//------------------------------//
// Will Power 
// Story: Broken Wings 
// by Lt_Voss 
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	Twilight sped towards me. I dove under her, not lifting my leg as I had done to the guards at town hall. Hurting her would only worsen my case. "Twilight, what are you doing?!" I yelled, my earlier sadness forgotten, tears replaced with a fiery look of a mixture of anger and confusion. Frustration, I believe it's called.

Twilight barely skipped a beat when her front hooves met with open air. She wheeled around on her hind legs, as in a joust. She flailed her forelegs in the air, a clear indication of another charge. These ponies need to learn not to reveal their plans so easily. 'Point.'

"You're a human! How could Fluttershy love you?!" Twilight yelled as she began her charge, as if it were her battle cry. To avoid her, I dove to the left, and I lightly lashed out with my right leg, intending to trip her. It seemed I had struck with a little too much force, as instead of just falling over, Twilight flew into the air and landed on a stack of books.

"Oh my!" I cried. I ran over to the now messy pile of books and tried to dig Twilight out. I found a hoof, and started with that. I pulled on her hoof, which I was I unsure, and nearly fell over when she emerged. She shook her head, and looked at me in frustration, he rage calmed.

"Why did you help me? I'd attacked you!" She asked incredulously, as if being a good person or a gentleman were an alien concept to her. Since she'd spent pretty much the past few years pent up in this library, or so I've heard, it was a pretty understandable question. I mean, if you've never heard someone speak another language, speaking it yourself or hearing it for the first time would seem very strange.

"I helped because you were stuck. You needed help, and I was here to lend it. Did you think I wouldn't go and help someone who needed it?" I explained.

I heard her mutter under her breath, "You didn't help me with Fluttershy..." But I didn't question her or press her... yet. Instead, in a louder voice, I heard her ask. "When?"

At first, I didn't understand the question. It took Bill to explain it to me as if I were a five year old before I could answer. "When did I start loving Fluttershy, when did she start loving me, or when did I learn manners?" Under normal circumstances, I would have given Twilight a "are you kidding me" face when I saw her reaction, which I might add was to simply nod. So I answered as best as I could.

"I started loving Fluttershy right about when I accepted that I loved her. At first, I denied it. But, as I told somepony else, I gave it a chance, and it kind of.. grew from that point. She started loving me right about the same time. I can't say for sure; I'm not Fluttershy. And, to answer the final question, I learned manners when I was little. I didn't answer you last night, Twilight, because I needed to get to Fluttershy as fast as I could. I promised her I would be there for her. Now, come on. We're wasting time here talking and I'll answer anything else on the way."

I felt... her consciousness. I... pressed against it as gently as I could. I'd refrained from doing this kind of thing since landing on Equestria, but I needed Twilight to come with me. Twilight stood rooted to her spot, looking at me dumbly, which is not a good look for the scholarly types. Nevertheless, there she was, a blank look on her face, but recovered quickly. "Right, for Fluttershy!"

I muttered under my breath, "Gee, glad I count." You always count in my book, Will. 'Yippee.' "By the way, in answer to the question you asked me last night, my name is Will."

"Huh?" Was the "I read technical books, books on philosophy, and books of literature every minute of my life" response. I decided to spare Twilight the loss of dignity. As I stepped through the door, and Twilight soon after, I told her.

"Last night, when we first met. You asked me who I was. I didn't answer you then; I was too focused on finding the hospital. But now I'm answering: my name is Will."

"You mean... as in... the power of the mind?" She asked, analyzing everything, which I guessed was normal for her. Figures.

"You could say that." Not having used my... heh, "will power" in a long time, I'd forgotten how true that description of my "name" could be. I began to wonder... why hadn't my mind drifted off and thought about it since landing? No time? 'I'm not sure. With as much thinking as I've been doing lately, I'm sure I might've at least mentioned it at some point...' Drop it, Will. This isn't something you want to think about. 'I'm quite sure I want to know about this, Bill.' I mean it, Will. You don't want to go down this road. 'And what if I-' WILL. I am TELLING you, you do NOT want to know!

I stopped in my tracks, and Twilight almost crashed into me. "Will? Are you okay?"

