My Life as a Bipedal Quadruped

by Snakeskin Ducttape

Eccentric Tinkering

“Sound and impressions, frozen in time? Available to whoever holds the enchantment?”

“That’s a pretty colorful way to describe a music-player,” I said, somewhat amused. “It’s just a little machine that can play recorded sound.”

The dark shape at the edge of my little pocket dimension chuckled in light amusement. “I know what a music player is. Yes, it can be done.”

“Great,” I said, happily. “A computer doesn’t last forever. It would be nice to know that I don’t have to say goodbye to my, oh, eight thousand songs or so permanently.”

“Indeed. You are progressing impressively, you must be proud.”

“A little,” I said, blushingly, and shifted a bit on the pillow I was on. “I don’t like bragging.”

“There is no such thing in this place,” the voice calmly assured me. “There is only knowledge.”

I let out a short, snorting laugh at myself. “I’ve been here so many times, even though I can’t remember,” I said. “And I’m still not sure what to make of this. Who are you? Are you really just knowledge? A avatar of my mind or something?”

The voice chuckled again. “Irony of ironies. I cannot tell you that.”

“Well, I’m not gonna complain,” I said. “And I don’t think anyone else will either, since I think I’m ready to share my greatest creation with other ponies, so that the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic can spread it to Equestria?”

“You are going to Canterlot, then? The home of the princesses?”

“Yep, a short trip.”

There was a moment of silence before the voice spoke again. “I see. I wish you luck.”

“Thanks, I might need it. I would hate to disappoint anyone about this.” I said, the cozy study around me smudging out. A sign that the dream was ending. I became less aware of my surroundings as consciousness was preparing for its time in the day.

Just before I woke, that moment where I have trouble registering anything, the voice said, “By all the powers, I wish I could be there.”

“But soon… soon, it will finally be time.”

—

What makes a mad scientist? Well, the term consists of only two words, so it should be easy to figure out. The first one is mad. "Mad", as far as I know, is used either in the context of mentally deranged individuals–which is a way I won’t use that word (professional standards and stuff), or in the sense that someone is livid.

A scientist is someone who follows the scientific method. Observe, hypothesize, test and all that. A both wider and narrower term than a lot of people might consider it to be. A lab coat doesn’t make a scientist, the proper way of gathering knowledge does.

So if you’ve met a person who uses a specific methodology to gain knowledge of the world around them, at a particularly bad point in time for them, recently having missed an important meeting or something, you’ve technically met a mad scientist.

But "mad scientist" is not commonly meant to describe that. It’s a character archetype. This means that crazy hairdos, large glasses, manic laughter, and the pulling of levers during stormy nights aren’t part of the mad scientist. That’s the stereotype. The archetype is too primal to contain such details as attire and ways of expressing joy. It’s an eccentric tinkerer who creates marvelous inventions that few, if anyone, can recreate.

“And going by that logic,” I said, giving the parchment in my magical grip a little wave. “I suppose that I am a mad scientist.”

Redheart looked at me while chewing on one of the crackers from the table in front of us, then slowly gazed around the professional-looking room in contemplation. “Huh, I guess so,” she said, tilting her head slightly. “You have the crazy mane-do though.”

“Hey yeah,” I said, touching my mane.

We fell into a brief silence as we considered this, while I slowly munched on another cracker. It was a very nice room that we were in. The meeting rooms that I was used to were often a bit too utilitarian. TV and media back on Earth often portrayed hospitals in extreme ways, either oppressive houses of horror, or as in that one popular show that I never liked, some sort of art deco extravaganza.

“Then again,” I said. “Someone who creates crazy things is a crazy engineer, and not necessarily a crazy scientist.”

“But you came up with the theory behind the enchantment, and Scrap Armor did the bulk of the artificing. He’d be the engineer in this case.”

“True enough. Unless you count the arcano-dispersive shocker crystal in here,” I said, waving my foreleg around.

“How’s it coming along by the way?” Redheart asked, and from her tone I could tell that she asked mostly to be courteous.

I did a little shake-nod-thing. “Not as well as the leg did. It works, but it’s a bit of a drain. I have some ideas on how to work around that, but they’re kind of advanced.”

Redheart looked at me with a mix of encouragement and concern in her eyes. “I realize this might be a strange thing to say in a situation like this, but be careful when you’re tinkering.”

“Don’t worry, I am,” I assured her.

“Uhuh,” she said, a slight smirk at the corner of her mouth. “What other things have you been cooking up inside that little head of yours?”

“The communication device, the grappling hook, the kind of working blaster,” I listed. “That’s pretty much all the goodies I’ve been able to get working. The reactive surface, that thing that so far hasn’t quite replaced sense of touch, isn’t part of the actual leg, it’s part of the covering.”

Redheart looked at me with a highly unimpressed expression for a moment. “But that’s not all you’re planning, I assume,” she said, teasingly.

“‘Course not,” I said, with a sly grin. “But it’s kinda slowing down. Flight? Really hard, and I’m not necessarily looking to implement that into my leg. Eyesight? I’m not even sure I’m looking for the right knowledge.”

I put my hoof to my chin. “Hmm, I realise now that I haven’t put a spotlight in there. That’s kind of an oversight… and perhaps some sort of waterjet. That could be useful.”

Redheart just rolled her eyes. “Is it really a good idea to gather all your toys in one place?”

“These are not toys,” I said, trying to sound comically important. “These are inventions to be distributed for the best of Equestria.”

“Kind of… limited benefits if nopony except you can create them,” she teased, nodding towards the parchment.

“They’ll figure it out eventually. Besides, we’re here to help.”

“You’re here to help. I’m just here to back you up, and because the princesses feel a bit better with having somepony accompany you.”

“You didn’t want to go to this ‘trader’s exchange’?” I asked, while straightening up from where I was seated.

“I’m fine. I don’t particularly want anything, and I can’t think of anything I have that I’m willing to part with and anypony would be interested in getting,” Redheart said with a shrug.

“Same here. And the whole concept sounded weird to me,” I said.

“I just wanna know how Pinkie could throw a party for both of us," Redheart said, while leaning her head on one hoof. “Me coming with was a last minute decision,” Redheart said.

“Probably because it’s Pinkie,” I said, and switched over to sing-song mode. “It’s Pinkie, it’s Pinkie and her brain-brain-brain-brain, brain-brain-brain-brain brain, dududuuh-duh, duh-duh.”

That caught Redheart off-guard. “... What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. and smiled. “Also, on having all my toys in one place, check this out.”

I bent my neck forward and lifted up my voluminous mane, revealing a tiny hair brooch I’d bought at the market, with a small jewel firmly placed in it. The whole thing seemingly pointlessly hidden away from sight.

“Tracking device,” I said, and held it up for Redheart. “Points to where my prostheses are, all the time. If anyone grabs my legs, I’ll find them again.”

“Well I wasn’t necessarily thinking about theft, but good idea anyway,” Redheart said with a sigh of concession.

We fell into silence, and I felt like asking what was taking so long, but I knew hospitals. Things take time, and you shouldn’t admonish your healers for doing things properly.

Eventually though, the door opened, and a light brown stallion and a sky blue mare stepped through, both earth ponies dressed in lab coats. Good thing too, because I was in that particular state of apprehensive where I get the munchies, and the crackers had just ran out. I didn’t want to resort to scooping up the crumbs from the meeting table.

They saw us and glanced at each other, not quite managing to make it seem subtle, before approaching us as we stood up.

“Good afternoon, I’m Proper Care, the High Healer here in Canterlot Central,” the stallion said, then gestured towards the mare beside him. “And this is my colleague, Doctor Pinprick.”

They gave both me and Redheart the same amount of attention to start with, but Redheart ended up being the prominent target of the introduction to start with, as I had to struggle to keep my face straight when the Doctor Prick’s name registered on me.

“Nurse Redheart, Ponyville General,” Redheart said, and did the hoof bumps.

“Uuh, Gabe,” I said, distracted.

“Well, shall we take a seat?” Doctor Pin suggested, after a moment of hesitation.

“Can we get you anything. Coffee perhaps?” Doctor Care asked while we did so.

“No thank you,” Redheart said, her face hinting that perhaps I wasn’t the only one sometimes amused by the names of ponies.

“Uh, I’m good,” I lied, secretly wanting more crackers.

“So uh...” Doctor Care started, hesitantly. “I might have missed something, but we were supposed to meet one Gabrielle, Eleanor... Deshore.”

I snapped out of it when I heard my name almost being mentioned. “Desrochers,” I corrected. “But just ‘Gabe’ is fine.”

“Oh, I see, that’s—wait, that’s you?”

“Uh, yes. Don’t worry about the name, it’s not an interesting story,” I said.

The doctors gave me a little look, before Care reached into his lab coat and pulled out a letter. He quickly scanned through it before focusing on one part for a few moments, then turned to me with an incredulous look. “You’re the foreign ambassador, gentlemare scientist, and master enchanter who invented a new medical enchantment that a team from the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic have been trying and failing to recreate for weeks?”

I shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what they told you, but I was under the impression that ‘they’ only had problems with a few key parts of the enchantment. I also don’t know what makes me a master enchanter. I just tinker, and sometimes things work the way I intended.”

“So it’s… it’s true?” Pinprick asked, leaning in to give me a closer inspection. “But, wait… How do you know? How can you have tested it?”

“Uuuh, tested what?” I asked, leaning back a bit against Redheart.

“The prostheses. I saw them at the CRI, and they were…” the petered off as she took a look at my right hooves. “... Foal sized.”

I saw the almost reverent look in her eyes, and couldn’t help but smile as I lifted up my right foreleg, magically turned the off switch hidden under the blue cover, and floated it over to her.

Her eyes went wide as I did, and she shot a hesitant look at me before gently taking the leg in her own. “It’s really true,” she said.

Care hesitated for a moment before leaning over and looking closer at my leg, and it was getting a bit awkward. I was almost feeling a little guilty for not focusing all my efforts in making this available for everyone as soon as possible.

‘Then again, I haven’t met the patients yet, so maybe I should reserve judgement.’

Care shot me an almost covertly fascinated look as I rolled my empty shoulder. I removed the legs every now and then, and had them off when I went to sleep, so by now I was equally used to having prostheses off as I was having them on.

Pinprick eventually hoofed my leg back to me, and it must’ve come across as extra impressive when I simply I floated it through the air and simply slapped it on.

“Can you… demonstrate?” Care asked, as he angled his head to study my leg from different angles. “If it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Sure,” I said, and casually started waving my prostheses around, in all directions, at different speeds, alternating between one at a time and both at once.

“There’s no sense of touch except for what I have in my hoof fields, but I have a rough workaround for that which I’m still getting used to. Other than that, no real training required. They do what I want them to do.”

“How?” Pinprick asked, sound like she was talking to herself than anyone else.

