Midnight Star
By Nebula Star
Chapter 5: Broken Wings and Shattered Dreams
***
Midnight, please! Leave them out of this! Twilight screamed with her thoughts as Midnight flew toward where Twilight usually met Rainbow Dash for their flight. She was surprisingly adept at flying despite having never flown before. Something else she'd learned from her time in Twilight's head no doubt.
Midnight ignored her protests however.
Please... not my friends...
Rainbow was already at the meeting point, Twilight saw as they got close. Of all the days for her to be early. Twilight wanted to scream, to warn her, but it was no use. Midnight's magic holding her was just too strong.
“Hey, Twi! Haven't seen you in a couple days. I was a little worried you wouldn't show.” Rainbow said as Midnight landed on the cloud she was standing on.
“Yea, I've been hitting the books pretty hard the last couple days,” Midnight said mimicking Twilight's normal demeanor with surprising accuracy.
Rainbow grinned. “I hope you're not going total egg-head on me again. You know I won't allow it!”
Midnight actually laughed, surprising Twilight by how sincere it sounded. “Don't worry, Rainbow, I'm not giving up flying anytime soon.”
“Well good, now lets give those wings a workout!” Rainbow said and jumped up hovering in the air above the cloud.
“You want to fly out over the forest today?” Midnight asked pleasantly.
Rainbow just shrugged. “Sure. Try to keep up,” she said then zipped off. With a wicked grin, Midnight followed.
With Rainbow setting the pace, they were soon over the forest. Twilight had a pretty good idea why Midnight would ask to fly out over the forest; she didn't want witnesses. Midnight! Don't, please! Twilight almost whimpered.
Midnight wasn't going to stop however. “Lesson one,” she said softly and her horn glowed. Rainbow let out a yelp being yanked to a sudden stop by Midnight's magic, then before she could even realize what had happened she was flung downwards towards the forest below.
Her momentum was far too great and the forest too near. Rainbow crashed down through the treetops smashing through the branches to the forest floor.
No! Twilight cried fearing her friend was injured as Midnight followed through the whole Rainbow had just made in the forest canopy.
Rainbow was resilient and use to crash landings, but that didn't mean she could just shake off a crash like that. She was still lying on the forest floor, dazed as Midnight landed next to her. She didn't seem to be badly injured though.
Then Midnight stomped on her limply outstretched wing.
There was a sickening crack and Rainbow cried out in pain. She looked over her shoulder to see what had broken her wing. Her eyes fell on Midnight, but that wasn't who she saw. She saw her friend. “Twi!? What are you doing!?” She gasped, shocked that Twilight would intentionally injure her.
Midnight just slowly smiled wickedly as her horn began to glow. Then Rainbow's wing became enveloped in her magic as well. Rainbow's eyes widened in fear, but she couldn't get away; couldn't pull her already injured wing free. Another crack rang out and Rainbow screamed. Then another, and another. One by one Midnight shattered every bone in Rainbow's wing.
Rainbow screamed and cried, begging her to stop again and again, her words echoed by Twilight's thoughts as she also begged Midnight to stop. But Midnight didn't stop, and it was already too late. Despite having the resilience of a Pegasi, Rainbow would not recover from this. No amount of healing could repair the damage to her wing. With so many bones broken at once... Rainbow was going to be crippled.
Midnight didn't stop with just one wing though. As she dropped the first, bloody and oddly bent, and took up Rainbow's other wing, Rainbow looked back at the pony she believed was her friend with such a look of confusion and pain for this betrayal that Twilight broke down crying, trapped in her own mind. She tried not to watch, tried not to hear Rainbow's screams as Midnight began again. But Midnight wasn't about to let her turn away. She had no choice but to watch as Rainbow screamed again and again in agony. Finally it proved too much for the blue pegasus and mercifully she slipped into unconsciousness.
Midnight dropped her wing then. The damage was done; short of a miracle, Rainbow would never fly again. And worse, as far as she knew it was Twilight that had done this to her. Rainbow would blame her, and she'd be right. It was Twilight's fault; she'd brought Midnight to this world. It had been a mistake, but it was her fault all the same.
Twilight was crying; in the very depths of her soul, she cried. She knew all to well Rainbow's hopes and dreams, knew that they were as shattered as her wings.
