//------------------------------//
// R&R&R&D 
// Story: My Life as a Bipedal Quadruped 
// by Snakeskin Ducttape 
//------------------------------//

I woke up to the sound of moaning and smacking lips.

I opened my eye and saw Poly standing in front of me, eyes closed and mouth moving lazily.

“Uhm?” I ventured quietly, not knowing what time it was and whether Armor, whose foreleg was gently wrapped around me, was awake.

Poly let out a small snort, blinked their eyes open, and groaned slightly after taking in the situation.

“Polyus, you dolt,” Polyusa muttered. “That’s not for us.”

Poly shook their head slightly, and looked at me. “He says he’s sorry,” Polyusa said. “It just smelled like breakfast.”

I let my eyelids droop again. “That’s okay,” I said, snuggling back into Armor’s chest, as Poly walked away, presumably towards the barrel which they slept in.

“It smelled heavenly though,” I heard Polyus say weakly, and I felt grateful that this hungry sleepwalker at least hadn’t been a dragon.

I closed my eye again, and after a moment, gently threw my tail over Armor’s hind leg.

A moment later, he wrapped his own tail over mine, and held me tighter.

“Gabe,” he said, quietly.

“Mmm?”

“We have to get home.”

For just a while, I was confused by the uncertainty in his voice. I sensed a question, and then a need for reassurance.

Then I realized something I often forgot. Armor was barely a man, or stallion. Physically, he was older than me, but still so young. He might even count as a teenager in human years.

His words reminded me of how far away I was from home, but it didn’t matter. He had been my rock so many times, it was a relief to finally be one for him.

“We will,” I said, and hugged his foreleg.

“... Gabe?” he said again after a while.

“Yes?”

“I…” he started, before trailing off.

It was hard to hear this kind of doubt in him, but I was still happy to be able to be there for him.

I snuggled up closer to him, angling my horn away and nuzzling his neck, which he welcomed. “Tell me whenever you’re ready,” I said.

He breathed a sigh of relief at that, and I could feel him relax.

“I was so worried,” he said.

I reached for his other foreleg, moving it underneath my head. “So was I.”

We lay silent for a while, before he said, with a sadness I never wanted to hear in his voice, “We have to go home.”

“We will,” I said. “I promise.”

Then we fell asleep again.


—


Armor woke up first. I think he didn’t want to wake me up, but he had ended up with his face full of my mane. He snorted a few times and shook his head, trying to get it out of his nostrils.

“We’re here,” Trixie yawned.

Armor and I reluctantly rose from the bed. He gave a quick side hug before he fished my prostheses from under the cushion, which I activated and put on.

With some general morning greetings and such, Trixie being thoroughly tired from having been awake through the night on the train, we stepped out of Trixie’s house before breakfast and onto Canterlot station. Breakfast was available in the castle anyway, and why eat crackers and canned alphabet soup when you’ve arrived at Disney World?

Trixie talked to some ponies by the platform, whereupon they summoned some guards to look after Braeburn and his crew, before we made our way through the city.

This Canterlot looked a bit different than what I was used to. My Canterlot looked a lot like classical era hellenistic cities did on television, while this Canterlot looked more like a city in medieval western Europe. More bleak, less colors, and overall less… less something.

It didn’t look dirty and disease-ridden like how medieval Europe tended to be portrayed in media back on Earth, and there was a great sense of glory and pride to the city, but it didn’t have that touch of… heavenliness, like I was used to.

We arrived at the castle, which looked more utilitarian than its counterpart, with Trixie and Poly being greeted by the guards at the gates.

The armors of the guards were very different from what I was used to though. Dark metal instead of gilded metal, and lacking the plumes on top. What really stood out however, were the fully covered eyes. At first I thought they were all blindfolded, before I remembered that horses back on Earth also often wore cloth that covered their eyes which was fine enough to see out of. I figured this was a similar arrangement whether magical or not.

It would’ve been quite intimidating if it wasn’t for the friendly nods that our party kept receiving.

Trixie and Poly walked on, in through the gates, through the castle grounds, and into the castle proper. The castle was also different, in that there were less garden arrangements in this version of Canterlot Castle. Less hedge mazes, cozy little corners with little benches, and tables hidden behind honeysuckles and flowerbeds. Instead, there were more utilitarian plantation patches for internal food production, and more soldiers forming up for the morning assembly in the distance. There were also no nobles strolling around under sunbrellas, gossipping among themselves.

We walked through the castle, Trixie yawning openly, until we reached a large room. It wasn’t the throne room, it reminded me of a boardroom, or perhaps a war room. Chairs surrounded a large table with a map of Equestria. I didn’t get a good look at it at the moment, but even at a distance I could see how much more developed the Crystal Empire was than in my Equestria.

There was no one in there though, except for one. A tall, dark pony with a flowing mane and tail, a general sense of sparkliness surrounding them.

At first, I thought it was this Equestria’s Princess Luna, but when she turned around to face us, I realized it was not, and then I’m entirely sure what I did and didn’t realize.

Her exoskeleton was dark and beautiful like polished ebony. Her lustrous mane and tail were a deep, dark turquoise, curling slightly into bobs further down. On her back were a pair of butterfly-like wings, sparkling in the morning sunlight pouring in from the windows, forming little heart-shaped reflections. On her hooves, at the bottom of her long, shapely legs, were two pairs of stylish, purple horseshoes, matching the purple cloak that was hanging to the side to make way for her wings, and on her face, behind a pair of small, round glasses, were the most compassionate, most beautiful, most desirable face I have ever laid my eye on. She was perfect, with that sweet smile and those cute fangs. She was everything I ever wanted to be close to.

“Ah, Trixie, Polyus, Polyusa,” she said, her voice like the most captivating melody I’ve ever heard. “It’s so wonderful to see you.”

“And you, our queen,” someone said. I’m not sure who, I wasn’t really listening.

Someone, Poly, I later realized, walked up to this wonderful being, and were being nuzzled by her, followed by Trixie.

“How are you, Trixie?” the heavenly voice asked. “You look tired.”

“I am tired,” Trixie answered. “Stayed up all night to make sure a train got here safely.”

“Oh? You should get to bed then, unless it’s something that cannot wait,” the sweet melody sang.

“Maybe. Where’s Luna?”

“Busy with the usual. Is there something that can’t wait?”

“I guess not,” Trixie said. “There are some details about investigations down south that we shouldn’t dawdle on, but Polyus and Polyusa know all about it… also, we found the ponies that Sombra summoned.”

“Oh?” the embodiment of beauty said, and my heart soared as she looked in my general direction, and started walking towards us. “Not quite the threats we…” she trailed off when she saw us.

A black, chitinous foreleg was waved in front of my eye. Annoyed, I just tried looking around it to not lose sight of the beauty before me.

“Uh oh,” Polyusa said. “You’ve overwhelmed them, majesty.”

The tired and awkward look of the wonderful figure did nothing to diminish my love for her. “Oh,” she said. “Well, Luna should be along in a while. Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, can you take them somewhere for me? I’ll send Polyus and Polyusa to get you when Luna’s available.”

“Sure thing, Majesty.”

A blue aura surrounded me, and I felt myself being carried away from the black beauty. I meekly reached out for her as a great sadness settled in my chest.

“... Nuh,” Armor weakly protested beside me.

We were carried through a hallway and into a room with cushions and a fireplace and other cozy furnishing. I didn’t really care about the interior decoration though, my mind was on that wonderful face.

I found myself being plopped down on a cushion on my back, and pressed against Armor’s side. “Right, you two stay close to each other,” Polyusa said. “You’re leaking love like sieves and this is gonna keep you from feeling too bad until you’re ready for me to pop the bubble.”

“Whu?” I moaned, looking listlessly up at the ceiling.

“Don’t worry about it,” Trixie said. “Happens to a lot of ponies who haven’t been around changelings a lot, and it’s a one time thing.”

“Uhuh,” I said, dreaming of exoskeletons.

“... Right. See you soon. Goodnight,” Trixie said, as they walked out and shut the door behind them.

Armor and I, still staring up into the ceiling, absentmindedly got comfortable and rested our heads against each other.

“... She was wonderful,” he said.

“... Yeah.”


—


Some time later, I don’t really know how much, my thoughts had started branching out to other things, like my usual speculations about what I could do with some gem dust and magic.

‘Perhaps layer several enchantments to make a wider range of the light spectrum visible. Hey, maybe that could impress her.

‘... No, she’d want… I don’t know what she wants, but I have to find out. Maybe I should ask Armor if he wants to turn this into a joint effort.’

So yes, I could think of things other than her, but it was slow going not to.

Suddenly, Poly popped into our field of vision, and waved their hoof in front of our faces.

“Huh?” Armor and I asked, lazily looking at them.

They lit their horn up while slowly inspecting us.

“Alright, you’ve fermented long enough,” Polyusa said, and grabbed my cheeks, and pulled me in for a big, wet kiss on the mouth.

As she did, it felt like a combination of pulling off a bandage inside my head, a full-body sneeze, and having a bucket of ice water dumped on me, all at the same time.

I gasped when she let go, and looked around me, my heart beating fast enough to rock me back and forth slightly. I shot up and scrambled on the cushion like I had woken up from a nightmare.

Polyusa grabbed Armor and did the same with him, who reacted pretty much the same way I did.

I was left shivering, feeling cold and forlorn, when Poly reached out and pushed me and Armor together. immediately, I felt better, as if a ghostly chill was held mostly at bay by being propped up against him.

“There we go,” Polyusa said. “Don’t worry, that sensation will pass.”

“What’s going on?” Armor said, as he put a foreleg around me, leaning slightly around me in a protective matter.

Poly looked a little awkward. “You’ve barely had any contact with changelings before yesterday it seems,” Polyus said, and sat down. “Uuh, how do I put this?”

Polyusa spoke up instead. “It’s a bit like pheromones. Changelings have magic that subtly charms ponies, but our queen, Chrysalis, the changeling you saw earlier, has magic so strong that ponies who haven’t gotten used to changeling charms before tend to be a bit overwhelmed.”

“So why did it feel like somepony shoved me into a lightning storm earlier?” Armor asked.

Poly shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Sorry about that,” Polyusa said. “Changeling charms always wear off eventually, though it can take a while when her majesty is around. We let the whole adoration thing settle for a bit and take shape before popping it. So now you two are feeling a bit melancholic from leaking so much love. Stay close to each other. That should help.”

Armor and I looked at each other, before leaning in close again.

“So, you ready to meet Princess Luna? And be properly introduced to Queen Chrysalis?” Polyus said.

“Uhm…” Armor and I said at the same time, feeling more than a little awkward at the thought of that.

Poly smiled and pulled Armor up into a standing position, placing me on his upper back and leaning me against his neck. “Don’t worry about it,” Polyusa said.

