horizon casting bright colors on passing clouds. Soon the entire sun was above the earth. Celestia's horn ceased to glow and she fell back to standing on all forelegs. A puff of green smoke came flying through the air. It stopped next to her and poofed out causing a scroll to appear and fall to the ground next to her feet. She looked down at it and laughed. "Oh Twilight, have you been standing by the window just waiting for the sun to rise?" She levitated the scroll up still smiling. "You haven't been standing there all nigh, have yout?.....Yes, she probably has." She unrolled the scroll and started reading. Her face quickly became confused then concerned. She quickly spun around and raced back inside. Her magic snatched a scroll and quill off an ornamented desk. * * * Twilight was pacing back and forth in her room in front of Spike who was still in bed. He had groggily sent the letter at Twilight insistence and then promptly fell asleep again. He tossed, groaned and mumbled complaints at her hoofs pounding on the wood. "Why would she exclude me from something, something with my own friend?" She asked herself for the hundredth time. Spike suddenly belched and smoke puffed out. Twilight grabbed the letter in her magic before it could even begin to fall. She opened it so fast that she ripped it in two. "Ugggg!" She growled at herself and held the two pieces together and read them. "Twilight what are you talking about?" Princess Celestia's voice rang in her head as she read. "I never sent any guards to bring Lightning Jolt to Canterlot. I never sent any orders for her to come here at all and course I would not exclude you. You are my most valued and trusted student. Not only that she's your friend and I would not demand to separate you from your friends. If I had called for her I would have asked all of you to come along. Twilight now tell exactly what happened." Twilight read it twice to make sure that she understood. How could she have not sent guards but yet they showed up? Her mind couldn’t process it a there was no way she could even consider that Princess Celestia would lie to her. She quickly scribbled the story of the encounter and was shaking Spike awake before she was fully finished. "Aww man! Twilight it's fine, she's not mad at you or anything." He groaned. "No it's not alright Spike. Something is very wrong!" Twilight insisted. "Alright." He relented sitting up and blowing a blast of green fire over the floating letter. "So what's the big deal?" He asked stretching and yawning. "Princess Celestia said she never sent those guards." Twilight explained. "That doesn’t make sense." Spike stared at her with sleepy eyes. "Actually that would make perfect sense." He replied sleepily while staring at her with half closed eyes. "What!?" How would that make perfect sense?" Twilight asked confused. "They weren't really-Oh my gosh! Lightning Jolt is in danger!" He yelped with his sleepy eyes suddenly opening wide and jumped up with all traces of grogginess gone. "Don't you see Twi-" Before he could finish light flashed in the room and Princess Celestia stood in between them. "Twilight I couldn’t read much of that letter since it was scribbled so fast. Now tell me everything from the second you saw those ponies claiming to be guards." "We were walking home from Pinkie Pie's party and they were standing outside my door. They presented me with a scroll stating that you ordered for Lightning Jolt to be brought to Canterlot at once." Twilight started. “It looked legitimate to me.” "Yeah, and they were very rude to. I thought it was just because they were new." Spike added. "They didn't bow or talk with any real respect to a princess and they even tried telling her what to do. They told her she couldn’t send a letter to you until morning and-" "They didn't want her to contact me until this morning?" Celestia asked turning her head to him. "Yeah. They were adamant on it." Spike explained. "Twilight where did they take her?" Celestia asked with a serious and grave tone in her voice. "To the train station. They left on one of the night trains. Now that I think about it that train left going in the wrong direction." Twilight explained with fear creeping into her voice. "Celestia what is going on?" "I'm not sure but it is not good." Celestia replied. "Go gather your friends right now and I want you to ask everypony if they saw anything suspicious or if they saw those guards. Then you, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash search up and down the tracks. Organize as many ponies as you can to help. I'm going back to send every pegasus in the castle to search and have your brother take his most trusted guards and see if anypony was unaccounted for last night. Get going and let's hope that... just go!" She commanded and Twilight had snatched up Spike before racing out the door as fast as she could move. "Go and let's pray that it is not too late." She finished before lighting up her horn. In a flash of light she disappeared. Seconds later she appeared in the middle of Ponyville's train station. Ponies jumped back and gasped before remembering to bow. She ignored them and hurried over to the station's staff who was stooped low. "Forget that." She stated lifting them to their feet with her magic. "Two guards escorting a young pegasus boarded one of the night trains. Which one was it and where was it going?" "To-to Ap-Apploosa. They boarded the last car and-" The senior pony stammered out. "Thank you." Princess Celestia replied and vanished. Moments later she shocked the Apploosan ponies when she suddenly teleported into their train station. * * * Even as the sun rose in the morning the gorge still stayed rather dim. It would not brighten up until the sun had risen higher and it would not be truly bright until the sun was directly over the deep gorge. Lightning Jolt was serval yards back in the cave laying on her stomach and watching through the opening as the dim light shown down. She could not see the beast waiting outside but she could hear it sleeping as each breath came in and out. It had followed their scent back to the cave. Its paws were too big for it to get more than one claw in. After it had made a few tries to get at them and it had laid down near the cave to wait them out. Lightning Jolt was taking the last watch while her friends slept. Ember Light had long since undone the magic binding her wings. They had remained quiet speaking only when necessary so as to not temp the beast any more than it already was. They hoped it would eventually give up and leave. It was not likely but one could hope. Lightning Jolt stretched and flexed her wings making her bones pop. She looked down at the claw marks scored in the ground a yard away that were now illumined in the dim light. "Hmmm maybe a little too close for comfort." She said scooting back a little bit. She turned her head and looked at her friends sleeping on the cave floor. Her two new friends. She had