Earning Wings of a Different Nature

by Strayan Phoenix

Chapter Five

[Time and Date Unknown]
[Location Unknown]

Daring stared into the vast black expanse, unsure of where she was, which way was up or down, or why she could only see her own body, but absolutely nothing else.

She could feel some sort of solid surface underneath her hooves, but it lacked any distinguishing texture, void and indescribable.

“The hell is this place?” she murmured, glancing around anxiously.

She spotted a door standing at a distance of around ten metres away. There was nothing outrageously spectacular about this door (apart from the fact that it was standing completely upright without anything supporting it). It was brown and simple in design and appearance, save for its horizontal lever-like doorknob, which looked out of place on such a drab-looking entrance way. As she hesitantly approached it, a sharp rapping sound echoed throughout the expanse.

She frowned as she purposefully circled around the door at a lax pace as the rapping sound rang out in a second and third salvo. Clearly, it was coming from the door, but a quick look confirmed that there was no-one on either side of it, save for herself.

Deciding that there was probably going to be someone on the other side regardless of which way she opened it, she cautiously pulled the lever and let it slide open. To her lack of surprise, there was a person standing in the doorway to greet her. Wait, make that two people.

Both were tall men with rather plain haircuts, and clad in black suits with sunglasses. In fact, they looked pretty much identical. Their intimidating size and no-nonsense demeanours unsettled her, which quickly developed into fear as one of the figures produced a silver handgun from within its blazer.

“Mr Sheffield, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” one of them spoke in a deep, monotone voice (which sounded suspiciously akin to a stereotypical Italian-American mobster) as it levelled its gun at Daring’s face, “Your man-card. Hand it over.”

“My what?” she squinted in puzzlement.

“Don’t play games with us Sheffield,” they forcefully barged through the doorway, forcing her to scramble backwards several paces, “We know what you have done, and there is no denying it, so you must now face the consequences for your actions.”

Daring’s confusion was swept aside by a fierce irritation, “Now hang on a minute, I don’t even-”

“You have committed a grave sin, Mr Sheffield,” the second figure spoke up, its voice almost identical to its partner’s, “You have defiled the most precious law known to masculinity and all that it stands for: You went and lost the most precious thing a man could ever have. You had but one job, and you fucked it up.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Daring spat, her irritation developing into an impatient fury.

“Are you that ignorant of your sin? May Hefner have mercy on your soul...” they shook their heads in unison. Whether it was sadness, anger or disappointment, she couldn’t tell.

  “Your Y-Chromosome, Sheffield. Your only task in life was to cherish it and utilise it to its full potential. And now you’ve lost it for good. Your punishment is that your man-card be rescinded, permanently cancelling your free membership with male-kind, to be paid in full with interest.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘with interest’? And where the hell did you get that thing?!” she pointed at the strange device the second figure was now wielding, having seemingly grabbed it out of hammerspace from behind its back. It looked vaguely like a large toy water-gun, except it was made of metal and had a small red plunger seemingly wedged into the nozzle.

“That’s simple, Sheffield. By forsaking your Y-Chromosome, you have also forsaken your dignity and worthiness as a living being. It was a gift, a novelty, a blessing. And you have turned and rejected it. Therefore, you will now live the rest of your days in shame and guilt for what you have done,” the figures took an ominous step closer.

Daring’s gut knotted up so tightly it nearly tore itself to pieces, “I have no bloody clue as to what’s going on, so I’m just going to see what’s over there now.” She pointed in a random direction opposite from the thugs and rapidly backed away.

She jumped in surprise when her back met a solid object, and a glance over her shoulder revealed it to be another thug. In fact, there were at least a dozen of them now, surrounding her on all sides. Wherever the hell they came from was anyone’s guess.

“As I said before Sheffield, we can do this the easy way... or the hard way. It’s your choice.”

“Nah, I’d rather take a third option,” she frowned, flaring her wings out and rocketing upwards with a single flap, easily escaping the grasp of the goons beneath her.

“The hard way it is then,” one of the only two thugs with a voice said with an expressionless tone.

Daring frowned in annoyance and pumped her wings to their maximum energy. Surely a Rainbow Dash palette-swap could turn-and-burn just like the speedster as well. Rather than make a quick get-a-way, she slammed into another solid object at full force, causing her snout to ignite with blazing irritation.