“Well,” I hesitatingly said, getting flashbacks to having old patients asking how an MRI works while I was calibrating the machine, and looking up from the computer screen to see eyes so glazed over you’d think they tried eating donuts with their peepers. “You know,” I said, waving my foreleg in slightly frustrated emphasis. “Enchantments to respond to the magical signature of a specific arcanomorphic form, shielded by a mesh of different thaumadisruptive matrices interlocked in the chassis to…”

I could see the struggle in the faces of the ponies in front of me to keep up with my words. “Yeah…” I said. “Documentation was never my strong suit, and I’ve never written technical specifications before.” I held up the parchment from CRI. “They didn’t say it outright, but I think, that they think, that my instructions for these things were, uh… lacking.”

“But you... you’re a foal,” Pinprick said, incredulously.

‘Oh, right.’

I may have been going to school several days a week, but Cheerilee, Twilight, and Twilight’s friends mostly treated me like you’d treat an adult, though there were also elements of them looking out for me and such. I was technically still disabled and, not to mention, new to the world. I also thought that was very similar to the special treatments I was used to from being disabled. I made some people uncomfortable and, while they might not admit it to themselves, they wanted nothing to do with me. More common though, was the type of people who helped me with everything. Spike offering to help clean up if I spill something or Cheerilee being totally fine with me dozing off was very similar to my everyday back on Earth.

Also, as an aside, schooldays were not as rigid or frequent as the first time I had received an education, probably because the first time was largely about keeping children under surveillance while their parents were off being productive members of society. Ponyville didn’t seem to need that, because while it might not be obvious to them all the time, children were always under the watchful eyes of adults when out and about, and, a lot of the time, (most notably in the case of Apple Bloom) they were helping out the grownups with their business anyway.

“True,” I said with an even nod, and there was an awkward pause as I searched for something to say without coming across as snappy or condescendingly sarcastic. “Also, whatever,” I concluded with a shrug and an uncertain smile.

“Uh, sorry, it’s just that…” Pinprick trailed off.

“The letter didn’t mention that a foal was the inventor,” Care finished for her.

“Alright, fair enough,” I said. “If it helps, I didn’t know I’d be inventing magical prostheses until pretty recently either. So it’s kind of unexpected for me too.”

“You, uh, didn’t remove your original ones willingly, did you?” Pinprick asked.

“Oh, eheh, no,” I said, getting a hint of why ponies had had difficulty recreating the enchantments of olden, if not ancient, days. “How do you know I wasn’t born without them?”

“Because that’s almost vanishingly rare,” Pinprick said, making me make a mental note of that, habits from my old profession still lounging around. “But mostly because I noticed the scar,” she said, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit impressed by that. I certainly couldn’t see it unless I parted my coat.

She cleared her throat. “Perhaps I should clarify. I am Canterlot Central’s senior prosthetist. It’s a pretty narrow niche, but if you’re an ambassador… you’re not native to this country, I assume?”

“Nnno,” I answered, not sure what that had to do with anything.

She nodded. “Mmm, I’d like to think I would’ve heard about you, and your work, if that was the case.”

‘Oh.’

“Oh. Well, if you’re thinking that this is some sort of exotic piece of knowledge that I brought with me, it’s kind of not. Equestria is kind of ahead when it comes to magical things,” I said. “Anyway, I get the feeling that I’m gonna have a little lecture on how these things work when I talk to the patients, so in order not to repeat myself too much, can we wait till then?”

—

“As I’m sure you already know,” Proper said, as we made our way down the halls. “There are three patients. You’re familiar with one of them, right, Pinprick?”

“That’s right. Sunlit Fields is the name of one mare. Her current prosthesis are my work,” Pinprick said.

That brought to attention something I hadn’t considered before, and I looked around the fairly familiar seeming environments as I considered that something.

The hospital looked about what you’d expect a hospital to look like. Cluttered desks, x-ray lighting boards (... or something. That might have been a magical arrangement rather than technological x-raying), and the vague smell of hydrogen peroxide. The difference of course was that everything was staffed by friendly ponies. If hospitals on Earth were staffed by people like Nurse Redheart, children might try and hurt themselves just for a chance to be cared for here, and not just for the chance to be treated by ponies.

Perhaps this was what made me comfortable enough to just speak my mind.

“I’m gonna be blunt here, perhaps because I want a blunt answer,” I said. “But I wanna know if I’m stepping on anyone’s… no, wait, that makes no sense around here… I’m not upsetting the apple cart by coming here with my fancy new prostheses, am I? A lot of doctors where I come from can, understandably, be a bit set in their ways.”

Proper Care and Pinprick looked at me, then at each other, then back at me with a laugh between them.

“Don’t worry about that, madam,” Care said, dismissing my concerns with a wave of his hoof. “I’m the High Healer, it’s my job to keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“I’m not the High Healer, but I’m of that opinion as well, also, my role as the prosthetist isn’t enough to keep me occupied, you’re not putting me out of a job. I just want what’s best for my patients.” Pinprick said, and leaned her head down while we were walking to give my cheek a quick nuzzle. “But, thank you for taking my job into consideration.”

“Good,” I said with a smile, the answers sounding genuine from how readily they came.

“Also, who knows,” Pinprick said, as we stepped up to a door, “very little might change for me. I might just need to have the Canterlot Royal Institute involved somewhere in the production.”

“Hm, yeah. We’ll see how they arrange this for common use,” I said, as Care opened the door and invitingly held it open for us.

We filed in, and inside the room were two other ponies. One was a earth pony colt with a light green coat and curly blue mane, sitting in a wheelchair, his legs ending just above the knees.

The other was a stallion, also an earth pony, with a dark blue coat, spiky silvery mane, and a rough patch of hair on his chin that frankly made him look pretty dashing. He was sitting in a low armchair, with all of his limbs still present. What stood out however, were the heavy-duty, though kind of elegantly arranged, braces that snaked around every part of him below his neck. A system of pulleys were attached above his withers, being connected to his lower forelegs and hooves, while his hind legs were folded up and held in place by even more robust braces, and a set of wheels on each rear hoof held them a little bit above the ground.

They had apparently been involved in a conversation when we came in, but they politely gave us their attention.

“Getting exciting now, eh?” the stallion said to the colt, as he lifted up one of his forelegs and slapped it against something on his rear braces, and there was a set of clickings as he pulled himself up to a standing position with his forelegs. The whole operation looked both jerky and graceful, like someone had taught a manufacturing arm to use a rapier.

He shuffled towards us with the same rough but practiced manner, clearly only being able to move his upper forelegs, while his front hooves were jerkily moved by the pulleys on his withers. His hind legs were completely immobile and held in place, rolling along on the small wheels on the hooves.

“Pleased to meet ya. I’m Rough Rider, and this is Blueberry,” he said, nodding towards the colt in the wheelchair, who gave us a friendly wave. “If anypony wants a hoof bump, I’m gonna need some help,” he continued, lifted one of his forelegs a few inches, then chuckled.

“Uh, that’s okay,” I said. “I’m Gabrielle Desrochers, but you can call me ‘Gabe’. And this is my companion, Nurse Redheart.” I walked up and gave the colt, Blueberry, a hoof bump, though I had to rear up to do so, which stunned him when he saw my metallic hoof.

“Charmed,” Redheart said to Rider, in a tone I hadn’t heard her use before, but couldn’t quite place, then shook her head slightly as she walked up and hoof-bumped Blueberry as well.

“Looks like you two are already friends,” Pinprick noted with a smile.

“Ey, colt’s all the way from Manehatten,” Rider said with a shrug, a strictly facial one. “Gotta have somepony welcome him to Canterlot.”

“You said you were from Baltimare though,” Pinprick asked.

“Yeah, but that don’t stop me,” he said, and shot her a smile.

“Where’s our third patient?” Care asked.

“Yes,” Pinprick said. “Where’s Sunlit?”

“There’s just been the two of us here,” Blueberry offered.

“Somepony said my name?” A feminine voice sounded from the hallway, where a pony with a wheat-colored coat and a lustrous mane stood.

The apparent Sunlit walked into the room, and I felt I was getting the hang on what made for good looks on a pony (which wasn’t made easier by the fact that the majority of all ponies in Ponyville, and presumably all of Equestria, apparently looked good, and Twilight & company, their families, Redheart, and Cheerilee were all apparently exemplars in that department). Just like how Rider had a clearly handsome streak, Sunlit had a pretty one as well, probably reinforced by the striped thigh-high socks over her legs.

The appearance-and-prettiness-oriented part of me had never been as strong as it was for some people, and it might have been a bit more dormant as I almost manically invented enchantments, but it was still there, and seeing Sunlit’s socks made me make a mental note to ask Redheart about that type of fashion. After all, I was still a woman... filly... Whatever.

I was actually kind of taken with Sunlit’s choice of clothes, and I almost missed the scar she had across her middle back, and the lone wing on the other.

“Sunlit,” Pinprick said, happily, and playfully admonished her. “You’re late.”

“Hah! And who made the hooves that I was late with?” Sunlit asked with a smirk, as she walked up to Pinprick and hugged her.

That made me look extra carefully at the lower parts of the socks, and Sunlit’s gait, and when I knew what to look for, I could see it. Sunlit did indeed have hooves… that someone made for her.

“How have you been?” Pinprick asked, as they broke away from their hugging.

Sunlit shrugged. “Well, you know. Same old, can’t complain.”

“It’s gonna come up pretty soon, so I’ll ask now,” Pinprick said, and sat down to take one of Sunlit’s forelegs in her own. “How have you been on this front?”

“I think it’s plateauing, kinda sadly,” she said. “They hardly ever hurt anymore, but learning to use only my hooves, and no hoof fields, is… well, kinda the same as the last time we met. And I’m pretty good at telling how far I can fly, but I can’t fly nearly as fast or far as before.”

Pinprick gave her a smile, new hope overshadowing past melancholy. “Remember when I told you that, even though you’ll be able to live a normal life, you’re gonna be limited in what you can do?”

“You didn’t say it outright in your letter, but I guess something’s come up?” Sunlit asked, with another small smirk.

Pinprick nodded. “Sure has,” she said, and stepped aside to present me with a foreleg.

“Madam Desrochers,” she said. “I think we are all eagerly awaiting an in-depth demonstration.”

I looked around at the new ponies. Blueberry seemed to be the only one who had noticed my prosthesis until now. Rough Rider and Sunlit Fields looked at me curiously, Sunlit letting out a small gasp, though not the horrified kind, when looking closely at my right foreleg.

—

“So uh, madam,” Proper Care started.

“Just ‘Gabe’ is fine,” I said.

“Uh, Gabe, does this mean that this is simply movement-enhancing enchantments inside a prosthesis?”

“Yes and no,” I said, waving the arm flippantly over the table we were all clustered around. “Actually, mostly no. They’re partially derived from that, but there have been so many changes that they’re probably their own thing by now. Simply put, I very strongly tied the enchantments to my arcanomorphic field, which is that thing that I talked about earlier, having it respond only to that, with some other arrangements to fix problems that came from that.”

I leaned over the table, presenting my right shoulder, and peeled at the blue covering that blended with my coat. “Alright, notice how it doesn’t seem attached to me in any way?”

