Flight of The Avali: Season One

It was the following day, Dash had decided it was for the best that she alert everypony to her decision.

To say the least, none of them fully understood what she was doing. Both Fluttershy and Applejack however knew right away, her decision was final. Nothing was going to change her mind on it.

Twilight and Starlight weren’t exactly keen on having their friend play guinea pig for augmentations. Though, Starlight realized Einuli hadn’t been given a choice in the matter.

Pinkie was silent on the matter, though anypony could tell she knew exactly why Dash had chosen to take on the augments.

“Why… just why would you go under something nopony has done before?” Twilight asked.

“You… didn’t see the way he acted with me. I… can’t even begin to explain it.” Dash began, “All of it after…”

“You wrapped your wings around him?” Starlight asked.

“Yeah…”

“But he didn’t act any specific way towards me when I did it.” Twilight said.

“Because he probably didn’t talk about his past with you. I… I won’t go into detail. It was… horrible to see him break down.” Dash said. “He just sort of shut down… he started chirping and crying. He curled up into a ball and just started shaking… I don’t know what happened to cause it. But I want to make sure that I can be there for him when he needs me to be.”

The others fell silent. Except for Rarity.

“Then do it.” Rarity stated.

Everypony looked at her.

“If you trust him enough to watch after you, to enter your body, and perform surgery on your brain and who knows what else. Do it. I trust your judgement enough. And I doubt, highly, that he’d harm you.” Rarity continued. “If you believe he was being utterly honest with you, then don’t hold back.”

“R-rarity…” Starlight muttered.

“Ah agree.” Applejack nodded. “Look, none of us really know him. But, from what ah’ve seen… he’s an honest creature. Hell, from mah experience with Suzy, Ah’d say they’re all honest. They don’t wanna cause us any trouble, and intend to clean up the mess they brought with em. Though, if they attack us, it won’t be just their problem anymore.” She said.

“I know Celestia’s already planning to detach several units to prepare for a battle.” Twilight sighed.

Dash was silent, looking between her two friends that supported her decision.

“H-how long will you be gone?” Fluttershy piped up.

“Einuli said it depends on how many augmentations I decide to take… and if my body doesn’t reject them.” Dash said.

“If your body rejects them?”

“I could die.” Dash said quietly.

“He won’t let you take what your body won’t accept.” Pinkie now spoke.

Everypony looked at her.

“He doesn’t really like over-augmentation, didn’t he tell you that Twilight?” Pinkie said.

“Sort of…”

“I’d think he’d know what a body can handle. I mean look at Suzy, she’s augmented too!” Pinkie stated. “If he’s willing to perform surgery on you… well I doubt he’d take that decision lightly.”

“He didn’t even want to… I had to convince him. He kept telling me how painful it’d be… how it’d be days before I’d be able to move again as my body adjusted to the translator…” Dash said.

“If you want to go through it, than do it. Don’t let anypony else tell you away. You’re doing it for all the right reasons. Sure, it might be painful, but something tells me he’ll do everything in his power to make you as comfortable as he can. He won’t put you in undue danger or stress.”

“I know that.” Dash said.

“The go for it!” Pinkie said. “He’s not violent, and with how much care he puts into his own machines and medical area, I doubt you’d be in better hands anywhere else.”

Dash sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “I already decided I will.” She said.

Rarity, Twilight, and Starlight looked at each other for a few moments.

“Do what you think is best.” Twilight said.

“We’ll support you one hundred percent.” Rarity nodded.

“Yeah, like Pinkie, I don’t believe he’d actively hurt any of us.” Starlight nodded.

Dash smiled a little, now looking at all of her friends.

“Why don’t Ah go with yah, just to put some of our fears to ease, and that way if anythin goes wrong he won’t be able tah hide it?” Applejack offered.

“I doubt he’d hide anything… If something did happen… something tells me none of you would see him again…” Dash muttered, “Though, it’d be great if you came along AJ.” She gave a half hearted smile.

“Then let’s go! The sooner he starts, the sooner yah’ll be back, right?” AJ asked.

“Yeah! Come on, he’s waiting for me outside of town.” Dash said.

“Why outside of to-”

“You saw it too, didn’t you, Dash?” Starlight began.

