Chapter 13
Luna almost gasped when the nurse, Beating Heart, unfolded the bandage. She managed to hold it in. With the nonchalant way Jax had been talking about his burn wounds, she had gotten the impression that it wasn’t very serious, but this… She took in deep breaths, careful to keep quiet as to not reveal her presence. Did the salve really help that much or was his pain tolerance higher than any pony she knew of? He did have a lot of scars, he was clearly well acquainted with pain, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was pretending and biting in the pain as to not worry anypony. Those hugs Twilight gave him must have hurt badly, yet she didn’t hear a sound of complaint from him, just a twinge of pain on his face. She looked at him with a new sense of respect.
“Now Mr. Jax, I’ll be blunt.” Beating Heart started after she freed his upper body from bandages, looking uncomfortable for the first time since she entered. “These burns are very serious. Normally a unicorn doctor would magically reduce the damage and pain, but princess Twilight informed us that we were not to take that route. Even the appliance of the salve is usually done by magic. So, in short, this is going to hurt. A lot. I’ll try to be careful of course but…”
“If you only say the first part of your name it sounds pretty damn brutal.” Jax observed out of the blue. Luna and Beating Heart reacted almost identically, by standing completely still and letting the words sink in, blinking a couple of times. Beating Heart giggled a little while Luna held back again. Being invisible was so frustrating sometimes.
“You know, you’re the first to comment on that. But in all seriousness Mr. -“
“Please, just Jax. Mind if I call you Beating? And there is nothing to do about the pain, might as well try to get some laughter when you can.” He gave her a small smile. “I know that you will do your best, Beating, so stop beating around the bush.” His smile widened at his joke. Beating Heart smiled back, before she spread some salve on her hoof. “Alright then… Jax.” Luna looked at Jax’ face as she started. It twisted into pain almost immediately, but not a sound left his mouth. Luna averted her eyes from the sight, her heart full of sympathy. They fell on the book Twilight had left on the night stand by the bed. “The Adventures of the Elements of Harmony.” If she wasn’t mistaken, some of the first pages described Luna’s return as Nightmare Moon. If he read it, he would know of her past. For a few seconds she debated taking the book away, but came to the conclusion that he would hear of her sooner or later anyway, and what would she do with the book anyway? She entertained the thought of going down to the market and selling it for thrice its price, as Jax had stated it was now worth. That would be a fun venture, to be sure. The princess of the night, selling her fellow princess’ book, signed ‘to my biggest fan’. Surely that would spout some entertaining rumors.
“Beating, could I ask you what happened to my pants and shoes?” Jax asked, his voice strained by the pain.
“Oh uhm… They were burned badly and were disposed of. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay it’s just… Were you the one who salved and bandaged my lower part?”
Beating Heart blushed a bit at that but otherwise remained professional. “No, that would be doctor Steady Hooves. Don’t worry, she was very professional even with…” She blushed a bit harder, but kept gently applying the salve. Jax was blushing like mad, it made Luna smile for some reason.
“Okay good… Good to know… Uuhm… So this salve… Do you just rub it on? Can I do it myself on the lower part?” Beating Heart focused very hard on her work.
“I don’t see a problem with that… Could you please sit here? I need to salve your back as well.” She indicated the side of the bed, where Jax moved out to, making sure his blanket still covering his lower part.
Luna was curious. What was making them so embarrassed? The thought of what it could be made Luna’s cheeks burn. Surely it was not that. But why else would he be covering his lower part, and why else would he ask to salve it himself? Did he not have a sheath?
“I’ll have to at least check the bandage afterwards though. I’m assuming you want to do that by yourself as well?” Beating Heart went on.
“yes, and that’s… fine. You have to do your job after all.” Jax sounded less strained, more reserved. It seemed his back wasn’t as badly burned.
After Beating Heart was done with his upper part, she hoofed him the salve and some bandage, before making her way out. “I’ll be back in an hour.” She told him before she left. Jax quickly wrapped himself in the blanket and went over to lock the door.
Luna realized that she had no escape. She should have left with Beating Heart but now she was trapped with Jax. She couldn’t very well open the window without him noticing.
As she thought that thought, he went over to the window and closed the curtains. Even less chance for her to quietly get out.
