(P.O.V.: Cross- Four days later)

I groan in discomfort and soreness as I force my eyes open. I was back in the hospital room. I felt oddly light, like I lost weight. I sit up and wince slightly in pain.

“Ngh, damn it…” I look around. I was alone in the room. It was the middle of the night.

I take a deep breath. I can feel that the new heart is much more effective than my old one. A nurse walks into the room and smiles.

“Ah, you’re finally up. How are you feeling?”

“I feel pretty good. A bit sore, and my chest stings a bit. But just fine otherwise.”

She sets her clipboard down and checks my heart rate and blood pressure.

“It seems you’re back up to normal. I’ll notify Princess Luna that you’ve woken up.” She leaves. I hum to myself.

“Um...Composer, are you there?”

Silence.

“Guess they got the pieces out…. Well, I remember the blueprints. I could always try another one. Maybe make it smaller next time.”

I sit back and yawn. “Mm….It’s gonna be a while… God, I want a book. Any book. Why...do I want a book so badly?”

There’s a pop, and Luna appears, nearly tackle-hugging me.

“You’re awake! I’m so happy! I’ll call everyone here!”

“Uh, okay…? But, uh...do you have a book?” Luna looks at me curiously.

“A book? That’s an odd request. You’ve only been awake for five minutes…” She scrawls down a note on a piece of paper, and it vanishes.

“I don’t know, but I’ve wanted a book to read since I woke up…”

I hear squeals as the door slams open. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Chrysalis burst in and hug me tightly, swallowing my head in softness.

“We were so afraid you wouldn’t pull through!” Twilight sobs. Wait, she’s crying?

“Twilight, why are you crying? You barely know me.”

She blushes and quickly lets go of me.

“W-well, you see, uh...you’re just my friend! And I worry about you. That’s all.”

Oh yeah, she likes me. It’s really obvious.

“Well, how did the surgery go?” I ask.

“Well, um...we’re sure that it’s harmless…”

“Luna….Spit it out. What happened?”

Her horn glows and the lights turn on. I look down at myself, and my eyes widen as I see my new colors.

“What the f- my body….my hair…..my hooves? What the Hell happened?”

“Well, you see...We think our combined magic may have damaged your not entirely pony dna.”

“Wh-is that bad?! I just got passed the scare of a poisonous heart!”

“Well, the doctors say you’re healthy. Very healthy, actually. But your magic is constantly fluctuating.” I look at my hands, feeling over my dimly glowing veins.

“This is bizarre…. I actually feel cold. It’s nice. Whose magic is in me right now?”

“Mine, Princess Luna’s, and Chrysalis’.”

“Wow….That's actually amazing….”

The doctor walks in and smiles. “Ah, good evening Cross! I’m glad you’re awake. I have a concern I’d like to ask you about.”

“Oh, uh...alright.” He pulls out an X-Ray and lights up behind it.

“There’s some kind of machine part left over from the Composer of yours. What is it?”

I look closely. “Huh. It’s the transfer component and the cooling system. See, this is what makes the Composer do what it does…” I point at the chip in my brain. “...and here’s the cooling system.” I point at a small, pill-shaped object just below it. He looks closely at it.

“How could we have missed that…”

“Wait, does the cooling whatever even work?” Twilight asks.

“Well, yeah. It takes nitrogen from the atmosphere and absorbs it into itself, cooling down the nuclear core. If the core was ever used without it, it would most likely result in the death of the core.”

“Cross, it seems that your body temperature has dropped significantly since you were removed from surgery.”

I hum and lean back against the bed. “Hmm….Well, I guess we do have to test. Doc, am I safe to leave?”

“Well, you’re in perfect health other than your temperature, and you’ll be in Princess Luna and Princess Twilight’s care. I don’t see why not.” He comes over and carefully removes the wires and tubes from my arms and chest. I carefully stand up, my legs shaking a bit. Luna wraps her arm around my side, helping me stand.

“Take care of him, and bring him back if something happens.” The doctor says. Twilight nods and helps me out of the hospital. Once outside, I try to stand on my own. My legs are a bit weak from not standing for a few days, but I quickly get the hang of it again.

“I feel...really good, actually. This heart is amazing, Twilight.” I stretch my legs and back.

“Th-thank you, Cross.” She blushes bright red.

“I think I’m going to run back to the castle.” I break into a full sprint, a smile growing on my face. I feel incredible! Like I’m in the best shape of my life!

I get back to the castle in minutes, panting softly. Twilight was sitting on the steps, waiting for me.

“Have a good run?”

“Yeah! And I’m not sweating at all! This is so weird…” I smile at her.

