The door to Winter’s house, now with two additional occupants, opens with a quiet click before the blue unicorn himself steps in, followed by a green one. “Thanks for coming over to help with this, Rhino. I know you don’t normally make house calls.”
The second stallion shrugs nonchalantly. “What can I say? This project of yours has me curious, and I really didn’t have anything else planned today besides going home. This is much more intriguing.”
“Glad I was able to throw a wrench into your plans, then.” He smirks, heading straight for the basement doorway. Through it, he opens the next door and begins descending the stairs. “I know this might not seem like much, but… don’t tell anypony about what’s down here, okay? I want it actually finished before I tell. You’d only be the fourth pony to find out, and likely the last, unless my sister finds out.”
“Deal. In response, I’ll warn you that my house is even more booby trapped than my shop. You know, in case that whole ‘you turning evil’ thing comes up again.” The shop owner smirks back before turning a bit more serious. “I do understand about waiting until things are complete to release them, though. I do the same for any new enchantments or runes I work out.”
Winter shrugs. “How long does it usually take you to make a new enchantment?”
“Depends on how exact it needs to be. The differences between a single constant illumination enchantment and one that’s say… voice activated, is all in the specifics. So if I’m creating one from scratch, it depends on what exactly I need it to do.” Thinking, he tries to find a good example. “My chair at the store for instance, was just me fiddling on and off it for about a week, then fine tuning a bit as I used it. Still, quite worth it for a chair that’s cheap and yet extremely comfortable now.”
“Huh...” The other unicorn nods, trying to understand. “I would’ve thought a lot of them would take weeks to months. Then again, I’m not exactly well-versed in the art of magic.” He flicks the light on with a finger, immediately revealing his project on the table. “I’m usually better with mechanical stuff.”
Rhino’s eyes widen as he beholds the artificial wings. “So I see… wow…” He walks over, peering at various parts of the machinery. “Arcanotech hybrid stuff, huh? I could never really wrap my head around some of this… still, this looks amazing! Well done.”
Winter chuckles. “Thanks. Aside from some backup engines, I think I’ve just about finished putting it together structurally. All it needs is a couple more enchantments, some testing and adjusting of the engines, and then it’ll be good to go. Considering how long it’s just been sitting down here waiting to be finished, it’s about damn time.”
“Well, ask away then.” He looks back to Winter and grins excitedly. “As long as you don’t ask me to test it.”
“Deal.” He thinks. “The main engines just run on pure magic right now, and I’ve been meaning to increase their capacity… if you can somehow increase the magic storage, that’d be great. Aside from that, the whole thing needs to be made a bit more durable; I started building it before finding your store and it’s easier to just have you enchant the whole thing than to take it apart and give you individual pieces.” He chuckles. “That’s about it. Unless you have an enchantment that can make the harness less itchy on bare skin.”
“Actually, I do have one I think I can use like that.” The stallion’s black and blue tail swishes as he thinks. “Just a bigger version of what I was doing for your parts should work for the durability issue… maybe a slight modification for spreading the force around.” Nodding to himself, he sighs a moment after. “Unfortunately, pure capacity isn’t actually something that can be done in meaningful amounts by enchantment alone. You can make the transmission easier, make the formulas efficient, but after a time you just have to bring something in to work with. You, sir, are going to need some gems.”
Winter groans, rubbing his head. “Great, something I have no clue how to use… so close, and yet so far.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here, right?” Rhino tries to cheer him up. “Gems are the best magic conductors and storage materials there are. In my line of work, I deal with dozens at least on a daily basis.” Lowering his voice a little, he chuckles. “Between you and me, clarity has minimal effect, so honestly anypony can get great enchanting gems for cheap just from what jewelry stores practically give away because they aren’t pretty enough.”
“Still gonna be a little out of range for a while… well, it’s something to look forward to.” He sighs, turning back to the wings.
Humming, Rhino gestures toward Winter with a hand. “Well, to quote a certain yellow thestral, ‘how about a deal’? I can get you some gems, ones I actually already have and just need to retrieve. I’ll even install them. In return, you let me keep helping you when you need it on these fascinating prosthetics. Maybe spread the word a little about which shop helped you once you release it too, but I won’t hold you to that.”
Winter hums in thought. “I don’t see a problem with that… I should warn you, though, it’ll be a while before I start making more of these. With my current paycheck, until I get a patent, I’d probably only be able to make one pair of wings every two months due to the cost of materials and enchantments. So if these don’t pan out, I’m kind of screwed in that regard.”
“There is such a thing as bulk discount you know, but to be honest, I really don’t care about payment for this right now.” His eyes roam over the project once more in curiosity. “If nothing else, this is an interesting project that I might even get a few more inspirations from for my own work. Maybe weak self-levitation toys or something...’’ His voice trails off.