“What-” her eyes widened in shock upon seeing several more thugs, seemingly standing on the vertical axis.

“This is your last chance Sheffield,” the voiced one had somehow joined them.

Daring opened her mouth to protest the absurdity of where they were standing, before she was suddenly dragged to her left, landing on her face against the unseen standing surface.

‘Did gravity just flip on me?’ she hurriedly hauled herself back up as the thugs closed in with their arms outstretched, ‘What the hell is going on with this place?!’

She snarled defiantly at her aggressors, “Look mate, I don’t know what the heck you fuckwits are trying to pull, but there’s no way in Tartarus you can simply take what you like if I have anything to say about it!”

‘Did I seriously just say “Tartarus”?!’ she stopped herself with a frown.

She had no chance to further ponder her exclamation as several burly hands reached out at once. She sprung into action, launching upwards and avoiding their grasp by mere inches, before swinging her back legs around with as much force as she could muster, slamming several thugs across the face in one sweep with a kick which vaguely resembled a roundhouse in execution. The thugs toppled over under their own weight and lay in an imperfect semi-circle.

For each thug she knocked down, a dozen more took its place as an entire swarm of these bland, identical things all rushed towards her as one unit.

She wisely decided to turn tail and flee, but no matter where she went, no matter which direction she flew in, no matter how many she beat down, they were always within her field of vision, closing in like jackals for the kill.

Adrenaline surged through her veins as she desperately searched for an escape route, only finding more and more of these mobsters. Before long, they were all she could see in any given direction.

A large hand clasped itself over her mouth, startling her and causing her to lash out reflexively, her back right hoof meeting the thug’s shin in a sickening crunch. Her efforts to shrug the figure off were in vain, as she quickly found herself rendered immobile, a vice-like pair of arms gripping each and every one of her limbs. Her sensitive wings roared their protest to their being strong-armed with a wave of pain, causing her face to distort in a grimace.

Predictably, the thug with the weird metal water gun stepped forward and rammed its fist into her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her with a loud and forced gasp. The arms suddenly all released her, and she slumped to the deck in a doubled-over position, taking heavy laboured breaths. For the first few moments, she felt nothing, when suddenly her entire gut opened up the flood-gates, releasing a tidal-wave of pure, unadulterated agony, the likes of which Daring had never felt before.

It effectively reduced the once valiantly defiant and fiery Pegasus to a weeping, gasping, huddled heap on the floor in one go as the thug reached behind her left ear.  

“I’ll be taking this,” it withdrew, holding a small black card with a blue symbol. It was a circle with a short arrow sticking out of the top right hand edge, the universal icon for a male.

“Now Miss Sheffield,” it casually brushed away her front bangs and placed the plunger-end of its water-gun type device against her forehead, “This might hurt a little bit.”

There was a soft hum as the plunger became enveloped in a bright red glow.

Daring screamed as something forcefully barged its way into her consciousness with the grace of a raging bull in a china shop, ransacking her very mind and leaving no stone unturned, creating a migraine of unimaginable proportions. ‘Hurt a little bit’ was officially the biggest lie she had ever heard.

After several long minutes of what seemed like pure hell, the plunger receded, having taken what it wanted. The thugs gave a dismissive wave, and just as quickly as they all randomly appeared, they were all gone, leaving the shattered mess of a Pegasus alone in the black silence, clutching her head.

What was left still functioning of Daring’s mind urgently clicked into damage-control, desperately trying to organise the cyclone of information bombarding her senses all at once into a coherent train of thought.

“What... the fuck... just happened?!” the pathetic heap finally found her voice, which spluttered out amidst the choking sobs.

Her gut felt like someone had stabbed her through with a white-hot poker; her head felt like it was about to rip in two, her migraine was that bad; her wings and legs loudly attempted to voice their opinions on the forceful manner in which they were handled, on top of the uproar emanating from of the rest of her body. She felt like every ounce of her energy was sucked dry, leaving her feeling lethargic and unmotivated to even cry, let alone reorganise her consciousness. And to round it all off, she simply felt dreadful. Not in the physical-pain kind of dreadful, but in a what-the-hell-have-I-done-type dreadful. All of her cheer and optimism had been drained flat, leaving her with an overwhelming sense of depression and hopelessness.

“Fucker wasn’t kidding when he said 'living in shame and without dignity',” she muttered miserably.

