Fluttershy and Me: Remastered

After a few more minutes, the doctor and everypony else decided to enter the room.  Fluttershy let go of me so I could see all of my friends.  That they were all there for me was no surprise, but it just felt great to know that they really cared about me.  I proceeded to ask the doc what was up with me.

“So doc, how bad am I?” I asked him plainly.

“Matthew, you are quite lucky to have friends such as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.  They pulled that branch out of you and got you here on the double.  But, even with that, you still died.  How you are even alive right now amazes me.  As for your injury, well, the branch went straight through the right side of your chest, as you can tell.  This, in turn, managed to cut off vital blood vessels and arteries needed to supply your heart with blood.  When you got here, we managed to stitch everything up as best, and as fast, as we could, but even with that, like I said, you still died, for one hour and three minutes.”  I had already been told how long I was dead for.  I didn’t try to explain to the doctor how I had survived.  I doubted he would believe it, so I just let him draw his own conclusions.

“Am I at all paralyzed in any parts of my body?” I asked.  I was afraid he would say yes.  Thankfully, his answer was no, but I sure as hell did come close to being paralyzed on the right side of my whole body.

“The branch managed to bang up your right wing pretty badly as well.  It will heal much quicker than your much more obvious injury.”  This brought about my next question.

“So, how long am I gonna have to stay in the hospital?  I mean, I can barely move right now, so don’t sugarcoat it.”  I honestly wanted him to sugarcoat it, but I figured there was no way around it.

“I’m sorry to say Matthew, but you will have to stay here to recover for one year.  And, even after you have healed, your heart may not act the same.  You must keep your blood pressure at a low rate, lest you want your heart to clog with blood.  You may also suffer from small spasms during the recovery time, but it will go away.  Once again, I apologize Matthew.”  One year, he said to me.  I was going to spend one year of my life in a hospital.  Just my rotten luck.

I was in disbelief, but I accepted it.  I let out a deep breath, which caused me to cough from the pain in my chest.  I moaned at the pain that I was still undergoing.  I didn’t want to tell Fluttershy when she was hugging and kissing me, but she was hurting me a bit.  But for her, I would suffer any pain.

“Will I be able to still parkour around the town and stuff like that?  I don’t think I can live without my physical skills,” I told the doctor.  I think I would rather be stuck in a wheelchair all my life than have my physical skills taken away from me.

“Yes Matthew, you will still be able to move as well as you do normally, but like I said, your blood pressure must be kept in check,” he told me.  My blood pressure was normally fine, so I wasn’t really worried about that.

“Don’t worry Matthew.  In one year’s time we will have you back on your feet as fleet as you were before this whole mess, you have my word,” the doctor promised me.

“Thanks doc.  Would you mind if I spent some time with my friends here?”

“Of course not, they can stay as long as they wish,” he said, and he left the room.  Fluttershy, our pony friends, and Celestia all looked at me, unable to move a hair, as I lay in my bed.

“Man, Matt, one year.  I thought one week was bad when I broke my wing a while back.  I don’t think I could sit through one year,” Rainbow said, trying to cheer me up.  It helped, but not much.

“Yeah, well what are you gonna do?  At least I’m not dead.  I still can’t believe I’m here right now.  And what I saw, was just…” I stopped myself.  I didn’t think it necessary to tell them what I had seen, not yet at least.  They had enough to worry about with me in my current state.

“Princess, can’t you just heal Matthew?  You’ve healed me when I’ve injured myself in the past,” Twilight asked her teacher.

“Twilight, those injuries were minor, and Matthew’s injuries are much more severe.  Also, I have no knowledge of what my healing magic can do for him.  I know very little of how the human body works, and I may heal him incorrectly if I try.  I apologize Matthew,” the Princess responded.

“It’s quite alright Princess.  I don’t really want to cheat my way out of this.  Although the circumstances aren’t what I want them to be, this may actually grant me a nice change of pace.”  I had been living a life that was in the fast lane at that time.  I needed a little time to relax and chill out, even though at that time I was severely injured and on the brink of death.

