> My Life as a Bipedal Quadruped > by Snakeskin Ducttape > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Part One: Magical Resonance Interference > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was sure that the joy of being a medical professional would've died down by now, but no. Instead the bubbly feeling of accomplishment just sort of congealed into a sort of solid state. I had been a specialist in Magnetic Resonance Imaging for a little over two years now, so many years of schooling was finally paying off, monetarily and otherwise. I was sitting in the basement where our little department was located, and by “department” I mean myself and a man named Frank. Yeah, it wasn't a grand hustle-and-bustle hospital like where I had been in my prior position, but it was a nice place to work at. This department had just recently opened and the small hospital where I worked needed a specialist to get the project up and running. And so, as it's pretty much always done, one of the big hospitals a few counties over was contacted, the veterans there inquired if there were any young professionals who knew their stuff and had the patience, and temperament to run a small, new department by themselves to see if anyone was interested. I feel that I can't help but brag but I was the first choice. I'm good enough to show doctors and nurses the ropes with several of the latest models of scanners, and I'm a decent enough organizer. Also, getting a position in a hospital like this means I didn't get in the way in emergencies. I mean, sometimes you see youtube videos of people like me but who're athletic adventurers and skaters and stuff, I'm not quite like that but I'm pretty well adjusted. Still, not being at your fullest capacity isn't good when solving emergency issues where people's health are at stake. Not your fullest capacity you ask? What does that mean? Well like I said, I consider myself well adjusted. But despite what some manufactured “inspirational videos” I've seen says, disabled still means disabled. And missing your right arm, your right leg, and your right eye, makes you disabled. So anyway, I was swiveling slightly in my chair while double checking the reading from our latest scan, and putting on the finishing touches on my report when the ever cheery Samantha poked her head in through the door. "You ready for the next patient?" Sam asked in the usual chipper way. "Just about, gimme a few minutes, I'm just finishing up here," I answered without looking up. "Alright, it's a hip scan, and it's an elderly man but he doesn't use crutches or anything so you shouldn't have any problem since there are no heavy lifting and-" "Sam," I interrupted before the verbal trickle became a flood. "Yes you can leave early today." "Thanks, Gabe. You're the best! Though I was sort of expecting you'd let me since you pretty much run this place by yourself," Sam said with a smile and vanished like hygiene in a public toilet. - And now it was time to go over protocol with the patient. With me it's almost always two protocols, my own personal one followed by the official one. The first one still makes me feel a strange mix of amusement and slight exasperation. I liked imagining the patients' reaction like a data output log. [Display subject's thought process]: — I'm glad no one's here to see me in this gown thing. — Oh, here comes the doctor (/* misnomer; I don't actually have that title*/) that's gonna scan me. — It's a she! — (if compatible): She's pretty. [Anomaly detected]: —Does she have a limp? —Scanning... Anomaly confirmed. [Execute standard pleasantry procedures]: — Extend right arm. — Smile appropriately. — Scan features of newly arrived doctor. — [Error: Anomaly detected]: — Target's upper right extremity not found. Incompatible with gesture of greeting. — Aborting pleasantry procedures... — Pleasantry procedures aborted. [Pleasantry procedures required]. [Scan for pleasantry procedures]: — Processing... processing... processing... — “Pleasantry procedures” has encountered an unexpected run-time error. — Emergency restart initiated. [Revert to basic social protocols.] — Scanning for reference... ‘Aaand here we go.’ "Uh..." (‘Called it’) the man said as he awkwardly pulled back his right hand. ‘Now, I just extend my left hand before he starts scratching the back of his head with his. Wait. Oh, too late.’ "Oh!" he exclaimed as he realized that he just sabotaged my attempt at salvaging the social situation by busying himself with the hand he could have used to shake mine instead of his right. "I'm sorry." "Don't worry about it," I said with a small smile as he finally caught on, and after a little impromptu brain gymnastics we finally got to the point of getting a professional greeting. "I see you're wearing the standard lovely sky blue gown," I said. He looked a bit awkward at this, but I think he understood that I was making light of the situation to get some laid back vibes in the room after what seemed to be for him a social fiasco just seconds earlier. "So, Mr Berg, do you know what this scan entails?" "Well, I lie down in a tube for a while and you scan me?" "True, but we scan you with magnetic fields. Really strong ones," I said as I checked out his ring finger where the outlines of marriage were clearly visible. "And I see you've removed your wedding band, that's good. Some people, especially older men, come in here and don't realize that they haven't been able to remove their rings for decades. Which is unfortunate, because if you wear metal, you don't get a scan." He seemed to be a bit interested in this "Dr. Mercer told me to do that. Is that really that strict?" He asked. "Yup, I remember the last place I worked, someone wheeled an office chair too close to the machine, and..." I gave an abridged version of what happened, three fractured fingers, shutting down the whole machine, venting the cooling gas, ordering new gas, and calling for specialists from the manufacturer to come by to inspect it, then start it up again. He paled a bit when I laid down the cost of restarting the machine alone. "In short, no metal near this machine," I concluded. He seemed to think a bit about this "Uh. You aaah..." ‘Oh, one of those questions.’ "Ask away," I simply said. It didn't seem to be quite enough and instead he just gestured slightly with his head towards my right leg. "Mmhm, a prosthesis, but it's all carbon fiber and titanium, it's not magnetic at all," I said. "Oh," He seemed a bit taken aback by how frank I was when talking about my disabilities. If he was sticking around I would've been worried that he was never gonna relax, but he wasn't sticking around, so it didn't matter. "So, Mr Berg. Tell me a bit about yourself while I press buttons," I said as I sat down and started calibrating the machine for a hip scan of a sixty-something male with average build. "Like what?" He asked, a bit confused. "Like where you've worked, how long your hip has been aching, when you've noticed, what you've been doing at work when you noticed, and so on." "Well I..." He had apparently been working in a small metal workshop for most of his adult life, I inwardly rolled my eye, you didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that that meant that he worked on a daily basis with archaic tools with not nearly enough safety features on them, and if a work safety committee set foot in that place they'd probably pull the fire alarm in order to get people out of there as fast as possible, assuming there was a fire alarm. He kept talking disjointedly about his job while we walked into the chamber with the scanner, at my encouragement because his aching hip was almost certainly related to his job. A few red flags popped up in my head as he went on, though, and just as he was about to step over the threshold into the magnetic field, I grabbed his shoulder with my left hand. He was lucky I could because as far as I understood it, my right one stayed behind at the crash site all those years ago to keep my arm and leg company. "Hold on a second, Mr Berg, you've done a lot of spot welding, right?" He gave this some thought "Well, not really more or less than the other boys down at work." "But compared to the average person on the street you likely have, yes?" I asked and he nodded. Now I was getting really relieved I caught that. "And used those high-speed metal saws, right?" "Yeeees?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "Have you used proper safety gear, especially safety goggles, every single time you've done so? Be honest now, for your own sake." I knew the answer before I asked. "Well, no." He seemed to pick up that this was somehow serious. "Mmm," I said and nodded, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry, Mr Berg but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cancel this scan." "Wh- why?" He asked, sounding alarmed. After I laid down the possible consequences of him getting close to that machine he seemed to accept not getting a scan today. The risk of having four decades' accumulation of dust sized steel flakes being forcefully ripped out of your eye sockets just didn't seem worth it. "And you should be careful with your eyes, take it from me," I said, a bit mischievously, and lightly tapped my glass eye with my fingernail. He paled a bit again. ‘I really should stop doing that.’ "Alright, head up and knock on Frank's– uh, Dr Mercer's door and tell him what I told you. He'll probably schedule another examination and determine the next step after that. I'm guessing you're either gonna get a Computer Tomography scan or a scan in a lighter model." - Princess Twilight Sparkle had a lot on her plate, and it made her almost giddy. Studying the experiments of one of Equestria's greatest magical minds did that for her. "Apparently, this orb is for scrying for information from other worlds, somewhat like that mirror that he and Pri–" Twilight cleared her throat "– Celestia used for going on adventures together a thousand years ago," she said. "Careful, Twilight. That mirror led to almost destroying two Equestrias," warned Spike. That a juvenile dragon sometimes functioned as the voice of reason for an incredibly powerful unicorn (alicorn, these days, she still forgot that sometimes) was sometimes a bit worrying for those familiar with the de facto leader of the Elements of Harmony. "They wouldn't have been destroyed, per se, but alright I see your point. Still, some careful studying won't harm anypony, Starswirl the Bearded wouldn't have made it otherwise." Spike was a bit skeptical about this, but he knew what scrying meant. If Twilight instead found the tugging orb or the prodding orb he would start worrying for real, banish the thought about the bunsen burner orb. "And it magically logs your discoveries! This is amazing!" Gushed the lavender incarnation of regality. "Alright I'm gonna give it a spin," Twilight continued. "I don't even know where to start, so I'm just gonna pick one that Starswirl has already studied. Hmm, how about this one? Bipedal population, clearly intelligent but with unstable feudal and/or tribal societies. Harsh lives. Maritime based trade and farming in unfavorable conditions. Seemingly no magical power. Fraught with disease and conflict. Do not visit unprepared, preferably do not visit at all," Twilight mumbled to herself as she read the scrying orb's log about what it had found about the world and its dominant inhabitants. "Oh, what poor creatures! I wonder if they've improved their situation in the time it's been since last the orb scried their world?" It seemed that they had, but far beyond the point that Twilight was expecting. Compared to the lacking wooden houses, crude stone castles and muddy roads that Twilight had seen in the logs of the previous scrying, this world's civilizations were magnificent. That a world with no magic could build such cities (and keep them clean) was nothing short of amazing. Thousands of the indigenous population thundered down vast stretches of paved roads in self-propelled chariots, and by the coast she could see majestic ships, that were apparently an everyday sight for no one seemed to pay them any mind. “Fraught with disease,” came to Twilight's mind and she tried steering the orb's magic to locate a healer of some sort. What she saw astounded her even further. Like ponies, the inhabitants of this world had developed entire facilities to treat their sick. It made her a little envious, seeing how far these creatures had come in just a single millennia. "Astonishing!" The royal pony said in reverence. "Yeah," Her assistant said quietly across the small table, he too seeing and experiencing what Twilight did. Suddenly, they felt a disruption of a sort, not like a harsh wave, but rather an undercurrent that they had not been aware of before then. "Twilight?" Spike asked, a bit worried. "I feel it too. Don't worry, Spike, this device can't harm us, I've septuple checked that." This calmed down the dragon considerably. "Still, that felt a lot like magical power, and according to both mine and Starswirl's observation, this world doesn't have any magic in it." Spike had trouble wrapping his head around that. Magic just was, a world without magic was like a world without gravity, or warmth. "I'm gonna take a closer look, you can look away any time you want Spike," Twilight said as she scried closer to the strange disturbance. She saw a images of a large device, a clean white device with some sort of pony-hole on the side, sitting in a bare room, and it was humming. Suddenly she felt a great tug at her magical power, and a wave of energy shot out from her horn through the invisible walls separating the worlds. Twilight was fairly certain that if it wasn't for the orb's safety measures, she would have involuntarily teleported somewhere, possibly between worlds this time. As she recovered from the slight shock a moment later, she could feel the wave surfing towards the source of the disturbance, the great device, where one of the indigenous was apparently situated at that moment. Many years of magical studying and experimentation made her jump to a conclusion that she prayed to Faust would be wrong. It wasn't. Twilight's ears drooped. "Uh oh." - ‘Another day, another handful of patients,’ I thought as I was preparing to close down shop at the MRI section, shutting down computers, turn of lights, have a look at the machine that was the heart and soul of my little section to make sure that no one left stains that might stick, the last patient of the day had worried me a bit. The humming from the machine suddenly intensified, like someone turned all the knobs of an amplifier to the highest settings. I looked up. "Wha–" was the only sound I could make before I heard a sucking sound, and I had the strange sensation of being pulled into the opening of the machine before everything went black, all within the span of about half a second. There was no flash. No ceremony. I just suddenly felt tired and numb. Birds chirped in the distance, which was nice but also puzzling. ‘Head resting against something soft and uneven, along with the rest of my body, I'm lying down it seems.’ I couldn't see anything however, most likely cause my eye was closed. I took steps to rectify that and immediately aborted my plan when my eye was blasted with a painfully bright light. I noticed something strange about that last action however; it worked really well. Having the color and complexion that I do means that I have to scrunch up my entire face if I want block out bright light, but this time simply bringing down my eyelids did the trick. And I know that the light hadn't disappeared because I could still feel it on my face. ‘Speaking of which, that felt a lot like sunlight.’ That, coupled with the birdsong made me realize that I was most likely outdoors. ‘Let's see, I was preparing to go home for the day, and then... Uuh, then nothing. I'm up to speed as far as I can tell. Preparing to go home for the day, then lying outdoors with the sun in my face. I am now extremely confused, but let's slow down and check a few important things first.’ I sort of wriggled my entire body and realized that I felt really numb. ‘That's not very reassuring but it's better than lances of pain I guess. Now time for detailed inspections, eye socket first. Feel around the general right eye area to make sure that I've either got my glass eye inserted, or that my eyelid is at least closed.’ My arm didn't feel like lead, because that would be stupid, but it did feel heavy and I realized that I was alarmingly exhausted. That's not very reassuring either, but hopefully that's the only reason for the numbness. The first attempt at lifting my arm had no real result, but I wasn't giving up that easily. ‘The only thing that can defeat me right now is a nap. So, a few deep breaths, and heave!’ There was a thud. ‘OW! ‘Is my hand in a cast? No wonder it felt so heavy. I just clubbed myself in the forehead.’ I did manage to land it sort of right though so time to start feeling around with the back of my wrist. ‘Results: eyelid = closed, arm = strangely shaped and textured. Is it swollen? ‘What conclusions can I reach if I combine all my current knowledge about my situation? Ambient sound, brightness, position, exhaustion, numbness, disorientation and state of hand could all suggest that maybe I am not outdoors but in a hospital room with open windows, maybe partially covered in bandages. Please don't tell me I've been in another accident. Or at the very least let me keep all my limbs this time. I sighed and started opening my eye. Time to face the music, whatever that's supposed to mean. ‘Blinding light, eyes slowly adjusting, vision returning... green meadows? A muzzle? Blue fur!? A hoof!?’ Staying awake just doesn't seem worth it at this point. ‘Hey, something's coming. Huh, look at that. A big ugly dog that's throwing a calico bag over me.’ I let out an internal sigh. I don't even care anymore. Hark! My old friend/arch nemesis is here. Nap-time! You have me at a disadvantage this time, oh worthy adversary, I submit myself to you with my head held high.’ - "Ok, girls, I'm having some success with locating our target. It seems to have landed almost directly to the east of Ponyville. Hopefully along the borders of the Everfree and not directly inside it." Princess Twilight was pacing back and forth through the Golden Oaks library with a dozen knick knacks floating around her. "As I said before, the locator matrices can't pinpoint the target reliably so close to the Everfree woods, not to mention that since the target originates from another world it–" "WHOA WHOA! Hold on just a minute!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "You said you accidentally teleported somepony to the edge of the Everfree Forest–" "I said I HOPE I teleported it to the edge of the forest, as opposed to into the forest." "Whatever, you never said anything about somepony from another world!" "Also," Pinkie Pie chimed in, "Why are you calling this pony an 'it'?" "Because I don't think it even is a pony!" Twilight said in agitation. "I'm not even sure if it's a he or a she! And yes, something was teleported here from another world. The world I was talking about me studying, remember? I told you like ten minutes ago!" The other five ponies looked at each other before the alabaster unicorn took a step forward. "Twilight, dear, we've barely been able to keep up with what you've been saying. And we haven't even been here for two minutes, I think you might want to calm down a bit before we try and solve this problem." Twilight stopped mid-step and looked around at what she was doing. She was trying to mount a rescue operation of an unknown target in a largely unknown location, and in her haste she had apparently readied such useful things as a feather duster and a doorstop. Her friends had indeed not been here for ten minutes, she had only managed to squeeze ten minutes worth of explanation into one and a half minute. She let out a deep sigh and hung her head. "I'm sorry, everypony, it's just... I'm really worried. I might have done something terrible." Rarity put a hoof on her friend's withers. "Then let's try and solve it properly. You were saying something about studying another world when the device you used did something." Twilight took a moment to collect herself. "Yes, I was using an old scrying device of Starswirl the Bearded to study another world when I came across a strange phenomenon. It seemed to react to the magic that I was pouring into the device and by some freak coincidence it manifested as a teleportation spell. But the device seemed to have been designed with safety for the user in mind, so when the teleporting spell went off it was reversed or something. So instead of me being teleported to the other world, the other world was teleported here, or it would have if the power the scrying orb was letting through had allowed it. Instead it was a small chunk that came here, and I'm pretty sure it was one of the inhabitants." "So you accidentally dumped some mystery creature from another world into the middle of the wilderness?" Rainbow Dash said. Applejack and Rarity glowered at the blue pegasus, Fluttershy uttered an almost silent "Oh my!" while Twilight hung her head again, and Pinkie Pie looked excited. "There ain't no need to rub it in, Dash!" Snapped Applejack. "No, she's right," Twilight said dejectedly. "I just hope we can solve this." "Alright! What needs doing?" Rainbow Dash, always the creature of action, said. "Well, we need to conduct a thorough search of this area here," Twilight said while pointing at a spot on a map of Ponyville and its surrounding areas. "Oh! Oh! Like hide and seek?" Pinkie Pie exclaimed excitedly. Her friend's antics were making Twilight feel a bit better, Pinkie had a knack for knowing how to solve strange problems, no matter how airheaded she seemed. "Yes, only we don't exactly know what we're looking for, and hopefully nopony is actually hiding. Alright, first let's go see Zecora, she might've seen something and we can ask her to keep a lookout for Equestria's new visitor." Twilight said. "Oh! Good idea!" Pinkie Pie said as the group headed out of the library. "She's super duper good at hide and seek! Once, when I pretended I was mosquito, I couldn't find her even when she was standing right in front of me and trying to get my attention!" - I was lying in a rucksack of some sort. The strangest thing in my mind about that is not the situation in itself, believe it or not, it was how fast I made peace with the thought of it all. Actually no, when I think about it, it was probably just that my brain had figured that the middleman between itself and the senses it used to perceive the world around me had taken sick leave for an extended period of time and no replacement had been found. So I had a strangely calm demeanor, or perhaps a general lack of demeanor, when I was lifted out of the bag and held aloft by my cheeks by two enormous, filthy paws. Interestingly, this didn't hurt. ‘Maybe the numbness is my friend?’ "Look! We found pony!" I heard a voice immediately behind me say. ‘Should I open my eye? Let's wait.’ "Pony with horn can find gems!" The voice said again and I realized that it sounded like Andy Serkis! ‘Alright eye, take a look around and tell me what you see.’ "That is small and broken pony," A deep and gruff voice said as I opened my eye, and saw that the most recent speaker had the ugliest face I have ever seen. Or it could just be a trick of the absence of light, because it seemed like I was in a dark cave. "Small and broken pony cannot escape," Andy Serkis said excitedly. "Must help us find precious gems." ‘Precious! Oh, Mr Serkis, you know how to please your fans! What's all this about a pony though?’ The ugly face got closer and I realized that it belonged to a dog. ‘Oh, that's right, I saw a big dog earlier I think, and I'm being held by paws. There seems to be some sort of canine motif going on around here. Whatever, Andy Serkis obviously isn't within my line of sight and I can't move my head right now. Alright, eyeball, you can take a break.’ There was a thud behind me and I had the alarming sensation of falling, predictably followed by the unpleasant sensation of landing. ‘Ouch. A bit, at least.’ "We do not want ponies here!" The gruff voice shouted. "Cause trouble! Big ponies come look!" I opened my eye again and took another look around me. I was in a large cave, surrounded by dogs of alarming size towering over me, most of them wearing armor and holding spears. There was a few other things decorating the cave as well, some torches, a throne of some sort and what looked like a minecart. I felt my brain catching up with what I was seeing and some part of me predicted that it wouldn't be pretty if it did. ‘Nap-time, my love. Hold me in your warm embrace and take me far, far away.’ - The Everfree forest is not to be traveled through carelessly, but the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony was a force to be reckoned with, nigh-omnipotent magical artefacts or not. So it was after a short and somewhat anticlimactic journey that the champions of Equestria stood in front of the potion master Zecora's hut and knocked. After a moment they heard her answer, a bit drowsily, "Visitors are free to open after they knock, that's why my door does not have a lock." The friends looked at each other, slightly confused at the lazy sounding voice. Twilight pushed the door open and the six ponies filed in. The Zebra was positioned in her usual meditative position, balanced upside-down on top of a quarterstaff. The air was often thick inside Zecora's hut, but this time it was extraordinarily so. The striped potion-master opened an eye and smiled in a relaxed way when she saw who was visiting her. "Ah, dear friends, at the moment you should take care to breathe easy, right now the air in here might make you feel queasy." The six ponies noticed that Zecora's enormous cauldron that usually sat in the fire pit in the middle of the hut had been replaced with a smaller one, and from it rose fumes that was giving off a sweet but thick smell. They felt a bit light headed. Rainbow Dash decided to land rather than stir up more fumes from the cauldron with her flapping wings. "Yeah, good advice, what are you doing?" she asked. "As Apple Bloom found out when she offered me assistance, potion-makers should take care to sharpen their resistance," Zecora answered. When she saw the confused expressions she elaborated. "I mean that I'm adjusting myself to not be knocked out, every time I mix a potion extra stout." "Oh," Twilight answered. "I see, this is simply for hardening yourself for when you use ingredients with hallucinogenic effects?" "Ooh! Ooh! Mr and Mrs Cake said I couldn't use those in my pastries!" Said Pinkie Pie. "Which I don't really understand, I thought they could be great for when the foals visit the dentist." The others looked at Pinkie for a moment before Rarity spoke up. "Yes, well, we are actually here on some important business. Twilight, dear, it's probably best if you take it from here." Rarity paused and looked a bit embarrassed when she realized that she had just spoken in rhyme like their zebra friend. Twilight started explaining to Zecora about the incident back at the library and how a creature from another world was transported to the edge of the Everfree. "So we decided to come here in case it wandered into the woods and... Zecora, could we take this conversation outside?" "Oh, my head in my behind," Zecora said as she gracefully jumped down from the top of her staff and invited the others to exit her hut. "I've gotten used to it, so it slipped my mind." The others drew some welcome breaths of fresh air and hoped that the slight swaying of their vision would fade soon. "Well," Twilight continued. "You know this forest, we wondered if you've seen anything."' "Princess, I am sorry to say, I have not spied anything unusual this day. But you still did right in coming to me, I cannot let something innocent wander among the dangers of the Everfree." Zecora said. "That's great! I would like to try and pinpoint the place where it arrived to see if I can track it, I'm pretty sure it hasn't been staying still. And if that doesn't work, perhaps you might find it? I feel it's a bit much to ask you to search for some unknown creature in the Everfree," Twilight said. "Worry not, Twilight Sparkle, for my safety as I know this place to and fro," Zecora said. "After all, I live here, as you know." - Sometimes you wake up bit by bit, awareness slowly creeping up on you and easing you into the idea that you should take a look at the alarm clock, then teasing you with the knowledge that you're probably gonna have to catapult yourself out of bed and skip breakfast if you don't want to be late for work. Other times you wake up instantly and feel ready to go tackle whatever the day has to throw at you. I woke up with a strange mix of elements of both options. You might think that this is just normal waking up, but it turns out that no, that doesn't need to be the case. What I'm saying is that I was suddenly awake and aware that I had no idea of where I was. There was a rustling sound all around me, and I was lying in a strange position in a dark and tight place. And the whole world seemed to be swinging around. ‘Oh right, the bag. ‘Alright, I've been awake for two short spells I think. And I seem to have, ugh, fainted both times. This ends now. ‘Vision... not very helpful at the moment. How about smell? Whoa! I know you only found hints of dirty cloth but impressive work! I didn't know you were that good. Taste, judging by what smell found you probably don't want any part in this. Touch? In a swinging bag you said earlier. An itchy one. Interesting. Hearing, you're up. Rhythmic thumps, like footfalls? Vision, smell and touch all suggest that I'm being carried around somewhere in that infamous bag. Hearing's findings supports available data. And also suggest that there are up to three individuals around me.’ I decided that I should probably try to gather more information before acting. Thankfully, the exhaustion seems to have gone from paralyzing to merely debilitating. ‘I can move things now! Sort of, at least. ‘Okay, hand, listen up. You and sense of touch are going on a fact finding expedition. Your first target: My face.’ I moved my hand up to my head and was immediately greeted with something big and hard rubbing against my cheek. ‘Hand, I notice that you didn't bring touch with you. I know you two don't always like working together, especially when hot soup is involved, but this is important, okay? Wait! Forget touch for now. Move down a bit.’ I slid my hand and whatever it was covered in down across my throat. Compared to what I was used to this seemed like a colossal undertaking. To put it bluntly, my neck was enormous. And unlike my hand I could feel its texture, and it felt alien. ‘Oh, this is bad. Strangely shaped body parts means injuries, and if this is a swelling, I could be in serious trouble.’ The bag I was in suddenly lurched in some direction and cartoonishly dumb sounding voice said, "Uh, me thinks pony wake up." ‘Pony? There were talk about ponies before... Really large neck and hard hand without a sense of touch? Hand, or whatever you are these days... Inspect my face again.’ A voice very similar to the other said from another direction. "What we do now? Boss said to take pony to pony town before it notice it gone." My mouth and my nose were positioned on an outcropping ahead of the rest of my head. ‘I have a snout! No, wait. That's not it. Oh, what's the word?’ I thought as I mentally snapped my fingers, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with the reason why I couldn't do it physically. "Stupid! You wake it up!" The voice of Andy Serkis said. "We leave it here. Ponies won't know, boss won't know." ‘They're talking about me aren't they? I wonder if them leaving me is a good thing or a bad thing.’ "But this place full of timber wolves," the one closest to me said. Well, that answers that. As I felt myself being lowered to the ground, a howl sounded in the distance, and my hoof's journey of discovery was temporarily halted. "Me going back to mine! Bring pony if you want but me not sticking around!" The third speaker said. ‘They're literally throwing me to the wolves? You're not Andy Serkis!’ I saw an opening in my little habitat as the designated bag carrier let it go from his grip and the sound of three sets of footfalls, or pawfalls, I guess, vanished into the distance. Between being so fatigued that I could barely move, being captured by enormous dogs, carried around in a bag and discovering that my body was not my own, I feel I've handled the situation fairly well. However, I was now getting worried. The howls had quieted down but I wasn't relaxing yet. ‘So what's the first order of business? Getting out of the bag and getting a look at my new form would be a good start.’ I started dragging myself towards the opening of the bag and out into the world. True enough, my foot seemed to be a hoof as well and– ‘Ow! No way. I just pulled my tail with it.’ I poked my head out of the bag with some difficulty and looked around. I was in a forest, it seemed, or by the edge of one, I realized after I'd had a closer look. There was a sort of treeline where the forest was really dense on one side, and in the other direction I could see it open up into rolling plains, my sense of smell was reminding me that it was now really sharp, but I filed that away until later. I would really like to move towards the plains at that point, for several reasons. I was pretty sure that the howls I heard came in the direction of the woods, and the landscape of the plains was a lot more inviting. Also, there was a really lovely sunset partially visible through the trees which I would like to get a closer look at. However, I suspected that reaching the plains wouldn't be that simple. I dragged myself the rest of the way out of the bag and raised my head from the ground to take a look at myself. True enough, I was now in an equine body. With royal blue, fuzzy hair for some reason. That was weird. I couldn't really tell as I had nothing to compare myself with nearby, but I was also pretty sure that I was very small. Like the body of a child. Or a foal. One thing that I had suspected all along from the sensations of lying in the bag, but which I was still a little disappointed to discover, was my arm and leg, or lack thereof. As always, my right arm was completely gone, this time however, it seemed like the scar was not directly visible beneath the fur. My right leg, or hind leg now, was also missing a few inches down the thigh, and what a thigh is called on a horse, I have no idea. My tail caught my attention too, It was poofy, and a light shade of orange with indigo highlights. I was almost entranced by my bizarre coloration before a thought struck me. ‘Aw geeze! Aren't horses put down when their legs are crippled? Things are looking worse by the second. And then there are the wolves! ‘Alright, let's say I manage to get away from any predators... unlikely, would I be euthanized as soon as I reach civilization?’ I felt something like a jolt of electricity shooting through my head as I realized what I was experiencing. ‘I'm a tiny blue horse! How am I even having lucid thoughts at the moment!? Why am I not a blubbering wreck!? Wait, maybe I am. Maybe my perception of reality had gone completely out the window and this is just me being bored of the pillow room and hug-yourself shirt? No, let's not think like that. Because if this is real that's a dangerous road to walk down. Heh, trot down. Then again, if I wasn't mistaken I had already slept twice since all this started. Maybe that has something to do with it. Subconsciousness and all that. Also, you're a professional, it's not becoming to refer to medical restraints that way.’ I let my head fall down to the ground again. ‘Hmm, speaking of blubbering, can I make sounds? Can I talk?’ I felt a bit sheepish for not having tried that earlier. "Uh, I– Whoa, I can!" I said excitedly. "Okay, that certainly helps with the euthanasia factor." ‘If I can talk then I can ask for help. And would you really put down a horse when It's actually telling you not to?’ My mouth (still drawing a blank on what a horse's mouth is actually called) wasn't as long as on a real horse but it still wasn't near the shape of a human mouth. I found it funny how I could talk so fluently despite that. ‘Clearly there's more to this situation than bad news. So let's not give up. Now that I'm coming to terms with being a colorful little horsie, for the moment at least, so let's move on and check myself for injuries. This is kind of warranted considering my fatigue.’ I raised myself up again and took another look. ‘No, I seem to be doing all right. Next, my head.’ I felt my mane around my wrist (another horse term I'm unfamiliar with) and like my tail it was also huge and poofy. I shook it to the front of my eyes and was met with bangs that can only be described as magnificent, and I had a distinct feeling that I knew how it looked in a mirror. ‘CaaAAaarie. CaaAAAAAAAaarie! Heh! Oh, that felt good. A nice change from the worry and utter confusion.’ I've already figured by my coloration and sort of magnificent tail and hairdo that I'm not a normal horse, or pony, if those dog things are to be believed, but it was still a pleasant surprise to learn about my foreleg's wide range of motion. I could point it in almost every direction and reach every part of my head, and while fingers would have helped with the inspection, I didn't seem to have any injuries– ‘Wait! What's this? ‘A hard protrusion sticking out of my forehead. Am I? No way. But then again, what else has been normal recently?’ I looked up. ‘I'm a unicorn. This is great! I'm magical and– ...damn! I'm pretty sure I read a story when I was a kid where a bunch of bad guys were poaching unicorns for the healing properties of their horns. This could complicate the whole “finding civilization and asking for help” thing. Then again, aren't unicorns supposed to be impossible, or near-impossible, to capture?’ I looked down and inspected myself again, then let out a sigh. ‘I guess there has to be exceptions, how else would the stories exist?’ These last few minutes had offered so many revelations that I startled myself a bit when I remembered the wolf howls. I took another look around and let out a sigh of relief when I found out that I was still alone. I was also starting to appreciate the perks with my new neck. ‘Maybe those wolves had caught the scent of something else and skulked away in another direction? Hmph! Hopefully towards those dogs. ‘But anyway, there clearly are predators around here, which means that I should not be.’ I started dragging myself across the ground out from the treeline. The good news about this is that it wasn't painful at all, barely even uncomfortable. You'd expect that dragging yourself on your belly across the forest floor would start hurting immediately, but not for me it seems. The bad news was that this was going really, really slow. And while I had enough energy to look around and feel around with my hoof, relocating myself in any meaningful way just wasn't an option, at least for more than a minute, which seemed to be about four body lengths. ‘Time to reassess my situation: I am currently in what is likely a dangerous place. I lack the strength and physical aptitude to even move or fend for myself. I look like a creature of fantasy. I can talk, but likely the only individuals aware of my state and location didn't seem like ally material. I am uninjured, though, and I have a– Of course! I have a magical horn! ‘Alright, this could be the last venue available to me as far as I can tell. If I can do magic, maybe I can help myself. ‘So, how does one do magic with one's horn?’ To my slight dismay I realized that I have no idea where to even start. ‘Okay, let's not give up now, you've read fantasy novels. How do they do it in those? ‘Funny how hard that was to remember all of a sudden. Come on, think! Magic words, perhaps? What's the first thing Harry Potter learned? Those books had this Latin thing going on, right? Let's try that. You know some words in Latin.’ "Ignis!" Nothing. ‘Well, maybe it requires some visualization or something. Now that I think about it, perhaps I shouldn't try that again, lighting a forest on fire while I'm in it and unable to move is not a good idea. ‘What else? Oh, right! You know how to tell Romans to go home! Much better idea. Let's see, “Romanes eunt domus”. I sniggered a bit as John Cleese chastised me in my head. No, “Romani... something, Domum”. What was that middle word? Argh! Where's YouTube when you need it? Think. Think. “Romani ite domum.” That's it! Now, “ite” is plural for “i”, and “ego” is some form of self like “me” or “I”. hopefully this could send me home!’ "Ego I Domum." Still nothing. ‘Yeah, that would have been too good to be true, wouldn't it? Whatever, concentrate and try again. Try and tense up your horn.’ "Ego I Domum!" ‘There was a sensation there. This time try to really project yourself into your horn.’ I closed my eye. "Ego I– what?" I felt it, all around me. The earth, and the air, and the trees. I'm not sure how to describe it with words, but it was life, and power, and... Magic. The sensation was gone a moment after it began, but somehow I knew what it was I saw. Or rather, felt. ‘It wasn't the “magic words”, was it?’ I projected myself into my horn again and I, sensed, magic as it swirled around me. It's difficult to describe, but it was like seeing, and still not. When you use your sight to see something, that something blocks or obscures whatever is behind it, unless that something is invisible, in which case you do not see it. This wasn't so this time, I could perceive the world beyond my senses, everything, all around me. Imagine perceiving scents with your eyes. It had the nose's ability to take in sensations from numerous sources that would block each other if they were perceived with sight, and the instant feedback of the eyes. ‘I know I've seen this before, but where? Where and when could I have visualized magic before? ‘There are some shrubs over there. I can see, feel how one small twig was dying as leaves higher up blocked its access to sunlight, the magic slowly leaving it.’ I perceived the swirling shapes and colors in the twig, muted compared to the ones around it, and somehow I knew what they meant, and knew how they could be influenced. ‘So, I definitely have magic. How do I use it and not just observe it?’ I closed my eye and projected myself into my horn, and this time I reached out. The twig instantly became full of life again and pushed its way above the others and into the open. "... Interesting." - Scratch and his brother, Scratch, were not having a good day. They were very conflicted, something they did not enjoy. Boss had been very clear when he said that taking ponies is a bad idea. And that the one they found should be returned before it wakes up and before anyone else notices that it's gone. It was simple, boss was above them in the hierarchy, and when he told them to do something, they did it. The thing is, Lugnut was also above them in the hierarchy, and he told them to abandon the pony, even though boss was above him too! And boss told him, too! Scratch's brain was hurting. Even so, he had to admit, being where the timber wolves were not was a pretty good thing. Lugnut was in charge of them right now so he should be the one to blame if anyone finds out what they've done. Yeah, it was Lugnut's fault. Maybe he should tell boss about what Lugnut had done. Scratch didn't like Lugnut. If Scratch told the boss what Lugnut had done, Lugnut might get Black Bag duty. "If you tell boss about this, I make sure you get Black Bag duty!" Lugnut shouted to Scratch. So much for that idea. Lugnut had been yelling angrily at Scratch and his brother on and off for some time as they ran back towards the mine, when he suddenly yelped. "Ow! What? Whaaat iiis...–" Lugnut sounded strange as Scratch looked at him and saw him holding a dart in his paw. Lugnut collapsed on the ground and began snoring heavily, this was better than him yelling, but Scratch didn't like the thought of those around him suddenly collapsing. Scratch was conflicted again. Scratch heard something behind him and turned around to see a pony in a robe standing there. She held a blow gun in her mouth. Scratch prided himself in being able to figure out that the pony shot a dart at Lugnut. And it only took him a few seconds to do so! "You found a creature earlier, to the west. It seems you took it back to your nest," the pony said calmly. Scratch wasn't the brightest of diamond dogs, he knew enough to know that. But being a diamond dog means having a good sense of when something is more dangerous than you. For once, Scratch was not conflicted. It was best to answer this pony's question. Truthfully, and fast. "Uh, yeah, Lugnut found small pony," Scratch said and slowly backed away with his brother. "A small pony from beyond the world's veil?" the cloaked pony seemed to say to herself. "Go on, I would like to hear this tale." "Uh, Lugnut found small pony with horn, small pony was broken so Lugnut said it could not escape," Scratch said. He was confused. The pony in front of him was clearly more than a match for them. But things that were more than a match for him were usually bigger and spent a lot more time snarling and drooling. That was probably because almost all things he had seen that were more dangerous than him were other diamond dogs. Ponies, it seemed, can be dangerous when just standing still. Scratch was learning a lot today. "Interesting, so tell me now. This pony was broken how?" The pony said. Scratch suspected that he didn't know the proper... what was it now? Words! That's it. "Uh, just broken, some bits gone." The pony gestured for him to continue. "Then we took it to boss. Boss get angry at Lugnut. Boss don't want ponies in mine. Boss said to take the pony to pony village before they notice. Then we go, and pony wake up when we over there," Scratch said and pointed behind the pony. "And we hear timber wolves. Then Lugnut tells us to leave pony and we do that." Scratch was getting worried. The pony in front of him was getting tense. Like boss sometimes did. But worse. Finally, it spoke again. "You should make sure that by something else you are not found, for the Everfree's beasts would surely appreciate prey that is just lying around." The pony gestured towards Lugnut, still snoring on the ground. Then it turned away and galloped in the direction he had pointed. Scratch didn't get the feeling that it was fleeing. Scratch looked at his brother. They picked up Lugnut by his paws and started hauling him towards the mine as fast as they could. Scratch was not conflicted anymore, boss was gonna hear about this, and Scratch didn't care that Lugnut didn't want that. - Zecora raced through the forest, relieved that she managed to control her emotions. It had been difficult, but she didn't have time to pummel diamond dogs when a foal's life was at risk. ‘The dogs had brought a maimed foal to the edge of the Everfree.’ Zecora was running as fast as the greatest earth pony athlete. ‘And then they left it there when timber wolves were closing in.’ A doctor would've been worried that Zecora would hurt herself at this rate. There was no time to warn the elements. She only had a vague idea of where they would be. Zecora sped up. - ‘Okay, I can sense magic around me and I can influence some of it to some extent. Hey, what do I look like, magically? I Projected myself into my horn again and copped a feel. ‘Wow, this is really something.’ Beautiful, fascinating shapes made up my new form. And I made some really interesting discoveries: My arm and leg, the physically missing ones that is, were still there magically. And I had digits curled up around my hooves, with a slightly different magical “tone” than the rest of me. They moved when I willed my fingers to move. I reached out and tried to pluck a strand of grass. ‘No dice. There must be some trick to it. I'll figure it out later. ‘Well then. What to do now? I should try and improve my situation with my new abilities. But how? And in which way?’ Taking a magical look at myself again, I noticed that I can move my phantom limbs (I figured that was an appropriate term). But they didn't seem to be able to interact with the physical world, though. Suddenly I heard a loud snarl behind me and I whipped my head around to face... ‘Wolves made out of wood?’ I was sort of grateful for that last part because the fear of having a pack of predators sneaking up on me and the puzzlement over the bizarre sight sort of cancelled out each others' paralyzing effects. "Ooh, 'timber wolves', I get it!" I said. The one in front, there were six in all, snarled again. ‘Oh, right. This is not the time to appreciate puns. ‘Okay, this is bad, very bad. But I have mysterious powers and I don't even know what they can do. Everything might not be hopeless, but I should act really soon.’ The one in front started charging towards me. ‘No, Wait! I need to come up with a plan first!’ It was about to pounce me when a branch– no, a staff shot into it from the side and nailed it into a tree, where large chunks of it were smashed off. Whew! But what's going on now? I looked to the direction where the staff had come from to see a robed zebra jump out through the undergrowth and place herself with a wide stance between myself and the remaining wolves. Wow! "To hunt and kill this one you are free," the zebra said. ‘Wait? They're free to– then what's with the rescue?’ "but know that you will have to go through me," she concluded. ‘Oh, it was bravado! In verse! I like this one.’ Two of the wolves charged while the other three split up into two different directions. The zebra gracefully jumped over the charging wolves and cartwheeled towards her staff. ‘There's a talking zebra over here doing kung fu! I have never been to Kansas. But if I had, I wouldn't think that I was there anymore. ‘I am now being rescued by a zebra, and while things are getting really exciting, I am starting to get really shaky. Maybe I should try and get away? It would be easier for my rescuer if she didn't have to worry about protecting me at least.’ I must've looked pretty pathetic at that point, pawing at the ground, trying uselessly to get away, when I looked back at the zebra who was flipping through the air, smacking the wolves with her staff and kicking them with her rear hooves. That's when I noticed that the injuries she inflicted were being unmade, the splinters and twigs that left the wolves' bodies seemed to have a life of their own, and they reunited with their bodies constantly. No wolf was heading for me yet though. ‘The zebra has apparently got the full attention of the pack. Wait– Uh oh.’ I looked toward the spot where the first casualty of the fight lay, the wolf that had charged me was also being reassembled. My heart sank. It was pretty clear that the zebra was trying to rescue me, but since the enemy was apparently infinite, that could only happen by retreating, something that I was just not capable of. The wolf was now completely reassembled and while I could hear the fight going strong behind me, this one seemed to have eyes only for me. It was slowly advancing and snarling, something I found superfluous as I was plenty scared at that point anyway. It started charging once more and I let out a startled cry as I desperately tried to scamper away. My rescuer seems to have noticed, though, as she had disengaged with the other foes and once again came rushing to my aid. She jumped over me towards my attacker, and judging by the sound she showed it what's what one more time. However, her luck seemed to have run out, because the other wolves had been following her and this time she did not have time to prepare a defense. The world slowed down as I took in what was happening. My rescuer had gone to seemingly impossible lengths to keep me safe, but now she was going to die, and then I was going to die, and it would be my fault. I would never even know her name. ‘... This will not do.’ I projected myself into my horn and saw the world in that strange way again. My rescuer was a bright, shining beacon, and the ones heading for her were crisp shapes of swirling colors. I knew what I was looking for. And I knew where to find it. ‘There!’ I was running out of time. They were inches from her. They would bring her down. Tear mortal wound and break bones. This time, I didn't just reach out with my magic, I poured it all out of my horn. This was not the time for subtleties. I had really just intended to find the central point for the wolves' magic, their heart, or core, so to speak, and give it a good yanking. But it seems I overdid it a bit. A nova of energy shot out through my horn and the timber wolves were blasted into pieces, which started raining down across the landscape. I was suddenly extremely tired. And I want you to consider the word “extremely” for a bit. But first things first. The zebra was lying on her side a small way away from where she stood when the wolves had pounced. ‘Oh no, no no nononono. Did it get her too?’ She seemed unharmed but I needed to make sure. Once again I tried to project myself into my horn but it didn't work. ‘Drained of magic, perhaps? That could explain why I felt so cold all of a sudden. ‘Oh, and here's Nap-Time again. ‘No, Nap-Time, this is important!’ I started crawling over to my rescuer with a haste that only desperation can summon. I was utterly exhausted but rest had to wait. I finally reached her and... ‘She breathes! ‘She lives, she looks unharmed. Okay Nap-Time, where were we?’ > I was not always awake, but when I was... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- … I passed out again. — Twilight Sparkle and her friends were growing concerned. They had been looking for traces of their mystery guest for almost an hour. Twilight herself was frustrated. It was powerful magic that brought the creature here, but the traces were so fleeting it was impossible to get an accurate read. She was preparing another tracking spell when she felt an enormous wave of magic from the east. And although Twilight Sparkle functioned as the group's source of magic knowledge, the whole group felt the wave. "What was that?" five of the six ponies asked simultaneously. They glanced at each other and then took off in the direction of the magic disturbance. They reached the site within minutes and could not be sure of what they saw. Zecora and a unicorn filly lay on the ground, surrounded by a large quantity what looked like timber wolf remains. The zebra looked unharmed but the filly's state was less certain due to the very large and frazzled mane and tail covering her. "Oh my!" Fluttershy said and flew over to their striped friend and the unknown party. "What do you suppose happened, Twilight?" Applejack asked cautiously. "I don't know," Twilight answered and slowly walked up to the pair lying unconscious on the forest floor. "That felt like unicorn magic, but it wasn't a spell that I recognized." The six friends were standing over two unconscious ponies (and the branches that would normally form timber wolves). Twilight's impulsive side was telling her to try and see if her zebra friend and the unknown filly were harmed in any way, but since there was no immediate danger, her methodical side won out and she let the resident font of medical knowledge confirm their state instead. She channeled her magic into her horn and scanned the site. Her suspicions seemed to be true: Zecora, the filly, and the timber wolves had all been drained of their magical reserves. She let out a sigh of relief. Magical exhaustion almost always led to an almost comatose sleep, but that in itself was not dangerous. Rest, followed by a hearty meal or two, was all that was required for a full recovery. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were the ones that had taken an extra close look at the zebra and the filly, the first out of concern, the second out a mix of concern and curiosity. When Pinkie lifted the considerable mass that made up the filly's mane and tail they both let out small gasps. "What? What is it, Flutters?" Asked a startled Rainbow Dash. "It's, it... " A shaken looking Fluttershy tried to answer. "Oh, that poor dear!" Pinkie Pie took the filly's mane in her mouth and positioned them on the ground rather than on top of her for the rest of the group to see. The rest let out little gasps of their own at what they saw. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had especially horrified expressions on their faces. With their very beings being so intimately tied to physical exercise, they cringed at the sight. "Oh, my," Rarity slowly said. Twilight was about to second her friend's concise but encompassing statement, until she realized that they came here for a reason. "Does anypony recognize the filly?" Twilight asked, despite being certain she already knew the answer. The rest of the group shook their heads. Zecora had been trying to locate the involuntary visitor and apparently found this filly. Twilight lit up her horn to try and discern the residues of magical energies in the area. A powerful burst of magic had gone off here very recently, but she suspected that already. She was both relieved and horrified, however, when her reading clearly showed that the filly was the one they had been looking for since coming here. Relieved that her victim was not out there still, with Zecora out of commission and two ponies needing to be transported someplace safe. Horrified of the implications. "Did I do this?" Twilight asked with a shaky voice. Her friends gave her worried and slightly alarmed looks before she continued. "This filly is the one we've been looking for, the readings are obvious," she said as she gestured to the small form on the ground. "And she's..." Twilight tried to continue but couldn't get any further. Applejack put a hoof on her friend's withers and tried to say in a soothing voice, "Now don't worry, Twilight. I ain't got no head for magic, but you said that that scryin' orb was supposed to be harmless?" Twilight nodded and Applejack pressed her reasoning and hoped that it would hold water. "That, to me, seems to imply that you ain't responsible for this." "But I..." Twilight started before giving Applejack's words some thought. It's true, the orb was supposed to be harmless. And, sure, teleporting somepony beyond the borders of worlds could be inconvenient to the point of dangerous, but it was a very indirect danger. Her examination certainly didn't indicate that the orb would remove limbs when spying strange phenomenon. "Yeah, you could be right," she continued. "I hope you're right." "Anyway, I think we should get out of here," said Rainbow Dash. "If we found what we're looking for then there's no point in sticking around." "You're right," said Twilight. "Let's get them back to Ponyville. As far as I can tell, they're just suffering from magical exhaustion. The Timber Wolves probably are too, now that I think about it." "That's not gonna mess up the zap apple harvest is it?" Said Pinkie Pie. "Cause I've got some ideas for new frosting with those." Twilight was feeling slightly better now, relaying information always had a soothing effect on her. "No," she said. "They're just out cold and should wake up tomorrow." Applejack was the obvious choice for the one who would carry Zecora back to Ponyville while Rainbow Dash took the filly. The earth pony mare was barely hindered by the zebra on her back while the pegasus positioned her wings to secure the filly with the awkward center of gravity. By now, the sun had almost set. They were all a bit relieved by this since it meant that there would be few to no ponies seeing them carrying two unconscious ponies from the direction of the Everfree Forest through the streets of Ponyville on the way to the hospital. And considering the state of the filly, and Ponyville rumor mill, this might've been for the best. — Nurse Redheart was familiar with the importance of down time, as was common for those who have to be ready to skip lunch and breaks for the sake of her fellow ponies' (and occasionally non-ponies') health. She was enjoying a weak but highly sugar and milk augmented cup of coffee and having a relaxingly indolent conversation with Ponyville Hospital's receptionist, Ink Sketch, when the front doors shot open and the town's strangeness magnets filed in. Redheart and Ink Sketch looked at each other. The excitement of being a Ponyville resident had risen exponentially in recent times, ever since the arrival of Twilight Sparkle, the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the return of Princess Luna, but despite all that had happened, the hospital had not become noticeably more taxed. Nurse Redheart was no mage among the scholarly elite in Canterlot's golden spires, but she felt confident in jumping to the conclusion that it might be the proximity of the Elements of Harmony and their bearers that had kept it that way. Then again, most of the trouble that befell Ponyville also focused around the Bearers themselves, so while her feeling for the six were as benevolent as for the rest of the the ponies (and non-ponies) of Ponyville, she was not entirely without reservations for this motley crew. And she found it a bit daring of them to chastise the dreaded Cutie Mark Crusaders when they got into trouble. And so she hoped that the sight of the Bearers purposefully moving in through the doors of Ponyville Hospital was not a sign of things to come and set down her coffee and braced herself for the worst. Ponies with Redheart's experience and dedication often picked up social skills related to their vocation, and reading ponies' body language and discerning situations based on group behavior was one of them. So she was somewhat confused at the downcast look of the recent arrivals, coupled with the purposeful movements and lack of urgency. It was not because anypony was dead, she was sure of that. But she spotted Zecora the zebra lying unconscious on top of Applejack and a foal on top of Rainbow Dash. When they arrived at the front desk seconds later, Ink Sketch managed to pose the question, "What seems to be the problem?" with a tone that was both guarded and encouraging. "Magical exhaustion of both Zecora here," Twilight said, nodding her head towards the zebra, "And an unknown filly," she concluded while nodding towards the other unconscious form. Redheart stepped towards Rainbow Dash and the filly. "A Jane Doe?" She said. "Have you asked her about herself or made anyyyy..." Redheart trailed off when getting a peek beyond the feathers of Rainbow Dash's wings and seeing the state of the filly. Rainbow Dash looked a little downcast. "Yeeaahh, no, she was unconscious when we got to her." "We found her like that in the Everfree Forest!" Pinkie Pie said in her usual excited voice, but a perceptive listener might've noticed that she sounded slightly less chipper than usual. "In the middle of a pile of knocked cold timberwolves!" Nurse Redheart raised an eyebrow at this and said, "Are there any other issues you know of?" Fluttershy spoke up. "Um, no, I did a quick examination and couldn't find anything." She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "She's a bit cold though." "Alright," Nurse Redheart said. "I'm gonna call a doctor for a thorough examination, just in case. But first I'm gonna get a gurney." At this point, Ink Sketch had fished out a small stack of papers and laid them on the table before saying, "And I would like you to fill out these forms." "Fluttershy," Twilight said as she walked towards the front desk. "Why don't you fill out the one for Zecora? As for the filly, well, there are some unusual circumstances surrounding her." Twilight had Ink Sketch's full attention, "Oh, really, now?" she asked and glanced at the filly. "What kind of circumstances?" Nurse Redheart had apparently found both of what she was looking for when Twilight answered, because both she and a stallion in a doctor's outfit walked in from around the corner, each pushing a gurney. "Well, it requires some explanation." Twilight was a bit nervous, but steeled herself and continued, "But this filly was by accident magically brought here from another world." Both the doctor and nurse Redheart had paused their wheeling of the gurneys. The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Uhm, so what does that mean in this case?" The very mild reluctance to believe what he heard spoke volumes about Equestria's newest addition to the roster of royalties. "Honestly, I don't know for certain," Twilight answered. She thought back to the notes on the world that the filly came from, and her own impressions of that world. "But I suspect that it might mean that she's going to be even more confused or even scared than one might expect when she wakes up." There was a pause before the doctor asked, "So... are there any reasons to treat this patient any different from other patients? Medically, I mean." "Not that I can think of, though I would like to stay and make sure she's alright," Twilight said. "Well," the doctor said. "You're free to wait while we finish our examination of course. But may I ask why?" "Because I may be responsible for her state," Twilight answered. "And if I am..." she trailed of. The young princess was obviously upset about the whole affair and the doctor decided not to push her any further. "Very well. Nurse Redheart, would you please help me bring the patients into examination rooms, and then contact doctor Staff for our dear Zecora?" The doctor said as he pushed the gurney towards Rainbow Dash. Nurse Redheart helped Rainbow Dash lift the small form with its considerable supplements of mane and tail onto one of the gurneys before moving on to the zebra. "Yes, doctor." As the nurse and doctor wheeled their patients away, Ink Sketch spoke up. "So, what does this mean in terms of paper work?" "It means that we should use the anomaly stamp," Twilight said. As Ink Sketch ducked beneath the desk, she said, "Short and informative, that's how we like it," as she resurfaced with a stamp between her teeth and hammered it down on the blank form, which made Fluttershy, who was filling out the other form next to her , jump in surprise. Between Discord's rampage, visits and even admittance in the hospital, and things like Parasprites, poison joke and a slew of other bizarre events that the citizens of Ponyville seemed to endure on a monthly basis, the anomaly stamp had been introduced at many of Ponyville's government facilities. A document or paper with that mark could mean many different things, prominent among them are: “We don't know”, “Inquire with Twilight Sparkle about possible solutions”, “We really don't know”, “Don't panic”, “Wing it”, “PANIC!”, and “Hunker down until phenomenons of bright light, rainbows and sparkles are visible outdoors (not to be confused with other phenomenons of less aesthetically appealing and soothing nature).' As the papers were being filed away by Ink Sketch, Twilight turned to her friends, "It's getting late. I'm going to stay here, but don't feel as if you need to as well." Rarity, who had been trying to stifle a yawn for some time at that point, gave in and said, "Thank you Twilight, I'm just glad any more serious issues were averted." "Yeah," Applejack said. "The farm ain't gonna work itself. And to work it properly, a pony needs her sleep. But if you need help with anything, sugarcube, you know where to find us." "I'm staying, though," Rainbow Dash said. "The weather over the next few days are gonna be just like today anyway, it's pretty much gonna run itself." "I'm staying too," came Fluttershy's soft voice. Pinkie Pie had began to bounce toward the exit after with Applejack and Rarity, "Don't worry, Twilight, I'll tell Spike where you are." As the two small groups separated, Twilight said, "Thank you, Pinkie," before remembering some details about the situation. "WAIT! Don't forget to tell him why I'm here!" — Doctor Proper walked out of the examination room to find three young mares waiting for him. The feeling of wistfulness he got from that confused him so much that he almost missed what the lavender one in the middle said. "How is she, doctor?" "Oh! Uh, I don't want to say anything specific yet. But it doesn't look bad." He moved around them toward the examination room which currently housed Zecora and Doctor Staff. "However, I would like to confirm something. Excuse me." He pushed open the door to the examination room and said, "Curl, would you please help me confirm something with the other patient? I would like a third opinion." The other doctor exited the room and nodded toward the three mares who had brought the patients in. "Of course, what about?" she said as they walked into the room with the filly in. "Well, like the princess and her friends said, she's clearly suffering from magical exhaustion, but I believe I'm seeing signs of Wisp-Shimmer syndrome," Doctor Proper said. Doctor Staff took a look at the different values that nurse Redheart had written down before she gently placed her fetlock on the filly's forehead, just below the horn. "Yes, the signs are there. What do you think, Redheart?" "Hard to be sure, but it would be negligent to not take any steps," the nurse answered. Doctor Proper nodded at this and looked lost in thought for a moment. "Yes, I believe I overheard that this was officially an anomaly situation. In which case we maybe ought to conscript the help of the young ponies just outside." Nurse Redheart was heading towards the door. "I was just thinking the same thing." She opened the door and had the attention of the Bearers waiting outside. "Alright, we might have something we need your help with. Please, come in." The three mares filed in a bit nervously. "What would you like our help with?" asked Fluttershy, who, for a change, was not as nervous as her two friends, as being asked for medical assistance was something she was far more comfortable with than either Rainbow or Twilight. Doctor Proper turned to his colleague. "You take it from here, Curl. You actually have experience treating this." Doctor Staff nodded and adjusted her glasses. "We are seeing clear signs of Wisp-Shimmer syndrome in this filly." Twilight and Fluttershy were about to let out sighs of relief when Fluttershy realized something and stopped herself. "Not... bad, I hope?" "Oh, no," Doctor Staff answered calmly. "Early stages, but as I'm sure you know it's best if treated in its early stages to prevent complications,". Rainbow Dash looked a bit annoyed at being the only one that didn't comprehend the situation. "Hold on! What's Shim-Whisper syndrome?" Twilight rolled her eyes out of reflex. "Wisp-Shimmer syndrome is a fairly rare affliction that mostly affects unicorns. If ponies' magical reserves are exhausted, they try to jump start themselves by borrowing energy from the pony's physical stamina." Rainbow Dash considered this for a moment. "Oh, yeah, I've seen you get all tired and drowsy when you do powerful spells," Rainbow nodded. Twilight didn't look very pleased at having the side effects of her doing demanding magic described in that particular manner, but her desire to lecture predictably won out over her desire to snap at her friend. So she continued. "It also works the other way around. When a pony is physically exhausted, her stamina borrows from her magical reserves. Pegasi do this fairly often, and earth ponies do it so often they hardly notice." Rainbow Dash nodded at this, clearly recognizing what her friend was saying. "If a pony's magical reserves are profoundly exhausted while the pony is suffering from serious physical fatigue, her magical and physical reserves might get stuck in a loop, trying to leech off each other, and not getting a chance for either to recover. That is Wisp-Shimmer syndrome and it can be very serious if left untreated." Doctor Staff nodded. "I couldn't have given a better description myself. Do you happen to know how to treat it, your highness?" "Unfortunately no," Twilight said before perking up. "But I wouldn't mind learning!" "I'm sure you wouldn't," a smiling Curl Staff said. "Since we're probably gonna be able to wake her up soon, we should be able to provide the treatment as foodstuff. And that's what we would like your help with." The three bearers looked at each other before Rainbow Dash spoke. "Well, both Applejack and Pinkie Pie are pretty good with cooking. But how is food going to help?" Doctor Staff was a bit amused at the expressions of the three mares in front of her, Twilight was looking confused but mostly curious, Rainbow Dash was looking curious but mostly confused, and Fluttershy somewhere in the middle. "If we introduce magic into the patient's digestive tract, where her physical energy comes from, her magical reserves should receive what they need, breaking the loop and letting her recover normally." "So, um, you want us to make magic food?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Essentially, yes," Doctor Staff answered. At this, nurse Redheart spoke up. "And everypony knows that Pinkie Pie can make cupcakes from just about anything, including ground up gems." Twilight's face lit up with a look of epiphany. "Of course! Rarity has lots of gems that can easily hold stable magic, and Spike can pulverize them, no problem." Redheart and Curl Staff smilingly nodded their heads before the doctor had a slightly uncomfortable look on her face. "Of course, Miss Rarity shouldn't be forced to provide such a thing for the hospital." "Oh, I'm sure she's happy to help!" Twilight said. "No doubt. Even so, it would behoove us not to rely on a private pony for such things. If you do retrieve such gems from Miss Rarity, please assure her that she will be compensated." Doctor Staff said. "Alright, is there anything else?" Twilight asked. "Eh, yes. Nurse Redheart is writing down the type of gems recommended and how much we might need. And please, tell Miss Pie to restrain herself with the quantity of baked goods, we are leaving for Canterlot with the patient before long." Doctor Stable said. The three friends had been ready to leave on their little task before they heard this. "You are?" four voices asked, doctor Proper among them. Doctor Staff nodded at this. "Yes, there are better means to treat this particular malady in Canterlot, and I don't want to take any chances. Redheart, are you up for a trip to Canterlot?" Nurse Redheart was the only one that didn't seem surprised at the announcement. "Of course." "Good, we'll leave tomorrow morning, preferably with the earliest train," Doctor Staff turned back to the three mares. "Thank you so much for all your help, and please, pass on our gratitude to the others as well." Fluttershy and Twilight smiled in a small way while Rainbow Dash puffed her chest out. "No problem," the energetic pegasus said. As they filed out they glanced back at the filly on the gurney, feeling that despite her state, their contribution still made a difference. — Spike the dragon was sitting on the back of his oldest friend with a disgruntled look on his face and the end of a shimmering bag jutting out of his mouth. Large crunching sounds were becoming noticeably more faint with every movement of his jaw. Around him, in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were preparing the ingredients for a batch of cupcakes with Twilight going over the list given to them by Nurse Redheart and some instructions in a thick book exclusively about cupcakes. Rainbow Dash was lounging around in the corner, idly chewing on some leftovers from the day's batch. Spike Pulled the bag out of his mouth and held it in his claws. "Done," he stated in a resigned voice. Twilight took the bag in her magic grip, opened it and took a look at the contents. "Spike, there are still large chunks in here!" Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipped over and looked over the contents. "Don't worry, Twilight, I can make cupcakes out of that, no problem!" "I know you can, Pinkie, but if it's not finely minced enough it might do more harm than good," Twilight turned back to Spike, sitting on her back. "Please, Spike, I know you don't like this, but it's important that the gem dust is not too rough." Spike once again grabbed the bag. "Alright, fine," he said before sticking the bag in his mouth again and continued chewing. Twilight gave Spike a warm smile. "Cheer up, Spike, You're doing this to help a cute little filly. And Rarity seemed very pleased with your part in this, she might give you some gems as a reward the next time you see her." Spike's chewing slowed down for a few seconds as he considered this, then it sped up again with renewed vigor as he suddenly got a big and slightly dumb-looking smile on his face. — Did I ever get to duct-taping chocolate bars to my jacket? There's a chasm between your bedside table and your bed, think of the treasures that could be there! How about some strawberry ice cream? You'd like that wouldn't you? It's like a roller coaster! Where's my slipper? What is? My thoughts. Yeah, they're like "Wooeeooo!". Drop that TV! Applause. Thoughts slowly getting more comprehensible. You know what that means, don't you? Dust bunnies on my lips? Kiss grandma! Yeah, I think I know what that means. Lucy~in~the~sky! But considering that last part it's not looking good. Time to clean the kitchen. Multicultural society! I'm waking up. Morning mist and poetry. Camels outside of Taj Mahal. Aaaoow, JUMP! French, wooden box with purple hat. Extra exclamation marks! Wheels and string. Alright, ENOUGH! Open your eye, already. When I wake up that scrambled it's usually difficult enough to open my eye and start taking in the world around me, but this time it was a new level of hard. I sighed inwardly, I think, and prepared myself for more incomprehensible mind babble in the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness. At least it wasn't sleep paralysis, I hate that, everything goes purple. "Doctor. I think she's waking up." A voice! I had been drifting aimlessly just beneath the surface of the waking world and I could see the rays of the morning glory shimmering from somewhere above me. But here was something I could orient myself with. ‘Oh, voice! My glaring, orange buoy of floatness! Send down your white polymers-tendrils and save me!’ "Easy, now, little one. Don't worry. Just take it slow, alright?" ‘I take it back! Stop talking, please!’ "Whenever you're ready." ‘Aaah! Please, stop!’ "That's it." ‘It's time to take action! Use your primary method of communication to signal whoever is assaulting your senses to cease all activity.’ "Mmmuh," ‘... Ugh. Well done.’ "Don't worry, you're doing great." ‘I wish. Shake your head. The universal sign for "no".’ "Doctor, I think we ought to give her some space." ‘You think correctly.’ "Hmm? What do you mean, Redheart?" "She turns her ears away whenever you speak to her." ‘Oh, thank you!’ "She may just be trying to orient herself." ‘... A pox on your firstborn! Let's go with struggling instead!’ "On the other hoof, You may be right." ‘Triumph! Now to savor this moment.’ I inwardly breathed some satisfied sighs, or at least I thought I did, they might've shown on the outside. "Oh. Good catch, Nurse Redheart. Make a note of the seeming over sensitiveness, please. Now." I could hear the clip-clop of hooves approaching. Very astutely. One of the voices I had heard suddenly spoke very softly right by me. "Can you hear me?" ‘Not as glaringly now that you're whispering, thankfully.’ I nodded my head and tried to give an affirmative murmur. It came out as a whimper though. "Oh, you poor dear." ‘Indeed.’ "Don't worry, it'll all pass soon." ‘Thank you, that's comforting.’ "You've suffered a magical exhaustion and you're having what we call Wisp-Shimmer syndrome." ‘Magical exhaustion? What're y-’ The dogs, the cave, the wolves, the zebra, my new body, and magic. I would've shot open my eyes in shock at how it all flooded back to me. This time my eyelids (I went for plural) had to make do with a painfully slow and shaky ascent. I heard a gasp and when my eye finally got with the program and saw a tan-colored equine in a white lab coat, with teal hair done in a bun and with a very human-looking, startled expression, amplified by the huge, expressive eyes and drooped ears. "Nurse Redheart! You never informed me about her eye!" she said, clearly a female, judging by her voice. I flinched and closed my eyes again. ‘Ow.’ "I'm sorry, Doctor Staff. I forgot that me and Doctor Proper performed the examination." Another voice said. I carefully opened my eye again and saw another equine looking slightly down. This one was white with pink hair and a little old-school nurse's cap. ‘Aw, how cute.’ The other one looked back at me, noticed my expression and immediately dropped her voice. "Oh, I'm so sorry, dear!" ‘Well, at least it's helping me wake up.’ "How do you feel?" ‘Yes, how do I feel? I wish the numbness would come back, I miss it.’ "... Delicate," I said, hoping that they'd take the hint. "Oooh!" she exclaimed (quietly, thankfully) in a voice that contained a worrying amount of sympathy, and lifted her right arm, sorry, foreleg, and gave me a small hug with it. ‘Whoa. What's going on?’ Taking this in gave me a basis to orient myself with. I was sitting up in a clean and somewhat bare room with a distant smell of antiseptic in the air. ‘I know what this is. This is a medical facility. ‘Let's cycle through the possible responses, shall we? “Where am I?” I'm in a hospital, low priority question. “Who are you?” Hopefully a medical expert but it would be good to confirm this. “What happened?” Ah, that's a good one. Let's start with that.’ "What happened?" ‘A whole sentence! Where's my cookie?’ "You used too much magic, dear," the tan equine said as she let go of me and stood back down on all of her legs. "Some very nice mares found you in the Everfree Forest and brought you here." ‘Mares eh? So we're doing it that way. Hold on! The zebra!’ "There... was a... zeb... zebra." I managed to say before a weak yawn escaped me. At this, the equine with the nurse's cap spoke up. "Oh, yes, Zecora came in with you. Don't worry about her, she's resting." The exhalation part of my sigh had to make do as a breath of relief. ‘Good. Zecora, eh?’ I closed my eye again since I was barely using it anyway. "As you no doubt want to be doing," the tan equine continued. ‘Gold star.’ "But I'm afraid you're going to have to take some medicine first. If you don't, resting could be very bad for you." ‘Didn't she say earlier that it would all pass? Oh, she meant the over sensitiveness. Okay, let's just sit back and follow the instructions, that's a good thing to do when you're a patient in a hospital. ‘Hold on... I am in a hospital, right? Ah yes, there were more questions I had.’ I opened my eye again. "Who are you?" ‘It sounds a bit rude, asking it like that. But whatever.’ "My name is Doctor Curl Staff, and this is Nurse Redheart," the tan one said and gestured with a foreleg towards the other equine as they both looked at me and smiled in a caring way. "You're in Ponyville Hospital." ‘There were several keywords there, “nurse”, “doctor” and “hospital” were all clear enough, but “Ponyville” implied things.’ I looked down on myself. True enough, I once again beheld a small, royal blue equine body. This time mostly covered by a white blanket and positioned in a very human manner in a wheelchair. Now, wheelchairs have their uses, but they're not really my style. One thing that was clear though was that, as with the zebra, Zecora, I was very small compared to the other equines in the room. "What happened?" I asked again. I looked up as the one in the lab coat, Curl Staff (‘Curl Staff?’) answered again. "Like I said, dear. You used too much magic." ‘Yeah, I remember the shimmering shapes and all that, but why am I a little horsie? If I remember correctly I was preparing to go home from work not long ago and then waking up like this.’ "N-no, why am I... Why am I like this?" I asked and tried showing them my arm for emphasis. I only managed to lift it out from beneath the blanket and not much else, though. I looked down on my arm and gave it a disapproving look. The white and pink one took a few steps forward and answered in a somewhat guarded tone. "That... Don't worry about that, we'll find somepony to answer all of your questions after you get some more rest," She turned to a desk beside her and picked up a paper bag in her mouth before continuing. "But first you need your medicine," She finished, speaking through her teeth with no noticeable difference in her voice. Impressive. "Now, you're lucky. Your medicine is like a powder, and our very own master baker, Pinkie Pie, has made these just for you," she said as set the bag down on a table beside me and reached down with her foreleg in the bag to produce a cupcake. I looked at the baked good that the nurse's cap adorned horsie with gorgeously large, blue eyes and pink mane made up in a bun, held aloft in her hoof and felt a slight daze as a part of my brain informed the rest to try and take in the situation "... What?" I asked. That would have been asked with a greater flourish of eloquence but I'm not ashamed to admit my oratorical skills failed me at that point. The equine in with the cupcake gave me a warm smile before answering. "You get to eat cupcakes, dear." ‘I'm having trouble telling if their bedside manners are comforting or disturbing. Then again, maybe I really am in the body of a child, or perhaps some small subspecies that looks like children. Horse hobbits? Better that than like in that kinda terrible movie with the reverse aging serial killer.’ The equine with the pink hair (Redheart, was it?) set down the cupcake on the table and started breaking it into smaller pieces. "By the way, dear, what's your name?" "Gabrielle." The tan one, Curl Staff, had come into view beside Redheart, and they both kind of stopped for a moment when they heard my name. "What a pretty name, for such a pretty little filly." Redheart said. ‘So it's true? I'm a talking horsie foal in talking horsie land. How c- You know what? That's it, I'm done. She's right, questions and answers can come later. Treat this like you treat roller coasters, just sit back and go with the flow as the world and everyone around you go crazy, and right now the flow involved eating cupcakes.’ Redheart held a piece of cupcake in her hoof (‘Just roll with it’) and extended it to my mouth. I opened my mouth and with some exertion started chewing what was apparently my medicine. ‘Raspberry? Nice.’ "How are your ears, dear? Are they better?" Redheart asked as I chewed on my second piece of medicine, and I realized that they've been using normal speaking voices for some time. I nodded my head. "That's good, dear," she continued. "Because we are going on a little trip with the train." "Mmhm." "We are going to Canterlot," (ok) "where we're going to make you feel all good as new." She stopped herself and looked a bit flustered before she rallied and continued. "Who knows, maybe you'll even get to meet the princesses." ‘That's nice.’ As I finished off the last piece of the cupcake, Curl Staff spoke up. "Good timing, Redheart. The train leaves soon. Are you ready for a train ride, uhm, Gabrielle?" "Mmhm." I answered, meekly. ‘Careful there, big girl! Don't scare them off.’ "Good, let's go then," she said in an only slightly strained voice as Redheart walked around to my back. I was wheeled out through the room and into a large hallway that managed to look both hospital-like and quaint. I could astutely hear the sounds of two sets of hooves, clopping along on the tiles. Thankfully, my hearing wasn't painfully sensitive like before, but I could still hear Curl Staff as she whispered to Redheart, "Redheart, how do you think her name is spelled?" I let out a yawn as I was wheeled towards what looked like an exit and thought to myself, ‘Am I gonna see this Ponyville they mentioned earlier?’ Seeing Ponyville must've been some nefarious scheme with me as a super villain, because just as it was about to reach fruition, in rode Nap-Time and snatched victory from me in the last second. ‘Darn you, Nap-Time’ was my last thought as I mentally waved my fist towards my old tormentor and fell asleep again. — Nurse Redheart poked her head forward to look at the filly in the wheelchair she was pushing along the streets of Ponyville in the early morning hours on the short trip to the train station. "Out like a light." "Well, who can blame her? Waking up like that," Doctor Staff said from beside her. "I actually felt she handled the situation really well." "Oh, agreed. I had braced myself for a much worse reaction," Redheart said. "Still, there's something odd about her." It was just after sunrise, very few ponies could be seen outside just yet, most of them probably enjoying their breakfasts right now, so they had not attracted any attention. Still, nurse Redheart kept her voice low just in case, It wouldn't do to have ponies overhearing her talking with her colleague about how her patients acting strange. "What do you mean?" asked Curl softly, she too having picked up on the need for discretion. "She was very weak, but I could also tell that she was a lot more aware of her surroundings than one might've suspected. She took in everything we said, calmly and quietly," Redheart said. Doctor Curl Staff gave this some thought as they reached the train station. One could hear the train in the distance, slowly coming in. Ponyville town hall had officially sent a request to the Crystal Empire's rail road-services to find some way stop by their station in a more discreet manner, the hospital being located so closely to the tracks, and the hospital's staff had encouraged the town hall to extend the request to the standard line as well. She saw four of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and Spike, waiting for them. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Good morning, everypony, here to check in on Gabrielle?" Curl Staff said. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight looked confused, the later one asking "who?" while Pinkie Pie looked excited and answered "yep!" Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight turned their attention towards Pinkie Pie and gave her a questioning look while she just gave them a cheery grin back. "That's the name of the filly," Redheart answered, gesturing to the mass of hair in the wheelchair in front of her. "But Twilight is not just checking in on her. She's going with you to Canterlot!" Said Pinkie Pie. Twilight was the only one with a saddle bag with her, they noticed. Redheart and Curl Staff looked at each other and the doctor spoke up. "Hmm, may I ask why, your highness?" Twilight took a step forward, looked at Gabrielle and said, "Because I brought her here, if she needs any help, I should be the one to give it to her." Curl Staff nodded. "That's good to hear, because we promised Gabrielle that somepony would give her some answers when she wakes up." Twilight's friends looked a bit concerned at the downcast and resigned look she had before Pinkie Pie put a foreleg around her. "Don't worry, Twilight. This is all gonna work out, I can tell!" Pinkie said. Twilight perked up a bit and Rainbow Dash decided to push the advantage. "Yeah! Don't worry, if anypony can figure out how to solve this..." Rainbow Dash paused for a moment as she didn't even realize what the problem was, if there was one, she only know that they had found a poor little filly unconscious in the woods and she needed help, but she decided to press on, "thing, it's you," she finished. "And we'll help Spike look after the library while you're gone." The others nodded in consent as the train slowly pulled up to the station. Twilight gave them a warm smile. "Thank you. I'll send Spike a letter when she's ready for visitors and we can all go for a trip." She looked at the doctor and nurse for confirmation. "That sounds lovely, I'm sure she'd like that," Curl Staff said as the train came to a halt. She filed into the train with the princess, Redheart and Gabrielle in her wheelchair before turning back to the mares standing outside. "Oh, And thank you so much for your help, everypony!" They all looked pleased at this, but Pinkie Pie especially so and she jumped up and down in excitement. "Oh, oh! Did she say anything about the cupcakes? Did she like them?" Nurse Redheart gave Pinkie Pie a smile. "She didn't say much, Pinkie, she was very tired, but I'm sure she loved them." They all looked at the small form sticking out from beneath a blanket, in deep but tranquil sleep and Rainbow said, "She is gonna be okay, isn't she?" Curl Staff gave her a reassuring smile. "Yes, I believe so." They moved to take their seats in an otherwise empty car. Nurse Redheart guiding them to a set of benches facing each other and wheeled Gabrielle in between them, positioning herself close by, Curl Staff taking up the other place closest to her and Twilight placing herself nearer the middle passage and pulled out a book from her bags. Nurse Redheart looked at the book. Magical Maladies & Curious Cures. "A subject that caught your eye recently?" Redheart asked in a slightly playful tone. Twilight looked a bit abashed. "Er, yes. I wanted to make sure that the cupcakes were done properly." "They were," Curl Staff said reassuringly. "By the way, princess-" Redheart started. "Just "Twilight", please," the princess interjected apologetically. Redheart wondered if this modesty in regards to her position was going to be a persisting thing. "Alright, Twilight, do you happen to know any spells that muffles senses, specifically hearing?" "Yes I do." She did indeed have one, she got the idea after her first night in Ponyville but only remembered in looking one up recently. "How so?" "Well, Gabrielle's hearing appeared to be very sensitive the last time she woke up. If it is next time, I wonder if you could help her out with that." Redheart said. "Of course!" Twilight said happily, eager to give any aid she could. — That step! Every time. I knew what was going to happen as it happened, because it happened about once a month. I didn't know before it happened, though, as that is the nature of dreams. It was a very short dream but I had experienced it about a hundred times. Suddenly I was in the middle of walking down the stairs of my parents' old place when one step for some reason was positioned further down than the others and I lost my balance and fell, waking up the moment I would face-plant into another step a few inches below my center of gravity. I never fall out of my bed though, I just headbutt my pillow. It still leaves me in a bit of a mood, because in the dream I'm walking with two legs made out of flesh and blood. I don't lie to myself, I'm not totally fine with having half my extremities removed and spending ages relearning how to aim when reaching for my breakfast, but I'm pretty much over it. That said, I hate it when my subconsciousness mocks me with experiencing having all my limbs back for about two seconds every month, and in that limited time I use them by tripping and flailing uselessly as I haplessly sail through the air. However, the usual experience topped this one. As previously stated I usually wake up giving my pillow the what for with my forehead (the what forehead?). This time, the side of my head struck a floor. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" ‘Uugh! Not again!’ I didn't bother opening my eye this time. Painfully loud voices, a throbbing head, exhaustion and an unpleasantly cold tile floor. ‘Nap-Time, I need you. I need you bad.’ "Here, let me help!" "Uuh." I groaned "Ma'am, we got this!" "Uuuh." I insisted. "I'm so sorry! It's just, I can't control these right now!" "Uuuuuh!" I groaned again, with emphasis. "Twilight, now might be the time for that spell we talked about." "Then please step back, ma'am!" "What? Oh! Right, let me just..." I felt a soothing sensation and the volume of everything decreased. "Uuuh?" I groaned hopefully. "There, that should help!" a normal voice said. "Uuuh." I gratefully groaned. "It's just, Oh! I'm sorry, please forgive me!" "Tha... just- just go about your business, ma'am." I felt a strange embrace, or something like it, and I was hoisted up in the air and placed in a sitting position. A blanket was wrapped around me. ‘I'm in that wheelchair aren't I?’ "Dear? Gabrielle?" I heard a woman's somewhat familiar voice ask, but I couldn't place it. "Gabrielle, are you alright?" I opened my eye to see the nurse horsie and another, lavender horsie looked at me with concerned expressions. ‘Hey! That purple one's got a horn too!’ "Mmmm," I managed, trying to sound nonchalant but probably failing. I didn't really feel any worse than the last time I was awake. Actually, I might actually even have felt a little better. Still really tired though. The lavender raised one of her forelegs and said, "how many hooves am I holding up?" ‘Oh, don't give me any openings like that when I'm trying to sleep!’ "You need at least two eyes to see double," I said with a slight smile. The purple one looked abashed and I tried to chuckle but only succeeded in yawning. "I'm, I'm so sorry!" she said. ‘Aw, jeeze, I didn't want to actually make her feel bad.’ This time I actually did manage something which could be interpreted as a chuckle and tried waving her off but had to settle for shaking my head slowly with a little smile on my face. "Don't worry 'bout it," I said. My mannerisms didn't seem to reassure the one with the pink mane though. ‘Her name. Think, think. Redheart!’ "Are you sure you're alright? Does anything hurt?" she asked. ‘Well, yes, my forehead. But that's to be expected when you land on it. ‘Don't be difficult with the healers.’ I chastised myself and closed my eye again. "My head hurts, and I'm cold, and tired," I said. Redheart answered. "Is it worse than before?" I assumed that by that she meant the last time I was awake, and it wasn't. I hadn't tried moving but I had a somewhat easier time to speak. It definitely didn't seem worse. "No," I answered. But the rude awakening confused me. "What happened?" I asked. Another voice came from somewhere behind me, I recognized it as the doctor's voice. "Just some klutz who had taken something that made her lose control of her wings." ‘Wings? Were they on another horse? Well, we have unicorns, why not pegasi?’ I felt myself being wheeled forward and Redheart spoke up. "Well, hopefully your medicine will start working soon and you'll be feeling better in no time." "Mmhm," I concurred as we turned and I heard a door open in front of me. "Speaking of which," Redheart continued as I felt the wheelchair coming to a halt and the sound of hoof clops around me dropping in frequency. "I think it's time for a new round of medicine." I opened my eye and saw that I had been wheeled into a fairly plain room with a bed with wheels and walls with muted, warm colors. ‘Are we there already?’ Redheart stepped into my vision with another cupcake held in her mouth this time. ‘She's holding it in her mouth? Eh, whatever, she looks housebroken. And I've had worse medicine, that's for sure. Penicillin, yuk!’ I closed my eye again and heard Redheart ask, "Are you tired, dea– Gabrielle?" 'She remembered my name.' "Yes," I answered. "Alright, we can do it like last time. Just open your mouth and chew," she said and I complied. Like before, I opened my mouth and a piece of cupcake was gently inserted. Blueberry this time. The whole situation stood in such contrast to the situation I'd been in less than an hour of waking time before. In the woods, with the wooden wolves and the martial arts performance by the zebra, Zecora. ‘I really would like to meet her sometime.’ I was finished soon after and Redheart said, "Good, that's really good. Now, we're gonna lift you over to a bed, alright?" I nodded while swallowing the last of the medicine and felt myself being gently lifted into the air and laid down on a bed. I heard the doctor, Curl Staff, speak up next. "Gabrielle, you remember we promised you some answers the next time you woke up?" I nodded again but decided to try and have a little more active part in the conversation. "Yes." "Well, I recommend that you try and get some sleep and wait for the next time again," Curl Staff said. "You should be feeling a lot better by then." ‘Well, aside from the coldness, right now I wasn't actually feeling bad, per se. Just very, very, tired.’ Curl Staff continued. "But don't worry, we have somepony with us who can answer lots of questions." I opened my eye and saw the three equines standing beside the bed, the lavender one looking a bit nervous and Redheart pulling a blanket over me. The lavender one took a step forward and said, "Eh, hello." "Salutations," I said, with a small smile. She looked a bit lost before rallying and giving me a small smile of her own. "Er, salutations. My name is Twilight Sparkle." "Gabrielle. Pleased to meet you," I said. ‘So this purple unicorn can give me answers?’ I thought back to the previous conversations and realized that I've probably been spoken to as if I'm a child. That was one thing on my list of questions. Curl Staff was right though, I should get some sleep before asking them, it was really hard to keep my eye open. "Are you gonna answer my questions when I wake up?" I asked. She nodded. "Of course. I'll be waiting close by when you wake up. I just have a little business to attend to while you rest." I felt someone stalking me. "Oh, good. Brace yourself, they might be a bit odd." It was Nap-Time! That crook was lurking around here somewhere. Twilight Sparkle fidgeted a bit, which was interesting to see a horse do. "I expect some of them to be. You being from another world and all." Oh? My eyebrow shot up, or it tried, at least. "How did you know that?" Any second, now. Twilight Sparkle fidgeted some more. "I, uh, was the one who brought you here." "Oh." Nap-Time, wearing a white silken suit and hat, struck. > Q&A-time > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Twilight Sparkle walked down yet another hallway in Canterlot Castle. It was strange, not long ago, meeting up with Princess Celestia, Alicorn of the Sun and supreme ruler of all of Equestria, had been an almost casual thing. Then Twilight had moved to Ponyville, became a champion and savior of Equestria and bearer of one of the most, possibly the most powerful magical artefacts in the world (as well as a librarian). Meeting with her friend and mentor after that often turned into some official affair with varying amounts of rituals, depending on whether or not her visit was announced and which valet, officer or other had her presence brought to their attention. Now, she was a princess herself, a leader, a role model, a paragon, an embodiment of virtue, strength and wisdom. At least, according to old books and scriptures found in the castle's libraries that concerned alicorns, probably written by ponies with a flair for drama and definitely with varying degrees of pretentiousness. Despite all this, the fuss concerning her visits hadn't increased. In fact, it seemed to have decreased somewhat. It was still there, definitely, but it seemed more consistent now. Twilight suspected that the proper proceedings concerning princesses were a lot more common knowledge among the castle staff than proper proceedings concerning personal friends of the diarchs who also happened to be world saving librarians, and the staff had stopped overdoing it in fear of underdoing it. Twilight neared the door leading to her former mentor's study when it was wrapped in a golden aura and opened to reveal a somewhat unfocused looking Princess Celestia about to make her way out into the hallway. Celestia caught sight of Twilight and smiled in that pleasant way that few can match. "Good evening, Twilight. How are you?" Many, many ponies would want to become princesses or princes for many different reasons. Twilight had to admit that princesshood came with a lot of perks, but one that she appreciated, perhaps a bit disproportionately, was that she finally had a proper reason to spend time with her mentor and role model in a more relaxed way. Celestia and Twilight were no longer restricted by expectations and roles of the mentor-and-student relationship, these days, they had a relationship that Twilight had learned to truly cherish, now, more than anything, they were friends. "I'm fine, better than I might've been, at least. How about yourself?" And thanks to the nature of their relationship feeling less stringent, Twilight no longer felt as if burdened by secrets when she witnessed Celestia occasionally slip out of her role as a pinnacle of wisdom and composure. Celestia got a strange and somewhat silly look on her face as she craned her neck and loudly popped it, letting out a sigh of relief. "Better, now that I'm done with all the paperwork for the week." Celestia studied Twilight for a moment and then said, "I assume by your remark that the situation concerning our involuntary visitor has proceeded in satisfactory fashion." Twilight felt small pangs of mixed emotions from that comment. She still held Celestia in very high regards, and hearing Celestia directly addressing her mistake, the gravity of which was still uncertain, stung somewhat. But going by her tone, her friend and fellow princess was not judging her. "Yes, I think so at least. She woke up for a while when we were wheeling her through the hospital and she was accidentally pushed out of her wheelchair." Celestia covered her mouth with a hoof. "Goodness! Is she unharmed?" "Yes, she's fine," Twilight said and thought for a second. "You looked as if you were heading somewhere." "Yes," Celestia said. "Luna's chambers, it's almost time to raise the moon." Celestia gestured towards the high windows and the relaxing, orange light that flowed through them. They set off in a relaxed pace down towards Princess Luna's chambers, the occasional pair of guards saluting when they passed. Saluting both of us, Twilight reminded herself. "So, the victim of this unfortunate event is now safe from direct harm?" Celestia asked, taking some effort to not imply much in a location where some gossip-hungering noble might walk out around a corner. "Yes, she's showing no signs of complications. Just the usual- oh!" Twilight stopped herself as Princess Luna walked out of her chambers, sporting a bathrobe, bed hair and wearing a slightly queasy look on her face. Luna turned to face them and noticed her sister. "Evenin', Tia-" stopped herself when she noticed another pony beside Celestia. "Uh, we mean, we bid you a good evening, sister, dear." She then seemed to notice that the other pony was Twilight Sparkle, her fellow princess and friend with such quaint, casual disregard to high society's proper decorum and finally settled for "I mean, uh, Oh! Just, hello, you two." The tallest and shortest of the collection of princesses looked confoundedly at Luna before Celestia spoke up. "Lulu, are you alright? You seem a bit... out of it." Luna did something between hanging her head and shaking it. "I am fine. I was just doing an everynight inspection of the astral plane when I came across the remains of a dream from yesterday morning. It was... disorienting." "How so?" Twilight asked, curious. The trio started walking towards a tower for a good vantage point for the raising and lowering of their respective celestial bodies. "Oh, I'm not sure I can do a dream that strange justice with mere words. It was like a hundred voices singing, whispering, laughing, shouting and riding fairground rides all at once. And what is a Lucy?." "I don't think you need to worry, Lulu," Celestia said. "We have a fairly good idea of whose dream you encountered." Luna looked surprised. "You do?" Celestia nodded. "You remember I told you about my latest correspondence with Twilight here?" Luna looked from her sister to Twilight while nodding. "Well, I'll let Twilight take it from here." Twilight looked at Luna. "Well, I'm not sure how much you know," Twilight said. "Only that you've had a magical mishap with one of Starswirl's old relics and brought some being here from another world," Luna said, not unkindly. "Oh, ok," Twilight continued. "Well, we found her in the Everfree woods, it's a unicorn filly who was suffering Wisp-Shimmer syndrome. We brought her to the hospital in Ponyville and helped with the initial treatment. After that I accompanied her when she was brought here to Canterlot." Luna considered this for a moment. "A magical fever dream of a mind from another world. Yes, that would explain quite a bit." Luna seemed to come to a realization. "Now, hold for a moment, you said that it was a unicorn filly? Is it from another world of ponies?" Luna asked, sounding slightly alarmed. "Uh..." Twilight was mystified at this reaction before realizing what Luna meant. "Oh, no. It doesn't seem connected to our world in any way. I highly doubt that there are any risks of magical cataclysms just by her being here," Twilight ensured Luna, who had clearly remembered the last time a device of Starswirl, that brilliant but profoundly loopy magician, had been used to travel between worlds. This was enough to calm down Luna. "Good. But still, you said it was a filly?" Celestia spoke up at this. "Yes, Twilight asked me about that in our correspondence. Our visitor's world seemed bereft of magic and so I would hazard that her form is a result of primal magic." Luna nodded as this. It seemed likely. Primal magic was very difficult to control or even understand to any meaningful extent. And since it was so difficult to control or influence, and mostly observable in distant and wild places of the world, it rarely affected the lives of ponykind. When it did, however, the results tended to be puzzling. And should some being from another world find its way to Equestria, it would make sense that this magical void would be affected by primal magic, perhaps giving it what it felt was an appropriate form. "By the way," Twilight said. "When she was awake she introduced herself as Gabrielle." "Sounds more like a gryphon's name," Luna observed. "Appealing, though," said Celestia. As the trio ascended the stairs towards the top of one of Canterlot Castle's highest towers, Twilight let out a sigh of relief and said, "I'm relieved by how you've reacted to this situation." Luna looked at Twilight with a surprised expression. "How we've reacted?" Twilight looked a bit sheepish. "Well, I was afraid that you'd be more disappointed in me. This is quite a mistake for a princess to make, after all." Luna almost managed to hold back a snort and Celestia gave her sister an amused look before turning to Twilight. "Luna feels that it's not her place to say too much about Starswirl. But no doubt she feels that this is far from the worst possible result of experimenting with all of his kooky creations," Celestia said, as she turned back to Luna with a small smirk. "Quite," Luna said stiffly. "And I must say," Celestia continued as they reached the top of the tower. "While this does seem like an unfortunate situation, I am pleased with how you assumed responsibility for your actions, accidental though they might have been." "Agreed," said Luna as she looked up into the sky. "Well," said Twilight. "I'm responsible for her situation, of course I ought to do my best to help her." The conversation was paused as the sun was lowered beyond the horizon and the moon peeked out from beyond a distant mountain. "An admirable sentiment, and an appropriate one for royalty such as yourself, we feel." Luna said and paused as she considered something. "Pray tell, where is this filly now?" - I heard birdsong and felt sunlight softly caress my cheek. ‘This is nice but the last time this happened you were abducted by big dogs and put in a sack.’ The smell of antiseptic was in the air, but it was distant in the fresh air. Warm, soothing sunlight and air so fresh that you'd think you have to climb a mountain to find was an interesting combination, and one I certainly didn't mind. I opened my eye to take in the world around me and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the task. I was situated in the same room that I fell asleep in, but it seemed to be morning this time. I hadn't taken note of the time of day the last time I had a look at the room, but I seem to recall daylight outside, which probably meant that I had been asleep for a full night and probably a good part of an afternoon. For a change I didn't feel as though it would be a good idea to just lie down and fall asleep again, I was actually feeling pretty spry right now. I took a look at myself. Same small equine body, this time covered by a bland bed cover. I found myself oddly at peace with the idea, it was a very strange experience of course, but not shocking and panic-inducing as one might suspect it would be to find oneself in another physical form. Then again, I had woken up in a body that was vastly different than the one I was used to once before, and this time I wasn't covered in bandages with intravenous needles piercing me and a heart monitor making sure that I didn't kick it without a bunch of doctors and nurses knowing about it. I would never have guessed that an experience of that nature would help me cope with an experience of this nature, but there you have it, life is strange sometimes. I closed my eye again and did something that I had needed to do for ages but had been unable to. I stretched. Another strange experience, I extended my arm and leg as far as I could and wiggled what I realized felt like two strangely dextrous lumps, partially covered in something big, hard and solid. I'm supposed to be an expert on organic tissue but the term escaped me, I would've felt sheepish about that but I felt that I had a pretty good excuse as I opened my eye and inspected my hoof. Now I had time to take it in properly as I wasn't trying to hatch a hasty plan to get away from a pack of wolves, or feeling so exhausted that I could collapse at a moment's notice. I lifted my hoof up to my face and started turning it around, fascinated by the range of motion in my limb, when a clash of colors in the background caught my eye. I looked over towards the attention-grabbing object and realized that it was the unicorn from yesterday, or at least I assumed that it was yesterday that when she introduced herself. She, Twilight Sparkle, I recalled, was sitting/lying down on a bench in that way that horses do when they fold their legs beneath them. I'm no equestrian, but in movies, horses never seemed very pleased with this position, judging by the shaky way they assumed it. However, Twilight over there was sitting in a much more relaxed and pleased manner, in that way more like a cat. In front of her was a book and she had clearly finished reading a page, as she turned it by casually nuzzling it with some impressive precision. Two things struck me about that, the second was that I now had a form much like hers and I had some reservations about my own ability to manipulate the world around with hooves and a muzzle. ‘Ah! That's the word!’ The second was that it looked absolutely adorable. I also noticed that she seemed to have wings folded by her sides. I looked around but there was no Ray Harryhausen in sight. ‘Someone, the doctor, I think, said that the one that knocked me to the floor yesterday did so with her wings. Was it her? No, wait, it couldn't have been, there was a fourth voice that was apologizing and it wasn't hers.’ I stretched again and let out a yawn, which made Twilight look up. "Oh! You're awake," she said. "Yes, very much so, in fact." She nuzzled the book closed and stepped down on the floor. "I'm gonna go get doctor Staff or Nurse Redheart. They'll probably want to know how you feel," she said and started making her way out of the room. "Uh, okay," I said, feeling like that was a very lackluster response for some reason. Twilight walked out the door and left me alone I looked around the room I was in, and I couldn't help but notice the clopping sounds as she did, which was also adorable. It looked like a fairly modern hospital room. Not an intensive care unit, but a normal room, except it was more decorated than I was used to seeing them, like someone had expected a long term stay. There were a few potted plants and paintings of landscapes, which made me curious about where I was, since what little view out the window that wasn't blocked by a thin, white curtain was just blue sky. I had apparently had a very good rest for even though I realized that I was really hungry I was still in a pretty good mood. I lifted up my hoof to my face again and inspected it. My whole arm, or foreleg as it's probably called now, was shaped somewhat differently than a normal horse. I had always thought that horses' legs, and the extremities of quite a few animals, looked awfully fragile compared to humans'. Of course I knew that's because humans store nutrition in our legs and that it wasn't animal legs that were thin so much as our legs that were tubby. 'Our legs' I thought and suddenly felt very somber. ‘Can I still think like that? Why did this happen?’ I stopped my train of thought to inspect it. ‘Wow, now I'm feeling really blue,’ I thought, looked down on myself and actually laughed out loud when the pun dawned on me. ‘So, mood swings, eh? Hopefully they're thanks to my treatment, I have to remember to ask about that.’ Suddenly the joy of discovery took over again and I once again started inspecting myself. ‘If a normal horse would have legs this thick they would probably be either freakishly strong or immobile.’ I remembered how I had observed something that looked like magical fingers on my hoof when discovering magic. I put my hoof down on my cover and tried to grab it with seemingly nonexistent fingers, it didn't work. It would probably have felt more strange to someone else, but I had a lot of experience of trying to grab things with limbs that I had forgotten were nonexistent. Suddenly, the door was opened and in walked Redheart and Twilight Sparkle. ‘Clippedy cloppedy. That's kinda funny for some reason.’ Twilight gave me a nervous smile while Redheart's was warm and calming. "Good morning, Gabrielle," Nurse Redheart said. "How are you feeling?" "Good," I said with a smile. "Though I'm hungry and seem to be suffering from mood swings." "That's to be expected, dear. But don't worry, it'll pass," Redheart said reassuringly. "Speaking of which, it's time for another dose of medicine." She took the familiar paper bag in her teeth from the nightstand beside the bed and pulled out a cupcake with her hoof and held it in her wrist thingy. ‘There's that thing with holding things with your hoof again. And eating cupcakes is supposed to make me feel better, because I used too much magic, which I could do because I'm a unicorn. Why, why and why? So. Many. Questions.’ I felt some creepy undertones with the whole cupcake thing though and decided to give civility a miss. "Are cupcakes really supposed to be medicine?" I asked. "Ah, but these aren't normal cupcakes, they have magical charges fine enough for you to absorb when you eat them," Redheart said, still holding the paper bag in her teeth, and held it out for me. ‘Okay, she sounded very convincing. And really, why would she lie?’ "Magical charges, eh?" I said and looked at the cupcake in her hoof and reached out with my own hoof, but I stopped myself from trying to grab it. "How are you even doing that?" I asked with an incredulous look on my face. "Do what?" she asked, looking surprised. "That!" I said and gestured towards her hoof with my own. "Shouldn't it just slip out of your grip?" Redheart looked at me with a confused look on her face before turning to the pegasus/unicorn thing beside her. "Twilight, perhaps you can take it from here," she said and put the cupcake and bag back on the nightstand. "Uh, okay," Twilight said and walked over to the bench where she had sat before, opened a bag that was lying on it and took out a parchment. "Well, I would like to ask you some questions first." E.T came to mind and suddenly I was a bit skeptical to the idea of talking about how I was from another world. But, so far, these horsies had been nothing but helpful. Saving me from tree wolves, taking me to a hospital and making sure I was alright. At no point had there been any hints of men in black suits coming to take me away. Additionally, Twilight here had already said- ‘Oh, yeah! She said that she brought me here! Shouldn't I be the one asking questions? Maybe this place's equivalent of the 'Men In Black' is called the 'Pegasi In Saddlebags'?... Take that acronym out of someone!’ I inspected my trail of thought, drew the conclusion that it should be closed for the public, and looked at Redheart and Twilight, who in turn were giving me slightly worried looks. "Actually, I would like to ask you some questions," I said, realizing that I had been alarmingly passive since this whole thing began. Twilight looked a bit worried and said, "Oh, uh, alright." I might've been a bit forceful but I needed answers. "First of all, where am I and how did I get here?" Twilight's expression shifted to uncomfortable and her ears drooped. "Because I brought you here," she said cautiously. "How and why!?" I asked loudly, sounding a bit snappish but I couldn't help it. These were questions one could only hold back for so long. ‘Why a talking unicorn would want me around, I have no idea.’ Twilight now looked outright distraught. "I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" she said, on the verge of tears. "I was just observing other worlds through a scrying orb and accidentally summoned you! I didn't mean to, please believe me." I stopped myself and took in the situation. No one had done anything out of malice and I wasn't actually hurt, I think, just very confused. And now I was making the one who was trying to help me with my confusion feel guilty to the verge of a breakdown. Twilight hung her head and let out a small sob and Redheart looked at her with sad eyes. I couldn't recall making anyone cry before but I decided that I didn't like it. ‘Ugh, of course. Mood swings. I'd better watch what I say right now.’ "Okay, uh, I'm sorry for snapping at you," I said, which made her look up at me with wet eyes. "it's just that, I don't know where I am or what's happened to me. I was just getting a little desperate for answers," I said, trying to sound soothing. I had never been very good at comforting people like this, which made it doubly surprising when Twilight took a step forward and wrapped her forelegs around me. "Oh, thank you! I was so worried that you'd hate me." This seemed consistent with the sugar sweet behavior of the horsies around me so far, except maybe the kung fu zebra, but it still seemed a little much for someone she'd spent less than five minutes with. Besides, I found it hard to hate such an adorable creature. I looked over at Redheart who smiled just as Twilight broke the hug. "Okay, I'm here by accident and you didn't mean to, that answers that, but why am I like... this?" I said and gestured at myself with my hoof. ‘I stopped myself from saying “horse”, since I'm not sure that's what I actually am and I don't want to sound like an idiot.’ Twilight and Redheart, but especially Twilight, had strange mix of curiosity and worry on their faces when Twilight answered. "Well, I could only study your world fleetingly but I couldn't find anything like the magic found here. It's my guess that the magical void that was, well, you, was filled by primal magic, which could very well have given you your current form," Twilight said in a lecturing tone and seemed to brighten up as she did so, she then looked at me with an interested expression. "You had another form where you're from, I assume" I didn't understand much of that answer but she said it in a mollifying and convincing way. "Yes. I'm a human." They looked puzzled. "Human," I repeated. "Homo Sapiens? Anthropos?" They didn't show any signs of comprehension. "Bipedal omnivores. Doesn't sound familiar at all?" They both shook their heads with the same expression, at least until something dawned on Redheart. "Omnivores?" she said and took a step forward and put a hoof up to my mouth. "I thought I saw something when you ate that last cupcake. Could you open your mouth, please?" I played along and heard Twilight take a small breath and lean forward to have a look herself. "Oh, my," she said in a low voice. "Are those fangs?" By this point, Redheart had inserted her hoof into my mouth and was inspecting my teeth. I told myself that someone who works at a hospital makes sure to keep their hands clean, and horses who works in hospitals probably does the same for their hooves. "Cangingesch," I said. There were some things that made others uneasy but which never bothered me in the slightest, among them were reptiles and going to the dentist. Maybe it was a learned behavior, but someone groping around inside my mouth tended to make me bored. "Those look pretty sharp, too," Twilight, who was looking on curiously, observed. "Ingschischosch," I said, looking around and trying to find something interesting to study. Redheart took her hoof out of my mouth and looked a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry, that was rude. What were you trying to say?" ‘Well, she is probably responsible for my health, let's not hold it against her when she inspects anomalies.’ "That's okay. And, no, not fangs. Those are canines." Redheart's ears drooped down and she looked apologetic. ‘Do these horsies ever stop looking adorable?’ "I'm sorry. it's just, I've never seen them that large, and sharp in a pony before. Everything else seems normal, though." ‘Is that what I am?’ "Is that what I am?" ‘Don't echo your thoughts verbally, you could end up in jail.’ Twilight took over. "Yes. A unicorn to be specific. You might've noticed your horn that's sticking out of your forehead." "Noticed it? It caused some sort of explosion back when that zebra, Zecora, rescued me from a pack of wolves made out of wood, If you can believe that." I said, thinking back in awe at the zebra's display. "That was you?" Twilight said and widened her eyes a bit. "That explains the pieces of timber wolves that were all around you when we found you." Redheart had been looking at Twilight and then turned to me when she had finished speaking. "Speaking of which. Gabrielle, you must not use any magic while you're recovering. Your magic is very unstable now and it could be dangerous to use it." That reminded me of how many questions I still had. "Right, and that was what was causing the mood swings, too, right?" Redheart nodded. "Yes, and what we call stamina fluctuations." I raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?" "Well," Redheart said. "You're not nearly as tired as the last time you were awake, but you might be again. You could shift between very energetic and exhausted at a moment's notice." My belly rumbled loudly. "Which brings us back to the term 'omnivore'. What do you, uhm, anthropos eat?" Redheart asked, which grabbed Twilight's attention as well. "Human is fine. And we eat- ah, I was gonna say just about anything but I'm not sure how a pony would interpret that. What do you guys eat?" I said. "Well, hay and flowers and bread and fruits and vegetables and dairy products to name a few," Redheart said. She had lifted a hoof and made little motions as if counting the products of with her fingers, but with fingers completely absent, of course. I was a bit thrown off by the entrancingly mysterious gesture. ‘What is she doing? Does sh- Oh, right! I saw fingers on myself when I inspected myself magically. Maybe the rest of the hors- ponies have them as well and they do work.’ Another rumble from beneath the blanket made Redheart chuckle. "I guess something on that list caught your attention, how about some apples and a glass of milk?" I shook my head to clear it of the bizarre sight. "Uh, yeah, humans can eat that," I said and stopped to think for a moment. "Where does the milk come from?" "From cows, of course," Twilight said. ‘Do they talk too? Actually, let's skip that question, I'm having enough trouble remembering the important ones.’ "Okay, good. Apples and milk, no problem." Nurse Redheart looked cheerful for some reason. "Alright, but first you're gonna have to take your medicine," she said as she lifted out a cupcake from the paper bag with her hoof again and held it out for me, resting on the top of her hoof which she had turned upwards. I looked skeptically on the cupcake and slowly reached out my arm, or foreleg, towards it. I gently touched the cupcake with my hoof and tried to grasp with invisible fingers. There was no sensation. Despite this I tried to scoop it up from Redheart's hoof, whereupon it unceremoniously fell down on the bed. ‘Can't say I'm surprised.’ All five eyes in the room turned to the pastry lying on its side before Redheart's face recolored to match her hair, or mane. "Oh! Oh, Celestia! Have you hurt your other leg as well? How's your hoof dear? You've already lost so much I didn't even consider that it would be even worse!" Redheart looked at me with an unnerving mix of shock, horror, sorrow, and guilt. ‘Is she mooching on my medicine? That was quite a sudden change in mood. I'd better try and head this off fast.’ "Whoa! Hey, look! What are you talking about? I feel fine, I'm not hurt as far as I can tell." I said, a bit uncertain. ‘After all, I can't be entirely certain what rates as unharmed around here. But I'm not sure what would cause a reaction like this.’ Redheart looked at me with sad eyes while Twilight looked thoughtful. After a moment, Twilight said, "don't worry, Redheart, I don't think she's hurt. I just think that she just need some practice with her hooves, or uh, hoof." Redheart looked at Twilight. "You think so?" Twilight nodded in conformation. "Yes, I've read quite a bit about transformations, and have some experience first hoof. Using the hooves' manipulation field might not come naturally if you didn't already have one." Twilight turned to me. "Because if I'm not mistaken, you didn't have any hooves in your previous form." ‘This one seems sharp. At least when it comes to certain subjects.’ "That's right," I said and gave a nod with my head. "Humans have hands and feet. Soft things compared to hooves, but with five digits for gripping and manipulation." Twilight turned back to Redheart and said, with a reassuring voice, "so don't worry about her hoof. A little practice and she'll be fine." ‘Is it assumed that I'm gonna stay for long? Ugh, I should write all these questions down somewhere.’ Redheart let out a sigh of relief and turned back to me. "Okay, but you still need to take your medicine. Would you like some help?" "I guess so," I said, glancing back and forth between my hoof and the cupcake. Redheart had perked up fast between her previous reaction and now. "Alright, go ahead," she said with a smile and held up the cupcake to my mouth. I opened my mouth and took a bite. They were really good. "There's a good filly," Redheart said encouragingly. ‘There's the subject of my size again,’ I thought, but before I could ask any questions, Twilight Sparkle spoke up instead. "Gabrielle, could you tell me what happened to you, from your perspective?" I swallowed down a piece of cupcake and said, "sure, where do you want me to start?" "Well, perhaps from when you came here." I shrugged. "Okay, I was closing up shop for the day down at the MRI section where I work, then there was some strange sensation that I can't quite remember, followed by lying outdoors in the grass like this," I said, gesturing down at my form. Twilight and Redheart cocked their heads. "MRI?" Twilight asked. I looked around the clean hospital room. "Yeah, you guys don't have that here?" They shook their heads. "No, never heard of it," Twilight said. "It's an anatomy scanner. I would've thought you guys knew about that, considering how modern this hospital looks," I said, taking the last of the cupcake and feeling my brain becoming much more agreeable as it always does when I'm eating. "Of course, you probably use magic or some- Aha!" I exclaimed, spraying some pieces of cupcake across the sheets and startling the horsies, ponies, standing next to me. "Sorry," I said with a sheepish grin on my face. "But I just realized something." "What?" they both asked at the same time. "Well, back in the woods I managed to sense magic around me. Or at least I think that's what I did. And it looked so familiar, like I've seen it a thousand times before. I just realized that it looked a lot like MRI imaging." "You can sense magic energy around you?" Twilight said. "Wow, that's pretty advanced." Redheart turned to Twilight. "It's not above your level though, is it?" Twilight shook her head. "No, I learned it while I was just a filly myself. Still, that's magic for mages, which most unicorns never study." Redheart looked at me and my fascinated expression. "Twilight here is one of the most skilled users of magic in Equestria." Twilight blushed slightly but looked surprised as I tried to hold back a snort. "Sorry," I said. "But, 'Equestria'?" Twilight and Redheart looked confused. "Yes, that's where we are," the apparently very powerful unicorn said. I tried to hold back a smile, but gave up when that made it feel more like a sneer. "Sorry, it's just that, where I come from, an 'equestrian' is someone who takes care of horses." Twilight and Redheart looked at each other and then at me. "Like an animal? At zoos?" Redheart asked. I gave this some thought. "I don't think so, I'm not one myself but I think they need more room to run around than zoos would give them." I shook my head. "Anyway! That's not important. I would like some more answers." Redheart nodded and said, "Well, I'm sure Twilight can answer some questions. I am gonna go get doctor Staff," she said as she started walking towards the door. ‘Clippedy cloppedy.’ "-and get you a meal," she concluded and gave me a nod as she walked out the door, apparently one that only needs a push and no turning of door handles. I turned back to Twilight. "I have so many questions that I don't even know where to start," I said with a small sigh. Twilight gave me a sympathetic look. "Don't worry, I told you I would answer your questions and I will. Maybe you can continue telling me what happened to you, that might help us figure out where to start." ‘Well, if she's not going anywhere I suppose that's okay.’ "Well, after I found myself out in some green meadows, some big dog came up and put me in a sack and I passed out. I think I was like this when that happened but I can't say for sure, I was pretty out of it." Twilight let out a small gasp. "Big dog? Was it a diamond dog?" That non sequitur threw me a bit. "What?" "They're big dogs that walk on their hind paws. We had a pack of them out by Ponyville once that tried to foalnap a friend of mine for work in their mines," Twilight said. I looked at her questioningly. ‘Is there anything normal about this place?’ She noticed my confusion. "They're obsessed with gems," she added helpfully. "Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it I think they talked about that. Anyway, I wasn't all there at the moment, but I think I came to in their mine, some big chieftain type got angry with whoever had brought me there, then I passed out again, and then I came to inside a sack that some more dogs were carrying me around in before leaving me there in those woods when they heard wolf howls." Twilight looked horrified. "They left you to be killed by timber wolves?" I shrugged. "I guess so. Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do but by then I had noticed that I was a unicorn and I figured that learning to do some magic real quick would probably be the best I could do at that moment." "Normally I would say that that wouldn't really help without a lot of studying and training, but I saw some of the results." I felt a strange sort of pride at that comment. "Well, anyway, I thought I was making some progress–" the door opened and Redheart and Curl Staff walked in. ‘Clippedy cloppedy’ "–when suddenly a pack of some sort of wolves made out of wood crept up on me." Redheart now had a tray with food resting on her back and Curl Staff was in a lab coat just like the last time I had seen her. They both stopped and gasped when they heard what I was saying. "Good morning, doc!" I said In a jovial tone and waved at the arrivals before continuing my story. "Anyway, things looked bad at that point, but get this! Just as the wolves are about to pounce me, a zebra shows up out of nowhere and starts beating them up, just like that!" I said in an excited tone. Redheart and Curl Staff looked horrified and I hope that it was because the wolves had nearly killed me and not because Zecora knew martial arts, if that was a secret it would be a poor repayment to spill it. Twilight looked surprised and thoughtful. "Wow, I figured that Zecora knew how to take care of herself, but I didn't realize that she was such a badflank." ‘Interesting choice of words.’ Curl Staff seemed to remember what she came in for. "Yes, uhm, good morning, Gabrielle. It's time for breakfast and a checkup, but I suppose you can finish your story if there's not too much left." Twilight once again focused on me. "Yes, what happened after that?" "Just so we're clear, Zecora is alright, right?" I asked. "Oh yes, don't worry," Curl Staff said. "She was suffering from magical exhaustion, same as you, but unlike you she wasn't suffering from Wisp-Shimmer syndrome. She should have fully recovered by now." "Wisp-Shimmer?" I started before dismissing it with a shake of my head, figuring that I had enough questions already. "Anyway, Zecora started pummeling those wolf things, but they kept reassembling themselves." "Yes, they do that," Twilight said. "So, she managed to keep them off from me for a while, but eventually one of them came after me." The other let out small gasps as I reached this part of the story. "Zecora saved me again but this time she left herself open, with some five or six of those things coming down on her." Another round of gasps. "How did you ever get out of that alive?" Twilight asked. "Well," I said, searching for words on how to describe what happened next. "I had tried doing some magic earlier. I could somehow visualize it, for lack of a better word, and I somehow knew how to make some sense of it. So I did that visualization thing, and just," I gave another pause. What had I done? "I don't know, gave the shapes I saw a push. Yes, I think that's it. I saw the shapes in the wolves and sort of gave them a shove." ‘That's when that explosion thing happened.’ "Maybe I gave it a bit much," I said, grinning sheepishly. Redheart and Curl Staff looked at me with their heads tilted and Twilight seemed to have some sort of epiphany. "Oh! I think I know what happened!" she said. "You do?" Curl Staff asked. "By the way, good morning, Twilight." "Hm? Oh! Good morning, doctor. Yes, I think I've figured it out now. I thought I felt a powerful spell in what would be around that time, but maybe it was just raw magical energy," Twilight said and looked at the two other ponies in the room except me. "No wonder you're suffering some Wisp-Shimmer syndrome," she said as she turned back to me. "You used your entire magical reserve to push the magic out of every creature around you." Twilight was quiet for a moment, then continued. "Wow, that was quite a time for a magical surge," She said in a small voice. "And that's how you found them?" Redheart asked. "Most likely," Twilight said with a nod. "Wait," I said. "You were the one who found me?" I was going to give my thanks but a loud rumble from my belly interrupted me. "Breakfast time!" Curl Staff said and Redheart walked up to me with the tray with food on. "We may be in Canterlot-" ‘Canterlot?’ "-but I'm fine with skipping table manners and having a conversation during a meal," she continued as Redheart set down the tray beside me. "Redheart told me about your hoof situation, would you like some help?" "With eating, I assume?" She nodded. "Alright, out of necessity, nothing else," I said with emphasis. Redheart gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we're happy to help. Apple or milk first?" She asked as she grabbed another pillow from beneath the bed and put it beneath the one I was already resting on, propping me up in something approaching a sitting position. I let out a sigh. ‘Are we really doing this? I didn't even need help feeding myself after the accident.’ "Apple, please." Redheart picked up an apple in her hoof and held it out to my mouth. "Don't worry, you'll be doing this yourself in no time." I took a bite. "I hope so," I mumbled as I chewed. "Anyway, where were we?" I asked and turned to Twilight. "You said you found me." Twilight nodded. "Well, me and my friends. Like I said, I brought you here. With magic by the way. And I couldn't tell exactly where you ended up, so me and my friends went looking for you. No wonder we couldn't find you if you had been abducted my diamond dogs." She let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, that couldn't have been a very pleasant welcome to Equestria." I shrugged. "It seems to have worked out. This would be quite a story to tell at home if anyone could believe me" Twilight gave me a small smile before gasping. "Oh, I almost forgot!" Suddenly she looked very nervous. "Now, please don't hate me, but I reviewed my notes from my scrying on your world and... I'm not sure if I can send you back." I stopped chewing. "... What?" Twilight's ears had drooped and she nervously elaborated. "I- it. it's just... I'm afraid that I can't send you back." I raised both my eyelids at her, and she winced as I gave her a look. "Am I never gonna get home?" "I, well, uhm. The thing is, I could try and send you back. But considering what happened when I was only inspecting your world, I can't say for sure what would happen if I tried to send you back. It could be very bad." I felt parts of my brain abandoning ship, but like the vicious taskmaster I am I reeled them back in. "So what are you saying?" "That... I don't know how to send you back, yet." I'm not sure how long I considered this, but I noticed that all three ponies in the room were giving me worried looks. I realized that both my eyelids were still open and closed one of them. "Alright," I said and let out a sigh. "Alright." Twilight looked miserable. "I'm so sorry!" I gave a small smile. "Well, you didn't mean to and you're helping me. I can't hold it against you." Redheart looked at me with a concerned face. "Are you sure you're okay? Don't you have any family to get home to?" I tried to give her a smile as well, but I couldn't really put any effort into it. "Don't worry about that." A silence came over the room and I couldn't really blame the ponies for not knowing how to break it in a tasteful manner. Luckily, I had some experience with that. "By the way," I said. "That apple was really good." This seemed to break the trio out of their slump and Redheart once again held out the half eaten apple for me to continue undoing. "So you and your friends got me out of that forest? Please tell them I say thanks." Twilight looked lost in thought for a moment before getting a determined look on her face and perking up. "Actually, you could thank them yourself. I was thinking about asking them to come here." "Why?" I asked and felt confused as Curl Staff put her hoof on my forehead. "To see you, of course!" Twilight said happily. "If your doctor thinks it's okay." Curl Staff was gazing up in the ceiling and looking concentrated and I realized that she was checking my temperature. "Well, you seem to be recovering just fine, Gabrielle. You certainly don't seem too bad for visitors." I looked at Twilight. "Well, as long as it's not a bother." She waved a hoof and said, "Oh, don't worry about that." By now I had finished with the apple part of the meal and Redheart held out a glass of milk for me. As she helped me slowly empty the glass I realized something. "Oh, by the way," I said. "Does anyone have a mirror?" "Oh," Twilight said. " That's right, you probably haven't seen what you look like." She trotted up to a sink with a cabinet at one end of the room. There, her horn lit up and the cabinet's handle was covered in a soft, purple glow. The cabinet door opened and a small mirror was levitated out of and floated beside her as she made her way back to the bed. When she came up to me she recoiled a bit. ‘What? Am I so hideous that it's a bad idea to show me a mirror?’ I looked around at the other two ponies and noticed that they looked uncomfortable as well. I was confused and a bit worried before I realized that the little magic show had made me open both my eyes wide. "Sorry," I said and brought down me eyelid again. "Was that magic?" I asked Twilight. "Yes it was. A basic levitation spell that pretty much every unicorn learns. And so can you thanks to your horn," she said and the mirror floated up and showed me my face. A little unicorn filly with the same royal blue coat as the rest of me looked back with one big, expressive, purple eye attached to an equally expressive face. On top of the head was a blue horn with spiral grooves in it, together with large, pointy ears which kept an enormous, blasted back shock of orange mane with blue highlights from falling down to the side of my face. The hairdo looked like it was from an eighties rock video but with an extra dab of flamboyant. I had always felt that what beauty one had was better served by an interesting personality rather than vanity. That being said, the creature I saw in the mirror was so adorable, it almost hurt a little. I couldn't help but give a small smile as I inspected the creature some more. I opened my mouth and took a look inside. True enough, my teeth looked more human-like than horse-like, but then again, so did my range of facial expressions, maybe that was why it didn't look very strange to me, human teeth on a creature with human expressions. The cuteness was strangely coupled with slight horror as I opened my empty socket. It didn't occur to me before now that having huge eyes meant having huge places to store them in. I had gotten used to seeing my own socket a long time ago, but one of this size was still a bit disturbing. The horn caught my attention again and I slowly lifted up my hoof to poke it. A few inches from my forehead, something of mine touched something else of mine and a small bolt shot through my mind as I realized on some additional level of my consciousness that the thing I was looking at was in fact me. I thought poking at your shoulder where your arm was supposed to be was strange, but the experience of losing body parts was outdone by the experience of gaining them. "This is interesting," I said slowly. "Your horn?" Twilight asked. "Yeah... or rather, feeling a part of your body that you didn't have before. Hooves was strange enough but the horn is even more so." I looked at Twilight's horn, which was still encased in a soft, purple glow. "Am I gonna be able to use the horn for that?" Twilight looked at me like she was inspecting me. I leaned back into the pillows and asked, "is that a no?" Twilight shook her head and said, "No, no, you can definitely learn to. It's just that..." She trailed of. I raised an eyebrow. "It's just what?" "Well, it's just that-" I blinked and suddenly Twilight and the mirror were gone, so were Curl Staff and Redheart. ‘Oh no! Did it happen again!?’ I inspected myself and noticed that it was the same unicorn body that I had earlier. I took a look around the room and was very relieved when I noticed that it was the same one and that Redheart was situated by the sink, pouring water into a glass. The light in the room had slightly changed tinge to a somewhat softer shade of yellow. "What happened!?" I asked her, not quite managing to keep my cool. Redheart let out a startled gasp and turned around to face me. "Oh! you're awake?" That non sequitur gave me a dumb look on my face. "Uuh... yeah?" "Have you been that for long?" she asked, sounding genuine. My face probably wasn't looking any smarter. "You-" I started but I figured that something strange must be going on here. "Twilight Sparkle went and got you just after I woke up," I said slowly. She looked at me for a moment before letting out a laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, dear. It's just that you've been asleep for hours." I felt that I wasn't getting the full picture. "Yeah, I figured, considering how tired I was when you wheeled me in here." Redheart giggled at that. "No, dearie, you fell asleep again after that. Right in the middle of a conversation." I looked at her incredulously. "Remember how I told you about how your medicine might make shift between energetic and tired very quickly?" I nodded my head. "Well, there you go," she said with a smile. Making sense of what she told me was time-consuming work. "I didn't notice that," I said uncertainly. She walked up to me (‘Clippedy cloppedy’) with a motherly expression on her face. "Don't worry, dear, it'll pass. In a few days you'll be right as rain." ‘I wish I could have seen your training montage, Nap-Time, that was impressive.’ "So, how long was I out for?" "Hmm, about six hours," she said and I stared at her in disbelief. "I was actually wondering if you're hungry again." She was right, I could go for another meal. I nodded my head absentmindedly, my thoughts mostly on the bizarre thing that just occurred. I must have looked concerned because Redheart said, "Don't worry, dear. It's not dangerous, at this point you're mostly taking your medicine just to be certain. Speaking of which." I looked to my side where Redheart stood next to the bedside table, with the bag of cupcakes and a platter with more apples on it. "Time for a another round, and then maybe some more apples? I just brought these in here in case you wanted a snack, but I think they'll make a decent meal," Redheart said as she picked out a cupcake from the bag. "Alright, same as usual, big lips, dearie." Once again I was getting help feeding myself from a pink-maned pony in a nurse's cap because I couldn't grasp things with my hoof. "You know," I said through a mouthful of cupcakes. "It's kinda pointless to bring me snacks if I can't use this hoof to grab them. Then again, you ponies have really long necks. if you put the platter close enough I can just eat right off of it." Redheart let out a small giggle. "Or you could just call one of us, dear. We're here to help." The genuineness of that put me at ease. "It's just a bit awkward to need help feeding myself. To say that waking up in another body is strange would be underselling it." Redheart gave me a sympathetic look before getting a more business like expression on her. "I actually want to talk to you about that." "About waking up in another body?" I asked. "In a way," she said. "Twilight brought something to our attention after you had fallen asleep." "Brought what to your attention?" I asked, not being able to guess where she was going with this. Redheart had a look of both seriousness and care. "To put this bluntly, you're showing worrying signs." I raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you mean?" "'You ponies', you said earlier." "When?" I asked. "Just now. And earlier you referred to your horn as 'the horn', as if it belonged to somepony else;" she said. ‘I did that, didn't I?’ I thought as I finished off the last of the cupcake. "So?" I asked with a shrug. "What's that got to do with anything?" "I'm not a unicorn myself, but no healthy unicorn would ever refer to their horn as 'the horn'," she said. "It's a very important part of a unicorn. A very important part of you." I considered her words for a moment. She was right. On some level I had almost seen all this as if it was happening to someone else. I looked at her and she looked back at me with a serious look on her face. "Not 'the horn', or 'you ponies'. Twilight said that you may be here for a long time, and that you’re permanently transformed,” she said and looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “I realize that this is a lot to take in, but you’re not a human anymore, and Equestria’s greatest living scholar doesn’t know how to turn you back.” I looked down at the sheets, trying to figure out what to make of all this. After a few moments where solid thoughts refused to form in my head, Redheart put her hoof on my chin and gently turned me to face her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think it would be good to be in denial about all this." “Yeah,” I said and nodded slowly. “It’s just hard to just let go of everything.” Redheart pulled me into a soft hug with her foreleg over my neck. “Not everything. You are still Gabrielle. I don’t know how it was, being ‘Gabrielle the human’, but maybe being ‘Gabrielle the unicorn’ won’t be so bad?” she kindly suggested. I didn’t say anything. simply nodding slowly as I considered her words. ‘Well, she may be right. If I’m stuck here in Equestria, it might be just as well be as a pony. Living in a society where everything is designed for people with two more limbs was exhausting enough. If I was a human here, everything would be too small on top of that. Besides, it’s not like they’re lobster people or something, everyone looks adorable, and magic seems like a pretty great fringe benefit just for joining the club.’ I was getting lost in thought when the sounds of my bowels, hard at work, shook me back to the now. I looked at Redheart who smiled at me. "Do you need to use the little fillies' room?" "I don't know what that is but from the context I can make a guess. Yes, I think so." "Alright," she said. She wheeled the wheelchair over to the side of the bed, walked to the other side of the bed, reached over me with her long pony neck, grabbed the end of the cover with her mouth and pulled it back, exposing me for all the room to see. I looked down on myself. Back in the woods, I had my stomach to the ground and all times after that I had been covered by some sort of blanket. I realized that I hadn't worn clothes for a while now and parts of my brain was telling me that I was naked, while another was telling me that I didn't feel naked. I looked over at Redheart who gave my body a sad look. "Uh. Humans aren't really covered by a coat of hair like ponies, so I'm just wondering, am I not decent right now?" Redheart looked up at me and blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?" "I mean, I've noticed that you guys have been walking around without clothes and I wondered if I should take steps to stay modest," I said. Redheart shook her head. "No, don't worry. If you should lose your coat, that might be a different matter." I looked down on myself again. Anything that would give the view an R-rating was thoroughly covered in fur. "Now, I'm gonna help you into your chair, alright?" She asked. I nodded. "Okay, what's the plan?" She stretched out her neck over me. "Just put your leg over my neck and I'll lift you into the chair." I was a bit confused about how this was supposed to work before I realized that my arm was now also called leg. Redheart must've taken it as hesitation. "Don't worry," she said. "You'll do fine." I put my foreleg over her neck and tried weighing it down but it was like a girder. "Just keep in mind that I can't grab anything with this hoof thingy." Redheart lifted up her neck and plopped me down in the wheelchair like it was nobody's business. "You're doing it again," she said without missing a beat. ‘She's sharp.’ I let out a sigh and said, "I guess so." As she wheeled me across the room and into a door that I hadn't seen anyone open yet, but had already figured contained a bathroom, she continued. "I want you to repeat after me; 'I am a unicorn, I have hooves, and I am going to learn how to do magic with my horn'." I decided to give it a try. "I am a unicorn, I have hooves, and I am going to learn how to do magic with my horn." My thoughts after that could only be summed up with an ellipsis. This seemed to go on for a while. I vaguely came to realize that Redheart was standing in front of me, trying to get my attention. "Gabrielle? How do you feel?" She asked. I shook my head. "I'm not sure," I said, truthfully. "Well, if nothing else, we should take care of the business we came in here for." ‘Yes, let's focus on that.’ "So, how does this work?" I asked, looking at the porcelain construction in front of me. "Do you have toilets where you came from?" She asked. "Yes, of course." I said. "Does this look familiar?" I inspected the thing. It was like a low toilet throne in the same white porcelain you usually see toilets in, with low level on the water and somewhat wider opening. "Sort of," I said. "They're shaped a bit differently." Redheart positioned herself as before. "Same as before, but this time I'm going to hang onto you to help you keep your balance while you're sitting." I hooked my foreleg around her neck again and as I was hoisted onto the low throne I asked "what do you mean?" It was rather self explanatory what she meant after I landed. My leg, the one that consisted of a few inches of thigh, couldn't support me, and I would have fallen halfway down the porcelain abyss if it hadn't been for Redheart hooking her foreleg around me and holding me up with a hug of sorts at the spot where my arm used to be, conveniently also pinning up my tail. I took in the situation and its unbelievable levels of awkwardness. "Look, I've never done this with an audience before," I said and looked up at Redheart. "Don't worry, I can stand her for quite a while before getting tired," she said and smiled. "That's really great, but I'm also worried about how long I can keep my leg up." I had angled my leg upwards as to not dip it in the watery depths below. "Look, just relax. I'm a relaxing personality, aren't I? Besides, this isn't even near the most embarrassing thing I've helped a patient with," she said. It took some work, but after a while I was back in the bed and let me tell you; these ponies are a lot more hygienic than I was afraid they'd be. As Redheart grabbed the end of the blanket and was covering me with it I looked down on myself and noticed a mark on my rump. "Hey, wait a minute." Redheart stopped. "What?" she asked, blanket still in her mouth. My eye was transfixed on the mark. "What's that?" I asked. It was a ultramarine, rhombus-shaped gem with a stylized swirl around the top "Oh, that's your cutie mark, dearie," Redheart said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's nice." I looked at her and felt all manners of stupid as I noticed a red cross on her rump. A red cross with little hearts around it, matching the one on her hat. "And what's that?" Redheart put her hoof to her mouth. "Oh! Twilight said that your world didn't have any magic in it. Sorry, dear, I should've realized." She cleared her throat. "A cutie mark is what young ponies get when they find their special talent, something that really represents them. Mine is a medical sign," she said and gave her rump a little shake, I might've sniggered but the humor and my confusion cancelled each other out to a more normal state. "I love taking care of ponies and I'm really good at it," she concluded with some pride. I looked down on my own cutie mark and asked "so what does mine mean?" She looked at it. "I don't know. Looks like it could have something to do with gem cutting, but it could mean many things. I like it though, it's a bit mysterious." I looked at the sign on my rump again and realized that my head was slowly dropping in the vertical direction and my eyelid was feeling heavy. Redheart picked up on this. "Tired again, dear?" I nodded. "Don't worry, just lie back and take a rest. Twilight's friends are coming to see you. Won't that be nice?" she said pleasantly. "I don't want to be a bother," I said groggily. "Don't worry about that. I'm not sure you know, but it's Friday afternoon, you're not dragging anypony away from anything," she reassured me. I couldn't help but feel happy about that and gave Redheart a smile. "Thanks." ‘Has Nap-Time poisoned my food?. If I pass out every time I learn something, this could take a very long time.’ Redheart gave me a smile. "You're welcome, dear." > A Much Warmer Welcome > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I opened my eye and beheld the same room as before, this time in the middle of the night. I was lying on my side with my hoof sandwiched in between the two pillows under my head and covered by a, well, a cover. Redheart had apparently tucked me in and she must have done a good job because I was really comfortable. I burrowed my head in the pillow and started thinking about what had happened in the last few days. ‘I have been transported to another world and transformed into another being. I'm not sure how one is supposed to react to that but I'm pretty sure that it's not like this. For some reason, I don't feel any sort of actual worry. It could have something to do with the magical ponies that have been taking care of me. Which reminds me, I have to remember to ask about my size next time I talk with Twilight.’ I looked around the room. the window was closed but the thin curtains let in a fascinatingly large amount of moonlight. Being from a northern temperate zone, pale light tended to make me feel cold. People in warm climates didn't seem to have any problem with colorless lamps in their homes. But people from my neck of the woods could stand in thirty degrees Celsius and practically shiver if someone lit a white fluorescent strip light near them. This pale moonlight, however, felt warm and welcoming. I lifted up my hoof and inspected it in the soft light. I was sure that I had seen the magical shapes of fingers on top of it in those woods. Not to mention some sort of aura of my missing limbs, but I couldn't recall if I had seen any fingers on them. I was tempted to try doing that thing again where I could sense magic. But Redheart had warned me not to use any magic while recovering. Something about it being unstable. In which case I should be doubly careful not to use any, because it might be like nitroglycerin. And you know what they say about unstable nitroglycerin: Don't. I spotted the tray with apples on the bedside table, and suddenly felt the munchies. I had spent a lot of recent time eating, but I had to remind myself that it I hadn't exactly had any opportunity to eat any real hearty dinners and the meals I did had had been separated by long periods of unconsciousness. I peered around the room again. No pony lying on the couch or standing in the corner this time. If I wanted a snack, I would have to take care of it myself. I reached out with my hoof towards the apples on the tray, felt nothing but air, and let out a sigh. ‘I miss depth perception.’ I shuffled closer to edge of the bed and finally felt the table with my hoof, but I only managed to push the apple I was aiming for away from me. It was frustrating but I had, out of necessity, become stubborn in situations like these. I put my hoof on the table and inched myself closer to the table, noting how much traction I got. However, I had forgotten how much of my body's volume consisted of neck, and when I stretched my upper half to try and reach further I tipped over the bed and fell down on the floor. It wasn't a crash where I slammed into the tiles, I just started sliding over the edge of the bed, landing fairly softly on the back of my neck and deciding that it would be pointless to try and stop the rest of me from following and instead tried to do it under controlled circumstances, which had the benefit of bringing down the warm cover over me. Most other people would probably have seethed in anger and frustration at this point, but a long time ago I had learned to handle these situations calmly and with self-control. Though that didn't stop me from letting out a plaintive sigh. ‘So, what now?’ I thought as I looked up towards the edge of the bed. ‘Well, I haven't tried standing up in this body yet. Who knows? Maybe I can try and scamper up there again since It doesn't look to be as tall as the hospital beds that I'm used to, probably since people are also shorter around here.’ I grabbed the cover in my mouth and managed to throw it over me like an enormous cape, appreciating the residual warmth that was still in it. I then positioned myself on my belly with my limbless side towards the bedside table and tried to push myself up to a standing position. A standing position for a quadruped, that is. It worked, in a way. I was standing with legs straight and leaning against the bedside table. But the position was very strange, it felt like I was looking for something that had fallen under the coach. Another strange thing was that I was standing on what I guessed was the equivalent of my knuckles, but without any fingers to form into a fist, just a huge lump made for walking and standing. What worked very well with this position, however, was my neck. Aiming my head forward, which would have been upwards in my old form, felt natural and not at all tiring as I was used to. I could even look upwards like this, which in a way would be like looking down your own back as a human. I wasn't cold, probably thanks to my coat of fur, but I still missed the softness of the bed. I considered my situation again and decided to try and jump up in the bed. I inched closer to the bed while leaning against the bedside table and then sat down the way that I think dogs sit. I then reached up and placed my hoof at the end of the bed, cover still over me, then stood up with my hind leg. This placed my head above the bed's level, but I couldn't quite figure out how to best approach the next step. I shot out with my hind leg and tried to land with enough of my weight across the bed for me to lever myself all the way on top of it. It might've worked on a better day, but not this time. I started sliding back towards the ground and bit down on the sheet to try and stop myself. The cover fell off from me and landed on the floor, and then the sheet started sliding off from the mattress, and me landing on the cover with half a bed sheet covering me and the pillows landing beside me. I let out another sigh. If I ever got up to my bed at this point, both the pillows and the cover would remain on the ground and the sheet would be too wrinkled to be comfortable. All this and I still hadn't gotten anything to eat. ‘Guess I'll have to get help if I want to sleep in a bed for the rest of the night.’ I looked towards the closed door that presumably led out into the hallway of the hospital. It seemed so far away despite it just being half the length of the room. Then I looked around me and thought, ‘Well, if nothing else I guess I have all that I need for a makeshift bed down here on the floor with me.’ I looked around the room again. ‘I can either crawl across the room or I can try and use the wheelchair.’ I scooted towards the wheelchair. It looked a lot more promising than the bed since it was lower than the bed and I also had what I guess around here is called a hoof-rest to work with. Things looked promising for a while, but after I got to the part where I would try and kick off the ground with my hind leg the wheelchair rolled backwards and I found myself on the cold floor again. I let out another sigh and then another one once I realized how monotonous I sounded. ‘Yeah well, and the unicorn you rode in on!’ I thought and glared at the wheelchair. I had had enough, my composure was close to shattering, I felt that I needed to get something my way real fast before or I would be in a foul mood for the rest of the day. I started scooting towards the door with determined... something, certainly not steps. It took a while, which was just as well because that gave me time to calm down. ‘I tried doing something that I couldn't and got myself into an embarrassing situation as a result. But the people, or ponies, that work here are professionals, they won't judge me.’ I thought back to some of the people I had worked with. ‘Alright, Redheart won't judge me, at least.’ I reached the door and tried to push it open. It looked like one of those doors where you didn't need to turn any handles, but it opened inwards, and the rod that one was supposed to grip when opening it from this side was out of my reach. My irritation was flaring up again as I started knocking on the door, the only good thing about this being that it was very easy to make noises with a hoof. After a few seconds of silence I heard the clopping of hooves approaching on the other side. I crawled out of the way from the door right before it opened and a lime green pony with wings entered halfway into the room. I let out a sigh and said, "I need help, could you please..." I had to bend my neck to see the face of the new arrival since the side that was blessed with an eye was the one I was lying on, but I finally noticed her absolutely horrified expression and decided that I wasn't in the mood for this particular type of person at this moment. "... go get Nurse Redheart for me?" The pony turned around on the spot and hurried away without any acknowledgement, and I was a bit worried that I had simply scared her off with my pitiful visage before I heard the sound of two approaching sets of hooves. "Gabrielle! What happened!?" I heard the familiar voice of Redheart say. With my savior nearby I let out a sigh of relief, a silent one this time, and simply said, "Fell out of the bed." Redheart entered my field of vision with a different kind of horrified expression, it's difficult to describe but it was one I could work with. "Oh, you poor thing. Don't worry, I've got it." As she said that I wondered if it was experience, intuition or chance that made her choose those words. It was a small thing but choice of words can mean quite a bit when it comes to patients, and “I've got it” was better than something like “Let me help you”, which got repetitive really fast and which I started reading far too much into the last time I was recovering. She leaned her head down and held out a hoof for me. "Same as before," she said and I hooked my foreleg around her foreleg, which she used to help me heave myself over her lower neck where I used my own long neck and foreleg to hold myself in place. I looked over to the lime green pony, her expression this time mostly one of worry. "Thanks," I said to her and tried giving her a smile, but I could only manage a very small one at the moment. She wordlessly backed out of the door and closed it. I sighed once again, getting a bit worried that this would become my default way of breathing at this rate. "You okay back there?" Redheart asked as she slowly made her way across the room with me across her upper back. "Fine. Just, frustrated." It was the truth. I had spent a lot of time getting used to a new body once before. I hated it the first time and I didn't like going through it again. Redheart stopped beside the bed, it took a while before I noticed since my eye was on the side facing away from her face, but when I looked at her she had turned her long pony neck and was looking at me with a sad expression on her. In one fluid motion she threw the sheet over the bed again, then placed me back on the bed in a sitting position, a humanoid sitting position. She then picked up the pillows and cover from the floor and dumped them on the bed. The notion that you shouldn't bottle up your emotions and just let it all out every once in a while had some merit in my mind, but only some. Most of the time, I found it far better to accustom yourself to being calm and composed. If I had gotten used to crying every time I was sad and screaming every time my patience wore thin I would probably have been a nervous wreck or worse, even before I got turned into a talking unicorn. But suppressing my emotions did not make them go away. I was angry, and to someone like Redheart, it showed. That's probably why she sat down on the bed next to me and put her foreleg around me in a hug and said, "It's okay." I looked down on the floor with a scowl on my face. This was going to calm me down. I knew it, and Redheart knew it. And knowing that, and knowing that Redheart knew that, peeved me quite a bit. Knowing that the process of my foul mood was so predictable that only one short sentence and a hug could make it better left a really bitter taste in my mouth. But the funny thing was that I knew that this particular bitter feeling would also fade away from this procedure. "It's okay," she said again and once more, I felt annoyed, but slightly less so this time. ‘Two words and an empty gesture is supposed to make me feel better!?’ "It's okay." Now my annoyance was shifting towards myself, for refusing, in a very childish manner, to let her help. "It's okay," Redheart said again. ‘But it does make me feel better, doesn't it?’ I thought with a strange mix of fading annoyance and growing comfort. ‘It's not just an empty gesture. She really does care.’ "It's okay," she said and I finally let go, relaxed, leaned in towards her and softly nuzzled into her chest. I would have liked to do it a bit more thoroughly but I had to consider my new cranial addition. ‘Yes, it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay that I'm basically helpless right now. It's okay that I made myself humiliatingly crawl across the floor to get help. It's okay to hold your emotions in. It's okay to let them out. And yes, it's okay to have someone comfort you. Twilight of the Gods! I had grown into such a loner since even before becoming an adult that I had almost forgotten that,’ I thought as I blinked away a thankfully small amount of moisture from my eye. "Feeling better?" Redheart asked after a few minutes, with a tastefully subtle amount of jauntiness. I did. But I simply nodded instead of saying anything, in case I had to swallow back a sob. ‘I'm not completely against showing some emotion but let's do so in moderation.’ Redheart let out a soft coo and tightened the hug. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of unicorn magic in no time, and then you don't have to reach for anything if you don't want." ‘That's true, if I can learn to do that thing that Twilight did yesterday, being a pony might not be so bad.’ I analyzed the events of the last few minutes before looking up at Redheart and giving her a smile. "Thanks. You're really good at this," I said as I softly leaned away from her, signalling that comforting time was over. Redheart smiled back as she stepped down and started inspecting the bedding. "Good at what?" "This comforting thing," I said. Compared to just a few moments ago I was practically jovial and not at all reluctant to share what an effect that little turbo therapy session had on me. "I know this dance and I almost missed your steps. Most people would either have done the 'It's okay' thing only once, which would be counterproductive, or jumped straight to the unicorn thing before I was in a mood to listen. So is it talent or experience?" It seems that I had a positive effect of Redheart in turn, because she looked at me with a very genuine smile on her face and jiggled her hind leg with her cutie mark on. "Both," she said as she started adjusting the bed, which she managed despite me sitting on it. ‘It seems that the cutie marks really do represent special talents. Something to look forward to,’ I thought as I looked down on my own. With one word Redheart had me looking forward to learning what my special talent might be. ‘Whoa. Special talent indeed. I really can't keep up with her.’ "So, would you like another bed?" Redheart asked. "No, nothing wrong with the bed, I was just-" my sentence was interrupted by a low growling. I had always thought that I had a decent comedic timing, but recently I had been outdone by my own stomach. "Yeah, that," I said and looked towards the apples. Redheart immediately picked up the tray, in her mouth, and brought it over to the bed. "Oh, Gabrielle! You could've called one of us and we'd help you. Just- Oh!" she exclaimed and got a sheepish expression on her. "I'm sorry, dear. In case you didn't know, this button here calls the nurses," she said as she gestured to a hefty remote that was hanging on the side of the bed. ‘Looks familiar enough.’ I was still fascinated by how these ponies, us ponies, I guess, could talk fluently while carrying things in their mouths. "I know," I said with a sigh. "It's just that, it's in the middle of the night and I didn't want to bother anyone." Redheart set down the tray on the bed and sat down with me. "You're not a bother, Gabrielle," she said in a caring yet serious tone. "Thanks. And just 'Gabe' is fine." "That's your nickname?" she asked. "Yep. That or 'Gabby', but I always liked 'Gabe' better." "Well then, 'Gabe' it is. I'd tell you my own but back in school, 'Red' was already taken and the only other anypony could think up was 'Hearty', which I could do without," She said with a playful pout. I gave a giggle which only consisted of one, single exhalation, turning it into something more like an amused snort. "Also, it's not really the middle of the night," she said. I looked around the moonlit room. "It looks like it is." "It does, but it's more early in the morning. Which would turn any meal you're about to have into breakfast." She looked at me for a moment before speaking up again. "Speaking of which, I was planning on having breakfast while watching Princess Celestia raise the sun, would you like to join me?" I knew people in school whose brains would have stopped when hearing that sentence. In fact, they wouldn't have lasted a minute in my situation. "Uh, sure. What do you mean, 'raise the sun'?" "Well," Redheart said as she held out her neck for me to grab onto again, which I did. "Every morning, Princess Celestia uses her magic to raise the sun." I had enough questions about myself but this could not go unaddressed. "The sun doesn't raise itself?" I asked as I plopped down into the wheelchair, which I still wasn't very happy with. As Redheart picked up the cover from the bed and threw it over me, then placed the tray with apples in my lap she said, "Well, I'm not sure what the sun does without Princess Celestia, her being the princess of the sun and all. But everypony knows that Princess Celestia raises the sun." She noticed my curious expression and then seemed to come to a realization. "Ah, that's right, your world didn't have any magic. So does your sun raise itself?" "You could say that. So a princess? Is this a monarchy?" I asked. "Yes," she said before stopping herself. "Or, no, it's a actually a diarchy now that Princess Luna, Princess Celestia's younger sister, has returned." "And I suppose that Princess Luna is the princess of the moon?" I asked. "That's right," she said as she started wheeling me towards the door. "And it was a diarchy since there were two princesses?" I asked as we reached the door and Redheart pushed a button on the side of the wall that opened it. I felt annoyed that I didn't notice that but I quickly figured that I wouldn't be able to reach it from the floor anyway. "Oh, I see what you're getting at," she said as she wheeled me out into a very standard looking hospital hallway where I gave a wave towards the lime green nurse sitting at the nurse's station who carefully waved back. "No, there are no kings and queens here, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the highest officials in Equestria, despite sharing that title with non-alicorns and Princess Cadenza to the north." "So no kings and queens but lots of princes and princesses. Must be confusing at high society gatherings," I observed. "What's an alicorn?" "Well, there are three, or rather, four types of ponies. Pegasi with wings, unicorns with magic horns, and earth ponies like myself with neither." I felt like Mr Berg as my brain scrambled for something appropriate to say about that, but Redheart continued before I could think of anything. "Then there are alicorns, who have the qualities of all three types. Only better, most ponies say. They have both wings and horns as you might've seen on Princess Twilight." My brain was trying to multitask by trying to think up something tasteful to say about earth ponies' apparent handicap and taking in Redheart's little crash course in magical ponies 101 when that last sentence completely derailed everything. "Wha- wai- wh- Twilight is a princess?" "Yes, she didn't tell you that?" Redheart asked curiously. I thought back to the events of yesterday. "Uh, no, she, uh, as soon as I woke up she went and got you." "Aw, she's a sweet one," Redheart said as we reached a small, deserted lounge area down the hall. "But she's still a bit awkward sometimes. I guess one shouldn't talk that way about royalty but she admits it herself." She looked at my curious expression and said, "She's only recently been crowned a princess and she's anything but haughty about it." "I noticed," I said and thought back with some concern to how I practically made her cry yesterday. "So," I carefully started. "Is there any stigma associated with being an earth pony?" Redheart studied me for a few moments and I was starting to wonder if I had said something inappropriate. "You use a pretty advanced vocabulary for somepony your age," she said. "And no, at least I haven't noticed anything. Of course, I'm not sure how much you remember of Ponyville, but that's where I'm from and it's mainly populated by earth ponies," she continued before setting out the tray on a nearby table. I remembered, well I guess I remembered parts of a hospital room and a corridor in Ponyville. "And right now we're in Canterlot, right?" "That's right," Redheart said as she walked over to a fridge and brought out another tray with two glasses on it and a container of a drink. Seeing what was on the tray and thinking back to what I had just heard, I realized that across the universes and dimensions, or whatever I had been transported to, the laws of reality such as gravity and all the associated physics were less consistent than the design and shape of milk cartons. "The capital of Equestria, the location of the royal palace and the home of Princesses Celestia and Luna. Speaking of which," she said and picked up an apple in her hoof and handed it to me, which I carefully grabbed with my wrist thing, making Redheart look proud. "They're probably about to raise the sun and lower the moon any minute now." Redheart looked out the window and I followed suit as I carefully brought the apple up to my mouth and took a bite. This would only work for about half the apple before I had eaten everything that I wasn't grabbing. ‘Ah, it seems we are on a mountain. That explains the fresh air. Oh, look, and waterfalls. I always enjoyed the salty coastal air back home. Appropriate, considering my pirate traits. But mountain air will do nicely, too.’ As I looked out I saw Canterlot in the late night/early morning glory. "Ah, that's them," Redheart said and pointed towards the shapes of two distant ponies standing on the balcony of a magnificent spire that was part of an physics-defyingly magnificent palace. I couldn't make out any details but they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation when their horns lit up and the moon, which was already near the horizon, hastily but gracefully descended the rest of the way, and the sun peeked out from behind a distant mountain. The already breathtakingly magnificent city of silvery moonlight looked as if it was infused with gold as it was hit by the strangely soft light of the morning sun. I was sure that no human had witnessed anything comparable to this since Jurij Gagarin first beheld Earth from orbit. It was hauntingly beautiful. I sat there, covered by a blanket in a wheelchair in another world, in the body of a unicorn filly with a half eaten apple held in my hoof-wrist, marveling at the sight, when the shorter of the two princesses seemed to notice something. She said something to her sister and they both turned towards my general direction. They stood there for a moment and I got the sense that they knew about me, and that they were looking straight at me. Then they bowed. It wasn't submissive kowtowing, it was something between a casual nod of greeting and those bows that you might associate with a duel of honor. At least that's what it looked like from here. Redheart turned to me, saw my shocked reaction and laughed softly. "If I saw what I just think that I saw, then somepony's got the attention of the majority of all alicorns in Equestria. By the way, you should probably close your eye." I realized that I had opened my empty eye socket and closed it again as the two princesses turned around and walked back into the tower. - The train arrived at Canterlot Station and the former Bearers of the Element of Harmony stepped out to the platform. A bunch of other ponies and a few non-ponies stepped out as well, but that's not relevant. Princess Twilight Sparkle was reading a book while waiting for them, oblivious to the pair of royal guards that had been searching frantically for her since their lieutenant had learned that her Highness had left the palace this morning without an escort, without any form of ceremony, without anything. Princess Celestia had told Twilight that her talent for ignoring distractions while studying would serve her well as a princess, but had not elaborated when Twilight asked her too, only saying she should take breaks from studying every now and then so as to not give the guardsponies ulcers. Twilight had been very confused. One of the guards nudged the other and pointed towards the five arrivals from Ponyville. The Bearers had performed legendary feats of heroism and skill before, maybe they could help them. So it was with some dismay that before the guards could act, the group casually trotted over to a bench and greeted their friend, the princess. A bench they had both searched, twice. The guards looked at each other and then discretely took up position behind the Bearers and pretended that this was how it was supposed to work. It was not the place of the royal guards ponies to listen in to the conversations of the targets of their protection, but they learned to start paying attention when they were referred to. "So, you have royal guards following you these days?" the Element of Loyalty asked the princess. Princess Twilight Sparkle pretended to seem surprised when she looked at them. "Oh! Looks like I do," she said with a smile. "That's impressive, you two. I didn't even notice you." Internally, the two guards sighed and shared a look. Princess Celestia's mischievous streak could be the stuff of legend if she so chose, but it seemed she had quite a rival in Princess Twilight. The Elements of Laughter and Loyalty were giggling like crazy behind their hooves while looking sideways at them. - I was half lying, half sitting in the bed again, reading a book on Equestria that Redheart had given me. It concerned a lot of things, but never got into details, and there were plenty of pictures. I assume that it was intended for fairly young readers. I was alone at the moment. Redheart had been in here earlier with Curl Staff, who I noticed, with a small twinge of envy, had the staff of Asclepius as a cutie mark and suddenly her name made a lot more sense. ‘Do these ponies have prophets naming their kids?’ I had just finished reading some fun facts about Canterlot, where a lot of unicorns (like myself) lived. And Cloudsdale, the great pegasi city in the sky, with its artistic marble-like pillars and amphitheaters, when I skipped ahead a bit to the stuff about Equestria's neighbors, like the minotaurs, and the gryphons. ‘Huh. Maybe the whole thing with ancient religions stemming from misunderstood encounters with aliens isn't just a cute pop-culture notion after all? There's a fascinating amount of uh, what's it called? Hellenism, or something, going on around here. But in the words of one of the most awesome fictional characters of all time: On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.’ The door suddenly opened to reveal Curl Staff, who said, "Gabrielle? Are you in the mood for some visitors?" Twilight- No, Princess Twilight, had said that she was bringing some friends. I was not the type who craved social contact at all times, but I wasn't quite a hermit either. ‘I arrived in a strange, new world literally a double-digit amount of hours ago, making friends sounds like a plan, especially since my instincts might get ornery about it if I don't.’ I also quickly added a few things together and realized that these people, ponies, probably had to travel to see me. I couldn't have said no even if I wanted to. "Sure, happy to," I said and closed the book. Curl Staff entered and after her followed Princess Twilight and four other ponies of varying colors and, uh, types, with Redheart forming the rear. The four new ponies all looked at me and I suddenly felt very self-conscious. I was about to attempt a greeting when the most pink thing I've ever seen jacked-in-the-boxed me from under the bed with a huge, toothy grin. "HI! I'm Pinkie Pie! I was gonna throw you a welcome party when you came to Ponyville but then you took the train to Canterlot instead and now I can throw two welcome parties but now that I think about it maybe you should have one big welcome-to-our-world party and considering how big my welcome-to-Ponyville parties usually are if you make a welcome-to-our-world party on a matching scale then we're gonna need at least-" a very observant listener might have noticed about a tenth of a second pause around here, "-seven thousand, three hundred and fifty acres reserved for it and about a year and a half worth of all of Equestria's agricultural yield-" A nudging on my left shoulder made me raise my head with a jolt and look around. It was very disorienting since I hadn't realized that I had dipped my head to begin with. "- but since you might come from another reality altogether we might actually need-" the pink was suppressed, but by no means interrupted, by Princess Twilight shoving a hoof in its mouth. Twilight looked at me with some concern. "Are you alright?" she asked. I looked around and saw her and the new arrivals, sans pink who was still making muffled noises around the hoof, looking at me with worried faces. I looked at Redheart, who had been the one who nudged me, with a lost and somewhat confused look. ‘I have no idea what's going on. Please help.’ Redheart was on the ball, another saying that never made any sense to me. "You fell asleep again, dear. Don't worry, it was just a few seconds," she said before giving the pink a displeased look. I looked around at the gathering of ponies and was a bit grateful to the pink who was helping me by diverting some of the attention I was now getting. "Uh, hi again, Princess Twilight." Twilight realized that saliva was dripping down her leg and turned to the pink. "Pinkie, please, we can't keep up with you when you get like that," she said and took her hoof out of the still talking pink's mouth, who finished up her attempts at communication. "I was just saying that I don't actually know how to measure the area we'd need, but the number ends with a nine!" Pinkie said. ‘I've heard that name before.’ "Don't worry, everypony, Gabrielle here just nodded off from stamina fluctuations. No doubt triggered by being overwhelmed," Redheart said and gave Pinkie a meaningful look. Twilight spoke up at this. "Oh, just like the last time we were talking. I'm sorry, Gabrielle, we'll try and be more considerate," she said as her ears drooped a little. ‘Hey! Surly might be one of my defining characteristics, but I try and hide it most of the time and mostly voice my complaints inside my head. Like this.’ The blue pegasus had lifted off sometime during all this and were currently hovering in place when she got very large smile on her face. "And what were you talking about last time?" she asked us in a raspy voice. "I was telling her about unicorns and magic," Twilight started before being interrupted by a loud guffaw from the blue pegasus and the pink earth pony who had turned over, in midair in the pegasus' case, and were hugging themselves while laughing "Fell asleep in the middle of a lecture!" the blue one managed between laughs. "Not even here for two days before getting the full Twilight Sparkle experience." ‘Is this the six million dollar pony who got rebuilt with an old hi-fi needle for vocal chords?’ They eventually calmed down and the blue one landed beside me and held out her hoof. "You're alright, short stuff, give it here." I held out my own and she punched it, producing a loud “clop!”. I got that strange and slightly disorienting feeling one gets when it feels like a few synapses suffered from friendly fire. ‘I just got a fist pound, bro style, and it went “clop!”. Also, that didn't hurt. but then again I'm supposed to run around on this thing.’ "I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest flyer in Equestria." "Gabrielle." I said, relieved that we were now getting on with actual introductions, more familiar waters. Next up was the earth pony in the hat. "Applejack. Pleased to meet you," she said with a charmingly thick accent. "Likewise," I said. She settled with grabbing my wrist in hers and shaking it firmly in a way that made me think of old-school business men who claimed to be able to tell a person, by his or her handshake. A unicorn who interestingly enough seemed to be decorated with make up was next. Like the earlier she extended her hoof and I shook that too, much more delicately. "Rarity, a pleasure to meet you, my dear. And I must say I adore your mane, such boldness!" "Uh, thanks," I said. ‘It's true, considering that as far as I know, this hairdo is not the result of products, making it pretty impressive. At least by human standards.’ She then turned around to the only one in the room I had not been introduced to yet. "Fluttershy, dear, come and greet our new friend. After all, we never got the chance the first time," Rarity said. The remaining pegasus clopped forward and in a very quiet voice said, while hiding most of her face behind her mane, "Hello." ‘”Shy” seems about right. But I have nothing against shyness. After all, I would consider myself to be shy myself if that part of me wasn't overshadowed by my ornery, passive-aggressive, and snarky sides.’ "Hi," I said and turned to Rarity. "What do you mean, 'the first time'?" "Well," Rarity said. "The first time we met you were not awake. We, and dear Zecora of course, went out to look for you when you arrived in Equestria. Fluttershy here noticed how cold you were and draped her wings over you to keep you warm on the way back to Ponyville." I imagine that was a bit like holding someone close to you in their arms to share body heat. I didn't really like needing help in that way but that wasn't their fault and I was still grateful, well actually it was sort of Twilight's fault but I had already told her that I wouldn't be angry at her. I looked at the yellow pegasus and with a smile that I made as soft as I could. "And I baked you those cupcakes that made you feel all better!" the pink one said. Loudly. I shook my head and tried to remember if she ever gave me her name but my mind was clogged with all the sight, smell, taste, sound and feel of pink. "And your name was... Pinkie Pie, right?." "That's right!" she said. "Well, they were really good. And as far as I can tell, they helped. Thanks." Pinkie looked as though she was about to explode from happiness and I got the feeling that if she did we would be covered in party decorations and frosting. Curl staff, who had been very quiet, looked as if she tried to clear her head by shaking it. "Oh, that's right, I came in here to take your temperature before leaving you with your visitors," she said as she walked up to me and put her wrist over my forehead. "Well, everything seems to be in order. You might be able to start using magic again sooner than I thought. I imagine you're quite excited for that. Now I have to go fill in some paperwork, I'll be right down the hall if anypony needs me," she said as she walked out of the room. Twilight looked excited at that. "Oh, that's right. If what happened in the forest was any indication of your abilities, you might qualify for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." "A school for unicorns only?" I blurted out in a slightly accusing tone before putting my hoof over my mouth. I could tell that I was acting before thinking because I tried to do so with my right hoof as well, the human counterpart of which had not existed for some time. Six of the ponies in the room looked confused but Redheart seemed to understand what I was getting at. "It's not actually only for unicorns, anypony can go there." She paused a bit to consider something. "And by anypony I mean non-ponies as well," she said and gave me a sheepish smile. "I guess that's a bit confusing." Twilight nodded. "That's right, the school started out as training for unicorns but as it grew more prestigious school it became a place for higher learning for all creatures. If you're interested I really recommend that you go there, it's really nice," she said and got a slightly dreamy look on her face. "So don't worry about that," Redheart said in a reassuring tone before turning to the six newcomers. "Gabe and I were talking earlier about the different kinds of ponies and she asked if there were any discrimination against earth ponies." Rainbow Dash gave me a confused look and asked, "why would you worry about that? You're a unicorn." I wasn't sure if her very genuine sounding question came from her level of intelligence or ignorance but I hoped that it was the latter. In any case the question threw me off balance. How many people are ready with a verbal answer to why social injustices are terrible? You very rarely need to explain that to an adult. "Well, wouldn't that be, you know, awful? If some people were allowed education and some weren't," I said with a bewildered look on my face. Something dawned on Twilight. "Rainbow, she's talking about the kind of injustices like in the Hearth's Warming Eve story." Rainbow got a look of comprehension. "Oh, you're talking about that sort of discrimination. Yeah, don't worry about that," she said with a wave of her hoof. "Is there any other kind?" I asked, genuinely curious about what was considered discrimination around here." Rarity was the one who answered. "Well, there is the business of unicorns always being placed in back rows in theaters so as to not obscure the vision of other attendees with our horns," she said with a harrumph. Twilight looked at me with concern on her face. "I, you... you have no way of knowing any of this," she said and looked down again, as she often did when talking to me. "I've taken you from your world into a place where you don't even know if you can be treated with basic dignity." I was about to protest that when I remembered that the first being I met in this world abducted me to work as a slave in a mine. "I," I started. "I, uh..." ‘Man, my brain just doesn't work very well today. Hopefully it's temporary.’ I shook my head and tried again. "Well, so far you ponies have made a very good impression." "You're not forgetting what we talked about, are you?" Redheart asked me. "No, I just. It takes some time to get used to," I said. "What were you talking about?" Rainbow asked. "That's not very polite, Rainbow," Rarity said sternly. "It's nothing," I said and waved my hoof dismissively. "I'm just getting used to being in this form." "Oh, yeah. Twilight said that you became a pony when you came here," Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "What were you like before?" "Well, I was a human and- hey!" I exclaimed as I realized something. "Twilight said that there are no humans around here but what if you have a different name for us?" "Ooh! What do humans look like?" Pinkie said. All eyes turned to me in curiosity and Twilight said, "yes, I never got the chance to ask you about that the last time," as she levitated a scroll and a quill from her bag which she apparently had left on the couch. "Well," I started, trying to figure out where to start when giving concise information on humans. "We're bipedal, about one hundred and sixty five to one hundred and eighty five centimeters long on average, plantigrade, omnivorous descendants from apes with vestigial fur." All the ponies were looking at me in fascination except Twilight, who had started scribbling furiously at the parchment, but slowed down during my description until she came to a complete halt. She reminded me of a fish as she opened and shut her mouth a few times with eyes wide before she noticed the politely questioning look I was giving her, and which the others were joining in on. "Uuuh, continue, please," she slowly said. "Wwwhhh..." I carefully started. She looked as if she was going to shout something. "... hhhat do you want to know?" "Oh! Do you have any good fliers?" Rainbow asked. "We, uh, we don't have wings but we've made machines that can fly fast enough. Also, there are only one type of humans," I said. "No wings?" Rainbow said with a slightly sad look on her face. Before I could continue, Twilight spoke up. "But you have manes?" "Yes, but we just call it hair," I said, wondering what brought that up. "And you wear clothes all the time?" Twilight asked quickly, sounding either agitated or excited. "Pretty much." "And have five long digits at the end of each upper limb?" "Yes." "And five shorter ones at the end of your lower ones?" "Yes." "And no tails?" "That's right." "And rounded, immobile ears that's artistically shaped to channel sound?" "Mine were always pretty pointy, but yes we-" "And you drive self-propelled metal carriages, make roads out of tar and gravel and you have devices that you use to share books and music and moving pictures with?" I had to give this some thought. "... Yeah, I guess that's a good way to describe it." "By Celestia! I know what you are!" Twilight exclaimed. The rest of the ponies looked at her in surprise and exclaimed "You do!?" "Yes, I was transformed into Gabrielle's species when me and Spike went into that mirror in the Crystal Empire," Twilight said and then got a sheepish look on her face. "I, uh, it slipped my mind to ask what the species I was was actually called." My face was scrunched up, trying to figure out what Twilight had said the day before. "But you said that you were looking at other worlds when you brought me here," I said, letting my question be implied as I couldn't think of a way to ask it tactfully. "Well, the scrying orb doesn't provide you with any visual or auditory information, it actually-" she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash coughing into a hoof, "... well, it more or less gives you information straight into your brain, so it takes a while to get the same impressions from a world that one would get from looking at it. So it was less that I didn't recognize humans when I saw them and more that I couldn't get enough information related to the inhabitant to remember them." "But you didn't go to Earth?" I asked. "Earth?" Applejack asked. "Yeah, that's the name of my world," I said before waving a hoof and continuing. "Or Terra, or Tellus, or whatever." "You seem to have a lot of names for the same things, Gabe." Redheart said. "Gabe?" Rainbow asked. "That's my nickname, that or Gabby," I said. "Gabby?" Rarity asked. "A misnomer, most of the time," I said. "I like Gabe though, so feel free to use it." "Use it!?" Pinkie Pie asked. I looked at her with an eyebrow expertly raised but the rest of the ponies just ignored her. I shook my head. "Anyway! I've lost track of what we were talking about, can we go back a few steps?" Rarity spoke up at this. "Oh, yes darling. Maybe you can tell us about yourself?" I shrugged, and realized that I have to remember to do that in a mirror since I've never seen an equine shrug before. "Okay, sure, I'm twenty-six, I'm a professional radiographer and specialist in magnetic resonance imaging, which is an anatomy scanner, I was actually the head of a small department where I worked," I said, with some pride in my voice. Redheart looked especially interested at that. "You mentioned that before and I was wondering, did you work at a hospital?" "Sure did. Though I'm not a doctor, so don't refer to me that way." "But you're a foal," Redheart said in disbelief. ‘Oh, yes! Time to finally solve this mystery, once and for all.’ "Thank you for reminding me, I've been wondering about that. Why am I like this?" I asked and gestured down at myself. "Like what?" Twilight asked. "Like this! A 'foal', as you call it here. Like I said, I'm twenty-six." There was a pause as the ponies stared at me before Rainbow slowly said. "Yeeaah? Looks about right to me." My eyebrows were jumping up and down as if on an elastic string as my expression alternated between frowning and questioning. "What do you mean?" "That you look your age," Applejack said. "About the same as my sister, and she's twenty-four." My expression was shifting in such a rapid pace it felt like my face was pulsating. "How old are you as an adult around here?" "Fifty-six," Applejack said. "I... So I'm...? Uh... How long do you ponies live for?" I asked. "Around three hundred years or more. Uhm, when are humans adults?" Twilight said. "Legally? Eighteen. And we usually live to be about eighty-five, though healthy enough people live to be over a hundred." ‘Like both my great grandfathers. My family could never claim racial superiority even if they've wanted to, seeing as how we're related to them. My parents speculated that thanks to them we were half-human, half-mooring rope.’ "Isn't eighteen a little young to be an adult?" Rainbow asked skeptically. "Well, we're grown up by then. By the time we're fifty-six we're past our physical prime," I said with a shrug. "Oh, how dreadful!" Rarity said. "So you were an adult?" Redheart asked me with a voice full of nouns I couldn't quite place. "Yeah, with a pretty respectable career," I said, without really managing to keep the pride out of my voice. "That's pretty impressive there, short stuff," Rainbow Dash said. "So how do you like being a pony?" I gave this some thought. "I haven't really been awake for it a whole lot but it seems alright so far. Am I really going to live for hundreds of years?" "I'd like to run some tests about that but seeing as how you're physically your age I'd say yes," Twilight said. "Physically my age for you ponies I guess," I said. "Gabe, remember what we talked about," Redheart said kindly. I nodded as I realized what I said. "Alright, alright. I just- oh! Am I gonna be in puberty until my fifties?" I asked with a voice full of dread. "Well, that's pushing it," Twilight said. "More likely around forty-five." That was objectively better, but my mind was running on emotions at the moment. ‘Alright, calm down. You've done it before. It's easier if you know what to expect. And who knows? Maybe this time you can come out at the end of it with the same amount of limbs you started with.’ "It... still doesn't sound great," I said. "Oh, come on! There must be something that you like about it," Rainbow insisted. "Look, I really hope so. But so far it hasn't been a great experience. I've been suffering from copious fatigue, I can't grasp anything with this-" I waved my hoof for emphasis "- And I can't walk around with only two limbs. Plus I've lost my glass eye," I said while desperately trying to keep my mood from turning sour. Rainbow was about to answer but Twilight's voice stopped her. "Did," she started, cautiously. "Did that happen to you before you came to Equestria?" she said gestured towards my right side. "Uh, yeah," I said while trying to figure out while she sounded so nervous. "When I was sixteen," I said and eyed her worried face. "You alright?" "I... I was afraid that I had done that," she said with ears drooped. "That you had... oh!" I said as I realized that she was talking about when she brought me to Equestria. "Ah, no. This happened ages ago." "... It must have been awful," Fluttershy said a small voice. The mood in the room was turning pretty somber now. I gave a facial shrug. "Well, I would guess so but I can't remember a thing. Apparently, I hit my head pretty hard, as you might suspect," I said and opened my right eye for emphasis. They all cringed and I suspected that these colorful, magical ponies might not be used to dark humor. "On a bright note, my facial muscles all survived. Anyway, the days before it happened are a bit hazy, but as far as I can tell they were like any other, and then I woke up, sort of, in a hospital where I was told I had been in an accident." The ponies all looked stunned at that little story and I decided to leave the part about my parents for another time. "So, that's that," I said. "Not a happy chapter in my life, but I learned to manage." The ponies still weren't saying anything so I decided that I should be the one to move the conversation forward. "So anyway, that's one of the reasons why I'm a little iffy about being a pony," I said to Rainbow Dash. "Learning how to use prostheses once was enough." "You had artificial legs?" Twilight asked. "Yeah. Or, well, leg, singular. Bipedal and all that," I said. "So it wasn't so bad?" Pinkie asked. "Well, it wasn't great. It was just sort of made to use the momentum of my walking motion to create something approaching an acceptable replacement." "And your foreleg?" Applejack asked. "Arm, I had one of those lying around too, but that's mostly what it ended up doing, lying around. Since there wasn't much left to control it with -" I gestured to my right shoulder "- it ended up very situational. There was more advanced stuff available, but learning to use the ones I had took enough time and I don't think I would get enough use out of them to make it worth it." "You said you used your leg to walk. How did you run?" Rainbow asked. "I didn't," I said a slightly too flat voice. It seemed like this conversation was set on being of the somber type, with all the ponies looking really down at everything I had to say. That is, all the ponies except Redheart. "Well, at least as a unicorn you can use your magic to help you," she said. Twilight perked up at this. "That's right. Once you learn how to use that, I'm sure everything will be much easier." ‘That's actually a very good point.’ "Well, if you're sure I didn't hurt my ability to use magic or something in the forest." "We're sure," Redheart said. "Speaking of learning to use magic," Twilight said. "I talked with Princess Celestia yesterday, and she and Princess Luna would like to meet you." Redheart and me raised our eyebrows. Me in slight shock and Redheart in amusement at my reaction. "Why?" I asked. "Oh, one shouldn't presume to speak for a pony in Princess Celestia's position," Twilight said. "Darling, you do realize that you are Princess Celestia's peer these days?" Rarity said and Twilight's face became very red as her friends laughed softly at her unintentional haughtiness. "When?" Redheart asked with an amused expression of her own. "This afternoon," Twilight said. "Do you accept?" "I, uh, yeah, sure," I said. "Are any of you in a hurry to get back to Ponyville?" Redheart asked. There was a general murmur that could be summed up as a general "No, not really." "Then I won't feel bad for cutting this meeting short. If Gabrielle is going to have an audience with the princesses, she should be in a fresh state." I realized that I probably hadn't been washed in days. "Oh, Thank you," I said and rolled my eye as Redheart pulled the cover off from me. "Why stop at telling the whole room? I'm sure there's a public announcement system you can use to make sure the whole neighborhood hears it," I continued as I grabbed Redheart's neck and she carried me over to the wheelchair with a good-hearted smile at my comments. "Got any other flattering things to say? No? Alright, see you later," I said and waved to the other six ponies who stood there with confused looks on their faces as I was wheeled into the bathroom. I wasn't actually annoyed at Redheart, but something about her made me want to respond to her light jab in kind. As we entered the bathroom, Redheart commented on what she had learned during the whole conversation. "So, you're twenty-six and you're an adult?" "Yeah," I said. "Or I guess I was. I'm actually a bit nervous about that. What if I have the mind of a child with memories of being an adult?" "We can ask Twilight, or maybe even better, Princess Luna, to look into that. But I have a thought," she said. "What do you think one would be most uncomfortable with, needing help to wash oneself as an adult or as a foal that's old enough to want some independence?" I gave this some thought. "You mean that you want me to say how embarrassing I think this is going to be? That might be a moot point since I had to have help relearning how to wash myself for a long time as an adolescent. I'm a contaminated specimen," I said jokingly. Redheart sighed. "Do you always speak about yourself so contemptuously?" she asked as she turned on the faucet in the modern looking bathtub in the far side of the room. "What? That was a joke," I said. "But not a nice one," she retorted. I let out a snort. "Another sign of worrying behavior?" "... Yes," she said as she tested the temperature of the water. "Well, you don't need to worry about that. If you think that I'm showing signs of self-loathing, or whatever the medical term is, let me remind you that I made it through the most hormone-intense period of my life being recently mutilated." At those words she whipped her head around to face me with a look of horror and sorrow. "Sorry, that came out a bit harsh, even for me," I said and hung my head. "But you bring out my social side and it's a little rusty." "It's part of my special talent," she said soothingly and walked up to me. "It's not always easy to hear what ponies say but I hope it helps you to talk about this." She leaned her neck over me and I grabbed hold like before. "We have professionals to talk to where I come from, too. But I still think it does help. Thank you," I said and caught a look of myself in the mirror. ‘I think I'm gonna miss this hairdo. But maybe I can learn to redo it. I'm gonna learn magic, after all.’ She slowly lowered me into the tub and I lied down on my stomach. "You don't have to thank me, I'm happy to help." "Yeah I know. But I'm still grateful and you seem to go out of your way to help. But if you want me to I'll stop of course," I said as she grabbed a shower head in her mouth and started showering me in warm water. "No, it's just that you don't seem comfortable with giving thanks. It sounds a little... resigned," she said. Still with no noticeable difference despite the shower head. I sighed, part from muscles relaxing from the warm water, part from laying out personal shortcomings. "Like I said, my social side is a bit rusty. And I grew pretty sick of needing help over the years. It was difficult to feel grateful after a while" Redheart said nothing and I continued. "Still, it just feels proper to do so. Even so, it's pretty easy to thank you, so I hope I haven't made anyone else nervous by thanking them." "Well, I normally wouldn't be this blunt with a foal. But you do seem a bit rough around the edges," Redheart commented. I considered this for a few moments. "I can't tell if that's me or if it's you guys. No offense but so far ponies have seemed pretty uh, I dunno, tender? Socially I mean." "Perhaps, it's just disheartening to see somepony so young being so... bitter." I raised my eyebrows at this but quickly brought them down again so as to not let anything enter the enormous cavity that was my eye socket. ‘If these ponies are as soft as they seem, well, maybe I should try and adjust myself a bit to their level.’ "Listen, Redheart, I'm not gonna try and say that I'm not bitter, and I might not be the happiest person in history, but I'm also not unstable. Don't wear yourself out trying to change that." Redheart grabbed a brush and started working on my coat. "It's just... difficult for me to see somepony like this and not helping." "You're helping, believe me. I might show it with a hug some time, but not now. Interesting feeling, by the way. I've never had a coat to brush before." I was already plenty relaxed by the hot water, but this was like having a massage. Redheart smiled behind the brush. "Did you say humans have manes?" she asked. "Well, we just call it hair, but brushing it feels nothing like this." Redheart chuckled and said, "let's see how you like this then." "Why, what are- Oh! Oooooh!" I said as she started running the brush through my voluminous mane. I let my head rest over the rim of the tub and closed my eye. One would think that a hairdo like that would have tangles like a... like a clever analogy that one simply does not care about while having one's mane brushed. "... Gabe? Gabrielle? Are you awake?" I softly opened my eye and looked around. I was in the bathroom, wrapped inside a pink, fluffy towel and sitting in the wheelchair. I let out a content sigh before answering. "Yeah. Did it happen again?" "Mmm," Redheart answered. "While I was brushing your mane. I let you sleep as I finished washing you." ‘And managed to place me in the wheelchair by yourself, it seems.’ "How long?" "Not long. About fifteen minutes," Redheart said and took the towel off me and hung it up on a rack, leaving me with still slightly damp, straight hair so long that it almost counted as a towel in itself. ‘Not nearly as long as in the beginning.’ "That must mean that it's wearing off?" I asked. "If you mean the Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome, then yes," she said and I felt something like an enormous electrical charge building up in my scalp. I brought my hoof up to feel around my neck. "What's going on?" I said, trying not to sound nervous. Redheart looked as she was about to answer when I touched my mane and it, along with my tail, practically exploded into the same shape as it had before the bath. I let out a startled "Ah!" and Redheart actually laughed loudly at the sight. As her laughter died down I softly touched my hair with a wide eye. "So," she said after a while. "Are you ready to meet the princesses?" I rallied from the surprise of my mane spectacle. "You tell me," I said with a small smirk. "You're the one who insisted that I stank too much and I haven't had time to judge the results yet." "You know what I mean," Redheart said and I could hear that she was smiling as she wheeled me out of the bathroom. "Well, what are they like?" I asked. We exited the room out into the hallway. "The princesses? I've never met Princess Celestia myself but everypony knows that she is as kind as she is wise," Redheart said before hastily continuing with, "and that she's very wise." "Okay," I said and gave an even nod. "That's comforting. By the way, do you have prosthetic eyes around here?" "We've actually got an expert coming in to make you one," she said as we got to the end of the hall where Princess Twilight and her friends were waiting. "You've got an expert coming in just for one person?" I asked. "Well, yes," Redheart said like it was a matter of course. "There's nopony on-hoof for serious eye injuries since they're not very common." "They're not?" I said in a dubious tone. ‘How can they not be? Eyes around here are huge!’ I wondered as I waved to the waiting ponies. "Hey, guys." "Hi!" three of the six ponies said while Pinkie and Rainbow instead went with, "heya!" and Applejack with a "howdy." "So what's not what?" Rainbow asked as she suddenly hovered a few inched from my face. "What's not what's not what?" I asked "I dunno, that's why I'm asking." "You've lost me, Rainbow Dash," I said and she suddenly flinched away. "What now?" "Sorry," she said and landed. "It's just, your eye is kinda creepy." I realized that I had brought up both my lids and closed my right one again. "I was just wondering what you two we're talking about. Also, just 'Rainbow' or 'Dash' is cool." "Oh, okay, uh eye injuries, actually. Redheart said that they're not common and I thought that was strange. People around here have enormous eyes compared to back home," I said. "They're like tarsiers." "What's a tarsier?" Twilght asked. "Oh, it's a nocturnal monkey," I said. "Or no, they're probably primates. Anyway, they've got huge eyes. I think they probably live tranquil lives with such huge vulnerable spots on their faces." "What vulnerable spots?" Twilight asked in confused voice. "Their eyes," I said and looked dubiously at her. "What, eyes work differently around here?" "Well, I don't know about Tellus, but eyes aren't very vulnerable around here, they're just very sensitive," Twilight said. "Pff! Speak for yourself," said Rainbow, who had taken off again and was seemingly lounging in midair. Twilight rolled her eyes. "Most creature's eyes are sensitive. Pegasi and other flyers often have a higher tolerance." Rainbow was suddenly grabbed from the air, with a startled "Hey!", by Pinkie who held Rainbow's face up to me and said, "Yeah, wanna see?" before shoving her hoof into Rainbow's eye and rubbing it lightly. Rainbow showed no signs of discomfort at having her eyeball massaged by a lump of keratin, her only sign of displeasure being an exasperated "Pinkie..." Pinkie let her go with a defensive "What? She was curious." "Yeah, but your hoof was dirty," Rainbow said and started rubbing against her eyeball with the back of her hoof. "Don't worry, Dash, I've got it." Applejack said as she removed her hat, picked out a handkerchief from it, spat in the handkerchief and used it to scrub Rainbow's eyeball. "Oh yeah, that's so much better," Rainbow said, her voice thick like a sarcastic milkshake. Her tone was one-upped by Rarity, however, who said, "Yes, darlings. Please get the brutish mannerisms out of the way before we visit the castle." I could only watch the scene with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. After a moment I heard Redheart's amused voice behind me. "Does that answer your question, Gabe?" I didn't answer straight away. Instead I brought my hoof up to me eye and considered. People are always careful with their eyes, people using their spare are even more so. I closed my eye and poked it through the lid. It felt like a hard rubber ball. I opened my eye again, thought for a moment, then lightly poked myself in the eye. I immediately brought down my eyelid out of reflex but the action didn't hurt nearly as much as it would've as a human. "Yeah," I said slowly in the darkness. "Yeah, that answers my question." "Anyway," Twilight said loudly. "We should probably get going now unless we want to hurry." - We were walking down the streets of Canterlot on the way to the castle. And by that I mean that six of us were walking while I was sitting in a wheelchair looking slack-jawed at the eighth member of our group. Rainbow was lying on top of a small cloud which was cruising along about ten feet of the ground. The altitude I could understand, after all, not only was Canterlot impossibly beautiful, as it turns out it was also on a mountain. But the cloud was about the size of a bed and managed to look Fluffy. "You see?" Rainbow said triumphantly to me. "Nothing to it! You should see me clearing an overcast sometime." "Did you get to the part about Cloudsdale in the book I gave you, Gabe?" Redheart asked. "Well, yeah, I skimmed to it," I said slowly. ‘I thought it meant that it was a city among the clouds, not made of clouds.’ "That's, that's really cool," I said, not able to hold back my awe. "Yeah," Rainbow said nonchalantly. "Being a pegasus, especially one as awesome as me, is pretty cool, I admit." When learning about the different types of ponies it seemed that I had been handed, or hoofed, the long stick, with alicorns seemingly off the table. But seeing Rainbow just being herself as a pegasus made me think the other options might not have been so bad. Earth ponies were apparently incredibly skilled and adaptive despite having no wings or magic horns. ‘Unicorns suddenly don't seem that superior to pegasi, it might turn out the same way about earth ponies.’ The streets were made of cobblestone but they were almost completely flat and I couldn't tell if it was by design or from wear. We crossed peacefully rippling rivulets on small bridges decorated with flowers and ribbons. The hospital and the castle were unsurprisingly located in central parts of the city, connected by large roads. But occasionally the scenery opened up and I could see picturesque parks and landscapes among the gently gleaming buildings, with lots of stylized shrubberies and those trees you see in movies in ancient Rome or Greece that I'm pretty sure are called cypress trees. No smog, no incessant din of tires on asphalt in the distance, no groaning old air conditioners. Those sounds you don't realize were there until they go away? There were so many of them gone from this magical equivalence to an urban landscape and I took in the fresh mountain air of Canterlot and thought, ‘Good riddance.’ "Gabrielle? We're here." I opened my eye and yawned. "I guess you're gonna laugh now, Rainbow. You seem like the type to do that," I said dejectedly. "I won't say that you don't look absolutely adorable when you sleep, darling," an amused Rarity said as I turned to face her, with Fluttershy nodding in agreement. "Nor will I deny your assumption of our dear Rainbow Dash. But if she would laugh it would make her something of a hypocrite," she continued and gestured to the side where I saw Rainbow Dash snoozing peacefully on the cloud from earlier with Twilight apparently tugging it along with her magic. "I can laugh if you want me to, though," Pinkie said. "You looked mostly cute and cuddly but it looked pretty fun too!" "I'm okay with not being laughed at, thanks," I deadpanned. "Okay, then I'll just cuddle since you looked so cuddly!" Pinkie said as she shot forward and hugged me, seemingly completely covering me in pink hair. I was about to protest but all my attention was drawn to all the knickknacks she had lying around in her mane. Things like a joke nose, a monopoly hat, a spanner, a picture of a gray pony with straight hair and something that looked like a driver's license. We apparently started moving again and I heard Fluttershy's voice say "Uh, Pinkie, I think you're making her uncomfortable." The pink was pulled back and I saw that we were standing in front of a large flight of stairs leading to the entrance of a great hall. Someone else might have used the word “vestibule”, but having gone to medical school, I refrained from doing so. "Alright, we're here," Twilight said, magically lifted Rainbow off from the cloud, placed her in a standing position on the ground and gently shook Rainbow's head. Rainbow stumbled a bit as she woke up. "Wha!? Hey! What gives!?" "Oh," Twilight said and grabbed my wheelchair in her aura. "That was just a small payback for all the pranks you come up with all the time." Rainbow looked thoroughly embarrassed as the other ponies sniggered at her. "You have no idea how much I had to practice that," Twilight said quietly to me. "The cochlea of pegasi makes them incredibly sensitive to the wrong sort of movement while they sleep." "I believe you," I said absentmindedly as I took in the surroundings we were passing through. It wasn't the type of cramped medieval castle in grey bricks you see in pictures. It was bright, open, and somehow not cold like you might suspect a very open building almost entirely made of stone to be. At the end of the hall was another flight of stairs and I looked back to see that Redheart was still with us. ‘No ramps on these stairs. As wonderful as this place seems so far, that's one point in Earth's favor.’ My heart jumped so hard it hurt a little when two mannequins in armor standing at the sides of the foot of the stairs brought their forelegs up in a salute. The guards had been standing so still I thought they were part of the decoration. When we had ascended the stairs, I got another, slightly smaller shock as Twilight nodded to two more guards I had thought were mannequins who opened the large doors in front of us. "This is the royal gallery," Twilight said as we entered. "It's where- oh!" She stopped herself when she saw who were in front of her. Two regally tall, winged and horned ponies turned away from the stained glass windows on our right to face us. All the ponies except Twilight and me bowed to them. I had seen plenty of magical ponies by now, but none that looked as magical as these. One majestic, graceful looking, midnight blue with a swirling mane made out of cloudless night, and the other an even larger, white, with a mane of an ethereal rainbow. Based on Redheart's description, and on Twilight's mannerisms, I assumed that it was okay that I didn't fling myself out of the wheelchair to bow as well. ‘It looks a bit submissive, but going down on your knees as a pony around here seems more akin to casually sitting down, and just bowing your head doesn't seem to cut it. So yeah, I guess folding ones forelegs is all that's left.’ "Please, rise," the white one said. ‘This must be Princess Celestia.’ The ponies did so. Redheart a little more hesitantly than the rest. Twilight just dipped her head respectfully. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. Allow me to present Gabrielle of Tellus." The book I had read said that Celestia had ruled Equestria for what would probably be called “an age”, or more, seeing how this was a magical world and all. And her smile was one that you probably would have to practice for millennia to achieve. "A pleasure to meet you, Gabrielle of Tellus. I am Princess Celestia. My sister and I bid you welcome to Equestria." She stepped forward and offered her hoof, which I slowly shook. Princess Luna stepped forward, not to be outdone. "We hope the day finds you well, We are Princess Luna." Another hoofshake. I could keep a stoic face, I think. I could also whip up a good response in a respectable time. Doing both was harder, though. But after struggling a bit I rallied. "Gabrielle Desrochers," I said and swallowed back my nervousness. "It's an honor to meet you, your majesties." ‘Is it “majesty” if it's a monarch even though they're princesses? Argh, I should've asked.’ My trail of thought was broken by Rarity's voice. "Hmm," she said. "Such fine manners, but I must ask: 'Desrochers'?" "Uh, my surname," I said, feeling a bit sheepish that it never came up before now. "Just how many names do you have?" Rainbow asked. "Well," I said. "If we start counting 'of Tellus' as one it'll be four." Rainbow was looking of to the side and seemed to be counting quietly to herself. "I'm counting five." "What?" I asked. "Yeah, 'Gabrielle', 'Gabe', 'Gabby', 'Desrochers' and 'of Tellus'." "Does two and three count?" "No, they're nicknames. Anyway..." Twilight said before trailing off and looking at her fellow princesses. "Ah, yes," Princess Luna said, sounding a bit pompous. "The royal banquet awaits." The two princesses turned around and walked down the hall. ‘Oh, well this was a short meeting. At least I got to see some interesting sights on our way here.’ The princesses' manes flowed in an nonexistent breeze and as Celestia's substantial, rainbow colored mane swept over her sister's moon adorned flank I had to put in an effort to not snigger at the impromptu Pink Floyd reference. Luckily I was distracted by being wheeled forward fast enough to catch up with the diarchs. ‘What? Am I gonna be on this banquet?’ "Uh," I started carefully and looked around to make sure that the rest of the ponies were still with us. "Royal banquet?" I quietly asked Twilight, who was walking along beside me. "Yes, of course," she noticed my confused look before continuing. "Don't worry, it'll all make sense soon." I hadn't learned much about Equestria at this point, but it seemed similar enough to Earth that I could make qualified guesses about many things and it made me worry that this banquet was going to be of the baroque fashion. The thought of doing anything other than playing along at this point sounded like a terrible idea, however. We moved down the carpeted corridors of the castle with guards constantly saluting our group and the occasional other pony moving out of the way and bowing deeply. Despite the apparent size of the castle when seen from the distance, we didn't have to walk long, or climb any stairs, before arriving at a large hall with a long table and several very large, cushioned chairs around it. ‘That was convenient. But come to think of it, this is probably far from the only hall that's suitable for a banquet.’ I was helped by Redheart into my chair, glancing around and seeing the others taking several different positions. Rarity was lying like a dignified cat, which the chairs were large enough to accommodate, Twilight much like Rarity except in a more casual manner, Rainbow lying on her back while leaning her elbow against the arm of her chair, and Pinkie was for some reason sitting like a human. ‘I wonder if arm chairs are called foreleg chairs around here.’ "Nurse Redheart," Celestia's soft voice said. "I'm a bit embarrassed to say that we did not think to invite you to this event directly, but you are welcome to join us." Redheart dipped her head to Celestia. "I'm honored, your majesty," (‘Ah, that should answer that’) she said before taking a place beside me and giving me a smile after taking off her hat. I was a bit relieved by the casual ways a lot of ponies were sitting in their chair. That, coupled with the apparent tenderness of at least Princess Celestia, gave me the courage to speak up. "Uh, I just wanna say that... I have no idea how to behave at a royal banquet so, I'm sorry if I do something inappropriate." "Even should you offend intentionally," Princess Luna said. "It would behoove us to show you lenience." "It would?" I asked with all the subtlety of a tornado. "What my sister means, in this case" Celestia said. "Is that you are the only visitor from your world. A world which has been connected to ours, however fleetingly, and could be so again." I was about to ask more questions before Celestia continued. "As such, you are the font of all knowledge of your world of Tellus, or Terra, which, and I'm sorry to put such a responsibility on one so young, places you in a form of an ambassadorial role." I was silent for a few moments as I considered this. ‘Well, yeah, that makes sense I guess. Even so, an ambassador is a pretty high rank. How much do they expect of me? I'm not much of a people person.’ "Gabrielle, do you understand what I am saying?" Celestia said. "Uh, yeah. I think I do," I said, a bit more absentmindedly than I would have liked to, seeing as how I was addressing actually ruling royalty. "Of course; nopony expects you to perform all the duties of an actual ambassador," Celestia said in a calming yet apologetic tone. "Which would not be possible as there is no current correspondence between our worlds. I would never ask a foal to do such a thing." ‘That's a relief. Even so, I should address the age issue right away.’ "Uh, about that," I said, "I'm not sure you know this, but I'm twenty-six and by human standards that means I've been an adult for eight years." The two princesses were looking at me with wide eyes in silence for a moment, before Luna said, in a very pedestrian tone, "It does?" "Yeah," I said. "I thought it might be best to get that out in the open quickly. I think I've been worrying a few of your... subjects with my behavior." "That still amazes me. I didn't see much, but I couldn't help notice how advanced humans of Terra seemed when I was studying them," Twilight said and before anyone could answer, a small train of carts with metal-covered food plates were rolled in from a door on the opposite side of where we entered by ponies with neutral expressions. Everyone around the table went silent and looked in anticipation as they we had large plates covered in metal bowls placed in front of us by very gracefully moving ponies dressed in fancy clothing. From the waist up at least. "We have received some information about your diet, Gabrielle," Celestia said. "And after consulting with a dear friend of ours, a diplomat called Arnfried, we asked our chef to prepare an old favorite of visiting gryphons." I realized that I was in the presence of royal herbivores. Seeing as they were magical I wasn't sure how close they were to horsies back home, but I knew I had eaten horse meat and hoped that no one would be terrified or offended if that ever came out. Fruits and vegetables and nuts are fine but I tend to prefer a lot of it uncooked. I was starting to dread that I was going to have to sit and pretend to enjoy very small amounts of expensive salads. ‘Would that be a banquet in magical pony land?’ I thought. But before I could start fretting for real, the chefs removed the bowls to reveal... ‘Halloumi? Hey, I love halloumi!’ Back home, people wouldn't count this as a center part of a dinner, which I would have disagreed on. Score one for Equestria. I gave a smile and decided I should turn to share it with the ones who had brought the food in but they had already turned away and were heading back the way they came. There were other foods of course. Mostly salads but I was accustomed to salads in fancy locales being mostly decorative. Everything was silent, I looked around to see that everyone were facing me with expectant looks and then jumped as I felt something brush against the side of my head. I looked around but there was no one within reach of me. "Gabrielle?" Celestia asked. "What's wrong?" "Uh," I started, a lot less sure about the situation than I would've liked. "I just felt something." "Felt what?" Applejack asked. "Something brushing the side of my head." Everyone was silent for a moment before Twilight spoke up. "Oh! That's right, Gabrielle, since you were a human you're probably not used to mobile ears." Then looked around at the others and said, "Human ears are in a fixed positions." I reached up and tried to touch my left ear, but I had to look for it since it was folded down. Rainbow apparently found this royally amusing as she was trying to stifle a laugh with her hooves, Applejack was chuckling, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Redheart were giving me looks that one would give a sleeping puppy while Luna was looking at me with an utterly neutral expression and Celestia was giving me a comforting smile. "Yeah, well, you were all looking at me," I grumbled a bit indignantly. "It is proper custom to let the guest start with the meal," Luna said with no amount of impatience or disapproval that I could detect. ‘Oh, that's right! There are still meals in front of us.’ I looked at Redheart and gave her a look. "Your majesties," Redheart said. "Gabrielle is unable to use her manipulation field at the moment and has no experience with unicorn magic, or magic of any kind, and I feel that this might not be the time for a lesson in basic magical manipulation. I'll take it upon myself to help Equestria's guest with her meal." Celestia smiled at her. "Your dedication is admirable," she said and her horn lit up. Redheart's chair and her own food was brought into the air and landed close enough for her to help me. I gave her a grateful look and held out my hoof. She took my fork in her mouth and held it out for me to grab it with my wrist. As she did, I considered the role of the hooves versus the role of the mouth as the primary ways ponies seemed to interact with the world around them. Humans had the handshakes and the hugs (mostly for people who aren't me), while ponies seemed to have the hoofshake. But at least Earth Ponies and probably pegasi as well seemed to also used their mouths to use tools and carry things around. I found an amusing thought in that if ponies decided to greet each other with their other primary manipulator, there would be a lot of casual kissing going on all the time. That turned the amusing thought a bit somber as it reminded me of my mother. With a name like mine I guess it's not very surprising that I grew up being constantly pecked on the cheeks. I shook some bittersweet memories away and focused on my food. I managed to stab a piece with my fork and bring it to my mouth. It might've been considered a bit of a mouthful as a human, but it was fine with a muzzle. There was probably a joke in there about having a long face but I didn't bother thinking one up, I was too distracted by the food. It was fit for a king, or in this case a trio of princesses. "So, Gabrielle Desrochers," Luna said a minute or so after everyone had started eating. "Would you mind telling us about yourself?" I looked around at the magical, talking ponies that were looking at me. ‘I'm the interesting one around here?’ "Well, in short I'm a twenty-six year old radiographer, specializing in magnetic resonance scanning. It's a technology for scanning people medically," I said. Luna nodded while looking politely interested before continuing. "Pray tell, in what situation were you in when you moved from Terra to Equestria?" Twilight's face grew red. "I... can't believe I forgot to ask that," she said in a low voice. She had assumed the worst before so I decided to give her the unexciting truth. "I was just preparing to go home for the day, closing down shop at the department where I work. An MRI machine requires special rooms to house it and everyone else had already left. I was just putting out the lights when suddenly I was here in Equestria, in the body of a pony." I tried to remember the details about it but it just seemed so mundane of a situation, before I remembered my state after arriving and letting out a small, slightly horrified laugh. Everyone around looked at me wonderingly. "I just remembered, I got here without my clothes, if they stayed behind, the only thing people would've found of me the next day would be a set of clothes and a prosthetic leg and eye lying beside the machine... they must've freaked out," I said with a nervous chuckle. Luna frowned ever slightly at this. "Not the ideal first interaction between our worlds," she said. Twilight's ears drooped and she seemed to struggle to find something to say. I decided to help her out. "I'm sure it'll be fine." ‘Not the most reassuring response, but it's the truth.’ I absentmindedly reached for the glass in front of me. "May I steer the conversation in a more pleasant direction?" Celestia said in a cheerful voice while turned to her sister. "If our guest does not disapprove, sister dear," Luna said as I took a drink. Celestia faced me with a cheery but questioning look on her face. ‘Ugh. Please don't say that we have to dance around issues like this in order to be polite,’ I thought as I took a gulp of some very nice soft drink or other. I shrugged noncommittally. "I just thought I'd point out that Gabrielle seems to adjust very smoothly to being a pony," Celestia said and gestured towards me. At first I was a bit confused until I realized that I was looking at her through the bottom of a glass. I carefully removed the glass from my mouth and looked at it as it was pressed by some invisible force against my hoof. Worried that I might mess up by thinking about what I was doing I carefully placed the glass down on the table and simply opened my fingers. The glass was released and I looked at my hoof. "I have to say, Gabe," Redheart said and gave me a smile. "It took the rest of us a lot more time than four days before we learned to use our hooves to grip things with." ‘Don't cheer too loudly yet, I've only managed it once.’ I brought my hoof to the fork and tried grabbing it. ‘Science is repeatable, after all.’ I hovered with my hoof over the utensil in what I assumed was like holding a hand with your palm down, and grabbed simply willed my fingers to close, grabbing the fork in the process. The fork was lifted from the table and looked as if attached to the hoof. My "fingers" for lack of a better word, felt... not exactly numb. It's difficult to describe to someone who has not felt it themselves, but receiving signals from non-existent parts of your body was something I was familiar with, and so was this sensation. Luckily, this time it didn't seem to include periods of pain and spikes of outright agony. I felt pleased about what I had achieved though. ‘If I can move around with magic and practice some telekinesis, I'll be ahead of myself as a human.’ I looked around and saw the others around the table having surprised and impressed expressions. "What?" I asked. "That is an impressive display," Luna said. "How far does your reach extend?" "I'm sorry?" I asked. ‘I'm guessing she's not talking about how long my foreleg is, she can probably tell.’ "How far from your hoof can you hold your utensil?" Luna said. I simply shifted the fork between what would have been my index and middle fingers. I noticed that Twilight's horn had lit up and she looked concentrated. She “powered down” and spoke up. "No wonder she couldn't use her field, it's been reshaping to look like human digits." Princess Luna looked on in interest and her sister looked pleased. "A joyous development," Celestia said. "I certainly hope that this helps you during your time in Equestria." "No doubt," I said and speared another piece and put it in my mouth. ‘Aaah, that feels satisfying.’ "People seems to have gone out of their ways to help me since arriving here, it's gonna be nice to regain some independence. I felt like I was taking up a little too much of everyone's time." "Please do not think anything of the sort, dear Gabrielle. I wish for you to feel welcome among my little ponies." A pang of sadness shot through me and just managed to keep back a small grimace. Or at least I thought I did, but not thoroughly enough to fool a millennia-old divine monarch. "Gabrielle? What's wrong?" Celestia asked. ‘This is one of the many reasons I like alone time. Every now and then something comes up and I get emotional, sometimes I don't even know why.’ "Oh, nothing. Just remembering." "Was it something I said?" Celestia asked. I'm not as fast of a learner as I might've sometimes liked, but I had already figured out that fooling Princess Celestia required more than my measly skills of deception. I nodded. "Well, yes. What you said reminded me of my mother," I said and winced inwardly. This might not have been much for someone else but for me this was like pouring my heart out to nine almost strangers. "I'm sorry," Twilight said and looked down. "I've taken you from your family." ‘Ah... I had gotten the feeling that something was chewing at her. Well, I would've preferred to not have a heart-to-heart with, well, anyone. But if Twilight is beating herself up about something that's no longer an issue then I really should intervene.’ "No, you haven't," I said. Twilight looked at me and for a second I saw a flash of relief across her features before her eyes widened. "What do you mean?" ‘Alright, time for sharing, I guess. Let's see, do not sound bitter, sad, apathetic or angry...' "They're gone," I said. ‘Well, I guess melancholic will have to do. It's better than that time I tried sounding flippant about it. Never doing that again.’ "That accident I told you about?" I said and looked around at the shocked ponies. "They didn't make it." I was growing a bit sick of the looks of utter horror I got from ponies whenever I revealed anything about myself so tried to get the conversation over with as quickly as I could. "And to clarify, your majesty," I said and turned to Celestia and tried to give her my best don't-worry-about-it expression. "When you said 'my little ponies', it reminded of my mother who used to call me 'my little Koh-I-Noor' when I was younger." Celestia's head dropped a little and she gave me a sad look. "I see. I hope I did not tear open old wounds with my remark." "Mm, Poked a tender spot, perhaps," I said and took another bite. "Anyway, if you're gonna show me lenience, I'm gonna show you some back." "Even so," Celestia said. "I'm sorry." "If you feel that it's something that merits an apology then I'll accept it," I said. "but I prefer it when... how do I put this? I don't like it when people react like me losing my parents is the end of the world. Because It felt like it, at the time. And it would be nice to not be reminded of that as often." "Then I hope you'll accept my apology for doing so," Celestia said. "I'm not going to hold it against you for showing me empathy," I said. The sadness in Celestia's smile lessened somewhat. "You are interestingly mature for your age." "Like I said, I've been an adult for years," I said and looked around. Most still looked very sad at the news about my parents. "So no," I said with emphasis to Twilight. "You have not separated me from my family. No siblings and with parents that didn't have any siblings either. Now, I'm not gonna say that no one will miss me, but I had just moved to a new town to run the department where I worked and I don't make friends fast, so I only had acquaintances." This did not seem to help. "You didn't have any friends?" She asked. ‘I just can't win, can I?’ I let out a sigh. "I'm trying to cheer you guys up, can you start going with the program already?" I felt a hoof touch my foreleg and turned to see Redheart looking at me. "I told you earlier, Gabe, this is difficult to listen to. And as you told me, yes, we ponies are emotionally tender." I rolled my eye. "I've noticed. And that's why I'm trying to tell you not to worry." I turned to the other ponies and said, "look, I don't like telling people off, especially when they're showing that they care, but it was a long time ago and nothing can be done about it." Everyone around the table looked sad but Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were practically looking heartbroken. "We're just trying to make you feel better," Pinkie Pie said. "Yes, I appreciate that. And if you guys would cheer up then it would work, too. I get that you care, but making everyone feel down is not helping me cheer up," I said. "We understand," Fluttershy said. "And I get it that you guys came all the way from Ponyville just to visit me. So, seriously, thank you." And that's when almost everyone got out of their seats, walked up to me and gave me a big hug. ‘No! Too much. Abort. Abort! Agh! We're all technically naked, too!’ The princesses had moved up behind us and were standing there with satisfied expressions when the hug finally broke. "It seems that the dinner is drawing to a close," Celestia said. I looked down on the plates and saw that they were all empty. "And evening is drawing nearer. Perhaps you would like to view your new living arrangements, Gabrielle?" "New living arrangements?" I asked. "Of course," Luna said. "We spoke with Doctor Staff earlier and she approved of releasing you from the hospital. And through no fault of your own you now find yourself without means. We will provide for Equestria's newest diplomatic visitor." "Provide how?" I asked. "We're giving you a suite in the castle, Gabrielle," Celestia said. "And possibly arranging for medical visits," she continued and looked a bit uneasily at me. I sheepishly closed my right eyelid. "Shall we?" Luna said and started moving towards a door. - We moved through the castle and I realized that I had been too stunned to express my gratitude for the princesses offer. But being as perceptive as the princesses seemed to be, I assumed that they got the gist of it. "By the way, Gabrielle. Why did your mother call you 'Koh-I-Noor'?" Rarity asked. "The Koh-I-Noor is a famous diamond. And she called me that after my middle name, Eleanor," I said. "More names?" Rainbow asked. As before, servants bowed and guards saluted as we moved through the magnificent castle and we ascended two fairly significant flights of stairs before we reached a large door on the side of a decorated hallway. Beside the door stood large vases with flowers and the floor was covered by a red carpet which I assumed was very soft but I never touched it as I was wheeled along in my chair. Princess Luna opened the door with her blue aura and we filed in. "Would these accommodations be to your liking?" she asked. I looked around the suite. It was very large but still managed to look cosy. The orange sun illuminated a large bed with bed posts and nightstands which took up one side, surrounded by a large number of cushions in different sizes, some of them looking like comfortable sleeping spots, themselves. A vanity and changing area with wardrobes on another side, which seemed a bit superfluous as I had seen very little in the way of clothes so far. A large, decorated window and glass door took up one wall which led out to a balcony and could be covered by a set of curtains. A door on the far side of the wall obviously led to a private bathroom and in one corner was a study area that could be covered by another set of curtains. Strategically placed to be enjoyed while being located in several of the room's areas was a large fireplace with an armchair in front of it. Add to it all was a lot of carpets and a few potted plants. In short, it was almost unnervingly luxurious. "I'm not sure anyone could ever have a problem with this," I said quietly. "Oh, what a marvelous room, darling," Rarity said. "You have to let me stop by sometime and let myself get some inspiration." "Yeah," Rainbow said. "There's not a lot that beats a cloud home, but this is pretty close. Nice pad, short stuff!" "Please excuse us, everypony," Luna said and she and Celestia opened the door to the balcony and stepped out. The sun had turned a pleasant orange and as the princesses' horns lit up and the sun descended beyond the horizon and the castle was instead covered in moonlight as the stars shone brightly in the night sky. The princesses walked back in and Celestia spoke up. "Everypony, Gabrielle is still suffering from the later stages of Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome. The more she rests up the sooner she can start learning magic." I didn't need any more motivation than that. "Thanks for everything today, you guys," I said. Which turned out to be something of a mistake as it resulted in another group hug. "We'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Twilight said as they all walked out, except Redheart. "I'm just gonna help her into bed, your majesties," she said. and moved me up to the bed. "Of course," Princess Celestia said. "Gabe, if you ever need any assistance, just say the words “Room service, please.” This will summon somepony to aid you." I shifted my eye as I tried to figure out how that was supposed to work. "What, really?" "Of course," Luna said as Redheart positioned herself over me and I grabbed hold. "Our little ponies pride themselves in their diligence. Visiting dignitaries leave Canterlot with high thoughts about the castle staff." Redheart put me down on the bed. "So it works through magic?" "Indeed," Luna said. "And similarly, the guards will respond when you say the word “guards” thrice in short succession. "Uh, cool," I said as Redheart threw the cover over me and I looked dejectedly at the princesses. "And now your latest diplomatic visitor is being tucked in in front of you." Princess Celestia put her hoof to her mouth and held back a laugh. "This is not the first time that's happened." It sounded like an interesting story there but it might be another time for that. "Also, thanks today, Gabe," Redheart said. "What for?" "I got to attend to a royal banquet thanks to you," she said and winked at me. "Goodnight." "Yes, we wish you a pleasant night," Luna said as the three ponies started moving towards the door. "We shall continue to keep your dreams peaceful." I had been about ready to call it a day when that caught my attention. "Wait. What do you mean?" I asked. Celestia gave us a smile and she and Redheart walked out while Luna stayed behind. "We are the Princess of The Night and the guardian of the astral realm. We watch over our subjects' dreams and keep their rest calm and joyous," she stated proudly. "You mean you've watched over me in my dreams before?" "Well, not exactly," she said. "When you first arrived we noticed that somepony had suffered from a rabidly feverish dream. It turned out to be you, no doubt because your affliction as well as your transformation into your current form." "I think I remember that..." I said. "Yes, so we quelled your troubled mind and let you deal with your predicament subconsciously, without interrupting your rest and waking you with disorienting images." "You helped me come to grips with my situation in my dreams?" "Yes," she said and failed to stifle a yawn. ‘Well, that explains a bit.’ "Long night?" I asked. "More like short day," she said. "Please don't tell our sister we slipped out of royal decorum." It was actually a bit comforting to see the up until now no-nonsense diarch act a bit casual, if only for a moment. "You, uh, work night shifts?" Luna nodded. "That is one way to put it." "So you got up early to attend the banquet?" I asked. "Certainly. It would be poor form to refrain from attending." "Wow. Thanks. But, uh, does that mean that you see what people dream about?" Luna looked at me for a second. "Well, we have ways of telling whether our presence would be welcome or not," she said and rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "Even so, when visiting dreams, one should be careful not to reveal one's presence too soon. More than once we have made a discreet exit when mares and stallions dream of each other." I thought for a about a second about that before I burst into a furious snigger. Luna no doubt thought it was a girly giggle but it had more to do with me being reminded of last week when I sat down on my remote control and zapped on my TV, whereupon I ended up watching a very humorous documentary about Fabio, where the word “stallion” was extensively used. My “stamina fluctuations” acted up again and I fell asleep on a bright note, even though I didn't notice. > Glow Blue. (Alternate, homage-title: The Color Of Magic) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long, long before recorded history, fire had been revered by humans as something supernatural. It could fend off wild predators, cook food and captivate an audience. It could heal, it could wound, it could destroy, it could renew. And as humans long ago set their gaze on distant lands, they had to rely even more on fire as they moved away from their ancestral continent. For warmth, light, and comfort. With early humans having witnessed fire do such remarkable things, it was no wonder that fire had been revered as if it was magic. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some part of the human brain that was hardwired to regard that oh so common chemical reaction as something mystical. However, there is one very old concept that hadn't been granted nearly as many supernatural traits like fire, but which also filled a vital role in the early days of mankind, still used in modern day and would probably remain so in the foreseeable future. Like fire, it was vital to humanity’s survival as they trekked across the vast lands of their home planet. It kept them safe, and warm, and had been part of human's everyday life since before civilization. And I was enjoying it right now. I put my hoof on it and adjusted it. ‘Sometimes, a nice blanket really helps.’ And it really helped. Having the basics covered did wonders for the human psyche, at least as far as I could remember from school. I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I really ought to get some sleep, however. After the initial excitement of arriving in Equestria, my old habits were starting to kick in, which included worrying during sleepless nights as that meant tough days at work. Despite being safe and sound I was feeling anxious about my situation. I know Twilight probably felt guilty about putting me in this situation, and it was nice of her and her fellow princesses to help me. But even so, I had been granted a lot for very little. Despite the classical aesthetics in Canterlot, it was obvious that this was not antiquity, where a privileged few enjoyed life at the expense of a massive slave population. No, like where I came from, this was a land of surplus where means and resources were distributed to avoid poverty and starvation. And so I had expected some aid from established agencies, like foster care or something since apparently I'm young enough to be considered an orphan around here, and things of that nature. I did not, however, expect a suite at a castle my first night outside of a hospital. And that's where my anxiety came from, as well as my desire for sleep. I was never very comfortable with the idea of just being given things for nothing, and the only way to repay my benefactors were to take any responsibilities I was given seriously, even if, according to Twilight, the issues of establishing contact between Earth and Equestria would remain purely academic for what could be a long time. ‘So yeah, it's probably nothing worth worrying about, since it's not a pressing matter. Just relax. The princesses are probably busy so you have plenty of time to get your sleeping patterns in order. Which, by the way, they're fully aware are not normal at the moment.’ Having stopped myself from getting a stomach ulcer for the moment, I rolled over and tugged at the bed curtains in order to see the starry night sky through the very large window that took up a significant part of a wall. I had never slept in a bed with curtains before. It was cozy. I was lying there when I heard a clank in the distance. It didn't seem important, just like someone either dropped a metal tray down the corridor, or a very large tray several corridors down, but I felt the sensation of my ear swiveling towards the door and then swiveling back. Only one did, and I assumed that it was because the other one was pinned beneath me. Figuring that I could have a relaxingly educational moment by trying to familiarize myself with my new form, I tried to swivel my ears independent of sound or mood. It didn't seem to work. I tried something similar to a trick I learned when I was a kid, when I managed, by focusing my eyes on the tip of my index finger and slowly touching the bridge of my nose, to become cross-eyed at will. I felt confident I could technically still align my muscles the same way, but the trick just wasn't the same when one eye was artificial and didn't follow the other very well at the best of times. I rolled over to my other side again, and with one of the bedposts being behind me, I used the super-equestrian(-by-Earth-standards-but-obviously-mundane-by-Equestrian[the realm, as opposed to the genus]-standards)-flexibility of my foreleg to tap a bed post behind me and sure enough, my ear swiveled to locate the sound. I took note of the sensation and concentrated. After only a few tries I could move my ear back and forth. ‘Well, that was easy. Twenty more minutes and I could probably do this with both ears independently and in every direction. I guess this is nothing special around here.’ I rolled over again to look at the rich night sky. I had seen pictures of the stars as seen near the equator back home of course. But even that paled in comparison to the soft light and the comforting purple tinge that radiated from this alien heaven. I was musing about how fitting Twilight's name was and whether the purple tinge actually came from the sky or if it was the result of ponies around here being at least partially nocturnal, which didn't seem unlikely considering how large their eyes were, when suddenly fatigue gripped me. ‘Ah, here we go.’ - I awoke to the sound of hooves clopping on tiles. Or rather, a minute awareness of the world around me mingled with a very deep state of sleep, and I perceived something which seemingly several moments later my brain registered to be the sound of hooves, which was also muffled by a carpet. I think we're all familiar with this situation. In visual media it's often relayed with a close-up shot of eyes of the character the story currently focuses on, then a distant sound is heard, often a disembodied voice that's gradually becoming clearer as the eyes of aforementioned characters starts stirring. As is often the case, my own experience was cut short by a sudden and unpleasant sensation, but luckily not by a bucket of cold water or a punch to the face as often happens in fiction. No, I was simply startled by having the face of a horse very close to mine. So I was shocked into a fully awake state and involuntarily tried to give a startled cry just before this fully awoken state was reached, which resulted in the startled cry coming out as a vaguely displeased sounding groan. Further bizarre was the fact that a part of my brain that wasn't startled chastised other parts for such a reaction in a world inhabited by talking ponies. As this was happening I instinctively splayed back my ears to avoid having them nibbled on. ‘Interesting contrast between the reactions there, dummy.’ It was unlikely that the majority of my mental scrambling showed on the outside, as the pony simply cleared his throat into a hoof and stood at attention. He was wearing armor identical to the expressionless guards I had seen yesterday with the same sky blue mane, and his coat was white with a slightly dull purple tinge to it. "I'm sorry for startling you, madam. But I have been ordered to inform you that breakfast is about to be served if you would be interested in sharing it with the royal sisters," the pony said in a confident sounding voice. As I was trying to get my bearings he started looking nervous and suddenly added "I am also to deliver a gift to you from the esteemed Lady Rarity." "Uhuh," I started and looked around. ‘Breakfast... morning... you have breakfast in the morning. It's morning now, I guess. Guard here, have breakfast. Also, gift.’ I tried picking myself up from my pillow and wobbled a bit. "What gift?" I asked, and woke up more thoroughly as I realized that the duvet had fallen down and revealed my chest. ‘Coat, dummy. And there's nothing to cover, anyway.’ "An... accessory," the guard stated. "To cover your injury which, and I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn here, Madam, I would appreciate if you could conceal." I looked at him for a few seconds before registering that I still didn't have a prosthetic eye and closed my right eyelid. "Right, thanks for the reminder. What do you mean, 'an accessory'?" I noticed the guard's wings as he opened up one of them and retrieved something from beneath it with his mouth. It was an eyepatch. Not one of those black leather patches you see in pirate movies, nor a huge band-aid, but a white, soft looking textile variant with a three-point attachment. "Would this be to your liking?" Many things are in favor of the idea of covering up a gaping hole in your head and few things are against the idea. I groggily blinked the sleep from my eye and said, "Uh, sure." The guard placed the patch in his hoof and held it out to me. "Would you like some assistance?" he asked. I managed to mutter, "yes, please. Just gimme a moment," between a double yawn. I stretched and tried to shake myself awake. "Alright, go ahead," I said and shuffled closer to the edge and sat up straighter. The guard placed the eyepatch over my eye after I leaned my head back, or up, with my new anatomy. He then maneuvered the elastic strings through my mane and started tying it to the back of my head with his mouth, which I would have liked to see. ‘So, are there going to be introductions? Is it inappropriate for military personnel to pursue familiarity with officials, at least the rank and file? Also, doesn't “rank and file” originally refer to the placement in a combat formation? Do they have muskets around here? That term might be meaningless if they don't. I wonder if I'm watching too many history documentaries.’ The guard was stiff and shaking slightly and my mane was no doubt causing some problems, so it was time consuming but he eventually finished fastening the eyepatch and when I leaned my head forward again I felt it press against my head. I tried opening my eye and gave it an experimental tug with my hoof, but it was placed firmly enough to not fall off just like that, and it didn't feel like it was digging into my skin but resting snugly like an expertly placed bandage. "Feels good, thank you," I said. He looked at me for a moment before averting his gaze, seeming lost on how to respond. I considered simply asking him if there was anything else, but he was starting to look flustered and instead I decided to help him out by holding out my hoof for him and saying "Gabrielle Desrochers." This made him recover and tried shaking my hoof with his right before catching himself and using his left hoof instead. He wrapped his considerably larger fetlock (I had just remembered that term and I was pretty certain that it was the right one) around mine and cautiously shook it. "I, uh, name's Armor, private in the Canterlot Royal Guard." Amazingly enough it seemed like I was the socially smooth one in the room and decided to accept the responsibility of that at the moment. "A pleasure to meet you, Private," I said. "Uh, the, erm, the pleasure is mine, Madam," He said. Once more, it seemed like he had run out of things to say before his business here was concluded. I thought back to what he had said recently and pressed the conversation forward. "Did you mention something about a breakfast, Private? Or Armor? What should I call you?" He jumped and looked a bit sheepish. "Oh, yeah, did you want to have breakfast now, madam? And I think it would be best if you called me 'Private'. And, uh, to that I should add that I have no relation to the Captain." "Now seems like a good time as any to have breakfast. And do you share a name with your Captain?" I asked. "Yeah, Captain Shining Armor. Like I said, no relation. So, I'm to escort you to the dining hall, madam." "Thank you, Private," I said and waited a moment for Armor to act, which he didn't. "Ehm," I said and gestured in his direction before continuing. "Proceed?" I noticed that Armor looked very nervous before he answered. "Aah, I'm sorry, madam, but would you like to be moved to the dining hall in your wheelchair?" he said. I looked at the wheelchair standing halfway between the bed and the door, briefly wondering if it should be returned to the hospital soon. I've dealt with his kind before, people who are terrified of offending the handicapped to the point of almost ceasing to function in their proximity. But I realized that I shouldn't blame him too harshly. I'm a high-ranking official, at least on paper. And judging by the guards yesterday his specialty might not include much beyond standing still. "Yes," I said and gave him a small smile, as I've found that those are better in situations like this than bigger ones. "Would you like some pointers?" "Oh, madam! I couldn't ask you to-" he said before realizing that things were not proceeding expediently as they were. "Yes, please," he concluded and hung his head slightly. "Well, it's quite simple, Private. You see that thing?" I said and gestured to the wheelchair; Armor looked at it and nodded. "Help me get into it. It's as straightforward as it sounds." He turned back to me and hesitated. "Do I, uh... Pick you up, Madam?" I put on a mock thinking-face and slowly nodded. "That would be a very sensible approach, Private." "Okay," he said and inspected me like I was a canyon he had been charged with building a bridge over. "So, I uh. I just uuh," he mumbled while experimentally shooting out his hooves and pulling them back while considering how to best carry me. I performed a spectacular roll of my eye and threw of my cover before simply saying in a firm voice "Private, pick me up and put me down in the chair!" The startled Armor sprung into action. He shot his forelegs under me, picked me up in them while he took off with his wings, and carried me to the wheelchair in flash. Before I knew it, I found myself gently placed in the wheelchair with an eye open wide in surprise. I blinked my surprise away before turning to Armor. "Very good, Private. I take it you've done this before?" The guard looked shocked at what he had just done but my words and rageless expression slowly calmed him down. "Ah, yes. All part of basic training, madam." I nodded, my thoughts about the soldier having been raised. "This next part seems easy," I said helpfully. "Oh! Of course, madam," he said and started wheeling me towards the door. "So," I said as we proceeded down the hall and through a pair of open doors where two other guards nodded at us. "Is 'madam' the proper way to refer to someone in my position?" I asked Armor. "Uh, yes, madam," Armor said. "Unless it displeases you." I considered this for a while. ‘It makes me sound old. But as a pony, I apparently have to actually grow old before I'm even considered anything other than young so I guess that's maybe not an issue... ‘“Madam”... A title, referring to someone important. Who probably has a high opinion of herself. "Private," I said. "Yes, madam?" Armor answered. "I would prefer it if you did not refer to me that way." "Are... are you sure, mada- uhm, miss?" "I'm sure," I said firmly. "Well. If you insist, miss," Armor said hesitantly. "If it helps I can reserve the right to change my mind, Private," I said. "Yes, ma- miss, certainly." We got to a flight of stairs and Armor stopped in front of them. He was probably right to be apprehensive about this since they were pretty significant and a quadruped might have difficulty smoothly wheeling someone down them. It could probably work, but it would have to take time and if he for some reason had to let go there wouldn't be much I could do to stop myself from tumbling down the steps. We both looked around but there were no guards in sight right here. In fact, though there was a faint sound of kitchen activity in the distance, this part of the castle was very quiet at the moment. I figured the time of day was to blame. "Figures," Armor said dejectedly. "Don't like the idea of going away to ask for help?" I asked. "Well, no, ma- miss," he said. "Why isn't there anyone else here?" "Shift change," Armor said. "Give it a few minutes and you'll never have noticed that it happened." "Okay," I said. "So we'll just wait a few minutes." "If you think that's best, miss," Armor said hesitantly. "... Why don't you want help with this?" I asked. "I definitely need help with this." "I'd, erm... rather not say, miss," Armor said and looked to his horseshoes. "Okay?" I said slowly, looked around, and thought for a moment. "So, how about you pick me out of this thing, fly me down there, and then go back up and get the chair?" He perked up at this before looking apprehensive. "I... would not want you to feel undignified when I leave you down there, miss." Thinking back to the past few days when I had suffered (still suffering, actually) from what could be described as acute narcolepsy and magical incontinence, needed help to relieve myself in the bathroom, and being lugged around by giant dogs like a ragdoll, I confidently said, "Private, I have no problem with you leaving me for a few seconds a mere flight of stairs away." "But- Yes, miss," Armor said and picked me out of the chair, spread his wings and glided down the stairs before gently sitting me down, facing the base of the stairs. He then flew up the stairs, grabbed the wheelchair by the handles with his hooves, and flew down with it. Or he would have, but the handles slid off the bars when he was about two steps down and the chair came crashing down the stairs. It was headed in my direction and I quickly rolled over to my stomach to get some leverage to push myself to my left, hoping that I didn't have to go some other direction to avoid being hit by a renegade wheelchair. "Miss Gabrielle, watch out!" Armor shouted in panic, dropping the handles and flying down after the wheelchair to try and grab it. I bent my head back and tried to determine where the chair was going to land. It wasn't easy and only having one eye certainly didn't help, but I took my chances and jumped, sort of, to my left. It turned out to be the right choice as the wheelchair slammed into where I had been a moment before, the smaller wheels in the front coming loose and the axle of one of the larger ones bending somewhat. I let out a sigh of relief before Armor landed beside me. "Miss Gabrielle! Are you alright!?" he asked in a panicked voice as he started turning me over with his hooves and inspecting me everywhere, almost, while flapping his wings to stay aloft just off the ground so that he could use both forelegs while one of the handles, (hoofles?) gently bounced down beside us. "Yeah. I'm fine," I said, but it did come a bit disoriented as I was turned over so that Armor could check me for injuries. He finally seemed happy I wasn't gonna keel over in his forelegs before gently putting me down. He took a step back and slowly let out a deep breath before bowing his head and saying "Miss Gabrielle. My negligence almost caused you serious injury. With your permission I will collect my commanding officer posthaste; he will help you determine any disciplinary action." I blinked in surprise before looking at the chair lying on its side. I could tell that the thing wasn't heavy. Had I gotten it flat on me I suspected the likely result would be an angry bruise or two, maybe a slight concussion if it landed squarely on my head. I looked back at Armor, who hung his head in shame. "Armor," I said slowly. "It was an accident. I don't want anyone punished for this." Armor looked up at me. "This... was a most shameful display, Miss Gabrielle. It would be appropriate to let this be a lesson for me." I raised an eyebrow at this and shook my head at that somewhat bizarre idea. "Are you saying that you wouldn't learn from this without punishment?" I asked in disbelief. "I, uh," Armor said hesitantly. "It would be... unbecoming for a royal guard to commit such a mistake without any." He seemed pretty set on this but an idea struck me. "Well, Private Armor. It is my opinion that you acted admirably and I would be offended should someone be punished for that. I reject the notion that you should suffer for appropriate action. Now, I feel that the matter of breakfast is more pressing, take me to the dining hall." I said, with as much conviction as I could muster, channeling my inner archaic era bureaucrat. Armor looked stunned for a moment before answering. "Of course, miss." He picked me up like earlier and we slowly flew down the halls of the palace, getting strange looks from any guards we passed by. Even if we were only two feet off the ground, it still felt a bit exciting to actually be flying even though it was not very unlike a wheelchair. It was slightly mitigated by the fact that I was held like I was on the cover of a cheesy romance novel. I very pointedly did not put my foreleg around Armor's neck. We weren't going very fast, which I assumed was because Armor was terrified that he was going to drop me. "You seem nervous, Private," I said when we were in a long corridor outside the hearing range of any guards, which, by the way, were the only inhabitants around at the moment. The staff must be busy elsewhere and perhaps residents weren't up yet. "Uhm, I am, miss." "Because what just happened?" I asked. "Yes, miss." "Still not over the idea about punishment, Private Armor?" He paused for a moment before answering. "No, miss." I tried imagining myself in his (horse)shoes. ‘If he's supposed to represent the royal guard, it would indeed be unbecoming to almost cause an injury on a newly arrived official. His peers are supposed to be very proud of their work and any mistake would reflect poorly on them as a whole.’ "If it's any consolation, Private, I could have a word with your commanding officer some time." "I," he hesitated before continuing. "Of course, miss." "Preferably before you do." "Yes, miss." He seemed to get lost in thought before speaking up. It would have to be a short conversation as we were nearing the dining hall I had been in before. "Would you allow me a question, miss?" "Shoot." "Aren't you upset, miss?" he asked. "About the wheelchair?" I asked back. "Yes." "Not really, nothing happened" I said. "I might be if it's gonna be a regular thing, though," I added. "I... I will do all in my power to prevent that, miss!" he said with conviction. "Well, how can I doubt anyone who's that convincing?" I said as we went through the doors into the same dining hall as yesterday. Around the table was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, together with Applejack and Fluttershy, all sitting in the same spots as yesterday. Celestia and Fluttershy sported bathrobes with their hair done up in simple ties, and interestingly enough, Fluttershy's robe had some trimmings and embellishments, while Celestia's looked outright plain. They looked up and gave us surprised looks when we entered. "Good morning, Gabrielle," Celestia said as she set a teacup she had been levitating down on the table. Apparently, breakfast had just started. "I see you've found an expedient mode of transport." I leaned my face away from Armor's, as the amount of heat his had started radiating felt worrisome. "The wheelchair broke its bonds and claimed freedom in a spectacularly short lived manner," I said as Armor gently put me down on a chair he apparently picked at random. I ended up in the one Redheart had occupied yesterday. The rest of the ponies around the table gave me questioning looks. "I mean that it fell apart on the way here and crashed down the stairs. And, good morning, everyone." The rest of the assembled ponies responded while Armor hesitated beside me. I gave him a casual smile, then he bowed to the princesses and flew back the way we came. "Well," Luna said, and I noticed that an opossum was sitting on the table beside her and nibbling on a piece of pastry. "That will simply not do. A proper mode of transportation will need to be acquired." "I'll put Kibitz on it," Celestia noted as she levitated her tea back up to her mouth. "What happened?" Fluttershy asked as a pony who had apparently moved up very quietly beside me started laying out a collection of vegetarian foodstuffs in front of me and pouring me a cup of tea. "Private Armor was wheeling me through the halls when we came to the stairs in the middle of guard change. I suggested that he fly me down first and then fly the chair down. But the handles came loose mid-flight and the chair tumbled down the stairs," I said as I lifted the lids of various little cups in front of me and inspected the food. "Good thing you weren't in it," Applejack noted. "Mmhm," I mumbled and nodded, my mouth full of pear. "Doesn't explain why he looked so nervous though," she continued. I swallowed down and continued. "He thought he messed up and seemed afraid I was gonna get hurt when the chair landed next to me. By the way, where are the others?" "Twilight should be up soon, Pinkie Pie is in the kitchen and Rarity and Rainbow Dash are still sleeping," Luna said. "By the way, Tiberius, introduce yourself to our guest." The opossum hopped over to me across the table with a piece of pie in its mouth, which it, or he, I guess, judging by his name, took out and offered to me. "Uuh." I thought quickly before accepting the gift and quickly offered him a raspberry in return, which he in turn took and started chewing on. During this distraction I quickly pushed the piece of pie I had received behind a saucer, out of Tiberius' sight. "A pleasure to meet you, Tiberius," I said, taking care to put some token formality in my speech when addressing an apparently royal animal companion. He didn't seem to notice my stunt as I stuck my hoof out and gently rubbed it against his ear, which he leaned into for a bit before hopping back towards Luna. I only just noticed Fluttershy giving me a smile from across the table. "How are you finding Equestrian cuisine, Gabrielle?" Celestia asked as I heard the clopping of hooves approach us from the entrance. This got Applejack's attention; though I got the feeling she didn't want it to show. I was getting over my habit of the same cereal every morning quickly enough. And fresh fruits, nuts and berries together with some nice, if slightly rough bread was all well and good, so breakfast was not a problem. In fact, it felt a bit like combining open air freshness with the comforts of a house. "Invigorating," I said as I turned to see the new arrival. It was Twilight, who was sporting bed hair and an unfocused look in her eyes. She yawned and said, "Good morning, everypony." "Good morning," I responded, together with the rest. Though Celestia added "Twilight" afterwards. Twilight started saying something, but was interrupted by another yawn before continuing "Sorry if I'm flanking in on the conversation, but speaking of Equestrian cuisine. Gabrielle, I would like you to stick to eating things that you know both ponies and humans can eat." "Well," I said. "Ponies back home are non-sentient... no wait, non-sapient animals who, as far as I know, walk around and eat grass. Which I'm not keen on trying out." "They eat it raw?" Applejack asked. "Yeah. So you guys do eat grass?" "Yeah we do. But it would be mighty strange to not cook it first. If you're gonna tell Rarity that, do it when you're ready to take care of somepony fainting," Applejack said. The rest of the ponies sniggered a bit at that before Twilight continued. "So, yes, Gabrielle. It might make the dinners here seem a bit plain but so far I would like you to stick to things that are compatible with both ponies and humans." "Okay, but why?" I asked. "Well, yesterday I was looking over some of my own notes of transformations, and I realized that while you might have been transformed into a pony, I'm not entirely sure that your gastric bacteria and digestive enzymes have as well," she said. "Oh," I said, realizing the implications. "So," Twilight said. "Until we can get some more information, it would be best if you refrain from sharing food with other ponies and things like, uh... kissing." Love and romance had been pretty far away from my mind. I thought back to how I was recently carried in the arms, or forelegs, of what I assumed was a young, strapping, able-bodied, and brave stallion. In uniform, no less. Nothing tingled, though. "Got it," I said while taking a piece of sandwich and started pouring myself some tea. "I'm sorry," Twilight said. ‘Wow, that must be some sort of record for how long we've had a conversation without her apologizing.’ "If it does turn out to be an issue, I'll fix it." "Mhm," I said while trying out some tea. I had never had tea before but it was really nice. No wonder Brits are so into tea, they must think we're all stupid to not do this as well. "Not really an issue," I said while setting the cup down. "You might think so now," Celestia said with a knowing smile. "I do, and keep my formerly adult status in mind when I say that." "I'll let my statement stand," Celestia said with a smile. I paused, if this was a battle of wits then it was definitely Celestia: 1, Gabe: 0. "Well," Applejack said. "Keep what I said about Rarity doubly in mind if you plan on telling her that." "Uh, sure," I said before changing the subject. "Anyway, what's on the agenda for today?" "I am having Kibitz arrange a spot in my schedule where you can tell us about your world," Celestia said. "But it won't be today. My schedule is full and I would like Luna to join us." "I carry out my royal duties without such a crutch," Luna said haughtily as she reluctantly chewed on a piece of rough bread. Twilight shot Luna a slightly frightened look. "Indeed," Celestia said. "And you might turn out to have a pretty busy day yourself, Gabrielle." "I do?" "Yes, if you're interested, an ocularist will be available today." The eyepatch was nice but having a prosthetic eye might have a comforting effect. "I am," I said gratefully. "And Twilight has volunteered to instruct you in teaching some magic," Celestia continued. That got my attention. I turned towards Twilight and she gave me a shy smile. "Well, I uh, I'm looking forward to it," I said. And I really was. Just the thought of being able to move things with your mind had me almost a bit giddy. "Great!" Twilight said. "I hope you're well rested. It's kind of taxing for young unicorns to first use magic." My ears drooped. ‘Okay, good to know they do that before I tried playing poker as a pony.’ "Didn't sleep well?" Celestia asked. "Well... I slept fine, just not very long, I think." "Breakfast at this time was not mandatory," Celestia said and smiled with a raised eyebrow. "I know," I said. "It's just that after Armor woke me up I didn't think I'd be able to go back to sleep. Not to complain of anything, but I was a bit surprised to wake up with him standing over me like that." "Oh, yeah, by the way," Twilight said. "You might not be used to pegasi yet. They have a pretty relaxed way of regarding personal spaces and private abodes. That's good to keep in mind, especially when you meet a Cloudsdale native." "With exceptions, of course," Applejack said. Fluttershy nodded her head slightly. "I hope you were patient with him," Celestia said. "He's new." That explained a few things. Before I could respond, the doors where the kitchen staff had came from yesterday shot open and Pinkie Pie bounced out towards us, somehow balancing a tray on her back as she did so. "Good morning everypony!" she exclaimed loudly. The tray was covered in pastries, and starting with Princess Celestia and going clockwise, Pinkie Pie started hoofing them out to us, saying "one for you" every time. When she reached Princess Luna, she instead said, "And since you've been warned to watch your cholesterol, Loony, I've made sure to make your's the one super duper bestest cupcake I can." Luna's scowl could probably freeze a volcano, but Pinkie Pie absentmindedly shoved a piece of the cupcake into Luna's mouth and bounced away. The expression on Luna's face spoke of a fierce internal battle before finally mellowing out into one of exasperation. She chewed her cupcake and said, with a sigh "We hath never been more conflicted about a pony than that one." - I found myself hanging across Fluttershy's back as we made our way through the castle and into the gardens. Apparently, foals riding around on the back of adult ponies was pretty much analogous to how human kids rode around on the shoulders of human adults. But I had to be sprawled over Fluttershy's back as I didn't trust myself to keep my balance with only my left limbs. I was told that Rainbow was the one that carried me when they found me in the forest, and that she was so strong that one could treat her back and wings like a bouncy castle, but she was fast asleep this morning. I hadn't hung around dedicated athletes a lot but spending a lot of time sleeping is imperative for peak physical health. ‘Well, who has to worry about missing out on life cause of sleeping when you're gonna live for centuries?’ "So where are we going?" I asked. "The ocularist is here and Rarity wanted to see the process," Twilight said. "Unless you mind." Getting fitted for a prosthetic eye wasn't all that fun, but it's not exactly embarrassing or anything. "Nah, I don't mind. In my experience it's just not very exciting," I said and shook my head. "I have half a mind to go get Rainbow Dash as well," Applejack said. "Being invited to the castle and then spending all your time sleeping just don't seem right." "Again, where are we going?" I asked. "Oh, sorry, we were just gonna go get Rarity," Twilight said. We reached a door which Twilight knocked on. After a moment a frazzled looking Rarity with curlers in her hair and a sporting a bathrobe opened the door. She let out a gasp as she saw us. "Have I missed it!?" "Missed what?" I asked. "Your appointment, dear," Rarity said. I turned my head to face her so she could clearly see the eyepatch she made, it otherwise being obscured by my mane. "Nope. Thanks for this thing, by the way. It's really comfy." "Oh, thank you, darling," Rarity said with a smile. "When is your appointment?" "We're going there now. I'll get somepony to bring some breakfast there for you," Twilight said. "Right, just one moment," Rarity said as she closed the door. Mere seconds later she emerged with the bathrobe and curlers gone. "Let's go." A short walk later we found ourselves in a foyer, and I was starting to wonder how long it would take to learn the layout of this castle, because it wasn't where we came in through yesterday. Redheart was standing there with a brownish yellow earth pony stallion with a light green mane and cutie mark of some sort of metal instrument I couldn't identify, who was looking around himself intently. Redheart, on the other hand, looked part wary and part exasperated. "Good morning," Redheart said as we approached. "No wheelchair?" "No wheelchair," I said from Fluttershy's back. "It couldn't handle the pressure." Redheart tilted her head. "You need a new one?" "That might be for the best," Twilight said. "But don't worry about that, we'll take care of it." "Well, if that's the case," Redheart said and turned to the stallion, who hadn't given any indication on having noticed us. "Prism, this is Gabrielle Desrocher," she said and gestured towards me before following up with introductions of the rest of the present ponies. The stallion finally seemed to come back to reality and quietly walked up to us and started punching everyone's hooves. I held up my own as I figured that this was just another kind of greeting. When he was done he said, "Prism Cut, a pleasure." We all looked at each other, a bit confused by his slightly uncanny but not offensive behavior and not really sure what to say when Redheart spoke up. "Prism, Gabrielle is the filly who needs a new eye," she said helpfully. Prism paused and then said, without a hint of irony, "Of course, I will begin measuring. But I will need to see her eye socket." I reached up and started pawing through my hair, trying to find the knots that held the string together. "So, maybe we should go find an empty room to do this in?" Twilight asked Prism. Prism didn't respond at once, instead, he looked like he was winding up for a dramatic pose before simply letting it out and saying, "No." I gave up on trying to find the knot in my mane and instead just peeled the bottom of the patch up to my forehead. "No?" Twilight asked. "No, I need to see her eye in action," Prism said. "I need motions in order to measure." The rest of us looked confusedly at each other, except Rarity who had an expectant look on her face, until Redheart spoke up. "Prism here won't be using a mold, he's actually a gem sculptor. But he's skilled enough for the job." "Oh, I know a fellow artisan when I see one!" Rarity exclaimed excitedly while Prism interrupted his inspection of his surroundings to shoot her a small smile before continuing. "Okay?" a confused Applejack asked Prism. "So what's gonna happen now?" Prism did that strange winding up thing again as he seemed to consider his answer. "I shall create art, and it shall imitate life," he somehow exclaimed with a normal speaking volume. "And so, I shall observe life. We shall go where I can take in life and its details," he said while slowly rising in a dramatic pose. Twilight, Applejack and myself looked confused while Redheart rolled her eyes. Rarity, however, took in Prism's words with interest and unexpectedly, from what I could see, Fluttershy seemed to do the same. "Prism," Redheart said. "Just tell us what you need, in plain language." Prism wound down to a normal stance and looked a bit sheepish. "I just wanna see your socket in action for a while so that it'll be as nice as possible," he said to me in a much more casual manner. "... Oh," I said and opened my eye. "Well, go ahead and look." He put a hoof up to his chin and hummed as he looked intently at me. "Alright, I've got the shape down, but to make it great, I wanna, just, see you go through life for a while." "Go through life?" I asked. "I was expecting to sit still for a while right now." "Oh! Hey!" Rainbow Dash's voice suddenly sounded from above. We looked up to see her hovering above us. "We could totally tell Gabe the stories about Nightmare Moon and Discord and stuff." "Have you been there for long?" Twilight asked. "Yep!" Rainbow said casually, and before anyone else could say anything, Prism spoke up. "Tales of adventure from the heroes of Equestria? Yes, excellent suggestion," he said. "Adventures? Heroes of Equestria?" I looked around at these magical ponies, so like the ones walking down the street yesterday, in confusion. "Might wanna get Pinkie Pie," Applejack said. "She won't wanna miss out on this. Then again, she probably already knows." - We were sitting on some cushions out in the royal gardens. It was a nice place, and some rustic outdoor furniture and checkered wood fences with honeysuckles clinging to it made up a quiet corner of the garden with a single, old-school street lamp, which wasn't lit now in the middle of the day. All in all, it seemed like a mix between a patio section and stylishly cozy garden in an old Parisian suburb. Or something like that. "I feel like I'm skipping out on work," Redheart said as she nibbled some of the pastries that Pinkie Pie had brought. I would've wondered how Pinkie, and anyone who're friends with her, could be anything but obese, but my brain seemed to be leaking intellect from all the bizarre tales I was being told. I was having real difficulty in believing half of these crazy tales. Which is really saying something, coming from someone who've recently been turned into a unicorn filly. "So," I started, indicating that I wanted some clarification while trying to figure out how to formulate the question. "The Dreamscape is an actual place, on the moon, which you once lassoed with Applejack's rope, brought it closer to Equestria, anchored it to a tree stump, and then you funambulisted across the rope to reach the surface?" "That's right," Twilight said. "We went to the moon. As for if the Dreamscape is an actual place, you should ask Luna about that. But please try and phrase it tastefully, she's a bit sore about some parts of this story." "She's not the only one," Rarity said, lying belly-down on her cushion while covering her face with her hooves. "Can we please get this story over with?" I couldn't really blame her, Rarity's part in this tale was equal parts flattering and embarrassing. "Well I hope you have another one," Prism Cut suddenly chimed in. His voice surprised me, soon after we got here he had gone quiet and simply studied me closely, which I stopped paying attention to after a while, barely registering how he sat and scribbled on a small notepad with four different painting utensils in his mouth. "You made such wonderfully living expressions, Gabrielle." "Yeah! I've almost gotten used to your eye by now," Rainbow Dash said to me. "It's barely disgusting at all." "Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy chastised while the others looked disapprovingly at her. "What? I'm saying that she's not creeping me out. That's a good thing, right?" Rainbow Dash said and shrugged, a gesture which I found amusing on equines. ‘Oh, pony wants to play, eh?’ "I think you've got it all backwards, Rainbow Dash," I told her. "What? How so?" "It's not my eye that's been creeping you out, it's the lack of one," I said and leaned forward while putting my hoof under my empty socket and stretched it out a little more than facial muscles alone could. Rainbow Dash recoiled and looked away. "Okay," she said. "Maybe it's still a little creepy." "At least you're honest about it," I said with a slightly smug smile. "Hear that, Applejack?" Rainbow said triumphantly. "What do you think about empty eye sockets?" Applejack managed to both aim a scowl at Rainbow and aim a cringe at no one in general at the same time. "I reckon it's mighty disturbing. I don't like the thought of losing an eye." "I think you'd be okay, Applejack. I haven't done any farm work in my life but you get used to having one eye fast enough," I said. And I believed what I said, especially here in magical pony land where eyes are tougher than buffalo hide and your spare was almost armored in comparison to back home. "Can I borrow that thing?" Rainbow said and gestured to my eyepatch. I shrugged, pulled it off and hoofed it over. "I'm just glad that I haven't had to and probably never will. Now legs, those I don't think I could manage without," Applejack said while Rainbow strapped my eyepatch over her closed eye. ‘Working a farm one-eyed doesn't seem impossible for a pony. But two-legged might be different.’ "Hmm," I said. "Do you have any prostheses around here?" The ponies around me looked down at this, their ears drooping, except Prism, I noticed, who seemed to be sketching something with one of the four different colored charcoal pencils in his mouth. "Well, we did, but..." Twilight started after a while. "I read up on this. Medical magic has advanced so far in recent centuries while physical dangers and threats have been on the decline that making prosthetic replacements is something of a lost art." I thought that actually sounded promising. "So, it's been done before? Were they any good?" I asked. "Actually, yes," Twilight said and perked up a bit while seven pairs of ears slowly rose. ‘Ears go up.’ "I haven't seen any, myself, or course, but from what I could dig up they were pretty impressive." "Okay, cool," I said jovially. "But," Twilight started. "I'm not sure anypony knows how. I don't even know if I know where to start if I tried making a prosthesis." ‘Ears go down.’ I looked up into the blue sky and swiveled my head a bit as I considered this. "So, you're saying that it's possible. And even if no one can pull it off, magic seems like a pretty good replacement." "That's a very nice attitude you have there, Gabe," Redheart said and gave me a small nuzzle. ‘Aaand up again.’ "I kind of had to learn to appreciate the things I had after the accident," I said. ‘Whoops, ears down.’ To try and swing the conversation back on a happy note I nuzzled Redheart back. "Thanks for all your help, everyone." Cue lots of smiles. ‘Ears. Once more, into the fray. Wait, I mean sky.’ Some people's hair can detect predators and stand up on end when they sense one sneaking up on them. Mine does the same with awkward silences. "So!" I said, before it could descend like a big, embarrassing halibut. "How's it coming, Prism?" "Splendidly," Prism said, his attention entirely taken up by his scribbling and sounding a bit disinterested, and finished a few sweeps across his notepad before looking up at us. "More stories," he said and took another bite out of a pastry and fixed his gaze on me again. "Okay, uh, Crystal Empire next," Twilight said and she and her friends started telling the tale. - "I look way cool in an eyepatch," Rainbow said from up in the air. We looked up towards her as we slowly strolled through the royal gardens, she was hovering in front of the statue of an armored pony and admiring her appearance in a large, polished bronze shield. "Oh, uhm, just be careful not to fly into anything, Rainbow. You don't have any depth perception," Fluttershy said and then let out a terrified squeak and then turned towards me, lying across Redheart's back. "I'm sorry, I didn't-" I waved my foreleg casually. "It's fine," I said, noticing how Prism, who had been obscured by Fluttershy, peered around her to look at me. Rainbow swooped down in front of me and Redheart, who's back I was currently on (giving Prism a new obstacle), and said, "Hey! You ever flown before?" "Not on hor- Uh, pegasusback," I said. "Want to?" "I," I started before thinking for a moment. "Yes, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'm having a lot of problem hanging on to things as it is right now." "Oh, well Twilight's gotta have some spell to help with that." "I do, actually," Twilight said. "But I think Scootaloo would be awfully jealous if she's not the first you do this with. Besides, maybe it can wait for a bit, it looks like Prism wants your attention." We all turned towards the stallion in question. "Yes, I am ready to create," he said in a confident tone. "How would you like them to look?" "Them?" I asked. "Your eyes," he said, not really clarifying anything. "I know how to shape them, but how should I paint them?" "I only have room for one," I pointed out, uncertain. "At a time, yes," he said and nodded. "But you have the opportunity to change an appearance that most ponies do not, I simply assumed you would seize that chance." Rarity looked shocked and said, "Why that's- " before realizing something and instantly mellowed before continuing. "... A good point, actually. Asymmetry is bold, but can be so delightful when done right," she said and turned to me. "Bold like your hair, darling," she said before turning towards Prism. "Oh, we shall of course need one that matches her eye, and one that matches her hair, like sweet sunset rays gracing a calm dusk, and one that matches her coat, soothing, like a stroll down a garden in the night, watched over by Luna's stars. And one that's..." I tried to keep up with Rarity's poetic descriptions of my appearance, each one apparently a commission for a hoof-made eye, but after a while I turned towards Redheart's head and gave her a questioning look to which she just smiled and shook her head in a "don't worry about it" sort of way. Prism just looked at Rarity patiently and nodded every time a description was finished. After a while they turned towards me and Rarity asked "do you have any wishes, dear?" "You covered that pretty early," I said. "Right," Prism said. "I'll start with the one matching your left eye, then I'll probably send the other ones in bulk. And unless there's anything else, I'm off." He gave us all hoof pounds again and walked off towards the gates of the castle. "Strange stallion," Applejack said as we looked in the direction he left. "He's an artist, and supposedly really good at what he does, being strange seems to come with the territory," Redheart said. "No offense, Rarity." "None taken, darling." Rainbow flew up in Twilight's face and asked, with a smile, "So what spells were you talking about?" "Oh it's just a stick-it-on spell. It attaches things and ponies to each other so that they can't lose contact." ‘Hm, I wonder if Twilight's into the kinky stuff?’ Rainbow Dash looked excited at this. "Cool, so why haven't you told us about this before?" ‘And her.’ Twilight shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not sure it's ever been relevant. Why are you so interested?" "Like you said, Scootaloo might want a ride. I could show her some pretty cool moves if I didn't have to hold on to her." "Aaw, that's so sweet of you, Dash," Pinkie Pie said. Rainbow Dash looked like she wanted to complain about that, but she didn't have time before I asked "Who's Scootaloo?" "My number one fan," Rainbow Dash said and held her chest out, looking pleased with herself. "She's a filly back in Ponyville who's best friends with mine and Rarity's little sisters," Applejack said. "And they've formed a club to try and get their cutie marks," Redheart said. "And Ponyville's a lot more interesting for it, with everything that implies." "I've got a picture, if you're interested," Applejack said, pulling off her hat and retrieved a laminated photo from it. She held it up to me and I saw three fillies, a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, frozen in a frolicking-like hug against a farmland background and looking at the camera with intensively genuine smiles covering their entire faces. I couldn't help but smile, myself. They seemed to be putting their entire essences into being happy together. "That there's my sister, Apple Bloom, and that there's Sweetie Belle, with Scootaloo in the middle," Applejack said. She didn't point at any of them but it was pretty obvious who was who. "They're just so adorable, aren't they?" Fluttershy asked, silently having appeared right next to me. "Mhm," I nodded. "And the saturation just... intensifies everything." Applejack looked at the picture. "I didn't use no fancy camera for this," she said in a confused tone. I shook my head. "I don't mean just the picture, it's just that everything about Equestria just seems so happy and colorful that I half expect the clouds to have smiling faces on them." "Ooh, that would be neat!" Pinkie Pie said. "Can you put smiles on the clouds, Rainbow?" "Hmm, yeah, but I think it's against regulations to do that on public weather clouds. At least within city limits," she said. "Are there less colors where you're from," Twilight asked me. "Seems so," I said and gave this some thought. "Maybe it just seems that way since it's been lousy weather where I live for a while now. And the fact that ponies around here have really vibrant colors." "Well if you had lousy weather, why didn't you just get up there and start kicking clouds?" Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. "No wings and no magic, Rainbow. Remember?" Twilight asked her. "Oh, right," Rainbow said and stumbled a bit as she touched down. "But that's a bit strange, humans in the world I went to had pretty much the same colors as here," Twilight said. "Really?" I asked. "You were a purple human?" "Yeah," she said with a shrug. ‘Hm, that would've been interesting to see.’ "What colors do humans have where you come from?" "Uh, from very dark brown, almost black, to nearly white when it came to skin color, and hair color pretty much the same except that it often is black," I said. "What about ponies where you're from?" Rarity asked. "Pretty much the same as humans, now that I think about it. Except it ranged from actual black to actual white." "How... drab," she commented with a touch of disappointment in her tone. "Compared to here I'm inclined to agree. That and all the expressive eyes makes every single pony I've seen here so far look cuddly and cute," I said. Rainbow scoffed. "I'll have you know that if anypony thinks I look cuddly or cute is just thinking that because they can't handle the awesome awesomeness of being near Rainbow Dash." ‘This degree of consistency is almost admirable in itself.’ "No. You look just as cute and cuddly as everyone else, Rainbow, believe me," I said. Everyone around me looked amused, except Rainbow who was starting to look flustered and started hovering above the ground again. "Nu-uh!" "Yes you do," I said, my voice being just the right amount of dismissive. "Pinkie, agree with me." "I agree with Gabe!" Pinkie exclaimed while bouncing in place, "That's not true," Rainbow Dash said and crossed her forelegs in a sulking gesture. "When I was a kid, our neighbors had a cat that chirped when anyone would pet it. Trust me, I know cute," I said and everyone looked amused at Rainbow's expression. "You're all against me," Rainbow sulked. "Aw, you can handle it, tough girl," I said and waved my hoof dismissively. ‘Whoops, she's probably a good bit older than I am.’ "Well, sure I can!" she said and perked up. "I haven't got a fan club for nothing!" "Speaking of which," I said. "Your sisters and Scootaloo are trying to get their cutie marks?" "Yeah," the ponies said in confirmation. "And amazingly enough, they haven't increased my workload by very much," Redheart said. "By the way, Gabe," she whispered to me. "You can close your eye now." ‘Oh, right.’ "Those things that shows what you're good at?" I asked. "Yes," Twilight said. "Which you already have. Oh, and please don't rub it in their muzzles if you meet them." ‘Watch the innuendo, Twilight. It involves little girls.’ "I... Didn't even know that it was a thing you rubbed into people's... muzzles," "Well, young ponies are often really proud of their cutie marks when they get them. Some ponies thinks it's embarrassing to be a late bloomer, or the Cutie Mark Crusaders do, at least," Twilight said. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" I asked. "These gals," Applejack said and waved the picture before putting it into her hat again. "I didn't even notice when I got this," I said and gestured to my flank with my head. "Really?" Rainbow said. "Because you had it when we found you." I looked back at my mark, same rhombus-shaped gem with the same contrails as before. "Huh." "It must have appeared right before we found you," Twilight said. "That's good, because unicorn magic is often closely tied with their special talent. If you know your special talent it'll be much easier for you to learn magic." Now it was my ears' turn to droop. "But I don't know about any special talents." Twilight looked surprised by this. "You... you don't? I've never heard of..." she said before trailing of. "Well we, we might have some clues to go on, since you already have your cutie mark." "What clues?" I asked. "Did you notice whether you had it when you first came to Equestria?" Twilight asked. "No, I first got a good look at myself in the forest," I said. "I didn't have it then." "And since we presumably found you not long after you lost consciousness, there's a pretty small window of time where you would've gotten it," Twilight reasoned. "I... guess you're right," I said. "So what exactly were you doing before you lost consciousness? If you don't mind sharing the story again." I shrugged. "No, I guess it's fine. So more story time, then?" "Seems that way, dear," Redheart said. "Maybe we should go somewhere so that it doesn't look like we're loitering." "Ooh! I'll go get us some lunch," Pinkie Pie said and shot off somewhere while we started sauntering away. "What kind of lunch is she talking about?" I asked. "More of the kind we had earlier, I would reckon," Applejack said. "Does she do this a lot?" I asked. "Do what?" Rainbow asked. "Hand out pastries," I said. "Yeah, pretty much all the time." "How can anyone not get fat from that?" I asked. "Pastries make you fat!?" Rainbow and Rarity asked in shocked unison. - After receiving a lesson in which diets do and which diets do not make magical ponies gain weight, which didn't make any sense to me, we found ourselves in a more appropriate story telling area. I was learning how to sit up like a pony without falling over, too. Which was good, because the pitying cringes I got from my audience whenever I did was making me uncomfortable. "... and that's pretty much it," I said. "Okay, that gives me something to work with," Twilight said and stared off into the distance. "Okay," she said a after a while and rose up to leave. "I think I have an idea. Would you excuse me while I go fetch some things?" ‘I never turn statements into questions like that, do I?’ "Alright," I said. "Oh! Are you gonna go fetch super-weirdo sciency things? I'll come with!" Pinkie said as she started bouncing after Twilight as she left for the castle. "So do you think I'm ready to give magic a try, yet?" I asked Redheart. "How have you been feeling?" she asked. "Okay, actually. That thing when I passed out happened twice last night but I've been feeling fine so far since that." "Then it should be fine, I'm sure it's not dangerous anymore, at least," Redheart said comfortingly. I looked down in the ground and smiled. "Looks like somepony might actually be looking forward to being a unicorn," Rainbow said. "'Somepony'... Yeah, I guess so," I said, still smiling slightly. "Still feels weird, though, being a pony. A filly. But at least learning to move my ears wasn't very hard to do. Maybe this won't be, either," I said and made a demonstrative flop with my left ear. "Still having problems with my tail, though." "Must've been strange, not having no tail," Applejack said and Fluttershy whipped hers around her and started petting it reassuringly. "Not really." I said. "But judging from that book I borrowed yesterday, it seems most people here, not just ponies, have tails." "Please don't take this the wrong way, darling, but are you saying that you can't move your tail?" Rarity asked. "Nope, since I never had one before." "And there was no magic on Terra?" she asked. "Not as far as I know, and if there was I think we would've noticed." I said. I would've pointed out how we don't really call it “Terra” back at home but I suspected that there would just be a bunch of confusion if I started calling another word for “the ground” my home planet. ‘Although, come to think of it, doesn't “Terra” mean “earth”?’ "I see. Applejack, perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Rarity said. "A what now?" Applejack said. "A demonstration, darling. I'm not sure dear Gabrielle has seen what ponies can do with a little practice." "Oh, yeah, sure. Rainbow!" Applejack said, bending her head back and used her tail to grab her hat off from her head. Rainbow Dash took off from the ground and caught Applejack's hat in her own tail after Applejack threw it like a frisbee and then tossed it back. "Hah! I'm getting used to this one-eyed thing," she said. I stared in disbelief at the display and tilted my head a little. "How? Oh, of course, magic," I said. "That's right," Rainbow Dash said and set down beside me. "It takes some practice, but anypony can do it." I looked back at my tail, trying to find a way to move it, but no results. "So how did you learn to move your ears?" Rainbow asked. "Twilight said that humans can't do that." "That's actually not true, it's just very difficult. Something about, uh, separate nucleus in the brainstem, but I can't remember," I said and almost didn't stop myself from waving my foreleg dismissively, which most likely would have resulted in my muzzle assaulting the ground. "And I learned to move my ears, these ears-" I gave a demonstrative flop "- last night when I heard something and they moved on their own." "Huh. Okay," Rainbow said pensively and scooted a bit closer to me and then backwards a little. Not sure what to make of that I instead turned to Rarity. "So, is it hard to learn magic?" "Well, that's a somewhat... broad question, darling," she said. I felt something tickling the sensitive hairs inside my ear and flopped it down before turning and seeing Rainbow whistle innocently while looking up in the sky and folding her wing in again. "But basic magic..." Rarity continued. "- the type most commonly used, is often easy enough to learn." I felt a bit distracted by Rainbow tickling my ear again but I wanted to hear this. "Though learning to do more than miniscule magic is often associated with getting your cutie mark, and since you already have yours, I reckon you won't have a very difficult time, darling." "So what does-" I was interrupted by more tickling and questioningly looked back at Rainbow Dash, puzzled at her childish behavior, before turning back to Rarity, "What does basic magic include?" I felt another tickle which I instinctively tried to wave away with my ear. "I think this could take a while," I heard Rainbow whisper in Applejack's general direction. "Arcanokinesis is the most common of unicorn magic," Rarity said. "Using it to practice your special talent is a good way to practice using it in everyday life." I felt Rainbow tickle my ear again. I looked back at her and again she transparently pretended that nothing was happening. I shot a questioning look at Redheart instead, who just smiled at me and reassuringly pat my back with her hoof. "Like how?" I asked Rarity. "Well, my special talent is fashion. And when I got my cutie mark, around your age, it was suddenly just so easy to do anything cloth related: aiming needles, precision threading, using a sewing machine and so on." "And-" I started before feeling Rainbow tickling my ear again. I turned back to her. "What are you doing?" I asked her. "Oh, nothing," she said and extended her wing again and started tickling my ear with a primary. "Why a-" I started before seeing my tail give a flick across the ground. "Uh?" I asked, sounding like a real intellectual. "Finally," Rainbow said. "You're way too patient for a filly." "What do you... " I trailed off. I focused my eye on my tail and tried doing that thing again, but didn't have much luck. I didn't notice Rainbow's wing as it extended and started tickling my ear again. This time I felt my tail flick annoyingly and I was alert enough to register the sensation more fully. "... Did you mean to do that?" I asked Rainbow. "Yeah, I figured that might've helped." she said. "A friend of mine back at junior speedster told me that us ponies flick our tails when we're annoyed. I never realized that until she showed me like this." "Oh," I said and managed to give a little horizontal wave with my tail so it lazily swooped across the ground. "Well, uh, thanks for annoying me, I guess." "Hey, anytime," she said with enthusiasm. - After some more talk about basic magic with Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie Pie came back. They had apparently set up a way to figure out my special talent in a room in the castle. So once more I found myself on Redheart's back as we we're making our way back into the castle. "Ugh! I wonder if I can pass a royal decree to not move the instruments around, this was taking longer to find than it should have," said Twilight. "Or you could just order somepony to go get you the stuff," Rainbow noted. "I don't know," Twilight said hesitantly. "I'm still not very comfortable with ordering ponies around." "But passing decrees that basically say 'don't touch stuff that I wanna use' is okay?" Rainbow asked, amused. "That was supposed to be a joke," Twilight said. "Anyway, I've set up some things to test your thaumatic resonance in a few likely scenarios, Gabrielle." "Gabe. And please note how real a science in one world shares terms and names with a make-believe one in a another world;" I said. "I- excuse me?" Twilight said. "I mean that I can make a pretty good guess of what 'thaumatic resonance' mean even though magic is a myth back home." "I... I will make a note of that," Twilight said. "I have some ideas as to why this is but I'm eager to look through Starswirl the Bearded's notes on different universes. Perhaps that would explain why all the different peoples in all the different world's I've seen all speak Equestrian." "That's what you call this language right?" I asked. "Yes. Hmm," Twilight said and looked pensive. "I wonder if there were different languages in the other worlds and there's a magical explanation to why we hear it as the same one." "If so, then it translates reading as well," I said, remembering that I had a light study session yesterday. "Uh, let's see... Applejack!" "Yeah?" Applejack said. "What do you call a fish with no eyes?" I asked. "What has that got to do with anything?" she wondered. "I just wanna see if the wordplays I know still work." "Okay, then," she said and thought for a moment. "Alright, tell me." "Pinkie?" I said and waved my foreleg invitingly. "FSH!" Pinkie hissed to Applejack. "What are-" Applejack said, paused, and groaned. "Yeah, that works." "Haha! Good one!" Rainbow Dash said and gave me a hoof bump. I could even see that Fluttershy and Rarity found it at least somewhat amusing. "Alright, we're here," Twilight said and we entered a room with some tables and three cushions. "You forgot to bring seating for everypony," Rainbow Dash noted. "Nope!" Pinkie said happily. "Gabe doesn't want an audience, but she doesn't wanna tell us to go away so I figured that we would by ourselves." "I..." I started, appropriately puzzled. "Oh!" Rarity said. "That's thoughtful of you, Pinkie. Who's the third cushion for?" "That's for Redheart. Gabe likes being around her," Pinkie said confidently. "Then with your leave, darling," Rarity said to me, not a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I," I said again, still confused, before shaking my head. "What?" "Oh," Pinkie Pie said, looking shocked. "It wasn't right?" "What wasn't right?" I asked. "That you would be uncomfortable with having lots of ponies around when trying to use magic." "I, hadn't really thought about that," I said. ‘Well, I guess that it's a lesson that’s irrelevant for everyone except one and she probably already knows it.’ "Well, It seems a bit rude to, uh, dismiss people who came to visit me." "Oh don't worry about that, darling," Rarity said. "We're in Canterlot! We shall find plenty to keep us occupied, I'm sure." "Well, okay then. But now I feel a bit awkward for keeping you from doing that," I said. "Don't worry," Fluttershy said. "It was our pleasure." "Yep," Applejack said proudly. "Always enjoying making friends." "That's right," Rainbow Dash said. "Alright, let's leave them to it." The five of them started filing out of the room, leaving myself, Twilight and Redheart in the room. "Uh, Rainbow!" I called out. "What?" Rainbow asked and looked back. I wordlessly held out my hoof and after a few seconds she caught on. "Oh, sorry," she said and removed my eyepatch and hoofed it over before flying out after the others. Redheart walked over with me to a cushion and gently put me down on it while Twilight started adjusting parchments and quills on the table. The eyepatch was tied a bit too wide and I carefully started undoing the very standard knot that tied it up. It was still a bit of a challenge though, with a hoof that I couldn't see the fingers on, or whatever you're supposed to call them. I was about to start using my mouth when Redheart gently took it from me and untied it before starting to attach it to me. "So if Pinkie is to be believed, and she has a knack for these things, you're comfortable around me and not other ponies?" she asked. "Kind of, I guess. I also don't want to send people away from where I'm a guest and when they're here for me," I said. She cocked her head and studied me for a bit. "If that's simply the way you are, then there's nothing to be ashamed of." I gave her a dubious look back. "That sounds a bit like being proud of your flaws." "There's more to it than that. And not wanting to surround yourself with ponies at all times isn't a flaw." "... It still doesn't sound nice. And if you ponies are as social as you seem, then there could be a lot of situations like this," I said and looked away. "You have to make friends eventually," she said, with a slightly pleading quality. ‘Yeah. What would be stopping me, though? ‘Oh, you know what's stopping you. You don't have to watch all that many movies or read all that many books to know what. I could've self-diagnosed myself even if I was a little kid. ‘It had hurt. So much I sometimes thought I wasn't gonna be able to live through it. ‘It still hurt. ‘But I had been told this before. I can't go on like this forever.’ I looked back at Redheart. "Like you?" Redheart smiled and put a hoof on my back. "Yes. I just hope I'm not the only one. I have to go back to Ponyville soon." "Yeah, I don't want to keep you, and everyone else, here forever." Redheart's expression took on a strangely stern quality. "Well, I'm glad you're gonna live here in the castle with the princesses and that you've made friends with the element bearers. Because they might help with something I told you yesterday that obviously didn't take." I was a bit confused by the seriousness in her voice. "What was that?" She looked me in the eye and told me again. "You're not a bother, Gabrielle. Remember that." I felt some conflict about that statement, and the years-long, grueling trials that was regaining control of my life and not relying on an ever-changing stream of professionals with varying degrees of unfamiliarity. I felt that right now might not be the best time for serious soul searching, but I finally let my head rest on the cushion and accepted that this would be a tough matter. Redheart put her foreleg around me comfortingly and nuzzled my head a bit. ‘I did it. I finally did it. I learned to live by myself again. I had a nice enough place. I had a job, I was good at it. I was even respected by my colleagues. I can do anything. I am independent, free, smart, and tough.’ After a while I let out a sigh. ‘And I could really use a hug.’ I closed my eye and nuzzled Redheart back. ‘Oh, drama.’ "Okay," Twilight said. "We're good to- oh, sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt anything." ‘No pushing my new friend away! Being embarrassed at this would be childish.’ "You didn't," I said. I couldn't tell but I was pretty sure that Redheart gave a smile at that, but she didn't say anything. After a while, though, it was enough. I opened my eye and looked at Twilight. "Alright, let's see if I can learn to move things with magic before Redheart goes back to Ponyville." "Oh, yeah. We haven't been keeping you from your job, have we?" Twilight asked Redheart. "Since this case is anomaly stamped, I have quite some leeway in that area," Redheart said. "But I'm still heading back with the rest tonight." "Well then!" I said and forced some enthusiasm into my voice. "Let's get to it. If that guardsman, or uh, stallion that helped me with the wheelchair this morning has to help me use the lavatory, I suspect he might have a nervous breakdown." "Uh," Twilight said and then moved on when I waved the point away. "Alright, I've set up some things here." She gestured to a low table with various knickknacks. Among them were a feather, a book, some small bowls with different colored powders in them, and an arcane looking device that looked a bit like a mix between a juice press and a kerosene lamp, with a crystal of some sort in the middle, some knobs and buttons, and hooked up to an old-school continuous data printer (I was sort of familiar with these, with hospitals rarely willing to upgrade computer equipment unless absolutely necessary). "Now, do you know what 'arcanokinesis' is?" Twilight asked me. I had actually never heard that term before today but I made a guess. "The ability to move things with magic?" I suggested. "Correct," Twilight said happily. "It's a very basic unicorn magic, pretty much every unicorn uses it daily. It's also commonly the first magic a young unicorn like yourself learns." I shook my head. ‘I don't know what's weirder, that I'm a little kid or that these ponies are like, sixty or older.’ "Okay, sounds like something I wanna learn." "Good! It's a very good spell for measuring magical energy, since a unicorn's magical prowess determine the weight and size of things you can control, how many things, how fine your precision is, and so on, and there's really no known limit for how powerful it can become." I looked at the strange device on the table. "And how do you measure magical energy?" "With that very device," Twilight said. "It can pick up a large number of different magical resonances, both faint and strong. This is currently set to sense unicorn magic." ‘Resonances, eh? Yeah, I know about those.’ "So, you said you did magic in the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked. "Yeah. That thing with seeing magic, doing something with a twig, and then the magical nova thingy," I said and gave what I said some thought. "I don't know if those things are called anything, if they're spells or whatnot." "I don't think they were spells, it sounded more like sorcery," Twilight said with a thinking face. "And sorcery is not the same as spells?" I asked, confused. "Mostly no," Twilight said. "They're magic, but they're not spells. Not everypony can do actual sorcery, either." I raised my eyebrows at this. "Really?" "Yeah, but even those who do tend not to rely much on it." "Why not?" I asked, understandably curious about this seemingly exclusive ability. Twilight was silent for a while as she worked on how to best describe this. "I guess I misspoke earlier. All ponies, not just unicorns, can perform sorcery, but not all can do so in a more than miniscule amount. Sorcery is a form of raw magic. If you're untrained but powerful enough, you can use sorcery instead of spells to influence the world around you." "And the reason why those who can don't rely on it?" I asked. "Oh, there are several, the main ones being that it's unreliable, unpredictable, and difficult to control. The results can sometimes even be dangerous and leave you absolutely drained. Like what happened to you," she said. "Okay," I said. That was indeed a very good reason to not go nuts with sorcery. "And what are spells, then?" "Spells- ," Twilight started, and I noted how much she seemed to enjoy this " -are carefully constructed forms of magic. They are more difficult to learn, but luckily not as difficult as they are to create. Arcanokinesis is something of a middle ground between sorcery and spells. Think of it as sorcery, but one that is fairly easy to control and with the safeguards of a very simple spell." "Hmm," I said. "I'll try, but it's all very... abstract, right now." "Then let's give it a shot," Twilight said. "See that feather?" I nodded, it was brown and white, so I assumed that it came from a bird and not a pony. "Imagine that your horn can channel magical energy, and that you can control that energy to influence the physical world. Because simply put, that's exactly what we're gonna be doing." ‘Alright, channel chi into your horn or something?’ I closed my eye and gave my horn a poke to emphasize its existence. ‘Equilibrioception, right? Or would that be proprioception? Anyway, channel, channel, channel.’ "Open your eyes, Gabrielle," I heard Twilight say. "Gabe," I said and decided to let it slide that I strictly speaking can't do that in plural. As I did I, though, I recoiled a bit. "Nguh!" I involuntarily said. At the top right of my vision was an ethereal blue swirl that disappeared as soon as I tried to shake it away. "Oh, Gabrielle," Twilight said in an amused voice. "That's nothing to be afraid of." Redheart just gave me a warm smile and put her hoof on my back again. "I figured," I said. "I've just never seen anything like that before." "Well, I've only seen unicorn fillies look excited at doing magic before, I've never seen one scare herself with it." I felt like crossing my arms. "Hmph. And I'll bet you didn't embarrass yourself any when you turned into a human." Twilight's face went red at that. "Let's just move on," she said. ‘Oh?’ "Yes, let's," I said with just a hint of a smile. "Alright, now try that again, but this time, keep your eyes open and try and will the energy to the feather and use it to bite down on it." "Bite down on it?" "Yes, like I said, arcanokinesis is like a mix between sorcery and a spell, just imagine you want to move the feather with your mouth like you'd usually do, but do it with your magic to create a form of mnemonic device to help you form your magic into that form at will." After a moment, I realized the reason of her wording and was about to point that out, but Twilight beat me to it. "Oh, right," she said sheepishly. "I remember humans didn't use their mouths to move things very often. Okay, imagine you're using a hand to, uh, what's the word? Grip it!" That made a lot more sense to me, and gave me a pretty strong hint of how Twilight might've embarrassed herself as a human. I tried again. As I channeled energy into my horn, I again saw the upper corner of my vision come alive with a rich blue swirl. I hadn't seen this back in the forest, I had my eyes closed the whole time and just perceived all those swirling shapes and colors. I, for a lack of better term, reached out and gripped the feather and it became enveloped in a blue glow. "Good!" I heard Twilight said, but I kept my eye fixed on the feather. "Now try and move it around." I did so, and it lifted a few inches off the ground. My feeling of elation was held in check somewhat by my concentration. I tried moving the feather around and the blue glow carried it back and forth and in different directions. ‘Well, first step wasn't so hard.’ I felt that I had a good amount of control over the feather, but I was concentrating pretty hard. I tried scaling my concentration back. This didn't make the glow disappear, but after a while it started to feel like I was trying to do precision work while drunk. The feather moved, but not exactly the way I was trying to. After a while I set it back on the table and let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. "That was very good," Twilight said. "I was afraid that since you've only been a pony for a few days, your magic might be underdeveloped, but that's clearly not the case." "That took a lot of concentration, though," I said. "But not nearly as much as it would take for a filly even younger than you. Don't worry, I suspect that you'll become proficient in this in no time," Twilight said. "Nice," I said with a smile. "In fact, we could get a pretty good estimate on how much raw magic you have with this arcane power measuring device," Twilight said enthusiastically and pointed towards the strange looking device. "Okay," I said, unconvinced. "How does it work?" "Oh I'll just adjust it to the general type of magic you'd like to try and then you just use that kind of magic on it," Twilight said. That sounded simple enough. "Okay, I've only tried moving things and doing that thing with the twig in the forest." "Okay," Twilight said and lit up her horn. She adjusted the knobs and buttons on the device before continuing. "There, now just try and lift that crystal in the middle. Give it as much as you can without hurting yourself." I did just that, but instead of lifting off, the crystal started glowing from within in the color of my magic and the printer jumped into life and started chugging out a stream of papers. "Do I just keep this up or..." I trailed of, uncertain. "Yes, please, at least for a few more moments," Twilight said, eyeing the printouts. After a while, Twilight said, "okay, you can stop now." I did, and started breathing in heavily. It didn't warrant any real panting, but I suspect that it would have if I kept it up. As Twilight read the printouts, Redheart put her hoof on me again, I didn't notice that she had removed it. "How do you feel?" she asked. "Fine. It... it felt like a short sprint, not long enough to really tire you out," I said before almost grunting at the pang of emotions I felt at that. "Which I haven't felt in ages," I continued in a low voice. I felt Redheart pat me wordlessly, grateful for her presence. "Okay, I think I have a pretty accurate read on how much magic you have. And good news, it's looking pretty advanced," Twilight said. "Uh, how advanced are we talking, here?" I asked. "A few years ahead of your time, perhaps. You might raise the eyebrows of a few teachers but nothing that special." She seemed to register what she said about a second after she had said it. "Oh! I'm sorry, that was a poor choice of words! I didn't mean-" I raised by hoof and stopped her and gave her a small but genuine smile. "Don't worry, I'm actually kind of relieved." That was the truth. Neat abilities were one thing. But if I had vast amounts of untapped potential waiting to be unlocked... well, that would have implied things. I had learned to enjoy a tranquil lifestyle with sitting around as a central feature, I don't think I would appreciate being some sort of chosen one. I suspected that saving the world while in a wheelchair would be interesting to see, but mostly grueling to do. "Okay?" Twilight said, sounding a bit confused. "Well, we have arcanokinesis down, and we still haven't figured out exactly your special talent is." I looked at my cutie mark. "A gem," I commented dryly. "Not really sure what to do with that." "Me neither, but I have a few ideas. Sensing magic around you like you said you did in the forest is an extremely helpful skill when it comes to weaving enchantments, and gems are hooves down the best material to hold enchantments. So I went and got a few and ground them down to test a theory," Twilight said. "Gems? You ground down gems?" I asked, figuring that I should probe a bit before getting shocked. "Yes," Twilight continued like this was the most natural thing in the world. "A sapphire, an emerald, a- which one is this?" Twilight asked herself as she pointed out the small bowls with colored powder in them. "Whoa, are you grinding down precious stones for testing a theory?" I asked, shock held back by disbelief. "Yes?" Twilight said, confused. I stared at her with my eye wide for a moment. "Isn't that expensive?" I asked. "Not really, I mean they're not free, but how so? Are they expensive on Terra?" she asked. "Uh, yes. Very," I said. "We don't call them 'precious stones' for nothing." "Oh, lucky for Spike he's not living on Terra, then. He eats them," Twilight said happily. "Oh yeah, your kid dragon friend," I said and Twilight nodded. ‘Gryphons, minotaurs, unicorns, dragons. I wonder when the sirens are gonna show up.’ "So, I would like you to try lifting a pinch from one of these bowls and see if that feels any different," Twilight said and gestured towards the bowls. "Alright," I said and did the thing again. I tried picking up a pinch of the slightly red dust and lifting it into the air. I felt my control improve, as if earlier I was trying to do something half-asleep and this time I was wide awake. I formed the small amount into a ball and shot it around in the room, almost casually compared to the last time. "Very good!" Twilight said and I carefully dumped the dust back in the bowl. "This is going great. Now, can you try and sense magic again like you did in the forest?" "Okay," I said. ‘Alright, this time, project your consciousness into your horn.’ Once again, I sensed the world in what could only be described as a pleasant explosion of shapes and colors. I looked around and saw the gentle brook of magic that was Redheart, and the bright glow that was Twilight. Redheart looked pensively at me and gave me a gentle prod with her hoof before I said, "you look worried, Redheart." Redheart looked taken aback. "You can see me?" she asked. I was confused before I realized that my head was still resting on the cushion, aimed away from her with my eye closed. I stopped what I was doing and was yanked back into what I could only describe as “normal unicorn mode”. "Yeah," I said. "I didn't realize that my eye was closed." "Well, strictly speaking you weren't looking at anything," Twilight said. "It's just that of all the mundane senses, sight is the one most ponies tend to interpret magic as." "Oh, yeah. I guess it was a bit like a mix between sight and perhaps hearing, like echolocation. It's a bit strange to be able to see through things that... aren't transparent," I said, struggling to describe my experience. I had never used my vocabulary to discuss magic before. "Yeah, it takes a while to get used to," Twilight said. "Alright. Try it again, and 'watch' me weave a simple enchantment into this gem." A small topaz hovered in Twilight's purple magic before being set down on the table. "Alright," I said. Once more I projected myself into my horn and took a quick view of the world around me. Two guards were marching through the halls outside, their hooffalls muffled by the carpet and a small bird was perched on a windowsill in the neighboring room. I turned my attention to Twilight and the topaz. The gem felt different than the other objects around me. It had a gentle glow which wasn't swirling around. The bright glow of Twilight's horn was intensified with more swirling colors which gently shot out towards the gem. The glow in the topaz now started to swirl like the living things around me, and Twilight was shaping it. I observed on in fascination. The glow from Twilight's horn was stirring the glow in a few simple patterns and subtly changed the colors, and it didn't seem like it was going to slow down either, it just kept flowing on and on. After a while, the topaz lifted off from the table and started hovering about one foot in the air. "That's it," Twilight said and I de-projected myself. "That was a simple levitation enchantment." Twilight gestured towards the floating topaz. "It's just like a spell, but an enchantment tends to last for a long time, sometimes indefinitely, and this is much easier to do with gems than most other material." I looked back at my cutie mark again. "Okay, cool," I said. "Now I want you to try it," Twilight said. "Really? Are you sure?" I asked. "Yes, and you can try doing that while sensing magic, it's probably easier that way." "Alright," I said and projected myself again. The gem was floating in the air, colors still swirling gently in a never-ending loop. I saw Twilight reach out and calm the small current so that the colors muted and settled back into the gentle but still glow it had earlier, the topaz dropping to the table. I reached out and prodded the gem with my magic, and it felt like a small pool. I imagined my magic as a finger which I dipped into the pool and started moving the colors around with. They settled back almost immediately, though, and I instead tried to stir them quickly before pulling my magic out of it in order to not interrupt the flow. I tried to imitate what Twilight had done earlier but didn't manage to copy it completely. It was fairly similar, though, and after a while the topaz started to move. It started rocking back and forth and pretty soon it was rolling around the room, making clacking sounds as it did. I de-projected myself and gave Twilight a shrug. "Not bad," Twilight said and I felt some pride build up inside me. Redheart and I looked at the topaz as it rolled across the floor in determined fashion before encountering a wall and stubbornly tried to march on. It looked kind of funny. Twilight's magic picked it up and floated it over to us, where it kept rolling around in the air. "Your very first enchantment," she said. "Would you like to keep it?" I eyed the topaz for a bit. "I don't know, I imagine listening to that would get old after a while." "Alright then," she said and wiped the enchantment. "Like I thought, your special talent is enchanting." I gave a smile at that, instantly seeing how that could get useful. "Now I have one more test," Twilight said and brought forwards the different cups of ground up powder. "Try tossing these." "Tossing them?" I asked. "Yeah, gems obviously react strongly to your magic. I want you to try and toss these and see if you have any preferences." "I... try and lift them all at once?" I asked, not really wanting to misinterpret this. "That's right," Twilight said. "Just give them a good shove." "Alright," I said. I powered up my horn and looked at all the different little bowls. Their contents practically inviting my magic and it felt so easy to just get a grip on all of them at once. Then I imagined that they were a Magic: The Gathering collection that I had grown sick of. And then I flipped the table. The magic I had been struggling to lift a feather with made the different dusts shoot into the air like a fountain, and one near the middle shot like a ball and impacted the ceiling before starting to descend like an expensive mist. Twilight conjured a magical shield around us like an umbrella before bringing the bowl that had contained the blue powder to her and read a small plaque on the side. Then she looked at me and my cutie mark, then back at the bowl. "Lapis Lazuli," she said with a smile. "Should've known. Oh! And I have to let Kibitz know!" I let out a yawn and Redheart said. "I think that's enough magic training for today." "I think you're right," Twilight said. "Impressive work today, Gabrielle. You definitely don't have to go to magic kindergarten." "Gabe. And thanks," I said. ‘Shouldn't that be "magic fohlengarten"?’ "I could give you a few books that you could read up on now that you can use magic on your own, there's lots of practical exercises in them, too," Twilight said. I gave her a smile, a mild fatigue catching up with me. "Thanks, I'd like that," I said as Twilight started packing up everything. ‘Things are really looking promising. Being a unicorn is actually really cool, I thought to myself, pleased with how the day went. I haven't been this eager to study before in my life.’ A thought struck me. "... Twilight?" I said. "Yes?" "You're gonna give me books on magic?" I asked. "That's what I said." "Which I have just performed?" "... Yes?" Twilight asked and stopped to look at me. "And I have been transported to another world, spoken with aliens, met incredibly powerful and old beings that can control stars, and been transformed into another being, myself?" "... When you put it like that, you seem to be handling it very well," Twilight said after a while and gave me a concerned look. "Are you alright?" I gave her a very genuine smile. "I don't remember the last time I felt this good." ‘Hah! Suck it, Lovecraft!’ I thought with an internal smirk. - "As you can see here, Lady Gabrielle, this movement aid features key components made out of lapis lazuli, visible to make magical control easier. Judging from Princess Twilight Sparkle's assessment of your abilities, you could very well regain independent movement with this construction within weeks or even days," the unicorn said. I looked up at him. Kibitz, as had introduced himself, was an older stallion with a cutie mark of an old pocket watch, small glasses at the edge of his muzzle, with a burgundy waistcoat and a somewhat flat head with a mane that began somewhere on his neck and carefully trimmed sideburns. It had the effect of making it seem like he had very high widow's peaks and he managed to speak with very small movements of his mouth, so that the only visual hint that he was speaking was that his large mustache bristled. "I... don't know what to say," I said, lying across Redheart's back, as Kibitz and Private Armor stood next to the comfortable looking wheelchair. Its structure covered by a layer of the ultramarine material, very much like my coat. With Princess Celestia and Twilight with friends stood next to me, looking at the chair with interest. "Well, perhaps you would like to give it a try?" Kibitz suggested. "A short one, in that case," Redheart said. "We don't want a repeat incident." "Oh I doubt there's a danger," Twilight said. "I do as well," Redheart said. "But there's no need to be reckless." "Very well, a short one it is," Kibitz agreed. "Private Armor has been appointed to help you in such an event that your magic is insufficient, should you agree." I looked at the nervous guard who had enough self-consciousness to give an affirmative nod. "Hey, Armor," I said and gave him a wave. "Good afternoon, miss Gabrielle," he said back, sounding almost humorously stiff. Redheart walked over to the chair and carefully helped me sit down in it. I looked at the gem inlays in the chair, reached out with my magic and pushed forward. The chair smoothly rolled forward and I tried breaking the movement, which also worked like a charm. Or a spell. "Wow," I said in a small voice. "This is great," "We are all most pleased that you think so, Lady Gabrielle," Kibitz said. "Uh, you can skip 'lady'," I said. "If it pleases you, miss." "Excellent, Kibitz," Princess Celestia said. "And on such short notice. Please pass on my gratitude to all relevant parties." "Oh, yeah, and mine," I chimed in. "Naturally," he said. "Well, I'm glad you appreciate this, Gabrielle," Princess Celestia said. "It pains me to see somepony struggle so." "Your majesty, I'm... not sure how to repay this, and everything else I've gotten." "You don't have to repay anything, but I plan on learning about your world, and I hope you will help me do so," she said. "Of course!" I said, eager to show that I wouldn't just take things like this for granted. "I don't wanna cut anypony off, here. But we should get going if we don't wanna miss the train," Rainbow Dash said. "Of course," Celestia said. "Until next time, my little ponies." "Sure thing, Princess," Rainbow Dash said, completely oblivious to Rarity's disapproving gaze. "See you soon, Twilight," Applejack said and the rest chimed in. "Yes, see you tomorrow," Twilight said. "You're not going?" I asked. "Yes, but I'm waiting until tomorrow," she said. "Spike can watch the library in the meantime." "Why are you waiting until tomorrow?" "Because I want to learn about your world too. It's actually kind of my royal duty," she said. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said before turning to me. "Come visit someday, whiz kid." "Oh, indeed," Rarity agreed with the others. "If your aptitude in enchantments are as Twilight describe, you simply must let me make use of them. Imagine the garments we could make with it!" "Yeah, that actually sounds pretty great," I admitted. "See you later." Redheart looked expectantly at me and I extended my foreleg invitingly. She walked up and gave me a warm hug. It was a bit ruined when six other ponies joined in, but I didn't let that bother me. Today was a too good of a day. "See you later, Gabe," Redheart said and then left for the door with the rest of the ponies and walked out into the late afternoon sun. "Well, Twilight, your old room is as you left it, with quills and paper in abundance," Celestia told Twilight. "Thank you," Twilight said. "I'm looking forward to hearing about Terra tomorrow, Gabrielle." "I hope It'll live up to your expectations," I said. "I'm feeling a bit spoiled, getting all these things and attention." Celestia looked at me with a serious expression. "Gabrielle Desrochers, while it warms my heart that you appreciate the things given to you and that you are adjusting to life as a pony, do not imagine for a moment that my desire for you to teach me of your world is a way to alleviate any feelings of debt." Both Twilight and I looked at Celestia, my surprised expression inviting her to continue. "You already understand this, Gabrielle. Establishing a connection to Terra could be, would be, one of the most pivotal events in living memory. It is something which has to be done right. Do not dismiss your importance in this." "I," I started, not really sure what to say. "Yes, your majesty." "And so it pleases me that you're taking this request seriously," Celestia said in a warm voice. "Thank you, your majesty," I said, finding her words very comforting. "Now, I plan on having supper soon. I imagine that you're eager to study the books that Twilight has promised you, but would you all like to join me for supper before you do?" Celestia said to me and Twilight. "Of course we would," Twilight answered for us. "Well then. Private Armor, if you would be so kind as to help Gabrielle into the dining hall? I would like you to join us. And you, Kibitz, I want to double check my schedule," Celestia said and started making her way to the dining hall. I looked at a flabbergasted looking Armor as the two princesses and the royal scheduling advisor started moving away. After a moment, Kibitz turned around and shot Armor a disapproving look and cleared his throat, whereupon Armor sprung into action. All in all, I felt that this was a very productive day. > Keepsakes > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I laid in the bathtub, utterly relaxed, and breathed a content sigh. And then I touched myself. More specifically, I picked my nose. It was interesting, with both a new nose and a new thing to pick with. It was a continuation of an activity from last night, when I also explored my new magical pony anatomy. I guess I'm like most people in that I've never given much thought on how a horse tail works. There was actually a lot more to them than just a bunch of long hairs above the butt. Things started to feel really strange when I tried the flexibility of my fore hoof. Imagine being able to scratch the front of your left wrist, with the knuckles of your left hand. That wasn't exactly what it felt like but it's the closest I can describe it. It was a bit like waking up one morning and finding out that you can nibble on your own ears, which, come to think of it, wouldn't be an all that spectacular feat around here, ears on magical ponies were a lot larger than the mundane ones from back home, and ridiculously cute, I had probably spent the better part of an hour waving them around in front of the bathroom mirror yesterday evening. The water level was pretty low, as I had the forethought to not raise it too much while in a small body like this. This also eliminated the chance of passing out and getting water in my lungs, for the sensation of brushing my coat came with the considerable risk of putting myself to sleep, whether in water or not. Celestia had said that it only feels this way if you let it. Which was a relief, because otherwise, the act of abduction would be worryingly easy here in Equestria. Brushes would probably be considered contraband. Though brush runners made for an amusing mental image. Like that scene in Commando where a closed dry cleaner for some reason has a warehouse full of guns hidden in the back. That, but with an assortment of brushes. Brush slingers with two brushes in a belt, and hold-out brushes that shoots out on a spring from under your shirt arm... not sure what the equivalent of explosives would be, though. A trail of thought this ridiculous was strong indication that I should get on with my day. I was done with the brushing anyway. Between my flexible hoof and the strong grip of my magical pony mouth, I could reach anywhere. I had skipped on my mane, though. Celestia had said that I'll learn to resist the sleep-inducing effects in time. But I wasn't there yet and so I just settled on washing it. I'll get Armor to help me if it looks too bad. I let out the water and hosed myself off again in warm water just to be sure, not even bothering to stretch myself to turn the knobs with my hoof. I didn't have a lot of control over my magic yet, but I had enough, and it was like having a remote for everything. Or it would be, once I got some practice. I initiated my sort of roundabout way of getting out of the tub, and now that my magical malaise, or whatever you can call it, had worn off I was starting to appreciate being a child again. Remember when you were a kid? You had all that energy and you didn't weigh anything. As strange as it sounds I sometimes wished that I had been younger when my arm and leg were removed. If I was, like, five years old or something it would have been a lot easier to get used to it. As it was I was just old enough to get tired from running around for an hour and my brain had already established that doing this and that had these effects and was very reluctant to change its mind. Come to think of it, as interesting as it is to be turned into a unicorn foal, I wonder what it would've been like if it were to happen as a child. I did something similar to what I had tried in the hospital, I leaned against the side of the tub and sat up, then reached over the edge with my foreleg and started hoisting myself over the edge. Someone, somepony, had the foresight of providing me with a low profile bathtub so that I could scamper in and out of it without hurting myself, and I in turn had the foresight to lay out a bath towel on the floor beside the tub, which I plopped down on and started rolling around on to dry myself off. Bath towels in Equestria were unsurprisingly large and fluffy specimen. Not just because it fit with the sugar-sweet feel and aesthetics of the place, but naturally also because its inhabitants could fit a lot of liquid onto their forms. A bit of rolling around later and I scooted over to my new wheelchair. Again, my child-like energy made it a lot easier to climb it than it otherwise would have, and also because this one had a parking break and didn't roll away without permission. Once in place I concentrated and flowed some magic into my horn, then reached out for the towel on the floor. My magical aura enveloped one of the corners and I gave it a tug. The towel lifted off from the floor and I could probably have lifted it far enough for me to get a grip on it with my hoof if it wasn't soaked. But it was, and so I couldn't. "Armor, are you still out there?" I asked loudly in the direction of the door. "Yes, miss Gabrielle," I heard Armor respond from the other side. "Can you come in here?" The door opened and my still nervous guardspony companion stepped inside. "Of course, miss," he managed to say in a fairly confident voice. "Don't worry, I figured out how to manage lavatory visits on my own. I just need your help to hang up the towel," I said and gestured to the fluffy pink thing on the floor, making a mental note to pay attention to the frequency of bathroom visits I require these days, and perhaps asking a few questions about the length and volume of magical pony digestive tracts. And that's one of the things that Equestria doesn't have in common with classical antiquity, to my relief, personal waste disposal is not a social activity. "Of course, miss," he said and picked the thing up in his mouth and hung it over a rack, which made me very grateful that I wasn't an earth pony working in a laundry. A little filly that sits around most of the day probably won't have a very disgusting towel. "Thanks, Armor," I said. "Also, how does my hair look?" He stiffened at this and looked uncomfortable before answering. "Eye-catching," he finally said. I grabbed the lapis lazuli visible through the metal structure of my chair with my magic and moved forward so that I could get a look of myself in the mirror. My hair, or mane, was indeed eye-catching, in that it looked like a mutated, orange and blue bracken. "Agreed," I said. "Could you do me a favor and brush it out? I keep falling asleep when this happens." "Yes, miss," he said and grabbed a brush from a dresser and brought it to my mane. "And wake me up if I do fall asleep, please." "Yes, miss," he said before setting to work. A few seconds later for me and a few minutes later for the rest of the world, I felt myself coming to from Armor gently shaking my shoulder. "Miss Gabrielle," he said. "You wished for me to wake you up." I shook out some kinks after my little nap and looked to Armor in the mirror. "That I did, thanks, Armor." "My pleas-, uh, I mean, don't mention it, mada- miss." I gave him a smile that I hoped was understanding. Funny, he's walking on eggshells around me and while I feel it's more urgent to do the same with him. "Could you help me with my eyepatch, next? I'm not very good with fine manipulation yet," I said and floated it over to us from the dresser. "Of course, miss," he said and went to work, not nearly as shaky as yesterday. After he was done I craned my head around, noticing that it was placed as comfortably as yesterday. "Thanks, Armor. Should we get going?" Armor started wheeling me out of my new abode and into the hallway, I looked back at him and he quickly averted his eyes from me and looked straight ahead. "You look like you have something on your mind," I said. Armor was silent for a moment as he no doubt considered his words carefully. "Permission to speak freely, miss?" "Encouraged. Though do you really need to ask that? I'm not an officer," I said. Again, there was a pause before he answered. "No, miss. Which is what I wanted to speak about. You are an ambassador. I am a guard, insubordination against my superiors would be grounds for disciplinary action, mistreating or insulting you, even more so." "That's, uh," I started, trying to figure out my feeling on that statement. "That's heady, Armor." "I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable, miss Gabrielle," He said, sounding genuine. "Uh, I just hadn't considered this before. Where are you going with this?" "Yesterday, Princess Celestia, well, told me about you. Where you're from and such." "Uh, okay?" I said. "I was first simply told that you were an ambassador, and treated you as I was expected to treat a pony in your position. You must have noticed that I was a bit nervous around you," Armor said. "Ah, yeah, I tried to not make things difficult for you," I said with an unsure smile. I looked around and noticed that we were alone in this particular hallway. "Perhaps we should have this conversation face-to-face?" I asked. We came to a halt and Armor walked around the wheelchair to face me. "Thank you for doing so. And the point I'm getting to, is that... " Armor started before trailing off. He looked at the ground with a look of concentration on his face before continuing. "We get trained with how to treat dignitaries and officials, and how they are expected to treat us and frankly speaking, you were not acting according to script," Armor finished with a hint of a smile. "I believe you," I said and looked away with a slightly bashful smile. "Now, I would never presume to ask a pony in your position if you would like to cut back on formalities for a more relaxed working relation. But after speaking with her majesty yesterday, I thought of a way to maybe bring the subject up in a tasteful manner." My eyebrows raised at those words. "I think I've misjudged you, Armor," I said after a while. "I figured you for a nervous rookie. And yes, I think a more casual working relation would be a fine idea," I said with a smile. He gave a genuine smile at that and said, "Don't jump to too many conclusions, I'm still a rookie and I had quite some time to think up a way to approach this. And of course, this doesn't change my overall objective, I am still to follow your wishes... Gabrielle Desrochers." "Very well then, Private Armor," I said with a smile. "Take me to the dining hall." "As you will, Gabrielle," he said and walked around me and started wheeling me forward again. "It's a beautiful name, by the way." "Thank you," I said and smiled. A few years earlier I might not have appreciated a compliment as readily. There was a lot of internal conflict when I felt fed up with all the “You're doing great!” comments and all their variations, but still having to admit to myself that they really helped. That's drama right there, the masochistic elements of healing: When you think, “I am so sick of your encouraging words... but please continue.” "What's your name? Besides Armor, that is." Armor groaned behind me and hesitated before saying "Studded." "Studded?" I asked. "Yeah, Studded Armor, youngest in a family with a long line of guardsponies. My parents, Silver and Chain, are stationed in Cloudsdale," he said. "Don't get along with your family?" I asked. "And tell me if I'm being too nosy." "No, it's just that... well, my parents try to stop themselves. But they're proud that I'm a royal guard now, so proud that they're terrified that I'll screw up. They would've been a lot more assured if my sister, Dress, was a royal guard instead of me." "Wow that's... I'm sorry, uh, Studded, that sounds hard," I said, unsure. "Ah, don't be. They're not abusive or anything, and I won't be disowned if I do screw up, Uncle Scrap is still invited for Hearth's Warming Eve, despite him being, well, Uncle Scrap." "And that was part of why you were so nervous yesterday? Because you don't wanna let your family down?" I asked. "Well, yeah, that's part of the reason." "Part of it?" "Well... I'm still a Private, and I'm no glory seeker but I'd like to not be," he said. "What rank are you aiming for?" I asked. "Any but Private." "Why?" I asked. "Private Stud- the Codpiece," He said darkly. "Six years in training and everypony in my unit still think it's hilarious." I didn't look at him but I could tell that he rolled his eyes so sharply that they whipped up a gust of wind. Or maybe it was just his feathers bristling. "And how old are these ponies who think this is hilarious?" I asked. "Either sixty-two, like me, or older. I joined up as soon as I was old enough." I nodded my head at this information. "Okay," I said slowly, curious and more than a little apprehensive about how people my age act around here. I was thinking up a question along those lines when Armor beat me to it. "Uh, mi- Gabrielle?" "Mm?" "Her majesty didn't go into all details when talking about you, so I hope you don't mind me asking this, but how old would- or, no, what, uh, level of maturity would you say you are?" "In magical pony years, you mean? I'm not sure myself. We humans are legally adult when we're eighteen, at least where I lived, but that's a relatively recent development. If I remember correctly, in many ancient civilizations, princes and kings and people like that were old enough to lead armies when they were, like, fifteen." We got to another set of stairs and Armor paused a bit. "Unbelievable," he said. "And sort of impressive, too." "Well, don't get me wrong, these days, a fifteen year old military officer sounds pretty ridiculous, too. But hold up a second," I said and projected myself into my horn again and double-checked the structure and material of my new wheelchair. "Let's try this," I said and grabbed the hoof rest with my magic and lifted it up, sacrificing fine control for strength. "How about this?" The wheelchair tilted backwards towards Armor and he quickly caught on and carefully maneuvered us down the stairs, now able to do so without tipping me out of my chair. "Is that why you're so proficient at magic at such a young age?" Armor asked me. "Unicorn magic, you mean?" I said as we touched down. "I don't know. I haven't been able to compare with anyone except Twilight, and she's naturally better than I am." "Well, yes, her highness is the element of magic, after all." I nodded. The element of magic and the princess of friendship. Well, it was easy enough to become friends with her. Hmm, with friendship a seemingly tangible force for good and heroism here in Equestria, I wonder how much dramatic weight the theme of friends becoming enemies have here. Heh, an epic tale of Twilight and her friends bickering: Clash Of The Tight Ones! I shook my head. Focus, Gabe! You're in the middle of a conversation. "And who might share traits with your former species, I think," the voice of Celestia coming from the side, where she, Luna, and Twilight were walking towards us from another hallway. Armor turned to them and saluted. "Your majesties, your highness," he said. I was a bit unsure what I should do, myself. Twilight seemed almost oblivious to her royal nature, most of the time, and Celestia was almost carefree in her position while Luna had established her lenient nature towards me. Still, the sisters were awe-inspiring presences, especially to one my size. "As you were, please," Celestia said. "We were wondering if now felt like a good time for you to teach us about Terra, Gabrielle." "Uh, I guess," I said. "Do we skip breakfast?" "I've personally never felt that you can't study during breakfast, I hope you don't disagree," Twilight said jovially before turning to Celestia. "By the way, what did you mean by sharing traits with humans?" "You were always a very knowledgeable filly, Twilight," Celestia said with a smile to her former student, who blushed a bit. "And from what I've heard so far, I would assume that by the standards of my little ponies, humans, like you, must pursue knowledge and skill with great eagerness and determination, considering what they can do without our luxury of magic or time." Twilight turned to me. "Cutie mark related or not, you did pick up on magic pretty fast." Now it was my turn to blush, but I decided that that a slightly bashful smile would be more my style. "Thanks," I said and turned to Armor, which, by the way, wasn't all that hard as a unicorn. "As to your question, if we juxtapose human and pony rate of maturity, rather than expected lifespan, I'd say I might be somewhere in my mid-eighties. Which is a strange experience." "And oddly reassuring, we feel," Luna said, or possibly announced. "It would be most distressing if this was inflicted upon a foal that, well, had the level of maturity expected from somepony your age. As it stands we feel somewhat conflicted, which is honestly a more joyous feeling, if you'll forgive our bluntness." "Shall we get going?" Celestia said and gestured invitingly down the hall we were headed with a wing. Armor started pushing me down the hall as the others started walking beside us. "I wasn't sure how formal this would be," I said to the princesses. "Unless you object, I would like to conduct this learning session in a relaxed manner," Celestia said. "An entire culture is far too complex an idea to relay through a classroom-style lecture. A discussion would be more appropriate, I feel." She's probably right. This isn't like math, which is all facts. There's a lot of strange things about a culture that's hard to communicate. How does one explain alien concepts like the internet, folklore and fantasies, or the seventies? ...Wait a minute. "That's probably true. But I have a question." "Of course," Celestia said. "You guys have fiction with fantastical elements, right?" "Of course," Twilight said. "What are they typically about?" I asked. "Well, Spike's really into superhero comics if you know about those," Twilight said. "Ask the girls to tell you that story with the enchanted comic sometime," she continued with a smile. "And in those comics, there often happens a bunch of stuff that's pretty much impossible?" "Well, being around Discord reinforces the notion that a lot of things are not as impossible as one might think. Still, I think the answer you're looking for is yes." "That's interesting, in a world with magic," I said. "What do you mean?" Twilight asked. "Well..." I said and put my hoof to my chin and thought for a moment. "On Earth, or Terra as we might as well call it, things like unicorns and pegasi and magic are myths, pure fantasy. And when you think about it, it's strange to find yourself in a world where some make-believe things are true and others are not. Not sure how else to put it." "I can only imagine," Twilight said. "But then again, you're pretty much the same, at least to me, seeing as you're from a science-fiction world. Mapping out a pony's anatomy with magnetic fields sounds pretty amazing to me. Especially since it's almost all accomplished by what would be foals by our standards." "Children," I said. "Sorry?" "Children. We don't call our, well, children, foals." "You look like you have something to say, Private," Celestia said to Armor. "Uh, well I, uh," Armor stammered. "Please speak freely, it sounded like we interrupted a conversation earlier," Celestia said invitingly. "Well, it was just, uh, a dumb thought, your majesty." "Well, now you must share," Luna said with a small smile. "Oh, well, I just figured, I thought it would be kind of neat to redo foalhood with all I know as an adult. There would be a bunch of embarrassing things I wouldn't do again." That is an interesting idea. Too bad I can't get my limbs back. I thought darkly before a happier idea struck me. Well, I'm not saying anything until I've taken a look at those books about magical prostheses myself. "I'm still twenty-six, you know." "Well, you certainly act older," Armor said. "Mm, yes. The subject of what kind of life you'd like to lead shall have to be addressed sometime as well," Luna said. "You would of course be welcome to remain here, but keep in mind that your life shall now be longer than you'd probably be used to." "Thank you," I said. "Well, you'd be welcome to visit Ponyville where me and the girls live, Gabrielle," Twilight said. "You know, in case you'd feel better in a small town rather than the capital. It would be fitting, in a way, since it's close to where you arrived when you came to Equestria. I could roll out the spare bed for you." "Thank you, too. It sounds appealing, but I wouldn't like to leave anything here unfinished." "You might not need to worry about that," Celestia said. "After all, Twilight is the one deciphering Starswirl's old inventions. She would be one of the ponies that should get to know about Terra during the coming time." "Oh, okay." "I'm partially saying this because, and I mean no offense, as we would like to learn about Terra, you should learn about Equestria. The standard school semester is about to start and Ponyville's school teacher, Miss Cheerilee, is a teacher of the highest quality, and very understanding where many professors in prestigious institutions here in Canterlot, I'm sad to say, are not." "Really?" I asked. "I consider many of them stuck in archaic thinking, which should tell you enough," Luna said grumpily. "Considering your new role, I see political scandals, even." "That bad?" I asked. This sounded very inconsistent with how I've been treated so far. "I myself requested aid in adjusting to modern times after my return, and found them arrogant in their not always impressive knowledge. Their behavior was harsh and dismissive, even against myself," Luna continued. "Some choice words with the Royal Canterlot Voice changed this quickly enough. So while their behavior can be rectified easily, we feel it best to point out the option of Ponyville to you." "Oh, okay. Is it fine for me to just come and go like that?" "Of course," Celestia said. "And I understand that learning magic under Twilight is going very well for you. A joyously efficient aid in your physical hindrances." Does she mean suddenly being another species or the lack of body parts? The first one's hopefully temporary, and now the second one might be too. I thought and felt my spirit rise despite it trying to be discreet about it. "Teaching suits her," I said and saw Twilight blush a bit again. "Alright, I think I'll take you up on this." "What say you, Private," Luna said to Armor. "Can you handle a more rural scenery?" "Naturally," Armor said, his voice faltering only slightly. - "How many similarities," Celestia observed in a fascinated voice, lifting her teacup in her magic and taking a sip. "You mean hereditary privileges?" I asked while glancing up at her, trying to do the same but leaning my neck forward so that the cup wasn't so far up that it'd shatter if I lost my grip, so to speak. "And the difficulty of letting go of that notion," she continued and I raised an eyebrow at her as I sipped my tea. "Ah, please do not assume too many poor things about my little ponies, Gabrielle. This is simply very noticeable to me. I may be the pony who witnesses this behavior most of all." I looked around at the ancient, monied, lavish castle with three seemingly incarnations of wisdom and benevolence around me. "I can imagine. Anyway, how did we even get in on this?" "Yes, let's go back to those computers," Twilight said. "I wanted to get a better look at them in the other human world, but I really didn't have the time. How do they actually work?" Seeing Twilight's adorably eager look, I couldn't help but droop my ears at my answer. still getting used to that. "I can't really tell you," I said. "You can, uh, instruct a computer to do lots of different things without really knowing how they work, which is actually sort of their point to begin with. You use them to help you with things that you otherwise need education or training for." This only made Twilight look even more eager. Celestia and Luna looked fascinated as well, and even Armor had dropped his stoic facade in front of the princesses and was looking more than a little curious, too. "What do you mean?" Twilight asked. "Well, you mentioned that everyone at school in the other world got to see videos of you getting used to being a human, which sounds very much like the Internet. Now, the Internet, or at least one of its purposes, is a pretty good example of what a computer is for. Everyone with a computer can hook up to the power grid and get an internet connection, and let's leave out the business side of that for now, and share, well, pretty much everything a computer can do with each other." "And what exactly does that mean?" Luna asked. "Well, uh," I started. "I need a moment to think up how to phrase this. This is one of those things that we're so used to it that we don't really have a good way to explain it ready." I paused, took another sip of my tea and scratched the back of my head while thinking. "Alright, in a computer, you can keep tools which we call programs to help you with various tasks, and databases with information. These tools range from everything to, uh, writing programs instead of using pen and paper, to virtual movie screens." "Oh yeah!" Twilight exclaimed jovially before suddenly realizing something and looking embarrassed. "That's uh, how everypony at the school saw me messing up." "You won't see me laughing at you," I said and sent signals to from my brain to instruct my arm to lift up and do the wave with my fingers, with the only result being that my hoof gave a small twitch. "Anyway, we use these programs to help us do things, and learn things. Pretty much our entire collective knowledge is easily available with computers and we perform advanced calculations and automated tasks with them, like, uh, one can use them to communicate with others, or navigate ships, or handle economies." "These thinking engines, they seem to fill some sort of servile role," Luna observed. "I guess you could say that," I said. "They're very good at menial and repetitive tasks." "Do they not object?" "Oh, I see what you're getting at," I said. "I guess it's not very obvious unless you've seen them yourself, but they're not actually intelligent. No sentience or sapience. I can't remember who said this but there's a quote I like that goes 'If the brain was so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't'. Well, if you study enough, you can understand everything about a computer, so you'll know that they don't have the capacity to be intelligent. There's actually some pretty good stories about that changing, when computers start thinking for themselves, often rebelling against humans," I said, with a thoughtful look on my face. Luna looked pleased at this while Twilight looked concentrated as a quill in her magic grip was scribbling furiously on a parchment. "This is absolutely amazing," she said. "It sounds nothing like the notes that Starswirl left about your world." "And how old are those notes?" I asked. "About a thousand years," Twilight said without looking up from her scribbling. "Ah, well, it was before the industrial revolution, then," I said. As if that would explain everything, oblivious to the fact that it did not. "Would that be one of those stories?" Luna asked. "About machines rebelling against humans?" "Uh, no." Wow, teaching someone about an alien culture is trickier than I thought. Marlon Brando made it seem so easy in Superman. "It was when the steam engine was invented... I'm probably gonna need another minute to think up how to describe this, too," I said, as I leaned back into my chair and brought the teacup up to my muzzle and took a sip, looking down in surprise when I realized I'd barely noticed using my magic this readily and brought my hoof up to catch it in case I lost my concentration. Twilight was still scribbling, Luna looked lost in thought, Celestia smiled encouragingly and Armor had raised his hoof and looked poised to catch the cup himself before relaxing as I set it back on the table. "Alright, I think about three hundred years ago, the steam engine was invented and all kinds of production increased very fast, this meant surplus wares and food that led to greater populations, which led to greater production and more invention, which led to more food and wares and invention and of course a greater population which in turn... well, you get the idea," I said and waved my hoof for emphasis. "Anyway, this has been a work in progress ever since and with few signs of slowing down anytime soon." Twilight had now stopped writing and was looking at me with raised eyebrows. "Steam engines?" she said in disbelief. Not being sure what warranted this reaction, I simply said, "Yeah?" carefully before realizing something. "I'm having vague memories of being told I was being moved here, to Canterlot I mean, by train. I assume you know about steam engines." I looked down on one of the wheels of my chair and pressed my hoof against it. ‘Rubber. Well, they seem advanced enough to have a petrol industry.’ "Strange to think that steam engines could have led to that," Twilight said and shook her head slowly. "We've had steam technology for centuries." "Ah, but perhaps we should not assume too much by our standards, Twilight," Celestia said and turned to me. "Did you say that this increase in food production led to a greater population?" "Well yeah, of course," I said. "Hmm," Celestia said and looked to me with a strange amount of sympathy. "That implies that human population was limited by food." "I thought that would be obvious," I said with a small shrug. "... Isn't it?" I continued, unsure. "No," Celestia said softly before turning back to Twilight. "There's a lesson here, I think. About how limitations and conditions can provoke other solutions and improvements." Twilight Oh-ed in understanding. I myself wanted some conformation, but Luna spoke first. "And do you know how life was for humans before this?" she asked. I shrugged and gave a succinct answer. "Hard, short, and preferably boring, according to what I've learned." "Mmm," Celestia said while resting her chin on her hoof. "As strange as it is, I feel a certain joy as I learn this. Your people have advanced themselves rapidly out of necessity. My own little ponies might seem stagnant by comparison, but that indicates something joyous, in a way." "I guess that's true," I said, half to myself. "If you have magic to help you and everyone lives happy and healthy lives for centuries, what's the hurry to improve?" "And so I assume you must be schooled in a new lore," Luna said. "Advanced healing." "You could say that. Medical care has come a long way. I wouldn't have survived this if it hadn't," I said and poked my right shoulder. "In fact, I've read that if one injured their eye like me a few hundred years ago, chances are they were living on borrowed time since it was almost impossible to keep the wounds clean," I continued before looking up at the assembled ponies and regretting that last part. They didn't seem to enjoy hearing about that detail. "You seem to have done a study on the subject," Luna said. "Despite your youth, you keep striking me as a scholar." "Well," I said bashfully. "I don't know about that. It's just layman's knowledge, really." "Perhaps. But you've found the time to learn in addition to training for a dedicated profession," Luna insisted. "Computers make it easy to learn for those who want to," I said. I guess I might've spent more time than your average person studying various topics. But what else would I do on my free time? TV these days is all about adding the illusion of drama where there clearly is none to be had. Yes! All those chefs really want to win those cooking competitions, I get it! Virtual academies are, frankly, more entertaining than that. "Further fueling your technological advancement, I take it?" Celestia said. "Knowledge easily gained is as much a blessing as a hard lesson learned." "That sounds right," I said with a shrug. Twilight looked like she was ready to explode and just stopped herself from shouting something and instead said in an indoor voice. "I had planned to ask you... or, well, you see, I've been looking through my notes on Starswirl's orb, and I think that I might be able to teleport something from your world, if we're careful and I get some help," she said and started fidgeting with her hooves, which looked so adorable, I swear it actually made the air smell sweet. "I was going to ask you if there was anything you'd like me to retrieve from your home. Things that can't be replaced, perhaps. But, well, you said you have a computer and I thought that, maybe, I can take a look at it?" "Sure," I said with a shrug. "That doesn't mean that you're able to send me back, right?" "I'm afraid not," Celestia said. "Myself and Luna have looked through the results as well. We suspect that trying would be very risky, and in all likelihood, you'd remain a unicorn if we succeeded." "Alright, in that case, I'm fine with staying here, thank you." I suspect that if a friendly alien really was found on Earth, it wouldn't really be autopsied by shady government agents, but I still don't want to deal with whatever would happen. - My suite was luxurious, I would never deny that, but it paled in comparison to Princess Celestia's personal abodes. In fact, while many royal castles back home are not entirely owned by the royal families, when I asked about it, Princess Celestia said that Canterlot Castle was entirely owned by her, and her alone. So from one point of view, my "personal" suite was part of Celestia's private chambers. It seemed like a good way to skip red tape, when an ambassador arrives, her majesty can just say "she can have one of my rooms". No need for a committee or a board to approve financing anything and things like that. I guess that means that Luna, along with the royal guards and a large number of personnel and aristocrats were lodgers. But I digress... We were situated in a large chamber. As always, soft red carpets adorned the floor and a multitude of portraits hung on the wall. This was part of Celestia's "apartment" which apparently housed Twilight's old study, and this room, which seemed like Celestia's lounge, or at least one of them. Really, it was pretty much a whole wing of the castle. "Alright, I don't think it should matter, but just in case. Could you stand outside, Private Armor?" Twilight said. "We want as few disturbances as possible." "Yes, your highness," Armor said, and I heard the door close behind him. "We are ready, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said. "Alright, good... Uh, were you speaking for yourself or for both of you?" Twilight asked Luna. Luna looked awkward and her sister let out a small giggle. "I am ready as well," Celestia said. "Okay, just a minute," I said. "I'm not used to writing with quills." Celestia had the idea to leave a note at my apartment where I could tell anyone who searches my home, most likely the police and/or my landlord, that I was alive and well. "Alright, done," I said. Luna took the parchment I had written in her magic and scanned through it. Unsurprisingly, she looked very confused near the end. "What does this mean?" she asked and pointed near the bottom of the message. "'It does not need to rub the lotion on its skin', with a smiling circle next to it?" "It's from a kidnapping story," I said. "I disappeared without a trace, and the authorities might suspect the worst. That's there because I don't think anyone can make that reference under duress." "Sounds ominous," she said. You have no idea. "Even so, very clever." I hope so. It could have the opposite effect. "Alright, We'll start some ways away from where you work, Gabrielle, so that we won't have a repeat incident," Twilight said. "Then you'll help guide me to your home while Celestia and Luna suppresses any unwanted magical effects." "Sounds like a plan," I said. "I'm ready." I looked into the orb as Twilight's horn lit up and suddenly felt like the images in the orb took up all my visual capacity. It was a bit like using magic to perceive the world, in that sight was overridden with another sense, a bit away from where you're used to sight being situated. "Alright," I heard Twilight say. "Where do we go?" "Uh, whoo," I started, a bit disoriented. "Let me just get used to this." "We should be looking down on the city where you worked." "Okay," I said a bit hesitantly. "I think I got it. You'll want to go, I guess it's north by northeast." "Okay, uh, which way is that?" "You see the ugly, plain, grey building? Keep an... eye, out for a crossroad with metal poles with lamps with different colors, and follow that road." "I see it," Twilight said. "Just try and relax, Gabrielle. Let me handle the moving part and you'll just tell me where we should go." "This is quite the city," Luna said. "What was that big, grey building? It looked like an enormous storage." "Ah... of sorts," I said. "Those vehicles I was talking about? People can keep them there when they're not in use. Alright, take a right down this crossroad." At first, this was very disorienting, and it still was, if a bit less so. It was a bit like looking at someone else using a map on the internet. Some directions later and we found ourselves, for lack of a better term, outside my former home. "This is where I lived," I said. Twilight eased us into my apartment. It looked almost like how I left it. Someone had apparently been rifling through my drawers and my wardrobe, but it didn't seem like anything had been taken. "Okay, Gabrielle, tell me what you want me to get for you," Twilight said. "There's a big book on a shelf in the big room to the left, and some cylinders in the bottom drawer of the desk." "Alright, here we go," Twilight said. I heard a sound like muted chimes which turned out to be Twilight preparing powerful magic and then what I'll describe as a magical-sounding pop. "It seems to have worked," Twilight said. I pulled away from the orb and felt a bit groggy as the real world came back to me. I looked at the big table beside us and true enough, there they were. My things. I smiled and looked back at the orb and let it take over my senses again. "Thanks. Now, there's a guitar case leaning against the wall behind that screen. That, and everything that's in it, please." "You play the guitar?" Twilight asked. I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Not really." "Oh, sorry. I'll just..." Twilight said before trailing off and repeating the teleport-procedure. "Thanks," I said. "Now, what you're after is mainly a black, metallic box on the desk. But you'll also want the thing that looks like a thick, framed, black painting that's facing the one sitting at the desk, as well as the speakers, the small... I don't really know how to describe its appearance, two boards with lots of buttons on them and all the wires connected to all the things." "Uh. I think I might need some help with this," Twilight said, uncertain. "Don't worry, Twilight," Celestia said. "I'll help." "You'll wanna be careful with them," I said. "They're pretty delicate. And don't forget the small box on top of the big box," I added. A few seconds later, my personal computer and every related object was resting, intact, on the table. A pretty stout, stationary rig, laptops just not being the same when you only have half a lap. "Alright," Twilight said. "Now let's see if can leave the message somewhere it might be found." "Just put it anywhere. Parchments are pretty eye-catching over there," I said. "Okay," Twilight said and once again I heard her magic firing up. "It's... not... working," she said in a strained voice. "Never fear, Twilight Sparkle, I shall assist you," Luna said. A few seconds later, the parchment flew across the room, the room we were in, with such speed that it left a small dent on the thick oak doors on the far side and caught on fire, with the guards opening the door in alarm and noticing the gently burning paper on the floor and a unicorn among them wordlessly carrying it out and closing the door behind them. "I've decided that I'm fine with staying here," I slowly said after a pause, not sure if I should look horrified or laugh. Twilight let out a disappointed sigh. "I guess it's not a big surprise. The orb is one-way, after all." I jumped a little as Celestia put her hoof on my shoulder. "Gabrielle, could you please look me in the eyes and tell me whether you're really fine with staying in Equestria," she said. It was one of those strange situations where positive thoughts have to be pushed aside for other positive thoughts. In this case, the humor of what I just saw made way for Celestia's care and sympathy. I looked her in the eyes, windows to an ancient, powerful and benevolent soul, and thought hard before I answered. About Redheart, about Twilight, about Twilight's friends, about Celestia and Luna, about Zecora. Not even a week here and I've made more friends and seen more amazing things than the entire last decade back home. Earth can be a wonderful place, but compared to my short time in Equestria, maybe it wasn't the place for me anymore. "Yes." Celestia smiled at me. "Then let me, again, welcome you to Equestria, my little pony," she said and I realized that I was still wrapping my head around the whole idea about living here, in the magical world of Equestria. I couldn't help but give a small smile at her words. "Thank you," I said quietly. "Now then, shall we make sure that your belongings arrived here intact?" She asked and pointed to the table with her wing. I moved over to the table and looked at the various things. "It all looks fine," I said and pulled the memories closer. "You only wanted one book?" Twilight asked. "It's not a book," I answered without looking up, having a small smile as I opened up the photo album. I didn't see my parents smiling back at me, since none of the pictures on the first page had them looking at the camera. But smile they did. Especially one vacation photo where mom was giggling desperately from being tickled by a dozen small clawed feet belonging to colorful parrots, who were very interested in the cup of nectar that dad held up next to her face. I had seen these pictures countless times. I knew the bittersweet joy of watching memories frozen in time, the melancholy of reaching the end and realizing that there would never be any more of them, and the comfort of knowing that even so, the ones I had would not go anywhere. The princesses had gathered around me and was looking at the pictures in silence. I looked at Twilight and saw an expression that I could not interpret, and felt Celestia put a wing around me. "They will always be with you," she said. "... I know," I said and closed the album, not being able to shake the feeling that she wasn't just talking to me. Luna lifted one of the other objects into the air. "Ah," she said. "A technology I recognize. These would be photo negatives, would they not?" "Yep. And that smaller box on top of my computer serves a similar purpose, so I'd like to keep that one for myself, please," I said and pointed to the external hard drive. After Luna gently carried it down to the table, I pulled the guitar case towards me, which gave me a sense of how small I was now. I had to use my hoof as it was too heavy to use my magic on. I unlatched the lid and opened it up. Resting inside was one of the most beautiful things the worlds had ever seen, softly mirroring the light with its deep cherry-red gleam. I had never gotten very good at playing it before the accident, but both my parents had. "You have guitars here, too, right?" I asked. "We do indeed," Celestia said. I decided then, that I'm gonna learn again, probably by using magic. As even if I had both my... forelegs, it would be many years before I was big enough to reach properly around it. Still, I gently caressed the strings with my hoof. Still perfectly in tune. I'm probably gonna practice on a less precious one, though. I dug around in the soft interior and pulled out what I was looking for, a harmonica and a kerchief. I took the harmonica in my hoof and brought it to my muzzle, and since magical ponies around here didn't have those rubbery horse lips, I could play it just as well as I could as a human, which was not very well but at least I had the capacity to improve. Lastly was the kerchief. An instrument this fine needs care, and this was used extensively to keep the guitar polished and its strings dry. I brought it up to my nose and gently breathed in, being well aware that scent was strongly connected to memories. "Thank you," I said. "This is all I wanted." The princesses had been very quiet throughout the whole thing, and I realized that this must have seemed like a powerful moment for me. Which, in fairness, it was. "Alright, the rest is yours," I said and gestured towards the computer, with paraphernalia. "Just remember, electrical current which alternate directions sixty times per second." This finally seemed to shake Twilight out of her stupor. "You'll help us get this running, right?" "Yeah, sure," I said. "Just, don't pick apart the components. You need, like, probably three scientific fields or more before learning computer science and they're gonna be hard to recreate. If you're not having any luck, maybe we can see about getting some books on the subject." Twilight walked up to me and hugged me so eagerly that she lifted me out of my chair. "Oh, thank you!" she said. "Don't get too excited, your highness," I said as she put me down. "I'm not really sure how to get those books without access to the internet. And tell me if you want me to show you the games I have on it." "Games?" Luna said in a surprised voice. "Perhaps we should move these to a place suitable for study." "You're right!" Twilight said excitedly and grabbed the whole collection in her magic and started skipping excitedly towards the door. "We'll be right back! And don't worry, I have some pretty good spells for repairing things!" she called as she and Luna exited the room. I saw my main source of entertainment being taken away by an eager unicorn and was strangely unaffected. I was a more avid gamer than one might think, considering my limited ability to interact with the input devices, but between the mementos from my parents being back in my possession, and the feeling of anticipation at starting a new life here, I didn't really care much. Celestia looked at my guitar and asked "May I?" I nodded and she gently took it out with her magic and started familiarizing herself with the tuning. Hm. I didn't figure her majesty for a musician. I guess I thought she'd have chamber musicians for that. I wonder what type of music they have here. I thought, before realizing something and started digging around in a side pack of the case. Breathing out a happy sigh as I found the thick collection of tablature. As Celestia was gently plinking away at the guitar, I looked around the room. In the corner was a potted plant, but that wasn't what caught my attention, it was the broken piece of mirrored glass and the piece of paper in a ribbon hanging from a twig that caught my attention. I slowly wheeled over to the plant and watched. For some reason, I found this little arrangement fascinating. I reached out my hoof to the piece of paper and looked at it. On it, a single word was written in a beautifully flowing penmanship. Always "Your majesty? If you don't mind me asking, what is this?" I asked as I let go of the piece of paper and instead turned my attention to the mirror shard. "Just Celestia is fine. At least in situations like this one. And it is a small part of a wishing garden. Like this-" she said as I looked back at her and saw her gently put my guitar back in its case "- it is a reminder. Of another time and another place." I slowly reached out with my hoof towards the shard and inspected it. As I turned it around to see my face in it, the reflection suddenly went dark and all I could see in it were a pair of malicious-looking, emerald-green eyes in a purple mist looking at me. The whole thing lasted a fraction of a second and came so suddenly that I couldn't even let out a proper gasp. "Gabrielle? Are you okay?" Celestia asked behind me. I took a moment to ensure that I was as she walked up to me. "I... yes," I said. "But I think I saw something." Celestia put a wing around me and gently led me away from the small tree. "Yes, I know. It is not an entirely happy memory," she said in a heavy voice. As I was being wheeled away from the small tree, I craned my neck and looked back at the mirror shard, and as strange and possibly cliched as it sounds, I felt it looking back at me. > Sharing and Caring (With Some Idiocy And Indolence On The Side) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I looked up from my reading to the royal ponies comparing notes to each other. "Maybe we should've brought my TV, as well? We could have used that as a control device," I said. "Does it operate using the same amount of electricity?" Twilight asked. "Yes and no. Like I said earlier, when you plug this into a standard electrical socket, the thing in the back takes as much as it needs from the power grid and distributes the required amount to the different components. Pretty much every device has electrical adapters like that, most devices wouldn't be able to handle the full amount from an electrical socket, they'd fry out or catch fire all the time," I said before thoughtfully putting my hoof to my chin, appreciating that Equestria was really into hardcovers that you didn't need to constantly hold open. "In fact, I wonder if you can be charged with arson if you distribute devices that fry themselves." Twilight was again taking notes from what I said with breathtaking speed, making me appreciate just how adept she was at magic. Luna, on the other hoof (I was getting into the swing of things with pony expressions) looked thoughtful. "Yes," she said. "That might've been a good idea. Should we accidentally destroy this device, I do not relish the thought of taking another one without permission. And I must confess that I am looking forward to taking part in the fine arts from another world." I smiled to myself. ‘Video games, you mean? Luna's a gamer, I can tell.’ I looked over to Armor to see him standing dutifully in the background. At first I was a bit uncomfortable with the fact that he was just standing there all the time when he could be doing something a lot more pleasant, but the fact that he was A: military, and B: equine, meant that he was probably a lot more comfortable with standing around than I was on principle. "Same here!" Twilight said excitedly. "I've been to other worlds before, but there was always so much to do, I never had the time to study the cultures very closely. This is gonna be so exciting! What do people from other worlds make stories about?" I didn't manage to hold back an amused snort. "Often other worlds, ironically enough." "Really?" Twilight asked. "Is that a particularly respected genre?" "Well, no," I said. "But it's still ironic, and I have some movies about just that." "I suppose it is," Twilight said. "But I'm looking forward to analyzing human stories in depth. Especially to see if humans' eagerness to create technology also applies to art and expanding their culture... ah sorry, your culture." I gave some thought, too. "Well, making entertainment easily available seems to be a winning strategy when it comes to commerce, at least," I said. "Equestria's been really nice, so far, but I think I'm gonna miss the internet. At least some of the time." "There was entertainment available there as well?" Luna asked. "Of course," I said. "What kind of entertainment?" "All kinds, actually. Most commercial things either are or are becoming available through the internet. And lots of people are making their stuff available for free, instantly available to almost everyone. That's a thing to keep in mind, actually," I said. "If you do make contact with Earth, or Terra, doing so publicly will mean the majority of all the people on the planet will know about it within a day, perhaps even just a few hours." "Hmm," Luna hmm'ed with a thoughtful look on her face. "What would this mean, to humans? We would not relish the thought of our subject suddenly all being aware of visitors from another world. Rumors and falsehoods would no doubt run amok." "Yeah, it means everyone can potentially gossip with everyone at the same time. I recommend that you prepare a powerful statement with your arrival. Keep in mind that you would also be able to address the entire world by the same means." "We are not entirely pleased with the idea of more mere machines surpassing our Royal Canterlot Voice as a means of mass communication," Luna said and rested her chin on her forelegs with a somewhat somber expression. "Alright, I think this might work," Twilight said. I switched to “horn mode” and inspected the crystal she had been preparing. Compared to the simple swirling in the topaz I had seen the day before yesterday, this looked very complicated. The sapphire on the table did not only have more swirling colors, they were in more complicated patterns, shifting speed in strange intervals, and giving off a soft light which pulsated at irregular beats. I shook my head lightly as I switched back. "Looks complicated," I said. "Keep studying and you'll be able to do this yourself," Twilight said jovially. "Okay, so this thick wire here... the current goes into here, and here?" she asked and held the socket part of the cable up to my face, a bit over-eagerly, and pointed at the metal pins. "That's right," I said and recoiled slightly. "But I think we should try it on the display first." "Why?" "Because less data would be lost if this disagrees too much with the enchantment." "Oh, okay, that makes sense," Twilight said and instead retrieved the end of the display's cable. She simply placed the metal pins towards the sapphire and waited. "Is it working?" Luna asked. "What is it supposed to be doing?" I had noticed that the small lamp next to the power switch had lit up and wheeled over to them and stretched out my hoof. I couldn't quite reach it, me being so small these days, but Luna lifted me closer with her magic when she saw what I was trying to do. I wasn't in a state to take in many sensations the last time I was held by magic, but this felt kinda nice, like a full-body hug. "Thanks," I said as I pressed the button. "That's it, you can put me down now," I continued, feeling a bit silly that I didn't think to do this simple task with magic. As she did, I gave the display a few more seconds, and true enough, after a while it lit up in white and declared in glaring colors that no signal was found. "That's what it's supposed to be doing." "So it's working?" Twilight asked and I nodded my head. "What does it mean?" "It means that it doesn't have a job to do. It's basically saying that it's not, uh, receiving instructions from any device." "So what do we do?" Twilight asked. "We've already plugged it into the computer, but that's not switched on. It also needs electrical power. But it seems like your enchantment is working. So if you do that again... twice, actually, if you want any sound, everything should work." "Do all these devices need electricity?" Luna asked. "Yes, but we only need enchantments for sound, display and the actual computer. The rest of these smaller devices only need a small amount from the main device." Twilight let out a small sigh. "Alright, I'll get to it. This isn't really my specialty, though." Luna turned to me as Twilight went to work. "Gabrielle, We would, or uh, I would like to speak to you about something." "Okay, sure?" I said, a bit uncertain. "We informed you-" she started before shaking her head slightly "I informed you that I was to look after you in the realm of dreams, as I would all my little ponies," she said as she slowly led me away from Twilight's muttered recital of her work. "Ah, yeah, you did." After hesitating a bit, Luna continued. "I am somewhat ashamed to admit it, but... it would seem that I might not be very successful." "What do you mean?" I asked. "In the days after your arrival in Equestria, I noticed your dreams in the astral plane. They were chaotic and troubled, feverish even, but reason for their state was an outside force, a mostly physical malady. I simply calmed them and moved on." I wasn't sure where this was leading. "Sounds fine, so far," I commented with a small shrug. She slowly shook her head. "But yesterday, I decided to visit you in your dream, and I could not. At least not properly." I just tilted my head in confusion and waited for her to continue, Twilight all the while being completely absorbed in her work. "It was an unclear and confusing place," she said. "Strange landscapes obscured by a thick fog. I searched for some time and I could not find you." "And that's not how it's supposed to be?" I asked and Luna shook her head. "Is it because I'm not really, or uh, I've only recently become a pony?" "It might," Luna said. "But we can enter the dreams of beings besides ponies. I feel that it's impossible to say for certain. But rest assured that I will not give up, Gabrielle. As a pony in Equestria, you are under the protection of myself and my sister, whether in the physical world, or otherwise." She said those words with such conviction that I felt a little humbled, and felt some sympathy at her supposed failure. "Don't worry, your majesty. I've handled bad dreams for years by myself," I said and gave a comforting smile. It didn't really have the intended effect. "And so you would be high on our list of priorities," she said forcefully and immediately looked a bit rueful as she realized that she was getting upset over me. "I apologize. But I would want you to inform me of any distressing things you notice in your dreams." "Like nightmares?" I asked. "Of course," Luna said. ‘Luna's supposed to be a protector of dreams. Does that mean...' "Are nightmares dangerous here in Equestria?" "They can be," she said, a bit ominous. "Alright, sure" I said. "This is making me worried, though. This is a... bit of a strange concept for me." "And I shall get to the bottom of this mystery, trust me," Luna said. - "Whew! I think it's finished," Twilight said. "Well done, Twilight," said Celestia, who had recently joined us. "Now, Gabrielle, I think we're all curious to see what this device can do. Would you please demonstrate?" "Alright, uh. Don't connect anything to the crystal yet, I'm gonna make sure all the parts are plugged in. Could you lift me up on the table?" After Celestia's horn lit up I was lifted up beside my old computer and got to work. ‘With the princesses and Armor, I guess everyone in this room has been lugging me around at some point, now,’ I thought as I scooted to the back of the devices and started fiddling with the cables. "I could never remember which one this goes into," I muttered to myself when I plugged in the speakers. "Alright, connect the crystal to the cables now." "Okay," Twilight said and levitated all the parts to each other. I scooted back to the edge of the table and was about to drop down on my chair when Luna instead placed me in it magically. I said a brief thanks and reached out and pressed all the relevant switches. The royal ponies were absolutely captivated by what was happening on the screen. "Well, it looks like everything's working," I said. "What is it doing?" Twilight asked. "I think it's loading the operating system, which is some form of control program, into the, uh, primary memory, from the... secondary memory, so that it's, sort of, keeping that in its mind, with the help of... the central processing unit... you know what? That's pretty much how far my knowledge of computers go," I said and gave up. "The processor calculates, secondary memory is the long-term memory and the primary memory is the... is how much the computer can concentrate on, I guess. Sorry, but that's all I know." I looked over at Twilight and again I saw her scribbling away with lightning speed on a parchment. "That's okay," she said, a bit distracted. "This is already fascinating!" "So what happens now?" Celestia asked as she looked at the screen. "What you're seeing now is the operating system. With this, we can use the interface devices and access and change the content on the computer. Lemme show you." I launched the music player and picked a song. Nothing played, though. I double-checked that the speakers were on and fiddled with the volume knob a bit. "Hey, I might need to adjust some things. Can you lift me up to the back again?" Luna was the one to do so. As her night-themed magical aura faded, I tried using my own magic to pull out the cord from the back. Precision work wasn't really my strong suit, however, and after a few moments I gave up and used my hoof instead and went through all the compatible holes. Why there were so many of them, I don't know. When I plugged the cord into the last available hole the speaker came alive with one of those loud thumps and the music started spilling out into the room. All the ponies, except me, of course, jumped in surprise. Even Armor, I noticed. "It's singing!" Luna said excitedly as I scooted back towards the edge of the table. "Yup. Or, well, it's playing a recording of a song," I said. "The singer, why is he singing about doing that? What's being sticky have to do with love?" Twilight asked. "It's euphemistic," I said simply. "About what?" she said and listened on for a few moments. "Oh!" she suddenly said and blushed through her fur. ‘That looked interesting. I'm gonna have to do that again sometime.’ "We are not sure we understand, either," Luna said while looking thoughtfully at the speaker the song was coming from. I looked at Celestia, who just looked at the ceiling with an innocent little smile on her face. "I'd like to see Cadence listen to this," I heard her say to seemingly no one in particular. "Well, now you've seen one thing that a computer can do," I said. "Let's move on." I don't know how many hours we spent on this. All the ponies being very content with letting me use the computer, while still being eager to see what it had to offer. "So this is human entertainment?" Luna asked. "One type, yes," I said. "Is this like a play? That you can participate in yourself?" Armor, who had given in and joined us after I asked if he wasn't bored just standing there for the third time, asked. "There doesn't seem to be much consequence to being hit with a sword. Or are humans that resilient? I would think more effective weapons would be used in that case." "No I guess you can say it's like a play. It's like stylized violence." "We would assume fulfilling a fantasy like this, one would take on the role as a peacekeeper of sorts, but with the jolly theme, I can see the appeal," Luna observed, utterly captivated. "So yeah," I said and paused the game. "This is what a personal computer can do. I can't really show you how computers can help when it comes to science or medicine or commerce. But maybe you get the idea." "Yes, this is absolutely fascinating," Twilight said, yet again scribbling away on more parchment. "Anyway, maybe we should continue this another time?" I asked. "Yes, let's," Luna said with a yawn. "Oh, okay. But I'd like you to tell me about the internet, sometime," Twilight said. "Sure," I said. "Maybe I can show it to you someday. Careful, though: anonymity makes many people very strange." "This is true," Celestia said quietly to herself as we made our way out of the chambers. I was starting to suspect that my hearing might be a bit sharper than other Equestrian ponies', being used to much smaller ears. - I looked at Armor with a skeptical expression. "Are you sure that's fine?" I asked as the two of us made our way through the halls of Canterlot Castle. "Ngo fprofhlem," he said, though there was a small pause before he managed the m-part. "It's just that, as a human, I'd be very worried about my teeth if I was carrying around a hardcase in my mouth. I know you're magical and all that, but Redheart didn't have any problem speaking with things in her mouth." "Fhe'fh fprofhlafly hafh a lofh mo' pfactifhe," (She's probably had a lot more practice). "Why's that?" I asked after deciphering what he said. "G'wehll, pegahfi a' ofhten fhwee to ufhe au ffhont hoofhes a logth mo' shingsh we'fhe go' aou wingsh," (Well, pegasi are often free to use our front hooves a lot more since we've got our wings). "Alright, sure. Just don't hurt yourself." "Gongth wo'y," (Don't worry) he said before his eyes went wide and he gently but swiftly set the hard-case down on the floor and saluted. "Sir!" he said smartly. I had been focusing on Armor this whole time and hadn't noticed that another guard, an earth pony, had been walking up to us. I'm gonna blame not hearing him on the carpet and the conversation. "Neglecting your duty in favor of parade-ground compliments, are we, private?" the stallion and apparent officer said in a calm but judging voice. He was clearly older than Armor, but not by much, it seemed. "No sir!" Armor exclaimed before slightly shaking his head. "I mean, yes sir! Sorry, sir." "It's not me you should apologize to, private," the officer continued. "Of course, sir. My deepest apologies, miss," Armor said and turned to me. I took a moment to gather my wits. ‘Now I see why he was so nervous about the stairs thing,’ I thought before turning my attention to the officer. "Because my business might be delayed, you mean?" I asked. The officer nodded. "Well, zealous adherence to protocol doesn't really help that matter, does it?" I asked calmly, with just a hint of venom. There was a shadow of a smile on the officers lips. "How true," he said before turning to Armor again. "In addition, private. The ceiling of the castle's eastern wings are only twenty-seven trots in height–" Armor suddenly lowered his foreleg from the salute in lightning speed, "–other than that you were fine," he said with a suddenly much softer voice before turning to me and clarifying. "One of the prerequisites for a salute is being in a location with the proper amount of vertical space. Nice save there by the way, madam. So how's the rookie been treating you? Not stumbling over himself in nervousness, I hope?" he suddenly said in a soft conversational tone, to which Armor just groaned. Confused by this sudden shift in mood, I just gave him a questioning look. "Captain Plate Armor," he said and extended his left hoof without hesitation. "Studded's grandfather." ‘Grandfather? I'm never gonna be able to tell ponies' age at this rate. ‘I take it back, now I see why he was so nervous.’ "Gabrielle Desrochers," I said and extended my own left hoof, which he bumped casually, but carefully measured force. "Did you say 'captain'?" "That's right," he said jovially. "Stationed here in Canterlot for, oh, 'bout seventy years now. Strategically placed to keep an eye on as many of the little beasts as possible. Dress says 'Hi' by the way." That last part was obviously aimed at Armor. The younger one. "Thanks," Armor said. "Tell her I say 'Hi' back. I might be in Ponyville for a while." "Ah, I heard that. Check in on Scrap for me, will you? And tell him that if he keeps over-powering the equipment, I'll make him kick his own flank all the way here next holiday. Anyway, enough talk of family in front of the ambassador. How has Studded been treating you, madam?" "Just fine," I said, now that family talk was apparently over. "But I want to go back to 'captain', Armor, or uh, Studded said he wasn't related to the captain." "In those words? Very perceptive of you. I am a captain. His majesty, Prince Shining Armor, is the captain. I believe you've met his sister, Princess Twilight?" "Uh, yeah, I have." ‘Man, I'm hanging out with all the big shots these days, it seems.’ "Been a bit boring around here without her," Plate said and picked up my hardcase in his mouth while Armor, or “Studded” as I might as well call him now, started wheeling me down the hall. Which was just as well, because I was a bit uncertain on how to handle the stairs if he was busy with my stuff. "But I shouldn't complain. It's not an easy thing to sneak extra training to relatives while following regulations, lemme tell you. One less source of excitement might not hurt." ‘Earth pony equals no problem talking with stuffed mouth,’ I observed. ‘Rule thirty-four probably means that someone finds this disappointing... rule thirty-four also probably means that someone's found a way around that.’ "Training was plenty tough as it was," Studded said. "And I even made sure you went in well prepared," Plate said and managed to smile. "You liked sparring with Dress, don't deny it." "I never have," Studded said. "I haven't seen her in a while. I'm starting to miss her." "Most ponies who've met her do," Plate said before jabbing Studded lightly on his shoulder. "But now you're ahead of her, career-wise." "Please," Studded groaned. "She could've been a captain by now as well if she wanted. Training would've been nothing for her." "Ah, don't sell yourself short, Stud. You're a fine guard," Plate said. "Thanks," Studded responded in a small voice. "Sounds like quite the pony," I said. "That's a lot of talk about captains, though. Is that a significant rank? I'm under the impression that it's not always the same back home." "Same here, but in many branches of the Equestrian military, captain is by tradition the highest rank possible in peacetime," Plate said. "Really? why?" I asked. "Old traditions. Leads to some confusion sometimes. Shining Armor is a good example, if the changeling invasion had lasted long enough for the paperwork to go through, his highness would've been general Shining Armor. And during King Sombra's return, his majesty would've been marshal Shining Armor. Quite impressive for a colt who's barely out of his eighties." ‘If you say so.’ "You don't sound envious, though," I said. "Heh!" he said in response. "We've gone muzzle to muzzle on the training ground. Colt was so tough, I swear he's part dragon, and he's got the brains to back up his brawn." "Are there any ponies who aren't impressive?" I asked. "Oh sure," Plate said. "But they're not as fun to talk about. At least for an old soldier like me. Wait until I get to talking 'bout his wife!" "Who's his wife?" I asked as we ascended a flight of stairs. "Princess Cadenza, the alicorn of Love with a capital L," he said. ‘I wonder if that includes love with an umlaut? "The princess of löööve"!’ "Wow," I said. "Sounds like a lucky guy." "So I've heard before. But remember what I said about him on the training ground? I don't think he's the only lucky one in that relation," Plate said with a mischievous smile. "Celestia, Gramps!" Studded said and I looked around. ‘What? Where? Oh right, yeah, people around here just say that.’ "Can you have a bigger colt crush? What does grandma say?" "Pretty much the same thing," Plate said with a chuckle. "She's sparred with him, too. Anyway, now you can tell me that I'm not acting properly around the young lady here." "Actually, Gabrielle's a- or uh, forget it." "Forget what?" I asked while Plate looked on in curiosity. "It's not my place to say, miss," Studded said. "Oh, is this about my age?" "Well, yes." "Alright, I guess it's not a secret," I said and turned to Plate. "Well, Captain. Up until recently I belonged to a species that reached adulthood at age eighteen. So if you're trying to fluster me or something, you're gonna have to do better than that." "It's true," Studded said. "I heard some of their music." Plate let out a laugh that I almost considered a guffaw. "I knew I sensed something about you, young lady. Not everypony's tough enough to come out of that with a disposition like yours." "Come out of what?" I asked, realizing how stupid that must sound less than a second later. "That of course," he said and gestured to my right shoulder. "Whatever caused that wasn't something just anypony can shrug off." My face hardened for one small moment as I stopped the pang of annoyance from becoming anger. "I wouldn't say I just 'shrugged it off'," I said. ‘It was about as pleasant as you'd imagine,’ I almost said, but I didn't want to continue discussing this matter. Luckily, my chambers were in sight, and there waited a very pleasant bed where I could calm down. As it turned out, I didn't have to worry. Plate looked at me for a moment before his face fell a bit. After a while, we reached the door and Plate set down the hardcase and said, "I'm sorry, madam, that was highly inappropriate of me." I took a moment to let out a small sigh before answering. "It's okay. Thanks for your help," I said and gestured at my things. "My pleasure, madam. With your leave," he said. "Goodnight, Captain Armor," I said with a small nod. Plate Armor gave us a small and not all that joyful smile, turned around and started marching down the hall. Studded opened the door and wheeled me in before retrieving my things from the corridor. "Sorry 'bout him, Gabrielle. He's just... well, he's been a tough old stallion for a very long time now. He didn't mean anything by it." "I understand," I said and let out a small sigh. "I've heard this before, actually." "I hope you're not angry. He might be a bit callous but he actually meant it as a compliment," Armor said with a worried look on his face. "Yeah, I know. And I'm not angry. Just a bit annoyed. And don't worry, I don't dislike your granddad for something like this. Princess Celestia actually did something similar when I met her. Unintentionally, of course." "I'll tell him that, if you don't mind. Now, uh, do you need anything else, tonight?" I looked around my room. ‘Reading material and lamp within easy reach, curtains drawn, stomach satisfied...’ "Could you put my things on the bed?" I asked. "Of course." After that short task, I simply said, "Thanks, that's it. Goodnight, Armor." "Goodnight, miss Gabrielle," Armor said and walked out the door. I wheeled into the bathroom and took care of all the preparations for going to bed for the night, feeling a bit satisfied at being able to both grab the tube of toothpaste, squeeze, and hit the brush with my magic. As I lay in the bed a short time later, I opened up the hardcase and took out my guitar. Luckily, the bed was enormous and there was no risk of me or any of my things falling off during the night. I carefully placed a blanket so that no turning of little spasms would nick the finish and placed my guitar so that the neck rested on a pillow. Then I lied down beside it and carefully embraced it. ‘I guess that means that there are all kinds of ponies as well,’ I thought as I gently reached around and strummed the strings, thinking about my reaction with Plate Armor. ‘He made light of your- no he didn't... I know that, and there's no reason to get angry. Just a different kind of person with a different way of expressing himself. ‘But you're still upset. ‘... A bit,’ I thought and snuggled into the pillow. ‘It's been happening less and less, but there's still a ways to go. ‘That was a pretty good session with Redheart in the hospital, and it's not been long, but after today, it might be time for another one. ‘... Maybe. ‘It's okay. You know it is. ‘Sometimes. ‘Just get it over with already.’ I closed my eye and lay in the comforting darkness and relaxed in that specific way for a while. After a little while, only slightly longer than usual, I leaned my head back and saw one, single, small stain on my pillow. ‘That was a good session with Redheart,’ I thought before remembering that I still had my eyepatch on. After removing it and placing it on the bedside table, I scooted back and placed my foreleg around my guitar, occasionally softly strumming the strings as I slowly drifted off to sleep. - The next day was a calm day. Royal schedules kept the princesses busy and I had a bunch of reading material to keep myself occupied before a magic lesson later with Twilight, who had stopped by earlier and somewhat nervously made sure that I didn't feel neglected. The best way of handling a Twilight voicing baseless concerns, I had noticed, was a reassuring smile and a very casual sounding thanks. Exasperated tones were counterproductive and would not be tried again. If you want Twilight to calm down, try and channel Princess Celestia. Have you ever tried lying on your belly while reading a book placed on your pillow? It's no use trying to keep that up as an adult. It works better as a child, when you can twist yourself into weird positions all day without feeling uncomfortable. It also feels pretty natural for a pony. So as a pony child it's no big deal to spend a few hours lying on your bed and reading a heavy book placed in front of you. Good thing too, because this was a big and heavy one that I wouldn't be able to hold up with magic and concentrate on the content at the same time. Book reading by candle light is something I can recommend, by the way. It was very comforting to read the old-fashioned way, snuggled up in a comfortably decorated study with a book printed with a press and natural light. Though perhaps that's just me and my single eye, and I was increasingly grateful to Rarity about the eyepatch being a white textile version, as earlier this morning I realized that with my new hairdo, a classic black one would just have reminded me of Pete Burns circa 1986. I had read through the basic theoretical parts twice now and was studying a practical section, even though I didn't have any material to work with, when I heard a knock at the door. As an acclimatizing exercise, I took note of how I didn't have a thread on me before I confidently said, "Come in." The door opened and Celestia walked in. "Hello, Gabrielle. How are your studies coming along?" "Well," I said. "I haven't tried out any of the things in the book yet. But so far, it all kind of makes sense. How about you? How are things?" She actually seemed a bit taken aback before her face mellowed into a smile. "Quite well, thank you for asking. Kibitz is quite the organizer, all important tasks were done ahead of schedule and except for one thing later I'm free for the rest of the day." "Always a treat," I said and nodded in agreement. "And a rare one in hospitals, take it from me," I continued and Celestia smiled in amusement. "So, what can I do for you?" "You make it sound like I'm here on official business," Celestia said with a slight smile. "I know if I had some sudden free time, spending time with me wouldn't be the last thing I'd do, but it's not all that high up either." "Gabrielle," Celestia said with a bit of disappointment in her voice and actually managed to make me feel a bit bad about saying that. "Sorry," I said and struggled with how to proceed. "Anyway, what's up?" I asked after a pause, hoping that Celestia's earlier assurances that pedestrian ways of talking were fine was still standing. "I spoke with Private Armor earlier. He told me, at my insistence, of when you encountered his grandfather yesterday." she said with a slightly resigned tone. "Oh yeah. Not what I expected but he seemed alright." "Do you mean that?" Celestia asked. "I was under the impression that you did not find it pleasant." I bobbed my head with a skeptical thinking face for a second. "I guess," I said before giving up trying to deflect the probing of the godlike being in front of me. "Ah, look. He said something that kind of hurt, but it's not his fault. I don't even know what's gonna make me feel all emotional half the time. I can't expect anyone else to, either." Celestia gently shook her head. "I'm not here because of what he said. I'm here because of what you heard." I gave her a puzzled look and thought fruitlessly for a moment. "That was vague, I admit," she said quickly before clarifying. "I mean that I am here to make sure that you are alright." "Oh," I said. "I'm fine. Like I said, sometimes, things come up, and I get a little sad. It's not a big deal, I can handle it." "I'm sure you can," Celestia said and walked closer to the bed. "You are very mature for your age. But having the ability to go through something like this alone does not mean that you should. Let those around you help you." "I didn't have anyone left to help me," I blurted out before I could stop myself. I looked at Celestia's sad eyes before quickly looking away. ‘Subtlety, thy name is Gabrielle. Why don't you send a telegram asking for help while you're at it?’ Celestia sat down on the bed and put a wing over me and I tensed up. "You do now," she said. I laid there for a few moments, unable to look her in the eyes. "Are my concerns unwelcome?" She asked. She was about to remove her wing when I convinced myself to relax. She kept her wing over me while I mulled over what to say. "No," I finally said. "I'm just... I've..." ‘Yeah, yeah. You're opening up and making yourself vulnerable and all that jazz. But this is a goddess we're talking about, or something close to it. Gabrielle, you are rational, and you realize that Celestia is not a mean, manipulative bully, so suck it up and spit it out!,’ I thought before letting out a sigh and just putting it out there. "I almost convince myself sometimes, that I like not having anyone's help. That it's better to handle things on your own because, and stop me if you've heard this story before, if you don't rely on anyone else, you can't be hurt from being left alone." Celestia pulled me closer to her and softly nuzzled my neck. "I have heard this story before," she said softly. "Well, I guess you would've," I said. ‘Seeing as you're thousands of years old. "So how did they end?" "In all the ones I have witnessed, always, the pain eventually faded." ‘These ponies are really good at curing cynicism,’ I thought and smiled. "The pain has faded, mostly." "Yes, mostly. You cannot fool me if you cannot fool yourself, Gabrielle." I pulled away a bit from her, she raised her head and I turned to look her in the eyes. "How about you?" I asked. "Are you ever in pain?" "Oh yes," she answered earnestly. "I have lost ponies dear to me. And let me share something I've learned over the millennia: the pain does fade." I had heard her using that tone very recently. "That mirror shard..." "Reminds me of somepony I've lost, yes." I couldn't think up anything to say to that, so we stayed like that for a while. ‘I wonder if this is appropriate behavior for a sovereign? Because this is a pretty close moment. Then again, it's probably fine. After all, she did say that she's had others dear to her... that she's... lost.’ My brows furrowed. "Princess Celestia?" I carefully said. When she gave a "hmm" in response I continued. "You're here because you are concerned about me. Why are you that concerned about me?" "I am concerned for all my little ponies," Celestia said evenly but kindly. ‘Yeah, she might be a saint, but the best way to show that is not cuddling someone who can handle herself. How do I phrase this? Ah, she's not gonna be fooled by prose anyway, just say it.’ "Have you lost... anyone like me?" "Have I lost-" Celestia started before stopping herself. After a pause she continued. "No, Gabrielle, I have never been a mother," she said and took another pause. "I am sorry for this," she said and relaxed her wing's hold over me. "You are indeed wise for your age. You are not my daughter and..." I looked up in her eyes as she trailed of. She looked back before continuing. "I have had many good friends, and many good students. I took great joy in helping to form the lives of bright young ponies like Twilight. Had I not stopped myself, I would often had tried to be more than a teacher, and trust me when I say that most would have allowed it. "But I have never seen a pony in a situation like yours before. I know that you are an adult human, but to me you feel like a lost foal who has had to... fend for herself, with nothing but her own determination. Broken and alone, when she needed her parents the most." I was feeling pretty happy about those little crying sessions the last few days. I wouldn't be sure I could keep my composure otherwise. "I understand," I said with a sigh. " And it wasn't quite as bad as you make it sound, but I guess it's natural to be, uh, concerned about me." ‘I know I am sometimes. It faded over time, but there was a nagging feeling for years when my recovery was picking up and I was feeling happy again, that maybe it was because I had gone crazy.’ "And I'm sorry for..." Celestia said and trailed off again. "It would be most thoughtless of me to try and be your mother." She seemed to be feeling disproportionately bad about this. I decided to smooth it over with a little Gabe-style smooth bluntness. "You'd have your work cut out for you. You look nothing like her," I said. Celestia's lips formed into a small smile. "But thank you. I like my independence, but I'm not holding it against people for caring." She once again held me closer. "You're welcome." I smiled at that. "And thank you for, all this, as well," I said and gestured to the room at large. "So yeah. I'm a little old to be adopted but-" I looked her in the eyes again, "-friends?" She gave a larger and more genuine smile at that. "Friends." ‘Well, you've told her about yourself, think she might do the same?’ "Princess Celestia?" I asked after a while. "Yes?" "Who does that mirror shard remind you of?" "... King Sombra," Celestia said after a while with a heavy voice, but with a faint smile on her lips. I racked through my brain at this. "The same King Sombra that Twilight and her friends told me about?" "They told you about the usurper of the Crystal Empire, yes?" I nodded. "Then no, not the same King Sombra," she said. "You remember how Twilight told you about how she was using an old artefact of Starswirl the Bearded when she brought you here?" I nodded again. "A long time ago, he and I traveled to many different worlds in search of knowledge, friends, and perhaps a little bit of adventure. We came across one particular world that was much like a mirror version of this one. King Sombra ruled that place with wisdom and kindness, and my own counterpart was a wicked tyrant." "Really?" "Oh, yes," she said. "It was a terrifying thing to see. I had given up going to great lengths to show my little ponies the extent of my patience and lenience, and seeing that world was a good reminder of why many find me intimidating." At that moment I wondered if I should've felt sheepish about my own relatively casual behavior around her. I found her awe-inspiring, sure, but not intimidating. "... So you must've had some things in common. You and that other Sombra, I mean." "Indeed. I visited him many times over the centuries. We were, ah... oh whatever, if you're an adult, I'll be blunt, we were in love." "That wasn't blunt, that was very family friendly," I commented. Celestia gave a small giggle at that. "And then," she continued, suddenly growing somber. "He was taken from me." "Oh! I'm sorry, Princess," I said. "If you don't want to go on, I understand." "No I... I thank you, Gabrielle," she said. "These events are not a secret, but still the only ones who know of them are the ponies who experienced them. Unless you'd like me to stop." "No don't worry. I know how much this helps sometimes," I said as comfortingly as I could. "Mmm," she said and gave me a grateful nod, then looked away again and continued. "After my counterpart attempted to execute a most vile scheme, Twilight and her friends tried to use the elements of harmony to subdue and imprison her. But at the time, what would happen to her would also happen to me. So in the end, the love of my life sacrificed himself and took all the evil of my sister's and mine counterpart into himself." After some hesitation I put my hoof on her wither and tried patting her comfortingly. It didn't really work all that well with the difference in size, but I think she appreciated the gesture anyway. "In the end, the mirror used to travel between the worlds was destroyed. The shard you saw is the only remaining piece," she said. "I am truly fortunate for having my sister, my student, and my friends," she continued and looked at me. "The pain was great, but in time, I recovered." ‘For centuries? Yeah, sounds like the love of one's life. If I was gonna be thousands of years old I'd like to have someone with me, too.’ "He didn't... die, did he?" "No," she said. "But he is now a vile being, one that I cannot help." ‘Couldn't magic help? This was caused with magic to begin with, after all. Is this the kind of world where that could happen? I would think so considering the stories that Twilight and friends told me. But, the timescales are really long around here. As is befitting of a fantasy-like world I guess. The other Sombra, the one in this world, had been locked away for... I don't even know how long before he came back. Before Princess Luna was corrupted. ‘Maybe there's a happy ending to this story waiting sometime in the future? Do I say that? 'Princess Celestia, this sounds like a fairy tale that should have a happy ending, so I don't think you should be all that sad that you've lost the love of your life.' Yeah right. Try convincing her that you're an adult again after saying that. Get a grip, woman.’ "I'm sorry, Celestia," I said. "I don't know what to say." Celestia nuzzled my neck again. "You said that sometimes it helps to talk about these things. Listening is enough." Just like with humans, ponies' voices can hint of the expression they have, and I didn't feel quite as useless when I heard Celestia smiling towards the end there. We stayed there for a moment. I didn't feel like it would be tasteful to break it up, and besides, I didn't have anywhere to be right then. Celestia did, however, when she suddenly said, "Oh, curses. I have to prepare the arrival of someone," and rose up. "As always, you're welcome to join me at dinnertime, but just so you know, there will be more individuals present this time." "Oh, uh, sure," I said as Celestia headed out of the room. - We made our way down the hall after some fairly rewarding magical practice. It was pretty fun, all in all. I couldn't yet turn my horn into a flashlight like Twilight could, but I had learned how to make several different kind of gems glow in several different colors. I had never been this talented at anything earlier, at first I had thought that my affinity for enchantments had stemmed from my proficiency at magnetic resonance, but now I was starting to think that it might've been the other way around. "Are you alright, Gabrielle?" Twilight asked me as I wiggled a bit in my chair. "Yeah, don't worry. Just a little restless. I kind of miss my... well it's a portable music player, but I'll manage without." "Why do you miss that, specifically?" Twilight asked. "Some people, when they're feeling the kinks in their legs, go out for a walk. I didn't really do that very often but, well, getting some exercise is important and it felt easier when I was alone with my music." "How did you exercise?" asked Armor. "Awkwardly, but it worked," I said. "And that's why I'm feeling restless. I don't know about ponies, but humans who sit still on their butts for too long runs a risk of suffering something very unpleasant," I said. "Oh my!" Twilight said. "It sounds dangerous." "Well it's not healthy, but people mostly find it really embarrassing," I said and looked for comprehension on their faces but there was none to be found. "It begins with an 'h'," I continued but still nothing dawned on them. "And ends with 'emorrhoids'." I looked at Twilight who stared at me blankly. "Hemorrhoids," I clarified. "Oh. What's that?" Twilight asked. "You don't have that?" I asked. "Never heard of it," she said. "How long were you a human, by the way?" "A few days." "Hm, I guess it never came up then. It's not the most common of topics outside of very specific circles, I guess." I wiggled my backside a bit. ‘Maybe shape and blood circulation in ponies is such a way as to prevent it, or maybe that it's so rare that they don't have a term for it. Or maybe it's just magic, because that particular malady is one of the least magical things I can think of. I wonder what else ponies might be immune to,’ I thought as my eye was drawn to my muzzle, so far away from the rest of my face. "Does sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia sound familiar?" Right before Armor said, "No?" Twilight happily said, "Yes, actually!" and looked at Armor. "It's brain freeze, private," she said helpfully. "Oh." "And why wouldn't it sound familiar?" Twilight asked. "Well, I figure that with ponies having their, our mouths positioned away from the rest of our heads, there might be too much tissue to cool down with ice cream." "Well, it's a thing here too," Twilight said. The conversation died out with that as my attention was drawn to the two... figures not far ahead of us. A white-coated unicorn stallion of fairly large physical stature standing in front of an open entrance through which entered something I instantly recognized as a gryphon in a traveling cloak. The book I had been leafing through a few days ago had, despite its many pictures, not depicted any beings, it was mostly shots of landscapes and skylines. I could still clearly remember a show at a park I had been to that showed birds of prey doing stunts as they were trained to manage themselves in the wild, and I had seen several up close, including the really big eagles. My brain couldn't help but add a few things together back then. You were not allowed to touch the big parrots and cockatoos flying around at the park as they were a bit unpredictable and might bite, but that looked outright pleasant compared to being bitten by an eagle. If one of those eagles snapped and attacked someone, those claws and beaks looked like they could be lethal. Here was a combination of a lion and an eagle that was several times my size and I realized several things, chief among them were: gryphons look more than a little awesome (especially with capes), and, unless I become a martial artist with this magic of mine, I shall be very careful around them. As we made our way closer, the conversation between them became audible. "So, your highness," the gryphon said in a voice that seemed naturally raspy but steady. "May I ask if you're awaiting somepony in particular?" "Why, I'm waiting to give you a proper welcome, good sir. And don't worry about the title, just 'Prince Blueblood' will do," the apparent prince said in what I can describe as a popinjay manner. After a very short pause, the gryphon (‘Tercel? Rooster? Gander?... Cock?’) smiled in an uncanny way and I didn't know if it was because it was disingenuous or because gryphons' smiles didn't reach their eyes. "I see, how... gracious," he said as we made our way closer to the crossing of hallways they were standing in. "Now, if you'd let me summon some servants to take your baggage to your quarters and show your entourage their rooms, I can guide you to the dining hall," Blueblood said. "Ah, that won't be necessary, I traveled lightly... and alone," the gryphon said as we drew nearer. The prince looked shocked. "Did you journey all this way by yourself?" "I did indeed," the gryphon answered evenly before giving Blueblood a questioning look. "Through dangerous lands? Surrounded by bandits and ruffians and commoners?" Blueblood continued. "I took the train," the gryphon answered neutrally but with a slightly raised eyebrow, which looked kinda cool on a big bird of prey. "A train like any other." "How absolutely dreadful!" Blueblood exclaimed and put a hoof to his chest. "Never fear, we shall treat a po- eh, gryphon of your stature with the respect he deserves. You shall bask in luxury your kind could not possibly imagine!" he continued, seemingly happily oblivious to the patronization and waved a foreleg around dramatically. "Now, please let me show you to the dining hall were you can meet Princess Celestia, she's my auntie, you know." "Capital," the gryphon managed to say with a somewhat weary look on his face. Blueblood turned around and was about to walk down the hallway to our side when he did a double take upon seeing us. His eyes widened and only managed to say "What is..." before tapering off. The gryphon shot him a sideways glance before turning his attention to us. "Excuse me, madam," he said and walked up to Twilight. "But you must be Twilight Sparkle." "I am indeed, sir," Twilight said with a smile and extended her hoof. "I had heard that Equestria had a new Alicorn Princess. It's a pleasure to meet you," He said and gently shook her hoof, his practically chivalrous behavior putting me at ease. He didn't kiss her on the back of the hoof, however, but I would've liked to see how that would work with a beak. "Arnfried, at your service." "Well then, Sir Arnfried. Allow me to introduce you to Gabrielle Desrochers and Private Armor," Twilight said with a smile and gestured towards us. "A pleasure," Arnfried said with a smile as he shook the Armor's hoof, who only acknowledged him back with a stiff nod and a frozen expression like he'd tasted earwax, apparently having spent all his self-consciousness extending his foreleg. I was next and after I realized that having your hoof shook by razor sharp talons large enough to envelop your entire limb didn't mean having it eviscerated as well (it wasn't even unpleasant), I gave a smile of my own. "Likewise." Blueblood seemed to have recovered from whatever state he was in during this time and turned to Twilight. "Oh, good evening, miss Sparkle," he said. "Good evening, Prince Blueblood," Twilight answered in a voice where only those that listened for it could hear the strain, which I did. "Arnfried!" Celestia's voice happily rang out through the hall in perfectly measured volume before anyone could say anything else. "How wonderful to see you again." "Celestia, your majesty," the gryphon said and managed to stage bow without looking ridiculous. Like the ponies, it was very easy to tell when gryphons were smiling judging by their voice. "Thank you for having me." "And I see you've met our newest resident in the castle," she said as she came up to us and nodded towards me. "Arnfried, Blueblood, Gabrielle Desrocher here is the Diplomat of Terra." "I have never heard of such a place," Blueblood stated loudly, and the confidence and slight affront of his exclamation would've made me think that there had been a mistake somewhere that could be traced back to me, if not for my very pleasant and friendly banter with the nation's absolute monarchs. "A fascinating place, from what little I've seen of it," Celestia said. "And very good subject of conversation, but I'm afraid that this evening is reserved for talk about the gryphon realms." "Not intruding on prior topics, I hope?" Arnfried asked. "Not at all," Celestia said. "In fact, I'm sure that both Gabrielle and Twilight would be fascinated to hear about your home." That was the truth. Arnfried looked almost as awesome as I looked adorable, and if it wasn't for my rapid progress in magic to compensate for my arm and leg, or just legs these days, I'd be disappointed in not becoming a gryphon instead (also my mane, I'd miss that too). Celestia invitingly held out a wing in the direction of the dining hall and we filed forward. As we did I heard Blueblood whisper to Celestia. "Auntie, what in the name of the tribes happened to that filly?" "It is not my place to say," Celestia answered calmly. ‘Talk behind my back, will you?’ I thought with a trace of glee. I turned my head towards Blueblood and said, "Metal, glass and high speeds happened." He paled a bit at that, making me think I might've gone overboard as this was just before dinner. - Dinner was fascinating, I never thought that listening to regents and dignitaries discuss political and economical issues would be interesting, but I'm in the magical land of Equestria, after all. Apparently the Gryphon realms were going through a rough spot, perhaps even the avian feline equivalent of a depression. "But why would gryphons be against accepting help from our superior society?" Blueblood asked, tactful as ever. "Because that would acknowledge our need for aid," Arnfried said, exasperation slowly corroding the proud monolith that was his patience. "Gryphons do not like the idea of relying on help from others, and that our own hard work has not been good enough." "But the efforts of your people is clearly not enough to sustain them in the long term," Blueblood countered without a trace of conciliation. I was tempted to try and come with some mollifying suggestion or steer the conversation in another direction, but I had never seen anyone so eagerly dig themselves deeper with such reckless abandon. It was hypnotizing. "Perhaps the Princess of Friendship could offer some suggestion?" Celestia said and gestured to Twilight who suddenly looked very nervous. "Oh, uh," Twilight started and let out a nervous chuckle. "Are you sure we can't convince everygryphon to accept our offer? When my good friend Applejack was too stub- eh, proud to accept our help, she eventually almost hurt herself before realizing that she can't do everything herself." "I'm very happy for her, your highness, but how long did it take for her to accept your help?" Arnfried said without a hint of condescension. "Pretty long, I admit," Twilight said. "I'm afraid that neither of us have time to try and convince every gryphon in Gryphonstone to accept charity from... superior ponies," Arnfried said and shot a meaningful glance at Blueblood, who seemed oblivious to the implications. "We are simply not open to the idea of being reliant on others." A few warning signs popped up in my brain at that. "Uh, can I say something?" I blurted out. The proud eagle-and-lion combination didn't seem phased from my blunt intrusion into the conversation. "Of course," he said. "And I doubt anypony else would object." True enough, everyone, even Blueblood, seemed interested in what I had to say. "Well, uh," I said, suddenly a bit more self-aware. ‘Come on, prove to everyone that you're not the little girl you look like.’ "It's just that this reminds me a bit of some history from back home," I started and everyone looked at me expectantly. I mentally slapped myself out of my nervousness and pressed on. "Of course we'd be here all day if I tried to give the entire historical background to this particular situation, which I'm not sure I know anyway, but here it is: "A long time ago, ages really, a revolution in a powerful nation led to a series of huge wars that swept across a continent where a whole pile of empires originated, and beyond. Afterwards, all the powers of that continent regularly came together to compromise every time war was near and after a long time of relative peace, many factors and a complicated net of alliances turned one small war into a huge war. The land empires of eastern Europe, that’s a continent, by the way, which had been slowly stagnating at that point, fought in what was the greatest armed conflict in history up until that point." My audience only consisted of four pairs of eyes, but I was happy with that as that meant I could easily see that everyone was paying rapt attention, so I continued. "After the dust cleared, the old land empires of the eastern part of the continent were pretty much unmade, and with it, a large chunk of the world order. Now, uh, Princesses Celestia and Twilight no doubt remembers what I said about the industrial revolution, and the industrial revolution relied on trade, goods, and resources from across the entire world. Okay, bear with me, because now I'm getting to the point of all this: the nations that used to be those land empires found themselves vulnerable, unstable, and millions of people were now poor and uncertain what type of nations their homes would turn into, in this confusion and desperation followed another war, both larger and longer than the last." I made a pause here to let them ask questions they seemed very eager to ask. Twilight asked the one I hoped to hear in the first go. "But how does that compare to the gryphons?" "There are many factors when it comes to a war of this scale, of course, but one nation had put up a fierce fight for a long time before being defeated, and most people blamed them for the entire war. They turned their backs against a world that shunned them, and tried carving out their own world order. What I want to get at is that people tried to be self-sufficient in an age where everyone relied more and more on international trade, and so this could only happen by taking what they needed by force." Arnfried leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face, everyone did (except Blueblood who seemed a bit slow on the uptake), but Arnfried especially so. "So my point is this; if your people are in, uh, dire straits, they might eventually become desperate enough to rally behind a leader that attempts to solve their problems with conflict, which would be a tragedy whether they'd succeed or not." The ponies and the gryphon seemed to contemplate what I had said, and I was starting to wish that they looked at someone other than me while they did so. Eventually, a smile formed on Arnfried's... beak. "I would very much like to visit your home someday, Gabrielle Desrochers, it must be a fascinating place to create fillies like you." "Indeed," Celestia said. "A very interesting tale, if you'll excuse me for saying so about what sounds like a time of great tragedy." "Well, it was before my time," I said. "I'm too young for that to have affected me personally. Which I'm very grateful for, because the two most destructive wars my home had ever seen, and the poverty, disease and famine that followed them is not something I'd wanna witness, even from a safe distance." Arnfried once more had a look of contemplation on him before nodding. "You are right, young Gabrielle. Desperation can lead to poor decisions. Desperate gryphons' first target would be Equestria, and I am only a diplomat, serving my people regardless of their decisions. I would not be able to stop them." "I am convinced," he continued and turned to Celestia. "My people will have to accept your aid. I am not sure what kind of madness might cause my people to attack the ponies of Equestria, our old friends, but I would do everything in my power to avoid it. We will just have to swallow our pride, for now." "Perhaps you don't have to," Twilight said thoughtfully while looking at her food. "I'm sorry?" Arnfried asked her. Twilight looked up, almost startled that she said something. "Oh, well, you see, I was thinking about how Gabrielle said that everypony where she came from relied on each other and that becoming self-sufficient couldn't happen without war. So, if we solved it in a way that relies on both ponies and gryphons, nopony's, or nogryphon's pride would be hurt?" "How would you suggest that happens?" Arnfried asked. "Land leasing," I said, grateful that I had been paying attention to the discussion earlier about what the gryphons lacked and what the ponies could offer. "Yes, exactly," Twilight said with a mix of happiness and nervousness. "You could share some of that fertile but unused territory that you mentioned with us for a limited time, then ponies can work the land while Equestria pays for the use of territory and share some of the yield." "Making both money and food flow into the cities," Arnfried said with a thoughtful and pleased expression. He looked at Twilight again with a satisfied smile on his face. "You make a fine princess, Twilight Sparkle, and you make a fine diplomat, Gabrielle Desrochers" he said and then addressed the rest of the table, "I accept." Celestia looked pleased and I detected just a hint of smugness in her expression. Some quick thinking made me realize that it was probably because she was proud of Twilight and not for something more sinister. "Excellent, I am glad we found common ground so readily." "Yes, let none of Equestria's friends find themselves in need," Blueblood pompously declared, slightly raising my opinion of him despite his ridiculous mannerisms. "With that taken care of, I propose that we discuss more pleasant topics," Celestia suggested. "Yes," Arnfried said and looked at me. "When I visit Equestria, meat substitute is very rarely eaten by ponies, and when it is, it's often by ponies that force themselves as a show of acceptance. I have never seen a foal eat it with such gusto." I looked down at the almost-beef. "Mm, I was confused at first, what gave it away was the perfect lack of tendons but the taste is excellent," I said. Arnfried smiled with a slightly raised eyebrow at me. "You mean that you can compare this to actual meat?" Twilight gave a nervous little laugh. "Ah, Sir Arnfried, so far we've mostly spoken of the gryphons' issues and not anything about Gabe or her home and uh," she trailed off before looking at me. "Gabrielle, I hope you don't mind of me telling Arnfried about you and your home." I simply gave an inviting nod. "Well, Gabrielle here is from another world called 'Terra', and until I accidentally brought her here, she was a member of another species, the humans. The humans are Terra's apex predators, their civilization stretches over the entire world and is very technologically advanced to compensate for the lack of magic in the world. They are in fact the only sapient beings on their entire planet." Arnfried slowly turned away from Twilight to look at me. "I see," he slowly said. "I thought it strange that a society of ponies would have a history like the one you described, if you'll forgive me saying so." I was about to answer when Blueblood spoke instead. "Ah, yes. That is true, sir Arnfried. Ponies have nobility which would never allow anything like that to happen." ‘And my respect for his highness drops again.’ "We've had nobility and ruling classes ever since the first humans decided to settle down and form civilizations over ten thousand years ago, your highness," I said, not caring enough for his opinion to bother injecting any venom in my voice. "What we haven't had however, are life spans of hundreds of years, magic, and ageless deities with millennia of wisdom and experience to turn to. We had to make due with mundane things, muscles, organization, and plain old thinking. Not even claws or wings." This shut Blueblood up pretty good for a moment. It looked like he was about to stammer some response, but Arnfried stopped him with a laugh. "And you've conquered your entire world?" he said and gave another laugh. "That is a lesson that many gryphons, and no doubt ponies as well, have to learn the hard way. A sharp mind is a greater weapon than any talon, blade, or spell." "Perhaps, though your talons still look very effective," I said with a small smile. Arnfried let out another laugh, a chuckle this time. "And how long have you been a pony?" "For," I started, and had to pause and think, "about five days." "Then let me share this bit of information: Equestria is a peaceful land," he said and gestured with his glass to Celestia who nodded appreciatively at him. "And few ponies need to learn how to fight, but those that choose to anyway are not to be underestimated." Blueblood looked pleased at that, but I didn't pay him any mind. Judging by what I had heard about Twilight and her friend's exploits, and also just using common sense, I figured that as a unicorn, magic spells would be my primary weapon if I found myself in trouble again. ‘Self-defense without punching and kicking and all that? Count me in.’ I laughed a bit internally. ‘Yeah, of the three base classes, I always pick the wizard.’ I was never helpless, or no actually, I take that back. After years of physical therapy, I was never helpless, but I often felt defenseless. I neither lived nor worked in a dangerous neighborhood and nothing alarming ever happened and probably never would, but not being able to run properly or defend yourself is not exactly doing wonders for one's general sense of security. I turned to Twilight. "Could I learn? To defend myself, I mean," Twilight cast a worried glance at Celestia, who chose to answer instead. "Few unicorns learn to use their magic for combat," she said, "and foals that do almost always do so in schools of martial arts to teach them proper conduct and responsibility;" she continued and I refrained from drooping my ears as I felt a "but" coming up, "however-" ‘Ah, close’ "-and this is something we should establish in detail soon, you were a grown adult in your home and I do not feel it is appropriate to constrict you because of your age. Should Twilight choose to do so, she can teach you quite a bit on how to defend yourself. She may not be a formally trained warrior, but she is still a powerful combatant." Twilight looked down on her plate and blushed a bit before looking up at me. "Of course I can teach you what I know," she said. I smiled in response. ‘This could be fun. Man, Equestria really is the place for me, isn't it?’ "If you'll forgive my curiosity, miss Gabrielle," Arnfried said. "Uh, sure," I said. "Did whatever cause you your injuries happen to you as a, 'human', was it?" "Yes," I said. "A long time ago. At least by human standards," I said. "Mm," Arnfried said. "Now, I hope you are not offended, but you are clearly still accustomed to eating meat, despite your setbacks." It took a moment before I realized what that had to do with anything, then I let out a small laugh. "Because Twilight said that we're 'apex predators', right? I guess we are, but very few of us have had to hunt for food for a long time. We raise livestock, or stick to meatless diets if it suits us. Unintelligent livestock," I said pointedly. "You're fishing for recipes, aren't you?" Celestia said to Arnfried with a small smile. "Guilty," Arnfried admitted with a mock sheepish expression. This last part made me pretty happy, as I found the laid-back mood was great for appetite. "Oh, speaking of food with a fellow omnivore around herbivores, Arnfried." "Yes?" he answered while holding back a chuckle. "Sorry, but I just noticed your teeth." "Ah," I said and continued. "Well, I was thinking. Since plants are the staple food of herbivores, is drinking tea for them like drinking broth for us?" Twilight and Arnfried looked confused, Blueblood did as well before looking mildly offended while Celestia just laughed. - "I feel like a third wheel," I said the next day as Twilight made a check-list of all the things we were bringing with us to Ponyville "How so?" Twilight asked. "I'm not gonna be able to carry anything," I said. "And someone already needs to push me around in this thing," I continued, referring to my wheelchair. "Oh, don't worry. We're getting help to move this down to the station, and after that I can handle this myself," Twilight said and pointed to the handcart with the enormous wooden crate on it. When I had told Twilight that computer components were fragile and would be really difficult to replace, she had made sure that any minor accident wouldn't ruin anything, and in her enthusiasm had gone a bit overboard and made the packaging practically bombproof. "Gabrielle, are you alright?" Armor, dressed as a civilian (as in not dressed at all), asked me, bringing the attention of all the ponies and gryphons who'd come to see us off, which was the princesses, Arnfried, and Captain Plate. I looked at him confused. "Uh, of course." "It's just that you've been obviously groping around your mouth with your tongue for almost half an hour now," he elaborated, then looked a bit abashed he realized that it was something I might not have wanted attention drawn to. It wasn't anything embarrassing, though. "Ah, yeah. I was just feeling around and my teeth seem pristine," I said. "Is, uh, that a surprise?" Armor asked. "Actually, yeah," I said. "I'm not sure how dental care works around here, but back home, if we got cavities in our teeth, we, that is to say our dentists, grind away the decayed parts and replace it with plastic fillings." "Does that not hurt?" Luna asked, looking a bit shocked. "Oh, it'd be agonizing if we didn't have anesthetics," I said. "Anyway, I'd done that a few times and I didn't notice until now, but they seem to be gone." By now, Twilight had turned away from the checklist. "Oh, does that mean that parts of your teeth are gone?" she asked, sounding a bit horrified. I felt around in my mouth again to be sure. "No. Like I said, they seem pristine. But I'm just wondering, where did the fillings go?" "Hmm," Celestia said and put her hoof to her chin. "You came here with all the microorganisms of a living being your size, but since those fillings are not alive, perhaps the magic that brought you here didn't consider them to be you and left them behind?" ‘That never came up in The Terminator. Then again, they probably didn't have time to fill in people's cavities in the future.’ "Ugh," I moaned after realization struck me. "So not only did my clothes and prostheses end up in a pile where I worked, now my dental fillings did as well. My disappearance is gonna be internationally famous at this rate." The royal sisters held back amused snorts while Twilight looked sheepish, which was nice as I didn't want her to keep apologizing. "Well, I think this will do it," Twilight said after she tested the last strap around the box. "We'll see you later, everypony." I shook the hooves (and talons) of the collection of ponies (and gryphon). Celestia was last and pulled me into a light hug with her wings. I didn't return it but I gave her my most genuine smile. "Your commander in chief told you to behave as a civilian, Private," I heard Plate remind his grandson teasingly. Armor (the younger) tensed up for a moment before proceeding. "Uh, right. Ah, bye... everypony, see you later," he said and stretched out his hoof to Arnfried. "It was nice meeting you, sir." "Likewise," Arnfried answered calmly and shook the offered hoof. "Alright, shall we get going?" Twilight asked. To this, Plate reared up and loudly clapped his hooves together. "That means you two!" he barked at two inconspicuous stallions standing in the doorway. "C'mon, hop to it!." The two stallions were also guards undressed in plainclothes, and they scrambled at Plate's shouting and ran over to the large package, one of them wheeling the cart... I wasn't sure what the other was there for. We started moving out of Canterlot castle and I was happy that we weren't standing on more ceremony since Equestria obviously wasn't a nation that handled itself. We started moving through the castle ground, with paths that curled like viking symbols across the landscape, like the most tasteful and relaxing tourist-trap ever, except you didn't get trapped there since it was so open. I turned to the two other guards, the one pushing the cart didn’t seem to be struggling very much. “So, I don’t know if we’re gonna see each other much, but I’d feel dismissive if I didn’t bother introducing myself to anyone who’s carrying my stuff,” I said. They looked at each other and then to me with a mix of surprise and humour. “Hah! And we’ve been trained to be indistinguishable from the background for years, well, if it pleases you, madam,” the one not pushing the cart said. Armor sidled up to him and whispered something, and the guardspony nodded slightly and quietly said, “Gotcha.” “So yeah, miss, we’re just troopers, but If you’re actually curious, I’m Tree Fire and this here’s Sam.” “Sam?” I asked. “Yup,” Sam answered simply and gave me a nod. ‘Alright, sure,’ I thought and extended my hoof to offer a shake, feeling slightly dumb when I realized that he’s using all of them to walk around with... ‘What do you want him to do, dummy, lick it?’ ... But he saved me from embarrassing myself and reminded me that a quick bump is also a greeting here. "Pleasure to meet you both," I said. Sam just nodded again. "And you," Tree fire answered then turned to Armor. "You're lucky, Codpiece. Somepony else might've ended up guarding Madam Floribunda's lunches with the committee of the week." Armor groaned at the use of his nickname. "Any of you?" "Almost. But the brass just decided on increasing the support personnel in the modernization project in the Empire. We're among them," Tree answered, sounding pleased. "Is that a good post?" I asked. Tree chuckled and said, "Well, let me put it like this. I didn't join up just to see the world, but that sounded like a nice bonus, and now it finally happens." Twilight decided to join in here. "You realize that my brother still likes drilling, right?" Tree and Sam suddenly looked at each other with worried faces. "Eh," Tree shrugged after a while. "Still beats guarding nobles' brunch meetings, your highness," he said and the conversation died off. Canterlot Castle is huge, but it didn't feel like a very long time as we moved through the impossibly beautiful gardens and walkways. Time flies when you're having fun, and when you're fascinated by the scenery, so we pretty soon found ourselves walking through the streets of the actual city. That wasn't as pleasant, and I have no way to put this succinctly without sounding a lot more sulky than I felt, but it was because it was full of ponies, ponies that looked at me. I still found it strange that in this magical land of unicorns and pegasi and, well, fantasy, I was such an interesting sight. I wasn't completely unused to this, but I could never remember it being this bad. Some people see someone obviously handicapped and it's the most fascinating thing in the world. I mean they really stare. People often compare something fascinatingly awful to a car crash or a derailing train as in that you just can't look away. Seeing people react to me in the same way in my formative years was really unhelpful and I found myself missing my old therapy sessions. "Gabrielle, are you alright?" Twilight asked me in a concerned voice. "I'm-" I started before realizing that it was obvious that I wasn't. I didn't know Twilight very well yet, but it was obvious that waving away concerns isn't something she's comfortable with. "With clothes and cosmetic prostheses, I could walk down the street without people staring at me, but even without that, it was never like this." Twilight looked practically devastated and put a wing around me. "I'm so sorry, Gabrielle, I should have known. We can turn back and get a pegasus chariot." I made sure my voice was firm and asked, "How much farther is it to the station?" "Not far," she said. "Is Ponyville gonna be like this, too?" Twilight didn't answer right away. "A little while, I think. But they'll get used to you soon." I nodded and then steeled myself. "Then I'll be fine." "Okay," Twilight answered a bit uncertain. Twilight kept me covered with her wing and without speaking, Tree, Armor, and Sam moved to cover me as much as possible from the pedestrians around us. I liked the view of Canterlot, and what little I saw of it when we made our way to the castle, but I was pretty eager to get away from crowds by the time we made it to the station. The train was already waiting when we arrived and promptly moved to board it. The corpulent unicorn stallion in a conductor's outfit didn't look up at us when Armor hoofed him three tickets, he just took them and cast the most fleeting glance at the big package that Sam was pushing before looking down again. "Large luggage goes in the boxcars," he muttered uninterested. Tree walked up to him and looked back at us and gave us a smirk. "And there's no way to change your mind?" he asked with a mix of accusation and condescension in his voice. "None, sir," the conductor managed to drone in a smug voice, still without looking up. "Even if it's really important," Tree asked, the intensity of his voice increasing slightly. "No, sir." "I don't think you realize how important it is to keep this package close to the owners," Tree said. "I said that your luggage goes in the boxcars... sir," The conductor said and finally looked up at Tree with a mix of anger and smug superiority without giving the rest of us a glance. Tree suddenly gave him a genuine-looking smile. "Can we please keep this luggage in the passenger cart?" he asked. The obvious anger faded from the conductor face, leaving only the infuriating superiority. "No, and if you don't stop bothering me, I'll call the guard," Tree's smile was so enveloping that it looked like his eyes were jumping for cover behind his eyelids. His horn slowly lit up and with a shimmer around him and Sam, their royal guard armor suddenly became visible on them. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked sweetly. The conductor's ears dropped and he looked at Tree with horror in his eyes for what felt like a full minute while we were just giving him wondering looks. Finally, Sam cleared his throat. "Open... the door," he said overly clearly like he was talking to an imbecile. That finally made him act and we immediately moved in and found a car with only two other passengers sleeping in the far end. The package stored safely beside us. "Are you sure you didn't go a bit overboard, Corporal?" Twilight asked Tree. Tree looked a bit sheepish at this. "Just trying to teach him to be friendlier, your highness. I think he needed some tough love," he said before turning to Armor. "Now, are you sure you're gonna be alright?" Armor just gave him a look and nudged his head towards Twilight. "Oh, right," Tree said and punched himself lightly in the skull. "Duh." "It was nice meeting you," I said to them and shook hoof with Sam who simply gave me a nod and a small smile. "Yeah, take care of Codpiece for us," Tree said with a little smirk, to which Armor pouted a bit. "Later, Stud," Sam said and gave Armor a single wave and left with his corporal. They didn't leave the platform yet, though. They both paused to glare at the nervous-looking conductor before pointing at a pretty skinny stallion who was struggling with an overfull cart of luggage. As I turned away from the window, I heard Tree Fire shout "You work in the service industry! Am I gonna have to come down here and remind you of that every time a train comes in!?" Then the voluminous shape of the conductor wobbled past the window as fast as it allowed. Twilight looked torn between worried and amused at the whole thing. The only thing that happened before the train left the station was that a mare entered the car by herself. Her eyes went wide when she saw Twilight who had her back to her. Then she saw me, her expression becoming slightly horrified, then awkwardly stood there, making very animated sways with her head between Twilight and a booth behind her. After a while, she sat down in the booth, looking embarrassed. ‘Hmm, at least Twilight didn't see that, or I would have started feeling sorry for the mare,’ I thought as Armor and I shared a look at the behavior I fished out the book on enchanting I had tucked in beside me, but I didn't start reading it right away. As the train started moving, I asked, "I forgot to ask, how long away is Ponyville by train?" "Just a few hours," Twilight said. "But you can squeeze in a nap if you want." "Hmm, perhaps," I said. "What's Ponyville like? I didn't catch much of it the last time I was there." "No, you were out cold the entire time I saw you there," Twilight agreed. "By the way, Armor, perhaps you should have a less obviously vigilant bearing." Armor quickly dropped his countenance and looked a bit embarrassed. "Sorry," he said. "It's okay. Perhaps you could try and join in on our conversations?" Twilight said. "I'll try my utmost, your highness," Armor said. I gave a small laugh at this. "More casual, please," I said and turned to Twilight. "Anyway, back to Ponyville." "Well," Twilight said and her smile dropped a notch. "The ponies of Ponyville are very accepting, but I hope you can stand some more stares until they're familiar with you." I kept a sigh back. "Sure," I said. "And there you can socialize with colts and fillies your age," Twilight continued. ‘After the accident, I didn't get to meeting people my own age until I was seventeen, and by then most people have developed enough to have sympathy for the disabled. Children, on the other hand...' "Do you know any?" I asked. "Of course," Twilight said happily. "You saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders, right? They're always up to something... interesting." I thought about that for a while and didn't realize that I had my thinking face on, which is a very distinctively light scowl. ‘Well, Armor said he entertained the thought of redoing childhood with what he knows as an adult. It's an interesting idea, even though I'm not getting to do exactly that and I don't actually have more life experience, quantity-wise at least, than other foals here in Equestria. ‘Well, let's consider my situation more thoroughly: My old home is not home anymore, in more ways than one considering how little was there for me to say goodbye to. I am gonna live in Equestria, and while sitting around in the castle and studying enchantment has been nice enough, what would be the point in doing nothing but that? Face it, girl, it's time to say goodbye to the social near-vacuum you lived in. Buckle up and make the best of this situation, make friends and stuff. You know you ~wanna~.’ Twilight and Armor were looking at me with slightly worried looks and I realized that my face had combined my scowl and a smile into a smirk. I turned my face into a less creepy smile and said, "Alright, let's meet new people." "I'm happy you think so," Twilight said with a smile, "because Pinkie throws surprise parties for every new pony that comes to Ponyville." "Ah," I said and let out a nervous laugh. "Let's not go overboard here." "Sorry Gabrielle. I might've been able to stop her if it was just you, but now Armor is moving to Ponyville as well." Armor looked up in surprise at this. "But," he started before sputtering a bit. "Your highness, I'm not supposed to draw attention to myself." "Can't be helped, Armor," Twilight said with a smile. "Skipping out on a Pinkie party is too peculiar." Armor looked dismayed as I looked out at the passing landscape for a while before turning to my book. ‘Ah, whatever. You're planning on making friends anyway.’ "Speaking of meeting new people, how does my legal status work?" I asked Twilight. Twilight scratched the back of her head a bit awkwardly. "Ah, well, you see. You're not actually an adult here, but your position as a royal guest and dignitary sort of overrules just about everything that you need to be an adult to partake in." "Meaning what, exactly?" "Uh, that you're an adult but that I could uh... restrain you if need be on a case by case basis. You could for example buy property if you want, but Celestia and Luna sort of hopes that you won't try and do anything crazy like trying to qualify as a foster parent or something like that." The absurdity of that turned my laugh into an amused snort. "Yeah, don't worry about that," I said. ‘Alright, as interesting as it would look, I just hope I won't get a bunch of kids after me begging me to buy booze and cigarettes for them... ‘Alright, party coming up, with lots of people. Let's try jumping in the deep end.’ > Welcome (back) to Ponyville > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don’t get seasick. I don’t get carsick either. In fact, I find traveling by car to be very calming. Not as much as by boat but if I relaxed a bit, both train and car had a sleep-inducing effect, though not as much as by boat. I was occasionally doped up when recovering and that helped me sleep as if I was on a boat as well. You know, because everything was gently rocking… It might also have had something to do with just being doped up, but I digress… Anyway, I had taken Twilight’s advice and squeezed in a nap before the train arrived in Ponyville. It was short, but I refuse to call it a "power nap." I looked up what a "power nap" is once and found out that it was a short period of sleep. ‘So, a nap?’ I had thought. I felt the term was much more appropriate as a slang for an energy saving mode for computers and stuff, or a nap that’s so great that you wake up and go "YEAH!"... but I digress still… “Had a nice rest, Gabrielle?” Twilight asked as I yawned and stretched my legs. “Yup,” I said and looked down on my book lying open on the small table in front of me, somewhat relieved that I hadn’t fallen asleep on top of it and drooled all over the pages. “Are there gems to enchant with in Ponyville? Like, do you buy those at a hobby store or something?” “Not at a hobby store but, yes you can buy them both in Ponyville or by mail order. Besides, Rarity has lots of them.” “Oh,” I said and looked pleased at the news. “Also,” Twilight said. “When you get some practice, you can enchant things besides gems. It’s just that gems are forgiving to work and practice with, and they can more easily hold potent enchantments in small physical forms.” “Yeah, I actually just got to that part before we got on the train,” I said. “It’s just that I’m getting a bit antsy to trying this out.” “I can imagine,” Twilight said. “I have some supplies at the Golden Oaks I can lend you.” “Thanks,” I said. “But what’s the Golden Oaks?” “That’s the library where me and Spike live.” I blinked at that. “A library?” “Does it surprise you that I live in a library?” she asked. “I guess not,” I said after a pause. “I just haven’t seen a library and residence combined.” ‘Well, pretty much all people lived and worked at the same places way back when, and Equestria has some pretty olden times style to it.’ “Oh that’s right, I keep forgetting how advanced the city you lived in looked. Yeah, Ponyville’s not like a big city, it’s pretty rustic and ponies often live in their shops and so on, but it’s still nice,” Twilight said, mirroring my own thoughts. One thing worried me about that. “How rustic are we talking here?” “Uh,” Twilight started. “Pretty rustic, I guess? Why do you ask?” “I, uh, mostly wanna know if there’s indoor plumbing,” I said. “Oh! Hehe,” Twilight said. “Okay, not that rustic. We’ve got plumbing, electricity, and things like that as well.” “You also have a power grid? And the reason that the hospital had light bulbs when the castle had torches and candles is because…?” “Because medical facilities need to be sterile, and be able to be well-lit at a moment’s notice of course,” Twilight said and giggled a bit, like I had just asked a silly question. “But I wouldn’t call it ‘power grid’ like you know it.” “Uh-huh,” I deadpanned. “But why doesn’t other places?” “Right, sorry, I guess you haven’t noticed yet. Most places have either electrical or magical lighting available as well, torches and lanterns are mostly for aesthetic reasons,” she said. “Oh, now I get why you’re so confused. If there’s no magic on Terra, and if you can’t regulate the weather, it makes sense that humans would focus on electrical lighting.” “Yeah, we do. And I don’t know if ponies are nocturnal or if the night sky here is magical as well, but it’s a lot brighter than back home.” “Well of course the night sky is magical,” Twilight said. “What does it look like on Terra?” “Well, it differs depending on where you’re at, geographically. Where I lived, depending on the weather and season and stuff like that, it was very muted compared to here, or practically pitch black.” “Oh. Then it makes sense that humans would create electrical lights, that would be the only convenient option. But don’t tell Fluttershy about Terran nights.” “Sure.” ‘Sounds like a David Bowie album or something.’ “I actually think it sounds a bit scary as well, having a sky that’s that dark at night. It’d be like always being in a dark forest,” Twilight said. “Hmm, yeah,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that human mythologies and folklore would be a lot different if our nights were this bright.” “I can only imagine how ponies would see Terran nights. You’re the only pony- uh, human from Terra I’ve met, but it makes sense that you’re as brave as you are, considering how scary your home world seems and how you didn’t have any magic.” “B–” I started, taken aback and holding back a laugh. “Brave? Me?” I asked. “Well, sure,” Twilight said. “You found yourself in another world and another body, and as soon as you were conscious, you helped Zecora fight off a pack of timberwolves.” Armor had been quiet for a while, but he was obviously paying attention now. I was about to question that when I realized that, strictly speaking, that was correct. “Well, yeah, I suppose that’s true,” I said. “I just… never thought of myself as very brave.” “That’s what I mean,” Twilight said. “You don’t consider yourself as brave, but speaking as a pony, that’s very brave. Now, I know about human ages, but I still think it’s amazing that somepony only twenty-six years old does that.” “But what does that make you, though?” I asked a bit impishly. “Considering all you’ve done, if I’m brave then you must be… I’m not sure I know a good word. ‘Heroic’ doesn’t seem to cut it.” Twilight blushed like a schoolgirl on stage at that. “Oh, uh. Thank you,” she said and chuckled nervously. ‘Alright, careful there, princess. I’m not hitting on you.’ “She’s right, though, your highness,” Armor said. “Anyway, you may want to continue this conversation another time. We’re pulling up in Ponyville.” I leaned over to the window to take a look at the small town. It was the most scenic place I had seen since… since a few days ago when I looked out at Canterlot through the window in the hospital. But it was still very scenic, and looked very charming. “Cool,” I said in a low voice. “Oh, I’m glad that you like it,” Twilight said. “I was worried you wouldn’t appreciate a small town after living in such a big one.” “It wasn’t that big,” I said. “But no, this looks really nice. This is the cosiest looking town I’ve seen since Puerto Pollo, and that’s not even a real place. Does that bowling alley have a sod roof?” “Since the train has stopped, let’s take a closer look in person,” Armor suggested. ‘I wonder if that should be “a closer look in pony?” I hope not, because ponyally I think that sounds stupid.’ “Alright.” Armor took the package and Twilight took me in the wheelchair. I was about to object, as I wanted to train up my magic, but figured that I might as well do that in locales I was familiar with. “Alright, let’s drop this package off at the library and go get something to eat. What do you say?” “Will you guys bring some back for me?” I asked with a small smirk. “Oh,” Twilight said a bit dejectedly. “You don’t wanna eat out?” “Uh, no that’s fine. It was supposed to be a joke,” I said and looked back at Twilight’s confused face. “You know, like you referred to me as the package.” “Wha- I’d never do that!” Twilight said in a horrified voice. I sighed and waved my hoof in the air. “Yeah, I know. That’s what’s supposed to have made it funny.” “Oh. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the humor,” Twilight said. “That would come from how absurdly unlike you it would be, but whatever, forget it,” I said. “Oh, alright. But what would you like to eat?” Twilight said. “I don’t know what kind of stuff that’s available around here. You guys can decide. I think I need to get used to the cuisine here.” “I’m fine with whatever,” Armor said, this time free to use his mouth to communicate. We moved into the town proper and I took in the scenery. Bushes and trees were growing between the outlying houses without making the place look wild and overgrown, and many cottages had little gardens in their yards, some growing produce, some growing flowers (which I guess could be produce as well). I hadn’t considered how well the wheelchair would work on a dirt road, but to my relief, it rolled along smoothly. There were a few weathervanes on the roofs, which seemed superfluous to me. By now we had started drawing attention to ourselves. A princess, a stallion with a mysterious-looking package and a little filly in a wheelchair were apparently peculiar here as well, and unlike Canterlot, I also saw a pegasus or two look up from whatever they had been doing on a few stray clouds. ‘Alright, more stares, but note that there’s fewer people here. Also, new person in a small town might be a big thing in itself, and you’re in the presence of royalty, it’s not just your handicap. C’mon, you can handle this. You better, you’re gonna live here,’ I thought to myself as we made our way through town. Twilight helped quite a bit by drawing attention to herself and waving to ponies sitting in patios and such, when a big rainbow-colored streak flashed by in front of us. “Hey, guys! How’s it going?” Rainbow said as she seemingly popped up out of nowhere. “Hi, Rainbow,” Twilight said and smiled. “And personally I’m doing fine.” “Great! How ‘bout you?” she said and turned to Armor and leaned down against him with a silly look on her face. “How you doin?” “I’m, uh, fine, ma’am.” Rainbow looked taken aback by this. “‘Ma’am’?” she said skeptically, and then laughed. “Hah! Yeah, sure. That’s me alright. Champion of Equestria.” “Yes, ma’am,” Armor said. “Although I have a request.” “Sure. Shoot,” Rainbow said and placed her front hooves behind her head in midair. “Is it to not be so awesome that I’ll put you out of a job?” “Uh,” Armor hesitated. “No, it’s that I don’t want it to be public knowledge that I’m a Royal Guard. Wait... Did you recognise me, ma’am?” “I sure did,” Rainbow said casually. “You were in Canterlot when we left a few days ago. You’re supposed to help Gabe getting used to being a pony. Hey, Gabe.” “Hey,” I said casually. “Uh, yeah,” Armor said. “I’m not here because Gabe’s in any danger, but we might as well not draw attention to the fact that she’s got a guard.” “Gotcha,” Rainbow said. I had only paid attention to the last part of that conversation with half an ear (which is still lots of ear when you’re a pony) as most of my attention had been focused on the giant tree we were heading towards. “What’s this place?” I asked a bit slowly. “This is the Golden Oaks Library,” Twilight said jovially. ‘Is this where you live? This doesn’t look like a royal residence to me… but nevermind that! I gotta see the inside of this place.’ “Awesome,” I said absentmindedly. “Yeah, it’s kinda neat,” Rainbow commented. “I never used to spend much time in libraries, myself. But there are a few really good book series that I could show you.” “That’s nice of you, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “But we’re just planning on leaving our baggage here, perhaps giving a small tour, then we’re gonna have something to eat.” “At Sugarcube Corner?” Rainbow asked. “I thought I’d let Gabrielle and Armor decide,” Twilight said. Rainbow flew a bit to the side so that she could address us both at the same time. “Well, you gotta check out Sugarcube Corner, it’s the best place around and I’m gonna be there later,” she said. “So are you gonna come?” I looked at Armor and when he noticed he just shrugged and gestured invitingly to me. “Sure,” I said with a shrug of my own. “Cute name, by the way.” Rainbow groaned. “I thought we- oh, you mean Sugarcube Corner,” she said and chuckled. “Yeah, anyway, see you there then,” she continued and flew off. As we walked up to the giant tree I tried taking in every detail I could. It seemed a bit much with this many balconies, though I guess one was more of an observatory platform, but it still looked awesome. Twilight wheeled me up to the three-part door and opened it with her magic. “Well, this is my home, and yours as well for as long as you want. I hope it’s to your liking,” she said as we entered. “Let me introduce you to my assistant.” “You have an assistant?” I asked. “Oh, right, Spike, yeah?” “That’s right,” she said as she wheeled me in. “C’mon, Armor, wheel that in here please and I’ll unpack it then put it in the basement.” As Armor carefully lifted the cart across the threshold, I took in as much as I could of the interior. I was in some sort of stupor when Twilight’s voice snapped me out of it. “Spike!” she called. “We’re back!” “Uh, hey, Twilight,” said a voice coming from a doorway to the side. “What do you mean ‘we’?” Out walked a short, purple reptile with just as huge eyes as a pony’s, but slitted. I wasn’t sure how a dragon was supposed to look, but to me it seemed like he had pretty generous juvenile "energy reserves". ‘With Twilight a magician and scholar, I guess I was expecting a miniature D&D style dragon or something, like a familiar. Not a slightly chubby reptile boy.’ “I mean myself and guests, of course,” Twilight said. “So, have you been okay?” “Yeah, fine. It was getting a bit boring here, watching this place by myself. But Rainbow and the Crusaders came by a few times,” Spike said before turning his attention to me. “That’s great,” Twilight said before gesturing to me and Armor. “Anyway, Spike, let me introduce you to Gabrielle Desrochers and Studded Armor.” Of the two of us, I was the one closest to him and Armor gave the sense of being preoccupied despite not moving the package around anymore. Spike carefully approached me while fiddling with his claws. “Uh, hey,” he said hesitantly. “Nice to meet you.” I realized that processing both his appearance and my surroundings hadn’t left me with enough self-consciousness to have put on another expression other than a slight frown. I shook my head a bit and leaned down towards him with a small smile and extended my hoof. “Right back at you,” I said. He nervously grabbed my hoof with his hand but seemed to freeze there until he managed to jerkingly shake my hoof, which unfortunately meant that he pricked me in my frog with a claw. “Oh, I’m sorry!” he said as I let out a hiss. “It’s okay,” I said and waved it off. “It was mostly from surprise anyway. Don’t worry about it.” “Gabrielle is going to be staying here for a while, Spike,” Twilight said. “Uh, okay,” Spike said. “But why?” “Because I brought her here,” Twilight said and seemed to struggle to not let out a forlorn sigh. “It’s my fault she’s here, and I’m going to accept my responsibility, and help her adjust to her new life. By the way, this is Armor. He’s a guard from Canterlot and he’s here to help out, too.” Armor walked up to Spike and held out a hoof as well. “Good day.” “Uh, hi,” Spike said and shook the hoof. “Are you gonna be staying here, too?” “Well, we’ll see,” Twilight said. “You said you know some ponies here in Ponyville, didn’t you, Armor?” “Uh, yeah, my uncle lives here,” Armor said. “But I haven’t been to his place in years.” “Well, we can all squeeze in here if need be,” Twilight said. As this conversation was going on, I inspected my hoof a little discreetly. There was a bit of blood slowly growing around where Spike’s claw had stung me. I pointed it upwards so as to not drip anything on the floor. It didn’t really hurt, but I had to hold back a sigh as I remembered the times I hurt my hand, however slightly. I never had long nails, but one had broken once anyway. That really sucked. “Anyway,” Twilight said as I tried pressing my magical hoof fingers against the pin prick, which just smeared out the blood across my frog. “Let’s get this stuff down in the basement. I prefer to keep these things where I can lock the door.” “Uh, Twilight?” I spoke up before she got to work. “Yes?” “Could you help me with something?” I asked and tried waving her my hoof as discreetly as I could to her. She seemed to pick up on it and turned to Armor and said, “alright,” before turning to Spike and Armor. “Can you two wheel this down the stairs to the basement? Just be careful with it.” “Of course,” Armor said. “I thought you said you put a cushioning spell around it?” I asked. “Of course I did,” Twilight said. “But be careful anyway, okay?” “We’re on it!” Spike said enthusiastically. “C’mon, Armor, the basement’s over here.” When they, or more specifically, Spike, was busy, Twilight wheeled me into a bathroom. “Was it Spike who did that?” Twilight asked cautiously. “Mmm. I uh,” I started while trying to figure out how to ask what I wanted to ask inoffensively. “He’s not… venomous, is he?” Twilight looked surprised at this before laughing it off. “Sorry, Gabrielle, but that got me. No, Spike’s not venomous.” “Alright, good to know,” I said as Twilight started turned on the sink. “Still,” she said and got a somber look on her face. “I can only imagine how difficult this is for you.” “Twilight,” I said as I dipped my hoof in the flow of water. “You’re blaming yourself again, aren’t you?” “Well of course I do,” she said with a rising volume before stopping herself. “... It’s my fault.” “Yeah, I suppose it is,” I said as I inspected my hoof in the water. It was a small cut, aside from a dull ache the pain had gone away and It would probably be all sealed up on its own in a few hours. “Hold on, though. Exactly what are you blaming yourself for?” I asked and turned to her, sounding inquisitive with just a trace of accusation. She looked taken aback by this. “For bringing you here, of course. Thanks to me, you were almost killed by timberwolves, and then you came down with Wisp-Shimmer syndrome.” I removed my hoof from the water and looked Twilight in the eyes for a while before shrugging and saying, “all is forgiven.” “But I...” Twilight started then looked down on the floor and said, “thank you,” with a small smile. “Oh? What was that?” I asked. “You hesitated.” “I,” Twilight said before trailing off. “It’s just… It looks so difficult, being…” “Disabled?” I suggested. “Yeah.” “Well yeah, It’s not always easy, but that’s hardly your fault, is it?” “But you said that you could take care of yourself when you were a human, and now...” Twilight said. ‘Hm, does that sounds offensive? Ah, whatever, she’s probably just not very familiar with the finer nuances of discussing disabilities. And frankly, neither are you.’ “Yeah, I suppose,” I said. “But you’re doing everything you can to help me adjust.” “Of course I am,” Twilight said, still looking down with droopy ears. I studied her for a moment before deciding on breaking out the big guns. “Twilight,” I said slowly. “Yeah?” she said and looked up. “There’s been a lot more hugging than I’m used to lately,” I said and held out my foreleg invitingly. “But…” Twilight hesitantly accepted the embrace (after I wiggled my hoof a bit). “I forgive you, Twilight. I’ve told you that already, haven’t I?” “Uh. I don’t think you have before now. I only remember you saying that you wouldn’t hate me.” “Heh, yeah you’re probably right,” I said and took a breath while trying to figure out how to make this sound genuine. “Alright, so here it is: Getting used to a new disabled body all over again is… Well it’s horseapples, as you say around here. But I still forgive you, and I’m very grateful for your help, and your friendship,” I said before I could stop myself Twilight tightened the hug. “Oh, thank you,” she said. “I’m so relieved.” I couldn’t see her face from here, but if I had to guess, she had an expression of relief. My own face, however, looked like I had just taken a big bite out a lemon. I groaned and said, “Yeah, can we just pretend that last thing I said was something less sickeningly sappy?” Twilight just let out a mix between a sigh of relief and a giggle. “Sure. Now let’s make sure that your hoof’s okay,” she said and broke away from the hug. “Yeah, thanks by the way,” I said as Twilight thoroughly dabbed all the water out of the frog of my hoof with a towel and slipped on a small band-aid from the cabinet above the sink with her magic. “No problem,” she said, an undercurrent of worry gone from her voice. “Let’s go make sure that Spike and Armor haven’t caused any trouble. I was about to vouch for Armor’s competence when I remembered the incident with the last wheelchair. “Yeah, let’s,” I said, also looking forward to seeing more of Golden Oaks. If someone described a basement to me by saying that it was filled with tree roots, I would’ve thought of John Bauer paintings. The basement of Golden Oaks wasn’t like that, exactly. Even if it was, the old-school sciency-looking devices, and magical instruments would’ve ruined the image. I never had any kleptomaniacal tendencies, but I still had a fleeting worry that I might fall into old gaming habits in here, and try and swipe some of the magical-looking tomes and potions lying haphazardly in and around the shelves. “So you’re a guard?” I heard Spike ask as we made our way down the stairs, which I made a note of being careful around, as they didn’t have any railings. “I don’t recognise you.” “I haven’t been assigned to Canterlot for very long,” Armor answered evenly. “Oh, okay. So what is this stuff, anyway?” “It’s uh, machines from Gabrielle’s homeworld,” Armor said. “Really advanced stuff as I understand it.” “Whoa!” Spike said. “Like what? Beam bows? Transmogrifiers? Robots?” “Uh, I don’t think so,” Armor said as they came into view. “It looked like, uh, some sort of uh… like a movie screen that you could tell to do things.” “Wow! So they are like robots?” Spike, who seemed to be getting lost in his own world, said. “Can they fly around and foalnap ponies and turn them into other robots?” I had to hold back a laugh when I saw Armor’s expression. “Sometimes you’d think so, considering how fanatic some people seem about their particular brand of computers,” I said. “But no, they can’t make robots. I wish they could, though. I could’ve used some spare parts.” “Hey, yeah!” Spike said enthusiastically. “Just like Radiance in Power Ponies!” Twilight looked confused at this. “What do you mean?” “Radiance lost all four of her legs in her origin story,” Spike said in that special way that I’d recognize anywhere as a fan showing off. “But she’s got pockenholz legs hidden under her suit that she moves with her magic jewelry.” “Huh,” Twilight commented. “Rarity never said anything about that.” “Yeah,” Spike said, now also looking thoughtful. “Maybe she didn’t notice. Or maybe she didn’t actually turn into Radiance. Masked Matter-Horn is a normal unicorn but you were still an alicorn back then.” “Oh, of course. The enchantment on that comic was pretty impressive but not that powerful,” Twilight said before noticing mine and Armor’s questioning looks and waving it away with a smile. “Spike had this enchanted comic book once. We’ll tell you the story another time. Anyway, Gabrielle, can you help me make sure that I got everything from Canterlot?” “Sure,” I said. Twilight used her magic to open the large package, which was lucky considering how much time it would’ve taken for Armor to use his hooves and mouth to do it. She laid out all the things on the table and I did a quick inspection. “Alright, so, big metal box with wires and lights that beeps sometimes,” she said as she gently lifted out the stuff onto a table one item at a time. “Black window thingie with wire, miniature power speakers…” “Power speakers?” I asked “Yeah, I thought I’d differentiate them from others. I’m not a sound engineer but these seem to have a much greater capacity than normal ones,” Twilight said before continuing. “And, uh, this, uh, red light input thingie and these two boards with lots of buttons.” Twilight’s expectant look turned confused when I was too busy chewing on my hoof and trying to stop myself from laughing at Twilight’s description of the mouse. “Aheh… heh, yeah, it’s all here,” I eventually managed. My own personal stuff I had decided to leave in Canterlot. Both the photos and the guitar were things that I didn’t need with me all the time anyway, I was just happy they weren’t lost forever. “Alright then, let’s give you two a tour of the place,” Twilight said. I looked at Armor, who seemed like he had been lost in thoughts up until that moment before he scrambled over to me to help me with the stairs. The Golden Oaks Library was awesome. J.K. Rowling had really managed to relay how both luxurious and cosy the residential areas of Hogwarts were, but it was a dump next to this place. “Alright, I thought you could stay in this room, Gabrielle. What do you think?” Twilight asked as we neared the end of the tour. “Gabe. And I think it looks great,” I said, perhaps a bit absentmindedly as I took it in. The room looked just as cosy as the rest of the library. I wheeled around a bit on my own volition, something I hadn’t really done all that much so far, to inspect it closer. ‘Closets… why?’ “It’s a bit empty, of course,” Twilight said. “I cleaned out some things when I had to make room for Discord when he stayed here. But there’s space for some more additions, like a desk and things like that.” “Discord? As in the spirit of chaos?” I asked and closed the closet, which was empty except for some old-looking ice skates stuffed in the back for some reason. “Yeah, that’s the one,” Twilight said with a small sigh. “I don’t know if he’ll be curious about you or not, but if he gives you any trouble, just tell him that Fluttershy won’t like it.” “Alright,” I said and looked away from the window, the view of which I had been inspecting. “Well, this looks great, but I need to practice a bit with the stai–NG-GUGH!” There was an owl perched on the handle of my wheelchair. “Owlowiscious!” Twilight said sternly. “Don’t frighten our guest!” “Who,” the owl hooted softly. “The filly who’s chair your sitting on,” Twilight explained. “Who,” the owl said. “Her name’s Gabrielle. Gabrielle, Armor, this is Owlowiscious. Owlowiscious, this is Gabrielle and this is Armor,” Twilight said and gestured to us. “Now, apologize.” “It’s okay, Twilight,” I said. “You can’t really blame an owl for being quiet.” “Who?” Owlowiscious said. “You,” I said and smiled. “Though you seem pretty chatty.” “Who?” “Heh, you got pretty good comedic timing,” I said. “Who?” “Yeah, exactly,” I said and extended my foreleg, not sure how to otherwise greet seemingly sapient avians. “Nice to meet you.” Owlowiscious softly nibbled the keratin of my hoof a bit then rubbed his cheek against it. “Who,” he said and took off before setting down on the bed frame next to Armor. “Uh, nice to meet you,” Armor said hesitantly. “Well then, I think we’re done with the tour. Armor, I’m not sure where to fit you in on such a short notice,” Twilight said a bit ruefully. “Uh, I’m expected to stay here until Gabrielle feels that she can, or uh, until she feels that she’s adjusted to being a pony,” Armor said. “So it might be best with a temporary solution.” “Well there’s a sofa,” Twilight started hesitantly. “Uh, actually, Twilight,” Spike said. “It’s still at Quills & Sofas after that thing with Twilight Time.” “Oh, then uh,” Twilight said and looked nervously at Armor. “I’ll go check in with my uncle in the meantime,” he said confidently. “Oh, great,” Twilight said, relieved. “I’m sorry about this, I didn’t have any time to make a checklist of all the things that needed doing.” “That’s okay,” Armor said. “Speaking of things that needs doing, I think Rainbow Dash is waiting for us at Sugarcube Corner.” I noticed how Twilight snuck a glance at a wall clock before answering. “You’re right,” she said happily. “Let’s go.” "'Quills & Sofas'?" I asked. "Is that named after the owners?" "Uh, no," Twilight said. "It's what's sold there." ‘Alright, sure. Why corner one market when you can corner two?’ - “This place isn’t actually edible, is it?” I asked outside of Sugarcube Corner. “Of course not,” Twilight said like I had just asked if ponies could fly, disregarding the fact that lot’s of them actually can around here. “Gotcha. But now I’m having real trouble remembering that fairy tale with the gingerbread house,” I said and scratched the bottom of my muzzle. “There’s definitely a witch in it… did she feed the kids part of her house to fatten them up or what was it?” The confused looks the ponies (and the dragon) around me were giving me were so amusing that I decided to see how far I could push it. “Well, tji for mossy owls who sold butter in crazy barrel,” I said and smirked at their incredulous looks. “I believe that’s what we call a non sequitur.” “I... believe you’re right,” Twilight said slowly. “Uh, anyway, wanna go inside?” “Yeah, I wanna see what the inside looks like,” I said as we filed into the establishment. “SURPRISE!” about a dozen voices cheered. Me, Armor, and Spike jumped in surprise. Formed into a loose semicircle stood Twilight’s friends, two earth ponies in aprons with two very small foals perched on their backs (I don’t think they were among the cheerers, however), and three fillies about my age who looked a bit apprehensive about me that I shortly recognised as the "Cutie Mark Crusaders". “Told ya, Pinkie,” Rainbow said as she flew over to us in a manner which I could only describe as an "air saunter." “I got them over here without them suspecting a thing.” “Yeah, she did,” I admitted, just a little bit reluctantly. “She shouldn’t have, but she did, somehow.” “Oooh,” Pinkie cooed loudly and said, “that makes me so happy!” as she jumped up and down in front of us. “Yes, most impressive, I must say,” Rarity said. “A display of skill far beyond my modest expectations,” she continued with a hint of a playful smirk. “Aw, thanks, Rarity,” a pleased Rainbow said, unaware of the sneaky jibe. “Oh, yeah!” Pinkie said with a mile-wide grin. “Rarity said that you didn’t have any stuff left since they’re back at where you came from, so she suggested we’d get you some presents.” “Uh,” I said, flustered. “Oh, that’s… You didn’t have to,” I said before just tapering off. “Oh, I know, darling,” Rarity said. “But we all wanted to. Besides, I hope you’ll forgive me for my bluntness when I say this,” she began with mix of hopefulness and slight sadness in her voice, “but from what you’ve told us about you, there hasn’t been a lot of gifts in your life lately, even when the situation called for it.” That was true, in a way. I had a very strange feeling a while back, a bit like muted glee, when some colleagues realized that my birthday passed completely unnoticed a few weeks prior. Why I had felt that, I couldn’t really say, but if I had to be brutally honest with myself it probably had something to do with confirming that I had a reason for the occasional slip into self pity. ‘Are you really gonna be that girl here? Now? Surrounded by wonderful people who want to be your friend? Who like you and want what’s best for you? I don’t see how you can “wallow in despair” and that junk while embracing this new life, so no more of that. It might be understandable and difficult to let go, but still kinda childish and you know it. You want this new life anyway, so shape up!’ I didn’t know what to say in response to Rarity’s words, so I just smiled. “Now, I’m ashamed to admit that we did not do anything of the sort for your friend here,” Rarity said, and turned to Armor. “I hope you can forgive us, good sir.” “I, uh, of course, my lady,” Armor said to Rarity, along with Rainbow and Pinkie who had turned to him as well. “Oh?” Rarity said and put her hoof to her barrel. “And well-mannered, too. Now I feel outright appalled by our exclusion of you. Rest assured that it shall be rectified in time.” “I would never wish to inconvenience the heroes of Equestria, my lady,” Armor said. I was feeling impressed, and almost a little proud of how well he was handling the situation. Rarity’s eyes were suddenly filled by over-acted horror. “Pray tell, darling, whyever not?” “‘Cause he’s a guard and his job is to serve the common ponies, not the other way around?” Rainbow suggested casually, if a bit bluntly. “I figured I might as well tell the rest of the gang this,” she said to Armor. “Might be a bit weird if they tried figuring out why you’re here otherwise.” “I’ll defer to your wisdom, ma’am,” Armor said. “Heh, hear that, Pinkie? I’m wise,” Rainbow said and the two shared a laugh before Rainbow turned to Rarity. “And he’s here incognito, so no gossiping.” Rarity looked shocked. “Why, I would nev- Fine!” she said at Rainbow’s deadpan look. “Anyway, Fluttershy, Applejack, get over here and say ‘hi’ to Armor,” Pinkie said. There was a general shuffle of activity among our little group as Fluttershy and Applejack did so, while the two earth ponies with the small foals walked up to Pinkie and said, “we’ll be right back, Pinkie, we just gotta go check on the kitchen, can you take care of the twins for a minute?” “Yes, sir!” Pinkie happily saluted as the small foals were dumped on her back. We moved into a backroom and sat down around a table as mine and Armor’s living-situations were discussed, with Rarity being extremely torn between offering Armor a place to stay, and refusing her extra space to avoid any implications from having an athletic, handsome, and courteous young stallion living with her (she seemed close to losing herself in some hyperactive fugue state of indecision before Twilight snapped her out of it), I heard Applejack addressing the Crusaders, who I had yet to be introduced to. “Now why in Equestria wouldn’t Gabrielle be allowed to join your club?” she asked, sounding a bit accusing. “But, sis,” the one I assumed to be Apple Bloom said, a bit whiningly. “You can’t crusade for a cutie mark if you already have one!” I still looked engaged in a conversation with the other ponies as we were situated around a table, but my ears kept swiveling towards Applejack and the Crusaders, and I felt that their lack subtlety was further indication that growing up with puny human ears made huge pony ears even more effective when you got them. “Now that’s a load of hooey,” Applejack said. “That ain’t no reason for you not to let her join you.” ‘Yeah, I’m not sure you’re helping, Applejack. Don’t force kids to hang out with other kids, especially if they’re weird,’ I thought with a small sigh. “But sis!” Apple Bloom said. “No ‘buts,’” Applejack said. “Now march on over there and make her feel welcome to Ponyville.” I heard sixteen hooves slowly make their way towards us. I turned around and did my best to make it look like I haven’t heard that conversation. “Hello,” I smiled and tried saying with the right amount of casualness without coming across as flippant. “I’m Gabrielle,” I said and held out my hoof. “Nice to meet you.” The fillies stood shock-still with stunned expressions and wide eyes (which made their already large eyes look almost freaky) when they got a close look at me, and my right thigh, shoulder, and eyepatch. Applejack was looking down at them from behind with a disapproving expression and looked like she was about to elbow one of them until Rarity disengaged from the other conversation to say, “Sweetie Belle! Manners!” with a mix of admonishment and plea. The unicorn in the group shook her head and said, “Uh, yeah, uh… hi,” and reluctantly bumped my hoof. “I- I… ‘m Sweetie Belle.” “And I’m, uh, Apple Bloom,” the earth pony said and repeated the hoof bump. “Scootaloo,” the pegasus said, also very lightly bumping my hoof. None of them seeming very eager to look me in the eye. I struggled to think up a situation where the truth hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, so I decided to be blunt. “Yeah, I heard you talking with Applejack, but you don’t have to talk with me if you don’t want to.” They looked a bit taken aback at that, but before they could answer, Rainbow, seemingly sensing that something was amiss among the bliss, leaned into the conversation, something that was quite easy to do with a pony’s neck. “Did I hear that right, squirt?” she asked, seemingly letting Scootaloo be the vehicle of the group. “You don’t wanna hang out with Gabe? Even though she escaped from a bunch of diamond dogs by herself? Even though she’s an alien who can knock out a pack of timberwolves just like that? And is friends with the princesses? And has an undercover bodyguard? And brought crazy inventions with her?” Rainbow’s smirk grew in tandem with the trio’s ever-widening eyes as she continued to describe what made me awesome in the eyes of a child. They slowly turned back to me with awe in their eyes. “Thought so,” Rainbow said, and retreated back to the other conversation with a pleased look on her face. The fillies clearly had no idea how to start a conversation with this information in mind. I wanted to help out but I couldn’t think of anything to do either other than rubbing the back of my neck with a hoof and looking sheepish. “Whoa,” Scootaloo finally managed. “Really?