"Okay, let me just take this off, aaannnddd... there! As good as new," the doctor said as he removed the last bandage from your right wing.
Standing once more onto the cloudy floor, you felt a fresh and welcoming breeze going through your feathers as they were released from their prison. Looking to your wing which had just been released, you saw your wing folded gently to your side, everything intact, except for the missing feather that Gloom pulled out this morning.
Extending your wing to its fullest, you glanced over it while angling it a few times to different poses so you could inspect every feather. You craned your neck towards your extended wing and brought your wing more to your muzzle, making it easier to reach. You nuzzled your wing lightly, brushing through your feathers as you realized how much you missed them in the few minutes you had to live with them chained up to your sides.
Folding your wing back to your side, you went to inspect your left wing the same as your right, also brushing through it in relief that your left wing was free once more as well.
Extending both of your wings, you began to beat them up and down, taking you gently from the ground and letting you hover in the air for a few seconds before landing softly on the ground again. As you did, you felt that the muscles in your wings and your back were still aching a bit. Nothing a few good hours of napping wouldn't fix.
"Alright, Mr. Static. Your wings are no doubt still aching a bit, but that will go away," the doctor said as he brought the used bandages to the garbage can and dropped them in there. He went to the cabinet, taking a bottle of Cooling-Aid, and walked back to you, "However, it may take a day or two before the itching from your burn spots disappear completely."
He hoofed you the bottle which you took with your right hoof and glanced at it, "Okay, but nothing itches, so... I think it's over?" you said questionably. Since nothing itched after the liquid was last applied, you thought it was not 'really' needed to have a bottle of the substance.
"It may seem that way, but this liquid only helps for a time. You may experience that, later in the day, the itching, or, slight warm sensation, can come back. When it happens, you take a little bit out of the bottle, and apply it to the area you feel that needs it."
"Apply it to the area you feel that needs it... What happens when I... Yep. Definitely going to try that."
Looking back to the doctor when you came out of your thoughts, you saw him glancing at you with a raised eyebrow, "Euhm... Everything alright, doc?" you asked with a raised eyebrow of your own.
"Quite so," the doctor said as he looked down to the floor and brushed his chin. "But I keep wondering how you got those burns in the first place. You weren't around any thunderclouds since those are not scheduled here until next week... and there aren't any burnable objects, or anything hot in the sky just like that. And burns from the impact is also a 'no', since you impacted straight onto a cloud which caught you and stopped you right there, so friction from skidding along the ground is also impossible."
You glanced at the various darkened spots on your fur as the doctor explained, wondering as well how those spots could actually get there. But wasting time on this would bring you nowhere, so you decided to give the thoughts a rest, and bring it up to somepony who had a better chance of answering this. And, as with every question you didn't know the answer to, you knew the 1 pony who would know it; Mom.
You also made a tiny note to tell mom a thunderstorm was scheduled next week. She always wanted to know whenever a weather change would occur so she could prepare your dad, you and your sisters for it. "I think the thunderstorm will not be such a big thing, but I know she would like it if I told her about it anyway."
"Now, Mr. Static. You've your prescriptions, if you can call it that, I think you need to tell your coach, Iron Wing, that you're up and about again," the doctor said as he strode to your left and grabbed, what appeared to be, your saddle bag. "This is the bag you had on you when you were brought in, so I kept it here, there was no reason to keep it stashed away."
The doctor came back to you with your saddle bag in his left hoof. He swung it gently over your back, taking extra care when he made the fabric of the belt touch your back. You angled your wings up slowly and stretched them a bit out so that the doctor could hang the bags carefully to your sides without your wings being in the way.
Craning your head and looking over your left shoulder, you saw the doctor tightening the belt on your back with his hooves, making you yelp as a little bit of your coat was being gripped between the belt, "Oowh! Easy back there, Doc!" You startled the doctor with your sudden yelp, he shot is muzzle towards yours with a slight fearful expression, his ears drooped slightly down and his eyebrows raised in slight shock.
"Oh! I'm sorry, Mr. Static! Did I hit one of your burn spots?!" the doctor asked with concern.
You gently shook your head, "No." You gritted your teeth lightly and closed one eye as the full weight of the bags began pulling on your fur, "But if you could remove the splotch of my coat that is between the belt, that would be appreciated!"