We all spent about the next hour together, just talking about things that just came to mind.  Soon, everypony decided to leave, all except for Fluttershy.  She stayed behind.

“Matthew, I don’t want to leave you alone here,” she said, looking me in the eyes.  “I want to stay with you, to make sure you get better.  I know how to take care of people, I could really help,” she continued.

“Fluttershy, you’ve yet to experience an injury as a human, or even get the slightest cold.  You’ll come to find that soups and, well, whatever you normally use to bring your animal friends back to health won’t really work for me.  I’m gonna need things like… well, I’ll just say I’ll need stuff that you can’t necessarily provide.  I’m sorry if I’m being harsh, but this is just how things are.”  She looked at me and nodded her head.  She gave me a hug and a kiss on the head.

“Does that mean I can’t stay here?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not sure.  If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want you to leave my side.  But, it’s the doctor's decision whether or not you can stay with me.  But, for tonight, I’ll tell him you’re staying, regardless of what he wants.  How’s that sound?” I asked her.  She smiled at me and we kissed.

Shortly after that, the doctor came in, and asked if Fluttershy could leave.  It was pretty late, and he wanted me to get some sleep.  I told him that she was staying with me for the night.  He didn’t try to argue with it, and left us as we were.  I, however, didn’t go against his choice to get some sleep.  Fluttershy fell asleep with me on the side of my bed.  And once again, we shared our dreams.

And so, time passed on by.  I healed at a good rate, and by the end of the first two months, my wings were back to full health.  I still could barely move at that point, and when I could move, I felt pain.  Not as severe as in the beginning, but I still felt pain.  Fluttershy would visit me every day, and would stay with me on most nights.  The rest of our friends would normally come visit at least three times a week.  Rainbow visited the most out of them all.  She couldn’t bare to see me flightless, but I told her it was alright.

Well, about six months into my stay, the girls decided to get me some gifts.  And these gifts, let me tell you, were pretty damn amazing.  I was resting in bed, reading some of The Walking Dead, when the girls came in.  They were all smiling.  Fluttershy wasn’t there though.  I asked why.

“Well Matt, Fluttershy’s gift is a little too hard for us to hide, so she’s just gonna wait outside until you’re done being excited over what the five of us got you,” Rainbow said.  So, Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack all pitched in to get me one gift, and Fluttershy got me one from herself.  Awesome.

“So, what did you girls get me?” I asked, my curiosity at its peak.  They all looked to each other, smiling.  Twilight used her magic to float one of my hidden blades onto my bed.  It was my right blade, and it looked the same.  Now, I was confused.

“My hidden blade?  I don’t get it,” I said.

“Take a gander at it, carefully Matt,” Applejack told me.  So I looked it over, and I was immediately dumbfounded, for both not noticing it in the first place, and for what it actually was.  My right hidden blade had been changed into a hookblade.  How the hell did they know that I had wanted one?  How the hell did they even know how to make one?

“How did you,” I started, but was cut off by Rainbow.

“I see you play Assassin’s Creed all the time Matt, and the one with that kind of a blade stuck out to me.  You sort of talked sometimes of how you wanted one, so I figured out a way to make one.  It’ll still stab if you need it too, but now you’ve got the hook,” she told me.  I tried to see how it would work.  The hook part would actually close back into the bracer of the blade, but it would still leave the blade out so I could stab.  If I let go of the hook, it would snap back out.  This meant it would only go back in if I needed to stab with it.  Sweetness.

“Wow, girls, I can’t say thank you enough.  This is awesome.  Lets see if I can make it work,” I said, strapping on the blade.  At this point, I was able to move pretty well.  My recovery was going smoothly, but I was still injured to a good degree.  I managed to get the blade working, sliding it out and in of its bracer.  It fit like a glove and worked like a charm.

“Now then, what did Fluttershy get me?  Where is she anyway?” I asked the girls.

“She’s outside.  Hey Fluttershy, you can come in now,” Rainbow called to Fluttershy.  Fluttershy walked in with an eagle, a beautiful bald eagle.  In fact, I think it was the same one that I took a feather from for my wings.  I looked at it, and then to Fluttershy, and smiled.