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Well, yeah,” I said. “Wow,” Apple Bloom said. “So hey, you wanna get something to eat?” “Oh, right,” Twilight leaned away from the other conversation and said. “We were coming here for a snack. Well, can you three show Gabrielle what’s available here? We’ll go get something soon.” “Sure thing, Twilight,” Apple Bloom said and turned to me. “C’mon, let’s go.” I lit up my horn and started moving with them to the counter. They looked, well, not quite awed at me getting around by myself, but some degree of impressed at least. Of course, they didn’t know that I still couldn’t keep this up for more than a few minutes yet. “Whoa,” Sweetie Belle said. “So is your special talent magic, too? Just like Twilight?” “Uh, In a way, I suppose,” I said. “I don’t know a lot about magic yet, but it’s going pretty well and not to sound immodest, but studying enchanting is going pretty great.” “Cool. So what’s your cutie mark?” Scootaloo said and unabashedly inspected my flanks. People had looked at that region of me before, but not with this amount of blatant eagerness. I tried showing off my magic mark as casually as I could while subtly looking around to make sure that no one looked at us funny since I still wasn’t sure how common this behavior was. “Well, gems are good for enchantments and the contrails… I dunno, represent function or something?” “What, you don’t know?” Sweetie Belle slowly agreed as the trio inspected my flank closely. I once again cast a nervous glance around the room, but Twilight and friends were the only ones in this particular room, and they seemed content to leave us to our own devices. “Well I’ve only been a pony for a few days,” I said. “I’m still figuring this stuff out.” The Crusaders looked me in the eyes again with renewed surprise. “You’re not a pony?” Scootaloo asked, “Well, I am now. Twilight said that this isn’t temporary, or an illusion, or anything like that. I really am an Equestrian pony. Though I still have some human traits,” I said and flashed them a toothy grin. Their eyes widened again at the sight of my canines. “Whoa,” Scootaloo said. “Just like Fluttershy.” ‘Huh?’ “Fluttershy has canines?” I asked. “No, but Apple Bloom's got one. Fluttershy’s got fangs like you, though,” Scootaloo said. “It’s kinda hard to tell, though. Since she doesn’t smile with her teeth all that much.” I let that fang part slide and made a mental note to look at Fluttershy’s teeth next time I got an opportunity. “So anyway,” Apple Bloom said. “What’s a human?” I did my best to describe humans to the Crusaders as we figured out what we were having at the counter. However, they didn’t have Twilight’s scientific disposition, and kept trying to come up with their own ideas to what humans looked like. Feet and human hair seemed especially hard concepts to grasp, and while I hadn’t seen any minotaurs at that point, I was hesitant to call humans similar to them in appearance. “I might be able to show you some movies with humans or something,” I said as the mare of girth from before came up to take our orders. “Hello,” I said to her, and worked a bit to turn the wheelchair half circle to be able to reach her with a hoofshake. “Pleased to meet you, my name’s Gabrielle:” “Oh, how lovely to meet you, dearie,” she said and shook my hoof. “I’m Cup Cake. Carrot! Come out and introduce yourself,” she called back into the kitchen. The stallion from before came out and another round of hoofshakes went around. “Hello, I’m Carrot Cake. You’re that filly that Pinkie told us about, right?” “Uh, I don’t know,” I said a bit uncertainly. “What was she saying?” “Something about a filly that’s a diplomat from another world that’s been meeting with the princess,” Carrot said. “Yeah, I guess that would be me. Uh, has Pinkie talked to a lot of people about this?” I asked, trying not to show that I wasn’t really pleased by that idea. “Uh, I don’t think so, but she has with us,” Cup said before catching on to what I meant. “Oh, perhaps I should mention that she works here and lives up in the loft. She also helps to take care of Pound and Pumpkin, you might have seen them?” “Oh! Okay,” I said, relieved. “Those were the little guys in the diapers, right?” I asked and they nodded fondly. “Right. By the way, who’s paying for this?” “Twilight said that she’ll take care of it,” Cup said. “Though I was coming over to take everypony’s order.” “Oh, uh, maybe I can take mine here,” I said. “I might as well familiarise myself with the menu.” After the four of us placed our orders we made our way back to the table. Not quietly of course. “So humans don’t have cutie marks?” Apple Bloom asked. “Nope,” I said. “No magically bestowed talents for us.” “Oh,” the three of them said in small voices at the same time. “That really helps put things in perspective,” Sweetie Belle said. “How so?” I asked. “Well, we really wanna get our cutie marks as soon as possible,” she said. “But at least we’re gonna get them.” “Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “A blank flank suddenly don’t seem so bad when some ponies, or uh, people, don’t get any at all.” The trio turned their heads to look at their own flanks. I again had to look around to see if this behavior was drawing looks, but the complete lack of interest in this behavior, coupled with the complete lack of subtlety of the Crusaders, made me assume that this wasn’t behavior out of the ordinary. We sat down at the table again. I was already sitting of course, but I positioned myself at the table. “So, Rarity,” Pinkie said as the foals known as the twins were climbing up and down her, and looking around with wonder in their eyes. “Wanna hold em?” Rarity let out a nervous chuckle. “Ah, haha, no thank you, Pinkie. Perhaps Fluttershy would rather–” Rarity started but stopped herself when she saw Fluttershy meekly sinking below the table, “– or perhaps Gabrielle?” My eye widened at that. “Ah, that’s okay, Pinkie, you don’t have to–” was all I could manage before the twins were plopped down in the chair with me by a grinning Pinkie. This wasn’t as awkward as that one time at work where I had been offered to hold a sleeping baby, and then received instructions on how to properly hold it, but it was still pretty awkward. It wasn’t until the mother practically shoved her baby into my chest that it dawned on her that only having one arm equals only having one arm. I never had those baby doll toy things when I grew up. Mom was a tomboy (and dad loved her for it) and that thing with growing up to be the opposite of your parents didn’t really happen in my case. They laughed pretty hard once in my grade school era when a commercial came on for a plastic baby whose pee you had to clean up, and they saw my utterly bewildered face when I tried figuring out why anyone would want anything like that. Anyway, I put my hoof out and gently patted the small unicorn sitting where my right hind leg would be, who looked up at me with wide eyes. There was a mix of cooing and "naaw"-ing coming from the ponies around the table at that. My neutral face turned surly and the unicorn foal laughed at me. I was told that the unicorn’s name was Pumpkin and she was a filly, while the pegasus was a colt called Pound. Yeah, I didn’t get a sudden love for babies, but I noticed that they were clean at least, and decided that it might not be that horrible to have them clinging on me. I awaited with dread, however, for the moment they decided to dispose of their waste, and prepared a gentle but firm denial for when I would be asked if I wanted to help change diapers. “Alright, so where were we?” I asked the crusaders as the twins were climbing around in my chair, and on me, while taking in their surroundings. “We were talking about cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle said. “Well, color me surprised,” I heard Applejack mutter from the other side of the table but it didn’t seem like the Crusaders heard her. “Oh, right,” Apple Bloom said. “So you still must’ve already had a special talent when you were a human, seeing as you have a cutie mark.” “Uh,” I said as Pound started making his way up the back of my chair. “I’m not sure. My homeworld doesn’t have any magic, we have to make due without magically granted talents. I got this… I guess a few hours after I became a pony.” The trio looked at me in surprise before their expressions drooped into deadpanning disbelief. “Seriously?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Yeah? How so?” I asked as Pumpkin reared up on her hind legs and started pawing up my barrel. “You got one just hours after you could?” Scootaloo. “Yeah, ain’t that typical?” Apple Bloom said to the other two. “What? What is?” I asked and Pound started digging through my mane. “We want our cutie marks, too,” Scootaloo said. “And we’ve been trying to find our special talents for ages.” “Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I’m new to the whole special talent thing, but it’s pretty neat so far, so I understand why you would.” “How did you find out yours?” Apple Bloom asked. By now my attention was a bit split between the conversation and Pound, who had dug all the way through the jungle of my mane and found the string for my eyepatch. “Do you know Zecora?” I asked. “Yeah!” they said, with Apple Bloom sounding especially enthusiastic. “She’s the best,” she said. “I have to agree with that,” I said and put a hoof to my eyepatch as Pound seemed to be using the strings like a pair of reins. “A bunch of diamond dogs dumped me in the Everfree Forest, where she started by saving me from a pack of timber wolves, and then I saved her by having some sort of magical surge and blasted pretty much everything around me.” “Whoa. Is that how you, uhm…” Sweetie Belle trailed of. “How I lost my ar– uh, my legs?” I said, figuring it might help to sound as casual as I could. “Yeah,” she said a bit hesitantly. “Nah,” I said as Pumpkin got a hoofull of my mane and started climbing that, too, happily blubbering all the while. “All this happened ages ago,” I said and gestured towards my entire right side. “Can we see what’s under there?” Scootaloo said enthusiastically. “Uh, yeah, I think you might in a moment,” I said nervously just as Pound untied my eyepatch. I tried angling my head back to stop him, but not so roughly as to throw him off. “Pinkie, could you...” I trailed off. But Pinkie was busy asking Armor questions, and only Fluttershy seemed to notice what was happening over at our corner. The conversation was a bit fast-paced for her to get a word into it however, and after a moment she trotted over to us instead. By now, Pumpkin had gotten a hold of my muzzle and hauled herself up to look me in the eye. “Uh, hey there,” I said a bit hesitantly to the very small filly looking at me with that baby-like stunned awe in her eyes, feeling kinda relieved that my remaining eye was now buffalo hide level of tough. I felt Pound pawing at the top of my head, and I had to place my foreleg under Pumpkin to steady her as she would no doubt fall down from my muzzle and hurt herself without intervention. Babies do that, in my experience.. “Uh, Fluttershy, could you please remove the adventurous young stallion currently on top of me?” I asked as my eyepatch fell to the floor beside me, and not wanting to move my head for fear of tripping Pumpkin. “I’ve got him,” I heard Fluttershy say and felt his bottom half being removed from my neck. I felt his front hooves grab my ears, though, and when Fluttershy made a slightly firmer effort to remove him, he laughingly tugged them as hard as he could. The Crusaders gasped at the sight as my eyelids were yanked open. Carrot came walking into the room with a notepad and a pencil, and both he and the Crusaders looked on in horror as Pumpkin decided that a baby hoof would be a wonderful tool to explore my eye socket with. My heartrate took off like a cannonball as the small foal on my muzzle cheerfully shoved her foreleg into the great cavity in my head. I didn’t scream at the top of my lungs, but I felt like it. Instead, I took a deep, hissing breath. Luckily, I managed to get a good grip around Pumpkin’s neck and pull her away. "Lucky" because the necks are a totally viable place for a foals entire weight to be carried from. “Nnnguh,” was the only sound I managed as a horrified Carrot Cake quickly came up to us to relieve me of the twins, my eyelid shut as hard as possible behind my hoof and my face contorted in a grimace. “I’m really sorry, Gabrielle,” Carrot apologized, along with Cup who had rushed out of the kitchen at the commotion. The twins, however, were complaining loudly about their fun being ruined. “Just–” I started between pants. “Please tell me that her hooves are clean at least.” “We, uh, we washed them off thoroughly right before you came here,” Cup said nervously. “Is that okay?” “I think so,” I said as I took a few calming breaths. “That should be fine.” The whole room had become silent as this occurred, with Applejack giving a droopy-eared Pinkie the stink eye, but then Fluttershy walked up to me with determined steps. “Gabrielle,” she said, using a tone I hadn’t heard her use before. “I would like to double check to make sure that it’s really okay.” I looked into her determined eyes and simply said, “Sure,” before turning to Carrot and Cup. “It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” I assured them as they took the loudly crying twins out the back. “Now, if everypony would give us some room, please,” Fluttershy said as she wheeled me over to a window where the light was brightest and leaned my head back. “Gabrielle, open your eye, please.” “Uh,” I said a bit hesitantly as I removed my hoof. “Just, no touching.” “Of course,” Fluttershy said as I opened my eye. The whole affair with Pumpkin didn’t really hurt all that much, physically. If it did, I wouldn’t have been using a prosthetic eye (since, you know, shoving stuff in there and all that). But the sensation of having something jammed into your eye socket in that manner was still very much unpleasant and I missed the comforting feeling of my hoof covering my socket the moment I removed it. Though despite some twitching, I kept still. Fluttershy seemed very confident as she turned my head around slightly and inspected me closely. “This all looks fine,” she said after a while and let go of my head. “No lacerations or scrapes.” “Thanks,” I said and tried magically grabbing my eyepatch of the floor. It floated up a bit jerky, however, with my concentration not tippity-top. I looked around at the rest of the collected ponies who looked at me with different shades of wincing sympathy and disgusted horror. “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s not that bad, it’s all just really unpleasant and, well, a bit icky.” “Uh, what’s not so bad, but icky?” came a new voice from the doorway. We turned around to see Redheart and Zecora standing there, looking at the scene in confusion. “I apologize if we came at a bad time,” Zecora said. “Ponies do not think every occasion calls for rhyme.” “Zecora!” the Crusaders called and smiled happily at the sight of the zebra. “Hey! You made it!” Pinkie happily exclaimed. “Oh, hi, you two,” Twilight said with a slightly strained smile. “And I don’t think this is a bad time. Gabrielle was just a little too patient with the Cake twins.” Zecora and Redheart (who still had her mane in a bun but had skipped in her hat) looked at me still lightly rubbing my eyelid with my eyepatch lying at the table in front of me, which was a bit dirty so I skipped out on it. “I think we get it,” Redheart said. “I hope this hasn’t ruined the moment, Gabe.” “No, though I might need some help in restoring the mood. Anyway, nice to see you again,” I said as I rolled up towards them. Ponies were really into hugs. I still wasn’t, but I gave Redheart one anyway. Then I turned to Zecora. “Thank you,” I said and put as much force as I could behind those words and held out my hoof. Zecora looked a bit surprised before smiling and bumping my hoof. “And thank you, for feats done in the past. At the time I was worried I had rhymed my last.” ‘This woman is really something else,’ I thought and smiled, but before long the silence of the room started irking me. I turned and looked at the assembled ponies. “Uh, look, I don’t know how to say this any other way, but stop looking at me silently and go back to acting like this is a surprise party. I liked that.” There was a second of silence before Pinkie said, “Oh, yeah, there are still presents.” This seemed to shake the rest of the gathering out of their funk, with some happy murmurings as we gathered around a large table again and Carrot came out with a notepad. “Cup’s putting the twins to sleep,” he said and turned to me. “I’m really sorry again, Gabrielle.” “It’s okay,” I said and waved him off. “Even Fluttershy said it’s fine.” “Well, okay, then could I take everypony’s order?” Me and the Crusaders had already placed ours, but as the others’ were being taken, I turned to Redheart and Zecora who were sitting beside me. “So, how’ve things been?” I asked. Redheart looked a bit amused at that. “You’re asking us?” she said. I shrugged at that. “Well, even if I didn’t care, I’d still listen politely, considering the rescue and everything.” “Oh, well, things have been going on like normal for me,” Redheart said. “How about you, Zecora?” “My week have been unfolding much like the last, after I woke up a few days in the past,” Zecora said and smiled at me. “After that impressive spell, I am glad to know that you are well.” ‘Not technically a spell, according to Twilight, but whatever.’ “Those wolves haven’t been giving you any trouble, then?” “Whether I choose to fence or flee, they cannot keep up with me,” she answered with a sly grin. ‘To say that being a unicorn is neat would be underselling it. But, man! If I wasn’t for the prospect of magic, being a kung fu-zebra would be so awesome.’ “Alright, Gabe,” Pinkie said after Carrot had delivered everyone’s order. “Wanna see what you got?” “Yeah, sure,” I said as Pinkie trotted up to me with a small pile of wrapped packages on her back. “The big one’s from me,” Pinkie said cheerfully. “And these ones are from Rarity and this one’s from Rainbow Dash.” “Thanks, everyone,” I said. “Should I open them now?” “Of course, darling,” Rarity said. “I’ve gotten you something that might be useful right now, in fact.” “Alright,” I said and grabbed one of Rarity’s packages. She had packed them really well, because I just had to hold them down with my hoof, and give the bow a soft tug and the whole packaging neatly fell away to reveal… “Oh, hey. Cool,” I said at the small collection of eyepatches. Comfy textiles had the downside of getting dirty so some spares would be nice, and these ones also came in blue and orange to match my coat and mane as well. “Thanks,” I said and went on to try and attach a blue one. Armor discreetly walked up behind me and finished up the tie from behind. “And next,” I said with a smile. I hadn’t realized it when I had been told about this, but actually opening presents made me remember how fun it could be, especially when you didn’t know you were gonna get any. “Oooh!” I said at the collection of gems. “I asked around for some shapes and types good for early level enchanting,” Rarity said. “Thanks. This is great… I think. At least they seem great,” I said pensively, figuring that maybe it was magically backed intuition. “So no eating, Spike,” Twilight said. “Yeah, yeah,” he answered. Rainbow looked on from a few feet into the air. “Hmm, I guess there’s a headgear theme going on around here,” she said. “How so?” Twilight asked her. “I just figured that Gabe might wanna be extra careful with her new eye, so I gave her a pair of goggles,” Rainbow proudly said. “Oh, nice,” I said. “I’ll pretend to be surprised when I open this.” “Cool,” Rainbow said. Sure enough, in a shoddily but very sturdily wrapped package rested what looked like a pair of flight goggles. I tried them on and they rested really comfortingly against my head. This had the double advantage of giving extra protection to both my eye and my eye socket. “I figured those could be good to have when you’re doing crazy enchanting experiments or whatever, since you’re living with Twilight and all that,” Rainbow said, then stopped and put her hoof to her chin as she seemingly realized something and looked at Twilight. “Hey!” Twilight said. “I don’t do crazy experiments.” “Alright, admit you’re uncool all you want,” Rainbow said with a shrug, to which Twilight just pouted. The largest and most festive-looking package was obviously from Pinkie. It wasn’t as easily unwrapped as Rarity’s, but easier than Rainbow’s. “Twilight wrote us and told us about those crazy inventions you got from your home and then she also wrote about these things that looked really important to you so I figured that you didn’t wanna wear them out more than necessary but you’d still wanna spend time doing that but you’re not nearly as big as you used to be so I thought that this could be really neat and–” Pinkie said as I unwrapped the package and decided that I wasn’t gonna wait for her to finish before sharing my thoughts on the gift. “Oh! Nice. I hadn’t thought about this,” I said as I retrieved the ukulele from the packaging. I wasn’t an ace with ukuleles, I wasn’t an ace with a normal guitar, either, but I figured that this could be another way to help me adjust to my new physical form. I grabbed the neck with my hoof, lit up my horn and reached out for the strings. I managed to plink a pretty passable version of La Cucaracha, at least the main tune, one of those tunes that are naturally amusing. ‘Oh, sure. It’s not Kamarinskaya, but it’s a start.’ I set the ukulele aside with a smile and looked at the assembled ponies (and dragon) around me. Being at the center of attention like this still wasn’t thrilling, but compared to the horrified looks back with the Pumpkin incident, this felt fine. “Thanks,” I said and hesitated a bit. “Uh, I’m still not all that into hugs, but if anyone wants one, I’m fine with one at the moment.” “Nah, I’m good like this if it’s all the same,” Rainbow said. Rarity looked like she was thinking up a response with the same meaning when Pinkie Pie instead jumped at the chance. “I’m up for one!” she exclaimed enthusiastically as she practically pounced me and enveloped my face in pink hair. I hugged her back and, to my relief, I don’t think anyone noticed with all the hair in the way. I could only imagine what it looked like from another’s perspective, with two manes of these glaring shades and volume meeting like this. I felt a bit creepy for doing this, but I just couldn’t help but sniff her hair. It smelled like frosting. “Alright, thanks, Pinkie. I think this’ll do,” I said, but it sounded muffled even to me so I couldn’t only hope that she could hear any of it. Pinkie pulled away and I looked around the room. “Thanks again, everyone,” I said. “I haven’t had a chance to sharpen my skills yet, but when I do, if you need anything enchanted, just say the word.” I was very satisfied with the general appreciative murmur. “Oh, darling. Don’t trouble yourself,” Rarity said, waving the offer away, but only up until the half point of the gesture before she leaned in against my face. “But if you really insist then I have some amazing ideas!” The little event went on swimmingly. Some ponies, and Spike, were interested in what I had brought from Earth and what those things could do. The Crusaders seemed pretty interested in the movies I had on my computer, Rainbow probably would too, but she had dismissed the whole subject as boring a while back and was just chatting away with the rest of the gathering. During one of those little openings when a subject had run dry, and there was a general discrete shuffle as people probed for other little groups whose conversations they could join, I took some time to have a little lapse in awareness as I gave my brain some time to process the situation I was in. Like when you’ve imbibed some intoxicant into your system, and then try to stand up in a normal pace after a long period of sitting down. “Gabe, are you okay?” Redheart asked me from the side. I gave an absent-minded nod and waited a moment before answering. “Yeah, fine. Just taking a moment to process everything,” I said and gave her a not-all-that-focused look. “This all still takes some getting used to.” Redheart studied me for a moment before shuffling her chair closer to me. “Alright, close your eye and turn around,” she said. As I did she reached out around me and pulled me towards her so that my neck was pressed against her barrel. My heart wasn’t racing, but I didn’t notice until now that every beat felt like it was against a bass drum. I managed to force myself to not worry if anyone was watching before taking a few slow, deep breaths and relaxing against her. “Haaah. That’s better,” I breathed after a while. “You did the same thing in Canterlot,” Redheart said. “When most ponies would panic or break down you soldier on. But you need some help to unwind and calm down.” “Heh, I guess you’re right” I chuckled a bit ruefully. ‘Yeah, how ironic this all is, coming to a new world both made me a bunch of friends and appreciate them all at once. Or maybe it’s not ironic, maybe it goes without saying, but whatever...' As I felt the calming effect of Redheart’s chin resting on my head, the din of a social gathering was still going strong but I still felt my priorities slowly shift. “Is anyone watching?” I asked, not bothering to open my eye. “Just the same three little fillies who’ve been watching this whole time,” Redheart answered. After a moment I reluctantly opened my eye to see the Crusaders looking at us with slightly worried faces. “Are you okay?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Yeah I’m just...” I started. I only had vague ideas and a limited vocabulary to describe what just happened. “Getting a new body, in a new world, away from everything you know is a pretty big deal. Don’t get me wrong, this all seems pretty sweet but it’s also a lot to process.” That made them look sad, which made me a bit happy because drooping pony ears still looks adorable. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” I said and turned to Redheart, having enough presence of mind to turn my head to the side and not looking straight up and stabbing at her neck with my horn. “Thanks.” “Just glad to help,” she said and nuzzled me a bit again before letting go. TheCrusaders still looked on in slightly alarmed curiosity. “You still look confused,” I commented. They started shuffling a bit and rubbing their hooves against their forelegs. “Uh, Well,” Apple Bloom said. “Alright, try imagining turning into something else and finding yourself in another land with no one you know around you,” I said. “Let that sink in for a moment and that should tell you why I’m still a bit confused sometimes.” They stood there and looked thoughtful for a moment before they all had an epiphany each at the same time. “Yeah, okay, I guess that would be pretty weird,” Apple Bloom said. “Also, I hope you’re not upset that I, uh… wanted to look behind your eyepatch,” Scootaloo said. “That’s fine,” I said and waved her off. “And uh,” Apple Bloom started before Sweetie Belle tried taking the reins of the conversation. “You can’t crusade for a cutie mark if you already have one but, well, maybe we could…” “Maybe you’d want to hang out sometime anyway?” Scootaloo finished for her. “Oh, sure,” I said happily. “I’m guessing that humans mature at a different rate than ponies, so I kinda guessed that you’d just think I was weird.” “Well, you’re a bit weird but you’re still kinda cool,” Scootaloo said and received a disapproving look from the other two. “‘Kinda cool’? Yeah, okay, I’ll take it,” I said and made Scootaloo look a bit sheepish. “Anyway, as for your request, Scootaloo,” I continued and lifted up my eyepatch and lowered the goggles I realized I still had on my forehead and opened my eyelid. “Look all you want.” The trio leaned in all got a look of disgust mixed with delight, fascination, and more disgust. - Soon enough the sun was getting pretty flirty with the horizon and the party was dying down. Just as I figured that people might be waiting for me to give the suggestion of wrapping up, Twilight loudly said, “Alright, everypony. I think it’s time we wrap this up. It’s a day like any other tomorrow, and Sugarcube Corner has closing times like any other establishment.” The Crusaders whined loudly at that, but their insistence that nopony was tired fell a bit flat when they yawned in a wave. I myself let out a discreet one and started thanking everyone around me for the welcome as we were shuffling towards the exit. “That was a great party!” Spike cheerfully exclaimed from Twilight’s back. “It’s a Pinkie party, Spike,” Twilight said. “It kind of goes without saying. By the way, she was asking you a lot of questions at one point there, Armor. What were you two talking about?” Twilight asked as we made our way through the softly darkening streets of Ponyville. The last rays of the day mingling with the emerging starlight. “She, uh, seemed surprised when I talked about my uncle,” Armor said. “The one who lives here in Ponyville?” Twilight asked before groaning and smacking herself lightly in the forehead. “Ugh, now it’s late and we still haven’t figured out sleeping arrangement for you. This is what happens when I don’t make proper checklists!” I didn’t turn to see Armor’s expression (he was wheeling me around again), but he sounded a bit alarmed when he answered. “Uh, your highness, please don’t blame yourself on my account.” “But I’m being a terrible host!” Twilight insisted. “Uh, your highness. I still have my uncle’s place to sleep at.” “Well, if you’re sure he’s okay with it.” “I’m sure. If you’re okay with that, Gabrielle,” Armor said. “Uh, sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked. “It’s my job to help you as you adjust to your life in Equestria. I can’t do that if I’m not around to help,” he said before he continued with a more rueful tone. “I would also like to apologize for earlier.” “For what, earlier?” I asked, realizing what he meant a second afterward. “For the, uh, incident with the young foals. I was inattentive and my failure as your protector and assistant caused you great physical pain,” he said, actually sounding a bit miserable. “Well, uh, first of all,” I said, trying to figure out in what order I should put my observations. “I can’t really see how what they did is your fault. Secondly, my assailant was like, one foot tall. Thirdly, I wouldn’t call it great pain. A large part of it is psychological–” I realized that that last part wasn’t exactly helping so I quickly thought of one more point to add “– and lastly, my right eye doesn’t even exist. It’s not like I can go more blind in it.” Armor stammered a bit before stopping, possibly realising that I didn’t want him insisting that I blame him for anything. “If you say so.” “I do, and I’m right,” I said flippantly. “Yeah, sorry about Pinkie dumping the twins on you, she gets a bit carried away sometimes and doesn’t always realize that not everypony likes what she likes,” Twilight said. “You have to remind her of that, every now and then. Except for that part, how did you find your welcoming party?” “Oh, it was great,” I said. “I’m still not all that comfortable with being the center of attention, but I still enjoyed it. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that the Crusaders are in their twenties.” “Oh, that’s right. This is the first time you’ve met ponies your own age,” Twilight said. “I wonder why I was under the impression that you’ve met Giggle Hoof.” “Uh, is ‘Giggle Hoof’ seriously a name?” I asked. “Yeah?” Twilight asked, as if that name was one of the most common in the world. Maybe it was. “Alright, sure… Who’s that, and why did you think I’d met her?” “She’s also a filly about your age that you see in the castle every now and then. She’s a sweet one, and the daughter of the royal castle’s head landscaper, Mr Ha-Ha.” “... I seriously don’t have anything to say about that,” I said incredulously. “Sorry to intrude, ladies, but if I’m heading for my uncle’s place, this is where we split up,” Armor said. “Oh, alright. Well, if it doesn’t work out, come back to the library and we’ll figure something out,” Twilight said. If it really came down to it, the bed I was given was large enough for both him and me, but the idea of trying to convince him of sharing a bed was ridiculous. Besides, I wasn’t used to sleeping next to someone else, so I didn’t say anything. “You are very kind, your highness, but I don’t think you need to worry. Will you be alright, Gabrielle?” “As long as someone helps me with the stairs, I’ll be fine,” I said. “Well of course I’ll help,” Twilight said. “There you go,” I said to Armor. “See you tomorrow, I guess?” “I shall be there as early as possible,” he said reassuringly. “Oh,” I said with some mock dejection. “I wasn’t aware we were getting up that early.” “Oh, uh, then… “ He started before I waved him off. “Get going, would ya?” I said good-naturedly. “And good night.” “Good night.” My first day in Ponyville ended like any other day, except with a lot of complicated journeying up and down narrow stairs, further motivating me to practice my magic so that I could handle that myself, and research more about those magical replacement limbs that Equestria had once upon a time. And so I laid down and eventually fell asleep, and dreamt of strange things. > Small Town Charm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was surrounded by darkness. But it was in the middle of the night so that was expected. The figure next to me was absolutely content, and so was I. I draped my foreleg around it, the target of my affection. ‘Oh, I have four legs. That’s nice.’ Yes, all was well in the world. We were together again. ‘Mmm, this is really nice… uh, whoever this is.’ The shadows swirled around us but we did not care. Dark tendrils of the void mingling with my long, black mane. ‘It’s black? Has it been that for long? Wait, who are you anyway?’ I looked down and couldn’t help but give a fanged smile, there rested the light of my life, the song of my soul. I was in love. We were in love. So much in love that someone young like me couldn’t begin to understand. ‘Getting creepy now. And what do you mean, I can’t understand? I’m the one lying here… right?’ I looked down on myself and saw my equine form, it’s coat shining even in the dark void I was in. But after only a few seconds my attention was again turned towards the form resting against me. I gently bent down with the welcome intent of stealing a kiss. ‘Just what is goi-’ “-ng on?” I murmured and sat up up in my bed with eye wide. I looked around my room at Golden Oaks. The curtains being wide open and letting in the soft starlight of the rural night. I had taken a look out the window before tucking in earlier and noticed that no one in town seemed to bother pulling the curtains when going to bed, which was both weird considering how easy it was for a third of all ponies to peep, and also made sense since undressing and nudity kind of wasn’t a thing around here. That dream would have vexed me, but I was so relaxed that I didn’t let it bother me. I just simply laid down against my pillow again and tried remembering as much as I could. Princess Luna had said that I should report any strange dreams I had to her. It felt dark and foreboding, yet not worrying. It wasn’t a nightmare, at least, just confusing. Still, I wondered if Luna would be interested in this as well. ‘So yeah. How do I describe this? I was a pony in it, but I had all four of my limbs, I think, so that was interesting. There was lot of darkness, and power, but no despair. In fact, it felt kinda nice. Darkness and shadows and might, but with contentedness and… love. Yeah, There was a lot of that. But with who?’ Weird dream, I thought as I laid back against the pillow. After a few minutes, I projected myself into my horn to get a good look at the only lightly illuminated room and found what I was looking for. I reached out towards the brush lying on a shelf and managed to magick it slowly and steadily all the way over to me. “Hah!” I said in triumph as I grabbed it with my hoof and started softly combing it through my mane. - “Gabrielle! Are you awake?” Twilight called from the other side of the door. I involuntarily snorted as I lifted my head up. “I am now,” I said and let out a yawn. “Would you like some breakfast?” “Sure,” I said and let out another, bigger yawn. “Can I come in?” “Just a minute,” I said and started dislodging the brush from my mane as gently as I could. “Yeah, go ahead,” I said after I finished and pawed after my eyepatch on the bedside table. Twilight came in as I was attaching the same patch I had yesterday. I had removed it without untying it and strengthened the knot so that I could simply slip it on without fumbling so much with the strings. “Did you sleep well?” Twilight asked, sounding a bit nervous. “Mostly. I had a really strange dream;” I said and rubbed my eye. Eye boogers are kinda tricky to dislodge with a hoof. At least without magic finger fields. “Oh! Was it a nightmare?” she asked. “I wouldn’t call it that, no,” I said. “It was strange. Very dark, but not frightening. In fact, I think I liked it. The best I can describe it was that it felt like a black metal version of the Shoop Shoop Song.” “Is that, uh, human music?” Twilight asked. “Ah, yeah. I don’t… I guess it’s a bit hard to describe, I can’t really remember much, but I’ll try describing it and sending a note to Princess Luna.” “Yeah, she’ll want to hear this. Don’t worry, Gabrielle, she can figure this out,” Twilight said and held the wheelchair in place as I scooted into it. “Gabe. And I’m not,” I said. “It wasn’t scary, just really strange.” We made our way down the stairs, or I guess you could say that Twilight made our way down the stairs, and into the kitchen. “Morning, Spike,” I said to the dragon standing on a footstool, or "hoofstool", in front of a stove and acting pretty recklessly over a blue flame while preparing toast. At least I thought he was acting recklessly until he dipped his tail in the fire when he turned to face us and didn’t seem to notice. “Good morning,” he said. “How do you like your toast?” I was about to answer when I thought it might be best to wheel over and make sure that they weren’t made of grass. I took a look at them and figured that they looked like normal slices of bread. “Uh, medium, I guess,” I said and looked at his tail being caressed by blue flames. “Are you fireproof?” “Yup!” he said proudly. “So if you’re ever at a steel mill or an active volcano and drop something into the molten metal or rock, just ask me and I’ll get it for you.” “The likeliest of scenarios,” I commented dryly. “You never know,” he said jovially. “Anyway, they’re almost ready.” “Thanks. Where’s Owlowiscious?” I asked, looking around the room. “Oh, he’s in parliament,” Twilight answered. ‘Oho! I think I’m one step ahead of you there, Twilight.’ “Maybe they’re trying to decide what to do about all these murders,” I said and pointed out the window towards a house across the street. “Murders?” Twilight said and looked out the window in confusion. “Oh,” she said and let out a small laugh. “You got me, Gabrielle,” she said when she saw the crows loitering around on the roof. “Hmm, so is a group of alicorns still a blessing?” I asked. “What are you two talking about?” Spike asked. “Nouns,” Twilight said simply. “How’s breakfast coming along?” “Uh, it’s finished,” he said, gesturing towards the big tray of toast he was already holding in his claws. Spike set the tray on the table and we all started digging in. After putting butter on a slice, Spike sprinkled something from a salter on his. It was very fine but I instinctively had a feeling that it was pulverized sapphire. ‘Huh, magical talent making itself known again? Neat.’ “So what’s happening today?” I asked as I was preparing my own slice of toast. “I actually figured I’d let you decide,” Twilight said. “I’m free for most of the day if you want my help with anything.” “Okay, yeah. I guess there’s practicing magic and enchanting, familiarising myself with the town,” I said, my list of things to do already growing thin. “... Meet Armor’s uncle, perhaps, swat up for school.” “I guess you can make number three part of number two,” Twilight said. “You could get out and get to know some townsponies.” “Yeah, I guess,” I said a bit hesitantly. Twilight looked at me a bit plaintive. “We can go on a tour through the town and introduce you to some ponies. I think that might be for the best. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Even if you want to lock yourself away in here, I can’t stop you, but enough ponies saw you yesterday that I’m afraid the rumor mill might start moving if you do.” I nodded slowly at that. “Yeah, okay. By the way, I assume that defensive magic is for when I work up my magic capacity in general?” “Yeah, pretty much. You already have a pretty good amount of control over your magic, so now you just need to train your raw power.” “Hm, so is that gonna be like physical exercise? Just use it and get more?” “In a sense, yes,” Twilight said. “Some appropriate activities, taking care not to overdo it, getting proper rest, and so on. I was in the opposite situation once. I had a bit too much raw power for my control.” “Okay, so,” I started as I processed this information. “You improved your magic primarily by studying? And I should improve my magic primarily by exercising it?” “Yes, but studying too, of course.” “Of course,” I said. ‘Self defence while sitting still, and exercising while sitting still. I wonder if anyone tried selling those ridiculous electrification exercise belt things here.’ “Oh, hey, there’s Armor,” Twilight said and pointed out the window. True enough, there he was, walking towards the library with a posture that was just a little bit too rigid. “Good timing, too,” I said and swallowed down my last bit of toast. “Well, it seems I have things to do. How does my hair look?” “Mane, and maybe you should give it a quick brush,” Twilight said. “Okay, can you give me a hand with that?” “Hoof, and yeah, no problem. Would you like me to accompany you today?” “That… uh, yeah, that’d be great, thanks.” I managed to stay awake throughout the entire brushing-session, which was a bit of a relief. Armor had apparently decided to stand patiently, and very still, beside of the door to wait for us. “You know,” I said to him as me and Twilight exited the library. “It might be a good thing that not a lot actually hinges on your ability to blend in. Because you don’t look inconspicuous at all like that.” He sagged a bit and let out a sigh.. “Well, see it as a training exercise. Besides, no one is watching,” I said and gestured to the empty street. ‘Heh. I guess it was a slow day and the sun was beating on the soldier by the side of the road,’ I thought and let out a small internal sigh. ‘No one is gonna get my humor around here.’ “Anyway, good morning.” “Good morning, Gabrielle. Good morning, your highness,” he answered evenly. “Good morning. Would you like to come in?” Twilight said before turning to me. “I almost forgot, we should write to Luna about your dream, Gabrielle.” “Gabe. And yeah. Can you help me write? Last time I tried writing with my hoof I kept smearing the ink,” I said. “Of course. Now how did you describe it?” Twilight asked as she floated over a parchment and a quill towards us. A few minutes later I had learned new things about Equestria. It was a good thing that Twilight agreed to write the letter, or I might have shown a more impulsive anger rather than confusion when Spike seemingly incinerated the parchment. ‘Good thing I’m not a physicist. Teleportation would probably throw me for a somewhat larger loop than I could handle.’ “So what would you like to do first, Gabrielle?” Twilight asked as we made our way out the door. “Gabe. Uh, I don’t know. I have never gone out into a town with the stated purpose of getting to know people before.” “Well, how about we walk around town and see where it goes from there?” Twilight suggested. “You’re gonna be learning to, or, uh, well, the plan is that you’re going to regain your independence, so familiarising yourself with Ponyville seems like a good idea.” “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Where to first?” I asked as we made our way down the street, this time I used my own magic to wheel myself forward. “I think It’s high time we get our sofa back, and see if I know anypony with a folding bed. How was your night, Armor?” Twilight said. “It was… fine,” Armor said. “And uh, my uncle, Scrap, has one, and... I was thinking that uh, he works with the Royal Guard’s equipment, and he knows a bit about enchanting, perhaps he could help you, uh, hone your talents, Gabrielle?” “Oh. That sounds great, actually. Why didn’t you mention this before?” I asked. “Well, I wanted to talk to him about it first, and uh, warn you.” “Warn me?” I asked. “Yeah, Scrap is not… very couth,” he said hesitantly. Twilight looked surprised by this. “I’ve never met anypony around here called Scrap,” she said. “I’m not surprised, he’s not very social.” “Wait, sorry, hold up,” I interjected as my magic started feeling strained and my breathing became a bit heavier. “I think I’m running out of juice.” “Yes, rest frequently when training your magical capacity,” Twilight said and took the chair before Armor had a say. “Well, that’s a bit sad. I didn’t know the value of friendship until I moved here. Is he, uh, a recluse?” “I wouldn’t call him that, he just spends most of his days in his house, which, by the way, is right over there,” he said and pointed to the side where a modest cluster of houses formed… not quite an alley, but an out-of-the-way-area between a few houses with some discreet entrances between shrubberies and fences. “Well, why don’t we go and meet him?” Twilight asked happily. “I, uh, well alright,” Armor said. Two of the houses had conservatories in this little back area, though one looked like it had been converted into a workshop. From it, we could hear the muffled sound of metal being hammered on metal, which was strange as the windows were open. “Smells like someone’s soldering,” I said as Armor walked up to the door, knocked, opened, and stepped right in. “Scrap?” Armor called into the conservatory. “Hey, Stud. Back already?” A harsh but jovial-sounding voice said as the hammering stopped. “Yes, and I’ve brought guests. Esteemed guests,” Armor said pointedly. “Oh, how nice,” Scrap said and walked into view. “Well, come on in,” he said without looking at us. Scrap was a unicorn whose face was covered by a rag as he washed away grime and dirt from it. He was tall, and had a slender yet toned physique, but came across as a bit gangly to me. His mane, like mine, looked blasted back, possibly held there by a pair of goggles much like the ones Rainbow gave me (though with a loupe over one lens) resting above his horn, and he had a similar dull-grey coat like Studded, but with a tinge of red instead of purple-ish. He let out a few grunts and stretched his hind legs as he finished rubbing the rag against his face before turning to look at us. “Well, good morning to…” he said and stopped as he saw us. The room was quiet for a few moments as Scrap looked at me in surprise before getting a slight scowl, then he shook his head and turned to his nephew. “See now, Stud,” he said as he walked up towards us. “When I asked you about why you were here yesterday, you could have given me a little more to work with so that I didn’t look like some gawping idiot. I assume that you’re the reason he’s here?” he turned to me and finished. “Uh, yeah, he’s just gonna help while I’m getting used to all this,” I said. Scrap nodded, still with a slight scowl on his face, though I was starting to suspect that it was his default expression. “Right,” he said and held up his hoof. “Scrap Armor. Pleased to meet you.” “Gabrielle Desrochers,” I said and bumped his hoof. “Were you raised by gryphons?” he asked. “Uh, no,” I said. “Though I haven’t been in Equestria for long.” “Mm. And Princess Twilight,” he said and turned to the owner of the name with a bow. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.” “No we haven’t, despite almost being neighbors,” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, regardless, and please, you don’t have to bow.” “Likewise. That it’s a pleasure, I mean” Scrap said with another hoof bump and turned to me. “Sorry for staring. I figured out some reasons why Stud was here. But he didn’t tell me much about you.” “It’s okay,” I said with a sigh. “I have a feeling I ought to get used to that.” “Sadly, you’re probably right. You’d think that this town is interesting enough to not provoke stares because of this. But hey, I’m guilty, too,” he said and gave my right side another look. A thoughtful one this time. “Anyway,” he said and turned his attention to me and Twilight in general. “Come in, make yourself comfortable.” I looked around the workshop. A lot of stuff hung from the ceiling, were leaned against the wall, and stacked in racks, and a lot of it looked like the equipment, or pieces of equipment, that the guards in Canterlot had. There was also a forge in the corner, and interestingly, that didn’t seem to noticeably heat up the room we were in. “So, Mr Armor, what do you do?” Twilight asked. “Royal artificer, enchanter for the Guard. I was gonna say, ‘What’s mine is yours except for the things that belong to the crowns,’ but I’m not sure I can say that to you, your highness, so, you know, just make yourself at home,” Scrap said and shrugged. “Oh, that’s very generous of you, but I don’t want to impose,” Twilight said. “Well, I guess I won’t force you. That would be a strange form of hospitality,” Scrap said and shrugged again. “Anyway, what can I do for you?” he continued as he went back to his work with lightly hammering on what I think was one of those hoofgear that the royal guards wore. “Studded and Twilight were giving me a tour of Ponyville and we decided to visit,” I said. Studded was looking at his uncle with disapproval in his eyes. “And I was hoping that you could help Gabrielle.” Scrap stopped hammering and put his goggles down over his eyes and inspected the horse-shoe with the loupe as he hummed to himself. “Don’t know how,” he said after a while. “But it can be done, I know that much at least.” Studded frowned at him. “What?” “Prostheses,” Scrap said without looking up. “I’ve never made any. Don’t know anypony who have. But they have been made before. So there’s always that.” “I was thinking more of how both your sets of talents overlap a lot. Gabe’s talent is also in enchanting. And could you please show some more respect to a princess and an ambassador?” Scrap finally set the shoe down and raised his goggles before turning to us. “Right, sorry. I’ve never been very good at stuff like this, that’s why I turned down officer training.” “You were a guard?” Twilight asked. “Yup. Joined up out of tradition. Dad never thought my manners were appropriate, though, and I never liked it all that much. I still worked hard enough to become a sergeant and be offered officer training when I was younger than he was before resigning, just to mess with him. Anyway,” he said and turned to me specifically. “You’re an enchanter, then?” “Uh, well,” I started. “I was transformed into a pony a few days ago. So I’m new to cutie marks, enchanting, and magic, but as far as I can tell, yes I am.” “Right,” Scrap said and looked a bit at my cutie mark. Luckily, he looked away before I realized that perhaps I should feel uncomfortable by that. “Gems, huh? Not the same as metals, but not all that different, either. Yeah, I can try and teach you some stuff.” “Sounds dandy, but you look busy,” I said. Scrap shrugged. “Well, yeah, maybe,” he said. “But I’m the best pony at enchanting equipment in a pretty wide radius. So if you’re interested in that, I’m your stallion.” “So which enhancements do you perform?” Twilight, who was looking as fascinated as I felt, asked. “I’m qualified for all of them,” Scrap said and started lightly hammering on another piece of equipment. “The obvious is strengthening the armor, of course, but I also enhance any movement made with the equipment. Spears swing harder, shoes runs faster, that sort of things. I always had trouble with the uniform illusion, but that’s on these little necklace things so that’s not my job,” “Wow, that sounds impressive,” I said. “Thanks, and I’m actually holding back,” Scrap said. Studded rolled his eyes. “Because when you go all out, nopony can handle the equipment.” “Earth ponies can. That’s the dumb part about all this,” Scrap insisted, sounding a bit frustrated. “With accommodations for wings and horns, the standard equipment is already tribally adjusted. Earth ponies can handle way more potent enchantments, but they still have to make due with unitribally enchanted gear.” “Yeah, but it’s still a safety concern. If a pegasus would accidentally step into a sabaton enchanted for earth ponies, they could hurt themselves,” Studded said. “Mm, yeah,” Scrap said a bit glumly. “How so?” I asked. “Earth pony magic is spread, and is active, throughout their bodies and not concentrated into their horns or wings. This makes enchantments that improves physical performance work very well with them.” I was amazed by the utter lack of things like suspicion and dismissiveness the different tribes of ponies seemed to have against each other. It was deeply ingrained into the human mind to be suspicious of "the other". If this acceptance was biological, it was enviable. If it was cultural, it was humbling. “So are any of the tribes preferred as guards?” “Not really, no,” Scrap answered with a shrug. As he kept working and inspecting the pieces I got some insight into Equestrian martial paradigms. “Everypony’s useful,” he said. “It might seem like pegasi and unicorns would have some advantages, but you’ve learned that that’s not the case long before you’re done with even basic training. Actual combat would of course rarely be this simple, but the general wisdom is that if you don’t consider environmental factors and stuff like that, a pegasus has advantages over an earth pony, a unicorn has advantages over a pegasus, and an earth pony has advantages over a unicorn.” “So it’s like rock paper scissors?” I asked. Scrap just blinked at me. “Like what?” I glanced down at my hoof and saw nothing that could imitate a pair of scissors. “Uh, never mind.” Scrap shrugged again and rummaged around the glowing coals for what looked like spearheads. “So, you’ve been through stuff, Gabrielle,” he said as he was inspecting the things in the forge. “And you think I can help.” “Actually, I said that I was hoping you could help,” Studded said. “Oh, right,” Scrap said. “Well, I’m guessing you’re thinking about making some replacement limbs?” “That is possible, right?” Twilight asked eagerly. “I’ve only done some light research into it, but there are clearly accounts of ponies in the past having artificial replacements.” “That’s right,” Scarp said. “And I don’t know how they were made. And I very much doubt that anypony I know knows either. But it’s been done before, so I’m guessing it would be possible to do again.” “Are you willing to help?” Twilight asked. “Can’t guarantee anything, but if you want me to, I will. Help, I mean,” Scrap said and turned to me. I felt some joy at that, but my curiosity was a bit stronger at the moment. “Just like that?” I asked “Why not?” he asked. “I’m an enchanter. It’s what I do, I like it. I’m also working for the crowns, so with you being an ambassador, I can even treat it like a job and the money would come from Canterlot.” “Uh, I…” I started, feeling that this talk was moving a bit quickly for me. “It’s fine, Gabrielle,” Twilight said. “Don’t worry about money.” “Well, I feel a bit hesitant to do so when I don’t know what I’m asking for.” “A commision of a project from one craftspony. Skilled, but still just me. It’s not gonna bankrupt the nation,” Scrap said. “Speaking of which, who do you represent, anyway?” “Well,” I said and tried not to sound so awkward. “I don’t really represent anyone so much as just being the only authority on my homeworld.” This caught Scrap’s attention. “Homeworld? Interesting.” “Yes,” I said. “No magical ponies where I came from.” Scrap inspected me again. “So this is permanent? You being transformed into a pony?” “So I’m told.” “I see. That would explain why they’d make you an ambassador despite being a filly,” Scrap said. ‘By “they” I assume that he means the princesses… I wonder what people here say instead of “sticking it to the Man”. “Sticking it to the Mare”, perhaps? But if there are no fingers… “Clopping it to the Mare”? Oh, whatever.’ “And I’m formerly an adult,” I said. “Ah,” Scrap said and started tinkering again. “Makes sense.” This seemed like all the explanation he needed. I noticed that Studded’s tension seemed to dissipate as the conversation went on. ‘Yeah, Scrap didn’t seem to have much of a silver tongue, but there aren’t any diplomats here… No, wait. Anyway, he seems like a decent guy.’ “Well, look at that,” Twilight said after a moment of silence. “Now I’ve met neighbors I didn’t even know I had.” “You’ve seen me around, you just never realised I live right here,” Armor said. “I was just a bit surprised,” Twilight said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the castle and around officers, I just figured I might have heard about you.” “Well I’m not all that special. There are more ponies than me who can do this,” Scrap said. “But there seems to be mostly earth ponies in Ponyville, so an enchanter might be rare,” I said. Scrap looked up at me with a curious expression for a few seconds. “Oh!” he said after a while. “You think that only unicorns can do this. No, earth ponies and pegasi can do this as well. Earth ponies can use their hooves to influence things magically and pegasi can use their wings. Unicorns have a few advantages, like being able to enchant molten iron with little fuss, but not much more than that.” “With little fuss?” Twilight asked. “Well, there’s a forge in this room and it’s still a pretty comfortable temperature in here,” Scrap said. “That’s my enchantment, and with a little work, you can make protective gear that keeps you cool when rifling through hot coals or picking up glowing ingots.” “This is fascinating,” Twilight said. “Perhaps I can come by as well?” “Sure,” Scrap said and turned to his nephew. “Speaking of who’s going to be where, I dug up the folding bed. It’s in there,” he said and gestured towards the house. “Thanks,” Studded said, the tension having left his voice by now. “Yeah. Grab it now or come by whenever,” Scrap said. “I might take it now. Unless you two would like to stay?” he said and turned to me. I did that “don’t ask me” shrug/shiver thing and said, “Well… what do I say to not be rude here? I don’t wanna impose and I also don’t wanna say ‘teach me your trade secrets. Good? Okay, bye!’” The three fully grown ponies looked at me in surprise before Scrap burst out laughing. “Yeah, I get what’cha mean, kid. How about this: it was nice meeting you but right now I have some work to do, so swing by some time and I’ll teach you and Princess Twilight what I know, okay?” he asked and extended his hoof towards me. “Okay, I can work with that,” I said and bumped it. - “You were tense back there, and then you calmed down. And now you’re tense again,” I said as we made our way back across the street. “I’m not supposed to be getting help moving stuff from royalty,” Armor whined. “It’s not proper.” “In Canterlot, perhaps,” Twilight said while effortlessly levitating the folded cot in her field of magic. “I never ask ponies to treat me differently because I’m a princess.” “But these are all your neighbors, your highness. They—” Armor started before realizing he was objecting against a princess. “As you say, your highness,” he said and tipped his head. Twilight looked slightly flustered at that, but then she giggled instead. “Well, if it’ll help any, I think I need someone to push me again,” I said as I once again felt my magic draining again. “Of course,” he said relieved as I looked at the distance I made it myself. ‘Oooohohoho! That’s almost three body lengths further! I think.’ “Why were you tense the first time?” Twilight asked. Armor looked a bit awkward before answering. “Well, you heard him. He’s not good at proper conduct,” Armor said. “I’m not comfortable with introducing a princess and an ambassador to somepony that.... nonchalant about station.” “Well, he was a bit casual, but I thought he was nice enough. How about you, Gabrielle?” “Gabe. And I thought he was fine. What, don’t you get along with him?” I asked Armor. “We get along just fine,” Armor assured us. “He gets along with just about everypony. But I still think he needs to treat ponies of standing a bit more appropriately.” “Well Twilight is kinda casual about standing herself, and it’s really new to me, so I’m fine with it,” I said as we entered Golden Oaks. “By the way, Twilight, notice how I’ve said ‘Gabe’ like a dozen times now?” “Uh, no?” Twilight said. “Well, I have. Either you haven’t noticed or you’ve been distracted by the current subject matter. Anyway, you’re free to use my nickname if you want. Just thought I’d point that out clearly,” I said. “Oh!” Twilight said and put down the cot before turning to me. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t notice and- oh that’s not very nice, is it? I’m sorry, Gabrielle, I didn’t ignore you. Do, uh, do you have any preference?” I raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly at her. “I just said that you’re free to use it if you want to. It’s not such a pet name that it’s inappropriate” “Oh, uh, yeah, you did. Okay… Gabe,” Twilight said, blushing a bit. “Same for you, Armor,” I said, trying to sound as laid-back as possible. “Uh, of course. Unless the situation doesn’t call for nicknames,” he said. “Sounds good,” I said as Twilight put the bed down by the stairs leading up to the rooms.. “Anyway, what’s next?” “Same as before?” Twilight asked. “Go out and learn about the town?” “Alright,” I said. I tried another round at wheeling myself down the street but it seems it was a bit early since the last round, and Armor took over. “So, humans don’t eat hay, but they eat the grains?” Armor asked. This time, we were making our way down a street with a lot more townsponies, who stopped to look at us, specifically me. There weren’t a lot, though, so I just concentrated on our conversation. “Yeah, or cultivated ones, at least. I assume you have cultivated crops here, too, judging by all the bread I’ve been eating,” I said. “Of course,” Twilight said. “Is it the same with meat?” Armor asked. “Or do you, or, humans, eat whole, uh… victims?” “First of all, I’d like to point out that you’re getting into the swing of things with acting casual, Armor,” I said. “Secondly, I would like to point out that there are laws concerning how you treat livestock, and poorly treated livestock supposedly taste bad. Thirdly, no, we don’t eat everything from livestock. Hides, for example, is better used elsewhere than in your stomach.” “Like where?” Armor asked hesitantly. “Clothing, especially protective clothing, upholstery, instrument-parts, belts, wallets, saddles… restraints,” I listed off before looking back at Armor and Twilight. Both looking a bit queasy. I decided it would be best to get other obviously disgusting parts out of the way. “And then, of course, there are lots of technically edible parts of an animals that doesn’t have a pleasant consistency, like livers, for example. But you can get around that by mincing them into a paste, then baking that and putting it on your sandwich.” Both Armor and Twilight stopped and held up hooves to stop me from talking. “Ugh. I don’t think even our medic could stand to hear this, and he’s trained to patch up mangled ponies,” Armor said as he held his forehoof to his stomach. I looked around, but no one else seems to have been listening into that part of the conversation. “I didn’t think it would be that difficult to hear,” I said. “Gryphons eat meat, don’t they?” Twilight took a few deep breaths before answering. “Yeah, but they often use a substitute. Hunting is highly regulated in gryphon territories and they often only hunt to compare their substitute to the real thing. They also eat a lot of fish.” “Yeah, that was pretty impressive stuff we got back in Canterlot,” I said. “I wonder if we could get some down here. I haven’t had a proper burger in a while, and if that’s not real meat then I might not have to worry about my normal problem when making them.” “What problem?” Armor hesitantly asked “I use a mix of minced pork and beef when making burgers, that’s pig and cow by the way, but they always end up with too much fat in them when they’re ready, which means you have to hurry up and eat them before they cool down too much. Because they’re not as good when all that fat congeals,” I said. This proved to be too much for Armor who darted off to a shrub and emptied his stomach behind it. I wheeled up to him with Twilight slowly following behind. “Sorry, Armor. I guess I owe you a meal now,” I said. Armor took a few deep breaths before answering. “Hah. Don’t worry, Gabe. I was the one who asked you about it,” he said, a bit feebly. “That’s just as well,” I said, scratching my head a bit awkwardly. “I don’t have any actual money of my own, and it’s a pretty weak gesture if someone else pays for it.” Ponies were now slowing down to look at us so I decided to dial down the intensity of the lecture. Armor laughed weakly between pants and I looked at Twilight instead. “You too, Twilight. Sorry if I made you feel sick.” Twilight waved it off, too, not looking entirely at ease but not looking like she was about to heave, either. “Earth pony resilience, don’t worry about me,” she said. Armor eventually calmed down and straightened up, a bit less alert than before. “Well. That was educational,” he said. “No offence, Gabe, but I’m happy I don’t have meat in my diet. I don’t think I could stand it.” I shrugged. “None taken,” I said. “I worked in a hospital, eating plants or eating creatures, neither holds a candle to what happens afterwards.” Armor gave me a deadpan look. “Hey, it’s the truth and it helps put things in perspective. When you see or hear something disgusting, in the end, it’s just chemistry. Just like what goes on inside of people,” I said before giving the pizza he planted on the ground an uneasy look. I definitely cost him his breakfast. “So, uh, you wanna get some replacement for that or is it a bit early?” “Well, a flower mix-sandwich would be pretty nice, but not yet,” he said. “Alright. I’m not sick at the thought, but I’m skeptical about eating flowers and hay,” I said. “Have you tried it?” Twilight asked. “I ran around and played, and occasionally face planted in the grass like everyone else, when I was a kid. I have vague memories of how grass taste, at least,” I said with a shrug. “But it’s not dangerous for humans to eat, right?” “Grass isn’t. Unless in large amounts, I guess. Some flowers are,” I said. “Actually, quite a few are. You’re not gonna convince me to eat a belladonna or something like that.” “Of course. Well, I have an idea,” Twilight said. “We could go to the market and I can give you some bits, and then you go and buy some flowers that you know you can eat and give them a try. And try talking to the ponies at the stands.” “Alright,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. ‘Well, people are still staring, but actually meeting people have been working out really good so far. Alright, I’m game.’ “So where’s the market?” I don’t think the attention we received upon arriving at the market constituted as "creating a scene," but it felt like it. The activity among the colorful tents and stands didn’t cease as we drew near, but there were still a lot of hushed voices and stares, with some ponies abashedly looking away when my sweeping look passed over them, others not. I’m not sure why I was expecting a disorganised, messy flea market, but for some reason I did. Ponyville’s market wasn’t that, though. It had all manners of things, of course, but it wasn’t a mess, and actually would have been inviting if it wasn’t for the stares. I had learned from the talk with the princesses that Equestria had an abundance of food, but it was another thing to actually see it. Food was everywhere, and lot’s of it. High quality too, it seemed. It was kinda neat to see good and appetizing food outside of the sterile supermarkets and convenience stores I was used to seeing it in. It was quaint, but in a good way. “Okay,” Twilight said and pointed towards a trio of mares that was having what looked like an interesting discussion, though not about me since they hadn’t turned to look at us yet. “There are some really good flowers over there. Why don’t you go over there and get some? And try talking to them.” Twilight floated a bag of golden coins into my lap. I say "golden" because I could tell from the weight that they were not actually gold. If they were, they would probably have weighed more than me. “Don’t worry, Gabe,” Armor, whose stomach had almost stopped gurgling, said. “I’m staying close by.” “Alright,” I said and started wheeling myself forward, feeling ready for the distance to the stand and back. “Good morning,” I said and caught the attention of the trio. “How’s business today?” The trio’s eyes went wide as dumpster lids as they looked me over, then they froze up completely. “Not… warranting commentary then?” I ventured. “That’s good, I guess. So how about some flowers?” There was no reaction. “Not for you, of course,” I said. “From you, to me, in exchange for currency. You know, commerce?” The trio didn’t even blink, which was starting to worry me. “Perhaps introductions are in order?” I said. “My name’s Gabrielle Desrocher. Recently arrived in Equestria.” I extended my hoof at them, but still no reaction. “Okay then, we can do that some other time,” I said. “Don’t worry, I could serve myself if you’re not feeling up for it. Do you have a price list? Wait, I see it.” I wheeled up to the stand and inspected the sheet at the side. The trio’s gaze followed me like haunted paintings. It would have been unnerving if it wasn’t for all the other ponies milling about around us. ‘Well, at least they can function that much.’ I was struggling to remember which flowers are safe for humans to digest and which aren’t. After a while I settled on safe bets that I could remember, a rose and a violet, and placed the bits on the cart before wheeling back to the front of the mares. “Okay, I’ve put the bits on the cart. I get wares, you get money, just like it’s supposed to work. Don’t worry about a receipt as far as I’m concerned, I don’t see anything wrong with these,” I said, exhausting every avenue I could think of that could start a conversation, but to no avail. “Well, nice doing business with you,” I said and gave one more moment before heading back. “Okay, byebye.” I wheeled back to Twilight and Armor who waited for me in the same place as before. “So how did it go?” Twilight asked cautiously. “I thought you saw from here,” I said. “There was an exchange of resources, but no so much with pleasantries. Anyway, can we move away from here? I can still feel their gaze in my neck.” “Uh, sure,” Twilight said. “Alright, here goes,” I said as we slowly moved on and pulled a few petals of the violet with my lips and started chewing. “Well, how is it?” Twilight said. “Hmm, it kinda does nothing for me,” I said and tried a few rose petals instead, which had a little taste, but not much. “Yeah, I don’t think this is my kind of food,” I said after I tried a few pieces of the stems. “I can take those if you don’t want them,” Armor said. “Go ahead,” I said and hoofed them over my shoulder to him, where they promptly vanished, reminding me that he was still a breakfast short. “By the way, Twilight, I’ve been thinking.” “About what?” she asked. “I pick up a lot of sounds,” I said. “More than I’m used to. My hearing was always fairly sharp, but do you think that these ears make it even more sensitive?” “Uh, that’s very possible,” she said. “How so? Do you hear anything?” “I hear lot’s of things, but I can’t make anything specific out right now, there’s too much din around us,” I said. “It would make sense. If you’re adjusted to human ears, getting a pony’s larger ones would make your hearing more sensitive,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “I noticed my hearing was a bit different when I was a human, but I guess I chalked it all up to my ears being immobile.” “Good to hear, “ I said. “I just wanted to make sure that everything is as it’s supposed to be.” “We could schedule an appointment to test it,” Twilight suggested. “Sure, if you’re curious,” I shrugged. “Anyway, judging how fast Armor butchered those flowers, perhaps it’s time for lunch?” “Uh, you may be right,” Twilight said and looked at a slightly sheepish-looking Armor. - We sat in the patio section of a restaurant. The waiter seemed a bit foppish, but at least he only stared at me for a very short moment before acting professionally again. The same couldn’t be said about the duo of mares sitting at another table a little way away. The beige earth pony was sitting in the usual way with folded legs on the cushion by their table while the mint green unicorn was sitting more like a human. “So, is there any place around here that caters to omnivores?” I asked as I inspected the menu, ignoring the two mares. “I’m not sure,” Twilight said. “But you don’t need to eat meat, do you? I can’t remember eating any meat when I was a human.” “Technically no,” I said. “Humans need a lot of different nutrients to stay healthy, but it doesn’t have to come from meat. Also, even if you stuck to vegetarian foods, it would take a lot more than a few days before the lack of things found in meat starts taking their toll on humans.” “Oh, so more like gryphons again. The things they need from meat is available in their substitute,” Twilight said. “I could actually try and get some ordered.” “That’s an offer I won't hesitate to accept,” I said. “No offence to ponies’ culinary ways, but it feels like I’ve been living on breakfast and snacks.” “How so?” Twilight asked. “Bread, pastries, fruits, and milk is all fine and well, but I, and humans in general I guess, want to top of the day with a hearty and warm meal. Meat is almost always supposed to be eaten warm, ergo, it makes sense to have that as a centerpiece in a dinner,” I said. “Oh. Okay, that makes sense,” Twilight said. “Yeah, stable eating habits are calming, I guess. So if you wanna get some meat-like foodstuffs over here, go ahead.” “Well, how about some pie for now?” Twilight asked. “That’s something you can eat warm.” “Hm, good idea,” I said and flipped over to the different pies on offer. “Mmm,” Twilight whined after a while. “I should’ve decided beforehoof, I can’t decide when I’m hungry. What are you having, Armor?” “I was thinking of a Club Sandwich,” he said. ‘Club Sandwich, eh? What’s on it?’ I thought as I flipped back through the menu. ‘Clovers?... “Club” Sandwich?… Ugh, someone needs to get hurt for that.’ “Maybe I should have one as well,” Twilight said. “I don’t suppose you think I could order one with bacon?” I asked. “What’s bacon?” Twilight asked. “It’s, ah, cured strips of pig—” I started before catching sight of Armor’s expression. “... It’s meat,” I simply concluded. “Oh. Then, no,” Twilight said. The conversation tapered off just in time for the waiter to come by and take our orders. “So, I’ve been thinking,” I started after the waiter had gone. “What about?” Twilight asked. “Well, I’m pretty sure I saw leather straps holding the guards’ armor together back in Canterlot,” I said. “But you two still seemed pretty disgusted by the whole concept.” “Leather? As in hides?” Armor asked. “Yes.” “Uh, no. We don’t have that,” Armor said a bit distractedly with a hard look at something behind me. I shrugged. “Hm, okay then. Must’ve just looked like it,” I said before noticing what he was looking at. The two mares had approached us, me specifically, with the unicorn standing with a huge grin in front of the somewhat more reluctant-looking earth pony. “Uh, hey,” I said neutrally with ears at half-mast, worried that saying anything else would make me sound snappy. I had been stared at for a while and my patience with gawkers was running thin. “Hey!” the unicorn answered. “I was wondering how long you’ve been two-legged,” she asked unabashedly. I couldn’t quite hold back a snort, but I did manage to keep it small. ‘If you only knew.’ “Long enough,” I muttered. “So you must’ve learned that hoof trick when you only had two legs,” she said. “Hoof trick?” I asked. ‘This is one forward pony.’ “Yeah,” she said. “You know, how you form your field like that.” “Uh,” I started before the earth pony stepped forward. “Please excuse her,” she said as she nervously pawed at the ground. “It’s just that I showed her some tricks with manipulation fields a while back and ever since then she’s been obsessed with it. She even practises her rear ones to help her walk on only her hind legs when we’re home.” “Uh,” I started again. There were countless things I could say to that, but nothing seemed like an obvious choice. I decided to go for, “What are you saying?” aimed at the unicorn. “Bon Bon said that the way you were flipping through the pages of the menu was almost impossible!” the unicorn gushed, and the earth pony’s gaze shifted to the ground. “And she was right! You were holding up three separate pages!” Armor had shifted his tension from his wings and hooves to his face. I, on the other hand, convinced myself that this was at least a variation from the silent staring. Maybe not a good one, but perhaps shorter lived. “Perhaps introductions are in order?” Twilight asked pointedly. “Oh, right! Sorry, Twilight. I’m Lyra Heartstrings, and this is Bon Bon. Nice to meet you,” the unicorn said, still smiling. “I’m stable and she’s eccentric,” Bon-Bon shot in while looking sideways at her friend. There was another round of hoof bumps and by now I had started noticing that magical pony hooves had so far never been very dirty. “Well, I’m Gabrielle, pleased to meet you,” I said in a reserved voice, and decided to gesture towards Armor and let him introduce himself rather than do it for him. “Armor,” he simply said and dipped his head while keeping his gaze on Lyra. “Wow! ‘Gabb-ree-elle’?” Lyra asked. “What a strange name. Did your parents really name you that? Are you a foreigner? Is that like some secret art where you come from? Were you born like that? Can you show us? Can everypony do that over there?” “Uh… yes, sort of, I wouldn’t call it that, no, I don’t know, and yes, in a sense,” I answered neutrally. This seemed to derail her a bit, which I found a bit comical. “What?” she asked, one of her eyebrows emphasizing her innocently confused eyes “I was answering your questions,” I said. “Oh, okay. I didn’t catch all that, but can you show me how to do that trick you do with your hoof?” she asked, instantly back to her previous self. “I don’t know, maybe,” I said with a shrug, looking at the enthusiastic face in front of me. Considering the last barrage of questions I received, I did not feel like clarifying why I have fingers and where I’m from. “It just comes naturally to me.” “So that should mean that you can,” Lyra said. “Can you teach me?” “Uh,” I said, quickly closing my mouth before they noticed my teeth. “Lyra, we’re about to have lunch,” Twilight interjected with only the slightest amount of edge in her voice. “And if I can be so blunt, that question might be better saved for another time.” “Oh, sure. Right. Well, perhaps another time,” Lyra said. “Okay?” “Okay,” I conceded in a not-very-committed tone. “Yeah, it was nice meeting you,” Bon Bon said and put her foreleg around Lyra’s barrel and started leading her away. “See you guys later.” “See you later,” Lyra said enthusiastically as they left the restaurant. After we watched them make their exit, I turned to Twilight. “Things are not going swimmingly today,” I commented. Twilight’s ears folded. “Yeah, I hope you’re not disappointed,” she said. “A little, perhaps,” I said. “I was hoping things would go better,” she said. “Yesterday seemed to go so well.” “Yeah, it did,” I said, thinking back to how fun even the cutie mark crusaders were. After a pause, Twilight asked, “do you wanna call it a day?” I thought about this for a moment. “Maybe. Any other place you could think of visiting?” I asked. “Well, yes,” Twilight said and her ears perked up. “I can show you where the girls live. We could also swing by the hospital and do some tests about your hearing and things like that.” “Okay,” I said with a smile, thinking that at least Twilight’s friends and Redheart would be nice to see. “By the way, can I show people how to use fingers, so to speak?” “I think you could,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “With enough practice, you can alter your manipulation field in almost any way. I was never very good with it, though. I always used magic, and before I learned magic I liked using my mouth.” Stopping myself from seeing something inappropriate in that last part, and realizing that one can spend too much time on the internet, I simply said, “I suppose earth ponies and pegasi tend to be better at using their hooves.” “Often, yes, but not necessarily,” Twilight said. “Rarity is pretty good. Pinkie Pie is almost disturbingly good, of course.” “Of course,” I said, nodding in agreement. Lunch arrived right about then, and the conversation slowed down as we ate. Which I didn’t mind as I savored the feeling of filling my stomach with something warm. It was a really good pie. “Can you hurt your manipulation field?” I asked. “Uh, well, it’s magic, so things that damage magic can damage it,” Twilight said. “Which is rare, by the way, but trying to physically hurt it just disperses it.” “What happens when it disperses, then?” I asked. “Nothing, it just reforms when you want it to,” Twilight said with a shrug. I hmmed and looked at my hoof. Chewing a piece of pie as I contemplated an experiment. “I can feel things with it, kind of, at least,” I said. “Can it feel pain?” “Yeah, by something that would damage magic,” Twilight said. “So if I was to try and twist it in a shape it won’t bend, nothing would really happen?” I asked. “It, well, there is no way it won’t bend,” Twilight said. “So no.” As I chewed my food, I projected myself into my horn. I folded in all my fingers except my pinky finger and put my hoof against the table, then I rolled my hoof against my pinky, bending it in what if I was a human would be ninety degrees too far in the wrong way. I let out a startled giggle as I felt an intense tickling sensation. “That was weird,” I said. “What was?” Armor asked, sounding a bit alarmed. “I just tried something that would’ve hurt a lot if I was a human,” I said and saw his worried face. “Don’t look so worried, I’m fine,” I said and inspected my alarmingly bent finger. Beyond the angle there was of course nothing to indicate that it was damaged in any way. No swelling, no bruising, and no pain. “You can see me?” he said. Just like last time, I realized that I had my eye closed. “Uh, yeah. Heh, Redheart asked that exact same question once.” I looked at my pinky again and willed it back in position. It took a little time before it responded and I figured that it was because it was in a position it had never been in before, luckily. I curled my fingers up again and put my hoof down on the table. The fingers smoothly went up into my frog and seemingly simply joined the rest of the magic that coursed through me. ‘Okay, I guess that explains why I didn’t trip over them the few times I’ve stood up.’ “Very educational day, today,” I said. “That’s always something,” Twilight said sympathetically. “Yeah, can you guys show me your fields?” I asked. “How about you do it, Armor?” Twilight asked. “I’m pretty sure that you’re better than me.” “Uh, okay,” Armor said. “What do I do?” “Just use your hooves to grab your sandwich,” I said. I inspected Armor’s manipulation fields as we ate, they were more like single, prehensile tendrils coming out of his hooves. I willed out my own field and at the first try managed to reform the fingers into similar tendrils. “Uh, Gabe?” Armor asked in a worried voice after I had tried wrapping my tendrils like ropes around the fork and taken a bite, then reformed them into fingers. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I de-projected myself from my horn and looked at Armor’s worried face. “Uh, yeah. It’s a bit disorienting, but in some ways I can see better with my horn than my eye,” I said. “Which is comforting when you’re using your spare.” “She’s sensing magic around her,” Twilight clarified. “Oh,” Armor said, his eyes widening slightly in realization. “I know about that, this guy back in my unit got training for special assignments because he could do that. I remember he did target practice with his eyes closed, to show off.” I felt like scoffing until I realized that that could be a very good advantage for military people. “Is that smart?” I asked. “If it’s a subtle ability, wouldn’t it be, uh, prudent to keep a potential advantage like that secret?” Armor shrugged. “Well, yeah, but he just showed off to the rest of the unit, and we all knew about it. And I thought it was cool.” I just conceded with a shrug of my own before projecting myself into my horn again. “Okay, now eat your sandwich,” I commanded and he picked it up again. Armor’s manipulation fields were a bit like prehensile, chubby mittens, enough to manipulate a spear, but not enough to do any fancy one-hoofed spins like a kung fu master in the movies. “The manipulation fields are pretty wide when held close to the hoof, and we use that to hold our shoes in place when we’re using them,” Twilight said. “I guess this hasn’t come up yet, but if you’ve been walking around outside, it’s considered good manners to push away any dirt you have on your hooves before entering somepony’s home.” “You wear shoes? Like horseshoes?” I asked. “Yes, though you won’t see many ponies here in town with shoes. They’re mostly for when you’re traveling,” Twilight said. “Okay, and what’s that thing with pushing away dirt?” “Oh, you just extend your field out from your hoof and you push away any dirt that’s been caked there,” Twilight said. “Huh,” I said and gave it a try with some crumbs from my pie. “Neat.” “You should still wash regularly, though,” Twilight said. “Yeah, I’m all about the hygiene. Remember, I worked in a hospital,” I said and thought some more as I slowly chewed the last few pieces of my lunch. “So, this whole thing with manipulation fields is magic, right?” “Of course,” Twilight said and nodded. I decided to deproject myself, thinking it might be a bit disconcerting to have a conversation with someone who’s seemingly lost in thought with their eyes closed. “So why can I only wheel myself across the street before needing a break, while I can wave this thing around for ages without feeling anything?” “Probably because your magical energy recovers faster than your manipulation fields spend it,” Twilight said, looking thoughtful. “Which implies that your control over it is absolutely incredible.” “Really?” I said, my eye widening a bit. “I would think so,” Twilight said. “It makes sense to me. You can spend your life studying magic, fingers must be another field like that.” “Uh,” I said, looking a bit skeptical. “Well, I guess sleight-of-hand tricks would seem pretty impressive to people with hooves, but I’m not sure a lot of people study hands all that much,” I said before realizing how dismissive that would sound of people I’ve worked with. “Except orthopedic specialists, of course,” I quickly conceded. “Maybe not, but remember that humans use their hands for pretty much everything, they practice endlessly. Believe me, fingers aren’t easy to learn how to use well. I had to write with my mouth when I was a human.” ‘Okay, I guess I have had a lot of practice compared to ponies, a third of which don’t need to use their equivalent for hands and the rest using their mouths or wings half the time.’ “I would like to see that, actually;” I said. “I can show you, back at the library,” Twilight said with a smile. “Anyway, have you both finished? I’ve got the bill.” - So we eventually found ourselves in Rarity’s "Carousel Boutique", after a visit to the hospital. It couldn’t have been an all that busy hospital, because after we explained the reason for our visit at the front desk, we waited for about a minute before Redheart came by and wheeled me away for some tests. I was relieved about that, because testing my digestive tract naturally meant doing something that Redheart had already seen me do and which I would like to keep as few people as possible involved with– collecting a stool sample. And it turned out that yes, my hearing is very sharp, and for entirely mundane reasons. Sort of, at least. It was just their physical shape that was behind it. It should’ve gone without saying, I guess. It was like I suddenly had ear trumpets permanently attached to me. Fuzzy, adorable ones that I could do the wave with. “I must admit that I am a little disappointed in Ponyville,” Rarity said while holding up different fabrics against my coat with scrutinizing expression behind a pair of glasses, after Twilight had described the day as it had been progressing earlier. “Well, to be fair it was the same in Canterlot,” I said. Rarity looked up at me in with a surprised look. “You noticed that?” “Uh, yes?” I said, confused. “When we were making our way back to Ponyville,” Twilight clarified. “Oh, of course,” Rarity said and eyed her work again. “Canterlot is a very tolerant city in many ways, with many movements, a lot of artistry, and a lot of acceptance of the unusual, but some things do catch ponies’ eyes,” she continued and suddenly looked up in my eye again with folded ears. “I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t mean anything by ‘unusual’.” I tried not being affected, but like when I met Redheart earlier, I couldn’t help but savor someone finally being socially conscious after the market. “It’s fine,” I said with a smile that probably seemed a little bit too relieved. Rarity gave me a relieved look in turn before continuing. “And I know how you’re an adult human, Gabrielle, but to us you look like a foal. Any pony with your… distinctive features would be the target of a lot of attention, and it’s worse on a foal. Much worse.” I leaned back in my chair and let out a small sigh. “One of the strange things about all this is that I agree,” I said and noticed everyone’s alarmed expression. “In a way, I mean,” I said and gestured down at me. “To me, I am very strange right now. Not for the same reasons as ponies think, but still.” I took stock of the day and decided to drop the facade. I let out a sigh and deflated a bit. “I don’t like sitting around and feeling sorry for myself. More than a little bit here and there, at least, but today’s been a bit of a disappointment,” I said and absently studied Rarity’s carpet. Rarity looked at me above the rim of her glasses with sympathy in her eyes.. “Yes, it’s difficult to be judged by strangers who don’t understand you,” she said. “But the strange and shocking often becomes accepted and ordinary sooner than one might think.” I figured that she was probably right, but that didn’t make me feel better right at that moment. Like a child, I just wanted to just… not exactly hate everything around me, but perhaps wallow in my poutiness, at least for a while. I knew it was childish, though, but one of the few comforts was that I could act, or refuse to act on my childish desires. The knowledge that losing my adult form didn’t strip me of my ability to detect these childish impulses and deny them helped too. “I don’t wanna lament. Or rather, I don’t want to want to lament, but right now I just feel like leaving Ponyville alone,” I said. “You want to go back to Canterlot?” Twilight asked with droopy ears. “No, but I also don’t wanna go where I’m not welcome,” I said. “But… the ponies of Ponyville are wonderful when you get to know them,” Twilight protested, clearly not wanting to argue too firmly. “Yeah, I’m sure,” I said and looked firmly at Twilight. “I’m not gonna give up because of this, but… ah, look, right now I’m feeling really pouty, and that’s not something that’s easy to deal with even when you don’t suddenly find yourself in the body of a child. I’m not thinking that the ponies of Ponyville can… go buck themselves. But at the same time,” I said and looked away in slight shame. “I kinda do.” The three grown ponies looked both relieved and disheartened, with Twilight showing it the most and Armor the least. “I understand,” Twilight said. “We’ll think of something.” “Thanks. Now, I don’t know about ponies, but for a human, telling people that you’re sulky isn’t easy even for an adult, especially when you are, so let’s drop this, please.” “Of course,” Rarity said and went back to work. “You’ve made an admirable attempt today. Just relax for now, and try again another time.” I let out a small sigh. “Yeah,” I simply said, perhaps a bit noncommittally. “Don’t worry, dear. You get along just fine with us and Redheart, don’t you? And Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and my sister liked you quite a bit.” “Yeah,” I said with a bit more life in my voice. But I couldn’t bring myself to continue with, "I liked them, too". “So don’t worry yourself any more today, Gabe”— I had decided to extend the nickname-invitation to everyone I knew so far, and get it over with —“I have a feeling that tomorrow will be much better.,” she said, with a touch of slyness in her voice. That wasn’t very subtle of her, but she seemed to find such joy in giving, and I decided to humor her. ‘Also, there was the thing with her generosity marking her as a bearer of a nigh all-powerful magical artefact. What if the fate of the world relied on her being able to give things to those around her? Best not denying gifts if it could mean unraveling the fabrics of reality or something.’ “Right,” I just said and kept my smirk small. “So tell me about our favorite trooper’s uncle, instead,” Rarity said. “It seems to have been a much more productive meeting.” “You could say that,” I said. “He enchants metal instead of gems, but he still says he can try and help out.” “Really?” Rarity said and walked over to a desk and jotted down some notes. “Yup, I guess he’s gonna be both mine and Twilight’s sensei,” I said. “Oh?” Rarity said and turned to Twilight. “I didn’t figure that there would be much about magic for you to learn in little Ponyville, Twilight.” Twilight just smiled at that. “I’ve found that there’re things to learn just about everywhere,” she said. “And I’ve never learned from a dedicated enchanter before.” “So how does he plan on helping?” “Well, he more or less confirmed that prostheses can be created through enchanting, and while he doesn't know how, with his help we should be able to figure it out much sooner,” Twilight said. Rarity seemed lost in thoughts for a moment after that before turning to me. “Gabe, dear, I hope I won’t offend when I say this, but, well, when we visited the Crystal Empire, we temporarily took on a crystalline appearance, and if you make enchanted replacements for…” she said before tapering off with her ears drooping. “My right legs,” I helpfully filled in. “If I ever feel like I don’t want anyone talking about them near me, I’ll tell you.” This shook Rarity out of her disorientation. “Ehm, yes, of course, if— when you make replacements for your, uh, legs, please don’t hesitate to come to me. I would absolutely love to create an ensemble that makes the most of your appearance. The crystalline appearance we had in the Crystal Empire was absolutely marvelous,” she said, her gaze distant and her voice brimming with anticipation, which I guess meant that, since she was Rarity, she was moderately excited. “I would relish the opportunity to make the most of such a unique, asymmetrical challenge.” I wasn’t horrified by the thought, but I wasn’t jumping up and down, either. “I would also appreciate it if they could be a bit discreet when the situation calls for it,” I said. Rarity was, once again, pulled back into reality. “Why, yes, that shouldn’t be too hard,” she said. “I don’t know how a prosthetic leg would look, but if it shares the proportions of a normal one, I should be able to make it look nigh indistinguishable from any other with little problem.” “Thanks, Rarity,” I said and smiled before I remembered how the conversation with Scrap ended earlier. “Though now I’ve pretty much commissioned you too without knowing what you’d charge.” Rarity looked at me with overwhelming confidence. “Darling, let me base the headdress of my upcoming creation on your mane and it shall become such a success that I should be paying you.” I touched the top of my mane, or at least I tried to, I couldn’t reach it without pulling it down a bit, and smiled. “Deal.” - Later that afternoon, we had made our way back to Golden Oaks. The meeting with Rarity had raised my spirits a bit, and further fueled my desire to study enchanting. Golden Oaks was almost on the other side of town from Carousel Boutique, though, and while we didn’t pass through the market, there were still plenty of ponies staring at me, and the irritation from earlier today seeped back into me. ‘They just had to ruin the mood, didn’t they?’ I knew that no one meant anything by it, but I still wanted to get away from there and just be alone. So I made my way, or rather, I had to ask Armor to help me make my way up the stairs to my new room. I sat at the near empty desk by the window with the book I had read on the train, and some gems and small knick knacks to periodically practice my magic on whenever it felt refreshed. I wasn’t seething by the time Armor had finished setting up the folding bed in the small room next to this one (which he of course hadn’t raised the slightest objection about) and walked in to take his place in the corner in case he was needed. But my determination to study partially stemmed from the disappointment I had felt today. So it was a bit hard to read the book without stewing in the annoyance I had felt today. ‘I’m not gonna waste any time. I can be a complete person again. Ten years spent limping through life and I’m sick of it! Gonna miss the bus? Too bad you can’t run. Press these three keys to log in. Yeah, thanks for that. See movies in 3D! It’s the next big thing! One eye sees one image and the other eye sees another. Pray tell, what other eye? No more. No stink eyes and pitying looks when I can’t pack my grocery bags as fast as everyone else. No ruining pocket books to be able to hold them open properly. Opening a bottle won’t be a five minutes long project. ‘And I’m apparently just! So! Fascinating! To look at! Why not go all the way and push me to the ground to see how I’ll get up? Well, I don’t need them. I’m gonna make my own prostheses and they’re gonna be better than real limbs. I’m not gonna need anyone’s help anymore. I’m gonna take care of myself. I’m gonna—’ I stopped my trail of thought and noticed how deep and agitated my breathing had become. I looked over to where Armor waited patiently. Always there, always willing to help and expecting nothing in return. I looked away and let out a long sigh. “Armor,” I said. “Yes, Gabe?” he said without the slightest bit of hesitation. “Thank you.” “What fo-” he started before I cut him off. “And I’m sorry,” I said and looked him in the eye. He cocked his head with a slightly worried look. “... Gabe?” “I just… I feel I should apologize,” I said. “I’m sitting here and thinking that soon, I won’t be needing anyone’s help. And you’re just standing there, still willing to help me with anything.” He looked at the carpet and visibly struggled for a moment to find the words. “You’re gonna use your talents to create something amazing that can help both yourself and anypony in your situation. I don’t see why you would apologize for that.” “I think I’ve been taking you for granted,” I said. “Well, uh, I’m a guard,” he said. “I’m supposed to be taken for granted.” “Maybe,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be grateful. I guess what I’m saying is that while I don’t want to rely on you or anypony else the way I do, I’m still really grateful that you’re here. I’ve had personal caretakers before, and I gotta say that you’re the best one I’ve had. I'm really lucky you're here.” “Oh, uh,” he said and showed an awkward smile. “You’re welcome, Gabe.” “Gee, now I feel even worse,” I said when I saw his reaction. “Why?” he asked, sounding extra confused. “I just realized I’ve hardly ever seen you smile.” He looked taken aback before relaxing with a larger, genuine smile. “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “That’s part of training, so that’s sarge’s fault.” “Right,” I said with a smile of my own. “There was a bit too much hugging for my tastes yesterday. This doesn’t feel like a touchy-feely moment, does it?” Armor just shrugged. “Could go either way, I guess. And don’t worry about that either. If either of us wants a hug, we could just visit Miss Pie.” I let out a small laugh at that. “Alright. Now, unless you want to continue to make me feel bad, I recommend you find some way to do anything other than stand around while I’m reading.” Armor looked towards the door to the main hall of the library before growing a little smirk on his face. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am,” he said with a smart salute before walking down to the actual library part of Golden Oaks. ‘Redheart and Princess Celestia might be kindness incarnate, but Armor’s not doing a bad job of cheering me up either,’ I thought, grateful that his mere presence calmed me down enough to study properly. I jerked my attention away from the book when I realized how grateful I was to the stallion. ‘Hmm… still no tingle anywhere. Well, I’m how old in pony years? Nine? Twelve?. I guess it goes without saying that I don't have to worry about that right now Maybe someday.’ I thought with a smile. > Tales of Mild Thrills > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I stood, or rather, as my wheelchair stood, and I sat, at the top of the stairs leading down to the main area of Golden Oaks, my trails of thought on how to tackle the problem of descending said stairs were competing for brain capacity with some fairly inane observations. The reason I was even considering what I was considering was that the stairs of ponyfolks were not very steep. ‘It makes sense,’ was my first thought, but then my brain conjured up memories of wildlife documentaries, where gazelles or antelope, or some similar animal, were doing seemingly impossible stunts when escaping large cats, probably leopards, including climbing seemingly vertical cliff-walls. 'So a quadrupedal configuration does not automatically mean improficiency with steep angles. ‘Then again, walking down human stairs on all four as a pony might place one’s rear end uncomfortably higher up than one’s head, much like on all four on a level surface as a human. And those weren’t ponies on that show. ‘But then there’s the issue of the long necks, which could negate- Ugh! DOORSTOP!’ my head yelled at itself, quieting the other out-of-control thought processes. ‘Go get the doorstops from yours and Armor’s rooms and keep them in front of the wheels in case you lose control. Do it now, before I get angry.’ ‘You don’t get to tell me what to do,’ I thought as I lit up my horn, turned on the spot, and made my way back down the short hallway to my objective. ‘No. I’m gonna be the one that tells me what to do. And I certainly hope it stays that way,’ I thought as I collected the central parts of my cleverness, shaking my head at the strange sensation of the mirage of separation of wills in my head lifting. And no, I wasn’t crazy, just a little quirky. My practice last night, with some supervision by my host, had yielded results. I still couldn’t float around things all day like Twilight seemed to be able to, or even for an extended period of time, but it seemed like I could move myself several more laps around the library today than I would’ve been able to yesterday. So it was with adequate accuracy that I placed the doorstops down the first step of the stairs, and gently willed my wheelchair forward. Halfway down the stairs I realized that a safer approach would’ve been to get out of the wheelchair, crawl down the stairs, and bring my wheelchair along separately, but by then I was making fairly good progress and shortly after I was down the stairs, making my way towards the kitchen with its breakfast table. I approached the kitchen and heard Armor and Twilight’s voices from inside. “Perhaps it’s your training. I really am just a normal pony,” I heard Twilight say. “That’s why I’m so glad my brother was the captain of the guard before I was a princess. He knew what it was like to suddenly be so important… and it also made it easier for my parents, I think.” I could practically hear her roll her eyes at the "important" part. “Perhaps, but- Oh! Gabe!” Armor said as I wheeled into the kitchen. “You’re awake?” “Uh, yeah. What time is it?” I asked. “Around ten,” Armor said. “Have you been up long? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just left–” I waved him off. “Don’t worry. I’m supposed to learn to take care of this stuff myself.” “Well, okay. How did you get down the stairs?” he asked. “With these,” I said and showed them the doorstops. ‘Useful things, especially when used for something other than their intended purpose. So not just useful, "utilizeful"! I should keep some of these with me.’ “Maybe I should add a little bag or something to the side of this thing? Humans have pockets to carry around their stuff in.” I decided to not go into the subject of purses and why I didn’t appreciate them. “We can get some saddlebags and have Rarity make them fit the chair for you.” “Great, if she’s up for it. Anyway, have you guys had breakfast? I’m hungry.” “No, we were waiting for you,” Twilight said. “Speaking of which, Derpy was here earlier. She’s the mailmare, by the way. You got something.” “Really?” I asked. “What?” Twilight gestured to the large bouquet on the table. “It’s from Daisy, Lily and Rose. The ones you met by their market stall yesterday,” Twilight said. “I think it’s an apology.” “Oh,” I said, taken a bit aback. “Well, that’s nice. They look nice.” ‘The more pony names I hear, the more odd I feel.’ And it did. Hyacinths, lilies, yellow roses, and a few I didn’t recognise, all arranged in a very appealing manner. “They look delicious,” Twilight said. ‘Oh, right. Of course.’ “I know you said you didn’t like flowers yesterday, but maybe you’d like to try some anyway? This looks really good.” “Maybe as a side thing,” I said skeptically. The flowers tasted like flowers. I decided to give the bouquet to Twilight and Armor to share, who in turn decided to save it for dinner. It felt a bit rude to give away a gift moments after receiving it, but I felt that being nice in turn to Twilight and Armor topped being disrespectful to three stranger who wouldn’t even know about it. “Well, at least they smelled nice,” I said. “I hope you’re not too disappointed,” Twilight said, her ears drooping. I looked at her in confusion before realizing what an expression I had on my face, courtesy of nice smells’ constant companion. “Ah, I’m not scowling, I’m feeling a sneeze coming.” “Oh,” Twilight said. “Besides, you’ve already offered to order some of that, ah–” I started before the tickling in my new muzzle started building up “– sub– ah stit–” (The traditional sneeze includes two verbal parts. The "ah" and the "choo". These two can morph into many similar but appropriate forms depending on the context. The statement that someone is about to sneeze, for example, can be appropriately responded to with the claim that "that’s- ah, not- ah, thcue!". I recommend that any visitor to Equestria to seize the opportunity to point this out to any young filly whom one suspects is about to do just that, especially in the presence of the stoic of demeanor and the serious of temperament. A standard kit for the visitor to Equestria should involve some sort of sneeze-inducing agent, and insulin. With this aside taken care of, we should return to the breakfast table of Golden Oaks, and focus on the lingering unfamiliarity recently shape-shifted humans can have with their own bodies, especially their muzzles.) In my experience, the force of a sneeze needs to be appropriately distributed through both the mouth and nose. Too much through the mouth and it’s nothing more than an awkward and wordless exclamation, too much through the nose and your face feels like it’s punched from the inside, with the risk of a lingering unpleasant feeling in the ears. So with decades of experience with sneezes as a human, I brought my foreleg up to my muzzle, and even had the presence of mind to compensate for its forward positioning. I had not, however, considered the large amounts of atmosphere it can accommodate. What would be a small puff for a human turned into something else entirely. “– Tchute!” I finished with a trumpeting sound, immediately followed by a thick splashing sound. I opened my eye and beheld the results sprayed upon, and hanging from, my foreleg. “Oh, eeeeew!” ‘Yeah, large noses with large amounts of content.’ I glanced up at Twilight's and Armor’s wide eyes. “Well, I’m used to having a nose a lot smaller than this,” I said defensively. “Could someone help me into the bathroom, please? I don’t feel like touching things like this.” - I later found myself in the bathroom, clearing out any latecomers from my muzzle, and contemplating on what to do with my day. ‘I’m getting restless, but I don’t really want to go out into… well, "town" ,again, if people are just gonna stare at me. Then again, the flower-trio with the flowery names did send me an apology. But my computer’s also sitting down in the basement. Maybe I should watch a movie or something? ‘… Nah. When there’s magic, and a whole new world to learn about, I’m just gonna feel like I’m wasting my time if I sit and watch things I’ve already seen.’ I looked at myself in the mirror, still amazed at my seemingly impossibly voluminous mane. Sometimes I felt like I couldn’t get enough of seeing myself as a pony. ‘Heh! Whaddya know? Mirrors are more fun than television.’ “Gabe!” I heard Twilight call from outside. “You have visitors!” ‘Really? Who? Well, I only know a handful of people around here, so it’s probably gonna pretty easy to figure out. ‘Well, you’re not gonna have enough time to figure out who, seeing as you’re thinking this while wheeling out the door.’ “Hey, Gabe!” a trio of voices called. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood in the doorway, with Twilight and Armor by the side. “Hey, guys,” I said happily, then looked around me. “Looking for books?” “Nope,” Scootaloo said. “We’re here to get you.” “Oh?” I said. “Yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “We figured that since you’re gonna be revisin’–” Sweetie Belle whispered something into her ear “–advisin’ the princesses, you may wanna start with practice advising three ponies on a great quest.” “And, uh, what quest is that?” I asked. “To get our cutie marks!” Sweetie Belle said. “And you think I can help?” “Yeah! Or well, actually...” Sweetie Belle started. “Rarity said you didn’t have a very good time in town yesterday. So we thought we could show you around Ponyville.” I was starting to suspect what, or who, might’ve motivated the flower ponies into sending me that bouquet. “Okay, uh, good plan,” I said and turned to Twilight. “Any timeframe for comings and goings in this hou- library?... residence?” “Not really, I guess,” Twilight said slowly. “Just try and keep it down if you’re coming back in the middle of the night,” she continued before giving me a small but warm smile. “Coming home in the middle of the night.” That caught me off guard. I gave her a smile of my own before turning to Armor and then to the crusaders. “Is there room for five on this quest?” “Yeah, no problem,” Scootaloo said. “We’re heading to Sweet Apple Acres first, If he turns out to be too lame for crusading, we’ll just leave him there.” I gave an amused snort and turned to Armor to see him smiling good-naturedly. He leaned down to me and whispered, “I’ll be where you want me to, and I can keep a small distance if you want.” “Thanks,” I whispered back, mostly worried about three enthusiastic fillies getting my wheelchair stuck in some underbrush somewhere. - “That there’s the school,” Apple Bloom said and pointed to a quaint building as we traveled through what could be called the "outskirts" of Ponyville. Actually, everything around us was quaint, with the occasional gaudy additions mostly found in and around the marketplace. We were beyond the mainline of houses, here there were the occasional cottage or park or something of that nature found dotting the landscape, but it wasn’t the rows of charmingly non-uniform houses. I wasn’t completely convinced that earth ponies weren’t at a disadvantage next to the other tribes of ponies, alicorns notwithstanding, but my conception that it might be difficult for earth ponies to maintain a community by themselves with full amenities were quickly proving to be unfounded. Ponyville was founded by earth ponies, and was still indeed mostly inhabited by earth ponies, but rusticness aside, the well-maintained look of Ponyville, with houses, bridges, lawns, shrubberies, parks, and other picturesque landscape/-architectural additions, spoke volumes of their capabilities. I looked at the building that Apple Bloom pointed at. “How many peo- uh, ponies go there?” “Every foal in Ponyville,” she said. “But don’t worry, there’s room for more.” She said it like it was supposed to be impressive, but the size wasn’t, at least to me. “How large is the faculty?” “The what?” Scootaloo asked. “She means how many teachers there are,” Sweetie Belle said. “Just Miss Cheerilee. But she gets help with cleaning every week and sometimes we have guest teachers.” I thoughtfully looked at the building again. ‘Well, with ponies being able to control the weather, I guess there’s not really much of a need for a PE building, so that’s quite a lot of profile shaved away from the building. Maybe there’s a lot of lectures outdoors?’ I looked back at the town. It was large enough for a newcomer to get lost in, but not for longer than a few minutes- the maximum amount of time needed to exit the housed area from the town’s center at an easy walking pace. “So it’s all one class?” “Yup!” Apple Bloom said. “And Cheerilee teaches most subjects?” “Almost all of them,” Sweetie Belle said. I shook the questions out of my head. ‘Perhaps this Cheerilee is a scholar to rival Twilight, or perhaps education is very basic in Equestria… no, probably not. Not with the long lifespans and impressive libraries. Sure, they don’t have a lot of high technology, but as far as I know, agriculture isn’t a pushover subject and magic adds a whole new dimension to knowledge. Also, on physical education with ponies here being, well, ponies, perhaps it just isn’t a thing in school here. At least I hope so, I shan’t miss it.’ Memories surfaced of the dreaded, flamboyant, short, and moustached fat man in the far-too-small training set, who insisted that dancing be the center of most PE classes. I shuddered. “That there is White Tail Woods,” Apple Bloom said. “We can go there all we want, so long as we don’t go near Ghastly Gorge.” I looked in among the trees and saw a big shape moving around in the distance. I angled my ears towards it but it didn’t seem to be making any sounds. “And there’s nothing dangerous in there?” I asked. “Nope!” the trio said happily. “And that big thing that’s moving in there?” I asked. The shape moved out of sight just as the Crusaders got a look at it. “Oh, that’s just Harry the bear,” Scootaloo said. “Don’t worry about him, he’s Fluttershy’s friend. I guess he’s hungry.” ‘“Harry the bear”, right. And his good friend “Barry the hare”?’ “And he’s not dangerous at all?” I asked. “Of course not,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, Scootaloo’s crashed into him twice,” Sweetie Belle said while Scootaloo shot her a dirty look. “He barely noticed.” ‘Oh, puns.’ “Okay...” I said. ‘Well, you’ve seen that video with the 70’s hairdos and the lion. A friendly bear isn’t that much of a stretch when in a magical world.’ A small river and a bridge later and we found ourselves by a very large fenced-off area with apple trees dotting the hills and plains as far as my eye could see. “And this here is Sweet Apple Acres,” Apple Bloom gushed and I could understand why someone would be enthusiastic about living at a place like this. Not only was it picturesque, it was absolutely enormous. “Come on! Let’s show you around!” Apple Bloom babbled on about the glory of Sweet Apple acres as we made our way down the path. The orchards of apple trees were neat and orderly, and I wondered what the Apple Family’s secrets were to keeping a landscape of this size orderly and picturesque with only four ponies. Not that I would have much use for them myself, but I did feel I might as well learn as much as I could about ponies, and if this was earth pony magic at work… I registered Apple Bloom’s voice beside me, and realised that she was still talking. I looked back and shared a look with Armor, who was helping me around as always. “And that there’s the main house,” Apple Bloom said and helpfully pointed to the only non barn-building in sight. ‘This seems like a nice point to rejoin the conversation.’ Not that the main house didn’t have a barn theme going on, too, but the window boxes and multiple entrances sort of gave it away as a place of residence. The lines of apple trees had opened up and made way for some other crops, as well as some fenced-off areas for animals and storage sheds and so on. ‘This could be a good time to find out what other creatures are sapient here. Do the pigs have horns and wings, too? Heh, a winged pig, that swine flew.’ “Are pigs intelligent around here?” “Huh? Of course not,” Apple Bloom said. “Or, wait. Are they where you’re from?” “Nope, but neither are ponies,” I said. “Really? Did you make them dumb?” she asked and then let out a gasp. “Can you human-apes drain other’s brain power and make yourselves smarter and that’s how you made those machines that Spike talked about over at Sugarcube Corner!?” ‘That reptile might be a bit too into those comics. Then again, one theory goes that the proteins that humans’ ancestors got from eating meat was vital for evolving higher brain capacity… whatever, let’s not get into that.’ “Not quite, but I swear, what passes for pop music these days is actively trying to kill my brain cells.” ‘Is there pop music around here, hmm? Heh, “colt bands”.’ “Do you have that around here?” “Not sure if the pop music’s the same, but I’ve felt the same with marching songs,” Armor said. “But at least we could spend the time thinking up our own lyrics.” I could practically smell the smirk trying to muscle its way onto his face. “And what were those lyrics about?” “Nothing to be shared in respectful company,” he said, and the smirking intensified. The farm was seemingly still, but far from lifeless, with the vibrant colors and the sound of activity from both the house and the barn. We entered the house, and I took in the rough, but still homely, interiors. Like most of what I’ve seen of Ponyville, it had a warm but rough charm of an old, lived-in home, but without things like grime and cobwebs. Golden Oaks was still the winner, though, but this was nice, too. “Well, howdy, y’all,” the jovial voice of Applejack sounded from the doorway leading into the kitchen. “I see you brought guests, Apple Bloom. Two of ‘em, at least. You two don’t count with how much free reign I give you ‘round this place,” she playfully chided Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who had the sense to look at each other with at least somewhat abashed smiles. “We’re gonna show Gabe around while we’re crusadin’,” Apple Bloom said enthusiastically. “Well, if you’re starting out here, come on in, make yourselves at home,” Applejack said, and turned towards the open window., “Big Mac! We got visitors, you get over here and introduce yourself now!” I caught sight of the big, lumbering form of who I had to assume was Big Mac, walking past the window a little ways away and called, “Eyup!” The relaxed manner in which he called it helped a little bit, but I still felt like I was a source of distraction. ‘This is a place of work, after all.’ “Ah, I don’t wanna take up anyone’s time,” I said. “Aw shucks,” Applejack simply said. “He needs to meet ponies anyway. I ain’t no o-ra-tor, but I still think he needs to learn to use more than two words a day.” ‘That seems a bit hyperbolic, coming from the element of honesty,’ I thought as Big Mac entered, in all his appropriately named glory. He had a relaxed smile of his muzzle, and opened his mouth as if to say something when he caught sight of me and immediately froze up, with eyes wide. My shoulders sagged a bit, and my ears joined them. Just then, Applejack looked out from the kitchen to see her brother gaping at me. “Big Mac,” she said sternly, “didn’t I already tell you about Gabrielle?” He tore his gaze away from me to meet his sister’s. “E-... yup,” he said and hung his head with ears folded down. “So I would’ve assumed that you would be ready for the sight, and not just stand there with a dumb look on ya.” Big Mac looked like he was about to say something, but seemingly decided not to, and instead just nodded. ‘Hmm, I guess he does only say two words per day.’ “Now, apologize,” Applejack said. Big Mac turned towards me and further hung his head. “Sorry,” he said after a pause. It was muttered, but still sounded genuine. ‘Well, maybe he saved one from yesterday.’ I realized that me just sitting there looking dejected didn’t really help anyone. I forced my ears up. “It’s okay,” I said. He looked really ashamed of himself for something that the whole town did yesterday. At least, it seemed like the whole town at the time. “Really, it is.” He slowly perked up, as emphasized by his ears, and gave me a hesitant smile. “And the three ponies I met at the market just froze up and took a whole day to apologize. So, not bad by comparison,” I said, trying and probably succeeding in sounding carefree. “What did they do that took a whole day?” Applejack asked. “Sent a bouquet for breakfast,” I said, a phrase that didn’t sound any less absurd to me when I said it out loud. “Well then, I don’t think we should do any less,” Applejack said as she walked up towards Armor. “This here’s Studded Armor. Big Macintosh, Studded Armor, Studded Armor, Big Macintosh.” ‘Oh, that name makes more sense.’ “You just entertain our guests for a spell while I go get something ripe.” I looked back to see Armor looking at Big Mac with an apprehensive look. At first I was afraid that he taken the introductions poorly, but then he shook hooves with Big Mac. “A pleasure,” he said. “Eyup,” Big Mac said. “You’ve been at the hardware store in town, right?” “Eyup,” Big Mac said again, but this time I could swear that he said, "Of course". “Thought so, I recognised you. I think I’ve seen you there when I was here a few years ago.” Big Mac gave Armor a scrutinizing look. “Eyup.” “You fillies hungry?” Applejack asked. Her choice of words reminded me of how old she, and everyone around me really, was compared to me. I had felt very confused every time I considered age-related topics in Equestria. How these old beings could still act so… not childish, or even innocent, but perhaps "playful" is the right word, or "un-solemn". Then again, A lot of older people I’ve known, humans that is, weren’t very solemn or dignified, themselves. It might be a quirk of humans, without magic to help us, we’ve had to hurry up and grow serious when we became adults. Leaving behind the distractions of fun and games in order to improve our lives. And perhaps those undignified and playful older people had finally learned to reconcile that a productive existence can still contain plenty of levity. Perhaps it might also have something to do with being a senior human sort of losing the desire to prove themselves. If these ponies can lead such safe, full, and comfortable lives, coupled with their slow aging, perhaps the seriousness that many young adult humans have doesn’t manifest. ‘Frankly, if this is the case, I’m with the ponies on this one. That tense ambience I remember from school felt a lot like posturing… am I coming across as immature for acting like an adult?’ “Well, I’m not,” Apple Bloom said. “How about you guys?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle let out some noncommittal denials. “Not me, thank you,” I said. “We ate just before we left. How about you, Armor?” “I’m fine.” “That’s good, because I don’t expect we’ll have dinner ready until sundown. But all the apples in here are fit for eating,” Applejack said. “Granny just finished inspecting them.” “Who?” I asked. “Our granny, Granny Smith.” ‘… Right.’ “Eeh, did somepony say something?” An almost comically gravelly voice sounded. Actually, all of the Apples sounded funny to me, but I’d never say that. We made our way into the kitchen and I saw a green, elderly earth pony, with emphasis on "elderly". Ponies could live for hundreds of years and now I believed it. “Granny Smith, Studded Armor and Gabrielle Desrochers. Gabrielle, Armor, Granny Smith,” Applejack said with all the correct gestures. Granny seemed to have eyes only for me and walked up and inspected me closely with a highly scrutinizing look. I would normally be a bit sick of staring by now, but while my right side got a good, long look, Granny’s gaze mostly lingered on my face. Then she instantly mellowed and took my hoof in hers and shook it. “Well, fine visitors, that’s nice. Always a pleasure,” she said and shook Armor’s hoof as well. “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres,” Granny continued in a pleasant tone before making a small pause and leaning up to Applejack. “Keep an eye on her ‘round the hen houses!” she whispered and then turned away from a startled looking Applejack, back to us. “You tell us if we can offer you anything. Only food we have here is produce, though, fair and plain.” Armor and I looked at each other, and the other Apples seemed a bit puzzled and embarrassed, but mostly puzzled, by Granny’s behavior. “Why, thank you. That’s very nice,” I said hesitantly, wishing that Armor could take the reins in situations like this. “So it’s only you four that lives here?” I asked. “Well, us and Winona, of course,” Applejack said. “Who’s Winona?” I asked as I heard the quickly approaching barks of a dog. “Winona’s–” was all that Applejack could say before some sort of collie shot through the door at lightning-speed and pounced me, tail wagging all the time. “Oomph!” The impact tipped my chair over and I found myself on the floor with a manically happy hound on top of me, furiously licking my muzzle. ‘Ah, canine greeting rituals. At least this time the falling over part’s done and I don’t have to untangle a leash around my prosthesis with a small yappy dog skimming around me.’ “Winona! Hoof!” Applejack’s stern voice sounded. The dog reluctantly disengaged, walked over to Applejack, and looked up at her with a pleading face. “You okay there, Gabe?” both Armor and Applejack asked at the same time, as Armor walked over and helped me up. “I’m fine,” I said and glanced around at the assembled ponies who were giving me worried looks. ‘Yeah, I don’t know about you guys, but getting knocked over by a dog isn’t vigorating for one’s pride, and getting pitying looks even after you say you’re okay makes it worse.’ “Really, I’m fine,” I insisted and made sure my eyepatch was still in place. Big Mac offered me a napkin and I started wiping the canine saliva off from my muzzle. “Sorry about that, Gabe,” Applejack said. “That’s okay, she’s just excited about meeting new people, I guess.” Applejack looked down at the dog who looked back with an intensely expectant expression and legs tensed like springs. “Yeah, you like meeting new ponies, don’t you, girl? You don’t mind dogs, do you, Armor?” “Well, no,” Armor answered, only slightly nervously. “Okay then. Winona,”– Winona got a ready-to-pounce-stance, –“say ‘Hi’,” Applejack said. A pony’s face is by default not very far away from the ground, compared to a human, which makes one of more social dogs favorite activities very easy. Winona let out a bark and immediately ran up to Armor and started licking his muzzle, tail wagging like she was promised cake if she did it enough. “Mmph! Alright, alright! Nice to meet you too,” he said, fending off the pooch while I idly wondered if fur allergies were even heard of here. Winona eventually calmed enough to simply stand and look at everyone with an expectant expression. I took the liberty of hoofing the napkin over to Armor when I was done with it. The smiles from the comical scenes were slowly fading to be replaced with expectations that none knew how to address. Missing the awkward silence until it was nearly upon us, I grabbed the first thing in my mind that could keep a conversation going and brandished it like a warding symbol. “Nice place you have here,” I said. “Everything, I mean. Beautiful farm.” “Why, thank you kindly,” Applejack said, pleased, and with the least convincing attempt at surprise I’ve ever heard. “Want anypony to show you around?” “We’re already doing that,” Apple Bloom said happily. “Alright then, take some of these with you,” she said with a pleased smile and hoofed us a bowl of apples to pick some from. “I don’t feel like bragging, but it’s a big place.” I smirked a little on the outside and some more on the inside. ‘Sure you don’t.’ “Oh yeah! Viaticum is important for any adventure,” Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo grabbed a few and stuck them under her wings. “Well, we should get going,” Apple Bloom said. “Cutie marks await.” “So what’s next?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Let’s show Gabe our clubhouse,” Apple Bloom said. “The CMC headquarters is strictly adult-free, though,” Scootaloo said and shot Armor a meaningful look. The crusaders started pushing my wheelchair out of the house and into the orchards. I looked back at the full grown ponies behind us and said a hurried, “thanks!” before they vanished from sight. “How strictly?” Armor asked. “What do you mean, ‘how strictly’?” Scootaloo said. “Only ponies approved by the Cutie Mark Crusaders supreme executive body can enter the headquarters,” Sweetie Belle proudly stated. “And standard time for the processing of an entrance approval request is three to five months, unless overruled by the governing officials by a majority approval rating of one to four.” Armor and I shared a goodnaturedly amused look from the whole thing before he took control of my wheelchair. “So can I enter?” I asked. The crusaders looked at each other for a second or two before Apple Bloom nodded. “Approved,” she said. “And how about me?” Armor asked. They looked at each other again. “Standard process,” Scootaloo said. “Can I at least see the clubhouse?” Armor asked. Another shared look. “We could be persuaded to do that, and–” Scootaloo paused and looked at Sweetie Belle, who leaned towards her and whispered in her ear “– expedite your approval request if you share some information.” “And what information would that be?” “How you got your cutie mark,” Apple Bloom said enthusiastically. “Alright. My sister and I got ours together when we stood up to some bullies who were calling cousin Gambeson fat.” I leaned over to look at Armor’s mark. A mail coif with little pockets for pony-ears. ‘How many variations of armor symbols have been in his family?’ “Cool!” Scootaloo said. “We should try that! We can find Diamond Tiara and stop whatever she’s doing!” I didn’t know who this Diamond Tiara was, but that sounded a bit hasty to me. “We already have plans for today, though,” Sweetie Belle said. “Well, alright,” Scootaloo said, relieving me from trying to persuade them otherwise. I didn’t wanna go looking for trouble my third day here. “Was he fat, though?” Scootaloo asked Armor. “Who?” he asked. “You cousin.” “Gambeson. And no, she’s never been fat. Just big and strong, and kind of mellow.” “Like a big dog?” Apple Bloom asked. “Or your brother,” Scootaloo said to Apple Bloom. “Funny thing was that ten years later, pretty much all of the ponies who bullied Gambeson got a huge crush on her,” Armor said amused. “Is she a guard, too?” I asked. “In training.” “Well!” Apple Bloom suddenly said. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders apologise for interrupting, but only those with entrance approval can go any further.” We had been heading slightly uphill for some time now and the orchards had gradually become more and more wild. Not like an actual forest, but not quite like aisles at a convenience store like around the farm house, either. But here, a clearing opened up and we were in front of what obviously was the fillies’ clubhouse. If anyone had told me it was a treehouse, I would have been a bit iffy about the idea. But taking ponies weather manipulation ability into account, the CMC clubhouse seemed like it could actually be viable for residency. Of course, I’d be counting on ponies, especially earth ponies, knack for all things plant-related to keep unwanted fungi and such out of the premises, but still. “Okay then. I’ll go and see if anypony back at the farm would like some help with anything,” Armor said and winked at me. I didn’t respond with one of my own but after another, slightly more insistent wink, I blinked at him and he walked out of sight. I lit my horn up, barely noticing how easy it started feeling, and slowly wheeled up towards an opening in the trees overlooking Ponyville from this surprisingly high rise. “So this is where you spend your days?” I asked, enjoying the peaceful view. Perhaps it was being around quality friend material and finally doing what should come naturally. Perhaps it was me seeing the beautiful sight, knowing that it’s my new home. Perhaps it was me being a little out of the way here, like I preferred it. Perhaps it was all that and more. The Crusaders stood in silence for a little while before answering. “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle slowly said. “Are you okay, Gabe?” “Mmm. I guess. It’s just that this made me feel so… I dunno. Relaxed, or relieved.” ‘And a bit old. ‘That, and right now I could go for some Joe Hisaishi music.’ I noticed my eye was getting pretty soggy. ‘Oh, come on! It was just a pretty view.’ I paused and blinked it away before turning around to the trio, and noticed that I still held an apple in my hoof. Deciding it would be a waste to just hold on to it all day, I bit down on it and marvelled at the taste. “Good, huh?” Apple Bloom happily asked. “Mhm. So, you, mmh, want to get your cutie marks?” I said around the apple in my mouth. “Yup!” they said happily. “Alright. Let’s get down to it. How do you think I can help?” “Well, let’s show you the planning room and we can think up something,” Apple Bloom said and walked up and started pushing my wheelchair towards the little house in the tree. ‘Oh look! Wheelchair friendly… ish ramps.’ I hadn’t seen any of the crusaders’ actual crusades yet, but Twilight had told me a little about them. “The most obvious thing I can add is the chance to try out being disability assistants. That or xenologists, or something.” “Well we tried that with Granny, but it was pretty much just helping out at the farm like any other day,” Apple Bloom said. “Just as well,” I said as we entered the small house and I took in the interior. “With any luck, this is gonna be temporary.” “What? Your, uh your… legs?” Sweetie Belle asked as they sat down on a large carpet. “Yeah,” I said and chomped down on the last piece of the apple. “I’m gonna try and make some new enchanted ones, and Armor’s uncle is gonna help.” “Cool!” Scootaloo said. “Tell us if you want any help. I wanna see that!” “Are there any sanitation protocols concerning these things?” I asked and held up the apple core. Apple Bloom just shook her head and I threw the core out the door and into the bushes. ‘This thing better not ferment inside me, or anything. Or is that not horses?’ “By the way, what’s a xenologist?” Scootaloo asked. “Uh.” I did some quick cross-references of the words in my head. “People who learn about outside things,” I said. “Like, foreign cultures and things like that.” “Oh, yeah, what do humans do for fun?” I shrugged. “Lot’s of things. Like ponies, I guess. This might sound a bit boring, but I like more quiet things like reading and watching movies.” “Ooh! Spike said that that machine you have is like a supersmart movie screen,” Scootaloo said. ‘He hasn’t even seen it run.’ “Eh, something like that.” “Can we see it sometime?” Scootaloo asked. “Hmm, I’m not sure if I actually gave it to Twilight or just lent it to her. But yes, I suppose you can. Can you guys help me down?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked up to me and let me. I set the brake, put my foreleg around Apple Bloom’s back and hoisted myself forward. She slowly back away so that I gently lowered to the ground. “Thanks. I’ve been sitting like that for hours, now. Gimme a second,” I said and rolled over on my back. I stretched and my back let out a loud pop. “Ah, that’s better,” I said, slowly sat up and peeled up my eyepatch. I had to sit with my hind leg in a bit like meditative position to not fall over, which wasn’t very comfortable, but it didn’t hurt or anything. The Crusaders, and especially Scootaloo, looked on with sheepish anticipation. I couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “Yeah, you can look. In fact, tell me if you see anything in there, like a hair or something.” I opened my socket and started feeling around the opening. Like the last time, the crusaders looked on in awe and disgust. “Yeah, there’s a hair in there,” Sweetie Belle said. “Where? Is it all the way in?” “No, it’s sticking out by the side,” she said. “Oh, good. Can you get it?” Sweetie Belle nervously reached forward with a foreleg before stopping herself. “Uh, sorry, but, I kinda don’t want to.” “Mm, alright, somewhere around here, right?” I said as I poked with my hoof at the side of my face. “Yeah.” I found the stray hair and started pulling it. The sensation of a long strand being pulled out of your socket felt so utterly wrong that I instinctively brought my eyelid down. Which, of course, just made the whole thing worse. I shuddered and brought the long strand up to my eye. It was from my own orange mane. “Ugh, I should have brought those goggles that Rainbow gave me.” ‘I’m not doing that Simpsons reference.’ The Crusaders were looking at me with a mixture of pity, curiosity, and perhaps a hint of suspicion. I folded the eyepatch down again. “You girls look like you have something on your minds.” “You…” Sweetie Belle started. “You’re… acting, well, a bit like a grown-up.” ‘Heh. I wouldn’t agree very often.’ “Would you say that that’s a bad thing?” “Uh, no!” Scootaloo said. “Oh course not,” Apple Bloom agreed. They backtracked on this pretty fiercely, and I was in a situation that I still often didn’t recognise very readily, when people are so afraid of offending me that they don’t want to suggest anything. I wasn’t blaming them, though. There was a good, long while where my brain would sometimes involuntarily interpret the most innocent or neutral remark as a stab at me and my situation. I was coming to terms with trauma, of course, so maybe I should cut myself some slack, but I still cringed when I remembered how touchy and snappy I occasionally was. Instead, I just gave them a small smile that came out a little more wistful than it perhaps should have. “I suppose that’s good then. I was worried I’d just be odd.” “You’re not odd!” Apple Bloom said fiercely. “You’re just… tough, I guess,” she trailed off with a small blush. ‘Ooh! They’re thinking that I’ve been through so much that I’ve lost all my innocence or something like that. I should probably… what’s the word? Assuage their fears. I’m not a child soldier or anything.’ “Didn’t I mention human lifespans?” “Uh, no?” Scootaloo, the trios faces full of curiosity. “Ah, well, humans are lucky to even reach one hundred years of age,” I said. “So before I became a pony, I was a grown-up.” “Really?” Apple Bloom said. “How old are you?” “Twenty six,” I said. “But you’re– oh, right.” “So, are you an adult or…?” Scootaloo trailed off. “Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” I said. “What makes someone an adult? In fact, what is an adult?” They sat and considered this for a while. “Someone who gets to decide bedtimes?” Apple Bloom suggested. I was gonna gently deny that, but considering how arbitrary the whole concept was becoming to me, I decided to simply say, “Perhaps.” “But if you’re an adult, do you still want to hang out with us?” Sweetie Belle asked. “But if she’s used to hanging out with ponies as old as us, wouldn’t that make sense?” Scootaloo countered. “But if she’s acting like an adult, maybe she wants to talk about adult stuff with Rainbow and the others… but they’re much older than she is. This is weird.” “Heh! You’re telling me,” I said. “But yes, I do like hanging out with you. It also gives me a chance to learn about ponies of different ages.” “Oh,” they all said in unison, sounding disappointed, their ears drooping slightly. “We thought it was because you wanted to be friends,” Apple Bloom said. “Uh…” I said, taken aback. “It’s… well, uh, I’m getting to know you. That’s one of the first steps when making friends, as far as I know.” “Really?” Apple Bloom said. The conversation was getting weird to me. “Uuh, yes. How did you become friends?” “We just sort of became friends at the same time when we decided to discover our talents together,” Scootaloo said. “Oh?” “Yeah. And my sister and her friends just sort of became friends when they stopped Nightmare Moon,” Sweetie Belle said. I mentally compared this to how I was used to making friends as a human. The images that I got was of ponies being like small, excited dogs jumping and yapping and sniffing at each other, while humans seemed more like cats, unmovingly glaring at each other before grudgingly deciding that the others’ presence was tolerated. Or maybe it’s just how this comes across right now. A bit early to jump to conclusions with a sample size of two groups. “So you’re making us your friends right now?" Apple Bloom said excitedly. “Uh, yes,” I said. “Awesome,” Scootaloo said and they all raised a forehoof at me with excited grins. “High hoof!” I carefully raised my foreleg to the same height as they did. An enthusiastic clopping sound later I found myself on my back. “Sorry, Gabe,” Apple Bloom said. “That’s okay,” I said, still kinda grateful for being a lightweight yet strangely hardy kid again. “You wanna get back in your chair?” Sweetie Belle asked as they moved up around me. “Yes please.” Apple Bloom offered her neck for me to hook my foreleg around while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle grabbed my right side, and they carried me over to the chair and placed me down in it. Scootaloo’s face went red when she touched my right shoulder, but it seemed like her curiosity won out against any abashment. She gently put her hoof against the small bump where my right foreleg would be, practically invisible under my coat. “Wow, this is so weird.” “Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle said, disapprovingly. “Oh! sorry,” Scootaloo said sheepishly and removed her hoof. Personally, I was a bit amused at her innocent wonder. “Aheh, it’s okay. And that’s nothing compared to suddenly getting a horn.” “You can totally feel the scar, though,” Scootaloo continued before looking at me with sympathetic eyes. “Does it hurt? “Yeah, sometimes,” I said and then, continued when I saw her scared expression. “Ah, not by touching it, I mean. It just acts up every now and then. Both of them. It used to happen a lot but not as often anymore.” “But hey, if you’re gonna make new legs, can you put gadgets in them?” Scootaloo said excitedly. “If you can then you totally should.” I considered that for a moment. ‘Yeah… the most nifty thing I’ve seen on a prosthesis is a cigarette holder.’ “... I should, shouldn’t I?” I said slowly. “Yeah! That’s a great idea!” Sweetie Belle said. “You can get Pinkie Pie to put a mini party cannon in there.” That stopped Scootaloo for a moment while I looked at Sweetie Belle in confusion. “I was gonna say a grappling hook,” Scootaloo said. “But that’s a pretty good idea.” “What’s a party cannon?” I asked. “Everything Pinkie needs to set up a party,” Apple Bloom said enthusiastically. “It’s got confetti and balloons and sometimes cake.” I considered how such a piece of engineering, or perhaps gunsmithing, might work, before filing it away for later. “So anyway,” I said. “What have you done to try and find your special talents?” I was willing to try and help the Crusaders even though I still didn’t really know how the whole thing with cutie marks worked. Which made it doubly awkward that I had one and they did not. “Well, we’ve been keeping notes here,” Apple Bloom said and pointed to a map of a town that it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out was Ponyville. It was nailed to a wall with an enormous amount of papers attached to it and the wall around it. Reading through the previous activities was a bit of an undertaking. A few of them were given, like the ones related to their sisters and their friends’ talents and professions. Other than that were things like salesponies, journalists, delivery ponies, (yes, it was called Pony Express) confectionery makers, carpenters, stage magicians, sport coaches, capers, (that one made me a bit suspicious) pyrotechnicians, (that one, too) weather ponies, scribes, and on and on the list went. After having studied the list for a bit, and finding the titles "adventurers" and "field agents" a bit too vague to be helpful, I turned to the Crusaders. “Have you tried all of these in Ponyville?” “Yup,” Scootaloo said happily. I looked at the list again. “How do you study marine biology around here?” “Fluttershy had a cul-de-sac dug out in her backyard from the river by her house. The weather ponies keep it warm there so there’s coral reefs and everything there,” Sweetie Belle said. “... Alright, sure,” I said, and turned to the list again without really looking at it. “Speaking of Fluttershy and her animals, why do you have them fangs?” Apple Bloom asked. “They’re not actually fangs,” I said. “They’re just… leftovers from when humans’ ancestors had need for them. As for why I have them, I don’t actually know. Twilight said I was probably turned into a pony by wild magic on a fluke, and for some reason my teeth stayed the same shape. The doctors and Twilight all say I’m fully a unicorn, though. I guess the shape of one’s teeth doesn’t make a pony.” “That makes sense,” Scootaloo said with a shrug. “You sure look like a pony.” “Why did humans’ ancestors need fangs, though?” Apple Bloom asked. “Didn’t I tell you?” I asked, a bit surprised. “Humans are predators. Well, biologically at least.” They looked at me again, this time with wide eyes. “Really?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Yeah, but don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not gonna sink my ‘fangs’ into anyone’s neck. I don’t even think that’s what they’re for.” “Why not?” Scootaloo asked. “Because primitive humans relied on tools to hunt. So their teeth can’t have been that effective. And people who still hunt these days probably use guns,” I said with a shrug. “What’s that?” Sweetie Belle asked. I thought back to the equipment of a few of the more militarily themed statues in Canterlot Castle. “Think of it like crossbows that’re really precise and easy to use.” “Do you have any movies with those?” Apple Bloom asked. ‘An unladylike amount.’ “A few.” “It’s too bad, though,” Scootaloo said. “What is?” Sweetie asked her. “I thought it would be cool if Gabe could show us how to hunt, or something,” Scootaloo said. I held back an amused snort. ‘That would indeed be pretty bangin, if I could.’ “Eeew! Why would you want that?” Apple Bloom asked, her tongue sticking out in disgust. “I don’t mean actually eating animals!” Scootaloo said hotly. “Just, you know, show us how. Sneaking through the forest and finding tracks and stuff.” “I think that’s just tracking,” I said. “Sadly, I’m not sure I’d be much help with that either.” “So that must mean that you didn’t use your fangs against them timberwolves?” Apple Bloom asked. “No,” I said. “Had a magical surge, according to Twilight.” “Wow,” Sweetie Belle said. “I can’t remember having any real magical surges. Rarity had one when she was a filly. So did Twilight, when they got their cutie marks.” “Seems those are pretty common when it comes to cutie marks,” I observed. “Might be something to keep in mind when crusading.” “Why?” Apple Bloom said. “Well, what if it’s about something subtle?” I asked. “What if you get your cutie mark when trying out something subtle like, uh… a stagehan- hoof, or something, and there’s this big bang with lights from the side of the stage in the middle of the performance? Or, uh, you try bird watching, or painting, and you knock things over?” Sweetie Belle put her hoof to her chin. “Yeah, that’s good thinking.” “So, what do you wanna do, Gabe?” Apple Bloom asked. “We could show you some more around Ponyville, and we have some board games here.” “Uh,” I said and gave this some thought. “Well, I’ve made a little list of things I want to get done, learning geography around where I live now is among them.” “What else is on that list?” Scootaloo asked. “Learning about enchanting, training up my magic muscle, or whatever you wanna call it, and start working on my new legs.” “That sounds hard,” Sweetie Belle said. “Which one?” Scootaloo asked her. “Making new legs,” she said. “I thought learning magic with Twilight was really hard, and biology with Miss Cheerilee.” “I guess it does,” I said. “But… I dunno, when I think about it, I just get this feeling that, even though it’s probably gonna be really hard, I can do it.” “That’s your cutie mark telling you that,” Sweetie Belle said. I gave a small smile at that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” ‘Yeah, it feels like some sort of quasi clairvoyance, certainly not baseless confidence. Imagine if I had this, but with music.’ “Magic is weird.” Scootaloo took a deep, calming breath in anticipation. “Oh, I want my cutie mark now so much.” “Well, if you haven’t found your cutie marks, maybe we can see if your cutie marks can find you? Is there anything else to see of Ponyville?” “There sure is!” Scootaloo announced excitedly. “And I know how we’re gonna get there.” - “Are you sure you can handle the extra weight?” I asked in an only slightly raised voice towards Scootaloo. “Yes I am, with no problem,” she called back. “You barely weigh a thing compared to Apple Bloom.” “Hey!” Apple Bloom called behind me, and I did a slightly better job at not sniggering at her. The Crusaders had been gracious enough to sandwich me between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in their cart, which was thundering down the road out from Sweet Apple Acres, over a bridge and onto a road outside the town proper, pulled along by Scootaloo’s scooter, propelled by Scootaloo’s wings. It actually sounded a bit like a two-stroke engine, though not nearly as loud. Which was a good thing. I remember the summers when all the little teenage boys and girls were trying out their mopeds on the long, straight, and lightly trafficked road just outside my window. Several times a day, an incessant, metallic groan would sound in the distance, gradually getting louder over a span of time about one and a half to two minutes. When the zenith was reached, you had the comforting knowledge that it would be just as long before the sound faded, and that in a few minutes time, you got to hear it all over again from the other direction. All assuming that the driver was alone, of course. It was not how I wanted to be woken up during my vacation. Anyway, there was suddenly an alarmed exclamation from Scootaloo from the front, and the whole cart did a spectacular overturn and somersault at the same time. I found myself resting upside-down against a tree, my hind leg coming to rest on the ground in front of my face. I would have given a more detailed description of the whole stunt, since it was actually pretty fun, but my helmet had partially spun around and lodged my horn in the internal ear accommodations, covering my eye with the cheek part of the helmet. So I can’t give a visual account of what happened. “Snips! Snails!” I heard Scootaloo call indignantly. “What are you two doing in the middle of the road!?” I made a little wiggle with my legs and barrel to make sure that nothing hurt but had just forgotten to remind my brain, then slid down on with my back on the ground and started pawing at the helmet. “We met Pinkie Pie earlier, and she said that you three always have a bunch of fun with tree sap, so we figured that we’d try that!” a boy’s cringe-inducingly whiny voice said. I rolled over and started fumbling for the clasp of my helmet and almost forgot to use my magical sense ability. “Yeah, good thing that we didn’t spill it,” another boy’s voice said, this one pitifully vacant. “But if we had, you guys might’ve gotten it over you, and then I could’ve seen what’s so fun with it.” I sensed the world around me again, saw the colors and outlines that made up my surroundings, and the gently, swirling glow that made up myself and the other five ponies around me. The two new ones were also unicorns, one short and tubby, the other tall and skinny, with a bucket between them. I stopped struggling with the clasp when I noticed that Scootaloo’s wings burned like the sun. Or actually, it was more like the glow in her wings was simply more intense, but still, it stood out. “No, it wouldn’t!” Sweetie Belle screeched. “My sister would use you as pincushions if I got any of that in my mane thanks to you.” I fumbled the clasp open and my helmet was practically catapulted off from my head by all the hair trying to escape. The crusaders were glaring at the two unicorn colts while picking themselves of the ground, none worse for wear. “Oh, speaking of which,” the small one, whom I had to presume was Snails from his cutie mark, said. “Did you hear there was a new unicorn in Ponyville?” “Yeah,” Apple Bloom deadpanned, and started making her way over to me. “You knocked her over.” Snips and Snails looked at me, their expressions more bewildered than shocked. “What happened to you?” the tall one, Snails, said. “Traffic collision,” I said. “Are you okay?” Apple Bloom asked me. “As far as I can tell,” I said and shook my head. “How about you guys?” “We’re fine,” Scootaloo said. “But what happened to your legs?” Snips said. “Lost them,” I simply said. It’s strange, really. Children could often simply ask me what’s up with my arm and leg while their parents cringed in the background at their bluntness. I would pretty much always just say it the way it was, I lost them in a car accident. Did it hurt? Mostly no. Wasn’t it hard to do things? It certainly could be. Could they see it? Maybe some other time. But losing a limb leaves one pretty emotional about it. Or it certainly left me emotional about it. So it was a bit hard to say for certain which kind of gawker you simply didn’t mind and which ones rubbed you the wrong way. Snips and Snails didn’t say anything mean, really. The Cutie Mark Crusaders honestly only had a mediocrum more social grace when we first met. But in this situation, for reasons I can only describe and not define, I just wanted them to go away. ‘Alright, they haven’t done anything wrong. It’s not that bad...' “Why do you have an eyepatch?” Snails asked before his face lit up. “Are you playing pirates?” ‘… But impatience and stupidity does not mix well.’ “Oh! Can we play pirates, too?” Snips asked. “We’re not playing pirates,” Apple Bloom said, scowling. “Why is she dressed like a pirate, then?” Snails asked, somehow sounding like he had found a flaw in Apple Bloom rhetoric. “She’s not dressed as a pirate, and we have got to go,” Sweetie Belle said as she rolled up beside us in the cart, Scootaloo again at the helm– wheels… handlebar! Apple Bloom pushed me and Sweetie Belle hauled me up in the cart and Scootaloo started taking off. “But we wanna join!” Snips called. “Tree sap and pirates don’t mix!” Scootaloo called back as they faded in the distance. - “So this is one of the lakes,” Sweetie Belle said. “The other one’s got a jetty and things, but we usually prefer this one because there’s usually less ponies around.” I smiled as I struggled down from the cart and into the sand. “Aaah. I haven’t been to the beach in forever.” It wasn’t a real beach, of course, and I would rather call it a large pond rather than a lake, but there was water, and fine, warm sand that large enough parts of weren’t partially covered in grass. “And right there is Rainbow Dash’s crater,” Scootaloo said excitedly. I looked at an overgrown pit that Scootaloo was pointing at and only then noticed the signs that it was a point of impact. “And why do you call it that?” I asked. “Because she was doing something too awesome for normal air,” Scootaloo said before her expression turned a bit sheepish. “Which I guess is why she crashed.” I slid down to the water and splashed my hoof in it. Despite it coming down from a mountain in the distance, the water was pleasantly warm, and it hadn’t passed through town yet, which, despite Ponyville cleanliness, I saw as a good thing. ‘With a pond like this, I can live without an ice cream joint or imported palm trees.’ “You wanna take a break?” Apple Bloom asked. “Sure, unless you mind, of course,” I said. “I don’t need a break,” Scootaloo said confidently. “But I’ll take one anyway if everypony else will.” I sat back and tried wiggling my toes into the sand, and not worry about how much of it could get stuck in my tail. I looked down towards my rear hoof when the sensation didn’t feel like what I expected. The crusaders followed my gaze towards the limb and the invisible force that was stirring the sand around it. I let out a slightly disappointed, “hmm.” “Wow, you can do that with your rear hoof too?” Apple Bloom said. “I guess so. You remember when I told you about feet?” I said. When they nodded I continued. “Well, humans have these little digits called ‘toes’ on their feet, a bit like Spike does, and I really like feeling the sand and water between them.” “Doesn’t it work with your frog?” Scootaloo asked, I wiggled my hoof a bit further into the wet sand. It wasn’t the same, but it was still nice. “Hm. Kinda.” “So what was it like to be a human?” Scootaloo asked. I laughed a little bit at that. “That’s kind of a big question,” I said. “Should we try and figure it out all at once or narrow it down?” “What did humans do for fun when they’re foals?” Apple Bloom asked. “Children, that’s what we call them, well… lots of things, I guess,” I said, and tried remembering what I had done when in my youth that wasn’t that distant, certainly not around here. “Well, when I was a little girl–” I started as Scootaloo let out an amused snort. “It’s so weird that you used to be a filly, then a mare, then a filly again, while actually only being a filly,” she said. I laughed a bit at that myself. “I guess so. Though we only call it ‘girl’ and ‘woman’. Anyway, we mostly played normal games, like hide-and-seek and things.” “Yeah, what’s it like when a predator plays hide-and-seek?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Do you pounce each other and tussle when you’re found?” “That sounds like my kind of game!” Scootaloo said. “Just like what Cheerilee and Zecora showed us about lions!” – Scootaloo crouched down with an adorably fearsome look in her eyes – “A fierce predator, stalking her prey,” – she started slowly creeping along the ground – “And then! It’s a chase for life and death!” she finished and suddenly flew around us an inch off the ground, her wings buzzing. I laughed a bit at that. “Not really, no,” I said. ‘It’s gotta be boring to play tag or hide-and-seek with pegasi.’ “I guess that quadrupeds don’t play Irish New Years?” “What’s that?” “When you’re bipedal, it’s the dumbest fun you can have with a bat or appropriate stick the length of your waist,” I said, and continued when I saw their curious expressions. “Right, if you normally walk around on your rear limbs, like humans, you can take something like a shovel handle or a long enough bat, plant one end towards the ground, bend over and place your forehead to the other end of the stick, and then simply run around the bat while keeping it in place. When you’ve run a few turns, simply try and run a straight line. It’s best if you do this at the beach or something where you won’t hurt yourself by falling over.” I smiled at them, correctly guessing that it wouldn’t make much sense to them. “It’s near impossible,” I said. They looked at me with unfathomable confusion in their eyes. “Look, just trust me, it’s fun to do, and even funnier to watch.” “So, uh,” Scootaloo stared nervously. “When did you lose your legs?” “Ten years ago,” I said simply. “All at once, arm, leg, and eye at the same time.” They were looking at me with tentative curiosity, and I knew what they wanted to ask, of course. The hesitance to push too far was understandable for the situation, if you thought about it. If they offended me, they couldn’t just come up with a fast excuse to take off and leave me to get over any slights by myself, since that would pretty much strand me here. It was actually pretty sweet of them. “Do you want to know what happened?” I asked not a hint of impatience in my voice. They nodded. “Not much to tell,” I said and looked down at the waterline. “I was in an accident together with my parents, and I was the only survivor. Or, well, most of me,” I said, the bitterness slight, but unintentional. I looked up and saw them looking at me with miserable expressions, tears gathering in Sweetie Belle’s eyes and their ears drooping. That made me realise that my own ears were at half-mast and I gently raised them to their upright positions. “But it’s funny, in a way,” I said and looked down at the water again. “I didn’t choose to come here, to Equestria, and while it hasn’t all been great, I still like being here.” From the corner of my eye, I could see their ears slowly being raised. “And I don’t think I would have, if I had a family to leave behind. I would’ve been desperate to go back, and not… put them through what I felt,” I continued. “But they’re not there. So this feels like, I dunno…” ‘Feels like you’re ready to crawl out of your shell. Step outside and enjoy the sunshine again.’ “Just feels nice, I guess.” The Crusaders were looking at me with cautious joy, or perhaps relief. ‘Gabrielle Desrochers, you are the most emotional pretender in two worlds. Be grateful that they’re not wringing their necks out of awkwardness-induced cringing.’ “Like moving on to greener pastures,” I finished, figuring that now was a good time for awkward puns. I looked up at the Crusaders. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had had immediately noticeable expressions of sadness on their faces. Apple Bloom’s sadness, however, was in her eyes, deeper and older than the other two fillies’. I thought back to the residents of Sweet Apple Acres, and the distinct lack of a Mr & Mrs Apple. She gave me a slight smile, which I returned. “So,” Sweetie Belle started cautiously after a while. “You didn’t leave a very special somepony when you got here?” In hindsight, I should probably have been able to figure out what that meant as it was being said, but it still threw me. “A what? “You know,” Sweetie Belle asked, with Scootaloo was giving her a disapproving look. “A special somepony.” “Somepony you do icky things with,” Scootaloo said. I wondered what flavor of "icky" she meant and just how special they figured that people can be to each other. Regardless, I hadn’t left anyone like that behind. “Nope,” I said. Kind of amused at the whole thing. “Have you ever had one?” Sweetie Belle pressed. “If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, then yes I have,” I said. “Oooh!” she said, and laid down on her belly with her head on her hooves, her rear-legs and tail idly waving in the air. “Have you ever kissed a colt?” I abandoned all plans on how to approach the subject of former "very special someponies" in my past. “Humans aren’t called ‘colts’, but yes.” “How was it?” Sweetie Belle asked eagerly. I didn’t have to answer, however, as Scootaloo loudly protested with a loud, “Blegh! I don’t wanna hear about that.” “Not into romance?” I asked smilingly. “I’m not into cutesy, mushy stuff at all,” she said. “I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle said teasingly. “The way you talk about Rainbow Dash is pretty cute sometimes.” “Is not!” “Yes it is,” Apple Bloom said, her rejoining the conversation making me happy. “Gabe agrees with us,” Sweetie Belle said. “No she doesn’t, it’s not cute,” Scootaloo insisted. “Here’s how cute I think it is,” I said and started talking in a mock dramatic voice. “The HMS Desrochers was sailing across the sea of cuteness, when it suddenly was caught in a kitten storm, seemingly out of nowhere. “The meows and chirps tore through the air relentlessly, and barely audible was the voice of the first mate, ‘The cutie wind, Cap’n, it be too strong! The ship can’ae take it!’” I finished with a comical pirate voice. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had doubled over from laughter and Scootaloo herself was torn between scowling and laughing. - The bell over one of the doors to Sugar Cube Corner jingled as Scootaloo started pulling it, only to be bowled back by Pinkie Pie as she shoved it open like a pink tornado. “Hey, you guys!” she said happily. “My Pinkie sense was telling me that someone would like my help over here.” “Uh, yeah,” I said as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom made their way out of the cart. “Say no more,” Pinkie said as she happily cantered forward to me, reared up, picked me up in her forelegs, and tossed me across her back with surprising gentleness. “How expedient,” I managed to say as I was regaining my bearings. “Why, thank you!” Pinkie said as she trotted in through the door, towards a booth in an empty corner of the place. “I try my best.” “So what can I get you?” she continued as she deposited me in an empty seat and the crusaders took up positions about the table. “Something warm and filling, and something refreshing to drink,” I said. “Chocolate donuts,” Pinkie said. “I just finished a batch of them. I’m gonna take some over to Twilight.” “Oh, can you get my goggles when you’re there?” I asked. “They’re at the nightstand in the room where I sleep.” “No problem. What about the rest of you?” Pinkie asked. “Strawberry muffin with rainbow sprinkles,” Scootaloo said. “Apple pie,” Apple Bloom said. “Same for me, but–” Sweetie Belle started. “But with extra vanilla,” Pinkie Pie stated confidently and Sweetie Belle nodded. Pinkie Pie trotted away towards the kitchen and the Crusaders turned to me to continue our conversation. “So you’re totally fine with talking about you being… you know,” Scootaloo said, uncertain. “Disabled. That’s a good, neutral word. And yes, most of the time,” I said, clearly not convincing them. “Look,” I said and shrugged. “I used to be very passive-aggressive about the whole thing, but my psychologist made me realise how unfair it was to let people try and figure out by themselves how I feel about it, so I promise you, if I don’t want to talk about it, I’ll tell you outright.” “You had a psychologist?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Of course,” I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I was traumatized, Sweetie Belle,” I continued, as kindly as I could. “I’m not ashamed to say that I needed one.” “But you’re better now?” she asked. “Much. Though I’m actually kind of worried about him,” I said, a hint of unease in my voice. “Why?” Apple Bloom asked. “Well, when I first met him, I was in pretty bad shape. Emotionally, I mean,” I said. “And while I got a lot better, I haven’t seen him in years, and now I’m suddenly gone without a trace. I just hope he doesn’t assume the worst, or feel guilty,” I said. The Crusaders looked as uneasy about that as I felt. “Another reason I hope that Twilight at least figures out how to send messages to Terra soon,” I said. A pair of pink hooves suddenly gripped my head and yanked me over to the edge of the booth, again with surprising gentleness. Pinkie Pie put the side of her head against the top of mine and slowly stroked her ear across my forehead with a small, “Hmm”. “Uh…” I said. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Gabe,” Pinkie suddenly said happily and let go of me. “I don’t get any floppies, no twitchies, no achies, no spassies, not even any gurglies! It’s all gonna be fine!” Before I could ask what she meant, she had moved our orders from her back to the table and gently bounced away with a happy, “Enjoy!” “What was that all about?” I asked. “Don’t worry, Gabe, Pinkie can predict things by how and where she feel twitches and whatnot,” Apple Bloom said. “Oh, that was the famous Pinkie sense?” I asked. “Yeah. Or, I guess we’ll have to assume it was,” Sweetie Belle said. “So Pinkie Pie is psychic?” I asked after a while. “Uh, kinda,” Sweetie Belle said. ‘Kinda psychic?’ I thought as I surrounded a chocolate donut with a magic blue aura, floated it up to my muzzle, and started chewing. ‘Sure, I can dig it.’ “So…” Scootaloo started. “When you were a human, what was it like to… you know?” “Uh, are you talking about being disabled again?” I asked. “Uhm. Well, yeah.” “Alright, look, I guess I made a mistake earlier when I didn’t speak up. I wasn’t upset when you touched my shoulder or anything, so let’s clarify some things,” I said and scooted closer to Scootaloo. “Is this disgusting?” I asked the crusaders and gestured to where my right foreleg would be. They eagerly shook their heads, not saying anything. “How about this leg?” I asked and gestured to the stump of my hind leg. “Or my eye?” They shook their heads again. “Unnerving? Weird? Scary?” I asked, and they kept shaking their heads. “I’m not trying to put you on the spot. I won’t be sad, or angry, I just wanna know what you think about it.” “Well, your eye is a bit icky and scary,” Apple Bloom said. I nodded evenly. “Alright. Don’t worry, I think so too, sometimes. How about you two?” I asked Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They nodded slowly and a bit reluctantly. “A little bit,” Sweetie Belle said. “I think it’s,” Scootaloo started before stopping herself. “Freaky?” I suggested. “Uhm, yeah,” Scootaloo admitted reluctantly and looked down in her lap. “But you seem pretty curious about it,” I said. “Yeah,” she said again. “Then you can ask about it,” I said with a shrug. She didn’t seem very convinced, so I broke my nine hours of chocolate donut in half, and pressed them against each other to form a mouth out of pastries that might’ve been vaguely offensive if I was still on Earth. “Hey, Gabe,” I said in a cartoonish voice, making the donut halves move like a mouth. “Yes, Sweet Cheeks?” I answered myself. “Can people ask you about your disabilities?” “Sure thing.” “Do you have a right foreleg?” “Nope.” I stopped this and looked at the crusaders, their smiles slowly growing easier. “Unfortunately, that’s all the questions Sweet Cheeks’ got time for,” I said and slowly floated one of the halves into my mouth with a small, high-pitched, “Noooo!” “Omeone elshe’s go’a take o’va,” I said, feeling only slightly like an animal. Unicorn magic rocks. This seemed to have coaxed the crusaders out of their shells. “Can I feel what it’s like, too?” Apple Bloom asked gesturing towards my shoulder. “Sure,” I said. Sweetie Belle joined in as well. “What happens when you try and move your leg?” she asked. “This,” I said, the muscles flexing slightly under the coat. “Whoooa,” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom said in fascinated union “Did you have any fake legs?” Scootaloo asked. “Yes, though they’re called ‘prosthetic legs’, and one of them was an arm, of course,” I said. “How did they work?” “Well, I normally only used a leg. It worked pretty well, and if I put some effort into it, I could walk around with barely any limp. The arm, on the other hand, couldn’t do much.” “Why?” Apple Bloom asked. “I didn’t have much left to control it with. I had this kind of old type with wires and pulleys. I’ve seen people do some pretty impressive things with those, but it’s hard enough to have one below the elbow, I didn’t even bother learning to use one without an upper arm,” I said and slurped at the milkshake I got with the donuts. “Wasn’t there newer ones, then?” Sweetie Belle asked. I shook my head and swallowed a piece of pastry that I probably should have chewed a bit more. “Yes, but I never got one,” I said. “I mostly managed to get by with only one arm. For example, I had two keyboards for my computer, one of them was on the floor, and I could press the bottom keys with my foot so that I didn’t have to pause my typing every time I needed a two keys pressed at once.” They looked at me blankly. “Just trust me, it was clever,” I said. “So that’s how you’re gonna make your new legs?” Sweetie Belle asked. “No way,” I said. “I have magic now, and I’m good with enchanting gems. So it’s probably gonna be magic all the way.” Scootaloo looked thoughtful at this. “Alright then,” she said after a moment, sounding determined. “Eat up, fillies. I know where we’re headed next.” “Aaw, you don’t want seconds?” the voice of Pinkie Pie suddenly said from the side. Sweetie Belle let out a surprised shriek. “Well, yeah, okay. We kinda do,” Scootaloo admitted. “Great!” Pinkie said and laid out a tray with another helping of sugar. “And here are your goggles!” Pinkie said, placing them below my horn in a single movement. “Ah, thanks,” I said, instantly feeling cooler by an order of magnitude. “Who’s paying for this?” “Twilight does, but you don’t have to worry about that if you don’t want to, Gabe. You’ve got diplomatic immunity, I think,” Pinkie Pie said and bounced away, humming a random melody. - “So what is this place, anyway?” I said as Scootaloo brought the cart to a halt up on a ridge overlooking Ponyville. “It’s a gem field,” Apple Bloom said as she hopped out of the cart and carried out a pair of shovels and a pickaxe (from the Sweet Apple Acres tool shed) with her mouth. “We figure that we can help you and try prospecting at the same time,” Scootaloo said. “Huh,” I said. “If a place was filled with gems so near a town where I come from, people would pick it clean pretty fast.” “You mentioned that gems were really valuable where you come from,” Apple Bloom said. “But here, I guess they're not so much. Except to Spike, maybe.” “And my sister,” Sweetie Belle added. “That’s why she got kidnapped by diamond dogs once when they were out here digging for them.” “Oh yeah. Those guys,” I said, remembering the one who told the others to throw me to the wolves. “Are they still around?” I asked, sniffing the air, remembering that their odor was very distinct, and remembering the benefits of a pony’s nose. “No, Rarity showed them what for,” Apple Bloom said. “She did?” I asked. “Yeah, you don’t wanna mess with her,” Sweetie Belle said proudly. “She didn’t win that wrestling championship for no reason.” I could only look at her dumbfounded. “What?” I managed to ask after a while. “It’s true. She's got the belt lying around in a closet somewhere.” “It’s just that Rarity didn’t strike me as someone who likes wrestling,” I said. “She’s not, she mostly did it for the chance to make a costume for it, and to help Miss Cheerilee,” Sweetie Belle said. “So your teacher is a wrestler, too?” I asked. “No, but her twin sister is, and when she hurt her hoof once, Miss Cheerilee entered the championship in her name and won with Rarity as her partner,” Sweetie Belle said. I didn’t really know what to make of this. “Alright,” I said slowly. “She sounds like an interesting mare.” “Yeah, she’s the best,” Apple Bloom said. I shook my head to clear it, and looked up at the slowly setting sun. “So what’s the plan?” “You got a bunch of gems at your welcoming party,” Sweetie Belle said. “But knowing my sister, they’re probably all top notch. So we can dig up some in bulk to use for practice.” “Good thinking,” I said and looked at the fully outfitted crusaders. “So what’s my job?” “You get to be the gem detector,” Apple Bloom said. “Alright then,” I said happily. I would’ve been a bit skeptical of the plan, but I reasoned, accurately, that I could find them with my magic scanning ability. I projected myself into my horn, and after another explanation that yes, I can indeed "see" with my eye closed, the hunt was on. - “Hyia!” Scootaloo shouted as she shoved the pickaxe into the ground again. “There’s nothing here,” she said. “I didn’t feel anything.” Pretty early during this undertaking, the crusaders’ enthusiasm had dipped for about ten seconds after they had looked at their flanks and not noticed any cutie marks. I was pretty curious myself about what it looked like when one appeared, since I missed it when my own did. “I know,” I said and rolled my eye. “You kept chipping them when you dug like that so I told you to dig right beside it.” “Oh,” she said a bit sheepishly as Apple Bloom brought the shovel down into the loosened earth, weakly illuminated by the slowly setting sun. “Where is it?” Apple Bloom asked. “It’s right in front of you,” I said. “Try removing, eh, two scoops of earth, I wanna try again.” Apple Bloom took the shovel in her mouth and dug. I directed some magic into my horn and reached out for the stone in the ground. These last few hours had been really helpful when it came to me and magic. It was getting easier to light it up, so to speak. It was feeling less and less like lifting a limb and more like simply letting it roll open. I reached out, grabbed the rock, and pulled upwards. It came out with a small explosion of dirt. “Haha!” sounded my triumphant exclamation. “Pah!” sounded Apple Bloom’s disgusted gag. “Oh, sorry,” I said. Apple Bloom spat out another piece of dirt. “That’s okay. Good job, by the way.” “Thanks,” I said smilingly, looking at the bounty. I didn’t know much about gem cutting, as in nothing at all, but I was pretty sure that they didn’t look like this when you got them out of the ground back on Earth. I grabbed the bag for finer specimen and put the latest catch in it before scanning the area again. “Does anypony feel cold?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Like, a cold wind?” “That’s strange, there was no wind planned for tonight,” said Apple Bloom. “Might be from the Everfree.” Gusts of wind started flowing around us, and there was a strange rhythm to them. “I dunno,” I said as I looked up into the sky with the small amount of daylight left. “Sounds like a huge, slow propeller or some–” That was as far as I got before a great, dark shadow swept across us and took me with it like a vortex in a sea of starless night. My heart pounded in my chest as the wind blew my mane back like I had stepped behind a jumbo jet. I looked around, half in terror, half in a daze. Ponyville spread out below me, far, far below me. My heart pounded in my… barrel, as I gripped the bag of gems and gathered up enough presence of mind to magic the goggles down over my eyes. My foreleg and the bag of gems were hanging out from the edge of something I realized was gripping me. I looked up, away from the direction of the wind, and in the twilight, I could just make out an enormous, scaled snout a short distance away from me. An unsure, “uh,” was all I managed to say at that point. That all changed when the snout in front of me opened slightly, and a giant, long, forked tongue exited and licked the front. “Mmmm. Om nom, nom,” a deep voice sounded between lazy lip smacks. Then the snout opened up fully, revealing a few mountain ranges of razor-sharp teeth. It let out a lazy, “aaah,” and slowly brought me towards the opening. I had never truly panicked before, and I don’t think I did a very good job at it this time, because I tried letting out a loud scream like I was in the hand of a giant gorilla at the top of the Empire State Building, but it just came out as a hesitant, “aaaah?” in darkly humorous duet with the other voice. I made another attempt, this time not perfect either, but it did the job. “Ah! Uh, aah aaaAAAAAAAAH!” The other voice suddenly stopped with a confused, “aaaaouh- huh?” A giant, slitted eye with a faint yellow glow opened and looked at me with utter confusion. “Uuh?” the voice said, followed by a startled, “Aah!” concluded by a shocked, “Oof!” as something slammed into the side of the snout and we started losing altitude fast. Whatever gripped me was rocked by another impact and the deep voice let out a pained yelp and let go of me. I looked towards where I was headed, made cursedly easy by the goggles, and almost passed out when I realised that the two seconds I had spent figuring out that I was falling towards a forest, it had come closer by a very worrying amount. ‘Something had obviously happened when I screamed, and right now I’m definitely gonna take my chance with something happening rather than letting things proceed like this.’ I decided to give it another shot. “AAAAAAH!” Another dark shadow grabbed me mid-flight, halting my descent with unpleasant briefness. I considered flailing, but a more rational side reasoned that even if it was the grip and the giant maw, it was preferable at this point. I would later feel somewhat pleased that I had stopped screaming by then, at least. I was whizzing through the night, realizing that I was only just above a line of trees, when a voice that should have sounded familiar, but which I will blame the wind for not recognising, said, “I got you, Gabe,” before another dark shape swiped at us and I once again found myself hurtling through the air. Luckily, there is a beautiful life form found both on Earth and in Equestria. It is called the Spruce, and it deserved the capital S, for it was ready to catch me with extraordinarily gentleness, countless green needles and all. It caught me in its tip and flexed what felt like a full ninety degrees before depositing me in the care of its significantly less pleasant, but thankfully not as tall compatriot, the elm. I hit a total of three branches before I came to a brief halt, with me hanging on one side of the second final branch, and the bag of gems acting as a counterweight on the other, twirled a full turn around the branch. I looked up at my hoof, gripping the end of the bag, but what phantom fingers make up for in stamina, they lack in sticky secretion, and I felt my grip slipping. I looked down towards the ground. The fall wasn’t as short as I would’ve liked, but at least there was a bush without any obvious thorns waiting just under me. I let out a dejected sigh, curled my hind leg up against the rest of me, and let go. A smack and a thump later I found myself lying in the shrub, and just as I sat up, gingerly raising my goggles, thinking that the ordeal might be over, the bag of rocks gleefully reminded me of its existence by landing squarely on my head. “Ow!” I fell back against the shrub again in exhaustion. I felt like saying something flippant, to show myself what a cool head I can have in situations like this, but whatever I was gonna say came out as a whimpering groan. The danger had apparently passed, and if I was feeling more sprightly, I would’ve been wondering about what happened, why I had been sailing through the air, why I ended up here, and, well, really, just what happened. I’m not sure how long I lied there, taking deep, calming breaths and nursing the bruise forming on my head, when I heard a strange combination of sounds in the distance. I didn’t even have the energy to look up when I heard a loud whooshing sound, and I don’t know if it was intuition or exhaustion that stopped me from looking up at the source of the sounds before it stepped into my line of sight with a worried look on its rainbow-adorned features. “Gabe! Are you okay!?” Rainbow Dash asked. I took a moment to have another rundown of what I felt, even though I kind of didn’t want to. ‘Pain… sharp, but shallow. Chilly, tired, bruised.’ “Kind of, perhaps tomorrow,” I muttered. Rainbow gently fished me out of the shrub and held me in her forelegs when Twilight landed beside us, immediately followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders in their cart. “How is she?” a worried-sounding Twilight said. “She’s tired and wants some painkillers,” I muttered. Rainbow gently placed me on Twilight’s back and the Crusaders hesitantly retrieved the bag from the shrub and placed it in the cart. “Thanks, guys,” I mumbled through Twilight’s wings and absentmindedly tried giving them a thumbs-up. “So what happened?” I managed to ask after a while as we made our way back through to town through the light undergrowth. “Dragon got you,” Rainbow Dash said, sounding angry. My eyebrows went up at that. “Really? Why?” I asked, feeling a small amount of energy returning to me. “Dumb lizard thought you were a snack,” Rainbow said. “That’s not an appropriate way to refer to dragons, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “But yes, he smelled gems in his sleep and took off with you unconsciously.” “How do you know that?” I asked as we came out from the trees. “He told us,” Twilight said and pointed to a large, squirming shape a little ways away. As we came closer, I saw that it was indeed a downed dragon. He didn’t have Spike’s bubbly complexity, and was instead covered by sharp ridges and hard growths. Big dragons were impressive (though I would later learn that this dragon wasn’t really full-grown), but what was truly astonishing about the scene, and which I forced myself to have a second wind for, just so that I could take it in and memorise it properly, was Armor, my companion, helper, and bodyguard. The apparent doof of his unit, Private Armor, also known as "Codpiece", had a dragon at least fifteen times his size in a sort of armlock. The dragon’s arm was held behind his back by Armor’s forelegs, and he had gained additional leverage by bending the dragon’s neck backward and angrily biting down on an ear ridge. “Okay, dude, OKAY! Time out, man. Time– OW! Time out, You win, dude, chill!” the dragon begged in a voice that I would’ve pictured on a beach in California, who was very worried about the authorities finding the indoor plantation in his basement. “I think it’s okay, private,” Twilight said. “If he tries anything, we’ll be ready.” Armor looked at me and Twilight and his expression of angry determination lessened somewhat before he let go of the dragon. The dragon immediately rolled over and started nursing his arm. “Ooooh,” he whined. “That was totally uncalled for, dude.” Armor’s expression had gone from burning with rage to smoldering with disapproval. He opened his mouth to speak, but shut it again before any sound came out, and instead continued to just glare. “You kidnapped a foal!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “And you were gonna eat her!” “Man, I didn’t mean to,” the dragon said. “Like I said, I eat when I sleep, and I must’ve smelled something groovy.” The dragon shrugged, looking slightly remorseful. There was a rattling sound behind us, we looked back and saw Sweetie Belle holding up the bag of gems. The dragon sniffed the air. “Yeah, man. That’ll be it.” Had I been more awake, I might’ve questioned the ability to smell gems, but like I’ve learned to often do here in Equestria, I just mentally shrugged and went, ‘Magic’. “So what’s gonna happen next?” Armor said, only grinding his teeth during the first few words. The dragon shrugged. “I’unno, man. I was just flying south, I wasn’t looking for trouble. Can’t I just keep doing that?” “You almost ate a foal and honored guest of the crowns!” Twilight protested. The dragon’s eyes went wide with terror at this. “Aw, man! The Sun Pony,” he whined before crouching down before Twilight and looking pleadingly into her eyes. “Don’t tell them, dude! The Sun Pony is, like, way tense about other ponies. And her sister is even worse, man. This one dude, he like, tried to mess with Moon Pony, and she, like, shoved his snout up his cloaca. Literally, man. I’m not even joking!” “Well, I think your victim should have some input on what happens, don’t you think?” Twilight asked and looked back at me. The dragon’s slitted pupils went thin as straws when he saw me. “Oh, dude! I didn’t do that, did I!?” he asked, shoved his claw into his maw and started groping around. “May’e the’e shti’ll in he’e.” At my current state, it took a while before I realised what he was going on about. “No, they’re not. You didn’t chew me up,” I said. “You just tried bowling down a forest with me as the ball.” The dragon stopped groping around his mouth and slowly looked between me and Armor. “Aw, man. I’m sorry, I must’ve knocked you out of his arms,” he said and pointed at Armor. “That’s right,” a still scowling Armor said. The dragon looked down dejectedly. “Alright, I messed up, man. I’m sorry.” “So you both fly and eat when you’re sleeping?” I asked. “Sometimes.” “Has it ever caused any problems before?” I asked, He looked up with remorseful seriousness. “No, dude! Seriously!” “Well, it has now,” I said and looked to Twilight. “What do you think? Can Princess Luna help with sleep-related issues?” “I think she’s gonna be perfect for the job, and the timing is great,” Twilight said with a satisfied smile before turning to the dragon and pointing to the mountain in the distance. “Alright, you. Canterlot, now! And we’ll know if you don’t go there. More importantly, Luna will know.” The dragon let out a sigh and took off, before calling back to us. “Sorry again!” We watched him fly towards the capital for a moment before I let out a big yawn, my exhaustion catching up with me. “Wow, Gabe,” Scootaloo said. “First you escape from diamond dogs, then timberwolves, now this!” “Yeah, I thought you were gonna go through a hydra, or at least some manticores before moving up to a dragon. But they’re gonna be a piece of cake compared to this,” Sweetie Belle said. I chuckled at that, which made the pain from my bruise flare up again. “Oooh.” “Are you fillies about ready to call it a night?” Rainbow said. “I am,” I said and turned to the Crusaders. “Thanks for today, guys. It was really fun, and kind of exciting.” The trio gave me some fairly sheepish smiles. “Yeah, you wanna hang out again, sometime?” Apple Bloom asked. “Yeah,” I mumbled into Twilight’s wing and tried giving them another thumbs-up. “Alright, I’m gonna take these three home. See you guys later,” Rainbow said before looking back at Armor and smiling. "Awesome job, dude!" “Later, Gabe,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, we’ll drop these off tomorrow,” Apple Bloom said and jangled one of the bags of gems. I simply waved. Armor took me in his forelegs and we started gently hovering towards the hopefully empty streets of Ponyville. “So what happened?” I asked, giving up on the prospect of keeping my eye fully open. “That dragon came out of nowhere and picked you up, I followed, and the Crusaders went straight for Miss Dash’s house and called for help, then to Golden Oaks,” Armor said, his angry scowl having left the same time the dragon did. “Were you watching over us all day?” I asked. “Of course,” Armor said. “I was on a cloud the whole time after we went to Sweet Apple Acres. Miss Pie even provided me with a meal the same time as you.” “Hmm, yeah. I thought I saw a glimpse of you now and then,” I said. “How do you feel, Gabe?” Twilight asked. “I’m bruised, tired, and kinda filthy,” I said, fishing out a twig from my mane. “But I’m fine otherwise. How about them self-defense magics, eh, Twilight?” I said with a chuckle. “Yes, I think it might be time for those pretty soon,” she said. “Hey, Armor,” I said. “Yeah?” “Thanks,” I said and pecked him lightly on the cheek. I wish I could’ve seen his reaction. At the time, I think I wanted either a confident smile or a stunned blush, but I fell asleep the moment my head started falling back. - “Trouble sure seems to like you, Gabe,” Redheart said. I had woken up as we entered the hospital, and Nurse Redheart was currently applying a watertight sleeve around a bandaged bruise on my hind leg while I was holding a bag of ice to my head, barely able to sit upright. “Everyone seems so social and outgoing here in Equestria,” I said. “Don’t know why Trouble would be an exception,” I said. She laughed lightly at that. “Well, you’re shaping up to be quite the adventure magnet, but if you’re gonna save the world like Twilight and her friends, can you do it away from Ponyville? I think Mayor Mare is gonna have a nervous breakdown if you’re gonna start doing these things as well.” “I’ll keep that in mind,” I muttered. “Alright, time for a wash,” Redheart said when she finished. “And if I was in your horseshoes, I wouldn’t bother trying to stay awake during this.” “Thanks, Redheart,” I said as she carried me into the bathroom. “Just look forward to tomorrow,” she said. “Sounds like you’re making a lot of progress with your magic, and now you have lots of materials to practice your special talent on.” “Mmm, that’s a good point,” I said as I felt the relaxing embrace of a warm shower and fell asleep again. “It is indeed,” a deep, distant voice echoed in my head. “Now, let us commence.” > Practice Makes Perfect (But First It Makes Passable) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke in my bed at Golden Oaks, feeling more refreshed than I had in forever. My brain felt fresh and energized, as did my coat, and pretty much my everything, despite the bandages that covered my hind leg and forehead. I sprawled out against the unwrinkled sheets and stretched. ‘Mmm! Marry me or something, Redheart. I don’t care about sick people. I need you for myself.’ I felt a great relief when my back rubbed against the sheets, and a strange, almost obsessive desire to roll around on my back. So I did. After wrinkling the sheet a bit, I stopped. Then I realized that with unicorn magic, making the bed wouldn’t be much of a chore, so I kept going. After a while, though, an exception to my general freshness made itself known: My breath, and decided to go get some breakfast. I was about to magic my wheelchair over to me when I noticed that it wasn’t it in the room with me. ‘Oh, right. We left it at the clubhouse.’ As I pondered whether or not I should stay in bed, reading or something, or try and make my way down to the kitchen, I spotted the collection of gems from Rarity on the desk. ‘Well, might as well occupy myself with magic until… heeey!’ I projected myself into my horn and took a "look" around. Something I hadn’t noticed before was that Armor and I spent the nights less than a body length away from each other. He was lying on his back in his bed, wall-to-wall with my own, in the other room, with a foreleg behind his head and a book propped up against a hind leg. “Hey, Armor,” I tried in a conversational volume. There was no reaction. “Armor,” I insisted, louder, but not shouting by any means. Wondering if he couldn’t hear me or if the book was just so engrossing that he didn’t notice, I felt curiosity get the better of me and I tried making out what he was reading. Viewing magic was really useful for a lot of things, but reading was tricky. It was still possible, though, but since things weren’t obscured by their position, I had a bit of trouble figuring out which page I was looking at. Still, with some practice, I figured it would be a neat trick to be able to read closed books. Giving up on reading with magic for now, I simply knocked against the wall. One of Armor’s ears swivelled around to try and locate the sound, but rather than having fun with the ridiculous adorableness of it all, I decided to not tease him and knocked harder. Armor got out of bed and briskly marched out of his room and up to my door. “Gabe?” he asked. “Yup, I knocked,” I said. “Do you want me to come in?” “Yes.” Armor opened the door softly and walked in, not one hint of irritation or impatience on his face. “Good morning,” he said. “Morning,” I said. “Sorry to drag you away from your reading, but I’m kinda hungry, and the chair is back at the clubhouse.” Realization and embarrassment showed on Armor’s face. “Oh, right,” he muttered and clopped himself lightly in the head. “Duh. Sorry about that.” “It’s okay,” I said. “At least now you haven’t broken the Crusaders’ rules.” Armor gave me a small smile as he walked up to me, rearing up and letting his wings support him instead. “Kitchen?” he said, and offered his forelegs. “Kitchen,” I confirmed, and scooted into my secondary transportation. “How did you know I was reading?” he asked, as we slowly floated through the halls and down the stairs, while I forgot to grab an eyepatch. “I woke up and did the whole magic sense thing to figure out where you were,” I said. “Couldn’t make out what you read, though. And I guess I should apologize. It’s not cool spying on people in bed.” “I’ve mostly lived in a barrack the last few years, I’ve had ponies all around me when I was in bed,” Armor smoothed over. “Trust me, this is nothing compared to surprise inspections.” I chuckled at that. “Well then, at least sorry for dragging you away from your book.” “Technically, I’m on the job right now, so it’s all well and proper,” he said, as we flew into the empty kitchen. “Her highne– ehm, Twilight and Spike went out for a short errand, but she told me that we have unlimited access to the pantry.” “Well, let’s have a look,” I said. Armor held me up so that I could have a decent look, and I used my "arcanokinesis" which I preferred to just call "magic" like most other ponies, to rummage through the contents. “You know how to make something with eggs?” I asked Armor. “I do, I’m among the ponies who rotate through kitchen duty,” he said. “And he cooks, too,” I said jokingly as he gently put me down on a chair, before I remembered what I did yesterday. “You know, about when I kissed you last night, if you wanna call it that…” Armor opened his mouth before immediately shutting it. “I can imagine it’s complicated to change from adult to child,” he thoughtfully said after a while. “Changing species on top of that has got to be mind boggling.” “Sometimes it’s more complicated than other times, but yeah;” I said. “Look, just imagine that I’ve thought up a smooth way to say that, uhm… I’m not hitting on you, but I would very much understand why someone who’s, uh, compatible would.” Armor bobbed his head in consideration. “All right,” he said with a hint of amusement. “I’ll take it.” I giggled lightly at his reaction. “And to be fair, you looked kind of heroic yesterday.” He smiled at that. “And to be fair in turn, you are a very cute filly, and I think you’re gonna have to work really hard to not become a very pretty mare.” “Good morning. What are you two talking about?” Twilight’s voice sounded behind us. She was standing in the doorway with Spike on her back and several large packages floating around her, wrapped in plain, brown paper and a violet magic aura. “Good looks as a pony,” I said quickly, before anyone had the chance to fluster. “I’d like to sound modest, but I looked pretty good as a human, so I was curious about how I look now. Anyway, good morning.” “Good morning,” Spike and Armor echoed. “Well, you could use Rarity as a reference point, she’s the prettiest pony in Equestria,” Spike said as he hopped off from Twilight and took a seat by the table. I saw Twilight rolling her eyes and smiling as she set the packages down by the doorway. “Well, I have the same, I guess… phenotype as her sister, so that’s speaking in my favor, I would think,” I said. “In this case, yes,” Twilight said. “But having a pretty sibling doesn’t mean anything. Don’t tell him I said this, but Donut, the owner of my favorite cafe in Canterlot, doesn’t look like much next to his brother, Cotton Eye. By the way, you got something.” Twilight floated up two of the things that had obviously come in the mail to me, one was pretty big, while the other was the size of a shoulder bag. “Again?” I asked, and started magically tearing the paper from the smaller one placed on the table in front of me. “An attaché?” I asked, confused. “It’s from Prism,” Twilight said, as I opened the case. I nearly recoiled out of my chair in horror, just as Twilight’s words registered. Looking back at me from the inside of the case was rows and rows of what looked like eyeballs. “Yeah. I think you should try one out right now,” Spike said, and I realized that my right eyelid had jumped up from the reaction. I brought my eyelid down and floated one of the prosthetic eyes up. It was completely blank, giving it away as a lifeless, inorganic fake, and not something more sinister as it first looked like. “Uhm,” I said unsure. “This is an orb.” “Well, yes,” Twilight said, sounding unsure as well. “Isn’t it supposed to be?” “I’ve only used lenses,” I said. “Are you sure this is okay?” “Ehm, yes,” Twilight said. “Well, okay,” I said, and floated it towards my eye socket. I couldn’t really bring myself to insert it, though. After a while, Armor came up to me. “Would you like some help?” he asked. “I… yeah, I think so,” I said. ‘Come on. It can’t be that bad, and it’s not gonna get stuck in there if you can pull it out with magic.’ “Okay,” Armor said, and walked over to the sink and washed his hooves. “Lean your head back.” I did, closed my real eye, opened the other one, and simply waited while it felt like Armor was very, very slowly inserting the orb. “You can open your eye again,” Armor said. “Huh?” I asked, opening my eye to see Armor standing in front of me, the orb nowhere to be found. I levelled my head and felt a small, gentle weight in my eye socket. I closed my right eyelid and softly poked it with my hoof. Sure enough, it didn’t give away, and instead pinched against something. “Wow,” I said in wonder. “I barely felt that at all.” “It looks good,” Twilight said. “You wanna see it?” “Please.” Twilight’s horn lit up and a small mirror floated into the room and up to me. I looked like a comic character or something, with one eye milky white. I turned my head in different directions, trying to see how well it followed my movements, and groaned at myself when I realized that that wouldn’t work with a blank eye. “How does it feel?” Twilight asked. “It feels good,” I said. “Or, actually, I can barely feel it at all. I thought it would be cold, at least.” I put my hoof on the orb and turned it a little bit. It was noticeable, but not intrusive in any way. “Well, guess that goes to show how good Prism is at this,” Twilight said. “I guess it does. Alright, I’m gonna try it myself, this time.” I closed my actual eye, projected myself into my horn, and powered it up. It was another strange experience which I hadn’t had yet. "Looking" at your own face with, well, another part of you. I lifted the prosthetic eye out of my socket and noticed that it was enchanted. “Twilight, Spike, I hope you’re feeling up for sending a letter, I just remembered that I should probably write to Princess Luna. I remember parts of a very strange dream.” “Oh? What about?” Twilight asked. “A voice that taught me enchanting,” I said, and inserted another eye. “Really? Interesting,” she said. “Yeah,” I said, and tried doing the thing with the mirror again. The eye followed my gaze almost perfectly, unless I leered too much. The pupil was painted on, though, and didn’t react to light. “I wonder if it’s strange for me to be able to tell that these things are enchanted to not cause friction and always feel warm.” “Well, you have a cutiemark in enchanting,” Twilight said. “But yeah, we should keep Luna updated.” I experimentally tried pulling my eye out with my lid in a neutral position. It was sitting there pretty firmly, though, and the light weight lessened the risk of it popping out from moving my head violently. When I tried fluttering my new eye, I realized why Prism had included so many blank orbs. The pupil wasn’t painted on with a white board marker, but was a material laid on thick enough to tickle my eyelid. “Now what’s this?” I turned my attention to the other package, and levitated it towards myself for closer inspection. It had an icon of a corpulent and jovial looking gryphon in a chef’s hat, with a label underneath that said, "Metzger and Cubs". “Hold the phone, Armor,” I said, and levitated the package towards Armor, while fighting to keep my smirk down. “I may have something to augment the breakfast with.” Armor reared up and held out his forelegs. “Alright, what’s phoney about it?” he asked. - “So this voice didn’t seem malicious in any way?” Twilight asked, not looking up from the parchment in front of her. “Not really,” I said with a shrug. “I can’t remember word for word what it said, but it was male, calm, confident, and kind of fair-spoken when it wasn’t to-the-point.” “And it didn’t ask or tell you to do stuff?” Twilight asked, while the quill was still moving. “No. Or, well, uh,” I said, giving this some thought. “Maybe it did, but I think it was in a lecturer-asking-for-your-attention kind of way.” “What about environment?” “An empty void is all I can remember,” I said with a shrug. “But not unnerving or anything. Sometimes I think I saw enchantment patterns, but it might have just been me visualising them.” “And what did it teach you?” I shrugged again, somewhat at a loss. “Magic, I guess,” I said. “Mostly enchantment, but I guess some other magical theory was in there as well, unicorn spells, the relation with physical stamina and magical reserves, the stabilising effect pony presence can have on background magic…” I shook my head, feeling a bit drowsy and realizing I was almost talking to myself. Twilight was looking up from the parchment at me with carefully observant eyes. Spike was looking only kind of bored, and Armor was observing me keenly. “Was there anything familiar with the voice?” Twilight asked. I rested my chin on my hoof. ‘Maybe…? It’s like I’ve heard it before, maybe in a dream or something...' I almost clobbered myself in the head at that. 'Of course you’ve heard that voice in a dream! We’re talking about one right now, dummy.’ “I dunno,” I said after a while. “It’s hard to say. Maybe… I’ve just… it taught me things, and maybe I just assume it’s got a voice like a wise mentor or something.” Twilight scribbled some more on the parchment. “Alright, anything else you can think of?” she asked. “Well, nothing that hasn’t been said already. Like I said, it’s a bit fuzzy, now that I’ve woken up, but I can’t remember actually learning anything from a dream like this before.” Twilight spent a few more moments writing on the parchment, before handing it to Spike. “Here,” she told him, before turning back to me. “Don’t worry, Gabe, I’m sure it’s nothing.” “It’s okay, it’s weird, but I’m not worried,” I said, as Spike opened the window by the kitchen table, then torched away the parchment. “That’s good,” Twilight said smilingly before, fishing out another parchment and magicking it over to Spike. “Now! I thought we could make a schedule about all the things we’ve got plans for.” Spike let out a small groan, and I soon sympathised. Those were some very long twenty minutes, and I was impressed by Armor’s ability to nap while looking like he was standing at attention. I woke him up by magically tickling him in the ear whenever he let out a small snore. While I was making myself presentable in the bathroom, Armor was off fetching my wheelchair, and after promising Spike that I’d show him my computer when we got back, we found ourselves outside of Scrap’s house. I had brought my goggles, just in case. Armor simply knocked on the door to the conservatory/workshop, and walked in. “Hey, Scrap!” Scrap was standing by the forge, which was surrounded by a large, shadowy sphere. When he looked at us, his face lit up with a smile that looked strangely wry for its wideness. “Heya,” he said before turning back to the strange orb in front of him. “Don’t touch anything just yet. I’m cleaning this thing.” I noticed that the forge had a metal slide sticking out near the bottom, pointing downward, and tied around it was a large sack being filled. It took a few moments of observation before I realized that the orb was a field that seemed to be holding copious amounts of soot inside it, and Scrap was levitating a broom inside of it, shoveling ashes down into a hole at the bottom of the now cold forge. “I was thinking up a plan for teaching you two yesterday,” he said. “So I thought I’d let this thing go out and cool off for a day before cleaning it out.” He magicked a hatch at the opening for the slide shut, then levitated the almost-full sack of ashes to the corner of the room, before he attached a new sack and continued. “I don’t wanna use too much water, so it takes ages before it’s cold enough for me to be able to do this. That is, without brooms, sacks, and everything else going up in flames,” he continued. “Wow, that’s very thoughtful of you,” Twilight said. “Thank you.” “Hey, my pleasure, your highness,” he said, before turning to his nephew. “Hey, Stud, a little wingpower here, alright?” Armor walked up to the other side of the forge and started hovering in place, strongly beating his wings towards the forge, but instead of launching himself into the well, he caused a strong wind to blow against the orb surrounding it. It was fascinating to see pegasus magic in action, but my attention was split between that, and what I now realized wasn’t unicorn magic, but an enchantment. The soot and ashes from most of the orb were ripped away by the wind and caught in the far side, forming a sort of slowly shrinking cap. Armor slowly circled around the orb, slowly moving it around and concentrating it into a small pile near the bottom. Scrap levitated another open empty sack beneath the pile. “Alright, thanks,” he said, and when Armor touched down, he pulled a chain, which released an up until now seemingly pointless ratchet hanging from the chimney. The magic that formed the invisible orb vanished, and the pile landed inside the sack. Within minutes, the forge and the surrounding had gone from covered in a thick cloud of soot to not-quite-clean enough to eat from, but close to it. “There. And the kicker is that now it’s time to do it all over again,” Scrap said, dropped the broom into a barrel of water, and started whittling a log with a large knife. “By the way... Miss Desrochers, correct?” I nodded. “Yes, but just ‘Gabe’ is fine.” “Right, well, Gabe, I have to say that it looks very good. Very genuine,” he said and nodded towards me. “Thank you,” I said with a smile and absentmindedly touched my new eye. Once upon a time, I might have been offended and thought that he meant that I needed fake parts to look good, but I knew what he meant, and he seemed genuine too, in his blunt way. “And you don’t seem too worse for wear,” he said, gesturing towards my bandages. “After what happened last night.” I looked surprised. “Oh, you saw that?” He nodded. “Oh, well, no, these are just bruisings. Your nephew made sure of that,” I said, and Armor shifted slightly. “Yeah, I didn’t see all of it, but I saw that. Or at least parts of the tail end of it. I was in full gallop out by the bridge over the west stream with Hot Pink here,” he said and gestured to a rack with a giant, quad-linked arbalest with ropes woven between the bolts. He slapped Armor on the back with a big grin. “But you had ‘em, Stud. I stuck around until our princess here and Dash was back, but I knew I didn’t need to.” Armor looked at his uncle. “You didn’t help?” “Like I said, I was about to. But you had him,” he said with a laugh. “I remember when you and Dress were little foals, running around with wooden swords and buckets for helmets. Hard to think that was only some forty years ago, and now you can bring down dragons by yourself!” Armor shifted again. “Well, he was alone, and I’m trained, he wasn’t.” Scrap let out another, louder laugh. “Of course he wasn’t trained! It was a dragon!” Armor just waited while his uncle finished laughing. “Don’t try and be modest here, Stud, dragons are fearsome, period,” Scrap said, and shook his head. “Luna’s stars, imagine a dragon with royal guard training.” “He’s right, Armor,” Twilight said. “That was very impressive.” By now, Armor wasn’t just shifting uncomfortably, he was blushing too. I decided to help him out. “It’s true, but I gotta ask,” I said and turned to Scrap. “Hot Pink?” Scrap’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, there was a flood about, mmm… thirty years ago, and this cragadile started loitering by the edge of the Everfree in a pond that formed there. I made her just in case,” he said, and floated the giant weapon over to us, the edge carefully pointed away from us. “It’s a heavy-duty net launcher.” I was about to ask if we could see it in action sometime, before I realized some other ponies who’d want to do so as well. “Be careful not to let the Cutie Mark Crusaders near this thing,” I said. “Don’t worry, I know about them as well,” Scrap said, and went back to whittling firewood. “So, shall we get started?” “Yes please,” Twilight said happily. “Alright what do you know about the subject?” Twilight and I looked at each other, I shrugged and gestured for her to speak. “Well,” she said. “I know quite a bit of theory, but I have never created anything really complicated.” “Ah,” Scrap said. “That’s good, I’d hate to bore you with knowledge you already have.” “Oh, that’s okay, I’d love to learn about it from an expert anyway.” “Mmm. And what about you, Gabe?” Scrap said and started building a little tower of firewood with the kindling at the bottom. I shrugged. “I’ve only ever tried it once, but I’ve read a bunch of theory as well, and it all seems so natural.” “That’s good,” Scrap said, quickly starting a small fire with a rock and a fire striker, and turned some knobs on the pipes of the forge. “Well, if Princess Sparkle doesn’t mind me taking it from the beginning, how about I tell you about my trade in a somewhat more straightforward way than dry tomes?” “Just Twilight is fine,” Twilight said. “And personally, I think that sounds great.” I shrugged, feeling as if this was gonna be progress in any case. “Sure.” “You wanna stick around, Stud?” Scrap asked Armor. “The pantry is fair game.” “Well,” Armor said and turned to me. “I might have some errands to fly, if you don’t mind. For example, I think the tools you used yesterday are still lying around over at the gem field, I might as well take care of that.” “Oh, yeah, sure. Thanks,” I said. “Don’t mention it. I’ll be back.” With that, Armor took off and left us around the slowly building fire. There was only one open window, but the pipes above the forge seemed to be really good at venting the smoke. Another enchantment, I assumed. “So,” Scrap said as he piled some more firewood against the slowly building fire and levitated a sack of coals over to him. “Have any of you ever heard that enchanting is the ‘trade of flanks’?” ‘Pff, what?’ I hadn’t. It wasn’t mentioned in the books. Twilight’s eyes lit up, though. “I have, and I’ve always wondered why,” she said. Scrap chuckled. “Well, it’s an inside joke in the trade. Don’t worry, I’m gonna explain it. When you tried enchanting before, Gabe, what did you make?” “A levitation enchantment on a topaz,” I said. “Or, well, I tried imitating Twilight’s enchantment, and it… well, it became enchanted, but it just rolled around on the floor.” “Hmm,” he said neutrally and looked at me for a moment. “I didn’t do very much,” I said. “We were just testing my magic and my special talent. I had come down with…” – I looked at Twilight – “ Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome, right?” “That’s right,” Twilight said with a nod. “Ah,” Scrap said. “Well, we can try it again, it’s a very good example, both for teaching and demonstrating.” Scrap’s horn lit up and he floated over a bronze ingot to us. “Let’s start with this. Twilight, could you enchant this with a levitation enchantment? Don’t bother making it powerful.” “Uhm, okay.” Twilight said and lit her horn up. A few moments later, Scrap "let go" of the ingot and it fell about two inches before settled to gently floating above the ground. Scrap gave it a light slap and it lazily bobbed like corked up glass flask in water. “Good,” Scrap said, and turned to me and brought another ingot over to the workbench beside us. “I would like you to give it a try, Gabe. I wanna see both of your levels of proficiency.” “Hmm, okay,” I said, a bit skeptically and turned to the ingot. Scrap gave me some quick instructions on how to infuse a physical object with magic, and change it, rather than just momentarily influencing it. I projected myself into my horn and took a "look" at Twilight’s work. The swirls of colors and the gently pulsating lights seemed easy enough to replicate, which was definitely part of my magically provided talent. I could tell that I would’ve needed to study it for quite a while if it wasn’t. Trying to infuse the ingot with magic, though, was tougher. It felt like trying to paint barely solidified grease with a white board-marker. Or like trying to teach me math. It just wouldn’t stick properly. “A little more push,” Scrap said. “A little more power.” I deprojected myself and rubbed my right eyelid. I had scrunched up my face in concentration and they weren’t used to current position. “I’m not sure I can,” I said. “Oh, you definitely can,” Scrap said. “You have the capability, you just need to learn how.” Scrap looked up in the ceiling. “Imagine that… ” he said, waited a moment, and let out a deep breath. “Oh, what’s a good analogy?” Here, Twilight stepped in instead. “How about this? I’m gonna hold the ingot down, and you try and lift it?" she said and enveloped the lump of metal in her purple magic grip. “Don’t try and sense the magic, Gabe, just imagine that you’re filled with magical power.” “Okay,” I said after a while. “Now what?” “Now, point your horn towards the ingot, and imagine that the magic inside you flows into your horn.” I did so, and my horn lit up, noticeably brighter than before, and feeling like someone was holding balloons charged with static electricity by it from all sides. “Whoa, okay, and then?” “Now imagine that it reinforces your arcanokinetic magic, and lifts up the ingot.” The purple glow by the bottom of the ingot was pushed away by my own blue one, and the ingot slowly started to lift. “Great,” I said, my face scrunched up again, and my barrel tense from concentration. “Uh, am I doing it right”? “Very much so,” Twilight said with a smile. “I could let go and show you, but I don’t wanna ruin the ceiling.” Scrap’s face lit up. “Oh! Hold that thought,” he said, and floated yet another ingot directly over the one my and Twilight’s magic were contesting over. “Hmm, hm-hm hm-hm,” he hummed a random tune as he worked another enchantment into it. “There, let go, Twilight,” he said. Twilight did so, and it felt like someone had yanked a weight away from a limb that I didn’t know I had. I tried steadying myself in my wheelchair, like I had taken a step too far while walking some stairs, despite being completely still. The ingot I had held in my magical grip flew up into the one Scrap had enchanted. They collided with a loud clank, like someone had tried opening a dumpster from the inside by banging it with a hammer. Twilight caught the rogue ingot, which had bounced off Scrap’s enchanted one, in her purple magic, before it could do any damage to the workshop. Scrap’s horn lit up again, and after a moment, he floated his ingot down for inspection. “Hm,” he said, in a somewhat impressed tone. “Not to brag, but my material is definitely fit for Canterlot’s finest, and you still did this.” He floated the ingot over to me. It had a small but clear dent in the bottom. Not enough to warp the entire piece, but definitely bigger than I thought I’d be able to do by throwing it as a human. “Oh,” I said, and shook my head, fighting off a mild wave of drowsiness. “Yeah. Have a break for a minute. I’m gonna get some more coal from the basement,” Scrap said and walked out the door. He paused before walking out of sight. “Want anything to drink, or something?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. “No thanks,” I said. Scrap nodded and continued on. “Your magic is developing really nice,” Twilight said. “Thanks, it seems so,” I said. “Though that was kinda tiring. Was that how I ended up with Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome?” “No,” Twilight said and shook her head. “Or, well, yes, in a way, but it would’ve taken a lot more effort, and you would need to be suffering serious physical fatigue beforehoof. There’s also an element of chance, so you’d need some bad luck as well.” I considered this for a moment. “Well, it helped me and Zecora with those wolves, so it feels like a fair trade to me.” “You two really saved each other out there,” Twilight said. “Yeah, though she started it,” I said a bit playfully. “Mmm. That was pretty awful, what that diamond dog did to you,” Twilight said. “It was only one?” I asked. “Well, the one who abducted you and told the others to leave you in the woods were the same one.” “Oh. How do you know that, by the way?” “Luna went and had a word with the one responsible,” Twilight said. “That word was ‘behave’. She can be pretty intimidating when she wants to.” I thought back to Princess Luna’s dark majesty. Yeah, intimidating… and awesome. “Anyway, you should start feeling more spry now,” Twilight said. She was right. Just a short break later, and I was ready to have a go at magic again. Scrap came back into the workshop, weighed down by several bags of coal slung over his back, and several more of them magically floating in front of him. “And, there!” he huffed as he dumped the many bags of coal in front of him and crouched down to slip out of the ones hanging from his back. “Phew! Alright, how are you feeling, Gabe? Ready for a shot at enchantments?” “Yeah, feeling fine,” I said. “Okay then,” he said. “Now, magic is all around us, but that fact means next to nothing, for there are so many different forms of magic. We ponies, and other magical beings, use our magic to influence the world around us, consciously or not. “We enchanters use a complicated art to infuse the physical world with our will, and make it last.” I nodded slowly as I took it in. “Mmm, this is kinda what it says in the books on magic, and the ones on enchantment.” “Hmm? Have you read a lot of books on enchanting?” he asked. “Well, I’ve read the intro of about four different books. Though they weren’t as concise as this.” “I suppose they’re not. Enchanting is a very personal craft, where everypony adds their own flavor,” Scrap said. “It’s not like math, where there is one truth, the end. Like an art, enchanting can differ quite a bit between individuals, which makes it a bit tricky to write universal rules about.” “They said something to that effect, too,” I said and shook my head. “Anyway, sorry. Continue.” Scrap nodded. “Like I said, we all use our magic to shape the world. A while back, a pair of unicorns came into town with a cider machine and tried to trick the Apple-family out of their farm.” Twilight’s eyes darkened at this. “Oh yeah, those two,” she said. Scrap nodded and looked thoughtfully out in the distance. “I don’t think they’d have gained much in the long run. I’d bet my right hoof–” Scrap eyes widened in shock “ – Uh! I mean… uhm…” he stammered, not quite being able to meet my eyes, whether natural or not. I waved it off. “I get it. Continue,” I said, far too interested in the subject matter to get hung up on something I try not to get hung up on in most situations. “Alright,” Scrap said, sounding a bit relieved. “Anyway, I don’t think Sweet Apple Acres would serve them all that well. They weren’t farmers, they were tinkerers and business ponies to a degree, but most of all swindlers. “Now, the Apple family are farmers. They can take care of an apple orchard. Their magic helps them. If they’d have left, their magic would’ve faded or gone dormant from Sweet Apple Acres, and without properly cared for apples, that unicorn duos’ cider-machine would’ve churned out swill.” Twilight nodded at this. “I think you’re right, and that almost makes me more angry about it,” she said. “Understandable,” Scrap said. “Well that’s one example of pony magic, and as enchanters, we can take that magic, our magic, and pour it into a vessel.” Scrap paused, and I let the knowledge sink in. “This all makes it sound like mechanized mass production isn’t possible with magic goods.” “It’s possible,” Scrap said. “Though very tricky. We’re artificers, not… ” he waved his hoof in the air as he searched for words. “Machines, I suppose. “Alright, you know how to levitate an object in place,” Scrap said and magicked over another bronze ingot to where Twilight’s was floating. “Now to make an enchantment out of that. Ready?” I nodded. “Yes, I can see how Twilight’s is enchanted, should I try and do it like that?” Scrap raised an eyebrow at me. “You can see it?” “Well, sort of. I can project my senses into my horn and sense magic around me, and it’s easiest to describe as sight,” I said. Scrap let out a low whistle. “Imagine if I could do that when I was starting out. I have to make due with these,” he said and gestured to the goggles resting on his forehead. “You could do that, but if you want, I can show you how to do it the way I learned.” “Okay,” I said. “I could try that.” Scrap nodded. “So, you already know arcanokinesis. Imagine isolating the aspect of arcanokinesis that holds something in place vertically.” I slowly nodded. “Okay,” I said, somewhat hesitantly. “Now, reach out for this ingot, but instead of biting down on it, infuse it with your wish for it to float in the air,” Scrap said as I reached out for the piece of metal. “You don’t hold the outside with your magic,” Scrap continued. “Your magic enters the ingot. You meet resistance, but you know how to get past it. A dumb piece of bronze can’t keep you out.” The hard surface of the bronze put up some resistance, but it still made way for my magic. Its hard shell became a net that I could reach through, and manipulate the magic inside of as I saw fit. The ingot didn’t feel as inviting as a gem did to me when it came to magic, but it was a very basic thing I was trying to do. Compared to enchanting a gem, it felt like trying to type at one of those split keyboards. (a configuration that never spoke to me) Just a little more deliberation behind it all, and it was smooth sailing. “Good,” Scrap said. “Since this is a simple enchantment, all you need to do is fill it with a piece of the same type of magic that you levitate something with, and leave it there. When you’ve infused it, hold it there as you pull away, don’t let it leave.” It felt a bit like trying to pull your finger out of a water-filled balloon. Doing so without spilling any was tricky, at least with the amount of control over magic that I had. In the end, though, enough of it stayed inside for the enchantment to work, and when Scrap let go, the ingot floated in place. Scrap poked it lightly, and just like Twilight’s, it bobbed a bit before settling. “Good,” he happily said, and bobbed Twilight’s ingot one more time. “Now, these aren’t very powerful, are they?” Twilight and I shook our heads. “But! You can make them more powerful, yes?” He said and floated two more ingots over to us. We nodded. Scrap smiled. “Then do so, and don’t worry, we’re getting to the point of this, soon, and the reason for the flank thing. I’m not gonna be cryptic like this all day.” Twilight and I set to work while Scrap tended to the forge. Like the books had taught me, and like what seemed to be obvious, I simply poured some more magic into the ingot, making the swirl faster, brighter, and more pronounced. I had to be careful not to go too far, though. Not because it was dangerous, at least not in this case, but because too much and the magic would just disperse or implode in on itself, like a satellite escaping orbit. When I opened my eye, Twilight had also just finished her enchantment, and Scrap had apparently enchanted one as well. Scrap inspected the floating ingots through the loupe on his goggles. “Hmm. Very good,” he said. He turned his attention to the first two ingots. “These are not very powerful, and their enchantments will fade in time, correct? Not that we were trying to do anything else,” he said and lightly bopped them downwards. They slowly floated up again, like weighed down corks. He then magicked the two newer specimen beside each other, along with his own. “These are more powerful, as was intended,” he said, reared up and leaned with his forelegs around mine and his own. “Twilight’s especially. It’s very impressive, more powerful than ours.” “Oh,” Twilight said with a very small blush. “Thank you.” I wasn’t put off in the least by Twilight outperforming me, after all, she had been studying magic long before I was born, and I was too absorbed by the fact that I was finally learning sophisticated magic that I could perhaps one day excel at. “But if you’ll forgive my bluntness, your highness, that doesn’t necessarily make you a better enchanter than me, or even Gabe,” Scrap said. Twilight nodded. “I had figured that much, from what I’ve read.” Scrap started hanging sacks of coal around the three ingots. The first ones couldn’t handle much more than their own weight, of course, but the second batch could handle a lot more. “Weak enchantments,” Scrap said and gestured to the first ingot. “But, you can make them more powerful.” Mine was the weakest of the new batch, only supporting two sacks of coals before it started sinking. Scrap’s could handle almost twice that, while Twilight’s was so powerful that Scrap couldn’t fit enough sacks around it to weigh it down. “Mmm,” he said in approval. “Like I said, very good. But! There are ways around a simple enchantment.” “I poured all the magic I could into this one,” Scrap said, shook his head, removed the sacks from Twilight’s ingot, and then poured the contents of one of them into the forge. “Almost forgot,” he muttered to himself. “It’s not as powerful as yours, Twilight, you’re simply too powerful when it comes to raw magic.” I was utterly entranced by the lesson, and when Scrap floated a sixth ingot over and placed it on top of Twilight’s, I instantly projected myself into my horn to see what he was gonna do next. “Observe,” Scrap said, and started weaving a new enchantment. “I’m making another enchantment, this one is almost an exact reverse of the floating enchantment, so instead of floating, it’s for weighing something down.” Scrap gently flowed magic into the ingot, but it didn’t look very impressive, at least at first. True enough, it started pushing down against Twilight’s floating specimen, but not enough to move it. So Scrap kept working on the enchantment. “I’ve left room for additional, amplifying enchantments,” he said, and true enough, he beamed more magic into the ingot, the new addition surrounded the previous magic, flowing with it, forming a sort of shell that floated around it like a planetary model, either pushing or dragging the magic within it faster, or perhaps both. “And so,” – the ingot on top of Twilight’s became heavy enough to push both of them downwards – “Raw power puts up a good fight, but it doesn’t top experience and knowledge.” Twilight’s ingot gently touched the floor. “I could’ve made it quite a bit more powerful, but I don’t wanna scuff the floor more than necessary.” I noted how Scrap wiped the ingots of enchantments, one by one. It was difficult to describe, but it was both like blocking a whirl of water, and brushing away figures from a whiteboard. Only, it was magic, so I would’ve liked a less banal way to describe it. I de-projected myself and opened my eye. Twilight looked contemplative as Scrap floated the ingots back to the table he got them from. “So, that was basic, and advanced, enchanting in a nutshell,” Scrap said. “Do you know what I was trying to teach you?” Twilight and I looked at each other again. “Uhm, that raw power doesn’t make an enchanter?” Twilight asked. Scrap bobbed his head in consideration. “Not quite,” he said. “As we clearly saw, with basic knowledge, raw power can lead to a very potent enchantment.” “But you were still able to, uh, outperform it,” I said. “True,” he said. “And we’re getting closer. I did it because I can go further in what enchanting is all about.” Twilight and I looked at him, eagerly scarfing down every bit of knowledge he had to offer. “Alright, let’s take what we learned from the top,” Scrap said as he emptied another bag of coal into the forge. Despite the glorious sunlight flowing in through the window, I embraced the feeling that the gentle light from the flames formed. You want dark, cosy places with warm candlelight when learning magic, and Scrap Armor’s workshop was strangely ambient. “We started with enchantments,” Scrap continued. “They were weak, but we made them more powerful. Then I tried outperforming Twilight’s with raw magic, but I couldn’t. So I made a weaker enchantment, but I used another enchantment to amplify it. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?” We nodded, and Scrap continued with a smirk on his face. “You can augment a weaker enchantment, but it requires a more deft hoof. Amplified enchantments are less stable and decay quicker, but that can be solved with other enchantments, but you can only squeeze so many enchantments into one object, but with enough skill you can overcome that as well. And that’s enchantment. It’s an endless parade of obstacles, but the more skilled the enchanter, the more of these obstacles can be overcome. “Power might be limited, but there’s ways around that, but it makes things unreliable, but there’s way around that too, but it’s hard to make things that are too complicated, but it can be done with enough skill. And that’s it, a bunch of ‘buts’, and an enchanter’s skill can be measured by how many ‘buts’ they can overcome. But-but-but-but-but, always a bunch of buts. Hence:” – Scrap’s grin widened – “the ‘trade of flanks’,” he said, and broke into laughter. Scrap laughed long and hard. I let out a tired smile at the whole thing, while Twilight struggled to not do the same. Scrap finally stopped laughing. “Ahaaa. Normally, I’d rear up and smack somepony’s flank right now, but since we’re the only ones here, I thought it might be best not to.” “I should hope so,” sounded Armor’s stern voice. “I don’t wanna have to arrest you,” he said with a small, wry smile. Armor stood in the doorway with one of the bags that the crusaders and I had filled with gems yesterday. “Ah, Sergeant Sourpuss!” Scrap happily said, and started walking towards his nephew with a raised hoof. “Perfect timing! Turn around, so I can demonstrate on you, instead.” - It was a few hours of practice that followed, and it took a while for it to sink in for me just how good Scrap was at this. The Armors of the royal guard didn’t really seem to cover all that much, but seeing just what Scrap, and presumably all the other creators, made caused me to rethink just how effective they might be. For starters, just because the material didn’t cover the entire barrel, didn’t mean that the uncovered parts were unprotected, and seeing just how impressive the enchantments on the spears looked, I was very curious about what exactly would happen if their wielders swung them at something at full force. The specialised equipment, the kind of things that Twilight’s brother was capable of handling, was nigh-indestructible by conventional means. I suspected that even a human military would have to roll out their larger pieces if they wanted a piece of Prince Shining Armor’s armor pieces. It was an expensive armor to piece together, though, so production was slow in peacetime. Twilight was indeed a monster when it came to raw magic, but I was making a lot of progress when it came to the technical side of the subject, and using my gems that Armor had returned with, I was able to squeeze quite a lot of raw magic power into my enchantments, too. While Twilight’s simple enchantments were absolute juggernauts, I was having an easier time when it came to more advanced stuff, like adding advanced functions to simpler formulas. “I’m not sure how to say this in a diplomatic way, Twilight, but Gabe is the more proficient enchanter between the two of you,” Scrap said, after I made a double enchantment that transferred heat from one gem to another so effectively, that you could toss the transferrer into the forge, and it would cool down to room temperature within seconds of picking it out of the fire. The corresponding gem had left a scorched depression on Scrap’s workbench, though. “I figured,” Twilight said. “Still, this was pretty fun. I hope you think so, too, Gabe. It would be awful if you didn’t appreciate your special talent.” “You kidding? This is great,” I said with a big, goofy grin on my muzzle. ‘Humans can make long-range communication with only electricity and conductors and some junk, if I can apply some good old human ingenuity to this, well, perfect prostheses are not even an end goal anymore.’ “Oh, good. I was a bit worried, seeing how you used to not be a pony,” Twilight said. “I think you might even be sharper than me, given some time. You seem to pick it up faster than I did, when I started out,” Scrap said. “Really?” I asked. “Mhmm. Even if you didn’t have the Crowns’ support, with this, you’re gonna have a skill to make a living out of before long.” “Wow. I thought I was pretty decent at this, but that’s really impressive, Gabe,” Twilight said, and put her hoof on my shoulder. “You’re more than ‘pretty decent’, Highness,” Scrap said. “Don’t think you’re not, because you’re standing next to a veteran and somepony truly talented.” I felt pride swelling in me. It contrasted with the compliments I’d received back at my old job, which were nice and all, but, well… it wasn’t magic. “Thank you,” Twilight said. “But still, I can tell that you were good at this, Gabe. I feel like a lumbering hydra compared to a Wonderbolt.” That golden glow of accomplishment kept yeasting in me, making words a bit difficult to choose. Scrap spoke before me, though. “Eeeh,” he said. “I’d say it’s more like the iron pony competition between Rainbow Dash and Applejack.” ‘“Iron pony” competition? Darn, seems like I can’t have that as my superhero handle when I actually get those legs.’ “Pretty good analogy, too, now that I think about it,” Scrap continued. “Applejack did a really good job with that raw strength of hers, while Rainbow is more nimble and specialized athlete.” Twilight put her hoof on her chin in consideration. “I think I see what you mean,” before she turned to me and Armor. “Do you guys want lunch?” Armor looked up from his book, but waited for me to speak. “Uh, sure,” I said, shaking myself back to the present. “I could go for some.” “How about you, Scrap?” Twilight asked. “It’d be the least we can do for today. Or, is this okay with your curriculum?” “Oh, yeah, this seems like a good idea to hold for today, and don’t worry about me, I’m gonna take an hour by the forge, work up my appetite a bit.” “Well, thank you so much for today, Scrap,” Twilight said. “Yeah, thank you,” I said, before something struck me. “By the way, do you have any plans written down for the guard sabatons?” “I do, gimme a minute” Scrap said and went into the house. He returned with a waxed felt folder case, filled to the brim with coffee-stained papers. “This is my old collection of plans,” he said and floated it over to me. “I’ve made copies of all of these, so don’t worry too much about being careful with it. The sabatons are somewhere in here, up to and including my latest models.” “Wow. Thank you,” I said, trying to sound as reverent as I felt, considering the scope of information contained within here, by what I could glimpse from the papers sticking out. “Don’t mention it,” Scrap said with a wave. “Now keep this safe, I would still like to have this returned, because I wouldn’t give this out to just anypony. But seeing as how you’re a diplomat in company with both Princess Twilight and my nephew, I’m gonna make an exception. These are… not quite military secrets, but very close to them, and I could get into serious trouble if these fell into the wrong hooves.” Twilight nodded. “Don’t worry, Scrap. We’re gonna take care of them.” “I’m sure you will,” he said. “But don’t worry, if this folder leaves Ponyville, I’ll know.” I projected myself into my horn again, but I couldn’t really make out the enchantment that was on it. “Look at the bell above the doorway,” Armor said with a sly smile. “And you might recognise the heat transferring enchantment connected to the piece of slag in that drawer over there.” “Oooh. Clever,” I said. - “I just don’t see what’s so strange about it,” Twilight said. “A ‘watering hole’ is a normal way to refer to such an establishment, joined with a common slang for donkeys, the primary clientele.” “Well, alright,” I conceded. “It’s just that, our languages are pretty much the same, but sometimes the small differences have some strange results. In this case, a donkey pub with a very crass name.” Spike let out a very loud belch, covering the plates by the table in a sparkling green flame, and making me happy that I had finished my lunch. Then, a scroll materialised in front of him, and I wondered if Celestia received her scrolls in the same way. “Letter, Twilight,” he said. “Oh, it’s from Luna,” she said, and cleared her throat. “Dear Twilight Sparkle. We are pleased with your swift response concerning the matter of Gabrielle Desrochers’ dreams. While we have not discovered any signs of alien influence, which the content of dream from the night before this one seemed to indicate, this most recent one might provide some insight into the matter. “Bear in mind that this is a personal observation, little more than an educated guess, but I suspect that the reason for Gabe’s strange dreams could be her subconsciousness responding to the presence of magically provided knowledge. “Allow me to expand on this: ponies’ magical talents often provide them with insight beyond what external influences, such as book learning, offer in itself. If humans do not have these special talents, this kind of self provided knowledge might seem to be received externally. “It could easily be imagined as an unnerving experience, but a pony rejecting their cutie mark, or being harmed by their special talent, is vanishingly rare. Our magic is for our benefit, it wishes us well, and I suspect that it may have created an avatar of sorts in Gabe’s subconscious, to provide her with knowledge more aligned with a human mind’s frames of reference. Whether it is her magical talent taking on this shape, her subconscious mind interpreting it as such, or both, I cannot say. “Please enquire with Gabrielle about whether or not she feels that this could be so. Without the firmer knowledge that I can normally provide in these matters, Gabrielle’s feelings on the matter could prove vital, and I will continue to monitor her dreams, fruitless as my endeavors seem. “Despite these choice of words, please do not mistake this for alarm. This seems like a joyous development, and I would congratulate our guest on her progress in her field. Please offer my best wishes to her, and to Private Armor. “Your friend, Luna. “P.S, I should also report that a dragon known as ‘Jethro’ arrived here in the early night yesterday, sent here by the three of you. He is currently loitering in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot while we’re considering fitting punishments or occupations. I am also saddened to report that while you no doubt greatly appreciate a chance to learn more about wyrms, Twilight, Jethro is, while in possession of a mediocrum of charm, astonishingly oblivious in close to all subjects, and nearly so in the rest. I doubt he will be much use in any research.” Twilight put the letter down and everyone around the table looked at me. “Well,” I said. “Uhm. I’m feeling kinda… I feel like I’m taking up a lot of everyone’s time.” “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Twilight said. “Luna’s just very dedicated.” “Well, alright,” I said, not entirely convinced. “So, uh, I guess that’s good. I mostly thought the whole thing was curious and…” I stopped to give this some thought before continuing. ‘Yeah… I guess it kinda makes sense. The deep, smooth voice of a wise man, or whatever. He seemed slightly smug, too, like he’s waiting for me to figure out stuff from cryptic lessons, and all that.’ “Yeah,” I said and slowly nodded. “I think that with all the movies and stories I’ve seen, that could fit my image of a mentor… figure… archetype, or something.” “You have movies about that?” Twilight said. “I don’t know if I have a movie specifically about a wise mentor,” I said. “I’d like to see one, though, but yeah, I have movies with wise mentors in them.” Twilight looked curious about that. “Perhaps you could show me?” “Sure,” I said and shrugged. “I promised the Crusaders to show them some, too. It seems we got a movie night in the making,” – Spike looked up at that – ”, but we’re about to have a self-defence lesson next, right?” “That’s right,” Twilight said. “I hope you’re ready.” “Only one way to find out,” I said. “Let me help clean off the table,” Armor offered. “Then what am I supposed to do?” Spike asked. “You are gonna go fetch some issues of your favorite comic,” I said. “Alright. Why?” He asked. “Because I wanna check something,” I said, holding back a smug smile. “Okay, gimme a minute,” he said and walked out of the room, returning half a minute later. “Here you go,” he said and held out a comic to me. I magically grabbed it and started quickly scanning the pages. .Colorful tights, masks, superpowers, kinda weird to have comics with that in Equestria, but whatever, underwear on the outside, overdramatic villains. Yeah, this’ll do.. “Thanks,” I said and floated the comic back to him. “Uh, no problem. Did you… find out anything?” He asked. “Yeah, I know you’re curious about my computer, and now I know exactly what to show you on it,” I said, and gave him a sly grin as Armor started wheeling me out of the room. “Laters.” - We made a short detour around parts of the town, with me riding on Twilight’s back and Armor carrying my wheelchair. We set down on a hill, not far enough to actually have left Ponyville as a community, but far enough that some noises and flashes wouldn’t cause any disturbance, or really be noticed. “So,” Twilight said. “Are you ready to learn about unicorn combat?” I bobbed my head in consideration. “I think so,” I replied. “Alright then,” Twilight said. “Can you think up a way to magically attack me?” “Uh, well, I–” I started. “Uh, Your Hi– Twilight,” Armor interrupted. “Can I ask something?” “Of course,” Twilight said. “Alright, well, uh, you see… Our first drill sergeant, Misty Rock, talked that way to us when we were recruits. I come from a military family, so I didn’t do this mistake, but when we answered ‘yes’ to that question, she offered, or rather, encouraged someone to take a swipe at her, and then she just beat up whoever did that,” Armor said. Twilight looked at him in surprise. “I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t do anything like that,” he said, a bit embarrassed. “Oh, no. No, no, no,” Twilight said and shook her head. “I just thought we’d take this slowly, and from the beginning.” “Oh, okay,” Armor said, clearly relieved. “Aaw,” I cooed and gave him a smile. “Thanks, Armor.” He coughed into a hoof. “Don’t mention it,” he said in a small voice. “I know life for a military pony can be tough,” Twilight said. “But that doesn’t sound very productive.” “Mmm, yeah,” Armor nodded. “My cousin, Gambeson, has always had confidence issues, so Grampa Plate showed her how to beat Misty Rock, and then she made her go see your brother and describe her training methods.” Twilight’s face lit up in recognition. “Oh, I think I remember that,” she said. “Yeah, he was all grumpy one day, said he had to re-educate some trainers. Complaining about old ponies set in their ways and things like that.” Armor nodded. “Yeah, Gambeson was a bit of a hero in some circles after that. That was good too, she needed a bit of confidence that matched her skill,” he said with a smile. I looked at him, but he seemed oblivious to my deadpan stare. ‘Look who’s talking.’ Twilight looked vaguely pleased about that, too. “Small world,” she said. “Anyway, unicorn magic. Can you figure out how to hurt somepony with your magic, Gabe?” I opened my mouth to answer, then shut it again. After a while, I shook my head. “Not really, no,” I said. “I know I did something pretty bombastic when I first got to Equestria, but planned? I can’t think of anything except arcanokinetically throwing things at people. And even then, it wouldn’t be any big or heavy things.” Twilight nodded approvingly. “I’m impressed. Most unicorns would rely on a common, instinctive form of magic, even more instinctive than arcanokinesis.” “Oh, uh, what is that, and what was impressive?” I asked. “The impressive part was that you first thought about using your environment for physical force,” Twilight said. “The other type of magic is rarely dangerous in its basic form.” I opened my mouth to ask a question, but realised that it was the same one I had already asked. “Like arcanokinesis, it is instinctual, and a bit primal. Another mix between sorcery and a spell,” Twilight continued. “You charge up your unicorn magic in a sort of raw form, and launch it against a target.” “And what happens to what you hit?” I asked. “That depends,” Twilight said. “The form of it that most unicorns use has a dispersing effect against the type of magic reserves that living beings have, so if you hit an inanimate object, nothing much happens.” “And if you hit a person with it?” I asked. “Unless it is very powerful, the victim’s magical reserves are scrambled, leaving them tired, and if applied enough, unconscious,” Twilight said. “Much like what happened to you, when you first arrived in Equestria. Except it would be depleted by outside influence, rather than by yourself.” I rested my chin against my hoof as I considered this. “Hmm, but using this magic also spends your magical reserves?” I asked. “Yes, so unicorns interested in combat wants to build up their resistance against such magic, build their magical reserves, and train themselves to use their magic as effectively as possible,” Twilight said. “Much like any other field, I suppose.” “So it’s a matter of exhausting your opponent before they exhaust you?” I asked, getting some amusing mental images. “Yes,” Twilight nodded. “At least when using basic unicorn magic.” I snorted in amusement. “That reminds of this thing,” I started, trying to figure out how to best describe this to a pair of ponies. “Back on Earth, Terra, we have this thing where you climb into these really heavy and clumsy suit that you can barely move in, and try to wrestle.” Armor raised an eyebrow at that. “What’s the point of that?” he asked. “Oh, it’s a game,” I said, deciding not to go into the actual wrestling it’s based on. “Where you try and wrestle in the most awkward way ever. It’s actually kinda hilarious.” “You’ve tried it?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, ages ago” I said. “Oh. So it was before…” Twilight said and tapered off. “Yeah, yeah,” I said and waved it off. “Though it was a bit scary, because there was no way I was gonna be able to get out of that suit on my own. From what you’re saying, unicorn combat reminded me of that, with opponents that can’t hurt each other.” Armor was looking up in the sky, contemplating what I just described, while Twilight shook her head patiently. “Oh, don’t let Applejack and Rainbow Dash make you think that all earth ponies and pegasi are as strong as they are. We unicorns also have plenty of heft in our hooves,” she said and shook her head. “You unicorns. I keep forgetting that.” “Can I see? You shooting, I mean,” I said. “Sure,” Twilight said, and turned toward a boulder. “Now, I’ve practised this quite a bit, so I can shape it into different shapes, like bursts, or a continuous stream.” “What’s it called, by the way?” I asked. “Arcano-dispersive shock,” Twilight said. She lit up her horn, and a small, bright, lavender orb shot out from her horn and hit the rock. The magic’s impact created a small explosion, but didn’t seem to do much, physically. It looked cool, though, and sounded cool, too. A bit like I always imagined a magical burst of energy to sound. ‘Huh, video game sound designers were pretty close to the mark, who knew? Thankfully it didn’t sound like those toys I remember from when I was a kid, with that cheap sound chip that was in every other piece of plastic with five looping sets of beeps and explosions or whatever. Man, those were annoying.’ “Awesome,” I said. “So unicorns have a sort of built-in stun gun?” “I’m not sure what that is,” Twilight said. “But judging from the name, yes, or well, in a sense. You’ll want some practice to be able to use it efficiently.” I turned to Armor. “So that’s what your colleagues do?” “Pretty much,” he said. “Practice makes perfect, though they learn how to do that against physical targets as well.” “Can you do that?” I asked Twilight. “Yes,” she said. “I thankfully haven’t really had to use it much, but I’m guessing you want a demonstration?” “Kinda, yeah,” I said, a bit sheepishly. “I must admit that I’m curious about this as well,” Armor said. “Alright,” Twilight said, took off, and had a look around. “Nopony else is around. I picked this spot because nopony is gonna mind some rocks spread across the landscape, and the hills absorb a lot of the sound. Now, if you would take cover behind there,” she said, and pointed towards a small, sandy ridge, large enough to cover all three of us. I scooted up on Armor’s back as he grabbed my chair. Behind the ridge, we poked our heads up to see what Twilight was gonna do, with me leaning my right side against Armor for balance, and my goggles lowered over my eyes, old and new. Twilight gestured to the same boulder she demonstrated on last time. “Alright, look at the boulder,” she said, and took off, landing on a small, stray cloud. “I’m gonna start with the most overcharged version I can of the arcano-dispersive shock before I show the physical version.” Three real eyes and one cosmetic were locked on Twilight as she charged up her horn again. This time, the glow was intimidatingly intense, and brightly glowing sparks emanated from it, like cinders from Scrap’s forge. Twilight shot down at the rock and there was a huge, purple explosion as it hit. I could understand why she told us to take cover, because the blastwave felt like it would have been enough to knock us out, if we had been standing in the open. ‘Kings of Hawaii, Twilight! You could bring down a tank like that!’ Armor and I shook our heads and tried to regain our bearings, as Twilight floated down to us on the cloud. “Are you two okay?” she asked “Uh, yeah, I think I’m fine,” I said. “Yeah, me too,” Armor said, though I can tell that he would need a few minutes, like me, if he was gonna do any fancy flying. “Alright,” Twilight said, conjured up a mostly transparent purple screen between us and the boulder, and hopped down beside us. “Maybe I should do this from here this time, so we won’t get as much debris over us.” I quickly forced myself to focus again. “Okay, cool,” I said, eagerly. Twilight did the same thing as earlier, but I thought I could see more of a bluish tint to the magical glow this time. When she let loose the magical energy, the results were spectacular. The rock was mostly vaporized, and the parts that weren’t were launched far into the distance, where they quickly vanished from sight. Left was a cone-shaped crater, partially smoking from the friction. ‘… Nevermind tanks, Twilight. You can bring down a battleship with that.’ Twilight’s screen dispersed, making me realise how effective it had been at blocking the sound. She then magicked the cloud over and stabbed it with her horn, which made a sizzling sound. “Oooh,” she said, looking relieved. I looked at the smoldering crater, and back to Twilight. ‘Heh! Happiness is a warm unicorn horn.’ “Aaah,” Twilight breathed as the sizzling died down. “That’s what I mean when I said I didn’t have enough control for my raw power,” she said. “It would’ve been more effective if I had been trained in this, like my brother.” I looked at the crater again. “I dunno, that was pretty impressive.” “Thanks, but I would’ve been able to do this without overheating my horn if I was trained in this,” Twilight said. “It helps being an alicorn, but still.” “So raw power can blow away a boulder, but you need control to not hurt yourself?” I asked. “Well, I didn’t really hurt myself, more strained myself than anything,” she said. “Those were a bit too big to be this close to each other.” I laid back against the dune and waved away the vapor from the cloud with a questioning look. “Well, you know how they say that your muscles burn if you overexert yourself?” Twilight said. “Sometimes it’s a bit more literal when it comes to unicorn magic.” “I’ll say.” “And that wasn’t my horn actually being frying hot,” Twilight said. “That was an arcanic energy burn, or simply a ‘thauma burn’.” “And that first version wasn’t physically dangerous?” I asked. “Not directly, but you remember when Scrap said that unicorns tend to have an advantage against pegasi in combat?” Twilight said. “Well, that’s because their magic requires a lot more precision when they’re flying than earth ponies’ magic, so you have to be careful not to make a pegasus lose control if you’re fighting them with magic, unless you actually wanna hurt somepony.” “I never had a reason to fight anyone back home, but you never know. Especially with hungry dragons flying around,” I said. “Hmm, well,” Twilight said skeptically. “Dragons are tough. Even without training, they’re so tough that it’s really hard to disrupt their flying magic for very long. It’s not impossible, though, so it’s a good idea to start practising if you’re worried it’s gonna happen again.” “So they’re like crocodiles? They can just float around for months at a time and still be freakishly strong and quick whenever a wildebeest comes close to them,” I said. “That’s a bit morbid, but yes” Twilight said. “You know a lot about crocodiles?” “Not really,” I said. “I don’t have high thoughts about the state of television today, but sometimes you can’t help but learn a few things when you’re home with the flu, stuck on the couch.” Twilight looked at me in confusion for a moment. “That’s another thing to learn about when it comes to Terra, I think,” she said. “Judging from what you’re saying,” I said. “Can pegasi and earth ponies reach the same power with their magic?” I asked, “Sure,” Twilight said. “You should see Rainbow when she goes all out. Or Pinkie’s sister, Maud.” “So an agriculturally oriented earth pony’s magic can be as powerful as that?” I asked, and gestured to the crater. “Yes. Look at Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight said. “Those orchards are huge, and it’s pretty much only Applejack and Big Mac that does most of the heavy lifting on that farm.” “Huhuh!” I said in a dumb-sounding voice. “That puts a new spin on the term ‘hedge wizard’.” Armor snorted in amusement, and Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. “Now, there is one thing I’d like to try,” Twilight said. “What?” I asked. “Well, since I’ve never met anypony with as much control over their hoof-fields as you, I’d like to see how efficiently you can reform them?” “Reform them? Are you gonna blast them with your horn?” I asked. “With your permission, yes. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna knock you out, and with your control, you should be able to reform them again in no time,” she said. “Well, alright,” I said, and tried rolling over to show my hoof. I ended up falling over, though, but Armor was there and propped me up against him. “Thanks,” I said and gave him a smile. “Alright, here we go,” Twilight said, and lit up her horn. I closed my eyes and projected myself into my horn to watch the magical fields around me again. My "hand" was resting out of my hoof when a bright beam shot out of Twilight’s horn. My eyebrows shot up as I watched in morbid fascination as most of my hand looked like it was forcefully dissolved, leaving only parts of my thumb. It felt like I had just sat on my hand until it went numb as I wiggled the small remains of my phantom-like hand. “Uh, are you sure this isn’t permanent?” I "looked" at Twilight and asked worriedly. I realised that I didn’t seem to move my head much when I was projected into my horn, probably making me look pretty cool in circumstances other than this one. “Yes,” Twilight said confidently. “Try and channel some magic into your hoof the same way you channel magic into your horn when you’re using a spell.” I did so, and the hand practically exploded into existence like an airbag going off. I watched in fascination as I turned my reformed hand around. “That’s a good example of magical control,” Twilight said as I deprojected myself and observed the world around me again. “You have a great control of your hoof fields, and can do very efficient work with a very small amount of magic. Conversely, my brother, for example, isn’t really as powerful as me when it comes to magic in general, but he would be able to do this without straining himself,” she said and gestured to the crater. I nodded slowly, understanding creeping in. “So, you wanna give it a try?” she asked. “Sure,” I said, enthusiastically. Twilight floated my chair up from our cover while Armor lifted me up into it. “Now, like Celestia said, I haven’t been formally trained the way a royal guard has,” Twilight said and walked up a bit. “I think that would involve a lot of force field training and dodging.” “It does,” Armor confirmed. “But I thought it might be best to stick to target practice,” Twilight continued, a bit nervous. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to train combat maneuvers.” “That would indeed be kinda tricky,” I said, with a small smirk. ‘For now…’ “So how about you try and hit this?” Twilight said and conjured up a transparent orb a bit in front of me. “Alright,” I said. “So how do you do this?” “Well it’s… it’s often a natural, instinctual response. Imagine something big and scary coming at you, what’s the most natural for you to do if you’ve been cornered?” “Eeh,” I said and let out a contemplative sigh. “I dunno. Maybe punch around myself wildly? I was right-handed before this, though,” I said and shrugged with my right side. “So… I would like to think that I’d do something clever, but I’d probably just collapse and beg for my life.” Armor put his hoof on my shoulder. “You’ll forgive me if I’m skeptical about that. You were very collected for somepony being abducted and then dropped by a dragon yesterday,” he said calmly and reassuringly. I managed to fight down a blush at that. “Agreed. Well, how about you try it anyway? Just imagine that you have to defeat this… mighty foe,” Twilight said and gestured towards the purple sphere. “Channel magic into your horn, but instead of reaching out and biting do– grabbing something, kick it.” “Hmm, I think you mean punch it,” I said. “Erm, yes, punch it.” “Alright, here goes,” I said, closed my eyes, channeled magic into my horn, and… kinda did nothing. “Try it again,” Twilight encouraged. “And try imagining yourself in different situations, all dangerous." And I did, over and over. Sam Raimi captured trying to figure out how to activate a new natural ability pretty well in Spider Man. There was a long montage with no progress, and I was growing pretty frustrated after only a few minutes. “Well, I can imagine this is pretty difficult,” Twilight said. “I had a lot of trouble controlling my wings when I became an alicorn, and Cadence told me it was really tricky to learn unicorn magic when she became one. And since I guess that you’re mentally a human…” Twilight trailed off. My face was a mask of stony calm, but an attentive observer might have noticed that the keyword was "stony". ‘A human, am I!? A human, indeed!’ I did a mighty headbang just as I channeled another round of magic into my horn, a bit stronger than I intended. A wave of blue light emanated from my horn as a large wave of magical energy shot towards the target and utterly obliterated it. At least, that’s what I’ll assume happened. I didn’t see any of it, since I was shot backwards in my wheelchair, over the edge that me and Armor has been hiding behind not long ago. “Whoa!” was all I managed to yell before I found myself flying through the air, the wheelchair at first rolling smoothly across the grass, and then coming to an abrupt halt as it bit into the sandy ground by the cover, catapulting me onto the ground. I picked myself up from my faceplant in the sand and shook my head. “Gabe! Are you okay!?” Armor shouted. I spit off some sand from my lips. “Pah! Pfff! Pfuf!” and on in that manner I spat before looking up at Twilight and Armor flying over to me. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Well, it worked, eventually.” Armor came to a halt in front of me. “Close your eyes, Gabe,” he said. I complied, somewhat confused, as he picked me up and placed me back in my chair. “Can I open them now?” “Yeah,” he said, and I saw him flying over to where I had been launched from, and returned with my new prosthetic eye in his mouth, which hadn’t left the launch site with me. “Oh,” I said. He set down and I closed my eyelids as he gently started dusting my face off with a wing. Afterwards, he dropped my new eyeball in his hoof and looked at it skeptically. “Uh, yeah, you can put that down for now. I think I’m gonna go with these instead,” I said, and lowered my goggles over my eye and socket, thanking Rainbow for the gift and congratulating myself for my foresight, twice in a row. - I was too young to have have grown up with the sound of chalk being dragged across blackboards to form any particular feeling about it. Growing up, my main feeling about blackboards was confusion, as they were, like the ones Twilight had set up in the basement of Golden Oaks, invariably green. I wrapped my hoof around the neck of the ukulele, and gently strummed the strings with my magic. As I plinked the individual strings, one by one, a smile started growing in my lips, slowly reaching my eyes, the right one having been cleaned and reinserted. I was getting better. “You’re gonna help us if Twilight doesn’t get anywhere with this, aren’t you?” Spike asked, and Twilight shot him a scowl. “Sure,” I said, continuing to strum at the strings. Twilight let out a small, “Oh,” Followed by a frustrated, “Hhrrm,” as she struggled to navigate my computer, all the while taking notes on what she was doing, written ones on parchments on the table, and illustrations on the blackboards. “Having trouble?” I asked innocently. “I… yes, a little bit,” she said. “I entered the wrong folder and now I don’t know how to get out of it.” I smiled to myself, noting how easily Twilight had projected herself into the what she saw on the screen. She didn’t just "open" folders, she "entered" them. “What was the word you used, again?” Armor asked. I was kinda happy how he had taken a seat next to me and watching what Twilight was doing, rather than standing at attention, trying to look stony like he usually did. I hoped I wasn’t giving him habits that would get him into trouble with future assignments, though. “User interface,” I said. “To differentiate it from how the components communicate with each other, I suppose.” “That’s a funny word,” Spike said. “I know lot’s of funny words,” I said in an easy way as I kept strumming the ukulele. “Like ‘trinitrotoluene’, or a personal favorite of mine, ‘polychlorotrifluoroethylene’.” I didn’t need to look up, I could feel Armor’s confusion radiating from his face. “Is that really a real word?” he asked. “It’s a kind of plastic,” Twilight said. “Anyway, I give up. I need help with this.” “Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide,” I said to Armor as I floated the ukulele over to the table, and rolled up beside Twilight. “Alright, noticed how this bar changed as you opened the folders?” I asked. Pretty soon, we were watching a comic book-movie, though I had to pause the beginning of the video to let Twilight take some more notes. “This is absolutely amazing,” she said, and managed to tear away her eyes from the screen to look at me. “How does it do this? Can you show me?” I chuckled. “I thought you’d be more impressed by how I played a game the last time I showed you this.” “But that didn’t look as real,” Twilight protested. “Interactivity is still more technologically advanced, as far as I know,” I noted. “But, well, while I don’t know the actual technical specifications behind this whole thing” – I gestured to the computer – “In fact, I don’t think all that many people do, I guess I can show you what the inside looks like.” “Yes!” Twilight insisted almost maniacally. This seemed to wake Spike up from his trance-like state. “Hey, no!” he said, tearing his eyes away from the screen. “Not yet! I gotta see how this ends!” “Don’t worry,” I said. “If we’re careful, I think we can open the chassis while it’s running. We’ll need some tools, though.” Armor reluctantly turned away from the screen. “Do you, uh, do you want me to go over to Scrap and see if he’s got any?” “Maybe,” I said. “Take a look at these screws and see if he’s got anything that could fit.” “Alright,” he said, and gave the screen another look as he slowly started moving towards the stairs. “Hey, we can pause it while you’re away,” I said. Spike opened his mouth to protest, but reluctantly closed it again. “How about you make some snacks in the meantime, Spike?” I asked. “I’ve got a bag of gems upstairs, you can have some if you want to.” “Hmm, alright,” he said, and I paused the video. Spike went upstairs with Armor after they had taken a look at the back of the chassis. I tried magicking some of them out, but it only worked with two, the rest were attached too firmly, and I couldn’t get a very good "grip" of them with my magic. Twilight was busy making illustrations of the computer, display, input devices, and so on, and I decided that to not disturb her with opening the chassis. Instead, I went back to the ukulele, making pretty good progress at picking out old video game tunes. “So you can travel among the stars?” Twilight asked. “Nah,” I said, figuring that she was referring to the movie. “Or, well, not really, in practice. We can launch things and people into space, but as I understand it, it’s really difficult to move people far away from Earth.” “How so?” Twilight asked. “Oh, well,” I started, and let out a long, contemplative huff as I considered the answer. “For starters, it costs a fortune to just leave Earth’s atmosphere.” “‘Earth’ is the same thing as ‘Terra’, right?” Twilight asked, having started scribbling down things on parchments again. “Yeah,” I said. “I imagine that it’s close to impossible to get a manned rocket with enough supplies and fuel to get to another planet, let alone another solar system, and if we manage it, how would the people going there talk to us? I’m pretty sure that going into space is exclusively for scientific purposes, and if someone travels too far away from the planet, I don’t think we can communicate with them properly, so we can’t know what they learn.” Twilight’s scribbling slowed down for a moment. “That does sound like a big problem,” she said, with a touch of sadness in her voice. “Yeah, and then there’s a lot of health issues when traveling into space,” I said. “Being cut off from our home’s ecosystem, lack of sunlight, lack of gravity, perhaps even a lack of friends.” Twilight paused for a moment, looked up at the wall with a thousand-yard stare, then continued writing. “But we fantasise a lot about visiting other worlds and travelling through space,” I said, going back to the movie and its settings. “Perhaps someday we will, especially if ponies can help.” “It all looks so real, though,” Twilight said and looked at the frozen image on the screen. “It does,” I said. “But it’s all illusions, and not even magical ones, at that.” Spike and Armor came back, the first one with a bowl of nachos and one with a sparkly cream, the latter with a felt kit full of tools. I unpaused the movie and started going through the kit, eventually finding something appropriate. Eventually, the plate covering the chassis was loose, though I had to use both my hoof and my magic at once a few times. “Wow. This looks really complicated,” Twilight said as I lifted off the plate. “I figured that there would be more moving parts, though.” “There are a few,” I said, and pointed to the hard drive, keeping my voice low to not disturb the movie-goers to the side. “I think that one’s got little tools to write and read from the disks.” “Disks?” Twilight said in confusion. “Yeah, there are magnetic disks inside that thing.” “What do they do?” “They store the data in binary forms,” I said. Twilight looked at the screen, then at the hard drive, and then the screen, and back to the hard drive again. “How much data?” I let out another contemplative sigh as I strained to remember what I had picked up about computers over the years, then strained even more to remember the terminology. “Uuh, one binary value is one bit, and eight bits is one byte, and this thing can technically store, uh… one thousand kilos is one mega, then giga, ten digits… one million, times one million, times eight, times four, binary values.” Twilight looked at me in disbelief, then to the hard drive, then the screen that still captivated Armor and Spike, then back to me again. “That’s…really impressive,” she said. “It is,” I agreed. “When there’s money to be made in technological progress, we humans can do some pretty amazing things. Twilight turned back to the inside of the computer, and one particular object caught her attention. “What’s this thing?” she said, and pointed at a bunch of cables. “What?” I asked. “This thing,” she said, tugging carefully at the piece of plastic holding a bunch of cables together with her magic. “Oh, that’s a cable tie,” I said. Twilight tugged a bit at the piece of plastic again. “Hold on,” I said, and started rummaging through the tools again until I found a thin enough piece of metal. Like playing the ukulele, it was pretty good practice to undo a cable tie with both arcanokinesis, and your magic hoof field. After a while, though, I managed to loosen it up. “Here you go,” I said, and hoofed it to her. “If you have something to replace it with, that’d be great. Twilight absentmindedly floated a piece of string over to me as she took the cable tie and studied it. There was a series clicking sounds as I finished fastening the string over the cables, and I looked back to see Twilight engrossed by the small plastic device. I looked back and forth between Twilight and the computer, and snorted in amusement, but she didn’t seem to notice. ‘Alien technology indeed.’ Twilight tugged at the cable tie, then floated over the piece of metal I had used earlier, and loosened it. “Can I keep this?” she asked. “Sure,” I said. Twilight started sketching images of the inside of the computer and the component on a blackboard again, and I rolled up beside Armor and Spike to watch the movie. Spike was partially brought out of his trance when I reached over and grabbed a few nachos from the bowl in his lap, reminding him that he had snacks. After a while, Twilight joined us. “Hey,” she suddenly said. “There’s a blue human there. You said that humans weren’t blue where you were from.” “They’re not. That’s supposed to be an alien,” I said. Twilight snickered at that. “What?” I asked. “It just reminds me of somepony with an infatuation,” she said. “You can’t travel to other worlds yet, but just like us, you still have these exotic ideas of what you want to see there.” I felt mildly offended for a moment before also laughing at the strangeness of the whole thing with imagination. - Spike was in high gear after the movie had ended, so we ended up staying up for longer than usual. I wasn’t holding it against him though. Because after I had cleaned myself and gotten rid of the bandages I had worn all day, I was sitting in front of my desk, also bleary-eyed and excited. I asked Twilight to remind me to show her a movie with a wise mentor in it, though. Four books on enchanting, my own notes, and Scrap’s case of blueprints and formulas, were scattered over the desk, together with a bunch of scattered gems. ‘This is it, I can feel it.’ It wasn’t the grand epiphany, but it was a step on the road to one. Elements from the parts of bodily interaction, the movement part from Scrap’s gear enchantment, and a bit of magically granted instinct, had given me an idea for enchantment that was a big piece of a magically complicated puzzle. I pulled my magic out of the piece of lapis lazuli on the desk, observed my magical phantom limb, and gently swiped at the gem. My limb met a strange form of resistance, like it had suddenly gained a weight, and power to move the weight at the same time. The gem rolled across the desk. I watched it for a moment, then doubled over and grinned into my hoof. After a few calming breaths, I rolled over to my bed, scooted into it, and finally let my tiredness turn into sleepiness. “Well done,” the voice of my unseen mentor sounded, in a satisfied tone. > Bonding > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s in quite a few stories. The hero, or protagonist at least, probably human, but perhaps elven or something like that depending on the setting I guess, has a steed. It’s strong, and intelligent, and loyal, and brave, or at least well-trained. Probably looks magnificent, too. It comes when the hero whistles, and if he, the hero (it’s usually a he, I think) gets separated from the brave steed, and is later wounded in a fight and heroically limps through the wilderness for a while before collapsing from exhaustion and his wounds, his loyal and intelligent steed will show up to carry him off to get medical attention. It’s so smart, it practically understands what the hero’s saying. My steed was all of those things, and not only did he understand what I was saying, I understood what he said, too. “What do you think?” Armor asked me. I gave a contemplative hum. “This might work, with some practice,” I said from my vantage point on top his head, trying to find a good way to stand on his upper back and lean against his neck. “I’m a bit torn between suggesting some sort of bridle to help me keep my balance, and me simply grabbing your mane.” The first suggestion seemed off the table, judging by the heat that radiated from Armor’s face. “Uh, I think holding my mane would be fine, if you grab enough of it.” “Not quite close enough friends for such an equipage, eh?” I said, grinning. “Well, it’s more that we’d have to be careful with the design,” he said. “How informative, and somewhat exciting,” I said, and looked down on the floor on the library’s main room. “But really, it’s not that far up. I mostly want to avoid falling down because of appearances, rather than hurting myself.” “I’ll let you get away with that glib about my stature because it’s you,” Armor said, and held out his left wing. “Try falling down on this side.” “Are you sure?” I asked. “You’re holding it outstretched.” Armor craned his head slightly to look up at me. “I can carry my own weight, another guard, and both of our equipment with these, and it can be a big and burly guard,” he said with a small smirk. “Try it.” I shrugged and let myself fall into his outstretched wing. It was one of the most softest things I’ve ever touched, and probably the most comfortable thing I’ve ever flung myself into. “Alright, I’m convinced,” I said, as he lifted me onto his back again, and helped me scamper up his neck again. “Let’s try walking.” Armor slowly walked in a circle along the shelves. It was a bit shaky at first, but it was becoming more steady as we were figuring out the details of this way of moving, me figuring out how to position myself and place my weight, and Armor figuring out which movements of his moved me which way, all the while steadily speeding up, first at a slow walk, then a faster walk, a trot, canter, and finally full gallop. As this was happening, it might have been pretty fitting to play Yankee Doodle on a duet of banjos with a steadily increasing beat. Eventually, Twilight poked her head out of her study. “What are you two doing?” she asked loudly. She didn’t sound angry, though Armor still came to a screeching halt, and I was lucky that he also raised his head, as I probably would’ve been catapulted off from his back otherwise. “Oof!” was the sound that came out of me as I was thrown against his neck. “Whoa, warn me next time you’re gonna to that.” “Oh, sorry,” he said. “That’s okay,” I said, and turned to Twilight. “We were just practicing novel ways of transportation.” “Novel?” Twilight said after a pause. “Well, novel to me,” I said. “Armor’s supposed to help me whenever I need help, but considering the progress I made with my plans for prosthetics last night alone, I figured I should get the most out of having a personal valet while I can.” “I live to serve,” Armor said with a casual smile. “And get a paycheck,” I said. Armor craned his head to look at me with a smile. “Enabling me to live and serve some more.” “Circle of life, with bureaucracy,” I said and turned to Twilight. “I thought we’d have another try and visit the market today. I wanna see if I can make something out of that gryphon meat substitute you ordered, and I wanted to know what a cloud feels like. You talked about a spell that you used to walk on clouds once, can you put that on me?” “Sure,” Twilight said and lit up her horn. “Just be careful not to fall off.” “I’ve got a flyer to order around if that happens.” A purple glow surrounded me, then sank into me, leaving a slight tingling sensation in my hooves. “Don’t you like the wheelchair?” Twilight asked. “It’s really good. I just don’t like having to use it. Some variation might be nice,” I said. “Alright, well, have fun,” Twilight said. “And here are some bits.” Twilight hoofed some bits to Armor, which he put in a saddlebag, we double checked what was stored in the kitchen, and then heard a knock on the door just as we were heading out. I magicked the door open, still leaning against Armor’s head. “Stand and deliver!” I said loudly, figuring that it might be Pinkie with another delivery of cupcakes. As the door opened, I saw that it was not Pinkie, but a grey pegasus mare with a blond mane, and seriously crossed eyes hovering above the ground. That is, she was seriously cross-eyed, not that her eyes looked seriously angry. “Okay,” she said happily, and touched down on the ground, then shoved her muzzle into a bag and pulled out a letter, holding up to us with a beaming smile. Armor and I looked at each other, and Armor took the letter in a hoof. “Okay, thanks,” he said. “You’re welcome,” the mare said and flew off. Armor held the letter up to me. “Again?” I asked, and magicked a letter knife lying on the window sill over. Armor had to hold the envelope in his mouth while I opened it, since we hadn’t practiced him sitting on his haunches with me on his back yet. After a few moments, I magically held the letter up to my muzzle. To: The esteemed Madam Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Acting on concerns expressed by distinguished members in Equestrian society, we have finished examinations on an aberrative condition affecting one of the Equestrian government’s official associates. As such, I respectfully express a desire for you to— Hey, Gabe. Redheart here. What the good doctor means to say is that we’ve looked at your stool sample, and have synthesized a treatment to augment your gastric microbiome. I’m certain (in that way where we don’t want to say that we’re officially certain but we kinda are, you know, the way we talk in the biz) that this will guarantee you to be able to digest anything a pony can digest if you couldn’t already, and that you won’t lose the ability to digest anything you can digest right now. We should have time today, otherwise, come by some time and we’ll fit you into the schedule. Hope to see you. With hugs. /Nurse Redheart at the Ponyville General. PS: /And Doctor Stable. “It appears we have been waylaid,” I said. “We’re going to the hospital first.” — Ponyville’s hospital was pretty empty when we walked in, except for a stallion sleeping on a bench with a makeshift bandage around his ear which had a fork jammed through it. Armor and I gave him a curious look as we walked past, but he just snored calmly. We walked up to the front desk where a mare was shuffling papers around. She looked up at us with a surprised look. “Oh, you must be Gabrielle,” she said jovially, and stretched out her hoof to us. “I’m Ink Sketch.” We bumped her hoof, me leaning forward over Armor’s head to do so. “I guess I’m building a reputation here,” I said, slightly dejected. “Well, with me at least,” Ink Sketch said. “This is the third time you’ve come in here in just a few days, but you’ve never been conscious before.” I struggled with what to say at that for a moment, before just shrugging. “What can I say? Timberwolves and Dragons are exhausting.” “Tell me about it, my nephew keeps both dogs and iguanas, and whenever he visits he brings them with, and they all shed and molt constantly. Well, he doesn’t get into the house anymore without helping to cover up all the furniture on the first floor with sheets, and helping to clean them off when he leaves,” Ink Sketch said Me and Armor looked at each other, but Ink seemed to be one of those people whose default mode of being is endless babbling. “‘Course, I suppose it’s easier to clean up than bark and dragon scales. Still, I can’t understand how he stands it, my coffee-machine stopped working after he had visited once, and I found scales clogging it up. Not very appetizing, lemme tell you.” Redheart poked her head out around a corner. “Oh, hey you two,” she said with a smile. “Here for a scheduling or treatment?” “We’ll see, depending on what it entails,” I said. “Right, let’s go find Doctor S,” she said and gestured for us to come with her. She turned to Ink Sketch and said with a smile, “You can keep talking, Ink, we’ll be with you in spirit.” “Okay,” Ink Sketch said. “Well, you should’ve seen one Hearth’s Warming, they were all over the decorations and…” Ink Sketch’s voice faded away as we moved down a corridor, along with the gentle snoring of the stallion on the bench. “You two are becoming a real team,” Redheart said, looking back at us. Armor and I looked at each other again. “I guess so,” I said. “Though when you put it that way, it feels kinda selfish since we’re teaming up for my gain.” Armor just smiled and shrugged. “Well, not being a team would probably mean that one of you wouldn’t be doing their job, or that the other was being difficult,” Redheart said. “Hm, she’s right,” Armor said. “Alright, fair enough,” I said. “And I gotta say that your eye looks really good,” Redheart continued. “Oh, thanks”, I said and laid against Armor’s neck so that I could tap it with my hoof. “I thought it would be obvious with one this size, but every time I look in the mirror it’s just like the real thing. So, what does this treatment entail?” “You know of these kinds of transplants?” Redheart asked as we moved into an examination room. “Kinda, yeah,” I said. “Well, this one’s–” Redheart said before stopping herself and looking at Armor. I looked down at him, too. “Hey, can you put me down on the bed?” I said. “Sure,” Armor said, and deposited me on top of the paper-covered bed. “Alright, thank you. You’re dismissed, private. Uh, to the hallway,” I said. Armor stood at attention before walking out the door. Redheart giggled a bit before turning to me with a somewhat somber face. “Hey, I think I should apologize,” she said. “Yeah, well, normally I wouldn’t be jumping up and down for this no matter how great a dinner anyone’d buy me, but I got a soft spot for nurses,” I said, shooting her an overly sweet smile. Redheart looked at me blankly before letting out a snorty laugh. “No, no,” she said, and forced a serious look on her face again. “No, I mean what I said back in Canterlot.” I gave her a blank look. “When you said what? You mean that thing in the castle?” I said before remember what would make more sense. “Oh, you mean that thing with, uh…” “Yeah,” she started, a bit awkwardly, looking down and scuffing a hoof against the floor. “I was a bit worried that you’d reject being what you are.” I considered this for a moment. “Well, I suppose that could’ve been pretty bad, but,” I said and just shrugged. “You got a weirdo who’s totally fine with being transformed into an alien pony, so I guess there’s no harm done. Your, heh, red heart was in the right place,” I said and chuckled. Redheart chuckled back. “Thank you,” she said. “What brought this on, though?” I asked. She shrugged. “Maybe just thinking back to what I said, and how well you seem to be doing.” “Well, I’m not doing perfectly, you still haven’t told me how this is gonna work,” I said. “Oh, right, I’m gonna go get the doctor, and make sure that the formula is ready. — A little while later, Armor set us down on a cloud, and I hesitantly reached out for the fluffy white construction. I met some resistance, which felt like fluffy hammock, but pleasantly cool in the warm weather. I still wasn’t sure about jumping off Armor’s back yet. I looked down on the ground. Things didn’t look all that small. ‘Ah, why are you scared of this? Dragons, girl! Infinity-wolves!’ I looked at Armor, and said with an as serious voice as I could, “Be ready to catch me, alright?” “Of course,” he said. I gently let myself fall down, back first, onto the cloud. There was a very short moment of fright when it gave way, but it turned out to just be the fluffiness. “Huh,” was all I could say, and started rubbing my back against it. “So what happened in there?” he asked. I let out a sigh. — “So, after the procedure, you just swallow this, and then don’t eat anything else for at least four hours,” the stallion with the stethoscope said. “Got it,” I said, trying not to show fear. “Ready?” Redheart said. “As I’ll ever be,” I said. In a detached kind of way, it was just a bacterial-rich substance mixing with bacterial-rich substance. But in a detached kind of way, that brown stuff that coats your wash-basin is just soap-residues and chalk. If that reasoning ever held water, it popped like a balloon when I felt my tail being lifted. — “You know what? That’s all you’re getting,” I said. Armor nodded slowly. “That’s totally fair.” I wiggled my butt a little. “It feels like you can tell. You can’t tell, can you?” Armor slightly reluctantly looked at my rump. “I can’t tell, but I don’t want to go too much into detail about this. That could easily make it seem like I’ve made a study on the area in question.” It took a while before what he said caught up with me, and I gave a sniggering snort. “Alright,” I said. “I’m considering teasing you and saying that I don’t mind if it’s you, but I can feel the moment passing.” Before Armor had a chance to answer, A rainbow-colored head poked up from the other side of the cloud. “Hey, guys!” Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. “I don’t mind the company, but you should probably tell me if you’re gonna join me on my nap cloud.” We looked at the depression where Rainbow had slept. “Oh,” Armor said sheepishly. “So, you working hard, or hardly working?” I asked, only slightly deadpanned. “Both,” Rainbow Dash said. “I was over at Fluttershy’s earlier, and making sure that her backyard was the right humidity.” “And it was so tough that you needed a nap?” I asked, a bit teasingly. “No, but I wanted one. I could’ve had one over at Fluttershy’s, but she kept cooing and playing with these blue tits,” Rainbow Dash said. Me and Armor cast a very brief glance at each other before looking back at Rainbow. “Uh, okay” I said. “Does she do that a lot?” “Yeah, she’s really good at taking care of them, they’re practically spherical. A little annoying when you’re trying to work, but I manage.” “Yeah… sounds like it,” Armor said. Rainbow finally seemed to notice the look we were giving her. “Cyanistes caeruleus,” she said slowly, her embarrassment overshadowed by annoyance. “The blue tit songbird.” “Oooh,” me and Armor said in unison. “Yeah, what did you think I was talking about? Actually don’t answer that, I’m gonna go find Scootaloo,” she said, and crouched down to take off. “Hey, wait,” I said, and Rainbow stopped to look back at me. “Scootaloo said she’d help me with making my new legs, me and Twilight thought up a way for her to help. Can you ask if she’s still interested?” “Sure, see you later,” Rainbow said and took off. Armor joined me as I rolled over to look out over Ponyville, and its colorful inhabitants going about their business. Lyra and Bon Bon sat on a bench and talked about something in the distance. The grey pegasus from earlier was delivering something to Sugarcube Corner. (and getting a pair of muffins from Pinkie) One grey and one pink filly walked down the street some ways away, laughing about something. “This can’t be healthy for people with paranoid delusions,” I said. “What, being able to sit up here and spy on ponies?” Armor asked. “Yeah, easier to indulge in it, so to speak.” “Hm, maybe. I wonder if the old pegasi warrior societies helped or hindered that,” Armor said. “Yeah,” I said slowly, considering his words. “Good question. I don’t know much about military life.” “And I don’t know much about mental health issues,” Armor said. “Yeah,” I said, again with slow consideration. “It’s strange, but all this, coming to Equestria, being a pony, has probably been mentally beneficial for me, and I don’t think I’d be the only one who’d feel this way.” “What, being a pony is better than being a human?” Armor asked. “No… or, well, I think so. But just having magic to help you. It’s not always easy, being a human.” Armor looked at me curiously. “Why?” “Well, there’s, ehm,” I said and waved my hoof around, trying to find the words. “Well okay, let me put it like this: I lived in a city, right? It wasn’t all that big, but big enough. “Now, humans don’t have magic to help them, so keeping a big and complex society running properly needs a lot of work, and in a city, with all the people crammed together, and all the services and administrations they need, and all the industry they’re supposed to fuel, all that requires so much attention.” “Cities around here needs a lot of work to run, too, though,” Armor said evenly. “Well, yeah, I guess they need the same amount of work, but ponies have their magic and their special talents to help them. That perhaps doesn’t make it require any less effort, but it’s pretty obvious that magic makes it easier and more efficient.” Armor nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah, I can see that. And you think that it’s too much for some humans?” “Yeah, in a sense,” I said. “There’s this… anonymous pressure to contribute when you live in a society like where I lived. It’s not said to your face, but if you don’t work, if you just sit around and get help for doing nothing, just taking and never giving to the great, faceless masses, you end up judging yourself. And it’s not helping that some people seem to able to take and take and take, and never feel a thing about it.” Armor was quiet, so I looked up at him, saw the sad expression on his face, and let out a sigh. “Yeah, I suppose I’m talking about myself,” I said. “All that help that the great, anonymous masses of a society can offer you? I got it all. I got everything. And it still didn’t feel like enough.” “Nopony’s judging you,” Armor said. “I know. And I said that it didn’t feel like enough, but it was. I made a life for myself, but sometimes it just felt so hard. Then there are those that try and fail, or never get to try at all…” I looked out over Ponyville again. “That’s what I mean with a lot of humans perhaps benefitting from coming to Equestria, and being given magical talents. Everything here feels a little healthier, a little easier, a little more fair, and if you’re not succeeding at the moment? No biggie, we can afford it,” I said and gestured towards Sweet Apple Acres, stretching out into the distance. “Case in point. Enormous amounts of food, grown and harvested by two ponies with buckets and a cart. Not one drop of oil.” “Well, I’m sure they need to oil the wheels like any other pony,” Armor said. “No, I mean petroleum. A modern human society needs petroleum to run, and lots of it.” “Hm,” Armor said with a facial shrug, before a small smile started growing on his face. “Well, you might be right. Hauling you around isn’t very stressful. You don’t exactly weigh a ton.” “Hm, yeah,” I said, being kinda happy that he was dropping his stoic demeanor from time to time. “Maybe I should make it harder for you?” He looked at me with a slightly raised eyebrow. “How so? Am I gonna have to carry around shopping bags? I’d thank you for the exercise.” “Oh, I got something better,” I said with a small grin. “Wanna hear a joke?” “Do I have a choice?” he asked. “No,” I stated matter-of-factly. “Okay, so there was this pony that kicked the bucket, right? She was collected, and a funeral was prepared, and then driven to the cemetery in a hearse. Now, turns out that she was undead, and the funeral was called off, no harm done. And later, she decided she wanted to pass on, and arranged another funeral for herself. So on her way to the cemetery, the drivers say to her, ‘You know, this is pretty weird, you’ve rehearsed this whole funeral thing, but now that it’s time for the real thing, we gotta rehearse getting you there’.” Armor slowly closed his eyes in mental agony as I gave him the most obnoxious grin I could. “Do you have a lot of those?” he asked. “Maybe,” I said. He slowly nodded. “Yeah, this could be a lot more exhausting than it seemed.” — “What you said earlier might be something you should tell the princesses about,” Armor said, as we walked into the marketplace. “True,” I said. “The extent to which a people strain themselves to provide for themselves and others probably says a lot to… you know,” I said, and leaned onto his neck again so that I could wave my hoof demonstrably. “Says a lot to someone who’s very old and wise and all that jazz.” “Also, ponies aren’t the only ones with magic,” Armor said. “I’m not a mage myself, but now I’m curious about how magical your home planet could be. Her highness did move you here, so her magic must’ve interacted with Earth in some way.” “Hmm, yeah. Remind me to ask her about that.” “So what are we looking for?” Armor said as we looked around us. We must’ve caught the market during a slow hour, there weren’t all that many shoppers, and the ponies manning (ponying?) the stalls were mostly quiet, not loudly advertising their wares “I’m not sure, actually,” I said. “I just tried memorising everything relevant that was in the pantry, and the different kinds of meat substitute. I thought we’d have a look around and see what’s available. If Twilight lets me borrow a cheese grater or something, I’m sure I can at least whip up something taco-ish.” “‘Taco-ish’?” Armor asked. “Taco. The most mundane of all exotic dishes. Back on Earth, at least. And it could mean that you’re gonna be on meat mincing duties, depending on how tough the stuff is,” I said, before realizing what I was talking about and looking around for reactions. We didn’t seem to attract much attention, though. Vital parts for forming a group mentality, or mob mentality if you like, seemed to be missing from the market this day. We went by mostly unnoticed, and when a pony saw us, or, mostly me, they just looked on in curiosity, their fascination not being fueled by a dozen other pairs of eyes around them. I let out a small sigh of relief. It wasn’t ideal, but with some effort and a little luck, I might be able to trick myself into a good mood. “Uhm, hello,” I heard a voice beside us say, but it didn’t seem to be aimed at us. ‘Alright, now just find some—’ “Excuse me? Miss Gabrielle?” Armor and I turned our heads towards the voice. Beside us stood the flower trio that I had tried talking to two days earlier, with embarrassed expressions on their faces. Armor caught my attention and questioningly nodded towards the trio. All rather discreetly. I gave a small, affirmative nod. “Hello?” I said as we approached. “Hi,” the pink-coated one with blond mane said nervously. They seemed unwilling to look me in the eye, and as we got closer, I realized that I sort of had to tower over them, since I was leaning over Armor’s head, who was already taller than they were. “Uhm, we just wanted to say that we’re sorry for the day before yesterday.” “Yeah,” the red-maned one said. “We’ve just never seen anything like, uh, that is to say, we, uh, you… we were at a bit of a loss, let’s just put it that way.” “I could tell,” I said. It was supposed to come off as casual, but the way their ears drooped suggested that it didn’t have that effect, so I scrambled for something else to say. “But it’s okay, I’m used to it.” “Oh,” they said, and looked down on the ground. ‘Yeah, that was a pretty bad save.’ “Well, anything we can do to make it up for you?” “You already sent me a very nice bouquet,” I said, and suddenly realized something. “Speaking of which, it’s nice that you remembered my name. I didn’t think you would.” “Oh, well. Uhm,” the blond one said. “Rarity told us,” the green-maned one said. “Oh yeah?” I said, doing a little detective work in my head. ‘We went to Rarity after that whole fiasco, she said that the next day would be better, and lo! The Crusaders showed up after I got a… what would probably have been a very nice present for someone else.’ A small smile formed on my lips. I guess there are more ways to be generous than giving away stuff. “That sounds like her,” I said. “Yeah, it does,” the red-maned one said. “So, uh, are you new to Ponyville?” “Yup,” I said. “New to Equestria, even.” “Oh, really?” red-mane said, their ears perking up. “What are you doing here?” I bobbed my head a little in consideration. “I guess you could say that I’m a bit of an exchange student, or a cultural attaché.” “Wow, somepony so young!” green-mane said. “And your name sounds so exotic! Were you raised by gryphons?” It struck me that I’d been asked that quite a few times by now. “No, does it sound like it?” “Well, I don’t know any gryphons personally, but it sounds like it to me,” blond-mane said, before her eyes widened. “Oh! Names! Sorry. I’m Lily.” There was a round of hoof bumps. “Rose.” “Daisy.” “And I’m a bit relieved, I was worried that you had hurt your eye, too,” Rose said. “Hm?” I asked questioningly before I realized what she was on about. “Oh, no, this is actually a prosthetic,” I said and tapped it. “But I’m guessing you don’t want me to show you?” “No!” they all shouted at once. “Just as well,” I said. “It’s comfy, so I’d rather leave it in.” They laughed nervously. “And you, sir?” Lily asked Armor. “Oh, uh, Studded, ma’am,” he said. “Oh!” Lily said and giggled. “There’s no need for any of this ‘ma’am’ here. Are you visiting Equestria, too?” “Uh, no. I’m helping Gabe– uh! Gabrielle, here,” Armor said. “He’s my helper and guide,” I said. “That would explain why you’re staying with Twilight,” Rose said. “Could we tempt you two with a rose-bouquet?” “Thank you, but no,” I said. “I’m sort of looking around here, trying to find something that tastes like home.” ‘If by "home", you mean something from another hemisphere.’ “Well, maybe we can help you?” Lily said. “Say what you’re looking for, we’ll point you to it.” “Well, I haven’t decided on anything yet, but okay,” I said. I moved my taco plans up to another day as I got a rundown on the range of wares available in Ponyville. Not because there wasn’t enough stuff available, but because I got the munchies for something Oriental when I heard about sesame oil. As we moved away with a thank you to the flower trio, I looked down at Armor. “Was it just me, or were their eyes strangely lidded whenever they looked at you?” Armor’s cheeks became very hot. I could tell. “You a chick magnet, Armor?” I asked teasingly. That made him stop and look at me questioningly. “Uh… you mean as in an attractive older gryphon tercel?” — The small amount of content hissed and spat in the pan. They didn’t throw around all that much boiling grease, though. Mostly because there wasn’t any actual grease, just the meat-substitute, and the small amount of butter it was frying in. I magicked a fork over and speared the strip in the pan and brought it to my mouth, chewing slowly and methodically, trying to sense everything about the flavor and texture. “Yeah, this is a definite nominee,” I said, and placed a strip from another package in the pan and magicked it over to Spike. “Alright, fire when ready.” Spike blew a small but very hot stream of green flames (green flames!!) at the bottom of the pan. I was still feeling a little guilty for dropping the pan right on his face earlier. It turns out that dragon fire does some weird things to unicorn magic, but he said he was fine, and now I was making a point of only holding the pan in the handle. (or "hoofle", or maybe even "mouthle" here in pony land) And I guess it was a good thing that it was Spike I dropped it on, with him being a dragon and therefore both covered in armor and completely fireproof. I probably wouldn’t have gotten away so easily, and three hospital visits in three days was quite enough, thank you. I had another bite, letting Spike have a taste as well, and decided that these two would go pretty well together. “Mmm. This is actually pretty good,” Spike said. “Alright, I guess the consistency is gonna be a bit different from what I’m used to, but I think this’ll work,” I said. “So should I start grating?” Armor asked from the table. “Yeah, though I might as well do some of it. Need to train my magic and all,” I said. “How much should I do?” “I dunno. Do you want any?” Armor looked contemplatively on the big lump of meat substitute he was holding up against the cheese grater. “Sure,” he said after a while. “Why not?” “Alright, then you should go with your guts, I think you’re the most seasoned chef among us,” I said, and shot him a trollish grin. Armor looked at me impassively for a while. “... No,” he simply said with a small shake of the head, and went back to grating. Some time later, my experiment with ingredients available in Equestria turned into the actual dinner. With Twilight joining in as well, saying that as a princess, she should have a broad culinary horizon. “Mmm, this is really good,” Twilight said. “I was a bit worried about trying out some of the gryphons cuisine, but not anymore.” “Well, this has a bit of a far east feel to it. I don’t know a lot about gryphons, but they don’t strike me as the ones to cook these kinds of meals,” I said, and paused, realizing that I hadn’t seen lot of mediterranean food in Canterlot, despite all the unicorns and marble palaces. “Then again, I wouldn’t know.” “So what were you saying about Scrap’s plans?” Twilight asked. “Mm, yeah, I think I’ve made some progress, and that perhaps he could help with the design of a limb. He would probably know better on how to place the weight and mechanical parts of the thing. I wore a prosthetic leg for years, but it turns out that I don’t know all that much about the fine details of how it functioned, and I would like an metallurgist to look at it.” “You want them made out of metal?” Twilight asked. “I thought you were gonna make them out of gems.” “Ah, that’s the beautiful part,” I said, smilingly. “I had this idea when I was going through my plans this morning, and I think I’m being really clever here.” “Oh, can I see?” Twilight said. “Sure, I just need to write it down properly,” I said and turned to Armor. “And I’m gonna set up in the basement. Now that I’ve had a taste of ‘home’, I need the sound of it, too.” Armor looked at me in mild confusion, but I just remembered a conversation with him from earlier today, and turned to Twilight. “Hey, Armor brought something up today, that I thought sounded right. If you were able to use magic to move me from Earth to Equestria, Equestrian magic must be able to interact with Earth.” “Well, yes,” Twilight said. “I’m not sure I would’ve been able to detect Earth at all if it couldn’t.” “Does that mean that there could be magic on Earth?” I asked. “I would assume so,” Twilight said. “But if a species of your intelligence can’t use it, it must be very, very dormant.” “Could it be awakened, so to speak, or actually, I think what I wanna get to is: can humans use magic?” “I… would assume so too,” she said. “I hope so. It would be fascinating to see in what way it would manifest.” “How would you think it would manifest?” I asked, curiosity almost overwhelming me. Twilight put her hoof to her chin and looked out the window in contemplation. “Hard to say, but judging from how both ponies and other magic-using species on Equestria use magic, I’d say longer lives, greater health, and some sort of assistance in influencing the world around you.” “Lives as long as ponies?” I asked. “Uhm, possibly,” Twilight said with a shrug. “I’m a bit reluctant to study Earth closer after what happened the last time.” I nodded, and for some reason, the main thought going through my head went, ‘I wonder what Michael Ironside’s career will look like in two hundred years.’ After dinner we relocated to the basement, where we unpacked my hard case with my guitar and harmonica, freshly arrived from Canterlot, and I spent the rest of the day alternating between practicing my magic and relearning to create music, and writing down my ideas for prosthetic legs while listening to sea shanty tunes on my computer. I kept glancing over at Armor, who was relaxing in a lawn chair with a book, his head bobbing and his ears flopping to the tunes, and continuously had alternating feelings of joy and sadness. I was making really good progress, and soon I was gonna be able to be as independent as I wanted, with magic on top of that. But that would mean that I wouldn’t need Armor around anymore. ‘Well, this was always the plan. He’s not really your servant, he’s a soldier who befriended you. Duty calls and all that… duty calls to Princess Celestia, where he’s supposed to be stationed… and you have a suite at her place.’ My mood swinging over to happy again, I turned back to the parchments with my half-written plans. — It wasn’t a void. Or at least it didn’t feel like it. I think a void is supposed to be cold and alone, and very depressive, both despairingly infinite yet upsettingly oppressive. This was more like the warm embrace of sleep. Fitting, since by now I had figured out that I was asleep. “Yes, companionship,” the voice said. “It is not an easy thing to leave behind.” We, and I say "we" because if it did turn out to be a projection of my subconsciousness or something that I was having conversations with in my dreams, I would’ve preferred to not think that I was talking to myself. “Well, it wouldn’t be a real goodbye,” I said, the ‘words’, if it indeed was words, seemingly coming out per automatic. I guess you can’t hide things from your subconscious. “He’s gonna be in Canterlot, and he’s still gonna be my friend.” The voice chuckled, his tone joyous and his voice silken, despite sounding like the color black had learned how to speak. “I approve,” it, or he, said. “Such a precious thing should be fought to be kept, and if lost, fought to be reclaimed.” I’m not sure how much I was listening, or rather, registering. “Mm, you’re right,” I said. “I missed it.” “So do I. But I will not miss it forever. What companionship was once mine shall be mine again. I shall make it so.” “I’m sure you will,” I mumbled, as I fell back into dreamless sleep. “Remember what you’ve been taught.” — I did remember. As I rolled out the parchments across Scrap’s workbench, It was a struggle to keep my smile from seeming too smug. “So, an enchanted lapis lazuli core that resonates with my magical aura, inside a bronze casing, with all the various toughening enchantments and self repair enchantments and so on,” I said. ”And as you can see, I’ve left the core empty.” “That’s a good idea,” Scrap said, looking closer at the plans. “It would cut a lot of weight.” “So now we just need a properly fitting piece of lapis lazuli,” Twilight said. “Ah, that’s one of the beautiful things about this idea. No, we don’t,” I said. “I was thinking back to how my prosthesis worked, the knee joint could only turn in one direction. I mean, it was great that it could turn and all, but it was really rigid. So I figured that we could encase a fine powder of enchanted lapis lazuli inside a bronze structure to allow it to move in any direction, then I figured we might as well do that with the whole thing.” “Oh!” Twilight said. “Yes, if you enchant a powder, you don’t have to worry about the enchantment being disturbed by physically damaging the unit.” Studded Armor was trying to follow along with what we were talking about. I could tell that he was having some trouble, but he was clearly impressed by this. Scrap looked skeptical, though. “I looked into prostheses earlier, and one of the great obstacles is that the enchantments are very easily disturbed by outside influences. This would make it almost impossible to function around even background magic.” “I thought about that,” I said. “I figured that we could enchant the bronze covering to seal the magic in the lapis lazuli, while at the same time using it to keep out unwanted influences, a bit like a faraday cage, then we simply adjust the sealing enchantment on the bronze covering to let the magical signature of my legs through, and nothing else.” Scrap looked at me contemplatively, then down at the plans, then his gaze shot back at me again. It looked like he was gonna give a barking laugh, but instead it came out as a sigh and a long chuckle as he looked up into the ceiling. Twilight did something much the same, but seemed to want Scrap to confirm my words. After Scrap had finished chuckling, he looked back at me. “I don’t know what a ‘Faraday’ is, but I’m gonna start on it right away, because I’m not only hoping that you’re right, I really think you’re right,” he said and floated over some measuring tapes to us. “Oh please be right. I wanna see this work. I haven’t invented anything new, or been around when it was invented, in way too long.” “How would you attach it, though?” Twilight asked. “I seem to recall you mentioning a spell that attaches things to each other,” I said. “I’ll just wear something that I can attach it to.” I sat on Armor’s back while Scrap measured my foreleg. “We’ll start with the front one, I think,” he said. “We’ll make two connected tubes, a bit thinner than your normal leg, so that we can pad it.” “Mm, exactly. Then we’ll ask Rarity to come up with some way to cover it up,” I said. “Yeah. I suppose this first one will be a prototype, so don’t worry if it doesn’t fit perfectly.” Twilight seemed to wake out of a stupor at this. “Oh, that’s right, I was supposed to document everything!” she said. “I hope you don’t mind, Gabe. I want to make sure that this is never lost to time again.” “I certainly don’t mind,” I said. ‘I remember watching shows and stuff with perfect replacement limbs, and pretty much stomping my foot frustratedly at modern medical technology, going, "Mmm! Come on!’’' “You’re probably gonna end up in magical journals, too,” Twilight said. That gave me pause. “... Okay,” I said, a bit hesitantly. ‘It’ll probably be worth it.’ — The water on the pond was disturbed by another splash, caused by a blue magical orb. “Duuh dun-dun-dun-duuh, dun-dun-dun-duuh, dun-dun-dun-duuh, dun-deduh-duh, dun-deduh-duh.” I was happily humming the Airwolf theme from atop Armor’s back, as we hovered over the pond that me and the Crusaders had relaxed by two days ago. I didn't bring up what Airwolf was with Armor, though, as that might've made him nervous about where I would put the rocket engine. My practice with magic in the last few days was starting to pay off, and now I was able to fire several of the little bolts of magic in a row. They probably wouldn’t do much if I tried using them in a practical scenario, but that didn’t matter to me at the moment. “Haha! Pew pew!” I shouted happily, not caring the least about how childish I sounded, and sent another blast down against the water, where it made a satisfyingly large splash. “Somepony seems happy about something,” Armor said smilingly. “Well, it can’t be me, because ‘happy’ doesn’t adequately describe how I feel right now,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. “Everything seems to be going my way.” “Everything, including dragons,” Armor said. “Well, you made sure that wasn’t so bad,” I said, and decided that this was a good time to reinforce what I said a few days ago with a physical gesture, so I hugged Armor’s neck and nuzzled his cheek. “This is all going a lot faster than I thought, but thank you again for everything.” Armor leaned into my nuzzling. “Well… thanks for giving me an interesting posting. Although, I’m supposed to stick around until you’re feeling comfortable as a pony, so I guess it’s your word that decides when I’m going back to Canterlot.” I pulled away gently. “I was half expecting you to flush and stammer and stuff when I did this.” “Well, I think we’re friendly enough by now, and nopony else is around,” Armor said. “Isn’t that a bad thing for a bodyguard?” I asked teasingly. “I bet my commanding officer would have some objections,” Armor said. “But I’m also pretty sure that your words hold more weight in this case.” “Still having trouble wrapping my head around that. The only thing I’m used to having authority over was the MRI scheduling. Also, you might be wrong about there not being anyone else around,” I said and pointed to the ground in the distance, where the Crusaders were approaching. “Giddy-up. No, wait, giddy-down,” I said, and Armor descended to the Crusaders. “Hey, Gabe! Hey, Armor!” they said happily. “Hey, guys,” I said. “Hello,” Armor said. “We heard that Cheerilee is gonna come over to Golden Oaks tomorrow to see you,” Sweetie Belle said. “Really? Why?” I asked. “I think she wants to know how smart you are and stuff,” Scootaloo said. “Oh, okay. That makes sense,” I said. The Crusaders looked at me curiously for a moment. “Cheerilee is a great teacher and all,” Apple Bloom said. “But I didn’t figure that you were looking forward to it that much.” I realized that I was still smiling. “Oh, that’s mostly because it seems we’re making good progress on a replacement foreleg.” The Crusaders’ eyes lit up at this. “Oooh!” they said in unison. “Can we watch?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Sure,” I said. “In fact, Scootaloo, did Rainbow Dash find you yesterday?” “Of course she did. She said that you wanted my help with something,” Scootaloo said, a bit cockily. “Yeah, me, Twilight, and Armor’s uncle are all gonna be working on the prosthesis, and I think it would be good to have someone to model the motions after,” I said and gestured with my head towards Armor. “We have another pony who’s not working directly on the project, but there’s a bit of a size difference,”– Armor shrugged with his wings –”and since you offered to help, could you model? We’re about the same size.” “Sure,” Scootaloo said. “We can watch, too, right?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Sure, and then you can tell Rarity about it. She’s gonna make it look like a real limb,” I said. After the arrangements had been made, the Crusaders continued on towards wherever they were going, while Armor and I went back to Golden Oaks, where I finished the day with my usual routine of reading up on enchantments, and practiced my magic on various things, including playing my old guitar. I promised myself that I would show the ukulele that Pinkie gave me some more love, too. — The next day, I was sitting in my room with my guitar, finally working up a routine and losing myself in my music. I could practically hear the harmonica joining in to the jaunty tune, when I heard a knock on the door. Snapping out of my stupor, I struggled a bit for words. “Oh, uhm, ah yes?” I asked loudly. The door opened, and Twilight poked her head through. “Hey, Gabe. Cheerilee, the school teacher, is here to see you.” “Oh, okay, thanks,” I said, putting my guitar to the side of the bed. “Did you play the harmonica as well just now?” Twilight asked, looking at me curiously. “Uh, no?” I said. “Not that I noticed, at least.” “Hm, that’s strange.” Twilight said, and gestured to her side, where an earth pony mare with purple coat and two-toned pink mane entered. “Anyway, this is Cheerilee, the schoolteacher of Ponyville. Cheerilee, this is Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers.” Cheerilee walked in with a smile that fell away immediately to give way to a look of barely concealed shock as she saw me. I was ready for that, though. “Hello,” I simply said, and gave a little wave. Twilight didn’t seem to notice, just as I intended, and simply said, “Alright, call if you need me.” “Will do,” I said. As the door closed, Cheerilee was still obviously struggling to regain her composure, and process my appearance. My current demeanor probably didn’t help. Not that I was scowling at her or anything, but I was sitting in a slumped over, casual way, in my messy bed, with my slightly provocative hairdo, and a beautiful, but still kinda mean-looking, gleaming red guitar. Not to mention that I hadn’t bothered putting on an eyepatch, and my current prosthetic eye was resting in a glass of water on the bedside table. I guess all that, together with my obviously mutilated appearance and casual bearing, hinted a lot of things to a teacher, among them that I might not be impressed into obedience simply by virtue of her being an authoritative figure. But the Crusaders liked her, so I simply decided to dial up the friendliness a notch, and gestured to the desk with the vacant chair. “This is technically Twilight’s residence, but make yourself at home anyway,” I said. “Oh, uh, thank you,” she said, putting some papers on the desk, walked over to me, then offered her hoof. “Speaking of Princess Twilight, I’m sure she already said, but I’m Cheerilee. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Likewise. My name’s Gabrielle, but you can call me Gabe,” I said. “‘Gabe’. That’s quite a shortening of a very interesting name.” I shrugged casually. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said, and floated a cushion over to her from a shelf. “It was,” Cheerilee said, and shot me a grateful smile as she sat down. “‘Gab… rielle, Eleanor… Desrochers.” She slowly spelled out my name. “That’s not a gryphon name, by any chance?” I looked away to the side, not remembering how many times I’ve been asked that now. “Not as far as I’m aware, but I wouldn’t know. Does it sound like one?” “A bit, yeah, and a pretty extravagant one, too,” Cheerilee said. “Twilight said she’d rather let you explain where you’re from and such, but she said that you have diplomatic immunity, and it almost sounds like it would be a name for gryphon royalty.” ‘Oh, yeah, I might be last descendant of a house of nobles who fled an attack on our estates by another noble family, only to be taken in by a gryphon royal family, who taught me the arts of combat and court intrigue, and prepared me to take back my destiny,’ I thought, before looking at my empty shoulder. ‘Then again, maybe not.’ “Well, I’m sure I could have someone register me under a more pony-sounding name, but for now, my name can simply be ‘Gabe’. So is this gonna be an evaluation?” I asked, gesturing with my head towards the papers on the desk. “Among other things,” she said. “I’d also like for us to get to know each other a bit.” ‘This sounds promising for a teacher.’ “Alright, what did you have in mind?” I asked. “Well, normally I’d just ask things like ‘What do you like to do?’, and ‘Have you found your special talent yet?’, and so on, but I’m really curious about you with your political status and such.” “‘And such’?” I asked, with a small smirk. “Well, uh,” she glanced at my right side before looking away. “I admit that I’m curious about that as well.” “Alright, hold on, this might help,” I said, and floated my eye out of the water. I shook it twice, before raising my head and casually plopping it in. ‘I wonder if that’s magic as well, because this thing is really comfy.’ I aimed two eyes and a casual smile at Cheerilee. “Alright, fire away.” “Well, okay... do you have any parents?” she asked. “Nope. Lost them the same time I lost this,” I said and gestured towards my right side. “How long ago was that?” she asked, her voice having quieted a bit. “Ten years.” “So you must’ve been very young,” she said, her voice now so cautious that she seemed reluctant to use it. I let out a "hmm", and looked up at the ceiling. “You know,” I said and looked at her. “The only people here who knows where I’m from are heroes and military people. Almost makes me think that this is some state secret, but if I wasn’t allowed to tell you this, I think Twilight would have said so. “So here it is. I’m actually from another world, I was brought here by accident, then the princesses took me in and gave me all that I have. I also belonged to a species without magic, who don’t live nearly as long as ponies, so I was, and still consider myself to be, an adult.” I decided to leave out Twilight’s role in me being here. Cheerilee looked at me with wide eyes for a few moments, before seemingly just shrugging it off. “Okay, and the diplomatic immunity?” “Is because I’m advising the princesses on a world that it might just get into contact with sometime again,” I said. “And probably because it lets me be a child on paper while not robbing me of freedoms.” Cheerilee nodded slowly. “And you’re not a child?” she asked. “I guess I am to you ponies, but I don’t consider myself one,” I said. Cheerilee nodded some more. “I heard some rumors in the past few days, about a poor filly in a wheelchair. I was expecting it to be really bad, so I’m sorry for staring earlier.” “That’s okay,” I said. “And I heard that you made friends with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom,” Cheerilee said in a hopeful voice. “Oh, yeah,” I said with a smile. “Yeah, we’ve already been on adventures. Sort of.” “That’s nice,” Cheerilee said. “It’s easier to go to a new school when you already know some ponies there.” I nodded in agreement, before realizing something. “And if you’re worried about how I’m gonna be treated because of this,” I said and nodded towards my right side. “Me, Twilight, and Scrap Armor are making good progress at some magical replacements, so I’m not worried.” “Oh? That… sounds interesting, I must say. I guess that brings us to magic. You said that you didn’t have any before coming to Equestria, if I understood it correctly.” “That’s right,” I said. “Can you tell me how school worked?” That caught me off-guard. “Well… there was mostly rows of students looking at a teacher who told them all the things.” Cheerilee jotted something down on a notepad, which caught my interest because she was using her mouth to do so, but paused when I said this. “That’s it?” she asked, her pencil still in her mouth. “Well, that’s not all,” I said. “Then there was stuff like projects and essays and things like that.” Cheerilee nodded and made some more notes. “Alright, I guess without magic, there wouldn’t be much point in talent hours,” she said, seemingly half to herself “Talent hours?” I asked. Cheerilee finished some notes, before setting the paper down and looking at me. “Talent hours are the time of school where I help colts and fillies with their special talents. I let them practice them in new ways, so that they can really grow.” “Oh,” I said, and scratched my muzzle. “Okay. Are there any lectures?” “Yes, for things like math, and geography, and science,” Cheerilee said. “So, fact-based subjects?” I asked. Cheerilee seemed a taken aback by that. Maybe because my vocabulary, but I don’t know. “Uh, yes, more or less.” “What do you do if you don’t have a special talent, though?” I asked. “You’re free to study whatever you wish, or go out and try and find it,” she said. “Aren’t you worried that people are just skipping school in that case?” I asked with a small smile. “Well, there’s nopony who doesn’t want to find their special talent, and I know that your friends are trying to find theirs,” Cheerilee said with a smile. “Fair enough,” I conceded. “So maybe we should get started on that evaluation, I want to know what subjects you have in this world.” I studied a lot of math in school. More than I can remember, and I never got any use out of most of it. The first possible exception was during an evaluation with a magical pony on another world, where despite feeling really rusty, I breezed through the most advanced stuff Cheerilee had. So in the end, I managed to impress an alien with it. Yay me. On the other hoof, I was close to oblivious when it came to history and things like that, here in Equestria that is. Magic theory was slightly better, but I was still held back by my unfamiliarity with the lingo. Speaking of which, I did also impress Cheerilee with my ability to speak three languages, further reinforcing the image that I might’ve been raised by gryphons. “Alright,” Cheerilee said. “These were some interesting results. I’ve made a list here for you if you want to study some of the subjects that you’re, well, lacking in. You can find all of these at the local –” she faltered a bit here as she realized where she was “– library,” she finished with a bashful smile. “I believe you,” I said with a smile, and magically grabbed the list. “Do you have any other questions?” she asked. “Hmm,” I said. “Not at the moment.” “Well, Twilight can show you where I live if you think of anything else. Hope to see you in school,” Cheerilee said as she packed up her things and walked towards the door. “You too,” I said. I threw myself back against the covers and sighed. It had been getting difficult to focus on mundane things like numbers and languages. It was almost lunch time, and Scrap had promised that he would be finished with the base for the prototype after that. — Scrap held the shimmering bag up to his muzzle, seeming a bit distracted by the eleven eyes looking at him. “Maybe we should open a few windows?” he said. “I don’t usually have this many ponies in here.” Armor, Twilight, and the Crusaders all opened all the windows of the observatory/workshop, and went back to look at Scrap with me. “Alright, I guess we’ll just begin,” he said, and turned to me. “How about you perform the enchantment that you used to move the gem with earlier, and I’ll try and help make it as smooth as possible?” “Uh, okay,” I said. “How does it work when several people enchant something together?” “Much like any situation where somepony assists somepony else, only with magic. Just start magicking, and I’ll try and figure how you did it, and see if I can add anything to it,” Scrap said, putting the bag down on the table in front of us, and put his magic goggles down over his eyes. “Alright,” I said, and projected myself myself into my horn. I held the phantom outline of my foreleg out, and magicked the bag of gem dust (courtesy of Spike’s teeth) along with it, matching the pulsating lights and swirling shapes. It was a bit tricky, though. Working with the powder was best described as "slippery", compared to the solid thing, and the dust made small jumps and pops inside the bag. “Slow down, try doing it more methodically,” Scrap said. “Alright, but I’m still new to this,” I said. As I tried a slower approach, I strained more, but it also gave Scrap some time to figure out what I was doing, and how to help me. It was a bit like having someone grabbing your hand and positioning it the right way. I automatically kind of jibbed at his magical presence, but I could also tell how much better his way of doing things were. After we had finished, the contents of the bag responded perfectly to whatever I did with my phantom limb, but it also squirmed and made little jumps all the time. All ponies present looked at the bag with curiosity. Scrap, who still had his goggles over his eyes, scanned the present ponies. “Scootaloo, right?” he asked. “Uh, yeah?” Scootaloo answered a bit hesitantly. Scrap held out an inviting foreleg. “Could you rear up against the table and flap your wings a bit?” Scootaloo hesitantly approached the table. “Do you want me to fly or something?” she asked nervously. “No, just flap your wings in different ways,” Scrap said. “You should see what I mean when you do.” Scootaloo put her forelegs against the edge of the metal table, and did a little wave with her wings. The bag with the enchanted dust immediately reacted, flattening against the table, and still continued to twitch and squirm. We all looked on in fascination, Scootaloo’s eyes being especially wide. She continued doing little waves and flaps with her wings, with the bag reacting seemingly at random to the various little movements, doing little jumps and rolls. “So, for all attendants wondering what’s going on,” Scrap said to the room at large. “We’ve made an enchantment that, as far as I can tell, responds perfectly with Gabe’s arcanomorphic field, and as an unwanted part of the bargain, it also responds very unpredictably to just about every piece of magic around. The little squirms are from background magic, while the larger movements are from Scootaloo’s wings.” Twilight had been following along perfectly, of course, but Armor and the Crusaders let out a collective "aaah" in comprehension. “Kind of worthless for a replacement limb in itself, in other words, but as Gabe figured out”– Scrap held up the metallic foreleg –”we should be able to isolate it in a container, which only lets through the magical signature of Gabe’s arcanomorphic field.” There was another "aaah", this one longer and a bit delayed. “So if you’ll all just– by the way,” Scrap said and looked at me. “What was that thing you did through the whole process? I couldn’t figure it out.” There was one thing that Scrap hadn’t assisted me with, I figured that he didn’t have any insight to offer, but now I figured out that he didn’t know what I was doing. “Oh, I think you mean the on and off switch.” Scrap looked like he was gonna say something, but stopped himself. “See, we’d have trouble removing the bag from me if I didn’t figure out a way to turn it off,” I said. “Oh yeah,” he said. “Good thinking. Anyway, if you all just stand over there in the corner, I’m gonna try and pour this into here with as little magic as possible interfering.” “This is so cool!” Scootaloo said, as Scrap was tying the bag around the top of the metallic leg. “Are you gonna have super strength with that thing?” “Actually, yes,” I said. “This is only a prototype, but it’s gonna be pretty strong, and there’s room for other enchantments both on the dust, and on the ‘rig’.” “Cool!” Apple Bloom said, and turned to Sweetie Belle. “Hey, we should go tell Rarity. She can make it look just like Gabe’s real leg.” “Hay, yeah,” Sweetie Belle said and the three started cantering towards the door. “Hold it, Scootaloo,” Scrap said from the corner. “You were gonna help us get the anatomy of the real thing right.” “Oh, right,” Scootaloo said. “You get Rarity, I’ll stay here.” “Now, Gabe, could you switch this on before I seal this thing?” Scrap asked, holding the bag against the hole on the top of the foreleg. I wheeled myself over and did so, before Armor sealed it. Then, with some difficulty, he managed to pour the enchanted dust into the lower foreleg, and the hoof. “Alright, now we just enchant the base to attach to your, uh, shoulder,” Scrap said, and held up the piece of textile that Twilight had provided two attachment enchantments on. It was smooth sailing from here, the plugs of the bronze structure having to be a two-step construction, one to physically seal the dust in, and one to seal the enchantment. We considered this to be an acceptable solution during the development-process, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to remove the leg without wiping the enchantments and doing the whole sealing thing over again. In the future, we’d probably conjure up a solution to let a custom "activation spell" through, but for now, my attention was focused on the leg finally being attached to me. The leg was magically attached to the textile base, which was in turn magically attached to me, a bit like double-sided tape (which we were gonna come up with a better version for in the future). I moved my ghostly foreleg into the physical one, and it responded immediately. “It’s working,” I said in a small voice, and lifted it up to inspect it, turning it around. I would’ve done the dramatic looking thing where I clenched the fist, but that obviously wasn’t an option. “It’s really working.” Twilight hadn’t been taking notes for once, instead she was looking on in fascination as my new foreleg responded perfectly to everything I expected an actual limb to do. “Congratulations,” she said, and gave me a hug. “I’m so happy for you.” “Y– yeah,” I said, filled with more emotions than I knew what to do with. “Thank you, too.” Scrap was looking intently at the limb giving such lifelike little movements and twitches. “You know,” he said slowly. “We’re planning on making improved versions, but I could have a hind leg like this one ready in less than two hours. We have more than enough gem dust for it. So you can start practicing today.” “Uh, yeah, sure,” I said. “If it’s not a problem.” “Of course not,” Scrap said happily. “Then we can–” he was interrupted by the door flying open, and Rarity storming in with a manic look on her face. “I heard! I hea– oh!” she stopped herself as she saw Scrap, and calmly walked up to him, but with some noticeable twitches in her legs, and raised her foreleg. “Good day to you, sir. I am Rarity, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Charmed. I’m Scrap Armor,” Scrap said with a calm smile, took her hoof in his, and just barely brushed his lips against it. In the background, his nephew rolled his eyes. “Oh! Hoho,” Rarity giggled. “And I understand that you have been instrumental in assisting our dear Gabrielle with the construction of a replacement for her foreleg.” Scrap simply gestured towards me, and Rarity walked up to me with a look of anticipation in her eyes. “May I?” she asked, and held out her foreleg. I offered my newest addition in the body department, and she took the rough-looking metal construction in her hoof and inspected it. “So it is functional?” she asked. By now, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came in through the door as well, their panting stopping as they saw me moving my artificial limb. “Ohohoho! Magnifique! ,” Rarity said. It took some moments for me to get my bearings, but I was happy for the distraction from all the emotions swirling inside me. “Uuuh, ?” Rarity held her hoof to her chest in surprise. “Oh! Uh, I mean, I’m sorry, I must’ve lost myself there, and you…” she said to me before trailing off and shaking her head. “Oh, I came to offer taking part of the aesthetic part of your marvelous construction, just as we agreed,” she said. I looked down at the unpolished construction, and turned it around a bit. “Yeah, but just so you know, this isn’t going to be the final product,” I said. “Oh, it matters not!” Rarity said and shook her head. “There shall be no repeat incident from what you told me about the market. Come with me, and we shall make it so!” I looked back at Scrap, who seemed more than a little amused at the whole thing. “Go on. Check back in two hours, and I shall have a hind leg ready.” “Alright then, let’s go, I guess,” I said, and started wheeling towards the door. I didn’t get very far before Rarity magicked me up on Armor’s back. “There is no time, my dear. We must fly!” Rarity exclaimed and dramatically posed towards the exit before cantering out of it in the direction of her boutique. Armor and I looked at each other, before he gently took off and caught up with her. Twilight and Scootaloo looked on in confusion for a moment before following, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle let out a sigh and pantingly followed, too. — The storm that was Rarity’s work routine kept me distracted from things I didn’t want to focus on while there was people around. A hurricane of different fabrics was flowing all around us, as we were sitting on an assortment of cushions while Rarity babbled about her plans. “Something strong, yet soft. With an outer layer that can easily be washed, and the whole thing should be able to be worn when washing,” she said to herself. I thought that last part sounded like an excellent idea, too. I was busy looking down at the metallic limb, turning it in different angles and marveling at how responsive it was, when I glanced up and saw Rarity inches away from my face. “So, Gabe, could you please stand up on the catwalk?” she asked, managing to keep her tone somewhat conversational. I looked up at the small catwalk, then down at my right thigh. “I dunno, I haven’t even had the chance to try standing with more than two legs yet.” Armor’s wing enveloped me, and gently lifted me up with its beguiling strength, holding up my lower half. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold you like this.” “Ah, okay, thanks,” I said. We slowly walked over to the edge of the catwalk, my left legs making soft clopping sounds, while my right one made metallic clacks. Armor’s grip around me hardened, and he jumped up on the platform with one beat of his free wing. “Scootaloo, would you please stand next to Gabe?” Rarity asked. Scootaloo did a little jump, and clambered up next to us. “Now then,” Rarity said. “I would like the two of you to walk back and forth, slowly. Twilight and I shall take notes about the finer details of the movements, I want to know where to make the covering flexible, where to make it taut, and so on. Twilight, you were…” she trailed off and gestured towards Twilight. “I’d like to take notes on balance and weight distribution, how the metallic one compares to an organic one,” Twilight said. “And things like that.” “Oh, I also need to remember to ask Scrap to add some way to attach the covering to the leg,” Rarity said. “Good thinking,” Twilight said. “And I need to remember to see if I can perhaps add a sense of touch to the covering,” I said. “Also good thinking,” Twilight said, as she and Rarity floated up clipboards in front of them. “Begin, please.” And so we did. I had been on a display where I relearned to walk before. This time, I couldn’t hold on to any railing, of course, but Armor helped instead. The whole thing was fairly uneventful. Rarity and Twilight were taking notes, occasionally asking some questions, and I was stumbling along, with Armor’s help, next to Scootaloo. This wasn’t the way I was going to be walking in the end, but it still felt pretty useful, learning what movement shifted my weight in what way and such. The greatest flaw with the design of the leg was probably the attachment base. We decided to try and make it more accommodating to the muscles stretching and flexing against it. The hind leg wouldn’t need as much customisation, though, since I still had a good bit left to attach it to. Little more than an hour after this, in which we alternated between walking and having tea and biscuits, there was a knock on the door. “So sorry to ask this, but who is it?” Rarity called. “It’s Scrap Armor,” Scrap’s voice sounded from outside. Rarity opened the door with a surprised look. There stood Scrap with what I could only assume was a metallic hind leg wrapped in cloth. “This went a lot faster than I thought. It took a while to cool it off without warping it, though,” he said, and unwrapped the creation. “I already filled it, and I think it’s ready to use.” “Oh?” Rarity said, and floated some more papers up to her face. “Another round, then!” she exclaimed. And so another limb was attached to me, and there was another bout of walking up and down the catwalk. The new addition didn’t hurt, but I could tell that it was going to start chafing after prolonged use, and that was added to the list of things to fix to the final creation. After another hour. Rarity was ready with two tubes of royal blue fabric that could be slid over the limbs. It didn’t fit perfectly, but they were soft, and only a few movements hinted that they weren’t the real things. They were noticeably colder to the touch, though. I sat and looked at my new limbs, the only thing visually giving them away as replacement being the dull metallic tinge of their hooves, at least from a distance. By now, I was exhausted. Both for wobbling up and down for hours, and for holding all my emotions in in front of everyone. I think my composure was starting to show some cracks, though, when I stood up by myself and walked around a few steps before slumping down on the cushion again. “Uhm,” Armor spoke up a bit hesitantly. “Maybe we should call it a day?” “Nonsense! We’re making such good progress. One should strike while the iron is hot, and I was thinking that... ” Rarity trailed off when she saw me. “Although, perhaps you are right. This has been a very productive day, and we’re not working with iron in any case. What do you say, Gabe?” I shot Armor a grateful look. “I… think that perhaps this could be a good time to finish up for today,” I said. “Alright, we’ll just take another day to, uh, convene on what the end product should entail?” Twilight said, and started wrapping up the parchments with her notes. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress today.” I looked up at the assorted ponies, and made an exertion to give them all a great smile. “Thanks, everyone.” Before anyone could respond, the Crusaders simply walked up to me and gave me a group hug. I’m proud to say that I barely cringed and my hugging them back barely felt stilted. “Hey, no need to thank me,” Scrap chuckled. “It’s nice to know that if something really bad happens, you know how to patch me up.” “And I appreciate your gratitude, dear,” Rarity said. “But I’d do it again. Eagerly. And I will!” As the Crusaders broke away, Twilight smiled at me and offered me her hoof. “Come on, let’s go home,” she said. Everyone started slowly filing out of Rarity’s boutique, into the orange light of the setting sun, with me and Armor taking up the rear. “Actually, Twilight,” I said. “Perhaps you could go on ahead,” I said, limping only a little bit. Armor and Twilight looked at me. “Okay, I'll uh, see you later, then,” she said after a while, and walked away in the direction of Golden Oaks. Armor and I stood in silence for a moment, with him no doubt wondering what he should do. “I think I saw a hill in that direction,” I said. Armor followed, and after a minute or two of me walking very slowly, he simply bent down beside me. I wordlessly climbed up on his back, it being much easier to hold on with four limbs, and away we went. We set down on the hill, empty of ponies, with a single tree and a single bench, and I climbed off his back. I walked over to the bench, and jumped up to it. In some ways, I was still thinking that I was wearing some of those electric prosthetics from Earth, but my new limbs responded with the strength and speed that I wanted, so the bench-climbing was a lot easier than I expected. I sat down, looked at my new limbs, and then up at Armor. “Armor, thanks for everything today, and all the other days, but I’d like to be alone right now,” I said, my voice small and sounding a bit distant. Armor didn’t say anything, he simply stood there and watched me with a very hesitant look. “I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “I just need some time by myself.” Armor was quiet for a while, before saying, “Okay,” in a soft voice, and taking off. I watched him fly away, keeping low and moving between the houses, then simply fell down against the bench. I laid there for a while. I couldn’t tell how long, but it couldn’t have been too long, since the sun hadn’t moved all that much when I sat back up and looked at my new foreleg. I turned the limb around, looking at it from different directions, marveling at how easy it moved. I turned the hoof, looking at the empty space where a frog would’ve been, before the feelings I had held in for the last few hours suddenly washed over me. I almost furiously tore at the blue covering that Rarity had made, folding it down over the upper leg, and giving me access to the plug that would allow magic to enter it. I moved the plug, then turned the enchantment "off". The limb fell off me immediately, completely lifeless. I took it in my other foreleg and threw it pathetically as far as I could. It landed a small ways away, and I flung myself back against the bench, and sobbed quietly. Again, I didn’t know how long I was lying there, but again, it couldn’t have been long, judging by the light, when I felt someone gently put their hoof on my now empty shoulder. “Gabe?” I heard a familiar voice say, and I looked up at a face that, for a moment, I didn’t recognize. It was Redheart, her hat missing and her mane flowing loosely around her face, and my new limb held in a foreleg. I didn’t answer, and instead simply stopped my sobbing and sat up, the occasional tear still running from my left eye. Redheart sat down beside me, and held me close to her side. “How did you know I was here?” I asked. “I didn’t say that I knew you were here,” she said. “But let’s just say a little– a big bird, told me.” I was relieved to find out that I didn’t feel angry, or even irritated, at Armor. “Why are you here, though?” I asked, keeping my voice free of accusation. Redheart was quiet for a moment. “Because I think you’d like some company,” she said. I didn’t say anything, only letting out a sigh. Redheart tightened the hug. “Go on,” she said quietly. “I think this would be a good time to let some things out.” I nuzzled into her barrel, just like I had a week ago, and softly sobbed. “It’s perfect,” I said, between sobs. “I know,” Redheart said. “It’s perfect. It’s better than I would ever have been able to have.” Redheart gently moved her hoof up and down against my side. “It’s all so amazing. It’s magic, and I can do anything, and I have everything, and I have so many friends,” I kept babbling. Redheart simply let out a soft humming sound. “And they’re never coming back,” I said, before letting out a much bigger round of sobbing. Redheart tightened her hug further. “No, they’re not,” she said sadly, but matter-of-factly. We stayed like that for a while. The only sound being my sobbing, the intervals of which grew until they faded completely. I looked up into Redheart’s eyes. “Feeling better?” she asked. “Well, no,” I said. “Yeah, but, do you think that you will feel better?” “... Yeah,” I said. Redheart smiled at that, and grabbed the limb that she had put beside her. “Alright, now you gotta show me how this thing works,” she said with a smile. I let out a final sniff. “Okay,” I said, and magically grabbed it. “It’s a prototype, but it works like this.” Redheart was fascinated by the construction, impressed enough by what I showed her, even with all the workarounds, and even more impressed by what we had planned for the actual thing so far. “Well, there’s nothing I can say that you don’t already know,” she said as she held up the limb in position for me to attach it. “I know, but thank you anyway,” I said. “No problem, I hope it helped.” “It did,” I said. “One of those annoying emotional things, I guess. Constantly needing to prove things that you already know.” “Yeah, but you’re not alone in that. I just asked you if this helped, didn’t I? Despite knowing that it did,” she said. “I guess you did,” I said. “Alright. I think Twilight and Armor are waiting for you at Golden Oaks,” she said and stood on the ground. “Race ya?” “Heh. Yeah, sure,” I said with a shrug. Redheart started gently trotting towards the buildings, and I followed as well as I could. As the sun shone its final rays for the day from behind us, I let one more tear roll from my eye, this one anything but sad. > Part Two: Times of Great Merriment > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were a lot of things that were different about living in a modestly sized town of talking ponies with a unicorn and a pegasus, as a unicorn, in a land with limited technology and magic, from living in a moderate sized city on Earth. Some of the differences weren’t really obvious to me all the time. There was no telecommunication, but I had hardly used my phone, or regularly watched TV, for years, so I didn’t mind. I preferred the local corner store over the supermarket most times, so the lack of the latter was another thing I hadn’t really noticed yet. The lack of clothes was another one. I spent a sort of embarrassingly large amount of time lounging around in pyjama pants and a too large t-shirt, with panties so worn and washed out that you could pull a wedgie a mile long and I’d barely notice, so a coat of soft hair wasn’t that much different when it came to comfort. Waking up really tired, and unseeingly probing the space beside the bed for a prosthesis with a front limb, was something I was intimately familiar with, however. It was very strange to first feel that familiar resignation of preparing to have to go through the not all that simple process of putting it on, (when this tired, I didn’t hop around on one leg unless it was an emergency) and then realizing that this time it would be a simple magic maneuver to activate the creation, and then just popping it on. What I probably would be needing to get used to was putting on two legs in the morning. I used to have one leg, and that wasn’t enough to walk around properly with, then I had two legs, and suddenly that wasn’t enough either. I very, very much hoped that I would never transform into a four-legged spider. On the subject of missing limbs, I had to remember to check with Twilight if unicorn horns could grow back if damaged, or if I should look into trying to make prostheses for those too, just in case. I liked being a unicorn, and I didn’t like the thought of ending up a "eunuch-horn". After grabbing a leg and pulling it up in the bed with me, I didn’t even check if I had gotten the hind leg or foreleg before falling asleep again. In my defense, I had been awake for quite a while during the night, marveling at my new legs, waving them around and inspecting every detail when they moved, before exhaustion claimed me. I barely had enough presence of mind by the end of it to remove them before I was out. I awoke with a snort when I heard someone knocking on the door. “Gabe, do you want breakfast?” Armor asked. I mumbled some commands to Armor, but in retrospect, I couldn’t blame him for not understanding, seeing how wasn’t even sure what I said myself. “Uh, what?” “Uuh, yes,” I said after letting out a yawn. “Breakfast is awesome. I want breakfast, thank you. Everyone wants breakfast.” “Do you… do you want me to come in?” Armor asked. “Mmm, yes,” I said, trying to lift my head from underneath the cover. Armor opened the door and cautiously stepped in with a slightly worried look on his face. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Tired,” I said. “Got a… mmm, order for you.” “Sure,” he said. “Wake–” I was interrupted by a yawn “– wake me up.” Normally I would’ve tried presenting a possible solution for the problem, but in my experience, this is how people with authority act. "Fix it," they’d say. My only regret was that Armor wasn’t my former boss, and that I couldn’t ask my former boss to fix my plumbing, or even do her own job properly. I heard the clip-clop of Armor’s hooves, and was about to fall asleep again when I felt him put his hoof on me, and gently pushed me down into the springy mattress. When I softly bounced back up he did it again, slightly further down, using my momentum to keep the whole thing smooth. After a few seconds, he had worked up a fast momentum and was practically dribbling me softly up and down into the mattress. “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!” I had started to laugh between pushes, but it wasn’t coming out properly that way. “A-al-ri-i-ight! I-’m-a-wa-a-ke!” I said. When Armor removed his hoof, I pulled the cover from my face and saw his smiling face. I wanted desperately to say something witty, but nothing was coming. “Well, I guess that worked,” I said smilingly, and magicked the limb I had in the bed with me "on", sealed the plug, and simply tossed it on, the padding already fixed. “Hoof me the rest of me, would you?” Armor held up my hind leg for me, and after preparing it with two fast magical actions, I slapped that on, too. My eye was already in. I had forgotten to take it out before I fell asleep, but it seemed fine. I had no idea if there were any eye boogers smeared on the surface, but I’d just check that later. “Alright then,” I said, and stumbled a bit as I put my forelegs down on the wooden floor. “Let’s go –” I was interrupted by another yawn “– go do stuff.” The difficulty of walking varied greatly. A slow and careful gait wasn’t a problem, and you’d think that would make me ready to get properly proficient with a normal walking speed, but the moment I increased my pace just a little bit, the difficulty ramped up almost vertically. I wasn’t worried, though. This was old hat to me. Eventually, it would all come together. One of the difficult things, like the last time I had gotten used to prosthetics, was the lack of a sense of touch, but this time it wasn’t so bad, since this time I had the somewhat muted sense of my ghostly hand (and toes) to help orient me. That still left the rest of the limbs completely without any sense, which was very strange, although thinking back to experimental procedures I had seen back on Earth gave me some interesting ideas: If I could enchant some key points of the covering of the legs to make specific small movements on a piece of blue cloth or something, then I could just attach that cloth somewhere discreet, like my belly, and then I could simply get used to different twitches of the cloth and what they would mean. I’d have to be careful not to just make things that just tickles me as I’m walking down the street, though. “So, uh, do you feel better from yesterday?” Armor cautiously asked. “Hm? Oh. Yeah, I do,” I said as we slowly made our way down the second floor hallway. “What, uuh, what was that about?” he asked, perhaps emboldened by my straightforward answer. “Just working through stuff,” I said. “Quite a cocktail of emotions that wanted out.” I looked up at his face, and he quickly averted his eyes from me, but not before I saw a worried expression on it. “You want deets,” I stated matter-of-factly. “Well...” Armor said and rubbed his back. “Well, I suppose that just means you care,” I said, walking down the stairs with extra slow and extra carefully measured steps. “I’ve been a cripple for–” Armor let out a slightly horrified sound at that. “You’re not–” was all he said before I interrupted him. “These were the thoughts I was thinking yesterday, and I wasn’t exactly being emotionally gentle with myself,” I explained. “So yes, I’ve been a cripple for ten years, I was almost completely alone during that time, and…” I tapered off as I searched for words while concentrating on the stairs. ‘Left foreleg there, right hind leg there,’ I looked back to make sure that the hind-leg was where I wanted it to be. “And, well,” I said. “I couldn’t allow myself to cry over my situation too much during that time, and now that I’m pretty much fixed up, and it’s gonna get even better, I could, well, open up the floodgates. There had been quite a pressure building up. And don’t worry too much about that, because I’m also kind of relieved that I could.” Armor was silent for a moment as we took the last few steps down the stairs. “I think I get it,” he said. “Yeah,” I said as my pace picked up a bit again on the level floor of the library. “That was, hmm… about a third of it. Then there’s my parents, of course. Getting impossibly good limbs highlighted that getting my parents back is what’s really impossible.” “I, I uh,” Armor struggled for words for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he said. “No, don’t be. It’s nice of you to care, but this wasn’t the first time I’ve cried over them, and it won’t be the last,” I stated matter-of-factly. “I guess having people close to me sort of stirred up the pot, you could say, and I think that’s ultimately healthy as well.” “It’s just… I don’t like seeing you like that, even though I didn’t actually see it,” Armor said. “I know. And this is gonna seem pretty strange, but finally making friends was part of the reason I was sad, and still am a little sad, and that’s partly your fault,” I said and smiled at him. “Thanks.” “I’m uh, glad if I helped?” he said. “Emotions can be really complicated, can’t they?” “Yeah, but if you stop and think about them, a lot of them start making more sense than you’d first suspect,” I said. We entered the kitchen, where Twilight was sitting at the table, writing on a parchment encased in a purple aura. “Oh, good morning,” she said when she turned around and saw us, and her eyes lingered on me. “Good morning,” we answered in unison. “Good morning,” said Spike, who I hadn’t seen yesterday evening, and was currently standing on a small stepladder in front of the stove, cooking something. When he turned around and saw me, despite no doubt knowing that I had four legs now, he looked surprised, and very curious. “Are those...?” he asked and trailed off. “Yup,” I said. “Replacement body parts that you helped make.” “Uh… can I…?” Spike said, sounding very hesitant. “Look? Yes. Touch? Sure. Eat? No,” I said smilingly. I used to feel very self-conscious about having a metal and carbon fiber construction instead of a body part. That feeling faded over time, in large parts probably because it was getting oh so very tiresome, but it didn’t quite disappear. Having turned into a magical pony kind of scrambled the state which that feeling had settled into, and getting the prototypes for near-perfect replacements further mixed it all up, with pride, excitement, embarrassment, elation, and a slew of other feelings mixing into a right mess. That’s why I was grateful to the ponies I’ve met so far for not pushing me too hard into being social and meeting tons of people and stuff like that. I’ve met a thankfully small amount of individuals who thought that would solve everything, and in some ways, I always felt bad for not enjoying it like the plan was. The residents of Golden Oaks library, however, were among the people I had promised myself to not squirm and feel uncomfortable around for my disability situation, considering all that they had done for me. “What? No, I’m not gonna eat it,” he said. “That’s probably a good idea,” I said, and held up my foreleg for him to see. “Your fire scrambled my arcanokinesis, but unless your stomach acids can wipe my enchantments too, it’s probably gonna squirm around inside your stomach.” Spike took my new foreleg in a claw, a bit hesitantly, and gently turned it around to look closer at it. “Can you, uh, can you move it around?” he asked a bit cautiously. “No need to sound so nervous, Spike,” I said, and gave him an easy smile. “Especially for you, since you helped make it.” “Oh… yeah. I guess so, but anypony could have ground up some lapis lazuli,” he said, not looking as pleased as I would’ve wanted him to look. “Yeah, but anyone can make breakfast, too,” I said. “Doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get a ‘thank you’ for it.” That coaxed a little smile unto his face, and I started moving the foreleg in his claw, making little twirls with my hoof at different speeds. A noisy and clumsy electrical engine, this was not. “This is really cool,” he said. “I think so, yeah,” I said. “Though I suppose I should brace myself for lots of people wanting to see this thing.” Spike looked past me, a moderately impressive feat considering my voluminous mane. “Speaking of which,” he said and pointed towards the window. I turned around, and saw a very pink mane slowly emerging from the edge of the window, followed by a very pink pony. Pinkie Pie was standing outside the window, looking in with a face that radiated curiosity. Then she saw me, and her expression slowly warped into one of overwhelmed joy, and a plate of pancakes ascended into view beside her. Armor and me looked on in fascination, while Twilight and Spike didn’t seem to give this a second thought. Twilight magicked the window open, and Pinkie jumped in through it with the grace of a cat, set the plate down on the table in the same motion, and swooped me up into a tight hug. “Hug me back, Gabe! Hug me hug me hug me hug me!” she said loudly, and with much rejoicing. It wasn’t an easy request to respond to in this moment, though, since she had my forelegs pinned to my sides. “Trying to, Pinkie,” I said and made some token attempt at moving my forelegs, my voice muffled by her mane. — That saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side”? I always preferred saying it as “the weather is always more agreeable six months from now”, but I could never find a succinct version for how it felt when it came to choosing between clunky prosthetics and a wheelchair. When I was in a wheelchair, I often started feeling restless within minutes, and if minutes didn’t, a few hours definitely did. When I was a human, sometimes I was rested in the right way, and in the right mindset to walk around with a prosthesis for an extended period of time, but other times, standing up and walking across my living room was enough to make me lament that I didn’t have fainting couches strategically spread out across my apartment. Compared to that, a little unfamiliarity with walking on four legs and the slight chafing feeling that my new legs made was very much bearable. The party that Pinkie had announced earlier in the day was now in full swing, with Twilight's closest friends, Redheart, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered in Golden Oaks. The Cakes were back at Sugarcube Corner, with Pinkie making frequent trips between here and there to get more food. Scrap had apparently declined, but I got the sense from Pinkie that he had done so respectfully. I was gonna see more of him, and he was still probably busy with his job, that he said he enjoyed a lot, so it was all okay. Pinkie’s parties seemed to be universally loved, but no other pony’s mane attracted as much confetti and streamers as mine. There was no glitter present, but I quickly made a mental note that some sort of glitter repellant enchantment was a must-have for a pony like me. The Crusaders had taken upon themselves to show off my new legs to everyone who hadn’t seen them yet. It was all really adorable, but it would’ve been better if they’d stopped yanking my hind leg out from under me when they wanted to show that. Rarity had made me a pair of saddlebags. They were masterfully done, being a modest size by default, and easily unfoldable enough for me to be able to crawl into it, all while being very sturdy. I wondered if it was a bit vain to have saddlebags with my cutie mark boldly displayed on them, but it turned out that pretty much everyone had bags just like that. “So how strong are those things?” Rainbow asked, while holding my replacement foreleg in her hoofs, she even leaned forward and smelled it, for some reason. “Pretty strong, I think,” I said. “You know how you can put a certain amount of strength into something before you start straining and it starts getting uncomfortable?” Rainbow Dash nodded, along with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and the Crusaders, who were the current audience. “Well, when I reach that, I recognize it, perhaps out of habit or something,” I said. “Then I can just push past it. It doesn’t hurt, but I haven’t tried seeing how far it can go.” “Well, I know how to test that,” Rainbow Dash said in a cocky voice. “You first, AJ. Can’t start with the champ.” “That was ages ago, and it was only the right foreleg,” Applejack said with a tinge of grumpiness, took a seat at a table, and meaningfully put the mentioned limb on the table. “Try a bucking contest sometime and I think we’ll get a different tune.” “Don’t be so sure,” Rainbow said and placed a cushion on a stool on the side facing Applejack, but didn’t sit down. “I’ve bucked a few clouds in my days.” Applejack smirked at Rainbow. “Well, if apple trees were made out of marshmallows, I might concede to that,” she said. “Anyway, Gabe, you think it can stand a good round of foreleg wrestling?” “Ooh,” I said in comprehension and took a seat. “Would you believe me when I say I haven’t done this a lot?” “Well, I’m gonna start off going easy on ya,” Applejack said and enveloped a significant portion of my foreleg in with her hoof as the rest of the ponies gathered around the table to watch. “Seeing as you haven’t fully tried it out yet.” “And if you don’t go easy on Applejack, you can move up to me,” Rainbow Dash said. “I wouldn’t get too cocky ‘round this company, Rainbow,” Applejack said with a smirk. “What, are you stronger than her?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Not the last time we did this,” Applejack said. “But Rainbow’s not the best when it comes to physically wrestling either.” “And that’s you?” Scootaloo asked. “No, that’s Pinkie,” Applejack and Rainbow Dash answered in unison. Me and the Crusaders turned to look at Pinkie, who was watching with the same big grin she had for a quite a while now. “It’s fun!” she said, enthusiastically. “Alright, you think your, uh, new leg can handle some rough going?” “I’m sure,” I said. “Scrap showed me some of the toughening enchantments, and if we make a dent in it, it’s also enchanted to be really easy to dent it back. Whenever you hammer at it, it sort of gravitates back towards its proper shape.” Applejack’s eyes looked at the limb in her foreleg with renewed fascination. “Huh, maybe I should pay this Scrap Armor a visit. Big Mac has a tendency to leave dents in the anvils back home.” I glanced at the rest of the ponies at the table, but no one seemed surprised by this information about her brother. Applebloom even nodded slightly. I looked back at the mare in front of me, taking notes of her clearly ripped physique visible beneath her coat. I simply shrugged, the leg was attached to me magically, it wasn’t as though tugging at it could hurt me. The worst that would happen was that it would fly off and we’d have to make repairs. “Alright, let’s start slowly,” Applejack said, and I nodded. “Let’s go.” Applejack started slowly pushing against my foreleg, and I put some force to meet her. It was strange, not having any muscles giving me feedback on what I was doing, so I mostly had to rely on near-forgotten old habits and how it would probably work with my other foreleg to figure out how much resistance I was putting into this. My descent started slowing, and pretty soon we were back to the starting location. “How much energy you putting into it now?” Applejack asked. “I’m not sure,” I said. “But I think this is about what I can do without it being outright painful for a normal leg.” “But you ain’t hurting yourself if you pour some more into it?” she asked. “I can’t see how that would happen,” I said. “It runs on magic, not muscles, but I’ll tell you if that changes.” “Alright then. Ain’t too shabby so far, but I’m gonna step up the pace, see what happens,” she said. “Please do,” I said with a smile. I wasn’t feeling anything, other than my fingers sending the occasional reminder of their location, so I mostly relied on my sight to tell how things went. Applejack started pushing me back, and I slowly started putting some more effort into it. “Hoh! Getting impressive now,” Applejack said, and I could tell from her tensioning muscles that they were now working for real. She braced herself. “Try pouring a real doozy into it, I’m ready.” I did just that, and Applejack’s eyes went wide in surprise, and she started furiously trying to hold down my foreleg. “Whoa nelly! I wasn’t expecting that,” she said and scrunched up her face, trying to hold me back, but we were slowly but steadily approaching a win for me. Contrasting the great effort painted on Applejack’s face, my own face simply had surprise and fascination written on it. “You’re not faking this, are you?” I asked as we passed the starting position, and me getting the lead. Applejack huffed. “Hnngh! Hah! Hah!... no,” she said through gritted teeth, her eyes scrunched up from the effort. “Consarn it! It’s like trying to lift a mountain!” “I’m not hurting you, am I?” I asked cautiously. This could be quite a kick to the ego of such a physically oriented mare, I didn’t want her to get hurt trying to prove something. Luckily, I was pretty sure that I could make it so that if she gave out, the sudden lack of resistance wouldn’t catapult her hoof into the table, we’d continue the slow descent. Applejack opened one eye and saw how little was left before she lost. “Huh! Huh! Not at this rate,” she said a bit dejectedly, before her hoof slowly met the surface of the table. I let go of her, and she gingerly started rubbing her right fetlock with her left hoof. Applejack let out a sigh of relief. “I gotta say, Gabe, I’m mighty impressed. I didn’t know it was that strong.” “Neither did I, to be honest,” I said, and looked at my new limb again. Rarity’s covering wasn’t damaged, so I doubted that the construction in itself was either. “Whoa,” Apple Bloom said. I turned to them and saw the awed look in the eyes of everyone present. Rainbow recovered pretty quickly, though. “Alright, my turn,” she said enthusiastically, and quickly took the seat when Applejack got up. I noted that Applejack wasn’t limping, which was a bit of a relief. “Alright, just be careful,” I said. “I guess it’s gonna take a while before I figure out how much energy this thing can take.” “Yeah yeah, whatever. Just give me your best shot!” Rainbow said with an enthusiastic grin. “Alright,” I said with a shrug, and placed my hoof into her foreleg, again, almost enveloped like with Applejack’s. “Ready?” Rainbow asked. “Ready,” I said. “Go!” This time I put about as much energy into it as I did to win against Applejack. Rainbow’s face was scrunched up like Applejack’s, and she sounded like she had the world’s most copious case of indigestion. She started slowly pushing my leg back, so I simply put some more effort into it, and again, I felt no reason to scrunch up my own face. Rainbow doubled her efforts, but even so, she was slowly being pushed back. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it was starting to feel like I was close to the limit of what my limb could do. I looked at Rainbow in fascination at how much effort it took to even try and keep up with my creation, all while I didn’t feel even a hint of physical strain. In fact, it was almost relaxing, sitting here and making loose calculations to how much effort did what. In fact, it was very relaxing. … “Gabe, are you okay?” A distant voice asked. I yawned in conformation. ‘Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be? I’m just—’ “WHOA!” The world did a backflip while I was looking the other way, and with such a thump that it felt like it happened to someone else. I found myself on the floor of the library, wide-eyed and blinking in surprise. I groggily tried to lift myself up, making limited progress before I felt someone put their hooves under me and pick me up. “Are you okay, Gabe?” Armor asked. “I, uh… I guess,” I said, slightly unsure. “What happened?” “I’m sorry!” Rainbow Dash said loudly, sounding a bit panicked. “I didn’t mean to. Suddenly you just stopped and I didn’t know you would and I just threw you and I’m sorry!” Still resting against Armor’s forelegs, I waved a hoof to try and stop her, and it seemed to work. “I think I’m okay,” I said, and did a little rundown. ‘A bit tired, but not in pain. Do a little wiggle here, and here, don’t forget the ears… and tail. Alright, preliminary searches satisfactory.’ “Alright, I’m sure I’m okay now. Just kinda tired.” “You must’ve suffered another magical exhaustion,” Twilight said. I looked around and saw that everyone had gathered around to see what was happening. ‘That makes sense, considering who I was going up against.’ “I’m not gonna have to go to the hospital again, am I? It’s getting a bit embarrassing, it’s like I’m still working.” “Well, you’re awake,” Redheart said and put her fetlock against my forehead. “I think sitting down a few minutes and having a rest should do it. Perhaps something sugary to help wake you up after that.” I looked around at the assembled ponies (and dragon) looking at me with worry. “Uh, we managed to get back to the fun part the last time something un-party like happened, how about we try and pull that off again?” I asked. “Sure, just sit down here,” Redheart said as she pulled up a large cushion for me. “Thanks,” I said and looked around at the faces again. “I’m serious, don’t worry… where’s Pinkie?” “She bolted out the door the moment she heard ‘sugary’,” Applejack said. — My friends had taken my senses away from me, and I stumbled blindly towards my goal. Any hope of accomplishing my task was close to nonexistent. As I helplessly struggled to do the impossible, my desperation was fueled by the only people I knew on this world leering and laughing at me, taking joy from my inevitable failure. … We were playing Pin The Horn On Nightmare Moon. “This feels so fair,” I said with a smile, the only sensation in my right foreleg was the numb feeling of holding the piece of paper in my phantom hand. “I’ve had a single-digit amount of hours to get used to having four legs, and I barely have any sense of touch to work with.” “Then you should try and figure out what Rainbow means when she says how she wants her dresses. That is what I call being lost,” Rarity said from somewhere behind me. “Hey!” I heard Rainbow say indignantly. I tried remembering where they had been standing when I was spun around. Assuming they hadn’t moved, I think I had a pretty good idea of where the picture was, at least. “Why, I mean it as the deepest compliment, my dear,” Rarity said. “What sort of fashion connoisseur would use simple words to outright tell their tailor what they want? No, they would use the most poetic descriptions possible to instill a sense of what they want to tell the world around them, through their stylist.” Rainbow might’ve had a response to that, but it seemed that her’s and everyone else’s focus shifted to me when I had stumbled over to where I believed the picture of Nightmare Moon was, and struggled to figure out how my foreleg was positioned by trying to run my muzzle against it. “Uh, okay, let’s try it like this,” I said, and placed the piece of paper on the wall in front of me. It was pretty well calculated, at least when it came to how far away the wall was. Everyone laughed when I was finished, though. “As far as I know, Luna was still a mare when she was Nightmare Moon,” Applejack said. I was a bit confused at first, until I removed my blindfold and saw where exactly I had placed the horn. “Oops,” I said sheepishly. Freud would have had more to say about it than that. The Crusaders were in a pile on the floor, doubled over from laughter, the only one who had been worse than me was Twilight. We both could’ve lit up our horns and pinned it perfectly, but that wouldn’t have been as fun. “Uh, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “I don’t think I saw you wheel in that cake.” We all looked to where Twilight was pointing. At the center of the room stood what looked like an enormous wedding cake. “I didn’t,” Pinkie said confused. “No, but I did,” a voice I didn’t recognise said. It sounded like the physical manifestation of a winning poker hand. “Surprise!” The cake exploded and would’ve showered all of us with pieces of it if Twilight hadn’t been so quick-thinking. The shower of frosting and cream was contained within a shimmering purple bubble. It still covered the floor inside the sphere, but still I was impressed. “Aaw, poo,” A voice from inside the cake covered force field said. The force field vanished and the cake smeared on it fell away, revealing a strangely cake-free… thing. Whatever was in there didn’t seem to want to use its arms at the moment, if they could be called that. Instead, in one movement, it slid across the floor and rose up in front of Fluttershy. “Why hello, Fluttershy dear, you didn’t tell me there were any parties today.” “Hello, Discord,” Fluttershy said sweetly. “I would’ve told you, but I only found out about it recently myself.” ‘Ah, so this is Discord. I was sort of expecting him to be a swirling mass of distorted reality, but I guess he’s corporeal enough.’ Discord turned to Twilight and curled around her, and she impressed me a bit by only taking one small step back. “Oh, Twilight,” the being said in a smug voice. “There must be a cause for celebration, and nopony thought to invite little old me.” Twilight clearly looked a bit peeved and exasperated, but didn’t seem to want to show it. “Well, I would have, but the guest of honor is getting to know so many ponies fast enough as it is.” “Oh?” Discord seemed taken aback, but he kept giving me the feeling that he was mocking everyone in the room. “Are you saying that it’s not you? How strange, there’s always so many reasons to celebrate you. Well, you gotta tell me who it is.” “Well, Discord,” Twilight said and gestured towards me. “Meet Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, recently arrived in Equestria, and the key re-discoverer of a lost branch of magic.” Discord turned his crazy-looking yellow and red eyes towards me, and slid off from Twilight. “Such a good pony, Twilight, always making new friends. Well, I also like making new–” Discord stopped mid-stride when he looked at me, and kept staring at me for a few moments. I wouldn’t have been so creeped out if it wasn’t for the fact that his pupils kept shrinking until they were pinpricks. “Uuh, nice to meet you,” I said, a bit uncertain, and gave a little wave. This was another very disorienting experience, but I figured that some manners are rarely a bad idea. “Yyyyyyes… nice… to meet you,” the strange being known as "Discord" said slowly, then kept staring at me, completely still. Everyone in the room was looking at Discord in curiosity and a slight touch of alarm. “Discord? What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked. Discord looked at me for another moment before slowly seeming to regain control of himself and turn to Fluttershy. “Nnn… nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I just remembered that… I have prior engagements,” he said and briskly walked out the door. “So sorry to have disturbed you all,” he said, and shot Armor a very short scrutinizing glare before losing interest. “I’ll drop by some other time.” He took a propeller beanie from behind his back and held it just over his head. The propeller started spinning like it was going to lift him away, instead, he seemed to be sucked into the small hat and vanished, giving me one last look as he did. We all just looked at the beanie that fell to the ground for a moment. “Is he usually like that?” I asked. “No…” Twilight said, sounding a bit nervous. “Oh, I hope nothing happened to him,” Fluttershy said. “Somehow I doubt that he’s in trouble or anything,” Rainbow Dash piped in. No one else seemed particularly worried about Discord, only his behavior. “Hey,” I said and turned towards Armor. “He didn’t say hello to you.” Spike tore his eyes away from where Discord had vanished, looked at the large pile of cake on the floor, and groaned. — Cleaning had been one of the worst things in my everyday existence back on Earth, and I’m sure you can guess why. Having a dishwashing machine was one of the most important things in a home for me. The stuff that wouldn’t fit in a dishwasher I naturally had to take care of by hand, which is why I usually ended up cooking things that lasted for days, just to cut down on how many times I had to clean a pan.. Now, on the other hand, or hoof, I was happy for opportunities for trying out my new limbs, and make them work in conjunction with magic. Hooves didn’t get wrinkly like human fingers did, either. As we walked through the houses earlier, I was even considering trying out some gardening, before shelving that for some other time. I had enough to keep me occupied for a long time to come. “Thanks again for the help,” Spike said from Twilight’s back. “It was two days ago, Spike, and it still wasn’t any problem,” I said. “What she said,” Armor agreed. We were walking down the road towards Sweet Apple Acres in the pleasant afternoon sun. There had been a lot of parties in the last week. I was mostly used to participating in those when someone brought one to my workplace. “Oh, I’m gonna feel so rude now,” Twilight said. “Applejack’s probably gonna say that we don’t need to help clean up after this.” “Well, it’s taking place outdoors,” I said. “Maybe a lot of it can just be swept up into a compost heap, or just hosed off.” “Maybe,” Twilight said. “But still.” “Also, Applejack’s gonna be the host this time,” I said. “We’re more lodgers than guests at this point.” “Well… okay, you’ve got a point,” Twilight said, as we entered Sweet Apple Acres, decked out with banners, rosettes, and tiki torches that somehow managed to keep with the theme. “How are you feeling, Gabe?” Armor asked. “You need a rest?” “I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s getting a lot easier. I think I’m gonna be fine if I just sit down for a few minutes.” “Well, tell me if you change your mind,” he said. “Sure. This looks nice. I’ve never been to a harvest festival,” I said, taking in the surroundings. “Oh, they’re great,” Twilight said enthusiastically. “So much fun, so many activities, and you can join in on them now that you’ve got–” she stopped herself and looked at me with trepidation on her eyes. I didn’t mind her wording, though. “Yeah yeah, emotions emotions,” I said and waved it off. “A volatile subject, but not with negative results this time.” “Oh, ehehe, that’s good,” she said a bit nervously. “Most things feel good these days,” I said. “And you’ve helped with that, so don’t be so worried about offending me all the time.” “I’m trying,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t think I should act like I’ve done you too many favors, me being the one who brought you here involuntarily and all.” “I guess I can see that,” I said. “I haven’t acted like you owe me anything or something, right?” “Well, no.” “Then I’m gonna keep going like this, maybe I can even figure out some way to make up for all your help,” I said, just a tad dismissively. “You don’t have to do that,” Twilight protested. “And you don’t have to be nervous about offending me or acting like you’ve done me a disservice,” I said. “I think that sounds fair.” Something grabbed me and swept me of my hooves, and it turned out to just be Twilight’s magic aura. She brought me up to her, and hugged me like a doll. “Oh, right,” I said. “I guess this sounded like a hug moment.” “Welcome to another round of the Apple Family harvest festival,” Applejack and Apple Bloom loudly and happily exclaimed when we got near the farmhouse. A pair of muffled greeting-like sounds came from Rainbow and Pinkie, who had their muzzles deep into foam filled mugs. Apple cider, I assumed, going by the general theme of the place. Rarity and Fluttershy was seated by a long table, who gave us happy waves of greeting, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were talking with a brown-ish coated and red-maned earth pony in the background. Spike looked excited and Twilight looked giddy. as she made little jumps in place. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve been so busy this last week, I almost forgot about this.” “Is that right?” Applejack said with a playful edge in her voice. “Well, we can’t have that now, can we? We’re just gonna have to make sure that you don’t forget again.” “Oh, I’m sure you will,” Twilight said. “Alright now, make yourself at home, enjoy the company, enjoy the food, and Gabe,” Applejack said and turned to me. “If them new legs of yours make you feel all bushed again, feel free to crash anywhere in the house. There’s a nice couch in the door to the right of the entrance.” “Oh, thank you,” I said, pleasantly surprised. “Food’s being run by Big Mac and Granny,” Apple Bloom said. “You brought anything?” “Yeah, some haloumi,” I said, looking around and spotting Big Mac standing by a large cooking area, with some large pots and cauldrons over open fires, and some grills over glowing coals. Granny was apparently overseeing things from a rocking chair on top of a dirt mound. “Well, let’s dump that off and get going,” Apple Bloom said and grabbed me by my new foreleg. “Whoa, uh, okay, uh, see you around!” I called to Armor, Twilight, and Spike as I was pulled away from them. They just waved happily. I knew Armor was gonna keep an eye on me, but it was nice to see him getting a chance to relax, since I doubted he had a lot to protect me from around here. “Just put your bag here, you gotta meet Babs,” Apple Bloom said as we got to the cooking area. “Alright, alright,” I said, and slipped off my saddlebags with only some slight effort. “Hello, Big Mac, Granny Smith.” Granny seemed to be shaken out of whatever she was thinking about, and looked down at us. “Oh, eh, hello there young’un. Nice to see you. Applejack and Apple Bloom told us about your nice new legs. Gotta say, they look good,” she said, smilingly. “Eyup,” Big Mac agreed. “Thank yo-whoa!” I said as Apple Bloom started dragging me off again. “You seem excited about something,” I said as Apple Bloom continued to lead us across the fields of the festival. A substantial amount of the town seemed to be gathered here. I actually didn’t know if it was open for everyone to join in, it sure seemed that way. The flower trio was here, Derpy the mailmare, Lyra and Bon Bon, and several other ponies I recognised. I’m pretty sure I even saw Zecora out of the corner of my eye. “I am. You gotta meet Babs,” Apple Bloom said as we reached the rest of the Crusaders, and the other filly they were talking to. “Alright, sure,” I said as we came to a halt. “Hey, guys.” “Gabe!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said excitedly. “You– oh,” Sweetie Belle started, before stopping herself, quickly taking a step up to me, and adjusting my right eye with her hoof. “Oh, thanks,” I said, and blinked a few timed to make sure it felt right. “Gabe, this is my favorite cousin, Babs Seed,” Apple Bloom said and gestured to the filly with the straight red mane, and somewhat imposing and powerful looking stature. “Babs, this is the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Ponyville branch’s, official associate and ally, Gabrielle, uh… something something, De-something.” “Eleanor Desrochers,” I clarified in an easy tone, and extended my right hoof. “Uuh, hi,” Babs said, probably a bit confused by my name and Sweetie’s recent maneuver, and bumped my hoof. “Nice to meet you.” “Likewise,” I said. As I lowered my leg, Babs probably registered the strange feeling of the physical greeting, and glanced curiously at her hoof. “What, no reaction about her name?” Scootaloo asked. “Oh, uh, well,” Babs started, and making me notice her dialect. “I guess it sounds kinda weird, but there’s a lot of weird ponies in Manehatten. Uuh, no offence.” “None taken,” I said. “Yeah, but her name’s not the most unique thing about her,” Apple Bloom said, and turned to me. “I hope you don’t mind, Gabe, we thought we’d show her your new invention.” “Go ahead,” I said. I was actually more than fine with this. I figured that they’d be excited about showing anyone they could about my new limbs. I kind of wanted to as well, but I would like to keep some of my stand-offish and grown-up image, so it was all fine that the Crusaders did it instead. “Yeah,” Scootaloo said and put her foreleg around Babs’ neck and leaned in conspiratorially. “We kinda helped with this, gathering materials and stuff, because Gabe is part pony, part machine.” Babs looked at her for a moment with eyes mildly wide in disbelief. “What?” “It’s true. And it looks so cool,” Sweetie Belle said. “Can you show her, Gabe? Please?” “I guess I can,” I said. “Kinda weird to get introduced like this, but here goes. Hold out your bow, Apple Bloom, would you?” Apple Bloom untied the bow she had her mane in, and held it out for me as I magically floated my eye into it. Applebloom looked delightfully disgusted by it, while Babs’ jaw slowly dropped open in disbelief. “If that’s shocking, maybe we should stop here?” I said, slightly playfully. “No way,” Scootaloo said. “We haven’t gotten to the good parts.” “You okay, Babs?” I asked. “Whaauuh, uuh, you… there’s more?” she asked. “Lots more,” Apple Bloom said. “Look at her foreleg,” Sweetie Belle said. I raised my foreleg, pointed the lower half to the sky, grabbed the bottom of the covering in my other hoof, and pulled down, revealing the metal construction underneath. “Pretty cool, huh?” Scootaloo said. I was growing more skeptical, seeing Babs’ reaction. Her eyes hadn’t widened. Instead, she mostly sat there with a shocked expression. “Maybe we should stop here,” I said. “I think we might be taking this a little too far.” The Crusaders looked at Babs, who hadn’t moved a muscle. “Sorry about that,” I said, pulling back the covering and plopping my eye back in. “I didn’t mean to freak you out.” “Babs, are you okay?” Apple Bloom asked. “Yeah, maybe this isn’t something that you should just ambush someone with. I hope I didn’t ruin your appetite,” I said. “Maybe we should get out of the sun?” Apple Bloom put a foreleg around Babs and led her towards the shade of an apple tree. “Wha… what was that?” Babs asked in a stunned voice. “That was a joke, right?” “Uuuh… would that make you feel better?” I asked. Babs plopped down on her rump, and the rest of us followed suit. “That… was the freakiest thing I have ever seen,” she said, her face starting to regain some articulation. “Yeah, sorry again about that,” I said. “Sorry,” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined in. Babs slowly shook her head and blinked. “No, wait, uh… whoa. That wasn’t cool of me,” she said and looked at me. “So you’re, like, part machine?” I shrugged and smiled a bit bashfully. “Well, I guess you can say that. Another way to put it is that I’ve made magical prostheses.” Babs’ eyes locked on my foreleg. “So it goes all the way up?” she said, and pointed to where my coat met the blue covering. “Yup,” I said. “Got a small piece of my upper hind leg left, but that one’s magical, too.” Babs just looked at me with a somewhat stunned expression for a moment. “Uuh,” she started slowly. “Can I see that again?” “Alright,” I said and peeled back the top of upper part of the covering, before sliding the blue textile off, revealing my metallic leg. “Celestia in a tutu,” she said. “Where’d you get that? How did you– oh! Are, uh… are you, like… did you lose your legs or something?” “Yup,” I simply said, and got a small grin on my face, “‘disabled’ would be the word you’d wanna use, although it doesn’t feel like it applies to me nearly as much anymore.” “Well, your right is eye is still blind, though,” Sweetie Belle said. “Oh yeah, that’s right,” I said, and couldn’t help but give a small smile at the comfort that me and the Crusaders could talk about the subject now. I poked lightly at my right eye, producing small clacking sounds. “Yeah, this is just for show, and hygiene.” “Where’d you get that leg? I’ve never seen something like that before,” Babs said. “She made it herself,” Apple Bloom said excitedly. “Ah! Aah, well, I had a lot of help,” I said. “I guess I rediscovered how to make them, but someone else needed to actually make the chassis.” Babs looked the leg up and down. “Same deal with your hind leg, huh?” “Yeah,” I said and magically slid off the covering. “This is…” Babs said and trailed off. “Well, no offence, but its kinda freaky. Awesome, but still freaky.” “None taken,” I said, and shrugged. “She’s got super strength in them, too,” Scootaloo said excitedly. “Really?” Babs asked. “Yeah, but that’s a real drain,” I said. “Still getting used to the whole thing, so I can only keep it up for a really short time. I’m still getting used to them in general, actually.” “So, what, you didn’t have your right legs at all before you made these?” Babs asked, with just a hint of nervousness. “No, I was wheelchair bound before this,” I said. “Whoa, major drag there,” Babs said, with a noticeable dose of sympathy despite the rad vocabulary. “Nah, it was the pushing kind,” I said with a small smile. “Huh? Oh. So that’s your special talent?” Babs asked and looked at my flank. “You invent stuff?” “I’m an enchanter,” I said. “So yes, in a way.” “Gabe’s been relearning how to walk the last few days,” Scootaloo said. “We’ve been helping her.” “Yep,” I said. “I can walk, but all the subtle little things needs practice.” “So, hey, you guys wanna play horseshoes? Or Kubb?” Apple Bloom asked. “That’s good practice.” — “So what’s Manehatten like?” I asked. “I’ve never been there.” Babs blew her mane out of her face. “It’s cool. I moved to a new school a little while back,” she said, and got a small but confident grin on her face. “There’s this skate-park in a basement in Tealwich that I hang out in. I own those ramps.” “Really?” Scootaloo said. “You gotta tell me about them. I want a Manehatten-style skatepark here in Ponyville.” “Sure. I think you’d make a name for yourself in Manehatten, Scoots,” Babs said. “How about you?” I asked, as I swung the baton around, trying to figure out how to aim the prosthetic limb with only a partial sense of touch. “You got a handle in skater circles? How about ‘the Big Apple’?” I asked with a wry smile. “‘The Big’...” Babs trailed off and looked down at herself. For a moment, I was worried that I had done a real faux pas. I thought that Babs’ wouldn’t be self-conscious about her stature, that it was her being in shape rather than corpulent. Apple Bloom was really strong for her size, but her cousin looked absolutely ripped. If I hadn’t beaten Applejack in hoof wrestling, I would've been skeptical about beating Babs. I internally let out a sigh of relief when a cocky smile formed on her muzzle. “I like it,” she said. “Alright, heads up,” I said, and tossed the baton. The last time there had been a little hiccup with how much power I put into my throw, and the baton had ended up sailing through the air for what felt like a full minute before it landed. I had to switch sides so that I wasn’t tossing towards the crowd of ponies gathered around the long tables and the cooking-pit. This one missed as well, of course. I hadn’t hit a single target, and me, Sweetie Belle, and Babs were losing big time against Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. “That stuff looks really hard,” Babs said, with her ears drooping a little bit. “I’m just terrible at sports,” I said with an easy smile, and looked down on my bare prosthetic foreleg. “And yeah, it’s not easy, but I know how this works. Just keep practicing, and it’ll all start coming together, eventually.” “Can I, uuh…” Babs started nervously, and looked at my foreleg. “Yes?” I asked. “If this is about my legs, just say what’s on your mind. People walking on eggshells around me got old before I got these things.” “Well, alright. Uh, can I see them?” “You’re seeing them already, but if you wanna take a closer look,” I started, and hit the manual release for the sealing-enchantment before turning the magic off. “Like I said before, you gotta turn the inner enchantment off, then it just comes off.” I magically grabbed my leg and lightly tossed it at Babs. “Catch,” I said. “You’re gonna have to look at one at a time. Otherwise, I’m gonna be stuck sitting on the ground.” “Oh, uh, yeah. That’s alright,” Babs said, and turned the rig over in her hooves. “I’m a bit surprised, though,” Sweetie Belle said. “You didn’t like all the attention you got at the market when you were in a wheelchair, but you’re fine with this.” “It feels different now. It’s all fine with you guys, and all the people are over there,” I said, and almost tripped before stopping myself from pointing over to the main area of merriment. “No one’s watching.” Babs looked away from my leg and towards the crowd in the medium-distance. “Except for that one pegasus,” she said. I looked over to where she was pointing. “Oh, that’s Armor. He’s my personal assistant,” I said, and suddenly felt a bit suspicious and slightly disappointed. “He hasn’t been watching all the time, has he?” “No, he’s been talking with the flower trio,” Apple Bloom said. “He’s just glancing over here every now and then.” “Oh, that’s good,” I said in a satisfied tone. “He’s had to be ready to help me all day for over a week now, I think he needs some time for fun. Especially now that I can move around on my own.” “Maybe we should do something nice for him?” Apple Bloom said. “That’s a good idea,” I said. “Just not sure what, though. I’m mostly good at enchanting, and his uncle is a much better enchanter than I am.” “You’re good at other stuff,” Sweetie Belle protested. “Yeah, you can build a really cool skating crash course,” Scootaloo said. We were all going to say something at that, but paused. After a while, Apple Bloom just looked at Scootaloo with a deadpanned stare. “You just want to use that for yourself,” she said. Scootaloo smiled sheepishly. “Maybe,” she said. “How about a song?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You play instruments, you can thank him on stage or something.” I was gonna protest that by saying that I wasn’t much for being in the spotlight, but as I looked towards Armor, seeing him talking amiably with Roseluck, and seeing Rainbow Dash a few seats away from him, gulping down foamy liquid courage, I didn’t feel ready to dismiss that idea outright. “Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.” — “This,” Pinkie Pie leaned in towards me and said, gesturing with her mug. “Is called ‘cider’, or ‘firewater’, and it’s a great party drink, but you gotta be very careful with how much of it you drink.” “Pinkie,” I started. “If you’re not, you could end up like Lyra,” Pinkie said, and gestured towards the mint-coated unicorn talking excitedly to Bon Bon. “Pinkie,” I repeated, with emphasis. “It looks like she’s having fun right now, but she’s gonna have a really big headache tomorrow, just like every time there’s a party–” “Pinkie!” “Yes?” Pinkie asked. “I know what alcohol is,” I said. “There’s ethanol in your mug, made from fermented–” “From fermented apples,” Pinkie Pie said happily. “Nice, friendly, huggy microorganisms that processes the yeast in the–” “Wait, wait,” I said. “You know about this? Are you a moonshiner or something?” Pinkie giggled happily. “Of course not, silly filly. I’m a baker!” she said. Apple Bloom was just finishing filling up the fifth tankard from the very large keg on the wooden platform. “Here we go,” she said. “Oh, thanks, Apple Bloom,” Babs said, and took her tankard. “Cheers!” Pinkie said and held her own tankard up. “What are we drinking to?” I said, taking my own tankard in my now covered and reattached foreleg. “I dunno,” Pinkie said. “There’s so many things to choose from.” “I’ll drink to there being many things to drink to,” I said, as we banged our mugs together and took a gulp each. “Mmm,” Babs said in a satisfied tone. “I’ve only had this once before. I missed it.” “I’ve never had it at all before,” I said. “This is a definite point in Equestria’s favor.” “Thanks,” Apple Bloom said, licking off the mustache that had formed above her lip. “I help make this, you know.” “So Lyra can’t hold her drink?” I asked Pinkie. “She can hold drinks, just not as much as she wants to, I guess,” Pinkie said. We looked at Lyra in the distance. She had Bon Bon locked inside a big hug, tenderly rubbing her cheek against Bon Bon’s neck. Bon Bon looked torn between uncomfortable at Lyra’s inebriated affection, and happy in her presence. “And so we can see the effects of suppressed excitatory and increased inhibitory neurological activity,” I said. “She doesn’t look all that inhibited to me,” Sweetie Belle observed. “I guess not,” I said. “But when it comes to brain function, it means that Lyra has trouble registering small details and distractions like where she is or who might be watching, and her brain is just focusing on being happy with Bon Bon. It’s kinda sweet, from that perspective.” “Aaaw,” the Crusaders, Babs, and Pinkie cooed. “Well, cheers for something more,” Scootaloo said, and after another round, we went and took our seats at the long table. As always, apples was the theme when it came to the Apple family, but there was plenty of other foodstuffs available. There were no objections to my haloumi on the grill, and there was plenty of bread. “Ah, this is good,” I said. “Mmhm,” Scootaloo agreed. “Mmm, and be sure to tell Big Mac that,” Apple Bloom said. “Mm? Oh yeah, that too,” I said. “I meant how this is carbohydrate-rich food. That helps when drinking. Water, too. So I should have some of that.” “Why?” Scootaloo asked. “Alcohol causes you to excrete more liquid,” I explained. “Dehydration causes headaches and stuff, so just drinking water is key. Also, carbs help against nausea.” “So it helps against hangovers?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Yeah. That, and glutathione,” I said. “And what now?” Apple Bloom asked. “Glutathione,” I said. “It’s a substance in the liver that breaks down ethanol. If you drink more than your glutathione can handle, that leads to hangovers instead of just normal inebriation.” “How do you get that stuff?” Scootaloo said. I shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “You know, I’ve never heard that simple force of will doesn’t help.” The Crusaders and Babs looked contemplatively at their drinks. “To glutathione!” Babs said, and raised her tankard. “To glutathione!” we joined in. — Celestia gently sat down on her couch and slipped out of her golden shoes. She let out a sigh of relief as she put her hind hooves in the bucket of warm water and removed her peytral. The bucket of warm water had contained only that when she had set her hooves in it, yet she didn’t recoil when she felt something stir in it after a few minutes. Celestia opened one eye to observe a dark miniature storm cloud beginning to form over the water, and a jaunty tune from a fiddle and accordion sounded from the bucket, where a ship smaller than her hoof was bobbing on the surface. Celestia didn’t even need to look at the outrageous adornments of the tiny ship to know who she was dealing with. “Good evening, Discord,” she said pleasantly. Discord coiled out of the bucket as he grew to his default size. “You’re no fun, Celestia, nothing ever fazes you.” “Quite untrue,” Celestia said as she stepped out of the water and onto a towel. “I’m quite surprised by you being here. You rarely visit.” “Yes, well. Forgive me if this place had grown a bit stale,” Discord said with just a hint of accusation. “I also suspect that I’ve worn out my welcome.” “Why, Discord. I have no reason to bar you from my home. In fact, would you like some tea?” Celestia asked in the same pleasant tone as she walked towards the kitchenette, the existence of which had offended quite a few chefs throughout the millennia, but sometimes Celestia liked to experience eating the way she wanted it, rather than how a first-class chef thought she should want. “Still no compunctions about letting a creature of chaos run free?” Discord asked, only slightly provocatively. “‘Creature’? How crass,” Celestia said, and opened the door out of the hallway on her way to the little cooking corner. “Your princess is not talking to herself,” she said to the two guards eyeing the door warily. “She’s just having an unannounced visitor.” “Wouldn’t you prefer ‘being’, or something similar?” she asked Discord as she closed the door. “How noble,” Discord said as he followed after her. “Such acceptance from someone in direct conflict with your very being.” “Such is the way of me and my little ponies. Tolerance is closely tied to harmony,” Celestia said. “You didn’t say whether you wanted any tea.” “No thank you,” Discord said. “Which would explain what I saw today.” “Hm?” sounded Celestia as she put on the kettle and retrieved a pack of plain crackers from a cabinet. “I met one of your newest acquaintances today. A pony called Gabrielle,” Discord said. “Ah. I hope there was no rambunctiousness," Celestia said. “Despite any direct conflict.” “That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” Discord said. “I’m always willing to listen,” Celestia said as she waited for the water to boil. “This ‘Gabrielle’, what is she?” Discord asked. “A visitor from another world,” Celestia said simply. “Aah.” “Yes. A world of ‘humans’. I’m not sure you’d like it, though. Magic, if it exists there, does not seem to function the way it does here.” “And now she is here, why?” Discord asked, a hint of agitation seeping into his voice. “Because Twilight brought the poor dear here by accident,” Celestia said. When there was no response, Celestia looked at Discord, who had a face of irritation in unease, which translated into fear and anger. “Is something the matter?” Celestia asked. Discord took a deep breath. “I never thought I’d live to see the day where careless use of magic would worry me. Do you have any idea what this ‘Gabrielle’ is?” “As far as I’m concerned, she is a charming and intelligent young filly, or rather ‘woman’, I should say,” Celestia said evenly. “Be it a day of great relief when I learn that that won’t change,” Discord muttered. Celestia had learned that when dealing with Discord, it was best to keep an air of aloofness. Anything else would just encourage his indulgences. By now she had dropped this facade, however. “Discord, what is it that worries you?” she asked kindly. “This thing that your little ponies have brought to Equestria is what worries me,” Discord said. “Why?” Celestia said and inclined her head slightly. Discord had seemingly calmed down, but not because his mood had improved. “Your little ponies don't like my presence very much,” he said. “I don't intrude overly much, but my presence is grating to them.” “You do yourself a disservice,” Celestia said kindly, but Discord didn’t seem interested in kind words at the moment. “But this Gabrielle grates me. In worrying ways, Celestia. I don't belong among your little ponies. Gabrielle, doesn't belong anywhere.” A very brief flash of anger darkened Celestia’s face, but it was gone so fast not even Discord seemed to pick up on it. Instead, her face became stern, but not unkindly so. “She is welcome among my little ponies, and she is welcome in my home, just as you are, being of chaos or not,” she said. Discord paused for a moment. Like Celestia, his face betrayed no unpleasant emotions. At least not much of it. “Would you extend your welcome to her?” “I already have, and I feel now, like I did then, that it is the right thing to do.” Discord didn’t seem reassured, but his temper did not flare. “I hope you're right, Celestia. But remember, chaos is not entropy.” With that, he vanished in a simple flash of light. Celestia stood thinking for a moment, until the kettle started whistling. She brought it, the modest amount of snacks, and a cup with leaves in it back to the couch. She poured some boiling water into the cup, and used the rest to reheat the water before sinking her hooves into it again. — The sun was slowly setting, and the five of us were stumbling away from the hay bales between the party area and the barn, after noticing that Lyra and Bon Bon there, without them noticing us. The cooking part had finished, the main course was consumed, and desserts littered the table and ground around it. A tendency to lean had entered the minds of most ponies in attendance, still carousing around the tables. There had been a few appearances on the stage, including an absolutely breathtaking rap showdown between Pinkie and Zecora, who were now sitting by the table, leaning against each other and giggling hysterically at seemingly everything. Twilight was scrawling notes on her enjoyment of the occasion, though her writing was constantly curving across the parchment. Fluttershy was swaying slightly in place with a small smile and a vacant look in her eyes. Spike and Rainbow Dash were lying under a table and snoring loudly. Granny Smith was sleeping in her rocking chair, while a seemingly indomitable Big Mac was having a drinking contest with a stallion I didn’t know the name of. Armor and Rarity had seemed to be able to keep their composure, while the flower trio was giving Armor coy looks. I let out a small laugh at the almost successful attempt at plinking the right tune on the banjo that we had found lying inside the farmhouse after I had to lie down for a few minutes. “I almost got it.” “Yeah, you do,” Babs agreed, and let out a loud hiccup. We all let out a good natured laugh at her, which only increased when Scootaloo joined in with her own hiccup. Turns out that my knowledge of biology wasn’t as encompassing here in Equestria as it was back on Earth. Or, well, in some ways it was. It’s just that here there was the additional element of magic to consider. I had the occasional drink the last time I was a child, under the supervision of my parents. We were under adult supervision here as well, though the gazes doing the supervision were slowly getting less and less focused. Even so, they didn’t seem worried. The amount of drink we were getting weren’t doing as much as I was expecting. Magic, I was guessing. It gives you a long life, and generally makes you hardier, of course this stuff helps with measured chemical influences. Made sense, really. It was an agrarian society with an old-timey feel. Some fermented refreshments were the answer to many things back on Earth in those days. The extra special, small keg in the basement for when tiny tot’s tooth ached, for example. “So, uh, what’s the drinking age in Equestria by the way?” I asked. The Crusaders looked at me with a lazily wondering look. “Drinking age?” Scootaloo asked, confused. “Alright,” Apple Bloom said determinedly. “Stage is free. You ready?” I looked down at the tankard, and the last few mouthfuls still in it. “Almost,” I said, and tipped over as I reached for it. Another round of laughs as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo helped me up. “One more,” I said, and raised my flagon. “Cheers!” we all said, and emptied our vessels of fermented joy, feeling smarter, braver, and prettier with every gulp. “Alright, let’s go,” I said confidently, and slung the banjo across my back. When I turned around, I walked straight into a white fence pole. “Oh!” I said, and rubbed my muzzle. “Look, man, you better get out of my way,” I said, and poked at the pole, drawing confidence from the encouraging giggles behind me. The pole ignored me. “I’m serious,” I said. “I gotta get up on that stage, just like that song where the dude won’t let the guys on the stage, and they like, should totally pick a fight with the guy stopping them… and get on the stage.” My opponent looked down on me with mocking indifference. “Oh, you think you’re so cool or something, eh? Yeah, watch it, loser. My kung fu is stronger than yours!” I said, resorting to bravado to avoid trouble. “Yeah, show em, Gabe!” Scootaloo said from behind me. “Yeah,” I said and looked back with confident smirk at my friends. “You know, since you don’t know who you’re messing with, I’m gonna lay you out quickly,” I said, and threw a very enthusiastic swing at the pole with my metallic hoof. A loud thumping sound was produced, and it folded like a house of cards, making me feel a little sorry for it. It was clearly the drink talking. So I turned to its friends standing by its side. “You make sure your buddy’s okay, right? He might need some stitches,” I said and walked on towards the stage. There were no more obstacles between me and the stage. I had forgotten all my reservations about this idea, just like I planned, and I noted that they didn’t come back as a few eyes turned to me as some of the ponies turned to me in curiosity. I looked down at where Armor sat surrounded by the flower trio, thinking back to every time he had carried me around, helped me with just about anything, and when he saved my life from the dragon. I had others I was thankful towards, of course. Twilight, who’s house I was living in, and all her friends and their eagerness to accept me, but Armor was special. The amount he had helped me in the limited time we were going to have together warranted special recognition, especially since I might not have this opportunity again. I tapped the cone on the stick, producing a short feedback. “Hey, everyone, attention please,” I said, and every conscious pair of eyes turned towards me. “I just wanna say,” I said, and struggled a bit for words. “Uhm, I just wanna say, that, there’s a stallion here today, who’s like, the coolest pony in the world. “He, like, can save fair dragons from raging maidens and stuff.” The crowd gave me a skeptical look. “It’s true! I’ve seen him do it.” Armor was looking at me with his mouth hanging slightly open, and Roseluck was subtly scooting up to him. I found this very encouraging, all this needed was a small push in the right direction. “So, me and my friends,” I said, and gestured to the side of the stage, where the Crusaders and Babs entered and took places beside me. “We’ve written a song, in tribute to this great pony.” The looks of the crowd shifted from confusion and curiosity, to just curiosity. “Groovy! I a...pprove-y,” Zecora said and trailed off in an uncertain voice. Pinkie went into another fit of giggles. “Alright,” I said, and swung the banjo from my back. “We struggled a bit to find an appropriate tune, but we thought this was pretty appropriate, considering the surrounding, and stuff. Here goes. In honour of a guardspony,” I said, and the five of us started singing. Oh, A brave pony came along, doodah, doodah! Oh, handsome, charming, big, and strong, da-doodah-dayh! Oh, Ponyville-mares sings this song, doodah, doodah! Oh, Armor’s schlong is five feet long, da-doodah-dayh! Roll in the hay all night! Roll in the hay all day! Makes Blueblood look like a buck-toothed nag, he’s gonna make you neigh! The majority of the ponies had started stomping their hooves in beat with the melody. Armor had a stunned look on his face, his mouth hanging open, Roseluck looked at him with even deeper interest, Daisy’s face mirrored Armor’s, and Lily had passed out halfway through the song. We had four verses planned, but something yanked us to the side of the stage, where we promptly landed in a pile just outside everyone’s view, laughing like crazy people. There was a loud, disappointed "Aaaw!’ from the mostly unseen crowd. “I can’t believe you– oooh, did that!” Applejack said loudly to us, swaying a little bit. She, Twilight and Rarity were standing over us, trying to look stern. “Yes, Sweetie Belle, that was– “ Rarity’s voice broke, and she covered her muzzle with a hoof “– highly inappropriate,” she managed to finish between choked laughs wracking her. “IIII’m not sure I should allow that kind of talk about my fellow, uuuh... royalties,” Twilight said. “Oh, don’t worry, Twilight,” Rarity said. “That buffoon won’t ever come to Ponyville… Celestia, I wish he was here, though,” she finished and upgraded to using both hooves to stop her giggling. Babs and Apple Bloom finally managed to rein in their bouts of giggles. “Are you mad, sis?” Apple Bloom asked. Applejack turned to Apple Bloom and took a deep breath, trying to look important, before just letting it out. “No, I ain’t mad, Apple Bloom. Just don’t do it again,” she said, and looked back at the table area, and the absolute mess that was there. “At least not when ponies are gonna remember anything.” I rose up, making sure not to damage the banjo, and looked around the tarp of the stage, towards the crowd around the table. Roseluck had started openly showing her admiration for Armor, and in the dim light, it was difficult to tell where one pony ended and the other began. He managed to disengage for long enough to throw me a questioning look. I had enough presence of mind to remember that I couldn’t give him a thumbs up, and simply beamed encouragingly at him. “Hey, mission accomplished,” I said to the others. They all turned to look at Armor and Roseluck “That was the point?” Twilight asked. “Yep,” I said proudly. “I thought I’d do something nice for him.” “... That was an unusual way to go about it,” Applejack commented. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” I said, yawned, and laid down in the soft, inviting grass. “I guess this means that I’m gonna be the one carrying you home,” Twilight said. “What are you talking about? I’m fine,” I insisted. “I’m just gonna close my eyes a little.” I still think they’re lying when they say that I snore. Gaiden > One Night In Canterlot > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was an interesting mix of emotions going through me as Twilight, Armor, and myself made our way down the street of Canterlot. The last time around might’ve been unpleasant enough to taint my view of the place permanently if Armor and his trooper buddies hadn’t covered me up from the curious looks of the ponies around me. That hadn’t been a pleasant experience, but this time, there was none of that. Even if my right legs didn’t look perfect, at a glance, very few seemed to notice anything off about them. So there was the joy of being mostly physically restored, the slight lingering bitterness at the last experience with this place, and some form of excitement of my pretty grave handicaps being well (but not perfectly) hidden in plain sight of all the pedestrians around me, combined with me secretly being an alien. I guess the result was some sort of smug satisfaction which I felt looking at the ponies around me from my vantage point on Armor’s back. “Ah, hello, my fellow equines,” I said, in an overly posh voice only loud enough for the three of us to hear as I looked at a unicorn stallion who seemed to have dressed up as the monopoly guy captivating an entourage with his words. “Wouldn’t you agree that the only thing better than lots and lots of old money is having four limbs? Yes, fnha-ha-ha!” Twilight and Armor gave me some amused looks as I focused on a unicorn filly busying herself with a popsicle. “Hey, kid,” I said, in a slimy street-swindler’s voice. “You ever been chased by a red bull? I haven’t, but if I were, it would eat my dust if I didn’t eat it first.” “You’ve been a lot more talkative lately,” Armor said. “Well, you guys are my friends and I’m comfortable around you,” I said, before focusing specifically on Armor with a hint of mischievousness in my voice. “Can I make you fluster if I say that I’m especially comfortable around you?” “After that song? No,” Armor said. “Yeah, that was a fun night, I’ve never been to an equine Oktoberfest before.” That had been a few weeks ago, and I had made a lot of progress. I could walk at a pretty fast pace with no limp, and come pretty close to a full-on gallop. The morning after hadn’t been that bad either. I had been expecting a much larger headache. From Twilight’s words, it seemed that a lot of the resistances and general hardiness that non-magical beings needs to build up from exposure and such were at least partially granted automatically for magical ponies. Which isn’t to say that ponies were invulnerable. “Well, count yourself lucky that you, uh, expired when you did,” Twilight said. “Big Mac wasn’t so lucky. Then again, he should’ve learned by now to not have contests with the Punches.” The ponies in question were Ponyville’s fermentation-specialists, Berry Punch, Pina Colada, and Bag-In-Box. “Uh, yeah, sorry about that,” Armor said. “I guess I wasn’t doing my job there.” “Well, I took care of it,” Twilight said. “How was your night with Rose?” “Well, she was nice. Very nice,” Armor said, a bit uncertainly. “We really hit it off.” “Hurhuuur!” I said, in a mock dumb voice. Armor gently swatted at me with a wing while Twilight giggled at him. “Hehe. Well, I’m gonna try and look dignified and walk for myself for the last part,” I said, as I hopped down from Armor’s back, figuring that he had hauled me around enough, especially since his saddle bags were filled with the previous models of my prostheses. As usual, and this was especially noticeable when I was walking on hard surfaces, in contrast to Twilight’s and Armor’s "clippedy cloppedy", my own steps made a sound more like "clippedy clackedy". As we approached the great arches that made up the outer wall of the castle, one of the guards spotted us and flew deeper into the grounds. The remaining guards saluted us as we entered the castle-grounds, with one of them giving Armor a small smirk. “‘Sup, Codpiece?” he said, quietly. Armor just rolled his eyes and waved a lazy greeting. Moving up to the castle proper, Kibitz moved out to greet us. “Ah, Princess Twilight, Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, a pleasure to have you back.” “Hello, Kibitz,” Twilight said. “I assume that Celestia and Luna are occupied?” “For the moment, yes. I’ve made some arrangement for refreshments in the garden if that would be to your liking,” Kibitz said. “I wouldn’t mind some,” I commented. “I’m not sure that extends to me,” Armor said. “It does if I say so,” I said. “You’re still pretty much under my command, you’re gonna eat cookies and like it, private.” “Aye aye, ma’am.” “I feel I must congratulate you on your endeavor, Madam Desrochers,” Kibitz said, as we moved through the castle grounds into some softer grass, some more civilian-looking ponies giving us, and especially Twilight, curious looks. “Thank you, Kibitz,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind that I stopped using your help arrangement at the first possible opportunity.” “Naturally not,” Kibitz said. We approached a secluded spot in the garden, where the white-coated, blue-maned stallion I had seen earlier was situated, sipping from a teacup held in his blue magic aura. “In fact,” Kibitz continued, “I would express my gratitude on behalf of Equestria. Your contributions could very well prove essential in providing aid in a way that might never have been rediscovered.” “Oh, well, uh,” I said, scratching the back of my head as I walked. “I’m just happy that they don’t seem to be in very high demand.” “So are we all. Ah, Mister Pants,” Kibitz said, as he spotted the other unicorn, which gave me pause for a moment. “Your prior engagement went satisfactory, then?” The unicorn turned to face us. “Oh! Ah, yes, they did indeed, thank you,” he said, before turning his attention to the rest of us. “Well, fine tidings to you all, and a pleasure to see you again, your highness. I hope nopony minds that I took the liberty of enjoying this spot, it wasn’t reserved for others, I hope?” Twilight gave a short giggle. “That’s alright, Fancy. Nice to see you again. And just ‘Twilight’ is fine, I think.” “As you wish, Twilight. I’m afraid I don’t recognise you though,” the stallion said, to Armor and me. Kibitz cleared his throat and gestured towards us. “Allow me to introduce Private Armor of the Canterlot Royal Guard, and Ambassador Madam Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, honored guest of the crowns,” he said, and shifted his hoof towards the stallion. “Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, this is Sir Fancy Pants, authority on private enterprise.” I gave Fancy Pants a quick scan. ‘Those are indeed some fancy pants, in that they seem to be invisible.’ “A pleasure to meet you both,” Fancy said, giving a round of hoof-shakes. “Honored guest of the crowns, then? I daresay you must be from the gryphon lands.” Armor took the conversation as a cue to make himself scarce, and shuffled off to a corner to stand guard. The comforting feeling of his presence being were mixed with a bit of sadness, now that we were here. “Uh, not really,” I said, and gave Fancy a sheepish grin, wondering how many times I would be asked that in three centuries. “No?” Fancy asked, curiously. “Ah, of course! Now I see. From the mountains then. There must be a good bit of thestral in your heritage; I noticed the fangs.” “Not quite that either,” I said, and thought it best to change the subject. “What is an ‘authority on private enterprise’? “Oh, ho-ho,” Fancy Pants laughed, “I try and not toot my own horn too much, as they say. I am just a business pony who’s found his endeavors more successful than not.” I couldn’t help but give him a somewhat wry look. This guy had gravitas. “How about you?” Fancy asked. “May I ask why you are enjoying the sights of the castle this day?” “Well, I don’t wanna be a horn tooter either,” I said, with a shrug. Twilight gave me a good-natured roll of the eyes. “Gabe here is an enchanter who recently rediscovered magical prosthetic limbs.” “I had help,” I said, a bit abashedly. “Yes, but the concept and ultimate idea came from you,” Twilight insisted. “Oh?” Fancy seemed to take this as a cue to take a closer look at my leg. ‘Seems like it didn’t completely pass him by after all.’ “In fact, I’ve also thought about trying to find somepony that might find something else of Gabe’s interesting,” Twilight said, and levitated out a pair of cable ties that were originally in my computer from Armor’s saddle bags. Fancy managed to tear his gaze from my legs after a moment. “Hm? What is that?” he asked. “It’s a cable tie,” I said a bit dismissively and took it my own aura to demonstrate. “It’s a pretty much just a wire and a ratchet.” “I figured a lot of ponies could find this useful in their everyday life, so I thought I’d see if somepony would be interested in it,” Twilight said. By now, Fancy Pants had the tie in his own magical grip and was inspecting it with a scrutinizing gaze. “Yeees. I can understand that,” he said, before seeming to register what Twilight said. “Wait, are you saying that nopony is manufacturing these?” “Well, no,” Twilight said, “Not yet.” “And this is yours?” Fancy asked me. “Uh, well, yes,” I said, a bit uncertainly. “Why, you know someone who’d be interested in them?” It was true that the piece of plastic that Fancy held in his magical aura was mine, but right now it seemed like I was going to get credit for someone else’s invention. “I believe that Mister Pants would be interested in a business deal with you, Gabrielle,” said the voice of Princess Luna, as she and Celestia approached us from the side. Kibitz had vanished somewhere along the way. Armor stood at attention, and I felt slightly proud of myself for being on the ball and doing a little bow with Fancy Pants. “Yes yes, as you were,” Luna said shortly, waving a wing dismissively. “Congratulations, Gabrielle,” Celestia said, giving a warm smile especially directed at me and Twilight. “I realise that you might have heard this many times now. And now I must apologise for revealing things about you in front of relative strangers,” she added, in a slightly rueful tone. I looked at Fancy, who looked at me in curiosity. “Ah, that’s okay, I think. Most people have had a positive reaction to it.” “Would… this have something to do with the strange feeling texture of your right hoof?” Fancy asked a bit cautiously. “Uh, yes,” I said, and magically pulled up the new and improved cover of my right foreleg, revealing the metallic surface underneath. “A new kind of prosthetic. Heavy duty model. We’re here to donate the previous models to… your school, perhaps?” I said, turning to Celestia. “That would be a good idea,” Celestia said. “I hope you won’t mind coming in and helping sometime? The student and professors unmaking magics that they can’t recreate is… not entirely unheard of.” “Not guilty,” Twilight said, and held up a hoof with a smile. “Guilty,” Luna sighed dejectedly. “That was actually closer to my fault,” Celestia said, to which Luna gave a consentaneous side nod. Fancy has been looking at my leg in interest for a while now. “So, would you say that you’re a… royal inventor?” he asked. I was about to give a protest when I hesitated. “Well… I’unno,” I said, with a shrug. “I’ve kinda focused on just one thing, and that was sort of mostly for my own benefit, but I guess that’s up to the princesses to decide.” “Considering your contributions so far, you are eligible to be considered that,” Celestia said. I considered this for a moment before shrugging. “Maybe ceremonially.” Fancy kept looking at me with wide eyes before shaking his head. “Well, I seem to have intruded on a prearranged meeting. Before I take my leave, what do you say about this?” he asked, and levitated the cable tie up for us to see. I considered this for a few moments. ‘Well, I’ve already let these people look at my computer, but I didn’t make any money from that. It’s not my invention, but… ah, whatever! I can just deny the profits from it if I want.’ “Sure, keep it,” I said, with a shrug. Fancy’s eyes widened again. “We’ll, uh, arrange the royalties by mail, shall we?” “Sure. Enjoy,” I said. “Well, a good day to you all then,” Fancy said, and after everyone present had answered he walked away, “What an interesting filly,” I heard him mumble to himself when he put some distance between us. “Did I just win the lottery?” I asked the assembled ponies around me as I turned back to them. “Something akin to that,” Luna said. “Which is just as well. We cannot help but notice that you have done very little to redeem our offer to provide for you.” “Ah, well, uh,” I said nervously. “I hope… that I haven’t offended you. It’s just… I’ve already had one state help me get a new life. I just… I’d like to try and provide for myself someday. Also, I have lived off of Twilight.” Celestia and Luna’s expression shifted from curious to a bit crestfallen. “A guest room and foodstuff isn’t exactly what we had in mind,” Luna said. “We just hope that you are not discomforted by the thought of heads of a nation aiding you.” I shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Uh, I’m not sure, actually. Although, I did make pretty good use of the help you provided me,” I said, and looked at Armor with a small smile. “And Scrap Armor was hired with state funding.” “That’s true,” Celestia said. “You are still welcome to overrule Private Armor’s transfer to the Crystal Empire.” I looked at Armor again. Now it was his turn to shift uncomfortably. If I kept him for myself, I would keep him from his proper job, and from what little I knew of military life, that would perhaps not be a good thing in the long run. On the other hand, I knew he didn’t want to leave me unless I was totally fine with it. Making this hard on him would be a poor repayment. “I’m sure,” I said. “Armor has been the best personal assistant I’ve ever had, but I’m not going to keep him from his unit. Besides, we’re still gonna be friends.” Armor gave me a slightly sad smile. “It is true that the arrangement in the empire is a temporary solution until their own standing force can be fully modernized. Armor will be part of a rotating stream of pegasi until they have enough there for a permanent presence,” Luna said, the energetic tone she used hinting that she was very passionate about these things. “Mmm,” Twilight agreed around a cookie in her mouth before she swallowed it. “And we still need to come up with a name for them. Shiny is terrible at deciding on names.” I had just grabbed a cookie of my own and bit down on it so suddenly I think it went straight into my stomach. “Well,” I said, struggling my utmost to make this sound casual. “If the idea is that they’re gonna be using weather-magic in combat, you can just call them ‘The Imperial Stormtroopers’.” Everyone looked at me curiously for a moment before Luna spoke up. “We like it. It shall be so!” ‘Yes!’ “Going back to hiring Scrap Armor, we insist that you tell us the tale of your new limbs. Especially the latest models.” This was a subject I was quite happy to discuss, especially considering how much I had contributed to these. “Well, besides them being really, really strong, and tough, we left some space for some cool bells and whistles. Check this out,” I said, and magically pulled down the cover for the upper-part of my hind-leg, revealing a little space where I kept my harmonica. I floated the harmonica up to my mouth and played a little tune. “Cool, huh?” Celestia and Luna gave me another surprised look. “That is certainly... unique,” Celestia said. “Indeed,” Luna said. “And those engravings?” I started peeling off the blue cover from my legs, revealing the gorgeous looking patterns on it. My right hooves were now covered in serpentine engravings which made them glint in certain lights, and that felt a bit awkward at times. Nothing against Michael Jackson, but I didn’t feel like emulating him as I walked down the street. “Well, on the internal side, we’ve used several different kinds of gem dusts that complement each other to optimise my magic reserves. It’s also got this adjustment circlet thing, just in case I need to throttle the maximum amount of power it allows,” I said, as I turned a part of the upper foreleg that blended in very well with the engravings. “Then there’s the chassis, and this is really impressive,” I said, excitedly. “Scrap made these thin steel-sheets that he covered in molten bronze, and then, as he was putting on all kinds of enchantments on them, making them lighter and stronger and all that, he twisted them into helices, flattened them out again, and kept enchanting them. After he had done that a few times, he bent them into their proper shape, and now they’re pretty much impossible to disenchant for anyone who doesn’t know how they’re made. He also had this elaborate magical setup that pressurized specific parts of the metal to keep them from melting as he was shaping them.” Celestia looked thoughtful, while Luna mostly looked pleased. “We are glad to see that there are still proper war artificers in this age. The world was wild once, and the thought of peaceful times turning us too complacent is not one we relish.” “Yeah, this is, uh… military grade stuff, isn’t it?” I asked. “Indeed. When these are available for those who needs them in the general population, perhaps something not quite this strong would be appropriate?” Celestia said. “Mmm. Also, these ones are perfectly aligned to me. The last ones–” I nodded towards the old models in Armor’s bags “– chafed me just a little bit.” As the presentation concluded, and Kibitz somehow materialized again to collect my old legs (it felt about as weird to see as it feels to say it), I stopped dead in my tracks when my words caught up with me. ‘… Oh sh–… Did I just friend-zone Armor?’ — “Aaah,” I aah’d, as I clambered up the bed, back in the luxurious suite in the castle. I magically pulled out my fake eye, dropped it in the basin on the nightstand, then pulled down the coverings of my legs to deactivate the spell before placing them on the side of the bed. ‘Still weird, but this time in a good way.’ My disembodied friend hadn’t made himself known for a few days now. I know that rest is important for a learning mind, just as it is for a developing body, so maybe I had just figured that I needed some downtime. So I simply rolled over in my large bed, and promptly fell asleep. Until all my world was agony. I had gone to bed, then suddenly I was trapped in a crushingly tight cocoon of glowing white pokers stabbing at me, countless needles pricking at my nerves, and all the world’s salt was poured on the open wound that was me. And all I could do was try and curl up and beg for it to stop. I really should've seen it coming. I have a pretty good idea of how my own carcass works, equine or simian, and this is what happened often enough for a while after I had started using the remainder of my leg regularly. This... was phantom pain. A sound like a distant voice reached me, and I couldn’t tell how fast they were talking as all the pain in the world seemed to wash over me. “I– I’m sorry! She screamed and I– I tried waking her up, but she wouldn’t– You said to come get you if anything happened,” the voice seemed to say, though I couldn’t be sure of how long after I registered it. ‘Make it stop… Someone, help me… Please.’ As I felt myself being overwhelmed, I seemed to almost lose my sense of self, and all sense of time, when something happened. An almost radiant seeming feeling touched me, and my mind seemed to jolt back into shape, making the sensation sharp and fresh, but this time something anchored my sense of self. “You did the right thing, my little pony,” another voice said. “There is no need to worry. I will take this from here.” A soft melody sounded in the distance, and the radiant feeling intensified, and like when being warmed from a cold winter day, it sent a cleansing shiver through me, slowly dulling the agony until it became pain, then discomfort, then irritation, and then it was gone. My web of anguish was dissolved, and only a comforting presence and the beautiful and soft melody remained. Unconsciousness once again took me far away from what had just happened. — My eye slowly blinked open to witness the calming shade of Equestrian night. ‘That… was a bad one. I don’t think I’ve had it this bad since...' I felt a calm heartbeat against my right cheek, along with a great warmth. I slowly, and very gently, turned my head to see a radiant white coat of hair pressing against me. Princess Celestia, supreme ruler of Equestria, alicorn of the sun, and ageless guardian of all of ponykind, was out like a light and holding me in her wings and shoeless hooves like a teddy bear. I looked up at her face, her golden tiara and peytral missing, and saw a look of deep contentment. ‘It was her. She was the one who helped me… better than any anesthetic I’ve ever gotten.’ Not wanting to bother her, I gently tried scooting out of her grip, when suddenly her face contorted into worry, and her grip became firmer as she slightly bent around me and let out a very, very soft mewl. Wondering what I was thinking, I hesitated for just a moment before gently burrowing into her barrel while looking up at her face. Celestia let out a soft sigh, as her expression shifted into relief, almost serenity, and perhaps I was just imagining things, but I’m sure I saw a hint of sadness or longing there. ‘Not a teddy bear, perhaps. Something else.’ Realizing I wouldn’t ruin this for my greatest enemy, I snuggled up against her and let myself fall asleep again. It was surprisingly easy. — I woke up searching the air for something which wasn’t there, and my first conscious thought realizing what I was hugging for. I inwardly rolled my eye at myself. ‘Such a strong and independent women you are.' I thought, as I scooted over to the edge of the bed and probed around for my legs. 'A motherly alien horse holds you and you wake up groping for her like a baby.’ My thoughts softened as I did the little activation thing and gently slapped them on me, the enchanted textile which served as my surrogate sense of touch starting to feel comforting. ‘Then again, is that so bad?’ I magicked my eye out of the basin, plopped it in, and spun it around a few times to gently massage the muscles in there, which also at least felt like it cleaned out some gook out of there. ‘I wonder how long I’m gonna be in this… limbo between child and adult?’ I pulled my eye out again, splashed it in the basin a few times, and plopped it back in. ‘Wow, talk about first-world problems. Or would that be a second-world problem? Seeing how this is my second homeworld… Hm, whatever.’ I couldn’t pass the thing with Celestia off as a dream. That depression in the bed was far too big and warm for me to have caused, as befitting a sun goddess. This was the first time I was woken up without someone I had slept with. It wasn’t angering like drama had hinted that it would be. So, simply strolling through my room towards the door with the intent of getting some breakfast, I stopped when I saw a large sign by the wall opposite my door. It said "Dining Hall", and had an arrow pointing the opposite way that I had walked all the other times. “... Okay?” I said, confused, and looked back and forth down the hall, empty of ponies. I simply shrugged and followed the sign. I reached the end of the hall, where another sign told me that the stairs on one side led to the main hall, and the balcony on the right led out to the garden. Confused, I walked out to the balcony to see if there was some elevator arrangement or something, but it was just a balcony looking out over the castle ground. “Well... this is technically true, elevation issues notwithstanding,” I said, to myself, and walked down the stairs instead. — After about fifteen minutes, my confusion had mostly given way to annoyance at all the nonsensical signs, and I felt that I would need to sit down with some breakfast if I didn’t want to drain myself with my new legs. I would have started getting worried if it wasn’t for the soothingly beautiful weather, with the occasional pair of guards saluting me, and the gardeners calmly going about their business down at the grounds. I was pretty sure I had made my way down to ground level when I saw another sign that said "observatory" pointing to a closed door. Carefully, I opened it and peered down into a stairway leading into a basement. “Okay, now I know this is bull,” I said. “You… might want to be careful how you say that right now,” A voice behind me said, neutrally. I whipped my head around to see a white unicorn with a brown mane made up in a bun behind her back, walking around the corner with a clipboard held in her magical aura. “Good morning, Eleanor Desrochers, correct?” she said, the little emotion she put in her voice being pleasant. “Uh, yes. Good morning,” I answered. “Pleasure to meet you,” she said, “I’m Raven, Princess Celestia’s secretary.” “Oh, well, nice to meet you too,” I said, “So, uh, what’s the deal with the signs?” “Oh, that’s, uh, something of an emergency solution. The hedge maze needs some maintenance. Which is not an adequate reason for letting our ability to entertain guests slip, as her Majesty assured me,” Raven said, with just a hint of exasperation in her voice at the end. “I… don’t think I follow,” I said, but before Raven could answer, a loud voice barked out from behind the corner. “Hahaa! This is even better than last time!” Following a strange set of hoof falls, from out around the corner stepped a giant mountain of muscles covered in black hair, with an impressive set of horns on its head, and a pair of dress pants. This, I was pretty sure, was a minotaur. “Oh, a-ha-ha,” Raven laughed uncertainly. “Well, I’m glad you like it, sir. Would you–” “And who might this be?” the minotaur asked, loudly, and pointed towards me with either joviality or malice on his face, it was kinda hard to tell. “Uh, this is Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Princesses Celestia and Luna’s guest,” Raven said, “She’s here on business of a magical nature.” “Ah, excellent!” the minotaur said, and stepped in front of me, while I couldn’t help but back into the wall as he did. “I greet you, Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Know that I, Angus Black, stands before you!” “I… greet you, too,” I said nervously. It looked he only needed to make one bad step for me to end up a paste underneath his hooves. “What a strange name for a pony,” Angus said, and looked away from me in contemplation. “Desrochers… Desrochers. Not a name I would associate with a wielder of the arcane, either. It does have cunning feel to it. Is that what it means in old gryphon? ‘Desrochers’, De-Roosh, De-Roog… ‘The Rogue’?” That was not what my name meant, as far as I knew. “Uuuh,” was all I could say to that. “Regardless, so your business is of a magical nature?” Angus said, before I could think up anything to say. “What is your quest?” “I, uh, I-I was… hoping to get some breakfast,” I stammered. “Splendid! With your cunning and magical might, and my great strength and stamina, we shall surely overcome this challenge. Come with me! Glory, and breakfast, awaits!” Angus shouted. His arms, bulging from the muscles like a knee sock filled with coconuts, reached down before I had time to back away and slung me across his shoulder. When I came to an abrupt halt on top of Angus, the whipping motion launched my prosthetic eye out of my socket, and I had just enough presence of mind to grab it in my magical aura. As Angus quickly made his way down the hall, I saw Raven stand there with a hoof raised, trying to get some words out, before just slumping and letting out a sigh. — The deep, thumping sounds of Angus Black making his way down the halls of Canterlot Castle, with me perched on his head and holding on to his horns like a strange version of a mechanical bull ride, could probably be heard halfway down the mountain. I had felt some fairly strong trepidation when I had first been carried off, nervous that he would interpret any protest as an insult. This was proving to be an unfounded fear, however, as he was strangely amicable, and his inclusion of my input in our quest also helped put me at ease. “Ah! Pantry,” he said as he read a sign hanging from the ceiling, pointing to a door to the side of the corridor. “Hm, judging from the location and design,” I started. “I’m guessing this is –” Angus threw open the door, revealing a small space filled with cleaning supplies “ –a janitorial closet.” “Are we certain of this?” Angus asked as he rifled through the contents and held something up to his face. “This is not some sort of hay-sicle, then?” “No, I’m pretty sure that’s just a broomstick,” I said, as a small group of guards made their way past us, trying to not make it too obvious that they were looking at us in curiosity. “‘Sup?” I nodded at them. “Mmmmorning,” one of them said uncertainly, as they walked past. “Very well,” Angus said, and closed to the closet. He looked around and spotted another sign that said "Battlements", which pointed down some stairs. “Ah! We can head outside and get our bearings.” I had my doubts about that, seeing as we had made our way back to the ground floor. “Actually, I think we can get outside if we backtrack a little bit and take a left where it said ‘pegasus lounge’.” “Very well, you have yet to lead us astray, Gabrielle The Rogue.” Some thumping later, we stepped out into the gardens. There, a team of gardeners walked in a line towards a shed mostly hidden behind the walls of the hedge maze, with a filly about my size strolling leisurely a little ways from them; a pleased look on her face. “Maybe we should ask for directions?” I suggested. “A minotaur asking for directions? Preposterous!” Angus said, though not angrily. “Alright, I’ll ask,” I said, and turned his head towards the filly with his horns. “Forward march.” “Ho there!” Angus called to the smiling filly. We already had her attention, though luckily she didn’t seem intimidated in the least by Angus. “Hoe where?” she asked, and looked around in confusion. “We don’t hoe here.” “We are greeting you, young filly,” Angus said. “For we are on a quest, and we ask for your assistance.” The filly giggled into her hoof before looking back up at us. “Sure, whatcha need?” “We’re trying to find somewhere to get something to eat,” I said. “Or at least I am.” “Alright, I can show you where you need to go,” the filly said, and giggled into her hoof again. “Most excellent,” Angus said, picked her up just as easily as he had picked up me, her giggling the whole time, and placed her beside me on the other shoulder. “What is your name?” “Giggle Hooves,” she said. “And we just gotta go down around that corner. Princess Luna is there, and she’s got cookies.” “Splendid,” Agnus said, satisfied, and started marching. “Is this her dinner?” I asked. “I dunno. Maybe,” Giggle Hooves said. “Who are you, by the way?” “I’m Gabrielle, but you can call me Gabe,” I said. “What do you do around here?” she asked. “I advise the princesses on my homeland,” I said. “Wow, are you a changeling? No wait, you must be a crystal pony! No wait, half a crystal pony! I can tell, only one of your eyes is crystal.” That threw me a little bit. I looked away, wondering what I was to say to that, when I saw Luna sitting on a cushion, by a table, under a parasol, with sunglasses, reading a copy of the Canterlot Times. I shook my head, and gave Giggle a shrug and a smile. “Sure. Let’s go with that.” Luna looked up over the top of her sunglasses as we approached. “Ah, Angus,” she said, sounding a little tired. “Always a pleasure.” “Likewise, Your Majesty,” Angus said, happily, giving her a small nod. Luckily, I was still holding him steadily by the horns. “Hi, Luna!” Giggle happily exclaimed. “Hello again, Giggle,” Luna said. “And to what do I owe the pleasure, Angus?” “Oh, I am simply enjoying the sights and sounds that this beautiful castle has to offer. Gabrielle here, on the other hand, is looking for breakfast,” Angus said. “Ah, yes. Good morning, Gabrielle. Would you care to join me?” “If it’s not a problem,” I said, a bit reluctant, as Luna couldn’t quite hide her fatigue. “Certainly not. Please, have a seat,” she said, as she floated another cushion up from under the table. “Thanks,” I said, and started clambering down Angus’ great form before he simply took me and deposited me on the cushion. It might’ve felt a bit more weird to someone else, but even though it had happened a lot less in recent years, I was fairly used to being hauled around even as an adult. “Well, thanks for the ride,” I said. “Think nothing of it, my brave companion. Though now, I must continue my quest,” Angus said, and turned to Giggle. “Would you accompany me instead, joyful one?” Giggle giggled. “Sure!” “Then let us be off. Farewell, Gabrielle Eleanor. Until we meet again. And a fair day to you, Your Majesty,” Agnus exclaimed. “Likewise,” Luna said, and inclined her head. “Thanks, Angus. See you later,” I said. “Bye!” Giggle called as Angus moved away. Luna turned her attention to her teacup and kettle. “Angus has a very good hand with foals. A good trait for an individual of his size, I think. Tea?” “Oh, uh, yes please,” I said. “So… he’s not usually like that. It was because I’m a kid again?” “Indeed,” Luna said as she filled a cup for me and pushed a plate of biscuits over. “Although his appreciation for mazes is genuine.” “Oh. I guess I should’ve figured,” I groaned. “Perhaps. Now, I hope you don’t mind if I abandon my attempts at keeping up with modern speech? Normally, I would not, but right now, I’m appreciating your lack of royal observance,” Luna said. “Uh, okay. Sure,” I said. Luna let out a sigh, and took off her sunglasses to rub her eyes. “Many thanks and cherishes. Long have been this night, and things other than inelegant speech would be the uppermost of our mind at this time.” “Do you want me to speak like that?” I asked. “Neigh, there would be little rhyme in a request such as that,” Luna said, and she looked at me with a touch of sadness in her eyes. “Be it that our matter to discuss with you would be our sister.” “Celestia?” I asked. Luna let out another sigh. “Often we have wondered whether she is one upon whom fortune dotes, for when we asked, she told us about her whereabouts this night since passed.” “Yes, she…” I started and trailed off. “It is in truth when she is held as the benevolent guardian of these lands, and as she shields Equestria from horror and tragedy, she is shielded from most but brief respites of her station.” “She’s lonely?” I asked, despite knowing the answer. “Verily. Strong and true she be, yet distant and just she must also be. Our return, and the progress of dearest Twilight, brings warmth to her heart, and ours, but she has also suffered many of the tragedies that she would shield our subjects from,” Luna said, and looked at me with a meaningful look in her eyes. ‘Tragedies? She said she never had a daughter, and I assume that means she never had a child, but she did mention...' “Sombra.” “As true as spoken. Do not be mistaken, she is not a fragile being. Our return did not save her, nor have the presence of Twilight Sparkle. She would banish us again, would it safeguard Equestria, and rule as benevolently as always, but well-earned be comfort for such a weary heart.” ‘As if millions of Bon Jovi ballads cried out in longing, and were suddenly silenced.’ By this time, I had pretty much forgotten breakfast. “And I rejected her last time I was here,” I said, my ears drooping. “As you should have,” Luna said, confidently. “A free mare are you, other than that would be a masquerade. We would express both our gratitude, and ask for your pardon, however.” I looked up at Luna in confusion. “Why?” “For what you allowed her in this night. It was a more true soothing of the soul than a false daughter role,” Luna said, giving me a warm smile. “Oh, well, uh… happy to, I guess,” I said. “Now, we would invite you to enjoy this meal, modest though it might be,” Luna said. “And we would have matters of levity.” “Are you sure about that?” I asked. “It looks like you really want to go to bed.” “A fear without founding,” she said happily, magicked up a thermos from behind her, and started pouring an almost tar-like coffee in her cup. “We partake in a brew most invigorating.” — “A wyrm of some degree of charm,” Luna said, as we strolled down the shimmering caverns, Luna leading the way, while me, Twilight, and Armor bringing up the rear. “A favor too strong would be to claim that true gravitas be his, however.” “He was very different from the other dragons I’ve seen, that’s for sure,” Twilight said, the quills and parchments sticking out of her saddlebags hinting at what she was planning, though she didn’t seem to speak with much enthusiasm, and kept looking around her. “We could be without our knowledge of dreams and the mind, and it would still be plain as starlit skies that you are troubled, Twilight,” Luna said, looking back at Twilight with concern in her eyes. “Well, the last time I was here wasn’t a pleasant experience, on the whole,” Twilight said. Luna harrumphed, snorting so hard through her nose that our manes and tails flew up. “Would that we could face that viper, horn to horn. It would be a day of ruening most harsh for the foul knave of tricks, for the distant, troubled past is fresh in our minds, and skill in battle far her superior be ours to command.” “Uuuh, this sounds like a sensitive topic, so I hope you don’t mind when I ask what you’re talking about,” I said. “Do you remember about how Queen Chrysalis and the changelings attacked Canterlot?” Twilight asked me. I nodded, and she continued. “This is where she trapped me.” “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise–,” I started. “No, It’s okay. Besides, it was a pretty grave mistake of her, because this is where I found Cadence,” Twilight said. “Hubris is a weakness most unfitting of a creature of trickery,” Luna commented. “Regardless, we doubt they will be hiding in this place, drenched in dragon fire as it so often is.” The conversation seemed to waken something in the caverns, and a low rumbling, together with a great jingle of metal on metal echoed through the chamber. We rounded a corner, and saw a massive lump turning over and falling off another massive lump, letting out a loud, “Ooomph!” It was Jethro the dragon, falling off a pile of coins. The pile was very large, though still seemed a bit small for Jethro’s large form. “Someone say something?” he mumbled, as he picked himself up and looked around. “Uh, yes. Hello,” Twilight said. “Jethro, right? I’m Twilight Sparkle. We’ve met before, but we didn’t talk much.” Jethro’s eyes turned to us and slowly adjusted as he seemed to register who were in front of him. “Oh, hey, majesty, other princess, fighty dude…” he started before noticing me, his eyes lighting up. “Oh, heeey! Little Blue!” I let out a sigh as Jethro reached out and scooped me up, luckily not roughly at all, and this time my eye stayed in place. Armor tensed and Twilight gasped, but they seemed to calm down when they saw Luna’s lack of reaction. Jethro held me in his palm and grabbed my right foreleg between two talons of his free claw, giving it some experimental pulls. “Oh, awesome! You found them!” I decided that in this particular instance, I didn’t want to explain the technical aspects of my new legs. “Uh, yeah, sure did,” I said, and looked down at his sleeping arrangement, spotting a promising segue into my prime concern. “Nice digs.” “Yeah, they’re groovy alright. Moon Princess was a lot more chill than I thought she’d be, after she was done scaring the scales out of me. Seriously, dudette, don’t mess with her,” Jethro said, while waving a claw at me with a serious expression. “Didn’t plan on it,” I said. “Expensive-looking bed, though.” Luna spoke up at this. “Mismintings,” she said. “Impeccable timing, this affair has had, as they were to be smelted within two moons.” “Dragons really have a thing for valuables, don’t they?” I asked. “Yeah,” Jethro said, and scratched his neck ridge with his free claw. “Can’t really help it.” “So, would you be able to smell some gemstones with all this gold around?” I asked, innocently. “Oh, definitely! You have some?” he asked, with a voice full of anticipation. “I thought you’d know,” I asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I can tell that you don’t have any on you,” he said. “But I kinda wondered if you have any somewhere else.” “Well, I’ll see what I can do,” I said, fully meaning to send him some of the more chipped ones from back in Ponyville. “I think Twilight’s got some questions for you, though.” We looked down to see Twilight standing with a quill and parchment in her magical grip, her already anticipatory expression intensifying when Jethro gently lowered his claw so that I could jump off. As much as I would’ve liked to have given Twilight’s research my full attention, (and I actually kinda did) I felt that we should take care of the other thing that Luna wanted to talk about before the copious amounts of caffeine in her subsided. “That answers that,” I said, as Luna, Armor, and I walked away from Twilight and Jethro. “True. A heavy weight it would be to attract the attention of hungry dragons,” Luna said, and let out a long yawn. “So, uh, what did you want to talk about.” I asked. “Of dreams,” Luna said, looking more and more unfocused. “Of dreams we dream at this moment, but we would know of yours before we know of ours.” “Well, if you’re specifically talking about my dream sensei—” I stopped to make sure that didn’t insinuate too much “—he hasn’t really made himself known in the last few days, since we finished these,” I said, and held up my right foreleg. “I don’t know, I’ve never had very good control of my dreams, but I don’t think I’ve interacted with him much lately. I also don’t think he’s gone. I guess he’s just hanging around; maybe until he gets something else to offer insight for.” “Joyous news, indeed,” Luna said, and let out another long yawn. “Things and beings both of joy and harmony, and of foulness damned, be found in the realm of dreams. Emotional are they, however, and beings of emotion seldom be ones to show patience. Forgiveness we ask for this further indication that you are not beset by outside forces, for slippery, is your restful mind.” I bobbed my head a little as I considered this. “You know, I’m gonna take that as a compliment,” I said. “And I’ll take a dream sensei over a stranger in my head any day.” “Good. And noooooow,” Luna tried saying through another yawn, this one the biggest yet. Armor and I looked on as Luna simply folded her legs beneath her and let her head gently fall to the floor. We looked at each other, then to Twilight and Jethro chatting in the distance, then back to each other before turning out eyes back towards the sleeping princess. “Uuuh,” Armor started nervously. “Do you think we should wake her up or leave her here?” “Well, between the two of us, I think we can figure out how to get her to her chambers. Do you know where it is?” I asked. “Yeah, I know where it is,” Armor said. “Good, I’d be more skeptical if I had to play another maze game while lugging her around.” Armor looked unsure, however. “I’m, uh… not sure I should be laying my hooves on her majesty.” “Alright, you carry me, and I’ll carry her. This is old hat to me by now,” I said, as I gently slipped my new and very strong forelimb beneath the sleeping princess, and lifted the rest of her in my magic. “Just hurry, I’m not gonna be able to keep this up for very long.” “Okay. Let’s try and be discreet, though,” Armor said as he scooted underneath me. We left Twilight and Jethro as Armor gently flew us through the caves. Like trains and boats, I found being carried by Armor to be very calming. I got a small grin on my face. “Well, goodnight, sweet princess, and the flight of pegasi sing thee to thy rest.” Armor looked back at me in confusion. “What?” he asked. “Oh, nothing,” I said. — “They’re all really paying attention,” Armor quietly said, as we looked down to where the wizened old mare with the scar over one eye was having her lecture, the students on the lower levels of the amphitheater-like classroom seeming almost entranced by the creaky old voice. “Student attendance and grades have really gone up since she started incorporating live exercises of her lessons,” Celestia said. Her words seemed to register with Twilight after a few seconds. “Wait? Professor Inkwell’s classes had poor records?” she asked. “Most students used to think her lessons were boring,” Celestia said, and fondly looked down at Twilight. “I’m not sure you ever noticed.” “Guess not,” Twilight shrugged. “So!” Professor Inkwell said, “am I saying this to confuse you all? Partially, but the ultimate purpose is to soften up your brain in the right ways to best learn about thaumaturgical properties. Why is this measurement considered the neutral value regardless of atmosphere? I’m not saying, because that is your homework for next week, though your findings does not influence grades. If any of you want any help, you know where to find me. Have a nice weekend.” Even with hooves and magic, the sound of students packing up after a class couldn’t be confused for anything else. When the majority of the students had filed out, all of them giving looks of surprise towards us, (specifically Celestia) we got up and descended the stairs. Inkwell was talking with a pair of young stallions about something, and when we politely took up places behind them, the three of them noticed us. The stallions looked surprised at Celestia, then horrified when it became clear that they might be delaying not one, but two alicorns. They started stammering something, when Inkwell’s eyes widened, the scarred lids over one of them managing to part enough to reveal a healthy-looking one beneath them, and a smile came to her face. “Why, princesses, fancy having you visit a lecture on intermediate thauma theory.” “A reminder never hurts,” Celestia said, pleasantly. Inkwell chuckled. “And you?” she said, aiming her one-eyed gaze towards me and Armor, and presented her leg warmer covered hoof for a greeting. Armor was closest. “Armor,” he said shortly. “Just a guard.” “Gabrielle Desrochers,” I said. “Just a tinkerer.” Inkwell snorted humorously. “Well then. Inkwell, just a teacher,” she said, before turning to the two stallions. “You’ll find the answer in Glow’s book, just like you asked.” They excused themselves and hurried out of the room. “So, what can I do for you today?” Inkwell asked as she packed down some parchments in a bag. “We have something for you to archive,” Celestia said. “A lost art of artificing has been replaced.” Inkwell’s looked up from her bag in consideration, narrowed her eyes, and looked at me. Then she walked up to me and lifted my right foreleg up to take a closer look at it. Her smile slowly formed on her face. “Hah! I thought I felt something. Read all the books I could find on them that might help me, and considered writing my own on it, but I never thought I’d see the day where somepony actually figured it out. Who made this?” “Uh, well. This guy back in Ponyville,” I said. Inkwell was about to ask something else when Twilight and Celestia both chuckled. Twilight put a wing around me, and said, “He made the chassis, yes, but you both came up with the core enchantment and performed it.” Inkwell looked back and forth between my sheepish smile and Twilight’s warm smile, then finally sighed and hung her head. “You must love this, Twilight. You one-upped me when you were a filly, and now you parade other young upstarts that can as well; right in front of my muzzle.” Twilight looked horrified. “What!? No! I mean, no, I just–” Inkwell stopped her with another chuckle. “Relax, little Highness. I’m just messing with you,” she said, and turned her attention back to me. “So, you figured out how to make prosthetic limbs did you? Could have used you a few hundred years ago.” “Why?” I asked. Celestia was the one who answered. “Because even Canterlot has seen worrying days during the centuries.” “One day in particular,” Inkwell said, as she walked back to her bag and continued packing. “But I seem to remember that it all ended well. We managed to save everypony in the end.” “I didn’t quite manage to save every part of everypony,” Celestia said, sadness creeping into her voice. Inkwell turned around and poked her scarred eyelid in Celestia’s direction. “We didn’t. There were some trying times for some ponies after that, but we all managed. Even Maple and Golden, eventually.” “Together they did. Yes, I remember that,” Celestia said, her face lighting up with happy memories. “So, now you gotta tell me how you did this,” Inkwell said to me. “Well,” I started, uncertainly, “To summarize, I aligned gem dust to respond with my arcanomorphic field, then we sealed that into a metal construction that we enchanted to only allow my arcanomorphic signature to pass through.” Inkwell looked at me for a moment, before slowly saying, “Oh. I never considered that last part, and I could never be sure if I ever got the first part right. How did you make it so that only your arcanic field is let through?” “Well, you know,” I said. ”Isolate it, and make several weak blocks that let through your signature in addition to everything else they let through, and weave them together before strengthening them. Took some work, but I finally figured out how to make it work for me.” “And now,” Celestia said, and magicked out my old legs from Armor’s bags. “We’d like you to see if you can make these more accessible to ponies and ponies’ friends in general.” Inkwell’s eye widened at the legs floating towards her, before she calmed herself and took them in her magic aura. She looked at them for a moment, before turning to us. “And you don’t need these?” she asked. “They’re the prototypes,” I said. “These are new and improved. And it might be a bit weird to keep a pair of limbs for sentimental value. Plus, these have comfortable amount of give,” I finished, and lightly bounced my fleshy parts against my metallic parts, squishing the arrangement in the joints a little bit, “Hmm, alright. I assume they’re hollow to save weight?” “Yes,” I said. “Also, check this out,” I said, and removed my harmonica from inside my right foreleg, and quickly played the beginning tunes of a comically sped-up version of Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude. Everyone gave me mildly questioning looks. “That would’ve been funny if you knew the original song,” I said, confidently. “I would’ve had something more defensive in there,” Inkwell said, while inspecting it further. “I thought about that,” I said. “Though I’m not sure if that would be superfluous when I already have a horn. “Ah, but your opponents know you have a horn,” Inkwell said, and gave me a grin. “The best way to win a fight is to have the one you’re fighting not knowing what you’re doing, and what you can do.” “That makes sense, I guess,” I said. “I’m still figuring out what I should squeeze in here. I might arrange something like that.” “I know I would,” Inkwell said. Before we could talk further, however, a wisp of green smoke floating in through a window, and with a poofing sound, it materialised into a parchment. “A letter from Spike?” Twilight said, as Celestia started reading. ‘Oh, so that’s what it looks like on this end.’ “What does it say?” Twilight asked. Celestia’s serious face mellowed into one of amusement. “Dear Twilight and Princess Celestia. I’m not sure what’s going on, but Gabe’s guitar just started playing by itself and then stopped. Yours truly, Spike.” Twilight looked confused before pointing an accusatory hoof at me. “I knew it!” she said triumphantly. “You enchanted your instruments to play along with you!” I couldn’t help but give her a shocked look. “What? No, I didn’t.” Twilight lit up her horn and closed her eyes for a few seconds. “Yes, you did! I can see it plain as day.” I looked down at the harmonica in my hoof, before closing my eye and doing the same. Sure enough, the signs enchantments swirled in it, matching some corresponding enchantments I had learned. “I don’t remember doing this,” I said, in confusion. Celestia chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen before how ponies can lose themselves in music and infuse their instruments with magic. And it’s not exclusive to music, for that matter.” “Really?” I said, and deprojected myself. “Huh, cool.” — “I would like to thank you again, Gabe,” Celestia said, as we stood ready to leave for the station and head back to Ponyville. “Rare as it thankfully is these days, you’ve made the future of ponies suffering cruel fates so much easier.” “Well, it’s not perfect,” I said, and rubbed around my right shoulder. “As I realized last night. Must’ve been all my recent using of almost forgotten muscles that triggered that little episode. And like I said earlier, thank you for that.” “My pleasure,” Celestia said, and put a wing around me as she nuzzled my neck. “And do check in with Nurse Redheart if it continues.” “Mmm,” I mumbled, and after a moment, we pulled back. “Well, goodb– no. See you later, Armor, and thanks for everything,” I said, with a smile. “Yes, good luck with your assignment, Armor,” Twilight said. “Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you for letting me stay in your home,” he said, and turned to me, smiling. “And it was my pleasure, Gabe.” I looked around us. It was pretty much just us in this particular corridor at this moment. You could see hints of guards standing with their back against us out in the sun, but they were well out of earshot. “Uh, could we have a minute?” I said, to Celestia and Twilight. Twilight looked surprised for a second before just saying, “Oh, uh, yes. Of course,” while Celestia just gave me an amused nod. As they walked out into the sun, I walked up to Armor. I showed uncertainty, but I was determined not to show nervousness. “Hey, I just wanted to say…” I started, and stumbled for words. I shook my head and tried again. “I guess I wanted to say… that… perhaps I should’ve brought this up earlier, or perhaps I shouldn’t be bringing this up at all, but…” By now, Armor was giving me a nervous look, but I just steeled myself and continued. I reared up and put my forelegs around his neck, and nuzzled him. “I just… thank you again,” I said, and kissed his cheek. After letting it last for a while, I pulled back, still hanging from his neck and looking up into his surprised eyes. “Well, I, uh,” he started. I giggled at that. “That pretty much sums up what I’m thinking.” “Do you, uh… me?” he stammered. I gave him a deadpan smile. “Your obliviousness doesn’t make you any less dashing,” I said. I looked at him for a while as we both searched for something to say. “Do you know what you’re feeling?” I asked. “Uh, I… don’t think so,” he said. “Me neither,” I said, with a hesitant smile. “But I do know one thing.” “Uh, what is that?” “I know that I’m very curious about how kisses works without noses being in the way.” Gaiden > School's In > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The presence in my dream was pleased. Very pleased. He didn’t seem to say anything though. I just got a strong sense of happiness. It wasn’t creeping me out or anything. Like the presence was happy, I was relaxed. You don’t really get to pick the state of mind in dreams the same way you do when you’re awake. Finally, there was a chuckle. “Good. Very good,” it said. ‘Oh, right. I was talking about my plans.’ I reclined against… whatever I was reclining against, dreams aren’t always specific about details like this, and closed my tired eye. “Mmm, yeah. It’s a neat gimmick, but I need to figure out how to recreate it if I wanna make something useful out of it. Not sure what to call it, though. ‘Radio’ doesn’t seem appropriate.” Was this what he found so pleasing? My ideas? Eh, who knows. “You will. Keep practicing.” “That’s the plan,” I said, and let out a peaceful sigh as I drifted away into deeper sleep once again, — The echoes of uneven sounds from uneven steps were swallowed up by the walls and fabrics around me as I made my way down the dusty corridor. From the upper reaches of this place, where lay the realm of dreams and delirium, down to the nexus of worlds. Here, the knowledge of ages was stored, and I walked the hallowed halls with respect. Respect, because it was a place of knowledge, and knowledge is power… and power is energy, and energy is mass, and mass is implied by density, which indicates that Snips and Snails are the most powerful beings in Equestria— “Morning, Gabe.” I involuntarily snorted as I lifted my head in the direction of the voice. “Whu!?” I said, and looked up to see Spike sitting in an armchair with a newspaper and scratching himself on his uppermost ridge. “I said good morning.” “Oh, good morning, Spike,” I managed to answer before a yawn could stop me. “Are you okay?” Spike asked, while still scratching himself, this time over his arms. “Fine, just tired,” I yawned. “And you? Are you okay?” “A bit itchy, but that’s normal. You nervous about school?” he asked, before I had the chance to inquire about his "normal itching". I shrugged. “Maybe a bit. It might be unconscious association with the actual first day I went to school, though.” Spike nodded, and turned his gaze back to the newspaper. “Well, Twilight should be back in the afternoon.” “Right,” I said. “You’ve already had breakfast?” “Yep,” he said, and scratched himself behind the newspaper again. As I walked into the kitchen, I mused on how old Spike acted sometimes. At this point in time, I thought it wouldn’t have been out of place with fuzzy slippers, a moustache, and perhaps a pipe. Then again, I had forgotten to ask, but I was under the impression that he was actually a bit older than me. ’”Baby” dragon indeed. Maybe I should call him “Uncle Spike”’ I hadn’t had a lot of meals by myself since I had gotten here. Sometimes, I would go on a pantry raid by myself, just to get the chance to eat in silence. It most likely had something to do with the way I was used to eating. Owlowiscious was often there, though, but that was okay — owls not being known for their intruding presences. That probably sounded a bit depressing, eating alone, and maybe it was, in some ways. Meal times tend to be social activities, but being alone could often be very calming, at least for people like me. So I sat there, lazily eating my cereals, slowly waking up, remembering how mom had fussed over me the last time I started school in this general age group, and perhaps letting myself feel a little sad. It wasn’t one of those times when I tore myself up with memories. Those times were thankfully pretty rare, but remembering loved ones is bittersweet. That’s just how it is; a bit of temporary melancholy. So it did nothing to dampen my mood as I walked up to my room again to get my saddlebags, tried doing an Angus Young duck walk down the stairs, (which only works for bipedal plantigrades, lemme tell you) saying "bye" to Spike, and walking out into the sunshine of a beautiful day. Living among a people that could control the weather, you might figure that beautiful summer days would eventually lose their charm. It hadn’t happened to me yet, and ponies, who were very much used to it, didn’t seem to stop appreciating them either. Expecting beautiful days, but not really taking them for granted. Speaking of loneliness, and how that’s not always a bad thing, I savored it as I walked down the more quiet streets of Ponyville. Spending day in and day out in physical rehab really hammered home how complicated ones feelings about company could sometimes be. It often seemed like you alternated between two states: being surrounded by people helping you, wishing you were alone, and being alone, bitterly having to admit to yourself how much you needed the presence of helpful people. That’s why I was walking down the more deserted routes to the school; I wasn’t really walking, I was trying to swagger. I was finally independent to do such simple things as going for a walk without double checking a prosthesis, limping, or fearing a sudden onset of exhaustion or soreness in what remained of my leg. ‘I need cool sunglasses… and my own Harry Faltermeyer tune,’ I thought as I swaggered into sight of the school. I stood there, in an alley (as far as that term can be applied to Ponyville), watching the school, and was about to keep going when I stopped. ‘Oh! Waaaiiit... Here comes another one...' A light, and perhaps even funny feeling bit of vertigo, washed over me. I was a small, talking unicorn-pony, in a talking pony land, watching my soon-to-be classmates, other ponies, approaching the pony school I was about to attend. It felt like my brain was tickling itself, processing my situation and the world around me. ‘I’m wearing saddlebags. I just left my home, a library in a tree, where my friend Spike, a small dragon, is reading a newspaper. I just walked through a town of magical equines, on four limbs, two of which are magical constructs, all of them having hooves at the end of them.’ I lifted my front hoof, the flesh and keratin one, to my eye, the one that sees, and wiggled it a bit. Then I put it down and did the same for my metal one, before putting that one down as well. A shudder is often associated with negative things, but they’re not always. I shuddered as I processed my situation. It didn’t feel painfully wrong. In fact, it mostly just felt funny. ‘Maybe all the hugs I’ve gotten has had something to do with it. Friendly physical contact probably help the mind go "alright, this feels right, this is how it’s supposed to be".’ I shook my head, took in my surroundings again, shrugged, and dismissively flicked my tail. ‘I’m in Ponyville, I know this place, I like it... Alright. Let’s go.’ — I entered the school building, immediately finding myself in the main room. The other foals were dropping in little by little, and the large, central classroom filling up slowly in the morning seemed to be standard procedure. Cheerilee was nowhere to be seen, though. Maybe she was prepping things in an office or something. I timed my entrance pretty well. The foals heading towards the school weren't enough to form a crowd to blend into, but I had approached “between” two groups, so that I didn’t sidle up beside a bunch of curious strangers. Scanning the classroom, I didn’t spot anyone I knew besides the two unicorn colts, who happily waved at me when they saw me. I waved back, and I’m pretty sure I managed to not make it seem forced. ‘Aah, Snips and Snails. One short and whiny sounding, the other skinny and kinda vacant, both awkward. Fuse them together and you get a Rick Moranis character.’ Their waving brought me to the attention of some other foals seated by their old-timey desks, and they paused their conversation to observe me, some just curiously, but some skeptically, like the grey and the pink earth pony fillies I was sure I’d seen around some time before. One who seemed a bit still when watching me was a grey pegasus colt with a black mane. My coolness and social poise was a Panzerkampfwagen VI. Tough, powerful… and somewhat prone to spalling, by onslaughts of curious and sometimes judging stares. “Hey, Gabe!” I jumped a bit at Apple Bloom’s voice sounding behind me, feeling a very short lived and very strange desire to back kick something. “Whuh!” I breathed out, and turned around. “Hey, guys. Don’t scare me like that,” I said, to the ferociously friendly trouble trio standing there with smiles on their faces. “Oh, sorry,” Apple Bloom said. “Hey, what do you think of the school?” Scootaloo eagerly asked. “I just got here,” I pointed out. “Oh, right.” “Hey, how was Canterlot?” Sweetie Belle said. “Some bad, mostly good,” I answered. “It was a pretty short visit. Met some new people, made a random lucrative-seeming business deal, had a really bad bout of phantom pain, and I might have gotten an honorary ‘royal inventor’ title.” “Oh,” Apple Bloom said dejectedly, her ears folding. “That pain part sounded bad.” “Yeah, probably because I’m not used to using these muscles,” I said, and rolled my shoulder. “But it was a short affair. Don’t worry about it.” “‘Royal inventor’, though, eh?” Scootaloo said, with an eager smirk. “I think you should go all the way to ‘mad scientist’, and invent something really crazy.” I gave an even nod to that. “Possibly, yeah,” I said, a bit flippantly. ‘Like a technodrome.’ “Do you have any future plans?” Sweetie Belle asked. ‘Yes… a technodrome.’ “I have a few ideas,” I replied. I jumped up again as something touched my withers, this time feeling a strange desire to rear up. “Uh!” Whipping around, I realized that Cheerilee was standing behind me, trying to get our attention by placing her hoof on me. She had come up on my blind side, though. I breathed out a sigh, realizing that I might be more tense than I’d thought I was. “Hi, Miss Cheerilee,” the Crusaders chorused happily at their teacher. ‘“Miss”? Naaw, grade school teacher gets a honorific? How quaint.’ “Hi, girls,” Cheerilee said, cheerily. “Hello again, Gabrielle, or was it just Gabe?” “Anyway you want,” I said. “But I prefer Gabe.” “Alright then, Gabe,” she said, and turned her eyes towards my right foreleg. “I saw you in town with those the other day. Very impressive.” “Thank you,” I said, in a practiced, but still genuine tone. I took a quick look to see that most of the other foals had turned back to their own conversations and other little doings. Except for that one pegasus colt who kept glancing at us, and perhaps the grey and pink fillies. “Did you get a chance to read anything on that list I gave you?” she asked, her tone devoid of judgement. “A bit,” I said. “I liked the history stuff the most, but I saved it for after I’ve studied some common knowledge subjects. It’s probably more unusual to not be able to point out Seaddle on a map than not knowing historical figures.” “Right,” Cheerilee nodded. “I’d like you to introduce yourself to the class, unless you really don’t want to.” “I’m fine with it,” I said, and shrugged. And I kinda was fine with it. Speaking in front of a class can be nerve wracking the first time, but I figured that once you’ve gone up by a whiteboard with an empty shirt sleeve dangling at your side, and having your prosthetic leg start coming loose mid-presentation, a room full of kids is a piece of cake. “Good. Are you ready now?” Cheerilee asked. “Sure, just one thing, though,” I said, as I moved with Cheerilee towards the front of the class, while the Crusaders made their way towards their seats. “Yes?” “Well, using only one eye can get a bit tiring, so if I’m closing it, I’m not necessarily nodding off during your lectures.” “Oh,” Cheerilee said, a bit sheepishly. “Noted.” “I can keep this one open, if you want,” I said, and lightly poked my right eye, producing a small "clack". “Just so it doesn’t seem like you’re fine with me not paying attention.” “Ah, well,” Cheerilee answered, uncertainly. I guess this wasn’t something she was used to. “I guess if it’s fine with you.” “Alright, attention everypony!” Cheerilee called, when we got in front of the class. “We have a new friend here in class today, and I’d like you all to help make her feel welcome.” I quickly tried to take in the scene in front of me. The Crusaders were smiling encouragingly at me, and everyone else’s face radiated mostly curiosity, though Snips and Snails’ a bit less so. “Well, hello, everyone,” I started. “My name’s Gabrielle, though I’m fine with just being called Gabe. I recently moved to Ponyville, so I don’t think I’ve seen many of you before now.” I turned to Cheerilee, and asked with a carefully measured pinch of flippancy, “What do you usually say in addition to this?” Cheerilee turned her eyes to the class and asked, “Does anypony have anything they’re curious about Gabe?” A few hooves slowly rose into the air. “Uh, I guess we’ll sweep from this direction,” I said, and pointed my hoof towards a bright lavender unicorn filly with a blonde mane to the rightmost of everyone with questions. “Where did you live before?” “Canterlot, technically,” I answered. “I didn’t live there for long, though.” I nodded towards the next one, a red-maned and glasses adorned filly. She opened her mouth, and I almost took a step back in shock when she let out a sound like when you get something stuck in your vacuum cleaner through her teeth. “Uh, yeah. Uhm, were you raithed by gryphonth?” I almost laughed at that. ‘I should have seen that one coming.’ I smiled, and patiently answered, “No.” “What’s your cutie mark of?” the pink, tiara adorned filly I’d seen before interjected. I had been a pony long enough by now to be on the ball with that one. “Enchanting,” I answered immediately, and nodded towards the next one up, a colt in a propeller beanie. “You got any hobbies?” he asked. That was where I stumbled a bit. I had hobbies, of course, but they had to take a backseat in the years before I came to Ponyville, due to studying and work, and it would be a bit weird to start explaining video games with disability friendly user interfaces during my presentation of myself. It means I also speak fluent Simlish. Sulsul, plerg majah bliff? I scanned the class with an, “Uuuh,” as I stalled for time. The grey pegasus colt was looking at me with a very prominent blush, with his wings sort of squirming for some reason, while Snips and Snails were eagerly waving their hooves in the air in the back. Oh, of course, I thought, and almost smacked myself in the face when I remembered that I had rekindled an old love recently. “Music,” I said. “Mostly the guitar, but I’ll give just about anything a shot.” “Why do you keep saying ‘everyone’?” the grey filly next to the pink tiara-filly butted in. The tone of the question, and the one of her friend, didn’t really rub me right. I thought playing it neutral would be my best bet, though, and simply shrugged. “It’s just the way I’m used to,” I said. “Weird,” she said, mostly to herself though, it seemed. Next up were Snips and Snails. I braced myself, pointed at them, and hoped for the best. “Uuh,” Snails started. “Weren’t your legs gone that one time?” Cheerilee eyes widened, and every foal’s gaze in the room except mine were suddenly pointed towards Snails, observed his genuinely confused face, and turned at me My own neck muscles had disengaged in exasperation, and my head dipped towards the floor. ‘So much for that.’ I raised my head, and breathed out a sigh towards the ceiling. “Maybe she doesn’t want everypony to know,” Apple Bloom growled at Snails through gritted teeth, her and the other Crusaders’ ears splayed back. Snips just gave her a confused look. “We just wanna know where she got them from,” he said, and shrugged. The rest of the class were shifting their gazes between me, Snips, Snails, and Apple Bloom. “Alright then!” Cheerilee eventually called out in a bit too perky voice. “If there aren’t any more questions, I think we should get on with today’s class. Gabe, if you could take a seat right over there, please, I’ll start with today’s lesson." I walked over to the bench, and I was the center of everyone’s attention for a second until Cheerilee called out, her voice practiced to perfection to demand everyone’s attention while still sounding sweet and friendly. “Now then, everypony,” Cheerilee started, and reared up to pull down a map of Equestria in front of the blackboard with her teeth. “Today we’re going to start a new segment on the Crystal Empire. It’s a bit of a new addition to the curriculum, so ask away, and if there’s anything we can’t figure out together, let’s send those questions on a report to the ministry of education, hmm?” I placed my bag next to my bench like everyone else had done, idly wondering if it was luck or Cheerilee’s foresight that placed me here, since I ended up with Apple Bloom on my blind side, mitigating the risk of awkwardness or unintentional aloofness if a stranger who didn’t know about my eye tried to get my attention. The grey pegasus colt was seated to my left, and it looked like he had finally gotten his wings under control. I figured that they probably need stretching every now and then. He kept glancing over at me, but he stiffly turned his head away whenever I shot him a friendly smile as I took my seat. The class was really interesting. I’ve had good teachers before. Ones that could really hold your attention and present the subjects correctly and in an interesting way. I was also kind of a sucker for a good history documentary. I ended up with tons of facts about wars in my head, especially about the big ones, but really, that was mostly because of its prevalence. It was a bit of strange lesson, though, considering how little was still known about the Empire. I thought it was kind of understandable however. They had apparently been subjugated, and then locked away in some sort of stasis for a thousand years before reappearing. The memories of people there were a bit hazy, and it would take a while to go through the historical sources, both in Equestria proper, and the Empire itself, separate facts from myths, then turn it into education worthy material. “But Miss Cheerilee,” the beanie-colt asked, his hoof raised in the air. “What happened to the princess?” “We don’t know,” she said. “The stories go that Sombra defeated her, and then either locked her away, or perhaps even turned her to stone, before proclaiming himself king, but nopony really knows.” Everyone’s ears drooped. This was apparently a bit of a downer as far as history lessons go, and sure, the actual events weren’t happy ones, as far as the facts went, but it didn’t come across as bad to me. I kept it to myself, as the events seemed more like a near miss than a tragedy to me. It was like coming to another version of Earth, and learning that once upon a time, Franz Ferdinand has been tragically assassinated and then, miraculously, there hadn’t been a war. It was also really interesting in that the period the class covered was over a thousand years into the past, and then it jumped to present day. The history of the Crystal Empire just stopped, and then suddenly continued, with Twilight and her friends as central players. I already knew that, of course, but to have a history lesson with the woman, or mare, that I was lodging with, and her friends, was really cool. Speaking of Twilight and her friends, there was suddenly a series of bright lights and loud thumps in the distance, and everyone’ attention was immediately drawn to the windows at the side of the room. Muted thumps and screeches, and Pinkie’s voice… She was apparently rapping something. After a little while, the sounds came to an abrupt halt, but everyone kept looking at the windows in confusion. “... O-kay,” Cheerilee said. “Let’s continue.” I looked around for my pencil, a proper pencil; not a quill, before finding that it had dropped to the floor. I bent down and reached for it, and just as I grabbed it, a grey hoof placed itself on mine. I looked up into the face of the grey pegasus colt from before, if his face was a toaster, his cheeks were the heating coils. It might not have come across as very genuine, but I still gave him a smile. He whipped his eyes away, and immediately went back to facing Cheerilee, though his eyes were aimed down, looking very unfocused. ‘Hmph! Well, I think my eye looks good up close.’ — “Well, everypony, it’s time for recess,” Cheerilee happily called out. ‘“Recess”. That wasn’t yesterday. “Lunch break”, sure, but not recess.’ I hopped out of the bench, and searched around for what people around here did during recess, when the cutie mark Crusaders flocked around me and started dragging me towards the exit. “Hey, Gabe. Let’s find something to do,” Scootaloo’s voice said. My surprise wore off as I started walking beside the Crusaders. I realized that being the new girl surrounded by eager friends would help a lot when making a first impression. I would have liked to think that I could manage being the outsider, but I still thought it was a really nice gesture of them. “Uh, sure. What did you have in mind?” I asked. “I have some ideas for the playground carousel outside… and your right foreleg,” she finished surreptitiously, as we exited the building. “Hah. Well, as long as no one gets hurt,” I said. “Hey!” A high-pitched voice said loudly behind us. We stopped and turned around to see the two fillies who had interrupted me earlier standing there, scowling, with the rest of the class standing behind them with curious looks on their faces. “Are you three already dragging the new girl away before she has a chance to meet anypony other than you?” the pink one asked. ‘Hmm. Well, I guess that’s technically true. Not that I mind...' “We’re just hanging out with our friend, Diamond Tiara,” Sweetie Belle said. ‘I think I’ve heard that name before.’ “Oh, so you’ve already decided that she’s gonna hang around a bunch of lame blank flanks?” the apparent Diamond Tiara asked. Oh hey, I remember girls like this. Weird. I would’ve thought it would seem more quaint seeing this behavior as an adult than it is. Twilight wasn’t kidding, these marks really do seem important to kids around here. I found myself at a strange loss for words. I kept looking back and forth between the Crusaders and the two superior-looking fillies, with the rest of the class loosely gathered behind them. When I had thought about going to school the last few weeks, I had been fairly certain that I would be able to shrug off any teasing or bullying, especially since it seemed very unlikely that these happy magical ponies would be outright cruel to each other. I even suspected that I, with my long education and my years of lurking on the internet, would be able to run in circles around anyone who would try to verbally lunge themselves at me. Now I wasn’t so sure. In my mind, someone would say ”Your legs are freaky,” and I’d wink, do a Fonzie at them, and go “gotcha,” and walk away. But no one was being mean to me; they were being mean towards my friends. One could walk up to the fillies in front of me with an outraged expression and tell them to leave my friends alone, but that just wasn’t how I operated. Fools rush in. Were these two the most popular kids in school, and I would make myself, and the Crusaders, the enemies of the whole class? Would the Crusaders come across as weak and cowardly, needing someone else to stand up for them? Subtle social nuances were complicated, and I had spent the last few years in the presence of adult, disciplined professionals on another world. And so I just stood there, my calm demeanor just making me seem indolent. “She can be friends with whoever she wants,” Apple Bloom said. “Can she?” the grey filly asked. “Is she, like, not-lame enough to hang out with any popular ponies?” ‘Heh, “lame”. Funny choice of words, there.’ Perhaps I was getting caught up in the moment, but I figured that maybe it was time to play the princess card, and activated nonchalant-mode. “Well, if you consider that I’ve got a sui—” “Hey, what did Snails mean when he said that your legs were gone?” Diamond Tiara asked me. I let out an internal sigh. Of course this was going to come up. “Well, he’s right there. You can ask him yourself.” ‘... Whoops...' As soon as I finished that sentence, I realized that the cat was out of the bag. The class’ eyes turned towards the brain duo. Snips and Snails, exalted at being the center of attention, (and provoking a smidge of sympathy from me with how disproportionately excited they seemed about it) immediately began retelling their exciting story of having seen me without my prostheses. Snails was first. “Yeah, the first time we saw her, she didn’t have any legs on one side.” The class turned their gaze at me at that. I felt my withers tense and my ears droop at that. “That’th weird,” the filly with the poofy red mane and glasses said. “Don’t look like they’re mithing now.” “It’s true,” Snips said. “Also, she had an eyepatch.” The colt with the beanie and the blonde unicorn filly walked up closer and looked at my right hoof. “Yeah, look. It’s all shiny,” the filly said, intrigued. “It’s made of metal,” the colt said. Spurred on by two in their group approaching me without incident, the rest of the class, minus the pink and grey fillies, started swarming around me with curious murmurs, almost managing to block me off from the Crusaders. “Can I see?” the beanie colt asked. Mostly feeling relieved that there didn’t seem to be a fight in the making, I just let out a sigh of relief and presented my foreleg to the colts’. “They’re really fake legs,” he said. “Wow,” the blonde one said, in fascination. “Where did you get them?” “Uuh, to address you both, they’re not ‘fake’, I made them,” I said. “Hey, her hind leg is all metal-like, too,” a voice sounded, and I couldn’t help but notice the grey pegasus colt’s wings unfurl. “Cool. How did you do that?” the filly asked. The Crusaders were wading through the crowd from one end, and from the other, the two fillies were pushing their way through, angry scowls on their faces. I suspected that their tauntings petering out to nothing, and the new girl managing to not rejecting the lame blank flanks or aligning themselves with established targets were not according to their script. “Lemme see that!” Diamond Tiara said, and snatched my leg out of the beanie colt’s hooves. “Look, uh, this is getting kinda weird,” I started. “. At least for me,” By then, the Crusaders had made their way to me from the other direction. “Leave her alone, you two!” Sweetie Belle shouted, and put her forelegs around my shoulders, pulling me in the opposite direction. Diamond Tiara just growled in response to Sweetie Belle’s words and started tugging harder, while I was stuck in the middle with a very uncertain look on my face. I strongly suspected that now it was less about her wanting to see what everyone had been so interested in, and more about not being denied something. The grey filly joined in on Diamond Tiara’s side, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo joined in on the other. It was a tug of war, and I was the rope. “Alright, everypony, just what is going on here?” Cheerilee voiced from the side. Just as her voice sounded out, the Crusaders’ attention was drawn to it, their counter pulling ceased, while the two fillies on the opposite side gave a synchronized tug. I let out a startled, “Whoa!” as I was pulled towards my right side. But I was stopped by the weight of the Crusaders, with their forelegs still around my neck. The sudden lack of resistance made Diamond Tiara and her crony fall backwards, and land on their rumps in the grass, just as physics did its thing, and made the Crusaders perform a triple headbutt into my neck. The crowd had made way for Cheerilee, whose eyes, alongside just about everyone else’s except for the two fillies on their rumps in front of us who had their eyes closed, followed what happened next with utmost clarity. The world seemed to slow as it happened. The Crusaders’ headbutt launched my prosthetic eye out of my socket with what I was later sure was an audible "plopp"-ing sound. It lazily sailed through the air in a high arc, descending towards its mark as if with a purpose. Diamond Tiara’s eyes opened, and were immediately and instinctively closed again as my eye hit her between them with a "smack". It rolled down perfectly, and came down to rest at the end of her muzzle, and as she opened her eyes, she at first seemed to be in a daze from what she saw. Slowly, her face gave way to shock and disgust, as she registered the orb unblinkingly staring at her from the edge of her muzzle. Then critical mass was reached. “AAAAAAH!” screamed Diamond Tiara and her crony, as she swatted the eye away from her, frantically pawed at her muzzle, and started running in panic, her face pointed towards the sky, eyes closed, with lungs and vocal chords working together to create the loudest scream they could. After critical mass followed the chain reaction. Not counting me and the Crusaders, who were just staring at the scene with stunned looks on our faces, every foal, with a few exceptions, started running around and screaming in disgust, some in shocked disgust, others in the delighted kind. The beanie colt had fallen over, and was hugging his stomach, while desperately kicking his hind legs in the air as he seemed to be trying to laugh his lungs out of his body. The blonde unicorn filly was chasing my prosthetic eye around the hooves of all the other foals running around, the grey pegasus colt was looking at the scene with his mouth hanging open, and the filly with poofy red mane and glasses just looked on with a dopey smile, breathing the word, “Cool.” ‘Well, at least everyone’s attention is pointed somewhere else. Nice going, guys.’ I put my hoof against my empty eye socket and walked up towards Cheerilee with the Crusaders. She was standing there with a stunned expression, which was slowly morphing into exasperation. “First days of school are always interesting,” she said, half to herself. “Not always this interesting though.” The blonde filly came up to me with my eye on her hoof. “Uh, here you go,” she said, a bit uncertainly. “Thank you,” I said, and gave her a somewhat tired smile. “Hey, Miss Cheerilee… Teach?” Cheerilee took her eyes away from the chaos around her. “Yes, Gabe?” I held up my eye so that she could see it. “I think I might need to swing by home and pick up a spare.” After a few seconds, she nodded. “Uh, yes. Right. I… think we could extend this recess for today.” “Thanks,” I said, and turned towards the Crusaders, not being able to stop a grin forming on my face. “As for your question, Scoots, school seems great.” We turned towards Diamond Tiara, who was lying by a puddle of water from a drain pipe, desperately splashing water on her muzzle, and smiled. — We were trotting along in Ponyville, spirits high, and laughing at the scene we had just left. The Crusaders were telling me about the ponies I had just met. The grey filly who had helped yank at me was called Silver Spoon, her family was rich and she was spoiled. The pink one was Diamond Tiara, whose family was very Rich, with a capital R, and she was even more spoiled. The blonde filly was Dinky, the red-maned one with the slight speech impediment was Twist, and the beanie colt was Button Mash. They apparently hadn’t thought about the grey pegasus colt as someone who had stood out during the morning, but after I mentioned where he was sitting, they realized who I was talking about. Rumble, was his name. We came up to Golden Oaks, and I turned to the Crusaders. “Alright, I’ll just be a moment. Gonna pick out a new one and put this one in water.” I walked through the empty library, collected a bowl from the kitchen and filled it with water, then went up to my room. I placed the bowl on my desk, plopped down my dirty eye in it, and floated up the attache case I got from Prism onto my bed. Opening it, I felt very uncertain as to which I would pick. I was certain that there had been another one matching my remaining eye, but I just couldn’t spot it. I floated up a few different ones. One had a golden pupil, another had a pink heart instead. I thought Rarity had gone a bit overboard on her list on what sorts I should have, but I’m pretty sure that some of these were things that even Rarity hadn’t requested. Thinking that I didn’t want to keep my friends waiting, I just muttered, “whatever,” and plopped in a blank one, still a bit amazed at all the small perks that came with being a magical creature. Looking to my side when I came down, I saw that Spike was still sitting in the same armchair as before, and still hadn’t moved. ‘Is he hibernating or something?’ I carefully walked up behind him. I could only see part of his side, but he seemed perfectly still. “Hey, Spike,” I asked carefully. “Are you okay?” His scales looked dull and matte. I lightly poked him in the side, and I fell over as I took a panicked step back; half of him sagged like a balloon. I watched the morbid scene in utter horror, until I heard the door opening to the side. Whipping my head around, I saw another Spike happily walking in with a garbage bag in his claw, whistling a chipper tune. This one’s scales almost shimmered. He moved with a spring in his step, waved to me with a happy, “Hey, Gabe,” and walked up to the other Spike, grabbed him in his claw, and casually shoved him into the bag. “I was helping Twilight helping Rainbow study for her Wonderbolt exam, so I didn’t have time to clean this up earlier,” he said, and casually sauntered out of the room again. After a while, I managed to get my heartrate under control again, and walked out to the Crusaders waiting for me. They seemed confused by my dazed and slightly peeved expression. “Hey, you okay?” Sweetie asked. “Uh, yeah,” I said. “I think I just saw Spike’s molting.” “Ooh,” they nodded in understanding. “By the way, that looks awesome,” Scootaloo said, and pointed at my eye. “Thanks,” I said. “I’m sure I have more that look natural, but I couldn’t find any.” “I think that looks cooler,” Scootaloo said. “It looks pretty cool, I admit,” I said. “But it kinda draws attention to itself, and I think it makes me look tougher than I am.” “Scars do make you look tough, and yours are genuine,” Sweetie Belle said. “Well… alright, that’s true,” I had to admit. “Hey, you guys wanna go to Sugarcube Corner before next class?” Scootaloo asked, and the rest of us murmured in agreement. “Wait!” I suddenly said, and stopped. “I’ll just be a minute.” The others looked at me in confusion as I ran back into Golden Oaks, and came back with the flight goggles I got from Rainbow strapped across my forehead. The twins might be there; can’t be too careful. — “Soooo…” Twilight started, for some reason sounding hesitant. “How was school?” “Pretty good,” I said around some kale. “At first I was all set on not letting it bother me if everyone found out about my prostheses, then I did get nervous, but it mostly turned out fine.” Twilight visibly relaxed a bit. “That’s… good,” she said, and thought for a moment. “Uh, how much is ‘mostly’ fine?” “Well, it didn’t stay secret for long, but there were just these two pink and grey fillies that seemed to be bothered by it,” I said, and shrugged. “Oh, were they now?” Spike asked coolly, and with a bit of tiredness in his voice. That chilliness didn’t seem to be pointed towards me. “Yeah, so I think I can handle it. You seemed a bit apprehensive just now, Twilight,” I said, in my most casually inviting voice. “Well, on the subject of school... it was just that we really struggled today with Rainbow and her Wonderbolt entrance exam. I’m glad that you didn’t seem to have that problem, at least.” “How did she do?” I asked. “She aced it, actually.” “Hm,” I simply said, glad for my friend. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. If she thinks as fast as she moves, she obviously would.” Twilight just smiled at me for a moment before continuing. “So, tell me about your day.” “Well, alright,” I started. “It was the first time I ever had talent hour.” — "Talent hour" was a bit like a workshop class. All the kids in school could use this time to train their talents, or just about anything they wanted, but talent was of course on most everyone’s top list of stuff to do. All under the watchful and guiding presence of Cheerilee. “So I’d be free to go out with you and try out things to help you find your special talents?” I asked. “Sure,” Sweetie Belle said, “this isn’t compulsory.” I looked around in the room. Most everyone was still here, and those who weren’t were just outside, practicing talents better suited for the outdoors. “Huh. My old teachers would have loved this level of willing attendance,” I said. Then again, school wasn’t as demanding as back on Earth. Modern Earth society was complicated, and so obviously, a great deal of education was needed to keep the expertise required to run it, and while a lot of things were easier than back in pre-modern days, food still didn’t grow itself and wares still didn’t move themselves. This wasn’t the case in Equestria either of course, even though powerful unicorns and earth ponies could convince you otherwise. The point is that ponies had a lot more free time than humans, both as foals and as adults. “So you wanna go out with us someday and do some crusading?” Scootaloo asked. “Sure,” I replied, not minding now that I knew the dragon-nip in my legs was completely sealed. “Especially since you’re staying here and helping me with this stuff.” “No problem,” Apple Bloom said. “Besides, I’m loving this. I haven’t seem Diamond Tiara this angry since she won Blue Hay tickets for her dad and had to go with him.” “What are they doing now?” I asked. Apple Bloom glanced over my shoulder, turning away from the table with all the ideas for future adventures and inventions. “Still glaring at us.” — “That sounds... nice,” Twilight said. “It was,” I agreed, skeptically eyeing some boiled and seasoned hay, wondering if I should perhaps take the great leap to try it. “I shared ideas for human technology that I wanted to recreate with magic.” “Like your computer?” “Nah, that would be a bit of a leap, but communication devices, perhaps.” — “‘Walkie-talkie’?” Scootaloo asked. “Yeah, I never liked that word,” I said. “If it’s technology, it needs a complicated name. ‘Portable Communication Device’, a ‘PCD’.” “Yeah, I like that,” Apple Bloom said. “Besides,” Sweetie Belle said. “Until we manage to make several of them, it’s not gonna be a ‘walkie-talkie’, it would be a ‘walkie-monologie’.” To which we shared a small laugh. “Or a trottie-soliloquy.” — “That sounds like an excellent idea,” Twilight said, impressed. “Though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering what I saw in the other human world. I also thought you’d be interested in putting in that arcano-dispersive shocker into your prosthesis.” “I am,” I said. “But we figured that we’d keep that under our hats while in class, especially since I can’t even do a lot of the simple things yet, like light magic. Could seem a bit arrogant that I’m gonna try my ha—hoof at a project like that before I know I can. I have some other ideas for things to install into it, though.” — “So can Miss Cheerilee teach light magic?” I asked. Sweetie Belle shook her head. “No. I don’t think so, but Snips or Snails might.” “Oh, wonderful,” I muttered, and stood up to walk over to Tall & Small. There was a small and slightly glowing aura whenever I did any magic, of course, but a real magician should know how to create actual light. ‘It’s like the most basic spell in D&D. Then again, and this might be for the best, the overall power level in Equestria might not be exactly the same as in D&D, considering that Twilight is the only magician I know with a familiar… though now I’m not sure if it’s Owlowicious or Spike.’ Snips and Snails were staring with intense interest on what looked like a miniature horse racetrack. I hovered over them, and noticed a pair of snails very, very slowly making their way down the track. “Riveting,” I commented. The duo’s heads shot up from their attention to the race and turned towards, and I winced in sympathy as they knocked into each other. “Ah!” “Oh,” I said, flinching. Equines have a lot of strength in their necks. “You two okay?” “Oh, hey Gabe,” Snips said. “What’s up?” — “So did they teach you anything?” “Not really,” I said. “I finally had to ask where they learned it, and they said it was from a book called ‘Your First Magic, Yearling Edition’.” “Oh, that’s a little foal’s book,” Twilight said. “Yeah, I figured. Good thing is that if it’s here, no one has to see me checking it out,” I said. “Just as well,” Spike interjected. “Those two aren’t really teacher material.” “I noticed. Also, for some reason, Rumble looked about as relieved as I felt when their attention finally went back to their race,” I said. When Twilight and Spike didn’t answer, I looked up from my plate at them. “What?” I asked. Twilight was giving me a slight smile, but I recognised a hidden smirk when I saw one. It sounded like Spike started saying something, but when I looked at him, he was just staring in confusion at Twilight with a purple aura around his snout. ‘There’s a joke being played here, and I’m not sure I’m up for playing along.’ — I held up one of the two connected gems in my magic. “Alright, I think it might be ready,” I said. Sweetie Belle picked up the other gem. “Oh, I wanna try.” “Talking or listening?” I wondered. “Listening.” “Alright,” I said, and held the other gem up to my mouth. “Testing, testing. T, K, four, two, one, there are four lights, vive la révolution... hearing anything?” Sweetie Belle looked skeptically at the gem. “I’m not sure. I think there were some sounds, but it’s kinda hard to tell when you’re right by me.” “Alright then. Keep listening,” I said, and walked away to the other side of the room. I raised the gem to my mouth. “Alright, how’s this?” I spoke into it. “As the old jungle saying goes; don’t puncture your rubber raft if you don’t want to row hard.” The Crusaders had been huddling around the other gem in Sweetie’s hoof, and it was clear that something happened when you spoke into this one, but after I was done talking, they looked at me wonderingly, and Scootaloo tilted her hoof a bit. I started looking around the classroom, wondering if there perhaps was some sort of interference, perhaps by ponies’ passive magic, just like what my prostheses were shielded from. I say "started", because I saw Rumble sitting by a bench next to me and looking at me, and my attention shifted to how his gaze immediately whipped to the book in front of him when he saw that I was looking. “Hey, uh… Rumble, right?” I started. His eyes, accentuated by his reddened cheeks, reluctantly turned to me. “I know a lot of people think prostheses are weird, but I’m not grossing you out or anything, right?” His eyes widened a bit further, and after a second, he quickly shook his head. “Okay, good,” I said, not quite believing him, since he still hadn’t said anything. I gave him an easy smile. “Hey, you wanna help me with something?” His eyes shifted around for a moment, before he nodded, and slowly started walking up to me. “Alright, just hold this,” I said, and held out my gem to him. “When I get back to the other’s, just say something into this. Or, you know, just make some sort of sound.” I placed the gem in his hoof, and halfway to the classroom, Dinky walked up to Rumble and looked at the gem with curiosity. I took my place by the Crusaders around our table, waved invitingly at Rumble, closed my eye, and projected myself into magic-sensing mode as we all huddled around the gem, our ears tickling each other. The gentle swirlings of magic in the gem just… swirled. Nothing seemed to happen. “I don’t think he’s saying anything,” Apple Bloom said. I de-projected and we turned to look at him and Dinky. He was standing there with a very nervous expression on his face. “He does speak, right?” “Yes,” Sweetie said, sounding more amused than confused when she told me. “Oh, good,” I said. “Would be kind of ironic if I was too dense to notice someone else’s disability.” I waved at him invitingly again while smiling at him, once more leaning in with the others to listen to the rock. There was a soft chiming sound, and a very girlish voice spoke, sounding a bit distant. “Am I supposed to talk into this thing?” We looked up to see Dinky standing with the gem in her hoof. I sighed gently and waved her over, deciding not to bother Rumble anymore. — “That’s impressive,” Twilight said. “And it could be a really useful invention.” “Well, thanks, but...” I started, “much of it is a modification from Scrap’s work, it’s not working properly yet, and I don’t think the range is gonna be all that great. It’s not gonna beat you and your breath,” I said, turning to Spike. “Weeeellll, obviously,” Spike said, and leaned back against the the backrest with a pleased look on his face. “So what did Cheerilee think about your education level?” Twilight asked. “Well, it’s pretty much all over the place,” I said. “It’s gonna take... quite a while before math catches up to my level, though I’m not complaining. Cheerilee asked me if I wanted to help out with math when it’s not during lecture.” “Oh that’s nice of you,” Twilight said. I turned my eye to my plate. “Well, I didn’t say yes yet.” “But wouldn’t that be nice?” she insisted. “You can get to know everypony in class.” ‘That’s certainly true.’ “Yeah. I also got some other subjects to swat up on, so we’ll see.” — Two days later, by the lake, I held up my metallic hoof towards Apple Bloom, who had a rubber mallet in her mouth. Sweetie Belle finished up with the cork where my frog would’ve been. “Alright, hit it.” I braced myself, and Apple Bloom swung the mallet at hard as she could, and, with a dull "thump", plugged my leg up, a stout rope still attached to it. Holding up my hoof and looking at it critically, I eventually buried my muzzle into the opening, and blew as hard as I could a few times. “Yep, that’s airtight,” I said, flippantly pleased. “Hind leg,” Apple Bloom said. “Someone else needs to do the air tightness check,” I said. “Not it!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom immediately exclaimed. Sweetie Belle looked at us in confusion for a second, before her ears fell. “Aaw!” “Alright, geez, I’ll do it myself then,” I said, with a roll of my eyes, and sat down to remove my leg. A quick maneuver with the activation switch, a strike with the mallet, and another inspection later, I was ready, and plopped my leg back on. Apple Bloom, having already untied her bow and dropped the mallet, immediately ran out onto the jetty, then jumped out into the water and made the biggest splash she could possibly make. Scootaloo followed after, and hovered a bit through the air before coming down as well. Sweetie Belle and I took a much more measured trek over the planks towards the steps at the end. After a moment of consideration, I removed the coverings for my legs, losing the rudimentary sense of touch arrangement I had come up with, which revealed their metallic nature and the new addition to my equipment; a gem tied in a nylon arrangement by my fetlock. “How’s the water? Cold?” I asked, as I secured one of my lenses over my prosthetic eye, just in case. “Of course not,” Sweetie Belle said. She waded down and began paddling over towards Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, who were splashing each other with water. ‘Oh. Duh, controlling the weather.’ “Alright, hold up, I haven’t gone for a swim in years,” I said. “And it wasn’t as an equine.” At first I couldn’t confirm whether Sweetie Belle was telling the truth about the water, since I stepped into it with body parts that didn’t really react to temperature. Sweetie Belle turned around and waited for me, and after taking it a bit frustratingly slowly for a while, I took a deep breath and simply let myself fall into the water. I wouldn’t say that swimming was easier as a pony, at least not as a unicorn (I figured that wings could possibly help though), but the earliest parts of learning to swim is simply about keeping your head above the water as you get used to it, that was an easy task with my longer neck. I came up for air after being completely submerged, the sheer volume of my mane preventing it from lying flat against my skull. “You doing okay?” Sweetie Belle asked. I struggled a bit before I managed to right myself. “Kinda,” I said, and waved my prosthesis. “We might have done the plugging a bit too good. They feel more buoyant than the rest of me.” Scootaloo’s voice sounded from the gem on my wrist. “This is Orange Lightning and Red Storm, calling Blue Thunder, come in, Blue Thunder, over.” I grinned at the band held around my leg. When describing human communications, I had also mentioned old style field communication discipline, and the Crusaders simply would not have it any other way after that. I pressed the gem. “This is Blue Thunder, with White Flash, responding to call, over.” We looked over to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom a small ways away from us, waving enthusiastically. “How’s it going, swimming as a pony? Over.” “You can literally see us,” Sweetie Belle deadpanned against my wrist. “Over.” “Affir… mative,” Apple Bloom said, struggling a bit with the words. “Calling for a rendezvous at our position. Over.” “Affirmative,” I said. “Establishing approach vector and proceeding along determined route. Over and out.” Sweetie Belle giggled at me as we started slowly swimming towards the others. “I don’t think that means anything,” she said. “I know,” I said. “But it’s fun.” I was struggling to keep up with Sweetie Belle, who obviously was better than me at this. “What are you doing?” she asked me when she turned around and saw me lagging behind. “Well, I’m trying to swim, but it’s not working,” I said. “That’s a strange technique you’ve got there,” she said, and stopped. I came up to her, slowly. “It’s the breaststroke,” I said. “Pretty standard back home.” “Oh, well, I learned to do this,” she said, and started paddling past me. It looked a lot like simply cantering in the water, but it clearly worked. “Alright,” I said, and started to do as she did, which also made it easier to keep my head above the water. “There you go,” she said. “Much better.” I figured that a backstroke might work well too, since I could keep my head in a traditional equine eating position to keep it above the surface, but this was working out fine. After a few moments of swimming at a leisurely pace, we reached Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, the latter had a look of annoyance on her face. “Finally,” Scootaloo said. “Are you on a schedule?” Apple Bloom asked her. “I thought we were just here to take it easy.” “Alright, fine,” Scootaloo said. “How’s the swimming going, Gabe?” “Well enough,” I said. “Getting your coat wet is still an interesting sensation.” “What’s it like to swim without one?” Apple Bloom asked. I shrugged. “I think the best way to learn is to simply try without one.” They all looked down at the wet hair covering them. “Pass,” Scootaloo said. “Alright, so you ready to show us your latest?” “Sure you want to?” I teased. “Yes. Do it,” she commanded. “Alright. This is like a proof of concept, I think. You should see the jump module I’m working on. That’s the reason I wanted to make sure I can swim, because I might want to try it here,” I said. “Jump module?” Apple Bloom asked. “Yeah, something to help me jump really far installed in my hind leg,” I said. “I got the idea from a game.” “Less talking, more shooting,” Scootaloo said. I chuckled at that. “Alright, check this out. My cannon has a cannon,” I said grinningly, and raised my foreleg, pointing it towards the sky, all seven eyes focusing on it. In science fiction, cybernetics that have capabilities numbering beyond what humans are capable of often needs augmentations in the nervous system to be able to be controlled. Which makes sense. Humans don’t have the ability to switch on infrared vision, and neither do ponies for that matter, so some addition in the grey matter could very well be required for that on/off switch to be there if you want to control it with thoughts. This, luckily, hadn’t been the case when it comes to magic. I already had experience with suddenly being able to move my ears, getting a tail, and having a magic growth out of my head. Adding another functionality to one of my limbs was old hat by now. So, I simply activated my projectile launcher in my foreleg, and started charging up, figuring that the thoroughly tight fitting cork would fly pretty far when it came loose. With a popping sound, it did. Very far. So far that it vanished from sight pretty much immediately. Or so the Crusaders described it to me later. Maybe because I wasn’t used to doing this yet, but the magical inertia manipulation thingie that all ponies have to varying degrees, and which my prostheses have in abundance, wasn’t activated by this, and so I followed the laws of physics at that moment; cork went up into the air, I went down into the water. It’s a rousing experience, suddenly finding yourself several body lengths under the surface of the water. It’s terrifyingly also one that might provokes gasps of surprise, a risky venture when under water. I might’ve done just that, but stopped myself before it became really bad. Instead, I focused on getting used to seeing under the surface. The Crusaders were above me, seemingly still focused on the sky, somewhere in which, a cork was flying around. The standard breaststroke didn’t work as well with the somewhat pudgier form of a pony and its round hooves. The paddle that Sweetie had shown seemed to be going frustratingly slow as well when swimming vertically. ‘Oh, come on! Well, it’s been a few weeks since my last hospital visit. Is it time again?’ Finally, the Crusaders seemed to notice that something was amiss, and Apple Bloom shoved her head into into the water and saw me. She immediately submerged and approached me. I internally let out a sigh of relief as she grabbed me and started hauling me upwards, as I suspected that my magic reserve was a bit low. We both let out gasps as we surfaced, me coughing up some water that had snuck down my throat at first. “Are you okay, Gabe?” Apple Bloom asked, still holding me, probably noticing how groggy I was getting. I tried nodding, but that just provoked fresh coughing. “Do you need CPR?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I can do it,” Scootaloo said. “If,” I started, making room for one more cough. “If you really want to, just no tongue, please.” It took around two seconds before my words sunk in, after which we started laughing at the danger passing, one of us starting out a bit puffed up before giving in. — Scrap looked up from my notes, splayed across his workbench. “So this ‘mass accelerator’ actually works?” “It does,” I said, smilingly. “Had a little adventure with it the other day by the lake.” Scrap looked over to the rack where his oversized arbalest rested. “I wonder if I should make a new version of Hot Pink, then?” “If you do, I recommend you let me get a functioning version of the inertial dampener enchantment working before you try it,” I said, my fondness for science fiction serving me well when it comes to naming things. Scrap laughed. “You’d be a fine royal artificer yourself, I think. The Royal Intelligence Agency, which I will not confirm the existence of, would love somepony like you working for them." I considered that for a moment or two. ‘Oh, like Q! “Gabe branch”. Try not to trample anyone with it, double-O seven.’ He’s my favorite character. “I’d consider it,” I said. “Take a look at the ‘vertical traversal unit’.” He rifled through the papers until he found it. “This?” “Yeah, notice how the hook part can be controlled? I need a metalworker, and I thought I’d ask your opinion on how best to make this.” Scrap was quiet for a moment, before letting out a barking laugh. “Celestia in a tutu, Gabe! You are absolutely insane... I love it.” “Thank you, very much,” I said. “I actually never realised how much I wanted to be an inventor of magical stuff.” “You seem to setting yourself up as an adventurer at this rate,” Scrap noted. “Well, perhaps I’m just trying out my inventions before I let others use them… but yes, I will buckle all the swash.” — I was standing alone on my vantage point, overlooking Ponyville. You’d think I might not want to try this alone, after what happened last time, but I had done the calculations, and taken precautions. I walked up to the edge of the hill, and looked down on my metallic hoof. I was gonna have to implement some sort of safety mechanism, but right now, this would do for testing purposes. I aimed my leg at a nearby bush, and with a raygun like sound, I sent a section of the leaves on it flying, with an otherwise physically harmless arcano-dispersive pulse. I hadn't gotten any actual use out of the thing, but it still felt exciting to have. My years of being short a few limbs might be making me go a bit overboard with what I want my new ones to be able to do. ‘That’s never gonna get old. And it’s so much easier than concentrating with my horn,’ I thought, and shook my leg, listening for rattling sounds. ‘Everything still seems solid. Let’s do this.’ Locking my eye onto a lone cloud above and ahead of me, I widened my stance, lowered my goggles, and lifted up my right foreleg. With an authoritative sound, a grappling hook launched from my leg, its wire following tightly behind, and with the help of one of Twilight’s spells converted into an enchantment, buried itself into the cloud as the music in my mind surged. I stood there for another moment with a cocky grin on my face, letting the music build anticipation. I jumped, and the music swelled as I sailed through the air, my mane and tail billowing behind me. The music reached a crescendo… “Wooooooo!” I cried out in triumph. … only for it to peter out as I started losing momentum. I came to a halt a good way up into the air, and started swinging the other way. “Woooo?” I whooped uncertainty on the way back. My pendulum swings were pretty soon not very dramatic, as I was left hanging from the cloud, with my hind legs dangling a few inches above the ground. I gave a few experimental shakes to see if I could perhaps move myself closer to the ground, but no dice. I looked around for possible solutions, up at my leg, with the wire sticking out of it, and around again. After doing another fruitless jig in the air, I let out a sigh and deflated. “Horseapples.” Gaiden And another one! > Eccentric Tinkering > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Sound and impressions, frozen in time? Available to whoever holds the enchantment?” “That’s a pretty colorful way to describe a music-player,” I said, somewhat amused. “It’s just a little machine that can play recorded sound.” The dark shape at the edge of my little pocket dimension chuckled in light amusement. “I know what a music player is. Yes, it can be done.” “Great,” I said, happily. “A computer doesn’t last forever. It would be nice to know that I don’t have to say goodbye to my, oh, eight thousand songs or so permanently.” “Indeed. You are progressing impressively, you must be proud.” “A little,” I said, blushingly, and shifted a bit on the pillow I was on. “I don’t like bragging.” “There is no such thing in this place,” the voice calmly assured me. “There is only knowledge.” I let out a short, snorting laugh at myself. “I’ve been here so many times, even though I can’t remember,” I said. “And I’m still not sure what to make of this. Who are you? Are you really just knowledge? A avatar of my mind or something?” The voice chuckled again. “Irony of ironies. I cannot tell you that.” “Well, I’m not gonna complain,” I said. “And I don’t think anyone else will either, since I think I’m ready to share my greatest creation with other ponies, so that the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic can spread it to Equestria?” “You are going to Canterlot, then? The home of the princesses?” “Yep, a short trip.” There was a moment of silence before the voice spoke again. “I see. I wish you luck.” “Thanks, I might need it. I would hate to disappoint anyone about this.” I said, the cozy study around me smudging out. A sign that the dream was ending. I became less aware of my surroundings as consciousness was preparing for its time in the day. Just before I woke, that moment where I have trouble registering anything, the voice said, “By all the powers, I wish I could be there.” “But soon… soon, it will finally be time.” — What makes a mad scientist? Well, the term consists of only two words, so it should be easy to figure out. The first one is mad. "Mad", as far as I know, is used either in the context of mentally deranged individuals–which is a way I won’t use that word (professional standards and stuff), or in the sense that someone is livid. A scientist is someone who follows the scientific method. Observe, hypothesize, test and all that. A both wider and narrower term than a lot of people might consider it to be. A lab coat doesn’t make a scientist, the proper way of gathering knowledge does. So if you’ve met a person who uses a specific methodology to gain knowledge of the world around them, at a particularly bad point in time for them, recently having missed an important meeting or something, you’ve technically met a mad scientist. But "mad scientist" is not commonly meant to describe that. It’s a character archetype. This means that crazy hairdos, large glasses, manic laughter, and the pulling of levers during stormy nights aren’t part of the mad scientist. That’s the stereotype. The archetype is too primal to contain such details as attire and ways of expressing joy. It’s an eccentric tinkerer who creates marvelous inventions that few, if anyone, can recreate. “And going by that logic,” I said, giving the parchment in my magical grip a little wave. “I suppose that I am a mad scientist.” Redheart looked at me while chewing on one of the crackers from the table in front of us, then slowly gazed around the professional-looking room in contemplation. “Huh, I guess so,” she said, tilting her head slightly. “You have the crazy mane-do though.” “Hey yeah,” I said, touching my mane. We fell into a brief silence as we considered this, while I slowly munched on another cracker. It was a very nice room that we were in. The meeting rooms that I was used to were often a bit too utilitarian. TV and media back on Earth often portrayed hospitals in extreme ways, either oppressive houses of horror, or as in that one popular show that I never liked, some sort of art deco extravaganza. “Then again,” I said. “Someone who creates crazy things is a crazy engineer, and not necessarily a crazy scientist.” “But you came up with the theory behind the enchantment, and Scrap Armor did the bulk of the artificing. He’d be the engineer in this case.” “True enough. Unless you count the arcano-dispersive shocker crystal in here,” I said, waving my foreleg around. “How’s it coming along by the way?” Redheart asked, and from her tone I could tell that she asked mostly to be courteous. I did a little shake-nod-thing. “Not as well as the leg did. It works, but it’s a bit of a drain. I have some ideas on how to work around that, but they’re kind of advanced.” Redheart looked at me with a mix of encouragement and concern in her eyes. “I realize this might be a strange thing to say in a situation like this, but be careful when you’re tinkering.” “Don’t worry, I am,” I assured her. “Uhuh,” she said, a slight smirk at the corner of her mouth. “What other things have you been cooking up inside that little head of yours?” “The communication device, the grappling hook, the kind of working blaster,” I listed. “That’s pretty much all the goodies I’ve been able to get working. The reactive surface, that thing that so far hasn’t quite replaced sense of touch, isn’t part of the actual leg, it’s part of the covering.” Redheart looked at me with a highly unimpressed expression for a moment. “But that’s not all you’re planning, I assume,” she said, teasingly. “‘Course not,” I said, with a sly grin. “But it’s kinda slowing down. Flight? Really hard, and I’m not necessarily looking to implement that into my leg. Eyesight? I’m not even sure I’m looking for the right knowledge.” I put my hoof to my chin. “Hmm, I realise now that I haven’t put a spotlight in there. That’s kind of an oversight… and perhaps some sort of waterjet. That could be useful.” Redheart just rolled her eyes. “Is it really a good idea to gather all your toys in one place?” “These are not toys,” I said, trying to sound comically important. “These are inventions to be distributed for the best of Equestria.” “Kind of… limited benefits if nopony except you can create them,” she teased, nodding towards the parchment. “They’ll figure it out eventually. Besides, we’re here to help.” “You’re here to help. I’m just here to back you up, and because the princesses feel a bit better with having somepony accompany you.” “You didn’t want to go to this ‘trader’s exchange’?” I asked, while straightening up from where I was seated. “I’m fine. I don’t particularly want anything, and I can’t think of anything I have that I’m willing to part with and anypony would be interested in getting,” Redheart said with a shrug. “Same here. And the whole concept sounded weird to me,” I said. “I just wanna know how Pinkie could throw a party for both of us," Redheart said, while leaning her head on one hoof. “Me coming with was a last minute decision,” Redheart said. “Probably because it’s Pinkie,” I said, and switched over to sing-song mode. “It’s Pinkie, it’s Pinkie and her brain-brain-brain-brain, brain-brain-brain-brain brain, dududuuh-duh, duh-duh.” That caught Redheart off-guard. “... What?” she asked. “Nothing,” I said. and smiled. “Also, on having all my toys in one place, check this out.” I bent my neck forward and lifted up my voluminous mane, revealing a tiny hair brooch I’d bought at the market, with a small jewel firmly placed in it. The whole thing seemingly pointlessly hidden away from sight. “Tracking device,” I said, and held it up for Redheart. “Points to where my prostheses are, all the time. If anyone grabs my legs, I’ll find them again.” “Well I wasn’t necessarily thinking about theft, but good idea anyway,” Redheart said with a sigh of concession. We fell into silence, and I felt like asking what was taking so long, but I knew hospitals. Things take time, and you shouldn’t admonish your healers for doing things properly. Eventually though, the door opened, and a light brown stallion and a sky blue mare stepped through, both earth ponies dressed in lab coats. Good thing too, because I was in that particular state of apprehensive where I get the munchies, and the crackers had just ran out. I didn’t want to resort to scooping up the crumbs from the meeting table. They saw us and glanced at each other, not quite managing to make it seem subtle, before approaching us as we stood up. “Good afternoon, I’m Proper Care, the High Healer here in Canterlot Central,” the stallion said, then gestured towards the mare beside him. “And this is my colleague, Doctor Pinprick.” They gave both me and Redheart the same amount of attention to start with, but Redheart ended up being the prominent target of the introduction to start with, as I had to struggle to keep my face straight when the Doctor Prick’s name registered on me. “Nurse Redheart, Ponyville General,” Redheart said, and did the hoof bumps. “Uuh, Gabe,” I said, distracted. “Well, shall we take a seat?” Doctor Pin suggested, after a moment of hesitation. “Can we get you anything. Coffee perhaps?” Doctor Care asked while we did so. “No thank you,” Redheart said, her face hinting that perhaps I wasn’t the only one sometimes amused by the names of ponies. “Uh, I’m good,” I lied, secretly wanting more crackers. “So uh...” Doctor Care started, hesitantly. “I might have missed something, but we were supposed to meet one Gabrielle, Eleanor... Deshore.” I snapped out of it when I heard my name almost being mentioned. “Desrochers,” I corrected. “But just ‘Gabe’ is fine.” “Oh, I see, that’s—wait, that’s you?” “Uh, yes. Don’t worry about the name, it’s not an interesting story,” I said. The doctors gave me a little look, before Care reached into his lab coat and pulled out a letter. He quickly scanned through it before focusing on one part for a few moments, then turned to me with an incredulous look. “You’re the foreign ambassador, gentlemare scientist, and master enchanter who invented a new medical enchantment that a team from the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic have been trying and failing to recreate for weeks?” I shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what they told you, but I was under the impression that ‘they’ only had problems with a few key parts of the enchantment. I also don’t know what makes me a master enchanter. I just tinker, and sometimes things work the way I intended.” “So it’s… it’s true?” Pinprick asked, leaning in to give me a closer inspection. “But, wait… How do you know? How can you have tested it?” “Uuuh, tested what?” I asked, leaning back a bit against Redheart. “The prostheses. I saw them at the CRI, and they were…” the petered off as she took a look at my right hooves. “... Foal sized.” I saw the almost reverent look in her eyes, and couldn’t help but smile as I lifted up my right foreleg, magically turned the off switch hidden under the blue cover, and floated it over to her. Her eyes went wide as I did, and she shot a hesitant look at me before gently taking the leg in her own. “It’s really true,” she said. Care hesitated for a moment before leaning over and looking closer at my leg, and it was getting a bit awkward. I was almost feeling a little guilty for not focusing all my efforts in making this available for everyone as soon as possible. ‘Then again, I haven’t met the patients yet, so maybe I should reserve judgement.’ Care shot me an almost covertly fascinated look as I rolled my empty shoulder. I removed the legs every now and then, and had them off when I went to sleep, so by now I was equally used to having prostheses off as I was having them on. Pinprick eventually hoofed my leg back to me, and it must’ve come across as extra impressive when I simply I floated it through the air and simply slapped it on. “Can you… demonstrate?” Care asked, as he angled his head to study my leg from different angles. “If it isn’t too much trouble.” “Sure,” I said, and casually started waving my prostheses around, in all directions, at different speeds, alternating between one at a time and both at once. “There’s no sense of touch except for what I have in my hoof fields, but I have a rough workaround for that which I’m still getting used to. Other than that, no real training required. They do what I want them to do.” “How?” Pinprick asked, sound like she was talking to herself than anyone else. “Well,” I hesitatingly said, getting flashbacks to having old patients asking how an MRI works while I was calibrating the machine, and looking up from the computer screen to see eyes so glazed over you’d think they tried eating donuts with their peepers. “You know,” I said, waving my foreleg in slightly frustrated emphasis. “Enchantments to respond to the magical signature of a specific arcanomorphic form, shielded by a mesh of different thaumadisruptive matrices interlocked in the chassis to…” I could see the struggle in the faces of the ponies in front of me to keep up with my words. “Yeah…” I said. “Documentation was never my strong suit, and I’ve never written technical specifications before.” I held up the parchment from CRI. “They didn’t say it outright, but I think, that they think, that my instructions for these things were, uh… lacking.” “But you... you’re a foal,” Pinprick said, incredulously. ‘Oh, right.’ I may have been going to school several days a week, but Cheerilee, Twilight, and Twilight’s friends mostly treated me like you’d treat an adult, though there were also elements of them looking out for me and such. I was technically still disabled and, not to mention, new to the world. I also thought that was very similar to the special treatments I was used to from being disabled. I made some people uncomfortable and, while they might not admit it to themselves, they wanted nothing to do with me. More common though, was the type of people who helped me with everything. Spike offering to help clean up if I spill something or Cheerilee being totally fine with me dozing off was very similar to my everyday back on Earth. Also, as an aside, schooldays were not as rigid or frequent as the first time I had received an education, probably because the first time was largely about keeping children under surveillance while their parents were off being productive members of society. Ponyville didn’t seem to need that, because while it might not be obvious to them all the time, children were always under the watchful eyes of adults when out and about, and, a lot of the time, (most notably in the case of Apple Bloom) they were helping out the grownups with their business anyway. “True,” I said with an even nod, and there was an awkward pause as I searched for something to say without coming across as snappy or condescendingly sarcastic. “Also, whatever,” I concluded with a shrug and an uncertain smile. “Uh, sorry, it’s just that…” Pinprick trailed off. “The letter didn’t mention that a foal was the inventor,” Care finished for her. “Alright, fair enough,” I said. “If it helps, I didn’t know I’d be inventing magical prostheses until pretty recently either. So it’s kind of unexpected for me too.” “You, uh, didn’t remove your original ones willingly, did you?” Pinprick asked. “Oh, eheh, no,” I said, getting a hint of why ponies had had difficulty recreating the enchantments of olden, if not ancient, days. “How do you know I wasn’t born without them?” “Because that’s almost vanishingly rare,” Pinprick said, making me make a mental note of that, habits from my old profession still lounging around. “But mostly because I noticed the scar,” she said, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit impressed by that. I certainly couldn’t see it unless I parted my coat. She cleared her throat. “Perhaps I should clarify. I am Canterlot Central’s senior prosthetist. It’s a pretty narrow niche, but if you’re an ambassador… you’re not native to this country, I assume?” “Nnno,” I answered, not sure what that had to do with anything. She nodded. “Mmm, I’d like to think I would’ve heard about you, and your work, if that was the case.” ‘Oh.’ “Oh. Well, if you’re thinking that this is some sort of exotic piece of knowledge that I brought with me, it’s kind of not. Equestria is kind of ahead when it comes to magical things,” I said. “Anyway, I get the feeling that I’m gonna have a little lecture on how these things work when I talk to the patients, so in order not to repeat myself too much, can we wait till then?” — “As I’m sure you already know,” Proper said, as we made our way down the halls. “There are three patients. You’re familiar with one of them, right, Pinprick?” “That’s right. Sunlit Fields is the name of one mare. Her current prosthesis are my work,” Pinprick said. That brought to attention something I hadn’t considered before, and I looked around the fairly familiar seeming environments as I considered that something. The hospital looked about what you’d expect a hospital to look like. Cluttered desks, x-ray lighting boards (... or something. That might have been a magical arrangement rather than technological x-raying), and the vague smell of hydrogen peroxide. The difference of course was that everything was staffed by friendly ponies. If hospitals on Earth were staffed by people like Nurse Redheart, children might try and hurt themselves just for a chance to be cared for here, and not just for the chance to be treated by ponies. Perhaps this was what made me comfortable enough to just speak my mind. “I’m gonna be blunt here, perhaps because I want a blunt answer,” I said. “But I wanna know if I’m stepping on anyone’s… no, wait, that makes no sense around here… I’m not upsetting the apple cart by coming here with my fancy new prostheses, am I? A lot of doctors where I come from can, understandably, be a bit set in their ways.” Proper Care and Pinprick looked at me, then at each other, then back at me with a laugh between them. “Don’t worry about that, madam,” Care said, dismissing my concerns with a wave of his hoof. “I’m the High Healer, it’s my job to keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.” “I’m not the High Healer, but I’m of that opinion as well, also, my role as the prosthetist isn’t enough to keep me occupied, you’re not putting me out of a job. I just want what’s best for my patients.” Pinprick said, and leaned her head down while we were walking to give my cheek a quick nuzzle. “But, thank you for taking my job into consideration.” “Good,” I said with a smile, the answers sounding genuine from how readily they came. “Also, who knows,” Pinprick said, as we stepped up to a door, “very little might change for me. I might just need to have the Canterlot Royal Institute involved somewhere in the production.” “Hm, yeah. We’ll see how they arrange this for common use,” I said, as Care opened the door and invitingly held it open for us. We filed in, and inside the room were two other ponies. One was a earth pony colt with a light green coat and curly blue mane, sitting in a wheelchair, his legs ending just above the knees. The other was a stallion, also an earth pony, with a dark blue coat, spiky silvery mane, and a rough patch of hair on his chin that frankly made him look pretty dashing. He was sitting in a low armchair, with all of his limbs still present. What stood out however, were the heavy-duty, though kind of elegantly arranged, braces that snaked around every part of him below his neck. A system of pulleys were attached above his withers, being connected to his lower forelegs and hooves, while his hind legs were folded up and held in place by even more robust braces, and a set of wheels on each rear hoof held them a little bit above the ground. They had apparently been involved in a conversation when we came in, but they politely gave us their attention. “Getting exciting now, eh?” the stallion said to the colt, as he lifted up one of his forelegs and slapped it against something on his rear braces, and there was a set of clickings as he pulled himself up to a standing position with his forelegs. The whole operation looked both jerky and graceful, like someone had taught a manufacturing arm to use a rapier. He shuffled towards us with the same rough but practiced manner, clearly only being able to move his upper forelegs, while his front hooves were jerkily moved by the pulleys on his withers. His hind legs were completely immobile and held in place, rolling along on the small wheels on the hooves. “Pleased to meet ya. I’m Rough Rider, and this is Blueberry,” he said, nodding towards the colt in the wheelchair, who gave us a friendly wave. “If anypony wants a hoof bump, I’m gonna need some help,” he continued, lifted one of his forelegs a few inches, then chuckled. “Uh, that’s okay,” I said. “I’m Gabrielle Desrochers, but you can call me ‘Gabe’. And this is my companion, Nurse Redheart.” I walked up and gave the colt, Blueberry, a hoof bump, though I had to rear up to do so, which stunned him when he saw my metallic hoof. “Charmed,” Redheart said to Rider, in a tone I hadn’t heard her use before, but couldn’t quite place, then shook her head slightly as she walked up and hoof-bumped Blueberry as well. “Looks like you two are already friends,” Pinprick noted with a smile. “Ey, colt’s all the way from Manehatten,” Rider said with a shrug, a strictly facial one. “Gotta have somepony welcome him to Canterlot.” “You said you were from Baltimare though,” Pinprick asked. “Yeah, but that don’t stop me,” he said, and shot her a smile. “Where’s our third patient?” Care asked. “Yes,” Pinprick said. “Where’s Sunlit?” “There’s just been the two of us here,” Blueberry offered. “Somepony said my name?” A feminine voice sounded from the hallway, where a pony with a wheat-colored coat and a lustrous mane stood. The apparent Sunlit walked into the room, and I felt I was getting the hang on what made for good looks on a pony (which wasn’t made easier by the fact that the majority of all ponies in Ponyville, and presumably all of Equestria, apparently looked good, and Twilight & company, their families, Redheart, and Cheerilee were all apparently exemplars in that department). Just like how Rider had a clearly handsome streak, Sunlit had a pretty one as well, probably reinforced by the striped thigh-high socks over her legs. The appearance-and-prettiness-oriented part of me had never been as strong as it was for some people, and it might have been a bit more dormant as I almost manically invented enchantments, but it was still there, and seeing Sunlit’s socks made me make a mental note to ask Redheart about that type of fashion. After all, I was still a woman... filly... Whatever. I was actually kind of taken with Sunlit’s choice of clothes, and I almost missed the scar she had across her middle back, and the lone wing on the other. “Sunlit,” Pinprick said, happily, and playfully admonished her. “You’re late.” “Hah! And who made the hooves that I was late with?” Sunlit asked with a smirk, as she walked up to Pinprick and hugged her. That made me look extra carefully at the lower parts of the socks, and Sunlit’s gait, and when I knew what to look for, I could see it. Sunlit did indeed have hooves… that someone made for her. “How have you been?” Pinprick asked, as they broke away from their hugging. Sunlit shrugged. “Well, you know. Same old, can’t complain.” “It’s gonna come up pretty soon, so I’ll ask now,” Pinprick said, and sat down to take one of Sunlit’s forelegs in her own. “How have you been on this front?” “I think it’s plateauing, kinda sadly,” she said. “They hardly ever hurt anymore, but learning to use only my hooves, and no hoof fields, is… well, kinda the same as the last time we met. And I’m pretty good at telling how far I can fly, but I can’t fly nearly as fast or far as before.” Pinprick gave her a smile, new hope overshadowing past melancholy. “Remember when I told you that, even though you’ll be able to live a normal life, you’re gonna be limited in what you can do?” “You didn’t say it outright in your letter, but I guess something’s come up?” Sunlit asked, with another small smirk. Pinprick nodded. “Sure has,” she said, and stepped aside to present me with a foreleg. “Madam Desrochers,” she said. “I think we are all eagerly awaiting an in-depth demonstration.” I looked around at the new ponies. Blueberry seemed to be the only one who had noticed my prosthesis until now. Rough Rider and Sunlit Fields looked at me curiously, Sunlit letting out a small gasp, though not the horrified kind, when looking closely at my right foreleg. — “So uh, madam,” Proper Care started. “Just ‘Gabe’ is fine,” I said. “Uh, Gabe, does this mean that this is simply movement-enhancing enchantments inside a prosthesis?” “Yes and no,” I said, waving the arm flippantly over the table we were all clustered around. “Actually, mostly no. They’re partially derived from that, but there have been so many changes that they’re probably their own thing by now. Simply put, I very strongly tied the enchantments to my arcanomorphic field, which is that thing that I talked about earlier, having it respond only to that, with some other arrangements to fix problems that came from that.” I leaned over the table, presenting my right shoulder, and peeled at the blue covering that blended with my coat. “Alright, notice how it doesn’t seem attached to me in any way?” Everyone nodded, and I leaned over to Blueberry. “Try pulling it,” I said. Blueberry leaned over and gently took my metallic leg in his own forelegs, then looked at me skeptically. “Yeah, you’re not going to be able to pull it off, and you won’t hurt me,” I said. “Alright,” he said, carefully, and gave it a bit of a tug. Nothing happened of course. “Yeah, so it’s not attached to my physical form,” I said, as Blueberry gave another tug at my invitation. “Or you’d see my skin being pulled. It’s only attached to my magical shape. And by the way, that piece of cloth underneath is there to hold up the covering, because metal can get pretty cold against the skin, and because it’s part of a surrogate sense of touch that kinda works so far.” I planned on letting this sink in, but there was always someone with a question the moment I stopped talking. “So is it permanent?” Ryder asked curiously. “Permanently attached?" I asked, and he nodded. “Nope,” I said, lit up my horn, and deactivated it by turning the sort of secret switch in the actually secret way beneath the covering. My leg went limp, partially being held by the weak attachment spell on the piece of cloth between it and the rest of me. I simply pulled it off. Those attachment spells were a bit like velcro, but without the sound, or wear and tear. I held it up, completely inert. “Deactivated, simple as that,” I said. “It looks almost alive sometimes, and it responds to the smallest tick, but it’s not perfect. It’s actually quite a drain on your magic. You get used to it, but I don’t think I’ll personally be able to use this as long as I would a normal leg. Then again, I know from experience that walking around on non-magical prostheses can be taxing too.” I held out my leg to pass around the table when something occurred to me. “At least I think so. Can I see what one looks like here in Equestria?” “Well, luckily we have a few right here,” Sunlit said, who was seated on my right. She stopped the act of moving her sock-covered legs forward, and instead took one of the socks on her forelegs in her mouth and pulled it off. It was pretty similar to what I was used to, although she too had an arrangement of braces with pulleys going through them, on her upper legs as opposed to on the withers. A hard plastic form made up the rig of the limb. Pony-shaped except for some depressions accommodating the pulley system. The bottom plates of the whole thing looked detachable, much like horseshoes. “Looks familiar enough,” I said, our easygoingness born from a strange sense of familiarity. Not that disabled people know each other by virtue of being disabled, as one might be forgiven for thinking sometimes. I kept hearing about all the communities in our society, or at least I did back on Earth. The community of this and that minority. Ethnicities, disabled people, who liked to cuddle who. Terms like "the medical community" made sense. As big as it was, professionally we moved in certain circles, and we agreed on many things, mostly on how to make sick people better. Hobbyist communities also made sense, but I sometimes wondered if I was part of the "disabled community". I heard about them sometimes, but I never paid membership, I didn’t know of any clubhouses, and although the subject matter could spawn a lot of debate, I wasn’t the one who liked spending time being part of it. It did turn out to be a pretty good icebreaker though. I don’t know if this was common, but me, Sunlit Fields, Rough Rider, and probably Blueberry as well, pretty soon got into an easy talk on the unspoken understanding that we were here to talk about disabilities, the tools we tried using as replacements, and oh how very refreshing it was to just get on with it and not have to carefully orbit each other like shy teenagers wondering when it was okay to try and kiss for the first time before we got to the matter at hand. “And no offence to Pinprick,” Sunlit said. “But I’m kind of eager to learn more about what yours can do.” “None taken,” Pinprick said. “Well, you’ll be happy to learn that I can use my hoof field with that one,” I said, as I floated my prosthesis into hers. Her eyes lit up for a fraction of a second, then turned to me with a polite sense of eagerness. “Oh, please tell me you’re not joking.” “Nope. I’ll show you when you’re all done with that,” I said, nodding towards my prosthesis floating in front of her. She took it in both her plastic hooves, again with the same combination of graceful skill with a clumsy tool. “So,” Rough Rider started, looking up from my leg, which Sunlit was holding out for him. “What about me? I have all my legs, they just don’t do much.” “Well,” I started, looking around at the three disabled ponies. “Here’s the thing: I’ve only ever made these things for myself, it’s all really new and I’ve never tried making any for others yet. I can’t promise anyone of you anything, but I think I can make some. I have some ideas for you though, Rider. I hope you don’t mind people noticing all those braces.” “Oh,” he said, looking pleased. “Well, it gets a bit tiring every now and then, but being able to move normally again would be totally worth it.” “You don’t seem to struggle much though,” Sunlit said, and shot him a small smile. He smiled back at her. “Hey, right back at you.” “So,” I said, struggling to not lose myself in thought as the ideas went through my head. “No one has to share if they don’t want to, but I’d like to know the backstory of your predicaments, if that’s okay,” I said, letting my gaze rest on Blueberry. Blueberry also seemed to have been lost in thought for a while there. “Oh, uh, well, uh… I just… I was in traffic accident downtown, but I can’t remember much. I hit my head,” he said, apologetically. “Sounds familiar,” I said, keeping it casual, hoping to put him at ease, then nodded towards Sunlit. She let out a sigh, not seeming very sure where to start. “Phuu. Well, I had a really bad landing once. Me, a cliff, and crate full of glassware,” she said. ‘Wow. That could have gone way worse.’ “Right. Now, Rider,” I said, nodding towards the last relevant pony. “I hope you’re okay with sharing some details, since I haven’t had a case like yours before, but we can take it in private if you want.” Rider shook his head. “No no. It’s okay,” he said, and started his story. “So, I like lots of things in life, and among them are research, of the paper kind that is, and outdoor stuff. Trekking, camping, exploring, mountain climbing, things like that. It’s a good combination, works out the brain and the body. “So anyway, at the university, I had to shelve my outdoor hobbies quite a bit, but I was okay with that. I figured that once I finished my education, and got a good, steady job, I’d pick it up again. “Then I started noticing that I was slowly getting more and more tired for every month that passed. For the longest time I thought that made sense, figuring that I must be getting out of shape.” “It still does, when I look back.” He paused his story, shaking his head ruefully. “After… years, really, I was about to take my friends’ advice and go see another doctor, when I got really sick one day. I had been out with my friends, forcing myself to have some fun, when I collapsed. “They took me to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with Wisp-Shimmer Syndrome. That’s a condition you can get from profound magical exhaustion.” I nodded. “I know of it, but I didn’t know it could leave you paralyzed,” I said, glancing at Redheart. Redheart looked at me with a gaze that told me she was just as curious as me about where this was going. “Yeah,” Rider said. “Well that was only part of the problem. Turns out, my magic had been keeping a neurodegenerative disease in check for years, and when my magical strength was gone, I was hit with the effect of years of it in the span of a few weeks.” Rider sighed, his face and the movements with his head so very expressive. They had to be, jazz hooves weren’t available to him anymore. “They cured me. I got away with my life, but this damage was done,” he said, lifting up his foreleg and shifting his body to give a little wave with the pulleys. “And so, if I squeeze myself into this getup every morning, I can walk around, slowly, on even ground.” He smiled wryly. “No more camping trips for me.” Sunlit smiled at him again. “It’s not that bad,” she said, before gesturing towards his bracers. “It looks good on you.” Rider’s wry smile slowly morphed into a more genuine one as he looked at her. “And you don’t need no socks.” “Whether or not anyone here can go on camping trips is now for me to decide,” I said, calmly yet forcefully, determined to help these people and perhaps feeling a bit cocky about it. That either sounded stupid or inspiring, considering the quiet look everyone was giving me. Except for Blueberry, as my leg had passed around the table, and he was the last to inspect it. “Hey, what’s this thing?” he asked, as he pulled the triple claw at the end of a long wire out of the opening in the hoof. “Never mind about that,” I said dismissively but kindly, gently but firmly magicked the leg out of his hooves and back onto me, and reeled the new and improved grappling hook back in. “Let’s go somewhere that feels more treatment oriented than a meeting room, and I’ll have a look at you all and see what I can do.” — I was pretty deep in thought as we made our way down the corridors in the first basement level. So deep in thought that I barely registered that I should feel uncomfortable in the elevator. I could only speak for one part of my homeworld, but behind the scenes hospitals are generally pretty drab, and by "drab" I mean that they look more like old bunkers than hospitals. Little more than concrete and air ducts, and cold too, with cold white glows from striplight– the kind that starts flickering after a decade, and then takes years to really die. It makes sense though. They’re often built superfluously large in case the hospital needs to be expanded without altering the foundation, and it would be a huge waste to spend time and resources heating it properly or prettying it up. It could actually be pretty spooky, at least for people who weren’t used to it. When you’ve been in the most utilitarian parts of a hospital, you understand why so many horror stories take place in houses of care and healing. Canterlot Central had corridors like that, but only kind of. It wasn’t nearly as uninviting as I was used to. Ponies just made things cozy and warm. It almost seemed to be in their nature. I almost didn’t consciously register the sense of happiness in our little group as we walked, but I wasn’t sure where it came from. “So you learned to fly with one wing?” Rider asked. “That’s really impressive.” “Thank you,” Sunlit answered. “If this works out, I imagine you’re eager to see the great outdoors again…” ‘Yeah. I think I just need to figure out how to make the enchanted material resonate with his arcanomorphic field in close proximity, and we’re all set on that front.’ “... If you’d like some company, I can show you then.” “I’d like that,” Rider said. ‘Oh yeah, and a wing... how to make proper wings? I don’t even know how they angle their feathers… and what do you make the feathers out of? Real feathers are always being replaced by new ones. Would they need to be easily attached and detached? Perhaps a collection of wear and tear resistant enchantments? I have a bunch of those on my current legs that might work...' The conversations continued as we walked into a mix between a patient’s room and a workshop. Machines, workbenches, an examination bed, a desk, and lots of measuring equipment were in this much warmer room. Blueberry, who had been wheeled by Pinprick, hoisted himself up to the bed, and I described what I was going to do. I projected myself into my horn, and told him to try and move his now non-existent legs. His arcanomorphic field worked just like mine, as did Sunlit’s, and then it was Rider’s turn. “Alright, I want you to try and move your legs,” I said. “Try a hind leg, it’s completely paralyzed, right?” “Yeah,” he said, his braces folded so that he was sitting on his haunches in front of me. “Great,” I said, before I caught myself, and coughed into my hoof. “I mean, that’s great for controlling. No contaminated readings.” Rider just laughed. “Alright, I get ya.” The swirling shapes of his arcanomorphic form shifted and pulsed with his attempts. They were dimmer, compared to mine and the other limbless examples, still attached to his flesh. “Huh,” I said. “Interesting. There’s not as much activity as it is for the rest of us.” Rider’s ears slowly dropped towards half mast. “Is that bad?” Sunlit asked behind me, making no attempt to hide her concern. “Not sure,” I said, somewhat absentmindedly. “But I don’t think so. Could be because it’s a weak resonance, or maybe there’s just as much activity, but just appears muted to me inside the body, or something else. I think I can work with it, though.” This was the first attempt to make crystals interact with someone other than myself, so I was still a bit nervous. I would feel awful if I had gotten these ponies’ hopes up, and then couldn’t deliver. “Uuh, Redheart,” I said, waving a hoof in the air while my gaze was still fixed on his leg. She was instantly there with my bag. “Oh, thank you,” I said, rummaging through it until I found one of my favorite materials: A lump of lapis lazuli. One thing that struck me, and which I made a mental note of, was that different materials might work better for different ponies, but this would do for now. I undid one of the straps of Riders lower hind leg, scarcely aware of the ponies behind me watching my every move with great interest, and redid the strap, pressing the lump between Rider’s leg, and the bracer. His legs were the same size of a normal pony, rather than the thin, atrophied kind you sometimes see on paralyzed people. He obviously took great care to stay healthy, despite his desk job. “Alright, I’m gonna try a few enchantments,” I said, taking a deep breath. “This is the first time I’m doing something like this, so I’m not totally sure how I need to modify the enchantments I know. So, you know, bear with me.” Rider seemed to have regained his enthusiasm. “Go ahead, doc.” “Oh, I’m not a doctor,” I said. “I just went to medical school.” I started working my magic. I made an enchantment that would be woefully inadequate to be a prosthesis, both because of lack of power, and precision, but it would do for a first step, and tried tying it to his arcanomorphic form in the distance. A very short distance, as it was strapped to him, but a distance nonetheless. “Alright, try moving your leg again.” He did so, but no dice. “Nothing,” he said. By now, everyone had closed in and gathered closely around us, and I saw everyone’s ears droop. “I got more tricks,” I said, a smidgen of annoyance hidden in there somewhere. I was getting passionate about this, I think. “Just gotta find the key to get this working.” And I did use more tricks, but when ten minutes had passed, I was getting impatient... and bored. Trial and error is rarely fun, and I thought that the key was getting the enchantment to respond to something next to it, rather than something in it. I worked my way back through Scrap’s plans, branching out from the enchanted sabatons that improved the Equestrian soldiers’ movements, when it suddenly happened. My enchantments were starting to get a bit sloppy. There wouldn’t be much regulation or accuracy when they activated. And then one of them worked. Rider’s leg shot out from under him. He kicked hard backwards, and the lump of lapiz lazuli tore itself out of the bracer, bounced a few times across the walls, and broke the glass in Pinprick’s door. Everyone had taken a step back, or thrown themselves out of the way, in surprise. I straightened up, slowly lowered my metallic hoof protecting my face, and found Rider splayed on the floor, looking back at his unmoving leg in shock, his expression slowly morphing into glee. Blueberry, having tipped over in his wheelchair, raised himself to a sitting position to look at Rider. Doctors Pinprick and Care picked themselves off the floor, as did Sunlit, although with a bit more difficulty and clacking sounds. Redheart helped Blueberry up into his chair, then walked up to me. “Well done,” she said with a smile. “I assume you can make it a little safer next time?” “So it worked?” Rider asked, before letting out a small groan. “Uh, yes,” I said. “Or, at least now I’m sure I can make it work.” Rider looked at me in silence for a moment. “Yes!” he shouted, doing a little flap with his forelegs, then groaned again and put his head on the ground with a small laugh. “I’ve never been so happy from having a muscle pulled.” Redheart walked up to him, but backed off with a small smile, when Sunlit, also smiling, walked up instead, crouched down, and squeezed herself under Rider’s foreleg, gently lifting him up and steadying him. “Oh, I could just kiss somepony,” Rider mumbled happily. “I’m sure we can find somepony willing,” Sunlit said in a small voice. — I was pretty giddy when I first figured out how to make my new legs, so I could understand the patients not getting bored out of their skulls, but Pinprick and Proper Care also stuck around, politely asking questions about what I was doing. Of course they were curious. A new form of care for the wounded of Equestria, dreamed up by some youngin’, was shown right in front of them. It was actually a pretty exclusive show. Redheart, as always, was the soul of patience. She reminded me of Armor like that, and I felt a little tug somewhere inside me. I missed him, despite just being one, admittedly long, but still just one train ride away. My stomach rumbled, but I ignored it. “Alright,” I said. “I think I know everything I need to for the moment. Except how to make a wing, Sunlit. I’m not sure I need to make something very similar to a wing, or if just something similar enough to let you channel pegasus magic through it.” “I’m not sure either,” she said, happy tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sure you and Pinprick can figure something out.” “Probably,” I said. “You’re gonna be the one making the actual limbs, and Rider’s braces, I’m just gonna enchant them.” “Ah, yes, of course,” she said. “Very impressive, madam,” Proper Care said. “I must admit I was skeptical when I first saw you, but my fears are clearly unfounded.” His words made me pause, or perhaps my reaction to them did. At first he sounded sycophantic, but he just gave me a compliment. A very kind one too. I clearly needed something to eat. My face relaxed from the concentrated semi-scowl it had had for a few hours now. “Like I said, just ‘Gabe’ is fine. And thank you,” I said, as my stomach growled again. “I think that perhaps we should take a break—” I looked at Pinprick “— I think me and Pinprick can keep ourselves occupied for a while with this.” “Yes,” she said. “Sunlit, I already have your measurement, and now I have Blueberry’s casts. Rider, if I understand what Madam Desrochers is planning, I think I’m fine with all the measurements I have from you.” I didn’t bother with the "madam"-part. “Yup,” I said, as I double checked my notes. “Yours is gonna be the toughest to actually make, but probably the easiest to adjust after the fact.” Which was a good thing, I reasoned. Not that he looked pudgy at the moment, but he might put on some more muscle, him being able to be his own physical therapist after this. We walked out of the workshop and back towards the elevator. I was engrossed in my notes, magically holding them in front of me, and scribbling some more every now and then. I mostly wanted to make Rider’s rig problem free. His arcanomorphic field wasn’t weaker, just not as clear, and I didn’t want to fuzz up and make parts of his upcoming braces respond to movement from the wrong body parts. Again, I missed the compulsory sense of awkwardness you’re supposed to feel in an elevator, and missed that I had been walking the last few steps alone. “Gabe,” Redheart said. “What?” I asked, looking up from my notes, my face dropping the look of concentration, and seeing that everyone was standing behind me, looking at me. “I think some ponies would like to say something,” she said. I looked around, off guard and confused. “Uh, okay. Who?” Sunlit and Rider walked up to me. “I...” Sunlit started. “No. There are no words,” she said, putting her sock-adorned leg around me, holding me against her, and resting her chin on my neck. ‘Oh yeah. That’s right. I’m helping people.’ Rider had to make do with simply resting his head on me next to Sunlit. “Thank you,” he said, in a small voice. “Uh. I’m uh… happy to help,” I said. “Now I just gotta actually make something that works.” “You will,” Redheart said. “I guess so,” I said, as Rider and Sunlit pulled away. “I guess tomorrow’s gonna be an exciting day.” I looked towards Blueberry. “I’ll see you all tomorrow, then?” Blueberry looked at me with what I had to admit was probably some sort of admiration as he wheeled himself out of the door (I realized then that the others had stopped because I had walked past the door to the entrance). He wheeled himself up to a mare waiting on a bench, his mother, I assumed, and started talking animatedly with her. Sunlit and Rider walked together, at Rider’s slow pace. “So, uh, where are you staying?” Sunlit asked. “Cozy little bed & breakfast down the road. I prefer ground floor living arrangements, you know?” “I might be in the mood for a cozy place to stay. Think there are any vacancies?” “Love is in the air,” Redheart noted, with a knowing smile. “What?” I asked, confused. She looked at me with an incredulous look. “Did you really miss all that?” “Missed what?” “Rider can’t move his hooves, and Sunlit doesn’t really have any. Good thing too, because I don’t think they’d be able to keep them off each other if they did.” “Oh... Oh yeah, now that you mention it,” I said, with a smile. I liked pony snuggles. I’d seen the beginning of a few sessions by now, and they tended to start with nuzzles, which was as adorable as… some sort of expletive. “Gabe, your obliviousness is absolutely adorable. No wonder the colts are always looking at you,” Redheart said. ‘What…?’ “... What?” ‘... What!?’ “What…!? Who?” “I’m not saying,” she said, teasingly. I squirmed a bit nervously, not sure what to make of this, and retreated to my safe space. “So, about those prostheses,” I said to Proper Care, and especially Pinprick. “You know what they need, and I can start working on the enchantment part tonight. And tomorrow, we might finish them.” “That sounds excellent,” Proper Care said. “I have some paperwork that needs done. I might not be able to see your work tomorrow, madam, but I have to say that I’m very impressed so far. Pinprick, I’d like to be kept in the loop about these developments.” “Of course,” she said. “Now, I haven’t heard about living arrangements for the two of you. I also imagine you must be hungry by now,” Proper Care said. My stomach took it upon itself to confirm this. “Well, I’ve got some spare room over uh… yonder,” I said, pointing in what I was pretty sure was the general direction of the castle. “But I’m fine with a call room if you have one to spare.” Pinprick and Care looked at each other. “Uh, wouldn’t madam want… lodgings more appropriate for her standing.” “Oh, that’s right, I’m important on paper,” I said to myself, making the doctor’s look at each other again. “Sure, whatever… do you know of any gryphon restaurants in town though?” — Just like Doctor Care and Pinprick had given me strange looks, so did the gryphons when I ordered my food. I had experimented enough with stuff Twilight ordered for me (and that stuff lasted for ages. It was awesome) to know what types of replacements emulated which types of meat. Redheart ordered pony food, although she was curious enough to try some of my schnitzel-ish meal. She preferred the breaded part though. I was practically scarfing down my food. These bird-kitties knew what they were doing. “Hungry?” Redheart asked, with a smirk. “A little bit,” I admitted. “I’ve been doing magic for hours now so I need some food and to lie down for a bit. As great as Equestria is, there was a lot more entertainment available back on Earth for someone who’s tired but not sleepy.” “Like what?” Redheart asked around her oil-covered salad. “Radio programs?” “Among other things,” I said. I didn’t go into how radio shows weren’t something you sat down to be entertained by as much anymore, which was, in any case, a strange thing to say in the age of podcasting. “Visual entertainment as well, the technology’s different, but the end experience is what you’d imagine. You have devices that pick up sight as well as sounds. Good way to relax after a long day of work.” “Why not just rest for a bit?” Redheart asked, curiously. “Or spend some time with friends?” I noted how I didn’t feel any pang in my chest from remembering the years of, frankly, not really having any friends. I had them now, and that was all that mattered. “Well, I’m not entirely sure,” I said, pausing to give this some thought, before shrugging with a small laugh. “Well, obviously I’m not entirely sure. Only pundits are entirely sure about these things, and the more sure they are, the more wrong they seem to me.” Redheart snorted in amusement. “Some speculation then.” “Maybe it has to do with the city life I’m used to. There’s enough room for everyone to live, but if absolutely everyone who got off work at four in the afternoon hung out with friends, it would practically be chaos;” I said. “Really?” Redheart asked, “Yeah,” I said, looking out the window and seeing Canterlot, or at least a small part of it, since we were on the ground floor. Canterlot was a big city, in part because it was a roomy city. The residents were used to walking and, like I had noted before, they also had time. The overall stress level was lower here than back on Earth, and not at the expense of the society’s well being. All this was compounded by the great number of restaurants and cafes everywhere who didn’t seem to struggle to remain in business, and also by the large numbers of niche stores– I was pretty sure I saw the Equestrian equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons through a window on the way here. “Humans don’t have magic,” I said. “No wings, no super endurance. Everything strives to be so efficient on Earth. Wide roads are expensive to maintain, and we need vehicles that use a limited amount of fuel to travel. We can’t control the weather, so it’s practically compulsory in a lot of cases, and spacing a city buys room, and perhaps more peace of mind for people living there, but at the expense of that limited fuel among other things. The more you think about it, the more complicated it gets.” Redheart was looking slightly downcast at that. “I see,” she said. “And as to your questions as to why one doesn’t just hang out with friends or have a short rest: A lot of people work irregularly, and a good sleeping schedule can be vital. And frankly, a lot of the successful nations in the world are full of people who are mentally exhausted by the end of the workday, but not necessarily physically tired. I guess that makes for some strange results on a grand scale.” Redheart was quiet for a moment. “I always liked Equestria, but this hammers home how much I appreciate it,” she said. “No kidding,” I said, in much higher spirits. “It opens so many opportunities. Like these.” I waved my right foreleg in emphasis. “Just don’t hurt yourself trying to help others,” Redheart said. I gave her a questioning look, and she said, “You looked like you really gave it your everything earlier. That’s not good in the long term. Remember that you’re going to live much longer than you’re used to.” I just smiled at her. “I think I’ll be fine,” I said. “How about you? In my experience, nurses are really good at juggling their workloads.” “Things can get a bit hectic,” she said, admittingly. “But it’s worth it. I think I recognise a lot of what you said though. I got my training in Vanhoover, and I stuck around for a little while after I was done, but the city life was never for me. A patient would come in, I’d care for them, we’d become friends, and then it was time for them to leave.” She paused a bit in her narration. “Thankfully, most of the time through the front door. Then I did some soul searching, and decided to move back to Ponyville. Ponyville isn’t exactly tiny, but when a patient leaves, I can be pretty sure I’ll run into them in town in the future.” I nodded, recognising the charm with a small, friendly town. It wasn’t the center of the world, but I didn’t need it to be. It was the center of a lot of weirdness though, courtesy of the elements bearer, my friends. “What about you, then?” I asked, suddenly curious. “You said love is in the air earlier. Don’t you have anyone to do the huggies and kissies with when you get home?” “Gabe,” she said, and held her hoof to her barrel in fake shock. “Yes I have on occasion, but I’m only seventy three. I can’t get tied down yet,” she said, and smiled. “You don’t strike me as being against the idea every now and then,” I said, with a smirk. “I’m a nurse, Gabe,” she said, with a smirk of her own. “I mostly end up doing the tying.” — This was the second time I had shared my bed in the castle with someone else, but before anyone lets out a heart-melting "naaw" sound, or a dumb "hur-hur" chuckle; there was no snuggling or hugging. Two ponies sleeping on either side of the bed had about the same amount of space between them as two individuals in separate beds in a two person hotel room, I just didn’t want to scramble any maids in the castle to find her a room when there wasn’t a need, and you never know when the staff turns the castle into a maze overnight as a diplomatic courtesy, so this also guaranteed we’d find each other in the morning. Redheart also liked it; she didn’t think any of her friends could brag about having stayed a night at the castle. It did make me wish my mane looked like Redheart’s when I woke up. Her’s must be the envy of supermodels. Mine looks like an orange and blue porcupine that had tried camping behind a passenger jet. Impressive in it’s own way, I guess. She also didn’t flinch when I went through my morning routines. It took a while before Armor, Twilight, and Spike didn’t look uncomfortable whenever I squeezed replacement body parts into myself, but splashing my eye around in a basin before popping it in there still probably looked a bit weird. “He made a quick retreat tonight,” I said, a bit absently, as we sat at the breakfast table. Redheart looked me curiously. “Who?” “My dream mentor,” I said, before turning to her and seeing her still curious look. “I have this figure returning in my dreams. A dark and mysterious man, or perhaps stallion, who’s telling me and teaching me things.” Redheart looked at me with a mix between disbelief and alarm, like I had just professed that I was thinking of proposing to Celestia. “... What?” I shook my head, realizing that could sound a bit alarming to anyone who didn’t know about this beforehand. “Oh, we think it’s my special talent doing it.” She looked skeptical. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before.” I shrugged. “Yeah, we, that is, Luna, Twilight, and I, think it’s because my human mind, and that’s how I subconsciously interpret the intuitive knowledge from my talent and processing the information extra quick.” Redheart’s look switched from alarm to consideration. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. And he beat hooves tonight?” “Yeah. It’s not always all that clear, so maybe we had a long conversation before he did, and I can’t remember,” I said, with another shrug. Redheart took a few moment to consider this as well. “Maybe you just had a quick rundown of what you’re planning today,” she said, and turned her eyes to me meaningfully. “Or maybe he thought you needed rest.” I put my hooves up defensively. “Hey, it might be mentally exhausting, but spiritual rewards and stuff will be worth it,” I said. We left with a quick thank you to Raven and Kibitz (Celestia and Luna both being busy, ruling the nation and being asleep respectively) and made our way back to the hospital. “Did we keep anyone waiting?” I asked, when we got down to Pinprick’s workshop. Pinprick was there, as were the three "subjects". Proper Care was absent, although instead we had three additional ponies: Professor Inkwell and two young-looking unicorn stallions, with parchments and quills packed in their saddlebags. Sunlit’s socks looked better than Inkwell’s leg warmers. Everyone looked at us, Blueberry, Rider, and Sunlit with no small amount of anticipation. Pinprick looked at Inkwell, letting her be the authority in the room. Inkwell, meanwhile, just mirrored the initiative back to Pinprick. “Not at all,” she said. “Professor Inkwell and her research assistants just arrived.” We nodded towards the two ponies I wasn’t familiar with, before turning to everyone else. “Well, good morning, everypony,” Redheart said. “Aye, good morning,” Inkwell said, and waved towards the two slightly nervous-looking stallions. “Everypony, minions, minions, everypony.” They waved a bit nervously as they set down their bags and started fishing out ink and paper. “Yeah, good morning,” I said. “Should we get started? I think we’ve kept things in suspense long enough.” “I don’t think we wanna rush anypony,” Sunlit said, and after what Redheart pointed out yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how Sunlit and Rider kept kinda brushing up against each other, and by the way they were looking at each other, I figured they’d somehow squeezed in at least three dates since last I saw them. “Well, Doctor Pinprick,” I said. “What do you have for us?” Pinprick made way to show us the workbench, upon which rested what looked like normal prostheses, but without the textile covering, and a much sleeker set of full body braces for Rider, without pulleys, wheels, and locks for the joints. I reared up to take a closer look at the stuff. “I believe this is what you requested,” she said, gesturing to the limbs. “The central parts are hollowed out, and the limbs don’t have any locks for the joints, they’re completely loose. And as requested, the opening is through a button.” “That’s right,” I said, nodding approvingly, and gestured towards the braces. “And with this,” Pinprick said. “You can separate the large parts of the braces, like you described.” I took a look at one of braces and opened one of the little pockets. “Alright, great,” I said, when Redheart and I opened up our saddle bags and started pouring out the contents on the table. “I think I’ll start with Blueberry.” I got an extra high chair by the workbench, and got to work. Everyone had gathered around and was looking closely at what I had poured out, and Inkwell turned to the two young stallions with a deadpanned look. After a few seconds, they caught on and started scribbling down notes. “So, what do you want me to tell you about this?” I asked them. “Well, what do you plan on doing next?” Inkwell asked. I picked up one of the slightly squirming bags I had marked "Blueberry", and showed everyone. As I got to work, I told them about how I was putting up a fairly complicated set of interlocked barriers in the part of the leg that contained the enchantment that actually moved the leg. That enchantment being so sensitive that it was disturbed by the slightest background magical power, and so would be worse than an inert limb as a prosthesis. Letting only the magical signature of the arcanomorphic field belonging to the pony in question through was one of the key parts of the whole thing. “This means that every person’s limb works only for the one it’s made for,” I said. “Anyone else would just have a vaguely pony-shaped limb with no proper way to attach it, and very loose joints.” “But how are they removed?” Inkwell asked. “That’s what this thing is for,” I said, and pointed towards the opening-slash-button. “I’ve made the enchantment so that pressing this toggles the enchantment on and off.” I kept enchanting, perhaps losing myself a bit in my work, as I had already done a lot of the tedious work in the prior evening. “Now,” I said, a bit absently. “These limbs are gonna be a bit like a pony at peak physical prowess. The kinetic-dispersive properties of your innate magic will be about the same, but I’m not gonna make them superpowered. Mine are, and magical exhaustion is very much a thing with them. I’d just feel responsible if you hurt yourselves with it. Especially you, Rider. If I swing at something as hard as I can with my own prostheses, nothing happens to me physically, but you could seriously hurt yourself.” “Alright, that makes sense,” he said. I was whistling The Entertainer while working, and eventually, I had finished up one of the wheelchair-bound colt’s legs. The enchanted dust was in the hollow part of the leg, shielded from magical disturbances. “Alright, Blueberry,” I said. “This one’s yours.” Blueberry wheeled up to me, his face not entirely free from nervousness, as I simply tossed his new leg on the remains of his left hind leg. “That’s it,” I said, to his uncertain expression. “Try moving it.” He did, and everyone’s eyes went wide when it worked. There was no wires being pulled, and no sound from an electrical engine. It was just an artificial-looking limb, that moved seemingly of its own accord. Blueberry’s expression slowly shifted from uncertain and a little scared, to a grin that enveloped his entire face. He started moving around, and was about to jump down from his chair, when Redheart gently held him back from behind. Holding him with a hug, she said, “Let’s wait until the other one is done, dearie, hm?” in a small and sweet tone. Blueberry looked up at her, and nodded, his grin never fading. “Mmm, yeah,” I said, and went back to work, pretty much only having to do the final parts with his other leg. “I’m almost done here.” I was already caught up in my work again, and didn’t really notice where the others were looking, and what expressions they had. “You’re gonna get a knighthood for this,” someone said. I think it was Pinprick. “Mmm, nice,” I said, absent-mindedly. “Keep my ears warm in bed… alright, done.” We slapped the other leg on Blueberry, and he immediately jumped down on the floor, almost losing his balance if not for Redheart steadying him. As I studied his movement, not really noticing anything off, he looked up at Redheart with a smile, then turned to me. After a moment, I finally registered that I should look at his face, and saw a blush that went halfway down his neck. He had his mouth open as if to say something, but then just snapped it shut and bolted out of the room, a large grin on his face. Satisfied, I just went to work on Rider’s braces. “That was... amazing,” one of Inkwell assistants said. “Yeah, he was off way faster than me when I made my first one,” I said. There was a moment of silence behind me, broken only by Redheart’s snickering. Next up was Rider’s braces. Redheart and I started covering every part of them with masking tape, except for the inside of the thick pouches. “What are you doing now?” Rider asked, over the scribbling. “I’m gonna use this,” I said, indicating a jar in my bag, and some squirming pieces of blue textile. “It’s a paste with lapis lazuli in it. I’m gonna smear the inside of the braces with the stuff, and enchant that like I enchanted the metal in the limbs. It’s mostly because my enchantments and textile don’t work well together. Then I’m gonna fill these pouches with the same movement-enchanted dust as the other limbs, and away we go.” “Oooh,” Rider said. “That’s pretty smart,” Sunlit agreed. “Thank you,” I said. “Bit of inspiration yesterday.” It was smooth sailing from there. After I was done, Redheart and Sunlit helped Rider up onto the examination bed, and stripped him of his current braces, making him completely helpless, only being able to move his head and neck, shoulders, and the upper parts of his forelegs. From his face, he didn’t seem to mind though, probably because he was being handled by two very pretty and gentle mares. “Okay, almost done,” I said after a while. “Unlike Blueberry and Sunlit’s pieces, this won’t have an off switch, but since this isn’t attached to your arcanomorphic aura, just responding to it when it’s very close, you can just pull this thing off when you need to.” “Got it, ma’am,” he said, looking away from Sunlit’s eyes to address me. Sunlit, with a smile, wordlessly but gently stopped me from starting to dress him in his new getup, and started doing it herself instead. Redheart had to help her though, especially with turning him over. “Stop squirming,” Redheart gently chided him when he, just like Blueberry, couldn’t quite wait until he was all set before trying it out. I understood him though. The door opened, and a pony stepped in. I took a glance back at a mare standing in the doorway, before turning my attention back to Rider, looking for signs of discomfort or other flaws, but he seemed okay. Pinprick asked who she was, and I heard some whispering, and then my attention was dragged away from Rider as something grabbed me from behind, pulling me back and almost dislodging my eye. “Wha!?” I yelped, finding myself locked inside a hug. “Thank you! Oh thank you so much!” a voice I had to assume belonged to the colt’s mother echoed in my ear. I gave a modest gurgling in response as I made sure my eye wasn’t falling out. “My little baby has his legs back! How can we ever repay you?” I told her that it was alright, ma’am, and if they wanted to help, they just had to let the Royal Institute take a look at the legs, so that they might help others. It came out as, “Hargh- garh… hraarh,” though. Everyone had turned their eyes to look at us in stunned silence, Rider having turned his neck from his turned-away pose on the table. “Mom, I think she’s trying to say something,” Blueberry said. ‘Yes I am. Thank you, Blueberry.’ “Hraaargh.” “Oh, I’m sorry!” she said, and let go, taking a step back and trying to dry her eyes. I didn’t gasp for breath, since I didn’t tire myself out by struggling. I just flattened my ruffled coat, and tried again. “No problem. Now, I haven’t made coverings for Blueberry’s legs like I have,” I said, indicating my own prostheses. “But I’m sure a tailor can conjure something up, and then the institute can probably work something out if he wants something like I have. I gave them the specs.” “Oh, of course,” she said. “Anything to help. Oh, thank you so much, you gave my baby his legs back, I don’t know how to thank you, this is so wonderful. I don’t know how I can repay you.” “Well, there are people from the institute here right now,” I said, indicating to Inkwell and the two young stallions. “They can tell you how you can repay us.” Inkwell stepped up to lead Blueberry and his mother off to the side to discuss just that. The idea was simply that if this whole deal with my prostheses indeed worked for others, which it apparently did, the Canterlot Royal Institute of Magic would inspect the "subjects" in an attempt to recreate my magic, since my own documentation was, as noted before, lacking, and a little esoteric. This was hopefully the best way to spread this knowledge without me having to spend days or weeks at the institute. Not that I was terribly busy in Ponyville, my new home, and I liked Canterlot as well, my new home away from home, but I wanted my life to be primarily in the former. These musings didn’t last very long, since Blueberry’s mother pretty soon walked up to me with tentative steps. “I ah… madam?” she said, as I turned to her to politely give her my attention. “I just… I… I don’t know how to…” she stammered. “It’s such a wonderful thing… just out of the kindness of your heart. I don’t know if you understand how much this means to us.” I knew that it meant much on an intellectual level, but strangely enough, even though I had been in Blueberry’s situation, it wasn’t until she said this that it hit me on an emotional level as well. My polite expression mellowed into one of genuine sympathy, and I scooted over into the hug she so desperately wanted to give me. “I don’t really know what to say either,” I admitted. One of my ears were flicking lightly from the tears falling onto one of them. “It’s okay,” she said, between heaving sobs. “So long as you know how grateful we are.” The falling tears stopped when Redheart wordlessly handed the mare a handkerchief, and after another minute or two, the hug ended. “Alright,” I said. “If you have any issues, don’t hesitate to contact me. Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville. I’m serious. If there are any issues, I wanna know... for science.” “I… yeah, thank you,” the mare said, and gestured to her son. “Blueberry, say thank you to the nice filly.” Blueberry looked at me with an almost frightened expression, his chest heaving from steadily heavier and faster breaths, before he rushed up to me, threw his forelegs around me, and squeezed me hard for just one moment. It was enough to register the almost scary amount of heat coming from his face, but then he let go and quickly bolted out the door. His mother shot me another smile, before chasing after her son. Eventually, Sunlit and Redheart finished, and Rider tentatively sat himself up on the edge of the bed, breathing slowly and steadily, as he looked down at himself. He slowly stood down on the floor, lifting his hooves, flexing his legs, angling his back, and even swishing his tail with the little rings that held it. As he did, a wide grin slowly grew on his face. He turned to the room at large. “How do I look?” he asked, hesitantly. I had to give props to Pinprick; the whole getup did nothing to dampen his looks. In fact, it was quite the opposite, especially in motion. Everyone turned to me as if I was the one who was supposed to be answering the question. ‘Yeah, he probably already knows how Sunlit thinks he looks by now.’ “Handsome,” I said, with a critical nod. Rider gave me a big grin, then walked up to me, crouched down to my eye level, took my face in his hooves, and looked at me with a big smile for a moment, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, before grabbing me and holding me tightly against him. “I hope you like hugs,” he said, and wrapped me in one before I could back away. “Because I think you’re gonna get a lot of them in this line of work. Thank you. Thank you so much.” I sighed into his barrel. “I guess so,” I mumbled into his coat, before struggling out of it, and turning towards Sunlit. “Am I gonna get this treatment any more today?” She smiled at me. “You bet your flank you will,” she said, her eyes watering up as well. There was some more work after that, some more describing things to Inkwell and colleagues, some more whistling of ragtime melodies, and by the time I had whistled my way through the soundtrack to The Sting, I was finishing up with Sunlit’s wing. That was the last part I was capable of creating without sitting down for a few days in Ponyville and working out a better design– preferably with Twilight next to me talking about wings and letting me measure and get a feel for hers. Sunlit and Rider were seated on the bed, brushed up against each other, and alternating between moving their hooves and looking intently at them, moving their hooves and looking at the others’, and pressing their hooves against each other’s while looking into each other’s eyes and smiling. As I was working on the wing, I idly wondered if there was a way to take a look behind them without anyone wondering what I was doing, because I sincerely wished that their tails had formed a heart. “Alright, done,” I said. “This is the best I can do right now. The rest is probably up to Doctor Pinprick or the institute.” I held up the wing and moved my hoof up and down the flexible surface on the rear of the wing. “Under this mesh is where you can move the parts there, and perhaps someone can come up with something feather-like to attach there and–” That was as far as I got before Sunlit pulled me into a hug. “Oh, right,” I said, feeling even more tears drip into my hair. “Madam Desroche—” she started. “Just ‘Gabe’,” I mumbled into her coat. “Gabe,” she said, as Rider stepped up beside us. “You’ve given us our lives back. Did you ever live without your metal limbs?” “Well, yes,” I confirmed. “Then you know what it’s like,” she said, as Rider enveloped us in a hug of his own from the other side of me. “Waking up in the morning, having dreamt of your old life, and struggling to attach crude imitations of your old body.” I was about to answer, but I just nodded silently. Sunlit breathed out a content sigh. “You know how it feels. That it doesn’t feel right,” she said. “To not be able to help yourself. To have to rely on others.” “Now, thanks to you,” Rider said. “We no longer have to. We can enjoy everything about life again, thanks to you.” “Well, you’re, you know,” I said. “You’re welcome.” I felt Rider and Sunlit’s heads shift. “Enjoy life indeed,” Sunlit said. I managed to pop my head out from between them, and saw them staring into each others’ half-lidded eyes, feeling the temperature rise. “Uuuh,” I said, uncertainly. “I’m not sure I’m considered old enough to be between you two enjoying life together.” — “Guest lecture?” I said once again, referring to the scroll that Inkwell had given me before we departed. “Seriously?” Redheart looked up from the train sofa she was lying on opposite me. “Well, who else is gonna do it?” she asked. “Twilight and Scrap helped, but it’s still your discovery.” “But I’ve never held a lecture before,” I complained. “Don’t be such a baby,” Redheart said. “You’ve never made miraculous discoveries before a few weeks ago either, and you still did it.” “I guess,” I said, resting my chin on a hoof and looking out the window at the moonlit Equestrian landscape. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t knee-deep in enchantments at the moment, but something about the silence that followed nagged at me. I turned to Redheart and saw her looking out the window as well, a hint of hardness visible on her brow by how the hairs of her coat stood up. “Are you okay?” I asked. She turned her head towards me just a little bit too fast, the scowl on her face lasting just a fraction too long before mellowing, and looked at me. She opened her mouth, and stopped herself, her face openly surprised by something. I gave her a moment, concern on my face. Eventually, her face and ears drooped. “I’m sorry, Gabe.” Now it was my turn to be openly surprised. “What?” She put her head on her folded legs. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t have words that expressed my concern and felt gentle enough for the situation. “I… I don’t… why?” Redheart gave me a joyless smile. “I’m being unfair.” “Unfair?” I asked. “I’m…” she started. “When I was a new nurse back in Vanhoover, I… I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.” I didn’t see what this had to do with anything, but this was a situation to be handled gently, so I just made sure my expression told her she had my attention. “It was because,” she started, before groaning at herself. “Ugh. It was because I was...only a nurse.” I hadn’t actually seen this before. I had heard of it– old war stories between gossipy old nurses and doctors in the break lounge speculating about why this or that colleague, either current or from ages past, had a chip on their shoulder, but I had no experience with it. I bit back my desire to object to her words, and just gave her a sympathetic look. “It didn’t have anything to do with hierarchy or prestige,” she said. “It was because… I didn’t know how to help everypony.” “Jealousy?” I carefully asked. “In a sense, I guess,” she admitted. “But I think it was because… I wanted to help others, and I couldn’t always. The patients came in, and I comforted them, told them it was going to be alright, looked at them… and sometimes determined that I didn’t know how to help them.” “It’s…” I started hesitantly. “No one knows every way to heal someone. A hospital is where all kinds of healers pool their knowledge to help.” “I know that,” she said kindly. “It’s just that… my special talent is in comfort, not healing art. I know how to treat somepony, but that’s because training and experience, not my talent.” “... And?” I gestured for her to continue. “I used to have a problem with having the ability to convince a pony that everything was going to be alright, but not having the skill to actually make everything alright.” I watched Redheart looking down at the floor for a few moments, searching for something to say. “You helping those ponies today,” she said, eventually. “It just reminded me of those days, back in Vanhoover when I was so disappointed in myself.” “As someone with a bedside manner that extends to being able to say 'Lie still, please' without making children cry, I can tell you that people skills are important when it comes to healing people,” I said. “Has anyone told you that before?” She nodded. “Yes. And I know I’m being foalish. It’s just that I feel I’ve never done anything like you have. I used to feel like I could only promise… promise that somepony else would set everything right.” “But you do know how to help people?” I asked. “Not just with words, I mean.” She nodded. “Yes. I know that now, but seeing you today just reminded me of when it felt like I didn’t.” “Emotional stuff again,” I said, and nodded. “Words only do so much, eh?” Redheart looked at me with a rueful smile. “I guess so.” “Just because I’ve found a new way to help people, doesn’t make your way useless,” I said, and got up from my seat to walk over to hers. “Gabe?” she asked. ‘Something, some force out there, really wants me to hug people today.’ I jumped up on Redheart’s couch. “Like I said, I don’t have the best bedside manner. I’m not great when it comes to emotions.” I lied down beside her, and gently pressed myself to her side. Redheart’s ruefulness started melting away from her smile, as she put a foreleg around me and nuzzled my ear. “But I learned from the best,” I said. Gaiden. Another one again. > Side Story: Under A Thrilling Moon > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- — Under A Thrilling Moon. Prologue: — The letter read: Dear Studded Armor. I really can’t pull off the formality and prettiness often associated with letter correspondence, so I’m just going to say this: Whaddup, yo? How’s the Crystal Empire? Are your barrack buddies treating you right? I can rough ‘em up for you if you want. Yeah, turns out that we’re all heading to see the Equestria Games pretty soon. Me, Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, the Crusaders, and a large portion of Ponyville. Back on Earth, we had something similar. We also had something called the “Paralympics”. It’s pretty much the same thing, but for disabled people. That name always cracked me up. It was short for “parallel olympics” (The Olympic Games is what we called the equivalent affair), and it was supposed to be inoffensive for disabled people. I’ll let you figure out the humor from there. Speaking of paralympics, I recently ended up in Applied Magic concerning the prostheses that Twilight, your uncle, and I developed. The princesses also notified me that the Canterlot Times may do a piece on it soon. Not sure how to segue into what I want to say next, but it’s exciting, I’m kinda nervous, and I don’t know how much of a celebrity I want to be from this. I remember some great inventors from back on Earth, and while I’ve always admired many of them, having the opportunity to be in their position has made me very uncertain whether I want to or not. In any case, most of the time I think about that, I just make myself think about the reactions from the three ponies I’ve helped so far, and seems so quaint, almost trivial, who becomes famous from this and who doesn’t. Unicorns and pegasi are legends on Earth, I think I told you that sometime, and unicorns are often associated with miraculous healing. I’m not sure ancient storytellers had advanced prostheses in mind when they dreamt that up though. Thank you again for all your help. I miss you, but only in ways that don’t make you feel bad or guilty. I hope I can see you when we visit the Empire. Actually, don’t worry about that. I know three of the four princesses, I’m lodging with one of them, I’m about to meet the fourth one, and her spouse, who is your current commander, and I’m a high-ranking official. I’m pretty sure I can arrange some time for us to catch up. Just tell me if and when it’s okay with you. Here, near the bottom, was a big, bright mark of a lipstick kiss on the paper, before the words continued You have my permission to let your bunkmates see glances of this mark, and weakly deny, with a coy smile, that you have a very pretty mare waiting for you, who can’t wait for you to get some leave. Your friend, Gabe. PS: Roseluck asked me if you planned on visiting Ponyville again. I want deets. — Quills, inkwells, and papers with notes were scattered around one of the sections of the library, and sketches and formulas decorated the blackboard to near-overspilling. A period of intense silence had settled over the library floor. The kind of silence you get in a room full of people thinking hard, which often turns the situation into an unspoken thinking race. The tension came from wanting to be the first one to share an observation, conflicting with the abhorrent idea of saying something dumb. “I know what that part is,” I finally said, looking up from the diagrams of the magic infused in Spike’s enchanted comic. “What?” Twilight asked, looking up from the notes she was cross-referencing. “What is it?” “I’m not sure what to call it,” I said. “But it’s for reusing the limited space inside the illusion. You walk through that as a transition stage, and that gives the other parts of the illusion time to reform to the shape they’re supposed to be having momentarily.” Twilight “Ooh”d in comprehension. “That’s really clever. How did you figure it out?” I shrugged. “Just thought about some tricks that video games sometimes use. This seems similar to that.” This piqued Twilight’s interest. “Can you show me that?” I shrugged. “Maybe, depending on what I have on the thing. The computer, I mean.” Spike walked in through the door, carrying a tray of tea and cookies. “Hey, gals. How’s it going?” “Steadily forward,” I said, and floated a cup of tea, vanilla-flavored, from the tray and took a sip. “Thanks, Spike.” I gently shook my head. Twilight and I had spent quite a bit of time in ‘horn-mode’ by now, and after this long it took a while to get used to perceiving light waves instead of magic. “Thanks,” Twilight said, as she took her own sip. “The enchantment is not as powerful as one might think, but it’s very elegantly made. I think somepony has practiced this for a long time.” “Yeah, but there is a bit of it over here that I think it would be best for you to tackle,” I said, and gestured towards a part of the diagram . “I might need some raw, magical strength with this.” We finished up the drinks and cookies, and Twilight took a look at the part I was talking about. Spike had stuck around to try and figure out what we were doing once before, but since he couldn’t see anything, he’d given up. Now he gave it another shot. “You just want me to pour as much magic as possible in here?” Twilight asked, after I had described what I wanted her to do. “Well, you don’t have to go all out all at once, I live here you know,” I said. Twilight shot me a small smile at that underhanded compliment. “Alright, I’ll start slowly.” And she did. I started jotting down notes on how the rest of the enchantment construction reacted to the sudden influx of raw magical power. Until I almost missed one small cluster of magical thread doing the enchanting equivalent of glowing red hot and vibrating worryingly. “Oh,” I said, “actually, maybe we should—” That was as far as I got before a shockwave emanated from the comic book and blasted us onto our backs. For an illusion enchantment to react that strongly with the physical world meant that the magic had been powerful indeed. We picked ourselves up from the floor. The idea that someone’s eyes are spinning from something comes largely from momentarily loss of coordination between the individual eyes. So my eye wasn’t spinning, but it was still pretty disorienting. “Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked. “Whoa,” Spike said. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He would be. I was slowly learning just how tough dragons are, physically and magically. Magic made everyone hardy, but the way it affected a dragon’s toughness was on an entirely different level. “I think I am too,” I said, then sat up, and shook my head. “Uuh, Gabe,” Spike said. I finished shaking my head and looked at him. “Yeah?” He flinched, and carefully pointed at me. “Uuuh… eye.” I looked at him blankly. “You?” “Your eye, Gabe.” Twilight helpfully added. I blinked with my right eyelid, noticed the feeling of something being absent, then sighed. “Every time,” I said, and started scanning the floor for where it might have ended up. Spike’s comic was, interestingly enough, physically undamaged. “Actually, perhaps it’s time to take a break,” Twilight said. “Let me just make sure that nothing’s happened besides that explosion.” We lit up our horns, then stared in disbelief at what we saw. The magic from the enchantment seemed to have been stretched out, and permeated the entire library, every book and every surface, as well as quite a radius beyond into the village green. “Do you think this is bad?” both Twilight and I asked at the same time, powered down, and looked at each other sheepishly. We lit up again, and took another look. The enchantment on the comic had been torn to shreds, and the pieces of it had scattered all over the library. “Well, it looks like it’s dissipating at the edges,” I said. “Looks that way,” Twilight agreed, before humming. “Well… sorry about your comic, Spike,” I said. “Ah, well,” he said, dismissively. “At least now I can read it the way I was planning to when I bought it.” “Let’s just keep an eye out for any strange phenomena,” Twilight said. “It was an illusion enchantment, and it might have left some residual effect around the library.” “Yeah, and speaking of eyes,” Spike said. “Could you please go get one, Gabe?” — “Where are you going?” Twilight asked, after I had come down the stairs with a clean eye (the one I had until recently lying in a bowl with water to make sure no dust stuck on it) and the letter for Armor, which was also dripping lightly of magic. “Just gonna post this,” I said, indicating the letter I had in my magical grip. “I need to stretch my legs, too.” “Alright,” Twilight said, as I shut the door behind me. I was getting a lot better at magic, even though the rate of improvement wasn’t as sharp as when I had first started practicing. It was still a bit of a drain to carry something arcanokinetically, or “in my magic” as most people referred to it, and while I was getting used to carrying a lot of things in my mouth, it prevented me from something I sometimes can’t stop myself doing when no one else is listening. Singing quietly to myself. So I took a cue from Pinkie Pie and stuffed the letter into my mane, and sang the first thing that came to my mind. It ended up being about Twilight. “♫ Oh, she’s a book, nanana, horse, na-nana. She’s mighty-mighty, just writing down all them lores. Oh she’s a♪—” I was interrupted by the last pony I expected to interrupt me. “Hello, Gabe,” Fluttershy said from my blind side. “I didn’t know you liked singing too.” “Oh. Hey, Fluttershy,” I said. “Yeah, I guess. I’m fine with playing instruments in front of people, but I prefer singing alone.” “I can relate to that,” she said, walking up next to me. “What are you doing? If you don’t mind me asking.” “I’m just posting a letter,” I said, as we came up to the post office. “But Twilight and I are doing some experiments back home.” “Oh, that’s nice,” she said, with a hint of uncertainty. “Who’s the letter for?” “Armor,” I said, as we walked into the office and up towards the counter. “Just telling him how I’ve had it, that I kinda miss him, gonna see him again. That sort of thing.” “That’s also nice,” she said, with a smile that made me just a little bit suspicious before I brushed it off. I saw Diamond Tiara standing beside a stallion with a very “coiffed” mane next to the counter, with the stallion seemingly double-checking a letter. His cutie mark of bags filled with money made me assume he was Diamond’s father. Which was confirmed when Diamond Tiara saw me, her eyes narrowing into a glare, pawing at the stallion’s foreleg with her hoof, and pointing at me. “Daddy, that’s her,” she whispered to him. The stallion looked up from his letter and over at us, his eyes lighting up, then he walked over to us. “Aah, you must be, aah, Gaaabri...elle, I assume?” “I am,” I said, giving him a little nod. His very “proper” appearance and demeanor made me summon up a carefully measured amount of flippancy which I casually radiated, to counter any minor social disadvantage I might get from me having an envelope sticking out of my mane. I sighed internally. 'Okay, talk. You raised Diamond Tiara, and I wanna know if you're a jerk, or if you're just a clown.' “A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said, and offered his hoof, which I shook, making him cast a confused glance down at it as he withdrew it, before continuing. “Name’s Filthy Rich, but just ‘Rich’ is fine. Miss Fluttershy,” he finished with a nod and a small smile towards the pegasus beside me. “Likewise,” I said, and turned towards Diamond. “Hello, Diamond Tiara.” “... Hello,” she grumbled at me, before giving the letter in my mane a suspicious look. “Diamond Tiara’s spoken quite a bit about you,” Filthy Rich continued, always with the same pleasant smile. That information, coupled with the very non-hostile delivery, was a bit disarming. “Oh. I… Youuu have me at a disadvantage then,” I said. He chuckled lightly, and continued. “Well, I am a bit of an entrepreneur, involved in quite a few ventures,” he said. “One of which I haven’t been able to get any hoofhold in however, is a new invention called a ‘bundle ratchet’. I’m trying to change that of course,” Filthy Rich said. He was talking about the cable ties, which Fancy Pants had started selling, and which he had sent me an estimated profit report of, along with my estimated royalties. “And here, I just happen to run into the inventor,” Filthy Rich continued. “This could be an interesting development, as I’ve done very little progress in that field.” 'Okay, he's polite enough at least.' I almost didn’t stop myself from saying, “Fancy Pants being too clever for you, Rich kid?” “Ah, well, you see, I have plans for my share of any profit from my agreement with Fancy Pants’,” I said. That was the truth. I’m a straight shooter, although my arcanodispersive shocker needed some work when it comes to accuracy. I had very little use for money at the moment besides a select few endeavors. The one I cared about being funding more advanced research and development into my enchantments. Why settle for near-perfect prostheses for people, when you can try and make them actually perfect? Especially wings. Sunlit Fields was really happy with her new wing, but I felt that area needed work especially. The hard part about that was, unlike legs, I didn’t have any test subjects available. The time might also be approaching to start working on magical eyes. I sometimes mentally kicked myself for not having looked deeper into how cochlear implants worked back on Earth, as that could’ve helped a lot on several levels. “Well, I would never dream of cutting the inventor off from the profit. In fact, perhaps I could make a more interesting offer?” Filthy Rich said. I skipped explaining that I didn’t actually invent it. “Well, I don’t feel comfortable going behind anyone’s back,” I said. “And I can’t interest you in perhaps suggesting to Sir Pants to perhaps put the patent up for rent?” Filthy said, and gestured towards the letter in my mane. ‘Not all of my messages are business related, you know.’ “Well,” I said, and tried not to squirm uncomfortably. “I don’t feel confident in taking decisions like that on the fly.” “No way to convince you then?” Filthy said, and chuckled again. “Well, I’ll just keep trying the old-fashioned way. You’re welcome to come see me should you ever change your mind,” he said, slid a bunch of letters across the counter, then nodded towards the mare behind it. “Miss Hooves.” 'Eh, perhaps I'm mistaken. He seems alright.’ “Best of luck,” I said, and nodded towards him with a smile. "And to you," he said, reflecting my expression. Diamond Tiara’s expression had slightly softened throughout the conversation, but now she just scowled at me. “You’re just being selfish,” she said to me, while her father was busy, eyeing the letter in my mane hungrily. I looked at her dispassionately. “A wise man once said, ‘Don’t fling poo in a brick house’,” I said, paused, and thought for a while. “Or something like that,” I said, with a shrug. Whether that was how it went or not, it had the intended effect. Diamond Tiara just gave me a confused look before following her father out of the post office. “Ladies,” Filthy Rich said, and nodded towards us. “Mr Rich,” I said, while Fluttershy gave him a hesitant nod. Diamond Tiara stuck her tongue out at me. I shrugged at her. I walked up to the counter, then reared up to put my forehooves on the polished wood. “Hey, Derpy, right?” I said to the mare behind the counter. “That’s me,” she said happily. “Or Ditzy, whichever you prefer.” “Which one do you prefer?” I asked. “The one that works best for everypony else.” “... Alright. Anyway, letter,” I said, and fished the object in question out of my mane and put it on the counter. “Do you want it sent by wing or train?” Derpy asked. I tried to give Derpy a scrutinizing look without making it look too obvious, and decided on train. I didn’t want to have to go to Rarity and ask to use her finest lipstick one more time. I’m not sure she appreciated the humor in which I used it for. “Train,” I said. “You got it,” Derpy cheered, took the letter, jerkily tossed it behind her towards the rack, where it spun around in the air a few times, bounced against a ceiling fan, then eventually landed in the correct place behind her, which made me suspect that I might’ve misjudged her skill in the postal service. “Very nice,” I said, after a moment of silence, and gave her a bit and an acknowledging look before walking out of the office. “What about you then?” I asked Fluttershy. “You out and about for any particular reason, or are you just enjoying the weather?” “Oh, I’m just doing some shopping,” she said. “I’m going to see Applejack for some apples, and Angel Bunny made me a list of things he’d like.” “I haven’t met Angel Bunny yet,” I noted. “I’ve actually never seen where you live either.” “Oh, no I suppose not. You know where it is though?” “I think so,” I said. “Cross the bridge over by Rarity’s place, and then walk straight ahead instead of along the river?” “That’s right,” she said, smiled at me, then considered me curiously for a moment. “Uhm, do you like animals?” ‘I was never much of a horse person the last time I was a little girl. Funny thing, that.’ “Sure do,” I said. “All the ones I’ve met at least. Although I’ve had some bad experiences with my old prosthesis, small dogs, and leashes.” “Oh…” she said, a bit dejectedly, but recovered when I shot her a don’t-worry-about-it smile. “Well, if you’re interested in a pet, I have lots of animals living with me.” I was about to kindly dismiss the idea outright, before stopping and considering the offer. “Well, I lived alone and was at work most of the day so a dog was out of the question, and I don’t like the ideas of having cats or birds cooped up in an apartment. I would’ve liked having someone to keep me company, but I had to consider its needs as well.” Fluttershy nodded. “That’s true, but if you reconsider it, remember that I’m more than happy to take care of any pet you have if you need to, and when I’m away, Angel and Harry takes care of things at home.” “I’m curious about meeting a bear,” I admitted. “Oh Harry’s a real sweetie,” Fluttershy said fondly, then we fell into silence. “Hey, Fluttershy,” I tentatively said after a while. “Uh. yes?” she said, noticing my hesitation. “... Why doesn’t Discord like me?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened a bit as she scrambled for something to say. I could tell that I kinda put her in an uncomfortable position, so I just gave her a patient look. “Well, uh, you see, uhm… He doesn’t really dislike you,” she said. “You’re just… different, from what he’s used to.” That just raised more questions. “Different how?” I asked. “Uhm, well, uh… you’ve had a lot of ponies… react to you in many different ways, I assume? You’ve been… different from what they’re used to,” Fluttershy said. ‘Yeah, you were one of the overly gentle ones. Though that might not have been exclusive to me.’ “Sure, sure,” I said, casually, hoping to put her more at ease. “And humans too.” “Oh, yes, and humans. Well, to Discord, you seem different, but in another way,” Fluttershy said. We came to a stop, sat down, then faced each other. “You’re different —” Fluttershy gently touched my chest, right by my heart “— in here.” I looked down at my barrel, and put my metallic hoof on my chest, only getting a touching sensation from one side. “You mean my… soul?” I asked. “Well, yes,” Fluttershy said. “Or, at least that’s how he explains it.” I kept looking down on myself. ‘Well, magic and other worlds are real. Of course souls are real as well. Which is a very comforting thought. I know of a few people who deserve nice sequels to their lives.’ “Not in a bad way,” Fluttershy continued. “Or… damaged. Just different.” “Oh,” I said, and looked up at her. “That’s… interesting.” “Uhm, maybe I shouldn’t be saying this but…” “But what?” I asked. “Well, going by what he’s said, and this is just how I think it works but…” We started walking again. “There are good ponies and bad ponies. Mostly good ponies. Discord… was never a bad draconequi, he was—is, just disharmonious. You could say that he chose to be good. It’s almost like he can decide whether he’s good or bad, and it seems like you might be able to as well. It’s just that he can’t tell what you’ve chosen.” I had to think a bit before I could respond to that. “If I ever chose to be good or bad, I don’t remember it,” I said. “Well, perhaps that’s not quite how it works, but he says that he looked at you, and saw that, inside, you were different from ponies. Perhaps even more different than he is,” Fluttershy said. That made some sort of sense to me. “Hm. There are fantasy stories back home with people other than humans, and while they seem better than humans in many ways, humans are often the masters of their own destiny,” I observed. “Yes, perhaps something like that,” Fluttershy said, and nodded. We stopped as Golden Oaks came into view. “You’re a good pony though. Redheart told us all about what you did in Canterlot,” she continued, and I felt something positive swell inside myself at that. Fluttershy put her foreleg around me and pulled me in for a cheek nuzzle. “Well, I just thought I’d help people since I can,” I said. “... That’s right,” Fluttershy said, softly. “Well,” I said after a moment, and gently pulled away. “We had a magical accident earlier. An explosion or two, gotta double check and make sure there are no side effects.” “Oh my,” Fluttershy said and held up a hoof to her muzzle. “Well, good luck.” “Thanks,” I said. “See you later.” It was a good thing that Twilight and I seemed to be the only ones in Ponyville who could sense magic in the way I did while enchanting, because both of us, and Spike, were covered in glowing magical energy. I’m not sure it would’ve been embarrassing to anyone else to be seen like that, but it was to me. Why? Well, have you seen that Mr Bean episode where he paints his apartment? Yeah, a bit like that. About an hour and a half was spent making sure that the magic soaking the library was harmless, and as far as we could tell, it was. So we decided to just leave it for the day, and see how much would have dispersed the next morning before trying to clear it by horn. “Well, this was an interesting day,” Twilight noted after dinner. “Yup,” I said, and nodded. “At least we learned a few things before that happened. What were you hoping to learn from it?” Twilight asked, beginning to clear the supper dishes from the table. “Just adding it to my general knowledge,” I said. “Also I was thinking about how to make a user interface for my power armors,” I mumbled quickly. Twilight and Spike gave me a look. “What?” Twilight asked. “Oh, nothing,” I said, and waved their concerns away. “Well, thanks for dinner, Spike.” “You’re welcome,” he said, as I excused myself from the table. — Under A Thrilling Moon. Part One: — The orange glow of the settings sun snaked its way between the blinds, casting shadows on my face like the bars of a prison cell. ’Ain’t that ironic?’ I thought. ’Spend my days chasing bad guys and putting them behind bars, when everyone in society are prisoners. The people I meet on the street might not be behind physical bars, but they’re trapped all the same.’ I gently switched the wafer roll towards the other side of my mouth as I checked my insurance: it was called an ‘arcanokinetic dispersive unit’. It was essentially another horn hidden in my prosthesis that could only stun people. A one-trick pony, but it did its job, and it had saved my flank before. The wafer roll’s existence ended with a crunching sound, then I threw my hind-legs down from my desk and spun my chair around to the proper drawer. The bottle of cider and the tin of rolls came into my gaze like a pair of old friends. I opened the lid… and let out a sigh. There were three left. My metallic hoof hovered hesitatingly over the crunchy goodness. I was strapped for bits, and not in a position to splurge. I needed cash, and I needed a distraction. In other words, I needed a job. There was a hesitant rapping on my door. I breathed out a sigh of relief before putting on my stone face ’Just in time.’ “It’s open,” I said. The door opened more hesitangly than it had been rapped, and in she stepped. Her coat had a natural grace to it, the fuzz was even in length and in color. Her hooves hinted of physical work without being covered in dirt-filled scratches. On her back, she held a pair of respectable wings neatly folded, and her mane and tail held a beauty that made appearance-obsessed mares crush their own vanities— all of the mirrors. I didn’t have my hat on to hide my expression, but her hesitant demeanor gave me just enough time to set the features of my face right. “Uhm, hello,” she said, her voice as uncertain as her movements. What was not uncertain about her movements were how eye-catching they were, and I cursed my luck for only having one eye for them to catch as I saw her walk. Her hips swayed as gently as a morning breeze, with the glory of the sunrise. I didn’t stand up to greet her. That was part of the job. Standing up was for people in polite society. Being polite in my line of work gave people an edge over you, or more likely, and often worse, made people think they have an edge over you. “Afternoon, miss...?” I asked, my response vacant of passion or feeling, without making it seem like I tried to make it so. “Uhm, Fluttershy,” she said. “You’re... Gabrielle Desrochers, right?” “I am,” I answered shortly. “What can I do for you?” “I uh… was under the impression that you might be able to help me.” I gestured towards the chair on the other side of the desk. It didn’t spin. Only my chair spun. That was another important part of establishing who’s the mare in this business. Not that it looked like many of the tricks were needed with this one. She sat down, and properly put her forelegs straight in front of her, her wings held ever so slightly too stiff at her sides. She was out of her element in here, and she fell back on proper manners to keep her cool. Tells someone like me quite a bit. Another thing I noticed, much clearer, was the slight sound of bits jingling in her saddlebag. ’Someone might be serious. About time.’ “Well, Miss Fluttershy, that depends. What do you need help with?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair and bringing my hooves together. “It’s uh, I have this, uh, or rather, I don’t have, a letter, anymore,” she stammered, her eyes unwilling to meet mine. “And you’d like to change that?” I asked, opening my hooves in an inviting manner and raising an eyebrow at her. “Uhm, well, yes,” she said. She wasn’t the type of lady who found themselves in trouble. They were rare, but they were still out there. The signs of laughter were still visible around her mouth and in the corners of her eyes. Money said that she wasn’t from around here originally. I stirred the air gently with a hoof. “Go on.” “I’ve lost it, and I don’t know where it is anymore. Somepony took it and I...”She kept her eyes down at the front of my desk when she started talking. “I’d like… I’d…” she looked up in my eyes “... I want it back. Retrieval of a missing object, you would call it.” I raised an eyebrow at her, giving her a small smirk. “Or as the law enforcement community might like to call it, ‘counter-theft’, or just theft.” Her gaze kept steady. “If that’s what’s needed.” “Well, Miss Fluttershy,” I said, reclining in my chair. “I charge by the hour, so it’s in both of our best interests for you to tell me all there is to tell.” Her fleeting flirt with assertiveness dried up, and she once again looked down at the front of my desk. “Well, It’s just a letter, but I don’t know what kind of envelope it’s in.” “And who took it? Why did they take it? Where are they sending it? What does the letter say?” “It’s uhm, it’s a personal letter that could… hurt my reputation,” she said. “How?” I asked. “I… I might not be able to keep my family if it gets out,” she said, whatever courage she was trying to display crumbled as her ears fell flat on her head. Her eyes were still downcast, so she didn’t notice the scrutinizing look I was giving her. She wasn’t wholly sure of what she was doing, coming to me. It was time to help her out a bit, lest I scare her away. “Well, Miss Fluttershy,” I said. “You’ve come to the right person. Hire me, and I’ll do everything I can to help you, but let’s go back to the other questions before I get started, shall we?” She looked up at my eyes again, hope sparkling somewhere deep in them. “Alright,” she said after a while. “I don’t know who’s taken it, and I don’t know where it’s being sent.” I nodded. “Who was it for originally?” “Somepony named… Fancy Pants,” she said, looking down again. “I see,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. ‘That’s right. Cool professionalism. You’ve seen it all before.’ “And what’s in this letter?” I asked. She kept her eyes down. “I’d… rather not say.” “You realize that it might’ve been opened by another party when and if I get to it, I hope?” She just nodded silently. “I want to get some information about who this party is. Do you have any enemies? Anyone who could’ve have it out for you?” 'Would this Mister Pants already be taken? Or did you just make someone’s stallion or mare look a bit too longingly at you perhaps?' She shook her head, her eyes, wide with alarm, met mine. “N—no… not that I know of.” I swiveled a few dozen degrees away from her, looking out between the slits in the blinds while thinking. ‘This is blackmail, and to blackmail someone, you need leverage. Whoever they are, they knew where to find it. Where did they learn that?’ I swiveled back to look at her. “How about people who aren’t your enemies? Friends and colleagues? Anyone associating with unsavory people? Work with any blabbermouths? Anyone you know who have problems people can exploit?” ‘Any jealous beaus or belles?’ She shook her head again. “N-no. Nopony like that.” “And what do you do for a living?” I asked. “I-I take care of animals,” she said. ‘A fine line of work, Celestia knows there are few of those left, but it isn’t something that makes enough to afford someone like me. Old money perhaps?’ “I see. Anything else? If you were to try and get to yourself in some way, how would you do it? How would you try and surreptitiously find out about yourself, Miss Fluttershy?” She stammered a bit, but the slow pace of the conversation was helping to coax some things out of her. “I, well, I, uh, a lot of ponies ask me for help when their pets are ill,” she said. “And I come into town to shop, and sometimes I go to a place called Sugarcube Corner, and I’m a pegasus, so I help out with civic weather duties.” I nodded, trying to take in both her words and their delivery, all to get a feel for this mare. I had no idea of where her letter went, and she herself was the best clue I had to go on. It was a pretty bizarre case, and I didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but for me that's Tuesday, and it’s not like I have a lot else to do. I didn’t want to go out looking for work. You get in trouble in this job. You could even say that my job is trouble, but I don’t look for trouble. “Well then, Miss Fluttershy, I think I can make time for this case, and I’d say two days retainer should be adequate for now.” “Oh, yes, of course,” she said, and moved her hooves towards her saddlebags. They came to rest on my desk, and four pillars of bits were produced from them. I did my best not to look at them hungrily. “Is this enough?” she asked. ‘It’s a gift from the heavens.’ “It is,” I said with a nod. “Consider me, and what skills I possess, now hired to look for your lost letter.” “Oh, thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.” I simply gave her another nod. We exchanged information, her address and my expected office hours while on a case. After that, she left, casting one more grateful glance at me before walking away. The door gently shut, and when her hooffalls had faded, I let out a sigh of relief at relieving myself of some facial expressions. I grinned, widely, walked over to my coat hanger, put my duster over my vest, and angled my hat so that it covered my prosthetic eye. I spun my metallic hoof around three hundred and sixty degrees, producing a satisfactory click, then walked back to my desk and opened my drawer. I swept most of the piles of bits down into an empty wafer roll tin and put some of it in my coat pocket, before grabbing the not quite depleted one and opening it. One roll went in my mouth, the other went behind my ear. Then I walked out of my door, with the intention of heading straight to Lyra and Bon Bon’s sweet shop. A woman needs her priorities straight. — Spike the janitor was sweeping the stairs when I walked out of my office, the same old, worn beret resting on top of his head, the upper parts of his ridge poking out of a hole at the top of it. He looked like he’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else, and judging from his expression, inside his head he was. He looked up at me when I got closer. “Heya, Gabe,” he greeted, with a small smile. “Did I see a client walking out of your place earlier?” “Hey, Spike,” I said. “You know I can’t talk about that.” Spike chuckled, and kept on sweeping. “You know, anypony else saying that would just confirm it, but I can never tell with you.” “And that’s the way I like it,” I said. “Is she around today?” “Yup,” he said, with a small smile. “No getting away this time.” I let out a sigh. I hadn’t brought any trouble with me in ages, and while it had been close a few times, I hadn’t neglected my rent either. “Oh well. Thanks, Spike.” “Have a good one,” he waved over his back as I went on my way. One of the best trick to being inconspicuous is to not do anything conspicuous. Normal, everyday people can sense something funny in the air from someone discreetly snooping around a bar without them even realizing it, but it puts them on-edge. To get around that, simply don’t be discreet. You look around you because you’re vaguely, unconsciously, and innocently curious about what’s around you. Perfectly normal. Looking around you when signaling that you’re anything but curious about what’s around you is suspicious. Shadow a person down the street while making it too obvious that you’re not, and your mark will more often spot you because people around you cast fleetingly curious glances at you and the person you’re pointedly not following. That’s the key to being discreet. You rarely sneak in somewhere by staying low and trying to stay out of sight. In fact, you don’t sneak in, you just walk where you’re supposed to walk. It’s not foolproof of course. I walked in a calm pace across the floor towards the exit, intending to proceed with perfectly normal business of going shopping when— “Miss Desrochers,” her voice sounded from the side. It flowed like a gentle breeze through the room and slapped me across the face. I let out another sigh, this one very quiet, then I changed my direction towards the kitchen. “Miss Sparkle,” I said. My landlady, Twilight Sparkle, sat by the table, reading a book, as always. She was dressed in the same old bathrobe she always wore, the fluffiness of which had vanished long ago; same with her slippers, and I tried remembering if I had ever seen her without her mane full of curlers. She didn’t look up. We didn’t always see eye to eye, and not just because she had twice as many functional ones as I did. She didn’t approve of me, or the trouble she was convinced I was attracting. I would’ve been more than happy enough to relieve her of those worries, if it didn’t mean that I would have to find another place to set up shop, which was easier said than done. “I hear you have a client,” she said, still not looking up. “You hear correct, Miss Sparkle,” I said, my voice both neutral and cool. “So you can expect to be paying your rent this month?” “I should hope so, Miss Sparkle.” “How nice,” she said. “Although, with your… profession, there is of course always a risk that further compensation would be necessary.” “Should that ever be necessary, Miss Sparkle, I’ll be sure to reimburse you, same as anyone would,” I said, just a hint of impatience in my voice. “I’m sure,” she said. “Well, don’t let me keep you.” “Goodbye, Miss Sparkle,” I said, and tipped my hat in her direction. “And keep it down if you get back late.” — I charge eight hours a day and it’s a robbery. By me. Against myself. I give away too much of my time. Oh sure, I try not to spend more than eight hours being serious in my investigations, but you never really have any time off in this line of work. You’re always considering your cases, always trying to plan ahead, or to use that age-old but still relevant metaphor, always trying to find all the pieces of the puzzle. It didn’t mean that you couldn’t do anything useful while you’re at it. First up on my list was shopping. I walked through the streets of Ponyville, the sun hanging low in the sky. In a few hours, it would be time for a shift change in the criminal world. The ones dressed in suits going home and making way for the ones dressed in filth. Since I didn’t know the content of the letter I was looking for, I decided to try and find it by determining the perpetrator. One of the best way to find something is to find out who’s taken it, and in this case that would be to find out about where it was taken from. The bell jingled as I pushed it open, and the only other occupant in the room, a mint-green mare, looked up at me with a knowing smirk. “Evenin’, Gabe,” she said, fiddling with her lyre case. “Hey, Lyra,” I said. “Is your sweetie around?” “She sure is,” Lyra said, and turned her head towards where the desk turned around the corner. “Hey, Candy Flanks, our favorite customer is here!” “Well, evening, Miss Desrochers,” Bon Bon said, as she walked into the room, “Ain’t this a pleasant surprise?” “You’re telling me,” I asked, as I walked up to the bar, sat down, then produced a respectable pillar of bits. “You got a client then?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the pillar’s height. “No comment,” I said. “Uhuh,” she said, with a knowing smirk. “The usual?” she asked, as Lyra walked up and took a seat one stool away from me, gently throwing her case up on the counter. I nodded, with a small smile. “What’s for the side this time then?” Bon Bon asked, and the two mares subtly eyed the windows for eavesdroppers. I turned to Lyra. “Something has been taken,” I said to them. “A letter. It needs to be returned to its owner.” “Mark?” Lyra asked. “Her name’s Fluttershy,” I said. “The pegasus who lives on the outskirts of town?” Lyra asked. I nodded. “That’s her.” “Perps?” Bon Bon asked. I shook my head with a small tsk. “Unknown.” “Contents?” “Unknown.” Bon Bon and Lyra glanced at each other with one raised eyebrow each. “Stakes?” Lyra asked. “Reputation, she says,” I said. The two mares looked at the pillar of bits, then each other for a few seconds, then back at me. “Alright,” Bon Bon said. “What else?” “I’m guessing blackmail,” I said. “Someone needs something done, and whatever this something is, it requires at least one part brains and no brawn.” Bon Bon contemplated this for a moment, before sliding the pillar of bits towards her. “Unknown time frame?” she asked, and produced a tin of wafer rolls. “Correct,” I said, and spirited the tin into a pocket of my duster, before taking the one I had behind my ear and putting it in the corner of my mouth. Lyra looked down at her lyre case, and fiddled the last lock closed. “We’ll see what we can do. Check back tomorrow.” — Before the sunlight decided to spend its time elsewhere, I was once again walking down the streets of Ponyville. Some noses had been instructed on where to aim their sniffing, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t use my own. The thing about sniffing though, is that unlike looking, and especially unlike feeling, it’s not always clearly telegraphed when someone turns that particular sense in your direction. Which is why what happened a few blocks down from Lyra and Bon Bon’s almost coaxed a facial expression out of me. From down the road, a stagecoach pulled up beside me. The type with tinted windows, cushy interior, and a worryingly large team of worryingly large stallions pulling and driving it. The door opened, and from the dark interior another stallion stepped out, lumbering up to me with an expression that was probably supposed to be neutral, much like when a gorilla’s expression is neutral, and glared at me from beneath his hat. “Gabrielle Desrochers?” he huffed in my direction, blowing at my mane. I had already glanced around while he was walking up to me. There were at least five pairs of eyes, not counting the collection by the stage coach, who wouldn’t be able to deny seeing all of this. “Indeed,” I said, turning the half-finished wafer roll around in my mouth “Can I help you with something?” He gestured towards the coach, without taking his eyes of me. “The young madam would like to see you,” he rumbled. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really have time for a meeting,” I said, and started walking away. I didn’t get far before his foreleg blocked my path. “She insists,” he said. I took in the situation. I could easily have forced my way around him, but that would certainly turns his mates on me, and while I was pretty confident I’d be able to handle them, I don’t make enemies when I don’t need to. Bolting would be better, but I decided to try my luck with words. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?” I asked, and started moving towards the coach. I stepped in into the dark interiors of the coach, the destrier of a pony shutting the door behind me as soon as I stepped in and leaving me alone with whoever else was in here. “Miss Desrochers,” a silken voice said on my blind side. I turned around and saw only red. The glittery kind. She was dressed in a form-hugging red dress, with open slits going an impressive way up her flanks and leaving her cutiemark entirely bare. In her elegantly two-toned purple and white mane rested a silver tiara, and she looked me with eyes that told me that she not only had an unbeatable hand, she also owned the card factory. “You’re a hard filly to find,” she said. “It does say on my door that I might be previously occupied,” I said. She reached over and started pouring something into one of two glasses. “I’ve never been one much for schedules,” she said. I said nothing as she inquisitively offered me the glass, only shaking my head slightly. “Feel free to have a seat,” she said. I sat down, not too slowly, not too quickly, not too reserved, and not too easily. Then I waited as she took some slow gulps from the glass. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to address me as she lazily finished her drink. “Since you obviously know my name, may I ask yours?” She finally removed the drink from her lips. “You may,” she said. I gave her a deadpan look, and she giggled at me. It was a fake giggle. She hadn’t said anything witty and she knew it. That giggle though. It was so practiced I almost believed otherwise. “Diamond Tiara,” she finally said. “And I have an offer for you,” she said. It took an embarrassing two seconds to answer. “And since you seem insistent on making it, I’ll take the time to listen.” “How courteous,” she said. “It’s an offer for a job.” “I should warn you that I might be occupied already,” I said. “Oh, I believe you want to hear this,” Diamond Tiara purred at me. “I said I would listen.” “It’s a simple job,” she said. “There’s an object that isn’t in my possession. This displeases me. I want that changed.” “And who do you want to change that for you?” I asked. A perfectly innocent question. Not coaxing out information, not implying that I’m accepting the job. “You,” she said. “I want you find a certain letter for me.” My eyebrows almost knitted in surprise at the request, but I managed to disguise it by raising just one of them. “Can’t you just write another one?” I asked. Again, perfectly innocent, or at least innocent-sounding. “I didn’t write it,” she said, impatiently. ’Noted’ “I just want it in my possession.” “I should warn you that if this is an urgent matter,” I started. ‘That’s right, not just innocent, reasonable as well. Tell me everything.’ “I might not be able to—” “I can assure you that you will be better paid than your current assignment,” she interrupted me. “It’s a simple job. All you need to do is to find the stolen letter—” ‘Stolen? That’s interesting.’ “—and give it to me.” ‘“Give”, and not “return?”. Also noted.’ I patiently held up my hoof. “Miss Tiara, like I said, I might not be able to accept this—” “Oh shush,” she said, her eyes suddenly very relaxed, and leaving me feeling very nervous. She gently walked over towards me, her eyes hungrily looking into mine. The keratin of her perfectly manicured hooves glossed with the slight reflection from outside the coach, and they hardly made a sound as they stepped across the velvet carpet. She came up beside me, and I tried to gently lean away from her as she leaned forwards towards me. “You haven’t even listened to the whole offer yet,” she said, her eyes half-lidded. “I assume it’s an urgent affair,” I said. “Very urgent,” She breathed out. “I am sorry, Miss Tiara,” I said. “But my dance card is full right now.” Her soft advancement slowly stopped. “Pity,” she said. “If you do happen to find something that you’re sure I’d be interested in, don’t hesitate to contact me.” “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” I said, straightened my hat, and left the stage coach just a little bit too eagerly. “Hope to see you again, Miss Desrochers,” Diamond Tiara said, as her destrier walked in with her and closed the door. I watched the coach take off and travel down the street. This was already shaping up to be an interesting case. Perhaps I should’ve taken her offer. It could’ve helped a lot to assume the job of someone rich and powerful, but it also meant that one of my clients would have to be disappointed in the end. One was, as just noted, rich and powerful, the other one was Fluttershy. One option would give me trouble living, the other would give me trouble living with myself. Nothing proved that the letters they were talking about were the same one of course, but I don’t believe in chance. How many people want to find similar letters at the same time? It did toss a big pile of puzzle pieces in my lap. Diamond Tiara was looking for a letter that Fluttershy claimed was hers. And I hadn’t even got the chance to visit the post office yet. — When you want to find something, one approach is to go to where things like it is kept, but when you want to hide something, you put it where it won’t be found. Very basic cleverness tells you that you can put things you want hidden among others of its kind. Hiding in plain sight, as it were. A letter was in the possession of someone in town. I didn’t know which letter, but I knew who the victim was. My two noses were out sniffing at the moment, but they weren’t sniffing here. This was one place I was going to have to sniff myself. I had to be careful though. Diamond Tiara had an unknown number of goons that were looking for the same thing I was. Our meeting had the unfortunate result of making it highly suspicious for me to look for the letter in their eyes, but also had the much better result of warning me what kind of malefactors to keep my eye open for. I had taken the “hiding in plain sight” approach myself, and simply stood and observed the post office. As was always the case with stakeouts, it was a long and boring job, and I eventually took the time to savor the first opening of the tin of wafer rolls. I was almost about to decide it was safe to investigate closer, when I caught sight of her in the corner of my eye. An amateur. She had a grey coat and a grey mane tied up in a braid, which swished back and forth as she looked around her. I slid back behind my little corner, watching her eyes dart across the street behind her glasses, as she very clearly slowed down to walk past the post office in a calm gait, before slipping into the opening. It could be nothing of course. It wasn’t unheard of for people to not want anyone seeing them go into the post office, but that meant that they have something to hide, and that is a scent that I react to. I swallowed the last part of the first roll, and made my way across the street to the office. That part I talked about earlier, about hiding in plain sight and not bothering to be discreet. I figured that might not be the best approach here. The grey-maned filly wasn’t just an amateur the way a veteran describes a novice, she was oblivious. Completely without knowledge. She didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout nothin’. Everything about her demeanor screamed that she was doing something she was neither familiar nor comfortable with. These people can actually be tricky. They’re easy to spot of course: even disinterested bystanders notice something off about them, but they also use their meager skills of observation in almost aggressive vigilance. Unlike grey-mane, I did walk next to the post office without signalling that I didn’t intend to enter, and calmly loitered outside, slowly whittling down the roll in my mouth, and my ears innocently angled themselves towards the nearest sounds: a conversation. “Oh. I’m sorry, but it’s against regulations,” a voice I recognised as Derpy’s said in answer to something. “But I really need to get it back!” another voice said. The grey filly, I assumed “Is there a sender address on it?” “No—I mean, yes! I don’t know!” “You don’t know?” “I can’t remember, alright!” “Oh. Then uuuh,” Derpy said, thinking for a bit. “Maybe you can send another letter telling the pony you sent it to to send it back?” “I can’t! It’s uhm,” the grey filly said. “It’s a surprise! And he can’t have it yet.” “Oh, okay,” Derpy said, sounding a bit relieved. “Well, I can’t give it back to you if you don’t have proof that you submitted it, but we’re not shipping out until noon the day after tomorrow. You have plenty of time to find the receipt then,” she said happily. “I… I… yeah. Yeah, I can do that,” the grey filly said dejectedly. “Thanks for your help.” “Happy to,” Derpy chirped. The filly trotted towards the door, casting less vigilant glances all around her as she exited. She saw me, but didn’t notice me. I had placed her high up on the person-of-interest pile even before I heard the conversation. It was an almost too obvious lead to follow, but I couldn’t pass it up. I was facing the other way when I knew she looked around her as subtly as if she was doing it through a periscope. Once… twice... and when she was more than enough of a safe distance away for me to follow her, I did. It was too easy. I kept my eye open for others keeping their eyes open. She was the perfect bait, but I just couldn’t spot anyone whose eyes lingered in my direction a second too long, or who who were just enjoying the afternoon by a street corner. It made me nervous. Sometimes you catch a break, and things happen the way you want them to, but the luck never lasts, and as nice as it is for a stakeout or a shadowing to go smooth, I’d rather save it for when the magic starts flying. Still, to break this off wouldn’t help in any way, so I kept at it. We were heading towards the more affluent parts of town. People here weren’t any better than anywhere else. They just dressed better. It was the kind of place where someone like Diamond Tiara made their lairs, and as unexpectedly as the tide coming in, I found myself walking straight towards hers. It was a mansion, plain and simple. A house the size of a small castle, with outbuildings the size of small houses. A brick wall separated the grounds from the rest of the streets, with a large iron gate providing a view of the house’s entrance. The gate was open, with grey-mane standing in front of them, looking up at one of the windows with a hesitant look before drawing in a sigh and walking in. Her vigilance had tapered off the further she moved from the post office, gradually being replaced by resignation. It wasn’t even fun now. I could probably walk past her and claim that I had a meeting with Diamond Tiara, and she’d probably look relieved at the thought of something distracting the filly in the red dress. Oh yes, it was pretty obvious what was going on. Diamond Tiara had started by sending someone to try and retrieve the letter with words, and the agent was now coming back to report a failure. I moved a few paces away from the wall of the mansion I was looking behind, then simply shifted my weight to my rear prosthesis. I double-checked to make sure that I hadn’t strangled its access to my magic reserves, closed my lid tightly around my prosthetic eye, and jumped. I caught the top of the wide wall with the rear of my left, organic hoof, just in case someone might be listening, and led myself to landing low on the wall. I immediately did a quick scan of the grounds to make sure that no one had seen me, then dropped down behind some shrubbery, making sure I landed on my prostheses. The grey filly had moved out of sight, presumably into the mansion, and while it might seem like a bad idea to waltz around on rooftops if you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, the late afternoon was making way to evening. The sunlight was growing more and more orange, and the details of the skyline was becoming more and more obscured. I took another look around me, and aimed my prosthetic foreleg towards a cupola on the roof with a weather vane. It was jutting out from the rest of the structure, and no light spilled out from the window. It was the best candidate. The grappling hook shot out from the opening in my hoof with an authoritative sound, and I reeled myself up the side of the house with a whirr, continuously keeping my eye open for anyone who might spot me. Luck stayed with me for once. I released the grip my climbing assistance tool had on the weather vane, reeled it back in, and carefully made my way across the steeply arranged roof tiles, feeling more than a little smug about the upgraded gripping tool on the edge of the wire. On the other side of the wing was the window that grey-mane had been looking up at. Here, the risk of being heard was far greater, and I gently crept along the top of the roof. Reaching the end of another large cupola, I slid down one of the sides, fastened my grappling hook under the ridge of the roof, and very carefully climbed up again. I laid down on my back, made sure my hat was firmly on my head, then wrapped my trench coat around my hind legs, and my hind legs around the wire coming out of my prosthetic hoof, before slowly lowering myself down across the tiles on the opposite side I had attached the hoof, and over the edge. Faint light was spilling out of the window I was above. I angled my ears, probing for the faintest sound of conversation. “So you didn’t get it?” Diamond Tiara’s voice sounded, and I immediately stopped, before continuing to lower myself to just above the window, slowly. “No. I’m sorry.” The voice of grey-mane sounded apologetic, and submissive. “I see. I’m disappointed in you, Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara said, and I made note of that name. “I don’t like taking drastic action.” “But we only have to get some proof that the letters is ours,” Silver Spoon said. “It’s not ours though,” Diamond Tiara said. “And if that fails, it could implicate me. I don’t want to draw attention to my looking for it before I try and retrieve it.” “The mare in the post office knows I’m looking for it though,” Silver Spoon muttered, in a low voice. “And that wouldn’t be a problem if you had gotten it to begin with,” Diamond Tiara said, dismissively. There was a moment of silence, and I fought the urge to shake my head to dry and distribute the blood to the rest of me. ‘Come on! I can’t hang here all night. Get on with it!’ “Why don’t we try and get the files directly?” Silver Spoon finally asked, and I angled my head. ‘Files? What files?’ “You think I haven’t made arrangements for that?” Diamond Tiara said. “I won’t sent brainless grunts to get them; this needs brains… but I’ve gotten somepony to work that angle for us; that mewling yellow-coat. Besides, the muscle will be busy tonight.” ‘Yellow-coat?’ “What for?” Silver Spoon asked, curious. She wasn’t as curious as I was. I held my breath to not miss out on any details in the conversation. “I’m tired of waiting. That infuriating little tinkerer has kept me from my rightful prize too long.They’ll be going to get the letter tonight, and you’re going with them,” Diamond Tiara said, and my blood went cold from what happened next. “What!? Wh—” was all that Silver Spoon managed to say before they saw a shape flutter past the window. My hat had fallen off, and was sailing down towards the ground, releasing my shock of orange and blue mane. I cast a glance towards it, before I immediately started reeling myself back up. ‘Not too fast, not too slow. Can’t let them see you, can’t let them hear you.’ I righted myself up, the relief of being righted hardly registering as I heard the latches on the windows being lurked. ‘Don’t rush it. Don’t rush it,’ I thought, as I reeled myself up towards the peak of the roof as I heard the window being opened, then swung the wire coming out from my hoof, dislodging the hook from the edge, and reeling it back in as fast as I could, risking any listeners to hear the whirring sound rather than have the claw clacking against the tile. I hadn’t risked a glance down towards the window. if Diamond or Silver had looked up, there was a chance they’d seen me, and if they had looked down, they might’ve seen my hat. It was getting dark out, the last lights of the day making everything in the shade extra obscured against the orange glare, but it was hard to tell how much easier a time they might’ve had spotting the hat with full sets of functional eyes. “There! Do you see that!?” Silver Spoon voice sounded. I could almost feel the scowl on Diamond Tiara’s face. “Get down there,” she growled. ‘Hat it is then’ I thought, and immediately righted myself as silently as I could. I heard two sets of hoof falls cantering across the carpeted floor in the room underneath me, and immediately rushed up to the edge of the roof to assess the situation. My hat was lying on the ground a little ways away to the side of the main entrance. No flunkies or other personnel was in sight though, so it was between me and the two fillies. I was too high up for me to try and reach my hat with my grappling hook, and I hadn’t tried landing on my prostheses from this high up, so that wasn’t a very good option. I could try and lower myself from where I was, but since I didn’t have a good idea of the internal layout of the mansion, I didn’t know how and when I’d give myself away to people heading towards the entrance. To the east of where I was, there was a wing with its roof one floor lower, and the garden there favored taller trees and more dense shrubberies. I darted across the roof, and skidded down the angled tiles on my hind legs across the tiles, then towards the lower edge, before kicking off from the edge with my prosthesis, buckling the gutter sending myself towards a copse of trees. I must’ve made quite a racket, but this was a daring escape. As soon as I had my hat on my hooves, the only thing that was left to do was to beat hooves. Hopefully, Diamond Tiara hadn’t heard me or taken the time to alert anyone else in the mansion of an intruder, or any response would be a lot quicker. I aimed my metallic hoof towards a larch tree in midair and shot my grappling hook just above one of its branches. It struck true, and as soon as it looked like it had a grip, I started reeling myself in, transferring my weight towards the horizontal dimension rather than the vertical. The branch had a worrying amount of give as I swung towards the top of the wall, and gripped the edge of the wall with my fleshy foreleg, and hoisted myself up on the top. My prosthesis was strung up against the branch of the larch, and once again my blood ran cold as I pulled without managing to loosen it. “Come on. Come on!” I grumbled, but the tree just shook mockingly. Desperate, I looked towards the house, around the edge of which my very incriminating hat lay. I hesitated for one short moment before I swung down towards the ground, then slapped my left hoof on my metallic leg, making a quick series of motions against the opening underneath the covering in order to detach the leg. My leg came off, and swung lazily as it hung from the branch. I gave it an uncertain look before bracing myself, and turned towards the corner of the house, on the other side of which my very incriminating hat waited. The right sleeve of my trench coat flapped underneath me as I limped off towards the house as fast as I could, while at the same time navigating between the shrubs, and doing so quietly. Needless to say, I was getting stressed out. The flowerbed along the edge of the house was a gravelly affair, with polished macadam containing a few select much-cared-for flowers. I limped along it on the grass, until I reached the edge of the house. I heard the sounds of a large door being opened, with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon coming out into the evening, on top of the large set of ornate stairs by the entrance. I limped as fast as I could towards a shrubbery next to the flower bed, hopefully close enough for me to able to magic the hat over to me. The clip-clop of the two fillies’ hooves announced that they were moments away from being in clear sight of my hat, and I crouched down in mid-limp, jumping as far as I could with my rear prosthesis, and just managing to grip my hat as I landed and rolled across the ground, coming to a halt behind a shrubbery. I floated it over to me as I crouched low, trying to spot Diamond and Silver through a low section of the shrubs. I lowered my hat across my mane, making me somewhat harder to spot. “It was over there,” Silver Spoon said, and pointed towards where my hat had lain seconds earlier. If they probed around only a few steps away from where Silver Spoon pointed, they’d see me plain as day. Thinking in the pace normally reserved for desperation, I reached out and grabbed a pebble from the flower bed, before rearing up on my hind legs, tossing the pebble lightly into the air in front of me, and punting it hard with my metallic hind leg. The motion made me fall down on my back, but I heard the pebble rustling through a shrub some ways behind Diamond and Silver, and striking the wall behind it. I carefully raised my head and risked a glance towards the fillies. Their heads were turned towards the spot where the pebble had struck, and they were wordlessly and slowly walking towards it. I let out a sigh of relief, then slowly rose up. I made my way back towards where the shrubs were more densely placed, casting a glance behind me to make sure that Diamond and Silver were out of sight, before looking around the corner. I let out another sigh of relief at not spotting anyone else out and about, and that my leg was still hanging undisturbed from the larch. The way back was much easier, not being fueled by desperation, and figuring that I should have at least half a minute before Diamond or Silver came looking this way. I sat down in front of the prosthesis, activated it, then rubbed myself up against it. It attached itself to me instantly, pinning the shoulder part of my trenchcoat and a part of my vest against myself, then I reeled myself up towards the branch I was once again stuck to. The claw had spun around the branch, and was tangled in twigs and hanging moss. I forced it off, leaving large tears on the tree but not really caring, before playing it safe and jumping down towards the ground, then jumping up to the top of the wall. I landed on the dirt outside of the manor grounds, and jogged off towards the nearest alley. I started letting out a long series of breaths in relief as I looked up towards the sky, the last lights from the sun fading and making way for the stars and the moon. I was home free. At least for now. Diamond Tiara still planned on getting that letter. Tonight. Breathing heavily, I reached into my trench coat for the tin of wafer rolls with my prosthesis, my hoof shaking just like the rest of me. There was a dull clattering sound as the metals clacked against each other, and I shakily brought a roll of to my mouth for a moment of respite. My breathing calmed down as I did it through the roll, and I sat down on my haunches to detach my foreleg again. This time, I undressed my limbless shoulder and attached the leg without pinning my clothes between them, before slipping back into my trench coat. I took off my hat, punching out the little indents it had gotten during the excitement, when a cold drop of water hit my muzzle. I looked up into the sky, where rain clouds were converging on Ponyville, and only a small sliver of night-sky was visible between them. The rumble of lightning sounded in the distance. I steeled myself, before letting out a long sigh, and started half-running towards the post office. — I paused and gasped for breath, leaning against a wall. I was already running on fumes, and having two magic-draining prostheses didn’t help matter. I was exhausted, mentally, physically, and magically. The post office was near. Just around the corner. I paused to try and catch my breath, but it took far too long for me to stop breathing in heaving motions. ‘This isn’t good. It means I’m getting some magic back, but if I’m not careful, I’m gonna pass out in the middle of a breaking-and-entering.’ The rain was on my side though. My clothes might’ve been water-resistant, but the moisture in the air still helped cool my overworked body, and people don’t often consider how much a good rainfall can obscure one's senses: vision and especially sound. I might only have one eye, but this helps even out the playing field. I stood in the street corner, this time watching the back of the post office. I should be in a hurry, but fools rush in. Diamond Tiara was sending her thugs here, and I wouldn’t be looking for a fight even if I felt tippity-top. Making sure that no one was coming up behind me, I waited, chewing on another wafer roll in an attempt to regain some energy. Sure, it activated my digestion, which is a drain in itself, but it would have to be worth it. The soothing familiarity of the roll in my mouth tipped the scale into favoring snacks at this moment. So I waited. Hopefully, Diamond Tiara hadn’t figured out that I was involved in this, but the little incident earlier most likely made them suspicious in general. A preemptive strike would normally be the best move in this situation, but the lack of knowledge and high alertness on both sides, coupled with my own exhaustion, made me switch over the initiative. If this was a game of chess, I was only one piece against Diamond Tiara’s side. Letting her make the first move might seem like madness, but I hopefully still had one advantage: she couldn’t see my side of the board. She might not even know she was playing against someone. Feeling reasonably alert, I scouted the post office. I knew how it looked of course, but a reminder never hurt. There was the customer-entrance, and the large doors to the packing-section, then there was the part that caught my interest. Bunk beds were visible through the window of a second story room, and a chimney jutted out of the roof above. The part below it on the first floor didn’t have a fireplace as far as I could remember, and there were also soothing paintings of landscapes vaguely visible in the room. ‘An employee lounge? Or maybe accommodations for postal riders?’ There were no lights in there though, and no wisp of smoke coming from the chimney. ‘Empty then… hopefully.’ My attention was immediately drawn to a noise from the street a little way to the side, and I slipped back behind the corner of the house I was waiting by. Over the pitter-patter of rain I could hear loud and careless hoof falls echo between the houses, and stallions that didn’t know how to whisper to each other made some failed attempts at just that. “So lemme get this straight,” a gruff voice sounded. ”We’re looking for a needle in a stack of needles, and we don’t know what the needle we’re looking for looks like?” “Pretty much,” another stallion said. “Also, it’s dark, and nopony can know that we’ve been doing the looking.” “Quiet,” said Silver Spoon. “Let’s just go in there and get this over with.” They walked into my line of sight, and I quickly retreated back a little ways after I had caught enough of a glance of them. There was Silver Spoon, and two stallions behind her. I couldn’t tell if they had been present when I had met Diamond Tiara, but there was one earth pony and one unicorn. Silver Spoon was looking around her nervously just like before. The stallions were also probing all around themselves as well, but they didn’t telegraph nearly as much nervousness as Silver Spoon. They walked straight towards the entrance to the packing section. There were some sounds of locks and handles jiggling, and then of the door opening. I leaned my back against the wall, aiming my muzzle towards the rain and letting out a sigh. ‘What to do? What to do...? We’re all looking for something in there. None of us knows where it is, and I can’t let them spot me. Well, when you don’t know what to do, gather information. In other words, look closer.’ I walked over to the post office, and calmly but carefully climbed up the drain-pipe next to the window. As usual these days, my muscles didn’t burn from exertion, since the limbs I put most energy into didn’t really have muscles, but fatigue was still catching up with me. The painted metal was slick with the rain, but that didn’t pose a problem for me. I magicked the handle open, and I firmly opened the window to avoid any creaking sounds, and climbed inside. I quickly shut the window behind me. It was only one story up from the ground, and so it was a good escape route. It would’ve been a great one if I could leave it open, but the rain was coming down heavily, and the sound of an open window would attract attention. Keeping my knees bent to walk extra softly, I slowly made my way across the cozy room towards the door, my ears swiveling independently to try and pick up any sound or voices. The flash of light and the rumble of thunder made me pause, but after that I crept on. There was a rustling sound coming from the hall and through the doorway. I thanked whatever force arranges these things for the soft carpet I was on as I crept towards the doorway. “Why are you checking over there?” one of the stallions asked. “The outgoing piles are over here.” “The unsorted ones are over here,” the other stallion asked. “And over here. I can barely see anything,” the first one said. “I need you and your horn over here.” “Just light a lamp,” the second one answered. “No!” Silver Spoon hissed loudly. “Do you want the whole town to know we’re here? Keep the light down and find that letter, fast.” After a short pause, the first stallion muttered, “Those two are kinda mutually exclusive.” I rolled the wafer roll around in my mouth, then carefully walked out into the hallway. The stairs were directly to my left, leading down to the large room on the bottom floor. They were supported by thick oak bars going all the way to the ceiling, enabling me to stay low and spy on the three ponies downstairs ransacking the place. The sound of rain helped mask the sounds of my sneaking as I took position to spy on the trio. I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to tackle this more than a little complicated situation, while feeling like just laying my head down and falling asleep. ‘I could sneak down there and try and rifle through the piles and shelves they haven’t reached yet, but the chance of me finding what I’m looking for without getting caught is too low. I could wait until they have something and try and snatch the letter when and if they find it, but I’m outnumbered and about to collapse anyway. What to do, what to do?’ “I can’t tell where we’re supposed to look,” one of the stallions said. “There’re are like fifty piles called ‘outgoing’ around here.” “That Ditzy mare,” Silver Spoon muttered. “Just keep watch by the door and make sure nopony notices we’re here. We should have hours to find it.” ‘That is an excellent idea. Look at the door, not at the rest of the room.’ “But it will take longer if only two are looking,” he complained. “Between safe and fast, I’m going with safe,” Silver Spoon said. “Besides, you said you can barely see anything.” “And what about you? You’re an earth pony too.” “Just do as I say, okay?” Silver Spoon snapped. “Alright, alright. Sheesh.” The stallion walked over to the door and peeked his head around the corner by the window in the door, peering out into the darkness, and perhaps it was my short rest here at the top of the stairs, or I found this development encouraging, or perhaps that and more, but I felt a second wind building up inside me. A little one at least. When Silver Spoon and the unicorn stallion were once again focused on the stacks of letters, I waited for another discharge of lightning. Don’t want them to see my outline in the flash. I slowly snuck down the stairs, keeping a low profile like a lion on the prowl. I took position behind a large, potted viper’s bowstring, feeling reasonably sure that the filly and her thugs would have no reason to look there, before taking out another wafer roll to still my nerves with. I had sacrificed a superior vantage point for being closer to the action. The stakes were high and my hand wasn’t great, but I had played for too long to fold now. I focused on the piles that were furthest from Silver and the stallion. I didn’t know if the letters were filed in the order they had been accepted, but if they did, it meant that they had looked through one end by now and hadn’t found anything. Flashes from another pulse of lightning shone through the window, and I magicked two small piles down from the edge of the table, away from the sight of the two other ponies searching, and floated them over to myself. I might not have have the same field of vision as most others, but my night-vision was pretty good. It was still pretty dark, but there wasn’t much to look through per letter. I kept my search as quiet as I could, and above the sound of rain, I didn’t make a sound. ... Until I found something. To: Private Studded Armor, skyward barracks, Crystal Palace, Crystal Empire. Sender: Gabrielle Desrochers, Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville. I froze. ‘... What is this?’ I read the name of the recipient and sender again. ‘This is from… me? Who is…? Studded! My friend, and… assistant. Assisting with what?’ The stagnant pool of long term memories stirred, and trapped gasses of recollection were released from the depths. I looked down on my metallic hoof, the so alien part of me. ‘He helped me. I was… I… I came from somewhere else. We went to Ponyville and stayed at… Twilight’s! Yeah, Twilight is my friend. My grumpy landlady is—no! No she’s Princess Celestia’s student, and a princess herself.’ I looked between my prostheses and the letter again. ‘Then… who am I? I made these. I’m Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, private eye for hire, tough champion of the little guy, armed with… no. Fillies aren’t private detectives, and what kind of pony name is that? I’m… a human. From Earth.’ I looked down at the letter. This wasn’t the one that Fluttershy had told me to find, but it was the one everyone were looking for. I was sure of it. ‘... Something very strange is going on here.’ I don’t know how long I was lying in that little corner, but it wasn’t long enough for Silver Spoon and the goons to finish their search. It was however long enough for the wafer roll on my mouth to start falling apart from the drool in my mouth, and half of it broke apart and fell down on the pile of paper in front of me with crackling crunch. The room froze as four sets of ears immediately perked up. “What was that!?” the earth pony stallion said. “I don’t know,” Silver Spoon said. “You go check.” I immediately put the letter in my mouth and quickly backed away under the stairs. “Somepony’s in here!” the stallion said from where I had been going through the letters. “Spread out! Find them!” Silver Spoon barked. “And get some lights going in here.” I decided to take my chance this early. One of them was going to be busy lighting lanterns, and after that there’d be less darkness to hide in. I snuck towards the stairs, and climbed up them as fast as I could without making any sound. Just as a weak, orange light started warming the room, another flash of lightning came from outside, and the shadow of my sneaking form was plastered over the wall. Once again, the room froze, me at being spotted, and the others at spotting me. “There! Up the stairs!” Silver Spoon shouted, and I immediately turned around towards the earth pony stallion, the one closest to me. I whipped my hoof around a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and when I heard a satisfactory click, I aimed my prosthesis at him through the bars supporting the stairs. I let out a wild shot at him, and he ducked as a box of empty envelopes exploded over his head, then jumped over the desk to take cover. “Stop them!” Silver Spoon shouted, and a blast of unicorn magic shot towards me. It struck beside me, rattling the stairs slightly. This wasn’t a fight I could win. I turned back towards the upper floor, and started running as fast as I could. “After them!” Silver Spoon shouted, and I heard three sets of hooves following me. I turned around and raised my prosthesis, intending on letting loose another discouraging pulse of stun magic, when another bolt of magic hit the one I shot right as it left my hoof. A small explosion of magic resulted from the collision, and I was slung backward from the shockwave. I let out a gasp, and the letter fell from my mouth. ... Something in front of me was spinning, and I extended a hoof to try and steady whatever it was. When I reached out, I got a sense of just how far away that thing that I was trying to steady, and I realized that I was looking at the roof. I shook my head, and tried standing up without tripping over my trench coat. The room I came from was to my side, and I stumbled towards it when I glanced towards the stairs. The earth pony stallion was coming up them with an armchair on his back. He dumped it on the floor before turning around and bucking it towards me. I jumped out of the way into the room, trying to run towards the window. The armchair crashed against the wall in the corridor outside with a “thump”. I reared up by the window and threw it open, and the sounds of the approaching hooves made me turn around and send another magic blast towards my pursuers. The earth pony stallion ducked away from the shot, then the unicorn came into view and let loose another blast of magic. I threw up my prosthesis to shield myself, and the blast hit it square in the lower leg. I was pushed back and fell straight out the window, landing in a pile in the wet flower bed outside, then let out a sigh. “I got ‘em!” the unicorn stallion shouted. “That was Gabrielle Desrochers,” Silver Spoon said. “It’ll take more than that.” I let out a groan, then rose up to sprint down the street towards the houses on the other side. “She’s still up!” the earth pony shouted behind me. “Told you,” Silver Spoon said. I looked back and saw the earth pony stallion and Silver Spoon standing in the window, the latter holding the letter in her mouth. The unicorn appeared behind them and pushed the earth pony away, then powered up his horn. “Don’t bother,” Silver Spoon said, and the unicorn powered down. “We have what we came for. Let’s just get back.” I slipped behind a corner of a house and kept running, thanking Celestia that Silver Spoon wasn’t interested in pursuing me. They might’ve captured me if they got me completely helpless, but pursuing me wasn’t worth the effort. … I hoped. Good thing too, because I was about to collapse, and after two minutes of running, I did. I rolled over on my back, and stared up into the rain coming down on me, when a face appeared over it. It was mint green, with a white mane. “It’s nice to have friends, isn’t it?” Lyra said. I groaned as I felt myself being lifted into the air and deposited on her back, then let myself lose consciousness, not being able to remember the last time I was so happy to do so. — Gaiden part one Under A Thrilling Moon. Part Two: — “I swam through the darkness, like the lone ship looking for a port. Suddenly, the voice was there, and I realized I was dreaming.” “Gabrielle?” “... The voice asked.” “Gabrielle. What is happening?” “... The voice continued in confusion. There was silence for a moment, as if the voice was contemplating what it should do. “For my part, I just reclined against the shadows of the dream, thankful for the respite, wherever and whenever I was going to wake up.” “Are you under a spell then?” “... The voice finally asked, thinking hard.” “Oh for—” “It said, clearly frustrated. “It grunted at my narration, before I felt some form of magic building up.” “An intricate affair. Very impressive, but.” “... The voice said.” “But, I, can, help.” “It continued, probably glaring at me in annoyance.” “Ugh. Just wake up for now.” — I opened my eye, and took a look around me. I was in a small bed in a rather plain room, with dark wooden panels, weakly illuminated by a few large candles on the small table beside the bed. Beside the bed was a window with the curtain drawn, which spoke against me being captured. No malefactor would place their captive beside a window. Especially a night like this were the rain could help mask the sound of whatever one would be up to. This comfort vanished when I tried reaching for the windows, and found out that I didn’t have a right foreleg to reach for it with. I looked down at myself. All my clothes were gone, as were my prostheses. Even my eye was missing. I slumped back against the pillow, and tried gathering up the energy to do… something. I wasn’t sure what that something was, but this wasn’t the type of situation I was comfortable with just waiting around in. After the third deep breath, I scooted over to the edge of the bed, and tried gently sliding down to the floor. Letting out an “Oomph!” I landed on the floor in a heap, then started dragging myself against the floor. Fatigue clung to me like the rain had earlier, but I reached the door, dragged myself up against it, then turned the handle. I ended up in a pile in the floor again, this time outside the room. It was in a corridor, carpeted and homey. I heard a set of hooves coming up the stairs around the corner on the far side, and held my breath. I let out a sigh of relief when Nurse Redheart came into view, her usual cap missing and her mane flowing free. She let out a surprised cry when she saw me, and walked up to me with determined steps. “And where do you think you’re going?” she sternly asked as she walked up to me. I let out another sigh of relief when she crouched down beside me, then scooped me unto her back. “Back to bed I hope,” I said. Redheart let out a snort. “You’re absolutely right about that. Lying in bed is the only thing you’re in a state to do.” She walked up to the bed, then tipped me into it. “Now, you are going to stay right here while I get something for you to eat,” she said. Struggling to keep my eye open, I nevertheless gave her a look. “Thanks,” I said. She gave me a look of deep affection, before shaking her head, seeming to struggle against an invasive thought. With a look of concentration, she smiled at me, and said, “You’re welcome,” before her stern and grumpy expression returned, and she walked out of the room. Before long, just as I was dozing off, Redheart returned with a bowl of soup in her mouth. She set the bowl down on the nightstand, and asked, “Can you eat, or do I need to feed you?” I chuckled as I rose to a sitting position. “I think I can handle it,” I said. I took the spoon from the bowl in my foreleg, and started eating. It was a nice soup, but my hunger made it one of the tastiest things I‘d ever eaten. I had to eat with my left foreleg of course. “Hey, Redheart,” I asked between mouthfuls. “Where are my legs, and clothes?” “They were filthy, so I cleaned them off, along with your clothes. They’re drying off in the other room,” she said. “You had a magical exhaustion, and your legs were slowing down your recovery, so it’s a good thing that you showed me how to remove them back when you...” she trailed off. I looked up at her, and our eyes locked on. Redheart’s stern expression softened to a mix between worry and fondness. “... Gabe? I don’t know why I’m acting this way,” she said, and shook her head. “I don’t snap at you. You’re my friend, and Lyra found you out in the rain, and asked me to take care of you ‘just as usual’. I should be taking you to the hospital. I… I don’t—” I reached out and grabbed her around the neck, pulling her into a hug. “I know,” I said, and she leaned into the hug. “Something strange is going on. I’m out spying on people and getting into fights for some reason. I’m not a private eye, but I’m acting like one. Don’t worry about it. I know you don’t mean it.” Redheart let out a sigh. “Okay. Can I go back to… however I was acting before? It’s getting kinda hard not keeping it up.” I leaned back from her. “Yeah. Same here,” I said. She gave me a smile before her expression hardened again. “Well, eat up,” she said. “Then you’re going back to bed. Lyra said she’d be back later. I’ll wake you up when she is.” “Yes, ma’am.” She walked out and shut the door behind her. I quickly finished the soup, doing my best to scrape up everything in the bowl, which wasn’t an easy task with one foreleg and not enough juice left to hold it magically. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to rest properly in a situation like this. Vulnerable, and with Diamond Tiara and her thugs knowing I was against them. But this wasn’t normal tiredness. So I slept. Deeply. — By the time Redheart came back, I had recovered enough to be feeling that normal tired you feel from having slept for too long and not feeling like you’re able to wake up properly. The sun was setting again, and I hoped that Twilight hadn’t started waking up from whatever was happening enough to worry about me. “She’s waiting for you downstairs,” Redheart said, as she tossed my legs, my vest, trench coat, and hat next to me on the bed. “Thanks,” I muttered, and started activating and attaching my legs, before moving on to my coat and hat. I looked up, and saw Redheart standing in front of me with a small smile, and my prosthetic eye in her hoof. “I cleaned it off. There were crusts building on it,” she said. I smiled back at her. “Thanks,” I said, then took the eye, plopping it back in. I hopped off the bed, and we started walking towards the ground floor. “I hope you can fix this, Gabe,” Redheart said. “Yeah. Well, I seem to be playing a character, and my character has a gut feeling that doing my job is the key to all this,” I said. “Oh, good,” she said, before shaking her head. “Oh, here we go again.” She looked at me with weary annoyance. “She’s in the kitchen.” She pointed towards an opening in the lounge (the rest of the house was a lot more furnished by the way), then we walked in to see Lyra reclining against a stool by a table. “Hey, Gabe. Back on your hooves again?” she asked, with a sly grin I shakingly took a seat by the table. “Kinda,” I said, and pulled my coat closer around me. “Thanks for your help.” “Well, I’d tell you to remember that the next time you pay for a lookout, but I can’t really complain with your last payment.” “I’ve heard of the word ‘foresight’, but I never thought I’d have any,” I said, and fished a wafer roll out of my inner pocket. Redheart went to making the dishes, not really hiding that she was listening. “So, what do you have for me?” I asked Lyra. “Alright. Diamond Tiara’s little helper, Silver Spoon, has been asking around about the post office. She’s apparently looking for something. The letter you mentioned, I assume, but I think you know that already, going by where I found you yesterday,” Lyra said, and gave me a sly grin. I let out a small groan. “Yes, I know that,” I said, and just waved for her to continue. “Well, we also checked out Fluttershy, to see what her deal is. You said that she said that her reputation was at stake, but I gotta tell ya, we were struggling to find out what kind of reputation she’d lose,” Lyra said, and shrugged. I frowned at that. That’s another angle you should always check, but the first day had moved a bit too fast. “She said her family might be at risk.” “Dunno how that’d work,” Lyra said, and shrugged again. “If she has a family, they don’t live anywhere nearby.” My face mellowed from exasperation. Clients hardly ever gave you the full truth, but the ones outright trying to manipulate you were always hard. ‘And she seemed like such a nice mare, too. Wait, she is a nice mare. I know she is. Ah, whatever, I’ll deal with that later.’ “Apparently, she lives alone with a bunch of animals just outside of town. When she went into town a few days ago to buy fodder from the Rich’s little emporium, she apparently met with Diamond Tiara. No idea if it was voluntarily or not.” “So she might’ve be coerced into it?” Redheart asked. “Maybe,” Lyra said. “Haven’t heard that she’s familiar with Diamond Tiara from before, but we haven’t heard that she isn’t either.” I nodded. “What else?” “Well, here’s where it gets interesting,” Lyra said, as always relishing in a rapt audience. “That letter you mentioned? It’s not her’s. Can’t be. She hasn’t sent anything in weeks.” I sighed. “I guess I’m not surprised. Who’s is it?” “We don’t know,” Lyra said. “But it’s not Diamond Tiara’s either, she wants it for a trade, apparently.” “Trade it for what?” Redheart asked. “And with whom?” I asked. “Don’t know, but apparently there’s money involved,” Lyra said. “And that’s pretty much all we have on this topic.” “Alright,” I said. “Now, about Tiara’s thugs.” “They were watching Golden Oaks a few hours into the afternoon,” Lyra said, and looked out through the window, to the rain coming down, either still or again, I wasn’t sure. “But they gave up. Can’t blame ‘em.” I took some amount of pleasure in that, hoping that the thugs that had been standing out in the rain all day were the same ones who had blasted me out the window in the post office. “Good to know.” “And that’s pretty much it,” Lyra said. I nodded. “So how much did the little rescue cost me?” I asked. Lyra put her hoof to her chin and looked up into the roof. “Just customer loyalty,” she said and grinned at me. I gave her a wry smile back. “Well, I think it’s about time I made it back to Golden Oaks,” I said, and made to get out of my seat. Redheart’s hoof was immediately pressing down on my prosthesis-outfitted shoulder. “You’re not going anywhere,” she said, sternly. I grinned at her over my shoulder. “I didn’t know you liked having me here that much,” I said. Redheart snorted at me, rustling my mane. “The rain is gonna let up around sunset. Until then, you’re staying here, resting.” Lyra shrugged at me, and gave me an amused smile. “I wouldn’t be able to argue with that,” she said, then rose up. “I think my work here is done. If I find out anything, I’ll let you know.” “Thanks, Lyra,” I said. “I trust you’ll see yourself out?” Redheart said to Lyra. Lyra just put a hoof up placatingly, and started moving towards the door. “And you,” Redheart said to me. “Bed, couch, hanging upside down from the rafters, I don’t care, you’re gonna be resting. Get moving or I’ll carry you.” I made like Lyra and obeyed. — I opened the door to Golden Oaks. Lyra had been right, I saw no malice loitering around outside the place. Diamond Tiara’s thugs weren’t very good at the whole cloak-and-dagger thing. They’d caught me once, but I wasn’t gonna let them do it twice. The main hall was empty as I entered, the air was still and the lamps were out. Bracing myself for a verbal whipping from my alicorn landlady, I quietly crept across the wooden floor, feeling the hairs on my coat stand up. If it was from Twilight’s eyes boring into me from some corner, or some unsavory malefactor, I didn’t know. I reached the stairs, then quietly walked up to my office. I walked in, shutting the door behind me, and took a look around the empty room. ‘Huh. False alarm?’ I locked the door behind me, then slowly walked over and pulled the curtains over the window. I checked in the corners, the closet, and under the bed, but there was no one in here but me. Suddenly, there was an uneven rapping on my door, like someone hesitated to make their presences known. I whipped my head to face it, foreleg shooting up and my hoof rotating to ready the stun gun. All was quiet for a moment, and I glanced at the window, but saw nothing but the silhouette of the town in the darkness. The rapps had been fitful, and not at all like that of someone with dark intent. Another set of rapps came from the door, a little more steady this time. “Ms Desrochers?” a mare called from the other side. I let out my breath, and rotated my hoof again before setting it down on the floor, before walking over to the door, fanning myself with my hat as I did. I put my hat on, and opened the door, perhaps a bit more cautiously than I would have liked for my image. Outside stood Derpy, a worried expression on her face and one of her eyes focusing on me. I quickly took in the rest of the hallway to see if there was anyone else with her, perhaps waiting in the shadows for me to open the door. I gave her expression another quick scan and had to search my brain for a proper response. “That’s right. Can I help you?” There was no accusation in her voice. Worry, but not directed at me specifically. So I didn’t need to worry that my meager finances would go to cover the damage of the post office. Besides, the proper way to do that, and Derpy was all about proper procedure, would be to go to the town hall and have them send me an invoice. “Uhm, I want something found,” Derpy said. “So I thought I’d hire you.” I almost excused myself with the intent of shutting the door there and then. Perhaps contradictory, spending all day in bed doesn’t make you feel energized in the slightest. But then I realized who was standing in front of me and what had happened yesterday. “I have other cases,” I said, keeping it vague. “But come in anyway and let’s hear it.” I made way for Derpy and shut the door behind her. We silently sat down, and she cocked her head while she looked at me with concern. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You seem tired.” “Like I said, I have other cases,” I said, and tried summoning a bit of energy to pour into my posture and held out my hoof invitingly. This could be a clue after all. “Please, go on.” Derpy shook her head and stopped staring at my metallic hoof, before looking at my face. “Ehm, yesterday, after the post office closed, and I had cleaned off the counter, and made sure the stacks were in order, and fireplace in the lounge wasn’t lit, and all the uniforms were clean” – I smiled and waved my hoof encouragingly, but to no effect – “and the inkwells were in the box, and turned off the lights, and shut all the doors, and locked them, somepony must’ve come in and made a mess, because this morning, there was shredded paper all over the floor! and one box of envelopes was ruined, and some furniture was turned over, and the window to the second floor was open, and it was such a mess.” The genuineness of her words and the expression on her face made me struggle to not grimace a little in pain. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It sounds like you had a rough day.” “Oh it was no problem. I cleaned that up no problem,” Derpy said, smiling calmly. “Glad to hear that,” I said, relieved. “So do you need help to figure out what happened?” “No, I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “I think I figured out where the shredded paper came from. It came from the box of ruined envelopes.” “That… is a sound deduction,” I agreed, making Derpy beam. “So do you need my help with anything?” I asked. “Oh, right,” she said. “Well, I went through the box of outgoing letters, and one of them was missing. I looked under the potted plant, I looked in the attic, I looked in my lunchbox, I looked between the couch cushions, but I couldn’t find it. I think the same pony who broke into the office yesterday took it.” “Another sound deduction,” I agreed. “You want it found?” “Uhu,” Derpy said, nodding her head, and started talking in a very deliberate manner. “In accordance with the official postal service guidelines, when the realm is not officially declared to be in a state of emergency, engaged in national conflict, under martial law, or other similar disruption, disturbances to operations should be reported to senior members within the institution, government representatives of the region, and if possible, applicable agents of law enforcement.” I blinked at Derpy for a few moments. “Are you conscripting me to look for the lost letter?” Derpy happily shook her head. “Nope! The Ponyville Postal Services doesn’t have the authority or budget for that.” “So no payment for me either.” “Not from me, but you’ll be compensated by the municipality in accordance to section one hundred and eighty–” “Alright, I think I get it,” I said, holding up my hooves. “Don’t worry, Derpy. I’ll find your letter. What can you tell me about it?” Derpy put her hoof to her mouth and thought for a moment. “Uhm… it was in the far side of the hall, on the counter by the potted plant. There were fifty four letters there yesterday when I went home, and today there were fifty three.” I knew more about the letter than she did, but I still wanted to keep up appearances. “Anything else you can tell me?” I said, raising my eyebrow. “Nope!” Derpy said, cheerfully. “Alright, you’ll probably want to go home then,” I said, and rose from my chair. “Yep!” Derpy said, and walked out the door that I held open for her. “See you when you’ve found the letter, Ms Desrochers.” “Goodnight, Derpy,” I said, and closed the door. I lingered there for a moment, thinking about that letter, specifically the contents of that letter, and that made me remember that I was a human. A human who had been transformed into a pony and… something. I tapped my head with my hoof, trying to remember, before registering the strange sensation from doing so, and looked down at the metallic surface of my prosthetic foreleg. ‘... This is a prosthesis. It’s… rare. Special. I didn’t always have it and… why is it so hard to remember?’ The unnerving feeling from before came back, like some presence was there, watching me. I barred the door with the chair for my clients, and moved the cabinets to provide me some cover from anyone planning on jumping through the window. I was a bit tired, but my magic was back to normal. I was gonna be able to get off quite a few shots towards anyone planning something. Moving the cabinets, I noticed the plaque on one. “Formulas - Archive”, it said. I slowly opened it, and took the contents out. It was a folder, nearly overflowing with papers in various stages of badgerment. I brought it over to the desk, careful not to spill anything, lit a lamp, then started reading. ‘My old works. The early versions of my prostheses. A bit less refined than my current models, but really tough all the same.’ It was like a migraine, but without the unpleasantness. My mind was filling up, too many things were trying to fit in there, and overwhelm me. Or at least discourage me from doing what I was doing. ‘No dice. No one tells me what to think. Not even my own brain.’ In the fog of my mind, I noticed one string of thought feeling very familiar. I grabbed it, and followed it through the haze. The fog suddenly lifted. Just like it had back at Redheart’s. It was still there, tucked away in a corner of my brain, but as long as I held on to these thoughts, I could easily keep it there. It might sneak up on me if I lower my guard, like when I sleep. ‘Time to take care of it right now then.’ I emptied another cabinet into my desk, marked “Formulas - Current”, and “Miscellaneous Research”. I flipped through the papers in the folders, noting how proficient I had become at handling papers using only my hooves, then making a note of that thought, as it further grounded my state of mind the way I wanted it to. ‘Mass accelerator, magical data storage protocols, encryption, flight, auditory recordings, fast-acting ingested magic boosters, rechargeable propellants, water jets…’ On and on I flipped through the projects and subjects, thinking back and remembering. In my days since becoming a pony, thinking about my time as a human back on Earth sometimes felt like remembering a former life. Now, that also encompassed my life as a pony up until very recently. I hadn’t forgotten anything, I was just in a state where it felt disconnected if I didn’t think about it. Then I found it. “Thaumatic Interface”, the project was called… By me. A way to create a set of visible inputs. Routines and subroutines, easily adjusted by a moderately skilled magician to respond to a wide range of physical and magical interaction, sending out magic in several different ways equally adjustable, and visually represented by low-powered magic light. ‘It was gonna be like a computer from a science fiction movie. Like a holographic keyboard instead of an actual keyboard. From there you could make things like large command-consoles, and more.’ I smiled, thinking back and remembering that I really didn’t have any plans on what to do with it. I just thought it was gonna be awesome, and make some experiments with it before moving on to making my magical music player, using that as a test device. Turning back to the notes, I started reading about my preliminary research. ‘Let’s see. “Few analogues available in my proximity, if anywhere. Twilight, as expected, is very proficient in making illusory illustrations, which will be useful knowledge, but she has trouble wrapping her head around the goal of the project. She needs to see more science fiction movies. Perhaps more movie nights are in order. ‘“I’ve found a potential lead in the project. Spike has a comic with a fairly powerful and very impressively created set of enchantments in it. Key features include both physical interactions, as well as visual, auditory, and physical feedback (perhaps even olfactory) all illusory. This could be perfect for gaining some knowledge about the subject, and a good jump-off point.”’. It came back to me in a flash. That day where Twilight and I were researching Spike’s comic. ‘We were making good progress, and having fun too. Then it exploded, in some way. The next day was when this started… oh thank her teacher this has only been going on since then.’ I shook my head in relief, and went back to thinking. I almost smacked myself when I remembered. I projected myself into my horn, and sensed the magic around me. What I saw made me fall over in my chair. The whole library was absolutely soaked in magic. Glowing phenomena pulsed across the structure and everything in it, and soft tendrils were reaching out from the large glow, into the village green beyond. I saw Spike resting in a couch, and one tendril connected him to the library. I almost didn’t notice another tendril trying to “reach” for me, but it was mostly repelled, as if by a magnetic field. ‘Well… that’s interesting.’ I magically reached out and pushed the tendril away from me. When I did, what little creeping feeling there was to skulk around with a trench coat in the night and spy on people vanished. “Okay, uuh… next step is Twilight.” I let the tendril try and come at me again, but its hold over me was very limited now that I knew how to concentrate to limits its influence over me. With that, however, came a sudden fear of my landlady. Not Twilight as such, just the way I knew she was now. I braced myself, walked over and unbarricaded the door, then made my way downstairs. Twilight was sitting in the kitchen, reading a book and drinking tea, looking dour as always, in her old bathrobe and hair curlers. ‘No! Not always. Only since this started, because she’s supposed to.’ Twilight looked up at me with a cross expression when I walked in. “Miss Desrochers,” she said, coolly. “To what do I owe this visit?” I closed my eyes, projected myself into my horn, and took a look at Twilight. There was something different about her. Not one, but several tendrils of magic, loads of them in fact, were swirling around her, gently hovering around her. ‘... Oh. Now I see where this thing has been getting it’s magic from. She must be exhausted, which probably haven’t helped her mood. Good thing she’s an alicorn.’ I magically reached out and grabbed a few tendrils and yanked them off her. She sat up and eyed me warily. “Desrochers? What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously. “I’m gonna try and dispel something,” I said, then I lost the grip on the tendrils, and they reaffirmed their grip on her. I tried grabbing a few more. “It might take a while to explain, and I wanna do it when you’re more receptive.” “Desrochers?” she asked in alarm, as I yanked a few tendrils. “Ga–Gabrielle!? What are you doing?” ‘Yeah, that might not have been the best thing to say.’ “Don’t worry, I think I know what I’m doing,” I said, my voice straining a bit. I yanked a few more tendrils, but they kept reforming. I don’t know what she was feeling, but I guessed it was some strange feeling running through her whenever I interrupted the flow of magic going out of her. “S–stop! Whatever you’re doing, stop it!” she shouted. ‘Man, I am really smooth today.’ I grabbed a few more tendrils, but no dice. ‘Ugh! This isn’t helping. Which one is it!?’ “Stop!” she shouted again. “Twilight!” I shouted. “You’re an alicorn, right!?” “W–what!?” she shouted. “What does that have to do with anything!?” “Just say it. Tell me you’re an alicorn,” I said, as commandingly as I could. “Alright, alright, I’m an alicorn! Now please stop it.” “All alicorns are royalty,” I said, steadily. “What are you doing as a landlady?” I didn’t play any attention to her face, but I guessed there was confusion and a bit of anger there. “I, I, I can be whatever I want!” she said. “How did you become an alicorn?” I asked. “I, I don’t have to answer that!” she protested. “You became an alicorn through the power of friendship,” I said, as calmly as I could, before turning stern. “Tell me about your friends,” I commanded. “Wha–why? What do they have to do with anything?” she asked. “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity,” I listed them off. “You and they were the carriers of the elements of harmony. How did you become friends?” “We, we… we…” she stammered, and I saw something flicker amongst the tendrils around her. “Tell me what you did,” I said. “You know Princess Luna, tell me how you can know her.” “We… we saved her,” she said, quietly, almost in awe of her own words. I saw one of the tendrils being pushed away from her. I immediately grabbed it and yanked it off her. I heard Twilight let out a gasp, followed by a weak groan and a thump. Keeping my attention concentrated on the tendril trying to slither back onto Twilight, and keeping my attention on the one trying to do the same for me, was too much to do while using my eyes, or “looking” at anything else magically. So I had to carefully walk over to Twilight, essentially voluntarily blinded, and started feeling around where I last heard her. I met a soft amount of resistance after probing for a while with my fleshy hoof, and slowly reached down to nuzzle Twilight. When I established the way she was lying, I slipped underneath her, and carried her off towards the cushion she had been lying on as gently as I could. “Twilight?” I asked. “Twilight, are you okay?” There was a soft moan, and I found her face lifted up so that it was facing my general direction. “Twiiiliiight?” I asked softly. “Yeah, I figure you’re tired,” I said, seeing all the tendrils still slowly draining her of magic, “but I need you to wake up.” She let out another soft groan, and stirred. “Gabe?” she asked, a hint of fear in her voice. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m here. How do you feel?” “I feel...” she said, and paused. “Oh Celestia!” she exclaimed, and put her forelegs around me. “Gabe, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t– I, I don’t know what happened! I—” “It’s okay,” I said, hugging her back. “It’s okay, I know you weren’t. Neither was I.” “But what happened, and why are you dressed like that? And why am I—uagh!” she exclaimed, and pulled back in shock. “What, what!?” I asked. “My… my mane,” she said. “Why would I ever do this to my own mane?” “Well, it’s kinda hard to explain with words,” I said. “But uh, let me ask you again, how do you feel?” “Aside from just realizing I’ve been sitting alone for two days and feeling dour, while acting the way I did to you, I mostly feel a bit tired,” she said. “Only a bit?” I asked. “Okay, that’s good.” “Oh, okay,” she said, and hesitated for a while. “Gabe? Are you okay? You haven’t hurt your eye, have you?” I shook my head. “No, I just need to keep my concentration. If you’re not feeling too bad, I would appreciate it if you started sensing magic. That will explain quite a lot.” “Okay,” she said, confused, then let out a gasp. “Gabe… what’s going on?” “Remember that research we were doing on Spike’s comic, and the part of the magic that covered everything afterwards? I think this is it.” “But what are all these things doing with me?” she asked, and pushed a few of them away from herself, before they came at her again. “I uh,” I said, hesitating. “I think you’re the fuel for this whole arrangement.” Twilight groaned, but I stopped her before she could get anything else off. “Also, see this thing here?” I asked, waving the tendril that was trying to get at her in front of her magical sight. “This is the one that’s causing you to act the way you did, and I’m getting a bit tired of holding this.” “Oh! Oh, sorry,” she said, and grabbed it herself. I let out a sigh of relief, then deprojected myself and opened my eye again. “Thanks.” “So what’s going on?” she asked. “I’m not sure,” I said. “Shortly after I noticed, I came down here and snapped you out of it.” “I don’t like this,” Twilight said. “Do you think anypony’s been hurt?” I shook my head. “I’ve only seen a few of these tendrils go beyond the library, and I think I’ve met everyone who’re involved. They’re all okay.” “Oh, that’s a relief,” Twilight breathed. “Are they acting strange too?” “Yes, just like we were,” I said. “Twilight… I think we’re in a story.” Twilight was about to say something when she froze. She closed her eyes and projected herself into her horn again, then double-checked that she had a firm grip on the tendril affecting her, before moving towards the library. I followed, and started sensing magic as well. What I saw didn’t really surprise me. A particularly intense form of the magic energy saturating the library had settled down on parts of the shelves, and was slowly spreading towards the other section. “Uh, Gabe, the tendril that’s connected to you comes from—” “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I sighed. “Believe me, I know.” “So how are you acting so much like, well, you?” she asked. “It’s connected to you right now.” “I think I found a logical fallacy or something,” I said. “I found proof that I wasn’t what… this story magic wants me to be, and it’s much easier to suppress it if I keep it in mind.” Twilight took another look at the shelves. “It’s spreading,” she said. “Yup,” I sighed. “Other genres.” “And there are more of those tendrils growing out from the library,” she said. “Yup,” I sighed again. Twilight turned towards me. “Then we should probably try and fix this.” “Yup.” We traced the flow of magic across the library. There was a bunch of observations about why it formed and how (Twilight speculated wild magic and I was inclined to agree with her experienced view). Then, after some time of study, we came to a conclusion. “Something’s missing,” Twilight said. “A crucial document, either removed or misplaced. I don’t know what it contains, or even what it is, but there are traces and shadows of it everywhere. Without it, I don’t know how we’re supposed to dispel this safely.” I sighed, once more. I knew where this was going. I was starting to suspect that this magic was aware, or otherwise had some form of sentience, and was laughing at me. “It’s the letter I’ve been hired by Fluttershy to find. She’s being blackmailed by Diamond Tiara, who wants it for some reason,” I said. “How do you know that?” Twilight asked. “Because I wrote it,” I said. “It’s the only object that has left this library in two days. Also, the story wants me to get it.” “Why is Diamond Tiara blackmailing Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. “And how?” “I don’t know. Because it’s the kind of thing that happens,” I said. “And why is Diamond Tiara after a letter that you wrote?” Twilight asked. “That’s what I wanna find out. Look at the mesh of the enchantment again,” I said. “It’s got big holes in it. Those are some pretty significant flaws. “We need the letter, which is also what the story wants me to find,” I said, dejectedly. “Time to get to work.” “No,” Twilight said, and put her hoof on my shoulder. “You’ve done enough, and you should rest.” “You should rest,” I said. “I know you’re an alicorn and have years of experience, but you’re still having your magic sucked out of you.” “I can handle it,” she said. “I just need to talk with the right ponies before everyone is lost in a story. You just go and rest up.” She turned around and walked towards the door, but shortly after she had stepped out into the early night, her steps became sluggish, and she fought to walk on as if invisible cords held her back. That was actually a very accurate likening, since after a few more steps, she was launched backwards and landed on her back beside me, her eyes spinning in different directions. “Are you okay?” I said “Uuh, I think so,” she yawned. “Just sit tight,” I said. “I’ll be back with the letter. Diamond Tiara wants something of mine. I just have to find her.” It was just as well. Now she didn’t have to go out of the house with those curlers still in her mane. I adjusted my hat, put a wafer roll in my mouth, and started walking towards door. When I was halfway through it, I turned around and faced the library’s main hall. “I’m onto you! Those flaws are plot holes!” I shouted. I got the distinct feeling that something in the library besides Twilight heard that, and didn’t care. Fishing out another wafer roll, I started walking down the street, not being able to stop myself from grumbling. — It was time for some answers. What I saw back in the library had me worried. That mutated enchantment or whatever it was was spreading, and if it used Twilight as its fuel, who even knew how far it could go? So I made my way down the street towards Fluttershy’s cottage. This was the next step in the mystery. She had lied to me, as perhaps I should’ve expected, but I didn’t know why. She sent me after the letter that Diamond Tiara wanted. Why? And it was my letter, would anyone of them expect to get their hooves on it? It didn’t make sense that they would be in cahoots either. If they were, why did Diamond Tiara try and double-book me? To throw me off? Judging by my confusion, it would work. Lyra had said that she didn’t know why Fluttershy wanted the letter, but I felt it wasn’t that either. Whatever the case, I was going to find out. This was just another step on the path to knowledge. It’s just that the path was longer than it first seemed. Then again, it always is. The rain from the other day had mostly evaporated. A few puddles remained, mostly visible here on the rough roads on the outskirts of town, but otherwise it was mostly normal humidity. Fluttershy’s cottage waited ahead. The normally quaint cottage somehow looming like the outline of a hungry wolf in a dark forest. I stopped a while and waited. Something rubbed me the wrong way, and I softly went off the road, and slowly made my way through the bushes. Nothing seemed to react to this. Nothing moved in response to me clearly signalling that I noticed something suspicious. This, of course, meant one of two things. That either I was jumping at shadows (or avoiding shadows as the case might be), or someone saw me, and I didn’t see them. This place was wild grown. Much of White Tail Woods was cultivated, providing hurdle posts and wires and things like that for crafty ponies, but this wasn’t that. This place was made for little woodland creatures leading merry chases through the bushes and undergrowth. I slowly circled around to the back of the cabin. The soil was soft and the grass was thick, masking the thumps of my hooves as I jumped over the stream. The windows were completely dark, hinting at hidden faces observing me from the darkness in countless ways for the creative mind. I crept up towards the back door, trying a quick but fruitless attempt to look through the windows before I slowly tried the handle on the door. I smelled trouble, but while I wasn’t fully tippity-top, I felt a lot better than the last time I had been in a scuffle. It opened with a cringe-inducing creak, and I slowly made my way inside, keeping my posture low and my ears swivelling. The cottage looked like a mess. A sofa was knocked over, something sticky clung to the underside of my hooves, and the sweet smell of crushed produce blanketed the room. I considered calling out and asking if my client was here, but thought better of it. Yeah, it was incriminating to skulk around someone else’s place like this, but she had no reason to fear me. At least as far as I had determined. That’s when something swooped down and knocked me off my hooves. I landed on my back, with a large, shadowy creature looming over me, all sharp angles and ridges. It let out an angry hiss, and I brought my foreleg prosthesis up to shield myself just in time for something to clamp down on it, drooling hungrily. ‘Taking care of animals, indeed. Just what kind of animals are we talking here?’ The creature’s forelegs started pawing around my head, pulling at my mane and knocking off my hat. I brought my fleshy foreleg up and tried holding the upper foreleg of my assailant in place, putting it just out of reach of my muzzle. Using the very short time it reassessed how to get at me, I brought my prosthetic hind leg up between us, then angled its lower part upwards, before kicking the creature off from me. It’s jaws still clung to my other prosthesis, which I angled in another throw in a different direction, sending the creature tumbling over the floor. I was immediately on my hooves, rushing the snarling form, jumping at it, and pinning it down with my prosthesis held hard against its throat. “Don’t move,” I said in a low voice, with as much authority as I could muster, which was actually quite a bit more than I thought I’d manage, before I got a good look at the creature now that it was relatively still. It let out a whimper and shied away from me. “... Fluttershy?” I asked, incredulously. The one eye not hidden beneath her ruffled mane looked up at me. “Hello,” she said, in a small voice. Her mane had become ruffled, though still retaining the same amount of grace as always, her wings were leathery, bat-like affairs, her eyes were red and gave off a slight glow, and I couldn’t help but notice that, just as the crusaders had said, she had a pair of fangs in her mouth. “Are you okay?” I asked. She nodded weakly. “Mhm.” “Are you gonna attack me if I let you up?” “... No.” I stepped off her, and gently hooked my leg around her to steady her up as I did. We stood there, awkwardly looking around while we searched for things to say. “I, uh, heard about when this first happened to you,” I said, slowly scratching the floor with my hoof. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know how much of a secret it was, but I felt I had to say something. Fluttershy gracefully took off and seemed to flow up towards the ceiling. She hung herself from the rafters with her tail and wrapped herself in a cocoon of her own wings. “It happens again sometimes, but I’ve never lost control like this,” she said behind her wings, with only her eyes peeking out beneath them. “I have some ideas as to why though,” I said. She peeked down a bit more under her wings, looking intrigued. “What is it?” I looked at her, trying to gauge her behavior. “Hey, Fluttershy,” I said, fighting the urge to refer to her as ‘miss’. “How much you are you now?” Her eyes shied away from me again. “I remember visiting you the day before yesterday,” she said, and paused. “I hired you.” “Strange right?” I said. “Like something made us act that way.” She looked at me again. “Really?” “Yeah,” I said. “There’s this spell going on at the library. Using a bunch of stories to influence people,” I said. “You seem to be largely snapped out of it by now.” She shied away again. “A little bit. I’ve never felt like attacking anypony before.” I nodded. “Well, this might be a bit of a spurious hypothesis, but I think you might be getting conflicting influences from the spell.” She let out a confused hiss, then stopped herself. “Oh, I’m sorry, I mean... what do you mean?” “It’s spreading towards the rest of the library, and towards other people in town. No offense, but I think you were the best candidate for a different kind of character. Maybe the effects have at least partially cancelled each other out,” I said. “For now.” “Oh, uh… I guess that makes sense,” Fluttershy mumbled. I shook my head. ‘You’re here to fix this, remember? Get in character so we can get this show on the road.’ “Miss Fluttershy,” I said, and stopped myself, holding up a hoof to signal my confusion. “Sorry, Flutters, but I think I need to play along for now.” Fluttershy nodded. “Uhm, I think I do too.” “Alright, great,” I said, and walked over to pick up my hat, then putting it back on. “Miss Fluttershy, what were you not telling me when you hired me?” Despite her intimidating appearance, Fluttershy’s eyes started darting around in anxiety. “I, uh… I… didn’t…” she stammered. “You said you’d lose your family if you didn’t get that letter, but your family is nowhere near here,” I said, calmly, and without accusation. She wasn’t a soulless liar, her conscience would take care of the accusation part on it’s own. “You live on your own, no partner, and no children.” She suddenly spread her wings and let out a snarling hiss at me. I took a frightened step back, my metallic hoof spinning around, preparing the stunner. Her outburst was short-lived though. Her angry expression gave way to one of worry and sadness. Intense, too. It was practically despair. At least that’s what I saw before she cocooned herself again, this time her eyes being completely covered. “They took him!” she cried into her wings. “They took Angel Bunny!” “And who is he?” I asked, slowly lowering my foreleg. “He’s my bunny,” she cried. “They took him, and they said they wouldn’t give him back unless I helped them.” “By ‘them’ I suppose you mean Diamond Tiara and her goons,” I said. Fluttershy nodded, as represented by her mane waving from behind her wings. I sighed, and turned my hoof around again, locking the stunner. “Why did you hire me?” I asked. “What does that letter have to do with anything?” Fluttershy seemed to relax, or perhaps just sagging from dejection. “I overheard them talking. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They don’t want the letter, they want something from you. They’re either going to use the letter to get it, or do it some other way.” “From me?” I asked. “What?” “I don’t know. They told me to get all the files in your office, but I didn’t know how,” she said. “After I overheard them, I hired you go get it before they did. I thought that… maybe whatever was in the letter was enough to get Angel Bunny back, or perhaps convince you to help me, I don’t know.” She let out a small shiver. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.” “But that letter is only a correspondence with a friend,” I said. “There’s nothing valuable in there. Are they after my files?” “I don’t know,” she said. “I think so, but I don’t know what for.” I sighed, thinking for a while. Diamond Tiara had stolen my letter, but if she was also after my files, that might not be enough to get her to leave me alone. This provided additional incentive. Fluttershy had already hired me, she just had to change the objective of my task to Angel Bunny, and the story was back on track. “Miss Fluttershy, your retainer is still good for one more night,” I said. Fluttershy’s eyes peeked down from under her wings in surprise. “In fact,” I said, taking off my hat and hammering out a dent in it. “My schedule is otherwise free, if you want me to try and find Angel Bu—” That was as far as I got before she pounced me again. This time with a loud screeching sound that made my ears flatten against my skull. There was no snarling or biting this time though, only the embrace of her hooves and her leathery wings. “Thank you,” she said, after a while in a low voice. I tentatively returned the hug with one leg. I could feel a fang prodding me in my neck, but she didn’t seem to know about that. “You don’t happen to know where they might be keeping him, do you?” Her hug sagged a little bit. “No,” she said. “Oh well,” I said, and leaned away from her. “Time to get to work.” I started walking towards the door without another word. Not only was I going out to rescue Fluttershy’s Angel Bunny, I was also there to pay back Diamond Tiara. She had stolen from me, and it was now getting personal, and while it was nothing that couldn’t be replaced it… I stopped in my tracks a few steps outside the door from Fluttershy’s cottage. No, it really couldn’t be replaced. It was the only thing that would solve this whole situation. … I angrily kicked a pebble as I started walking again. ‘That sneaky little comic spell. I’m gonna—’ A loud croak from a frog interrupted my train of thought. “Eeey, filly,” the frog said, in an incredibly slimy voice. “Kiss me yo. I’m a priiiince.” “Fffuaugh–buzz off,” I grumbled at it, and kept walking. — Having an opponent without them knowing they’re your opponent can be complicated. You’re tempted to stay in the shadows, acting covertly, secretly, cautiously, and perhaps most frustratingly, slowly. After enough time of that, it’s almost a relief to act openly. To have them knowing you’re coming, and just psyching yourself up to simply hit harder than the other son of a diamond dog and just win. That’s what I was doing right now, and the first step was to find a flaw in Diamond Tiara’s defences. They were good, I didn’t know how to strike at her directly, but I had a few ways to probe for a weakness. Two weaknesses, actually. They were both walking somewhere from a late night excursion from… who cares? The point is that they were out and about, and I knew where. They were approaching my little arrangement as I sat observing them from my perch on the roof of Carousel Boutique. Good thing to, because if I had to stand listening to Rarity’s loud complaints that she couldn’t feel ever larger peas through ever thinner mattresses from her open window for much longer, I’d might do something drastic. “I’m telling you, ‘The Leggy Mermares’ is a great name for a band,” Snips said, as they kept walking closer and closer. “I don’t like it,” Snails said, and I gripped the rope in my hoof tighter and prepared to jump. “I don’t wanna call myself a mare.” “You don’t have to be the thing your band is named after,” Snips said. “Otherwise, all bands would just be called ‘The Frontpony And The Other O–UAGH!’.” Snails joined in on that last part, and in both cases they were responses to suddenly being lifted up by the ankles in a large snare, the other end of which I was holding in my hoof. I landed softly beside where the two unicorn colts were now hanging, and grabbed the handles for the cellar doors just as I felt the combined weight of the two colts starting to lift me up, then quickly pulled the rope through the handles and made a simple but strong knot. “Wha–What’s going on!?” Snails asked, as the two of them were jostled up and down from my tugging at the rope. “Hey, wha– Hey!, lemme down!” Snips said loudly, as they finally registered what was going on. Snails was about to try and hoist himself up to tug at the rope holding the ankles of his hind legs, when I quickly pulled his forelegs down again, and brought up a prepared set of cable ties. “No-no, we won’t have any of that,” I dismissively, as I quickly tied their hooves together. “Wha, you? What do you want?” Snips asked. “Just some answers to some questions I have,” I said, as I quickly slipped on a horn trap over his horn, then grabbed his companion’s head and doing the same to him with the other end. “What? What questions?” Snails asked. “About Diamond Tiara,” I asked. “And where she’d keep things she doesn’t want people to know she has,” I said, stood down, and took a few steps back to proudly observe my handiwork. It was an interesting display, and I realized that I should’ve brought a camera. Some modern art museum in Canterlot would probably appreciate this little creation. “We, we don’t know nothing!” Snips quickly sputtered out, both his and his partner’s eyes wide in alarm. “There are so many reasons to believe that,” I said. “But in this case, I think I want you to tell me what you do know anyway.” “We-we-we, we can’t,” he said. “Try,” I insisted encouragingly. “She, she, she’d—” “Idiot!” Snips said to his friend, whose muzzle was aimed towards his thanks to the horn-trap. “You just told her that we know!” “That’s right, he did,” I said, before Snails could answer. “And now you’re gonna tell me the rest.” Snips’ eyes turned to me, anger and defiance mixed with fear. Something which I could use. “No, we’re not gonna tell you anything,” he said in a low voice. “I think you will,” I said, dismissively, and slowly walked towards them. I started rubbing my metallic hoof against the cuff of my trench coat. “I have ways.” Snails’ eyes didn’t have the same amount of defiance that Snips’ had, and now there was a growing sense of uncertainty in the eyes of the latter. “What are you going to do?” Snails asked, me knowing that he’d fear the answer. “This,” I said, when my prosthetic hoof was clean enough, then brought it up to my lips to give it a wet, slobbering kiss. Their eyes went wide as they realized what I had in store for them. After I slowly removed my lips from the now saliva-wet hoof, I equally slowly brought it towards their muscles. “N–n, nnnooOOO!” Snips shouted, as I just let him avoid my hoof. “Filly geeeeerms!” Snails shouted, as I did the same towards him. “Big, nasty, squirming ones,” I agreed, with a smirk. “They multiply too.” There were quite a few whimpers and screeches and hyperventilating as I teased the colts with my saliva-covered hoof, their eyes following it like cobras, and every time one managed to squirm away from it, the other one was brought closer, prompting a renewal of effort to stay away from it. “Alright! Alright! We’ll talk!” Snail’s eventually said. “I know,” I said, as if they had commented that the stars were out, and brought my hoof down. “Go on.” “Filthy Rich has a warehouse on the east side of town,” Snails breathed out, hurriedly. “It’s just wood pulp and textiles, and there’s nopony there except a few days a month. Diamond Tiara keeps stuff there all the time.” There was a moment of silence as Snips looked at Snails, a mix between relief and dejection clear on his face, and I looked at the two with a happy smile. “Thanks, boys,” I said. “I’m sure someone will find you soon enough.” I turned around, and walked away. There were a few half-hearted protests from behind me, but they quickly died off. — Under A Thrilling Moon. Part three: — I walked at a brisk pace through the town. The details I kept seeing were starting to add up, like how Rainbow Dash and Applejack, dressed in a gi and a gunslinger outfit respectively, seemed to be facing each other off in the distance. I had to do it right though. I couldn’t afford to lose another fight and spend another full day recovering, or worse, getting captured. One thing that I hoped would help could be found among friends. Not friends themselves: I was planning on doing this myself, but I wanted to be stocked up when I did it. Scrap Armor opened the door shortly after I knocked on it. The faint glow of the forge being visible through the slits in the curtains of his workshop observatory. Thank Luna for workaholics. “Gabe? What are you doing here?” he asked, then took a closer look at me . “What are you wearing?” “Trench coat, hat, shirt, vest,” I listed off. “Long story short, me, and a bunch of other people, are stuck in a story. We’re kinda compelled to act in our assigned roles, and it very much seems like that’s the best way to fix it.” Scrap looked at me for a few moments, his face locked in confusion, before shaking his head. “Alright. Come on in,” he said, and made way for me. I gratefully stepped into his workshop, and closed the door after me. This wasn’t a time I was comfortable with lingering on thresholds. “I’m not staying,” I said. “I just need to borrow some things.” “What for?” Scrap asked. “Wait, run this through me again. You’re in a story, and… getting to the end of the story stops the spell that causes it.” “Yeah, you haven’t noticed anything?” I asked. “You have those goggles that can detect arcanic resonances.” “I’ve been smelting all week,” he said, and reached over for his goggles. He lowered the goggles over his eyes and looked at me, then took a step back in alarm. “Uaaugh!” he exclaimed. “Gabe... you got this… thing, following you.” “Like a tendril?” I asked, and he nodded. “Yeah. I can kinda keep it at bay if I want to though.” He looked around, and looked his eyes at something in the distance. Physically he was staring right into a wall, but he could spot the tendrils snaking their ways across the village green. “So, those things are causing you to act… appropriate for the story, or something?” he asked. “Yeah,” I said. “Any of them gotten to you yet?” He looked around again. “No,” he said, slowly. “Well, I know how to stop it, and I need some gear to get the stuff that lets me do it,” I said. Armor tore his gaze away from the tendrils, and raised his goggles to look at me. “Tell me where we’re going.” “No,” I said. “That’s not the kind of story I’m in. I just need to stock up. This is the climax. There needs to be a showdown between me and my opponent… I think.” “Gabe, I can’t let you just go out on your own,” Scrap insisted. “Tell you what,” I said, smiling slightly at him. “Stock me up, and if you think I’m gone too long, you can come after me.” He looked at me for another moment, before nodding. “Alright, what do you need?” “An arcano-metal torch, a pair of safety goggles, an extra small high-powered magnet-boot…” I said, as I took a seat on a small chair, and Scrap started gathering the things from around his workshop. “At least eight sets of full hoofcuffs, a long-range thauma-disruptor… and Hot Pink.” Scrap paused and looked at me, as I rolled up the right sleeve of my trench coat. “Going all out?” he asked. “Sure am,” I said, and rested my prosthesis on the table beside me. “It feels important to get this right.” Armor dumped most of the things on the table, and took my prosthesis in his hooves to start inserting the thauma-disruptor. “How much are you you right now?” he asked. “I’m almost all me right now,” I said. “It’s a bit like a dream. A dream where I do things I normally wouldn’t. Only I know it’s a dream.” “...Weird,” he said, as he started attaching the magnet-boot on my rear hooves. “You’re telling me,” I said, as I started pocketing the rest of the stuff. When I was finished, I looked to my right, seeing Scrap standing beside me with Hot Pink, the enormous arbalest, in his hooves. “... Don’t use this against anything or anypony closer than twenty-five trots,” he said. “I won’t,” I said, and took it in my prosthetic foreleg, the one of the two forelegs strong enough to carry it properly. “Thanks, Scrap,” I said, and started walking towards the door. “... Good luck,” he said, hesitantly, from behind me, as I walked back out into the night, fishing out a wafer roll from my pocket. “If I’m not back before sunrise…” I turned around and gave him a smirk, the roll sticking out of the side of my mouth, “call the princesses.” — I skulked back and forth around the warehouse. The first few rounds had revealed no one guarding the door, except for one pony keeping watch from the shadows behind a personal entrance. The shipping entrance was solid with no windows, and no doubt locked: no one would get in there without revealing themselves to everyone inside. The subsequent runs didn’t reveal anyone keeping an eye from the upper windows, and so that was my entrance. I scurried back towards the dumpster in alley I had started out from. I picked up the wet, flattened cardboard box, threw it back in the dumpster it came from, and retrieved the stuff I had tucked under it. I secured the belt for my trench coat over my pockets so that nothing would fall out, slung Hot Pink across my back so that I could hang upside down without it falling off me, then walked towards the side of the warehouse not having any entrances… not yet, at least. When I got to the side of the building, I was about to launch my grappling hook, when I stopped myself, then walked back to the alley and retrieved the piece of cardboard again. With the large paper construction in my other hoof, I walked back to the warehouse, then launched my grappling hook towards the roof. It struck true, and I raised myself up towards the windows on the second floor. I hung beneath the piece of the roof jutting out from the side of the building, and spied into the main storage section. It was mainly one large room, with tarp-covered wooden crates ranging from large to enormous stacked at random, turning the ground floor into something of a maze. An L-shaped catwalk hung from the ceiling in one corner, large loading hooks and pulleys reachable from it, and stairs placed in strategic locations, with an office about a normal house level up, looking down over the main floor. Many of the stacks of boxes were high enough to match the catwalk in height, creating a sort of second level for the acrobatically inclined who didn’t mind a lack of railings. The two stallions I had ran into in the post office stood by a chair, looking bored. On the chair was a thick bundle of rope, and from that bundle the head of a bunny poked up, looking thoroughly displeased. There were also clear hints of ponies walking around on the other side of the boxes from the shadows they cast. The light was fairly dim, but it was enough for me. Revelling in my boldness, I held the piece of cardboard against the window, and turned myself around so that I was hanging upside down. Both my forelegs were occupied. Luckily, I could hold the cardboard in my magic grip while I used my organic hoof to activate the magnetic boot. I had to be careful not to bring the boot too close to something I didn’t want I want it attached to, like my prostheses. This is also why I only used the one. Attaching the boot to the underside of the roof, I then activated the magnetic feature, firmly making me hang from the underside of the ledge. I disengaged the grappling hook and freed my artificial foreleg, pulled the cover up to remove the flammable covering, then held the large, wet cardboard piece in my fleshy foreleg. I fished the arcano-metal torch out of my pocket, after I had gotten myself a new wafer roll of course, then lowered the goggles over my face, and went to work on the lock, with the torch held by my uncovered but now non-flammable foreleg. The torch made a low, hissing sound, as it let loose a very thin stream of superheated magic energy. I aimed it towards the spot between the window and the sash where the deadbolts were located. Luckily, it was all metal, and the dampness of the cardboard made it hold out for long enough to not catch fire. After a few moments of torching, I felt confident that little was holding the window closed. Being careful not to burn my coat, textile variant or hair, I fished out a pair of hoofcuffs, and welded it to the lower frame of the window, giving me a handle. Feeling pleased with my effort, and the speed with which I accomplished it, I raised my goggles, and jammed the muzzle of the torch against the wet cardboard to cool it off before pocketing it again. I grabbed the window, and after a few tugs it opened. I kept the opening small to begin with, and let the piece of cardboard fall towards the ground, as I chewed up the last part of the wafer roll. I grabbed the windowsill with my forelegs, and magically deactivated the magnet-boot I was hanging from the underside of the ledge with. The subsequent maneuver could’ve been smoother. I managed to keep my startled, “Oof” fairly quiet, as I accidentally reactivated the magnet boot again midair, and it attached to my prosthetic hind leg. So I ended up hanging from the windowsill with the hoof of my left hind leg firmly attached to the knee of my right hind leg. This is where having a super-strong foreleg comes in handy. I swung up on the side to deposit myself on the windowsill, and I could grab the still searing hot parts of the windows frame for a better grip with my metallic hoof. After some more maneuvering, I managed to deactivate my magnetic boot, and I quickly kicked it off towards the street after I was done with it, then I opened the window and jumped in, making sure not to burn myself on the still hot surfaces. I landed with a low thud on a crate on a stack of crates, covered by a large tarp. I immediately looked around, my ears perked up high and swiveled around for any sound. Nothing could be heard though, and the two stallions I had seen earlier had moved away. I quickly relocated behind some other crates though, just in case the quiet was a result from them hearing me. I sat there for a moment, letting my ears poke up behind my cover, until they caught the voice of the earth pony stallion I had ran into at the post office. “I’m telling you, I heard something,” he said. ‘Well, thank you for that very informative proclamation.’ “We should’ve grabbed her when we had the chance,” his unicorn friend said. I loosened Hot Pink from the harness that held it to my back, undid the belt holding my trenchcoat closed, and started slowly pumping the heavy lever. I heard the sound of at least two more ponies walking around among the crates below. “Stay together, you dolts!” I heard Diamond Tiara’s voice call out. “Don’t let her pick you off.” I pulled the limbs of Hot Pink all the way back and locked the payload into place. ‘Why, thank you, Diamond Tiara. That’s very considerate.’ I carried Hot Pink in my prosthetic foreleg, and ran on three legs across the large crate I was on, and jumped, very visibly, towards another set of crates, my trench coat flaring visibly behind me. “There she is!” the voice of a stallion I didn’t recognise sounded out. ‘I am indeed. Come and get me.’ “We got her!” The voice of the unicorn from the post office sounded out from the ground level. I shifted Hot Pink over to my left foreleg, rearing up to be able to steady it against my barrel, then aimed my prosthesis towards the rafters in the roof to fire my grappling hook. It gripped the rafters easily, and I swung down a bit ahead of the direction the voice had been heading in. Hanging from the ceiling down between a corridor formed from crates, I trained the heavy net launcher ahead of me, at a T intersection of this little maze. The two stallions came into view at a full gallop, but skidded to a halt when they saw me. I figure they were ready for a traditional fight, but a unicorn with this much control of the vertical dimension probably wasn’t something they were used to. “Hello again, boys,” I said, grinning widely at their shocked expression, then pulled the trigger. The bola-augmented net hurled against them with the speed of a striking eagle, and unfurled like a killer squid as it zoomed through the air, catching them and sending them backwards, straight into the crates behind them. The crates piled on top of them, which, along with the net, ensured that they wouldn't be getting out of there for quite a while, and that didn’t even consider how they probably weren’t in the mood to try at the moment, judging by the groaning. The fight wasn’t over though. Four more goons soon ran in from the other side that my old friends from the post office had came from. They hardly slowed down when they saw me, and one of the mares among them was a unicorn. I quickly raised myself up before they could reach me, and disengaged the grappling hook halfway up, jumping towards a large crate instead, then depositing Hot Pink there, since I doubted I was gonna get the time to reload it. One of the worrying things is that I was sure that one of the ponies was a pegasus. I tenderly rubbed my barrel from the bruising that was no doubt forming beneath my vest from the monstrous recoil of the net launcher, then made for the edge of the crate I was on. I aborted my plans to jump to another crate when I saw an earth pony mare and stallion, from the group I had just raised myself out of reach from, spinning bags of wood pulp in their mouths, letting them go towards me when I came near the edge. The edge of the crate chipped as I kicked off from it with my metallic forehoof, and I sent myself rolling in the other direction, narrowly avoiding the bags as they zoomed past me. A cloud of dry sawdust exploded in the ceiling, and I quickly lowered my goggles in response, almost not noticing the pegasus as he came flying up from beneath the crates. He swooped towards me, and I just managed to roll out of the way, before he descended into the maze again. The cloud of sawdust had now formed a cloud where I was, and I used it to hide myself as I took off and tried again to jump to another stack of crates. “There she is!” one of the mares shouted, too late. This time I didn’t land on one big crate, but a heap of smaller ones, which wasn’t covered in tarp. I punched through the wood of one of them with my prosthesis, and pulled out a hooffull of pulp bags tied closed with strings. I quickly jumped onto the catwalk suspended from the roof by tough-looking steel bars, then ran noisily across it. The sound of hoofs followed me from below, but as I suspected, the pegasus quickly landed on the catwalk some ways in front of me, crouched low and ready to pounce. I skidded to a halt by one of the loading hooks, a frightened look on my face– one not entirely fake either. The pegasus shot off towards me, and I hurled myself over rails and swung in the loading hook just in time, before tossing the bags of sawdust as hard as I could with my prosthesis into the rails right where the pegasus was zooming past, rattling the catwalk and causing an explosion of dust. He tumbled across the catwalk out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering, as I swung back and landed back on the catwalk. He groggily made it halfway to a standing position when he looked back at me, with my prosthesis trained at him, before I gave him a standard blast, knocking him out. My foreleg caught a blast of magic from the unicorn mare from the ground, which luckily did little more than give me a push and knocking my goggles off. I turned and ran through the still lingering cloud I had just made, and jumped down in the maze, away from their aim. Instead of fleeing, I ran up to the corner of the corridor that they’d be coming from, poking my head out around the corner with my prosthesis at the ready, causing the two earth ponies in the front and Diamond Tiara to duck behind cover. What the unicorn was up to, I didn’t know, so I went straight to work. As soon as the mare started spinning another bag of pulp to throw at me, I blasted it with an arcanokinetic shock just as she was about to throw it at me. Both the two grown earth ponies and Diamond Tiara brought their hooves up to their mouths and started coughing, which is when I brought my grappling hook to bear again. I sent it out around and caught the mare around her foreleg, and tugged as hard as I could. She came flying towards me, and just as she was about to slow down, I stepped around the corner and pulled her with me. She was disoriented long enough for me to release the grappling claw and unceremoniously blast her before she had started rising up. I hadn’t seen the unicorn for almost ten seconds, and that worried me. I quickly crouched down to jump up towards the upper levels of crates again. I scanned the room around me, and the unicorn and I spotted each other at the same time. She was fiddling with Hot Pink, entirely in the open, and didn’t recover from spotting me long enough to jump out of the way of my magic blast. She collapsed with a soft thud, and I did a very quick celebration in my mind for my luck, before turning back to the matter at hand. A heavy set of hooffalls were quickly making their way across the warehouse, in the direction of the exit. I took off at a full gallop, jumping across the gaps in the crates and over the destruction that had been caused by this little scuffle, and jumped down on the ground floor in the larger open space by the door and the loading dock. The one remaining goon was there, an earth pony stallion. He whipped around when he heard me land behind him, before I quickly disposed of him with two simple blasts. I hadn’t spotted Diamond Tiara, and I quickly started looking around when the air was knocked out of me. I partially managed to spin around as I collapsed from whatever hit me, and saw Diamond Tiara slowly walk towards me, her flanks swaying beneath her swishing red dress. In one foreleg, she held an arcanokinetic disperser, which looked like a small crossbow without the limbs. She tutted disapprovingly as she walked up to me. “I was almost worried for a moment there,” she said, and reached into my inner pocket for a wafer roll, holding it in front of my mouth teasingly. “A for effort, B for brawn, and C for smarts. Close, but no wafer,” she said, almost putting the roll in my mouth before lightly tossing it away. I looked up at her through a half-lidded eye, not having the energy to scowl at her, or even enough to have much of a desire to. “I always get what I want,” she said. “I didn’t think it would be this easy though.” She lowered the disperser and aimed it straight at me while a smile grew on her face. “I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun, as soon as I wake up some of these dumb-dumbs. No offense, beautiful, but I don’t really want to carry you around before you get a wash.” I closed my eyes, sighed, then heard the blast of the disperser go off. I didn’t expect it too feel this way though. It felt like my face was covered by a sawdust, and deep experience told me to breathe easy. ‘Speaking of which, should I be thinking right now…? Also, is that strange sound Diamond Tiara coughing?’ Something yanked at my left shoulder, and I felt something hit me in the face. I opened my eye to see Angel Bunny angrily looking at me through another cloud of sawdust, aiming my prosthesis towards a Diamond Tiara who was stumbling backwards and coughing. I gathered up the strength I had left, and let loose another blast of arcanodispersive energy at her. She collapsed unceremoniously, and then so did I. … Until I vaguely became aware that something was off. Half-formed beginnings of thoughts formed and dispersed on my head, as if being awake was an old, half-forgotten relic in my list of states of minds, and my brain was looking around for wherever it could have put it. Eventually, it found it. “A-a-all-ri-i-i-ght,” I groaned. “I-I--I’m a-aw-a-a-ake!” I opened my eye to see Angel Bunny holding the collar of my vest and shaking me back and forth. Angel Bunny eventually stopped, then spun in front of me, and with a colossal effort, I brought my hoof up to stop my eye from spinning. I eventually managed to look straight at my rescuer. “Angel Bunny, I presume?” He looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the room. “Did we win?” I asked. He nodded at me with a slight scowl. “Alright, hold-ooh! Hold on,” I said, and started fishing the hoofcuffs out my pockets. “We better cuff ‘em before they wake up, and I need a minute.” Angel Bunny nodded towards me, and took the cluster of cuffs, about as big as he was, first cuffing the stallion behind us, then hopping away. He left one for me though. I managed to stand up, and leaned against a crate, breathing heavily, then looked at Diamond Tiara’s prone form. I walked over to her, and cuffed her forelegs to a ring of the tarp next to her. She wasn’t going anywhere. That tarp was strong enough hold a tornado, and it was weighed down by several tons of pulp-filled crates. I lay down and let myself rest for a minute. I wanted some answers, and having the interrogator about to collapse from exhaustion could easily undermine their credibility. It had been an exhausting few moments during the exciting bit, but it hadn’t been a prolonged scuffle. I had a bit of magical energy left, and while it wasn’t enough to get me through another little adventure, I could feel it being drained in favor of some physical energy. The second wind came, and it would have to last. I took Diamond Tiara’s head in my hoof, and started shaking it, although a lot more gentle than Angel Bunny would have. Her eyes eventually opened, and after a moment of trying to focus, she noticed me. To her credit, her expression of shock was a lot more mild than I thought it would be. She quickly tried something, but looked up and noticed her hooves tied above her, and sagged. “So, it looks like you win,” she said, looking at me with half-lidded eyes. “Seems that way. I have some questions though,” I said. My face was neutral, which in this situation translated to one step from annoyed and impatient. “Of course,” she said, and gave me a small smile. “Ask what you will.” “Where’s the letter?” I asked. Her smile grew. “I got it right here,” she said, and nodded at her dress. “Do you want it?” “Correct,” I said shortly, and pulled her dress down. She let out a short, “Eep,” and looked down at herself, before looking up at me again with a teasing smile. I ignored her smiles. She was just trying to seem as confident as possible to get under my skin. Granted, she did it really well, but I didn’t let it get to me. She didn’t lie, the letter was indeed where she said it was. I took it and quickly verified it. “Good,” I said, and finally looked at her for real. “Why did you want this?” “Oh as much as I’d like to involve myself in your personal relations, it was just a means to an end,” she said. “And that end was?” I asked. “Getting access to your files. More specifically, your patents,” she said, and smirked at me. “Those ratchet ties are really taking off, and I saw all that profit it will eventually make and thought to myself ‘why not just make it mine?’