On Feathered Wings and Midnight Daydreams

by Rusty_Kettle

Forgive me my weakness

It had been a couple of days since Blue had been admitted into the hospital. Lock Stitch had not just kept her word, but she’d also gone a step further and allowed Sunup to take the rest of the week off to adjust his sleep schedule and make sure Blue was properly tended to.

“Right this way,” Sunup said, pushing the hospital door open with a wing and stepping aside to let Blue through.

The pegasus in question huffed in annoyance and walked out of the building. His right wing was firmly held in a sling, keeping it immobile. He had been healed as much as he could be, but the wing was still too sore to move it much if at all.

“We can stop for breakfast on the way home,” Shnup explained.

“Great,” Blue muttered back.

The pair made their way out of the hospital grounds and onto the streets of Chestnut Falls. Earth ponies and unicorns were milling about, probably headed to their jobs throughout the city. Despite trying to focus on getting home, Sunup couldn’t help but shake the sensation of being horribly out of place.

Bat ponies were a rare sight in the daytime, especially if they were walking on the ground instead of flying. His height wasn’t doing him any favors either, making him stick out from the crowds of pastel ponies like an exceedingly big, dark purple, sore thumb. Some of the ponies gave him inquisitive stares, others immediately changed course to not pass too close to him. But most of them paid him little mind, something that he was thankful for.

Blue Skies walked behind the bat stallion, his head held low. Sunup knew that flying was a different experience for pegasi and bats, but he’d never expected it to be that important.

Looking for some way to cheer his friend up, the purple stallion scanned the many shops that lined the main street, trying to spot some cheap coffee shop. There were several, but none of them had a spot to sit.

“Hey Blue, wanna stop there?” Sunup asked, pointing at a small coffee store on a street corner that had actual tables set up outside for ponies to sit and drink.

“Sure… whatever,” Blue answered, dragging his hooves behind the purple stallion.

The store was pretty small, no more than five tables, two of which were occupied. A sign hung over the wide-open door spelling out the shop’s name with stylized yellow letters, ‘Coffee Break’.

A cute mare took their order and quickly prepared the drinks. Sunup took a seat first, sipping on his white mocha as he looked at Blue, who absentmindedly took a few gulps out of his own cup.

“Nice day, isn’t it?” Sunup said, looking out at the mass of ponies that walked up and down the street.

“I guess,” Blue answered, looking up, “Would probably look better from above,”

Sunup gave him a half-hearted smile.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be flying again in no time,” He said, getting just the slimmest hint of a smile from the gray stallion.

“I hope so…” Blue said, his tone just slightly more cheerful than it had been before, “At least it showed me that this coffee spot exists, this is some good stuff,” He added, taking another sip from his cup.

“We gotta come here more often,” Sunup said, his eyes passing over the crowd, “Come on, let’s hurry up, we have to get home so you can pay me back for the coffee,”

Blue Skies looked at Sunup with an unamused expression.

“What?” The bat stallion asked, smirking.

“I genuinely hate-“

“No you don’t,” Sunup said, interrupting the pegasus’ protest with a smug grin.

The pair made their way back to their apartment, a trip that Sunup learned was much, much longer than he had originally thought. The perks of having wings! Sunup thought as he looked at his friend. Blue Skies’ face was dead serious, eyes cast low and ears droopy. The bat stallion could only wonder as to what could be going through his head as they walked.

At last, they arrived. Sunup walked up to the door and pushed it open, knocking over a small bag of garbage that he had left next to it.

“Sweet Celestia! what happened here?” Blue Skies exclaimed when he walked into the apartment.

“What do you mean?” Sunup asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean? Look at this place! It looks like a bomb went off in here!” The gray pegasus said.

Sunup turned around to look at the apartment, it wasn’t that bad, there were just a lot more boxes of takeout sitting around… and empty bottles… and shopping bags…

“Yeah, I guess it’s a little messy…” The bat pony admitted.

“A little?” Blue said, “I can’t believe you couldn’t even try to keep the place tidy while I was out!”

Sunup huffed in annoyance at the pegasus’ words. He had tried to keep it tidy… for a few days at least.

“I kinda… forgot,” The bat stallion said, shrugging.

“How do you forget to make your house not look like a rat nest?” Blue demanded for a moment before sighing deeply, “Whatever, just clean this mess up, I need a nap,”

Sunup groaned at the prospect of cleaning, but he relented and got to work on putting the takeout boxes back into the garbage bag he’d knocked over. before he got too into it, however, he realized that there was one thing he could do to procrastina- help Blue.

“Want me to help take that sling off you first? I need to check your wing to make sure it’s healing properly,” He said, standing back up.

“What?” The pegasus asked, cocking his head to the side, “My wing’s fine, leave me alone,”

“No, I’m serious, I have to look at it,” Sunup retorted, trying to put on his serious medical professional voice.

“Fine. But make it quick!” Blue said, rolling his eyes.

Sunup walked up to his friend and very carefully undid the knot that held the sling together, setting his right wing free. He kicked an empty box of noodles away before taking a seat next to Blue. If there was one good thing his height did for him, it was definitely the ability to sit on the ground and still be tall enough to comfortably work with a pegasus patient.

