Chapter 3: Healing
I was sitting in a soft, overstuffed couch, with a bowl of popcorn in my lap. My hand was resting on the neck of a midnight-blue unicorn. A television in front of us was playing a movie. Inception. Her horn glowed blue. Several kernels of popcorn floated from the bowl to her mouth.
"Hello, Gus," she said to me. Her fur was warm and soft under my hand. "I am Princess Luna. My sister asked me to aid you."
I recategorized 'unicorn' to 'alicorn.' I stroked her neck. The sensation was pleasant. "I need aid?"
She mmmmed quietly. I could tell it was contemplative, not a reaction to being petted, though she enjoyed that too. I didn't feel any great insight; I was simply aware of her reactions as though they were hovering in gold letters over her head.
"I fear you do," she said at last. "My sister sent word to me from Ponyville Hospital. She is with you there still."
"Still?" I asked.
"Dreams are my realm, Gus," she told me. "This is one of them. Your memories gave this place its shape. I must stay with you while Celestia does her work, and then she can return to you while I do mine."
I watched a top spinning on the screen. It spun on and on. "Do visitors often gain the personal attention of both rulers of Equestria?" I asked. If I was dreaming, I should be able to dream what I want. I tried to dream of being whole again, but nothing seemed to change.
Luna saw the attempt and looked up to give me a sad smile. Even if I couldn't feel it, even if it was dream-certainty, being able to recognize expressions was welcome. "Some do. Most of those come to face our horns and hooves. I do not remember the last time we came together to heal."
A thought came to mind. "Celestia controls the sun. Her work would be setting the sun. It was afternoon when she came to see me."
"Yes. It was. And now she is doing her royal duty, and then she will return to the task of healing you." Her wing extended and rested against my back. It was the softest thing I had ever felt. I set my hand on her feathers. She made a small sound, and I abruptly knew in crisp, clinical detail that she was desperately lonely and afraid, that casual physical contact was a rare and valuable treasure to her. I kept my hand there.
"I was feeling much better," I said.
"Sometimes a barb does not hurt when it stays quietly in place," Princess Luna responded quietly. "But one must bear the wound that comes with pulling it out, lest it fester unseen." She was wearing a helmet I hadn't noticed before, or perhaps it had materialized. I was dreaming, after all. I moved my hand up and lifted it from her head. She twitched, startled, and looked up at me.
I looked at the helmet. Blue metal, with a long nose guard, a hole for her horn, and a space in the back for her mane to spill through. I heard music. I recognized it. I always liked the Lion King. I sang along. It seemed like the right thing to do. Dream logic.
"Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars."
I tossed the helmet aside. It was gone before it hit the ground. Luna was looking up at me.
"This is not how I intended this dream to go," she said. "My past is not what you need to concern yourself with now."
I set my hand on her neck again. "Am I dying?" I asked.
"No!" she exclaimed, and began to rear. The overstuffed couch absorbed her movement, though, and she settled. "No," she repeated. "Celestia is healing you. There were... terrible things done to you, Gus. You have our word, we will not let you suffer from them any longer. Nopony should."
"Will I be fixed when she's done?"
Luna lowered her head and closed her eyes. "I do not know. You will be free of... that mark. And of what it was doing. What effects it may have already had on you, I cannot say, nor what wounds you suffered before you bore it. We will do all that our powers can."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because nopony else can, and because..." She looked to the floor where I had tossed the helmet, but nothing appeared. "... because if we did not, we would not be fit to have our little ponies follow us."
We watched the rest of the movie quietly together. It was much better than numbers and pain. Then The Last Unicorn. Luna tried not to let me see her cry for poor Amalthea.
***
The sun was rising when I awoke. I could see exactly how. Princess Celestia was still in my hospital room, facing the window, her horn glowing golden. That pink mane and tail had changed colors; they were the flowing ethereal colors of the sunrise.
My vision receded, as though staring down a long tube. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and my body refused to move. All I could see was that mane. I could not make my eyes so much as blink.
It is a distinctly absurd situation to realize that you are simultaneously terrified into paralysis and completely unaffected at the same time.
