Consolidation of Resources
Human Inova sat alone at the dining room table after breakfast. It wasn’t her decision, and she’d wanted to spend the morning doing other things, but Cadence had insisted on it, so she followed the directions.
Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to wait for too long. Shining came home with Lucky and three young orange mares behind him. He cut straight to the point with the mares. “You three will sit at the table with Human Inova and start talking things out.”
“But I wanted to go running,” Earth Inova complained.
“And make me fix all those cracks again?” Unicorn Inova countered. “No thank you. I can probably cast that repair spell in my sleep now.”
“Let’s just get it over with,” Pegasus Inova tiredly said as she took the initiative and sat down at the table, soon followed by Earth and Unicorn Inovas.
Shining watched and waited for the reunited quartet to do something. Despite Pegasus Inova’s initial initiative, she was reluctant to do anything else. Unicorn Inova was the first to make eye contact with Human Inova. “I’m sorry,” she reluctantly said. “I shouldn’t have said you wouldn’t understand magic the way I do, and I. . .” Her eyes started to water up as she forced herself to continue her apology. “I shouldn’t have slammed the door to our room like I did, and when we reunite, we’ll see it from both sides, and that’s even worse.”
Pegasus Inova went next. “I’m sorry, too. I was so excited to go flying properly for the first time, I didn’t think about anything else. I didn’t think about you, the ponies around me, or the things I crashed into.”
Earth Inova didn’t pick up the trend immediately, only caving after Unicorn and Pegasus began intensely glaring at her. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. There, done.”
“Sorry for what?” Unicorn Inova asked, some anger slipping into her voice.
A frustrated sigh escaped Earth Inova as she gave the same apology she’d given time and again. “I’m sorry that I did not watch my strength, consider my surroundings, or consider the damage I did. Physically and emotionally.”
“That’s better,” Pegasus Inova said before turning to Human Inova. “As for you. . . I had time to think about it, and I couldn’t come up with anything you need to apologize for.”
“Klutzy hooves,” Earth said, only to get a telekinetic smack to the back of her head from Unicorn Inova. “I rescind my truthful statement.”
“But I was holding all of us back,” Human pointed out. “How can you not want an apology for keeping us from our full potential?”
“Because, as Aunt Twilight said, nopony, including you, knew you were here until that first split,” Unicorn explained. “And as dad said, you were the one that tried to handle things like a Princess should: words first.”
“Says the part that gets angry at the Nobles first,” Pegasus taunted.
“Hey, those snooty Canterlot Nobles deserve her anger,” Human pointed out. “Except for Fancy and Fleur. They’re cool. I don’t know about you three, well, I kinda do, but I’d rather have fewer official things to keep track of so we can work on our own projects.”
“Like what?” Earth asked.
Human shrugged. “I dunno, maybe building fun things in Artificing or just doing normal stuff. I didn’t think that far ahead, okay?”
“We can start by getting back at Nightshade,” Unicorn suggested. “Peacefully. Somehow.”
“What if we fly low over her?” Pegasus asked.
“Nah, that’s too simple,” Earth suggested. “What we should do is run through her and her herd.”
“Too violent,” Human said. “I’m sure we’ll think of something when the chance presents itself.”
Off to the side, Cadence leaned over to Shining. “Do you think it’s time?”
“They’ve talked it out and are now focused on one thing,” Shining said. “We’ll let them finish scheming first.”
All four of Inova's parts sat on the couch after lunch, with one of Pegasus's wings wrapped around Human's shoulders, both of them in the middle. Unicorn sat on one end while Earth sat on the other.
Cadence, Shining Armor, and Skyla stood across from their split family member. "Inova, it's been over a week since you split up, and since all of you have talked things out, it's time to pull yourself back together," Shining said. "I know you'll have a lot of memory sorting to do, but we'll be here for you."
"Especially those punishments." Cadence's added statement made the equine parts look down in shame. "I hope the three of you learned your limits from this."
"Yes, mom," the equine parts said in unison.
"Human, I hope you can use your memories and experiences to improve your alicorn form. You have a lot to catch up on, after all."
"Yes, mom," Human Inova said. "Unicorn. . . Bring us together."
