Chapters Chapter 1: a new place to call home
Another mediocre day on Earth is finished for me. I am what others call a "disabled" person: I am a person whose motor neurons have been permanently damaged by both a premature birth, for I came into the world when my mother was seven months pregnant and perinatal asphyxia, a lack of oxygen in my mother's umbilical cord which led to a cerebral palsy three weeks after my birth.
From what little I know about my condition is that it is called spastic diplegia , a condition which causes my leg muscles to become extremely stiff after a short period of time, usually five minutes.
I was adviced by my physiotherapist to use crutches for short distances and a wheelchair for longer ones: when I first started to use these aids, I didn't pay attention to what others said about me but the more I got to use them, the more I realised I was... something different.
I didn't do things like other people, for even the most basic ones were... hard for me to do. For sixteen years I tried to gain as much mobility as I possibly could but "able-bodied" people still thought of me as "the poor guy" or "the guy that needs help" and... to be frank with you... it hurt more than some of you can ever imagine.
As I get close to my bed by pushing my desk's swivel chair with my legs, I get up using my arms, that are now on the bed, spin about ninety degrees to bring my butt on the bed. I take my clothes off and put them untidily on the swivel chair. I stay there for a couple of minutes, my head low in shame, thinking about what kind of a life I had up to this point.
"I didn't have much of a life so far: few opportunities, few friends and... my mood is at an all-time low. I don't even seem to understand myself sometimes; whenever I'm out, I am a nice, calm and understanding person. Instead, whenever I'm home, I become an angry, frustrated, disrespectful and foul-mouthed person. Perhaps some sleep will help me forget how miserable my life is," I think to myself, allowing sleep to get the best of me after a few hours.
And so, I was in the realm of dreams for what seems to be the millionth time in my life but instead of having nightmares or... dirty dreams, I was peaceful for once, as I was greeted by a warm and confident voice from the deepest parts of my dream.
"Greetings. I am Princess Luna, Diarch of the Night and Guardian of the Realm of Dreams," she introduced herself politely to me, appearing in front of me in all her magnificent beauty.
"Buonasera, Principessa. My name is Indrit, which would translate as Enlightened in English," (Good evening, Princess) I say as I attempted to bow but my back was so tense that I rose back up immediately in a fit of unexpected pain.
"That is a very meaningful name. You've been hiding something very painful for so many years as if trying to hide a sort of sin," she says understandingly, looking at me with her big, expressive cerulean eyes.
"Wait... how did you... I guess that was to be expected from a Princess who was banished for a millennium on the Moon. You read my heart like it was an open book," I say, only to get a shocked expression from the Alicorn.
"Excuse me but how did you know that?" she asks, that shocked expression still on her face.
"I... read your story in a few books. An interesting story indeed," I say, though I am not sure if she knows I am lying.
After a few moments of silence that seemed interminable, she speaks to me once again.
"I heard your cries for help all the way from Equestria. As I looked into your dreams, I felt a lot of anger, pain and desire to go away from your homeworld. Can you please tell me why?" Princess Luna asks with concern in her voice, bringing herself down to face me and looking at me straight in the eyes. I sigh, as her voice was so true and convincing that I feel like I have a sort of duty to tell the Princess of the Night this painful truth, hidden in the deepest and darkest part of my soul.
"I feel like I was born to be nothing but a failure. Every single thing I do here is never fully appreciated or understood. Even though I try my hardest to live in this world, it's never enough for them! I am fed up with living here! I can't stand this anymore!" I say as a few tears start running down my cheeks.
Silence hit the both of us for the second time. Princess Luna smiles and wipes my tears away with her gentle hoof in an attempt to comfort me and perhaps give me a little bit of hope. I smile back at her, nodding as I understood her intentions. I decided to calm down and tell her my story.
"Despite the difficulties you had in your life, you managed to move forward, even though you had to work harder than anypony else. To me, that shows the strength of will and determination you have: these qualities you possess are what makes you strong. Make sure you never forget this," she says while raising up and standing proud beside me , bringing me closer to her with one of her large wings.
