Alright, alright, settle down. You were here just yesterday, stop milling about and sit down. Alright. Yes, I've changed the buckets. No, I'm not going to not skip over telling you things I don't want to talk about. Yes, there are cushions this time, they're in the closet over there. Ooh, could you get me one? Thanks. Now, where were we? Right.

The Canterlot trip. Now the first hurdle we had to jump was the fact that I simply couldn't teleport halfway around the world while covered in magic inhibiting dust. It was Sturdy who came up with the solution to that, hook onto the lightning and fling myself upwards as far as I could. I was halfway through explaining that lightning didn't work that way and even if it did I had no idea how to throw myself about as a bolt of energy when Crater gave me those multifaceted puppy dog eyes and I ended up rowing my dumb self out to the storm wall.

Ever had a conversation with an object that shouldn't be sapient and yet is? That is what talking to the storm overhead was like. Only it rumbled back instead of used recognisable language. I have no idea how it heard me, but in the end the result was the same. I was staring at an impassive curtain of thunder and lightning that simply refused to listen to me. I think it might have been telling me that lightning doesn't work the way I wanted it to.

Damn logic. Of course, you've read your textbooks so you'll know that that's never stopped me yet.

"Alright. We've had our differences, you and me. You're a giant storm. I'm not. Either way we need each other. I think. The Heart knows both of us better than we think, and I believe it knows what it's doing. It has to. Doesn't it?"
My question was met with a pensive silence. The wind rushed like sand down a timer.
"Doesn't it? We're so young compared to some of the things out there. At lease one of them has to know what we are."
A curious silence. Librarians listening to a visitor whisper a book aloud and hanging on every word.
"You don't know. I don't know either. I mean, why shouldn't we know what we are? Don't we deserve that?"
A rumble. The sound of a thousand ponies getting to their hooves with fire in their hearts.
"We do. For me to know about you, I need to get out of your barrier. I need to be high in the air and shining like the sun. And maybe I might like a little of you to stay with me, just a little. Enough to use that lightning trick a few times. Maybe."
An amused silence. Part of the barrier became lighter in colour.
"Thanks, mate."

I rowed over and touched the pro-offered cloud. I heard that the boats I keep rowing out in come back on fire and covered in dust and glass. Not sure why, or if they were just making it up. You should know what's coming here, only this time I didn't have to pay with important parts of my bones for the trip.

I miss being a part of the storm sometimes. It's chaotic and harsh and glorious and beautiful. It's an ocean in the sky with all the terror and wonder that brings. The shifting greys and grays of mist and cloud. The lazily arcing yellows and blues of lightning. The ripples where the thunder and lighting begin just before they launch off across the roiling plain.

It's nice.

"So...so. Now I need to be high. As high as you can fling me and as bright as you can make me shine. I don't want to leave a mark on the landscape if Celestia misses the catch."
You ever heard a storm laugh? It is an entirely unique experience. Especially when it's laughing at you.

It threw me upwards, oh yes. Grabbed me by the legs with it's bright electrical tendrils and threw. Well, more of put a bolt beneath my feet and shot, but the result is the same. Screaming, flailing, crying, ruined shoes, scorched feet.

Oh but it was glorious up there. I've never been back, but I do want to. That first sight of the night sky? I can't describe it. It was so dark and the storm-light below didn't extend upwards. The stars were tiny loops of lightning or the tips of a thousand bolts all suspended in complete darkness. And in such patterns like I had never seen. Yep, I thought. I'm definitely coming back up here. Then the tingles started. First questioning, identifying. Then securing and powering and finally they glowed hot enough to burn and I was whisked away.

To the smell of candy. Candy, burning flesh, blood and pain. I think the latter three drew away from the sickening smell of the former. The familiar helped me cope with the saccharine. I remember hearing shocked gasps and calls for something I didn't understand. I touched my hand to my face and was mostly unsurprised when it came away covered in blood. My gritty, dark red blood.

I could make out enough of my surroundings to recognise the golden figures were the guard, the large white and blue figures were probably of Celestia and the blue one, and the pastel throng below us is a crowd of ponies. The hard, wooden and white thing beneath me was some kind of white and now slightly red platform for speaking and there were a crowd of the horned ponies racing towards me.

I felt the tingles again. These didn't burn, but they did feel like...concern? Shock, horror, disillusionment, disgust, curiosity, regret, sorrow, sympathy, all of these things. So many at a time. None of them did anything, just conveyed these emotions. After a little time to recover my sense of up I managed to clamber to my feet. It wasn't that bad, actually. Just surface injuries. They stung like crazy, but that calmed down after a while.