She could feel that the left side of her face was drenched in a small puddle of moisture. A quick swipe across her face quickly revealed the moisture to be a mixture of tears, that strange slimy muck that inexplicitly runs from one’s nose when they’re reduced to such a sobbing state, and small splatters of red which indicated she had probably coughed up blood at some point.

The surface beneath her suddenly gave way, releasing her into a state of limbo freefall. She gave no resistance, falling into gravity’s embrace with a deflated indifference. She lazily twirled about and opened up her wings in a vain attempt to slow her descent. Across to her left, seemingly falling alongside her was an image; a ghostly, slightly faded image of three people in disturbingly familiar uniforms. She rubbed her eyes, and stared into the faces of three Royal Australian Navy sailors. None of them were faces she immediately recognised, but she certainly didn’t like the way they were scowling with contempt.

‘Look at you,’ one of the sailors remarked disdainfully in a distorted voice, ‘You must think you’re so fucking special, turning into a fucking pony of all things. Must be living the dream there pony boy, turning into a magical fucking horse from a little girl’s cartoon. Well listen here cunt, and listen good. Just because we are ordered to help you out of your own mess, doesn’t mean we actually give a fuck about your little conundrum. You’re not the only one with problems, you know! Show some fucking consideration for once, and just remember that you’re not the only person on board this tin-can’.

“I... what... of course I know that, but... it wasn’t my choice to become like this... I... I don’t even...” she managed to splutter in soft protest, pitifully dragging her left foreleg about as if trying to reach for something, “I didn’t ask for this to happen. I didn’t want this to happen... I ... I just don’t know what went wrong!”

The sailors snorted in disgust, ‘You’ve done nothing but create interruptions and hassles for us! We have a job, a mission, and your fucking around has inhibited us from performing a task for which other people rely on us! Just fuck off and be someone else’s problem!’

“But...”

Her protest was ignored as their image dispersed into mist, reorganising a few moments later into a picture of the Skipper, and she did not like the look of his fierce glare.

‘What the hell am I going to do with you?! I’m a busy man you know, and I have better things to do with my time than fuck around with something which is completely irrelevant and useless to me. So get your arse the hell off my ship, you freak! Go on, scram!’

With a frightened whimper, she scrambled against the breeze, finally remembering to flap her wings. Unfortunately, her lethargy was crippling, her body doing little but helplessly flail about as the ghostly Skipper finished his tirade, ‘I said, fuck off!’

A heavy blunt force rammed itself into her backside, launching her forwards at an incredible speed.

She landed in a heap against a soft surface, before sliding to a halt with half of her face feeling like it was on fire.

A sharp shriek pierced the air, causing her ears to flatten. She glanced up to see a middle-aged woman staring at her from on top of a couch.

It took Daring several moments to piece together where she was. She could feel the soft blue carpet beneath her (which explained the carpet-burn from the landing), and glanced about at the white walls, which where dotted with old photo-frames. She recognised this place as one of the houses she lived in as a child.

“... Mum?”

‘What the hell are you?!’ the image of Human-Mark’s mother jumped backwards in fright, exclaiming in a shrill voice that Daring did not remember her to have, ‘Go on, shoo! Get out of our house!’

“Mum, it’s me! Mark!” she pleaded desperately, reaching out with a hoof, “Please... help me! I don’t know what’s going on...”

For a moment, the woman stared incredulously, ‘... Markie? W-What the heck happened to you?!’

“I-I don’t know!” she sagged pathetically, “I-I’ve been robbed of my life, my dreams, and my family! I just don’t know what to do anymore!”

Her mother’s eyes widened as she started hyperventilating, ‘Markie... I... I can’t... I don’t even... what...’

She briskly turned about and ran off in a flustered state, rambling incoherently under her breath.

“Mum... don’t leave me...” Daring sobbed into her foreleg, “Please...”

‘Son...’ a second voice drew her attention. She dragged her head further across to her left, spotting a tall man, possibly in his late forties with a stern frown adorning his face, ‘I am disappoint’.

That was all he said, before turning and walking away.

“Dad... no, not you too!” she wailed helplessly.

The world of her old living room faded to black, with Daring’s limp form still lying outstretched.
Between her pounding headache and other physical torments, having just been grilled out not only by some complete strangers, but the Skipper as well, and now being disregarded by her own parents,  Daring’s grip on her sanity was quickly slipping.