The doctor sighed with relief before he went back to your saddlebags' belt and loosed it up a bit, releasing your coat before carefully tightening it again. Without your fur between the belt, and the doctor creating distance between the two of you, you folded your wings back carefully, slowly brining them back to your sides. You gave your hip a few light swings, making your tale wag and your saddle bags hop against your sides. You felt no pain nor anything irritating when your bags moved, so they were not able to hit any burn marks that were on your coat.
Satisfied with the result, you looked over to the doctor who looked glad as well, "Well, you're good to go."
You gave a nod at the doctor before opening your bags' flap, putting your bottle of Cooling-Aid in your saddle bag and closing the flap again. Glancing over to the doctor, you saw him walking to the door, opening it and pointing his right hoof towards the hallway, "Out you go, Mr. Static. I've other duties to attend to."
You nodded again and walked towards the door. You stopped next to the doctor, "Thanks again, Doc. I hope I won't see you again, in these kinds of situations at least."
The doctor chuckled, "He-he, lets hope indeed."
You walked away from the doctor and into the hallway, hearing the sound of the infirmary room closing behind you and the doctor walking in the opposite direction of you. Your ears perked up as you heard the doc's voice calling you out, "Oh, one last thing Mr. Static."
You craned your neck back around into the direction of the voice, noticing the doctor glancing towards you. "Yeah?"
"Please preen your feathers, they're a mess," the doctor said as he turned back around and walked off and further into the hallway.
Your eyebrow twitched slightly. "Why... is everypony telling me to preen my bucking wings!? They're fine!" you thought as you glanced at your wings, now actually looking at how the feathers were, instead of only looking if they were still there. You sighed lightly at the sight, "Dear Celestia... He's right. I do need to preen them... that is going to take a while."
Your turned your muzzle forwards and continued to make your way down the infirmary hall, and towards the door opening at the far end. You passed by empty rooms, all clean and unused. "Why the hay, did they put me in a room so far from the outside?"
Growling a bit about the fact that you now needed to walk all the way, which was maybe less than twenty meters, but still, it was a bunch of horseapples to you.
You placed your front hooves in the opening of the doorway, and was welcomed with a fine breeze going through your coat and the sun shining on your muzzle. Inhaling deeply and letting it out through your mouth, you took the first step outside of the infirmary-wing of the school, and walked down the two small steps that separated the infirmary with the courtyard of the school. Looking to your right, you saw three pegasi in blue uniforms working on a cloud that was in multiple pieces, trying to shape it in what you expected to be its normal shape. "I probably crashed over there... poor cloud..."
Tearing your gaze away from the working pegasi, and the poor cloud that was utterly destroyed by your crash. You turned your muzzle to were the meeting point would have been, right in front of you, with four cloud, marble shaped, pillars. With in the center a cloud shaped into a statue of 'The Commander Hurricane', wearing armor, posing on his two hind legs while in his right front hoof a sword was held and his left hoof pointing towards the school, his wings flared out and his face was sporting a victorious grin.
You smiled a bit with pride at seeing the statue, even though the statue was not all that special, it did resemble 1 of the most important ponies in the history of your race. Walking further towards the statue, you noticed something in the left corner of your eyes, looking to whatever caught your eye, you raised an eyebrow as you saw that all the stallions from your class were laying on the clouds, all panting. By exercising no doubt.
Walking towards your stallion classmates, you looked at all of them, "Guys, what the hay happened to all of you?"
"Iron...Wing..." Sky Edge was able to mutter through his heavy breathing as he lay on his back, wings spread out loosely.
"Yeah... he really... wanted us to... shape up..." Blazing Beats said as he lay on his tummy, his left wing unfurled and the other half extended.
"I wished... that I crashed..." Thunderlane said as he was sitting on his haunches, before falling back over and slump onto the clouds, wings spread out and his front and hind legs sprawled over the ground.
You looked at the rest, all of them panting and unable to mutter anything that made sense. "By Celestia... it couldn't have been that bad," you said almost questionably. "What did you guys needed to do?"
"It was worse than we thought..." Sky Edge said as he managed to slowly get up and sit on his haunches, occasionally panting. "We started with... thirty-five laps around the outer ring of the Colosseum. After that, we needed to do twenty wing-ups followed by twenty push-ups. ...And after that, the coach had the good idea to do 'Capture the Flag'. With the stallions against the mares."
"Okay. I see why you're all out of it then, doing all those exercises. But you did win 'Capture the Flag' right?" you said with a slight grin, knowing that your fellow stallions would beat the mares.
But your grin dropped as every stallion looked at you with uncertain and hesitant expressions. "Wait... don't tell me you lost..."
