//------------------------------// // Chapter Four // Story: Broken Knowledge // by LucidTech //------------------------------//         A pony and a human sat in the main room of the library. The man was seated upon a simple wooden stool, a wounded arm stretched out parallel to the ground. The pony stood next to him, the arm resting at her eye level, and took great care as she applied medical treatment to the bleeds. Both had their eyes trained on his arm, one to make sure she did her work correctly, the other because he didn’t care to look anywhere else. After several minutes of this tenuous silence, James raised his gaze to look at Twilight’s eyes, but failed as she kept her eyes from looking back at him. He opted not to speak as she worked, but kept his eyes on her face, creating a very anxious and awkward moment for the unicorn.  Her magic encircled a roll of gauze and carefully wound the material around the injuries and causing him to flinch slightly in pain, though it was nothing compared to the burning alcohol that had been used on them only a few moments earlier. Twilight kept her eyes on the wounds, not wanting to make a mistake. However there was another reason, she simply wanted to avoid his searching eyes. She bound his wrist tightly, securing the appendage as best as she could.         Her mind raced as she worked, about how he had saved her. More importantly about why he had saved her. It seemed so opposite of his personality, given how little he seemed to care about himself and his surroundings. She risked a glance at the man but quickly looked away when his eyes met hers. She sped up her work, eager to take her mind off of the being who sat only a few feet away. “For what it’s worth I don’t know either.” He said with a caring tone, striking Twilight with an odd juxtaposition between his personality he had had before and the one he had now. “Hmm?” Twilight kept it simple, she also kept her eyes on his arm. “Why I saved you, I don’t know,” he elaborated. When Twilight didn’t respond he continued. “Of course, I’d like to pretend that I care and that I’m a hero when I have the opportunity, and I used to think that about myself as well. But, well... you don’t care about my back story do you? Not right now at any rate, you’ll probably want to use it as some kind of explanation during one of our sessions, but that’s the only level that you’ll care about it on.” The emotion faded from his voice with each passing word until at last it returned to it’s devoid and empty state. Twilight made to speak up, to tell him that she genuinely cared about what had happened, but was stopped as the door to the library burst open and a dash of blue flew in. Rainbow Dash hovered angrily in front of the human, idle wing beats keeping her aloft as she stared haughtily at the creature. “Rainbow!” Came the immediate call from Twilight, a level of surprise at the idea of her best friend bursting into her home. “Why did you do that?” “Fluttershy woke me up.” She said briefly narrowing her eyes at the biped. “She said she heard a crash and that you wouldn’t answer the door when she knocked. I figured you probably just didn’t hear her, but I decided to come check up on you anyway.” Her eyes flicked to Twilight, then back to the human. “And I saw this guy, all bandaged up. Guess you got a piece off of him in the fight huh?” Twilight made to speak but was interrupted. The biped’s voice wafted past his lips, a touch of insanity haunting his words as he spoke. “You think... I’d hurt her?” They were spaced apart and a clear building anger followed them, enforcing the idea to Twilight that interfering would not be the best solution at this point in time. “Heck yes I do! I saw what you did when you came to town, you ruined her book! Why wouldn’t you attack her? I knew this was a dumb idea, but I also trusted that Twilight knew how to handle herself. Looks like I was right.” Rainbow looked at the man with a degree of smugness no one else could even hope to match. Anger shot like cleansing fire through his bones, forcing his potential anger into a kinetic force. He bolted upright in a blur, near madness decorating his features. Twilight instantly grew worried, she had seen what he could do when he simply didn’t care. She feared what he would do if he were angry. Unfortunately, she lacked full control of her magic since it was still recovering from Sombra's assault. All she could do was wait. James stared into Rainbow’s cocky eyes, slowly he reigned his anger in, his muscles grew slack. With a glance to Twilight he turned away and slowly made his way towards the basement, but stopped at the door as a call from the speed demon caught his attention. “I knew you were too much of a coward to do anything.” Twilight merely looked at Rainbow agape at this, not understanding what could have made the pegasus become so aggressive to James. James’ anger snapped and he spun around, quickly closing the distance between him and Rainbow Dash with stiff steps. “You are nothing more than a hopeless little pile of crap!” He shouted loudly. “You look at me and call me a coward but at least I can do something you obstinate little twerp! Your dream is to join the wonderbolts but you can’t get in and you know why? Because you’re a completely useless excuse for a mare! You pretend to yourself that you’re worth something, telling yourself you’re awesome and that you helped save the world but YOU DIDN’T! The only reason you even have connections with Celestia’s protege is because of that fact that you are one of the elements of harmony! That’s it! Your flying skills landed you in the most out of the way city in all of Equestria!” Twilight watched as Rainbow Dash’s smug appearance slowly devolved into a scared sadness. “You’re a helpless pegasus, barely able to win a flying competition unless a life is at stake. You have no self esteem and you try and hide this behind false advertising hoping that someday you might be able to convince yourself of the lie! If it weren’t for your friends you would still be taking back seat to Lightning Dust and the only way you could manage lead pony was to disqualify the competition!” Rainbow Dash began to back away from the manic expression, but he followed her every move backwards, remaining in her face as he shouted. “You make entire assumption on information you don’t have like the idiot that you are! You think I would have done anything to Twilight? I just saved her life while you were busy eavesdropping at the door! If it weren’t for me she would be dead right now and you have the gall to insult me in any way shape or form?” Rainbow didn’t notice as she exited the library, but she did notice when James grabbed the door with one hand. “GOOD BYE!” The door slammed angrily in front of her face with such force that she felt her bones shake in their sockets. On the other side of the door James turned on Twilight, his body slouched, and walked past her. “I’m going to bed.” Was all he said as he passed, leaving a shell shocked Twilight in his dust as he descended. She idled in the main room, completely bewildered by what had just happened. She managed to slightly over come her shock and make her way to her room where Spike still slept peacefully. She envied her lizardly companion, and she wished she could manage some form of undistrubed sleep, but after what she had just witnessed moments ago, she had trouble even closing her eyes. Downstairs, James sighed. Ticka ticka ticka tiiickaaa tick. Click. He pulled the gun barrel away from his head and slid the revolver barrel out to look at it’s ammo. Just to the left of the slot he had tried to fire was the bullet. Placing the gun back in his jacket James moved into what he considered a sleeping position. “Tomorrow then.” Were his last words before he was taken into the wonderful black oblivion of sleep.