Crystal Wings

by Witching Hour

Chapter 6 - Living

The combination of sunlight streaming in the window, the scratching of a pen against the paper and the flipping of pages roused Monkey Wrench from her sleep. She blinked multiple times in quick succession to clear her vision, turning to where the sound came from and seeing Witching Hour engrossed with her notes, cobalt blue frames perched on the end of her nose and only occasionally glancing up to take note some new tidbit of information. Monkey Wrench herself was amazed at how well she felt; no pain, only some slight stiffness in her wing joints.

She smirked and gave her wings a light flutter, serving the dual purpose of working out a few of the knots from stiffened muscles and startling Witching Hour out of her reverie. A full blown snort escaped her as Witching Hour made a squawking noise and fell off her chair, the notepad and pen clattering to the floor after her. Despite her embarrassment, Witching Hour chuckles as well, joining Monkey Wrench’s guffaws.

After a long and much needed laugh, Monkey Wrench peered over her shoulders at her wings. She blinked again, surprised at how normal they looked in shape, but the bony edge was replaced with green crystal that glittered in the morning light. She’d seen ponies native to the Crystal Empire while around their home, and the effect was similar… She looked back to Witching Hour, confusion on her face and the question clear in her eyes.

“The crystal iron I used for the spell… the effect was unexpected, but your wings look to be in perfect shape now… Whether they’ll function normally is still in question, but -” Witching Hour started, but Monkey Wrench cut the unicorn off by jumping up and out of the bed, the hospital robe fluttering around her from the sudden movement.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s find out!” Monkey Wrench proclaimed, nudging Witching Hour up and towards the door. The gray mare squeaked in protest but managed to get herself composed before Monkey Wrench had pushed her entirely from the room.

“Alright, alright! But policy says that you need to be in a wheelchair,” she said, to Monkey Wrench’s dismay. She was firm against the pegasus’ protests, and soon enough, she was wheeling Monkey Wrench down to the first floor physical therapy center of the hospital. Given the early hour, only a few out-patient appointments were there - an earth pony working on regaining the use of his hind legs with the help of a walker, another learning to walk with a prosthetic forehoof, and a unicorn colt attempting to cope and use magic with a crooked horn.

Monkey Wrench eyed the foal, a pang of sympathy running through her. If the state of her wings made her identity, then a unicorn’s horn being deformed was just as bad. Witching Hour followed her patient’s eyes and spied the colt as well. “That’s Trick Step… He was born with the bend in his horn. I’m a consulting doctor on his case. We’re hoping that his magic will be able to work through the malformation, but if not, then we’re going to remove the bent portion of the horn and use a combination of porcelain and ivory to rebuild it. It’d be better than the life of perpetual headaches and random magical explosions he’d have otherwise,” she explained in a quiet voice.

The moment she finished speaking, Witching Hour cringed and kicked herself mentally. She should not have told any pony that much about one of her other patients… But, inexplicably, she had felt the need to confide in Monkey Wrench about someone who was having a similar crisis… While Trick Step had been born with a bent horn, the stigma attached to the deformity was just as bad as that of lamed pegasus’ wings. “Please don’t speak to anyone about Trick Step? I shouldn’t have told you as much as I did…” Witching Hour rambled before the pegasus cut her off again with a hoof in her muzzle again.

“Doctor Witching Hour… Please… I’m glad you told me, but I’m not about to go screaming it from the roof tops…” Monkey Wrench said, smiling and rolling her eyes. Knowing the story behind the little colt, with his auburn coat and a disheveled black mane that she was sure his mother was constantly trying to get to lay flat, and Witching Hour telling her, made Monkey Wrench feel… less alone.

The unicorn gave her a shaky smile again before stepping around to the front of the wheelchair. “Excuse me, I need to make sure the flight track is clear… Stay here. I’ll be back in a moment,” Witching Hour stated, not waiting for Monkey Wrench to reply before leaving to do exactly as she’d said.

Monkey Wrench spent the few minutes alone watching Trick Step struggle with levitating a small object, the crooked horn glowing with a flickering amber aura up to the bend as he scrunched his small face into a grimace. She could almost hear him straining with effort from where she was a fair distance away. The unicorn doctor working with him took notes and gave a little shake of his head in obvious frustration. She wondered if his parents were ever disappointed in him, as her parents had been just after her accident. Monkey Wrench knew her parents had tried to hide that from her, along with their pity for her state… She could only imagine Trick Step’s sire and dam being the same, possibly worse because was born that way, or maybe better because it hadn’t been a preventable accident.

