Like all pegasi born in Skyroost, I was taught to be an excellent flier from a young age. And while that was mostly true I never was very good, not the way other foals were. Like all of us raised in the remote mountain town I was raised in a common area with all the mothers that were alive caring for all the foals.
I should mention that Skyroost was a very small settlement close to griffin territory. When we were old enough, all colts were to train as warriors to protect the mountain village. I wasn’t large enough, strong enough, or a good enough of a flier to defend anything from a hungry griffin. As such, while I grew up and the other colts went to learn war, I was left behind.
The aesthetics and amenities of home weren’t much. It was a small dip near the top of a mountain with many spikes and spires upwards. This was where we all slept. It was open and high enough so a griffin couldn’t sneak up on us. We spent our day’s further down in a series of shallow caves. There too was an open courtyard, but it was only used to dart from cave to cave. This was closer to where they hunted. I lived here too; where the old and the young went about their lives. Further down, Colts learned war. I never knew where; that took the entirety of everyday.
The fillies, really young mares at this point, all stayed behind to learn a variety of domestic, historical, artistic, and scientific trades. I wasn’t interested in any of it. I was often staring wistfully out at the skies when the shriek of a griffin was heard. One day I was sick of learning to record the history of the village. I galloped out of the small hut to come face to chest with a large, bleeding, enraged griffin that had slipped through the chaos above.
Before I could even scream for help, or the griffin had a chance to slash my neck, a large black warrior came screaming out of the sky crashing full force into the beast. There was a sickening crack on impact and a few more until it tumbled off the edge. It didn't fly back up.
"Watch yourself little filly." The warrior placed his hoof on my head before taking off.
That was the last day I spent in Skyroost. The next morning I grabbed my saddlebags, and packed the few personal possessions I had. I wrote a small note and left. I may not have been a good flier, but I was fast as long as it was a straight line. Which for a long time it was, long enough to have any griffins go back to their roost. I didn't know where to go, the only place I had ever lived was where I had just left. I didn't even know where another town was.
I flew for as long as I could. After many hours I still hadn't seen anything but forest, mountains, plains, a swamp and an Island. No settlements of any size. Slowly I felt the energy drain from myself. Mile after mile, hour after hour, I flew until I could fly no more. I basically crashed into a small island just off the coast; I figured it was the safest place. If there was one thing griffins avoided it was bodies of water since they can’t fly well when wet.
I awoke to a sharp kick in my side. As I rolled over and jumped to face what was surely a starved griffin, I noticed the shining armor and vertical mane of a bright white pegasus stallion. I almost collapsed again, relieved I saw a pony and not a griffin.
"Are you ok?" the armored pegasus said, stepping back.
"I... no." I had never been particularly good at lying face to face. On the other hoof, I could get away with the most farfetched lies if the pony never saw me face to face.
"This is remote, where are you from?" The guard stated harshly.
"Skyroost." I said laying down again.
"Never heard of it, must be a nice place." He sounded disinterested.
"Yeah, I guess." I matched his tone.
"Fillydelphia is the closest place I know of.” He didn’t seem to like that much. “You don't look in good enough shape to make it anywhere else."
I muttered something and followed the armored stallion as he launched into the air towards this Fillydelphia. He was a good flier, good enough to be a guard in Skyroost I figured. “So where are you from?” I asked, wanting to pass the time in something other than silence.
“Canterlot.” He curtly replied.
“Oh...” I didn’t know anywhere besides home, so that did me no good. “What's it like there?”
“Busy.”
He really must not like being this far from home, and the sun was setting over the ocean, it ever so briefly flashed the most beautiful jade; then twilight set in. “So are we safe from griffins here?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? Because I can’t fight one now.” I thought for a bit coming to a simple conclusion. “Or ever.” I muttered. I thought I heard him mutter the same thing.
“Positive.”
The rest of the flight was in silence. Thankfully it wasn’t long. As the town crested over the hill, I saw it was dozens if not hundreds of times the size of Skyroost. It wasn’t caves with fabric for doors, it was buildings. It wasn’t dirt piles for gardens, it was actual fields expanding for longer than all of Skyroost. And trees, there were never any trees in the mountains, but here they were in the city. Everything was so different.
"Won't the buildings and trees prevent the guards from seeing a griffin?" I asked with worry.
"A griffin? I have never seen a griffin. Not even close to where I found you. I'd have to fly for another hour to get to even see the mountains where I heard an outlying group of griffins roosted." The guard said quickly.
"But..."
"Trust me colt," the armored guard said angrily "There are no griffins here."
I sighed deciding to trust the armored pegasus. I flew down to what was one of the many courtyards of Fillydelphia, and curled up like I had done at home. It was just like home, a bit larger, and a bit less rocky, but it would do. I curled my legs together and stretched my wings out. As I drifted off to sleep, I was again awoken with a kick to the flank.
"What in the name of the Royal Pony Sisters are you doing trying to sleep in public?" He asked with a sharp glare.
"I was trying to sleep, as you saw. Why kick me?"
