Hostile Intent

by Storm Vector

Ch11: Falling Action

The doctor’s words hit Midnight’s ear, just like every sound he’d ever heard. His ear drums reverberated, transmitted sound to the bones of the ear and sent the signal to his brain. His brain even processed the signal correctly: the concussions had done nothing to dampen his hearing. But Midnight still heard not one word of what the doctor said to him.

Instead, his mind was flooded with two words cycling endlessly in his mind, louder and louder and louder with each pass: “wing broken.” He stared at his right wing, frozen stiff as he tried to process the words and sights and reconcile them with the deepest hope he was trying desperately to cling to. But his grip kept slipping, and reality reasserted itself harsh on his mind.

The next thoughts of Midnight’s were not much better for him than the cycle he’d been stuck in. He knew deep down he should be glad that this was the worst of his injuries; he’d been scraped by the bands and lay there with his neck, hooves, and stomach wrapped in tight bandages. His hind legs joined the fore in bandages, thanks to the harsh bruises from the flying shackle smashing against him. His right foreleg and left wing were both in slings, holding his body still while it tried to repair the torn tendons on its own. His back had a piece of antiseptic soaked cloth pressed against the wound on his back, stinging with each slight shift of his body. The burns on his stomach ached too, but comparatively they were hardly worth his notice as the cooling bandages pressed tight against them. His chest pains had been diagnosed as a shattered rib, thankfully not life threatening but he’d already been lectured on trying to breathe deeply despite the pain it caused to avoid pneumonia. And finally, there was a bandage wrap around his forehead and the right side of his head, applying cooling medication to avoid any swelling in his head and lessen the pain of his concussions. All things considered, he’d gotten off remarkably safely for infuriating creatures so much bigger than himself...

Midnight couldn’t even smirk at his own scrap of dry humor. He couldn’t feel joy, or even sorrow, anger, fear or anxiety; all he felt as he stared at the broken wing on his back, was sheer emptiness. His thoughts eventually pulled out of their infinite loops again and he sighed heavily. He knew that this would be a painful experience to heal, both physical and emotional... “How...how long?” he asked suddenly, speaking unintentionally during the doctor’s description of something. The doctor stopped, stared at him in confusion as Midnight tried to put aside the shame of interrupting a more important pony than himself. “How long will I be...” he said, only to lose steam again. He glanced back at his wing and bit his lip.

Thankfully, the doctor understood. “With your age, and proper rest, and a clean break like this...I would guess you’ll be back in the air...six to eight weeks.” The words stabbed Midnight in the heart, a sharp breath causing his rib to pain him as well, making him cough in pain and clutch is left hoof to his chest. “Just try to stay still as you can for the next few days, it will help your body start to heal properly. Just be patient and you’ll be back dreaming about the Wonderbolts Academy in no time!”

The doctor’s words and positivity didn’t help any, only making Midnight shiver with fear. The idea that he might heal wrong, that he might never move like he used to, pained him almost more than the aches and pains dulled by whatever intensive medication they’d pumped into him. He kept seeing his wing broken forever, never to heal, never to fly properly again... “It’s not likely” didn’t matter to his mind, the idea that anything could go wrong made the worst case a certainty. His heart thumped pained in his chest as he tried to steady his mind, but the series of aches across his body was too much for his mind to break free of his mental traps, and he sank back into depression.

The doctor seemed to recognize that Midnight had tuned out of the conversation and nodded. “I’ll check on you soon,” the doctor said, Midnight barely acknowledging him, before he left the room. Midnight stayed still, staring at his broken wing. He was so sucked into his own mind, he didn’t hear another pair of hooves trotting tentatively closer to him.

“So...” came a familiar, Canterlot-tinted accent, jerking Midnight out of his doldrums. He stared up and met Winter’s eyes immediately. “Wonderbolts Academy?” Winter smirked, stepping to about a meter away from Midnight’s bed before stopping. Midnight looked her up and down as she stood there, staring right at his face the whole time. She looked a little rough, her mane and coat dirty from the dust and sands of the desert, and her legs were just barely shaking from exhaustion. But he knew Winter well enough by now: she wouldn’t lie down. She was staring so intently right at him, that nothing would convince her to take a moment to herself.