“Yeah,” Polyus agreed. “This isn’t exactly the first time this has happened. Nobuggy– nopony is gonna think less of you.”

“Well alright,” I said, a bit reluctantly, clinging to Armor’s neck.

We followed Poly out of the door and towards the room where we had first gone to. “So not everyone reacts this way?” I asked.

“A lot of ponies who haven’t really been around changelings much do,” Polyus said. “I guess from what you said that changelings aren’t exactly found in every neighborhood in your Equestria.”

“I should hope not,” Armor said, before covering his mouth with his hoof. “Sorry.”

Polyus’ confused and slightly offended look vanished. “It’s okay,” he said. “Like I said yesterday, I have trouble wrapping my head around how you described changelings where you’re from. Polyusa does as well. Anyway, before most ponies are out of foalhood, exposure to that particular form of passive changeling magic means it barely has any effect on them. Even ponies who are used to changelings still fall in love with Queen Chrysalis on first sight, but it’s easier for them to snap out of it.”

“I see,” I said, not feeling entirely fine with openly fawning over a stranger.

We stepped into the same room as before, and by the table, talking with Trixie, was Princess Luna. For real this time. She looked a lot like her counterpart, with the same build, the same colors, and the same cutie mark, only instead of her usual getuppance (the material of which I had never bothered looking up), this Luna wore a sky blue, silken toga, with matching sandals. It sounds very mundane, but she managed to make it look regal somehow.

She looked up from her conversation with Trixie, to me and Armor. They quieted, and walked over to us, Luna having a gentle smile.

Armor, no doubt out of habit, began bowing, when Luna gently stopped him by placing her hoof on his chin.

“Bowing is for your princesses, friends,” she said, in a calm voice. “You are not here of your own volition, and no offence is taken from any apathy or frustration you have towards us, but know that you are welcome among us.”

Armor and I were suddenly swept up from behind, being held tight by a pair of black, chitinous legs. “And we didn’t get a chance for proper introductions before,” a spirited, melodious voice that I recognized from before said. She buried her muzzle in our manes and smelled deep. “Aaah, heavenly.”

Luna smiled at Armor and me as we squirmed awkwardly in our new situation. “Meet Chrysalis, queen of the changelings.”

“Uuh, hello,” I said.

“Uhm, hi,” Armor said.

“Tact, Chryssie,” Luna said, amused.

Chrysalis let us go, and there must’ve been some of that adoration left in me at that point, because I kinda wish she hadn’t.

Shaking that notion from my head, I, and Armor, instead clopped Luna and Chrysalis’ offered hooves.

“As I’m sure you already know, I am Luna, princess of Equestria,” Luna said.

“Gabe Desrochers,” I said.

“Studded Armor.”

“Studded Armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard, and ser Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, originally of the world of Terra,” Luna said, and gestured to the table. “Ser Lulamoon has told us about you. Will you join us?”

Armor and I glanced at each other. “Sure,” I said.

Luna magicked up a cushion large enough for both Armor and me to sit on, and everyone, Luna, Chrysalis, Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, Armor, and I took our seats.

We sat in silence for a few moments, Armor and me picking up on how everyone was waiting for Luna to speak.

“I am sorry,” Luna said, eventually, hanging her head a bit.

I was struck by the contrast of this situation and the one I had originally been in when I had been brought to Equestria.

The first time, it had been an innocent accident, and while there were things I missed about being a human in a human world, I correctly suspected that I would grow to like life in Equestria. Now, I had been brought to another Equestria intentionally, and I desperately wanted to go home. While I would’ve spared him leaving our Equestria if I could’ve, I was grateful beyond words that Armor was with me.

I leaned against him, and looked Luna in the eyes, without judgement or pleading.

“Can we go home?” I asked.

“It is possible,” Luna said, nodding her head, and I felt the tension drain out of Armor like it did with me. “But we don’t know how.”

I nodded, somberly. “How do we get him to share how to do that?”

“That is the question,” Luna said, and sighed. “How much do you know about Sombra?”

I didn’t know much as much about him as I felt I should have, considering how much time it had turned out I spent with him, at least in a sense, but Armor knew next to nothing besides what the rest of us had told him, so I was the one who answered the question.

“I know what others have told me, including Trixie, Polyus, and Polyusa,” I said. “I know he used to be a king of this Equestria, and a hero, that he’s probably a being called a ‘silver phantom’, and that the Celestia from my world, who I know to be a good judge of character, loved him. I also know he’s kind and supportive, and a good teacher.”

“All true,” Luna said, while she and everyone with her around the table nodded, looking a bit down. “We think he is currently in the Crystal Empire’s old stronghold in the north with his loyalists.There is no war, but neither is there peace. While we know his agents are spying on us, we haven’t seen an aggressive pattern, and I hoped, perhaps a bit foolishly, that Sombra would find himself again, and come back to us, but it seems it was not to be. He still plotted to join our worlds together. I just didn’t think it was possible.”

Luna understandably looked troubled, Chrysalis put a supportive hoof on Luna’s wither, and Luna leaned a bit into the touch.

“So as for your question,” Luna said. “I don’t know. I want to help you, we want to help you, but I don’t know how to make him reveal his secrets, and we don’t want conflict with him.”

Armor and I gave each other some strength, as he put a foreleg around me, and I leaned in against him. “We understand,” I said.

Luna smiled both ruefully and encouragingly at us. “Don’t give up hope yet,” she said. “We doubt he has given up on his plan, and we cannot allow him to succeed.”

“So you’re planning on fighting him?” I asked.

“We have to stop him,” Luna said. “We don’t want to fight, but it may come to that.”

“Rosen Wreath and Golden Star said that I’m important to his plan,” I said.

“Commander Rosen Wreath?” Luna said.

“Yes,” Trixie said.

“He always had such a way with truth,” Luna said, and turned to me and Armor. “You two may be important in this struggle.”

Armor and I looked at each other. We were stranded in another world, searching for a way home, the fate of two worlds were at stake, and we had ended up as central players in a sense.

In the stories, this was a call to adventure.

For me and Armor however, who had just managed to find each other again, after fearing that we’d lost each other forever, the call was not so persuasive. We were still breathing out in relief, and relief and melancholy did not rouse one for excitement, at least not the two of us.

“And what do we do?” I asked.

Luna smiled that same rueful smile. “For now, stay as our guests,” she said. “There is much to talk about. I understand that you have knowledge that we do not, and I hope that you’ll share it.”

I was focused on the situation as a whole, and it took a moment for me to grasp what she was talking about.

“Oh,” I finally said, and pulled down the covering for my foreleg, and deactivated it, floating it over to Luna and Chrysalis. “Yeah, sure, I have no reason to keep this a secret.”

Like most ponies, like everyone really, Luna and Chrysalis almost recoiled at the sight. Polyus and Polyusa as well, who hadn’t seen me without my limbs before now.

Luna took my foreleg in her hooves, and turned it around as she studied it. “This is your creation then?”

“I came up with the enchantment,” I said. “The chassis was made by Armor’s uncle.”

“I understand that your Equestria is a lot more peaceful than ours,” Chrysalis noted. “Strange how this was created there, and not here.”

“The creator is not from Equestria at all, originally,” Luna noted, and turned it over to Chrysalis. “How did you lose it, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“An accident,” I said, simply. “Nothing sinister.”

“Can you make more?” Chrysalis asked.

“Give me some materials and paper, and I’ll document on how to make these yourself,” I said.

“And we didn’t even have to ask,” Chrysalis said, smiling at Luna.

“It would be very much appreciated,” Luna said, as Chrysalis floated the leg back to me.

I attached it again, noting that, “You said you were going to try and help. Seems appropriate to offer something in return.”

“We thank you,” Luna said. “Now, we’d also appreciate it if you told us about the Equestria you came from. The last I heard about it from somepony who had been there, I was a thousand years younger.”

“Yeah,” Polyusa chimed in. “They say we changelings are a really nasty bunch.”

Luna and Chrysalis stopped at this, and considered it.

“How… flattering,” Chrysalis noted after a moment. “In a strange way.”

“That’s what we said,” Polyus agreed.

“They don’t look as good either,” Armor said. “I’ve never seen that Chrysalis myself, but I heard descriptions of her, and I saw other changelings.”

Luna, Chrysalis, Poly, and Trixie all exchanged glances. “Don’t look as good?” Chrysalis asked, confused.

“Uhm,” Armor said, sounding a bit awkward. “Well, they were really skinny,” he started, and looked back and forth between Poly and Chrysalis. “I heard that that Queen Chrysalis had wings that looked like dragonfly-wings, and their shells didn’t have as much… luster, I guess, and they kept snarling and hissing, and their legs were full of holes...”

Armor trailed off when he saw the expressions of the other. As he spoke, Polyus, Polyusa, and Chrysalis, looked at each other, first seeming a bit disturbed, then outright disgusted at the information.

“Oooh,” Polyusa whined, clutching their sides. “That’s horrible!”

They were grabbed by Chrysalis, who held them close and barraged their head with pecks.

“Don’t worry, my little ones,” she said, and held them close, as Luna put a wing around them. “It’s alright. Nothing like that’s going to happen here.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, as Poly visibly relaxed.

Trixie spoke up instead, seemingly not wanting to interrupt the changelings’ moment. “It means, or at least seems to mean, that they’ve been living on bad love.”

“Bad love?” Armor and I echoed.

“Love that wasn’t given to them,” Luna said. “Changelings can sustain on love not given to them, but it’s not healthy for them to feed only on that.”

“Forcing or tricking ponies to love us is like a bad diet,” Chrysalis said.

As I let that sink in, it started making sense that they were so alarmed by that. It sounded like we had just described an entire people as having really bad symptoms of malnutrition, or having lived their whole lives on nothing but the worst junk food.

“Ew,” I noted to myself.

“Quite,” Luna said.

“At least you wouldn’t have to worry about your Chrysalis charming ponies unintentionally,” Chrysalis said.

“So you have to love changelings for who they are or something?” I asked.

“In a sense,” Chrysalis said, and let go of Poly. “You can show affection for a disguised changeling, but it has to be towards that individual. If I were to impersonate one of you, and trick you to give me the love meant for the other, it would be tasty, but it’s not something you should rely on.”

“That’s… what everypony back home is afraid is happening,” Armor said. “Changelings sneaking into your house and pretending to be a family member.”

“I see,” Chrysalis said. “I’m… not sure how to feel about that. I could teach you how to spot changelings, but that would be providing somepony a weapon to use against a starving changeling.”

“I have no trouble liking changelings,” I noted.

“Yes, and if they’re not being cooperative when you try and show them affection, well, that’s a strange situation,” Chrysalis said.

Strange indeed. It was making my head spin, and I decided to bring up something else I had been wondering about. “Hey, our Celestia said that Starswirl forbade her from using the mirror because the barrier between the world was wearing thin when she was over here. Is it in danger from the two of us being here?”