She was curious. Very curious. But she didn’t want to invade his privacy. That was never the point of her invisibility. Maybe… A little peek would not hurt anypony. He would never have to know…
No. She was not that kind of pony. He obviously didn’t want anypony to see him uncovered, and she would respect that. She quickly turned around towards the corner just as he dropped the blanket.
She sat there quietly while he, she assumed, salved himself. Every little bit of his body. Even his…
She interrupted the thought, but could not do anything about her burning cheeks. Why was she thinking like that? She clearly remembered him telling Twilight that his private parts escaped with minimum damage. He would probably still apply the salve... Just to be safe.
Her imagination went a little wild after that. She had to catch herself a couple of times before she could convince herself to turn around and have a look. One time she had almost convinced herself that she was doing it for the safety of Equestria before she silently reprimanded herself. She knew full well why she wanted to turn around and it had nothing to do with safety.
By the time she finally heard him lay down on the bed again she was squirming a lot in the corner of the room. She sighed in relief... which was a mistake.
***
“What was that?” Jax asked the empty room. He was sure he had heard something. Something breathing… He listened attentively for a minute.
Well he couldn’t exactly be sure it was someone… it was probably nothing. He let it go with a shrug.
He made himself comfortable on the small bed. He would have to find a bigger bed for his own home.
Luckily his lower part had fared better, probably because of the smaller amount of bandage he had had down there. He was especially happy that his private parts were almost unharmed. He had still salved it, just to be sure.
His bandaging looked awkward next to the professional bandaging of his upper body, but there was nothing to do about that. He was never actually taught how to bandage, so he went by instinct. It would hopefully be good enough, he didn’t want Beating to rebandage him. Things were awkward enough between them. He knew that she, as a nurse, had probably seen a lot before and she would probably be professional about it. She had been professional enough about the whole ordeal. He was still happy she had let him do it himself though.
After a while a purple glow almost blinded him and Twilight stood in the room. One second he was alone, the next she was there. He looked over at the still closed door.
“Are you alright?!” He refocused on her. She seemed panicked. He snapped himself out of it. He had seen her do magic before, but teleportation… That was new.
“Well given the circumstances I am faring fairly well. Why do you ask?” He asked, confused.
“Everything in Equestria is magical! The food, the water, the ponies. Everything has at least a little magic in them.” She started pacing back and forth. “The salve they used on you was made with plants that are more magical than average, I’ve already checked on doctor Steady Hooves who tended to you, and nurse Beating Heart and they are both fine so I thought something must have happened to you, but you…” She stopped and took some deep breaths. “This doesn’t make any sense! Well chaos magic rarely does but… Every spell I’ve been using on you, no matter how small, was remade into a random spell. There was probably more magic in that salve than the levitation spell I used on you! Something should have happened…”
“There’s magic in everything? Wait is this why everything tastes and smells kinda earthy? I mean, I got used to it after a while but the first week I was here that really bothered me.” Jax asked, thinking back to the last time he ate. He barely even noticed the earthy taste anymore. That cake sure as hell tasted good. Maybe it was the sugar.
“What? Oh, yeah, magic has been said to have an earth taste and smell to it, but because we are raised here, ponies barely notice. I guess as an outsider… we really need to talk about where you are from Jax, this will keep me up at night! Anyway, are you sure you are okay?”
“Yep. Well I’ve been better, but nothing I can’t handle. I thought I heard something before you came in, does that mean something?” Twilight suddenly looked nervous.
“Oh uhm… No, probably not. I have to… to… go to the little fillies room! If anypony would like to… talk about things, they’ll know where to find me.” She gave him a nervous smile and tried to make a quick escape. She was stopped by the locked door. After fumbling around for a bit she finally opened it, gave him another smile, and made her way out. He had stared at her every step of the way.
“The fuck was that about?” He asked himself. She even left the door open, and where was the meal he was promised? He shook his head. This was a weird day for him.
***
Luna had, of course, understood Twilight’s message. She wanted to speak with her. This was a good chance to apologise, so Luna made her way after the mare.
After they both arrived at a single bathroom, she closed and locked the door, before making herself visible. Twilight looked at her with a determined stare.
“I know what you’re doing princess. You’re spying on him, aren’t you?”
“Twilight Sparkle, I know how this looks-.“ Luna started nervously. She had not expected to be confronted in a bathroom.
