//------------------------------// // #56 - Tech's Twilight: Part I // Story: Techorse Short Stories // by Spirals95 //------------------------------// Tech’s Twilight: Part I “All right Techorse, you can do this… it’s just couples’ therapy,” muttered the uncertain stallion as he approached the gates of the Crystal Palace, “Cadance just wants to help us. She’s not going to be mad...” The guards at the front door seemed to be giving the paranoid pony the nastiest looks, and the Crystal Heart not being on the ground floor made him believe even the ancient artifact held judgment against him. Techorse had brought nothing to declare for the guards who halted him before letting him enter, choosing not to wear his saddle and taking only the essentials for the trip. “Techorse, we’ve been expecting you,” said one of the two armored stallions, “please step inside.” They helped him through one of the entrances of the spire palace, the sparkling crystal interior looking dull for once to the anxious inventor. Had those decorations always been so boring and tacky, or could he not remember? In any case, Shining Armor stood in front of him, and if looks could kill, Techorse would already have been slain where he stood. “Hey,” said the earth pony timidly, “can I just...” “Don’t talk to me,” answered the other stallion gruffly, “get into the elevator, now.” Shining had the elevator called using a nearby button, and the brass doors soon opened, revealing a large wallpaper covered elevator box. Techorse stepped inside with the former captain of the guard and felt his heart skip a beat when the elevator doors closed. The box ascended, and Shining Armor fixed his steely gaze forward, refusing to acknowledge the other stallion’s existence. Since it was a long ride to the top, Techorse had plenty of time inside his head to let his guilt get to him, and he finally worked up the courage to say something despite Shining’s request for him not to speak. He kept his ears down and his blue eyes to the floor while talking, “Shining, remember how when we first met, you implied you would shoot me with a crossbow if I hurt your sister?” Shining refused to respond to him, not even changing his facial expression or breathing pattern while processing the statement. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” finished the stallion morbidly. The elevator came to a stop at the next to top floor of the palace where Cadance had brought Twilight. Shining moved Techorse out of the elevator into a rounded hallway, the cold floor tiles chilling the frogs of his hooves. “Go around the tower to the opposite sided, you’ll see a glass door with a big pink heart,” he said to him, “that’s Cadance’s new office space.” He nodded and started to trot away, before Shining mashed the “hold door open” button on the elevator and called back, “One more thing, Tech.” The green stallion turned back, and was told sharply, “If anypony deserves to put a bolt through you, it’s Twilight. She’s the one you lied to.” As the doors shut, Techorse felt as if that statement hurt him just as much as any beating from Shining could have. Turning away, he followed the instructions and found the glass door on the other side of the tower, a humble one with a metal hoof handle and a pink heart shape on the top. The glass was wavy on purpose, to help it loosely resemble the door to a professional office. Taking a deep breath again, he pushed open the doorway and entered Cadance’s domain. It was a round chamber that took up most of the inside of the tower core, with a plush white rug covering most of the floor to warm hooves. Warm colored lights kept the chamber lit up and friendly, and comfortable couches made from fluffy pink and red cushions enhanced the atmosphere. Finally, a writing desk for Cadance to process her notes on counseling sessions, and a wall-mounted waterfall like fountain completed the room’s tranquil environment. At the back of this “office” sat Cadence in a small purple chair at the back wall of the room. She had pushed out two of the sofas so that Techorse and Twilight could face each other with herself in the middle. Twilight peered out from over the couch, glaring at Techorse and showing a terrifying blank expression. Cadance, notepad floating in front of her with her magic, spoke out to Techorse, “Ah! So glad you could make it Techorse. Please have a seat in the couch opposite from Twilight Sparkle.” Techorse obeyed instructions and sat across from his “ex”, who propped herself up into a proper sitting position. Perhaps because of her unemotional state, she found it quite easy to avoid eye contact with him. Techorse’s ears sunk back and he started to stare at the floor again. “Now, normally the first session is spent with me getting to know my patients better,” explained the princess, smiling, “but since Twilight is family and Techorse almost…” She caught herself and sheepishly added, “I mean, since we know Techorse so well too… we don’t need to do any introductions. So now I’m going to move on to the most important thing we can do today: establishing exactly what the problem is from each of your points of view. So let’s discuss things, shall we?” “Seems simple enough,” said Twilight, “and I’ve got a lot to say!” “Now Twilight, I will let you go first, but when it is Techorse’s turn, please do not interrupt him even if what he says makes you angry,” Cadance warned, shaking her head, “the same goes for him when you are talking. The purpose of this is not for each of you to defend yourselves from the other and try to get me ‘on your side’. The point is for us to work through your issues and help reconnect.” “Oh, I read a book or two about couples therapy you left in your library,” Twilight said, nodding, “I won’t interrupt, promise!” “Good, good, now please begin, why are you and Techorse having problems with your relationship?” asked Cadance. “Sure! In fact, I took some notes!” Twilight’s horn glowed and she pulled out a large piece of parchment from underneath one of the couch cushions, unfolding it to its full size in front of Techorse, who wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Techorse lied to me this month about what he was doing with the curriculum I spent days preparing for him so that his teaching work necessary to earn his title would be easy,” read the mare, her eyes scanning back and forth over her own writing, “I covered many topics that would be necessary for the students to learn so that he could be the best professor for them possible. Eventually, I found out from one