"HA! You bet they lost!" Your ears picked up the familiar scratchy voice.
"They didn't even succeeded in scoring one point!" came the voice of Lightning Dust behind you.
"Those two mares... They are impossible..." Thunderlane said as he too got up again, and managed to point his left hoof behind you.
Turning around slowly, you were greeted with all the mares from your class standing there, looking at you with only tiny bits of exhaustion. Some of them wearing their goggles still over their eyes or having them resting on their forehead. And the worst part off all, they all had massive grins on their muzzles. And to make it even worse than that, the two mares in front of the group, were nopony else than Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust. Both showing the least of exhaustion from the whole group.
You gulped a bit as you were stared down by them. But as you glanced at Rainbow Dash, you took in her form as she slightly panted, small clouds forming as she breathed out, her wings slightly extended and looking ruffled, her fur matted by the exercise, her mane unchanged since you last saw her.
You began to bite lightly on the inside off your lower lip, trying to stop your thoughts from going to places they 'definitely' shouldn't go at this moment. "They look so... damn good... Especially Dashie... Wait... did I just call her Dashie?"
"Alright, mares. How about we do a victory lap around the school!?" Rainbow Dash said as she flared her wings out and jumped into the sky, looking at her fellow classmates. Every mare shot their hoof up into the sky and yelled, "YEAH!"
The whole team took off after Rainbow Dash, she and Lightning forming the tip of the arrow point the group began to form as they flew a giant circle around the school. All of them adjusting to the leaders movements like hey were all members of the Wonderbolts.
"By Celestia, since when do the have so much vigor? The years before, we could beat them with not 'too' much effort. But even now they still look as energetic," you said to yourself as you followed the arrow head of mares as they began their second round around the school.
"That is because most of them are maturing, Mr. Static."
Slightly startled by the voice, you glanced behind you, and there he stood; Iron Wing. one of the biggest and most muscular build pegasi you've ever seen. He stood in front of you, one and half a head higher than you, his muscles slightly visible through his coat. His mane was black, spiked and back-waving. His coat was grey shaded and his eyes were brown, his right eye wearing a slight scar vertically over it. All in all, a pony you didn't want get on the bad side of.
Luckily, he was among one of the most friendly ponies you could ever meet. "I see you're up again, Lucky told me as much. But I'm glad to see it myself," Iron Wing said with a tiny sigh of relief. "You had me worried when I brought you to the infirmary and I fully saw in what state you were in. How are you feeling? Nothing serious?"
You shook your head, "No. A few burn marks, but I've been given a prescription for that. Further, only aching muscles, but nothing serious."
"Thank Celestia." He coughed lightly into his right hoof, "Now, regarding your question as to why the mares beat your fellow stallions," Iron Wing began as he looked at the slowly, to their hooves crawling stallions, that were your classmates. "You've been told, no doubt, by your parents that most mares are maturing in the final year of school, right?"
You shook your head, which seemed to take your coach a bit by surprise. "Lucky mentioned something like that, but my parents never really said anything about that, actually. I've heard from a few older stallions, when they were in their last year, and I was still in third year, that 'The Heat' would come when mares would mature. But not exactly what that does to the mares, except making them really... yeah... making them looking for a partner with more... enthusiasm...?" you finished with a slight brushing of your chin with your left hoof as you tried to recall everything that mares would experience and happen when they were maturing. "At least, I was told that I should be afraid of it."
Iron Wing 'hmm'd' lightly, "Well, what you say is true. But you miss a few things. This is rather odd for me to explain, since it is officially the parents duty to inform their foals about these kinds of things when they enter the second year of this school, preparing them for what is to come." Iron Wing dragged his left hoof slowly over his face before turning to the rest of your stallion classmates. "Alright, stallions! Or should I say, COLTS. By the looks of it, you're all trying to relearn how to walk again!!" Iron Wing said with a massive change in his tone, from concerning and gentle, to the very reason he was the coach. His voice boomed as he spoke with an energy and respect demanding strength.
You glanced from Iron Wing over to your classmates, only to figure that, again, Dust wasn't there. "Uhm, coach?"
Iron Wing turned around he looked at you with a raised eyebrow. You opened your mouth, but became distracted as the coach's eyes went to look over and behind you. Before you could turn around, Iron Wing commanded at loudest you've ever heard him, "FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA!! EVERYPONY! DUCK, DAMMIT, DUCK!!"
