Happy Holiday · 9:36am Jun 24th, 2016
Chapter 12 is... coming along. I've seen people post snippets of their unpublished chapters, this seems to me like a good time to do so. It's going slowly, and there's a holiday, so let's share some things. The first scene of MLAABQ: *chapter 12 placeholder-name*:
Edit: Oh, I should mention. Cred to Eckaji and Topaz Moon, as always.
It’s in quite a few stories. The hero, or protagonist at least, probably human, but perhaps elven or something like that depending on the setting I guess, has a steed. It’s strong, and intelligent, and loyal, and brave, or at least well-trained. Probably looks magnificent, too. It comes when the hero whistles, and if he, the hero (it’s usually a he, I think) gets separated from the brave steed, and is later wounded in a fight and heroically limps through the wilderness for a while before collapsing from exhaustion and his wounds, his loyal and intelligent steed will show up to carry him off to get medical attention. It’s so smart, it practically understands what the hero’s saying.
My steed was all of those things, and not only did he understand what I was saying, I understood what he said, too.
“What do you think?” Armor asked me.
I gave a contemplative hum. “This might work, with some practice,” I said from my vantage-point on top his head, trying to find a good way to stand on his upper back and lean against his neck. “I’m a bit torn between suggesting some sort of bridle to help me keep my balance, and me simply grabbing your mane.”
The first suggestion seemed off the table, judging by the heat that radiated from Armor’s face. “Uh, I think holding my mane would be fine, if you grab enough of it.”
“Not quite close enough friends for such an equipage, eh?” I said, grinning.
“Well, it’s more that we’d have to be careful with the design,” he said.
“How informative, and somewhat exciting,” I said, and looked down on the floor on the library’s main room. “But really, it’s not that far up. I mostly want to avoid falling down because of appearances, rather than hurting myself.”
“I’ll let you get away with that glib about my stature because it’s you,” Armor said, and held out his left wing. “Try falling down on this side.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You’re holding it outstretched.”
Armor craned his head slightly to look up at me. “I can carry my own weight, another guard, and both of our equipment with these, and it can be a big and burly guard,” he said with a small smirk. “Try it.”
I shrugged and let myself fall into his outstretched wing. It was one of the most softest things I’ve ever touched, and probably the most comfortable thing I’ve ever flung myself into.
“Alright, I’m convinced,” I said, as he lifted me onto his back again, and helped me scamper up his neck again. “Let’s try walking.”
Armor slowly walked in a circle along the shelves. It was a bit shaky at first, but it was becoming more steady as we were figuring out the details of this way of moving, me figuring out how to position myself and place my weight, and Armor figuring out which movements of his moved me which way, all the while steadily speeding up, first at a slow walk, then a faster walk, a trot, canter, and finally full gallop.
As this was happening, it might have been pretty fitting to play Yankee Doodle on a duet of banjos with a steadily increasing beat.
Eventually, Twilight poked her head out of her study. “What are you two doing?” she asked loudly.
She didn’t sound angry, though Armor still came to a screeching halt, and I was lucky that he also raised his head, as I probably would’ve been catapulted off from his back otherwise.
“Oof!” was the sound that came out of me as I was thrown against his neck. “Whoa, warn me next time you’re gonna to that.”
“Oh, sorry,” he said.
“That’s okay,” I said, and turned to Twilight. “We were just practicing novel ways of transportation.”
“Novel?” Twilight said after a pause.
“Well, novel to me,” I said. “Armor’s supposed to help me whenever I need help, but considering the progress I made with my plans for prosthetics last night alone, I figured I should get the most out of having a personal valet while I can.”
“I live to serve,” Armor said with a casual smile.
“And get a paycheck,” I said.
Armor craned his head to look at me with a smile. “Enabling me to live and serve some more.”
“Circle of life, with bureaucracy,” I said and turned to Twilight. “I thought we’d have another try and visit the market today. I wanna see if I can make something out of that gryphon meat-substitute you ordered, and I wanted to know what a cloud feels like. You talked about a spell that you used to walk on clouds once, can you put that on me?”
“Sure,” Twilight said and lit up her horn. “Just be careful not to fall off.”
“I’ve got a flyer to order around if that happens:”
A purple glow surrounded me, then sank into me, leaving a slight tingling sensation in my hooves.
