Flight of The Avali: Season One

Several hours later:

The four returned from Einuli’s ship, the little avali smiling happily as Twilight greeted them. She couldn’t have been happier at the outcome, not only did he make Starlight as a friend, but Derpy joining them as well? That was a great thing, he definitely wouldn’t feel alone down here.

“Did you all have fun?” Twilight asked.

“It was a true learning experience…” Starlight sighed, smiling at Twilight.

“It was amazing! He had so, so much stuff on his ship!” Derpy nodded.

“He didn’t let me in the engine room…”

“You wanted to jam a cupcake into the reactor! How could I let you near anything else that important?” Einuli retorted.

“Pinkie… w-why exactly did you want to jam a cupcake into a reactor?” Twilight asked.

“She thought it’d give it a sugar high, making it…”

“Work faster!” Pinkie nodded.

“It’s a machine! Sugar does nothing to it!” Einuli groaned. “You would have just made a mess!”

“You don’t know until you try!” Pinkie giggled, now bouncing off.

“I’ll hopefully see you again soon!” Derpy waved at Einuli leaving the castle as well.

Einuli and Starlight both just rubbed their temples.

“Gods… she was absolutely insane… and I thought she was already bad down here.” Starlight shook her head.

“I’m going to be cleaning glitter out of everything for years to come, aren’t I?” Einuli grumbled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up to help get rid of any messes she made… I’ve grown… savy to her antics. And thankfully it’s easy to get rid of all the glitter.” Twilight assured. “And, Einuli?”

“Yeah?” He looked up at her.

“Shortly after you two left, Dash came by. She wanted to see you.” Twilight said.

“My, he goes from one of the dynamic duo to the other.” Starlight laughed.

Twilight grinned and shook her head, “She’s waiting at her house, it shouldn’t be too hard to find it.” She said.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find her.” Starlight said, “Just… look for a rainbow trail in the sky and you’ll find her.” She walked to Twilight, “Twi, can we talk about something?” She asked, glancing back to Einuli and giving him a small smile.

“Sure.” Twilight nodded, “Have fun Einuli.” She waved as the two mares left the raptor alone.

Einuli left after a few moments, walking back out into Ponyville. Though this time he was alone, and he felt that now.

It was later in the day now, and not many ponies were actually out at the moment, but enough of those who were watched Einuli with visible distrust.

Einuli was truly distraught, seeming visibly agitated and fearful now. He’d been alone for long periods of time before but this… this wasn’t just loneliness, he felt unwelcome here.

He tried to ignore the looks and quiet comments made at his expense as he looked skyward for a rainbow trail or any sign of Rainbow Dash. He was startled as the headstrong cyan pegasus swooped down and landed right in front of him, though she wasn’t facing him.

Rainbow Dash was glaring at each and every pony who was looking at Einuli. “Got something to say about my friend?” She said loudly.

Most ponies backed away from her challenge. The rest just instantly snapped their heads down, not to keen on angering her.

“That’s what I thought!” Dash grinned, turning to Einuli, “Hey.” She greeted.

“Hi.” Einuli said back, looking up at her.

“You’ve kept me waiting a long time, but, I can’t fault you. Must have been really fun being with Starlight, Pinkie, and Derpy.” She laughed, “Come on, let's walk and talk for a bit.”

“Alright.” Einuli followed beside her.

“So, what cool things have you done?” Dash asked, glancing to him. “Take down any galactic overlords?”

Einuli smiled, “Well, I’ve fought my fair share of battles. Space pirates… penal colonies. Avain’s hellbent on killing me… Florans, monsters… different things… I can tell you about one of the better battles I fought in.” He offered.

“I’d love to hear it.” Dash grinned.

“Well, this one took place on a penal colony…”

Several minutes later, just under Dash’s house:

Dash was listening to every detail, honestly enthralled.

“Wait… so there was an ancient temple complex under the prison?” Dash inquired.

“Yeah! It was absolutely amazing! We found an ancient sword in there, after it got pulled out of the pedestal the temple began to flood, since we were so deep underground we couldn’t teleport out, so we had to get out through the same way we came in… and oooh boy, when the ancient statues awoke were they pissed. There were lasers flying through the air, darts slamming into the wall, a flood of water coming up from the bottom of the cavern, and then angry giant statues attempting to crush us all… it was just an amazing experience. And to think, there’s more of those out there!” Einuli finished.

“Ooooh gods… you need to meet Daring Do, you two could really, really compare notes.” Dash gushed, now looking up at her house. “Hey, Einuli, are those wings just for show?” She asked, pointing to of course, his wings.

“No! I can fully fly.” Einuli huffed.

Dash just grinned widely, “Alright… alright.” She looked back down at him, “Think you can keep up?” Her wings spread out.

Einuli returned the grin, “Yeah, I think I can.” He said, taking off and flying a few feet off the ground.