But I payed no attention to her. "No..." I said aloud, but to Bill. I had no knowledge that I'd started voicing everything out loud for everypony to hear. "No, no no no no. You mean you've been hiding things from me?!" But if speaking what I was saying wasn't bad enough, Bill spoke through me as well.

"I told you you didn't want to know! I was protecting you!"

"PROTECTING ME?! How in God's name is lying to me PROTECTION?!"

"I wanted to make sure those walls didn't come down! That you TOLD me to do!"

"So you lied to me?! How does lying to me keep those walls up? How does it, Bill?"

"Because your parents didn't kick you out of your home."

"So leaving on my own was something you had to keep from me, is that it, Bill? Are you mad? I've just seen through your lie!"

"No. You didn't leave on your own. You fled. You ran away. From the law."

"So my wings were illegal? It that it, you son of a bitch?!" With very little knowledge of my surroundings of the moment, I didn't notice that there were lots of ponies staring. I did notice, however, that Twilight's face didn't show anything at the word "bitch." With the two percent brainpower not devoted to arguing with Bill, I deduced that it must not be a cuss word they know of here.

"No... no, that wasn't it at all. I told you, Will. This is one road you don't want to go down. You wanted those walls to stay up, I hid this from you. Don't push me."

"I will push you, Bill, until I get answers! TELL ME!"

"No..." Bill said through me, and it sounded as if he were pleading.

"I said, TELL ME!"

"No, no, you don't want me to-"

"TELL ME, DAMMIT!"

"YOU KILLED YOUR PARENTS! ARE YOU HAPPY, WILL?! I'VE TOLD YOU, NOW YOU CAN WITNESS THOSE WALLS COME CRASHING DOWN!"

And in truth, I did. I saw the barriers I'd worked so hard to keep up around a certain part of my brain crumble. And the thoughts within started coursing through my... "civilized" brain. But they weren't thoughts of violence. Well, technically they could be called that, but they weren't of violence to others. They were to myself.

Through me, Bill said one final thing. "Twilight, go to the hospital, visit Fluttershy. Do what you can. Tell her Will is sorry for not being able to come. I'll do my best to calm him, but if I can't stop him... this will be the last live view of him you see. Now, GO!" The little control I had of my mind left, I felt Bill pierce Twilight's mind and warp her thoughts to fit what he'd ordered her to do. She immediately took off running towards the hospital. But I didn't notice the last part. I was already climbing into the air. Climbing... climbing... I felt water and ice on my wings, then on my fingers, then on my face. I was climbing too high. If I blacked out, I wouldn't be able to recover fast enough -- then it hit me.

I was trying to die.

Will, don't do this. You don't need to do this. You're better than this. 'I killed my parents, Bill.' I tried to tell you, Will. I'm sorry... sorry... 'I know. But I pressed. And now I can't stop. I have to do this. I can't stop myself.' Yes, you can! You're Will! Strength of mind! Will power! 'Not anymore, Bill. Now, I'm splattered guts on the ground.' If you want to be that way, you're not there yet. You're more of a... icicle. But that isn't the point! 'I can't stop, Bill. Tell everyone I'm sorry.' Will you at least hover a bit so I can talk to you for a little longer? Unwillingly, I complied, and I just now realized that Bill was stronger than I'd first thought.

Will, you've done so much for the universe. You've stopped several assassinations, fought for the lives of children, saved women from death... all that, you have under your belt. I was there for all of that. I saw how much effort you put into all of that. You wanted to do nothing but the right thing. You even defied your commanding officer on Lineri because he ordered you to annihilate an entire town of innocents. And you won that court martial. Why? Because you were Will. You were the man who would do nothing his conscience would deem wrong or immoral.

'I killed my parents, Bill. That counts as wrong and immoral. Illegal, horrible, terrifying.' Not if it was self defense. That stopped me for a moment. 'What?' You killed your parents. That is, no doubt, what released your bad thoughts. But why did you kill your parents? Think. You'd just shown them your wings.

And so I thought. I noticed Bill was doing an amazing job holding back enough of my bad thoughts that I could have my own personal flashback...

