Career Day
At lunch recess on Career Day, Jade was surprised to find Scootaloo sitting off in the corner on Cumulo, looking rather down in the dumps and sighing. "Something wrong, Scootaloo?" she asked curiously.
"It's...it's nothing," Scootaloo replied morosely.
Jade frowned, crossing her arms. "Scoot, that's the exact face and response I gave my parents after I realized they'd never believe me about the crazy things I saw that I now know to be magical. Don't try it on me. So what's bothering you?"
"It's...it's stupid," Scootaloo prevaricated, obviously not wanting to talk about it. "And silly. And not really important."
"And that's how I explained my reasons for misbehaving when I got sick of being punished for things I didn't do so I started doing them," Jade countered bluntly. "Something is bothering you, and however silly or stupid it may sound, it matters to you and I want to be here to help you through it." She rested her hand between Scootaloo's wings. "Now talk to me, okay?"
Sighing and lowering her eyes, Scootaloo shifted her hooves to show she was gripping the Horse Talisman.
Jade's eyes widened. "Scoot, are you sick? Or hurt? Or-"
"No, nothing like that," Scootaloo interrupted quickly. "I..." She looked away. "I snuck it into the Long Term Care Ward at the hospital. You know, for cancer patients or those with wasting diseases and the like." She lowered her eyes. "The area the orderlies call the death watch ward..." She closed her eyes. "I thought...if the Horse was the healer and 'purged alien forces', then maybe it could save them..."
Jade's eyes widened. Despite everything with the magic, she'd have never thought to use the magic that way. "That's a wonderful idea!" she praised happily, but her joy drained away as she saw Scootaloo's face fall even more. "W...what happened?"
"Each time I pressed the Talisman into one of the patient's hands, conscious or not, the Talisman started to light up...and then the light faded." Tears welled up in Scootaloo's eyes, and she sniffled. "I...I offered those people hope...and it was nothing. Uncle...Uncle told me it wouldn't work...but I wanted to try anyway..."
"Why wouldn't it work?" Jade asked, confused. "I mean...it's magic!"
"It still needs its power from somewhere," Scootaloo explained. "When used alone, the Horse Talisman draws its energy from the one being healed, using their vital energy to accelerate their natural healing process. If their body doesn't have enough energy in it to fight off the infection or purge the sickness...the magic won't trigger, to keep from burning them out in the attempt. That's...that's what happened." She rubbed at her eyes. "I knew I probably wouldn't be able to save all of them, or even most...but I'd hoped..." She started to hiccup. "I'd hoped...I could save even one...then it...would have been..." Tears poured down her cheeks.
Jade didn't know what to say. All she could do was pull Scootaloo into a comforting hug and let her cry.
Later in class, Jade was still distracted with thoughts of what she could do to try and cheer Scootaloo up. This meant that she wasn't really paying attention as Jackie gave his presentation about his work as an archaeologist, talking about carefully excavating and preserving artifacts from the dirt with tiny tools to avoid damaging them. Glancing over, Jade noticed that Scootaloo had started to look interested, but was quickly growing morose again. A desperate thought filled her mind. She knew not to bring up the Section 13 work, but he hadn't been working for Section 13 when he'd brought in that shield...
Jackie paused as she noticed her raised hand. "Yes, Jade?" he asked worriedly.
"While I'm sure movies and television have 'sensationalized' archaeology to a certain extent," Jade began carefully, her eyes frequently flicking over to Scootaloo, "surely their characterization has to have some basis in fact, right? Have you ever come across anything like the booby traps we see in TV and movies?"
Jackie raised an eyebrow, not understanding why Jade would be asking that...but noticed Scootaloo slowly raising her head in interest. Smiling, he leaned down conspiratorially, stage-whispering loud enough for the whole class to hear, though they still leaned in with interest. "Well, I'm sure my experience isn't standard for most archaeologists, but there is a reason the museum sends me in when ruins are uncovered mostly intact. Ancient civilizations were very protective of their secrets, and fiendishly clever when it came to security. I've had my share of encounters with such systems..." He then moved on to describe at length the journey that had led to him recovering the shield the Rooster Talisman had been in, but leaving out any mention of the Talisman itself.
