While the train ride to Fillydelphia seemed to go fast, the ride to the hospital felt like it took forever. Avis was laying in pain for a while but passed out before we got there. I had never felt so helpless. My best friend in all of Equestria and all I could do was sit there holding her hoof and telling her it was ok, even though I knew it was not going to be ok. Her left wing had been badly injured, and I was told that its recovery didn’t look good.
The doctors at the hospital didn’t have much better news. After they had looked closer at it, they believed that the wing would never fully recover, leaving her unable to ever fly again. This would break her heart, and like that wing, she may never heal from that.
She woke up at once point and saw me, and while still in pain, managed to smile at seeing me. She reached her hoof out and tried to speak. “Tinkerton, I am glad you’re here, please don’t leave.” That was all she could say before she passed out again.
“It’s ok, she is just resting, and she needs a lot of it to recover. You can stay as long as you need too.” The doctor reassured me.
I thanked the doctor as he left the room. I sat there with her the entire time, only leaving for food and to use the restroom. At some point both our parents came after hearing the news. When I told them what had happened I couldn’t help but cry. The mayor had paid for rooms for all of us to stay at the hotel, but I spent most of my time at the hospital with Avis to keep her company.
Avis remained at the hospital for almost a week before she was well enough to leave for home. Just as the doctor had said, while the rest of her healed nicely, her wing was rendered unusable. Everyone was glad that she was ok, and most of the town was there to welcome her back when we reached Hillsdale. She thanked everyone for thinking of her, but I could tell she did not want to talk about it. For the next few days she didn’t leave her home. I visited with her as often as I could, and tried to reassure her that even though she couldn’t fly, things would be ok.
Time seemed to go by painfully slow. While everyone else moved on with their lives, Avis and I seemed to fall behind everyone else. She remained home and while I still helped at the shop my heart was not into it and thus my work was not as good as it normally was. Even though it was Avis who got injured, I felt it too. I had not been sleeping well the past few nights, often seeing the scene of Avis’ injury in my dreams. It got to a point where I just did not want to sleep, but one night that changed.
After not sleeping well for the past few nights, I was so tired that I passed out shortly after laying down for the night. That night I had a dream, but it was different, yet familiar. It was just like the griffon dream, it even started with the griffon. I saw it plain as day. This time it was working just as it did after I fixed it, yet it seemed more alive. Then suddenly the griffon flew away, and in its place was something I would had never seen before. It was a wing, but not one made of flesh and bone, but one of wood and metal. I stared at it in disbelief, it was perfect. Just as in the griffon dream the wing blew apart piece by piece and I could see exactly how it was made. It was complex in design, but used such simple parts. I walked through the blueprint and analyzed every part of it, taking in the details, it was just perfect.
I work up shortly after the dream ended and rushed down to the shop. I couldn’t sleep anymore, I had to build. I was so excited about the dream I forgot about everything bad that had happened. I worked through the night and into the morning not stopping even for food. I was so busy that I didn’t even notice my parents come into the shop.
“Tinkerton, have you been working all night?” My father asked me once he could get my attention away from the work.
“Oh, good morning. Yeah I have. I had the most wonderful dream, I couldn’t wait until morning. Remember the griffon? Well I had another dream, this time it was even more vivid and complex.”
“What is it son?” My mother asked me, not able to make out what I was working on.
“It’s a wing, a mechanical wing. It’s for Avis. The dream, it showed me how to make it. It’s just perfect.”
“A wing?” My father didn’t know what else to say.
As far as any of us knew, there had been nothing like this attempted. Usually if a Pegasus broke a wing, it meant they were grounded for life. Not for Avis. She meant too much to me to say she will never fly again. I felt like I could build anything to solve any problem, and no more so then now. I continued working past breakfast and into the afternoon. After hours of work, I finally finished. I quickly wrapped it up in some cloth and headed straight to the Lilystalks.
When I got to the farm I placed the wing next to the barn and then went to the front door. Avis’s mother answered the door. I asked if Avis was home, although I knew she was since she never left these days. A few moments later Avis came to the door.