“It isn’t right princess Luna! He may look different but he’s a good pony. He doesn’t want to hurt us, since he got here we’ve actually done more damage to him than he has to us! Well… I have…” She added the last part in a whisper.
“Twilight, please listen to me.” She started again. “I am not spying on him.”
Twilight looked confused at her. “You’re not? But…”
“I know how this looks, but I agree with you. I don’t think Jax is a danger to ponies.” Twilight looked even more confused.
“Then why?”
Luna hesitated. How could she tell Twilight when she was not completely sure herself. “Because… I want to be friends with him… but I do not know how.” She finally admitted.
Twilight’s gaze instantly softened. “Oh princess.”
“Please Twilight. Just Luna. You are a princess yourself, you do not need to address me formally, lest you want me to do the same with you.” Twilight blushed a bit.
“I’m sorry… Luna. Old habits die hard.” She gave a nervous laugh, before turning serious again. She had a sad look in her eyes. “half an hour ago I promised I would never break Jax’ trust again. Now that I think about it, you were probably there… Uhm, I meant what I said prin- Ehh Luna. I can’t just lie to him about you, I just can’t.” Her voice and eyes turned a little pleading at the end, and Luna could understand why. If she asked Twilight to keep her invisibility a secret, Twilight would be in a difficult situation. She did not want that but… No, she could not ask this of Twilight.
“Twilight… I want to apologise for my outburst earlier today. You did not need me shouting at you to know what you did wrong, and I should have been more in control of my feelings.”
Twilight shook her head gently. “No, I deserved that, it’s fine. If you hadn’t been there in the first place… I would probably have taken even longer to get water. That was a really impressive spell pr- uhh Luna. To teleport is hard, but to teleport a fluid you can’t even see to a specific destination… That’s very advanced.”
“When you live for as long as I have, you learn a thing or two Twilight Sparkle. Nevertheless, I am glad you accepted my apology. I am not going to ask you to keep my presence secret, not after the promise you made.” She looked down, and started fidgeting a little. Did she have the courage to ask what she wanted? She complained about being in the shadows, but now she was doing it voluntarily. She had not spent that long shadowing Jax and she was already very tired of it. To make it worse, this day felt incredibly long, and it was not even evening yet. Luna made her choice. Enough with the hiding.
“Couldyouintroducemetohim?!” She blurted out. Twilight looked a bit confused.
“I’m sorry… What was that last part?”
“Could you… Would you be so kind as to… Will you please…” She was fighting to get it out again. Why was this so hard?
“Introduce us!” She finally said. She smiled at her victory. “Then, I will of course… tell him everything.” She swallowed hard at the prospect.
“Oh… Oh! That’s great princess! I mean… Luna.” Twilight beamed happily at her, and she smiled nervously back. “It would be my honor to introduce you. I’m sure he won’t be too mad about the spying... I mean, it’s not like you set him on fire.” Twilight smiled expectantly at her, and Luna found herself laughing at the unexpected joke. “Twilight Sparkle, you should not make fun of incinerating ponies, and I should most certainly not laugh at it.” Her smile contradicted her statement.
“Yes I know, but I read this book about jokes, and it said that jokes that were unexpected could be funny even if they were bad.” A sheepish smile adorned her muzzle.
“Oh! Can I borrow that book? I was actually recently thinking about whether you had such a book. In any case, this is one of the more life-changing conversations I have had in a bathroom, but I think it’s about time we made our way out of here.”
“I’m almost done with it, so I don’t see why not. And yes, that sounds like a good idea.” Luna stopped Twilight’s hoof before she could unlock the door.
“Twilight, would you mind if we do this a bit differently? Walking out of the bathroom together could spout some weird rumors, when you think about how I was not seen until this moment.” Luna smiled at Twilights blush. “I will teleport out of town, and fly over again, pretending like I just arrived. Meet me at the entrance in half an hour.” Twilight nodded at that.
A sense of pride and nervousness overwhelmed Luna as she teleported away. She was proud of herself, for having a normal conversation with Twilight without reverting back to old Equestrian even once, Twilight had started calling her by her name, and she had worked up the courage to stop lurking in the shadows and come out into the light. Which was also why she was nervous. How would Jax react to her? Would he even recognize her? It has been over a month since she entered that dream… Would he be very angry that she had been… observing him? She could not really fault him if he became angry with her. She had practically been spying on him. What if he decided he never wanted to see her again? Maybe she should just…
No. She could do this. This was what she wanted. She had to do it.