I was standing in the living room. My parents were sitting on the couch, because I told them I had something to show them. I was sixteen. I told them to close their eyes. It was then I took off my shirt and extended my wings, which, at the time, were only about eight and a half feet long, as opposed to my eleven feet four inches of wings I had now. I told them they could open their eyes then. At first, they didn't do or say anything. They sat, staring at me with big eyes, in shock and surprise. I waited for their reactions first, a hopeful look on my face. But that all came crashing down when I saw my dad go into his room. When he came out he held a gun in his hands. My mom was crying and trying to get as far away from me as possible.

This was the first time I'd heard my voice say anything to me. Look out! Do something, or he's going to shoot you! And he was right. My dad pointed the gun at me, which I now remember was an older model of the M10, the M7. I noticed his finger pulling back on the trigger. I did what I did because I wanted to live. It was also the first day I'd used my mind to kill someone. Screaming, I lashed out with my mind, and felt my dad's consciousness.  And I stabbed at it with my own. I saw through my eyes my dad fall to the ground, brain-dead. He'd die within minutes. My mom, even more scared than before, ran over to my dad and picked up the gun herself. She didn't look familiar with the weapon, but it isn't rocket science to  point and squeeze, especially this close. So I did the same to her.

Scared that I'd get caught by the law, I took all the money I could find, most of it my own. I had a job, as did my parents, but most of their money was in a bank. I couldn't go there for fear of getting seen by cameras. That was when I remembered my dad flew shuttles to and from orbiting ships. I flew on my own wings to the spaceport. I remembered which was my dad's, as he used to take me on occasion. I found it quickly. I knew a little about how to fly; my dad had taught me how. I flew up to the nearest ship, which happened to be a Space Army ship, waiting to take recruits from its own shuttles. I remember telling the man who asked me what I was doing that I wanted to be a recruit. He thought about it for several minutes, minutes spent in the shuttle worrying. He'd said to dock with him. I told him I didn't know how, and he guided me. Once I was aboard, I heard the shuttle launch without a pilot, presumably back to its original resting place.

I took my in-processing aboard the SAS Laurel. I was a trainee in less than six hours. We traveled to the training world, creatively named "Boot Camp." In four months, I finished basic training. The next four months were spent training to be an infantryman, and I could have left when I was done with that. But at sixteen, I wanted to be a "super soldier" as so many do. I reapplied to other training courses, taking classes in piloting, gunnery officer, driver, sniper, reconnaissance specialist, artillery officer, radioman, and many more, pretty much everything I was accepted in. As the list of classes I passed in grew longer, my record did as well, and the instructors who looked at my record to see if I was a good candidate for their classes saw them. The longer I took classes, the more and more I took, eventually excelling in all of them. I was qualified for everything the Space Army needed. But, because my first training was as an infantryman, I was sent to the front lines.

Unfortunately, after a few years in the service, my parents'... murder... caught up with me. The authorities on my home planet investigated thoroughly the deaths of my parents, and found that I was the last to see them alive. They found severe brain damage, and their logic dictated that I'd poisoned them with a neurotoxin. A formal inquiry was pressed, and I found myself seated in a court room, a civilian court. I remember being asked why I killed them, and my voice told me to tell the truth. So I said that I'd killed them in self defense. They asked me why, and I pointed out that my parents were pointing a gun at me. They asked me how I killed them so quickly, and I told them I used my brain. They asked me how, and I said I didn't really know. They asked me to prove it, and I, gently, tapped the prosecutor's mind with my own and made him fall down. He wasn't knocked unconscious, and when he got back up, he said he felt like his brain was hurting badly. I told him it was me.

I was found not guilty but placed under watch. My handler, a Paris Lundein, followed me throughout my career in the Space Army, and even though he wasn't military, he proved himself several times when things got tough. I respected him. Eventually, I was deemed safe for the public, and Paris was recalled to take on another case. Lucky guy, I suppose, as the very next day my camp was swarmed with enemies. I barely escaped, along with seven other people. When we got back to HQ, we learned no one had survived. That was when I told my voice to keep everything hidden from me. I didn't want to be reminded of all the bad things that had happened to me and other people. I remembered.

