//------------------------------// // 017 Life's Pain // Story: The Life Returns // by Dress72 //------------------------------// 017 I felt a powerful magic descend upon me, then two other magics of high scale settle upon me. I felt hundreds of low powered magic join the other four. “Overkill much?” I muttered under my breath. Celestia walked up to me and, in her normal, calm voice, said, “You know, White Wind. The last ones that attacked me ended up on the moon. Before that, in ice, and before that, in stone. No pony has dared attack me since. You know why?” “Because you rule over a country, control the sun, and will lie to somepony who has directly told you not to lie to him, and who warned you that there were consequences, AND already knew the entire story that you were lying about? Your sister, of whom had returned to this country, what, a year ago after you banished her to the moon, had more sense than you, and I’m guessing she has had less social skills than you, for being gone for so long,” I tiraded, “Overall, Celestia, you were in the wrong there, and totally deserved the beating that you received.” “He is right, sister,” Luna said, stepping up. Her horn was the only one within the mass of guards that was not aglow. “And although I don't condone his actions, I don't condone yours either. You are the one who faulted first here.” I felt about half of the weak magic falter, and disappear. Shining stepped up and joined the conversation, “What about that promise you made me? The one where you wouldn’t harm anypony.” “Didn’t you hear Shining?” I asked, “I’ve been in prison for the last 70 days or so. I never made you a promise while in prison. I also still need to be invited to this wedding of yours. I hear that it was my son who finally got you to propose to Princess Cadance after all. Don’t you think I should be invited?” I was catching Celestia, Cadance, Shining, and Luna all in their lies. Luna already had apologized, so I guess I was and wasn’t catching her at this point, as well. The four caught on to what I was doing almost immediately and Shining, knowing where I was heading, and has heard about the dangers of my psychological warfare, backed off, and ordered his guards to do the same. To my pleasure, all but one of the magic auras holding me broke. “Celestia, think. Your sister never held me in her magic, your Captain of the Royal Guard even has freed me. The only pony left, is you. I would suggest that you…” “Shut up. You assault me, and fight me. Did you honestly think that there would be no repercussions?” Celestia waited for me to answer, and when she got none, she continued, “I should banish you, or sentence you to death.” I remained calm, and silent, never once changing my slightly smug expression. I think this just ticked her off because she closed the distance between us, and hit my jaw with surprising force. My head snapped to the side, despite the magic holding me. The magic forced me to look back at Celestia, which was unnecessary, as I would have still looked at her with the smug expression still on my face, anyways. She hit me again, and my brain rattled. Still, I had the smug expression on my face, and she forced me to look at her, just to see it. She kept beating me, over and over, only to be shown the same expression. I would not back down. After about 12 hits, my face surely was bloody, and I could feel the blood pouring out of cuts and bruises on my face, and within my mouth. “You done yet?” I asked. She hit me again, and Shining stepped in, “CELESTIA! That is enough. Any more won’t get you anywhere.” She stopped, and looked at me, growing anger only hinted to, in her visible eye, as she saw that my expression had changed to that of a large smile, mocking her. I was thrown in Shining’s direction and released from the magic grip. I couldn’t adjust due to the fact that I was only half conscious, so I rolled, then skid painfully to a stop at Shining’s forelegs. “He is your problem now Shining. He is either to be put to death, or to become a guard,” Celestia said, before walking away. I attempted to get up, but my balance was off, so I ended up stumbling and fell. I decided that I would get up, not giving Celestia what little victory she could have achieved, despite her already winning over my balance. A guard tried to help me up and support me, but I pushed them away. I stood, and felt that I was going to fall, so I spread my wings, and the wind kept me balanced. I stood still, getting my feet (Or hooves) under me. I retracted my wings, and stood still for a few more minutes, gaining my balance back. When I looked around, able to keep myself upright, I noticed that my son, and the other six ponies, where gone, along with most every guard. I looked at Shining and said, “May we head to the hospital wing? It looks like I will be joining the Royal Guards sooner than I anticipated.” My jaw hurt as I spoke, and I think I had a fractured jaw. I realized, looking past Shining, that the bubble around Canterlot had turned purple again. He had an expression that I couldn’t recognize, and without speaking, turned around, and walked away. I follower, thinking that we were heading to the hospital wing. We, however, arrived at the barracks after only seven minutes, and only then did he speak, “We will get you fitted for armor, then you will be shown where you will stay. I have been told, and I’m sure that the nurses here know as well, that unless you have broken bones, you will not be