Clarke sat with his back against the empty living room wall and sighed into his hands, the silence eating away at him more than any parasite ever could. Shortly after bringing Fighter back to the new house, he was left to his own devices while the entire world slept around him. He just felt so… wrong here, like with each passing second he was inviting disaster into these ponies’ lives.
It didn't matter how much the princess yelled at him, he couldn't shake the feeling of guilt in his chest, the weight of the responsibility, and the sadness of keeping it all inside. It wasn't like there was anyone else to talk to regardless, and even if there was, the last thing he'd want to do is burden them with all of his petty feelings. The healthiest thing to do was to just hold onto it until he died, like a normal person.
He constantly looked at the door across the living room and contemplated walking through it, never to return, but that held too many consequences. What if they needed his help, but he wasn't here? Granted he hadn't been much of a help in his short stay, but that didn't change the fact that he'd try. There was also the possibility of those maniacs coming after Fighter and her mom since he knew for a fact that not many people would be as hesitant to dispose of her in pursuit of their selfish goals as Fiddler and Todd were.
These were the main reasons he decided to stay completely still in his spot on the carpet. The idea of his actions causing even more hardship, only for him to walk away felt disgusting to think about. Then there was the obvious course of action in ending it himself, effectively stopping any incentive one might have to find Fighter, but that….. He paused for a moment, the negative to such a heavy thought taking frighteningly too long to reach him.
Clarke looked down at the pink bracelet on his wrist, a quirk he had begun to develop in the past few hours, and scowled at it. He could practically still hear the purple princess yelling into his ears, about how he shouldn't do it, but what did she know? It wasn't like there'd be much anyone would miss… both in this world and his. He doubted if anyone back home besides the police even really cared that he’d disappeared in a flash of light.
Clarke continued to be consumed by his thoughts until he heard the sounds of soft pattering from across the house in the hallway that managed to snap him out of it. Despite it being pitch black, he could make out the distinct color of bright pink as Fighter Swan slowly crept out of the hall and stopped, looking directly at him as she did.
"Hey." She said quietly with a hint of nervousness. Unbeknownst to him, she’d been watching from the hall for quite some time, and the longer she did, the more she felt obligated to say something.
"Hey," He replied solemnly as he pushed himself further against the wall and sat upright. "Why are you up so early?"
"I… couldn't sleep," She said while looking to the side before stepping across the foyer and into the living room. "I guess I slept too much at the hospital." She slowly crept across the carpeted floor and sat next to Clarke, leaning her head against the wall just like him.
"Why are you up?" She asked curiously. Clarke let out a long sigh and forced a smile as he looked at her, her large yellow eyes looking up at him with adorable curiosity.
"Just been thinking about things. I can't get to sleep when my mind races like this, so I just have to try and deal with it." He replied honestly, feeling no need to hide such a quirk from her.
"Oh," Fighter looked down for a moment as she pondered what was on his mind. It must've been something pretty heavy if he was spending so long staring in multiple directions and sighing every five minutes. She understood that watching someone for as long as she watched Clarke was a little weird, but the look of guilt and sadness on his face was practically calling out for her to help.
"What kinds of things?" As soon as she asked she saw Clarke tense up, and suddenly she was pretty nervous about his answer. He remained silent as he looked away from her, his eyes filled with an intensity that began to worry her. “Are they… bad things?”
“Oh,” Clarke cleared his throat and shifted in place uncomfortably. “No, no, it’s just… a lot to think about you know. New world… new place…” He said using half-truths to maintain a natural tone of voice. “New powers.” He finished as he clenched his right hand and glared at his bracelet for a split second. Fighter watched him, clearly seeing it despite him trying to be subtle, and decided to attempt diffusing his anger.
“I get it… I’ll be honest, I thought you looked pretty weird when I saw you.” She told him with a smile, only for him to raise his eyebrow at her questioningly. She intentionally left a long pause afterward, cursing herself for not getting a cup of water to drink as he waited for her to finish.
“Is that it? Because you know, believe it or not, that’s a rude thing to say to most people.” He said with a smile, before looking off to the side as a sense of deja vu hit him. He could have sworn he’d had a similar conversational beat before.
“No, no, no, you didn’t let me finish,” She said with a little chuckle from his reaction, before looking down once more with a look of content. “I was gonna say that I get it. If I thought you looked strange when I saw you, then I can only imagine what it must be like for you, surrounded by ponies, in a whole new world. I’d have freaked out by now, so bad they’d have to throw me in a psycho room, you know the ones with all the pillows on the walls?” She explained sloppily as she made strange gestures with her hooves, an attempt that was left severely lacking without fingers. “Do you guys have those?”
