There was an interesting mix of emotions going through me as Twilight, Armor, and myself made our way down the street of Canterlot. The last time around might’ve been unpleasant enough to taint my view of the place permanently if Armor and his trooper buddies hadn’t covered me up from the curious looks of the ponies around me.
That hadn’t been a pleasant experience, but this time, there was none of that. Even if my right legs didn’t look perfect, at a glance, very few seemed to notice anything off about them.
So there was the joy of being mostly physically restored, the slight lingering bitterness at the last experience with this place, and some form of excitement of my pretty grave handicaps being well (but not perfectly) hidden in plain sight of all the pedestrians around me, combined with me secretly being an alien.
I guess the result was some sort of smug satisfaction which I felt looking at the ponies around me from my vantage point on Armor’s back.
“Ah, hello, my fellow equines,” I said, in an overly posh voice only loud enough for the three of us to hear as I looked at a unicorn stallion who seemed to have dressed up as the monopoly guy captivating an entourage with his words. “Wouldn’t you agree that the only thing better than lots and lots of old money is having four limbs? Yes, fnha-ha-ha!”
Twilight and Armor gave me some amused looks as I focused on a unicorn filly busying herself with a popsicle. “Hey, kid,” I said, in a slimy street-swindler’s voice. “You ever been chased by a red bull? I haven’t, but if I were, it would eat my dust if I didn’t eat it first.”
“You’ve been a lot more talkative lately,” Armor said.
“Well, you guys are my friends and I’m comfortable around you,” I said, before focusing specifically on Armor with a hint of mischievousness in my voice. “Can I make you fluster if I say that I’m especially comfortable around you?”
“After that song? No,” Armor said.
“Yeah, that was a fun night, I’ve never been to an equine Oktoberfest before.”
That had been a few weeks ago, and I had made a lot of progress. I could walk at a pretty fast pace with no limp, and come pretty close to a full-on gallop. The morning after hadn’t been that bad either. I had been expecting a much larger headache.
From Twilight’s words, it seemed that a lot of the resistances and general hardiness that non-magical beings needs to build up from exposure and such were at least partially granted automatically for magical ponies.
Which isn’t to say that ponies were invulnerable.
“Well, count yourself lucky that you, uh, expired when you did,” Twilight said. “Big Mac wasn’t so lucky. Then again, he should’ve learned by now to not have contests with the Punches.”
The ponies in question were Ponyville’s fermentation-specialists, Berry Punch, Pina Colada, and Bag-In-Box.
“Uh, yeah, sorry about that,” Armor said. “I guess I wasn’t doing my job there.”
“Well, I took care of it,” Twilight said. “How was your night with Rose?”
“Well, she was nice. Very nice,” Armor said, a bit uncertainly. “We really hit it off.”
“Hurhuuur!” I said, in a mock dumb voice.
Armor gently swatted at me with a wing while Twilight giggled at him.
“Hehe. Well, I’m gonna try and look dignified and walk for myself for the last part,” I said, as I hopped down from Armor’s back, figuring that he had hauled me around enough, especially since his saddle bags were filled with the previous models of my prostheses. As usual, and this was especially noticeable when I was walking on hard surfaces, in contrast to Twilight’s and Armor’s "clippedy cloppedy", my own steps made a sound more like "clippedy clackedy".
As we approached the great arches that made up the outer wall of the castle, one of the guards spotted us and flew deeper into the grounds. The remaining guards saluted us as we entered the castle-grounds, with one of them giving Armor a small smirk.
“‘Sup, Codpiece?” he said, quietly.
Armor just rolled his eyes and waved a lazy greeting.
Moving up to the castle proper, Kibitz moved out to greet us.
“Ah, Princess Twilight, Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, a pleasure to have you back.”
“Hello, Kibitz,” Twilight said. “I assume that Celestia and Luna are occupied?”
“For the moment, yes. I’ve made some arrangement for refreshments in the garden if that would be to your liking,” Kibitz said.
“I wouldn’t mind some,” I commented.
“I’m not sure that extends to me,” Armor said.
“It does if I say so,” I said. “You’re still pretty much under my command, you’re gonna eat cookies and like it, private.”
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
“I feel I must congratulate you on your endeavor, Madam Desrochers,” Kibitz said, as we moved through the castle grounds into some softer grass, some more civilian-looking ponies giving us, and especially Twilight, curious looks.
“Thank you, Kibitz,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind that I stopped using your help arrangement at the first possible opportunity.”
“Naturally not,” Kibitz said.
We approached a secluded spot in the garden, where the white-coated, blue-maned stallion I had seen earlier was situated, sipping from a teacup held in his blue magic aura.
“In fact,” Kibitz continued, “I would express my gratitude on behalf of Equestria. Your contributions could very well prove essential in providing aid in a way that might never have been rediscovered.”
“Oh, well, uh,” I said, scratching the back of my head as I walked. “I’m just happy that they don’t seem to be in very high demand.”
“So are we all. Ah, Mister Pants,” Kibitz said, as he spotted the other unicorn, which gave me pause for a moment. “Your prior engagement went satisfactory, then?”
The unicorn turned to face us. “Oh! Ah, yes, they did indeed, thank you,” he said, before turning his attention to the rest of us. “Well, fine tidings to you all, and a pleasure to see you again, your highness. I hope nopony minds that I took the liberty of enjoying this spot, it wasn’t reserved for others, I hope?”
Twilight gave a short giggle. “That’s alright, Fancy. Nice to see you again. And just ‘Twilight’ is fine, I think.”
“As you wish, Twilight. I’m afraid I don’t recognise you though,” the stallion said, to Armor and me.
Kibitz cleared his throat and gestured towards us. “Allow me to introduce Private Armor of the Canterlot Royal Guard, and Ambassador Madam Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, honored guest of the crowns,” he said, and shifted his hoof towards the stallion. “Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, this is Sir Fancy Pants, authority on private enterprise.”
I gave Fancy Pants a quick scan. ‘Those are indeed some fancy pants, in that they seem to be invisible.’
“A pleasure to meet you both,” Fancy said, giving a round of hoof-shakes. “Honored guest of the crowns, then? I daresay you must be from the gryphon lands.”
