Resolute

by LucidTech

Chapter Two

It was in the midst of midnight, the large white orb in the sky full and bright amongst the twinkling specks around it. The light it cast rested softly against the clouds, and the clouds stood steadfast against it, preventing it from touching the earth and keeping the world below cloaked in shadow. The moon shone on, resolute, searching for the little cracks in the cloud cover that let it pass what meager light it had onto the enshrouded world below, doing what little it could to keep it from total darkness. The moon and clouds fought like they had so many nights before, since the start of time, and despite the small victories to either side, no one ever won.

Deep below the silent war, far from the string-like light that would make it to the surface, Celestia lay awake. Here, far from the moon, she provided her own light. A constant orb of trickling illumination. Far more dim than even the moon on that night, the light it cast barely pierced the shadows at all. But despite its weakness, it accomplished its goal. Silhouettes of the ponies who had asked her here were clear amongst the shadows of the walls, slumbering under Celestia's gaze in a sweet ignorant bliss of the disturbing light she had summoned.

Each of the ponies slept in fragile dreams, worry and fear thinning the wall that kept them asleep in bed. Too strong a light would wake them, but no light at all would prevent her from giving aid if circumstances required it. It was a balance Celestia knew well, one that she’d practiced again and again through her long life. Both among the sleeping and those awake. She’d been brash and bold once, but too bright a light would blind. She’d grown cold and distant, but no light at all would lead astray. There were temptations in the darkness, ones she knew well, ones she’d met face to face.

She’d laid her head on a pillow she’d been provided and gazed through half lidded eyes at the new member of the group, who seemed to shiver in the sleeping bag that’d been given to him. The bag bore a symbol of a sun on it, much akin to Celestia’s cutie mark, and it was far larger than those that the other ponies used. Yet, despite the extravagant size, the human still seemed cramped in the bedding. He’d taken a fetal position once again as he lay there, and as each of the ponies drifted off into their dreamlands one by one, he remained awake.

It was about an hour after silence had fallen on the camp before the biped made any move at all, breaking it’s tight body free of the bag and moving out onto the surface of the cloth. Celestia remained still, watching it go and feigning her own sleep. She kept an eye on the silhouette as it walked away from the camp, watching as it abandoned her dim light for the darkness, watched as it faded and faded away. Watched until she was forced to move to keep sight of it. She found it at the very edge of her light, barely visible against the rocky floor where it sat.

Naught but silence came forth as it sat there, naught but caution and fear. Then it moved, she saw it’s shoulders shift, but she couldn’t tell why. A sound came to her shortly there after, a soft metallic sliding noise that rustled the air. It was constant, a long stretch with the noise and then nothing for a moment, then it would start again.

Celestia wanted to move closer, but was afraid she might frighten the biped with her steps, she was far too close to hope they might go unnoticed, the fact that she hadn’t been heard on the way over was miracle enough. Her worries of disturbing the creature were cast aside as a soft noise came to her ear. She knew it instantly, it was a noise she feared more than anything, and she felt a chill run down her spine as it echoed slightly off the rock around her. She glanced around hurriedly to make sure of her suspicions before she approached the biped, hoping to confirm her fears more than anything.

Celestia conjured a second light, small but brighter than it’s predecessor back at camp, and looked at the biped on the stone floor. It sat perfectly still, arms wrapped around legs and completely immobile on the exposed stone floor, seemingly removed completely from the outside world. Celestia’s steps were as silent as she could manage, and she was forced to remove her shoes to keep the peace of the cave. She crept slowly about, moving around to the front of the biped to look at it’s face. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly as she caught a glimpse of what she’d feared to see.

Celestia opened her eyes once again to look at the biped, a weight like a stone in her heart. Wet trails had found their way from its eyes and they now trickled slowly towards the floor, shimmering half heartedly like stars from the floating light that followed Celestia’s command. It almost sounded like it was choking on them as it apparently tried to stem their flow, desperately trying to calm the sound of its own sobbing that was wandering through the chamber, apparently aware of the noise it was causing. “Damn it all.” Came the voice of the creature as it lay there, quiet but deafening, like a needle’s prick when there was no other feeling to be felt. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.” It said again and again until a new wave of tears cut off the cursing, a coursing blast of sadness surging up and lingering on its heart.

Celestia was unsure how to respond. She wasn’t even quite sure she understood the reason behind the tears. And it tore at her heart that she couldn’t do anything to help the creature as it lay there, completely enraptured in sorrow. She didn’t know how she needed to comfort it. It was a lack of knowledge that prevented her from helping it, a fact that shafted even the most powerful of desires to help.

“Come on Jack, stop crying.” It said again, speaking to itself. Tears were still fighting their way past his clenched eyelids as he spoke, but he put them off to continue his monologue to himself. “Come on, it won’t due to wake up in the morning with bloodshot eyes, they’ll all get worried about you. You don’t want them to do that. They were just legs Jack, let it go.” He said again. Sounding for all the world like he was going to believe it any moment now. Or at the very least that he wanted to.

His voice sounded different now, more solid and more sensical, which made sense since Celestia had only heard it in the dream world before. He hadn’t spoken at all since he woke up. But beyond the very legitmate tone of the voice there was also the crippling sadness in his words that simply would not go unnoticed, making the subtle clues of his third person speech into a very large neon sign with flashing letters. And as he tried to gather whatever composure he could get his hands on inside himself Celestia glanced between him and the camp. She had no worries about the creature attacking her should she try and comfort it. Rather she was more worried about the result should she do so.

