Twilight's sword was magically cleaned of all remaining traces of blood, the stains hissing as the magic enveloping them made them evaporate. The metal surface of the weapon started to lightly glow due to the temperature, the runes carved in the handle thankfully preventing the spell's heat from damaging it. The flow of magic was cut, the unicorn giving the blade a brief examination before deciding it was properly cleaned and sheathing it back to her side. Having to carry it around was a little uncomfortable, but she didn't want to run the risk of drawing undesired attention by teleporting it to her if she needed to use it.
She started walking deeper inside the building, the padding on her hooves making little to no sound on the stone floor. The short black cape she wore, her helmet and her leather armour, along with the way her tail was cut extremely short and her mane was combed made it hard to tell her shape from the shadows. She lowered the grey piece of cloth around her muzzle with her magic, leaving it to hang around her neck and allowing herself to breath freely in the cleaner air. The scent of various herbs hit her nostrils and she noticed a low flickering light coming from an open door to the side up ahead.
She entered the small candle-lit room. The four walls were completely hidden by overfilled shelves, their contents ranging from magic books to alchemic ingredients to weapon-repair kits to enchanted ropes, with just about anything in between. The only sections of the walls that weren't covered were the room's two doors, the one Twilight had entered through and the one on the other side, the way the shelves curved to perfectly match their outline effectively making it impossible to see any part of the walls. A series of chains dangled from the ceiling, bags of all colours and sizes attached to them.
The seemingly complete lack of organization had always annoyed Twilight. Not as much as the various candles and candelabras sitting either near the wooden shelves or randomly on the floor, but she'd gotten past that once she'd learned they were magically enhanced so that they didn't produce any heat, which allowed them to burn for much longer. Still, even if she didn't like the way things were, or rather weren't, organized in the shop, its owner never seemed to have a problem with it, always able to find whatever clients asked for without the need to check any list or record. Said pony wasn't there at the moment though.
The only other furniture in the room was a large wooden desk near the back. On the desk were a green book opened on the last page, a sheet of paper with a complex series of black ink lines and symbols traced on it, and a metal kettle seemingly suspended in midair, golden drops of magical energy falling from the kettle on a crystal below it. Twilight had never seen a process like that, but she deduced it to be some sort of distillation for magic used on an object. Beside that, the only other object was a large clock placed to the side of the desk, the hands showing it was half past nine. Twilight walked a little around, then gave a little hit to one of the candlesticks with her foreleg, the metal reinforcements in her armour ringing against it.
Some shuffling sounds came from the other door, and a moment later a pony entered the room, face and cutie mark completely hidden by a long light-grey hood and a cape that touched the ground, the only visible parts of the pony being the white muzzle and front hooves. Twilight had always wondered what they looked like underneath, but she'd never dared to try to remove the clothing. There could be good reasons for why they chose to stay hidden.
"Hello Twilight. No, don't tell me, you need new candles, a new set of throwing knives for Rainbow, salt, new protection runes, quills, ink and paper, eyes of newt and a bottle of fire pills," the merchant said, already heading for the various shelves without even turning to Twilight.
"Another one of your visions, uh?"
"Part of it, yeah. The good part, at least." The pony climbed up on a chain, grabbing a small glass jar of eyes from a red pouch and throwing it on the desk, where it miraculously landed up straight without shattering.
"And what's the other part?" Twilight asked, turning around to follow the other's movements.
The pony jumped from the chain and grabbed the top of one of the shelves, a hoof grabbing a stack of paper that soon landed on the desk. "A crow. A storm. Something bad is coming, Twilight, something really bad."
"Have you been outside lately? Because I think something bad is already happening."
"I don't know, Twi'. I'd like to be wrong for once, but the numbers tell me this is just the beginning." A small purple sack fell on the desk, the carved stones inside it giving a little chime as their runes glowed a bit.
As the rest of the items she needed fell on the desk Twilight looked at the clock. "Well, the numbers tell me that it takes about half an hour to go back from here, so I better hurry if I don't want to miss the curfew." She opened a small portal with her magic, taking out a few coins and setting them near the book.
"Say, want to buy some sterilized gauze and painkillers while you're at it?" asked the seller while landing near the desk.
"No, we have enough supplies of those."
"Would you rather have too many or run out when you might need them?"
"Ugh, fine." Another coin was added to the pile, the other grabbing the items from a shelf. "What do you even do with all this money?"
