//------------------------------// // A Wing and a Prayer // Story: A Guardsman in Equestria // by Guardsman_Sparky //------------------------------// Pain. The entire world was pain. "Give me 50cc's of morphine..." ...beep...beep...beep...beep... ...beep...beep...beep..beep... "Oh horseapples, he's regaining consciousness" ...beep..beepbeepbeep... "Heart rate spiking, he's bleeding out!" ...beepbeepbeepbeep... "We're losing him! We need to get him back under!" ...beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeebee... "Recast that anesthetic spell!" ...beebeebeebeebeebeebeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... "I've got no pulse! Get a a crash cart..." ...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... The pain bled away to black nothingness +It is not yet your time, brother. Sleep. Dream. Let your body heal as your mind sleeps. Be mindful of the past, but look to the future. When the time comes, do not shun the black armored one with wings of red. Listen to him, and your way shall be clear.+ ...your way shall be clear+ Alexander opened his eyes, the memory of the strange voice in his sleep already faded beyond the tenuous grasp of his mind. He looked around the blindingly white sanitary room he found himself in. He looked to his right, finding the source of a constant beeping filling the room. He lifted his right arm to his face, noting the IV line trailing from his bare arm to a drip bag on a metal stand. Wait, bare? Alexander shot upright, collapsing back as his stomach exploded into fiery agony. Grimacing, he looked down at the white bandages covering his abdomen, the blanket covering him up to his chest having fallen into his lap with his inadvisable upright movement. Using his bionic, Alexander pulled up the edge of the bandages. He looked at the horrifying scar puckering his skin, grimacing again as he replaced the bandage. He looked at his left arm, the one he usually concealed with a leather glove and long-sleeved fatigues. Well, Iron Cog certainly would have taken care of that explanation for him, now that that proverbial Gyrinx was out of the bag. The door to the room opened, admitting Nurse Redheart as she entered the room. The white earth pony smiled as she trotted to stand at the base of Alexander's bed. "You gave us quite the scare the other day. I'm glad to see you're doing better." "How long was I out?" Alexander had tried checking the chronometer present in his left eye's HUD, but unfortunately, the clock had froze the moment he had been enveloped by the light of the Elements of Harmony. "About a week." Nurse Redheart checked Alexander's chart. "You were very lucky, among all of the casualties brought in from the attack, you and Ms. Dash were the worst off." Rainbow. "How is she." The way Redheart looked away spoke volumes. "We stabilized her in a magically induced coma, but...she'll never fly again." Alexander closed his eyes and leaned back. "I want to see her." Alexander looked through the glass at the crying pegasus lying on the bed. He turned to Redheart. "I thought you said she was in a coma?" "She was. She woke up." The pink-maned nurse looked at Alexander with concern. "You really shouldn't be up and about yet. You suffered from several broken ribs, multiple lacerations and contusions, and a concussion, not to mention the fact that you suffered a punctured liver, a lacerated spleen, shredded bowels and a torn stomach wall, as well as the loss of a significant amount of blood and a near-death experience." Alexander ignored her, pulling the wheeled IV stand behind him to the door. "Where are you going now?" "I'm going to talk to her." "B-b-but...you can't just-" The door closed behind Alexander, cutting off the nurse's stammered protests. He quietly sat to the left of the hospital bed, his right side presented to Rainbow's back. Rainbow lay there, sobbing quietly. "Go away." Alexander reclined in his chair, wincing as the movement stretched the stitches in his stomach. "No." Rainbow didn't respond, the bandaged stumps on her back shaking in sympathy with her tears. "You're lucky to be alive." Rainbow sat upright, a hoof snapping out to slap Alexander across the face. Her good eye, the other covered with gauze, was wet with tears. "How can you say that? I lost my wings! My eye! I'll never fly again! I'm going to lose my job, my home! My dreams, gone! I'll never be a Wonderbolt, not now! You don't know what I'm going through! No one does!" Alexander fiddled with his left arm for a moment, the limb hidden from Rainbow's view. "Well now, I wouldn't say that." There was a pneumatic hiss. Rainbow's eye grew as wide as a dinner plate when the human placed his left arm next to her, his left eye expelling a hair-thin beam of light as he turned to face her. She stared at the metal-covered stump hanging from Alexander's shoulder. "H-how-?" "The miracle of technology." Alexander picked up his arm and shoved it back into place, face scrunching up at the sharp jolt of artificial and natural nerves connecting. "Bionics allow one to replace lost limbs and organs. Marvelous, isn't it?" The look of hope on Rainbow's face died as suddenly as it had appeared. She