A ringing came in his ears, masking the sound of somepony’s voice. He opened his eyes slowly, seeing a bright light above him with a lilac-coated blur sitting above him. She was calling out something… A name. His name.
“Boltsinger!” She called once more, putting her hooves on the bed next to him. “Thank goodness you’re awake!” She lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around him. When her hooves passed by his wings, he felt a sharp pain that caused him to scream in agony. The mare quickly withdrew her embrace, looking down at her hooves. “Oops! Sorry…”
Boltsinger looked at the mare, his vision clearing up to recognize her as the one pony he didn’t expect to see again. “Twilight?” he started, tilting his head. “But… You never need help with stuff my talents are good for… How did I end up back here with you?”
“That’s not important right now.” Twilight said, putting her hoof on his. “You’re in the hospital, Bolt. When you hit the map after you landed, you broke your wings.”
Boltsinger’s eyes grew wide, turning his head to see his wings sticking straight out, covered in bandages. “Both of them?” he pointed out. His head sank, looking at his lap. “How am I gonna do… anything? Ever since they got long enough to be usable, I’ve relied on them for so much…”
“Well, the doctor wants you to stay for a few days. And I’m going to be here with you as often as I can.” The Alicorn told him, pulling his blanket further over him. “You and I have a lot to talk about, after all.”
“I suppose you’re right…” he confirmed, trying to move his wing to scratch his mane, but wincing in pain instead. “Old habits, huh?”
Twilight smiled, reaching her own wing forward and scratching the back of his head. “There. Is that better?”
Boltsinger melted, leaning into the contact. “Eeyup.” His goofy grin was back on full display as he looked at his favorite mare, quickly leaving him as realization struck. “Wait, why are you being so nice? I thought you’d be angry with me…”
“Oh, I am angry.” She stated, pulling her wing away. “You left without any warning, you didn’t trust me to have a handle on my own emotions, you left your pendant behind, you made my heart feel like it was being ripped out, and you did it all just when I had been so worried about you that I risked everything to save you!” Her expression had gone from slightly stern to absolutely furious as she spoke, standing farther away from the bed so as to give herself some space. “And the worst part? YOU NEVER LET ME SAY MY PIECE!!!” As she raised her voice to it's full volume, the room shook. She shouted so loud that it raised her body off of the ground, wings and legs flared out everywhere. She was so angry that Boltsinger was reminded of the image of a white mare with literal fire for her mane and tail.
The stallion raised a hoof as he opened his mouth, trying to let some words out. After a moment, his hoof fell as he hung his head. “You’re right.” He admitted. “You have every reason to be angry. Every right to hate me, and every excuse to shut me out.” He brought his forelegs up, gripping his head with his hooves. “I panicked. And when I panic, I lose all sense of rational thought. And when that happens, those words in my head keep repeating themselves…”
“The ones Sparks said?” Twilight wondered, sitting beside the bed again. “But Luna and I destroyed that… thing she left in your head!”
“You did. Her voice isn’t the one that I heard when I… well… lost my mind.” He gave the Princess a rather pathetic smile. “I lived for a lot of years… most of my life… under her influence. It partially shaped who I am. Not something I’m that fond of, but… something I have to deal with.” He let out a sigh, lowering his hooves. “It’s especially scary when it’s my voice that’s saying what she used to say…” He looked into Twilight’s eyes, the sorrow leaving him as their gaze met. “But I promise… the way I feel about you never once gave way to it! It may have influenced how I reacted, but I never once stopped loving you! Not even a little!”
Twilight smiled, putting her hoof on his shoulder. “I believe you. But I wish there was some way I could prevent you from ‘losing your mind’...”
“Tie me down when I’m likely to get panicky?” he suggested. “Magically stop me from moving when I start to run off? Oh! I know!” He pointed a foreleg behind him. “Break my wings!” He gave a silly grin, trying to look amused by his attempt at humor. He breathed another exasperated sigh, hanging his head. “My wings hurt…”
“Well, maybe if you talked to me about these feelings before acting on them, we might be able to calm each other down and avoid losing our minds in the first place.” She told him, lifting his head with her wingtip. “So, no more running away?”
