Another chance

by Ferencelvtars

chapter 4

As I walked home, I was already pondering what to make shovels out of because wood didn't seem like such a good idea, but metal was too expensive. Then it occurred to me that they could be made from the same material as my hooves or horn, which I still use interchangeably as synonyms. However, Flutershy was kind enough to buy me the strongest available, unfortunately, along with the most fuel-consuming engine by far, which the seller swore could produce at least 4-5 hundred average forces. I retrospectively consider this the local equivalent of horsepower, after all, everyone here is a horse, or actually a pony, but that's just as much difference as between a wolf and a dog. What I'm planning is to demonstrate physical flight, or more precisely, an airplane. When I was still human, I was very interested in airplanes from the 1930s and 1940s. In practice, my model resembled a long-winged, single-engine 1939 Fiat CR 42. The engine I acquired could keep the plane in the air for about 140-145 minutes with a full tank, and then it could glide for another 20 minutes or so.

Then it occurred to me that Sweetie Belle was coming today, and I had no idea how to teach her to be autistic. Is this even possible? When it was diagnosed with me, it was a curse. Everyone looked at me as if I were a fool, and whatever ideas I had, they laughed at, whether it was funny or serious. As I grew more solemn, the "positive side" of this seemed to stand out, namely, that I could fool anyone, play any emotion, except genuine affection. Another big advantage is that I can lie without blinking, although I don't do it so often now. Since I've been here, I've only done it twice—okay, maybe three times—maybe even four times. What's also positive is that what interests me, I'm really good at, but I try to deal with the negative side as well, so that the excitement, whether it's mating or just adrenaline, doesn't show too much. When I was human, I could fly with my hands, which was really weird. Now, it's not difficult to hide this with my wings, but is this really a good idea?
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It was almost three-quarters past three when I reached Flutershy's hut. I was very excited; I could finally defeat Diamond Tiara. I came in response to Bender's request. Next to the hut, there was recently built a lean-to, which was quite large because while the average lean-to is about 2x5 meters, this one was 6x14, and the door in front of it could be completely opened. I also saw Flutershy feeding rabbits.

"Hi! Flutershy! Where's Bender!?" Flutershy noticed and waved, but before she could speak, Bender shouted, "Sweetie Belle, come to the workshop!" I turned towards the little shack; the entire wall with a door opening upwards was wide open, but it looked like there was something inside. In front of the window, there was something resembling a sharp "arrowhead," with three regular oar-like paddles attached to it. As I peeked in, I saw Bender, with a welding mask on his face and a strange cylinder in his hand, which had a regular U-shaped glass frame turned upside down on top of it, and on both sides, there were what looked like the wings Snails made before he realized it wouldn't work.

"Bender!" He stopped welding and turned towards me. He took off the mask and switched off the welding horn. "Is this the super-secret thing you're planning for next week?" His eyes widened for a moment, but then he returned to his aristocratic manner. "Exactly! Sweetie Belle, let me show you. This here is the Vercse." Then he summarized what it was in a few sentences (mostly, I understood that it was some sort of flying machine). I think he saw that I was bored, so he sighed, and after a little pause, he spoke again. "But I can see you're bored. Let's get straight to the point. My art in this age will be difficult to master, but not impossible. The first thing you'll get is this." He took out three rings; they weren't designed for this purpose, but they served the purpose well.

"I don't mean to argue, but what do we need these three iron rings for? How does this fit into the training...?" Bender put his hand over my mouth, then placed the rings on my horn, neck, and just above my tail, so basically, my most sensitive areas except for my intimate parts, and secured them tightly. He then conducted a very weak current to all three rings. Naturally, I yelped in response.

