//------------------------------// // Hidden: (Broken) Horn And (Torn) Wings // Story: Horn And Wings // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// The loneliest ponies know the value of kindness. The saddest ponies smile the brightest. The most damaged ponies grow to be the wisest. ... if they can get to that point. Blazing Light finally reached the famous and quite beautiful white walls of Canterlot castle. After a quick discussion with the gate guards and showing them his job application he was let in with the directions to the Nightguard leader's office. Walking up four flights of high stairs left him breathing heavily but he persevered. The little flicker of hope inside him drove him forward and he faked the most determined expression he could muster at this point. Nopony answered his repeated knocking so he decided to sit down. If his future rested on him being patient enough to wait few... hours he was sure he could at least do that. He kept going over the lies he could tell this Choking pony about his qualities to let him get whatever job was here to get. There was no way he would just tell the truth as the only answer he would get would be a swift kick to the rump. The waiting was getting longer and longer and with every passing minute he was more sure that all this was a mistake. He was getting to the conclusion that running away from home was just another of his failures. Perhaps he could go back and apologize for everything? No... for once he would stand up and face his decision himself. What seemed like hours passed. Nopony was coming leading him to the suspicion that the job he'd come here to apply for was no longer an option. It was a sign of fate that he really had no place in this world. This time he wasn't able to snap back to the part of him determined to wait here until he starved. Right now he knew he wasn't fit to waste the time of anypony here. With that he left the castle, spent all his remaining bits on a bottle of the cheapest and the most sour wine he could find and began drinking on his way to the walls of Canterlot city. He thought about the crappy product in his hooves and the crappy product that was holding the wine. He wasn't a pony, he was just a manufacturing failure. With enough liquid courage in him the swaying unicorn walked up the stairs leading to the battlements and made the world a little better place. "Miss Darkness!" It's been a week since my moving to Ponyville and I've been living in a small hotel and looking for a cheap house. "Miss Darkness!" I've also been working in the local mental institution or relaxation resort or whatever one might call it. Basically it's an insane asylum crossed with holiday resort where ponies can rest after serious events. They were understaffed thanks to recent invasion which left a trail of death throughout Equestria so doctor Bright Eye allowed me to help around even without any previous experience. "Miss Darkness!" There was one more reason though... "DARKY!" "Listening," I finally react to dr. Bright calling me. "Thank you." "Told ya how to call me. What do ya need?" I smile smugly. "I don't think it's me who needs your help right now. Your 'friend' is screaming his lungs off in his cell." I'm suddenly awake "Buck! Thanks doc, I'm going." "Should I come too?" "Only if ya hear me scream as well!" I'm already clearing the stairs to the second floor. A patient resembling my... friend was found wandering around the Everfree forest and starving to death. He didn't react to anything anypony said or did to him, he just kept following two guys in guard armor who led him here where he was diagnosed as basically a braindead hollow shell. When I by a lucky coincidence noticed his familiar face in the asylum window I used my impeccable charm and the diplomatic weight of my Nightguard badge to find out what happened from the doc. Despite what Bright Eye said I knew there was something left of my friend the second I saw him. Well, few seconds later when Bright told me that I was the only pony the patient wasn't terrified of. "What's wrong?" I ask without expecting an answer and run to the bronze-coated unicorn with broken horn and blonde mane drenched with sweat sitting straight on the bed and shaking all over. He twitches and pulls up his blanket but when he notices it's me he stops screaming and lets out a soft sigh. This has been happening for few days and the result is always the same. On one hoof I'm glad he calms down and goes back to sleep again because I have a pretty good idea about what caused his condition but on the other he's losing his muscles due to lack of movement and staying indoors all the time can't be healthy. In the end I just pat his head and help him get comfortable on the pillow. I hate it's the only thing I can do but Bright told me these things are more than uncertain and take long time. The thing is that I threw away everything