She started flying towards the small town.
***
Beating Heart came back into his room just like she promised, with something that looked like a doctor following her. The dress code in this world was weird: Naked unless you have a specific job.
“Hello Mr. Jax. My name is doctor Steady Hooves, I am here to check up on you.” The mare said. She shared Beating’s trait of having neither horn nor wings.
“Hello doctor Steady Hooves. Thank you for the work you’ve done so far.” Jax smiled at her, which she returned.
“You’re very welcome. Now, how are you feeling?”
“Oh, you know… Like I’ve been set on fire.” His smile widened as the doctor rolled her eyes at his joke.
“Alright Mr. Jax, let me be more specific then.” She stopped at Jax’ raised hand.
“I’m sorry, there is no need. I’m in a lot of pain, just laying down hurts like… a lot, but this salve is doing an amazing job of numbing my wounds. Other than that I feel fine.” He didn’t mention that he was hungry as hell, he still hoped that Twilight would come back from her long bathroom break with his meal. He was promised a fish damnit!
Doctor Steady Hooves looked kind of remorseful, but nodded grimly. “I know this isn’t easy for you, but without using magic… there isn’t much we can do. I’m sorry. I’ll leave you with Beating Heart then, if there isn’t anything else.”
Jax waved his hand dismissively. “No need to be sorry doctor, you did what you could for me, I’m thankful for that. Go see to your other patients, I’ll be fine in Beating’s care.” Both Beating and doctor Steady Hooves smiled at that, before she made her way out.
“I had a grown stallion in here last week with a sprained ankle, didn’t stop complaining from the moment he came in, to the moment he left. Then you come in with serious burns all over your body, no way to magically reduce the pain or damage, treated with salve that was never meant for such serious burns and you don’t say a word of discomfort until asked by a doctor. I wish I had more patients like you, Jax.” Jax puffed out his chest, while his cheeks burned a little at the unexpected praise. He hadn’t really seen it like that, complaining just never got you anywhere, so he didn’t do it.
“Well you know Beating… I’m not the complaining type. Besides, medical staff have it hard enough as it is, you don’t need complaining to add to your hardships. You did what you could under the situation, and I’m thankful for that.” Beating giggled a little.
“Sounds like somepony just earned himself an extra apple in his meals.” She said playfully
“Nice! Also, I can’t digest hay or plants, if you could please do something about that.” She looked at him a little confused, pointing at his almost empty plate from his meal.
“Then why did you eat it?”
“Oh that wasn’t me, that was… Sc… Scootoloo? What was her name? Rainbow’s fan.” His stomach rumbled to remind him how hungry he was. Damn this talk of food.
“Oh, Scootaloo? Well I’ll make sure you get something alternative then. Now… Let me see those bandages.”
He nervously uncovered himself.
She instantly pointed between his legs. “This part seems weird, considering how little it was burned. Why did you bandage it, much less so loosely?” Damnit… Why did she want to be have an awkward conversation right off the bat?
“To answer your first question, it was to feel less naked. The second... well since we have our… reproductive organ on the outside, we are sometimes… Well, when I get… stimulated…” His cheeks burned more than they should have. He was an adult and he couldn’t even explain why he would want some extra space down there.
“I don’t understand…” Beating looked utterly confused. He turned his gaze away.
“It gets bigger! Jesus Christ, it grows when we are turned on, so I thought I would give it some extra space just in case.”
“Oh… Oh! I’m uhmm…. This looks fine otherwise, not very professional but you covered all the wounds. I’ll teach you how to do it properly if you want to keep- Oh princess Twilight, when did you get here?”
Jax instantly covered himself and snapped his gaze from the floor to the doorway where Twilight was blushing madly. She heard…
“Just… recently. Are you done with Jax, nurse Beating Heart? I have somepony I want to introduce him to.” This piqued Jax’ curiosity.
“Oh, yes, of course princess.” She confirmed as she got up from her bow, before she turned towards Jax. “I’ll be back in three hours to change your bandage again Jax, and apply the salve again. Normally we wouldn’t do this more than once a day but doctor Steady Hooves decided that you need it every four hours.” Well, he wasn’t going to complain about that.
