Talons of the Storm

by Storm Talon

Chapter 1: Fluttershy Is Repeatedly Surprised

It had been a bad day so far. First, he had woken up while the cages were being moved, and had gotten yelled at for it. At least the ornery yellow unicorn, Show Stealer, had decided against any of the usual punishments. That probably had something to do with the workers loading him into the truck not being the usual ones. He had heard something about a show further away than their normal route, but still didn't understand enough Equestrian to make out the specifics.

After he and the others had been unloaded and set in a darkened area of a large structure, he had settled down to wait. Usually, the shows took place in the evening, and he would need to be well rested for that. Of course, he got in trouble again for being asleep when Stealer made his way backstage. He didn't expect that there would be a dress rehearsal; in fact, he had never been given time to practice before a performance. So it was that, being rather disoriented, he stumbled out of his cage and into the bright lights of the theater as it was tilted to one side.

“Watch it!” yelled Show Stealer, as he whipped his green mane away from his similarly-colored eyes and glared at him.. “You need to look sharp for tonight!”

He winced, but when no punishment came, he decided not to question it and began to go through the motions of his routine. Fortunately for him, he was unusual. That meant he had relatively little in his routine that was difficult; ponies paid to see something unusual, so the other animals had to do more tricks.

Walk, turn around, walk back, walk on two legs, do a flip, jump through a hoop, return to start. Some of the other animals had much more difficult routines, performing complex stunts or acts of teamwork. He was glad that Show hadn't decided to start him doing those; he could hardly understand what the ponies wanted when they talked to him most of the time, and he didn't like the results of failing to please. At least he wasn't with that Griffon troop anymore; he'd probably have been eaten by now.

That first stumble, however, managed to throw him off. He wobbled as he landed from his flip, and clipped the hoop with his foot as he tried to hop through. He cringed at the sound of the hoop clattering to the ground, and closed his eyes as he hung his head. He'd really get berated for that one.

He wasn't prepared for the rather large wooden setup that Show used for the weasel circus to execute their tricks to come barreling into him, surrounded by an amber glow. He heard several loud cracks as much as he felt them, and his last thought before he blacked out was a startled “I didn't mess up that badly, did I?”

---

Fluttershy woke with a start, blearily looking around to see what had caused so much noise. Her attention was drawn to the clear sound of somepony knocking on her front door. “Who could that be at this time?” she thought, glancing over to where her alarm clock which clearly said that it was 5 in the morning. She usually woke up at 6 or so to take care of her animal friends, but she usually didn't have visitors this early, and she hadn't made any plans to meet anypony today. She had her weekly tea with discord, but he never showed up this early in the morning (though he did never commit to a set time, so it might be him).

As she heard the knocking continue, she scrambled to get to the front door as quietly as possible. She didn't want to disturb her animal friends, especially if the person at the door needed her for something that might keep her from feeding them that morning. Before she could reach it, she heard the three rapid knocks repeat once more against the door.

As she opened the door, her eyebrows shot up as she slowly realized she didn't know the business-pony standing outside. Hiding behind her mane, she was about to introduce herself when the unknown pony beat her to the punch. "Hello, are you miss Fluttershy? I'm Cost Analysis. It's nice to meet you."

Fluttershy hid even further behind her mane before answering in a soft voice."Oh, um, yes, I'm Fluttershy. It's nice to meet you too, but what brings you here so early?"

"Well, I apologize, Miss Fluttershy, but your proclivity for animal care is well known to Misters Flim and Flam, and there was an occurrence in Las Pegasus which they felt you could help with. I can explain the rest on the way, but there is something of an animal emergency and we need you at the veterinary hospital in Las Pegasus."

"Oh my!” gasped Fluttershy. “Of course I'll do whatever I can to help. What's wrong? What happened in Las Pegasus?" Fluttershy asked, closing the door softly behind her before following rapidly to catch up with Cost as he trotted down the path.

"Well, you remember when you and Miss Applejack visited, correct?” Fluttershy nodded slightly and he continued. “After you left, Flim and Flam set up seasonal contracts so the performers in Ponet Magnifique could go on tour during the off season."

"That sounds nice... but how does that create an animal emergency?” Her eyebrows knit together. “Those poor pink prairie dogs didn't get hurt, did they?"

