How the Tables Turn

Nurse Redheart trotted into Spitfire’s room. Spitfire took her chance.

“You’re hiding something.”

“No. Spitfire, you’re healing fast, I’ve already told you of all the damage you’ve taken, I can’t make an estimate at how long it’ll be before you fly again, at least not yet, but other than that, there’s nothing about your condition that you don’t know.” Nurse Redheart hoped that was enough to stave her off. She really didn’t need to know.

Of course, it was enough to ensure Spitfire that she wasn’t going to die. Redheart was still hiding something, though.

“There’s something else. I believe that you’re telling me everything about my condition, but there’s something you’re keeping from me.”

Nurse Redheart sighed, beginning to do her rounds, checking Spitfire’s heart rate, blood pressure, and a check-up of Spitfire’s wounds.

“Yes, there’s something I’m not telling you. But it’s something you don’t need to know. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s in the past, and it won’t affect your future. I just don’t want to risk putting you in a state of unrest over something that isn’t important.”

“Okay, fine. As long as it’s not important anymore.” Nurse Redheart breathed a sigh of relief at her words.

“Thank you for understanding. Your condition is stable and steadily improving. I think…” Redheart took a brief pause, giving a glance over Spitfire as a whole. “I think as soon as we change your bandages, you’ll be okay to leave.”

“Really? That’s great! Ow…” Spitfire had naturally reacted to her excitement by fluttering her wings. “Yeah, that’ll take some time to get used to.”

“Don’t move your wings and you won’t have to deal with it.”

Typical misunderstandings of pegasus anatomy. “I kinda can’t help it. You’d understand if you were a pegasus yourself.”

“I suppose.”

“So, when are my bandages getting changed?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Sweet! I’ll be out of here in no time!” Spitfire put up a valiant effort to stay her wings, and was rewarded with only a few slight twitches from her wings.

Cloudchaser was just arriving home after a long day’s search. All the members of the search team were heading home for the night. They had just completed their second day of searching, and found nothing. No Rainbow, no Cloud Kicker, no Sunbeam, not even clues to where they were.

Just an empty wooden shack.

”Hey, Cloudchaser! Over here!” Cloudchaser swiveled about and saw Flitter waving her over with a hoof. She flew over to her.

“What’d you find?”

“Just this shack, but I was thinking maybe Rainbow was in there.”

“Why would she be in there?”

“Why would she go missing for three days?”

“Good point.” They flew over to the shack and knocked on the door. Their knocking was unanswered.

Flitter knocked a second time. The third time her hoof made contact with the door, it swung open. Cloudchaser wasn’t sure if this was because somepony magically unlocked it or because it hadn’t been latched in the first place. He stepped into the shack.

“Hello? Anypony here?” Dead silence met her words. She spared a glance around. The whole shack was empty except for a desk. She walked over to the desk. It was bare and dust-covered. She pulled open equally empty and dusty drawers to no avail. She abandoned her search of the desk and looked around the shack again. Her eyes came to rest upon a door.

She stepped up to the door and slowly raised a hoof to open it. She reached forward, and her hoof met… air.

It was as if the air had come together to form a wall in front of her hoof. She pressed harder and harder, but she could not break through the barrier.

She stepped back from the door, turning around and taking careful aim. She crouched down, bending her hind legs. Suddenly, she pushed up, lifting her hind hooves off the ground and delivering a swift buck to the door in front of her.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” Flitter was dumbfounded by Cloudchaser’s lack of subtlety.

“Apparently, nothing.” Cloudchaser observed the door, and she hadn’t even made a scratch in it.

“C’mon. We’ll come back later. Let’s get out of here before you piss someone off, okay?”

“Fine. But we’re coming back later.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go.”

Cloudchaser pondered whether or not she should’ve listened to Flitter. They could’ve been behind that door. She decided she’d find out the next day when they went back. She’d bring the whole team over to the shack and see what they could do.

Kicker and Rainbow stood outside Phoenix’s house. Their eyes were upon the guard that stood before them. Kicker spoke up first.

“Okay, what do you want with us?”

The guard chuckled. “You know, ever since you’ve arrived here, everything you’ve done reeks of rebellion. You see, we all know about your little flight show at your revealing.” All the color drained from both of their faces. “And, since Kicker here still goes and plays here games, we’ve decided that we’d go ahead and start teaching you a little bit early that what happens down here isn’t a game.” As he spoke, a guard rounded a corner on each end of the hallway. They both carried chokers and tweezers.

“And since you decided your little game would be in the form of a flight show.-“ the guards had each arrived, one bearing down on Rainbow, the other on Kicker; “- we’ve decided that we’re going to make sure you don’t fly again. One-”

PLUCK

Rainbow yelped in pain. “-feather-“

PLUCK

Kicker winced.

“-at a time.”

Both pegasi felt themselves being gagged. Two more guards appeared in the hallway, both armed with tweezers. The guards who were already there took hold of their wings roughly, both holding them there and causing them pain.

It was going to be a long night. Rainbow felt her feathers being ripped out. She glanced over at Kicker, who refused to do more than wince as each of her feathers were plucked. Rainbow’s guards, however, were more clever. They pulled to the sides with their tweezers, ensuring that the pulling of her feathers was slow and painful. She would be crying out, or perhaps whimpering by now, if it weren’t for the gag that was in her throat, preventing her vocal cords from moving. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. The pain paralyzed her, preventing her from even attempting to escape.

She glanced back at her wing, which was now bleeding profusely.

They were pulling blood feathers.

It became clear to Rainbow that these guard knew nothing of pegasus anatomy. Pulling one blood feather even slightly incorrectly caused bleeding to the point of requiring medical attention. Pulling several while doing enough damage as they can…

Rainbow’s wing began to feel cold, as if somepony had injected ice into her veins. It was an early sign that she was losing too much blood. Tears streamed down Rainbow’s cheeks as her thoughts cut at her like a knife. She might die from this.

“That’s enough. Can’t you see how much she’s bleeding?”

The guard working at Rainbow’s wing turned to the red-eyed guard from before. He nodded and removed Rainbow’s gag. She immediately breathed in through her throat and released her breath in a pathetic whimper.

“Go back inside. Both of you. I don’t think you’re flying again soon, and you’ve earned your lesson.” The guards turned in unison and trotted away, leaving them in their misery. Rainbow looked at Kicker’s wings. She had kept all of her blood feathers, but even so, blood trickled down her wing. It was nowhere close to how bad Rainbow’s wing was, though. Hers was almost completely bare and entirely stained crimson, dripping blood onto the floor. As soon as the guards were gone, she collapsed onto the floor, curling up and trembling from the pain.

Kicker hoisted her onto her shoulder and half-guided, half-carried Rainbow into the house. Tears were will pouring from Rainbow’s face. She let her head hang. She was in too much pain to lift it.

They arrived inside the house. Phoenix took one look at them and all the color drained from his face. “Oh my-“ He turned towards the back of the house. “ASHES!!!!”