"I have good news and bad news."
"How's that?" Twilight let her body collapse onto the ground. "I am SO tired." She sighed. "Fill me in, Flutters."
"That handicapped foal you gave your legs to..."
"Standing Tall?"
"Yes. She's been getting so much use out of your generous gift. She walked so many places, she became a famous explorer."
"Good," Twilight said. "Would cheer louder, but so tired."
Fluttershy's shoulders slumped slightly. "She went to so many places...some of them kind of scary. She even wrote a book about her adventures."
"Walking, adventures, books...sounds all good to me. So was the book good?"
Fluttershy shuddered. "I'm too scared to read it. But Rainbow Dash read it for me. She says it's a good book."
"I can hardly wait to read it myself!"
Fluttershy used her mouth to pull a book out of her saddlebags. "Here. You can have my copy."
Twilight looked at the book's title. "Huh. What kind of adventure only lasts 127 hours?"
***
Twilight came flying out of the bathroom, levitating the book behind her. "Spike!"
Spike put down the doujinsheep comic book he'd been reading. "What, Twilight?"
"I could understand a pony getting trapped in a cave-in, and having to cut off one leg to get free. I could even understand having to cut off TWO limbs. But what kind of crazy pony has to cut off EIGHT LEGS AND HER TAIL just to get back to civilization? I mean, what kind of terrible luck would that even TAKE?"
Spike shrugged. "We already could have guessed Standing Tall wasn't a very lucky pony, before you gave her your legs. She'd lost her father in a mining accident, and her hind legs didn't work right, and her front legs weren't all that great, and her parents had named her STANDING TALL right before all those other things happened?"
Twilight sighed. "I guess. I just hoped she'd be able to walk for the rest of her life."
Spike said, "Hay, if you read all the way to the end of the book, some other things happen too. Tall gets so upset that she doesn't have a tail to swat flies with, she invents a new kind of fly repellent. And she invents some other things, too." Spike pointed out the window with one claw. "When you came back to town, did you notice that huge new castle made out of colored crystal, by the lake? Standing Tall used some of her bug repellent profits to have that built."
Twilight looked out the window. "Huh. So that's where that came from." She sighed. "Did you ever feel like somepony else got something that was meant for you?"
"What do you mean, Twilight?"
Twilight sighed again. "Those legs were meant for me, originally. But now I guess they've been eaten by wild animals. Whatever heroism there was in my giving up my legs for another pony? Tall is famous for cutting off twice as many of her own legs as I ever did."
"That's not something to aspire to, Twilight."
"And that's another thing. Now that I've been away from civilization for so long while you've been taking care of the library...you're starting to use bigger words than me."
Spike laughed. "Now that you're back in the library, you'll be using even bigger words than me in no time."
Twilight said, "Brilliant inventions. I wonder if I could have made some brilliant inventions, if I hadn't been busy saving Mexicolt and Central Amareica from all those villains."
Spike put his arm around Twilight's shoulder. "But you saved so many ponies. I read the newspapers. Several countries declared you their official queen, they were so grateful. Even Celestia isn't a queen, just a princess."
Twilight snorted. "All those countries are CONSTITUTIONAL monarchies, that declared me a queen. I don't get the raw, unfiltered power that Celestia has in Equestria. The official privileges of a Nightmare Moon or a Daybreaker."
"What's a Daybreaker?"
"Um...ask me when you're older." Twilight gestured at the giant castle. "Princess Celestia and Standing Tall each have a fancy castle of their own. And where do I live? In a tree, like a badger."
Spike shook his head. "When you were a filly, if somepony had offered to let you live in a library, or anywhere you wanted when you grew up...?"
Twilight snorted. "Ok, a library would have been pretty high on my list. Or even just an apartment inside the library, with twenty-four hour access to the stacks."
Spike nodded. "We've got it pretty good, Twilight. And you've accomplished another thing that very few ponies ever get to. The only other pony I know who's done it is Celestia herself."
"What's that?"
"Couldn't we call Standing Tall your very successful protege?"
"Mmmm." Something moved outside the window. "AaaH!" Twilight screamed. "What's that?"
Spike opened the window. "One of Tall's inventions is a line of prosthetic limbs. When she feels like it, she can be tall enough to say hello through a second story window."
Tall's face smiled thorugh the open window. "Hi, Twilight! How's it going?"
"Surprised. Do you USUALLY go around peeping into other ponies' windows?"
"I just wanted to come in and say hello. May I come in?"