"Great, the system works perfectly," declared Bender, as if it were perfectly normal to conduct electricity into a friend. "The first part of the lesson is the poker face; then you'll learn to simulate, and finally, to control. I wanted to speak up, but he continued before I could. "Thanks to Twilight's great camouflage magic, these rings, now that they're in place, can only be seen by you and me. When we're at school, a longer 2-3 second shake signals it's poker time, meaning you can only have a poker face then; another shake indicates you're free, and if you show emotion when you shouldn't, I'll shake you, of course, not so that it hurts, but you'll feel it. While the method may be morbid, it makes sense."

"Isn't there any other way? I don't know if I can bear this; it seems so barbaric." He thought about it for a while, but then shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know how else or what else could be done. I've been learning this since birth, almost by myself, but to jump into it at this age, well, it's very difficult, and this is the fastest method. If you want something else, it'll take years, this is about 3-4 months per section. My eyes widened; is this really the only way? I was ready for anything, but suddenly this seemed like too much. Now that this has been discussed, I would like to focus more on you. I need to know your facial expressions and gestures well for the next chapter. After that, he asked me a lot of questions and wrote down what I should do to maintain the poker face and what to do with other things, the signals from my body; of course, this was a kind of consultation. What was strange was that although I would gladly have talked to him about this, he showed no interest in my romantic affairs, and when I brought it up, he said that love and joy cannot be hidden, so they're irrelevant here.

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Today, as Sweetie Belle recounted the madness Bender had come up with that morning, we initially just laughed, until Bender stepped in and supported the statement. Her blonde mane still stood as if struck by lightning. We went to school together, and suddenly Sweetie Belle twitched a bit. Then Bender called her back.

"Well, what do you want?" I was a bit nervous because I saw that Bender probably shook Sweetie Belle, albeit not painfully. "You know, your method isn't exactly ethical; poor Sweetie Belle is very fragile, and you're not having a good influence on her for sure. But spit it out, what do you want?"

"Would you honor me by presenting it next week..." He suddenly fell silent, then pondered for a moment, and spoke again. "So, would you be interested in trying out my new game, specifically designed for ponies like us?" This caught me off guard; it wasn't like Bender at all. He always spoke to us as if we were nobles. This was casual and childish.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" He smacked his forehead before starting to stroke his accidentally hit horn and bite his lip. After an awkward half-minute, he spoke again. "I have a cool new toy; do you want to try it out?" Again, this wasn't like him. "Did you decide to drop the formalities? You're not speaking so aristocratically now?" I shrugged in response. "If it doesn't matter, I'll try to speak more like the average ponies in the future. Except when I'm burning Diamond Tiara. Then I said, and he winked, making it hard for me not to laugh. Then, to my surprise, he joined in, and although I hardly noticed it, he shook Sweetie Belle again and hurried back to them.
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This was one of the most embarrassing conversations of my life, but it also started a thought process in me. If speaking in an average tone is really odd for me, then I won't force it. Luna seemed very convincing, saying that I shouldn't speak like this always, but it's really hard for me to change that. Not that I care much about a noble's opinion, having been raised according to socialist principles, but she's like a dear granny to me here. Did I phrase that too personally? I don't really care; what I think, I'll say.

However, at school, they immediately started asking what this secret program was that allowed me to leave yesterday. They didn't get anything out of me. I signaled Sweetie Belle's practice again, and she stumbled twice on the way back when I withdrew it. I don't blame her; the first time was a joke that almost made me laugh myself, and the second was a surprise when someone gave her a bouquet of flowers. At first, I thought she was going to eat it, but then I realized it wasn't a real flower, but a fake one. I don't understand why, but maybe it's because sweets exist here. Still, I can see that she tries to keep a poker face even when it's not necessary, but I knew it would take her a long time to master this, in the meantime, not only I her, but she also develops me. I have fewer and fewer red spots on my face and forced good mood when I'm with them. I've never been able to do this before, but now that I'm with them a lot, it's getting better.

