//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Bath He Needed // Story: Talons of the Storm // by Storm Talon //------------------------------// “Well,” said Twilight as she finished taking some calming breaths. She had started hyperventilating as she thought about the implications of a griffin hybrid even existing, but soon she was calmed down by Fluttershy. Fluttershy would have tried to help calm her anyway, and her quick response was not just because Talon's response to Twilight's panic was to look like he was ready to try running out of the hospital in spite of his injuries. “I'm not even sure what to think of this.” She suddenly realized that this might be why the princesses had sent guards for Talon. However they had found out about him, his status as a hybrid would have many of those who found out about it wanting him for their own purposes. She turned to where Fluttershy was now attempting to calm down Talon, and asked the first thing that came to mind. “What was your father?” Talon seemed reluctant to answer her, if only to prevent her having another outburst. Fluttershy nodded slightly as he looked to her for reassurance. “Not know. Not griffon, not pony.” “Oh.” Twilight sagged a little as she processed this. “Maybe I could bring a book of different creatures for you to look through?” Fluttershy shook her head at Twilight. “Why don't you wait until he's feeling better, Twilight? Then maybe you can ask him some questions while you're teaching him.” Twilight perked up at the thought. “That's a great idea, Fluttershy! That would be so much more efficient.” A small frown crossed her face. “I kinda hate to wait, though.” As Nurse Redheart came in then with a tray of lettuce and pear chunks, Twilight realized just how much time everything had taken that morning. “Oh my gosh, it's lunchtime already? I'm sorry everypony, but I have to get back to the castle. Bye, everypony!” “Bye, Twilight,” Fluttershy called as she disappeared out the hallway at a quick trot. As she turned back to Talon, she was glad to see he had gotten over his nervousness almost as soon as the food had been brought in. “Thank you for bringing him his lunch, Nurse Redheart.” “I'm happy to, Fluttershy,” she assured, smiling. “To be honest, it's kind of refreshing to see somepony genuinely enjoy the hospital's food this much.” Doctor Oath was just finishing up scanning Talon's leg as he turned to Fluttershy. “His leg isn't ready to come out of the cast quite yet, unfortunately. He should be fine to get it off tomorrow morning, however.” He glanced over to Talon. “You hear that? Tomorrow you should be able to start walking around again.” Talon nodded silently. “Okay Talon, I've gotta go for tonight. Me and Angel will see you tomorrow,” Fluttershy stated as the rabbit in question hopped up onto her withers. As she meandered toward her cottage home, she was interrupted by the arrival of a cyan pegasus. “Heya 'Shy! How's it hanging?” “Hi Rainbow. Today has been nice.” “Yeah?” challenged Rainbow Dash as she flew alongside the path. “Watcha been up to?” “Oh, well, I was visiting Talon at the hospital.” “Huh?” Rainbow asked, scratching her mane with a hoof. “Who's Talon?” “Oh, you haven't met him yet, have you? Talon is a half-griffon who-” “Hold on a minute,” Dash interrupted. “A half-griffon? How does that even work?” “Um... we're not really sure, sorry. We just know that his mom was a griffon.” “Oh, well I guess you can't really – wait, we?” “Oh, um, me and Twilight have been trying to figure out some stuff about him.” “Oh, egghead stuff, huh? Count me out. See ya later, 'Shy!” With that Rainbow shot off into the sky, leaving Fluttershy's mane whipping around in her wake. The next day, Fluttershy arrived as Nurse Care was testing a few more foods for Talon. Broccoli and cucumbers were fine, as well as spinach, rice, and sweet potatoes. The salmon hadn't lasted more than a few seconds. Grapes were evidently poisonous to him, much to Nurse Care's chagrin. “Well,” she stated as she made some notes on her clipboard. “It seems like we've got a pretty good handle on what he can and can't eat. Still, you will need to keep an eye on him so he can get treated quickly if something does disagree with him.” “That's good.” Fluttershy glanced over to where Talon lay placidly on the mattress, listening to them both with wide eyes. “Do you know yet whether he can get his cast off?” “No, but Doc Oath should be here any minute for the scan... Speaking of which, here he is.” Oath chuckled a bit at that. “Morning, everypony. Let's get this show on the road, alright? I have to do my rounds yet, and it seems like you're just waiting for me.” After performing the scan, Doctor Oath nodded to himself. “Everything seems to be in order, so let's get these things off. We'll have to apply a new brace to two of his fingers, then Nurse Care can get a mite bath set up.” He tapped his