Armor took the conversation as a cue to make himself scarce, and shuffled off to a corner to stand guard. The comforting feeling of his presence being were mixed with a bit of sadness, now that we were here.
“Uh, not really,” I said, and gave Fancy a sheepish grin, wondering how many times I would be asked that in three centuries.
“No?” Fancy asked, curiously. “Ah, of course! Now I see. From the mountains then. There must be a good bit of thestral in your heritage; I noticed the fangs.”
“Not quite that either,” I said, and thought it best to change the subject. “What is an ‘authority on private enterprise’?
“Oh, ho-ho,” Fancy Pants laughed, “I try and not toot my own horn too much, as they say. I am just a business pony who’s found his endeavors more successful than not.”
I couldn’t help but give him a somewhat wry look. This guy had gravitas.
“How about you?” Fancy asked. “May I ask why you are enjoying the sights of the castle this day?”
“Well, I don’t wanna be a horn tooter either,” I said, with a shrug.
Twilight gave me a good-natured roll of the eyes. “Gabe here is an enchanter who recently rediscovered magical prosthetic limbs.”
“I had help,” I said, a bit abashedly.
“Yes, but the concept and ultimate idea came from you,” Twilight insisted.
“Oh?” Fancy seemed to take this as a cue to take a closer look at my leg.
‘Seems like it didn’t completely pass him by after all.’
“In fact, I’ve also thought about trying to find somepony that might find something else of Gabe’s interesting,” Twilight said, and levitated out a pair of cable ties that were originally in my computer from Armor’s saddle bags.
Fancy managed to tear his gaze from my legs after a moment. “Hm? What is that?” he asked.
“It’s a cable tie,” I said a bit dismissively and took it my own aura to demonstrate. “It’s a pretty much just a wire and a ratchet.”
“I figured a lot of ponies could find this useful in their everyday life, so I thought I’d see if somepony would be interested in it,” Twilight said.
By now, Fancy Pants had the tie in his own magical grip and was inspecting it with a scrutinizing gaze. “Yeees. I can understand that,” he said, before seeming to register what Twilight said. “Wait, are you saying that nopony is manufacturing these?”
“Well, no,” Twilight said, “Not yet.”
“And this is yours?” Fancy asked me.
“Uh, well, yes,” I said, a bit uncertainly. “Why, you know someone who’d be interested in them?”
It was true that the piece of plastic that Fancy held in his magical aura was mine, but right now it seemed like I was going to get credit for someone else’s invention.
“I believe that Mister Pants would be interested in a business deal with you, Gabrielle,” said the voice of Princess Luna, as she and Celestia approached us from the side. Kibitz had vanished somewhere along the way.
Armor stood at attention, and I felt slightly proud of myself for being on the ball and doing a little bow with Fancy Pants.
“Yes yes, as you were,” Luna said shortly, waving a wing dismissively.
“Congratulations, Gabrielle,” Celestia said, giving a warm smile especially directed at me and Twilight. “I realise that you might have heard this many times now. And now I must apologise for revealing things about you in front of relative strangers,” she added, in a slightly rueful tone.
I looked at Fancy, who looked at me in curiosity. “Ah, that’s okay, I think. Most people have had a positive reaction to it.”
“Would… this have something to do with the strange feeling texture of your right hoof?” Fancy asked a bit cautiously.
“Uh, yes,” I said, and magically pulled up the new and improved cover of my right foreleg, revealing the metallic surface underneath. “A new kind of prosthetic. Heavy duty model. We’re here to donate the previous models to… your school, perhaps?” I said, turning to Celestia.
“That would be a good idea,” Celestia said. “I hope you won’t mind coming in and helping sometime? The student and professors unmaking magics that they can’t recreate is… not entirely unheard of.”
“Not guilty,” Twilight said, and held up a hoof with a smile.
“Guilty,” Luna sighed dejectedly.
“That was actually closer to my fault,” Celestia said, to which Luna gave a consentaneous side nod.
Fancy has been looking at my leg in interest for a while now. “So, would you say that you’re a… royal inventor?” he asked.
I was about to give a protest when I hesitated. “Well… I’unno,” I said, with a shrug. “I’ve kinda focused on just one thing, and that was sort of mostly for my own benefit, but I guess that’s up to the princesses to decide.”
“Considering your contributions so far, you are eligible to be considered that,” Celestia said.
I considered this for a moment before shrugging. “Maybe ceremonially.”
Fancy kept looking at me with wide eyes before shaking his head. “Well, I seem to have intruded on a prearranged meeting. Before I take my leave, what do you say about this?” he asked, and levitated the cable tie up for us to see.
I considered this for a few moments. ‘Well, I’ve already let these people look at my computer, but I didn’t make any money from that. It’s not my invention, but… ah, whatever! I can just deny the profits from it if I want.’
“Sure, keep it,” I said, with a shrug.
Fancy’s eyes widened again. “We’ll, uh, arrange the royalties by mail, shall we?”
“Sure. Enjoy,” I said.
“Well, a good day to you all then,” Fancy said, and after everyone present had answered he walked away,
“What an interesting filly,” I heard him mumble to himself when he put some distance between us.
“Did I just win the lottery?” I asked the assembled ponies around me as I turned back to them.
“Something akin to that,” Luna said. “Which is just as well. We cannot help but notice that you have done very little to redeem our offer to provide for you.”
“Ah, well, uh,” I said nervously. “I hope… that I haven’t offended you. It’s just… I’ve already had one state help me get a new life. I just… I’d like to try and provide for myself someday. Also, I have lived off of Twilight.”
Celestia and Luna’s expression shifted from curious to a bit crestfallen.
“A guest room and foodstuff isn’t exactly what we had in mind,” Luna said. “We just hope that you are not discomforted by the thought of heads of a nation aiding you.”
I shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Uh, I’m not sure, actually. Although, I did make pretty good use of the help you provided me,” I said, and looked at Armor with a small smile. “And Scrap Armor was hired with state funding.”
“That’s true,” Celestia said. “You are still welcome to overrule Private Armor’s transfer to the Crystal Empire.”