of his students that he had changed the coursework away from what I had created for him, and was basically letting them do whatever they found engaging instead. I went home and talked to him about it, but instead of apologizing, he admitted he did it because his students hated the work I had planned. I tried to be reasonable by saying next time he should work with me on it, but he yelled at me and said I never asked him about his feelings. I’m not 100% sure what happened otherwise, but I figured he wanted to break up, so I left him alone.” “Is that all, Twilight?” asked Cadance, smiling at her. “Yeah… that’s it,” she sighed, putting the piece of parchment down. “Great! Now it’s your turn Techorse, please be honest with us about how things went from your point of view.” Techorse looked up at Twilight, who immediately darted her eyes away from him, and explained the situation, “I feel that Twilight went overboard with her reaction to me needing service hours to complete my studies this month. She promised I’d take the teaching job for me, without asking if I really wanted to. Since I thought she cared about me, I just assumed I should give it a chance. But then, she developed a super complex curriculum that scared my 101 level students. I knew if I tried to change anything, she’d be hurt, so I changed the course material and told her the students liked my teaching. I wanted to do things my way.” Twilight rolled her eyes, but kept her word to Cadance and didn’t interrupt Techorse. He caught on to her angst and heartbreak and tried to smooth things over. “Twilight, I’m sorry I had to change things, but the students would have...” “This is not a time for you to apologize for anything,” Cadance butted in sternly, “you need to finish your side of the story without interruption fromor interaction with Twilight before we can talk it over.” “Right… sorry,” he continued, clearing his throat a little, “well, when Twilight found out I changed her coursework to do my own thing, she confronted me and told me that my students wouldn’t succeed without her coursework and that I should have worked with her about it instead of lying. I told her she never worked with me on the plan to get my volunteer hours and made me do something I didn’t want to do. I can’t remember anything else other than that she stormed off shortly after that.” “Oh. Well, it sounds to me like each of you has a solid recollection of what happened, Twilight with more of a list and Techorse with more of a story,” Cadance stated, finishing taking notes on what they had said, “now, each of you has some key areas in your relationship to work on.” “I thought we weren’t in one anymore,” said Twilight, trying not to appear sad. “Have you two actually broken up? Or did you just walk away from each other after getting angry?” Cadance questioned, her skill at being impartial on full display. “I… guess we never did say we’re through,” Techorse answered honestly, “we said a lot of other terrible things though...” “We?!” snipped Twilight. “Twilight, please,” continued Cadance, urging her to calm down, “now, the key areas I was talking about are things that all adults in successful relationships need… communication, and compromise.” “What do you mean, Cadance?” asked Techorse rhetorically, “The reason why I felt backed into a corner and wasn’t able to communicate with Twilight was because of her anxieties about what could go wrong and having to make everything perfect. I can’t get her to stop, and I didn’t want her to think I disliked her for it.” Twilight gave him a nasty look in response, and Cadance shook her head at the stallion, “I understand that Twilight has anxieties and wants things to be perfect, I’ve known her longer than you… but that’s hardly the point. You should communicate to Twilight when you feel cornered by her worries.” She then turned to Twilight and suggested, “As for you, Twilight, you should be more compromising with Techorse when he wants to do something together. If he’s not worried about something and you are, it may be because he has a good idea. If you still aren’t comfortable, you might be able to meet half-way on it.” The unicorn thought about it for a moment, before answering, “I know how compromise works, Cadance. I just… got a bit carried away when given the opportunity to share my knowledge with others. Techorse has always been so nice about listening to what I have to say before...” He answered her with a frown, “I have always liked what you had to say, Twilight, I just wanted to make my volunteer work my own. I didn’t like the teaching job idea at all, but I got into it very quickly when I learned how much my students like my style of teaching.” “Yeah but… they really needed to know about the history and nuances behind engineering so they can decide early if it’s the field for them,” Twilight answered, eyebrows raised, “you cut that out without telling me!” Cadance furiously scribbled notes down on her pad of paper as the two ponies talked, sometimes in a very heated manner, sometimes more calmly. The ponies fought and tried to compromise over the incident that had split them up, with Twilight expressing her desires for a more thorough program and Techorse wanting less. The alicorn watching them knew from experience that even though the couple seemed to be wasting time debating a “dead topic”, there would be other sessions to tackle their other problems. She soon noticed the time on the wall and decided to give them just a few more minutes before calling it an afternoon. “So, how about a suggested reading list, like the summer program we have at the library?” Twilight recommended, a smile on her face now, “You could just give them a list of all the books I was going to have them read and they could look into it if they wanted to.” “That’s a good idea, Twilight. If they want to take it seriously, they’ll read some and go from there,” he nodded, “I wouldn’t mind going back over what you wrote and passing that out next week after class.” “It seems like the two of you have been very productive already,” Cadance said with a very pleased tone of voice, “does this mean you are ready to give things another try?” Both of their ears folded back, and they looked away from each other, clearly indicating that the answer was no, despite their embarrassment. “I… I can’t say that just yet,” Twilight answered, “Tech still lied to me and… I still think I have issues I need to work through.” Techorse seemed to agree, “Sorry Cadance, I think we need more time to talk things over here with your