"I won't, your Highness. Grazie," (Thank you) I say as I hug the Alicorn back.
"Are you still considering the thought of coming to Equestria, Enlightened?" Luna asks me, looking at me with a genuine smile on her beautiful face.
"Your Lunar Majesty, I want to come to Equestria to learn new things, make friends but above all I want to understand the reason why I was given the chance to live . I know it will take time but I believe this experience would certainly help to find that out." I say, a strange conviction apparent in my voice. I can't explain it but... her voice inspired confidence in my heart as if Luna was trying to make amends for something she felt was very wrong and needed to be corrected by doing something good.
"Alright, the portal to Equestria is ready. Let us hurry before it shuts down," Luna says, making my wheelchair appear out of nowhere.
Without thinking, I hopped on it and pushed myself through the portal. Luna appeared beside me and once we got inside, it felt like my body was out of energy as all of a sudden I felt very, very sleepy.
"Sleep well, Enlightened. I will see to your sleep and protect you from any kind of nightmare you might experience in the future. I will protect you because your life is about to begin anew." Luna thought to herself as she slowly pushed my chair through the portal with her magic.
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait! I know I am painfully slow when I do stuff and it saddens me that you had to wait this long. Drop a like if you feel like this story has somehow touched you. Until next time, everybody!
Chapter 2: Canterlot Castle
Sometime after being sent to Equestria by Luna thanks to a portal she generated, I wake up in a room which was well lit by the sun's light and with a marble floor which was well-polished and perhaps as white as snow itself. Realising I woke up, a mare turned to face me with a bright and almost motherly smile on her regal face. In a way, it was far more... natural than Luna's. As always, I was sleeping on my belly and she laid down too, looking at me. From the looks of it, the mare's coat was brushed very well, her wings well-preened and her mane seemed to move by itself, as does a flag being waved by the wind. She had a tiara on her head and... I kind of figured out she was Royalty so... whatever I did or said had to be presented in a way which was suitable for a mare of this calibre and status.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" the mare says softly, that smile still present on her face.
"Yes, I did. Can I please know where I am?" I ask while sitting up with no kind of problem at all. That is very weird , for my back is always in pain whenever I try to sit up without the support of my arms.
"You are in Equestria, my dear, and this is my room. Welcome to Canterlot Castle, um..." she says calmly, trying to find out my name with a deliberate kind of uncertainty at the end of her sentence.
"The name is Enlightened, your Majesty. May I please have the honour of knowing the name of the mare who was so kind to greet me here?" I ask again, trying to be as polite as possible and not this angry, foul-mouthed and frustrated version of myself because... it just wouldn't be right.
Her eyes widened in realisation and shock at the same time. She didn't take her tiara off, for goodness sake! Fearing I might have done something wrong, I get a little closer to her using my... wait, these aren't arms, they are hooves, for fuck's sake! Thank goodness I didn't say these words out loud or... crazy stuff would have happened. The both of us were trying to
"Did I do something wrong?" I ask her.
"Oh, no! You haven't done anything wrong! I realised I didn't take my regalia off. Seeing you sleep tempted me to take a little nap, that's all. Forgive my manners: I am Princess Celestia, Diarch of the Sun and co-ruler of Equestria alongside my younger sister Luna, whom you met in your previous dream. She used quite a lot of magic to generate the portal which brought you here: she's sleeping in her own room as we speak. I'm sorry for the fact that she wasn't there to greet you properly but..." Princess Celestia says but I cut her off from continuing her sentence by shaking my left front hoof.
"After what she has already done for me, she has more than earned her rest. She will need it because she has to raise the Moon for many more times," I say a little bit matter-of-factly.
"Come on. Let us get something to eat," Princess Celestia says to me, teleporting my wheelchair right to where I was. Some of my things were on the seat of the wheelchair: my laptop, its battery charger, my phone along with its battery charger, my favourite camouflaged headphones and a little djembe I bought in an Albanian market some years ago. These were the most important things to bring around for me and... Luna brought them here for me. Celestia carefully levitated them aside and levitated me on the chair's cushion. I quickly put the brakes off by pushing the brake levers backwards with my front hooves without much of a problem, then press and turn the anti-tip device button with my right front hoof with seemingly no problem at all.
