Crashlanded Phoenix

Object C-04 "Rex"
Castle in Ponyville

I spent a couple hours in solitude here in this sewing room, working on rudimentary clothes to cover myself up with. I opted to not use the sewing machine, as in all honesty I didn't have much experience with using one properly and would rather not mess with someone else's expensive looking property. I instead took the matters into my own hands, which I trusted more and was capable of using them to some effect. To that effect I chose the simple thread and needle as my tool, something that I had some familiarity with. After all, there wasn't that much of a difference between stitching up a hole in a shirt or two pieces of textile and stitching a nasty gash shut.

My hands were getting quite sweaty as my work neared its end, as I had only a few more moves with the needle left for the last piece of my new attire to be finished. I took a deep breath and focused on getting the needle through the fabric with my shaky fleshy hand. The thread followed the needle and I swiftly used my synthetic arm to cut it off with a small pair of scissors. I stood up and took a step back from the table to let out a sigh of relief after finishing my work. All it took was some time, elbow grease and a couple instances of stabbing my metal hand with the needle.

I carefully put all the tools I used back where I got them from and closed the white ornate box that I borrowerd a few things from, then turned my attention to the small pile of clothes on the ground. The first piece of apparel I put on was a shirt, which automatically categorises me as a maniac since pants are the first thing a person puts on. There was a reason for this however, as I had sewn small straps on its back to put my broken tail into, so that I wouldn't have to make another makeshift rope to hold it in place. I wasn't able to properly make four sleeves for my arms without butchering the fabric, so instead I made two big sleeves. Not ideal, but it does serve its purpose.

I picked up the pair of pants that were under the shirt after making sure that my tail was secure and wouldn't get in the way. I made them long and baggy to account for potential feats of acrobatics that would otherwise rip through anything that tighter or not made out of specialised Imperial fabrics. I know that up until now I was fighting with pretty much no clothes on, but it isn't something I'd like to do more of. Last but not least, something to cover me up just the way I like it. I pulled on the hood and buttoned the collar of my brand new cloak. It ain't pretty, but it would provide me with a comfortable barrier between myself and I already began imagining it...the public...and their eyes, eyes that would follow my every single step like a hawk, examining and judging me and thinking about how much of a freak of nature I-

KNOCK KNOCK

I snapped my head to the door, the knocking having interrupted me. "Are you in there Rex?" The small Princess' voice could be heard on the other side of the door.

I looked at my shaky, sweaty hands and shook my head in an attempt to clear my mind of the sudden thoughts of public fright. "I-uh-yeah! I'm in here, Princess. Almost ready to come out," I replied and pulled my hood down. I took a deep breath to get myself further under control and approached the door leading out of the room, then pulled the handle.

Princess Twilight stood behind it, wearing a pair of big glasses and had something resembling a lab coat covering her barrel. Overall she looked a lot like a stereotypical scientist, she even had a clipboard and pen to boot. She smiled with excitement and took a few step back while scribbling down things. I presume this has something to do with me wearing clothes now.

"What are you noting down, Princess?"

"Your clothes! It's really interesting how much your apparel differs from ours in build, yet is built upon the same basics! My friend Rarity would love to take a look at these, maybe she could draw some inspiration from this for her next works," She spoke in a quick fashion.

I raised an eyebrow at the mention of her friend. "Rarity? Is she a tailor?"

Her pen and clipboard disappeared in a small flash of purple magic. "She prefers the term seamstress if I recall correctly. It's her things that are in the room I teleported you to. She has her own business in Canterlot, but comes over here sometimes when she needs more peace and quiet than the capital has to offer," I rubbed my chin as she spoke, perhaps meeting Rarity could get me something more fitting and stylish to wear, if she'd be able to work around my unique build...

"Now then, are you ready for your medical examination?" She said to me in the most deadpan way I could imagine while maintaining her smile.

"What?" I asked out of confusion. It was very obvious that she was very curious about me, but this isn't something I expected to come up. I'm no stranger to being poked, prodded, observed, injected or even vivisected on a few occasions. That last one wasn't pleasant and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I suppose it would come up at some point one way or another, given that I may be a disease risk factor to the native population, but I'd expect to be sent to a general practitioner instead.

"Oh don't worry, it's just a few routine tests that I need to get you through. Princess Celestia asked me to submit some documentation to the Mayor as you may be staying for quite a while here. You have no medical history and sending you to a local doctor would be a waste of potential," She then turned around and walked out of the room and into the hallway.

I followed her out and looked around myself to get an idea of where this room was in this castle. It turned out that it was a part of a bigger, round chamber with coloured sections that each had their door. I came out of the white section of the chamber, right in the middle. On the left were a pink section, the walls of which looked as if someone sprayed generous amounts of glitter and sprinkles, and a yellow section which wasn't as glamourosly decorated, but instead had some moss coming out from under the door. To the right were a blue section which had its walls splattered full of rainbows, clouds and other sky-related things that made my eyes feel itchy. Curiously, I felt the appendages that were supposed to be my wings writhe as I looked upon those rainbow walls. Lastly came an orange section which didn't have anything really special on its walls, but I sensed a subtle scent of a freshy baked apple pie coming from it...

