Identity

by Hyper44

Memories

Author's Note:

Please remember no spoilers in the comments.

Baby Bird was flying away from the mountain and towards the New Wave scouts. She had always both loved and hated that name, often one more than the other at times. She was flying fast, (For her) pounding her weak and undertrained wings as hard as she could. Well, not quite exactly as hard as she could. She felt her heart pounding in her chest which always worried her and this made her afraid to push her limits. She did have to admit that she loved being aloft above the earth, though not more than the fear of her heart giving out.

She was flying toward the ponies whom she and Smog had spied on. Something was wrong but it was not wrong as Smog had said. Of course he was wrong. Stupid conspiracy theorist. SHE WOULD SHOW HIM! Just what all was going on she wasn't sure but she was going to find out and she knew it couldn't be anything like he thought. What was wrong with that pony? She looked below and saw him racing on the ground below. It nagged at her mind that she could not fly fast enough to quickly leave him in the dust as any Pegasus usually could but she ignored that. She couldn’t help it, it was because of her heart and other conditions. She could do nothing about it. That stupid stallion had tried to get her to kill herself so many times by encouraging and insisting that she should fly like a normal pegasus. What was wrong with him?

Smog yelled something up at her but she couldn’t hear it. She didn't care to. She had heard enough from that jerk. The numerous arguments that they had been through flashed across her brain and she gritted her teeth. There was just something wrong with him. Did he think that he knew more than everypony else on Cinder's Islands? What did he have against the equality that they had accomplished? What was with his twisted ideas of a different kind of "Real" equality? Why couldn’t he see that the ponies of Cinder Islands were for making everypony equal and had done it? That pony was messed up. And now he was over here chasing imaginary changelings in Equestria? Didn't he know that the Equestrians were the one's responsible for their country being in the state that it was in? Even if there were changelings invading here, they would deserve it. She would show him though. She would prove to him that they were not changelings. That bigot pony probably just hated equality so much that he could not stand it being spread. That had to be his problem.

Up ahead she saw that she was closing in on the ponies and flew with her all a moment before slacking just slightly and putting a hoof over her heart. Smog was getting further in the distance and she could see that the New Wave ponies had spotted her and were gathering up in a circle while putting their horns together. Baby Bird made a bee line for them so glad that she could finally rest her wings and let her heart slow. She shut her eyes momentarily to blink dust out and if she hadn’t her eyes probably would have been seared into complete blindness. In that instant a massive unified blast hit her knocking all the air out of her lungs before she could scream and pain engulfed her entire body. Baby Bird's tiny frame went hurtling over and beyond Smog who was still running desperately. He spun around as she passed overhead and raced after her airborne form.

For Baby Bird the searing white that shown even through her eyelids turned black and she never felt the tree and ledge that her body slammed into. In the next instance the blackness and pain was gone and the impact was soft, or really she felt nothing at all. Baby Bird raised her head and opened her eyes. Remarkably she was in no pain, not in the least. Even her wings did not hurt, nor could she feel her heart pounding from the flight.

What had just happened? She was lying in the field a fair distance from the mountain and Smog was running towards her. Baby Bird grimaced thinking that she was in for another argument and turned her head refusing to answer anything that he was going to say.

To her surprise he ran past her like she was not even there. Confused, Baby Bird watched him continue his charge toward the mountain behind her. So he was going to ignore her then? Baby Bird snorted at his childish behavior and spread her wings. To her surprise she could feel no air push back against them to buoy her up. She stared at them thinking she was just too tired but, no, that wasn’t it. She didn't feel tired at all and that wouldn’t keep the wind from filling her wings. She stared as the grass waiving around her. She could not even feel the wind as it stirred the blades. To her shock she realized that she could not even feel the grass she was laying on. Shaky with fear brought by confusion she stood up. She watched as Smog continued to run with all speed to the mountain and she looked it up and down to see what he was so intent on reaching. There was a spot of color a ways up on the ledge it but she could not tell what it was.

