Chapter 7: These legs were made for walking.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I have found signs suggesting the passage of Project Sturmgeist in the everfree mountains, near the Equestria/Greif trade line. Evidence suggests it is fully powered and that whoever is in possession of it may have been responsible for the death of Prince Blueblood. I have reassigned patrols to the Hammerzeit so I can focus on the search. I will keep you informed of any developments.
Your eternal friend, Twilight Sparkle.
*******
“And those are all your responsibilities to the house,” Rarity concluded her long, and frequently interrupted, explanation of Pip's place in the family if he did eventually marry Sweetie Belle. “Questions?” she asked with a smile. Pip jerked his head back when Rarity looked at him, avoiding an awkward muzzle collision. They were walking uncomfortably close to each other due to the small size of the acoustic privacy bubble the august and confidant element of generosity was projecting. It could have been bigger, but the thick crowds that inundated the Everparty made the smallness necessary to prevent eavesdropping, accidental or otherwise.
“No, that covered pretty much everything, I think,” Pip replied, glancing at the subterranean market they were passing through to hide his blush. The conversation had been going for the better part of half an hour, with topics ranging from percentage of 'profits' owed to the house and rules for accessing the house’s resources, to the existence of family safe havens and informants, thought the locations would not be forthcoming until Pip had fully committed.
Rarity brought her attention back to the front as the cavern began to descend deeper into the earth yet again. “Well then, I guess that brings us to you,” she said, drifting close enough for Pip to feel the movement of her legs through her cape. Her foreleg felt marshmallow soft, not unlike Sweetie Belle's, but he could swear he felt armor on her hind leg. “Are you truly interested in my sister, or are you chasing fame and title by proxy?” she looked at him again, this time with a sugar sweet smile and half lidded eyes. “I can give you the latter, and even a place on the Seltenheit, if that is what you seek.”
Pip took a long, slow breath to clear his mind (of Rarity's obnoxiously seductive voice) before he spoke. “Back when I first became a pirate, it was because I was looking for something. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew I needed to find it. I sailed the skies of Equestria for years just trying to figure out what it was. I had four crews before the Crusaders joined, and when they did, something felt different. It felt like I was finally getting close to the thing that had been dragging me back and forth across the endless blue, down into ancient ruins and through the untamed wilds, just to pull me away again when I didn’t find that thing.”
The market stalls were becoming fewer and farther between. Where once there were shoppers and merrymakers, now we're working ponies: miners emerged from the deep, stone specialists sifted through cartloads of ore and gems to find there charges for the night to come, and others rested and socialized over lunch boxes between shifts. Pip was so engrossed by his story that he didn't notice a few tall, decidedly non-pony shaped shadows making there way down into the dark.
“Then, just before you found us, I found what I thought to be the thing I was seeking: a treasure said to have been made by the old empire, made with techniques and technologies that were lost during the war for the throne more than a millennium ago, that Blue Blood was rumored to have taken from Canterlot, for reasons I'm sure only made sense to him.” He heaved a heavy sigh and turned his eyes the ground.
“It was supposed to be a quick smash and grab, few to no casualties, just make some noise and take the loot. But then everything went eggs up, Scoot had to drop feedback to kill Bluie's new guns and apparently hydrogen is in vogue now. Next thing I know the cargo is slag and, as far as I could tell, one of my best foalhood friends gets incinerated. Course Scoot's made of tougher stuff than your average pegasus and she came out the other side, sputtering and coughing, but alive. Like a blinkn' phoenix she is.”
“Anyway, Fluttershy takes Scoot, Apple Bloom disappears into engineering, or wherever she goes when she's losing her head, and Sweetie drags me up to my cabin, draws me a bath and sings me to sleep. That’s when it hit me,” he looked up at Rarity with a look of determination, only partially aware they had stopped and were standing by a door. “The thing I was looking for, for more than half my life, had been with me since I moved to Ponyville with my mother when I was a foal. It was my friends,” he laughed quietly before continuing. “I'd been hunting adventure and ancient artifacts for years, when all I had to do was look across the bridge, or down the hall, to find the most precious things in the whole world.” He took another calming breath and smiled. “So I guess the answer to your question is yes; I love Sweetie Belle, and I don’t care one bit for fame or fortune, as long as I can be with her. The same goes for all my friends, but doubly so for her.”