closed her eye and slumped forward, head down. "It won't work. A pegasus' wing is the way our magic flows to let us fly. Without magic, our wings aren't big enough for us to create enough lift to fly." She saw Alexander's incredulous look. "I must say, I didn't take you to be the scientific type." "I'm not an egghead." Rainbow shook her head. "Twilight explained that to me once. But even if those bionics could let me fly, without being able to feel the air on my feathers, I wouldn't be able to react to changes in the air. It would be like trying to dodge invisible rocks that you didn't know were coming while blindfolded. I'd never be able to do more than use them to jump." Alexander held his left hand before Rainbow and himself. After a moment's concentration, his hand glowed with a golden aura, Rainbow almost jumping out of her skin at the display. "H-how-?" "Cog laced the endoskeleton with a...a...erm...what was that word he used? Bah, a magic conducting metal that would let me manipulate the mana around me. Right now, best I can do is turn an apple into applesauce. But, that would let you use your magic to fly, I should think." Despite the wonder in her eye, Rainbow was still downcast. "It won't matter if I can't feel the wind." Alexander bit his lip as he stole a glance at the door. "I-erm-I haven't told anyone this, but...erm...gah, I don't know how to say this." He closed his eyes. "Touch a finger." Rainbow eyed Alexander incredulously. "What?" "Just do it." The cyan pegasus poked a finger. "Middle finger." She looked up, to find he was looking at the door behind him. She tried again. "Thumb." Her jaw hit the floor. "How did you-?" "Shortly after I first started using magic, my arm started to feel...cold. At first, I dismissed it as a phantom pain. Then I could swear that I could feel the textures of things this hand held. And then, it happened. While returning from my last mission, a wave rocked the ship as I was making a pot of recaff-er-coffee and my hand touched the pot. I pulled back from the pain, and then it hit me. It hurt. My left hand hurt. Because I had touched something hot. I had feeling in my hand again." Awe and understanding filled Rainbow's eye as she considered what Alexander had said. Say what you wanted about the weather mare, despite the fact that she had little patience for things she considered boring or for 'eggheads,' a sharp,quick mind resided between her ears. When she stopped to think, she could be quite brilliant. Rainbow stopping to think, however, was an occurrence rarer than an ork taking a bath. Thus, her jumping to conclusions led many to believe that Rainbow Dash was not the swiftest of ponies, ironically enough. This was one of those rare times Dash stopped to think, not really able to do much anything else. As such, with nothing to distract her, Rainbow quickly came to a conclusion. "I-I'll be able to fly again." Alexander tapped his nose with a metal finger and a small smile. Rainbow beamed with giddy happiness, before a frown furrowed her brows. "Aw man, what am I supposed to do now?" Alexander noticed the book on the bedstand. He gave a small chuckle when he saw who was on the cover. Well, Doctor, think you can help my friend out? Alexander gestured to the book. "Well, you could always try reading." The pain in his ribs from laughing at the look on Rainbow's face nearly sent Alexander to the floor as he beat a retreat to his room. Alexander entered Rainbow's room, raising an eyebrow at the sudden panicked thrashing the pegasus was doing. "Are you okay?" "Fine, fine, just fine." "Okay." Alexander's gaze caught the corner of a book peeking out from under her pillow. The absence of a book on the nightstand told him just which book was hidden there. So, Dr. Do's books have ensnared another fan. To tell the truth, Alexander couldn't blame her. His copy, an autographed gift from the author herself, had enraptured him like no book before. He had stayed up all night reading it, and he hadn't even realized it, so engrossed with the story that all track of time was lost. The only times he had put down the book was to eat, use the toilet, and say hello to Cog, Syrette and the girls when they came to visit him. He had been very glad to see that the worst injury they had received were a few broken bones and a couple of black eyes. Twilight had promised to find out what she could about what the Elements of Harmony did before she left, too. Alexander nodded at the pegasus' back. "I see the implants took." Rainbow nodded, flaring her new bionics, right eye flashing briefly. Alexander ran an eye over the blue plasteel limbs with their flexible carbon-fiber feathers. "How is it?" Rainbow furled and unfurled her wings several times before responding. "It's...strange. I can feel something, but at the same time, I can't. If you hadn't told me about your hand, I don't think I would have noticed." A scared look flashed across her face, but of course, had Alexander chosen to say something, she would deny it. "I may never have flown again." Alexander gave a smile. "Yeah, well, it's time to learn to fly again." Dash gave him a questioning look. "You've been discharged from the