“No more running away.” He repeated. “But that doesn’t explain why my wings brought me back here.”
Twilight blushed, walking over to the door. “I’ll tell you when you get home, okay?”
Boltsinger snorted. “Fine…” he huffed, crossing his forelegs.
“Attention, guests!” a nurse called on the PA. “Visiting hours are over! Time for the patients to get some rest!”
“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Twilight said, waving a wing.
Boltsinger winced, having tried to move his wing again. He waved a foreleg back at the Princess with a pained smile. “See you tomorrow…” he replied. “And don’t let Rainbow Dash hit my wings! I know she’s mad!”
The next morning, Twilight came into the hospital once again with a saddlebag full of books. She made her way down the hall to Boltsinger’s room, from which she heard a pained yelp. Her ears perked up, recognizing the voice as she cantered to the room.
“That’s for running away!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, standing on her hind legs next to Boltsinger as his wing throbbed. “Make sure you never. Do it. Again. Or you’ll get worse than that! Got it?”
“I couldn’t go anywhere even if I wanted to!” Boltsinger informed her, still straining from the hit he’d taken. “I can’t exactly fly right now. And besides, I already learned my lesson…”
Rainbow fell back to all fours, whipping his wing with her tail as she turned to leave. “Good! I’ll see ya later!” She walked past Twilight with a grumpy pout. “He’s getting the training session from Tartaros when he gets better after what he pulled!” she grumbled to her friend as she headed out.
Twilight giggled, coming into the room. “So how is our patient today?”
Boltsinger put on a sourpuss expression. “In pain… Did she have to hit me that hard?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, sitting next to him. “Aww, poor thing. But she did have a good reason.”
“Yeah, I know. And I’m not looking forward to that training session.” He said, slightly moving the feathers on his wings.
Twilight’s head recoiled from the comment. “You heard that?”
“I can make out each instrumental and vocal part in a 50-pony symphony.” The stallion deadpanned. “Hearing Rainbow grumbling is foal’s play.”
Twilight blinked with wide eyes. “Wow.” Her face returned to normal as she lit up her horn. “Well, I brought some things to help you through your time while you’re here!” She pulled a number of books from her saddlebag, piling them on the nightstand. “I didn’t know which Daring Do book you were on, so I just brought them all!”
Boltsinger’s face lit up like the Summer Sun Celebration. “Well… I’ve been meaning to re-read the lot of them, so…” He pulled Twilight in, giving her a hug. “Thank you.”
“But that’s not all!” The mare continued, pulling out a particular lightning bolt necklace. “You left something at home when you left. I thought you might want it back.” As the two separated from their embrace, she slid the pendant back to its home hanging from the Pegasus’ neck.
He looked at his pendant, then back at her, pulling her in again for another hug. Twilight could tell from his shaky breathing that he was trying his best to keep his emotions in check. He stayed there for a few seconds as the necklaces they each wore dinged against each other, a magical spark flying between them.
“Ahem!” a mare’s voice cried out, clearing her throat and alerting the embracing ponies to her presence. “If you needed that much privacy, dears, you should have closed the… would you call them ‘curtains'? They look simply dreadful!”
Twilight and Boltsinger quickly pulled away from each other, looking at Rarity with an innocent blush. Boltsinger winced in pain, having instinctively tried to move his wing.
Rarity giggled stepping up beside the two. “You really must stop slamming into things, Bolt.” She said, putting her front hooves on the bed. “Poor Big Mac had the most difficult time putting the castle doors back up. You should apologize to him the moment you get out of here!” Boltsinger nodded, opening his mouth to speak. “And another thing!” She continued, pointing her hoof at him. “The next time you ‘take off’ like that, don’t expect to get off so easy!” She took a deep breath, placing her hoof over her heart. “All right. I’m done now. It’s wonderful to see you again. Even if it is in the hospital.”