You buried your hooves onto your ears as your ears' insides were blown out by the booming voice, but before you could recover, you were thrown to the ground as the coach took hold of you and jumped with you to the side. Not a moment later, the arrow head shaped group of mares of doom came soaring by, flying very close to the ground, so close that they could have scooped your right off of your hooves. The mares left their colors as well as a wind surge in their wake as they passed by, leaving trench shapes in the clouds.
After the mares storm passed, the coach jumped to his hooves and followed the attitude climbing mares with his eyes, "DAMMIT, LADIES! WE KNOW THAT YOU'VE WON! CALM THE BUCK DOWN!"
You slowly scrambled to your hooves, following the mares with your eyes as they didn't seem to care what the coach yelled at them, and continued in flying their formation over the school. The coach growled, before sighing and turning back to you, "Are you okay, Static?" he asked in a more gentle tone.
You flapped your wings a few times before turning to the coach, "A bit startled at the sudden hawk dive." You left ear flicked, and you heard a small ringing come from it, "And... maybe a bit deaf," you said as you brought your left hoof to your ear and rubbed it a bit.
"I'm sorry, Static. But there was not really much time to tell it gently, everypony needed to duck, right there and then."
"It's okay. My ears have had worse days. I think. Those mares could have scooped me straight off of my hooves if we didn't dive to safety."
"Yeah, they certainly would have." Iron Wing looked to his right towards your classmates that were crawling back to their hooves, again, and raised his voice, "Alright, COLTS. Grab whatever 'dignity' you've left from the exercise, and take it with you to the showers!"
Your classmates all got to their hooves and groaned as they slowly made their way back into the school, some heads hanging a bit down, undoubtedly their pride hurt more than anything else.
The coach turned back to you, his tone shifting back to gentle, "Now, I'll explain you a bit about the 'Physical' changes that mares go through when they reach maturity. You've noticed that their wigs become more elegant and slightly bigger than the year before?"
You thought back to last year, although, Berry Petal seemed to keep her wings' size and elegance, Lucky... her wings haven't gone unnoticed by you, they seemed to be more...well... alluring, as well that they have gotten bigger. But you thought it was just your mind playing tricks on you, so you sought nothing behind the reason. "Well, I've noticed Luckys wings have gotten a bit bigger, but I just shrugged it off as normal grow," you said as you looked at your own wings and extended them before folding them back and turning your gaze back to Iron Wing.
"Hhmm, so you 'do' pay attention to that," Iron Wing said as he narrowed his eyes slightly and scanned you over, making you feel uneasy.
"Euhm... is that a bad thing?" you asked a bit worried .
"That depends, really. If you notice those small changes on your friend Lucky, then you've matured earlier than most stallions."
"Matured earlier?" you asked, now a bit intrigued by the subject. "How does that happen? Do I go through any noticeable changes?"
"You do go through changes, yes. But very close to unnoticeable by yourself. The same as you noticed the difference in Lucky her wings, the mares notice the small changes on a stallion."
You could only imagine what those changes would be, since your parents never talked about what could change when a colt reaches maturity, and you've never noticed any changes regarding your own body. "What are those changes for stallions then, coach?"
Iron Wing glanced up shortly in the sky, noting that the mares were descending towards the courtyard, a few meters away from where you two were standing. Looking back to you, Iron Wing continued, "That is different with every stallion, Mr. Static. It might be ones wings growing in width and length, it can be ones muscles that develop more, it might be their body height that increases, it might be their manes and tail that grow to be more rough and wild."
You scanned your own body over for those changes, but noted nothing out of the ordinary since last year, "But... I don't seem to have changed since last year."
"It doesn't have to be physically, necessarily. Some mares are attracted to a stallions sense of consideration, their sense of being able to take care of others."
Your eyes widened a bit and a bell rang through your head as he said that, "Wait... My Mom always tells me I'm a great father figure. Because of how I am around my little sisters."
Iron Wing raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you had little sisters. That might explain it then why you matured earlier than most."
"Huh...?"
"Well, mares, when reaching maturity, have more sense and drive in finding a suitable partner. So they look for certain points in a stallion, those points I just listed, and yours would be that of a caring father figure, a point that a lot of mares find the most important. That must have developed in you over the years because of your sisters. Most stallions don't have sisters, or any siblings at all, that's why they mature later than mares, mostly. If in a family are two foals, the older one is close to always be a mare. In your case, however, you've two little sisters, which must have accelerated your sense for care taking of foals."
You took everything in what the coach told you, and suddenly it became clear why your mom always told you that you were a father figure. But you wanted to know a bit more about it, "Okay, but, how do mares know about my sense of care taking?"
