//------------------------------// // Chapter VII: The Most Intense Pain // Story: I Would Give to You // by Jet Howitzer //------------------------------// (Yes, comrades, another chapter! Rate, comment, and enjoy.) You had just departed from Fluttershy’s cottage, after dropping off all the feed bags in their respective locations, and now you were heading back to the library for your next exam with Twilight. You had high hopes for this meeting, not just because it would put you a step closer to regaining your wings, but because it would also lead into your first date with a mare since flight camp. You felt a spring come to your step as you made your way towards the library in the town. You let yourself fall into a rhythm as you walked, so you were free to let your mind wander freely. The first thing your mind latched on to was the most expected, that being the mare you were on your way to see. And, with that train of thought, came memories of the kiss you received yesterday. It hadn’t been a long one, or even filled with any real level of passion, but it was a kiss. Perhaps it meant nothing, and was really just a sign of thanks? But if that was the case, a hug would’ve served the same purpose, and it could’ve been done without having to send Fluttershy away. There had to be more behind the action than simple thanks. You gave your head a shake, not wanting to over think what you’d been given. Things like romance were best left to chance, and fate. A kiss was a good thing, and you wouldn’t look deeper than what you saw. With that line of thought ended, you began observing your surroundings. You saw the same gray pegasus that you saw a few days ago, and you waved to her. She waved back, before trotting over. “Ditzy, was it?” The mare nods in response, a smile forming on her lips. “So, how are you today? Any good mail to deliver?” “Yeah, actually. I have a letter for Rarity from her dream stallion. Those two have been going at it for weeks, now. It’s kind of funny, really. There’s so much Rarity doesn’t know. But that stallion of hers swore me to secrecy, and so I won’t spill the beans. Anyway, I’m off to get out the last of the mail. Have a good day! And be sure not to miss the celebration! It’ll be here before you know it!” You nodded and thanked to the mail mare before she headed off on her way to deliver the last of the mail for the day. You continued your trip into town, and soon enough you were standing outside the library. You took several deep breaths before you raised a hoof to the door. However, you hesitated for a moment before knocking. Knowing my luck… You brought your hoof down to knock, and you actually managed to knock on the door three times, rather than hitting the face of a pony. A brief mental cheer ran through your mind before you regained your composure as you waited for either Spike, or Twilight, to open the door and let you in. Just a few moments passed before the door opened, revealing the purple dragon. He looked up at you for a moment, before he stepped back and motioned for you to enter. You gave him a small smile, which he returned, and soon you were standing in the main room. However, the room looked different from how it did the last time you were here, and you quickly realized that all the shelves had been moved up against the walls. Twilight wasn’t present, and so you opted to just wait for her to come, knowing that Spike wouldn’t have just let you in if she wasn’t here. True to your suspicions, Twilight showed herself just a few minutes after you entered the room. She gave you a smile, and then she began walking over. “Alright, today I’d like to try a spell that I found this morning. It’s not going to heal your wings yet, but it will accomplish something that needs to be covered anyway. Spike, if you like you can go spend some time around town, since I won’t need your help with this.” The dragon simply shrugged, before a smile found its way to his face, and then he left the library. You gave him a wave as he left, and then you turned back to the lavender unicorn. “So, what exactly is this spell going to accomplish? If it’s not going to heal my wings, what’s the point?” The mare shook her head, and then she moved closer, her horn beginning to glow. “Well, for one thing, we need to know if the damage is in a single point, or if it’s spread across your wing. From what I’ve read there are many muscles throughout the wing that enable you to make dozens of minute adjustments.” You nod, impressed with the mare’s knowledge of wing anatomy. “Yeah, there are. But how will we see if those all work, if we can’t get a message to them from my brain?” The mare’s smile widened in response. “That’s where this spell comes into play. You see, it allows for me to act as a bridge between your brain and the muscles. Or, to be more accurate, my magic will act as a bridge. This spell will let us go around the damaged nerve clusters. It’ll take some time to fine tune the connections, though, so we’ll just start with one wing, and only the muscles that control extension.” You turned your body to allow Twilight access to your right side, and then she used her magic to extend the wing to full extension. The sensation stirred memories of flight, and for just a tiny moment you had to hold back tears, but the sensation passed quickly. Soon the mare was focusing intently on the joint between your back and the wing, and then you felt the strangest sensation creep along