The mane moved. "Gus!" she said, and that shifting field of color abruptly returned to pinkness. I could move again. I could not identify the emotion in her voice. I had begun to grow accustomed to recognizing those again, in Luna's dream.
"How am I doing?" I asked. I lifted a hand and touched the side of my head. A thick bandage was taped in place there.
"You are safe," she said. "What was done to you was monstrous, and I do not know all of the effects it was meant to have. That mark ran deep, but I have taken it from you and scattered it on the morning light. They will not have you again."
"Who?" I asked. A logical question. It would be a very bad idea to go back to someone who likes burning manacles and screwing things into your ribs.
"The ones who had you," was her response. Vague and uninformative. "They knew where you were, and now they know I have placed you under my protection. I will not speak of them further and you will not ask."
Phrased as a factual statement. I noted that tone of voice as 'royal command' for future reference. "Yes, your highness," I agreed.
I was unable to so readily translate the look she gave me. Approval for using the right protocol to speak to a princess? Annoyance and assuming I was being sarcastic? I recalled Luna's loneliness and wondered if Celestia was unhappy to be reminded of her high station. But I didn't ask.
"I will take your advice, Gus," she told me. "Two of my guards, two of Luna's, to watch over you while you heal and then afterward, until you are confident in your own harmlessness. My student, Twilight Sparkle, will report to me on your progress. If you need to contact me, she will be able to help you. Please, Gus, if you have even the slightest thought that your condition is growing worse, inform me immediately."
She yawned hugely and raised a hoof to her mouth. "Ah... Excuse me, Gus. I have grown out of practice with working through the night, and the court will be busy today. I have to return to Canterlot."
"Travel safely, your highness," I told her.
She smiled at me. I failed to figure out what kind of smile. "Remember, Gus. If anything changes, tell me. I will do all I can to help." She paused, then added, "I will not hurt you. I promise you, I will not hurt you."
She was very fixated on reassuring me. A result of her experience with Lero, clearly. "I'm not afraid, Princess. I can't be," I told her. She gave me a different smile, slightly wider, and ducked her head to pass through the door.
***
A guard pony in golden armor came in and sat in the corner shortly thereafter. He introduced himself as Solid Stalwart, and that was all. Nurse Redheart and Doctor Vital Signs checked on me repeatedly all morning long. Looking at it from their perspective, I could understand why they would be professionally interested in the case. An alien being with a strange injury who spent the entire previous evening and night being treated by their princess, who herself was powerful enough to raise and lower the sun itself in a matter of minutes. I would have been interested myself if I could have been.
Lero visited for lunch. He brought with him a lavender unicorn with a six-pointed star on her rear, both sides, and introduced her as Twilight Sparkle, his wife and Princess Celestia's personal student. He also brought lunch and jokes about hospital food being a constant across worlds. The rubbery eggs and overcooked pancakes I'd had for breakfast supported that hypothesis. He had some sort of fried fish sandwiches, and they were delicious, whether or not I enjoyed them. The unicorn had a daisy sandwich instead. We talked.
"That was Zecora who found you," Twilight Sparkle said. "She lives in the Everfree Forest, which is also where Fluttershy found Lero, so it's not really surprising it was her."
"I should thank her," I said. A lifetime of habitual manners doesn't go away.
"She'd appreciate that," Twilight confirmed. "She used to be, um, misunderstood in town."
"I had a professor like that," I said. "A really nice guy, but socially inept. He was always surprised when someone thanked him for just about anything. It always made his day."
Twilight said something rapidly, her eyes widening. I held up a hand. "Slower, please. I can't understand when you talk quickly."
She continued to talk quickly for a moment, and then Lero swatted her on the rear. She let out a very equine snort and reared back, presumably in surprise.
"Slower," he told her.
She blushed. I tried to figure out how she managed to do that when her face was covered in fur. The optics of it just didn't make any sense.
"You had a professor?" she said, slowly and distinctly. "You were a student at a college?"
I nodded. "Before the accident. I had almost finished. I was able to graduate later. I think it was a year later. It might have been more."
She was leaning in toward me, her eyes seeming to sparkle. Maybe that was where her name came from. "What sorts of things did you study? How do human colleges work?" And then she was off again, rattling off questions faster than I could understand her words.