The coach closed his eyes as a small grin crept up on his muzzle, "They simply know." He opened his eyes and looked at you, "They just feel that around a stallion. I can't explain that, nor can anypony else in Equestria. It is their instinct that tells them that."
"So instinct tells them that..." The coach gave a nod. "But why is it so important to them?" you asked.
The coach now looked at you with an expression that could be read as; 'really? I need to explain that?' The coach sighed as he recomposed himself, "Well, mares see that as 1 of the most important feats, because of what 'MIGHT' happen with 'THEM'."
You raised your eyebrow slightly, "What might happen with them?"
"It is more of a primal instinct. They search this in stallions in case the mare comes to an early demise, leaving the foal with the father alone. If this were to happen, and the father is not good in taking care of the foal, the foal would most likely not make it."
Your ears lowered at hearing that a foal would not make it if the father would not have the appropriated care taking sense in him. It made you slightly sad at the image that popped up in your head if something similar happened to one of your sisters. With a bit of hope, you asked, "But... there are many stallions who have this sense, right?"
To your dismay, the coach shook his head slowly, "Unfortunately, no. As I said, most stallions mature later, mostly something around two or three years AFTER they leave this school. And even then, most stallions don't have this sense as strong as you have already. The sense you probably have, could be matched with a father who has had a foal for three years."
Your eyes widened a bit as your heard the coach, "B-but... How do you know that I have as much sense as a father of three years would have?"
"I don't. This is purely an assumption. How old are your sisters?" the coach asked.
"They both turned nine this summer," you said, puffing up your chest with pride.
"And you're eighteen, correct?" You gave a nod to Iron Wing. "Then I'm not that far with my assumption. Of course, an actual father creates this sense much faster than you, but I know for certain that you've taken care of your sisters enough times to get the same."
Your memories flashed back to all the times you took care of Summer and Gloom whenever your parents were away and trusted you in looking after them, or that you cared for them when they injured themselves or were even a little bit sick. You flared your wings out with your eyes closed as you thought back at those moments.
"Uhm, Static. It is not the best time to show off..." Iron Wing said in a hushed tone.
You opened your eyes questionably, "Showing off?" you asked, not getting why he would say that.
"The whole time, whenever I say something regarding you and your sense of care taking and about your sisters, you take a more prideful stance. Not really the best thing to do right now... especially with this subject."
You raised an eyebrow, "I-I did? Why is that bad?"
Iron Wing raised his left hoof halfway up and pointed to your left without looking there himself. Glancing to your left, you saw the mares who touched down, standing quite close to you and the coach. Some of them were looking towards you two, while a few turned their muzzles in different direction as you looked towards them.
Turing back to Iron Wing, you asked, "What about them?"
"Already forgotten were we just talked about?"
"No, but I don't..." you stopped in your sentence as the words of Iron Wing echoed in your head; "Well, mares, when reaching maturity, have more sense and drive in finding a suitable partner. So they look for certain points in a stallion, those points I just listed, and yours would be that of a caring father figure, a point that a lot of mares find the most important."
You looked again towards the mares, a faint blush on your cheeks as you knew 'why' they were looking in your direction and standing so close by. "They were interested in this subject... Ponyfeathers..."
"I wish you good luck in Autumn when it arrives. For sure, as off now, you'll have the eye of at least a few mares on you." the coach almost whispered.
You glanced at the group of mares as they were looking back at you with interest, one of them, was the mare you didn't mind to much; Rainbow Dash. Although, she was standing quite far behind in the group, surprisingly, it looked as if she was among one of the most listening ponies, together with one you were still not certain about; Lightning Dust.
A bell chimed three times through the air, signaling that the school day was ending. The mares were broken out of their looking at you, and you breathed a slight sigh of relief. Glancing back at Iron Wing, you saw him extending his hoof and patted you firmly, while also gently, on your right shoulder, "Time is up, Static. I hope I have helped you with this a bit. Have a nice day and," the coach came closer to your ear and whispered, "Good luck. You'll need it."
And with that Iron Wing flew up into the sky, and disappeared over the school, leaving you standing there with a few questions still lingering in your head. Looking around the courtyard, and to where the mares were standing, most already had flown away, and some were now talking with their friends. Rainbow Dash and Lightning were also gone.
As the bell chimed again three times, you remembered that now came one of the hardest parts of today; get over to the fountain, and give Lightning Dust your answer. Sighing to yourself, you knew that she was not going to like what you were going to tell her.