93 - Recovery
"Did he-" Penny was with Jen, trying to help the girl get cleaned up.
"No, I… I was unconscious a while though, I think…" Jen looked suddenly shocked, then down at her body.
"I hate to say it, but don't clean up yet." Penny sighed and reached a hoof up to Jenny. The mare was suddenly pulled into a tight hug and had a sobbing woman in her arms. It was beyond what the mare had any experience with, but she relied on one thing to pull them both through. She hugged back and held Jen.
The door behind them opened and the four hooves clopping on the floor meant that Jen didn't jump too much. "I am told you need a doctor to examine the uh, human?" It was not a pony either of them knew, which was part reassuring and part not. Somepony had been clear-headed enough to make sure it was a mare who saw Genevieve.
"Yeah, please, come in." Penny didn't leave Jen's arms. "Jen doesn't think he did anything but she was unconscious a while…" The words, the same Jenny had used, made the human tremble a little.
"Okay then, please, lay back and let me… check." The mare was clearly not liking this, it wasn't what she had signed on for. She was meant to help ponies, not give bad news.
Penny let go only so much as to help Jen lay back on the floor. She lay down at Jen's side. Penny felt every time the mare had to touch the woman, Jen would squeeze tighter but in the end they heard the best news. "There is no sign he… did anything. No bruising there. As for these other wounds…" The mare fished around in her little pack of supplies and drew out some pills. "These will help relax and get your body focused on healing."
"Thank you." Penny gave the doctor as much smile as she could muster under the circumstances. The mare left without any further discussion. "Can you get into the bath on your own?"
"I… I can." Jen felt relief. Bruises were the worst of her physical wounds, but she still felt… betrayed. She came to Equestria and felt safe, she had found a little love for herself and was working doing what she loved. Then another human did this. "Penny," the mare perked up, rising with Jen as the woman climbed slowly into the bath, "is it wrong that humans are here? I can't help but… but feel that this world will be tainted by us."
Penny stepped into the bath of warm water with Jen, relaxing a little as the water took some of the weight of her pregnancy from her muscles. "You really think it is that direction?"
The words startled Jen out of her fugue. "What do you mean?"
"Look at me, I was human, about as human as they come. I had little problems, and big ones. This world seeped into every part of me, it has crowded out not only the little things that I cropped up, but it has changed me in a way that I can't consider myself human-in-a-pony-body, I am a pony." Penny smiled at Jen.
"Well, for you…"
"Not just me. Look at what you have going on. You have an adorable stallion who would follow you anywhere. You have a job illustrating for pony books. You have friends and a whole life that could be lived without a single human intruding on it. But one did." Penny levitated a brush over, a soft one, and started working on cleaning her friend. Jen was still mostly clothed, the human things she had been over-wearing now torn and ruined in places. She began to remove them, most of her self-consciousness lost, particularly when just around 'ponies'.
"Yeah, he did." Jen thought on that. Was she becoming more and more pony, at least in her head?
"And think on him. You have been here what, a few weeks, you have a life, a love and friends. He had… barely found the same job he did back on Earth, likely living the same way he had. He brought humanity with him rather than setting it aside." Penny frowned a little at the bruises she found, working carefully around them. "Take one of those pills, pony medicine is… odd, but effective."
They sat in silence for a while, Penny working to clean up her friend. The ruined clothing made her frown though. "We need to get you some clothes." There was none of her embarrassment at seeing Jenny naked, the human had fitted firmly into 'friend' territory for Penny and, although she could admit the woman looked good, she wasn't going to think about a human like 'that'.
Genevieve nodded and looked around when a soft knock came from the bathroom door. Hay poked her head in. "Something wrong?" She looked to Penny.
"Just we need some clothes for Jen, anything warm will do, even just a few soft blankets." Penny looked to Jen and got a nod from her.
"Okay." Hay closed the door again.
"Thank you, Penny." Jen reached a hand out and rubbed at the mare's ears, without thinking about it too much.
Penny did blush at that, fingers were something she definitely saw an advantage in having and Jen's were quite good at finding the sensitive spots around ears. A little too good. But it was worth it, to put up with feeling a touch uncomfortable if it helped Jenny relax.