There was a long pause while Rarity considered the rather long winded answer Pip had just finished. “It would seem I have underestimated you, Mister Pipsqueak,” she said at last. With a pulse of magic she opened the door and entered.
Pip waited several seconds for Rarity to finish with 'but I still don’t approve' or something to that effect before realizing he was being left behind and scurrying after her.
Beyond the door was a farrier's shop: Display racks of horseshoes dominated most of the wall space. Most were sturdy, practical iron and steel, hung on pegs and stacked on shelves. A finely hewn wood and glass case displayed an arrangement of classy silver and brass shoes as well as a few gaudy gem encrusted numbers that made Pip's eyes hurt a little. Tapestries and a small forge occupied the space between displays, giving the room a more friendly appearances. In one corner, hardly even on display, was a small rack of what must have been clockwork artificial limbs. Built with cut steel and hammered brass, they were made to do a job and nothing else. Pip was amazed to see them at all; as far as he knew the science of clockwork applied to prosthetics was still in its infancy, hardly ever leaving the laboratories in Canterlot, and most ponies were quite leery of it on principal.
“Rarity,” a friendly voice pulled Pip's attention away from the display, “and, guest?” The owner of the voice was a light gray earth mare with a two tone white and silver mane pulled back in a braid that hung to one side of her neck. A pair of stylish goggles hung from her neck on a blue silk strap and a pair of matching glasses rested on her forehead, leaving her rich lilac eyes unobstructed.
“This is Pipsqueak,” Rarity provided in introduction. “You may remember him from you school days in Ponyville.”
“I try not to think about that much,” she replied, looking somewhat embarrassed, and extended a hoof to Pip. “Silver Spoon,” she said with a smile as Pip gently bumped her hoof. “Sorry if I bullied you or your friends when we were kids, I was kind of a brat back then.” She self-consciously brushed an imaginary lock of mane behind her ear after the hoof bump.
“Nice to meet you,” Pip said amiably. “I think I was a year or two behind you. You were friends with that crown filly right?”
“Yup, bad old Diamond Tiara, terror of the school yard,” she said with an awkward laugh. “I should write to see how she's doing; it's been a long time.”
“I hate to cut the reminiscence short,” Rarity interjected, “but I would like to get started sooner rather than latter.”
“Oh, of course,” Silver Spoon replied.
Pip elected to take a seat on a couch by the door. Silver Spoon trotted briskly to one of the tapestries and pulled out a finely upholstered farrier's bench, bringing it to the middle of the room. It was designed like a massage table, but thinner, allowing one's legs to hang off the sides for greater comfort when applying shoes.
“Amadi wouldn't happen to have stopped by would she?” Rarity said, climbing onto the bench and lofting her jewelery onto a tray on a worktable by the forge.
“No,” Silver replied distractedly while she gathered some tools into a pocketed apron and slung it around her neck. “Should we be expecting her?”
“Yes, soon I should think. Pip,” she said as she enveloped her thin, pink cape in shimmering, blue magic, ready to be lifted, “I would imagine most ponies would be a bit put out by this, and it is rather embarrassing, so do keep it a secret, would you?” It didn't sound much like a request, but didn't sound like a threat either.
“Of course, Rarity,” Pip said, a bit confused. Ponies go around naked all the time, what could be so...
When she released her cape's clasp a spell popped, static crackling around her hind legs. The illusion of her alabaster coat dissolved into the air, revealing metal. Her hind legs were entirely clockwork. The front half of her hip was covered by a polished steel fairing, inlaid with faintly glowing silver filigree arranged to silhouette her former cutie mark with curls and flourishes. The faring ended in an artful curve. Polished brass gears turned on copper armatures as she shifted to get comfortable. Steel coil-springs and silver conduits that shone with crystalline magic were packed close with the gears behind a loose lattice of filigreed steel strips that formed an elegant cage following what had once been the curve of her rump. A series of machined joints, hinging on glowing sapphire rods, and connected by durable yet elegant steel struts made up her legs. All together it looked like an artistic savant's impression of the perfect locomotive machine.