“You mean padded cells? Yes, we do.” Clarke said with a smile on his face as he conversed with the filly.
“Well, all in all, I’d say you’re doing pretty well since you're not in one. You even got to talk with the princess right afterward!” She said with a proud hoof on her chest, before slowly realizing something. “Oh no, that must have been extra weird. The princess is, like, freakishly tall.” Fighter stopped her rambling when she felt his warm hand rest on top of her unbraided mane, causing her to look up at his smiling face.
“While that might be true, she was pretty nice overall,” She smiled when he said that, since she could hear the sad tone in his voice slightly lessening the more he spoke. “She told me a lot of things, most of which I didn’t understand, and in the end, we struck a nice deal that netted your mom this house.” She looked around in amazement, the truth of what happened making her head spin, and could tell that even in the dark this house was pretty nice.
“What did you talk-” She was about to pry even deeper about what they’d talked about since she was dying to know ever since the hospital, but something in her gut told her to hold off on it. No matter how much it pained her inside, she had to hold back the incessant urge to ask questions. Though she couldn’t be sure, there was a good chance that whatever they talked about was the reason he was so downtrodden, he was definitely keeping something secret either way.
“What was that?” Clarke asked curiously as she cut herself off mid-sentence.
“Nothing,” She said with a shake of her head that caused Clarke’s hand to finally drop from it. It was then that she got the wonderful idea to share her latest find with him. “Do you want to see something cool?” Clarke cocked his head back from the sudden change in subject, but considering the alternative was to stew in his thoughts some more he decided to roll with it. He watched her lift her green bracelet, and once he barely suppressed the urge to scowl at it he saw her tap on it three times. What happened next was a bright green screen, not unlike the holograms you’d see in sci-fi movies, popping out of the gem and illuminating both of their faces as they stared down at it.
“What is that?” Clarke said as he watched her swipe left and right on it like it was a smartphone. What he saw were various screens each time, the most notable of which were the status screen depicting a featureless version of him, and a long list titled ‘spells’.
“I’m… not sure really. What I do know is that it tells me all sorts of things,” She said as she tapped on the leg of his diagram and brought up a rotating image of his calf muscle that said ‘healthy’. “Looks like your leg’s all good. Just call me doctor Fighter Swan!” Clarke eventually tore his eyes away from the screen and looked at the smiling filly, a sense of pride welling up from inside as he did. This kid was truly something special, and was no doubt the smartest little thing he’d ever seen.
Not only was she able to fight by his side, she recovered in less than a day, and she was already experimenting with the artifact that he was too angry to even look at for more than a second. Maybe it was because she didn’t know about the gravity of the situation, he pondered, but deep down he could feel that even if she did know, she’d still be as happy go lucky as she was right now. Maybe… she could handle knowing more?
“What are you looking at? I got something on my nose?” Fighter asked as she made herself go crosseyed to look for anything out of place on her face.
"Nothing, nothing’s wrong. There’s actually something I think I need to tell you.” Clarke shifted in place so that he was facing her directly and sat cross-legged. Fighter looked at him curiously for a moment and nodded in understanding, maintaining her calm outward appearance. On the inside though, she was giddy at the thought of finally being shared a secret since it wasn’t something she’d normally get to do with other ponies. Mainly because one would need friends or trust to do such a thing, but that's beside the point.
"You have to promise me that you won't tell your mom I told you this, She specifically told me not to." He said as he looked around the house for any sign of her mother. She nodded furiously, eager to hear what he had in store since very few times was she ever clued into things her mom didn't want her to know.
“Understood,” She said with a little salute. “Mom’s always not telling me things, but that’s why when I find the things she’s not telling me, I not tell her of the things she doesn’t not, not tell me…” She stopped for a second as she looked at the ground and started rubbing her temples with her hooves. “My head hurts.”
“Okay, calm down there brainiac,” He said jokingly as he slowly lowered her hooves. Once he was sure that she was giving him her undivided attention, he took one last deep breath and began. "There’s a reason we have these bracelets, these powers, and why we were attacked the other day.”
“Gotta say, that was the second craziest birthday I’d ever had.” She interrupted with a comical, and very purposeful, shake of her head.
