Treason

by Trevosta

Aftermath

Aftermath

He was waking up. He tried to open his eyes and for some reason, it hurt. The light that was coming from overhead hurt his eyes, like he hadn’t opened them in days. Then he decided to just leave his eyelids closed for a little while.

He laid there, taking in all that he could without the use of his eyes. There was beeping, and electronic voices, it smelled almost sickeningly clean, but without a soapy smell. Then it hit him, he must be in a hospital.

The bed underneath of him was soft, but getting uncomfortable, and his right arm felt numb, like he had slept on it wrong.

Then there were voices.

“Hawk...” was all he could make out at first. But why would there be a hawk in a hospital? Oh, wait, that was his name.

Upon that realization, Hawk decided to attempt to open his eyes again. He was rewarded with only slightly less pain upon opening them. He finally got them open and was greeted by the sight of a white unicorn mare with a pale blue mane, right in front of his beak. The unexpected face caused him to jolt slightly, and the unexpected jolt caused her to push him further into the mattress with her hooves.

“Sir, I am going to have to ask you to lay still. You have lost a lot of blood, and still need time to recover.” She said with a concerned expression.

Hawk nodded in understanding and began to take in his surroundings. He was in a hospital bed, the one in the middle of the room, with tarps separating him from the other patients. There were many machines that he didn’t recognize, some of which were hooked up to him.

There was one machine that interested him. It was pumping something into his right arm, and as he began to lift and examine his limb, but before he actually saw it, he saw her, that pretty griffon had fallen asleep on the waiting room couch.

He could almost feel his heart pop as he saw her curled up on the cushions. For just a moment he felt like there couldn’t be a better sight in the world. He had completely forgotten about whatever it was that he was thinking about, and just watched her, until someone came in.

He turned to see the red pegasus walking in, wearing an Equestrian Air Force uniform, being led by the nurse pony from earlier. She was discussing something with him in hushed tones, before they looked at him.

Hawk made eye contact with the nurse, who was holding something telekinetically behind her back. The item was wrapped tightly and he couldn’t make it out, but there was something about it.

“Excuse me sir,” the nurse said, looking at him, “the captain, here, said that you might want this.” She then levitated the wrapped item over to the bedside table and set it down before walking out of the room mumbling to herself, “I will never understand soldiers...”

“Hawk, Equestria is in your debt.” The red pony, apparently a captain, said to him. “I am terribly sorry about what happened, and that they couldn’t do more here to save it, but I promise you it won’t be permanent.” He said, with a reassuring smile.

“Wha-argh!” Hawk cut himself off short as his dry throat seized up. The captain picked up a glass of water from the table and helped Hawk drink it. Once the glass had been emptied and Hawk’s throat was feeling better, he tried again, “What are you talking about? What won’t be permanent?”

With that, the pony’s face darkened slightly, his confident smile dropping into a worried expression. “You don’t know?” Hawk shook his head, “Uh... Well... Y-you lost your right arm. They couldn’t fix it.” He finished, hanging his head.

Hawk couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his arm was gone? He lifted up the appendage and found it cut short, stopping just below his elbow, and wrapped in thick layers of gauze. He tried to move the muscles, but nothing happened. He brought his other claw up to meet it, and waved it through the empty space that used to be limb.

After a few more moments of attempting to wrap his mind around the concept, the Captain said something, but he wasn’t paying attention, his arm was gone. Suddenly, something that the Captain had said clicked as being strange. “Wait.” Hawk demanded, still staring at the stump. “You said that this wasn’t going to be permanent, how can you say that? My arm is missing!” He yelled, causing the griffon sleeping on the couch to stir.

“Shhhh!” the Captain attempted to quiet him, “Don’t tell the nurse, but there is a Zebra back home, that knows some crazy things. Including, how to reattach limbs.” He said with a sly smile.

“How do you know this?” Hawk asked, desperately hoping for a way to get his full mobility back.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Should I?”

“Well, you have probably heard of me.” The Captain said, confidence returning. “My wings were mounted on the wall of your ex-general for a little over eight years. He deemed me, his ‘greatest kill’.” The Captain said, his confidence coming back full-swing.”My name’s Spectrum Dash.” He said, striking a pose, somehow his mane and tail flowed impressively.

Hawk’s brain broke.

“Wait... But, your dead. General Highwind ripped your wings off and you plummeted to your doom.” Hawk stuttered senselessly, the few fragments of his brain trying to comprehend the information that broke it initially.

