The Broken One

I stared at the griffin as she stared at me with disdain. She looked over every inch of me she could see as if sizing up a fight and her feathers began bristling. I cocked an eyebrow at her and shook my wings out a bit in growing agitation, losing a couple feathers in the process. She watched the black plumage fall to the clouds below and burst into laughter.

“I know, it’s scary being in the presence of awesomeness”, she guffawed, “but losing your feathers?!”

She continued laughing as I turned my back to her and spread my wings wide. She gasped when she caught sight of the burnt feathers and blistered skin and eased closer to my wings. She winced as she looked over my wings and the back of my legs visible through my destroyed pants legs where my wings didn’t cover them.

“How did you fly up here”, she muttered as she gently touched the tip of my left wing.

“It’s okay”, I muttered with a blush as I pulled my wing from her talons.

She cocked her head to the side but gasped and jumped back as I flooded healing magic into my wings. I ignored her astonished comments as my skin healed and my feathers grew back. The tingling was almost enough to drive me up the wall as the magic did its thing.

“Whoa, that was cool”, Dash grinned.

“Glad you were amused”, I said dryly and stretched my wings out.

The room began to spin suddenly and amidst their cries of shock I fell flat on my butt. I waved them off as they rushed to my side. I stood slowly but immediately fell over, my eyes fighting to focus. The rushing in my head and ears was deafening as I shouted for a quill and paper which Dash brought right away.

Mom,
I fucked something up. I’m at Dash’s house. Help.

I focused on mom and sent the letter on its way. As soon as the letter disappeared my vision began fading slowly. I turned my blurry gaze on the two females in the room with me and realized they were shouting but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I felt the slightest breeze as white fur filled my vision.

“Mom”, I asked, looking into her face.

Her horn lit up as tears gathered in her eyes. I felt magic pouring into me and I closed my eyes gratefully. Before long my vision cleared and I could hear again, but there was a ringing in my ears. When the strength returned to my limbs I reached up and set my hand against her cheek.

“What happened”, she demanded tearfully.

“I have no clue”, I mumbled.

“I meant what did you do”, she said as she stroked my face with her wing.

“Oh, I healed the burns”, I replied. “Guess I used too much magic and almost passed out.”

“You were nearly dead”, she shouted.

“What”, I blanched.

“Dude, you were whiter than Princess Celestia”, Dash shouted from her kneeling position on the floor.

“Prince”, I heard Gilda mumble from the floor.

“Jackson, you almost died”, mom gasped before she touched me with her glowing horn.

“What was that”, I asked as I felt the Shiver.

“The spell doesn’t have a name”, she sighed tiredly.

“Well, what does it do?”

“It allows me to monitor your health”, she replied quietly.

I slowly got to my feet and was pleased to feel no dizziness. I hugged mom around her neck and she began to cry silently. I held her tightly for several minutes and finally pulled away after the last of her tears dried.

“Thank you for saving me”, I whispered, pressing my forehead to hers.

“I can’t lose you”, she choked out as she wrapped her wings around me.

“I’ll be more careful”, I smiled, turning to the two flyers still kneeling on the floor. “You guys can get up now.”

“Thank you, your Highness”, Gilda said with a completely different tone of voice from earlier.

“Don’t call him that”, Dash shouted as she streaked up to the ceiling.

“Why not”, she asked as she cocked her head.

“Because the last two times those words were used when I was there he wound up kissing me”, she yelled as she landed on the chandelier.

“What”, Gilda blurted.

“My son has a habit of kissing ponies, it seems”, my mother smiled.

“Only ponies”, Gilda asked and blushed when she realized she had asked out loud.

I stepped in front of the griffin and eyed her challengingly. She stared at me in defiance, her feathers bristling slightly. Before she could react I planted a kiss square between her eyes and pulled back, laughing as she stared cross eyed at her forehead. Her blush was barely visible through her feathers as she coughed awkwardly and backed out of the room.

