[Zann]
I made my way down to breakfast. Pinkie had already left for Canterlot with Fluttershy, and Conner was already out doing his work. I scarfed down my bowl of berries before writing a note for the Eevee. With a smile and a whistle, I made my way off to my lab.
I was just opening the doors when Conner met up with me. "'Sup?" I waved my tail.
"Not much." He shrugged. "Any idea what the Princess wanted?"
"Judging by the full body shudders from last night," I tilted my head, "it's going to be a game changer of a doozie. But, that's an issue for when Leo gets back." I led Conner through the wardrobe, passing my work desk and going straight to the foundry.
We stopped beside my creation. I stood like a proud father, while Conner just stared at it.
His confused gaze turned to me. "What is this?"
"It's a leg!" I chirped.
"What? Why?!" Conner glanced between the prosthetic and me. "... Okay, stupid question, but how are you going to get it to work? I don't see any wires or lines you'd use to move this."
"Well, I've been getting better at controlling my fire. And all the parts are made from heat resistant metals..." I shrugged.
"Please tell me you're not thinking what I hope you're not thinking." Conner pleaded.
"You're not thinking what I hope you're not thinking." I smiled.
"No, I mean." The unevolved form face-pawed with a sigh. "Please don't tell me that you're going to graft that thing to you."
"Okay!" I began pulling the leg from its stand.
Conner watched as I lay it out on the foundry's edge. "Oh, good. Ya just need me to help you measure for the straps, right?"
"Nope!" I hopped into the foundry and placed my left shoulder against the cold metal. "We're going to graft this to me!" I pointed to a metal rod with a flat plate on one end. "Go grab that and push my leg in, will ya?"
Conner complied, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm going along with this." He held the rod at the far end, leaning into it so that the flat plate wouldn't move.
"Great!" I called. "Now, no matter what, ignore any screaming." I took a deep breath.
"Ignore what?! Aren't you fireproof?!"
I breathed out flames.
[Vince]
I paused in my work, apple hanging from my mouth. "Hey, Cy?" I dropped the fruit into the waiting basket. "Do you hear that?"
The Jolteon tilted his head, ears twitching at attention. "Nope. Don't hear anything."
I shook my head. "Kinda sounds like sizzling meat, with a kettle whistle mixed in."
Cy shrugged. "Eh, I don't think it's something we need to worry about. Besides, with Applejack gone for the day, we've got to pick up the slack." He blurred away, slamming into the next tree in the row. I pushed the half full basket over as he raced past to grab the empty ones. "Knowing Applejack and her friends, she'll probably be gone for tomorrow as well. Might as well do the most for her now while we can."
"True." I sighed as I began picking up the fallen apples. Very quickly, I noticed that Cy was doing a faster job then I was. With a frown, I grabbed an empty basket and turned to the next tree. "I'm going to start on the next one."
"'Kay!"
I moved off, placing the basket as close to the tree before backing up. I gave the tree an appraising gaze before taking three steps to the left, closing my eyes, loosing my muscles, and blurring forward. I bounced back from the trunk and looked to the basket. There were still several apples on the ground, but I saw that many had fallen where I had wanted.
"Hey, Vince!" Cy called as he pulled his basket past my tree. "You finish up there, I'll get the next one going."
I glanced back at the scattered apples. "But..." I looked back to see that Cy had already pushed on. I took a moment to watch the evolved form. I watched Cy place his basket near the tree, step back, and rush forward. The apples fell with barely any reaching the basket.
So inefficient... I shook my head and got back to work. He could've picked these ones up while I got started over there.
"But you're splitting the work like this." I huffed as I finished picking up the apples. I paused to count the baskets we had. "Yo, Cy!"
I saw him placing his last apple into his basket. "Yeah?"
"I'm going to go get the sleds. We're almost out of baskets."
He waved. "Cool, I'm going to start grouping some of these full ones together."
I relaxed, and bolted for the start of the row. I stopped beside our sleds, a couple of full baskets on each. I grabbed the larger harness and looped it over a hook in the back of the other sled. I slipped into the other harness and began to pull. With creaks and groans, both sleds started to slide after me. And, slowly but surely, I began to to gain speed. I refused to slow down until I had rejoined Cy.
Working together, we loaded the full baskets onto the sleds, then began to pull our own towards the barn. All the while, we were silently relieved that Big Mac had given us a small enough number of baskets that pulling those sleds was hard, not impossible.
Soon enough, we were racing back to where we had left off, not feeling the sleds' weight.
[Zann]
"Oww." I groaned as Conner placed his healing paws carefully. I understood, he didn't want to touch the red-hot limb hanging from my side. I watched as the rod he had been using slowly bent where he had placed it against the foundry as the metal slowly cooled.
"I hope this was worth all this." Conner chewed his cheek as he pulled his paws away and examined his work. "You've burnt yourself down to the bone, and I wouldn't be surprised if you've killed some nerves." He stepped back to give me more room. He sighed. "Welp, let's see if this was worth it."
I let the metal leg take my weight before getting the organic ones under me. There were a few pops and cracks from the prosthetic settling, but everything held. I smiled, thinking back on all the dry runs that lead up to this part. "Alright." My smile gained a mischievous quality as I glanced at Conner. "Let's see if it will walk."
I started with my front right leg, moving my left hind leg a moment after. I let my right hind leg move as was my habit, then carefully leaned forward.
The fake leg slid forward to keep my balance.
With a grin, I started to slowly walk around the room. I limped over to my companion. "Yes!" I crowed. "It works!"
Conner blinked. "Wait, you mean you didn't even know if it would work?!"
"Nope." I leaned on the prosthetic as I placed my front right paw on his shoulder. "I worked out all the theory and figured out the working parts already. But there was always something missing: Actually using it. For example..." Placing my paw back on the ground, I shifted my weight off of the metal limb. I tried to lift it up, but I could only get it a couple inches off the floor. "I should be able to lift this up and place it onto your shoulder. Obviously, I will need to start working more on my fire control to actually do that, but..."
"Having that flexibility built in now means that you only need to go through this once." He blinked, than glared at me. "You don't have that needed level of fire control yet, don't you."
"Not at all." I agreed.
His glare almost evolved into the full move. "Don't you think that you should have gotten that done before you fucking welded that to your shoulder?!" He waved a paw at the metal contraption on my body. "You are going to have burn scars for months from this!"
"Equestrian, or Terran?"
"Does it fucking matter?!" He rubbed his muzzle in a facsimile of pinching the bridge of his nose. "Of course not, you just want to have some semblance of normal, right? Even as limited as it is now, it'll make traversing difficult terrain easier." He sighed. "I get it. This was a major project for you.
"So..." He placed a paw on my metal shoulder with a smile. "Congrats."