Her heart! She realized turning her attention away from the mountain. Not only was in not pounding from her flight she could not feel the usual throbbing of it at all. She quickly brought a hoof to her chest but before it touched over her heart her other three hoofs left the ground. In the blink of an eye she could see the entire field, an entire town nearby, the top of the mountain and the tiny dot that was Smog racing to it. She flew upwards so fast that she would have thought she would have felt stomach turn but instead, she felt nothing as she was drawn into the air. There was no resisting it, no more than a gnat resisted a hurricane wind. Before she could truly pounder this she passes through clouds and came out the other side with the conclusion, "I'm dreaming."

The sky she was hurtling towards turned dark and full of stars then bright light enveloped her. In the next moment she was surrounded by nothingness but she still felt the sense that she was moving though she could not tell what direction it was. Then a stop came so suddenly that she crashed on her stomach. It didn't hurt, but she felt it.

"Now I'm waking up," She thought. Faint voices reached her ears. She opened her eyes and raised her head. She got the sense that she was at some sort of cross roads. Strangely, even though she could see clearly she couldn't see what lie ahead down either path. It was something that she could only experience, not explain or describe. In one of the directions, even though she couldn't see what lie ahead, whatever she sensed from beyond it drew her towards it. She started to gather her feet beneath herself but suddenly out stepped a huge pony. The sight of her made Baby Bird slide back to the ground. It was a pony both impressive and frightening at the same time. She was both elegant and strong. A moment later she realized that this was not a pony, this was a horse.

Standing on long slender legs the mares' coat was so white that it glowed. Feathery tufts of hair hung around her hooves with not a fleck of dirt on them. Her wings, tail and mane were a golden hue that glittered in the light with each movement. The feathers and wings were so impressive and huge that they would dwarf a princesses' wingspan.

Baby Bird could do nothing but stare at her. The massive horse walked up and nuzzled Baby Bird until she sat up. Baby Bird blinked at her a moment before speaking the only thing she could think of. "What am I doing here?"

"I would ask you the same thing?" The mare replied. "This is not your path and we have tried for so long to get your attention."
Baby Bird just blinked at her not understanding what she meant. The sight of the mare was awesome but also frightening and she just wanted to leave. Instead she looked past the mare and tried to walk around her but the mare stepped forward and barred her way. "It is not your time. You are not ready for judgement and you still have much to do." She said.

Baby Bird looked up at her. "What!? Why can't I go?" She wined even though she had no idea why she wanted to go so badly.

"Eternity is forever and the life before fleeting. Eternity is a very long time to reflect on what you did and did not do in the time before and it is too long to go in unprepared. A snail could crawl around the earth a thousand times and Eternity still would not even have begun." The mare replied then stooped down to look Baby Bird in the eyes. "Because of the actions of your mother you have been taken off the path that you were intended for."

"My mother?" Baby Bird asked scrunching up her nose. "You mean the one who dumped me? Who cares about her and what do you mean off my path?"

"You were to be amazing." She replied. "You were to inspire many as you overcame. You were to be a hero. We sent ponies to tell her this but she was frightened of the hard road ahead and decided to free herself from your care. So she abandoned you before she left for Equestria. You are still needed there and you can still become the amazing pony that you were intended to be but to do that we must make a new Baby Bird now."

"What... I'm amazing way I am." Baby Bird said stomping her hoof in her usual petulant nature. This horse was starting to sound like Smog. When she looked the huge horse in the eyes she couldn’t help but quail slightly.

The mare didn't react with anger. She instead sighed with deep sadness.

"W-why, anyway?" Baby Bird replied in a quieter voice trying to make up for her outburst. "Is it because I can’t fly like other pegasus. Is it because of my body? It can’t be helped. T-that’s just the way it is.” Normally Baby Bird would have been a lot more argumentative but the huge, majestic yet frightening being cooled much of her fire.

“Your physical condition is of no consequence. It is here that matters." She said tapping Baby Bird on the chest. "And your weakness was to be your stepping stone. No, there is nothing wrong with your body, it is perfect the way it is, if only your heart and mind can accept it." She said starting to walk around her to stand at her side and wings. She moved slowly, like a pony trying not to startle a butterfly. She looked at her cutie mark and said, "You have focused your life on the wrong talents when you were meant to be more. You were to be an inspiration to others, to bring hope to those who struggled. To be a light for those whose lives have gone dark. You were to be loud and live out loud. Your talent was one to echo across the sky and make everypony look. Will you go back and do this?"

