Learning New Tricks
The ride through Canterlot was interesting to say the least. While dulled by Luna's spell, your new senses, which you now knew to be more than one, were reaching out. A stone statute 'smelled' of the mountain it had once been part of, blasted away by some eruption. A building 'tasted' of its history, and everypony who had walked through its doors, a thousand stories sampled in an instant, and then gone from your mind as quickly.
Most of all though, you 'felt' the three Alicorns in a way you hadn't before. You could even catch a snippet or two of their conversation in the cloud of thoughts you sensed passing between them. Not the words precisely, if they were using words at all, but more the thoughts and impressions. Celestia was intrigued, wondering probably where your new powers would lead you. Luna was worried, concerned for her subjects, and for you it seemed. Cadence meanwhile was amused, giggling inside her thoughts at something.
You shook your head sharply, trying to banish the senses. They were already giving you a migraine, considering your brain was wired to handle at most five senses, maybe six, and right now it probably had three times that feeding it information. Worse was the fact that every once in a while you would slip out of yourself for a heartbeat, like an astral projection or something, before Luna's spell slammed you back into yourself again.
Luckily, the journey through Canterlot wasn't long. You were after all, in the Royal Carriage. Traffic made way, guards clearing the path well in advance, while your Wonderbolt squad overhead seemed to be helping direct the driver down roads that were the least congested anyway. Thanks to that you made it almost all the way across town in less than ten minutes, formally an hour long hike, and soon enough you were helping Octavia and Vinyl down from the carriage.
The place you'd stopped looked like a barracks. More so than even the barracks of the Wonderbolts. It was a squat, ugly building, with the looks of a fortress to it. It stood in sharp contrast to the buildings around it, with graceful curves and corners. Works of art chiseled in stone, standing right next to something designed not with form, but function in mind.
“Do you squabs need me to come up there and show you how it's done?!” cried a familiar voice from deep inside the building, and you saw several shapes launch themselves skyward. The squadron of Wing Guard you'd met the other day were then turning and twisting in the air, doing maneuvers you knew even the Wonderbolts would have found taxing, before they got out their weapons and started clashing in the air, sending sparks flying with every stroke.
“Gilda!” cried out Rainbow Dash, as she leapt easily over the high wall to what you could feel was an open courtyard beyond. The other Bolts, with a look at you, as if waiting for permission, launched themselves after her at your nod, while you and the Princesses, as well as your musical friend, moved towards the gate, and then waited to be let in.
The wait was only a moment, before the lock heavily creaked, thudding into place, and then the portal opened wide, heavy iron doors being pulled aside by a pair of rather large griffon males, who then took to the sky as your party entered. The instant you were within, your eyes spotted Gilda, her body battered, with several feathers missing, a few burn marks along her neck, and bandages over at least fifteen percent of her body.
“Well, well, so the Princesses and the Music Makers come to visit. I also think I see a human, as well as a few feather brains. Welcome to the Embassy of the Western Kingdoms,” said Gilda, effecting a bow, but stopping with just a short incline of her head. It was obvious any more than that would have been a strain on her burned and battered body.
“Commander Gilda, it is good to see you again,” said Celestia, bowing her head in return, a gesture mimed by everypony, so you do one as well.
“Heh, so formal, your tallness. I guess this is an official visit. Well then, I should inform you that after last night's affair, I've gotten a promotion. I am now Captain Gilda, and have two new wings coming to flesh out my command a bit,” she said, her chest puffing out as much as her injuries allow.
“Congratulations on your new rank, then, and I hope you make your Kingdom proud,” said Celestia.
“I intend to. Anyway, I see our human friend is up and about already. Does this mean those rumors I hear about him beating up a hundred dragon with his bare hands are true?” asked the griffon Captain, smirking at you.
“They may have been exaggerated. After all, they failed to mention a young griffon Wing Guard Commander who valiantly stood her ground against a thousand manticores, which would have felled the brave hero despite his strength,” you joke, returning the smile, and getting a rather warm chuckle back.
“Regardless, I suppose I should apo-” she begins, and as with Fancy Pants, you hold up your palm to silence her.
“Nothing of the sort. Without your intervention, the Ambassador would have flown off with me able to do nothing. Worse than that, I wouldn't have my powers back,” you tell her, and she nods.
“Maybe, but even so, I shouldn't have let myself get so distracted. You can bet your tail feathers that my quarter master has been told not to check out any potentially hazardous weapons to non-combatants without first getting my approval,” she assures you.