guidance. I feel better about the fight over my teaching work, and I’m glad Twilight is willing to talk to me, but I also have a hangup.” “But you’ll come back next week after you’ve had some time to think about it, right?” Cadance asked, hopeful. “Definitely,” continued Twilight, getting up from the couch, “thank you so much for helping us, Cadance.” “Of course!” she answered, “I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to help those I care about. Now, you both know the rules, you have to keep the information each of you wanted kept secret an actual secret. Confidentiality is important to trust, and both of you need to keep working on trust.” “So what you’re saying is, prevent Pinkie Pie from figuring out what’s going on, gotcha,” chuckled Techorse, “I really can’t make any promises about that.” “Very funny,” answered the princess, “I meant don’t talk about the other to your friends in hopes of getting them on ‘your side’. At the end of this, I’m hoping you’ll see how you’re really always been on the same side all along.” Twilight blushed and flicked her tail, “Anyways… I should probably go back to Ponyville. I didn’t bring enough things to stay longer than overnight and I’ve got to make sure Spike’s okay. I told him I’d be back yesterday.” Techorse also seemed to turn red, “Yeah I gotta make sure I call PAL, he’s probably filled his memory worrying about us… I mean, me. See you both next time!” He hurried away to make sure he didn’t have to share an elevator with Twilight, still red in the face. If this is what making progress felt like, it felt much weirder than he had expected. He was still mad at Twilight, for sure, but there was a glimmer of hope that things would improve. Unknown to him, she had chosen to teleport herself out of the building in order to watch him leave the building. Twilight saw him exit the palace and trot for the train station, taking good careful note of the frustrated expression on his face. Likewise, she was still a bit mad, and had a feeling that even though things were going better, things between her and Techorse would never truly be the same. “Hey,” said one of the guards, noticing Twilight staring, “I know this is none of my business, but I hope the princess was a big help today. Sometimes all we’ve got are our friends and relatives, you know? It’s a shame to lose them.” Twilight responded with, “Yeah… it is. I don’t know what’s going on right now, exactly, but it feels like there’s something different between me and him. I’ve read a lot of books on psychology and pony emotions, but I don’t really know what I’m feeling right now.” “Well, keep coming back,” answered the stallion, pushing his slipping helmet back onto his head with a hoof, “you’ll figure out what you’re feeling.” “Thanks,” she answered, “although I thought I told Cadance not to let anyone know about what happened between Techorse and myself. If all of Equestria were to hear...” “Shining Armor told me, said I should ask you how things are going every day if possible, and that it’s top secret,” he answered with a wink, “I think I’d like to keep my job, and I also believe Shining wants to maintain his appearance of being in full support of you while still hoping that things get patched up between you and your beau.” Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled while shaking her head, “Oh, Shining...” “But you didn’t hear that from me,” coughed the guard playfully, “unless of course Shining Armor asks you to choose someone to get a raise, in that case, you talk with me all the time, and I’m Light Parry.” She chuckled, “Thanks Light. I’ll make sure to check in with you after each session just to keep my brother happy.” Walking off to find a safe place to transport herself back to Ponyville, Twilight reflected on her therapy session and felt a glimmer of hope. Her worries always seemed to vanish when she was assured of her safety net by her family, and she knew she was blessed to have it. Techorse’s long train ride back had been made easier by a refreshing nap and a quick chocolate treat from the concession cart. With his last stop coming up, he remembered that he owed PAL a call, at the very least he wanted to convince himself that his excuse concerning why he had to leave in such a rush was valid. Figuring that no one would mind, he took out a communicator from his bag and flipped the cosmetic mirror sized device open, pushing a large button on it with a hoof. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have much luck reaching the robot, and the connection just hummed for several minutes without an answer on the other end. “Probably just busy,” he said to himself before shutting it closed and putting it away, “hopefully Mix-Up and Spanners aren’t giving him too much trouble.” When he arrived at the train station, Techorse pushed through the sea of exiting ponies and took a detour past the usual exit to go to a locker room maintained by the railway authorities. A simple but cold and dark hallway of metal lockers as tall as the ceiling in the cramped room, Techorse found the one he had rented and entered the code he’d received upon purchasing the space. He swung open the door and found his saddle hanging by itself on a lonely tin hook in the back of the storage space. Arguably he could have taken it with him onboard, since he didn’t need to leave his weapons behind thanks to a permit he carried, but he had done it as a token of good faith to Cadance who had wanted him to show up “as himself” and not as his machines. Techorse sighed when he felt the straps of the device click around his barrel again, “I missed you!” “Huh?” said a mare rhetorically who was retrieving her own items. The inventor addressed her sheepishly, “Oh, nothing, sorry...” Each of the routes Techorse could choose to take home seemed equally unappealing, but flight wouldn’t be an option for a while, at least until he could get out of the more crowded area of the urban sprawl built up around the train station. Since he didn’t want to end up having to push his way through the rush hour traffic of ponies trying to get home from work, he settled on grabbing a little bit to eat at a local restaurant and waiting for things to die down. Opening up his notepad and reflecting on the counseling session he had just been in proved to be a mistake however, and soon night had fallen and the bar and grill he’d visited was getting ready to close down. Techorse paid his tab and slunk out of the eatery embarrassed, but was happy he’d taken the time to work on the problem. “Need