"Do you think the stuff I sell just magically appears in the storage room?"
Twilight levitated her purchases inside another portal. "Honestly? I would not be surprised. See you," she said, as she started to head towards the door.
"You sure you don't want to buy an invisibility potion?" asked the merchant, producing a small purple vial from underneath the cape.
"See you."
"Okay Twilight, maybe when someone who can see the future asks you if you want to buy something you should say yes," The purple unicorn quietly muttered to herself, her body pressed against a wall as she peered around a corner while trying to remain hidden. "I just hope I won't be needing the gauze and drugs anytime soon."
Her head peeked a little into the street. Timberwolves, about a dozen of them. She could usually deal with timberwolves, but usually there weren't that many. Normally there would be about three or four. Very rarely some groups could get up to six members, and in those cases she avoided them, but most of the time they weren't more than five. They used to be more of an inconvenience than a real problem, but things had gotten a lot more complicated once they'd somehow become immune to magic, not to mention a lot more resistant in general, which made them a lot harder to deal with.
The protective barrier meant she couldn't teleport back to the base, that was the whole reason why she had to walk to places. She wasn't fast enough to outrun them, and she had to get through there, otherwise she would have ended up locked outside for the rest of the night. Trying to sneak past them wasn't an option, using an invisibility spell would have just made things worse, since they could sense magic. She could maybe distract some of them with some magical lures, but that would likely only take care of about half of them, and eventually they'd trace them back to her, meaning she wouldn't have much time.
That meant only one thing. She'd have to fight them.
She silently drew her sword, bringing it to her side. With careful movements of her horn she produced a series of small glowing balls of energy, then sent them in the street, where they floated just enough time to grab the wolves' attention before darting away down the other streets. After a couple of glances with each other, six timberwolves started chasing them. Not as many as she'd hoped, as that left her with another seven to deal with, but she wouldn't gain anything from waiting. She took one last deep breath, prepared herself, then teleported with a flash of her horn.
She appeared behind one of the wolves, her weapon already lodged inside its skull. A good trick she'd learned to use when she had the opportunity to take her enemies by surprise, but not one she could risk trying out on a moving target. The wolf blew up in a small cloud of dust, the rest of the pack turning towards her. They slowly started to spread out, trying to surround her, their eyes fixed on her as they growled menacingly. One of them suddenly tried to charge her, but its distance gave her time to react. She produced a small tendril of magic from the ground, tripping the creature, and as its body careened forward she slashed its exposed underside with her blade. The wolf disintegrated behind her.
Concentrated on taking care of that one, she didn't realize two more had started to run in her direction. She barely avoided the first one with a jump to the side, but the second one landed on her, pinning her to the ground. Her armour luckily protected her from its claws, and as the wolf tried to bite her she was able to swing her sword to the side of its neck, passing it from side to side. The creature reared back, and Twilight was able to teleport away. Another wolf jumped at her as soon as she reappeared, but with one broad swing of her weapon she cut off all four of its limbs, ducking below the creature's body as it fell behind her, its mouth uselessly trying to bite at her short tail.
The four remaining timberwolves began to circle around her. Knowing they would try to trick her on focusing on the first attack only to have the rest of the pack jump at her once she was distracted she decided to act first. She jumped towards one of the wolves, her sword pointed forward as she focused on the others' reactions. At the last second she stopped, and her weapon curved its trajectory in mid-air, hooking under the jaw of one of the creatures which had tried to jump on her thinking she was distracted. The sword then smashed the wolf's body onto that of the wolf to Twilight's other side, the first one blowing up. Twilight quickly turned towards the one behind her, and as the glow of her horn intensified a roughly pony-sized chunk of the street was lifted up and sent flying towards it, taking the creature by surprise and smashing its body against a wall.
It took her a moment too long to turn back though, and she was tackled back by the wolf she'd faked attacking, her sword slipping away from her magical grasp and bouncing down the street as her head bashed against the ground. She was able to take it back fast enough to place it between herself and the wolf's head, the creature's jaws biting the cold steel instead of her neck, but soon the second wolf grabbed the handle in its teeth, trying to take the weapon away. Unable to move, struggling to maintain control of her weapon and with little time to think, Twilight did the first thing that popped up in her mind.
