Identity

It took a little while for the strong presence of static to dissipate, even longer for her ears to stop ringing and everything to stop sounding as if it was underwater. Twilight ended up using a spell to make it fade faster.

"Now take it easy for a while, it may be your special talent but you don't want to overdo it especially until you get the full hang of it. It is a pretty dangerous sport." Jane Pony had nodded in agreement and then was back out busting clouds by evening. She found that she could strike even normal clouds and make them explode with bolts of lightning if she hit them just right. Whenever she flew by them now she could practically feel their electric potential by the way it made the tiny filaments on her feathers prickle. She wondered just why she didn't ever feel it before but maybe she had and just never noticed. The regular ones didn't have enough and only made a small bolts though. Since she had seen Rainbow Dash turn plenty white clouds into storm clouds she gave it a try herself and found that it wasn’t all that hard.

She eventually quit her cloud busting when she realized that the constant booming was annoying the citizens of Ponyville. That and she was getting so worn out that it was starting to mess up her focus. Twilight was right, it was her cutie mark but it did take a toll. The last straw was when she blasted through a dark cloud that she had just made and she hit too far from the center. That sent her spiraling into a roof and she nearly set it on fire. Yes, that was enough for today.

The following day had Jane Pony walking the streets practically prancing and dancing every step with her singed and still frizzy mane swaying with her motions. She couldn’t help it, her cutie mark was just so cool! The ponies in the town had started referring to her as Lightning Jolt and she loved it. Lightning for her ability to create copious amounts when she hit a cloud and jolt for her tendency to shock everypony afterwards. She decided that she wanted to go by that for it was much better than Jane Pony.

She had all but forgotten about finding the secret of her past and restoring her memory until reminded. Twilight had had Spike draw a picture of the cutie mark and send it to Celestia to help her identify Jane Pony or Lightning Jolt the night before. The report came back the next afternoon stating that nopony had been born in all of Equestria within this generation that had obtained that cutie mark.

Her cutie mark was also a quandary to Lightening Jolt and her friends. It was not only the report from Celestia but the fact that she had had badly developed flight skills as well as muscles. Lightning Jolt would have just guessed that she just had never had a cutie mark up until now if it had not been for the words of the unicorn. Why would he say she had lost it if she hadn’t gotten hers yet? So much didn't make sense but all they could do was keep searching for the answer. Anyway her confusion whenever it arose was quickly lost to her excitement. She had a cutie mark and it was 20 percent cooler.

As she walked the streets Lightning Jolt wasn’t really going anywhere but was just out enjoying the day because she couldn’t possibly sit still with her exhilaration. Halfway around the town Pinkie Pie jumped out of Sugar Cube Corner and drug the surprised and kicking Lighting Jolt inside by the tail for a, "Yay, you finally got your cutie mark back party."

Once again she was pretty sure that most of the ponies were there only for the party and she couldn’t blame them. The pink pony could certainly throw a party. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were there to congratulate her and Scootaloo was certain that she was destined to have a cutie mark like hers. She spent the entire party chasing around Rainbow Dash begging her to train her like she did Lightning Jolt.

"I will kid, just wait until tomorrow."

"How about now?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"How about in an hour?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"How about in a couple hours?"

"Auugghh!"

Lightning Jolt spent a good bit of the time just laughing at the two. It was, she would say the best time of her remembered life, perhaps even the best among her forgotten life. At the moment she didn't even care about it.

* * *

That night Lightning Jolt walked home with Twilight who had spike sitting sleepily on her back. They were chatting so excitedly over the party that they didn't notice the two stallions standing at the door of the library until they almost ran into them. They wore the gold armor of the royal guard and stood as still as statues watching the pair. One was a grey unicorn and the other a white pegasus.

"Can I help you?" Twilight asked with confusion in her voice.

They didn't answer at first but the unicorn levitated a scroll in front of Twilight. "The royal princess has sent for the Jane Pony to be brought to Canterlot for the royal scribes of magic to examine her.

Twilight blinked at them flicking her eyes back and forth from the letter then to them as if she could not understand them. "What?" She said finally.

"The royal princess has-"

"No, I mean... what? Why would she not send me letter ahead of time?!" Twilight exclaimed. She looked back at Spike who shrugged. "Don't look at me, I didn't get any letters about it."

"Hmmm, I thought you would have been informed." The pegasus said scratching his chin. "Oh, well it was probably just an oversight."

"Oversight?!" Twilight repeated incredulously. "Princess Celestia doesn't make oversights, not one's like that. How could she forget to send me a letter about this?!"

Both guards cleared their throats. "Ma'am I don't know," The unicorn replied. "We just follow orders. The Princess is asleep now and I wouldn’t try waking her with a letter but you can send her one in the morning."

"No need, I'll just come along. Spike get my saddle bags." Twilight said turning to the dragon.

"I'm sorry miss but the princess requested that we bring only Lightning Jolt." The pegasus interrupted as Spike stood up to jump off Twilight’s back.

"What?! Why!?" Twilight exclaimed half jumping and accidently throwing Spike off. "Did I do something wrong? Does she not trust me? Is it-"

"We don't know miss. We only carry out orders." The unicorn repeated. “Wait till the morning and send her a letter."

"I'll send her one now." Twilight said turning to Spike again.

"Do you really want to wake her?" The unicorn guard asked. "She's been working hard lately and would appreciate an uninterrupted rest. Just send her one in the morning and it will be fine."

Twilight hung her head slightly in defeat. "Well alright, I guess you’re right. I hope that there's nothing wrong."

"Naa, she must have just forgot that's all." Spike assured her.

Lightning Jolt had been standing behind Twilight listening and feeling rather nervous. She had gotten quite comfortable living in the town of Ponyville and being with her friends. She didn't much like the idea of going off with strangers now. Especially with these cold guards and heading to the capital of the country where she would be examined by a bunch of ponies she didn’t know. She didn't think one said no to the head princess though. She was also sure that she would get to come back or Twilight would be able to come soon. From what she had told her the princess was quite a kind and cool character.

"It's alright, maybe they can find a cure." Lightning Jolt said more confidently than she felt. She didn't like going off without her friends for support but if that was the way it had to be then that was that. "Just let me go say goodbye to my friends."

"No, it would be best if we went now-" The unicorn started but the pegasus nudged him.

"It's almost two hours before the night train leaves. We'd just be sitting there for at least that amount of time provided that the train is on time, which it rarely is," He said. "Let her go say goodbye and there will be less fuss." He turned to Lightning Jolt. "Go on but be sure to meet us at the train station in less than two hours." He said and with that they walked away.

Lightning Jolt hugged Twilight goodbye then flew off to say farewells to everypony else including the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

After she left Spike stood outside with his claws on his hips and glaring after the guards where they had disappeared into the darkness. "How rude. They didn't even bow to you Twilight like all the other guards do and then their trying to tell you, a princess what to do? Who do they think they are?"

Twilight shrugged. "That was a little odd but I really don't like ponies bowing to me anyway. Their also right. Princess Celestia is probably sleeping and I don't want to wake her. I'll just send her a letter first thing in the morning." She said walking inside and motioning Spike to follow.

"Come one Twilight don't look so down. I'm sure it's nothing. Remember all the times you freaked out and it turned out to be over nothing. This is just like those times." Spike said as he scampered after her.

"Thanks, I think."