“That was funny”, Dash laughed as she landed beside me.

I shot my arm out and grabbed her around the shoulders. I yanked her toward me and pressed my lips against her cheek, laughing as she blushed and bolted back to the chandelier. I laughed harder as she yelled at me and eventually promised not to kiss her in order to get her to come down.

“What am I going to do with you, Jackson”, mom asked tiredly.

“Love me, feed me, never leave me”, I joked, eliciting a weak smile from the mare.

She stepped forward and lectured me again about my use of magic, even going as far as to lightly slap me in the back of the head. I listened with drooping wings, which was something I didn’t know my wings did. For half an hour she continued, somehow going from fussing at me to begging me to be safe and finally threatening to take me back to the palace.

“You’re gonna ground me”, I asked in disbelief.

“If that is what it takes to keep you safe”, she replied as she lightly stamped her front hoof, “then that is what I will do.”

“You’re already monitoring my health”, I argued. “Why do you want to keep me in the castle?!”

“Mind your tone, young colt”, the angered alicorn warned.

“I’m sorry”, I apologized. “I just don’t think I should be punished for one mistake.”

“ONE MISTAKE”, mom shrieked. “ONE MISTAKE?! JACKSON, YOU HAVE LOST EVERY BIT OF YOUR NATURAL BLOOD! I WAS THE ONE TO REPLACE THE LAST OF IT!”

“Huh”, Dash blinked numbly.

“I’ve lost count of how many times he has wound up in life threatening danger”, mom shouted as she turned on the smaller pony. “He has had numerous encounters with the guards; nearly all of them are caused by him.”

She turned her angry glare to me and stamped her hoof as she came closer. She stood over me for several seconds before she closed her eyes tight and began sobbing again. She collapsed onto my shoulders, heaving heart cleansing sobs.

“If you want me to come to the castle, I will”, I whispered as I stroked her animated mane. “I just want to be able to see my friends.”

“That can be arranged”, she eventually heaved through an exhausted sigh.

“If you want, I can even poof us there”, I smiled.

“Outside the gates, please”, she sighed.

I waved at Dash, picked my travel bag up and laid my hand on mom’s back. I focused on the palatial gates and winced at how loud the familiar crack sounded. We walked the rest of the way into the palace, nodding at guards and servants we passed as they bowed. I ushered mom into her chambers and to her bed. She began to argue as I pushed her from the side and she fell into bed.

“Look mom”, I said quietly, “you’re exhausted from fixing my mistake, so I’ll lower the sun for Aunt Luna.”

“Okay, dear”, she mumbled as her head hit the pillow.

Almost instantly she began to snore lightly, which was quite an amusing sight. I left her chambers and made my way to the balcony I had always seen mom use. An irate and impatient Luna paced back and forth, grunting when she caught sight of me.

“Why art thou here”, she demanded. “Where is my sister?”

“She wore herself out saving my ass”, I explained. “I’m here to lower the sun.”

“Surely thou doth jest”, she scoffed. “Doth thou expect us to believe thou hast the knowledge and ability for such an undertaking?”

I shrugged my shoulders and turned to the sun. I closed my eyes and extended my arms, allowing magic to flow through them. I felt the sun, felt its pull and its heat, though quite muted. I eased the sun lower, slowly edging it below the horizon. When the sun was no longer visible I turned to an openmouthed Luna and motioned for her to proceed.

She shook herself from a stupor and her horn lit the balcony. The silvery rim of the moon broke over the horizon, mesmerizingly beautiful in its simplicity. Slowly the rest of the moon followed in a subtle yet graceful flow of motion. I quirked my eyebrow and complimented Luna on her skills.

“Thou didst enjoy our moonrise”, she asked dubiously.

“Well, yeah”, I replied. “You somehow made it a much more personal experience than mom did.”

“Define personal”, she demanded coyly as she narrowed her eyes.

“Soulful”, I said before something clicked. “You thought I was- Oh, hell no! You’re my aunt for crying out loud!”

