The multiple "1000 years" of blank pages.by Dr_ZnoyChaptersThe Orphanage: at the infirmary, again.The Orphanage: under the tree.The Orphanage : The Great Alicorn WarriorThe Orphanage: at the infirmary, again."Thought Flare! Thought Flare! Wake up!" says a sweet mare's voice, most likely the nurse's, as usual. She’s the only pony around who still worries about me. Not that it bothers me, on the contrary, I’m glad that it’s just her who cares for me whenever I lose consciousness or get hurt because I was silly enough to join a silly hoofball game. I don’t want to bother anyone more than I have to. “THOUGHT FLARE!” The voice turns sharp, filled with worry. Better reassure her. I open my eye to see her looking at me from her chair, releasing a sigh of relief. Light blue coat, Pink mane, yeah, same unicorn as always, same nurse, can’t remember her name though. I have trouble with names. I’ve been calling her “nurse” for as long as I can remember. I’ll just sit up and move on with the day, maybe play with my ball in my room for a while. Yeah....that’ll be nice... As I sit up the nurse hops off her chair to help me. I lean on her to avoid falling off the bed I was on for how long? Let’s see.... The sun is shining pretty bright in the window, and since I’m in the infirmary, that means it’s on the west side...so its suppertime? Last I remember it was lunchtime...I was......um....eating...I think....ow ok, better not really think too hard...I just want to go back to my room....Oh look, a clock...yeah...its suppertime... “Um...Nurse?” I say, in a weak voice. I really should practice talking more... I don’t want to sound like some weak foal all my life. “What is it deary?” she asks, smoothness and sympathy overflowing in her voice. What is it that I should ask....oh yes! Room. Ball. I wanna go there. “I’m hungry...” I say, contrary to my thoughts. But now that I think of it...I am hungry. I let out a light chuckle, and the nurse joins me, but not for the same reason. “Of course you are! Come here you!” she leans forward and embraces me in a hug. A little tight, but mostly warm. I like it. But I wouldn’t want anyone to see me like this, I don’t want to be subject to laughter and people saying that I've got a crush on the nurse. I mean... She’s nice...pretty, even... oh no not the blushing... I feel my face getting heated up and blushing at the thought of me possibly having a crush on the nurse. She looks at me, smiles, kisses the tip of my horn, which feels very, very wrong, causing me to blush even more, then she says: “You’re Just too adorable with that blush~ come on, let’s get you some food while there still is some.” Walking down the creaking wooden floor of the orphanage’s second floor, the floor with the infirmary, classrooms, and rooms used for random stuff, like games, I can’t help but get these ideas of how one day I’ll be adopted by the nurse. Leave this orphanage; get to live like a normal colt, or at least live close to what I think they live like. But I doubt that’ll ever happen. I was here since I was born and in my earliest memories she was the nurse here. So if she wanted to adopt me she would have done that long ago, right? I don’t know. It just feels weird that she’s treating me like I’m her son, but since I’m not, next thing I know she’s just gone back to doing whatever she does when I’m not in her care and I remain alone. I don’t know...oof! I bump into something on my left side... I twist my head around see that I bumped into the nurse. “Oh! Sorry Thought Flare! I turned to the staircase right here, I should have warned you, I'm really sorry.” She says, ending with a nervous chuckle, clearly hoping she didn't offend me due to my one-eyed situation. “It’s ok. I wasn't paying attention” I say, turning and going down the staircase to the first floor, the one with the main entrance, the cafeteria, kitchen and the access to the playground. There are some other colts that use my handicap for entertainment, like throwing things at me from my blind side, or bumping into me and then blame me for a while for not being careful enough or whatever other reason they’d come up with. And so on such a thought, I arrive at the cafeteria. A pretty large room, 3 rows of tables, enough for all of us to sit down. There are at least 100 fillies and colts in this building, according to our teacher, it’s because of the past war that so many of us are here, and she also says that were here to build the “better tomorrow” just like that big mural painting on the wall in the back of the cafeteria. Since there’s no sunlight coming in directly from the windows at this time the magic ceiling lights are activated. Not many ponies are here: good. That means I won’t be bothered too much, and hopefully not at all. I take a right turn and meet the smiling face of the cook behind his counter. He’s always smiling. Big brown earth pony, not many of them around in Canterlot, but he’s jolly and makes good food. Last year we had another cook. He was ok for a cook, but I didn't know what I was missing when it came to eating till this big brown pony of jolly laughter came along. He greets me with his signature laugh: “AHAHA! Thought Flare! Good to see you! You had us all worried when--” He was interrupted by the nurse, whom I didn't see was still on my blind side, so I jumped a bit when she spoke. “No need to fuss about the past, how about you get him a bowl of warm oatmeal?” The cook, who lost his jolly attitude to the interruption found it back after nodding at her, and went to the back of the kitchen, returning with a bowl of warm oatmeal. He places it on the counter and I reach up to pick it up with my mouth. I say a simple “Thank you” before picking it up and start walking to my usual seating place on the far side from the doors, next to a window. I can hear him talking to the nurse as I walk away, but I don’t really bother, it’s not my business. I prefer watching outside as I eat my meal quietly. Oh yeah, I wanted to go to my room and mess around with my ball. Author's Note So here's a first chapter of the fic, just presentation of how it'll be. The first few chapters will be more axed on presenting the main character and his situation, then events will take place and story and interaction will take a bigger place, most likely making way for longer chapters. Any suggestions or ideas you get are welcome in the comments. The Orphanage: under the tree.The meal was as good as always, I thanked him once more when I returned him my bowl and he, as usual, gave me a little cupcake for desert. I ate it on the spot, thanked him again before being on my way to my usual spot under the tree at the back of the playground. I remember that i wanted to go back to my room and bounce my ball around, but now that I’m here, I guess I can relax till the bell rings to tell us to go back inside. I’ll play with my ball then. From my spot I can see ponies chasing each other in and around the contraption of ladders and slides as well as a couple Big groups of ponies. The hoofball players, who are playing close to, not inside, the hoofball field, passing the ball to each other. At this time of day it’s closed because the sun blinds the team going on one side. Or so I’m told by the players. The field isn't aligned with the sun’s movement; it’s even built so that no side gets blinded by it when the time comes. I tried explaining them that what they were saying is silly, but they went on saying that I was the one being silly, they’re 11 years old, and they must know better than a simple 9 year old that I am. And so they said that I couldn't play with them until I recognized their “superior intellect”. I just walked away. I tried playing with them a few times, and each time I didn't like it. They were just too aggressive in the game. The other big group is the bookworms. They just sit there and talk about and/or read books. There are many little circles of them next to the building’s wall, all of them talking about a different book. I read one book, it was called “The great adventure” and it was about a great Alicorn warrior who protects the kingdom against the evil wild beasts and how he falls in a trap set by his evil brother who joined