Lightning Bolt of Rome

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter V: Flight of the Pegasus.

Quickly concluding that if he stayed any longer it would only end badly, Bolt decided that he had to leave the city when the next opportunity presented itself. The only door in or out didn’t have anything to pull on, and the open slots that allowed bits of sunlight through where too small to squeeze through. However, he could still see through them, allowing him to glance through to see if anyone would open the door.

Sure enough, ten minutes after the Emperor had left him, a small crowd gathered outside of the door. Some of them looked important while others carried lambs and very sharp knives. He saw the High Priest from the earlier approach the door. He crouched down, preparing to speed through the doors.

There was a knock. “My Lord, may we enter?”

“Go ahead,” Bolt told them before the door finally creaked open. Once it was big enough, the gilded pegasus made a break for it and flew right out of the temple.

“Lord Jupiter! Come back!” He heard the High Priest called out, but Lightning Bolt zipped through the columns and into the bright, open air. There were gasps and shouts from the humans, as well as some whinnies from the equines, as he soared out like an eagle.

The first direction he went was up. The pegasus climbed above the city, higher and higher so he could get a good idea of where he could make his escape towards. Spotting a cloud, he landed on it so he could get a good view of any familiar landmarks.

He noticed right away that something was off. There wasn’t a single hill, river, lake, shoreline, or even a mountain that he could recall. For miles around, as far as his trained eyes could see, there wasn’t a single place in his entire knowledge of the world that he could recognize. Not only that, but he couldn’t spy any signs of a search party, even after being knocked out of a whole week.

“But how could I possibly be lost?” he asked himself. “For crying out loud, there’s a whole civilization down there about as large as Manehattan. How could anypony miss this place and not put it on a map?” As perplexing as the situation was, Bolt had to find out where on the face of the planet he was. All he needed was something familiar that he could fly to and hopefully catch up with Celestia.

Looking down upon the grid city, he, unfortunately, knew the answer to this puzzle. He had to go back to Rome to find a map. Perhaps by looking at its borders, he could make his way to Saddle Arabia.

‘Now, where do I find a map in this place?’

Choosing a part of the city, Bolt leaped off the cloud and glided down to the streets below. Not to say that he went unnoticed by the local humans. He saw them point at him and a crowd began to flood the streets as soon as he was close enough to the ground.

When he landed on the edge of a fountain, many of the humans suddenly bowed to him. “Uh, excuse me,” he said, “could you all stop doing that?”

“Doing what, Lord Jupiter?” one of the humans asked.

“I mean would you all stop bowing,” he clarified, annoyed.

“But it’s a way of showing respect to the gods,” another human spoke up.

“I didn’t come here for respect.” This got the Romans to look up. “So, does anypony know where I could find a map around here?”

Some of the Romans looked at one another. “Forgive us, Jupiter. We don’t own any maps.”

“Well, do any of you know where I could find one? I really need to get somewhere.”

“Look, there he is!” Bolt turned his head to the newcomers, spotting the guards in red coming at him with nets.

“Uh, never mind,” he quickly said as he flew off again. As he tried to fly upwards, weighted nets were being tossed off the rooftops to try and catch him. He quickly flew downwards to dodge them. “Hey, watch it!” He stuck to the streets, flying past statues, arches, and monuments. He ducked, dove, stopped, sprinted, turned left, did a barrel roll, ascended, descended, and took an even sharper left, but the red guards seemed to be everywhere.

“Jupiter, stop!” A voice cried out.

“We’re trying to help you!” Another cried.

“Stop moving around so much!”

Not only did he have to worry about the guards that kept popping up, but soon the citizens were trying to catch him as well. They were throwing ropes, tied-together clothes, buckets of water, and one even made him fly through a cloud of spices.

‘It’s like I’m being chased by zombies!’ Bolt thought. ‘At this rate, I’m going to crash into--’ The Solar Guard realized that a little too late as he smashed helmet-first through a glass window before crashing against a marble wall.

Falling to the floor, he heard several steps surrounding him, followed by several hands lifting him off the ground.

“Is that him?” Bolt looked around to find that he was surrounded by a group of older humans in white and red robes.

“Well, speak of Jupiter himself!” a familiar voice declared. Now back on his four hooves, the pegasus turned to find the Emperor behind him.

“YOU!” Lightning Bolt shouted, causing the other humans to jump back in shock. He started marching over to him, trying to ignore the pain from his collision. “Do you have any idea what I just went through?”

“Caesar, you were right!” one of the amazed humans said. “He really does talk.”

“I told you,” Titus replied with a cocky grin, but his personal triumph was short-lived when he felt a set of hooves shove him to the ground.

“Now you listen to me!” The pegasus’s thunderous voice echoed throughout the room, reminding him of his time as a drill sergeant scolding recruits. “I’ve just about had it with this place! I would have left already, but I’m completely lost! All I’ve asked was for was to point me in the right direction so I can leave, but all your humans have done is hunt me down like an animal! Now somepony better get me a good atlas or something, or I’ll fly you up above this Celestia-forsaken city and let you drop until you hit the ground like a water balloon! Am I clear?!”

Once his roaring and the room had settled down, only one voice dared to speak up. “Caesar Titus, are you sure you haven’t confused him for Mars? It seems like he has his temper.”

Comments

[CrackedInkWell]

6491809
6491782 Thank you so much. I promise you that I will go over these two chapters again, and see what else I could add to it. Besides, this whole story is just a thought experiment, and I'm just as curious as to see where this will go.

[Crescent Nebula]

This is the greatest thing of all time

[Texus]

Is this a body change story?, or something else? If there s a Human that is going to be a pony suddenly, I would like it, if he stays the pony in the end, that means I would like a little spoiler about that.

[floppy_seal99]

6493658

Ahhh...but what of my speculations? How are those?

[Rocky Runner]

*face explodes from grinning*

[Autarch Prime]

Keep this rolling man! This is getting good!

[Paperbag Wizard]

Blot should be Bolt

[Greatazuredragon]

“Caesar Titus, are you sure you haven’t confused him for Mars? It looks like he has his temper.”

Awesome work, well done.