Coming out of my flashback, I noticed my vision was very black around the edges. I was passing out due to lack of oxygen. But I couldn't control myself. My wings folded on their own, I began plummeting back to the ground, my consciousness already slowly fading. WILL! WAKE UP! WILL! I heard Bill screaming, but I couldn't. I honestly tried, tried my best to regain control, but it got harder and harder, especially since I began a chaotic spiral. I felt Bill taking over my body, which he'd never done before. I felt him struggle. I heard him say, Will! Open your wings! Without thinking, I managed to do as he said. The problem arose when I realized that it wasn't me opening my wings. It was Bill.

I felt Bill beat my wings in an effort to get me stabilized. Will, don't you go and die on me. I like living, and if you go, I have to as well. FLY! I felt some control slip back into me. I guess I needed some motivation. Motivation, huh? Think of this! You haven't said goodbye to Fluttershy! Live dammit, so you can speak to her again. I don't know how, but hearing this snapped me out of my depressed state. Thoughts of suicide were replaced with thoughts of seeing Fluttershy again, seeing her laugh, run... smile... I beat my wings in a furious attempt to stabilize, and I did better than Bill, seeing as how he doesn't control my movements.

Within moments I was righted, and I flapped as hard as I could to reach level flight. I did very quickly, and not a moment too soon. I ended up flying low to the ground, nearly hitting several ponies. "Sorry!" I called out, hoping that they could hear me. I gained altitude, and got a safe height to hover at. I noticed that, strangely, I'd flown in a big circle, and that I'd ended up hovering over the library. I let myself down, landing heavily, panting with exhaustion. That was a crazy ride, Will. Maybe sometime later, we can do that kind of thing again. That is, without the whole suicide thing going on. And before you ask, yes, I'm working on getting everything under control. 'Thanks, Bill. For everything.' Not a problem, Will.

I looked around, seeing faces of shock, fear, anger... and they all had the right. I was ready to fall to my death, and I was shouting to myself, I did interrupt them in everything... I readied myself for the worst, but I didn't get anything. I opened my eyes, without even realizing that I'd closed them. I looked at my watch in impatience, and found that, surprisingly, I had been up in the air for more than forty five minutes. I guess flashbacks take a lot of time. But it was what I saw when I looked up that scared me the most.

I saw Fluttershy. Her hoof was bandaged, but she was putting a bit of weight on it. By her sides were Twilight and Redheart. Twilight and Redheart looked at me in shock. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, looked at me in immense sadness. She must have seen you, Will. Be careful not to rush things. Fluttershy was the first to do anything. She ran up to me and, flapping her wings, hugged me while hovering. I could see tears forming in her eyes. Unable to control myself, what with what had nearly happened and with Fluttershy walking again, I began to cry. I hugged her back, tightly, yet not so tight as to cause pain. "Fluttershy," I began. "I'm so sorry." I cried more and more on her shoulder.

She rubbed my back with her good hoof. "It's okay, Will. It's okay. I forgive you, it's okay. Remember," she said through her own tears. "I almost did the same thing." And she leaned back so I could see her wonderful smile. I gave her my crooked smile as well, and I cared not that I was tasting salt. She leaned back into me, and I could see over her shoulder that while Redheart's shock was replaced with a "aww" expression, Twilight's was replaced with one of anger. It took me this long to realize just why Twilight was this way. When I did, my teary eyes widened.

For a few moments, nothing was said or done. Fluttershy did let go of me and flew back to her friends after a while, and I took this opportunity to walk right up to Twilight. I knelt down in front of her, and spoke in a whisper. "You love her." It wasn't a question.

"Yes..." she said, after a moment of silence.

I shook my head. "I'm sorry. But... I can't help it. Love will choose who it wants to connect. I'm sorry if I sound uncaring. But I want Fluttershy to be happy, and if she's happy with me..." I trailed off, thinking. "If she's happy, I'm happy. If she's happy with me... then, that's a bonus. I just want you to know that I didn't pick this. It got picked for me. I'm sorry." And I stood up and walked over to Redheart, and knelt again.

"Hey there, hot stuff." She said with a wink. I took special care in making sure my playful punch to her shoulder was just that: playful.

"Hi, Redheart. Thank you for doing this. Staying with her."