The doctor’s words finally hit Midnight and he let out a soft chuckle, only for it to die in his throat as his face was clouded by sorrow again. “You know me better than that...” he muttered, tilting his head away. Winter nodded and took a step closer, but Midnight could only bite his lip. It was just a joke, she was kidding with him, he didn’t need to be so literal about what he knew was a joke. “I’m sorry Winter...I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Now, earlier...all this...”

“No. You should have.” Midnight blinked in surprise as Winter took another step. “You should have snapped, you should have done worse. You should have been so cruel and awful to me, because I hurt you.” She stepped again, a pained look on her face that perplexed Midnight. “Of all ponies I should know how badly it hurts when somepony dismisses something you hold so close to your heart. Shouldn’t I have known how much that hurts, how badly even a pony with great self-esteem can hurt from someone they care about denying something so basic to them.”

Midnight smirked weakly, as he started to realize what Winter was saying. “So Crys told you?” he asked, only for Winter to shake her head.

“I haven’t talked with her, I passed out after we escaped and I came right here after they let me out of bed. But...I figured it out.” Winter stepped closer, down to half a meter away from his bedside now. But still she stayed at a distance, looking very uncertain of where to stand. “The doctor was right to talk about the Wonderbolts, you’d be fantastic for them. They’re missing so much because you don’t want to join those showboats! You flying around at night, your tricks...you be proud of that. You and I are alike, we’ve got skills we need to be proud of, damn anypony who thinks otherwise!”

Midnight shook his head. “That’s sweet Winter, but I’m not cut out for the Wonderbolts. I don’t have the...”

To Midnight’s surprise, Winter cut straight through is words and stomped forwards another three steps. “You’re not interested in the Wonderbolts, Midnight, that’s a big difference from not being cut out for them! You’re overqualified for them, you just don’t care to be in the spotlight! And that’s okay!”

Midnight tried to look at Winter, who smirked gently at him. He knew her face, trying to encourage him without a word. It would have worked, he knew she had a point...only she was just a tad wrong. “I’m not always uninterested in the spotlight...” he muttered, glancing down to his left, shifting his left hoof as a sign of embarrassment.

Winter was silent for a moment, before she gasped far louder than she’d been talking moments ago. Midnight’s ears tipped backwards, a little from embarrassment and a little to quiet the noise of Winter’s gasp. “What?! You’re...you’re not?” He shook his head almost imperceptibly, but Winter looked like she was about to faint into the chair beside her. “I...I thought that watching you at night, asking about your flight manuals...Oh sweet Celestia I thought I was digging into you about it!”

Midnight smiled gently and shook his head at Winter. “You’re right Winter. We are alike, your ice and my flying. I’d love to show off what I know about flying, but when I think about doing it in front of everypony, I just...”

“Start worrying things will go wrong?” Midnight nodded as Winter smiled sadly, knowing what he meant. “Been there done that,” said Winter, as Midnight looked puzzled at her. Winter then glanced around, feigning nervousness as she moved right up next to Midnight as though she were trying to go unnoticed. “I’ve never told anypony this, but a year and a half ago I got hired for a filly’s cuteceañera in Canterlot.” Winter lowered her voice to a whisper and raised a hoof towards Midnight’s ear as she told him her precious secret. “The big finale was to sculpt the filly’s cutie mark nice and big for a centerpiece. But I got so into crafting I entirely forgot how to support the dang thing.” Midnight’s eyes widened as he jumped ahead in Winter’s story, but he sat patiently while she finished. “Not three minutes after I’d finished, it snapped right in half. Took the table out in a single blow.”

Midnight’s hoof jerked up towards his mouth as he valiantly failed to stifle a snort of laughter at his marefriend, who smirked sheepishly at him. “Seriously?”

Rather ashamed, Winter nodded, unable to look right at Midnight’s eyes. “I was so ashamed I almost bolted straight out the door. I refused my commission for that, begged them to use it to buy a better table.”