treated. We will get you to the hospital for a checkup after you are fitted and shown your bed. I will place a few guards to guard Red Wing, and you will fill in their current places.” Shining left and a Pony with a cutie mark of a smiths hammer came and took my measurements. It is strange, I never would have thought that the suits of armor were custom made. Anyways, when the smith was done getting the correct measurements for the armor, Swift Sword came in and told me that she would be showing me my bed. “It’s weird. We keep ending up meeting each other,” Swift Sword remained silent, “Have you gone to a psychologist yet?” she still remained silent, “You know, if I don’t know, then I can’t pay, or reimburse the cost,” I pointed out. She still refused to talk. Talking still made my jaw hurt so I wanted to keep it down to a minimum and I think that my jaw actually was fractured. Her refusal to talk disobeyed that. “I guess if you followed my instructions like I asked, then Twilight has the bills. I will ask her for them. I will have to retrieve my house sometime soon.” At this point I was just talking to myself. Finally we had arrived at the location that my bed was. It was to the right of castle, entering from the front. Within the maze of barracks, we ended up going to row 12 of 30 and column three of ten. I was surprised by the amount of barracks that was hidden within the mountain. It literally was dug within the mountainside, and had enough room to house several thousands of soldiers. From what I could tell, there was only around 600-800 actual soldiers within the city. “Your bed is the one on the top of the third bunk down to the right,” Swift Sword said. She immediately left, and Shining Armor entered. “Good, you made it. Now let’s get you that checkup,” Shining said. “Alright, by the way, where is Red Wing, I want to see him,” I replied, “I will also need to speak with Twilight, and head to Ponyville for a day. I need to retrieve my house.” “And why would I do you this favor?” Shining asked, “I have no reason to let you do any of that.” “Well I do have promises I have to keep. Like paying a certain pony’s psychiatrist. I can’t do that unless I have records of cost, address, and so on and so forth. If I didn’t pay, then I could be charged or sued. I’m also guessing that Swift Sword is mad at me because she ended up having to pay for the psychiatrist, and thinks that I am a horrible pony for not keeping the promise I made.” I laughed a bit to myself, “I just keep adding onto my debt. I need other sources of income, other than this Shining, and currently, I am broke because I don’t have access to my money. I would think that to avoid another complaint, the princesses paid the citizens of Ponyville the amount that they paid me for paragliding lessons, so I will need to reimburse them for that as well.” “And how would you know that they paid for those expenses? That was kept secret, and you even just woke up with very little contact with anypony.” “One words, Shining: logic. I reasoned out that conclusion. It’s part of how I figure out most everything. This place, however, is illogical to me. Therefore I still haven’t figured most of it out. I should go to school to learn, or read some books. My son probably knows more about this world than I do. In fact, I know he does, as he has had the Princesses as his mentors,” I had gone off onto a track that brought me to this realization, “See Shining, logic. I get to conclusions based off of stuff I know. I should learn some history about this place though.” “I understand logic, White Wind, and you will probably benefit from learning some history.” “Yes, I probably will, and it seems that you may understand logic, but you don’t know how to apply it, anyways, looks like we are here,” I said as we approached a door with large, red cross painted on it. Have I ever said that I hate talking? Yeah, I hate it even more when everything I say makes my jaw hurt. Walking into the room, I saw painted a shade of red that matched the red on the door, and oddly enough, would have matched Jake’s fur color. The nurse turned to us and gasped at the sight of me. She rushed to me, obviously intending to patch up the cuts on my side and face. “We are here for x-rays and bone repair only, Nurse Redcross.” “But he…” she started to say before I, myself, cut her off. “It is fine Ms. Redcross. They don’t cause me too much pain. A majority of my pain is coming from my jaw, especially when I speak. It may just be bruising, but it might also be a fracture.” “W-well okay, I guess. Come over here,” she said, leading me to a bed. I laid down on it, and she cast a spell. It is kind of amazing seeing a single spell cast, and the entirety of my skeletal structure appear on a screen. Like my thought, there was a fracture along my jaw. Well, actually it was more like a spider web of cracks throughout the entirety of the jaw bone. Not a single bone, elsewhere in my body, was broken. The nurse, and even Shining gasped at the sight of my jaw on the screen. “And you have been talking with your jaw this fractured?” Redcross asked. “He has,” Shining replied for me, “What I’m amazed at is how he was able to stand the pain. Most of my men would have been unable to bear the pain that something like that causes.” The nurse cast another spell on me. Not sure what it did, exactly, but it took away most of the pain. I tried speaking, but I couldn’t even move my jaw. Well, I will be going without talking for a while.