“It's impolite to stare, Mister Pipsqueak.” Rarity's voice snapped him back to reality. His eyes went wide when he realized he must have been ogling Rarity's butt for more than a minute, possibly two. Silver Spoon had a foreleg clamped securely over her muzzle in a desperate, yet futile, attempt to suppress the laughter that was bringing her to tears. Rarity was wearing an inappropriately large smirk.
“Sorry,” he managed, struggling to pull his gaze away from the artificial limbs. “That, eh, wasn't quite what I was expecting.”
Rarity giggled lightly. “I should imagine not,” she replied with amusement, then an almost forlorn expression overtook her face. “I hope you're not too terribly unsettled by this.” Hope and fear hid behind a thin mask of false confidence, silently pleading for him to say it wasn't as ugly as she thought it was.
Pip was thoroughly flummoxed. She thinks those are unsettling? I’ve seen uglier things in the Cloudsdale Museum of Fine Art! “No!” he exclaimed, leaping off of the couch. “Rarity, they’re gorgeous!” he persisted, trotting to her side and unconsciously putting a hoof on the offending machinery. The metal was smooth, and warm to the touch, as if it was trying to be real skin but didn't quite know how. “These are works of art, Rarity, and I see no shame in wearing art, nor need to hide it.” He paused for a moment, realizing exactly where his hoof was, before blushing and hastily returning his hoof to it's rightful place on the floor.
“There's no need for flattery,” Rarity tried, averting her gaze and covering her heavy blush with a foreleg. She intended to say more, but the look in Pipsqueak's eyes silenced her. He looked just like Rainbow Dash would when she was trying to say something she felt was gravely important, just like the last time she said goodbye. Oh Rainbow, would that I could see you again. I would have so, so much to apologize for.
“I mean it, Rarity,” Pip, insisted, shaking Rarity from her distraction. “If they weren't attached to you I'd put them in a museum.”
“Flirting again, I see?” a playful voice with a slight foreign accent broke the tension and drew everypony's attention to the door. “Shame on you, Miss Rarity.” Through the door trotted a zebra, or at least Pip assumed she was a zebra. She was striped pink and burgundy across her head, neck, legs and belly, but had a 'saddle' of solid red across her back. Her radiant, turquoise eyes shone with mischief and mirth. Gold Zebrambwean rings adorned her neck and ears, and a woven saddlebag was slung across her back. “Greetings, stranger,” she said to Pip, inclining her head politely, “I am Amadi; master alchemist of the Everparty.”
“Pipsqueak; nice to meet you,” Pip said with a mile.
“Pipsqueak?” the 'zebra' echoed, sounding slightly surprised. “Of you, my mother tells many a tale. I especially enjoy the one of Cloudsdale.”
It took a moment for Pip to process that one. As far as he knew, nopony but himself, his dad and, unfortunately, a certain Zebrambwean witchdoctor he had to barter a cloud-walk potion from, actually knew 'the Cloudsdale story'. “And your mother is... who exactly?” he asked nervously. How can she know about that? I never even told Luna what really happened there.
“My mother is Zecora,” the red zebra replied proudly, putting a hoof to her chest and raising her head with an air that bordered on smugness. “The Ponyville zebra.”
“Ah, and she told you about... Cloudsdale,” Pip concluded with resignation.
“Worry not,” Amadi said, approaching Pip and putting a striped leg across his withers. “The tale is known by only a few, and nopony knows that the hero was you.”
Rarity cleared her throat loudly. “If we could please get this underway,” she said, suppressing great deal of annoyance. “I am quite eager to be without pain for once.”
Silver Spoon started at Rarity's scorn. “Yes, of course,” she said hastily, grabbing a screwdriver from her apron and beginning to detach the fairing from Rarity's mechanical leg. “Sorry.”