Jade grinned widely. Tales of magic or not, this would lend some credence to anything she talked about as far as things she got up to with Jackie. At the same time, Jackie's 'awesome' story was quickly bringing cheer back to Scootaloo's face. As far as Jade was concerned, that was two birds with one stone.
As Jackie finished his story, Uncle stepped up to do his Career Day presentation as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo's guardian. "I run Uncle's Rare Finds," Uncle began softly. "It is antique store, where I sell ancient items, some that Jackie brings me from digs that museums don't want. I also translate inscriptions on ancient artifacts to discover any magical powers hidden within."
As a few students - and Jackie - groaned, Mrs. Hartman cleared her throat. "Uncle, I'm certain you're exaggerating. There's no such thing as-"
"Drink this," Uncle said quickly, sticking a vial of bubbling pink fluid in the teacher's mouth and pouring it down her throat. "Excellent exfoliation...but do not look in the mirror."
"What?" Mrs. Hartman asked in confusion as the entire class gasped in shock. She opened her compact and gasped, seeing her skin green and leathery like a lizard.
"I told you not to look in the mirror!" Uncle shouted out as the entire class first gasped in shock before bursting into laughter.
"What did you do to-"
Uncle interrupted Mrs. Hartman by pinching her cheek and tugging off a bit of the green skin, revealing smooth, healthy pink skin beneath. "Lizards shed their skin. Leaves much healthier skin behind." As the entire class burst into spontaneous applause while Mrs. Hartman shed the rest of her skin, Uncle gave a playful bow. As Jackie buried his face in his hands, Uncle shot Jade a wink.
Jade grinned widely. Apparently, Uncle was aware of Scootaloo's somewhat downtrodden state, and had shaped his presentation to cheer her up. Now if only between them they could think of something to keep her happy...
"And don't forget, children," Mrs. Hartman called out to the class as she discarded the last of her lizard skin, now looking easily five years younger and blushing at the whistles from one of the single dads, "next week it's your turn to report on your parent's job...after you accompany them to work!"
"One more thing!" Uncle spoke up as Jade cheered at the idea of having an excuse to go on the next assignment and Jackie groaned in frustration. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo live at shop with me. See my work every day. Might be better experience for them if they went with Jackie on his work and wrote report with Jade?"
Mrs. Hartman rubbed her chin. "Well, they do turn in top of the line work when they work as a team...I'll allow it, if they'll also each include a report on their day to day lives in the shop."
Seeing Scootaloo beaming from ear to ear, Jade shot Uncle a thumbs up.
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Soooo... no crazy assassin everyone was talking about?
Or does he come later?
Cute~ Thanks!
7669210
Hak Foo comes in the next episode "The Dog And Piggy Show"
Will they find a way to heal those in the Hospital? or will it remain a dark spot for scoots?
D'uh, the answer is obvious, the talisman need chi? Ask Apple Bloom or Sweetie to give a little of Chi. I doubt the body could heal petrification normally after all. They just need a little more of chi.
Chapter Fifty Seven
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 34
"One More Thing!"
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Chapter Count: 1
Total Count: 63
7669241
Doesn't work that way. The terminally ill are simply too weak - in body and spirit - to wield the magic of the Talisman. And in the case of Jackie turning to stone, it enhanced his body's ability to fight off the poison that was causing it, completely purging his system of it.
7669239
Not a dark spot, a learning experience. Magic can't fix everything.
Each of the fillies is going through important realizations about their power, and about magic in general. Part of that is learning the drawbacks and limitations.
I'm no doctor, but it's my understanding that cancer is caused by the excess & uncontrolled growth of the body's own cells. I'm not sure the Horse talisman could heal cancer no matter how much chi it had.
7669239 If the energy can't come from the patients, then logically their must be an external source to give energy for the Horse to heal.
It's like you have a medigun without a battery pack. You give the medigun a battery pack and it heals.
So energy donations!
I love that scene!
ah that awkward moment when you realize you've unintentionally made it so that an episode can no longer happen lol.