your back, followed by a moment of the most intense pain you’d ever felt. You nearly blacked out from the sensation, and your legs failed beneath you as the sensation began to fade. The pain itself lasted for mere moments, but the memory was slow to fade. You looked at Twilight, and you could see she was appalled at what she did. “That was surprisingly unpleasant.” You spoke through gritted teeth, and the mare’s frown intensified, and she grew closer to tears. “Hey, don’t cry, Twi.” You struggled to your feet, and then you moved next to the mare, your limp wing dragging behind you. “I’m glad that you’re trying, and if this is a part of the process I’m willing to go through with it.” “But I could feel your response, if not the pain itself. How can you want to go through that again?” Her voice was shaking as she spoke, and you wrapped a hoof around her. “Because I trust you, Twi.” The mare stayed silent for a moment, and the she turned and embraced you quickly. She let go before you could really enjoy the hug, but the sentiment was not lost on you. “Now, I want you to try again, but let me know what you’re doing. Before you try to do anything, let me know what to expect.” The mare nods, and takes a few deep breaths before her horn glows once more. Your wing rises once more, stretching to full extension. You looked at the mare as she moved close, and the glow around her horn began to intensify. “I accidentally created a loop in your nervous system before, and when I realized what I did the signal hit you all at once, resulting in a massive burst of pain. This time I’m not going to try to bridge any gaps, instead I’m going to find a stable pathway, and reroute signals.” The glow grows a bit brighter once more, and then you feel a tug on a muscle you hadn’t used in months. “Twi, what did you do?” The mare remains silent for a moment, and then you try to move your right wing, and you get a measure of success. It obeys your mental commands, but only with jerky responses, and even those are delayed between when you want them to happen and when they actually happen. But it’s your wing. And it’s moving. A tear makes its way down your face, matting your fur slightly. “Stop moving it.” The mare’s words are strained, and you immediately cease your motions. The glow brightens even more, becoming hard to look at, before it suddenly drops to a dull glow, barely brighter than when she was simply holding your wing aloft. “I’ve got it. Or, I’ve got something. Try to do your stretches from flight camp.” You nod, and then you try to retract your wing, and to your amazement, it obeys. There’s no delay, and it moves smoothly. The tear you had shed earlier was joined by several others as you began to cry from joy. The happiness you felt was marred by the fact that you didn’t have complete control over the intricate contours of your wing, but that would come with time, you hoped. The wing obeyed your every command without delay, and it felt like there was never any damage done. It moved perfectly, and for just a moment you wanted to leap into flight. “Twi. I… I don’t know what to say.” You really didn’t know what to say, but you knew what you wanted to do. You took a few steps around the mare, and she watched you move, a curious expression on her face. When you were next to her, you lowered your wing around her, pulling her into a hug. “I never thought I’d be able to do this.” The mare beside you was blushing furiously, her cheeks a magnificent shade of crimson. Then, an idea struck you, and you felt compelled to ask. “Can you do what you did with the other wing?” The mare nodded, and her horn glowed fiercely for a moment. You averted your gaze as the glow intensified and then you felt a sensation similar to the one you felt earlier, save for the fact that it was on your left this time. After a moment you heard Twilight let out a sigh, and then you tried to move your left wing, and just like with your right wing, it responded flawlessly, save the same issues as the right wing. You broke your embrace with the unicorn, and you took a couple steps back from her, until you had room enough to fully extend your wings. The sensation of moving your wings once again was pure bliss. You had tears running down your face, and you knew they were ones of happiness. You pumped your wings a few times, using what little control you had over the finer nuances to angle them to provide lift. With a few powerful strokes you felt yourself growing lighter on your hooves. You felt a giddiness that you recalled feeling the first time you ever flew, and it only grew as the weight on your hooves grew less and less. Then, with a final surge of strength, you broke free from the bounds of terrestrial limitation, taking to the air once again. You were hovering over the ground, mere feet above it, but it was enough to elicit a laugh from you. The laugh was quickly followed by a look of utter bliss as you felt your wings slice through the air once again. You glanced at the unicorn mare, and an idea leaped to the forefront of your mind, and so you decided to act upon it. The words of your first lesson came to mind, and you tilted your wings slightly, providing forward momentum. You gave a powerful flap of your wings one last time, and using the burst of speed, you swept into Twilight, wrapping her in your wings as you rolled expertly onto your back, the mare cushioned from the impact. You looked up at her, and she looked down