//------------------------------// // 30 - Symbiosis, Part 10 of 10 // Story: The Last Cutie Mark Crusader // by Jatheus //------------------------------// ‘Momma Mare, I’m so sorry for neglecting to write! We have been busy on assignments and I haven’t made the time to sit down and put quill to parchment. The amount of paperwork they have us doing here is enough to drive one mad, but I’ve got a lot of good friends here to keep me sane. Scootaloo, as always, helps me immensely. She has such a fire inside, a passion for life that is practically infectious. She does have a bit of a temper, but I’ve been teaching her some of the lessons I grew up on. We’re working on it. I think I wrote to you about Charging Lance before also. He’s a career soldier, probably older than you are. The rest of us are like colts and fillies by comparison. He keeps us together in a way that is almost patriarchal more than commanding. Of course, Rainbow Dash keeps us in line. She doesn’t play around when it comes to maintaining military order. My newest friend is Flittergear. I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of getting to know her, which was no easy task! It seemed like she wouldn’t even speak in my presence for two weeks. She has a technical mind that puts just about anypony I’ve ever met to shame. She has a way with numbers and mechanical things that astounds me! She sees patterns where others see chaos. That seems to have stunted her social abilities, but once you get past all of that, she is really very sweet. However, I wouldn’t exactly call her gentle. A few of us have occasionally butted heads, and she is quick to jump in the middle and break us up. I may have been scolded more than once by Charging Lance. It’s a side-effect of the stressful situations in which we so frequently find ourselves. Most of the time, cooler heads prevail. I need to go soon, but there is one more topic that you begged me to speak of... I know I haven’t told you much about my special somepony, but I didn’t want to write too soon. I have been in correspondence with him by mail. As I mentioned, we are in separate units, so I haven’t seen him for quite some time. In fact, I don’t even know his name. He is a medic in Brax’s corps that goes by the letter R, and he is from Manehattan. When the war is over, he’ll resume his training to become a doctor. I see challenges ahead for us, if a relationship is to be sustained. Our occupations don’t exactly mix, but there will be plenty of time to think about that later. Give my best to the brothers and sisters and everypony at Sweet Apple Acres. Missing you, Sparklefly.’ ... ‘I am blind. I cannot see. I don’t have sight,” the thoughts rolled through Pixyglitter’s brain, leaving a bitter taste on her tongue. Pixyglitter was blind, and nothing was going to change that fact. No deals could be made; no sorrow could bring healing; no amount of rage would reverse time. ‘What’s done is done. I have only four senses. I will never do the things I did before.’ What was done was done, and there just wasn't any way to fix it. Her eyes were now dry from the tears she'd shed throughout the night, and she felt hungry for the first time in weeks. The sun had risen; Pixyglitter could feel the warmth of it from the window. ‘I have changed. What I had, I lost. I am crippled.’ Coming to terms with what her life could be was an unsettling prospect. It was too much to deal with, so she boiled it down to just one thing that she could do. All she wanted right now was to talk to Cloud Blazer. He had been by her side the entire time. Although she had spent so much time pushing him away, she felt grateful for his persistence. Shifting in his hospital bed, the stallion inhaled vigorously, signaling that he had awakened. Pixyglitter sat up, wiping her face to ensure that no tears remained, but there were none. The bandages on her eyes were long dry from time passing in the night. "Good morning," Cloud Blazer greeted her. "Hi," Pixyglitter replied nervously. "Are you okay?" he sounded concerned. "Yeah," she started. "I know I've been horrible to you, and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." He didn't respond. Deciding that he was listening, she continued, "I never told you anything about before, but I want to now.” She waited for him to reply, her heart thumping loudly. “Go on.” She took a breath, “I was a photographer. I shot stills and video for an advertising agency in Manehattan before the war. When things got bad, I was out of a job, and I had nowhere else to turn. That's why I joined the EUP. In Las Pegasus..." She took a deep breath and felt herself shaking. "I was hit by friendly fire; that's how I was blinded. I had a passenger with me, Runesplitter, and he tried to talk me down to a landing. It was dark, so he couldn't have seen the trees until the last second." Tears began welling up in Pixyglitter's eyes again. "He screamed at me to pull up; I could hear the... the terror in his voice.” There was a lump in her throat that made speaking difficult as she pressed on, “It was too late; we hit the tree and tumbled to the ground. That's how I hurt my legs, and he was... I lay there with him... with the body for over an hour before the medics came." The tears were flowing freely again, but she no longer cared to hide them. "I'm sorry," she got out through the uneven breaths. She barely heard him leave his bed and approach her. Before she knew it, he was wrapped around her, and Pixyglitter had buried her face in Cloud Blazer's shoulder. He said nothing, but just held her as she sobbed. As much as she hated to depend on anypony, this somehow felt good. A kind of relief flooded through her and filled her up. In a strange way, she felt content. It was like a perfect moment in time that could last forever. In actuality, only a few minutes passed this way. "I was part of the weather team," Cloud Blazer broke the silence when she'd calmed down. Pixyglitter stayed buried in his shoulder listening to his heartbeat. He was nervous. "Flying was all I ever wanted to do, and I lost my wings," he continued. "Your loss is harder than mine, but in a small way I understand." For the first time since the accident, Pixyglitter wasn't offended by the words of comfort that were offered. He knew, if only a little, what she felt because he had lost the thing he loved most. There would be no road back for either of them now. However, for the first time, she didn’t feel alone. As such, there still remained possibilities for the future. Pixyglitter took another deep breath and spoke, "If you still want to, I'm willing to try and learn to fly with you." "I'd like that," he replied softly in a different tone; he sounded vulnerable. They held each other for a while, but Pixyglitter had no idea for how long. She and Cloud Blazer found some comfort in each other against a harsh world that had beaten them down, and together they regained the most important thing that both of them had lost: hope.