Game of Circumstances

Chapter ten: The blind wizard

I opened my eyes.

Where am I? Good question. I obviously wasn’t changed into a piece of meal in a mutant’s stomach, since I was in a bed.

A proper, white, comfy bed.

How did I get there? I don’t know. I tried to move, to find out that I was bandaged quite everywhere. I leaned my left

foreleg before my head. I couldn’t move correctly my hind legs, although it seemed to have been healed till I slept. Hmmm… ‘healed’ seems to be a big word for that. Let’s say that it had been stuck up with glue and bandaged. And they had also added a beautiful piece of metal to make it stick correctly. In a sudden effort, I sat up on a side of my bed. Oh, Celestia, it was painful.

I tried unsuccessfully to get up from the bed, but my back ached too much. It wasn’t the only one part of my body that ached, though. I had strangely the impress of being stabbed everywhere with overheated needles. And I was totally parched.

Ouch…

So, if you hadn’t caught it up before, the god news was that I was alive, and the bad was that my body ached even in places that if doesn’t had to hurt.

I let my eyes wandering though the room, exploring my immediate surroundings. I was in a quite well lighted room, visibly an ex-clinic room. And when I say clinic, I say real clinic, real buildings built before the last breath, not the scrap-metal thingy where officiated Sirius back in New Hope. Okay, I admit that it was a bit dusty, but, eh, that’s not like there was an apocalypse! No, seriously, it was quite well conserved, had still its four walls, a real wooden door, and a freakin’ real bed.

There was even an old water fountain that seemed to be still functioning. ‘’ Gosh, today’s my lucky day…’’ I said. ‘’ Or, maybe not…’’ I added, shrugging against the pain to get up. I finally won this silent argument with a wince of pain. ‘’ Oh, Celestia, I could use painkillers right now…’’

Hesitantly, I tried to make a step. Instantly, pain goes back through my foreleg. ‘’ C’mon Cal, I know you can do it!’’ I cheered myself. I made another step. ‘’ Oh, Celestia, this is gonna be long and painful…’’ Again another step, followed this time by a yelp of pain. ‘’ If you continue like that, you’re not gonna make the day…’’ I said to myself.

That was long, that was painful, but I finally reached the water fountain. I dug my head under the water tap and activated it. Water began to pour itself in my dried throat. I swallowed, and swallowed, the more I had drunk, and the better I will be. After all, it’s not like the water had been contaminated by the magical fallouts.

Once I was satiated, I stopped the water and let out a satisficed burp. ‘’ Ups, my bad…’’ I apologized, although there was nopony in the room. ‘’ Alright…’’ I said. ‘’ ... now that the water problem is fixed, let’s go thinking about my situation.’’

First, I obviously haven’t sleepwalked here and patched me up all alone. Somepony must have saved me. This led us to the second point, who is this somepony? I do remember bumping in something before passing out by lack of blood, but that’s all. And there is a third point:

How the buck did this somepony find out my stuff and put it in this very room?

Because just next to the door, against the wall, laid my bag, visibly untouched. And as far as I can remember, there are only a few ponies that do that for you in the wastes. Usually, when somepony found another pony in such bad shape as mine, they end their misery with a good ol’ bullet, and they usually take their stuff too, saying to themselves that, in anyway now, the poor buddy cannot use it now.

Such a miserable excuse for a miserable practice that was the looting on bodies in the ash desert, if you want my opinion regarding this. At least, they could bury the bodies.

Anyway, here’s not the point. I walked with difficulty to my bag, and sat down on the dusty floor. I opened it. All was here. Ammunitions, apples, vitamins, painkillers…

Speaking about painkillers, I cautiously took one of them and removed the plastic protection around the needle. Without any kind of ceremony, I emptied its content in my left tight. I smiled, lost in bliss as the medication sprout itself through my organism. Oh, Celestia, it feels good! As the pain was replaced by that post-drug consummation state, I got up, trying myself. I tottered a little, like tipsy, before the bliss went away, giving me my mind back.

Okay. I still couldn’t run everywhere, but it was going to be ok. And here, I noticed something. I limped. My injured hind leg was healed, but it could never be the same. ‘’ Oh… ‘’ I said. ‘’ It sucks!’’

And it’s how I got myself stuck as a young mare with a lame leg.

I put my bag on my back, and it’s here that I noticed that something other was amiss.

My shotgun!

I searched through the room.

Nothing.

‘’ What kind of pony take the gun but not the bullets?’’ I asked myself. ‘’ Some retard, maybe…’’ Here I was, telling that somepony that had saved my rump was a retard while speaking to myself.

After checking that there was nothing more in the room, I pushed the door and got out. I found myself in an old corridor that seemed to have suffered from the years of dust and ash.

It seemed to be a quite big hospital, so I decided to use an old wandering technique: reaching the ground level, establish if this building was secure, and get out after a little searching, maybe sleeping in for a few days before moving.

I quickly reached the floor’s stairs. On the wall was an old sign saying that I was on the second floor. I went downstairs and continued my road to finally reach the ground level, which consisted in a big hall with old wooden benches and a big counter with old computers.

The front of the hospital consisted in what was a glasses wall, with glasses doors, but it was now only an empty space, the glasses having surely be broken with the apocalypse, or the constant looting that was surely victim this hospital from both the wanderers and the raiders, slavers or other ponies living in the hell that is the ash desert.

As I inspected in details the hall, something reflected the light of my flashlight on the counter.

My shotgun!

I smiled. Not that I liked killing other ponies, but heck, life is never going the way we would like, no? Especially in the ashes. Here, if you’re weaponless, you’re dead.