Normally Baby Bird would have argued with anypony or horse that didn't agree that she was 100 percent perfect but she had spent a long time being the weak pony with a medical condition. The pony who was looked after, the one who looked on as others accomplished feats. Living out loud, having talents that echoed across the sky? It sounded pretty good to her. Even though this mare spoke of her as if she needed work, which offended Baby Bird, she also made her feel taller than anypony ever had before.

"Alright." Baby Bird said. "If I can be made all that then let's do it, even if I have to become some 'new Baby Bird'."

The mare smiled. She reached out with one massive wing that was larger than Baby Bird and literally scoped her up on top of it. Then she raised the huge wing and slid Baby Bird down onto her back. When the little pony settled in the center, she leapt into the air with a flap of her huge wings. They were propelled forward with amazing speed by those powerful thrusts. Baby Bird had to hold on tight to her neck as the air streamed through her mane. Then suddenly they were flying just below the clouds. The wind had suddenly stopped streaming through her mane and her tail was no longer streaking out behind her. The mare did not fly by beating her wings anymore. She just shot through the air with her wings raised. Looking below Baby Bird could see that they were soaring over to sea and she could see Cinder's Islands not far in the distance behind them. She couldn’t put her hoof on it but she saw the islands differently now. Or perhaps more sensed. There was just something about it that gave her a sense of foreboding that she had never known before. There was like an oppressing dark shadow over it.

Why did we come out here and where are we going? Baby Bird wondered. The biggest question on her mind though was how was she going to be a new Baby Bird? She decided not to ask and just to wait and see.

The ocean passed quickly beneath them and Baby Bird experienced the strangest sensation that she had ever known, especially once they got over land and she could see things happening. It was the sense of time or lack thereof. She had no sense of it. She had no idea how long they flew. However much time passed it all felt like the same moment. She could look below, especially when the mare flew closer to the ground and see things as they happened by yet it seemed to have no time at all. She could watch something that would seem like it would take more time than it would to fly past but there was no sense of slowing.

She saw ponies below just going about their lives but also saw others things, some of which she wished that she had never seen. There were ponies who did not look quite right. Some were just wondering and others just standing like a young mare who stood in a field and stared at the houses on the edge. Most moved slow and somber if at all but she saw another following a group of ponies that looked like his relatives. He was crying and begging forgiveness for hurting them but they never reacted to him. They themselves had grief stricken faces as they walked. The stallion would also scream for help from ponies that passed them but none even flicked an ear.

Baby Bird cringed but soon they were swept out of sight, though they lingered in her mind.

She also saw other white and golden maned horses, both stallions and mares flying two and fro across the earth but she also saw other hideous creatures roaming the same earth. Most were the size of a pony, some were the size of horses. They were disgustingly contorted and roamed about with hungry mouths hanging open. Many, and she did not know just how she knew ,bore sicknesses, malice fear, confusion and other bad things. These were their names and existence. Most of these followed after ponies. Mostly though, they just whispered in ponies ears. It was frightening, she didn't want to look any more and hid her face for a moment.

She peeked tentatively back over the side of the mare only it was not from below but in the air where something caught her attention. Two chariots being pulled through the air. Each one held a large pony with streaming magical mane. One was white and the other was dark blue. Those had to be the despots of Equestria, she realized. The two tyrant alicorns that the Cinder Islands ponies cursed. The white one had to be the cruel Celestia who had forced the Cinder Island ponies to leave but what about the other? Her sister was supposed to psychotic and it was rumored that Celestia had killed her. She didn't look psychotic and she was very much alive. Maybe Celestia had kept her around for some use. She was crazy enough that she would use any advantage, even a dangerous one. Every Cinder Island pony knew that for all her years Celestia was stupid and greedy. She couldn’t even understand how equality worked and because of that stupid alicorn Cinder Island was in ruins.

Baby Bird was so focused on those thoughts that she didn't spot the creatures flying with them at first. There was a pack of those hideous disfigured ponies flying after them. They couldn’t get to them though. It was because beside each of the sisters two of the magnificent, white and gold horses flew.

With the dark one, Luna it seemed like they could get closer, nag at her more and from just something about Luna, Baby Bird was sure that she was at least somewhat aware of their being there. She stood tall and firm in the chariot with her eyes looking nowhere but forward and gave no reaction to them.

