The storm was angry, furious, and frustrated. It beat against the tree, trying to destroy it down to the roots. But the tree stood tall and proud, the mare and baby dragon inside safe in it’s branches.
Twilight felt the tree swing wildly, groaning and bending and she was slightly concerned if the storm would break the tree. She decided to add another spell to her growing pile of strengthening spells on the tree. Glancing out the window, she frowned as her friends weighed upon her mind. Knowing they did not have her magical ability, and Applejack her apple trees, she was worried they might be out in this weather.
Spike walked up the stairs with two cups of coffee on a plate and placed them on the bedside table before heading toward his own bed. Sitting down in it, he draped his blanket around him and suppressed a shiver.
Twilight turned as she noticed this, pulling out the spare blanket and folding it in half to make it both warmer and more dragon sized. Lowering it around Spike, she saw him smile, and snuggle into the newfound warmth. She couldn’t help but chuckle as he fell asleep sitting up and slid onto his side. Fixing the blankets, and tucking him in, she returned to the window and returned to gazing at the storm around her.
It was the strongest storm she had seen. She could feel the tree straining to keep itself from snapping under the pressure. But at the same time, her spells hadn’t activated, so the tree was still under bearable conditions. The wind howled, groaned, cried out in pain and torment. And she glanced upward as lightning flashed, illuminating a form falling out of the sky.
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she froze as she saw the form fighting the wind. It flapped left, right, up, but it continued to fall more and more. Just when it almost looked like it was rising again, a flash lit up the sky, and lightning hit the form. Blinking away the light, she quickly looked for the form, and the moment she found it she tried to reach out to stop it falling to the ground. For a brief moment her magic managed to grab the form, before the pony merely slipped through it, and crashed headfirst into the ground.
Twilight was quick to jump up and dash outside, door opening with her magic in haste. The rain pelted down, thunder growled, but she ignored it all. Finally reaching the form, she winced at the hole the form had made while landing before jumping down into it.
Attempting to grab the pale form, and unable to make out any features, she was dismayed to see her magic merely went through the form, like it wasn’t even there. She growled and grabbed a front hoof, she hoped, and began dragging the pony inside. More then once Twilight had wished she had one of her friends to help her.
After a hard pull, she finally made it inside. Dragging the form to the middle of the room she quickly grabbed a towel to wipe off the mud caking the body, drying herself with magic at the same time. Finally able to see the pony under the muck she realised something strange. The pony in question, while sprouting pale green fur and a white mane and tail, was also the owner of four wings. And what’s more, they were bat-like, similar to the Lunar Guard.
Twilight began glancing at the injuries, and saw that one left wing, the top one, and one right wing, the bottom one, were at a very bad angle. If it wasn’t sprained, it was definitely broken. His forehead was also caked in dried blood, and his back had a nasty scar down the spine. Twilight wasn’t much of a nurse, but she would deal with the injuries as much as she could before going to find help.
As she brought over a damp rag to wipe away the blood, his eyes flew open, startling her. They were glowing bright green. For a brief moment they dimmed, and she could have sown she saw normal ponies eyes for a split second, before glowing much brighter. She flinched again, and opened her mouth to speak.
It was a big mistake, the pony jumped to his feet and then straight to the air in two movements. Leaping into the rafters he glanced around for an escape, and noticed the open door. He was quick but Twilight was quicker, she closed the door and attempted to grab him using her magic. Like earlier it went straight through him, and he smashed into the door, causing his forehead to begin to bleed again.
“Wait!”Twilight dived for the pony, who leapt once more to the rafters as he sought an escape. He decided to try the stairs. Twilight dashed after him, marvelling at how fast he was even injured. She barely made it into the room before seeing him pushing at the window to try and break it. One of the strengthening spells activated, and rendered his attacks useless. He saw her guarding the door and flared his wings, giving a hiss that woke up Spike.
Leaping to his feet at the sight of the pony in the room, the two locked eyes before he hissed again. Spike backed toward the door. Twilight tried to levitate the rag over slowly, but each time she got close he would leap to the other side of the room.
“Spike, you know that letter I told you to send in case of an emergency?” Twilight never took her eyes off the pony as Spike nodded.
“Please go send it now.” At Twilight’s words Spike dashed out the room and toward the desk before opening a drawer, where a pre-made scroll layed. It was a little yellowed, but it would do. Opening his mouth, he prepared to light it and took a deep breath in. Breathing out, it went up in green flames and vanished from view. He got a reply back soon after, and hurried back to Twilight.