Luna shook her head. “It’s been a long time since I talked with that Starswirl, but as I understood it, no. The portal remained open when your Celestia was here, which is what wore on the veil, but it’s closed now. There is no need to worry until Sombra opens it again.”

“And we want him to do that for us?” Armor asked.

“Correct,” Luna said.

“And you had no idea on how to make him do that?”

“I have many ideas, but no good ones yet,” Luna said, and shook her head. “My closest friend for a thousand years, and I’m not so sure I know him anymore.”

I could sympathise, in a way. I had a good friend in my dreams, he taught me things that helped me and others, he was a good conversationalist, and a comforting presence. Then I learned that he, in a sense, almost turned two worlds upside down. I hoped that he, the real Sombra, was still in there somewhere. It was hard to imagine how Luna must feel about this whole situation.

Luna looked up at us. “Is there anything you’d like to talk about at this moment?”

Armor and I looked at each other, and shrugged. “Not really,” I said, while Armor shook his head.

“Then I recommend that you rest and recover,” Luna said. “Canterlot is open to you, and you are safe here, but I ask that you remain in the city, and inform the guard if you leave the castle.”

“Sure,” I said. “I think I’m gonna try and get my eye working properly. What do you wanna do, Armor?”

“Stay close to you,” he said, simply.

“Oh that’s right,” I said. “Still feeling a bit weird.”

Chrysalis looked a little sheepish at that.

“I’ll start working on documenting the construction of magical prostheses,” I said. “Got some gem dust and a blacksmith with some spare time later?”

“Whatever you need,” Luna said, standing up before bowing. “On behalf of all of Equestria, I thank you.”

“Well, gee,” I said, shifting a bit awkwardly. “I’m just glad to have something relaxing to do.”

Trixie suppressed a chuckle at that. “I should catch up on some more sleep,” she said. “And you haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Please show them to a room and call a chef,” Luna said. “I want to see you later, Trixie and Chrysalis. You too, Poly.”

We all rose up, Armor lifting me up onto his back, and went separate ways. Trixie slumped off, looking tired, Luna walked off towards a tower, while the changelings, Armor, and I, walked down a hall.

“I didn’t even learn the layout for our Canterlot Castle,” I groaned. “Now I’m gonna have to start over.”

Armor let out a sigh. Chrysalis and Poly chuckled.

“Forgive me for asking, but what is your relation?” Chrysalis asked.

That stopped Armor and my thoughts dead in their tracks. “... Why do you ask?” I said after a while.

“There is love there,” she said. “Several kinds in fact. A budding romance, but not the fiery excitement you often see between young ponies.”

Armor and I glanced at each other.

“Wow, thanks,” I said, my eye half-lidded.

“I always suspected I wasn’t an exciting pony,” Armor said. “Glad to hear I wasn’t mistaken.”

Chrysalis and Poly chuckled again. “Oh I think you two actually see that as a compliment.”

“And pointing it out like this isn’t counter-productive in any way?” I asked, a bit pointedly.

“Sometimes, but both of you already know you have feelings for the other,” Chrysalis said confidently. “I’m just saying that it’s growing slowly but strongly.”

“Like hardwood?” Armor asked.

“Or well-hung ham?” I asked.

Chrysalis raised up to clap her hooves together mid-walk. “Oh, and you unite so naturally too,” she said, overjoyed. “You two are just perfect for each other.”

I just bobbed my head concedingly, secretly pleased to hear that, but I noticed that Armor had stiffened a bit, and something about his posture slumped.

“Well, here we are,” Polyus said. “I’m gonna go find a chef and send them up here.”

“And I’m going to check up on the hive,” Chrysalis said. “It was nice to meet you. We’ll see you later.”

“Later, and thanks,” I said.

“An honor to make your acquaintance,” Armor said, and bowed slightly to Chrysalis.

We entered the room, and Armor walked over to a beanbag to plop down on it.

We still felt the effect of that that strange, magical charm being popped, and had to stay close to each other. Armor laid on his back and placed me on top of his foreleg and wing.

He had stiffened up a bit when Chrysalis had talked about out relationship, but I was getting the feeling that I wasn’t the one making him uncomfortable. At least not directly.

I decided to give it some time before I brought it up though, so instead I lifted my eyepatch to start working on my new eye.

“I almost got this working yesterday,” I said.

“Ah yeah,” Armor asked, sounding genuinely happy about that.

“Yeah. There was some downtime while we were flying to Dodge. I made some progress then.”

Armor stiffened up a bit again, which changed my mind about bringing it up. I put my eyepatch down again, and turned around to face him.

“What is it, Armor?” I asked, concerned.

He looked at me, and let out a sigh as he looked down, ashamed, before finally returning his attention to me. “I was so worried,” he said. “And I was right to be. I’m supposed to look after you, and when you needed me, I wasn’t around.”

Although I couldn’t fault him in the slightest, he was technically right.

“It’s okay,” I said, and rested my head on his barrell, taking comfort in his presence.

I wasn’t a master of comfort, but I had picked up a few things from Redheart. Although I didn’t need her to teach me that emotional things can take time to communicate. Just like a parent hugs their child over and over, not just tell them that they love them once and let that be a standing comment, I had be close to him to make sure he understood emotionally that I was safe.

It worked that way for me too, as I breathed out a sigh of relief myself at having him back.

“Chrysalis said that we were perfect for each other,” I started. “What was it about that you didn’t like?”

“It has nothing to do with you,” Armor said, a bit forcefully. “It’s not your fault.”

I felt part of my tension drain out as I rested on Armor’s barrel, and I hoped it worked the same for him, because I wanted him to open up to me.

“What, then?” I asked. “You think you screwed up? Because I don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t either,” I said, a bit of force creeping into my voice as well.

The air went out of Armor, and he put his forelegs and wings around me, but said nothing.

“Is that it?” I pressed, and looked up at his face, which was pointed towards the ceiling.

“... not only,” he admitted, after a while.

“Then what is it?” I asked, softly, taking care not to sound accusing.

Armor took a breath, and looked me in the eye.

“Gabe, I’m pretty sure I love you,” he said.

Despite the sad look on his face, I couldn’t help but smile at those words. There had been a lingering sense of coldness after Polyus and Polyusa snapped us out of that charm, which vanished from his words. “I love you too, Armor,” I said. “Is that so bad?”

“No,” he said, and looked up into the ceiling.

“Is it my age?” I asked.

“A little,” he admitted.

“But not the big issue?”

“... No.”

“What is it then?” I asked. I was going to press him and say that he could trust me with anything, but I couldn’t think of a way to say that without making it seem like I was challenging him to open up to me, or implying that I deserved to be opened up to. My therapist had taught me that you get someone to open up to you by making them comfortable opening up to you, not forcing or badgering them.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Talk to me whenever you’re ready.”

I rested my head on him for a while, before he finally spoke up.

“It’s…” he finally started. “You… you’re such a wonderful mare, or woman, Gabe, and I…”

It started slow, but something about that was encouraging to me. “You what?” I asked, smirking a bit. “You’re just a kind, wonderful, brave, handsome, funny, hard-working, and considerate royal guard, who looks amazing in uniform?”

I could practically feel the soft glow of pride welling up inside him, and he tightened the hug for a while, before I sensed his smile leave him.

“I’ve mentioned that I have a twin sister, haven’t I?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Dress Armor. You haven’t said much about her though.”

“She’s…” Armor started, before bracing herself. “She’s my family’s favorite.”

That made me frown a bit. I had only met Armor’s uncle and grandfather, and neither of them had struck me as disliking him.

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s not her fault,” he said. “It’s not my parents’ fault either. She’s just better than me. She’s smart, and outgoing, and funny, and pretty, and everything I can do, she can do just as well, or better.”

I didn’t look up at him, I didn’t want to interrupt him. Instead, I simply caressed his barrel softly, prompting him to continue.

“When we were foals, she was always ahead of me. She’d learn to do something, and she’d show our parents. They’d congratulate her and hug her, and they’d ask me if I could do that as well.

“I never could, and when I learned, Dress had moved onto something new and more impressive. She had tons of friends, she had great grades, and I… didn’t.

“She always knew what to say, she could make anypony laugh anytime, she could fit in with any group, while I was just… an average colt.”

I wanted to protest, but stopped myself. It was important for him to get this out. “You said she’s a royal guard as well?” I asked.

“No, she’s a guard, but she’s not a royal guard,” Armor said. “Anyway, I… eventually I just stopped trying to impress my parents, or anypony really. I learned that being in the spotlight and getting compliments was for… other ponies. I belonged in the background, minding my own business, or just standing guard.”

My understanding of Armor’s predicament was starting to take shape. I was an only child, but I could understand that it couldn’t be easy, growing up next to someone who was showered in praise and attention, while wanting some for yourself. Especially when you doubt yourself, and asking for it is so unnerving, and rejection hurting extra much.

I didn’t really know what to say though.

“And the thing is,” Armor continued. “She’s a really wonderful mare. She’s supportive, and kind, and I love her, and my parents love me, and I love them all back, it’s just…”

“That you can’t help but resent them?” I suggested.

“Yeah. I know it’s so pathetic,” he said, his voice cracking a little bit. “I know I’m just whining about nothing, and I was just needy and just wanted more attention than my sister–”

That’s when I rose from his embrace and walked over his chest, and put my face up to his, looking him in the eye for a moment before nuzzling him, and holding him tight. “No,” I said, simply. “You have issues with your self-esteem, I’ve known that since I met you, and you’re being overly critical of yourself and what you think. There’s nothing wrong with feeling hurt from rejection.”

Armor relaxed and melted into my embrace.

“Anyway, I just…” he said. “I… have trouble understanding that somepony as wonderful as you would love me.”

I scoffed lightly into his mane. “You know, it’s too bad I’m not an adult pony, because if I’m so great, I’m up for you bringing me to school reunions and showing me off when I’ve grown up a bit.”

Armor let out an almost silent chuckle.

“And Plate didn’t strike me as the guy to play favorites,” I noted.

“He didn’t,” Armor said. “I heard him, one night around Hearth’s Warming, when he sat in the kitchen and talked to my folks about it. He said he was disappointed in them, they said that they tried not to, but they admitted that they did.

“I was so happy to hear that somepony other than me noticed. Gramps never played favorites, and he spent more time with us after that.”

“He sounds pretty great,” I noted.

“He’s gruff, but he’s really nice beneath that. I was worried that he pulled some strings to make me a royal guard, since Dress isn’t one,” Armor said.

“I’d say ask him.”

“... Maybe,” Armor said.

“I feel like asking him now.”

Armor chuckled a bit, bit I could hear his voice cracking.

I rose up to smile supportively at him and look him in the eyes. They were a bit wet.

“Gabe?” he said, after a moment.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” he said, and swallowed. “For listening. I’ve never told anypony about this.”