.” “And how was this supposed to help with that?” I asked, waving the letter. “Ah well, that was a miscalculation,” she admitted. “I thought it might’ve been a letter for your correspondent. It was working out nicely. I kidnapped that hateful little fluffball to get that batty old animal lover to get your files from you. It looked promising at first, she hired you, and I thought she was being clever, but it soon became obvious that she went behind my back.” “Daring thing to say, coming from a blackmailer,” I noted. Diamond Tiara waved my comment away with her hoof still tied above her head. “She must’ve caught scent of my other plans somehow. I let you go after I had tried hiring you. I realized that it might’ve been a plan on her part, occupying you. She didn’t understand why I wanted the letter. Then again, if it wasn’t for the fact that you obviously weren’t going to give it to her after you’d found it, her plan might’ve worked,” she said, evenly. “So you tried hiring me to find my own letter. How was that supposed to get it into your hooves?” I asked. “Why, I was going to send my muscle to get it from you when you had located it of course,” Diamond Tiara said simply. "And why didn't you send them to get them from me or my office directly?" I asked. “These brainless lumps?” she asked, looking at the cuffed stallion lying a little bit away from us and laughing. “No. Who knows what arrangements you had in place for protecting everything in your office? This needed some smarts. “Anyway, Silver Spoon managed to get the letter, but it didn’t seem to be of much use at first. Then I realized something, and I held onto it,” she said, shaking her head. “I got the feeling that it might be useful in the end. Like it was important to you, and therefore I could use it. Turns out I was right.” “Must’ve been when the magic started stretching a little too much. Another plot hole,” I said, mostly to myself. Diamond Tiara masterfully raised an eyebrow at me. “Excuse me?” she said. “We’re in a story, sort of. You’re the villain,” I said, shortly. “‘Villain’? Moi? Qui sont absurde,” she playfully protested, as Angel Bunny came stumbling back, with one spare set of hoof cuffs and Hot Pink balanced in his forelegs . “C’est absurde. Well, B for Brains, F for Foresight, and A for grace,” I said, and put the letter in my inner pocket, while also fishing out a new wafer roll. As much as I hated to admit it, she was being a good loser. “And now, I really gotta go.” She playfully pouted at me as I took Hot Pink and slung it over my back. “Aaaw. Are you really gonna just leave me here?” she said. “I would so like for you to stay.” I looked at her for a moment, before letting my head drop and letting out a fake sigh. “You’re right, I can’t leave you like this,” I said, and walked up to her. She hid her surprise well as I walked up to her. That was enough to throw her off guard when I quickly adjusted her dress before turning away. “Hey!” she said, angrily. “Hey yourself,” I said, as Angel Bunny and I walked out into the night. — “Hey,” I said to Angel Bunny as we walked away from the warehouse. “You’ll be alright from here, right?” He just gave me a deadpan look, and waved his forepaw dismissively. “Okay, great. Just so you know, she’s kinda vampire-y at the moment,” I said. His eyes widened in surprise, looking in the general direction of Fluttershy’s cabin, and giving me one last look as he darted off towards her. “Alright then. I guess that solves that.” Scrap’s hoofcuffs were spent, as was one of his nets, but the magnet boot, the torch, and Hot Pink were all with me. First stop however, was Golden Oaks. The excitement seemed to be done with me, although I saw the flower trio furiously packing a cart in the middle of the night. It looked like they were going on a road trip. I ignored them, and soon enough, I stepped into the library. Twilight was sitting in a couch, her neck slumped over the backrest. She let out a groan towards Spike, who was standing on the armrest and gingerly extracting the curlers from her mane, still in his grey beret with his spikes sticking out of the top. “Coffeeeeee!” she moaned. “No more coffee until Gabe comes back,” Spike said. “You shouldn’t have made me read those physiology books. Tricking your body into feeling energized when this magically exhausted isn’t good.” “I’m an alicooooorn! I can take iiiiit!” Twilight complained. “No,” Spike insisted. “Only if Gabe needs help.” “Well, we’ll find out soon,” I said, drawing their attention, very sluggishly in Twilight’s case. “I’ve got it,” I said, holding out the letter. Spike jumped down from the chair and started walking towards me. “Great! Twilight said that—” That was as far as he got before Twilight, now mostly curler-free, tried getting out of the chair and collapsed on top of him. “Greeeeat!” she slurred at me, with a dopey smile. “I’ve fixed the thing, so that… thing is real easy to… fix,” she said, trailing off uncertainly. Spike, grunting, squeezed his head out from underneath Twilight. “She said earlier that she fixed it so that all we need is the letter and the rest should be really easy for you,” he clarified. “Alright, lemme see,” I said. I projected myself into my horn, and took a look at the run amok enchantment again. I took a step back at the number of tendrils that had popped into existence. There must’ve been hundreds of them. The weave of the enchantment now had another layer to it though. A bright, purple radiance flowed through it, but was clogged up at a spot right next to us. Studying it for a minute, I figured out how to apply that kind of magic on the letter as well. I summoned up some of my meager reserves, and finished the spell. There was a low booming sound, as though the magic atmosphere filled a sudden vacuum, and that was it. Perhaps I was too tired and the hold on me at that moment was too weak, but I barely noticed anything at first, until a pressure in my mind lifted, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Oooh, that was worse than the first time I flew. ” Twilight whimpered behind me. I turned around and saw her slowly lifting herself off the ground. “Sorry, Spike,” she said, as Spike climbed out from underneath her. “I know how it feels, believe me,” I said, and sat down on my haunches. Twilight walked over to me and put a foreleg around me. “I’m sorry, I should’ve helped,” she said. “You did,” I said, and leaned into her. “And I think this was how it was supposed to go.” “Still, I should’ve gone with you,” she said. “Maybe,” I said, and gave a small smile. “But… it was actually kinda fun.” It kinda hurt to admit that, since it felt like the enchantment that caused all this trouble won. “Well, so long as everypony is okay, I guess we can rest easy,” Twilight said. “Speaking of which…” “Yeah,” Spike agreed. “You need rest, not coffee.” “I’ll take that,” I said. Spike walked over to me with a black brew, and I swallowed it in two gulps while Spike took off his beret and looked at it curiously before shrugging and putting it back on. I followed his example, and took off my hat to look at it. I had to admit that it didn’t look bad on me. The mystery was just where it came from. “I’m—” Twilight started before being interrupted by a yawn, “I’m gonna send a letter to Princess Celestia about this tomorrow. I’ll make sure she hears about what you accomplished.” “You mean cleaning up my mess?” I asked with a chuckle. “Our mess,” Twilight said. “Good thing you managed it when you did. When I was examining the enchantment earlier, I think I saw some star-crossed lovers-story starting out. I couldn’t tell who it was though.” I let out a low whistle. “Well, then I shouldn’t complain. At least this was something I could handle.” Twilight yawned again. “I really want to go to bed now,” she said. “You might as well. I’m just gonna see if Angel Bunny and Fluttershy are alright,” I said. Twilight looked at me, trying, and failing, to look anything other than groggy. “What do you mean?” “Angel Bunny was kidnapped, but I… I guess I rescued him?” I said, uncertainly. “Anyway, I sent him back to Fluttershy. He seemed okay.” “Okay, that’s good. And now,” Twilight managed to say, before yawning, then moved towards the stairs. “You’re gonna be okay, right?” I asked. Spike was already at her side though. “Yeah, don’t worry, I got her,” he said, and supported her up the stairs. “Goodnight, Gabe,” Twilight said. “Goodnight,” I said, and walked towards the door again. “Man,” Spike complained behind me. “I hardly ever get to do anything cool. I just cleaned, only this time I wore a hat.” “We’ll… we’ll come up with something fun to do some other time, Spike,” Twilight said. — I once again made my way through the empty streets of Ponyville, or at least almost empty. The flower trio was now packing things back into the same house from the same cart as before, this time with confused and uncertain looks on their faces. I had left Hot Pink in the library, since it was just down the street from where Scrap lived, and I took the opportunity to just enjoy the fresh evening breeze without feeling the need to be on the lookout for non-existent thugs and lowlifes. My ears perked up when I walked past Lyra and Bon Bon’s house though. “I still can’t figure out what happened!” Lyra said from inside their house, sounding agitated. “I know,” Bon Bon answered, as I put another wafer roll in my mouth. “How am I supposed to report this?” “... What?” Lyra asked after a while. “Nothing,” Bon Bon said, dismissively. I reached Fluttershy’s house, and entered a bit daringly after a simple knocking. Fluttershy was once again hanging from the rafters, wrapped inside leathery wings. This time however, she held a pleased and kinda smug-looking Angel Bunny tight and rubbed her cheek against his. I softly walked up to them, and when Fluttershy opened her still glowing red eyes, she smiled widely, let out a screech, and pulled me in with her wings, even flipping me around and making my head rest downwards as she wrapped me in a wing cocoon. It was very cozy and strangely comfortable. “Thank you, Gabe. Thank you so much,” she said. “Well, it feels strange to be praised for something I think was meant to happen,” I said. “But you know, you’re welcome anyway.” “Angel Bunny told me about what you did,” Fluttershy said. “About how you fought a whole army of ponies.” I fought down a small blush. “Well, I wouldn’t call it an army,” I said. “Also, he saved me in the end.” “He uh, has experience with chewing through rope,” Fluttershy said. I looked at Angel Bunny, who gave me a look of smug superiority. I wriggled a hoof free from Fluttershy’s embrace and hoofbumped one of his paws. “You’re still wearing your coat and hat?” Fluttershy asked. “Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “I was just checking in to see that everyone was alright before calling it a night. I didn’t bother removing it.” “It… looks good on you,” Fluttershy said, her face reddening. “Thanks,” I said, looking down at my vest with a smile. “And I think you pull off the whole queen-of-the-night thing really well too.” “Oh, uuh, thank you,” Fluttershy said. “Well, I think I better move on,” I said, extracting myself from the wing-cocoon. “Like I said, I was just checking in to make sure that everyone’s alright. Gotta tell Redheart I’m okay as well, and give Scrap back hiiiiis…” I trailed off “What?” Fluttershy asked. “Oh, uh. I just remembered that we left seven ponies tied up in a warehouse,” I said, and paused to think about it. “You know, maybe I’ll check in on them last.” — In summary, that little episode had a pretty successful conclusion. The getup still hangs from a rack in my bedroom. Rarity sometimes wants me to wear it, and so does Scootaloo, when she doesn’t want to try it out herself. Twilight spent a day and a half feeling groggy before being back to her normal self, still working on enchantments with me among other things. We set to implementing strict cleanup policies regarding magical contamination, which we followed vigilantly from then on. Lyra, Bon Bon, Redheart, and I, had a good laugh at the whole thing. Bon Bon was especially pleased with my newfound appreciation for wafer rolls. Although I don’t carry them around with me all the time anymore. It doesn’t look the same without the hat. I got a letter requesting me to report to the town hall to receive my payment in accordance with my agreement with Derpy. Mayor Mare and I had a head-scratching time before we anomaly stamped the whole thing, and I used my modest reward to buy a basket of muffins from Sugarcube Corner which I gave to Derpy at work. She had a few and then took the rest home to share with her daughter. Diamond Tiara was thoroughly embarrassed by the whole thing when I came to let her go. Her henchmen were apparently her father’s housekeeping and gardening staff. She insisted, in strong words, that I never talk to anyone in school about this, and then immediately extended it to everyone. I released her from her cuffs and told her that she had a deal if she let her “henchmen” loose herself, and then returned the cuffs back to Scrap Armor. She won’t talk to me in school, but that’s business as usual so I don’t care. She admitted that the whole thing was a scheme to get her hooves on my patents for the cable ties, which she was planning to give her dad as a present. I thought that was sweet of her, so I let it slide. Silver Spoon kinda got away scot free. It doesn’t really bother me. Her scowling at me in recess has mostly made way to looking worried at Diamond Tiara’s twitching eyebrows whenever I’m around though. If there was a lack of karmic judgement going on here, I wasn’t really in a position to complain. Snips and Snails didn’t really deserve what I did to them either, even though they didn’t seem to be all that bothered by it in the end. Scrap Armor gracefully accepted the equipment I had borrowed from him, and in return he asked me for a full and detailed report of how the showdown in the warehouse had gone. One of his cuffs were ruined, but he didn’t seem to care as the rest was returned. He didn’t bring up the beefed up arcanodispersive shocker he had jammed in my prosthesis, and I got a feeling that it wasn’t because he had forgotten it. I returned Fluttershy’s money to her. She didn’t really need it, but then I didn’t really either. There was some minor rumors going on around town from the events of those few days, slightly stoked on by the minor property damage in the post office and Filthy Rich’s warehouse, but in the end, it wasn’t anything major compared to what usually popped up in Ponyville. After that, life continued as normal, relatively speaking. Not counting the new stun gun in my foreleg, there was no worldly reward. All I had to show for it were new experiences and a fun story to share. Then again, that’s not so bad. People often pay for that, but it kinda felt that if I saw this experience through the metaphor of a reward, it kinda felt like a strange currency I’d never seen before, from a country I wasn’t sure I was ever going to visit. In the end, I just shrugged and laughed at the whole thing. So do most people I tell the story to. — Under A Thrilling Moon Epilogue: — Spike was dusting shelves and cleaning off books. Particles of vegetable oil sometimes drifted from the kitchen into the library section, and it could slowly accumulate on the spines of the books, mixing with dust and damaging the books. Spike took pride in his job. He was good at it, and he liked that. Sometimes though, he found himself dreaming away to other places, where he could do other things. Exciting things. Adventurous things. Like the things that Gabe had done. He had been on adventures before, but they always came out of nowhere, and his friends always ended up the real heroes. Except for a few times. A small smile formed on his face. At least he’d always have books and comics to help him dream about it. He stopped his cleaning when he saw something he didn’t recognise. A book. He looked at it. It hadn’t been there the last time he had went through this shelf, and that was only two days ago. Curious, he removed it from the shelf. It was a plain, grey, and not very thick thing, without a title. Spike took the book, and opened it. Inside however, there were only blank pages. He sighed. Figuring that it must’ve been a blank journal that somehow found its way onto the shelf. Spike was about to close the book when something caught his eyes. In the top-left corner of the page, there had suddenly appeared words. He was certain that this was the case, and that he hadn’t just missed them the first time he had looked at the pages. This was because the words were being written as he was looking at them. What they said was what particularly caught his interest. They read: Greetings, Agent Spike. Your mission, should you choose to accept it... Gaiden part two > Shadow Of The Horned King > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back when I was human, I sometimes found myself musing about the celebrations of the human body. Yes, I suppose I did so because of the trauma my own had suffered through, or at least I think it was. This time, I was thinking about it in terms of athleticism again, as we were about to head for the Crystal Empire to watch the Equestria Games. I had some interest in seeing it, but it was overshadowed by my curiosity about the Empire itself. More on that later, back to the human body. It wasn’t really a subject I contemplated with much bitterness. What athleticism most people have isn’t appreciated by many in any case, so it’s not like my predicament had changed much on that front. In antiquity, the Greeks, and other hellenistic cultures, made quite a few works of art celebrating the ideal physical human shape, mostly statues it seems. They probably would have drawn them too if that art was refined back then. Also worth noting is of course their famous celebration of physical prowess, like that regular and widely celebrated event, the Equestrian Games’ Earth equivalence, the Olympic Games. There was actually quite a lot of celebration concerning the pinnacle of human bodily capabilities, and animals’ too, when I think about it, throughout history. As mild as my enthusiasm for sports generally is, I had to admit that it was better in modern times. Way back when there was a lot more violence in sports, especially in Rome. Caging people or animals to fight is not cool, yo. This all made me consider some of the implications I had overlooked about my research. My prostheses had the ability to surpass a normal pony’s capabilities in many ways, like those springy prosthetic running legs where some people could boing-boing around faster than natural legs. I didn’t care much for potential unfairness when it came to sports, but it did made me wonder if there were some who would remove their limbs willingly to use the more powerful versions like I was using. After all, if you don’t count potential phantom pain, a long healing process, and little when it comes to built-in sensory feedback, using my prostheses had some pretty big advantages, especially for me now that my magic had been attuning to my new limbs for quite a while, primarily making me able to use them for longer before draining myself too much of magic. I wasn’t very worried that they would come to be used as weapons. Equestria already had weapons technology, though I hadn’t seen any other than what the guards carried around, and what was lying around in Scrap Armor’s workshop (mostly in pieces), and I hadn’t ever seen any being used. So there didn’t seem to be much demand for it. If Equestrians wanted to use violence against one another, something which required the commitment of a prosthetic limb would be a strange choice when one could use any number of objects as cudgels and sharp sticks. That made me consider the gryphons. Not that I had any indication that they were more prone to violence than ponies, with my sample size of one single individual, a very courteous and agreeable one at that, but it was obvious that they might be having a harsher time of it all on the whole than ponies, and thus might be more in need of some of my contributions. ’I’d have to dress it up as research or something,’ I thought to myself, as I stood at the platform at the Ponyville train station. It was pretty clear that gryphons didn’t care for charity. ’Then again, it would be research. I wanna see how gryphons’ magic fields differ from ponies’, and I wanna see gryphon talons made out of metal.’ It was pretty packed at the platform, with Twilight and friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike, some people from class, and many others that were talking amongst themselves— mostly expressing their excitement at going on this trip. Animated discussions were had, flags were waved, and a few whistles and horns were tried out. No vuvuzelas though, thank goodness. I was travelling pretty heavily. I figured that I might as well bring some research materials with me while I was away... then I dismissed this idea and figured that my guitar work needed some love, and my guitar plus case was now a lot larger compared to me than it used to be, especially since my new ukulele hung from the side of the case. I still had a few gems packed here and there just in case, as well as my latest invention: a boombox in a gem no larger than my hoof. I wasn’t all that hindered by luggage compared to Spike though. Spike travelled light, but Rarity didn’t. As much as I love her, she makes me shake my head in disbelief a lot of the time. As demeaning as it looked, him struggling to stand up straight beneath suitcases and bags about twenty times his volume, he did a good job. He had even offered to carry my guitar, an offer which I had politely, but adamantly, refused. “So how’s your routine coming along?” I asked the Crusaders. “They’re doing awesomely,” Rainbow Dash answered above them, having taken to hovering overhead to ease the congestion on the crowded platform. “Why don’t you wanna join, Gabe?” Apple Bloom asked. “I’m not much for the spotlight,” I said. “Besides, unless Sweetie Belle or I suddenly turned into an alicorn, the representation ratio is perfect as it is.” “But you would be the human representation,” Sweetie Belle said. “I guess,” I said. “But I’ll be fine cheering you on.” “We don’t need no cheers!” Scootaloo insisted. “But, you know, thanks anyway.” The train was steadily closing the distance to the station. I uneasily looked around at the gathered ponies, and up at my luggage. I turned to Rainbow, who was still hovering in the air. “Hey, Rainbow. How many cars are there? I can’t tell from here.” Rainbow Dash flew up a bit farther to get a better view. “Plenty,” she said when she got down. “Oh, good,” I said in relief. The train came to a halt at the middle of the station, and everyone started filing in calmly and in good order. This wasn’t a commuter-train from back on Earth, filled to the brim with half-sleeping people who just wanted some place to sit down. There was plenty of room, and we had seats reserved. Twilight, the Crusaders, and I, were about file in, and I took a look around, to take in the temperature and the weather. The Crystal Empire was still modernizing, and I was curious about what their weather might be like in comparison to the Equestrian heartlands. Over at the entrance to another car, I saw Rumble standing next to a pegasus stallion with his mane in a very natural looking mohawk. He was smiling at something in my general direction. I looked behind me to see who he might’ve been smiling to, but everyone else had started moving into the car. Looking back at Rumble, he had already started moving into his car as well, with a downcast look in his eyes. The stallion ruffled Rumble’s mane with a wing, and asked him something. ’Man, he looked disappointed about something. I hope that other guy can cheer him up.’ — Bulk Biceps was… an impressive sight. I might be able to surpass Applejack and Rainbow Dash in pure strength for a little while, but I wasn’t sure about that guy. He was a mountain of muscles, had a huge chin, and very tiny hooves. Rob Liefeld would approve. There was a lot of impressiveness overall in the car I was currently in. The Crusaders’ routine was very nice, several pegasi were doing pushups with their primaries, and I saw one mare being flexible in ways that looked outright scary. I walked over to the next car. These were Ponyville ponies, and in my experience, they don’t steal, at least not often, but I still didn’t want to leave my guitar unguarded for too long. “Hey, just do it,” I heard someone say in a low voice behind me, as I took my seat in the isle, and laid down to have a little shuteye. “What’s the worst that could happen?” A little while later, I was lying down across the seat with my guitar on top of me, plinking away with my left hoof, and my prosthetic foreleg out assisting in some adventure. The thing is, I was actually right-handed, and so were my parents, who taught me how to play, so I had a right-handed guitar. My left hand had to become my dominant one when I lost my right one of course, but by now I was remembering how to use my right arm as the dominant one. Only they were forelegs with hooves now of course. It was actually very good practice. Twilight should play the guitar with her magic. A real guitar wizard does some crazy stuff with both hands at the same time when he or she is playing a guitar, but, other than that, notice how people use their dominant hand to do the relatively simple task of strumming the strings, while using their left hands with the often more complicated goal of snaking their fingers in the correct way to get the proper tunes out. I’ve heard it explained that your dominant arm is the stronger one so your other arm has to compensate by being the clever one, and that’s why that’s the one doing the most coordination-intensive job. So, I was using my more-subtle-than-it-was-strong kind of magic to strum the strings, the “strong” task of playing the guitar, which was good practice for me. Twilight could’ve done the same when she was learning magic, only press the bands with her magic instead, the “clever” task of playing the guitar to train up some fine motor-control of her great strength. My tiny boombox had the volume turned down, and was resting near my ear, as I hadn’t developed headphones yet. My muzzle was pointed to the ceiling, but I had my eyes closed, with a hint of a satisfied smile on my lips as I softly sang to my equally soft playing. It’s amazing what sounds you react to while playing music. You can become absolutely deaf to the chugging of a steam train or the soft movement of people walking past, like I was, and still pick up the subtlest thing, like the acoustics subtly changing from what it was a few minutes ago. I stopped with an internal sigh, hoping that it wasn’t someone scowling at me and wanting me to stop. I played quietly for that very reason. Next to the isle was Rumble and the mohawk stallion, and I let out another internal sigh, this one the relieved kind. They didn’t look annoyed. “Hey, Rumble,” I said, giving them a friendly smile. He opened his mouth, but settled for just waving at me with a foreleg. The stallion bumped into him softly and smiled down at him. “Hey, bro. The lady said ‘hi’. Say something back.” ’Older brother? I guess he looks pretty young, but so do ponies over a hundred and fifty years old. Can they tell each other’s age beside child, adult, and far senior? Because I’m really struggling here.’ Rumble looked up at him nervously, but I let out a small laugh before he could respond. “Lady?” I asked. “Are you gonna hold my sunbrella for me while I step off the train? I can find you a hat for you to tip if you want.” “Hah!” he said, smiling, then move next to the couch. “Mind if we join you?” “Not at all,” I said, sitting up and being careful not to bump my guitar too hard against my hind leg prosthesis, which, unlike the other one, I was wearing at the moment. It had a textile cover the same color as my coat of course, but I still hadn’t conjured up a toughening-enchantment for my guitar that I was sure wouldn’t mess with the sound. Rumble and his brother went to sit down opposite me. “I’m Gabrielle,” I said. “Gabrielle Desrochers.” “Thunderlane,” the stallion said. “And you already know my little brother, Rumble.” “Yep,” I said, easily. “That’s an interesting name though,” Thunderlane said. “Were you raised by gryphons?” “I already told you she wasn’t,” Rumble muttered under his breath. I don’t know if he wanted me not to hear it or not, but he obviously didn’t know about my keen hearing. “Oh, right, sorry,” Thunderlane said. “It’s just that in the newspaper, it said that you might’ve been.” “What newspaper?” I asked, genuinely. “Canterlot Times did an article on you. I have a copy with me,” Thunderlane offered, then fished out a rolled up newspaper from under a wing. I eyed it with some suspicion, because you kinda wanna know when you’re talked about in the news. “It talks about some reclusive inventor that made impressive replacement body parts.” “How do you know it was me?” I asked, with a hint of smarm. At that time, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ran past, laughing and ducking from the harmless rays firing at them. Scootaloo ran after them, wielding my prosthetic leg, out of its blue cover, like a gun. They were playing laser tag with my new, adjustable search/signal light system I had recently installed into it. Thunderlane wordlessly pointed towards them as they ran towards the back of the car and into the next one, then pointed to my empty shoulder. “Oh, right,” I said, evenly. “Well, what does it say?” Thunderlane opened the paper, cleared his throat, then started reading. “Can you walk on three legs? Of course you can. Can you walk on two? Maybe a while if it’s the right ones.” I got a small smile at that. “Can you imagine living your life with missing limbs? Perhaps no legs at all? Fleetingly, perhaps, but can we really fathom what that would be like? Now, it seems like we might never have to wonder if we don’t want to. “Prosthesiouuuh, that word, arteficial limbs, have been available since before living memory of course, and while I would never dismiss the effort and dedication that their creators pour into them, having to get by with plastic and metal imitations of real limbs is a cruel fate to suffer.” Thunderlane had stopped reading, and I looked up from tuning my guitar to see him and Rumble looking at me with cautious curiosity. I shrugged. “Yeah, I had those,” I said, and nodded. “It’s best to treat the subject carefully. It’s often an emotional one, but I’m gonna be frank and say that it could drive me up the walls.” “Uhm, talking carefully about it or using them?” Rumble asked, which kinda made me stop, since I don’t remember having heard his voice clearly before now. “Both, actually,” I said. Thunderlane picked up the newspaper again. The article told about the alleged capabilities of the prostheses, all of which were accurate, and how the ponies at the institute didn’t talk about the inventor because, “They haven’t said that they don’t want to remain anonymous,” and how she plans on visiting Baltimare to find two recipients of the new technology. Rider and Sunlit, I assumed. “Oh, here’s the part I was talking about,” Thunderlane said. “While I never met the inventor in person, some details were revealed by the interviewees talking amongst themselves, that the inventor might be a single individual.” “Not entirely true,” I commented. “And that they might come from outside of Equestria. I speculate that the inventor might be a gryphon or a minotaur,” Thunderlane quoted, then looked up at me. “Ah, well, no,” I said. “I wasn’t raised by gryphons.” “But you did invent your… what’s that word? Prostuuh… your metal legs?” Thunderlane asked. “Well, yes,” I admitted. “Told you,” Rumble told his brother, “That’s amazing,” Thunderlane said. “It’s magic,” I said, evenly. “Also, I had friends who helped me.” “It’s still amazing.” “Yeah, friendship is pretty magical, I’ve found,” I said. “Heh,” Thunderlane said, and picked up the newspaper again. “It says here that the prototypes were foal-sized, so that if you find a foal with prosthetic right legs, he or she might know the inventor.” I nodded. “Yeah, they’re probably right there, technically.” “So if you’re not raised by gryphons, where are you from?” Thunderlane asked. “Oh. some medium sized run-of-the-mill town somewhere,” I said. “Nice place, but Ponyville is nicer. Though I miss the sounds sometimes, the seagulls helped wake up and the foghorns helped me sleep.” “Coastal town, then?” Thunderlane asked. “Is your family there?” I gave them an assuring smile. It didn’t hurt at the moment. I already had my guitar out so that didn’t blindside me. “No, they’re gone,” I said. Thunderlane’s and Rumble’s faces and ears dropped at that, but I had a plan ready. “How about you?” I asked. “Are you two Ponyville natives?” “We are. Parents are in shipping and receiving in the weather service,” Thunderlane said, as his ears slowly righted themselves, grabbed Rumble around his neck, then pulled him into a playful armlock and gave him a noogie. “Little baby brother here helps me out on the distribution team like a big stallion too.” “Thunder!” Rumble whined. Their behavior brought a smile to my face. I didn’t have any siblings, but my parents sometimes filled a similar role, having a more buddy-like relation with me at times, especially when they were teaching me music. I’m not sure everyone has that range when being a family. I idly plonked a few tones on my guitar when Thunder let go. There was a bit of an awkward pause building, but Thunder nudged his brother and mumbled something to him. “Uhm,” Rumble started. “I, uh… we liked your music.” “Aw, thank you,” I said, and smiled appreciatively at him. “I wouldn’t call it my music though.” Rumble was just looking down at his hooves, but Thunderlane nudged him again. “Uhm,” he started again. “Whose uh, whose music is it then?” I shrugged. “Well, it’s by two people from over… back where I’m from.” ‘Well, not exactly, but compared to another world, you could say that it’s where I’m from.’ “A ma— mare and a stallion, a couple, called Night and Blackmore.” “Ah, that sounds more like pony names,” Thunderlane said, nodding. “Thestrals, I bet.” I hadn’t met any thestrals yet, but from what I’d learned about Equestrian culture so far, he could be right. “You uh, you play with your unicorn magic?” Rumble asked. “And my hoof,” I said, waving it at him. “Hey, can pegasi play instruments with their wings?” “I’ve seen one pegasus use five drumsticks at the same time,” Thunderlane offered. “That counts,” I said. “But why, uh, why aren’t you using your, uh,” Rumble started, then tapered off, and looked down at his hooves again, blushing. I looked at him worriedly. Years ago, back when I was coming to grips with losing my arm and leg, I couldn’t always tell what reaction I would have to people bringing it up. People might’ve been understanding, but I simply don’t wanna tear up in front of others, and the most reliable attitude I could take towards it was an almost aggressive indifference. “Whatever,” was my motto, and my psychologist eventually made me realize how difficult my behavior could be to people who were only being considerate, and how hurtful it could be for someone to have their consideration thrown back into their face. “Hey, it’s fine,” I said, and smiled at him. “It’s nice of you to be considerate, but you don’t have to. My foreleg is otherwise occupied, this is good practice, and this thing is a little bit too big for me,” I said, looking down at my guitar. I looked up at Rumble. “As for the obvious question, it was my parents’.” Rumble looked down again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Don’t be,” I said shortly. “And you can call my prosthesis whatever you want, fake leg, metal leg, cyber part. It’s fine.” Rumble didn’t look up, but he had a small smile when he spoke next. “They’re really cool,” he said. “Thanks,” I said, smiling at him. “How do they work?” Thunderlane asked. Rumble and Thunderlane looked on in fascination as I detached my leg, then recoiled just a little bit and looked at it uncertainly as I hoofed it over to them. Thunderlane eventually took it in his hooves after I waved it a bit at them, and Rumble scooted over to have a better look at it. “It’s hollow,” Rumble observed. “But not empty,” I said. “What do you mean?” Thunderlane said, looking up at me. “Notice how thick the chassis is?” I said. They nodded. “That’s hollowed out, and there’s where the enchanted gem dust that moves it is. Also, be careful not to dent my harmonica, it’s in there somewhere.” Rumble and Thunderlane looked at me for a second at that. “How does the enchantment knows what to do?” Rumble asked. “It’s attuned to my arcanomorphic form,” I said. “What’s that?” “It’s uh, it’s a magic field that represents your physical form,” I said. “When you stay afloat by just casually flip your wings? That’s you using your arcanomorphic form to do some pegasus magic, enforcing your will on the physical world.” “... Oh,” Rumble said, in comprehension. “And it turns out,” I said. “That losing a bodypart doesn’t mean losing that bodypart’s arcanomorphic field, lucky for me.” “That’s really cool,” Rumble said. “Can you, uuh…” “Sure,” I said, and smiled, taking the leg again and putting it back on. “I would’ve thought you’d have seen this enough in school.” Rumble cowered a little bit. “You’re always—” “Hey, Gabe,” Apple Bloom suddenly said beside us. “Rainbow Dash wants to see our routine again, so we better head that way.” “Yeah, here’s your leg back,” Scootaloo said, and hoofed me my foreleg. “Thanks.” “No problem,” I said, putting it back on. “Break a leg.” “Yeah!” Bulk Bicep called out in the distance, perhaps not in response to us, but we all laughed anyway, and the Crusaders pranced away. “So anyway,” I said, and put my foreleg back on. “It responds to my wishes perfectly. I control it just like I did my real one before I lost it.” I slowly waved it back and forth and wiggled my hoof at Rumble. “So if you ever find yourself missing a limb, I got you covered. I’m even working on artificial eyes and ears. I haven’t looked into organs, but I will eventually.” Both Rumble and Thunderlane looked on in fascination. “That’s so cool,” Rumble said, and Thunderlane nodded in agreement. “Yeah,” I said, then gave them a serious look and pointed at them. “Don’t actually go lopping parts of yourselves off though. I can make replacements but phantom pain is still a very real thing.” Thunderlane held up his hooves. “Don’t worry, we won’t,” he said, chuckling. “Actually, I’m gonna see how it’s going for the team. You gonna stay here keeping Gabe company, bro?” “I uh,” Rumble started, then Thunderlane gave him some sort of look. “Uuh, sure.” I didn’t know what they were on about, but then again, I never had siblings, so I didn’t know what kind of unspoken communication was going on there. Rumble shifted in his seat. He looked tense about something. I figured he had more questions about my disabilities or prosthesis, but didn’t want to ask. Some people, a lot of people actually, took quite a while before they were comfortable discussing disabilities. I would’ve thought being restored to, and in many cases surpassing, standard capabilities, would make it easier for people to talk about, but maybe seeing me lying there without my foreleg overwrote that. “So you help out on the weather team then?” I asked, strumming at my guitar. “Uhm, yeah,” Rumble said. “Sometimes.” “What’s that like?” I asked, casually, politely wondering, but not pushing, clearly signalling that he can talk or not talk about it, I’m fine with either. “I never knew anyone working with the weather where I lived before.” “Oh,” Rumble said. “Well, it’s kinda cool. Rainbow and Thunder pay me bits for it, and when it’s storm-season, we fly through the discharge zones, and you can kinda shoot lightning with your wings.” I gave him a wide-eyed look. Magic made ponies tough in many ways, especially when it comes to weather, and especially for pegasi. Ponies could take a lightning strike and not be actually hurt, and pegasi could take one and only feel giggly. “Awesome,” I commented. Rumble blushed. “Yeah,” he said, slowly. “But Rainbow Dash is the head of the weather team, right?” I asked. “Yeah. She’s awesome at it,” Rumble said. “So… it’s not that she’s the boss because she’s got contacts in Cloudsdale or something?” I asked. “Uhm, I don’t think so,” Rumble said, not seeming quite sure what I was getting it. “Everypony knows she’s the best flier and the best weathermare in Ponyville.” “Oh.” ‘Good.’ “That would’ve been very unlike her.” “Oh, yeah, it would,” Rumble agreed. “Somepony else asked that once, and Thunder said that Rainbow can’t, uh... ‘charm her way out of a wet paper bag’.” That made me chuckle. “I think he’s right,” I said. “It’s pretty cool that you help out the professional weather team though.” Rumble looked down and blushed even brighter, and at this rate I was thinking that the poor colt might need some more praise in his life. “Thanks,” he said, then looked up at me after a while. “Could you, uhm… could you play some more? I really liked it.” “Sure thing,” I said, and smiled. I mostly played for myself, but it was still nice to hear that people liked it. I powered up my boombox. It didn’t have a user interface yet, so I had to do it with my magic. I had spent the last week putting in music from my computer down in Twilight’s basement, now I just needed some headphones and I’d have what I always wanted. I spent a lot of time attuning my magic to my legs, which happened just by using them, so what I really wanted was a walkman with some headphones and a nice day to have a good trotting session every once in awhile through the great outdoors. What I’m getting at is that I had a bunch of music with me. I powered up the music player and raised the volume enough for Rumble to hear, then, this time using both my forelegs, I started playing. I had wondered before whether I should share the art I had with me from Earth with ponykind. It didn’t seem very pressing, since I had no way to distribute it en masse, but I was happy to see the reactions. Twilight, Spike, the Crusaders, and friends had really enjoyed some movie nights, and now Rumble really seemed to be enjoying the music. In fact, a while after I had started softly singing, I looked up at him, away from the neck of my guitar, and he looked absolutely spellbound. He made half a motion to get up, but changed his mind. I didn’t realise that he would like it that much. I switched over to strumming with my magic, and patted the cushion beside me with a smile. He made another half motion to move, but just stopped himself and blushed for a while, before just relaxing into his seat and listening again. I smiled and closed my eyes, losing myself in the soft tones of the guitar. I didn’t sing out very loud. In fact, I was singing pretty softly. That didn’t stop me from missing what happened around me. After a few minutes, the song ended, and for some reason I hadn’t opened my eye during the whole song. When I did, I recoiled in shock. Rumble was looking at me, looking absolutely captivated. Along with the rest of the car. Everyone had gotten up from their seat and were standing beside our isle of seats, looking at me in utter silence. After a moment, someone started slowly stomping, and then the rest of the gathered ponies started stomping their hooves to the floor and sitting on their haunches and clopping their hooves together, some even whooping in excited approval. The roles were reversed now. Instead of Rumble, I was the one who shied away, and blushed fiercely as I tried to not make it too obvious that I was trying to hide behind my guitar. Spike was there too. “Whoa,” he said, in a low voice. There was a simmer of approval from the crowd. Murmurs along the lines of, “What’s her name?” “I’ve seen her around in town,” “She’s that filly with the metal hooves,” and, “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her play before but I can’t remember when,” “Wow, Gabe,” Lily Valley said, and smiled widely. “Does Lyra know you can play like this?” “Uuh, I don’t know,” I said. ‘She might’ve been unconscious the last time I played in front of people.’ “Well you should show her,” Roseluck said, standing next to Lily and Daisy. “You could play together.” “Uhm, maybe,” I said, in a low voice. The flower trio looked at each other, confused, before the whole crowd “naaw”-ed at each other. “Aaw, Gabe, you don’t have to be shy,” Lily said, soothingly to be point of patronizingly, and the rest of the crowd murmured in agreement. “You were great. We all liked it.” “Yeah, what would the world look like if people were too embarrassed to share their music?” Daisy said. "She's right, Gabe," Spike agreed. "You don't have to be scared from sharing your music." By now I was mostly fighting back a scowl. ‘Bold talk, Spike.’ “Uhm, well, thank you,” I said, not being able to keep out a touch of coolness in my voice. “Hey, you could perform in the musical ceremonies of the games,” Spike eagerly suggested. “No,” I said, with as much conviction I could without sounding angry, before anyone could murmur in approvement again. “Oh,” Spike said, looking a bit confused, along with everyone else. “Well, okay. If you’re sure.” “Yeah, well, uhm,” I started, looking around at everyone. “Thanks for the compliments, but I think I’m gonna pack up for now,” I said, and started putting my guitar into my hardcase. “I need to rest my hooves.” The crowd dispersed, looking only slightly disappointed. When they’d left, I looked around and noticed that Rumble must’ve left with them. I let out a sigh, and, having nothing better to do, propped my head up against the armrest, hoping to turn this rest into a nap. — Everyone was filing out of the train in a calm and orderly fashion.The Crusaders and I brought up the rear, along with Spike, who was carrying a sports bag larger than he was, filled with kettlebells by the looks of things. Spike and the Crusaders were talking about something, but I wasn’t listening. I was busy looking around at the city. I had been admiring the place through the windows since it had been visible, but now I was seeing it in detail. The whole city gleamed in the sunlight. It was perhaps a little too bright, but it felt more like a winter brightness, where everything gleams and glitters in the sun, rather than the summer brightness with the heat visibly radiating off the roads. I tapped my hoof against the glass-like floor, or ground, whatever you’d call it. It made an even more pronounced clacking sound with my prostheses than the floor of Canterlot Castle did. ‘Interesting material. Looks difficult to maintain, but also very resistant to wear and tear. I’d like to see how they do it when they need to patch up potholes, if there are any. ‘This is a cold climate, and coming from a subarctic zone, I know you want something that can stand the cold, or be easy to repair. Preferably both.’ I looked closely at the skyline. ‘Obviously planned layout indicated that building, rebuilding and/or repairing is an undertaking. The buildings must be excellent for enchanting, so the difficulty of installing modern conveniences might not translate here, if it’s done with magic. That’s gotta be a relief for some people. Those 16th century buildings back home were probably a pain to install city grid access points and radia—’ That’s as far as my trail of thought went before two glittering stallions in armor ran by, and sweeped Spike with them, with him shouting in protest as he was carried of into the distance. Me and the Crusaders just looked on in confusion. “Were those guys dressed in armor?” I asked, cautiously. “Uhm, yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “Hmm… do you think they arrested him?” “No,” Sweetie Belle said after a while. “I don’t think that’s how arrests work.” “Oh… must be something official then,” I said, and shrugged it off. I wasn’t very worried. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t dragon discrimination. Spike had told me the story about how he helped, or according to him, Twilight and friends helped him, save the Crystal Empire, and since Twilight didn’t correct him or even disapprove of how he told it, I assumed that it was mostly true. So it wasn’t an irrational fear of wyrms. Modest of size and ferocity as they may be. Someone cleared his throat behind us. We turned around and saw a pegasus in armor looking at us patiently. “Yes?” Scootaloo asked, after a while. “Are any among you known as…” he seemed to struggle a bit here. “Gab… relle… Elooner…” “Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers?” I said, questioningly, and a bit deadpan. “Uh, yes. That,” the stallion said. “Yeah, that’s me,” I said. “Ah,” the stallion said, and stood at attention, looking straight ahead. “Private Racing Stripe, madam, Imperial Stormtrooper.” The mention of that name tugged the side of my lip into a small smirk. “What’s this about, private?” I asked. “I am to find out if this visit is an appropriate time for you concerning the ceremony,” Racing Stripe said. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Ceremony?” “The accolades, madam,” he said, in a tone that might’ve been clarifying to anyone who knew what he was talking about. I shook my head slightly in confusion. “Uhm, private, back up a bit, and please speak freely… what ‘accolades’?” Private Racing Stripe widened his stance a bit and looked me into the eye with a careful expression. “Uhm, your knighthood, madam,” he said, and looked at my blank expression before carefully continuing. “Grand craftmaster Inkwell submitted you for a knighthood for noble accomplishments in service to the realms. You were supposed to have received a letter by dragonfire informing you about the ceremony.” ‘Oh by the surly beard of Mrifk,’ I muttered in my head. I looked behind me to where Spike had been carried off, and saw the faces of the Crusaders giving me large grins. I shrugged at them with a sheepish smile and a shrug, before turning back to Private Stripe. “I think there may have been a hiccup at the postal service.” — I walked up to the balcony, and reared up to peek over the railing, down at what everyone else was looking at. ‘My mistake, seems like Spike can handle the spotlight.’ “Isn’t it gorgeous?” Spike asked, as we looked down at his statue from the balcony. “You already said that it was,” I pointed out. “Yeah, but what do you think about it?” ‘It’s garish.’ “It certainly fits the rest of the aesthetics of the city,” I said. “Yeeaah...” Spike didn’t seem to register the words, only that I said something positive, just as planned. I might’ve shaken my head at him, but it didn’t really bother me. It was mostly interesting to observe. For one, he had lived in the shadow of amazing ponies who had pretty much saved the world, or at least pony society, several times, for a long time. He was also mentally less mature than me, and he was a dragon, narcissism was apparently a prominent trait among wyrms. “So you’re Gabrielle,” a melodic voice sounded behind me. I turned around to face another alicorn. She was pink, with a multi-toned mane, and a large stature, wearing regalia and a tiara. She was like a middle step between Celestia, Luna, and Twilight. While Twilight had the stature only slightly larger than a normal pony and normally walked around in only her coat, and the sisters were almost intimidatingly large, dripped with magic, and wore magnificent yet stylish regalia, Mi Amore Cadenza were somewhere between the two classes in size, and wore smaller regalia. “I am,” I said, smiling at her. “And you must be Princess Cadenza,” I continued, then bowed down. I had barely lowered my head to the floor before a golden-clad hoof placed itself under my chin, and gently lifted my face up to look at the princess’. She studied me for a moment. “I thiiink…” she said, before she smiled and quickly pecked me once on each cheek. “This is an appropriate greeting where you’re from?” That hadn’t been a regular thing for ages. “Uuh, well, where my mother is from, yes,” I said, impressed. “My father would probably have greeted his king with a handshake though.” “Handshake?” Cadence said. “Twilight told me about the people she met on the other side of the mirror. Apparently that’s not where you’re from, but still very interesting.” I looked around at the crystal city. “Frankly, I find Equestria the interesting world. I like it here.” Cadence tittered a bit. “I’m glad you think so,” she said, and lowered her voice. “And I’m glad you forgave Twilight. Small mistakes rattle her enough, this would be really hard on her if you hadn’t.” I smiled at her. Of course she’d care for Twilight, being her old foalsitter. “It was an accident and she’s a friend. Of course I forgive her.” Cadence smiled back at me. “And thank you for postponing you knighting. We’d have time for it, but the Equestria Games takes up a fair share of our attention.” “Ah yeah, that,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “Well, it’s kinda out of the blue, and I’m not sure exactly what it entails.” “Ask Twilight,” Cadence said. “She had one.” “Really?” I said, looking at Twilight walking around inside the room. “Knowing her, she’s probably forgotten it,” Cadence said. — “Well, we have plenty of rooms,” Cadence said to me and the Crusaders as we, Spike, Twilight, and friends walked through the hallways for visiting guests and dignitaries. “But we’re in the middle of restoring the castle, would it be okay for you fillies to share a room?” I looked back at the Crusaders, who shrugged easily at me. “I’m fine with it,” I said. “Alright. There’s room enough for all of you, but you’re gonna have to share two beds,” Cadence said. “I’ll share with Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom shouted at the same time Sweetie Belle shouted, ”I’ll share with Apple Bloom!” We all looked at them curiously. I shifted my gaze to Scootaloo, who shrugged at me. Apple Bloom opened the door to the room we were going to sleep in. It was a rich room, a bit like a luxury hotel, only with more pillows and filled bookshelves. Two large beds dominated the room. The beds, being large, and us, being fillies, meant that we could treat one side of the bed as a single bed for us. “This looks nice,” I commented, as I leaned my guitar-case towards the wall on the side of the bed. “Yeah,” Scootaloo said, as she opened the bathroom. “Hey! Check out this bathtub! I challenge you guys.” “Challenge us to what?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I’dunno, who cares?” Scootaloo said, from the bathroom. “Is it a jacuzzi?” I called to her. “Uhm… yes.” Scootaloo called. “Alright, I accept,” I said. “I wanna try a crystal jacuzzi.” “Can you play something while we try it?” Apple Bloom asked. “Maybe, but I’m not playing my guitar in the tub,” I said. “Can’t you enchant it?” Scootaloo asked, as she came out of the bathroom. “Probably,” I said. “But I wanna be absolutely sure it won’t damage it in any way before I try it. It’s irreplaceable.” We walked out to the hallway again. Rarity was standing in the opening to her room, giving Spike instructions. “Over there, Spiky-wiky. No, no, yes! There.” “Hey, Twilight,” I said. “Do you have a knighthood?” She looked a bit taken aback at that, and put her hoof to her chin. “Uhm, maybe…” she started. “She does,” Spike called from Rarity’s room. “You got one before we went to Ponyville, for the teleportation spell, remember?” “Oh, that’s right,” Twilight happily recollected. “That got me an award.” She beamed modestly. Twilight’s friends just looked at her in silence. After a while, Rarity walked up and cupped a surprised-looking Twilight's cheeks in her hooves. “Darling,” she said, speaking slowly, as if addressing a child. “You have to remember to tell us these things.” — Spike, The Crusaders, Rainbow, and, a bit reluctantly, Fluttershy, left shortly thereafter to report to someone called Ms. Harshwhinny. Rarity wanted to check out the castle, while Twilight was deep in conversation with Cadence as they walked elsewhere, and everyone just kind of dispersed. A meal was to be served later, but my hunger was pushed to the back as I walked around, taking in the sights. Cadence had told me where to go to find Armor. Private Armor, not her husband, whom I was going to meet later. I wanted to check out the castle too, just like Rarity was doing, but since she’s a great friend, I didn’t want to be around her while she did it and struggle to keep myself from rolling my eyes all the time. So I walked down the corridor, in the middle of which was a both functional and ornamental-seeming portcullis. Two guards were stationed on the other side, their backs turned against me. I double-checked, and could see the cutie mark on the trooper to the left, then pounced him. “Coup de grâce, private!” I hissed at him, playfully and loudly, as I smacked his helmet off, grabbed his neck, and held my hoof against him as if it was a weapon. Armor reared up and struggled for a short moment, before he placed my voice, then stopped, craned his neck and looked back at me, surprise clear in his eyes, and let out a laugh as he pulled me into a hug with a wing. “Hahaa!” he exclaimed. “Gabe! Finally decided to drop by?” he asked, as he pressed me against his neck. I nuzzled his cheek. I didn’t really have any quips ready, though I only kinda felt that I should’ve. “I missed you,” I said. “I missed you too,” he said. “Naaaw,” someone cooed from the side. I opened my eye and looked at Armor’s fellow guard, an earth pony mare in armor, transferring her weapon from her mouth back to her hoof. “Relative of yours, Codpiece?” We dignifiedly disengaged, and I jumped down from Armor’s back. Armor cleared his throat. “Gabe, this is Private Oak, Oak, This is Ambassador Desrochers,” he said. Private Oak’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh, I see,” she said, and smirked. “The inventor. Nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too,” I said, and bumped hooves with her. Her eyes tracked my hoof from the moment I started moving it. “So it’s true?” she said, then started slowly nodding. “Very impressive.” Then stood up straight. “Well, madam, if you want to steal Private Armor away from his post, I can hold down the fort.” I gave a slightly sheepish grin at that. “Yeah, I was actually looking for a tour guide,” I said. Oak stood at attention. “I’ll act the rear guard then, madam,” she said. Armor looked at me, with an amused expression. “I don’t get any say in this?” he asked. “Nope,” I said, and pointed down the hall. “Forward march.” Armor chuckled, and started moving down the hall. I quickly jumped up on his back, and settled in, just like old times. “We’re not supposed to have helmets unless the headroom is high enough,” he commented, as we moved towards a section with lower ceilings. Obviously, I grabbed his helmet and tried it instead. It didn’t really fit since it wasn’t adjusted for unicorns. “So where to next?” he asked. “I was thinking of raiding the pantry, or checking out the library,” I said. “I’m a gem enchanter in a city of crystal. This might just be a hunch, but there may be something interesting there.” “A lot of it is restricted while the stuff there is being copied, but you may be able to have access anyway,” Armor said. “If not, you can always show me your place,” I said, jokingly. “The barracks?” Armor said, and almost laughed. “You don’t wanna see that. A bunch of sweaty, half-dressed stallions exercising and grunting.” That sounded a bit familiar. “... Hey, I have that movie,” I said, happily. We made our way down to the library. It might’ve been a more interesting tour, if there was more to show off. Oh, the castle had plenty of fascinating and interesting things to see. It’s just that there were no real stops between us and the library. It was just chambers and stuff, dedicated to all manners of things. Flugelhorns, prominently. I mean, I thought it was all pretty fascinating stuff, but a normal corridor was about the same level of fascinating as a chamber dedicated to some random thing when you’re in an empire of crystal ponies. Like that crystal hallway, with an open crystal door to a crystal lavatory, being worked on by crystal ponies, with crystal hats and crystal plungers. Don’t ask me how that works though. I’m just glad the toilet, floor, and pipes weren’t see through. “And this is the library,” Armor said, then gestured towards the orange crystal pony standing over by a shelf. “And this is Lexikon, the royal librarian.” Lexikon looked up at us, or at least it seemed that way. He was an older and a bit frail-looking stallion, or as frail as a crystal pony can look. His white mane was flat against his scalp, as if he had just spent a full day having it licked in place by a manticore. “Eh? Your Majesty? Is that you?” Lexikon asked, in a surprisingly steady voice, peering at us through lenses like bottle bottoms. “Your mane looks out of place.” Armor turned his back towards me. “He needs glasses,” he whispered at me. “He has glasses,” I whispered back. Armor just shrugged. “My point stands,” he insisted. “Also, your mane seems to be wearing your helmet,” Lexikon said. I idly wondered if it felt weird for a crystal pony to see their world through lenses. It might be a bit like having artificial flesh as part of a prosthesis. ‘Now there’s a thought.’ “Mister Lexikon, allow me to introduce to you, Gabrielle Desrochers,” Armor said. “Oh, private, it’s you,” Lexikon said, and peered extra close at us. “Well, nice to meet you, Mr Desrochers, it’s not often we get gryphons in here. Feel free to ask if you need any help finding anything, and please don’t bother the bard,” he continued, walking back to what he was doing before. “Mister Desrochers?” I asked Armor. Armor just shook his head in a don’t-worry-about-it manner. “Also, bard?” I asked. “Oh, yeah, it’s some sort of spirit… thingy,” Armor said. “Apparently, it, or he I think, was a prisoner of Sombra, and he was here when the Empire vanished, then Prince Shining Armor and Twilight found him wandering around in the caves beneath the castle. He’s also supposed to be a bit shy, so if you see a big, swirly thing walking around in the corner of your eye—” Armor stopped when we heard a deep, rumbling voice, humming a slow, merry tune, from somewhere between the shelves. “... It’s just him. Also, he sings,” Armor finished. “Oh. Now I’m a bit envious,” I said. “I wanna be a bard too.” “You are a bard… kinda,” Armor said. “Thank you,” I said, perkily. “Now, let’s see what we can find in here.” ‘The Crystal Palace also has caves beneath it? I approve. Also, Twilight’s residence technically also has a cave beneath it.’ The library of the crystal palace was disorganised, which might’ve been frustrating, if I wasn’t simultaneously catching up with Armor again. It did have a fireplace, just like Golden Oaks, which hinted at a lot when it comes to the use of enchantments in the Crystal Empire. I had made some progress, memorizing stuff about heating enchantments, and even more interestingly, storage for magical energy to fuel activated enchantments, like magic batteries. That one I was going to have to come back with a pen and paper to research it in detail sometime, since it would be great for use with the arcano-dispersive shocker in my foreleg. Armor had taken to the skies and was scanning the spines of the books out of my line of sight, which, frankly, was most of them, and I had wandered off to look through the shelves a few aisles down. I paused by something which looked interesting, when I heard the deep tone of the crystal bard singing again. “Mrrurr-wrur-uhrhur,” he hummed happily to himself. It brought a smile to my face, it was just a simple little tune, but the voice was deep and comforting, like sitting in a massage chair made of soundwaves. I looked to the side where the voice was coming from, and ended up only seeing the inside of Armor’s helmet, since I had forgotten to give it back to him. I adjusted the helmet, and saw a big, white, and somewhat swirly shape. He was a large creature, equine in only the most vague sense. Four small, stubby legs protruded from a huge shape, a bit like a mix between newly fallen snow and a marshmallow. The upper parts narrowed a bit, where a face adorned some sort of head, and crystals stuck out of the head, vaguely like hair. Small, wispy things acted like arms, as he calmly inserted books into a shelf, seeming utterly content with his task. I’ve always found situations like these difficult. Do I walk up and greet the only individual in proximity, or would they like to remain undisturbed? Looking around, I realized that looking through the aisles like I was doing, meant that unless something really caught my interest, I would end up walking right by him. ‘Besides,’ I reasoned, ‘this is Equestria, and you don’t shy away from social stuff here.’ No books did catch my interest, and when I was close enough to this “crystal bard”, him still humming away happily, I turned to him. “Hello,” I said. He stopped humming, and stopped his book mid-shelving, to look at me. His face was little more than a mouth, and two enormous blue eyes. He looked at me with an expression I knew anywhere. It’s the same one you saw when you forgot to announce your presence to Fluttershy from far enough away. It was a strange sight, on something so much larger than me. “Mwwruu… Hello,” he said, shying away from me. ‘Okaaay, perhaps I shouldn’t intrude,’ I thought, as I slowly started turning around. That’s when Armor flew around the corner and landed next to me, two tomes in his forearms. “Hey, Gabe, I found these— oh! Hello there.” The crystal bard said nothing to Armor, just seeming to want to curl up somewhere and hide. I couldn’t help but feel bad just for being here, like my presence had hurt a puppy somehow. He just looked at me, looking both sad and frightened with his large, expressive, and steadily watering eyes. I slowly made to turn away, saying, “Well, sorry to have bothered you, we’ll just get out of your hair.” The crystal bard seemed to hesitate, despite looking worried, and nervously rubbing his smokey appendages together. “Mwwruu,” he somehow managed to mewl despite his deep voice. “You smell like… him.” That made me stop. “... Him?” I asked. The bard just fidgeted, before seemingly steeling himself. “Rrrhu… Sombra." “... I remind you of Sombra?” I asked. “Mwwrhuu… yes,” the large ghostly thing said, before looking hesitantly hopeful. “You’re… not with him?” I slowly shook my head. “No, I barely know of him,” I said. “Don’t see how I could be associated with him. I’m not from around here.” The tears that had been welling up in the bard’s eyes stopped, and he looked at me and Armor, and the books we were holding, with relief. “Whrruuuould you like some help to find some books?” he asked hopefully. — We excused ourselves from the library shortly after that. Then there was an early dinner, which wasn’t much of a dinner according to me, since the Empire hadn’t had any contact with omnivores for a long time, and so had little other than salads available. I didn’t really pay much attention to anything during the dinner however, I was distracted by what I’d heard in the library. So I supplemented my meals with biscuits as I took a walk down the halls of the castle. What the strange crystal ghost-bard-creature told me had me deep in thought, and appropriately enough, I found myself in a room with a statue of Sombra. There were plenty of old statues, decorations, banners, and things like that from his reign that no one had bothered getting rid of yet, and there were things from before that which Sombra apparently also hadn’t bothered getting rid of. Most of it was just shuffled away in chambers, gathering dust. Slowly chewing at a tube of biscuits, but without any tea, I looked up at the image of the former king. He stood proud and tall, a crooked yet impressive horn poking out of a both wicked and effective-looking armored headpiece, and a mane both majestic and intimidating was captured in the moment, flowing in a forgotten breeze, along with his large cloak. ‘He certainly strikes an impressive figure, in a way,’ I thought as I lay in front of him, biscuits crunching in my mouth. “That is true,” A voice came from behind me, making me realize that I’ve been talking out loud. I wasn’t startled though. The speaker was practiced enough not to startle anyone if she didn’t want to. “I was in the library earlier,” I told Celestia as I looked back at her. “One of his formers… servants, told me that I reminded him of… him.” I gestured towards the statue. “Oh?” Celestia said, calmly yet curiously. “Yeah. He was upset, to put it mildly, when he was thinking about him,” I said, and gestured towards the statue of the dark majesty. “I didn’t really have the heart to push him, but it made me curious.” “I can imagine,” Celestia said, lying down beside me. “What are your thoughts as of yet?” “Hmmm. Well, nothing that sounds more plausible than anything else, considering how little I was told,” I said. “But… I was similar to him to someone who may or may not be able to perceive things I can’t.” “And what does that tell you?” Celestia calmly asked. I considered that for a little while. “Well, as I understand it, Discord says that I’m different, spiritually or something, from ponies, and Sombra’s origins are… ‘shrouded in mystery’, one might say? Maybe that’s where the likeliness comes from. He was different from ponies. Maybe he was even human once?” Celestia said nothing for a while. I looked up at her and saw a look of contemplation on her face, as she looked unseeingly straight ahead. “An interesting notion, but improbable,” she said. “I’m mainly thinking in terms of the alternate world I told you about.” “Ah yeah,” I said. “Yeah, that wouldn’t make any sense according to Twilight and Starswirl. They say that Earth is a solitary world, with no influence from or to other worlds.” “There are ways you remind me of him, though,” Celestia said, and looked me in the eye while smiling. “Really? How?” “Well, it’s true that you’re both different from ponies in here,” she said, and poked me gently in my chest with a wing, then wrapped it around me. “I didn’t exactly get to know him.” she nodded towards the statue. “But I knew a Sombra, and I cared for him a lot, as I do you.” I tensed up at that. Something in my chest told me that I had to be careful here, and I realized that it wasn’t trepidation— it might’ve been regret. “Uuuhm,” I said, looking down at the floor and thinking for a moment, before scooting closer to her. “Celestia, back when I… rejected you… I might have made a mistake.” Celestia leaned her head down and softly nuzzled my neck. “You were tearing open an old, deep wound, so that it could heal right. You’re still healing. I understand if you’re not sure what you want. Rest assured, I will accept whatever you choose.” I snuggled into her side. I wouldn’t not lean back into her even if I wanted to. “Thank you,” I said. “Now,” Celestia said after a while. “The opening ceremonies are about to start. We wouldn’t want to miss that, would we?” — Twilight’s brother was impressing me so far. He could shout loud enough to be heard all over the stadium, effectively drowning out the cheer from the audience, while sounding both clear and steady, and not screeching in the least. There might’ve been some magical arrangement behind that, but I didn’t know for sure. “Now, please welcome, the delegation from Ponyville!” Shining Armor shouted from the field. “Whooo!” I shouted, along with Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the tens of thousands of ponies in the audience, as Scootaloo burst through the arrangement that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle held up, followed by the rest of the team. Like I said, I’m not much of a sportsperson, but I’d shout down the stadium if it helped my friends. Then came the time for Spike’s lighting of the fire. I won’t go into detail. Spike, frankly, looked pitiful as he struggled with breathing fire. I didn’t judge him, Fluttershy’s wings lock up when she’s startled, I sometimes stutter, just about everyone has some embarrassing reaction to scary situations. ‘C’mon, Spike! You’ve spent a whole afternoon heating frying pans for me!’ And then the fire lit up in spectacular fashion. I didn’t join in the cheer until it was dying down, I was busy breathing a sigh of relief. The rest of the games for the day was a pretty standard affair. Rainbow and Fluttershy weren’t competing in anything today, so I was only mildly interested after theirs and the Crusaders’ part in the show. Still, seeing it live does add to the experience, so I wasn’t exactly bored or unhappy. Afterwards, I congratulated the Crusaders and the rest of the gang on their performance, but when Twilight revealed that she was the one who lit the fire, well, things got a little embarrassing. That evening, there was dinner, which was, technically, a banquet. Cadence had to spend some time calming down the kitchen staff, who had been freaking out for a while there when they learned that their rulers, and all the actual princesses, were all having dinner at the same time. Luna’s sweet tooth aside, none of the assembled royalty were all that into extravagant affairs. That was mostly the nobles’ thing, and there were few nobles in the Empire. They mostly hung around in Canterlot, where they tried covering up that gaping hole between themselves and the real power that Celestia and Luna wielded by pretending extra hard that the power they did have was great. Hence, the extravagant banquets that were frequent there. But there weren’t any nobles here. If there were any here to see the games, they were likely found in expensive hotels. Luna suggested that it was in large part because Cadence and Armor were the rulers of the Empire, and few if anyone among them knew how to play sycophants to the two “elevated commoners”. She could be blunt like that, but Cadence and Armor just nodded agreeingly, and while it wasn’t said out loud, it was clear that both them and Celestia encouraged this state of affairs. “Well, at least they have goals they strive for,” was what I had to say about the whole thing, as I dipped my piece of bread in oil and sprinkled a pinch of salt on it, while everyone else, the princesses, Shining Armor, Twilight and friends, the Crusaders, Spike, and Studded Armor, were still enjoying salad I had grown bored of long ago. Some of them were giving me some vaguely worried looks whenever I used salt though, and I don’t know why. “They’re not all that bad,” Cadence said placatingly. “A lot of them are just as hardworking as everypony else, and a lot of them support the arts.” “Okay, that’s always nice,” I said. “Yeah, and speaking of art,” Shining Armor said. “You gotta show me those legs of yours.” “Sure thing,” I said, and promptly removed my foreleg and floated it over to him. “Here’s one.” His eyes widened, and he almost recoiled out of his seat. He looked around at the amused looks he was getting from people not already engaged in their own conversations, before hesitatingly grabbing the leg in his own magic. Having parts of yourself be detachable had never been this fun. Shining took the leg and gently, almost reverently, tried turning it around. “You don’t have to be so careful with it,” I said. “It has every toughening enchantment I know on it, and even if it didn’t, it completely lacks any weak points.” Shining bent the leg experimentally, then started turning it around much more enthusiastically when he noticed how robust it was. “What’s this thing in here?” He asked, looking into the lower part through the opening in the hoof. “Arcanodispersive shocker, a searchlight, and a experimental grappling hook launcher. Don’t worry,” I said, as he quickly turned it away. “I haven’t developed magical energy storage units for it, so unless you attach it to me, the powerful stuff doesn’t have enough juice to fire.” “You said you didn’t make the chassis?” Armor said slowly, as he inspected the forms on the metal parts under the cover. “No, that was Scrap Armor in Ponyville. Studded Armor’s uncle,” I said, through a mouth full of bread, indicating Codpiece sitting next to me with my head. “Sergeant Scrap Armor? The quartermaster of Far Watch?” Shining asked. “That’s him, Cap,” Armor said, nodding. “He now works full-time with smithing and supplying.” Shining silently stared at me and Armor for a few moments, before turning to Cadence. “Honey,” he started, like he was about to ask her for the moon and stars. “Can I—” “Yes, you can talk shop by the dinner table,” she cut him off, sounding a little tired, but clearly faking it, judging by how amused she looked. Shining pecked her on the side of her muzzle (and I was pretty sure I saw a small glow radiating from her at that), jumped out of his seat, enthusiastically sauntered over to us with his chair and my leg floating behind behind him, then plopped down next to me and Armor. “Alright, tell me everything,” he said. Shining Armor was a fun guy. Getting to have a good, close look at him also practically confirmed something that I had been suspecting. I thought ponies in general looked appealing in many ways, but now I was getting fairly good at judging what makes a pony good-looking, and seeing what every mare in Ponyville said was the exemplar of good looks also made me certain that my Armor, Studded Armor, was a very handsome stallion. Shining also turned out to be a pretty big nerd. His sister was a nerd, of course, but she seriously needed to swat up on the awesome kind of nerdery. Unlike her, Shining was completely on-point when I talked about the concepts of armored airships, mechs, submarines, power armor, and jetpacks. In turn, he talked to me about magic in defence, especially self-defence, and which martial art I might be the most suited for. The concept of having super-strength in my right legs opened up a slew of possibilities, and he had some pretty good insight into how to best use it. “How about your eye?” he asked. “Is that magic too?” “No,” I said, and touched the side of it. “I’m having ideas, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.” “Ah, well, tell me when you do. Did you ever meet Sandstone, private?” Shining asked, turning to Studded Armor. “Mm, twice,” Armor said through his salad, and nodded. “Who?” I asked. “A retired corporal,” Shining said. “One of the few who was seriously injured in the changeling attack. Completely lost her sight.” “Oh,” I said, my ears wilting. “Actually, uh, she’s totally fine. Which... was a bit weird for the doctors,” Shining said. “Anyway, I just mean that you probably have a willing patient in her.” “Uh, okay,” I said, not entirely convinced. “Are you sure she’s fine?” “Totally,” Shining said. “She spent weeks at medical before the doctors were certain that it wasn’t some escape mechanism. It’s her special talent you see. She was, and actually still kinda is, a bit of morale officer. Everypony around her feel like they can take on anything the world has to offer. Apparently, so does she.” “Oh,” I said, slowly turning the potential application for that over in my head. “Wow. Lucky her, sorta, I guess.” “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Shining said, then chuckled. “There’s one other whose hind leg hasn’t been the same, but that’s pretty much all the serious stuff.” “Not to wave away the injuries you just talked about,” I said. “But those sounds like pretty mild results for an invasion.” “Changelings are vile creatures,” Shining said darkly, before his expression mellowed a bit and he let out a sigh. “But... they were out to capture, not hurt.” Studded leaned over to me. “Cap’s pretty ticked off at the changelings, but he can act as stoic as he want, he and Princess Cadenza are everypony’s heroes after they kicked ‘em out of Canterlot.” “I heard about that,” I said, nodding. “I don’t… wanna sound dismissive of the uh, ordeal, but I kinda wish I’d seen that.” Shining just chuckled. “Don’t worry, I know what you mean. It wasn’t that great of an ‘ordeal’. The two I mentioned were the only ones seriously hurt.” “And everypony were comparing scars for weeks afterwards,” Studded said, smirking at the memory. “Did you get any?” I asked. “Nothing cool, compared to what happened to me,” he said, and lifted up his right foreleg. “Split my hoof and got a scar in my frog, but other than that,” he said, showing the line where the fuzz were angled strangely, “I just got a bunch of bruises.” I looked at the scar contemplatively, and saw mental images of Studded Armor being surrounded by insectoid ponies (I had only seen pictures of changelings), backed up against a wall, bruised and beaten, but weapon raised high and face in a defiant snarl. It wasn’t real, but I still couldn’t help but feeling some admiration for the image of the brave stallion in my head, and something more, as he would need help to heal and recover from his trying ordeal... “Hey, it’s not that bad,” Studded said, and slowly lowered his hoof while looking worriedly at me. “Oh uh, yeah,” I said, then tried to discreetly look around me. Shining had gone back to studying my prosthesis in his hooves, and the only one I noticed looking our way was Cadence, who was resting her head on her hooves with an happy-looking expression that I couldn’t really place. “I can’t get over this,” Shining said, then finally tore his gaze from my prosthesis. “Twilight said that you’re from another world and that you mature faster than ponies, but I still can’t believe that a filly figured this out.” “Same here, frankly,” I said. “I’m just lucky I did.” “Alright, you gotta try and explain how this works,” Shining said, and hoofed the leg over to me, the cover having been removed. “Sure,” I said, activated it, put it back on, and started explaining how it works, while using it to eat with so that Shining could see it in action. Like most people, he didn’t really understand how it worked. He got the concept, but the details of how it was tied to my arcanomorphic field and the mesh of magic-screening barriers worked went right over his head. “I gotta be honest with you,” Shining said. “it’s very comforting, knowing that there’s somepony out there who can fix you up again if something really bad should happen.” “Agreed,” Luna said, and raised her glass, having joined in on the conversation a while back. “Back in troubled times, it was sometimes truly frustrating to frequently have our comrades in arms have to step down from injuries when their minds and skills were at their peak.” “I heard that prostheses were known technology a long time ago,” I said. “Well, yes, but the past is quite a stretch of time. The knowledge faded long ago, during a long time of peace,” she said. “It stresses you out sometimes,” Shining said. “That performing what you’ve trained for risks you not being able to do it anymore.” I nodded in sympathy at that. Luckily, I hadn’t set my sights on a job requiring high physical capacity ten years ago. “Well, I’m happy to fix up anyone who needs it,” I said. “Indeed,” Luna said. “And so we come to the subject of your accolades. We understand that you wished to postpone them.” “Well, it was a bit sudden,” I said. “And I’m not sure exactly what it entails either.” Luna put her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment, before Shining took over. “Uhm, I don’t really remember everything, but it’s some ceremonial privileges,” he said. “Let’s see… being able to bypass waiting times in establishments that were funded with startup money from the crowns, access to certain wings in the castle, allowed to own property in certain restricted zones and territory… you’d also be allowed to solemnize marriages and preside over wedding ceremonies.” I recoiled a bit at that last part, and hoped it would never come up. “So Twilight can do all those things?” I asked. “Yeah, and so can I,” Shining said. “It kinda never became relevant in Canterlot, I can’t imagine it would become more so in Ponyville.” That was actually a bit comforting. “Explains why I didn’t know she had one,” I said. “She’s not a flaunter, and neither are you,” Studded said. “Indeed,” Luna said, and nodded. “Despite having helped several ponies so far, and submitted your creations to the institute, you’ve kept it practically secret.” “I guess,” I said, then picked up the covering from the table. “That’s mostly Rarity’s contribution.” “Case in point,” Luna said, then let out a yawn. “And now, we shall soon retire. Adjusting to the day takes it out of a mare. I imagine you two shall as well.” Studded and I slowly glanced at each other, before turning back to Luna. “Uuh, we… will… eventually but uuuh…” Luna seemed to realized what she just said, and shook her head. “Ah, yes, no, of course. We uh… we bid you a good night,” she said, and briskly walked away. Studded and I looked at each other again, before slowly turning away, cheeks glowing, and saw that this latest exchange had gone unnoticed by everyone except a confused Shining Armor… … And Cadence and Celestia, who were sitting beside each other on the far side of the table, leaning against each other while silent laughter wracked them, hooves hiding their muzzles and tears slowly building in the corners of their closed eyes. — The Crusaders, still having a surplus of energy from their time in front of the audience, were running ahead down the corridors. I wasn’t exhausted, but I still felt it would be a bad idea to try and discourage them from using the last of their reserves, seeing as I would be sleeping in the same room as them. Someone who wasn’t sharing the Crusaders’ enthusiasm however, was Spike, as he lagged behind everyone else. I slowed down, almost to a crawl, and let Spike catch up with me. “Oh, c’mon, Spike,” I said, in what I hoped was an encouraging tone. “We all know you can breathe fire, and the torch lit up when you were up on the ladder. No harm done.” Spike didn’t look up, and took a moment before he answered. “Yeah, but… the crystal ponies look up to me, I wanted to show them that I can be who they want me to be.” “Yeah, that word, ‘show’,” I said. “That’s what it was, a show. You’re still Spike, you still saved the Empire and everyone in it.” Spike still didn’t look up. “I just wanted it to be me that did it. I got all those applause, without doing anything.” We fell into silence, the only sound besides from the crowd ahead of us was the muffled steps on the carpet. What he said made me think of stories of Hollywood divas. Of when you hear of a ‘movie-star’ who’s pampered endlessly whenever the camera isn’t rolling, and who gets stunt-doubles to do everything impressive. I’ve wondered how much it would eat at your pride to know that you’re so celebrated for so little. “I guess. I’m sorry, Spike,” I said. “But, you can fumble sports ceremonies as many times as you please, saving someone still makes you a hero. Saving a nation’s gotta feel pretty good, right?” That coaxed a little smile out of the corner of his mouth. “I guess,” he said, before his eye lit up, and he finally looked up at me. “Hey, you played music on the train.” That caught me a bit off-guard. “Uuh, yeah,” I said. “Ponies love music,” Spike said, seemingly half to himself, looking straight ahead. “And you weren’t frightened at all.” I looked at him suspiciously. “Only because I didn’t notice—” I didn’t get farther than that, before Spike started jogging ahead. “Thanks, Gabe!” he said. “Uuuh, okay,” I said, uncertainly, and sped up to catch up with the Crusaders. — “I need to get one of these back to the farm,” Apple Bloom said, resting her head on the side of the jacuzzi, held above the soft bubbling. “That old barrel bath we sometimes use has nothing on this.” “Seconded,” Scootaloo said. Sweetie and I looked at them. “I didn’t think you guys would be so happy about pampering yourself in luxury,” Sweetie Belle noted. “Yeah, especially you, Scoots,” I said. “Whatever,” Scootaloo said. “I’m confident in my filly-ninity.” “That’s not a real word,” Sweetie Belle said. “It is now,” Scootaloo countered flippantly. Sweetie and I smiled and shrugged at each other, and went back to cleaning Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s back. This was something I hadn’t learned of before now. Me being a unicorn, living with a unicorn and a dragon, this hadn’t really come up, but ponies were A, very social and trusting, B, considered decent when not wearing clothes, and C, bodily challenged. Let me clarify, all types of ponies could reach every part of their bodies. However, pegasi, and especially earth ponies, had to bend their necks in ways that weren’t comfortable for any length of time when they wanted to reach their backs, and cleaning involved soap, and soap doesn’t taste good, and while they could use a loofah with a handle, the arrangement to get around this had now already passed the point where the already minor hesitations about getting someone to help them with cleaning were now no longer relevant. So I was gently scrubbing Apple Bloom’s back with my left foreleg (I had removed my prostheses. Not that they weren’t waterproof, it just felt like a waste to have more stuff to dry off) while Sweetie Belle did Scootaloo’s, after I had, without meaning to, tickled Scootaloo’s wings one time too many. “You’ve never had your back cleaned?” Sweetie Belle asked me. I shook my head. “Uhm, no,” I said. “I mean, I’ve cleaned it myself.” “We’ll switch places later,” Apple Bloom said. “Aah, you don’t need to do that,” I said. “Yeah but, it feels weird to get the disabled pony to help you and not do the same,” Scootaloo said. We eventually remembered room service, and after soaking for a bit longer with a snack and something cold to drink, we, reluctantly, got out, dried off, and went to bed, sharing two beds. I was lucky that Scootaloo was so quick to forgive, after I had burst out laughing earlier, when she had dunked her head and in the water and splashed her wings off. I try not to laugh at people, but she looked too much like a duck at that. — “So. You’re in the former domain of the—” the voice snorted, “Dread King Sombra.” “Yes,” I said, calmly walking through some sort of museum, showing what I knew of the history of the Empire, the presence either walking along with me, or just being there in some way. “Interesting place, and a lot of similarities between this and human stories, about darkness from ancient pasts coming back terrorize the people of the present.” “Before your friends stopped it. This time,” the voice noted. “Either way, an interesting concept for stories.” “They’re often really good,” I said, stopping to look at a large model of the city behind a glass panel, with soothing ambient light and a beautifully painted backdrop behind it. “I remember one series of movies based on famous books some… ten, fifteen years ago. They were all the rage, and made it seem like someone had taken a science fiction & fantasy convention and sprinkled it across normal society.” The voice let out a deep chuckle. “Lucky them that it was all imagination.” “Not purely imagination.” I turned my gaze to another model of the Empire, this one with a sinister dark red ambient light, and backdrop painting of a blood-red moon. “We have some pretty dark chapters in our history as well,” I said, and focused on a large statue of Sombra in the center of the city. “I guess that’s why so many are always vigilant for people showing the most fleeting signs of… ‘old hatreds’ I guess you can call it. It got annoying sometimes, but I could understand, to a point.” I felt the presence also focus on the statue of the old king, and let out a long contemplative hum. “Fool,” it sighed, judgingly, but sounding too tired to put any passion into it. I looked towards the side curiously, only seeing an empty museum hall of course. The voice eventually continued. “Such efforts, such accomplishments, motivated by what? Malice? Ambition?” “Perhaps,” I said, and shrugged. “Who knows? Although what else motivates people who do something like that? Megalomania, maybe, but in this case it just sounds like a fancier word for malice and ambition.” “So would you say someone motivated by love would do better?” the voice asked. That would be a bit of a heady topic to be ambushed with on other situations, but this was a dream, and in dreams, that is not much of an issue. It didn’t mean that I had an answer ready. “I don’t know,” I said, eventually. “I don’t know how someone motivated by love would do something like this,” I said, gesturing to the display with the subjugated Empire. “But I don’t see how it could be any worse... so maybe it would be better. What do you think?” I felt the unseen presence contemplate the question for a few moments. “I don’t know either,” it said, and turned its focus back to the statue of Sombra. “Perhaps we are all fools.” I contemplated the words for a few moments, thinking back to words of wise people who might have had some insight. “Perhaps, but like what one of my favorite story tellers would probably say, we can try things out, and learn from that. The scientist in me would agree that that’s a good idea.” I felt a smile grow on the unseen presence, or I would, if I could perceive a form for it. “A fine sentiment.” I woke up in a dark, unfamiliar room, my two remaining limbs tightly constrained. I tensed up in a brief moment of unease, before I realized that the strange room was the suite in the crystal castle, and the restraints was actually Scootaloo, fast asleep and holding me tight on my left side. Gently angling my head, I could see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom sleeping in the other bed, and not hugging each other. I let out a sigh. They left me with the sleep cuddler. The only comfortable position I could figure out was to put my head where Scoots didn’t breathe on my face, and where I didn’t breathe on her ears and making them twitch and her squirm, which meant putting my head on top of hers. After a while, I bobbed my head concedingly. ‘Okay, I think I can see why this is an appealing position for some. Also, you’d better not be a drooler, Scoots.’ — I looked at the security guard in the ridiculous outfit with a deadpan stare, as the audience were trickling out onto the ledgers by the side. I thought I had been very understanding throughout the whole exchange, but his insistence had turned this into a duel of polite snarkiness, and while he had put up a good fight, I was still winning. I normally wouldn’t be this passive-aggressive, but this was one of the few things that could really annoy me: when people think that their authority somehow means that they know what they’re doing. “Like I said, miss, the next events require us to shield the arena from outside magical influence,” the guard said. “Yes, you did say that, but I want to know if this is an arcano-scrambling mesh, or if it’s a thauma-disruptive matrix,” I said. ‘I would’ve let you off the hook, but now you will admit that you don’t know.’ “It’s not my job to reveal the specifics of this unit,” he insisted, but his hesitation before answering spoke volumes. “Then get someone down here who is qualified to do so,” I said. “I need to know if this has lasting effects on any thaumatically or arcanically infused objects, and what happens if the objects reject magical tampering.” I didn’t say anything with a smug tone, the end result would be all the sweeter if I didn’t. The guard let out a sigh, and rubbed his temple. “Alright, look, little missy, your magic items won’t be affected after a few hours, and what you’re talking about is military grade stuff, you don’t have any of that.” I did another quick magical scan of the archway I was supposed to step through. “Fine,” I said. “But I want you to say out loud, that if something happens to this thing from me walking through it with the stuff I have on me, I won’t be held responsible.” He let out another sigh, and slowly said, “It won’t break, and you won’t be held responsible.” “That was unspecific, but I feel I have the moral upper hand here,” I said, then stepped through. The magical aura building up like a net around me started concentrating on my horn, before its attention was drawn towards my prostheses. The guard’s expression was starting to shift to worried-looking from the display of magical light, as it struggled with my legs, before sputtering for a while, then popping like a soap bubble. Then the archway it came from let out a long-winded groan, like a gradually slowing turbine. The guard, slack-jawed, lowered his sunglasses, and looked at the archway in silence. “Do I need to say ‘told you so’?” I asked, but before his expression could warp into a snarl that he could aim at me, I waved my hoof to get his attention. “Hey-hey? Get your supervisor.” — I walked out to the stands of the stadium, and took a look around me. Tens of thousand, perhaps hundreds of thousands, ponies were waiting for the show to start, chatting, and looking for seats, and each other. Seeing so many ponies with their vast variety of color schemes was a spectacle in and of itself.. Obviously, I was annoyed with the “security” I had been talking to just now, since they separated me from the Crusaders, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve, also, unlike most ponies, technically a sleeve. I made my way up to the top of the stands, and put my metal foreleg up to my mouth. “Blue Thunder calling all agents.” No response. “Blue Thunder calling all agents, come in.” “This is Orange Lightning with the rest of Bravo Team, responding to call. What’s your status, Blue Thunder? Over,” Scootaloo’s voice answered, despite talking through a full-duplex type communication. “Got held up by security, but they finally realized that they were out of their depth. Over,” I said. A few ponies looked at me curiously, but most didn’t notice me talking above the din. “But they let you in with all your stuff? Over.” Sweetie Belle asked. “Affirmative, White Flash,” I said. “They didn’t want me to at first, but after a while they called in a technician to assess the whole deal. He figured out who I was from the article in Applied Magics, and told the others I just had to walk over to the princesses to be let in anyway. Over.” “Hah! That’s awesome. Over,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, I can’t use unicorn magic, but at least my legs still work. Anyway, what’s your position, Bravo Team?” I asked, looking out across the crowds spreading out in all directions. Ponies’ colorfulness wasn’t exactly helping to pick out individuals in this case. “Also, everyone’s present, right? Over.” “Yep, Red Storm present,” Apple Bloom said. “We’re on… row eight, and it says five by the big entrance thingy.” “Vomitorium,” Sweetie Belle helpfully added. “Over.” “Copy that,” I said, scanning the area for the correct entrance.. “I suggest we engage in radio silence not related to rendezvous to not draw attention to our magical stuff. Over.” “Affirmative. Over and out,” Scootaloo said. It turns out that Scootaloo had gotten the communicator into the stadium since the Crusaders had just sauntered in through the athletes’ backstage section, just like they had all other days. No one had stopped them, and so they’d bypassed the new security. After some amount of searching, I managed to find the Crusaders. On the way, I had been pretty sure that I had seen Rainbow Dash standing next to me, but it turned out it was just some of the audience members having been arranged in the correct color combination by chance. “Hey, hey, Gabe!” I just managed to hear Apple Bloom call from my blind side. I turned and saw them waving at me, and made my way over to them with a smile. “Finally,” I said. “I didn’t miss anything did I?” “Nope, I think the competitors are gonna come out and sing the anthem soon,” Scootaloo said, not being embarrassed in the least from seeing me, since I’d managed to squirm out of her grip before she had woken up earlier in the morning. “Oh, neat,” I said. “Do you guys know the lyrics?” “It’s kinda strange that you don’t know music for once,” Sweetie Belle noted. I shrugged good-naturedly. “Can Rainbow sing?” “Rainbow can do anything,” Scootaloo said. “We’re about to find out,” I said. “And now I might finally see if gryphons can twitter.” Scootaloo sniggered. Then Spike came out on the field, and less said about what happened next, the better. ‘Oh, Spike,’ I internally groaned at the… singing. Everyone around us were stunned by the display. The Crusaders and I were instead cringing, our ears flat against our heads, and sometimes glancing up over our hooves, hoping that a giant monster would attack, or that something would happen to make people forget this display. — The games were getting more and more entertaining as time went on. There was of course always the novelty of watching magical ponies perform, although the long-range dashes looked uncannily like a popular source of gambling back on Earth. Aerial triathlon was made very interesting thanks to Rainbow Dash’s participation, but unicorn biathlon was my favorite. Spike’s absence was a bit of a downer throughout the whole thing though. He wasn’t very susceptible to cheering up, as we noticed when we checked in on him during the last days of the games. Instead, he was just packing everyone’s bags. The Crusaders walked out of the room after we had checked in on him, but I stuck around for a while longer. I guess I felt a bit more obliged to try and help. I live with him, after all. That didn’t mean I knew what to say, but I tried my best. “You know you’re still a hero, right?” I said. Spike just let out a sound like a kicked dog. “That’s what you get statues for,” I insisted. “At least you can sing and play music,” he finally said, in an almost lifeless tone. My ears slowly lowered themselves. ‘... Oh.’ I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out except a silent stammer. ‘Well, yeah, but that’s because I pract— No no, that’s not what he needs to hear. It doesn’t matter? Obviously it does to him. I thought it sounded nice? Yeah, come up with a more transparent lie than that, I dare you.’ “Do you want me to leave?” I asked. Spike sighed, and didn’t answer for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said. “... Are you mad at me?” I asked, hesitating a bit. “No,” he said. “You didn’t tell me to do anything.” That made me let out a small sigh of relief. I walked up to him and put my foreleg around him. “Thanks,” I said. Just as I was about to pull away, he leaned into my cheek for just a moment. I let go of him, and walked towards the door. “I’ll check back later,” I said. — Security held me up again. The guard from before had called down the same technician as the other time, who oversaw my magic suppression. I had to remove my legs, and he carried me through the archway, whereupon I’d get my legs back and off I went. Since it was the final day, the Crusaders were on the athletes’ area, prepping for the closing ceremonies. I’d forgotten to ask, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack where they were seated, when I heard Pinkie's voice from somewhere below me. “Hey, there’s a spare seat here if you’re interested,” she said. I looked around in confusion at the seats below me, before my attention was drawn to my prosthesis, where I kept my communicator. “Pinkie? Is that you?” I asked. “Sure is!” she said. “Where are you?” “Over at the… central east entrance,” I said, and futilely scanned the area for them. “Where are you?” “Up to the right of you,” Pinkie said. I looked around the corner of the entrance, and saw Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack waving at me, enthusiastically in Pinkie’s case. I made my way up to them, then sat down next to them. “Howdy, Gabe,” Applejack said. “How did you find us so fast?” That made me look at them in confusion. “Uh, Pinkie told me,” I said. “Did Scootaloo give you her communicator?” “What communicator?” Pinkie asked, a big smile on her face. After a few seconds, my brain let that tangled mess of logic go. “Uuh, whatever,” I said, and sighed. “Hey, I gotta rest my eye for a moment. All this looking at distant things makes me tired. Tell me when the exciting things starts.” “Of course, darling,” Rarity said, and patted the spot on the bench not to her. I was vaguely aware that things were going on. Pinkie was babbling about things, athletes were introduced, and on and on. “Hey, Gabe, you want some popcorn?” Pinkie asked. I opened my eyes, and stretched a bit. “Yeah, I could go for some.” “You can start with the ones I spilled in your mane if you want,” Pinkie helpfully said. “Thanks,” I yawned, and brought a few of them to my mouth. Rarity groaned and Applejack sniggered at her. “How’re you doing, Gabe,” Rainbow asked from my side. “Uh!” I breathed, and jumped at her voice. “Rainbow! Have you been there long?” Both she, and the Crusaders had joined us on the benches. The Crusaders sniggered a bit at me, but I just let them. “Pretty long, yeah,” she said, and sniggered. “You look bushed.” I shrugged. “Yeah. Travelling, eating different food, being surrounded by babble and cheering all day, sleeping in an unfamiliar room…” ‘Sharing the bed...’ “I don’t know about you, but all that makes me tired.” Then there was also the thing where I could finally relax with some cloud cover. The clouds that were used in the unicorn biathlon were still overhead and dark with snow despite the pleasant temperature. “Heh, I get ya,” she said. “But I get used to things fast, and I’m used to listening to cheering. Don’t worry, we’ll have you back in your quiet, cozy little library soon.” “Trying to embarrass me, Rainbow?" I asked, smirking at her. “Not working, especially since I know how much you like your beauty sleep.” “Hey, I…” Rainbow Dash said and trailed off. “Yeah okay, you win.” “Tell me about this next event instead,” I said. We got a quick rundown of the medal count, and the sports. Twilight walked past, wearing her tiara as she had whenever she was out in public these last few days, but she was busy looking for Spike. Now, this next event rivalled the biathlon for me. The competitors were firing magic arrows which covered what they hit in ice, and the first one to cover their target completely in ice was the winner. “Always with the crystallizing around here,” I noted. “Seems appropriate, don’t you think?” Rarity said. “I guess,” I said, as a one of the arrows suddenly flew straight up, into one of the clouds. We watched in curiosity, then mounting horror, as who knows how many tons of water suddenly found itself as a big block of jagged ice. Rainbow didn’t even put on a determined face before shooting up towards the monstrosity cruising towards stands on the far side of the arena. “Somepony cut the disabling-spell!” I heard Shining Armor shout. “There isn’t time!” the same security guard which had held me up shouted. ‘Oh, you worthless waste of space!’ I thought, as I took off, down towards the edge of the stands where the heavy railing lined the edge of the arena. Even the princesses’ unicorn magic was disabled, and judging from what I’d seen Twilight doing, if they broke through the spell, they risked an explosion that would hurt everyone in a wide radius around them, or shoot a beam at the ice block so powerful it would pretty much turn it into a big bomb. Just as I was about to reach my grappling hook towards the block of ice, and lash the rope around the railing, I heard Spike shout something. What happened next would be the talk of the Empire for years afterwards. Spike jumped off of a series of pegasi, and shot out an inferno through his mouth so massive that I was pretty sure that the parts of the ice in direct contact with flames went from solid matter to plasma in an instant. The green inferno just kept spewing out of his mouth, before he landed on the grass, as the now fluid block of ice rained down on the field around him. Silence reigned the arena for a while, before, and I was among the first to start, a massive cheer rose up. “YEEEAAAHH! GO, SPIKE!” I shouted, loud enough for my voice to crack, and I simply didn’t care, although my voice was pretty much drowned out by the din. — There were simply no end to the celebrations. Ponyville won the medal count, the audience had loved the Crusaders’ opening, and of course, Spike had lived up to his title of “brave and glorious”, in front of one of the largest gatherings of ponies annually. “Those were some really nice fireworks,” Armor said, as I sat resting on his back, with Celestia and Luna standing next to us as we watched Spike receive a medal from Cadence. It was a quiet little affair, inside the palace, with just Spike’s friends, the royals, and a few flunkies. “They were,” Luna admitted. “Although they pale in comparison to the spectacles that pegasi of old were fond of.” “Those could be a bit dangerous,” Celestia said. “We suppose,” Luna said. “Although speaking of which, what say you, Gabrielle? We heard that you are still working on restoring our little ponies when they’re injured, are you ready to receive your award?” “Oh, uh, kinda, I guess,” I said. “I have some vision arrangements that I want to look into first. This guardspony, uh, what was her name?” “Sandstone,” Armor said. “Yeah, her,” I said. “I wanna see what I can do for her. I gotta remember to ask Shining Armor if she lost her eyes or if she just scarred them. Perhaps some lens arrangement would be better,” I said, putting my hoof to my chin in contemplation, already losing myself in ideas. Luna just shook her head slowly at me. “You remind us of Starswirl,” she said. “She does,” Celestia said, with a warm smile, before chuckling to herself. “He always said that he’d made arrangements for ponies to keep advancing magic, and his creation was what brought you here. I suppose he was right.” “Heh, that is pretty funny,” I said. After a while, I asked Armor, “Are you heading back to Canterlot?” Perhaps it had been the relative lack of sleep lately, but I didn’t quite have the focus to stop myself from having a slightly pleading tone. “Yeah, soon. My tour here is almost up,” he said, and turned his head to me. “Cap said that a knight should know how to fight. Ask me to and I’ll teach you.” I glanced at Celestia and Luna, who had moved away to congratulate Spike, then slowly moved in to peck Armor on the lips. He recoiled before I could though, and I couldn’t help but give him a slightly hurt look. “Uuh, sorry,” he said, sheepishly. “It should be okay, it’s just that… last time, you gave me stomach problems.” I would’ve felt vaguely insulted if I hadn’t been so surprised. “Oh, right,” I said. “Twilight said that I should be careful with that.” “Yeah, doc said that I had an influx of foreign bacteria,” Armor said. “But, uuh, it should be okay now. Also, you supposedly made my digestion stronger,” he said, looking a bit sheepish again. “Careful around us predators,” I said, with a slight grin, as I put my hoof around his neck, holding him in place this time. “I make you sick, huh?” I said, intending to pay him back for that. Gaiden > Part Three: Mirror Mirror > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- They say that conflict is the source of all drama. Is friction a sort of conflict? It’s used that way in psychology parlance, I think. Is life drama? I’m not sure that’s true, but it sounds moderately profound. You can certainly use friction to support life, Tom Hanks style, so I guess one could argue that friction is a source of life… Sorry, conflict is a source of drama. Anyway... Add some heat and solid matter becomes fluid, and wonderful things can be created in this state. Like, for example, silicate mixed with gem dust, held together inside a mesh of textile, forming a semi-solid, semi-fluid, and very smooth surface, so very susceptible for an enchanter like me to work with. Yes, I was now working with both solid, and semi-solid material. Just like myself. I consisted of mostly liquid and semi-solid material, but I was different in one way: parts of me were completely solid, for I did consider my prosthetics to be part of me now. Sure, I could remove them and switch them out for other things, but they were still me, and their completely solid state helped me in this situation: It took virtually no energy for me to stand up straight in a fairly still position for an extended period of time. I could just lock my prostheses in place and lean on them. The only thing left after that was to keep my head upright, and it was absolutely vital for me to keep it steady, and in the correct position. Or so Rarity insisted. “Darling, you must have some wishes,” she insisted, peering at me over her strange, old secretary glasses. There was a bit of a conga line of experimentation going on. I was experimenting on Armor, Rarity was experimenting on me, and Sweetie Belle was experimenting in Rarity’s kitchen. Armor had been transferred back from the Crystal Empire to Canterlot, and I’d promptly requested to have him helping me with my research. He was currently with us in Carousel Boutique, in his civvies. Or skivvies, if you like. “Well, the only high society, uh, equipage, that I’ve seen is the stuff you’ve made, and I think the prettiest gala dress was Twilight’s,” I said, as I floated my experimental lens in front of my eye, inspecting it closely. “What do you think, Armor?” Rarity said. Armor opened his left eye, the one currently not covered by an opaque lens, to inspect the mannequins one more time. He wasn’t allowed to move away from in front of me though. “They’re all stunning, Miss Rarity,” he said. “Though if you’ll trust a soldier’s fashion sense, I think Twilight’s or yours would fit Gabe best.” “You’re supposed to be blind,” I said. “Sorry. I’ll be blind. Promise,” he said, and closed his eye again, leaving only his right one open, which was covered by an inky black lens. “Explain to me again, Gabrielle dear,” Rarity said, in a confused tone, as she draped another piece of wonderful-feeling cloth over me. “What exactly are you doing right now?” “Yeah, I wanna know too,” Sweetie Belle called, from inside the kitchen. “I’m figuring out how to make prosthetic eyes,” I said, evenly. “And I’ve put an opaque lens over Armor’s eye, blinding him in a way, and now I’m going to put another lens on top of that one, which I’m trying to get to ‘restore’ sight to him.” “And I’ve been ordered to not have a problem with this,” Armor said, in overdone happiness. The Belle sisters tittered. “But you said earlier that a lens like that won’t work for you.” Sweetie Belle said, peering out from the kitchen. “Why aren’t you making something for yourself?” “Because there’s a blind mare in Canterlot who still has her eyes,” I said. “I still have my left one, I’m fine. I’ll make one eventually though.” “Can’t you put one over the fake eye you have right now?” Sweetie Belle asked. “No,” I said, a bit disappointed. “Seems like if you get a surface of, say, an eye-shaped gem or lens, to start responding to electromagnetic radiation, getting it to then ‘talk’ to the optic nerve is different from getting it to talk to the retina.” Rarity’s eyes shifted as she caught up with what I was saying. “Sooo, that must mean that it’s harder to talk to the optic nerve, or you’d just do that, regardless of whether somepony had the surface of their eyes damaged or missing altogether.” “Yes, strangely enough,” I said. “I’m probably just missing something. It’s funny, I used to work with radiation, but apparently that doesn’t translate perfectly into knowing exactly how the eye works, but I’ll figure it out eventually.” “Well, considering your track record, I’d say so,” Armor said, confidently. “Thank you,” I said, and smiled at the blinded soldier in front of me. Rarity shook her head clear of talks about radiation and ocular injuries, and went back to what she did best. “And you most certainly deserve your reward, so I really need you to stay still so that I can make your dress as magnificent as possible.” “Alright, alright,” I said, correcting the position of my head again. “I’m putting it in now, Armor.” “Right,” he said, completely at ease. That’s the wonderful thing about experimenting with Armor’s eyes. He’s a pegasus, and so they’re not really more sensitive than any other part of his hide. I magicked the lens onto his covered eye. He didn’t flinch. I had actually spent a bit of time poking him lightly there, just for fun. “Hmm. There’s something,” Armor said, slowly. “Like a big, blurry light.” I felt like putting my hoof to my chin, but Rarity cleared her throat at me. “That sounds like… you know, when people are blinded, but they can still tell whether if there’s light around them,” I said. “Yyyes. A bit like that, I think,” Armor said. Rarity and Sweetie Belle had now stopped what they were doing, and I had both of their attention now. “The inner lens is completely opaque,” I noted. “I would call this… a limited success, I guess.” “I’d say so,” Armor said, then put his hoof in front of his eye. “Yes, I can tell whether it’s light or dark.” I couldn’t help but let out a triumphant chuckle, as I magicked out the lenses from Armor’s eye, and deposited them in a small case. “Heh! Good work, Rarity.” “Oh, think nothing of it,” she said, with a satisfied smile, as she went back to adjusting the cloth covering me. “I’m just glad I could help.” What we were referring to was Rarity’s contribution to this experiment. She had provided a kind of textile with some incredible properties: It could absorb and hold a fine gem dust mixed into a sort of silicon-like batter, which could then coalesce into a material that was both incredibly smooth and pliable. It was just like a silica lens in that regard, and amazingly enough, it could also “breathe”. It was from this new material which the lenses I was currently working on were made. “Would you like me to mention this to the institute when we go to Canterlot?” I asked. “I… think I would like that, yes,” Rarity said. “I’m not sure that magic researchers would care where your materials come from, but I appreciate the gesture.” “You never know,” I said. “Sis,” Sweetie Belle called, from the kitchen. “The porridge isn’t done, but I think the stuff in the bottom is starting to fry.” When those words registered, Armor and I opened our mouths at the same time, but stopped ourselves from saying anything. Rarity just groaned. “Sweetie, dear, just stir it. More than once.” “Oh, okay,” Sweetie Belle said. “You should get her to practice on mushrooms,” Armor said. “You can fry them in the pan for ages, and they’re still good.” “Same with chicken,” I said. “You gotta be careful with a lot of meat, but chicken can take a beating.” Rarity closed her eyes, and looked like she held something back. “Gabe, that’s gross,” Sweetie Belle said. “Not really,” I said. “Although if you buy it frozen, you’re probably gonna get a bunch of protein leaking out of it that looks like egg white. Some people think that’s gross.” I had finished my sentence whether I wanted to or not, according to Rarity’s blue magic aura holding my mouth shut. “And you’re not even flinching,” Rarity said to Armor. “I’m used to it,” he stated. I chuckled behind my closed mouth. “I suppose it’s appropriate,” he continued, with a hint of dejection. “Since I can apparently digest meat now.” Rarity looked at him uncertainly. “How?” she asked. Armor seemed to catch up with what he was revealing. “Oh, uh,” he said, and looked at me nervously. ‘Well, I suppose it’s not a secret, or at least it can’t stay that way for long.’ “Mm m-mm,” I mumbled at him, and shrugged. Rarity looked at him in curiosity, as did Sweetie Belle, poking her head out of the kitchen. “Well, doc says that I’ve gotten foreign enzymes in me, which apparently comes from, well, Gabe,” he said. Rarity and Sweetie Belle stared at us for a moment, before Rarity smiled mischievously at me. “You like a stallion in uniform then?” He did look cool in it. “Mm mm,” I conceded. “It’s from sharing food!” Armor quickly amended, which apparently sapped a lot of Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s interest. “It also gave me stomach aches.” ‘Well, we have, so that’s entirely possible,’ I admitted to myself. “Hold on,” Sweetie Belle said. “Does that mean that Rumble has gotten stomach-aches too?” I looked at her in deep confusion. ‘Rumble? Where would he have gotten— unless she means that…’ I turned to Armor, and looked him suspiciously in the eye. ‘... Have you been making out with Rumble?’ — “Alright, forward march,” I said, from atop Armor’s back. “You’d better not walk me down into the river,” he commented. “I’m on your back,” I said. “If you fall into the river, so do I. Do you see anything?” He peered around extra hard with his lens-covered eye, my eyepatch covering his other one. “It looks a bit like when you’re underwater, only the water is grey, and I can still see the shimmers. It’s mostly when I move around.” “Hmm,” I puzzled. That sounded promising. “It might be a bit early to speculate, but maybe we’re getting close. Obviously, the lens is talking to your nerves, but it seems like it’s just saying, ‘Okay, here’s the light.’ Maybe I haven’t made it understand to uuh… talk in different colors, rather than just ‘light’.” “Yeah, that might be it,” Armor said. I nodded to myself. It sounded plausible. “Is it uncomfortable?” I asked. “Not really,” he said. “I mean, it’s a bit disturbing to not see anything, but other than that, no.” “Aww,” I cooed, placing my chin on the top of his head, then comfortingly petted his neck. “I’m not gonna mess with you,” I said, sincerely. “Promise.” A small ache started building in my chest, as it had for several nights recently. I’ve always been able to rely on my rationality, but no matter how much I asked it what to do about this, it didn’t seem to provide a clear answer. Were Armor and I friends, or were we something more? Could we be more? I let out a small, forlorn sigh, and Armor angled his head a bit, in vain, as I was resting on it. Before he could say anything however, a familiar voice interrupted him “Studded Armor. So you’re back in Ponyville.” Armor turned his head towards the source of the voice. “Nurse Redheart,” he said, angling his head towards her voice. “Nice to see you again… or, you know.” “Hey, Redheart,” I said, grateful for something to distract me, and yet not. Redheart was approaching our secluded little practicing-area by the river with a lunch box in her mouth, and tilted her head when she got a good look at his face. “What are you two up to?” she asked, as she set the lunch box down. “Researching, apparently,” Armor said, as he lifted my eyepatch from his right eye to look at her properly. “Oh,” she said, and nodded, a bit in relief. “So you’ve stopped using yourself as a test subject, then?” she asked me. “Not really,” I said. “I just didn’t seem to be making any progress with my eye, so I switched to a prosthetic lens. I figured that would be easier.” “Is it?” Redheart asked. “Well, it apparently does something,” I said. “I’m seeing a shifting white light,” Armor said, then slowly looked around demonstratively. “Which is something other than black.” “Exactly,” I said to Redheart. “So while it’s not ready yet, if this is an Apollo rocket, I’m not quite ready to launch, but at least I’ve propelled something rocket-shaped vaguely in the direction I want.” “Apollo rocket?” she asked, confused. “Ah it’s uh,” I started, and put my hoof to my chin. “I kinda don’t wanna give the short version, considering how much I respect what those people managed to do, but it was a project where humans managed to launch themselves into space.” “... Why?” she asked. “To explore, of course,” I said, smiling. “To see if they could. Test the limits of knowledge and all that good stuff.” Redheart looked at me in silence for a moment. Armor might’ve too, if I wasn’t still leaning against his head. “Humans are crazy,” Redheart said after a while, shaking her head. “And proud of it,” I said. “I guess it explains where you get your crazy ideas from,” she said. “Just don’t neglect your friends. You don’t wanna miss out.” “You could say I’m making more friends,” I pointed out. “Blueberry, Sunlit, and Rider liked what I did, and now I’m doing more. The lenses are for this guardsmare in Canterlot, and Scrap Armor made a gryphon hand that I’m gonna give to this eagless during that guest lecture I got the last time I was there.” “Ah yes, that,” Redheart said. “Alright, but don’t neglect your friends here in Ponyville.” “Hardly. We have movie nights, I hang out with the crusaders, me and Lyra jam together,” I counted. “Not to mention your classmate who has a crush on you,” Redheart said. I gave the most ready answer I could to that: a blank stare. That threw me, and threw me far. “Whhaa...?” I managed, somehow. Then, without really thinking, I blurted out, “Crush? No one has a crush on me.” “Sure they do,” Redheart stated confidently. “Uh, alright,” I stated, my mind involuntarily doing backflips. “Who is it?” “Do you really want to know?” Redheart asked, fluttering her eyes at me. “Sure,” I said, not really thinking. “Rumble,” she said, smiling. “Rumble has a crush on you.” “... What?” “You heard me,” she said. “... What?” I wasn’t resting on Armor’s neck anymore, I was just sitting listlessly on his back. “Eh, Gabe?” he asked. I finally understood what Redheart was going for. “Rumble doesn’t have a crush on me,” I said, kind of appreciating the joke. “He does,” Redheart said, her smile fading a bit. “... No he doesn’t,” I said. “He does,” she insisted. I paused and took a good look at Redheart’s now completely straight face. There was no hint of humor left there. “I, ah, uh, I… why?” I asked, stunned. That’s when the humor came back in a hurry. Redheart laughed without reservations, and even Armor chuckled a bit incredulously at me with a raised eyebrow. “You’re serious?” Redheart asked, punctuating the question with a little after-laugh. I tried saying something to the effect of, “Well, yeah,” but I ended up just looking like a frustrated fish. “You’ve never had a colt like you before?” she asked. “I... I... I dunno,” I said. “I don’t think so. No colts, b-but back in school, someone said that a boy liked me once, or twice, b-but it was just a rumor. I think.” Redheart and Armor just stared at me in amused disbelief. “Somehow I doubt that,” Redheart said. “I told you you were pretty, Gabe,” Armor said, and ruffled my mane with his wing. “You’re cool, too. Pegasi like that.” ‘Oh, thank– Wait, is Rumble just interested in me because of my looks? Hold on, why would you say that? Do you have ulterior motives? Don’t you like me? Do you want me to be interested in Rumble because you don’t want to dump me directly? And you, Redheart. Do you don’t want me and Armor to be a thing? Is he too old for me? Do you want him for yourself!?’ Realizing how agitated my breathing was becoming, I closed my eyes, and took deep, slow breaths. ‘Emotions. I hate you so much sometimes.’ “Calm down, Gabe,” Redheart said, and put her hoof on my shoulder, leaning up to me. “It’s not the end of the world.” She and Armor were looking at me with worry scrawled all over their faces. ‘Rumble likes me? How many times has he tried telling me? Have I just come across as aloof? Have I strung him along without meaning to? No way. Why would he be interested in me? But Redheart says that he is. Have I hurt his feelings? Have I– Oh, I’m not cut out for this. Why couldn’t he like Sweetie Belle, or Dinky, or even Redheart?’ “Gabe?” Armor asked. “Are you okay?” “No, I feel terrible,” I mumbled. “Are you sure?” I asked Redheart. “Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes, before her expression fell again. “Does it bother you that much?” I took a moment to purge all the fears and insecurities that had reared their ugly heads so suddenly. ‘I’m a scientist. This irrationality is beneath me... But what if– Oh shut up!’ “Well, I didn’t know!” I protested, then hung my head. “I’m, I’m not, I… oh, now I’m just trying to think back if I’ve hurt him.” “You care that much for him?” she asked, a small smile growing at the side of her mouth. “Well, I , I’m, uh,” I started. ‘Stop messing with me, okay!? Just because you’re an emotions expert doesn’t mean that everyone is too!’ “I don’t know. If he’s feeling bad because of me then… well, then it’s my fault. What should I do about that? Ugh, why don’t people just tell each other about these things?” Redheart just tilted her head and inspected me. “Gabe, you are either the most boring or the most interesting young mare in Equestria,” she said. “Of course ponies don’t outright say that. What if they’re rejected? Haven’t you ever told anypony you like them?” ‘Of course I– Wait… have I? Yes I have.’ I cast a glance at Armor, and when he answered in kind, we quickly looked away from each other. Like in traffic, bright red lights warned us that we should back off. “Oh, don’t bother,” Redheart tittered. “I can see it plain as day.” “Uhm,” Armor uhm’ed, and scratched his neck with a hoof. “Well, it’s a bit unconventional,” Redheart said “But you haven’t done anything untowards, as I understand it.” She turned to me instead. “He’s a nice catch,” she said, with a small smile. “I might’ve tried reeling him in myself.” I don’t know what I stopped myself from saying at first, as her words caught up with me. “Is… are you trying to make me jealous? That’s a strange way to show disapproval.” “See? Now you’re getting the hang of it,” she said, and ruffled my mane with her forehoof. “Mm, alright, alright,” I said, waving her hoof away. “So, you’re going to Canterlot again to fix ponies up?” she asked, as she picked up her lunch box in her mouth. “And a gryphon,” I said. “Yeah, you better get him away from me,” Redheart said, and shot a fiercely blushing Armor a half-lidded look. “Have a nice trip.” She walked away from us, and ran her tail across Armor’s muzzle, glancing back at him as she did. “Hey!” I shouted at her, feeling that someone had to do it (even as I was observing in detail this exciting new possibility that tails offered). I hugged Armor’s neck protectively and waved my hoof at Redheart. “Mine!” Armor was just standing there, developing a new pattern on his coat. — “Do you have everything?” Spike asked, from the corridor outside my room. “Uhm, yes,” I said, packing down the last parchment with formulas in my saddlebag. “The only thing I don’t have is that gryphon meat substitute, but I can get some more of that in Canterlot. Good thing too, I’m almost out.” After my mild vandalism in the post office, I felt I shouldn’t really weigh them down with even more to do, until they were fully up and running. “Are you bringing your guitar?” Spike asked, as he walked in with my new dress in a paper package with a pink band tying it together. I was actually getting kind of exciting about trying it out, and started feeling a little bad about being so absorbed in my work at Rarity’s. I had probably come across as aloof. ‘Ooh, I wonder what Armor will think of it… okay, no. No more sighing and longing until I figure this out.’ “Yes, I am,” I said, and gestured to the hard-case leaning against the wall. “It’s right there.” “Oh, okay,” he breathed. “Good. It’s a bit creepy when it starts playing on its own.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “The power of Rock’n’Roll wouldn’t hurt you. You’re a dragon, it’s on your side.” “Uh, thanks,” he said, “I guess.” “Oh, and speaking of Rock ’n’ Roll,” I said, and fished Scrap’s latest creation out of my saddlebag. “What do you think about this?” It was a gryphon’s foreleg in metal, an almost full forearm ending with a large, taloned hand. Chromed and gleaming in the sunlight streaming in from the window. It looked like something from a Heavy Metal album cover circa 1987. Though the effect was diminished a bit from the bottle corks stuck on the end of the talons, which kept them from tearing up my fancy saddlebags. “Awesome,” Spike breathed. “You think he can make some sort of armor for me that looks like that?” “No doubt. Also, check this out,” I said, and unscrewed the top of the foreleg, making it shorter. “It’s modular. I haven’t met the recipient, so I don’t know how large it should be, but I can adjust it like this.” “Ooh, that’s really smart,” Spike said. “Yeah. Scrap’s idea, of course. Let’s just hope that the talons aren’t too different from her arcanomorphic field, or we’re gonna have to reforge it.” “Whose field?” Spike asked. “Uh, the eagless who’s getting it,” I said. “Oh, okay,” he said. “Well, are you ready to go?” I didn’t have time to answer before Twilight poked her head in from the corridor. “You ready to go, Gabe?” “Yeah, pretty much,” I said. “Good,” Twilight said. “Because, uhm, the train leaves in about five minutes.” I glanced out the window, seeing where the sun was positioned in the sky, and quickly shoved the gryphon prosthesis into my saddlebag. “Whoops! Bye, guys,” I said, as I galloped out from the room, and leapt down from the second floor ledge, onto an unsuspecting Armor’s back. “Giddy-up, private, we’re in a hurry,” I said, to an instinctively rearing Armor. “Say hi to Inkwell for me!” Twilight called, from up the stairs. “Will do!” I shouted, as Armor took off at top speed out the door. — “Ah, on the road again,” I said, as Armor set me and my luggage down on a bench inside the train car. “Or, you know, tracks. Good work, Armor.” Armor was taking slow, steadying breaths, as he sat himself down on the padded bench. “Thank you, ma’am,” he breathed, jokingly. “Heh. So, you’re up for being a test subject some more, or would you like me to play something?” I asked. “Either’s fine,” he said. “You need to make the lenses for Sandstone work, don’t you?” “Yeah,” I said, and started digging out my notes and materials. “You just lay back and let auntie Desrochers do her work.” “Don’t mind if I do,” he said, and laid himself on his back opposite me, letting one wing lazily splay open, while idly holding the other out so he could preen the upper half of it. I picked up from where I had left off, finishing up my notes from what I had learned when we were out and about, and started trying out some new things on one of the test lenses. Armor stopped preening, and just laid completely relaxed, as I inserted the lens into his eye and started working. “Okay,” I said, after a while. “Do you see anything?” “Kinda, yeah,” he said, and gestured with his hoof in front of him. “There’s this… shimmer.” “Promising. I’m not sure how to get the lens to communicate with you, so I’ve tweaked the formula to inspect your nervous system to try and at least partially figure out for itself how to solve the issue.” “Oh. That sounds clever,” he said, holding still. “At least I think it does.” “Thank you.” I said, and gave him a quick nuzzle as a reward. “Another bit of inspiration from human technology. We’ll give it some time and see what it can figure out.” “Alright.” “... Hey, Armor,” I said, after a while, a bit cautiously. “Yeah?” “... I’m too young for you, aren’t I?” He looked straight ahead with his blank lens for a moment, before opening his other eye, and looking at me with a bit of worry and uncertainty. “I,” he started, before letting out a sigh, and just looking sad. “I don’t know.” I let out a sigh of my own, my ears drooping along with Armor’s. “I don’t know either.” We stayed like that for a moment, before he slowly raised his wing, and brushed his primaries against my cheek, and I couldn’t help but smile and lean into it a bit. He raised his head, and looked around the car at the benches, empty except for a sleeping mare on the far side, before leaning back again and looking into my eye. “You’re a wonderful and beautiful young mare, and you deserve a wonderful pony,” he said. “I already know one,” I said, turning the cheese up to eleven, smiling a bit ruefully. He smiled back at me, and stroked my cheek with his primaries. “... Gabe,” he said. “I think your lens is working now.” — It was a terraced house, of sorts. It was slightly flattened from what you might expect from turn-of-the-century western European style. The houses were shorter than I was used to seeing on Earth, but the plot of land with the gardens and greenhouses were larger. There were also greenery rather than just grass, especially concerning the house we were standing in front of. I knocked on the door in front of us. We hadn’t walked by the palace to unload my stuff yet, so Armor was weighted down with my dress, some of my research materials, and my guitar— the only other pony than myself I trusted it with. Sure, I had gotten Scrap to enchant it so that I could drop both it and my harmonica from the top of Canterlot castle and it wouldn’t even leave a dent (and the sound remained unchanged), but still. I just carried the rest of my research material and the gryphon talon in my saddlebag. “Just a minute!” a woman, mare, called from the other side of the door. A set of hooffalls approached, and the door opened, revealing a creamy brown-coated earth pony mare with a blonde mane and tail in that typically messy but lustrous style, staring blankly ahead of herself with milky eyes. “Good… afternoon, I think,” she said, completely unabashed, and a small smile on her face. “Who is it?” Armor and I glanced at each other, and I held out my hoof invitingly for him. “Uhm, Corporal Sandstone,” he said. “I’m Private Armor, royal guard, fifth air unit.” Sandstone angled her ears towards Armor as he spoke, concentration evident on her face. “Yes, that does sound like you,” she said. “You remember me?” Armor asked. “I recognize your voice. Vaguely,” she said, smilingly, and raised her hoof. “Nice to meet you in person.” “Uh, likewise,” Armor said, clopping hooves with her. “And who’s this?” she asked, aiming her head somewhere above me. “Uh, this is Gabrielle Desrochers,” Armor said. Sandstone aimed a smile towards that empty spot above me, and raised her hoof in a sort of salute. “Gale and health be with you,” she said. “Uhm, what?” I asked. Sandstone’s eyes narrowed in curiosity when she heard me, and crouched down to my eye level, then gently sniffed the air in front of me. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you were a gryphon.” “Yeah, I get that a lot,” I said. “Well, nice to meet you, young mare,” she said, and extended her hoof in greeting. “Likewise,” I said, and gently bumped hooves with her, then she raised up to address us both. “So, what can I do for you?” she asked, completely openly. “Uhm, well, we’re here to try and make you see again,” I said. That clearly threw her off balance for a moment, before she aimed her head down at me. “Pardon?” she asked, a disbelieving smile adorning her. “No one contacted you about this?” I asked. “No, I’m sure I would’ve remembered,” she said, still smiling in amusement. “Oh.” Armor and I looked at each other. “Well, this is awkward,” I said. “I was sure that someone would’ve, but I guess Shining forgot, or assumed that I would.” “First name basis with his majesty, eh?” she asked. “Well, I’m lodging with his sister…. anyway, look, I was hoping you’d know why we’re here, but this could be an awkward conversation to have on a doorstep,” I said, and glanced around at the city around us. It wasn’t a busy thoroughfare by any means. This was a residential area, but it was still an odd conversation to have in the open like this, even though the traffic was light and gentle and no one was giving us strange looks. “Oh, certainly,” Sandstone said, and stepped aside. “Come on in.” “Really?” I said, as I slowly walked in the house. “No offence, but a blind mare inviting two strangers into her house just like that?” “Uuh, actually,” Armor chimed in. “I haven’t sparred against her myself, but from what I’ve heard, I still don’t stand a chance.” “Don’t worry, rookie,” Sandstone said, as she closed the door behind us. “Get another ten years of experience under your belt, and we’ll see what happens. Besides, Secateur will be home soon.” “Secateur?” I asked. “My wife,” Sandstone said. I took that in stride. I hadn’t seen it before, but of course something as trivial as which gender you were wouldn’t stand in the way of love in Equestria. Cadence would have a fit if that even came up as a suggestion. “Tea?” Sandstone asked, as she walked into the kitchen. “Oh, uh, love to,” I said. “And not to intrude, but do you have anything to snack on too? We stopped by a restaurant earlier, and I think there was a mistake, because we got some sort of modern art on a plate.” Armor nodded in agreement, unseen by Sandstone of course. I idly wondered is this is what people mean by “power corrupts”, because many would say that I behaved very inappropriately at that restaurant. As a future Knight of the Realms, and honorary member of Royal Institute of Magic, I felt confident enough to indirectly mock the food we were given, forming the tiny pieces of bread and cream into little ponies and making them run around on the plate with my magic while I cruelly chased them with my mouth like a giant vacuum monster. The maître d’hotel had come out and stared at us disapprovingly when Armor and I had started laughing uncontrollably at the looks the other patrons were giving us. “Certainly. Coming right up,” Sandstone said, from the kitchen. “Make yourself at home.” “Don’t worry,” I said to Armor, as we rested the guitarcase and our saddlebags beside the door. “I know this gryphon restaurant over at Rodeo Drive. They’ve got awesome schnitzels.” “You know, I might as well use my new digestive powers,” he said. “Ah, no, it’s that substitute again,” I said. “Oh.” We walked a bit uncertainly to another room, with large cushions and a couch in front of a small table, placed in front of a fireplace. “Is this the living room?” I called, to Sandstone. “Sounds like that’s where you are, yes,” she called back. “I’ll be right there.” “Do you need help with anything?” Armor called. “Nope. Just don’t move any of the furniture.” Armor and I took seats on the couch, looking at each other and feeling more than a little awkward at almost barging into the house of a blind mare, whom had not been told we were coming, and waiting for her to finish tea. The fireplace was unlit, and the only source of light was what streamed in from the windows leading out into a greenhouse. After a few moments, Sandstone walked in with a tray in her mouth, sporting a plate of cookies, three empty cups, and a steaming teapot. “Where are you?” she asked. “Uh, couch,” I said. “Did you move anything?” “Nnno.” Sandstone deftly walked up to the small table in front of us, then set the tray down with perfect accuracy. “Very Impressive,” I said. “Thanks,” she said, smiling in my direction as she reached for the teapot. “There are some coasters under the table, if you don’t mind.” “Oh, uh, allow me,” Armor interjected. “Thank you” Sandstone said, taking a seat on a cushion on the opposite side of the table. “You’re… not what I expect of a veteran who can take on Armor here,” I said, as Armor filled up the cups. Sandstone chuckled a bit. “And what would you expect?” she asked. “Puuh, I dunno,” I said. “You’ve got the authority, but I was expecting a more somber or brooding type of it I guess.” Sandstone chuckled again. “Not my style,” she said, and set her front hooves on the edge of the table. “Where’s the cup?” “Uh, a bit ahead to your right,” Armor said. “Thanks.” “Still, fifty years of service?” I asked. “That’s right. Was practically on first name basis with the princess. Celestia, I mean,” she said, then sipped on her tea. “Wow. I’m sorry, that’s gotta be tough,” I said. I would’ve felt more awkward from such a lame comment, but I couldn’t help but be fascinated by how this mare was handling it. Shining Armor was right, she really didn’t let it stop her in any way. “Yep, really rough,” she said. “But, I still get to help out sometimes. Your grandaddy still sends his recruits to me on the training fields, private.” ‘Awesome.’ “So uh, you’re probably wondering why we’re here,” I said, after munching on a biscuit. “I remember the conversation up until now,” she said. “I’ve given you like six openings for a sales pitch for a poor, struggling blind mare, but I haven’t gotten any charlatan vibes from you yet, so you’ve got me curious.” “Ah, well, perhaps it’s better to demonstrate directly,” I said. “Oh?” Sandstone said, a bit amused. “How?” “Mind if I come up to you?” I asked. “Not at all,” she said, then took another sip of her tea. I walked up to her next to the cushion she lay on, her head still being aimed vaguely in my general direction as she raised an eyebrow. “Why do you only have two horseshoes?” she asked. “They’re not shoes,” I said, then sat down and peeled the cover off my prosthesis. I gently presented my metallic foreleg to her. “Feel this.” Sandstone located the limb, and gently brushed a hoof against it. She put her cup down on the saucer, and took my leg in both her hooves, gently feeling it. “What is this? A new type of armor?” she asked. I placed one of her hooves on my own prosthetic one, and jiggled it, then did the same with my knee joint. “Moves naturally, doesn’t it?” I asked. “Uh yeah, sure,” she said, a bit uncertainly, eyes still aimed blindly ahead. I placed her hoof on my shoulder, and let her feel where my coat met the leg. “Watch this,” I said, and started unlocking the magic off switch. “Hehe, I don’t do that any–” she started, before her grin fell away as my leg fell away. She sat still for a moment, before she quickly brushed her hoof over my empty shoulder, my foreleg in her other hoof. Sandstone ran her hoof across my shoulder again a few times, before shifting her attention to my prosthesis in her other hoof. She ran her hoof against the now-lifeless limb, before turning back to my shoulder. She kept that up for a while, moving her head as if forgetting that she couldn’t see. Then she just sagged, and stared ahead blankly. I glanced back at Armor, but he didn’t look any more certain at what to do than I. After a while, I cleared my throat. “So, uhm, yeah. I’m a prosthetist. I’ve got limbs down pretty well, and now I’ve started on eyes as well. I haven’t gotten to full replacements yet, and I’ve only just started with lenses.” Sandstone just sat still for a while, before shaking her head. “Wait, you made this?” she asked, and held up my foreleg. “Yep, or well, the magic part,” I said. “Sergeant Scrap Armor made the chassis.” Sandstone just slumped again, deep in thought, just before we heard the door open. “I’m home!” I melodic voice called. “Sandy? Sandyyy?” Sandstone seemed to snap out of her shock, and whipped her head towards the front door. “In here, honey.” “Are you alright, Sandy?” the mare asked, as she walked into the living room, and stopping when she saw us. “Oh! Uh, guests, I see.” She was another earth mare, with a deep red coat and a black, poofy mane. “Honey,” Sandstone said, in a very neutral voice, and held out her free foreleg towards her wife. “Oh!” the apparent Secateur cried when she saw Sandstone’s seemingly blank expression, and quickly trotted up to her. They held each other in a tight embrace, and Sandstone rested her head on Secateur’s neck, burying her muzzle in her mane. Secateur looked at us curiously, before her eyes widened at seeing my empty shoulder, and my loose foreleg still in Sandstone’s hoof. After a moment, Sandstone wordlessly waved my foreleg at me. I took it and reattached it while Sandstone more firmly gripped Secateur, as she also laid down and gently started gently stroking Sandstone’s mane. I walked back and sat down next to Armor, while Sandstone spent a few minutes taking slow, deep breaths. “Does it work?” Sandstone eventually asked, in a surprisingly steady voice. “Oh, ehm,” I started, caught a bit off-guard. “Well, I haven’t tried it myself. They have to be custom made, and only Armor here has tried it.” I shared a look with Armor, nodding towards the two mares and wiping metaphorical sweat off my brow. ‘Whooo. Close call.’ “Ah, yes. It works,” Armor said. “It’s single color, but it worked for me.” Sandstone’s breathing was returning to normal. “How much do you want?” That caught me off guard. “Oh, uh, nothing,” I said. “I don’t charge for this.” Sandstone raised her head from her wife’s mane just a nudge, while Secateur looked at us in disbelief. After a while, she started chuckling unevenly, before letting go of Secateur, sharing a small kiss as they disengaged. “You’ve done this before?” she asked, as she again made her comfortable on the cushion, while Secateur sat down on the one beside her. “Uh, a few times,” I said. “It’s only been limbs though. I’ve been doing those longer.” “So you, what? Walk around and give new body parts to disabled ponies, no strings attached?” Sandstone asked. “Yep. That’s right. No need for pulleys and wires with– oh, wait, you mean those kinds of strings,” I said, and scratched my neck. “Yeah. I suppose I have a bit of an unusual occupation. Not to bore you with my life story, yes, that’s what I spend some of my time doing.” “I’ve never even heard of this before,” Sandstone said. “Uuh, I haven’t been doing this for very long,” I said, eyeing another cookie on the table. “They ended up in a paper in Applied Magics, and Canterlot Times did an article on that a week or two ago.” Sandstone chuckled. “I don’t read anymore,” she said, before turning to Secateur, and gesturing towards us. “So, honey, uhm, this is Private Armor of the Royal Guard, and Gabrielle… Desrochers, I think?” “Yes,” I said. “Gabrielle Desrochers. Who apparently figured out how to restore lost sight, and just sauntered up to our door and is offering to do so for me, just like that.” Secateur looked at us, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. I couldn’t really blame her. I really should have sent a letter… which her wife would’ve had to read. “Well, that’s… that’s,” Secateur said, after a while, nodding uncertainly with a small smile on her face, before suddenly losing consciousness, her head falling listlessly against the cushion. Sandstone chuckled, before reaching over and pulling Secateur’s limp form towards her, then started gently cradling her wife’s head in her hooves. “Tell me more,” she said. — After I had told Sandstone about my work and the general concept of having physical objects enchanted to work as an interface for a pony’s arcanomorphic field, Secateur had woken up. There were some more confusion and explaining to be made, but after she had taken a little more time to come to her senses while wrapped in Sandstone’s forelegs, Secateur had insisted on making dinner for us while I worked. Armor was helping her. He thought she looked a bit too unsteady to handle stoves and sharp objects, and he also knew what types of pony food I didn’t appreciate. “So what do you need me to do?” Sandstone asked, lying on her back on the cushion and facing the ceiling with the blank lenses covering her eyes. “Just lie there,” I said. “I need to inspect you magically. This could take a while. It’s a bit tricky to get a feel for someone’s arcanomorphic field when you have their physical parts occupying the same space. Much easier with a missing limb.” “So, uh. Would it help to remove the eyes?” she asked, a bit nervously, and Secateur leaned her head out to watch us with a frightened look. I waved her off with a placating shake of my head. “Uhm, yes, but that’s a pretty drastic step for a temporary annoyance. Still, it’s gonna be easier when I do this to myself.” Sandstone eyes widened and she unconsciously tried looking at me. “You’d do this to yourself?” “What? No. Oh, you probably haven’t noticed, but my right eye is also a prosthesis,” I said. “It’s not magical though, it’s just a polished lump.” Sandstone sighed and leaned back into the cushion, eyes straight ahead. “You’ve had some terrible things happen to you, haven’t you?” she asked, quietly enough to not carry to the kitchen. I glanced up at Sandstone from the mnemonic notes I was jotting down as I tried unlocking the secrets of her magic field. After making myself at home in Equestria, traumas from my past had settled in the backseat of my mind, or perhaps the trunk, where they belonged, but they were still there, being ready to haunt me and toughen me up in equal measures, although often at their own leisure. “I guess,” I said. “I haven’t thought about it in a while.” “Yeah. You don’t, do you?” “No,” I said. “It doesn’t help.” “How did you live with it?” she asked. I fought down the feeling to just shrug the question off, and set down my notes. “I’m actually not sure I did for years. I lost my family when I lost this,” I said, and clacked my hoof against my right foreleg. “Looking back at it, it felt like I spent years just… waiting. I’dunno, like, waiting at a train station on the journey of life or something like that if you like poetry.” “Nice enough metaphor,” Sandstone said, and smiled. “Though I’m not sure I say I did. I always had my Secateur to help me.” “Captain Shining Armor said you’re just fearless,” I noted. “That you don’t let anything stop you.” Sandstone chuckled at that. “I guess he’s right in a way. Put an army in front of me, or strand me in the frozen north, even blind, and I can keep going for ages. But I’m not there. I’m in a comfy house in Canterlot. Like I said, they still let me help out over at the palace, but…” “Brought down by listlessness rather than might?” I suggested. “I think I would’ve been, if it wasn’t for Secateur,” she said. “How about you?” I thought back to everyone in Ponyville. Redheart, the Crusaders, Twilight, Spike, and the famous heroes, Cheerilee and the rest of the class, Lyra and Bonbon, the flower trio, and of course, Celestia and Luna. I glanced into the kitchen, seeing Armor flipping the food with spatula in his wing. “Same.” “Just so you know,” I continued. “I don’t know if it’s gonna be the same for you as it was for me, but there might be a lot of emotions that want out in a while.” Sandstone tittered. “You saw me and my wife earlier. I think I know what’s coming. She might get another episode or two herself. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to this. Going back to the ‘journey of life’ metaphor, Secateur is my travel mate and there’s nopony I’d rather have with me than her, but it would be nice to be able to see the sights with her rather than just listening to her descriptions.” “You’re gonna like this then,” I said, and wove the final part of the enchantment into her lenses. Sandstone’s featureless eyes widened, then she suddenly sat up straight, looking around the room in awe. She waved her hooves in front of her, before she turned to me, and grinned widely. — “Compared to the last time I did this, this was a bit of an anticlimactic ending,” I said, as Armor and I walked down the now dark streets of Canterlot. Sandstone had regained her vision, although be it a bit limited. Like Armor had described it, it was monochromatic. Like black-and-white, only it was more blue-and-grey. I thought that sounded like it was really hard to make out details, but they said it worked pretty well. Clearly, there was a lot of room for improvement, but Sandstone loved it all the same, especially being able to read like normal again, and Secateur had even liked the look of the lenses. “Maybe, but I don’t think Sandstone and Secateur agree,” Armor said. After a moment, he noticed the smarmy grin I was giving him. “Not like that,” he groaned. I chuckled a bit impishly. “Although they might celebrate tonight,” he said. “You just keep dreaming about that, stallion,” I said. Armor just stuck out his tongue at me. We made our way to the palace, still operating after sundown, although with very reduced activity. Armor helped me with my things up to my room, then bid me goodnight and walked down to where he slept. For my part, I barely even approached my bed, before I dismissed the idea, and walked out into the hallways of the castle. I walked some of the same hallways that I had familiarised myself with when I had met Angus. Everywhere, there were luxurious tapestries, silk-like curtains gently flowing from soft breezes through open windows, and openings out into semi-hidden balconies looking out over the luxurious gardens, and even plenty of cushioned couches on them, kept from being ruined thanks to the controlled weather. I reared up and rested my forelegs on the railing of one of the balconies, and my head on my forelegs. This was always slightly unpleasant at first, before my prosthesis warmed up from my body heat. Then I looked down at the gardens below. “Hello, Gabrielle,” Celestia said, not surprising me in the least. “Good evening, Celestia,” I said, looking around at her. “I had a feeling you’d show up.” “Don’t expect to hide from me in my own castle,” Celestia said, smilingly. “Only one pony has been able to do that.” “I wasn’t hiding,” I said. “And who’s that?” “Starswirl,” she said. “Nopony kept as many secrets as he. Probably because they weren’t meant to be secrets half of the time.” I let out an amused snort, and looked out over the gardens again. Celestia walked up, and put a wing around me. “And there is of course a reason why you’re not in bed,” she noted. “I guess,” I said. “Would you like to talk about it?” Celestia asked. I did a quick inspection of my own thoughts, and decided. “I think so, if I could only figure out what they are.” “I’m in no rush,” she offered. I nodded, and gave explaining my own thoughts the old college try. “Well, I think it’s a lot of things. Someone, in a totally tasteful manner, reminded me of what happened to me,” I said, and gave my prosthetic hoof a demonstrative way. “Stubborn brain chemistry acting up again. Then I’ve been thinking about, well... myself, others, and myself and others. Like… stuff I’m not used to. Relationships. Things like that.” I turned to look Celestia in the eye with a look of amused ruefulness. “Then I got what could be the most unwarranted feeling of homesickness keeping me from sleeping.” Celestia tightened her wing around me. “No it’s not,” she said, kindly. “You learned to love what you had. Of course you’ll miss it.” “I guess,” I said, and looked out over the garden again. “I moved twice after I lost my parents. The first place was an… okay place. Then, when I got things in order, I moved to a better place. That first place was the first home I had after being all alone. When I came to terms with what had happened to me, I did it there. When I didn’t do it at the hospital of course. That’s where I spent entire days just staring listlessly out the window, going in painful circles in my mind before crying myself to sleep. “When I moved away, I thought that I was going to wash my hands of something that I associated with sadness and emptiness. I settle down in my new apartment, better, bigger, cleaner... and realise that I miss the last place.” I looked up at Celestia again, and waved circles at the side of my head and spun my natural eye around while the other one stayed in place. Celestia smiled calmly at me. “We’re both touched in the head then. I missed mine and Luna’s old castle for decades, even centuries, even though I could go back and see it at any time. I still can.” “Ah yeah. Twilight told me about that place,” I said. “Like your old homes, it’s a place I can’t help but associate with loss. When you moved to new homes, you were taking steps away from memories that meant so much to you, and when you came to Equestria, almost all your physical connection to your parents vanished,” Celestia explained. I gave that some thought. “Yeah, that sounds right. Although, I still have the things that matter the most to me,” I said, referring to my guitar and photos. “I’m glad. I hope being in Equestria will continue to help mend your wounds,” Celestia said. I smiled appreciatively at her, before I remembered something. “Celestia?” I asked. “Hmm?” “You remember before I moved to Ponyville, how you… were being like a mother to me?” I asked. Now it was Celestia’s turn to smile a bit ruefully. “I do,” she said. “Why were you trying to be that?” I asked. Celestia looked out at the night sky, thinking for a moment. “Because… I think it’s for the same reason I gave back then. I’m lonely. More lonely than I feel I have a right to be, with my sister, my former student, and my adoptive niece. I shouldn’t want more, but I do.” I rested my head comfortingly against her. “I don’t think it’s wrong to want more. I don’t know how much of a family member I can be to you, but if you still want to, I can give it a shot.” Celestia once again rested her head on mine. “Thank you,” she said, in a small voice. We stayed like that for a while, until I let out a big yawn. Celestia chuckled, and we looked at each other. “Has your sleeplessness worn off?” she asked. “I think so.” “Then let’s get you to bed,” she said, and magically lifted me up on her back as she walked indoors again. Her back was just as comfy as Armor’s, but she was quite a bit bigger, and I got more mane in my face. “What made you change your mind?” she asked. “Several things,” I said. “I realized that I still want a mom, and you’ve done a really good job every single time you’ve had a chance to now.” “I know I can’t ask you to be a child again like one would expect a pony of your age to be, but then you’ll also understand that I can’t be there for you all the time like a parent would,” she said. “So not exactly your daughter. More like Cadence?” I asked. “Yes, something like that.” “This wouldn’t be an official thing, right? I don’t have to be a princess like her?” I asked, suspiciously. “Not unless you want to,” Celestia said, looking back at me. “Pass. What does Luna say?” “Luna has lamented that Cadence is not younger, so that she could be an aunt for her when she was a foal.” “Ah. Well, at least I’m technically the right age as a pony, and to be honest, I feel like a child sometimes.” Celestia looked back at me again and smirked. “Most ponies, people, do now and then. Now, you better get to bed and get ready for your upcoming lectures and ceremonies, Madam Desrochers.” — One of the wonderful things about Equestria is of course the predictable weather, and all that comes with it. I heard that there are places back on Earth where the windlessness is the rule rather than the exception, but I’d never seen it, so it was only recently that I realized that I could do paperwork on a park bench, and not have to coop up indoors. Now I could choose between a luxurious suite in a beautiful castle, with room service and a fireplace, or the beautiful outdoors, in the public area of the palace gardens, where the temperature was perfect and the birds chirped soothingly. Sometimes I thought the ponies were just trying to make things difficult for me. “Ah, Madam Desrochers. How nice to see you again.” I looked up to see the familiar face of Kibitz, the elderly stallion’s suit and appearance impeccable even among nobles and other ponies who had polished their looks for a trek through the palace gardens. “Good morning, Kibitz,” I said. “How are you?” “Very well, my dear,” he said. “Her majesty is having a lengthy conversation with her… other majesty, and I have finished rescheduling for the moment, so there is some time off.” “That’s nice. What are they talking about?” I asked. “You, I believe,” Kibitz said, and walked up to the bench. “Do you mind if I join you.” “Uh, not at all,” I said, and moved away a stray paper from where he was. “I assume that it’s about what Celestia and I talked about yesterday.” “It is,” Kibitz said, and looked around at the other ponies walking by. None of them were in earshot, but he still lowered his voice. “Princess Luna wants to make sure what this arrangement entails, I believe.” I nodded. “I don’t want to be an heir, and I don’t think Celestia wants me to be one either. I just…” I trailed off, before just shaking my head and continuing. “Oh, I’ve done heart-to-hearts with so many people recently, you might as well join the club. I want a parent. I had two, they were great, I’d like something like that again, please. You could never mistake Celestia for my mother, but she does a really good job.” Kibitz nodded. “Yes… I have been by Celestia’s side for almost one hundred and fifty years now. I think I have a pretty good understanding of what’s good for her. Your presence is not a balm to cure all ailments of her heart, but it is a good one.” I breathed out a sigh of relief I didn’t know I held. “Thank you, Kibitz,” I said. I perked my ear towards a group of fancily dressed ponies walking down the path we were sitting by, and decided to retire this conversation. I didn’t plan on becoming a princess myself, and I didn’t want anyone to overhear anything that would give them ideas. “Hey, could you help me with this?” I asked Kibitz, and held out my bare foreleg prosthesis. “I can certainly try,” he said. “What do you need help with?” “I need you to hold a few things in place so I can detach the lower leg,” I said. “Uhm, I shall try.” Kibitz held the parts I told him to hold in place while I worked, and finally, it was detachable. I powered down the prosthesis, and removed the lower part of the leg, leaving the upper part, and the knee joint with the rig to reattach the lower part on. “What happens now?” Kibitz asked. “Now, we use this,” I said, and magically fished out the gryphon claw from my bag. “I just need to fill it with gem dust so I can give it a test run. I wanna know it works before I give it to someone. So if you’ll just hold it like this, in your hooves, not your magic.” I transferred the gem dust from my prosthesis to the gryphon claw, sealed the hatches, and roughly attached the gryphon claw on the joint of my prosthesis. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it worked well enough for this. “And now, I just turn it back on,” I said, and did the physical maneuver to power it up. The prosthesis instantly sprung to life, as it did every morning I put it on, only this time there was a large, taloned hand at the end of it. It was more than a little too large for me, but it functioned as expected. “Ah, it works,” I said, satisfied, and clicked the talon shut with with metallic clinks. “My hoof field looking like a human hand must translate into the movement of the talons.” I tried opening and closing the hand a few more times, flexing all the individual talons, and with a bit of mental effort, slowly managed to bend the thumb back to where birds mostly kept them. “Hmm, the pollex functions, though it’s a bit tricky for me to keep it there. Secundus and medius each get a talon of their own, while medicinalis and minimus gets to share the outer digit.” Kibitz was looking on in fascination as I flexed the digits experimentally. “I know this one is a gift, but are you going to switch your hoof for something like this?” “No. I already have fingers thanks to the way my hoof field works, and gryphons have another kind of magic active that doesn’t make them eviscerate what they don’t want to, which I don’t have. I just wanted to test this out. Most likely, the recipient’s magic will work on this too. Otherwise we’re just gonna have to blunt these,” I said, and waved the talons around in front of him. Once again, I had been a little too lost in my work, and hadn’t noticed how the crowd that was about to head past us had instead stopped in my blind spot and were looking at me and my gryphon talon with wide eyes. Kibitz and I looked at them. Kibitz’ disapproving look was not enough to send them on their way, and I was frankly not embarrassed by taking my new job seriously. “Good morning, civilians,” I yawned, languishly reached out and grabbed a steel lamppost beside me with the talon, and casually bent it a few dozen degrees. “Continue about your business.” Kibitz’ moustache bristled slightly as he struggled with holding back a laugh. — I stood on a table by a collection of blackboards in the amphitheatre-like classroom, preparing my diagrams and formulas while Inkwell was out collecting the eagless. I heard the door open, and looked behind me to see a pair of unicorn mares stride into the room. I went back to copying large versions of the formulas on the blackboard, making sure I wasn’t missing any steps. “You think we’re in the right place?” one of them asked. “Don’t know,” the other said, before raising her voice in my direction. “Hey, you!” I glanced back at them, standing on the far side of the semi-lit room with curious looks on their faces. “Yeah?” “Do you know if there’s gonna be a lecture here on fake limbs?” the first one said. “Prosthetics, yes,” I corrected. “If you’re here for that, you’re a bit early.” “And who are you?” the second one asked. “Right now, just the person who’s prepping the presentation,” I said. “You can sit down if you want, but I really have to finish this.” “Look, little filly, you can’t just mess around with that stuff,” the second one said, in a stern voice. My mind was somewhere else, and I wasn’t being totally on the ball with what she meant. “I can’t?” I asked. “No!” she said, and the two started walking up to me. “Look, I don’t expect you to understand this, but Professor Inkwell has gone through a lot of trouble to arrange this guest lecture.” “Trouble?” I asked, skeptical. “It was a simple question and a fancy-looking parchment. I don’t see how that’s a lot of trouble,” I said, and went back to the metallurgical part that Scrap had helped put together for me. “How do you…?” Number Two started, before shaking her head. “Look, filly, you can’t be here.” “What, on the table?” I asked. “This place is too big for me if I’m not.” I perked my ears when I heard the door open to the side of the little stage, followed by the sound of a pony approaching, along with one single thumping sound. ‘About time.’ The first unicorn chimed in with a bit of pleading in her eyes. “Look perhaps you should just go do something else,” she said. “I certainly should,” I said, jumped down from the table, and started moving towards the curtains on edge of the stage. I called back to them, “I’ll be back in a bit, you can sit down and wait wherever if you want.” The whole lecture hall looked a bit like a theater, which I thought was a bit strange before I noticed how well the arrangement, with curtains and such, added to the acoustics, making it really well-adjusted for voices. So any sound of speech coming from the side of the stage wouldn’t be heard by the people sitting in the benches, and vice versa, unless they shouted. I did a mental checklist as I walked backstage, when I saw Inkwell with a gryphon walking beside her. I had only seen gryphon eaglesses twice before, at the Equestria Games, and one who had looked out curiously from the kitchen at that restaurant when I had ordered typical “carnivore” food, and even then I hadn’t gotten a close look at them. Eaglesses looked just as cool as the tercels, the feathers on her head even forming a sort hairdo that was even more pronounced than Arnfried's. What stood out about this one though, and which my eyes were drawn to despite missing limbs weren’t really an unusual sight for me, was the pegleg she had instead of her right talon. It was a stout wooden arrangement, though not a pirate pegleg, since it ended with a sort of thick rubber bottom, to not slide across the floor I assumed. Back when I had been a human, I had one that ended with a plastic foot, so that I could put shoes on it, but since gryphons probably didn’t wear shoes, an inanimate talon would be pretty pointless, since it would probably be even more clumsy than a pegleg like this. I finally tore my gaze away from the leg. Professional interest or not, my looking might just have come across as simply morbid fascination. The look that she had was different from what I was used to seeing on gryphons. Arnfried practically oozed with calm authority, a bit like Celestia but without the motherliness. The waiter at the restaurant had been surprised by my request for a few moments before being all professional, and the gryphon athletes in the empire had been all determination and solemn pride. This gryphon looked nervous. Inkwell gestured back and forth between the two of us. “Giselle, this is Gabrielle Desrochers. Gabe, this is Giselle.” I offered my left hoof to Giselle, who cautiously shook it, and now that I knew how they magically stopped themselves from tearing gashes in everything they grabbed, I idly studied their magical field, noting how the sharps points of her talons didn’t poke me in the flesh. “Hello. Pleased to meet you,” I said. “Uhm… hi,” she said, seeming conflicted about keeping her gaze low, which meant looking me in the eye, or aiming her gaze at something else. “So, uh, has Professor Inkwell told you about who I am, or what this is going to entail?” I asked, figuring it best to seem professional. “Uhm, she said that you could… could,” she started, before trailing off, and looking down on her crude prosthesis. “Yeah, just a second, I’ll show you,” I said, and walked over to the edge of the stage where my saddlebag was resting. Inkwell and Giselle followed as I brought out the metallic, taloned hand. I handed it over to Giselle, who cautiously took it in her own, lone hand. “So, congratulations,” I said. “This is yours, though you might wanna leave it with me for a little while longer so I can get it actually working.” Giselle turned the hand over and inspected it wide eyed, before turning her eyes back at me. “Uhm, thank you,” she said, uncertainly. “So it… does work?” “No, but it will,” I said. ”I haven’t tried adjusting them for gryphons, but I don’t think it will be too different.” “Gabe,” Inkwell said. “Giselle here isn’t all that certain about what you’re planning. Frankly, neither am I.” I nodded understandably at the nervous and slightly sheepish-looking gryphon. “Alright, to sum this up,” I said, removed the covering for my foreleg prosthesis, and moved it around demonstrably. “I’m gonna enchant that hand be able to do this, including moving the talons. Free of charge, no strings attached, but if you’re up for it, I’d like to do so as part of a presentation that I’m about to have.” Giselle looked at me with wide eyes at first, before nervously looking out on the stage, hearing the sound of ponies trickling in and taking up seats on the benches. “You don’t have to,” I said. “I’ll get it working for you anyway.” “Wwwwhat do I need to do?” she asked. “Nothing,” I said, and shook my head. “I’m just gonna inspect your magical aura, then adjust that limb to respond to you, and away we go. Or, well, the point is that the people out there are gonna get a good look at it, but you don’t have to do anything. You can walk out of here right now if you want, but I’d feel a little thrown if you did.” That coaxed a small smile from Giselle, before she shook her head. “Of course I wouldn’t. I just… it… this wasn’t what I expected when I woke up this morning.” “Ah, yes,” Inkwell spoke up. “I told some of my assistants to contact you about this, but I didn’t know what they wrote until just now. I’m sorry, I take responsibility. It sounded like you were being drafted.” “Nice to hear I’m not the only one messing that up,” I muttered to myself. “What?” Giselle asked. “Nothing. So, don’t worry about anything. You just sit there and look pretty while I do the talking.” Giselle carefully grabbed her new talon in a wing, before hesitatingly extending her remaining one towards my prosthesis. “Can… can I...?” “Sure,” I said, and presented my foreleg to her, pulling up the cover to reveal the metal underneath. Giselle gently took it, then ran her talon over the finish, and hesitatingly looked into the hollowed out interior. “Completely arteficial,” I said, and demonstratively inserted a quill into it like a ramrod. “We couldn’t hollow out the hand in yours, so it’s a bit heavier, and of course you’re gonna spend a lot of magic the first few months, but you’ll get used to it.” “It’s beautiful,” Giselle said. “I’ll tell Scrap that you said that,” I said. “He’s the smith, so he takes care of the chassis.” “How can you just give things like this away?” I shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Making them isn’t really hard. Scrap is fun to be around, and I paid him with a magic boombox, so it didn’t cost me anything.” I probably could’ve gotten the state to pay for it, but I was planning on giving Scrap that thing anyway, and we could also listen to score for Army Of Darkness while we worked. “A weapon?” Inkwell asked. “No it’s a music player. It’s… never mind, I’ll tell you later,” I said, and pulled a bit at a curtain to see the classroom filling up. “Looks like it’s about time to start. Got any question, and are you still in?” Giselle took a breath, and nodded. “Alright, I’ll just borrow that thing,” I said, and indicated her new hand, while Inkwell walked out to the seats. Giselle handed it over. I put it in my bag, while taking out a tube of cookies. “Here, munch on something while you’re waiting. This might get a little boring.” The ponies were still trickling in as I hopped up on the table again. I was getting some curious looks, including one annoyed look from one of the two mares from before, but she didn’t say anything, just looking between me and Inkwell. I looked up from my quick rundown of the notes and saw Inkwell’s “minions”, and gave them a wave and a smile which they returned, which made everyone look at them wonderingly. “I think that’s everypony,” Inkwell said after a while. “Alright, students. Please welcome Honorary Doctor Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers.” ‘Hey, I’m not a doctor. Wait, honorary?’ There were some scattered clippity-clops from the audience, with the only steady ones coming from the minions. “Uh, thank you, Professor Inkwell,” I said, and turned to the rest of the class. “Good morning, everyone. Name’s Gabe, and I’m here to talk about enchanted prosthetics. “Feel free to stop me and ask questions. I’ve had several lecturers say and not really mean it, and I hate that. Now, I will start off assuming that you all possess a certain level of knowledge on the subjects of enchantments, arcanomorphic fields, arcanokinetic projection, and thaumic endurance. Any questions so far?” An earth stallion with a fedora, sitting by a bench near the entrance in the back, raised his hoof. “Yes?” I asked. “Did you grow up around gryphons?” “No. Anyone else?” There was an uncertain silence, except for the enthusiastic scribbling from the stallion in the back. “Alright,” I said, then magicked a chalk-stick towards the blackboard and started writing down some keywords, drawing little lines between them as I talked. “Now, the concept behind this is pretty simple: enchant a material to respond to the movement of someone’s arcanomorphic field so that it can act as an interface, and make sure that there are no interferences. In practice, this is a little tricky, especially since you almost have to have skills with enchanting a variety of materials.” “Question,” someone said. I looked, and saw a stallion with his hoof in the air. “Shoot.” “Do you use the Come Alive spell?” “Uhm, no,” I said, and noticed one of the mares from before, the confrontational one, animatedly rolling her eyes at the question, and decided to make my answer a bit more supportive. “No, purely an enchantment corresponding with a specific magical signature,” I said, and walked over to the edge of the table, where I couldn’t reach the blackboard I was planning to use, without the use of another table on the far side of the stage. “I can give a little short rundown of that if you like, before we go into that part in detail,” I said, before aiming my leg towards the other table. “Hold on, just gotta…” I launched my grappling hook towards the table, grabbed its leg, and rolled it towards me. “There we go,” I said, and looked towards the stunned audience. Nearly every mouth in the room hung open, with even Inkwell looking mildly surprised, until the fedora stallion in the back seemed to break the moment of awe by once again scribbling like crazy. — The presentation was going well. It probably wasn’t the best presentation, but seeing as how it was the first one I’d ever held, it was pretty smooth. Although I appreciated the enthusiasm of the guy in the back, he did have a lot of questions. “So you’ve financed most of the research yourself?” A lot of them weren’t really relevant, either. “Yes, but going back to—” “Were you denied a stipend?” “... No. Now, the next step is to screen out unwanted ambient magical influences,” I said, and turned back towards the board. “If you don’t, you have to stick to little more than rudimentary functionality, or the limb will respond to all manners of background radiation, giving it almost violent spasms at the best of times.” “So you’ve had no contact with the institute before this?” The fedora stallion asked. He had been getting a lot of annoyed looks by the rest of the classroom, which was one of the reasons I kept answering readily. Though I hoped he was gonna be done soon, the eagerness in the classroom had been rising steadily since everyone had noticed my prosthesis, and what it could do. I took a breath, put the chalk down, and turned to the stallion. “No, I’ve only talked with Professor Inkwell, and two other students in here, before today,” I said, and inspected him closely. He didn’t look like a typical student. “Look, buddy, who are you?” “Neat Column,” he said. “Canterlot Times.” “Oh.” ‘That explains it. Well, I did tell everyone in here that they were free to ask questions.’ “Well, alright, I think it’s time for the practical demonstration.” “Haven’t you already demonstrated that it works?” Neat Column asked. “No. I’ve demonstrated the functionality, but not the creation process,” I said. “Now, I’d like everyone who wants to see how this is going to work to step forward. Bring the goggles, and anything you’d like to take notes with.” There was an uncertain shuffling, before Inkwell and her minions took the initiative, and walked down towards the stage, prompting everyone to follow their example. “Now, please welcome Giselle,” I said, and saw that the gryphon was ready to step forward. Giselle walked out from the side of the stage, limping slightly on her pegleg. “As you can see, Giselle here already has a prosthesis, but it is completely mundane,” I said, as I held out a hoof welcomingly to the eagless. “Now,” I said, interrupting everyone from staring too much at Giselle’s crude replacement, and presenting the metal hand from behind a stack of papers on the table I was on. “This is what I’m planning on giving her, and you’re here to see how it’s done.” There was a general murmur of curiosity at the sight of the hand. “If you’d all gather around, and I’ll show you the other component,” I said, and took out a bag of ground up gem dust. I had to get Scrap to help me find a way to grind up my lapis lazuli without Spike’s help. I kept paying him in gems that the Crusaders and I dug up, and Twilight had complained that he’d been putting on weight. “This is ground up lapis lazuli, my favorite component,” I said, and tossed a few small bags to the edge of the table. “We enchant this to act as a motor, responding to Miss Giselle’s arcanomorphic form, and then we seal it inside the chassis, which is designed to block everything but her magic signature. I’m going to enchant this in several parts, so those of you who don’t have a pair of goggles right now, don’t worry. We’ll pass them around so you can all get a chance.” Giselle removed her pegleg and presented her residual limb, resting it on the table. Everyone got the chance to magically inspect it, and then I got to work with enchanting the stuff. It was a slower process than usual though, as I did it several times over, while answering questions. “So how much do you charge for this?” the milder mannered of the mares I saw before the lecture asked. “Nothing. I don’t need to charge for this,” I said. “Really? How do you get the materials?” someone else asked. “Me and my friends dig up the gems, and I hire a smith I know to forge the chassis. He gives me some good prices,” I said. “So you’re not being funded by the institute?” Neat Column asked, to which Inkwell rolled her eye. “Nope,” I said, causing Column to start scribbling. The other students might not have been aware of this either, since they started murmuring amongst themselves. “Well, to be fair, I’ve had Twilight Sparkle and a royal artificer teach me enchanting, so credit to them as well,” I said, causing the murmur to rise to new levels. “Alright,” I said, after I had finished, and looked around at the assembled faces. “Did everyone get a good look at how it was done?” No one shook their head. “Did everyone make all the notes they wanted?” The heads slowly nodded. “Would anyone like to see it done again?” Stillness. “Alright. Giselle, are you ready?” Giselle, who hadn’t said a word since the presentation started, nodded her head. I placed the metallic limb on the remains of her lower foreleg. “Alright, you just activate it by turning this dial and pressing it down as a button,” I said, as I demonstrated how it was done. Giselle’s eyes widened as the limb came alive. She lifted it up to inspect it in details, opening and closing the hand, and flexing all the individual talons experimentally, making some pretty authoritative clicking sounds. It was slightly larger than her other hand, but it didn’t look ridiculous or bulky. I was actually a bit envious of how it looked. My prostheses had many capabilities, and they looked impressive as well, but they didn’t come close to just the sheer awesomeness of a chromed gryphon claw. “Since the chassis doesn’t block the magical signature of Giselle’s arcanomorphic claw, it also allows her innate magical capabilities to pass through,” I told the students, then turned towards the gryphon. “As a demonstration, could you please run your talons across the table without scratching it, then do scratch it?” Giselle nodded at me, and did just that. She pressed her talons against the table, and dragged them across the surface. The first two times it looked no different then if she had fingers instead of talons, but the third time, her eyes widened at how deep the marks she left on it were. “Unlike your organic talons, these won’t grow constantly, So you won’t need to sharpen them as often, but when you do, you’re gonna need a whetstone,” I said. “Luckily, they were made by the same guy who made my legs, so they’re quality stuff, and they’ll last pretty much forever.” I looked at Giselle, and saw the smile, the moisture in her eyes, the shorter breaths. By now I’d learn to recognise the signs. “Okay then,” I said, before there was a chance for a hug. “That’s the lecture, and the demonstration. Does anyone have any questions?” They did. It went on for about an hour. I clarified some things, talked about other projects, gave them Scrap’s name, told them he was busy. Mostly Neat Column asked about me though. “How are you feeling?” I asked Giselle, as I was packing up my material after Inkwell had finally shooed everyone out of the room. “Like a million bits,” she said, smiling widely. “It was a bit different for me, and everyone else I’ve done this for,” I observed, as I crammed a stack of papers into my saddlebag. “There were always tears involved.” “Not for me,” Giselle said, before suddenly standing right next to me and pulling me into a tight hug. ‘Blasted ambush predators.’ “No compunctions about how you look?” I asked, while being held in her grip. “Are you kidding? This looks great,” she said, then let me go, and inspected her new hand again. “It does,” I agreed, nodding. “I’m kinda envious.” “It’s so strange,” Giselle said, as she gently deactivated her new limb and removed it, revealing the stump beneath. “I used to hate seeing this, but now it’s… not so bad,” she continued, waving the little nub around. “That’s a good sign, I think,” I said. “It’s just as well, I recommend you keep the limb off when you’re sleeping, at least the first few months. It’s gonna be a magical drain, so it’s a big counterproductive to keep it on when you’re tired.” “Got it,” she said. “I gotta show this to my family.” “Where do they live?” I asked. “Most of my family lives in Greifenhaus, but my folks and my brother lives here in Canterlot,” she said. “Ah, okay. Like I said, take it easy until you get used to it. If you’re not familiar with naps now, you will be soon, as you’re getting used to that thing.” “Thank you again, so much,” she said, and pulled me in for a softer hug with her wing. “No problem. Thanks for letting me test it out on gryphons too,” I said. “Heh. Kinda strange that you’re thanking me,” she said, and reattached her new limb. “This is gonna be so great. I can start working full capacity in my family’s restaurant, and I’ll never have to worry about burning this hand.” That caught my attention. “... This restaurant. It wouldn’t happen to be on Rodeo Drive would it?” I asked. “Yes it is. How did you know?” she asked. My eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s your restaurant? I ate there a few weeks ago, the last time I was in Canterlot. The food was amazing!” “Wait, you’re that filly my brother told me about? Who ate an entire full-size jägerschnitzel and asked for seconds?” Giselle asked. “Maybe. Is your brother the waiter? Gray feathers with a blue tinge, and light brown fur? “That’s him,” she said, and looked at me closely again. “Are you sure you don’t have a gryphon family? Gabrielle Desrochers isn’t exactly a typical pony name, and hardly anypony wants to try gryphon food, much less foals.” “Yeah I’m sure,” I said, laughing a bit. “Alright,” she said. “Sooo… you like the food?” “I sure did,” I said, slightly wagging my tail for some reason. “Then I think I know of a way to repay you. Stop by anytime. Friends of mine eat for free.” I held out my prosthesis. “I’ll take you up on that,” I said, and she bumped my hoof with her own prosthesis, producing a heavy clack. — “Come in,” I said, in response to the knock on the door. Armor, in armor, opened it and stepped in, removing his helmet as he did so. “Dame Desrochers,” he said, while jokingly standing at attention. I looked up at him from the dress splayed out on the bed, raising the eyebrow over my left eye, since my right socket was currently empty. “Well, you might as well get used to the title,” he said. “A knight is not a knight if they are not respected.” “I already have more respect than I know what to do with,” I said, and turned my attention back to the dress. “If you don’t like it, you should probably stop helping ponies,” Armor said, and I could sense his smirk even when I wasn’t looking at him. I shrugged. “Maybe I should do this covertly then,” I said. “Sneak up on people who need new limbs and attach them to them in their sleep, like a reverse tooth-fairy-batman-prosthetist.” “You could still do that,” Armor said, playing along. “But you need to stop by my uncle, or some other artificer, one more time before doing that.” “Why?” I asked. “Well, it’s gonna be ceremonial, but a knight is also not a knight without her sword.” I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow again. “A sword?” “Sure. You should see my grandfolks’ house. They’re up to here in old swords,” he said, and held a hoof up to his neck. “Plenty of old rewards and relics and stuff like that.” “Huh,” I said, nodding concedingly. “So I don’t have to use it?” “No, but if you get a good one from Scrap, we can use that when you learn to fight.” “Alright, sounds like a decent arrangement,” I said. “Now, can you help me dress?” Armor gave me an endearing smile, and walked up to me. “Yes. Are there any human customs about helping each other to dress?” he asked. “I think you said something about humans always having clothes.” “Well, yeah, we humans consider ourselves indecent when we’re naked, and not turned into ponies,” I said, as I magically lifted the dress up, reared up, and steadied myself on the edge of the bed. “And since dressing often involves being naked, not just anyone is fit to help someone with dressing. Why?” “Just wondering,” Armor said, and gently put my front prosthesis through the correct hole in the dress. “Some ponies think it’s unbecoming to be seen half-dressed, and only let ponies they trust dress them, so you better learn to trust your squadmates really quick in the guard.” “I trust you though,” I said, as he held some piece of cloth up to let me poke my tail out from under it before I stood down on all fours. “How do I look?” “You better take a look at yourself,” he said, with a smile. I walked over to the mirror, carefully looking back to make sure I didn’t step on any fabric. “Whoa,” I said, in a low voice, and couldn’t help but open my eye socket at the sight. “Rarity, you’ve really outdone yourself.” “She sure has,” Armor said, which summoned a small smile on my face. “You look beautiful.” We stood there a few minutes, contemplating the outfit. “Actually,” Armor said. “I think you’re supposed to skip the coverings, and wear that blue eyepatch she sent with you.” I had forgotten about that. “You’re probably right,” I said, removing the covers and floating the patch over. It was a two-point attachment, rather than the three-point I was used to, but it worked really well with the outfit. “You might not be trained in combat, but it kinda looks like you are now,” Armor said. He was right. Filly or not, I looked cool, stylish, and pretty. “And you sure look ready to be knighted,” he continued, and looked at my slowly sinking expression. “Something wrong?” “I’m just… tired,” I said. “I don’t really feel up for this.” “Well, you’ve been doing magic again,” Armor said, and held out his wing as a step towards the bed. “You still have some time before the ceremony starts. I think you should get some rest. Don’t worry, I’ll wake you up in time.” “Yeah. Good idea,” I said, and he helped me up into the bed without messing up the dress. I lay down, and removed my legs before resting my head on the pillow. “I hope it’s not too drawn out.” “You’ll do fine,” he said, confidently. “Get some rest. I’ll go get a soft drink or something for when you wake up.” I held out my foreleg towards him, and he stopped putting on his helmet, then leaned down towards me. I nuzzled him lightly on the cheek. “Thanks,” I said. He smiled down at me, before putting on his helmet. “I’ll be back soon, Dame Desrochers.” — I had been to weddings twice before and wished they were over as soon as they began. I don’t care what people say, they’re just, so, boring. It’s great when people love each other. Really, it is, but the ceremonies could use a lot of trimming for modern sensibilities if you ask me. So many speeches, and all that waiting, celebrating not directly the love, but the legal contract that highly encouraged the participants of the marriage to pool their fiscal resources. It was little more than an extravagant way for people to signal that they were off the romantic market, and were probably going to breed. Oh I know what a lot of people would say to that. They’d say that it’s a reason to celebrate, which is always a good thing. To which I would respond, “Fair enough. So skip all the boring parts.” Then there were the usual issues I used to have. A prosthetic leg held in place with suction tended to itch, and sometimes even hurt, after a while. First option was to try and find a secluded corner where I sit down, pull my dress up, a long way up too, and just wait a bit with my leg off before reattaching it. Easier said than done at a place where there is always someone kind hearted enough to prowl for people currently not mingling. The second option was a wheelchair, another not very appealing option among crowds of mingle-happy, forced mingle-happy, jealous, and increasingly intoxicated people. Also, remember: I was dressed up, and wearing my purely cosmetic prosthetic arm. I also didn’t dance. This wasn’t a wedding, thank goodness, but it looked a bit like it. Also thankfully, while the subject matter was me and my accolades, Celestia and Luna were the biggest stars, on account of them always being the biggest stars. No exception here, and no complaints either. I was seated a few spots away from where there might be a podium, but where there instead was an opening adorned with a red carpet leading out in front of the table, and flanked by more tables, arranged so that there was a large, empty space that everyone had a clear view of. I couldn’t quite figure out what determined the seating positions though. I was sitting next to Luna, with Celestia on the other side of her. Beyond her, on the other side of the space between the tables, were Prince Blueblood, with some ponies in fancy clothes I didn’t recognize. Speaking of fancy clothes, Fancy Pants was sitting by one of the other tables, along with a white-coated, lanky unicorn mare with pink mane and tail. They both raised their glasses at me after Fancy Pants whispered something in her ear. I managed to trick my face into smiling and raised my own orange soda (in an expensive looking stained glass cup) in answer. The general din of talking was loud enough to drown out most conversations, but I did catch some parts here and there. Like the grey-coated, black-maned unicorn stallion and light yellow-coated, purple-and-white-maned mare who kept glancing at me and saying things about my “marvelous yet dangerous looking attire”. Then of course, Armor stood guard by the entrance to the hall, while his grandfather, Plate, was seen here and there, skulking in the shadows for anything out of the ordinary. I also caught sight of Kibitz and Raven appearing every now and then, whispering things to Celestia, Luna, Plate, and Inkwell, and shot me winks and supportive smiles when I caught their eyes, just like Armor did. There was a lot of general looking in my direction. Most of these people had never seen me and probably never heard of me before, so naturally they were very curious about me, and since so few knew me, they naturally took the more entertaining option of finding things out: speculating amongst themselves. I thought Professor Inkwell, who was sitting on the other side of me from Luna, had a most inspired approach to this: openly not caring. At all. She had loaded up her plate with appetizers and some pastries, and after giving one an openly scrutinizing look, she would casually flip it in her mouth and chew openly and unabashedly on it. “So what did you think about the presentation?” I asked her. “I never got a chance to ask if you thought it was any good.” “It was good,” she said shortly, but forcefully. “It was complicated, but they’ll figure it out soon enough. You handled the questions well too.” “Ah yeah. I didn’t expect a reporter there,” I said. “Neither did I, but I was thinking of Wavelength,” Inkwell said. “Who was Wavelength?” “The beige mare with the black mane.” “Oh, her,” I said, recognizing her as one of the two mares who had first entered the room. The strangely confrontational one. “But she didn’t ask anything. At least not after the lecture started.” “No, but she gave everypony who did the stink eye. Sycophantic little coward,” Inkwell muttered. I was taken aback by that statement. Especially with how bluntly and openly she said it. “Uhm, is that an appropriate way for a teacher to talk?” “What are they gonna do, fire me?” Inkwell said, and chuckled. “I’ve been up for review before, and it’s never gone anywhere. Listen to me, somepony whose job is to tell ponies things,” she said, and turned to look at me, forcing her injured eyelid open. “Some ponies are bullies, and use any means to raise themselves over other. Pushing others down and breaking their self-esteem is a favorite way of theirs. Don’t let them hide behind your goodwill. I’m not letting them hide behind mine.” I nodded, thinking back to some people I had met through the years, then let out a sigh. “Good thing I’m not a teacher. I can’t deal with that stuff. I’m not a people person,” I said. “Neither am I,” Inkwell said. “Let pony ponies do their stuff, and you stick to yours.” That sounded a bit iffy. “Do you think Twilight would agree? I mean, she told me about how she was before she went to Ponyville. Princess of Friendship and all that.” “Making friends doesn’t mean that you’re not an introvert,” Inkwell said, evenly. “It just means that you have friends. How does Twilight relax?” “Reading books?” I suggested. “Probably,” Inkwell said. “Friendship would be a fundamentally flawed concept if only extroverts could enjoy it.” “Okay, that makes sense,” I said, nodding. “It does. Now, what’s taking so long? I’m hungry.” — My consistent use of magic throughout the day had left me a bit drained this evening. This wouldn’t be a problem back in the comfort of Golden Oaks, where I could just go up into my room and snuggle into my bed whether I planned on sleeping or not, but now I was stuck here. I had started feeling a little guilty at just wanting to leave after Rarity had gone and done such a great job on my dress, but thankfully the dinner was actually invigorating in ways that expensive food often isn’t. No crustaceans though, which was a shame, because I would finally have been able to open them up myself, and easier than most people, with both magic and metallic limbs. Individual portions didn’t fill me much, but I just kept ordering more fried sweet potatoes and pieces of exotic fruit, and eventually I started enjoying myself after getting some more energy. Which was really good because if my tiredness would’ve turned into annoyance and grumpiness, I would’ve felt even less confident when Luna rose up and announced in a deep and strong voice, “Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers. Please, join us, and present yourself to all gathered here this evening.” The whole room quieted instantly. Luna strode confidently down the red carpet to the center of the room, in full view of everyone. Which really went without saying. She’s Luna. She strides confidently all the time. I hesitated for a moment, before I rose and walked after her, slowly and gently so as to not trip over my dress, unintentionally perhaps making me seem dignifiedly un-eager. I came to a stop right after Luna did, and she turned to face me. I fought down the urge to turn around and face Celestia for a comforting nod, but that was okay, because Armor, Kibitz, and Raven had taken up places in the doorway where I could just see them between Luna’s legs. They gave me encouraging nods, and Armor winked at me. “Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers,” Luna said, loudly and clearly so that the whole room could hear, fixing my head towards her. “Deeds you have performed, great in honor and nobility, for our little ponies.” I kept my head aimed at her, while my eye darted back and forth to see how everyone else in the room reacted. By some miracle, I managed to remember to keep my ears trained forward. My field of vision was of course very limited, which was clear to everyone as my right socket was covered by an eyepatch, but everyone’s eyes were fixed on me, and most besides Fancy Pants leaned forward a bit and whispered among themselves. “What has she done?” “I think her injuries are real.” “Is she really going to be knighted?” “She’s so young.” Luna continued. “You have asked for little, and what have been offered to you have often been rejected with great grace,” she said, gesturing in the air theatrically, as if we were in the halls with the stained glass, and I was on them. “No mercenary thoughts fueled your actions,” Luna said, settling down and looking straight at me. “It was not for fame and glory, nor wealth and power, that you provided our little ponies your boons of magic and metal.” I was actually stunned, looking up at with Luna with like a frightened eye. I started out internally dismissing my contributions, thinking that there were only a few ponies, and gryphons, who needed magical prosthetics, but realized that with however many millions of ponies there are in the world, the number of them missing limbs might even be four digits, or even five. “If you shall not cast your modesty aside, we shall take it from you,” Luna said, in a more casual tone, and smiled at me. “For today at least. Are you ready for your reward?” I opened my mouth and quickly shut it again. ‘Wait, what do I do? How does this work!?’ I caught sight of Armor frantically waving his forelegs and wings at me. When he saw that I was looking at him, he pointed at Kibitz and Raven. Raven bowed down in front of Kibitz, and Kibitz gently touched her with his horn. They all looked at me, and Armor silently pointed out how Raven placed her hooves and how she held her head. I gave them a small nod, which Luna might’ve interpreted as in answer to her question. “Then bow, and receive your reward,” Luna said, kindly. ‘Oh, I guess this is it then.’ I did my best to imitate Raven, placing my right foreleg stretched in front of me and my left folded under my barrel, as I kept my head level above the ground and closed my eye. This presented my prosthesis extra prominently. Luna gently touched her horn right over the base of my horn. “Rise, Gabrielle,” she said. As I did, Luna glanced to the side, nodding at someone, after which Armor’s grandfather, Plate, suddenly appeared with a small wooden box resting on his back, and gave me a small nod, the ends of his mouth ever so slightly pointing upwards. Luna magicked the box open, and removed a medal from the velour-lined interior, hanging from a silken necklace. It was gold, with a beautiful embossment of the my cutie mark, with a sword and shield behind it, pointing downwards. Luna lowered the medal over my neck, and said, “I decree you, Gabrielle Eleanor Desrocher, a Knight of Equestria.” The room was filled with the, to me, still fairly strange sound of equine applause. There was no whooping of cheering, just hooves clopping against each other, with the occasional, “Aha, yes, I say,” “Good show,” or similar comment from the assembled creatures of high society. “Thank you,” I said, in a low voice towards Luna, who nodded at me, then turned to address the room. “We declare the ceremony to be over, but we declare the festivities to be taken to their next level,” she said, and turned towards the opening, raised her foreleg dramatically, and said, and I was alert enough to fold my ears as she used the royal Canterlot voice, “REVEAL... THE CAKE!” — I like cake well enough, but I’ve never been that much of a fan. You eat it after large meals, when I’ve never had the time to make room in my stomach for another meal. Also, sweetness upon sweetness gets boring. Pastries and cookies are great, because that’s a more sensible concentration of goodness inside some bread or something. Most cakes just coat my mouth with lingering sweetness so that every time I take another bite, it’s like I’m painting another layer of the exact same color over and over. It feels like a waste. Cakes come in different qualities though. Some doesn’t really have this problem, and this one was top-notch. Like Schwarzwald cake. It led to the same problem I had a few times back on Earth though. I was lying down in my bed, tired from a long day, with a concentration of sugar in me trying to get me going for a while longer. “This day felt like two days,” I commented, as I tried struggling out of the dress without damaging it. “I can imagine,” Celestia said, standing next to the bed. “Not in a bad way though. There was just a lot of stuff happening.” “You seemed tired near the end there,” Celestia said, smiling at my attempts at backing out of the dress, before climbing up into the bed with me. “I was. I still am,” I said, before Celestia gently put her hoof around my barrel, brought me to her, and pulled the dress off with her mouth. I looked up at her, with a mix of mild amusement and indignation. “Are you gonna tuck me in as well?” “You are going to have to protest very insistently for me not to,” she said, with a smirk. “Go ahead,” I said, with a not entirely displeased sigh. “I did say okay to you mothering me.” “And I’m very happy you did,” she replied, pulling the duvet back, then over me. “You know,” I started, looking up at Celestia. “That should mean that I can ask you for relationship advice.” Celestia’s smile partly gave way to mild surprise before it came back. “You are both clever and kind little ponies,” she said. “The journey will not always be pleasant, but I think that if you give it time and thought, you’ll both find out what’s best for the both of you.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “You… know about me and Armor?” I asked. “I do,” she said, calmly. “Huh,” I said, shaking away my surprise. “I half expected you to say that it’s a terrible idea. That I’m too young or I haven’t known him or been a pony long enough or something.” “Perhaps those are all true, or perhaps none of them are. Perhaps I’m biased, but,” Celestia said, and bent down and gently nuzzled my cheek, speaking in a soft voice. “I just know, that if you find love, take care of it, and enjoy it while you can. It’s worth embracing fully, even if you risk losing it forever.” ‘Like that Aerosmith song. Well, she’s right. Even if I lost everyone I cared for, again, it would still be worth it.’ I nuzzled her back, and hugged her as best I could. “Goodnight, Gabe,” she said, after the hug. “Goodnight,” I said. As she closed the door behind her, I began to remove my legs, casting them off into a pile on the bed, and didn’t bother removing my eyepatch as I laid my head on my pillow and began to drift off to sleep, while eyeing the case with my medal in it on the nightstand that I didn't even remember placing there in my exhausted state. Within a minute of resting my head, I was asleep, and no longer alone. “She’s right,” the voice said. “Although it’s not as lost as she might think.” — My Life As A Bipedal Quadruped Part 3: Mirror Mirror. I stood on a rich, purple carpet, in a room completely covered in black except for an orb of light centered on me. “What do you mean, ‘not as lost as she might think’?” “I mean that we will now reunite,” he said, and I turned around to where the voice had come from. Then something happened that had never happened before. Rather than sensing the voice as a vague presence in my dream, it was there, he was there, with me, in that room. The vague silhouette of a large stallion stood in the darkness, then stepped into the light with me. In Equestria, I had been attacked by monstrous wolves, almost eaten by a dragon, trapped in a tale of trickery and violence, and other unpleasant and rousing experiences. They all paled next to seeing what I saw next. I involuntarily let out a gasp, and took a step away from the large, dark shape, with the angled headguard partially surrounding that wicked-looking, crooked horn, the black mane flowing like eldritch shadows, and the glowing green eyes with their swirling tendrils of dark power. The Dark King, Sombra. We stood there, regarding each other for some time. He with a look of effortless superiority, and I with a look of horror and building realization. Then his expression softened a bit, and he put his hoof to his chest and did a small bow. “Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers of Earth. Daughter of the Geats and Franks. Healer and seeker. Inventor and benefactor. Struggler and victor. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person,” he said, then gestured around the dark room. “Such as it is.” My head started spinning, wondering if it was really him, how he could be back, and terrible mistake I might’ve made to bring him here. As my lower lip started quivering, I did what I always did to steady myself when I was alone with something terrifying, I inquired. “W–what are you doing? Why are you here?” Sombra’s expression softened a bit further, and he lowered himself closer to my eye level, and softly put a steel-clad hoof on my cheek. “Gabe. We’ve known each other for so long. There is no reason to be scared of me,” he said. “Aren’t…” I started, searching for the words. “You… you’re Sombra, the King of the Crystal Empire.” He shook his head. “No, I am not,” he said. “I am the former King of Equestria. Another Equestria.” Realization dawned on me. “You’re Celestia’s lover. From the mirror world. You took in all the evil and corrupted yourself to save Celestia and Luna, and the… other Celestia and Luna.” He nodded, then rose up again. “I did,” he said. “Then… how are you here?” I asked. “The mirror was destroyed.” “Indeed, but parts of the magic still functions,” he said. “You saw me, when you first came to this castle, and I saw you.” “It was… it was you all along?” I asked. He nodded his head. “Yes. I’ve been projecting myself into your dreams for months.” “How?” I asked. He chuckled. “When one is the closest friend of the alicorn of dreams for a thousand years, one tends to pick up a few tricks. Why do you think your Luna never figured out how to interact with your dreams properly? She would’ve found out everything.” I shook my head. Of course that made sense. When Luna was Nightmare Moon, the alternate Luna had a thousand year stint as a “good” pony. “But why?” I asked. “To train you. To prepare you,” Sombra said. “I need your help.” “Help? With what?” I asked. “My great plan,” he said, and gave me a mournful look. “And I am very sorry for this, but I will not leave you a choice in the matter.” “What do you mean?” I asked, and took another step back. “What plan? ” Sombra closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “Don’t let my demeanor fool you, my friend. I am still consumed by the great evil of the dark sisters… or, former dark sisters. I am here mostly for ambitious reasons,” he said, and opened his eyes. “On that note, we should get to work.” I woke up, in a sense. Against my will, I opened my eye, and sat up in my bed, completely without control of myself. — Celestia stood by the great window of Luna’s quarters, losing herself in the beauty of the night sky with a small smile on her lips. “Appreciating the sight, sister dear?” Luna asked, as she walked up beside her. “Very much,” Celestia said. “It is a wonderful night in so many ways.” Luna smiled and stood next to Celestia, gently nuzzling her neck. “We are happy for you,” she said. Celestia rested her head on top of her sister’s. “You’re not jealous?” she asked, with a hint of teasing. “In a sense,” Luna said. “But your need for love is great, and we do not begrudge you finding more besides ourselves.” “I just…” Celestia started. “I wanted something more. After him.” Luna put a wing around her sister. “May it last for a long time,” she said. “And how many mysteries are there in the world, and beyond our world besides? You may not have lost him forever.” “I know, Luna,” Celestia said, her smile becoming forlorn. “It just hurts too much to hope.” Luna let out a sigh. “I will be here for you when the pain becomes great, and now, so will Gabrielle.” Celestia smile slowly brightened again. “Thank you,” she said. The sisters stood there for a while, enjoying each other's presence. They were about to break away, when a familiar-feeling burst of magic resonated throughout the castle. Luna’s eyes opened, then narrowed in suspicion at this intrusion. Celestia’s eyes however, were full of despair. She held onto her sister a second longer, instinctively hoping that her presence would fend away all evil in the world. “No,” she pleaded in a weak voice, as tears immediately swelled up in her eyes, then took off with her sister through the castle halls. — I had the double sense of sluggishly walking in my physical body, while at the same time standing next to Sombra in my dream, seeing what I was physically seeing as if it was projected against the dark backdrop. My physical form, under the control of Sombra, had attached my limbs and stumbled out into the hallway. A guard was patrolling the starlit corridor, and stood at attention when he saw me. “Madam? Are you alright?” he asked. I reared up and pawed at Sombra’s form in the dream. “Don’t hurt him, please!” He didn’t look down at me, but was entirely focused on what was projected in front of us. “I will not,” he reassured me. My body sluggishly turned towards the guard, and when he got a good look at my eye, he let out a gasp and tightened the grip of his spear. My body raised its prosthetic foreleg and blasted the guard, sending him skidding a few steps across the carpet, very much unconscious. “What do you want? Why are you doing this?” I asked Sombra, as my body walked up the unconscious guard, and jerkily dragged him by his tail into my room, hiding him. “I only want one thing,” he said, calmly. “Celestia. My love.” “How does this help you get Celestia?” I asked, as my body walked down the dark hallway like a zombie. “I cannot open the portal from my side,” he said. “I need an agent over here.” “But what do you need me for?” I asked. Still keeping his eyes focused in front of me, Sombra nonetheless let his concentrated expression soften a bit, and put a foreleg around me. “I suppose if anypony deserves to hear my plan, it’s you,” he said. “I need help from this side. I needed someone skilled and powerful enough at enchantments to reactivate the portal between our worlds.” “But there are lots of ponies who’re good at enchanting,” I said, taking refuge in questions to help ignore the feeling of helplessness as my body walked on its own accord. “While the linking magic isn’t powerful enough to let me through,” Sombra said. “It is powerful enough to bind the counterparts of two ponies together. If I control the body of anypony on this side, which is very difficult, believe me, I also have to control their counterpart. “It is difficult enough to control one pony. Very few of the most powerful mages in the world can do this, and doing it with more than one individual at the same time is simply not possible,” Sombra said, and finally looked down at me with a soft expression. “But you… you’re different.” “... I don’t have a counterpart where you’re from,” I said, as we reached Celestia’s quarters. “Correct,” Sombra said, and focused again in the image in front of us. “Strangers, we call your kind. Those who can move freely between parallel worlds, their crossings leaving little in their wakes.” “And why do you want to open a portal to your world?” I asked. “So that our world will blend together, and Celestia and I will never be separated again,” he said. My pupil shrunk to a pinprick. “But that will destroy everything!” I shouted. “Or save everything. Redeem it, rebirth it, unite it. It depends on how you want to see it,” Sombra said, calmly. “The worlds will collide, and fuse. All ponies, and all people, everywhere, will be united with their counterparts, except for you of course. Only one thing is certain to me, Celestia and I will be reunited. We might not be the same ponies we are now, but we will be together.” “Please, no,” I said, burying my muzzle in his coat as tears welled up in my eye, as we walked into the room with the shrub and the mirror shard, with the small note hanging from it. “Don’t.” I felt him put his foreleg around me again. “I’m sorry,” he said. I hammered twice at his barrel with my prosthesis, doing absolutely nothing in the dream realm, as I let out a small sob. “It’s time,” he said. I turned my reddened eye towards the image showing my body’s sight, and saw myself gently pick up the mirror shard in my metallic hoof. I felt my body channel magic through its horn, weaving an elaborate enchantment to apply to the magic already oozing from the mirror shard. “STOP!” My body sluggishly turned towards the entrance of the room, where Celestia and Luna stood. Luna stood wide legged, eyes ablaze, while Celestia’s eyes were, like my own in the dream, filled with tears. “Sombra, my love,” she said, taking a step forward. “Please, stop this.” “Celestia, my light” my body answered in a strange voice. “I know you will try and stop me. You love your little ponies too much to allow this, but it will all be better soon.” “Sombra. Please,” Celestia said again. “I don’t want this.” “I know you don’t, for now, but it will all change soon,” my body said, melancholically. “You love your little ponies too much for this, and perhaps afterwards… I will as well again.” “You will let her GO!” Luna shouted, and flung herself towards my body, only to slam into a shimmering barrier of magic surrounding me. “I will indeed,” my body said. “After I’m finished here. Don’t fight, Luna. The two of you together are definitely my superior in combat, but you will not figure out how I nullified your powers before it’s too late.” Celestia reared up and pressed herself against the barrier. “Sombra, please,” she pleaded again. “We’ll find another way. We’ll help you. We’ll bring you back here and purge you, but I cannot let you do this.” “Would that this wasn't the only way,” my body said, and turned to properly look at Celestia. “I’d rather travel here, robbed of all my powers and chained in a dungeon, if it only meant being close to you.” My body turned back toward towards the mirror shard, and infused it with the magic it had been preparing. A purple glow exploded from it, sounding like a bomb had gone off. I was suddenly yanked from my dream world, and found myself back in my own body, fully awake. I wasn’t back in control though. Whatever Sombra did had stuck me in a sort of loop, where I was physically locked in place as magic energy flowed out of me into the mirror shard. So I could just stand there, straining every muscle in an attempt to move, and gritting my teeth at the painful sensation of having Starswirl levels of magic pouring out of my horn. In front of the mirror-shard opened a doorway-sized portal of swirling shades of purple and black, and out of it emerged a dark shape, which quickly coalesced into a shadowy image of Sombra. Celestia closed her eyes, and focused a blast of magic against the shield. It held up as if it was a pebble thrown against a brick wall, though it still shook my teeth from the shockwave. “I love you too much not to do this, Celestia,” he said. “We will be happy together now, and you know it.” “We will,” she said, and opened her eyes to look at Sombra’s shadowy image, tears streaming down her face. “But with all my heart, please don’t do this.” “Nopony will be hurt,” he said, and gently put a foreleg over my body, still painfully paralyzed, as Luna lowered her stance further and snarled at him. “I’m less sure about our human here, but I’ll try and keep her as safe as I can.” I tried begging him to stop this, but all that came out was a whimper. “Nooo!” a panicked voice sounded from the doorway, and Studded Armor flew towards us, completely unhindered by the shield, and grabbed me mid-flight in his forelegs. He held me tight as he tried pushing me away from the portal which was clearly sucking the magic out of me, but I was magically tethered to the portal by my horn, and we immediately slowed down when we got more than a few steps away from it. We came to a stop when we reached the magical barrier, which also hindered me, not just Celestia and Luna. Armor fell to the ground, skidding slowly towards the portal from holding me in his forelegs. The image of Sombra looked down at us. “Brave, little pony,” he said. “But that will not stop anything. I have prepared too long for this.” Armor slamming into me had shooked me out of my physical paralysis, but I still couldn’t stop the magic flowing through my horn. In front of the portal, Armor and I stood up, him standing protectively over me as we glared at Sombra with hurt expressions. Any moment now and it would be too late to stop it. Suddenly it came to me. Sombra was trying to bridge the worlds together, which needed someone on each side trying to open a portal. If there was no one on this side, there would be no portal. I hugged Armor’s leg, but didn’t wait long enough to share a last look with him before I rushed towards the portal. Celestia and Luna let out gasps of horror, and Sombra’s eyes widened in surprise. I jumped through the portal towards the swirling abyss, and just as my horn passed through, an ominous ripple went across the surface, and a great wind started flowing from the room and into the portal. I didn’t get to find out what happens when you fall into the abyss just yet, as Armor had rushed after me. He grabbed me by my metallic foreleg, and tried hauling me back. When I passed through the portal, I felt its control of my magic loosen. I could kill the portal at any time, but Armor was now poking through it, trying to haul me back in. “Let go, Armor!” I shouted over the wind. He didn’t answer, instead he just shook his head, his mane flowing from the wind in front of his face partially obscuring the desperate expression and his tear-filled eyes. “You have to complete it, Gabe!” the shadow of Sombra shouted. “Close the portal now, and he dies!” “Gabe!” Celestia called. “Don’t do it! Come back!” “Do not let her go, private!” Luna shouted. My magic reserves were nearing their limits. I didn’t know what was going to happen first, the world colliding, me passing out, or Armor losing his grip. I desperately looked around, trying to come up with any idea of what to do, when I finally noticed that Armor was holding me by my prosthesis. Steeling my resolve, I called out. “Armor, pull!” Over the howling noise of the wind, Armor slowly managed to start pulling me towards the Equestrian side of the portal. “Keep going!” I called to him. “We’re almost there!” Just as his hooves cleared the edge of the portal, I looked him in the eye, painfully. I spun my prosthetic hoof around a full turn, readying my arcano-dispersive stun gun. "I'm sorry," I said. "No!" he shouted over the collective gasp in the room, and jumped forward into the portal with me before I could fire. I saw Celestia and Luna, pressing against the magic barrier, faces locked in horror, and Sombra, looking at me with a deeply wounded expression. Armor and I fell into the abyss, swirling shapes and impossible colors overtaking our senses. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Sombra, being sucked into the collapsing portal, dignifiedly unmoving, and his tear-filled gaze locked on Celestia. Gaiden. > Knights, Rogues, and Mages > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magic can influence the physical world, but rarely does so without the guidance, conscious or otherwise, of agents able to control it. One of the easiest ways for the people of Equestria, and all who know them, to see magic in use, is to observe the unicorns and their horns, but all their pony siblings have magic. Because of their mostly overt displays of magic, there sometimes crops up notions that unicorns are more magical than other types of ponies, but that is simply not true. Earth ponies and pegasi both will have an equal chance of having more capacity for magic power as a unicorn as having less. Then sometimes an additional notion crops up: that earth pony and pegasus magic is in practice less potent because they don’t have as many opportunities to train and hone the magic bestowed upon all of ponykind. While it is true that an individual’s magic is improved much like proper physical exercise improves the body and proper mental exercise improves the mind, this notion is equally false. Pegasi can fly extraordinarily fast with wings that gryphons often describe as “cute” (and do so affectionately as often as derisively). Earth pony magic in particular tends to be more subtle, but not less potent. Which is not to say that there are no subtle unicorns, and when a pony is asked, they almost always know an earth pony with very obviously magical capabilities. Then, of course, there are the alicorns. Alicorns are not born all-powerful. In fact, associates of a pegasus who ascends to an alicorn might be a bit confused by their new flight capabilities. A newly ascended pegasus will fly faster and longer than they did before, but surely they would have improved more than that? The horn and the earth pony magic is neat of course, but this is a god or something close to it in the making. These ponies have not grasped the enormous potential in mastering all three forms of pony magic. It’s not an easy thing, and alicorns often need to use their new agelessness to make good use of it, but when an alicorn digs their hooves into the ground to feel the earth underneath them, spread their wings and feels the breeze flowing through them, and lets their horn sense the arcane energies swirling around them, they do not scoff when they see glimpses of the understanding of the world they will one day have. Until then, their expanded capabilities will serve them well in all they do. The blue and white mare took a deep breath as she stood with her eyes closed on a rocky cliff, a vantage point revealing the landscape around her far and wide. The breeze caressed her coat and the earth rested comfortingly under her hooves, but she didn’t have time to admire nature. Somewhere, out there, residues of the Dark King’s magic still echoed faintly, and she had to find it before the trail went cold. She suddenly inclined her head, as if picking up a peculiar sound in the distance. She let out her breath and opened her eyes, looking towards the distant landscape where her quarry was. Night was approaching, and her destination was particularly dark. She calmly spread her wings, then soared down the steep hills. — The phrase “story of my life” is very relativistic. People go to sleep every day, but if someone told their friend that they slept yesterday, the friend would naturally not respond by saying, “yeah, story of my life.” It has to refer to more uncommon events. Being unlucky in love is a popular one. Even a small number of failed relations can feel significant enough to warrant saying, “story of my life”. That’s why the phrase felt appropriate when I slowly regained consciousness, not knowing where I was, how long I had been out, or what state I was in. I could count the number of times it had happened on two hands, though I hadn’t had hands, much less two of them. For ages now. I opened my eye and saw only blurry shapes. Then I tried blinking the fog out, but even so my vision remained the same, until I realized that I was seeing snowfall in darkness. That’s when my eye widened, and the memories came flooding back. I immediately sprang up into a sitting position, vaguely registering that I didn’t feel any needles of pain shooting through me, then took in my immediate surroundings. All around was nothing but snow, and darkness. Snow was all there was to see. It blanketed the earth and rushed through the air, limiting my sight to only a few steps ahead of me. That particular sound of howling wind, muffled by fine snow well below the freezing point, was the only thing I could hear. In all directions that was all I saw, and all I heard. My breath quickened, and my heartbeat sped up. “ARMOR!” I called out into the emptiness. I looked around, desperately angling my ears for an answer, or a grunt, or the sound of muffled clopping of hooves on the ground. “ARMOR! WHERE ARE YOU!?” I looked all around me again, desperately double checking every direction so as to not miss the shape of a pony fighting their way through the snow, or coming in for a landing. “ARMOOOOOOR!” Stillness, except for the fine flakes of snow, caking in my mane and bouncing off my coat, and silence, except for the ceaseless howling of the wind. I collapsed heavily on my haunches, the exhaustion from before catching up to me. I had been woken up from a long day in the middle of the night. I didn’t know how much sleep I had gotten. I had been magically controlled by a very powerful magician, then forced to use magic powerful enough to open a portal to another world. Add to that the stress from the fear and desperation from the whole experience, and it was a wonder I had woken up at all. The temperature was starting to make itself known, gnawing at the tips of my ears and the edge of my nose, promising me that it wouldn’t stop there. Dipping my head forward in defeat, my vision became blurry with a tear. I knew I was tired and confused, but it still took several moments to register that nothing was pouring from my eye. I had resigned myself to the painful catharsis of crying over my desperate situation, but nothing was coming. No sobs, and no wails. An ache settled in my chest, but it was small, and something inside me told me that that was all I was going to get. I lifted my head back up, and examined my thoughts. ‘Think now, act after that, cry some other time.’ I raised my head again, my face hinting to the form of numb determination driving me. I took the eyepatch I was still wearing, dried off the half-formed tear from my eye before setting it back, and started patting myself down for injuries. When I was certain that I was physically unharmed, I projected myself into my horn. The ache from doing so told me that I should take it easy on the unicorn magic for now, but I had to do a quick scan first. I sensed nothing around me, other than ambient magic flowing across the landscape. No magical signs of Armor anywhere around. Not even the weaker ones of animals sleeping in burrows. Armor obviously wasn’t where I was, and while I had learned in school that if you’re lost you should stay where you are so that people looking for you can find you, I think whoever came up with that idea obviously hadn’t been in this situation. So I raised my prosthesis, lit up the searchlight in it, and began hobbling forward, lighting up the powdery snow falling from the sky and sweeping across the landscape. There were a few bushes here and there, some leafless, and one or two evergreen, but other than that, there was just snow-covered plains. The snow was of the colder, powdery variant, so the depth of the snow varied as it filled the gaps between the gently rolling hills. It reached up to my fetlocks, though suddenly I could find myself walking into a deep drift reaching up to my neck. Then I had to turn around, and navigate around the drift, while trying to not turn away from my path, and make me go in circles. I sighed in frustration. I would’ve tried leaving marks if it wasn’t going to be a huge waste of energy, as it was going to be covered in snow soon anyway. I had only been walking for a minute or so through the endless snow before I got two ideas. I would periodically wave my hoof slowly into the sky, signalling to everything around me in an admittedly limited way, especially considering the snowfall that was going on, but I figured that it wouldn’t hurt. Then I removed the textile covering of my prosthetics, tying them around my head to help keep my ears warm, and hoping that my metal prosthetics wouldn’t drain too much body heat. ‘Thank Celestia for coats, and an extraordinarily poofy mane.’ Then I kept walking. Worrying thoughts, to say the least, were of course terrorizing me. That perhaps Armor was hurt somewhere and I was moving further away from him. That he was desperately looking for me and he just missed my trail under fresh snow. That I didn’t move fast enough and just missed his trail. And of course one of the more disturbing one, that I hadn’t ended up in an actual world, and this was just an endless, lifeless limbo somewhere in the emptiness of the cosmos. So the relief was very deep, after a moment of fright, when I stepped on something hard that shifted slightly under me. I stepped back and started digging through the snow, revealing something I marvelled at my happiness from discovering. A broken wagon wheel. It was fairly large, broken pretty thoroughly, and had obviously been here for quite a while considering how rotted and dirty it looked. It wasn’t of any use in itself, but it did confirm that my walking through this cold night might not be without purpose. It was constructed by intelligent beings, who had used it here. So I was not wandering aimlessly across undiscovered wilderness. This place obviously wasn’t densely populated, but there were people within wagon distance. It also meant that I was probably standing on a road. I squinted my eye, before shining with the light from my hoof ahead of me. Sure enough, there seemed to be something of a path that was free from shrubs and rocks outlined in the darkness. Stopping myself from feeling too smug about this turn of events, I took a moment to shine the light into the sky a few more times for good measure, before continuing forward. After a while, the triumphant elation of my road discovery was wearing off. There were no signposts, no lamps, no camping travellers of course, and absolutely no inn by a crossroad. I hadn’t even asked if I could graze grass throughout all the time I had been living in Equestria. Not that that would help here and now, and there were no fresh pine buds to eat either. There was also no way to make a fire. I was vaguely aware that logs should lie around for quite a while after being chopped before they were fit for being firewood. The wagon wheel had been too rotten, and there was no metal on it to help me, though that didn’t matter since I could strike stones against my prosthetics if I wanted to make a spark. No spark would start a fire here though, and after a while, I would’ve been getting desperate if I was in a normal state of mind. I wasn’t though, and I knew it would be certain death to stop here, so I just kept walking, worry building up along with the uncomfortable prickling digging slowly deeper into my nose, and the stinging around my eyes. One of the good things about being a quadruped was that it was easier to keep my balance without a sense of touch in half my legs. Even so, making my way forward was becoming frustratingly slow, as I was now losing my sense of touch in the two remaining organic hooves I had. Eventually, it paid off, though not as well as I might’ve wished. The ground suddenly angled upward a few degrees into a small slope, and digging through the snow revealed that I was standing on a bridge over a small, frozen rivulet. It would have to do. This snow was far too cold and fine to build shelter with, so I stepped off the bridge, and used my prosthesis, not limited by my waning strength, to rip the branches from the largest softwood brush nearby, and jammed them into the ground by one of the opening under the bridge. I tried punching through the ice of the rivulet, but it was frozen solid and wouldn’t help me build anything, so I resorted to caking the needle-covered sticks of the bush with snow as best as I could, making it fairly windproof. I was using much of what precious little energy I had left doing that, but it was the safer option. I crawled under the bridge, and curled up tightly, hoping to fall asleep and conserve my strength for daytime and hopefully better weather. A pony’s hooves resisted low temperatures really well, but the chill had started setting in there too now, as well as the places where my prosthetics were attached. I covered them as best as I could with my tail, and let out a sigh. I had plenty to worry about right then, but not being able to fall asleep was not one of them. — And then it was that time again. Waking up not knowing where I was or what had happened. I slowly opened my eye, and to my immense relief, found myself looking up into a wooden ceiling. I tried letting out a sigh, but was interrupted by my mouth being held closed. I glanced down my muzzle, and felt my relief being replaced by alarm as I discovered a mask covering my muzzle, holding my mouth shut. Trying to sit up didn’t work either. I angled my head down and saw that I was lying in a bed, covered by a thick blanket. Wriggling around under the blanket showed that I was clearly tied to the bed, in a very thorough manner too, with my forelegs tied to my side and my hind legs held together. My prosthetics were still attached to me though. Before I tried doing something else, I looked around me. It was definitely indoors. The bed I was in seemed to be in a corner behind a foldable screen of some sort, with a beautifully painted nocturnal landscape on it, fitting well together with the soft, orange light flickering across the ceiling. Beyond that, I couldn’t see the rest of the room. The ceiling was only slightly lower than I was used to in Golden Oaks, and everything was covered in a soothingly covered wood panels, catching most sounds and echoes, making it difficult to get a sense for the size of the place. The only sound was my own breathing, and the gentle crackle of a fire. It was clearly from a fireplace, judging by the calming scent I felt through the opening in the mask, perhaps from burning cedar wood. It really didn’t add to the scariness of waking up tied down, when you do it in a soft bed in a comfortable room. In the right circumstances, and with the right company, this wouldn’t have been so bad. I tried experimentally reaching out with the magic from my horn to gently tug at the cover I was under, only to find that that didn’t work either. It was like my magic was a limb and someone had wrapped it in a blanket, then tied ropes around it and chained it to my head. It was like, magically, I was trapped inside a giant cotton cocoon. Frowning, I jostled my head around gently, and felt a weight of something around the base of my horn. My phantom fingers couldn’t do anything other than scratch my flanks, and looking to the side revealed that all the tools I had installed in my prosthetics were lying on a bedside table next to me, including my harmonica and magic boombox, and the coverings I had tied around my head before I went to sleep. ‘Wow. Whoever did this was really thorough, but I still have one trick up my sleeve’ I wriggled with my foreleg prosthesis, before attempting to break the ropes with brute force. I didn’t pour a lot of energy into it before I had to stop, as it painfully tightened around my stomach and other foreleg. ‘Oooh! Owowow. Okay, new plan.’ I never found out what that new plan might’ve been, since I immediately froze up from the sound of cutlery somewhere beyond the screen, and someone, a pony, approaching with gentle steps. I closed my eye and pretended to be unconscious, when this mystery pony stepped around the screen. Clearly a unicorn from the light chiming sound of magic, setting down a tray on the nightstand. I tried keeping my breathing slow and deep, and my exhales tired-seeming, as I felt the blanket I was under gently being partially lifted. The pony poked at my prosthetics with their hoof, and I had to wrack through my brain for what might be the most plausible reaction sleeping me would have when they started inspecting where my prosthetic hind leg and the residual limb met. They were clearly curious about the invisible force that held my leg in place, The pony stopped when I grumbled slightly, and after a moment of waiting, I felt them lift my eyepatch, then my eyelid, under which was a pearly white prosthetic eye I had forgotten to take out. It was featureless since the eyepatch had been part of Rarity’s ensemble, and the ones with painted pupils tended to start to tickle the inside of my eyelid after I held it closed for long enough. “What happened to you?” I heard a raspy mare ask herself. She put my eyepatch back, making me stir just a little bit. After about a minute, she was still standing in the same spot as before, and just as I thought she was going to leave, she spoke up. “Have you been awake for long?” she asked. I let out a small sigh through the opening for my nostrils in the mask, and opened my eye, turning to see a sky blue unicorn with a silvery mane looking at me. Not really being able to respond, I instead inspected her. She returned the favor, and didn’t flinch like most do when I stare at them with a single eye. The statue of Sombra from my Equestria had just screamed “powerful and malevolent”, and the one from this Equestria (for I was now sure I hadn’t ended up somewhere else) had absolutely oozed with dark magic. This mare looked neither intimidating nor powerful. At least that’s what I thought until I noticed she was a little bit on the tall side, and fit-looking for someone with such a pristine coat and mane, much like Twilight, which then led me to look at her body. My eye widened when I saw the wings on her back. She didn’t seem to care about my reaction though. Instead, she asked me, “How are you feeling?” I paused and gave this some thought. I was now warm and possibly even safe, but I was worried about Armor. That was just the immediate thought of course. This whole situation, being ripped from my new home and family, the exhaustion and general stress of having been lost in a snowy wilderness in a dark night, perhaps even in mortal danger, came back to me as I thought. My expression fell as a general sense of weariness came over me, and I just gave a noncommittal grunt in response. “Nod if you’re still feeling fatigued.” I did. The mare hummed in consideration, and put her hoof on my forehead. “Let’s hope it’s not hypothermia,” she said. “Well, it doesn’t look like anything you wouldn’t be safe from so long as you stay warm.” That was a strike against her having malicious intent for me, which helped a bit. My eyelid wasn’t convinced it was worth the effort to stay up, and started protesting. The mare’s expression took on a soft quality, before it hardened a bit as she leaned forward to look me in my eye. “Do you know King Sombra? Have you helped him?” That woke me up a bit. I looked at her for a moment with a surprised expression, before I just averted my gaze and nodded. I wasn’t sure what I should’ve felt about this, but at that moment, I just felt ashamed. “Willingly?” I looked back at her, and shook me head in small motions. Her expression softened again, and her posture relaxed as she straightened the blanket over me with her magic, and nodded. “Just rest. I’ll keep this warm for when you wake up,” she said, probably referring to the lightly steaming teapot on the tray. ‘Great. That should mean that I’m gonna get the chance to open my mouth again.’ I had gone through the events of my ending up here several times now. At first I had been worried sick that Armor might’ve been injured by the collapsing portal, that he also had ended up in that frozen wasteland, with his hind legs cleanly severed or something horrifying like that, and I had moved away from him, but the more I thought about it, the more unlikely that seemed from how I remembered those last few moments. I often took pride in my rationality, so I knew that I wasn’t in a state to look for him, and that I should rest up before attempting anything. Even so, I was almost happy for being so tired I couldn’t keep my eye open. Anything less than that and my worry would keep me from resting properly. ‘You better be alright, Armor, and if you’re not, I’ll patch you together again– no matter what’s happened to you.’ — I woke up very cleanly as the mare from earlier had her face next to mine, fiddling with something behind my head while her mane tickled my nose. Her face came into view, the strap that held my mask behind my head in her mouth, and she noticed I was looking at her. “Well, good morning,” she said, and gently pulled the mask off my muzzle. “That’s quite a mane you got there. I tried brushing it, but it seems to insist on looking like that.” Not quite giving her the stink eye, I looked at her with a guarded expression for a moment, tested my now fairly stiff jaw, noticed that I was still bound to the bed, then wiggled my hooves to try and work out some of the kinks that had settled into them. “Good morning,” I said in a neutral voice, noticing the hunger setting in my stomach. “Hungry?” she asked. My stomach rumbled in response. “You were out of it for quite a while,” she continued, as she threw the mask over the screen. “I’m curious about what you were up to.” “... Why?” I asked. “Because it’s my job to find out.” She backed away two steps and made a small, but regal, bow. “Bellatrix Lulamoon, at your service.” I said nothing, just trying to roll my left shoulder as well as I could. Lulamoon magicked a cushion from behind the screen, then sat down on it with a slightly rueful expression. “I really do apologize for this,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll release you in just a little while, but even if I don’t, I’ll make sure you get something to eat.” My expression was slowly morphing into a scowl from what I perceived to be teasing from her side. “Thank you,” I said, after a few moments, keeping my tone neutral. “I have some questions,” she said, consulting a roll of paper from beneath the bedside table. “Who are you?” I let out a sigh, for some reason getting the feeling that this would take a while. “My name is Gabrielle.” Lulamoon raised an eyebrow at me. “A gryphon name? Interesting.” I let another, tired sigh, just before my stomach loudly cried for something to distract itself with. Lulamoon looked a bit sad as she turned to the tray on the bedside table. “Perhaps I’m not being reasonable,” she said, and lifted the tray up to me. “Maybe some food is in order. Cheese toast and some hot tea?” My will to sulk at her in response crumbled before I even got a chance to start, and my expression mellowed in resignation. “Sure,” I said. “Though it’s getting kinda warm under here.” Lulamoon’s expression lit up slightly. “Oh, that’s good,” she said, and partially pulled the blanket from me, which left the top of my artificial side exposed. “Then I don’t think we need to worry.” She lifted a hoof to touch my prosthetic foreleg, before stopping herself, and started cooling the tea with the spoon for a few moments, before setting it up to my mouth. With her help, I managed to down a nice blend of berry flavored tea, and get a large bite of toasted sandwich in my mouth. Lulamoon was savvy enough to hold off on the questions until I had a full sandwich in me, and I felt large chunks of stress drain away from me as Maslow approved of getting some basic needs fulfilled. “As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now,” she said, helping me with another sip of tea. “I’m not here to hurt you. You don’t have to be afraid.” “So why am I tied up?” I asked, after downing the last of the tea. “I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t try to hurt me,” she said. I narrowed my eye in confusion. “Why would I want that?” ”Just see it as a… a threat assessment,” she said, as something somber settled over her. “I knew Sombra was up to something, and when I investigated, I found you, a filly who acts like a field agent, sporting metallic legs like I’ve never seen before, absolutely drenched in residues of powerful magicks.” ‘Acts like a field agent?’ My rationally fueled annoyance was quickly being put out, leaving mostly interest. “So you’re… on a mission to stop Sombra?” “We all are,” she said, looking down, before focusing her magic on helping me eat. “I’m guessing you’re not from Equestri–” she stopped herself “– this world?” “I suspect so,” I said, after swallowing another piece of toast. It actually made me feel a bit down, but in a very deep way. Even though the last meals I had there were still sloshing around my system, Equestria, my Equestria, felt so very far away. “I, and another pony, went through a portal leading to an alternate Equestria, where Sombra had once ruled as a king.” “Another pony?” Lulamoon asked. “My friend and helper, a royal guard in Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s castle,” I said. Lulamoon looked at me with open curiosity, before smiling sadly. “I see. I suggest that we explain who we are and what we’re doing. I can start.” Seeing as I was busy eating, I thought that was a good idea, although I had one question. “You looked down just then. Has something happened to the pony I came with?” That seemed to catch her off guard. “Hm? Oh, no. I didn’t know I was looking for several beings. I was just thinking of the princesses, and of course… my king.” “So no indication that he’s hurt?” I pressed. She shook her head. “None that I’ve seen. He’s a royal guard, you said?” “Yes.” “Then he knows how to take care of himself,” she noted, encouragingly, rather than dismissively. I nodded to myself. That was a good point. Being a pegasus, he was also really resistant to the effects of the weather. He might be worried sick about me, like I was with him, but that damage would already be done by now, and seemed secondary to just being reassured that he was okay. The biggest risk now seemed to be that he would do something foolish in his search for me, but I was willing to be patient for now for the chance to search for him later. “Okay. Go ahead then,” I said. Lulamoon nodded. “Luna told me about this,” she said, and I noted how she skipped the title, which along with her alicorn status, spoke volumes about her. “Long ago, when she abandoned her sister to join Sombra as guardians of Equestria, he encountered travellers from another world. “It was a parallel Equestria, and a kind and benevolent version of her sister, along with an admirable version of Starswirl The Mad, had come in peace. They quickly became friends, and both versions of our worlds benefitted from leaps forward in magical lore, which your Equestria had in abundance, and technology, which this Equestria provided.” I listened intently, forgetting to chew my toast as Lulamoon forgot to keep feeding me. “Starswirl The Bearded, as your version of him was known, noticed that the veil between our worlds was wearing thin as time passed, and advised against frequent visits, but Celestia and Sombra were by now deeply in love, and opened the portal to see each other frequently. “Then, about a year ago, after Luna had rejoined her sister, the Celestia from your world visited ours again, and, knowing all that had been going on all this time from her sister, the Celestia from our world tried to usurp the thrones of both worlds. “So, your Celestia sent six ponies, and a dragon, with powerful magical artefacts to help. There was a great battle between them, your Celestia and Luna, our Celestia and Luna, and Sombra.” This is where I stepped in, because I had been told this story before. “The Elements of Harmony, they’re called,” I said, making Lulamoon widen her eyes in surprise. “They were about to seal away your versions of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and what would happen to them would also happen to the other versions, so in the middle of the battle, Sombra took the elements from Twilight and the element bearers, and transferred everything dark and malicious from your Celestia and Luna into himself. Everyone quickly returned home before the worlds collided, and Celestia and Sombra didn’t get time to say goodbye.” Lulamoon sat stunned for a moment, before nodding. “That’s right,” she said, and contemplated me for a while before her eyes became focused again. “I believe it’s your turn to share.” I nodded, now convinced that this alicorn could be trusted. “Think you could let me up first?” She nodded, and started untying me from the bed, and removed the ring I had around my horn. “I hope you’ll include how you got these,” she said, and poked at my prosthetic foreleg as she undid the knots. “Sure,” I said, then sat up and stretched my legs good and long, before looking suspiciously at Lulamoon. “Was the gag really necessary though?” She just shrugged. “Well, you do have fangs,” she said. “I didn’t want you chewing through the ropes.” “Ugh,” I said, and rolled my eye. “I guess that’ll be one of the things that I should cover.” I told Lulamoon the long version: me being a human, how I ended up in Equestria, what that Equestria was like, the people I had gotten to know, the Elements of Harmony, Sombra, my prosthetics, the circumstances of me getting here, Armor, and so on. Lulamoon nodded as I talked about my worries about him. “I can’t say for certain he’s safe, but I doubt going here would’ve caused him any harm. I’m pretty sure he would’ve ended up in the same state as you.” I sighed in relief at that. “That’s nice to hear. I was just exhausted from doing too much magic so he should’ve been fine, though I’m worried he’d do something reckless to find me.” “Possibly,” she said, then gave me a somewhat impressed look. “Still, a Stranger, eh? Not a bad amount of luck for his majesty.” “Sounds like it,” I sound, feeling a bit down about that whole thing. “So what happens now?” Lulamoon rose up from her cushion. “Hmm. My plan was to get you to Princess Luna, to try and figure out what to do from there, but if there is somepony else out there involved in this whole thing, we need to find him.” “Good,” I said, the weight in my stomach still being there, but now feeling better when I had something to aim it towards. “So,” Lulamoon started. “No hard feelings for tying you down?” “I’m gonna say yes, just to get you to help me find Armor,” I said, with a hint of smarm on my face. “Deal,” she said, and held out her hoof. “Let’s start over. Bellatrix Lulamoon, Knight of Equestria, but my friends call me Trixie.” I shook it with a determined smirk. “Gabrielle Eleanor Desrocher, likewise, and my friends call me Gabe.” Lulamoon, or Trixie, mirrored my expression. “Well, you might as well rest up,” she said. “We’re hours from civilization. Make yourself at home while I carry this place to a town, and we’ll start our search from there.” I nodded as Trixie turned around and walked off, and slumped against the bed, intending to grab a few more bites of my sandwich before heating up the tea again. ‘Trixie…? Why does that name sound familiar? Wait– carry this place?’ — Trixie’s home looked like a windowless ski lodge. It consisted of two levels, I was up on a large alcove, in a corner hidden by the aforementioned screen. A study was on the other side, with some bookshelves, a desk, and cushions large enough to sleep on. Two stairs led down to a lower level, with a kitchen in one corner, with serving bars leading out into a fairly large lounge, again with bookshelves, but also with more couches and a large sofa. The whole thing was lit up in large parts by a set of fireplaces, together with candles, all enchanted to not be a fire hazard, last for a really long time, and to give off more light. The lack of windows first made me think it was underground, especially since it was so cozily made, with the wooden decor and the scent from the fireplaces adding to the homey feel of it. The alcove was built on top of what I discovered was the bathroom. It, like the rest of the place, was curiously windowless, and the only door that didn’t lead to the bathroom was clearly the front door. I had reattached the coverings for my prosthetics, reinserted my equipment in them, including my harmonica, and put on my eyepatch since I didn’t have any spare eyes, then I went for the front door. Opening the door revealed a strange arrangement. A space, like a small antechamber, was on the other side, with cushions and ropes for gripping adorning the walls. The most curious thing though, was the enormous cotton canvas stretched across the side opposite the door, tied shut with strings, like someone had crammed Trixie’s house in a huge bag. The sounds of the great outdoors were vaguely audible through the opening in the middle, and a hint of cool air blew in through it. I scratched my head as I took in the strange sight before me, before shrugging and started unraveling the opening of the canvas. I hadn’t realized before now how accurate I was with thinking that Trixie’s house was inside a bag. As I poked my face out through the opening, I let out a startled sound as I felt gravity switch for my head, while remaining unchanged halfway down my neck. Now I realized what the handles were for, as I felt my head slightly pressing my body back towards the house. There was a flap of cloth over the opening, which my horn lifted enough of for me to be able to see outside. What I saw was a close up of Trixie’s neck, as she was magicking berries from a large bush in front of her into a bowl while humming softly to herself. She turned her head to face me, smiling at me. “Blackberries,” she said, turning back to the bush. “I mostly bring nonperishable foods with me, and when you’ve been out in the field for a few weeks, variation in taste can become important.” I looked around to see I wasn’t imagining things, and indeed I was not. I was poking my head out of Trixie’s saddle bag. I peered over the edge, and that the bag wasn’t big enough to fit me inside it closed, much less a small house. “I assume that this is some sort of magical arrangement?” I asked. “Absolutely,” Trixie said. “I’m a bit proud of it.” “You’re an inventor too then? You bring your whole house with you?” “Well, a house,” she said. “I also have one where the post rider can find me, but yes I am a bit of an inventor. Here, let me help you out of there.” Trixie’s horn lit up, and her magic enveloped me, then lifted me out of the bag, placing me on the forest floor. Chilly, but not covered in snow. ‘This is the second time I’ve traveled to a new world and woke up inside a bag.’ “Want to help?” she asked. “Foraging? Sure,” I said. Trixie poked her head in and out of her saddlebag, floating out another bowl. “We’re heading southwest,” she said. “Depending on how far we get today, we’ll reach Hollow Shades, or set up an early camp by a water source. You can never bring too much water, and we’ll want time to boil as much as possible.” I took the bowl in my right hoof. “What’s in Hollow Shades?” “Ponies,” she said, simply. “It’s a small town, but we’re looking for your friend, Armor, and the magic that brought you here has dissipated too much to track him by, so we’re going to have to do it the traditional way: by looking.” I let out a reluctant sigh of disappointment, as I started gently picking out the ripe berries from the unripe ones. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him,” Trixie assured me. “I didn’t see it, but judging from the sheer power used, you two arrived in spectacular fashion. Somepony will have noticed something.” That was encouraging, but it took a few minutes of quiet berry picking before it started feeling encouraging. “How far are we from where you found me?” I asked. “Almost one day of walking, so about halfway to Hollow Shades.” I looked at the forest around me, it was midday, and was almost free of frost except for a few spots where the sun hadn’t shone. “It seems further than that, considering the weather I was in.” Trixie looked at me for a moment, before nodding. “Hmm? Ah, yes. The Equestria you come from would probably have better weather service, if your princesses have been good rulers this whole time and your villains were defeated.” “Actually, I’m more used to the weather doing what it wants than it being controlled,” I pointed out. “And in that experience, judging from the amount of snow I was in, we would be pretty far away from where you found me.” “Hmm. That’s interesting,” Trixie said, then looking a bit downcast. “Anyway, he did a good job considering he was busy protecting us from the princesses, but there were still a lot of bad weather between the settlements from neglect.” “‘He’?” I said. “You mean Sombra?” Trixie’s face fell a bit more. “Yeah.” “You knew him?” I asked, although I had already figured that she did, being an alicorn and all. “Yes,” she said. “I knew him. I’d like to think that I still know him.” I could see she was hurting from remembering him, and decided to play a hunch. “What was he like?” “Noble, brave,” she said, the somberness on her face melding with pleasant memories. “Kind, funny… handsome.” I saw an opening to cheer her up, and took it. “Oh really?” I said, giving her a smarmy smirk. She gave me a smirk of her own in response. “Very, but don’t get any ideas. He was only interested in your Celestia,” she said, then was about to continue, when the snapping of a twig sounded through the woods we were in. We whipped our heads around, and gently set down the bowl with berries on the ground as we looked around. I slowly raised my prosthetic hoof to where the sound had come from. “Calm down, you two,” a stallion’s voice called from somewhere among the trees. “I come in peace.” At least I had first assumed that it was a stallion’s voice, but out of the trees walked a creature I had never seen before. It looked like a pony in profile and posture, but was covered in a shiny, black, chitinous exoskeleton. Pointy fins and ridges made up ears, tail, and a small mohawk-looking thing on the neck, a pair of large fangs jutted out of the mouth, and a pair of glowing, pupilless, turquoise eyes looked at us. I didn’t know what to make of the creature, skulking around in the woods, yet openly making himself known, his appearance being kind of intimidating, yet having such a friendly expression. Trixie openly calmed down when she saw what exactly had come out of the woods though, and even smiled at it, which helped. I slowly lowered my prosthesis. “Ah,” Trixie said, happily. “It’s okay, Gabe. It’s one of Queen Chrysalis’ changelings.” That almost jerked me into a defensive stance again, before I remembered how this world worked. I had only heard stories about Chrysalis and the changelings back in my Equestria, but considering what a bad reputation they had there, they should have quite a good one here. “Indeed,” the changeling said. “And you are–” it, perhaps he, started, until he got a good look at Trixie, and bowed down “– Ser Lulamoon!” he said, before looking up at her. “What are you doing here?” “No bowing,” she said. “We’re looking for somepony.” The changeling rose up. “Well, say the word and I’ll help,” a female voice said from the side. Trixie and I looked to our side, and saw another changeling step out of the woods, and I couldn’t help but notice that the changeling in front of us didn’t react in the slightest at this. This new changeling stepped up to the first one, who didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence, before they stepped into each other. I took a step back in alarm as a flash of green flames (green flames!!) engulfed the two, but the flames vanished as suddenly as they began, and then there was just one of them left. “You made a diversion?” Trixie asked, one of her eyebrows raised. “In a sense,” the changeling answered in a male voice. “My name is Poly.” Trixie’s expression widened in realization. “Ah, I’ve heard about you,” she said, and turned to me. “Gabe, this is Poly. Poly, this is Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers.” “A pleasure,” Poly said, and smiled at me. I felt the conversation was kinda leaving me behind, so I just nodded at him. “What are you doing here?” Trixie asked. “I’m my hive’s agent in Hollow Shades,” the changeling said. “Oh, so we’re close to the town then?” Trixie asked. “It’s less than an hour’s walk from here,” Poly said. “Then I say we go there right now,” Trixie said, happily. “It’s still day. We should have time to ask around, and it wouldn’t hurt to resupply.” I shrugged. “I’m all about moving fast right now. Lead on,” I said. “Are you okay with flying?” Trixie asked. “Uh, yeah,” I said. Trixie shifted her saddle bags to make way for her wings. “Then climb on. Flying will get us there in no time,” she said. I did so, and saw Poly stretching out a pair of dragonfly-like wings, before hovering above the ground with a loud buzzing. We flew off to a road, the one we had gotten to where we were, I assumed, before ascending above the treeline and following it from the air. “So, Ser Lulamoon,” Poly started, loud enough to be heard above the wind, but not needing to shout. “Just Trixie is fine, and if it’s not, please skip the honorifics,” Trixie said. “Trixie... Phantoms, it’s so strange to say it like that,” Poly said. “So, Trixie, Can you share some more about why you’re here?” “You heard about the transdimensional magic his majesty was involved in?” Trixie asked. “Yes,” Poly said, nodding. “Have you found anything?” “I have. I’ve found the great, otherworldly threat he summoned,” Trixie said, and looked back at me with a small smile. “She’s sitting on my back.” The changeling’s head looked at me for a moment. He was about to continue the conversation when Trixie’s words registered with him, and he whipped his head back to gaze at me. “This is…? Wait, how are…? Who…? … What?” he asked. I found myself flustering about as much Poly about what to say to that. Trixie chuckled at him. “Turns out there was no cosmic horror he was talking with. Gabrielle here is a Stranger.” “Oh. How does that help though?” he asked. “Gabe comes from the other Equestria. As always, he’s trying to get back to that Celestia,” Trixie said. “Since Gabe is a Stranger, she doesn’t have a counterpart over here, so he could control her and use her to open a portal from the other side.” Poly’s eye ridges raised as he, or she, looked at me. “I see. I didn’t see that coming.” “Everyone seems to be familiar with that term,” I noted. “I’ve never heard of it until recently.” “It’s not a common subject,” Trixie said. “But people like us, associates of Sombra, know a thing or two about travelling between worlds.” “He was very close to us. We were loyal to him for a reason,” Poly said. “So, Gabrielle–” “That would actually be Ser Gabrielle,” Trixie noted. “Really?” Poly asked. “Uh, I guess,” I said. “Don’t worry though. I got knighted just before I got here, so I’m not very used to it. Besides, I might as well keep a low profile.” “Alright,” Poly said, shrugging. “Phantoms, no knights these days like their titles. Anyway, who are you? Your scent is very mature.” “Uh, what?” I said. “Never met a changeling?” Poly asked. I shook my head. “No. They have a very bad reputation where I’m from.” “Oh. Of course,” Poly said, considering this for a moment. “That’s pretty flattering for us changelings over here I suppose.” “If this world is mirrored in the way I understand, I guess so,” I said. “What do you mean I smell mature?” “You might not know this, but changelings feed on emotions, mainly love,” Poly said. “I’ve heard that part,” I noted. “Right. Well, you have the scent of an adult pony,” Poly said. “You smell much older than you look. Deep and heavy, like when you stick your muzzle into an emptied keg of cherry.” I looked askance at him in puzzlement. “Okay? It probably has something to do with me being turned into a pony from a human, which has an average lifespan of less than a hundred years.” Poly and Trixie looked at me. “Oh,” Trixie just stated. “Yeah. No trouble believing that?