Winter rolled over, the rough sheet of her bunk grating against her feathers. She listened to the sound of slow, even breathing of sleeping ponies. She knew she couldn’t be the only one awake, but the one other pony she would’ve talked to was asleep for sure, judging by the snoring coming from the top of their shared bunk bed.
She sighed, closing her eyes and trying to relax. After all, it wasn’t like they were going to sleep much the next night. The next day was Hearth’s Warming Eve, and after that, Hearth’s Warming Day. This would have been a source of excitement for most ponies, but not for her. After all, she wasn’t going to be able to get her best friends any presents in time. Actually, she wasn’t sure that they expected a present from her, but she felt she needed to give them one anyway. Even just a card. Even just a couple of bits.
Shifting her wings, she decided that they wouldn’t care. Sure, only one of her three friends knew that she was in the orphanage, but only because said friend was snoring away on the top bunk. It was their secret. Their own shame. After all, their parents had abandoned them for a reason, right? It couldn’t have been good.
“Stop tapping, Winter, we’re trying to sleep,” came the aggravated voice of another resident. Winter hadn’t realized she had been tapping, but it hardly came as a surprise to her. She was used to being told to stop tapping, because she was always tapping. She glanced out the window, the moon seeming to watch her. She then rolled back over, closing her eyes and regulating her breathing. She was soon sleeping like the rest of them, her worries slipping away into the night.
She awoke to a hoof gently shaking her, an excited voice, the sound of motion. She rubbed her eye with a hoof, making sure that part of her face was hidden in her hair. It wouldn’t do to have it reveal what was underneath, now would it?
“Come on, Winter, wake up!” She grinned. She knew that voice. “Do you know what day it is?”
“Hmm…” she replied, thinking. “Thursday?”
The orange mare in front of her groaned in frustration. “No, it’s Hearth’s Warming Eve!” She began tugging on Winter’s hoof, trying to pull her out of bed and, being a much stronger pegasus, succeeding.
“W-woah, hey! Scootaloo, stop that, I’m fall-EEP!” The rest of her her sentence was torn away as she tumbled from the bed flapping her wings frantically as she tried to right herself. Scootaloo, meanwhile, was rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically.
“Oh, man, you should’ve seen your face!” She broke off again, leaving Winter to roll an eye and make her bed. Scootaloo wiped a tear from her eye, sniggering. “It’s not even two feet, why’d you freak out like that, anyway?”
Winter huffed. “Well, I like to think of myself as a prepared pony. Speaking of which, we need to go get some food from the mess hall. Knowing you, you’ll make us late, meaning we’ll have to skip breakfast. I don’t want to deal with your complaints all day.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said, drawing out the word. “I guess you’re right.” She turned and started trotting towards the door.
Winter quickly caught up, knowing that she would be left behind if she didn’t. They made their way into the small cafeteria, ignoring the burnt waffles and heading straight for the fruits. They each grabbed an apple, scarfing them down in a few bites, and headed out the door. Upon heading outside, Scootaloo began stretching her wings as they walked, preparing for flight.
“Hey, I wonder why RD wants to see me later? She told me it’s super duper important, but I don’t know what she could possibly need to say!” She turned around and began walking backwards, hopping around and stretching her legs.
Winter shrugged. “It’s probably an early Hearth’s Warming present or something,” she replied, already knowing what it was. Rainbow Dash had gotten Scootaloo a backstage pass of sorts for the evening’s holiday Wonderbolts show. She grinned, knowing how much her friend would flip out if she heard now. It would be the only thing she talked about.
“Well, I’ve gotta get my wings warmed up,” she said. “See you at school?”
“Sure thing, Loo.” Winter grinned when Scootaloo blushed in frustration. It was an embarrassing nickname that was hated with a passion by its owner. Watching her friend fly away, she sighed. She knew that Scootaloo could easily give her flying lessons now, knowing how far she’d come since they’d first met, but still…
She shuddered, completely lost in thought. She walked through the town square, passing by ponies going about their mornings. They were all talking to each other, and if Scootaloo had been with her, they would have offered greetings, but she wasn’t that noticeable by herself. That, or she wasn’t approachable. She wasn’t quite sure on that one.
Lost in her musings, she didn’t hear the shouts of warning, the ponies running and jumping out of the way. If she was paying attention, she would’ve seen a light blue pegasus careening towards her, yelling to get out of the way. Looking up at the last second, she saw just enough to see Soarin crashing into her, sending them both sprawling. She rolled backwards several times, her head cracked into the base of the fountain, and everything blacked out.
~beep~ ~beep~ ~beep~ ~beep~
She wished someone would turn off the alarm. It was becoming quite bothersome. She scrunched her eyes shut, pain coursing through her head. God, this was one massive headache. She grinned, realizing she had said God instead of Celestia or Luna again. Scootaloo would just shake her head in defeat, she thought.