He wasn’t crying, but something wanted to come out.

“It’s alright,” I said, and held his head against me, resting my head on top of his. “I know it’s scary to talk about, but it’s okay. I’ll be here for you.”

With a sigh, Armor deflated again, and a heavy but comfortable feeling settled in my chest. Armor was hurting, but I was helping him, like he had helped me. Helping him was a good thing.

He tensed up a bit when there was a knock on the door, but I put a foreleg on him, wordlessly saying that he could stay where he was.

Instead, with a sigh, I magicked the door open just a little bit.

After a while, a stallion in a chef’s hat poked his head in questioningly.

“Rosehip soup and some toast for two, please,” I said.

The stallion nodded understandingly, and retreated again.

“Armor,” I said.

“Mmm?” he mumbled into my chest.

“Never be afraid to be honest with me. Never be afraid to be honest with yourself.”

Armor took a few breaths, shaking a bit. “Gabe?” he asked after a moment.

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared.”

“So am I,” I said, and cradled him gently as a tear built up in my eye, then kissed him on the forehead.


—


The initial effect of having been near Chrysalis was wearing off, but I still stayed on top of Armor as we walked towards the smithy. I liked it there.

“Here we are,” Polyus said. “I don’t get around here much. We changelings don’t use armor very often.”

“That’s comforting,” Armor remarked, smirking slightly around the bag of materials in his mouth.

“Well it’s…” Polyus started, then looked sideways at Armor with a small smile. “Pff.”

The smithy was, understandably, separate from the main buildings in the castle ground, and located in a sort of back area. I liked those places, especially in my Canterlot Castle. The fronts were of course wonderful, with beautiful gardens that ponies calmly strolled through, taking in the sights and breathing the wonderful air, but the back areas, where the gardeners had half-secretly put up patio chairs and grills for their time off, and nature was a little more free to form its own beauty among the more utilitarian parts, were special to me.

Perhaps because I was used to the basements and utility corridors of hospitals, being in an equivalent place that kept itself decorated with greenery was very nice.

Poly knocked on the door, and a mare’s voice said, “Come in.”

We filed into the house, and saw two earth ponies, an orange-coated and pink-maned mare with a cutie mark of a silvery chain, and a brown-coated and fiery-maned stallion with a hammer and a puff of smoke as cutie marks, working by a forge and an anvil respectively.

They looked up when they saw us, more than a little surprised.

The smithy was an all-round workshop, a large forge, anvils, draft-tables, and other assorted goodies, as well as a break-section in the corner.

“Hello there,” the stallion said. “Can we help you?”

Poly coughed into their hooves, before opening their elytra and fetching a roll of paper out of it and presenting it to the stallion. “Yes, are you very busy?” Polyusa said. “We have a work order from on up high.”

“Concerning what?” the stallion said, and took the letter.

“The paperwork is all there,” Polyus said, and gestured to Armor and me. “This is Ser Gabrielle Desrochers and Private Studded Armor. Gabrielle has knowledge of advanced magical constructs that she’s willing to share with us, and has been granted assistance in construction and…” Polyus waved his forearm.

“Documentation,” I added helpfully.

“Documentation,” Polyus said. “So do you have time?”

“If it’s a royal order then…” the stallion started as he looked at the paper, before looking up again. “Hold on, can we go through this again?”

I cleared my throat, and stretched out my metallic hoof in greeting. “Like Polyus here said, Gabrielle Desrochers,” I said. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Uhm, likewise,” the stallion said. “Heavy Strike.”

The stallion bumped my hoof, and immediately stopped when the sensation registered on him, but I instead turned towards the mare.

“Uhm, Hard Silver,” she said, and bumped hooves with me, who likewise stopped afterward.

I nudged Armor, who sprang to present his hoof. “Studded Armor.”

Hard and Heavy woke up and exchanged greeting with Armor, while Poly looked amused at the whole thing.

“Well, have fun, everypony,” Polyus said. “Ser Lulamoon was gonna try and find a test subject later, but I’m not sure when.”

“Gotcha,” I said. “Later.”

“Bye,” Armor said.

Poly slunk out of the door, while Hard and Heavy were still staring at my hoof.

“Alright then,” I said, and pulled off the covering of my foreleg prosthesis. “If you have the time, this is what I want to make.”

“Is that a…?” Hard started, and stopped herself from reaching for my leg.

I presented it to her, and she took it in her hoof.

“A prosthesis?” she finished.

“Correct,” I said. “And I’m an enchanter, not a metalworker, so I need help in making the chassis.”

“You want more?” Heavy asked.

“No they’re not for me,” I clarified. “They’re for other people. I’m going to need some help making some samples that we can give to… you know, relevant institutes of learning and… stuff.”

“Wait, did you make this?” Heavy asked.

“I came up with the enchantment, but I had a friend help me make the chassis,” I said, then jiggled my hind leg. “This one too. He’s not available though.”

Hard and Heavy exchanged glances, then sat down on the floor, stunned.

Then it was mine and Armor’s turn to look at each other.

“Is there a problem?” Armor asked.

They glanced around with uncertainty painted on their faces.

“Well it’s… it’s just that…” Hard said. “It’s a bit sudden to learn that… a filly has made prosthetic legs that… do they act like real legs?”

“Yeah,” I said. “They’re a drain on your magic, but you get more and more used to them.”

“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t you present those to a university?” Heavy asked.

“Meh,” I said, and shrugged.

“But you could be famous!” he insisted.

“Maybe,” I said. “I’m more interested in making them available for people who need them.”

Hard and Heavy glanced at each other.

“So, uh, okay, we uh… wait,” Heavy said, and looked at the paper that Poly had given him. “Did the princess… order this?”

“We volunteered,” I said. “So should we get started?”

“Uhm, sure,” Heavy said. “What do we do?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, excitedly. “Normally I have to custom-make each prosthesis for each user, by matching the enchantment with their arcanomorphic signature, but I had this idea for making it a generic enchantment that figures out the signature of whoever uses the prosthesis at the time, so that you can mass produce prosthetics with that enchantment, and the enchantments will be universal.”

Hard and Heavy stared at me blankly. “... What?” they both asked at the same time, and I heard Armor snicker behind me.

“Just trust me. It’s gonna be great,” I insisted. “I want you to make a limb of a certain shape, I’ll show you the details later, but for now you can use my man Armor here. He’s a good measurement stick for an athletic stallion, so we’ll have that phenotype covered.”

Armor gave them a smile and a wave.

“... Okay?” Hard said. “What’s a man?”

“The question for the ages. Can I use one of your desks?” I asked. “I’ll start working on the new feature, and when you’ve got Armor’s measurements, I’ll show how to enchant the chassis.”

Hard wordlessly gestured to a desk.

“Thanks,” I said, and Armor walked us over to it, and I took a seat as he dumped the bag of materials on the table.

I considered the names of our new friends for a moment, then pulled out my magic boombox out of my hind leg. “Also, I have some pretty good choice of music. I think you’re gonna like this.”


—


“But this doesn’t look like yours,” Hard said, nodding her head slightly in beat with the music. They liked it. Like them, it was hard and heavy, beautiful and strong.

“No, well, my legs are pretty fancy, high performance models,” I said, sitting on one of their chairs by the drafting table. “For general purpose civilian models, I think it could work well with just a hollow rod surrounded by a thick textile.”

It was a plain wooden chair, not nearly as comfortable as sitting on Armor, but I had my reservations about sitting in his lap at the moment.

“Why are your legs shaped like that?” Heavy asked, also nodding his head to the beat.

“I left them hollow so I could stuff my gadgets in there,” I said, and spooled out my grappling hook as a demonstration. “It took a lot of work to make them though. The chassis has two layers with a space between them for the motor-enchanted gem dust, which requires quite a lot of skill to make, and we wanna at least start with models that are easy to produce.”

Hard and Heavy nodded, and not just from the music, before Heavy presented a foreleg prosthesis, less fancy-looking than mine, and instead of full-sized it was a thin affair.

“Well, here it is,” Heavy said. “Will this do?”

“I think so. When these ones were made,” I said, taking the offered limb in my magic and waving my own foreleg prosthesis demonstrably, “we wove the outer parts of the enchantments into the components as we made them into an alloy, then twisted the plates into vertices before flattening them out again and shaping the limb. Makes it pretty much impossible to disenchant for anyone who isn’t me.

“It would be a bit superfluous to do that with this one though, I think,” I continued, as Armor, finished being a model for now, and instead pulled up a chair next to me. “I just wanted it as tough as possible since dragon fire can mess with enchantments, and I lived with one.”

Hard and Heavy looked at each other as I pulled and bent the limb.

“Can I ask you something?” Heavy said.

“Yep,” I said, as I started working on the new enchantment.

“Do you have an eye prosthesis?” he asked, pointing at my eyepatch.

“Yup,” I said, not stopping my enchanting. “I’m working on making that work like a normal eye as well, but it’s not ready yet.”

Hard and Heavy were silent for a moment, before Hard turned to Armor. “So uh, what’s your story?”

Armor sat straighter in the chair. “I’m her bodyguard.”

“And my closest friend,” I added.

Armor put a wing around me, and rested his head on top of mine for a moment, making me smile and lean into him.

“Alright, finished,” I said, and started unscrewing the caps at the top of the two sections of the limb, and the more massive hoof.

I tied the bag of gem dust I had just enchanted to the holes and poured it into the empty parts. “This will probably be a bit jerky since there’s so much… I don’t know what to call it… ‘windage’ I guess, since the cavity isn’t filled up.”

Armor, Hard, and Heavy all observed as I screwed the caps back on. “For the next one we can’t forget an on and off switch, as it is I’m gonna have to open this up again and disenchant the motor enchantment. Alright, here we go.”

Hard and Heavy recoiled a bit as I powered down my prosthesis and pulled it off, then ‘started up’ the new leg, and attached it.

I magically observed as the enchantments took a few seconds to recognise me as the current user, and adjust itself to me, but after that, it came alive just like my normal one did.

“Haha!” I cried, triumphantly. “Yeah. Kinda jerky, takes a short moment before it responds and stops,” I noted, struggling to move the limb properly. “I never had one of those myoelectric ones back home. I wonder if this is what they feel like.”

“So do we need to improve it?” Heavy asked. “Also, what’s myoelectric?”

“Hmm?” I asked, looking up at him. “Mm, well, it seems like it’s turning okay, it’s just weird to move since the motor enchantment is rattling around in there before moving the chassis. It’s also way too big for my arcanomorphic form. It’s like being in a plate armor that doesn’t match up with your joints.”

There was a knock on the door, and a moment of silence before Armor and I looked away from the door towards the smiths and nodded silently in its direction.

“Come in!” Heavy called.

I looked at Armor. I wasn’t an ace when it came to psychology, but I didn’t want to be so bossy that people didn’t feel like inviting people into their own workplace.

