The Bridge

It was a rather lovely day as I crossed the bridge that jutted over a small stream that ran around the park in Canterlot. It was a fairly busy but naturally it was a Friday afternoon and many ponies were already getting off work and deciding to take the long route home, a gentle breeze helping keep them cool under the rays of summer.

I smiled and felt the bristles of my beard which had grown to the point where I most likely looked a bit like Starswirl the Bearded. To most I would be considered a drunkard, a pony without a job or a care in the world, a beggar who did naught but waste his days either drinking or through gambling or through some other vice.

Honestly that was what I was really, unshaven for years my beard like my mane was greyed and quite thick, accenting the dark teal of my unwashed coat quite nicely. My clothes were that of old thrown away rags from which my wings were kept beneath, designed to keep me warm at night instead of enhancing my looks through fashion.

I never really flew anymore, I used to a lot as the clouds were the only place I could really get any kind of rest but naturally I had over the years stopped using my wings as to keep aloft used too much of my strength and now they were very weak and tired as a result.

I did drink, though lately I had simply taken to quietly resting under the bridge and shunning my liquor. Besides the bridge was quite a nice place to forget about your woes and troubles of which I had many. I would have liked to maybe get a real job in the city but that would be too much and I didn't need the pain to be enhanced by anything.

I saw ponies that were dating, saw them kiss and hold hooves and whisper to each other, I saw fillies and colts all running and playing whilst parents walked and talked behind them, catching glances at me here and there but then I saw other things, worse things though luckily the bridge had few of those to offer, it was quite a safe place.

"Safety" I sighed as I leaned back against the bridge and tried to close my eyes and enjoy the sun, try and not feel the bitterness in my heart whenever I felt of the wielder who controlled it.

"Mom I want to feed the ducks" a young colt begged his Mother from a few feet away. He was quite a small little thing with a pale yellow coat, chirpy and by the looks of it he'd grow up to be a bit of a weed but still he was adamant that his Mother, a kindly looking brown mare with soft green eyes let him fulfil his want.

My smile dropped to a frown as I shut my eyes and felt it coming. I saw what would happen, her delivering the bread into his tiny hooves, him clasping it with joy that only one so young could feel, being at the age when everything one did was some form of grand magic that adults could never hope to touch again.

He would then scrunch up a piece of the bread with his hooves and rear up using the rail for balance in an attempt to throw it. That's when I saw what I always dreaded would happen. The rail was old and rusted it had never been properly maintained throughout the summers and winters and as a result the bolts had cracked and rusted away until it was flimsy.

Many stallions and mares had put their weight on that rickety bit of rail but by the divines it happened to be this young colts insignificant weight that was about to make it collapse. So he reared over it and it snapped, the steel bits of rail with intricate designs etched into them coming undone and falling into open air along with the colt.

He would cry out as the mesh of metal caused him to flip so he was under it instead of on top of it and suddenly he was in the water, scaring away the ducks and sinking under the metals weight, not hearing as his Mother screamed for help as he reached the bottom of the tiny, murky stream.

There was then the silence, his lungs had no air, they couldn't as the metal and he hitting the water had winded him badly and now he was inhaling water, horrible stuff which he tried to regurgitate only to swallow more of it, filling his lungs.

Everything was really quiet now and his world was slowly turning black, he began to pass out, scared and alone wanting his Mother. Ponies would hear her screams and eventually dive into the stream, fumbling and fondling in the dark until they found his tiny body and dragged it to the side.

A nearby nurse would attempt to revive the colt but ultimately fail, the Mother would scream in anguish and another nearby mother would console her as ponies looked on with sadness and as an ambulance arrived, a nearby Pegasus having gone for help a few minutes after the Mother had alerted everypony.

The little colt would be taken to the hospital and pronounced dead and life would go on, his school would pay tribute, his friends would move on and forget him after mourning, his family would mourn him and eventually move on as well but his Mother wouldn't, no she'd remember him forever and ever, she wasn't married at least not anymore.

Her husband had died of Pegasitus years ago all she had left of him was her little one who without would spurn her to drugs, end up on the streets a bit like me only come Winter not knowing better with neither food nor warmth all of her bits going on something to numb the pain would kill her and she too would be dead.

I opened my eyes and threw up a little in my mouth. That was a strong one, much stronger than any I had, had recently and what was worse was all the great detail it went into this time.

It was a long story but basically I had the terrible ability to predict the future, except the only futures I could predict were snippets of information, mostly bland and uninteresting. However by design whenever a catastrophe or a crisis as it were was about to occur I would see it the emotions emitted in these situations being very strong, the closer I was to the pony in question the more vivid my foresight was and so that was my curse as right now I was about to watch this foal die.

I began to move away, not wanting to witness too much of the grisly site when I shut my eyes and saw something else. A very rare alternate future that I only got a few times probably 1 out of 100 but I had no way of really documenting them into a statistic.

There was the colt, there was the rail but as the rail gave way another took his place, grabbing the young one and throwing him to safety as he himself tumbled into the waters and came trapped under the railing. He too would swallow the thick and murky stream water and he too would in all likeness die at the scene.

