//------------------------------// // Plans and Forgiveness // Story: Knights of the Everfree // by Lightning Shaker //------------------------------// Knights of the Everfree Chapter Four: It had been two and a half weeks; Lightning Shaker was still at Ponyville Medical. His time there had been painful, in a lot of ways, as well as hard for the pegasus to deal with being grounded his inability to fly weighing on his mood, it was also really boring. Lightning had managed to get into a bit of a routine that helped with his day though. If he was careful he could make it down the one flight of stairs to the ground level on his own, he liked to spend most afternoons outside, the days still warm enough to enjoy. Lightning spent his time with Rare Charmer when she could come by, but obviously she couldn’t often. He had also started spending time with Little Gear, he shared a bond with the filly, they were both limited physically from what they could normally do. She had told him how she was from Manehattan, and her parents were clockmakers. “We do more than work on clocks, we’re general mechanics as well.” She had said. Lightning found it all interesting having not personally known anypony who worked on machines, he had thought he was so clever when he’d asked. “So is that why you’re called Little Gear?” Yep, Lightning was a bright pony alright. Today Lightning knew he wouldn’t get any visitors, Dream Dasher and Rare Charmer were at school and Melody Spring was going to be at work till late. He decided to go looking for Little Gear, he knew where she likely was, she had been drawing some complicated looking things that went way above Lightning’s knowledge, he found himself often awestruck watching her design whatever it was. He found her where he expected her to be, drawing away as usual. “Hey Little Gear, how’s it going?” He asked in a friendly greeting. “The same as any other day, I’m just working on my design.” She said, not looking up and with her voice slightly muffled around her quill. Lightning typically tried to not bother her too much while she was working, and though she seemed as usual a bit standoffish Lightning could hear the smile she wore. Lightning carefully set himself down, lounging in the shade of a tree a few feet away, Little Gear wouldn’t likely start a conversation, and he didn’t want to bother her so he just decided to relax a bit. Lightning could smell burning, and he could hear the faint ripple of water, he knew where he was at some point he must have nodded off while he was resting. He opened his eyes, looking about he could see the nightmares standing off in the distance. This too had become part of his routine, not every time he fell asleep but most he would find himself- no maybe that wasn’t right, it was like this scene invaded his dreams. It was always here, this strange featureless place, the nightmares hovering menacingly and the other him in the pool taunting him about how he was such a failure. Lightning had been here so often that it had gotten to the point he wasn’t even disturbed by it anymore, he could ignore the image in the water, and so long as he didn’t argue with the image the nightmares never seemed to attack. The only problem Lightning had this dream place, whatever it was is he never woke up from it feeling rested at all, like his physical body moved here each time, which he knew wasn’t true. “Why do you come here, when you will not accept the truth that I try to bring you?” The voice asked in an annoyed tone. Lightning ignored the question he’d just wait it out and it would all go away when he woke up. “Some of us have better things to do than foalsit some bratty pegasus who cannot accept that he just is not going to be anything great, some of us actually succeeded in our goals.” The stallion in the pool said, clearly trying to egg him on. Lightning gave a snort but otherwise didn’t show he’d even heard the lame attempt to ruffle his feathers. “You do not even listen anymore; this is pointless, just like your vain attempts to justify yourself. You should just give up.” Lightning snorted loudly. “It’s not like I choose to be here! If you don’t want me here then stop bringing me every time I go to sleep!” He shouted, his temper having finally boiled over. “I do not bring you here; you come all on your own little foal so do not backtalk me about this. I have things I would rather be doing.” The reflection said, sharp anger in its voice, the nightmares flaring up as though fueled by his anger. Lightning watched as the three nightmares stood up as one, scratching at the ground and watching him their eyes blazing and their hoofs leaving flaming trails in what stood in for a ground in this place. “Don’t sick your monsters on me, just because you don’t like me arguing with you, you could just let me sleep normally for once.” Lightning hadn’t even bothered getting up, the nightmares hurt him when they attacked, but it didn’t seem to affect him in the real world so the pain was something he didn’t care much about most of the time. “And another thing, stop it with the 'foal' thing already, I’m not so little.” “The little foal not like name calling? And I have explained this, you bring all this here, not I. These monsters as you call them, you bring them, if they frighten you, you should do something about it.” Lightning Shaker had no time to ponder what that meant as the nightmares began to charge. Not wanting to feel the pain they could bring him, he began to run from them, knowing it didn’t really matter; they were always faster than he was. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his injured hoof still in pain, his wing with its heavy cast still weighing him down. “You will have to deal with them eventually Lightning Shaker.” The reflection shouted from the pool. “Do you hear me? You cannot run forever Lightning Shaker.” “Lightning Shaker, can you hear me?” “Hey, wake up already!” Lightning woke up jumping a bit, Little Gear was nudging him with her hoof. “You had the dream again didn’t you?” She asked, a frown on her face. “I wasn’t going to wake you up, but after you told me how bad those dreams got, and the way you were crying like that… umm, sorry.” She realized what she said and turned her head away embarrassed. Lightning wiped his face with his good hoof, had he been crying? There was dampness on his fetlock when he looked at it. “I- umm, do you want to talk about it?” Little Gear asked, still not looking at him. “It was the same as before, thanks for waking me up though; they didn’t catch up this time.” Lightning said, showing her a reassuring smile even though she wasn’t looking. “Let’s just ignore me crying like a foal again, how is your design coming along?” She looked up and smiled at him, happy for the change of subject, it was much easier for her to talk about machines than- well, pretty much anything else. Little Gear pulled her stack of papers out of her bag and put it down to show him. Lightning could see that her design was now taking shape; it looked like a pony leg, but with gears and wires and other things in it. “This- is this a new leg for you?” He asked dumbly, feeling foalish the second he asked. “That is what I plan, yes.” She replied, either not noticing, or giving Lightning an out on this one. “It looks amazing!” Lightning exclaimed his good wing giving a couple flaps to punctuate the remark. “It’ll be great once you can walk normally again, wont it?” He flashed Little Gear a big toothy grin. “Oh umm, yes, it would.” She stammered, blushing. She wasn’t used to this sort of conversation, or hardly much of any conversation for that matter. For a moment, she stared at the pegasus as though she thought his head might float away. “Is it going to be hard to put together?” “It might be tricky... It will certainly be tougher to put together than what I am used to, but I have experience working with my parents.” Little Gear shuffled the papers a bit with her hoof. Lightning Shaker thought it odd suddenly and blurted out. “Hey, where are your parents? I haven’t seen anyone visit you while I’ve been here. Are they busy or something?” Little Gear fixed him with a blank stare, her short mane of unruly light brown bobbing slightly with the move. “Oh, I said too much again didn’t I?” Lightning asked, looking and feeling sheepish. “It's fine, that was just an awkward question.” Her voice was quiet, but also lacked any of the inflection of emotion. She seemed shrinking in on herself, which Lightning had noticed seemed to be fairly common for her. “My parents are too busy with the business back in Manehattan. They sent me here to recover, away from all the troubles of a large city like that.” “So you don’t have any family here in Ponyville?” Lightning asked, his voice breaking a bit when he said 'family'. “I have none here that I know of.” That quiet emotionless voice again, as if she was being defensive but not actually hiding anything. Lightning looked thoughtful a moment before finally saying in a casual matter of fact way. “Well, that just won’t do at all, I guess you’ll just have to be part of my family. At least for as long as you are here, or as long as you want to be.” He smiled at her again and she once again had the strange sensation that she had to watch him carefully to be sure his head wasn’t about to float away. “What are you talking about?” She finally asked. He started to put a hoof around her shoulder, but remembered what she had told him about not liking to be touched so settled for lamely waving it as though he were making some grand declaration. “Well, I think of all my friends as family, and we’re friends right? So that makes us family, even if you don’t have anypony else here, you’ll still have me, and Dash, and Mom. It may not be much, and Dash may be annoying but we can be your family.” She stared at him for several moments her mouth agape. Finally she seemed to regain herself a bit before in a small voice she said, “You are truly a strange pony Lightning Shaker, I am not sure I know what to do with you.” Her face remained very serious, but she ruined it with a small chuckle, which Lightning acknowledged with a grin. Lightning sat in his room occasionally picking at the covers of his bed, he was feeling antisocial, going outside was nice, but the need to spread his wings and fly was starting to get to him. When the doctors had told him that he had lost some of his secondaries and even a couple primaries that hadn’t been a big deal, the feathers would re-grow in time. Today however the doctors had giving him some bad news. His axillaries, the nerves at the base of his wings, had been damaged, the feathers were one thing, but this could possibly mean he might never fly again, or if he did it would likely not be very well. Lightning looked out the window at the clear blue sky. “So much for dreams.” He whispered, laying down on his side. He just didn’t care anymore. He closed his eyes trying to shut out the light of the day. Lightning Shaker stirred slowly. He hadn’t had the dream, and he had actually slept normally for once. When he looked up he saw Rare Charmer sitting on a chair nearby. “Miss Charmer.” He said, smiling. She looked at him, annoyed. “I told you not to call me that. It’s weird.” Lightning frowned at the harshness in her voice; she was sitting there no book, no cute little glasses that she used for reading. Rare Charmer's face was set in what could best be described as a scowl. “What’s the matter?” He asked hesitantly. She looked at him her eyes angry and slightly puffy, red around the outsides. “You’re a big idiot, you know that?” She accused before looking away. “I kind of thought so, but what do you mean?” “Why?” Was all she said in response. “Why what?” He asked, confused. “Why did you protect me?” She sounded like she was crying but he couldn’t be sure. “I had to, I’m a knight, and you are the most beautiful princess I’ve ever seen.” “NO!” She shouted, and before she knew it she had leapt across to the bed and struck him with a hoof. She backed away a horrified look on her face. “Oh Celestia, I’m so sorry I didn’t...” She kept backing away as Lightning put his good hoof to his cheek, the sting from where she hit him leaving him