I can't believe I'm being chased by Luna's sister! I did not want to anger her, that's for sure... but let's see if she understood that what I said to her was a way for me to laugh a bit!

I am a long way away from mastering the pushing movement I learned earlier but... I'll get there with enough patience and time.

Princess Celestia was quick, though: with her galloping and teleportation spells, for I often had to change direction to get away from her with a rapid lockup of my wheels. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right and even both at the same time: perhaps this is her way of testing my instincts.

After a good ten minutes worth of evasive action, I finally was exhausted. I couldn't continue anymore and I completely let go of the wheels, allowing Celestia's magic to push me through the rest of the corridor.

"That was... unexpected... but fun," I say as I try to catch my breath, panting heavily.

"That was the most enjoyable encounter I've ever had. Thank you, Enlightened," Princess Celestia says, looking at me with a look of nostalgia in her beautiful eyes.

"Thank me? For what?" I ask her, surprised by her sudden change in tone of voice.

"For making me feel like a normal pony for a while. I really missed playing like this," she says, bringing a towel with her magic, drying the sweat off my forehead and kissing it lightly after that.

This display of affection is enough to make me blush but... I am glad I helped Celestia be "normal" for a little while. I guess that even the Princesses need a sort of "distraction" from their royal duties, a way to relieve the pressure off of them.

"Is Luna up already, Celestia?" I ask the white-coated Alicorn, earning a smile from her. I honestly do not care if I'm going to be punished for addressing the Princesses by their names instead of their title but... I want them to be my friends, no matter the price I pay for it.

Celestia's wings flapped happily with excitement as she said: "It's been many millennia since somepony used our names to speak to us. A most welcome change. To answer your question, yes, she has just woken up," Celestia says as she stops by the entrance of Luna's chambers: a door made of the finest quality of obsidian flattened and polished to perfection. It was also decorated with what looked thousands of tiny little pieces of marble with a diamond in the middle of each piece: that's probably meant to represent a starlit sky.

Blue energy suddenly enveloped the door and... what came next was a sight to behold: there she was, a kind of beauty the Gods of Mount Olympus would fail to replicate, reach or even pass. The pony who brought me here was before me, the pony I respect the most: Luna.

"Buongiorno, Luna. It's so nice to see you're awake," (Good morning, Luna) I say to her as I open my forehooves to give her a big hug, which she accepts with the happiest of smiles. I wrap my hooves around her neck and busk in her scent for a moment: I don't even know how to describe her scent. All I feel is the light and enticing aroma of flowers which bloom at night.

"Are you ready for this eye exam you told me about, Enlightened?" Celestia asks me as I let go of Luna.

"Yes, let's go. Best not keep the oculist waiting," I say with a smile, as I begin to push myself but I suddenly stop, for I do not know where to go: "Lead the way, Princesses," I say as I let them pass first.

I hear them giggle in unison as they led the way to the oculist. I follow them at about halfway through the corridor but... I begin to feel as if the skin of my hooves was being pulled and it was burning like hell: I stop, look at my front hooves and notice I have blisters on them, probably because of the heavy braking I did earlier. Noticing that I stopped, Luna comes up to me and starts to push me with her magic.

"Do your hooves hurt, Enlightened? I noticed you stopped pushing yourself and I thought I could help you," Luna says, a worried expression on her face.

"Yes, they hurt but don't worry: blisters are common for wheelchair users who like to push themselves without any kind of protection. They'll be gone in about a week or two. Do you know the big round thing on the side of my wheels that you took off with your magic? Humans call them hand rims, which are made specifically to avoid having blisters on the fingers and palms. Plus, hand rims are a big surface to hold on to so that I have more grip on the wheels and allow me far more space to push myself, delivering more power to a single push," I explain to her and the royal blue Alicorn looked at her sister. Celestia nodded and her horn began glowing in light-golden energy, making my wheelchair's hand rims reappear as if they were never taken off of it.

"I was wondering why you both were giggling before. Was it because I let you lead the way in such a silly manner?" I asked with a worried tone.

"Silly? Don't be daft, Enlightened! You were the one who made us see that we are not just princesses!" Celestia almost yelled, causing me to cover my ears a little bit.

"You were perhaps the first pony to treat us as equals, not as distantly as some of our subjects do," says Luna, as a smile brightens her face.

"Distantly? What do you mean by that?" I ask as I look ahead, trying to see the end of this huge corridor.

"Well... for starters, you showed us that respect is not shown only through bowing or kissing our feet. You allowed us to be ourselves, considering us your friends," Celestia says, coming closer to me and Luna.

"Although some of your subjects perceive your life to be marvellous, you come to view it as a sort of imprisonment, a fake world where you have to appear rather than be. Unfortunately, these are some of the disadvantages that come along with power, I suppose," I ponder aloud, allowing my right hoof to go under my chin in thought.