to you, a blush forming on her cheeks. Your own cheeks began to burn with the increased blood flow, but you didn’t care. The list of things that mattered to you at the moment was frighteningly short, and was topped by a certain lavender mare. “Twilight, you’ve given me so much, and you’ve asked so little in return. In fact, you’ve asked for nothing.” You brought a hoof to the mare’s cheek, and she actually leaned into the contact just a tiny bit. Not as much as you would’ve liked, but it was still something. “For quite some time I had no hope of flying ever again, and I had come to accept that. But now you’ve rekindled that hope.” You smiled at the mare, and she returned the smile. “And yesterday you gave me a different kind of hope.” The unicorn atop you leaned down slowly, her breath warm against your face, her blush growing just a bit brighter as she grew closer to you. She hesitated for just a moment when she grew just a hairsbreadth from you, and you raised your head to make the contact. Her hesitance was clear, but it quickly vanished as she began to enjoy the kiss. It lasted mere moments, but in those moments you knew that this was something more. “No matter what happens, Twi, I’d like to spend quite some time with you, assuming you’d like that.” The mare nodded slightly in response, before she kissed you once again. This one was far shorter than the one before it, but you didn’t care. You had two things now that you didn’t have before. Now that you knew there was something here for you, something more than just Fluttershy, you knew that you’d have to find something to do for a place to stay. But that was a concern for another time. The two of you simply enjoyed the embrace for a time, but then you began to lose some level of control in your wings. You looked to Twilight’s horn, and you saw that the glow was beginning to fade, slightly. The mare’s face showed signs of some fatigue, and you realized that there must be some heavy requirements on her for this spell, considering how much she was doing. You unwrapped her from your feathery embrace, and she finally allowed the spell to end. A tiny pinch accompanied the end of the spell, and you flinched slightly in response. “Thank you.” You realized with a start that those were the first words the mare had uttered in quite some time. You looked at her, and you noticed that she had a single tear running down her cheek. You raised a hoof to the tear, and with the utmost care you wiped it away, leaving behind only the smallest of trails in its wake. “Since Storm no stallion has ever made me feel like you have, but not even he made me feel like you do. I’ve always known that I’m special, but with you, with what you said, it’s even better.” You let the mare stay where she was for a moment, and then she climbed off of you, allowing you to sit up and begin folding your wings against your side. “It seems that today was far more productive than I could’ve hoped for. Not only did we see firsthand that your muscles are fine, we also saw that the nerve damage is concentrated.” The mare’s blush had diminished since she had gotten off you, but it returned as she continued. “And we’ve started a relationship.” “If I could choose only one of those things to have happened today I’d choose the latter. Now, let’s go get some lunch, and maybe we can get to know each other a bit better while we eat?” The mare nodded, and you finished folding your wings. You made your way to the door, and you held it open, allowing Twilight to go through first. You looked back into the library for a moment, before you left. As you closed the door, you looked up to the sky, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before you flew through its limitless bounds once again. The trip to the small café didn’t take long, and soon the two of you were seated at the same table as last time, and you decided to play it safe this time, and so you resolved to order the same thing. Twilight took a bit longer to decide, and the waitress arrived just in time to take your orders as Twilight made her decision. “So, Twi, tell me some about how you came to Ponyville. Fluttershy told me that you came here from Canterlot, but I never got the whole story.” Twilight quickly jumped into an elaborate explanation of her first ever adventure with her friends, and the results of the whole adventure left you amazed at how much she managed to accomplish in so short a time. The next hour was spent in a timeless enjoyment of memories of all the best and worst times of your life, and hers. The time flew by, and before you knew it, you had both recounted most of the highlights of your lives. The check had been on the table for quite some time when you finally got around to looking at it. Twilight pulled out her bag of bits, and she nearly emptied it on the table. “I may not be Rarity, but I can be generous nonetheless.” Her comment came in response to your raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but that’s still a lot of money.” Twilight just smiled back at you, and so you shrugged it off. The two of you soon left the café. You had no destination in mind, and your pace clearly indicated that you were in no rush to get there. You walked beside the unicorn, occasionally glancing at her as you walked. Maybe there’s something better than flying… (For those counting, this is the third day. And Taupe took three days for his adventures in Manehattan. Ooh! Foreshadowing!)