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// Culture-Shock Argument 
// Story: My Brave Pony: The Knight Who Fell From Space 
// by Scipio Smith 
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Culture-Shock Argument


 

Lightning’s eyes remained closed as he regained consciousness, but even before they opened he felt a sensation of weight upon his belly. He opened his eyes, to see Krysta lying, asleep, on top of his stomach; her hair, returned to its usual dark colour, although with a few muted neon blue streaks in the same pattern as the streaks in Twilight’s mane, lay splayed out across his marbled coat. One of his forelegs had ended up tucked over her shoulders, as though even when he was sleeping he was still trying to embrace her.
“Krysta?” Lightning murmured, shifting a little in what swiftly became clear to him was a bed. A bed in which he was lying on his back, while Krysta lay on top of him. 
“Huh?” Krysta replied, stirring into wakefulness herself. Her blue eyes widened even larger than they were already as she saw Lightning staring back at her. “You’re awake!” she cried, as she tried to untangle herself from under his foreleg and wrap her arms around his neck. “You’re awake and come on, dude, get off me so I can give you a hug.”
“I don’t know, I might prefer to keep you at this distance,” Lightning replied dryly.
Krysta stopped struggling long enough to give him a flat stare. Then, slowly, a mischievous grin spread across her features.
Lightning’s eyes narrowed. “What are you thinking?”
Krysta lowered her hands, then spread them out on either side of herself, creating a portal underneath her feet – and another one directly on top of Lightning.
“Krysta, wait-“
“Look out below!” Krysta yelled triumphantly, as she dropped through the first portal and out of the bottom of the second, descending upon Lightning like a bomb to land heavily upon his chest and wrap her arms around him just like she’d always planned to do.
Lightning groaned at the initial impact, before he began to laugh – even his laughter retained a slightly groaning quality to it. 
“You’re awake,” Krysta repeated. “You are awake.” She took a deep breath. “Don’t scare me like that again, okay?”
“Scare you?” Lightning asked as he looked up at her. “Krysta, I think you’re overreacting just a little bit.”
Krysta’s eyes flared with anger. “I got told that you had been brought into the hospital after you got in a fight that left you bleeding and unconscious so don’t you tell me that I am overreacting Lightning Dawn! I was worried about you! I was…” she sniffed, and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her black jacket. “I was so worried.”
Lightning looked down – as best he could – at his shoulder; there was a bandage on it, but honestly – not that he was a brilliant judge of this kind of thing – he thought he had probably had worse. “You know that I’ve been injured before, in the field.”
“Yeah, I know that but just because I know it doesn’t mean I gotta like it!” Krysta snapped. She sniffed again, and wiped once more at her eyes. “Agh! The one advantage of you getting beat up out in the field before is that you never have to see me like this. I didn’t… you’re not supposed to see this.” She rolled athletically off him, leaping off the bed to land with her back to Lightning, her head ever so slightly bowed. 
Never have to see me like this. Lightning’s brow furrowed. “Krysta… have you wept all this while?”
“What, did you think I didn’t care that you were getting hurt?” Krysta demanded angrily. “Did you think I didn’t care that every time you went off to war I was left to worry if this time was going to be the time you didn’t come back? Did you think that I didn’t care that you kept coming back with more scars? Do you think that I don’t worry every day that I might lose you?”
Lightning was silent for a moment. “I… I suppose I never really thought about it.”
Krysta snorted. “Oh, why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“It’s because I’ve been very selfish and a terrible brother, I know,” Lightning confessed. “But it’s also because… I think it’s also because I’ve never really had any fear for my own life, so I never expected that anyone else would fear for it either.”
Krysta looked over her shoulder to glare at him. “You idiot! It’s because you don’t worry about your own life that I have to worry about it for you! It’s because you don’t fear for your own life that you’re going to get yourself killed one of these days.” She shook her head. “That… this was the hidden reason, you know?”
“No,” Lightning admitted. “I don’t know.”
“This was the reason I didn’t tell you why I wanted to stay here,” Krysta declared.
Lightning stared at her. “All the reasons you gave me-“
“Are perfectly true and perfectly valid,” Krysta said quickly. “But there was an extra reason which I knew I couldn’t tell you because if I did you’d just get all defensive and puff out your chest and tell me not to worry my little head but… I thought that… this place is so nice and peaceful and… and I thought that if we stayed here you wouldn’t get in so many fights, and I wouldn’t have to worry so much about you getting hurt.”
Something else I didn’t get. I’m such an idiot, aren’t I?
An idiot who doesn’t deserve a sister like you.
He tried to smile. “For what it’s worth, I think you were mostly right about that. This… this was the exception, not the rule.”
“That doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better when you still ended up in the hospital,” Krysta replied. “So what happened?”