You see, when you use a wheelchair for many years, certain things come spontaneously to me, even without realising I'm doing them. I am quickly adapting to what I feel it is a new body and I need to figure out what kind of movements I can do with it so I look at the wheels of my chair only to find out that both hand rims are gone.
Having no other choice than putting my hooves on the wheels to have that little bit of grip on the back tyres needed to hold the wheelchair steady for a moment for my front hooves to deliver just enough power to push it. I do just that and my wheelchair thrusts forward: as I gently tap the back wheels to make the chair slow down, I can see a bright and proud smile form on Princess Celestia's face as she opens the massive golden doors of her chambers with her magic.
Being the polite mare she is, Celestia motions her head forward for me to pass ahead but I reject the offer shaking my head and pointing my left hoof in a mockingly noble manner, prompting that she should be the one to walk out of there first. All I hear from her is a small giggle, followed by the light shaking of her head as she walked out. I made damn sure to stay with her as she speaks to me:
"Are you always that nice to mares? You truly are somepony special," Celestia says, a little teasingly by my book, but that's alright.
"Well, I would not go that far myself but thanks anyway," I say, trying to be modest and humble.
"You are too modest, my dear Enlightened. Now, let us go over to the balcony and get something to eat because I'm starving," she says to me as her stomach growls furiously, making me jump out of fright.
I'm a little surprised that she noticed me jump. Every step Princess Celestia took could be heard as her hooves moved at a relatively fast pace across the finely-polished marble pavement of the castle which was her residence. As we went towards the main balcony of the castle, I looked up to see that maybe what looked to me as many hundreds of finely-crafted golden chandeliers hung above our heads with some pieces of diamond hanging from them which were reflecting some of this early-afternoon sunlight, making them shine beautifully as they created a rainbow of colours.
"This castle is truly amazing. There are so many beautiful things here. I bet I could push myself here for days and not even know half its wonders!" I yell enthusiastically as I can finally see where that balcony is: exactly at the end of this massive corridor.
When the both of us arrived there, the view I have from the balcony was stunning to say the least. From this high up, I can see the entirety of a city, a city I presume is Canterlot.
"Oh my God... what a stunning view. This is incredible. I have to give you ponies credit because I never thought that you would be able to build cities this complex," I say, smiling as I look at Canterlot from below. Something was really,really strange though. Usually, my eyes would be closed with the sunlight this strong, as my eyes are photophobic, but with this new body, my eyes feel comfortable, as if nothing happened. Now, my eyes see things clearly even from afar, with a high degree of definition as well, as one of the side effects of spastic diplegia is myopia.
"After we finish our meal, I would like to have a visual acuity test, if the royal oculist isn't too busy," I say with a serious tone of voice.
"Yes, but after we eat. Do you like anything special?" She asks me, eager to fill her stomach with anything her personal chefs prepare for her.
"I am much of a glutton myself. I can eat pretty much anything you throw at me. Do you?" I ask back with the same amount of tease in my voice as she did in one of her questions from earlier.
"I'm afraid my doctors put me on a rigorous diet which doesn't include sweets but I know a few ways to... bend the rules ," Princess Celestia said with a naughty smile, a smile which seems to be almost in the brink of evil.
Princess Celestia sets up a table with her magic and calls her personal chef, Neat Dish, to prepare something quickly for the both of us.
All I could hear was the frantic clapping sound that Neat Dish's hooves made. My hearing was so focused on the coming Neat Dish that when Princess Celestia called me, I jumped out of fright again.
"Enlightened, is something wrong? Can I know why do you jump like that?" She asks worriedly.
"I've been jumping like that ever since I was a little boy: this usually happens when I'm too focused on one thing, I zone out and it just... happens," I say while trying to look away from her.