"It's not like I have anything better to do" I thought as I spat out the vomit in my mouth and turned to see the little colt begin to rear. I acted immediately, throwing myself towards the little colt as the rail came undone and he began to cry out.

I caught him just as he began to fall and with all my strength threw him away from the stream whilst I took his place, laws of equal exchange and all that mumbo jumbo coming into play as I became entangled in the rail and felt the wind get knocked out of me as I hit the water with a tremendous splash, my back erupting in pain.

I sank quickly but tried at least for a few seconds not to inhale any of the putrid water of the stream. It wasn't long for me to think about my life up until that point but I didn't really want to think, I had no time left to think about the things I had seen, done and not done and later regretted but I had enough time to wish the little colt a good life, to do it right unlike me.

"I'm ready" was the last thing I thought as I opened my muzzle to try and inhale some air, only to receive the overpowering stream water that flooded my lungs and caused me to retch and hack more into them.

I was naturally trying to get out, I mean who wouldn't it's the bodies automatic response to something like this, to attempt to save yourself from such a horrible fate but of course as my vision turned gradually to black my struggles became void and eventually I passed out, likely in a few minutes I'd be dead, even if I was dragged from my watery tomb my lungs were full of water and my brain would have stopped working for too long.

So black came and to be honest I felt nothing and so I was content with the blackness although I knew not what anything was or could think what anything was for an eternity I am nothing but black and black is nothing but eternity.

That's what I figured anyway but as always fate decided that I should get a curveball even if it would be my last and suddenly I felt life as a huge punch, or at least what felt like a punch aimed at my chest which shocked me awake and I jolted upright gasping for air, coughing water out of my lungs as I attempted to breathe.

My head and vision span as I saw ponies all around me, one pony took a picture with a camera, blinding me as I began to hear talking as some white pony rose to stand over me with what might have been a joyous look on her face, I couldn't tell. "He's alive!" she announced and the crowd cheered her and began to stamp their hooves.

I continued to cough as I tried to shakily stand, only to fall back down my white saviour holding my head with a hoof as she knelt down and murmured "Please rest, don't try and stand you were dead for a moment there" her warm almost motherly tone of voice soothing my mind.

I shivered and realised all my rags had gone, likely pulled from me to help me breathe and now as the sun became obscured by clouds I contemplated whether living was such a great thing and wished that I had a canteen of whisky on me as for this situation it would really help.

"W-what's the point" I murmured to myself as my hacking turned into wheezing. The white mare who had been obscured my my blurry vision came into view suddenly and with it the realisation and horror hit me that I had been saved by none other than her majesty Princess Celestia.

"No" I wheezed as I tried to pick myself up and push myself away from her "It can't be you" I coughed as the crowds applause roared in my ears. Her soft features and her vibrantly colourful wavy mane came into view as I tried to crawl away from her, all thoughts from before having been put aside at the horror of my situation.

She was confused I could tell but she was not about to let the confusion be known as her expression changed to that of worry and she announced to the crowd "This Stallion has performed a most noble deed, my guards and I were informed whilst spending the afternoon touring Canterlot of how he saved the young colt on the bridge, sacrificing himself in the blink of an eye and how medics might not reach him in time and so I quickly teleported to the scene to help this noble pony, as I'm sure any of you would. For his bravery he will be treated by the best doctors in the Royal Castle's Hospital Wing all with no expenses spared."

The crowd roared with furious applause as she said this, of course they did it was only natural since they had just witnessed their Princess save some hobo who had just saved some kid it was like some crappy trash fiction novel. I knew that it was all too good to be true though and feared for not my life but what they would do to me.

"She's playing a game, toying with me but I know that when I reach that castle I may very well end up strapped down to a table just like last time with the Doctors…" I stopped thinking about what had happened when I had last come before the Princess supposedly to receive help and focused on getting up, it had been so long since she'd seen me at least when I was normal, she was likely waiting until after the operations to inspect the final product.

I pushed her weakly aside and tried to get to the crowd still talking and clapping but she prevented me as her horn lit up and her magic held me in place like a rag doll and I suddenly felt very tired, sleepy even and knew that I was about to be put to sleep by magic.

I had really enjoyed the last few months to be honest, the park with the kids and the ponies head over hooves for each other. It reminded me of what I could never have sure but with my mind I imagined what it would be like. I didn't need to imagine what Celestia's Doctors would do to me as I already knew, being the experiment into telling the future and all was not a gift I was born with, oh no I was implanted with it and I was about to go back and this time I probably wouldn't be able to escape.

I closed my eyes as I tried to tell what my Future would be, naturally though these curses don't work like magic, you can't turn them off an on again they only tell you what you don't need to know and usually it's too late or you can do nothing. This time I had decided to act out against that grain only because of the chance of a different outcome…

My mistake

*Writers Note*

It's been a while since I've done anything, I never really stick to a project so I guess if you wanna stick with it you'll just have to see how far it goes.