Lightning looked around the room, from the unfamiliar ceiling to the sterile beige walls that surrounded them both, the faded table and the worn chair beside the bed. He and Krysta were all alone in here. “Where’s Twilight? Is she-“
“She’s okay,” Krysta said quickly. “She got a little banged up, but they’re treating her in a different room. Or at least they were.”
Lightning sighed with relief. “That… that is very good to hear.” He flinched at the memory of Twilight’s last expression, the look of horror writ large upon her face. “Has she said anything-“
“Not that I’ve heard but, Lightning, don’t worry about that now,” Krysta insisted. She closed the already short distance between her and her adopted brother. She leaned down. “There are a couple of guards outside your room. They say you killed someone. What happened out there?”
“I almost kissed Twilight,” Lightning confessed.
Krysta stared at him for a moment, her eyes boggling. Her face brightened visibly as a beam crossed her face. “Seriously? Wh-h-y-w- how was it?”
“Krysta!”
“Come on, dude, you can’t just drop that on me and then not expect follow-ups.”
“I’m not sure that Twilight will be particularly keen to follow up, as it were,” Lightning groaned.
“That bad huh?” Krysta asked.
Lightning gave her a look.
“Right, right, this is serious,” Krysta said, holding up her hands defensively. “Okay then, seriously: how did you go from kissing Twilight to killing a guy.”
“The guy showed up and attacked us,” Lightning said.
“So you kicked his flank, right, Knight of the Star Legion?”
“Not exactly,” Lightning admitted. “I think… I think someone else might have been there too, interfering with the fight. There was a moment… Twilight had nearly persuaded him to cease his hostility towards us, but then this knife flew out of the dark and… and the moment was lost.” Lightning leaned back on his pillow. “And then later, I almost had him, but I was attacked from behind and he got the upper hoof. He bound me, and then he started attacked Twilight.”
Krysta covered her mouth with both hands. “You used the Fire of Heaven on him, didn’t you?”
“It was just like that time on the farm,” Lightning said. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“I’m not sure they see it the same way,” Krysta said.
Lightning frowned. “What do you mean?”
The door opened, and Captain Shining Armour walked in. He was wearing his purple raiment of war, and his crested helmet was upon his head, he made no move to take it off. 
His horn glowed as he closed the door behind him, and then he simply glared at Lightning Dawn for a good few moments before he deigned to speak. “You know this is the first killing I’ve had to look into since I got this job. Usually this city is gentler than that. Ponies here in Canterlot aren’t perfect, but they’re not murderers.”
Lightning grunted as he rolled out of bed on the opposite side to that on which Krysta stood. His leg ached a little where he had been struck from behind, but he could stand without difficulty. “I am not a murderer,” he said. “Our assailant, Silver Spear, attacked first. I merely defended myself, and your sister.”
Shining Armour inhaled through his nostrils, and then snorted like a bull. “That’s what Twily says, too. Believe me, that’s the only reason that I’m not throwing the book at you right now.” He took a deep breath. “But, since you were attacked first, and since you acted to defend Twilight, you’re free to leave as soon as you’re recovered.”
Lightning Dawn blinked. “There are no charges? I will face no punishment?”
“No,” Shining Armour said. “But I will ask you for a professional courtesy, from one soldier to another.”
“Name it.”
Shining Armour stared at him flatly. “Stay away from my sister,” he said flatly, before he turned around and marched out of the door, slamming it behind him. 
“That went well,” Krysta muttered. “At least you’re not going to prison, I guess.”
“Have you spoken to Twilight?” Lightning asked.
“No,” Krysta admitted. “I heard a little about what had gone on, but not from her.”
Lightning scowled. He saw Twilight’s face at the forefront of his mind, that horrified expression on her face at what he had done. He needed to talk to her. He needed to explain to her. He needed to see if that look of horror meant what he thought it meant. “I need to talk to her.”
“Uh, but her brother just said-“
“Captain Armour is the Captain of the Royal Guard, not of my soul,” Lightning said sharply. “I understand his concern, but it is fundamentally misguided. Unless you, too, believe that I’m a threat to Twilight?”
Krysta was silent for a moment. Then she smirked. “We’re going to make a rebel out of you yet, Lightning Dawn. Come with me, I think I know where her room is.”
Krysta had to reach up a little to get the door open, but she did open the door and peaked out to make sure the coast was clear, Lightning looming over her as he tried to do the same, looking up and down the sterile hospital corridor, with its tiled floor and walls covered in notepads and charts. Of Shining Armour there was no sign, or any of his guards for that matter, although Lightning did not discount the possibility that he would have gone back to visit his sister.