Everyone nodded, and I leaned over to Blueberry. “Try pulling it,” I said.

Blueberry leaned over and gently took my metallic leg in his own forelegs, then looked at me skeptically.

“Yeah, you’re not going to be able to pull it off, and you won’t hurt me,” I said.

“Alright,” he said, carefully, and gave it a bit of a tug.

Nothing happened of course.

“Yeah, so it’s not attached to my physical form,” I said, as Blueberry gave another tug at my invitation. “Or you’d see my skin being pulled. It’s only attached to my magical shape. And by the way, that piece of cloth underneath is there to hold up the covering, because metal can get pretty cold against the skin, and because it’s part of a surrogate sense of touch that kinda works so far.”

I planned on letting this sink in, but there was always someone with a question the moment I stopped talking.

“So is it permanent?” Ryder asked curiously.

“Permanently attached?" I asked, and he nodded.

“Nope,” I said, lit up my horn, and deactivated it by turning the sort of secret switch in the actually secret way beneath the covering.

My leg went limp, partially being held by the weak attachment spell on the piece of cloth between it and the rest of me. I simply pulled it off. Those attachment spells were a bit like velcro, but without the sound, or wear and tear.

I held it up, completely inert. “Deactivated, simple as that,” I said. “It looks almost alive sometimes, and it responds to the smallest tick, but it’s not perfect. It’s actually quite a drain on your magic. You get used to it, but I don’t think I’ll personally be able to use this as long as I would a normal leg. Then again, I know from experience that walking around on non-magical prostheses can be taxing too.” I held out my leg to pass around the table when something occurred to me. “At least I think so. Can I see what one looks like here in Equestria?”

“Well, luckily we have a few right here,” Sunlit said, who was seated on my right. She stopped the act of moving her sock-covered legs forward, and instead took one of the socks on her forelegs in her mouth and pulled it off.

It was pretty similar to what I was used to, although she too had an arrangement of braces with pulleys going through them, on her upper legs as opposed to on the withers.

A hard plastic form made up the rig of the limb. Pony-shaped except for some depressions accommodating the pulley system. The bottom plates of the whole thing looked detachable, much like horseshoes.

“Looks familiar enough,” I said, our easygoingness born from a strange sense of familiarity.

Not that disabled people know each other by virtue of being disabled, as one might be forgiven for thinking sometimes. I kept hearing about all the communities in our society, or at least I did back on Earth. The community of this and that minority. Ethnicities, disabled people, who liked to cuddle who. Terms like "the medical community" made sense. As big as it was, professionally we moved in certain circles, and we agreed on many things, mostly on how to make sick people better. Hobbyist communities also made sense, but I sometimes wondered if I was part of the "disabled community". I heard about them sometimes, but I never paid membership, I didn’t know of any clubhouses, and although the subject matter could spawn a lot of debate, I wasn’t the one who liked spending time being part of it.

It did turn out to be a pretty good icebreaker though. I don’t know if this was common, but me, Sunlit Fields, Rough Rider, and probably Blueberry as well, pretty soon got into an easy talk on the unspoken understanding that we were here to talk about disabilities, the tools we tried using as replacements, and oh how very refreshing it was to just get on with it and not have to carefully orbit each other like shy teenagers wondering when it was okay to try and kiss for the first time before we got to the matter at hand.

“And no offence to Pinprick,” Sunlit said. “But I’m kind of eager to learn more about what yours can do.”

“None taken,” Pinprick said.

“Well, you’ll be happy to learn that I can use my hoof field with that one,” I said, as I floated my prosthesis into hers.

Her eyes lit up for a fraction of a second, then turned to me with a polite sense of eagerness. “Oh, please tell me you’re not joking.”

“Nope. I’ll show you when you’re all done with that,” I said, nodding towards my prosthesis floating in front of her.

She took it in both her plastic hooves, again with the same combination of graceful skill with a clumsy tool.

“So,” Rough Rider started, looking up from my leg, which Sunlit was holding out for him. “What about me? I have all my legs, they just don’t do much.”

“Well,” I started, looking around at the three disabled ponies. “Here’s the thing: I’ve only ever made these things for myself, it’s all really new and I’ve never tried making any for others yet. I can’t promise anyone of you anything, but I think I can make some. I have some ideas for you though, Rider. I hope you don’t mind people noticing all those braces.”

“Oh,” he said, looking pleased. “Well, it gets a bit tiring every now and then, but being able to move normally again would be totally worth it.”

“You don’t seem to struggle much though,” Sunlit said, and shot him a small smile.

He smiled back at her. “Hey, right back at you.”

“So,” I said, struggling to not lose myself in thought as the ideas went through my head. “No one has to share if they don’t want to, but I’d like to know the backstory of your predicaments, if that’s okay,” I said, letting my gaze rest on Blueberry.

Blueberry also seemed to have been lost in thought for a while there.

“Oh, uh, well, uh… I just… I was in traffic accident downtown, but I can’t remember much. I hit my head,” he said, apologetically.

“Sounds familiar,” I said, keeping it casual, hoping to put him at ease, then nodded towards Sunlit.

She let out a sigh, not seeming very sure where to start.

“Phuu. Well, I had a really bad landing once. Me, a cliff, and crate full of glassware,” she said.

‘Wow. That could have gone way worse.’ “Right. Now, Rider,” I said, nodding towards the last relevant pony. “I hope you’re okay with sharing some details, since I haven’t had a case like yours before, but we can take it in private if you want.”

Rider shook his head. “No no. It’s okay,” he said, and started his story. “So, I like lots of things in life, and among them are research, of the paper kind that is, and outdoor stuff. Trekking, camping, exploring, mountain climbing, things like that. It’s a good combination, works out the brain and the body.

“So anyway, at the university, I had to shelve my outdoor hobbies quite a bit, but I was okay with that. I figured that once I finished my education, and got a good, steady job, I’d pick it up again.

“Then I started noticing that I was slowly getting more and more tired for every month that passed. For the longest time I thought that made sense, figuring that I must be getting out of shape.”

“It still does, when I look back.” He paused his story, shaking his head ruefully. “After… years, really, I was about to take my friends’ advice and go see another doctor, when I got really sick one day. I had been out with my friends, forcing myself to have some fun, when I collapsed.

“They took me to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome. That’s a condition you can get from profound magical exhaustion.”

I nodded. “I know of it, but I didn’t know it could leave you paralyzed,” I said, glancing at Redheart.

Redheart looked at me with a gaze that told me she was just as curious as me about where this was going.

“Yeah,” Rider said. “Well that was only part of the problem. Turns out, my magic had been keeping a neurodegenerative disease in check for years, and when my magical strength was gone, I was hit with the effect of years of it in the span of a few weeks.”

Rider sighed, his face and the movements with his head so very expressive. They had to be, jazz hooves weren’t available to him anymore.

“They cured me. I got away with my life, but this damage was done,” he said, lifting up his foreleg and shifting his body to give a little wave with the pulleys. “And so, if I squeeze myself into this getup every morning, I can walk around, slowly, on even ground.”

He smiled wryly. “No more camping trips for me.”

Sunlit smiled at him again. “It’s not that bad,” she said, before gesturing towards his bracers. “It looks good on you.”

Rider’s wry smile slowly morphed into a more genuine one as he looked at her. “And you don’t need no socks.”

“Whether or not anyone here can go on camping trips is now for me to decide,” I said, calmly yet forcefully, determined to help these people and perhaps feeling a bit cocky about it.

That either sounded stupid or inspiring, considering the quiet look everyone was giving me.

Except for Blueberry, as my leg had passed around the table, and he was the last to inspect it.

“Hey, what’s this thing?” he asked, as he pulled the triple claw at the end of a long wire out of the opening in the hoof.

“Never mind about that,” I said dismissively but kindly, gently but firmly magicked the leg out of his hooves and back onto me, and reeled the new and improved grappling hook back in. “Let’s go somewhere that feels more treatment oriented than a meeting room, and I’ll have a look at you all and see what I can do.”

—

I was pretty deep in thought as we made our way down the corridors in the first basement level. So deep in thought that I barely registered that I should feel uncomfortable in the elevator.

I could only speak for one part of my homeworld, but behind the scenes hospitals are generally pretty drab, and by "drab" I mean that they look more like old bunkers than hospitals. Little more than concrete and air ducts, and cold too, with cold white glows from striplight– the kind that starts flickering after a decade, and then takes years to really die.

It makes sense though. They’re often built superfluously large in case the hospital needs to be expanded without altering the foundation, and it would be a huge waste to spend time and resources heating it properly or prettying it up.

It could actually be pretty spooky, at least for people who weren’t used to it. When you’ve been in the most utilitarian parts of a hospital, you understand why so many horror stories take place in houses of care and healing.

Canterlot Central had corridors like that, but only kind of. It wasn’t nearly as uninviting as I was used to. Ponies just made things cozy and warm. It almost seemed to be in their nature.

I almost didn’t consciously register the sense of happiness in our little group as we walked, but I wasn’t sure where it came from.

“So you learned to fly with one wing?” Rider asked. “That’s really impressive.”

“Thank you,” Sunlit answered. “If this works out, I imagine you’re eager to see the great outdoors again…”

‘Yeah. I think I just need to figure out how to make the enchanted material resonate with his arcanomorphic field in close proximity, and we’re all set on that front.’

“... If you’d like some company, I can show you then.”

“I’d like that,” Rider said.

‘Oh yeah, and a wing... how to make proper wings? I don’t even know how they angle their feathers… and what do you make the feathers out of? Real feathers are always being replaced by new ones. Would they need to be easily attached and detached? Perhaps a collection of wear and tear resistant enchantments? I have a bunch of those on my current legs that might work...'

The conversations continued as we walked into a mix between a patient’s room and a workshop. Machines, workbenches, an examination bed, a desk, and lots of measuring equipment were in this much warmer room.

Blueberry, who had been wheeled by Pinprick, hoisted himself up to the bed, and I described what I was going to do. I projected myself into my horn, and told him to try and move his now non-existent legs.

His arcanomorphic field worked just like mine, as did Sunlit’s, and then it was Rider’s turn.

“Alright, I want you to try and move your legs,” I said. “Try a hind leg, it’s completely paralyzed, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, his braces folded so that he was sitting on his haunches in front of me.

“Great,” I said, before I caught myself, and coughed into my hoof. “I mean, that’s great for controlling. No contaminated readings.”

Rider just laughed. “Alright, I get ya.”

The swirling shapes of his arcanomorphic form shifted and pulsed with his attempts. They were dimmer, compared to mine and the other limbless examples, still attached to his flesh.

“Huh,” I said. “Interesting. There’s not as much activity as it is for the rest of us.”

Rider’s ears slowly dropped towards half mast.

“Is that bad?” Sunlit asked behind me, making no attempt to hide her concern.

“Not sure,” I said, somewhat absentmindedly. “But I don’t think so. Could be because it’s a weak resonance, or maybe there’s just as much activity, but just appears muted to me inside the body, or something else. I think I can work with it, though.”

