Like Fireworks in the Sky

by SpyroForLife

29. Recovery

When Discord woke up, he immediately checked on Tempest. She was still asleep, muzzle buried against his chest fur and one foreleg thrown over him. He smiled and briefly held her hoof, then slid away. She didn't even notice him getting up, and he slid a pillow under her head and pulled a sheet over her, making sure she was comfortable.

“I'll be right back,” he whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth before teleporting away. He went to the jungle, popping back into existence over the mountain where the Roc lived. He flew around, seeing that most of the rocks had been tossed away. The Roc was sitting in her nest, beak down as she fixed it. It had gotten crushed by the rocks, and she was using the fabric she had been gifted to repair it. Discord saw that her feathers were ruffled, many torn out, and she was holding her wings out and limp. Judging from how carefully she was moving, her wings were hurt too badly for her to use them. Which meant she couldn't fly. And if she couldn't fly, she couldn't return to Sunny Oasis.

Discord chuckled to himself and got ready to go back with the good news. Then he heard her muttering to herself and decided to fly down to listen in.

“Stupid pony, stupid chimera,” she was growling as she wove cloth through her nest.

Discord snorted. Chimera? He was far more chaotic than one of those three-headed amalgamations.

“They'll pay for this. As soon as my wings are better, I'll... I'll rip them apart.” She pulled a little too hard on one of the pieces of fabric, ripping it. She called out angrily, stamping her feet a few times, before throwing the ripped piece out of the nest.

Flames burst up around Discord's arms as he heavily considered just taking her out, right here, right now. He could do it. She hasn't noticed him, she was injured, he could strike her down... but Tempest wanted him to wait. So he took a breath, held it, and breathed out slowly, calming himself down. He flicked his arms to get rid of the fire. Then he turned away and teleported back to Kris's house.

He walked up to Tempest's bed, leaning down and resting his arms on it as he watched her. It was evening and he didn't really feel like going back to sleep. But with nothing better to do, he climbed up with her and curled up, gazing into space as he thought about how they were going to deal with this situation.

A few quiet minutes passed, and then Kris poked her head in. “Oh, you're awake. How is she?”

“She's fine,” Discord replied. “Sleeping soundly.”

“That's good. Mayor Dusty and his wife are here to see her, if that's okay.”

Discord thought about it, then shrugged and nodded. Kris stepped aside, and Dusty and Mary walked in. Mary was carrying a vase of pretty purple flowers, which she placed on the nightstand.

“She looks pretty peaceful,” Dusty commented as he walked up to the bed.

“Yeah, but just wait until she wakes up,” Discord replied. “She was in a lot of pain earlier. Luckily, Kris's painkillers knocked her right out.”

“Heh, I'm not surprised. It's for the best, though. She needs her rest.” Dusty set down his own gift, a stuffed animal.

“Is that a dolphin?” Discord asked.

“She likes dolphins,” Dusty replied. “It's not really something she told many people, but. Yeah, she likes them, I thought she'd find this amusing.”

“Heh. Thank you, I'm sure she will.” Discord turned on the lamp so they could see better, then got up, going to check out the flowers.

“I was hoping things would go well when you visited the Roc,” Dusty said. “But Kris told me what happened. She wasn't exactly understanding, was she?”

“No, not at all. We did what we had to.” Discord crossed to the window, opening the curtains now that the Sun was setting. “And the Roc is still alive. I just checked on her, she's alive but her wings are hurt, she won't be able to fly for a while.”

“That's good news,” Mary replied.

“Yeah, but here's the bad news. Once she is able to fly, she's coming back, and she's going to rip us apart.” Discord shook his head. “Can you believe that? She's already seen the damage we can do and she still wants to kill us!”

Dusty exchanged a concerned look with Mary, and said, “So what are you going to do?”

Discord returned to the bed, sitting on it and resting a protective hand on Tempest. “Well, that's what we needed to talk to you about, actually. So I'm glad you're here. We're gonna need to work together. Tempest wants for the storm creatures to fight the Roc, keep her distracted, while I come in and deal a powerful magical blow that will finish her off. Rocs are weak to fire. What I'm going to do is hit her with enough fire to burn her to a crisp, and then we can be done with this.”

Mary gasped. “You're going to burn her to death? That's an awful way to go!”

“I know, but what choice do we have? Either she dies, or we die, and that's the only weakness I know of! If we could settle this painlessly, we would, but I think we're way past that.” Discord saw Tempest stirring and evened out the blanket over her, making sure she was warm. But that was enough to wake her up, and she yawned, lifting her head. “Oh, good evening, sleepyhead!”

She grunted. “Heh, hey.” She looked around and saw the others. “Oh, hey Dusty, hey Mary.”