Rarity winced slightly as the screwdriver touched metal. “Gently please, darling. Amadi, I trust you had enough time to finish everything?”
“It didn't take long at all to complete,” Amadi replied, disengaging from Pipsqueak and fishing through her saddlebags with her face. “I'd already purified enough mercury.” She produced a small box and set it on the couch, unlatching it with her tongue and nosing it open.
Inside the box were two small crystal vials, perhaps three or four ounces each, which contained substance that looked to Pip like bottled sunlight. He'd seen references to a substance called 'Liquid Sunshine' in ancient pre-usurpation temples, but he had always assumed it was symbolic of something, not literally a substance that resembled sunlight.
“There are two for you to drink,” Amadi, who Pip had decided must be a zebra-pony hybrid, said. “Take one now, and one in a week.”
“What exactly is in that?” Pip asked, watching Rarity magic a vial over and examine it skeptically.
“How it is made, I can not say,” the mostly red... (zebrony? Ponebra?) mare replied, not quite apologetically. “It's a secret Mapungu recipe.”
“It's mostly mercury and orichalcum,” Rarity provided. “You said I'm to drink it, Amadi?” She turned to face the young alchemist. “Are you sure it's safe?”
“Hold still!” Silver scolded, immobilizing Rarity's leg with a hoof. “Some of your gears are out of place.”
“Oh, sorry, dear,” Rarity said, settling back into a relaxed position.
“Safe it is, indeed, my dear,” Amadi assured her with a smirk. “The taste is what inspires fear.”
“Ah.” Rarity returned her gaze to the tincture with redoubled unease. “And I must drink it, specifically. Are there no other options?”
“Indeed, you must, my skeptical friend,” Amadi confirmed, a mischievous smirk growing across her face. “Though, I suppose you could try the other end.”
Rarity downed the glowing solution in one quick swig, trying to ignore Amadi's lewd suggestion. The liquid shown through her throat as she drank before diffusing into her body, leaving her coat with a faint glow for several seconds. “Oh- oh dear,” Rarity said, squirming uncomfortably. “This feels- Ah!- quite strange.”
After a moment a crystal blue light, the same color as Rarity's magic, began to emanate from the prosthetic limbs, twisting and coiling through the tortuous machinery. Misaligned gears shifted back into place, screws and springs tightened, and the silver conduits began to hum with magic. Every muscle in Rarity's body tensed. She scrunched up her face, taking short, sharp breaths through her nose. Wispy tendrils of light reached out from the naked machine. They almost seemed to be searching for something.
“Oh!” Silver Spoon exclaimed, looking around for a short moment before grabbing the few gears she had removed and the fairing and clumsily shoving them into the light. They, too, were enveloped and shifted into place, but something was still missing, as the light continued to reach out through the empty screw holes. Silver gathered the screws up and simply tossed them. As expected, the light caught them and returned them to their places.
Pip watched in awe as Rarity's legs reassembled themselves, but even after they were complete and the magic began to fade, Rarity continued to squirm and squeal. “Are you okay, Rarity?” he asked with no small measure of concern, placing a hoof on her back. Upon contact Rarity released a quick, sharp breath, somewhere between a cough and a gasp. Her breath carried with it a cloud of golden dust that shimmered for a moment before fading into the air. Her body finally relaxed and she slumped onto the bench in a most unladylike fashion.
Only a moment after she had relaxed, magic again erupted from her hind legs. Over the silver filigree on her hip three points of blinding light sparked to life, slowly spreading and dimming into the shape of three blue diamonds flecked with gold. Rarity's cutie mark, like a trifecta of fallen stars, suspended just over her steel hip and framed by an intricate lattice of silver conduits glowing with magic, had returned.
For a while Rarity simply lay there, breathing heavily. “Well!” she said at last, raising her head to get a look at her newly enhanced legs. “That was something! Was that supposed to happen, Amadi?”