The door opened, and Trixie stepped in, with another pony behind her.

“Ser Lulamoon!” Hard said, and she and Heavy stood at attention.

“As you were,” Trixie said.

“Hey, Trixie. How’s tricks?” I asked, waving my overly long limb in greeting.

She took in the somewhat bizarre sight before shaking her head and smiling. “I’m fine, thank you,” she said. “I have a volunteer with me.”

Trixie stepped aside to show the pony behind her, a unicorn stallion with a dark grey coat and a deep blue mane, a lit lantern for a cutie mark, whose right foreleg ended halfway between the hoof and the elbow. By now I had seen more ponies with missing limbs in less than a year than I had humans the rest of my life, but I had to remind myself of my new calling.

“This is Evening Spark,” Trixie said. “Private Evening Spark.”

Spark lifted the remains of his right foreleg and coughed into the elbow. “Former private, ser.”

Trixie smiled at him, then gestured invitingly to us, and focused on the smiths. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Hard Silver, Heavy Strike, and Trixie exchanged introductions, with Hard and Heavy asking some hushed questions about me and Armor.

I was going to hop from my chair and greet Evening, when I remembered my oversized leg. Evening walked up to us instead, very steadily, with a smile and sat down on his haunches in front of Armor and me, and offered us his left hoof. Both of us were on the ball with his choice of greeting appendage, which he seemed amused by.

When everyone had been properly introduced, Trixie spoke up.

“What is that music?” she asked.

“Heavy Metal,” I said, and powered down my music player before unscrewing the cap for the interior of the limb. “I found it appropriate.”

“It sounded very… bracing.”

“They’d be happy to hear that,” I said, and disenchanted the limb, making it fall off me.

Evening hadn’t taken his gaze off the limb in a while, but shifted to my standard one as I picked that up and put it on.

He poked with his right leg towards it as it came alive. “That is why I’m here, isn’t it?”

“Good guess,” I said, deciding to cut to the chase and not dangle something like this in front of him. “Near-perfect magical prosthetics, made with a new type of universal enchantment that doesn’t have to be custom-made, and you’re gonna be the first pony to have one around these parts it seems.”

“‘These parts’?” he echoed. “You come from the gryphon lands?”

“Nope,” I said. “I’m not from around here originally, but I didn’t grow up around gryphons.”

“So this isn’t gryphon magic? It would make sense if it was,” Evening said.

“How so?” Armor asked.

“Well, maybe that’s not true,” Evening said, and waved his right foreleg. “I just associate gryphon lands with injuries.”

We looked at him in surprise at that. “Did a gryphon take that?” Hard said, and gestured to Evening’s right foreleg.

“What? Oh, no,” he said. “I was saved by gryphons though. I lost this in Tempest Valley.”

“Oooh,” Hard and Heavy said in unison.

“What’s that?” Armor asked, which told me it wasn’t a thing back in our Equestria.

“You’re both new around here then?” Evening asked. “It’s a large valley between Equestria and the gryphon states, the chunk to the south that’s void of settlements when you look at a map. We herd monsters in there and try and keep them locked in by maintaining storms near the only exit.”

Trixie nodded. “Occasionally, the monsters needs a more hooves-on treatment when they’re about to spill out into the heartlands.”

“And occasionally,” Evening said, and took a breath. “Not every gryphon, or everypony, makes it through in one piece.”

“... What happened?” Hard said.

“One beastie was about to slip through the perimeter,” Evening said. “We could’ve sent a flyer to call for backup, but we were at fighting strength and thought we could handle it.

“I mean, we did handle it, but you know,” he said, and waved his nub a bit.

“I’m sorry,” Hard said.

Evening gave her a wry smile. “I knew the risks,” he said. “Doesn’t make it better, but it does make it a little less bad.”

“So you fought alongside gryphons?” Armor asked.

“Yeah. Good thing too,” Evening said. “We only had one pegasus and I was sort of in a hurry to get back to base.”

“What was the little beastie?” Heavy asked.

“Schnauzer eel,” Evening said, which made Hard and Heavy drew a sharp breath.

“Oooh,” they said, wincing.

“Yeah,” Evening said. “It was all according to the book at first. The gryphons and the pegasus harassed it, the rest of us took position on what looked like a rocky patch, and waited for an opening, then it dived, and there must’ve been a huge crack in the rock because it came up underneath me.”

“What’s a Schnauzer eel?” Armor asked.

“It’s a giant, land-burrowing fish serpent with an electric rattle at the end of its tail, rows of sharp teeth, and of course a moustache,” Trixie said.

“Teeth like a pike then?” I suggested. “It had better be careful or I’ll eat it.”

“Yes, like a pike” Evening said, then looked at me in surprise. “Are you sure you’re not a gryphon? I learned to enjoy eating fish when I was posted there, but I’ve never heard of a little filly ever liking fish before..”

“I’m just weird,” I said, and shrugged.

“Heh, right,” Evening said. “Well then, you’d understand why we couldn’t save the leg even if we’d gotten our hooves on it. It was paste in moments.”

I almost cringed at that. My own incident of losing limbs probably didn’t look pretty, but at least I didn’t have to see it.

“Want a new one then?” I asked.

Evening smiled at me. “You bet. Where do we start?”

“Your measurements,” I said, and gestured to Hard and Heavy, who jumped to attention.

“Remember to make some room for padding between the residual limb and the chassis,” I told them. “The last one was too big for me, but I could tell that it was going to chafe.”


—


“So are you going to rejoin the guard?” Armor asked, as we waited for the chassis to cool down so that Hard and Heavy could polish it.

“Yeah,” Evening said. “I wonder if I’d still be allowed though. You said that they don’t have any sense of touch.”

“Yep,” I said. “I manage just fine though.”

“I don’t see why not,” Trixie said. “Not having a sense of touch in a flesh and bone leg would put it at risk for injury, but not in this case.”

“Good point, ser” Evening said.

We were seated around the drafting table as Hard and Heavy polished the new limb. Evening, understandably, looked on in anticipation. I was just enjoying the ambience as I leaned against Armor; a forge is much like a fireplace after all.

“So how long have you been enchanting?” Evening asked me.

“For… uuuh,” I started. I had actually lost track of how long I had been in Equestria. I turned to Armor for help, but he didn’t seem to have an answer ready either. “Do you remember how long it’s been? A few months?”

“Uuh, yyyeah. Something like that,” he said.

“Really?” Evening asked. “You’ve only been doing this for a few months?”

“I guess,” I said.

He shook his head and let out a sigh. “Nine years of combat magic, and I can’t even wrap my head around how you do this,” he said. “I feel a little inadequate now.”

“Uhm, well… don’t feel too bad about it,” I said. “I’m terrible when it comes to combat magic. I can stun people, but I’m so slow at it that I enchanted a gem to shoot stun spells for me.”

That piqued Evening’s interest. “Yeah?” he said.

“Yeah,” Armor confirmed. “It’s kinda awesome. Can you show them, Gabe?”

“Sure,” I said, and magicked a window open, pointing my prosthesis at the empty sky, then at a wall in case a pegasus flied into the spell. “Watch this.”

I shot the wall, and the energy dispersed with a small thump.

“Whoa,” Heavy said, as everyone looked at where the shot had connected.

The wall was unaffected, but if there had been a pony there their magic would have been scrambled, and they probably would’ve lost consciousness. If there had been another magic effect, it could’ve been neutralized. My legs were proofened from that of course.

Evening looked back at me, and gave me an impressed nod. “Not bad. I’m not sure how to pay you back unless you want some training in combat magic,” he said.

“Now would be the time to learn, Gabe,” Trixie said.

“That’s true,” I said. “I seem to need it for important stuff. I also think it’s time to upgrade this thing,” I said, referring to my magic stunner.

“Alright, finished,” Hard said, and held up the new limb. “There’s some give here at the cup on the top, and the hoof, just like you said, Gabrielle.”

“Good. That’s for comfort,” I said. “For some more, we’ll find some cloth that doesn’t get hard and rough from being squeezed after long periods of use. I can enchant some but I’m not great with textile.”

I started enchanting the chassis. Metal wasn’t as easy as gems or gem dust, but it was much easier than textile. This also wouldn’t be as hard to disenchant like my current limb which, from an enchanting perspective, required both untangling a wickedly complicated knot, solve a puzzle, and put some effort into it; That enchantment was going nowhere. This would keep working unless someone adept enough at enchanting disenchanted it.

“And now we just fill this up,” I said, and poured the dust into the openings, which also served as on and off buttons. That part was always tricky because of the tendency of the dust to squirm around from ambient magical energies.

“Finished,” I said, turned the limb on, and faced Evening. “Present… arms!”

Evening chuckled, and held out his right foreleg. I placed the prosthesis on him, and it instantly came alive.

Every eye in the room widened except mine and Armor’s. I was mostly just pleased with how that limb would work for anyone. At least anyone it fitted on.

Evening turned his limb around experimentally, wiggling the hoof and clapping it with his normal hoof.

“It also works as a conduit for your hoof field,” I said, and gently tossed the small bag to him, which he caught in his new limb, and held, making him look at it with deepened fascination.

After a moment, Evening stood up in silence, and turned to me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a shrug, happy that I wasn’t getting hugged nearly to death for once. “So did anyone keep up with what I was doing when I made the enchantment?”

Evening, Armor, Hard, and Heavy shook their heads.

“Well it is unicorn magic,” I added, as Evening rose up. “So I guess that was mainly for Trixie and Evening.”

“I understood some of it,” Trixie said, and nodded. “What the blocking enchantment on the metallic part is for, but I couldn’t comprehend how you made it all change when Evening got close to it. I also couldn’t figure anything out from analysing your legs. They’re a mystery.”

“They use the same principle as Evening’s leg, they’re just shielded and a bit over-designed,” I said. “That’s one of the things I should make sure people get before I leave then. I also gotta make sure that they’ve got it down back home.”

“You’ve done this a lot?” Hard asked.

“A few times,” I said. “Not a lot of veterans before now though, strangely enough. Now I just gotta teach people how to mass produce this enchantment.”

“What about a wand?” Trixie asked.

“A wand?” I asked.

“Yes. Like the stunner on your foreleg,” Trixie said. “You enchant a device to cast a spell when you pour magic into it. If this new enchantment of yours is universal, you can make a wand for that enchantment so that anypony can use it.”

“What, like this?” I asked, and floated my stunner out of my leg.

“Yes, that’s a wand,” Trixie said.

“Oh,” I said, a bit sheepish from not knowing the terminology, and stunned at not having thought up that myself. “Good idea. I’ve only ever used this one, can you teach me how to make them?”

“Yes,” Trixie said, smiling. “And you can learn, I can see that much.”

Evening had gone back to flexing his new hoof, and looking at it in fascination. “So what do you want in return for this?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing,” I said. “I’m just keeping myself busy.”