“Tempest!” Dusty moved forward to pat her shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“Well, my ribs are broken and it really hurts, but other than that, I'm fine.” Tempest freed her front legs and pushed herself up a bit, but didn't move too much, just wanting to look around. “Oh, it really is evening.”

“Mhm, you were sleeping like a foal,” Discord replied. He caught her up on what he learned while visiting the Roc, and summarized the conversation up until now.

Once she had some time to think about that, she sighed and said, “Alright then. You're right, we have no choice. There's no way we're abandoning this town, and now the Roc is determined to kill us. Me and you especially, even if we do leave, I bet she'll try to hunt us down. So... we have to get rid of her first. I didn't want things to go this way, but... I guess not everything can have a peaceful ending.”

Discord held her hoof. “Right. I'm sure Twilight has told you all these stories about bad guys getting reformed, about conflicts being resolved, but... sometimes, there isn't a happy ending. Sometimes people are just bad and vicious. Sometimes, you have to destroy one creature to protect many more.”

“Yeah. Good point. It's just unfortunate.” Tempest was disheartened by that news, but she tried to focus on other things. She thanked Mary for the flowers, and was pleased to receive the dolphin plushie. She hugged it close, and named it Flipper.

Kris came in to visit after about twenty minutes, bringing Tempest more water as well as dinner.

“Do you need any more painkiller?” she asked.

Tempest shook her head, munching on green beans. “I think I'll be okay. I've been through... hm, well, I don't actually know if I've been through worse than this. Broken ribs are really bad. But still, I can handle it. Pain is an old friend of mine.”

“Well, alright. But if it ever gets bad, let me know. I don't want you to suffer.” Kris left her alone, and Tempest discussed the Roc situation more with the others.

Dusty agreed to the plan, and said he would start getting the storm creatures ready. Other than when the bandits attacked, it's been a long time since they've fought, and they needed to practice. They wanted to do what they could to weaken the Roc, keep her distracted so Discord could do what he had to. Tempest wasn't sure if she'd be recovered enough to fight by that point, so she offered to lead the storm creatures into battle. Dusty said he couldn't agree more.

With that agreed on, there wasn't anything left to do except for Dusty and Mary to head back home to work on the plan. Discord stayed, making sure Tempest finished her meal.

“I'm not really that hungry,” she admitted.

“You need to eat anyway, you need your strength,” Discord replied. He sat next to her, trying to get her to take the mashed potatoes, but she just turned her head aside. “Don't make me feed you.”

She gave him a look, and he scooped some food up on a spoon and held it out. She sighed, and took the spoon with her magic, taking a bite. Bit by bit, he got her to finish off the plate. Once everything was gone, he set it aside and cupped her cheek.

“I know you're not feeling good,” he said, gently stroking her cheek. “But you need to eat and drink. I don't want you going hungry. Your body needs the nutrition to repair itself.”

“I know. It's just... the pain makes me not want to do anything but sleep. Even breathing hurts, and eating is the last thing on my mind. But okay. I'll try to eat.”

“Thank you.” Discord hugged her. “I wish I could heal you, but I don't know much about healing internal injuries, I don't want to make things worse.”

“It's okay. You're helping enough just being here.” Tempest shifted over, and he laid next to her. She covered his hand with a hoof. “I'm more glad than ever that Twilight had you come with me. I don't know if anyone else would have been able to save me. You were quick in grabbing me and you were able to teleport us safely back here. If it had been anyone else... I might not have made it.”

“I don't know, you're very tough, and Twilight has talented friends. If she had sent Starlight, for example, she can teleport just as well as I can. I'm sure she could have saved you.”

“Heh, maybe. But still. I'm happy it was you.” Tempest rested against him, yawning. “Man, I can't believe I'm tired again. I've spent all day sleeping.”

“That's okay. Get your rest.”

“What will you do? You don't need much sleep.”

“I'll stay here and make sure you're okay. Don't worry about me, I can entertain myself.”

“If you say so. Okay, then. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Tempest's recovery went well, but it was slow. She was soon agitated at having to stay in bed, but Kris didn't want her trying to walk, afraid she would hurt her ribs again. So she spent days recovering, and Discord often brought her books to read to pass the time. He stayed with her as much as he could, but she encouraged him to get out and keep helping the storm creatures, so he did. He helped them lay the groundwork for the bowling alley, tended to the fish farm, and even took to patrolling the road to make sure no other bandits were trying to sneak up on them.

Things were quiet though, and Discord figured the bandits had spread the word to avoid Sunny Oasis. He visited Klugetown a couple times, making sure the storm creatures there were doing okay, and they reported that they were. Curly was very concerned over news of the Roc, and admitted that killing her might be the only solution. She wished him luck in dealing with it.

