//------------------------------// // 04 A whirlwind of emotions // Story: Crushed: The Beginnings // by Silent Wing //------------------------------// Directly after we left the house Flitter takes off into the air and leaves me behind, but returns immediately, the moment she realizes that I am not following her. She comes closer and tries to look into my eyes, but I quickly turn my head to the side, trying to hide my sad expression. "Wingy, what’s the matter, why didn't you follow me?" Tears start to appear in my eyes, "It's just that I actually did never fly before, except on my snout" I admit sobbing. "Well, we can change that if you want okay?" A grinning Flitter responds and I answer with an excited nod. "Let's start with your lessons, when we are done with our tour, okay?" She offers me, while wiping away my tears with her wings. She looks closer on my wings and a bride grin appears on her face. "And I already know with what we will begin, but for now hop on my back so we can get started. Remember the sooner we are done with our chores, the sooner we can get started on your flight lessons." "Did somepony say flight lessons?" A voice says from above us, before a cyan mare with rainbow colored mane lands directly in front of us, directly approaching Flitter. "Flitter is today take your foal to work day or why did you decide not to show up at work till now? I have been searching you for ages." "Horse apples, I totally forgot about that," She answers in shock. "Well, I hope you have a good explanation, why you didn't show up till now and I had to go searching for you." "Sorry Dash, but can I have today off," Flitter asks pleadingly."It would be really important." "It's not only because of the flight lessons I heard you talking about," a curious Rainbow Dash wants to know. "No, they just came up, shortly before you showed up." Rainbow thinks for a moment, before she lets us know her answer. "You are lucky that it's an easy day for us, with only a small shower at Carrot Tops farm, but you will stop by later and explain to me the reason behind this." "Sure Rainbow, I planned to do that anyway," she admits, "The usual place?" "Yes, stop by anytime you are comfortable with." "Okay, see you then Rainbow," she shouts to the already flying mare, hoping that she is still able to hear this. "Now hop on Wingy, we have a lot to do." I follow her order without hesitation and we quickly take off and I really enjoy the feeling of the wind, blowing into my face. We fly for more than ten minutes in silence, all the while gaining altitude, until Ponyville is barely recognizable at the ground. "Put your hooves around my neck and hold to it as tightly as you can." I quickly follow her instructions and not more than a moment of time passes, after she feels my hooves around her neck, before she switches to an almost vertical dive. "WUUUHUUU," I scream in excitement before I start laughing in joy, unable to stop for the rest of the flight to the Hospital. When I hop down from her directly after the landing, I quickly step next to her before she turns her head around and asks me with a bright grin on her face, "You really liked that, didn't you?" If she ever needed an answer to this question, the wide smile that almost breaks my face in two, should be enough of an answer for her. We walk into the Hospital and at the reception waits a white earth pony mare, with a pink mane and a white cap, bearing a red cross with hearts in every corner on her head. "That is the first time I see a filly entering the hospital with a smile on her face," she says with a surprised look, directly at me. "Hello Nurse Redheart," Flitter greets her. "I think that's just because we shared her first flight experience together, but that's not why we are here today." "Okay, that explains it, but why are you here today Flitter?" which is followed by a short pause, before she continues surprisingly calm. "But since you aren't carrying an injured Rainbow Dash, I assume it's nothing urgent?" "That's correct, Wingy here needs a full checkup," she says while pointing at me with one of her hooves while I glare at her, disapproving that she used the shortened version of my name. "Okay that's something easy, but I don't think you have been here before." I just shake my head, denying this. "Then we need to make a new Patient file, but that should take only a minute." She grabs some formulas from under her desk and a pen before she begins with her questioning. "Okay, full name?" "Silent Wing." "Gender and Pony type are clear or are you trying to hide a horn in this mane of yours?" I shove my mane aside, but luckily the only thing it spots, is an empty forehead, before I let it fall back in place. "So can you please tell me your birthday and birth town?" When I again shake my head, she looks confused at Flitter, but when she doesn't react either, she looks back at me and asks, "and why is that so?" "I just don't know, but what do you think of how old I am when you look at me?" I ask her with a cheeky grin on my face, but the moment I realize how much it annoys her, I drop it instantly. "I would think about six or seven, but we can cover that later, with the usual tests." She gives up after a few more questions I can't or just refuse to answer, before she leads the two of us into an examination room. The three of us wait there for a few moments before an amber Unicorn stallion with brown mane and tail in a white doctor's coat steps into the room. "Hello together, I am Doctor Horse, how can I help you today?" Before anypony is able to, Flitter takes over the conversation, without giving Nurse Redheart any chance to object. "Wingy here needs a full check up, since she spent a long time alone in the Everfree and I want to make sure she didn't catch anything." Three hours later we are finally able to escape this place and I can only hope that I never have to return there again. Even if the ponies there had all been nice, the examination itself was horrifying for me, with all the things they made me do, but to my great relief they didn't