All I remembered before I woke up was - a hoarse howling, a flash of wooden teeth-like things, a painful snap! on my left wing, and Iron and Cupcake hovering above me.
I woke up in a bed which was in a room that looked similar to the hospital, but a little more... camp-like. I sat up and winced. I looked at my left side. My wing was broken. I wouldn't be able to fly for weeks.
I looked around. Other ponies - from earth ponies to unicorns to Pegasi like me - slept in beds. These ponies must be either hurt or sick.
Then I saw Cupcake and Iron walk into the room. "You're awake!" Cupcake squealed, and held out a cupcake. "Have a cupcake!"
I took it and bit in. "Thanks, Cupcake. You're the best," I replied through a mouthful of frosting and cupcake. I got up, wincing when I felt the pain from my wing.
"Iron and I have already explored camp! It's awesome! We'll give you a tour!" Cupcake said, bouncing up and down. Iron rolled his eyes but said nothing.
I nodded. "Sure, Cupcake, I'd love a tour," I said.
"Great! Follow me!" Cupcake said, trotting out of the medical room. I followed her and gasped.
I never thought I'd like any part of the Everfree Forest. There were ponies everywhere, some wearing leather armor and fighting each other with swords, or some holding bows and arrows and firing them at targets. Some were just sitting around, chatting with each other and waving to the colts.
"The daughters of Rarity, goddess of love and beauty," Cupcake explained, "Always going for the boys." Cupcake shook her head. "Can't they focus on the battles first?"
I laughed quietly. Then we made it to a clearing with groups of cabins everywhere, making a rectangle-shaped area. In the center of the group of cabins was a campfire.
"These are the cabins, where the different hoof-bloods stay. Cabin One is for Celestia, goddess of the sun. Cabin Two is for Luna, goddess of the moon and the night," Iron explained, "Cabin Three is for Cadence, goddess of crystals and faith."
My eyes widened. "C-Cadence is a g-goddess?" I stammered. Cupcake nodded excitedly.
"And Cabin Four is for Shining Armor, god of battles and defenses; Cabin Five for Spike, the messenger of the gods; Cabin Six for Twilight Sparkle, goddess of wisdom and magic; Cabin Seven for Rainbow Dash, goddess of loyalty and victory; Cabin Eight for Fluttershy, goddess of nature; Cabin Nine for Rarity, you know her already; Cabin Ten for Pinkie Pie, goddess of PARTIES!!! Cabin Eleven for Applejack, goddess of agriculture, blah blah blah..."
I listened to her blabber on as I looked at the cabins. Rainbow Dash's cabin looked really inviting...
"...and Cabin Eighteen for Zecora, goddess of medicine and prophecies!" Cupcake finished.
"So who's your godly parent?" I asked Cupcake. She bounced around excitedly.
"Pinkie Pie, of course! That explained my Pinkie Sense and my excitement for parties and acting unpredictable!" Cupcake squealed, pointing at her cutie mark, which was three balloons.
"I don't know mine yet," Iron said, "But I hope it's not somepony like Rarity... or Pinkie Pie..." He didn't say anything after that.
Then, I heard the sound of a horn - Silver Lane's horn, as I'm told. "What are we doing?" I asked Iron.
Iron grabbed his coin with his unicorn magic and it turned into a sword. "We're playing capture the flag," he said, trotting towards where we were playing it. Cupcake followed. I followed as well, sword in my teeth.
A lot of Hoof-Bloods were already gathered by Silver. There were three different groups - one consisting of Earth Ponies, one of Pegasi, and one of Unicorns. I trotted towards the Pegasi group while Iron went to the unicorn group and Cupcake to the Earth Ponies.
Silver waited for silence, then spoke, "Everypony, we have three new hoof-bloods with us today - the Pegasus Spectra Shock, the unicorn Iron Blade, and the Earth Pony Cupcake Frosting." The crowd cheered.
"Cupcake has already been claimed by the goddess Pinkie Pie, but Iron and Spectra aren't claimed yet. But, not to worry, we will begin the Capture the Flag match in just a bit. Head over to your stations and listen for my horn." Silver nodded and teleported somewhere. The three groups scattered into their corresponding teams.
I didn't know what to do at first until a light brown Pegasus pony with darker hair flew up to me. "Hello there, Spectra!" He said, then looked at my wing and shook his head sympathetically. "Unable to fly? Heard you slaughtered a timberwolf pack today! I'm Time Traveller, by the way."
I nodded. "So what do we do?" I asked Time.
Time flew slowly as I trotted along. "Normally, capture the flag will have two teams. But with three teams, we can choose which team's flag to raid. We can choose between the Earth Ponies or the unicorns. If we get both flags, we win. If we only get one flag, we still need to get the other one before we can win. But at the same time, if, for example, we steal the unicorns' flag, the Earth Ponies still have a chance to steal the flag back," he explained.
"And we fight away the other teams using our weapons?" I asked, flipping my coin. It landed tails up and turned into a bow and arrows. Neat, I thought, I have a weapon that can transform into a short and long ranged weapon.