the wild beasts and how he get out of the trap and saves the kingdom from his evil brother. I liked that story. It was simple and easy to understand. But the circle of ponies that talked about it was only interested in inventing many other scenarios that they think could have happened instead and would have made the story better, according to them. I didn't even bother getting closer to them and simply returned here, to my good old spot under this tree. For school, I had to read many books in writing and reading class. But they were all either about somepony doing some bad thing, like stealing or disregarding what their parent’s said, and then have the holy king show up and have them realize that what they’re doing is bad and completely unnecessary, because: “You can only get what you wish through your work” and “Trust your elders, for they know what is best for you.” I’m not sure why they keep giving us books like that to read, I mean, they all talk about how to be a good pony in a normal life, but here, were in an orphanage, half of the stories don’t apply to us since we either don’t have parents and the other half talks about situations we never got into or even consider getting into. But they keep making us read and write texts that all have a similar moral in the end that can be summed up as: “Be nice, and the world will be nice to you.” I think I’m an ok student, I mean; I don’t get into trouble like Big Hoof and his friends. Those guys are just always rude and doing whatever they’re not supposed to do. Like stealing the ink and quills of others, tossing things at my blind side, pushing people around in the playground and just being mean to others in general. Now that I think of it, I haven’t see Big Hoof or any of his friends on the playground today. They’re most likely inside and doing something to punish them because of some prank they did. Big hoof is the only pony here that can do telekinesis with ease, and with magic on his side, he can do quite the elaborate pranks, like the bucket of mud on the lightly open door of someone’s room, or tearing an exam sheet at the last moment so that their victim fails it. And that brings me back to the books. Why do they even bother having us read and write them to have us know the dos and don’ts of life when they clearly got this one pony to leads his little group in doing all the don’ts? The fancy “Holy voice of the king”, as the say in the stories, doesn't really seem to work to get them to change their attitude, because every time they return from their punishment session, they just continue as if nothing happened. They used to play hoofball, but were forbidden to play because they kept breaking the ball as well as hurting the other players. Come to think of it, they were the opposing team whenever I tried to play. Maybe the game isn't that bad. I’ll give it another shot at some point. “HELLO!” That got me scared like there was no tomorrow. It’s a young filly’s voice, obviously coming from my blind side, and she’s clearly very enthusiastic, but why would someone come to me at my spot? I turn my head around to see who spoke. As I suspected, a young filly, smiling like...well, like a happy filly. Nice yellow coat, dark red and lightly messy mane and tail with these occasional streaks of bright green. No horn. That’s the second earth pony that I met so far in my life. But why did she come to me? “Um...Hello?” I reply, recovering from my wave of fright. “Are you Thought Flare?” she asks, seemingly a little confused. “Yes I am...um...who are you?” As I say that she grows a huge smile and raises a hoof for a hoofshake. “My name is Green, I’m seven years old, I’m new here, and I’m your new roommate!” I stay there stunned for a short moment. A roommate? Me? Why? I know other ponies have their roommates with whom they share the bunk bed, but I never had one before. I never asked for one. I always liked having the room to myself.... “Oh...Um...ok?” I hesitantly raise my hoof to grab hers and shake lightly. It was awkward. She seems nice enough, but I don’t know... Her smile huge smile I now realize is just plastered there to give the impression that she’s happy, but when I look at her eyes, big and green as they are, the longer the awkward shake lasts, the more I can see that she’s very worried of what I think of her given my very neutral reaction to her. Soon enough, the fake happy smile crumbles away to have a worried one. She lets go of the awkward hoofshake. “I came in this afternoon, and since there weren't any other rooms free they put me with you... I hope its ok...” “I guess...” I stay there, quiet, not showing any expression, nor able to think very well, I’m still trying to take in the news of having a roommate. On her part, she was either waiting for me to say something or trying desperately to figure out something to say to get a positive reaction from me. Her eyes were getting wet. She broke the silence. “I’ll just go... Sorry to bother you...” She turns away and starts walking. After she said that I started to think fast, making links i haven't done before. If she’s new here, she most likely lost her parents or something recently. I saw many others who came in like that, they were always sad and lost, so they we paired with a roommate so they wouldn't be alone completely, but in the end, if they didn't do a good enough impression, the new kids were rejected by their roommate and thus stuck alone, only sharing the room with the roommate to sleep. That is, until either of the two gets adopted, or that the new kid makes a friend and asks to share a room with the friend they made instead. I don’t want to reject her. She seems nice, but also very sad about something. If I’m going to share a room with her for a while, best I let her know that I accept her, that way hopefully the awkward will go away and thus saving much trouble later when trying to get to know her. “Green.” I say, trying to make a good smile, not that I want to fake it; I just never really smile, so I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job. She turns back to look at me, eyes filled with hope. “It’s ok ... um ... how about you sit here?” I tap with my hoof a spot on the grass floor next to me. She gets a small, but very sincere smile. She wipes off the little flood of tears in her eyes and nods lightly. “Thanks...Sorry for acting like I’m all super happy, I just wanted to do a good impression...” She sits next to me and leans her back against the tree. I don’t say anything Just sit there looking at the playground. She then asks: “According to the nurse, you lost consciousness when you tried to use magic during the magic class right before lunch. Does that happen to all unicorns?” The question was sudden, and out of nowhere, but it answered my doubts on what happened before I ended up at the infirmary. I answer her : “No, not that I know of, it’s just me. I have this little problem when it comes to magic.” She looks at me, eager to know more, so I answer her question before she asks it. “When a regular unicorn tries to use magic, he must concentrate to gather and channel enough manna to get the spell working. But for me, I don’t know why, nor does anyone seem to know why, but if I concentrate even a little bit, the manna just rushes through me like crazy so I have to concentrate like crazy to hold it back, ‘cos if I don’t the manna I didn't use will just do some wild and out of control thing.” Her gaze tells me that she’s lost. “All I’m saying is that it’s I have a very hard time using magic.” I said that with some impatience in my tone. I don’t like talking of my issues more than I have to. She simply says “Oh. Ok then.