"I know it's not fine!" Lightning Jolt yelled from behind the screen. "Don't pretend it's alright! That helps nothing! Just tell me what it is!"
"I don't know!" Twilight replied in frantic voice.
"What is all that?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Is she ok?" Ember Light asked in a quivering voice.
Celestia suddenly stomped a fore hoof on the floor and yelled out in a tone very close to the royal Canterlot voice. "Everypony be silent and allow the doctor to speak! You are frightening Lightning Jolt even more!"
Everypony fell silent and Heart Beat cleared his throat. "Lightning Jolt, you are just fine." He said in a gentle but stern voice. "Now please straighten back up so I can see your x-ray better and I will tell you what all of it is." He waited until Lightning Jolt had gone back to her original position and studied the screen a moment before replying. "The first thing I can tell you is that you is that you were born with incorrectly formed organs and you have had multiple surgeries to correct this."
"What is that on her heart?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "And on her lungs and-"
"Those are implants." The doctor replied and turned back to Lightning Jolt. "Lightning Jolt you told me that your heart seems to have a strange rhythm at times and your lungs can feel a little different when you push yourself. That is because of the implants and the surgery. From the x-ray I can see that both your heart and arteries have been worked on. This kind of work is done when you have narrowing of the arteries. It has been corrected. Your heart was also weak and is partly artificial. I don't know what originally was wrong with your lungs but they have replaced by that of a donor."
"I have the lungs of another pony in me?" Lightning Jolt asked touching a hoof to her chest. That thought creeped her out a little bit.
"Yes you do." He replied. "You must have had a bit of a limp as a child, some trouble in the design in your joints. I won't know quite what unless I was able to see a before x-ray. Your joints in both hips and the bend of you back legs have been replaced by metal ones. There is evidence of surgery on your digestive track as well. To make a long story short you for reason of genetic disease your internal insides must never formed quite right. You were probably a weak and sickly child. This was corrected before adulthood, I'd say just before preteen years or just after they began. Started them anyway. You would have had to keep going back for more surgeries since this couldn’t have been done all at once. They also would have had to make adjustments as you grew."
Heat Beat lit up his horn and the x-ray finished humming. "This as well as having the problems while young is what caused your growth to be stunted." He said as Lightning Jolt walked numbly out from behind the x-ray. "The only thing that reached the right size is your wings and I really don't understand with medical science how that happened. You’re actually in amazing shape considering but believe me you are not down and out in life. While you will never be a pony of the Equestrian games you are free to live a normal and even active life."
A sigh of relief escaped her friends.
"That's awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed doing a backflip in the air.
"It is quite a relief." Ember Light commented and sat down on the floor. "I k-knew it would be ok."
"You see, nothing to worry about." Twilight said.
Lightning Jolt had heard what they said but had a hard time taking it to heart, her artificial heart. It felt like way much for her right now. She had known that she was small and not very strong but this? A little deformed was one thing but finding that you were full if implants and had one’s insides cut up and pieced back together was another. She had artificial joints at this young age? She had either implants or work done on her heart, lungs, (Who's lungs were they anyway?) and digestive tract. Was that all the digestive organs or just some? How many organs were left untouched? Was she really fine or just lucky that nothing had happened so far? She wondered looking down at her slightly oval rather than round hoofs. Then she looked back at her small frame with legs too thin for her body. That was common with young pegasus but not adults.
"After what you have been through I couldn’t believe that you were weak with any kind of medical condition that would hold you back." Valentine added. "You out ran a monster in Ghastly Gorge and body slammed a timber wolf. You are one brave and bold pony."
Those words triggered something in Lightning Jolt and she looked back. Yes she had done those things. She was a cloud buster and lightning striker. Her condition had been remedied but she had been about act as if it had not. She tipped her head to look at her cutie mark. She almost heard the thunder clap and saw the flash.
"Like I said those medical conditions have been fixed." Heart Beat said as if echoing her words. "You will never be in the Equestrian Games for your body will not take the daily stressing and extreme over working of muscles that they endure but you are free to run, fly, fly fast and even destroy clouds. You can live as a normal and even active pony."