Unicorn Inova's horn lit up, and the four parts came together in a flash of light.
I took a breath and took stock of myself. I had my wings, I had my horn, I had my hooves, and I had four sets of memories and emotions crashing down on me all at once. As I tried to process all of it, I did my best to suppress the tears, despite my eyes watering up.
Skyla pulled me into a hug with her forelegs and wings. "It's okay, sis. You can cry it out some more."
Her words broke the dam in me, and I returned the hug in kind as I cried on her neck. "I'm sorry. . . I'm so sorry."
"You're fine, Inova," dad calmly said. "Your punishments are done, those that were hurt have accepted that, and they're willing to forgive you. When you're ready, we can have Lucky do an interview if you want."
"None of us knew you had a human in you," mom added, stating the obvious. "Would you like some time off from school to sort yourself out?"
"That sounds good," I got out after some crying. "Maybe I'll just rest for now." My hug loosened and I fell asleep on my sister.
Luna found the dreamscape she was waiting for and entered it. Unlike before, the dream was stable, quiet, and calm. Inside was a black void, filled only with a small boxing ring. Each corner had a chair in it, and in each chair sat one of Inova's four parts. She landed at the base and listened in.
Human Inova had a clipboard in her hands. "Hello, everypony. Did you have fun out in the Empire?"
"It felt great casting spells properly," Unicorn said. "I felt so powerful! Then I found out Skyla got electrocuted by my magic and I felt bad, but I was having too much fun to be worried."
"Noted." Human scribbled something. "Pegasus?"
"The air under my wings was great!" Pegasus happily said. "Being free from the ground was so liberating! But then there were all those crashes. Those hurt a lot."
"I know. I've already felt some of those memories." Human winced at the recalled pain.
"And it's because you were weighing me down with your cowardice in flight class that I crashed that much!"
"Once again, none of us knew I existed in here until that first split, and while you probably are right, we cannot and will not use that as an excuse going forward. Earth?"
"You have no idea how much power is in our legs!" Earth nearly shouted. "Sure, it's no match for Pegasus's speed, and she can make tighter turns, but she can't backpedal or leap like I can, nor can she crack the ground like me!"
"Proud and vain. Noted." Human scribbled some more. "As Pegasus said, I have been unknowingly holding you three back, along with myself. Now that we know I'm here, along with the world knowing it, there's no denying it. What I wanted to do before was figure out how to harmonize with each of you so we can take the steps to stop tripping over our hooves, get closer to actually flying, and start casting spells more smoothly."
"So why do you think you were holding us back?" Unicorn asked, her tone hard and serious.
Human spread her arms out. "Have you seen me? Two legs, two arms, vertical torso, no horn, no wings, no tail, and probably no magic, if the human speculation is right. I didn't notice any, at least. Aunt Twilight didn’t tell me anything either. I was trying to move an equine system with human directions, instincts or something. Guidelines, let's call it that. It would explain why I made us flop when we tried to fly." Human waved her arms like she was trying to fly. "I was switching between foreleg and wing control with my arms, or something like that."
"So why not just adapt?" Pegasus casually asked.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to adapt to something when you have no idea what you're adapting from? Again, none of us, including me, knew I was here until recently." Human sighed and looked at her notes. "It's going to take some time to adapt and adjust, but we will do it. Together. There's a lot to do, though."
Luna burst through the middle of the ring’s floor, making her presence known. "May I make a suggestion, Inova?"
"Aunt Luna!" All four parts happily cheered.
"Try adapting one aspect at a time. You'll be able to better focus on that than trying for everything at once."
"Hmm. . ." Human gave it some thought. "Unicorn, I choose you! We can start by smoothing out our telekinesis to better build those Golem Brick sets, then-"
"OBJECTION!" Unicorn shouted. "Go with Earth first."
"Why me?" Earth asked with fake indignation.
"You specialize in what the three of us have in common: legs. If we can clear up that awkwardness first, then landing will be easier, along with casting on the move."
Pegasus gave it some thought. "She's right, you know. After that, we can work on wing control and flight."
"But. . . The bricks. . ." Human quietly pleaded.
"We can save them for later," Unicorn assured. "First thing to focus on is the legs. Maybe we can have Diamond help out as our coach."