to get outside the urban areas so I don’t wake anyone up with the noise from the turbofans,” he mumbled to himself, walking along the cobblestones of the moonlit city street. He turned one of the many corners kept concealed by the edges of the buildings and entered a walled-off zone probably kept for offloading deliveries for the nearby businesses. Techorse thought it might simply be an alleyway due to the dim light, and made it halfway through the square before deciding to turn on his saddle’s lighting system and have a look around. Sure enough, an archway ahead glowed with a small amount of moonlight, showing the path forward. “Gotta remember to stick to the paths, or there could be trouble,” he reminded himself, trotting along. Just before he was to make it to the exit, he heard a stone bounce along the floor, and turned around, pointing his high beams from the now glowing saddle in the direction of the noise. The stallion muttered, “Trouble like that...” After scanning the walls of the surrounding buildings with his lights, he found an overturned trash can with a street rat attempting to salvage whatever it could from it on top. The inventor shook his head, knowing that was likely the source of the noise, and turned around just in time to come face to face with the true culprits. Four unicorn sized and shaped machines, built out of silver and gold colored metal, with visible clockwork components at the joints, and horns made out of crystal on their heads. Eight pairs of glowing red eyes from their sockets stared at Techorse, who took a step back in shock. “Or like this!” he said, opening his saddle doors in preparation. The machines had blocked off the exit, and pushed forward, the sound of servos and springs moving as they stepped with the grace of a living unicorn towards him. Techorse continued to backpedal, his trusty laser cannons slipping out of his saddle and tracking the closest clockwork pony. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a different machine overhead, an ornithopter drone with four wings of brass flapping about and tracking him with an underslung camera. “These are all machines,” he whispered, feeling the sweat under his brown mane, “but who would be able to build things like this?” Focusing his attention back on the robotic ponies, Techorse determined that they were going to strike soon, as the tips of their crystal horns began to glow as red as their mechanical eyes. He knew there was a good chance the unicorns would be firing any second now, and after today… he wanted to make sure he made it to the next conversation with Twilight! Techorse quickly went over his options in his head before settling on a course of action. Given that the drone was not acting as aggressive, he reasoned that he was merely being filmed by it, and that gave him a plan. He looked directly at the drone’s camera and said loudly, “I don’t know what you want, but this ambush isn’t going to result in me dying! I’m going home tonight so I can keep trying to patch things up with Twilight! She’s worth it!” The four clockwork unicorns opened fire, sending four narrow crackling rays of red energy towards their enemy. The top panels of Techorse’s saddle opened up, and two blue colored panels comprised of hexagonal tiles sprang up, sparking to life as the projectiles reached him. A blue panel of hexagonal shields spread across Techorse’s front, the barrier absorbing the impacts from the magical bolts with loud splashes of light and zapping noises as particle destroyed particle on a quantum level. Retracting the shield projectors, he returned fire with his laser cannons, bolts tearing into the lead robot and shredding its internals with explosive energy that burrowed into its magical power core and melted its delicate skeleton. Techorse put his shield back up again, loving the new prototype, but frowned as the three machines stopped trying to fire off more magic and instead split up into a group of two and one, galloping to his sides while charging up their horns again. “Are they… adapting?” he said, “Neither the tank robots nor the shadowsteel knights had that kind of capability!” He opted to try to block the incoming shots from the two rather than the one, and more red pulses smashed into the projector screen, the pony having to drop them to return fire with his own guns. A sudden jolt of pain shot through his body as the lone machine reached his rear flank and shot him in the back leg with one of the searing magic pulses. Techorse felt something start to run down that leg, and understood they really didn't intend to take him in alive. “F… fine! Hope the guards here don’t mind the collateral damage...” Techorse jumped to the side and tried to roll while retracting all of his saddles’ active gadgets as more red beams crossed his path. The clockwork ponies ended up having to dodge the resulting friendly fire before they could return their attention to their quarry, and by the time they had, he had already taken out the missile launchers tucked into the saddle’s impossibly efficient storage space, and primed to launch. “You’re not getting me!” he screamed, letting off the pair of projectiles, one of them veering to the left towards the pair and the other to the right to pick off the other. He watched in frustration as the machines continued to learn and adapt, the pair adopting a crouched, defensive position and firing off a stream of smaller pulses, intercepting his rocket and shooting it down, a bright flash of explosive energy illuminating the back alley and concealing the machines. The other unicorn construct was not so lucky, and was unable to shoot down the homing projectile before it crashed into its body and detonated, sending chunks of it flying into the wall and throwing its severed head into a nearby dumpster. “Two more.” Suddenly, one of the missile tubes glowed and melted right off his saddle as the remaining two ponies put their horns together to create a spot of energy similar to a magnifying glass under the midday sun. Techorse tried to keep his other launcher concealed by turning away as a spray of sparks shot up from this saddle when the power supply was cut to the tube, but he ended up getting his body torched by the intense point of heat and he howled in pain. He took a quick shot with the other tube, forcing his foes to focus on shooting it down again while he tried to deal with the searing gash in his front. While the missile exploded and shrouded the unicorns again, the adrenaline feeding him gave him just enough strength