//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Recharge 
// Story: With Bursts of Speed! 
// by Box of Imagination 
//------------------------------//


Four months later at the Canterlot Castle Medical Wing...
		

If there was anything that drove Skye insane, it had to be silence. To make things worse, he also couldn’t see anything or feel anything for that matter. The lack of senses started to make Skye panic. Thoughts and questions started flooding his mind.

‘What’s going on?! Am I dead? What happened to me?’ Skye asked himself as he searched his mind for answers.

After a few seconds of panic-fueled memory searching, Skye remembered. He was at the Wonderbolts show when it got interrupted by those evil ponies. Most ponies got out safely, but Princess Celestia stayed back to protect her sister. She was about to be taken out, but he jumped and prevented the attack. Skye tryed to rack his brain to see if he could remember anything else to no avail.

‘Well either I’m dead or unconscious in a hospital. Hopefully the latter...’ Skye concluded.

After a few minutes of the mind’s equivalent of radio silence, he suddenly got an idea. There was only one way he could figure out the answer to all his questions. He need to regain consciousness and wake up. One problem still remained: How exactly was he supposed to do that? Skye started brainstorming options. Some of them were ridiculous options like somehow willing himself awake, while other options made more sense like startling himself enough to wake up. He sat there weighing his options before realizing that the only way to wake himself up is to increase physical activity within his body like speeding up his heart rate.

That’s when Skye came up with a plan, he needed to make himself panic somehow. Panicking would increase breathing and heart rate which would in turn increase brain activity and wake him up. In order to do that he would a think up a fear and enact a situation in his head around that fear. In order for it to work however, he would need quite the strong fear. And there was only one fear that he had in mind at the moment: falling without wings or any way of saving himself.

Skye took a deep breath (mentally, of course), closed his eyes and started putting all his energy into manifesting the scenario. A moment passed and then suddenly he started to feel air wooshing by at an alarming rate. Skye opened his eyes and saw that he was falling out of the sky. He looked behind him and saw that he had no wings, then he looked down. The sight looked and felt so real that it worked, within seconds he was absolutely terrified and panicking.

Skye was approaching the ground quickly when he started to hear things. There was some kind of beeping noise and muffled voices. It distracted Skye long enough that when he looked back in front of him, he was about to crash.





Shooting up in a hospital bed, Skye screamed until he took in his surroundings. Luckily he was still alive and in one piece from what he could tell. He calmed down and saw a startled pink unicorn nurse with a magenta mane who was catching her breathe from Skye's sudden wake-up call. She was still visibly shaking and Skye decided to apologize and break the awkward situation.

"Sorry miss, I had quite the nightmare!" He chuckled nervously.

The nurse sighed and composed herself. "It's fine, but please don't startle me like that again Mr. Swift"

"Alright. Wait! How do you know my name? And where am I exactly?" Skye asked.

"You're in the Canterlot Castle Medical Wing. During the Wonderbolt's show, you took a pretty nasty hit from those evil ponies who interrupted." She answered. "If it weren't for you, Princess Celestia might have gotten seriously injured or worse..."

Skye took a minute to absorb the weight of her words. 'Wow. I guess I was the unexpected miracle of the moment!'

"As for how we know who you are, we found a burnt tag with your name on it. I'm guessing it's from your work uniform?" She asked as she walked over and closely checked his current vitals.

Skye wore a blank face for a moment before replying. "Yeah. I never wore it often, but I always kept it on me. Anyways, what are my injuries? I'm assuming their bad considering I'm here at the castle."

The nurse's expression morphed into one of puzzlement. "Well that's a whole different story..."

"Well considering I'm stuck in this bed right now, you might as well tell me it." He said lying back and resting his head on a pillow.

"Fair enough." The nurse shrugged, "Back when we admitted you for your injuries, you were severely injured and nearly on the brink of death. You had several burned patches of skin and fur, your mane and tail were practically gone, there were large bruises along your back, and the bones inside your wings and back hoofs were basically shattered. Princess Celestia herself brought you in and we spent the next five hours struggling to keep your vitals stable."

Skye eyes widened at the gory image that was now in his head. How could he possibly be alive right now?