Winter extends his hand to regain his attention. “Deal. And if I do go evil like you suggested earlier, I’ll let you live as part of the bargain.”
Laughing, Rhino takes the hand and shakes it. “Sounds good to me.” Nodding, he looks at his watch as he thinks. “Okay, so let’s see… your house is a couple miles from my shop, so… how’s twenty minutes sound until I get back with the gems? I want to stop by my house and get a drink before the return trip.”
The other unicorn looks a little surprised at the quick trip over such an apparently long distance, but he nods. “Alright then. I’ll grab my wallet for when you return.”
“No charge.” Rhino grins. “This is fun, and if it inspires new things for me, then it’s paid for itself.” Without another word, his horn glows briefly before he suddenly teleports away.
About twenty minutes and one surprised reaction from Winter later, Rhino pops in just inside the living room of the house, finding the cobalt unicorn lounging on the couch. “Sorry, I would have gone to the door, but I was pretty much casting by reflex halfway through the trip. I’m just glad I realized I wasn’t sure where your basement was from the outside before I tried to get in there… the rejection fail-safe on that spell isn’t fun.”
Winter just chuckles, sitting up. “I’m just surprised you teleported. Most unicorns I know don’t bother, and the one time I tried it, I only made it from one side of my bedroom to the other… and somehow left my clothes behind.” He snickers at the memory. “Fun times...”
“I remember those times…” The stallion chuckles as well. “Ended up making my own version of teleporting just so I could work out the kinks. Usual margin of error is a bit too much for my tastes… plus I hate how you end up seared if you don’t concentrate enough.”
“I never could concentrate much on any magic, really. Aside from levitation and shields; the former because it’s almost as second nature as breathing, and the latter because of my cutie mark.” He shrugs, nodding towards the basement doorway. “Continue this downstairs?”
“After you.” Rhino adjusts the strap on his backpack, hearing the cargo clink slightly.
Winter starts heading for the doorway. “If you don’t mind me asking, how much of your magic is runes and enchantments, and how much is just raw unicorn magic?”
“Well… it depends on what you mean.” Shrugging, he follows. “Enchantments and runes are just how I use my magic, they don’t affect how much I have. Though, admittedly, without them I wouldn’t be able to cast much at all, but that’s something different.”
“Ah… I just meant how many of your spells do you do normally, and how many do you use a rune to do.” He chuckles sheepishly as he leads the way. “Just curiosity.”
“I think levitation and aura manipulation are generally all I can do normally.” His enthusiasm dies a little as he admits this. “I made runes for everything else.”
The other unicorn laughs a bit. “Still more than I use. I barely levitate anything when I’m not working on the wings, and I don’t think I’ve made a varied shield in a couple years. I only ever do regular ones, and more as platforms than anything else.”
Rhino looks up. “Really? Any reason why?”
“I’m studying surgery and medicine, Rhino. Not exactly a guard in the making.” He sighs, shrugging. “Pretty sure the only reason shield magic is in my blood is because that’s my dad’s talent as well, and he became a guard captain. But this is more up my alley, so it’s just a waste of a cutie mark.”
Frowning a bit, he replies. “Marks are never a waste. Even if they aren’t your passion, you can still use them to your advantage.”
Winter looks at him sceptically. “How? Shields are a pretty specific thing, and their uses are very far away from the act of cutting ponies open, fixing their insides, and sealing them back up.”
Put on the spot, he thinks. “Well… this is a shot in the dark, but… depending on your control, you could use shields to protect certain parts of ponies’ insides, making you able to perform surgeries in delicate areas others wouldn’t touch without serious risk. Just a thought, though, don’t quote me on that.”
“Maybe, but that won’t come in handy until I’m actually able to perform surgery, not just study and learn it. We’ll see if I even still have the knack for it in ten years, if not more.” He opens the basement door to let them in. “So, getting back on topic, how many gems did you bring? And how big are they, in terms of storage capacity?”
“I only brought six to cover most bases. I figured a fair sized one for normal use, and a smaller one for backup or something.” He pulls out half a dozen gems of varying sizes and shapes, setting a sapphire about the size of his fist and a ruby about half that size away from the others. “These should do fine, I think. No real need to go ridiculously big.”
Winter nods, smiling. “Those should definitely work. Once I install and load them up, then do the same for the backup engines and gems, that’ll take care of the fuel problem. Thanks.”
“Not a problem, though would you mind me looking at what you’ve got in there now so I can copy the enchantments?” The two gems already float next to him, ready to be implemented.