Time nodded. "That's right," he said as we approached the rest of our team. We were assigned to try and get the unicorns' flag. Some ponies were assigned to get the Earth Ponies' flag, while the rest of us guarded the flag and borders.
Then, Silver's horn blew, and our team cheered, although the Fluttershy campers just said "Yay!" very softly. Time and I charged. I couldn't fly, yes, but I galloped along about as fast as when I fly, just a tiny bit slower.
Some unicorns had crossed our borders and our teammates were fighting them off. We ran past them and crossed into the unicorns' territory.
"Watch out for the traps that the unicorns' laid," Time warned me, "Most of them aren't strong fighters - some are Rarity children. But some are Shining Armor children, and they are great fighters. So watch out for them."
I nodded and checked to see if we were being followed. Nothing. But then, I heard the galloping of hooves as a light purple unicorn with darker hair and a pink streak jumped at us from behind the bushes. She landed on Time, and they tumbled over, head over hooves. They were a flurry of purple and brown, and soon Time was on top, pinning the purple unicorn down.
But she was too quick and clever. Her horn glowed with unicorn magic and she vanished in a poof of glittery smoke, then reappeared behind and later on top of Time.
"Dawn Glimmer, you can't hurt anypony! Only stunning them, at the most!" Time said, waving his wing. Suddenly, Dawn froze in time. He gestured me to follow him, then when we were out of sight, he flicked his wing again, and I heard a thump! of somepony falling.
"Nice one, Time," I said.
"Thanks," he said, panting, "Let's rest a bit?"
I nodded and we sat down by a stream with a little waterfall. I cooled off my good wing with the running water, sprayed some on my face and shook my mane dry. That feels better, I thought.
Then came a shriek from Dawn, who was closing in, this time with a midnight-blue stallion and somepony who seemed like Iron. They galloped towards us, swords drawn.
"Run!" I cried, alerting Time. He got to his wings and flew away, with me galloping along. Soon we reached a small clearing with a few fluffy clouds in the sky.
Frustrated that I couldn't fly, I decided to summon one of those clouds and ride on it. Sure enough, when I willed a cloud to float down and help me, I saw a little cloud do just that. Surprised, I jumped on it and zoomed off after Time.
Suddenly, I ran into Time, who was hiding in one of the trees. At this hit my cloud broke apart, and I crashed next to Time. He was peering through the branches at a group of unicorns who were guarding the flag - a lavender banner with a white unicorn head that looked like the chess piece.
"How are we going to get it?" I whispered, "Could you use your time freezing powers?"
Time thought for a moment. "No, I can't, or else I'd be too tired to fly or even run back with you to help with the flag. Only my father, Dr. Whooves, can do that. So here's the plan: I'll distract them, and you grab the flag. I'll join you later."
"Sounds good to me," I said, getting ready. Then, Time jumped out of the tree and landed on one of the unicorns, startling him. He jumped off and ran away from the flag, causing a few of the unicorns to leave their guarding post. However, there was one unicorn guarding the flag still.
I hesitated before jumping into the clearing. I flapped my wings, even though one was broken, to soften the fall. I couldn't fly, but I could still do that.
I crouched down low, making sure nopony was around me except for maybe that one unicorn. Then, I tiptoed towards the flag.
Crunch.
I looked down and noticed that I had trodden on a stick and broke it. The unicorn looked at me and charged.
I was trapped. Nowhere to run or fly. I looked at the sky and brought down a dark cloud. I jumped on it and a bolt of lightning shot from it. Stunned, the unicorn staggered. I jumped up and down on the cloud and more lightning burst from it.
Then I saw my chance to get the flag. Jumping down from the thunder cloud, I galloped to the flag and picked it up with my teeth. Then I turned around to Time and he nodded, letting go of one of the Vinyl-Scratch Campers and flew away. When I caught up with him, he helped me carry the flag. I heard more unicorns trying to catch up to us, screaming, "They've got the flag!" or "Don't let them get away!"
Too late. We just crossed into our territory, where more Pegasi were helping us out. The unicorns barged on, but there were too many more available Pegasi than there were unicorns. Watching us hopelessly, the unicorns retreated.
The Pegasi team was crowding around me and Time now. Grinning in victory, I held up the flag and reared up. Cheers roared from the Pegasi as we celebrated our victory.
Suddenly, the cheering quieted as soon as it had come. I felt burning gazes from everypony - on my flank. I slowly looked down at my flank, which was glowing with light. Then, my once blank flank had a picture of a cloud with a pink, yellow, and light blue lightning bolt bursting from it.
Silver emerged from the crowd and bowed. Everypony followed her example. Even Cupcake and Iron bowed. Then, Silver rose and walked up to me and said in her royal voice:
"Goddess of lightning, weather, speed, loyalty, and victory. Pegasus pony of dares. All hail, Spectra Shock, daughter of Rainbow Dash."