Instead of trying to push away the wolf above her with her magic, which she knew from experience wouldn't have worked, she let go of the weapon and focused all of her energy on lifting herself up. Her body violently lifted off the ground, taking the wolf with her, the creature still biting down on the sword. After a couple of seconds, already higher in the air than some rooftops, Twilight stopped powering the spell and teleported to the ground as she was starting to fall, the wolf howling helplessly as it crashed to the ground. Twilight turned to see where her weapon had landed, only to find the last remaining timberwolf standing between her and the sword.
The creature began to slowly approach her, Twilight shifting her attention between the wolf and the sword behind it. She couldn't risk teleporting there, as the creature's reflexes and the short distance would have allowed it to jump on her as soon as she did, and the sword was too far for her to use her telekinesis. The wolf kept walking closer, growling at her. She needed to get it far enough for her to have time to grab her weapon after she teleported, so she started to walk back, soon hitting a wall. The beast kept moving closer and closer.
"Not yet," Twilight murmured to herself, "not yet. Just a little more. Just a little more."
The wolf was now close enough for her to see the mark in its neck from where she'd previously hit it. It seemed like it was going to force Twilight in a corner by walking, but at the last second it jumped at her instead. Moments before it landed on her, Twilight disappeared in a flash of light. She reappeared near the sword, and immediately she grabbed it and rolled on her back, thrusting the weapon in the direction from where she heard the timberwolf howling at her. The mass of bark and twigs landed next to her, the sword piercing its head through its mouth. Twilight got up and started to walk down the street, giving one last stab at the previously mutilated timberwolf still laying on the ground before sheathing her weapon.
"I'm here!" Twilight called, walking through the large door of the building. No one answered back.
The unicorn started to walk through the main hall, frowning worriedly at the lack of response. The rooms seemed to all be empty, and nopony was in sight. She was about to call again when she heard what sounded like a scream coming from deeper in the building. Immediately starting to run towards the source of noise, she rounded a corner and saw light coming from the half open door at the end of the corridor, leading to the room where the infirmary was located. She started to run faster, the screams of pain becoming clearer and louder as she came closer to the room.
She finally entered, and what she saw made her blood freeze in her veins, her body almost falling as she was overtaken by vertigo. The floor was covered in blood, a trail that led from the window to the operating table, where it pooled, another smaller trail going from the table to the storage room's door. Her body splayed over the table, both of her wings mauled and torn, missing half of one of her forelegs, her light-blue coat covered with blood stains, the bandages around her damaged limbs glistening a bright crimson as blood kept pouring from her wounds, her eyes shut as she screamed yet again, Rainbow Dash weakly twitched in pain. The pegasus opened her eyes, and upon seeing Twilight she instinctively tried to smile and pretend nothing was wrong.
"Hi, Twilight," she weakly forced out in a barely convincing calm tone. "Don't worry about thiiishmmmm-" she bit down on her lip, trying to hide another cry of pain, "- it's just- just a little scra-" her eyes rolled back and she passed out.
Through the Dark Age and into The Storm
The bells on top of the bell tower tolled loudly, seven ringing chimes matching the position of the clock's large hands. Rainbow Dash landed on top of the balcony, licking away the blood on the knife she held in her wing as she walked inside through the large opened French windows.
"You really should stop doing that," Twilight said, watching her while sitting at a small metal table, "It's dangerous and pointless, there are more efficient ways to clean weapons and you could get sick if it's infected. And it's gross."
Rainbow put her knife back in its sheath, just below her neck where she could easily grab it with her mouth, hoof or wing. "Relax, Twilight. After all, 'Danger' is my middle name."
"Whatever you say, miss Rainbow Adventure Amazing Awesome Danger Death-defying Speed Dash. Or does it go between 'Amazing' and 'Awesome'? I have to say, your parents must have been a pretty eccentric couple to give you all those middle names." Twilight's almost broken floating quill scribbled something on the piece of paper in front of her.
"Oh, shut up! Besides, you didn't seem to mind when I was licking your blood, Aurora."
"Please, Dash. We were in the middle of the forest, with no medical supplies, and those cursed ruins were stopping my magic. It was the best option to clean the wound, and I'll have you know that my blood is perfectly clean. And don't taunt me just because I actually have a middle name, it's not my fault that I was born from a noble family."
"You sure about that? Because I'm pretty sure your blood wasn't blue." The pegasus walked towards the table, her attempt at a joke earning her an annoyed look from her unicorn friend. "Just kidding, Twilight, just kidding. Can you add a new set of throwing knives to that list? I lost a few," she said, lifting her hoof to show how only a couple of the small leather hoops on her armour still had knives in them.
