Everything was set up perfectly. Scootaloo was astonished that her friend was going to go through with this, but didn’t question her judgement. She had just left to go to the Wonderbolts show. Soarin came in as she walked out, and she looked at him curiously but didn’t think much of it.
Winter was waiting in her room, knowing that the show would start in about an hour and that she had only a bit of time to pull off her scheme. She heard voices outside her door, and she realized that Soarin was talking to an employee outside, asking if he could come in. The door opened, and he stepped into the room.
She couldn’t see him, as she was looking out the window on her left, but she could hear him. He shuffled awkwardly in the doorway, and she grinned. She knew he couldn’t see her. “You might as well come in,” she said. Soarin jumped, then walked in and closed the door.
“Um… hi,” he said. He was clearly very nervous. He could see the bandage wrapped around her head, and didn’t know how bad exactly the injury had been. He took a deep breath, and began to apologize. “I know you’re probably mad at me, which I could understand, but you have to know that it was an accident. You see, I ran into a really dense cloud earlier, and it twisted some of my feathers out of place, and I didn’t know until I started flying again. I-”
“So you lost control and landed on me, yes?” She was still looking out the window, keeping up the air of being angry at him. She wasn’t angry, not really. She didn’t care that he had injured her, she just cared that she wouldn’t be at home in the morning. She could live with that, though. She just needed to pull off her plan.
Soarin, surprised that she would even talk to him after what he did, stopped. “Yeah… Anyway, I’m sorry. I know that you’ll have to stay overnight here, and if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, just tell me.” He was, in truth, feeling quite guilty. He was keeping this filly away from home on Hearth’s Warming, and that was almost unforgivable in his mind.
Winter finally turned to look at him, letting him see how the bandage wrapped around her head. She let him see how it covered her eye, even though the fountain wasn’t the cause of that particular injury. She knew it was probably overkill, but every little bit counted.
Soarin’s eyes widened as he saw how dark the bandage over her eye was. “Did I do that?” To be honest, the poor stallion was horrified. He had no idea how bad a head wound could be.
Winter decided to take mercy on him. “No,” she said. “This is quite old. It just… reopened.” She smirked. It was always open.
Soarin visibly drooped in relief. “Oh, okay,” he said. “That’s good.” Then he realized what he said, and tried to recover. “I mean, it’s not good, but I didn’t do it, and-“
Winter ignored his sputtering. He was freaking out, and she needed to use that. She gathered her thoughts, trying to form a good request, then it hit her. She knew exactly what to ask for. “Soarin!”
He stopped abruptly, unaware that he had been going on and on. “Um… yes?”
Winter turned her head, looking away from him again. “I think… I think I know something you can do to make it up.” She outlined her request to him, and he nodded.
“I think I can make that happen.”
Winter woke up to a familiar pony bouncing on the foot of her bed. She smiled, knowing that she had just gotten back from the show. “Hello, Loo.”
“Nope, not even the Name can make me mad right now,” she replied. She stopped bouncing and just sat on the bed, eagerly describing the show. “Oh man, you should’ve seen it! They were all spying through the air, diving underwater and shooting back out and splashing everypony and then they made an ice sculpture and they went up in the sky-“ she paused to breathe, then continued. “They did the buccaneer blitz which they totally stole from Dash, and-“
“Scootaloo,” Winter exclaimed. “I know you loved the show, but please!” She was laughing, though, because it was great to see her friend so happy. She leaned back into her pillow, feeling the rounded edge of the gift she had gotten for Scootaloo. “It’s truly a wonderful gift that Rainbow Dash gave you, and I’m glad you had fun. However, you haven’t even let me give you my gift!” She paused to let that sink in.
Scootaloo immediately stopped grinning. “Winter… you know you didn’t have to get me anything, right?”
Winter nodded. “Of course I didn’t. I did because I wanted to.” Scootaloo opened her mouth to say something, but Winter cut her off. “Before you ask if I spent any bits on it, the answer is no. It’s not like we have any money to spare.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Winter waited for her friend to grow impatient, and Scootaloo waited for her to bring the gift out. Finally, she could stand it no longer. “Well? What’d you get me?”
Winter blinked. “What, the present?” She grinned evilly. “Well… I suppose I could give it to you now. I mean, I’m technically not supposed to give it to you until tomorrow, but I suppose I could make an exception…” She let the sentence hang and waited for a reaction.
“Ple-ease Winter!” Scootaloo leaned forward on the bed, as if on the edge of a seat. In a way, she was.
Winter pretended to think about it. “Oh, alright.” She reached behind her pillow and pulled out a haphazardly wrapped present. “Here you go.” It was an object that showed quite obviously what it was when you knew, but it just looked like a strange lopsided lump to anyone else.
Scootaloo looked at it quizzically, but didn’t question it. She eagerly tore open the package, and the object inside made her squeal in delight. “Winter, these are awesome,” she exclaimed as she held up a pair of flying goggles, exactly like the ones the Wonderbolts use.