“Heh, I'm sure he will. However, I still need to do something to show you some gratitude for what you did for me,” you tell her, and offer her your hand. The griffon looks at it quizzically, turning slightly to face the pony Princesses, who nod slightly, before she grips your fingers in her claw.
Instantly you can 'feel' her. Everything about her is laid bare, her history, her life, her thoughts, her dreams. You knew Gilda. Not as a griffon, as a person, or anything else. You knew her as thoroughly as you knew yourself, and you felt every injury on her body, including a few nicks and cuts she must have gotten from her training.
You focus on those, trying to ignore some images of her and Rainbow Dash that were more than likely private. Instead you push at the injuries, and with a thought, siphon off power from your inner star, covering the wounds with it, and imagining Gilda as she should be, a hale and hardy member of her species, in top physical form, and able to outfly all but the best of pegasi, while being stronger than the average earth pony.
Outside there was no flash or glow as there had been with Fancy Pants. Instead, one moment Gilda was injured, the next, she was whole, and you found yourself falling backwards. Luckily, the Princesses must have anticipated this, and you 'taste' three different flavors of magic grab you and hold you up as the world slowly stops spinning and you can support yourself again.
When you vision clears, you find Gilda just staring at her body. Her wings flex in ways that they probably couldn't have a moment ago, while her legs stretch and move at angles. Without a word, she flaps her newly healed feathers, and shoots off into the sky, buzzing her Wing Guard members, who all are equally flabbergasted that she'd been healed. You wonder idly why they would be so surprised, but then, feeling yourself get woozy again, you realize that healing must take a lot of magic, or whatever you used, was fairly taxing, probably more than even the Princesses could normally do.
'Excatly,' comes a word into your mind. It wasn't spoken, and you were sure you didn't think it, but it's there nonetheless. Turning you find none of them looking at you, all eyes on the griffon above as she does sky tricks, turning in ways you were sure she hadn't done last night, and acting all agile. You knew one of them had to have been the source of that thought though, and resolve to ask them about it later, as Gilda lands, laughing and looking up and down her healed body.
“Incredible. Our healers said it would be months before I could fly with the Guard again. I think you even fixed a break in my tail I got back in flight camp,” she said, whipping said tail around a bit, and then tickling Dash's face with it before turning to you.
“I thank you for the gift, and accept it in the spirit in which it was given. You may rest assured, I will put it to good use, and make sure my Guard are prepared for any threat this city, or you, might face, while we're here,” she tells you in what you assume is her 'Captain' voice, while one claw is on her chest. She bows slightly at her neck, and you return it, before she takes off again.
“What are you hatchlings looking at?! We still have several hours of the pretty pony princess' daylight left, and I'm gonna use all of them to work your wings off!” she shouted at the trainees, while you and you entourage made your way out the gate, returning to the carriage. Climbing inside, Octavia and Vinyl sit close to you, as the three Princesses take their seats across the way. Sensing again their 'cloud' of thoughts, you decide to try an new trick, and expand yourself outward, letting your mind touch the thing, and then being drawn into it.
'I was beginning to wonder if you'd figure out how to do this,' came thoughts, and you got a pink impression of them. It was weird, like you were thinking, but not at the same time. There was no tone of voice attached to them, no face or anything, but you knew from the color and taste of them, it came from Cadence.
'Oh hush. It took you almost a week to figure this trick out,' said a golden thought, Celestia.
'True, but I had only you to study, and it was one of a thousand things I needed to learn. Meanwhile we've been doing this around him since he woke up, and that was at least two hours ago,' this time there's some oddity to the pink thoughts. Some of it's words, sure, but the rest. The 'things she needed to learn' aren't just words, you get the impression of a new sense, like yours, and even a new body. The two hours also feels weird, like you can see the sun in the sky moving in your thoughts.
'Both of you be quiet for a moment, let him experience this at his own rate, and don't goad him to move faster,' chided some black thoughts. They came sharper than the others, like the mind that birthed them was more organized. The last few bits of it came as an image of yourself in bed from the morning. It was weird seeing yourself from the outside, but at the same time, you saw yourself differently now, and were only just beginning to realize how far your new 'senses' had stretched, before Luna had limited them.
'I'm fine,' you think, tasting a swirl of colors around your thoughts. It sort of echoed into the cloud above the Princesses, who's minds dove onto the words as if picking them apart.
“Yeah, you're fine now, but who's to say your aren't gonna go all glowy and go nuts, like say talking to yourself,” said a voice, and it started you out of the cloud, which nearly popped as you pulled your consciousness back into yourself. Instantly you turned to find Vinyl staring at you, her hoof lowering her goggles as she did so.
