//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Intervention // Story: Never Lucky // by Ferris the 1st //------------------------------// A soft wind blew between myself and the Alicorn of the Night as we stared at each other. It's truly amazing how much of a conversation can happen when not a word is being said. With every passing moment, I was begging her not to... do whatever it was she was planning. In the same quiet, she was patiently waiting for me to realize that I wasn't getting out of it. “...Do you know why I'm here?” she finally asked to break the silence. I've been told since that Princess Luna has been known to act in ways that make her seem very young, but in that moment I didn't see it. The short distance between us was the span of eons. Just gazing upon the true vision of her gave me this sense that she had seen the rise and fall of great and terrible things. She was an immortal, a goddess given flesh... ...and she was standing there, waiting for an answer. It took me a few tries to find my voice and when it came out, it was just a whisper, “Yes?... no... maybe? I feel like I should, but I don't.” She nodded at my answer like I'd confirmed something as she closed the distance between us. I felt small in her presence. Rumor had it that she didn't stand as tall as her sister, but it was more than enough to make me feel like a foal. “That's to be expected,” she told me, “truthfully, I don't fully understand this myself. While you are not an isolated case, it is among the things that even after thousands of years I cannot begin to fathom. For this, I've had to experiment with treatment even before my banishment and I'm still learning about the true cause.” She stepped around me and gazed down on the farmlands, a small smile forming on her face, “Usually when I bring a pony into their place of safety within the dream realm, it varies between them. Honestly, this one reminds me of my own home so many years ago. Alas that I must come to this place and to you without the time to properly appreciate it all.” I felt compelled to turn and sit beside her, reminiscing about the old place, “It was always a constant,” she glanced at me as I continued, “when the whole world felt fake, it was real. The one place that I could go that didn't throw curve balls at me...” Luna tilted her head, then let out a thoughtful hum, “Strange. It sounds like you know what's going on, but you're... repressing it.” Her response confused me and I looked up at her, “Repressing it? What would I be repressing? No offense meant, your highness, but I've had a pretty good life back home. I wasn't ever part of something that traumatized me, save recent events.” “No? Well then,” she leaned in toward me, her wings coming up. I felt the tips of her feathers brush over my cheeks with a rush of power, “let's see beneath the woken mind.” The farm faded like paint being washed from a canvas. For a few breathless moments, I found myself drifting amid stars and darkness, only the soft touch of her feathers keeping me from floating away. Then the world came crashing back in a flash of memories. If I were to list out everything that assaulted my unprepared mind at that moment, I'd be here forever. In a summary, I was reliving my foalhood since that fateful day that I gained my cutie mark. Just with some slight differences. I didn't remember being unhappy like the images that burned across my mind. It all started a few days after the incident. I'd been working on a school project and putting everything I was into it. I had been putting in real effort, but something had been missing. Then, just as I was about to give up... I slipped. It was... startling really. I'd remembered this moment as my father coming in to help me with the project, but that wasn't what happened in this memory. Instead, I watched my colt-self crash into a cabinet in the kitchen I'd grown up knowing and a spice I still can't pronounce fell into my makeshift “volcano.” The results were spectacular, but I hadn't meant for it to happen. That trend continued over and over throughout the memories. Thoughts of truly trying only for a sudden coincidence to do the work for me. I had never felt so... useless. No matter how hard I tried... it wasn't my success. I felt tremors running through my ethereal form, but Luna held me still with her power. I wanted to run, to scream, to hurl insults at her. Yes, much to my shame, I found myself hating her for several seconds as she broke down barriers that I hadn't even known that I'd put up. The mind is a strange thing. It felt like a small eternity before the rapidly shifting images faded away and we returned to the conjured background of the farm. I didn't know that you could feel... weak in a dream, but as she withdrew her wings, I collapsed and hyperventilated. Curling up into myself, I sought solace in the dirt as I felt exposed and unnaturally naked. “...I'm sorry, Lucky Signs,” her voice registered in my ears, “but this was the only way I could get you to face this. Your friends are worried for you and didn't know what else to do.” The