“Celestia said she’ll tell the elements. They should be here soon. I gotta say, how did you know a message detailing how you were otherwise occupied, and couldn’t reach your fiends easily, and then asking Celestia to send them a message would come in handy?” Twilight was still trying to coerce the pony to let her clean his wounds, but she answered Spike easily.
“Because I wanted to give you a way to contact everyone in case something happened to me and I couldn’t. Better safe then sorry.” Twilight glanced to Spike as the door knocked, and he headed downstairs. It was Rainbow Dash, and following close behind was Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
“We got the message, is Twilight ok?” Rainbow Dash’s wings were flared in alarm.
Spike quickly replied, “she’s fine, she just needs your help with something and can’t come and find you herself at the moment.” Rainbow Dash and the other three quickly relaxed, before walking inside. Spike glanced outside and saw Applejack and Fluttershy galloping through the rain and waited for them to come inside before closing the door.
“Twilight’s upstairs, you’re free to go up and-“ cutting himself off he realised they were already gone. He heaved a sigh and followed them upstairs.
Twilight growled in frustration as yet again he didn’t accept her help. She could see he was barely coherent, and badly injured but he still wouldn’t accept it. Her friends walked up, and she glanced their way and smiled before retuning her attention to the colt.
“He’s badly injured but he won’t let me near him, we need to heal those injuries and I doubt he’ll willingly come to a hospital.” Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all glanced to Fluttershy, who ‘eep’d and hid behind the nearest pony.
“Come on Fluttershy, just try please? I’m running out of options.” Twilight met Fluttershy’s fearful eyes, and Fluttershy gave a slow nod. Twilight moved to let her into the room, and they all crowded around the door to see the result.
“U-Uhm H-Hello” she spoke, one step away from the door. He hissed, flaring his wings in a threatening manner, eyes glowing brightly. Fluttershy took hesitant steps forward, but when his hiss transformed into a growl she stopped and put a shaky smile on her face.
“I-I’m Fluttershy, Y-your B-adly injured and we W-want to heal you.” Fluttershy watched his reaction, and saw no change and for a brief moment she frowned, and decided to chance tactics.
“Sssshhhh” she began cooing, taking very slow steps forward and crouching low so as to present herself as lower then him. She watched him stop growling, and frown, wings falling limp by his side. Fluttershy saw this as good news, so she began to lightly sing a soft lullaby, hoping he would relax even further. She was only a few steps away now, and when he realised that he raised his wings and growled again. Fluttershy stopped approaching and waited.
“T-Twilight pass me the washer” she whispered, and watched him growl as the washer approached, but stopped when it landed next to Fluttershy and not him. She gently started to rise, stopping when he growled, and continuing when he ceased. Eventually she was fully standing, and he was watching her next action. Fluttershy started cooing again, and gently took a step forward, putting the washer down, stepping back and crouching again.
His wings fell limp again, he hissed a warning, and he cautiously approached. Three, Two, One, and then he was right next to the washer. He bent down and sniffed it warily, before picking it up and glancing to it. Dropping it again, he glanced at the water on his hoof and frowned. Putting the hoof to his forehead and pulling it back, he noticed the blood and gazed at it.
Fluttershy gently picked up the washer, and gently began standing up again. He glanced to her, but didn’t growl as she rose. She gently cooed again, and held the rag at hoof length, and then rubbed it to her forehead, repeating the action three times before placing it back down and crouching again.
He picked up the rag and sniffed it again, and then mimicked the action. Dropping it, he hissed in sudden pain and took three steps back, but stopped when Fluttershy began cooing again. He cautiously approached the rag, and picked it up, and sniffing it again. He frowned, and copied the action a second time, winced at the pain, and then frowned. His two good wings folded against his body and he purred.
Fluttershy gently raised off the ground again, and backed away slowly. He watched her go, but didn’t react, keeping the washer on his forehead. Turning to her fiends, she made a shh-ing motion and they all headed downstairs, Twilight closing the door.
“Wow” was all she could say. Fluttershy blushed, before glancing upstairs.
“He…Is v-very proud.” The others frowned, and asked what she meant by that, she merely shrugged. They all decided to stay over until the storm abated, and then everyone but Fluttershy would leave in the morning.