I looked at Armor again. Now it was his turn to shift uncomfortably. If I kept him for myself, I would keep him from his proper job, and from what little I knew of military life, that would perhaps not be a good thing in the long run. On the other hand, I knew he didn’t want to leave me unless I was totally fine with it.
Making this hard on him would be a poor repayment. “I’m sure,” I said. “Armor has been the best personal assistant I’ve ever had, but I’m not going to keep him from his unit. Besides, we’re still gonna be friends.”
Armor gave me a slightly sad smile.
“It is true that the arrangement in the empire is a temporary solution until their own standing force can be fully modernized. Armor will be part of a rotating stream of pegasi until they have enough there for a permanent presence,” Luna said, the energetic tone she used hinting that she was very passionate about these things.
“Mmm,” Twilight agreed around a cookie in her mouth before she swallowed it. “And we still need to come up with a name for them. Shiny is terrible at deciding on names.”
I had just grabbed a cookie of my own and bit down on it so suddenly I think it went straight into my stomach. “Well,” I said, struggling my utmost to make this sound casual. “If the idea is that they’re gonna be using weather-magic in combat, you can just call them ‘The Imperial Stormtroopers’.”
Everyone looked at me curiously for a moment before Luna spoke up. “We like it. It shall be so!”
‘Yes!’
“Going back to hiring Scrap Armor, we insist that you tell us the tale of your new limbs. Especially the latest models.”
This was a subject I was quite happy to discuss, especially considering how much I had contributed to these.
“Well, besides them being really, really strong, and tough, we left some space for some cool bells and whistles. Check this out,” I said, and magically pulled down the cover for the upper-part of my hind-leg, revealing a little space where I kept my harmonica.
I floated the harmonica up to my mouth and played a little tune. “Cool, huh?”
Celestia and Luna gave me another surprised look. “That is certainly... unique,” Celestia said.
“Indeed,” Luna said. “And those engravings?”
I started peeling off the blue cover from my legs, revealing the gorgeous looking patterns on it.
My right hooves were now covered in serpentine engravings which made them glint in certain lights, and that felt a bit awkward at times. Nothing against Michael Jackson, but I didn’t feel like emulating him as I walked down the street.
“Well, on the internal side, we’ve used several different kinds of gem dusts that complement each other to optimise my magic reserves. It’s also got this adjustment circlet thing, just in case I need to throttle the maximum amount of power it allows,” I said, as I turned a part of the upper foreleg that blended in very well with the engravings.
“Then there’s the chassis, and this is really impressive,” I said, excitedly. “Scrap made these thin steel-sheets that he covered in molten bronze, and then, as he was putting on all kinds of enchantments on them, making them lighter and stronger and all that, he twisted them into helices, flattened them out again, and kept enchanting them. After he had done that a few times, he bent them into their proper shape, and now they’re pretty much impossible to disenchant for anyone who doesn’t know how they’re made. He also had this elaborate magical setup that pressurized specific parts of the metal to keep them from melting as he was shaping them.”
Celestia looked thoughtful, while Luna mostly looked pleased. “We are glad to see that there are still proper war artificers in this age. The world was wild once, and the thought of peaceful times turning us too complacent is not one we relish.”
“Yeah, this is, uh… military grade stuff, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Indeed. When these are available for those who needs them in the general population, perhaps something not quite this strong would be appropriate?” Celestia said.
“Mmm. Also, these ones are perfectly aligned to me. The last ones–” I nodded towards the old models in Armor’s bags “– chafed me just a little bit.”
As the presentation concluded, and Kibitz somehow materialized again to collect my old legs (it felt about as weird to see as it feels to say it), I stopped dead in my tracks when my words caught up with me.
‘… Oh sh–… Did I just friend-zone Armor?’
—
“Aaah,” I aah’d, as I clambered up the bed, back in the luxurious suite in the castle.
I magically pulled out my fake eye, dropped it in the basin on the nightstand, then pulled down the coverings of my legs to deactivate the spell before placing them on the side of the bed.
‘Still weird, but this time in a good way.’
My disembodied friend hadn’t made himself known for a few days now. I know that rest is important for a learning mind, just as it is for a developing body, so maybe I had just figured that I needed some downtime.
So I simply rolled over in my large bed, and promptly fell asleep.
Until all my world was agony.
I had gone to bed, then suddenly I was trapped in a crushingly tight cocoon of glowing white pokers stabbing at me, countless needles pricking at my nerves, and all the world’s salt was poured on the open wound that was me.
And all I could do was try and curl up and beg for it to stop.
I really should've seen it coming. I have a pretty good idea of how my own carcass works, equine or simian, and this is what happened often enough for a while after I had started using the remainder of my leg regularly. This... was phantom pain.
A sound like a distant voice reached me, and I couldn’t tell how fast they were talking as all the pain in the world seemed to wash over me.
“I– I’m sorry! She screamed and I– I tried waking her up, but she wouldn’t– You said to come get you if anything happened,” the voice seemed to say, though I couldn’t be sure of how long after I registered it.
‘Make it stop… Someone, help me… Please.’
As I felt myself being overwhelmed, I seemed to almost lose my sense of self, and all sense of time, when something happened.
An almost radiant seeming feeling touched me, and my mind seemed to jolt back into shape, making the sensation sharp and fresh, but this time something anchored my sense of self.
“You did the right thing, my little pony,” another voice said. “There is no need to worry. I will take this from here.”
A soft melody sounded in the distance, and the radiant feeling intensified, and like when being warmed from a cold winter day, it sent a cleansing shiver through me, slowly dulling the agony until it became pain, then discomfort, then irritation, and then it was gone.
My web of anguish was dissolved, and only a comforting presence and the beautiful and soft melody remained.
Unconsciousness once again took me far away from what had just happened.
—
My eye slowly blinked open to witness the calming shade of Equestrian night.
‘That… was a bad one. I don’t think I’ve had it this bad since...'
I felt a calm heartbeat against my right cheek, along with a great warmth.
I slowly, and very gently, turned my head to see a radiant white coat of hair pressing against me.
Princess Celestia, supreme ruler of Equestria, alicorn of the sun, and ageless guardian of all of ponykind, was out like a light and holding me in her wings and shoeless hooves like a teddy bear.