"That sounds good," Earth added.
"Then the plan is set," Pegasus said. "Right, Human?"
"I guess so," Human reluctantly agreed. "I still want to play with the Golem Bricks, though."
"We will," Unicorn assured her. "Mobility first."
Luna smiled as she left the dream. For all the chaos that Inova had been through, she was doing well finding her own harmony.
I slowly opened my eyes. My throat was dry and there was a dull ache in my stomach. A groan escaped me as I got up and rolled out of bed, every joint in my body popping as I moved. "When am I?"
The door to my room opened. It had clearly been fixed while I was out of it. "You up, sis?" Skyla asked. "There's some food waiting for you in the fridge."
"You mean there was?"
"No, there is. Aunt Celestia heard about everything and sent a burnt end mac and cheese dish like what you made in Griffonstone. It's been in the fridge for a couple days now."
"A couple days. . . How long was I out this time?"
"A whole week, sleeping beauty. It's Wednesday now. I've also got a full pitcher of water waiting for you."
"Thanks. Feels like Saturday, though." I started moving slowly towards the kitchen. A solid week of doing nothing did no favors for my body, and my joints were very stiff. "Where are mom and dad?"
"They've been out facing the media in Canterlot for a couple days, so we’re on our own for now. Everypony has questions. There's even been accusations of them sealing an alien in you after you were born."
A dry scoff escaped me. "That sounds stupid. How would they even get an alien in the first place?" I got to the fridge and was about to use a hoof to open it as usual, but decided to try my telekinesis instead, with the addition of arms and hands in my visualization of the spell. The glow was faint and the magic was weak, but it was much easier than before, and I even levitated the sizable dish to the table on my own. "Yes! I did it!" In my victory, I flopped over onto the table. "And now I'm exhausted."
"Then I'll motivate you to eat." Skyla lifted the cover off, revealing the chilled cheesy and beefy goodness underneath. She cast a spell on it, warming it up and filling the house with its fragrance.
"That'll do it." I got up and promptly planted my muzzle in the lightly steaming dish. It was moist and delicious, and I couldn't find it in me to pause for even a moment except to breathe and swallow.
The sound of a loaded plate gently landing on the table caught my attention mid-bite, my muzzle buried in the savory food. It was stacked with at least ten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "These are from Ruby. She said they're for you."
I pulled my face out and swallowed what I had in order to give my thoughts. "Put two of them aside for me. You can have the rest."
"Really? Thanks!" She floated the top two sandwiches aside before starting on the next one. "Mmmm! These are so good!"
"It's that grape and blueberry mix, isn't it?"
"Yep!" She wolfed down the rest of the sandwich. "Don't hate me for this, but while I was assuring her you were okay and she was making the sandwiches, I looked through her pantry and fridge-"
"Of course you did." I went back to my food.
"-and I never saw or smelled anything blueberry flavored. The grape jelly tasted normal when I made a sandwich, but when she makes it, it gets that blueberry flavor."
"Hm." I had no explanation, but I was very curious. Not enough to leave and investigate, but I made a mental note of it.
On Saturday, I went over to Diamond's house and knocked on the door. Ruby answered it. "Inova! Are you okay? Did you get the sandwiches I made?"
"They were good as always." I remembered Skyla's observation, but I had other things to do. "Is Diamond here?"
Ruby turned around. "Diamond! Inova's here!"
Diamond came at me like a missile with her forelegs outstretched. "I was so worried about you!"
I caught her and was sent sliding back on my rear hooves about ten feet. "Easy, easy. I'm still recovering from a week of sleep."
"I wish I could sleep for a week sometimes."
"Waking up that thirsty and hungry is not worth it. And the stiffness. And I was busy."
"Doing what?"
"Settling my mind and coming up with plans. Oh, Diamond, I need you to be my coach this weekend."
She broke the hug and stepped back a bit. "A coach?"
"I'm going to work on my hoof and leg coordination, and I need a friend to help motivate me."
A smile graced her face. "I know just the place. Galloping Park has all kinds of things for that. There's even a long path to run on."
"Let's start with that." I was no stranger to the park, having done many exercises there before, but it felt like it would be a whole new adventure.
