“Y’know, I’m not sure why you asked me to do this, Twi.” said Rainbow Dash, while she struggled to untangle a garland.
“Applejack and Pinkie are preparing the food, while Rarity and Fluttershy figure out the guest list. That leaves us to put up the decorations.” Twilight explained.
“I’d rather be on guest list duty; there’ll be glitter in my mane for weeks.” Rainbow groaned.
“Well, I need you to be here. Besides, you were complaining about the cold earlier; now it’s freezing.”
Rainbow sighed in response, spending the next few minutes just trying to figure out where each end of the garland was. The task was simple: fly up and pin the irritating decoration that just covered her in glitter on above the book cases. Though she still felt uneasy as she gave her old prosthetic wing a few test movements, she never did trust this thing to work right, but for the moment it looked fine.
Not wanting to take any risks, she slowly lifted herself upwards until she reached a good spot above the bookcases, breathing a sigh of relief once she made it. So far so good, she thought, steadying herself in the air as she began pinning the garland to the wall, her pace increasing as she became more confident that her wing was working fine.
Just as she felt things would be okay, the all-too-familiar sound of a sharp click signalled to Rainbow Dash that her pleasant afternoon helping Twilight prepare for a Hearthswarming party was over—before she even hit the ground.
Her balance in the air suddenly shifted as her wing locked up, and she scrambled to grab on to anything that could prevent her fall. The garland she had spent the last few minutes putting up was the only thing in reach, dragging it down to the ground with her, and she hit the floor with enough force to shake the bookcase she landed against, causing many of the books to fall off of their shelves and down on top of her.
“Rainbow!” cried the familiar voice of Twilight, who galloped across the library and began lifting the various books and decorations that now lay on top of her with rehearsed precision.
“I’m fine! I’m okay…” Rainbow huffed in response, roughly throwing her hoof around to untangle herself from the garland she had just attempted to hang.
It was an obvious lie, and her uncontrolled trembling made it very clear that she was not okay. Every fall briefly transported her thoughts to the day she was shot down during the war, bringing about a strange feeling of pain in her prosthetic wing that she never understood. How does a fake wing even hurt in the first place?
It was a struggle to pull herself back to reality each time; thankfully, she’d been getting better at doing so as time went on. She knew she’d feel okay again once she got a grip on things, even if the constant reminder of her disability always ruined the mood.
“We both know that’s not true; we should at least try talking about it,” said Twilight, a frown making its way across her face.
“No, we really shouldn’t,” Rainbow responded bluntly.
“I… know how your wing is making you feel, Rainbow. Everypony does,” Twilight frowned, lowering her gaze in thought for a moment. “I think I know somepony who could help you, a changeling biologist who submitted a—”
“Why would I ever want help from a changeling!?” Rainbow snapped, a scowl dominating her face. Ever since her crash, the mere mention of a changeling was enough to make her blood boil at times.
“At least hear me out…” Twilight pleaded.
“It’s thanks to a bug that I have to live like this! I limp through the air like a foal, barely able to keep myself in the air at times! There is nothing they could do for me, so I don’t want to hear it, Twi!” Rainbow yelled, causing Twilight to recoil backwards a few paces as she spoke. It wasn’t the first time one of her closest friends reacted this way since the war. She didn’t want to snap at them, but she couldn’t stop herself from doing it; the memories were always overwhelming to a point that it was difficult to control her emotions.
She took a deep breath, doing her best to calm down and push the negative thoughts away once more. “I’m sorry, Twi... I didn’t mean to blow up like that.”
“I know, Rainbow. We all do,” Twilight said gently, moving in close to give her a comforting hug. “I’m sorry too; I picked a poor time to try and talk about your wing, but you can’t hold what happened in the war against every Changeling. A lot of them are doing their best to make up for it; give them a chance.”
“I’ll try… but I don’t know if I can…” She whispered, returning the hug. She’d never admit it, but this hug was exactly what she needed, a simple moment of silence with someone she knew cared about what she was going through.
The quiet moments never last, though, not at this time of year. A couple of knocks on the door signalled that a new visitor had arrived, one among many that had come by to drop off gifts or decorations. Twilight slowly released the hold she had over Rainbow, giving her a knowing smile before turning to answer the door. As for her, she looked back to the pile of decorations that lay miserably across the floor, involuntarily sighing with frustration at the events surrounding it.
Spreading and then relaxing her wings produced a click from her prosthetic with each movement; it was a familiar sound, one that always taunted her after every fall. At least this one was simple to explain; the cold winter temperature had a tendency to cause it to lock up, so for the time being she’d just have to use a ladder, an embarrassing act to a Pegasus.