"I don't know what backwoods hole you crawled out of but we have places we do and places we do not sleep. The public areas are not one of them."
"You don't sleep together? What if a...." The armored pegasus cut me off.
"If you mention another damn griffin I'll buck you so hard you'll drink hay for a month.” He snapped. “You must be damaged or something. See that building with the image of the sleeping pony, go there. Tell them you are covered for a week by the Royal Guard. And leave me alone." As he flew off I could hear bits of complaints about my nature.
The building the Guard had motioned to depicted a beautiful mare curled up very cutely on a small bed. The color had faded and the wood was worn on all of the building except the door. The windows showed a teal unicorn in a starry robe walking back stage. There were a bunch of cheers from mare and stallion alike. This didn’t seem so bad; it wasn’t home but again, it would do.
Upon attempting to enter the establishment I was immediately trampled by the same unicorn. She seemed to be fleeing the building. As she ran over me I heard a snap, and felt my head impact the ground. I quickly felt less and less of anything.
Unlike the previous two times I awoke, it was calm, warm, and fluffy. I looked about panicked at my unfamiliar surroundings. I tried to move my wings to roll over to walk out and was greeted with a sharp pain. I screamed at the movement. And a white coated filly with a bright red mane galloped in.
"Are you ok?" she asked very worried.
"Where am I? Why do my wings hurt?" I asked.
"Oh. You don't remember? Oh dear."
"Don't remember what?"
"Last night really late you walked into the Calm Mare, and a performer at the end of her show barreled over you..." Her voice trailed off
"So I've been tackled by larger stallions than her."
"I'm afraid she is stronger and heavier than she looks. She broke one of your wings."
"Broke... my wing?" Many images and memories flowed through my mind. All bad. In Skyroost when a pegasus broke his or her wing, if they weren’t in a cave, they were likely already being attacked. I started to panic.
“Sir please calm down, you’ll only hurt your wing more.” The young mare said.
I rolled over to try and escape only to find which wing was broken. I again screamed at the pain I was causing myself. Why I hadn’t thought to just run out the door... Well I’m not the most clever pony ever alright. It was my left wing; she had broken my left wing.
“Please, I worked hard on bandaging it up;” The nurse mare said. “I don't want it to be ruined.”
She was nice, if young and not a pegasus pony. In fact, she was the first non-pegasus I had seen personally... well ever. Earth ponies and unicorns didn’t live in Skyroost, so they weren’t born there either. Cheers always said that only if a different pony came could we have non-pegasus. But we lived so high up that no pony would come. Not to mention the griffins, no pony could even make it up unless they could fly.
Cheers was an old pony, one of the few I would miss. He used to be a guard until he was attacked by a griffin whose mate he had crippled. She gave Cheers a beating when he was really young, and took his leg, and part of his wing as her prize. Ever since then, Cheers had been a chef. He wasn’t bad at it, but he was always able to make any pony feel better about themselves. He had this stone leg the villagers had carved out for him, the wing they couldn’t do anything for.
“I feel like Cheers...” I said solemnly.
“What? what's a cheers?”
“He’s an old friend; he got in an accident, and his wing broke off.” I admitted.
“Why didn’t a unicorn just fix it?”
“There are no unicorns where I’m from.” I was recalling the history lessons I had from my youth.
“What? Why not?”
“I uhhh I...” I really didn’t want to scare the mare in front of me with the horror stories from Skyroost. “I... there just aren’t any.”
I couldn't tell the mare the true reason. In the past Skyroost had been home to all kinds of ponies. Even a few alicorn before they disappeared. When the griffins started to expand their territory it was sudden and violent. At least from our perspective. There were pacifist griffins but they were rare and often solitary. There were no wars fought against the griffins, because any territory they took was far beyond any civilized land.
The history I knew illustrated that while griffins are an honorable and regal species, they considered themselves the only creatures, save dragons, deserving of flight. There were many speculations that this was only because a full grown dragon could not only eat a full grown griffin in one bite, but that nothing a griffin could do could damage the scales of a dragon. However mostly it was the griffins social structure and customs that really set them apart from ponies. They viewed territory and honor above all else, and they disliked anypony or anything that did not share their views. Those were the civilized griffins.
There were others. They did not fit into all the intricacies that were dictated by social rules. They were cast out in an excessive number. They were also not allowed to re-enter ‘true’ griffin society. Griffin numbers were small as they mated for life and gestation took years. Naturally each exiled griffin was a truly undesirable member of society. Exiles being permanent and the griffins high value on honor, they often turned violent. Those were the griffins that hunted near Skyroost.
“Why not?” she pressed.
“Griffins.” I said looking back at my wing. I was thinking of Cheers again. Even after thirty years every time he heard the scream of a diving griffin he tensed up. I felt like crying. I know I was being dramatic and that a good unicorn doctor could heal my wing in no time but... I couldn't help but being fearful. I couldn’t help but think there might not be one close enough.
“Ok...” her voice seemed to trail off again. Maybe I just wasn’t listening.