The two Alicorns were shocked: how could a human, now a partially-turned pony, have thoughts like these in his mind? Thoughts which run so deep? Understand their situation so quickly with statements which shake the mightiest ponies in Equestria to their core?

"At times we have really believed that, yes," Luna says, teleporting herself in front of me and stopping me before continuing: "How did you understand so quickly?" she asks with a few tears evident in her eyes, tears of amazement almost.

"Look, Luna: I may not have full control over my body but my experiences stay with me. From very early on, I had to ask questions about myself, and as I took the time to stop and think about the answer to the questions I pondered, the more I learned about the world I lived in. All of them were different but they all started with the same word: why. Do you remember what I hope to find out here in Equestria?" I ask back at her softly as her tears start falling from her eyes, pulling the royal blue Alicorn close into a hug, wiping her tears away with my hooves.

"How can I ever forget? You want to find out why you were given the chance to live," Luna responds as she smiles, her eyes still sparkling from the tears she shed earlier.

"Exactly right, Luna. I do not want you to shed tears for me anymore: from this moment on, I want you to smile for me, alright? Now, we have a doctor to get to, don't we?" I say as I pick her up from my hug and gently put her on my lap, pushing ourselves faster through the corridor and leaving a giggling Celestia behind.

"All my sister needed was a friend and I believe she has finally found one," Celestia thought to herself as she followed Luna and I flying through the corridor.

"Where is the oculist's studio, Luna?" I ask her with my head a little bit to the side, trying to look for something in a myriad of doors.

"Go to the right now. Dr Hawk Eye should be right there,"

"Alright, just hang on to me, please," I say as I get ready for what looks to be a sharp turn. I brake way before the turn to slow down with a lockup of my right wheel to get my wheelchair pointing in that direction. Luna was stunned by the level of movement I was able to get and, as we stop by Dr Hawk Eye's studio, she gets off my lap and knocks at the door with Celestia landing on my right with a flawless landing.

"Who is it?" A voice asks, not opening the door.

"It's Princess Luna. A friend of mine wanted to have his sight checked. Can we come in?" she asks politely, earning a smile from both her older sister and me.

"Why of course! Let me open the door for you," the eye doctor said, quickly opening the door with a wing.

"It's always a pleasure to see you two together, Your Majesties. How may I be of service?" Dr Hawk Eye politely asked, bowing a little.

"We would like you to meet our friend, Enlightened. Enlightened, this is Dr Hawk Eye, our personal oculist," Celestia introduced.

Dr Hawk Eye was an ageing Pegasus around the age of fifty or fifty-five. He had a few wrinkles on his face and his body was muscular and well-toned for a pony his age: it looked ready to take on a high-level performance in sports any day of the week. He had black eyes and a black mane to match, along with a grey coat.

"Good afternoon, sir. I'm Enlightened, nice to meet you," I say as I extend my left hoof in greeting.

"I'm Hawk Eye, young stallion. Today I'll be testing your sight, but not as any oculist does. I'll be conducting this exam on you following three criteria to determine what type of pony you are: concentration, visual acuity and reaction times," he explains as I nod, understanding what type of challenge I'm into.

"The first is the flashlight test: one of my Unicorn assistants will be pointing his light-conjuring spell on the wall in front of you to make a tiny dot. All you have to do is follow this dot with your eyes to test the movement of your pupils, alright?" he says in a calm and comforting voice.

"Sì, signore," (Yes, sir,) I say as I nod once again. I position myself in the middle of the room as Dr Hawk Eye turned off the lights and the flashlight spell appeared, making a dot on the wall. It moved slowly and I tried hard to follow it just with my eyes: to the left, to the right, up, down, it didn't matter. My eyes followed the light all the same, and with a high degree of clarity, too. Dr Hawk Eye asked his assistant to repeat the exercise three more times and the more I did it, the less tiring it became.

"Alright, all done! You are a natural, kid! Off to a flying start," He compliments as he turns on the lights again.

"Thank you, sir," I say as he brings me to what looks to be another room with a bubble inside.

"This is the Distance Bubble, a magicked bubble which brings images away from you: with this, I'll be testing your visual acuity, even from a distance," Dr Hawk Eye says, bringing me to the centre of the bubble.

I didn't want to talk to Dr Hawk Eye because I wanted to stay focused. I began humming Italy's national anthem to concentrate better before the hardest challenge I have ever faced.

The middle-aged Pegasus put a photo in a projector and the image was before me in no time.

I could see a mountain and a group of... one... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... ten... eleven... twelve... thirteen... fourteen... fifteen.., sixteen. Yes, there were sixteen ponies making a single row to try and climb it. The one in the lead was wearing what looked like to be deerskin, complete with fur, in a sort of hoodie. The hood itself was open in the back, from which four long dreadlocks came out of. It was pretty far away but I could still see it very, VERY clearly

"What do you see?" Dr Hawk asks me, eager to hear my answer.

"I see a group of sixteen ponies trying to climb a mountain. The one in the lead is dressed what looks to me as deerskin, he or she wears a hood which is cut in the end, from which four dreadlocks come out," I say confidently as I nod.

