-Chapter X- The Power Keeper
-Canterlot, Equestria
-16th of March, 1008 A.D.
-4:46 P.M.
-Sapphire
I looked about frantically, my heart in a frenzy at the news that I may have just killed some random stallion that probably wasn't even worth my time at all. I looked over Dusk Shine's shoulder as she helped me up from the ground to see a body lying on the ground before poor Flower Bud. I couldn't see any details of her expression, nor anything else because my vision was unfocused, and I was still considerably dazed from the incident that I still didn't know what had happened. Obviously the limp body on the ground was Rocket Science, I could tell from the yellow that made up the colour of his body and the red that was his mane. I staggered as I struggled to get back to my hooves, and nearly fell back down, but withstood the spinning world and again gained control of my senses.
I drew a heavy breath as I clumsily made my way to Rocket Science, all the while Flower Bud fearfully backing away from us. I gently tapped him on the shoulder with my hoof, hoping, rather than expecting, for a response. After a moment of silence and my heart practically forcing me to stop breathing, he grunted and moaned. I let out the building up air in my lungs. I looked up at Flower Bud, "What...what happened...?" I asked with honest concern. She looked about frantically and stopped at me without word, her eyes filled with an endless sea of fear.
"That...that was..." Faith said quietly. I quickly turned to her.
"What happened?"
"I haven't..." Faith started.
"It was the Keeper's Spirit, according to lore." Starswirl said as he quietly trotted towards us in his usual slow gait.
"The what?"
"The Keeper's Spirit." Celestia repeated sternly as she flew in overhead, landing gracefully on the ground. She had a different feeling about her, she wasn't her calm, collected self, she was...angry.
"I'll tend to the stallion." Starswirl said when he saw Rocket Science behind me. Then I was met by Celestia, angrily looming over me.
"Princess Celestia I...I don't-"
"Sapphire, I thought you would be able to stay here in Canterlot without trouble, but I see now that I was wrong. I don't know what this stallion may have done to you to force your hoof in such a way as this, but I am sure that this..." she waved a hoof in the air, indicating the scene, "was more than uncalled for. When I am up in my tower the last thing I wish to see is my protege behaving in this way."
I began to feel tears welling up in my eyes as she continued to look down on me. Despite my quivering lips and the sadness beginning to make my words sound choked up, I desperately tried to defend myself, or at least apologize for what had happened. "Princess, I-"
"I thought you would be grown enough and matured enough to at least contain the Keeper's Spirit. I see now that I was wrong on that account as well." She shook her head in disappointment. "Perhaps it'd be for the best if you did stay in the Crystal Empire after all." She began to turn away.
"For now he is unconscious, but I'm unable to tell if he is concussed." Starswirl called to Celestia from behind me. I lowered my head in shame, attempting to hide my tears.
Dusk Shine now tried to defend me, "Princess Celestia it wasn't her fault, he-"
"I want nothing of it, Dusk Shine. You and Faith accompany Sapphire back to the castle. I now have to care for this stallion here." Celestia demanded. She trotted over to Rocket Science, then quietly whispered to Starswirl something that was nearly, yet not quite, inaudible, "I was almost positive that she would be ready."
"Do you think her interest in magic may have had something to do with it?" Starswirl whispered back.
I didn't even care to wait for them, I was already off. Away from them, away from Head Start, away from Rocket Science, and most importantly, away from Celestia. I wasn't fazed by the clouding of my vision as tears continued to run down my face, then blown away by the wind. I ran as fast as I could without attracting too much attention from the residents of Canterlot as they went about their business. They think I only showed interest in magic as a weapon? I thought. It was that day, the very same day I had met my friends, that I realized that I was not normal. I didn't know what I was. A monster? A weapon? …A demon?
I burst through the doors into the castle's main hall, sped up the stairs and into the torchlit halls, passing Princess Luna, who wore a concerned expression. "Sapphire...?" she called as I continued to gallop, disappearing around the corner.