I looked up at her face, her golden tiara and peytral missing, and saw a look of deep contentment.
‘It was her. She was the one who helped me… better than any anesthetic I’ve ever gotten.’
Not wanting to bother her, I gently tried scooting out of her grip, when suddenly her face contorted into worry, and her grip became firmer as she slightly bent around me and let out a very, very soft mewl.
Wondering what I was thinking, I hesitated for just a moment before gently burrowing into her barrel while looking up at her face.
Celestia let out a soft sigh, as her expression shifted into relief, almost serenity, and perhaps I was just imagining things, but I’m sure I saw a hint of sadness or longing there.
‘Not a teddy bear, perhaps. Something else.’
Realizing I wouldn’t ruin this for my greatest enemy, I snuggled up against her and let myself fall asleep again.
It was surprisingly easy.
—
I woke up searching the air for something which wasn’t there, and my first conscious thought realizing what I was hugging for.
I inwardly rolled my eye at myself. ‘Such a strong and independent women you are.' I thought, as I scooted over to the edge of the bed and probed around for my legs. 'A motherly alien horse holds you and you wake up groping for her like a baby.’
My thoughts softened as I did the little activation thing and gently slapped them on me, the enchanted textile which served as my surrogate sense of touch starting to feel comforting.
‘Then again, is that so bad?’
I magicked my eye out of the basin, plopped it in, and spun it around a few times to gently massage the muscles in there, which also at least felt like it cleaned out some gook out of there.
‘I wonder how long I’m gonna be in this… limbo between child and adult?’
I pulled my eye out again, splashed it in the basin a few times, and plopped it back in.
‘Wow, talk about first-world problems. Or would that be a second-world problem? Seeing how this is my second homeworld… Hm, whatever.’
I couldn’t pass the thing with Celestia off as a dream. That depression in the bed was far too big and warm for me to have caused, as befitting a sun goddess.
This was the first time I was woken up without someone I had slept with. It wasn’t angering like drama had hinted that it would be.
So, simply strolling through my room towards the door with the intent of getting some breakfast, I stopped when I saw a large sign by the wall opposite my door.
It said "Dining Hall", and had an arrow pointing the opposite way that I had walked all the other times.
“... Okay?” I said, confused, and looked back and forth down the hall, empty of ponies.
I simply shrugged and followed the sign.
I reached the end of the hall, where another sign told me that the stairs on one side led to the main hall, and the balcony on the right led out to the garden.
Confused, I walked out to the balcony to see if there was some elevator arrangement or something, but it was just a balcony looking out over the castle ground.
“Well... this is technically true, elevation issues notwithstanding,” I said, to myself, and walked down the stairs instead.
—
After about fifteen minutes, my confusion had mostly given way to annoyance at all the nonsensical signs, and I felt that I would need to sit down with some breakfast if I didn’t want to drain myself with my new legs. I would have started getting worried if it wasn’t for the soothingly beautiful weather, with the occasional pair of guards saluting me, and the gardeners calmly going about their business down at the grounds.
I was pretty sure I had made my way down to ground level when I saw another sign that said "observatory" pointing to a closed door.
Carefully, I opened it and peered down into a stairway leading into a basement.
“Okay, now I know this is bull,” I said.
“You… might want to be careful how you say that right now,” A voice behind me said, neutrally.
I whipped my head around to see a white unicorn with a brown mane made up in a bun behind her back, walking around the corner with a clipboard held in her magical aura.
“Good morning, Eleanor Desrochers, correct?” she said, the little emotion she put in her voice being pleasant.
“Uh, yes. Good morning,” I answered.
“Pleasure to meet you,” she said, “I’m Raven, Princess Celestia’s secretary.”
“Oh, well, nice to meet you too,” I said, “So, uh, what’s the deal with the signs?”
“Oh, that’s, uh, something of an emergency solution. The hedge maze needs some maintenance. Which is not an adequate reason for letting our ability to entertain guests slip, as her Majesty assured me,” Raven said, with just a hint of exasperation in her voice at the end.
“I… don’t think I follow,” I said, but before Raven could answer, a loud voice barked out from behind the corner.
“Hahaa! This is even better than last time!”
Following a strange set of hoof falls, from out around the corner stepped a giant mountain of muscles covered in black hair, with an impressive set of horns on its head, and a pair of dress pants.
This, I was pretty sure, was a minotaur.
“Oh, a-ha-ha,” Raven laughed uncertainly. “Well, I’m glad you like it, sir. Would you–”
“And who might this be?” the minotaur asked, loudly, and pointed towards me with either joviality or malice on his face, it was kinda hard to tell.
“Uh, this is Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Princesses Celestia and Luna’s guest,” Raven said, “She’s here on business of a magical nature.”
“Ah, excellent!” the minotaur said, and stepped in front of me, while I couldn’t help but back into the wall as he did. “I greet you, Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Know that I, Angus Black, stands before you!”
“I… greet you, too,” I said nervously. It looked he only needed to make one bad step for me to end up a paste underneath his hooves.
“What a strange name for a pony,” Angus said, and looked away from me in contemplation. “Desrochers… Desrochers. Not a name I would associate with a wielder of the arcane, either. It does have cunning feel to it. Is that what it means in old gryphon? ‘Desrochers’, De-Roosh, De-Roog… ‘The Rogue’?”
That was not what my name meant, as far as I knew. “Uuuh,” was all I could say to that.
“Regardless, so your business is of a magical nature?” Angus said, before I could think up anything to say. “What is your quest?”
“I, uh, I-I was… hoping to get some breakfast,” I stammered.
“Splendid! With your cunning and magical might, and my great strength and stamina, we shall surely overcome this challenge. Come with me! Glory, and breakfast, awaits!” Angus shouted.
His arms, bulging from the muscles like a knee sock filled with coconuts, reached down before I had time to back away and slung me across his shoulder.
When I came to an abrupt halt on top of Angus, the whipping motion launched my prosthetic eye out of my socket, and I had just enough presence of mind to grab it in my magical aura.
As Angus quickly made his way down the hall, I saw Raven stand there with a hoof raised, trying to get some words out, before just slumping and letting out a sigh.
