Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

302 - Next Up

"Hey," came a rough voice through the thin door of the motel door. "Someone's callin' fer ya."

Silver began gathering his things rapidly. He stood up even as things floated in his magic, tucked away on the way out. "Was it a griffon?"

He poked his head out the door to see the motel manager had already left. With a huff, he hurried to their office. "Hey, was it the griffon?"

"What am I, yer mother?" The pony shrugged. "Was a lady though. Said the doc's ready fer ya or somethin'."

Ah ha. Silver turned for the street. "Thanks." He needed not a single further word from the pony, and left him to whatever he needed to get done. Crossing the street, he slowed. There were a few seedy characters around the door to the doctor's place. Gangsters? The ones she worked for? Rivals?

"Check out this guy." One of them had seen Silver. "We got royalty up in here."

Well, so much for considering alternatives. Silver pressed onwards, allowing a thin field of his magic to begin escaping. "Just a customer today." Smile, a friendly smile.

"Yeah?" All three of the ones waiting in front pushed off the front of the store, wielding clubs, two of them. The third was twirling a butterfly knife with quite good skill for doing it with their mouth, just to be passed to a hoof it stuck to in a fit of Equestrian magic. "Buddy, this ain't a place fer royals."

As physically menacing as they were, Silver figured they did not rate compared to others he had crashed into. "Fellas, I have an appointment with the nice doctor. We're just going to--" One of the ponies started at him with a club. His magic gathered around it, his field narrowing with a clench and wrenching it aside, taking the pony's head with it, the figure half-thrown to the ground. "--talk." He was still being nice, but no was not an answer he planned to accept.

The one with the knife narrowed his eyes. "How'd you do that?" Oh, he couldn't see unicorn magic glows? Pity on him.

"I'm moving past and having a nice talk. Don't stop me." He moved to do just that, his field washing over them, allowing him to feel exactly where they were, how they breathed, the beating of their hearts. A pity it didn't protect from the sharp pop and the intense pain that erupted from his side. His field informed him moments later that he had a foreign object embedded inside him. He'd been shot?!

A luminous shield sprang into being around him as his wings spread in a snap. A second pop, but the shield held strong. There wasn't a third. Perhaps intimidated by the lack of effect of the second shot? Silver advanced past the melee combatants that were gaping at him. He ignored the pain. He could worry about that... somewhere safer.

He opened the door. There was the secretary. "I have an appointment," he announced.

She raised a brow. "You're bleeding."

That was true. "I still have an appointment."

"You're mad." She was typing, as was her habit. "You still plan to be on your best?"

"I just want to talk." He willed the door shut behind himself. "Unlike your goons."

"They ain't mine, or the doctors'." She hiked a thumb, a thing griffons had. "Go through that door. She's waiting for your consultation."

"Thank you." Smile. He marched past her despite the pain of his wound. He could hear the door opening behind him, but he was already around the corner, marching towards what was hopefully a doctor.

It was a larger room, more of a warehouse than anything else, if you added arcane symbols drawn over most available surfaces. Wandering it was a pony with long hair that draped in all around her head, including in front of it. She blew it out of the way as she furiously scribbled at a chalkboard with a marker held in her magic. "Sit down," she ordered without turning. "Be with you in a moment."

So Silver did sit. A fine time to... dig out that little metal bit. That hurt, and he clenched his teeth, but at least magic was far better at that kinda thing than clumsy fingers in that case, floating the bit that didn't belong in him out and letting it clatter to the ground.

The unicorn turned at the sound, ears picked. "What?" She began approaching. "What happened?"

Silver decided in that instant that the doctor had no idea what happened, and likely no clue about the goons. "Good Evening, Fetlock. I've wanted to meet you." Smile, warm smile.

Fetlock inclined her head, a bit confused. "Good evening... Seriously, shouldn't you go to the hospital?"

Empathy, good, she had that. "I'll consider that afterwards. Fetlock, I am a human. Do you know what that is?"

Fetlock blew her mane out of the way. "Maybe..." Her eyes darted up and down over Silver's form from the front. "Are you here for some 'revenge'?"

"No." Silver smiled gently. "But I would like to know what you've been up to. Can you share?"

Fetlock raised a hoof and coiled so she could present her rump, and point at it. "This is my purpose."

Her mark was... a dark smudge? He tilted his head in confusion.

She rolled her eyes in reply. "It's an outline of a pony! It's where a pony should be, but isn't. I fill that hole." She sat down on her haunches. "And! I'm good at it, thank you."

Oh! Yes, he could see how it formed the outline of a pony from the side. "But you don't create something from nothing." Most spells didn't. They conjured from elsewhere, or transmuted. Only a few, generally difficult, spells created things wholecloth. "What are these missing ponies made of?"

She glanced away and back, needing to blow upwards to knock her mane out of the way. "I put out the call." She raised her hoof as if to amplify her voice. "And they reply."

"Who replies?" he gently pried, a little smile worn. "I'm not here to arrest you." He hoped. A little talk, maybe enough?

"You came for a consultation!" she suddenly pivoted on the topic. "What kind of pony is missing from your life?"

"The call... Did you make it?"

She looked nervous, suddenly very much so. "Yeah!" She didn't. She was lying, he felt certain. "So the missing pony?"

"Father." Silver's ear danced, a new voice in it. "I have a request." It was his adoptive daughter, speaking through her arcane technologies. "Please."

Silver sat up tall. "My daughter has the request." Of what, he had no idea... "Go ahead."

Samantha's voice grew louder, audible to the room, "Greetings, fellow doctor!"

Fetlock smiled, as if she could detect a fellow spirit, a kindred soul. "Hello, fellow doctor!" How she knew, Silver knew not, but the two seemed ready to accept one another. "How can I help you?"

