Quill Scratch lazily opened his eyes, blinking away the tiredness as his body started to scream out in protest from every small movement from his joints. He hadn’t worked out that intensely in such a long time and as he eased himself upright, he could swear he had gained muscle, but the voice in the back of his mind told him that it was just wishful thinking. He got to his feet and made his way over to the window, pausing only to wonder how he had gotten changed into his pyjamas.
Pushing the window open, he let out a relaxed sigh at the rush of cold air that hit his face. When he tried to spread his wings however, he found them bound tightly to his back by coarse cloth bandages. Starting to hyperventilate at the thought of wings being injured and useless, he slumped onto his bed and started clawing at the bandages, trying to tear them away from his body. At the same time he began to cry out for anyone in the house to help him. A few moments later, both Lyra and Bon Bon burst through his door, Bon Bon brandishing a baseball bat.
When they saw him ripping his bandages off, Lyra dashed forward to try and stop him, tackling him onto his bed and laying across him while Bon Bon grabbed his arms and held them tightly.
“Quill! Calm down. It’s okay, you’re among friends here,” said Lyra as Quill struggled and screamed under her.
“What happened to my wings!” Quill yelled as he slowed down his thrashing.
“It’s okay... The doctor had to bind them to speed up the healing process,” Bon Bon explained, her knees holding his wrists in place.
“WHY! What happened?” he asked in a panicked tone, his voice croaky from yelling.
“You just tore a bunch of muscles in both wings during the storm crisis and you have to rest them for the rest of the week,” Lyra told him, keeping her voice steady and calm. Quill closed his eyes for a moment, trying to slow down his breathing. When his heart rate finally got back to normal, he opened his eyes and gave Lyra a single nod, prompting her to climb off him.
“Alright… Is there anything else I should know?” he asked, as Bon Bon started to re-wrap his wings.
“You may have skipped… Friday,” she replied, smiling awkwardly at the irritated sigh that escaped from Quill’s mouth.
“Wait… You mean its Saturday?” he asked suddenly, remembering his promise to Twilight. “I’ve got to get to the train station.” With that, he jumped to his feet and rushed around the room, gathering clothes for an overnight trip to Canterlot.
“You need to rest. I’m sure Twilight will understand,” Lyra said, taking a seat next to Bon Bon on the bed.
“Probably, but Ink Blot won’t. He doesn’t give a damn if you’ve hurt yourself. If you have a deadline, you’re expected to meet it,” Quill replied, grunting from a pang of pain spiking up his back.
“Fine, but please be careful. You have no idea how much damage you might have done,” she told him, and the look of concern in her eyes almost made Quill reconsider. He bent forward and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.
“I promise. As annoying as it will be to not have a morning fly, I won’t even open my wings to stretch.”
***
Quill was sweating by the time he reached the Library, his chest aching with exhaustion. Twilight answered the door with an overnight bag at the ready and after a short explanation about his wings and the reason for his lateness; she said her farewells to Spike, who at the time was sitting in a large bean bag chair with Applebloom and reading. Quill gave the teenager a wink when Twilight’s back was turned, and received a small smile as a response.
After hurrying to the train station and barely managing to catch the last train to Canterlot for five hours, they settled in for the four hour trip to the enormous capital city. Twilight almost immediately pulled out a large book; opening it and flipping through the pages until she reached somewhere near the middle. The title was in a language that Quill hadn’t seen before, which was strange, since he prided himself on being multilingual, even if that only meant he could speak Equestrian, Zebrican and Griffish.
“What language is that?” he inquired, staring at the mess of strange symbols and pictures of who he assumed was Princess Celestia.
“Ancient Equestrian, from before the first sealing of Discord,” Twilight explained, turning to a page near the front of the book and showing him a painting of Discord, the god of chaos, sitting in a throne while rows and rows of people bowed down to him.
“And you can read that?”
“Oh yeah, I had to learn it as part of my private study from Princess Celestia. She has an entire library full of books like this one, which is my favourite. In fact, the princess gave me this one as a present for my eighteenth birthday,” she smiled, and proceeded to go through the first few pages and show Quill the basic phonetic structure of ancient Equestrian, and while Quill got the strange feeling that he was in a university lecture, the chance to learn a new language was always something he enjoyed. Nevermind the fact that he didn’t have anything else to do on the train ride.
***
By the time they arrived in Canterlot, Quill’s irritated attitude that he had woken up with had returned, owing to the tight and uncomfortable feeling of his wings being trapped. Twilight seemed understanding, but Quill could tell that she was actively trying to not exacerbate his frustration.
For a Pegasus, not being able to fly for any length of time was a horrible experience. They were born in the clouds, around the freedom of the sky and the openness of Equestria. Whenever Quill was up at sunrise, which was surprisingly often because of his nightmares, he would usually join the large group of local pegasi that got together to fly every morning. It had been at one of those mostly silent escapes from society and return to their roots that Flitter had made her first advance on him.
“Look, if you want, we can postpone the meeting until tomorrow when you might be feeling better?” Twilight suggested as they made their way toward the palace. Quill stopped in the middle of the street, dropped his bag and looked straight up. His wings itched and the thought of interviewing Princess Luna was pressing down on him. In his periphery he spotted a Pegasus flying over his line of sight, wings spread wide and Quill could tell he was thermal hopping, that is; moving the farthest possible distance by using only updrafts, no wing beats at all.