The look of shock on the faces of the gathered little ponies was fairly understandable. The first of my kind, brought out of the worst place in the world by magic that should have been impossible and standing under the strain of seemingly insane injuries. The guards were having trouble keeping that stony face and even Celestia looked like she wasn't expecting me to show up barely clothed and covered in fresh burns.

"Ah, Princess Celestia," I started, trying to seem unphased by the pain and abrupt change from night to day. "It is good to finally meet you face to long face." Please let that joke pull you out of your stunned expression. If everything else wasn't the same way your critics might be having a field day.
"Yes, Red King Ayre of Australis" Full name, remind everything here who I am and that I'm important "Welcome to Canterlot. I'm sorry about the transfer spell, it shouldn't have reacted as is did. All creatures under the sun should be welcomed by it's light, not burned."
"There's your problem. That, and this I suppose, is the first contact I've had with your 'sunlight'." Shocked whispers rushed through the assembled crowd. Never seen the sun? Burned by the light? Clearly evil. Oh yes, evil. Evil. So evil.
"I see. Well may you be welcomed into the light as a friend of Equestria." The last three words were delivered with a point. Both at me and at the horde of gossip below. I briefly wondered just how long she had been doing this job.
"Thank you, Princess. Now, if I may be incredibly irreverent towards your sister?" I left the question hanging in the air like sassy static. Touch it the wrong way and get a jolt for my amusement.
"Of course. I know how you two express your friendship in an eccentric way. Go on, she's getting shy again." Delivered with a smirk and a perfect lilt. Just the right words to let me say anything and get away completely free. I'm going to get one past her one day.

"Luna, you're looking fat." Start simple, build up to a compliment.
"We have not sustained burns by simply walking out in our sister's sunlight. Perhaps you should leave your cave more often, you may join the rest of us."
"Not taking the simple insult this time? Alright, I was going to build up to it, but..."
"Speak your mind, idiotic monstrosity."
"Well, I saw that thing you do and it was...pretty good."
"What thing we do? Are you referring to our night sky?"
"Yeah that. Not bad. Needs clouds."

Okay, that hit home.

Her next words for about an hour were nothing but indignant spluttering and the occasional curse word. It was hilarious, but not very productive. I was hoping for a bit more of a verbal spar, but I seemed to have temporarily broken her. Ah well. Something for next time.

Celestia led us away from a confused herd of pastels and into the castle grounds. We talked as we walked through a statue garden and past an old hedge maze. Guards were every twenty paces, all with their eyes trained squarely on me. You'd think they'd be everywhere, but no. Just me. I was going to point out that they could be easily attacked while they were distracted, but I didn't care enough.

After Celestia and I were inside the palace she excused herself and I was to be given the grand tour. No real choice, she apparently had official duties to attend while I was escorted around the castle and told about it's excellent history and achievements and so on. I use this exact excuse to put off doing things I don't want to do for an hour or so. I may have learned all the wrong lessons from watching Celestia govern.

Since we all know the story of Canterlot castle, I'll skim here. Luna's becoming Nightmare moon and being purified by the Elements of Harmony. Discord, the same, only he was just being himself when they made him good again. Tirek, the same. Turns out he was some kind of, from what the glass shows, half horse, half gryphon thing. Some kind of gray wall that moved and was sung away by little flying things. A giant dark crystal saved by a little purple and green thing with the power of love. Those windows were really abstract.

Victories, tapestries, portraits. Various requisite castle equipment. Ponies in armor charging, flying, standing in golden glows. I didn't understand half of them, but they didn't look as...new, perhaps...as the similar posters I'd seen in the cathedral. My guide carefully ignored my questions and spoke slowly as if speaking to an animal who could mimic language but wasn't sentient.

In the mean time, I had questions. What were those emotions from before? Why did I feel them? When can I find out more about the storm? Where was something to eat that wasn't vine related? How am I going to get back home? What was keeping Celestia? Can I have some kind of bandage before I bleed over all the floors? And the final question. The one the storm and I needed an answer to. The one question I had never asked.

Who was I supposed to be?

Author's Note

We're reaching the light and fluffy peak of the story. Look, no-one is getting killed for no reason, worshiping anyone in a psychotic death-cult or otherwise starving half to death in the midst of skeletons of those who came before.

I know. I'm disappointed too.