“ We stay silent for a little bit, me being a little irritated by her last question and her thinking up her next. “I don’t know much about magic because I’m an earth pony, but I understand what you’re saying. In my old school I was the only earth pony, so whenever magic stuff came along, I was always excluded.” “Yes but at least its normal for an earth pony not to be able to use magic at all.” I realize the rudeness in my tone and quickly apologize. “Sorry... I don’t like talking about my problems...can we talk of something else?” She looks away from me and nods. “Yeh. What do you want to talk about?” “Why are you here?” My mouth went faster than my thoughts. What is wrong with me...I could have said anything else, but no. I just had to ask her the killer question. I hope she’s not going to cry about it here.... I don’t want to attract attention... Oh please oh please don’t make a scene.... *DONG DONG DONG* The bell indicating the closing of the playground sounded right after I asked the question, everypony is now walking back in through the doors and going to their rooms to prepare for the night. It was getting dark outside. Green simply got up and started walking to the door. “Come on, it’s time to go back inside, right?” She kept walking, completely ignoring what I said. I get up and walk up to her, relieved that she didn't do a scene, and hoping that she didn't hear me at all. “Yes! Yes it is.” The Orphanage : The Great Alicorn WarriorI walk along with Green back inside. Given the remote location of my tree, we’re the last ones to enter as we can see the last of everypony else storming up the stairs to the third floor, where all our rooms are. Neither of us talks as we approach the staircase. It’s not an awkward silence I just don’t feel like talking and she doesn't seem like she wants to as well. Maybe she’s more mature than I think she is. Maybe. But she did show up faking that she was overly happy, so maybe she’s faking not being bothered by my vague, yet precise question. I guess I’ll know later. In my sight I see the staircase approaching. When the time comes I take the left turn to go up, and trot up the first couple fleet of stairs, only to notice that Green isn't around me anymore. So she’s the abandoning type? Does she really hate me for asking her why she was here? No...I don’t think so...She most likely lost me as I turned. She’s new here. I've been here my whole life. She’s my roommate...the first I ever got... I guess it makes sense that I go find her. Hehe. Yeah, like the chapter of the damsel in distress where the Great Alicorn Warrior shouts “Don’t worry! I’ll save you!” Yeh. I like that story. OK, off to save the damsel in distress! Hehe. I walk back down the steps as I fantasize about the scene of the book but I', interrupted by a very distinct rusty voice. “What’s the matter new kid? You lost?” Big Hoof. He may be big, but his voice is like a pair of rusted horseshoes being rubbed against each other. If the pitch was lower maybe he could be as imposing as he looks, but instead it just makes him irritating like no one else. I turn around the column, standing before the last fleet of stairs to the hallway of the cafeteria floor and I see the problem. Yes, as I suspected, Big Hoof is there, standing taller than his 3, 6... 8 friends, who are also there, and they have Green surrounded. They must have been free to leave from the basement when the bell rang, and most likely waited to intercept somepony so they could torment them. One of Big Hoof’s friends pushes Green lightly, just enough to make her lose balance, so that another can push her back harder, making her barely able to stay on her hooves. I can see that she’s scared but also not shouting for help or making any noise. “Not gonna say anything? Why don’t you say “Hi” to your new best friends?” Big hoof said as he pets her mane with his dirty hoof. His hoof isn't necessarily dirty as in, covered in mud, but he just does too many mean things that it feels like they’re dirty. For some reason, seeing him petting Green’s mane and saying that him and his gang are her friends, especially with that annoyingly rusty voice, makes me angry. I feel like I have to help her. As the anger builds up in me because of the scene I see one fleet of stairs away from me, Green takes a short moment to look straight at me and then back to Big hoof. Big hoof turns his head to see what green glimpsed at. He sees me. Great. Now I’m in the same shit pile as Green. But I don’t really mind... Wait...why do I not mind being in the same pile as her? I’m not in the same shit pile as her... I’m a fleet of stairs away; I can just run away and then come back later to bring her to the infirmary. But... no. I won’t do that...but...why? Just go away! I get interrupted by the sound of rusted horseshoes getting rubbed together “Oh! Thinky! There you are! Come help me give a warm welcome to the new filly! You know its tradition!” How dare he associate me with him....in front of her... Again! Why do I care? Why am I getting angry?...I don’t know.... she’s new here, I’m her roommate, I've been here a while, I got to get her out of this mess, because if I don’t, she won’t know who to trust... But she lies about her emotions... How can I know I can trust her? Oh stop. Just stop it Thought Flare. I silence the rising questions on what I’m about to do and gather all my willpower to saying with as much conviction as I can: “Leave her alone. She’s my roommate.” Holy king have mercy...that was weak. It sounded way better in my mind, but it came out like the last bit of air from a balloon that’s getting deflated. Big hoof just looks at me funny and explodes in laughter. Everyone else joins him in a chaotic choir of mocking laugh. Green is just shaking her head, looking at me like I committed a blasphemy. So she doesn't even want me to try to get her out? She would prefer if I let her be? Big Hoof is big...he has 8 friends...were just 2...yeh... I’m an idiot. Better run while I can! ... Screw that. I can still run, but I won’t. Even if I end up in the infirmary with Green, at least I would have shown her that I can be trusted. Like in the story, the Great Alicorn Warrior saves the damsel in distress no matter the odds.... But he has super Alicorn powers that I don’t have..... Yep. I’m still an Idiot. But she’s my roommate. She’s new here. She needs to know she can trust me. So I’ll stand up to those guys. Though in the end I’m just going to run away... ENOUGH THINKING, GET MOVING YOU IDIOT! I walk down the steps as they laugh. As I reach the floor, Big Hoof puts his leg around green’s neck and holds her close against him. Green doesn’t resist. She just looks at the floor. He moves back, I, against my nagging thoughts, follow him, and the 8 buddies close the circle around me. No running away now. “Oh really? She’s your roommate? Then best I warn her about your past roommate and what you did to her...” What? Why does he lie like that... OH! OK! To give Green the idea that she can’t trust me! Well shut up you big lump, I didn't come down these stairs and going in the same pile of shit as her for nothing! “Let her go. Leave her alone.” Surprisingly enough, this time, I had way more conviction than before, most likely because the option to run away is gone, so I have to stick to the stupid plan of standing up to him. One of his friends on my blind side bucked my left flank right after I said that. It wasn’t too bad, they hit me worse before, but it still hurt and made me flinch from the pain. “Why do go against me Thinky? You've been here long enough to know not to mess with me!” I tell him, once more, and this time, with more vigor: “She’s new here. She’s my roommate. Leave her alone.” He pats her head gently. I just keep getting angrier at him. “How rude! How about you ask again but politely, show me some respect, after all, I am able to use magic better than you!” To prove his point, he has his horn glow, as well as a one of the sets of green hairs in Green's dark red mane, near the top of her head. He tears it off. Green flinches and moans a bit at that, clearly forcing herself to be as quiet as possible. OK. He showed off his magic skills by hurting Green. That’s just wrong. To damnation how stupid standing up to him is, I don’t care. I’ll say what I think and make him know that it’s wrong. So I begin. “Respect? You want me to show you some respect? I know the books say that we have to be nice if we want others to me nice to us, but guess what, that applies to all of us, and you, Big Hoof, are part of the “us”. Having said that, don’t expect me or anyone to be polite or show you any respect since all you do is hurting and disrespecting others.” He stands there stunned by such a