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// 183. Tempest. [DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE] 
// Story: Short Shorts 
// by Coranth 
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Fizzlepop Berrytwist - nee Tempest Shadow - appraised the human, the first of his kind she'd ever seen. Dark brown hair done up in a peculiar braid framed a weathered face with hazel eyes, a very small muzz - no, a nose - and lips drawn up in a curious little smile. A hand with five fingers - attached to a pink-skinned arm, dusted with a light coating of fur - slowly drew away from her towards his body, which was clothed in some kind of amazing teal robe covered with runic designs; beneath that was some kind of golden-bronze armor. As she took him in, his hazel eyes - glowing faintly with the light of barely suppressed psionic power - appraised her in return. 'I have walked beside the Storm King himself!' Tempest thought. 'So... why do I suddenly feel so small...'

Girding her loins, steeling herself, she inhaled a breath and then spoke. "I am Tempest Shadow," she stated, softly. "I... I have come here because--because I have heard rumors that you can cure diseases, treat medical conditions, and heal injuries that we ponies can't. I... I was hoping you might be able to restore my horn..." Even as she trailed off, scuffing a hoof on the ground, suddenly feeling very self-conscious - 'He won't be able to help; nopony can...' - the human looked upon her with concern and more than a little worry--and then she raised her head, a breath escaping her as he moved; one moment he'd been three feet away from her, the next he was there, his hazel eyes locking with her own emerald as he knelt down, gently guiding her closer to examine her head.

When he reached out and touched her for that first time, Tempest exhaled a softened gasp and flinched as the only other to touch her in such a manner had been the rat Vurko, and his touch hadn't been gentle as he'd roughly squeezed her cheeks. David's touch, however, was as different from Vurko's as night and day, the human's hands cupping her cheeks with amazing gentleness. As he stroked her cheeks with his palms, Tempest's eyes widened with wonder, a soft noise - almost a primal nicker - escaping her, eyes misting as she found herself involuntarily stepping towards him, wanting to feel more of his touch as it was the first gesture of kindness she'd felt since losing her horn. Thankfully, she did get to feel more of the human's gentle touch; when he bade her lower his head, a groan escaped her, followed by a giggle of embarrassment as David scratched her behind the ears soothingly, even as he turned her head this way and that, taking in the break of her horn visually. 

Finally - as if he was talking about the weather, so very mundane! - he stated, "I can repair this, I think." Hope bloomed within Tempest as the human continued. "Name's David, and believe it or not, yours isn't the worst horn I've had to fix; in fact yours will be easier then most. I'll just need to grow you a new one rather than try to mend the split of something already there. Come on, to sickbay..." Eyes misting with tears, she followed where he went, soon finding herself inside what seemed to be a miniature hospital; several sophisticated-looking beds against the far wall, one main bed in the center and what seemed to be an office just away from that.

The human - David, he said his name was - gently directed her to remove her armor. "Don't want anything to interfere with what we're doing here..." he stated by way of explanation, then once her armor was gone and she was sat upon the main bed in the center of sickbay he picked up some sort of probe-like device and activated it; immediately she winced as it resonated with her broken horn! Upon seeing this, he dialed down the intensity of the probe then set to passing it back and forth several times over the stump of her horn, listening to the sounds it emitted even as he consulted some sort of readout from a bracer on his forearm. "Magical channels and nerves are still there, they've just been cut. How'd this happen?" Hesitantly, haltingly, Tempest told him her story, and at the end of her tale David inhaled then - to her surprise - hugged her gently.

"You're very lucky; the break is bad, of course, but the nerves and channels were severed clean, thankfully; that means your horn can be fixed. We begin now..." Poor Tempest could barely keep herself from crying, a little sob escaping her as David went away and then returned with a device he called a Hypospray; then, pressing it against her forehead, beneath her horn-stump he pressed the trigger on its triangular head and Tempest heard a soft 'chuff' as whatever was inside was injected into her bloodstream. "First, a local anesthetic for you; I'm going to use a tool to clean up the break, flatten it out; without the anesthetic this would hurt as the nerves are jarred..." Tempest winced and David nodded. After several minutes of waiting, David tapped the stump of her horn, and even poked her forehead harshly, but - to her surprise - the dark purple unicorn felt nothing! When she told him this, the human nodded; then he had her sit whilst he used a horn-rasp, followed by a fine horn file, to smooth the jagged break. Strangely, he was careful to also suck away the bone fragments and dust made by his work. "We'll need that for later," he stated.

Once Tempest's horn-stump was relatively smooth, David went over to a storage cabinet from which he produced what appeared to be a golden 'false' horn, which he affixed tightly to her head by first drilling the tiniest of micro-holes into her horn-stump and then using even tinier screws. After that, to her surprise, David unscrewed the 'tip' of the false horn and then filled it with sterile water before screwing the tip back on! "Shake your head about, please," he stated promptly. "I need to check the seal is tight." Tempest did so, shaking her head from side to side and up and down for a moment; then, David carefully checked to make sure that no water had leaked from the false horn down her head. None had. "Looks good," the human said, a note of triumph in his voice. "Lower your head please..." Eager to see what might happen next, Tempest obeyed; then David popped the top off the false horn - which caused the water to pour out - and, after collecting it into a beaker for disposal, he blew out the horn with air, before pouring inside a chemical concoction which felt pleasantly warm. "This," he said as he carefully filled the horn, "is a chemical concoction full of nutrients, and everything else we need to encourage the growth of nerves and the other flesh-components of your horn; let's just call it NerveGen."