Glad things turned out for the better. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7669258 Maybe the horse talisman can't cure cancer, okay... What about other things? Accidents for example, people that lose sight or a finger... things like that? Also, there is another way... They just need to combine the horse with the dog. (Even if they don't know that yet)
7669343
Both points are already covered in text and comments. It's the 'critical care' patients - the ones who are basically on Death Watch - that Scootaloo tried, and failed, to help.
7669359 It covered the dog talisman in previous comment or in the text? Sorry but I didn't know, after all in theory in the story they don't know the dog talisman or his power yet. So, mainly is fighting without all the info. If they did have the dog talisman, the inmortality could cover for the power of the horse talisman.
7669368
Yes, Dog and Horse Talismans are designed to work together. I'll get into how when I get to that episode.
good chapter
All Hail Uncle!
I believe Ms. Hartman really drank down Uncle's advice and hey, it's no skin off her bones but it's not like she's gonna get any younger from listening to him right?
7669470
7669262 yes but the cancerigenous cells don't produce as much energy (magical an physical) as healthy cells and as they grow they drain the healthy cells around
7669287 My personal favorite was "this may sting." *FWOOSH*
7669284 that's what I was asking him, but it doesn't look like he's going to.
7669359 another user pointed out that maybe someone else can supply the power. If this is not the case you don't need to give a long winded explanation, as you likely already have done.
7669536
As stated in the chapter, the Horse Talisman has to draw power from the one being healed.
It is possible for the one using the Horse Talisman to have their vital energy artificially boosted (like, say, from the Dog Talisman) or receive an energy transfusion from someone else...but even those methods have some serious drawbacks.
No matter how you use magic, the energy always has to come from somewhere, and it always has a cost.
7669539 thanks for clarifying! Have a good night!
Mrs. Hartman, Uncle warned you not to look in the mirror, and what did you go and do? Look in the mirror. In any case, this was a heart-warming chapter with Scootaloo being the heart.
7669305 That isn't always a bad thing.
7669258 Drawing from the wisdom of Once Upon a Time, "All magic comes with a price."
I'm really hoping Jade tries out an Equestrian pony form with the monkey talisman over the course of this adventure.
Uncle should really consider marketing the Chi rejunvenate potion... like, skinned off to reveal the new you?
So heartwarming
And fun ensues.
7669287 Tell me about it, I was actually bummed when he didn't include it in the appropriate chapter, no longer.
Youth by Lizard Shedding?
Hmm. Not the craziest idea I've ever heard of...
7669530
7669539
MEDIGUN!
Or battery packs.
7669539
That does explain why there are talismans for both Immortality and regeneration/healing some talismans are needed to complement or balance out each other (Its why the Tiger Talisman exists). I guess the Dog and Horse work together to keep the wielder intact and then some, quite the dog and pony show.
7669262 well...
Maybe it could. The cancerous cells are damaged, their DNA no longer an exact match for their host. So, they could be considered alien by that measure, though this is complicated by the fact that some people have more than one correct DNA sequence.
But, more promisingly, the damage that causes the cells to go rogue is believed to usually be external, UV rays, radiation, toxic compounds, and the like. The cancer's change in behavior resulting from that damage could be construed as influenced behavior, and the cause of the damage as the influencing agent. Being external, it is alien, so this would seem to satisfy the requirements.
It would be healing the patient by healing the cancer cells, pretty much the opposite of all cancer therapies in use today, but that's no problem at all.
7670577
OH MY GOD SANS!!!!
7669247 So maybe we should start taking down how many times Hak Foo says one of his famous animal sayings as well?
While the show never actually explained how the talismans your headcanon does make sense.............except this part I want to call bullshit. No offense but from I've seen the talismans work automatically and don't need anything to power them. Especially with the horse talisman, there is an episode that contradicts your headcanon. It was in season 2 episode 27: Pleasure Cruise, that the horse talisman was used to 'heal' a sinking ship when an explosion made a hole in the hull. As you can see a ship is not a living thing that has any vital energy to heal. So there shouldn't be any reason why the horse talisman can't cure cancers patients.
7672173
Eastern myth is rife with stories of the souls of objects. In the case of inanimate objects, the Talisman runs on spiritual energy and the object's memory of its proper shape (same with when, in the show, Jade used it to repair the statue of Lo Pei). The requirement of vital energy only applies when healing a living thing. Because healing a living being is very different from repairing an inanimate object.