“Yeah, until I got them to stop, I was sure somepony was going to do something incredibly stupid.” Dash nodded.

“I would have intervened had I seen anypony planning on doing anything like that.” Starlight said.

“I’ll… work on making sure he’s more welcome in town.” Twilight stated.

“So will I.” Pinkie nodded.

“Great! And if everything goes well… I doubt anypony will look on what I’m going through as ‘bad’. It’ll only be a good thing right?” Dash smiled. She looked to Applejack, “Let’s go meet him.” She lead her friend out, the two heading swiftly to where Dash was going to meet Einuli.

Einuli was pacing nervously, not too keen on harming his new friend, even if he had been lying to her on how painful it’d be. In truth, what he’d told Cadance about neurological augments being painful was true. So, part of him got really hopeful that Applejack coming along with her meant that she’d rethought her decision.

“Hey, Einuli! Applejack’s tagging along.” Dash smiled at him, his heart fluttered a little.

“T-that’s fine!” Einuli smiled back.

“So, why don’t you fill us both in on what’s going to happen?” Dash asked. “Well, at least Applejack.”

“Sure!” Einuli said, letting out a long sigh. “Um, first I’m going to run a few bodily scans, to make sure her brain’s capable of supporting the neurological changes the augment will cause. The scans may also open up any other augments your body could theoretically handle…” He closed his eyes for a few moments.

“And like I said… I’ll only take them if they’re necessary, or… honestly if they sound cool.” Dash chuckled.

Applejack shook her head. “Ah’m sure you will.”

Einuli went quiet for a moment, “Um Dash…” He began.

“What’s up?”

“I… I don’t want you to think any less of me for this… b-but I lied to you a bit… a-and by virtue Starlight as well…” Einuli continued quietly.

Dash raised an eyebrow, “How… so?”

“I really… really didn’t want you to take any augments… I only have them because they were necessary for survival while I was alone… So, I tried to dissuade you by saying how… painful they were to have added… I-it’s only really the translator that will be painful, that and… any neurological augments… and that’s only because they make all of your nerves incredibly sensitive for the first few hours after you regain consciousness.” He explained quietly, earning a smile from both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “I’ve… seen other lose themselves and become… nearly machines from the amount of things they do to their body, and that thought scares me so much… I needed my enhanced muscles to really work for the first few months… until I got ahold of a mech to help with heavy lifting… and by virtue my bones needed to be strong enough to support the extra stress… The translator was a necessity for when I found other species. They’re… so natural now… but at first I didn’t like having them, it made me feel less like… me.”

“Hey… Einuli.” Dash said, walking up to and kneeling down in front of the raptor.

Einuli looked at her.

“I don’t care that you lied to me about that. You know what that shows me?”

“W-what?”

“You care about my well-being. Even if you just met me. That’s something that shouldn’t be scoffed at.” Dash hugged him. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Anything!” He said quickly.

“Don’t lie to me about anything else, if I want to know it, you’ll tell me.” Dash pulled back.

“I swear, I won’t lie to you or anyone else again.” Einuli smiled slightly. Dash glanced to Applejack who was smiling even more at this point. “Good, now let's go up to your ship, and see how long this all will take.”

Einuli nodded and tapped something on the inside of his wrist, the three being teleported up to the ship.

This time however instead of the main room, they ended up in the med-bay. “Alright! Here we are… first I’ll run the scans and then we’ll take you to my tree-house so you can relax before the procedure.” Einuli said, taking Dash’s hand and guiding her to the same machine Starlight had used the day before. “Just sit back and relax.” He sat her down in the chair.

“Oookay.” Dash yawned, stretching out. Though she paused as she heard the whirring of the machine, “Uuuh, what’s it going to do?”

“Just relax, it won’t hurt at all.” Einuli assured just as the lasers kicked on and ran over her body. Dash was a bit curious, and Einuli speaking made her even more curious. “Huh… I didn’t notice this before with Starlight… but I’m seeing it now… at least halfway.”

“Seein what?” Applejack asked.