Twilight's quill added another item to the growing list on the table. "What did you fight this time?"
"The usual. A couple of timberwolves, a couple of normal wolves, two or three harpies. Most of the knives I lost got stuck inside a large timberwolf's bark and the thing run away, guess the return charm you put on them got blocked by that thing's stupid anti-magic-whatever." The pegasus took a seat in front of Twilight, her body lazily slouched over the metal chair. "I wish there was something new to fight. Like a dragon, that would be cool. Or a giant spider. I'd love to fight off a giant spider hunting citizens in the streets."
"Dragons are actually extremely intelligent creatures, Rainbow, and you definitely don't want to fight one. And technically speaking most spiders don't hunt, they weave their webs and wait for preys to get trapped. So it's unlikely they'll come out of the forest. Unless something scares them, but at that point we would have something else to worry about, and it would probably be best to request additional help."
"That's boring. Why do you always need to take the fun out of things?"
"I'm sorry, but dying isn't particularly high on my list of 'fun' things. Anyway, I'm going out in about one and a half hours, want to come with me?"
"Wait around doing nothing to then go shopping?" Rainbow gave a bored-sounding sigh. "No thanks, I think I'll go for one more patrol."
"Without your knives?" asked Twilight, a worried frown on her face.
Dash leaned forward in her chair, looking at her friend in the eyes. "Relax, I'll be fine. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Death, probably."
"Well, that doesn't sound that bad. I mean, it sounds bad, but I think there's a lot of things that could be worse. Like turning into a statue while still being aware of stuff around you. Or losing my ability to fly. Or having to go shopping with a pony who measures even the amount of dust on the floor when she gets inside a new building."
"I'll have you know, analysing the amount, age and composition of dust is a great source of information on how long it's been since there has last been someone inside the building. But if it bothers you so much then fell free to go risk your life alone," said Twilight in a mock-offended tone.
"Sure thing." Rainbow got up from her chair and headed for the door. "Try not to get killed out there, Auri, it gets boring with no one to pick on." She turned, giving a sincere smile to the unicorn.
Twilight stared back, returning the smile. "Take care of yourself."
Rainbow looked over the city from the top of a roof. Somewhere in the distance the sound of bells ringing could be heard, signalling it was now nine and a half, and that the curfew would begin in an hour. A slight breeze ruffled the pegasus' rainbow Mohawk, the multicoloured mane kept short to prevent it from getting in her eyes and obstructing her vision. Unlike her friend, though, she didn't cut her tail, as she felt it didn't give her any problems when flying. She scanned the streets underneath for any signs of danger, and upon seeing none she took off and started to fly back to the base. Midway through her flight, though, she heard a scream coming from the distance and immediately started to fly towards the source of noise.
She arrived at a small square with a fountain in the middle, the streets around deserted, and lowered herself to the ground. "Anyone there?" she called, but no one answered back. She was about to take off again when a figure lurched forward from behind the fountain. She dodged to the side and the thing fell on the ground with a dull thud, sounding empty and somewhat metallic. She examined the thing more closely, unsure of what exactly it was. It had the general shape of a pony, and it looked kind of like a metal suit of armour, but it was one single piece without moving parts and with no holes save for an elliptical one in the back. Traces of what looked like rust were on the border of the hole.
A sound distracted Rainbow from her inspection. It was another scream like the one she'd heard before, only now she could clearly tell it wasn't coming from a pony. It came from somewhere above her, more similar to the screech of a monster than to the cry of fear she'd mistaken it for before, although it wasn't like that of any creature she knew. Rainbow grabbed her knife with her mouth and sent herself upwards with a powerful push from her hooves, stopping to hover in midair, wings slowly flapping as she scanned the environment around her. A particularly low cloud had flown above the city from the nearby forest, and the pegasus found herself inside a bank of mist, her vision partially clouded.
With a swift movement of her wings she grabbed the remaining knives on her front hooves while flapping downwards and held them while she continued to float, small drops of water forming on the weapons as they moved up and down through the cloud. She started to slowly turn around, looking for any signs of the creature. Another scream came from above her, more distant this time, and she started to fly higher, still looking for any signs of movement. The screams kept coming, always higher than where she was, and she found herself flying to such heights that the smaller streets of the city would have been impossible to see even with a perfectly clear sky.