A droning, mournful wail resounded throughout the expanse.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Daring screamed in frustration, pounding her hoof against the floor, “SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER ME!!”

A bright flash off to her right attracted her attention, and through gluggy, tear-stained eyes, she turned about to face the source.

Several more flashes went off in a sporadic pattern from all around her. And slowly but surely, she began to hear a steadily-increasing drone. A drone which began to take the form of some twisted kind of demonic, high-pitched laughter. With each bright flash, there was a loud click, like a camera going off.

Amongst the cameras and the laughter, all of which Daring quickly assessed were directed at her, she could start to see a misty haze forming around her. A haze which morphed into a dense crowd of... well she couldn’t quite tell what. They seemed to be crudely drawn, stick-figure esque creatures, all with demented smiles on their otherwise blank faces, and bright yellow, pupil-less eyes. All pointing and laughing at her and the miserable state she was in.

She instinctively curled up into a ball, “G-Go away! I’ve had enough of this nightmare! Just... FUCK OFF!!”

Her desperate and pitiful exclamations did little but cause the raucous laughter to increase.  

She clamped her hooves over her ears in an attempt to block out the cacophony, with no success.

'Look at you. The great adventuress Daring Do... turns out to be nothing but a blubbering little foal that cries for mommy when she’s scared and afraid!’ a harsh, grating voice sneered, ‘You are nothing but a weakling! Consumed by your own fears and anxieties... for which your little facade lasted all of just a few measly days! You worthless piece of shit! Go crawl under a rock and just die already!’

“N-no... I... I just...”

‘You just what?’ a creature leaned into her face with an agitated scowl, ‘You’ve been saying that a lot now, and frankly we’re all sick of your whinging. Shut up already! No-one cares about you!’

“No... you’re wrong!” she attempted feebly, “My friends... aboard Brisbane...”

‘They don’t give a shit! They’re just trying to make it look like they care, but when you think they have your back, they’re really just going to hand you off at the next convenient moment!’ the creature growled, ‘You’re just an inconvenience to them all, and they’ll be better off when you become someone else’s problem!’

“N...” she began to protest, before sighing and slumping over limply. The last of her willpower faltered. The Pegasus simply wept, rendered down to a truly shattered and broken train-wreck.

“How long has she been like this?” a voice spoke up, its tone deadly serious with worry and concern.

“I don’t know. I only just found her like this myself. I literally walked in and straight back out to find you,” Martin shrugged apologetically, “Judging by how restless she is, I’d say this has been going for a while now.”

Rogers sighed. He had a feeling that something wasn’t right when Mark dismissed the whole transformation so casually yesterday.

And now, the Pilot-turned-Pegasus was writhing like a restless worm in her bunk, tossing and turning about and moaning in a rather distressing way under her breath at around two o’clock in the morning. Her pillow was damp with drool, sweat and tears, and her bed sheets had been kicked to the far end of the bunk. Her wings twitched, flapping about in a rather pitiful fashion.

He just shook his head, “She’s obviously experiencing a nightmare, so there’s nothing we can do other than wait until it wears off and she wakes up. We’ll talk her through it then.”

“We can’t just leave her like this!” Martin hissed frantically.

“Marty,” The Medic cast him a tired glare, “Just... no. I’m worried too, but if we wake her up as she is now... goodness knows what’ll happen. I’m a physician, not a psychiatrist. I’ll keep an eye on her, and if something happens, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

Martin huffed in annoyance, but otherwise nodded and briskly exited the cabin.

Rogers took a seat and turned his gaze back to the mustard-yellow Pegasus, “... Poor bastard.”

Something inside of her snapped. There was an audible crackling noise to accentuate the dangerous fragmenting of her willpower. She gave a low howl, and all at once, her body shuddered. The cacophonic jeering and cameras never ceased or let up; an endless source of painful irritation, like an itch that just couldn’t be reached. A chilly breeze wafted through the expanse as Daring shakily stood up on all fours, clenching her eyes shut and ignoring the woes of her body, switching to her reserve stores of energy for one last ditch effort.

“Get... out...of... MY... HEAD!!” she roared, taking a swipe at the creature in front of her.

‘Missed me,’ the creature blew a raspberry, much to the amusement of its compatriots.

She gave an animalistic snarl and took another swipe, much more feebly this time as her energy and stamina reached critical levels, now running on fumes.