7672189
Wow, you actually know your shit. Okay, what about a chi transfer? If the patients are too weak and don't have the energy to power the talismans could transferring someone's chi to them temporarily be enough to power the talisman to fight the sickness like in season 2 episode 32: Chi of the Vampire?
7672202
In theory. However, chi transfers are only temporary boosts. It's unhealthy - for both the one having chi transferred and the one receiving - to transfer too much in a single go, and the human body burns through excess chi - chi above its "normal levels" (which is much lower for those in critical care) gets burned rapidly. And the Horse Talisman can't do partial healing. It either burns enough energy to heal completely, or it doesn't activate.
Now, it is possible to infuse extra chi directly into the Talisman, and through the Talisman into the patient. However, this process is very dangerous, and requires a full understanding of Chi Magic, Spiritual Magic, and Demon Magic for it to work properly. Doing it improperly will cause an explosion...either that of the Talisman, or the patient.
So can the Horse Talisman be used for critical care patients like that? Yes, but the amount of study and preparation to do so correctly is prohibitive, making it more straight forward to invest the energy and research into creating magical cures for specific sicknesses and diseases.
7672221
Then it looks like Uncle is going to have do some RESEARCH!
You win this round, but I will find a way to stump you.
7672230
No, you won't.
One thing I've learned when working with a magic system. Never say something is impossible. Say only that it is impractical, and that the required effort is prohibitive.
It's like keeping little boys from being reckless. Do not forbid, but discourage. Make the things you don't want them to do sound unpleasant. Magic systems for gamers - or those who like to poke holes in logic - can be worked much the same way.
7672255
7672230
I'm probably setting myself up to look like a fool here, but I'm gonna jump in with a note.
I agree with Tatsurou. If you pay attention to any form of magic system in any show or series, you'll notice that there are always rules. Especially in the Nasuverse. That is by far the most complicated magic system I have ever seen.
Magic is energy, and there is no such thing as infinite energy. If magic truly was infinite, then you really could have people just waving their hand and rewriting time and space and reality on a whim, but that's not the case. Magic is about using the energy available to you to achieve the effect you are after. When it comes to spells that are already pre-made, such as the Talismans, then half the equation is already there. How the spell will be done is already taken care of. The only missing components are "Direction" and "Power". Direction tell the artifact, the Horse Talisman in this case, what to affect, whereas power is self-explanatory.
Now, when it comes to healing a person, that requires a lot of energy, even for small stuff, as the body is incredibly complicated. We're talking blood cell replenishing, bones being mended together, cells being regrown to replace what was damaged, and so on and so forth, If the Talisman can't get enough power, it won't work. Also, and this is a guess based on how the Horse Talisman was explained in this chapter, but the Talisman can only heal what's already possible to heal, just at an accelerated rate. That's why it couldn't heal the cancer patients, because cancer isn't something the body can heal. It needs to be surgically removed, a process that is not naturally done by the body already.
When it comes to "healing" non-biological things however, that's not hard. It's just a matter of moving things back where they need to be and sealing cracks and holes. That uses little to no magical energy, and likely could have been powered by ambient magic when the Horse Talisman fixed the ship.
I hope that helped explain this, and of course I won't be surprised if I got it wrong and Tatsurou has it set up differently. It's rare that I guess what he's doing correctly.
7673935
Actually, you got it dead right.
The only thing you also missed is mental energy. With most spells, the biggest thing is that the caster - or the spell itself - knows exactly what it's doing. In theory, if one could fully conceptualize both the cancerous cells and how to repair them, one could use a basic but focused healing spell to correct the deficiency. However, that is next to impossible in practice.
7673964 Yay! *Looks at checklist.*
SvenBjorn: 3...ish? I think.
Tatsurou: ...*Sigh* Lots. Well, I got something right at least.
I have a feeling Scootaloo killed people... like dang. It sounds like that Ghost Rider movie Nick Cage was in.
"I made a deal with the Devil; now my Dad is as healthy as a horse!"
*Dad dies in a ball of fire.*
"Where did I go wrong?!"
7678162 Probably accelerated the cancer for some reason