Chapter 6- An Open Letter

“It’s just a little something we put together, considering we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other over the next few weeks.”

When I finally woke up, I could feel my neck needed a cracking. So I sat up and gave it a crack. Then I realized that I could sit up, and that it was past midnight. But in all reality, I could also tell that something was off. My hooves were all replaced with metal claws, and as badass looking as they were, in all reality, they were also not really my own hooves. And they were chained down to the table. In the pan next to the table was a small bullet that was an off color. Way too bright to just be lead or copper. And my heart was slow and steady through all of this, emotionally, I knew I was scared out of my wits. But my body couldn't seem to get the message. "Hello? Doctor Sawbones?" I called out. After a few seconds, the door opened and the unicorn that I had assumed was the assistant strolled in.

"Well look who's awake. I'm assuming you've got questions, so let's start with those." She replied with a pleasant tone. To be completely honest, it was a pain in the ass to figure out where to start.

"Well, there's quite a few that I've got, so let's start with the most obvious. Why am I chained up like this?" I asked in the least accusatory tone I could manage.

"To be honest, when some patients first wake up, they're extremely hostile. That was for our protection, especially considering the new claws you've got." I had to admit, if that was true then it was totally fair.

"Well, since I'm not being hostile, can I be unchained? Please?" I asked with a grin that was so shit eating that ...well, I can't think of something that eats shit to compare it to. But it was definitely a shit eating grin.

"Well, you're not seeming hostile, so I suppose you can be. After all, it's not like you'll know how to use those legs just yet anyway. Though I suppose I should tell you that those claws are retractable. All you've got to do to retract them is relax the areas around them, and to bring them out, tense up. Which in retrospect makes no sense to somepony who had hooves their whole life, but that's what the sand dogs tell us." she said, returning my shit eating grin in a more snide way. "Once you start walking, you should be able to feel them similar to your old hooves. Then it may be easier to understand." she said while undoing the chains.

"Well, here's hoping I guess. But why does my heart feel so... smooth?" I wasn't quite sure how to describe the sensation it gave me, but for now that was probably the best descriptor for it.

"That's because that had to be replaced, along with your tongue in order to power the limbs. I know it isn't ideal, but everypony who had similar operations to yours got used to it in time." Well, I had to call it far from ideal, but at least I wasn't going to be a legless waste of space and resources, and I could still do magic, even if that was limited magic. Once the last chain was undone, I shifted my weight so I could roll onto my hooves and the floor. "The trick with walking on those is to not think about walking. Unless you're around landmines, then just think about where you're walking."

"Wait, I'm just supposed to not think about it, while also learning how to do whatever these limbs can do?"

"Difficult concept, I know, but one that'll do you well to acknowledge. It's quite simple to master once you've begun to learn. For now, don't worry about the claws and just walk like you would with your hooves." Needless to say, I was nervous as fuck, but reached out with my new hooves just like I would with my old ones. I did it much more slowly than I’d have liked, but moving them wasn’t too difficult. Once they touched the ground I could tell that the doctor wasn’t bullshitting me about being able to feel with them either.

“Huh, not bad, and you were right about being able to feel with them too. Can’t tell how that’s supposed to help me tell about what’s tense and what isn’t, but thank you.”

“Well, with earth ponies depending so much on their sense of touch, it’s more important to us than you might think. Even we unicorns need to deal with the sense of touch more than we like to admit. So it’s vital that you have it despite having these cybernetic limbs. Otherwise you’d constantly fall into potholes and the like. As far as tension in the limbs, you’ll learn that when you learn how to move the claws. Right now, since you’re just waking up after a surgery that came from you being shot, you’re understandably tense. Try this.” she held out an amethyst in her magic. “Don’t worry, the tongue replacement will allow you to eat gems as well as metal, and you’ll need to in order to keep them powered and your limbs repaired in combat. I’d stay away from low quality metals if at all possible as that will lead to your limbs and spine being composed of weaker metals. Steel, titanium, starmetal, and stronger metals should be prioritized. Weaker metals are okay if used in an emergency, but tin, iron and aluminum should be avoided as regular meals. Precious metals are something that should be avoided altogether, so no eating bits unless it’s immediately followed by titanium or hardened steel.” she said, now completely out of breath. Needless to say, I was completely in shock. Not only did I go to sleep near death and thinking I was either going to die or never be able to walk again, but when I woke up alive, I did it with legs that could feel things and repair themselves, but with functions that were totally foreign to me. Don’t get me wrong, they were awesome, just the fact that I’d be able to use them was awesome, but they weren’t even designed for ponies to use. Somepony just decided it would be a good idea to modify them slightly to be the right height for ponies and call it good enough,and on top of that, now I had to worry about powering my heart that couldn’t simulate emotional responses. I took a deep breath.

“Okay doc, I gotta ask, you got any tips for tension with these claws? They’re sort of freaking me out. I can’t imagine anypony else is gonna like em.” She looked at me, confused for a minute.

“You haven’t noticed the feeling on the padding?” The fuck did she mean by padding?

“Not really no. Is that the middle area of the hoof?” I just sort of took a shot in the dark.

“Yeah, try leaning back on it a little then go back to standing normally.” A lucky shot. I rocked back on my new hooves and then went forward again, to which the claws retracted into them. At least the front ones did. “Don’t worry about the back claws, those ones don’t retract.” Now she tells me.

“All good, these are a standard model right? So everypony else knows they’re non-retractable?” she just twisted her face into the most forced smile I’d ever seen.

“They’re not exactly standard, only a few ponies have ever gotten them because we didn’t have the supply of the forehooves to give you. So we gave you the back hooves that were meant to be back hooves. On the bright side, they’re all combat models, so extra durable.” Just fucking great.

“But nopony’s gonna see these and shoot me right?” I asked, now more concerned than I had been mere moments ago.

“Nah, the ponies here get that some ponies have to deal with nonstandard cybernetics. Some of the griffins might look at you funny, but that’ll be the worst of it.” Now I could relax a little. “Oh, and don’t worry about the manticore, he’s friendly as long as you keep your guns down.”

The fucking what?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End of Chapter 6
Quest Perk- Starmetal Skeleton- You've just received cybernetic upgrades, +15 to DR

Author's Note

I know it's been a long ass time since I've uploaded anything, lots of shit going on in life. Caught some of you at Bronycon where I got some ideas for future chapters, and I'll be real with all of you for a second here, it wasn't just shit that was going on in my life that kept me from uploading, I was severely lacking in confidence to post this chapter, and honestly was debating on just ending the whole thing on chapter 5. But if I did that then the story I want told, and partially based off of my life, would never be told. That's right, every single character in this is based off of someone I know personally, or knew. A lot of the events are based off of things that happened to me (Obviously tuned for the setting) and this is sort of acting as a journal. Before someone asks, no, I will not say who is who or what an event is based off of. Some of it will be obvious though whether you've met me or not.
But as per usual, I'll still give my shoutout to Kkhat and Somber for making this world, because without it, I'd never have a setting for my fictional autobiography.