“Just be careful.” The other unicorn pries open a panel on one of the engines, reaching in with his magic and extracting what appears to be a small glass marble. “I guess this is pretty much like a gem, except handmade rather than natural. Shouldn’t be too hard to copy it over since they’re so similar aside from capacity.”
“Correct, glass will usually do in a pinch.” Casting an experienced eye on the sphere, he nods before turning back to his gems. A flurry of lines and symbols appear above them in glowing green script as if from an unseen pen before fading. He offers the two to Winter. “There you go, all set.”
Winter blinks. “Wow… that was quick.” Chuckling, he takes the two gems carefully in his hands, as though they would shatter if he so much as squeezed them, and deposits them gently on the table near the engine. “I’ll work on installing them later. I’ll have to set it up to draw power from multiple sources; not too difficult, but a little time-consuming to do when company’s over.”
“Yeah, company can be distracting, but it does make tedium go by faster.” Rhino sighs a little in thought before shrugging.
“...speaking from experience?” the other unicorn asks, noticing the sigh and tone.
“Yeah… lots of tedium lately.” Still, he shrugs again, waving it off. “Don’t worry about it, just got lost in thought for a moment.”
Winter chuckles lightly. “Hey, if you ever want to talk, feel free. Luna knows I’ve got plenty of conversation topics and questions of my own.”
“Like what?” Rhino leans back against a wall, curious.
“Well...” Idly, the unicorn picks one of his many tools off the wall, but simply to fiddle with it in his hands. “Remember when I asked you for help dealing with Silk? Kind of need a lot more help with her now.”
“Oh?” The green stallion raises an eyebrow as one of the spare gems he brought idly spins in his magic.
Winter blushes a bit. “Well, long story short… she and I are, well… together, now.”
This information only phases Rhino for a moment before he smiles. “Congratulations. I hope you two have many happy times together.”
Winter smiles too. “I hope so too… though the problem is, I was barely able to predict her when we were just friends.” He rubs his head with the back of the wrench he picked up. “I like her, but… I don’t exactly have a good track record with relationships where I practically know my partner inside and out, let alone Silk being… Silk.”
Rhino tilts his head to one side, then the other. “Well, I haven’t exactly dated her myself, but I can see what I do know. She’s not that hard to figure out… generally anyway.”
“Then either you’re a genius or I’m a ditz, because I can’t figure anything out about her that she hasn’t outright told me.” He sighs, putting the wrench back up. “Any idea of her likes and dislikes? That’s a pretty basic necessity.”
“Hmm…” A hand goes to his chin. “Just the basics really. She likes her clothes, she likes to imagine what she could make others look like, she likes to make ponies happy, though she can tend to pry slightly if she thinks it’ll help. She’s craftier than most give her credit for, though. I think a good word is that she’s a… provoker. She likes to see reactions, especially when she’s lightly pushing someone. Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t mean any harm. Underneath that outwardly blunt, occasionally playfully perverted talk, she’s very sweet.”
Winter chuckles. “I gathered that much… the provoking, the prying, and the pervertedness especially. Not that I mind any of them too much.” He picks up another tool, this one resembling an icepick, and taps it on the counter absentmindedly. “Anything you know of that she’d enjoy me doing for her?”
Watching the tool as he continues to twirl the gem, Rhino hums. “Honestly… I don’t really know. She never said anything specific, just general things like spending time together, them appreciating when she shows herself off for them, and lots of physical affection stuff. She seems like she’s a cuddler.”
“Good, fits right in with me.” He laughs a bit. “As for everything else… I can handle that, though admittedly I was hoping for a bit more… foods she likes in case I ever decide to try cooking without burning the kitchen down this time, for example.”
“Umm… she likes fruit and tomatoes,” he offers.
“Tomatoes are fruit, Rhino.”
He snorts. “Technically, yes, but that concept is still odd to me.”
“Not that hard to grasp...” Winter mutters before speaking clearly again. “Fruit I already gathered from her introduction. Not sure what meals can be made from them, though.”
“Fruit salad, smoothies, sliced ones with a nice dip… not really meals though, more like snacks…” He scratches his head. “Sorry, my family was usually more about flowers and veggies… and tomatoes. You could always pick up a cookbook, maybe surprise her with a treat when she gets home. I bet she’d love that; well, and you.” He chuckles.
Winter blushes, but nods. “Maybe… I’m just not very experienced with healthy eating in general. Maybe a cookbook would be a good idea...”
“They say mares love a guy who can cook.”
“Really? I thought they loved something similar to the word ‘cook’.” He smirks.
“She’s rubbing off on you already, I see.” Rhino rolls his eyes. “Though I guess that one does have the basis in truth.”