This was the first attempt to make crystals interact with someone other than myself, so I was still a bit nervous. I would feel awful if I had gotten these ponies’ hopes up, and then couldn’t deliver.

“Uuh, Redheart,” I said, waving a hoof in the air while my gaze was still fixed on his leg.

She was instantly there with my bag.

“Oh, thank you,” I said, rummaging through it until I found one of my favorite materials: A lump of lapis lazuli.

One thing that struck me, and which I made a mental note of, was that different materials might work better for different ponies, but this would do for now.

I undid one of the straps of Riders lower hind leg, scarcely aware of the ponies behind me watching my every move with great interest, and redid the strap, pressing the lump between Rider’s leg, and the bracer. His legs were the same size of a normal pony, rather than the thin, atrophied kind you sometimes see on paralyzed people. He obviously took great care to stay healthy, despite his desk job.

“Alright, I’m gonna try a few enchantments,” I said, taking a deep breath. “This is the first time I’m doing something like this, so I’m not totally sure how I need to modify the enchantments I know. So, you know, bear with me.”

Rider seemed to have regained his enthusiasm. “Go ahead, doc.”

“Oh, I’m not a doctor,” I said. “I just went to medical school.”

I started working my magic. I made an enchantment that would be woefully inadequate to be a prosthesis, both because of lack of power, and precision, but it would do for a first step, and tried tying it to his arcanomorphic form in the distance. A very short distance, as it was strapped to him, but a distance nonetheless.

“Alright, try moving your leg again.”

He did so, but no dice. “Nothing,” he said.

By now, everyone had closed in and gathered closely around us, and I saw everyone’s ears droop.

“I got more tricks,” I said, a smidgen of annoyance hidden in there somewhere. I was getting passionate about this, I think. “Just gotta find the key to get this working.”

And I did use more tricks, but when ten minutes had passed, I was getting impatient... and bored. Trial and error is rarely fun, and I thought that the key was getting the enchantment to respond to something next to it, rather than something in it.

I worked my way back through Scrap’s plans, branching out from the enchanted sabatons that improved the Equestrian soldiers’ movements, when it suddenly happened.

My enchantments were starting to get a bit sloppy. There wouldn’t be much regulation or accuracy when they activated.

And then one of them worked.

Rider’s leg shot out from under him. He kicked hard backwards, and the lump of lapiz lazuli tore itself out of the bracer, bounced a few times across the walls, and broke the glass in Pinprick’s door.

Everyone had taken a step back, or thrown themselves out of the way, in surprise.

I straightened up, slowly lowered my metallic hoof protecting my face, and found Rider splayed on the floor, looking back at his unmoving leg in shock, his expression slowly morphing into glee.

Blueberry, having tipped over in his wheelchair, raised himself to a sitting position to look at Rider. Doctors Pinprick and Care picked themselves off the floor, as did Sunlit, although with a bit more difficulty and clacking sounds.

Redheart helped Blueberry up into his chair, then walked up to me.

“Well done,” she said with a smile. “I assume you can make it a little safer next time?”

“So it worked?” Rider asked, before letting out a small groan.

“Uh, yes,” I said. “Or, at least now I’m sure I can make it work.”

Rider looked at me in silence for a moment. “Yes!” he shouted, doing a little flap with his forelegs, then groaned again and put his head on the ground with a small laugh. “I’ve never been so happy from having a muscle pulled.”

Redheart walked up to him, but backed off with a small smile, when Sunlit, also smiling, walked up instead, crouched down, and squeezed herself under Rider’s foreleg, gently lifting him up and steadying him.

“Oh, I could just kiss somepony,” Rider mumbled happily.

“I’m sure we can find somepony willing,” Sunlit said in a small voice.

—

I was pretty giddy when I first figured out how to make my new legs, so I could understand the patients not getting bored out of their skulls, but Pinprick and Proper Care also stuck around, politely asking questions about what I was doing.

Of course they were curious. A new form of care for the wounded of Equestria, dreamed up by some youngin’, was shown right in front of them. It was actually a pretty exclusive show.

Redheart, as always, was the soul of patience. She reminded me of Armor like that, and I felt a little tug somewhere inside me. I missed him, despite just being one, admittedly long, but still just one train ride away.

My stomach rumbled, but I ignored it. “Alright,” I said. “I think I know everything I need to for the moment. Except how to make a wing, Sunlit. I’m not sure I need to make something very similar to a wing, or if just something similar enough to let you channel pegasus magic through it.”

“I’m not sure either,” she said, happy tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sure you and Pinprick can figure something out.”

“Probably,” I said. “You’re gonna be the one making the actual limbs, and Rider’s braces, I’m just gonna enchant them.”

“Ah, yes, of course,” she said.

“Very impressive, madam,” Proper Care said. “I must admit I was skeptical when I first saw you, but my fears are clearly unfounded.”

His words made me pause, or perhaps my reaction to them did. At first he sounded sycophantic, but he just gave me a compliment. A very kind one too.

I clearly needed something to eat. My face relaxed from the concentrated semi-scowl it had had for a few hours now. “Like I said, just ‘Gabe’ is fine. And thank you,” I said, as my stomach growled again. “I think that perhaps we should take a break—” I looked at Pinprick “— I think me and Pinprick can keep ourselves occupied for a while with this.”

“Yes,” she said. “Sunlit, I already have your measurement, and now I have Blueberry’s casts. Rider, if I understand what Madam Desrochers is planning, I think I’m fine with all the measurements I have from you.”

I didn’t bother with the "madam"-part. “Yup,” I said, as I double checked my notes. “Yours is gonna be the toughest to actually make, but probably the easiest to adjust after the fact.”

Which was a good thing, I reasoned. Not that he looked pudgy at the moment, but he might put on some more muscle, him being able to be his own physical therapist after this.

We walked out of the workshop and back towards the elevator.

I was engrossed in my notes, magically holding them in front of me, and scribbling some more every now and then. I mostly wanted to make Rider’s rig problem free. His arcanomorphic field wasn’t weaker, just not as clear, and I didn’t want to fuzz up and make parts of his upcoming braces respond to movement from the wrong body parts.

Again, I missed the compulsory sense of awkwardness you’re supposed to feel in an elevator, and missed that I had been walking the last few steps alone.

“Gabe,” Redheart said.

“What?” I asked, looking up from my notes, my face dropping the look of concentration, and seeing that everyone was standing behind me, looking at me.

“I think some ponies would like to say something,” she said.

I looked around, off guard and confused. “Uh, okay. Who?”

Sunlit and Rider walked up to me.

“I...” Sunlit started. “No. There are no words,” she said, putting her sock-adorned leg around me, holding me against her, and resting her chin on my neck.

‘Oh yeah. That’s right. I’m helping people.’

Rider had to make do with simply resting his head on me next to Sunlit. “Thank you,” he said, in a small voice.

“Uh. I’m uh… happy to help,” I said. “Now I just gotta actually make something that works.”

“You will,” Redheart said.

“I guess so,” I said, as Rider and Sunlit pulled away. “I guess tomorrow’s gonna be an exciting day.” I looked towards Blueberry. “I’ll see you all tomorrow, then?”

Blueberry looked at me with what I had to admit was probably some sort of admiration as he wheeled himself out of the door (I realized then that the others had stopped because I had walked past the door to the entrance).

He wheeled himself up to a mare waiting on a bench, his mother, I assumed, and started talking animatedly with her.

Sunlit and Rider walked together, at Rider’s slow pace.

“So, uh, where are you staying?” Sunlit asked.

“Cozy little bed & breakfast down the road. I prefer ground floor living arrangements, you know?”

“I might be in the mood for a cozy place to stay. Think there are any vacancies?”

“Love is in the air,” Redheart noted, with a knowing smile.

“What?” I asked, confused.

She looked at me with an incredulous look. “Did you really miss all that?”

“Missed what?”

“Rider can’t move his hooves, and Sunlit doesn’t really have any. Good thing too, because I don’t think they’d be able to keep them off each other if they did.”

“Oh... Oh yeah, now that you mention it,” I said, with a smile. I liked pony snuggles. I’d seen the beginning of a few sessions by now, and they tended to start with nuzzles, which was as adorable as… some sort of expletive.

“Gabe, your obliviousness is absolutely adorable. No wonder the colts are always looking at you,” Redheart said.

‘What…?’ “... What?” ‘... What!?’ “What…!? Who?”

“I’m not saying,” she said, teasingly.

I squirmed a bit nervously, not sure what to make of this, and retreated to my safe space. “So, about those prostheses,” I said to Proper Care, and especially Pinprick. “You know what they need, and I can start working on the enchantment part tonight. And tomorrow, we might finish them.”

“That sounds excellent,” Proper Care said. “I have some paperwork that needs done. I might not be able to see your work tomorrow, madam, but I have to say that I’m very impressed so far. Pinprick, I’d like to be kept in the loop about these developments.”

“Of course,” she said.

“Now, I haven’t heard about living arrangements for the two of you. I also imagine you must be hungry by now,” Proper Care said.

My stomach took it upon itself to confirm this.

“Well, I’ve got some spare room over uh… yonder,” I said, pointing in what I was pretty sure was the general direction of the castle. “But I’m fine with a call room if you have one to spare.”

Pinprick and Care looked at each other. “Uh, wouldn’t madam want… lodgings more appropriate for her standing.”

“Oh, that’s right, I’m important on paper,” I said to myself, making the doctor’s look at each other again. “Sure, whatever… do you know of any gryphon restaurants in town though?”

—

Just like Doctor Care and Pinprick had given me strange looks, so did the gryphons when I ordered my food. I had experimented enough with stuff Twilight ordered for me (and that stuff lasted for ages. It was awesome) to know what types of replacements emulated which types of meat.

Redheart ordered pony food, although she was curious enough to try some of my schnitzel-ish meal. She preferred the breaded part though.

I was practically scarfing down my food. These bird-kitties knew what they were doing.

“Hungry?” Redheart asked, with a smirk.

“A little bit,” I admitted. “I’ve been doing magic for hours now so I need some food and to lie down for a bit. As great as Equestria is, there was a lot more entertainment available back on Earth for someone who’s tired but not sleepy.”

“Like what?” Redheart asked around her oil-covered salad. “Radio programs?”

“Among other things,” I said. I didn’t go into how radio shows weren’t something you sat down to be entertained by as much anymore, which was, in any case, a strange thing to say in the age of podcasting. “Visual entertainment as well, the technology’s different, but the end experience is what you’d imagine. You have devices that pick up sight as well as sounds. Good way to relax after a long day of work.”

“Why not just rest for a bit?” Redheart asked, curiously. “Or spend some time with friends?”

I noted how I didn’t feel any pang in my chest from remembering the years of, frankly, not really having any friends. I had them now, and that was all that mattered.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure,” I said, pausing to give this some thought, before shrugging with a small laugh. “Well, obviously I’m not entirely sure. Only pundits are entirely sure about these things, and the more sure they are, the more wrong they seem to me.”

Redheart snorted in amusement. “Some speculation then.”

