Fallen

We sat in silence, finishing our meal. After we paid the bill and left, we parted ways beneath the setting sun. I took off and lazily floated around. Thinking to myself that there was no hurry to get home, I let my wings wander just for the heck of it. I happily let my mind wander, lost in the bliss of flight once again, free without a heavy harness and clouds to tow around.
So lost was I, in fact, that I didn’t realize where the hay I was for a few seconds when I snapped back into reality. A quick look around told me that I was flying loops around Sweet Apple Acres. Satisfied, I turned my wings in the direction of home, when I heard a scream from below.
Startled, I looked to see an orange earth pony tumble to the ground. Facing her was a tall brooding dark figure. Its shape seemed to writhe when I looked at it, giving it the look of burning black fire. The earth pony, Applejack, leapt to her feet and spun quickly, throwing a powerful kick in its direction. The figure let out a guttural laugh as her rear hooves passed through it like mist, causing her to overbalance and fall to the ground again.
“I see now. I now know enough. I am satisfied. But I am not about to leave empty-handed…” A creaky voice seemed to pierce my mind.
Empty…. handed….? What is that? Wait a minute, WHAT? I saw black tendrils emerge from the black shape and wrap themselves around the defenseless mare. Without thinking I dive-bombed the figure. But, whatever I was thinking, that since it could wrap its tendrils around Applejack it must now be corporeal, was wrong. I passed right through it.
“What is this? Oh, yes. Perfect. You will do perfectly. You never appear, so you won’t be missed. Ah, I see you were one of the three I contacted. Even more perfect.”
I rose to my feet, confused. I glared at the figure, spitting, “What are you talking about?”
The figure suddenly warped, shifting into a familiar gray pegasus. “You!” I shout. This was the one responsible for all this. The shapeshifting dimension-traveller who appeared before me and my friends, who teleported me with a glance, now stood before me.
The pegasus smirked at me, then raised Applejack in the air with tendrils which still emerged from his body. “If you want your beloved Element of Honesty back, you will meet me inside the Everfree forest. You needn’t worry about where. My power will deliver you to me.”
The villain began to dissolve into mist, taking the frightened earth pony with him.
“Hey! You coward! Face me like a stallion! How dare you!” I shouted, but the retreating mist made no reply as it dissipated completely.
“Calm down, Sky.” A voice behind me startled me.
“What do you want, Speed?” I snapped at her.
“I don’t usually associate with other ponies much, but I know an emergency when I see it. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I thought you might use some help. You can’t face this creeper alone.”
I sighed. “And I suppose you’re gonna insist on coming too?”
Speed shook her head. “I know that you barely know me, and it wouldn’t be my place to request that. So…”
She motioned to a nearby bush, where Green and Adamant edged out from behind.
“I know that I might be acting a little presumptuously, but please let me offer my help. I saw you in trouble and knew that there was nothing I could do on my own to help you, so I found your friends and asked them to come help you.”
“There’s actually no option, Sky. We’re coming with you, or tying you down to prevent you from going.” Adamant told me gruffly.
“Indeed.” Green inclined her head slightly.
I just stood there gaping for a few seconds. I couldn’t believe it. There was no way I was going to drag my friends into this kind of trouble. How dare Speed….
But I knew, deep inside, that I had dreaded facing this terror by myself. I needed my friends. I knew that.
“Thank you, Speed. I don’t suppose you would like to help too?” I asked her.
“No, like I said, it wouldn’t be my place. Besides, my time has not yet come. I bid you farewell, and good luck.” She flew off, leaving us confused.
“Now that’s a funny mare.” Adamant observed.
“Adam! She did all this to help us, again, and this is how you repay her?” Green scolded him, and he hung his head.