The next morning was a still, and sunny day. Rainbow Dash left early to set up the clouds for the day. Applejack left for the farm. Rarity left for the boutique, complaining about orders. Pinkie Pie said something about baking a cake for the guest.
Fluttershy headed upstairs, Twilight in tow, and opened the door slowly. She quickly located the colt, sleeping soundly in a corner. The strange thing was he was floating, but as soon as she noticed that he gently lowered to the floor, before Twilight could see coincidentally. She took a single step into the room, and he opened his eyes and turned to glance at her.
The first thing she noticed was that he looked a lot more alert, it looked like his head injury hadn’t been that serious. The second thing she noticed was his eyes. They were no longer glowing, and instead looked more like normal pony eyes. They were a very bright green, seeming to illuminate his coat. He stood up, and gave a large yawn.
“O-Ok Twilight, copy my movements.” Twilight nodded at Fluttershy’s words, and took a step inside the door and closed it behind her. The colt’s entire atmosphere changed. He lowered his head, flared his wings and hissed. Fluttershy crouched low to the ground, Twilight following suit. Fluttershy cooed a bit, and Twilight debated cooing too but decided against it.
As they slowly approached him he hissed a few times, and each time they would pause and Fluttershy would coo. When they got to the middle of the room, they crouched and waited for him to approach them. Which his did, eventually. He sniffed Fluttershy, and glanced to Twilight. Fluttershy told Twilight to wait there as she slowly move around to his side.
He growled, but didn’t act against her as she bowed low in submission. Very carefully, she reached out for the limp wing, but held off touching it. She waited for his confirmation. He growled low and long, but eventually he stopped, and held the wing out slightly as cue she could touch it.
Fluttershy gently stood up,, and carefully pulled the wing out horizontal. She watched his face for any sign of pain, and was relieved to see the joint wasn’t broken. She carefully began to open the wing, and he flinched and leapt away, giving a very loud growl. Fluttershy went back into a submissive pose, and her and Twilight quickly backed out of the room.
“I-It’s only lightly sprained. He’ll be fine in a few days.” Twilight heaved a sigh of relief. If it had been broken, they would have had to take him to the hospital. And she could see how that would have gone.
“What are we going to do Fluttershy, he’s not budging.” Twilight was so unsure of what she could do to help in this situation. Fluttershy glanced to the room, and mused for a moment.
“W-We need to convince him that we’re not after his pedestal.” Fluttershy considered the best way to go about this, and nodded once to herself.
“We need food.”
“Ahm not sure about this Twilight” said Applejack, looking towards the open door where the two ponies waited for her to join them.
“Trust me Applejack, we need you” replied Twilight, nodding once. Applejack sighed, and approached the door and looked inside.
The room had undergone a serious renovation in the short time span the colt had been in the room. The room looked much the same, except one corner had been made into a cave by using the blankets around the room. Sticking out was a white tail, flicking occasionally. Fluttershy entered, followed by the other two. Twilight closed the door and the trail vanished. Two green circled became visible in the darkness.
Fluttershy crouched low, and the other two followed suit. As they waited a delicious smell wafted out of the bag Applejack was carrying. The colt slowly exited his cave, and cautiously walked over. Applejack stood up a little too fast and he growled, taking a few steps back and flaring his wings, wincing slightly.
Applejack opened the small bag and out spilled over a dozen apple products. The Colt folded his good wings and cautiously approached. The three mares didn’t move as he came over, and then snatched the food and dashed back into his cave. His tail sticking out, someone eating loudly could be heard. They all exited the room, and sought to come back tomorrow. However Fluttershy had a condition.
“You should be able to s-sleep in your room as long as you d-don’t disturb him” she whispered before leaving. Twilight didn’t believe so, but she trusted Fluttershy. So that night she and Spike walked up and entered the room, closing the door behind them. Seeing the green eyes watching them, they crouched low and made their way to their beds.
Twilight pulled out the spare blankets and draped one around Spike before taking the second and putting it on her bed.
“Goodnight Spike” she said.
“Goodnight Twilight” Spike replied in turn.
After a moment’s pause of laying in bed, she also said “Goodnight colt.”
The next day, they introduced Rainbow Dash. She had a hard time keeping still, but the colt seemed to understand her reluctance. He was also a lot more relaxed then the previous day, only dragging the food to the outside of his cave, keeping his eyes on them the whole time. Twilight also noticed his wings looked fully healed, considering he was now folding all four of them. Applejack bought the food again this time. But Rainbow Dash did bring a gift as well, one of her bouncy balls she used to relive boredom. He enjoyed playing with it, but eventually he had had enough interaction and growled at them all to tell them to leave.