“No.” Simple enough answer, “My friends, Blue Angel and Red Arrow managed to catch me before I hit the ground. Then, through some complicated events, I went into hiding for about eight years. Now, I am standing here in your hospital room, telling you that you helped save Equestria from immense turmoil, thank you.” He finished, giving Hawk a slight nod in thanks.

Hawk was speechless. The Greatest Flier of All Time, was praising him? This would obviously be a dream if it weren’t for the whole, ‘missing an arm’ thing.

“Anyway,” Spectrum brought him out of his musing. “ They should be letting you out of here by tomorrow, we can then take you to our place and get you fixed up. After that you are free to do what you wish. And if I could make a suggestion on that front,” He leaned in, to whisper into Hawk’s ear. “That one over there seems to have taken a liking to you. That is all that I’ve got to say.”

The Captain then turned to leave, shutting the door slightly too hard behind him, and causing the pretty griffon on the couch to wake up.

“Mmmph. Wha...?” She looked around obviously trying to make sense of her surroundings, then their eyes met. “...”

“... Hey...”

---------------------------------

T.C. was giving Rainbow a full tour of his, rather beaten up, hometown. Showing her all of his favorite places to eat and hang out. Finally they came to an area that was all to familiar for T.C.

“Well, Rainbow,” He said with a sigh, “This is where I grew up; right down there is the house that I grew up in, and as far as I know, my family still lives there.”

After a few minutes of silence, Rainbow spoke up. “Can I meet them?”

He looked into her eyes, big and full of hope and a passion that he fell in love with. “Sure, let’s go meet my folks.”

They walked up to the door of the house, a simple, but rather large house; and T.C. knocked.

There was the sound of scurrying inside as many different individuals scurried though the house. It was that sound that made Rainbow realize that she knew very little about his family.

Early in the relationship, they had reached an agreement; neither of them had the greatest family lives so they left them alone.

They knew a little bit about each other. He knew that after her brother had disappeared, she and her parents grew apart and eventually she ran away. Years later she tried to reconcile with them, but when she went home, they were nowhere to be found, they had just vanished, Leaving town due to the disappearance of their two only children.

She knew that he had come from a large family, one with lots of brothers and sisters. He was the middle child and could never seem to impress his parents, he always felt like he was less than the others. It was for that reason that he was so willing to leave home and search for Gilda.

Soon there was a slight rattling at the door, and the knob turned revealing a ragged old griffon, his fur was turning gray and his feathers were drooping. He looked at T.C. with a disapproving eye, and said, “So, the Prodigal Son returns...”

“Hi, Dad.” T.C. Responded with an unreadable expression.

“Well, come in, I guess.” The grizzled old bird said, turning around and walking into the house.

The building was in a state of being almost perpetually dirty, for there were children running around. The fledgeling griffons apparently belonged to one of T.C,’s siblings, who was staying at home. They were adorable, Rainbow Dash noted, their undeveloped feathers were a fluffy grey and their lion fur was still mottled with the spots of their infancy.

Obviously, to them, she was the most fascinating thing ever. She was so colorful, and she was like nothing they had ever seen. Ponies didn’t live nearby, and none had ever been in their house before, so immediately they decided to follow her.

Of course, their uncle that they had never met was fascinating too, but he wasn’t a colorful pony.

T.C. Couldn’t even try to hold back a smile when he saw the little cubs playing with his marefriend. She was very good with kids, even when they were over-excited. Within a few seconds it had gone from staring, to questions, to a gentle wrestling match, where Rainbow was lying on the floor with the grey puffballs climbing over her.

At that moment it became official. Rainbow Dash was the only girl in the world for Thunderclaw. He couldn’t marry anyone else. He had been trying to decide if he should ask her to marry him for weeks, and now it was official.

“Thunderclaw, get in here.” His father’s gruff voice called him into the kitchen. He quickly did as he was told.

After he entered the kitchen, his father closed the door behind him. “Why did you bring that pony here?”

He was taken aback, his father didn’t even know her name, why was he angry? “Uh, well, she’s my marefriend.”

There was a gasp from another part of the room, and he turned to see his mother, the fattest griffon he had ever seen, sitting at the table and holding a claw to her beak.

"You're dating that thing?!?" T.C.'s father hissed.

"Yes I am, and she is the best girl that I have ever met. If you have a problem with that, you can deal with it yourselves." He was starting to get mad, how could they be so racist? "I come back after two years, as the owner of a rather successful business, with a good marefriend, and as one of the ones that delivered the town from the tyranny that it suffered under, and all you can do is shoot down my decisions?" He was positively fuming now, "Alright, I'm leaving for good now. You don't need to be ashamed of me anymore." He turned and stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door.