I had - my guard career, my reputation with princess Luna and my friends - just to have a one in a million chance that this unicorn might really be Blaze and that he might recover one day. I had to... This guy who saved Equestria twice had everypony, almost including me, turn against him in the end and yet I'm sure that without him we'd be licking Sombra's hooves right now. That's why I had to take the risk, hide all traces behind me and at least try to make up for my and everypony else's mistakes. Who am I kidding? The real reason for hiding is making sure Luna doesn't find him and torture him again. "Better?" asks Bright Eye when I return back to the asylum lobby where I'm working partially as a receptionist, partially as a nurse and partially as a bouncer or whatever they call the guys helping restrain the crazies. "Yeah. Blaze is sleeping again." "Blaze?" "I meant the patient... I call him that because his bronze coat looks like fire in the ligh-" The doc raises an eyebrow. A move that can mean anything and achieve anything in the hooves of the right pony. "-That's not gonna pass, is it?" I grin nervously. "I'm not going to push it but you should tell me what you know so I can help him." "I don't know that much. I don't even know if he really is who I think he is. All I know is that you were probably right when you described his condition as one caused by a long-term sleep deprivation. Two weeks of no sleep at all to be precise." "That's impossible. Nopony can survive that." "I suppose magic was involved." "That doesn't matter. No unicorn could keep using magic after at most four days without sleep even if he somehow stayed conscious." "If I'm right then it was more like he wasn't able to die during those two weeks." I'm not going to tell the doc anything more but the little details I shared from time to time might help him in doing something. At times like this I really wish I had any interest in psychology but I really don't. "What monster would do such a thing to another living being?" asks Bright with narrow eyes and ears splayed back. I just shake my head. "Wrong question, doc." He sighs and gestures to the two stumps where my bat wings used to be. "Does it have something to do with that?" "A bit... what tipped you off?" He smiles a bit. "Unicorn with a broken horn and a batpony with torn wings who appear under mysterous circumstances and don't or can't talk about their past but seem to know each other. The two of you would make up a pretty mysterious alicorn albeit a bit crappy one." I snort at the image but can't help smiling as well. "Yeah, we would be the princess of almost-getting-things-done and rule a trash can in Canterlot with rats as our subjects." "On a loosely related subject - I found the place you were looking for." "Oh, the house?" "Yes. It's a bit older house but surprisingly cheap. I was surprised myself at something of that sort being in Ponyville so I went to the Mayor's office and asked about why the place was so inexpensive." "Two stories, broken floors?" "Two stories yes, broken floors no. The house isn't actually too big but it's in decent shape and as I said extremely cheap." "Flooding?" "No." "Discord's secret base?" "No, that's Fluttershy's cottage. Wait... you've been here only for over a week and you know about Discord already?" "All plates at the hotel I'm staying in suddenly began flying around and chase the customers. It was pretty fun actually." "Well, no. The Mayor didn't say anything about any chaos magic." "Bad neighbours?" "Roseluck - a flower vendor and Lyra Heartstrings - a bit quirky musician." "I'm running out of ideas but this is actually fun. Gas leaks?" "No but if Lyra's imagination is something to go by then you might want to get the pipes checked eventually." "Hmmm... is it built on ancient buffalo burial ground?" "Ding ding ding, we've got a winner!" "You're kidding." "I am actually but from what I heard from the Mayor the place is supposed to be haunted." "Why can't things ever be easy?" I roll my eyes. "Well, it's not like you HAVE to buy the place." "In past three years I've developed a sense for these things. Where can I sign the papers?" "It's town property so you've got to talk to Mayor Mare. Say, what does your special sense tell you about the group of changelings that moved to the Sweet Apple Acres yesterday?" "Ugh. It's asking about the closest place that sells hard liquor." "I thought it might." "Can ya let me off the hook early today, doc?" "You know what? Go give miss Pearl a sponge bath and you can leave after that." "Thanks." "No problem. Can you give me a plush doll of yourself to give to your patient?" "Ya sure ya don't want one for yourself as well?" I grin. "I am a happily divorced pony, miss." "Awwwww..." "That means it would have to be a life-sized one." The doc waves his hoof towards the patients' rooms and I rush off in search of a sponge and a bucket.