to come up with a plan, and his eyebrows raised, “Wait a minute, what if...” Quickly, he raised his shields again and walked forward, waiting for the smoke from his last missile to clear. When it did, the first thing the clockwork unicorns saw was the shield, and began to split up, charging their horns and shooting more of the jagged red bolts of energy at him. The shields soaked what they could, and the unicorn ponies started to flank him, galloping around while keeping their glowing eyes on his body. Techorse turned his body left and right to catch the bolts with his front-facing shield, waiting for just the right moment, “Come on, come on!” Sure enough, the constructs reached the perfect right angles they wanted and turned in while powering up their horns, knowing he’d have to take fire from at least one of them. Techorse knew this was his chance, and dropped the shields before rapidly drawing his laser cannons and switching them to the solid beam mode. Then, using the new servos he had installed underneath, he ducked to avoid their shots which passed harmlessly overhead, before turning on the lasers and sweeping them in a wide 180 degree arc. Solid yellow rays of concentrated energy burned into the stone walls of the arena, scraping through and leaving behind a deep trench of orange molten rock. The clockwork ponies froze, and Techorse stood up again to watch in relief as the two machines fell apart into two halves across their middles. “Good. Now for that drone!” He then turned his attention to the drone and took aim with the laser cannons again, but when he went to fire, all he heard was the hiss of super-heated air that poured from the top. The reactor inside had finally shut down from overwork. The flapping spy machine took the opportunity to dart away into the night sky, frustrating Techorse but being within the realm of acceptability, given that he had survived this strange encounter. The pony’s eyelids began to feel quite heavy and he reached with a hoof for the departing drone, “Come… back...” Now that he wasn’t in any imminent danger of being torn to shreds, Techorse’s body decided to remind him just how badly injured he actually was, and he dropped flat on the ground, passing out. His last thoughts before he fell unconscious were simply ones of hope that someone would find him. Morning at the Golden Oaks library was already off to a reasonably terrible start for Twilight, as she was going to have to explain to Spike why she was back so soon from Trottingham. He had expected to have the place to himself for far longer, with Big Macintosh to keep him company on occasion. The previous evening had been spent wondering why Twilight had come back so soon, with growing curiosity when she went straight to bed without answering. Now that she had told him the truth as to what had happened, he was rather irate. “When were you gonna tell me?!” demanded Spike, the young dragon, arms crossed and nostrils flared, a small puff of smoke escaping them. “Spike, I understand you’re upset, I haven’t been completely transparent about what’s been happening between me and Techorse over the past few weeks,” Twilight explained calmly, trying to get her assistant to settle down, “He and I just… didn’t communicate or compromise well, or at least that’s what Cadance told us. I’m sorry.” “Yeah, I get it,” grunted the young dragon, “it’s none of my business anyways, I guess… just a bit scary is all. I was expecting to be by myself for a couple months at least, would have been cool.” Twilight could tell from his eyes failing to maintain contact with hers that something more was wrong, and she felt obligated to press the issue. “Look, Spike… I made a mistake not telling you first that we had a fight,” she said, “and I’m sorry. But Techorse and I aren’t necessarily through, just working things out.” “Hey, if something happens, it happens,” he lied, turning around completely and starting work on organizing the library’s returns, “I hope things work out, but I just want you to be happy, Twi.” Her ears fell back and she stepped forward, comforting him with a pat on the back, “Oh, Spike, thank you for saying that. You really have been the best assistant a pony could ask for!” Spike felt his lip quiver, and turned around to give her a big, warm hug, burrowing the tips of his claws into her sides slightly in hopes he’d never have to let go. “You’re going back to Cadance for each session, right?” he asked, finally letting her go after the emotional moment seemed to slip away, “No giving up?” “No giving up!” Twilight answered, shaking her head with a smile on her face, “Besides, Cadance says we’re making great progress, despite how mad we were. He even talked about how he could use just a little bit more of the materials I came up with for his coursework...” Spike crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow at the now turning red Twilight, wondering if he was getting worked up over nothing or not. “Maybe I should go see PAL today,” he said, grumbling a bit, “I kinda want to hear what he has to say about this. Hope he’s not too upset...” “Oh, sure, you should definitely talk to him. Maybe even stay for a while!” Twilight agreed, “I can probably get Shadow Breeze to handle the library for us, since he’s still trying to pick up that last diplomacy certification and needs a quiet place to study.” “Awesome! Just let me...” A rather musical, amusing knock came at the front door, interrupting their conversation. Twilight went to answer it, opening the top half to find an empty space and the usual lovely view of Ponyville. “Is somepony there?” she asked aloud. “Go on, it’s important to me,” said Fluttershy from outside of where Twilight could immediately see, “you were the one to find out, and… well, I believe in you.” Twilight detected a concerned tone in her friend’s voice and answered, “Fluttershy, are you okay?” She walked into line of sight, with Shadow Breeze at her side, and Discord right behind them with a look of extreme reluctance if not shock. Twilight was caught off guard by the lord of chaos’s appearance, as he was wearing a set of formal military wear, complete with a black overcoat and pants, blue undershirt, a white cap he kept clutched in his two mismatched hands, and a set of three medals pinned to the left breast pocket. “So, dragged Discord out to apologize for something? Was he behind the multiple exploding pies incident last week?” laughed Twilight, ignoring the thousand-yard stare of Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy. “I wasn’t the one who,” Discord started, escalating to anger before dialing back, “ah… no. No, Twilight Sparkle, that’s not it. It’s very… serious this time.