“It’s great to see you, too, Rarity.” he told her. “I hope I didn’t make you go into a fit of stress sewing.”
“You don’t want to know just what came out of my sewing machine for the past week.” Rarity said, laughing to herself. “Let’s just say it’s not going to be featured in any of my stores.”
“That actually sounds intriguing…” Boltsinger admitted. “Any chance I could see it?”
Rarity found herself speechless. She took a close look at the stallion’s face. He was awkwardly smiling, as he normally did, and didn’t seem to be in great pain. “You… want to see it?”
“I do.” He confirmed.
“You do?” Twilight repeated.
“Indeed.” He confirmed once more.
“Well, I guess I’ll bring them over sometime…” Rarity droned, looking only slightly aghast.
For the rest of Rarity’s visit, Boltsinger went on telling them just how his week away had gone. He ended up in Dodge Junction, working for Cherry Jubilee on the separation of red and yellow cherries. Much to his surprise and delight, his story was met with a vastly similar one about when Applejack had gone there. He found himself thinking of Pinkie in an entirely new light, vowing to never, ever, break a Pinkie Promise. As stories were told, Rarity got up to leave, her boutique requiring her attention once more.
Boltsinger waved a foreleg, looking longingly at the food that the nurse brought in. Twilight smiled at him, standing so as to take leave, herself. “I’m going to have some lunch. I’ll be back later.” He nodded at her, turning to the plate before him and digging in.
As Twilight left, Rarity poked her head back in. “Is she gone?” she asked, looking back and forth.
“Eeyup.” Boltsinger answered. “So, about that new side project…” Rarity quietly squeed, rushing to his side as he told her the details. As he finished his explanation, she let out an excited laugh, bringing a pen and paper forward to work on ideas. “And don’t let Twilight know about this before I do, okay?”
“Oh, of course, dear!” she affirmed, not missing a beat. “I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the surprise!” She got up again, running out of the hospital in excited hysterics.
A few days later, Boltsinger walked up to the doors of the castle, his wings still sticking out in a cast. It looked as though nothing had happened to it, save for a big black mark surrounded by cracks in the middle of the upper heart. He chuckled to himself, pushing in to enter. He fully expected some grand party courtesy of Pinkie Pie, despite his urging to not make his hospital discharge a big deal, but the foyer was totally empty. He checked behind the pillars, tapestries, everything he could reach. Nopony was there. He breathed a sigh of relief, walking into the throne room and sitting on the floor next to the map.
“I never should have left…” He told himself, looking up at the chandelier. “I was just… so scared, so selfish, and… I wasn’t myself. Not the pony I should be, but the pony I was made by… her.” he looked at his reflection on the floor, pawing at it repeatedly. Twilight, Starlight, and Spike poked their heads inside, looking at the stallion as he returned his gaze to his favorite decoration in the room. “The pony I should be… that I want to be… is the one that lives here, with my friends. The one that can be happy with himself, even when he’s off doing whatever his wings are telling him to do. I told her that I would be able to spread friendship, but I was lying to both of us… I can’t spread friendship if I deprive myself of it, can I? My friends… and the mare that is my world… they turned me into that pony that I need to be. I just need to remember who that pony is.” he looked at his reflection once more, an awkward grin lining his muzzle. “I know… Pretty stupid, talking to an empty room… But something told me this room might listen. This is a pretty special place, after all…” He got up, putting his hoof on the map and looking at the book that was still left open there. “Thanks for always being there.”
With the contact, the map flared to life, his wings letting out jolts of electricity that reached out and struck it. He reared back, trying to break the current, but it seemed to extend as he gained distance. Twilight and Starlight gasped, rushing into the room and clamping their teeth down on the stallion’s tail in an attempt to pull him free.
“What’s going on?” Twilight wondered, pulling ever harder.