The nurse continued, "After getting your vitals stabilized, some truly unexplainable things started to happen. Every eight hours or so the next coming days, your heart rate would rapidly speed up and you would be suddenly arching with electricity. However, despite this strange yet alarming phenomenon, you're wounds were rapidly healing. Normally, a patient with wounds like yours would take months to heal or simply not heal at all. This was not the case though with you, because within about a week or two you were fully healed like nothing ever happened."

"How is that even possible?" Skye asked.

"We're still unsure to be quite honest. The other doctors and nurses in the medical wing have just chalked it up to an unexpected miracle from above."  The nurse said as she wrote some stuff on a clipboard she was levitating. "Not to mention that the rapid healing wasn't the only unusual thing that happened."

Skye looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"Take a look for your self!" She said pointing to a decently sized mirror next to the bed.

Skye looked at the mirror and gasped at what he saw. His mane and tail were no longer a simple shade of light blue with a silver outline, now they also had an accompanying indigo streak that parted through the light blue. That wasn't the only thing that changed though, looking back at him was now a pair of vibrant violet eyes instead of sky blue eyes. Skye then promptly sat up in the bed and stretched his wings and observed his reflection closely. His wings and chest were noticeably more muscular than before.

The nurse interrupted Skye's train of thoughts as she spoke up, "We're not one hundred percent sure yet on what caused your appearance to change, but we think it's because your cells were too badly damaged and the sudden overload of magic and energy from the attack caused your body to compensate by changing your genetic make-up." She then shrugged. "But then again, it's just a guess."

After a few a minutes of examining and (somewhat) admiring his new look, he looked back at the nurse and raised an eyebrow. "Anything else I should I know?"

The nurse nodded, "In order to stop your heart from speeding up at random times, we had to sedate you. What we didn't expect is you ending up in a coma." She nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, "I guess the medication was too strong or had some sort of bad reaction with your body."

Skye sighed, "Well it could be worse, I could be dead right now. So how long have I been out?"

"Exactly four months." She replied.

"FOUR MONTHS!? Jeez... I have been asleep for quite a long time. My dad is probably gonna kill me for not showing up to work for so long." Skye laughed.

Rolling her eyes, the nurse walked over to Skye and pulled out his I.V and detached all the equipment hooked up to him. "You may have just woke up so it may be too early to come to a conclusion on whether or not you can leave." She tapped her muzzle for a second in thought before continuing, "However, you're vitals are in perfect range right now and I don't see anything wrong or out of the ordinary at the moment. So if you come with me to run a test or two and everything stays normal, I will allow you to check out."

"Sounds good." Skye slowly got up and very carefully pushed himself off the bed, "So where are we going?" he asked as followed closely behind her.

They left the medical wing before the nurse spoke up. "We're going to the Princess Celestia's personal gym to test your vitals when performing physical activity."

Skye nodded before realizing something, "I never got your name by the way."

The nurse snickered a little at the fact Skye never asked for her name. "My name is Soft Heart."





The next hour or so was full of uneventful tests that bored Skye, but he knew they were necessary to determine his current health. Tests such as running on a treadmill for a few minutes to measure his heart rate during demanding physical activity, lifting weights to observe the condition of his muscles after waking up from being comatose, and other tests to determine if he had any possible physical abnormalities. However as far as they both could tell, Skye was absolutely fine and in fact was at the highest physical peak of health. That was quite shocking for him, as he never really worked out that much besides the occasional flight or two. The only thing that puzzled them was the fact that Skye's heart rate was much faster then the average pony even while resting and not doing any strenuous activity. Despite this, Soft Heart wasn't concerned as it didn't seem be causing any problems. With all the tests completed, the two of them left Princess Celestia's gym and were now walking down a hallway.

"So doc, did I pass?" Swift smirked as he asked Soft Heart.

Soft was reading through her notes on a clipboard as she walked. "Well I don't see anything out the ordinary besides the unusually fast heart rate. Normally a pony with this fast of a heartbeat would experience light headedness, high blood pressure, and loss of balance. Sometimes a pony would even experience extreme fatigue, but thats very rare." She explained as she kept reading her notes. "When I look at you though Skye, I don't see any of those problems or any other possible problems. So that leads me to ask one very important question." Soft Heart looked up from her clipboard and stared at him directly in the eyes with a blank expression, "How are you feeling?"