just met them and they had risked their life for her. Valentine had somehow known that something was amiss and came charging in attacking the guards with more confidence than Bolt Bicep probably would have had. And could that mare fight! How did that little thing do it? She was as small as her and looked like the stereotype sweet little pony next door. As for Ember Light, she just couldn’t get over the color of his coat. It was the perfect color for embers and had flecks of sliver and black in it. All across his coat he orange/amber shifted in color so that when he moved it actually created an illusion of glowing coals or flickering flame. He too had come rushing in and dove in after a gawking phase. In flashback she remembered glancing at the look on his face as he stood in the doorway. She had had no ability to find humor in the moment but when she thought back on it now it made her laugh. Her friends stirred at the noise. "Morning has come." She called a softer than normal voice to keep from waking the beast too. As they woke she began to wonder if the world was full of self-sacrificing friends or she just lucky. "Is the monster still out there?" Ember asked sitting up and Lightning Jolt nodded. "That is no monster." Valentine said rolling over and stretching by putting all four legs up in air. "Then what is that?" Ember Light asked jerking a head toward the exit. "Just a beast doing what beasts do." She said rolling back to her feet and getting up. She approached the exit to peer out. "What's it look like?" Ember Light asked. "Come see." She responded. Ember seemed to debate that idea a moment but then finally approached the cave exit. Lightning Jolt couldn’t help but follow as curiosity overcame fear. The three huddled at the cave exit peeking out. The beast lay a short distance away with its sides rising and falling. Whatever it was it looked like a wingless dragon. One that was a little on the small side, for dragons that is. It had a thick muscled body, curved yellow claws and a head without horns. It was a plain dull earth color. "Is it a dragon?" Lightning Jolt asked having never seen one beyond Spike. "I don't know, maybe." Valentine replied with a shrug. "All that matters is getting out of here. Anypony think we can maybe to creep out of here while it's asleep?" She took two soft steps outside. One eye of the beast flicked open and the pupil focused on her. "So it's not asleep, just pretending." She stared at the beast sizing it up. "May have to fight our way out," She said looking back with a grin. "No!" Ember Light and Lightning Jolt yelled grabbing her back legs and dragging her back inside the cave. "I didn't mean by myself." She said shaking them off. "No!" They both exclaimed again when they realized that she meant that they should fight too. She laughed. "I was kidding though in all seriousness we have to find a way out of this predicament. If it is a dragon or something similar it will be some time. Dragons can go a long time without food or sleep. The longer we wait the weaker we will get from hunger and thirst and the dragon thing will be virtually unaffected." "Well we do have some time to think it over rather than rushing in." Ember Light said nervously rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced out at the creature and quickly changed the subject. "What I want to know is what is going on. Why were we fighting royal guards last night?" Valentine shrugged, "I could just sense that that guard was up to something bad so I came to check on Lightning Jolt." She said and turned to their new friend. Lightning Jolt stared back at them a moment then just sat down. "I don't know. All I know is those guards came with some written orders saying that they were to take me to the castle. Orders that stated that they were to take me alone. They said that the princess wanted me brought there to be examined by her royal magic scholars. They told me to meet them at the train station for the night train. After we took off they wanted me to stay in the last car, especially the unicorn. The pegasus guard though, let me leave but instructed me to be back when they neared the gorge. I didn't know or care why, I just wanted to get away from them. Their manner was freaking me out." Lightning Jolt laid down and traced circles in the soil with a hoof. "In the end all I know is two royal guards tried to kill me last night. They tried to kill me with a premeditated plan." Her two new friends stood silently a moment, pondering this. In the chaos of the night before and the focus on just surviving they hadn’t though over the details too much. "To state the obvious there is something very wrong here." Valentine said. "Something that makes no sense. Royal guards would not do that. They do not carry out hits." "But they did, or tried to." Lightning Jolt replied. "Perhaps my past is something that I really don't want to remember." "What?" Ember Light asked. Lightning Jolt looked up at them with a pained expression. "Don't you see? I must have been one awful pony before." "Hey!" Valentine snapped stomping her hoof. "Do not talk like that!" "Lightning Jolt, even if you did some horrible crimes Princess Celestia would not have her guards carry out a hit on you.” Ember Light explained. "She would have brought you to Canterlot for a trial. She does things by order and law. She is fair and hard when she needs to be but still follows laws. She does not do things by emotion. That is what has made her a good ruler all these years. I know you really don't know about her that much having lost your memory but this is not something she would have done." "But it just happened." Lightning Jolt argued. "They tried to kill me. Maybe I was really dangerous in my life before and they didn't want to take a chance." "You?! Some super dangerous pony that Princess Celestia fears?" Valentine asked. She paused and rubbed her temple. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get sarcastic but Lightning Jolt, there is no way your some super dangerous, evil pony that she want's you killed like that. Even the most evil of ponies she will give a fair trial and as powerful as she is you are not threat the she would fear. I don't know what's going on but I know she did not order this." Lightning Jolt listened as she slowly traced circles in the soil. She was not so sure. What she did know is that ponies from the royal guard had just tried to kill her. It was no random act either but a thought out plan. She was certain that is had to do with her past, one she certainly did not want to know now. She wouldn't mind changing her name back to Jane Pony and live hidden out here for the rest of her life. Ember Light laid down in front of Lighting Jolt and lowered his head to look her in the eyes. "Tell us exactly what happened, not the short version starting from the moment they showed up." He said. Valentine laid down next to Ember Light as Lightning Jolt sighed and started into the tale.