When Adam woke up, he could not help but wonder if he had somehow angered God to deserve such a shitty existence. He felt numb all over his body. Even a simple act such as breathing was a challenge for the young colt. He did not feel pain, but he knew it was there, hiding behind a mountain of pain killers, just waiting to wear off and catch Adam off guard.
"You're awake!"
Adam flinched as the sound reverberated in his eardrums. It surprised Adam more than it hurt him. "Yeah, I'm awake," he said a bit more harshly than what he intended to.
"Oh… sorry…"
Adam recognized the voice. It was feminine, but a bit brash.
"Tulip?"
Adam turned towards the source of the voice. As his eyes adjusted to the light he expected to see Tulip standing guard next to his bed. He did not expect her laying on a bed pressed next to his, three of her four legs in casts.
"Wha… what happened to you?"
"Oh this-" Tulip gestured towards the casts. "-don't worry about it." Tulip laughed but began to cough soon afterwards. "Agh! Darn it!" She looked away from Adam, gazing at something from across the room. Adam had to rub his eyes to better see what it was.
It was Ginger.
"What’s she doing here?" Adam asked. It appeared that Ginger was asleep, judging by her light snoring.
"I guess visiting her mother." Tulip chuckled. "Or she might visit you. She told me about what happened in school the moment I came to my senses. I can't even begin to tell you how hard I laughed, despite the pain."
Adam, meanwhile, exchanged looks between Tulip and Ginger. He realized there was a slight resemblance between the two, of that there was no doubt. Adam was not surprised that the two were actually related though. It was probably the oldest coincidence in the book
"I see… but how did you get yourself so messed up? Is that the reason why you weren't there when I was kidnapped?"
Tulip's smile quickly turned into a frown as she closed her eyes hard. Her ears folded against the back of her head. "Yeah, it was. It was stupid of me, really. A few guards came to me, claiming that there's an upcoming parade and that everypony must evacuate the street. I immediately saw through their lies, their armor was fake. When I asked them to show me a letter of confirmation they attacked. I managed to fend them off for a while but one of them got a cheap shot to the side of my head
"They knocked me out good and started to drag me towards someplace, but they didn't get the chance. I woke up mid-way and subdued them, but by the time I limped back to the academy, you were already gone.
"When a patrol of actual guard passed through the area I told them everything. They brought me here." Tulip shuddered. "In all my life I've never heard Princess Celestia shout like that from the other side of the castle."
Adam shuddered as well. "At least you didn't have to actually see her. It looked like she was about to turn this entire mountain into a crater."
Tulip chuckled, wincing a little. "With how much she cares for you, that's the least she would have done."
"You really think so? Adam asked. Tulip nodded.
"I know so, kiddo." Tulip glanced towards Ginger. "You probably don't view the princess that way, but we parents will do anything for our foals. It is our duty."
Adam sneered, suddenly frowning and looking away from Tulip. "Easy for you to say. There are some parents who don't give two shits about their children."
"Nonsense! I haven't met a single parent who even slightly resented their children."
"Ha! Then you're obviously not aware of your surroundings. The one who kidnapped me, Gale Smoke, is actually the dad of that prick Gale Mist, and you can see how that turned out."
Tulip flinched, reaching with her good hoof and slowly patting his mane. "There, there, Adam. You're just upset, that's all. Everything will be-"
"I'm sorry Tulip," Adam interrupted her. "You’re acting like I actually give a crap.”
“Well, don’t you? You certainly seem to.”
“Ha, just like my mother said. In fact, she’d made the same mistake on her deathbed.”
"Your mother is dead?!" Both Tulip and Adam flinched when they heard Ginger call from her corner.
'Damn it, she didn't need to hear that,' Adam cursed himself.
He turned around in his bed, flinching as the pain killers started to wear off. Ginger was now balancing herself on her mother's bed, looking at Adam with big, watery eyes.
"Is that why you are so angry?" She asked. Adam could not help but feel even worse. His physical wounds were not nearly as painful as his heart felt right now. Despite their appearance, Adam was still older than Ginger, and she was just a kid. She could not understand how Adam felt. If he could, Adam would tell her that he did not care that his mother died, that he was better off without her, but she would not understand, and quite frankly, Adam did not know if he could stand behind such a statement.
Instead he opted to lower his head and nod. "Yeah, for some time now. She left us when I was little. I didn't care for her back then. I thought that if she can't love us, she don't deserve ours as well. Apparently she had the audacity to go and get herself killed. I can't remember how and quite frankly, I don't care. I never came to the funeral, she didn't deserve it." Adam raised his head and saw Ginger was curled next to her mother. Both of their eyes had tears in them. "You're lucky, Ginger. You have a mother that cares for you. As for me-" Adam rested his head on the cheap pillow and closed his eyes. "-I’ll choose who's my mother is. End of story."
There was a long pause in which none spoke. Adam was aware that Ginger and Tulip were looking at him, but he had nothing more to say. In fact, he was relieved to some extent. There is power behind words, so to get this out of his chest made Adam feel better. At least in a spiritual sense.
"You are very brave, you know that?" Tulip said.
Adam did not know what happened when she said that. He was overcome by emotion. His lips trembled and he refused to open his eyes out of fear of them starting to leak. He sniffed once, then twice, before he allowed himself to cover the quilt over his head and sob quietly into it.
He felt something shift on his bed and a moment later something hugged him from the other side of the quilt. Despite having an unimaginable urge to push away from the hug, Adam could not bring himself to do even that. The reality of his ordeals was finally catching up to him, and Adam discovered that he did not have was it took to handle it. It was… too much. Everything was spiraling out of control and Adam was helpless. For every step forwards he took he felt he was being pushed two backwards.
He was desperately clinging to his obnoxious behavior because that is the only thing he knew. It was too much, and Adam was tired of it. He wanted a peaceful life, a second chance, a chance to be kid again, a chance that was given to him on a silver platter and he threw it away. Adam always believed in his abilities to overcome any challenges, if not by wit then by force. But what happens when that fails too? What happens when you are not strong enough?
For Adam, it was the end. There was no family, no friends. Not for Adam. He gave up on these concepts a long time ago. But now, having this little sliver of hope for normalcy, for friends, for family… it was scary. Adam did not know what those things meant and he was terrified by it.
Adam could not remember how long he just sobbed, but he remembered that when he came to his senses, he was no longer engulfed by the warmth of a caring hug.
Adam slowly pulled the quilt down from his head and surveyed his new surroundings. He was no longer inside the infirmary, Tulip was no longer beside him, and Ginger's soothing present was no longer there. All that was left was a darkly lit room.
A single candle flickered gently across the room.
"We need to talk, Adam," a voice said. It took Adam a second to recognize the voice.
"What do you want, Luna?" Adam asked, not bothering masking his weariness.
"I know…" Luna said. She Sounded awfully cryptic.
"Care to elaborate?"
"I know about you, Adam the human…"