"Are you coming?" Princess Twilight's voice startled me and caused me to turn towards her. "Ah, those are the rooms of my friends. They keep some of their things there for whenever they visit, you might meet them in Ponyville every now and then," She walked up to me as she spoke, her tail swishing at the mention of her friends.

"I'd be happy to meet them, Princess. I wonder how well they'd receive me however," I voiced my concern in a quieter tone and turned away from the doors.

Twilight once again took the lead. "Don't worry about it, I can introduce you to them all the next time they come over here,"

I heard a creaking sound behind us, subtle enough to be missed by most. I looked behind myself but saw nobody there, just the same doors that were now getting farther away. Something felt off though, I felt the sensation of someone staring at me and it wasn't the same as my fear of public... I stopped for a moment and noticed that the pink door was slightly ajar, but there couldn't possibly be anyone in there...the Princess would know about it after all... Must have been just some paranoia acting up, but I pulled my hood up just to put myself more at ease as I followed the pony in front of me.

She took us through a crossing of two hallways, each bearing the same gorgeous crystalline design that permeated through everything. Though now that it looked at it, it looked exactly the same as the intersection I saw upon entering the castle yesterday, but there I couldn't see those huge doors from before. The right hallway lead nowhere in particular, though I presumed it would lead me closer based on where the other two hallways seemed to lead. At the end of the hallway to the right I could see some machinery, tools perhaps. Judging by this it must have been some sort of workshop. I made a mental note to check it out at some point once I got my hands onto something worthwhile, like my equipment.

Currently more interesting was the hallway ahead of us, where Princess Twilight was leading us. I could already see the white tiles that reminded me so much of sterile hospital environments, full of medical apparatuses. I wondered what kind of equipment a pony civilisation like this could have and how much of it would only be available in a place like this. It was a royal castle after all, so I wouldn't expect a lot of things in there to appear in less funded places. I almost bumped into the Princess after she came to a sudden halt.

"Something's wrong?" I asked her cautiously and took a step back to restore the distance I had to her.

"You...well...will have to undress for this. I know you just put your clothes on, but it's important for some of the tests," She told me and turned to me.

"There's a room right here," she pointed to a small and simple door on my right, right before the entrance to the test room. "You can leave your clothes inside and then come to me to get started," She finished then pranced away, full of visible excitement that caused some shivers to go down my spine. I looked around one final time and sidestepped into the room she pointed me to.

Twilight Sparkle
Medical Laboratory

Ohhh yes, yes yes! I cannot believe he is being so cooperative! It is a nice change from the usually suspicious ponies of Ponyville who aren't always keen on being part of my experiments! Certainly, this is my one in a lifetime chance to make some breakthrough discoveries! Thank Celestia for deeming me worthy enough of taking care of her guest of honour, letting me have this opportunity! I just couldn't stop my excitement after he was out of sight, it made me all shaky and giddy like one of Pinkie Pie's sugar-coated cupcakes! I quickly trotted over to a chest in the corner of the room in which I had left my lab clothes and put them on as swiftly as I could. I took one look in the mirror and adjusted the goggles I had on my face, then smiled at my reflection.

With myself now wearing the necessary safety equipment, I could turn my attention to the far more exciting bits and pieces of this. I hopped onto a stool in front of a lab counter and teleported one of the trays before me. "What will I need...hmm...," I asked myself and took a look around the room. "A stethoscope and perhaps a blood pressure monitor to start off, I haven't gotten a chance to try it out yet so hopefully it will work. I'll certainly need a couple syringes, some disposable swabs and cups...," Whatever I listed out loud soon appeared on the tray as my magic rummaged through my equipment and teleported it. "Oooh! I wonder if he will let me use one of the scalpels on him! And maybe that new radiography spell I learned about in one of the books!" A set of scalpels and a green glowing crystal appeared on the tray.

"I'm ready, Princess...uh...Doctor? Do you want me to call you that or?" Rex's voice came from behind me, catching me off guard. I turned around and saw him standing in the entrance without his clothes on.

"You can just call me Twilight, no need for the title. You are an honoured guest after all," I told him with a big smile and hopped off the stool, using my wings to balance my landing.

"Almost everything is ready now," I teleported a clipboard with paper pages and a pen to myself, then sat down at a table by one of the room's walls. "Take a seat, Rex. Let's get these formalities out of the way and get to the interesting part," I noticed his expression become more uncertain, but he did sit down on the other side of the table. The size difference was...quite sizeable, with both the stool and the table being far too small to him. I'll need to write to Princess Celestia to ask if she has any spare furniture for him...