large amount of words coming from me, who usually stays quiet and never says more than one short sentence. But he quickly recovers and retorts: “But I've been nothing but polite to you so far! As the books say “The past is the past, right now is what matters!” and right now I am being very nice and polite to you. I’m sorry that my friend hit you, but that is him, not me! And why do you care what happens to her? She's not you!” “Right now is what matters? Well, Right now, it’s been 3 times that I ask you to leave her alone. And right now, you hurt her to demonstrate your abilities in magic and how they’re better than mine. Completely disrespecting my request, and right now, you ask me to show you some respect? Do you realize what you say and do don’t make any sense? I ask you one more time. Leave her alone. She’s my roommate.” Abandoning the path of playing the sarcastic innocent, he realizes that I am being serious. I too am realizing this. I have never been this serious about something, or ever set my mind on something to such a level. I don’t know... I keep getting the feeling that this is all stupid and that I should beg for his mercy... but I didn't spill my thoughts for nothing. I must keep it up. Big hoof looks down at me, having let go of Green to place himself right in front of me, being as imposing as ever. “...Or else what?” He’s challenging me. Ok.... I have to prove myself stronger than him. But... how?... Now I feel really stupid. Good job Thought Flare. You had a good run at being the Brave Alicorn Warrior, time to accept your condition as the weak one eyed unicorn. Am I really that hopeless? No... There must be something I can do to prove myself to him... I easily best him when talking, I just did that. But now he’s going to attack me physically if I don’t do anything good enough.... I have a completely blind side and I’m just a little taller than the norm from the other 9 year old unicorns. Big hoof, he’s 12, but he’s as big as 15 year old.... not to mention, pretty strong... AND he can use magic... Wait... Magic! I can try a luminescence spell, it just does light, so I can try to channel the overflowing mana to do more light, and if I remove the fix point on the tip of the horn restriction.... That can save me trouble when trying to regulate the flow, especially if I just do a activate -deactivate and not try to hold it. That way he’ll be blinded, so will the others around, then I can grab Green and rush up to my room! OK, here goes nothing! That big bulk of rotten meat will never see it coming! “I said...” I prepare the spell and then let the mana flow, “LEAVE HER ALONE!” As I shout this, my horn bursts into a wild and very bright light. I can feel it heating up as the mana rushes through it. The spell then takes effect through my whole body, like hatching from an egg; I can feel rays of hot light burst out of me. I then immediately start the spell deactivation. That part turns out to be harder than I thought it would be, because you have to surpass the spell's momentum with your mind to deactivate a spell. And with my situation, the spell generates it's own momentum... After a moment that felt like an eternity, I managed to surpass it and stop the spell But everything went dark right after. When I came back to my senses, I was lying where I was standing last I remembered: in the hallway separating the access to the playground, the cafeteria, and in the middle of it, facing the cafeteria entrance, the staircase. Green was there, poking my hoof. I was numb all over. I couldn't feel her poking me, or my body. She sees my open eye and releases a sigh of relief. She leans down and hugs my numb neck briefly. “Thank the king you’re still alive!” “How... How long was I unconscious?” “Your freaky magic things stopped, you fell down, I poked your hoof a couple of times, and then you woke up!” I try to move my legs. I can see them move, but It feels really weird, like, I see them one place, I feel like they’re at another. I try to get up, but I really am having trouble. Green notices and helps me up best she can. After a lot of wobbling and leaning on Green, I manage to stand on my own, getting my sense of touch back to normal. Green was very enthusiastic, compared to moments ago when she was all scared of big hoof, I’m not sure what happened, but Big Hoof and his friends are gone. So I guess she’s happy about that. “Um...Thought Flare...Your muzzle is bleeding....” I shakily touch my muzzle and see that in fact, it was bleeding. “Get me some brown paper from the cafeteria...I’ll be ok.” She nods and rushes in the cafeteria, which was conveniently right there. As she gets the brown paper, I sit on the lower step of the staircase to help me fully recover my balance, keeping a hoof to my muzzle to prevent the blood from staining the floor. Green returns, gives me the brown papers that I then use to catch the blood instead of my hoof. She sits next to me in the staircase, on my blind side. “Here, lemme fix that for you.” “Fix wha- OUCH!” She tugged on my headband that I use to cover my empty eye socket and tied a new knot, since it apparently got undone, or loosened. But she bumped a spot on the back of my head, and it was bruised. “Sorry! Must have hit your head there... You know, when you fell.” “What do you mean?” “You know.... You were levitating! And this bright white fire coming out of your body! Those guys were so scared! You should have seen their faces!” “I was...what? Levitating? Fire? That has nothing to do with the spell I tried to use!” "Oh..." she says, losing some of the enthusiasm she had. “Is that what you mean by having a hard time controlling magic?” “Yes... but this time I managed to stop the spell, and if I hadn't hit my head on the floor, I think I would have been stuck with just a bloody nose and numb body, instead of losing consciousness and spending half a day in the infirmary bed like any other time I tried to use magic.” Green gives me a big authentic smile and says cheerfully: “That means you can get better!” I chuckle through the brown paper I hold on my muzzle: “Hehe, Yeh. I guess you’re right!” I sit there quietly, thinking of how I indeed can hope to one day control magic. She breaks my silence and stream of thoughts with: “Come on, let’s go to our room.” I take off the brown paper and see that I’m not bleeding anymore, put the paper in the trashcan next to the stairs, get up and walk up the steps with Green, her still in my blind side. As we walk up the third set, she nudges my shoulder lightly “And um... Thanks for having stood up to these guys... I really appreciate it...” I take a short moment and stop walking to take in the thanks she just gave me. I never got any before, because I never did anything like this before. Then again, I never had a roommate before... does having to save your roommate from trouble while risking yourself is what it means to have a roommate? I don’t know... No books said anything about that, I mean, the Great Alicorn Warrior just saves the damsel in distress without getting a scratch because he has so much Greatness in him, so for him it’s all profit when the damsel and her family give him their thanks and gifts. As for here, it’s all different... it’s like the regular colt who saw the damsel in distress get taken away is the one who ended up saving her just because of a lucky turn of events... Not his inner greatness... Or was it his inner greatness that triggered a lucky turn of events? Does that mean that everyone has some inner greatness in them? Not just the nobles because they have a holy mark? I’m confused. I know I’m not a Great Alicorn Warrior. Best I tell that to Green. I don’t want her to build a fake reputation of me. I don’t like lies. “To be honest, I don’t really understand why I did. I got mad at them for some reason, and if I hadn't gotten the idea of using a light spell on the spot, I would have been the world’s biggest coward and idiot. Just know that I would never do something like that again, so don’t look at me like some Great Alicorn Warrior, because I’m far from being one. “ She must have been shocked by what I said and how dry and sharp I was when I said it. I didn't look at her, but all she said was: “Oh...um... ok...” And so we resumed walking up the stairs in silence.