—
The deep, thumping sounds of Angus Black making his way down the halls of Canterlot Castle, with me perched on his head and holding on to his horns like a strange version of a mechanical bull ride, could probably be heard halfway down the mountain.
I had felt some fairly strong trepidation when I had first been carried off, nervous that he would interpret any protest as an insult.
This was proving to be an unfounded fear, however, as he was strangely amicable, and his inclusion of my input in our quest also helped put me at ease.
“Ah! Pantry,” he said as he read a sign hanging from the ceiling, pointing to a door to the side of the corridor.
“Hm, judging from the location and design,” I started. “I’m guessing this is –” Angus threw open the door, revealing a small space filled with cleaning supplies “ –a janitorial closet.”
“Are we certain of this?” Angus asked as he rifled through the contents and held something up to his face. “This is not some sort of hay-sicle, then?”
“No, I’m pretty sure that’s just a broomstick,” I said, as a small group of guards made their way past us, trying to not make it too obvious that they were looking at us in curiosity.
“‘Sup?” I nodded at them.
“Mmmmorning,” one of them said uncertainly, as they walked past.
“Very well,” Angus said, and closed to the closet. He looked around and spotted another sign that said "Battlements", which pointed down some stairs. “Ah! We can head outside and get our bearings.”
I had my doubts about that, seeing as we had made our way back to the ground floor. “Actually, I think we can get outside if we backtrack a little bit and take a left where it said ‘pegasus lounge’.”
“Very well, you have yet to lead us astray, Gabrielle The Rogue.”
Some thumping later, we stepped out into the gardens. There, a team of gardeners walked in a line towards a shed mostly hidden behind the walls of the hedge maze, with a filly about my size strolling leisurely a little ways from them; a pleased look on her face.
“Maybe we should ask for directions?” I suggested.
“A minotaur asking for directions? Preposterous!” Angus said, though not angrily.
“Alright, I’ll ask,” I said, and turned his head towards the filly with his horns. “Forward march.”
“Ho there!” Angus called to the smiling filly.
We already had her attention, though luckily she didn’t seem intimidated in the least by Angus. “Hoe where?” she asked, and looked around in confusion. “We don’t hoe here.”
“We are greeting you, young filly,” Angus said. “For we are on a quest, and we ask for your assistance.”
The filly giggled into her hoof before looking back up at us. “Sure, whatcha need?”
“We’re trying to find somewhere to get something to eat,” I said. “Or at least I am.”
“Alright, I can show you where you need to go,” the filly said, and giggled into her hoof again.
“Most excellent,” Angus said, picked her up just as easily as he had picked up me, her giggling the whole time, and placed her beside me on the other shoulder. “What is your name?”
“Giggle Hooves,” she said. “And we just gotta go down around that corner. Princess Luna is there, and she’s got cookies.”
“Splendid,” Agnus said, satisfied, and started marching.
“Is this her dinner?” I asked.
“I dunno. Maybe,” Giggle Hooves said. “Who are you, by the way?”
“I’m Gabrielle, but you can call me Gabe,” I said.
“What do you do around here?” she asked.
“I advise the princesses on my homeland,” I said.
“Wow, are you a changeling? No wait, you must be a crystal pony! No wait, half a crystal pony! I can tell, only one of your eyes is crystal.”
That threw me a little bit. I looked away, wondering what I was to say to that, when I saw Luna sitting on a cushion, by a table, under a parasol, with sunglasses, reading a copy of the Canterlot Times.
I shook my head, and gave Giggle a shrug and a smile. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Luna looked up over the top of her sunglasses as we approached. “Ah, Angus,” she said, sounding a little tired. “Always a pleasure.”
“Likewise, Your Majesty,” Angus said, happily, giving her a small nod. Luckily, I was still holding him steadily by the horns.
“Hi, Luna!” Giggle happily exclaimed.
“Hello again, Giggle,” Luna said. “And to what do I owe the pleasure, Angus?”
“Oh, I am simply enjoying the sights and sounds that this beautiful castle has to offer. Gabrielle here, on the other hand, is looking for breakfast,” Angus said.
“Ah, yes. Good morning, Gabrielle. Would you care to join me?”
“If it’s not a problem,” I said, a bit reluctant, as Luna couldn’t quite hide her fatigue.
“Certainly not. Please, have a seat,” she said, as she floated another cushion up from under the table.
“Thanks,” I said, and started clambering down Angus’ great form before he simply took me and deposited me on the cushion. It might’ve felt a bit more weird to someone else, but even though it had happened a lot less in recent years, I was fairly used to being hauled around even as an adult.
“Well, thanks for the ride,” I said.
“Think nothing of it, my brave companion. Though now, I must continue my quest,” Angus said, and turned to Giggle. “Would you accompany me instead, joyful one?”
Giggle giggled. “Sure!”
“Then let us be off. Farewell, Gabrielle Eleanor. Until we meet again. And a fair day to you, Your Majesty,” Agnus exclaimed.
“Likewise,” Luna said, and inclined her head.
“Thanks, Angus. See you later,” I said.
“Bye!” Giggle called as Angus moved away.
Luna turned her attention to her teacup and kettle. “Angus has a very good hand with foals. A good trait for an individual of his size, I think. Tea?”
“Oh, uh, yes please,” I said. “So… he’s not usually like that. It was because I’m a kid again?”
“Indeed,” Luna said as she filled a cup for me and pushed a plate of biscuits over. “Although his appreciation for mazes is genuine.”
“Oh. I guess I should’ve figured,” I groaned.
“Perhaps. Now, I hope you don’t mind if I abandon my attempts at keeping up with modern speech? Normally, I would not, but right now, I’m appreciating your lack of royal observance,” Luna said.
“Uh, okay. Sure,” I said.
Luna let out a sigh, and took off her sunglasses to rub her eyes. “Many thanks and cherishes. Long have been this night, and things other than inelegant speech would be the uppermost of our mind at this time.”
“Do you want me to speak like that?” I asked.
“Neigh, there would be little rhyme in a request such as that,” Luna said, and she looked at me with a touch of sadness in her eyes. “Be it that our matter to discuss with you would be our sister.”
“Celestia?” I asked.