“That's one,” Midnight said and took off again. Twilight had no doubt she would attack all of her closest friends.
With a scream Twilight threw all of her power at Midnight's barrier sending a tremor through the spell as in her grief she reached deeper into her magic than she ever had before. But it was no use, where her barrier had been like a loosely mortared brick wall, Midnight's was like solid steel. Midnight's magic strength was still much too far above her own. If she did have the same potential, if she had that strength within her, she didn't know how to reach it.
~~~
As Midnight flew it quickly became apparent where she was headed; Fluttershy's cottage.
Twilight bashed at the barrier holding her again and again, but it was still no use. Please! Not Fluttershy! She's too gentle, too sensitive! She begged.
“You won't learn your lesson if I don't teach it properly,” Midnight said coldly as Fluttershy's cottage came into view. Fluttershy herself was out in the yard feeding some of her animal friends and Midnight dove down toward her. Twilight wanted to look away believing Midnight was about to attack, but then she didn't. She landed near Fluttershy and skidded to a stop.
“Fluttershy! Come quickly, it's an emergency!” Midnight said acting slightly panicked.
“What's wrong!?” Fluttershy asked.
Midnight just shook her head. “No time, just follow me!” She said and took off again heading back over the forest.
“Oh, okay.” Twilight heard Fluttershy say and Midnight looked back to make sure she was following.
No... Twilight whimpered when both she and Midnight saw that she was.
Midnight led Fluttershy back into the forest, but she wasn't just going there just for lack of witnesses this time. It didn't take Twilight long to realized they were headed back to where Midnight had left Rainbow Dash. With Fluttershy following however it took longer to fly back as Midnight had to fly at a pace she could match.
When Rainbow did finally come into view though, Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock. “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Rainbow!” She cried flying forward with a sudden burst of speed. “Oh, what happened to you!” Tears were already coming to her eyes, seeing her oldest friend so injured. She landed at Ranbow's side and began gently shaking Rainbow trying to get her to wake as tears fell from her eyes. She was visibly trembling. She knew enough about first aid to know that Rainbow's wings were beyond repair. Twilight wanted to shed tears as well.
“Rainbow; Rainbow; please wake up,” Fluttershy whimpered. The entire time, Midnight just stood back and made Twilight watch her friend's suffering.
Finally Rainbow began to stir. Her ears twitched and a few moments later her eyes slowly opened. “Fluttershy?” Rainbow said softly seeing her.
“Rainbow! Don't worry we're here. You'll be alright.”
“We?” Rainbow asked softly and slowly looked looked around. Midnight smiled wickedly as Rainbow's eyes found her.
Despite her injuries, she panicked, trying to crawl away even with Fluttershy holding her. “GET AWAY FROM ME!” Rainbow screamed.
Fluttershy didn't understand. “Rainbow, what's wrong?” She asked glancing between her and Midnight. Why would Rainbow Dash be afraid of Twilight? “Rainbow, it's Twilight.”
“She did this to me!”
“What?” Fluttershy squeaked, unable to believe what she'd just heard. “But, Twilight would never...” Her words trailed off as she looked at Twilight and saw Midnight's wicked grin. “Twilight...?” The look of confusion in her eyes made Twilight want to scream, to tell her it wasn't her.
“What's the matter, Flutters? You should be happy, now there's finally a pegasus in Ponyville that's an even worse flier than you.”
“What...?” She squeaked unable to believe what she was hearing.
Midnight sneered. “It's pathetic really, I've only had my wings a year and I'm already a far better flier than you, and you've had your wings your whole life.”
Fluttershy wilted under the verbal attack whimpering as the insults she'd suffered as a filly were thrown back at her by someone who was supposed to be one of her closest friends. Midnight knew what she was doing; she knew that the verbal assault would be far more painful for the timid pegasus than any physical injury.
“You leave her alone!” Rainbow Dash shouted coming to Fluttershy's defense despite her own pain.
Midnight just snorted. "Letting Rainbow stand up for you again? When will you ever learn to fight your own battles?" She said coldly causing Fluttershy to whimper. “Whatever, I'm done with you two flightless pegasi!” She said and with that she took off, leaving Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to stare after her, confused as to why Twilight had turned against them.