Skye thought for a moment. He didn't feel that different, but the things he could tell have changed was the fact that he felt more energized and alert than ever. More often then once on daily basis, he would feel drained of energy and would end up napping a lot. Right now he wasn't feeling any of that, he felt like he could go a week before needing sleep. On top of that, Skye could feel how much more stronger and rigid he felt. Before all this mess he was of average build with very little muscles and had a hard time with any demanding physical activity, but now he was was extremely fit thanks to those ponies that attacked him and he could now do most physical tasks with ease. Last of all, Skye noticed that he felt much more healthier than usual. He didn't know why or how exactly he felt this, but he just felt lighter and his senses had a strong amount of clarity.

"To be completely honest, this is the best I've ever felt physically in a while. More energized, stronger, and healthier than I have ever felt before. I don't feel anything wrong or unusual right now, but only time will tell. Right?" Skye answered.

Soft Heart scratched her head in puzzlement, but then responded with a smile on her face. "While that wasn't the answer I was anticipating, you're right. With due time you'll discover the extent of all the changes your body has experienced if there are any more, but for now it's very good news to hear that you feel so great right now."

Skye smiled and was full to the brim with excitement, "Does that mean I'm free to leave whenever?"

Soft laughed at his excitement and nodded, "Yep. I don't see why not."

"YES!!!" Swift shouted startling nearby guards as they made their way towards the throne room. Once he noticed where they were heading, he was about to speak before she interrupted him.

"Back when you first were admitted to the medical wing, the Princess instructed me to bring you to her once you were awake and on your hoofs so she could speak to you and thank you personally." Soft explained stopping in front of the throne room door. "But seeing that you're ready to leave, I thought I might as well bring you here now."

Skye nodded in understanding, "I'm guessing you need to get back to work?"

"Yeah. I don't get paid to visit with my patients after all." She laughed, "Tell you what, once you get back into the swing of life you can come back to visit or send me letter and tell me how things are going."

"Will do." He said with a genuine smile. "See you some other time, Soft Heart!"

She smiled and waved, "See ya, Skye Swift!"

Skye watched her turn around and leave before turning around to face the door in front of him and saw that there was a royal guard on both sides of the door. He glanced at each one before sighing and pushing the giant door open and walking in. The throne room was absolutely huge and very spacious, there was a red carpet that parted the middle of the room and lead to the thrones of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Swift awkwardly walked towards them and saw Celestia up ahead conversing with Luna.

Arriving at the foot of the two thrones, Skye patiently waited for their conversation to end or at come to a point where he could politely interrupt. While he was waiting he studied the appearances of the two princesses. Never in his life had he been up this close to them... Well except for when he saved Celestia, but he didn't count that as he wasn't entirely conscious during that moment. Looking at Celestia, he truly got to see the full extent of how tall she was. A lot of ponies claimed she was absurdly tall, but from what Skye could tell at the distance he was standing she was only about 6-7 inches taller than him. Luna on the hoof though was only about an inch or two taller than him.

The manes of both princesses were more majestic than Skye expected, especially Luna's. When looking closely at her mane as it moved, he noticed that it was semi-translucent and was a cloudly midnight blue. The color wasn't what caught Skye's eye, inside the strands of midnight blue were shiny sparkles of light that moved along with the rest of her hair. This gave the illusion that her mane contained a starry night sky of it's own. Celestia's mane on the other hoof contained several shades of color that'd you see during sunrises and sunsets.

Skye's observations were interupted as he noticed that the Princess just wrapped up their conversation. Princess Celestia suddenly realized that Skye was in the room.

"Why hello there Skye Swift! Nice to meet you properly and see you on your hooves again." Celestia greeted.

Skye bowed and spoke upon getting up, "Thank you Princess. You wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes I do" She smiled at him. "You know, what you did that day during the Wonderbolts show took a lot of courage and selflessness. Qualities that are quite honorable."

