Identity

by Hyper44

Saying hello and goodbye

The next few days went by fairly quickly for Lightning Jolt. The city was cleaned up and the residents settled back in. Twilight and the other elements of harmony went to and fro from the royal city and Ponyville. Lightning Jolt, Valentine and Ember Light stayed at the castle. Lightning Jolt had been invited to join the weather team of Canterlot and she was considering it. It sounded like an awesome job and one of the perks of having wings was that it made Ponyville and her first friends much closer. Well not her very first friends in life but just in her new life. Her very first friend who had been her best friend when she was a jerk on wheels had disappeared somewhere and she hoped he would pop back up again. Twilight too was quite eager to see him again because she wanted to convince him to write down all the spells and tactics that he knew. She wanted to learn them herself and make a book out of them.

Lightning Jolt still didn't have much more memory than when she had awoken after the battle for Canterlot. She was pretty sure that she would never get all of it back but that was fine with her. She was not that pony anymore and too much thought on her past self brought temptations to slip back to her old habits. She was luckier than most ponies when trying to change. Changing was usually a long hard road but if she had had to take it to get from where she was to where she was now she would have.
The fact of the dream too was confounding. She wasn’t sure if she should believe that it was real for a while but in the end she decided that it was more foolish to just write it off as a strange phenomenon and coincidence. It seemed illogical to do so but to assume that it was just a coincidence that she brought back real memories with the dream and somehow her mind made up a detailed story and added it perfectly into the events, that her cutie mark loss and inexplicable memory loss was just some strange unexplained happening that went with it and it just somehow fit together perfectly, well. that itself didn't seem logical.

Her friends were quite happy that she remembered some of her past now. she got some strange looks when she told them the story, though. Some believed her, some weren't sure and didn't believe her but it seemed wrong to leave it out.

Now there was just one more thing to do before moving on with her new life. She would need her friends for support on it. She would also need a pony who knew Cinder's Islands because her snatches of memory would not get them around. If he didn't show up soon they would have to go looking for him.

* * *

Smog had spent the past few day cleaning out his hiding places and undoing the magic spells on them. He also looked up the old contacts that had opposed the New Wave ponies and let them know that he was leaving. He took his time because he wanted everything to calm down before he checked on Baby Bird... Lightning Jolt. That name was much better. He had always hated her old name. He had always so hated seeing her being turned into a typical Cinder Island pony and it was such a sad thing to see her so afraid that she would not even fly. Now he was very happy.

When he was finally finished he started out to find Lightning Jolt. At first he started to disguise himself then shrugged it off. What did he need that for anymore? Well, maybe incase the guards or anypony tried to talk to him but he could just teleport away. He knew that she might be in the castle or back with her friends in Ponyville but there was a place that he was going to check first. It was the church where she had hidden. He hoped that she was there for if he went to the castle or Ponyville he knew that there was no way he could avoid guards or her friends. All these ponies being curious, asking questions wanting to know how he did this or that. Twilight being the princess of friendship would probably try to make friends. He didn't want friends. Ponies looked at him funny. He was odd compared to them after all. After having to deal with Cinder Island ponies all his life he didn't want to be around other ponies. Baby Bird was a little different. After all he had found her and she was like a little sister.

Eventually he quit caring about trying to fit in to normal social behavior because it wasn’t like the ponies of Cinder Islands would care or treat him any better. The stress had definitely got to him too.

This made other ponies outside of the islands regard him as strange or insane but he, being quite jaded, didn't care. They thought that he was insane already. Many treated him like he was homeless and not in a sympatric way. If you couldn’t look past a rough mane and see the pony beneath than forget you. On the other hoof he also didn't blame them really. If you saw a pony that you couldn’t be sure of their sanity, then you probably should avoid them.

When he reached the church in front of the refugee grounds there was a pony sitting outside on the steps reading. He didn't recognize her. She was a young mare a bit older than Lightning Jolt and looked like a dainty little thing.

"Oh great, she'll probably freak out when I approach her," Smog thought. To his surprise she simply looked up and smiled. "Hi, I'm Willow," She said.

Smog blinked at her a moment before replying. "I'm looking for either a little grey earth pony mare or a little scrawny purple pegasus mare," He said not sure if she knew Lightning Jolt by pony or disguise.

The mare laughed. "You must be Smog," She said getting up and scampering up the steps. "Come on in. We'll send for her," She beckoned for him to follow.

Smog a little surprised by her jovial and friendly nature followed.