“Tinkerton, you look tired. You ok?”
“I’m better then ok, and hopefully you will be too. I have something for you. Follow me.”
Before she could respond, I had already started towards the barn, looking behind me to make sure she was following. I could tell that the curiosity had gotten to her as she followed. When we got to the barn I still had the wing wrapped up on the ground.
“I made this for you. Go ahead and open it.”
Avis hesitated for a moment but then slowly removed the cloth. When she saw what it was, she was not sure what to make of it. “What is it? It looks like a wing.”
“It is, it’s a new wing. It’s for you.”
“I, I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, let’s see if it works. Try it on, here I will help you.”
I took the wing and placed it over her injured wing. She cringed a bit when I touched her wing, not out of pain, more abashedly. It was easy enough to attach it over her injured wing. The body strap wrapped around her body with another strap attaching to the base of her working wing to allow proper synchronization. I tightened it enough to keep it on, yet loose enough not to cause her discomfort.
“There we go, how does it feel?” I asked.
“It feels, weird. It’s a bit heavy. You sure it will work?”
“I think it should, no I KNOW it will, it has to.”
Avis started to move her wings, first her working one to get a feel for it, then slowly tried to move her injured one. While it was too weak for flying, it was still moveable. At first she seemed to struggle, but when she moved both wings at the same time, it seemed to be easier. After a few minutes she was able to get both wings flapping quickly enough to start hovering a few inches from the ground.
“It’s working! It’s working!” Avis exclaimed, with a happiness in her voice that she hadn’t shown since the accident.
She started to flap harder and faster and was able to get higher and higher. She couldn’t seem to get any forward propulsion, but could hover a few feet from the ground. She looked over the barn and ran over to the other side.
“Avis! Where you going?”
“I think this would work!” She shouted. A moment later I saw Avis on the roof of the barn.
“Avis what are you doing?” I shouted up at her.
Before she could respond she ran and jumped off the roof. She spread out her wings but was falling quickly, but before she could reach the ground, her wings caught the air just right and was able to fly back into the air. It was a bit clumsily, but she was flying, my invention had worked!
Someone in the house must have heard what was going on outside because moments later I saw her parents and brothers come out of the house.
“Tinkerton, what is going on? And where’s Avis?” Mr. Lilystalk asked.
Before I could answer, Mrs. Lilystalk spoke, “Boise look! It’s Avis and she’s, she’s flying!”
Everyone looked up and stared in the air with amazement. Avis was flying, albeit awkwardly, she was still flying. It worked, I knew it could work.
“But how is this possible?” Mr. Lilystalk asked.
“It’s a wing that I built. I had a dream about it and couldn’t stop until I built it. It worked, it worked better then I imagined.”
“You built? I have never seen anything like it.” Mrs. Lilystalk said, still awestruck.
Avis must have seen us all gathered around so she came in for a landing. She landed a bit rough. We all went to make sure she was ok. When she got up she instantly ran over to me and hugged me very tightly. I could tell that she was crying, but tears of joy, not sadness.
“Thank you, thank you Avis!”
“It’s still a rough design, but I will work hard to improving it. I am so glad it worked.”
I could tell that her parents were also happy. Her mother started to cry and even her father’s eyes welled up a little. It would still take some time to get used to the new wing and to make the needed improvements, but from this day on, she would no longer be grounded. As I watched her jumping around with happiness I felt something on my flank. I looked back to it and my eyes widened. I saw my flank, and it was not blank anymore. Instead there was a bright yellow light bulb there. I had gotten my cutie mark!
I cheered out loudly enough that everypony stopped and looked at me. When I realized that I was being watched I turned to my side and showed my flank. “I got my Cutie Mark!”
“Oh wow, that’s great Tinkerton!” Avis came over and hugged me again.
That night we all celebrated, Avis for being able to fly again, and me finally getting my cutie mark. I realized that night that I was right, building and inventing is my destiny, but it was not only that. The reason I never got my cutie mark was not that inventing was my destiny, it was inventing stuff to help others, and it all started with helping my closet friend to become whole again. That day my life felt forever changed, but now for the better.