End of the Line

by Sunlight Rays

Chapter 4: What I've Found

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep….

A steady, rhythmic beeping sound woke me up. I opened my eyes, and took a moment to take in my surroundings. I felt an oxygen mask strapped to my face, along with several bandages that covered my head and ribs. I felt around my left eye and discovered that the gash had been stitched. There were several wires that were attached to my chest, leading to a machine that constantly let out a beeping noise. Curtains blocked me from other ponies’ view. And from somewhere behind the curtains, I could hear several ponies talking in hushed voices.

“So, will he be okay….”

“… just give him a few weeks….”

“…two broken ribs… fractured skull, as well as a concussion….”

“…I never knew what he was going through….”

“How could this happen….”

“I am so sorry….”

Voices of several ponies swam through my head, as well a sound that sounded like somepony crying. As I felt my consciousness fading away into darkness once more, the words I am so sorry echoed around in my head.

I awoke again. This time, the oxygen mask was gone. The IV was no longer attached to my body. My chest and head were still bandaged. I looked out the window next to my bed. The Sun was setting in the west. I sighed. Well, at least I was alive. That’s maybe one thing I could care about.

Suddenly I heard someone sniffle. I turned my head to the other side. What I saw made me realize the gravity of the situation. There they were; mom, with her usually well-combed yellow mane all ruffled up, which, combined with her matching yellow fur, gave the impression of a lost and wandering chick; dad, with red, puffy eyes, as if he had been crying for hours without stopping; Aurora, with the saddest look on her face I had ever seen.

With that, I realized another thing. Even if I stopped caring about things, there were still ponies who cared about me. And that was one of the precious things I still had. I lost Echo three days ago, but I still had my family, who loved me and cared about me. For the first time in what felt like a long time, I felt… I felt that something actually mattered to me. For once, I thought I could smile again.

I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it without saying anything. What could I say? I had lied to them so many times that everything was fine, everything was going okay. I lied to them, just so that they wouldn’t worry, wouldn’t be hurt. Except that it hurt them much more than if I had just told them the truth.

Unable to think of anything to say, I smiled a little and said, “Hi, everyone”.

My parents began crying again.

---

After my parents and I had a long talk — and I do mean long talk — about what I did, and left the room with the conclusion that lying in order to spare my parents negative feelings was worse than telling the truth, Aurora and I were left to ourselves in the hospital room.

An awkward silence remained in the room, with me staring at the wall opposite of me while Aurora fiddled with her hooves.

“So… how’s your pacemaker doing?” I asked, trying to break some of the awkwardness.

“It’s… it’s doing fine, I guess. I haven’t had a problem since… you know, two years ago,” said Aurora, with a tone that reflected the awkward atmosphere in the room.

I sighed, and changed the subject to something more direct. “They’re pretty disappointed with me, aren’t they? What with lying and all that….” I sighed again, covering my face with my hooves.

Aurora gazed at me for a moment, then said, “Actually, they’re more sorry for you than disappointed.”

I turned and looked at her. “What?”

Aurora locked eyes with me with her emerald green eyes. “They’re sorry for you, Lux. They think that they haven’t paid enough attention to how you were doing here. Of course they’re disappointed that you lied to them. But they’re also sorry that they weren’t able to be the reliable parents whose children could turn to when they had issues.”

I stared at her for a moment, then returned my gaze to the wall and said, “No. They haven’t done anything wrong. They did everything to support me, and l-look at me, l-lying to my parents just-*sniff*-just because I was afraid that they would worry about me,” I mumbled, trying to hold back the tears.

“I almost did tell them, Aurora. I almost did. But then I got scared. Scared that receiving the news of me getting bullied would be too much for them, especially when they were so worried about that accursed heart problem and that pacemaker. I never realized that just telling them would solve the problem and then all of us wouldn’t have to worry about it. I just… I… oh, what have I done?” I rambled as the tears came through. Then I covered my face with my hooves again and began to sob.

Aurora came to my side, wiping a tear away from my cheek with her hoof. “Hey now, it’s okay… it’s okay….” She began patting my shoulder. She kept doing that for a while until I finally managed to calm down. Then she said, “They’ll forgive you, if they haven’t already. And, if it helps you deal with the guilt, you did it with good intentions, you know.”

Aurora asked, “You okay now?” I nodded again, still sniffling.

“I forgot that sometimes you act like you’re the older sibling,” I said with a laugh.

“Well, no surprise, seeing how you’re such a dork at times,” replied Aurora with a wink.

I gave her the ‘well-you-had-better-watch-your-mouth-young-lady’ look while Aurora laughed, “What? It’s only the truth!”

Just then, my parents returned, dad holding a plastic bag in his mouth.

“So, who wants some hayburgers?” asked Mom.

Both Aurora and I gladly shouted, “Us!”

Comments

[Sparkle Cola]

Good family!