“What? How in the hell could you have possibly had a crazier birthday?” Clarke asked but immediately stopped and calmed himself down. “Not the point, not the point Clarke. No interruptions!” He said as he waved his finger in her face like she was a puppy. She gave him a deadpan stare in response, clearly recognizing that she was being treated like a misbehaving pet, and nodded in agreement.
"So Fiddler and Todd, those two psychos that nearly killed us, there was a reason they did it. That reason is because we are all a part of some massive fight called the ‘Tourney’ where the winners are granted a wish. The reason they needed to fight us is because of that.” He left a small pause before continuing to allow Fighter Swan to digest the information. She remained silent, as her eyes moved all around like a visual aid to the gears turning in her head until finally looking back up at him and nodding.
“Now we don’t know how or why this is happening, that’s something the princess is trying to figure out, so until then we decided to keep you as safe as possible. Because Fiddler and Todd are only the beginning. As far as we know there could be hundreds of humans and ponies all over the world fighting for that wish,” He took a moment to gauge her reactions, but when he saw no overwhelming emotion on her face, he decided to continue. “At any moment we could find ourselves in another fight, and that’s why despite your mother's wishes I’m telling you now. We need to make sure you’re prepared.” Finally, he placed a hand on her shoulder, ready for any questions or thoughts she might have.
"So what you’re saying is… we can get a wish?" She said as she put both of her hooves together and pointed at him, her lips pursed in a questioning fashion. Clarke had to stop and think for a second before answering her.
"That's… true, but not really what I wanted you to take away from this."
"No, I get it. This is dangerous and stuff, buuuuut… if we win that means we can get a wish?” Clarke cringed as she said that, knowing full well that it was much more complicated than that. He had to act fast if he wanted Fighter to drop that train of thought.
“That’s the reason everyone’s fighting, but for all we know that could be a lie. This whole thing could be one big ruse just to make everyone fight, a rumor started by some madman.” Fighter looked away with a sigh and nodded as he said this, presumably to consider what he’d just said.
“That could’ve happened, buuuuuut!” Clarke facepalmed, since he knew exactly where this was going. “If it IS true, then we get a wish?”
“Okay, yes, but if it’s not then we could be putting ourselves in danger for no reason. Wish or not there is just too much at stake here. These people will be out for blood, your life, nothing short of that will satisfy them!” He said, his fears and perceptions of the situation seeping into his pleas without him noticing.
“Sorry what? You lost me after yes,” Fighter said as she looked up from the screen on her bracelet, only to point her hoof at him accusingly. “Aha! So you admit it! We can get a wish. I knew it.” She said with a smug smile, and Clarke had the sudden urge to bang his head against the wall. Perhaps he spoke too soon about her being the smartest child he’d ever met, because right about now she was acting as stubborn as any other kid he’d babysat before.
“Just think about it, Clarke! Our wildest dreams coming true! Nothing in the way of us, and the greatest thing we could ever possibly imagine!” She said with childlike wonder welling up in her star-filled eyes. “What would you wish for?”
Clarke looked at her for a second, his more logical side wanting to just shut down any talk about wishes and focus on the gravity of it all, but the emotional side of him was too busy being overridden by the bundle of adorableness staring up at him expectantly.
“I don’t know Fighter… a billion dollars? My own theme music maybe?” He replied almost pleadingly, the idea of entertaining what he'd want in a wish making him feel extremely anxious for some reason.
"Yeah, I know what I’d wish for.” She said as she gazed at the ceiling vacantly. Clarke stopped for a moment and cocked his head to the side. Though she didn’t give him an answer, he could see the unmistakable look of hope on her face as she dreamed to herself. Whatever it was she wanted, it must have been pretty big.
“Yeah… wishes are pretty cool,” He said as he watched her slowly lean her head against his side and yawn. “We have to make sure we’re smart about it though. I guess if we want a wish, we need to be prepared for anything.” He said, hoping to reach a sort of middle ground with her. If letting her hope for something better in the idea of a wish meant that she’d follow his lead, then so be it.
“You’re right, we need a plan. We’ll make one… first thing… tomorrow.” She said as she slowly started to drift off to sleep beside him. Clarke sighed heavily as he wrapped his arm around her, and for a moment he was afraid that he’d be attacked by the same thoughts of doubt that had kept him up. Surprisingly though, they never came, and all he could feel was fatigue doing it’s absolute best to drag him back to sleep.
At least he knew that he had Fighter in the loop, and come tomorrow they’d be ready to make a plan and stick to it. They didn’t have to win, all they had to do was survive.