Talons of the Storm

by Storm Talon

Chapter 10: Magical Mysteries

Fluttershy looked across the table to where Talon was finishing a spinach sandwich. She had wanted to give him something else, but it was the only thing she could make with what was in Twilight's kitchen that she knew was safe for him to eat. She was saving some of the strawberries for him, though, in case he could eat them.

Twilight cantered into the kitchen, a few stray hairs standing out of her mane in various directions. “Okay, come on, to the lab.”

She picked up Talon and Fluttershy in her aura and towed them along behind her. Spike was still floating as well, his arms crossed and an exasperated expression on his face. His expression may have had something to do with the fact that he was slowly rotating as he floated along. “Oh, hey guys. Have a good lunch?”

“Uhh...” Fluttershy looked over to where Talon was frantically wiggling his legs in midair. “I guess?” So much for those strawberries.

“Here we are,” Twilight announced as she plopped her unwilling passengers down in front of several tables full of delicate equipment. “Spike, could you set up the thaumic detectors? I need to get Talon hooked up.”

Spike sighed as he picked himself up from where he'd face-planted onto the floor. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Uhh... what are you testing exactly, Twilight?” Fluttershy watched as Twilight hooked several electrodes to Talon's muzzle and barrel as he stood stock-still.

Twilight cantered over until she was standing just in front of her. “Fluttershy... he breathed fire. Do you know what this means?”

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow as Twilight ran to get a few sundry objects and a pair or large tongs. “We, um, should teach him to be careful not to set things on fire?”

“No! Well, yes, but that's not what I meant!” Twilight ran back over to where Talon was doing his best not to draw attention to himself. “We can use the thaumic signature of his flame to try to reveal his parentage!”

“Uh... what 'thaumic'?” Talon asked, cringing as Twilight turned to him with a huge grin.

“Oh, thaumic is used in reference to magical studies. Now, breath fire on this.” Twilight held out a wooden block with the pair of tongs.

Talon blew out a small lick of flame, turning the block to ash. “Um, is okay to do magic?”

“What? Of course it's okay to do magic, why...” Twilight looked up from where she was preparing a new sample, her pupils shrinking. “Wait... Talon. Can... can you do magic?”

“Umm...” Talon looked to the side, avoiding making eye contact with Twilight. “Yes,” he finally squeaked out, jumping as Twilight teleported directly in front of him, a wide smile on her face.

“Please show me, Talon.” Twilight breathed out through her teeth.

“Twilight!” Shouted Fluttershy, startling both her and Talon. “I understand you want to learn more about Talon, but please control yourself.”

“You... you're right, Fluttershy.” Twilight took a few deep breaths, noticeably losing some of the tension in her muscles as she smoothed out her mane with her magic. “I'm sorry, Talon. Would it still be okay if I ran some tests, as long as I promise to stay calm?”

Talon looked over at Fluttershy and Spike with wide eyes. “Twilight is... okay?”

Spike shrugged. “Yeah, she should be fine now. She just needs somepony to snap her out of it once in a while.”

Talon looked back to Twilight. “Is okay. Talon...” Talon paused in thought. “Accept apolgee?”

“It's apology, Talon. And, uh, thank you. Now, would you mind breathing your fire on this?”

---

Twilight had Talon breath on several more objects. After her initial test on the balsa wood, she moved on to maple wood, oak, ironwood, iron, copper, rubber, and a marshmallow.

“Spike, that was supposed to be an apple!” Twilight glared over to where he sat next to the fruit in question.

“What? I wanted to see if he could roast marshmallows like I can.” Spike looked at the slightly sticky gobs of blackened marshmallow still dripping slowly off of the tongs. “Apparently not.”

“It's okay, Spike. Talon I'd like you to try to hold a small flame as long as you can, okay?” Talon nodded and blew out a tiny flame as Twilight pressed the button on a stopwatch. “Aaand... 3 seconds, not bad. Now,” Twilight held out a long, flat piece of wood. “I want you to breath your fire on this, but try to keep from burning it as long as you can.”

Talon looked down at the piece with as much concentration as he could muster, and breathed out onto it.