“Only by adoption”, she muttered quietly, but I heard her and shuddered.

“Aunt Luna, no”, I said flatly.

“As you wish”, she sighed. “Over one thousand years alone, though…”

“EW, NO”, I shouted as I darted away.

I ran through the halls toward the library, one place I knew never had visitors. I burst through the doors and eased them closed behind me before I headed deeper into the library and ducked down a random aisle. I backed away from the central aisle and knelt down.

“Prince Jackson”, a voice whispered behind me.

I turned around and was faced with the one thing I forgot about concerning this library. Twilight Sparkle was known to haunt the aisles on a sporadic basis. Apparently she just happened to be there the one day I chose the wizened halls as my hiding spot.

“What are you doing”, she asked quietly.

“Running from a possibly incestuous aunt”, I muttered.

“WHAT”, she shouted, garnering the expected shushing from the librarian.

“Yeah”, I grimaced.

“But Princess Luna isn’t your real aunt”, she whispered but gagged when she thought about what she said. “You were smart for running.”

“Yup.”

“Wait, why are you here”, she asked as she cocked her head to the side. “I thought you were living with Fluttershy.”

“That’s a long story”, I sighed.

“Well, I don’t know about you”, she grinned, “but I’m in the mood for research.”

“What kind of research”, I asked as I slowly leaned away from her.

“Oh, not that kind”, she blanched. “I meant actual research!”

“Okay”, I shrugged. “I have time to kill.”

I followed the purple unicorn to the back corner of the library and into a small room with a table, quills, inkpots and parchment provided. She made her way to one side of the table and called me over. I walked slowly into the room, a sudden feeling of unease coming over me as the door closed.

“Are you okay”, she asked, noticing something was wrong.

“This room is kinda small”, I said as I began to sweat.

“Oh, you’re claustrophobic”, she groaned apologetically.

I nodded and snatched the door open. The slight breeze that filtered in calmed me almost instantly, putting me at ease. I turned back to Twilight Sparkle with a bashful grimace. She smiled understandingly and motioned me over.

“So what kind of research do you wanna do”, I asked to help distract myself further.

“I wanted to see the similarities and differences between your wings and the other races’ wings”, she explained.

“Okay, but no touching”, I sighed as I unfurled my wings.

I heard a noise behind me that I realized was a measuring tape that Twilight was using to measure my wingspan, marveling at the results. She muttered something about being close in size to mom and I was impressed. Male ego.

I felt a tingling in my wings and back and jumped but she reassured me everything was okay. She explained that she was using a spell to look underneath the ‘different layers’ as she said to examine the skin, muscles and skeletal structure. I relaxed and let her continue, smirking as she scribbled furiously the entire time.

“Wait a minute”, she muttered.

The tingling sensation grew more intense and focused on each of the joints from the tip all the way to where my wings sprouted from my back. The tingling faded and eventually stopped as I heard Twilight muttering to herself. She paced the room, several sheets of parchment floating in front of her face.

“What’s wrong”, I asked, trying to keep the worry from my voice.

“Nothing’s wrong, per se”, she said, “I just find it interesting.”

“Find what interesting?!”

“The joints in your wings aren’t normal”, she began.

“Nothing about me is normal.”

“What I mean is that your joints aren’t made of bone”, she explained. “Your wing joints seem to be made of pure magic.”

“Just like my blood now”, I replied and laughed when her jaw dropped.

“You’re sustained by magic”, Twilight gasped.

“Yep.”

She shook her head muttering about the wonders of modern magic and continued studying my wings. She was silent for the longest time, which prompted me to look over my shoulder. I groaned as I noticed she was actually counting my feathers.

“WE HAVE FOUND THEE”, Luna shouted in her Canterlot Voice, causing both of us to shout in alarm. “OUR DISCUSSION HAS NOT ENDED!”

Luna lifted into the air and flew straight for us.

“Well, fuck.”