“ Spike walked out to meet them, “Heeeey, did I just hear Discord say something was serious? I must be dreaming! Or you must be dreaming, Twilight!“ Fluttershy, still frowning, cleared her throat gently, “Please, Spike. Let’s allow Discord to say what he’s going to say.” “All right, all right, I was just kidding,” he reminded them, holding up his hands in frustration. Discord looked around, perhaps unsure of himself for the first time in a while, and began, “Well, Twilight… this morning I received a summons. I usually make sure that everyone puts me on that ‘do not summon’ list when they call me, which they never actually do, of course. It’s so annoying, can never cause chaos in peace even with...” “If you can’t say it, I can,” Shadow Breeze said gruffly, surprising Twilight. “I was getting there, I assure you,” grunted the draconequus, turning the hat he held inside out so that it morphed into a manila folder containing a medical document, “Twilight, the call came from Trottingham Hope Hospital. Techorse was attacked last night by a group of ‘clock unicorns’ from what this useless hospital report says. He’s not in good condition, from what the nurses said, but he had enough energy to ask to see guests.” Twilight mouth fell open, “Wh.. what? This is another trick, isn’t it!?” “Well, that’s what’s so… touching,” Discord mentioned, making the folder disappear with a snap of his fingers, “Techorse put me as his emergency contact on the medical card he kept in his saddle. We all know full well that Tech hates me, or at least… I thought he did.” “Techorse never hated you,” Fluttershy said while pushing back tears, “he just sees things very differently from you. Surely he had a very good reason for choosing you as the first one to call if he got hurt.” “Why would he even do that?” asked Spike, holding on to Twilight in hopes it would help ease her now worried nerves. “I know why,” answered Twilight. She began to choke up as she started her next sentence, “It’s… because he knows me well enough that I’d panic and worry if I found out he’d been hurt and do something to make it worse. But if Discord told me, we’d just assume it was a joke and could take the news better. Tech… Tech really has been hurt!” Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze held their tails together and looked at Twilight’s deteriorating state with empathy, before looking back up at Discord again. He had a look of reflection that was atypical for his usual self. “Will you help them, Discord?” asked Fluttershy, giving him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster. “I guess I could use the chaos realm to transport you and the others to the hospital,” he said, dismissing the military outfit and returning to his standard appearance, “it would be a good thing for me to do as a friend...” “Techorse does appreciate your friendship,” Shadow Breeze answered, only to earn a magical zipper across his mouth temporarily. “Zip it, I’m not doing this for him, I’m doing this for Fluttershy and Twilight,” he answered, getting a disapproving look from Fluttershy, “and well, the hospital limits guests to six maximum, so the ladies are the only ones going. You’re staying here!” Discord removed the zipper from Shadow Breeze’s mouth, and ripped open the gateway to his home dimension with his talon, ushering for Twilight and Fluttershy to come with him. Shadow Breeze agreed to stay with Spike as Twilight had considered earlier, of course. As they stepped into the swirling aperture linking Discord’s world with Equestria, Twilight stopped them for a moment. “Discord, I need us to drop by Trottingham Community College first, if that’s okay. There’s something I need to say to the dean,” she requested. “Must we?” he sighed. “Yes, we must,” answered Fluttershy, giving him a wink. Techorse awoke with a fit of snorting and coughing, quickly going from at ease to ripping an intubation system out of his airways with his front hooves. His vision spun for a moment, but soon his eyes refocused, showing him the inside of the hospital room he was currently stuck in. The plain, white-tiled floor was lit up by the sun pouring in through the large glass window to the left, and a fresh coat of cream-colored paint on the walls provided a cheery environment for the patients. This was a single-pony room, without a privacy curtain to protect the medical bed fitted with a white mattress and blue sheets. The stallion felt his back leg throb as if the femur inside was broken, and he tried not to move from his reclining position, moving his head slowly to a nearby table. There sat his battle saddle, which was covered in blackened holes from the fight he had been in. He remembered a good portion of what had happened prior to passing out, and he asked himself the obvious question. Staring at the tube lying on the blankets he was beneath, he muttered, throat still full of mucus, “How… how long have I been out?” A series of wires and plastic medical piping led from under the blankets to a nearby life support machine, keeping track of his vital signs and pumping air with a set of electrical powered bellows that made the slimy tube now just poking out from the covers puff with air. Techorse felt a very hard lump on his stomach area with his hoof, along with the tangle of connective objects supporting it, and turned pale. “Oh no… it must have been days!” he said, nearly choking on his words. The stallion had to know what the object on his belly was, and lifted the blankets for a peek, “Please, please don’t let there be a feeding tube!” He ripped the sheets up with what strength he had, and to his relief, saw only a basic electrocardiogram setup and the base of the respirator he’d ripped out of his trachea a moment ago, an act which he was starting to regret now that his throat was starting to hurt. Just then, the nurse, an earth pony mare in uniform, entered the room and gasped, “Oh, goodness, Mr. Techorse! You weren’t supposed to remove the tube without our help!” “I couldn’t help it,” he answered weakly, slipping down the angled pillow on his bed and pulling the covers up a bit with his front hooves, “I prefer to use my lungs if they’re working.” “Oh well, it’s good to see you awake,” she said, beaming with joy, “you were in such bad condition when the guard found you. In fact, our doctors only gave you a...” “I really don’t want to know,” whimpered Techorse, wanting to