Cure for Pain

“Well…” I said, getting up from my bed and stretching my hooves. “We’re here.” Coleton looked up from his magazine again to look out the window; the Canterlot harbor was in plain view, the sight of peaceful civilization appealing to both of us.

“So…” I asked once we had departed the ship. “What do we do now?” Coleton looked at me, worried. “I don’t know, I thought you knew!” I looked at him incredulously. “How would I know, dude?”

And so, the quest for the princess began. We went to the castle, but the guards were vigilant, and stopped all of our attempt to enter. I sighed, and walked out of their earshot. “What do we do?” Coleton shrugged. “Sneak in?”

I sighed. “I don’t think going ‘Mission Impossible’ in the royal castle would be necessarily well-received given we get caught. I say we use our resources.” Coleton looked at me, confused. “And what would those resources be?”

I smiled. “Our voices. PRINCESS!!!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs before Coleton put a hoof up to my mouth. “Dude, it’s eight o’ clock in the morning on a Saturday! She’s not going to be up!” He scolded. “And besides, I don’t want to be the one to wake her up.”

“Don’t worry.” A calm, soothing voice said from the other side of the entrance to the castle. “You weren’t, Coleton.” We looked to see the Princess, as happy and regal as ever, standing beside the guards. “Walker was, though.” She gave me a friendly smile, and I felt myself sink down, wanting to escape her glare.

When we finally got to talk to the princess, we told her of our situation. At least, we started, before she shushed us. “Don’t worry, I know what happened.” We gave her a look of surprise. “How?” Coleton said.

“News travels fast between the army and the royal family.” She said, levitating a scroll in front of us. The scroll had some… less than appealing words written about us, saying that we were being sent home.

“I’m sorry.” I started, realizing she knew what happened. “About everything.” She simply laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Walker. What you did was courageous and brave, and you shouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“I mean, I realize that what I did was totally wrong-wait.” Her words sunk in, and I realized that I wasn’t in trouble. “I shouldn’t?”

“No!” She said, laughing. Let me tell you, if I smiled and laughed early on a Saturday morning as much as she did, I would be sent to a mental hospital by my friends. “In fact, you should be proud of yourself. And about what you came for…” She fished in her bag, picking up a couple of train tickets to Ponyville. “Here you go.”

We took the tickets, almost skeptical of how easy it was. I figured that I would at least have to persuade her a little, but she just gave it to us. It was easy. “Thank you, Princess.” I said, smiling for the first time in ages. “It means a lot.”

“Don’t worry about it, Walker.” She said. As Coleton and I walked away, she stopped me. “Walker, wait one minute for me.” I walked back without hesitation. “What is it, Princess?”

“What made you do what you did?” she asked. “Saving Coleton and all. I know top-rank members of the royal guard who wouldn’t do that, so why did you?” I looked at her, and shrugged. “Proper motivation.” I could see by her look of confusion that I would need to explain what I said. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. Ever since we were in Kindergarten, we’ve been close friends. It’s not like I can just let him die. Besides, he has so many people to whom he matters so much. His girlfriend Dash, his friends… who isn’t his friend, really? I guess… a cowardly death like what would have happened when I intervened would not have suited him; if he were to die, he would need to go out in a blaze of glory.”

With that, I took my backpack and turned around, catching up to Coleton and letting the Princess process what I said.

“Hey.” Coleton said as we exited the train at the Ponyville train depot. “You know what we could do?” I looked at him, knowing he was joking. “What?” He smirked. “Maybe we can catch the new episode of MLP. It’s nine o’ clock on a Saturday morning, after all.”

I laughed, but my mind was on other matters. I thought about everyone we needed to see. I wanted to see the mane 6 and Octavia, and let them know we were okay, assuming the Princess hadn’t informed them.

As Coleton and I approached the library, we anticipated what Twilight’s reaction would be. We honestly didn’t expect to get home so soon after departure, and Twilight sure didn’t. This would be a pleasant surprise.

As we entered, we found Twilight and Rarity sitting by the television. They looked up, and their expressions changed from a desensitized, expressionless face to a look reminiscent to a kid inside FAO Schwarz. They ran up, and hugged both of us. I could smell remains of avocado masks as we hugged them, so I assumed they were having a sleepover. We sat down, and talked about what happened at war.

“So, you fought 15 Changelings, Coleton?” Rarity said to Coleton, not believing any of it. I looked at Coleton. “You can’t bullshit Rarity or Twilight, man. Want to tell them what actually happened?” He sighed, a smile spreading across his face. “Why don’t you?”

As I approached Octavia’s house, the sun was setting for the day, the few pink rays of the large ember shining over the horizon. I heard faint cello playing from the inside of the house. It was beautiful, sorrow emanating from every note she played. I prepared myself, and walked in to greet her.

As the door opened, warmness from the house escaped into the chilly environment, leaving my body begging to enter. Octavia looked up from her sheet music, tears streaming down her face, and she saw me. She sat her cello on the stand and ran towards me. We shared a hug. Despite seeing many war movies and seeing this exact situation play out more times than I can count, this didn’t feel stereotypical. I was happy to see my marefriend again, and as we hugged, I felt so many emotions that I didn’t even know existed, and I cried alongside her.