But that was something that they – that he, Lightning wasn’t going to get Krysta involved in this – would have to deal with when they got there. For now, the two of them slipped out of the room…and then discovered that there had been little need for them to sneak as none of the doctors, nurses or orderlies whom they passed as they walked or trotted briskly down the corridors spared them more than a passing glance. Apparently most of them had no idea who he or Krysta were, or if they did they didn’t care. It was humbling for his ego, and at the same time it was good to know that he had not been transformed into a fearsome monster in the eyes of the populace. 
And yet, that look on Twilight’s face. If I have not become a monster in her eyes I will be very surprised.
As he made his way through the hospital Lightning was also surprised – at least a little – to discover how much that idea irritated him. He had saved her life and she reacted to him as though he had done something terrible in the process? Why? Would she rather he’d just let her die? Was it the fact that he had taken a life that she objected to or was it the manner in which he had done it? Either way, what would have she have rather he did with her own safety in peril like that?
“Krysta,” he said. “When I… when I used the solaforce to protect you, you were never scared of me, were you?”
“Scared of you?” Krysta repeated. “No, never.”
Lightning nodded. “Why not?”
“Why should I have been?”
“I’d just demonstrated immense destructive power.”
“Yeah, on a jerk,” Krysta replied. “I knew that you wouldn’t use it on me.”
“How could you be so sure?” 
Krysta stopped. “Lightning, what’s this about?”
Lightning glanced down at her. “I’m trying to understand why Twilight looked at me the way she did. So you were never afraid?”
“No,” Krysta said earnestly. “Not for a moment. Because you’re my big brother, and I knew that you’d never do anything to hurt me… not on purpose, anyway, and certainly not like that.”
“Thank you for that, even with the qualifications,” Lightning said. “Do you think… do you think that Twilight just doesn’t know me as well as you do?”
“I… I don’t think she’s scared of you,” Krysta said.
“Then why did she look so horrified?”
“I don’t know,” Krysta admitted. “I didn’t see it, but… it might not be fear, it might be… why don’t we just go see her and you can find out for yourself?”
Lightning looked down at Krysta. "You know… you're very wise sometimes."
"And yet you almost never listen to me," Krysta replied. "It's like an ironic curse."
Lightning shook his head, and they continued down the hospital corridors in near silence, Krysta speaking only to direct Lightning on which way she thought they ought to go to reach Twilight's room. Apart from those words, the only sound that they made was the thudding of Lightning's hooves upon the floor, in counterpoint to the barely audible humming of Krysta's gossamer wings as she fluttered alongside him. The sounds of the hospital - crying children, nurses and doctors in engrossed discussion, trolleys with squeaky wheels passing by - arose in confused hubbub all around them, but they neither responded to it nor added much to the racket.
Until they came to the corridor where, Krysta was fairly certain, Twilight was in care. They began to walk down it, when they were both stopped in their tracks by a harsh cry thick with ill temper.
"Hold it right there!" Rainbow Dash snarled, as she flew down the corridor to confront them, a rainbow trail briefly appearing behind her as she stopped, barely an inch from Lightning's snout. Lightning was much taller than she was, but Rainbow was flying above the floor so as to put them muzzle to muzzle, her magenta eyes, blazing with anger, glaring straight into Lightning's eyes of burnished gold. She had shed her tattered gown and all the other accoutrements of the gala, and in her nakedness all her muscles stood out beneath her cyan coat. "Turn around," Rainbow growled. "And walk away. Now."
So, this was another one who judged him for saving Twilight's life, just like Shining Armour did. Lightning was beginning to find this ignorant self-righteousness a little irritating, but he endeavoured to control and to conceal said feelings, as he said simply, "I take it then that Twilight is not far from here."
"What's it to you?" Rainbow demanded.
"I should like to see her."
"Not going to happen," Rainbow said flatly. "Like I said: turn around, walk away."
"And if I don't?" Lightning asked.
"You tell me," Rainbow replied. "Are you going to burn me alive too?"
Lightning growled wordlessly, momentarily baring his teeth at Rainbow Dash, who smirked at the reaction.
"Yeah, that's right," Rainbow said. "Nice to meet the real you."
Lightning closed his mouth, concealing his teeth. He inhaled deeply. "I don't know what you think happened-"
"I don't think anything," Rainbow snapped. "I know that my friend got hurt because of you!"
"I saved her life!"
"From trouble you got her into!" Rainbow yelled. "Twilight wouldn't have been in danger if it wasn't for you! I always knew that you were bad news and after tonight everypony else knows it as well. So you can turn around or you can take me on, but you aren't getting one more step closer to-"
"Rainbow Dash, you have to be quiet, this is a hospital," Twilight said reproachfully as she emerged from one of the rooms further down the corridor. "You can't just yell your head off like that."