Midnight laughed a bit louder, straining not to for both Winter’s and his chest’s sake. “I’m sorry Winter, I shouldn’t laugh...” he giggled.

“Oh don’t you worry, I’m used to that response. The foals thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen. I can take a bedridden stormcloud giggling at me,” she said with a knowing wink. That only made Midnight giggle more, until he started coughing from the irritation of his ribs. There was a moment of silence as Winter raised a hoof to the bedside, pressing it down near Midnight’s hoof.

“Okay, you got me,” Midnight smirked. “That’s funny. I promise though, your secret is safe with me.”

“Like yours should have been with me?”

The hurt in Winter’s eyes was obvious, sending an ache into Midnight’s mind. He could see it in her, the pain she now realized she’d put him through, however unintentionally. “You didn’t tell anypony,” he began, but the ache in Winter’s eyes stifled the lie he was about to say in his throat. A pang of guilt hit him as it quickly outmatched the good he thought discounting his own pain would do for Winter. “I told you about that crash in confidence Winter, I...I was so ashamed of that, I dropped out of the sky and hit a tree from ten meters up! That’s just humiliating!”

Winter only shrugged slightly. “I don’t know how hard it is to fly, but I know I should have been serious about it. I didn’t mean to laugh at you Midnight, it was cruel of me. Yelling at me was the least of what you should have done to me.”

“That wasn’t an appropriate response and you know it,” grumbled Midnight. “I know...I knew then that you didn’t know flying was that important to me. I should have known you didn’t know how mortified I was about the crash. I shouldn’t be anyways, better fliers than me still mess up worse than that!” He sighed and closed his eyes, hanging his head in frustration.

“That doesn’t mean you just invalidate your feelings,” said Winter. Midnight felt her hoof shift close to his through the mattress, but she still didn’t make contact. He opened his eyes and glanced to his left, seeing her hoof very close to his. “Things are allowed to hurt us, even when it feels...” she began, only to stop suddenly as Midnight raised his left hoof and pressed it to hers. He glanced up and saw her staring in surprise at his hoof, before glancing up at him. he smiled softly at her, as she raised her other hoof and pressed it on top of his. “I don’t care if you think your feelings aren’t important enough for other ponies, please...your feelings matter to me. Because they’re you, who you are, and I couldn’t give those up for all the family reconciliation in the world.”

Midnight smiled weakly at Winter, almost laughing at her little joke. But tears formed in his eyes as he looked straight into hers. “I was so afraid,” he murmured. “The whole time I was captured I was so afraid that I’d never see you again, I’d die with you hating me...”

“I don’t hate you Midnight,” she murmured, her eyes tearing up as well. “I’ve never hated you, even when I was so mad. I just was so worried about your health, I got irritated and...”

“it’s ok Winter, it’s ok...” Midnight pressed his hoof harder against hers. “I know...I’m awful with my sleep schedule. It’s bad for me, and I should fix it. You’re right to get mad at me for it. Your feelings are important too, and I just got so afraid that I’d never get the chance to explain why I was mad, for you to know I was so sorry...”

“Well, I accept your apology, if you accept mine.” Winter smirked, Midnight laughing gently and nodding once. “I think we both blew this whole fight up for no good reason, and I am so so so sorry that I lost my cool.”

“And we all know you losing your cool is a dangerous thing,” Midnight smirked, causing Winter to laugh. The gentle melody of her voice giggling chilled the fires of pain in his body, making Midnight smile broader as Winter squeezed his hoof tighter.

“Well, when I look at you my heart starts beating faster. I’m sure that starts to make me heat up...”

“Okay then, okay,” Midnight smirked, pulling his hoof playfully from her grip. “Thanks Ms. Heartthrob, but I’d rather not drown from sappy comments in the hospital.”

Winter laughed louder and nodded, holding a hoof to her muzzle as her teeth flashed from her glee. “Hardly the worst thing we’ve said to each other,” she said, smirking as Midnight rolled his eyes. It was true, he’d fallen hard into pet names or stupid jokes about their love in the last two months, as had Winter. It was kind of sweet at some points, but right now Midnight was too tired to handle any of it. “But right now, you got a deal.” Winter raised her hoof to Midnight’s cheek and gently touched him, making him smile and follow her with a hoof. Then, suddenly, Winter jumped forwards, planting her lips on his and giving him a deep, long kiss, one Midnight was only too glad to reciprocate after the surprise passed him.