The trek to Galloping Park was done at a fast trot, which was almost the fastest I'd gone on hoof without tripping, aside from the panicked moments after the first time I used the splitting spell. By the time we got there, I was feeling great and had a big smile on my face. I was breathing a bit harder than usual, which I chalked up to the week of sleep, the thrill of moving without tripping, and not being used to that level of successful exercise to begin with.
"We'll run three laps around the park and take a breather after that," Diamond decided as we got to the path that went around the park. "Ready, go!"
At her direction, I picked up the pace. The feeling of the wind in my face and mane was great, and it kept me pushing onwards, despite the increasing exhaustion.
Diamond managed to keep pace with me. While my slightly longer legs and newfound coordination gave me the advantage on straighter areas, she had the advantage on the sharper turns, and there were enough of those to keep us even. I made a note to get her to teach me how she drifted the way she did.
After the third lap, I tried slowing down, but wound up stumbling and falling forward with my flanks in the air. "Ow."
Diamond barely looked winded as she got down to my level. "You okay?"
"Yeah. . . Ow. . . I think three laps was too much. Should have stopped at one."
She booped my snoot. "You should have said something, then."
"My Earth pony part was running around for a few hours and still had energy to spare when she was caught. I thought I could do the same for less than one hour. Ow."
"Guess not. Oh, I talked with our friends while you were gone."
"What did you tell them?"
"Barely anything. Everypony was worried about you and kept asking me how you were doing."
"Did they want to see my human part?" Since Lucky had written the articles, the fact that I had a human in me was basically public knowledge.
"Yeah, but that was a distant second place thing. They're more worried about you."
The news of their concern brought a smile to my face. "Well, that's nice."
"Yeah." Diamond poked the middle of my back and my body dropped to the ground. "Catch your breath then we'll move onto the side hops and leap bars."
Monday came, and I was back in school. It looked the same as before, but it felt like a whole new place. I had a new pep in my step, and it was only my incredible self control that kept me from outright prancing. I still imagined it, and it brought a smile to my face.
Principal Hall stepped out of his office. "Welcome back, Inova. Is everything alright now?"
"I feel more alive than ever!" I happily answered. "It feels like I can do anything!"
"That's good to hear. I've got all the classwork and homework you missed right here." He brought out a thick stack of papers for me. "Now, if you'd like-"
"Oh, thanks." I picked the stack from his back with my telekinesis and started going through the papers, glancing at them to determine their topic before shuffling them into the right category, and then sorting them by date with the oldest at the front of each section. "Alright, that's all sorted out. Is there anything else, Principal?"
"You've. . . Drastically improved with your magic."
"Thanks. You could say I found my harmony." I looked back to my saddlebags and began putting the backlogs in their appropriate folders. "I'd better get going, then."
"Go ahead."
As I walked through the hall, I heard Nightshade's voice and stopped. "It's been boring without Inova. She's probably out somewhere walking by herself, trying to get three rocks past a foot off the ground, flopping before flapping, or just tripping over herself and crying over her issues."
"Oh, I have just the spell for this." Over the weekend, dad had taught me the spell he'd perfected before I could talk, back when I had crying feedback loops. I cast it on myself, the shields appeared in my ears, and the world went almost silent. "It's prancing time." With a spring in my step, wings up, and my head held high, I pranced right by Nightshade and her herd.
I couldn't make out what Nightshade was saying, but she was following me. Just outside my classroom, I pretended to hear something and turned around, revealing the shields before dispelling them and closing my wings without flopping forward. "Oh, Nightshade. I didn't hear you. Everything good?"
Her face was red with anger and her breathing was heavy. By the looks of it, and based on what little I could hear of her on the way, she had been shouting at me the whole way. Her voice was a little hoarse. "You. . . You can't. . . Ignore me. . . Like that. . ."
I felt the snark. "You know what, you're right. I'm sorry for ignoring you like that. How would you like me to ignore you in the future?"
It should be noted that, while unicorns generally have the weakest muscles out of the three pony types, an uncoordinated hoof to the side of the jaw from one still hurts. Hooves are hard, no matter what. Thankfully, there was no bad damage done to me, I’d experienced worse when I flopped before, and I was in too good of a mood to worry about it.