“I’d… Like to confirm my suspicion before I make any real judgments, but… It seems like your species has high similarities to humans.” He typed something on the console before him and a second scan popped up beside Rainbow Dash’s. “At least physiologically. You also, thankfully, share some similarities with avians. Though your wings work… so I can adjust the muscle density to be similar to mine… aaand… well… I’d still need to see scans from you, Applejack, and if I get luck, maybe Twilight will be willing to help? A complete set from all sub-species of Ponies would be amazing!” He seemed to get even happier now.

“So… what exactly does the mumbo jumbo mean?”

“Well, unless you have some rare brain disease that hasn’t cropped up until now… there shouldn’t- theoretically- be any problems with any augmentations.” Einuli explained, pulling Dash up and motioning for Applejack to sit down.

Applejack sat down in the same spot Dash did and after a moment he completed a scan of her too.

Einuli only got even happier. “Yes! Just one last one to complete! Though… maybe more of a sample size would help…”

“Well I’m sure you can convince Fluttershy to help you with a scan of pegasi, or even Derpy.” Dash said.

“Yah could convince Rarity with no issues.” Applejack added.

“Well… I’d need at least four separate scans of each species… just to make sure that my hunch is correct.” Einuli said.

“Well, Twilight, Luna, Celestia, Cadance, and now Flurry Heart are the only Alicorns… so it shouldn’t be too hard to get their scans.” Dash said. “Hell, if you say anything sciency to Twilight she’d be all over it!”

“And as fer Earthponies… Ah could try to get mah brother to give you one…”

“Right… you’d need both sexes wouldn’t you?” Dash asked. “I can ask Soarin’ and another Wonderbolt to let you scan them.”

“I already have Shining’s scans thanks to him running a few simulations… so I’d just need one more male unicorn.” Einuli said, pulling up Applejack’s scan and comparing it to the scan he had of Suzy. “Hm… these muscle structures are similar… just it appears Ponies have a greater mass without any side-effects related to weight-lifting and steroids… it’s just natural.” He tapped his chin, “Interesting…”

“So… what does that mean?” Dash asked.

“Well… It opens up a few possibilities.” Einuli began, “Now, it’s up to you… and please, please don’t let me influence your decision, it’s… your body. So you have the say in it.”

Rainbow Dash remained silent, leaning up against the machine as she looked at him.

“I could reinforce your bones, make them much more durable and… well unless you slammed into the ground at ten times the speed of sound… you wouldn’t even crack a bone. By virtue I’d also make your organs more durable…” He explained. “Then, there’s also the option to enhance your muscles, you’d be able to fly faster, and for much longer periods of time at high speeds. With it, your muscles would use less energy to stretch, meaning you’d have more stamina in general.”

“But?”

“It’d add a day to your recovery time at the very least… a day and a half at most.” Einuli said.

“Oh joy, yer gonna maker her stronger and faster? Do yah even know who yer talkin to?” AJ joked.

“I… actually have a pretty good idea…” Einuli mumbled, twitching slightly as a painful memory reared its’ ugly head. He shook the thought from his mind.

“Alright. I’ll do it. If you can do this to me… well, it’d look good on you, plus… I can’t really pass up the opportunity to be even faster, now can I?” Dash laughed, approaching him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Alright… um, and Applejack, the option’s out there for you too. It wouldn’t be difficult to give you stronger bones and muscles. But… if you do want to take that chance, it’ll be only after Dash is better. I… want to focus my attention on one per… pony at a time.” Einuli said.

“Ah’ll… think about it. Ah want ta see how well Dash adjusts before Ah make any decisions in that regard.” AJ smiled, “But thank yah fer the offer.”

Einuli smiled back, “Both of you come with me then. I’ll take you to my house, and get Applejack and I something to eat.” He lead them back to the teleporter.

“Why only you two?” Dash grumbled.

“You can’t eat for twelve hours before the procedure.” Einuli said. “That’d end up horribly if your body reflexively threw up while I’m in you... it could go sceptic and kill you.” He stated firmly. “You won’t eat for twelve hours. Understand? If you do eat at all, it’ll be ANOTHER twelve hours before I start. So how long this takes is up to you.”

Dash sighed, “Fine. I… won’t eat for twelve hours.”

“Good! When you wake up after the procedure, I’ll get you whatever you want to eat.” Einuli promised.

“You’d better.” Dash winked at him, the three of them then being teleported to his tree-house.