“So, your name is really ‘Raptor’?” Rainbow interrogated one of the fluffy little griffons, who was currently puffin out his chest.

“No, his name is Keiko.” One of the little griffon’s sisters said to Rainbow, drawing a snicker from the colorful mare, and an ashamed sigh from Keiko.

“Well I think Keiko is a great name.” She said, picking up the little one’s chin so she could look into his cute little yellow eyes. The little guy smiled back and wrapped his little arms around her neck.

“Thanks Auntie Dash.”

Rainbow’s voice caught in her throat for a moment, “No problem squirt.”

“Hey Rainbow, as touching as it is to see you connecting with my nieces and nephews, that I don’t even know myself, we need to go.”

A chorus of ‘Awww’s came from the fledglings surrounding his marefriend.

“Why do we have to leave? I haven’t even met your parents yet.” She reminded him.

“Yeah, that is probably not the best of ideas right about now.” He said, helping her off of the floor. “But seriously we should be going, I need to talk with your brother. Also I think that he was planning to head out today.”

“A-alright, I guess. Bye guys! You should come visit us in Ponyville sometime.” She called back to the children.

“OK!”

Just as they were leaving they ran into a rather large griffon walking towards the door. “T.C.? Is that you?”

“Charlie!” the two stepped up and hugged each other. “I haven’t seen you in years!”

“Me neither!” his voice was fittingly low.

“So are those yours in there?” T.C. referenced the little griffons inside.

“Yeah, they’re a wingful. The wife sent me over to pick them up.” He explained. “Speaking of the wife, who is this?” he said, turning to Rainbow with a smile.

“I’m not his wife, just his marefriend. My name is Rainbow Dash, and you are?” She chimed in.

“I’m Charlie, this AWOL idiot’s big brother, nice to meet you!” he said, grasping her extended hoof and shaking it vigorously.

“Well, Charlie, we have got to go and pick Hawk up from the hospital. He needs some medical attention that they can’t give him here.” T.C. Explained.

“Ah,” Charlie said, his face drooping a little, “Just bring him home in one piece.”

“Well, that’s the plan. Well, it’s good to see you again.” T.C. said, walking away.

“Nice to meet you!” Rainbow called.

“See you two later!” Charlie shouted back, as he walked in the door, just to be attacked by the tiny griffons.

“So, why does he care so much about Hawk?” Rainbow asked her boyfriend as they took to the skies.

“Well, he is my brother as well.” T.C. Said, shrugging. The revelation drew a gasp from the colorful mare beside him. “I would’ve told you, but we haven’t had much time to talk recently.”

Rainbow grunted in agreement as they approached the hospital.

--------------------------------

The door to Hawk’s hospital room opened, as T.C. and Rainbow walked in. They saw Gilda had pulled a chair over to the side of the bed.

Hawk had a large grin across his face, as he greeted his brother and his marefriend. “Hi, guys! You know, it’s great to see you again, T.C.”

“You too, Hawk. So I see that you and Gilda have been getting to know each other.” He finished up with a smile, causing the griffoness to blush slightly.

Hawk wasn’t going to let his brother win this one, “Yeah, she is really great, I can see why you built a shrine to her in your room.” Gilda and Rainbow Dash started laughing, and T.C.’s face turned a bright red. “And this must be Rainbow Dash, I have heard a lot about you, nice to meet you.” He held his stump out to meet her, then realized his mistake, and switched arms.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” She said, meeting his gesture.

“So, I hear that your dating my brother... Well, as far as I can tell, you two are perfect for each other, so I approve.”

“Thanks, that means a lot.” T.C. said, face still slightly red.

“When are they letting me out of here?”

“Now, if you’re ready.”

“Well, I want to get this back, so let’s go.” He turned, and got out of his bed, wobbling on his uneven amount of limbs. Gilda quickly came in to hold him up.

The group walked into the lobby, where Spectrum and The other two ponies were waiting.

“Everyone ready to head out?” A general noise of approval sounded among the ponies and griffons, and they all took off.

---------------------------------

“Hey, Captain?”

“T.C. We aren’t in a military setting anymore, I’m just a friend and your marefriend’s brother.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about that.” That drew a raised eyebrow from the red pegasus. “I wanted to ask your sister to marry me, and I wanted to know your input.” He said hopefully.

Spectrum merely looked into his eyes for a few moments, until a huge smile broke out across his face. “I am all for it.”

“Thank you, sir!”

“I will be your brother soon, and I am a friend, you don’t have to call me that.”

“Thanks.”