cry but feeling like his tear ducts were crusted over, “I’m just glad I woke up at all, nurse. Thank you for saving my life!” “It was the trauma team that kept you going,” she answered, putting a hoof over her heart, “I just kept your bandages on, your life support monitored, and your painkillers going. Speaking of which, you are overdue for your next dosage.” “Oooh, that’s right,” he moaned, feeling his leg pulse as the pain nerves fired at full strength, “how bad was the damage anyways?” “Well,” she answered, moving over to the life support machine and checking all the various dials and switches, “you were found with a massive chunk missing out of your hamstring as if you were an apple somepony took a bite out of! You also had a serious burn across your front, and a mess of metal pieces stuck in your back. Took the surgeons two hours to remove them all!” She went to push the button that would administer the next round of painkiller before stopping, disappointing Techorse slightly who could really use the relief. With a sheepish tone she mentioned, “Almost forgot! You have visitors that I was gonna turn away because you were supposed to be unconscious for at least another week. Maaaaybe they’d like to speak to you before you, uh… can’t use your brain.” “Fine,” he answered, grunting about the pain, “I’ll be okay until they’re gone.” The nurse left the room, and a few moments later, Twilight and company walked in, horrified looks on their faces at Techorse’s medical state. Their injured friend perked up in response to seeing them, however, and struggled to pull himself up high enough on the pillow to look less damaged than what he actually was. “Girls? You’re here?!” he asked rhetorically, “I’m so happy to see you!” “Oh Tech, we’re so happy to see you too!” cried Twilight, walking up to the bed, but resisting the temptation to hug him due to their conflict, “Discord told us you were hurt!” The stallion looked into her eyes and smiled, “I figured he’d be so shocked to find out I picked him as my lifeline that he’d go through with it. Heh, Flaming Ivory owes me 10 bits!” “Hehehe, that’s our Techie!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Try not to spook us so badly next time though, okay?” “Yeah, so what happened anyways?” added Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow, “These doctors won’t tell us anything! Didja get into a fight?” “Rainbow Dash, are you really asking Techorse the details of his maiming right away?” complained Rarity, huffing before returning her attention to him, “here you are darling, I had a quilt made up for you with Applejack’s help. I hope this makes you feel better sooner!” “Aw, I don’t need a quilt...” Applejack smirked and picked up her end of the quilt, “Sure ya do, hold still, ya silly colt.” The two mares worked together to help put the patchy, colorful quilt on the bed for him. It didn’t actually help with the injured leg, but now he didn’t feel cold from all the medical equipment lumped on his lower body. “Thank you Applejack, Rarity,” he said, “all of you. You’re such great friends to me.” “And you’re great friends to us,” replied Fluttershy gently, “now, if you feel well enough to do so, we’d very much like to hear what happened.” “Well, it’s complicated, and I’m not sure how much Limpwing has told you, but...” “Limpwing doesn’t tell us anything!” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyeballs. “Great, of course,” Techorse continued, shaking his head, “as far as I can remember, there’s a centaur out there in heavy armor calling himself the Surgeon. He’s been behind the multiple attacks on me recently. Last night, I got ambushed by four robotic ponies, all unicorns, that seemed to be made of clockwork parts. I managed to destroy them… but it looks like they hurt me pretty badly.” “We’ll have to speak to Limpwing then,” Twilight nodded, “do you remember anything else?” “The Surgeon has an ancient weapon that can erase you out of existence, and he’s setting up operations in the abandoned robot factory,” he said, making sure he split his eye contact between his friends. “That factory’s been nothing but trouble and thorns for us,” Applejack said, frowning, “ahm wondering if the ‘robot ponies’ that attacked you came from there.” “Even though that factory didn’t make the kinds of parts those clockwork mares were made from, I bet you’re right, Applejack,” he agreed, “Limpwing and Arbiter were going to try and determine if the Surgeon was indeed running the machines in there again.” “Yeah but aren’t they really, really old and rusty by now?” asked Pinkie Pie, tilting her head in confusion, “I can’t not use my party cannon for more than like, a month without it not popping its pops! That factory’s got to be super broken after two whole years!“ “It seems that the Surgeon is very smart and capable mechanically, like, well… Techorse,” answered Rarity, “is it possible for somepony else to build such machines?” “Well with magic anything could be done, it’s just… how?!” asked Twilight openly, “Are you sure they’re not golems?” “They had critical thinking and strategy capabilities like robots,” continued Techorse, reflecting on the battle, “but they fired magical shots at me. The nurse said I was missing a chunk of my leg, like something took a bite of me.” “Ewwwww!” commented Pinkie Pie, sticking out her tongue in disgust. “That doesn’t sound like magical damage,” Twilight said, her worries growing, “but, in any case, we’ll leave this stuff to Arby and Limpwing to figure out. In the meantime, I had Discord make a quick stop at Trottingham Community College to talk about your role as teacher. You’re in no condition to go back and teach right now.” “I’ll be fine! I can’t let my students down,” Techorse responded, somewhat surprised, “you didn’t tell them I couldn’t come back did you?” “Uh oh, more arguing,” said Rainbow Dash, motioning to the other mares in the room, “come on, let’s give them some ‘space’.” Techorse, trying not to be rude, leaned over and said to them, “Thanks for coming to see me, everypony. I’ll finish with Twilight here.” Once the others had left the room, he returned his attention to Twilight, “Please don’t tell me you asked the dean to let me go.” “I didn’t, promise! I heard what you said about how you liked the job now when we talked with Cadance,” she continued, frowning, “I was going to get you to quit, but instead I asked the dean to give you a month off to recover, and she said yes if you’ll send over a doctor’s note. You have to admit that missing a piece of your leg