“Just... leave me alone...” she grimaced with a loud *sniff*. Her eyelids grew heavy, and with the last remaining step, she toppled over in defeat.

“Leave... me... alone...” a barely audible whisper repeated itself as she blankly stared off into space.

‘Well that certainly lasted long,’ the creatures jeered, their tones dripping with liquid sarcasm, 'And for a moment, we were about to think you had finally grown a pair! ... Again.'

“Go... away...”

‘Or what? What are ya gonna do, eh? Chuck a little hissy fit and maybe spit the dummy? Go ahead! Make us all happy, why don’t ya?!’

The last thing she needed were these annoying pests poking her with their trolling, but with her energy effectively gone, there was nothing she could offer up as a defence. She was left at her most vulnerable, and these pests were obviously relishing in their torment of the Pegasus.

A loud *pew* sound, a noise akin to a laser gun from a sci-fi movie, suddenly erupted from somewhere off to the left, and a creature’s head exploded into a fine mist, before the rest of its body dissolved altogether.

“Boom, headshot,” a new voice spoke up as a tall and graceful form wandered into view, with a deep scowl adorning its facial features.

‘Eh?’

‘What the-’

Daring barely paid any attention as a loud cacophony of noise and bright lights suddenly erupted around her.

“Leave... me... alone...” she continued her soft chant.

After several moments of what seemed like frantic activity, the noise and lights died down. There was a loud sigh of relief.

“My word, this one was a doozy to crack open!” the voice murmured off-handedly.

Daring’s ear twitched to the sound of hooves against the floor, the familiar *clip-clop* growing in intensity until the source was nearly right on top of her. She paid the source no attention; all spark of life void from her eyes.

Something grappled her around her shoulders, and she made no move to resist as she was drawn up and into a...

Hug?

After what seemed like a roller coaster from Hell, now she was being shown some semblance of acceptance?

“Shh, it’s alright,” the voice whispered gently into her ear, “It’s all over, now. I’m here for you”.

She felt herself sag in relief, lost herself in the warm embrace of her saviour, not even finding the energy to identify who this mystery pony was. The pony was incredibly warm and soft to the touch, like a soft blanket that had come straight out of the drying machine.

A gentle breeze rustled through her mane. Ever so slightly, she felt her lethargy start to slip away. The warmth of this pony’s embrace was energising as her hopefulness gradually returned, and slowly, she opened her eyes. A large navy-blue wing obscured her vision. She turned her head about.

“P-Princess Luna?!” Daring frowned quizzically, “... What?”

“It’s a long story,” Luna exhaled, releasing Daring from the hug, “But the short version is that I’m a human who-”

“-turned into the Princess of Night herself?” Daring finished the sentence in realisation, and sighed in relief, “Oh thank God! Maybe you can help me! Just what the hell is going on with us? Why are we all turning into ponies?!”

Luna regarded Daring with a serious expression, “Basically, Discord happened. To be honest, I haven’t been able to figure out all that much myself yet. But I assure you that we’ve been working on it, and for the last week or two, we’ve been trying to identify and locate as many of our fellow ponies as we can”.

“We?” Daring murmured curiously.

“As in, Princess Celestia and I,” Luna clarified, “My real name as a human was John Sappington, but you may address me as simply ‘Luna’ if you wish.”

“Mark,” Daring nodded weakly, “Mark Sheffield. Otherwise known as Daring Do, apparently”.

Luna coughed loudly to suppress a *squee* at the name ‘Daring Do’, “Right. Anyway, you should find you’ll be able to sleep better now. It took a while, but I was finally able to clean up your nightmare. I don’t think you’ll be experiencing anything like that again. I don't think I've ever met a person or a pony with so much anxiety stashed away! Would you care to talk with me about it? That is, if you don’t mind...”

Daring took a deep breath and exhaled, “... Yes. Yes I’m anxious about this. I haven’t got the foggiest clue as to why my life has been ripped from me like this. My sense of pride, my friends, my family. They’ve all been alienated me now that... this has happened. I don’t even know how many of us there are, or how I can get in touch with them. I’ve got nothing to work with to answer my questions or to quell my concerns. Nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Luna frowned, “What about your comrades on board that warship with you? Don’t they count for something?”

“Well, yes in a sense, but they can’t really relate to what we’re going through. The best they can do is pat me on the back and sing ‘Soft Kitty’”.