“Maybe it has to do with the city life I’m used to. There’s enough room for everyone to live, but if absolutely everyone who got off work at four in the afternoon hung out with friends, it would practically be chaos;” I said.

“Really?” Redheart asked,

“Yeah,” I said, looking out the window and seeing Canterlot, or at least a small part of it, since we were on the ground floor.

Canterlot was a big city, in part because it was a roomy city. The residents were used to walking and, like I had noted before, they also had time. The overall stress level was lower here than back on Earth, and not at the expense of the society’s well being. All this was compounded by the great number of restaurants and cafes everywhere who didn’t seem to struggle to remain in business, and also by the large numbers of niche stores– I was pretty sure I saw the Equestrian equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons through a window on the way here.

“Humans don’t have magic,” I said. “No wings, no super endurance. Everything strives to be so efficient on Earth. Wide roads are expensive to maintain, and we need vehicles that use a limited amount of fuel to travel. We can’t control the weather, so it’s practically compulsory in a lot of cases, and spacing a city buys room, and perhaps more peace of mind for people living there, but at the expense of that limited fuel among other things. The more you think about it, the more complicated it gets.”

Redheart was looking slightly downcast at that. “I see,” she said.

“And as to your questions as to why one doesn’t just hang out with friends or have a short rest: A lot of people work irregularly, and a good sleeping schedule can be vital. And frankly, a lot of the successful nations in the world are full of people who are mentally exhausted by the end of the workday, but not necessarily physically tired. I guess that makes for some strange results on a grand scale.”

Redheart was quiet for a moment. “I always liked Equestria, but this hammers home how much I appreciate it,” she said.

“No kidding,” I said, in much higher spirits. “It opens so many opportunities. Like these.” I waved my right foreleg in emphasis.

“Just don’t hurt yourself trying to help others,” Redheart said.

I gave her a questioning look, and she said, “You looked like you really gave it your everything earlier. That’s not good in the long term. Remember that you’re going to live much longer than you’re used to.”

I just smiled at her. “I think I’ll be fine,” I said. “How about you? In my experience, nurses are really good at juggling their workloads.”

“Things can get a bit hectic,” she said, admittingly. “But it’s worth it. I think I recognise a lot of what you said though. I got my training in Vanhoover, and I stuck around for a little while after I was done, but the city life was never for me. A patient would come in, I’d care for them, we’d become friends, and then it was time for them to leave.” She paused a bit in her narration. “Thankfully, most of the time through the front door. Then I did some soul searching, and decided to move back to Ponyville. Ponyville isn’t exactly tiny, but when a patient leaves, I can be pretty sure I’ll run into them in town in the future.”

I nodded, recognising the charm with a small, friendly town. It wasn’t the center of the world, but I didn’t need it to be. It was the center of a lot of weirdness though, courtesy of the elements bearer, my friends.

“What about you, then?” I asked, suddenly curious. “You said love is in the air earlier. Don’t you have anyone to do the huggies and kissies with when you get home?”

“Gabe,” she said, and held her hoof to her barrel in fake shock. “Yes I have on occasion, but I’m only seventy three. I can’t get tied down yet,” she said, and smiled.

“You don’t strike me as being against the idea every now and then,” I said, with a smirk.

“I’m a nurse, Gabe,” she said, with a smirk of her own. “I mostly end up doing the tying.”

—

This was the second time I had shared my bed in the castle with someone else, but before anyone lets out a heart-melting "naaw" sound, or a dumb "hur-hur" chuckle; there was no snuggling or hugging. Two ponies sleeping on either side of the bed had about the same amount of space between them as two individuals in separate beds in a two person hotel room, I just didn’t want to scramble any maids in the castle to find her a room when there wasn’t a need, and you never know when the staff turns the castle into a maze overnight as a diplomatic courtesy, so this also guaranteed we’d find each other in the morning. Redheart also liked it; she didn’t think any of her friends could brag about having stayed a night at the castle.

It did make me wish my mane looked like Redheart’s when I woke up. Her’s must be the envy of supermodels. Mine looks like an orange and blue porcupine that had tried camping behind a passenger jet. Impressive in it’s own way, I guess.

She also didn’t flinch when I went through my morning routines. It took a while before Armor, Twilight, and Spike didn’t look uncomfortable whenever I squeezed replacement body parts into myself, but splashing my eye around in a basin before popping it in there still probably looked a bit weird.

“He made a quick retreat tonight,” I said, a bit absently, as we sat at the breakfast table.

Redheart looked me curiously. “Who?”

“My dream mentor,” I said, before turning to her and seeing her still curious look. “I have this figure returning in my dreams. A dark and mysterious man, or perhaps stallion, who’s telling me and teaching me things.”

Redheart looked at me with a mix between disbelief and alarm, like I had just professed that I was thinking of proposing to Celestia. “... What?”

I shook my head, realizing that could sound a bit alarming to anyone who didn’t know about this beforehand. “Oh, we think it’s my special talent doing it.”

She looked skeptical. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, we, that is, Luna, Twilight, and I, think it’s because my human mind, and that’s how I subconsciously interpret the intuitive knowledge from my talent and processing the information extra quick.”

Redheart’s look switched from alarm to consideration. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. And he beat hooves tonight?”

“Yeah. It’s not always all that clear, so maybe we had a long conversation before he did, and I can’t remember,” I said, with another shrug.

Redheart took a few moment to consider this as well. “Maybe you just had a quick rundown of what you’re planning today,” she said, and turned her eyes to me meaningfully. “Or maybe he thought you needed rest.”

I put my hooves up defensively. “Hey, it might be mentally exhausting, but spiritual rewards and stuff will be worth it,” I said.

We left with a quick thank you to Raven and Kibitz (Celestia and Luna both being busy, ruling the nation and being asleep respectively) and made our way back to the hospital.

“Did we keep anyone waiting?” I asked, when we got down to Pinprick’s workshop.

Pinprick was there, as were the three "subjects". Proper Care was absent, although instead we had three additional ponies: Professor Inkwell and two young-looking unicorn stallions, with parchments and quills packed in their saddlebags. Sunlit’s socks looked better than Inkwell’s leg warmers.

Everyone looked at us, Blueberry, Rider, and Sunlit with no small amount of anticipation. Pinprick looked at Inkwell, letting her be the authority in the room. Inkwell, meanwhile, just mirrored the initiative back to Pinprick.

“Not at all,” she said. “Professor Inkwell and her research assistants just arrived.”

We nodded towards the two ponies I wasn’t familiar with, before turning to everyone else.

“Well, good morning, everypony,” Redheart said.

“Aye, good morning,” Inkwell said, and waved towards the two slightly nervous-looking stallions. “Everypony, minions, minions, everypony.”

They waved a bit nervously as they set down their bags and started fishing out ink and paper.

“Yeah, good morning,” I said. “Should we get started? I think we’ve kept things in suspense long enough.”

“I don’t think we wanna rush anypony,” Sunlit said, and after what Redheart pointed out yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how Sunlit and Rider kept kinda brushing up against each other, and by the way they were looking at each other, I figured they’d somehow squeezed in at least three dates since last I saw them.

“Well, Doctor Pinprick,” I said. “What do you have for us?”

Pinprick made way to show us the workbench, upon which rested what looked like normal prostheses, but without the textile covering, and a much sleeker set of full body braces for Rider, without pulleys, wheels, and locks for the joints.

I reared up to take a closer look at the stuff.

“I believe this is what you requested,” she said, gesturing to the limbs. “The central parts are hollowed out, and the limbs don’t have any locks for the joints, they’re completely loose. And as requested, the opening is through a button.”

“That’s right,” I said, nodding approvingly, and gestured towards the braces.

“And with this,” Pinprick said. “You can separate the large parts of the braces, like you described.”

I took a look at one of braces and opened one of the little pockets. “Alright, great,” I said, when Redheart and I opened up our saddle bags and started pouring out the contents on the table. “I think I’ll start with Blueberry.”

I got an extra high chair by the workbench, and got to work.

Everyone had gathered around and was looking closely at what I had poured out, and Inkwell turned to the two young stallions with a deadpanned look. After a few seconds, they caught on and started scribbling down notes.

“So, what do you want me to tell you about this?” I asked them.

“Well, what do you plan on doing next?” Inkwell asked.

I picked up one of the slightly squirming bags I had marked "Blueberry", and showed everyone. As I got to work, I told them about how I was putting up a fairly complicated set of interlocked barriers in the part of the leg that contained the enchantment that actually moved the leg. That enchantment being so sensitive that it was disturbed by the slightest background magical power, and so would be worse than an inert limb as a prosthesis. Letting only the magical signature of the arcanomorphic field belonging to the pony in question through was one of the key parts of the whole thing.

“This means that every person’s limb works only for the one it’s made for,” I said. “Anyone else would just have a vaguely pony-shaped limb with no proper way to attach it, and very loose joints.”

“But how are they removed?” Inkwell asked.

“That’s what this thing is for,” I said, and pointed towards the opening-slash-button. “I’ve made the enchantment so that pressing this toggles the enchantment on and off.”

I kept enchanting, perhaps losing myself a bit in my work, as I had already done a lot of the tedious work in the prior evening. “Now,” I said, a bit absently. “These limbs are gonna be a bit like a pony at peak physical prowess. The kinetic-dispersive properties of your innate magic will be about the same, but I’m not gonna make them superpowered. Mine are, and magical exhaustion is very much a thing with them. I’d just feel responsible if you hurt yourselves with it. Especially you, Rider. If I swing at something as hard as I can with my own prostheses, nothing happens to me physically, but you could seriously hurt yourself.”

“Alright, that makes sense,” he said.

I was whistling The Entertainer while working, and eventually, I had finished up one of the wheelchair-bound colt’s legs. The enchanted dust was in the hollow part of the leg, shielded from magical disturbances. “Alright, Blueberry,” I said. “This one’s yours.”

Blueberry wheeled up to me, his face not entirely free from nervousness, as I simply tossed his new leg on the remains of his left hind leg.

“That’s it,” I said, to his uncertain expression. “Try moving it.”

He did, and everyone’s eyes went wide when it worked. There was no wires being pulled, and no sound from an electrical engine. It was just an artificial-looking limb, that moved seemingly of its own accord.

Blueberry’s expression slowly shifted from uncertain and a little scared, to a grin that enveloped his entire face. He started moving around, and was about to jump down from his chair, when Redheart gently held him back from behind.

Holding him with a hug, she said, “Let’s wait until the other one is done, dearie, hm?” in a small and sweet tone.

Blueberry looked up at her, and nodded, his grin never fading.

“Mmm, yeah,” I said, and went back to work, pretty much only having to do the final parts with his other leg. “I’m almost done here.”

I was already caught up in my work again, and didn’t really notice where the others were looking, and what expressions they had.

“You’re gonna get a knighthood for this,” someone said. I think it was Pinprick.

“Mmm, nice,” I said, absent-mindedly. “Keep my ears warm in bed… alright, done.”