The zebra apparent approached Rarity, opposite Pip, and raised a hoof to inspect the leg. “The enchantment potion was never meant for the living. This was ver-” she was cut off by a loud gasp from Rarity.
“Ah! oh my, that is remarkably sensitive,” Rarity remarked, wiggling a bit as Amadi continued to 'examine' her leg. Slowly, she slid herself off the back of the bench. Her hooves made contact with the floor, producing a soft click of machinery, and immediately Rarity lost her balance and fell.
Ever the quick thinker, Pip darted behind her, catching her in his forelegs before she hit the ground.
“Thank you, Pip,” Rarity said, carefully returning to her hooves with Pip's assistance. “It seems I'll be learning to walk for a third time.”
“Are you alright, Rarity?” Silver Spoon asked with concern, raising a hoof reflexively to help with some undefined thing.
Rarity laughed softly and shifted some of her her weight to her front hooves. “no, actually,” she replied, “but this feels somewhat similar to the afterglow of an overly demanding spell, so it should fade in time.”
She drew a deep, calming breath, let it out slowly, and took a cautious step forward, then another, and another. She made her way slowly across the room, making small squeaks and whimpers with each motion of her glowing artificial legs. Eventually she reached the wall. “Phew, that took far more effort then, hahh, then my first jaunt with these,” she said breathlessly, “but I, I don’t think it will take as long to get accustomed.” She looked at the wall for a moment, considering her options then looked over her shoulder at the other occupants of the room. A blush growing on her face. “Um, would one of you mind helping me turn around, please?” she asked with a sheepish smile.
For the next several minutes they took turns steadying Rarity while she tottered around the shop. Occasionally a customer would stop by and Rarity would take the opportunity to rest while Silver Spoon tended to their needs. Distant rumbling could be heard, more than likely from the last few mining explosives of the day. Before too long she managed to stop making obscene noises every few seconds, and soon managed to get up to a normal walking pace.
Breathing heavily, but with a large smile on her face, Rarity stood from her most recent break. “It's been a pleasure, ladies, but we really must be going,” she said as she levitated her jewelry back on. “Pip, let's be off.”
She turned to the door but was stopped by Silver. “You forgot your cape.”
"You know, Silver dear.” Rarity said, smiling. “You've been so good to me, helping me get used to these legs and keeping them in such good repair.” She levitated her cape over to Silver Spoon and draped it over her back, fastening the clasp around her neck. “You keep it, a small token of my thanks for all the things you do."
“Oh my gosh, really, Rarity?” Silver gushed, admiring the silver clasp and top quality silk. “Thank you.”
Rarity looked critically at her for a moment, considering how the pink and blue looked on the silver mare. “Ah, I know,” she said suddenly. With a small pulse of magic the pink shifted to lilac to match her eyes and the trim shifted to an ice blue. “There, perfect. Now,”
Suddenly the door flew open. The unmistakable figure of a diamond dog slouched in the open portal. It wore a hammered steel cuirass with a chain skirt and a light helmet, all clearly of pony design and emblazoned with the three balloons and laurel wreath crest of the house of laughter. A long sword hung at it’s side and an apparatus half the size of Pip’s leg and comprised of a collection of cylinders was strapped to it’s leg. “I take ponies to shelters, we under attack!” He said urgently in a gravelly baritone, and turned to leave. “Hurry, hurry!”
I guess dogs are friendly today, Pip thought, starting to follow. Good to know.
“Baxter, wait!” Rarity called, halting the dog in his tracks. “I need to get to my ship.”
Scratch that. Dogs are 'friends', Pip amended.
The dog looked back and this time actually took a moment to identify who he was dealing with. “Rarity pony!” he exclaimed. “Yes, I take to ship. Amadi pony, you take other ponies.” Again he turned, and again he was stopped.
“Baxter, I can't run. I need you to carry me, please,” Rarity said pleadingly. The dog stood for a moment, apparently deep in thought, and scooped Rarity up with one gorilla like arm, cradling her like a foal, or perhaps a puppy. “Pip!” Rarity called commandingly, wrapping her forelegs around the dog's neck. “Don't fall behind!”