"These do?" Hay slipped in, closing the door behind her. She had a stack of assorted blankets floating beside her. She spotted Penny, struggling to not relax into the gentle rubbing at her ears and gave a giggle.
"What's funny?" Jenny sounded more confused than upset.
"Look at her." Hay raised a hoof and pointed at Penny.
Jen giggled too.
"What?" Penny blushed at the attention, and worse, the fingers working double-time now. "Ugh I swear, never tell anyone what gets you hot and bothered." She huffed a little, but this only got more teasing from those fingers.
"Enough, now you have worked the poor filly up and I just bet you won't be the one to calm her back down." Hay started to lift Jenny, with a visible… to the human, grip of magic.
Jen clung to the yellow-green force and let it lift her up. Hay held her there while a warm wave flowed down the human, making her shiver as it brushed not only the sore bruises, but other places. "Okay, that is the oddest way to dry off I have ever felt. Would Sablee know that trick?"
Penny giggled at this. "It is a basic spell, I highly suggest you invite him to a private bath and ask him to dry you… a lot."
Jenny blushed, liking that the talk was distracting her from the soreness and memory of what had happened. "What happened?"
The words fell on the two mares, neither had actually seen everything, but the little they had heard was not something to share yet. "Uh, lets let Stick explain it, she was right in the middle of it." Penny looked a little upset about something.
"Stick?" Jenny wrapped a thick, soft blanket around herself and shook a little in it. "This is nice, okay, where is she?"
"Just outside, last I saw." Hay pointed to the door with a hoof. "You ready to go out?"
Genevieve looked down, closed her eyes and ran through a physical checklist first. Sore bruises, check. Rope burns on her wrist and ankles, quadruple check. Headache from being kicked… check. Mental checklist. She was alive, yay and check. Her friends saved her and were safe, more yay and also check. Sablee wasn't hurt apart from a minor head injury, very yay. "Okay, yeah I think I am ready."
Hay opened the door and left first, leaving it open. Penny moved beside Genevieve, feeling a hand press down at her withers. Penny moved with Jen, the pair leaving the safety of the bathroom.
Sablee was the first thing Jen saw, and it broke her heart to see him looking so sad and worried. She almost dropped the blanket as she ran over to him and wrapped her arms around the stallion. No words were said, none were needed.
Celestia was standing in the guest room of the castle they had been settled in to get things under control. "This both worries and reassures me." The princess was looking at the human and pony embracing. "I am given witness to the less desirable traits of humanity, and their best, at the same time." A pure white wing reached out and pressed to Penny's side, providing stark contrast to the lunar unicorn and comfort at the same time.
Penny saw as another reached out to Stick, Celestia drawing them together, to Hay's sides. Stick looked spellbound, her eyes wide as she gazed up at Celestia.
"My ponies, you are such a mix of tribes that your wedding gives me more hope than ever that everypony can live together in peace and friendship. But we have a problem, Penny, I need you to come with me, to make sure Brad has no more tricks like that… pistol?" Celestia sounded a little unsure of the last word, saying it seemed to leave a distasteful feeling in her mouth.
Penny nodded. "I doubt he would have another, but you are right, better to be safe than sorry."
"Might it be a good idea to check all new arrivals for those kinds of things?" Hay's question was a serious one but Penny frowned a little.
"Some would see that as trying to take away their right to defend themselves." The lunar pony gave a deep sigh. "It would provoke some to using any such weapons more surely than actually attacking them."
"Your world is truly that violent?" Celestia drew her wings back slowly, but not before trailing the tips of one over Penny's belly. She wasn't wearing a dress today and the bump in her midsection was obvious. "If Silver Watch wasn't off duty, he would be asked to do this check for me, I dislike asking a pregnant mare to visit a prisoner." Celestia wasn't sure whether the thought of having to ask Penny was what put the unhappy curl to the corner of her mouth, or that she had a prisoner.
"Stick's shield could stop those bullets-" Penny looked to her mate, leaning over to nuzzle the brave changeling, but was cut off.