is worth taking a break for!” “I want to get back to teaching as soon as possible,” he answered, staring at his saddle and pointing with his hoof, “can you check the cargo hold on the saddle for me? There should be a small blue case, I hope.” Twilight agreed and walked over to the device, pushing open the hatch release for the cargo bay with her hoof. Sure enough, there was a small blue container that resembled a pen case. She brought it over to him with her magic, and opened it up, levitating the contents with her aura. Two small hypodermic needles, one of which contained a red substance, and the other an orange substance. “What are these?” she asked. “The red needle contains a healing and regenerative potion that Zecora gifted to me a while ago, just in case I got hurt like this,” he answered confidently, “and the orange one contains a brand new batch of nanobots that’ll help patch me together at the cellular level.” Twilight turned a little pale, “I don’t know about the nanobots, Tech. Have you tested it yet?” “No, but it’ll work,” he responded confidently, “just inject both of those into the site of my leg wound and I’ll not only avoid scarring, but it’ll be as if I never got hurt within a day! I can get back to teaching next week.” “But,” she protested, shutting the case on him again and denying the needles to him, “you just got brutally attacked! You really need your rest, Tech, and if the nanobots do anything other than what you say they’ll do, it could make it worse! What if they melt all your cells, or eat away more of your leg… or...” Seeing that she was worried, Techorse knew it was a bad idea to use both the syringes just to get back into teaching when he wanted to. As it was, Twilight had asked the dean to wait for his permission to take a break, and her worries were rather realistic concerning him needing rest and the risk his untested nanobots posed. He finally responded softly, “You valued my desire to keep teaching even though you wanted me to quit, so I think we should compromise. Let me use Zecora’s potion just so I don’t get a scar, since we trust her. I’ll take the month off, and recover the rest naturally. I guess I’ll miss my students, but I’m sure a substitute will do fine.” Twilight paused for a moment, and reflected on Cadance’s teaching, before nodding, “I… agree! We’ll go with that.” “Great, now hurry up and inject my leg with that before the nurse gets back, she wouldn’t approve of it,” chuckled Techorse, smiling. After Twilight pulled up the blankets and plunged the needle into his bandage wrap, making sure every bit of the vaccine got into the muscle, she quickly discarded the sharp in the biohazard bin and gave Techorse a quick wink. She placed the untrustworthy nanobot needle back in its case and returned that to the battle saddle. Techorse sighed in relief as he felt Zecora’s magnum opus go to work, his missing tissue beginning to regenerate already with a most curious bubbling feeling. “Oh that feels good,” he whispered, shutting his eyes, “Zecora’s the best...” “I feel good too,” Twilight said, now smiling and comfortable again, “you really helped me get past the worries, Tech. See you next time at Cadance’s office for couples’ therapy!” “Goodbye Twilight,” he said, watching her walk to the door. Remembering something, he called out, “Oh! If you get a chance, ask PAL to deliver the portable teleporter to the apartment address. I would prefer to not have to take the train again to the Crystal Empire.” “Sure! Get some rest now, okay?” she answered back, before trotting outside to find her friends in the hallway, along with Discord, who was waiting patiently for them to exit. Twilight raised an eyebrow at the direct stares her friends were giving her. She sheepishly asked them why they were giving her such blank, dead looks. “The walls here are paper-thin,” opened Rarity, “and although I do not prefer to eavesdrop, I heard the part about visiting Cadance’s office for couples therapy!” Twilight’s ears sank, and Discord summoned himself a nice red and white paper bag full of marbles to munch on and watch the excitement. “Uhhhh,” stammered the lavender unicorn, before openly admitting it, “Fine! Techorse and I had a big fight, and I wasn’t going to tell you until it seemed like a good time. I didn’t want you thinking any differently of Techorse.” “Pffft, my parents fight all the time,” scoffed Rainbow Dash, waving her hoof around sarcastically, “it’s none of our business if you and Techie argue about, Twilight. Seems kinda normal for ponies that close, honestly.” “Shadow and I have already fought,” Fluttershy admitted, “we couldn’t agree on whether to build another bird sanctuary or greenhouse with the patch of garden space I had left.” “That ‘fight’ was mostly just very awkward grumbling,” Discord noted, mouth full of marbles, “was quite entertaining to watch though!” Fluttershy’s eyes went wide, followed by her blushing deeply, “Oh Discord, that’s not nice! I’m trying to help Twilight feel better!” “Oh well, so am I!” he said, desummoning the snack bag with another snap of his fingers, “You see, your friends, myself most of all, are trying to tell you that arguments between ponies that care are actually very normal! I mean, no one likes arguing, and it’s my least favorite flavor of chaos… but I believe you see my, I mean… our point!” “Huh, Cadance never said our arguing was normal,” said Twilight, looking at the floor. “She’s probably gonna next time,” Applejack mentioned, tilting her hat, “keep going! Ahm glad you and Techorse are handling it that way.” “Yeah! Better than trying to smooth it over with something! Unless you plan to smooth it over with frosting, but you can’t reeeeally do that,” joked Pinkie Pie. “Thank you, girls,” Twilight finally said, happy to hear her situation was par for the course, “now, we’d better get Shadow and Spike and get out of here. Hopefully they haven’t gotten too bored waiting for us.” Inside the hospital room, owing once again to the thin walls, Techorse had heard the conversation outside and reclined back into the bed, pulling up the covers. He knew it would be a long road to win back all of Twilight’s trust after the stunt he had pulled, but it might very well come with patience and work. Or perhaps the positive, warm feelings he felt was just Zecora’s potion numbing his pain and growing back his lost tissue. In any case, he owed Twilight a month off away from work, and the stallion let out a comforted breath of air before shutting his eyes and letting himself drift off to sleep.