"Every single pony has fears, Enlightened. It is up to us to overcome them and grow day by day," Celestia says to me, even though I can sense her fear as she told me her words of wisdom... as if she had felt an enormous amount of pain before.
"I can totally agree with that. Life is a constant fight and it is up to you and only you to face it and try to become a better version of yourself, despite how painful it may seem. You have to move slowly down this treacherous path called life: day by day, bit by bit, step by step," I say as I lower my head in thought.
But before Celestia could continue our conversation further, Neat Dish arrives. As she was trying to catch her breath from her long gallop, I take the time to memorize her features: she has a lime-green coat brown mane and eyes. Neat Dish was dressed in what looked to be like a stallion's chef's uniform: the hat had a hole in it, from which her horn came out and... the hat was in an awkward position, for it was leaning with the exact angle as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Despite her strange appearance, it was clear that she took care of herself, as her body was well-built and proportioned.
"Whoa... I have a keen eye for detail and... why am I starting to pay attention to the bodies of mares? Boh, I don't know... but time will tell," I think to myself as I discover my heightened observational skills.
"Neat Dish, I would like you to meet Enlightened, our new guest here at Canterlot Castle. Enlightened, this is Neat Dish, the youngest chef to ever appear on the cover of Equestria's top culinary magazine, Haute Cuisine ," Princess Celestia says, introducing Neat Dish to me. She, on the other hoof, is blushing a little as if she's... kind of surprised that somepony would mention her accolades.
I put my brakes off, manoeuvre my wheelchair out of the table with a swift ninety-degree turn to the left and go to meet Neat Dish. I was a lot smaller than her, who was standing on all fours.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am. My name is Enlightened from Earth, wheelchair sportspony and university dropout," I introduce myself to her while extending my left hoof: she smiles warmly at me, extending her hoof so it could wrap around mine, shaking it lightly.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir. I was just about to give you the menu my assistant chefs and I made for this week: would you like me to accompany you to your place at the table?" she replies, preparing her horn to push my wheelchair back to the table with her magic, which I immediately noticed.
"Yes, I would love to be accompanied by an accomplished chef such as yourself but... in a normal way ," I say as I'm smiling to her.
"What do you mean by "normal" , sir?" Neat Dish asks, surprised of my rejection.
"It's not that I don't appreciate your help but... I would like to push myself with my own hooves, not be pushed by magic," I say truthfully, hoping she would understand.
And understand she did: as I got to the table, Neat Dish just made sure to follow me as I tried a little sprint with a lock-up of my chair's right wheel to "park" it. I put my breaks on again and looked at Princess Celestia, who was apparently pleased with the level of skill I was able to attain with this new body so far, for she was smiling at me.
"Here is the menu: please take your time to choose," Neat Dish wisely advised while giving the menu of the week to the Princess of the Sun and I.
I was surprised to see that Princess Celestia didn't even need to look at the menu to find her choice, as she smiled at Neat Dish and apparently waited for me to make mine: I quickly go through the dishes and after a couple of minutes, I find it: salad, chicken nuggets and fries. Mmmmh... just thinking about it makes me salivate. I need to keep it cool, though.
I nod and Neat Dish brings up a notebook and a quill, inkwell included, with her magic.
"What would you like, Princess?" Neat Dish asks her, ready to write down her order.
"Just the usual for me, please," Princess Celestia replies, much to my utter amazement at the situation I was witnessing.
And just like that, the smiling young chef wrote down her Princess's order. Judging by the time taken to write it down, Princess Celestia's meal is good, robust and above all full of kilocalories , probably because she must raise the sun every single day.
"Did you find anything on the menu that you like, sir?" she asks me, ready to write down my order as well.
"Yes, I believe I have: I would like a salad, chicken nuggets and some fries to go along with it. And please, I don't want to hear this "sir" nonsense: just Enlightened," I say as she writes it down quickly.
Neat Dish smiles and then says: "Alright then: your orders will come to you in about forty-five minutes. This won't take long," and with that, Neat Dish teleported herself to the Royal kitchen, not before giving us some still water.