Winter smiled. “Look in the strap,” she said. She knew that her friend would absolutely love this.
Scootaloo looked closer, and her eyes widened as she saw the inscription. “WHAT!?” Winter jumped, Scootaloo’s cry of astonishment being much louder than she anticipated. “How did you get your hooves on Soarin’s flight goggles!?” She stared at the goggles in her hooves with a new reverence.
“Oh, I pulled a few strings,” Winter said nonchalantly, waving a hoof in dismissal. “It wasn’t that hard.” She leaned back on her pillow. “So, what do you think?”
Scootaloo just shook her head, mouth hanging open. “I…” Her mouth moved as if to talk, yet no words came out.
Winter put a hoof over her mouth, trying not to laugh. She snickered, finally saying, “Scootaloo, you look like a dying fish.”
The orange mare looked at her indignantly, closing her mouth. “I love it,” she said. “It’s just as awesome, maybe even more awesome, than Dash’s present!” She hugged Winter. “Thank you so much, this is like the best gift ever!” She put the goggles around her neck, intending to never take them off again.
Winter sighed. This was a plan well accomplished. When she went to roll over on her side, however, she realized Scootaloo was sitting on her. “Um… Loo?”
Scootaloo looked up from fiddling with the goggles. “Huh?”
“You’re sitting on me.”
Scootaloo looked down, jumping off the bed as if she’d been struck with an invisible force, faster than Winter’s eye could follow. The orange mare’s face turned red. “Sorry!”
Winter laughed at her friend and how quickly she had leapt from the bed. “It’s okay, I just wanted to lay on my side. I’m kind of tired, even though I’ve been sleeping all day.” She frowned as a thought occurred to her. “Scootaloo, what are we going to do about this?”
Scootaloo looked confused. “About what?”
“About me,” she replied. “I’m going to be stuck here overnight, and you’ll have to go back home.” Everyone living in the orphanage called it home, even though it never would be. It was too shameful to call it what it really was. Her friend frowned, shifting her wings in thought.
“Well…” she thought about it for a moment. “I could go home and then come back as early as I can, whenever visitors are allowed here.”
Winter had to think to remember. “I think it’s at 8:00 or something,” she said. “I’m not sure, but it’s not too terribly early.”
Scootaloo looked relieved. “Whew. It’s really hard to get up early.”
Winter let a sly grin show. “Yeah, you’re really not a morning pony.” This earned her a sharp glare, softened by amusement. Scootaloo playfully punched her in the side. The grey mare rolled onto her side, the rough white sheets rustling quietly. She shifted her wings to be more comfortable, then let herself relax.
Scootaloo looked like she was fixing to say something, but she was interrupted by the door opening. Nurse Redheart poked her head in, seeing what they were doing. “Visiting hours are over, ladies.” She looked sympathetically at Scootaloo. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to go home.”
The orange pegasus looked at Winter. “Well, I have to go. Goodnight.” She hugged her friend and walked out of the room. Winter was left alone with her thoughts, and the nurse walked in the room and closed the door.
Winter sat up in bed. “What now,” she groaned. She knew it was probably just another inspection of her head, but you never knew. They had wrapped her eye, after all.
“Well, as you’ve probably realized, the bandage around your head covers your… eye.” Redheart shuddered a bit. “Doctor Stable was quite worried about it becoming infected. We would also like to know how it happened.”
Winter sighed. She knew they would ask this. “Well,” she began. “There’s no real way for it to become infected. I go about my everyday life with it open, and it hasn’t become infected so far.” The nurse looked like she was going to protest, but she held up a hoof. “I know what you’re going to say; The wound was fresh, there’s no way you could’ve had it for long, there’s no way it wouldn’t become infected.” She looked inquisitively at the white mare, and she nodded. “Well, I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. I don’t know how I got it, but I know that an eyepatch will raise more questions than if I just hide it with my hair.”
Redheart seemed a bit perplexed. “Um… I’ll have to let Doctor Stable decide on that,” she said. She seemed a bit uncertain. “Anyway, when Soarin brought you here, he was in a panic. He said he crashed into you and there was blood everywhere, but we couldn’t find a cut on your body. He said you had cracked your head against the fountain, and you were indeed unconscious, so we had you examined. Your body was healing as we diagnosed you. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Winter’s face darkened. She knew this would happen. The nurse continued, “If we could somehow harness your regenerative quality, we could save so many lives…”
Winter slowly shook her head. “No.”
Redheart stopped, confused. “No?”
“No,” Winter repeated. “You can’t harness it. I can’t get rid of it, any part of it. There is nothing you can do to use this for others. I’ve tried. You can’t get rid of it. You can’t use it. It will only end badly.” She glared at the nurse. “I can see why you and others would want to use it, but no thank you. It’s not going to work.”
The mare’s expression hardened. “Fine. I can see that you’re unwilling. We can’t force you to do anything.” She turned to leave. As she was closing the door, she said, “We’ll release you in the morning. Goodnight.”
Winter rolled over and went to sleep.