All thoughts of Trick Step, his imagined parents, and her own, were briefly forced from her mind as Witching Hour returned, smiling. “Track’s free… Let’s see what you can do now,” she said, retaking her position behind the wheelchair and pushing it towards a ramp at the side of the room.

“How are his parents taking it?” Monkey Wrench asked quietly, looking over her shoulder to catch one more glimpse of the unicorn she barely knew but felt so much in common with.

“Not easily,” Witching Hour replied guardedly, bending forward slightly so as to almost whisper in the pegasus’ ear. “While Trick Step is here, they’re over in counseling… We used to hear them arguing up to two floors away, up or down… Celestia have mercy on your ears if you were ever on the same floor. We started putting a sound-proofing spell on their room as a standard procedure.”

Monkey Wrench couldn’t help but laugh at that, quickly stifling herself with her hooves to her mouth. She grimaced, mostly at herself, for taking such amusement at another’s expense, fully killing her laughter. She glanced over her shoulder at Witching Hour and saw the same things she felt reflected in the unicorn’s sapphire eyes.

“Exactly…” Witching Hour said, seeming to know the thoughts in her patient’s mind.

“Have you spoken to my -” Monkey Wrench asked turning back to face forward as they started ascending the ramp.

“Only briefly, when I was arranging for your transfer…” the doctor answered. “I’m not sure they were convinced by my explanation, but they agreed when the doctors at Cloudsdale General said it was a good idea.”

Monkey Wrench nodded. “That sounds like them…” she commented dryly. She glanced around as they reached the top of the ramp and came out onto a platform off to the side of a good-sized rounded track running around the room about four meters above the main floor of the therapy area. The track itself was two meters wide, divided into three lanes marked in white against the red flooring, and ran around one-hundred-fifty meters on the long ends and seventy on the narrow ends, with about fifteen meters of curve at each turn.

Eagerly, Monkey Wrench jumped up from the chair once Witching Hour parked the wheelchair, her wings fanning out on reflex. She cringed a bit as pain rocked through her back from the knots in her muscles and gingerly laid her wings back, looking over her shoulder at them with worry. Immediately, Witching Hour is at her side, fussing over her and fretting. “Be careful, Miss Wrench!” the unicorn chided, her horn glowing and a veil of magic scanned Monkey Wrench.

Witching Hour sighed in obvious relief as she stepped back again. “Well… no harm done at least… It looks like some muscles are just stiff from not being used… I take it you flew every day?” Witching Hour barely waited for Monkey Wrench to nod before continuing. “That makes sense… You didn’t use those muscles, ligaments and tendons for several days, so this is bound to happen…”

Monkey Wrench allowed herself her own sigh of relief, extending her wings slowly. Again, she was amazed at how normal these wings feel, aside from the soreness of stretching from their contracted position. They responded to her natural reflexes, and even a trial puffing up caused her feathers to ruffle the same as they always had.

Witching Hour made a pleased noise as she took slow steps around the pegasus, pen virtually flying across her notepad as she made little observations. “Reflexes seem in good shape… Wing span unaffected…” she muttered, clear enough for Monkey Wrench to hear. Monkey Wrench moved her wings around to preen her feathers back into place, allowing her doctor to see, and discovering for herself, how much like normal wings these new ones moved.

Taking a close look as she fussed with her wings, Monkey Wrench saw that the crystal from the edge made thin veins down the skin, some holding feathers in them like they’d grown from the crystal. She paused briefly at the sight before shrugging and continuing. She stretched the wings out to their full span, feeling an almost unpleasant pull from the tender muscles. She then flexed with little rolls of her shoulders, working most of the knots loose while pushing her wings forward as far as possible before sweeping them fully back.

Witching Hour took several more circles around Monkey Wrench once she’d finished stretching until finally the pegasus sighed in frustration. Witching Hour gave her patient a sheepish smile. “Sorry… Alright… Let’s start easy… a simple hover a meter or two off the ground…” the doctor suggested, taking a step back and adjusting her glasses.

Monkey Wrench grinned and fanned her wings out, the movement no longer causing her any pain. The movement was second nature to her, but the moment she thrusted her wings downward for lift-off, she knew something was different. Instead of only getting a few feet of clearance, she rocketed up and only a quick roll mid-air saved her from crashing head-first into the ceiling.