Luna let out another sigh. “Often we have wondered whether she is one upon whom fortune dotes, for when we asked, she told us about her whereabouts this night since passed.”
“Yes, she…” I started and trailed off.
“It is in truth when she is held as the benevolent guardian of these lands, and as she shields Equestria from horror and tragedy, she is shielded from most but brief respites of her station.”
“She’s lonely?” I asked, despite knowing the answer.
“Verily. Strong and true she be, yet distant and just she must also be. Our return, and the progress of dearest Twilight, brings warmth to her heart, and ours, but she has also suffered many of the tragedies that she would shield our subjects from,” Luna said, and looked at me with a meaningful look in her eyes.
‘Tragedies? She said she never had a daughter, and I assume that means she never had a child, but she did mention...'
“Sombra.”
“As true as spoken. Do not be mistaken, she is not a fragile being. Our return did not save her, nor have the presence of Twilight Sparkle. She would banish us again, would it safeguard Equestria, and rule as benevolently as always, but well-earned be comfort for such a weary heart.”
‘As if millions of Bon Jovi ballads cried out in longing, and were suddenly silenced.’
By this time, I had pretty much forgotten breakfast. “And I rejected her last time I was here,” I said, my ears drooping.
“As you should have,” Luna said, confidently. “A free mare are you, other than that would be a masquerade. We would express both our gratitude, and ask for your pardon, however.”
I looked up at Luna in confusion. “Why?”
“For what you allowed her in this night. It was a more true soothing of the soul than a false daughter role,” Luna said, giving me a warm smile.
“Oh, well, uh… happy to, I guess,” I said.
“Now, we would invite you to enjoy this meal, modest though it might be,” Luna said. “And we would have matters of levity.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “It looks like you really want to go to bed.”
“A fear without founding,” she said happily, magicked up a thermos from behind her, and started pouring an almost tar-like coffee in her cup. “We partake in a brew most invigorating.”
—
“A wyrm of some degree of charm,” Luna said, as we strolled down the shimmering caverns, Luna leading the way, while me, Twilight, and Armor bringing up the rear. “A favor too strong would be to claim that true gravitas be his, however.”
“He was very different from the other dragons I’ve seen, that’s for sure,” Twilight said, the quills and parchments sticking out of her saddlebags hinting at what she was planning, though she didn’t seem to speak with much enthusiasm, and kept looking around her.
“We could be without our knowledge of dreams and the mind, and it would still be plain as starlit skies that you are troubled, Twilight,” Luna said, looking back at Twilight with concern in her eyes.
“Well, the last time I was here wasn’t a pleasant experience, on the whole,” Twilight said.
Luna harrumphed, snorting so hard through her nose that our manes and tails flew up. “Would that we could face that viper, horn to horn. It would be a day of ruening most harsh for the foul knave of tricks, for the distant, troubled past is fresh in our minds, and skill in battle far her superior be ours to command.”
“Uuuh, this sounds like a sensitive topic, so I hope you don’t mind when I ask what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Do you remember about how Queen Chrysalis and the changelings attacked Canterlot?” Twilight asked me. I nodded, and she continued. “This is where she trapped me.”
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise–,” I started.
“No, It’s okay. Besides, it was a pretty grave mistake of her, because this is where I found Cadence,” Twilight said.
“Hubris is a weakness most unfitting of a creature of trickery,” Luna commented. “Regardless, we doubt they will be hiding in this place, drenched in dragon fire as it so often is.”
The conversation seemed to waken something in the caverns, and a low rumbling, together with a great jingle of metal on metal echoed through the chamber.
We rounded a corner, and saw a massive lump turning over and falling off another massive lump, letting out a loud, “Ooomph!”
It was Jethro the dragon, falling off a pile of coins. The pile was very large, though still seemed a bit small for Jethro’s large form.
“Someone say something?” he mumbled, as he picked himself up and looked around.
“Uh, yes. Hello,” Twilight said. “Jethro, right? I’m Twilight Sparkle. We’ve met before, but we didn’t talk much.”
Jethro’s eyes turned to us and slowly adjusted as he seemed to register who were in front of him.
“Oh, hey, majesty, other princess, fighty dude…” he started before noticing me, his eyes lighting up. “Oh, heeey! Little Blue!”
I let out a sigh as Jethro reached out and scooped me up, luckily not roughly at all, and this time my eye stayed in place. Armor tensed and Twilight gasped, but they seemed to calm down when they saw Luna’s lack of reaction.
Jethro held me in his palm and grabbed my right foreleg between two talons of his free claw, giving it some experimental pulls. “Oh, awesome! You found them!”
I decided that in this particular instance, I didn’t want to explain the technical aspects of my new legs. “Uh, yeah, sure did,” I said, and looked down at his sleeping arrangement, spotting a promising segue into my prime concern. “Nice digs.”
“Yeah, they’re groovy alright. Moon Princess was a lot more chill than I thought she’d be, after she was done scaring the scales out of me. Seriously, dudette, don’t mess with her,” Jethro said, while waving a claw at me with a serious expression.
“Didn’t plan on it,” I said. “Expensive-looking bed, though.”
Luna spoke up at this. “Mismintings,” she said. “Impeccable timing, this affair has had, as they were to be smelted within two moons.”
“Dragons really have a thing for valuables, don’t they?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Jethro said, and scratched his neck ridge with his free claw. “Can’t really help it.”
“So, would you be able to smell some gemstones with all this gold around?” I asked, innocently.
“Oh, definitely! You have some?” he asked, with a voice full of anticipation.
“I thought you’d know,” I asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, I can tell that you don’t have any on you,” he said. “But I kinda wondered if you have any somewhere else.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” I said, fully meaning to send him some of the more chipped ones from back in Ponyville. “I think Twilight’s got some questions for you, though.”
We looked down to see Twilight standing with a quill and parchment in her magical grip, her already anticipatory expression intensifying when Jethro gently lowered his claw so that I could jump off.
As much as I would’ve liked to have given Twilight’s research my full attention, (and I actually kinda did) I felt that we should take care of the other thing that Luna wanted to talk about before the copious amounts of caffeine in her subsided.
“That answers that,” I said, as Luna, Armor, and I walked away from Twilight and Jethro.