I smiled, feeling as a weight had been lifted off of my back. Sure, I was a little saddened by the fact that I was dragging them into possible danger, but, then again, I always had, with my adventurous urges. And they had always been there for me, since I first met them…

It was right after I returned from my escapade to the jungle after being bullied. I had found that my parents had, indeed, been distraught at my disappearance. They met me with open arms, overjoyed and crying happy tears. I slept well that night, being very exhausted, and showed up at Flight School, determined that I would no longer be unnerved by any bullying I received.
Imagine my utter bewilderment, then, to find that the same group of bullies that made my life a nightmare were now completely ignoring me. They wouldn’t even look in my direction. They avoided my gaze as they harassed a tiny filly, probably not even a quarter their size.
Confused at this behavior, I was about to draw their attention to myself when the instructors called for order, and they whisked themselves away. I turned away from the filly, who sped away as well, to find Speed of Heat passing by.
“Hey, Speed,” I called to her. She hovered and faced me. “What’s gotten into those guys? They were trying to kill me before, why are they scared of me now?”
“Well…” she said slowly, “I guess your big shocking disappearance yesterday drew attention to them, now the adults are wary of them trying to see you off again. They got reprimanded pretty harshly, for once. I guess it means they’ll leave you alone, though it doesn’t seem to stop them from bullying others.”
I winced. Flight school has some harsh punishments. “Yeah, but… how did the adults find out that they were the ones responsible? I could have just gotten swept away by a gale, or gotten lost again.”
Speed paused for just a split second. “I guess someone told them, didn’t they?” and she flew off.
Hmmm… I wonder if she…? Oh well.
It continued as a regular school day at Flight School, until we broke for lunch. One of the big bullies glided over to me, to my surprise.
“Hey… Sky? Ummmm, me and the guys are, like, really sorry for what we did and, uhhh, we kinda want to apologize for giving you so much trouble. Can you come with me so we can really apologize?” He said shyly.
I looked at him warily, but he seemed sincere enough. He was embarrassed and everything. “Ok,” I said, and followed him as he took off.
But, it turned out to be one of the worst mistakes of my life. I was shocked to find that we weren’t heading just out of the way, but to a very high distant cloud. It crossed my mind as I passed around that this would be a very convenient place to harass an innocent pony and beat him up, where nopony could see or hear you.
Which is just what they did.
My tail was grabbed and I was slammed into the cloud, where every single one of the bullies either insulted or pounded me.
“Think you could get the best of us, Pasty? You know what we got put through because of you? I don’t think I can ever properly sit down again.”
“What did you think you could prove, pulling off a stunt like that?”
They growled at me, until they stepped aside, providing me with a clear path to roll off the cloud. But before I could do so, one of them grabbed my wing roughly.
“Oh, no, Pasty. We’re making sure you won’t do that again.”
He kicked.
An audible Snap and a round of sniggers later, excruciating pain dug its talons into my wing. I screamed in agony as blood ran from the jagged wound in the middle of my wing, which now hung limply with a terrible bend in the middle.
The biggest of the bullies stuck his face right in front of mine, so I could smell his rancid breath as he smirked. “So long, Pasty.”
Then he kicked me over the edge.
I fell, feeling the rush of the wind like many times before. However, this time I was not in control at all. Spreading my good wing, I barely managed to turn the terrifying free-fall into a spiraling glide. It did little to slow me, however, and I hurtled toward the ground, with the same gut-wrenching feeling as if I were in an exhilarating dive.
But I knew that there would be no triumphant return from this fall. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for the end. But instead of a crunch and the void of death, I found my fall broken partially by a low-hanging cloud. I broke through the spongy material, then crashed through the branches of a tree and tumbled into a bush on the ground.
I opened my eyes, finding myself in a pine forest, tangled within a bush. At first I felt relieved, bursting with happiness from simply being alive. From crashing through the flora, I only received a few cuts and bruises, and I was alive!
Then the pain returned as my terror receded.
Pain, like burning daggers, pierced my wing as it hung limply at that terribly wrong angle. I almost passed out from the overwhelming waves of nausea and stabbing agony emanating from my wing. But the pain was nothing compared to the terrible realization that dawned on me.