~beep~ ~beep~ ~beep~ ~beep~
She sighed, then blinked rapidly to adjust her eye to however light it was. She sat upright, the crisp hospital sheets crumpling under her. She looked around, seeing that she was alone in her room. She tried to remember why she was here, but she didn’t recall any memories or being taken here. Her heartbeat quickened, the beeping speeding up with it as the monitor spiked.
A nurse walked in, smiling as she saw her patient awake. “And how are you feeling, Ms. Gale?” Her smile grew a bit more forced, a small weight settling in her heart as Winter hid behind her mane, peeking out with a golden eye as she brushed her mane into her face with her hooves. Nurse Redheart had seen many a gruesome wound in her time, but never one like the filly was hiding now.
“U-um,” Winter said, shrinking back on her bed. “whyamIhere,” she mumbled. Hundreds of thoughts were racing through her head, ranging from an asylum to a dream. She was a creative pony.
Nurse Redheart, noting the fearful expression on the filly’s face, smiled comfortingly. “What was that, dear?” She came to a halt beside the cot, sitting down and placing the clipboard on the bedside table.
Winter took a shuddering breath. Oh, how she loathed to talk to grown ponies! “Why a-am I here,” she burst out, as if she had been holding her breath. She sank into her pillow, trying to sink away from the nurse’s worried gaze.
“Do you not remember?” Winter shook her head, and the nurse sighed. “You were walking down the street when a pegasus lost control of his flight and ran you over,” she said. “You rolled backwards and cracked your head against the fountain, and suffered a concussion. When you were brought here, your wounds…” Redheart trailed away, unsure how to continue. “Ahem. Anyway, Scootaloo has been here for hours. She only just left, but I’m sure she’ll be back anytime now.”
Winter nodded, not looking at the nurse. “Okay,” she said. “Do… Do you know who it was?” Seeing Redheart’s confused expression, she elaborated. “The one that ran into me. Who was it?”
The nurse looked away, shuffling her hooves. “It was Soarin, the Wonderbolt.”
Winter grinned a bit. “Yeah, I know who he is. I am friends with Scootaloo, you know.” Upon saying this, they heard a knock on the door, then the orange mare walked in. “Speak of the devil, and she shall appear,” Winter laughed. Scootaloo’s eyes widened, and she rushed over to the bed.
“Ohmygosh, you’re awake!” Scootaloo hugged her friend, tearing up a bit. “I was so worried! They called me out of class because they knew we were close, and I came as fast as I could. I had to leave with Dash for a little bit but I wanted to be here when you woke up, and-”
“Scootaloo!”
She looked up, realizing she had been crying. In front of a nurse, no less. Her face quickly turned cherry red, and she buried her face in the blankets again, groaning in embarrassment. Winter laughed again, and Scootaloo brought her head up. The nurse, seeing that Winter was in good hooves, took her leave, letting the two discuss the holiday.
“So, what did Rainbow Dash want?” Scootaloo was close to Dash, and was able to call her such with familiarity. Winter, however, still felt obligated to use her full name.
Scootaloo perked up, immediately beginning to smile. “Oh, it’s nothing much, she just got me the best present ever!” She squealed and jumped around the room, while describing the gift. “She got two VIP tickets to the Wonderbolts show tonight! We’re gonna go together and meet them and get autographs and it’s gonna be amazing!” She stopped, catching her breath and smiling.
Winter smirked. “It certainly sounds like you have your evening booked,” she said. “I’m glad you like it. She told me what she was getting you, and actually seemed scared you wouldn’t like it. As if there was any doubt, of course.”
Scootaloo stopped, realizing something important. “Um… what are you going to do tonight? I don’t wanna leave you all alone with the hospital food…”
Winter’s ears drooped a bit, barely enough to notice. “Oh, I have plans,” she said with a sinister smile.
“Like…?”
“I’m going to guilt trip the pony who knocked me out.”
Author's Note
WELP
I DID ANOTHER
I may or may not redo "A Fragment of Harmony" I know I could do a lot better for that story
Working on Chapter 2 as we speak
Enjoy!
Everything was set up perfectly. Scootaloo was astonished that her friend was going to go through with this, but didn’t question her judgement. She had just left to go to the Wonderbolts show. Soarin came in as she walked out, and she looked at him curiously but didn’t think much of it.
Winter was waiting in her room, knowing that the show would start in about an hour and that she had only a bit of time to pull off her scheme. She heard voices outside her door, and she realized that Soarin was talking to an employee outside, asking if he could come in. The door opened, and he stepped into the room.
She couldn’t see him, as she was looking out the window on her left, but she could hear him. He shuffled awkwardly in the doorway, and she grinned. She knew he couldn’t see her. “You might as well come in,” she said. Soarin jumped, then walked in and closed the door.
