“Alright. Get up.”
Summer groggily raised his head. Light was streaming in through the window of his study, where he had obviously fallen asleep while working. He blinked against the light, trying to determine the time of day. Judging by the sun’s height, it was likely almost noon. Much later than he usually got up, but not too late considering when he fell asleep.
“Summer.”
Come to think of it, when did he fall asleep? He couldn’t be certain, but he must have stayed up past midnight. Yes, that seemed right. He had done quite a bit of research, and he must have continued for a while after Celestia lowered the sun. And on the topic of—
“Summer Glare!”
Summer snapped his head to the pony standing over him. Iris was looking down at him impatiently, her eyes piercing through him with the same intensity as his old tutor. Once Summer made this comparison, he instinctively sat up straight and brushed his mane out of his face.
“Sorry!”
“Get up. You’ve been acting like...this...for some time now. Worries me.”
Summer was caught off guard by this. Was working for the good of the house really such an issue? She must have been mistaken about something.
When he opened his mouth to protest, Iris cut him off. “Don’t want excuses; don’t want diversions. We’re going out. Get ready.”
By the time Summer formulated a response, Iris had left the room. He sighed, stood up, and stretched. After doing so, he walked to the mirror and reapplied his enchantments. These enchantments had finally begun to worry Summer. Could he keep reapplying them forever? He had never thought that far ahead, and now it didn’t seem like he could go back. He didn’t actually know what would happen if he allowed the enchantments to completely wear off, but he shuddered to think of the possibilities.
But none of that was important right now. What was important was that Iris wanted him to go somewhere, and he didn’t want to cross her. He leaned forward, looked more closely at himself, and shrugged. He wasn’t going to any kind of formal event, so he didn’t need to properly style his unruly mane and tail. Besides, he liked it when his mane fell into his eyes. It made him feel rugged, quite unlike the sheltered noble he was. After deciding his appearance was acceptable, he walked out of the office and to the manor lobby.
Being midday, the lobby bustling with ponies. House Starswirl was unicorn by vast majority (all noble houses were), but Summer was proud to say they had a least a few important earth ponies and pegasi. As he walked through the lobby, most ponies were too interested in their business to pay him any mind, an observation to which Summer nodded in satisfaction. Of course they weren’t going to talk to him. They had things to do, and his presence shouldn’t change that.
He nodded politely at Iris as he approached her. She wasn’t as angry as she was before, but she was still clearly annoyed. She looked at him and purposefully avoided nodding in return. Summer lifted his hoof and opened his mouth to greet her, then quietly closed his mouth and put his hoof down. He felt as though he had done something wrong, but he couldn’t imagine what. Until he knew, it was best not to risk intensifying the issue. As he wracked his mind to remember, Iris shook her head and sighed.
“There you go again. Thinking yourself to death.”
“Hm?”
Iris ruffled her feathers in agitation. “Y’know? Never mind. Let’s just go.”
Summer frowned and cautiously followed Iris out of the manor and through the city. She seemed to soften as they traveled, but she still seemed to be repressing some kind of agitation. To try to ease his awkward feeling, Summer decided to look around and take in the Canterlot scenery. His eyes, like most ponies’ eyes, were immediately drawn to the imposing presence of Canterlot Castle. He smiled. Everypony looked at the princess and ignored the noble houses, and that’s exactly what gave them so much power. The citizens watched the princess, but the princess certainly didn’t watch the real government. She was too busy with her soirees and her public meetings to pay them much mind. That kind of unsupervised power had led to many convenient situations.
“We’re here.”
Summer looked back to the street. Iris had led him to a small but steep hiking trail that wound its way up Mount Olympony. He halted at the base of the incline as she started to fly up.
“What are we doing out here? I thought we were going to hit the town.”
“I said we’re going out. Never said we were going into the city.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere!”
“Exactly.”
Summer grumbled and began to pick his way up the trail. She called him the secretive one, but she certainly loved her half-answers. Both were silent for a while, but it was a peaceful silence rather than a tense one, a fact Summer much appreciated.
“You’re walking.”
Summer looked up at Iris, confused. “Of course I’m walking. Did you want me to stay at the base of the mountain?”
Iris did a small loop in the air. “Still haven’t tried them out?”
Summer watched her quizzically for a moment, then ruffled his wings. “Oh! Well, I haven’t flown, if that’s what you mean.”
Iris let out an exasperated huff as she gave her tense reply. “That’s just like you. You have wings! You can fly now! You have this whole new world, and all you can think about is work?”