Princess of the Night stood over me, still patient. I felt a gentle hoof press to my side and I flinched instinctively. She recoiled like I'd struck her. I could hear a hitch in her voice as she spoke again, “I hope that one day you'll forgive me. Many ponies understand the way you think, Lucky Signs. Cutie marks have always been a mystery that even after thousands of years, my sister and I still know almost nothing about. I can not tell you why you have yours or why it affects you so. What I can tell you is that it doesn't detract from who you are.” She turned away and began to move away, her form starting to shimmer away like a mirage. As she began to wisp away, she turned back a final time, “If you can not accept your gift for yourself, Lucky, then I implore you to think of others. The greatest gift that our destinies can give us is to let us share what we can do with others. Every day, all beings hope for luck and that keeps them going even when everything around them is falling apart. If you can not be lucky for Lucky Signs, be lucky for your friends. Martial Cadence. Silent Stroke. Corium. Every being that you've met on your journey and for those you have yet to meet.” Her piece spoken, she left. I stayed curled up on the ground as I fought to control my own terror. I felt... sore. Not physically, but mentally and spiritually. The false world began to fade... ** I wish I could say that I hopped out of bed with a new purpose after I woke. I didn't. When I returned from my forced slumber to the waking world, I broke down. I couldn't muster the energy to deaden myself to my swirling emotions and it made me lash out. I shouted at doctors, I cursed the night to a point that almost sounded like treason. They ended up putting a sound-proofing spell over my room and leaving me alone for a few hours, only checking to make sure that I hadn't done something stupid periodically. I was a mess and I knew it. Every fiber of my being wanted to just bury everything that the princess had pushed onto me, but I couldn't. Mostly because she was right. The only thing I could do was lay there and think and every passing moment made it sink in further and further. I had spent a large portion of my life actively avoiding something that most would kill for. The thing about cutie marks was that no matter how sure you were about their meaning, you would still find days that it surprised you. So much of them was about perception or how you chose to interpret them. I'd never taken the time to consider what my little pot of bits and clover might mean. To me it had always represented an inconvenience. So, for the first time in years, I took a breath and thought about it. Pushing aside the times that if had affected me specifically, I thought about when it had worked for others. The time that Vermilion Shakes had been unfortunate enough to discover a bee allergy the hard way and I'd stumbled upon a plant that eased the reaction until we got her to the hospital. The moment that a small fall had put me in a perfect position to catch Quick Silver's prized glass sculpture so it didn't shatter on the floor. So many times that what I'd thought was a curse turned into the saving of somepony's day. By the time that I was freed to leave the hospital, I'd done a lot of thinking. A lot of soul searching. Luna's words haunted me the entire time as I looked at things from a new angle. I was an earth pony. Family and friends meant a lot to everybeing, but to those of us connected to the earth, they were everything. We were taught that from a young age, even if it was only unintentionally. So, when I rose from my bed, I had to stop and look at myself in the mirror. I had to look deep into my own eyes to see it, but I could see that something had changed. There was a hardness, a confidence, that hadn't been there before. I said nothing as I signed myself out and stepped out into the streets of Canterlot. I turned my gaze to the towering pillars of the palace where two sisters shared their talents with the world. History had thrown everything it could at them, from a mad god of chaos to the ultimate battle between siblings, and still they got up every day to brighten our days and protect our nights. I glanced back at my own cutie mark and took a deep breath. The path to Martial's office held a somber mood today and the guards I passed were surprised to see me. Even though I wasn't technically a guard anymore, none of them made a move to stop me as I raised a hoof and rapped lightly on the door. “Enter.” came her usual gruff command. I pushed the door open and stepped in, shutting it behind me. I knew she expected whatever guard was in front of her to start speaking right away with a report, so I stayed quiet. Her eyes were on the paperwork in front of her, but when no immediate report came spilling from my mouth, she looked up and prepared to chastise somepony. Instead, her eyes fell on me and I delighted in the shock in them. I took a moment to breathe, knowing that after this there would be no backing out. I met her gaze and said four words. “Where do I sign?”