"You’re right. You’re all right." Lightning Jolt replied. "Rainbow Dash when this is all over I would like for you to continue teaching me to fly better." She spread her wings as if to take off now.
"You've got it." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Though you may want to take it a little easy." Ember Light commented.
"No, I want to pick up right where we left off." Lightning Jolt replied.
"Alright, it is good to know that you’re alright." Celestia said. "Soon we will see about the changelings hiding among the New Wave ponies. This will not be like last time." She stated with a resolute flap of her wings. "Lightning Jolt, Valentine and Ember Light. I want you to go back and stay hidden for the rest of this day and night. If all suspicions are confirmed tomorrow which now I am sure they will be, I will teleport you three back into the castle to keep you safe." She turned to Rainbow Dash and Twilight. "You two go back to Ponyville and gather the others and come straight back here. You don't have the elements of harmony anymore but I still want you by my side. I will explain everything when you get back."
"You've got it." Rainbow Dash said with a salute. "We'll kick those changelings out like we did last time." She punched her hoofs together for emphasis.
"Remember though, make sure that you tell nopony else except your friends and try to make it look as if you’re just coming to visit. Our enemy must not know that we're on to them."
"Don't worry, we will." Twilight replied.
"Good now go."
The two took off down heading for the throne room door.
"It will be faster if we just fly rather than take a train." Twilight said to Rainbow Dash as they ran.
"Well I don't know if it will be faster if you fly." Rainbow Dash said. "Why don't you just wait here and I'll go."
"Hay!" Twilight yelled back.
"It's just the truth and this is kinda urgent." Their voices quickly became muffled as they disappeared down the hall. Celestia turned back to the three ponies left. "Are you ready to go back?"
Valentine shrugged and looked at the others. "Ready as we'll ever be." They nodded.
Celestia turned to the doctor. She had no need to say anything. He walked over to a drawer and pulled out what looked like three small coins. "These have a locator spell on them." Celestia explained. "As long as you have them on your person I don't even have to know where you are to teleport you. This so you do not have to send a letter to me first or incase I have to teleport you quickly. Keep them with you at all times. Things may heat up fast."
They looked up from examining the coin and nodded. It looked different from any normal bit and had a picture of Celestia on one side and Luna on the other.
"I may be seeing you soon." Celestia said as her horn lit up. In the next instant the trio was back in their room within the chapel and all three back in their disguises. They were greeted by the sight of the guard trying to sing Hush Now, Quiet Now to the infant who was staring at him with an, "Who the hay are you?" expression. The guard blushed beet red when they all started laughing. Valentine took the infant and went to give her back to her mother while the guard teleported away and Ember Light headed to his room.
Lightning Jolt lay down on her bed. Even though she was under the illusion of being an earth pony again she still tried to flex her wings just to feel them as she anticipated her next flying lesson with Rainbow Dash. She loved flying and couldn’t wait to bust clouds again, now more than ever. Though she didn't remember it, she knew that she had wasted much opportunity to fly. She was sure that Smog was telling the truth now because of her being such a weak flyer when her remembered life began and also from what they knew now. What had her life been like before? Not flying, did she fly ever? Even a little bit? Did she run? Probably not. If she had not been young she would probably be in a very unhealthy state. She had been afraid to live. Because of the changeling attack she now had opportunity to live again, opportunity for starting new and she was not going back. As strange as it was she was actually glad that a bad thing had happened to her and would not avoid it if she could go back.
* * *
Now alone in the castle Princess Celestia trotted down a hall that led toward one of the towers. The normally subtle princess now walked with an intent stride. Her hoofs echoed down the corridors with each step. Her wings repeatedly flapped or rearranged themselves at the energy boiling inside her. Her shoulders rolled like that of a lion striding towards his opponent. Her eyes were a fierceness that her student had never known.
"This will not be like last time." She said in a low, strong voice that was almost a growl. "You will not hurt my citizens. We shall have the element of surprise this time!"