"Not a problem, Will. Anything for family." It didn't surprise me, for as an unconscious thought I guess I pieced together that by "same last name," Redheart had meant that she and Fluttershy were sisters. The parents must have been a pegasus and earth pony. I stood up. An awkward silence followed. Fluttershy and I hid behind our mane and hair, respectively, and I coughed nervously.

I scuffed the dirt with my foot, unsure of what to do now. I'd avoided my own death, Fluttershy was healed, and we were all okay. Unable to contain herself any longer, though, Fluttershy zoomed back up to me and gave me another long squeeze. "Oh, Will! You're okay, I'm okay, we're all okay! And I'm so happy!" I staggered under her weight, and fell over backwards. It was quite... strange. But, it lifted the tense mood we were all in, and all four of us started laughing, Fluttershy and I especially. Our eyes truly met for the first time today.

Her warm, teal eyes shone happily, radiating her feelings of joy. Her mouth was holding a large smile, which displayed the same emotion. Her teeth were showing, perfectly straight and white, they were even shining in the sunlight. I was unsure if what happened next was random or if the fates or gods decided to tease me. A breeze began flowing throughout the town, and Fluttershy's mane billowed to my left. She was sitting on top of my supine form, preventing me from standing or sitting up. The gods were out to get me, of this I was sure, as the sun shone down on her. Elegant and beautiful. I heard Bill say. 'She is.' Jokingly, Bill replied, I meant the dirt.

I'm not sure what she saw in me, but her smile grew wider, her eyes shone brighter, her mane flowed more fluidly. I gave her my crooked smile, but the left side of my mouth was twitching. This caused Fluttershy to laugh, and I felt insulted. Bill chuckled. She's laughing at you, you dolt. She won't stop until you finish what you've started! Then he burst out laughing, and I felt bad for myself. I was being laughed at. 'Will puts on his sad face,' I thought. But my mouth kept twitching. I found it incredibly hard to believe how difficult it was for me to fully smile. Nevertheless, I managed it.

When I did, Fluttershy leaped into the air. "You did it! You smiled!" Then she began to gaily prance around the square. I was surprised by how few ponies were still present. My smile held as I sat up, allowing it to be seen by Twilight and Redheart.

In a joking manner, Redheart said, "Oh, good! I was afraid I'd be given that same half smile for the rest of my life!" And she smiled at me. Regardless of her current feelings and hatreds, Twilight gave me one as well. They were both better than mine. I felt jealous just then.

"I hate you guys. Smiling better than me, showing off in my face." This caused the two of them to laugh, and Fluttershy cackled, in a good way, not like a witch, as she bounced around us all. You have to admit, Will. They're doing a pretty good job changing the mood from the dark times that we were in about ten minutes ago into a joyous occasion. 'Point.' Which reminds me, I have what now? Twenty points? You need to catch up. I'm twenty points ahead of you. And Bill laughed, Making me the only one who wasn't making noise. 'Well,' I thought. 'It's either smile or laugh, I can't do both.' Oh, spoiling the fun. You are the ruining force here.

Coming to her senses, Fluttershy finally stopped. She walked over to the three of us, saying, "I know! I'll go get Pinkie Pie! We can have a party! We can celebrate two things today! We can celebrate me getting better and Will finally smiling!"

Chuckling, Redheart said, "Uh, Fluttershy, you can make that three things."

"Three?"

Then Redheart tried as discreetly as possible to point me out to Fluttershy. That didn't stop me from noticing, and Fluttershy's cheeks reddened. "Oh, and that... I mean, if that's okay..."

Dropping the smile, I told her, "It's alright with me. I like the number three!" Then I laughed. The sisters laughed in earnest with me, and it was only Twilight who laughed, in my opinion, out of politeness.

"Oh, goody! I'll go get her right now! She can meet you, Will! Oh, this will be so great!" Then she ran off, and I noticed that she was heading straight for Sugarcube Corner. Which made sense, now, since I'd seen the pink pony in the doorway. 'That must be Pinkie Pie we saw earlier.' Yeah, kinda fitting, isn't it? A pink pony named Pinkie Pie.

It was hard for me to believe, though, how much Fluttershy had deviated from her usual demeanor. The quiet, reserved pegasus pony I'd first known was replaced with a joyous, outward pegasus pony. I didn't love her any less, though, but it just stumped me. "So," I said uncomfortably. "Nice weather we're having."