“Hmm...I’ll have to record that. Come inside, Cross.” I nod and follow her inside. She leads me to her library, and she goes over to her desk and starts writing. Next thing I know, I have an overwhelming urge to read. Next thing I know, books all over the library are glowing grey and floating around me, my eyes darting between pages as I memorise every word on each page I read. Obviously, this is the most efficient way to read.

“Cross!” I yelp and drop every book.

“What? Jesus, you scared me!”

“Cross, I’ve been yelling for nearly a minute! How in Equestria did you just do all that?”

“I….I just wanted to read, and that was the most efficient way to do it.”

Her eyes widen and she grins brightly.

“This is incredible! You somehow inherited my love for knowledge! And even some of my personality traits! Oh, this could be bad….But it’s fascinating!”

“Uh, Twilight. What does that mean?”

“It means that our magic isn’t just magic! It’s also ourselves!”

“So, you’re saying that the neurologic discharge of magic may have copied both your magic output as well as some neurologic patterns to imprint on my brain? Woah, where did that come from…?”

“That’s...exactly what I’m saying. Wow, I’m smarter than I thought.”

“I need to report this to the Princesses immediately. If you imprinted on my personality, you may have gotten Luna and Chrysalis’ as well.” She quickly goes back to writing. I shrug and go back to reading, quickly memorising a book and putting it back in alphabetical order based on genre and type of binding.

I stop reading when I feel a poke on my shoulder. I look back, seeing Luna.

“Oh, Luna! Nice to see you! What brings you here?”

“Cross, how are you feeling?”

“Just fine. Why?”

“You’ve been here reading for hours, and you haven’t been blinking.”

“Woah...That’s not normal, right?”

“It’s normal for me!” Twilight yells.

“But no, it isn’t. Twilight tells me that you’ve gone through every book in here already.”

“I can do that, too!” Twilight huffs.

“I know you can, Twilight. Where do you think he got it?”

She sighs. “Okay. Okay. Sorry, Princess.”

Luna does a scan of my brain, which is awesome that I know that, and she nods.

“It looks like his brain has different neurons firing than before.”

“So, my neurons are discharging in different areas of my brain now than before, which altered my personality? Neuroscience and Magic Basis Theory Volume Three, Written by Starswirl the Bearded. Where did that come from?”

“Oh, Celestia...He has more of me than i thought. He even has my photographic memory.”

I feel the scar on my chest through my thin shirt and look at Luna.

“Wait, what did they do with the old heart?”

“Well, they put it into a freezer and sent it up to Canterlot for analysis.” Luna answers.

“She couldn’t have asked me?” I shudder, feeling someone looking at us. I somehow knew who it was right away.

“Celestia, are you spying on us?” I ask aloud. The presence vanishes. With a pop, Celestia appears.

“I’m sorry, Cross. But I felt you were talking about me and wondered why. Your heart, I assume?”

“Your scientists will have no idea how to harness the power of it. They’ll just end up frying the core or killing themselves. Let me write them a blueprint before they end up hurting someone.” Everyone gawks at me out of nowhere.

“What?” I look, and notice a quill scribbling rapidly across a large piece of parchment. I didn’t even realize what I was doing!

I levitate the paper over to me. It’s a perfect blueprint of not only the core, but how to build a power generator using it.

“Well, uh...here you go I guess. Twilight, can you do that?”

“Y-Yes, but it took me years to master….”

Celestia takes the parchment and nods with a smile. With a pop, she’s gone.

“Where’s Chrysalis?” I ask.

“She’s gone to her hive to establish a new base in the Ponyville mines. Celestia, myself. And her have talked over a peace treaty.”

I nod and sit on the sofa. Luna sits beside me and smiles, cuddling my arm. I notice a pink mist coming out of her body.

“Uuh, why are you misting everywhere?”

“I’m what?” She sits up and looks herself over.

“I don’t see anyth- SWEET CELESTIA, YOUR EYES!”

Twilight rushes over, and she gasps. “His eyes changed! They look like Chrysalis’ eyes!”

“They didn’t before?”

“No, they were purple like mine!” Twilight exclaims.

“Twilight, you’re misting too. Quite a lot actually. Can’t you see it?” I ask, moving my hand through the massive cloud of pink around her.

“Cross, look outside. What do you see?” I stand up and look out the window.

“Jesus christ, it’s like a pink fog! You honestly can’t see any of that?!”

“No, we can’t….”

“He’s not seeing a fog…” Chrysalis states plainly, walking into the room. “....He’s seeing Love.”

Author's Note

How about that. A longer chapter. Whelp, hope you liked it! Chapters will be more frequent now, hopefully.