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// Chapter 2. Darkness Brings Forth Truth 
// Story: Bardic Lore: Stabled Dreams 
// by Rose Quill 
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	I laid there, staring at the ceiling. I always had trouble sleeping at home when Gleam was out on rotation. The bed seemed too large, too cold, too uncomfortable. I had gotten used to hearing his light snore through the last four years. It was comforting, like how the sound of a babbling brook or steady rain could lull you to sleep.

But now, I just had the silence and the fact that Pinkie had dredged up painful memories. Oh, I couldn’t fault the mare, she didn’t mean to pull on the stitches that held that wound shut.

It had been after one of my more dangerous adventures, just after I had met Gleam. I had gone out and found a cave that wasn’t marked on my map - though when you talk about the wild that hardly meant anything. Maybe twenty percent was mapped, and of that maybe half was accurate. But true to self, I went in.

It was laced with quartz, entire stalactites of the cloudy crystal crisscrossing the entire cavern. I was shocked momentarily by the beauty of it all. And then I saw the shrine, deep within the cavern.

It was maybe three feet tall, made of slowly rotting wood and some bronze pillars. What looked like a crude depiction of a centaur in gold and silver sat in the middle of the shrine.

I lifted the idol with my magic, my light dimming at the increased mana draw, listening closely for any sound that would indicate the release of a hidden trap, but none came. I tucked the idol away and started back up towards the surface, planning to mark my map when I was out where I didn’t have to split my magic between lighting my way and doing precise cartological updates.

I didn’t see the crack in the floor, but my hoof caught it solidly, sending me crashing down, the shock of the collision breaking my concentration and my light went out. I coughed a few times, trying to regain my breath and relit my horn, looking back at what I had tripped over. That was when I felt the low rumble, like a giant tomcat purring.

And the shrine collapsed as the ground underneath it fell away, the entire cave starting to give in. I scrambled to my hooves, racing for the entrance, leaping opening crags and dodging falling rocks, deflecting a few with my magic. I was almost out when a chunk of quartz caught me across my flank, sending me into a tumble as my hip blazed with pain. 

I remember making it outside, but between that and waking up in a hospital in Las Pegasus, I had no memory. I don’t know if I had dragged myself to civilization or if I had been found by somepony and taken to receive aid, but whatever had happened, I had not fared well in that misadventure. I spent ten weeks in a wheelchair while my pelvis and left leg mended, and then another three weeks on restriction. It wouldn’t have been so bad if that had been the extent of it. I could still play, so I could still perform for small events. 

On my last visit to get my all clear, the dark clouds had rolled in as the doctor came in, a sad look on his face. My heart clenched as he began to speak.

I woke suddenly, not even realizing I had fallen asleep. Tears were streaming and my muzzle was already soaked.

I couldn’t be mad at Pinkie. It wasn’t that I didn’t want a foal. It was more that I couldn’t have a foal. I sniffed at the memory of the doctor telling me that, the memory of how my foolish behavior one night robbing me of something that I had always wanted from the time I could remember. I had been raised an orphan, and the sense of family was something I always wanted.

I had found a sense of that in Gleam, but though he didn’t fault me for my inability to bear young and loved me all the same, I knew he had wanted a foal, a colt or filly to dote on in his retirement.

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I had to play at a young colt’s cute-ceañera. the day after tomorrow. I couldn’t let old memories drag me down.

But even in the dark, my eyes drifted over to the where my map of the wild lay, calling me with the seductive call of adventure.

I rolled onto my side, away from the map, foreleg going out to pull Gleam’s pillow to me. The pillow was full of his scent and it helped me fall to sleep again.