“Sure thing Beating. See you in three hours.” He smiled as she made her way out. She got surprised by something on the other side of the doorway, after which she bowed again. Curious…
Twilight made the fake throat-clearing sound you make when you want someone’s attention, so he turned his head towards her.
“So, Jax. There is somepony special I want to introduce you to. She was actually the one who teleported water unto you when you were on fire.”
“Uuh, my very own savior. Well bring her in so I can meet her, you are making me kinda nervous by building it up.” He looked at the doorway, expecting someone to come through, but nothing happened.
“Uhhm… Luna? You there?”
Luna? Like… the moon?
“Yes… Just give me a second.” Came a female voice from the other side of the doorway.
Twilight smiled nervously at him. “Hehe… So… nice weather we’ve been having huh?” Oh God… small talk. He raised an eyebrow at her, before looking back at the doorway.
“Uhm, Luna was it?” He felt stupid talking to an empty doorway. “Is it because you’re afraid of me? I’m a bit different but I promise I won’t hurt you, if you show me the same curtsey.” He did his best to imitate Fluttershy’s voice, cause if that doesn’t calm you down, nothing will.
“Nay, ’tis not the reason! We just need a minute.” He raised an eyebrow at that as well.
“We?” How many ponies were waiting out there?
Before he could question any further, someone came through. She had a black… no, dark blue coat, she was a llittle taller than Twilight and most other ponies he had seen, and not much of it was because of the horseshoes she wore. She slowly unfolded her wings as she came closer, unveiling two majestic wings. On her neck she wore an ornament depicting her mark, a crescent moon. She held her head, adorned with a horn and a crown, high and her cyan eyes looking straight ahead. But what really made his jaw drop was her mane and tail. The night sky was on full view right before him, the stars blinking at him, reminding him of every single night he had spent in the Everfree under the stars. He had always felt a sense of serenity looking at stars, but in Equestria, for the longest time, they were the only thing that gave him any piece of mind.
It was beautiful. Simply…
“Wow…”
Her ears turned towards him and he realized what he had just said.
“Oh I mean… Hello. My name is Jax, nice to meet you.” He gave her his most convincing smile as he reached out his hand for her to shake. She sat down at the side of his bed, and was looking down at the floor. Her wings instantly folded, as if she had forgotten them and just remembered. She hesitantly looked up at him, and seemed to realize that he had his hand out. Thank God for that, holding out your hand towards someone who didn’t notice was painfully awkward. Do you retreat it, do you wait for them to notice? She reached out her horse-shoe adorned hoof, and he gently shook it.
“We art… I mean… I am Luna, princess of the night.” Her wings unfolded again shortly, but folded quickly again. “N-nice to meet you as well.” She went back to looking down at the floor. Jax briefly wondered if she was somehow related to Fluttershy.
“So you are the one who saved me from a worse fate? I have to thank you for that.” He said sincerely. This was bad enough.
She looked at him briefly before looking down at the floor again. “You do not need to thank me.” She sounded like she chose her words carefully. She sounded a little sad for some reason.
“I just did, so too late.” He tried to be playful. She didn’t respond for a while and he got a little worried. Did he offend her or something? But then she slowly raised her head and looked him straight in the eye.
“Do you not recognize me?” That threw him for a loop. They had met before? He would have remembered meeting her…
“Ehhh… No. I’m sorry but I don’t, I’m pretty sure we never met though.”
“’Tis true, this is the first time we meet muzzle to muzzle, but ‘tis not the first time we meet. A month ago I wandered into a strange nightmare, where a weird creature was cowering alone in the dark. When he noticed me, he screamed at me to get away from him, and I did. ‘Twas thine dream I wandered into, Jax.”
Jax raised an eyebrow at her, then he looked at Twilight who was looking on silently. When he got no help there, he looked back at Luna.
“I’m sorry… You wandered into my what now?"
“Thine dream. We art the guardian of dreams, it is our duty to safeguard our ponies at night. We accidentally found thine dream, and We apologize if our presence was unwanted.” He didn’t know why she was speaking like that but it sounded awesome. He couldn’t remember dreaming about any ponies though… a month ago… hmmm… weird dream magic… Oh, wait a second.