"It might take a minute. We can get you something to eat in the meantime and we can send you to be put in the bath."

"Send me to be put in the bath? What am I a foal?"

* * *

A few hours later Lightning Jolt landed on the steps of the church. A messenger had been sent to the castle to inform her about Smog’s reappearance. She met Iron Clad inside who directed her to the cafeteria. When she walked inside she saw Willow and her mother bringing out different new recipes that she was trying. Two stallions and a mare were sitting at a table and taste testing them.

Lightning Jolt walked up to Willow. "Hey where's Smog? They said that he came to see me and there is one thing that I really need help from him with..."

Willow burst out laughing and was quickly followed by her mother and one of the stallions. Lightning Jolt was taken aback in confusion until she looked directly at the stallion who was laughing. "What do you need Baby Bird?" He asked.

Smog sat behind the table no longer wearing his white coat. He was clean from head to hoof. His mane and tail had been shampooed and cropped short to remove the split ends. The most striking of all was the look in his eyes. He was much more calm and relaxed. His barley twitched now. He looked like a completely different pony.

* * *

A few days later Lightning Jolt set out on a ship headed to Cinder's Islands. She had with her Smog to show her to where she grew up, her six friends from Ponyville and the two friends that she had met on the train. Before she moved on with her new life she had to let her parents know that she was still alive. She would need all her friends for support. Not only was nervous just because of the meeting itself but was anxious for an even bigger reason. Her parents were ponies ever fervent of Cinder Islands ways. She was going to have to tell them that she was going to live in Equestria, that she had a mind like that of Equestrian ponies. She didn't know how they were going to take that. The only thing that she could do was to get it done and move on.

When they reached the island that she had lived on Smog led them straight there. Lightning Jolt recognized a few places but not much. Her friends looked a little shocked at the state of the city.

"They ran a beautiful place down into the ground." Was all Smog said as he hurried on. He didn't want anypony to stop them and try to ask the Equestrian ponies why they let this happen to them.

When they went into the outskirts of the city into suburbia her old home came into sight. Lightning Jolt almost got cold feet and ran but she knew that she had to do this. Her parents came out seeing the group approaching their house and Lightning Jolt walked ahead to greet them. At first they reacted with disbelief then ecstatic joy. From there after seeing her cutie mark they went back and forth to believing and being skeptical that it was really her for a while. She told them the story from start to finish and introduced them to her new friends. While they were not practically happy that she was friends with Equestrian ponies and gave subtle hints about it, they were glad that they had helped her. Smog hung back and Lightning Jolt was pretty sure that with the distance and his makeover they did not recognize him. That was probably a good thing.

For most of the story they sat blinking in astonishment and were probably not sure if they should believe all of it. Her father was extremely critical of the dream.

Finally, she had to tell them about staying in Equestria. At first they objected willfully then tried to reason for some time but finally accepted it. At the end of the day they parted on good terms though they were still unhappy about her living in Equestria. Lightning Jolt knew that they likely would never like her decision because of their bias against Equestrian ponies but she knew that she could never live her life as she was meant to here. Perhaps over time as they wrote letters she could convince them of Equestrian’s virtues and they would come there. She would so love to see them out of this place. Only time would tell.

On the way back Smog parted with them as he headed to his house stating that he would pack up some things and meet them in Equestria. They were a little surprised as they thought that he was going to stay but were glad.

Smog walked into his cluttered house by the shore and surveyed his belongings. There wasn’t all that much that he needed to take and he could probably sell this house pretty quick. He didn't want anything else tying him to here. He didn't know why he stayed with all the stress he got. He was pretty sure that part of it was Lighting Jolt and part of it was that he wanted to help the Cinder Island ponies see beyond those ideas and ways that they thought fixed things. To not be so wrapped up in it all and see reality. Now he had grown quite fond of Willow in a short time and he had a new task, keeping Cinder Island ponies from changing Equestria. The second reason was on a ship heading back to a new, better and probably awesome life. He had spent his trying to make that happen and now it had been done for him and he too had a new and better life ahead of him.

Author's Note:

Stay tuned I have a little mini chapter that I want to add. I think that it's a better closing. After I made Lightning Jolt's character a certain MLP song kept coming to me and I think that it would be a perfect encouragement song for her.

Comments

[Nox Knock Jokes]

Everytime Smog's name gets brought up I always end up thinking of a fierce dragon that stole a large portion of riches from a castle up in the mountains. Anybody got the same feeling?