The enhanced Stallion

by Shenzy

> A long time ago... Swift moves home

Three days later Tenet woke up.

For some reason, he wasn't dead.

At least on the outside. Wishing with his very first thought the rest would follow after.
Instead, he was staring at a ceiling, a wooden one for some reason. Eyes wandering around, it quickly became clear this wasn't the abandoned mine, but... a cabin? It was warmer than the mine. Tables. Chairs. A picture of a... pale blue foal with a black mane, sitting between two older ponies? The foal seemed familiar, but something else dragged attention away from it, before his tired mind could make any connections.

“-and then there was my ninth birthday; there were balloons, a lot of them! Red and green and blue and yellow. Like yellow a lot. I had cake. I mean, maybe it was my nineteenth? Not sure... I always get cake and balloons... except for last year I just had three... and...”

“Straw...berr-y...”

“Yeah, strawberry cake! How you know? … did you eat my cake!?”

Muse had made it. She had made him a cake last year.

It was way too sweet, but he had forced down two howl pieces, just to see her smile.

His stomach had hurt soon after... but it had been worth it. She had taken good care of him, bringing milk and sitting on his side till he felt better. Talking the entire time, to make sure he was distracted from the ache.

And now she was gone.

At least he could cry now... - outside his tears froze in seconds, but now they got soaked up by the pillow beneath.

There was a tired “Cut it out already” to be heard, just before a bunch of papers landed on his chest “Read”.

Tenet pulled himself together and sat up, with some help of Jack.

He read the headline ...and rolled himself out the bed; landing flat on his stomach.

His entire body hurt, his lungs burned – the throat was dry and he could barely see and yet he tried to get forwards.

The magician rolled his eyes and left the idiots alone.

Jack put him back in his bed and gave him more of his medicine, to bring down the stallions fever... and than he put him back three more times.

Weeks later Tenet was back on his hooves, he hadn't seen Sledge or Swift Move during the entire time. Jack finally let him out of his room, now since his temperature was below the boiling point. At some point Jack actually tried to heat up some mixtures on his forehead, to see if it worked... but it didn't. Not quite. Not at all. Just a bit. To bad.

“Where are the others?” now that he finally could leave the bed for more then a couple of minutes, Tenet decided to explore this place.

“Uhm... they told me it's a guestroom, but there are no guests i guess, but they got that big horse we made-" the hoof pointed into the general direction, which would turn out to be the last door on the left, holding pushed aside furniture and a big dirty horse in it's middle to be worked on.

The door smashed open and he looked how spare parts were levitated in place, while Tenet did his best to put them together. Of course not half as fast or good, as he could.

Crafting parts was one thing. Making them work, harmonize with one another, something very different.

“What do you think you are doing!?” Swift snapped like a barking dog.

Sledge looked up from his work-desk “Good you are here. I would appreciate it, if you take over. There are still some parts in the furnace – we have to modify the hull and...” he paused, when he noticed the angry and somewhat confused look on his face.

“We need you. We all read what happened. If we make this work, there is still a chance to stop it all.”

“You sit here and waste time! We got to get her quick! Do you got any idea how long it takes to put this thing together!?” the mechanic argued, looking at the mess the two had made. Apparently trying to fixing the main engine and entire left leg, which at this point was scattered over the ground like a minefield.

“I do not, but if you help us, we can shorten time significantly.”

“Than why waste time on it!? Didn't he tell you what could happen!?” he pointed towards the busy unicorn. “This egoistic son of a-”

“He did.” the pegasus cut him off, very well aware of the risks involved.

Tenet still received an angry glance from the magician.
One more word would have been enough for a screwdriver to be thrown in his general direction.

The pegasus had to make him understand “-we need it, otherwise, we won't be able to get close, without ending like her!”

“There is noth-”

“We got no choice!” Sledge shouted.

He tried to gather himself with long and deep breaths for a minute “...don't think she isn't important to me. She is my wife! I love her more than my own life... and if I had known, that she would...” he cut off and hold a hoof up to his face.

He needed a moment “She did this because she wanted to help everypony.” his voice became more bitter with every word “We all didn't want any of this. We also wanted to help ponies everywhere. Ending the constant suffering, which plagued our land. This is what we wanted... but we were wrong. We chose the wrong way and now we have to make it right. We have to follow her example, or we ain't any better than... him.”

It all came down to all or nothing and odds weren't in their favor.
Neither was time. The first prognoses were eight days.

They worked through day and night, asked Jack for things to push em up, whenever they felt tired... and made it in five.

“It's my finest work.” Tenet said pleased, as his hoof tapped on the side of this steel colossus.

“It got to be.” Sledge added dry.

“Ouh! Ouh! Can I test it!?” Jack asked excited, tapping his hooves together.

Sledge and Tenet exchanged a short glance.

No tests. It would work. It would get the job done.

The only question was, who would go?

“She is my wife. I will go.”

Tenet nodded approving on this - seconds before he grabbed a wrench and smacked the stallion on the back of his head, sending him harsh to the ground.

Jack immediately panicked – jumping between the two, while Swift Move just stood there and didn't seemed surprised at all.

“I will go.” the new group leader claimed “It will work, but it isn't save. We put this thing even faster together than I thought. When something goes wrong... I want her to still have an husband, to come back to”.

The unicorn scrubbed through his black mane and laughed sarcastic.

“Something wrong?”.

He shook his head unconcerned “Just get in the tank.”

“Alright.” he now gave a nod to Jack, which was looking after the injured stallion “Don't wake him up for the next few hours, alright?”

Bottle Jack shrugged sheepishly “I... ouh... don't have salt.”

Jack received and asking glance on this one.

Since when did this chemist ran out of anything?

He blinked a phew times “I ate it... accidentally... with tomato's... and egg slices...”

“You ate smelling-salt? Hahahaha...” Tenet laughed “How- how did it taste?”

“Somewhat, kinda ...awful.” it frowned displeased.

Tenet laughed now even louder than before and not even the unicorn could help to chuckled a bit.

Only the fact, that the stallion was still well and dandy, begot of his sheer talent.

Most had thrown a guy like him into an rubber cell; so he couldn't harm himself or others... but... eating smelling-salt was so immense dumb - he must had an personal guardian angel. That - or what most called common sense, was nothing more than a salt grain, stowed right next to his cutiemark.

The mechanic walked up to the all time confused chemist and rose his hoof.

Jack looked at it for a while. The hoof was empty. If he wanted to give him something... it should be full. Was this a card trick of some sort? No... that was ace's thing.

“Just grab it already.”

“Oh!” he grinned and grabbed it with both of his “Okay, I get it... shaking... we shake... -why are we shaking?”

“Farewell my friend.”

The shaking stopped and the grin vanished.

This must been one of the phew times, he actually understood something the way it was meant. At least Tenet hoped so.

He didn't bother the magician with anything like this. Only an nod was exchanged.

The spell was cast and a unbreakable bond was knit. It would take him a thousand years to realize this would be the last time he saw them.

The stallion ran.

Author's Note:

This is the last chapter of 2015. Working on a few more to hopefully come 'soon' :x
Gotta work tomorrow... mom birthday... AND a game beta >.< arg... why! Now you know why things can take a while :<