Not that the sky was clear, as the cloud kept getting thicker and thicker. The pegasus realized something was unnatural, her instincts telling her that such atmospheric conditions should not have been possible, but she was too focused on trying to find the creature to pay attention to that. Once more she heard the scream come from above her, but as she looked up something caught her eye. There was a hint of red light shining through the cloud, directly above her. Curious, she pushed herself higher and poked her head through the cloud.
The first thing she noticed was the colour. Everything shined a bright crimson, the light coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The second thing she noticed was the smell. Blood, distinctly, she'd gotten used to it and was clearly able to recognize it. She almost started to notice other things, like a weird sensation of something pulling upwards on her head, or how the sky around her didn't look like the sky at all, but something else interrupted her.
With incredible speed something came from beneath her, and she just narrowly avoided the beast's jaws. Not completely though, as while she propelled herself backwards with a flap of her wings the monster was able to bite down on her right front leg. The creature then snapped back, and an high-pitched scream of pain came from Rainbow as her knife was dropped and her limb was torn away, leaving a bleeding stump behind. The pegasus started to fall, losing control of her body as her mind was clouded by the pain, but she was able to stop herself and regain control of her flight.
She dodged another attack, and as the creature disappeared into the mist she threw her knives at it. They bounced off and fell uselessly to the ground. She had never seen a creature like it, nor had she read about anything similar in any bestiary. It was a large four-legged beast, claws curved and easily longer than her wings. Its large wings had a grey, metallic texture, a little shinier than the slightly yellow tinged stone-like surface of its skin. Eyes a bright red, the head looked somewhat like that of a lion, except for the teeth, which were like a shark's but bigger, longer and tougher, though still fairly thin, almost like a series of knives. The limbs and torso were weirdly thin and long, their cylindrical shape almost worm-like, and a short up-turned horn served as the tail.
Rainbow began to fly away as fast as she could, heading for the other side of town, trying to get inside the protective barrier around the base as soon as possible. Once more she had to avoid the creature by rolling to her side, but finally she was able to see the large building, the barrier half visible in the air. She pushed faster with her wings, a trail of blood behind her as she kept bleeding from her missing foreleg, and in a few moments she was just about to get to safety. Then it happened.
Landing on her like an eagle, its hind legs stretched out to catch her and its body almost perpendicular to the ground, the creature caught her wings in its claws. Her flesh was pierced and her bones were broken, blood spilling out of her back, some claws just barely missing her lungs or her spine with their tips. The momentum of her body was enough to carry her into the barrier, and the creature was repelled, but her wings were still impaled and as she fell and the creature flew away they were ripped open, large chunks remaining in the monster's grasp, making it impossible for her to fly.
She was barely able to direct her fall to the nearest balcony, the impact breaking some of her bones, and then she started to crawl towards the door. Somepony on the other side opened it, and a scream of shock later she was being carried to the middle of the room and bandaged, still bleeding out. She was half conscious, dimly aware of how time moved around her, and the little sparks of clarity she had were filled with nothing but pain. Questions, words of encouragement, medications being applied, screams. She opened her eyes and she saw Twilight staring at her from the doorway, terror in her eyes. She did what she always did and tried to pretend she had nothing, and then her vision blurred and she passed out.
The sun shone down heavy on the training fields, the new recruits going through their daily routine of combat exercises. Rainbow was practising knife throws with blunted weapons, alone as the others were still busy finishing their laps around the fields, when a scream came from the other side of the camp. She turned her head to see a pony falling from the balcony overlooking the training grounds, the stone railing having broken. Immediately she was flying there, and she was able to catch the pony before he fell to the ground, slowly bringing his shivering body down to safety. A small crowd gathered, and after it had been verified that the pony was unharmed they started to disperse.
"That was pretty good," came a voice from behind Rainbow.
"I think you meant to say awesome," smugly replied the pegasus, "after all, 'Awesome' is my middle name."
"You have a middle name too? Mine is 'Aurora'."
Rainbow dash turned back, giving the purple unicorn a stare halfway between amusement and faux commiseration.
"Oh, you were just... kidding." The unicorn rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "Sorry," she somewhat sheepishly said.
"No problem. Name's Rainbow Dash, by the way."
"Twilight Sparkle, pleased to meet you."
Pain
"So, Twilight, do you have any ideas of what you'll do once this is over?"