“Okay, then.” Twilight held up the board, which now had a clean hole in the center. “We might need to work on that.” Twilight then raised a barrier over one wall as well as one between Talon and the others. “Blast that wall as hard as you can, please.”

“Blast?” Talon's voice was slightly muffled by the magic barrier.

“Just breath at it like you want to melt the wall down!” Spike explained. Talon nodded before breathing out as much fire as he could toward the wall.

“Alright, that's at least 2.5 thaumic units,” Twilight muttered as she wrote some figures down and dropped the barrier. “Not as much as spike at that age, but not bad either. Talon, do you think you could do a spell for me?”

“Spell is magic?”

“Yes, it doesn't have to be anything in particular, just... something.”

Talon reached out with his front paw. Twilight arched an eyebrow in confusion until he pushed his paw forward and a gentle breeze wafted over toward her.

“Okay.” Twilight use her magic to smooth out her mane as she retrieved her notes. “Can you do any magic that isn't related to wind?”

“Uhhh...” Talon flicked his wrist downward and a tiny yellow flame appeared on the ground before burning out.

“Alright, anything else?” Twilight glanced up from writing in her notes.

Talon looked back and forth between her and the others before cringing. “Talon know one more magic. You not like.”

“Just show me, please?” Twilight took a few steps forward.

“Um, okay, but... not be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” Twilight asked as Talon pantomimed grabbing something out of the air and throwing it in front of him, his eyes closed and ears laying flat. “Why are you-”

There was a loud flash and a thunderous bang before Twilight fell unconscious.

---

Twilight woke up with a loud ringing in her ears and black spots all over her vision. “Ugh, what happened?” Even her own voice sounded muffled. Through the spots, she could see two guards, Fluttershy, Spike, and Talon standing over her, all wearing concerned looks.

Talon fluttered his good wing and looked over to Fluttershy. “Twilight okay?”

“Yes, Talon, she'll be fine. Look, she's coming around now.”

“Yeah,” Spike reassured him. “It takes more than a lightning bolt to really hurt an alicorn.”

“HUH?” Twilight sat up, blinking her eyes blearily. “I CAN'T HEAR YOU! HOLD ON!”

All of them winced back at the volume of her speech as her horn began to glow. She stood up, growing steadier as her aura washed over her. “There, that's better. What happened?”

Before anypony else could say anything, Talon ran over to hide beneath a cushion sitting nearby. “Talon sorry!” The guards trotted out of the room, Emerald especially not wanting to intrude into what promised to be a strange conversation.

“Hey, it's okay, Talon. After all, you did warn me.” Twilight used her free leg to rub across his shoulder soothingly. As she did so, she looked over to Fluttershy and Spike. “What happened?”

“Well,” began Fluttershy, “You asked him to do another spell, and he, um, well, he...”

Spike ran over to Twilight, a huge grin on his face. “He threw lightning! It was awesome!”

“He what?” Twilight had a flat look on her face. “That's not funny Spike, nopony can just throw lightning around, especially without clouds. Now really, what happened?”

“He, uh, really did throw lightning, Twilight.” Twilight turned to where Fluttershy was looking at the ground bashfully.

“But that... he...” Twilight looked down to where Talon sat still beneath the cushion. “You know what? You guys head back to your cottage. I have a lot of data to go over.”

---

“So...uh...” Emerald Cut started as he walked to one side of Fluttershy and Talon. “What exactly happened in there? Did the Princess cast some sort of spell that backfired?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh no, it was... uh... Talon made lightning.”

Both guards froze in place. “He what?” Day Break asked. “Have you, you know, mentioned to him that he kinda... shouldn't do that near other ponies?”

“Twilight ask!” Talon exclaimed from where he stood next to Fluttershy. “Talon say she not like...”

“She... what?” Emerald asked, a baffled look on his face. Why would the princess ask to be hit with lightning?

They resumed walking, and Fluttershy explained the specifics of the situation to the guards, hoping to clear up any misunderstandings.

As they watched Fluttershy and Talon go inside, they spotted a mare running up to them, some kind of flower for her cutie mark.

“Oh, I'm so glad I found you! There was some sort of huge bang, you have to come quick!”

Emerald held up a hoof. “Calm down miss. Did this bang happen to come from the castle?”

