CHAPTER VI
For the next couple of days, Will continued to be confined to his wheelchair. It wasn’t a comfortable situation to say in the slightest. When Will had asked one of his pony escorts for a cushion to place on the seat, they declined. Apparently being an alien entitles you to a wheelchair, free medical care, food, and a bed. Cushions were a luxury he guessed.
Will knew he should be exercising his legs, but attempting to put any weight on it felt like knives shooting up through his bone marrow. Nick and Mending both scolded Will like a child for not attempting to stand, but when it hurts like hell and rarely resulted in success, it was hard to keep up with the recovery.
Will soon fell into a simple routine. Will would be woken up by Mending early in the morning, who would take him to the medical ward in the basement, where the ponies had set up a large basin for Nick and Will to bathe in. The thing was made like a barrel. Hell, it probably used to be a barrel. Warped panels of wood were held in a circular shape with bands of metal and a kind of sealant on the inside. Mending would use her magic to help Will into the bath, and would always complain about how hard it was to move him.
Then Nick and Will would meet for breakfast, which nearly always consisted of oatmeal soaked in warm water and various fruits. There was never any meat. Every meal was like that in some way. Lunch usually consisted of sandwiches and salads, and dinners were pretty much the same with the additions of soups and some pasta. When it came to dessert, Will had to admit he had quite a sweet tooth, and the pastries these ponies made tasted like pure ambrosia, the food of the gods.
Ponies, being herbivores, found the consumption of other creatures incredibly horrifying. When Will mentioned that humans needed fairly high amounts of protein in their diet to stay healthy, instead of the juicy steak dinners Will was hoping for, more and more nuts, mushrooms, and eggs were added to the menu.
After that, Will and Nick would go to the library. It was common for the two friends to play a game of makeshift chess when they weren’t caught up in other readings. For Nick, the library was quickly becoming his favorite room in the castle. The place was massive with two stories of ten-foot-tall mahogany bookshelves, only interrupted by small reading nooks, and a desk where the head librarian sat.
Nick tended to read a lot of history books, which were often very difficult to read. Not because the wording was difficult, but because each of these books was handwritten by scribes or the author themselves. Most of the time the handwriting was legible, but some books were filled with chicken-scratch much to Nick’s frustration.
He learned of the Three Tribe Civil War, where the earthponies, pegasi, and unicorns fought over rulership of the land that would become Equestria. Each tribe had complaints when it came to the others. Earthponies thought that the unicorns were messing with the sun and moon so much that it was killing crops, and they blamed the pegasi for not providing said crops with enough rain. Pegasi constantly complained about earthponies not providing enough food to feed the pegasi as well, and didn’t trust unicorns due to a disagreement between the rulers of the pegasi and the unicorns. Unicorns thought they were more superior than the other two tribes due to their mastery of magical spells, and their ability to move the celestial bodies.
Nick didn’t quite believe that last fact. Creatures magically moving celestial bodies that hung in the sky? He found the idea of it preposterous.
There were some books that Nick had found that had large sections of the writing erased or blacked out. In those books, he found a couple of entries referencing a “spirit of chaos.”
Will had no interest in history. It was his worst subject in school, and being flung into a strange world did not help Will stomach that type of reading. Instead, Will poured his attention to books on magic. After his encounters with the alicorn sisters, Will became fascinated with the idea of magic.
Pouring through plenty of tomes of the arcane was an adventure in and of itself. Each author had their own discoveries to share, from anatomical sketches to mathematical formulas that Will could only guess at their meaning. He was decent at math, but this was beyond him. Surely if he understood the variables he could decipher some of the equations.
What didn’t help was that most of the books contradicted each other. One author would believe one concept was true, and the next could straight-up disprove or disagree with the said concept.
Granted, this only took up a portion of Will’s days. Nick could stay and read for long periods of time, but Will couldn’t stand it. Will needed to move, which was frustrating enough while being chair-bound every waking moment. Needless to say, Will was bored out of his mind.
Whenever his guards would allow, Will would take himself out to the walled gardens of the castle. Granted, he still needed two unicorn guards to levitate himself and his chair down the stairs that lead down to the gardens themselves. The garden wasn’t much better than being inside the castle. There were never any ponies besides the castle staff in the garden when Will went outside, just like Guard Captain Hurricane had said.
Days passed slowly, and Will could barely remember the details of each day. They seemed to blend into each other, forming one amorphous period of time. At the moment, Will sat in his wheelchair in the room that princesses were kind enough to provide for him. It was nearing nightfall, not like Will could tell in his windowless bedroom. His bed consisted of four pony-sized cots pushed together with a pile of woolen blankets making up some semblance of a mattress. It was comfortable enough, but it felt like sleeping on a broken futon. The stone walls of the bedroom were bare aside from a wardrobe against one wall, and a small desk against another that doubled as a nightstand.