“Maybe so, but that’s still more than what some ponies will ever receive throughout this troubling ordeal,” Luna shrugged, “I’m pretty sure there’s one poor soul out in the Middle East who is up to her neck in Arabs who have never seen an episode of My Little Pony in their entire lives.”

“...Wow. Sucks to be them,” Daring’s right eye twitched.

“What I’m saying is that you just need to remember that despite your circumstances, you never need to look far for support. Your crew members might still be only human, but they’re more help than you might realise, even if they’re only able to offer a compassionate ear who is willing to listen. When the time is right, we will sort out a way to get back home.”

“What do you mean, ‘home’?” Daring scowled.

“This might be difficult to grasp, but you really are Daring Do,” explained Luna.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Tell me, when did this all start for you?” Luna questioned.

“When these damn cutie marks appeared. They were the first thing I noticed,” Daring replied.

“M-hmm, and on what day did they appear?” The Princess pressed.

“Just over four days ago, probably on my birthday. Why?”

“Daring, listen to what I’m about to say very carefully. Does the phrase ‘Five Score Divided by Four’ ring any bells for you?” Luna leaned in slightly.

“Five Score...” Daring’s eyes widened, “Yes... yes it does actually. Just the other night, I had a dream where Discord used that phrase. I have no clue as to what he was going on about.”

Luna’s face broke into a wide grin, “Oh? Tell me more about this ‘dream’!”

“Well, Daring Do was facing off against Discord with the Alicorn Amulet, and unfortunately lost. Discord stands over her and prepares to fire a spell, and then after that, the dream ends,” she shrugged.

Luna gently lay a hoof on her shoulder, “Daring, what you saw there was not a dream, but a flashback. That Daring Do, fighting with everything she had left, with her back against the wall? That was you! ‘Five Score Divided by Four’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘twenty five’, is it not? How old are you now?”

“... Twenty five,” Daring blinked incredulously.

“What we do know is that Discord has put a curse on us all to be trapped as humans for a quarter of a century, and now that the curse is wearing off, all of the affected ponies are slowly returning to their old forms again! Once we’re all back to normal, the problem from there is simply finding a way back to Equestria, locating the Elements and overthrowing Discord once and for all.”

“But... the Daring Do in my dream spoke with a completely different accent to me. That couldn’t have been me,” she frowned.

“One of the quirks of having fresh new bodies,” Luna waved dismissively, “New vocal cords means a new voice. Just listen to me! I don’t sound anything like the ‘Princess Luna’ from the show, either!”

“Come to think of it...” Daring hadn’t really been paying much attention to how the Princess’s voice sounded, aside from dismissing her accent as American.

“I suppose I shouldn’t really hang around for much longer, but before I leave, I just want you to remember that no matter how difficult things may seem, no matter how depressed you might become, just remember that I’m always around, searching the dreamscape for other ponies. If you need anything, just give me a holler, and I’ll be sure to lend a welcome ear.
“You’re a fighter, Daring Do. A pillar of hope: strong, crafty and resilient to the bitter end, no matter the odds. And it’d do nopony any good if you’re giving up on us now. I implore you to remain firm in your resolution, and have faith that we will work through this together. That’s all I have to say. Farewell.”

Luna’s figure gradually dispersed into mist, before fading from sight altogether.

Daring took a deep breath. Her energy felt revitalised from just that one five minute interaction with the Princess of the Night, although her limbs still felt stiff and sore. She looked about, to find that she was in the middle of a lush green pasture. White fluffy clouds adorned the bright blue sky. It seems she was too distracted by her conversation to even notice the change of scenery.

She gingerly stretched out her wings, relieved to find that they were without any complaints at all. A wide grin broke out across her face.

“I suppose the Princess really does possess the ability to cure nightmares,” she remarked, “I guess I should thank her later in person when I get the chance.”

Feeling a renewed sense of purpose and determination for the future, she pumped her wings with as much force as she could muster, launching off into the blue expanse.

Rogers sighed in relief when Daring’s unconscious thrashing gradually reduced, before stopping altogether, the only sound coming from her limp form being the soft sound of her snoring. The pained expression across her features relaxed into a more neutral expression of contentment.

Rogers whipped a pen and a small notepad from his pocket and quickly scribbled down what he had witnessed, and made a mental note to talk with the Pegasus about it at a more convenient time later on.

He slowly stood up and walked out the door, the latch locking into place with a soft *clunk*.