Breathing heavily, Soarin limps towards his locker, his injuries -- both seen an unseen beneath his torn and taggered flightsuit -- slowing him down as he does his best to grimace through his pain. All around him, the Emergancy Canterlot Defense armory is full of the sound of hooves and shouting voices, most of them scared and a few of them numb.



As he reaches the locker assigned to him, he breaths a sigh of numb relief. Gingerly, so a to not put a lot of weight onto his injured left foreleg, he jiggles the lock and manages to get it open, and reaches in to grab the spare goggles an extra flight suit stashed inside. Both likely wont fit as perfectly as the goggles he had lost, or the torn flight suit he wears now, but even a little bit of protection would help.



He goes to close the locker, but puts weight on his leg as he does. Instantly pain shoots through his leg and up into his chest causing his lungs to spasam and a shout of pain to escape his mouth. He barely catches himself before his face is introduced into the cold steel of the locker, catching himself with his good foreleg and wing. As he pulls himself up, slowly due to his entire body feeling like it'd be struck by a hot brand, he prays silently to Celestia that nopony had heard him.



"Soarin?" A voice, all too familiar and full of worry, drifts to him. "Soarin, what are you doing!?"



Looking away, Soarin's ears go against his head as he tries his best to not answer. She knows what he's doing, he had told her he wouldn't stay down.



"Soarin, look at me!" the voice, a mare's, deands causing him to scrunch his face and look over at the speaker.



At his wife, Rainbow Dash.



"I'm grabbing the backup suit and goggles from my locker," Soarin explains, his voice rough from the pain. Attempting to stand up once more he finds his body isn't quite responding how it should, and he grunts loudly as he keeps trying.



"Soarin you should be in the infirmary," Dash chides as she comes over and gently wraps her hooves around his barrel and helps him to stand. "Not grabbing your flight gear! You're crazy if you think I'm letting yo-"



"Crazy!?" Soarin barks, causing Dash to let go and take a few steps back. "Crazy? Dash, you've seen Cloudsdale? You were there! How can you tell me to sit down, to go curl up on a cot like some sort of... of broken pony when my home, no OUR HOME, has been destroyed!?"



"Soarin..." Dash starts, her eyes wide.



"No, don't you 'Soarin' me!" He roars as he takes a shaky step to go around her. "My family is dead, your family is dead. How can you tell me to not go back out there? How can you-" he pauses as he looks at his wife, her eyes wide and full of tears, her ear back against her head. "Dash, I-I'm sorry, it's just not in me to stay down, and..."



"I know," Dash whispers, the ghost of a smile on her face. "You don't know when the quit, and... well I wouldn't have married you if you were any other way." She gently reaches out and puts a hoof aginst his face, the cool sensation sending shivers down Soarin's spine. "But, you also have to remember I'm just as stuborn, and I don't know the meaning of 'failure' too. But, dear, I-I can't lose you too." She reaches up with the other hoof and ever so gently, pulls him into a hug. "I'm too young to be a widow."



Melting into the hug, Soarin reaches up and returns the embrace, wincing slightly as his injuries stretch. He holds onto her, onto the last thing he truly values in this world, his own tears forming. For all the years they'd been together, through all the Wonderbolts' shows, the monster battles, the rough patches, he had always been able to shrug off anything with a witty one-liner. Today, though, he just can't find the words.



So, Dash has a chance to say exactly what she needs to.



"Soarin, please don't fly today," Dash whispers in his ear, her breath tickling it.



"I won't, Dash," Soarin whispers back, the full weight of his injures crashing down on him now that he's stopped. "I won't..."



((Well, you said 'leave it up to you all to complete the story' so... I did. Hope you enjoy it!))