hospital." Rainbow began to sputter and stammer. "But-but shouldn't I stay here for a while longer? You know, to make sure the implants aren't, um...rejected?" Alexander leveled a stern look at the cyan cyberpony. "If your body was going to reject the implants, it would have done so already. Now c'mon, do you want to fly again for the first time in weeks or not?" Rainbow nodded and followed Alexander out of the room. Alexander grinned behind her as he noticed the pegasus stealing glances at the book under the pillow. Gotcha. Some time later, Alexander stood before Dash in the field behind the Golden Oaks Library. "So, why are you teaching me to fly, again?" Alexander looked up at the pegasus. "Because Cog is out of town, and Syrette's on a date. And technically, I'm not teaching you how to fly. I'm teaching you how to use your bionics. Now, ignore your bionics, and glide down here." "How am I supposed to glide if I ignore my wings?" "Before that asshole chopped 'em off, did you ever think about your wings while you were flying?" "Well...no." "So, jump down off Tom and don't think about your wings." Complying, Rainbow jumped off the boulder and glided down to Alexander. When she was half-way down, Alexander barked out a command. "Now fly!" Startled, Rainbow started pumping her wings, but she started thinking about pumping her wings, and ended up faceplanting at Alexander's feet. "Do it again." By the end of the day, Rainbow's frustration was at a bursting point. Despite hours of leaping off of Tom, the best she could manage was a glide. For someone as obsessed with speed and flying, it was galling. She just wanted to get this over with so that she could sneak into Ponyville General and ah...borrow 'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.' She just had to find out if Daring Do was going to escape the death trap. Sure, she could ask for the book, but she didn't dare risk being seen as an egghead. Especially not around Alexander. The guy had saved her life, for crying out loud. She didn't want him to think she was soft. Alexander interrupted her train of thought. "Alright, time to call it a day." "Ugh, finally." Rainbow stretched stiffly, then started trotting off to Emperor or Celestia knew where. Alexander caught her attention with a sharp whistle. "So, how exactly are you going to get into your house without flying?" "Well, the CMC does have a catapult. I figured I could just borrow it for a while." "That all you're gonna borrow?" Rainbow froze. He knew. How did he know? No, he couldn't know, she was being so careful, too. She tried bluffing. "Y-yeah." Alexander shrugged, outwardly neutral, but grinning ear to ear on the inside. Gotcha. "Okay." Alexander watched the cyberpony trot away. He shook his head with a grin as he walked home himself. Arriving at his bunker-like home, he had just climbed into the observation tower when he heard a distant 'twangyeeeeaaaahwoohoo!' Looking out over Ponyville, Alexander saw a cyan blur arcing towards a house made of clouds. Pulling out a pair of magnoculars with a chuckle, Alexander sat and waited for sunset. And now, we wait. Alexander didn't have to wait long after sunset for a black-clad shape to glide down from the cloud house. Grinning like an idiot, Alexander gripped one of the wires strung between the tower and the ground in his left hand and used it as a makeshift zipline. Rolling to a halt as he landed, Alexander walked calmly to the hospital. Hiding himself in the shadows by the entrance, he didn't have to wait long. He watched with his night vision as a certain black-clad cyberpony snuck up to the doors and started to pick the lock. "You know, there are easier ways to get a book." Rainbow jumped straight into the air in surprise, turning to face n amused Alexander. "Book, what book, Idon'tknowwhatyou'retalkingabout!" Alexander pulled out his copy of 'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.' "Oh, so you don't want to find out how this ends then? You should, it's quite good." Rainbow's jaw hit the floor as she tried to comprehend what Alexander had just said. "Y-you read? But you're so cool! And reading is such an egghead sort of thing." Alexander chuckled. "Rainbow, there is nothing wrong with being an 'egghead.' And yes, I read, quite avidly too. It was always a welcome distraction from the horrors of war. Your friends won't think any less of you for reading. Mine didn't. Here." Alexander tossed the book to Dash, who caught it in her hooves. "It's my personal copy. I'd like it back when you're done." Alexander turned and started to walk away. "And by the way, nice job flying." Rainbow looked down to find that when she had jumped in surprise, she hadn't come back down. The squee of happiness and excitement was enough to cause several sleepy ponies to wonder why the train was whistling so far away from any tracks. Alexander chuckled as he walked home. Walking by the library, however, he stopped as he saw a shape leave the tree. Looking closer, he saw just who the pony was. Looking at the pony, at the library door, then back at the pony, Alexander grinned cheekily as he realized the implications. "No way. Oh, this is gonna be good."