Lero laughed and pulled her back against himself, hugging her until she noticed I wasn't answering, and then she blushed again. "Twilight, you've been hanging around Pinkie Pie too much lately," he said.
With names like 'Twilight Sparkle,' 'Redheart' and 'Vital Signs' already introduced to me, it was easy to pick out 'Pinkie Pie' as a name. I assumed she'd be pink. "I don't mind," I said, and it was of course true. "I don't have any vital appointments to keep."
Twilight took a deep breath and nodded her head. Lero released his grip on her. "Okay. So. First question. Oh! Wait. Let me get Spike so he can take proper notes!"
Lero laughed. "This isn't a research paper, Twilight. We're helping Gus adjust."
Twilight stamped a hoof. "It can be both!" she insisted, then added, "Fine, I'll write it myself." A quill, an inkpot, and a piece of paper materialized in a purple glowing field in midair.
"Did you teleport those, or create them?" I asked without thinking. It could have been reflexive, or perhaps I have some emotional responses after all, ones I can't feel, but can be influenced by? That would be another promising sign. Having the calm of a Zen master wasn't a bad thing, but it wasn't who I was.
"Oh, I teleported them from home, but how do you know about teleporting? Lero," and she was talking too fast again.
Lero held up a finger. Twilight trailed off. "We didn't have it, but we had thought of it," he told her, enunciating exaggeratedly and slowly.
Twilight cleared her throat. "Oh. I see. So. First question. Or first question from me, since you asked the first question... or, first question I meant to ask before asking how you knew about teleportation. You were a student. What did you study?"
"Mechanical engineering, by way of physics and math."
Her eyes did that sparkling thing again. I watched more closely. It was an actual physical effect, not an expression. She didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"Math and physics and engineering?" she squealed. "You know all of those? What's e to the i pi?"
"Negative one," I answered. "Euler's identity."
"You mean Muler's," she said, then went on. "How do telephones work? How do you make your electricity without lightning bolts? What makes your weather work?"
"Which one first?" I asked.
Trying to answer all of Twilight Sparkle's questions proved exhausting. Magical or not, healing had depleted my bodily reserves, and I have no idea what kind of strain my injured brain was under. I fell asleep while trying to remember whether Snell's Law used thetas or sigmas. I knew what the law meant just fine, I just couldn't remember which symbol was used to express it.
***
The next few days passed quickly. I don't think I could have been bored even if I'd spend the week sitting quietly staring at the wall, but Twilight Sparkle's constant hunger for information about human science kept me constantly thinking, recalling formulas and explaining how various devices worked.
Such as the sun.
Lero halted the conversation at that one.
"Twilight, wait. Please. Gus, stop. Twilight. Wait. I didn't do a lot of science classes, but I know that how the sun works leads to some very dangerous stuff."
Twilight blinked at him. "Dangerous? Come on, Lero, how can the sun be dangerous? Unless you stand out in it too long and get a sunburn, or if you got Celestia reeeeeally mad."
Lero quietly said, "Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
I was about to correct him, since those were fission bombs, not fusion, but Twilight gasped. "Horshoema? But... an accident like that... you don't have magic in your world, how could..." She trailed off, then started anew. "You learned how to do that. Yourselves. Without magic. And then did it again." She shuddered very visibly. "And Gus. You actually know how to do that?" She didn't give me time to respond before she continued. "I have never before said these words and I hope never to do it again, but please, please, don't teach me that. I don't want to know. I like Ponyville where it is. No questions about the sun. Question withdrawn."
"Orbital mechanics is safe," I said.
And it was back to numbers again. Starting with Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, the shortcomings thereof, and off into a discussion about the meaning of G. I couldn't remember what the value was, let alone how it was calculated, and Twilight was clearly putting together a connection between gravity and magic. Then she demonstrated a gravity-reversal spell.
Numbers and pain. I could almost touch the numbers. Like a stereogram, watching form emerge from seeming chaos, but not seeing. Something else. Some other sense. Something...
Magical.
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While I appreciate the effort you put into making these pony puns, I am obligated to tell you that it's pronounced "oiler" rather "ooler"
Splendid work, as usual.