"His attention to detail is tremendous. I think he might be a Pegasus: only one way for me to find out," the middle-aged oculist thinks to himself: he then gestures for me to get out of the Distance Bubble and I push myself out of it.

"Beautiful work, young gun. One more test to go to determine your race: are you up for it?"

"Ma certo. Cominciamo?" (But of course. Shall we begin?) I say as I move my neck to the left and to the right to stretch it. It audibly creaks, causing Dr Hawk Eye to widen his eyes in surprise.

"Doesn't your neck hurt, Enlightened?" Dr Hawk Eye asks.

"I'm absolutely fine: you don't need to worry," I reassure him, stretching my front and back hooves a little bit as well.

"Alright, then: the final test is all about reaction time. I will measure how fast your eyes can process images at a distance. To do that, you'll need to step in the middle of the Distance Bubble again,"

I do so, only to find out that the bubble itself was gone. I was in the middle of some sort of platform where it seemed like Dr Hawk Eye set the distance remotely: the lights were turned off again.

The platform begins to move, bringing me away from the wall in the middle of the room. It was now very far, for what seemed to me like kilometres away, maybe thirty or even more.

A tiny red dot appeared on the now far away wall, on the top left side of it. I instinctively point to it with my left hoof and it suddenly became green. A second and a third red dot appeared on the top right and bottom left sides of the wall in a thousandth of a second before disappearing. I pointed to the directions the dots were in and they flashed green, too. There was enough time for me to see the final dot, which appeared and disappeared so fast, maybe some milliseconds. I pointed to it and a green dot appeared.

"Boom, baby! Ten out of ten! Perfect score!" I shout enthusiastically, waving my left hoof frantically as does the closed fist of a Formula One driver after a race win.

The lights are on again.

"Congratulations, son! You're a Pegasus!" He says while prancing for a little bit.

All I do is stand there, frozen. How could I be a Pegasus, the pony I always dreamt to... wait...

"No way... me... a mother... fucking... Pegasus," I say in a low voice, flabbergasted at the discovery and bringing my hooves to my mane.

"You better believe it, son! Your attention to detail and your reaction times to the dot test suggested it,"

"Your reaction times were off the charts, kiddo!" A feminine voice said, appearing right behind my backrest.

I turn around to see a midnight blue Unicorn with her mane styled in a high ponytail. She had black eyes and a pair of protective sunglasses were on her head.

"Enlightened, this is my wife, Jump Shot," he introduced.

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am," I say, extending my hoof

"The pleasure is all mine!" She says enthusiastically while shaking my extended hoof.

"Did you do some kind of sport, son?" Dr Hawk Eye curiously asks.

"Yes, actually. I was a wheelchair fencer, sir," I explain with a proud smile.

"Then it's no wonder you did awesome in the dot test! Your brain is even faster than that of a Wonderbolt!"

"Thank you but uh... what or who are the Wonderbolts?" I ask with a surprised expression on my face.

"The Wonderbolts are Equestria's best stunt team. The main team is made of three ponies: Spitfire, the captain, Soarin, second-in-command and Fleetfoot, third-in-command," the Pegasus doctor roughly explains. Jump Shot quickly taps her husband on the shoulder.

"The sun is about to set: he must be tired," says Jump Shot, pointing at me.

"Tomorrow is going to be a long day, son. Rest up," Hawk Eye says, a little bit matter-of-factly by his tone of voice.

I yawn a little bit, probably because I'm tired after all the tests.

"Alright: enjoy the evening," I say, waving my right hoof to bid them "good night".

I'm pushing myself to Luna's room to try and sleep but... I simply can't for the moment. I see the setting sun and then the rising moon: sleep takes me at about eleven o'clock at night.

Suddenly, my back starts burning as if somebody put fire on it, as what I feel like rough feathers are piercing the skin on my back forcefully.

I grimace in my sleep, eyes tightly shut as a powerful shout shatters my vocal cords and my ears.

Luna's personal guards are alert enough to inform the Princess of the Night, who teleported away from me to begin Night Court.

Luna herself knows that if her older sister didn't sleep enough, then there would be a drop in her power levels. Before coming to see how I was, she made a soundproof barrier so that Celestia wouldn't wake up because of my screaming.

Luna teleported herself to her room and what she saw was almost too much, even for her.

Blood drips from my back, and even more was about to come out.

"Help me... please... it hurts," I say in my sleep, almost inaudibly.

"Do not worry, Enlightened. I'll help you. I hope I can be of some assistance: this is the first of many challenges you'll have to face. Please stay strong," Luna thinks to herself before entering my dream.

Author's Note

It took me forever to finish this chapter but IT IS DONE! What's going to happen next? If this story made its way into your hearts, make sure you drop a comment down below and, if you liked it enough, like it. Stay tuned for chapter 4. Ciao! (Bye bye!)