She’d spent a lot of time around ponies, far more than she’d ever intended to in her younger years, and as much as she knew some ponies could do with a hug every now and then, she also knew that some ponies would rather fight through it themselves. When someone came to help them without being called, a pony from the latter group would feel… weak. That they weren’t able to do it by themselves. And Celestia was worried that this creature was among that group, given how he talked to himself. To comfort him might cause a lot more harm than good in the long run.

The longer she stood there though, the more she decided she couldn’t simply leave him lonely like that. What kind of leader would she be if she left him there by himself? He needed to at least know she wanted to help, that they wanted to help. All the ponies. And so she crouched in front of him, purposefully causing a fair amount of noise as she settled in. The noises of tears coming to an almost immediate stop as he became aware of his company.

“Do you need help with something?” Celestia said with a kind smile and an open face, the kind of face that a thief would confess to. She remained silent after she spoke, even when nothing came in return. She left the floor open to his concerns and his worries, she’d played the opening piece, and it was up to him to continue off it or not.

“I can’t feel them.” He said with a half-smile. His hands were rubbing his legs now, as if he was proving his point. Celestia looked at him in confusion until she was struck by the revelation of what he meant. She’d wondered about them, but she never thought that… she didn’t think that they were prosthetics.

“They said I was lucky,” He continued, idly, his voice seeking to fill the emptiness now that there was someone to hear him. “Because I was going to have automated limbs instead of wooden or plastic replacements. But… every time I take a step… I can’t feel it and it just… it feels beyond my control.” Celestia, in the wake of his words, remained silent. She was unsure what, if anything, she could say in response.

“Sorry.” He said simply, standing up to his full height again. Eye level with Celestia, were she to be at her full height, but his gaze focused on the ground instead. “I’ve been awake for less than a day and I already wish I’d stayed asleep.” He didn’t make eye contact, instead he turned and headed back towards the camp. “I didn’t mean to bother you with my demons.”

“We all have demons,” Celestia said after him. “Things we regret. Ghosts that haunt us. People we’ve hurt. It’s a curse as much as a blessing, a blessing in that we all have them. And, because of that, we can provide comfort for one another and help each other through it. There is no reason to fight your darkness alone, not when you can fight it with friends.” Celestia said boldly, getting the feeling that subtleties were not the way to go. Not right now anyway, and not with the biped before her.

“I’ve never been one for friends.” He responded, glancing over his shoulder towards her with contemplative eyes. “Never could get the hang of starting off.”

Celestia smiled at that and shook her head. She walked around to stand in front of Jack and he raised his gaze to look at her. “I too never was one for friends, not for a long time at the start. But, I learned a thing or two. And while I can’t boast the knowledge of it that my student does, I do know a bit.” He raised his head to look at her, partially in confusion and partially in curiousity. “From what I can tell, it starts off very simple. Something like this.” Celestia held out her front hoof and he looked at it questioningly for a moment before looking back into her eyes. “My name is Celestia, but you can call me Tia. It’s very nice to meet you.” She said with a kind smile.

The smile proved contagious, and it wasn’t but a moment before a similar one cracked the sad shell of a face that the biped wore. He reached out calmly with an open palm and he grasped her hoof in a hand. “I’m Jack. It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Well, I’m no expert as I said but I believe that makes us friends, doesn’t it Jack? At least until we have more opportunities to help one another out and prove that friendship.”

“Yes, I suppose it does Tia.” Jack let go of Celestia’s hoof and she let it swing down and to the ground.

“So, as a friend, was there anything else you needed? Any questions that I might be able to answer for you?” She said, offering that same welcoming smile that she’d had since the very start of their conversation.

“Well, there was one thing. I suppose.” He said, pausing a moment to run his hand down his jawline and scratching just under one of his ears.

“Yes?”

He ran a sleeve of his shirt over his eyes to clear them before he posed his question. “Why is everyone an equine?”

In the silence that followed where in Celestia tried to come up with an answer to the question, not quite sure how to respond to it at all, she realized how happy she was to have avoided diving too far in to his head for the fleeting answer that'd glimmered up in response to the gramaphone, realizing, with those words, that it would have been nothing but folly.

Author's Note:

Ahhh, it feels so two dimensional now. I'm a bad author. Aggghhhh.

Comments

[Sky Hooves]

It is not a bad start. But something feels wrong... I can't really place my finger on it...

I will still keep an eye on this Story.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

I for one love it.

[LittleKhan]

You're doing better than I can; it's not bad at all. My only concern is that the part where Jack came out of the tank so fast. It just seems like he just woke up and walked out like nothing had happened. Was he expecting to wake up in a dark cave surrounded by aliens?

[Lupus]

Different dimension? Future? Another planet?
So many questions...

[Super Steve]

I love future stuff!

[Ponynator]

This is beautifully written, makes me quite jealous...

[ChibiChabot]

Hmmm interesting. Still on my following list. Hopefully we will get filled in on what happened to humanity.

[phallus of malice]

You have no idea how surprised I was to find out that this was about a guy. It felt like I was reading about a girl (still does) so when you said he was a guy in the last chapter I was like
img.pandawhale.com/87574-thats-a-penis-gif-dick-font-Im-X2yp.gif

[LucidTech]

5279688

Actually it isn't, because he has a robot bottom half, if you catch my drift.

[Azera]

So, I just finished reading this story and now you have me hooked. You must continue this! This story just has so much.. mystery and... I don't know how to describe it because I'm not good at writing comments and things. My point is, you have caught my attention and now I crave more words.

please don't be dead

[AmicusBestia]

5440365 PFT