I think Gus can see magic like Neo sees the world in the later Matrix movies.
The atomic bomb stuff came out of left field. Just saying. No, really, don't.
2857304
Caught me. I cheated a little bit since it *looks* like it works.
2857313
I wanted to make sure I ruled out certain fields early. Spoiler: Twilight Sparkle is NOT going to become a nuclear power. That's more in the Fallout: Equestria line of things, anyhow.
A broken mind by Pantoja on DA
Link:http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs30/i/2008/078/6/a/Broken_Mind_by_Pantoja.jpg
fc09.deviantart.net/fs30/i/2008/078/6/a/Broken_Mind_by_Pantoja.jpg
2857305
Advanced physics and certain theorists suggest that the most basic and pure form of the universe would reveal that everything is binary.
Trippy stuff.
2857366
Nuclear physics wasn't remotely anywhere on my list of 'Things Twilight Wants to Ask our Human Buddy'. It'd be like having a disclaimer at the beginning of a slasher movie that says 'the titular slasher will not study Peruvian hymns', or something. I mean no offense, honest, it's just so random and, like my favorite game series Metal Gear, kinda dumb. I will have to admit that there's always a remote possibility that someone can explode something so catastrophically that it could level a metropolitan area, but my point still stands.
2857373
Oooh, interesting pic. Though that's definitely a woman in that one; if it's reflecting Gus, it'd need to be otherwise. But that's a good representation.
2857403
Given her relationship with a sun-goddess and knowing that Lero's world doesn't have magic, I'd think that 'how does the sun work?' would be one of the first things Twilight would be interested in. And one of the first things that she should be diverted from just in case she would develop an urge to experiment with.
2857407
Yeah that's the only problem I see with it as well. Oddly enough that's a first page pull from googling "broken mind". If I had the time I'd look for more, but sadly I'm at work at the moment.
2857417
Most writers focus on the sun not being controlled, rather than the perpetual fusion reactions keeping it alive. I just never figured Twilight would try to create her own sun, like Father from FMA.
wonder how he'll deal with pinkie
the destroyer of physics!
Well, this is an interesting character. Think it's the first time I've come across a human OC that can't feel emotions.
Like several others, I can't wait to see how he deals with Pinkie.
A much different take on the Xenoverse. I like it. Keep it up.
It keeps becoming more and more intriguing! I can't wait to read the next part!
'Horseoshima' was obviously an attempt to make an artificial sun (a fusion reactor, in other words) using magical means, likely for the purpose of power generation. Naturally, it went out of control and I find it unlikely there's anything left but a crater. We had slightly less benign motives but we've got very good at generating high-energy explosions along the way. I can understand why Lero wants that knowledge suppressed because ponies, for whatever reason, seem somewhat naive about things like that.
2858339
I bet Twilight would be fucking mortified to learn that what we did was not only in war, but we did it twice. Then stockpiled enough to turn the planet into cosmic debris.
2858898
867-5309.
filmtransitions.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/matrix.jpg
So I am to begin with I DISLIKE XENOPHILIA.
Alright, with that done I can say, I LIKE THIS STORY.
But not as I wish to.
The things showed, the description made, as well as accuracy of the way the character itself is, makes me happy to read and think. The way he reacts, or in this case doesn't, brings he very basic thing of how thing actually are to light in such a way that it is entirely LOGICAL, it makes sense, all of it. Even if it's in the same universe as Xenophilia. This I can actually read without wanting to gore my eyes out.
But I have to ask, due to his unemotional basis and 100% logical which is still influenced by emotion in a basic level. Why the infinite trust? Not even ONE thought of logic out of the box pace! Only a wish fulfillment straight line that comes from the XenoLero universe. I am dissapointed by that, but maybe it has a reason. I hope it does at least.
I mean he does the ONE THING anyone with a brain into logic would NOT do. Which is explain things that are NOT involved in the actual problem the person himself is going through WITHOUT actual TRUST or actual KNOWLEDGE of the people, or in this case ponies, he is speaking to. He meets one guy, and takes his word due to what he can observe and feel.
No infinite trust there still.