slightly in shock. Rare Charmer was shaking her head as if trying to deny what she had just done. As she turned to run from the room Lightning leaped out of bed and caught her in his hooves hugging her tightly. “I’m so sorry!” She sobbed against him. “I was just so scared, they said you might not be able to use your wings anymore, and it’s all my fault.” She wrapped her hooves around him and hugged him back. “It wasn’t your fault; we were going to go into the forest anyway.” He whispered into the crying filly’s mane. She cried harder against him. “But you jumped in front of me and got hit because I was there, I couldn’t move and you stopped them from hurting me.” Lightning nuzzled her cheek gently and smiled. “It was totally worth it, if I had the chance to do it again a million times I’d do the same thing every time.” “But what if you can’t fly?!” She was crying so hard the words were hard to understand between sobs. Lightning grabbed her shoulders with both hooves and moved her so she was looking at him, his face determined, his smile unwavering and sure. “Then I’ll just have to find some other way to be great, so I can be the knight that protects you.” Rare Charmer looked uncertain but gave a small smile. “You’re such an idiot.” She gave a slight laugh, mixed with another sob. They spent the rest of the day just talking, Lightning doing his best to be cheerful and happy. Rare Charmer had tried to coax him into going outside, but he had refused, claiming to be tired. He tried to keep her entertained with stories of his exploits with Dream Dasher, and talked about how he had marveled at Little Gear’s design for a new leg. Eventually that time came when visiting hours were over, and she had to go. They hugged for several minutes and Lightning didn’t care if he never flew again, this was the best day ever. It was another two days later when the doctors finally felt that Lightning could have the cast on his wing removed, they ran several tests, making sure he could extend his wing fully without pain. He was instructed to flap as hard as he could but not lift off, to make sure the muscles worked fine and hadn’t atrophied. Then they poked and prodded his wing joints, asking if this hurt, or if he felt that. Lightning figured it must be good that he felt everything they asked about because the doctors seemed to look pleased with the results. The mail mare came by later that day with a letter for him, he thanked her and she smiled at him, at least he thought she did, one eye was looking at him, but the other seemed to be looking off towards the ceiling. It was a letter from White Star, he remembered Dream Dasher had told him that was the unicorn who had saved them, or as Dream Dasher had put it, 'Got there and stopped me from taking out even more of those things.' Dear Lightning Shaker, I hope this missive finds you well, you were in pretty bad shape when we got you to Ponyville Medical. I am sorry I couldn’t be there to check on your recovery progress in person, but I had other obligations that I couldn’t postpone. Try to stay out of trouble, and remember to thank your friends. Sincerely, White Star. Lightning Shaker felt the letter was slightly condescending but figured he deserved it. He wondered briefly what 'other obligations' meant, but doubted he would ever find out anyway so he pushed it to the back of his mind. With his wings no longer bandaged, Lightning couldn’t resist going outside, the idea of feeling the wind running through his feathers sounded too good and he eagerly hobbled his way down the flight of stairs to head outside. He went to the usual spot, a couple trees surrounded partially by bushes, creating a semi secluded area where Little Gear liked to work. “You have not come by in a few days.” She observed, not looking up from her work. “Yeah, sorry about that. I just didn’t really feel like seeing anyone for a while.” The apology was genuine, though Lightning hated that it sounded like an excuse. “No need to be sorry, I know how it feels to get bad news.” She raised her shoulder where there should have been a leg. “How did you know I got bad news?” Lightning asked a little shocked. “When you stopped showing up, I decided to ask around about you. The nurse — Redheart I think — told me about the damage to your nerves. I went by your room, but you seemed upset, I could not go in... I am sorry.” As she spoke, the Manehattan accent that she normally spoke with seemed to have melted away, her voice taking on a slightly bitter tone. “I am ashamed of myself, but I did not want to confront you because I did not know what to say.” Lightning Shaker stared at her, stunned. Was she actually apologizing for having not bothered him when he looked angry?“ Hey, it’s alright. I was in a pretty bad mood, and you aren’t expected to know what to do with me when I’m like that.” That reassuring smile was back in full force. “But you had only a few days before said that we were family, and I just let you suffer alone.” The bitterness in Little Gear's voice stung. “Family means not having to say you’re sorry for what you do. Besides, look; I’m getting better, look no more cast on my wing!” He emphasized this by flapping his wings rhythmically, and grinning. “Feels so good to feel the air in my feathers again.” She smiled at him despite herself. “You are truly a strange pony Lightning Shaker.” “Don’t you know it! Hey, is that your new leg? It’s looking good.” He had hopped around to the other side of her as he spoke, and noticing her designs he looked over them eagerly. Little Gear looked down at her work, smiling. “Yes, I believe it is almost done, just a few more little details and I think I can build the prototype.” “That’s awesome, you’ll be able to walk, I’ll be able to fly, it’s like the world is being set right again.” His enthusiasm caused Little Gear to grin, even if only just for a moment, it was as if he was infectious. The two ponies went to get lunch together, Lightning felt as if a great weight had lifted off his shoulders, literally and figuratively. 'Maybe things really are looking up.' He thought to himself.