Patches

by Fireydude

Chapter 6 - Time for a checkup!

11:00 am [Canterlot]

In the royal castle of Canterlot, Celestia was walking to the throne room after a 2 hour long meeting with her council, regarding whether or not Equestria would keep its trade route with one of the Griffon Kingdoms open. The sun based alicorn was doing the best she could to finish her day's agenda. The agenda itself consisted of paperwork, which befitting one of royal status, were rather dry.

A few seals of approval here, a little organizing there, nothing she wouldn't be able to handle.

"Celestia! There thou art!"

She turned around to see Luna up and quite early, which was unusual, seeing as Luna was usually resting during the day, what with her being in charge of the night and all. As the alicorn of the night galloped towards her, she stopped in her tracks.

"What is It Luna? Is it something important?"

The younger princess immediately responded as she nodded her head; "Ay dear sister, ti's something quite important that needs to be brought to thy attention!" She then walked up to her; "Come, we shall converse on the way to our thrones..."

The two sisters then walked as they began to "converse".

"So what exactly is it that needs to be brought to my attention Luna?"

Luna breathed in and out a bit as she began; "Twas something rather peculiar last night Celestia... While you slept, I was taking flight in the night sky, when what should I see soar right above me but a comet in the colors of a rainbow. But twas not an ordinary comet mind you, especially not just in appearance!"

"How so exactly?" Celestia asked, hoping this would lead up to something.

"Well... As the comet flew, my horn started to spontaneously glow. Somehow, my magic was reacting to it just by being within proximity."

This certainly cemented Celestia's curiosity at the odd phenomenon.

"And ti's more sister? Somehow, it felt as if something was alive inside of it." Luna looked up at her; "I have not even the faintest idea of how exactly, but I could feel it..."

"A-alive?" Celestia's mouth hung agape for a bit before she recomposed herself; "Well... That's... Certainly perplexing..."

"At first I had thought it be one of Discord's jests, but twas not something that would fit within that trickster's highly mischievous and vagabond nature."

"Well, what happened after that?" Celestia asked her.

"The comet disappeared from my sight, quick as a flash I daresay..." Luna said to her sister; "Although? Judging by the direction, I wouldst wager that this phenomenal object was heading towards the vicinity of Ponyville!"

Celestia's brow furrowed in thought as she processed this information, until suddenly, a miniature sun brightened up in her head; "Luna, when we reach the throne room, have a guard bring a quill feather and a sheet of paper."

"Of course sister!" Luna replied, knowing exactly what she had in mind.

"Splendid! We're off to a good start!"

-

11:05 am [Carousel Boutique]

"Oh darliiiings~" Rarity's voice practically sang out, getting the attention of Pinkie and Twilight, as well as Spike, now no longer in lovesick mode.

"First, thank you ever so much once again for providing assistance for putting the lad's clothing together. Second, now that I have your utmost attention, I- Pinkie could you please be a dear and provide a drum-roll?"

"Oki doki loki artichokey!" Pinkie grinned as her hooves inexplicably stretched like taffy and reached backwards until she found what appeared to be a small drum set and put it in front of her. She then sprouted fingers from her hooves once again as she then used them to grip some drumsticks and gave them a twirl as she began the drum roll.

Spike's face a bit scrunched up from the pony's bizarre and downright freaky talent.

"Now then.." Rarity cleared her throat; "Introducing, the new and much more groomed, Alan Banc!"

With her announcement out of the way, Fluttershy walked past Rarity with Alan sitting on her back cross legged. Once Fluttershy walked up to the three, she lowered herself to the ground to let her passenger off of her back.

"Go on honey, show them how nice and clean you are~"

As soon as the little guy slid off of Fluttershy, he allowed the others to look him over. True to Rarity's word, he was much better groomed than he was previously, his hair now having been cut short so that his bangs couldn't get over his eyes, and the back of his hair reached only the base of his neck. It also helped that without the dirt, his freckles were now more visible.

Alan's clothes consisted of a new pair of navy blue overalls, with three colorless little diamonds on the chest pocket, though the way they were placed made it look like Rarity's cutie mark somehow got on his garment. For a t-shirt, he now wore a simple long grey shirt (necessary since it was getting colder, due to the upcoming autumn and all). The only garment that wasn't new was his pair of shoes, though now he wore what the boy apparently called 'socks'.

"Looks like we did a great job!" Twilight said with a smile.