After a week, Kris finally allowed Tempest to get out of bed, but only so she could stretch her legs and go to and from the bathroom on her own. Walking hurt her chest, and she had to take it very slowly, but she was glad to be doing something besides lying around.

Each day though, Kris let her go further. She monitored her closely, making sure she didn't strain herself, but she also didn't want her muscles to deteriorate from being in bed all the time. They had to find a safe medium. Luckily, Tempest was well on her way to recovering. Her ribs were mending and the cut in her side was almost closed up. Kris was sure she'd be able to pull the stitches out in a few days.

It was a surprisingly cool day when Tempest was finally just allowed to leave Kris's house and return to her own. She walked outside, Discord carrying her gifts from the storm creatures, and noted that the Sun wasn't painfully hot.

“It's cooling down,” she said. “It's fall, isn't it?”

“Indeed it is,” Discord replied. “Hard to tell out here, but yes. It's fall and in a few months it'll be winter. We're further north than Klugetown so we might get some cold weather. It probably won't get cold enough for snow, though.”

“Darn. I kinda like snow.”

“Perhaps we can go back to Equestria after this,” Discord said. “There'll be plenty of snow in Ponyville.”

She nodded, and they went back to their house. Tempest went slowly, and kept stopping to greet the storm creatures, who wanted to see how she was doing. But finally they made it inside, and Discord took the gifts to their bedroom, setting them out. Flipper the dolphin was placed on Tempest's side of the bed.

“I'm glad to be out of Kris's place,” Tempest sighed. “She frets too much.”

“Oh, like I don't?” Discord replied, leaning down to give her a careful hug around the neck.

She chuckled and patted his arm. “I like when you fret over me though.”

“Oh, is that so? Heh, well thank you. But you know Kris just wants you to get better.”

“I know. That doesn't mean I have to like her checking up on me constantly. Drink your water, Tempest. Don't roll around so much, Tempest. Did you finish dinner, Tempest? Oh, want some drugs, Tempest?” She sighed and sat on the bed. “She should know I don't like being babied.”

“Listen if you don't want those drugs I'll take them,” Discord said. Tempest lightly slapped him and he laughed.

“Well, no point sitting around. Let's go see what everyone's up to.” Tempest hopped back up, and winced, wrapping a foreleg around her middle.

“Take it easy,” Discord said automatically.

“Heh, yeah.” She headed out, and he stayed right beside her, ready to catch her if she fell. But she seemed steady enough, and they walked around town. They came across a group of storm creatures who were training with spears and practicing hand to hand combat. They briefly waved to them, then got back to their sparring.

“Good to see that they're getting ready,” Discord said. “And wow, look at them go! They may be big, but they're graceful.”

“Yeah, they are,” Tempest replied. “They're skilled fighters, and I'm glad we'll have them beside us when we face the Roc again.”

“Me too. And speaking of the Roc, last time I checked on her, she's still too injured to fly. But she's very frustrated, she's having a hard time hunting without being able to fly. When she eventually does come after us, there's a good chance she'll be too weak to do much damage. The odds are in our favor. Now it's just a matter of waiting for her to come to us.”

Tempest nodded, and kept walking. She was so ready to get all this over with.

Comments

[lazyreader19]

“Yeah. Good point. It's just unfortunate.” Tempest was disheartened by that news, but she tried to focus on other things. She thanked Mary for the flowers, and was pleased to receive the dolphin plushie. She hugged it close, and named it Flipper.

D'awww

[Texus]

The Roc was sitting in her nest, beak down as she fixed it

I really thought she was killed, at least the mountain sounded big that landed on her.

Nice chapter, there was some nice stuff in it. I still hope however, that Discord makes a fun out of telling their friends or if he waits how long it takes till they notice. I really want this to be a joke or a game the two of them play.

[SpyroForLife]

8977923
Yeahh they almost got her but Rocs are tough. :'D And we'll see. :3c

[HeartfireFirebrand]

Eagerly awaitng the next chapter loving it.

[Nerfyy]

:/ as much as i love this story . . .
This just fullfilled this overly used stupid movie stereotype of waiting-for-the-enemy-to-recover . . .
Why doesnt Discord just do it now where the chance of more getting hurt is the smallest?
So annoying
Thry already decided they would kill the Roc
Now Discord just had the Chance to not risk more lives of getting hurt or maybe even killed in a fight with a full recovered Roc -.-
Really not liking this :(

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8979024
Unless the world is ending it can wait.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8979034
Although he would be a lot shorter on all fours, one of the advantages of being a biped or one of the disadvantages depending on who you ask.

[SpyroForLife]

8978782
The out of universe answer from a writing perspective is simply that I have certain plans for the Roc's death that require Tempest also be present, which has been planned from the beginning. The in universe answer... yeah there really isn't a good justification, sorry about that. But I'll keep that in mind when writing in the future, I can see how it's a tiring trope.