Boltsinger looked back, seeing the mares putting forth all of their effort for his sake. “I don’t know! I just… touched the map, and then this happened!” he explained, planting his hooves and pulling back further. The electricity tugged harder and harder, closing the gap between the stallion and the map in mere moments. He found himself standing in the center of the map, the lightning forming around him in ways he had never felt before. His entire body jolted to life, absorbing the power fully, creating a localized explosion of electricity. He slumped over, his Cutie Mark crackling slightly, and tiny sparks of green magic flying out of his ears only to fizzle into nothingness.
Twilight rushed over to the stallion, putting her front hooves on top of his. “Are you okay?” she asked, seeing him open his eyes.
“I… think so? I don’t really feel any different.” he replied, sitting up. “Maybe a little energized? What was the map even doing?”
“I don’t know… It’s never done that before!” the Princess stated, looking at the now-dormant table.
Starlight stepped forward, looking puzzlingly at the map and the pony atop it. “Whatever it did, the Tree of Harmony must have some reason to do it. It never does anything without a purpose.”
Boltsinger worked his way off of the map, still fixing his gaze on it. “Maybe it really did hear me…” He looked back at the mares and the dragon, narrowing his eyes. “You were eavesdropping, weren’t you?”
Starlight recoiled, shaking her head vehemently. “What?! No… That’s… That’s not what good friends do, right? We totally weren’t eavesdropping! That’d just be rude!”
“You were totally eavesdropping.” he deadpanned. Starlight brought her forelegs back to the floor, scratching her mane and laughing. “Oh! Maybe if the map did something magical...” he made a mild motion with his wing, cringing and crying out in pain. “Aww crabapples!” he glared at the map. “You make me go through all of that and you don’t even fix my wings? What kind of magic is that?” He huffed, sitting down and pouting with crossed forelegs.
Twilight laughed, turning to head out of the room. “Well, Mister Pouty-pants, I think some dinner might help your mood, some. Come on.” The stallion’s ears perked up at the mention of food, quickly rising and catching up with the mare.
“So, I noticed that you never… really even closed the book that I put the letter in.” he started as they walked to the dining room. “You know which book it is, right?”
Twilight stewed for a moment, her eyes widening with remembrance. “Isn’t it our dating book?”
“Indeed, it is.” he confirmed, swinging his hoof in front of him. “Didja happen to catch what page it was on?” Twilight shook her head. “Well, fine. Be that way.” he joked, putting on another pout. “Oh! That reminds me! What made my wings bring me back here so fast that it quite literally broke them, anyway? You said you’d tell me when I got home and…” he motioned a foreleg to the hallway they were walking through. “That is now the case.”
Twilight’s eyes stayed wide, a faint blush showing up on her cheeks. “Well, I was in the middle of a… uh… discussion. And it was about how I was feeling, and everypony talked about something, and that something turned out to be true, and the thing that they.... That Starlight said, was true, and it must have been what flung you back here!”
“And what did Starlight say?” he lead, leaning in closer.
“She said… and I agreed that…” she started, reluctant to outright say it. Boltsinger raised his eyebrows repeatedly, looking rather charming for such a goofy pony. “I need you in my life!” she blurted, her hooves rising from the ground for a moment. “There! I said it! I need you here… You’ve become such a huge part of my life, and how things go around here, that going back to how things used to be is simply unthinkable!”
Boltsinger looked at the mare with an expression of shock and awe. “Wow.” he said, turning his gaze to the floor. “Really?”
“I had one negative emotion from all of my time with you.” the Alicorn continued. “And I’d been feeling it towards that pony for some time already. Ever since I met her, there was something about her I didn’t like. But did you ever stop to think that maybe your influence on all of us has only made our lives better? Maybe your friendship, through good times and bad was something we all treasured?”
“I never really thought I did all that much.” he stated, stopping in his tracks.
Twilight put her forehead against his, resting her horn on the top of his head. “You know that’s not true. You know full well how I feel about you, and that’s not something you can make happen by ‘not doing much’. You’re a part of our lives, and we’re all here to support each other! Don’t reject that. Let us in when you need us. Okay?”
Boltsinger put his nose against hers. “Okay.” He leaned in closer, giving her a kiss and continuing down the hall. “Now, about that dinner…”