chin for a moment. “Say, Fluttershy, do you think you could get Princess Twilight if she's free? I have an idea that she may be able to help with.” Fluttershy looked between the doctor and the half-griffon before answering. “Can I wait until his casts are off before I go?” “Certainly, that's no problem.” Fluttershy trotted up the path to Twilight's palace. She wondered whether she'd be free for this; Twilight was often busy with various duties ever since she'd become a princess. She knocked softly on the front door, shuffling her hooves as she waited for someone to answer. She hoped that she wasn't imposing on her already busy friend. The door opened to show Twilight's scaly purple assistant rather than the alicorn herself. “Fluttershy? What's up? You need something?” Spike waved a claw, beckoning her inside. “Come on in. Twilight just finished breakfast.” As she followed the dragon up the stairs to the living area of the castle, Fluttershy explained the situation with Talon and how the doctor thought Twilight could help. “Huh. I guess if anypony could do something like that, it'd be Twilight. Twilight!” “What is it Spike?” Twilight inquired as she walked out of her room. “Oh! Fluttershy, what are you doing here? I thought that you were visiting with Talon this morning.” “I was, but Doctor Oath had an idea that he needs your help with. He wanted to make it so that Talon's mite bath could clean off his wing without damaging it.” “What does he need me to do?” Asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “He wanted to know if you could make a spell that would let water and soap go through the cast without taking it off of Talon's wing,” Fluttershy explained. Twilight's other eyebrow raised at this, and she let out a low whistle. “Selective permeability? That is quite a complex effect to achieve for a solid object. I think I should be able to put something together. I'll do my best, at least.” She turned to spike where he stood listening. “You wanna come along, Spike?” “Eh, no thanks, I still have some cleaning to do.” Twilight and Fluttershy arrived to find that Nurse Care had already gotten Talon into the bath with a generous helping of suds. His wing was wrapped in a thin plastic to keep water from ruining his cast, and Tender Care was currently scrubbing his side lightly. “Glad you could come to help, Princess,” She said, turning to the door. “We want to get as much of a head start on getting rid of these mites as we can so his feathers can grow back in right.” In the tub, Talon was pawing at the water to make it splash in different directions. He didn't even notice the two mares come into the room as he focused on demolishing a tower of bubbles. When he did notice them standing next to the tub, he twitched violently to one side, thankfully landing on his less injured side. “Ack!” Talon squeaked as he scrambled to get back up in the slippery tub, sending the three mares into fits of giggles. Once they'd gotten the giggles out of their systems, Twilight stepped up to the side of the tub and addressed Talon. “Hey, I'm going to cast a spell so Nurse Care can wash your wing without taking off your cast, okay?” Talon paused before nodding, his eyes still on his own unsteady paws. “Yes, okay.” With his permission given, Twilight channeled the spell into the cast and splint on his wing. Soon, she leaned back and glanced over to the nurse. “He should be good now.” At Twilight's cue, she reached over to get as much of the soapy water to run over Talon's wings as she could. She had had to empty the bathwater once already, but had to do so again as dirt ran off his feathers along with the rivulets of water, staining the edges of the tub slightly brown. After she had rinsed him and drained the tub, Talon shook the water off of himself, and right onto three unprepared mares. Laughing at the expressions on the other two's faces, Nurse Care went to get towels for each of them. After they had gotten dried off, they returned to Talon's room. Twilight had used her magic to help dry Talon off; the warm air from the spell had caused his fur and feathers to puff out. He looked a much healthier shade of gray, and Fluttershy could actually tell that his feathers were varying shades of blue. He wobbled a little as he walked, but the nurse assured them that he just had to get used to walking again. “We'll need to keep him here for a little longer just in case anything comes up. Doc wanted him to practice walking to make sure his balance wasn't affected by the concussion. Other than that, we should be able to send him off with you by this afternoon.” After a small lunch, Twilight excused herself to return to the castle. She had a meeting with several nobles tomorrow, she explained, and wanted to help spike prepare the main hall for them. Fluttershy stayed and offered to walk Talon around the hospital while Tender Care attended to her other