“True. A heavy weight it would be to attract the attention of hungry dragons,” Luna said, and let out a long yawn.
“So, uh, what did you want to talk about.” I asked.
“Of dreams,” Luna said, looking more and more unfocused. “Of dreams we dream at this moment, but we would know of yours before we know of ours.”
“Well, if you’re specifically talking about my dream sensei—” I stopped to make sure that didn’t insinuate too much “—he hasn’t really made himself known in the last few days, since we finished these,” I said, and held up my right foreleg. “I don’t know, I’ve never had very good control of my dreams, but I don’t think I’ve interacted with him much lately. I also don’t think he’s gone. I guess he’s just hanging around; maybe until he gets something else to offer insight for.”
“Joyous news, indeed,” Luna said, and let out another long yawn. “Things and beings both of joy and harmony, and of foulness damned, be found in the realm of dreams. Emotional are they, however, and beings of emotion seldom be ones to show patience. Forgiveness we ask for this further indication that you are not beset by outside forces, for slippery, is your restful mind.”
I bobbed my head a little as I considered this. “You know, I’m gonna take that as a compliment,” I said. “And I’ll take a dream sensei over a stranger in my head any day.”
“Good. And noooooow,” Luna tried saying through another yawn, this one the biggest yet.
Armor and I looked on as Luna simply folded her legs beneath her and let her head gently fall to the floor. We looked at each other, then to Twilight and Jethro chatting in the distance, then back to each other before turning out eyes back towards the sleeping princess.
“Uuuh,” Armor started nervously. “Do you think we should wake her up or leave her here?”
“Well, between the two of us, I think we can figure out how to get her to her chambers. Do you know where it is?” I asked.
“Yeah, I know where it is,” Armor said.
“Good, I’d be more skeptical if I had to play another maze game while lugging her around.”
Armor looked unsure, however. “I’m, uh… not sure I should be laying my hooves on her majesty.”
“Alright, you carry me, and I’ll carry her. This is old hat to me by now,” I said, as I gently slipped my new and very strong forelimb beneath the sleeping princess, and lifted the rest of her in my magic. “Just hurry, I’m not gonna be able to keep this up for very long.”
“Okay. Let’s try and be discreet, though,” Armor said as he scooted underneath me.
We left Twilight and Jethro as Armor gently flew us through the caves. Like trains and boats, I found being carried by Armor to be very calming.
I got a small grin on my face. “Well, goodnight, sweet princess, and the flight of pegasi sing thee to thy rest.”
Armor looked back at me in confusion. “What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” I said.
—
“They’re all really paying attention,” Armor quietly said, as we looked down to where the wizened old mare with the scar over one eye was having her lecture, the students on the lower levels of the amphitheater-like classroom seeming almost entranced by the creaky old voice.
“Student attendance and grades have really gone up since she started incorporating live exercises of her lessons,” Celestia said.
Her words seemed to register with Twilight after a few seconds. “Wait? Professor Inkwell’s classes had poor records?” she asked.
“Most students used to think her lessons were boring,” Celestia said, and fondly looked down at Twilight. “I’m not sure you ever noticed.”
“Guess not,” Twilight shrugged.
“So!” Professor Inkwell said, “am I saying this to confuse you all? Partially, but the ultimate purpose is to soften up your brain in the right ways to best learn about thaumaturgical properties. Why is this measurement considered the neutral value regardless of atmosphere? I’m not saying, because that is your homework for next week, though your findings does not influence grades. If any of you want any help, you know where to find me. Have a nice weekend.”
Even with hooves and magic, the sound of students packing up after a class couldn’t be confused for anything else.
When the majority of the students had filed out, all of them giving looks of surprise towards us, (specifically Celestia) we got up and descended the stairs.
Inkwell was talking with a pair of young stallions about something, and when we politely took up places behind them, the three of them noticed us.
The stallions looked surprised at Celestia, then horrified when it became clear that they might be delaying not one, but two alicorns.
They started stammering something, when Inkwell’s eyes widened, the scarred lids over one of them managing to part enough to reveal a healthy-looking one beneath them, and a smile came to her face. “Why, princesses, fancy having you visit a lecture on intermediate thauma theory.”
“A reminder never hurts,” Celestia said, pleasantly.
Inkwell chuckled. “And you?” she said, aiming her one-eyed gaze towards me and Armor, and presented her leg warmer covered hoof for a greeting.
Armor was closest. “Armor,” he said shortly. “Just a guard.”
“Gabrielle Desrochers,” I said. “Just a tinkerer.”
Inkwell snorted humorously. “Well then. Inkwell, just a teacher,” she said, before turning to the two stallions. “You’ll find the answer in Glow’s book, just like you asked.”
They excused themselves and hurried out of the room.
“So, what can I do for you today?” Inkwell asked as she packed down some parchments in a bag.
“We have something for you to archive,” Celestia said. “A lost art of artificing has been replaced.”
Inkwell’s looked up from her bag in consideration, narrowed her eyes, and looked at me. Then she walked up to me and lifted my right foreleg up to take a closer look at it.
Her smile slowly formed on her face. “Hah! I thought I felt something. Read all the books I could find on them that might help me, and considered writing my own on it, but I never thought I’d see the day where somepony actually figured it out. Who made this?”
“Uh, well. This guy back in Ponyville,” I said.
Inkwell was about to ask something else when Twilight and Celestia both chuckled. Twilight put a wing around me, and said, “He made the chassis, yes, but you both came up with the core enchantment and performed it.”
Inkwell looked back and forth between my sheepish smile and Twilight’s warm smile, then finally sighed and hung her head. “You must love this, Twilight. You one-upped me when you were a filly, and now you parade other young upstarts that can as well; right in front of my muzzle.”
Twilight looked horrified. “What!? No! I mean, no, I just–”
Inkwell stopped her with another chuckle. “Relax, little Highness. I’m just messing with you,” she said, and turned her attention back to me. “So, you figured out how to make prosthetic limbs did you? Could have used you a few hundred years ago.”
“Why?” I asked.
Celestia was the one who answered. “Because even Canterlot has seen worrying days during the centuries.”