The Orphanage: at the infirmary, again."Thought Flare! Thought Flare! Wake up!" says a sweet mare's voice, most likely the nurse's, as usual. She’s the only pony around who still worries about me. Not that it bothers me, on the contrary, I’m glad that it’s just her who cares for me whenever I lose consciousness or get hurt because I was silly enough to join a silly hoofball game. I don’t want to bother anyone more than I have to. “THOUGHT FLARE!” The voice turns sharp, filled with worry. Better reassure her. I open my eye to see her looking at me from her chair, releasing a sigh of relief. Light blue coat, Pink mane, yeah, same unicorn as always, same nurse, can’t remember her name though. I have trouble with names. I’ve been calling her “nurse” for as long as I can remember. I’ll just sit up and move on with the day, maybe play with my ball in my room for a while. Yeah....that’ll be nice... As I sit up the nurse hops off her chair to help me. I lean on her to avoid falling off the bed I was on for how long? Let’s see.... The sun is shining pretty bright in the window, and since I’m in the infirmary, that means it’s on the west side...so its suppertime? Last I remember it was lunchtime...I was......um....eating...I think....ow ok, better not really think too hard...I just want to go back to my room....Oh look, a clock...yeah...its suppertime... “Um...Nurse?” I say, in a weak voice. I really should practice talking more... I don’t want to sound like some weak foal all my life. “What is it deary?” she asks, smoothness and sympathy overflowing in her voice. What is it that I should ask....oh yes! Room. Ball. I wanna go there. “I’m hungry...” I say, contrary to my thoughts. But now that I think of it...I am hungry. I let out a light chuckle, and the nurse joins me, but not for the same reason. “Of course you are! Come here you!” she leans forward and embraces me in a hug. A little tight, but mostly warm. I like it. But I wouldn’t want anyone to see me like this, I don’t want to be subject to laughter and people saying that I've got a crush on the nurse. I mean... She’s nice...pretty, even... oh no not the blushing... I feel my face getting heated up and blushing at the thought of me possibly having a crush on the nurse. She looks at me, smiles, kisses the tip of my horn, which feels very, very wrong, causing me to blush even more, then she says: “You’re Just too adorable with that blush~ come on, let’s get you some food while there still is some.” Walking down the creaking wooden floor of the orphanage’s second floor, the floor with the infirmary, classrooms, and rooms used for random stuff, like games, I can’t help but get these ideas of how one day I’ll be adopted by the nurse. Leave this orphanage; get to live like a normal colt, or at least live close to what I think they live like. But I doubt that’ll ever happen. I was here since I was born and in my earliest memories she was the nurse here. So if she wanted to adopt me she would have done that long ago, right? I don’t know. It just feels weird that she’s treating me like I’m her son, but since I’m not, next thing I know she’s just gone back to doing whatever she does when I’m not in her care and I remain alone. I don’t know...oof! I bump into something on my left side... I twist my head around see that I bumped into the nurse. “Oh! Sorry Thought Flare! I turned to the staircase right here, I should have warned you, I'm really sorry.” She says, ending with a nervous chuckle, clearly hoping she didn't offend me due to my one-eyed situation. “It’s ok. I wasn't paying attention” I say, turning and going down the staircase to the first floor, the one with the main entrance, the cafeteria, kitchen and the access to the playground. There are some other colts that use my handicap for entertainment, like throwing things at me from my blind side, or bumping into me and then blame me for a while for not being careful enough or whatever other reason they’d come up with. And so on such a thought, I arrive at the cafeteria. A pretty large room, 3 rows of tables, enough for all of us to sit down. There are at least 100 fillies and colts in this building, according to our teacher, it’s because of the past war that so many of us are here, and she also says that were here to build the “better tomorrow” just like that big mural painting on the wall in the back of the cafeteria. Since there’s no sunlight coming in directly from the windows at this time the magic ceiling lights are activated. Not many ponies are here: good. That means I won’t be bothered too much, and hopefully not at all. I take a right turn and meet the smiling face of the cook behind his counter. He’s always smiling. Big brown earth pony, not many of them around in Canterlot, but he’s jolly and makes good food. Last year we had another cook. He was ok for a cook, but I didn't know what I was missing when it came to eating till this big brown pony of jolly laughter came along. He greets me with his signature laugh: “AHAHA! Thought Flare! Good to see you! You had us all worried when--” He was interrupted by the nurse, whom I didn't see was still on my blind side, so I jumped a bit when she spoke. “No need to fuss about the past, how about you get him a bowl of warm oatmeal?” The cook, who lost his jolly attitude to the interruption found it back after nodding at her, and went to the back of the kitchen, returning with a bowl of warm oatmeal. He places it on the counter and I reach up to pick it up with my mouth. I say a simple “Thank you” before picking it up and start walking to my usual seating place on the far side from the doors, next to a window. I can hear him talking to the nurse as I walk away, but I don’t really bother, it’s not my business. I prefer watching outside as I eat my meal quietly. Oh yeah, I wanted to go to my room and mess around with my ball. Author's Note So here's a first chapter of the fic, just presentation of how it'll be. The first few chapters will be more axed on presenting the main character and his situation, then events will take place and story and interaction will take a bigger place, most likely making way for longer chapters. Any suggestions or ideas you get are welcome in the comments.
The Orphanage: under the tree.The meal was as good as always, I thanked him once more when I returned him my bowl and he, as usual, gave me a little cupcake for desert. I ate it on the spot, thanked him again before being on my way to my usual spot under the tree at the back of the playground. I remember that i wanted to go back to my room and bounce my ball around, but now that I’m here, I guess I can relax till the bell rings to tell us to go back inside. I’ll play with my ball then. From my spot I can see ponies chasing each other in and around the contraption of ladders and slides as well as a couple Big groups of ponies. The hoofball players, who are playing close to, not inside, the hoofball field, passing the ball to each other. At this time of day it’s closed because the sun blinds the team going on one side. Or so I’m told by the players. The field isn't aligned with the sun’s movement; it’s even built so that no side gets blinded by it when the time comes. I tried explaining them that what they were saying is silly, but they went on saying that I was the one being silly, they’re 11 years old, and they must know better than a simple 9 year old that I am. And so they said that I couldn't play with them until I recognized their “superior intellect”. I just walked away. I tried playing with them a few times, and each time I didn't like it. They were just too aggressive in the game. The other big group is the bookworms. They just sit there and talk about and/or read books. There are many little circles of them next to the building’s wall, all of them talking about a different book. I read one book, it was called “The great adventure” and it was about a great Alicorn warrior who protects the kingdom against the evil wild beasts and how he falls in a trap set by his evil brother who joined the wild beasts and how he get out of the trap and saves the kingdom from his evil