Redheart popped a smile. "You would know." But I knew she was joking, and I didn't get on her case for it.

Twilight said, "Yes. Rainbow Dash does make the weather very well."

"Wait, wait, wait." I said. "Rainbow Dash is the one who does the weather here in Ponyville?"

Twilight gave me a "duh" look, but said, "Yes. She works hard. She's also very fast, and loves flying. I'm sure you two would get along very well." It seemed normal, but I detected the hostility in her tone. I decided to put her off.

"We do. Rainbow Dash is a good mare, good at her job, I suppose. She's also understanding. She was there when Fluttershy and I first met. I'd just saved the two of them from a hungry manticore. Fluttershy and I... well, we kind of had a misunderstanding, and we were pretty much blushing and trying to stay above "awkward." Heh, Ranbow was laughing so hard at us, I was surprised she had any breath left in her." Twilight looked at me angrily, clearly disappointed at not drawing my eyes away from Fluttershy.

"Face it, Twilight. I'm sorry, and I don't know how many more times I have to say it. But Fluttershy and I love each other. It's God's own truth. And there isn't a thing I can do to change it, not that I'd want to. Fluttershy is everything I see in the perfect person, or pony, I'd want to live my life with. I'm not letting jealousy get between us. I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do or say to make you feel any different, and I'm afraid if you don't invest in somepony else, you'll be sad and angry your whole life." I said, my voice staying straight and calm throughout. Not once did I say anything I thought was insulting or immoral. I felt proud of myself for that.

Twilight took it badly. She growled at me for the second time this day. She got up from her sitting position and ran towards me, her horn glowing. She jumped at me. It was a bad move, as I simply lied back down and she sailed harmlessly over me. I stood up, and turned around to face her. "Think about what you're doing, Twilight. I've done nothing wrong. I've simply pointed out a truth. If you attack me now, I simply have fuel to start an animosity between you and Fluttershy. Especially if she sees you."

But that didn't stop her. In her blind rage, which grew at the sound of my words, she became infuriated. She charged me again. Sidestepping, I grabbed her left hoof and pushed in the opposite direction. Her hoof remained in place due to inertia, but the rest of her body continued flying forward. She snapped to a stop and hung limply, though undamaged, from my hand. I dropped her on the ground unceremoniously. I knelt down beside her. "Remember, I've been trained to kill with my hands. I don't want to hurt you Twilight. But if you give me no choice and continue with these idiotic and thoughtless actions, I'll have to. So please, stop. For Fluttershy and your friendship if you don't care about yourself."

Again, my words had no effect. After recovering from the shock of being so easily taken down, she used her horn to magic herself a few feet away, standing upright on all four legs. Her horn glowing again, she started to pick me up. I tried something. I reached out with my mind and gave hers a gentle slap. I was let go, and I landed on my feet. She became frustrated at losing her concentration. She tried using magic again, instead picking up a fist-sized rock. I punched her mind this time. If she intended to do what I thought she was doing, I could become deceased. She fell over, dazed. "Stop, please." I began pleading this time. Redheart simply sat by, watching this thing unfold with a look of shock mixed with curiosity.

"Not until you let me have Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted. She stood, and while she wobbled at first, she remained standing. Her horn glowed again. Several rocks picked themselves up, each surrounded by a purple aura. Then I felt something press against my mind. She intends to keep you distracted until she can hurl the stones at you. 'Okay. Can you keep her busy while I work?' Plan taken. The pressing feeling went away, and I saw Twilight frown in frustration. She magically threw the stones in a blind fury. But once they reached a decent speed, she let go, making sure that I couldn't stop them. Many were the size of two hands put together.

I did my best to stop them. They weren't all going to hit at the same time, I thanked my lucky stars she didn't think to mass them first. The first I pushed aside with my left forearm. I did the same with the next one, and the third was pushed away with my right hand. I ducked under the next four. I jumped over an eighth rock. I sidestepped to avoid a ninth, and that was when I heard a voice cry out.

"TWILIGHT!" I could see the look on Twilight's face. It spoke several volumes of "Oh, Crap."