He snapped his fingers, which made both princesses in the room flinch. “I remember! The night I landed here. No wait, I slept in a tree that night… the night after I landed here! I woke up to a bear in close proximity so I didn’t give it much thought, but there definitely was a black horse… Well apparently there was a dark blue pony.” He smiled at her, and she looked hopefully at him.
“So thou hath no anger towards Us?”
“Well not really. It was a month ago… just don’t do it again.” He didn’t want her to know of his past. He didn’t want to talk about that night with anyone, especially not these ponies. They didn’t need that kind of darkness in their world.
His smile wavered a little. This was a bad time to think about it.
“Huzzah!” Luna suddenly jumped up. “THY FORGIVNESS BRINGS US GREAT JOY!” The weird part about that shout was that it didn’t exactly sound like she shouting, it just sounded... like talking with force. Jax had to hold on to his bed to not fall out of it, although part of the reason was shock at the sudden outburst.
“Oh uhm… Don’t mention it?” He said uncertainly. He did not count on that, that’s for sure.
Luna seemed to realize what she had done and blushed a little. She took a deep breath and started again. “I apologise, sometimes I slip back into the Royal Canterlot Voice without thinking about it.” She looked down at the floor again.
Next to teleporting and dreamwalking, suddenly shouting wasn’t really that big of a deal.
“That’s okay Luna. Old habits die hard, as they say.” Her head snapped up in an instant, a smile slowly spreading on her lips.
“Thank you.” She said more earnestly than he would expect over such a small thing.
“You are… welcome.” He wasn’t sure what he did though. Her smile wavered as she continued.
“I am afraid that walking into your dream is not the only thing I am here to confess.” Oh great… More stuff. This day just kept getting better didn’t it? Why couldn’t he just have been out until the next day? Who the hell wakes up three hours after spontaneously combusting? Especially after being woken at sunrise…
“You see... Well the thing is…” Oh God, she was having trouble formulating it. This was gonna be bad…
She took a deep breath again, and slowly rose her head until she could look him in the eyes. His heart almost skipped a beat when he looked into her cyan eyes. Too bad they were looking at him so seriously. They would definitely looked better with happiness in them.
“When I got the message from Twilight yesternight that you were here, I realized that I wanted to meet you. After a short discussion with my sister, I made my way to Ponyville. After I found you at the party, I observed you from a distance. Then when you made your way into town this morning, I… I used an invisibility spell on myself to follow you.” Her gaze fell down to the floor again, and her shoulders slumped. Her voice was full of regret.
It was bad. How much did she hear? How much did she see? He stopped that train of thought before it turned into anger. Better assess the situation first.
“What exactly did you see?” He asked as calmly as he could.
Her eyes wavered a bit. “At the party yesterday, I did not see nor hear much. Only when you went out to enjoy my sky with Rainbow Dash did I hear anything.” A small smile adorned her… muzzle. What did she mean with ‘her’ sky?
“Today, I saw Rainbow Dash get carried to the hospital, and I heard your conversation with Apple Bloom. I saw the scars that adorned your body when you were in Rarity’s shop. I waited outside the test room while Twilight tested you, but when the door’s opened, I saw you on fire, and I extinguished that fire. When you woke up I was here, and I heard your conversation with Twilight. I heard your conversation with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie as well. I saw…” Her voice suddenly broke, and she had to take a breath. Right at the point where he wanted to know the most what she saw… She was in the room, she could have seen him salve himself… He waited anxiously for her to continue.
“I saw you get salved, and I heard your conversation with Beating Heart. But do not worry! I turned around when you salved your lower half, I promise!” She looked up with pleading eyes, willing him to believe her. But believing someone requires trust, and trust was not something he had a lot of. He did want to though… Maybe she did really turn around? He would have to get to know her better to judge something like that.
“I don’t understand Luna… You say you went here to meet me, but then when you get here you start spying on me instead.” She looked back down on the floor, but then shook her head and looked back up at him.
“I believe there is a saying for that… I chickened out. I was afraid… I have been afraid a lot ever since my return. But that is why I am here now! So that I can better myself. Twilight helped me see that I could not keep doing it.” She looked over to Twilight, a small smile on her muzzle again. “She did not want to keep my presence a secret after the promise she made to you, and I did not want to make her.” She looked back at Jax, smile gone, expressionless taken its place. “We hath told thee the truth. Now we await thine verdict.” Her voice was cold and emotionless. It seemed like she was steeling herself for the worst.
