Falling Debris

by Storm butt


Wounded

Soarin found himself listening to the sound of Rapidfire’s breath coming in and out of his body, the grey pegasus leaning against his hoof, his cheek squishing as he slowly shook his head. The lobby of the hospital was just as oppressive as before in the bandaged pegasi’s mind, however at least he had something to focus on, even if it was just the calm collected sound of his friend’s boredom.

“Man, I wanted to go on a date with my mare today.” The grey pegasus gave a half hearted chuckle when he looked to the other. “I hope you know I’m taking it out of your wallet when I buy her some make up roses.”

“That’s fine…” Soarin mumbled, closing his eyes briefly at the sound of ponies all around him. He tried his best to ignore the old mare sitting across from him no more than six feet away, her leg in a cast as she rubbed it with a tired expression on her face.

Rapidfire frowned, watching the hunched over pegasus as he leaned up against the wall, in the corner of the waiting room. He sighed when he looked up to the ceiling, letting out a quiet whistle.

“Spitfire’s gonna kill you if she ever finds out you just ran out without even getting your bandages off.” The grey stallion looked to his friend, Soarin doing his best to breathe.

Soarin lifted his hoof to his wing when he saw a small child glance at it, feeling himself scratch and claw at the bandages before Rapidfire grabbed at his hoof and put it down. He wanted to growl, to grumble and argue, however he simply followed the silent orders his friend gave him.

“They aren't even supposed to come off yet,” Soarin mumbled, shaking his head. “Why did you drag me here?”

“Because I’m not exactly happy either that you just ran out.” The pegasus put bluntly, rubbing his forehead. “Dude, you’re my best friend. I’m fine if you’re not down with physical therapy, but you can let them see.”

“It doesn’t look any better.” Soarin mumbled quietly, finding himself looking at the wall as he began to bite the end of his good wing, bringing it over the front of his body. He smoothed out his ruffled feathers with his hoof, finding himself swallowing hard. “I mean, the only thing different about it and when it happened is there’s less blood. I can’t even move it that well. I mean, what’s the point if it just looks like I’m stuck like this?”

“Tryouts went well.” Rapidfire sighed, running a hoof through his thick white mane to scratch at his ears, making an attempt to change the subject. “I mean, Spitty yelled a lot and some ponies cried, same as usual. I think we’re getting a few new backliners.”

“Did you work on adjusting the team at all?” Soarin questioned the grey stallion. It was strange how much he used to hate talking about things like drawing up diagrams of team movement and charting the lineup.. “I mean, Fleetfoot’s in charge of a lot of ponies as it is and Star Strider doesn’t have many.”

“Man, you sound like Spitfire.” Rapidfire groaned, putting his face into his hooves with a groan. The grey stallion looked tired, less energetic than usual. “Didn’t you always complain to me about all this crap, what gives?

“Just wondering.” Soarin shrugged his shoulders, the frown returning to his face. “I just wondered how much things changed.”

Rapidfire let out another groan, this time followed by a white mare who gave him a strange look when she walked up. Rapidfire looked away from her, his cheeks giving off a gentle blush as he coughed into his hoof.

“Yes, Soarin…I’m Nurse Redhoof.” The nurse was different than last time, younger and a bit more easy to smile at the two of them. Her eyes scanned the clipboard in front of her eyes that levitated using her pink magic glow. She smiled as she scribbled something down, lowering the clipboard. “I believe this is just a simple check up, come with me!”

Her voice was chipper when Soarin rose to his hooves, trying his best to ignore as many eyes in the place drew themselves to him. He was glad Rapidfire had begun to rise as well, giving him a reassuring smile before Soarin began to follow the nurse, Rapidfire by his side.

The two walked to the direction of the desk and to a hallway with many doors on either side. Soarin tried not to look at the unicorn wheeling himself down in a chair using his magic, his body looking heavy and tired. The pegasus found himself holding his breath as he bit down on his lip.

“Right in here!” Nurse Redhoof spoke, opening the door to a small room with little more than a small looking uncomfortable bed. She turned in the direction of the lobby once more, the smile still on her face. “You can rest here, I’ll be back in in a few minutes.”

When the mare left, Soarin found himself moving to the bed, putting his hoof against it to test the firmness. It was hard, feeling as though it needed a replacement. He suddenly began to feel glad for his new large comfortable bed in his hotel room.

“Man, that mare is something out of one of your trash novels.” Rapidfire laughed at the other as Soarin slowly adjusted himself into his seat, smiling gently for the first time that morning.

“All my trashy novels have stallions in them.” Soarin reminded Rapidfire, giving off a chuckle as he did so.

“Not the ones from last month.” Rapidfire reminded him, a sly grin on his face as he moved to the couch next to the bed, seating himself down as he let out a yawn.

The door opened suddenly again to reveal Nurse Redhoof just as the blue pegasus began inspecting the window behind him, the blue skies a rare occurrence in this horribly rainy town. His eyes looked back to the nurse, who let out a huff of air as she trotted over to the other with a smile.

“Now Mister Soarin, I’m not fully aware of your knowledge of your condition so let me bring you up to speed, okay?” She lifted a pair of scissors as she made careful work to slide them between the large knot holding the wing in place. Soarin nodded his head, hearing the sound of a snip as his wing was soon free, the bandages around his chest falling off easily as the mare pulled at them carefully.

