Trial and Error

by Kiernan

Chapter 13: Renewing Interest

Chapter 13: Renewing Interest

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The rest of the day was almost solely dedicated to research on the muscle patterns for flight. With Fluttershy being grounded, her wingbeats did nothing to arouse Akaitora's suspicion of her trying to escape. He studied her skeletal structure that held the wings in place, and the muscles that moved when she opened and closed her wings, he was able to match some movements using his own muscles, but others he had marked to be worked on. He was so engrossed with his work that he didn't notice how late it was getting until he heard a noise from beneath him.

"It seems there's someone in the kitchen," he said, standing up from where he had been sitting.

"That doesn't surprise me. I'm getting a bit hungry myself." said Fluttershy. She too, stood, trotting over to the door.

They walked to the kitchen below, Akaitora leading the way, as a series of metallic clangs rang out from the small room. Peering inside before entering, he saw only Usutora, frantically tossing things around, paying no heed to where they went.

"Is it possible to not destroy my home?" he asked, pushing the door wide open. Usutora stopped, and looked at Akaitora. a look that combined anger and confusion was splayed across his face, and it resounded in his voice.

"Where's all your food!?" he shouted out, causing Fluttershy to timidly back away from the door, trying to not get caught up in the conflict.

"Nothing's ready yet. It has to be cooked first." he chuckled. 'Does he not know that food has to be made before you can eat it?' he thought to himself. 'Surely he must know that'

"Well, what are you going to make then?"

"Probably just some bread, I don't feel like doing anything big tonight."

"How long will that take?"

"Oh, about an hour." he said, turning around to face the greenhouse door. "Give or take a few minutes to let it cool.

"That's too long to wait, I'm hungry now!" whined Usutora.

Akaitora turned to Fluttershy. "Up to you, then," he said with a sigh. "What do you want to do?"

"Me?" she asked after turning her head both ways.

"Is there anyone else in that general direction?"

"I guess not..." she said, staring at the floor. "I suppose... we could just... all have an apple?" she suggested.

"There aren't any fresh apples this time of year, though!" complained Usutora. "Where are we going to get Apples that aren't dried up?"

Akaitora chuckled to himself. "Dear brother, you may be older than me, but you have a lot to learn." He opened the large wooden door to the greenhouse, and a brilliant light illuminated the hallway. The room seemed bigger than Fluttershy remembered it, but that may have been attributed to the small patch of dirt where wheat grew this morning. A steel-blue aura grasped some apples at the back of the room, and drew them in close to the trio standing in the hallway. Almost instantly, a bloom sprouted up where an apple had been plucked, assuring a swift regrowth.

The apples were set down on the nearest table, save for one, which remained in Akaitora's aura. "Guten appetit," he declared, closing the greenhouse door and biting into his apple, on his way up the stairs. Meanwhile Fluttershy was slowly eating her apple, trying to keep it from dripping onto the table. She looked over at Usutora, who hadn't moved from where he stood when Akaitora opened the door, dumbfounded.

"You get used to it after a while," she reassured him, snapping him back to his senses. It might just take some time to get there."

"Uh huh..." he stood up and walked over to the table. "So how long have you been here?"

"About two days. But I've had my share of experience with unicorns before."

"I've been around unicorns all my life, but I've never seen anything like that before."

"Oh, that's just one of the spells I've seen him usee that seem to come out of nowhere. I think he's done more studying than my friend Twilight. Which makes sense, I guess. he is older, but I just figured he worked on his machines the whole time."

"Well, he was always one to dabble in magic, recording his findings, finding what effects one spell had on another, and all manner of other things. His dabbling got him thrown out of so many schools..."

"I thought he was only held back a few times?"

"That was for his life's work, not for his small projects leading into it."

"What was so bad about the other things he worked on?"

"Well, he liked to experiment a lot, which had some rather damaging side effects."

"but they paid off in the end, right?"

"Most of them. It shouldn't surprise me that he has such a vast knowledge of spells that no one else knows." Usutora finished his Apple, and his story. "It's about sunset, I think. I'm going to go out for a breath of fresh air before it gets too cold. I bid you good night, Fluttershy." And with that, he walked out the door and up the stairs.

Fluttershy finished her apple and left about two minutes later. She hadn't dripped on the table or floor, and her hooves weren't sticky, so she was quite pleased with herself. As she walked back to her bedchamber, she saw a blue light flickering under the door across from where her room was. The door was closed, so she decided not to disturb her host, and to just quietly wait in the room they were working in before leaving for the kitchen.

It wasn't long before the door swung open, and Akaitora strode back in. "Sorry to take so long, I had a small task that needed doing while you two were eating." Fluttershy noticed that his limp was gone, as well as the bandages. But it seemed that the cuts had healed entirely, leaving no noticeable scars.Just what had he been doing in the other room, and why didn't he take care of it ahead of time?

He draped his cape around his neck, admiring the comfort that he felt now that he couldn't remember feeling before. even though is was a little more breezy around the ankles. Looking back, he found it was because it no longer dragged along the ground. Indeed, Fluttershy had magical hooves when it came to stitching. A wonder that she didn't go into making these for a living.

"Now, I'm just about finished for the night, and I'll let you get some rest." As if in approval of this, Fluttershy yawned. "And it shouldn't be too long until you can go back to the life you had before this whole ordeal."

"That would be wonderful. I hope you can finish your project soon."

"As do I. Nothing would bring me greater joy than flying through the air, and not having to worry about how high I go. Now would you mind flapping your wing a few times, as if you were flying forward?"

Comments

[Balancer]

loving it

[SunStone]

Saw a few capitalization errors in there. Other than that, this is good. Keep it up!