“Don’t you like the wheelchair?” Twilight asked.
“It’s really good. I just don’t like having to use it. Some variation might be nice,” I said.
“Alright, well, have fun,” Twilight said. “And here are some bits.”
Twilight hoofed some bits to Armor, which he put in a saddlebag, we double-checked what was stored in the kitchen, and then heard a knock on the door just as we were heading out.
I magicked the door open, still leaning against Armor’s head. “Stand and deliver!” I said loudly, figuring that it might be Pinkie with another delivery of cupcakes.
As the door opened, I saw that it was not Pinkie, but a grey pegasus mare with a blond mane, and seriously crossed eyes hovering above the ground. That is, she was seriously cross-eyed, not that her eyes looked seriously angry.
“Okay,” she said happily, and touched down on the ground, then shoved her muzzle into a bag and pulled out a letter, holding up to us with a beaming smile.
Armor and I looked at each other, and Armor took the letter in a hoof. “Okay, thanks,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” the mare said and flow off.
Armor held the letter up to me. “Again?” I asked, and magicked a letter-knife lying on the window-sill over.
Armor had to hold the envelope in his mouth while I opened it, since we hadn’t practiced him sitting on his haunches with me on his back yet. After a few moments, I magically held the letter up to my muzzle.
To: The esteemed Madam Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers.
Acting on concerns expressed by distinguished members in Equestrian society, we have finished examinations on an aberrative condition affecting one of the Equestrian government’s official associates. As such, I respectfully express a desire for you to—
Hey, Gabe. Redheart here.
What the good doctor means to say is that we’ve looked at your stool-sample, and have synthesized a treatment to augment your gastric microbiome. I’m certain (in that way where we don’t want to say that we’re officially certain but we kinda are, you know, the way we talk in the biz) that this will guarantee you to be able to digest anything a pony can digest if you couldn’t already, and that you won’t lose the ability to digest anything you can digest right now.
We should have time today, otherwise, come by some time and we’ll fit you into the schedule.
Hope to see you. With hugs.
/Nurse Redheart at the Ponyville General.PS: /And Doctor Stable.
“It appears we have been waylaid,” I said. “We’re going to the hospital first.”
Beautiful.
Looking foward to the buildup of the scenario twilight walks into.
Neat thing about the microbiome: most beneficial bacteria proliferate under the same set of ph conditions, and often produce immune suppressant byproducts from and tailored to the compounds consumed.
Wheelchair needs rocket boosters and portable hamster ball shield bubble gem matrixes.
4045786 Man, you should be writing this story. I can't understand half the things I research for this story, which is why it's written in such vague terms
4045913
4045993 Just message me if you needs me.
Can we get a battle leg with some sort of magic blaster just for fun.
4045993
Naw man, writing vague-like is perfect; it fits actual in-character conversation and such. No doctor or nurse will ever info dump at a drop of a hat, because they all know how often its wasted on the patient.
No doctor or nurse will ever give out information with absolute certainty, because they all know the medical and biology fields are super volitile; you can find a whitepaper supporting any positiom, and the fine details and the broad concepts are sunject to radical change at a moments notice, so your cgaracters being accidentally wrong in hindsight is right in its realism.
4046061
*pew-pew* or *krackle-pow* blasters?
Whoo! Managed to get away without eating a single herring!
4046061 That and more! All horses have cannons, it's just it's gonna mean something else when it comes to Gabe.
4046303 Alright then, good to know.
I'm always worried that people who actually know anything about the fields I'm including in my story are rolling their eyes
4046305 More like *Phuf!* then *Shick!* then *ZZZZZZZZIP*
In other words, grappling-hook
4046381
Grappling hooks are delicious!
Now apply pony literalism and pony cuteness, and you can create a "hugging" "grappling" hook! For all your missing-limbs-for-full-body-hugging and remote-hugging and capturing-adorable-runaway-stallions needs!
4046381
Heck, they're overjoyed you're mentioning their fields!!! With correct terminology!!!!!
Too much herring
4047466 "(I don't care if you're) snuggle-happy or too jive, you're hugging with me."
... Man, that was terrible
4047485 It might be tough when I get to gunsmithing and aerodynamic engineering, though
4047637 Which is why I escaped from all the old people and simply made Thai-food