"No, ma'am. One of the performers who came to work in the off season was found to be mistreating the animals he used in his act, and one was in bad enough condition that they couldn't be brought to Canterlot for treatment..."

Fluttershy quaked as tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh my goodness! That's terrible!"

"We brought him to the local veterinary hospital, and Flim and Flam advised me to find you so you could help the doctors come up with a treatment plan."

"Of course I'll help! What's wrong with the poor dear?"

"I'm not entirely sure. The doctors will know more than me at this point."

---

Fluttershy paced around the train car as it trundled along to Las Pegasus. Biting her lip, she glanced out of the window to see the city getting closer as they pulled into the ground station beneath it.

She had rushed to the train station, but had stopped to let Twilight know she was leaving, and had asked her to take care of her animals while she was gone. She felt bad about asking her so suddenly, but she was the only one who lived between Fluttershy's cottage and the train station who would be up at that time of the morning. She would have asked Applejack, but the farm was out of town and she had wanted to get to Las Pegasus as quickly as she could.

As it was, she wished she could have gotten here sooner. She wasn't sure what she could do to help, but she was determined to do as much as she could.

---

"I'll be honest, Miss Fluttershy, his condition isn't very good.” Doctor Furry Heart stated solemnly as they walked into the room. The cat-like creature on the hospital bed was about the size of a young colt, and certainly looked like he had seen better times. His breathing was shallow and a bit unsteady, as a bag dripped liquid into an IV attached to a shaved patch on his foreleg. Wires ran from his barrel, giving unsteady readouts to his vitals. “We wouldn't have called you in otherwise, to be honest. It's just that we've never seen anything like him, and we wanted to give him the best chance we can to make it through today. After that, he'll have some recovery ahead of him but his chance for survival would shoot up dramatically.”

“Currently,” continued the doctor, “I have him on a saline and vitamin drip, as well as antibiotic and anti-fungal drips as a precaution. I believe he's suffering from a combination of some under-nutrition, a few lacerations, a lot of bruises, and a few fractures of various types. I think he might have a concussion, but can't be certain until I know what would be normal for his neurology.”

Fluttershy looked back at the strange animal in the bed with a frown. His right wing was wrapped up with a splint and was hanging more loosely than the other. His two right legs were also splinted, as were several toes on his front left paw. His back legs had similar paws to the front ones, but were covered in fur rather than scales.

His leathery wings hung loosely on either side of him, and she could see feathers along their tops. “I've never seen any animals that have wings quite like his...” Fluttershy trailed off as she looked him over more closely.

He also had a crest of feathers at the top of his head, running down the back of his neck, as well as some downy feathers on his chest. On either side of the crest, small stubs of what looked like juvenile horns poked out behind his large, roughly triangular ears. Glancing at the rest of him, she saw more feathers along his thighs and at the end of his long tail.

“I think he's had some of his feathers clipped,” continued Doctor Heart as he flipped a bit through the chart he was holding, in spite of the widening of Fluttershy's eyes. “And he appears to be suffering from mites. We've set what we could, and he appears to have no other complications at the time. However, we're concerned about any lasting psychological effects; this type of treatment was apparently typical in his care..."

"Oh my.” Murmured Fluttershy, turning slightly pale. “Who would do something like this?"

"Well, from what I was told, the perpetrator has already been arrested, so we can focus on getting this little guy better. The other animals were transferred to a larger facility in Canterlot, but his condition was too dire to wait that long for treatment.” He looked up at Fluttershy with a grave expression. “Unfortunately, I've never seen an animal like this before, so I was hoping you could perhaps help make sure that I'm not missing anything. I'm not sure how he would react to more advanced magical treatment; I had to reset the heart monitor three times as it is. I don't think there should be any lasting issues from his injuries themselves, but I'd like to be as sure as possible."

Fluttershy put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Well, I've never seen an animal like him either. He looks positively filthy, but he doesn't seem to have any open sores. And his feathers are a mess! No wonder he has mites, it looks like nopony ever taught him to preen correctly. His teeth look like a carnivore's,” she stated, pushing up his lips enough to inspect them as well as she could at the moment, “so he might need some special nutrients added to his diet. Other than that, I'll have to see if Twilight can help me identify him so we can help you make sure he doesn't get worse."