I was grounded. The thrill of flight, which had brought me happiness all my life, would be lost to me. I wouldn’t even think of the possibility of recovery, my panicked mind was dead set on the harsh fact that I would never feel the wind beneath my wings again.
I wept between moans of agony as I lay there, convulsing in terrible pain. Eventually I got my body under control; at least by not moving I would cause my wing more pain than it was already in. I must have lain there for hours, buried in agony and despair.
Imagine my further despair, when I heard voices and crashes from the underbrush. I was neck-deep in depression and suffering, and here it was, insult to injury. The bullies had returned, perhaps to finish me off, perhaps to heckle me into the ground.
No matter what they were going to do, I couldn’t take any more. I shrank back as far as I could into the bush and tried not to make a sound, though my eyes watered like crazy from the pain.
I sat there, knowing that my white coat would give me away immediately, and once again waited for the end.
But it wasn’t the bullies who appeared before me, full of cuts and bruises from tramping through the bushes. It was a little green unicorn filly, paired with a sorrel earth pony colt! He had a star on his forehead! My word! If I hadn’t been in such a pit of despair, I would have laughed my socks off right there! They matched! His star and her horn!
The earth pony turned to the unicorn and, in a gruff voice, asked, “Now Green, what on earth possessed you to go traipsing around in the middle of this dismal forest?”
“Shush, Adam!” she said, and closed her eyes. Her horn gave off a light green glow and she shuffled forwards, in my direction. With a faint ding her horn flashed once and blinked out, and she opened her eyes.
“Oh!” she startled, rearing a little, when she caught sight of me.
“What is it?” the earth pony growled, pushing her behind him. “Oh!” he shied a little as he saw me too.
“Just stay right there, please! I’ll get help!” the unicorn told me, then zipped away.
“So, what’s going on? What happened?” the earth pony inquired, eyeing me warily.
I began to tell him the story, starting from where the bullies drove me away yesterday, relating how they broke my wing for revenge today, and finally ending with a blubbering meltdown on how my life in the sky was over. The colt at first never lost his suspicious expression, but then as I told him how much grief the bullies gave me, he grew more and more sympathetic.
He snorted. “Those ruffians better hope that I never catch hold of them, I’d give them what for… anyway, you shouldn’t worry about that wing of yours. We got the best doctors in Ponyville. They’ll fix it right up.”
Yeah right. I just know that what these monsters did to me is going to leave me flightless for the rest of my life. I’m gonna be that sad pony who can’t do anything, because I have no magic nor earth pony strength nor–
“He’s over here, sir.”
“Ah, thank you, miss. We’d better get him to the hospital right away.” I hadn’t even noticed, but the unicorn filly had returned, accompanied by a white unicorn stallion with a medical cutie mark. His horn glowed, and I found myself untangled from the bush and gently lifted into the air. That’s the last thing I remembered before blacking out.
When I awoke in the hospital, I was in a hospital bed, my wing was in a cast, and the doctor sat next to me. He smiled.
“You’re wing’s gonna be fine, sonny. You’re lucky we got to it in time, which would have made flight impossible even with successful recovery. You’re going to be back in the air before you know it, kid,” he informed me and walked out of the room.
My wing’s gonna be… fine? I’m not gonna be grounded for the rest of my life? I’m gonna… fly again?
My heart nearly leapt out of my chest for the sheer joy and relief I felt with those thoughts. I couldn’t help but grin. I’m going to fly again! I’m going to fly again! Inside the cast, my wing itched like nothing else, but it didn’t matter! I was going to fly again!
Suddenly the door opens again and I saw the two foals that rescued me enter.
“Oh my gosh! You’re alright! We heard the news; your wing’s going to be fine!” the unicorn said.
“Told you it’d be fine,” the earth pony gave me a grin.
“I guess you did!” I laugh.
“Say, my name’s Green Sigil, but you can call me Green. This guy’s Adamant. What’s your name?” the unicorn asked.
“Sky. Sky High.”