brother. I liked that story. It was simple and easy to understand. But the circle of ponies that talked about it was only interested in inventing many other scenarios that they think could have happened instead and would have made the story better, according to them. I didn't even bother getting closer to them and simply returned here, to my good old spot under this tree. For school, I had to read many books in writing and reading class. But they were all either about somepony doing some bad thing, like stealing or disregarding what their parent’s said, and then have the holy king show up and have them realize that what they’re doing is bad and completely unnecessary, because: “You can only get what you wish through your work” and “Trust your elders, for they know what is best for you.” I’m not sure why they keep giving us books like that to read, I mean, they all talk about how to be a good pony in a normal life, but here, were in an orphanage, half of the stories don’t apply to us since we either don’t have parents and the other half talks about situations we never got into or even consider getting into. But they keep making us read and write texts that all have a similar moral in the end that can be summed up as: “Be nice, and the world will be nice to you.” I think I’m an ok student, I mean; I don’t get into trouble like Big Hoof and his friends. Those guys are just always rude and doing whatever they’re not supposed to do. Like stealing the ink and quills of others, tossing things at my blind side, pushing people around in the playground and just being mean to others in general. Now that I think of it, I haven’t see Big Hoof or any of his friends on the playground today. They’re most likely inside and doing something to punish them because of some prank they did. Big hoof is the only pony here that can do telekinesis with ease, and with magic on his side, he can do quite the elaborate pranks, like the bucket of mud on the lightly open door of someone’s room, or tearing an exam sheet at the last moment so that their victim fails it. And that brings me back to the books. Why do they even bother having us read and write them to have us know the dos and don’ts of life when they clearly got this one pony to leads his little group in doing all the don’ts? The fancy “Holy voice of the king”, as the say in the stories, doesn't really seem to work to get them to change their attitude, because every time they return from their punishment session, they just continue as if nothing happened. They used to play hoofball, but were forbidden to play because they kept breaking the ball as well as hurting the other players. Come to think of it, they were the opposing team whenever I tried to play. Maybe the game isn't that bad. I’ll give it another shot at some point. “HELLO!” That got me scared like there was no tomorrow. It’s a young filly’s voice, obviously coming from my blind side, and she’s clearly very enthusiastic, but why would someone come to me at my spot? I turn my head around to see who spoke. As I suspected, a young filly, smiling like...well, like a happy filly. Nice yellow coat, dark red and lightly messy mane and tail with these occasional streaks of bright green. No horn. That’s the second earth pony that I met so far in my life. But why did she come to me? “Um...Hello?” I reply, recovering from my wave of fright. “Are you Thought Flare?” she asks, seemingly a little confused. “Yes I am...um...who are you?” As I say that she grows a huge smile and raises a hoof for a hoofshake. “My name is Green, I’m seven years old, I’m new here, and I’m your new roommate!” I stay there stunned for a short moment. A roommate? Me? Why? I know other ponies have their roommates with whom they share the bunk bed, but I never had one before. I never asked for one. I always liked having the room to myself.... “Oh...Um...ok?” I hesitantly raise my hoof to grab hers and shake lightly. It was awkward. She seems nice enough, but I don’t know... Her smile huge smile I now realize is just plastered there to give the impression that she’s happy, but when I look at her eyes, big and green as they are, the longer the awkward shake lasts, the more I can see that she’s very worried of what I think of her given my very neutral reaction to her. Soon enough, the fake happy smile crumbles away to have a worried one. She lets go of the awkward hoofshake. “I came in this afternoon, and since there weren't any other rooms free they put me with you... I hope its ok...” “I guess...” I stay there, quiet, not showing any expression, nor able to think very well, I’m still trying to take in the news of having a roommate. On her part, she was either waiting for me to say something or trying desperately to figure out something to say to get a positive reaction from me. Her eyes were getting wet. She broke the silence. “I’ll just go... Sorry to bother you...” She turns away and starts walking. After she said that I started to think fast, making links i haven't done before. If she’s new here, she most likely lost her parents or something recently. I saw many others who came in like that, they were always sad and lost, so they we paired with a roommate so they wouldn't be alone completely, but in the end, if they didn't do a good enough impression, the new kids were rejected by their roommate and thus stuck alone, only sharing the room with the roommate to sleep. That is, until either of the two gets adopted, or that the new kid makes a friend and asks to share a room with the friend they made instead. I don’t want to reject her. She seems nice, but also very sad about something. If I’m going to share a room with her for a while, best I let her know that I accept her, that way hopefully the awkward will go away and thus saving much trouble later when trying to get to know her. “Green.” I say, trying to make a good smile, not that I want to fake it; I just never really smile, so I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job. She turns back to look at me, eyes filled with hope. “It’s ok ... um ... how about you sit here?” I tap with my hoof a spot on the grass floor next to me. She gets a small, but very sincere smile. She wipes off the little flood of tears in her eyes and nods lightly. “Thanks...Sorry for acting like I’m all super happy, I just wanted to do a good impression...” She sits next to me and leans her back against the tree. I don’t say anything Just sit there looking at the playground. She then asks: “According to the nurse, you lost consciousness when you tried to use magic during the magic class right before lunch. Does that happen to all unicorns?” The question was sudden, and out of nowhere, but it answered my doubts on what happened before I ended up at the infirmary. I answer her : “No, not that I know of, it’s just me. I have this little problem when it comes to magic.” She looks at me, eager to know more, so I answer her question before she asks it. “When a regular unicorn tries to use magic, he must concentrate to gather and channel enough manna to get the spell working. But for me, I don’t know why, nor does anyone seem to know why, but if I concentrate even a little bit, the manna just rushes through me like crazy so I have to concentrate like crazy to hold it back, ‘cos if I don’t the manna I didn't use will just do some wild and out of control thing.” Her gaze tells me that she’s lost. “All I’m saying is that it’s I have a very hard time using magic.” I said that with some impatience in my tone. I don’t like talking of my issues more than I have to. She simply says “Oh. Ok then.“ We stay silent for a little bit, me being a little irritated by her last question and her thinking up her next. “I don’t know much about magic because I’m an earth pony, but I understand what you’re saying. In my old school I was the only earth pony, so whenever magic stuff came along, I was always excluded.” “Yes but at least its normal for an earth pony not to be able to use magic at all.” I realize the rudeness in my tone and quickly apologize. “Sorry... I don’t like talking about my problems...can we talk of something else?” She looks away from me and nods. “Yeh. What do you want to talk about?” “Why are you here?” My mouth went faster than my thoughts. What is wrong with me...I could have said anything else, but no. I just had to ask her the killer question. I hope she’s not going to cry about it here.... I don’t want to attract attention... Oh please oh please don’t make a scene.... *DONG DONG DONG* The bell indicating the closing of the playground sounded right after I asked the question, everypony is now walking back in through the doors and going to their rooms to prepare for the night. It was getting dark outside. Green simply got up and started walking to the door. “Come on, it’s time to go back inside, right?” She kept walking, completely ignoring what I said. I get up and walk up to her, relieved that she didn't do a scene, and hoping that she didn't hear me at all. “Yes! Yes it is.”