"I... made a terrible mistake... We are terrible ponies in some ways."

Fetlock's ears fell at that. "Don't be so harsh on yourself. I feel certain you've made some amazing things."

"Oh, I have," crooned Samantha. "I'd love to share with you! But, um, right now let's focus. I have mastered many things, but I take terrible care of myself."

"I know that feeling." She puffed up air to blow her mane out of her eyes. "Who has time?"

"You understand." Samantha must have leaned in, her voice growing louder without being more forceful, as if she had leaned in on the mic. "But I didn't just hurt myself..."

"Tell me about it." Silver had a feeling that if the two were physically in the same room, some shoulder patting would be happening, but instead it was just him, serving as the speaker for Samantha. But what had happened? It was something he wanted to know too.

"I paid the karmic debt, I think? I am uncertain exactly how that functions, but I am unsatisfied."

"Don't even bother," gusted Fetlock. "It never works."

"I tried. I bred." Fetlock tilted her head, as confused as Silver in that moment. "I was bred. An egg had successfully been inseminated," further explained Samantha.

Fetlock looked increasingly uncertain. "Congratulations?"

"No congratulations are required." Samantha sighed over the link. "The foal never saw its zeroth birthday due to my neglect of myself. I killed it before it became a thing. I am still guilty about this... Father?"

"I'm here." He had never known this! "Are you alright?"

"No. It was guilt over that... It made me try too hard to save your child. A success!" Neither could see it, but could imagine a great, if brief, grin on Samantha's face. "And resulted in my ascension. Which just makes me feel more like I haven't... I still feel guilt. It was my fault, and what is in equal value to what I have taken?"

Fetlock inclined her head. "A tragic tale." She did sound like she genuinely thought that. "But how can I help? Do you want me to create a foal? I can do that, but we know nothing about yours. It would be a foal."

"Oh, well, I did save it."

Silver scrunched his eyes, imagining a jar somewhere with some little bloody splotch in it. "Samantha?! Seriously? Why?"

"Just in case. Doctor, can you work with that?"

Fetlock gave a soft hum of thought. "A biological imprint changes things, yes... I could use that to color the call, yes... yes!" She pumped a hoof, looking more and more excited. "This will be new, and exciting. Doctor, it would be a pleasure to work with you."

"Lovely." They could hear Samantha clop her hooves together. "I will arrive in twenty six hours and two minutes."

And it was quiet. Silver flicked an ear, but Samantha did not speak up again. "So... You have my order, but I still have questions, please?"

Fetlock waved it away. "You're obviously not here to stop me."

"While I'm happy you're relaxed, may I ask why?"

"It's not obvious?" Fetlock raised a brow, which let her mane fall for her to blow out of the way. "Your daughter would be very upset if you stopped me before I helped her."

Well... that was true... "So, your call, tell me about that?"

She grunted softly. "Ugh... The more details I can provide, the more likely I get a good match. The best matches arrive wearing the skin and soul of the replacement pony and live out their lives happily as that pony."

"And the worst?" he prodded curiously, a half-smile worn.

"They arrive as confused humans..." Fetlock shrugged. "But they agreed. They had to, or they wouldn't be here. They can't escape, they just fall in slower. Some put on quite... the display. They start as humans, but they fill that hole."

Silver thought back to his human self. He had filled a hole in Equestria, though Fetlock had clearly not been involved.

Oh. That adorable mare. She... "You're a Text."

"What?" She squinted at Silver baffedly. "I'm a pony, a unicorn to be specific."

How to explain that. "You offer a chance of escape, of starting a new life. You set the terms. If they didn't want to be there, they could resist at the start, the very start." Silver clopped a hoof down on the cement floor. "But not long after that, they're 'falling in the hole', as you said. It's just a matter of what angle they take on the way down."

Fetlock shrugged softly. "Sure, yeah. So I put out the call, they come, and I fill in the hole. Happy?"

"No, but yes." He reached for her as she watched him guardedly, but he didn't attack, instead gently parting her mane, a rubber band escaping his saddlebag and soon binding the mane in a bun out of her vision. "There you are."

Fetlock blinked, her vision entirely free of her mane. "You are an experienced father to us," admitted the mad scientist, perhaps a little jealous of her kin. "Now go away. Come back when your daughter is here."

Author's Note:

I do wonder how many readers out of the total figured out what happened to Samantha, those maaany chapters ago. She did tell you about it. I do hope that puts some things in focus.

Want to see these chapters early? Sign up at my atreon!

Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Silvers got two mad scientists happy with him?

No ship Fetlock?

[Morphy]

10845477

It would be a bit of a leap to take simple acts of kindness and turn it into love or mere infatuation, but some ships have started over less I suppose.

I do wonder what the thugs outside are all about however. Clubs and a knife? Shooting an alicorn? (I assume it's a silenced gun) Seriously? You don't annoy someone who can turn you inside-out with an angry thought.

[Booster Spice]

10845521

Someone really wasnt thinking at all.,

Imagine the consequences if they had been succesful.

[Well Geboren]

This stories so old, that almost each chapter I get surprised by something that hadn't caught my mind, I'm looking forward to these new turn of events.

[Morphy]

10845546

I'd hope it would take a lot more than a bunch of armed thugs to take down an alicorn. The gun(?) worries me however. When did that tech appear? Tho, I suppose it could be some magical based gizmo like a railgun or enhanced blowgun so anyone can use it while also being nearly silent.

[harts fire]

to be honest i had forgot about Samantha and how hard she has tryed to be happy and yet it has remained just out of her reach.
and as to Fetlock "You're a Text." this never even crossed my mind. this is going to be good as to how this all plays out.