Twilight shrugged.
Tall squeezed her legless body through the window.
Twilight stared. "You've got...WINGS!"
"Oh. I'm used to everypony already knowing about my getting wings." Tall blinked. "Haven't you read my book by now? I thought you'd know everything."
"I was just reading it...but I got distracted."
Tall nodded. "That's the way it goes, isn't it? You're trying to finish designing your third new generation of prosthetic limbs, and somepony wants you to give a speech at Aaardvark University's graduation ceremonies, or your forepony has a question about how to improve production on the second line, or your accountants want to know what to do with all the profits that keep coming in...you know how it is."
Twilight sighed. "Not exactly."
Tall smiled. "But you're my inspiration, Twilight. I wrote about that in my book. When I needed to get back to civlization, and I felt like I couldn't go on...you gave me hope."
"Mm?"
"I remembered seeing how, when YOU didn't have legs anymore, you squirmed your little body all over Ponyville and everywhere. I thought, if she could do it, I could learn from her example, and I could do it too."
Spike nodded. "It's true, Twilight. You've been an inspiration to everypony."
Twilight snorted. "I gave up my legs to help somepony else walk, just so I could be an INSPIRATION. How nice."
Tall said, "But when I thought about what you were willing to do to help other ponies who couldn't walk...I decided, I wanted to do what you did, but in my own way. Because I didn't have any legs left to give. So I invented prosthetic legs to help EVERYPONY who couldn't walk. Just like you might have done, if you weren't busy inventing Alicornian Neoimperialism."
"Well...I..."
Tall nuzzled the top of Twilight's head. "I owe it all to you."
Twilight said, "I can't help but notice that you're flying."
"Oh, yes! When I found a way to help everypony who couldn't walk, all over the world, I became an alicorn. I've got a horn too, you know." Something glowed in Tall's mane, which parted to show a short, stubby horn. With more shimmering, something else appeared under Tall's body. "When I became an alicorn, I also got a full set of legs, but usually I use my magic to tuck them away in another dimension. When you've gone so long without having regular legs, they kind of get in the way."
"Ahem. So...in your life so far, you've had...TWELVE legs?"
Tall flashed a bright, flawless smile. "Who's keeping track? I've been a very lucky pony. Whenever I need some more legs, they just...show up, somehow." She adjusted her wingstrokes to descend, inspecting Twilight's underside. "Would you like me to fit you for a set of prosthetic legs? Or have you already double alicorned?"
Twilight blinked. "What?"
"Oh! How silly of me! you must be on your fifth or sixth alicorning by now. Being older than me and all, and more talented. You must have more legs than a whole nest of spiders!" Tall shrugged modestly. "I'm only on my third alicorning, myself." With a flash of magic, Tall briefly revealed at least three full sets of legs, before she hid them again.
Spike remarked, "Tall, you know Twilight JUST got back from Central Amareica. I think she's still very tired from the trip. Maybe she could talk to you some more later this week."
"Oh, yes! How silly of me, not to think of that. I'll just let myself out, ok? I'd like to check out a book or two." Tall waved a farewell with a flick of one wingtip, and flapped her way downstairs to the Reading Room and the main stacks.
Twilight sighed.
"You know..." Spike said, "they say the measure of a teacher's success is in her students."
Twilight sighed. "Yes. As a teacher, I appear to have brought Equestria a lot of wonderful things I know nothing about."
"Oh yeah. When you left for Central Amareica, I guess nopony had even HEARD of double alicorning. It's amazing how things change, you know?"
"Sure. Spike, please do me a favor."
"Anything, big sis."
"Please assemble some kind of collection of books, or essays, or SOMETHING to bring me back up to date on how things have changed while I was away. I don't want to end up like Nightmare Moon."
"A thousand years out of date?"
"Full of so much anger and resentment that I just can't handle it."
"I'll get started right away!" Spike said to Twilight's hind end as she squirmed across the floor back into the bathroom.
Author's Note
This story is an AU partly inspired by the rather different story "Borrowed Wings" by Lady Brony, but even more so by the webcomic that Lady Brony credits.
Now that I look again at my story, it also somewhat reminds me of alexmagnet's "Trixie Saves Her Paraplegic Orphan Daughter From Aliens." I have to admit, I had thought a little, way back when, about ways to write a sequel to alexmagnet's story. My story here, however, is not that sequel. My story instead steals my own ideas mercilessly from my hypothetical sequel that I didn't write.