It didn’t take her long to wheel the ladder across the library, setting it up against the wall and readying herself to climb up and pin the decorations in place. Again. Strangely, as she was doing all of this, she noticed that Twilight was occasionally glancing at her, only to quickly turn away once she realised Rainbow was looking back. Something felt off, and it didn’t take long for Twilight to finally grab her attention and reveal why.
“Rainbow! There’s somepony here that wants to see you,” she called, stepping aside and gesturing for the guest to enter.
Her ire had peaked once more as she recognised the unmistakable form of a Changeling, dressed in a thick, brown winter coat. He had clearly caught on to this, looking directly into her piercing gaze as he pulled back the hood on his coat, a hint of recognition in his glowing yellow eyes but nothing that would suggest he was worried about how she was glaring at him.
It was a mental struggle to stay calm, and she made no effort to hide it, hoping to make her displeasure clear. She probably wouldn’t give him a second of her time were it not for the fact she had already hurt Twilight’s feelings with her outburst minutes earlier, as well as Twilight’s request to give Changelings a chance.
In contrast to her, the Changeling was completely calm as he looked up at her, with only a momentary frown forming as she watched him look her up and down.
Twilight chose to break the momentary silence, “Rainbow Dash, this is Ergalis. He told me he wanted to talk with you specifically.“
“Ergalis Harpann, former pilot during the war, now a flight instructor here in Equestria. A pleasure to finally meet you after all this time,” said the Changeling, giving a polite nod in her direction.
“Uh huh, I’m guessing I don’t need to introduce myself,” she replied, turning her focus back to hanging the garland.
“Not at all. Though judging by that reaction, I assume you don’t read many records from the war?” Ergalis asked.
“Nope,” she replied, her attention still turned away from the conversation.
Due to this, she wasn’t aware of what was going on behind her during the moment of silence that followed her response. All she knew was that his presence made her tense, and focusing on something else was helping. She did hear a short, whispered conversation between Twilight and Ergalis that made her wonder what was going on, but otherwise continued what she was doing.
“You should; they’re already writing history about us,” said Ergalis.
This comment unnerved her enough to stop what she was doing and turn to look back at him, “What do you mean by that?”
Ergalis took a quick look towards Twilight before he replied, who gave a slight nod towards him, “Historians are already regarding our dogfight as one of the greatest in the war.”
“Our…?” Rainbow replied, her blood running cold as ice as she suddenly fell deep into her own mind once again.
Back to the day she met her match in the air—and lost.
She remembered the smell of burning fuel as she struggled to stop her doomed plane from spiralling out of control, watching the ground come closer and closer, images of her life flashing through her mind until darkness was all that remained. If any memory of the crash still existed, she couldn’t find it, and only the white walls of the hastily established hospital remained.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she’d learn there.
Had the doctors been given a chance to speak of her injury, maybe she would have been better prepared for what she saw after throwing off the bed sheets that had been sheltering her from the truth. Instead she learnt it by looking down at her body, seeing one wing unbound and free, while all that remained of the other was a thick layer of bandages and padding.
All of her dreams—shattered in an instant, stolen from her by the Changelings and their wicked Queen.
As the horrific reality slowly set in, she became more and more erratic, her breathing panicked and unsteady as her heart threatened to break free from her chest, thrashing at the nurses who were holding her down as they tried to calm her. If the doctors hadn’t chosen to sedate her at the time, the nightmare that haunts her to this day would have been longer, though it still turned her stomach every time she was forced to remember these moments.
She had become a trembling mess, holding on to the ladder as if her life depended on it. Only once she recognised the voice of Twilight calling her name did she start regaining her grip on reality, though she barely understood anything else she was saying apart from that. The first thing that caught her attention was Ergalis, and without a second thought, she leaped from the ladder, fully intent on pummelling him into the ground for everything he did to her.
“Rainbow! No!” Twilight yelled, and Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself encased in a magical bubble, within swinging distance of Ergalis.
She flailed at the walls of the bubble, the overwhelming anger she felt driving every swing she took. Every second she spent trying to contain her sorrows since that day, all being released at once now that she was face to face with the one who caused it all. “Why!? Why would you even show your face to me after what you did!?”
“Do you hate me for doing what I believed was right?” Ergalis asked her calmly.
“Forget that! Look at what you did to me!” She yelled back, spreading her wings out to show off the prosthetic that had done nothing but drain her happiness. “This is your fault!”
After taking a quick glance at her wing and frowning, he took a step closer. “It is, because you were shooting down planes bringing food and medical supplies to the encircled forces at Whinnyapolis, or have you forgotten that part?”