The purple stallion’s forehooves reached up and grabbed the wing carefully, slowly feeling the bones underneath the soft feathery cover. Blue Skies grunted slightly at the touch, but Sunup knew exactly how delicate he had to be with pegasi wings. He carefully extended the wing, feeling the joints move beneath the skin.

“Tell me if it hurts,” He instructed.

“O- okay,” Blue Skies stuttered as the bat stallion slowly pulled the wing open, keeping a close eye on the pegasus’ face for any sign of discomfort.

What he saw instead was pretty much the polar opposite of discomfort. The slightest hint of a blush had appeared on the pegasus’ cheeks, making his white freckles stand out slightly more than usual. Sunup had to bite his tongue to not chuckle, he knew some pegasi were uhh… particularly fond of getting their wings touched and moved around, but he never would’ve expected Blue Skies to be one of them.

“Everything looks fine-” Sunup said, but he had barely finished the last word before Blue raised his wing out of the bat pony’s grasp and then folded it against himself.

“Good. I need to go to my room,” the pegasus stated, stomping the floor slightly.

“Did my hooves feel that nice?” Sunup teased, unable to restrain his chuckling any further.

“Fuck off.” Blue said before storming into his room, “And clean up that mess!” He shouted back before slamming the door shut.

Something strange stirred inside Sunup’s chest. It wasn’t the first time that Blue had told him to fuck off, but for some reason this time it felt… different. It had actually hurt, as if he had been punched in the face. That wasn’t right, he should’ve been able to just laugh it off, maybe even double down with an even worse joke, but all he could manage to do was… look around at the mountains of garbage that littered the living room. Guilt stabbed through his chest like a spear, but Sunup shook his head and furrowed his brow. He had to get his shit together.

Over the next couple of hours, Sunup got to work on making the living room presentable again. Garbage went into garbage bags, and the random clothing that was strewn about was swiftly stuffed into a bag that he’d take to the laundromat later. He cleared out the table for what had to be the first time in years, and he even went as far as sweeping the floor.

“We need a new broom,” Sunup muttered to himself as he looked at the three valiant strands of plastic that remained attached to the broomstick he was holding.

The bat stallion walked into the kitchen, intending to pick up a notebook and write down a shopping list, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a loud banging sound from inside Blue’s room. With his previous mission all but forgotten, sunup rushed to the bedroom door and knocked on it loudly.

“You alright in there?” He asked, concerned.

“Fuck off!” The pegasus shouted back.

Sunup grumbled before clearing his throat.

“I’m coming in,” He announced before pushing the door open.

The room beyond was… tidy. The only thing that seemed to be out of place was a fallen easel that held a messily painted canvas. It looked as if it had been thrown aside in a fit of rage. Whatever the painting was supposed to be, it had been roughly crossed out before being thrown aside.

Blue Skies was curled up on his bed, with his right wing stretched out behind him. Sunup noticed that the light blue feathers on the tip of the wings had been dipped in the same black paint that had been used on the canvas.

“You okay?” The bat stallion asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” The gray pegasus snapped back.

Sunup looked at the canvas again before turning to look at Blue Skies.

“You still need to recover-” He started, but the pegasus cut him off.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.” Blue said.

Sunup sighed, trying to find a way to get through to the pegasus. It wasn’t often that he regretted being a jokester, but the sheer distrust in Blue’s voice was definitely doing it. He probably thought that Sunup only cared about finding a new way to bother him.

“Okay, look,” Sunup started.

“I don’t want to-” Blue interrupted him, but Sunup interrupted him right back.

“Let me finish,” He said, raising his voice just a little bit, “Listen. I know I’m a bit of an ass sometimes, and I know I joke around a lot, you don’t have any reason to trust me. But please, trust that I take my job seriously,” The bat stallion said.

Blue Skies took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He then turned around to rest on his back, spreading out his forelegs to either side of his chest.

“It’s just… not fair!” He finally said, throwing his forehooves into the air, “It was just a stupid accident!”

Sunup walked up to the side of the bed, taking a seat next to the gray pegasus.

“And now I can’t fucking fly!” the stallion continued, staring at the bat pony with wide, pleading eyes, “Do you know how awful this feels? I want to feel the wind in my face! I want to feel the air rushing through my feathers!” He added, slowly breaking down.

The purple stallion remained quiet, looking at the pegasus with a concerned stare. He didn’t really know what to say, so he decided to remain quiet and let Blue vent his frustrations out. It seemed to be the right choice, as the pegasus continued talking after a short pause.

“And if that wasn’t enough, I can’t even fucking paint anymore! My wing shakes too much,” He said, his voice quivering, “What am I supposed to do? Just… learn how to paint with my left wing? I could! but it’s never going to be the same!”

“I uhh…” Sunup started, tripping over his own words, “I promise it won’t come to that, really.”

Blue’s teary eyes looked up at him.

“I’ll make sure you get better.” Sunup stated, getting a weak smile from the gray pegasus.