The unicorn looked up from her book. "Not really. What about you?"
Rainbow lazily played with a small rubber ball, bouncing it on the room's wall, her body splayed on the bed. "I think I'm gonna keep going. Try to get into the elite section of the guard, you know? They get all the cool missions, and I don't mind the extra training."
"Sounds good. I might think about doing that myself."
The pegasus failed to catch the ball, her body jerking with repressed laughter. "You? Sorry, Auri, but I don't think you're the type of pony for that job. You'll be better off as a guard in one of those quiet towns on the countryside were nothing ever happens. Besides, I don't think you could pass the tests, you aren't exactly the best when it comes to physical abilities."
"Well, I can always train. I mean, you're gonna have to study pretty hard for the written part of the exam, so if you can do that then I can work a little harder myself."
Rainbow's body froze, her hoof half outstretched to grab her ball. She turned her head to Twilight. "Wait, you're telling me there's a written test? You're telling me I'm gonna have to study?"
Twilight closed her book and tossed it on the bed near the pegasus. "Yes. Better start early then." She got up and headed for the door. "I'll be out doing some extra laps if you need me."
Screaming
"So, how did it go?" Twilight asked to her friend.
"Great!" Rainbow replied, turning the scroll she held in her wings towards the unicorn. "ninety seven out of a hundred. The best score in a decade."
"Well..." Twilight unrolled her own scroll for the pegasus to see, "Technically, second best score."
Rainbow stared in disbelief. "You got... a ninety eight?"
"Yes. I lost a couple of points in the physical test, but your training helped a lot. And I see my lessons helped you as wel-"
Twilight was tackled off the ground by a blue and rainbow blur. "That's awesome! You're awesome, Twilight. And that means we won't have to worry about restrictions when it comes to missions! You can be assigned to whatever mission I'm given, and we can be together!" the pegasus exclaimed, holding her friend while she hovered in the air. "If you want to, of course," she added, slightly blushing.
"Can you put me down first, Rainbow?"
The pegasus turned a bit redder. "Sorry, I got a little carried away," she said while lowering Twilight back to the ground. She had just finished stepping back when the unicorn tackled her with a hug of her own, both of them falling on the ground.
"Of course I want to!"
Walking in the mist. Cold, the feeling of being observed. Screams coming from behind her. Running. Flying away as fast as she could. Not fast enough. Pain, blood, her own screams indistinguishable from the monster's. Falling. The mist turning red, becoming denser. Pain. Blood, all around her, drowning her. And then only silence.
Rainbow's eyes slowly opened, and the pegasus lazily lifted her head from the pillow, looking over the white covers of the bed. The morning light shone through the window, small clusters of dust dancing in the air visible where the rays entered the room. She tried to lift herself up to a sitting position, but only found half of the support she expected from her hooves, and looking to her right she understood why. Half of her foreleg was missing, a stump wrapped in bandages the only thing left.
She looked around and noticed Twilight sleeping on a chair at the foot of the bed. She tried to call her but all she got were a couple of coughs out of her dry throat and a sudden ache in her back and chest. Still, the sound was enough and the unicorn dizzily woke up. She confusedly stared around the room, then her eyes focused on Rainbow and she shot up, suddenly perfectly aware as she neared her friend.
"Dash! You're awake! Oh, thank Luna, I was afraid we could lose you. How are you? Everything alright? Are you hurt?"
The pegasus wasn't given time to answer before she was pressed in a hug, much to the displeasure of the wounds in her back.
"Don't you ever try to pull something like that on me again. You have no idea how happy I am that you're safe." Twilight pulled back from the hug and the pegasus noticed her eyes were starting to water a little.
"It's alright," Rainbow tried to say, but it came out a chocked and raspy sound. Immediately Twilight teleported a glass of water in front of her and helped her friend drink with her magic.
"Better?" the unicorn asked.
"Much better. Say, Twi, how long have I been out for?"
"Two days, not counting the night you came back. It took a lot of time to stop all the bleeding and patch you up, but we were done by morning. You've been sleeping here since then, we were starting to worry about getting you to eat something, magic can only keep a pony going for so long and I'm not the best at healing magic. You have no idea how happy I am that you woke up."
"So... How bad is it?"
Twilight flinched at the question. "Well, your right hoof is gone."