Tempest Shadow just couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, for fear she might start crying again. This human, David, had done more in the past half hour then the wretched Storm King had ever done for her! Once the false horn was full, David screwed the cap on, then looked at her sternly. "Okay, Tempest: The anesthetic I used will wear off, but you still won't feel anything as there's a numbing agent in the NerveGen. Now there's a lattice in the false horn you're wearing that simulates the correct paths in a real unicorn horn; the NerveGen will get your horn's organic parts growing again and over the next six weeks they should grow correctly along that lattice. You'll stay here in the Sickbay and we'll monitor this to be sure. As the soft parts of your horn grow, the NerveGen will be 'used up' and evaporate; once it's gone we replace it with this..." David left briefly, returning with a tube of ivory liquid, "sort of a, well, it's... I guess you could call it a bone formula, but we need an agent to get it going..." and here he poured the dust and shavings from her smoothed horn-break into the liquid, then sealed it--fast! "Don't want this going off before we can use it..." Carefully, he stowed it away to ensure the bone formula stayed liquid until needed.

Being mindful of the false horn she wore, filled with the precious NerveGen, Tempest Shadow - her whole body trembling - made to hug David fiercely! She tried to find words to say - tried to thank him profusely for what he was doing - but the words wouldn't come. Her tears did, though, as she wept, wept, wept like a foal. David understood. Gathering her up, he held her close and rocked her gently, petting her body, murmuring soothingly to her as he ruffled her mane and scratched her behind the ears, turning her cries into watery giggles. Six weeks passed, and during that time Tempest Shadow remained in the Sickbay of David's amazing pyramidal home, the Dragon Weyr. During that time, the human carefully monitored the regrowth of her horn's soft parts - the many nerves and magical channels - via the use of an amazing machine that let her see inside the false horn she wore; it was mind-blowing for her as she'd never seen anything like it!

Tempest wasn't bored whilst waiting for the inner parts of her horn to grow; on the contrary, David kept her entertained with good food, and good drink, and answered her near constant stream of questions--and when he couldn't he got her access to the Ihan Archives, his home's enormous library. Tempest was gobsmacked; who would have thought that somewhere below where she lay, a mighty franken-ship governed everything in this place! Of course, there were a few scares to be had, when David found that a few of the new nerves weren't growing correctly and were fusing together when they shouldn't have. "It's how horn tumors form," the human stated casually as he gently teased the nerves apart with microsurgical tools whilst she lay under local anesthetic and sterile field. Once he'd 'reset' them and they were again growing as they should, David continued, "and this can lead to horn malformation - leading to miscast or null magic - or worse, they can lead to horn amputation, or even tumors in other parts of the body. Fortunately, these things are rare. You get horn tumors forming when there's been a break or an accident with the horn resulting in nerve damage. Very common thing with foals - always getting into accidents and roughhousing - but also easily treatable if caught early."

Six weeks later, Tempest Shadow found she had no control over her tail; with a mind of its own it wagged, doglike as David went away then returned with the bone formula. "Okay, Tempest: the false horn stays on for seventy two hours while this cures..." he said as he  poured the mixture into the false horn - carefully and delicately covering the soft organic parts - before screwing the cap back onto the false horn and then filling it via a tiny inlet. "Maybe I'll leave it on for a little longer..." Ninety-six hours later - unable to speak - her whole body trembling, Tempest Shadow stood before a full length mirror with bated anticipation. "Ready for the moment of truth?" David asked. When she nodded jerkily, the human depressed a tiny button within the golden-metal horn; then Tempest shivered as she felt a mechanism within releasing. "It's okay; it's just the release for the horn lattice..." the human said soothingly--and then, as the unicorn mare looked on slowly, gently, David unscrewed and then slid the false horn from her head...

The color looked newer, fresher above the break. It looked rough, like it needed a really good file, trim, and polish. She could still see the wires of the three dimensional lattice sticking out; they needed trimming. None of that mattered at all to Tempest Shadow... because the newly grown horn protruding from her forehead was hers. All the pain, all the heartache she had endured since her friends had abandoned her, all the misery of working for the Storm King, it had all led up to this. Gently, delicately, she touched it, noting that it still 'felt' wrong - the numbing agent would wear off in time - but still... at last, it was done. Eyes misting with tears, a heartfelt sob escaping her throat, she turned to David, "... know it still looks a bit rough and the lattice wires need to be trimmed, but we'll fix that so--OOF!" Tackling him to the floor with her, Tempest Shadow attempted to see if she could permanently graft herself to the human via hug, like Pinkie Pie. 'MY Human!' she thought, fiercely. 'MINE!'

She owed him a debt she couldn't ever hope to repay, so she thought, irrationally, she would serve him forever; he would make a far better master then the Storm King ever was! Tempest cuddled normally with David for a while; then she wedged her muzzle beneath his chin and wailed uncontrollably for a few minutes; then, without warning, she nuzzled her human furiously; then she just resumed clinging to him, trembling as though she were dying of cold. Over and over and over again she did this, years of frustration and pain pouring from her in great, shaking, unrelenting sobs as she cried, and cried, and cried. Later - after he'd given her something to drink - David gently bathed and washed Tempest Shadow then dried her with a big fluffy towel; after that, as they lay together near the fireplace in Weyrhome, the human said gently, "For now, Tempest: foal's spells only, okay? Levitation, the basics, that sort of thing, until the new nerves and channels strengthen a bit. Have Twilight design you a training regimen."

Tempest Shadow nodded. "As you command, my King," she stated with utter conviction.

David blinked.

Then he blinked again.

"What did you call me?"

Tempest Shadow said nothing in reply; instead, she just looked up at what was now hers with adoring eyes.