“You don’t want anything?” Heavy asked.

“Nothing that anyone here can give me,” I said, smiling sadly, before I realized something. “Actually, I’d like a guitar.”

“That, I can give you,” Evening said. “I don’t know anything about music, but I can get you one.”

Trixie smiled at him. “That won’t be necessary. Gabe is doing this as a favor for Princess Luna. She’ll pay for it.”

“Mmm, I also have to get my eye working properly,” I said. “Then perhaps make a wand for that as well. Then I guess the real challenge is making new internal organs in case people need them.”

“You didn’t… you know, remove your body parts yourself did you?” Hard asked.

“Hm? Oh, no,” I said. “It was an accident.”

“Well, anything you need from me,” Evening said, standing up and extended his new hoof. “Just ask, and it’s yours.”

I looked up at him, smiling down at me, but I didn’t look this gift pony in the mouth– He had his lips closed. “You got it,” I said, and clacked my prosthesis against his.


—


The next day, Armor and I walked back to the castle, a new guitar hanging off his side… or rather, he walked and I rode.

I had to admit, having a pony to ride around on was pretty great. The closest I had come to have one as a human was from playing Harvest Moon.

Even so, new guitar or not, I wasn’t feeling entirely pleased.

“Are you okay, Gabe?” he asked, looking back at me.

“Hmm?”

“You seem a little down,” he said.

I waited answering until we passed through the gates and into the castle grounds.

“A little,” I mumbled. I hadn’t expected him to catch on though. At least this quickly.

Armor said nothing, just politely waiting for me to continue if I felt like it, which was the most effective encouragement.

I shifted a bit in frustration, before sighing. “I’m… I don’t know. I wanna say bored, but I’m not sure that’s the best word. Restless, maybe.”

“Ah,” Armor said, sound sympathetic.

“I had this wonderfully varied life back in our Equestria,” I said. “I worked on my enchantments, I walked around town, or the castle, wherever I was, I hung out with my friends, or I killed time in front of my computer. It was great.

“Now, I’m stuck here, wondering if we’ll ever get home again, and only having my work to distract myself, and when I feel like doing something else, I’m just reminded of where I am, and I start worrying again.”

I hugged Armor’s neck as he took off, and he set us down on the balcony of the room we had been given.

I hopped off him, and lifted the guitar off his side, setting it down on the floor just inside the door as I sat down on a large cushion.

Armor nuzzled me comfortingly, and I laid back into the cushion as he did.

“Tell me if I can do anything to help,” he said.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I want to go home, with you, but I don’t know how, and it might be dangerous, so I try and distract myself with some work, then I get fidgety, and I wanna do something else, and then I wanna go home, etc.”

Armor lay down beside me, lifted his head from nuzzling me, and looked me in the eye.

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

We looked at each other for a moment, before I pulled his head back into a hug, and said, “this helped.”

Armor chuckled, and nuzzled me again.

“Just tell me when you’ve had enough,” he said. “And I’ll go find something else.”

“Hmm?” I mumbled questioningly.

“Oh I can be insightful too,” he said. “You like your alone time.”

“I don’t know what I’d like right now that I can have,” I said. “Perhaps some ice cream.”

“I’ll go get some later,” Armor said.

“Yeah, I need something cool to put on my horn,” I said.

“So it would be a good idea to get those wands working then?” Armor asked. “So that it’s not your horn that needs to do all the work?”

“Mmm,” I mumbled in confirmation, when I suddenly stiffened up, and my eye started shifting from the thoughts going on in my head. “... Wands.”

“Gabe?”

I held Armor’s head in front of me and looked him in his eyes. “Armor, you’re a genius,” I said, confidently.

“I uh… wasn’t aware,” he said.

“But you are,” I said, and peered into the room, floating papers and writing materials over to start working on a new enchantment, my most ambitious one yet.

“Uhm, how so?” he asked.

He might’ve been a bit stunned at having such a nice snuggle session so abruptly ended, and I promised myself I’d make it up for him later.

“I’m better at shooting stun magic with the stunner in my leg than with my horn,” I said.

“... Yyyes?” Armor said.

“And if I lose my horn I won’t be able to do unicorn magic anymore,” I continued.

“I hope not, but yes.”

“Wrong,” I said. “Why have a gem that can shoot arcano-dispersive shocks, when you can have a universal one. A backup horn. It might even be better than the one I have on my head.”

Armor caught up with what I was proposing. “Oh, neat,” he said, and smiled. “Want some ice cream when you work?”


—


“Do you have it?” Trixie asked, as we lay on cushions in front of a table.

Armor lay beside me. He had been out exercising for a few hours and gotten a massage and a preen, before successfully eating some solid food and not just soup. Being tied up and half-starved for two days was bad for your physique and your digestion, but by now he was pretty much recovered, and just rested idly.

“I think so,” I said, and poked a coin with the tin rod– my new wand.

Gems and similar such were my preferred enchanting material, and my most favored among them was lapis lazuli, like on my cutie mark, but I had become pretty good with metals as well. I was certainly skilled enough to create what I was doing now.

I willed the wand to function, subconsciously, or perhaps instinctively, providing it with some of my magic, which it accepted, and began reweaving it into the shape I had instructed it to: a simple enchantment that does its best to make a solid object emit an orange light.

The coin I was poking with the wand lit up with a soft, orange glow, like a Wolfram bulb.

“Easy peasy,” Trixie said, smiling at me from the other side of the table.

“Yeah, but you’re still better than me,” I said.

“You’re picking up fast though,” Trixie said.

“You’re also way better than me when it comes to textiles,” I pointed out.

“I’m decent, but you’ll get the hang of that too before long, I can tell.”

“That’s because you’re a really good teacher,” I insisted.

Trixie shrugged with a little smile. “Well, you know, you…” she started, before she suddenly narrowed her eyes at me just a little bit, as Armor smiled without looking at us. “Stop that.”

I chuckled a impishly to myself. The alicorn of modesty indeed.

We kept going, and before long, we had four wands. One enchanted solid objects with the new arrangement where the enchantment configured itself to the arcanomorphic shape of the individual holding it near themselves, although for safety’s sake, it wouldn’t function unless it was used on something that already had an enchantment from the second wand, which was the on and off enchantment. Otherwise, there was a distinct risk that a user might end up with a limb they wouldn’t be able to remove.

The third one was for the motor part of the prosthetics, the gem dust that now also adjusted itself to the user.

The last one was a wiping spell specifically adjusted for my flavor of enchantment, in case it turned out to be possible in some way I hadn’t anticipated to attach a new leg to yourself permanently.

I was going to have to make a wand for all these steps sometime.

“Now I just need to make a wand that replicates my music enchantment with my library of music from Earth, enchant a bunch of gems, and spread them over Equestria,” I said.

“Why?” Armor asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just like the thought of almost eight thousand songs mysteriously appearing in a cultural subconscious, even though I hope I don’t get to stick around to see the results.”

Armor snorted amusedly. “Okay, I’m on board for that. I do like what I’ve heard of it.”

“Is that what we were listening to earlier? At the smiths?” Trixie asked.

“Yes.”

“Gryphons will probably be all over that,” she said. “Not sure how popular it will be among ponies.”

“There’s more than Heavy Metal in there,” I said. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with Heavy Metal. In fact, there’s a lot of things right about it. Most things. Arguably all of the things.”

“Mmm,” Trixie said skeptically.

“And now to make a prosthetic horn,” I said. “That’s gonna be tricky though.”

“A prosthe… wait, why do you need a prosthetic horn?” Trixie asked.

“As a backup,” I said. “If I lose the one on my head, I need another one ready.”

Trixie opened her mouth to question that, before closing it again with a conceding little nod to herself.

“Why is it gonna be tricky?” Armor asked, and opened an eye to look at me curiously.

“Because I need to study my own magical auras, particularly in my horn,” I pointed out. “And since I ‘watch’ those with my horn, it’ll be like trying to study your own eyes, and mirrors don’t work since I see right through them.”

“So can you enchant a mirror that reflects your magical aura?” Armor asked.

“I was thinking more like recording it,” I said.

“Oh,” Trixie said. “That’s really clever.”

“Thank you,” I said, and smiled at her. “But I’m sure you’d think up something just as clever.”

“Alright, alright,” Trixie said, and held up her hooves, a bit tired.


—


Late in the evening, I leaned back and let out a long sigh, my horn starting to ache from overuse.

Armor put his foreleg around me. “Get some sleep, Gabe,” he said, gently.

“Mmm,” I mewled in complaint, unconvinced.

“I know you don’t want to focus on where we are, but I don’t think this is healthy,” Armor said.

I stayed silent.

“For me?” he said.

I nodded, and looked up at his face. “You’ll join me?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded silently at me, and we walked over to the large bed in the room.

I removed my prostheses, and silently, we slipped under the covers and embraced.

I was stuck in another world, and didn’t know when and if I was going to get home, and while Armor’s presence certainly helped make me feel better, I was now confident enough in us to try and get some more out of our relation, something I felt I needed.

“Hey, Armor,” I said, into his chest.

“Yeah?”

“How are we doing?”

“How do you mean?” he asked, and I found the steadiness of his voice heartening.

“I mean us,” I said, and looked up at Armor. His expression was mildly expectant in a neutral way, and I detected some effort in him keeping it that way. I wasn’t entirely unlike him when it came to confidence though, so I decided to play around for long. “The two of us. We’ve said that we love each other. I’m a bit curious about what’s next.”

Armor smiled, and put a hoof to my cheek, which I leaned into.

“Kissing?” he suggested.

I found myself taken aback a bit by that. I didn’t exactly consider it forward, but from Armor, it spoke of a confident I had never seen him wield in social matters.

‘He loves me, and I love him, and he wants to kiss… yes, this is a good thing.’

I smiled at him, closed my eye, leaned forward, and kissed him gently on the mouth. There was a pleasant hint of tartness in the sweet taste of the kiss.

I opened my eye and looked at him, smiling with my entire face.

“I think you were right, handsome,” I said.

Armor’s smile didn’t exactly falter, but he did incline his head ever so slightly in question. “Do you mean that?” he asked.

Now it was my turn to get a slightly questioning look on my face. “Of course. Didn’t you like it?”

“No I, uh, yes, I liked the kiss, I just… I wasn’t sure you liked the way I looked.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you liked the way ponies looked, in that way.”

“Oh. No, I like how ponies look in general, and I think that you’re handsome,” I said, rested my head on his soft barrel, and smiled up at him. “There’s so much to like about you. Soft coat, for one thing.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Armor said, and got a bit of a relieved smile on his face.

“How about me?” I asked, softly burrowing my face into his coat.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“How do I look?”

Armor was silent for a moment. I looked up into his eyes, and he had a genuine look on his face. “You’re beautiful, Gabe,” he said. I smiled up at him, and he touched my mane with a hoof. “And I’m not the only one with soft hair.”