“Ah!” she cried out, desperately trying to regain control of her flight as she kicked away from the ceiling. Instinctively, Monkey Wrench flapped her wings again to slow her descent, but again, they sent her further aloft. She twisted to change direction, sending her out over the main area. She gave up on flapping to regain control, extending her wings out to glide and turning using only her body weight and wing angle. The latter caused problems, as even her slight adjustments caused her to careen wildly from side to side.

Finally, after far too long of being airborne without much control, Monkey Wrench finally managed to glide back to the platform, skidding to a graceless landing and crashing into the parked wheelchair. Witching Hour was immediately at her side, her horn glowing as yet another veil of ice blue magic ran through Monkey Wrench. “That was… Not what I expected…” the unicorn said simply, scratching at her head.

Monkey Wrench pulled herself up, glowering at the wheelchair and then her wings as though they had betrayed her. “Me neither! Any move I made did more than it used to… That lift off should’ve only taken me five feet in the air at most! And what was with my glide control?!” Monkey Wrench ranted, shaking her head irritably.

“Well… I think…” Witching Hour started thoughtfully before consulting her notes and turning back to Monkey Wrench. “You said that was your normal effort?” At Monkey Wrench’s nod, Witching Hour’s pen started scribbling down notes quickly. “Alright… So more effort will obviously cause havoc… How about as little effort as you can manage?” Though they were both full of trepidation at how things had progressed so far.

“Alright…” Monkey Wrench replied cautiously as she moved back to the starting point. She hid her nerves by shaking her wings out again. She stretched them out to their full span and gave them the lightest flick she could. Before today, it barely would’ve helped her jump over a crate, but now it took her several feet off the ground.

“Haha!” she crowed at her success, flapping her wings again. She soon realized her error as the stronger flap sent her crashing first to the ceiling, and then down to the floor. She picked herself up as Witching Hour rushed over.

“Strange… It seems that you now require less wing power to accomplish the same tasks as before…” Witching Hour’s pen scratched hastily at her notepad while she circled Monkey Wrench.

“But I can fly!” Monkey Wrench interrupted, as though that was all that mattered. Before Witching Hour could gather herself to counter, the pegasus scooped her up with a joyful whoop, and took them aloft, only to dive over the side of the track to the main floor. She clung, terrified, to Monkey Wrench as she managed to pull out of the dive and another flap sent them zooming across the length of the room, all the while shouting “I can fly!” It was a wild ride as Monkey Wrench still wound up constantly over-correcting her movements with too-sharp turns and too-quick accelerations.

Finally, Monkey Wrench managed to land with some semblance of grace, coughing as her cheeks burned red, and she set Witching Hour down on her shaky hooves. “Erm… Sorry…” Monkey Wrench muttered, embarrassed, her head shrinking down against her shoulders. Witching Hour laughed hesitantly, but stopped as Monkey Wrench immediately threw her arms around her neck and hugged her tightly. “Thank you… Thank you so much…” Monkey Wrench whispered fiercely, though Witching Hour could hear the tears trying to work their way to the surface. Slowly, she brought a hoof up to return the hug, patting her patient’s back reassuringly.

“You’re very welcome…” she replied, unable to say more than that, lest her own tears of joy for her patient spill over.

Author's Note:

Welp... I totally blew through making this chapter as short as my previous chapters... However, my lovely friend Pat said it was too rushed when I was trying to keep it short and there was no good way to split this chapter.

And with this! I have finished my introductory piece for Witching Hour and Monkey Wrench! Woo!!!

What do you all think? Should I pop the Princesses in for a brief epilogue?

Much love and thanks for reading!
~Witching Hour

Comments

[ConningOfficer]

Congratulations on completing this story! If I was paying attention, this is the first multi-chapter story you've completed, correct? I am so happy for you!

I enjoyed how you shone a light into the inner workings of the hospital and gave us insight into the technically demanding and emotionally wrenching world that Witching Hour inhabits. The crystal wings will serve Monkey Wrench well, but I'm glad you added some trepidation from Witching Hour. These are enjoyable characters and I suspect you have more planned.

[Witching Hour]

5921953
Yes! It is the first multi-chapter story I've finished! Thank you!

I do have more planned... And because of a late-night inspiration, I will be writing an epilogue/sequel... I say sequel because, without adding it, this story is complete... However, it's an epilogue in that it makes the most sense immediately after reading these six chapters.

I admit a fair amount of my hospital presentation was based on my own experiences either as a patient or as a visitor/transportation, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. The emotions of Witching Hour are pretty much what I myself would feel in those situations.

[harts fire]

yep I am officially impressed with this story line.