“One day in particular,” Inkwell said, as she walked back to her bag and continued packing. “But I seem to remember that it all ended well. We managed to save everypony in the end.”
“I didn’t quite manage to save every part of everypony,” Celestia said, sadness creeping into her voice.
Inkwell turned around and poked her scarred eyelid in Celestia’s direction. “We didn’t. There were some trying times for some ponies after that, but we all managed. Even Maple and Golden, eventually.”
“Together they did. Yes, I remember that,” Celestia said, her face lighting up with happy memories.
“So, now you gotta tell me how you did this,” Inkwell said to me.
“Well,” I started, uncertainly, “To summarize, I aligned gem dust to respond with my arcanomorphic field, then we sealed that into a metal construction that we enchanted to only allow my arcanomorphic signature to pass through.”
Inkwell looked at me for a moment, before slowly saying, “Oh. I never considered that last part, and I could never be sure if I ever got the first part right. How did you make it so that only your arcanic field is let through?”
“Well, you know,” I said. ”Isolate it, and make several weak blocks that let through your signature in addition to everything else they let through, and weave them together before strengthening them. Took some work, but I finally figured out how to make it work for me.”
“And now,” Celestia said, and magicked out my old legs from Armor’s bags. “We’d like you to see if you can make these more accessible to ponies and ponies’ friends in general.”
Inkwell’s eye widened at the legs floating towards her, before she calmed herself and took them in her magic aura. She looked at them for a moment, before turning to us. “And you don’t need these?” she asked.
“They’re the prototypes,” I said. “These are new and improved. And it might be a bit weird to keep a pair of limbs for sentimental value. Plus, these have comfortable amount of give,” I finished, and lightly bounced my fleshy parts against my metallic parts, squishing the arrangement in the joints a little bit,
“Hmm, alright. I assume they’re hollow to save weight?”
“Yes,” I said. “Also, check this out,” I said, and removed my harmonica from inside my right foreleg, and quickly played the beginning tunes of a comically sped-up version of Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude.
Everyone gave me mildly questioning looks.
“That would’ve been funny if you knew the original song,” I said, confidently.
“I would’ve had something more defensive in there,” Inkwell said, while inspecting it further.
“I thought about that,” I said. “Though I’m not sure if that would be superfluous when I already have a horn.
“Ah, but your opponents know you have a horn,” Inkwell said, and gave me a grin. “The best way to win a fight is to have the one you’re fighting not knowing what you’re doing, and what you can do.”
“That makes sense, I guess,” I said. “I’m still figuring out what I should squeeze in here. I might arrange something like that.”
“I know I would,” Inkwell said.
Before we could talk further, however, a wisp of green smoke floating in through a window, and with a poofing sound, it materialised into a parchment.
“A letter from Spike?” Twilight said, as Celestia started reading.
‘Oh, so that’s what it looks like on this end.’
“What does it say?” Twilight asked.
Celestia’s serious face mellowed into one of amusement. “Dear Twilight and Princess Celestia. I’m not sure what’s going on, but Gabe’s guitar just started playing by itself and then stopped. Yours truly, Spike.”
Twilight looked confused before pointing an accusatory hoof at me. “I knew it!” she said triumphantly. “You enchanted your instruments to play along with you!”
I couldn’t help but give her a shocked look. “What? No, I didn’t.”
Twilight lit up her horn and closed her eyes for a few seconds. “Yes, you did! I can see it plain as day.”
I looked down at the harmonica in my hoof, before closing my eye and doing the same. Sure enough, the signs enchantments swirled in it, matching some corresponding enchantments I had learned. “I don’t remember doing this,” I said, in confusion.
Celestia chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen before how ponies can lose themselves in music and infuse their instruments with magic. And it’s not exclusive to music, for that matter.”
“Really?” I said, and deprojected myself. “Huh, cool.”
—
“I would like to thank you again, Gabe,” Celestia said, as we stood ready to leave for the station and head back to Ponyville. “Rare as it thankfully is these days, you’ve made the future of ponies suffering cruel fates so much easier.”
“Well, it’s not perfect,” I said, and rubbed around my right shoulder. “As I realized last night. Must’ve been all my recent using of almost forgotten muscles that triggered that little episode. And like I said earlier, thank you for that.”
“My pleasure,” Celestia said, and put a wing around me as she nuzzled my neck. “And do check in with Nurse Redheart if it continues.”
“Mmm,” I mumbled, and after a moment, we pulled back. “Well, goodb– no. See you later, Armor, and thanks for everything,” I said, with a smile.
“Yes, good luck with your assignment, Armor,” Twilight said.
“Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you for letting me stay in your home,” he said, and turned to me, smiling. “And it was my pleasure, Gabe.”
I looked around us. It was pretty much just us in this particular corridor at this moment. You could see hints of guards standing with their back against us out in the sun, but they were well out of earshot.
“Uh, could we have a minute?” I said, to Celestia and Twilight.
Twilight looked surprised for a second before just saying, “Oh, uh, yes. Of course,” while Celestia just gave me an amused nod.
As they walked out into the sun, I walked up to Armor. I showed uncertainty, but I was determined not to show nervousness. “Hey, I just wanted to say…” I started, and stumbled for words. I shook my head and tried again. “I guess I wanted to say… that… perhaps I should’ve brought this up earlier, or perhaps I shouldn’t be bringing this up at all, but…”
By now, Armor was giving me a nervous look, but I just steeled myself and continued.
I reared up and put my forelegs around his neck, and nuzzled him. “I just… thank you again,” I said, and kissed his cheek.
After letting it last for a while, I pulled back, still hanging from his neck and looking up into his surprised eyes.
“Well, I, uh,” he started.
I giggled at that. “That pretty much sums up what I’m thinking.”
“Do you, uh… me?” he stammered.
I gave him a deadpan smile. “Your obliviousness doesn’t make you any less dashing,” I said.
I looked at him for a while as we both searched for something to say. “Do you know what you’re feeling?” I asked.
“Uh, I… don’t think so,” he said.
“Me neither,” I said, with a hesitant smile. “But I do know one thing.”
“Uh, what is that?”
“I know that I’m very curious about how kisses works without noses being in the way.”