Rum Raisin Brandy

Chapter 9

"I'll take the female! You finish off the male!"

"Isn't it always that way?"

Crescendo grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, proud of himself for his little joke. Midi rolled his eyes and stood on a bomb, blasting himself into the air to fight their new threat.

Ponies began to emerge from their hiding places and cheered for the two stallions risking their necks for the town. The cheering was short-lived, and soon replaced by more screaming and panicking as the female began to spray a vile liquid from her mouth that turned out to be acid.

Midi blinked out of the way just in time to avoid sharing the fate of a nearby flower stand that was being melted down into mush. He fired an ice bomb at the wyvern, barely missing her. The bomb detonated in time to freeze part of her wing, causing her to lose altitude.

Crescendo's opponent had recovered from the electric shock and was now rolling onto his legs. The pegasus prepared another dragon shout, and jumped out of the way to avoid the tail the male wyvern swung at his legs. He opened his mouth and let his voice peel out like thunder. The great winged lizard was ready this time, and used his leathery wings to protect himself from the sub-sonic impact while his claws dug into the ground to hold him in place.

The pegasus flew up above the male and dove down. His body became engulfed in static electricity, and as he tackled the monster just when it opened its wings, the energy was transferred, stunning the wyvern long enough for Cres to land another solid buck to the stomach. The creature doubled over in pain, and the pegasus didn't give him an inch of slack, bucking again at its face.

Midi slid under the female and left a fire bomb under her as he passed by her tail. Again, the fire itself did little damage, but she was blown into the air unprepared, causing her to crash into the ground while Midi bombarded her with several more thunder bombs. He hadn't counted on just how hard the electric damage would make her thrash, and he was struck by her tail as it flailed wildly. The unicorn was knocked spinning through the air and crashed into a stone wall, sliding down from the spider web-shaped crack his body left in it.

"MIDI!" Crescendo shouted. Distracted by his friend's injury, he barely had enough time to avoid the fearsome jaws that lunged at him. The teeth caught his tail, and the male wyvern lifted him up and began to swing him around. Once the pegasus was thoroughly dazed, the orange reptile threw him to the ground and lifted his foot to stomp the winged equine.

A rainbow streak shot by, knocking the male off his balance. A purple aura wrapped around him and kept him from falling on a house, but instead of setting the creature down, the magic field propelled him towards his mate.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle stood side by side against the wyvern pair. Against these fresh new challengers, the monsters knew they were beaten, and turned to flee the village.

Fluttershy and Applejack worked to gather up the injured stallions lying unconscious on the ground. Midi was still out cold, and Crescendo could barely stand. Emergency response ponies put them on stretchers and rushed them to the hospital post haste.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

"Nnf... Where am I?" Midi slowly pried his eyes open, then shot upright and immediately grabbed his head in pain. "Ah! The wyverns! Did we beat them?"

"Afraid not," said a familiar voice to the unicorn's left. Midi looked in the bed beside him and saw Crescendo lying with bandages around his legs and one of his wings. "I'll be honest, we got knocked the buck out."

Midi looked down sorrowfully. "I'm so, so sorry, Cres. I shouldn't have dragged you into this. You could have been killed."

"I would have fought beside you anyway," replied Crescendo, "No way I'd let you take those things on by yourself."

The unicorn shook his head. "I was supposed to protect you. And now look at you. You can't go to work like that. First day here, and I already put your life in danger."

"I'm fine, squirrelly" Crescendo tried to reassure his friend, "The doctors say I'll be on my legs again by tomorrow. I won't be able to fly for a few days, though, but at least I won't miss the rodeo."

Midi looked up. "Rodeo?"

Crescendo nodded. "Eeyup. Applejack invited me to a rodeo with her family. We'll be going to Appleloosa to watch her compete."

"Ah." Midi looked out the window. "Was anypony else hurt?"

"Not that I know of."

"I see." Midi sat silently for a moment. "Did the doctors say when I'd be able to leave?"

Crescendo shrugged. "He didn't say. I haven't seen an X-ray either, but I only woke up a couple hours ago."

Midi blinked. "How long was I out?"

"All night," said Cres, "I stayed up for a while, but then the nurse made me go to sleep. Even used a sedagive on me."

Midi screwed up his face in mock anger. "Sedagive?!" He shared a laugh with his friend, and then held his head again. "Gah, it hurts to laugh." He laid his head back on his pillow as the doctor entered the room.

"Ah, good morning, Mr. Waffle," the unicorn doctor said pleasantly, levitating a pen and clipboard in front of himself, "How are you feeling?"

"Like my brain just got smashed by a lemon wrapped around a large, gold brick."

Crescendo snickered at his friend's reference.

The joke was lost on the doctor. "Well, your skull was fractured by the impact. I'm surprised a hit like that didn't break your spine. It's a miracle you weren't paralyzed last night."

"Any idea when I'll be getting out of here?" Midi asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"Well, about three days rest, and you should be able to leave," said the doctor, "Although, I wouldn't recommend fighting any more monsters for a while. And try to cut down on the magic use; your horn may have been affected as well."

Midi sighed heavily. "Any chance of getting out of here on good behavior?"

The doctor chuckled. "I'm afraid the only good behavior that can help is resting and eating. By the way, a nurse will be in soon to take your lunch orders. I'll be back later." The unicorn left his patients.

A nurse came in and asked them what they wanted to eat.

"Gimme three egg and cheese biscuits with hash browns, fruit and orange juice," Midi said.

"Same for me," said Crescendo.

The nurse sighed, but granted their request and went to pick up their orders.

Midi looked at his friend. "Hey, Cres?"

"Hm?"

"We're gonna have some explaining to do when we get out of here."

"Wait, you're saying you got it working?!"

"Oh yes, it works perfectly. And not a moment too soon."

"When can we start?"

"Not yet. Just one or two details left to iron out..."