"My shield will be just as good, I hope?" Celestia had her smile back, it spoke well of Penny that the mare could so easily turn her mood for the better.
"Oh! Sorry, yes of course, I didn't mea-" Penny blushed hard, the brightness showing up through her dark fur.
"Boop." Celestia used a hoof to poke the mare on the nose. "Come on, lets handle that and leave these two to their reunion." She trailed a wing over Hay and Stick, marveling that one changeling had spent so long in her city without her notice and that another was acting so well in the defense of her ponies. Her decision to let the changeling hive grow in Canterlot was, she reflected, a very good one.
Penny was shocked a little, wondering if Princess Celestia really had booped her on the nose. "Oh, coming!" She followed after the princess.
"Did the princess really just boop Penny?" Hay turned to Stick, getting her own boop from the changeling and a giggle.
Penny looked at the human… at Bradly. She had a whole mess of questions, but something really shocked her. The first thing she felt was sadness, for him. "Really not a human anymore…"
"You?" Celestia looked down to Penny. "You just worked that out?"
The candid talk from the princess and co-ruler of the realm was reassuring to Penny. "No, I mean inside. I… if I was a human, when I was a human, I would have gotten angry at this, angry at Brad FOR Genevieve."
"And now? What do you feel as a pony?" A wing brushed Penny's back. Celestia was quite surprised in this little mare, she certainly proved that maybe allowing more humans to become ponies might not be so terrible.
"I feel sorry for him. He has done something wrong, he needs to learn why what he did was wrong so he won't do it again, but I guess some part of me wants to know if there is a reason he did it, not to punish him and rub his nose in it, but to help him get past it." Penny could see the shimmering shield that Princess Celestia had put around them, likely keeping their conversation from reaching Brad.
Celestia smiled and drew her wing back from Penny. "You were right." She stepped forward, the cell-door opening.
"Right about?" Penny quickly moved to follow, although Celestia's shield easily stretched to accommodate her.
"You are thinking like a pony."
Stats
Page generated in 0.043 seconds
Total duration
1,022 users online
2,120,942 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Assault, foalnapping, and attempted Sexual Battery... precedent says he'll get community service.
7060194 Wait, I might need to reread what I wrote, didn't they specifically make sure she wasn't sexually assaulted?
7060209 No, wait... you're right, my bad.
Still worried about the gun thing, one thing Equestria doesn't need is that bit of human tech being copied & not just by pony kind.
on that, was she - on that. Was she
to clam her back - to calm her back
*****
A very good chapter! All the darkness seems to be fading for the moment, and Jennifer dodged the metaphorical bullet while Stick had to deal with the real things previously.
You and Mr. Silver write for Celestia very well, I feel. You make her just a touch kinder, I think but I have to remember that this is through the lens of Penny's/your viewpoint as well and there is no questionable history there.
Meant to mention this last night, but everyone that's seen that pistol needs to be sworn to secrecy, even after it is neutralized, preferably destroyed. Ponies may not even be able to understand precisely how it works, but once the idea is out there, some clever pony may find a way to replicate the effects with magic. Of course as I type this, I'm remembering that ponies know about cannons already so the point I was trying to make is moot. I'll toss it out there anyway.
"You are thinking like a pony."
thats fucked up
7061025 Remember, cannons are canon, so there is already the opportunity to make black-powder weapons. We have trains, so the needed metalworking is certainly there to construct the fine parts needed for basic rifles, let alone if somepony brought a plan for a Kalashnikov
7061094 Really? Is it so hard to imagine someone wanting to forget their human self so much that they wouldn't sink into a new culture?
7061025 Oh, and in regards to my views on Celestia, you have to remember, Penny IS looking at her through rose-colored glasses, but as well as that Celestia sees the perfect image of what she wants in a human-turned-pony. At least, so she sees. Penny is secretly spreading pro-human propaganda, you see. There are leaflets and everything.
"Now that's thinking with Friendship!"
We're pretty sure merely asking if new arrivals have weaponry wouldn't be met with too much hostility...
Keep going! ;)
I like this a hole bunch. exultant chapter.