She Fell From Grace

V

Pegasus ended up taking the young boy back to her 'camp' with her, and later that same night, after he had fallen asleep, she stood quietly on the sand, staring up once again at the foggy sky in silence. All of the anger that she had once felt fuming inside of her had seemingly evaporated into thin air, it seemed.

    She bowed her head to look down at the golden cuffs that still remained around her ankles. She didn't quite understand why the cuffs remained while the chains had disappeared. Maybe it was some sort of malfunction in Cadence's weird life lesson? She flicked her tail and stamped her front leg on the sand, watching as the tiny particles flew into the water looming in front of her. Her ears pressed back against her head as she looked back up towards the closed sky. She remained still like that for a moment before she suddenly spotted a tiny figure flying through the fog.

              At first, she had thought the events of the day had taken quite a toll on her before she realized that the figure was actually a person, and one that was all too familiar.

              "Hermes!" She whinnied with glee. "I'm down here!"

              His eyes lit up when he saw the one-winged horse as his sandals quickly lowered him to the island. The second that his feet touched the sand, he was bombarded with a hug by Pegasus. She rested her head over his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her neck.

              "Pegasus! I'm so glad you're alright!" He laughed. "As soon as I got away from Zeus I had to get down here as soon as I could, but I needed to see Asclepius before I came."

              They both stepped away for a moment to look back up in the sky just in time to see Asclepius himself as he fell through the sky only to land gracefully on his feet. He took a deep breath as he walked over to inspect Pegasus's wing.

              "My dear, Pegasus," he greeted. "How on earth did you expect to get home with a wing in a condition quite as horrible as this?" Pegasus looked over at Hermes who offered her a smile.

              She returned the gesture as she replied. "I guess I didn't think it through. Can you fix it?"

              Asclepius tilted back his head to let out a bubble of laughter. "Dear, of course I can!"

              Within a few short minutes, her wing was reverted back to its original state, the strong, beautiful white wing that evidently matched the other. She let out a pleased whinny as she danced around, leaping up into the air and soaring through the trees, waking up the young boy that she had rescued.

              "Come on, young one!" She cheered. "Help has come to rescue us!" The two of them came back to the beach and took off from the dreaded island. Hermes held on to the young boy while Asclepius boarded Pegasus's back.

              And as Pegasus stretched her long, beautiful wings, she hardly even took notice when the golden cuffs turned a rusted sienna and fell off into the water below.

              Some people believe that Cadence was a fraud, like Pegasus had assumed, and had put the chains on her while she was sleeping. But others firmly believe that it was Pegasus, who knew deep down that was she was doing was wrong and her subconscious invented those chains to stop her.

              But, sometimes heroes fall. And all that they need to do is learn to pick themselves back up again, dust themselves off, and prove their worth to those who refuse to believe in them.

              And that's the true magic. Not glowing tears, magic healers, or golden cuffs. The true magic lies deep down inside of all of us.

              The only thing we have to do is believe in it.

THE END.