Emotion and fear could be the answer, in which he would give information to feel useful and give back some of the 'generosity' he's receiving. But that's not the case. Not at all. That's actually the point that makes this character interesting. You started him on that basis, even if we haven't read why he's injured or in Equestria n the first place.
But the point is. I'll read. But not in the light I once began to see it. I once saw it with a potential light, but this has moved it to a specific road. And all that is left to do is see how it gets there.
Will read, not as I hoped to.
I can't add you to The Good HIE List until I get more approvals, I'll see what this has to get to.
Prediction: Twilight Sparkle brings phones to Equestria!
Shame, One of the first things I want to tell the ponies if I ever landed in equestria would be how our solar system works.
Now I have a new one, Nukes, And our undying love of being able to obliterate each other at a moments notice.
Also Horshoema seems more like a recreation of Chernobyl combined with the Testing of the A-bomb (ass-bomb lol).
Shame you didn't delve into it more, I love it when Humans accidentally horrify ponies and don't notice it as being off.
2859381
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6zxE1GJqQ
2857646
"That's not scientifically possible. You're not scientifically possible."
2859478
I think Lero's been around the ponies long enough to know when they would be unhappy to hear some things. He's not exactly going around telling WWII stories. Thus why he would be quick to cut some things short.
2859381 actually i don't remember which episode but it shows a telephone in Rarity's house/boutique
also
i.imgur.com/1soDlQl.jpg
and for the author
t.qkme.me/3uhcom.jpg
2859186
It's with noting that in actual medical cases where people were rendered unable to have feelings due to brain injury, they tended to be very trusting/gulible, because the basis of not being so (suspicion) is an emotion. He lacks any internal context to judge trustworthiness.
2858442
Actually, no, we don't. Even at our peak of nuclear readiness, we lacked he firepower to physically annihilate the planet. Scour its surface of all but the hardiest microorganisms? Oh, my, yes.
2859186
Well, I'm glad you like this so far! As for the question of Gus being too trusting, I have a rather different take on the matter (as the story presumably reflects).
First, Gus has spent the last indeterminate period of time in an environment where communication of any sort is an intense challenge and most of the people he interacts with are actively trying to help him. This tends to create trust as a habit, and to make him rusty at the actual social mechanic of being anything but as clear and open as possible, because he had to be as clear as he could to get anything across..
Second, if there's nothing you fear, then you aren't afraid to be honest.
Third, well... you'll see.
2860456
I deny that this exist, It must be hobolglomy!
There are a few points where you write 'vital Signs' instead of 'Vital Signs'.
A pretty minor thing, but a fic as nice as this shouldn't have silly typos.
Gus kinda reminds me of Maytag from the webcomic Flipside.
2861131
First, I understand, it's painful and stupid, but I still wish he gets to that in some point. He's still actually smart unless you decided to give him a dose of wish-fulfillment and stupidity like Lero in Xenophilia.
Second, never had a issue with being honest, had an issue with him never going into an issue that is logical, as I read, he asks who almost kills him, so I deduced that he would ask other questions in that category, but I can see that the trust thing as said by 2860671, here. Is quite the ignorance maker.
Third, of course you had to make foreshadowing.
And even tho you will never really do it due to your story basing itself in another, I was going to ask that if in some point in the future, that I hope but not really sure that will ever come, will the only smart person in the story actually destroy Lero's ignorance and illusion like way of seeing things or acts, not humanly or logically? or at least state it? Or mentally describe it?
I just... disliked the HELL out of Xeno. Not for the clop, that has a special place in what I call my own personal hell, but the character and his reasoning.
Fudge.
2861621
Why, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure if you review the story any time since the last minute or so, you won't find any such egregious typos at all.
2862745
...Huh.
Must have been my imagination. Carry on.
2858339
She did mention something to the effect of "...Or Celestia getting really mad."
I would guess there have been times when Twilight has seen pictures of instances where Celestia used her powers of the sun to "remove" threats to her little ponies. "Sol Invictus" is the most common Fanon name for this spell I believe.
I am sure the Griffon Kingdoms are well acquainted with this spell by now...
Bad luck for the Neighponese to accidentally recreate that trying to make power for peaceful uses.