“Just as long as she’s not trying to get it just yet.” He puts the icepick-like tool back up and runs his fingers along several other tools. “I doubt you know, but might as well take a shot: what’s her opinion on size?”
The other stallion smirks. “Of what? Hand? Hoof? Tail? Ears? Horn? I’m fairly certain there are rumours about all of them and possible consequences of each.”
Winter snorts. “I doubt she cares about the size of any of those… though what consequences and rumours are you referring to? You’ve got me curious.”
A dubious eyebrow raises. “Surely you’ve heard of the classic mare’s tale of big blank equals big much more lewd blank?”
“Yeah, but all my blanks are bigger than average except for one in particular, and you get no prizes for guessing it.” The unicorn shrugs. “So I don’t really believe them.”
Shaking his head, Rhino covers his face with a hand. “Strangely enough, what I got from all that is that you bothered measuring yours and comparing to averages.”
“Oh don’t act like you were never curious!” the other unicorn snaps, albeit with a joking tone.
“I never said that, but that doesn’t mean I broke out the ruler.” He chuckles heartily. “Honestly, most of the time I would just rather not know. Optimism and all that.”
“I’d rather be disappointed early than to find out when I whip it out and hear laughter,” Winter remarks.
“That’s your stance, and you are welcome to it. I’m more glad that on me, everything seems to be proportionate.” Unconsciously, his eyes drift upwards towards his own forehead.
Winter notices the gaze and chuckles. “Don’t know how you got the better end of the deal in that field. We seem to be on par with each other in everything else.” He taps the tip of his own, slightly shorter horn.
“True, but then you have that whole exotic thing about yours.” He makes a curved motion with a finger to show what he means.
“Is that what you call it?” Winter traces his own finger along the curve. “I call it a birth defect. Makes it almost impossible to fit anything over.”
“Oh, surely it’s not so bad. I can certainly see Silk being fascinated by it, and she’ll probably have nothing but good things to say.” He smiles and shakes his head. “Have you let her touch it yet? That’s a big step to some.”
Winter thinks. “Well… I haven’t really invited her to, but really, if she asks to or just goes and does it, I won’t have much to complain about.” He shrugs. “Not like it’d be too different from when I touch it myself, right?”
“Well, I don’t exactly make a habit of doing that with mine except to keep it clean and all, but I hear it’s actually very different when somepony else does it.” He thinks. “I mean… it’s sort of like our version of wings, in some regards, including how personal it is.”
“I guess… but wings just spread out when they get enough attention. These things… stimulate them too much and you have no clue what could come out.” He winces. “Sometimes it makes me feel a little lightheaded, too… does that happen to you, or is it just a low capacity thing?”
“No, I’ve had the lightheadedness happen too… thankfully the messes that accompanied it when I first found out that could happen in my teenage years have taken a steady decline as my control improved.”
Winter sighs. “Lucky you. I’m not good with control, so I just stopped stimulating it in the first place… hope Silk doesn’t find out about that...”
Rhino shrugs. “I don’t know, it might be something she could help you with. I don’t really have anything concrete to back this up, but I would think regular use to your limit would improve overall stamina.”
“Maybe, but-” He’s cut off as there’s a loud knocking at the door. He panics a bit, looking at the wings on the table and then the door. “Hey, d-don’t come in here!”
His sister’s voice replies through the door. “I can hear you two up in the living room! Stop comparing penis sizes! It’s creeping me out!” This statement is followed by storming steps going back upstairs.
Looking over to the door blankly, Rhino turns back to Winter with a questioning look. “Really? That’s what she thought we were doing? Maybe Silk’s influence is spreading faster than I thought…”
“Maybe.” Winter shrugs. “Speaking of her, thanks for the help. I’ll see what use I can make of it when she gets home.”
He nods, gems floating back into his bag as he stops leaning on the wall. “Not a problem. Oh, one last idea, maybe try on one of her male costumes for her to see on you. You never know.”
“...that will depend entirely on said ‘male costume’. There are some fetishes I refuse to play to.”
“That’s on you, and I really don’t want to know.” Rhino holds up his hands defensively.
“Didn’t think you would.” Glancing back to the wings, Winter sighs. “Think that’s about all that can be done involving the gems and the enchantments… thanks again for your help.”
“Again, you’re welcome. This was fun. Be sure to let me know when you finally get these things working.” He smiles.
Winter smiles as well, nodding. “I will. Hopefully they won’t take too much longer.”
Nodding, Rhino moves to the door as his bag floats over to him. “Well, I’ve gotta get home. It was nice hanging out with you.”
“Same to you.” Winter glances at the wings and shrugs, deciding to stay down in the basement rather than follow him up. “See you later.”
“See ya!” He waves a hand as he heads up.