When we got home Rose had put me into my bed. She started to organize the food and other supplies we had managed to scavenge from the raiders. We didn’t get too much but we did get enough to survive for another couple of weeks.

She never showed how worried she was about anything. When I woke up she was sitting in her usual chair watching over me.

I got out of bed and walked over to her. She had fallen asleep.

I walked around the house for a while so that Rose could sleep.

One major problem was still in the forefront of my mind. Every now and then I would flare my wings to try and hover off the ground. Every time that I did I fell onto my left side. My right wing overpowered my left one causing me to crash back to the ground. After about eight times doing this I just stopped trying to use my wings.

The house was one of the better ones. There were only a few holes in the walls and the walls still stood. I had seen the condition of a few of the other houses and they weren’t pretty.

The sun was about halfway through the sky before I headed back to my room. Rose was still asleep. I walked over to her and climbed up into her lap. This seemed to bring her back to the world of the living.

Her gaze jumped to my bed. She saw that I was missing and almost tossed me across the room as she got to her hooves. I tried in vain to stop myself from slamming into the floor again. I was really starting to hate the fact that my wing was useless.

Rose walked over to me and lowered herself to the floor. I thought that I might be in trouble for scaring her so badly. She simply dragged me into a hug. I didn’t try to fight her embrace.

For once since my mother had died I felt happy to be alive. We stayed on the floor for a few minutes before Rose took one of my hooves and started to lead me outside.

She lead me to a little shack outside. Inside it was really warm. A furnace took up a large part of the rear part of the shack. A few tools that I had never seen before covered the walls. I recognized some of the tools. I had seen them when I was 3 or 4. Dad had been forging a sword.

Rose had walked farther into the shack. She returned with a box on her back. She grabbed my hoof again and made me go back inside.

We made our way into the living room. A small tree was situated in the middle of the room. It was interesting to see a tree of that size that was still alive. Rose sat me down right in front of the tree before taking a seat across from me. She slid the box over to me motioning with her hoof.

I was a bit confused. When I was young my family did their best to preserve the tradition of Hearths Warming. We didn’t have much so we usually just slept out in the living room in front of a tree.

The box had a latch on it. Rose was still motioning for me to open up the box.

I opened the box and inside was a metallic object. It looked a slightly like it might be a bladed weapon minus the fact it didn’t have a mouth grip. I looked up at Rose a little confused. She smiled before walking over to me.

She grabbed the object in her mouth and grabbed my left wing. The metal was quite cold as she placed it to the stub that had once been my wing. After a few minutes of fidgeting with straps the metallic object was firmly attached to me. It was heavier than my wing had been but only slightly.

Rose gave me a hug before she used her forelegs to make a gesture that most would recognize as flying. I gave the prosthetic wing a few test flaps before attempting to hover.

I gave a strong flap to both of my wings and to my surprise I didn’t fall harshly onto my left side. The new prosthesis weighed me down a little bit but I was able to hover easily for 15 seconds before my wing grew tired and I had to return to the ground.

Rose had found a piece of paper and had been writing something down on it. After she was satisfied with her writing she held up the slip so I could read it. It was hard to read like most earth pony writing is but I got the gist of the message.

I was happy about the fact that I would be able to at least fly a little bit if the need arises. It took me a few seconds before I realized that I had nothing to give to Rose. I looked up to her with a few tears in my eyes before practically throwing myself into her. She didn’t push me away. We sat on the floor for a long time. She had been scribbling something on the backside of the paper.

It said: Don’t worry about it my little colt. I don’t blame you for not remembering what time of year it was. Besides it wouldn’t have been a surprise if you had tried to give me something. I keep track of everything that comes into this house.

I let up on the crying a little bit but would not let go of my hold on her. I was determined that I would not let go of her unless I absolutely had to. I don’t know how long I had embraced her but eventually I had fallen asleep.

Author's Notes:

Sorry everyone for the long time since I last updated. things have been busy and I've been hard at work with more of the story way down the line. I'll continue to upload certain chapters every day until I reach about 50,000 words. After that I'll upload every Friday. Thanks for your patience and enjoy.