We slapped the other leg on Blueberry, and he immediately jumped down on the floor, almost losing his balance if not for Redheart steadying him.

As I studied his movement, not really noticing anything off, he looked up at Redheart with a smile, then turned to me. After a moment, I finally registered that I should look at his face, and saw a blush that went halfway down his neck. He had his mouth open as if to say something, but then just snapped it shut and bolted out of the room, a large grin on his face.

Satisfied, I just went to work on Rider’s braces.

“That was... amazing,” one of Inkwell assistants said.

“Yeah, he was off way faster than me when I made my first one,” I said.

There was a moment of silence behind me, broken only by Redheart’s snickering.

Next up was Rider’s braces. Redheart and I started covering every part of them with masking tape, except for the inside of the thick pouches.

“What are you doing now?” Rider asked, over the scribbling.

“I’m gonna use this,” I said, indicating a jar in my bag, and some squirming pieces of blue textile. “It’s a paste with lapis lazuli in it. I’m gonna smear the inside of the braces with the stuff, and enchant that like I enchanted the metal in the limbs. It’s mostly because my enchantments and textile don’t work well together. Then I’m gonna fill these pouches with the same movement-enchanted dust as the other limbs, and away we go.”

“Oooh,” Rider said.

“That’s pretty smart,” Sunlit agreed.

“Thank you,” I said. “Bit of inspiration yesterday.”

It was smooth sailing from there. After I was done, Redheart and Sunlit helped Rider up onto the examination bed, and stripped him of his current braces, making him completely helpless, only being able to move his head and neck, shoulders, and the upper parts of his forelegs. From his face, he didn’t seem to mind though, probably because he was being handled by two very pretty and gentle mares.

“Okay, almost done,” I said after a while. “Unlike Blueberry and Sunlit’s pieces, this won’t have an off switch, but since this isn’t attached to your arcanomorphic aura, just responding to it when it’s very close, you can just pull this thing off when you need to.”

“Got it, ma’am,” he said, looking away from Sunlit’s eyes to address me.

Sunlit, with a smile, wordlessly but gently stopped me from starting to dress him in his new getup, and started doing it herself instead. Redheart had to help her though, especially with turning him over.

“Stop squirming,” Redheart gently chided him when he, just like Blueberry, couldn’t quite wait until he was all set before trying it out. I understood him though.

The door opened, and a pony stepped in. I took a glance back at a mare standing in the doorway, before turning my attention back to Rider, looking for signs of discomfort or other flaws, but he seemed okay. Pinprick asked who she was, and I heard some whispering, and then my attention was dragged away from Rider as something grabbed me from behind, pulling me back and almost dislodging my eye.

“Wha!?” I yelped, finding myself locked inside a hug.

“Thank you! Oh thank you so much!” a voice I had to assume belonged to the colt’s mother echoed in my ear.

I gave a modest gurgling in response as I made sure my eye wasn’t falling out.

“My little baby has his legs back! How can we ever repay you?”

I told her that it was alright, ma’am, and if they wanted to help, they just had to let the Royal Institute take a look at the legs, so that they might help others.

It came out as, “Hargh- garh… hraarh,” though.

Everyone had turned their eyes to look at us in stunned silence, Rider having turned his neck from his turned-away pose on the table.

“Mom, I think she’s trying to say something,” Blueberry said.

‘Yes I am. Thank you, Blueberry.’ “Hraaargh.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she said, and let go, taking a step back and trying to dry her eyes.

I didn’t gasp for breath, since I didn’t tire myself out by struggling. I just flattened my ruffled coat, and tried again. “No problem. Now, I haven’t made coverings for Blueberry’s legs like I have,” I said, indicating my own prostheses. “But I’m sure a tailor can conjure something up, and then the institute can probably work something out if he wants something like I have. I gave them the specs.”

“Oh, of course,” she said. “Anything to help. Oh, thank you so much, you gave my baby his legs back, I don’t know how to thank you, this is so wonderful. I don’t know how I can repay you.”

“Well, there are people from the institute here right now,” I said, indicating to Inkwell and the two young stallions. “They can tell you how you can repay us.”

Inkwell stepped up to lead Blueberry and his mother off to the side to discuss just that. The idea was simply that if this whole deal with my prostheses indeed worked for others, which it apparently did, the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic would inspect the "subjects" in an attempt to recreate my magic, since my own documentation was, as noted before, lacking, and a little esoteric. This was hopefully the best way to spread this knowledge without me having to spend days or weeks at the institute. Not that I was terribly busy in Ponyville, my new home, and I liked Canterlot as well, my new home away from home, but I wanted my life to be primarily in the former.

These musings didn’t last very long, since Blueberry’s mother pretty soon walked up to me with tentative steps.

“I ah… madam?” she said, as I turned to her to politely give her my attention.

“I just… I… I don’t know how to…” she stammered. “It’s such a wonderful thing… just out of the kindness of your heart. I don’t know if you understand how much this means to us.”

I knew that it meant much on an intellectual level, but strangely enough, even though I had been in Blueberry’s situation, it wasn’t until she said this that it hit me on an emotional level as well.

My polite expression mellowed into one of genuine sympathy, and I scooted over into the hug she so desperately wanted to give me.

“I don’t really know what to say either,” I admitted.

One of my ears were flicking lightly from the tears falling onto one of them. “It’s okay,” she said, between heaving sobs. “So long as you know how grateful we are.”

The falling tears stopped when Redheart wordlessly handed the mare a handkerchief, and after another minute or two, the hug ended.

“Alright,” I said. “If you have any issues, don’t hesitate to contact me. Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville. I’m serious. If there are any issues, I wanna know... for science.”

“I… yeah, thank you,” the mare said, and gestured to her son. “Blueberry, say thank you to the nice filly.”

Blueberry looked at me with an almost frightened expression, his chest heaving from steadily heavier and faster breaths, before he rushed up to me, threw his forelegs around me, and squeezed me hard for just one moment.

It was enough to register the almost scary amount of heat coming from his face, but then he let go and quickly bolted out the door.

His mother shot me another smile, before chasing after her son.

Eventually, Sunlit and Redheart finished, and Rider tentatively sat himself up on the edge of the bed, breathing slowly and steadily, as he looked down at himself.

He slowly stood down on the floor, lifting his hooves, flexing his legs, angling his back, and even swishing his tail with the little rings that held it. As he did, a wide grin slowly grew on his face.

He turned to the room at large. “How do I look?” he asked, hesitantly.

I had to give props to Pinprick; the whole getup did nothing to dampen his looks. In fact, it was quite the opposite, especially in motion.

Everyone turned to me as if I was the one who was supposed to be answering the question. ‘Yeah, he probably already knows how Sunlit thinks he looks by now.’ “Handsome,” I said, with a critical nod.

Rider gave me a big grin, then walked up to me, crouched down to my eye level, took my face in his hooves, and looked at me with a big smile for a moment, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, before grabbing me and holding me tightly against him. “I hope you like hugs,” he said, and wrapped me in one before I could back away. “Because I think you’re gonna get a lot of them in this line of work. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

I sighed into his barrel. “I guess so,” I mumbled into his coat, before struggling out of it, and turning towards Sunlit. “Am I gonna get this treatment any more today?”

She smiled at me. “You bet your flank you will,” she said, her eyes watering up as well.

There was some more work after that, some more describing things to Inkwell and colleagues, some more whistling of ragtime melodies, and by the time I had whistled my way through the soundtrack to The Sting, I was finishing up with Sunlit’s wing. That was the last part I was capable of creating without sitting down for a few days in Ponyville and working out a better design– preferably with Twilight next to me talking about wings and letting me measure and get a feel for hers.

Sunlit and Rider were seated on the bed, brushed up against each other, and alternating between moving their hooves and looking intently at them, moving their hooves and looking at the others’, and pressing their hooves against each other’s while looking into each other’s eyes and smiling. As I was working on the wing, I idly wondered if there was a way to take a look behind them without anyone wondering what I was doing, because I sincerely wished that their tails had formed a heart.

“Alright, done,” I said. “This is the best I can do right now. The rest is probably up to Doctor Pinprick or the institute.” I held up the wing and moved my hoof up and down the flexible surface on the rear of the wing. “Under this mesh is where you can move the parts there, and perhaps someone can come up with something feather-like to attach there and–”

That was as far as I got before Sunlit pulled me into a hug. “Oh, right,” I said, feeling even more tears drip into my hair.

“Madam Desroche—” she started.

“Just ‘Gabe’,” I mumbled into her coat.

“Gabe,” she said, as Rider stepped up beside us. “You’ve given us our lives back. Did you ever live without your metal limbs?”

“Well, yes,” I confirmed.

“Then you know what it’s like,” she said, as Rider enveloped us in a hug of his own from the other side of me. “Waking up in the morning, having dreamt of your old life, and struggling to attach crude imitations of your old body.”

I was about to answer, but I just nodded silently.

Sunlit breathed out a content sigh. “You know how it feels. That it doesn’t feel right,” she said. “To not be able to help yourself. To have to rely on others.”

“Now, thanks to you,” Rider said. “We no longer have to. We can enjoy everything about life again, thanks to you.”

“Well, you’re, you know,” I said. “You’re welcome.”

I felt Rider and Sunlit’s heads shift. “Enjoy life indeed,” Sunlit said.

I managed to pop my head out from between them, and saw them staring into each others’ half-lidded eyes, feeling the temperature rise.

“Uuuh,” I said, uncertainly. “I’m not sure I’m considered old enough to be between you two enjoying life together.”

—

“Guest lecture?” I said once again, referring to the scroll that Inkwell had given me before we departed. “Seriously?”

Redheart looked up from the train sofa she was lying on opposite me.

“Well, who else is gonna do it?” she asked. “Twilight and Scrap helped, but it’s still your discovery.”

“But I’ve never held a lecture before,” I complained.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Redheart said. “You’ve never made miraculous discoveries before a few weeks ago either, and you still did it.”

“I guess,” I said, resting my chin on a hoof and looking out the window at the moonlit Equestrian landscape.

Perhaps it was because I wasn’t knee-deep in enchantments at the moment, but something about the silence that followed nagged at me.

I turned to Redheart and saw her looking out the window as well, a hint of hardness visible on her brow by how the hairs of her coat stood up.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She turned her head towards me just a little bit too fast, the scowl on her face lasting just a fraction too long before mellowing, and looked at me.

She opened her mouth, and stopped herself, her face openly surprised by something.

I gave her a moment, concern on my face.

Eventually, her face and ears drooped. “I’m sorry, Gabe.”

Now it was my turn to be openly surprised. “What?”

She put her head on her folded legs. “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t have words that expressed my concern and felt gentle enough for the situation. “I… I don’t… why?”

Redheart gave me a joyless smile. “I’m being unfair.”

“Unfair?” I asked.

“I’m…” she started. “When I was a new nurse back in Vanhoover, I… I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.”

I didn’t see what this had to do with anything, but this was a situation to be handled gently, so I just made sure my expression told her she had my attention.

“It was because,” she started, before groaning at herself. “Ugh. It was because I was...only a nurse.”