Her ceaseless thrashing stopped for a moment as she processed what she had heard, “That’s not right… We were told that those planes were bombers…”
“No, they weren’t. They were on a relief mission, agreed upon by local commanders on both sides, so long as it was explicitly intended to minimise the suffering inside the town, Changeling or civilian,” Ergalis explained, giving her a chance to process that information before continuing. “I had wondered if you had made the choice to attack, but it’s clear that’s not the case. Someone along the various chains of command got the details wrong, and it led us to our duel in the sky.”
As her gaze turned downwards, the rage in her expression fading with every passing moment, she thought deeply on what Ergalis said. If it was true, it would completely change the narrative she had believed until now. Everything from the grief she felt knowing she failed that mission to the feelings surrounding her injuries was based on how she perceived those events. She fought so hard, and for what? To become the victim of some cruel twist of fate? To destroy the only hope of survival for dozens of lives?
How many chances did she have to learn the truth before now? Someone had offered to talk to her almost every time she had fallen into despair, and each time she would push them away the same way she had done to Twilight, terrified at the idea of revisiting the memories that caused her nothing but pain. Would she have learnt all of this sooner? How much happier might she have been knowing her failure was actually the better result?
She looked back up at Ergalis, “Do you… have proof?”
“I do,” he replied, his horn lighting up with a familiar, eerie green glow as he reached into a small satchel on his side. What appeared from it was a tall-looking envelope. “This contains everything about the events of that day, from my side and yours. It’s enough to prove I’m telling the truth.”
The confidence in his voice shook her; if it weren’t for the proof being hovered right in front of her, she’d likely believe what he was saying through his words alone. It didn’t answer everything, though. “Why are you even here? Why go to the effort of tracking me down like this?”
Ergalis floated the envelope to a nearby table, exhaling heavily and beginning to pace back and forth. “I too am haunted by things that happened during the war. Perhaps that day I was the hero, but in most others, I was no better than every other Changeling.
“Believe it or not, you were the first one to sow doubt in what I was doing. After our duel, I visited the site of your crash to see who exactly I had shot down. No pilot had put me to the test like you did, and I wanted to know your name.
“The crash site was a mess, and you were nowhere to be found, so I assumed you escaped. The first place I looked was the cockpit, with the one thing that had miraculously survived the fire being a photograph of 6 ponies. On the back, 5 short prayers that you would return home safe, all mentioning you by name.
“I saw who my enemy was for the first time since I left my hive. Not an emotionless evil that despised our very being, as we were all told, but creatures who were just as committed to their friends and loved ones as I was to my hive, to my family. The praise I received upon confirming I shot down one of the best our enemy had brought me no comfort; all that remained was the uncertainty of my actions up to that point.
“And with how things have gone since the end of the war, I realised we were fighting our saviours. Our enemies were those whose very way of life was the one that was best for us, and I had been a part of trying to tear it down forever.”
Ergalis paused for a moment, a single tear rolling down his face as he stifled his own sadness. “Since then… I’ve done everything in my power to make amends to those I’ve personally affected, and that’s led me here.”
Rainbow had listened to his words so intently that she hardly noticed Twilight’s bubble dissipate; she had clearly calmed down by this point, absorbed by the situation and what it meant for her. It would be simple for her to continue thinking of him as a monster, as an enemy, but the war wasn’t fair to either of them. Forgiving him for his part in the war was easy; it was clear that he understood his place at the time and rejected it, but forgiving him for what he did to her personally seemed… difficult. “Listen… I appreciate that you came all this way to talk, but… I don’t know if I can forgive you. What you did to me—“
“You don’t have to forgive me; I’m not asking for it.” Ergalis interrupted, raising a hoof to quietly silence her as he reached into his coat with magic once more. This time a regular white envelope came into view. “What I want, more than anything, is for you to be as happy as you can be. We don’t have to be friends; we can never see each other again after this if that’s what you wish, but my peace comes from at least knowing I tried.”
“What’s in that one?” Rainbow asked.
“A gift,” he replied, floating it into her real wing’s grasp. “It’s what I came here to give, alongside the truth, of course.”
“This is a lot to take in…” she whispered.
“I understand; in fairness, I have said what I needed to say and left everything else for you to see at your own pace. I know my presence is causing some discomfort, so I won’t take up any more of your time.” Ergalis said with a nod to both herself and Twilight before turning towards the door. “Happy Hearthswarming to you both.”
With that, he clicked the door open and vanished, leaving just as suddenly as he had arrived.
Rainbow simply stood in place, quietly contemplating everything that had just happened. She’d be lying to herself if she believed it was right to end their meeting on a sour note; he had no doubt gone to a lot of effort to do what he did, and even if he couldn’t magically fix everything, he still fixed something.