patients. She felt uncomfortable just having the guards follow silently along, though. “So, um, where are you two from?” “Us? I immigrated from Griffony, and green bean here comes from the crystal empire,” Day Break said with a laugh as she leaned her head toward her current partner. “The princesses have been letting some of us sign up for special assignments, so we usually work together on those. It's nice to switch up partners every once in a while, and I get out of my normal patrols.” “Speak for yourself. I wish we could switch over to this full time. My regular partner is a real piece of...” Emerald trailed off as he realized that inadvertently teaching that word to an impressionable young colt of any species would not go over well with the princesses. “Err... he's... less than pleasant to work with, in any case.” He coughed lightly into his hoof before continuing. “As much of a pain as your humor is sometimes, you're infinitely preferable to Beryl.” “Aw, you're a real flatterer, you know that?” Day replied, her voice dripping with blatant sarcasm. “What about you? Cloudsdale, right?” “Oh, um, yes,” answered Fluttershy as she watched Talon canter up and down the hallway they were walking, occasionally stopping to stretch out his paws. “I moved here to Ponyville a while ago, though. I like Cloudsdale, but there are so many more animals here.” As she turned back to Talon, she noticed he was hopping back and forth rapidly, a very uncomfortable look on his face. “Where... um...” “Oh, do you need the bathroom? There's one back by your room.” Fluttershy lead him to the door of the Stallion's room. After he darted in, he stuck his head back out, a sheepish look on his face. “Um... not know...” “Oh! Oh my, um...” Fluttershy realizing what the problem was, turned to look at Emerald. “Do you think that you could... um... show him how-” “Oh! Uh, certainly, miss Fluttershy.” Emerald followed Talon into the restroom, cursing his luck at getting what was apparently the most awkward guard assignment in all of Equestria. Twilight paused in her preparations as she heard a knock at her door. “Coming!” As she answered the door, she was greeted by a white unicorn in captain's armor. His lavender mane and tail were the same color as his eyes. His cutie mark, a popping shield bubble, made his identity apparent to Twilight. “Captain Shield Burst! I wasn't expecting you so early. Come on in.” “Thank you, Princess.” The captain bowed deeply before stepping over the threshold. “Day told me you had some questions regarding our posting here?” Twilight sat at a low table and gestured for the captain to sit across from her. “Can I offer you anything to eat or drink? Some tea, perhaps?” “Tea would be lovely, thank you,” Shield responded as he took the offered seat. “Spike!” Twilight called out. “Could you make some tea? And maybe you should make yourself some cocoa. You can take a break while you wait for me.” “Alright, just a sec,” he called back from the vicinity of the kitchen. Soon enough he arrived with a tray containing tea, cream, and sugar for each of the ponies, and a mug that contained more marshmallows than cocoa. He plopped down at the table and reached for his cocoa. “Is it okay if I sit with you guys?” “It's fine with me,” responded Twilight. “You, captain?” “Of course, Princess. In any case, perhaps we should get to the point?” “Of course. Captain, I requested your presence here so I could ask whether you were aware of the reason the princesses sent you. I might have an idea, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.” “Yes, well, all I was told was that Princess Luna happened upon a strange creature in a dream, and that we were to keep quiet about his true nature while we guarded him from anypony with ill intent.” “Ill intent?” Twilight questioned, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “Those were the exact words of her highness, actually,” replied Shield sheepishly. Twilight chuckled a bit at the look on the captain's face. “I can imagine. What I'm wondering is how Luna found out Talon was here so quickly. I didn't even know about his stay here until Fluttershy told me about it. Maybe something in his dream gave it away?” “I cannot say for certain, your highness. If so, then the dream may have given clues as to possible attackers as well?” “Maybe. I'm sure if anything does happen, we'll be glad for the precautions.” “Who would want to hurt some random colt? Or, er... whatever he is. Hatchling? Fledgling?” Spike asked, his brows furrowed as he thought. “I'm not sure Spike, but I know the princesses know what they're doing. Everything should be fine, so we should quit worrying. Thank you for your time, captain. I'll ask Luna for some more details when we meet next.” Shield Burst bowed his head momentarily. “It's no bother, your highness. Please, let me know if there is any other way In which I can be of service.”