"Yep yep" Pinkie bounced over to the ape boy as she then sat besides him; "Plus, now I can see your eyes without that hair of yours getting in the way!" Pinkie said as she ruffled the kid's hair.

Alan actually chuckled a bit at the statement as his cheeks turned somewhat pink, causing Fluttershy to smile at his bashfulness.

"Now Pinkie, don't mess his hair, at least not too much.." Rarity said as she trotted over to the two.

"Since he's all cleaned up, I'd say it's a good time to go to the library.." Twilight said.

"Is it okay if I joined? I would very much like to get to know the lad.." Rarity asked her.

"Heck ye-" Spike was about to say before Twilight gave him a bit of a knowing smirk; "I mean, yes you can.."

"Marvelous!" Rarity said; "I'll be sure to let any other potential customers know I'll be out for a while.." She then galloped off to get a sign to put up on her door.

-

11:40 am [Twilight's Library]

Soon, the group (now consisting of two unicorns, an earth pony, a pegasus, a baby dragon, and a certain pint-sized kid who was currently invisible to everypony in town), arrived at the tree library that also acted as Twilight's living quarters. As soon as they walked in, Twilight turned the ape-boy visible again, she then aimed her horn at the ceiling of her library. Her horn glowed magenta, and fired a small beam at it, and the results were, well..

"I'm not doubting your magical abilities dear, but.." Rarity looked for the proper words to say in this situation; "What reason did you have for using your own magic on the ceiling? It didn't even to do a thing to it, not even lightly singe it.."

"It's a project I finished a week and a half ago.." Twilight said to them.

"Just look closely!" Spike said as he pointed up to the ceiling.

The three mares looked up and as they squinted their eyes, they saw what appeared to be a symbol, similar to Twilight's cutie mark, carved into it.

"It's a special security system designed to make the inside of my library soundproof, just in case we need to have a private conversation, meaning that nopony outside can hear our conversations no matter how loud our voices are.. All I have to do is channel some of my magical energy into it as a catalyst." Twilight easily explained; "I learned about this in one of Starswirl the Bearded's more theoretical books.."

"What about your windows? Wouldn't somepony try to get in through? There's no glass in a couple of them.." Fluttershy asked.

"Glad you asked Fluttershy... Rarity, could you please launch a magical bolt at one of the windows?"

Rarity raised an eyebrow, but complied as she did so, firing a bolt of her blue magical aura at one of the windows. Rather than go through the window however, it seemed to make physical contact with it. The edges of the window soon glowed bright magenta, just like Twilight's own magic.

If the three ponies were stunned, then Alan was practically flabbergasted, if his jaw threatening to drop to the floor was of any indication.

Twilight giggled a bit at the boy's look on his face, then continued as she faced the rest of the group; "As you can see, I took some precautions with my windows. Although any unicorn is able to make the aura surrounding the windows visible, they can't cancel out the system, because it's connected specifically to my magic, so only I can cancel it out..."

"Is it possible I could do something like this for my boutique?" Rarity asked, a small smile appearing on her face.

"It's possible! From what I've read in the book, it's possible that any unicorn, even if they're just at a regular level, can place a system like this in their homes. Of course, there's no actual known physical record of Starswirl even performing it, but it's more than likely..."

As Rarity pondered the possible uses of this system, Twilight then had Alan come over to her with a wave of one of her forelegs. The boy obeyed as he walked over to her, his hands currently in his pockets; "Just come with me Alan, I need to do a few private tests with you..."

Alan looked like he was about to slowly walk backwards, but Pinkie stopped him stopped him by standing right behind him; "It'll be all right Al, you can trust Twili~! Think of it like... a check up!"

"Oh, yes exactly! You've been to a doctor's office where you come from, right?" Twilight said to Alan with a smile.

"Well, yeah, I have... Why?" Alan responded to her softly.

"Well, this shouldn't be entirely different.." Twilight walked over to private area/lab where she keeps her equipment, with Alan following behind; "Spike, can you keep the girls company? This should only take about thirty to forty minutes.."

"Can do!" Spike said, with a suave grin sneaking on his face, now that he'd be with Rarity. Of course he'd also be with Flutters and Pinkie, but still! What a lucky purple little dragon..

---

Inside Twilight's lab, as soon as the 'doctor' and her 'patient' walked right in, Al looked all around, seeing machines he'd never seen before in his life, even a strange looking helmet by a chair, attached to some kind of, rectangular-ish lie dector-like.. Thing?*

Anyway, the two walked over to what appeared to be a lab table. Twilight then slowly reached her head down towards Alan, and used her teeth to grip the back of Alan's new overalls. She then gently picked him up off the ground by his garment, and stood up on her hind-legs. As she placed her front hooves on the table to maintain her balance, she lowered Alan down until he was on the table, and released her grip on his overalls.