It was official. This was the worst day ever. He knew that the day before had been too good, he had obviously been stealing luck from this one. It had started out bad, then gone to worse, and then back on bad again. It would seem like every time something good happened, it went to shit afterwards. Being spied on didn’t really compare to being set on fire, but being told suddenly that someone had been sneaking around while invisible, listening to private conversations and possibly seeing some parts he didn’t want strangers to see was… disturbing.
On the other hand, thankfully, it had only been like… half a day. She came to him and admitted everything, even the things he had forgotten about. She had overcome her apparent fear to tell him this, and that required something. He didn’t know what she meant by ‘since I came back’, how long ago was that exactly?
But... she could be lying. She could have been spying on him since he came here. In dreams and reality alike. She had the ability.
He threw the thought away. That would get him nowhere but frustration and distrust. But did she really deserve his trust? Twilight had unwillingly and unknowingly set him on fire, but Luna had known exactly what she was doing. In a way that was even worse.
But it had only been half a day.
If she was telling the truth.
She hadn’t seen anything important.
If she was telling the truth.
It all came back to that little thing. He couldn’t trust her, not as they were now.
He had zoned out while his debate was going on. Twilight was leaning in, looking intently at him while biting her lip, waiting for his reply. Luna’s mask had cracked and she was looking at him anxiously. How long had he been out?
“Twilight, what are your thoughts on this?” She almost fell forward at the sudden question.
“Uhhhmm… At least she didn’t set you on fire?” He almost laughed at her valuable input.
“Twilight, I think you set the standard too high. If I use that as a measure whether I should forgive people or not, most would be forgiven.”
“So you forgive her?” Twilight looked excited at the prospect, and he noticed Luna lift her head a little in hope.
But it wasn’t that easy. Not for him, not if she truly wanted his forgiveness.
He looked at her. “You did what you did unknowingly Twilight, she knew what she was doing. That is the main difference here.” Luna looked close to tears at his statement. She opened her mouth, maybe to argue or defend her actions, but closed it quickly again. Twilight looked like she was about to say something as well, so he held up his hand to stop her.
“You remember my conversation with Twilight? About how I don’t trust very many?” She nodded, her gaze on the floor yet again. “You see, I’m afraid as well. It’s not that I don’t want to just forget all of this and forgive you, but I can’t. Not if you want my real forgiveness, which I’m guessing is why you are here. I don’t want to live the rest of my life with the fear that you are following me around. I want to believe that you didn’t start spying on me until yesterday, and that you haven’t been in more than one of my dreams. But I can’t.” That seemed to break the small bit of hope that Luna had been holding on to. Tears started streaming down her muzzle, and her horn lit up with a blue aura. He instantly realized that she was probably going to teleport away. The next thing he knew he was hugging her. The pain shot up around all the wounds that were touching her, but he ignored it. For a second he thought she had used magic to move him, but her spell wouldn’t have worked on him. He had apparently just moved faster than he thought he could. “Wait.” He whispered into her ear. He wasn’t sure if she heard it, but she was still there, so he assumed. “I’m not done yet.”
She was stiff as a board, probably as surprised as him by the sudden hug. “There is a way you can earn my forgiveness, if you are willing to work for it.” She didn’t answer. He could feel her tears stain his bandages on his shoulder. He decided to go on. “If you want, you can earn my trust. Become my friend. Normally that would take years, but seeing how I’m already friends with Rainbow, I think you have a pretty good shot. If I can trust you, I feel I can forgive you for this.” She didn’t answer at first, and he got a little nervous that he was crossing the line with a princess, but then she slowly and gently put her own hooves around him, followed by her wings, in a kind of super-hug. It still hurt like hell, but not as much as Twilight’s hug. Her head came to rest on his shoulder and she pulled him in a little tighter, but not so much that he couldn’t take it.
“Thank you… Thank you… Thank you…” She whispered the words over and over again as she cried on his shoulder. At some point Twilight left the room, that’s how long it went on for. He started gently stroking her mane.
He felt really bad for not being able to forgive her as quickly as he had with Twilight. She had saved him from the fire after all. He should, he wanted to, but he couldn’t. Not really. But she was willing to become his friend, she was willing to earn his trust. All he needed to forgive her, to really forgive her, was trust.