“I don’t even know how to—”
“Then I’ll teach you! Are you that afraid of trying something new? I know you like to stick with what you know, but these excuses stop right now.”
Iris landed and led him through a small pass leading into a clearing. Anypony on the outside wouldn’t have known the clearing even existed. It was completely surrounded by rock face save for the narrow trail leading in. It was a wonder Iris had ever found it.
If there were ever a storybook setting, this was it. A small grove of trees encircled a patch of beautiful grass and flowers. Runoff from the snow-covered mountain peaks formed a small brook that babbled happily through the grass before disappearing into a small crevice in the rock.
Summer looked around, amazed. “I… Wow.”
Iris grinned. “Pretty neat, huh? I come up here a lot to get away. And from the looks of it, you’ve been needing to get away for a while now.”
“Okay, really. What’s a;; this about?”
Iris ignored his question once again and stretched out her wings. “Just like so. You gotta make sure to get enough air under your wings, or else they aren’t gonna do much.”
She took off into the sky. Summer barely managed to keep his eyes on her as she ascended, but he was confident in his understanding of the technique. Iris did a few circles in the air, landed, and winked at him. It was his turn. He splayed out his wings and readied himself, trying to clear his mind of fear and uncertainty. After a quick word of approval from Iris, he flapped his wings and took off.
As Summer gained speed, he felt strain on his wings. He knew he should take it easy, and he knew he should land, but this feeling of absolute freedom was something he couldn’t give up. As he pushed to fly higher, to leave behind the ground below, he felt a strong twinge and heard a sickening crunch.
The next moments went by in a blur of light and confusion. A faint pain shot through his body, and he could feel the wind in his mane. He couldn’t have been flying anymore; the wind felt all wrong. He was falling. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground. The sun blazed down, blinding him and casting a distorted light around the figure over him. He thought he recognized it, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
Then he was back on the trail. He was going back to Canterlot. How far away was the city? He couldn’t focus on it. He couldn’t focus on anything .He couldn’t even seem to focus on his own body. It may as well not have been there. That couldn't be a good sign.
He was vaguely aware of riding in a carriage. He couldn’t remember how he got in, and, come to think of it, he couldn’t remember walking into Canterlot. The red and gold colors around him distracted him from thinking about it clearly.
He was already in Starswirl Manor by the time he finished that thought. He was lying on a cold stone floor, and he could start to make out shapes around him. Shapes of windows and columns. Then things began to register correctly.
The first thing to register was the pain. He convulsed and gasped for air as it shot through his body and into his head. His vision clouded for a moment as he grimaced when he tried to raise himself to his hooves. Iris shook her head as she gently and slowly pushed him back to the ground.
“Stay still. You’ll just hurt yourself more if you move. You’re safe, but I need you to rest while I figure out how to fix this.”
Summer tried to steady his breathing as he glanced around the room. Iris had taken him to an old music room, one that hadn’t been used in years. The old grand piano from his youth was still in the corner, but layers of dust almost completely obscured its sleek black finish and ivory white keys. He had always been told a piano was an instrument befitting a member of high-society. An instrument of poise and sophistication.
Summer managed a weak smile as he looked at the instrument. He remembered the afternoons of practicing songs on the piano, the hoof cramps, the performances, and especially the days he was interrupted by Iris. She always had some excuse, but he had quickly concluded she was simply bored. After his reminiscence, his gaze fell to the mangled wing at his side. His wing.
He shot up in horror and immediately felt another explosion of pain. The pain robbed him of his balance, making him yelp and fall. He felt Iris leaning over him, frantically saying something. He strained to make out the words as his vision faded to black.
***
“I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”
Summer opened his eyes and blinked a few times. After he forced the darkness out of his vision, he saw he was no longer in the music room. He was in a hospital bed. Upon observation, he had a few bandages on his arms and wings, with his left wing being suspended in a sling. Iris and Black Velvet, Summer’s Doctor, were standing a little ways away from his bed, talking. With a bit of difficulty, Summer managed to make out their conversation.
“What do you mean?” Iris’s voice was urgent as she pressured the physician.
“I mean I can’t work on his wings. They’re so fragile I can’t believe they hadn’t broken before now. I’m not sure how he got them, and I know better than to ask, but it doesn’t matter. Using them is only going to cause more damage. We’re going to have to hope it heals on its own because I’m afraid any action I take will only make things worse.”
Summer cleared his throat to get their attention.
“Ah! Mr. Glare!” Black Velvet straightened her posture and walked to his bed. “I hear you had quite the tumble.”