“Great, wouldn’t want to be seen with somepony who thinks they’re slow.” She took off, shooting into the sky.

Einuli followed close behind her, though Dash kept back from her full speed, knowing full well he was all talk about his speed. The two ‘raced’ up to Dash’s house, tearing through the cloud floor which reformed behind them.

They landed side by side, smiling at each other. “Hey, not too bad.” She complimented, “For a newbie that is.” She joked, patting him on the back.

“Thanks!” He chirped.

“So, besides being a space adventurer, what else do you do?” She asked, now leading him to the couch so they could sit down.

“Um… medical stuff. Or just farm… before my friends decided to hole up permanently on my ship it was just… lonely up there.” Einuli closed his eyes and shivered.

“Wait… you didn’t have anypony else with you?” Dash asked curiously, scooting closer.

“Not… not for a long time.” Einuli shook his head.

“W-what happened to your other friends?” Dash asked.

“T-th-they were…” Einuli shook even more, now beginning to visibly cry. He seemed fully distraught.

Dash wrapped her wing around him, for anypony else it would have been a calming gesture, though Einuli curled up and hid his face completely.

Almost immediately after she heard sniffling and could feel him actively shaking. Dash hadn’t ever had something like this happen before, so in an act of further kindness, she pulled him up into her arms, wrapping both wings around him. Despite the warmth and comfort she offered, he only got more emotional. Now she heard soft and quick chirping coming from him, each sound was shaking and hurt her in ways she hadn’t felt before. She wanted to know what was wrong, she NEEDED to help him… and with his translator disabled, with him speaking a language she couldn’t understand… there was no way she could effectively help.

Dash tightened her grip on him, softly nuzzling the top of his head. In return he pressed tighter against her, trying hard to get as close as possible. The shaking and sobbing ball of fluff in her arms tugged hard at her heartstrings.

“Einuli.” Dash said, gently rubbing his head. “Hey… hey, calm down…” He only chirped in response, a quick and panicky pitch was scary for her. She wasn’t sure he had the will left to breathe. She just squeezed him, the quivering raptor soon stopped moving entirely. She was scared for a few moments, h-had he just… stopped? Was that even possible?

She immediately checked for any sign of breathing and found it within moments, he just seemed to have passed out. Dash closed her eyes and she lifted the surprisingly light creature up, carrying him swiftly up to her room so he could at least wake up somewhere more comfortable. Though, the moment she attempted to remove her wings he started to quake again. She laid down beside him, embracing him completely again. She’d wait as long as it took for him to wake up.

Several hours later:

Einuli awoke, and for a few moments he believed he was back with his pack. The feathers caressing his body reminded him so much of them that he pressed closer in, awaking Rainbow Dash.

“Hey…” Dash yawned, “Did you sleep well?” She asked.

He chirped quietly before he managed to switch his translator back on. “S-sorry… Yes. I-I did…” He said quietly.

“Good.” She smiled, nuzzling the raptor. “And, before you say anything, don’t worry about what happened. I’m here to help…”

Einuli curled up against her just silently resting there.

“I can’t really help you if I can’t understand what you’re saying all the time.” Dash said. “And that’s impossible to accomplish if you can speak a completely foreign language.”

“Sorry… i-if I get really stressed out my translator a-and other neural implants begin to turn off… I-it’s a glitch I can’t work out without removing them completely.” Einuli apologized.

“And that doesn’t help me understand you. If I can’t understand you all the time. I can’t really help when something is wrong, now can I?” Dash asked. “We need to change that, don’t we?”

Einuli was quiet.

“So, either you’re gonna fix that ‘translator’ of yours. Or you’re giving me one. I won’t stand not being able to talk to you all the time.” Dash stated.

Einuli remained quiet, lost deep in thought. “T-the augmentation process is painful… c-cripplingly so.” He began.

“I’ve gotten hurt for my friends before.” Dash said. “And I know I’ve been through worse.” She paused for a moment, “Besides you said you’re a doctor, right?”

“Yeah.” Einuli nodded.

“You’d take care of me during it, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course!”

“Then it’s settled. You’ll give me that translator! I trust you completely.” She squeezed him, causing his heart to literally flutter. He fully believed he was going to die in that moment, not out of shock, or injury, but just out of joy.

“O-okay! I’ll have to do a scan on your body, just to make sure you’re compatible… And um, it might bring up some other augmentations that I could perform… though those ones are entirely up to you.”

“We’ll see about those when we get to them.” Dash laughed, “For now, let’s just get those scans out of the way.”

“Actually… c-could we lay he for a bit longer? Y-your wings being around me… th-they remind me of home…” He mumbled.

Dash remained silent this time, just tightening her grip on him. The avali in her arms chirped happily and closed his eyes once again, this time both falling asleep in peace.