//------------------------------//
// The Story So Far 
// Story: A Place For My Thoughts 
// by Cavemonkynick 
//------------------------------//

	Spring, Week 7, Day 4, Year 990 of Celestia’s Reign (CR)

Wow, I have no idea how to start this. I guess the basics are as good a place as any. My name is Devin Windelbane. I’m a sixteen year old, blank flank pegasus, born and raised in Cloudsdale. When my mom was still carrying me she got sick. The doctors didn’t know what it was and it was too risky to move her to Canterlot so they had to birth me early hoping that at least I would survive, which I did… Obviously.

Because of my early birthing my muscles never formed properly. This left me with very little endurance, something that still plagues me to this day although I have learned that there may be a way to treat it, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyways, thanks to my physical shortcomings I spent a lot of time reading and learning. It was all I had really. Unfortunately part of being a pegasus is flight school, and part of flight school is flying, and flying is hard when you can’t exert yourself for more than ten minutes at a time. And that’s on a good day. Needless to say, I didn’t do very well in flight school. I started when I was twelve, like all the other fillies and colts. The average pegasus will finish flight school in eight or nine months, give or take. A year tops for slow learners, and I was there for four years. It’s downright embarrassing to be honest but I just didn’t have the strength for the flight exams.

So I left Cloudsdale behind just over two weeks ago in the middle of the night.  I left dad a note telling him that I was tired of being a failure and that I’d be back when I managed to become somepony. Don’t take that the wrong way, nopony blamed me for my condition. Even my classmates seemed to understand that I was sick and didn’t haze me about it, so I didn’t leave because of them, I left for me. A pegasus is more than just a pair of wings and I’ll be damned to Tartarus before I just lay down and quit. So I left.

All in all it was a poorly thought out decision. I just picked a bunch of clouds that seemed to make a suitable impromptu path to the ground and it worked fine until I ran out of clouds. I figured I was close enough to the ground so I just went for it. Stupid? Extremely, but it worked… sorta.

Ok so I gave out just below the tree line and got to know nature on a very personal level via an oak tree that broke my fall. It also broke my wing which I thought was pretty rude at first, but I did invade the tree’s personal space, and it was nice enough to save my stupid flank, so I figured it best to let bygones be bygones. After that brush with death I trudged off in the direction of a path I’d seen before my leap of stupidity. It’s worth noting that walking with a broken wing sucks, especially when you don’t have anything to splint it or even hold it still. All I could do was let it hang limply at my side so I'd end up brushing it on something or accidentally kicking it and that would make me wince and then the wince would hurt and I’d wince harder which hurt worse so my brain would force my wing to relax but then that movement would hurt and it was all very painful and absolutely infuriating. By the time I reached the path my head was swimming from the endless cycle of pain and I blacked out.

I woke up in a hospital, much to my surprise. A nurse came in and told me that I was in Canterlot and that a member of the royal guard had found me and carried me here. Later that day said guard dropped in for a visit. He introduced himself as Shining Armor, Captain of Celestia's Royal Guard. When I asked how he found me he said he had been sent to investigate reports of Timberwolves in the area when he came across me. Seems I’d gotten a lot luckier than I realized. Then he asked how I ended up out cold in the middle of the woods. I considered making something up but instead I told him everything. Not sure why, I just felt like I could trust him. He took it all in stride, promised not to ship me back off to Cloudsdale and even offered me his spare room until I got back on my own four hooves.

I was released after four days, moved in with Shining Armor and I’m still staying with him. He’s the one who suggested I keep a journal, said it helps him keep his thoughts straight. Shining and I have gotten to know each other pretty well. I went with him to visit his family last weekend and he introduced me to his parents and his little sister who informed me I have a funny name. Gotta love kids.

So like I said, I was released almost two weeks ago. I'm still stuck in this damn cast though. It’s left me with a lot of time to think about where I want to go from here, and I think I’m gonna try for the guard. From what Shining Armor has told me the Lunar Guard is hurting for new recruits right now and if I show enough initiative then they may be willing to work with me and pay for that treatment I mentioned earlier. Oh right, I haven’t elaborated on that yet. Well I’m not really sure on all the details but it’s some kind of physical therapy that’s supplemented by unicorn magic. I won’t be setting any flying records but I’ll at least be functional as a pegasus. 

Well it’s late and my jaw is cramping. You’d think with all their crazy magic some unicorn would have come up with a spell or enchantment where you could dictate to a pencil or a quill or something and it'd write for you. That unicorn would be set for life. Seriously, get with the program all you inventors out there!