The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope

by Wings of Black Glass

In the Wind

The wind rushed beneath our wings, in Ponyville far below Rarity chose not to join them in the air and returned to her work. Sable grinned like a foal in a candy store, swooping and diving through or around clouds, engaging in impromptu races with me, and otherwise enjoying for the first time the ability to fly again. He was right, those days ago just before the incident, he was nowhere near as quick as I was. I guessed Fluttershy would give him a run for his money, and she had never been a particularly strong flyer. If this fact bothered him in the slightest, he didn’t show it.

Rarity’s warning lingered in my mind. I still hadn’t talked to him about his missing cutie-mark or his history, which only I knew now. Sable swung past me again, pure unadulterated joy evident in his expression. I didn’t want to ruin his happy moment, perhaps another time.

“It would seem luck really is on my side today.” He pulled up out of a dive not far from me, hovering in place. His wings didn’t seem to function entirely like normal Pegasus wings; he didn’t have to flap to hold position the way others do, for instance. I wondered how much of his low flight speed was due to the limits of the spell or the limits of his knowledge on flight mechanics. “I didn’t know how much I didn’t know.” I laughed but took note how tense he looked.

“We should probably land soon. You don’t want to strain your ribs anymore today.”

“I don’t think I have to actually use muscles or exert real effort to fly, the spell does most of that for me.”

“You don’t want to break the spell either, those wings are pretty fragile, and it’s a long way down.” At this second warning, he looked down, and I could see him measuring the distance to the ground far below. He rolled his eyes and started to descend, and I kept level with him as we dropped lower.

“Not that fragile.” I almost bet to myself he would continue even knowing the risk. “But you are right.” So I lost that bet.

“You clearly remember how the wing spell works, but what else did you get back? Anything interesting?” He shrugged, his wings continued to hold out rigidly to the side independently of his stance, it was a little uncanny. We set down in the park, I looked around and realized we were not far from where we met that one night.

“It’s hard to say.” He flapped his wings and folded them, before unfolding again. “I remember now, seeing Rarity’s butterfly wings for the first time, and reading the spell in a book. But nothing else concrete.” He looked back at his right wing, inspecting it in the sunlight. “Feelings and emotions. Angry outbursts when I couldn’t get it right. Determination, a refusal to give up, the desire to make it better.” He twisted the wing all the way around, and I cringed, real bones would snap trying to turn a wing like that.

I stepped closer, to take an even better look at the structure. He was so engrossed in examining his right wing that he didn’t notice me. From this distance, I could see the wing itself didn’t physically connect to his body, the panel that would be the equivalent of the humerus bone in standard wings floated just above his shoulder. Each pane of magic glass hovered in place just barely disconnected from the others; no panel touched any other. As I realized this, he began to twirl each panel independently on his right wing. Despite knowing there was no physical link between each feather structure I cringed again anyways. On a real limb, this would be tantamount to breaking every bone and tearing every muscle; the damage would probably be irrevocably beyond repair.

Clearly, his spell agreed, as his right wing suddenly shattered when he turned what should be the radius bone at a ninety-degree angle from where it should go. The crack of breaking glass was depressingly familiar to me at this point. The burst of light and sound stumbled both of us, and the unbalanced magic caused his left wing to explode as well. I managed to remain standing despite getting a face full of magical glass; Sable wasn’t quite as lucky. I had to blink repeatedly before the spell dissipated altogether, it was a good thing the spell had no cutting force to it, or I might have needed a trip to the hospital.

“Well, that was fun.” Sable grumbled sarcastically from where he ended up on the ground. “Just as a side note, that stings when it breaks.”

“It hurts? Can you stand?” I extended a helping hoof, guessing he would have preferred not to be simply picked up using magic.

“I think so.” He struggled to his feet on his own. I sadly withdrew my aid. He cringed, holding one arm over his chest. “It would appear you were correct. I do believe I have pushed my luck a little far.”

“Do you need me to get the doctor?”

“No, no. I’ll be alright. Just let me rest a moment.” He sat down near the top of the hill, the same one from the other night, and looked out over the town. I wondered if this was just coincidence, or if his subconscious recognized this place. Sable closed his eyes and raised his head, letting the warm sun and the cool breeze wash over him. He slowed his breathing, relaxing after the excitement of recovering his wing spell.

It was relaxing out there, and I set myself down nearby, but not too close, to wait until he was ready to move again. He sat in silence for so long I wondered if he had fallen asleep. His breathing was certainly slow and measured enough. Then a bird sang nearby, and he looked towards it for a moment, before returning to his resting state. He seemed comfortable enough, and I noticed that it was already past lunchtime. I knew there was a pony with a snack cart which goes through the park around then and headed off to find them. I returned a few minutes later with a pair of sandwiches and drinks to see Sable where I left him; he didn’t seem to have moved.

“Are you hungry?” He blinked and focused on me when I walked up. “I’ve got apple and pear, want one?” He nodded, still silent, and took the pear sandwich from me, as well as the proffered water. I recalled that he had fresh pears the day we met, they might have been his favorite fruit. He ate in silence, seemingly lost in thought. I finished my lunch before he spoke.

“I believe I am ready to go.” He stood, rather suddenly. “We should head back to the castle.”

“Do you want to fly there?” I stood alongside him. He looked down at his hoofs.

“Not really. Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled to have my spell back. But…” He shook his head vigorously. “The spell is draining, and I still feel exposed.”

“That’s probably because you don’t have your coat anymore. We never saw you without it.” He tilted his head, and I suspected he caught my hesitation. I had almost said ‘until we did.’ That conversation is still one I didn’t want to have. He did not push any further and walked away towards the castle. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and followed. We kept to back streets to stay out of sight. Once back inside he headed towards the library. “Anywhere you want to start?” I waved a hoof at the massive bookshelves.

“That's, almost, a stupid question.” He gives me a sly half smile. “I don’t have a clue.”

“Hmm…” I let the minor insult pass. “I have an idea.” I headed to the ‘A’ section and pulled down my copy of Astronomical Astronomer’s Almanac to All Things Astronomy. He took the tome from me and read the cover, before raising an eyebrow towards me. “Just a feeling.”

“…Right.” He seemed suspicious towards me for some reason.

“What else…” I let my eyes wander across the book spines, reading off the titles to myself. “A basic history of Equestria might be helpful…” I pulled down several books on the subject. I recalled his broken clock and plans to reinforce his hovel’s foundation. “An engineering textbook…” and then I pulled down subject after subject from the shelves and handed them over to Sable, inwardly justifying my choices. I did avoid the topic of Cutie-marks. I continued this way for several moments before he interrupted.

“Twilight, enough.” I looked back; he was already balancing a fairly large stack of books over each shoulder, even more were already piled around him so deep it almost buried him. “I think I’ve got plenty to keep me busy for a while.” I blinked and looked up at the shelves, and saw I’d emptied several of them without thinking. I gave him an embarrassed laugh.

---

“Always with the books.”

“Hey! Books help… sometimes.”

“You do know you had to have that conversation with him eventually?”

“And I did. That’s next.”

Comments

[Luckyfanisaac]

I looked around and realized we were not far from where we met that one night.