He took a deep breath and looked back at Twilight, who was watching him patiently.
“I think tomorrow sounds great.”
“Fantastic, then how about we head to my parent’s house? I’ve already told them that we need a place to stay and they are fine with it,” she said, gesturing for him to follow. “And it’ll give us time to work on the story a bit. I’d love to show Princess Celestia a first page.” When the realisation of what was just said hit him, Quill tensed up and his eyes turned to pinpricks.
‘Luna damn it.”
***
The plastic covered couch squeaked as Quill shifted uncomfortably under the piercing gaze of Twilight’s father; Night Light. Her mother; Twilight Velvet, however was chatting happily to Twilight a little ways off about local gossip that she had missed since moving to Ponyville.
“So… Quill was it?” asked Night Light, loud enough that the girls stopped to pay attention to him. “I hear you’re a writer.”
“Uh… Yes sir,” he replied quietly. He wasn’t very experienced with situations like this one and as a result, he didn’t know what the social etiquette was.
“Have you gotten anything published boy?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Name some of your books.”
“Dad, don’t do this,” Twilight pleaded.
“Come now Twily, we’re just having a conversation,” smiled Night Light.
“Well, I wrote ‘Six Sacred Elements’ and ‘The Temple of the Pegasus Monks,” Quill told him and Twilight Velvet seemed to perk up.
“Wait, that was you? I love that book,” she exclaimed, making Quill blush.
“Thank you very much Mrs Sparkle.”
“What else?’ Night Light grunted, not impressed.
“Enough Dad, I’m so tired of you interrogating anyone I bring around here,” snapped Twilight, jumping to her feet as a magenta spark flicked from the end of her horn.
“Twily, I just want to make sure that your boyfriend here is up to a decent standard,” he explained flatly, and both Quill and Twilight went pale.
“We aren’t… together,” they said in unison. Quill smiled awkwardly as Night Light narrowed is eyes at the two. Twilight Velvet let out a sigh and flicked her husband’s ear, making him flinch and look away.
“I agree with Twi, leave them alone. If they say they aren’t together, then they aren’t. Remember what happened that time Princess Celestia disguised herself as that colt and you almost beat him up for walking her home?” she told him and Quill had to suppress a grin at the bright crimson Night Light’s face turned.
Quill suddenly noticed that Twilight was extending a hand to him.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk,” she said, shooting an annoyed look over to her father. Quill took her hand and let Twilight lead him from the room, avoiding Night Light’s gaze at the same time.
When they got outside into the crowded street, where throngs of people rushed around enjoying the weekend shopping, Twilight started walking toward the palace, with Quill getting into line next to her.
“I’m sorry about that. My Dad can be really overprotective of his children,” Twilight apologised, turning a corner and starting down a small back street. “I remember when Shining Armour brought home a girl he was working on a school project with. Dad made the poor girl cry by simply asking a few rather personal questions.”
“It wasn’t so bad, I knew what he was doing,” he assured her, as they turned into an even smaller side street. “Hey, where are we going?”
“There’s a spot not far from here where you can climb up onto the wall and it has to be the best view in all of Equestria,” she smiled, giving his hand a quick squeeze. He gave her a nod and they quickened their pace until they were running though the tiny alleyways.
When they reached the edge of the city, where the wall of white brick shielded those inside from anything that hated them, Quill noticed a dilapidated wooden guard tower resting against it and stretching all the way to the top. The wood was green with rot and quite a few support beams had broken during the passage of time, making the entire structure sway in the updraft caused by the wall.
Twilight rushed straight for it, leaping to grab onto a wooden ladder that looked as though it were held on by nothing but a few rusty bracers.
“I used to come here all the time when I wanted a place to read in silence. Canterlot’s a loud place when you’re trying to study,” Twilight called out as she climbed. Quill gripped one of the lower rungs of the ladder, only to have the soft wood come apart in his hand.
“Uh Twi, I don’t think this is entirely safe,” he said. As if on cue, the rung under Twilight’s foot snapped, and with a scream she began to plummet toward the ground. Panicking, Quill got in position underneath, his arms held out in preparation to catch her. But just before they collided, Twilight vanished in a blink of magenta energy and a ‘bamf’ of contracting air, only to reappear on the ground beside him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking her over for signs of injury.
“I’m fine, a little disappointed that my childhood sanctuary is falling to pieces, but fine,” she said, her eyes full of disappointment. Quill helped her to her feet and gave her a quick hug to show that he understood.
They stood there for a moment, saying nothing as tears entered Twilight’s eyes.
“Hey, it’s oka-“ he started, before a large hand holding a cloth covered his mouth, while a large muscular arm wrapped around his neck. Twilight’s eyes went wide and she took a step forward, trying to intervene, before she too was grabbed by someone.
The sound of hundreds of buzzing bees filled his ears the same second the smell of something similar to paint thinner filled his nostril. All of a sudden, he was released and collapsed to the ground in a heap, his eyes only staying open long enough to see Twilight hit the ground beside him.