Tuesday after school, I made my return appearance in the Human Club. "Hey, everypony!"
"Inova!" Everypony swarmed me and it became hard to tell their questions apart, though their concern was clear.
"Alright, alright, calm down." My words didn't have much of an effect on my excited friends, so I chose some different words. "If you want to see Human Inova and get a hug from her, calm down and form an orderly line." Within a minute, my words had everyone in order. "Here she is!" I cast the splitting spell.
The equine Inovas moved to the side as Human Inova smiled at the club. "As promised." She looked at her arms and body, clad in the first set of proper clothes Rarity had made for her. "Oh, so that's where these clothes went. Good to know."
The club/circle of friends didn’t play H&H, as the presence of a real human was too big of a deal to pass up. The equine Inovas even got in on it, joining their friends, crowding around Human Inova, and playing the part of adoring fans.
"Let's do some flight practice, Inova," mom stated when I got home on Friday.
"Can do!" I gave a salute with one of my wings and was about to take off when I realized one little issue: we were still indoors. "Out back?"
"Out back." I followed mom out back and took my saddlebags off with my levitation on the way. The novelty of finally mastering that skill was wearing down, but I was still happy about it all the same. "Let's do some hovering first, alright? See how long you can do it."
"Okay." I opened my wings, leapt up and started hovering. As I did, a big smile crossed my face and a giggle escaped me, then I let myself fall to the ground. "How long was that?"
"Less than thirty seconds. Do you still get butterflies in your stomach when you fly?"
"Yeah, but it's getting better." I leapt up and started hovering again. "But. . . It's. . ." The giggles escaped me again. "Kinda ticklish!"
"You're probably the only pony to describe it that way. Maybe you’re just excited about it."
I landed again and took a moment to catch my breath. "I'm going up to the roof." Without waiting for mom's answer, I took off and easily made my way up top, landing over the bay window on Skyla's room. "That. . . Wasn't as ticklish. Huh. Maybe it’s only when I’m hovering."
Mom landed next to me shortly after I had. "Since we're up here, let's see how well you can glide." She looked out in front of the house. "Leap off the roof and go as far down the road as you can. No flapping, just glide and land."
I eagerly followed her directions, getting a running start and leaping before opening my wings to catch the air and getting my legs into the right position. Just as the ground approached, I got my legs out and made a walking landing. “How was that?”
“It was good! Come back up here and we’ll make an exercise of it!”
I happily flew back up to the roof and started the gliding exercises. Being able to fly felt great.
I focused on the gem in my levitation. It was blue, which meant it was going to be one of the illusion gems for my alicorn sword. In order to keep track of which one went where, I had used the incredibly advanced labeling technique of masking tape and marker. The technique was apparently quite common among professional artificers.
“A conical spiral for the horn, obviously,” I said to myself as I put the illusion effect into the gem. Once that was done, I put it down and picked out a red one, which would be the combat enchantment. “And a similar visual effect here as well. That could be. . . Ah, a piercing or grinding effect along the illusion’s area!”
“Inova, if you don’t come get dinner, Skyla’s going to eat your portion,” dad said.
I was too focused on my project to care. “And now I need to align the effect projection along the illusion area. And make sure the charge levels on both stay aligned. . . This could be tricky.”
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I'm with Inova H on this one.
I'm not 100% on this, but... does it count as her being electrocuted if she survived? If I remember correctly, electrocution implies fatal injury by electric shock.
At least she's not one of "those" types.
- MLP: FiM
- Random
"Why can't I cook anything without burning it? I can't even pour orange juice without it coming out burnt!"Well, that's a 100% improvement from... 0 seconds.
Glad she finally made some progress. Would be interesting to see her go to the human world and see what happens with Sunsset and maybe she gets to pony up?
11865073 "Shocked" just didn't seem right for the level of power going around. After all, one does not simply get shocked from arcing electricity like that.
11865096 Not seen: other attempts at hovering with the butterflies coming sooner.
Is Innova making a lightsaber?
Also: hooray!!
She’s harmonized!! 
11867499 Not a lightsaber, as there is a physical blade. The alicorn sword is based on something else.
11867638
40k power sword.
11884891 Not a power sword.