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You just keep on trying

Tempest sat in the garden, in the shade of a tree, a book open in her hooves. Flipping a page, without looking up, she said, "Hello, Twilight."

"Hi." Twilight set a water bottle besides Tempest's chair, then sat down in front of her. "How are you feeling today?"

"Well enough." Tempest didn't stop looking at the book, but she did pick up the bottle and drink some. "They say I might be dismissed soon. Relatively soon, which still means a couple of weeks."

Twilight nodded. "That is nice. What are you reading?"

"Anatomy." Tempest tilted the book to show Twilight the cover. She turned another page. "It's quite fascinating. Could be quite useful for fighting, too."

Twilight chuckled, then sighed. "I don't think you should be doing any fighting in your conditions. Not while your hind legs still aren't working right."

"I assure you, Twilight, my hind legs work perfectly well at this point." Tempest took another sip of water. "They just don't do so consistently." For the first time she took her eyes off the book and looked towards the trunk of the tree. "I do have that with me, in case they give out all of a sudden." She nodded towards a small metal harness with wheels and a net to support her lower half. "But it's been happening less and less lately. It should stop being a problem in time."

"I see." Twilight had a look at the tree, as if suddenly distracted by it, then returned her attention on Tempest. "That's not why you're reading that book though, is it?"

Tempest bit the corner of her lower lip, silent. She turned another page.

"How is it?" Twilight asked.

"It's..." Tempest sighed, then bit down on her teeth as she swallowed. "It's not bad, right now. It doesn't hurt anymore. It just feels odd. Alien. I'm not used to it." She finally looked at Twilight. "But I think I can live with it. It's not... It's not as big of a deal for me as it could be for someone else. I can't imagine how much Rarity would be freaking out over this. But I never particularly cared for that kind of stuff, and I think things will still be like that." She looked back at the book. "Hormones might be a problem to deal with, though. I've talked about it with the doctors. I'll have to decide if I want to deal with the consequences of this or with having to stop them."

"I understand." Twilight stepped closer to Tempest, and placed a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "Whatever you choose, I'm your friend, and I will be here for you."

Tempest smiled. "Thank you." She turned a page.

"Oh. I brought you something." Twilight's horn lit, and a large orange levitated out of the saddlebags she'd left on the ground.

Moving her gaze away from the page, Tempest looked at the orange like one looks at water after walking through a desert. "Thank you," she whispered, grabbing it from the alicorn's magic with her hooves.

And then Twilight had to remove Tempest's book from her legs, before the unicorn drenched it in orange juice as she dove into the fruit.

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