Chapter Twenty
And with every conquered trial, there is triumph.
Klaxon pulled the wagon across the smooth brick road with the three other ponies riding in it. There were several other carts rolling down the Baltimare streets, all of them much more decorated and eye pleasing than the semi-rusted carriage that Klaxon dragged behind him without care.
The wagon was rectangular with raised edges to prevent things from falling over the edge and a semicircular black awning at the rear end. Under the shade it provided, Falcon Wing and Alana sat side by side.
His bandages had been removed not too long ago so he was back in his usual garb, black armored vest, bandoliers running across his chest and side, saddlebags and his overcoat, complete with the brass goggles resting above his eyes.
Steiner looked at him curiously. The dark blue unicorn was resting on a fairly large crate. One of several crates that were loaded onto the wagon. Crates that contained medicinal supplies and other...not so medically inclined ones. Parts, metal for the purpose of magical transmutation and arcane-technology. DJ Pon3 had reported that the red colt was in critical condition, so his friends brought with them everything they could for any foreseen contingency...and some not so expected.
"Are you not going to try them out?" Steiner asked.
Falcon had a nervous look on his face. "... It's been so long..." he said timidly.
Alana wrapped her forelegs around him and hugged him tightly, catching him off guard while doing so. His eyes bulged and when she let him go he was gasping for breath.
"Is... that... any way... to treat somepony... fresh out of the hospital?" he panted, the smile on his face showing that he said it only in jest.
"I needed to squeeze the scaredy colt out of the stallion you, Falcon!" she replied with a grin.
"I think you squeezed more than that, actually," Falcon Wing said offhoofedly, flexing his body, his cracking joints sounding off one by one. He then asked Steiner "Do you really think I'm ready?"
"You're a pegasus. I would think you were born ready," Steiner said plainly.
"It doesn't work like that. You know it doesn't work like that!" Falcon Wing said hotly. He was never the most physically adept pony and it was only in the Wasteland did he develop his speed and agility -- long after he had lost his wings.
"Being in the sky is in your nature. Your kind are the only ponies able to walk on the clouds... to manipulate the weather itself should you be so inclined, such as the times of old," Steiner said matter of factly.
"But I haven't been in the sky in... months! I've been striving to be an earth pony during all that time... is it really possible to go back?" Falcon Wing asked, looking very uneasy as he contemplated it.
"I don't think it's possible for an earth pony to be as light on their hooves as you," Alana chimed in. "During my time with you, I've seen you do amazing things. Jumping from wall to wall, landing silently with poise that any other pony could only dream of..."
"You may ground a pegasus, but you can never truly clip their wings," Steiner said.
Falcon Wing edged his way out from under the awning. He looked to that everlasting expanse of blue. Blue that was once covered in gray, the sun's rays reaching down from its place in the heavens.
"Do... you think I'm able?"
Steiner bowed his head. "That is a question you should ask yourself... and answer by yourself"
Falcon Wing looked to Alana.
"You've done other things I wouldn't have expected you to do. Some of those things... they weren't exactly smart... but you've done other things of merit!" she assured him in her strange way.
He looked down to his hooves and thought. It was ultimately up to him to decide what he wanted. Did he want to be an earth pony? Or did he want to be a pegasus?
A better pegasus than the one he used to be?
"Be a better pony."
He knew what he wanted.
He stepped out from the awning in full, a determined look on his face, his eyes to the sky and his orange eyes burning with anticipation. He spread them...
His cloak was thrown up from his back, billowing outwards to his flanks, the coat now looking like a glider as it rested over black metal that extended out from either side of him.
His augmentations were blade-shaped wings connecting to a metal base where his wing stubs would have been. The leading edge of the wings were yellow in color while the rest of them were stark obsidian. An aura of crimson rippled across the cybernetic wings as if they were burning.
The last red phoenix in Equestria.
The product of Klaxon's talent for building and Steiner's nigh-legendary magical potential.
The red colt reared up, pulled his goggles down and kicked off from the wagon, shooting off into the air, streamlining his body, his coat and tail trailing after him, rippling in the flowing air. His wings left trails of red behind him.
"There he is!" voices called out from below. "The Shadow Bane!"
"Who is he!?"
"What is he!?"
Falcon Wing ignored them as he climbed higher into the air, leaving the towering skyline of Baltimare behind and seeing the rest of Equestria stretch out from underneath him.
He was faster than he ever imagined himself to be, cutting across the skies, banking and corkscrewing effortlessly, invigorated by flight in a way only a pegasus could understand.
He had read about the Ministry Mare Rainbow Dash; the marvelous flyer of Old Equestria. The feats of skill and raw talent she accomplished during her time were still mostly unchallenged some 200 years later. She was what was considered to be the pinnacle of pegasus perfection. It was she was vilified so thoroughly when she went against the will of her fellow sky-ponies.
It was why even after the fact, the Enclave kept meticulous records of her exploits.
Falcon Wing had been nothing like her...but now he never felt closer to the pony of legend and rumor; lies and propaganda. He flew in the same skies she did. He knew what it was like to be at odds with the rest of his own kind.
And he recognized the true joy that came with flight.
He passed over the sun, becoming a silhouetted figure in the sky, just as Luna had appeared to him atop of City Hall and then dived, his metal wings folding to his side. In seconds he had passed the rooftops of Baltimare, where he spread his wings again and skimmed over the heads of pedestrians, blowing a few hats off of heads in his passing.
He passed over the wagon, stowed his black wings against his body and dropped down in front of Steiner in kneel, his cloak falling to rest over him as it always had.
"You truly deserve your namesake, Falcon Wing," Steiner said. The red pony brimmed with pride. Alana rushed up from behind and held him in a tight embrace. He smiled broadly.
"And to think," Klaxon said after his span of silence. "This all started when we found you crying in a dumpster!"
Fallout Equestria: Brighter Futures