I hadn’t actually seen this before. I had heard of it– old war stories between gossipy old nurses and doctors in the break lounge speculating about why this or that colleague, either current or from ages past, had a chip on their shoulder, but I had no experience with it.

I bit back my desire to object to her words, and just gave her a sympathetic look.

“It didn’t have anything to do with hierarchy or prestige,” she said. “It was because… I didn’t know how to help everypony.”

“Jealousy?” I carefully asked.

“In a sense, I guess,” she admitted. “But I think it was because… I wanted to help others, and I couldn’t always. The patients came in, and I comforted them, told them it was going to be alright, looked at them… and sometimes determined that I didn’t know how to help them.”

“It’s…” I started hesitantly. “No one knows every way to heal someone. A hospital is where all kinds of healers pool their knowledge to help.”

“I know that,” she said kindly. “It’s just that… my special talent is in comfort, not healing art. I know how to treat somepony, but that’s because training and experience, not my talent.”

“... And?” I gestured for her to continue.

“I used to have a problem with having the ability to convince a pony that everything was going to be alright, but not having the skill to actually make everything alright.”

I watched Redheart looking down at the floor for a few moments, searching for something to say.

“You helping those ponies today,” she said, eventually. “It just reminded me of those days, back in Vanhoover when I was so disappointed in myself.”

“As someone with a bedside manner that extends to being able to say 'Lie still, please' without making children cry, I can tell you that people skills are important when it comes to healing people,” I said. “Has anyone told you that before?”

She nodded. “Yes. And I know I’m being foalish. It’s just that I feel I’ve never done anything like you have. I used to feel like I could only promise… promise that somepony else would set everything right.”

“But you do know how to help people?” I asked. “Not just with words, I mean.”

She nodded. “Yes. I know that now, but seeing you today just reminded me of when it felt like I didn’t.”

“Emotional stuff again,” I said, and nodded. “Words only do so much, eh?”

Redheart looked at me with a rueful smile. “I guess so.”

“Just because I’ve found a new way to help people, doesn’t make your way useless,” I said, and got up from my seat to walk over to hers.

“Gabe?” she asked.

‘Something, some force out there, really wants me to hug people today.’

I jumped up on Redheart’s couch. “Like I said, I don’t have the best bedside manner. I’m not great when it comes to emotions.”

I lied down beside her, and gently pressed myself to her side. Redheart’s ruefulness started melting away from her smile, as she put a foreleg around me and nuzzled my ear.

“But I learned from the best,” I said.

Gaiden.
Another one again.

Author's Note:

Big, slobbering Berner Sennen-kisses for my editors, Eckaji, Snuffy, and Themaskedferret– *slobber-slobber-slobber*
I kinda forced myself to write most of this chapter, and it was coming out pretty vacuous, but they helped save it. Also thanks to ssokolow for his expertise.

It was still a bit of a strain though. I was writing in large part because I felt that I really should, not because I was struck by inspiration, or a sudden joy for writing.

It's been pretty dry when it comes to the whole inspiration-thing lately. I'm not miserable, but there're constant elements of stress, and I never seem to get in the mindset where I feel my good stuff comes from.

I think I'm gonna slow down for the next chapter. Prepare it carefully, and really let the ideas ferment in my head. I'm gonna aim for triple-distilled. Probably a humor one.

Comments

[fluffyunicorns]

Unlike what most think, more or less people have the same mental capacity, what matters is how they choose to use it. People set stereotypical mad scientist to prove that scientist are insane or eccentiric or strange, to prove that they are not normal. But in essence these are excuses to not think and not push himself further, a denial mechanism for one's own incapabilities.

When something is not get done, it does not lie upon the external world or difficulty, it lies upon one's inability and the fact he is incompetent.

git gud or get rekt.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7880697 What society places value on might be a part of it as well. One can be a genius at Call Of Duty, but people rarely see that as valuable. Running with a ball in front of an audience can be considered heroic though, and few people can name scientists who have advanced the field of cancer-research. Strange how society works sometimes

[badninja]

I want to know what colts are crushing on Gabe! Poor girl probably needs all the awkward dealings with "young" love.

[maniacal grin]

Excellent as always, i eagerly await the next installment

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7880721 You're just as oblivious as Gabe if you didn't spot anything in the last chapter

7880757 Hope you can hold out. I think I'm gonna need a break. Not a real hiatus, but maybe a month or two to recharge.

[badninja]

7880890

It has only been a month a I forgot about his crush.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7880935 You'll just have to read the whole thing again

[HoneyBadgerr]

That chapter was SO worth the wait! As Rainbow Dash would say,
SO... AWESOME!

[Kevin Lee]

Oh yeah, and a wing... how to make proper wings? I don’t even know how they angle their feathers… and what do you make the feathers out of? Real feathers are always being replaced by new ones. Would they need to be easily attached and detached? Perhaps a collection of wear-and.tear-resistant enchantments? I have a bunch of those on my current legs that might work...

Heh! She should have a talk with this guy:
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/kdq9-1437548261-124511-full

[Detsella Morningdew]

That chapter was great!

This story is one of three on Fimfiction that I am always super-excited to see come out, and one of the few that I actually enjoy reading more than I like writing one of my own. I don't care how long it takes to write a chapter - I definitely understand the need to rest a bit and let ideas percolate in your mind.

You are one of the few authors that are really good with characters; every character is unique, and has a well-defined personality that is consistent, relatable, and believable.

I mean, I found one mistype that your editors missed, but I don't really care about that. It is the content that matters, and the content is interesting. You have a very unique style that hints at future plot developments, but for the most part sounds very much like a sequence of events in real life rather than a traditional "story arc." Which is great.

Well, I look forward to future chapters, but I don't care how long it takes.

I would much rather have to wait a while than have you burn yourself out trying to write out of a sense of duty.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7881084 Seems my fears of the chapter feeling vacuous are unfounded. Thank you

7881149 Spoiler!... Ah whatever. I started reading Savage Skies, but I was so engrossed that I burning up, and ejected before I hurt myself (seriously, I think it was effecting my digestion). I'm gonna finish it someday, and having some spoilers might help protect me from the suspense

7881185 Thank you

Which ones are the other two stories?

I definitely understand the need to rest a bit and let ideas percolate in your mind.

Perchocolate!

You are one of the few authors that are really good with characters; every character is unique, and has a well-defined personality that is consistent, relatable, and believable.

Playing to your strengths. It's a skill I didn't know I had

You have a very unique style that hints at future plot developments, but for the most part sounds very much like a sequence of events in real life rather than a traditional "story arc." Which is great.

Like the source-material demonstrates, slice-of-life and adventure can work together. I also don't have the restriction of time that a show has. Let's just hope that this translates into making my adventure work as well

I would much rather have to wait a while than have you burn yourself out trying to write out of a sense of duty.

Yeah, I think I learned my lesson. After I wrote 9k words for this chapter, which only feeling a bit more difficult, I thought that I might as well finish it, and strained my writing muscle pretty bad. I had to scuttle my plans for the second part of this chapter, and then my editors came to the rescue and really helped make the patchwork-arrangement that was the later parts of this chapter worthwhile.
I did save what feels like a pretty great scene with Fluttershy from the wreckage though. I might use that in my upcoming chapter, which is pretty ambitious, and so I really shouldn't rush it.

Thanks for the encouragement. Stay tuned for the next chapter, when, if my idea works, things get pretty balls-to-the-wall, at least momentarily

[Factorisimo122]

Another great chapter

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7881262 And another encouraging comment. Thank you, sir/madam

[Seirs]

again great chapter as always.

Probably because it’s Pinkie,” I said, and switched over to sing-song mode. “It’s Pinkie, it’s Pinkie and her brain-brain-brain-brain, brain-brain-brain-brain brain, dududuuh-duh, duh-duh.

You I've come across many a Pinkie and the Brain joke in this fandom, but I have to say I think this is a first and my favorite and what I think to be the most appropriate of all of them.

Inkwell said, and waved towards the two slightly nervous-looking stallions. “Everypony, minions, minions, everypony.

You know, now that I think of it I'm surprised the professor I used to TA for never introduced me to a class this way.

[Taffymore]

Best story. I'm looking forward to how she'll handle lecturing a room of dumbstruck adults.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7881292 Thank you, thank you

You I've come across many a Pinkie and the Brain joke in this fandom, but I have to say I think this is a first and my favorite and what I think to be the most appropriate of all of them.

Pop-culture-references needs to be handled carefully. Go for precision shots when using them

You know, now that I think of it I'm surprised the professor I used to TA for never introduced me to a class this way.

I can be pretty touchy when it comes to people pulling rank and puffing themselves up and stuff, but if Professor Inkwell pulled rank on me... I'd probably roll over

7881298 Thank you ... Best and worst case scenarios?

[PinkiePieFox]

I find the main character so adorable! She just cant see anything romantic at all can she LOL! And this chapter was really funny, some of the comments among other things... I cant wait for that one thing to happen and the shock she is going to have from it!!! *laughs* oh I really enjoyed this chapter so.... Keep it up!

[Schismatism]

This was a brilliant chapter, and now I'm going to definitely reread the last couple again; you have an absolute knack for writing, and it was certainly a bright point in my day to see this story updated! And my, my, I wonder if Blueberry will be showing up again... not that Gabe's likely to respond to puppy love with more than a flush and a 'no'.

Thank you very much for such a heartwarming chapter.

[ETA: Oh, by the way. Desrochers: the meaning of that name is a little odd, but etymologically, it seems to mean, 'by the rock', 'by the boulder', or even 'of the rock/boulder/stone' - or, I wonder perhaps... 'of the Earth'. Was that intentional?]

[Misdirection01]

Excellent chapter!

[Kevin Lee]

7881256

Spoiler!... Ah whatever. I started reading Savage Skies, but I was so engrossed that I burning up, and ejected before I hurt myself (seriously, I think it was effecting my digestion). I'm gonna finish it someday, and having some spoilers might help protect me from the suspense

Well, considering that what I was pointing you to is only Book #3...not too much of a spoiler (I'm guessing you're still in the middle of Promise of a New Day?)

As one of my favorite quotes from the Doctor, "you can tell the character of someone based on the quality of his enemies"--Dawn will be developing a very deep character before you get much further into the series--and that's just for starters
Oh, and the series itself is completed, so I suggest you start again from the beginning to refresh yourself & have a fun reading marathon--all told, it's like in the top 5 longest stories/series here.

[ssokolow]

Excellent, as usual. :)

It's always such a treat to find a notification for this in my inbox.

Also, in case you were curious...

with cold white glows from striplight– the kind that starts flickering after a decade, and then takes years to really die.

There are actually two reasons that can happen.

The "hot cathode" type of fluorescent lighting you see in that kind of installation works by arcing electricity between two electrodes in a tube filled with mercury vapor. The mercury emits ultraviolet light, which then energizes a coating on the inside the tube, which glows white.