“Yes! That's why we need to go, now!” She galloped off down the road, heedless of whether the guards were even following.

Day glanced over to him with a smirk. “You can go explain it to her. I'll keep the perimeter here.”

Sighing, Emerald cantered off after her. This was going to be an interesting conversation.

---

Fluttershy was woken up the next morning by something nudging her in the side. Yawning, she looked over to see Talon holding a tray in his muzzle next to her bed. The tray had some chopped vegetables on it, and an amused-looking Angel stood behind Talon.

“Talon? What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked as she sat up slowly. “Why are you up so early?”

Talon gently placed the tray next to her on the bed. “Talon want do good for Fluttershy. Angel say food good.”

“Well, it is nice of you, but that doesn't explain why you're up...” Fluttershy looked over to where Talon sat on his haunches, looking at her eagerly as his tail lashed back and forth. “But I suppose you can tell me later, after I oh my what happened to your paws?”

Fluttershy held one of his paws between her hooves, worry painting her features as she took in the numerous cuts he had.

“Uh, Talon not know how make food. Sorry.”

“Oh no, you don't need to apologize, Talon. Let's just get some bandages on your paws, and then we can eat breakfast, alright?”

---

Fluttershy sat yet again in a chair at the edge of a hospital room. She watched as the doctor's aura washed over Talon's damaged wing, pausing once or twice to make deeper observations.

“Well then.” Doctor Oath turned to face Fluttershy. “I imagine he's been pretty eager to get this thing off.”

“Oh, um, actually, he hasn't seemed to mind it at all, now that you mention it.”

The doctor turned back to Talon with an eyebrow raised. “Really? You haven't been missing flying at all? I mean, you'd have to wait a bit before you could do much more than hover, but still...”

“What 'flying'?” Talon asked. Fluttershy felt a pang in her chest. How long had he had his feathers clipped?

“Here, Talon, this is flying.” Talon turned to where Fluttershy was hovering above her seat. “Have you ever flown before, Talon?”

“No.” Talon looked between the two surprised ponies. “Talon fly?”

“Well,” Doctor Oath commented as nurse Redheart came into the room with the supplies to remove the cast. “He'll need some physical therapy, but his wing muscles don't seem atrophied, so he should be able to start it just as soon as his feathers come back in. I don't know how well he'll do, but...”

“Let's get his cast off before we worry about that, Doctor.” Redheart stepped forward with her supplies, and the two began to cut away the cast on his wing. The fur and feathers were matted and stuck out in random patches, still covered in almost as much dirt and dust as they had been when he had been brought in. It looked even worse next to his relatively well-cared for and clean coat.

“Alright, there we go. You'll probably want to get him cleaned up as soon as you can, and our secretary can get you set up with a flight coach for physical therapy. Let us know if anything comes up, okay?”

As Nurse Redheart cleaned up the remains of the cast, Fluttershy thanked her and led Talon to the reception desk.

“Hey, how can I help you?” asked the receptionist, a pegasus whose nametag professed was named Brighter Days.

“Oh, I just need to make an an appointment for Talon to see a flight coach for physical therapy.”

“Alright, just a minute.” Brighter Skies shuffled through some papers on her desk before looking back to Fluttershy. “It looks like the only available flight coach in Ponyville right now is a part-time volunteer, so if you want, we could try to schedule something in Canterlot or Cloudsdale...”

“No, it's okay. When would they be available next?”

“Well, she's a volunteer, so you'd have to schedule with her, and then she'd report progress to us. I have her contact information, just let me copy it down for you.”

Fluttershy looked at the paper she was handed quizzically. “But this is...”

“Is something wrong, miss?”

“Oh, no, not at all.” A smile settled onto Fluttershy's face. “I just didn't realize that Rainbow volunteered at the hospital.”

Author's Note:

Talon's previous use of either fire or magic was rapidly discouraged.

As someone who's cooked for a large portion of my life, I still find it odd that so many people have no idea how to handle a knife...

Of course Rainbow volunteers; it looks great on her Wonderbolts application and she hardly ever has to actually do anything.

Comments

[Guardian-of-balance]

Holy hell!, emperor palpatine is in the house!!!

I'm loving this story keep it up.