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of a ‘human’ before,” Trixie said. “It makes sense with you being a Stranger.” “And I have no reason to doubt my senses,” Poly said. In the distance, a small town peeked out of the woods, which seemed smaller than Ponyville, if perhaps a bit more compact. Only one or two houses rose above the trees, while most others were much more humble. Almost all of the houses had plumes of smoke gently rising from the chimneys and drifting away into the surrounding forest. “Here we are,” Poly said. “Ponies should start getting off work about now.” “Have anyone of you looked for missing people before?” “Not really,” Trixie said. “Yes, but only ponies who’ve gotten lost in the woods,” Poly said. “Does anyone of you have any general adventuring experience?” I asked. “Some,” Poly said. “I’m helping to protect the town, so there’s been a few scuffles here and there.” “I’ve been on a few journeys,” Trixie offered. “Now she’s being modest,” Poly said to me. “The exploits of Ser Lulamoon are legend.” “Really?” I asked. “It’s all relative,” Trixie said, evenly, and shrugged. “But you guys don’t know how to start looking for someone that you have no idea where they are?” I asked. “We have a few leads,” Trixie asked. “Like I said, you two must have made a splash wherever you ended up, and we’ll send word to Canterlot to have Luna inform her network on what to look for. What do you think?” “Uhm… the only stories I can think of starts with the leads nestling themselves into the local fishing tavern and trawling for rumors,” I said. “We don’t have a lot of gryphons around here, so nopony fishes, but I was just about to suggest the same thing,” Poly said, as we descended into the edge of the town. Hollow Shades lived up to its name. The surrounding woods were thick and made up of dark examples of trees, with dark green leaves that had muted hints of silver in them, and deep brown bark. The houses were nestled closely together, with additional mighty trees with thick crowns of leaves between them. It all gave the town a shaded, yet cosy, feel to it. I also detected a sense of wariness from the ponies walking on the roads, but that quickly dissipated when they saw Poly. We, and several others, seemed to gravitate towards a large building, the insides of which were brightly lit. We stepped into a welcoming aroma of food, drink, and candlelight. This was the inn, with tables, booths, a bartender and waitress, and some ponies setting up a few instruments by a large fireplace along one of the greater walls. Like actual saloons in the old west, and not the ones you see in the movies, this tavern was active, lively, smelled of good food, and not filled with the sounds of drunken brawls and the stench of drying drinks and vomit. The ponies that were coming here to relax after a day of work were neighbors with the place, and, even if they did feel rowdy, didn’t have a spare inn to go to if they broke this one The ponies in the room as a whole gave us a look as we entered, but this was obviously the standard treatment for newcomers. There were plenty of spare seats in the large room, as the regulars were still trickling in. Some stares lingered on me though, probably because of my eye patch. I also took it as a good sign that it didn’t feel like the Mos Eisley cantina. An earth pony mare sat by a round table next to a unicorn stallion, twiddling with a deck of cards. “Hey, Poly,” she said happily. “Hungry?” “Actually, yes. Are you offering?” Poly asked, as we walked up to her. “Yes. I was starting to think you were trying to starve yourself,” she noted. The stallion’s face fell a bit. “I was kinda hoping…” he started. Poly answered him with a suddenly very female voice. “Actually, we might be able to arrange something.” His face lit up with a small and slightly abashed smile. “I’d like that.” I stared at the big bug pony my eye wide, but no one else seemed to think this was strange. Changelings fed on love, so I was a bit curious about what they were planning. I had to admit though, for a giant bug, Poly looked very appealing. ‘Tihi… cuddlebug.’ By now, they had noticed Trixie being an alicorn, and looked at her in awe. “Are you… Ser Lulamoon?” the mare asked. Trixie nodded at them with a tired-looking smile. Poly seemed to notice this, and whispered conspiratorially to them, this time in a male voice, “Let’s keep this to ourselves for now.” The two ponies nodded, and the mare pulled an imaginary zipper over her lips. They gave me one more curious look before Poly led us away to an empty booth. We slid into a pretty spacious booth, far larger than what the three of us needed, and at first I was a bit curious as to why we picked this one. “You know this town pretty well,” Trixie noted to Poly. “I’d like to think so,” he or she answered in a female voice, before catching the attention of the waitress, a pegasus mare. Poly nodded towards the bartender, a pegasus stallion, and then towards the booth we were sitting in. The waitress returned the gesture, and went to collect the bartender. I was kinda impressed by the pull he or she seemed to have in the town. The bartender and waitress came over a few moments later. “Hey, Poly,” the apron-adorned bartender said, holding a large mug in one wing, and rubbing the inside of it with his other wing covered in a rag. “Who are your friends?” “This is Trixie and Gabe,” Poly said. “A pleasure to meet you,” the waitress said, and smiled at us. “Likewise,” Trixie and I said at the same time. The pegasus’ eyes widened in realization. “Ah, Ser Lulamoon,” the bartender said, and nodded towards Trixie. Trixie shifted slightly uncomfortably at this. “I think…” Poly said. “That we want to keep this focused.” “Of course,” the bartender said. They leaned in and spoke in low voices. “You’re here on business?” “We are,” Poly said. “Is Wood Fiber in town?” “He sure is,” the waitress said. “Great,” Poly said. “Anypony else new in town?” “You got two sitting next next to you,” the waitress pointed out. “Other than that,” Poly said. “There was one mare,” the bartender said, slowly, as she thought. “I think she came in from the southeast, but I’m not sure whether she’s left or not. She probably knows somepony in town, because she didn’t check in.” Poly nodded. “Right. Thanks, you two.” “No problem,” the waitress said. “Would you like to order anything?” The bartender and waitress went back after we ordered our food, and Poly turned to me and Trixie. “This other pony we’re looking for, are they also from the other Equestria?” Poly asked. “Yes,” Trixie said. “His name is Studded Armor. He came here at the same time as Gabe.” “A stallion then,” Poly said to him or herself. “Wood Fiber is a post rider, it could be worth checking with him if he’s seen anything lately. Then there’s Dandelion. She’s the local bailiff, she tends to keep track of new arrivals, and always keeps one ear to the ground in general.” “Oh, uh, good,” I said. The waitress came by with our food right then, and I eagerly dug into my sadly ham-free grilled cheese sandwich. “So, would you two like some help in looking for this Armor?” Poly offered. Trixie looked up from her fruit bowl and considered this for a moment. “What do you say, Gabe?” she asked. “I uh… I guess,” I said. “I don’t feel uh… I… I feel a little lost right now. I’m just going with the flow.” “We can get to know each other for a bit before you decide,” Poly offered. I was certainly curious about some things. “Okay,” I said. “I kinda wanna know if you’re a… I don’t even know if it’s mares or stallions when it comes to changelings, but… what are you?” Poly looked at me uncertainly. “You did know about changelings,” he/she pointed out. “Yeah, but I didn’t hear anything about them using multiple voices,” I said. “Oh! Right,” Poly said, looking a bit abashed. “We’re Poly. I’m Polyus,” he/she said in a male voice. “And I’m Polyusa,” he/she continued in a female voice. Here’s where Poly somehow spoke with both voices simultaneously. “Usually only one of us talks at once. A lot of ponies get confused when we both talk at the same time.” I slowly put my sandwich down on my plate, and slowly inclined my head at the changeling with a disbelieving expression. “I’m not actually a changeling,” Polyus said, and scratched off a small chip of exoskeleton from his back. He placed the chip on the bench beside him, and with a green flame (green flames!), it grew into an almost identical changeling. “We’re two changelings,” Polyusa said, then the two changelings melded together in a green flame (... green flames). “In the body of one changeling,” Polyus finished happily. “... Oh,” I said. “Doesn’t it get... cramped?” “Sometimes,” Polyusa said. “But we’re also never alone.” “Good thing when we work by ourselves out in the woods,” Polyus said. The entity known as Poly looked away from me and Trixie, raised its head and stared into the ceiling. “It wouldn’t hurt with some more company,” Polyusa said. “Oh, am I not good enough for you anymore?” Polyus said, and chuckled. “That’d be the day,” Polyusa said, smirking. “You’d probably get to choose weapons, and I’d chose the time and place.” I glanced at Trixie, who just shrugged at me. “I kinda knew about this already,” she said. “Chrysalis told me.” I nodded a bit absentmindedly at her. “Would you like a glove, or perhaps that would be a sock around here, to slap yourself with?” I asked. “Oh, don’t worry. I have one ready,” Polyusa said. “She’s really selling you on whether we should join you, isn’t she?” Polyus asked, and I was pretty sure he was talking to me. “I, uh… I just want Armor back,” I said, looking down into my lap. Worrying about him was starting to take its toll on me. I hadn’t even been up a full day, and already I felt fatigue taking hold of me. My stomach knotted, and looked miserably at my half-eaten sandwich. Just like that, my appetite was gone. Trixie and Poly looked at me, then Trixie scooted closer to me and put her foreleg around my shoulder. “We’ll find him,” she said. “Try and eat. Get your strength back. Maybe he’s heading here, looking for you, and if he’s in trouble, we’re going to help him, and to do that you need to eat.” I nodded, and forced another bite into my mouth. It didn’t taste much but I made myself keep eating. “I’m curious,” Poly said. “Your legs… they’re not real, are they?” “Uhm, they’re not flesh, if that’s what you mean,” I said. “Would you… mind if I ask how you got them?” Poly said. “No, it’s fine,” I said. “I already told Trixie. I was in an accident when I was a human. Humans… don’t really have magic, so when I came to Equestria, and became a unicorn, I made these. It took awhile, but I finally did it.” “That sounds… harrowing,” Trixie said, sympathetically. That just made me think of the real casualties. My parents. I stared unseeingly out into the crowd, before trying to stop the silence from becoming awkward. “It was… “ I started, before shrugging, and continued, “My friend from the other Equestria, Rainbow Dash, had such a great vocabulary for this. Lame, uncool, totally dis-radical, absolutely and horrendously deplorable… no, wait, that was Rarity.” “You seem to have come out on top,” Polyusa noted. I nodded half-heartedly at that. “She means that in a good way,” Polyus said. “Everything was great up until so recently,” I said, starting to stare out into nothingness again, before my eyes hardened, and I looked at Poly. “I’m not losing him too,” I said, almost shocking myself with the force I said it with, and annihilated the last of my sandwich and drink. “We believe you,” Polyus said, and sniffed the air. “We really believe you. We’ll help if you’ll have us.” “Welcome aboard then,” I said, around the last bit of sandwich still on my mouth, nodding at Poly. “What’s next?” “We stock up on supplies and look for clues,” Trixie said. “Right,” I said, nodding. I might’ve wanted to get on with it, but I remembered when I had been a private detective, sort of, and how much time I spent just looking for things and thinking about what to do next. I turned to Poly. “So, do I call you a ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’?” Poly shrugged. “Any you like,” Polyus said. “We usually let ponies talk to the one they’re most familiar with, or at least their voice. Both of us can mimic any voice we want.” I thought about this for a moment. “Male then,” I said, shrugging. “I hang around with enough women.” “What’s a women?” “Uhm, mares,” I clarified. “You never said what happened to your eye,” Trixie said. “I didn’t? I lost it at the same time I lost my limbs,” I said, lifting up my eyepatch. Trixie had already seen the blank eye I had underneath, but Poly took a close look at it. “I have several of these back home, but they keep falling out and getting dirty, so I’m keeping my patch on until I can enchant this to stay in there.” “Does it work? Like your leg I mean,” Polyus asked. “No. I managed to make lenses that partially restored sight right before I got here,” I said. “But that doesn’t work with these, so I’m gonna start looking into that.” “Why make lenses that doesn’t work with you?” Trixie asked. “There was this mare back home who had been blinded in… a changeling attack,” I said. “Changeling attack?” Polyus said, skeptically. “Apparently, changelings attacked during a royal wedding,” I said. Trixie and Poly just looked at me in disbelief. “Why?” Trixie asked. “To capture everyone and feed off their love,” I said. “Or that’s what I heard. It happened before I came to Equestria.” “Who came up with that idea?” Polyus asked, in disbelief. “Uh, Queen Chrysalis,” I said. Trixie and Poly deflated and stared into the distance as they contemplated this. “Wow. Your Equestria really is different,” Trixie said, shifting a bit uncomfortably. “Makes you wonder.” “Yeah… have any of you ever heard of Twilight Sparkle?” I asked “No,” Polyus said. “Don’t think so,” Trixie said. “Pinkie Pie?" I suggested, and they shook their heads. “Rainbow Dash? Applejack, Rarity, or Fluttershy then?” “Oh, right,” Trixie said. “They were some gang of troublemakers who got ran out of Ponyville. I think they’re serving a few weeks in Canterlot’s prison.” “... Wow,” I said, feeling both relieved that they didn’t seem as capable as the ones I knew, and that I’d probably never meet them. “They’re actually heroes in my Equestria, and Twilight is an alicorn.” “Really?” Polyus asked. “Yeah. She’s the Princess of Friendship,” I said. “... And if they’re not good friends, I guess they wouldn’t be able to accomplish what they did back home.” I looked at Trixie, and her wings. “Hey, what are you princess of?” Trixie looked taken aback by this. “Oh, nothing,” she said, “She’s the Paragon of Modesty,” Polyus helpfully provided. “It’s… nothing special,” Trixie said, sinking deeper into her seat a bit. “You… would say that though, wouldn’t you?” I asked. “Is that a title you have? Paragon?” “Yep,” Polyus said. “My queen, Chrysalis, is the Paragon of Love.” “Oh. That sounds nice,” I offered. “She is. Everypony loves her, and I mean everypony. She loves everypony back too,” Polyus said, and suddenly spotted something over at the other side of the room. “Aha. There’s Wood Fiber and there’s Dandelion. Sit tight, I’ll get them.” Trixie and I remained in our seats as Poly got up and walked away. “That’s progress, don’t you think?” Trixie asked. “We’ve found help, and we might even get a lead now.” I nodded silently, looking down into my lap. “Do you think he can be trusted?” I asked, looking up at Trixie. She smiled comfortingly at me. “Chrysalis is a loyal ally to Luna, and the changelings are loyal to Chrysalis. They’d know if one of them, or two in this case, weren’t.” I nodded, and let my head fall again. “Is something bothering you? That I don’t know already I mean,” Trixie asked. “Do… do you think he can control me again?” I asked. Trixie shifted a bit. “Oh, I see. Ehm, I don’t really know. Controlling somepony like that isn’t exactly written in textbooks, but maybe?” “I’m… worried,” I said. “Hey, Luna will know,” Trixie said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “And she can teach you to protect yourself.” “I haven’t met this Luna though,” I said. “I’m taking you to her after we’ve found Armor,” Trixie assured me. “We’ll think of something until then.” “I… already have,” I admitted. “This is uh, kinda embarrassing, but… can you… make sure I can’t try anything when I sleep again?” Trixie looked questioningly at me for a moment before she realized what I was talking about. “Sure,” she said, smiling at me. “But perhaps skip the mask?” “No problem.” “And don’t tell anyone?” “Not a soul.” That made me feel a little better. I figured that if I removed my prosthetics there shouldn’t be any risk left. Poly was talking with not two, but three ponies, on the other side of the room. A unicorn stallion, an earth pony mare, and one whose tribe I couldn’t be sure of since they were wearing a travel cloak. I couldn’t quite hear what they’re saying, even with my sharpened hearing, but the pony in the cloak seemed to be an interesting surprise for Poly. The stallion said something, and the three ponies held a short conversation. The mare and the stallion excused themselves shortly afterward, and Poly asked the cloaked pony a few quick questions before he led her towards our table. “It turns out that both Wood Fiber and Dandelion had heard about some strange phenomenons going on down south,” Polyus said, and gestured towards what I could now see was a white-coated mare underneath her hood. “... From Miss Tulip here. White Tulip, Ser Lulamoon and Ser Desrochers. Ser Lulamoon and Ser Desrochers, meet White Tulip.” The mare looked a bit uncertain at the whole situation, seeing an alicorn and a filly with an eyepatch and metallic hooves, but gave a ready smile at us, and nodded respectfully. “Good evening.” “Good evening,” Trixie and I answered. “Have a seat,” Trixie said. “Thank you,” Tulip said, sitting down beside us. She was a fairly lanky mare, in that way that I had now figured out was considered beautiful by ponies. I also sensed quite a bit of poise beneath her uncertain behavior, like she was a model: comfortable in most social situations, or at least good at making herself seem that way. “Like I said before, we were wondering about strange, magical phenomenons that might have occurred during the last two days,” Polyus said. “Indeed,” Trixie said. “It might’ve looked a bit like a localized aurora, but short-lived. Powerful magic going off, and I believe it was green in color.” Tulip nodded. “Yes. I was heading east towards Dodge City, circling around Rambling Rock Ridge, when I saw it.” The three of us leaned in. “Where was it?” I asked. “Uhm, south. Somewhere west of Dodge City,” she said. “There were a few clouds out, and the lights reflected very clearly off them. A bright, green shimmer, and what looked like lightning close to the ground.” “Did anypony else see this?” Polyus asked. “Yes. I heard some ponies in Dodge City talk about it the next day,” Tulip said. “Nopony near you?” Trixie asked. “No, there were nopony around me at the time.” Trixie raised an eyebrow at her. “You were travelling to Dodge City all by yourself?” A pair of wings suddenly, but gently, lifted up White Tulip’s cloak. “I’m a stronger flier than I look. Though I was still running a bit late.” Trixie nodded, seeming convinced, and I had to leave the scrutiny of wings to her. “How was it like around there?” I asked. “Bad weather? Beasts?” “Where the lights shined?” she said, and shrugged. “Nothing in particular. A bit desolate, but nothing to worry about. I didn’t fly over to look closer though, I wanted to get to Dodge City.” “Hold on,” Trixie said, and shoved her head into her portable house, before emerging with a map and a pencil in her magical field. “Can you mark on this where you saw it?” “I think so,” Tulip said, and took the pencil in her mouth, drawing a line west of Dodge City, and a circle a small distance south of that. “I must’ve been somewhere along here, which means that I saw the lights from somewhere here.” The twin feelings of exhilaration and trepidation settled in my chest. We now had something to commit to, and with it, the risk of losing progress if anything should go wrong. I fought down the negative part of the sensation, and turned from the map to Tulip. “And there were no one else around?” The mare shrugged and shook her head a bit apologetically. “There were trains heading back and forth down there, but I can’t say if anypony else saw anything.” Trixie and Poly exchanged a glance, seeming satisfied. I couldn’t think of anything else to ask either. “Well, thank you,” Trixie said. “I don’t know how to repay you for this, but perhaps something from the menu?” “Oh, no,” Tulip said, and shook her head. “I’m quite satisfied, and happy to help. I’m thinking of retiring right about now, but I wish you luck.” “Thank you,” I said, giving the mare a grateful smile. “You’re welcome,” she said, smiling back, before giving off a happily surprised sound as Poly offered his hoof to her as she rose from her seat. “Yes, retiring,” Trixie said. “What do you say about that, Gabe?” “I could do that,” I said. “... Although.” Trixie smiled at me. “Don’t worry, I got it. I’m going to talk to the innkeeper. I need to stock up on water, empty the septic tank, other things like that, but we can do that tomorrow.” “Do we take a room or do we use your place?” I asked. “Which one do you prefer?” she asked. “I… really don’t want to lose these around here,” I said, gesturing with my prosthetics. “Alright, climb in, and we’ll get you set.” “And I have a buffet to get to,” Poly said happily, walked over to the ponies we first saw when we entered the inn, and put his hooves around the two of them, who looked up at him with smiles on their faces. I climbed into Trixie’s home, with her following behind me. “We’ll get another bed tomorrow. For now, would you like my bed or do you want a spare cushion?” “Uhm, cushion,” I said, knowing that I hadn’t washed properly in two days. Trixie collected a cushion the size of a small bed, and placed it behind the screen up the stairs by her bed. “I’ll be putting the house in a room,” she said, floating over some rope to us. “But I’ll be here in case you need to get up.” “Thank you,” I said, removing half of my limbs and offering the rest of them to her. “Can I get some pen and papers?” “Of course,” she said. “I’ll light the candles too. What are you gonna do?” “I need to start working on this eye,” I said, as my hooves were being tied together. “I see,” Trixie said, putting the ring I had over my horn before on the nightstand beside me. “Just slip this onto your horn when you’re ready.” “Got it,” I said, and magicked my limbs in front of her. “I don’t want to lose these, can you put them somewhere safe?” “Of course,” she said, and magiced over the pen and paper I had asked for. “Do you have everything?” “Yeah,” I said. “Trixie?” “Yes?” “Thank you. For everything.” She smiled comfortingly at me, and put a pillow under my head and a blanket up to my neck. “Don’t mention it. Goodnight.” “Goodnight.” I nestled into the cushion with surprising ease, and started working on my next project. I was both tired from the massive exhaustion from when I had gotten here, and fired up from making some progress in finding Armor, and I was planning on directing that energy at something and tire myself out at the same time. Half an hour later of intense, but reasonable, use of magic energy, I had tired myself out, and magically anchored my prosthetic eye in my socket. I gave it a few magical yanks, but it stayed put, painlessly. Satisfied, I floated the ring over my head. Aiming carefully, I let it drop right over my horn, and I was suddenly very helpless. With that helplessness, my resolve to find Armor simply increased. ‘I’ll find you, I promise.’ — I was under the impression that I woke up early. There were no windows though, so it was hard to say, but while I couldn’t see her from my spot down on the cushion, I could hear Trixie still breathing calmly on her bed. By now, I felt fully recovered from the night I came here, and that it was going to be a pretty good day. I had allies and clues, and, as soon as Trixie woke up, limbs as well. I tried to magically yank my prosthetic eye, just to make sure it was still working, when I felt my magic bound inside that fuzzy feeling from the ring. ‘Oh, right. Duh.’ I made myself as comfortable as possible with my legs tied together, snuggled into my pillow again and closed my eye. “Morning,” Trixie said. I looked up at her, looking over the edge of the bed. “Morning.” “Wow, you’re a light sleeper,” she said. “I didn’t keep you up, did I?” “No, I was already awake.” “Alright, hold on,” she said, yawning, as she struggled out of bed. “I’ll get you out of that.” “Thanks,” I said, as she started magically untying the rope. “You want your legs too, I take it?” “Yes please,” I said, and pulled the ring off my horn. Trixie slipped out from behind the screen, and reappeared with my prostheses in her magical field. I took them in my hoof, and couldn’t help but smile at how intensely Trixie looked at what I was going to do next. “You just turn this bracelet-looking thing up here to turn it on,” I said, before doing so with my foreleg and simply slapping it on, neglecting to mention that that’s not how you turn them off as well. “Interesting,” she said, looking on with interest as I attached my hind leg as well. I stood up and stretched. then we walked out of Trixie’s bag, into a room at the inn. We saw Poly coming out of the door to the room beside ours, giving a smile and a small wave to whoever was still in there. “Mor– Oooof,” he said, sounding a bit bloated as he wobbled down to hall to join us. “Morning.” “Good morning. Filled up?” Trixie asked, with a knowing smile. “Very,” he half said, half groaned, and closed his mouth to burp. “Phantoms, I might’ve had too much. This ought to last me for a while.” “That word,” I noted, as we walked down the stairs to the main room. “‘Phantoms’, you said that yesterday as well. What does it mean? I mean, I know what a phan–.” “Mm, let’s order breakfast first,” he said, holding up a hoof placatingly. I thought that was a strange thing to say for someone who looked and walked like him, but I shrugged it off. We were the only ones in the main room, except the bartender (who I figured was also the innkeeper) who took our orders before going back to cleaning the bar, and the waitress who had now switched over to making breakfast. Once I had my waffles in front of me, Poly spoke up again. “The Silver Phantoms,” he started in a voice low enough to not be overheard, “were a mysterious people from somewhere in the frozen north. At least so we think.” I started listening intently, happy to have some entertainment with my breakfast. “... Okay,” I said, after swallowing down a large bite. “Like, from the Crystal Empire?” Trixie and Poly immediately shook their heads. “No,” they said, before stopping and nodding a bit uncertainly. “Actually, that depends on how you look at it,” Trixie said. “The ponies of the Crystal Empire were ruthless conquerors, who used the powers of the Jagged Heart to fuel their conquest.” “... Really?” I said, between chews. “Yes,” Poly said. “All of Equestria lived in fear of them. Terrified that they were going to be absorbed into the Empire, forced into a life of servitude, or be soldiers in their conquering armies.” “But then,” Trixie said. “The Silver Phantoms appeared to defend Equestria from the Empire. The legends say that they were some form of ghostly ponies, that shined with a beautiful light, and had magical capabilities never seen before or since. “We don’t know exactly who they were, or what happened, but after a long time they defeated the Crystal Empire. Then, for some reason, they vanished, leaving behind only one of their kind, a foal, closer in form to a pony, who the ancient Equestrians crowned their king, and who defended them from evils for millennia.” I leaned back when I caught up with the story. “You mean it was…?” “Sombra,” Trixie said. I sat back to contemplate this. It made sense. Ponies were long-lived, and legends said that Starswirl may have cheated death in some manner, but still, thousands of years and looking like he was in his prime was reserved for alicorns, and apparently other higher beings. “And you’re out to fight him,” I noted carefully. Poly and Trixie nodded sadly, as Trixie poked at her food, and Poly looked down at the table. “How… is the situation?” I carefully asked. “With Sombra I mean. Is there any contact with him? Where is he?” Trixie seemed to steel herself before answering. “There is no contact,” she said. “He’s in the old Crystal Empire stronghold up in the north. Equestria is still reeling from all the… ‘loyalists’, who joined him, but he hasn’t done anything yet.” “So he’s… biding his time or something?” I asked. “Or something, yes,” Polyus said. “There’s been a lot of worry about who is loyal to Equestria and who is loyal to Sombra, but Luna still has the people’s love, and she’s been urging caution. This isn’t the time for neighbors pointing hooves at each other.” “And Sombra hasn’t acted?” I asked. “No,” Trixie said. “Whether it’s because he’s preparing, forming a new country from the ground up, or because he doesn’t want to, we don’t know, but a lot of people think that’s encouraging, and means that he doesn’t want to do anything to Equestria. Perhaps he doesn’t, but we know he has agents everywhere.” “And what about Celestia?” Trixie took a moment before answering. “We don’t know that either,” she said. “Luna might, but when Celestia was purged from the evil in her, she didn’t take the throne. According to Luna, Celestia feels that she’s unworthy, but we don’t know where she is. I’ve barely seen her myself, so I don’t know much about her, but Luna says that she’ll make a good princess one day.” I nodded to that. “I think so,” I said. “She’s the princess where I’m from, and that Equestria is, like, practically a utopia as far as I’m concerned.” Trixie and Poly contemplated this, and small smiles seemed to sneak their way onto their faces. “That does sound great,” Poly said. “How was Luna before she…” Trixie started, and paused to consider something. “Okay, uhm, so millenia ago, Luna was out to conquer Equestria along with her sister, then she joined Sombra for a thousand years to help him rule, which is why everypony loves her. Where was your Luna during that time?” “Banished to the moon, as I understand it,” I said. Trixie and Poly looked at me in disbelief at that. “Wait,” Polyusa said. “How does… why–” “I think what she means to say is,” Polyus said. “Who was powerful enough to do that?” “Remember those Elements of Harmony I told you about?” I asked Trixie, who nodded. “And you know of them too?” I asked Poly, who shook his head. “They were powerful magical artefacts that Celestia and Luna wielded a thousand years ago,” I said. “Luna was possessed by some dark entity called ‘The Nightmare’, who tried to rule Equestria through her. Celestia used The Elements to banish Luna to the moon, and when she broke free a while back, Twilight Sparkle and her friends had gained control of The Elements, and used them to purge Luna of The Nightmare.” Trixie and Poly sat back, looking stunned. “Wow,” Trixie said. “We got the better deal in that regard. We got to have Luna with us all that time. How is your Luna now?” “She’s fine,” I said. “At least as far as I know her. She wasn’t actually conscious while The Nightmare controlled her. Although she still has trouble not speaking in a very old-timey way.” Trixie and Poly seemed amused by that. “This is pretty… encouraging, don’t you think?” Poly asked Trixie. “Yeah,” Trixie said. “With any luck, Equestria, our Equestria, will be just as good one day.” — I was soaking in the Inn’s bath on the second floor, scrubbing my back as I watched what was happening outside the window. Trixie’s head was sticking out of her bag, keeping an eye on the piping they had connected between her house’s water tank and the water tower across the street. Poly and the innkeeper walked up to her, Poly rolling a wooden barrel along and the bartender with sacks on his back, and stopped by the bag, continuing a conversation. Trixie joined in, and started magicking the sacks and the barrel into her house. I figured that they were discussing supplies and traveling, while also saying goodbye to Poly, considering how the innkeeper threw his forelegs around him, or them, slapping the changeling on the back and wishing them luck. I was about ready to join them, but I still took half a minute to let the warm water soothe me before getting out and drying myself off. Not very thoroughly, since that takes ages with a coat and a mane like mine. I walked out to see the makeshift pipeline to Trixie’s bag being disassembled and shaken out by some townsponies. “Are we ready?” I asked. “Just about,” Trixie said, and looked closer at me. “We were planning on flying, but you’re practically soaked.” “Oh,” I said, sheepishly. “I guess I should’ve realized.” Trixie shrugged, crouched down, and opened her bag. “Well, hop in and wrap yourself in something warm, but be careful when you stick your head out again.” “Is it safe for me to be inside there while we’re flying?” I asked. “It’s safer for you if the house falls off with you in it than if you simply fall off me,” Trixie said. “Just use the hammock by the entrance.” “Got it. How long is it to Dodge City?” “About seven hours if we don’t want to tire ourselves out,” Trixie said. “What about you, Poly? You guys are not gonna get a stitch from flying after your feast are you?” “If we do, I’m letting her take over,” Polyus muttered. “It’s mostly her fault, and ask her how hard it is to clutch your side when you have an exoskeleton.” “How hard is it?” I asked. “... Hard,” Polyusa said, sounding a bit embarrassed. “Climb in if you need to,” Trixie said. “Thanks,” Polyus said. “We just need to work out some kinks.” I smiled slightly to myself as I climbed into Trixie’s house. I went to the bathroom and collected a large towel to wrap around myself, then walked back and strapped myself into the hammock-like thing by the entrance before poking my head back out. Hollow Shades was vanishing beneath us as the wind caught my mane, making it wave behind me like a flag on one of those little flagpoles people sometimes puts on their motorcycles. “What’s Dodge City like?” I asked. “Uh, desert town,” Polyus said. “Don’t know much about it ourselves, which ponies sometimes assume we do.” “Why?” I asked. “Changelings aren’t bothered by warm climates,” Trixie clarified. “Oh,” I said, and peered down at the landscape passing by beneath us. I missed flying with Armor, and it wasn’t even rose-tinted glasses that made me think back on when I did, and how every time I sat down on his back it was like that scene in The Two Towers, where Gandalf is all like, “I get to ride the best horse,” and then we see his horse running up to him in slow motion like it was Baywatch. I picked out my harmonica from my hind leg prosthesis. “Hey, you guys mind if I play?” I asked. “Sure won’t,” Polyus said, and flew beneath Trixie to the side where I was hanging out from. Maybe it was a subconscious desire to start off our quest similarly to one I knew that had a successful conclusion, or maybe it was just what I felt like playing, but I started off with She Caught The Katy. My harmonica skills needed some work, but after a while I was getting the hang of it again and it sounded fine enough for travelling, especially since it was just me and my single instrument. I couldn’t sing while playing though, which was just as well considering the lyrics and where I was at the moment. “Aaw, finished?” Polyus asked when I stopped playing. “I can continue later,” I said. “But I’m getting tired. I need to continue working on my eye.” “You said that you were knighted back in your Equestria for donating your discoveries,” Trixie said. “I hope you’ll consider doing the same here.” “Natch,” I said. “As soon as we find Armor.” “So is your eye working?” Polyus asked. “Yes and no,” I said. “Like I said before, I managed to make lenses that worked with scarred eyes, but that means I only have to bypass the outer parts of the eye. If the inner parts are still there, I have a bunch of eye left to work with.” “Whereas yours is missing altogether?” Trixie asked. “Yep, and I tried some stuff last night, but it was like the whole surface of the eye was one big pupil.” “Do you think we could help?” Polyus asked. “I’m sure there’s stuff to learn in this world, so yes,” I said. “No, I meant me and Polyusa,” Polyus said. I cocked my head a bit. “Are you two enchanters as well?” “No, but we are shapeshifters,” Polyus pointed out. “If you need a surface for your eye, one of us could be that.” “That… sounds intriguing,” I admitted, before falling silent for a few moments. “Can you incorporate changeling magic into objects?” “Sure,” Polyus said. “That’s how we make our hives.” ‘The possibilities are endless!’ “Yeah, I think I’ll take you up on that.” — Within the span of fifteen minutes, I had tried working on my enchantments, given up on that and considered playing something, dismissed that, and just hung around in the hammock. I couldn’t think up anything to talk with Trixie and Poly about, and had just started thinking up horrible scenarios that Armor might’ve been in. That probably doesn’t sound very healthy, but I was worried, I couldn’t help myself. Then my thoughts slowly turned somber. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be back home in my Equestria, where I had a bunch of friends, Armor, whose friendship had been slowly but steadily growing deeper and never seemed to stop doing so, a princess who looked after me, a nurse-friend who always said the right thing. I had things to do. Classmates to explore the forests with, enchantments to work on, inventions to make, that deep and warm feeling from giving prosthetics to people who needed them. There was even a classmate with a crush on me. That would’ve given me an ulcer in any other situation, but now, I longed for that. I would even jump at the chance of that becoming an eyeroll-provoking daytime tv drama-situation; It would mean that I was back home. … But I wasn’t. I let out a long, forlorn sigh. One of my longest yet, and I had experienced many of those in my days. ‘... Well, would you look at that; I suddenly got the focus to work on my eye.’ I deactivated the magic keeping my eye in place, plucked it out, and began working on it again. I had gotten it to do something, but it wasn’t useful in any way so far except possibly telling if there was light or not around me. After I had infused the eye with what I felt should’ve been an enchantment to get the pearly white orb to work as an eye, I plopped it back into my socket and activated it. I let out a hiss, and immediately closed my eye, holding my hoof over my eyelid. “... Ouch.” It hurt, but that meant it had at least done something. It was wrong though, and I wasn’t sure what that the problem was. Looking with it was like putting a telescope up to a fisheye spyhole, possibly the wrong end, and it hurt like someone had shone a laser pointer in my eye. I put my eyepatch back over the blank eye, deactivated it again, and let out a contemplative sigh. ‘Let’s see, it reacts to light, then it talks to my brain through my nerves. How is this different from my real eye, that one’s… Oh.’ I almost wanted to smack myself for that oversight, but figured that the sting from the experiment would do. ‘Dhuuur! Of course! The back of my eye socket is healed over, the nerves there haven’t had any stimuli in ten years, and are probably tangled up in ways they were never meant to behind the scar tissue. Sandstone’s eyes were intact, all they needed were functional surfaces. Alright, that won’t work with me. I’m gonna have to adjust the magical signals the eye is sending to play nice with my nerves, or I’m gonna have to bypass it entirely. Then of course comes the part where the brain passes instructions to the eye, but translating brain impulses into physical movements is something I know pretty well by now. This is starting to sound promising.’ “How are you doing in there, Gabe?” Trixie asked. I stuck my head out of the bag, the wind catching my mane again, and the sun this time stinging my real eye, though thankfully not as harshly as my recent experience. The landscape had shifted. We were not surrounded by vast tracts of semi-desert. Not quite desert sand, but more like dried dirt, hosted sharp-looking shrubs and the occasional cactus, with little in the way of grass and trees. I found myself strangely uncomfortable in this alien landscape. “Fine. Just working on my eye,” I said. “Any progress?” “I suppose. I’ve figured out some more stuff that I need to consider in the future.” “Oh, well that sounds good,” Trixie said. “Anyway, we’re coming up to Dodge City. You can see it there.” She pointed towards the distance, and I couldn’t really make anything out except more desert. Trixie was an alicorn, so she’d have the eyesight of whatever tribe tended to have the best of that. Pegasi, probably. “I can’t see it,” I said, squinting my eye. “Well it’s there. We’ll be there soon,” Trixie assured me. I turned towards Poly. “Can you see it?” I asked. “We can see it,” Polyus said. “How is the desert for you?” I asked. “As a changeling, I mean.” “It suits us fine,” he assured me. “We’re not exactly immune to heat, but we can stand high temperatures better than a lot of ponies. Which is good considering we have a black exoskeleton and we don’t sweat. Also, sand doesn’t bother us. How about you?” “I’m not sure I like it,” I said. “Humans are originally from very warm climates, but the race I belonged to was more adjusted to colder regions.” “Like pegasi?” Polyus asked. “Well, humans don’t have wings, and the only way we could control the wind was by breaking it,” I said. “Okay, I’m starting to see it now.” Dodge City looked like an old western town. Unlike the tavern in Hollow Shades, I did expect a saloon here to look like it did in the movies, but perhaps that was just me. There was a wide street flanked by businesses, and a sort of mix between a sidewalk and a series of porches on either side. There were smaller offshoots from the main road, presumably leading to places that didn’t require as much attention from people on the main street. Then there was a train station and a wharf with a pair of steamboats anchored, and a twin pair of tracks leading out into the horizon along a wide river. “Let’s land out of sight of town,” Trixie said. “I was just thinking the same thing,” Polyus said, and started descending towards the side of a road. “Why?” I asked, curiously, rather than questioningly. “General subterfuge,” Trixie said. “Hollow Shades was Polyus’ home field, we didn’t have much to worry about there, but like we said yesterday, we don’t know where Sombra’s agents are. Since he brought you and Armor here, he might very well be involved here.” “His agents, you mean?” I said. “That’s right,” Trixie said, and touched down. “And Hollow Shades didn’t have any of them?” I asked. “We don’t know for sure,” Polyus admitted. “But I know most everypony there, and the only new pony in town was that White Tulip mare.” I was about to start climbing out of Trixie’s bag, when she instead took it off and placed it down on the ground, making me seem even smaller than I usually was next to grown ponies. “What are we doing?” Polyus asked. “I was thinking of some disguises,” Trixie said. “Something that doesn’t shout ‘alicorn and unicorn’.” Poly knocked lightly himself on his head. “Right, I always forget that ponies need costumes to disguise themselves.” I hopped out of the hammock and made way for Trixie and Poly as they crawled into the house. “Okay,” Trixie said, pulling a tapestry aside to reveal an overflowing closet. “Hats, cloaks. Casual, not mysterious.” “Maybe a poncho to hide your wings?” Polyus suggested. “I don’t have a poncho,” Trixie said. “Maybe the bathroom rug would work?” “I don’t think it’s big enough,” I noted. “You have pretty big wings.” “Oh, uh, thank you, Gabe,” Trixie said, blushing a little bit for some reason. “Maybe we should get you a pair of horseshoes? You make a pretty distinct sound when you walk.” “Uhm, okay, but I always ending up losing my grip and they sound like metallic flip-flop,” I said. Trixie and Poly gave me a blank look. “It’s a human thing,” I said. “Also, which tribe do you think I should be?” “Earth pony,” Trixie said. “Mostly earth ponies around here, and we stick out enough.” “Got it,” he said, and changed shape into a fit-looking, redwood red earth pony stallion with a dark brown mane. Something enveloped my head, and it turned out to be Trixie plopping a bonnet down on it. I looked at her in surprise, and she just shook her head after scrutinizing me for a moment. “No. It doesn’t work with the eyepatch,” she noted, and placed a boater on my head instead, or at least resting it on my mane. “That’s better. Goes with the nautical theme.” “Oookay,” I shrugged, adjusting the hat to align the holes in the screen with my ears. “No poncho, and everypony can see a pair of wings under a duster. Pegasus it is, and pegasi don’t wear bonnets,” Trixie said, putting stetson that was high enough to hide her horn if she angled it right. “Do we have any relations?” Polyus asked. “I mean, do we create characters with our disguises?” “Do you have any ideas?” I asked. Poly pointed at me and Trixie. “Cousins,” he said, then pointed between himself and Trixie. “Colt and fillyfriend.” Trixie and I raised a set of eyebrows and smiled at him. “I’d be a bit suspicious of that,” Trixie said. “... if it didn’t look like you were gonna throw up on the way here.” We each got ourselves a set of horseshoes, and walked out into the sand again. Trixie put her saddlebags back on, and we walked out from behind the bushes separating us from the road, and started walking in the afternoon sun into Dodge City. I kept my eye on the ground, being vaguely aware that on Earth, people who live in the desert wear boots to protect themselves from scorpions and vipers. At least two of my legs were always safe from that. That worry mostly vanished when we entered the town. “So, our lead is the green light which would’ve been southwest of here,” Polyus said. “Any ideas on where to start looking?” “Tavern worked last time,” I noted, looking around. “I haven’t seen a saloon yet but I assume there’s– whoa,” I said, stunned into silence. “Gabe?” Trixie asked. “Is that Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich?” I asked, looking at the earth ponies walking out of the sheriff's office, looking displeased. “You know them?” Polyus asked. “I… know their counterparts,” I said. “Diamond Tiara doesn’t like me, I think. They live in Ponyville. Filthy Rich has a business chain, and I think he owns land south of Ponyville.” “A landowner?” Trixie said. “Do you know where?” “Uh, no,” I said. “How so?” “He might keep an ear open for the kinds of phenomenon that happened when you two got here,” Trixie said. “Nice catch, Gabe.” “Oh, uh, Yeah. I guess. I didn’t think about it that way,” I said. “Should we go talk to them?” I don’t know what Diamond and Filthy had been talking about when we plopped down at their table in an unintentionally synchronized way, but they did give us some very surprised looks. Poly, Trixie, and I, were seated on the opposite side of their table in the saloon, which apparently wasn’t very active during work hour. Then there was silence, and in two seconds it had reached peak awkwardness and stayed there. I looked around at Poly and Trixie and saw them looking expectantly at me. I had said that I was familiar with their counterparts, so I guess they expected me to lead this conversation. “Uh, hi,” I said, deciding to shoot straight. “We’re three unusual characters looking for somepony.” Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich glanced at each other, Diamond’s spoon with ice cream an inch away from her mouth and Filthy’s pint an inch away from his. “I… see,” Filthy Rich said. “My name is Gabrielle. Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara, this is Poly, and this is Trixie,” I said, gesturing at the ponies on either side of me. “Poly, Trixie, this is Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara.” After a moment of confusion, Filthy Rich’s expression darkened, and he took that mouthful of drink that we had interrupted. “Did that ‘Baron’ Braeburn send you?” he asked, bitterly, the air quotes in his voice being the stuff of legend. “Uh, no,” I said. “No, no. Of course he didn’t,” Filthy said. “What does ‘not Baron Braeburn’ want then?” “Uuh,” I said, looking back and forth between Trixie and Poly for some support, and only getting uncertain shrugs. “Well, I guess I’m a ‘not Baron Braeburn’, and I want my friend back.” Diamond Tiara looked at her father, obviously putting effort into keeping a neutral expression. Filthy, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes just a smidge. “I haven’t done anything,” he said. “I’m not the kind to abduct ponies, and neither is anypony who works for me.” “Look, I’m serious,” I said. “We don’t have anything to do with this Baron Braeburn. I don’t even know who he is.” “Then how did you know our names?” Diamond Tiara said, scowling slightly at me. Filthy put a hoof around his daughter's wither. “That’s kinda of a long story,” I said. “And we’re trying to enjoy a meal,” Filthy said, pointedly. “Look,” Trixie said. “I assume you have a tense relation with this Braeburn fellow.” “You assume correctly,” Filthy said, and took another drink, the hostility slowly draining from his face, and being replaced by indifference. Diamond Tiara followed Filthy’s lead and refocused her attention on her ice cream. “We are not associated with him,” Polyus said. “Good,” Filthy noted. “I’d advise you to keep it that way.” “Is he… an unsavory character?” I ventured. “I try not to be the type to talk poorly about my fellow pony,” Filthy said. “So I’ll just say nothing about him.” I looked at Trixie and Poly again. “Have you guys ever heard of this Braeburn?” Trixie shook her head. “I haven’t been around here in years.” “I haven’t been this far south since I was a nymph,” Polyus said, before putting a hoof over his mouth as his choice of words caught up with him. Diamond and Filthy looked at him in surprise, before Filthy’s expression gained a hint of curiosity. “That was very convincing,” he said. “I can’t see a changeling working as hired muscle for a pony like him.” “And if I convince you that I’m a changeling, you’d be more inclined to believe us?” Filthy considered this for a moment, before nodding in acquiescence. “It should be easy for you to prove,” he noted, smiling a bit to himself. Poly held his foreleg above the table, and transformed it into its changeling shape before shifting it back. Diamond Tiara looked on in interest as she finished off the last of her ice cream, and Filthy looked mildly impressed. I was wondering if Trixie was going to show that she was an alicorn as well, since that’d help too, then I remembered what she was a paragon off. “Also,” I said, magicking Trixie’s hat of her, revealing her horn and making her look up in surprise, but not making her protest. “I doubt just anyone has alicorns working for them.” By now, Filthy and Diamond’s expressions had shifted into more appropriately surprised ones. After a moment, Filthy Rich started pushing his chair away. “Ser Lulamoon,” he said. “Ah-ah, don’t get up,” Trixie said, pulling her hat down over her horn again. “Let’s keep this discreet.” Filthy slowly sat down again, his eyes fixed on Trixie. “Like I said,” I started, drawing his attention. “We’re looking for someone.” After a moment, the words registered with Filthy, and he and Diamond leaned in conspiratorially. “Yes?” he asked. “Did you see a great, green glow in the sky a few days ago?” Trixie asked, lowering the volume of the conversation. Filthy shook his head. “No, but some of my employees did,” he said. “Where?” I asked. “Over Braeburn’s land, just beyond the borders of my land,” he said. Trixie, Poly, and I, looked at each other. “That’s interesting,” Poly said. “Why are you here?” Filthy and Diamond casually glanced around the room, but we were alone, as the pony who manned the bar had stepped into the kitchen after it was clear that Trixie, Poly, and I weren’t going to order anything. “You said ‘someone’. Is it a pony?” Filthy asked. I leaned in at that, bracing myself for the worst kind of disappointment, but eager to hear what he had to say nonetheless. “Yes.” “One of my field hooves snuck into Braeburn’s lands, and saw several of his goons hauling something away,” Filthy said “Hauling what away?” I asked, feeling the frogs in my hooves starting to sweat. “I don’t know for sure,” Filthy said, and shook his head. “But I think it’s important.” “What makes you say that?” Trixie asked. “We went to Appleloosa to find out what’s going on,” Filthy said. “We disguised it as just passing by to inspect our lands, while we investigate what my employees found so suspicious.” “And then?” Polyus asked. Filthy shook his head. “When we asked around, we found one mare who said she had seen ponies prepping a train to head here, not loaded with any produce, but plenty manned. “I asked her all the details she could remember, and it fits from what we’ve seen here. Baron Braeburn took half the ponies on his payroll, and came here with his personal train shortly after that green light that everypony is talking about. I haven’t seen whatever it was that they were moving, but my employee said that it was a sack the size of a pony.” Three sets of ears perked up at that. “And that’s why you came here?” I asked, fighting a bit to keep my breathing steady. “That’s right,” Filthy Rich said, leaning back in his chair, still keeping his voice low. “The law in Appleloosa is in Braeburn’s pocket. I tried talking to the sheriff ‘round these part, but she weren’t interested. I got plenty of clout in Ponyville, but nopony there has jurisdiction down here.” Our side of the table leaned back as well, soaking in this new information. Diamond Tiara looked back and forth between Poly and Trixie. “You’re not worried about jurisdiction, are you?” she asked, then turned to Trixie. “You’re an alicorn knight,” she said, and turned to Poly. “And nopony can outsmart a changeling ranger. You guys can make sure Braeburn’s going down, can’t you?” Trixie sighed, looking a bit down. “Looks like the south is a bit neglected.” Filthy smiled tiredly at her. “We don’t pass any blame,” he said, reassuringly. “Things were never all that easy, and it got even harder when his majesty left us.” “But that Braeburn’s a bad egg!” Diamond said, passionately. “He’s gonna get what’s coming to him.” Part of me wanted to rush out and tear down the door to wherever this Braeburn was holed up, but fools rush in. Another part of me told me that all of this might be a snipe hunt, and just made me feel tired. The conflict between my tired side and my fired up side was causing my frogs to sweat pretty profoundly from the frustration. “Who was this mare that told you about the train?” I asked. Filthy glanced to the side as he thought. “Pegasus, lanky, white coat,” he recounted. “Was her name White Tulip?” I asked, surprising the whole table. “How did you know?” Filthy asked, as I carefully measured his reaction. It probably didn’t matter much. I was never all that great when it came to tells, even on ponies with their ears. I mostly relied on verifying information. “We met her,” I said. “Up north.” Filthy nodded. “She did say that she was travelling.” Whether or not he was telling the truth, I thought it was best to just follow through with this conversation. “You said that you’ve seen the train here?” I asked Filthy nodded, then Diamond gestured out a window with her head. “It’s right out there, by the loading platform,” she said. “How long has it been here?” Trixie asked. “Can’t rightly say…” Filthy said, slowly. “Can’t have been long. Probably arrived in the morning.” Trixie, Poly, and I looked at each other. “This thing that they’re transporting, have you seen them unloading it?” I asked. “We don’t rightly know what to look for,” Filthy said. “We haven’t seen anything, but we haven’t looked very close either.” “Is there anything else you can tell us?” Polyus asked. Filthy’s gaze swept across us for a few moments, letting us know he was serious. “‘Baron’ Braeburn might talk pretty when he feels like it, but don’t let him fool you. He cares nothing for Equestria, including alicorns, changelings, or fillies. Be careful around him.” Poly, Trixie, and I, looked at each other, before we got out of our seats, giving the two earth ponies our thanks. Filthy nodded to us, taking another sip of his drink while Diamond said, “Good luck,” and started scraping the bottom of her ice cream bowl. We walked out of the saloon, and down two houses before Trixie led us down a deserted side street. “What do you think?” Polyus asked. “It’s very convenient, and yet plausible,” Trixie said, mirroring my own thoughts. “Plausibility is key in deception,” I noted. “Plausibility works best when it’s derived from fact,” Polyus said. “You know their counterparts, Gabe. What do you think about them?” That was a good point. “Uhm. Back in my Equestria, Diamond Tiara is a spoiled and petty bully... or aspiring bully, she’s harmless to me. Filthy is… polite, and seems okay from what I’ve seen of him. A bit oblivious about his daughter, I guess. He’s really rich and always tries getting more rich. Make what you will of that.” Trixie and Poly considered this for a few moments, before we glanced around the corner of the building we stood by, at the trains by the station down the main road. “Polyusa thinks we should try and look closer at that, and I agree,” Polyus said. Swallowing back a remark about how I just wanted Armor back, I gave this some thought. “I think that’s the best idea,” I said. “Rules out a lead or confirms it. It’s comfortingly non-committal too.” “So what do we do?” Trixie asked. “Do we just mosey over there and look around?” I felt some pride building in me for having some experience to share in this. “Yes. We find ourselves at the loading area, and we’ll look around innocently. Don’t signal that you’re doing it innocently, just look around: the idea that some people might not like it haven’t even crossed your mind.” “You’ve done this before?” Trixie asked, raising her eyebrows at me. “Twice,” I said. “It’s a long story, ask me some other time.” “Do we split up?” Polyus asked. “I don’t know,” Trixie said, and turned to me. “I need to get you to Luna in one piece.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “I got a few tricks up my prostheses.” “Yeah, I saw them,” Trixie said. “Alright, are we ready?” “Yes. Can I have some bits?” I said. — My right legs were covered in cloth that looked fake when you inspected them closely, their hooves were metallic, I had an eyepatch over a milky-white, blind eye, and my mane was almost as large as the rest of me. I didn’t exactly look like the most average little filly, but I did my best. The hat helped a bit in distracting from my more prominent features, as did the bottle of lime soda from the candy store that I held on my left hoof. The train station was a pretty simple affair. A large room with benches made up the core of the building, with an information kiosk at the side connected to what I assumed was an office, or two, most likely containing archives of manifests and ledgers and boring things like that. The other side led out to a single platform for passengers, but with something of a rail yard to the side, the wharf on the far side of the rails running parallel with each other. Some of the tracks had trains on them, crates were being loaded between boxcars, and a steamer anchored at the wharf. Ponies, mostly earth ponies, were hauling crates, often onto large pallets that were then lifted by a number of wooden cranes, taking breaks and talking with each other, or looking busy while discussing where crates should go and when, pointing between pallets and specific areas of the ship, and nodding between each other. I started out staying away from there, as my lack of head protection might’ve drawn attention to me, and instead inspected the ship. The ship was apparently taking both passengers and cargo. A few couples were walking next to each other underneath sunbrellas and talking among themselves. I didn’t blame them, the sun was killing me. I pulled my boater down as well as I could over my eye and took another sip of my drink. There was one train in the distance that was starting to catch my attention, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be filled with crates, with a bunch of decidedly non-vigilant earth ponies resting and making slow work of inspecting the locomotive and the fuel cart. I caught sight of Poly inspecting it as well in the distance. We looked at each other, and when I gestured towards the train, he just shook his head. There was a pegasus stallion standing by the gangplank leading up to the steamer, with an orange coat and a blonde mane blasted back tightly against his skull, looking both tense and bored. “What’cha doin?” I chirped, sitting on the railing by the water, exposing mostly my left side to him. He glanced over at me, surprised, his expression having an annoyed streak before it quickly vanished, and he looked back over towards the loading dock, and the town beyond. “I’m… waiting,” he said. “Waiting for what?” I asked, sounding cheerful. “My friend,” he said. “What’s he doin’? Is it a he?” I pressed. “Y– yes, it’s a he,” the stallion said. “What’s he doing then?” “He’s… talking with ponies.” I tilted my head in consideration. “Well, you look really bored. He must either be really good at talking, or really bad.” The stallion let out a small, humorless snort. “I guess so,” he said. “How long are you gonna wait for him?” The stallion took a deep breath, and turned to me. “Look, I’m not doing anything exciting,” he said, and fished out some coins from his vest and tossed them to me. They clacked loudly as I caught them in my right hoof. “Why don’t you run along to the candy store and buy another soda? You look like you need it.” One of the coins had gone up the empty space where ponies normally have their frogs, I quickly turned my hoof away from him as I put the bottle down on a pole, shook the coins out into my other hoof, and inspected them. “Wow, thanks,” I said, struggling a bit to keep my voice cheery. “You want one too? I can buy four or five with this.” “I’ll be fine,” he said, smiling. “There’s… a kiosk on the ship.” “Alright,” I said, put the coins under my boater, and hopped down from the railing, trying to walk in a way that didn’t expose my right side. “Does your friend want one?” I asked, glancing back at the stallion. He nodded. “He might.” I shot him the best smile I could, before walking calmly toward the town, letting out a sigh of relief and speeding up as I rounded a large pile of planks. That was the third pony around here that I questioned in my “curious little filly” act. The first one had looked at my prosthetics funny, the second one had been too busy with her ledger to look at me, but I had them completely convinced I was nothing to be concerned about. This stallion though. I had to disengage with him pretty hurriedly, as I got the distinct feeling that he was learning more about me than I was about him. I stayed low and weaved back and forth between barrels and crates, staying out of sight from where the stallion had stood, until I found a spot where I felt I could peek out at him without him looking straight at me. I looked around the corner of a crane, and saw the spot where he had stood being empty. This was worrying. Halfway through our conversation, he had seemed like he was trying to hide that he’d learned of a pleasant surprise. I glanced around in all directions, including the air, since he had been a pegasus. ‘Calm down. He can’t have followed you this quickly without being seen. This isn’t the time for subterfuge, now it’s time for skulduggery.’ I slipped underneath a parked train, hiding behind a set of wheels, glancing out in both directions before scurrying to the next set of wheels. I had to find Trixie or Poly, preferably unseen, and tell them to find that stallion. Then I’d retreated and try again once he was out of the picture, or found out to not be a threat. “So where is he?” I heard a stallion, though not the same one from before, ask. “He’s with us,” another stallion, again, different from the one I met by the ship, answered. I looked out from behind the wheels to hear what was going on. Partway down the length of the train I was hiding under, and the one along with it, stood a single stallion, talking with five other ponies, all of them facing the first one. He was a fairly lanky earth pony stallion, with a light brown coat and a dark brown mane that hung on the side of his head. The other ones, that I could only see the backs of, were all earth ponies as well, and all except one wore dusty vests and worn hats; the one in the middle had an expensive-looking black hat and an equally expensive looking black suit. “And the plan was for us to get him. Has that changed?” the lone earth pony asked. I angled my ears to be certain that I could pick up the whole conversation. A few moments ago, the pegasus seemed like the most important factor. Now, it was this exchange. “That depends,” the black hatted one said. “Nopony’s told me what’s in it for me yet.” “Rewards and riches from his majesty,” the lone pony answered calmly, but with a taste of condescension. “You know this already.” “And how am I supposed to know that I’m getting something worth my effort?” the black hatted one countered. “‘Rewards and riches’ can mean anything.” The lone stallion raised an eyebrow at the black hatted one. “Do my choice of words hint of deception to you? If I were trying to trick you, I could be very specific in my promises, and it wouldn’t matter the moment I have my price, but I’m not. I don’t know how his majesty plans on rewarding you, but I’m certain it will be substantial.” “Perhaps the princesses would offer more?” the black hatted one pushed. “Perhaps,” the lone stallion admitted. “If you’re trying to improve your end of the deal, I’m not at liberty to negotiate. I can however advise you to be careful in how you try and pressure us. Private Studded Armor is a means to a very important end. Turning him over to the princesses, or hurting him, will displease his majesty very much.” To me, the world stood still at the mention of Armor’s name, and I barely noticed how I was being manhandled until I was off the ground. The blonde pegasus stallion from before had come up on my blind side, grabbed me, and dragged me out from beneath the train car, behind the group of earth ponies. I let out a startled yelp as he shoved me against the train opposite the one I had been hiding under, and pinned me against it with his forelegs. The group of earth ponies spun around at the sound of me yelping. They, along with the lone stallion, looked at us in surprise. The blonde pegasus who held me quickly brought a hoof up to my face, and lifted my eyepatch, forming  a predatory grin on his face when he saw what was beneath. “Star?” the lone stallion asked. “What are you doing? I was supposed to do this deal–” The pegasus apparently known as Star looked at the other stallion. “Forget the deal!” he barked. “Do you know who this is!?” I looked at the stallion he shouted at, and his eyes widened in realization when he saw my face. Before anyone could do anything else, the black hat-adorned stallion spoke up angrily, facing the lone stallion. “I should’ve known you’d stab me in the back, Rosen Wreath!” “Believe what you will, Braeburn,” Rosen Wreath said dismissively, his eyes fixed on me. “Just stay out of our way.” “Oh no! I’m getting paid one way or another,” Braeburn said, and looked at me. “If I’m leaving empty-hoofed, then so is everypony else!” “Armor! Now!” I shouted, looking at the sky behind Rosen Wreath. As everyone turned to look at the empty sky, I smacked Star’s forelegs away with my prosthesis, making him grunt in pain. I grabbed him by the neck next as I landed on my hind hooves, then threw him hard against Braeburn’s posse before standing down on all fours. I didn’t look to see the result of my swing, instead I immediately rolled under the train and quickly darted to the other side, then again under the one after that. The grunts and yelps I heard told me my toss had the desired effect. I paused behind a set of wheels, making some more honest ponies look at me in surprise, and listened. “Get off!” I heard someone, probably one of Braeburn’s ponies, yell. “Star! After her!” Rosen Wreath shouted. “Get back on the train!” Braeburn ordered, and I set of hooves galloped down the length of the space between the trains. “We’re going back to Appleloosa! Now!” I had heard enough to be sure where Armor was, and ducked under the train I was by, keeping low and moving alongside the five earth ponies, the whistles and puffs from the locomotives, and the clanks and chatter from working ponies, masking the clacking sound my prosthetic hooves made against the rails. “You three,” Braeburn said, as they reached the last car before the tender. “Get on the train and check on the prisoner.” I saw three sets of hooves vanish into the train, while Braeburn’s and another pony’s hooves vanished behind the tender’s low ground clearance. I snuck ahead a little bit more, my heart beating like a jackhammer. “Get this thing moving. We’re going back,” Braeburn growled from the far side of the train. “Is everypony onboard?” someone asked in response. “I don’t care, just do it. Now!” Braeburn barked. After a few seconds, a slow chugging started sounding from the train, which rapidly grew in speed. Braeburn and the other pony hopped onto the car behind the tender as the train slowly gained speed. I was short enough to run with a crouch underneath the still train I was hiding under, but pretty soon I reached its tender, and couldn’t follow anymore. I watched in horrid desperation as Braeburn’s train picked up speed like a full gallop, and headed towards the twin set of tracks that ran alongside the river. I peeked out from under the car to inspect the space between my train and Braeburn’s train, then quickly ducked my head back in when I saw Star circling above, looking for me down below. Looking towards the other side revealed only tracks, wares, workers, and steam. No Trixie and no Poly. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. ‘What to do? Maybe I should jump out and yell that Star and Rosen Wreath were trying to abduct me?’ I saw a scenario in my head. A bunch of burly dockworkers and train operators asking what the yelling was about, two ponies denying the accusations in a lengthy back-and-forth as everyone tried to figure out what was going on. ‘It could be minutes before Trixie and Poly notices anything, and Armor would be long gone.’ I opened my eyes and tried peering out from beneath the train again, but this time Rosen Wreath was walking alongside my train, peering underneath it, as the caboose of Braeburn’s train went past. That’s when I noticed that the train I was under was uncoupled from the tender. It was a crazy idea, but in my situation, I’d try anything to yank the hopelessness and desperation from my mind. I slipped out from underneath the car, opposite the side that Rosen Wreath was, and ran up towards the locomotive. There were two operators in the hut, a mare and a stallion, chatting amongst themselves, when I jumped in through the window. They were dressed in berets and loose jackets, and were covered in soot and oil stains except for around the eyes where they had been wearing goggles, which were now dangling around their necks. I felt a small ache in my chest as I thought back to the goggles Rainbow had given me. They turned around at the sight of me, eyes wide. “Is this thing ready to move?” I asked, forcefully, adjusting my boater and accidentally piercing it with my horn. “Uh, euh, yes?” the mare said. “How does it work?” I asked, as I walked up towards the levers and knobs, and felt the heat from the boiler. “Is it hot enough?” “Uh, hot enough for what?” the stallion asked, as I reached for the handle for the firebox. “Wait! Don’t touch that!” His fears were unfounded, as I didn’t burn myself by opening the firebox with my prosthetic hoof. “Don’t worry about that,” I said, turning my face away from the flames spewing out, and closing the hatch again. I turned to the operators, and pointed towards Braeburn’s train, still picking up speed. “I’m going after that train, and I’m using this locomotive to do it.” The operators recoiled at that. “Now hold on, little filly,” the mare said. “You can’t just–” “On that train–” I said, interrupting her and pointing to where Braeburn’s train was vanishing behind the clutter of the loading area, “is my friend. He’s been abducted by someone called Braeburn, and I am going to rescue him.” I started looking at all the levers and knobs, and the gauges and wires. There were a lot more of them than I expected. “I’m looking for him together with Ser Bellatrix Lulamoon, and changeling rangers Polyus and Polyusa. They’re here, in Dodge City, but I don’t have time to find them, I need to do this now.” “But... the sheriff... “ the mare started, sounding very unconvinced of her own words. “Did you say Braeburn?” the stallion asked. “Yes. ‘Baron’ Braeburn,” I said, looking at a large and important-seeming lever. The stallion gently pushed me away from the lever, and took it in his hooves instead, bringing it gently forward. “How’s the water?” he asked the mare, who now seemed onboard with leaving. “Filled up and disengaged,” she said, as the train started slowly moving forward with a small start. “Lubrication?” “All done,” the stallion said, turning knobs and checking gauges. “Did you check the compression on the cylinders? “Decondensed and running. Everything looks solid,” she said, also carefully adjusting knobs. The stallion knocked the hatch to the firebox open, and handed me a metal rake. “Take this, and push the coal we’re tossing in there to the back, then try and even it out across the bottom when we say.” “Got it,” I said, as the train starting picking up speed. “Hey, what’s your name, kid?” the mare asked, as she opened a large hatch at the front of the tender, revealing tons of coal. “Gabrielle Desrochers, Or just Gabe,” I said. “What’s yours?” “Coal Fire,” she said, and gestured with her head to her partner as she tossed a shovel to him. “And this here is Oil Puddle, or ‘Slick’.” “Nice to meet you, Coal Fire, Slick,” I said, as the train noticeably picked up speed. “And thank you.” “Don’t mention it,” Coal Fire said, a bit uncertainly, as ponies further back started chasing after the locomotive and yelling in confusion. “So what’s the play here?” Slick said, now almost yelling because of the sound from the boiler combined with the movement of the train. “What are you gonna do when we catch up?” “Try and bust out my friend,” I said, as they shoved a load of coal into a crate. “And you know how to do that?” Slick asked. “I have some experience with that,” I said, as the two of them started shoveling coal into the hatch. “Where are Ser Lulamoon and those changelings?” Slick asked. “Hopefully catching on that we’ve left, and flying after us,” I said. “What happened to your legs? Your eye?” Coal Fire asked. “Lost them,” I said, and waved with my foreleg. “Don’t worry, these works just fine.” “Never seen anything like that before,” she continued. “Yeah. I came up with them recently. That’s why I was knighted.” “Huh. Okay, push it,” Coal Fire said. I took the rake and started shoveling the coal to the back of the firebox. The heat would’ve been unbearable if I was doing anything else, but now, it was nothing. “Not that I’m not grateful,” I said, as Coal and Slick started shoveling in more coal into the firebox, “but why are you two going along with this?” “Just doing our civic duty,” Slick said. “And because Slick’s not exactly fond of Braeburn either,” Coal said. “Mm, yeah, well… just be careful,” Slick said. “You’re not gonna hurt anypony on the train, are you?” “I hope not. At least not irreparably,” I said, and turned to Coal. “What about you?” Coal shrugged. “If Slick is along going along, so am I. We served together.” “Oh,” I said. “No permanent injuries on any of you?” “Uh, no,” Slick said. “Mm. Well, say the word and I’ll try my best and patch you up,” I said, waving my prosthesis demonstrably. Coal and Slick went back for another load of coal. Slick put his hoof on my withers after they had started shoveling it into the firebox. “Don’t worry,” he said, looking out from the side of the locomotive, then budged the large lever forward a few steps more. “We’re running hot, and they have a full train. We’re already catching up.” Another set of coal was shoveled into the firebox, then Coal and Slick went back to adjusting the levers while I evened out the coal. “Looks like she’s right,” Coal noted, as she leaned out of the cabin’s right side. “Those ponies look awfully skittish for just seeing another train.” I leaned out alongside her, my mane flowing in the wind, and indeed, there was Braeburn’s train, steaming along on a track running parallel with ours, right beside the river. There was a lot of activity there, with ponies looking out from the windows, through the back door, and out of a hatch in the roof. “Can you place the boiler next to the back end of the caboose?” I asked. “Easy,” Slick said. “But what are you gonna do?” “Board them,” I said, and partially pulled the grappling hook out of my prosthesis, giving it a yank to make sure it was secure. Coal and Slick looked at me in surprise before going back to speeding up the train. “That’s some neat hardware you got on you there,” Coal noted. “Magically forged bronze and steel helical compression smithing. Immune to rust, and never has to be painted,” I said, and looked out at the other train again. “Okay, they’re bringing out crossbows. You two keep your heads down when we get close.” “That’s a little filly telling us that,” Coal noted to Slick. “She looks like she knows what she’s doing,” Slick answered. “Well, that’s always something,” I said, not really sharing the sentiment. “They can’t board you from across the boiler can they?” “Earth ponies and unicorns?” Coal asked, and shook her head. “No way. Not unless they’re covered in dragon scales.” “Good,” I said, spooling my grappling hook in again. “Hey, be careful, alright?” she said. “If the situation calls for it, sure,” I said. I glanced out at the caboose again, seeing the door opening, and one of the ponies taking aim. “Alright, they’re getting ready to shoot. Keep down,” I said. I teasingly peered out from behind the cabin, before retreating back in again, then sticking my prosthesis out, presenting a clear shot with it. My metallic foreleg was rattled, but otherwise completely unharmed, as a bolt struck it above the elbow. That was more intimidating than I cared for, and if I had had my head turned to my right, the bolt might’ve taken my horn off. This was real. I was really fighting people. People who had abducted my friend for money and who were willing to actually hurt me. After a few seconds though, that just steeled my resolve, and my eye darkened with anger. They had taken Armor from me, and if he was anything other than unhurt, I would pay that back, disproportionately. “Are you okay!?” Slick asked, sounding worried. “I’m fine,” I growled, and stuck my head out again. The pony was standing partially hidden behind the doorway, reloading the crossbow, which was in the open. I aimed my grappling hook, and fired it at the opening. It grabbed the crossbow by the string, and I yanked it out of his grip, pulling it back to me. “Whoa!” Coal asked. “That’s uh, nice going. Do you know how to use that?” “No, but that doesn’t matter,” I said. “You don’t have any bolts do you?” “No,” she said. “But they don’t know that,” I said. “Do you have anything to cut this with?” “Here,” Slick said, handing me a filthy knife. I took it, and held the boater between the crossbow and my face as I cut the string. “Thanks,” I said. “My friend’s a pegasus, and they better hope he’s able to fly, but keep this thing steady back here.” “Got it,” Coal said, before looking at me in disbelief. “Wait, are you gonna board them from here?” “You bet I am,” I said, before sticking my head out again, pointing the crossbow at the end of the caboose. The ponies there yelped and took cover. I gripped the crossbow by the back of the stock, and waited for them to peer out. When they did, I tossed it hard with my prosthetic foreleg. It looked like a cross wrench as it sailed through the air. It hit the frame of the door, bouncing off it and striking the pony who had shot me on the nose, causing him to let out a loud yelp. I shot my grappling hook, gripping the rail, and quickly jumped as high and as far as I could with my metallic hind leg, while reeling in my grappling hook, catching up with the other train before I could land on the tracks. I heard Coal and Slick shout in surprise at my action, but I didn’t look back to signal to them to stay inside. I was busy with the ponies inside the caboose, and they were busy with me. The door slammed shut the moment I landed on the right side of the railing. I looked around for options. There was the roof, and the car had windows on the side, but the door was also an option. I knocked on the door three times, like I was coming to visit, and tried the handle. Naturally, it didn’t open. “Hey!” I shouted at the door. “Your door is stuck.” “What are we gonna do now!?” I heard a muffled voice inside shout. “Don’t worry!” I said, and threw my foreleg back for a navvy swing. “I’ll fix it!” I threw my foreleg as hard as I could, throwing the door open and almost yanking it off the hinges as I left a deep dent in the door. One of the stallions on the other side flew back into the car, landing on his back. The one who had shot me had been toppled by the now dented door, and pressed into the wall. I did an Arnie, and flattened him against the wall with the door, before grabbing him by his upper foreleg, and slamming him into the only pony still standing, a mare who had stood absolutely still, stunned by my entrance. When the stallion collapsed on top of her, she tried to get up from under her, but she didn’t make a lot of progress before I shot her on my way further into the caboose. The stallion who had shot me was groaning on the ground, as did the one I had used to the door to catapult into the car. I quickly walked up to the latter one, lying on the floor, and grabbed him by a foreleg to drag him back to the rear of the car. I opened the door to the small, one-man restroom, and tossed the three ponies in, one at a time, before jamming it shut with a chair under the door handle, braced against the opposite wall. The first one I shoved in there had started coming around as I shut the door, but the following knocks from the inside seemed a bit feeble, so I just kept walking. As I stepped out between the cars, the door to the next car opened and a stallion stepped out, loudly asking, “That train is still after us, what are you–” He stopped when he saw me, and was about to take a swing at me, when I slammed the half-open door so hard the hinges fell off and launched the stallion back into the car with the door on top of him. I braced my hind leg prosthesis, and jumped up to the roof of the car, and started running along the roof. The wind would’ve been strong enough to blow the boater off of my head normally if it hadn’t been pierced by my horn. The tracks were now close enough to the river to be within jumping distance of an unaugmented pony. The river reminded me of Star and Rosen Wreath, and I looked behind to make sure they weren’t catching up somehow, but I didn’t see anything in the smoke from the locomotives. As I reached the space between the cars, the door of the one I was on opened, and the same stallion I had slammed back into it just moments ago came out as well. He jumped up and grabbed the ledge, and before I could react, he swiped my legs out from under me. I fell sideways against the slightly sloped roof, and had to grip the ledge of the short side to not slide worryingly close to the edge. I let out an angry snarl and pulled myself over the edge to the space between the cars, landing on the stallion. He wasn’t exactly toppled by my weight though. I grabbed him by his neck, and tried wrestling him down. That didn’t work out very well, and instead he grabbed me with a forehoof and tried pulling me off. He wasn’t strong enough to dislodge me with my prosthesis though. I looked back to see a mare come up towards us from inside the car, and kicked the door shut in her face. The door bounced off her muzzle, and she let out a yelp. I kicked the now ajar door shut with my prosthetic hind leg, causing us to shoot forward, the stallion’s neck first, into the opposite door. He let out a deep grunt, and I reached up to punch the door handle hard enough to leave it dangling uselessly. I jumped off of him, and did the same for the door he had come out of, before turning around and facing him just in time for him to swing at me after standing up. He was obviously right-hoofed, and I had to parry the blow awkwardly with my prosthesis, throwing me against the railing. When he came in for another swing though, I was in a better position. When his organic hoof met my metallic one, it stopped like he had tried bucking a cliffside, and I grabbed the outstretched limb with my nifty magic fingers, slid on my back towards his hind legs, and kicked them out from under him. I had to quickly throw myself to the side to not have him land on top of me, but now I had him. I grabbed both of his forehooves, and held them above his head, against the railing. The anger quickly drained from his face at the situation, and he looked at me with more confusion than alarm. “What are you?” he asked. “Determined,” I said. “Where is Armor?” “He’s…” the stallion started, before stopping himself. “Hold on, this might be motivational,” I said, and kicked back with my prosthetic hind leg against the plate wall behind me, leaving a noticeable dent. The stallion looked at it with wide eyes, before turning to me. “The car after that one,” he said, nodding towards the next car. “Good choice,” I said, and let him go, only to blast him with my stun gun, leaving him unconscious on the platform. I climbed up on the roof of the next car, and this time I darted to the other side, before jumping down and breaking the handle again. Then I turned to the next car. Armor was in there. I was starting to feel winded, but didn’t slow down. I was too close. I jumped onto the roof again, just as I heard the whistle from Coal and Slick’s locomotive honk. I leaned out over the track they were on, to see Coal waving at me as the whistle honked urgently again. For some reason they had accelerated, slowly moving up towards me. She caught sight of me, and leaned out of the cabin, making slow, flapping gestures, like wings, then pointed behind her. I gave her a wave and a deep nod, saying that I understood. She waved at me in response and stuck her head back into the cabin. People were coming in from the rear. It was either Trixie and Poly, or Star and Rosen Wreath. If it was the latter, then I needed to get Armor fast. It needed to be done right though. If this turned into a stand off, it would give the flyers time to catch up, which could be very bad. So instead of knocking down the door, I again climbed onto the roof, but this time, instead of running noisily across it, I walked softly to the edge. Luckily, there were plenty of little ledges to grab onto, as I carefully leaned over the edge to look through the windows. The first attempt yielded nothing, only stern-faced ponies walking around, arguing amongst themselves, and looking out through the window. It was sheer luck that saved me from leaning down right in front of the eyes of one of them. I did notice one of the ponies looking back further into the car, and saying something angry in response to something. I quickly pulled myself up again, and walked over a few windows, then leaned over the edge again. My heart skipped a beat at what I saw. Armor was tied up to a chair. Forelegs bound behind his back, his wings lashed together, and his hind hooves tied to the legs of the chair. He was looking at something to the side, and I could only see the side of his face. I pulled myself back onto the roof, laid down on my back, and breathed a series of relieved sighs, getting some energy back. I had spent months practicing and expanding my magic moxie and magically adjusting to my prostheses, making them drain less and less, which was good because if I had tried this right after I had made my first pair, I would’ve passed out two or three times over by now. Armor looked angry, his wings needed some serious preening, his mane and tail were messy, and he had bags under his eyes, but he looked unharmed. I leaned over the edge again, only enough to just see Armor, and used magic to slowly start undoing the knots that held him. He perked up, and looked around in small motions, before I gently rubbed him behind an ear with my magic, then went back to loosening the knots when he settled down with a nod. I didn’t throw the ropes off from him, as that would make all the goons in the car gang up on him immediately. Instead, I loosened the knots, so that he could wiggle out of the ropes in a few seconds when the time was right. After a few moments, I felt it was loose enough, and I put a gentle pressure on his neck. He glanced around the car, then nodded once, satisfied. I almost had him now. Grinning in both determination and satisfaction, I walked over to the middle of the car. There, I pried open a hatch, making it fly up with a loud clanking sound. There was a particularly burly earth pony down there, looking up in alarm, with a set of confused “Huh?”s sounding from further into the car. I quickly but calmly aimed to prosthesis against him, and shot the grappling hook at him, angling it in midair to lash it around his barrel, and pulled. “Hop it, slim,” I growled, as I tossed him over my shoulder out into the river. His alarmed scream was cut short by a splash loud enough to be heard over the sound of the train. Suddenly, there was a clanking sound from beside me. I looked towards the rear end of the roof of the car, where the earth pony stallion from before, Rosen Wreath, dropped down, stance wide and eyes focused on me. I backed away from him a few steps as he approached, before I heard another clank, as his compatriot, Star, landed near the edge of the roof behind me. “Gabrielle Desrochers,” Rosen Wreath calmly announced. “Come with us.” I looked between him and Star, fighting down a sense of panic as I tried to think of what to do next. I was too close to getting Armor back, I couldn’t let them stop me. I had dispatched several ponies just as I moved ahead on the train of course, but these two were obviously not brutish thugs. From the way they carried themselves, they knew what they were doing. “Why?” I asked, trying to sound brave. “Because our king wishes it,” Rosen said. “He needs you.” I filed that information away for later. “I’m busy,” I said, dismissively. “Reuniting with your friend?” Rosen asked. “We can see that. Very impressive. He’ll be coming with us. The two of you will be together and unharmed.” “Not unless I’m paid!” Braeburn shouted. I looked towards the front of the train, where he, and several other ponies, had clambered out the windows and hatches onto the roof, and lining up next to Star. “Where are my workers?” “Check the river,” I said, sneeringly. “You’ll get yours,” Rosen Wreath calmly called to Braeburn. “Just help us get this filly.” Ponies had started climbing out of the windows of the car that I broke the doors of, and were similarly joining Rosen Wreath, then they even started climbing out of the hatch I had tossed their friend out of. “You’re outnumbered, Gabrielle,” Rosen said, as the two lines of ponies, now numbering at least ten, started slowly converging on me. “Don’t try and fight. King Sombra knows you’re not a killer, and you’ll be pleased to know that neither are we.” Coal and Slick’s locomotive was steadily catching up with us, but that wouldn’t help when there were this many ponies to try and evade, one of which could fly. That’s when the line of ponies on Rosen Wreath’s side was broken from the last pony climbing out of the hatch being launched up into the sky, out towards the river, from Armor shooting out of the hatch, having freed himself when no one was looking. “You!” Braeburn shouted. “Braeburn!” Armor shouted, hovering above the reach of the other ponies. “Armor!” I shouted. “Gabe!” Armor shouted, looking at me in surprise. “Rosen Wreath!” Trixie suddenly shouted from the rear, standing wide-stanced next to two identical ponies, Polyus and Polyusa, in pegasus form. “Lulamoon!” Star shouted from the far side of the car. Trixie’s eyes widened at the sight of him. “Golden Star!?” she said, a surprised expression on her face. “Mom!” Slick shouted from the approaching locomotive. We all looked in confusion towards the locomotive engineer, who had his eyes locked at a mare beside Braeburn, who similarly looked at Slick in shock. Then we just shook our heads and went back to what we were just doing. Except for Slick and the mare in question of course. “‘Baron’ Braeburn,” Golden Star said. “Help us get that filly, alive and unharmed, and your reward will be tripled.” “That seems like the only way to get something out of this,” Braeburn growled, before shouting loudly. “You heard it, colts and fillies. Get her!” Braeburn and the goons flanking him rushed past Golden Star. As did one of the ponies that had come up out of the hatch, but Rosen Wreath turned the other ones around to face Trixie, Polyus, and Polyusa. I crouched down, and just as they were about to pounce me, I jumped as high as my prosthetic legs could launch me. Armor, naturally, was there, ready to catch me. He came in underneath me, and I landed perfectly on his back. For just one short moment, all was well in the world. Then it was time to deal with all the ponies around us. Our side had three or four flying ponies, depending on how you wanted to look at it, while our opponents had one, and we were looking to get out of there. This wasn’t as easy as it might’ve seemed though. I took off my boater, and quickly retrieved the coins from it. Star was about to take off and chase after us, but just as he kicked off, I tossed the coins he had given me at him with my prosthesis. He grunted an alarm as they clanked loudly against the roof, ricocheting up into his face, forcing him to jump towards the river. “I’m not in great shape, Gabe,” Armor said shortly to me. “The other train is with us,” I said. “Set us down there.” Armor immediately turned to do so, and I had to lean forward and rub my cheek against his neck, which he reciprocated. We immediately flew over towards the other locomotive, to land on the tender loaded with firewood. “I think we can get out of here,” I called to Coal and Slick. “Sure, sure,” Slick said, waving a hoof placatingly, while looking at Braeburn’s ponies. “Just… a moment.” Trixie had shot a blast of magic against Rosen Wreath and the approaching goons, only to have her shot be deflected by one of Rosen’s hooves. She and Poly were slowly backing away from the approaching wall of ponies, but when Polyusa looked back to see us on the other train, Poly charged them head-on. Polyusa and Trixie took off to join us on our train, but just as they did, I was swept up from behind. Golden Star had come out of the smoke cloud, and picked me up, hooking his forelegs underneath mine. Golden was a shockingly agile and fast flier. Before I had time to react, we were already past the point I had jumped from the other train. That meant that I had my prosthetic hoof placed rather conveniently though. I aimed it between two cars, and hooked it on the roof. Golden Star let out a frustrated growl as we were suddenly swung downward from the sudden tethering, and started tugging harder, his forelegs around my barrel. Of course, it wasn’t nearly hard enough to detach me from my foreleg. Polyus, who had charged the mass of ponies, had been knocked away. He might’ve been an effective distraction from getting everyone to follow us to the other train, but that wasn’t relevant now that both Armor and I weren’t on it anymore, as Armor had obviously launched himself off the train again to get me. My favorite way of knocking people out being occupied, I instead powered up my horn to try and blast Golden Star, but I wasn’t nearly fast enough to weave a stun spell with my horn, and he quickly slapped it, interrupting me and making me feel like my brain had hiccuped hard enough to spin around inside my head. Next thing I saw Armor hovering in front of me, looking furious. Star was hiding behind me, me still being in his grip, and tethered to the roof of the train car. “Be careful,” Star said. “We don’t want to drop her, do we?” We were indeed a little too close to the speeding tracks for me to feel confident about my ability to reel myself in fast enough. Two ponies were about to jump Polyusa, but the one in the rear broke off her attack, and instead ran towards the other locomotive. It was the mare that Slick had called to. Polyusa easily wrestled down the suddenly lone pony. Trixie was wrestling with several burly earth ponies, doing a good job of dispatching them in an almost orderly fashion, and Poly was dragging himself up from the edge of the car they were on. Suddenly, Polyus and Polyusa got wide grins on their faces, and Polyus kicked off from the ledge of the train, and flew towards us, fairly slowly. One of Braeburn’s goons, standing near Rosen Wreath, suddenly raised a crossbow towards Polyus, who smiled mischievously. Rosen Wreath’s eyes widened, and he disengaged from fighting with Trixie, to throw himself towards the armed pony. “No crossbows!” he yelled, eyes wide, but he was too late. The bolt flew towards Polyus. Armor had turned around to see it, his eyes widened in shock, while Star gasped. The bolt struck Polyus in the side, and he fell towards the tracks. I too, was a bit surprised, but something was wrong. Polyusa had seen the shooter, and if Polyusa knew, then Polyus knew, and Trixie had not reacted at all to him being shot, despite seeing it plainly. Then we all realized what was up. Polyus’ body fell toward the track, tumbling on the ground, and just as it seemed like it was about to meet a gruesome fate underneath the oncoming locomotive, it vanished in a green fire. Polyusa now rushed forward, past an opening that Trixie had made, and sunk her teeth into Rosen Wreath’s neck. Rosen Wreath’s eyes widened, before he desperately threw Polyusa off him. Polyusa made no effort to stay on, and let herself be thrown off, righting herself up in midair beside the train. Trixie and Polyusa had disengaged with Braeburn and his thugs, who stood, looking confused by the fate of Polyus’ body. Rosen Wreath looked lividly at Polyusa, as he held a hoof up to his strangely non-bleeding neck, before he stumbled forward. Star growled behind me, and then threw me into Armor’s forelegs. I had to reel in my grappling hook fast as it loosened, to not have it fall on the tracks and stick there. Star flew up to Rosen Wreath’s stumbling form, holding him up the same way he just had me, and fell back with his back towards the river. Rosen Wreath looked at us, his conscious quickly fading. “This isn’t…” he said, before his head slumped over. Golden Star growled at us, then turned around and flew off as fast as his wings could take him. We remained where we were, and Armor set us down on the side of Braeburn and his remaining ponies opposite of Trixie and Polyusa. They looked back and forth between us, half their number lying unconscious, the two most capable on their side just having retreated, and us still at full strength. Braeburn growled in the direction that Golden Star had flown off with Rosen Wreath, slowly sat down on his haunches, and raised his forehooves, letting out a deep sigh as his head slumped forward. — It was more than a little awkward, having very angry people, who knew they were in the wrong, let themselves more or less willingly be bound together with rope, as half their companions lay passed out around them. We had made a sweep of the train, arresting the last ponies, and we had to show off a scowling and tied up Braeburn to in order to avoid another fight. There were a few that I had knocked out spread out across the train, including three ponies locked inside a small restroom, doing their best to nurse a pair of bumps in their heads, and two of Braeburn’s goons were last seen falling somewhere in the Dodge City river. We had stopped in Appleloosa, having arrived there as the sun was setting. Coal and Slick’s locomotive had to pass Braeburn’s and speed ahead to a switch track, to not risk meeting any oncoming trains. Then they had turned around, and we were saying our goodbyes as they needed to speed back to Dodge City to their no doubt confused coworkers. Trixie rubbed her temples and said that she promised to compensate them if they needed it, but Slick said that it was no trouble. His mother stayed in the background, looking more than a little awkward. Trixie had a word with her, and then seemed okay with her leaving with Coal and Slick. I’m just glad someone who helped me got something out of it. Then we commandeered Braeburn’s train, and rode on towards Canterlot. Filthy had said that the law was in Braeburn’s pocket, so Trixie felt it best to deliver him directly to the capital, and send someone down to investigate without the targets of the investigation knowing what was going on. There was however, some confusion as the two ponies who had ended up in the river had wobbled back into Appleloosa some time later, only to be promptly arrested when they came looking for their employer. The engineers of Braeburn’s train had been oblivious to everything that had been going on. They had noticed another train coming up next to them, but nothing more than that. Since they had been largely uninvolved in the whole affair, we simply had them continue the train to Canterlot. — “I’m having some trouble wrapping my head around being allied with changelings,” Armor said, as he preened his feathers, and I brushed his mane. “No offence.” “None taken,” Polyus said, shrugging. “I still have trouble wrapping my head around Celestia being a good pony, and our Celestia is a good pony.” Both Polyus and Polyusa were, of course, completely unharmed. The bolt from the crossbow had hit a temporary construction made from a flake of chitin, controlled directly by Polyus. Armor had been a bit wary of Poly at first, but they had put on their best face, and seemed to be winning him over. “What happened to Rosen Wreath anyway?” I asked, clinging to a now newly bathed Armor (who hadn’t had the most pleasant of odors right after he had been freed). “You didn’t hurt him did you?” “No. Just a tranquilizer,” Polyus said. “He’ll be fine.” Armor went back to his soup. His appetite was all over the place from only having been spoonfed once per day, and ate his food very slowly to not upset his stomach. “So,” Armor said, looking around Trixie’s house, as she was out with the engineers in the locomotive. “Back in a bag.” “Did Braeburn’s goons put you in a bag when you got here too?” I asked. “Yep, and it stank,” Armor said. “Hey, so did the diamond dogs when I got to our Equestria,” I said. Armor and I chuckled. “If this happens when we get back as well, I’m gonna be suspicious.” We finished our meal, and prepared to go to bed. Trixie had gotten another large cushion for Armor, while I realized that I hadn’t noticed where Poly slept. That was answered when I saw that the barrel, the one that Poly had rolled into the house back in Hollow Shades, had been placed on top of a bookshelf, lashed in place. Armor and I looked on in fascination as Poly scampered up the bookshelves, and slipped into the barrel. “Goodnight,” Polyus and Polyusa said at the same time. “Uh, yeah… Goodnight,” Armor and I said. So I went to bed, removed my prosthetics, gave them to Armor to keep safe, and lied down to rest. I wanted to sleep. I should’ve been able to sleep, but too much kept me awake. I asked myself what would’ve happened if I hadn’t found Armor. What Sombra wanted with me. How I was going to get back home. I tried thinking back to everything that Star and Rosen had said, everything I knew of Sombra, and all the time we had spent together, as I dreamt. Tossing my cover off slightly, I looked over at Armor. He lay facing me, his eyes first being closed, then immediately opened when I looked at him. He smiled questioningly at me, while I considered him slowly. Then I tossed my cover off completely, and slipped down from my cushion. Armor raised his head questioningly, but I just raised a hoof placatingly. Then I dragged myself the few steps he was from me, clambered up on his cushion, and snuggled up against him. He smiled silently at me, and nuzzled my cheek. Then he turned me around, and held me protectively in his forelegs. He had to struggle a bit to not have my mane envelop his entire head though, before he got comfortable. I gave the foreleg he draped over me a squeeze, and closed my eye. Now, I didn’t want to fall asleep. I wanted to relish having Armor back, to have someone from my home keep me company in this crazy world, and to make me feel safe again. Two breaths later, I was out like a light. Gaiden > R&R&R&D > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I woke up to the sound of moaning and smacking lips. I opened my eye and saw Poly standing in front of me, eyes closed and mouth moving lazily. “Uhm?” I ventured quietly, not knowing what time it was and whether Armor, whose foreleg was gently wrapped around me, was awake. Poly let out a small snort, blinked their eyes open, and groaned slightly after taking in the situation. “Polyus, you dolt,” Polyusa muttered. “That’s not for us.” Poly shook their head slightly, and looked at me. “He says he’s sorry,” Polyusa said. “It just smelled like breakfast.” I let my eyelids droop again. “That’s okay,” I said, snuggling back into Armor’s chest, as Poly walked away, presumably towards the barrel which they slept in. “It smelled heavenly though,” I heard Polyus say weakly, and I felt grateful that this hungry sleepwalker at least hadn’t been a dragon. I closed my eye again, and after a moment, gently threw my tail over Armor’s hind leg. A moment later, he wrapped his own tail over mine, and held me tighter. “Gabe,” he said, quietly. “Mmm?” “We have to get home.” For just a while, I was confused by the uncertainty in his voice. I sensed a question, and then a need for reassurance. Then I realized something I often forgot. Armor was barely a man, or stallion. Physically, he was older than me, but still so young. He might even count as a teenager in human years. His words reminded me of how far away I was from home, but it didn’t matter. He had been my rock so many times, it was a relief to finally be one for him. “We will,” I said, and hugged his foreleg. “... Gabe?” he said again after a while. “Yes?” “I…” he started, before trailing off. It was hard to hear this kind of doubt in him, but I was still happy to be able to be there for him. I snuggled up closer to him, angling my horn away and nuzzling his neck, which he welcomed. “Tell me whenever you’re ready,” I said. He breathed a sigh of relief at that, and I could feel him relax. “I was so worried,” he said. I reached for his other foreleg, moving it underneath my head. “So was I.” We lay silent for a while, before he said, with a sadness I never wanted to hear in his voice, “We have to go home.” “We will,” I said. “I promise.” Then we fell asleep again. — Armor woke up first. I think he didn’t want to wake me up, but he had ended up with his face full of my mane. He snorted a few times and shook his head, trying to get it out of his nostrils. “We’re here,” Trixie yawned. Armor and I reluctantly rose from the bed. He gave a quick side hug before he fished my prostheses from under the cushion, which I activated and put on. With some general morning greetings and such, Trixie being thoroughly tired from having been awake through the night on the train, we stepped out of Trixie’s house before breakfast and onto Canterlot station. Breakfast was available in the castle anyway, and why eat crackers and canned alphabet soup when you’ve arrived at Disney World? Trixie talked to some ponies by the platform, whereupon they summoned some guards to look after Braeburn and his crew, before we made our way through the city. This Canterlot looked a bit different than what I was used to. My Canterlot looked a lot like classical era hellenistic cities did on television, while this Canterlot looked more like a city in medieval western Europe. More bleak, less colors, and overall less… less something. It didn’t look dirty and disease-ridden like how medieval Europe tended to be portrayed in media back on Earth, and there was a great sense of glory and pride to the city, but it didn’t have that touch of… heavenliness, like I was used to. We arrived at the castle, which looked more utilitarian than its counterpart, with Trixie and Poly being greeted by the guards at the gates. The armors of the guards were very different from what I was used to though. Dark metal instead of gilded metal, and lacking the plumes on top. What really stood out however, were the fully covered eyes. At first I thought they were all blindfolded, before I remembered that horses back on Earth also often wore cloth that covered their eyes which was fine enough to see out of. I figured this was a similar arrangement whether magical or not. It would’ve been quite intimidating if it wasn’t for the friendly nods that our party kept receiving. Trixie and Poly walked on, in through the gates, through the castle grounds, and into the castle proper. The castle was also different, in that there were less garden arrangements in this version of Canterlot Castle. Less hedge mazes, cozy little corners with little benches, and tables hidden behind honeysuckles and flowerbeds. Instead, there were more utilitarian plantation patches for internal food production, and more soldiers forming up for the morning assembly in the distance. There were also no nobles strolling around under sunbrellas, gossipping among themselves. We walked through the castle, Trixie yawning openly, until we reached a large room. It wasn’t the throne room, it reminded me of a boardroom, or perhaps a war room. Chairs surrounded a large table with a map of Equestria. I didn’t get a good look at it at the moment, but even at a distance I could see how much more developed the Crystal Empire was than in my Equestria. There was no one in there though, except for one. A tall, dark pony with a flowing mane and tail, a general sense of sparkliness surrounding them. At first, I thought it was this Equestria’s Princess Luna, but when she turned around to face us, I realized it was not, and then I’m entirely sure what I did and didn’t realize. Her exoskeleton was dark and beautiful like polished ebony. Her lustrous mane and tail were a deep, dark turquoise, curling slightly into bobs further down. On her back were a pair of butterfly-like wings, sparkling in the morning sunlight pouring in from the windows, forming little heart-shaped reflections. On her hooves, at the bottom of her long, shapely legs, were two pairs of stylish, purple horseshoes, matching the purple cloak that was hanging to the side to make way for her wings, and on her face, behind a pair of small, round glasses, were the most compassionate, most beautiful, most desirable face I have ever laid my eye on. She was perfect, with that sweet smile and those cute fangs. She was everything I ever wanted to be close to. “Ah, Trixie, Polyus, Polyusa,” she said, her voice like the most captivating melody I’ve ever heard. “It’s so wonderful to see you.” “And you, our queen,” someone said. I’m not sure who, I wasn’t really listening. Someone, Poly, I later realized, walked up to this wonderful being, and were being nuzzled by her, followed by Trixie. “How are you, Trixie?” the heavenly voice asked. “You look tired.” “I am tired,” Trixie answered. “Stayed up all night to make sure a train got here safely.” “Oh? You should get to bed then, unless it’s something that cannot wait,” the sweet melody sang. “Maybe. Where’s Luna?” “Busy with the usual. Is there something that can’t wait?” “I guess not,” Trixie said. “There are some details about investigations down south that we shouldn’t dawdle on, but Polyus and Polyusa know all about it… also, we found the ponies that Sombra summoned.” “Oh?” the embodiment of beauty said, and my heart soared as she looked in my general direction, and started walking towards us. “Not quite the threats we…” she trailed off when she saw us. A black, chitinous foreleg was waved in front of my eye. Annoyed, I just tried looking around it to not lose sight of the beauty before me. “Uh oh,” Polyusa said. “You’ve overwhelmed them, majesty.” The tired and awkward look of the wonderful figure did nothing to diminish my love for her. “Oh,” she said. “Well, Luna should be along in a while. Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, can you take them somewhere for me? I’ll send Polyus and Polyusa to get you when Luna’s available.” “Sure thing, Majesty.” A blue aura surrounded me, and I felt myself being carried away from the black beauty. I meekly reached out for her as a great sadness settled in my chest. “... Nuh,” Armor weakly protested beside me. We were carried through a hallway and into a room with cushions and a fireplace and other cozy furnishing. I didn’t really care about the interior decoration though, my mind was on that wonderful face. I found myself being plopped down on a cushion on my back, and pressed against Armor’s side. “Right, you two stay close to each other,” Polyusa said. “You’re leaking love like sieves and this is gonna keep you from feeling too bad until you’re ready for me to pop the bubble.” “Whu?” I moaned, looking listlessly up at the ceiling. “Don’t worry about it,” Trixie said. “Happens to a lot of ponies who haven’t been around changelings a lot, and it’s a one time thing.” “Uhuh,” I said, dreaming of exoskeletons. “... Right. See you soon. Goodnight,” Trixie said, as they walked out and shut the door behind them. Armor and I, still staring up into the ceiling, absentmindedly got comfortable and rested our heads against each other. “... She was wonderful,” he said. “... Yeah.” — Some time later, I don’t really know how much, my thoughts had started branching out to other things, like my usual speculations about what I could do with some gem dust and magic. ‘Perhaps layer several enchantments to make a wider range of the light spectrum visible. Hey, maybe that could impress her. ‘... No, she’d want… I don’t know what she wants, but I have to find out. Maybe I should ask Armor if he wants to turn this into a joint effort.’ So yes, I could think of things other than her, but it was slow going not to. Suddenly, Poly popped into our field of vision, and waved their hoof in front of our faces. “Huh?” Armor and I asked, lazily looking at them. They lit their horn up while slowly inspecting us. “Alright, you’ve fermented long enough,” Polyusa said, and grabbed my cheeks, and pulled me in for a big, wet kiss on the mouth. As she did, it felt like a combination of pulling off a bandage inside my head, a full-body sneeze, and having a bucket of ice water dumped on me, all at the same time. I gasped when she let go, and looked around me, my heart beating fast enough to rock me back and forth slightly. I shot up and scrambled on the cushion like I had woken up from a nightmare. Polyusa grabbed Armor and did the same with him, who reacted pretty much the same way I did. I was left shivering, feeling cold and forlorn, when Poly reached out and pushed me and Armor together. immediately, I felt better, as if a ghostly chill was held mostly at bay by being propped up against him. “There we go,” Polyusa said. “Don’t worry, that sensation will pass.” “What’s going on?” Armor said, as he put a foreleg around me, leaning slightly around me in a protective matter. Poly looked a little awkward. “You’ve barely had any contact with changelings before yesterday it seems,” Polyus said, and sat down. “Uuh, how do I put this?” Polyusa spoke up instead. “It’s a bit like pheromones. Changelings have magic that subtly charms ponies, but our queen, Chrysalis, the changeling you saw earlier, has magic so strong that ponies who haven’t gotten used to changeling charms before tend to be a bit overwhelmed.” “So why did it feel like somepony shoved me into a lightning storm earlier?” Armor asked. Poly shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Sorry about that,” Polyusa said. “Changeling charms always wear off eventually, though it can take a while when her majesty is around. We let the whole adoration thing settle for a bit and take shape before popping it. So now you two are feeling a bit melancholic from leaking so much love. Stay close to each other. That should help.” Armor and I looked at each other, before leaning in close again. “So, you ready to meet Princess Luna? And be properly introduced to Queen Chrysalis?” Polyus said. “Uhm…” Armor and I said at the same time, feeling more than a little awkward at the thought of that. Poly smiled and pulled Armor up into a standing position, placing me on his upper back and leaning me against his neck. “Don’t worry about it,” Polyusa said. “Yeah,” Polyus agreed. “This isn’t exactly the first time this has happened. Nobuggy– nopony is gonna think less of you.” “Well alright,” I said, a bit reluctantly, clinging to Armor’s neck. We followed Poly out of the door and towards the room where we had first gone to. “So not everyone reacts this way?” I asked. “A lot of ponies who haven’t really been around changelings much do,” Polyus said. “I guess from what you said that changelings aren’t exactly found in every neighborhood in your Equestria.” “I should hope not,” Armor said, before covering his mouth with his hoof. “Sorry.” Polyus’ confused and slightly offended look vanished. “It’s okay,” he said. “Like I said yesterday, I have trouble wrapping my head around how you described changelings where you’re from. Polyusa does as well. Anyway, before most ponies are out of foalhood, exposure to that particular form of passive changeling magic means it barely has any effect on them. Even ponies who are used to changelings still fall in love with Queen Chrysalis on first sight, but it’s easier for them to snap out of it.” “I see,” I said, not feeling entirely fine with openly fawning over a stranger. We stepped into the same room as before, and by the table, talking with Trixie, was Princess Luna. For real this time. She looked a lot like her counterpart, with the same build, the same colors, and the same cutie mark, only instead of her usual getuppance (the material of which I had never bothered looking up), this Luna wore a sky blue, silken toga, with matching sandals. It sounds very mundane, but she managed to make it look regal somehow. She looked up from her conversation with Trixie, to me and Armor. They quieted, and walked over to us, Luna having a gentle smile. Armor, no doubt out of habit, began bowing, when Luna gently stopped him by placing her hoof on his chin. “Bowing is for your princesses, friends,” she said, in a calm voice. “You are not here of your own volition, and no offence is taken from any apathy or frustration you have towards us, but know that you are welcome among us.” Armor and I were suddenly swept up from behind, being held tight by a pair of black, chitinous legs. “And we didn’t get a chance for proper introductions before,” a spirited, melodious voice that I recognized from before said. She buried her muzzle in our manes and smelled deep. “Aaah, heavenly.” Luna smiled at Armor and me as we squirmed awkwardly in our new situation. “Meet Chrysalis, queen of the changelings.” “Uuh, hello,” I said. “Uhm, hi,” Armor said. “Tact, Chryssie,” Luna said, amused. Chrysalis let us go, and there must’ve been some of that adoration left in me at that point, because I kinda wish she hadn’t. Shaking that notion from my head, I, and Armor, instead clopped Luna and Chrysalis’ offered hooves. “As I’m sure you already know, I am Luna, princess of Equestria,” Luna said. “Gabe Desrochers,” I said. “Studded Armor.” “Studded Armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard, and ser Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, originally of the world of Terra,” Luna said, and gestured to the table. “Ser Lulamoon has told us about you. Will you join us?” Armor and I glanced at each other. “Sure,” I said. Luna magicked up a cushion large enough for both Armor and me to sit on, and everyone, Luna, Chrysalis, Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, Armor, and I took our seats. We sat in silence for a few moments, Armor and me picking up on how everyone was waiting for Luna to speak. “I am sorry,” Luna said, eventually, hanging her head a bit. I was struck by the contrast of this situation and the one I had originally been in when I had been brought to Equestria. The first time, it had been an innocent accident, and while there were things I missed about being a human in a human world, I correctly suspected that I would grow to like life in Equestria. Now, I had been brought to another Equestria intentionally, and I desperately wanted to go home. While I would’ve spared him leaving our Equestria if I could’ve, I was grateful beyond words that Armor was with me. I leaned against him, and looked Luna in the eyes, without judgement or pleading. “Can we go home?” I asked. “It is possible,” Luna said, nodding her head, and I felt the tension drain out of Armor like it did with me. “But we don’t know how.” I nodded, somberly. “How do we get him to share how to do that?” “That is the question,” Luna said, and sighed. “How much do you know about Sombra?” I didn’t know much as much about him as I felt I should have, considering how much time it had turned out I spent with him, at least in a sense, but Armor knew next to nothing besides what the rest of us had told him, so I was the one who answered the question. “I know what others have told me, including Trixie, Polyus, and Polyusa,” I said. “I know he used to be a king of this Equestria, and a hero, that he’s probably a being called a ‘silver phantom’, and that the Celestia from my world, who I know to be a good judge of character, loved him. I also know he’s kind and supportive, and a good teacher.” “All true,” Luna said, while she and everyone with her around the table nodded, looking a bit down. “We think he is currently in the Crystal Empire’s old stronghold in the north with his loyalists.There is no war, but neither is there peace. While we know his agents are spying on us, we haven’t seen an aggressive pattern, and I hoped, perhaps a bit foolishly, that Sombra would find himself again, and come back to us, but it seems it was not to be. He still plotted to join our worlds together. I just didn’t think it was possible.” Luna understandably looked troubled, Chrysalis put a supportive hoof on Luna’s wither, and Luna leaned a bit into the touch. “So as for your question,” Luna said. “I don’t know. I want to help you, we want to help you, but I don’t know how to make him reveal his secrets, and we don’t want conflict with him.” Armor and I gave each other some strength, as he put a foreleg around me, and I leaned in against him. “We understand,” I said. Luna smiled both ruefully and encouragingly at us. “Don’t give up hope yet,” she said. “We doubt he has given up on his plan, and we cannot allow him to succeed.” “So you’re planning on fighting him?” I asked. “We have to stop him,” Luna said. “We don’t want to fight, but it may come to that.” “Rosen Wreath and Golden Star said that I’m important to his plan,” I said. “Commander Rosen Wreath?” Luna said. “Yes,” Trixie said. “He always had such a way with truth,” Luna said, and turned to me and Armor. “You two may be important in this struggle.” Armor and I looked at each other. We were stranded in another world, searching for a way home, the fate of two worlds were at stake, and we had ended up as central players in a sense. In the stories, this was a call to adventure. For me and Armor however, who had just managed to find each other again, after fearing that we’d lost each other forever, the call was not so persuasive. We were still breathing out in relief, and relief and melancholy did not rouse one for excitement, at least not the two of us. “And what do we do?” I asked. Luna smiled that same rueful smile. “For now, stay as our guests,” she said. “There is much to talk about. I understand that you have knowledge that we do not, and I hope that you’ll share it.” I was focused on the situation as a whole, and it took a moment for me to grasp what she was talking about. “Oh,” I finally said, and pulled down the covering for my foreleg, and deactivated it, floating it over to Luna and Chrysalis. “Yeah, sure, I have no reason to keep this a secret.” Like most ponies, like everyone really, Luna and Chrysalis almost recoiled at the sight. Polyus and Polyusa as well, who hadn’t seen me without my limbs before now. Luna took my foreleg in her hooves, and turned it around as she studied it. “This is your creation then?” “I came up with the enchantment,” I said. “The chassis was made by Armor’s uncle.” “I understand that your Equestria is a lot more peaceful than ours,” Chrysalis noted. “Strange how this was created there, and not here.” “The creator is not from Equestria at all, originally,” Luna noted, and turned it over to Chrysalis. “How did you lose it, if you don’t mind me asking?” “An accident,” I said, simply. “Nothing sinister.” “Can you make more?” Chrysalis asked. “Give me some materials and paper, and I’ll document on how to make these yourself,” I said. “And we didn’t even have to ask,” Chrysalis said, smiling at Luna. “It would be very much appreciated,” Luna said, as Chrysalis floated the leg back to me. I attached it again, noting that, “You said you were going to try and help. Seems appropriate to offer something in return.” “We thank you,” Luna said. “Now, we’d also appreciate it if you told us about the Equestria you came from. The last I heard about it from somepony who had been there, I was a thousand years younger.” “Yeah,” Polyusa chimed in. “They say we changelings are a really nasty bunch.” Luna and Chrysalis stopped at this, and considered it. “How… flattering,” Chrysalis noted after a moment. “In a strange way.” “That’s what we said,” Polyus agreed. “They don’t look as good either,” Armor said. “I’ve never seen that Chrysalis myself, but I heard descriptions of her, and I saw other changelings.” Luna, Chrysalis, Poly, and Trixie all exchanged glances. “Don’t look as good?” Chrysalis asked, confused. “Uhm,” Armor said, sounding a bit awkward. “Well, they were really skinny,” he started, and looked back and forth between Poly and Chrysalis. “I heard that that Queen Chrysalis had wings that looked like dragonfly-wings, and their shells didn’t have as much… luster, I guess, and they kept snarling and hissing, and their legs were full of holes...” Armor trailed off when he saw the expressions of the other. As he spoke, Polyus, Polyusa, and Chrysalis, looked at each other, first seeming a bit disturbed, then outright disgusted at the information. “Oooh,” Polyusa whined, clutching their sides. “That’s horrible!” They were grabbed by Chrysalis, who held them close and barraged their head with pecks. “Don’t worry, my little ones,” she said, and held them close, as Luna put a wing around them. “It’s alright. Nothing like that’s going to happen here.” “What does that mean?” I asked, as Poly visibly relaxed. Trixie spoke up instead, seemingly not wanting to interrupt the changelings’ moment. “It means, or at least seems to mean, that they’ve been living on bad love.” “Bad love?” Armor and I echoed. “Love that wasn’t given to them,” Luna said. “Changelings can sustain on love not given to them, but it’s not healthy for them to feed only on that.” “Forcing or tricking ponies to love us is like a bad diet,” Chrysalis said. As I let that sink in, it started making sense that they were so alarmed by that. It sounded like we had just described an entire people as having really bad symptoms of malnutrition, or having lived their whole lives on nothing but the worst junk food. “Ew,” I noted to myself. “Quite,” Luna said. “At least you wouldn’t have to worry about your Chrysalis charming ponies unintentionally,” Chrysalis said. “So you have to love changelings for who they are or something?” I asked. “In a sense,” Chrysalis said, and let go of Poly. “You can show affection for a disguised changeling, but it has to be towards that individual. If I were to impersonate one of you, and trick you to give me the love meant for the other, it would be tasty, but it’s not something you should rely on.” “That’s… what everypony back home is afraid is happening,” Armor said. “Changelings sneaking into your house and pretending to be a family member.” “I see,” Chrysalis said. “I’m… not sure how to feel about that. I could teach you how to spot changelings, but that would be providing somepony a weapon to use against a starving changeling.” “I have no trouble liking changelings,” I noted. “Yes, and if they’re not being cooperative when you try and show them affection, well, that’s a strange situation,” Chrysalis said. Strange indeed. It was making my head spin, and I decided to bring up something else I had been wondering about. “Hey, our Celestia said that Starswirl forbade her from using the mirror because the barrier between the world was wearing thin when she was over here. Is it in danger from the two of us being here?” Luna shook her head. “It’s been a long time since I talked with that Starswirl, but as I understood it, no. The portal remained open when your Celestia was here, which is what wore on the veil, but it’s closed now. There is no need to worry until Sombra opens it again.” “And we want him to do that for us?” Armor asked. “Correct,” Luna said. “And you had no idea on how to make him do that?” “I have many ideas, but no good ones yet,” Luna said, and shook her head. “My closest friend for a thousand years, and I’m not so sure I know him anymore.” I could sympathise, in a way. I had a good friend in my dreams, he taught me things that helped me and others, he was a good conversationalist, and a comforting presence. Then I learned that he, in a sense, almost turned two worlds upside down. I hoped that he, the real Sombra, was still in there somewhere. It was hard to imagine how Luna must feel about this whole situation. Luna looked up at us. “Is there anything you’d like to talk about at this moment?” Armor and I looked at each other, and shrugged. “Not really,” I said, while Armor shook his head. “Then I recommend that you rest and recover,” Luna said. “Canterlot is open to you, and you are safe here, but I ask that you remain in the city, and inform the guard if you leave the castle.” “Sure,” I said. “I think I’m gonna try and get my eye working properly. What do you wanna do, Armor?” “Stay close to you,” he said, simply. “Oh that’s right,” I said. “Still feeling a bit weird.” Chrysalis looked a little sheepish at that. “I’ll start working on documenting the construction of magical prostheses,” I said. “Got some gem dust and a blacksmith with some spare time later?” “Whatever you need,” Luna said, standing up before bowing. “On behalf of all of Equestria, I thank you.” “Well, gee,” I said, shifting a bit awkwardly. “I’m just glad to have something relaxing to do.” Trixie suppressed a chuckle at that. “I should catch up on some more sleep,” she said. “And you haven’t had breakfast yet.” “Please show them to a room and call a chef,” Luna said. “I want to see you later, Trixie and Chrysalis. You too, Poly.” We all rose up, Armor lifting me up onto his back, and went separate ways. Trixie slumped off, looking tired, Luna walked off towards a tower, while the changelings, Armor, and I, walked down a hall. “I didn’t even learn the layout for our Canterlot Castle,” I groaned. “Now I’m gonna have to start over.” Armor let out a sigh. Chrysalis and Poly chuckled. “Forgive me for asking, but what is your relation?” Chrysalis asked. That stopped Armor and my thoughts dead in their tracks. “... Why do you ask?” I said after a while. “There is love there,” she said. “Several kinds in fact. A budding romance, but not the fiery excitement you often see between young ponies.” Armor and I glanced at each other. “Wow, thanks,” I said, my eye half-lidded. “I always suspected I wasn’t an exciting pony,” Armor said. “Glad to hear I wasn’t mistaken.” Chrysalis and Poly chuckled again. “Oh I think you two actually see that as a compliment.” “And pointing it out like this isn’t counter-productive in any way?” I asked, a bit pointedly. “Sometimes, but both of you already know you have feelings for the other,” Chrysalis said confidently. “I’m just saying that it’s growing slowly but strongly.” “Like hardwood?” Armor asked. “Or well-hung ham?” I asked. Chrysalis raised up to clap her hooves together mid-walk. “Oh, and you unite so naturally too,” she said, overjoyed. “You two are just perfect for each other.” I just bobbed my head concedingly, secretly pleased to hear that, but I noticed that Armor had stiffened a bit, and something about his posture slumped. “Well, here we are,” Polyus said. “I’m gonna go find a chef and send them up here.” “And I’m going to check up on the hive,” Chrysalis said. “It was nice to meet you. We’ll see you later.” “Later, and thanks,” I said. “An honor to make your acquaintance,” Armor said, and bowed slightly to Chrysalis. We entered the room, and Armor walked over to a beanbag to plop down on it. We still felt the effect of that that strange, magical charm being popped, and had to stay close to each other. Armor laid on his back and placed me on top of his foreleg and wing. He had stiffened up a bit when Chrysalis had talked about out relationship, but I was getting the feeling that I wasn’t the one making him uncomfortable. At least not directly. I decided to give it some time before I brought it up though, so instead I lifted my eyepatch to start working on my new eye. “I almost got this working yesterday,” I said. “Ah yeah,” Armor asked, sounding genuinely happy about that. “Yeah. There was some downtime while we were flying to Dodge. I made some progress then.” Armor stiffened up a bit again, which changed my mind about bringing it up. I put my eyepatch down again, and turned around to face him. “What is it, Armor?” I asked, concerned. He looked at me, and let out a sigh as he looked down, ashamed, before finally returning his attention to me. “I was so worried,” he said. “And I was right to be. I’m supposed to look after you, and when you needed me, I wasn’t around.” Although I couldn’t fault him in the slightest, he was technically right. “It’s okay,” I said, and rested my head on his barrell, taking comfort in his presence. I wasn’t a master of comfort, but I had picked up a few things from Redheart. Although I didn’t need her to teach me that emotional things can take time to communicate. Just like a parent hugs their child over and over, not just tell them that they love them once and let that be a standing comment, I had be close to him to make sure he understood emotionally that I was safe. It worked that way for me too, as I breathed out a sigh of relief myself at having him back. “Chrysalis said that we were perfect for each other,” I started. “What was it about that you didn’t like?” “It has nothing to do with you,” Armor said, a bit forcefully. “It’s not your fault.” I felt part of my tension drain out as I rested on Armor’s barrel, and I hoped it worked the same for him, because I wanted him to open up to me. “What, then?” I asked. “You think you screwed up? Because I don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t either,” I said, a bit of force creeping into my voice as well. The air went out of Armor, and he put his forelegs and wings around me, but said nothing. “Is that it?” I pressed, and looked up at his face, which was pointed towards the ceiling. “... not only,” he admitted, after a while. “Then what is it?” I asked, softly, taking care not to sound accusing. Armor took a breath, and looked me in the eye. “Gabe, I’m pretty sure I love you,” he said. Despite the sad look on his face, I couldn’t help but smile at those words. There had been a lingering sense of coldness after Polyus and Polyusa snapped us out of that charm, which vanished from his words. “I love you too, Armor,” I said. “Is that so bad?” “No,” he said, and looked up into the ceiling. “Is it my age?” I asked. “A little,” he admitted. “But not the big issue?” “... No.” “What is it then?” I asked. I was going to press him and say that he could trust me with anything, but I couldn’t think of a way to say that without making it seem like I was challenging him to open up to me, or implying that I deserved to be opened up to. My therapist had taught me that you get someone to open up to you by making them comfortable opening up to you, not forcing or badgering them. “It’s okay,” I said. “Talk to me whenever you’re ready.” I rested my head on him for a while, before he finally spoke up. “It’s…” he finally started. “You… you’re such a wonderful mare, or woman, Gabe, and I…” It started slow, but something about that was encouraging to me. “You what?” I asked, smirking a bit. “You’re just a kind, wonderful, brave, handsome, funny, hard-working, and considerate royal guard, who looks amazing in uniform?” I could practically feel the soft glow of pride welling up inside him, and he tightened the hug for a while, before I sensed his smile leave him. “I’ve mentioned that I have a twin sister, haven’t I?” he asked. “Yeah,” I said. “Dress Armor. You haven’t said much about her though.” “She’s…” Armor started, before bracing herself. “She’s my family’s favorite.” That made me frown a bit. I had only met Armor’s uncle and grandfather, and neither of them had struck me as disliking him. “How do you mean?” I asked. “It’s not her fault,” he said. “It’s not my parents’ fault either. She’s just better than me. She’s smart, and outgoing, and funny, and pretty, and everything I can do, she can do just as well, or better.” I didn’t look up at him, I didn’t want to interrupt him. Instead, I simply caressed his barrel softly, prompting him to continue. “When we were foals, she was always ahead of me. She’d learn to do something, and she’d show our parents. They’d congratulate her and hug her, and they’d ask me if I could do that as well. “I never could, and when I learned, Dress had moved onto something new and more impressive. She had tons of friends, she had great grades, and I… didn’t. “She always knew what to say, she could make anypony laugh anytime, she could fit in with any group, while I was just… an average colt.” I wanted to protest, but stopped myself. It was important for him to get this out. “You said she’s a royal guard as well?” I asked. “No, she’s a guard, but she’s not a royal guard,” Armor said. “Anyway, I… eventually I just stopped trying to impress my parents, or anypony really. I learned that being in the spotlight and getting compliments was for… other ponies. I belonged in the background, minding my own business, or just standing guard.” My understanding of Armor’s predicament was starting to take shape. I was an only child, but I could understand that it couldn’t be easy, growing up next to someone who was showered in praise and attention, while wanting some for yourself. Especially when you doubt yourself, and asking for it is so unnerving, and rejection hurting extra much. I didn’t really know what to say though. “And the thing is,” Armor continued. “She’s a really wonderful mare. She’s supportive, and kind, and I love her, and my parents love me, and I love them all back, it’s just…” “That you can’t help but resent them?” I suggested. “Yeah. I know it’s so pathetic,” he said, his voice cracking a little bit. “I know I’m just whining about nothing, and I was just needy and just wanted more attention than my sister–” That’s when I rose from his embrace and walked over his chest, and put my face up to his, looking him in the eye for a moment before nuzzling him, and holding him tight. “No,” I said, simply. “You have issues with your self-esteem, I’ve known that since I met you, and you’re being overly critical of yourself and what you think. There’s nothing wrong with feeling hurt from rejection.” Armor relaxed and melted into my embrace. “Anyway, I just…” he said. “I… have trouble understanding that somepony as wonderful as you would love me.” I scoffed lightly into his mane. “You know, it’s too bad I’m not an adult pony, because if I’m so great, I’m up for you bringing me to school reunions and showing me off when I’ve grown up a bit.” Armor let out an almost silent chuckle. “And Plate didn’t strike me as the guy to play favorites,” I noted. “He didn’t,” Armor said. “I heard him, one night around Hearth’s Warming, when he sat in the kitchen and talked to my folks about it. He said he was disappointed in them, they said that they tried not to, but they admitted that they did. “I was so happy to hear that somepony other than me noticed. Gramps never played favorites, and he spent more time with us after that.” “He sounds pretty great,” I noted. “He’s gruff, but he’s really nice beneath that. I was worried that he pulled some strings to make me a royal guard, since Dress isn’t one,” Armor said. “I’d say ask him.” “... Maybe,” Armor said. “I feel like asking him now.” Armor chuckled a bit, bit I could hear his voice cracking. I rose up to smile supportively at him and look him in the eyes. They were a bit wet. “Gabe?” he said, after a moment. “Yeah?” “Thank you,” he said, and swallowed. “For listening. I’ve never told anypony about this.” He wasn’t crying, but something wanted to come out. “It’s alright,” I said, and held his head against me, resting my head on top of his. “I know it’s scary to talk about, but it’s okay. I’ll be here for you.” With a sigh, Armor deflated again, and a heavy but comfortable feeling settled in my chest. Armor was hurting, but I was helping him, like he had helped me. Helping him was a good thing. He tensed up a bit when there was a knock on the door, but I put a foreleg on him, wordlessly saying that he could stay where he was. Instead, with a sigh, I magicked the door open just a little bit. After a while, a stallion in a chef’s hat poked his head in questioningly. “Rosehip soup and some toast for two, please,” I said. The stallion nodded understandingly, and retreated again. “Armor,” I said. “Mmm?” he mumbled into my chest. “Never be afraid to be honest with me. Never be afraid to be honest with yourself.” Armor took a few breaths, shaking a bit. “Gabe?” he asked after a moment. “Yeah?” “I’m scared.” “So am I,” I said, and cradled him gently as a tear built up in my eye, then kissed him on the forehead. — The initial effect of having been near Chrysalis was wearing off, but I still stayed on top of Armor as we walked towards the smithy. I liked it there. “Here we are,” Polyus said. “I don’t get around here much. We changelings don’t use armor very often.” “That’s comforting,” Armor remarked, smirking slightly around the bag of materials in his mouth. “Well it’s…” Polyus started, then looked sideways at Armor with a small smile. “Pff.” The smithy was, understandably, separate from the main buildings in the castle ground, and located in a sort of back area. I liked those places, especially in my Canterlot Castle. The fronts were of course wonderful, with beautiful gardens that ponies calmly strolled through, taking in the sights and breathing the wonderful air, but the back areas, where the gardeners had half-secretly put up patio chairs and grills for their time off, and nature was a little more free to form its own beauty among the more utilitarian parts, were special to me. Perhaps because I was used to the basements and utility corridors of hospitals, being in an equivalent place that kept itself decorated with greenery was very nice. Poly knocked on the door, and a mare’s voice said, “Come in.” We filed into the house, and saw two earth ponies, an orange-coated and pink-maned mare with a cutie mark of a silvery chain, and a brown-coated and fiery-maned stallion with a hammer and a puff of smoke as cutie marks, working by a forge and an anvil respectively. They looked up when they saw us, more than a little surprised. The smithy was an all-round workshop, a large forge, anvils, draft-tables, and other assorted goodies, as well as a break-section in the corner. “Hello there,” the stallion said. “Can we help you?” Poly coughed into their hooves, before opening their elytra and fetching a roll of paper out of it and presenting it to the stallion. “Yes, are you very busy?” Polyusa said. “We have a work order from on up high.” “Concerning what?” the stallion said, and took the letter. “The paperwork is all there,” Polyus said, and gestured to Armor and me. “This is Ser Gabrielle Desrochers and Private Studded Armor. Gabrielle has knowledge of advanced magical constructs that she’s willing to share with us, and has been granted assistance in construction and…” Polyus waved his forearm. “Documentation,” I added helpfully. “Documentation,” Polyus said. “So do you have time?” “If it’s a royal order then…” the stallion started as he looked at the paper, before looking up again. “Hold on, can we go through this again?” I cleared my throat, and stretched out my metallic hoof in greeting. “Like Polyus here said, Gabrielle Desrochers,” I said. “Pleased to meet you.” “Uhm, likewise,” the stallion said. “Heavy Strike.” The stallion bumped my hoof, and immediately stopped when the sensation registered on him, but I instead turned towards the mare. “Uhm, Hard Silver,” she said, and bumped hooves with me, who likewise stopped afterward. I nudged Armor, who sprang to present his hoof. “Studded Armor.” Hard and Heavy woke up and exchanged greeting with Armor, while Poly looked amused at the whole thing. “Well, have fun, everypony,” Polyus said. “Ser Lulamoon was gonna try and find a test subject later, but I’m not sure when.” “Gotcha,” I said. “Later.” “Bye,” Armor said. Poly slunk out of the door, while Hard and Heavy were still staring at my hoof. “Alright then,” I said, and pulled off the covering of my foreleg prosthesis. “If you have the time, this is what I want to make.” “Is that a…?” Hard started, and stopped herself from reaching for my leg. I presented it to her, and she took it in her hoof. “A prosthesis?” she finished. “Correct,” I said. “And I’m an enchanter, not a metalworker, so I need help in making the chassis.” “You want more?” Heavy asked. “No they’re not for me,” I clarified. “They’re for other people. I’m going to need some help making some samples that we can give to… you know, relevant institutes of learning and… stuff.” “Wait, did you make this?” Heavy asked. “I came up with the enchantment, but I had a friend help me make the chassis,” I said, then jiggled my hind leg. “This one too. He’s not available though.” Hard and Heavy exchanged glances, then sat down on the floor, stunned. Then it was mine and Armor’s turn to look at each other. “Is there a problem?” Armor asked. They glanced around with uncertainty painted on their faces. “Well it’s… it’s just that…” Hard said. “It’s a bit sudden to learn that… a filly has made prosthetic legs that… do they act like real legs?” “Yeah,” I said. “They’re a drain on your magic, but you get more and more used to them.” “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t you present those to a university?” Heavy asked. “Meh,” I said, and shrugged. “But you could be famous!” he insisted. “Maybe,” I said. “I’m more interested in making them available for people who need them.” Hard and Heavy glanced at each other. “So, uh, okay, we uh… wait,” Heavy said, and looked at the paper that Poly had given him. “Did the princess… order this?” “We volunteered,” I said. “So should we get started?” “Uhm, sure,” Heavy said. “What do we do?” “Oh, yeah,” I said, excitedly. “Normally I have to custom-make each prosthesis for each user, by matching the enchantment with their arcanomorphic signature, but I had this idea for making it a generic enchantment that figures out the signature of whoever uses the prosthesis at the time, so that you can mass produce prosthetics with that enchantment, and the enchantments will be universal.” Hard and Heavy stared at me blankly. “... What?” they both asked at the same time, and I heard Armor snicker behind me. “Just trust me. It’s gonna be great,” I insisted. “I want you to make a limb of a certain shape, I’ll show you the details later, but for now you can use my man Armor here. He’s a good measurement stick for an athletic stallion, so we’ll have that phenotype covered.” Armor gave them a smile and a wave. “... Okay?” Hard said. “What’s a man?” “The question for the ages. Can I use one of your desks?” I asked. “I’ll start working on the new feature, and when you’ve got Armor’s measurements, I’ll show how to enchant the chassis.” Hard wordlessly gestured to a desk. “Thanks,” I said, and Armor walked us over to it, and I took a seat as he dumped the bag of materials on the table. I considered the names of our new friends for a moment, then pulled out my magic boombox out of my hind leg. “Also, I have some pretty good choice of music. I think you’re gonna like this.” — “But this doesn’t look like yours,” Hard said, nodding her head slightly in beat with the music. They liked it. Like them, it was hard and heavy, beautiful and strong. “No, well, my legs are pretty fancy, high performance models,” I said, sitting on one of their chairs by the drafting table. “For general purpose civilian models, I think it could work well with just a hollow rod surrounded by a thick textile.” It was a plain wooden chair, not nearly as comfortable as sitting on Armor, but I had my reservations about sitting in his lap at the moment. “Why are your legs shaped like that?” Heavy asked, also nodding his head to the beat. “I left them hollow so I could stuff my gadgets in there,” I said, and spooled out my grappling hook as a demonstration. “It took a lot of work to make them though. The chassis has two layers with a space between them for the motor-enchanted gem dust, which requires quite a lot of skill to make, and we wanna at least start with models that are easy to produce.” Hard and Heavy nodded, and not just from the music, before Heavy presented a foreleg prosthesis, less fancy-looking than mine, and instead of full-sized it was a thin affair. “Well, here it is,” Heavy said. “Will this do?” “I think so. When these ones were made,” I said, taking the offered limb in my magic and waving my own foreleg prosthesis demonstrably, “we wove the outer parts of the enchantments into the components as we made them into an alloy, then twisted the plates into vertices before flattening them out again and shaping the limb. Makes it pretty much impossible to disenchant for anyone who isn’t me. “It would be a bit superfluous to do that with this one though, I think,” I continued, as Armor, finished being a model for now, and instead pulled up a chair next to me. “I just wanted it as tough as possible since dragon fire can mess with enchantments, and I lived with one.” Hard and Heavy looked at each other as I pulled and bent the limb. “Can I ask you something?” Heavy said. “Yep,” I said, as I started working on the new enchantment. “Do you have an eye prosthesis?” he asked, pointing at my eyepatch. “Yup,” I said, not stopping my enchanting. “I’m working on making that work like a normal eye as well, but it’s not ready yet.” Hard and Heavy were silent for a moment, before Hard turned to Armor. “So uh, what’s your story?” Armor sat straighter in the chair. “I’m her bodyguard.” “And my closest friend,” I added. Armor put a wing around me, and rested his head on top of mine for a moment, making me smile and lean into him. “Alright, finished,” I said, and started unscrewing the caps at the top of the two sections of the limb, and the more massive hoof. I tied the bag of gem dust I had just enchanted to the holes and poured it into the empty parts. “This will probably be a bit jerky since there’s so much… I don’t know what to call it… ‘windage’ I guess, since the cavity isn’t filled up.” Armor, Hard, and Heavy all observed as I screwed the caps back on. “For the next one we can’t forget an on and off switch, as it is I’m gonna have to open this up again and disenchant the motor enchantment. Alright, here we go.” Hard and Heavy recoiled a bit as I powered down my prosthesis and pulled it off, then ‘started up’ the new leg, and attached it. I magically observed as the enchantments took a few seconds to recognise me as the current user, and adjust itself to me, but after that, it came alive just like my normal one did. “Haha!” I cried, triumphantly. “Yeah. Kinda jerky, takes a short moment before it responds and stops,” I noted, struggling to move the limb properly. “I never had one of those myoelectric ones back home. I wonder if this is what they feel like.” “So do we need to improve it?” Heavy asked. “Also, what’s myoelectric?” “Hmm?” I asked, looking up at him. “Mm, well, it seems like it’s turning okay, it’s just weird to move since the motor enchantment is rattling around in there before moving the chassis. It’s also way too big for my arcanomorphic form. It’s like being in a plate armor that doesn’t match up with your joints.” There was a knock on the door, and a moment of silence before Armor and I looked away from the door towards the smiths and nodded silently in its direction. “Come in!” Heavy called. I looked at Armor. I wasn’t an ace when it came to psychology, but I didn’t want to be so bossy that people didn’t feel like inviting people into their own workplace. The door opened, and Trixie stepped in, with another pony behind her. “Ser Lulamoon!” Hard said, and she and Heavy stood at attention. “As you were,” Trixie said. “Hey, Trixie. How’s tricks?” I asked, waving my overly long limb in greeting. She took in the somewhat bizarre sight before shaking her head and smiling. “I’m fine, thank you,” she said. “I have a volunteer with me.” Trixie stepped aside to show the pony behind her, a unicorn stallion with a dark grey coat and a deep blue mane, a lit lantern for a cutie mark, whose right foreleg ended halfway between the hoof and the elbow. By now I had seen more ponies with missing limbs in less than a year than I had humans the rest of my life, but I had to remind myself of my new calling. “This is Evening Spark,” Trixie said. “Private Evening Spark.” Spark lifted the remains of his right foreleg and coughed into the elbow. “Former private, ser.” Trixie smiled at him, then gestured invitingly to us, and focused on the smiths. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” Hard Silver, Heavy Strike, and Trixie exchanged introductions, with Hard and Heavy asking some hushed questions about me and Armor. I was going to hop from my chair and greet Evening, when I remembered my oversized leg. Evening walked up to us instead, very steadily, with a smile and sat down on his haunches in front of Armor and me, and offered us his left hoof. Both of us were on the ball with his choice of greeting appendage, which he seemed amused by. When everyone had been properly introduced, Trixie spoke up. “What is that music?” she asked. “Heavy Metal,” I said, and powered down my music player before unscrewing the cap for the interior of the limb. “I found it appropriate.” “It sounded very… bracing.” “They’d be happy to hear that,” I said, and disenchanted the limb, making it fall off me. Evening hadn’t taken his gaze off the limb in a while, but shifted to my standard one as I picked that up and put it on. He poked with his right leg towards it as it came alive. “That is why I’m here, isn’t it?” “Good guess,” I said, deciding to cut to the chase and not dangle something like this in front of him. “Near-perfect magical prosthetics, made with a new type of universal enchantment that doesn’t have to be custom-made, and you’re gonna be the first pony to have one around these parts it seems.” “‘These parts’?” he echoed. “You come from the gryphon lands?” “Nope,” I said. “I’m not from around here originally, but I didn’t grow up around gryphons.” “So this isn’t gryphon magic? It would make sense if it was,” Evening said. “How so?” Armor asked. “Well, maybe that’s not true,” Evening said, and waved his right foreleg. “I just associate gryphon lands with injuries.” We looked at him in surprise at that. “Did a gryphon take that?” Hard said, and gestured to Evening’s right foreleg. “What? Oh, no,” he said. “I was saved by gryphons though. I lost this in Tempest Valley.” “Oooh,” Hard and Heavy said in unison. “What’s that?” Armor asked, which told me it wasn’t a thing back in our Equestria. “You’re both new around here then?” Evening asked. “It’s a large valley between Equestria and the gryphon states, the chunk to the south that’s void of settlements when you look at a map. We herd monsters in there and try and keep them locked in by maintaining storms near the only exit.” Trixie nodded. “Occasionally, the monsters needs a more hooves-on treatment when they’re about to spill out into the heartlands.” “And occasionally,” Evening said, and took a breath. “Not every gryphon, or everypony, makes it through in one piece.” “... What happened?” Hard said. “One beastie was about to slip through the perimeter,” Evening said. “We could’ve sent a flyer to call for backup, but we were at fighting strength and thought we could handle it. “I mean, we did handle it, but you know,” he said, and waved his nub a bit. “I’m sorry,” Hard said. Evening gave her a wry smile. “I knew the risks,” he said. “Doesn’t make it better, but it does make it a little less bad.” “So you fought alongside gryphons?” Armor asked. “Yeah. Good thing too,” Evening said. “We only had one pegasus and I was sort of in a hurry to get back to base.” “What was the little beastie?” Heavy asked. “Schnauzer eel,” Evening said, which made Hard and Heavy drew a sharp breath. “Oooh,” they said, wincing. “Yeah,” Evening said. “It was all according to the book at first. The gryphons and the pegasus harassed it, the rest of us took position on what looked like a rocky patch, and waited for an opening, then it dived, and there must’ve been a huge crack in the rock because it came up underneath me.” “What’s a Schnauzer eel?” Armor asked. “It’s a giant, land-burrowing fish serpent with an electric rattle at the end of its tail, rows of sharp teeth, and of course a moustache,” Trixie said. “Teeth like a pike then?” I suggested. “It had better be careful or I’ll eat it.” “Yes, like a pike” Evening said, then looked at me in surprise. “Are you sure you’re not a gryphon? I learned to enjoy eating fish when I was posted there, but I’ve never heard of a little filly ever liking fish before..” “I’m just weird,” I said, and shrugged. “Heh, right,” Evening said. “Well then, you’d understand why we couldn’t save the leg even if we’d gotten our hooves on it. It was paste in moments.” I almost cringed at that. My own incident of losing limbs probably didn’t look pretty, but at least I didn’t have to see it. “Want a new one then?” I asked. Evening smiled at me. “You bet. Where do we start?” “Your measurements,” I said, and gestured to Hard and Heavy, who jumped to attention. “Remember to make some room for padding between the residual limb and the chassis,” I told them. “The last one was too big for me, but I could tell that it was going to chafe.” — “So are you going to rejoin the guard?” Armor asked, as we waited for the chassis to cool down so that Hard and Heavy could polish it. “Yeah,” Evening said. “I wonder if I’d still be allowed though. You said that they don’t have any sense of touch.” “Yep,” I said. “I manage just fine though.” “I don’t see why not,” Trixie said. “Not having a sense of touch in a flesh and bone leg would put it at risk for injury, but not in this case.” “Good point, ser” Evening said. We were seated around the drafting table as Hard and Heavy polished the new limb. Evening, understandably, looked on in anticipation. I was just enjoying the ambience as I leaned against Armor; a forge is much like a fireplace after all. “So how long have you been enchanting?” Evening asked me. “For… uuuh,” I started. I had actually lost track of how long I had been in Equestria. I turned to Armor for help, but he didn’t seem to have an answer ready either. “Do you remember how long it’s been? A few months?” “Uuh, yyyeah. Something like that,” he said. “Really?” Evening asked. “You’ve only been doing this for a few months?” “I guess,” I said. He shook his head and let out a sigh. “Nine years of combat magic, and I can’t even wrap my head around how you do this,” he said. “I feel a little inadequate now.” “Uhm, well… don’t feel too bad about it,” I said. “I’m terrible when it comes to combat magic. I can stun people, but I’m so slow at it that I enchanted a gem to shoot stun spells for me.” That piqued Evening’s interest. “Yeah?” he said. “Yeah,” Armor confirmed. “It’s kinda awesome. Can you show them, Gabe?” “Sure,” I said, and magicked a window open, pointing my prosthesis at the empty sky, then at a wall in case a pegasus flied into the spell. “Watch this.” I shot the wall, and the energy dispersed with a small thump. “Whoa,” Heavy said, as everyone looked at where the shot had connected. The wall was unaffected, but if there had been a pony there their magic would have been scrambled, and they probably would’ve lost consciousness. If there had been another magic effect, it could’ve been neutralized. My legs were proofened from that of course. Evening looked back at me, and gave me an impressed nod. “Not bad. I’m not sure how to pay you back unless you want some training in combat magic,” he said. “Now would be the time to learn, Gabe,” Trixie said. “That’s true,” I said. “I seem to need it for important stuff. I also think it’s time to upgrade this thing,” I said, referring to my magic stunner. “Alright, finished,” Hard said, and held up the new limb. “There’s some give here at the cup on the top, and the hoof, just like you said, Gabrielle.” “Good. That’s for comfort,” I said. “For some more, we’ll find some cloth that doesn’t get hard and rough from being squeezed after long periods of use. I can enchant some but I’m not great with textile.” I started enchanting the chassis. Metal wasn’t as easy as gems or gem dust, but it was much easier than textile. This also wouldn’t be as hard to disenchant like my current limb which, from an enchanting perspective, required both untangling a wickedly complicated knot, solve a puzzle, and put some effort into it; That enchantment was going nowhere. This would keep working unless someone adept enough at enchanting disenchanted it. “And now we just fill this up,” I said, and poured the dust into the openings, which also served as on and off buttons. That part was always tricky because of the tendency of the dust to squirm around from ambient magical energies. “Finished,” I said, turned the limb on, and faced Evening. “Present… arms!” Evening chuckled, and held out his right foreleg. I placed the prosthesis on him, and it instantly came alive. Every eye in the room widened except mine and Armor’s. I was mostly just pleased with how that limb would work for anyone. At least anyone it fitted on. Evening turned his limb around experimentally, wiggling the hoof and clapping it with his normal hoof. “It also works as a conduit for your hoof field,” I said, and gently tossed the small bag to him, which he caught in his new limb, and held, making him look at it with deepened fascination. After a moment, Evening stood up in silence, and turned to me. “Thank you.” “You’re welcome,” I said with a shrug, happy that I wasn’t getting hugged nearly to death for once. “So did anyone keep up with what I was doing when I made the enchantment?” Evening, Armor, Hard, and Heavy shook their heads. “Well it is unicorn magic,” I added, as Evening rose up. “So I guess that was mainly for Trixie and Evening.” “I understood some of it,” Trixie said, and nodded. “What the blocking enchantment on the metallic part is for, but I couldn’t comprehend how you made it all change when Evening got close to it. I also couldn’t figure anything out from analysing your legs. They’re a mystery.” “They use the same principle as Evening’s leg, they’re just shielded and a bit over-designed,” I said. “That’s one of the things I should make sure people get before I leave then. I also gotta make sure that they’ve got it down back home.” “You’ve done this a lot?” Hard asked. “A few times,” I said. “Not a lot of veterans before now though, strangely enough. Now I just gotta teach people how to mass produce this enchantment.” “What about a wand?” Trixie asked. “A wand?” I asked. “Yes. Like the stunner on your foreleg,” Trixie said. “You enchant a device to cast a spell when you pour magic into it. If this new enchantment of yours is universal, you can make a wand for that enchantment so that anypony can use it.” “What, like this?” I asked, and floated my stunner out of my leg. “Yes, that’s a wand,” Trixie said. “Oh,” I said, a bit sheepish from not knowing the terminology, and stunned at not having thought up that myself. “Good idea. I’ve only ever used this one, can you teach me how to make them?” “Yes,” Trixie said, smiling. “And you can learn, I can see that much.” Evening had gone back to flexing his new hoof, and looking at it in fascination. “So what do you want in return for this?” he asked. “Oh, nothing,” I said. “I’m just keeping myself busy.” “You don’t want anything?” Heavy asked. “Nothing that anyone here can give me,” I said, smiling sadly, before I realized something. “Actually, I’d like a guitar.” “That, I can give you,” Evening said. “I don’t know anything about music, but I can get you one.” Trixie smiled at him. “That won’t be necessary. Gabe is doing this as a favor for Princess Luna. She’ll pay for it.” “Mmm, I also have to get my eye working properly,” I said. “Then perhaps make a wand for that as well. Then I guess the real challenge is making new internal organs in case people need them.” “You didn’t… you know, remove your body parts yourself did you?” Hard asked. “Hm? Oh, no,” I said. “It was an accident.” “Well, anything you need from me,” Evening said, standing up and extended his new hoof. “Just ask, and it’s yours.” I looked up at him, smiling down at me, but I didn’t look this gift pony in the mouth– He had his lips closed. “You got it,” I said, and clacked my prosthesis against his. — The next day, Armor and I walked back to the castle, a new guitar hanging off his side… or rather, he walked and I rode. I had to admit, having a pony to ride around on was pretty great. The closest I had come to have one as a human was from playing Harvest Moon. Even so, new guitar or not, I wasn’t feeling entirely pleased. “Are you okay, Gabe?” he asked, looking back at me. “Hmm?” “You seem a little down,” he said. I waited answering until we passed through the gates and into the castle grounds. “A little,” I mumbled. I hadn’t expected him to catch on though. At least this quickly. Armor said nothing, just politely waiting for me to continue if I felt like it, which was the most effective encouragement. I shifted a bit in frustration, before sighing. “I’m… I don’t know. I wanna say bored, but I’m not sure that’s the best word. Restless, maybe.” “Ah,” Armor said, sound sympathetic. “I had this wonderfully varied life back in our Equestria,” I said. “I worked on my enchantments, I walked around town, or the castle, wherever I was, I hung out with my friends, or I killed time in front of my computer. It was great. “Now, I’m stuck here, wondering if we’ll ever get home again, and only having my work to distract myself, and when I feel like doing something else, I’m just reminded of where I am, and I start worrying again.” I hugged Armor’s neck as he took off, and he set us down on the balcony of the room we had been given. I hopped off him, and lifted the guitar off his side, setting it down on the floor just inside the door as I sat down on a large cushion. Armor nuzzled me comfortingly, and I laid back into the cushion as he did. “Tell me if I can do anything to help,” he said. “I don’t know,” I said. “I want to go home, with you, but I don’t know how, and it might be dangerous, so I try and distract myself with some work, then I get fidgety, and I wanna do something else, and then I wanna go home, etc.” Armor lay down beside me, lifted his head from nuzzling me, and looked me in the eye. “I don’t know what to say,” he admitted. We looked at each other for a moment, before I pulled his head back into a hug, and said, “this helped.” Armor chuckled, and nuzzled me again. “Just tell me when you’ve had enough,” he said. “And I’ll go find something else.” “Hmm?” I mumbled questioningly. “Oh I can be insightful too,” he said. “You like your alone time.” “I don’t know what I’d like right now that I can have,” I said. “Perhaps some ice cream.” “I’ll go get some later,” Armor said. “Yeah, I need something cool to put on my horn,” I said. “So it would be a good idea to get those wands working then?” Armor asked. “So that it’s not your horn that needs to do all the work?” “Mmm,” I mumbled in confirmation, when I suddenly stiffened up, and my eye started shifting from the thoughts going on in my head. “... Wands.” “Gabe?” I held Armor’s head in front of me and looked him in his eyes. “Armor, you’re a genius,” I said, confidently. “I uh… wasn’t aware,” he said. “But you are,” I said, and peered into the room, floating papers and writing materials over to start working on a new enchantment, my most ambitious one yet. “Uhm, how so?” he asked. He might’ve been a bit stunned at having such a nice snuggle session so abruptly ended, and I promised myself I’d make it up for him later. “I’m better at shooting stun magic with the stunner in my leg than with my horn,” I said. “... Yyyes?” Armor said. “And if I lose my horn I won’t be able to do unicorn magic anymore,” I continued. “I hope not, but yes.” “Wrong,” I said. “Why have a gem that can shoot arcano-dispersive shocks, when you can have a universal one. A backup horn. It might even be better than the one I have on my head.” Armor caught up with what I was proposing. “Oh, neat,” he said, and smiled. “Want some ice cream when you work?” — “Do you have it?” Trixie asked, as we lay on cushions in front of a table. Armor lay beside me. He had been out exercising for a few hours and gotten a massage and a preen, before successfully eating some solid food and not just soup. Being tied up and half-starved for two days was bad for your physique and your digestion, but by now he was pretty much recovered, and just rested idly. “I think so,” I said, and poked a coin with the tin rod– my new wand. Gems and similar such were my preferred enchanting material, and my most favored among them was lapis lazuli, like on my cutie mark, but I had become pretty good with metals as well. I was certainly skilled enough to create what I was doing now. I willed the wand to function, subconsciously, or perhaps instinctively, providing it with some of my magic, which it accepted, and began reweaving it into the shape I had instructed it to: a simple enchantment that does its best to make a solid object emit an orange light. The coin I was poking with the wand lit up with a soft, orange glow, like a Wolfram bulb. “Easy peasy,” Trixie said, smiling at me from the other side of the table. “Yeah, but you’re still better than me,” I said. “You’re picking up fast though,” Trixie said. “You’re also way better than me when it comes to textiles,” I pointed out. “I’m decent, but you’ll get the hang of that too before long, I can tell.” “That’s because you’re a really good teacher,” I insisted. Trixie shrugged with a little smile. “Well, you know, you…” she started, before she suddenly narrowed her eyes at me just a little bit, as Armor smiled without looking at us. “Stop that.” I chuckled a impishly to myself. The alicorn of modesty indeed. We kept going, and before long, we had four wands. One enchanted solid objects with the new arrangement where the enchantment configured itself to the arcanomorphic shape of the individual holding it near themselves, although for safety’s sake, it wouldn’t function unless it was used on something that already had an enchantment from the second wand, which was the on and off enchantment. Otherwise, there was a distinct risk that a user might end up with a limb they wouldn’t be able to remove. The third one was for the motor part of the prosthetics, the gem dust that now also adjusted itself to the user. The last one was a wiping spell specifically adjusted for my flavor of enchantment, in case it turned out to be possible in some way I hadn’t anticipated to attach a new leg to yourself permanently. I was going to have to make a wand for all these steps sometime. “Now I just need to make a wand that replicates my music enchantment with my library of music from Earth, enchant a bunch of gems, and spread them over Equestria,” I said. “Why?” Armor asked. “I don’t know,” I said. “I just like the thought of almost eight thousand songs mysteriously appearing in a cultural subconscious, even though I hope I don’t get to stick around to see the results.” Armor snorted amusedly. “Okay, I’m on board for that. I do like what I’ve heard of it.” “Is that what we were listening to earlier? At the smiths?” Trixie asked. “Yes.” “Gryphons will probably be all over that,” she said. “Not sure how popular it will be among ponies.” “There’s more than Heavy Metal in there,” I said. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with Heavy Metal. In fact, there’s a lot of things right about it. Most things. Arguably all of the things.” “Mmm,” Trixie said skeptically. “And now to make a prosthetic horn,” I said. “That’s gonna be tricky though.” “A prosthe… wait, why do you need a prosthetic horn?” Trixie asked. “As a backup,” I said. “If I lose the one on my head, I need another one ready.” Trixie opened her mouth to question that, before closing it again with a conceding little nod to herself. “Why is it gonna be tricky?” Armor asked, and opened an eye to look at me curiously. “Because I need to study my own magical auras, particularly in my horn,” I pointed out. “And since I ‘watch’ those with my horn, it’ll be like trying to study your own eyes, and mirrors don’t work since I see right through them.” “So can you enchant a mirror that reflects your magical aura?” Armor asked. “I was thinking more like recording it,” I said. “Oh,” Trixie said. “That’s really clever.” “Thank you,” I said, and smiled at her. “But I’m sure you’d think up something just as clever.” “Alright, alright,” Trixie said, and held up her hooves, a bit tired. — Late in the evening, I leaned back and let out a long sigh, my horn starting to ache from overuse. Armor put his foreleg around me. “Get some sleep, Gabe,” he said, gently. “Mmm,” I mewled in complaint, unconvinced. “I know you don’t want to focus on where we are, but I don’t think this is healthy,” Armor said. I stayed silent. “For me?” he said. I nodded, and looked up at his face. “You’ll join me?” I asked. He smiled and nodded silently at me, and we walked over to the large bed in the room. I removed my prostheses, and silently, we slipped under the covers and embraced. I was stuck in another world, and didn’t know when and if I was going to get home, and while Armor’s presence certainly helped make me feel better, I was now confident enough in us to try and get some more out of our relation, something I felt I needed. “Hey, Armor,” I said, into his chest. “Yeah?” “How are we doing?” “How do you mean?” he asked, and I found the steadiness of his voice heartening. “I mean us,” I said, and looked up at Armor. His expression was mildly expectant in a neutral way, and I detected some effort in him keeping it that way. I wasn’t entirely unlike him when it came to confidence though, so I decided to play around for long. “The two of us. We’ve said that we love each other. I’m a bit curious about what’s next.” Armor smiled, and put a hoof to my cheek, which I leaned into. “Kissing?” he suggested. I found myself taken aback a bit by that. I didn’t exactly consider it forward, but from Armor, it spoke of a confident I had never seen him wield in social matters. ‘He loves me, and I love him, and he wants to kiss… yes, this is a good thing.’ I smiled at him, closed my eye, leaned forward, and kissed him gently on the mouth. There was a pleasant hint of tartness in the sweet taste of the kiss. I opened my eye and looked at him, smiling with my entire face. “I think you were right, handsome,” I said. Armor’s smile didn’t exactly falter, but he did incline his head ever so slightly in question. “Do you mean that?” he asked. Now it was my turn to get a slightly questioning look on my face. “Of course. Didn’t you like it?” “No I, uh, yes, I liked the kiss, I just… I wasn’t sure you liked the way I looked.” “Really?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you liked the way ponies looked, in that way.” “Oh. No, I like how ponies look in general, and I think that you’re handsome,” I said, rested my head on his soft barrel, and smiled up at him. “There’s so much to like about you. Soft coat, for one thing.” “I’m glad to hear that,” Armor said, and got a bit of a relieved smile on his face. “How about me?” I asked, softly burrowing my face into his coat. “What do you mean?” he asked. “How do I look?” Armor was silent for a moment. I looked up into his eyes, and he had a genuine look on his face. “You’re beautiful, Gabe,” he said. I smiled up at him, and he touched my mane with a hoof. “And I’m not the only one with soft hair.” “And my legs and eye doesn’t bother you?” I asked. “Or lack of them. I keep them off in bed I mean.” “No! Not at all,” he said, forcefully, then stopped for a bit. “Actually, I prefer it when you keep them off in bed. They’re cold.” “What about my age?” I asked. “That’s… I don’t know,” he said. “On one hoof, you look young, on the other… you know Fancy Pants. Have you met his wife, Fleur Dis Lee?” “Was that the mare sitting beside him during the dinner?” “Yes, he’s fifty years older than her. “Also, in a sense you’re technically older than me,” he said, and paused as he realized something. “Hey, have you had any coltfriends before?” “Boyfriends,” I clarified. “In a sense, yes.” “How do you mean?” “Well, medical education can be kinda stressful,” I said, and propped my head up against my hoof, resting it against his barrel. “I didn’t blow off steam by partying or things like that. And there was a handsome young man, and we weren’t together romantically, but we enjoyed each other’s company nonetheless.” “You miss him?” Armor asked. I shook my head. “Nah, not in that way. He was a nice guy, but we knew it was just a temporary thing. Then he moved away, but he helped set me up with a friend of his.” “Oh?” Armor asked. “Yeah,” I said. “He said that I was pretty too, but at the time it hadn’t been as long since I lost my arm and leg, and all the staring was really getting to me back then, so I wasn't super stoked about meeting new people.” “That sounds really nice of him,” Armor said. “Yeah, it was,” I said. “It just felt so… easy, and not easy like we had taken an easy way out, we just agreed to not get into anything complicated that we didn’t need to.” I reflected on that for a moment. “Hmm. Maybe that’s why I tried getting you and Rose together that one time.” After a moment, I looked up at Armor to see him contemplating something. “Armor?” “I never told you,” he said. “Told me what?” “Rose and I never did anything.” Now it was my turn to look contemplative. “You didn’t?” I said, and thought back to what she had said. “That’s weird, because she asked if you were coming to visit again.” That made Armor let out a short laugh. “We talked, we laughed, and then she fell asleep on me.” I stared at him incredulously for a moment, before laughing too. “Aaw, poor you.” He gave me the most overdone charming smile. “Who cares?” he said. “I have you.” “Oh! Ooohoho!” I said, putting my hoof to my chest and swooning. “Oh, you rogue. I’m gonna have to get back at you for that.” I put on my best “manic cat” look, and pounced him, gently nibbling on his ear and purring slightly. He tried holding it back, and succeeded for a few moments before he broke and giggled at the tickling sensation. I instead hold myself above his face. We smiled at each other, then I closed my eye, and gently lowered myself onto his mouth. Armor was a really good kisser. — The next week, Princess Luna called us for a meeting again. Not a more casual one where she checked in that Armor and I were okay: this time Trixie, Poly, and Chrysalis where in the meeting room as well, along with Evening Spark. “Welcome, and thank you for coming,” Luna said, magically producing two cushions for us to join them around the large table. “Naturally,” I said, as Armor and I took our seats. Everyone smiled encouragingly at us, but there was a bit of tension in the air. “Let us get to the heart of the matter,” Luna said, and rolled out a large map of Equestria. The central heartlands were largely the same as I remembered it, but the gryphon territories at the edge, as well as the Crystal Empire region to the north, looked a lot more metropolitan, with more road and settlements. Same for the Badlands, which were here just called “The South Sands”. “Chrysalis and I have convened and reviewed what we know, and determined a course of action,” Luna said, looking at the map. “Yes?” I asked. She looked up at us. “We do not know how to send you back, but we know of some who might.” She didn’t say anything more, and at first I thought it was a dramatic pause, but eventually I simply asked, “Okay, who?” “The Oracles,” Chrysalis said. “Oracles?” Armor and I asked at the same time. Neither of us knew of any oracles hanging around in our Equestria. Celestia came the closest, but that’s just because she knew a bunch of stuff. “Yes, oracles,” Luna said. “They live in The Winsome Wilds, and they possess a great amount of knowledge. They never interact with our world directly, but they give advice and guidance to many ponies with noble goals.” “Okay?” I said, running a hoof through my mane in confusion. “So, we just mosey on down to a bunch of oracles and ask them questions?” “In a sense, yes,” Trixie said. “The Winsome Wilds aren’t easy to get through, but we’re gonna help.” “Assuming you’re willing,” Luna said. “We cannot force you to do anything.” “Is it dangerous?” Armor asked. “It can be, but… not often in the traditional sense,” Chrysalis said. I gave Armor a questioning look, and after a while, he let out a small sigh and nodded. By now, I understood why the characters in Lord Of The Rings hung around in Rivendell for so long even though there were important things they had to get to. I was only looking for Armor for about two days, only got into one fight, and slept in Trixie’s comfy house bag during the nights, but it was still exhausting. I let out a sigh of my own, and asked, “When do we leave?” “When you are ready,” Luna said, and gestured to the others around the table. “You will be accompanied by Ser Lulamoon, Polyus and Polyusa, and Evening Spark.” The four individuals with their three bodies smiled at us. Evening Spark seemed especially pleased with the arrangement, and saluted us with his new foreleg. I looked down into the table. I didn’t want to do it, but I knew it had to be done. I was gaining a deeper respect for Twilight and her friends, Trixie and Poly, the guards, and others who worked with this. In the stories, there are always youths setting out on adventure, often being forced to do so, and the helpless villagers respect adventurers so much, even though it stops seeming like that big of a deal poking around in a cave-system with a couple of goblins or hapless zombies. Especially in games where you’re fine with some healing magic or a sci-fi regenerative hypodermic. I was starting to understand though. Someone who does this regularly could be considered the stuff of legends by a lot of people, even if, odds were, they’d make it through. I could certainly see myself perceiving it that way, having been on an adventure myself now. I nodded, and looked up at Luna and Chrysalis. “Can we wait for a little while?” Luna and Chrysalis smiled at me. “Of course,” Chrysalis said. “You’ll need equipment, and learn how to use it.” — “Pretty neat spell,” I noted, and clubbed myself in the head with my prosthetic hoof a few times. “Standard training spell back home as well,” Armor noted. “I didn’t know about it though,” I said, striking the ground instead, producing the expected result instead of the hit being like an inflatable hammer like when I was hit. Armor, Trixie, Polyus and Polyusa, Evening, and I, were standing at a training ring, with Trixie and I standing in the arena, and the rest sitting on bleachers. There had been a few other guards who seemed to have a bit of spare time, who had pointed and talked among themselves in the distance. I guess it looked strange to have a filly in the ring. “And to have an extra strong one by your eye,” Trixie said, and cast another spell on me, and on our practice weapons. “What did that one do?” I asked. “Stay still,” she said, and magicked her practice sword in front of my face. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.” Naturally, I flinched when she poked me hard in the eye with it, or tried to. The blade stopped as if hitting solid steel an inch from my eye, and I was pushed back a bit instead. “Don’t want to damage it of course,” Trixie said. “No, please don’t until I finish this one,” I said, and pointed at my eyepatch, under which I still had my prosthetic eye, that didn’t quite work yet. “And your equipment is ready,” Trixie said, and magicked over a thick scarf to me. “Hard and Heavy made this one for you.” “How does this work?” I asked, and experimentally pulled it over me. I had learned by now that this is what the guards in this Equestria wore. It was a light armor, which could be worn by itself or underneath heavier armor. “Simple,” Trixie said, and fastened the straps around my neck, it was pretty heavy, but the weight was distributed comfortingly when she pulled some of it over my back like a cloak. Then she grabbed the part that hung from my neck, threw it over my face to drape it over my neck, then fastened it, and my cloak, with a simple tug at a pair of strings by my barrel. In less than two seconds, my cloak and scarf had transformed into a piece of armor of pliable metal-mesh that covered my whole head, barrel, stomach, and parts of my upper forelegs, leaving only the rest of my legs and my behind unprotected, and a part of my horn that didn’t have a protective ring around it. “Whoa,” I said, looking out through the mesh, and really not being bothered by it. ‘This will help against gnats.’ “Tie up your tail, Madam Desrochers,” Evening said. “It’s really pretty, and sparring outdoors is dirty business.” Trixie’s horn lit up, and two scarves from the table of weapons, equipment, and various knicknacks quickly flew up and tied themselves around my tail. “Oh, thanks,” I said. “About your legs,” Trixie said. “The spells can stop some very strong strikes, but I have a feeling you might be able to overpower them. Can you do something about that?” “Uh, yes,” I said, and turned the bracelet-like thing near the tops of my legs, down to where they were about the same strength as my normal legs. “There, now they’re not super strong. Now uh, how do we do this?” “Try poking me with this,” Trixie said, magicked up a medium-sized practice sword to me. “Just to be doubly sure, this won’t hurt you?” “That’s what we’re confirming,” Trixie said. “Right.” I took the sword, which was a bit big for me, in my prosthetic hoof. It was a simple and elegant-looking weapon, though obviously for practicing, since it was blunt even though we had protection spells on us. Protection spells which weren’t really useful in a real fight since they had to be cast on both the weapon and whatever it was to be used on, and only lasted for a short while. I sliced through the air with the blade, then took a moment to consider the tool. It felt a bit… off. When Armor was captured, I wouldn’t know what I could be pushed to doing in order to get him back, but I had never had a sword ready. Maybe that’s why it felt so unassuming to wield the deadly implement, or imitation thereof. I had been in several fights by now and swords had never been part of them. I didn’t associate swords with personal combat. Regardless, even if I ever got any use of one or not, this would hopefully be good practice for risky situations in general. Trixie presented her foreleg to me. “Ready?” “Yeah,” I said, focusing on her again. “Try stabbing me with it.” The bluntness of the sword meant that the tip was probably the closest to being dangerous. I shrugged, and stabbed at Trixie’s leg with enough strength to leave an annoying bruise and possibly break her skin, but not hurting her more than that. Her leg was forced back, but she didn’t even look bothered, and she remained unharmed, meaning that the magic worked. “Right, we should have a good half an hour before this wears off,” Trixie said, taking a wide stance, holding the sword in her foreleg and pointing it at me, angled down, while holding her head so that her horn was pointed away from me. “Weapon, magic, it doesn’t matter, attack me slowly.” I unfastened my mask and tore it off me into a scarf again. “Don’t you need armor?” I asked. “Not with these magics,” she said. “Neither do you, you’re just wearing it to get used to it.” “Alright,” I said, and pulled my armored mask up again. “Here we go then.” Trixie nodded, and I looked at the way she held her sword. It looked a bit like fencing in the movies, as she held it pointed slightly downward, and had no shield if you don’t count the disc guard. Which made more sense here considering how magic could make sure swords didn’t lose their edge from striking against other blades. I considered stabbing at her neck from above her guard, but she held it very defensively, and would have me stabbing with the far length of the blade at where she would have a lot more leverage than me. Instead, I came in from beneath, where trying to deflect my strike would push me into the ground instead of up from it, so I wouldn’t lose my balance. It was pretty much done in slow motion though, and I studied Trixie’s face for what she would think. Thankfully, Trixie wasn’t a movie style kung fu teacher who doesn’t want to show whether or not the student is doing anything right or wrong. Instead, she smiled. “Good,” she said, as she also slowly moved to intercept the strike. “Don’t give your opponent chances to influence your balance unless you can counteract her efforts.” “Like how?” I asked. “Using your wings if you have them,” Trixie said, and spread hers. “Otherwise, just having quick hooves and balance to spare helps.” “Oh.” “Come at me again in the same way, but slightly faster,” Trixie said. I did. Trixie stepped back and easily deflected the thrust. “Again. Faster.” Again, I struck, and again, she deflected. Not surprising of course, she knew what I was about to do. “Faster.” A strike. “Faster.” By now I was pretty much moving with as much speed I was comfortable with, but Trixie would clearly be able to handle me going faster still. “Faster.” “Steady thrusts, Gabe,” Armor said. “You’re not playing wiffle ball, you’re fencing.” “So…. what? ‘Be like the water’ or something?” I asked. There was silence for a moment as the ponies and changelings around me considered this. “I’m not sure what that means,” Evening said. “But that sounded pretty profound.” “Not my words,” I said, evenly. “Try it,” Trixie said. I calmed down, and struck continuously, not putting so much effort into my leg itself like I was trying to kick down a door on a train, more feeling like I was striking with my whole body, and moving more gracefully in the little circle that Trixie and I were walking in. Trixie steadily backed away from my attacks, and I interrupted my string of identical attacks by thrusting from the side. Trixie blocked it of course, but she looked at me appraisingly. “Do that again,” she said. “Keep going like you were going when you moved more relaxed.” I nodded, and came at her again. I only put some effort into trying to strike at her behind her sword, and more effort into transitioning from one attack into another with as much speed as possible for the least effort I could. It was actually quite entrancing to watch Trixie. She was clearly well-trained, and she and her sword danced almost hypnotically. After a while, I felt I could display some of the grace that Trixie showed in her movements, but only some. Even so, it felt like I was learning something about how to move and keep my balance properly. And I wasn’t sure, but I felt that this might be a hobby I could take up when I get back home. Hopefully Armor would be up for that. After a long series of strikes and thrusts from various angles, Trixie pinned my sword to the ground, and looked at me. She lifted her sword, not as fast as I had been moving, but much faster than the slow motions we had started out with, and struck towards me from the side. I brought my sword up to block her, and stepped away. Now it was my turn to back away from Trixie barrage of attacks. I had no doubt that she could move faster than this, and could poke me in the throat the moment she really wanted to, but it still felt like I was blocking moderately skilled attacks. Then she stopped. “Good,” she said, and lowered her sword. “Very good.” “Good form, Gabe,” Polyusa said. “Start blocking as readily as you attack, and I’d say you’ve done this before… and Polyus agrees. Not bad.” “This is all duelling though,” Evening pointed out. “Yeah, a free-for-all is different,” Armor said. “But it’s still good practice.” “Yes, this is all very formal,” Trixie said. “But we’re going to try something messier.” “To address you, Polyusa,” I said, taking deep breaths but not quite panting. “I’ve been in fights before, but aside from the train, the first few ones weren’t quite the real thing, it was in this illusion run amok.” “That sounds like a tale,” Trixie noted. “What magic spells do you know?” “Uhm,” I said, and gave this some thought. “Well, besides enchanting... levitation, arcanokinesis, that flashlight one, and a stun spell.” “Is your new horn working yet?” Armor asked the side. “Shush,” I told him, grinning beneath my mask. “Hmm?” Trixie said. “Nothing. Those are the spells I know,” I said, smiling innocently, though probably unnoticed by her. Trixie nodded, and raised her sword. “Freeform then. Have at you.” She struck out with her sword, and I blocked it and stepped away. Slowly and obviously, she readied a spell with her horn, and shot it at my hooves, which I jumped away from. Next she struck with her sword and shot a spell at my barrell in quick succession, not really trying to hit me but clearly just easing me into the idea of being ready for many kinds of attacks. “Steady on your hooves, but don’t tense up,” she said, calmly. “Come at me.” I struck at her, and she blocked me and counterattacked, pushing me back slightly. “Like you said, be like the water,” she said, and attacked again. “Don’t bunch up your withers, keep your balance steady instead and let the blows roll off your blocks.” We kept going like that for a while, Trixie’s attacks becoming faster and stronger, and me just managing to keep up. They were getting stronger and more steady though, and after a while I had to back off when something started feeling wrong. I walked sideways, keeping head fixed on her, but noticing pegasi hovering in the distance, looking at us, and some other ponies slowly approaching the bleachers. ‘That’s right,’ I thought. ‘Don’t fall for tunnel vision. Don’t use instincts when you can use your head.’ I steadily approached Trixie and reared up for an overhead swing. Clear and obvious, but not so slow that she’d catch on that I was planning something else with it. Trixie raised her sword and blocked the blow. If it was a contest of strength, she’d win, but I had other plans. I took my sword in my magic, and held it there while I quickly changed it to my left hoof. Trixie smirked in satisfaction and anticipation, and quickly shot a spell at me. I blocked it with my prosthesis, which I wasn’t sure we had established as counting as a hit, but if it had been a stun spell it wouldn’t have worked anyway. As she let her magic fly, I powered up my own horn and returned fire. Her eyes widened and her wings spread from surprise, and she quickly formed a magic shield to deflect the magic attack. I had anticipated, and counted on, her doing that. I jabbed my prosthetic hoof forward, their magic deflective capabilities disrupting her shield, to fire with my new backup horn instead. Trixie’s eyes were already wide enough, but it was with some satisfaction that I realized they would’ve widened again if they could. She beat with her wings and physically overpowered me, forcing my left foreleg to bounce into my prosthesis, knocking it off-target as I fell backwards. My plan had been derailed, but fortune of fortunes, and trickery of trickeries, I saw an opportunity and immediately doubled down on my play. Mid-fall, as the ground was coming up to meet my back, Trixie was above me. I had removed the stunner from my foreleg to make room for my new horn. However, I hadn’t thrown the old stunner away; I had transferred it to my hind leg. Throwing my rear prosthesis up and aiming it at Trixie, I let loose a burst of stun magic, hitting her square in the belly. I met the ground with a smack, mostly dampened by the magics Trixie had cast on us and our equipment. Trixie flew listlessly through the air behind me, tumbling across the sandy ground, and settled on her side. I rolled onto my stomach and ran over to her. “Are you okay?” She pawed at the ground as she tried figuring out what was up and down. “Uh… yyyeah,” she said, eventually finding her temple with a hoof to hold her head still as she tried focusing her gaze. “Tou… touché.” It was a pretty powerful blow, from one of Scrap Armor’s heavier models of stunners, so it was no surprise that even an alicorn like Trixie couldn’t shrug it off. Although unlike most people, she’d be up and going again within minutes. “What happened?” someone asked. I looked around to see at least two scores of ponies looking at us, having been drawn to the spectacle of the sparring. “I played dirty,” I said, a bit sheepishly. “It was freeform,” Trixie pointed out, and slowly stood up. “Nice job.” “Thanks,” I said. “No hard feelings?” “‘Course not, although now I want a rematch,” she said, before her forelegs buckled slightly under her. “... after I’ve sat down for a bit.” I led her back to the bleachers to the sound of stomping hooves, as the attendant ponies, mostly guards, calmly applauded and looked at each other while nodding. “You’d beat me if you were being serious,” I said. “No comment,” Trixie said. “Underestimating your opponent isn’t an excuse though. Maybe somepony else wants to fill in for me while I rest up?” Two scores of hooves silently shot into the air. I let out a sigh, then got a determined smiled on my face as I realized something. “Alright, but from now on there’s gonna be music.” — Days later, it was time to leave. Chrysalis stood to the side while Luna walked calmly in front of us, fastening our cloaks and making sure that our holsters with stun rods hung securely at our sides, with the swords inside them. We were not planning on leaving Equestria for a while, but even within the borders there were dangerous places with monsters and other nasties. A sword and a stun rod were sensible tools to bring with to an expedition. Luna smiled encouragingly down at us, before a sense of sadness crept into her expression. “I do not know what you are going to find at the oracles,” she said. “I hope for your safety, though I am… troubled by what victory might lead to. We are opposing the last member of an extraordinary people, and my old friend. “Sombra is strong and cunning, and wields the wit and martial might of the champions of legend. Expect his loyalists to reflect this.” Trixie, Poly, and Evening’s gazes met the floor, sadness clear on their faces. “But do not trouble yourselves,” Luna continued. “For now, focus on knowledge, and act after that. I trust your judgement, and so did he.” Luna bent down and shared a nuzzle with Trixie. “If you can, bring him back to us,” I heard her whisper. Chrysalis similarly bent down and nuzzled Poly. “Take care of each other,” she said. Then she walked up to me and Armor, and considered us for a moment, before reaching out and gently pushed us towards each other. “Come back if you need to,” Luna said. “Good luck.” And so we set out. There was no fanfare or ceremony. We were setting out on a secret mission that only a handful of people knew about. Trixie, Evening, Armor, and I, crept into Trixie’s house bag, while Poly took on the disguise of an earth pony and took the saddlebag. They were to walk out of Canterlot, and then we’d slip out again and resume the trek through the country, away from the roads. Hopefully it would be some time before Sombra and his agents got wind of us leaving. “So you’ve never heard of The Winsome Wilds?” Evening said, as we sat around the table, working on a stun wand to attach to his new leg. “No,” Armor said. “I’ve never heard of any of that in our Equestria.” “Is it dangerous?” I asked. “It’s… you might not consider it risky in a traditional sense,” Evening said, giving his prosthesis a wave. “But it’s easy to get lost I hear. I’ve never been there myself.” I looked at Trixie. “What about you?” I asked. “Once,” she said. “It’s… difficult to put into words, but trust me when I say that it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.” I nodded absent-mindedly and went back to work. I had listened attentively when Twilight and her friends had told about how they had been out on adventures. Hopefully that would help. I looked up at Armor, and smiled slightly as I went back to work. At least I had him with me this time. Gaiden > The Swashbucklers' Symphony/A Deck Full Of Jokers/All The Right Kinds Of Crazy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alfred Hitchcock once said, “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?” And now I know what he meant. In the stories, a seemingly insignificant person can undergo a journey of both geography and character, rising from humble origins to become an enemy of evil and save the world. This can go on for months or even years and, through the art of storytelling, also happen within the span of a few hours or less. There were some likenings to a typical adventure-story from my perspective, but only a few. For starters, there are no montages in real life. And, really, that’s one thing that makes video games the most accurate of all forms of make-believe— in that they include a bit more than a token recognition of the actual journey part of the journey. But… even they don’t capture just how much walking a quest in a magical land entails. Camping too, but that wasn’t so bad. Perhaps it was just me, but snuggling up to your sweetie by a campfire while having a slow and relaxing meal is quite calming. I also had to be grateful for Trixie’s house bag, and just how much luggage that meant we could carry with us. This of course included a guitar, which everyone seemed to enjoy me playing around the campfire. I was propped up against Armor while the rest of our band was looking at me, except Polyus and Polyusa, who alternated between that and keeping an eye on the pan hanging over the fire. “I shall now be plinking a small tune for thee. It starts off with romance, and happiness free. It dips in the middle from banality… then wraps up with explosive morality.” The curiosity of everyone’s expressions slowly gave way to amused smiles as I progressed into the next stanza. “High in the mountains were two flowers you see. One was a beauty, the other was me. Two weeks of labor and our house frame was done… but life without plumbing it just isn’t fun. “After four weeks our home was sturdy and stout… and then two weeks later our romance ran out. Up in our hut, it was me and my beau... when he didn’t rough it five nights in a row.” Poly and Armor sniggered at the words, while Evening’s expression started slowly turning uncertain, and Trixie’s head dropped. Sure, this was technically a secret mission. And yes, we had people that might be hunting us down at this very moment. But sometimes… you need to just live in the moment. So it turns out Polyus and Polyusa were actually pretty good cooks. One doesn’t normally want bugs near their food, but they were really nice-looking bugs who didn’t tickle my repulsion instincts. They were stir-frying some rice with mushrooms we had found with some tasty herbs, and some fire toasted bread on the side. Camping with a luxurious house bag was actually pretty great. As Poly stirred the pan, they all had begun chuckling from the lyrics about drink, spouses, and explosives, even before I started wrapping the song up. “... The echo from the blast reached far and reached wide. The air it hung heavy with fumes and burnt hide. Then I shed a tear ‘neath the roof of the stars, mourning our whiskey in casks and in jars. “The moral of the story is blunt and short cut. Do not at the mountaintop construct your hut. Trust not your own judgement when drunk in the night… and do not wave lit lanterns near dynamite.” Three sets of hooves, four if you included changeling appendages, applauded after the final tone faded away. Poly did so too, but it apparently doesn’t make much sound when changelings clap their hooves together. “Some romantic ballad that was, Gabe,” Polyusa pointed out with a smile. “It sure was,” I said, feigning ignorance. “I wonder what that says about you and Armor,” she continued, making Armor chuckle behind me. “Wait,” Evening said, pausing from cleaning the gunk out of where he had tried attaching the stun wand to his new prosthesis. “They are together then?” “You didn’t notice?” Polyusa said, smirking at him. “Not all of us can smell love,” Evening said. “Besides, even that doesn’t prove anything, but yeah, I thought you two seemed close.” I leaned into Armor. “Jealous? You should be.” “Of who?” Armor asked. “You or me?” “Me, according to me. Me, according to yourself I would say,” I quipped, smirking a bit. Armor sniggered. “I didn’t want to say anything at first.” Evening noted. “But you do seem very mature for your age, Gabe.” “Remember how I said I was originally a human?” I said. “Yeah?” “In pony years, Gabe is closer to seventy or eighty,” Armor said. “Really?” Evening blinked. “Yeah, that’s what it’s like without magic,” I said. “Harsh,” Evening said. “Well, It isn’t my place to judge— especially a pony who was passing out limbs when I needed one.” I chuckled a bit at that. “It does explain why your love smells so mature,” Polyus said. “It does seem a little bit strange to see a filly who’s in some ways more mature than the shining example of a coltfriend,” Evening chuckled. “Well, he’s not just my coltfriend. He’s a bit like my guard dog too.” I took Armor’s foreleg and tail and wrapped them around me, rubbing our hooves together as I hugged his tail. “And like a guard dog, he makes a great cuddler. Hoofsie-woofsie toofsie-too.” “Speaking of mature,” Polyusa said, chuckling. “That’s the joke,” Armor said, and rested his head on mine. “Speaking of scent,” I segued. “Poly, how did you learn to cook? You eat love.” “Well, variation is good for the soul. Also, don’t want our taste buds to atrophy,” Polyus noted, happily. “Yep. Sharing a meal is one of the oldest pony bonding rituals,” Polyusa said. “And we’re all about bonding. Besides, two of us means double insight into taste.” “Makes sense,” I conceded. “How’s the eye coming along?” Trixie asked. “It works.” I adjusted my eye patch with a hoof. “It sees. I’m just wearing my eye patch because the enchantment that keeps the eye in my socket doesn’t allow it to move around, so I’m stuck looking straight ahead. I gotta fix that before I start using it.” “And your backup horn?” Trixie asked. “How did you make that?” “Well, a wand takes the magic you pour into it and turns that into a specific spell, so I reverse engineered that and made a new type of wand that lets me determine for myself what the form of magic going out of it should be.” “How did you get the wand to change what type of magic it can cast?” “A lapis lazuli gel inside a metal vessel,” I said. “It took some work, but it emulates a unicorn horn by rearranging itself in order to shape the magic into spells much like a horn does. It sounds complicated, and I guess it was, but I had a reference close by,” I said, tapping my own horn. “You’re so great at making things only vaguely understandable,” Armor said, smiling. “Thank human entertainment for that,” I said. “This sadly means that they’re too advanced to mass produce with the wands I made back in Canterlot, at least for now, but they can be replicated.” “I can see why Sombra would use you,” Trixie said. “Not many ponies can do what you can.” “Well…” I started, a bit abashed. “Everyone’s good at something. Sometimes it… some people just happen to create impressive stuff.” “That’s true,” Trixie said, and smiled at me. “Dinner’s ready,” Polyus said. We all started spooning up the slightly mushy mix of flavored rice and mushroom, and got to eating. It was actually good– much better than I expected when half the stuff was found in the wood around us. Foraging might’ve seemed a bit unnecessary while having access to a portable house stocked full with supplies. Trixie said that diversity was important during long expeditions, which made sense to me. “I guess half the ponies in your Equestria are part metal,” Evening said. “Not really,” I said. “Our Equestria is a lot… uhm… from what I know, our Equestria is frequently being threatened by outside… well, threats, but overall it seems a lot safer than here.” “All changelings are half-starved monsters by the sound of it,” Polyusa said. Evening put his new hoof on his chin and looked of in the middle distance. “So you have more threats, but they’re dealt with faster?” “It seems so,” Armor said. “Since this world seems morally flipped, at least when it comes to important ponies, the threats in our world are heroes here.” “What about his majesty? Sombra?” Evening asked. “He was an ancient, evil king who usurped the throne of the Crystal Empire, before Celestia and Luna sealed him away.” “And both them and the old Crystal Empire would be good guys,” Evening said, nodding to himself. “I can see how there would be less need for prosthetics then.” “Yeah,” I said. “Which is not to say that there is no need. Accidents happen.” “Makes you wonder about other bad guys, like Clover the Conniving,” Trixie said. “Who?” Armor and I asked. Trixie shrugged. “Just some unicorn from the gallery of powerful, mad ponies from long ago.” “And you don’t have a counterpart?” Evening asked me. “No, that’s what makes me ‘special’,” I said, making hoof quotes in the air. “You are special,” Armor said, putting a wing around me. “You’re special,” I retorted, and smiled up at him. “I consider a genius inventor special,” Evening said. “You’d be biased though,” I pointed out good-naturedly. “I feel special being the only human I know of who’s turned into a unicorn pony, but I don’t exactly feel larger than life. I like playing the guitar, hanging out with friends, and hanging around in one of those floaty chairs in the pond in Ponyville and eat ice cream. Not something I used to associate with world saving feats.” The rest around the campfire smiled a bit at the thought of doing something similar. “Well I’ll help you get back to your world so you can keep doing that,” Evening said. “I feel obliged to.” I shrugged, smiling at him, before stopping and considering what he said. “Going on a possibly dangerous journey to enable someone to lounge around and play music.” “Well, you know,” Armor started. “Protecting the citizens of Equestria and their ways of life. That’s what’s being a guard is all about.” “Hear hear,” Evening, Polyus, and Polyusa said. I nodded, thinking it sounded noble enough when put like that, and looked up at Armor. “Do you remember Lyra’s roommate, Bon Bon, and her vocal range?” Armor paused, looking up in the sky with a thinking-face. “Uuh… yes,” he said. “I’m gonna go back to Ponyville, get Lyra on the lyre, me on the guitar, and her on vocals. We’re gonna be the masters of power ballads, and we’re gonna call ourselves Bon Bon Jovi.” Everyone stared blankly at Armor and me as we shared a laugh. He looked at them. “Listen through the music gems that Gabe enchanted and you’ll get it,” he said, smilingly. — We spent a few days walking through the wilderness, which I wasn’t very used to. Ponyville and its surrounding areas was the perfect balance of nature and hamlet-y charm. Walk out from the core of the town, and you’d most likely find yourself in one of those picturesque scenes that nature tends to create on its own accord when left free to do so, be it the gently rolling hills or the serene forests and meadows of White Tail Woods. Walk a little further, beyond the sight of houses and cabins, and with just a smidge of imagination, you were discovering unexplored lands and stumbling across great adventures with your cutie mark seeking friends. That wasn’t the landscape we were moving through now. We were walking through older lands. More untouched territories and primeval forests. If there ever had been ponies cultivating these lands, they hadn’t done so in a long time. A primeval forest sounds foreboding, and in some ways it could’ve been, but the sun was shining through the canopy in pleasant green patterns, birds were singing, and I was in good company, conversing with friends. Still, I could understand why “woodsmen” were considered capable and respected in medieval fantasy settings, and it didn’t take much to imagine why a dark forest at night could be scary. If I was alone, I could imagine the horror of idly scanning the serene landscape surrounding me, only to suddenly realize that some oh-so-very-harmless-looking detail between a pair of trees was actually a hungry lynx staring at me. “Wanna ride on my back, Gabe?” Armor asked. “I think so,” I said. By now, my prostheses were so well aligned to me that they barely drained more magic to use than my physical legs drained stamina. Even so, Armor was bigger than me, and as such had longer legs. We were walking along a cliffside, wondering if we should continue along it on hoof or just fly down since three fifths of our party had wings. “Hey, I think that’s the edge of the forest,” I said, pointing towards the sunlit plains in the distance, and noticed that the treeline looked as if it was trimmed by hand. “The woods end very suddenly though.” “It is,” Trixie said. “And the reason the forest stops so abruptly over there is because that’s the Winsome Wilds.” She turned to Evening. “Now, who would you rather give you a ride? A strong and brave guard, the lustrously chitinous twins, or me?” Evening looked taken aback, before smiling and blushing. “Would you mind, madam?” “I would not,” she said, and bent down to let Evening sit on her back just as I was sitting on Armor’s. “Let’s go,” she said. We soared, and buzzed, down to the edge of the forest in the distance, touching down just beyond it. I lit up my horn and scanned the treeline behind me, as was becoming my habit. We were moving incognito across the land, and so we kept our eyes and other sensors sharp at all times. It was boring and we never found anything, but of course, that's the thing about being alert: it is boring, until it very suddenly stops being so. “So this is the Winsome Wilds?” I asked, looking at the plains ahead of us as my magical senses slowly swiveled around. “It’s pretty, but I was expecti– whoa!” I backpedalled into Armor, who put a protective foreleg around me as I magically stared at the phenomenon ahead of me. “What is it, Gabe?” Armor asked, vigilant and comforting. “I think she just saw the magic of this place,” Trixie said. I nodded absentmindedly as I tried processing the magic in front of me. Equestria was full of magic. It was pervasive and ever-present. I had not encountered nor heard of a place without it. It could be inert of course, in a few places: if I emptied my prostheses of the magical gem dust in them and placed them away from my arcanomorphic form, their insides would be empty of active magic much like a vacuum tube is devoid of physical matter. It also differed from place to place. The magic in the Everfree Forest felt different from Ponyville much like the air felt different, and a place like Sweet Apple Acres’ magic was subtly different from a patch of wilderness due to the Apple family tending to the land. In the process, they would attune it and themselves to each other. Canterlot and the Crystal Empire were also good examples of different passive magic, the magic that allowed such engineering and architectural marvels having solidified, settled, mutated, influenced, and been influenced by centuries of ponies living there and loving their homes, much like Ponyville also did. All of that was like sensing moisture in the atmosphere. It was everywhere, and it added up to a lot of water, and if sensing the magic surrounding Celestia when she raised the sun, or when Twilight really put her weight into a spell was like seeing steam from a locomotive. Magically sensing the Winsome Wilds was like seeing fog for the first time, there wasn’t much more than you’d find someplace else, but it was much more active. “How does it look?” Armor asked, still holding his foreleg around me. “Uhm… palpable,” I said. “Not in that swirly way when you cast a spell. It looks a bit like… like… thick foliage next to normal magic grassy, bushy plains… or something.” “... Huh,” Armor said, and relaxed his foreleg. “Does it look… dangerous? Like it’d be difficult to move through?” “I can’t say for certain,” I said. “It’s like watching strange weather, like sunshine and rain or strange clouds. It looks okay I’d say, knowing that there are plenty of dangerous things that doesn’t look dangerous. What do you think, Trixie? You’ve been here before.” “No, nothing dangerous in the traditional sense,” she said, shaking her head. “All things dangerous here are in the mind.” My eye narrowed at that. “That doesn’t sound good,” I said. “Makes me think of eldritch whispers that eat away at your sanity.” Everyone looked shocked and slightly disgusted by those words. “Nothing that horrific,” Trixie said. “It’s just difficult not being entranced by the beauty of the place.” “It’s pretty,” Evening admitted, watching a few dandelion tufts drift by. “But I’ve seen prettier.” “That’s gonna change when we go in there,” Trixie said. “What will happen?” Polyus said. “I don’t know,” Trixie admitted. “Everypony I’ve talked to who have gone in there describe it differently.” “And they’re all okay?” Armor asked, still holding his foreleg around me. “They’re fine,” Trixie said, nodding. “Still, we should be careful in there.” “Equipment check then,” I said. “Are all of your communicators working properly?” Everyone nodded and mumbled in confirmation as they pulled their hair clips with full-duplex walkie talkies out of their manes and silk and switched them on. “Testing,” I said, as the others nodded in confirmation. “Testing,” Armor said, and so on. “How’s your leg holding up, Evening?” I asked. “Everything good? Mine is magically attached so it doesn’t chafe but I haven’t tried Hard and Heavy’s legs so I don’t know about yours.” “Oh it’s just fine,” he said. “No chafe for me either and I’m getting used to having a full range of motions with less sense of touch.” I sat down and pulled my stun rod from my holster, then I gripped the lower and upper part of the long handle, pulling it apart and revealing the sword hidden inside the rod much like a sword cane. “So I didn’t practice with these, but there’s an arcano-disruptive head at the end of this?” I asked. “Yes,” Evening said, holding his out for inspection as well. “You just squeeze the hilt together and it activates when you hit something with the head. Don’t shock everything you see though, since it uses your own magic reserve.” “You familiar with these, Armor?” I asked. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “We practiced with sword and staves, but mostly spears back home, but I guess this works like in… you know that movie where the humans are too polite to fight the villain, so they get another human to fight him?” I looked at him questioningly. “You know,” he continued. “He kept growling and making that strange pouty expression when he was angry… they froze him in ice.” “Oh, right,” I said, finally catching on. “Yeah, sounds like that.” The rest were looking at us with curious expressions, but we just smiled at them and waved their questions away. It felt like it would take a long time to explain what we were talking about and not lead to much anyway. I pulled my armored scarf and cloak over my head and back and tightened the strings. It functioned properly, as I was armored in less than two breaths just like before, then I lowered it and rolled it up in the scarf again, satisfied. “Okay, recap,” I said. “We’re going in that very actively magical place to talk to oracles.” “Yep,” Polyusa confirmed. “Who are nice,” I said. “But can’t come to us because they’re not entirely in this world.” “Correct,” Polyus said. “And we don’t know what will happen in there, just that it has to do with the mind?” “Primarily,” Trixie said. I took this in for a moment, nodding my head. “Alright, I’m read– no wait. Can everyone look away, please?” Everyone turned away, even Armor, whom I reared up and pecked on the side of the muzzle. He blushed slightly and gave me a quick nuzzle in return. Poly shivered excitedly, opening their mouth and tasting the air with their long tongue. “Alright, now I’m ready,” I said after a few moments. We advanced to the clear edge, watching the slightly brighter weather and the more lustrous flora on the other side for a moment before stepping through. At first, it was a bit underwhelming. I felt the magic buzz and tingle around me, and at first I just stood there to try and study the effects. It would’ve taken a more skilled unicorn than me, or at least one with more time, to get anything useful out of it. I could not make head or tails of it as it flowed across me from my head to my tail, then I saw it. I, like everyone else, tend to start taking things around me for granted. Every once in a while though, I wake up to the good things around me and just how good they really are. The safety and comfort of one’s home, the love you share with those close to you, and the serene charms of Ponyville. That happened again when I looked around me, only more intensely. I saw a stream of petals flowing by, creating a hypnotising image in the wind. I saw the wonderfully blue sky and the benevolent sun shining its comforting light down on me, and I looked to my side and saw Armor, his mane catching the wind and making it flow around his strong looking, now slightly-shaggy-looking-but-in-a-good-way face, which bore that determined and benevolent expression. He looked at me and gave me a soft smile. “Shall we go on?” he asked, and made no effort to proceed. “... Yeah,” I said, also just standing there. The rest of our posse also stood still, looking around themselves, utterly enamored with the captivating beauty of the world around them. – “We really should get going,” I said, smiling slightly and lying on my back and watching the wind gently make waves across the grass in the distance. “... Yeah,” Armor tried to agree, lying head-to-head to me. “Hey, guys,” I called. “You wanna get going?” “Sure," Trixie said, also smiling as she played with Polyus’ tail, while Polyus was brushing Trixie’s coat. “Hey, Gabe, Armor,” Polyus said. “Have you noticed that Trixie’s coat is the same color as the sky?” I lazily rolled over, and saw that her coat did indeed blend nicely with the blue sky above. “This is ridiculous,” Evening said, trying to sound serious. “We shouldn’t just be sitting here, watching the flowers.” “Yeah,” Armor agreed. “Though we’re watching the clouds.” “Yeah? Let me see,” Evening said, and walked up to sit beside us. “Neat.” We sat there for a while, finding the beauty that nature tends to produce when left to its own devices absolutely captivating. “I’m gonna take my eyepatch off for this,” I said, doing just that, and revealing my pearly white prosthesis. “I wanna see this with two eyes.” “Remind us why you don’t have that off all the time,” Evening said, before we all paused to listen to the wind blowing across the field. “Because it’s pointed forward all the time,” I said. “The enchantment that keeps it from falling out also keeps it pointing straight ahead. There’s something iffy about my normal locomotion enchantment and eyes I’m still trying to figure out.” “Does it need to move?” Armor asked. “It’s not like there’s a pupil.” I watched the light play off Armor’s mane before his words registered. “... You are a genius, Armor,” I said, and stretched my neck to kiss him on the cheek. Armor looked slightly proud as I set to work. I lit up my horn, and before long, eyesight and movement of my field of vision were restored in my right side. “That went smoothly,” I noted. “I wonder if this place made it easier, or if I could do that easily, and my elation is drowned out by everything else here.” “I’m guessing the latter,” Trixie noted, as she walked around, feeling the grass underneath her hooves. Poly came up to us, and sat down beside Armor and me, pulling our heads into their lap. “I just want a snack,” Polyusa said. “Go ahead,” Armor said, and he and I relaxed into her, as Poly sniffed the air above us. “What do you think the oracles will say?” I asked. “No idea,” Polyus said. “How to send you home I hope.” Armor and I smiled, and Polyus and Polyusa no doubt thought our reactions tasted great. “I hope so,” I said. “That would be very important knowledge to us, and they ought to share something like that. It doesn’t feel right visiting oracles who doesn’t have anything pivotal to say.” The rest simmered in agreement at this. We stayed as we were for a while, and I lazily moved my foreleg back and forth across the grass, feeling it tickle my frog, and entertaining myself by looking at it with my new eye, which functioned indistinguishable from my normal eye. “... We’re stuck, aren’t we?” Evening said. “Seems that way,” Polyus said. “Yeah,” Armor said. “Mmm,” from Trixie. “...” Often, when you’re sick or tired or have a headache, it feels like your brain is full of mush, which doesn’t feel nice, and while you can clean yourself and eat, more complex things can feel near-impossible to do right. This was kind of like that, except it was hard to mind this mush. It was nice and pleasant mush, so it was a bit hard to fight it. “How about moving?” Armor said. “What about moving?” Evening said. “You put one hoof in front of the other.” We let out a collective snerk, before Trixie suggested, “Maybe there are even nicer things to watch where the oracles are?” “Where are they?” Polyusa said. “Don’t know. We’ll have to look,” Trixie said. “Or find a sign or something.” “You mean a sign like, uh… a vision sign or a sign by a crossroad?” Armor asked. “I was thinking vision sign.” “We’d miss all these nice things,” Polyus complained weakly, gesturing towards the landscape. “Yeah,” Trixie agreed, and sat down. ‘We need to move, and find the oracles, and find out how to get home,’ I thought to myself, feeling frustrated but in a really lazy way. ‘But it’s all too beautiful… just like that song. ‘Just like that… song.’ I suddenly stopped, then raised my head from Poly’s lap. “Something going on, Gabe?” Polyusa asked. I didn’t answer. Instead, I mustered up all the concentration I had, and walked over to Trixie, jumped up on her back, and shoved my head into her mobile apartment. I lit up my horn, and retrieved my guitar right by the entrance, before emerging with it, and walking over to Armor to sit on his back. “Oh hey!” Evening said, turning over to look closer at me when he saw what was in my hooves. “Great idea.” I couldn’t answer. Instead, I just looked back and forth between him, Poly, and Trixie, trying to grasp all that they were doing for Armor and me, and why. They, and Armor, were starting to give me worried looks, as I felt a tear building in the corner of my eye as I climbed up on Armor I tried thinking of lyrics, before quickly dismissing that and just going with my guts. My hoof gently caressed the strings, and out came a gentle melody, perfectly tuned for a soft, thankful song. “I lived my days alone and shrouded only, in aching memories of what I had lost. Then came the magic and closeness and love, and I learned that friendship is worth the cost.” The worried looks gave way to rapt attention, as they and Armor slowly rose to their hooves. “Its wholesome ways. Treasure it always.” “With my true friends, it upon me shone.” “Just like with song, It makes us strong.” “With true friends, you’re never alone.” Everyone gave me smiles mixed with sadness and happiness, but mostly the latter, as we began walking across the landscape, the beauty of which seemed to resonate with the song, as I continued singing about the beauty of friendship on Armor’s back. “Princesses, friends, and magic, and teachers, helped me to help others through what I would learn. And just as I was given a new life, I would help others get theirs back in turn.” Our march had become pretty spirited, but even so the landscape was moving by faster than one would normally expect. Not that we noticed as the rest joined in for the refrain. “Its wholesome ways. Treasure it always.” “With my true friends, it upon me shone.” “Just like with song, It makes us strong.” “With true friends, you’re never alone.” The soothing melodies of a small, string-led arrangement led us on over hills and meadows as my hooves calmly danced across the strings. During the following solo, Armor turned to smile at me. I smiled back and rose up to hang my guitar over his neck, still playing while rubbing my cheek against his, as I started singing the following verse. “In my dream I had a teacher, who was kind and giving with creation’s spark,” Armor joined in for the following part, the joy of the song slightly dimming over the next part. “But then he appeared draped in shadows, and seeking his lover through a poisoned dark.”. Our spirits dimmed further from remembering this subject matter, before it raised up again, from reaching the next part of the tale. “We were cast into this dark reflection, our hope all but lost, alone and astray. Then we were saved and this is a friendship that we never can, but must try to repay.” We stopped marching, and Trixie, Poly, and Evening considered us with surprised expressions before they took over the singing. “Worry not about what you can do to repay us, we are here to help, our courageous friends.” The grateful smiles on Armor’s and mine’s face grew, as we sang the last part. “This is beyond the call of true heroes, and we will mourn our companionship’s end.” We all joined in for one last refrain… “Its wholesome ways. Treasure it always. With our true friends, it upon us shone. Just like with song, It makes us strong. With true friends, we’re never alone.” The melody slowly died out, and we all stopped to look at each other for a moment, before joining in a group hug. We all wrapped our forelegs and necks over each other in gratitude and support, and I had just enough presence of mind to move my guitar out of the way. Even after having lived for months among magical ponies, this amount of happy, hug-y affection would’ve felt a little too mushy for me, but at this time, in this place, I didn’t care. I just relished the comforting and supporting presence of my friends, and of course their soft coats (and sleek chitin), as another tear slowly built in my eye. “Mmhmhmhm,” Polyus chuckled, half in pain, half in delight. “We’re overfed.” We slowly disengaged, and now that we no longer had the context of a song to sing and dance to, fought down an urge to fidget uncomfortably as an awkward silence loomed, but then we looked around, taking in our new surroundings. I flicked my ears, seeming to hear something in the distance. “Where are we?” Evening asked. The beautiful plains had started accommodating copses of woods, with some outlying trees here and there. One was particularly dense, almost forming a wall of trees, except for an opening between a pair of large cherry trees whose crowns had grown together, making a sort of archway. Trixie’s eyes lit up. “We’re here, near the oracles’ spring.” “Let’s go give them a ring,” I said, before narrowing my eyes at my choice of words. We slowly walked into the grove, taking in the beautiful sights around us, but not being hypnotized by them anymore. Now we could focus again, and what held my attention was the paradisiacal spring we were approaching, and the slowly growing sound in the background. Bumblebees and small birds flew back and forth inside the grove, with small woodland creatures scurrying between the trees or stopping to look at us in and around the extraordinary healthy-looking flora. In the center was a spring of sparkling, shimmering water, emitting a gentle and calming light, flowing from some unknown source among the round rock-formations in the center. “This was a barren place once,” Trixie said in a low, respectful voice. “After Starswirl the Mad banished the oracles, the ponies of old searched for them all over Equestria. But they were trapped in a realm from where they could no longer interact with our world, and this is where ponies managed to create a mirror for them to peer into it.” “So they’re old then?” I asked, in a low voice, and thought I heard the background tone stutter slightly. “By pony standards, yes,” said Trixie. “They’re not ponies though.” “What are they?” Armor asked. “I don’t know if they’re part of a people or if they’re unique,” Trixie said. “But in your Equestria, you have powers that threaten all that is good, and you have champions and forces of good that help guard it. We do as well, and the oracles are one of those powers of good.” I was about to ask if we needed to call them somehow, when the strange background note started taking on a comprehensible form: “...Ooooooh, you flatter us, brave ser knight,” a trio of voices sang from the spring, the light from which suddenly shined brighter, as three shapes, one purple, one teal, and one yellow, shot out from it with nary a ripple in the water, and stopped in front of us, making all of us except Trixie take an alarmed step back.. “... Especially with your own flame shining so bright.” Before us suddenly floated a trio of large, vaguely equine-shaped beings. They had hooves and muzzles, but scales instead of coats, and fins instead of manes and ears. Trixie bowed, and so did the rest of us. They certainly struck an image that demanded respect. “Dazzlings,” Trixie said, as she rose up. “We’ve come to ask you for guidance.” The Dazzlings smiled, and floated effortlessly through the air. Almost unconsciously, they seemed to make little dance-like motions. “We know, dear friend, we know,” they sang, smiling kindly at Trixie. “The seed of our wisdom we can sow.” Somehow, whatever they said came out as song, and not aimless sing-song either, but beautiful ballads. “What can you tell us?” Trixie asked. The three figures floated up to Trixie, and the yellow one put a hoof to her on her chin. “Walk on fighting and never despair, now tell us why you are here.” With the singing, the beauty, the entrancement, and how I understood Equestria to work in general, it was pretty obvious what exactly I was seeing: sirens. ‘More Hellenic stuff? What’s next? Hippocampi? Hippogriffs? Is a technodrome built by ponies a hippodrome?’ Trixie turned around slightly and gestured to me and Armor. The sirens’ eyes went wide, and they shot forward to circle us, either in excitement or agitation, it was hard to say. Armor took a step towards me, as if to stand protectively over me, eyeing the sirens. Their swimming calmed down, and they floated to a stop in front of us, their eyes fixed on me and Armor. Suddenly, my guitar floated off from Armor’s back, and began magically playing as the sirens sang, looking up questioningly to the sky above. “Majesty, in darkness your plans are still wise.” Their eyes returned to me. “Hellion, warp and mystify.” Armor and I looked at the sirens as they started floating in a circle around us, inspecting us with open curiosity. “Majesty, plans wrapped in a fine disguise. Hellion, destiny defy.” “Hellion?” I said, not feeling that was a term fitting for me or Armor. “What do you mean?” Once again, the sirens floated away from us, and my guitar levitated beside me. I took it in my magical aura, and started playing. I knew what to play, and judging from where I was when I did, there was obviously magic at play here. It started gentle and relaxed, with a theatrical feel to it. The sirens responded with a song. “Behind closed eyes of the world we see the force unseen, from our imprisonment, past and future we can glean.” “Ponies sail upon in its waves of both hardships and of play. Soaring far above their waves, your soul dance its own way.” It wasn’t all becoming clear, but a big pile of answers was raining down around me, I stepped up and sang the next verse myself. “I was not born in a world of magic, spells, and fey.” The sirens nodded, and finished. “And the tunes of destiny and fate, over you they hold no sway.” I sat plopped down on my behind as I thought about this. This must’ve been what Fluttershy told me Discord had said: that I functioned differently from ponies, that is, the ponies with the souls of ponies. If these worlds were parallels, with ponies, at least the major players, morally mirrored to each other, to me meant that something or some force should be influencing them to be exactly that. According to Fluttershy, Discord was different from ponies in that he had the capacity to choose whether he was good or bad, and that I was maybe even more different from ponies than he was. I stood up, and looked at the sirens, bringing the guitar into my magical grasp. “Tell me what my presence means and what it is you want. Steering the whole of the world, my dreams such fate would haunt.” The sirens floated up to me, kind expressions, but with a hint of sadness to them. They held out their hooves and placed them under my chin, which passed partially through them, showing them to be ethereal. They sang: “Use your strength, your heart, your values and your wit Think of what you know and feel and act as you see fit.” Armor still stood half-huddled around me, eyeing the sirens with a mixture of interest and suspicion. He leaned his head forward to address the floating sirens. It was the very first time I heard him sing solo. “Across the lands and between the world we wander and we roam. Where do we go and what do we do, when we want to go home?” The sirens turned their focus towards Armor, but didn’t match his slightly suspicious demeanor. They instead moved their hooves to his face, and gently gave him an ethereal caress. “Brave protector, take your charge and all the courage you can bring...” They disengaged from us, and floated towards the pool in the middle of the clearing, still singing. “Trust your friends and steel yourself... and stop the dark king.” The music died down, the shimmer from the ponds settles slightly, and the sirens’ posture relaxed. They held out their hooves towards my guitar, still floating to the side, and magically brought it to them. They started circling it, weaving invisible patterns in the air around it, and sent it back to me. I took it in my hoof, sensing the magic radiate from it. “This won’t work often, but when you need to, grab it and sing,” they said, as the purple one’s head suddenly turned to the side, looking at something beyond the treeline with a scowl. “Trust in your strength and cunning, and get going. They are coming!” Trixie only just threw a glance at the direction where the purple siren had looked, before spreading her wings, drawing our attention to her. “Alright, let’s go,” she said, promptly and unceremoniously, then turned around and ran. Armor and I looked at each other, then started running with the others towards the opening in the barrier of trees we had entered through, my guitar in my magical grip. I slowed down and looked back at the sirens. “Thank you!” I called. “Run!” they shouted back. We ran out onto the barely forested foothills, and looked around us for any signs of danger, but we didn’t see anything. “Are they gonna be okay?” I asked. “They can’t be harmed,” Trixie assured me, as she took my guitar and magiced it into her bag. “But they won’t be able to physically help us either.” Armor was watching the horizon in the direction that the sirens had looked when they seemed to spot the danger. “I can’t see anything,” he said. “Me neither,” Evening weighed in. “Hmm. If they, whoever they are, are heading from there in a straight line here,” Polyus said, pointing to where they were looking. “What say we take our chances moving close to the ground, perpendicular to them, back where we came?” Armor nodded. “That’s either a good plan or a bad plan depending on how fast they’re moving and how good they are at scouting,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of hiding places around here though,” Evening said. “Just some boulders and copses, but I don’t have a better idea.” “What do you say, Gabe?” I almost blanched at that. “Uh, well I… don’t have a better idea either.” “Then let’s move,” Trixie said, “and stay close to the ground.” We started running ahead across the hills, not quite sprinting, but not jogging either, as we looked around us. I assumed that the most immediate threat when someone is searching for you in Equestria would be airborne pegasi, but Equestria also had tunneling monsters and weather that could be used to corral fearsome creatures, so in my limited experience I really had no idea what to look for. Trixie’s magic enveloped me and placed me on her back. “No offence, Gabrielle, but I’d like you to save your strength.” “Sure, sure,” I said, realizing that I had the shortest legs. It also meant I could look around without fear of tripping. I leaned into Trixie’s neck, luckily I had plenty of experience riding on Armor’s back, so I bounced gently with her. Every time we rounded a hill, I both breathed a sigh of relief, and felt a sense of unease build up in me from the distant landscape disappearing from view. Initially, I couldn’t see anything when we reached a peak, until a speck was visible on the horizon. I narrowed my eyes, and while my prosthesis could now see just as well as my normal one, I couldn’t make out what it was, and I promised myself that I would install a zoom function on it as soon as possible. “What’s that?” I asked. “In the distance.” We stopped, and looked at the small shape rapidly getting closer. “It’s an airship,” Armor said, no relief in his voice. “Military or civilian?” Evening asked. “... Civilian,” Polyusa said. “It’s moving fast for a civilian ship,” Evening noted. We stood in silence for about one second before Trixie narrowed her eyes from realization. “Pirates!” she hissed, and immediately resumed running. “Move, and stay close to the ground! Let’s see if we can put some trees or hills between them and us!” Our predicament started dawning on me as I craned my head and saw the speck slowly taking the shape of a ship. A ship large enough to fit a small army. Dozens of eyes could be spying from an excellent vantage point, scouts could be sent out and use the ship as a base, they moved fast with minimal effort, and they could be searching in shifts. We were already at a disadvantage, and if we let that thing overtake us, we would have to resort to hiding, which in this landscape would result in an endurance contest we probably couldn’t win. After some time of running, the ship had grown steadily bigger, so big that I could make out the sails, but not the crew scurrying on it, which I found comforting. Trixie looked back at the others, and saw how they were out of breath. “Let’s head for that copse,” she said, and pointed to a fairly dense collection of trees in a small dale. When we arrived, we hid in the sparse undergrowth, which would only serve as a hiding place from faraway eyes. Armor, Evening, and Poly stood on the far side of the trees, panting slightly, and even Trixie was starting to seem a little winded as she climbed a short distance up a tree and observed the ship, which was now beginning to show its side. “We can’t stay here for long,” Evening said. “No,” Trixie agreed. “Let’s see where they’re heading.” Poly, being excellent climbers, joined her in the tree. “They’re doing well for this place,” Polyusa said. “You think they can sing their way across the land too?” “They would, wouldn’t they?” Armor said. I looked around, almost in surprise. We were still in The Winsome Wilds, but the beauty of this place didn’t feel overwhelming anymore, and I frankly didn’t have another song in me at that moment. “Can we hide in your house?” I asked Trixie. “If we camp in that, and camouflage it, we could outlast them.” Trixie stopped panting as she considered this. “I’m not sure. It’s powerful enough magic that there are several ways to detect it, and… well,” she said, looking a bit exasperated. “I’m betting that Rosen Wreath and Golden Star are on that ship. They know about it, and they’d know what to look for. If they find it with us in it, they’d, frankly, have us in a bag.” “So what do we do?” I asked. “We’ll try and get away, but we have to remain flexible,” Trixie said. “To the west, there are woods they’ll never find us in, and beyond that, or to the south, are military presences that can help us, but–” Trixie’s eyes narrowed “– any number of troopers could be Sombra’s sleeper agents. We should try and get back to Canterlot, or someplace with a lot of changelings.” “The south sands are pretty far away,” Polyus noted. “And the enclaves are in Canterlot and the other large cities.” “Then we’ll try and evade them in the wilds,” Evening said. I had seen the movies. Fleeing from a larger force in the wild is asking to be separated. I reached into my mane and pulled out the small hair clip I kept forgetting to remove as I cleaned my mane, and held it to Armor. “Take this,” I said. Armor, knowing what it was, nodded, and placed it in the base of his mane. “So,” Trixie said. “How do we get from where we are to the woods without being detected?” “I’ll distract them,” Evening said. “No,” Trixie and Polyusa said at the same time. “None of that,” Polyusa said. “What happens if all of us with wings just fly as fast as we can back towards the woods and carries the others?” I asked. “If we’re not spotted, we’re gonna get there tired and vulnerable to anyone who might have followed or who might be waiting for us there,” Trixie said. “If we are spotted, we can outrun them for a while if we move fast enough, then we’ll be overtaken by a fresh crew.” I nodded as I considered this. She had a point. It would’ve been the first reaction anyone would have, which would make it very easy for any pursuer to plan for. “It looks like they’re heading for that… meadow, that the sirens were in,” Armor said. “Well they don’t have any leverage I know of,” Trixie said, as she climbed down the tree. “Let’s hope they take their time over there. We’ll move, but try and pace ourselves. How are you doing with that leg, Evening?” “Fine so far, but I haven’t exercised too much in general lately,” he said. “Climb inside if you need to,” Trixie said, indicating her bag. “If we don’t sprint, I can keep up,” Evening assured her. “Alright, let’s go.” Armor lifted me onto his back instead of Trixie’s, and then we kept going. – The afternoon had turned to evening, and evening was turning to night. We hadn’t seen the ship, or anyone else, since they moved towards the sirens’ meadow, and perhaps we were home free, we couldn’t tell. Remaining vigilant for so long was becoming difficult and frustrating, but that was something any pursuer would be counting on. “Stop!” Armor hissed, and eyed the sky above the distant ridge with suspicion. Then he gasped, and dove towards a small outcropping of rocks. “Come on, hide.” Once everyone was behind the outcropping, Armor and Poly peered out from the rock. “I see them,” Polyus confirmed. “Three pegasi.” “Can they see us?” I asked. Armor and Poly were silent for a moment, before they shook their heads. “No, they’re turning.” “Why?” I asked. “Let’s go have a look,” Trixie said, and moved towards a hill to our side. We had tried staying clear of high ground, and yet running between the hills had almost made us run into our pursuers. We quickly but carefully climbed up the hill, and stayed low as the ground levelled. We lay down and peered into the rapidly darkening landscape. “There they are,” Evening said, and pointed to a distant hill. I couldn’t make out the ship, but when I knew where to look, I noticed the small twinkles of lanterns in the distance. The ship had stopped and were staying close to the ground. “They went around us,” Trixie said. “They’ve anchored. Those three were going in a search pattern, and they’re not going to be the only ones. We have to fall back.” “We can’t go on like this forever,” Polyusa said. “They figured out where we were heading, but they clearly don’t know exactly where we are,” Trixie noted. “They’re gonna focus on scouting the edge of the forest, which means less in our direction. If we can outlast them for the night, they might move on and we can slip by as they’re relocating.” Understandably, I had never thought I’d be sneaking across the landscape with a bunch of soldiers, trying to evade detection. Trixie had dropped her humble demeanor, and the importance of leadership was beginning to dawn on me. I was really out of my element, and I found Trixie’s confidence very comforting. We retreated through the dales in the darkness, putting several hills between us and the ship. After about an hour of rapid marching, we managed to find a mound that didn’t stick out too much as a good hiding place, and settled down behind it. “Alright, everypony bunch up,” Trixie said, and we scooted closer to each other. “We’re going to be resting as well as possible and move before first light. It’s going to be a short night, no campfire, no sleeping in, and everypony has to be ready to move or wake up fighting. Keep your gear on and your stun rods at the ready. We’ll take turns on watch. I’ll take the first one.” We hadn’t noticed any pursuers, and everyone quietly laid down in a circle, facing outward. I kept my prostheses on, which meant I wouldn’t get very comfortable on that side, and switched my holster with my stun rod and sword over to that side. Armor put a foreleg around me and pulled me close as always. After fifteen minutes of worried fidgeting, he tightened his grip around me comfortingly. “If you can’t sleep, just try and get some rest,” he said, quietly. Trixie, who lay on the mound, spying out beyond it, looked back at me and nodded. – I almost snorted from waking up from what felt like someone pinching my flank, and opened my eyes to look around me, wishing I didn't have to sleep in gear that could chafe. I saw Evening up on the mound instead of Trixie. He looked back at the pile of sleeping ponies and changelings when he heard me stir, and relaxed when he noticed it was just me looking up at him, then his eyes widened, and his gaze turned to the side. That should’ve made me more alert, but strangely, I found myself falling asleep again. — “Holy horseapples, this filly’s mane is like a jungle in itself,” I heard an unfamiliar stallion say in a rough voice. “Tie her up before she wakes up,” another, vaguely familiar voice hissed. “And do it properly. She’s a crafty one.” I opened my eyes, and saw a blurry outline of a stallion on the side, faintly lit by candlelight against a night sky. “Who do you think you’re talking to? You’re not long in our business if you can’t tie knots. I’ll get her like a mummy before she realizes anything,” the first voice said, behind me. As the stallion slowly started coming into focus, I noticed him looking at me. “Oh really? Because she’s waking up,” he said, and gestured invitingly towards something outside of my field of vision. “Please.” Just as I noticed that the stallion before me was Rosen Wreath, one of the ponies who had almost captured me during the whole business with Braeburn, a puff of smoke flew into my vision, and the voice behind me let out a displeased, “Hey!” before Rosen Wreath gently stepped up to catch me from falling, and I lost consciousness before my situation really registered. — I squirmed as I tried reaching that itching in my flank, but to my growing frustration, it didn’t work. I let out an irritated mewl as consciousness slowly returned to me, and slowly opened my eyes. “A one-eyed, two-legged foal,” someone scoffed, as I weakly shook my head. “Some threat.” “You’d be surprised,” someone else noted. “I think we can handle a little filly,” the first one said. “There will be no carelessness in guarding her,” the other person ordered, calmly, but determined. The room I was in was coming into focus, my new eye’s clarity was actually a bit disorienting when waking up like this. I was lying in a cot behind metal bars in a wooden structure, the only light coming from a set of stairs, and a couple of secured oil lamps on small tables. I didn’t have to be awake for long before I realized where I was. I was in the hold of a ship, inside a bare cage, with another empty cage opposite mine. A wave of exhaustion washed over me. Not the sleepy kind, but one of dismay. I had hoped that meeting the oracles would’ve filled me with confidence, getting an idea on how to set everything right and return home, but it had been unceremoniously interrupted, and after several hours of worry and uncertainty, I had simply found myself captured. I looked at myself, and saw ropes snaking back and forth across me, tying my hind legs together, as well as my forelegs. Unsurprisingly, I also felt a weight of a magic blocking ring on my horn. My flank itched, and sported a red mark like from an insect sting. I didn’t even bother trying to activate any of the tools I had installed in my legs, and just let out another sigh. “Nice to see that you’re awake, Madam Desrochers,” a voice I recognised as belonging to Rosen Wreath said. I turned around and gave him a look of only mild contempt. He was sitting next to another earth pony, a short one, with a bandana tied around his greasy hair, and a grin showing filthy teeth. “Where are the others?” I asked, quickly but calmly. “Left behind, alas. They might have woken up by now, but perhaps not. Don’t worry; we left them unharmed,” Rosen Wreath readily informed me. “Anything other than words to prove that?” I asked. “No,” he said. “But I would not wish to inflict real harm on an old acquaintance like Madam Lulamoon, and while I don’t know Evening Spark beyond a set of discharge papers, I’d be loath to do anything towards a soldier who served under me.” I let my head fall against the pillow, staring bitterly into the wooden wall. Rosen struck me as a classy enough person to not lie about that, and after a while of scowling, my expression softened. “Interesting creations,” Rosen noted. I turned my head to see him placing my possessions on the table with an oil lamp on it. My armor, my stun rod and sword, and the tools I had in my prostheses as well as their coverings. I still had my eye and my legs, but beside looking through walls, I couldn’t do anything with them. “What are these things?” he asked. “... One is a harmonica,” I said. “Yes indeed,” he said. “And climbing gear, and three sets of clearly enchanted gemstones. What is their function, I wonder.” “I bet you do,” I said. “Perhaps it would be safest to destroy them,” he noted. I let another frustrated sigh, and turned over on the cot to face him. “The first sharp one is a thauma-disruptive stunner, the other sharp one is a prosthetic unicorn horn, and the octahedral one is a music player.” “How do they work?” he asked, as if we were talking shop. “You give the horn and the stunner to the one it’s been made for and who have practiced their arcanomorphic field to use them,” I said, in a defiantly bored voice. “The music player can be controlled by touch interface.” “How?” I paused. “Press the side with the three crescents and hold it for a few seconds,” I said. He did so, seeming fairly interested. “What happens then?” There was no response from the device. “Hm, must’ve already been on,” I noted. “Press the side with a triangle to continue playing wherever I left off before.” Rosen did so, and Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean started playing in the middle of the song. The stallion with the bad teeth grinned, and began bobbing his head up and down to the music, as Rosen Wreath smiled. “Very amusing,” he said. “How do you turn it off?” “The side with the square symbol,” I said, making sure there was no hint of a smile in my voice. Rosen Wreath turned off the music, just as his pegasus colleague, Golden Star, walked down the stairs, holding a bag with one wing. “What’s going on here?” he asked. “Demonstration of some interesting devices made by our honored guest,” Rosen said. “I see,” Golden said, looking at my tools, before turning back to Rosen. “Skipper wants to talk to you about our destination.” “Does she now?” Rosen said, sounding a bit irritated, and rose up. “You can handle this by yourself?” “I’ll be careful,” Golden said. Rosen nodded, and went up the stairs. Golden turned towards the bad teeth stallion, and said, “Keys.” The stallion reached behind him from the worn cushion he had settled down in, and tossed a ring of keys to Golden, who caught it with his free wing. “I’m almost tempted to toss them to her instead, see what would happen,” he noted. “That would be a very foolish gamble with your future earnings,” Golden said, as he unlocked the door to my cell, and stepped in. The stallion scoffed. Golden locked the door behind him, and tossed the keys back to the stallion through the bars. I raised my eyebrows at that. They were acting as if I was some sort of quarantined monster. “I’m with Mr Greasy on this one,” I noted. “I’m sure,” Golden noted, slightly amused, before setting the bag down and opening it to reveal some pears, apples, and peaches. “Breakfast, Gabrielle?” I looked at my tied legs, and let out a sigh. Golden Star picked up a peach, and walked up to me. I regarded him with a sort of dispassionate interest. He actually has a very similar demeanor to myself at the moment, although there was a bit of manners to his ways that I’m not sure was disingenuous. He put his hooves around my shoulders, and lifted me up to a sitting position. “... You slammed me into a train,” I noted. “And you threw me into a pile of farmhooves,” he noted, with a faint smirk. “And tossed a hooffull of coins, that I gave you, so hard they almost flew through a steel roof right next to me.” “You started it,” I countered, a bit weakly. “I did,” he said, evenly, the held up the fruit to me. I took a bite out of it and started chewing, thinking of how Redheart had first fed me back in my Equestria. Strangely enough, I felt less confused, perhaps even less worried, in this situation than I did back then. “At least the food is nice enough,” I said, dejectedly, between chews, and looked around the mostly empty hold. “So, where am I?” “You are onboard the HTV Gentle Winds,” Golden Star said. “Under the command of Captain Tricorn and her crew.” I took another bite, and turned my attention to the stallion in the corner, who was looking at me with a confused and slightly irritated expression. “Whu?” I asked, my mouth full of fruit. “Mr Skink is no doubt curious about you,” Golden noted. “A young filly captured by pirates would normally have a more openly worried demeanor.” “Fair enough,” I said, shrugging as best as I could with my forelegs bound. “Not ‘pirates’,” Skink protested. “Independent contractors.” “As you say, Mr Skink,” Golden Star condeded. “Where are we headed?” I asked. “Straight ahead,” Golden Star said, making me grunt in irritation. “What’s going to happen when we reach our destination?” I asked, not bothering to keep the irritation out of my voice. “We’ll take you to his majesty, and he’ll tell you what will happen next,” Golden said. I said nothing after that, just eating my meal as it was fed to me. I found Rosen Wreath and Golden Star surprisingly forthcoming and seemed very genuine, which was a bit of a mystery in itself, and that I pondered as I ate. Eventually, the sound of hooves descending the stairs sounded in the hold, and Rosen Wreath walked in. “Everything ship-shape down here?” he asked. “No disturbances,” Golden said. “Good, we’re nearing Seaddle. Let’s bring our guest up for some fresh air,” Rosen said. That seemed a bit strange considering how careful they were around me. “Why the royal treatment?” I asked. “For your health,” Rosen said. “You’re going to be spending some time tied up in here, and you are to get fresh air and sunlight when possible.” “Splendid,” I muttered, as Golden took me in a wing and sat me on his back, my legs dangling on his side. Rosen Wreath opened the cell door for him, and we walked out towards the stairs. I activated my prosthetic eye’s ability to see magic, and took a look around. Running through the center of the ship, below the deck, was a large metal container, with the volume about the size of the room I was leaving. I let out a startled cry as Golden walked up the stair, and with my forelegs tied down so that I couldn’t remove the ring from my horn, I couldn’t reach up and grab his mane. Before I could fall off, he shot out a wing and caught me, before positioning me further up on him, and leaned me against his neck as he held me in place with a wing. I could’ve tried biting his ear or something else defiant like that, but it would’ve been a useless gesture. Instead, I rested my head against his neck in defeat, missing Armor, whose scent I preferred. We emerged up into the glaring sunlight, which made me realize just how dark the hold was. I winced with my left eye, but my right eye, the blank, enchanted one, was fine. Around us, ponies were doing small tasks like swabbing decks or doing something to the riggings, talking to each other, looking out across the landscape, and, of course, pegasi hovering above the deck, shooting wind into the sails. And the ship did have sails above the deck, rather than a balloon like one might expect an airship to have, so the place was thick with ropes and riggings, especially with the many dinghies hanging off the side. I couldn’t exactly scamper over to look over the edge, but we were slowly losing altitude while villages in the distance were slowly drifting by. A lot of the sailors stopped doing what they were doing, and regarded us, me specifically, with open curiosity. It was a lot like being the new girl in class, only worse, with dozens of eyes, their owners not realizing how base their desires were, analyzing everything about me. I counter glared, but a defiant questioning of whether they have jobs to do didn’t leave my mouth, and I almost wanted to hide between Rosen Wreath and Golden Star, my twice-attempted, now-once-successful kidnappers, who seemed strangely agreeable compared to the crew of the ship. “So,” I started in a low voice. “Is this the same deal as with Braeburn? These thugs are hired by you?” “Correct,” Rosen Wreath said. “A so far much more successful partnership, wouldn’t you agree?” I don’t know if I was conserving my spirit, but I just hung my head in defeat. Rosen and Golden looked at me in silence for a moment, before Golden set me down on a pile of rope. “Yeah we got you, didn’t we, lassie?” Skink, who had also come up out of the hold, said. “Your ability to speak is a blessing upon us all, Mr Skink,” Rosen commented, looking at Skink with a disapproving expression. “And you have a lot of respect for a filly that you’re kidnapping,” Skink countered. “I do,” Rosen said. “What of it?” “Where does it come from, I wonder?” “Abilities, orders,” Rosen said. “You should have some as well, considering your job.” “I have enough,” Skink said, and turned away. “Yes, make sure you do,” Rosen said, and turned to look out over the landscape. I wanted to look out over the landscape too, but I wasn’t seated high enough and not in a position to move. After a few moments of silence, I looked up from the deck. “Respect, huh?” I asked, in a small voice. “Oh aye,” a new voice, a female one, sounded from behind me. “You’re not to be harmed in any way, no matter what you’d try.” I turned my head around to look at this new voice. It was a unicorn mare with a cutlass and a tricorn hat, one side of which had been torn away as if from a blast. “Gabrielle Desrochers, meet Captain Cutlass Tricorn,” Rosen said. “The owner of the Gentle Winds, and the leader of this band of… fortune seekers.” “Welcome aboard, young miss,” she said, bowing slightly and grinning at me. “I have to say that I’m curious about our cargo.” “And I’m curious about this type of ship,” I said. “A fluyt for one person? I always thought pirates had small and quick warships, like sloops.” Captain Cutlass raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises?” I shrugged as best as I could in the circumstances, my knowledge, gleaned from video games, not extending a lot further than that. “We’re not pirates though,” Captain Cutlass said. “We’re independent contractors.” “Armed independent contractors,” I noted, nodding at her sword. “So were you when you came onboard,” Captain Cutlass countered. “In the most interesting places,” Rosen Wreath said. “I wonder, how are your legs removed?” “They can’t be,” I said, looking down at the deck and trying to sound bored. “Nice try, Gabrielle,” Rosen Wreath said. “You’re not a bad actor, but you’re no Flank Langella.” “Why don’t you just ask your king?” I said. “He knows a lot about you,” Rosen said. “But I don’t know how much, and he’s not here for us to ask.” “I bet I can take ‘em off,” Skink said, and walked up to me. “Your hooves are filthy,” I noted, and instinctively tried squirming away as he put them on my bare-metal prostheses. He grabbed my upper foreleg and started pulling, yanking me towards him. Since it was my arcanomorphic field that attached my legs to me, it wasn’t the least bit comfortable to be pulled like this, but I did try and make myself as low as possible, in case I fell over. “How! Are! These! Stuck!?” he grunted, as he kept yanking me. I just looked at him with an awkward expression. “I get the feeling a lecture on that would just bore you,” I noted. “Yes, we won’t get information out of her that she doesn’t want to share,” Rosen Wreath said. “Oh yeah?” Skink said. “Why?” “We have no leverage,” Rosen said. “We're not to injure her, and even if we could, anything we can do to her, she can just unmake later.” “We’ll see about leverage,” Skink snorted, before walking to the other side of the pile of rope I was sitting on, and emerging again with a crowbar. My eyes widened, and I tried squirming away, as he advanced with a wide grin. Whether he managed to dislodge my leg, it would probably not be comfortable. “That’s enough,” Rosen Wreath said, in a stern voice. Skink stopped, and scowled at Rosen. “You don’t give orders on my vessel, commander,” Captain Cutlass said, narrowing her eyes at Rosen. “And none of you get paid without our say-so, captain,” Rosen said calmly. "Whose side are you on anyway?" Skink said to Rosen Wreath. "You're protecting the filly." At this, Golden Star calmly stood up and walked over to stand beside Rosen. "We both are," Rosen said, and I could sense some exasperation creeping into his voice. "Your job is to keep her safe. She is not your enemy, she is your target." With this point in contention, the crew in the background had automatically started staring at the scene, quietly backing up their captain and their fellow crew member. I looked back and forth between Skink and Captain Cutlass, and Rosen Wreath and Golden Star, who seemed utterly unfazed by the negative attention they were getting. After a few moments, Captain Cutlass let out a small snort, and turned to her crew. "Back to work, fillies and gentlecolts," she said, and started walking towards the helm on the other side of the deck. The rest of the crew went back to their duties, while Skink slunk back into the hold. Rosen and Golden showed no signs of gloating over this little victory, and instead, Golden just picked me up and put me on his back. So far, I had been an active combatant in three combat scenarios, three situations of outright danger, and received some training in how to use Equestrian military equipment, but it was becoming clear to me that I was not a ruthless operator. My captors were clearly in two different camps, with very overt tension between them, that a clever person would detect any number of ways to exploit, but right then I had just felt unease and wanted everyone to just stop fighting. So I breathed out a sigh of relief when everyone went back to their business, and instead I stared out across the landscape far below us, seeing glimpses of a large city growing beyond the edge of the railings. "You've been on quite the journey, haven't you?" Rosen asked me. I turned to look at him, not bothering to keep my mental exhaustion off from my face as I went through what had happened to me in my head. I fell towards Golden's neck, not even feeling like putting the energy into staying upright. "Three worlds, wolves, dragons, dark wizards," I mumbled, before halfway burying my face in Golden's mane. "I wanna go home." Rosen stepped forward, with a soft expression on his face, and gently put a hoof on my head, in sharp contrast with his otherwise cold and aloof attitude. "We will not let anything happen to you," he said. "His Majesty will set everything right." I opened my eye and looked at him. "He's possessed," I said. "The Nightmare possessed Luna in my Equestria and twisted her into a monster. He's not Sombra anymore." Rosen Wreath nodded, but his expression remained unchanged. "But your Luna was still in there, wasn't she? The Nightmare didn't win, did it?" "No," I admitted. "And we trust our king to overcome as well." "But he's going to smash two worlds into one," I said. "The Nightmare is still evil in both worlds, but other than that, nothing will remain recognizable. Chrysalis is a monster where I come from. Sombra was a slaving dictator." "He has never once led us astray," Rosen said. "Even when fighting both Luna and Celestia, he managed to keep us safe." Golden, who normally seemed content to let Rosen do the talking, spoke up as well. "We don't think less of you for not understanding this, but His Majesty has earned our loyalty." I sighed into Golden's mane. Rosen allowed me sit like that for a few moments, before he put his hooves around me and righted me up into a sitting position. "Alright, that's enough," he said, and put one of his hooves against my prosthetic one. "The king told us about what you've overcome, and this isn't enough to break your spirit." I let out a snort, but was almost but not quite apathetic. "You want a more difficult prisoner?" I said, one eyebrow slightly raised. "Indeed," Captain Cutlass asked, with one eyebrow raised, having reappeared from the side. "Not that I'm worried, but why?" "King Sombra needs her and her magical skills, and its when she's spirited that she works best," Rosen said, slightly amused. "Hmph. Anyway, we're coming into Seaddle," Cutlass said. "Why?" I asked, leaning out slightly over the railings to see the city, as I heard the crew work in the background. "To resupply," the captain said. "We don't want to use our reserves to reach the Crystal Empire." "Reserves of what?" I asked, magically looking at the large container I had seen earlier, but not having the time to analyze it. "Clouds," Cutlass said. "Clouds stored in containers throughout the hull," Rosen added. "Keeps the ship afloat." "You keep talking up her abilities," Captain Cutlass noted. "I would've thought she could figure out how the ship works." "I assumed that the some of the structure of the hull had been made out of lighter-than-air solids," I ventured. "Out of what?" Captain Cutlass asked. Rosen and Golden, for once, showed some emotion, smirking slightly at the captain. "Fine," she muttered, and went on her way. "That explains why there are no balloons visible on the outside," I noted. "Indeed," Rosen said. "Now, we're about to set down, and we are going to have to keep you from making a scene and calling the authorities." "I'm tied up," I noted, wiggling my forelegs as much as I could. "What he means is that you’re gonna have to go down into the hold again,” Golden said. I let out a sigh. “Do I have to?” I asked. “The one with the bad teeth, Skink, is down there.” Rosen and Golden paused and looked at me with critical expressions. “We'll gag you if you start shouting," Rosen said. "Doesn't seem like shouting would accomplish much," I noted, as we entered the sky harbor, hearing the shouts and calls from dockworkers, bells signalling, the creaks of dozens of ships as their hulls bent and twisted slightly in the wind. “Right,” Rosen said, and threw a blanket over me, wrapping it around me. “You are going to look like you’re a cold and lost filly who wants some warm chocolate.” “That doesn’t require a lot of acting,” I noted. “I’ll remember,” Rosen said. “Now don’t make us do anything to silence you.” I looked around as we moved into the harbor. Airships were docked, with dockworkers milling about or standing around talking with each other, in that way that blue-collar people do where they exude this air of vague busyness, so that they can huff indignantly back at any supervisor who might huff indignantly about them not doing heavy work at that particular moment. “How do you refill clouds?” I said. “There,” Golden said, and pointed towards the stern of another docked ship that was held in place by enormous chains and thick ropes attached to its hull. A team of pegasi was hauling an enormous hose that had one end connected to a facility on the docks, with two of them waving flags and shouting instructions to make sure that no ship came in and tangled itself into it. The nozzle at the end had an opening large enough to stick your head into, and the ponies brought it towards the stern of the ship, where two openings were, one on the port and one on the starboard side, currently covered by metal plates. A pony opened the metal coverings, and signalled to the others that were carrying the hose to insert into the hole on the starboard side, which they did. They checked some gauges, and then turned a valve on the nozzle. “They start with clearing out the old clouds,” Rosen said, as we watched the pegasi work. The hose jerked a bit, and out of the hole on the port side a grey cloud, heavy with rain, started spewing out. It also seemed like it had been charging up with lightning for some time. The ponies who worked on the change kept watch to make sure that the old cloud floated down towards an empty patch of muddy land far below and nowhere else, as the ship slowly started sagging into the chains and the ropes. The grey cloud slowed to a trickle, and then stopped, leaving only some condensation running down the stern in a pattern that quite a few cloud changes like this one had formed. One pony closed the hatch and nodded to the others. “And now they put in a fresh cloud,” Rosen said, as one of the ponies signalled with a flag to the station where the other end of the hose was connected. There, another pony signalled in confirmation, and started turning levers of his own. The hose jerked again, and presumably started filling the container in the hull with a fresh cloud. As it did, the ship slowly started regaining its buoyancy, and relieved the chains and ropes holding onto it. “So… maybe some mechanism inside the hull allows you to compress and decompress the cloud, allowing you to adjust your altitude?” I ventured, looking to Rosen for confirmation. He nodded at me. “Very good.” “Lots of lifeboats,” I said, nodding towards the dinghies hanging from the side. “But not enough to carry everyone.” “The ones with wings are expected to carry unwinged companions,” Golden noted. I nodded. That made sense to me. “And with a ship, you didn’t have trouble getting anywhere through The Winsome Wilds,” I said. “We had to sing our way through it.” “Actually, so did we with some help,” Rosen said, and pointed towards the bow, where a zebra sat, looking out over the edge, playing a flute built into her long staff. An unpleasant pang went through me as I saw the figure. I recognized the stripes, and the golden rings she carried on her. My head slumped from seeing her. The version of her I knew was one of the people I would’ve liked the most to have on my side right now, but now she was against me. More and more it felt like the whole world was against me. Rosen put a hoof on my neck. “Everything will be alright,” he said. I couldn’t even bring myself to protest, so I just sat there, feeling miserable among the noises of rowdy pirates loading cargo. … Until there was a change in the noise, which Rosen and Golden also noticed. Rosen took his hoof off from me, and they looked to the far side of the ship, where some of the crew were hauling a large crate up the gangplank. I heard a dull thumping from it, and the crew was laughing amongst themselves, despite the heavy cargo. “What now?” Golden said. They tipped the box over the railing, and threw a rope around it, and started pulling it towards the stairs leading down the hold. “Cap’n!” one of them shouted. “Fetched us a good deal in town!” Captain Tricorn walked towards them, and the crew stopped pulling the crate a few steps away from us. “What have you got there?” They looked around, to see if any pegasi from another ship was flying close by. “Treasure,” they said, and kicked the crate lying on the side, revealing a lanky, white pegasus mare. She looked around, but didn’t seem to notice me, being more concerned by the unwashed ponies around her, grinning down at her. I recognized her though. It was White Tulip, the mare that had helped us point towards Armor and Braeburn in Hollow Shades. She was gagged and bound, and was looking up at the pirates around her with a frightened expression. Captain Tricorn looked puzzled at first, before locking eyes with Tulip for a few seconds, then a smile grew on her face. “Treasure indeed.” Rosen calmly walked up towards them, but with barely suppressed anger. “And what is the meaning of this?” he managed to demand in a polite tone. “Ransom,” one of them said. “Found ourselves a celebrity.” “I don’t care if you found the princess of Equestria,” Rosen said, politely on the surface, but underneath, he was spraying spittle over the captain and her crew. “Your job is to take us and our cargo to our destination, not snatch ponies off the street!” “We will, commander,” Tricorn said, in mocking comfort. “But you can’t forget what we are.” “Independent contractors as you keep reminding us,” Rosen said, scowling at her. “This is starting to look like piracy. In the middle of Seaddle.” “We are an independent firm, and we’re going to draw up a contract with whoever has bits for her,” Tricorn said. “Anyway, what do you care?” “Unless you think you can fight off the entire north-western garrison, the moment the authorities gets even the slightest inclination to search this vessel, the game is over, and you’re playing kidnappers in broad daylight!” Rosen hissed. “You will all be in jail. That is, until his majesty finds out how idiotically you’ve wrecked his plans. Then you’ll all miss jail, I can promise you that.” “Aaw sheet, it’s da five oh,” I muttered to myself, making Rosen and Golden throw strange glances at me. Captain Tricorn smirked at the earth pony. “So we really shouldn’t just let her be on her way, now should we?” Rosen let out a deep breath, and looked at the downed pegasus. “Who is she even?” “Model, I think,” one the crew said. “Pretty sure I’ve seen her picture around.” “What are you reading, recognizing mare models?” Another asked. “Are you saying we should let her go too?” “... No.” As they spoke, Rosen and Tulip locked eyes, and Rosen reluctantly relaxed. “Fine. Just keep it quiet, and we’d better be off soon.” “You have impeccable timing, commander,” Tricorn said, and looked towards the stern to see the cloud refilling completed and the pegasi flying away with the big tube. She walked off to give orders to cast off. The others grabbed Tulip, and carried her down into the hold, as she struggled weakly. “And put her in her own cage!” Rosen said after them. “Are you sure about this?” Golden asked, as Rosen walked back to us. “No, but they’re right. We can’t exactly let her go now can we?” “I didn’t recognize her,” Golden said. “I did, I think,” Rosen said. “Not sure where from though.” I kept quiet. “Should we get Gabrielle here below deck?” Golden said. “Prudence sounds like a good idea, with the latest developments.” “Yes,” Rosen said, nodding, but mostly seeming lost in thought. “Yes, let’s go, before any guards come looking.” — I was carried back into the hold and put on my cot gently enough, with Tulip being carried into the cage opposite me, a corridor between them so we couldn’t reach each other. They pulled off her gag, but otherwise left her tied up just like I was, except having her wings lashed as well, and put her in her cot as well. She looked confused and scared while the crew walked up again, along with Rosen and Golden, leaving Skink alone with us, reclining in his seat, trying to seem nonchalant and sometimes rifling through my stuff. “So,” I said to Tulip, winking at her. “In case you’re wondering where you are, you’re on the cargo vessel Gentle Winds, a pirate ship. I think they want to ransom you.” I mouthed the words “no names” to her, which she picked up on, and nodded slightly before answering. “How are they gonna do that?” she asked, with a scared shiver in her voice. “I don’t know who’d pay for me.” “They didn’t share that part with me,” I said, noting that Skink was trying to look at us over his magazine without us noticing. “But they’re professionals, so I’m sure they have ideas, though I recommend you don’t try and convince them you’re not gonna be profitable.” Skink chuckled in his corner, and I gave him a disapproving look. “What are they… what are they going to do with you?” she asked. “They’re not gonna sacrifice me to a dark god, but it kinda feels like it,” I said, trying burrow into the cot and make myself comfortable. “I’m gonna be used to help King Sombra open a portal to a parallel Equestria.” White Tulip was silent for a moment, before I looked towards her. “It’s a long story,” I said. “That’s… not what I expected to hear,” she said. “Yeah, well, this is all beyond me as well,” I said. “It makes my head hurt.” Tulip was silent again, before I looked up at her again and saw her looking at me with a mournful expression. “What happened to your legs?” she asked, softly. “Lost them,” I said. “Don’t worry though, these work just fine when they’re not tied up. Not as strong or fast as normal legs but they get the job done.” “Nice try,” Skink said from his table. “Soldier colts told us about you, we know what those things can do.” ‘Good job revealing that you know that, genius.’ “Whatever,” I said, and turned back to Tulip. “The ‘soldier colts’ that Mr Skink over there mentioned, were the two displeased gentlemen you saw earlier. The Captain is one Cutlass Tricorn, and now I’m already running out of things that I know.” “So, are they taking us to the Crystal Empire?” Tulip asked. “I think so,” I said, “me at least, because that’s where his majesty is. Not sure where they’ll take you though.” “To whoever has money to pay for her,” Skink interjected. “Good plan,” I said, nodding approvingly, and turned to Tulip. “It’s comforting to know that we’re dealing with experts isn’t it?” Skink grumbled and slumped back into his chair with a huff. Tulip continued looking at me with sadness in her eyes. She could probably see past the facade I was putting up, and how scared and worried I actually was. I let my head fall back onto my pillow again, sighing. “Desrochers,” she said, kindly. “I know you’re scared, but don’t lose hope.” I let out another sigh. I wanted Armor, Celestia, Redheart, Twilight, or even the Cutie Mark Crusaders to be here and hold me. Preferably all of them. “I’m getting really tired though,” I said. “I don’t want to be here. I wanna go home.” I could have continued about how I wanted to hang out with the crusaders in Sugarcube Corner, hearing stories about all the wacky things happening in Ponyville, being in class with Cheerilee, or make things with Scrap Armor, but not when the sneering Skink was there. “Don’t worry,” Tulip gently said, after a while. “It’s all going to be okay.” “Sure it will,” Skink said, grinning to himself. “After we get paid.” “Get a mask,” I told him over my shoulder. Skink looked at me, fuming. I didn’t want to lie in silence, just thinking about what might happen when I was delivered into Sombra’s hooves. I thought about asking Tulip why she’d be a worthy ransoming target, but that could cause trouble considering our company in the hold, who also kept me from bringing up quite a few subjects. “So what was Sombra like?” I asked, turning to face Tulip. Tulip’s ears perked up, and she looked surprised for a moment before turning her head towards me. She considered the question for a while, smiling to herself, and I thought I sensed a sort of bitterness there. “Kind, just, good, intelligent, protective,” she counted. “Relentless, powerful. Always managed to keep Equestria afloat, no matter what… foul threat... tried to bring it down.” Skink scoffed. “Yeah, a real hero, always kept his little soldiers busy harassing ponies trying to make a bit.” I was getting really tired of Skink, especially since I could run in circles around him both mentally and physically. “Untie me and I’ll show you harassment,” I snarled at him. “Careful, girl,” Skink said, looking at me in a way he no doubt thought was threatening, but wasn’t really to someone who had faced packs of timber wolves and dark wizards. “I’m the one holding all the cards here.” “If you wanna play this game you’re gonna have to get into this cage with me,” I calmly said, and looked at him, bored. After a few moments, he looked away, scoffing. We fell silent, with nothing more to say for about twenty minutes, before Skink finally shot up from his chair. Tulip and I turned to look at him, thinking he might try and do something, when he just froze and looked back and forth between us. “You knew her name,” a stunned Skink said, to a scared looking Tulip, before his expression hardened, and he turned around and quickly walked up the stairs. Tulip did let my name slip, I realized, but at that time, it felt like I might as well try out my escape plan. “Finally, I thought he’d never leave,” I said, as I concentrated, and with just a short moment of struggle, my foreleg separated at the elbow, and my hind leg at the knee. I wasn’t able to step out of the tight knot with my hooves, but after another short moment, I pushed the lower parts of my prostheses through the loops and had them free. I glanced at Tulip, who was looking on with wide eyes, and smirked at her. “Recently added feature,” I said, and jiggled my other legs free, getting a good, long piece of rope in the process. “I’ll have you out in a moment, I just need to do something first,” I said, took the rope, and ran over to the door, peeling off the magic suppression ring from my horn in the process. I gave the door my best shot, which was more than enough. It came loose and swung open into the cage with a loud clang, swinging sadly with one bar bent. I sprinted over to the stairs with the rope, and ran up them. Taking the rope from around me, I inserted it into the sturdy metal ring that served as a handle, and ran down with the rope again, knocking over Skink’s table with my stuff on it, propping it up against the opening to the stairs, quickly tied the rope tightly around it, anchoring the trapdoor from the inside. I magicked my things over to me as I walked over to the door to Tulip’s cage. “Hang tight,” I said, and bent the door open, keeping myself low to avoid any potential shrapnel that might come from breaking the lock in this way. I took my sword from among the things floating after me, pulling it out and starting to cut the ropes that held Tulip bound. Before long, her legs and wings were free. I quickly inserted my stuff into my prostheses, and threw my armor over myself, pocketing the magic suppression ring. I took a moment to relax. I was unbound, out of that cage, and fully equipped. I didn’t like my odds if I had to use my equipment, potentially facing a crew of pirates, Rosen and Golden whom I knew to be very competent, and of course, the zebra, whom I suspected I knew, and whom I therefore expected to be the biggest threat. Even so, in this moment, I was free. I took a deep breath, and steeled myself. “Alright, come on,” I said, and walked out of the cage. “We probably don’t have a lot of time.” “I, how, but… you’re,” Tulip stammered, looking at me with wide eyes. She struck me as a very strong and collected mare, and I gave her an uncertain look, hoping I hadn’t misjudged her. I walked up to her, reared up and put my forehooves on her withers, and looked her in the eyes, which I realized might’ve been a little unnerving with one of them being milky white. “Listen, you don’t have to come with me, but I’m gonna try and break out,” I told her. “You can make a run for it, or you know, fly for it, when we can. No hard feelings.” Her eyes were wide for a moment before she steeled herself. “No, I’m not going to leave you here,” she said, and looked up into the ceiling. “Although I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this room.” “Leave that to me,” I said, and stepped away from her, looking at the wall to the far side of the stairs, powering up my eye. What made magically seeing through the hull complicated was that the whole thing was enchanted, albeit very ruggedly. I stepped up to the wall and ran my hoof over it. “This whole thing is enchanted to prevent a bunch of chemical reactions from happening,” I noted. “A bunch of oxidation, mostly.” “Uhm, ship hulls are made to resist fire,” Tulip noted. “If that’s what you mean.” “Oh… yeah, that’s it. Should have recognized it, it’s almost the same as from Twilight’s kitchen,” I said, and spotted the cloud container above us, built into a reinforced section of the deck, and glowing with other enchantments. It stood out like a flare, and led into a section beyond the wall I was standing by, where the container also sported knobs and wheels, and other mechanisms that could be reached from the next room. That room was also empty of ponies. “Alright, time to get out of here.” I threw an as hard of a punch as I could with my prosthesis, breaking through the wall with a hole as big as my hoof. I grabbed some planks, and pulled them loose. After that, it was easy work to widen the hole enough to let me and Tulip through. “Let’s go. The room is empty,” I said. “H-how can you tell?” a wide-eyed Tulip whispered, before shaking her head, as she crouched and squeezed through the hole, taking care not to scratch herself on the splinters. “This eye,” I said, pointing at my prosthetic one. “I can see magic with it, which most of the time lets me see through physical objects.” “And, how, or, uhm, where did you get that thing? Or things?” Tulip asked, pointing at my legs. I shrugged, chuckling nervously. The situation I found myself in and what I was trying to do catching up with me. “Well, I needed new ones, so I made some,” I said, shrugging. Tulip nodded, before swallowing and looking around. “Where is everypony?” she asked. I looked through the deck, seeing the magical auras of ponies flying around and climbing the sails. Though a lot of them looked towards the crowd that was slowly forming around the trapdoor leading to the part of the hold we had just left, where one pony was trying to open it. “They’re topside, although we don’t have long before they figure out that something’s up,” I said, and looked around. “Hopefully they’ll shout angrily at each other for a few minutes before they get serious.” This was definitely the engineering room. The cloud tank taking up most of it, with some stairs leading up to a platform where one wall of the cloud tank could be reached, covered in levers and wheels. Underneath the stairs leading up to the platform, and lining the walls, were supplies for keeping the ship maintained. Barrels and crates of supplies– tar, nails and rivets, carpentry tools, canvas, ropes, grease, metal bands, lantern fuel, and timber crowded the area. “So…” I said, half-baked parts of a plan slowly forming in my head. “We want to get out of here, and if we can’t keep the entire crew from trying to stop us, keeping most of them from doing so would be a nice second.” Tulip looked at the platform with the controls for the tank. “I think I see what you mean,” she said. “But… are we gonna sabotage the ship?” “And distract the crew, steal a dinghy or fly away on our own? Possibly,” I said, and jogged up the stairs to the controls. “Compressing the cloud should draw them here.” “We don’t need a dinghy if we stick together,“ Tulip said. “And it wouldn’t be hard for them to just come down here and decompress it.” I looked at the controls, and a big sign reading, “Compression: NONE - chamber opening: SAFE”. I turned the wheel on a sturdy looking service hatch, and opened it. At the end of a short, wide tube, was the familiar sight of an Equestrian cloud. I looked to Tulip. “Then we need something a bit more drastic. Can we get this thing out of here?” Tulip shook her head. “It’d take hours, or days, to scoop all of that out by wing. If I get into the container I might be able to blow it out, but I don’t see that happening,” she said, and looked around, spotting the barrels of tar. “Perhaps starting a fire?” “The hull was enchanted to not catch fire though,” I noted, and lit up my magic detection again. “You made enchanted legs,” Tulip noted. “You’re an enchanter. Can you overrule that?” “Yes I could,” I said, magically scanning around me. “I can…” I stopped, noting how the anti-oxidation enchantment stopped just short of the edges of the refueling tubes in the stern. With enough pressures, something trying to escape the cloud tank would cause the ship to be propelled forward. My plan was not becoming more thoroughly baked, but it was becoming a little crazy. “... I can… ooh.” “Desrochers?” Tulip asked after a while, looking at me worriedly. A manic smile grew on my face. I looked around at the supplies, the lit lanterns, and my prosthetic foreleg, which would last pretty much forever thanks to enchantments preventing it from rusting. I rushed halfway down the stairs, and magicked a barrel of nails up to the control panel, and started enchanting them all at once. “Heh. Hehe, hahahah!” I laughed, as I put a reverse version of the enchantment that kept my legs from rusting on the nails, and started dumping them into the tube leading into the container with the cloud. “Get all those barrels and crates up here! As many as you can!” Tulip recoiled a bit as she looked at me, but after a moment, she obliged, and flew down the stairs, then up again with two barrels held under her own. I magicked up a barrel of rivets and started enchanting both of them. “More,” I said, and started humming the Captain Pugwash theme as I emptied another barrel into the container. “What are you doing?” Tulip asked. “Can’t stop us if they’re busy fixing the ship,” I half-sang. “Can’t fix the ship if there’s no cloud.” “No cloud?” Tulip asked, and set down the last barrel on the platform. “What do you mean?” “Simple chemistry,” I said, while enchanting and emptying the barrels into the cloud container. “I enchanted the iron to rust in minutes. More powerful than the enchantment that stops oxidation. Just steal some oxygen from the water that makes up the cloud, and all we’re left with is oxygen and hydrogen.” “Oxygen and… but that’s explosive!” Tulip protested, her wings flaring as she took a step back. “It certainly is.” I magicked up another barrel of lantern oil, opened it, and started enchanting that as well. “Hydrocarbon liquids… I know how those work,” I said, and tossed the barrel with its enchanted contents into the container, before noticing Tulip’s expression. “Don’t worry, the enchantment stops it from igniting as long as it’s inside the hull, and I have a plan for how to work with that. Now, more barrels please. Whatever you can get.” In truth, this was probably the craziest thing I had ever tried, and maybe it had something to do with having thousands of heavy metal songs in my heavy metal limbs, but it just felt right. I opened the barrels and crates, enchanting them as soon as I identified what they were, and tossed them into the cloud container. “Tar, easy. More iron, hydrogen and oxygen. Rum, ethanol,” I counted, as I threw barrel after barrel into the container. “Kerosene, natch. Grease, wait–” I dipped the tip of my metallic hoof in the stuff “– is this for machines or manes? Whatever, in you go. Ah, I recognise this. Hydrogen peroxide, my old friend, nice to smell you again, and what’s– Oooh jackpot! Calcium carbide! I’m saving you for last...” After a minute or two of this, the service hatch was exuding an impressive chemical odour. I closed it, cranked the wheel for compressing the “cloud” to max, and heard the container start groaning as the internal compression mechanism started up. “That’s it!” I said, to a worried-looking Tulip, and touched my horn which had started to ache, wincing slightly. “Oooh… Alright, let’s go!” We turned and ran towards the stairs leading up onto the deck. I held out my hoof just as we were about to step out, and I magically scanned the surroundings, trying to see if anyone would notice us sneaking out. The crowd had finally started making some headway in getting into the hold, and had bent up the trapdoor, and were about to cut the rope with a sword. Rosen and Golden would’ve been the most keen on making sure I wasn’t out of their sight for long, but they weren’t with the crowd around the trap door. Rosen was stalking along the railing, looking back and forth across the deck and out into the night sky, while Golden was perched up on a sail, similarly scanning all corners of the horizon. This was also when I noticed just how far up in the sky we were. When we had tried to evade the ship, and when it had docked in port, we had been close to the ground, but now, the buildings of Seaddle would have been small specks on the landscape, if we hadn’t left the city far behind. “They’re about to get down into the hold,” I whispered. “After that, we don’t have long before they’ll spot us. On my signal, keep low and follow me towards some crates by the stairs on the sterncastle.” “And then?” Tulip whispered. “No idea,” I admitted. “Wait for an opportunity I guess. Alright, go!” I leapt with my rear prosthesis, and only had to take a few steps before I found myself under the stairs and behind a pile of crates and barrels held down with nets. Tulip was right behind me, even more silent thanks to a gliding leap. No one raised the alarm from seeing us in the low light, but right as I was about to power up my eye and look at what the crew was up to, I heard indistinct shouts and protests coming from the opening to the hold. “Cap’n!” Skink shouted, before he emerged up the stairs with most of the ponies he had gone down with. “Cap’n! The prisoners are gone!” “Of course they are,” I heard Rosen mutter. “Golden! Perimeter sweep.” I saw Golden wordlessly nod in the direction of Rosen’s voice, and took off from his position on the mast to scout the area around the ship. “So find them!” Captain Tricorn shouted, and paused for a second. “Light the deck up… and somepony tell me why we’re losing altitude!” As the lanterns and torches on the deck started coming alight, the same protesting shouts that had came from the hold started coming from the cloud control chamber. “Up on the sterncastle!” I hissed, hopping up towards the railings and scouting for something to hide behind, Tulip right behind me. The crew would soon notice the hole and what I had done with the controls, and they would be a little too close for comfort when they peeked up from the trapdoor to tell the captain. “Captain!” I sure enough heard them shout. “The cloud controls! They’ve been sabotaged!” I ran towards a dinghy, rigged against the side of the ship with its keel pointed portside and mast held against the deck, but before I could reach it, I was yanked back by my tail. Before I could protest, a colorful, feathered dart embedded itself in the deck in front of me. I whipped my head up, just in time to see a gold ring-clad zebra leap off the aft spar, the flute in her staff catching the wind and whistling on the way down. She landed on three hooves as Tulip let go of my tail, her staff held out in one foreleg, never taking her eyes off us. “Cunning fillies from cages climb, but I will catch you a second time,” she said. I didn’t exactly shake where I stood, but there were hints of cold quiverings in my posture. Fighting a gang of hulking farm hooves was one thing, but fighting Zecora was another. Even so, it was almost bracing to see the zebra I admired so much, and a strange calm settled in me. ‘Even here, she’s still awesome.’ Maybe I was getting caught up in the moment, with ships and sabres and feathered hats, but I calmly drew my stun baton, and smirked at her. “Are you gonna show me your moves or are you just gonna rhyme?” I asked. “There they are!” someone shouted behind us, and I fought down my desire to take my eyes off Zecora. Tulip turned around from the shout, but followed me as Zecora and I walked in a circle, allowing me to glance out over the deck. Captain Tricorn and Commander Rosen Wreath were approaching with slow, determined steps up the stairs, but stopped when Skink peeked out of the hatch in the deck. “Cap’n!” he shouted, panic creeping into his voice. “The cloud! Something’s happened to it! We’re decompressing but the pressure’s rising!” Captain Tricorn looked at Skink for a second, stunned, before her face hardened, and she turned to face me, her eyes ablaze. “What did you do!?” I shook my head, and let out a small laugh. “I’m not sure I know, myself.” Her horn started glowing, and her sabre started leaving her scabbard, when Rosen’s hoof stopped it. “No swords,” he said, looking at her with as much conviction as she displayed, drawing a stun rod just like mine. She pressed her face against his, but his expression didn’t falter, then she turned to the crew. “All of you, keep the ship afloat! I’ll take care of our captive,” Captain Tricorn said, unhooking her scabbard from her belt and drawing the whole package. The crew scurried off, I took a step back, holding my rod out defensively, keeping Tulip behind me, as Zecora, Tricorn, and Rosen slowly approached. “Keep an eye out for the pegasus, Golden Star,” I told her. “He’s fast.” “Right,” she breathed, in a low voice. The three of them rushed me at the same time. I pushed Tulip clear and leapt forward. Tricorn might’ve tried tricking me when she held her sword in her magical aura, but it didn’t work. She transferred her sword to her hoof, and shot at me with a glowing magical bolt. Like I had plenty of practice doing by now, I blocked it with my prosthesis. Zecora’s staff came at me from behind, whistling through the air. I lit up my horn and grabbed it before it could strike my legs out from under me, and transferred my stun rod to my left hoof, blocking a smirking Tricorn’s scabbard as it struck at my head. Rosen was much more cautious, which didn’t help him here. My weapon and the horn on my head were occupied, but not the horn in my prosthesis, which I used to blast both Tricorn and Rosen away with. “Ah!” Captain Tricorn shouted, as she was pushed over the railing of the aftcastle, onto the main deck. Rosen was more prepared, and caught the railing by the stairs with one hoof. I turned to face Zecora, just in time for her to strike at me with the other end of her staff, the one I wasn’t magically holding onto. I blocked the strike with my prosthesis, and tried lifting her staff where I held it to strike her flank, but she was too nimble, and jumped away, making us switch sides. I shot at her with a stun spell, but she blocked it dishearteningly fast with her staff, and started pushing me back with its superior reach. I almost stumbled on the mast of the dinghy held against the deck, and decided to try and make my stand, raising my stun rod for an overhead swing. Zecora blocked it with her staff, and smirked at me, as I pressed down with my stun-rod as she held her staff over her head. “You know some of my ways and tricks,” she said, a bit of amused curiosity creeping into her tone, and before she could continue I cut her off. “You don’t know it, but I’ve seen you fight with sticks,” I said, and still maintaining pressure with the rod, drew my sword and cut the ropes holding the dinghy fixed to the ship, then immediately jumped away. Zecora looked confused for a split second, before realizing what what going on. The dinghy came loose, rising up for embarking, its mast coming up against her barrel. She jumped and mostly managed to roll with the hit, grabbing onto the quickly unfurling sail and avoiding being launched off the ship, her staff clattering on the deck. I turned around to see Rosen running towards me, and just as I was about to approach him and gain some ground, I saw something flicker out of the side of my new eye. I turned around and raised my stun rod to block Golden’s, who had come up beside me, leaving me open to be taken out by Rosen, and I would have, if Tulip hadn’t launched herself into his side, wrestling the unprepared earth pony to the ground. Golden thrust his stun rod against me again, managing to bypass the sword I was holding in my prosthesis, making me drop it and inserting it into the hollow leg. I reared up and tried tossing him over my head, but when he was above me, he beat up with his wings, making him crash down into me, pressing me against the deck and holding my flesh foreleg in his own, pinning my weapons to the deck. “You… are, the most… tenacious… filly… I’ve ever met!” he grunted, as we struggled to gain purchase over each other. I wish I could say I had something witty to say in response, but I was busy focusing on him not touching me with the end of his stun rod, and instead just swung my prosthetic hind leg up, partially hooking it around his neck, making him look down into the soft glow of my magic stun gun trained at his head. “Huh!?” was all he managed before a magic blast shot him clear off of me, making him collapse on the deck. “Golden!” Rosen shouted, as he and Tulip jerkingly rolled around on top of each other a few steps away. Captain Tricorn had come up the stairs with her sheathed sword in her magical field, floating it high above her and getting ready to strike the distracted Tulip over her head with it. With some carefully applied arcanokinesis of my own, the sword partially left the scabbard, smacking Tricorn on the back of the head, bending her head forward and launching her hat off her, which sailed over Tulip and Rosen, straight into my hoof. Captain Tricorn looked on in surprise, which quickly turned into rage when I took the hat and placed it on my head instead, barely managing to squeeze it over my mane. It was almost a little unreal, how well and swashbuckle-y it felt, but I just got a big grin on my face, then jumped back into the fight. “Hahaa!” I exclaimed, as I launched my grappling hook at Rosen, hooking it around him without unfolding the sharpened bits, and pulled him off from Tulip, as I used the counter pull to launch myself over him and towards Captain Tricorn, stun rod held high. Captain Tricorn blocked my swing with her scabbard-clad sword, before I backed away from her counter attack. “Give me back my hat!” she said, lighting up her horn and trying to grab it. “No, it’s mine now,” I said, holding onto it with my own magic and smirking at her. “Argh!” The captain grabbed a flaming torch from a sconce on the railing, holding her sword in her magic and swinging both it and the torch wildly at me as she advanced, pushing me back towards the stern. I was afraid that I had made a mistake, because despite her anger, her swings had some finesse and accuracy to them, and I was pressed all the way back to the railing overlooking the stern of the ship. She swung at me with the torch, but I blocked it with my prosthesis. and her sheathed sword with my stun rod. Luckily, she wasn’t trying to use the blade on me, or she’d have a prime opportunity to do so against my neck. I looked down behind me, and saw the dark landscape far below. I heard the great hissing of the overtaxed hatches trying to keep the rising pressure of hydrogen and oxygen inside the cloud-tank as the gas leaked out from their sides. “Cap’n, we’re losing altitude!” Skink shouted behind her. “The ship! She’s going down!” That distracted her long enough for me to charge up my horn, and she finally took a step back when I fired a magic blast against her, then she looked at something off to my side, smirking. Like an idiot, I fell for it, even though it wasn’t a trick. Just as I looked, Zecora aimed her staff at me from the railing on the side, and blew out a dart. It would have hit, too, if not for Tulip suddenly zooming between me and Zecora, taking the dart in her flank. My eyes widened as I froze for a moment. Tricorn and Rosen too focused on Tulip, perhaps catching up with how their plans were derailed. So were mine and Tulip’s in some ways, as she would not be able to fly properly before long. We’d have to use a dinghy. Tulip pulled the dart out from her flank, and looked at me. “We’d better hurry this up,” she said. My gaze swept across my surroundings and my ears angled back and forth as I tried coming up with something, before I again noticed the hissing from below me. “Right,” I said, and magically grabbed Captain Tricorn’s torch from her hoof, then tossing it down into the chemical cocktail leaking out from the tank. “Brace for impact!” “What?” Captain Tricorn and Rosen said, as I threw myself onto the deck. A great din seemed to consume the entire world, or so it seemed at the time, as the gasses that were leaking out of the cloud chamber, and were therefore able to react freely, as chemistry intended, and with the help of the torch did so with gleeful enthusiasm. Igniting inside two large and sturdy tubes, compressed and prevented from spreading towards one direction, the reaction only had one way to escape, and blew the container hatches clean off in order to do so. Everyone lost their footing as the ship surged forward from the rocket boost and tumbled back into the railing, with Tricorn’s crew yelling in protest ahead of us. Tulip, with her wings, and I, who had been ready for it, were on our hooves the fastest, and running across the deck of the sterncastle. A magic blast shot into the deck right by my hooves, and I looked back to see Captain Tricorn glaring at me with murder in her eyes. “You …!” she growled, and took a deep breath, before turning to the members of the crew that were glancing up over the sterncastle railing in fear and confusion. She raised her head and bellowed, “Abandon ship!” The crew scampered to action on the still accelerating ship, unhooking the dinghies while struggling a bit to keep their balance, but pausing with unfurling their sails, as the captain dashed past us to join her crew. “Zecora,” Rosen said, loud and steadily over the din of the fires. “Get the filly.” Zecora took a glance around her, and shrugged at Rosen. “It seems to me like you cannot pay, so you will not have my help this day,” she said, before jumping overboard, staff held high. That would’ve been a bit disturbing, if I hadn’t immediately remembered that it was Zecora, and she’d be fine. “Come on!” I said to Tulip, and ran across Golden Star. I didn’t face Rosen, instead, I grabbed Golden in my magic and ran over to the dinghy that I had partially cut loose earlier, still moored to the ship. I dumped the downed pegasus stallion in the small boat, and started undoing the mooring, when Rosen jumped into it with us, holstering his stun rod. “No more fighting, Gabrielle,” he sternly said, eyes going between me and the wobbly-looking Tulip. “That’s right,” I said, as pegasi members of the crew airlifted their wingless companions off from the deck, and remaining crewmembers were sailing away from the ship in the escape boats. I angled the tiller so that we sailed away from the still speeding ship. Rosen seemed to let out a sigh of relief, before I grabbed the sword from his stun rod, and quickly inserted it into my prosthesis, arcanokinetically pushing him back. “What!?” he said, before I blasted it into the hull with my grappling hook launcher, trapping the tiller at a sharp angle, before I grabbed Tulip by her barrel, tensing my prosthetic hind leg up and jumping as far as I could back towards the ship, spooling my grappling hook in again. “Hold on!” I shouted, and the woozy Tuliip closed her wing around me as I shot the grappling hook towards the railing, lifting us back onto the Gentle Winds. “Gabe!” Rosen shouted, as he helplessly watched from his life boat, sailing further away from us. I watched him look at me with a mix of pleading and anger. “Get off the ship!” I simply waved at him calmly, as we left him behind with the still rocket-propelled cargo ship. The ship creaked loudly and the masts groaned worryingly from catching all the wind, thankfully also protecting us from it up on the sterncastle. “What now?” Tulip asked. “Simple,” I said, and led her to the other side of the sterncastle. “They left one dinghy for us.” I magically retrieved my sword that Tulip had dropped on the deck and cut the boat loose, before helping Tulip into it. “Oh,” she said, a bit sheepishly. I unmoored the boat, and then we were home free. We floated out into the sky, rapidly slowing down to a sensible speed as we separated from the flaming ship thundering away from us, its crew having abandoned it before we did. Tulip dragged herself to the edge of the boat, and watched it sail away, flaming into the night. I quickly glanced around us to make sure that there were no pirates in sight, which there weren’t, as we had left them behind us when they had evacuated first, before I too turned to look at the giant torch slowly becoming smaller… … Until it slammed right into a cliff and went up in a spectacular explosion that seemed to go on forever. “Oh, fireworks,” Tulip said, smilingly. “Yeah, chemistry is fun,” I said, and retrieved my magic boombox from my prosthetic leg, and held it up to me. “Blue Thunder calling all agents, please respond.” “Gabe!” Armor’s voice sounded from the gem, making me smile in relief, and Tulip look at it in as much wonder as she could muster. “Are you okay!?” “I’m fine,” I said. “Had a little detour, but I’m heading to Seaddle right now. How are you?” “We’re fine, been looking for you. We’ll meet you there,” Trixie said. Tulip heaved herself around to look at me. “Do you do this a lot?” she asked, too groggy to even raise her eyebrow questioningly. “It’s been happening more and more lately,” I said, breathing out a sigh of relief at it being over for now. “Let’s hope it’s not in space next time.” “Eheheh,” Tulip chuckled, before nudging the hat still on my head with a primary. “Souvenir,” I said, as I put my hoof on the tiller, and gently turned us back towards Seaddle, whistling The Sailor’s Hornpipe, the Gentle Winds engulfed in a still-ongoing fireball behind us. Gaiden > The King That Is And The King Who Is To Be > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lot of human fiction make the claim that Love, with a capital L, is the greatest power in the world. I've sometimes wanted to speak with a writer and teller of stories that say that and ask them if they can explain the reasoning behind it. As a medical professional I know the importance of comfort, reassurance, belonging, emotional support, and other things that can fall under the category of “love”, and have been curious if this is what they refer to. When it comes to Equestria however, there certainly is a group of people who would agree that Love is the greatest power in the world, even more than the ponies, and that is the changelings, who quite literally gain sustenance and power from it. Naturally, if changelings can gain power from love, then a clever enough tinkerer can as well. Perhaps like a tool, for instance, a weapon that shoots stun spells, and can collect love much like a changeling does, to fuel it. "There they are!" a voice shouted from the other side of the corridor that Armor and I turned towards and ran into. "Get them!" another of Sombra's troopers yelled. We ducked behind a conveniently placed crate as bolts of magic zoomed over us. I adjusted my new hat and my eyepatch, Poly squawking on my shoulder. Armor looked at the weapon in his forehooves, and nodded at me. "Ready," he said. I glanced down at my prosthetic foreleg, and felt the healthy glow of the power core in it. “Braawk,” the tiny, parrot-shaped changeling on my shoulder said. “Come a little bit closer.” "Ready," I echoed, before we rose up and started hosing the corridor down with glowing bolts of magic, Sombra's soldiers fell in scores, and when they were all down, we ducked behind the crate again, the glow from our weapons dimming in the aftermath. "Reload!" I said, and hooked my flesh and blood foreleg around Armor's neck. We kissed deeply, and the weapons roared to life again, the crystals in their cores shining brightly. “Braawk! You’re my kind of man! Brawk!” "There! Fire!" someone shouted from behind us, making us glance back as the corridor was filling up with troopers coming in from the rear, and we had to dodge and weave as more magic bolts were zooming past us. "The window!" Armor shouted, pointing his gun at a stained glass window at the end of the corridor we were headed towards, letting loose bolts of magic that shattered it into countless pieces. I jumped up on Armor's back as we soared through the window and out into the courtyard beyond. We sailed down onto the ground, touching down roughly, and suddenly were surrounded by guards clad in dark armor; unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies forming a circle around us. Armor reared up, and I hung onto his neck as we spun around and emptied our weapons into the crowd as they rushed forward, knocking them unconscious by the dozens, maybe hundreds. “Brawk! So big and so strong.” When it was just the two of us left standing, the doors to the building we were headed towards exploded outwards and a giant, metallic claw emerged, shaking the ground as it dug into it, pulling forward a shining steel monstrosity. "WHAAAHAHAHAHAH!" Sombra cackled as he rode his enormous robot scorpion out onto the battlefield. Manically pulling levers and turning knobs behind the head as his purple cloak flowed behind him. Its pincers spewed gouts of flame up into the air and the end of the tail had a revolving cannon that shot giant beams of magic up into the sky, lighting up the landscape for miles around. “Brawk! I knew I should run!” Armor and I looked at it in stunned silence for just a moment, before he glanced back at me with a smarmy smirk. I answered with one in kind, and leaned into a heated dip kiss, causing the crystals in our weapons to emit a low whine from the overcharge, before we broke it and leapt into battle. I woke up with a start in our dark hotel room in Seaddle, making Armor grunt behind me and tighten the hug he was giving me with his foreleg. "Mmm... you okay?" he asked with genuine care despite the sleepiness in his voice. "Yeah," I said, snuggling back into his chest. "Just had an idea for some inventions." "You always do," Armor said, clearly smiling from his voice. I closed my eyes and whispered to myself, “And the night is so long.” — Armor, Trixie, Poly, and Evening had all arrived the same night as White Tulip and I had made it back to Seaddle. All of us were confident that simply keeping a low profile would be enough to avoid having pirates, cowboys, or spies of a dark king catch on to us, at least for a double digit amount of hours, so we rested up at a hotel for the night, before slipping out of the city the next day. Tulip woke, confused, as Poly was out buying some breakfast for us to eat on the move. We slipped into the half awake crowds of ponies and the occasional changeling moving from their homes towards their jobs (and the half asleep stray moving from their jobs towards their homes) as we gave Tulip a short reminder of what had happened. I thought she took it pretty well. "So this is goodbye then?" I said to Tulip, as the rest of our posse stood behind me just outside the suburbs, where the dust from the recent wheat harvest had just settled. "Seems so," Tulip said, smiling a bit apologetically. "I never thought I'd be breaking out of prison and fighting pirates, and you'll forgive me if I haven't developed a taste for the things you do." "I understand," I said, nodding thoughtfully. "I'd say you need at least two more successful rescue operations and some fifteen ponies defeated at your feet–hooves, before it gets good." "Pass," Tulip said, laughing slightly. "Although I'm glad you are so gung-ho about it." "Well," I said, stopping myself from shifting nervously. "Rescuing people is one thing, rescuing two worlds is a tall order." "I can see that," Tulip said. "The Dazzlings know though, and if, like you said, they say you're gonna get home by going to stop the dark king, they're probably right." "I'd just like to know exactly how though," I said. "With friendship, anything is possible," Tulip said. She was right, of course. In Equestria, friendship did solve everything or so it seemed. I leaned up and hugged her around her neck, and she put a comforting hoof around me. "Good luck," she said. "You too, wherever you go," I said, and broke away. Armor stepped forward, and clopped his right hoof against Tulip's nodding appreciatively at her. "Thanks again." "Seconded," Trixie said, and did the same. "What they said," Polyus said. "What he said," Polyusa said. "Uh, I don't really know you, but good job anyway," Evening was the last to say. Then we parted ways. Tulip turned around and headed back towards Seaddle, while we headed the other way. Sombra's stronghold was to the northeast, and so we headed northwest. Sombra and his people would soon enough learn where we had been a short while ago, and while we suspected that they wouldn’t assume that we would walk in a straight line towards them, we didn’t want to risk it. There was still plenty of Equestria proper left to walk through before we reached Sombra’s domain, but like when we headed to the Dazzlings, we moved at a steady pace and low to the ground. Not so fast that we didn't have a chance to be careful, and not so slow we would never get there. The lands around Canterlot, which is what I was mostly familiar with, were made up of scattered forests and gently rolling hills and grasslands, and like how further south the grass and hills gradually made way for sand and mesas, the north was slowly giving way to dense pine forests. With the smell of the salty coast to the west and heavy scent of needled trees all around me, I was transported back to my childhood in ways I hadn't in years, which clashed interestingly with how I was a unicorn filly with half of my limbs being hollow metal constructions. "It's getting colder," Polyusa noted. The rest of us murmured in confirmation, it was indeed getting colder. "Your main settlement is in the desert," I noted. "How well do you guys do in the cold, Poly?" 'Shiny black chitin and coming from the desert. Is it offensive to liken them to scarabs?' "Heat and sun is no problem, but we handle cold about as well as anypony else," Polyusa said. "If it's too cold it eventually becomes dangerous without shelter." "So you guys have to be ready to give us a snuggle if we're cold, or hungry," Polyus added, with a hint of hopefulness. "Don’t want to do too much without the missus here to say it’s okay, but I'm sure somepony will be up for something," Evening said, and I couldn’t help but notice how he glanced at me and Armor a bit sheepishly, before looking away. "Speaking of the cold, how cold is it gonna get before we get there?" "At this rate we're gonna reach snow before the day is over," Armor said. 'Pegasi and their knack for weather.' "In our Equestria, the Crystal Empire was shielded from the worst of the temperatures magically. I don't know if it is here as well." "The Silver Phantoms made the old Empire habitable for all ponies, so it probably works in a similar way here," Trixie said. The rest of the day passed much like that. We moved at a steady pace through pine woods and across the occasional plain, staying clear of the few settlements and farmsteads between us and our destination. During their evolution, humans had sacrificed a lot of their natural defences in favor of other features, and, while I would never consider it fair to compare someone with magic to someone without, Equestrian ponies had a lot of advantages when it came to wilderness survival. By the time it was shifting from afternoon to evening, snow had started to fall, and while the soil was still too warm to allow it to stick, slowly turning earth into mud, it wasn't that miserable of an experience. Poly didn’t seem to mind. The only one who did was Evening, who glanced at Armor and Trixie when he got some snow in his face, but otherwise said nothing. It wasn't exactly great either, having cold mud caking on your hooves and pine needles in your mane, but in the same conditions as a human, I would have been soaking my foot in cold water, limping along on my suction-attached prosthetic leg, and I wouldn't have my coat to protect my sensitive skin rather than tough hide. "Hmm, I think we should stop here," Trixie said. "The ground isn't too wet, and we have plenty of trees for cover." "It's gonna be a dark night," I said, looking up at the cloudy sky. "Good thing if we're gonna be using wet wood." "Good point, although we’re a long way away from Sombra’s territory," Evening said. "I'm gonna start gathering some." “I’ll come with,” I said. Evening hesitated for just a moment before nodding, but stayed still as I threw two sacks with a hatchet in one of them over his withers as the others started setting up a canvas to shield against wind and rain. “So, uh,” Evening said. “Anything you wanted to talk about?” I looked at him in slight surprise, and shook my head. “No, just thought I’d learn about what to look for when looking for firewood.” “Oh, well, it was snowing earlier but it’s not that wet,” Evening said. “Not like when it’s been snowing for days. We want tinder, so dry sticks that haven’t rotted and can be bundled up tightly. It’s easier to find those on trees since they don’t stay dry for long after falling off. Dry bark is also good, birch is a safe bet, and then of course a naturally fallen limb that hasn’t rotted yet that we can chop up.” Trixie had plenty of lantern oil in her house, but we didn’t want to use all that up, and we weren’t in such a hurry this time, so we took time to preserve our stores. “Dry sticks like that?” I asked, pointing at a spruce with dark, dead branches. “Exactly,” Evening said, and lit up his horn. “Well spotted.” “I got it,” I said, and broke off the branch with my magic and floated it down towards us. “Well, so you do,” Evening said. “Let me just break that into pieces and–” I started breaking it myself, putting the bundles into the bags hanging on his sides. “Like you, I don’t need to use my hooves,” I said. “Which is good, we only have so much water in Trixie’s house, might as well not dirty ourselves more than we have to.” The Poly twins were fine with drying themselves off with a wet and warm sponge, but the rest of us liked running water, and to our slight dismay relied more on brushings and dry lathering before using limited water. Evening’s ears fell. “You don’t have to do that, ma’am.” I took a breath and considered my next words for a moment while breaking up the branch. “You have been really apologetic recently,” I noted. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I–” he started, and stopped when I raised my eyebrow at him. I broke the branch into its last pieces and put them into the bag while I pondered this. “Look, uh,” I said. “I haven’t… am I scaring you?” Evening stopped, and stood there with his mouth slightly open for a moment, before looking down at his prosthesis, wiggling it a little. “Uhm, Madam Desrochers–” “Gabe is fine, Evening,” I said, and stopped myself from pressing him further. “Gabe. Back when you were captured by that zebra you told us about, I was on watch.” I shifted my eyes as I considered this. He sounded like a ridiculously devoted, kowtowing squire or young samurai or something. “And you feel guilty because… what, she snuck up on you?” Evening squirmed a little before visibly struggling to stop himself. “Well, not exactly, it’s, well… Golden Star was with her.” “The pegasus with the serious face?” I asked. “Yeah, and… I hesitated.” “Why?” I asked, not accusatory, just confused. “Because I served under him.” I nodded slowly, understanding slowly settling. ‘I guess that sounds like a bit of a mess up, but… no...’ “If you’re worried that I’m angry, I’m not,” I said, and shrugged. “Someone you trust shows up when you’re in a bad spot. I’d be relieved too.” “But I shouldn’t have trusted him!” Evening insisted. “I knew he was against us. Ser Lulamoon said so!” I smiled gently at him. “We were tired, and it was an instinctual thing I’m guessing.” “Yeah,” he nodded. “I was sitting there, listening, when suddenly my old officer is standing there in the distance, giving me this approving look, and after just staring at him for a moment I look down at my flank feeling funny and see a red dart. I hesitated for just one moment, and then I was too out of it to call out to you guys.” “That would be all Zecora needs,” I said, before sighing and looking up at him with a somber expression. “Friends turning against friends.” Evening nodded slowly. “If only ponies wouldn’t follow the king we wouldn’t have this problem but… well, it’s Sombra. How can ponies not follow him?” “Golden and Rosen seem very devoted to him,” I noted. “I would’ve been with them if I had my leg when he fled to the Empire,” Evening said. “If I could have joined them, I wouldn’t have stuck around Canterlot and actually see things work out. I’m not surprised Princess Luna came back to us, but if somepony had told me a few years ago that Celestia of all ponies could take the throne and then simply not, I would’ve… been offended.” “Was she really that bad?” I said, thinking of the calm, soothing smile of my Celestia. “We called her The Mistress of Broken Dreams and The Queen of Fallen Stars,” Evening said. “You said you knew your Celestia, right? Enough to know whether she was a good pony or not?” I thought back to when she had helped me with my phantom pain, and helped Arnfried and the gryphons despite their reluctance, and the fondness that all ponies felt for her. “I’d say so, yes,” I said. “Imagine the complete opposite of that,” Evening said. I stood still for a moment, before shuddering slightly. “If she ended up even close to my Celestia when The Nightmare was sucked out of her, then no, she wouldn’t have wanted anyone to look to her after that.” We stood in silence for a moment, before Evening sighed, hanging his head. “Whenever I tell myself that Celestia has had the evil sucked out of her, I think that she should be given a chance. When I think that Luna came back from the same thing, I think she should be given a chance. But when I think of all the rest, allying herself with Starswirl the Mad, trying to conquer Equestria, or banishing Tirek, it’s harder.” “The Celestia I know was very patient,” I said. “If ponies need time to accept her, she’ll give it to them.” “It’s more that I think I shouldn’t hate her, if she couldn’t help what she did.” “She’ll understand,” I said, gave him a smile and grabbed the hatchet out of his bag. “Now let’s go find something to work our frustrations out on.” A minute later, we found a nice looking limb. Evening showed me how to drag it to a tree and prop it up so that it wouldn’t give when you chopped at it with the hatchet. “So how’s your leg feeling?” I asked, not for the first time. “Or rather, how are you feeling? Like I said, it takes a while for you magic pool to get used to a prosthesis.” “I noticed, but honestly, I’m feeling great,” he said. “Finally able to work up some stamina. It was tough the first few days, but it’s getting better.” “Good,” I said, and started hacking at the limb with the axe held in my prosthesis. “I’m still cutting down on the energy spent compared to the output to control my prostheses, I think it’s more efficient than my natural ones by now. Especially since I’ve stopped them from draining so much body heat.” “That’s good to hear,” Evening said. “Both for my sake and your’s. And you’ve left those wands that can make prosthesis for everyone back in Canterlot?” “Sure have,” I said. “Know anyone else who needs any?” “No, but that’s good thinking since you’re leaving, you know,” Evening said. I stopped chopping at the log, and looked down at it contemplatively, before setting the hatchet down. “Yeah,” I said. “I have to get home but…” “But what?” “But… you know,” I said. “Friends. It’s hard to say goodbye sometimes.” “Hey,” Evening said, and put his hoof around my neck. “Get your friends back in your Equestria to help you if you ever feel like you shouldn’t have left.” After a moment’s contemplation, I nodded. “Yeah, I know. Closeness and belonging and all that is very important for a human’s mental health, and it’s clearly important for ponies as well.” “That, yeah,” Evening said, and took the hatchet in his prosthesis to start chopping experimentally with, looking and feeling it work, just like I had done when I first got mine. He looked at me with a smirk “How’s Armor working out for you?” “Heh, pretty great,” I said. “He’s looking a little more rugged lately, and I like that. And the wings are great too.” “That they are,” Evening agreed, as he broke through the limb. “Whew. Yeah, I see what you mean about the energy you spend and the results. If my winged missus didn’t complain about how cold the metal is, I’d almost want more. I bet ponies were lining up back where you came from.” “Not exactly,” I said. “I mean, the ones that got them were happy but they were becoming a thing just as I got here, so they didn’t have time to become popular. And there was this one stallion missing his horn and with a deformed leg in… what was it? Watering Hole? No, Oasis I think, who sent me this really weird response when I offered him to be part of the trial run for them, saying that he’s not an inventor and there’s no need to visit at all and I’d be really bored out there. Then I got a letter from the mayor there, who thanked me and said that if they managed to talk him into it, he’ll get back to me.” “... Okay?” Evening said, his chopping slowing down as he clearly struggled to process this. “Maybe he’s worried you would use his soul as fuel or something.” “Could be,” I said, nodding concedingly, remembering some human fiction featuring that, which never made any sense to me. “He might be more interested now that I can make replacement horns. I want someone to try it out for real.” “And you’re gonna leave us wands that can make horns as well right?” “I’m planning on it,” I said, nodding. “Oh good. So that should mean that every debilitating injury a pony can have, your inventions can fix.” “Except ears, or rather, cochlear. Strange I haven’t gotten around to that yet, since I almost know how a technological cochlear implant works,” I said, putting my hoof on my chin. “I guess injuries that disrupts the brain’s ability to interpret sight would also be a good idea.” “Potion based medications cover a lot of that though,” Evening pointed out. “Oh. Great. Yeah, I guess ears is next then.” After we felt we had enough firewood, we walked back towards the campsite. The baskets Evening carried were full and we were dragging a few bigger logs in our magic behind us. Armor and Trixie were cutting vegetables behind a newly set up windscreen, and Poly was setting up a cooking station. “It still doesn’t make any sense,” Polyus said, as the conversation became intelligible. “If you’re hungry for love, why attack ponies?” “Well, you know, imagine the opposite of your Queen Chrysalis,” Armor said. “So have ponies and changelings always been so tight around here?” “History is a little muddled that far back,” Polyusa said. “But I don’t remember anything about changelings and ponies not being friendly.” “Long ago, the changelings would set up little outposts, and just like today, have rangers patrolling the wilds,” Trixie said. “They’d help ponies out, and be on the lookout for anypony who might have gotten themselves into trouble.” “Helping with an injury here, getting a foal out of danger there,” Polyusa said. “And you’d have a grateful pony, probably a grateful family, and then om-nom-nom-nom-nom.” Armor chuckled, as Poly made a show of liking their lips with that long changeling tongue of theirs. “Sounds like you’d eat them.” “Sure,” Polyus said. “But not like a predator would.” I sat down next to Armor, letting go of the log beside the fire pit. “So, can both of you talk at the same time?” I asked. “Yes,” they both answered, simultaneously. “Ooh, can you say, ‘Do you join the unity, or do you die here?’” They could, and it made me shiver, in a good way. “Alright, we’re just gonna start working on dinner,” Polyus said. “And I do enjoy camping with you all,” Trixie said, and pulled out a roll of paper. “But we should also start planning out in a little more detail what we can expect when we get to the Crystal Empire.” “How long before we reach enemy territory?” Armor asked. Trixie, Poly, and Evening stopped what they were doing for a moment, before slowly continuing, not looking up. “Did I say something bad?” Armor asked. Trixie shook her head. “No, it’s just… enemy territory,” she said. “I’ve just… I don’t think any of us wants to see any of them like that.” Armor’s ears drooped, and I put a hoof on his foreleg comfortingly. “... Sorry,” he said. “It’s okay,” Trixie said. “We just… don’t want to hurt them.” “I can help with that,” I blurted out, a little too eager to raise everyone’s spirits, and patted at my scabbard and prosthesis. “I mean, we have arcano-stunners both here and as ranged weapons, and I’m working on a more efficient power source.” Slowly, the melancholy that had so suddenly settled over the team faded, and we got to work with planning our approach, and deciding on what Trixie and I should try and enchant in preparation. — I don’t know exactly how cabin fever works. I might have gotten it ten years ago if it hadn’t been overshadowed by other issues. Anyway, my point is that I didn’t get cabin fever on the journey to the Empire. None of us did. It was a little repetitive, walking and occasionally flying when circumstances allowed it in a long detour, moving steadily towards a more icy climate, for days. The border between the territories that Luna and Sombra held was very unclear, but was assumed to go somewhere along the traditional border between Equestria and the old Empire. Nothing was certain though, as Luna had restricted troop movement close to the border, and limited actions in the area to the most cautious of probing. Likewise, the scouts and changeling rangers found very little of interest in the small areas they dared spy on, and all contacts resulted in quick and silent withdrawals rather than clashes, so it was assumed that Sombra was just as uneager to engage his old subjects as they were him. Luna had found this both heartening and worrying. It meant there was no conflict, but it hinted that he was up to something else. We moved in a long detour towards the north, so we had plenty of time left before we had to worry about Sombra’s patrols. Even so, there was a growing tension from moving slowly closer to our goal, where the real challenge would be. Supposedly, stopping Sombra would get us home, or so The Dazzlings said, but this wasn’t my area of expertise. This was Twilight and the Element Bearers’ gig. They were the ones that could be confident in a situation like this. Rainbow Dash might even have liked it. Still, we kept our spirits up. I found that magical ponies were good at that, and it helped that we weren’t idle when resting and camping. “So,” Trixie said, holding out the roll of paper, this time in a lot more snowy environment than when she had first pulled it out. “How are the communicators coming along?” “They’re done,” I said, hoofing them out to everyone around the fire. “Should work despite every kind of magical disturbance I can think of, and physical too for that matter, though I haven’t tried them yet.” “And nopony can listen in on them?” Evening asked as he took his and clipped it onto his mane behind his ear. “That’s what I don’t know, and don’t know how to find out,” I said. “It’s not impossible, since Sombra taught me a lot of what I know, and it’s hard to figure out what he taught me and what I figured out myself.” “So they’re risky to use?” Polyusa asked. “Could be,” I said. “But, I know something that might help: codenames!” The others nodded evenly. “Alright,” Trixie said. “What do you have in mind?” “Oh, so many things,” I said. “Which is good because we’re gonna need a lot of them. So, Luna is ‘the sorceress’, Canterlot is ‘Greyskull’, the Crystal Empire is ‘Snake Mountain’, Sombra is ‘Skeletor’, which I guess means Celestia is ‘Hordak’, or perhaps The Nightmare should be tha—” “Are you coming up with these now?” Polyus asked. “Nope.” “Oh. Alright, continue.” “Well actually,” Evening said, holding up his hoof. “Why these names?” “Because no one in this world will be able to make sense out of them,” I pointed out. “Oh, right. Yeah, good catch. Gonna be hard to memorize though.” “Oh don’t relax yet,” I said. “I have plenty of codenames, I figure we need redundancies.” “Right, right,” Evening said, holding back a sigh. Trixie coughed politely to get everyone's attention, then rolled up the large and well-thumbed paper, which by now had a large and impressive map made from her memory of Sombra’s fortress, and held it in her hoof. “But first, somepony tell me what happens if you walk out of medical in the eastern wing and take a right.” Everyone stopped and thought as fast as they could. Polyus and Polyusa tended to win these rounds. “... You pass by a lavatory on each side, then the medical team’s offices, then you walk out the back door of the building,” Polyus said. “And two doors to the left of that is…?” Trixie asked. “The eastern stronghold’s quartermaster office,” Polyusa said. “The floor of which is…?” “... Uhm…” “Large, dirt-yellow square tiles perpendicular to the entrance,” I quickly interjected. “Good,” Trixie said. “We’re making progress.” After establishing and practicing some codenames, we took a break from that, and moved on to study the map again, as well as training other things. “Alright, it’s your turn, Gabe,” Polysa said. “Ugh. Okay,” I said, and propped up against Armor in the snow, and he held out a wing to steady me if I lost my balance. “Try and think of something else, so you can know what it’s like when it creeps up on you,” Polyus said, as they sat down in front of me and lit up their horn. “That’s kinda tricky to do on command,” I noted. “How’s your eye in this climate?” Armor asked. “Do you need to put a heating enchantment on it?” I rolled that idea around in my head for a few moments. I was about to nod sluggishly when I realized I didn’t know if that was a good idea. I tried thinking of what the point that would be, or if that had any consequences. After that, I had trouble remembering what Armor had just suggested. “What?” I asked, in a voice I didn’t realize at the time how helpless it sounded. “You should put a heating enchantment on your eye, so it doesn’t get cold in this weather,” Armor said, rubbing my shoulder with a wing and heating me up. I just relaxed into his coat. “Mmm,” I mumbled at the excellent idea, even though I preferred to just sit like that. “Are you sleepy, Gabe?” Polyus asked. “Mmm, don’t know,” I mumbled. “You’re sleepy,” Polyus said. “No you’re not,” Armor’s steady voice. “That’s right, listen to Armor,” Polyus said, as I vaguely made out the chiming of magic in the background. “You’re sleepy.” “No you’re not, Gabe,” Armor said, and carefully shook me. “Shhh-sh-sh. Gentle,” Polyusa softly chided beside me. “What is Armor telling you?” “That I’m not sleepy,” I mumbled, not knowing which I liked best, snuggling into Armor, or listening to him. “He knows best, doesn’t he?” Polyusa said. “You’re sleepy.” I didn’t say anything, unable to make up my mind. “Why are you sleepy?” Polyusa asked. “What’s making you sleepy?” “Why should you be sleepy?” Armor noted. “Are you going to let me tell you what to do?” Polyus gently challenged. “Who should you listen to? Armor, or my voice?” “Mmm,” I mumbled, irritated. “My voice is telling you you’re sleepy. Are you?” “Mmm, no,” I noted, and shook the cobwebs from my mind, opening my eyes and registering where I was and what I was doing. It was another training session of Polyus and Polyusa. Who better than changelings to train someone to withstand magics that influences the mind? I was propped up against Armor, held in his comfortable wing, with Poly, Evening, and Trixie all looking at me. I shook my head again. “How was that?” I asked, barely managing to keep my irritation out of my voice. “Very good,” Polyus said, and nodded with an acknowledging smile at me. “Yeah, that was really good,” Evening noted from the other side of the campfire. “Didn’t feel like it,” I noted. “That’s because you don’t know what we did,” Polyusa said, and touched me gently in the neck, which stung ever so slightly. “What?” I asked, and brought my hoof up to my neck, feeling the two small pricks of a changeling bite. “Almost a full dose,” Polyusa said. “Poison on top of magic, and you’re developing a pretty good mnemonic device to help you snap out of it. If you’re magically influenced to do something, just remember Armor asking ‘Why?’” I took a breath, and steadied myself. “Mmm,” was all I could say, pride at my performance mixing with the irritating feeling of unwelcome awakening. “Alright, relax and have something to drink,” Polyus said, and poured me a mug of tea. “Let me borrow your guitar or your harmonica, and I’ll try and have you feeling better.” We chuckled. Polyus and Polyusa’s musical skills needed a lot of practice. It mostly consisted of them strumming the strings and trying to get through a whole verse without bickering about the lyrics. “Or we could try your harmonica,” Polyusa added. That wouldn’t have allowed us to listen to their lovely arguing. “No, the guitar,” I said. “Are we getting close enough to worry about patrols?” Evening said. “Not quite,” Trixie said, scooting closer to Poly and draping a wing over them. “If you’re worried about somepony hearing us, the snow will drown it out until they’re close enough to smell us.” “I… just don’t want anypony sneaking up on us again,” Evening admitted. “We’re in the forest and there are no ships around this time,” Trixie pointed out. “You’re right though, soon we should start keeping an even lower profile, so let’s enjoy ourselves while we can.” “Alright,” Evening said, and finally stopped casting worried glances around him. “Hey,” Polyus said to Trixie, whose wing was draped over them. “Want me to look like somepony in particular?” “I’m fine like this,” she said. “Can ponies learn changeling magic?” I asked, just as the thought struck me. “Some,” Polyusa said. “Like polymorph magic.” “Really?” I asked, eyes wide. “Well, why don’t people, ponies, learn it?” “Ah, ponies can’t learn to change their own shapes,” Trixie said, lit her horn, and pointed it at Poly. “Changeling polymorph magic is for changing changelings’ shapes.” With a poof of green flames (green flames!), Poly was replaced by a big and very fluffy sheep. “Hey, ba-a-a-a-a-ck off!” Polyusa said, indignantly, before changing back. “... Can you teach me?” I asked. — Eventually, the climate was cold enough that we figured we were getting too close to the Empire for comfort, and decided not to spend the evenings outside by the campfire before settling in Trixie’s mobile house for the night, the bag hidden under a yew. In fact, we spent most of our time in the house, with only one person carrying the rest of us inside the bag, moving mainly under dark or during foggy mornings, and the rest working in shifts holding our head out of the bag and helping keeping watch, just in case. From the outside, it must have looked pretty comical. “Alright,” Trixie said one day, the maps, notes, and plans splayed out onto a table and hanging from a felt wall. “How are you all feeling about this?” After a moment of tense silence, Evening said, “Uhm… stoic,” making the rest of us laugh. “How do you feel about the covers?” Polyusa asked. “It looks good I think,” Evening said, holding up his prosthetic foreleg as I held up mine, covered in very natural-looking coats. “Looks right the way they bend around the fetlocks too now.” “Oh, good. I haven’t done any weaving since we were a nymph,” Polyusa said. “Glad to see it works. We could try and paint something on your eye as well, Gabe.” “Yeah, we might as well,” I said. “I don’t plan on being seen, but just in case.” “We’ll put something on one side, and then you can turn it around so you can see properly out of it when you need to,” Polyus said. “Hey, good idea,” I said, nodding in agreement. Turns out that changeling silk makes for pretty good disguises, for those that can make it. The downside being that it dries up and becomes inert after a while, faster outside of the optimal atmosphere, revealing its true form. It also took quite a bit of energy of the changeling who makes it, though I suspect that the Poly duo was fishing for snuggles. — The last few days were nervous affairs. After Armor had spotted a patrol when he was out with Trixie, the rest of us had taken up firing positions behind couches and the kitchen counter with the stun weapons I had outfitted everyone with. It turned out fine. Just three pegasi flying in a lazy formation overhead, and who hadn’t spotted us. “Probably bored and tired after a long patrol,” Armor said, as we peered out of the opening in the canvas through the frosted, coniferous canopy, seeing the trio of winged ponies slowly move further away. “See how they’re turning? If they’re flying in a circular perimeter around the stronghold, then we’re getting close.” “Good eyes,” Trixie said, and studied the trio with the others. I couldn’t spot it, so Poly and I just kept watch around us as the others studied their trajectory. “Alright, then it should be that way,” Trixie said, pointing in a direction roughly perpendicular to the guards’ flight path. “We just missed a patrol, so we might as well take this opportunity to move fast. Everypony inside except Poly. I want you to carry us as fast and discreet as possible. I’ll try and help keep watch without being in the way” The rest of us nodded, and took up positions inside Trixie’s house again. “Why them?” I asked. “It’s not snowing,” Evening said, then noticed my puzzled expression. “Meaning tracks will stick around longer. They have a more lithe frame and smaller wingspan. Pegasi tends to be faster flyers, but changelings are more agile. They won’t leave tracks or blow the snow off the branches.” “Oh,” I said. I didn’t think I had become a master of the spy trade from these experiences, but this nonetheless helped me to not overestimate myself. There followed a tense couple of hours as Poly flew low to the ground, evading low hanging foliage and keeping their legs above the snow. The rest of us tried looking over the maps and notes, but to no avail. Eventually, the whooshing of winds ceased, and our eyes turned to the entrance. Trixie peered in at us. “We’ve stopped,” Evening pointed out before she could speak. “It’s okay,” she said. “Come on out.” We rose from our seats, and walked towards the exit, climbing out of the bag. We stood at a rocky outcropping at just inside the edge of the forest. Before us was a vast , snowy, flat plain, illuminated by the afternoon sun with only the occasional rock sticking out here and there. At the center of the plain, so far away that only the outline could be spotted, stood an enormous castle. It was the dark counterpart of the castle I had spent a few nights in during the Equestria Games, which was one of the places I had talked with Sombra in my dreams. That castle was, of course, inhabited by the princess of love and her brave and noble husband. This castle looked a bit like an evil version of that. Almost as if it wasn’t really trying, or had abandoned its dark motif halfway through construction. It was hard to say. Surrounding the castle was a town, also similar in size to the one in my and Armor’s Equestria. There didn’t seem to be a lot of activity there though. The streets looked empty and the only traffic around the castle seemed to be airborne. “Now we just need to get over there without being spotted,” Evening pointed out. “Back home, heavy snow was pretty much the norm around here. A fog or a blizzard doesn’t seem unlikely,” Armor said, then spread his wings, fluttering the tips of his primaries. “Doesn’t seem unlikely at all.” “Alright, everypony, back inside please,” Trixie said, and proceeded to hide the bag under a tree and cover it with some snow. “We’re close now,” she continued when she joined us inside. “With a little luck, we should be able to approach soon. We could go over what we know one last time, but we already have done so many times. I suggest we take this time to rest.” We murmured in approval. Polyus and Polyusa, in particular, seemed pleased with that idea. “Agreed,” Polyusa said. “That was exhausting, and we’re going to need more silk soon, so…” she held out her forelegs. “Come on; don’t be shy.” Armor and I were about to walk over, when Trixie floated all the beds and cushions close to each other in one pile. “Agreed, good work,” she said, and magically, gently, tossed us all up on the giant makeshift bedding. “How many spoons do you want?” After a few moments of stunned silence, everyone laughed, and Poly got all the cuddles they wanted. Later, when the others were slumbering quietly, I was still awake. This was it. We were about to infiltrate the dark castle of an immortal ghost unicorn with magical capabilities difficult to even begin to wrap one’s head around. Armor’s breathing slowly shifted, and he probingly nuzzled my neck, and let out a deep breath. “It’s okay to be scared,” he said, quietly. I burrowed deeper into his coat, and he wrapped his wing around me. Between getting up and doing what we came here to do, and staying like this forever, I’d choose the latter. I searched my mind for something, anything, to say that would even come close to describing what I felt. A miasma of wishes and fears clouded my mind. Things I could and should have done, pleadings for things to be different, wishes for all of this to just stop, for the story of my life to have a dramatically unsatisfying conclusion and have a higher being descend onto the stage and fix everything with the flick of a wand. It was like the stages of grief that I had become familiar with long ago, then I recognized the bargaining, and realized something. If I could choose to stay back on Earth in order for none of this to happen, I would decline. I wouldn’t have met Celestia, Redheart, The Crusaders, Twilight and the bearers. I wouldn’t have met Armor. It was worth it. I was so tired, so worried, so scared, and now I had so much to lose, but it was worth it. The pain and worry started to ease in my chest, and my thoughts slowed down. “What are you thinking about?” he asked, in a quiet voice, making it sound so wonderfully deep. “That… this is it, right?” I said, also in a low voice. “Yeah,” he said. “I feel like, like… tomorrow we’re finally going to try and get home, do what we came here to do. It’s either that, or sneak around in the wilds and plan to do so forever. I don’t know which I’d prefer, because I know I’ll have you with me if we never go tomorrow.” I nodded, both happy and sad that he felt the same way as I did. “Having someone also means risking to lose someone,” I said. “You helped teach me that it’s worth the risk.” I turned my head to face Armor, and looked him in the eyes. “I love you, Armor,” I whispered, then kissed him. “I love you,” he whispered back, after we broke the kiss, and we smiled at each other for a moment, before I rested my head again. “And I love your new stubble,” I said. “It looks good on you.” He wrapped himself around me and chuckled, and I snuggled into him, and as the pains and worries slowly faded, sleep finally came to me. I barely registered Poly gently belching in their sleep. — We sat in the sections of Trixie’s house that served as an entryway, finishing our energy rich breakfast while Evening occasionally glanced out through the gap in the canvas. “It’s picking up,” he said, referring to the snow falling outside, as he massaged Polyus and Polyusa’s withers with his perfectly disguised prosthetic leg on. “It’ll be a mild storm soon,” Armor noted. Trixie was braiding my mane and tail as I was sipping my tea between double checking my equipment. “Dimension travelling fighter filly you may be,” Trixie said, using both forehooves and all her magic. “But right now I think this mane is the most notable thing about you.” “It’s the power of rock ’n’ roll,” I said, vaguely feeling that something was rummaging around in there. “It can’t be held down so easily.” “So like Luna’s mane is the way it is because of the magic of dreams and the nights, yours is because of music?” “You doubt the power? We might see it before this is all over, unbeliever,” I said, smilingly, as I reattached my hind leg, perfectly disguised by Poly’s silk. “Are we ready?” Armor asked. “Just about,” Trixie said. I’d seen and read about plenty of infiltrations of enemy strongholds, but this didn’t feel like in the stories. For one thing, if the person the camera focuses on is going somewhere or trying to get something, unless it’s a specific type of story we all know that he or she is on the right track, because that’s how the stories work. Now though? A trio of ethereal sirens had sung to me about stopping the dark king  and how doing so would allow me to return home, nothing else. For me, there had been no scene breaks cutting to my opponent consulting with his closest men about what’s to be done that told me what was the right thing to do. There was nothing except our knowledge of the situation at large, mingled with my misgivings. The Dazzlings had told me that stopping Sombra, whatever “stopping” might mean in this context, would get Armor and me home, and we knew that he had at least some means of dimensional travel, but that was it. We had to play this by ear... and hope we had brought the right instruments... to the right concert hall. I shook my head at the unrealism of it all, making Trixie protest slightly. An hour later, it was still early morning, and we were laying low behind a drift of snow outside the city, trying to spy any sentries through the thick snowfall. We didn’t see any, though that didn’t mean that none were there. “I don’t suppose this means that the coast is clear?” I asked, loudly enough to be heard over the howling wind and snow. My magic senses didn’t reach further than my eyes, so I couldn’t make much use of that either. “Unlikely,” Trixie said. “And I’d rather sneak past guards I know of than guards I don’t know of.” Along the roads leading south, a few outlying buildings were scattered, but from where we were, the city had a clear threshold. The snowy plains very abruptly made way to a dark crystal path that made up the outer perimeter of the crystal houses. “I wish they’d show themselves,” Evening noted, as we stuck closely together. “It’s getting cold.” “Are there even people here?” I asked. “The place looks abandoned.” “It was abandoned after the Silver Phantoms defeated The Empire,” Polyus said. “It was remanned with a garrison centuries later, but the actual city was never properly resettled. It was too far away to support civilian societies.” “I can see why,” Evening noted, clenching his jaw to stop it from shivering. “Look there,” Polyusa said, and pointed at shadows moving between the houses. It looked ghostly “Now we know where one patrol is,” Trixie said. “But I still can’t see any other.” “I say we make a break for one of the houses before anypony sees us from above,” Armor said. Trixie looked back at the rest of us nodding in agreement. “Weapons ready?” We all nodded and murmured in confirmation, before Trixie pointed at a building with closed windows facing us. “We’re flying there, high enough to not leave tracks, but no higher.” She grabbed Evening, and I climbed up on Armor, before we darted towards the window on Trixie’s command. We reached it seemingly unnoticed, and hovered in place for a moment as Trixie unlatched the window with her magic, then we slipped inside as Trixie shut the window behind us. We settled down silently and stayed absolutely still, our ears straining to pick up any indication of alarm over the sound of the wind outside. I looked around the dark room, which was very much intact even after over a thousand years of neglect. Crystal constructions had a long shelf life evidently, as might be expected. A bed and wardrobes and couches were covered by large cloths, which had fared a lot worse than the things they covered. A fairly thin layer of dust covered everything, indicating that no one had cleaned here for a long time, but no one had lived here and let in more dust either. Eventually, we all relaxed and slumped our postures, walking and looking around more intrusively. “Where did they all go?” I asked. “The crystal ponies I mean.” Trixie shook her head. “It’s… unclear,” she said. “Most ponies agree that they vanished about the same time as the Silver Phantoms did, and nopony knows where they went either. Perhaps they went to the same place.” “Did anyone ask Sombra where he came from?” Armor asked. “He said he didn’t know. He heard the same legends of the Silver Phantoms as the rest of us. The old records say that they found him outside of this place, the Crystal Empire,” Trixie said, gesturing around the long abandoned room. “A mysterious colt who hardly remembered anything about himself, but with incredible powers, and an indomitable drive to make the world a better place, and the wisdom to realize it.” “And he is not just a unicorn using magic that no one else has discovered?” I asked. Trixie nodded concedingly. “I’m not even sure Princess Luna and Celestia are old enough to know, but I’ve seen some of what he can do, and if he could do those things as a foal… well, he wasn’t a normal foal, that I’m sure of.” “What can he do?” Armor asked. “He can… turn into a swirling mass of shadows for one thing,” Trixie said. “What that means he can do in turn… I don’t know. What happens if he’s destroyed by an explosion? Does he turn into that and reform? I don’t know that either, but considering how long he’s been protecting Equestria, we know he’s not easy to beat.” “We’re here to ‘stop’ him,” I noted. “We don’t know how to do that, but obviously we don’t want to face him.” Trixie, Poly, and Evening all shook their heads. “I feel like I’m getting cold feet,” I said after a moment. “And it’s not just the weather.” Trixie smiled and put her hoof on my wither. “We’re all nervous, but let’s go through this again, what do we know of him and what he wants?” “He wants to get to our Equestria,” I said. “And he seems to need you and Armor for that, in this place,” Trixie continued. “And now we’re here,” Armor noted, holding back a sigh. “But we don’t know how he plans on accomplishing this,” Trixie said. “And the Dazzlings said that if we try and stop him, you two will find a way home. So, we figure out how he’s going to try and get to your Equestria, and when we know that, we’ll know how to stop him.” All of us nodded. We had been through this before, but it felt like there was so much crazy involved in what we were trying to accomplish, we had to stop and consider the situation on occasion, just to not lose sight of the goal. “So we infiltrate the castle, make our way to the most secure parts where he’d keep his magical projects, and smash everything we see,” Polyusa said. “Uuh, smash it after we’ve found out what we need to smash,” Evening said. “I get the feeling we won’t have all the time in the world once we start, and we don’t want to try and figure out our exact objective when we don’t know if it’s in pieces or not.” “So first step would be to identify the target,” Polyus said. “This will double as an espionage and sabotage mission.” “But if Sombra’s plan is to open a portal to our Equestria…” I said. “I don’t know if I want to destroy it.” “We know,” Trixie said, in a gentle voice. “We’ll have to be ready to alter the plan, to retrieve something and get out of here for example.” “Alright, good,” I said, feeling some of my trepidation wash away. “And nopony seems to have reacted to us being here,” Armor said. “Where do we go from here?” “Sewers,” I said. “Entrances and exits everywhere, including the castle.” “That’s… a good idea,” Polyus said, considering the empty room. “This is a ghost town, except for the castle, which means that it’ll be easy to find once we get down there. If we find activity, we’ve found the castle.” “So where would the entrance be?” Evening asked. I looked at Armor. “You were stationed in the Empire,” I said. “What do you think?” “Hmm, we were there to help modernise their military, and I was with the troopers who were focusing on tactical maneuvers, not the engineers, but I’d say we check the yard.” “Alright, follow me,” Trixie said, and quietly walked towards the door. We moved down into the hallway, weak light shining in from the grimy windows telling us that no one would be able to spot any activity from outside and the howl of the wind masking the sound of our hooves. I blinked over my prosthetic eye, activating my ability to see magic through the walls. “Alright, the street is empty,” I said. “And we only need to take a couple of steps to be out of sight from anyone who marches past.” Trixie nodded, and opened the door, glancing out to confirm what I said, before turning back at us. “Alright, flyers, carry Gabe and Evening to where the tracks won’t be seen, and gently, and then I’ll follow.” She very slowly opened the door to not disturb the snow that was accumulating in the crevices, as I nodded to her that the coast remained clear. Poly grabbed Evening and flew very gently over the snow, while Armor took a running jump and glided over to take up positions behind a wall. Trixie did the same, then very gently shut the door with her magic. I looked around with my magic again, and noticed the manhole under a bench. “There,” I said, pointing at the snow. “That’s the opening.” We filed over and gently started shuffling the snow away with our hooves as Poly held watch, revealing the crystal cover almost seamlessly blending into the crystal ground around it. “Good work,” Trixie said, and lit up her horn, frowning as she concentrated. “Hmm, it’s stuck. It might be locked.” I bent down to inspect it more closely, noticing a sturdy rod protruding from the side of the opening, holding the cover in place. The latch bolt was connected to an intricate mechanism, not unlike a normal lock, preventing the lid from simply being opened with magic. “It has a magic tampering proof lock,” I said. “They took security seriously around here.” “They would have,” Evening said. “Do you see how to get past it?” “We could brute force it, but that’s not very subtle,” Trixie said. “Hold on,” I said, and reared up to put my hooves on Trixie’s side. “I have an idea.” I poked my head into her enchanted bag, magicking out a pair of non-enchanted gems from near the planning table, and brought them out with me. “Scrap, Armor’s uncle, lent me a magic cutting torch once,” I said. “I think I can make something like that.” “Yeah, some heat would be nice now,” Evening said, shivering slightly. “Hold on, I got it,” I said, enchanting the gem. I put the high powered heating enchantment in the core of the gem, coupled with some safety features in the back, a few amplification routines and some for redirecting the heat into a small point at the sharp end of the gem. The process took a few minutes and would not be able to be used unless you were a unicorn who knew how to send magic into it in the right way, but it worked. I lit up the torch, and the air around the top warped from the heat. “Alright, done. Crude, but it should hold together long enough,” I said. “How are we looking?” Armor asked Poly. “It seems okay,” Polyusa said. “Nopony’s walked past since before we came out here. I don’t know if that’s a good sign or a bad one.” “I can’t keep watch while I do this,” I said, and held up the torch to the cover. “And it might make some noise. Hopefully the snow should help.” “Are you sure you should do this?” Evening asked. “Yeah, because…” I said, closing my natural eye and holding the gem up towards where the bolt was, immediately making the spot light up like a small flare, and vaporising the snow around it. “My new eye isn’t bothered by this.” The others had had to shield their eyes from the bright light, and nodded, taking up position, ready for both warnings and action. I went to work, looking at the bright light with my enchanted replacement. For some reason It sounded much like a normal cutting torch would, and I gently worked my way through the crystal bolt, slowly melting it under the onslaught of the heat. Suddenly, Armor tapped me on my wither, and I immediately stopped to look at him. He was looking at Trixie, who was signalling for us to stop, before turning to the opening in the yard, staying completely still. I glanced at the hot, wavering air as it floated higher into the air, hoping it wasn’t visible when it went over the edge of the house. I turned my head towards the entrance to the yard, where a pair of ponies in armor were walking past on the opposite side of the street. The melted spot was slowly hardening again, but I was also grateful to step away from the uncomfortable heat for a little while. After a few tense moments, it was clear that they did not intend to investigate the yard we were in, and simply walked down the street. Trixie signalled for me to continue. I kept going, and before long, the tip of the bolt had melted enough that I could lift the cover from the hole, revealing the ladder leading down into the darkness. The others quickly noticed, and gently walked over to look down into the hole. “We’ll go first,” Polyusa said, being comfortable in dark and cramped spaces, and climbed down head first without the use of the ladder. The rest of us waited for a few moments, before Poly popped back up. “It’s fine,” Polyus said. “Come on down.” We followed, Armor first, then myself, then Evening, and lastly Trixie, who placed the cover back over the hole and shrouded us in darkness. I watched around with my prosthetic eye, unhindered by the darkness, to see Armor, Evening, and Trixie struggling in the dark. “Ow,” I said, as Evening put his rear hoof on my keratin forehoof. “Sorry,” he said. “Can I get us some light?” “Go ahead,” Polyus said. “It should be fine.” Evening lit up his horn, revealing that he was just one step away from the bottom, lighting up the wide tunnel we found ourselves in, the walkway we were standing on, and the railing that prevented anyone from falling into wide canal, empty except for a thin layer of dry, flaky grime. “Hmm,” I said, a little disappointed. “Gandalf lit up a much more impressive underground realm.” “Who?” Evening said. “Don’t worry, it’s from a story,” I said, and paused to double check where the castle had been in relation to the manhole. I pointed at an angle at the crystal wall on the far side of the canal. “So the castle is that way, right?” “That way,” Polyusa said, and pointed slightly to the side, then turning their hoof down the tunnel. “I guess that means we’re heading this way to start with.” “And keep an eye out for activity,” Trixie said. “If we find any tunnel that’s heated up, that should lead to the castle.” “Yeah,” Evening said. “It’s not as bad without the wind, but it’s still pretty chilly down here.” “Poly, do you mind scouting ahead?” Trixie said. “Roger that,” Polyus said, and poked at the clip behind their ear-fin that I had enchanted. “Stay in contact.” “Strict codename usage from now on,” I said. With an almost silent flitter, Polyus and Polyusa vanished into the dark. The rest of us stood there, in silence, making doubly sure that nothing indicated our discovery, before we all nodded at each other, and marched after our changeling friends with quiet steps. It was a long and tense march through the darkness. Despite the smoothness of the surface of the tunnels, the light that Evening emitted flickered across the walls in the distance, and I was sure that if I didn’t have as much company as I did, I would have been scaring myself half to death with my own imagination. A sword fight was one kind of scary, but it was a scary you knew how to defend against; you stepped aside or put something hard between you and the threat. The darkness and the unknown however, was something else entirely, and the stillness made it worse. It was safe, but it was still scary. I activated the magic sighting functions in my eye, which saw through the darkness, but still not very far. It did negate the effect of the shadows on the wall. Still, I sidled up closer to Armor, and he wordlessly put a wing over me. There was a frustration that had been growing ever since we had left Canterlot, which had gotten worse since we left Seaddle, and that was getting worse and worse the closer we got to the Empire, and that was that I didn’t know if we were on the right track. The Dazzlings had been clear enough, but still, I couldn’t know that this was going to help. And it just got worse after we entered the city. The heroes in the movies are always moving towards the final showdown, and games let you know whether or not you’re making progress, because entertainment tries not to waste your time. We were just walking through a sewer in the darkness, hoping that this was not a fool’s errand. On the other hand, the further things went without someone raising the alarm, the more thoroughly any tracks we left were covered in snow. It was like the blind duelling the blind, or rather, a blind person duelling someone they thought and hoped were blind as well. I jumped slightly from fright when the glowing form of Poly entered my magical view, making everyone shoot a glance at me. “It’s okay, it’s just Poly,” I said, making everyone relax. The soft buzzing of our insectoid friends announced their arrival to the rest, and they touched down in front of us. “Hoooo,” Polyusa said, shivering slightly. “We’ve found a perimeter of grates in the passages ahead. We didn’t deviate too far though, didn’t want to lose you guys.” “What kind of grate?” Trixie said. “Also, do you need a pick-us-up?” “Yes please,” Polyus said, making us huddle around them, sharing body heat and giving them a meal. “We think it’s for defence, but we also think it’s been here since the beginning. It meshes into the rest of the structure.” “A barrier is to stop somepony from going somewhere, like to someplace where you can infiltrate a castle from below, so I’ll say we’re on the right track. Let’s go take a look,” Trixie said, then paused when she saw Evening and Poly, one clenching his jaws to keep from shivering and the other huddling closer to the rest. “In a minute.” After a while, we were standing in front of the barrier. It wasn’t a grate of iron rods, that would have been easy to get though, and probably rusted through eventually. These looked more like crystal boards with their thin side facing us. “There are no weak spots right?” Armor asked, as Trixie and Poly hovered in front of them where they blocked the canal, taking care not to step in the grime even though it probably hadn’t been biologically active in many years. “None that we can see,” Polyusa said. “Should we try and break through?” “We could try another tunnel,” Polyus added. “Or try and get up to the surface again.” “Hmm, we don’t know how close we are to the castle,” Trixie noted. “I figure that the city perimeter would be guarded, and the castle would be guarded, but security would be light in the districts between.” “If Gabe teaches the rest of us to use her invention, we can work our way through this,” Evening said. “It might take a while, but it would be possible.” “Hmm? Oh, yeah,” I said, having been trying to study the grate. “Yeah, I’m trying to see if I can find a pattern in the microstructure, but it’s tricky. And that doesn’t matter if we torch our way through it.” “Let’s get to it then,” Polyusa said. With all of us switching up and some clever magic shield work from Trixie, we started cutting our way through the barrier. After I was done with one section, Evening borrowed some enchanted sunglasses from Trixie’s house, and got some instructions from me before taking over. I was propped up against Armor as we kept watch behind us, chewing on a granola bar to get back some energy from the slightly taxing activity of using my magic to power the torch. “I wish I could play something,” I said. “So do I,” Armor said. “We’ll have all the time in the world when we get back.” I took a stiff breath, feeling is if he’d jinx us, when I noticed a minute, rhythmic spasm in the fuzz of my ears over the dull sound of the torch being worked. I narrowed my eyes into the darkness ahead of us, and recognised the pattern. “Stop!” I hissed back, immediately silencing the work except for a faint clicking sound of the cooling crystal, and shrouding us in utter darkness again. Everything was still for a moment, as we let out eyes try and adapt to the lack of light, before we noticed a faint light spilling out from a tunnel in a crossing we had passed earlier, and the distant sounds of hoofsteps coming closer. I could hear Poly scamper down onto the wall of the canal beside us. “Here!” one of them hissed, and we scrambled towards the edge as quickly and quietly as we could. “I can see fine,” I said, quietly, referring to my prosthetic eye. “Evening, no wait, Trixie, hang from the edge, then you and Poly support Evening, while Armor and I are on the other side of Trixie.” Us ponies all scampered down to hang off the edge, gripping with our hooves, except Trixie and Armor used their primaries to support their weight, and Poly was simply pressed against the wall. We glanced up, and saw the light coming closer to the intersection, and the faint sound of hooves growing stronger. “Trixie… Trixie!” Polyus hissed. “What?” Trixie asked, turning to the changelings. “Gabe’s mane,” he said, and held out a rough string of silk, which Trixie quickly used her magic to tie my mane down with. “We have to be ready to make a move,” Trixie whispered. “What’s the signal?” Evening asked. “Just… follow my lead,” Trixie said. “Get down,” Armor said, before the source of the light rounded the corner. Armor and Trixie let go with their hooves, and pressed themselves as close as possible against the wall, hanging from their primaries. Evening and I gently put our hooves on their withers, and lowered ourselves down alongside them. A indiscernible number of hooves slowly and quietly made their way across the walkway, towards the spot where we had been working on getting through the grate, and I could almost sense Armor and Trixie’s unreleased grunts from supporting that much weight with the edge of their wings. They entered my field of magical vision, there were three unicorns and one earth pony, two of the unicorns had their horns lit and all of them were looking around attentively. Two unicorns and the earth pony had spears, while the other had a sword on her side I held my head out and caught Polyus and Polyusa’s attention, slowly mouthing, “Four of them,” at the changelings, who nodded, and focused on the sound of the steps. “Look at this, sergeant,” a mare said, and poked at the abandoned gem lying by the half cut barrier sections. “Intruders,” another mare said, looking holding her hoof by the cuts in the barrier. “Still warm. Stay sharp, they might be close.” She slowly drew her sword as the others readied their spears and looked around warily. They still didn’t seem to have spotted the small edges of feather that Armor and Trixie were hanging on by, although by now, the light from the unicorns were close enough that we could see each other without magical means. One of the unicorns were walking up towards us, and I turned to Trixie. “They’re about to spot us,” I mouthed at her, and she nodded at me, then turned to Armor and nodded to the side of the squad. Armor nodded, and heaved himself up across the edge, drawing his stun baton, and engaging the farthest pony before any of them could react. She managed to block his swing, but was immediately locked in a wrestle against him. Before the others could assist their squadmate, and while their attention was focused on Armor, the rest of us poked out heads up to engage them. Evening, Trixie, and I, all shot one magical bolt each as we climbed the railing. The one Armor was struggling with collapsed, unconscious, before noticing what was happening, as did one of the stallions. The remaining stallion managed to dodge the bolts, and the sergeant took a grazing hit in her armor. Even so, there wasn’t much resistance the two could offer against five, especially not with an alicorn among us. A side-step here, a nibble from Poly there, and it was all over. At least for now. As I looked at the ponies as they were being tied up, my heart began to sink. “Patrols have to report back, don’t they?” I asked. “Yes, so we’d better not take all day,” Trixie said, as she pushed the last member of the patrol into her house. “We don’t know when they’re expected back, and the rest probably don’t know when and where they went missing.” “Can we make it?” I asked, not really wanting to know. Trixie stopped, and looked up into the ceiling for a moment before smiling at me. “We can certainly try.” I nodded, and once again sat down by Armor. He didn’t put his wing around me and comforted me, instead, he put his hooves on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes for a good, long moment. “Are you okay?” he asked. I paused, and noticed that my worry was being joined by determination. This wasn’t optimal, but we were still here, free and under the radar for the moment. I nodded at him. “Yeah. I’m fine.” — After a while, we were through the barrier, and moving much more rapidly through the tunnels. The creeping and scary part from before was gone. The jack was out of the box and the blades were already drawn. We hurried along the walkway, the uncertainty of having plenty of time was gone,  and we had to act. “You feel that?” Armor asked. “Feel what?” Evening said. “Movement in the air,” Armor said, and spread his wings, followed by Trixie. “There’s a breeze.” “We’re getting closer,” Trixie nodded. “And I hear running water,” I pointed out. We moved up through the tunnels, getting closer and closer to the sound, reaching another intersection, where water was flowing perpendicular to out approach, smoothly and calmly along the well-constructed canal. “Is this raw sewage?” I asked, and sniffed the air. “I thought it would smell worse than this.” “Aaah, countless sweaty soldiers taking warm showers,” Evening said, looking pleased at the heat coming from the water, and turning his head to the ceiling. “Thanks, everypony. What were you expecting though?” “Something else. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get the smell out of my coat for weeks.” “Okay? Ew?” “Gabe? Can you see anything?” Trixie asked. I looked around with my prosthetic eye, seeing a maze of smaller pipes going through the ground above us. “Hmm. There’s a ladder there,” I said. “I could take a look.” “Right, be careful.” I climbed the ladder, Poly scampering up the wall beside me, and looked through the hatch at the top. Above it and a bit to the side, two ponies stood guard outside the entrance to a building. I couldn’t make out their expressions, but I imagined they didn’t look to pleased to be standing still in the snow. The building didn’t seem to have a lot of activity in it. A reception area, a desk, and part of a small archive was all I could see from here, and no other ponies except the guards.. “Hmm, wait…” I said, taking in the layout, before climbing down to the others again. “I think we’re next to the quartermaster’s office.” “Can you cut through the hatch from this side?” Trixie asked. “Ehm,” I started, skeptical. “I guess, but it’s gonna take time, and the snow on the hatch is going to melt, possibly boil, and two guards are standing outside the entrance.” “So we keep looking?” Armor asked. “There’s an incline over there,” Polyus said, pointing to the side. “Alright, let’s check it out. Eyes peeled,” Trixie said, as we moved up the gentle slope. When the platform levelled again, we stood next to drainage pipes with water pouring out of them. At the top was a ladder leading up to what was presumably a service hatch. I took a look at the structure with my magic, and saw that the pipes led to a chamber with other pipes leading into it from the top, some with water pouring out of them, others without. “There’s a sort of junction up there,” I said. “I think… from there they lead directly to different, well, sources of wastewater. Kitchens, showers, and such.” “Can we fit through those?” Trixie asked. “Hmm, I think I can through some of them,” I said. “We can as well in that case,” Polyusa said, confidently. “How about…” Evening said, putting his hoof on his chin and looking at the floor. “Gabe, Polyus, and Polyusa get up there undetected and let us up from that side?” “No! I…” Armor started, before the rest of his objection turned into a sigh, and he deflated slightly. In a way glad to see that I wasn’t the only nervous one, and not really knowing if it was a good plan, I even so put my hoof on his neck. “It’s okay. We’ll be careful.” Armor looked me in the eyes for a moment, before nodding. “Radio check,” Trixie said, and flapped her left ear against the small brooch hidden in the base of her mane. “Testing,” she said, echoing in our ears. “Splinter reporting.” “Kit and Kat here,” Polyus and Poluysa said. “Blue Thunder testing.” After everything was in order, Polyus, Polyusa, and I climbed up the ladder, making short work of the flimsy lock in place on the door, and stepping into the chamber. “Alright, commencing Operation Dinner Out,” I said, and stepped out of sight of the others. A small, slime covered walkway without railings was all that one could stand on without stepping into the canal with wastewater, coming out from the large pipes all around the wall. “Eesh,” I said, waking slowly to not slip on the slimy surface, and looking through the walls to see where the pipes led. “Alright, uhm… that one is that wide the entire way and leads to a big room. It’s uuh, a little hard to make out from here, but I think it’s a shower.” “There’s water coming from it,” Polyus pointed out. “Is it in use?” “Maybe,” I said. “Uuh, yeah. One pony it looks like.” “What about the others?” “A lot of them fork of into smaller pipes, and some of them keep going beyond where I can see, so it’s hard to say.” “Let’s take our chances with this one,” Polyusa said, and flew me over to the pipe I had first pointed at. They put me into the pipe, that I just managed to fit into if I crouched, leaving me standing in dark slime and flowing, warm water. I grimaced at the sensation, before Poly squeezed themselves into the pipe behind me. “Here, we’ll go first,” Polyusa said. “Gangway.” “Gangway?” I asked, before they immediately stepped up to the side and pressed themselves almost flat against the surface, not dragging their exoskeleton along it but also not leaving an inch between it and them. They scampered past me through the cramped space, making me grimace against as my side was pressed against the side of the pipe. Up ahead was a ninety degree turn upward, and two or three of my body lengths up that was a grate with light shining through it, and warm water showering us. “Here, grab our tail,” Polyus said, and started climbing up the side of the pipe. I grabbed it with my mouth, and felt my mane, tail, and side drag along the accumulated slime in the pipe. “Ugh, euugh-uuuuh!” I complained, closing my natural eye and grimacing with my entire face. “Shh!” one of them hushed, as we reached the grate, then turned to me and whispered, “You’re right, there’s just one. We’ll get into position, and then you’ll get their attention.” I nodded, and pressed with my legs to the sides of the pipes, and with the help of Poly climbed up to just below the grate. I pressed hard against the pipe, not wanting to slide down it and having to do this again, which made it tricky since the prostheses on my right side were so much stronger than my left legs. Poly gently lifted the grate, and put it to the side of the opening, before scuttering up and taking up position next to the shower stall that the warm water was flowing from, covered by a shower curtain. They nodded at me, and I, still grimacing, started climbing up slowly, finally free to voice my discontent. “Augh! Eeew. This is so disgusting,” I said, loudly, making the pony in the shower perk their head up. “Is that you behind that curtain, Polonius?” “Who’s there?” the pony, a stallion, answered, and pulled away the curtain, making me mentally cross spying on a hunky stallion with beautiful hair in the shower off my bucket list. “Come hither, gentlemen, thou art a fishmonger.” I said, pulling myself up and putting my front hooves on the side of the big drain. “What the…?” the stallion said, recoiling slightly, before gathering his wits and marching forward with I’m sure was as much pondus as he could muster in this situation. “Who are you? What–” “Prepare to receive the bad medicine,” I interrupted him, making him look at me with an utterly confused expression, before he collapsed, asleep, Poly’s mouth around his neck, with their sleep-inducing poisonous fangs buried in him. I pulled myself out of the pipe, and despite standing in a steamy room and having been showered by warm water, I let out the biggest shiver of my entire life. “Uuuuhuhuhuhu! Never again,” I said, shivering where I stood, before shakily smacking my radio with my ear. “This is, guuh, health inspector Blue Thunder reporting in. S… sous chef is interviewed and everything is kosher.” “Excellent, Blue,” Trixie’s voice said. “Proceed to scout the booths and reserve a table.” “N-negative,” I said. “Capabilities are... compromised until… sanitation procedures are undertaken.” “... Copy that,” Trixie said. “Just make it quick.” “Do we have time?” Polyus asked. I scanned around with my eye, and didn’t see anyone else in the building except for a pony by a desk on the side side of the building, two floors up. “I think so,” I said. “Hide the stallion for now.” We dragged the poor guy back into the stall he had exited from, and stood under the warm water. Poly’s chitin was cleaned within seconds and a few scrubs with a loofah on a stick. My own coat, and especially my mane and tail, required a little more care, which Poly quickly took care of while I surveyed the building with my eye. The pony two floors up looked like they were falling asleep at their desk, and while I could now see the two guards outside the door, the same ones that would have spotted us trying to break through the manhole cover, there was no other activity in the building as far as I could tell. “Alright, done,” Polyus said, and snatched the stallion’s towel and threw it over me. “Thanks,” I said, and cautiously walked towards the door, keeping my eye peeled all around me. “Still no activity. We should be fine.” “How’s it looking outside?” “They’re still there,” I said, as we walked through a small lounge, into an office connected to a desk by the entrance to the building. “Yep, this is the quartermaster’s office. How do you wanna play this?” I asked, as I cautiously looked out the window, seeing the necks of the two guards and the heavy snowfall covering the grounds outside and the windows to the other buildings. “Hold on,” Polyusa said, and walked back towards the shower, transforming into the stallion we had knocked out mid-stride. “An officer,” the stallion said in Polyusa’s voice, now dressed in his uniform. “Good thing we heard his voice earlier. I’ll go out and distract them, you climb out the window and knock out one, and I’ll knock out the other.” “Hmm, okay,” I said, and gently unlatched the window, but not opening it, and drawing my stun rod. Poly walked out through the door, and the guards immediately stood at attention, saluting them as they walked down the stairs. “It occurs to me...” they said in the stallion’s voice, walking to the side and drawing the guards’ attention, exposing the neck of the one closest to me. “It occurs to me that I should have perhaps thought of something dramatic to say.” Before the guards could start suppressing the want to glance at each other, I leapt out through the window at the guard closest to me and placed the business end of my stun rod in the neck between his helmet and his breastplate, making him collapse with a small, startled cry. Just as the other guard’s attention was moving from the apparent officer to the movement behind him, Poly stepped up and pulled the stun rod from their holster, pressing it gently against their throat, making them collapse as well. “Alright, no lollygagging,” Polyus immediately said, and scooped the guard up on their withers, while I did the same with mine, opened the door with my magic, then used it to grab their spears, before we walked in again. “Put them down gently,” I said when we were in. “Might as well not wake up the clerk upstairs.” “Don’t worry,” Polyusa said, as we walked towards the shower. “Also, let me take care of that guy, you’re dragging his hooves along the floor.” “Alright,” I said, and magicked the towel over me again, since I was still cold from stepping outside with a wet coat. “Can you turn into a shrub?” “We can. Why?” Polyusa asked, as they dumped the knocked out guards next to their officer. “To give us some cover while working on the hatch.” “Sure,” Polyus said, and stepped out of the uniform. “It’s gonna be cold though, so please don’t take too long.” We scouted the grounds from the window for a while before we walked out and positioned ourselves over the manhole. I brought up my torch and tried it out quickly. “This is health inspector Blue Thunder. Waiters report that tables are available and are bringing out the silverware, stand by.” “Copy, health inspector,” Trixie’s voice sounded by my ear. “The stagecoaches are on the premises and the guests are standing by.” I scuffed the snow from the cover so as to not have an as conspicuous cloud of water vapour coming from the flowerbed where we were. It was pretty stressful, focusing solely on a small spot right in front of me while in a hostile stronghold, doing a slow and time-consuming job. I could look up and find myself surrounded by Sombra’s troopers, smiling at me, but I had to trust Polyus and Polyusa. Eventually though, the hatch opened, revealing the face of Evening. We looked at each other and let out relieved sighs. No one seemed to have noticed, and I grabbed a hoof of snow and jammed it against the hot surface, cooling it down with a hissing sound, as Armor and Trixie quickly followed Evening. We crouched behind Poly, and peered up beyond them, again, seeing no real activity on the grounds, which I was starting to suspect was because it was a quiet corner with mostly auxiliary buildings and storage. Still, it wouldn’t do to not be cautions. “Alright, inside,” Trixie hissed, and we ran back into the building, Armor pausing to close the cover and kick some snow onto it, before tapping Poly-shrub on the way. Poly followed Armor in and shut the door behind them. “That guy has woken up and is looking through paperwork,” I said, looking up at the pony behind the desk on the third floor. “Let’s pause for a minute,” Trixie said, and spied out of a window. “Where did you put the guards?” “In the shower we came up out of,” Polyusa said. “How are the ones we found below?” “They’re still out,” Trixie said. “I’m thinking we could dump them here, if we take care of the pony that Gabe sees up above.” “Do it. Evening, go with them, use your rod if you can.” “Yes please, we’ve already used one dose recently,” Polyus said, running their tongue contemplatively over their fangs, as they and Evening snuck up the stairs. Not long after, one clerk, one officer, and six troopers, their uniforms and gear now in our possession, were tied up against each other in a small, dark room filled with filing cabinets, covered by a duvet from a couch in the lounge connected to the shower to help them keep their warmth in the cold room and not encourage them to not wake up. “I feel we should give them another zap each,” I said. “Oh they’re gonna be out of it for a while,” Polyusa said. “Don’t worry about them.” “Where do we go from here?” Armor asked. “I’m guessing the inner keep is where we’d find what we need to do to stop Sombra,” Trixie said. “I say we take the uniforms, split up into two groups, and scout it out as quietly as possible.” “What about Gabe?” Evening asked. “I’m imagining a filly would draw a little too much attention.” Poly walked up to me and picked me up. “What?” I asked. “Yeah, what are you planning, Polyusa?” Polyus asked. “What about if we do this?” Polyusa said, and covered themselves in green flames (green flames!). The flames enveloped me, and it felt like someone shoved me in smooth overall that was still warm from a round in a tumble dryer. When the flames faded, I was standing taller than before; Just short of eye level with Armor, Trixie, and Evening, who were looking at me with a surprised expression. I looked down at my hooves to see what I was standing on, only to see longer versions of my legs, both of them looking natural. “O-whoao!” I said, stumbling back and righting my larger body, before lifting my right foreleg and noting that it lacked feeling like it always did, then bending it halfway between the knee and the elbow. “... Guys, did you just turn yourselves into a grown mare-suit?” “Yes,” Polyusa answered, moving my mouth in the process. “One of us has to concentrate though, keep your legs stiff and use your hooves as if they were the knee, we’ll take care of the hooves.” “What’s this we stuff?” Polyus asked, also using my mouth. “You didn’t ask me, or Gabe for that matter, whether this was a good idea.” “No this could work though,” Trixie said, and looked out the window. “Think about it, we’d like to keep a low profile, like using service tunnels, but we have to get into the main keep before we can do that. If we snoop around for them outside, in the snow, we’re going to leave tracks.” “Alright, fine,” Polyus said. “What do you think, Gabe?” “Oh, can I use my own mouth now?” I asked, a little irritated by how unceremoniously they started using it as well, and patted my mane, or rather Polyus and Polyusa’s mane, which they had made red and a lot less voluminous, as I thought. “Well, in my own, admittedly limited, experience with skullduggery, it’s better to hide in plain sight than plain hiding. So sure, let’s do this.” “Uniforms on then?” Evening asked. “Who gets which?” Before long, Polyus, Polyusa, and I, were dressed in the sergeant’s uniform, Armor in the uniform of the captain in the showers, Evening as a trooper, and Trixie in with clerk’s uniform over her wings, trying to look spaced out, her mane made up in a bun and her saddlebags disguised with scrolls sticking out of it and a clipboard in her hoof. I looked at us and the three figures trying to look comfortable in their clothes. “We look more motley with the uniforms than without them,” I said, making Polyus and Polyusa laugh. “No that’s good,” Polyusa said. “It would look more strange if they looked too proper. That’s eye-catching.” “Yeah, by the way, how does mine look now?” I asked, looking at my reflection in the window, and seeing that both my eyes matched in appearance. “Oh cool.” “Uhm, I’m not sure how to put this, Trixie,” Evening said. “But could you try and look a little less eye catching?” “Eye catching how?” she asked. “Cute,” I and both the Poly twins said at the same time. “Yeah, you got a lot of that ‘pretty without even trying’ thing going on,” Polyusa added. “I do?” Trixie said, and looked at herself in the reflection in the window. “This is kinda familiar,” Armor said. “Familiar how?” I asked, making Evening and Armor just smile at each other. “How about this?” Trixie asked, peering up above a pair of glasses she found on a desk. “Nope,” we all said immediately, and shook out heads. “Okay,” Trixie said, in an uncertain voice, and put the glasses back. “What do I do then?” “Try and seem a little shy, like you’re nervous about being near Captain…” Evening said, waving his hoof in Armor’s direction as he searched for words. “... Captain Thunder, I guess.” “That’s my codename,” I objected. “Captain… Kicker?” “Hmm… Captain… Donatello,” I said before shaking my head. “No, I’d be Donatello. Ah, whatever, Captain Kicker, or Don to the rest of us, and you’re Michelangelo, or Mikey.” “So, like this?” Trixie said, and retreated into herself and looked up shyly at Armor. “Uh, try and seem shy without seeming to try seeming shy,” he said. Trixie stared blankly at him, while the rest of us tried and failed to come up with a better suggestion. “Ugh, let’s just go,” she said, and walked up to the door, before turning back at us. “Private, should you open the door for Captain Kicker?” — “Now, remember,” Trixie said, as we walked through the snow. “Stay away from relaxation areas. Kitchens are good though. Not the kitchens themselves, but they have service tunnels connected to them.” The rest of us nodded, trying to look both determined and bored, to both fit in and to not be disturbed. We marched through the elbow deep snow, around the building housing the office we just came out of, and approached the main keep. It was easy enough with Polyus and Polyusa helping me keep my balance despite being taller up than I was used to. I knew from Trixie’s map that it had a different layout than the keep from my Equestria, thought I spotted a large square, empty, though looking as if it should contain something. Perhaps it was nothing, or perhaps it was the counterpart of the Crystal Heart. The gate to the main keep came into view, the large wooden doors being closed, with one pony on each side standing guard. “Can we get in?” I asked, without moving my head. “The doors are closed.” “Yes,” Trixie said. “Who opens the door?” “Uuh… Evening, you do it if they look like they’re not going to.” “Got it,” he said. “Showtime, everypony,” Trixie said, before we entered the guards’ hearing range. “Remember, Gabe, persuasion is on you, not on the captain.” The two guards had righted up by the time we approached, and were looking at us stoically. “Sir,” they said, and saluted when they saw Armor, and stood there for a moment, before I tilted my head and bore my eye into the one closest to the handle for the door, which seemed to make him a little too nervous. Just as Evening was about to step up and open the door, the guard finally moved, jerkingly pulling open the door himself. Armor pretended to bite back a sigh, and nodded at the guards, before stepping through, followed by myself, then Armor and Trixie. Probably assuming that no one would notice, they looked appreciatively at Trixie’s tail, which was what we didn’t want, lest they spot the inclination of wings under her clothes. Armor noticed it, and raised his eyebrow at the guards. “Problem?” he asked. “No, sir,” the guard said, before letting his eyes linger on Armor. “Although pardon me, sir, but I don’t recognize you. Might I ask your name?” Armor bought time by raising his eyebrow again. This was looking bad already, and I decided to keep their eyes from inspecting any of us for too long comfortably. I gave them a confused and highly disapproving look, which I let linger for a moment, before I straightened my posture and said, “I’ll handle this, sir,” remembering not to salute indoors. Armor nodded at me, then kept walking with the others. I let them move a few steps before I turned to the guards, especially the one observant one, with my mouth twisted by the pretend-vitriol I was about to spew. Luckily, they were not familiar with human media. “What was that?” I barked, before gathering up some more bile to lace my words with. “What. The buck. Was that!?” The guard had taken a step back and was looking at me with wide eyes. “S-sir, uh, ma’am–” “When you, as a private, stand in the presence of officers, you do not insinuate suspicions like a gossiping noble! You ask for identification loudly, clearly, and according to protocol, am I understood!?” “Y-yes, sir!” he stammered. “I am not a sir!” I barked at him, indicating the sergeant markings on the uniform I was wearing. “I work for a living, maggot! You will stop wasting the time of your superiors, or you will spend so much time cleaning latrines you will not be able to tell the difference between your own orifices! Do I make myself clear!?” “Yes si– ma’am– sergeant!” “Good, now go back to your post, soldier, and close the door,” I said, and righted my uniform as I glared after them. I turned around and walked down the corridor after the others. “That was some persuasion, Gabe,” Polyusa said, and I could feel them trying to stifle their giggles. “Shh!” Polyus hissed, when a black maned unicorn mare came into view, another officer. “Sergeant,” she said, before I had time to even try and remind myself what the proper response was. “Ma’am,” I said, noticing the major’s insignia on her, and standing at attention. “Is there any trouble?” she asked. “No, ma’am,” I said, immediately. ‘That’s right, I’m the kind of sergeant who takes care of the troops. Don’t let those stuffy officers get involved. They might get ideas.’ “Just a reminder about procedure.” “Mmm… procedure,” the major repeated, nodding slowly. “Follow me, sergeant.” “Ma’am,” I said, and followed without hesitation. No hesitation in body language I mean. As the major turned around, she just missed a very nervous looking Armor ducking his head back around a corner. We marched past the corridor they had ducked behind, which was empty of ponies except for my friendly trio, Armor pretending to be reading a clipboard that Trixie was showing him, while Evening patiently waited to the side. They glanced up as we walked past, and I gave them a reassuring nod, which they returned, before we were out of sight. The major led me along a corridor of offices, and into one that said “Maj. Morning Mist”. I flicked my ear against my comm-unit, hoping Polyus or Polyusa would pick up on this and letting the others listen to what was happening. “Close the door,” she said, which I did, as she plopped down behind the desk, and let out a sigh. “What’s your name, sergeant?” she asked. “Blue Thunder, ma’am,” I said. “Blue Thunder,” she repeated. “Well, sergeant Thunder, I have a situation. Four troopers are missing.” “Ma’am?” I said, not exactly feeling as if she was playing with me. “Ga– uh… Blue Thunder,” Armor’s stressed voice sounded in my ear. “We have eyes on Rocksteady, he seems to be heading your way. No sign of Bebop.” “You’ve not heard of this?” The major asked, while I was still processing that latest tidbit. “No, ma’am, I have not,” I said, readily but without passion. “What’s your take on the situation?” “I…” was all I managed to say before there was a knock on the door, which immediately opened, and the voice made my eyes turn to pinpricks and my mane and tail try even harder to stand up straight underneath Poly’s form. “Major, I have still not received any reports from Tempest Valley,” a bored sounding Golden Star said, as I desperately struggled to get my composure under control. Luckily, the major’s attention was focused on the lieutenant commander in front of her. “Oh,” he said, and I stiffly turned and faced the wall perpendicular to Major Mist and Lieutenant Commander Golden Star. “Am I interrupting something?” “I was talking with sergeant Thunder here about four missing troopers, and asking what her take on it might be,” Mist said. “Missing troopers?” he said, turning to face me just as I was getting my expression under control. “Indeed? Please proceed.” I blinked, thinking rapidly about what might be the best response, which was obviously what the sort of pony I was pretending to be would say. I also thanked my lucky star that Polyus and Polyusa had thought ahead to change my voice slightly. “Well, ma’am, sir… if they failed to report for call, I’d search the barracks for ponies hung over or otherwise self-incapacitated, followed by recreation, followed by the sick bay in case of botched paperwork,” I said, being careful not to mention any types of entertainment and other things that might keep troopers from their duty that this distant place didn’t offer. “If they failed to report back from an assignment… I’d start with getting word to the perimeter patrols that we might have deserters.” “And in the case of intruders?” Golden Star asked. “I’d… check what unit they’re missing from, and use my own judgement to determine whether they can be trustworthy before ordering them to make a full search of the base, starting here and fanning outward.” “Why would they not be trustworthy?” Golden asked, one eyebrow raised. “If a patrol is missing, it might not have been with a struggle,” I said. “They might be compromised.” “Mm,” Golden said, and turned to Morning Mist. “Major, I think the sergeant is onto something. Call in another company and assign them to sweep the base. Sergeant, you’re coming with me.” “Yes, sir,” I let Morning Mist say, while I simply nodded and wordlessly followed Golden Star out into the corridor.” “Don, the patrons are more likely to approve of your attire,” Trixie’s voice sounded in my ear, clearly talking to Armor. “Mine and Tristar’s equipage is too low-class for the private booths. Blue Thunder, we heard all of that. Don is going to order what you ordered, while Tristar and I will and try and check the state of the pantry.” “We’re going to need your bag here!” Polyus hissed through the radio, non-audibly for Golden Star. “You… good point,” Trixie said. “You take this, and we’ll make way towards the mess, find that corridor along the larder we talked about. Thunder, Don will be right behind you.” I kept quiet, simply following closely behind Golden Star. Armor was going to try and follow me and Poly, while Evening and Trixie were going to try and infiltrate deeper into the castle. I was concentrating on walking straight ahead, letting the possibilities play out in my head. The moment that Golden Star asked me anything about the make-believe pony I was acting as, the jig would be up. So many other things could mess it up. The best thing I felt I could hope for was if he took me into his office or some other location with at least a degree of privacy, where with skill and a little luck, we could neutralize him quietly. Golden Star turned and opened the door to his office. A solid wall one, rather than with partial glass walls like the major’s office. Immediately I felt once we filed in and I closed the door behind us. I took a calming breath, knowing that I technically had two friends with me on the room. “Thunder, I’m going to try and find a good place to loiter,” Armor whispered through the comms. “So, sergeant,” Golden said, and sat down behind his desk. “What did the major tell you?” “That four troopers were missing, sir,” I said, standing straight. “She asked for my take on the situation, and that’s when you stepped into the room, sir.” “That early?” he asked, a bit disappointed. “Poor timing on my part. It would have been best if she could tell you more about it.” “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know if I follow,” I said. “She’s under suspicion,” Golden said. “By me, not officially, but with everypony here coming from the –” he bobbed his head a little in annoyance “– the ‘military’, under Luna, there is of course the risk that some here are spies.” I nodded, deciding that the best way was to pretend that no one had outright said this to me, but as a sergeant I knew what was going on. “Yes sir. I’m afraid I have no insight other than what I told you. I didn’t even get the company.” “Pity,” he said. “But this could be good. She’s already suspicious of me, and if I seem to blatantly disregard an opportunity by dragging you away like that, perhaps that’ll throw away some suspicions.” “Yes sir. Should I be hearing this, sir?” I asked, looking straight ahead. “Why? What are you suggesting?” he asked, smirking a little at me. “No offence, sir, but it’s starting to sound like I’m being tested,” I said, looking him in the eye. He raised an eyebrow at me with an amused smile. “What a mess this could turn into, eh? Nopony trusting anypony else,” he said, and opened a tin with mints, spilling out two onto the desk and taking one in his mouth. “As you say, sir. Should I act on this in any way, sir, or should I proceed like the major asked me to?” “No suspicion against myself?” he asked. “Should I tell you if that’s the case, sir?” His smirk deepened. “Very good.” “Besides, sir, you’re trusted with searching for the ponies that his majesty wants. I’ll let him be the judge,” I said. Golden considered me in still silence for just a moment, making me afraid that I had made a mistake, before he nodded. “A simple assumption, but understandable,” he said, twirling the mint on his desk. “Now, there is just one more thing before I let you go to do as the good major asked.” “Yes sir?” He didn’t say anything, instead flicking the mint into my right eye. It looked disguised, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to recoil with the lack of sensation. For half a second, the world seemed to stand still as Golden’s smirk became predatory, and he lunged at us over the desk, breathing the word, “Clever,” as he did. Not many can relate to the sensation of having the tight and warm suit you were in suddenly vanish from around you, but that’s what happened when Polyus and Polyusa transformed away from me into one body on my side, out of the uniform, and I fell to the floor on my legs with the clothes falling loosely around me.  ‘Drat. I was just starting to get comfortable too.’ Golden’s eye widened, and he swung at them with his hooves. They blocked the first blow, but they only partially managed to roll with the second one, aimed at their muzzle, making them both yelp at the same time. I leapt up, rearing up and preparing to block with my prosthesis, still covered in Poly’s silk, but he hesitated when saw me clearly, which in turn made me hesitate as well. Poly stepped up and closed in tightly against him, and he blocked their fangs with the keratin of his hoof. I stepped up and grabbed his other foreleg, and magicked my stun rod out of my holster, immediately putting it against his neck and discharging. Golden grunted, and collapsed against his desk, somehow still conscious, if barely, breathing slowly and looking up at us. “... Very clever,” he said, as the door quietly opened, and Armor peered in. When he saw the scene, he quickly stepped in and closed the door behind him. “I got it,” he said, throwing the pack off his shoulder, and pulling it open. Poly held Golden’s forearms against the desk, and I moved out of his line of sight with the rod at the ready while Armor worked in quick silence. Golden’s head was rolling gently back and forth as he breathed heavily, clearly not in a state to put up a fight, but he and Rosen had done their best not to underestimate me, and I thought I’d extend the same courtesy. His eyes widened for a moment when Armor slipped into the bag on his desk and held out his forelegs to carry Golden. He and Poly carried him into the bag, and when they were all the way in, I slipped it under Golden’s desk, away from view, before quickly scanning the corridor to make sure there were no signs of us having been made, before jumping in after them. “Officer school didn’t make him soft,” Polyus said, now in the safety of the bag where we wouldn’t be overheard, rubbing their jaw slightly. “That punch could’ve hurt.” Golden chuckled weakly in an apologetic tone. “Restraints,” Armor said. “Restraints,” Polyus said, handing over the elaborate arrangement for truly immobilizing a pegasus. Capable as Golden was, he still didn’t have much of a chance when faced with three armed ponies. Still, Armor and Poly worked quickly, as Golden was noticeably regaining some energy. I unbuttoned the uniform and stepped out of it as I walked up to them. “When did you see through us?” I asked in a conversational tone, trying to not make him put his guard up, as Poly and Armor carried him towards a cushion and put him down on it. “Comfy?” Polyus asked, keeping his voice neutral. “Mm,” Golden nodded in a conceding manner, as he tried and eventually managed to focus on me. “Intuition.” I chewed my cheek casually as I considered him. “Oh, your assignment was secret wasn’t it? No one else around here knew that you were on a mission to find us.” “Mmm… very good,” he nodded. “I’m actually suspecting you can pull this off, whatever you’re trying.” “You don’t seem concerned,” Armor pointed out. “But I might be,” Golden said. “Anyway, bringing you here was what we were trying to do all along, which begs the question of why you are here. You’re not going to kill him are you?” “Sombra?” I asked, and shook my head. “Probably not. We just want to take a look at what he’s doing.” “Mm, you’ve come to the right place then. What are you going to do next?” “We’re playing this by ear,” Armor said. “Really now?” Golden asked, looking impressed. “Well you have a prisoner. I hope you’re not going to get information out of me too uncomfortably.” “That would feel wrong, considering how acceptable my imprisonment conditions were,” I said. “Mine weren’t,” Armor pointed out. “Yes,” Golden said, in a slow tone. “Well, if you’d seen fit to crash somewhere else the whole thing might have ended up being faster. Anyway, any questions?” “Sorry, but we probably wouldn’t trust your answers,” I said, shrugging at him with an apologetic smile. “Fair enough.” “Alright, make sure he’s secured,” I said. “I’m going to take a look around outside.” Halfway towards the opening of the bag, I stopped, as it felt like something heavy settled in my guts. ‘What? Have a look around at what? What are you doing? Why are you here? Stop Sombra. Stop Sombra how? He wants to capture you and he’s here, where you are! He might be two rooms away!’ My hind legs gave way gave out and I sat down hard on the floor. ‘You’re not a super spy. A super spy knows what to do. You’re just some dummy who walked right into where an evil wizard wants you to be. An evil wizard who can conquer nations by himself wants you and you’ve walked right into his house. Why me? Why… I want to go home. I want it all to stop. I want to go home...’ Strong, soft forelegs wrapped themselves around me, and Armor held me close. My breathing, which I hadn’t noticed how fast and heavy it was before now, was slowly calming down, as I pressed myself against his warm form. Wordlessly, he let me calm down as he rested his head on top of mine. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” he said, quietly. “My most important job is to keep you safe and I should be getting you out of here and as far away as I can, but we both have to be here, and it’s all wrong. “I’m sorry, Gabe” he said, making that heavy feeling in my chest start aching as well. “I’m so sorry.” I put my foreleg around him as comfortingly as I could, and nodded into his chest. “Me too,” I said. I felt his heartbeat gently slow down together with mine, and we sat like that for a while, not caring about the others in the room. After a while, he whispered to me. “I’m scared.” “So am I,” I whispered back. There were no assurances like there were before. They wouldn’t have felt right. At least there were none in words. We just pressed ourselves against each other and felt each other's heartbeats slow down. After several minutes, we took one deep breath together, and looked each other in the eye. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded, not being ready but being as ready as I could be, before we walked over to the exit to the house. I looked back at Golden, who considered me with a slightly mournful expression, before nodding at me in recognition. After taking the first step after that towards our goal felt slightly invigorating. A feeling which grew gradually after that. I poked my head out of the bag and looked around with my magical sight. The room was empty and the corridor showed a stallion walk past the office, holding back a sneeze. “This is Blue Thunder,” I hissed, low enough so that Golden wouldn’t overhear. “How’s the decor, Bravo Team?” “This is, uh, Splinter,” Trixie said. “We’ve found a service passage to the executive’s office and we’re going for a post-dinner stroll. Recommend convening at… the… uhm… look, if you’re where I think you are, go east through the offices. That’ll lead you to a side door of the large vestibule going to the long gallery, walk straight ahead to the opposite door, and we’ll meet you there.” I glanced down at Poly and Armor, and we all looked at each other. “Copy that, Splinter,” I said. “Stand by.” We hopped out of the bag, and I made sure that the corridor was clear, before Poly and I joined again, and we slung the saddlebags over ourselves. So long as there wasn’t too much interference, I could see through walls, which, after Armor’s presence, was the most efficient balm for my nerves at the moment. We quietly hurried past one set of restrooms, and slowed down in time for one pony walking out to not get a look at our faces. I’m not sure if seeing someone’s face makes you more likely to try and scrutinize you for an intruder, but it certainly felt better to already be moving away from people by the time they saw us. Before long, we were walking across the wide hallway next to the beginning of the long gallery, and I only caught glimpses of the cloth-covered crystal shapes chronicling forgotten history and ancient points in time. There weren’t many guards though. We were deep inside the hive now, past the sentries and lookouts. I magically spotted some standing by the side of the double doors leading into the hallway we moved through, but little else. When we stepped into the corridor that Trixie had mentioned, we almost jumped when two ponies walked out into our field of view, moving as if with a clear purpose, before we realized that it was Trixie and Evening. Armor and I nodded at them, before Trixie held up her hoof soothingly. “We’re alone,” she said, making all of us breathe out a sigh of relief at having the party back together. “We got Golden S– uuh, Rocksteady,” I said, and slipped out of Trixie’s bag, hoofing it over to her. “He’s in here.” “Poor guy. Hopefully I’ll be able to buy him a drink in the future for this, if all of this works out,” Trixie said, and slipped the saddlebags onto her again. “We’ve scouted a service corridor. It’s unguarded and it’ll take us almost all the way to Skeletor’s chambers. We don’t know how many guards are after that, but there has to be somepony.” “You didn’t run into any other problems?” Polyusa asked. “No,” Evening said, shaking his head slightly. “I was afraid we would when we were loitering outside the kitchen. It’s happened before.” Armor smiled and nodded in recognition. “Well… what say we get going?” Trixie suggested, gesturing at the door, leading onward. We all took a breath, and opened it, revealing a long, narrow, empty passage, without doors to the side or windows, only dust and weak illumination hanging from the ceiling. I looked around with my right eye, not seeing any immediate threats, and walked softly between the rest. “What is this place?” I asked. “It wasn’t on the map.” “No, I’ve never seen it before. Probably an old service route for the old crystal empress,” Trixie said. “It does go straight from the kitchen after all.” “Are we going to run into someone delivering food here?” I asked. “Probably not, considering the hoof prints in the dust have more dust in them,” Poly pointed out. “Good point.” At the far end of the corridor was another door. We softly walked up to it and waited. “If my sense of direction is correct from what I remember of the palace,” Trixie said, slowly. “We should be very close to the old empress’ personal quarters, which, like I said back when we were planning, had full compliments with sitting rooms and sleeping quarters and, of course, a magical laboratory.” I looked through the door and the walls, and saw a pair of guards in the distance to the side. “Two guards standing by a door to our right,” I said. “I don’t see anyone else magically though, but I can only see so far.” “Keep your eye on them, see if they react when I do this,” Trixie said, and started pushing slightly on the wall, slowly opening the hidden door leading out into the corridor. It was gentle enough to not creak, but while it was hard to make out details, one of the guards did move his head towards us. “Ooh-oh, they noticed,” I hissed, as the guard started moving towards us, gaining the attention of his comrade. “Where is he?” Trixie asked, not being able to see properly out through the small opening. “She. There,” I said, pointing at and tracking the guard with my right forehoof, as the rest crouched down, ready to pounce. “Alright,” Trixie said. “On my mark, we jump out. Evening, Gabe, you start with the closer one and I focus on the other.” “Got it,” Evening said. “Go!” Trixie shot out of the door and flew up to the ceiling, giving her a clear shot at the far guard. The two guards took a moment to try and figure out what they were seeing, while Evening and I burst out through the door as well. Trixie and I, who had our horns and stun guns trained on the guards, let loose bolts of magic at the same time, knocking them out immediately, making them fall uncomfortably loudly to the floor. Trixie immediately set down, and we looked down the length of the corridor for a few tense seconds, before slowly relaxing enough to move properly when we saw it was empty. “Alright, let’s move,” Trixie said, and briskly up to the unconscious guard, floating her up and starting to shove her down her saddle bag. “There’s already suspicions about that patrol and as soon as anypony notices that these guards are missing, we’re in trouble.” Evening and Armor walked up and dumped the other guard in the other one, while I checked the bordering rooms with my eye. “This is probably what we’re looking for,” I said, pointing at the door. “Enchantments and magic everywhere, but no one in there.” “Good. Let’s get this over with before we meet somepony we won’t be able to beat,” Polyusa said. We walked in through the door, and stopped to take in the sight, before Poly had the presence of mind to close the door behind us. It was a large room full of large doodads standing on the floor, small ones on tables, and disassembled ones spread out everywhere, some of them covered in cloth, others not. Perhaps it was what was available in the empire, or perhaps Sombra just favored gems and crystals like me, but it was mainly that. Taking up the center of the room was a mirror. I had never gotten a clear image of how large I was compared to when I was a human, but it looked like it was a full-body mirror for a very large human, and was absolutely enormous to me. “Is… is this it?” Armor asked, softly walking up to the mirror. “Celestia came here through a mirror didn’t she? Does this mirror lead back to our Equestria?” “It’s… no, it can’t,” I said, walking up next to him and inspecting it. “It shouldn’t, he needs us for some reason.” I had only worked on portals to other worlds once before, or rather, my body had worked on portals once, and it was while I was trying to focus on stopping my body from doing so, and been distracted in so many other ways. I desperately sifted through my memory of what I had done, and what it had felt like I had been doing, but I just couldn’t remember. If I had weeks, or even months, to study this mirror, I might be able to figure out exactly what it did and how it did it, but I didn’t. I didn’t even know if I had a minute. “Then why… why does he need us?” Armor asked. “I… don’t know,” I said. “You might know something you don’t know is important,” Trixie said. “Or it’s because you’re a Stranger, but if destroying this is what is going to stop Sombra, then–” That’s as far as she got before an alarm sounded in the distance. A loud, drawn out, rallying cry, much like a warning siren. We all jumped, and looked at each other, eyes like pinpricks. Poly separated into two changelings, and took up position behind a desk with Evening, pointing their stun guns at the door we had come in through. I stood, frozen, staring at the mirror with wide eyes, when Trixie stepped up next to us, lighting up her horn and pointing it at the mirror. I was almost about to slap her away when she powered down and turned to us, with a mournful expression on her. “You need to be the ones to do it,” she said. “Gabe. Can we go through?” Armor said. “No,” I said, and poked at it with my hoof, making it clack like a normal mirror. “It’s not complete.” “Who is he?” Armor whispered to himself. “What if I’m supposed to finish it? If I do, and we go through, I could destroy it from the other side. I… I don’t know how… if–” That’s when Armor grabbed me and held me tight in one foreleg, while taking out his stun rod with the other and smashing the mirror with it. It broke just like any other mirror would. In an instant, the cracks had spread out from the impact, and large shards were falling noisily to the floor, shattering further. Something was leaving me as I saw it being destroyed. I couldn’t exactly tell what it was, if it was or concern or something else, but I could detect relief when among it. It was done, and now we had other things to worry about. Armor turned me around and looked me in the eye. After a moment, I closed my mouth and nodded at him. “Poly, whoever of you is in the temporary body, be ready to get out of here,” Trixie said. “Aye aye,” they both said at the same time. Armor, Trixie, and I also took cover, just as we heard the sound of galloping ponies out in the corridor. “Lose those spears!” we heard Rosen Wreath yell from the other side of the door. “Now! Stun weapons only.” “So uh… what do we do?” Evening said. I would’ve liked to know more about what the sirens had seen and how things were supposed to happen. I didn’t know if Sombra was stopped, but what was calming about this situation was that there was only one thing to do. I smiled sheepishly at Evening, then turning my prosthetic hoof around a full turn, making sure my stun gun was ready, before grinning at him. “Dodge like a butterfly, shoot like a Schwarzenegger.” Armor chuckled as he and Poly readied their weapons, and then the door was kicked in, slamming into the wall with a loud noise. A horde of ponies quickly advanced in, behind a shield wall. We let out a volley at the approaching troopers, and only one struck true, but the gap that created was quickly sealed by another pony rushing up and picking up the shield. I launched my grappling hook at a shield in the middle, and snatching it out of the grip of the confused mare, before she quickly fell to a bolt of magic. Now Armor and I had a shield of our own, but when I tried that trick a second time, the pony held onto the shield, launching both it and him towards me. I ended up on my back with the shield and the stallion on top of it pressing down on me. “Ow! You stool sample!” I yelled, and threw him off from me, making him land behind our lines. Polyusa turned around and felled him with a bolt of magic, but was hit herself with a bolt from a unicorn behind the partial shieldwall, which was getting closer all the time. She collapsed on her belly, groaning softly. “Get in there!” Rosen grunted, and rushed in at the head of another wave of ponies. He jumped over the first wave, stun rod drawn, towards Trixie, who was at the far left of us, placing Trixie between us and him. Trixie drew her own weapon, and was immediately locked in a duel with him. I trained my prosthesis on him, trying to get a clear shot, when a new series of magic bolts started firing in the room. Before I knew what was going on, something was pressing my legs down against the floor, and I lay on my back, struggling to move them even an inch. I heard Trixie let out a yelp, and saw her being flung across the room, and disappear into or behind a black, cloudy substance, which then flowed towards the rest of us with alarming speed. Evening and Armor futilely raised their weapons, but it was too late. It was upon us, and after only a few seconds, receded, and gathered in on itself in the middle of the room, making our opponents put their weapons to the side and stand at attention. When I saw what happened next, I felt a little less sheepish about the sudden defeat. Sombra stood in the middle, cloaked and regal, looking at the shattered mirror with an unreadable face, his horn glowing with a soft purple light. I looked at Armor, who was lying next to me, similarly held down with Sombra’s purple magic. He looked apologetic, but I was mostly glad that he was okay. Maybe because it was all I could be glad about. Rosen Wreath, who was breathing heavily, walked up towards him stiffly. “Majesty.” “Commander,” Sombra said. “Report.” “Sorry, sir, but we just got here ourselves.” Sombra nodded, and glanced at Trixie. “Check the possessions of Bellatrix Lulamoon,” he calmly said, making half the soldiers in the room briskly walk up towards her. Sombra stepped over to Armor and me, and looked at us with a soft expression. “Thank you for coming,” he said, in a tone that was strangely lacking in mockery. “Ah, there you are,” I heard Rosen say, muffled by the fact that he was in Trixie’s bag. “Yeah they got me. Again,” Golden said, before the guards we had knocked out before was floated out of the bag, followed by Golden and Rosen climbing out as well. “Majesty,” he said, when he saw Sombra. “Lieutenant-Commander,” Sombra acknowledged him. “You and Rosen, move our guests to the most secure cell there is, and make sure they don’t go anywhere.” “You heard him,” Rosen said. “Get restraints on them. You, go get a medic, and you, go make sure the cells are ready.” It was with clockwork efficiency that things moved after that, except when some ponies approached me and Armor, whereupon Sombra lifted us up in front of him. “I’ll take care of these ones myself,” he said, and started to walk out behind the rest of the ponies. Evening was quietly walking between a pair of guards, a ring on his horn and restraints that prevented him from pulling it off. Trixie was being carried on the back of Rosen, and Polyus or Polyusa was carried by Golden. I looked around, before I pretended to be disappointed and hang my head. I only saw one of the Poly twins, and I didn’t remember seeing what had happened to the other. Before long, we reached the stairs leading down to the cells, Armor and I being unable to look Sombra, or anyone else, in the eye. We were carried into a large cell, the room of one being steel bars where the gaolers could keep an eye on us, and where a medic stood by. Our gear and equipment was quickly removed, Trixie being held up by earth ponies as a unicorn took her out of the uniform. “Secure them properly,” Rosen ordered, as the ponies set Trixie and the rest down on cots and chaining them to the wall. “Especially the filly. She’s a sly one.” “Before that...” Sombra said, setting me down on a cot, my limbs still held tight against me. My foreleg moved on its own, presenting itself to Sombra, who inspected it for a moment before he tore off the silk that Poly had covered it with. I let out a small gasp as he unlocked the seal that held the enchantment active, allowing it to fall off me. He immediately removed it, and my hind leg, before angling my head up and plucking out my prosthetic eye. It didn’t hurt, of course, at least physically, but it hammered home just how defeated I was. Sombra put a hoof to my cheek and turned my face to look at him. He sighed, with a melancholic expression. “Rest,” he said. “It’s not over yet.” Then he turned to Armor, who only gave him a hurt and angry expression. “Take care of her,” Sombra told him, before chaining us to the wall in a way that allowed us to lean against each other. He turned around and walked up to Trixie, gently holding her face in a hoof, with an expression I couldn’t see from where I was, before he walked out of the cell, grabbing Evening’s prosthesis as if an afterthought. “Wait,” I said, making him turn around and look at me. “The changeling. Put her between them,” I said, nodding at Trixie and Evening. Sombra nodded at the others, who quickly put Poly where I asked. Sombra walked out of the dungeon, the handful of guards staying behind dropping some of their stoicness when he was out of sight and looking at their captives with open perplexity. Once Poly was secured, Golden let out a sigh and visibly sagged. “You okay?” Rosen asked. Golden nodded, and took a deep breath before straightening up. “Finally,” he said. “Indeed,” Rosen said, and gestured at the medic, standing in the corner. “If you will, doc.” He walked up with his bag towards Trixie, put on a stethoscope, and checked her heart rate, opened her eyes, and did everything else for a quick rundown with her. “Ser Lulamoon looks healthy,” he said, half to himself, as he righted her wings so that they didn’t slump. “He wouldn’t hurt his old student,” Rosen said. “She’s going to be fine.” I sneered bitterly at that. It wouldn’t matter once he got his way. ‘Who knows who she’ll be once he joins the two worlds together?’ The doctor covered the end of his stethoscope in some sort of rubber extension, and put it on Poly. “Never been very familiar with changelings,” he said. “Exoskeleton looks fine except for a chip beneath the wing.” Evening’s eyes widened ever so slightly when the doctor mentioned that. “Should grow back soon considering how lustrous the rest is despite how close to molting she is. Well fed. What knocked her out?” the doctor asked, looking up at Evening. “He,” I said, before anyone else could say anything. “Magic bolt. Ask your own side.” The doctor looked at the guards on the other side of the bar, eyebrows raised. “Uhm, standard bolt,” one unicorn mare said, scuffing the floor slightly. “I see. Now then.” He turned to Evening, who had avoided being hit during the fight, and did a quick rundown with the stethoscope before he gently took Evening’s foreleg in his own, which was the limb that wasn’t chained to the wall. “This didn’t happen recently,” the doctor noted. “Brisk Wind Pass out of Tempest Valley, four years ago, I believe,” Golden said. “Aah, so this is the one,” Rosen said. “One of our old monster wranglers?” “That’s right,” Golden said. “Lost his leg under our command. How have you been, private?” Evening sat still for a moment, while the doctor continued to inspect him, before answering. “Fine, thank you, sir.” “Oh really?” Golden said, getting a lot more of a casual composure then I had seen before. “Lost your leg, and your job because of it, and you’ve still been fine? I have to admire that.” “Other ponies have lost more,” Evening said. “And I got better.” Golden raised his eyebrows in amusement, and glanced, together with all the other guards and the medic, at Rosen, who chuckled at the words. “Perhaps,” Rosen said, as the doctor walked up to me. “Not that anypony could be blamed for quitting after that.” The medic gently touched my right shoulder and the remaining part of my lower leg. “How old are you?” he asked, softly. “Twenty six, I believe” Rosen said. The guards on the other side of the bars murmured and looked at each other, while the doctor nodded his head, and started examining me as well. “She really is just a filly,” I heard someone say. “Although… I guess in present company one might feel that part of a lost limb is insufficient to resign,” Golden added, still glancing at Rosen. “I’ll say nothing,” he said. “What are they talking about?” I asked Evening. Armor was nodding in understanding at Rosen. “You’re not an earth pony.” Rosen gave Armor a nod of recognition, and my eye narrowed as I looked at his back, where when I looked for it, I could see the small bumps where his wings had been severed. “So where did you get those legs that his majesty took from you?” the doctor asked me conversationally. “She made them,” Rosen said, renewing the murmur from the guards outside. “Well can she make some for you?” “Most likely,” Rosen said, and turned towards me. “You could, couldn’t you?” I considered the, as I just now learned, pegasus stallion, as I thought about what to say. I could make him wings. No problem. Get two wing shaped objects and hollow them out, I’ll sling some enchantments and away we flap. And I would have, if he asked me. I was captured and about to be used for something, I didn’t even know what, to open a portal to another world so that they’d blend together, and he was one of my captors, but I would still do it. “A different question,” Rosen said, as the doctor opened my empty eye socket, making the guards cringe away. “What did the Dazzlings say to you? Did you come here because of what they said?” I remained silent. I was mentally exhausted and confused. I knew what had happened, but I was still emotionally coming to terms with it, and silent glaring felt like the best way to not break down and cry into Armor’s chest, who couldn’t hold me because he was chained against the wall next to me. “Why would they come here, Commander?” one guard asked. “Not for giggles, we can be sure of that,” Rosen said. “They had a purpose, and Gabrielle here is the greatest threat.” “Is she really that dangerous?” another guard asked. “Not because of her fighting skills,” Rosen noted. “Although don’t underestimate that either, any of you.” “No loose lips, but she still sinks ships,” Golden added, in a wry tone. The doctor had moved on and was finishing up his inspection of Armor, packing up everything in his bag. “They’re all fine,” he said. “Missing parts or not, and the changeling and ser Lulamoon will recover.” “Good,” Rosen said, and turned to the guards. “Alright, boys and girls, I want this section fully manned at all times. They’ve been known to break out of highly guarded placed before.” Some of the guards took up position outside the cells, while the doctor, Rosen, and Golden, marched out of the cell and closed the door behind them, leading the rest of the guards outside. “Is that a gryphon name by the way?” I heard someone ask. Because I wasn’t chained on my right side, I had a little more freedom than the other. Not enough to jump off the cot, but enough to lean against Armor’s chest. With his wings and legs tied, the only thing he could do was rest his head on top of mine. “What do we do?” he whispered. “We wait,” I whispered back. “For our changeling to wake up.” There were arrangements against changeling magic in the cells no doubt, which wouldn’t have made that very suspicious for any guards that overheard, but we knew something they didn’t. Evening leaned against Polyusa’s unconscious form, just being able to nuzzle her foreleg, but hopefully giving a boost of energy to the reason she was staying unconscious. — The snow crunched together from the impact of the landing, as the chitinous form crashed into it. It would have been folly, flying south in a straight line, but desperation made Polyus not even look back to see if he was being pursued. He was beyond exhaustion, but even so he put one foreleg in front of him and tried dragging himself forward. No doubt a patrol would spot the signs of his mad dash south before long, but worrying about that would be a useless waste of energy, and energy was in precious short supply. He righted himself up, and shakily marched on. “Too far,” he gasped, and collapsed on the ground, where the snow was giving way to green grass and shrubs. He tried dragging himself further, but didn’t even have the energy for that. “I can’t…” he breathed desperately. “Have to… have to…” He barely noticed the hoof lifting his chin, before the soft voice asked him, full of concern, “Have to what, my little changeling?” — “Mmm-hah!” Trixie gasped, as she woke up with a start, jangling her chains and looking around wide eyed for a moment, before slumping like the rest of us. “Welcome back,” Armor said, dispassionately. Trixie looked around more calmly and took a moment to properly register where she was. “What happened?” she asked. “Sombra showed up,” Armor said, having lifted my head from Armor. “Beat us like it was nothing.” “What did he say about the mirror?” “Nothing, he just said that it’s not over yet.” Trixie looked at the crystal floor in silence, deep in thought, before turning to Poly. “How are th– how is he doing?” “Not sure,” Evening said, glancing at Poly’s unconscious face from the other side. “He’s been like this since before we got here.” “I… hope he’s having nice dreams,” Trixie ventured. “Hopefully, yeah,” Evening said. “Help me give him a nuzzle, in case he’s hungry.” I almost didn’t want them to. I almost wanted to Polyus and Polyusa to wake up and say that they failed at whatever one of them went to do. I didn’t want to keep doing this anymore. I just hung my head, Armor looking at me worriedly. “Gabe?” Trixie said. “How are you doing?” I couldn’t really answer, because I didn’t really know. I just kept thinking back to Ponyville, of the sight up from the hill where the Crusaders’ clubhouse were. That hauntingly beautiful sight, from where countless adventures called at you, beckoning you to explore the little rivers and meadows with your friends, meet new and kind people, and learn new things. Twilight’s library. All of it. My room, my bed, the basement where all manner of interesting things could be hidden, the balconies which gave you an excellent view of Ponyville while the canopy turned it into a cozy hiding place. It was both a soothing and painful dream to have, yet the spots in themselves were little more than vistas. It was the people, the ponies who lived there, that made it what it was. Would they still be there tomorrow? Would they remember their past lives? Or would I be the only one that knew how things should be? “Gabe?” Armor asked, reaching out to try and nuzzle me, but not reaching the way I sat. “Gabe, listen to me. You can’t give up. You’ve never given up and you won’t do it now.” “I…” I started, tears welling up in my eye. “I don’t want to… I can’t do it again. “I didn’t have anything left. I don’t want to be alone again.” “Gabe. Please, come here,” Armor said, pulling hard against the chains. “Please.” I leaned against Armor, and he put his head on mine, unable to do anything else, and even if he could remove the ring blocking my magic it would be a useless gesture when Sombra was near. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “We’re going to fix everything, and you’re not alone. I’ll never leave you.” I wanted to protest. To say that if Sombra had his way, he would. He wouldn’t be the same person. But it was too painful to say it out loud, so I just sat there as a small stream of tears flowed down my face and down Armor’s coat. Eventually, I opened my eye, to see Rosen Wreath standing on the other side of the bars, a regretful look on his face, observing us. The guards too, glanced back at us with sympathy in their eyes. After a while, he spoke up. “What did the sirens say to you?” We stared at him in silence for a moment, before he sighed. “Did they tell you to not tell anypony else what they said?” “... No,” I admitted. “So then, please, tell me what they told you.” I looked at the others, and I could tell that they left this up to me, and wouldn’t judge me either way. “They told us to stop the dark king, and we’d get home,” I said after a while, in a heavy voice. There was no sniggering or rolling eyes from the guard. No reaction of all, except possibly for a minute twitch in Rosen’s mouth, and a little softening of his expression. “What else?” “That the things that determines ponies’ lives doesn’t affect mine.” This time, Rosen actually smiled. “Correct,” he said. “And that’s what his majesty is planning on using.” “He isn’t planning anything, Rosen,” Trixie said in a determined voice from the side. Rosen turned to Trixie, and bowed his head respectfully towards her. “Good to see you awake, Bellatrix. And you may be surprised with what he’s planned.” “I mean that The Nightmare is controlling him.” “I stand by my words,” Rosen said. “And now it’s almost time, but first I have a question.” He unlocked the door, walked up and sat down in front of me. I met his gaze with a neutral expression. For just a moment, he looked very, very tired, before he steeled himself, and gained an unfazed look of casual confidence. “Would you make new wings for me?” I had never met anyone I hated who needed my help, and I realized when I looked at him that I still hadn’t. All I knew about him was that he had given up much of himself, both figuratively and literally, to protect the ponies of this Equestria, and that he was brave and even a bit courteous, even to his “enemies”. I couldn’t blame him for believing that Sombra would be right no matter what. Someone in his position would. Who could stand giving up so much along with your immortal guardian king, only to find out that he was not worth your loyalty? “Yes,” I said. “But you won’t be the same after Sombra succeeds. No one will.” “Except you. No destiny and all,” he pointed out, before standing up. “And now it’s almost time. Guards, carry them to the throne room. And don’t untie them.” The guards filed in and double checked that our manacles were secure before unlatching them from the wall, and throwing us up over their backs, except for me who couldn’t do much without my prosthetics and my magic blocked. Rosen took me on his back, and I brushed with my hind leg over the small lump where one of his wings would be. “What do you know about this, Rosen?” Trixie asked, as we were carried out of the dungeons and into the hallways of the crystal castle. “About what?” “About Gabe and her not having a destiny.” “Not much,” he admitted, in a conversational tone. “No more than I’ve heard from his majesty. Gabrielle Desrochers is an aberration, in some ways, in Equestria. Some force keeps us mirrored to the Equestria that she and Armor here comes from. Is that destiny, or is there some other power that compels us to do what we do and be who we are? I don’t know, but it’s clear that nothing like that makes Gabrielle here who she is.” “And that helps you how?” I asked. “Think about it,” he said, turning his head to look back at me. “If major events are mirrored in each others’ Equestria, if somepony makes you a central player in them, they can influence how much or how little they actually end up mirroring each other. With your help, a wise enough pony can control the flow of history. We can’t let you run loose or the two realms might end up incompatible.” Perhaps it was because I didn’t want to think about what was happening, but I was fascinated by this. Perhaps because I’ve never seen myself as anyone special. Special as in I’m special to the people who are special to me, but not special as in Twilight and friends and how they save the world. “Or make it easier for them to blend together,” I noted, as we moved into a large corridor. “If I understand it correctly, yes,” Rosen said. From the large corridor, we reached the large doors leading into the throne room, which closed behind us after we moved in. There, up on the throne room, stood Sombra, flanked by Golden Star and a cadre of guards in armor marking them as the king’s personal guard. Next to him was a table, were my prostheses and the pieces of the mirror we had destroyed earlier. The guards walked up and gently deposited us on the floor next to the throne. The others were still bound, and I was in no position to put up a fight, stuck sitting with half my limbs missing and my horn disabled. Sombra was inspecting the things on the table, his back towards us, when he spoke up. “Imagine knowing that you will outlive everypony close to you,” he said. “Imagine knowing that you can care for someone with all your will and wisdom, learning seemingly all there is to know in the world, and yet some day, the time will come when they leave the world, and you, behind, and you will not be able to stop it.” He turned around, managing to make his cape flow dramatically as he did, while making it look effortless, and looked at us as if we were having a casual conversation, despite the fact that his eyes exuded tendrils of dark power. “You could join them of course,” he said, looking lightly contemplative, which seemed a little strange with those eyes. “So many ways to leave this world behind and see what other adventures and journeys await in the great beyond, but there are things for you to do here. Ponies to protect, realms to guard, futures to secure. “That was my task. I was the king and protector of Equestria. My people vanished when I was too young to remember them, and I was taken in and raised by both wise sages and power-hungry fools. I learned though, and when I was old enough to lead, I did so, and guarded every being in Equestria from conquerors, madponies, and each other. “The cities were flourishing, the countryside was serene, and I enjoyed the fruits of the peace with the ponies who helped me achieve it, even as they faded away from the world around me. I remember the faces of brave warriors and scholarly wizards who have protected and helped form Equestria with me to this day, and they are many.” Rosen, Golden, and the rest of the guards stood stoically at attention, though I noticed that their expressions seemed a little heavier. “Then she appeared, next to an eccentric and scrawny old stallion in a funny hat, making a fool of herself during dinner, and stumbling as she searched for words before I asked her for a dance.” He smiled serenely, staring off into the distance. “Wonderful dancer though,” he said, before his face hardened. “The mirror of my ancient enemy. The despoiling tyrant who, through some cosmic joke, gained control of the sun. I could not fathom how whatever power forms our world could give such abilities to somepony so cruel…” his face softened again,“... until I saw her as she could have been… as she should have been.” Sombra shook his head, and focused on me. “It’s time to end this foolish game. Should every measure of happiness cause equal misery somewhere else? No. No being with an ounce of conscience can be happy knowing that.” “Do you care though?” Trixie asked, pointedly. Sombra turned to her, and smiled. “Oh, Bellatrix, my friend. I would think that you would understand. After this, we will be free. We might find happiness, we might find sorrow, but what we find will be ours, not mandated by some strange joke of creation.” “What happiness could we find if you remain the same afterwards?” Trixie spat back. “Not King Sombra, you, the thing that infests him.” Sombra shook his head serenely. “You think that I have some trick ready? That I will be able to withstand the change? No, I, King Sombra, know that this is what must be done.” “Get out of my king,” Trixie growled. “Enough,” Sombra calmly said, making Trixie’s mouth magically clamp shut with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “How will you do it, though?” Armor challenged. “What was it we destroyed before?” “My mirror that I’ve been working on for a long time, it’s true,” Sombra said. “I need something to locate the counterpart of our world in the vastness in and between all the cosmos, but I have something better now.” From the table behind him, he retrieved my hind leg prosthesis, and held it up in front of him. At first, we all wondered how that could possibly help him. ... Until he pulled out my harmonica. I let out a gasp when I realized what was going on. Armor was a moment behind me, while the others just looked at it, confused. There was no connection between me or Armor, nor anything we brought with us, and the Equestria we came from. Except for that. A casual little enchantment I had made, literally without even thinking about it, when I had practiced playing my guitar during the time since I had arrived in Equestria. My parents’ old guitar, the remaining one at least, and their harmonica, were magically linked to each other. If I played one, the other would join in on its own accord. They were magically connected, and with their help, opening a portal would be easy for a magician of Sombra’s caliber, as soon as the magic in it was activated. Sombra walked up to me, and gently held out the harmonica in his hoof. “What do you say, my friend?” Sombra said. “Imagine what you have the power to do right now.” I was taking deep and scared breaths as I looked up at his eyes. He magically lifted the instrument back to the table, and put his hoof on my shoulder. “Remember what I told you once?” he asked. “I told you that friendships lost should be fought for and reclaimed. You will be alone in being unchanged when the worlds are joined together, but as I will rejoin with Celestia, so will you rejoin with all who you care for. They will be there for you to join them.” “They won’t be the same!” I protested. “But they will be there.” “I don’t care! I won’t help you!” I shouted, and lowered my voice. “What are you going to do? Force me?” Every eye in the room was on me. Apparently, many were curious about that issue. Sombra though, just closed his eyes and shook his head calmly. “No. I won’t have to,” he said, and lit up his horn. From behind him, my legs floated up towards me and attached themselves to me. I looked at them, confused about why he would give them back and giving them a few experimental movements, before looking back up at him. He put his hoof on my chin and lifted my head, moved his hoof to the side of my face and gently pried my eyelid open, magically inserting my eye back into my socket. Sombra stepped back and raised his gaze up, staring unseeingly at the ceiling, when his voice suddenly came very softly. “For love and joy and anger, and floods of tears cried.” Then his cadre joined in forming a chorus to back him up.  “All our fears, they would not be undone, how hard we yet tried.” “The wheels of fate were turning, insanity reigned. Villains, heroes, to our destinies chained.” I looked around, worried, as I felt the tug of magic around us. Trixie and Evening’s eyes were focused on Sombra, while Armor was looking worriedly at me. Trixie, whose mouth had been released, answered. “Save us your speeches, dark fiend! Let go of my king! When you’ve won you will nothing but darkness bring.” My breathing was speeding up as the magic of the singing pulled me along, and Sombra’s guards raised their voices. “Join us and we know for sure! The fate that once chained us will fade forevermore.” Sombra lifted up my harmonica in his hoof, and with my magical eye, I saw the forces being wielded by the song resonating with the instrument, and magics the likes of which I had only seen once before started stirring in it, as I felt my voice come to life. “With heavy steps we’ve come all this way–” Here I had backing vocals by Armor. “Fearful for whatever come may.” And we cast an accusing glare on Sombra. “But praisings and cheers for you your people would call,” “Stories and legends of heroes! And the King of them all! “And no true ruler… would see his realm fall.” Sombra’s face betrayed no emotion while we sang, and after we finished our verse, he had a look of resignation and melancholy. “Yet the promise was made– to the fairest, the price be paid.” All of us protested with our own verse, with backing from Sombra’s soldiers. “Greater of an evil, we will sing.” (“No matter rule, no matter king.”) “Nightmares holds your senses, ruin it brings.” (“Brought here on alicorn wings.”) Sombra averted his eyes, and visibly gathered his resolve, before his face hardened, and a swirling, oval portal opened in front of us, like it had when Armor and I had left our world. We looked at the calm vortex of lights, hope fading, as Sombra channeled the magics to locate our Equestria, and he began to sing about what he’d find there. “She is the sunrise, outshines her sister’s night. “Her beauty like blue skies, to her we will now take flight,” He gave us another apologetic look. “It’s time,” he said, and much like the last time he said that, I felt powerless to stop him. We fell into silence, our faces showing sadness and a hint of anger, while Sombra’s soldiers seemed to try and hide their apprehension. Even the portal didn’t make any sound, all was still… … Until hooffalls could be heard on the far side of the throne room, from the door. Everyone’s eyes turned to look at the source. It was White Tulip, walking calmly towards us, with the same sad but determined expression that Sombra had. None of us seemed to completely comprehend what we were seeing… until Sombra’s expression turned angry. “You!” he growled. Tulip took a few more steps before stopping, bowing her head slightly. “Yes,” she said, looking up at Sombra, her own face suddenly showing a fearless determination. “Me.” Then she spread her wings, and she was engulfed in flames, like when a changeling changes shape, only with orange flames, and much, much more bombastic. The flames that had covered White Tulip vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, and the pegasus was gone with them… ... and in her place stood Princess Celestia. Everyone in the room was frozen in place, except for Sombra and Celestia. Celestia slowly approached the stairs, and Sombra slowly walked down them, their eyes locked. When suddenly they both charged, almost faster than I could see, and locked their horns in a reared up position for a moment, before they broke away, and formed a flurry of blows, dodges, and magic that shook the entire hall. “Hold positions,” Golden quickly ordered, holding out a foreleg and giving his ranks a meaningful look. “Don’t interfere, we’d just get in the way. Wait, where’s–” He stopped himself when the restraints of the others were broken as if made of styrofoam, and my prostheses suddenly shot over towards me and pushed themselves against me. I saw Poly peeling the magic blocker from Evening’s horn, which explained what had happened. Polyus and Polyusa had woken up, and found themselves ignored during the drama. Trixie was the one floating my legs over to me, while she also peeled Armor’s restraints off from him. I activated my legs and plopped my eye back, and jumped over to Armor, who had taken a defensive position between me and Sombra’s soldiers. Golden held up his leg again. “Steady, men. We might need them.” “No, we need you, Golden,” Trixie said, as the duel raged behind us. “That’s not Sombra! You know it isn’t! We can beat that thing, right now.” Golden expression was absolutely still, which spoke volumes. I looked behind, and saw that Sombra was pushing Celestia back, they broke from another lock, and quickly tumbled to the ground, Sombra in the superior position over Celestia. Celestia looked up at him defiantly, when he bent his head down and whispered in her ear. “You’re right,” she said. “I can’t beat him without you, but I don’t need to.” Celestia turned her head towards the entrance to the throne room on the far side, where Princess Luna and Chrysalis stood, and Sombra followed her. He scoffed. “You won’t fight me, Luna. Neither will you, Chrysalis.” “You’re right. We won’t,” Chrysalis admitted. “But we won’t have to,” Luna said, and reached behind her with a wing, pulling out and tossing a large amphora in a high arc towards the middle of the room. Every eye followed its journey across the room in perplexion, and just before it crashed into the floor I noticed that a strange humming was coming from it. It shattered, showering in the floor in impossibly sparkly water, and the humming turning into a melodic chant, and as the water settled into a puddle, it became clear what the sound was. The Dazzlings shot out of the puddle, singing as they did, before focusing on Sombra. “A trio of singing seers,” Sombra scoffed, and glanced at Celestia. “Do they have a fan chant for you?” The sirens circled Sombra, keeping their eyes locked on him. “You have one last chance this day, turn away from your evil way.” “Evil way? We’ve already had a song about what we’re accomplishing,” Sombra said, dismissively. “You missed the show.” “The power of freedom, defiance, and power. “Gabe, lend it to us and from the land this creature we’ll scour.” I took a step back, as everyone looked at me. “What!?” “The music from your home, wild, beautiful, and free. “To victory this day, it is the key.” Out of Trixie’s bag, which lay among our belongings, my guitar floated up towards me, pushing me up to stand on my hind legs with it in my hooves. I felt numb with confusion for the fraction of a second I held it, before a red beam shot from the still open portal. I recognized the color as the same deep cherry red my Gretsch had, and hit the guitar I held in my hooves, which broke away like it was an eggshell. In its place was an ethereal version of my parents’ old guitar. Celestia smirked at Sombra. “You thought you’d won. You’ve let your defences down.” And Sombra smirked back. “So it did,” he said, before his face turned into a shocked grimace. And just like that, I knew what to do. Wild, beautiful, and free indeed. I took a breath, and leapt with my hind legs, swinging my hoof across the strings in a power chord. That was all it took. Rock’n’Roll was in the world, and it did not suffer tyrants. The sirens let out a wail like an air raid siren that had been taught to sing. “Aurgh!” Sombra grunted, and recoiled off from Celestia, taking a step back. He lit up his horn and pulled off my foreleg prosthesis, and throwing it into the open portal in an attempt to keep me from playing. But it was too late, something shimmered in the air behind him. “We’re in business, boys and girls!” Golden shouted. “Everypony focus fire on that thing!” Everyone who could lit up their horn or other instrument, and under that combined power, the dark, shadowy shape was starting to get pulled out of a screaming Sombra. I angled my hind leg with my spare stunner in it, charging up an extra powerful shot. ‘Hey, ugly! Can you spell hadouken?’ It was drawn out of him, and he collapsed on the floor, grunting. “Sombra!” Luna shouted at the same time as Golden shouted, “Majesty!” “Uuugh,” he moaned, suddenly free from the swirling shape around his eyes, and looked up at the swirling shadow. “Don’t let it go! Hold it!” Still barraged by magic, the shape writhed and squirmed, when it suddenly opened some sort of eyes. Just one pair, but still looking at all of us at the same time. And then it spoke to us. It wasn’t with sound, and it wasn’t with words, it was straight meaning and intent directly into our minds. You think you are defeating me? You think you can hold me forever? I am the twisting terror that corrupts you from within. I use your contempt, your weaknesses, your desires and your needs, and you can’t help but welcome me. “There are ways to defeat you, Nightmare,” Sombra said. “There always are.” The shape shot towards Sombra, focusing his attention on him. And I return. Always. “Then come for me again! I hear a thousand years on another world is a good way to be rid of you.” I think not, but speaking of other worlds. It roared, and sent all of us flying back as if by a shockwave, before it flew up towards me with frightening speed. Not the mightiest creature at the moment, but that can be changed. So much potential, though, so much… inventiveness. And then all went dark. — I slowly opened my eyes, and almost jumped out of whatever I was slouched in. I was in the lounge room of my childhood home, sitting in an old armchair, one of the pieces of furniture that had been the constant in the room since before I was born, worn and weathered. It even had that soda stain on the arm rest. Looking around, everything was as I remembered it. The bench with the television on it, and the shelves where the media players were, with glass panels that my parents hadn’t realized blocked remote control signals when they bought it. There was the L-formed couch, where I had many times made a blanket burrito out of myself when I was home from school with a cold and watched old movies, and the large coffee table that weathered all the wear like a champion, and the old paintings with the tree and the river, all the rest of it. It was all there. ‘Was it… a dream?’ I thought, looking around, noticing the distinct lack of a muzzle in front of my eyes. I looked down on myself, my human body, and saw my metallic right arm. I held it out and moved the fingers experimentally. ‘No,’ I thought to myself. ‘No, it was real.’ I stood up and looked around again, walking over to the mirror on the wall. It wasn’t quite me as I remembered myself from before I came to Equestria. Besides the metallic arm and leg, I had the poofy orange and blue hairdo I had as a pony, as well as a matching tail sticking out of my jeans, pony-like ears, and one purple eye along with the empty socket. I closed my eye, and to my astonishment, I was still seeing myself, being able to see with the empty space where my eye should have been. ‘This isn’t...’ I started, struggling to get my thoughts under control. ‘Not… not unreal but… this isn’t… the real world. It can’t be.” I took my tail and ran my fingers through it experimentally, when I noticed one strange thing about the room. One of the windows had bright light coming in from it, while the other did not. I walked over to the one where light was shining through and looked out. Outside wasn’t what I remembered seeing when looking out that window, it was something very different. At first I thought it was smoky glass, with strange shapes in it, but after a while I realized that it was the throne room of the mirror version of The Crystal Empire, where I had just been. ‘No, not where I had just been,’ I realized, ‘it’s where I still am.’ Ponies, changelings, and sirens, were frozen in time, or so it seemed at first, staring at me and each other, running around and shouting at each other. I saw Princess Luna flying in the distance, and the tip of her primary was moving so slowly that I could hardly tell. I tore my attention away from the scene, and instead walked over to the other window, which had the curtain drawn. I pulled it away to see much the same scene, but where a clear bubble separated me from what I was seeing, instead of the smoky haze. Eventually, I walked out towards the kitchen, or where the kitchen would have been. Instead, it led to my room in Golden Oaks, and a quick peek around the corner, where the door to the utility room would have been, were instead my apartment in Canterlot Castle. I smiled at the sight of the places, feeling at ease there, just as I had in my old lounge room. I turned instead towards the stairs, the one leading up to the second floor, and the door to the basement next to it. Something stopped me in my tracks, and I stared at the door leading to the basement like how a deer stares at a headlight. A cold sensation washed over me, and I felt my pulse in my ears, my breath coming out ragged and stressed, when a sound from upstairs snapped me out of it. I gave the door another curious glance, before walking up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, I saw something that would have scared me half to death if I was in a more real place. My doppelganger stormed past the stairs, but her arms and face were dark and twisted, and her hair hung low and matted. I walked up the rest of the way, and glanced where she had come from, my old childhood room, towards the old study. Curiously fearless, I walked after it. It was pulling out things from a bookshelf, glancing at what it pulled out before throwing it behind herself. Crouching down, I picked up some of the things that lay scattered on the floor. The presents I had gotten during my welcome to Ponyville party, Redheart’s nurse cap, Princess Celestia’s peytral, pictures of all my friends I had made in Equestria and… a plushie of Studded Armor. The figure let out a frustrated grunt, and moved on to the next shelf, and I silently watched as more debris littered the floor. A copy of Henry Gray’s Anatomy, a diagram of the periodic table, a book on the history and evolution of the sciences, a book on pediatrics I remembered from medical school, a copy of a journal on advances in medicine, and on in that vein. The shelf under that one, which the figure hadn’t started on yet, was full of things from my family, back on Earth. Musical writings, a book on building and repairing guitars, the photo album Twilight had helped me retrieve, and so on. I watched calmly as the thing made a mess of my things, feeling both calm and strangely violated as it did so. “You’re not welcome here,” I said, eventually, surprising myself with how casually I spoke. It stopped, and slowly turned to face me. It was me, but at the same time not. Its face was twisted into an angry snarl, the eyes were like black marbles, and the hands were black and sickly looking, with the end of the fingers twisting into long talons. It walked up to me, and studied my face close, leaning in close enough that I could I study it in turn. Its eyes were like the dark depth of a forest, or a movement in an otherwise still alley. “What are you?” it hissed at me. I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I looked at it some more, it was dressed and looked like me, but I got the feeling that this wasn’t a person. “What are you?” I asked. “Terror, and madness. Doubt, and creeping dread.” “You’re The Nightmare,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re the thing that Twilight and the others dragged out of this world’s Celestia and Luna.” “And which the good king took into himself,” it hissed in a pleased tone. I scoffed at it. “You don’t seem to have been doing a very good job of spreading terror,” I noted. “Everyone here still loves their king, and want him to come back.” The thing stepped back, and glanced around the room between looking at me. “Sorrow, to beget desperation, and betrayal. He was strong. He resisted me, tried tricking me. He wanted to travel to your Equestria to see his beloved, and I want to rule it. He kept stalling, pretending that his goals and mine had blended together in his mind, but it was all for nothing. Now he’s delivered you to me, the one he thought could save him, only for me to have you instead.” “And what do you want with me?” I asked, skeptically, crossing my arms. “I haven’t got nearly the power that he has, or any alicorn, or even plenty of unicorns.” “Unicorn magic? Perhaps not,” it countered. “But you have potential. You’re not anchored to the world like ponies are. There’s something about you, a wild freedom that nothing else in Equestria has, and that can be more powerful than any amount of unicorn magic.” I remembered what Discord had said about me, through Fluttershy, and what the sirens sang, about my lack of a destiny, and how Sombra had planned on using that to manipulate the forces that kept the worlds mirrored to each other, but whether that was actually Sombra or this thing, I couldn’t say at the time. “And how will you make me do what it is you want?” It turned back to the shelf, rifling through the last pieces on the current shelf. “All that’s needed is to find what can twist you.” “Twist me?” I asked. “What do you usually twist people with?” “Their gods,” it said, paging through another book before throwing it over their shoulder in frustration. “Their values, their love. Guilt, pain, desires. But this is worthless. You are a strange creature.” “I have all of those things though,” I noted. “Fluid, unanchored. Ungraspable concepts.” “To you, maybe,” I noted. “So how do I get rid of you? Fighting you?” “Hah, fighting is meaningless here unless you give it meaning,” it said, and walked up to me. It placed a hand on my chest, and pushed, sending me flying into the wall behind me and breaking the plaster. I slid down onto the floor, surprised by the lack of pain or shock, or injury for that matter. “Now be quiet, I’m working,” it said. “Having trouble?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Frustrating creature,” it hissed, looking back at me. “Where is what you value the most? You are barely alive! Just thoughts and observations. For all this care and love, you have a darkness and a coldness greater than mine.” I rose up and scoffed at it. “Perhaps you’re just not able to twist someone with the fortitude and dignity that one gains from knowing that they live in an uncaring world, in an uncaring cosmos, and that almost all that is good is something we made for ourselves, and it is good because we want it to be.” The creature scowled at me. “Then you are darker and more foul than anything on this world.” I walked up to the bookcase, and picked it up with my prosthesis. “If I so choose,” I said, and slammed the creature out into the hallway by the stairs. “Hah! It’s no use,” it said, as it lay on the floor. “We have infinite time here, and I have infinite patience.” I walked out of the room, dragging the bookcase behind me, and hammered the thing down into the floorboard, and scattering the contents of the shelves all over the floor, before lifting the furniture and seeing the unscathed face buried into the floor, almost poking down into the lower floor. The thing kept chuckling, and it seemed it had been telling the truth. Plain violence did nothing here. It probably didn’t count as violence, as this seemed to be a place of thoughts alone. Then the chuckling stopped, and it sniffed the air around it like a dog that had caught a scent. “Aaah, your confidence might not be as warranted as you think,” it said, before it kicked me and sending me flying back into the room we were just in, me dropping the bookcase. I picked myself up, and walked out to see that the creature was gone, looking like it had slipped through the recently created hole in the floor. I set after it, quickly walking down the stairs, before I stopped in front of the door to the basement. The feeling from before had come back. Beyond that door was a place I didn’t want to go. My heart started aching in my chest, and I leaned against the doorway to the room in Golden Oaks, steadying myself. There was a distant laugh from the creature echoing through the place. “What do we have here?” I steadied myself as best as I could, and stepped forward, pushing the door open, and slowly walking down the stairs. I knew the place I was in. It was my old apartment, the first one since I got out of the hospital. There, right in the center, was the couch with the tv in front of it, where I sat away months of my life, staring unseeingly at whatever was on the tv in a vain attempt to have whatever voices sounded from it distract me from my thoughts. There was the blanket and the pillow on the armrest, stained with so many tears it never got really clean. I remembered the pain that the listlessness would eventually turn into a dull ache, only for it to come back seemingly even stronger when the phantom pain flared up and reminded me of everything once again. My neck almost creaked when I turned my head towards the plain desk behind it, where I had eventually gathered up the strength to grab my crutch and limp over to the ringing phone, and hear my psychologist tell me that if I didn’t get over to his office, he was sending someone to collect me. He had said that I knew what I had to do. And I knew what I had to do. I had to keep going. Behind the door to the closet was something worse. I almost wanted my crutch back to remind me of when I had managed to gather up the energy to keep going the first time. With steady steps, but a shaking hand, I walked over to the door and opened it. It was the hospital room I woke up after the accident, and the creature was there, standing over the bed, still messy from a former occupant, the drip feed bag still hanging on its stand. The difference was the hole in the ceiling where one of us had entered. “Such a terrible thing to happen to anyone,” the thing said. “A sudden surprise, and everything you loved was gone forever.” I said nothing as I glared at the creature with a moist eye. “Do you want to feel that again?” it prodded. “... No,” I admitted, and the powers knew I spoke the truth. “Then what are you doing with all of those ‘friends’?” it asked, looking at me pointedly. “They will abandon you. You know this. Perhaps not willingly, but in the end, you will be alone, because everyone will be alone.” “Stop,” I said, shaking my head. “I speak the truth though. Ask your dear Celestia, or Sombra. Slowly or suddenly, by choice or not, you will be alone in the end. Give them up, before it’s too late.” I backed into a wall and slid down on the floor, hugging my legs close to me. It was too much, in this place, I didn’t have the strength to argue. “Still not convinced?” it asked, and walked over to the door that had led to the bathroom, but I knew that here, it didn’t. It lead to the one place worse than this. “I’ll show you why you need me.” “No,” I mumbled into my knees. “Yes. You need me. I’ll make it all go away before it’s too late.” I punched the floor, shaking the entire room, and into my lap fell something soft. I looked up, and saw the plushie of Armor. I picked him up and looked at me, and he smiled back at me with the same comforting smile he always had around me. “This will make you listen,” it said, and opened the door. I rose up, and walked through the door, out into the open street hanging in the void, illuminated in the middle of which was the twisted wreck of a car. I stared at it, frozen in place except for my heaving breaths. “Such ‘dignity’,” it mocked. “You’re right, cold and uncaring, it–” Its speech was interrupted by my fist slamming into its face and sending it flying back into the room, where it made a dent into the wall as well. I walked up towards it with grim purpose, when it swiped my legs out from underneath me, and jumped me as I landed on the floor. “Foolish child.” It pressed my face against the floor, and hissed into my ear. “All you have to do is let go, and you will never have to worry again.” It picked me up, and tossed me back onto the asphalt by the car. Before I could do anything else it was already upon me again, grabbing my head and aiming it towards the twisted car. “Look,” it ordered, and forcing me to stare at the twisted shape. Tears flowed down my face as I did. There were no coherent thoughts, just despair and desperation. I wanted it to stop, to go away, and I never wanted to feel this again, that it would be worth not feeling anything ever again in order not to feel this. It was too much. I felt beaten, ready to give in. “Stop loving your friends. You would have been better off if you never loved them,” it said, nodding towards the wreck. That sparked something in me. It was anger, and more importantly, it was something other than what the Nightmare wanted me to feel. “Still fighting?” it asked, sounding both amused and frustrated. “I can keep–” The hateful being was pulled off me and thrown back towards the room, and I quickly turned around to see had caused it. “No!” the Nightmare shouted, staring at a point somewhere above me with a look of fear and anger. “Go away!” There were two of them. Invisible and silent shapes, standing vigil over me, and filling me with a sense of love and care. The pain of seeing my past both vanished and became more intense at the same time from the presences. The longing was gone for the moment, but the sense of loss was even more profound. “Mom?” I whispered, as if afraid that I’d wake myself up from a dream. “Dad?” The invisible shapes gently took me by my upper arms and raised me onto my feet, holding me steady and in a protective embrace. The Nightmare stood up, looking less and less like me, and more and more like its own, nondescript thing. It sneered at us, its eyes twisted with hate. “You can shield her forever, but it won’t help her,” it spat. “Come on, Gabrielle Desrochers, are you going to cower behind them for all eternity?” I didn’t want to fight, I wanted to stay where I was, but it would mean failing what Armor and I set out to do. I now had things to fight for, so fight I would. I gently walked out of the embrace, and walked towards the shape. We both started running forward, slamming into each other, and started trading a flurry of blows, throwing each other into walls had enough to break them, and twisting each other in impossible ways. It no doubt looked dramatic, but it wasn’t the actual fighting, with its blows and strikes, that was important. It was a contest of wills, and very slowly, I felt myself losing. The by now only vaguely human, genderless shape of the Nightmare landed on top of me, putting its hand against my throat and pinning me down. “So this is the tenacity of a human? Not bad for a pup, but I have laid low gods!” it snarled. “They tried defying me, but it never worked.” Looking up into the broken ceiling, into one of the other rooms, I saw a guitar case lying perilously close to the edge, and while I didn’t see it, I felt my parents’ presence next to it, giving it a push. It fell down next to us, its lid flying open and revealing my guitar, gleaming red and angry, inside it. The Nightmare didn’t care, or even notice. It had eyes only for me. “One… thing you should know… about humans,” I grunted, reaching for the instrument. “We’re masters of defiance!” I grabbed the Gretsch by the neck, and swung it against my foe. It impacted with the soothing, distorted sound of its namesake, as if it was plugged in. The Nightmare flew off me, and into a wall, and I stood up, leapt into the air, and came down with a power cord. The walls buckled outward from the power, and the Nightmare was launched through one of them, into the previous room, causing all of the things in the hospital room, or at least this place’s version of it, to be thrown clear, lodging themselves into the wall. There were no more fears, no more doubts. The places from my past held no sway over me anymore. In this place, at this time, I was indomitable, fearless, and in control. I was a god, and it felt good. The Nightmare scrambled to its feet and fled up the stairs. I could have floated after it, my eye glowing white, but I liked the uneven sound of my feet hitting the floor, as I slowly walked after it, my guitar held like a battle axe. “Oh you’ve done it in the blue cupboard now,” I said. When I reached the room I had started in, it had its back against an armchair, a desperate look on its face. “How!?” it asked. I just smirked, and raised my axe. “Rock’n’Roll,” I said. The swing sent it flying out through the boarded up window. Its yell was cut short, drowned out by a thick, white fog beyond. The curtain above it shook and unfurled, falling down and covering the view. I let out a satisfied chuckle, before closing my eye and concentrating, willing the entire place whole. I breathed out a satisfied sigh, and put my guitar down on the armchair. The presence of my parents were there with me, still unseen and silent, but I felt their presence clearly as they walked up behind me, giving me a warm embrace. I leaned into it, taking several long breaths, basking in the sensation, before a sense of melancholy came to me. “I love you,” I said. I sensed their love for me back, unspoken, but not needing to be said. I wanted to stay there, and I wanted to see my friends again. The only way that would happen would be if they came with me, and that was not possible. “I miss you,” I said, a tear building in my eye. They nodded, and I knew they missed me as well. They would never stop loving me, and wished for me to live a long and happy life, and all the things that parents want for their children. They reached out and grabbed something, and they held up the little plushie of Armor, gently placing it against my chest. I chuckled and let out a small sob at the same time. “I know. I’m glad you like him though,” I said. They said something funny. Something with a dry wit. Something that would show their approval between the lines. They gently aimed me to towards the door without pushing me away. No matter what I chose, whether I left or stayed, they’d understand. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to say goodbye.” They said it wouldn’t be a final goodbye. It would be a goodbye for a long time, they hoped, but not a final one. “Goodbye then,” I said. “I love you.” I pecked the plushie, before setting him down on the back rest of the armchair, and walking out of the door. — I had the bizarre experience of suddenly coming to and realizing what I was doing in the middle of a struggle for the destiny of the entire world. Rearing up, I let out a roar, surprised by how genuine it was, and tore out my prosthetic eye, which was very reluctant to leave, sending it flying across the room as it stared at me with a sinister purple glow as I collapsed on the floor. And then all was darkness and silence, but it was that strange kind where you’re conscious enough to be vaguely aware of it, but not lucid enough to realize that being aware of it means that it’s just darkness and silence, rather than oblivion. Slowly, it dawned on me. I was alive, and in all likelihood, I was also well. “.... ight? Please say something,” Armor was saying, his voice growing more and more urgent. Even though I felt I should be used to this by now, slowly coming to in strange places and in strange situations, it was as confusing as ever as parts of my mind realized what was happening while other parts struggled to keep up. One thing was clear though, Armor was worried about me, and I didn’t like him being worried. “Uuh,” I groaned, trying to placate him, weakly waving a hoof I had forgotten wasn’t there anymore. “She’s going to be fine, just give her a moment,” I heard Sombra say. Luckily, hearing Sombra’s voice didn’t hurry me awake. I hadn’t spent so much time around him as his enemy that I associated him as a threat. “Uh,” I said, feeling some strength return, and opening my eye. “Armor?” “I’m here,” he immediately said, holding me in his forelegs. “Did we…?” I started, trying to get the energy to both breathe and talk. “Did we win?” Armor looked at Sombra for confirmation, and I saw that the entire room was staring at me being held in Armor’s embrace, hoping that whatever I did just before looked appropriately heroic to warrant it. The portal was still there, open, but stable and gently waiting, and not as noisy and volatile like last time. Sombra held up my pearly white replacement eye, now surrounded by a purple and green aura, and nodded at me. “You won,” he said. “You all succeeded in drawing the creature out of me, and then you, Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, did what I could not. You fought against it and won.” It was a strange thing to consider. At first it felt as if it should have been a moment worthy of reverence. A threat against the world, the fight against and victory over by the alicorn champions of ponykind marked eras of Equestria, defeated, and I was one of the victors. Then that feeling just made way for some sort of grumpy tiredness. ‘Yeah, it had better be defeated.’ “I had help,” I mumbled, resting my cheek against Armor. “The Nightmare is sealed away, possibly forever this time, and you are the mare of the hour,” Luna said, stepping up beside Sombra. Sombra gently put his fetlock on my forehead, and turned to the crowd, Trixie, Golden and Rosen, Celestia, Chrysalis, Poly and Evening, and seemingly his entire cadre of guards. “Victory. A victory worthy of celebration,” he said, calmly, and looked back at me where I rested. “But I ask that we don’t cheer right now, instead…” He turned to face me, and bowed, his head all the way to the ground, and everyone followed his example, except for Armor, who was busy holding me. It was as embarrassing as one would expect, but it was the moment where everyone reflected on the triumph. The source of so much misery was finally defeated, and it was expected to show reverence and… ‘... You know what? No.’ “Alright, enough,” I said. “It was a team effort and all that jazz. Also, just please stop, this is really awkward.” Sombra chuckled, and rose, with everyone following his example. “I am in your debt though,” Sombra said, and at the rest of the room. “And you are right. You all have my gratitude, and there is one pony I’m especially pleased to be grateful towards.” Sombra let the sentence hang in the air, and turned to Celestia. Everyone, except Luna, Sombra, and the Dazzlings, eyed her with a mix of wariness of apprehension. Sombra calmly stepped up to her to talk as an equal, and bowed his head slightly. Celestia looked at him with a mix of hopefulness and apprehension. “I understand now,” he said, holding up my eye and looking at it. “I don’t know if you care about this, but I know how thoroughly you were controlled by this thing. As far as I’m concerned, all is forgiven.” Celestia let out a sigh, and nodded at Sombra with a relieved smile. Sombra offered his hoof, and Celestia gratefully shook it. “I… don’t know what to say,” she said. “For so long, I hated and I hurt so deeply and so many. So… mixed with that thing that I didn’t know what was me and what was it.” “And since getting rid of it, you have been travelling Equestria in disguise, helping ponies wherever you found that they needed help?” Sombra asked in a conversational tone. “Yes,” Celestia nodded. “I don’t know if I can ever repay the things I’ve done, but I have to try.” Sombra smiled. “What a wonderful idea,” he said. “And it sounds like an example I would follow.” Sombra walked up to me, and I was still too tired to stand up, especially with one leg short. ‘Gonna have to have a new one made,’ I thought. Armor seemed to want to shield me from him for a moment, before relaxing on his own and letting Sombra put his hoof on my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Gabrielle,” he said. “I put you through so much.” I was still too numb and tired to either forgive or accuse anyone for anything. I realized, when I was fighting The Nightmare, that Sombra, the actual Sombra, had tried orchestrating as much as he could despite The Nightmare being in control. It was a trying experience to say the least, but in the end, it seemed everyone was alive and well, so I figure it was all worth it. “What happens now?” I asked. “This is to be locked away,” Sombra said, indicating the eye, before turning to face Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis. “And then… I have done too many wrongs to too many ponies to have a say in what happens.” The crowd protested, many of Sombra’s guard taking a step forward, almost in indignation, at their king’s statement. Luna, Chrysalis, and Trixie, all walked up to Sombra. “I won’t hear anything like that,” Trixie said, with conviction. “I don’t need to be able to sense emotions to know where you want to be,” Chrysalis added. Luna put the tip of her wing across Sombra’s neck, and the two of them rested their foreheads against each other, like the very old friends that they were. “For so long, you have been the guardian of ponykind. Against mad magicians, conquering armies, eldritch monsters… and me,” she said. “For so many years, I have been both your friend and enemy. I know how hard you’ve fought, perhaps better than yourself. I don’t know if Equestria will ever truly be safe, but we relieve you from the burden of protecting it. If anypony is ever to deserve anything, we have to let you go. “Let you go to her,” Luna said, tears forming in her eyes. Sombra let out a sigh, both of relief and resignation. “I’ll miss you, my friends.” “And we you,” Chrysalis said, joining in the nuzzling. After a moment, they separated, and took one last glance, before Rosen and Golden stepped up, with several of the guards taking some tentative steps forward as well. They were clearly grasping for words, and Golden glanced at Rosen for some help. “It… was an honor, your majesty,” Rosen said, and bowed, but before anyone else could follow his example, Sombra lifted Rosen’s head up. “Speak freely, everypony,” Sombra said. “We… if anypony, in the history of Equestria, ever deserved to leave and do what makes them happy, it would be you. Her highness is right,” Rosen said, and dipped his head. “But… we also don’t want you to go.” The gathered soldiers’ expressions all agreed with Rosen’s words. “Where do we turn?” Golden asked. Sombra’s smile lost a lot of its melancholy. “I know of one Equestria that has done quite well with a sun-controlling alicorn as its guardian.” Everyone slowly turned towards Celestia, who looked somewhat taken aback and uncertain at this attention, and tried masking their fear and suspicion. “I know there might not be any love or trust between you and her yet, but it will grow. I don’t know if there will be a respite from threats as powerful as The Nightmare, but if there isn’t, she will be there to protect you, and if you give her a chance, I think you’ll prove worthy of each others’ friendships.” They looked at Celestia, before smiling at their king, and stood at attention in front of him, in their mind, one last time, and saluted in perfect unison. Sombra answered the salute, and I refrained from voicing the breach of form with some of the soldiers not wearing appropriate headgear. Then he turned to Armor and me. “I am ready to leave,” he stated. It was perhaps a little sudden, but the goodbye would not feel better by being drawn out. Besides, the portal was open, the way home was right in front of us and we had been away for too long. To not leave now, after all we had gone through to get here, didn’t feel right. We turned around to see Trixie climbing out of her bag with another bag. “These are uh, the uh, the things I wanted to keep,” she said, and gestured to her house. “Otherwise, you… you guys can have this.” “Really?” Armor asked. “Sure, sure. I wasn’t, uh…” Trixie said, and I realized she was struggling to keep her voice steady, “you know, not sure if it was fitting at first, but when I think about it, you guys gave us new enchanting knowledge, and Gabe was interested in this thing, so you guys’ll get some as well. Don’t worry, I can get another one.” Trixie and Evening were suddenly pushed towards Armor and me, almost landing on top of us, by Poly. “You might be the alicorn of it…” Polyus said, and scooped all of us up in a hug, and Polyusa continued, “but you can give it a rest right now.” Trixie’s and Evening’s eyes started watering as we held each other close. “G-good luck, you guys,” Trixie said, holding back a sob. “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you,” Evening countered. “We’ll miss you guys,” Polyus said. “We’ll miss you too,” Armor said.  I did a little sleight of hoof as I pulled my remaining one out from the grip, and made sure it rested above the bag Trixie had pulled out of her house. Sombra lit up his horn, and did some last detail to the portal, so that we would end up in the right time and place. “One last taste,” Chrysalis said, and scooped our hug-pile up in an even bigger one. “Indeed,” Luna said, and joined in. “You saved me from having to do what I feared the most.” We eventually let go, and I held back a slightly embarrassing sob as we smiled at each other. Then it was Celestia’s turn. She stepped up to me, and we shook hooves once more. “Thank you,” I said. nodding at her. “And you,” she answered. The sirens were hovering in the background, and were watching Trixie’s bag with interest, before smiling at me. I blinked at them, not being able to wink at the moment. “We’ve kept the portal open long enough,” Sombra said. “It’s time.” Armor rose up and placed me on his back, and we walked to the portal, waved goodbye with Sombra, and then stepped through. — There was only darkness, and I felt myself landing with a muted thump. After a few seconds of confusion, Armor dug us out of a bag of rosettes and flowers in the middle of the Crystal Palace throne room, a very surprised Shining Armor and Princess Cadenza staring at us, as Sombra extracted his hooves from it. They had apparently been experimenting with the interior designs of the palace, adding some softness among the sharp angles. That’s when it was decided in my mind that we were home. The excitement of adventure was over, and I was back in the realm of minor absurdism, like finding myself covered in decorations, looking like I had run at full speed through one of the Crusaders’ hobby projects. Armor and I looked at each other as we stepped out of the bag as well. “Uncanny,” I noted. “King Sombra?” Cadence asked, before registering us. “Armor? Gabe?” I don’t know if it was because I was too dazed or tired, or maybe I had trouble registering it, but I just leaned against Armor’s neck and let out a relieved sigh. Armor angled his head to nuzzle mine, and held a wing to my cheek. “We’re home, Gabe,” he said in a soft voice, and I just nodded, taking long, slow breaths. Shining Armor and Cadence gently stepped up to us, staring at us while Sombra seemed to leave it to them to take the initiative. Armor took a breath, and slowly started raising his other wing in a salute. “Your majest–” “As you were, private,” Shining interrupted, making Armor let out a sigh and allowing his wing to slump down. “Would somepony tell us what’s going on?” “I will,” Sombra said, with a steady voice. “You’re Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor are you not?” Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, broadening his stance just a smidge, and inching over to start covering his wife. “Yes, but you knew that already.” “Yes. Celestia has told me about you,” Sombra continued, calmly. “When she visited me on my world.” Shining and Cadence nodded, now understanding. “Ah, yes, our Sombra wouldn’t be…” Cadence trailed off, before gasping. “Oh my gosh!” she said, holding her cheeks in her hooves, her eyes sparkling with realization. “Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! You’re Sombra! I mean, of course you’re Sombra, but you’re that Sombra! Oh! Oh I have to tell auntie, ooOOOooooOOOH!” Cadence shifted between flying and running a few laps around the room a few times, her face both panicked and ecstatic, before running out of the room, gleeing loudly all the while. Shining was looking where she had left with a serene happiness. “Well, this is an unexpected development,” he said, and turned to us as a somewhat sheepish smile grew on his face. “A pleasant surprise though. Welcome back by the way.” “Thank you, majesty,” Armor calmly answered. Shining chuckled silently, before giving us a closer look. “Are you all alright?” “Mmm, a few parts are missing,” I said, wiggling what should have been a foreleg. “But other than that, we’re fine.” “How about you?” Shining asked, turning to the larger stallion. “Never better, despite sad goodbyes,” he said. “Triumphs and defeat of great evils, and my goal achieved. By the way, Private Armor. I owe you an apology and thank you as well.” “It’s alright,” he mumbled, too tired and relieved to be home, just like me. Shining was nodding to himself as he thought in silence. “Sounds like this will be quite the debriefing, private, but by the looks of things, we might as well have that at another date.” “Thank you, sir.” The doors suddenly burst open, revealing Celestia, with Luna and Cadence several paces behind her. She and Sombra stared at one another. Celestia frozen, as if not knowing whether to believe her own eyes, breathing deeply and slowly. Sombra smiled serenely at her, though with a hint of apology in it. Celestia hesitated for just a moment more, before she beat her wings and flew towards Sombra, whose lower part had turned into that dark fog as he flew towards her as well. They caught each other in an embrace mid-air, Celestia’s lower half blending into Sombra’s magical shape and giving it a tint of color, as they spun around from catching each other and gradually slowed down, eyes closed and locked in a kiss. Luna and Shining were shifting between being confused and overjoyed, while Cadence had sat down on her haunches and wiping tears of joy from her eyes, before hugging her husband and leaning against him. Celestia and Sombra eventually broke the kiss, and reformed on the floor. Somewhat unwillingly, they broke away, and faced Armor and me. Sombra bowed. “You have done what I was afraid would be impossible,” he said. “I’m not sure I will ever be able to repay my debt to you, but say the word, and I will try.” We didn’t get a chance to respond, before Celestia pulled us into a big hug. “My little ponies,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” “Urgh! Ha-happy to help, majesty,” Armor managed. Celestia lessened the pressure she was putting into the hug. “I was afraid I’d lost you forever,” she said, and held us close. “I… I don’t know what to say.” While it would certainly have been nice to have Celestia to cuddle with as I fell asleep, I preferred the idea of her spending time with Sombra, the thing that would make her the happiest. I didn’t quite know what that meant, but I assume it meant that I was content, whole, at peace, or however else you want to put it. Luna put a hoof on Celestia’s wither. “Sister,” she said, gently. “We will make sure they understand your gratitude. “And…” Luna added, hesitating, and taking a deep breath, already regretting her decision before it came to voice. “We will take care of your duties... for a time.” Celestia let out a sigh, and pulled her into the hug as well. “Thank you, Lulu.” “Thank you again, my friends,” Sombra said, before holding out his hoof towards Celestia, who took it in her own. Together, they formed into the dark mist like they did before, and started floating up towards the ceiling, locked in a kiss. All of us looked on as they floated out through a window and into the sky. They formed entirely into the dark mist, with the lights of Celestia’s colors giving it a glow much like her mane, like a refreshing cloud of rain with silvery and rainbow colored lights playing off it. We all smiled at the beautiful phenomenon, as the two elements of the shape seemed to both writhe and caress each other as it floated off towards the horizon. Except Luna, whose jaw was approaching the floor. “S-sister!” she shouted. “Th– that is not appropriate public behavior!” — “Now then,” Luna said, eyes locked in front of her. “What would you wish to be your reward?” Armor and I were sitting on Luna’s back as we zoomed towards Canterlot above the clouds at an incredible speed. I got the feeling that the only reason we weren’t there moments after saying goodbye to Shining and Cadence was that Luna was being gentle with us. “Reward?” I asked, holding back a groan and just wanting to get some rest. “Indeed. We suppose we should consult with our sister, and further analyze the extent of your contributions,” Luna said, and put her hoof to her chin. “But a reward of significance is required. Land and titles at the very least. A barony, perhaps.” “A barony!?” Armor and I echoed. “Or perhaps a duchy… or two.” “I just want things to go back to normal,” I said, gently. Luna let out a sigh. “You are too modest, Gabrielle Desrochers, and take it as a compliment if you wish, but it is getting frustrating to reward you properly. What say you, Studded Armor? Do you wish a title with your name? A knighthood like Gabrielle is practically a requirement at this point. We will be hard pressed to take no for an answer.” “Uhm, well, your majesty,” Armor said. “I’m with Gabe. Some peace and quiet would be nice.” “A leave of absence? For mental convalescence. Consider it done. We’ll all talk more later about the rest.” I felt Armor in my mane, nodding. “Yes, your majesty.” The lights of Canterlot were below us, still lit this early in the night, and Luna was taking us down quickly and smoothly. The first time I had travelled to another world, I had ended up in this city as well, exhausted, but doted on. Then I had gone to Ponyville, living my life among good friends in the serene, small town. I was certainly looking forward to doing so again. Luna set down on a balcony, where Kibitz was waiting with a dignified posture. “Your majesty, you return…” he started, the questioning tone petering off as he saw Armor and me. “... not alone. Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, you’re back I see. Uh, your majesty, are things as they seem?” “Indeed they are, Kibitz,” Luna stated. “Our sister does not return for now, but there is no cause for alarm.” “I see,” Kibitz said, and looked at us again. “Good evening to you.” “Mister Kibitz,” Armor said, nodding. “Heya,” I said, giving him a wave. “May I ask… well, may I ask for a summary?” “Our lost ponies have journeyed to the other Equestria our sister frequented, and brought the now purged Sombra with them, but now these heroes are tired, and would appreciate some rest.” “At once, your majesty,” Kibitz said, before leaning in. “And our dear princess of the sun and the good king?” I softly hummed the tune for Can You Feel The Love Tonight to myself, and smiling slightly. “Enjoying themselves, no doubt. I shall tend to my sister’s duties for the time being.” “Ah,” Kibitz said, before his moustache betrayed a smile growing beneath it. “What… unexpectedly pleasant news.” “Indeed, and now…” “Uh, Gabe,” Armor said, fishing my prosthesis-locating hairpin out of his mane and holding it in his hoof. “This thing just came alive.” We all looked at it, as it pointed down and further towards the core of the castle. “Huh,” was all I could say. Luna gently took the pin and gave it to Kibitz. “Please follow this to where it points, and use your own judgement when you get there.” “Yes, your majesty,” Kibitz said, and walked off in a brisk pace. “No more adventures for now,” Luna said. “Mmm,” I hummed, leaning against Armor as Luna carried us through the corridors. “Your quarters have remained untouched, except for fresh sheets, since you last saw them, Gabrielle,” Luna said. “I assume that sir Armor is welcome there?” “Mmm,” I hummed again, as Armor did his best to look dignified despite the blush. We entered my first actual place of residence in Equestria, and Luna briskly walked up to my bed, with Armor lifting me up onto the mattress, settling down behind me. “Some comforting crackling from the fireplace perhaps?” Luna suggested. “Please,” I said. A few moments later, the fire from the fireplace bathed the room in a soft glow, just as Kibitz stepped back into the room. I raised my eyebrow, as he carried my prosthetic leg in his magic, along with a scroll tube. “Message for you, madam,” he said. “Would you like me to read it?” I nodded, and gave my leg a quick look. It might have been covered in a very stubborn-looking layer of dust, but it was mine, no doubt about it. Kibitz opened the scroll case, unfurled the paper, and cleared his throat. “Esteemed crafter of the arcane arts,” he read aloud. “Skill and art be apparent in this creation, your grace I must ask, and patience for this explanation of my cause and my character, and that you do not be quick to anger for this–” I groaned when the words caught up with me. “Does it go on like that for long?” I asked. “Uh, yes,” Kibitz said, unfurling the message to estimate its length. “Can you skip to the end?” “It… hmm… it talks about how the author tried to recreate the enchantment, but was never able to recreate key features, apparently they stopped working after some time. Hmm, oh… signed by Starswirl The Bearded.” Kibitz turned to Luna. “Has this been in the palace for long?” “Probably ended up in the past when it went through the portal before it was stabilized,” I said, yawning. Luna gently took the paper and rolled it up again, putting it back into the case. “I always thought he was too secretive a stallion,” Luna said, and turned to me and Armor “Rest, you two, we’ll solve this mystery tomorrow.” “I feel like sleeping tomorrow away,” Armor said, yawning. “That might be wise,” Luna said, nodding in approval. “We shall keep a firm vigilance over your dreams, even though we suspect it will not be necessary. Come, Kibitz.” “G’night,” I said. “Princess?” Kibitz said in a low voice, as they walked out of the room. “The magic that madam Gabrielle created was what the enchanters of old used, but she researched the magic that they used, correct? How can–” “Ah, Kibitz, I believe the best pony to ask about that is…” Their voices died off in the distance, and I felt Armor’s calm breath behind me. “Are you awake?” I asked, softly. “I’m not falling asleep until you do,” Armor said, in an equally soft voice. “Armor.” “Yeah?” “Thank you.” Armor’s embrace tightened just a little. “Thank you.” I finally, slowly relaxed, when I noticed my guitar sitting in the corner of the room, facing me. I smiled a little at it, before glancing back at Armor, before lighting my horn up and floating a spare bed sheet over it. — Trixie sat on her seat on the train, staring out at the moonlit fields flying by. Beside her lay Evening and Poly, now permanent friends and expected long term companions in her journeys across Equestria. They had returned to more densely populated lands and were on their way back to Canterlot, where Evening was looking forward to reuniting with his wife. Trixie cast her resting companions a warm look, then continued contemplating the gains and losses of the quest that had just wrapped up. It was almost paradoxical, setting out with a goal of sending away two ponies one would grow to become friends with. In the end, it was probably all for the best. It was too risky for the portals to be open, the way the worlds influenced each other, perhaps to catastrophic results. The strange filly was of course an anomaly, ignoring all the pulls and pushes of whatever cosmic force had arranged this, and seemingly smashing its designs with her presence alone, but how would one channel an ability like that? No, it was better this way. … Still, there was a bitterness to this victory that Trixie had trouble shaking. Her thoughts were interrupted by something hard poking her in her side through her saddlebag as she shifted in her seat. She opened the bag of mementos she had kept when giving away her mobile home, and pulled out a harmonica she recognized, but didn’t associate with her magic home. Then her eyes widened when she realized just what she was holding, and gently put the instrument back into her bag. It would have to be locked away somewhere safe, and kept hidden. It was an unassuming thing, but it could determine the fate of the entire world… two worlds. After her initial shock, Trixie still felt a smile grow on her muzzle. Gaiden