When she was finally able to maintain focus, all she saw was a sterile, white ceiling. She blinked, trying to determine where she was by the last thing she remembered. The storm! Aerial tried to turn onto her stomach and sit up, but her entire body encountered a hard casing. She looked down. She was practically in a full-body cast!
“You’re awake,” Aerial managed to turn her head slightly to see the voice’s source.
“Lightning Strike,” she said hoarsely.
“Here,” the Captain brought Aerial some water. “Another good sign,” she said, watching her subordinate drink. “You’re alive, awake, and able to be thirsty,” Lightning explained at Aerial’s raised eyebrow.
“What happened… to the storm?”
“Oh, it dissipated halfway to the Crystal Mountains,” Lightning said. “That was a foolish, brave thing you did, but it shows you how badly wrong it can go when the Storm Breaker diverts the storm instead. Just one Pegasus ain’t enough.”
“Are you court-marshalling me?”
“I can’t,” Lightning said, staring. “You did disobey a direct order, but you also improvised quickly enough to save every life the twister would have taken. But the cost to yourself is the question.”
“Cost?” Aerial started trying to wiggle her body, bit by bit. “I can’t feel my wings or back.”
“That’d be the painkillers. The doctors all say the storm gave you extensive injuries, and it’s a miracle they were able to fix what they could. But your wings… wings are our most fragile parts to begin, and they took the worst of the storm’s fury. Still, the princess herself called in the best of the best, and tried what she could after you did what you did.”
“You can’t mean I won’t..?”
“No one can say, or won’t.” Lightning shrugged. “I’ve been trying to think of what couldn’t been done differently, but –“
“Captain, don’t. I don’t need or want sympathy, yours least of all. I acted of my own will.”
“Bull. You forgot you didn’t have Windwalker.”
“Maybe, for an instant. Didn’t have much choice, though.”
“No, I guess it was a case of being at the right place at the right time.” Lightning chuckled. “You’re a hero now, whether or not your body can be healed.”
“As long as I saved somepony,”
“You saved plenty of lives, and we wouldn’t be in this place if you hadn’t acted.”
This place is in Cloudsdale.
“Cadet Hoof caught you. Wanted to avoid moving you as much as possible. You only missed her by a few hours.”
“Ari!” Windwalker burst through the door. “Captain,” he saluted quickly.
“At ease. I was on my way out,” Lightning got up and moved to the door, Windwalker moving aside to let her through. She paused. “Take care of her.”
“Yes ma’am,” Windwalker saluted again, then he rushed to Aerial’s bedside. “Thank Celestia you’re alive!”
“Maybe literally,”
“From what I hear, not hardly. We’ll both have to thank Hasty later.” He paused. “How do you feel?”
“Dunno. Can’t really feel much. Painkillers.”
“Ari,” Windwalker turned warm and soft. “How do you feel?”
“I might never fly again,” Aeriel broke into tears. Windwalker wrapped her in his hooves and wings, a silent, strong presence.
* * *
Six months later, Aerial was holding hooves with Windwalker on a balcony in Azure Base, an ancient pyramidal compound in Los Pegasus. They had held a quiet wedding a month ago, after Windwalker had asked for, and gotten, both their parents’ blessing.
Windwalker had waited for Aerial to heal enough that she was not only discharged, but she had her cast completely removed. This way, she could at least wear the dress she wanted to.
Aerial’s recovery was nothing short of a miracle, however her right wing remained so badly mangled that she could barely move it, and then only extremely slowly. When she was only with Windwalker, she was perfectly comfortable with her bad wing showing, but in company she wore a blue mantle that covered it.
Once the anesthetics wore off at the hospital, Aerial decided to try to be independent of chemicals and medicine. The pain was constant, other than the dull throbs, which hammered at her for hours until they subsided. She forced her mind through the excruciating pain, thinking only of how she had done everything to be with Windwalker, if only in a different way.
She only needed a different dream to support them both.
“Ari, how would you feel about being a guest instructor at Wonderbolts Academy?” Windwalker asked from beside her.
“Without being able to fly?”
“Well, how do you feel about that?”
“It’s the worst feeling a Pegasus could have,” she said, near tears again. Windwalker wrapped his wings around her. “I don’t want anyone else to have to feel this way. But they’d never accept a disabled Pegasus.”
“I disagree. Besides, you’re the most natural and graceful Pegasus I know. You certainly taught me better than I knew. I know you still have it in you, especially since you don’t want anyone else to lose their wings.”
“Sure. How do we go about this?”
“I have an in,”
“You mean you have a letter with a job offer.”
“I have a letter with a job offer. And some strings I can pull. But then, you are a hero, so what would we need with strings?”
Aerial chuckled, and leaned against her husband.
* * *
Returning to Wonderbolts Academy by Pegasus-pulled chariot, Aerial was full of doubts. What if they don’t accept me? What if they only see a Pegasus with a gimpy wing? What about Windwalker’s reputation, if he’s seen with me? But Windwalker only seemed to walk taller as he kept pace with her, even slowing down, so they’d arrive at the tarmac together.
They found Lightning and Thunder with a new group or recruits on Field Three, with Fast Clip and Whiplash holding clipboards behind them. All four snapped to attention and saluted the approaching couple, who saluted back.
“Ah-ten-tion!” Thunder called. “Instructors on the tarmac.”
“Rookies,” Lightning said, “may I introduce your new guest instructors, Captain Windwalker Azure and First Lieutenant Aerial Azure.”
The recruits looked stunned as they stared at the newcomers, then, realizing something, they saluted them crisply, or as well as they were able to. “Sir. Ma’am.”
Whiplash walked up. “Looks like you have their full attention,” he said conspiratorially.
“Yeah,” Aerial said, tears starting to form. But she fought them back: that wasn’t the kind of thing being expected of her now. She marched right up, in front of the new hopefuls.
“Rookies, you may have come here thinking you’re special, that you’re ready to fly with the elite of the elite. I’m here to help you realize you’re not ready. If you had what it took, you’d already be Wonderbolts!”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!”