find anything. Without Flitter at my side, always giving me a supporting smile when I needed it or distracting me when something painful was about to happen, I doubt that I would have made it as good through it as it went. "Finally, I already thought that this would never end," I hear her say in a voice that only screams relief. "Hey, you weren’t the one they were poking and stinging all the time," I reply a bit upset. "Yes, but I still think that they found a way to slow down time, to torture everypony in there even more." It begins with a small giggle, but quickly we lay on our backs, unable to control our laughter anymore. It takes a while for us to recover from this and when we are finally able to control our bodies again. "What was the next thing we wanted to do Flitter," I ask her while getting up again, but before she is able to reply, my stomach gives the answer for us with a loud rumble. "Originally Town hall, but I think lunch sounds like a better idea for the moment." "Obviously, so where shall we go?" "Hayburger or Sugarcube Corner? It's your decision," she offers me, but the answer that "I have never heard of both of them before" was nothing she expected, since she stops mid step. "WINGY," She shouts in shock, "please tell me that isn't true. How can a six year old filly never have heard of them before?" "Should I?" I ask her, surprised that she makes such a fuss out of it. "That's it, we are going to Hayburger right now, since that is more important." She says before she rushes me directly towards the town center and I am almost certain that I heard a loud and upset "HEYYY," coming out of one of the bushes. After a short walk we reached the Hayburger restaurant and went inside, surprisingly there is only a small line at the counter, but it still gives me enough time to take a look at the menu. Flitter only takes a glance at the 'currently available' register, but after a frown she looks back at me. "You know what you want Wingy?" "Yeah, I think that I will just get a simple burger, a limo, and a portion of hayfries," I reply, not really confident in my choice. "Okay, why do you not go ahead and pick a place, I will be along with our orders shortly." She suggests, at the same time pointing with one of her wings to the seating area. I follow her gesture and walk in the direction she is pointing. Since all of these places are in direct sunlight, it takes me some time to find a satisfying one, with almost no sunlight pointing at it. I am absolutely certain that I indeed managed to find the darkest place in this restaurant and quickly claim it as mine, before Flitter comes over with an overloaded tray between her wings. "So here is where you chose to hide," she says with fake mockery before she places the tray on the table and I can only stare at the mountain of food in front of me. "What is all of this," I ask Flitter slightly confused by the sight of mount Hayburger in front of me. "This is our, but mostly your lunch." My confusion increases slightly by that answer, "all of that? I thought that I just asked for one simple burger and some fries?" "You did, but I thought maybe you want to try something else, if you have the opportunity now. Besides, the doctor said you are a bit malnourished and that's nothing I let happen to my little filly." She says matter of factually and did I start to imagine things now or did she just really put a bit more weight on the word "my"? "Okay, but I am not sure if we can actually eat all of that," I reply while pointing at the mountain of food between us, before I unwrap one of the burgers. Knowing that I hadn't been able to eat any hay as a human, I just imagined it to be an 'ordinary' Burger, to overcome my insecurity of my ability to eat it. I finished half of the Burger before I realized that actually nothing bad, like vomiting or stomach cramps happened and put that mental blockade down. Now enjoying every bit of this delicious goddess, before I grab some of the fries. I have to admit that they are good as well, but nothing compares to real Belgian fries. "Now do you mind explaining, why you took this shady place if there are a lot more others available?" Flitter asks me after a while, between two bites of her own Burger. "Huh?" I ponder for a moment, "Why do you think they are better? I think that I picked the best of them all." "But the light does barely reach this spot, if I wouldn't know any better, I would say you try to avoid sunlight." I flinch the moment this touches my ears, when she comes closer to the truth than I like to admit. I realize too late that this didn't go by unrecognized, when a shocked expression is creeping into her face."Wingy," she says softly while getting up and walking over to me, "why, please just tell me, why do you find it necessary to do that?" I hesitated for a bit before I got up and let myself fall into her open held hooves and let them take me into a tight embrace, before I am able to answer. "It's ... It's just that almost everything bad that happened to me, was in bright sunlight. From the moment I realized that, I tried only to get into this cruel light, when I had no other choice." "If sunlight makes you so uncomfortable, how do you think about the darkness, especially the night?" She whispers in my ear, barely audible before she lays her wings around my back. "It's beautiful. I always feel most comfortable when I am standing under the night sky. The soft moonlight shining down on me, accompanied by all those wonderful stars and this peaceful silence around me," I reply dreamily. Only thinking about such beautiful things always helps to lighten my mood and this time, it isn't any different. "The way it sounds, you really prefer the night above the day," she responds and waits for a moment, before she continues. "Wingy, it is unimportant if the sun or the moon is currently in the sky, because I will always keep you safe." "Really????" "Really Wingy, I would do everything to keep you safe." "Thank you mommy," are the last words I am able to say before I fall asleep in her hooves. .