Her attention turned to the envelope he gave her, curiosity trumping tradition as she moved to the table that Ergalis had laid the other envelope on. Once she tore it open and tipped the contents out, her heart felt heavy. One item was a neatly folded-up letter, and the other was the very same photograph that she kept in her plane during the war. Ergalis had mentioned that he recovered it from the burnt-out remains of her plane, and it showed, but she could still see her friends smiling back at her despite that.
Flipping the photograph around revealed all the messages too. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all wrote their own messages to see her off. It brought a lot of comfort during her missions, and seeing it again made her start to tear up.
Once she had taken a moment to collect herself, she took hold of the letter and flipped it open with her wing. It was addressed to her directly from someone called Tarsus Thoraci, a biologist working at Luna Nova Academy. Her thoughts returned to earlier, when Twilight had mentioned a Changeling biologist before being interrupted by her outburst. Could this be the same creature?
As she read the letter further, it explained that Ergalis was a close friend of Tarsus and that the latter had contacted him with a proposal. Ergalis had heard of his recent developments in the creation of a more up-to-date prosthetic wing and suggested her as a suitable candidate to assist in its creation and testing. All that need be done is present the letter as proof of her invitation, and she would be the first to experience the new design, as well as work towards a brighter future for other Pegasi like her.
She began to tremble, the letter falling onto the table as she struggled to contain her sudden surge of emotions. She felt like she was about to cry, though for the first time in a while, the tears would not be born from sadness.
“Twi?” Rainbow muttered.
“Yes, Rainbow?” Twilight responded, turning to look at her while the various decorations still floated around her.
“Did… did you plan this? Did you invite Ergalis here?”
A smile formed on Twilight’s face. “Guilty as charged.“
Rainbow let out an irritated groan, “I hate it when I’m wrong!” she exclaimed before planting her head on the table.
“What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked.
“I… I should’ve forgiven him. It’s not his fault things turned out the way they did, and now he goes and does this!” Rainbow yelled into the table.
“It hasn’t been that long; you might be able to find him,” said Twilight.
Rainbow’s head shot up to look at Twilight, then to the door. “Awww, haystacks!” were her final words as she leapt onto her hooves and raced out of the library and into the streets of Ponyville.
Ergalis was nowhere to be seen; of course he was nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse, most ponies were keeping warm in their homes, but she had to try. She raced through the streets, asking any ponies that she could if they had even caught a glimpse of a changeling in the last few minutes, but she found nothing. With every minute spent, the further away Ergalis got.
Up to this point she had hesitated to take flight; it had become almost natural for her to avoid flying, but right now she was willing to take the risk. Rainbow Dash took to the sky, being as careful as possible by pacing herself to avoid locking up her prosthetic again, and with her newfound perspective, she began flying around town.
It didn’t take long to finally spot him, just in time too, as he had just entered Ponyville’s train station. Soaring as quickly as she could to the front doors of the station, she narrowly avoided running into a stallion as he left the station and frantically looked left and right for any sign of Ergalis.
The instant she saw him, one hoof already inside the train, she yelled, “Wait! Wait a sec!”
He wasn’t the only one to turn their attention towards her, but he did step back from the train as she approached, completely out of breath. Ergalis didn’t say anything; he simply looked at her patiently as she went through every feeling in her mind to make sure she meant what she was about to say. After going so long believing a lie, she almost needed to pinch herself to confirm this wasn’t some kind of hopeful dream.
After a quiet moment of contemplation, she made an affirming nod towards him, “I forgive you, Ergalis.”
Ergalis looked towards the ground for a moment, a relieved smile on his face, as he processed the situation, “Why the change of heart, may I ask?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions; you know what you did.” Rainbow joked, sharing a short laugh with Ergalis. “I’m glad you came.”
He laughed a little before raising his head. “You know this… doesn’t always go well.”
"Yeah, I can imagine… Honestly, I’m still processing it all, but I know I can’t hold what happened to me against you.”
“The very least I could do is apologise to you.” Egalis replied.
“You did much more than that,” Rainbow stated proudly, holding out a hoof and inviting Ergalis to shake it. “If I can help your friend Tarsus make the best wing ever, then not only will other ponies live better lives, I… I might be able to make it to my dreams after all.”
Ergalis listened to her carefully, looking at her extended hoof for only a moment before shaking it, a smile fully formed on his face. “I admit I was only there to help you, specifically. I never considered what it could mean for others, and… knowing that makes me feel good. You have my thanks.”
“Say… we’re planning a party later; you’re more than welcome to come.”
“You think I’d be welcome?”
“After what you did? You better be.” Rainbow said with a smirk of her own, using her real wing to pick up Ergalis’ travel pack. “Besides, you need to tell me how you managed to disappear in the middle of that dogfight.”
“So long as we talk about it next to a fire with a warm drink, I’d be happy to.”
