Twilight Sparkle sat her desk, staring at a piece of parchment with her ink quill resting in the bottle of ink to the right of the paper.
‘Dear Princess Celestia,’
These were the only words decorating the otherwise blank would-be letter. Twilight glanced at the dancing shadows cast by the flickering flame of the candle that illuminated the otherwise dark room. It was well into the night and Twilight had made no significant progress in composing the letter she was writing to her mentor. Her rejected drafts lay crumpled and scattered on the floor.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” she said to herself. “I regret to inform you that an accident has occurred leaving Ponyville’s resident human Anonymous permanently paralyzed from the neck down…NO, that’s too formal! Uh, alright, um Dear Princess Celestia, something terrible has happened! Anon has been been permanently paralyzed by one of RAINBOW DASH’S STUPID PRANKS! Ugh, I can’t write that either!”
The unicorn let out a groan of frustration as she rubbed her hooves to her temples. She closed her eyes and glanced up to the ceiling, simply staring at the ceiling above her as she tried to compose her thoughts. Those thoughts eventually led back to the events at the hospital earlier that day.
“So…where is s-she?” Anon asked. It was such a simple question and yet Twilight couldn’t help but wince at the physical struggle Anon seemed to be having just to enunciate the words. Or maybe it was the harsh implications of his apparent memory loss that caused her to physically withdraw. Either way it didn’t seem like he had noticed. Eyes wide she looked to her other three friends. They all shared equally perturbed looks. None of them seemed to know what to say.
“Well, she’s uh…she’s…” started Applejack. Applejack was having an internal debate with herself. The truth was horrible, but Anon had to know didn’t he? She couldn’t lie about something like this. Anon had a right to know the truth!
“Alright, look Anon. The truth is-,” but before she could finish, Twilight intervened.
“Rainbow Dash has some important weather duties to take care of right now! But she’ll be really glad to know you’re alrig-awake!” Twilight corrected herself quickly. Anon wasn’t alright, and she knew that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Applejack giving her a stern look. Pinkie and Rarity also glanced in her direction, but with worry rather than the accusatory look Applejack directed at her.
“Oh…okay.” He replied. He tried to look Twilight in the eyes but with his new case of ocular misalignment, he was only able to look at her directly with his left eye. He released a shudder and then spoke again. “P-paral-alyzed? You said? Are…you…sure?” This time it was the doctor who answered.
“I’m afraid so Anon. We ran several tests, and unfortunately…they were conclusive.” Upon hearing the conformation, Anon simply stared into the distance with a blank look on his face. He didn’t even blink for what felt like minutes. It was almost as if he was frozen in time. All the ponies in the room looked at him worriedly.
“You okay Nonny?” Asked Pinkie Pie, taking as step closer to him. His glazed over look ended when a small breathy ‘heh’ escaped his lips. Then a very small chuckle followed.
“You…kn-ow…th-th-they sa-ay…you have…a one in…a million cha-ance of…being…st-struck…by light-ni-ni-ning. Lu-cky…me…right? It’s…too bad…I’m no-ot a …betting man, eh?” He managed to get out.
Anon was not a stranger to jokes at his own expense. He was always trying to find the humor in things. But right now not even Pinkie Pie was laughing. It looked like Anon was about to say something else, Applejack spoke up.
“Hey listen Anon, me an Twilight gotta step into the hall real quick. We’ll be right back!” Said Applejack as she used her hoof to direct Twilight into the hallway.
“Oh…kay…” he replied weakly.
As soon as the two mares where in the hall and out of earshot, Applejack gave her friend a serious look.
“You ain’t plannin’ on telling him about what Rainbow Dash did, are ya?” Twilight grimaced in response.
“Not YET,” she replied.
“Twilight Sparkle, don’t ya think Anon deserves the honest truth about what happened to him! That one of his friends flat out attacked him!” Applejack raised her voice but managed to keep it quiet enough so that no one else would be able to hear.
“She wasn’t trying to attack him Applejack!” Twilight replied.
“Oh yeah, what would you call what she did?” Twilight closed her eyes and took in a breath.
“A very, very, incredulously, monumentally, thoughtless, vapid and STUPID…mistake. She didn’t know this would happen.”
“Twi, I may not be the smartest pony in town, but even I know better than to do what she did! She had to have known what would happen when she did somethin’ like that to a critter that ain’t got any magic!”
“She didn’t know that Anon didn’t have any magic,” replied Twilight as calmly as she could.
“How could she not have known? We were all there when you explained it!”
“She…she didn’t understand what I explained,” said Twilight, her face now morphing into one of guilt.
“Well of course she didn’t, that filly’s got her head in the clouds even when she’s standin’ on the soil! If she’d just paid attention for once in her damned life, this wouldn’t have happened!”
“I…I should have explained it in simpler terms,” admitted Twilight. “I got too excited about the discovery I’d made, I explained things like I was at a science conference and not just in front of my friends!”
“Twilight, don’t put the blame on yourself, Rainbow’s what done it! Why are you so keen on defending her?”
“I…I’m not trying to excuse what she did. I’m angry too Applejack. Anon’s our friend, but Rainbow Dash is still our friend too, right?” Applejack didn’t respond, instead looking down to the side.
“Right?” Twilight asked again, softly. Applejack didn’t look her in the eye.
“I…ah’m gonna go down to the food court an get some apple juice. Anon must be right thirsty right now.” And with that, Applejack cantered past Twilight. The unicorn watched as Applejack left. She was about to call out to her friend but decided against it. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, before she ultimately decided to return to the others.
Twilight reminisced on the days earlier events. She felt like everything was falling apart. Twilight felt like her world had been turned upside down, and she wasn’t even really a victim in this situation! Anon was the one who had been hurt. But…all of her friends were now affected.
Twilight decided she couldn’t wait anymore. She needed Princess Celestia’s advice, and she needed someone to talk to about her feelings. Using her magic, she dipped her quill in its ink pot, and began to pen her letter.
Dear princess Celestia,
I need your help I don’t know what to do! Last week Anon was struck by lighting bolt! Rainbow Dash struck a bolt of lightning out at him as a prank, not fully realizing the difference between him and a pony! As a result he’s now paralyzed from the neck down! Now all of our friends are mad at her, and I am too, but I don’t know if this is something we can move past, and I don’t know what to do! I need your help! Please write me back as soon as you can!
-Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.