"There..." Twilight then sat on her hindquarters as she looked at Alan; "Now, before we begin the tests, there's just one question I want to ask you kiddo.."

"What's that exactly?" Alan asked the unicorn as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Is there a name for your species?"

"Name for what?" Alan asked, his tone of voice betraying his lack of understanding.

"Species. It's the name of a group of animals or plants that share similar things in common. Like, for example, a feline refers to cats, or a canine refers to dogs." Twilight replied.

"Oh! Uh..." Alan blushed a bit.

Twilight rose an eyebrow at this, but shook it off as she asked again; "Do you know what your species is called?"

"I think we're called humans..." Alan replied; "Though that's what I was told anyway.."

"I'm sorry what was that last part?"

"N-nothing Ms. Sparkle..." Alan said, a bit of sweat rolled down his head.

"… Okay then, let's just begin with the first test..." Twilight levitated some strange looking device, looking like a box that had a megaphone attached to a pipe that was welded onto it; "Now hold still Alan, I promise this won't hurt a bit.." As she aimed the cylindrical part of the device at Alan, she then pressed a button on the back of the device with her hoof, the cylindrical object attached to the pipe to move up and down as it seemed to scan him.

The device gave off sounds of whirs and clicks while the light shined down on Alan. Eventually though, upon finishing, the only sound it gave off was a buzzer-type noise.

"Interesting..." Twilight said as she levitated some paper and a pen over to herself and wrote some notes down.

"What did that sound mean?" Alan asked.

"It meant that you don't have magical energy within you, save for some possible traces from the cloaking spell, but that's it as far as I can tell..." Twilight shrugged her withers.

"Now, to begin the second test.."

---

Meanwhile, as Twilight's companions waited outside of the lab, Spike's belly growled.

"Wha-" Spike then belched out some green fire and what appeared to be a rolled up sheet of paper, causing the girls to look at the paper.

"What could Princess Celestia have sent this letter for?" Rarity asked.

Spike picked it up and unrolled the paper, after which he began reading it. Upon reading the entire thing, he then re-read it a second to make sure he didn't miss anything.

"She... She wants to see us as soon as we can make the trip!" Spike explained

"I-it's not a mission is it?" Fluttershy asked softly.

"It doesn't say, only that it's for something important.." Spike said.

"Oh! Maybe it's to help organize a party!" Pinkie said as she hopped up and down excitedly; "I could set up some Autumn themed decorations if she wants!"

"I don't wish to dash your hopes like this Pinkie, but I somehow doubt it's for a party... " Rarity said as she levitated the letter to herself, and put her glasses on to read it a bit closer.

"Awww.." Pinkie said as her hair and tail deflated.. Then immediately re-inflated; "Oh well! There's always next time~"

Rarity blinked at how quick Pinkie cheered right back up, once again proving just how much of an enigma she was.

"You can come in now!" Twilight called from her laboratory.

The three ponies and baby dragon at each other as they then walked towards the laboratory.

Author's Note:

*Do you readers know what that machine is? It's from the episode: "Feeling Pinkie Keen" , so if anyone knows the name of it, just tell me in the comments.
-

Man did this one take a while.

Anywho, once again, sorry for taking so long, life was getting in the way.. AGAIN..

Ugh.. I swear..
-

Anyway, next chapter, Alan'll more than likely meet Applejack and Rainbow Dash, which is good, because they're two of my favorite members of the Mane Six.. :D (The third is Pinkie Pie, just in case you're wondering..)

Hope you guys liked this chapter.

Comments

[APoeticHeart]

I hope Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would be welcoming to sweet little Alan. Also, I'm glad Twilight was calm and gentle with Alan while testing him. And Pinkie... Well, she was just being Pinkie.

[Fireydude]

5010408

Thanks! And hopefully I'll be able to write the next chapter when I get the chance..

[Trevor12300]

5010408 I came here for the comments says while wearing a Michael Jackson mask while eating popcorn jk Love the story and can't wait for the next chapter

[Fireydude]

5330716
XD

Thanks! Anyway, sorry I haven't updated, life's been getting in the way. I'll try to add another chapter when I get the chance.

[Trevor12300]

5330772 xD It's okay take all the time you need I know it isn't always easy to find time to write stories