"Enlightened? Are you there?" Princess Celestia asks me as I look in front of me, lost in thought.
"Yes. I'm here: I'm just trying to figure out what I can do with this new body I have. And after that, I want to try to walk," I say as I bring my head down again.
"Why do you believe life to be a fight, Enlightened?" Princess Celestia asks me as we look into each other's eyes.
"I say that life is a fight because life itself is hard. When I was growing up, I did physiotherapy as a sort of game, without paying much mind to the pain it brought. As the years went by, however, it was more about pain than gain, you know? I fought hard for every single thing I achieved. Even the smallest thing, such as moving around my flat with the aid of crutches was... big for me: there's this... satisfaction which is almost impossible for me to express into words. Life is a fight because... you have to work very hard to achieve your goals, no matter the time it takes to get there," I say with a confident smile on my face.
"Now that is a valuable lesson to lesson to learn, my little pony," Princess Celestia says with a smile of her own.
"Yes, it is, although it took many years for me to learn this," I say to her while smiling back.
After that little conversation was over, we patiently waited for our meals to come. It almost felt like my stomach was desperately pleading to be given food, for it growled furiously. When the food came, it was a wonderful feeling for both my eyes and my nostrils: the food was presented very well and the smell of it was fantastic.
"Here we have the Princess's order..." Neat Dish says, positioning the cutlery in place, along with her meal, "And here we have yours, Enlightened," she says as she positions my dish in front of me with the corresponding cutlery.
"It looks and smells delicious, thank you," I say as I look at the food before me and take in its aroma.
"You're welcome. Hope you like it," Neat Dish says, ready to leave.
"Leaving already? Please take a seat," I tell her as Princess Celestia makes another chair appear with her magic.
Neat Dish smiles and takes a seat. I look down at the dish before me in a dumbfounded state. Alright, I'm going to eat: but how given that now I don't have hands to hold the cutlery? I try doing a wrapping motion with my left hoof and somehow I managed to it. And so, with this kind of uncertainty, I extend my left forehoof to the fork, wrap it around the handle and lift it.
I dive in and take my first bite, piercing one of the chicken nuggets with the fork and let the flavours work their magic: my taste buds were in complete ecstasy, as that one bite carried Neat Dish's passion for cooking. At the hooves of the right cook, even the simplest of dishes can be a work of art: and that was certainly the case.
"Ma è... squisito! So much flavour... WOW !" (But it's... delicious!) I enthusiastically yell after swallowing.
Noticing my foreign dictions, Princess Celestia finishes her bites and turns to me, cleaning herself with a napkin first.
"It's been many years since I last heard somepony speak Ponytalian. Could you teach me some in the future?" Princess Celestia asks me.
"But of course. Now let's eat!" I say and dive in to finish my meal in about a quarter of an hour.
I have a small hiccup and then... a powerful burp escapes my mouth. I hold my belly with my hooves and tap on it lightly as Princess Celestia and Neat Dish giggle.
"Cosa c'è? Can't a guy show his appreciation for food by burping?" (What is it?) I say, crossing my hooves in a seemingly hurt way.
"Princess, I think that here we might have the finest example of a culinary critic," Neat Dish says, hoof under her chin in thought.
"Sono una buona forchetta!" (I am a good fork!), meaning that I like to eat.
Princess Celestia finishes and releases an atomic bomb of a burp: her belch was so powerful and long that I laugh wholeheartedly, clapping my hooves together.
"Now that is what I like to call a burp, Princess ," I said the last word with a little bit of sting in my voice, to see if I made her "angry".
Princess Celestia's right eye twitches: seeing the "imminent danger", Neat Dish teleported herself and the table away from us.
"Corri!" (Run!) I tell myself as I start pushing as fast I can and Celestia starts going after me.
Author's Note
It is done! Sorry for the delay. As always, I am so slow doing things and I apologise for that: see you next time, everybody!
Arrivederci! (See you!)
Chapter 3: tests and pain
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!)