She stood up with a smile on her face and a fire in her eyes. She walked out of the room leaving me wondering what was going on. She walked back in followed by a white unicorn. He was wearing a worn white coat much like the young mare.
“Thank you Miss Redheart.” He said with a smile, as he turned to me. “So Mr.” He looked at the sheet he was levitating, then back up to me. “You don’t have a name...”
“Ink Stream. Who are you?” I said hopefully.
“Oh me? My name is Longevity.” He said in a way that implied I should know who he is.
“Ok... can you fix my wing? I don't like not being able to fly.” I set my head down near the end of the padded bench I was laying on. It was obvious this town, what was it Fillydelphia, rarely had injuries. I was laying on what appeared to be a wooden bench covered with a blanket or two, under what looked like a rather large water screen that was thicker and opaque.
“Of course I can. But it’s a pretty bad break.” He said focusing on my now uncovered wing. Wait when did that come off? His magic felt like a gentle breeze, it was nice, but it had a force behind it that the pressure I was feeling couldn’t portray. “This is going to hurt.”
I once again screamed at the sharp pain in my wing. He had pulled my wing apart at the break and was slowly realigning it. I had seen this happen before, well not by a unicorn; I had seen pegasi hold a warrior down and slowly do something similar to this. Often it would take multiple tries. I never realized how bad it must have hurt. When he had finished applying his magic to my wing, the pain was nearly gone.
“Redheart is a perfectly good nurse pony, there isn’t anything about pony physiology she doesn’t know and her bedside manner is impeccable, but she’ll never be a doctor.” He seemed very sad as he said this. “If she only was a unicorn she would outclass even myself.” Longevity smiled at that. He had moved behind me to the back of the makeshift care center. “Now, I myself am not in Fillydelyhia for very long, in fact I leave for Canterlot in a few hours, but any unicorn can do this with Redheart’s help.”
He passed back into my vision levitating three small needles filled with a pale yellow liquid. “What are those?” I asked more curious than anything.
“Oh these, these are the last three concoctions that should prevent your wing from breaking again.” He simply stated. “I already gave you one today, I guess you must be really susceptible to magic.”
“You put that in me? How? Why can’t I feel it? Where is it?” I asked not wanting any foreign materials in my wing. I didn’t much like this doctor pony. I was stretching my neck too see if there was anything different about my wing.
“You must never have been to a clinic recently.” He placed the needles on the table and turned back to me. “It’s a liquid that is injected into a pony that stops pain from happening in a small area for a lot longer than any normal unicorn could.” He kicked my fore leg lightly.
“Why would you do that?” I asked glaring at him.
He kicked my side a bit harder, and I felt noting. Just a bit of pressure in my side but no pain. “Just demonstrating, see your wing without this would still be in a fair amount of pain. You’ll need about one of these everyday. I would really suggest using all three, but if you feel better, I won't be able to stop you.”
“Well thank you Longevity. Can I go now?” I looked at my saddle bags and sighed. That was not going to be an easy task.
“Two things. Yes you can go, but not without thanking my daughter. I’ll help you get your bags on without damaging your wing.” He must have either followed my eyes or anticipated my struggle.
“Your daughter?” I asked obliviously.
“Miss Redheart.” He said as if I should know, again.
“Oh... right.” I felt rather stupid there had only been two ponies I had seen since I had woken up here. “Can I ask a personal question?” As soon as I asked that a smile grew on his face.
“Of course you can Mr. Stream.”
“Ink will be fine.” I said annoyed, I didn’t like ponies calling me by my second name. It reminded me of my early childhood, before the other colts went off to learn to fight. “Are you famous? Because your tone just now...”
“Yes. I am. My daughters are known to anypony that has traveled to multiple towns. I’m a royal traveling doctor hired by Royal Princess Luna herself. I am dispatched to heal only the most pressing of injuries or illnesses all across Equestria.” As Longevity Redheart was monologuing he had reared on his back legs and placed one hoof on the table, and one over his heart looking up to what would be the sky with his eyes closed. “My wife rest her soul died in foal birth to my many daughters.” Saying that he stepped down and turned away from me. “They all had a talent for healing and care. And now they live all across Equestria healing and caring for sick ponies from Hoofington to Cloudsdale.”
I saw a tear fall from his eye before he magicked his coat to wipe his face. He trotted to the flap separating me from the world; and I could almost feel the sadness radiating from him. It was the same feeling whenever a guard was lost in Skyroost. Except there we all felt it because we were all family. “Excuse me Ink, I must be off.” He said as he walked out.
“I’m sorry...” I said, but there was no response. I was too afraid to move my wing or to get up and look for anypony to help me. “Bugger.” I laid my head back down. I was getting stiff and sore and for all I know, I had been laying like this all night.
I wanted to get out and see the area, hopefully find something to do for work. I hadn’t had the foresight to bring any bits, and I wasn’t naive enough to think the entirety of Eqestria ran like my tiny home. We didn’t use them in Skyroost, but every now and then we needed something from a trader who came by, he only took bits. It had been about a decade, but he was the only pony I knew.