Warm liquid trickled down Ace's face as the colt in front of her swore ferociously down at her.
Ace was never one to back down from a fight, especially with the asshat in front of her, but how could she stand and fight with a broken hoof? How could she punch with a dislocated collarbone? How could she aim when she couldn't see, her eyes bruised and swollen?
She couldn't.
~~It's not like she could fly away, either, even if her wings weren't broken~~
Her vision was blurring, the edges smearing into one giant color even as everything darkened around her as the colt aimed a kick to her ribs.
She faded in and out of consciousness and whatever happened next was a mix-match of panicked shouting, heartbroken cries and distant lights. But the only thing she was truly aware of was the slim, fluffy arms wrapping around her, lifting her off the ground with surprising strength behind him.
Unconsciousness lapped at her in waves, and she came to, everything was dark, eyes completely swollen shut from the fight. But she could feel the fluffy hooves that had lifted her up out of the alley, the fluffy hooves of her mama.
Her hoof twitched, and Scootaloo immediately placed another fluffy hoof on top of her own, non Pegasi like hoof. "Squirt?" She asked, voice quavering slightly, and the corner of Ace's mouth quirked up in response. She felt her mama place her head on Ace's chest, breathing shakily.
The smile grew slightly before Ace sank back under the sea of consciousness.
She woke up with a grunt, the pain in her ribs kicking up again as she was carried somewhere. A hospital, she guessed, from the medical jargon thrown around from directly above her. Her mama had long since let go of her hoof, but she knew she was there.
She didn't need to see her to know that.
An annoying beep jolted her out of sleep when she woke for the third time in what she hoped was the same day. She didn't even remember falling asleep.
She still couldn't see, and had to deliberately stomp down on her panic. Her ears were still working perfectly, however, and she could pick up the distinct sound of someone shifting in their seat.
Had it been anypony else, Ace would never of have been able to tell who it was. Except Ace was a triplet, and a Crusader, and so she just smiled and said "hey, Mel."
Immediately her sister burst into tears, big gasping sobs that made Ace's throat hurt in sympathy. "Y-you idiot!" She howled, and Ace could imagine her, twisting her tail between her cloven hooves, wanting to hug her sister but scared to hurt her.
So instead she held out one hoof in the direction of the voice, and Melody grasped it like a lifeline, still crying so hard that Ace could feel tears land on her hoof.
"I-I still can't see" Ace admitted in a small voice, sounding weaker than she would around anyone else, and Melody's grip tightened around her hoof.
"I know, Ace, I know. You, you sustained a lot of damage, alright? You have two black eyes and a concussion. You should be fine in a couple of days."
Ace slumped, feeling exhausted, and Mel slowly guided her backwards back onto the bed, before she quietly placed her head on Ace's. The last thing Ace remembered before falling asleep was her sister humming one of the nursery rhymes their momma always sang to them.
Similarly, she doesn't need to see to know Tempo Breeze is in the room with her next time, and unlike Mel, the Pegasus wasted no time in climbing into the bed to lay beside Ace so that their wings were brushing and nothing more. Ace's wings were still heavily bandaged from being broken.
They can't talk to each other, since Ace can't see what Tempo is signing, so instead Ace just quietly hums something to herself, imagining Tempo bopping her head along in approval. She wishes someone had brought her guitar, just so she could try to play blind, literally.
At some point, she lifts her head from her pillow to ask "where's momma?"
She can feel Tempo's hesitation, the way her brow crinkles with worry before she reaches out and grabs Ace's coarse hoof in her own, fluffy ones, and traces out the words R-E-C-O-V-E-R-I-N-G on Ace's frog.
Recovering? Why would she be-
Oh. Right.
A few days ago, Sweetie Belle had revealed herself to be bisexual to her followers. She didn't elaborate on it, didn't mention the kids and wife she had living in Ponyville. Most Ponyvillians knew about this, of course, but they had been Pinkie Promised to secrecy.
Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.
Equestrians were, by their very nature, very accepting of anyone, so the majority of them didn't actually care that Sweetie was bisexual, most actually started seeing her as a kind of icon.
Of course, ponies from out of Equestria, families with traditional beliefs or other species, did not see it that way.
It had been a chance meeting, that was all. Their family had been getting some ice cream, unaware of the teenage colt following them almost all day.
She didn't really remember that much, but she remembered two important parts, her mother, getting hit over the head with a bottle thrown by some jackass of a colt, and the colt, looking terrified, taking off down an alley.
Her mama had been unable to stop her, too preoccupied with momma's head injury that was staining the stones red- redredredredred, everything was red- and her sisters, while seeing her move, were to slow to stop her, even Tempo unable to keep up with her sisters longer, stronger legs.
The last thing she could remember was tackling the older, taller colt, the concussion hiding away the memories of the actual fight that had taken place.
"Is she okay?" She asked, and Tempo traced the words B-E-T-T-E-R T-H-A-N Y-O-U.
Ace managed a chuckle, despite the pain.
Her vision was slowly coming back, blurs and blobs of color which would be funny if they weren't so damn relieving. Mel and Tempo brought over her video game and they had a marvelous time laughing over her frustration at not being able to properly see the Mare-io Kart course.
Eventually, Ace is allowed out of the hospital, where she gets cool glasses to help her terrible vision until it improves, but Scootaloo snatched them out of her hooves, telling her that overusing them could make her vision worse, and to only use them when she needed to.
Ace thought being able to walk down a damn street without falling on her ass was pretty important, but what did she know?
But her sourness left her when they get home, where Tempo and Mel are waiting along with momma-
Momma!
She was blurry, at least until the glasses were put on, and then Ace could make out all of her momma's perfect, perfect features, which was tragically, tragically marred by the bandage wrapped around part of her head.
And Ace was in bandages as well, but that didn't stop her from throwing her arms around her momma's neck and squeezing her tight enough to force the air from her momma's lungs.
"Ah, love you to sweetheart" her momma let out a small chuckle, and, at those words, Ace pushed away, landing back on the ground with a sniff and a fake scowl.
"I don't. You said you were getting me a refill on my ice cream."
At that, Sweetie and Scootaloo started cackling, while Ace just grinned up at them, in pain but content
Author's Note
GUESS WHICH OF MY NEXT GENS ARE BACK!
I showed my original fic, Terrible Three's, to one of my friends, and they pointed out that while Tempo and Mel have a very clear cut personality, Ace is very hard to read.
I realized I never really gave Ace's personality much thought, so I remade her character slightly, here's the basic personalities of the CMC Next Gen
Tempo- Optimistic,, competitive, proud, snarky, cool headed, cool kid, she only attacks others when sisters are threatened, or they've done something really, really stupid.
Ace - Hot tempered, protective, snarky, leader, likes video games, suffers from mild body dysphoria, basically a tsundere for all you anime fans
Melody - Quiet, shy, reserved, imaginative, sweet, naive, the purest thing I've ever made