That night Twilight noticed he poked his face out to watch them. Hopping into bed she and Spike said goodnight, and once again she opened her mouth to say goodnight to the colt.
“Goodnight colt.” Her eyes flared open as a low male voice echoed around the room.
“It’s Aero.” She jerked upright and glanced to the cave, but noticed he was already inside and probably asleep.
“Well…Goodnight then, Aero…”
Twilight told Fluttershy the next day, and they decided they would go alone tomorrow. But today they had to introduce Pinkie Pie to…Aero.
It was obvious how hard it was for her to stay still, and a few times her movements sent him back a step. But once he tried the candy she had him hook line and sinker. However the moment she tried to stand up he dashed back inside his cave. They decided to call it a day after that.
That night Twilight and Spike said goodbye as per normal. When she got into bed, she gave a yawn and addressed her apparent roommate.
“Goodnight…Aero” she spoke, and waited to se if he would answer.
“Goodnight Twilight” came the response, and she smiled before falling asleep.
Opening the door, they decided it was time to get Aero out of the room. Fluttershy walked over slowly, followed by Twilight. He stepped out and gazed at them as they approached, but didn’t make a sound.
“U-Uhm is y-your name A-Aero?” Fluttershy was careful to pronounce it right, and she was rewarded by a slight nod.
“w-Well Aero, W-would you please f-follow me?” He frowned, and gave a stiff nod. Twilight quickly took the lead, Fluttershy behind, and Aero behind her. He gazed at the walls as they made their way downstairs, until he noticed the open door they were heading towards. As they exited the house, he glanced back at the dragon, before gazing toward the sky. It was another sunny day, a few clouds were scattered around and it was a little warm without any wind blowing.
“You can leave if you like, we only wanted to heal you.” Aero glanced to the two mares, and then to the sky, his wings flaring. His frown deepened before he turned to the two to ask a question, opening his mouth to do so.
“TWILIGHT FINALLY, BIG PROBBLEM” Aero jumped in fight at the voice, leaping back into the house and peeking out the door. It was the rainbow one, he frowned in response. As she landed she glanced to him and frowned before shaking her head to focus.
“Twilight, there’s no wind!” Twilight frowned, and tilted her head.
“We’ve had days where there has been no wind before Dash.” Dash shook his head and hovered close to Twilight.
“No look, I’m not making any wind from flying! Your hair is not blowing in response to me making wind from my wings!” Twilight blinked in surprise, Dash was right. She should have been irritated by the wind being blown into her face, instead she wasn’t even slightly affected.
“Why is this happening, the wind can’t simply not exist, it’s wind!” As the three mares tried to figure out the problem, Aero gently walked out and glanced to the sky again. With all the mares distracted no one noticed his eyes briefly flare green. All the noticed is that very suddenly the wind returned in full force, Rainbow Dash knocking Twilight off her feet.
“Hey it’s back!” Dash landed just as a fresh breeze blew through the area, and sighs of relief could be felt across town. No one knew why the wind had left, nor where it had gone, but it was back now and that was what mattered. Dash flew off to perform her tricks now wind was back, and Fluttershy noticed Aero still behind them, watching her go.
“U-Uhm Aero?” Aero lowered his head at the sound of the female’s, Fluttershy he reminded himself, voice.
“S-Shouldn’t you be H-heading home?” Aero frowned and tilted his head, home? The purple one, Twilight was her name, decided to explain what a home was.
He frowned, and spoke “I do not have a place that I reside at the end of a day to rest.” Twilight and Fluttershy shared a look, and Twilight sighed.
“Fine, he can stay for a few more days, but ONLY a few.” Aero tilted his head again, and they explained it to him once more. He could stay at Twilights for a few more days if he so wished. He considered the proposal.
“When do the winged-ponies have another storm scheduled?” Twilight paused, quickly going over her notes inscribed on her brain.
“A week from now, why.” Aero nodded in satisfaction at Twilight’s answer.
“Then I shall stay with you until that day.” Walking inside, he didn’t notice their puzzled faces, and when asked anymore questions he would not reply. Twilight sighed, maybe tomorrow would see better progress. She just hoped letting this guy stay longer would not turn out to be a bad decision.