Skye light out a nervous chuckle as he bashfully rubbed the back his neck, "I was honestly just following a gut feeling I had. I couldn't stand by and do nothing if, especially if I could do something to help."

"And yet, if it weren't for you my sister and I could have been severely injured or worse. We probably wouldn't be here right now." She replied as Luna and her got up from their thrones. "And for that, we thank you."

The two princesses gave him a quick bow. Skye's jaw dropped and he was completely at a loss of words or thoughts for that matter. Here he was in the Canterlot Castle with a radically changed body after a near death experience getting bowed to by the princesses. The entire day so far felt like a dream and he was somewhat tempted to pinch or slap himself to confirm that it was, but he wasn't sure if that was appropriate to do in front of royalty so he didn't. Skye quickly composed himself as the princesses rose.

"I uh...um... You're welcome?" Skye said as he stumbled trying to find words.

Both Princess gave light-hearted laughs at Skye's astonishment before Luna spoke up. "Today's duties are complete earlier than usual today and my sister were about to head out to lunch. How would you like to join us for lunch before you leave? I'm sure you're hungry considering that you just woke up from a coma."

Right on queue, Skye's stomach rumbled and he let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah that'd be nice."





The three ponies chatted as they walked to the dining room. Skye asked Celestia and Luna questions regarding their daily routines and various questions about their lives. Much to his surprise, they were very humble and acted just like normal ponies when not performing their duties. He learned Celestia loved to read adventure novels as she relaxed out on her personal balcony enjoying the fresh air while Luna liked to listen to music while she spends her free time drawing. Skye honestly didn't expect the princesses to be so normal in their off time, but then again what was he supposed to expect them to be?

Entering the dining room, Skye was greeted by a fully prepared meal with serval options. There was breadsticks, pasta, salad, soup, and many other foods to choose from. The table, which was very large, was covered end to end with everything. This made Skye curious about leftover food as it was obvious that there'd be quite a bit.

"Excuse me, Celestia?" Skye said getting the princess' attention.

She glanced over at him, "Yes?"

"This a lot of food and even though all three of us are probably famished, I don't we're going to be able to eat it all. So what do with the leftovers?" He asked curiously.

"Simple. Whatever we don't eat is given to the guards currently on break." Celestia answered.

The princesses walked over to the table and sat down with Skye following and doing the same. As each of them began to dish up their plates respectively, Luna looked like she wanted to ask Skye a few questions and he noticed.

"Luna, you look like your bursting with a million questions. What's up?" Skye asked as he filled his plate with angel hair pasta.

Luna set her plate down and spoke, "Well you now know a bit about us and our lives, but I'm itching to know about yours."

"I agree. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" Celestia said before digging in to some of her salad.

Skye took a minute to decide where to begin and then started speaking, "I'm not sure where to start, so how about you two ask any questions that you come up with and we'll go from there." He then took a minute to eat a little bit of his food as he waited for them to come up with their questions.

"Where are you from?" Luna asked first.

"I was born in Cloudsdale and lived there for a bit as a colt before I moved to Ponyville to live my mom until I was old enough to find a job. When I was 17, my dad offered me a job at his bar not only as a bartender, but also doing what I love." Skye replied after taking a sip of his water.

Celestia finally came up with a few questions of her own, "What exactly is it that you love to do? More importantly, what does your cutie mark represent?"

Skye took a moment to look at his cutie mark which was a music note with wings attached to it. He then turned his attention back to the princesses and answered, "I love to sing and make music. When I was little, my mom would spend afternoons teaching me piano, guitar, and many other instruments. Back then, she was my role model and I wanted to make music and perform song for ponies just like her." He smiled as he reminisced, "When I was 10, I sat backstage singing songs while I waited for my mom to finish one of her concerts. Little did I know, I was singing so good that I started to gain an audience from ponies who were backstage. After I finished singing one of the songs, I looked around and saw them applauding me. Next thing I know, I looked down and saw my cutie mark."

Luna finished a breadstick she was eating before speaking, "So the music note obviously represents your love for music, but what about the wings attached to it?"