That's actually really, really too bad that Twilight allowed her fear to overcome her curiosity. Nuclear energy is an incredible power source, particularly fusion. As a matter of fact, a proper mixture of magic and technology might be able to harness it far better than technology alone.
There's no reason why she would be that utterly horrified by it, either. It's a well-known part of their history, and she went over enough human history with Lero in the original stories (including wars and atrocities) to have realized that almost every event in our history (both positive and negative) has a close counterpart in theirs.
That's part of what made the original setting so incredible... it assumed and worked off of a culture that had a full and complex history, not much different in scale than our own. None of that "cutesy, cartoony, innocent ponies can't handle the truth" baloney.
Rainbow Dash's response to being told about some of the ancient wars and slaughters of our history was essentially "Huh... that's neat. That sounds a lot like these wars and slaughters we had in our history. Only, not as bad in some ways and worse in others."
Not "Gasp! Oh god! How could they?! Speak no more of it!"
Can fear not be emotional, but also logical?
2917241
Yes and no. Fear, by definition, is an emotion. It is caused by the understanding of Things That Are Bad while being in the presence of such things. If one does not comprehend, that does not result in fear. (Unless it's a Lovecraftian horror, but that's one of those things which is supernatural.) But that doesn't stop fear from being an irrational response to logical knowledge, like a fear of heights or fear of flying despite sufficient safety measures.
2860694
Thank you, you saved me the trouble of saying it.
That said, I'm not sure even your reduced version is right. A careful carpet bombing of the planet might have been able to kill off all large-scale life on the surface land, but that's a lot more limited. Anything in a sufficiently deep cave, mine, subbasement, subway tunnel, etc., would have survived, as would of course basically all ocean (and almost all lake) life. The radiation, and the subsequent ecological collapse, might have killed off most of whatever was left of land life, but I doubt it'd be everything (cockroaches are the cliche, but I'd also bet on rats), and it would barely affect ocean life at all.
Then there's the fact that none of the actual strategic deployments ever contemplated would have done anything like that--kill a few hundred million people, sure, and probably drive a few species extinct by accident, but it's not like anyone was ever planning on nuking the Amazon rainforest.
Of course, there was the cobalt bomb....
Also,
Not hardly. How do you think kinetic bombardment works?
...
That hast to be one of the saddest things I have ever read.
2857646
Might be a bit late to the party, but as Pinkie sees the world from all points of view; would that not include his. Giving him someone he can actually communicate with emotionally even if he himself doesn't realize it.
2917241
Fear can be non emotional.
A simple preference not to have a specific thing happen, and reacting so as to avoid that thing occurring could be construed as a reaction in fear of an outcome.
While not conventional fear (or instinctual fear), it is a form of fear, and it's effects could even cause one to act differently or more hastily (just without expressing emotion while doing so, and you would continue to process things through logic).
3088034
Fear in that context does not necessarily require emotion.
Fear can be caused by understanding that you do not desire an outcome, and reacting in a manner to avoid said outcome.
And that could be done entirely without emotion.
I love this.
When a pony realizes that humans didn't accidentally unleash insanely powerful destructive forces, but that they went to great lengths to teach themselves how to devastate an area with such unbridled fury... and then we did it again.
Humans are fully capable of love, but anything we put our minds to killing, we will find a way to kill.
Humans are the embodiment of the term "apex predator".
)
(And I love seeing ponies realize that it's a terrible idea to piss one off.
It is a horible thing to waste life and this reminded me that we have the technology to protect and abliterate everything and everyone whith the push of a button (meteforicly speacking on the button part)
So... it's Gus's subconscious putting Inception on the screen inside a dream. That's... kind of brilliant
A mindscape doesn't change your thought patterns, Gus...
Well now. Celestia seemed to have healed his ability to recognize body language a bit too well
He must have a crazy good memory to memorize entire movies.
Interesting...
Maybe his dream-attempt to be whole did work in some way, then? But only inside the dream
Inquisitiveness is a terrible thing to lose
Okay. Now that was obviously and very deliberately a joke
Excess magic reacting to emotional state. It's a common sight, and not just in unicorns
BLASPHEMY! BURN THE NON-BELIEVER! Safe, you say?
He has... a sense for picking up magic?