“I don’t know. I... I think…” He groaned and rubbed his head. “I think…”
Iris hesitantly walked over to Summer. Black Velvet quietly nodded at her and left the room. She and Summer were alone, and a somber feeling permeated the room. Summer tried to smile up at Iris, but she avoided meeting his eyes. After a brief moment, she took a shaky breath.
“I’m sorry.”
Summer cocked his head. “For what?”
“'For what'? How can you say that? It’s my fault this happened. I— I…” Iris began to shake, her eyes growing clouded with tears.
“You were the one who brought me up there to fly,” Summer finished flatly.
Iris finally looked at him. Through her tears, he could see the pain and guilt in her eyes. As the tears started to fall, she slowly leaned in and wrapped her hooves around him.
“I’m sorry.”
Iris repeated these words, her shaking becoming increasingly violent until she was sobbing into Summer’s neck. He held her in his hooves, wrapped his working wing around her, and softly stroked her mane as she wept.
“All I wanted was to help.” She barely managed to choke out the words between sobs. “Y-you think that all you can do is work, and I j-just wanted you to have fun. But now everything is even worse!”
Summer squeezed Iris. “Neither of us could have possibly seen this coming, so it was either neither of our faults, or both of our faults. I’d rather say the former, wouldn’t you?”
Iris let go of him and shakily returned to standing next to the bed. Her voice was still quivering, but Summer heard a small hint of mirth creep into her words. “Well, you’re not to blame.”
Summer grinned. “So we agree! And you realize that you’ve already admitted that you wanted me to have fun today?”
Iris wiped her eyes with her wing. “Yeah, but—”
“Well then!” Summer gave an exaggerated gasp and waved one of his hooves above his head. “I suppose the only things you can actually take credit for are, and what was it…” He tapped his hoof on his chin. “...wanting me to take a break and have fun?”
Iris stifled a laugh as Summer smirked at her. “Come off it. It’s not like I did a whole lot.”
“No, but you did something. You got me out of the office, didn’t you? And it’s not like I’ll be forgetting today anytime soon.”
Iris’s laugh died on her lips. “I got you out of your office and into a hospital. Real upgrade.”
Summer looked at his suspended wing. She was right; this wasn’t a fun place. Even worse, the doctor didn’t know how to fix it, and Summer was going to need to work eventually. He could just keep it bandaged to his side, but that would make the enchantments very difficult to reapply.
He stopped and lingered on that thought. That was the solution. He didn’t like it, but it was. He quickly looked away from Iris and closed his eyes. He gritted his teeth as he began meticulously reapplying every enchantment he had the night of the ball. A few of the enchantments usually weren’t reapplied, but reapplying every one was the only way to make sure this was done correctly. He could feel the bones in his wing mending in painful, writing motions, but he refused to scream.
“Summer! Stop it!”
No, he wasn’t going to stop. But he wouldn’t face Iris either. He didn’t quite know why, but he felt a sickening, burning sensation in his stomach. It couldn’t have been from the spells; those only physically targeted his wings and sides. No, this was shame. Why did he feel ashamed?
As he cast his final spell, he looked to Iris. Her face was full of worry and horror at the sight before her, threatening to cloud her golden eyes with tears once more.
So that was why.
Summer gave a weak smile. “Neat trick, huh?”
Iris’s face hardened as she glared at him. “Just how often have you been doing this? You’re hurting yourself, and I don’t know how you think that will help anypony else. Even if it did, that’s not justification for…”
As Iris trailed off, Summer removed his wing from its sling and nestled it against his side. “I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure our family is successful.”
Iris held her voice barely above a whisper as she gave her saddened response. “I know.”
She scuffed her hoof along the ground as Summer picked his way out of the bed. He straightened his posture and removed his bandages before looking at her again.
“Don’t beat yourself up. It was an interesting day, to be sure.”
Iris didn’t respond, but walked to Summer and rested her face in his mane. After a few moments, she said, “I know you want to put our house first, but remember that you’re a part of that house too. At least give yourself a little thought.”
Summer nodded. “Okay. I will.”
He stepped back and smiled at his childhood friend. Even with the injury and pain, today had been a good day. He was glad he had taken—well, been given—the break. He knew his time was precious, but he felt like he had spent it well. Sure, he hadn’t gotten anything done for the house, but he hadn’t been making much progress recently recently anyway. He had been ineffective, and Iris may have been right. Maybe a day off was what he needed.
Yes, today had been a good day.