That was truly a good question, and to be honest Skye didn't have a solid answer to that. However, he attempted at explaining it anyway. "I'm not completely certain, but I like to believe that they represent another thing I enjoy which is flying." Luna nodded now satisfied with his answer.

"So if your talent is music, what are you doing working in a bar?" Celestia asked.

"Well I tried to find gigs and places I could perform at, but I had little to no success." Skye explained, "That's when my dad came up with the idea of performing during my breaks or before and after shifts to get my voice recognized. So far it's sorta working, but only the locals and regular customers know of me."

Celestia and Luna looked at each other appearing to have the same idea. Celestia cleared her throat and spoke, "Skye, what if I told you that we could help you with that?"

Finsishing his pasta, Skye cleaned his lips with a napkin and looked at Celestia curiously. "How so?" He asked.

Luna spoke up, "Well the Grand Galloping Gala has been scheduled for February of next year which is two months away and we're looking to shake things up a little more this year." Luna paused to take a sip of water, "One of the things we'd like to change this year is the music selection." 

Celestia then cut in, "Normally we only hire an orchestra to perform for the event, but classical music gets old after a while and is limited with what emotions it can make ponies feel. This time, however, we'd like to have a band or singer perform for the duration of the night."

"Are you offering to let me play there to make a name for myself?" Skye asked.

"Yes. But first we'd like to hear you sing a song for us. Consider it an audition." Luna said with a nod.

Skye raised an eyebrow, "Right now?" 

The princesses nodded. Skye took a deep breath, stood up, and distanced himself from the table so he could perform comfortably. He decided on a song, but then realized he would need a guitar.

"I don't suppose you have a guitar I can use?" Skye asked.

Celestia thought for a moment, then proceeded to teleport a guitar from a room in the castle. She then levitated it to Skye. Closing his eyes, he started to strum mellow tune. Skye took another deep breath and began to sing.

[Song: Linkin Park - The Messenger]

Having just ate before singing, caused a bit of strain on Skye's voice and made it sound a bit scratchy. Despite that, he still managed to hit all the notes comfortably and with ease. As Skye sang, Luna and Celestia listened very carefully to the lyrics and contemplated their meaning. The flow of the rhythm along with each passing strum of the guitar which was also combined with Skye's voice, soothed every pony in the dining room. The waiters and cooks paused to watch the musician pour his heart and soul into the performance. Minutes flew by blissfully and the song came to a soft close a final strum of the guitar.

After finishing the song, Skye glanced around at everypony's expressions. The chefs and waiters smiled and gave a quick round of applause before returning to work, Luna was giving such a wide smile that Skye worried that her face might now be stuck like that, and Celestia was applauding and wore an expression that was the equivalent of 'not bad'. Snapping out of his temporary trance like state, Skye set the guitar down next to a wall and waited for responses.

Luna was the first to speak, "That was absolutely amazing!"

"I have to agree! You're a spectacular singer!" Celestia added.

Skye smiled from the praise he was receiving, "Thank you, but am I really good enough to perform at the Grand Galloping Gala? That's quite a high profile event and I'd have a lot of expectations to meet."

Celestia laughed a little bit, "Don't worry,  as long as you be yourself and have confidence you'll fly right pass those expectations!"

"Plus, your performance you just gave was improvised and it was very well done. Just imagine how well you will do with a planned set." Luna gave a reassuring smile.

Skye's spirits lifted, "I guess your right. After all there is no harm in trying!"

"That's the spirit!" Celestia smiled and stood up from the table and signaled to the waiters that the three of them were finished.

Skye looked around for a clock and spotted one next to the door. The clock read 2:01 in the afternoon.

"Well thank you both for the lunch, but I need to be going so I can go check in with my family and let them know I'm still alive and no longer in a coma." Skye said with a smile as he made his way to the door.

Celestia nodded, "You're welcome. I look forward to seeing you again in preparation for the gala."

"I look forward to it as well. You have incredible talent with that voice of yours." Luna added.

Skye opened the doors to head out, but before he did he looked back at the princesses and waved. The princesses waved back as he left the room. Now left to his thoughts, Skye started to think about possible things that might of happened while he was away. Determined to find out, Skye increased his pace as he left the Castle.

There was only one thing on his mind right now...

Home.