I limped to the counter and put a hoof on the chromed weapon. Much to my surprise, two shining purple eyes opened themselves in the dark.

‘’ What in hell…?’’ I said. I moved my flashlight, and it revealed the strangest pony –apart Gibbs and Hap’- I’ve known in my life. ‘’ Wh… who are you?!’’ I asked, my voice quivering more than I wanted it to. The … pony? At least it looked like a pony, gave me a little smile and spoke with the strangest voice I’ve ever heard. It was low, and rough, and even high at the same time. Yep, strange.

‘’ You do not have to fear me, stallion-in-the-body-of-a-mare. I will not bite, hit or kill you.’’

‘’ What are you?’’ I asked.

‘’ I have got plenty of names.’’ It replied. ‘’ But here in this ravaged land, they call me the blind wizard.’’

‘’ Yeah, that’s cool, but what are you?’’ I repeated. It chuckled.

‘’ I am plenty of things.’’ Heck, this… thing is the thing that never answers your questions in the sense you asked it.

‘’ I don’t care about that!’’ I shouted.

‘’ If so, why have you asked this question two times?’’ It seemed amused.

‘’ Celestia…’’ I facehoofed. ‘’ Wait… you said that they called you the ‘blind wizard’… how could you know how I look like and who I am?’’

‘’ I know lots of things. But I am in a good mood, so I am willing to answer your questions. I am effectively blind, because of that.’’ It leaned a hoof to show me its bright purple eyes. ‘’ For answering to your precedent question, I am a pony like you, and a unicorn. But years of playing with magic might has turned me in a lot more powerful thing.’’ He, because it was a stallion, smiled weakly. ‘’ Back to the times where I was your average magic searcher in the Celestia’s university for gifted unicorn…’’

‘’ A-are you saying that you… you knew the world how it was before this whole end-of-the-world shit happened?’’ I asked, dumbfounded. How the hell did he survived?

‘’ Sadly. I think I might know how all of this happened, but it’s only a theory. Anyway, I was near of the explosion’s epicenter, and all the magical fallouts kept me miraculously alive although I was in the first lives that had been consumed by the catastrophe.’’

‘’ So, basically…’’ I frowned. ‘’ You’re dead… but alive?! H-how can it be…?’’

‘’ I do not know, although I looked for an answer for years, but yes, I am dead but alive. My magical power has decupled, and my eyes tend to do this purple light. I cannot turn off this magic, sadly, and my horn is not more than a lantern now, but my corpse is so full with magic that it do not root, and I can use my power everywhere on it.’’ He lit a purple fire on his hoof, which I noticed with surprise that it burned around the hoof, without really burning it.

‘’ Oh boy… what a paradox…’’ I said.

‘’ It is quite amusing to see your calling me by one of my nicknames.’’ He said, chuckling slightly.

‘’ You’re really fucked up, guy.’’ I said. ‘’ And one of your nicknames is paradox, you say? How surprising…’’

‘’ How rude.’’ He replied, still snickering. ‘’ After all I did for you? Saving you, finding your equipment and re-breathe you your life?’’

‘’ It was you?’’ I said, scratching the back of my head. ‘’ Er…well… uh… thank you, but that won’t prevent me from thinking that you’re an odd one.’’

He smiled. ‘’ I am okay with that. I take that you were going to Happiness?’’ I nodded. ‘’ May I join? There’s somepony that I must meet down here, somepony that I hadn’t seen in years.’’

‘’ Uh, I don’t really know, I mean, that entire fire thing, that’s cool, but…’’ He lit himself a cigarette with his hoof, causing me to jump literally in the air. Yeah, yeah, you can say everything you want, that guy’s a real creep. He scares me.

‘’ I take that as a ‘yes’ ‘’ He said, laughing slightly. Even when he laughs, he’s scary. But, even if I wasn’t the happiest pony in Equestria, he had saved me, and he hadn’t tried anything against me, so I guess that a helping hoof is always welcome in the desert, mostly on the 3rd highway.

My stomach grouched. I figured that I had surely not eaten something since this lunch before the hellhole’s incident.

‘’ Well… it’s nice to save me, all that, but… if you don’t mind, I would eat something. ‘’ I said. ‘’ I have some difficulty to think when my stomach’s empty.’’

‘’ Do, Stallion-in-the-body-of-a-mare.’’ He said. ‘’ Personally, I do not eat given my shape, so I think you will understand the fact that I will not eat with you.’’ I winced. Celestia, what is this crappy name he gave me?

‘’ Uh… you know, I have a name, mister paradox.’’ I replied. ‘’ You can call me Cal.’’

‘’ Well, Callixus, if you want me to call you by your name, I will appreciate that you call me Dark Hawk, and not mister Paradox. Good lunch.’’ And he disappeared suddenly in a purple flash.

Dumbfounded, I looked the place where he was a second ago. How did he know my real situation? And my name? I had given him only my nickname.

‘’ What a freak…’’ I muttered. I took absent-mindedly an apple in my bag, wincing in disgust as his usual flavor came back on my tongue. But I don’t know why, I always complain, but I always eat these apples. Must be cursed.

I finished my lunch quite quickly, assembled my stuff, and got out of the building, my flashlight in the mouth. There was a purple flash, and then he was back.

‘’ I take that you are ready to go?’’ He asked.

‘’ Y-yes…’’ I don’t think he saw it, but he really, was near giving me a heart attack, and he would have been good to save me one more time.

He smiled, and we began to walk on the old, tired road of the 3rd highway, toward Happiness, where I really hoped to find my friends alive and if possible, in a good shape.