“And my legs and eye doesn’t bother you?” I asked. “Or lack of them. I keep them off in bed I mean.”

“No! Not at all,” he said, forcefully, then stopped for a bit. “Actually, I prefer it when you keep them off in bed. They’re cold.”

“What about my age?” I asked.

“That’s… I don’t know,” he said. “On one hoof, you look young, on the other… you know Fancy Pants. Have you met his wife, Fleur Dis Lee?”

“Was that the mare sitting beside him during the dinner?”

“Yes, he’s fifty years older than her.

“Also, in a sense you’re technically older than me,” he said, and paused as he realized something. “Hey, have you had any coltfriends before?”

“Boyfriends,” I clarified. “In a sense, yes.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, medical education can be kinda stressful,” I said, and propped my head up against my hoof, resting it against his barrel. “I didn’t blow off steam by partying or things like that. And there was a handsome young man, and we weren’t together romantically, but we enjoyed each other’s company nonetheless.”

“You miss him?” Armor asked.

I shook my head. “Nah, not in that way. He was a nice guy, but we knew it was just a temporary thing. Then he moved away, but he helped set me up with a friend of his.”

“Oh?” Armor asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “He said that I was pretty too, but at the time it hadn’t been as long since I lost my arm and leg, and all the staring was really getting to me back then, so I wasn't super stoked about meeting new people.”

“That sounds really nice of him,” Armor said.

“Yeah, it was,” I said. “It just felt so… easy, and not easy like we had taken an easy way out, we just agreed to not get into anything complicated that we didn’t need to.”

I reflected on that for a moment. “Hmm. Maybe that’s why I tried getting you and Rose together that one time.”

After a moment, I looked up at Armor to see him contemplating something.

“Armor?”

“I never told you,” he said.

“Told me what?”

“Rose and I never did anything.”

Now it was my turn to look contemplative. “You didn’t?” I said, and thought back to what she had said. “That’s weird, because she asked if you were coming to visit again.”

That made Armor let out a short laugh. “We talked, we laughed, and then she fell asleep on me.”

I stared at him incredulously for a moment, before laughing too. “Aaw, poor you.”

He gave me the most overdone charming smile. “Who cares?” he said. “I have you.”

“Oh! Ooohoho!” I said, putting my hoof to my chest and swooning. “Oh, you rogue. I’m gonna have to get back at you for that.”

I put on my best “manic cat” look, and pounced him, gently nibbling on his ear and purring slightly.

He tried holding it back, and succeeded for a few moments before he broke and giggled at the tickling sensation.

I instead hold myself above his face. We smiled at each other, then I closed my eye, and gently lowered myself onto his mouth.

Armor was a really good kisser.


—


The next week, Princess Luna called us for a meeting again. Not a more casual one where she checked in that Armor and I were okay: this time Trixie, Poly, and Chrysalis where in the meeting room as well, along with Evening Spark.

“Welcome, and thank you for coming,” Luna said, magically producing two cushions for us to join them around the large table.

“Naturally,” I said, as Armor and I took our seats.

Everyone smiled encouragingly at us, but there was a bit of tension in the air.

“Let us get to the heart of the matter,” Luna said, and rolled out a large map of Equestria. The central heartlands were largely the same as I remembered it, but the gryphon territories at the edge, as well as the Crystal Empire region to the north, looked a lot more metropolitan, with more road and settlements. Same for the Badlands, which were here just called “The South Sands”.

“Chrysalis and I have convened and reviewed what we know, and determined a course of action,” Luna said, looking at the map.

“Yes?” I asked.

She looked up at us. “We do not know how to send you back, but we know of some who might.”

She didn’t say anything more, and at first I thought it was a dramatic pause, but eventually I simply asked, “Okay, who?”

“The Oracles,” Chrysalis said.

“Oracles?” Armor and I asked at the same time. Neither of us knew of any oracles hanging around in our Equestria. Celestia came the closest, but that’s just because she knew a bunch of stuff.

“Yes, oracles,” Luna said. “They live in The Winsome Wilds, and they possess a great amount of knowledge. They never interact with our world directly, but they give advice and guidance to many ponies with noble goals.”

“Okay?” I said, running a hoof through my mane in confusion. “So, we just mosey on down to a bunch of oracles and ask them questions?”

“In a sense, yes,” Trixie said. “The Winsome Wilds aren’t easy to get through, but we’re gonna help.”

“Assuming you’re willing,” Luna said. “We cannot force you to do anything.”

“Is it dangerous?” Armor asked.

“It can be, but… not often in the traditional sense,” Chrysalis said.

I gave Armor a questioning look, and after a while, he let out a small sigh and nodded.

By now, I understood why the characters in Lord Of The Rings hung around in Rivendell for so long even though there were important things they had to get to. I was only looking for Armor for about two days, only got into one fight, and slept in Trixie’s comfy house bag during the nights, but it was still exhausting.

I let out a sigh of my own, and asked, “When do we leave?”

“When you are ready,” Luna said, and gestured to the others around the table. “You will be accompanied by Ser Lulamoon, Polyus and Polyusa, and Evening Spark.”

The four individuals with their three bodies smiled at us. Evening Spark seemed especially pleased with the arrangement, and saluted us with his new foreleg.

I looked down into the table. I didn’t want to do it, but I knew it had to be done. I was gaining a deeper respect for Twilight and her friends, Trixie and Poly, the guards, and others who worked with this.

In the stories, there are always youths setting out on adventure, often being forced to do so, and the helpless villagers respect adventurers so much, even though it stops seeming like that big of a deal poking around in a cave-system with a couple of goblins or hapless zombies. Especially in games where you’re fine with some healing magic or a sci-fi regenerative hypodermic.

I was starting to understand though. Someone who does this regularly could be considered the stuff of legends by a lot of people, even if, odds were, they’d make it through. I could certainly see myself perceiving it that way, having been on an adventure myself now.

I nodded, and looked up at Luna and Chrysalis. “Can we wait for a little while?”

Luna and Chrysalis smiled at me. “Of course,” Chrysalis said. “You’ll need equipment, and learn how to use it.”


—


“Pretty neat spell,” I noted, and clubbed myself in the head with my prosthetic hoof a few times.

“Standard training spell back home as well,” Armor noted.

“I didn’t know about it though,” I said, striking the ground instead, producing the expected result instead of the hit being like an inflatable hammer like when I was hit.

Armor, Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, Evening, and I, were standing at a training ring, with Trixie and I standing in the arena, and the rest sitting on bleachers.

There had been a few other guards who seemed to have a bit of spare time, who had pointed and talked among themselves in the distance. I guess it looked strange to have a filly in the ring.

“And to have an extra strong one by your eye,” Trixie said, and cast another spell on me, and on our practice weapons.

“What did that one do?” I asked.

“Stay still,” she said, and magicked her practice sword in front of my face. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.”

Naturally, I flinched when she poked me hard in the eye with it, or tried to. The blade stopped as if hitting solid steel an inch from my eye, and I was pushed back a bit instead.

“Don’t want to damage it of course,” Trixie said.

“No, please don’t until I finish this one,” I said, and pointed at my eyepatch, under which I still had my prosthetic eye, that didn’t quite work yet.

“And your equipment is ready,” Trixie said, and magicked over a thick scarf to me. “Hard and Heavy made this one for you.”

“How does this work?” I asked, and experimentally pulled it over me. I had learned by now that this is what the guards in this Equestria wore. It was a light armor, which could be worn by itself or underneath heavier armor.

“Simple,” Trixie said, and fastened the straps around my neck, it was pretty heavy, but the weight was distributed comfortingly when she pulled some of it over my back like a cloak.

Then she grabbed the part that hung from my neck, threw it over my face to drape it over my neck, then fastened it, and my cloak, with a simple tug at a pair of strings by my barrel.

In less than two seconds, my cloak and scarf had transformed into a piece of armor of pliable metal-mesh that covered my whole head, barrel, stomach, and parts of my upper forelegs, leaving only the rest of my legs and my behind unprotected, and a part of my horn that didn’t have a protective ring around it.

“Whoa,” I said, looking out through the mesh, and really not being bothered by it. 

‘This will help against gnats.’

“Tie up your tail, Madam Desrochers,” Evening said. “It’s really pretty, and sparring outdoors is dirty business.”

Trixie’s horn lit up, and two scarves from the table of weapons, equipment, and various knicknacks quickly flew up and tied themselves around my tail.

“Oh, thanks,” I said.

“About your legs,” Trixie said. “The spells can stop some very strong strikes, but I have a feeling you might be able to overpower them. Can you do something about that?”

“Uh, yes,” I said, and turned the bracelet-like thing near the tops of my legs, down to where they were about the same strength as my normal legs. “There, now they’re not super strong. Now uh, how do we do this?”

“Try poking me with this,” Trixie said, magicked up a medium-sized practice sword to me.

“Just to be doubly sure, this won’t hurt you?”

“That’s what we’re confirming,” Trixie said.

“Right.”

I took the sword, which was a bit big for me, in my prosthetic hoof. It was a simple and elegant-looking weapon, though obviously for practicing, since it was blunt even though we had protection spells on us. Protection spells which weren’t really useful in a real fight since they had to be cast on both the weapon and whatever it was to be used on, and only lasted for a short while.

I sliced through the air with the blade, then took a moment to consider the tool.

It felt a bit… off. When Armor was captured, I wouldn’t know what I could be pushed to doing in order to get him back, but I had never had a sword ready. Maybe that’s why it felt so unassuming to wield the deadly implement, or imitation thereof. I had been in several fights by now and swords had never been part of them. I didn’t associate swords with personal combat.

Regardless, even if I ever got any use of one or not, this would hopefully be good practice for risky situations in general.

Trixie presented her foreleg to me. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” I said, focusing on her again.

“Try stabbing me with it.”

The bluntness of the sword meant that the tip was probably the closest to being dangerous. I shrugged, and stabbed at Trixie’s leg with enough strength to leave an annoying bruise and possibly break her skin, but not hurting her more than that. Her leg was forced back, but she didn’t even look bothered, and she remained unharmed, meaning that the magic worked.

“Right, we should have a good half an hour before this wears off,” Trixie said, taking a wide stance, holding the sword in her foreleg and pointing it at me, angled down, while holding her head so that her horn was pointed away from me. “Weapon, magic, it doesn’t matter, attack me slowly.”

I unfastened my mask and tore it off me into a scarf again. “Don’t you need armor?” I asked.

“Not with these magics,” she said. “Neither do you, you’re just wearing it to get used to it.”

“Alright,” I said, and pulled my armored mask up again. “Here we go then.”

Trixie nodded, and I looked at the way she held her sword.