Both her cheeks were plastered and bandaged, although this wasn't impeding her ability to speak. Other than that she did not look too much the worse for wear, although that was not to say that Lightning didn't regret that she had suffered the injuries that he could see. Like Rainbow Dash, she had shed her gown and accessories. She made her way slowly, slightly unsteadily upon her hooves, up the corridor towards the three of them.
Rainbow looked back at her. "Twilight, you're supposed to be in bed."
"I'm fine," Twilight insisted, although Lightning had to admit she didn't look completely recovered. "Applejack has already tried to keep me in bed; she didn't succeed, and neither will you." She stopped for a moment. "Now, could you please give us a minute?"
"I really don't think that's a good idea," Rainbow said.
Twilight looked at her. She hadn't yet looked at Lightning Dawn. "Please," she said softly. “Just a moment. Can you wait in the room with the others?"
Rainbow scowled. "Fine," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "But I'll be keeping my ears open." She landed on the ground. "Be careful, Twilight," she added, before she trotted into the room that Twilight had just emerged from.
Twilight still did not meet Lightning's eyes. She looked slightly paler than normal, and she seemed to be keeping close to the corridor wall in case she needed to lean upon it. She said nothing, and Lightning found that - as he remembered the way that she had looked at him when the battle was done - he could not say anything either. He could not find the words to jusitfy or to defend himself without first knowing Twilight's own mind about all this. What did she really think? What lay behind that look of horror? At the moment he felt it like a wall between them, insurmountable, almost unbreakable unless she should choose to remove the first brick from it.
Or unless Krysta, unrestrained by what had passed between Lightning and Twilight, spoke; as she did, "It's great to see you're okay. When I heard you'd got hurt I was pretty worried about you."
Twilight was willing to look at Krysta. "Thanks, Krysta; I took a couple of knocks but I'll be okay." Now, at last, she looked at Lightning Dawn. "Unlike Silver Spear."
Lightning took a deep breath. He worked his lower jaw back and forth. Now they came to it. "Is it the death that you object to?" he asked, trying to keep his tone even. "Or is it the manner of it?"
"Both," Twilight replied. "The manner by which you did it was horrible to witness but even without that the fact would still remain that you killed someone."
"He attacked first," Lightning said.
"So it’s okay because ‘he started it’?” Twilight demanded. “That's the morality of the playground.”
"He was trying to kill us, both of us," Lightning insisted. "He would have killed you if I hadn't done something."
"Then why didn't you do something else?" Twilight demanded.
"Such as what?"
"I don't know, hit him with something that didn't burn him alive?" Twilight suggested sharply.
"Even if that had been within my power, he would have gotten up from that and resumed the battle."
"I was about to get back on my hooves, I could have restrained him."
"Perhaps you could have," Lightning allowed. "If you hadn't wasted time in trying to talk to a vicious, murderous enemy."
Twilight gasped. "So you think that I should have just jumped straight to violence like you did?"
"I think that you are rather naive in certain respects, yes," Lightning said.
"Oh, do you?" Twilight asked sarcastically.
"I have seen war," he told her. "I have fought ponies like Silver Spear for half my life. I know what kind of a pony he is, I know how to fight ponies like that, I know how to kill ponies like that-"
"And that's the only way that you know how to stop them," Twilight whispered, her voice sharp as any blade. "By killing them."
"It is the best way," Lightning replied. "You can be sure it will last."
Twilight's eyes were wide. She took a step backwards, away from Lightning. "You took a life, Lightning; don't you regret that, not at all?"
"Not at all," Lightning replied firmly. "Because in taking that life I saved yours. And I do not regret that. I cannot."
"That's not the point, this isn't about me!" Twilight cried.
"Then what is it about, if not the results?"
"It's about the fact that that's not how we do things here," Twilight cried. "We don't brutally slay our enemies and we don't use ex-post facto justifications to defend it. There was another way. There is always another way. You just had to be willing to look for it." She wobbled slightly upon her hooves. "And if you don't understand then... then I suppose that Rainbow Dash was right about who... and what you are. If you'll excuse me, my friends are probably going to drag me back to bed if I don't come willingly." She turned away, and began to walk uncertainly back towards her room.
"All that I did I did for your sake," Lightning called after her. "And I will not apologise for that, to you or anypony else. I will not apologise for putting the safety of those I care deeply for above that of my enemies; the safety of those that I..." the word stuck in his throat, it would not come, not at such a time as this.
Twilight Sparkle stopped. She looked back for a moment, and those eyes that had shone so brightly and so… so beautifully in the moonlight now seemed dull with disappointment. She looked back, with those disappointed eyes, but said nothing; then she turned away, and disappeared back into the hospital room.
"You know," Krysta said. "I don't think you could have handled that much worse if you were trying."
Lightning could not disagree, and since he could not disagree he did the only thing he could do, the thing that Rainbow Dash had wanted him to do much sooner.
He turned around, and walked away.