“Um… hi,” he said. He was clearly very nervous. He could see the bandage wrapped around her head, and didn’t know how bad exactly the injury had been. He took a deep breath, and began to apologize. “I know you’re probably mad at me, which I could understand, but you have to know that it was an accident. You see, I ran into a really dense cloud earlier, and it twisted some of my feathers out of place, and I didn’t know until I started flying again. I-”
“So you lost control and landed on me, yes?” She was still looking out the window, keeping up the air of being angry at him. She wasn’t angry, not really. She didn’t care that he had injured her, she just cared that she wouldn’t be at home in the morning. She could live with that, though. She just needed to pull off her plan.
Soarin, surprised that she would even talk to him after what he did, stopped. “Yeah… Anyway, I’m sorry. I know that you’ll have to stay overnight here, and if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, just tell me.” He was, in truth, feeling quite guilty. He was keeping this filly away from home on Hearth’s Warming, and that was almost unforgivable in his mind.
Winter finally turned to look at him, letting him see how the bandage wrapped around her head. She let him see how it covered her eye, even though the fountain wasn’t the cause of that particular injury. She knew it was probably overkill, but every little bit counted.
Soarin’s eyes widened as he saw how dark the bandage over her eye was. “Did I do that?” To be honest, the poor stallion was horrified. He had no idea how bad a head wound could be.
Winter decided to take mercy on him. “No,” she said. “This is quite old. It just… reopened.” She smirked. It was always open.
Soarin visibly drooped in relief. “Oh, okay,” he said. “That’s good.” Then he realized what he said, and tried to recover. “I mean, it’s not good, but I didn’t do it, and-“
Winter ignored his sputtering. He was freaking out, and she needed to use that. She gathered her thoughts, trying to form a good request, then it hit her. She knew exactly what to ask for. “Soarin!”
He stopped abruptly, unaware that he had been going on and on. “Um… yes?”
Winter turned her head, looking away from him again. “I think… I think I know something you can do to make it up.” She outlined her request to him, and he nodded.
“I think I can make that happen.”
Winter woke up to a familiar pony bouncing on the foot of her bed. She smiled, knowing that she had just gotten back from the show. “Hello, Loo.”
“Nope, not even the Name can make me mad right now,” she replied. She stopped bouncing and just sat on the bed, eagerly describing the show. “Oh man, you should’ve seen it! They were all spying through the air, diving underwater and shooting back out and splashing everypony and then they made an ice sculpture and they went up in the sky-“ she paused to breathe, then continued. “They did the buccaneer blitz which they totally stole from Dash, and-“
“Scootaloo,” Winter exclaimed. “I know you loved the show, but please!” She was laughing, though, because it was great to see her friend so happy. She leaned back into her pillow, feeling the rounded edge of the gift she had gotten for Scootaloo. “It’s truly a wonderful gift that Rainbow Dash gave you, and I’m glad you had fun. However, you haven’t even let me give you my gift!” She paused to let that sink in.
Scootaloo immediately stopped grinning. “Winter… you know you didn’t have to get me anything, right?”
Winter nodded. “Of course I didn’t. I did because I wanted to.” Scootaloo opened her mouth to say something, but Winter cut her off. “Before you ask if I spent any bits on it, the answer is no. It’s not like we have any money to spare.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Winter waited for her friend to grow impatient, and Scootaloo waited for her to bring the gift out. Finally, she could stand it no longer. “Well? What’d you get me?”
Winter blinked. “What, the present?” She grinned evilly. “Well… I suppose I could give it to you now. I mean, I’m technically not supposed to give it to you until tomorrow, but I suppose I could make an exception…” She let the sentence hang and waited for a reaction.
“Ple-ease Winter!” Scootaloo leaned forward on the bed, as if on the edge of a seat. In a way, she was.
Winter pretended to think about it. “Oh, alright.” She reached behind her pillow and pulled out a haphazardly wrapped present. “Here you go.” It was an object that showed quite obviously what it was when you knew, but it just looked like a strange lopsided lump to anyone else.
Scootaloo looked at it quizzically, but didn’t question it. She eagerly tore open the package, and the object inside made her squeal in delight. “Winter, these are awesome,” she exclaimed as she held up a pair of flying goggles, exactly like the ones the Wonderbolts use.
Winter smiled. “Look in the strap,” she said. She knew that her friend would absolutely love this.
Scootaloo looked closer, and her eyes widened as she saw the inscription. “WHAT!?” Winter jumped, Scootaloo’s cry of astonishment being much louder than she anticipated. “How did you get your hooves on Soarin’s flight goggles!?” She stared at the goggles in her hooves with a new reverence.