The Orphanage : The Great Alicorn WarriorI walk along with Green back inside. Given the remote location of my tree, we’re the last ones to enter as we can see the last of everypony else storming up the stairs to the third floor, where all our rooms are. Neither of us talks as we approach the staircase. It’s not an awkward silence I just don’t feel like talking and she doesn't seem like she wants to as well. Maybe she’s more mature than I think she is. Maybe. But she did show up faking that she was overly happy, so maybe she’s faking not being bothered by my vague, yet precise question. I guess I’ll know later. In my sight I see the staircase approaching. When the time comes I take the left turn to go up, and trot up the first couple fleet of stairs, only to notice that Green isn't around me anymore. So she’s the abandoning type? Does she really hate me for asking her why she was here? No...I don’t think so...She most likely lost me as I turned. She’s new here. I've been here my whole life. She’s my roommate...the first I ever got... I guess it makes sense that I go find her. Hehe. Yeah, like the chapter of the damsel in distress where the Great Alicorn Warrior shouts “Don’t worry! I’ll save you!” Yeh. I like that story. OK, off to save the damsel in distress! Hehe. I walk back down the steps as I fantasize about the scene of the book but I', interrupted by a very distinct rusty voice. “What’s the matter new kid? You lost?” Big Hoof. He may be big, but his voice is like a pair of rusted horseshoes being rubbed against each other. If the pitch was lower maybe he could be as imposing as he looks, but instead it just makes him irritating like no one else. I turn around the column, standing before the last fleet of stairs to the hallway of the cafeteria floor and I see the problem. Yes, as I suspected, Big Hoof is there, standing taller than his 3, 6... 8 friends, who are also there, and they have Green surrounded. They must have been free to leave from the basement when the bell rang, and most likely waited to intercept somepony so they could torment them. One of Big Hoof’s friends pushes Green lightly, just enough to make her lose balance, so that another can push her back harder, making her barely able to stay on her hooves. I can see that she’s scared but also not shouting for help or making any noise. “Not gonna say anything? Why don’t you say “Hi” to your new best friends?” Big hoof said as he pets her mane with his dirty hoof. His hoof isn't necessarily dirty as in, covered in mud, but he just does too many mean things that it feels like they’re dirty. For some reason, seeing him petting Green’s mane and saying that him and his gang are her friends, especially with that annoyingly rusty voice, makes me angry. I feel like I have to help her. As the anger builds up in me because of the scene I see one fleet of stairs away from me, Green takes a short moment to look straight at me and then back to Big hoof. Big hoof turns his head to see what green glimpsed at. He sees me. Great. Now I’m in the same shit pile as Green. But I don’t really mind... Wait...why do I not mind being in the same pile as her? I’m not in the same shit pile as her... I’m a fleet of stairs away; I can just run away and then come back later to bring her to the infirmary. But... no. I won’t do that...but...why? Just go away! I get interrupted by the sound of rusted horseshoes getting rubbed together “Oh! Thinky! There you are! Come help me give a warm welcome to the new filly! You know its tradition!” How dare he associate me with him....in front of her... Again! Why do I care? Why am I getting angry?...I don’t know.... she’s new here, I’m her roommate, I've been here a while, I got to get her out of this mess, because if I don’t, she won’t know who to trust... But she lies about her emotions... How can I know I can trust her? Oh stop. Just stop it Thought Flare. I silence the rising questions on what I’m about to do and gather all my willpower to saying with as much conviction as I can: “Leave her alone. She’s my roommate.” Holy king have mercy...that was weak. It sounded way better in my mind, but it came out like the last bit of air from a balloon that’s getting deflated. Big hoof just looks at me funny and explodes in laughter. Everyone else joins him in a chaotic choir of mocking laugh. Green is just shaking her head, looking at me like I committed a blasphemy. So she doesn't even want me to try to get her out? She would prefer if I let her be? Big Hoof is big...he has 8 friends...were just 2...yeh... I’m an idiot. Better run while I can! ... Screw that. I can still run, but I won’t. Even if I end up in the infirmary with Green, at least I would have shown her that I can be trusted. Like in the story, the Great Alicorn Warrior saves the damsel in distress no matter the odds.... But he has super Alicorn powers that I don’t have..... Yep. I’m still an Idiot. But she’s my roommate. She’s new here. She needs to know she can trust me. So I’ll stand up to those guys. Though in the end I’m just going to run away... ENOUGH THINKING, GET MOVING YOU IDIOT! I walk down the steps as they laugh. As I reach the floor, Big Hoof puts his leg around green’s neck and holds her close against him. Green doesn’t resist. She just looks at the floor. He moves back, I, against my nagging thoughts, follow him, and the 8 buddies close the circle around me. No running away now. “Oh really? She’s your roommate? Then best I warn her about your past roommate and what you did to her...” What? Why does he lie like that... OH! OK! To give Green the idea that she can’t trust me! Well shut up you big lump, I didn't come down these stairs and going in the same pile of shit as her for nothing! “Let her go. Leave her alone.” Surprisingly enough, this time, I had way more conviction than before, most likely because the option to run away is gone, so I have to stick to the stupid plan of standing up to him. One of his friends on my blind side bucked my left flank right after I said that. It wasn’t too bad, they hit me worse before, but it still hurt and made me flinch from the pain. “Why do go against me Thinky? You've been here long enough to know not to mess with me!” I tell him, once more, and this time, with more vigor: “She’s new here. She’s my roommate. Leave her alone.” He pats her head gently. I just keep getting angrier at him. “How rude! How about you ask again but politely, show me some respect, after all, I am able to use magic better than you!” To prove his point, he has his horn glow, as well as a one of the sets of green hairs in Green's dark red mane, near the top of her head. He tears it off. Green flinches and moans a bit at that, clearly forcing herself to be as quiet as possible. OK. He showed off his magic skills by hurting Green. That’s just wrong. To damnation how stupid standing up to him is, I don’t care. I’ll say what I think and make him know that it’s wrong. So I begin. “Respect? You want me to show you some respect? I know the books say that we have to be nice if we want others to me nice to us, but guess what, that applies to all of us, and you, Big Hoof, are part of the “us”. Having said that, don’t expect me or anyone to be polite or show you any respect since all you do is hurting and disrespecting others.” He stands there stunned by such a large amount of words coming from me, who usually stays quiet and never says more than