"Good idea. I have some nutrient packs around here for cat treatment, so we'll start him on one of those,” Mentioned Doctor Heart, scribbling a few things down on the chart. “I'll see if I can't clean him up some more while he's unconscious."

---

"Twilight?"

Twilight looked up from her latest research project. The purple alicorn had been convinced to get some sleep the previous night, which had proven fortunate in light of Fluttershy's early visit. Now she was eager to get back to her experiments on reinforcing thaumatic stability. She was hoping that she'd be able to decrease the energy required to maintain some enchantments that were necessary for some of her other experiments. She looked up from her notes, silently hoping that Spike didn't need anything urgent. “Yes Spike?”

“You got a letter, Twilight!”

“Huh,” Twilight pushed her notes together as she scooted off of her chair and stretched. “I wonder what Princess Celestia could need?”

Spike jogged over and handed her a loose sheet of paper as she finished. “I, uh, don't think that this is from the princess. It just showed up in the middle of the library.”

Twilight's eyebrows shot up. “Somepony else used an instant letter?”

Spike shrugged as she took the letter in her magic. “I guess?”

Twilight brought the letter up to eye level.

Dear Twilight,

I need your help in Las Pegasus. I can't figure out what kind of animal they're dealing with, and hoped you could help identify him if you have time.

Sincerely,

Fluttershy

Twilight stacked her notes and tucked them away into a drawer. “Come on Spike, we need to get to Las Pegasus.”

---

"I have no idea what this thing is!" Twilight exclaimed, snapping closed the last of the books she'd brought, her voice seething with frustration. She'd been unable to find any mention of the creature in Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, nothing similar in Clover's Bestiary for Adventuring, and even her first edition volume of Beasts Beyond Equestria was proving to be useless. It always frustrated her to no end when a problem confounded her usual methods, and more so when she was trying to help a friend.

Fluttershy sat nearby in the hallway, trying to think of something to say to reassure Twilight. Spike, meanwhile, was not so subtly backing away to a safer distance.

"Twilight?" Asked Fluttershy softly, extending a hoof to rest on Twilight's shoulder.

Twilight let out a sigh. "I'm sorry Fluttershy. I know this must be frustrating for you as well, but I was so certain I could help you."

"It's alright. I know you're trying very hard. Maybe he's some kind of animal nopony's seen before?" Fluttershy guessed.

Fluttershy's efforts worked a little too well. "That's it!" Twilight gasped as she darted into the room holding the creature. "If I could just... There!" she exclaimed as a light from her horn started to envelop the still form on the small bed. "If I can just have a few minutes uninterrupted, this spell will help me determine whether he's some sort of unique specie of animal that nopony has discovered! Oh, think of how much we could learn from a new specie, Fluttershy!"

It was, of course, at this moment that the unfortunate creature managed to regain consciousness.

---

He woke up in a haze. It wasn't the first time he had fallen unconscious during a session of 'discipline', but he had never been hit quite that hard before. The first thing he saw was a distinctive sparkle of unicorn magic.

“No!” He yelled, startling both Twilight and Fluttershy, the former of whom dropped her spell at the interruption. Both stared, eyes wide, as the animal they had been discussing shouted in Equestrian. The machines hooked up to the creature started to beep in alarm as they detected a spike in his heart rate, and the sound of a nurse scrambling away from her desk drifted through the door.

“No, no! Sorry! No!”

Fluttershy and Twilight glanced at each other, taking a moment to register that the strange animal had just talked, then looked back to the bed to find the strange creature doing his best to curl into a small ball. The attempt was in no way helped by the numerous splints and bandages that he was struggling with, or by his rapid shivering. The nurse arriving did not seem to help matters, as she seemed to be under the impression that he was having some sort of convulsive fit, and of course was attempting to check him over.

It was around that time that the pain kicked in and he blacked out again.

---

“Maybe I should try after he calms down?” Wondered Twilight out loud after the nurse on duty had finished checking to make sure there was nothing new wrong with her unusual patient.

“Normally I'd agree with you Twilight, but there might be something that we need to know what he is to help with. I just can't imagine how nopony realized he could talk before this happened.”

“I'll see if I can finish it before he wakes up then. I just hope we don't have a repeat of last time...”

---

He woke to find the room empty with the lights dimmed, though he could he could hear voices from outside the singular doorway. He was thankful the lights were dimmed, but still found questions running through his head.