"What's up with that?" Baby Bird asked out loud before she realized it.

"When one even just plays with darkness, and I don't mean the physical darkness that comes when the sun sets, they make themselves more open." The mare said. "Demon ponies follow after the leaders because pulling them astray, making them even a little corrupt does worse than going after just anyone."

"So that was it." Baby Bird thought. That would explain it. Those two princess were messed up in the head by those things. She would have expected them to look more evil though. This fact confused her so she just looked away and back down at the ground. It didn’t matter, everypony in Cinder Island knew that they were evil and corrupt. Who wanted to look at those despots anyway?

Below a train was approaching a station and ponies were waiting outside on the platform. Baby Bird studied the crowd below and spotted one pony walking up the steps with two of those demon things following and whispering in her ears. Baby Bird blinked in surprise and did a double take. It was her old mentor, Starlight Glimmer. She had sat in her classes since she was a little foal and Miss Glimmer was a teen. She was a heroin so why were those things following her? Then she remembered the mare's words.

"She must be really important for them to go after her." Baby Bird said remembering the pride that she felt for her old mentor. That pony had taught her so much. "There's no pony like her. She lives her life to spread equality....but why are those things so close? She really did go to Equestria to help spread equality to them like is rumored. They need it. There is no pony as noble as her. You would probably know right? No pony could accuse her of something wrong! We used to have a saying on Cinder’s Islands, ‘You could take that mare to court but she will only be ruled noble.’ That was after somepony actually tried actually to sue her."

The mare was quiet for a time before she replied. "There are many ponies who have their own ideas of what is noble and right, they have their own definitions of what is good or things like equality but instead it is only harm. There is much that mortals on their own do not understand. There others for which it is just a cry to rally ponies to their secret motives." She said looking down at Starlight Glimmer as they passed over. "Everything was defined long ago and everypony is judged by both their motives and their actions. The final court has to be completely just because otherwise the last card of all has been played and lost."

Baby Bird just stared at the back of the mare's head. What did that have to do with her question? What in the world did she mean anyways? She just shook it off as the mare not understanding her question. Past the mare's head she saw the mountain that she and Smog had been on. The stallion could be see running up the circling ledge. She snorted with contempt for him. She was so focused on him that she did not see what was on the higher ledge until the mare landed and slid her off down one wing onto the rock. Baby Bird jumped and gasped then froze with fear.

So far she had been dealing with this as no more than a dream. She didn't even consider it to be real but now looking at her battered body lying on the rock she felt real fear. The sides were not rising and falling with breathing. Instead her body was terrifyingly still. Baby Bird put a hoof to her chest where she could not feel the beating of her heart.

"This is all a dream!" She lashed out because of her fear. "I want it to be over!"

"Then go." The mare replied motioning to the corps with a wing. "Just one thing you must remember afterwards, be bold, Baby Bird, be bold."

Baby Bird raced for her body begging for this to not be a horrible dream. She felt terror like she had never before and suddenly her mind blacked out as she collided with her body.

Panting Smog ran until he spotted the form of Baby Bird laying on the rock. He slowed and approached with his head low and fear covering his face. He crept up to the little form lying in an awkward position while muttering under his voice. "You’re not dead. Please don't be dead."

As he closed the distance he saw her sides moving and he sighed deeply. Smog walked around her but save for some bruising and cuts she looked alright. He used his magic to lift her up and set her back down in a more natural position. Then he stood guard muttering under his breath over her stupidity. He never saw the tall horse standing next to him. Angrily he grumbled over Baby Bird and her actions and the stubborn mindsets of the Cinder Island Ponies that had raised her. He cursed everypony from the founders of Cinder Island to her parents. He was so angry that he could not stand still and alternately paced and stomped with his face twisted in frustration. The mare watched him sadly and extended a wind that she draped over him momentarily. He sighed and cooled down some.

“Your time will come.” The mare said. She looked back at Baby Bird lying on the ledge. "Just remember to be bold."

* * *

Lightning Jolt's eyes snapped open and she stared out into the streets. Night had fallen and mist swirled over the pavement. She sat up and put a hoof to her chest as the words of the Ponyville doctor came to her. "Your pretty lucky, most magic blasts like that have been known to stop a pony's heart."

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