“Um, well, what I meant was....I'm not tired anymore from healing Gilda,” you tell her, trying your best to put off the odd event of your speaking without having been spoken to.
“That's nice to hear. I wasn't worried, mind, but it is nice to know you're recovering quickly,” said Octavia, and you treat her to a smile, getting one in return, before she and Vinyl return to looking out the windows. You then turn to face the Princesses, who are all smirking at you. Idly, you toy with the image of slapping them, but then focus again, letting your mind rejoin the cloud.
'Not funny,' you think, this time just putting some impression of what you wanted to say into the cloud, rather than direct words. This made the swirl of colors die down, and when it cleared, you found your words tinted green in your own mind.
'It was, actually. A common beginner's mistake though,' the golden thoughts inform you.
'Have you ladies been doing this behind my back since I got here?' you ask, sending images of them, yourself, and then of the sun moving backwards in the sky several months. You get back a chuckle at first that makes you a bit miffed, but soon calm down.
'Not behind your back, but we have been doing it. It's a good way to say in touch with each other, and to discuss important issues without being overheard,' thinks Luna's black words.
'It's also good for gossiping and spreading ugly rumors when we're bored,' chimed in Cadence, who wore one of those smiles that reminded you of a valley girl from the ninties back home. The other two alicorns turned to her, then looked at each other and just shook their heads.
'Regardless, it's nice to see you're consciousness is expanding. We had hoped it would now that there's no limiter on your abilities,' Celestia told you.
'So, are there any more abilities I should know about, before they creep up on me?' you ask.
'Honestly, at the moment we simply cannot be sure. While you have much in common with ourselves and our offspring you are also unique in ways that none have been. We do not wish to limit your development by telling you what you can or cannot do. Instead we will merely be on hoof, should you need aid,' thought Luna, and you nod.
You and the Princesses then spent the next several minutes discussing things that ranged from how far your senses could reach, to a few tips on how to avoid looking too deeply into things. Celestia made a point of telling you not to use your new senses on anyone you met. While inanimate objects tended to have a straight line history, using such senses on others tended to overwhelm the mind. She made it especially clear that you shouldn't do so to friends, as that could lead to some bad nights.
Your mental conversation ended abruptly, as the cloud popped like a bubble, and for a moment you wondered why, only to look out the window of the carriage and see a familiar red cross sign on the door outside. Everypony filed out of the carriage, and stood before the hospital, staring at it like some foreboding fortress. Idly, you toyed with the idea of telling the Princesses you'd changed your mind about this last meeting, but then, something inside you told you to go forward with it. So you led the way through the double doors, into the hospital that held your would be kidnapper.
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This chapter. It pleases me. BRING ME ANOTHER.
3431803
Heh, working on it. Need to word this one right though. Some pretty big stuff happens next time.
3432002
Heh, I can't see it myself, but then, I wouldn't be brave enough to do what he did.
3432010
No idea
...One of thesse days I'll get around to re-reading the WHOLE fic.
Nice chapter!
lol awesome work star
3432507 have fun with that
Well, he just managed to work out how to access the deep scan options, though Im still confused as to the healing thing. It makes no sense in a difficulty sense because even the most difficult version is only a time shift, the easiest version is what many unicorns do in creating things out of thin air and manipulating existing things. The only reason I can assume that story writers say that healing is so difficult, is that if it isnt, and you set it up right, you dont need all the complex barbary force we need today to make people healthy, such as medicines, hospitals and surgery.
If you have a fully working replicator, atomic level, you have immortality.
3435225
I think I'll eventually explain this in story, but for now, it has to do with what was happening around the two. Fancy was being healed actively by magic, whereas Gilda wasn't. That'll be something to think about as we talk next with the Ambassador. I still need to think up a name for him too. Oh, and Replicators do not mean immortal, though they're close. Transporters would mean immortal, especially if you could separate memory from mind, and then put it back. Mind, at that point why would you need this meat shell at all?
3432507
Even I don't do that....well, not normally, I do sometimes reread older parts to help remember stuff.
3436267 I re-read everything. I've read the Inheritance Cycle at least three times.
Slip that bastard a few images of something really terrible, like a scene from Alien, or images of something really bloody! Make him suffer! Force Miley twerking in an infinite loop in his brain! Make him watch the Broadway musical Cats!
3449972 Thats evil, you forgot Justin Beiber's "Baby" as the only thing that he hears