“You’re giving me an eagle as a gift?  That’s even cooler than the blade, no offence to you girls though, this thing is still awesome, but an eagle!  Come on, you gotta admit that’s cool,” I said, overflowing with joy at the eagle that was perched on Fluttershy’s arm.

“I told him how you got hurt, he wanted to come see you.  After all, you do share some similar qualities.  Well, actually, you both just have wings, and yours are white Matthew, but nonetheless, he still wanted to come see you.  He actually wants to be your pet now.  He told me that he wants you to name him,” Fluttershy said, and she handed him off to me.  It was a good thing I had on my bracer, because that eagle had some sharp talons.  I looked him over.  He had dark brown feathers, easily dark enough to conceal him in the dark.  So, I went to the most original name ever.

“Nightwing,” I said (original, right?).  “His name will be Nightwing.  What do you think about that?  You like that name?” I asked the eagle.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” said a voice.  I was caught off guard, and my face wore a surprised look.  Fluttershy giggled at this.  She knew what just happened.

“Who said that?” I openly asked.  The ponies in the room just looked confused, but Fluttershy knew.  Nightwing had just spoken to me.  I looked back to him.

“Did you just talk to me?  How is that possible?”

“Matthew, you had taken one of my own feathers to gain your wings.  That feather held a part of me.  Not only did the potion you drink grant you wings, it allowed you the ability to communicate with me.  I might say that that is a pretty cool ability for one such as yourself,” Nightwing said to me.  His voice was bold, and very noble, if that makes sense.  He had a young voice, almost like Gresh from that fourth Bionicle movie, except a bit older.

I didn’t care what he sounded like, I could talk to my pet eagle.  How cool is that?

“Fluttershy, are you hearing this?” I asked her.

“Indeed I am.  He was actually the one to explain it to me.  He told me he felt a connection to you.  I guess we know what he meant now,” she responded, her voice filled with joy.

“Well Nightwing, I’m glad to call you my new pet.  Hell, you’re not even a pet, you’re like a brother practically.  I don’t suppose I could call you into battle if I wanted to could I?” I asked him.

“Well, provided I won’t get my feathers fried off, I think that’d be fine.  After all, spending most of my life with Fluttershy had gotten old.  I need some adventure, no offence to you Fluttershy,” he said.  I laughed, and so did Fluttershy.

“None taken, Nightwing.  I’m actually glad you’ll be getting out more now that you’ll have an owner, or brother, who you can go out and fly with.  But, while Matthew is here in the hospital, you wouldn’t mind staying with me would you?” she asked him.

“Of course not.  Although, I would like to come visit him with you, if that’s alright?”

“I see no problem with that.  Matthew?” she turned to me.

“Well of course my brother can come visit me, why wouldn’t he be allowed to?” I said, and I used my fingers to rub under his chin.  He seemed to like that.

We all spent another hour together.  The girls were amazed that I could actually talk to Nightwing.  They started asking him questions, in which I would translate his answers to them.  Sometimes, for fun, I would say that he said something other than what he had answered.  He would shoot me funny looks when I did that, which made me laugh.  But, after a while, everypony started to leave.  Of course, Fluttershy was the last to leave.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay Matthew?  And don’t worry, Nightwing will be with me, won’t you Nightwing?” Fluttershy said.

“Of course I will, anything for my new master,” he said.

“Brothers, Nightwing, we’re brothers.  Don’t call me master, it’s too weird,” I told him, and we all started to laugh a bit.  After that, Fluttershy and I kissed goodbye, and I gave Nightwing another chin rub with my fingers, and then they left.  Fluttershy took my blade home with her.  I saw no reason to keep it in the hospital.

That had been one great day.  I had actually gotten really worn out, so I decided to hit the hay (no pun intended).  But that night, even though Fluttershy and I weren’t in the same place, we shared a dream.

‘Fluttershy,’ I thought to myself, before I fell asleep, and we shared our usual dream.  That dream always reminded me of how I loved Fluttershy, and how I would always love her.  She really was the only person for me.

‘Fluttershy.’