With a sigh, Will rolled his wheelchair back and forth, feeling restless. He let his gaze wander about the small room, which was no bigger than most one-car garages. The same thing he did every night before asking one of his guards to help him to bed.
He hated sitting still. He hated the monotony, but there was nothing he could do being chair-bound like he was…
Or could he?
With a determined look, he rolled himself over to the door, opening it to find one of the unicorn guards that usually would guard his door in case Will decided to act up.
“Do you need assistance getting into your bed?” the guard asks. Will was tired, but this new idea had him excited.
“Could you send someone to find Mending? I had a question. Also, if she could bring some bandages, and a piece of wood the length of my leg? Oh and maybe another about this tall,” Will said, holding a hand up above his head. He approximated it to be the perfect height to rest comfortably under his armpit.
“I’m sorry sir,” the guard said, “but Ms. Mending is most likely about ready to turn in for the night. And I’m not sure if she would have the wood you would need.”
“It doesn’t have to be anything well made. Hell, I bet you guards must have a broken spear or two lying around.”
The guard’s face hardened. “So you are asking me to provide you with a weapon?”
“What? No, nothing like that.”
The guard paused for a moment, staring hard into Will’s eyes. “Give me one good reason to allow you to have such things.”
“Because if my idea works, you won’t have to lift my fat ass into this bed, or carry me up and down flights of stairs all day long,” Will said, a slight cunning smirk crossing his lips.
-~xXXXx~-
“You interrupted my nightly ritual… to have me help you splint your leg?” Mending was looking at Will incredulously as the human sat on his bed, wounded leg outstretched. Will was wincing as he massaged his injured leg.
“I thought I was supposed to be exercising my leg. I can’t do that if I’m bound to that chair.”
Mending let out a slight huff, deflating a bit. “Did you have to pull me away from my bed to get this done? It couldn’t wait until morning?”
“I wouldn’t have been able to sleep,” Will shrugged. “Once I have an idea in my head I can’t let it go.”
“And your big idea was a splint and a walking stick?” Mending gestured to the two pieces of wood that the guards had brought in. One was nearly as tall as Will when he stood up, the other was the old broken shaft of a spear.
“A crutch, there’s a difference.” Will lifted himself off of the cot, balancing on his good leg. It was still weaker than he was used to but was still strong enough to support his weight if he braced himself with a hand. He motioned for Mending to hand him the larger stick. He held it up along his side. “Now, all we have to do is cut it just under my armpit and make a ‘T’ using the excess.”
With the help of one of the unicorn guards, the stick was split appropriately and was secured with rope, wrapping the extra rope around the underarm for extra padding. The whole process took less than fifteen minutes with the aid of unicorn magic. Every time Will saw a horn light up, he couldn’t help but feel a slack-jawed expression cross his face.
“So this is meant to help keep weight off of the injured leg?” Mending asked.
Will shrugged. “I wasn’t a medical expert, but that is what I think of when it comes to leg injuries. It’s a pretty common thing back home.”
“Well, if it worked for your healers, I guess it should work for us here. Now sit back.”
Will did as he was told, wincing as Mending helped prop his leg on a chair, leaving Mending some room to wrap the bandages around the splint. The old spear shaft was splintered at one end, but that was, once again, easily solved with the lighting of a unicorn’s horn. How was it that these ponies were still stuck in the medieval ages with arcane abilities like this?
With his leg properly splinted, and makeshift crutch in hand, Will sat on the edge of his bed shifting back and forth. He had extra support mainly focused on the lower part of his femur, and his ankle, so the bandages and wooden dowel might prove to be exactly what Will needed. Mending and the guard were both standing on either side of him.
“Go ahead,” Mending reassured. “If you start to fall, we’ll catch you.”
Will nodded nervously. He knew putting his full weight onto his wounded leg would hurt like a bitch, but it was either he tried this, or go back to sitting in the chair.
Fuck that chair.
God, Will, do you even do phrasing anymore?
Unable to bend his splinted right leg, Will lifted himself off the bed using only his left leg and the crutch to help pull himself up. In an agonizingly slow ascent, Will was standing, leaning on the crutch to balance himself. But it wasn’t over yet. Will still needed to put weight on that leg. Slowly, Will gingerly shifted his weight, slowly putting pressure on the splinted leg. He winced as a dull pulse of pain shot through his leg, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before. Mending was smiling despite the tired circles that were beginning to form under her eyes.
“Well? come on,” Mending encouraged, stepping out in front of Will, motioning for him to follow.