It looked a bit like fencing in the movies, as she held it pointed slightly downward, and had no shield if you don’t count the disc guard. Which made more sense here considering how magic could make sure swords didn’t lose their edge from striking against other blades.

I considered stabbing at her neck from above her guard, but she held it very defensively, and would have me stabbing with the far length of the blade at where she would have a lot more leverage than me.

Instead, I came in from beneath, where trying to deflect my strike would push me into the ground instead of up from it, so I wouldn’t lose my balance.

It was pretty much done in slow motion though, and I studied Trixie’s face for what she would think.

Thankfully, Trixie wasn’t a movie style kung fu teacher who doesn’t want to show whether or not the student is doing anything right or wrong. Instead, she smiled.

“Good,” she said, as she also slowly moved to intercept the strike. “Don’t give your opponent chances to influence your balance unless you can counteract her efforts.”

“Like how?” I asked.

“Using your wings if you have them,” Trixie said, and spread hers. “Otherwise, just having quick hooves and balance to spare helps.”

“Oh.”

“Come at me again in the same way, but slightly faster,” Trixie said.

I did. Trixie stepped back and easily deflected the thrust.

“Again. Faster.”

Again, I struck, and again, she deflected. Not surprising of course, she knew what I was about to do.

“Faster.”

A strike.

“Faster.”

By now I was pretty much moving with as much speed I was comfortable with, but Trixie would clearly be able to handle me going faster still.

“Faster.”

“Steady thrusts, Gabe,” Armor said. “You’re not playing wiffle ball, you’re fencing.”

“So…. what? ‘Be like the water’ or something?” I asked.

There was silence for a moment as the ponies and changelings around me considered this.

“I’m not sure what that means,” Evening said. “But that sounded pretty profound.”

“Not my words,” I said, evenly.

“Try it,” Trixie said.

I calmed down, and struck continuously, not putting so much effort into my leg itself like I was trying to kick down a door on a train, more feeling like I was striking with my whole body, and moving more gracefully in the little circle that Trixie and I were walking in.

Trixie steadily backed away from my attacks, and I interrupted my string of identical attacks by thrusting from the side.

Trixie blocked it of course, but she looked at me appraisingly.

“Do that again,” she said. “Keep going like you were going when you moved more relaxed.”

I nodded, and came at her again. I only put some effort into trying to strike at her behind her sword, and more effort into transitioning from one attack into another with as much speed as possible for the least effort I could.

It was actually quite entrancing to watch Trixie. She was clearly well-trained, and she and her sword danced almost hypnotically.

After a while, I felt I could display some of the grace that Trixie showed in her movements, but only some. Even so, it felt like I was learning something about how to move and keep my balance properly.

And I wasn’t sure, but I felt that this might be a hobby I could take up when I get back home. Hopefully Armor would be up for that.

After a long series of strikes and thrusts from various angles, Trixie pinned my sword to the ground, and looked at me.

She lifted her sword, not as fast as I had been moving, but much faster than the slow motions we had started out with, and struck towards me from the side.

I brought my sword up to block her, and stepped away.

Now it was my turn to back away from Trixie barrage of attacks. I had no doubt that she could move faster than this, and could poke me in the throat the moment she really wanted to, but it still felt like I was blocking moderately skilled attacks.

Then she stopped.

“Good,” she said, and lowered her sword. “Very good.”

“Good form, Gabe,” Polyusa said. “Start blocking as readily as you attack, and I’d say you’ve done this before… and Polyus agrees. Not bad.”

“This is all duelling though,” Evening pointed out.

“Yeah, a free-for-all is different,” Armor said. “But it’s still good practice.”

“Yes, this is all very formal,” Trixie said. “But we’re going to try something messier.”

“To address you, Polyusa,” I said, taking deep breaths but not quite panting. “I’ve been in fights before, but aside from the train, the first few ones weren’t quite the real thing, it was in this illusion run amok.”

“That sounds like a tale,” Trixie noted. “What magic spells do you know?”

“Uhm,” I said, and gave this some thought. “Well, besides enchanting... levitation, arcanokinesis, that flashlight one, and a stun spell.”

“Is your new horn working yet?” Armor asked the side.

“Shush,” I told him, grinning beneath my mask.

“Hmm?” Trixie said.

“Nothing. Those are the spells I know,” I said, smiling innocently, though probably unnoticed by her.

Trixie nodded, and raised her sword. “Freeform then. Have at you.”

She struck out with her sword, and I blocked it and stepped away. Slowly and obviously, she readied a spell with her horn, and shot it at my hooves, which I jumped away from. Next she struck with her sword and shot a spell at my barrell in quick succession, not really trying to hit me but clearly just easing me into the idea of being ready for many kinds of attacks.

“Steady on your hooves, but don’t tense up,” she said, calmly. “Come at me.”

I struck at her, and she blocked me and counterattacked, pushing me back slightly.

“Like you said, be like the water,” she said, and attacked again. “Don’t bunch up your withers, keep your balance steady instead and let the blows roll off your blocks.”

We kept going like that for a while, Trixie’s attacks becoming faster and stronger, and me just managing to keep up. They were getting stronger and more steady though, and after a while I had to back off when something started feeling wrong.

I walked sideways, keeping head fixed on her, but noticing pegasi hovering in the distance, looking at us, and some other ponies slowly approaching the bleachers.

‘That’s right,’ I thought. ‘Don’t fall for tunnel vision. Don’t use instincts when you can use your head.’

I steadily approached Trixie and reared up for an overhead swing. Clear and obvious, but not so slow that she’d catch on that I was planning something else with it.

Trixie raised her sword and blocked the blow. If it was a contest of strength, she’d win, but I had other plans.

I took my sword in my magic, and held it there while I quickly changed it to my left hoof. Trixie smirked in satisfaction and anticipation, and quickly shot a spell at me.

I blocked it with my prosthesis, which I wasn’t sure we had established as counting as a hit, but if it had been a stun spell it wouldn’t have worked anyway.

As she let her magic fly, I powered up my own horn and returned fire. Her eyes widened and her wings spread from surprise, and she quickly formed a magic shield to deflect the magic attack.

I had anticipated, and counted on, her doing that. I jabbed my prosthetic hoof forward, their magic deflective capabilities disrupting her shield, to fire with my new backup horn instead.

Trixie’s eyes were already wide enough, but it was with some satisfaction that I realized they would’ve widened again if they could. She beat with her wings and physically overpowered me, forcing my left foreleg to bounce into my prosthesis, knocking it off-target as I fell backwards.

My plan had been derailed, but fortune of fortunes, and trickery of trickeries, I saw an opportunity and immediately doubled down on my play.

Mid-fall, as the ground was coming up to meet my back, Trixie was above me. I had removed the stunner from my foreleg to make room for my new horn. However, I hadn’t thrown the old stunner away; I had transferred it to my hind leg.

Throwing my rear prosthesis up and aiming it at Trixie, I let loose a burst of stun magic, hitting her square in the belly.

I met the ground with a smack, mostly dampened by the magics Trixie had cast on us and our equipment.

Trixie flew listlessly through the air behind me, tumbling across the sandy ground, and settled on her side.

I rolled onto my stomach and ran over to her. “Are you okay?”

She pawed at the ground as she tried figuring out what was up and down. “Uh… yyyeah,” she said, eventually finding her temple with a hoof to hold her head still as she tried focusing her gaze. “Tou… touché.”

It was a pretty powerful blow, from one of Scrap Armor’s heavier models of stunners, so it was no surprise that even an alicorn like Trixie couldn’t shrug it off. Although unlike most people, she’d be up and going again within minutes.

“What happened?” someone asked.

I looked around to see at least two scores of ponies looking at us, having been drawn to the spectacle of the sparring.

“I played dirty,” I said, a bit sheepishly.

“It was freeform,” Trixie pointed out, and slowly stood up. “Nice job.”

“Thanks,” I said. “No hard feelings?”

“‘Course not, although now I want a rematch,” she said, before her forelegs buckled slightly under her. “... after I’ve sat down for a bit.”

I led her back to the bleachers to the sound of stomping hooves, as the attendant ponies, mostly guards, calmly applauded and looked at each other while nodding.

“You’d beat me if you were being serious,” I said.

“No comment,” Trixie said. “Underestimating your opponent isn’t an excuse though. Maybe somepony else wants to fill in for me while I rest up?”

Two scores of hooves silently shot into the air.

I let out a sigh, then got a determined smiled on my face as I realized something. “Alright, but from now on there’s gonna be music.”


—


Days later, it was time to leave. Chrysalis stood to the side while Luna walked calmly in front of us, fastening our cloaks and making sure that our holsters with stun rods hung securely at our sides, with the swords inside them.

We were not planning on leaving Equestria for a while, but even within the borders there were dangerous places with monsters and other nasties. A sword and a stun rod were sensible tools to bring with to an expedition.

Luna smiled encouragingly down at us, before a sense of sadness crept into her expression.

“I do not know what you are going to find at the oracles,” she said. “I hope for your safety, though I am… troubled by what victory might lead to. We are opposing the last member of an extraordinary people, and my old friend.

“Sombra is strong and cunning, and wields the wit and martial might of the champions of legend. Expect his loyalists to reflect this.”

Trixie, Poly, and Evening’s gazes met the floor, sadness clear on their faces.

“But do not trouble yourselves,” Luna continued. “For now, focus on knowledge, and act after that. I trust your judgement, and so did he.”

Luna bent down and shared a nuzzle with Trixie. “If you can, bring him back to us,” I heard her whisper.

Chrysalis similarly bent down and nuzzled Poly. “Take care of each other,” she said.

Then she walked up to me and Armor, and considered us for a moment, before reaching out and gently pushed us towards each other.

“Come back if you need to,” Luna said. “Good luck.”

And so we set out. There was no fanfare or ceremony. We were setting out on a secret mission that only a handful of people knew about.

Trixie, Evening, Armor, and I, crept into Trixie’s house bag, while Poly took on the disguise of an earth pony and took the saddlebag. They were to walk out of Canterlot, and then we’d slip out again and resume the trek through the country, away from the roads. Hopefully it would be some time before Sombra and his agents got wind of us leaving.

“So you’ve never heard of The Winsome Wilds?” Evening said, as we sat around the table, working on a stun wand to attach to his new leg.

“No,” Armor said. “I’ve never heard of any of that in our Equestria.”

“Is it dangerous?” I asked.

“It’s… you might not consider it risky in a traditional sense,” Evening said, giving his prosthesis a wave. “But it’s easy to get lost I hear. I’ve never been there myself.”

I looked at Trixie. “What about you?” I asked.

“Once,” she said. “It’s… difficult to put into words, but trust me when I say that it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”

I nodded absent-mindedly and went back to work. I had listened attentively when Twilight and her friends had told about how they had been out on adventures. Hopefully that would help.

I looked up at Armor, and smiled slightly as I went back to work. At least I had him with me this time.

Gaiden