He was sure she would do everything in her power to earn it.
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Man... If you keep this performance up I'll have to put this story in my favorites... Keep up the good work
5856215 haha I'll try XD
Same here for me too man, jax is a very cool bloke.
5856674 glad to hear it :D
This was good. Not quite how I expected it to go, but I think you did it very well. Also, you're writing seems to be getting smoother and cleaner. Can't wait for the next chapter!
This is probably more a matter of preferencen but I think "fillies' room" would fit better. I think it should have the apostrophe either way, but I could be wrong on that.
I'm guessing you meant "dozed off"; however, the more I thought about it, "zoned out" might make more sense. Guess it depends on which you want to convey, sleeping or getting lost in his thoughts.
"in".
Also, it's my pleasure to help. Thanks for being so quick to correct it.
5857076 Not what I had in mind as well, but sometimes things change along the way, it's part of writing I guess :) Ohhhh yes! I'm levelling up XD Thanks for the corrections as always, I changed it :) you are right, I feel 'fillies' would translate better as well, and' zoned out' describes being lost in thought better than 'dozed off'... and the last one, I was trying to write 'into', I can't believe I fucked that up XD I think 'in' might fit better as you wrote though :)
I know this chapter has been out for some time, but i just started reading this today after coming across it. So far it's really good. However, as someone who writes using old/middle English quite often there is something i should point out. I haven't finished reading the chapter yet, but when i came across it the line "THOU FORGIVNESS BRINGS US GREAT JOY!" I had to pause as it screamed at me. Sorry for the bad pun.... Anyways you used Thou in the statement which is a second person nominative personal prononoun just as I/We are first person nominative pronouns. the objective version would be thee. The word you were looking for in that statement was Thy or Thine as these are both the second person possessive personal pronouns. thus the statement should read, and forgive me for not putting it in caps, " Thy forgiveness brings us great joy!" or "Thine forgiveness brings us great joy!"
6956612 Thank God you're here XD I corrected it, and if you find any more mistakes, both with 'old English' or anything else, just comment and I'll look at it :3
Especially old English... I'm not very good at it XD I have some more instances of it, but I've only in more recent chapters used a website explaining the different things I need to look out for... and then I'm still unsure whether I've done it correctly XD
You don't have to give a lengthily explanation every time if you don't want to ;)
6956629
S..sorry about the lengthy explanation.... I did it more so that you'd know some of the times where it was appropriate to use thou, thee, thy and thine as they are some of the most commonly... misused words when it comes to writing in old/middle English in today's writing.
6956647 You don't have to apologize XD it's just that I'm not a native English speaker, so words like 'second person nominative personal prononoun' leave me scratching my head, trying to figure out what it is in my own language XD
Yeah... I think it gets better later, if my calculations are correct XD
I'm not sure which chapter this was in, I'm a bit scatterbrained, it was in the Carousel Boutique. It should be "How Frequently do you need to change the bandages?"
Your character comes across as to self entitled and a jerk people shouldn't have to go out of their way to cater to your characters needs him making demands after a slight makes him come across as a douche, real people and especially people in power won't bend a knee to some one they just met beyond a sorry about the thing they did
7998643 I disagree. First of all, what's self-entitled and jerkish about not being able to forgive someone for spying on them? Especially when it's someone who can literally enter your dreams and make themselves invisible. Jax doesn't know this pony, yet she comes and apologizes for doing that and ensures him that it was only for a day. As far as he knows, she could have been traversing his dreams at her leisure since he got there, and who knows what she can do in there, or how much she can see.
Now, if she was the type of character to do it, Luna could simply apologize and leave, but he still owes her no forgivness. Yet since she herself asks to be judged ('We hath told thee the truth. Now we await thine verdict'), and by her reaction when he tells her he can't simply forgive her just like that, he gives her the choice to stay and earn his trust. It's an in the moment thing where he thinks 'how can i forgive her' and that is the answer he comes to, not because he feels entitled to her forgivness but because he can see that SHE wants it.
second of all... I don't know why you mention real people here. You mean my portrayal of Luna isn't realistic? While she may not need to 'bend her knee' to him, this is exactly what she wanted, so I don't see why she would decline.
That is so mean just calling her
beating
bruh