“What happened? Where am I? Who is that talking?”

Deciding to find an answer at least one of his questions, he started to look around before rapidly having his attention drawn to several realizations.

One, he was in pain. He felt his right side twinge when he tried to bend his neck around, prompting him to give up on that approach and see what his eyes could tell him.

Two, he was not in his cage. Show never let him out of the cage unless he was performing. Why was he here?

Three, he was covered in strange objects. Some seemed to lead to a noisy box thing, others to a bag that was hung up, and more were simply attached to him. He certainly hoped that none of the objects were hurting him worse, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

---

“I'm sorry Fluttershy, but all I could determine is that he's not something anypony has ever seen before. I wish I could help more.” Twilight apologized as they walked back toward the room the mystery creature was being kept in. They had left after the scan to let the receptionist know what they had found out.

“It's okay Twilight, I know you did your best. Maybe when he wakes up again, he could tell us something about himself. I think the doctors were mostly hoping you could figure out whether healing spells would work on him.”

“Well, I already told them what I could about his thaumic signature and matrix. They are pretty strange; maybe sometime I could see if he'd let me have a closer look.”

“I'm worried about how he woke up last time,” explained Fluttershy as she nudged open the door to the room. “He seemed so scared that...” Fluttershy trailed off as she noticed the frightened eyes staring at her.

“Oh dear. It's okay, little guy, we won't hurt you.” Fluttershy cooed, making sure to do her best to appear non-threatening.

His expression rapidly shifted to be slightly less frightened, with a healthy dose of confused. Taking this as a sign of progress, Fluttershy took a few small steps forward while he watched her. He didn't make any signs of trying to bolt, but she could still see him shaking. Then, once she'd made her way just inside the doorway, she sat on her haunches. Behind her, Twilight mimicked her actions, hoping that doing so would help calm him.

The silence went on rather awkwardly until the being on the bed broke it with a weak cough. Immediately he tensed, although he calmed again when neither of the ponies in the room moved from their current positions.

Finally, Twilight's eagerness overcame her, and she leaned slightly forward. “Can you speak?”

His eyes darted between the two ponies. “Yes?”

“I'm Fluttershy, and this is Twilight Sparkle,” She pointed to herself and her friend as she introduced them, smiling softly at the small creature. “Can you tell us your name?”

He glanced back to Fluttershy before answering. “Stupid thing?”

“What?” Fluttershy rapidly shook her head, her mane whipping back and forth. “No, your name. What ponies call you.”

“Yes. Ponies call stupid thing, freak, monster.”

“That's terrible!” Interrupted Fluttershy, managing to actually go above conversational volume in her outrage. “Those aren't names, those are... those are...” Fluttershy couldn't seem to help herself and started to tear up as she trailed off.

“Sorry! Stop say names!” Burst out the creature from the bed, quivering yet again.

“No, I think she means to say that those aren't meant to be names, those are insults.” Explained Twilight as she patted Fluttershy's back with an outstretched hoof.

“What... 'insult'?” Asked the baffled little beast.

Twilight switched to teacher mode, explaining absently even as she kept her attention on Fluttershy.“It's... well, it's something you say to make somepony feel bad. Do you have a name besides those?”

“No? Not know.”

“Well then,” stated Fluttershy, her eyes determined even as she blinked away tears, “We'll just have to find you a name.”

“Do you have any ideas for a name?” urged Twilight, obviously eager to have a more appropriate way to address him.

“Well” Spike piped up, causing the form on the bed to twitch and try to spot the source of the voice. “You named me after my spikes, maybe you could do something like that for him?”

“Hmm...” Twilight rubbed her chin with one hoof. “We could name him... uh... featherwings?”

Spike scrunched up his snout. “Ugh, that's horrible. What about Talon or Fang? Those sound pretty cool.”

“What do you think, little one?” Fluttershy turned to face him. “Do any of those sound good?”

“Talon?”

Author's Note:

I decided that it made more sense for there to be a veterinary service in Las Pegasus, but that Flim and Flam would call Fluttershy in after her helping them out the first time. It won't significantly change any plot established so far, but there will be some minor adjustments. Also, for those who are wondering, Twilight asked Applejack to look after Fluttershy's animals while she was gone. Apple Bloom promised to help as well. Twilight was just glad it wasn't Sweetie Belle.