The pegasus nodded, looking back at the stump. She could see it for herself, but she knew it was Twilight's way of delaying having to talk about her other injuries. The same way she'd refused to look at them or to even try to move her wings.
"About your wings..." Twilight's expression darkened a bit. "I'm... I'm sorry Rainbow, we tried but... there wasn't much left to save. I'm afraid..." Twilight swallowed, her voice a little shaky as she tried to stay calm, "I'm afraid you won't fly anymore."
Rainbow looked back at her friend, taking a few long breaths. "Okay," she said, "that's... that's okay. I'm still here, and that's the important part."
The unicorn stared back at her, and then burst into tears and moved in to hug her friend.
Rainbow half-hugged her back, somewhat surprised by her reaction. "Hey, there, no need to cry, Twilight," she whispered while gently stroking the unicorn's mane, "it's my problem after all, why would you cry for it?"
Twilight looked up, tears running down her cheeks. "Because you're too stubborn and prideful to show how much it hurts you, and if you're not going to cry for it then I might as well do it for you!"
"Don't be silly, Twi. And please don't cry for me, seeing you like this hurts a lot more than losing a pair of wings."
The unicorn slowly calmed down, and she rested her head over her friend's bandaged chest.
"Think you could get me some more water? Put it down on the bed, I want to drink on my own," said the pegasus while Twilight magically refilled the glass and then set it down on the bed.
Rainbow grabbed it with her hoof and lifted it to her face, then slowly let the water fall on her eyes, rolling over her face and down to her chin. "Heh. Guess I'm not used to using this hoof." She stuck out her tongue and opened her mouth, drinking the salty stream of water.
Rainbow walked around in the room, distractedly listening to the sound of her wooden prosthesis hitting the stone floor as she paced back and fort, a more hollow sounding thud occasionally coming when she passed over some tiles with nothing underneath. It had been a week since she'd woken up, long enough for her to read through the entirety of the local library's collection of bestiaries and hunting guides, not long enough for her wounds to recover completely. That left her bored and with nothing to do, forced to avoid any kind of taxing physical activities, which meant she couldn't do any training.
She absent-mindedly fidgeted with the padded leather straps that held the artificial limb in place, tugging at them with her left hoof while looking out of the window. It was morning, and a few ponies were busy going about their daily lives in the streets. Things had been fairly quiet since that night, luckily so as it had taken some days for a couple of new guards to get there after the Royal Guard had been informed of her condition. No signs of the creature that had attacked her either. The Princess herself had sent her a letter expressing her sadness at the news, the blue-marked scroll still laying on the desk in Dash's room.
She couldn't help but be angry at the situation. She knew she couldn't blame the Princess for worrying about her after she'd gotten to know her so closely in the past, and the same went for Twilight, but she wished they wouldn't. It would have been a lot easier if they believed her when she said it didn't matter that she lost her wings. If they did, then maybe she could have believed it too. A fly that had sneaked into the room buzzed near her head, then ended up getting caught in a spider's web in a corner of the room. The pegasus watched as a large black spider moved towards the bug and started to wrap it around in its web before biting it, movement of the fly ceasing as it did so.
If only she'd been faster. Or less stupid. And now the second most important thing in her life was gone. She turned back to the spider, who had finished eating its meal and was now retreating back to the shadows in the corner. She was suddenly glad that it was there to take care of the flies, now that she couldn't send them away herself. It was a silly thought, and she knew it. Unicorn's and even earth ponies were perfectly capable of sending flies away without the need for wings, but that was the way she used to do it, and every damned thing reminded her of what she'd lost. She liked that spider. It gave her something else to think about.
The creak of the door opening distracted her from her thoughts. She turned and saw Twilight at the entrance of the room, tired and with bags under her eyes. The unicorn had been spending all her free time in the library, and that meant the nights too. By the looks of it, she hadn't slept since the day before, but there was a strange agitation to her that Rainbow couldn't quite decipher, like she'd made some great discovery. The purple pony took a few step forwards and then almost fell to the ground, Rainbow rushing to her to stop her body the only thing that prevented it.
"Hey there, Twi. Calm down. You need to get some sleep, you know? What is the matter anyway?" the pegasus asked in a caring tone while holding Twilight up with her good hoof hugged around her neck.
"I found it," came Twilight's voice, a low whisper near her ear.
"You found... What exactly?"
Twilight looked up from the pegasus' embrace, eyes locking with her friend's. "I've found a way to fix you."