Will was cautious. He could handle pain, but he was still very averse to it. Who wouldn’t be? With great care, he took a step with his good leg. He knew that would be fine, but it was the next part that would be the difficult bit. As Will stepped with his wounded leg, he supported himself with the crutch, holding onto the stick with white knuckles. Putting weight on it again, he winced but barely stumbled having mentally prepared himself for the pain. Will couldn’t help but grin.
“Freedom!” Will held up a hand in triumph, earning an eye roll and smile from mending, and a small chuckle from the guard.
“Okay big guy, keep moving.” Mending teased. “You have me for a few more minutes before I head back to bed.” A yawn escaped her muzzle. “I can’t just let you walk about on your own just yet. So keep it moving!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Will saluted with a smile.
Over the next ten minutes or so, Will kept walking up and down the hallways in the basement of Castle Everfree. Mending even encouraged him to try the stairs, which he managed to do, albeit it was slow going. Eventually, the stumbling lessened. When it was time for Mending to turn in for the night, Will walked into his room on his own two legs. The feeling that came from the mundane act was a breath of fresh air. Will sat on his bed with the largest smile he had given since he arrived in this strange world full of ponies.
“Hey, Mending? I just wanted to say… thank you.” Will felt slightly guilty when Mending let loose another yawn. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Mending smiled despite her tired eyes. “If walking on your own brought you that much joy, I’d say an hour of lost sleep was well worth it.” Mending turned and walked out into the hallway, and Will’s guard returned to his post just outside the door.
Will laid back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling lit by the flickering candlelight that lit the room. Blowing out the candle, the darkness consumed the room. Before, this room felt like a prison, and the dark was Will’s warden. Now, the shadows felt like a comforting hug, holding Will as he drifted off to sleep, and then to his dreams.
-~xXXXx~-
That same day, from Nick’s perspective:
Nick went through his day with a small inkling that something was wrong. Will had been awfully quiet during breakfast, a trend that continued to the library, where he was nearly completely silent throughout their daily chess game. A game that Nick had won way too easily.
Will was too competitive to just allow someone to win without putting up a fight, but there he was. Nick couldn’t help but notice the far off expression on his friend’s face. Clearly, Will’s mind was somewhere else.
After the game, Will, pushed by one of the guards, left Nick alone in the library. The two had started spending more time apart as the days went on. ‘Is Will mad at me?’ Nick wondered. He told himself that the idea was silly. Will wore his heart on his sleeve, and now he was still coming to terms with everything that has been happening. Nick should simply enjoy the time he had while they waited for something to happen. It seemed like the two humans were being kept at arm’s length from everything and everyone. Understandably, Nick admitted, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
As lunch came around, Nick ate alone under the supervision of a guard. He had realized that talking to any of the guards was a fruitless effort. They didn’t seem to talk much, often responding in short phrases or non-committal grunts. The other castle staff members were another story. At least they had made attempted to make small talk with an alien.
Nick had shown up to lunch late, meaning Celestia would be starting afternoon court shortly. He hadn’t seen the princess for a couple of days now. That seemed to be the pattern, not that Nick could blame her. He bet being a princess in this country meant Celestia had plenty on her plate, especially since she was rebuilding society after an attack from a so-called spirit of chaos, and a full-on tribal war.
Nick didn’t fully understand the timeline or details regarding those events, the authors were always quite vague, or parts of their writings had been redacted. Maybe he could ask Celestia about that sometime. When she wasn’t so busy with princessy duties.
Nick paused for a moment, an idea coming to him. Quickly, Nick left the dining hall, leaving his salad on the table with a guard immediately on his heels.
“Nicholas, where are you going?” The guard asks in a calm monotone, the usual tone of the castle’s royal guards.
“Do you think I would be allowed to sit in on Celestia’s court?”
“Sir?”
“Just to listen, I know that Captain Hurricane has orders to keep me out of sight of the common folk. I just want to listen to what’s actually going on in this kingdom I find myself trapped in.” Nick and the guard, whose name Nick still didn’t know, stopped outside of the entrance to the private wing.
The guard thought for a moment. “That would be up to the princess.” He went up to speak to another guard stationed beside the doors. Nick’s guard said a few quiet words, then the other disappeared beyond the doors. For a few minutes, Nick stood awkwardly in the hallway, waiting.
The door guard came back shortly, standing at attention at his post. “The princess says you may listen from behind the separating wall behind the throne. You may not speak, you may not be seen, and you will be watched over by a guard at all times. If important matters of state are mentioned and require privacy, you will be required to leave the royal court. Are these terms acceptable? If you cause the princess to believe that you shouldn’t be allowed to sit in on day court, you will lose these privileges. Understood?”
Nick’s face lit up. “I’ll take it.”