"Listen up! I have a great idea for getting our beauty marks." This is new to me too, of course; it's understandable that finding destiny is important, but I think forcing it isn't. I only joined in because thanks to common savings, I have enough money to finish the tail part of my machine with aluminum. Of course, as a gesture of thanks, Scoutalu will do the test flight since everyone likes the fruit they can't eat often, and Scoutalu can fly very rarely, even with help. Anyway, I turned around and watched. What if we were the beauty mark-crossed dragonfly riders? Everyone laughed at this because it's completely hopeless, even riding a dragonfly, let alone flying on it, is absurd. However, then the teacher came in.

"Hello, little ponies!"

"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!" I greeted her, which earned me a few stares, but then they took it as a Bender-style saying and turned away.

"Imagine Ponyville! Princess Cadence and Princess Luna are visiting for the zap apple harvest. Can anyone tell me what this means?" I raised my hand and felt bitterness, hatred, and disgust fill my body.

"I suppose it's appropriate for the princesses to give gifts. " Cheerilee's eyes widened, and only then did I realize why. I said it with such disgust that it almost offended everyone.

"What tone should I take this as, Bender? I thought my heart would stop and my blood would freeze, but then the Snow White came to mind, where the old witch says, 'Her heart will harden, her blood will freeze, and I will be the fairest in the land again!' That made me feel so good that I giggled a bit, and suddenly I had an idea of what to say to get myself out of this situation.

"Ex-cuse me, ma'am, I just... where I come from, the leaders call themselves kings and take everything they can from us. This... this will surely do the trick." The class stared for a while, first in surprise, then sympathetically, and finally in pity.
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The arrival of Luna and Cadence means a lot of work but also great joy, although Luna's letter requested Discord's presence, which isn't easy to arrange. Despite his change, he still can't behave normally. It's also sad that Princess Celestia isn't coming, but someone has to hold the fort in Canterlot. This afternoon is also the traditional Help the Little Ones Day, when 10-15 foals from the nursery come over, and they'll be here soon. So now I don't have the time or energy to look for that chaos creature. Fluttershy told me that Bender is building something super-secret and super-expensive, and he has no idea where he got the money. He claims he won't tell us anything about it because it would provoke a lot of resentment from the pegasi and unicorns alike. Of course, when the princesses visit, there will also be a physics demonstration for the foals, but it's certainly not as big a secret as what he's building, and I'll try to find out from him.

As this thought flashed through my mind, the door suddenly opened, and they flooded in. Bender came in last in line and immediately knew what he was looking for; he grabbed a book on glider planes. Then he picked one up about the new internal combustion ship engines. Then I saw Sweetie Belle trembling, but after this, she behaved a bit strangely; she didn't show much emotion, even the sparkle disappeared from her eyes. This was odd, but it was time to inquire about what Bender was doing.

"Hey, Bender, what's up?" He turned to me, and although it didn't show on his face, you could see on his horn that he was either irritated or nervous. Sparks flew out of it pretty strong, then he spoke. "Well, I'd like to start a little course, but Cheerilee refuses to go along with it." This surprised me; ponies of his age rarely have plans, and they seldom take on any obligations, so I knew he wasn't an ordinary pony, and since this had nothing to do with machines, my path seemed longer.

"What kind of course would that be?" I meant it as a rhetorical question, not expecting an actual answer, but he started explaining what it would be, that it would be some kind of training where ponies could learn to keep a poker face or show false emotions so that in case of trouble, they could look safe and not be afraid. Despite my lack of interest, this course was a terribly great idea. Moreover, they announced that there has been an increase in foal kidnappings in Las Pegasus. The course would have been specifically designed for such cases. This course is brilliant! I'll help if you want. He smiled, touched, and blushed a bit, then took a pen, ink, and paper, and started writing. The ink was red, and he quickly painted the text with it, with which he wanted to advertise:

Then he turned to me and looked at me questioningly. I nodded and grabbed the poster, making about 30 of them in total. Then he disappeared like camphor, taking the posters and books with him. To be continued.