one short sentence. But he quickly recovers and retorts: “But I've been nothing but polite to you so far! As the books say “The past is the past, right now is what matters!” and right now I am being very nice and polite to you. I’m sorry that my friend hit you, but that is him, not me! And why do you care what happens to her? She's not you!” “Right now is what matters? Well, Right now, it’s been 3 times that I ask you to leave her alone. And right now, you hurt her to demonstrate your abilities in magic and how they’re better than mine. Completely disrespecting my request, and right now, you ask me to show you some respect? Do you realize what you say and do don’t make any sense? I ask you one more time. Leave her alone. She’s my roommate.” Abandoning the path of playing the sarcastic innocent, he realizes that I am being serious. I too am realizing this. I have never been this serious about something, or ever set my mind on something to such a level. I don’t know... I keep getting the feeling that this is all stupid and that I should beg for his mercy... but I didn't spill my thoughts for nothing. I must keep it up. Big hoof looks down at me, having let go of Green to place himself right in front of me, being as imposing as ever. “...Or else what?” He’s challenging me. Ok.... I have to prove myself stronger than him. But... how?... Now I feel really stupid. Good job Thought Flare. You had a good run at being the Brave Alicorn Warrior, time to accept your condition as the weak one eyed unicorn. Am I really that hopeless? No... There must be something I can do to prove myself to him... I easily best him when talking, I just did that. But now he’s going to attack me physically if I don’t do anything good enough.... I have a completely blind side and I’m just a little taller than the norm from the other 9 year old unicorns. Big hoof, he’s 12, but he’s as big as 15 year old.... not to mention, pretty strong... AND he can use magic... Wait... Magic! I can try a luminescence spell, it just does light, so I can try to channel the overflowing mana to do more light, and if I remove the fix point on the tip of the horn restriction.... That can save me trouble when trying to regulate the flow, especially if I just do a activate -deactivate and not try to hold it. That way he’ll be blinded, so will the others around, then I can grab Green and rush up to my room! OK, here goes nothing! That big bulk of rotten meat will never see it coming! “I said...” I prepare the spell and then let the mana flow, “LEAVE HER ALONE!” As I shout this, my horn bursts into a wild and very bright light. I can feel it heating up as the mana rushes through it. The spell then takes effect through my whole body, like hatching from an egg; I can feel rays of hot light burst out of me. I then immediately start the spell deactivation. That part turns out to be harder than I thought it would be, because you have to surpass the spell's momentum with your mind to deactivate a spell. And with my situation, the spell generates it's own momentum... After a moment that felt like an eternity, I managed to surpass it and stop the spell But everything went dark right after. When I came back to my senses, I was lying where I was standing last I remembered: in the hallway separating the access to the playground, the cafeteria, and in the middle of it, facing the cafeteria entrance, the staircase. Green was there, poking my hoof. I was numb all over. I couldn't feel her poking me, or my body. She sees my open eye and releases a sigh of relief. She leans down and hugs my numb neck briefly. “Thank the king you’re still alive!” “How... How long was I unconscious?” “Your freaky magic things stopped, you fell down, I poked your hoof a couple of times, and then you woke up!” I try to move my legs. I can see them move, but It feels really weird, like, I see them one place, I feel like they’re at another. I try to get up, but I really am having trouble. Green notices and helps me up best she can. After a lot of wobbling and leaning on Green, I manage to stand on my own, getting my sense of touch back to normal. Green was very enthusiastic, compared to moments ago when she was all scared of big hoof, I’m not sure what happened, but Big Hoof and his friends are gone. So I guess she’s happy about that. “Um...Thought Flare...Your muzzle is bleeding....” I shakily touch my muzzle and see that in fact, it was bleeding. “Get me some brown paper from the cafeteria...I’ll be ok.” She nods and rushes in the cafeteria, which was conveniently right there. As she gets the brown paper, I sit on the lower step of the staircase to help me fully recover my balance, keeping a hoof to my muzzle to prevent the blood from staining the floor. Green returns, gives me the brown papers that I then use to catch the blood instead of my hoof. She sits next to me in the staircase, on my blind side. “Here, lemme fix that for you.” “Fix wha- OUCH!” She tugged on my headband that I use to cover my empty eye socket and tied a new knot, since it apparently got undone, or loosened. But she bumped a spot on the back of my head, and it was bruised. “Sorry! Must have hit your head there... You know, when you fell.” “What do you mean?” “You know.... You were levitating! And this bright white fire coming out of your body! Those guys were so scared! You should have seen their faces!” “I was...what? Levitating? Fire? That has nothing to do with the spell I tried to use!” "Oh..." she says, losing some of the enthusiasm she had. “Is that what you mean by having a hard time controlling magic?” “Yes... but this time I managed to stop the spell, and if I hadn't hit my head on the floor, I think I would have been stuck with just a bloody nose and numb body, instead of losing consciousness and spending half a day in the infirmary bed like any other time I tried to use magic.” Green gives me a big authentic smile and says cheerfully: “That means you can get better!” I chuckle through the brown paper I hold on my muzzle: “Hehe, Yeh. I guess you’re right!” I sit there quietly, thinking of how I indeed can hope to one day control magic. She breaks my silence and stream of thoughts with: “Come on, let’s go to our room.” I take off the brown paper and see that I’m not bleeding anymore, put the paper in the trashcan next to the stairs, get up and walk up the steps with Green, her still in my blind side. As we walk up the third set, she nudges my shoulder lightly “And um... Thanks for having stood up to these guys... I really appreciate it...” I take a short moment and stop walking to take in the thanks she just gave me. I never got any before, because I never did anything like this before. Then again, I never had a roommate before... does having to save your roommate from trouble while risking yourself is what it means to have a roommate? I don’t know... No books said anything about that, I mean, the Great Alicorn Warrior just saves the damsel in distress without getting a scratch because he has so much Greatness in him, so for him it’s all profit when the damsel and her family give him their thanks and gifts. As for here, it’s all different... it’s like the regular colt who saw the damsel in distress get taken away is the one who ended up saving her just because of a lucky turn of events... Not his inner greatness... Or was it his inner greatness that triggered a lucky turn of events? Does that mean that everyone has some inner greatness in them? Not just the nobles because they have a holy mark? I’m confused. I know I’m not a Great Alicorn Warrior. Best I tell that to Green. I don’t want her to build a fake reputation of me. I don’t like lies. “To be honest, I don’t really understand why I did. I got mad at them for some reason, and if I hadn't gotten the idea of using a light spell on the spot, I would have been the world’s biggest coward and idiot. Just know that I would never do something like that again, so don’t look at me like some Great Alicorn Warrior, because I’m far from being one. “ She must have been shocked by what I said and how dry and sharp I was when I said it. I didn't look at her, but all she said was: “Oh...um... ok...” And so we resumed walking up the stairs in silence.