I ran into my room and leaped into my bed, shutting the door with my magic as I silently held my pillow to my face, hiding it from the world, and hiding the world from it. I knew not how long I held that position, pondering why or how I had acted as violently as I did, until my mind was practically lost within an entirely new world of its own. I must've cried myself to sleep, because I remember eventually being without thought and abruptly being brought back into realization with Celestia's voice softly saying my name. I only continued to hold the position with my face buried away from her in shame, not wanting to even be acknowledged by my own name in fear of disgracing that, too.
"Sapphire, please..." she said in such a way I hadn't heard in what felt like a lifetime.
"I'm sorry." I said, removing the pillow from my mouth so that it wasn't muffled. "I don't know what happened...I just..."
"It's all right, Sapphire." I heard her hoofsteps come closer to where I was, and the light touch of her hoof. I could tell she wasn't wearing her hoof covers of gold again. She hated those, she hated how they made her seem above the other Equestrians. A symbol of rule. She drew a heavy sigh, "Head Start told me what happened. Everything." I began crying again, this time because of the memories his words forced back. "And I was of no help. I just...I just thought that you had attacked some random stranger who just happened to be there." She laughed lightly beneath her breath. "Although I don't typically promote violence, I must say he almost deserved the punishment you gave him."
The tears and sobbing ceased, and I unsteadily began to breathe again, and laughed between breaths. "I just don't know what happened...one moment I was fine and then...something took hold of me..."
"This is the Keeper's Spirit." she said quietly.
"Does every Equestrian have this?" I asked, lifting my head from the pillow.
"No. Only you. This is the ability of the Power Keeper."
"Power Keeper?" I asked.
She smiled, then nodded. "The Power Keeper, according to lore, is a being of light, and a symbol of hope for the world, doing countless things throughout history that has shaped the world into what it is today."
"You mean...all the kingdoms?" She nodded as I sat up. "Why me?"
"Isn't that always the question?" she replied with a smile. She lifted me from the bed and set me back down on the floor. "Come with me." she said simply, and led me out of the room. Where she led me, wasn't even the greatest part. When she stopped, she pointed up to a hatch in the ceiling, which I opened. Light shone upon me from the setting sun as I climbed up the set of stairs that led to the very top of the castle, giving me a vantage point of all of Equestria, it seemed. There was a telescope before me, looking across the yellow sky into infinity, and the wind whipped and whirled about, drying my tear-stained eyes as all was laid out in my view, with a single place.
"This is amazing..." I said, much more than awestricken. "What is this?"
"This is where I guard the day." Celestia said. "Your responsibility, however, far extends from mine." She followed me up the stairs to join me on her perch. "I may guard the time of the sun, but you watch over the light itself."
"The Power Keeper..." I blankly repeated to myself again as I watched the sunset once again. I blinked once or twice, again gaining a sense of reality and examined the city beneath me. It wasn't long before I saw Cornflower's farm, and the Bread Basket, and Shining Star's mane salon. It was that moment when clarity struck, and I knew my destiny. I was to be in Canterlot after all. I peered down over the city that I now would begin to call "home", looking over the layout that I had found maze-like not too long before, and, to my surprise, finding Dusk Shine, Flower Bud, White Lightning, Vanilla Cream, Cornflower, Shining Star...and Head Start. However, Faith was nowhere to be found.
"She's in the Throne Room with Luna." Celestia said. I turned to her. "Waiting for you." I smiled at her she at me, and we walked back down from the post together, and went back down to regroup with Faith.
"You really mean it? We're staying?" Faith asked enthusiastically when Celestia and I made it back.
"Yes, and from what it looks like to me, this will be a completely new chapter in our lives." I looked at Celestia, and then at Luna, who both shared in my happiness. I left the room to join the others outside, awaiting me patiently, and when the doors opened before me, I was met by them, and I gladly trotted to them with Faith beside me, just as happy as I was to tell them all my choice. They were all informed of my case, save for me being the Power Keeper, and all agreed with Celestia that Rocket Science did deserve his punishment, which also gained me Lightning's respect, apparently. I now saw clearly what my life was going to be from that point on, and I knew this was quite possibly the most important decision of my entire life...and I had made the right decision.