“Alright,” Midnight smirked, as Winter gently pulled back just a bit to stare into his eyes. “Is that a ‘let’s finish this stupid argument already?’”

With another giggle, Winter nodded. “Guess its finally time to officially end our first big argument.”

“Snowball,” Midnight smirked, “I was ready to end this fight two minutes after we started.”

“And I wanted it ended just a minute later,” Winter said, playfully acting as though she were offended. “Don’t think you beat me that easily.”

As he shook his head and chuckled, Midnight felt too tired to snip back at Winter, even as a joke. “Alright, alright, you win this round.”

“Well I think it’s fair to say you won the fight,” said Winter, looking a little too stern for her to be joking. He knew that she was trying to be serious and fight back the depression that she expected to crowd into his head with his perceived ‘loss’ to her. But Midnight felt ok, if very tired physically and emotionally.

Not interested in replying even as a joke, Midnight shot Winter a flat look with a single eyebrow raised. “Can we not turn this into our second ever fight?”

Winter blinked and looked rather ashamed for a moment, but smirked as she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, deal on that too,” she said, letting out a soft giggle as Midnight smirked at her. It was a relief to see her gentle look again, it felt like things had been reset between them at last. “Now I can see you’re slowing down, you wanna get a nap in after all this hell you’ve endured?”

Midnight looked at Winter, a little embarrassed, as he nodded sheepishly. She already knew him way too well, she could tell even through the entire hospitalization that his social energy was dying, even for his precious marefriend. Winter looked no worse for wear either, she’d long since learned to put up with his limited ability to interact, and she simply approached him for a very tender hug before using her magic to shut the curtains over the window. It was still dark outside, but Midnight knew that the sunrise had to be scheduled soon, as did Winter apparently. The room wasn’t darkened that much, but it was enough that Midnight felt a bit more at ease. “You gonna be ok walking home? You’d better rest when you get home too, since I can’t bug you at your house,” he said, laughing gently.

Obviously pretending to be offended, Winter gasped. “I didn’t use that much power at once, you know,” she huffed, before letting the act drop abruptly. “Oh, I...I almost forgot. Your glasses they...”

“Oh...” Midnight sighed, as Winter’s meaning became clear to him. “Well, I...I have a backup pair by my flight goggles. Do you think you could bring them to me, when you have the strength?”

“Of course I can,” Winter said, “and a book or two to read huh? Hospital’s gonna get boring without them, I bet.” Midnight only nodded to her as she spoiled him a little. “I’ll take a nap, head to your place, and bring those back later today, I promise.”

Midnight was going to protest, but he stopped himself. He could tell she was nervous for him, and she’d want to check up on him as often as she could bear. Plus, being alone in this hospital could have been devastatingly dull for him, meaning he would cherish Winter even more when she chose to visit. “Get enough rest before you come back here,” he said sternly, but nodded afterwards. “You be careful.”

“Of course I will,” Winter nodded back to him, stepping close and giving Midnight a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Now you get some sleep too, my precious night angel. You deserve it.”

Midnight smirked at his snow angel and nodded once, kissing her cheek in response as she held herself close enough to touch him. “Thank you, Winter, for caring about me.”

“I could never do anything else,” Winter replied, holding herself close to him before she finally, regretfully, stepped backwards towards the door. She blew a kiss goodbye with a sad smile before she trotted out of view.

Midnight sighed and glanced back at his numerous injuries, before struggling to settle into his bed with some semblance of comfort. Rest was calling for him, but his body seemed ready to fight him for that need. It was going to be a long time before things were right, he felt that fact sitting uncomfortably in his heart...but Winter would be there for him. Crystal, Vlyka, Winter...they were all safe, all there to help him, and for him to help them. “Maybe we’ll make it through this...” he sighed, before his mind finally managed to cut through the pain and let him slip into the shadow of dreams.