“Oh, I pulled a few strings,” Winter said nonchalantly, waving a hoof in dismissal. “It wasn’t that hard.” She leaned back on her pillow. “So, what do you think?”
Scootaloo just shook her head, mouth hanging open. “I…” Her mouth moved as if to talk, yet no words came out.
Winter put a hoof over her mouth, trying not to laugh. She snickered, finally saying, “Scootaloo, you look like a dying fish.”
The orange mare looked at her indignantly, closing her mouth. “I love it,” she said. “It’s just as awesome, maybe even more awesome, than Dash’s present!” She hugged Winter. “Thank you so much, this is like the best gift ever!” She put the goggles around her neck, intending to never take them off again.
Winter sighed. This was a plan well accomplished. When she went to roll over on her side, however, she realized Scootaloo was sitting on her. “Um… Loo?”
Scootaloo looked up from fiddling with the goggles. “Huh?”
“You’re sitting on me.”
Scootaloo looked down, jumping off the bed as if she’d been struck with an invisible force, faster than Winter’s eye could follow. The orange mare’s face turned red. “Sorry!”
Winter laughed at her friend and how quickly she had leapt from the bed. “It’s okay, I just wanted to lay on my side. I’m kind of tired, even though I’ve been sleeping all day.” She frowned as a thought occurred to her. “Scootaloo, what are we going to do about this?”
Scootaloo looked confused. “About what?”
“About me,” she replied. “I’m going to be stuck here overnight, and you’ll have to go back home.” Everyone living in the orphanage called it home, even though it never would be. It was too shameful to call it what it really was. Her friend frowned, shifting her wings in thought.
“Well…” she thought about it for a moment. “I could go home and then come back as early as I can, whenever visitors are allowed here.”
Winter had to think to remember. “I think it’s at 8:00 or something,” she said. “I’m not sure, but it’s not too terribly early.”
Scootaloo looked relieved. “Whew. It’s really hard to get up early.”
Winter let a sly grin show. “Yeah, you’re really not a morning pony.” This earned her a sharp glare, softened by amusement. Scootaloo playfully punched her in the side. The grey mare rolled onto her side, the rough white sheets rustling quietly. She shifted her wings to be more comfortable, then let herself relax.
Scootaloo looked like she was fixing to say something, but she was interrupted by the door opening. Nurse Redheart poked her head in, seeing what they were doing. “Visiting hours are over, ladies.” She looked sympathetically at Scootaloo. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to go home.”
The orange pegasus looked at Winter. “Well, I have to go. Goodnight.” She hugged her friend and walked out of the room. Winter was left alone with her thoughts, and the nurse walked in the room and closed the door.
Winter sat up in bed. “What now,” she groaned. She knew it was probably just another inspection of her head, but you never knew. They had wrapped her eye, after all.
“Well, as you’ve probably realized, the bandage around your head covers your… eye.” Redheart shuddered a bit. “Doctor Stable was quite worried about it becoming infected. We would also like to know how it happened.”
Winter sighed. She knew they would ask this. “Well,” she began. “There’s no real way for it to become infected. I go about my everyday life with it open, and it hasn’t become infected so far.” The nurse looked like she was going to protest, but she held up a hoof. “I know what you’re going to say; The wound was fresh, there’s no way you could’ve had it for long, there’s no way it wouldn’t become infected.” She looked inquisitively at the white mare, and she nodded. “Well, I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. I don’t know how I got it, but I know that an eyepatch will raise more questions than if I just hide it with my hair.”
Redheart seemed a bit perplexed. “Um… I’ll have to let Doctor Stable decide on that,” she said. She seemed a bit uncertain. “Anyway, when Soarin brought you here, he was in a panic. He said he crashed into you and there was blood everywhere, but we couldn’t find a cut on your body. He said you had cracked your head against the fountain, and you were indeed unconscious, so we had you examined. Your body was healing as we diagnosed you. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Winter’s face darkened. She knew this would happen. The nurse continued, “If we could somehow harness your regenerative quality, we could save so many lives…”
Winter slowly shook her head. “No.”
Redheart stopped, confused. “No?”
“No,” Winter repeated. “You can’t harness it. I can’t get rid of it, any part of it. There is nothing you can do to use this for others. I’ve tried. You can’t get rid of it. You can’t use it. It will only end badly.” She glared at the nurse. “I can see why you and others would want to use it, but no thank you. It’s not going to work.”
The mare’s expression hardened. “Fine. I can see that you’re unwilling. We can’t force you to do anything.” She turned to leave. As she was closing the door, she said, “We’ll release you in the morning. Goodnight.”
Winter rolled over and went to sleep.
Author's Note
Okay, Chapter 2 done! Working on Chapter 3 and a banner and icon for a group I am now Admin in, The Alive Writers Society, and it's great group in need of members! We promote and review other stories by new writers.