Depending on the type of flicker, it can be caused either by the ballast (separate from the tube in striplighting) going bad (meaning the electrodes aren't being supplied with a steady supply of power at a high enough frequency for the flicker to be invisible) or the electrodes wearing out, causing the arc between them to be intermittent. (Traditional overhead tube lighting tends to use a "hot cathode" design where the coating on the electrodes eventually wears away)

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Dawwwww

[Taffymore]

7881331 Best case, adults awkwardly asking a filly for vocabulary elaboration with a side of obliviously using even more complicated explanations.
Worst case, the audience takes her as a bad joke and won't take her seriously. A few terrible first impressions and bruised prides inbound.

Of course, anything could happen, and I've been loving and looking forward to every chapter :)

[Aurora Dimmet]

- And Celestia is not a jerk.

Well then. Time to start reading.

[Detsella Morningdew]

7881256 The first story is Rites of Ascension, by CvBrony (a Twilight ascension fic that was started before much of Season 3, and the author has kept himself free of spoilers for it since. He created a very well-developed canon for the story, and included many elements, like politics that are interesting, and many intertwining plot elements. It is a rather long story, and chapters are usually released about once per month. And the canon he creates is actually my favorite, even over show canon. You can see his inexperience in early chapters, but it quickly becomes very enjoyable.

The other story is just MLP Time Loops. It's usually very funny, and it doesn't update very often at all. it is actually a fic by a bunch of authors that submit Loops to the main author, who edits and approves them.

Another story I would recommend (It's not on my list, since it's completed) is Alarm Clock, by Meta Four. And the sequels. It is a very interesting Derpy fanfic, and it is actually where I got my username. Derpy's "legal" name there is Detsella Renombrada Morningdew, or Ditzy Doo for short, since nopony except Luna knows how to pronounce it correctly.

[Orbiting Kettle]

Recharge your batteries and relax, I'll wait in the corner

I think it also speaks quite highly of you that your story is low on conflict but I steal enthusiastically read every chapter as soon as I can get my mittens on it.

[Cosmic Flare]

So nice. Cool things in here that make my eyes go crazy with so of the things i don't get but is ok.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7881396 Glad you like it

I cant wait for that one thing to happen and the shock she is going to have from it!

And what thing is that?

7881434 Thank you, thank you, very much. Don't hesitate to point out what you think about any of it

By the way, Blueberry doesn't have an official name as far as I know, but he's a background pony from the IDW comics, issue 29, page... 8 I think, when Rarity and Cheerilee talks in the hospital.

[ETA: Oh, by the way. Desrochers: the meaning of that name is a little odd, but etymologically, it seems to mean, 'by the rock', 'by the boulder', or even 'of the rock/boulder/stone' - or, I wonder perhaps... 'of the Earth'. Was that intentional?]

It was! So happy someone finally noticed
Yeah, she's from a world called 'Earth', and there's also the thing where she has an affinity for enchanting gems. You know, as in rocks

7881447 Always happy to hear that, thank you

7881473 Yeah, I saw the latest story when it was first posted, and when I read that it was the last one planned, I was kinda sad for a while, because I knew I would never be able to catch up. I haven't been part of a front row of a following for ages, and it felt a bit like a missed opportunity

7881532 *Tosses friend's iPad into the cauldron*

7881668 Thank you, thank you. You helped

Huh... that is interesting. Funny how creating light needs to have such extravagant arrangements to not be horrifically wasteful. As always, hooray for science. LEDs for president.

7881734 Would that be so bad? I started reading a pretty awesomely funny 40k crossover a little while ago

But no, I don't think she will. Besides, I was always more partial to Mutant Chronicles than Warhammer40k, so she'd have to be a teknomag of Algeroth or a necrobionic engineer or something

7881915 Indeed

7882076 I've actually planned on that part being derailed by the adventure, but we'll see how it goes

7882140 Hope you like it

7882170 The first two are on my to-read list, and I just added the last one as well now.

7882346

Recharge your batteries and relax, I'll wait in the corner

With a knife!?

There are conflicts in it though. They're just not the kinds one might be used to. The most common types of conflict is either combat in action stories, or interpersonal conflict in drama and romance and stuff. In MLAABQ, the conflicts are small, low-key, internal things, like how the first 12 chapters is about Gabe slowly being coaxed out of her shell. There's a conflict there between her staying curled up inside herself, where she feels miserable but safe, and her taking the risk and exploring friendships and relations again, and all the good and bad that comes from it. That's a type of conflict, and as Michael Stoklasa might put it, "You may not even have noticed... but your brain did."

7882525 Glad you like it
Anything you're wondering about?

---

Whew, that was a long message

[Orbiting Kettle]

7882565
I don't use knives, I will simply stare 'till it becomes awkward and there will be much throat-clearing a feet shuffling.

I know that there is conflict, it simply is very understated. And that was a compliment, keeping the story still interesting without devolving in some sort of navel-gazing requires skill.

[ssokolow]

7882565

LEDs do actually wear out eventually, but they have two very nice properties which go well with their long lifespan:

1. Turning them on and off doesn't make them age more quickly, the way it does for other kinds of lighting.

2. When they do reach the end of their rated lifespan, they don't fail catastrophically like incandescent or fluorescent lighting... they just get dimmer very very slowly, so you don't even notice that anything is changing.

(Those two properties are what make them especially excellent for the blinky indicator lights that are soldered right onto circuitboards. Even if the device doesn't break or get retired before the LED's reach the end of their lifespan, they keep on indicating... just a little dimmer.)

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7882583 How good it that tactic when it comes to impressing the ladies?

Thank you
Yeah, I don't always consciously realize this, but when I write, I try and make it seem like everything, both world-events and character-moments, comes naturally, and aren't obviously arranged.

7882586 Sounds only positive. How expensive are LEDs? To manufacture, that is. You have to remember the big picture when it comes to energy and resource-efficiency after all.

Those two properties are what make them especially excellent for the blinky indicator lights that are soldered right onto circuitboards.

Mother from Alien

[ssokolow]

7882603

From what I remember, the main difficulty in using LEDs for lighting is actually getting bright LED fixtures cheaply... partly because it's an engineering challenge to get that much light out of such a tiny thing without it cooking itself. You have to recoup the cost based on savings over the lifetime of the device.

(The best labs-only LED prototypes I've heard of wasted around 23% of the energy as heat... but that's still better than 50% for fluorescent or 90% for incandescent.)

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7882613 The ever-present challenge. But hey, progress is still being made. It never really can be stated enough: Go science.

but that's still better than 50% for fluorescent or 90% for incandescent

That's... grossly incandescent

I hope I hurt someone with that

[dargonax]

Beautiful chapter

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7882716 Thank you

[dargonax]

7882830 your welcome. Also could you check out my blog I'd like to have someone else's thoughts.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7882836 I can, and I will

[PinkiePieFox]

7882565 *pats you on your little pony head* There there....

[Aurora Dimmet]

7882565

Hope so, too! Most stories use Celestia as a bland NPC, busybody tyrant, some sort of vicious and power-abusing bigot, or a totally useless lump unless shiny golden child Luna is there to hold her hoof through basic things.

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7882959 *Nuzzles PinkiePieFox... and surreptitiously starts patting them on the bum*

7882988 Well, she does benevolent things in this story. She's not going to be able to stop the thing that kicks off the adventure I have planned, but I like to think it's justified

[PinkiePieFox]

7883193 Me Bum! *hugs the pony*

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7883253 Now I really wish I was a pony, if that's what groping leads to for them

[Aurora Dimmet]

7883193

Just a benevolent and competent Celestia is rare enough to catch my interest and see what the rest of the story's about. Onwards!

[PinkiePieFox]

7883293 *giggles* I know right!

[zaku666]

so the wait(for next chapter) has been rewarded; but now, the wait starts again <insert dramatic music here>

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7883295 Hope you like it

7883379

7883414 Hope you can wait for a while. I'm gonna slow down for the next chapter. New job, new apartment, stuff like that.

7883535

Truth be told, I'm not sure what Lightsaber sounds have to do with the topic, since no lightsabers were used in the Adywan version, or any of the official versions (Lucas has been known to change all kinds of things with each re-release, and I'm not just talking about the "Special" editions).

Hmm, I checked the original version quickly before when I read this, and just as the stormtroopers walk up the ramp, and you hear the blaster-sound, there's also a sound like a lightsaber. At least I think so, the mild excitement-tunes swells in a way that could be mistaken for the sound of a lightsaber, so it's hard to say whether the two sounds blended into each other, or if that was confirmation bias on my part

On cloacas: Heh, I've only seen his owl-video before I'm going with wikipedia with this one. I know you can't always trust wikipedia, but also I can't think up any reasons for deception on this particular subject

And I'll watch that sometime, sure.

[Fistfire]

Excellent chapter. I absolutely loved it. Yours is one of the few I really look forward to when it updates. Quality over timeliness is what I like. Thanks for sharing your talent.

I can't help but wonder that the voice Gabe hears in her dreams is doing this only for Gabe and not have any other motives. I'm thinking that this voice is going to eventually turn on her.

I wonder if the other ponies that Gabe is helping will have as much phantom pain as she had. Should she have warned them of the possibility of it?

[Snakeskin Ducttape]

7883603 Thank you very much
A bit of pressure from reading all these comments about how people look forward to the next chapter, but I can take it
I think

Well, I can tell you that the voice is there for a reason within the story. It's not there in vacuum, I'm having an outline of a plot, and that voice is part of it. In fact, I can tell you more than that, but I try not to reveal too much in the comment-section. If anyone wants to know, perhaps because they're uncertain about the adventure that's coming up, pm me and I'll say.

Well, Sunlit says that she hardly gets phantom pain anymore, and she was using her residual limbs (I think that's the term) daily with her mundane prostheses, so her getting new ones wouldn't trigger more of it. Rider's not missing any limbs, he's just paralyzed. I'm actually nor sure if there's a comparative issue for paralyzed people. Maybe I should've checked that, but I'm unsure on what terms to google for
Blueberry...? Yeah, good point. Let's just say that he'll be fine

PS: Heh, 1234th comment

[zaku666]

7883582 eh, you do what gotta do man. i can wait

[That One Brony Dude]

7883582 Oh look, this one's playing with his friend. Wait, what are you doing to that bird? Crap, you're not playing with... don't try to hide it, I already saw it.

This reminds me of the fairy tail, where a young girl is lost in the forest, and she sees an owl, an asks it, "Do you know where my mother is?" The owl responds, "Why the hell would I know where your mother is? Are you stupid? And why are you fairy tail children always getting lost in forests and hallucinating about animals that can talk?" And then the owl swooped down, and face ripped the little girl's face off and ate her eyeballs. And then the owl hooted "Who who". It's a German fairy tail, so, it was a little dark, I guess. Maybe it's the translation. Nope, not the translation, it says right here "rips her face off". Oh god, there's even a picture.

That's certainly why I don't take hallucinogens! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to use my ears to pick a moving burrito off of the ground with my feet while riding a bike. Later!

*Sings the theme to Jeopardy for many days until the next chapter comes out*