“I understand that flying is very important to you, but you being out of the hospital doesn’t mean that you can just go leaping off the roof the moment it’s done. You still have to begin doing the right amount of stretching and light exercise before you get any kind of feeling in your wing. I highly recommend physical therapy.”

Soarin found himself grabbing at his leg at those words, biting the inside of his cheek. He tried not to think about it too much as he nodded his heavy head.

“Your wing isn’t in any condition to fly even if you had full control over it at this point, your feathers shouldn’t have grown back yet, you’ll be letting off a lot of body heat, so I recommend you bundle yourself up if the weather continues raining like it has been.” The nurse snipped once more at the gauze, this time his wing which began to feel less tightly bound.

“He’s heard this all before… er, sorry to interrupt.” Rapidfire spoke, awkwardly scratching his head when the nurse glanced to him.

“My apologies then.” The nurse spoke. “I know how it is having things drilled into your head, medical school is like that. I’m sure you’re just wondering when you can get back to flying. You’ve been a wonderbolt for quite a while, haven’t you?”

“About seven years.” Soarin spoke, a small grin on his face. “I joined when I was eighteen. I’m got to be vice captain three years later, youngest one in decades.”

“That sounds very nice, doing something you love.” The nurse commented, beginning to remove the final layer of the gauze slowly, her hooves dragging lightly across his bare pink flesh. “Does any of this hurt?”

“No… not really.” Soarin shook his head. “It just feels weird.”

“That’s expected. Your wing hasn’t seen much of the world aside from bandage changings. It should take a while for it to stop being so sensitive.” The nurse commented. Soarin kept his eyes shut, the only time he opened them was to stare down at his hooves.

“I’ll be right back, it’ll give you a few minutes to get adjusted.” Nurse Redhoof spoke, giving the stallion a pat on the back before she began walking to the door.

Soarin felt as though it was a struggle to breathe as he began scratching his leg. He had to force in an out every breath as he closed his eyes once more.

“What does it look like?” He stammered out.

“Uh…” Rapidfire seemed to be taken off guard by the question. The sound of the creaking couch was heard as the pegasus stood up, trotting over to get a closer look. “I guess it just looks weird. There’s some feathers, but it’s really just patches, lot of small scars and a few bigs ones… whole things pink too, looks kinda ugly I’m not gonna lie to you dude.”

Soarin used his hoof to gently feel his wing, the some spots where feathers usually grew seemed to be missing, or not to the length he was used too. He put his free hoof to his forehead and tried his best to focus on not trembling.

“I… I met s-somepony…”

“What?”

Rapidfire seemed confused at Soarin’s change in topic. He could imagine Rapidfire tilting his head in confusion as Soarin bit into his lip.

“When I ran out a few days ago, I ran into some stallion. I met him one time before, I dunno, I asked him out because I just wanted to get away from here.” Soarin spoke as he shrugged, feeling his eyes water. “He was nice and easy to talk too. It was easy to forget all of this crap when we went out.”

“You actually landed yourself a date?” Rapidfire questioned, an attempt to lighten the mood only sunken when Soarin simply nodded.

“Do you think that… he’ll think it’s ugly?” Soarin lifted a hoof to wipe angrily at the tears that had not yet spilled. “I mean, I hardly know him but he seemed excited to see me again… I don’t want him to just stare at it the whole time. He hardly brought it up and it’s all anypony talks about when they see me… and it’s even more noticeable and I just…”

Soarin wasn’t sure how to finish that, he simply swore under his breath as he sniffled gently. “I’m a mess…”

“Never thought you’d come to me over boy troubles.” Rapidfire laughed, though it was a comforting one, for a hoof was placed onto his shoulder. “I didn’t really mean blow off your appointment to get a date when I said you should find somepony to take your mind off of this… was he at least hot?”

“He was k-kind of annoying actually.” Soarin chuckled, his voice shaking as he struggled to keep down his emotions. “B-But it worked for him, he was cute… It’s easier to think about some stupid date over my medical problems.”

“I gotcha.” His friend reassured, patting his shoulder as he moved in front of the blue pegasus, giving a shrug of his shoulders. “Hell if you’re sad and mopey about what some guy thinks instead of being sad and mopey for nothing, that works for me.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Soarin shrugged, frowning as he looked behind him at last, seeing a large scar right on the connecting point of his wing to his back. He felt his heart sink when he looked back to Rapidfire, a frown on his face.

So uh…” Rapidfire looked at Soarin’s expression, seeming to rack his brain for a few moments for a new topic. “You read anything kinky in those novels you wanna try out?”

“Shut up!” Soarin quickly spoke up, his face a little red at the thought.

The door opened once more, interrupting Rapidfire laughing at Soarin’s reaction. Nurse Redhoof trotted back in, a puzzled expression on her face at the two talking to one another.

“I have your bill right here, you shouldn’t need more than the pain medication you have left, you can just sign this and whenever you’re ready you can leave.” She spoke, trotting up to the two. "I'll just put some fresh bandages on for you and you're free!"

“You ready to split, Soar?” Rapidfire asked his friend, pointing his head in the direction of the nurse. “Dunno about you but I’m getting sick of this place."

“Yeah… let’s get the heck out of here.” Soarin agreed.