"First I'll need you to sign a waiver for me," I pulled the first few pages that were on my clipboard out and put them in front of him with a hoof. "I'm not exactly what you could call a...licensed doctor, but I can assure you that you are in good hooves. Princess Celestia just wants me to inform others what I might be getting them into when doing these things...and what better way is there than some good old written word!" I finished speaking with a big smile, but then realised that I may have told him just a little too much.

Rex picked the waiver papers up from the table, I could see his eyes scan over the words and his expression change whenever he read what are probably questionable things in his eyes. He looked up at me from the documents and raised an eyebrow.

"With all due respect, may I ask why things like "accidental body swapping", transformation, "unsealing ancient evils", liquefaction and silencing are listed here? I can hardly imagine all of these things being possible at all," He put the documents down and scratched the side of his head with that weird metal arm of his. "Liquefaction is the most plausible out of those I suppose..."

"Don't worry about it all, it's just in case I plan on conducting some magical experiments. Today everything will be mostly magic-free, mostly. There may be one thing I'll want to try, but I'll let you know in advance," I responded in an attempt to reassure Rex and convince him to sign, then floated my pen over to him.
"Eh...can't be worse than getting forcibly treated by a field surgeon. You keep telling him "I'll be fine, it's just a flesh wound," and he keeps trying to sew your leg back," Rex chuckled slightly as he told me what I hoped was just a joke, though judging by his demeanor I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. I just chuckled along and watched as he took the pen from me an signed the document, then turned it around and slid over to me.

"Here you go, Doctor Twilight. What's the next thing on the agenda?" Rex put his hands together on the table.

"We'll need some personal information about you. It's for me to know if there are any areas or issues I should focus on and to eventually get you some identification documents made. Naturally you may refuse to answer questions without providing a reason," I adjusted the goggles on my face and took the pen I gave to Rex in my right hoof.

"First and last name? I know you told me you are Object C-04, but how would you like it to be written down here?" I asked Rex and chewed on my pen, seeing him scratch his chin in the corner of my vision.

"Put Object C-04 as first name and Rex as second name if there's a spot for that, if not then last name, that would be the the best option here," Rex nodded a few times as he provided me with an answer, I complied and wrote his name down that way.

"Next up, date of birth? Age?" My eyes looked him over in an attempt to guess how old he could be, a hard task considering nothing like him has ever appeared here. I'd assume him to be in early to mid twenties judging by his voice alone, but this is hardly scientific.

"Uh, right. That's going to be a bit...harder to explain," Rex said and scratched the back of his neck with a hand. "What day is it today?"

I raised an eyebrow and teleported a mini-calendar onto the table. "It's 20th of June, 1012, why?"

Rex sighed and slumped over the table. "Yup, figured as much. Your time is vastly different from mine. According to your calendar I shouldn't exist for another four thousand years, but that's easily rectified,"

"By calculating your date of birth based on your age," I finished his thought as he stopped talking.

Rex nodded. "Precisely, so listen closely. I technically have two ages, biological and chronological. Biologically I'm stuck at roughly 24 years old, not a day younger or older. However, chronologically I'm 9, maybe 10 years old at best? Though if you factor in the age of the person the Empire based our genome off of...it'd put me at 45 years? It's...complicated as I said. For all intents and purposes I'm an adult though,"

I got the general gist of what he told me, but I still had a confusion carousel spinning in my head. Old yet young? I suppose it was kinda like with the Princesses, but they were older than they looked... "I'll write 24 years old down for you then, considering that's the closest to your "actual age". I have to ask though, with your age being vague at best, how old are you mentally? Did you go through any sort of school or growing up period?" With this question I could satisfy some of my curiosity and fill out the education section of this form.

"Uh, I'll ask you a question," Rex scratched the back of his head with his metal arm. "Do you ever have the feeling that your life began at a certain age? You don't remember the first few years of your life and only started "living"," Rex said using his fingers to put air quotes around the last word "when you turned 4 or 5 years old? It's kinda like that, I woke up in a clone vat looking nearly the same as I do right now with a lot of what I know preprogrammed into my head," I nodded along as he spoke, more or less being able to comprehend what he was getting at with his explanation.

"Yea, it's kinda like that. Except add someone pumping your brain full of things you never knew and probably shouldn't know until much later," He put his hands down on the table upon finishing.

I chewed my pen for a moment before responding. "How high would you rate yourself on the educational scale? I could then write some equivalent of that down, like a university degree,"

Rex tapped with his foot under the table before speaking up. "Honestly, I have no idea. I'm no scientist, you probably know a lot more about certain things than I do and more importantly understand the science behind it. I have plenty of general knowledge, I know enough to be able to mess with my augmentations, weapons and armour, but I wouldn't be able to build anything comparable to that. I'm no chemist, engineer or doctor, but I know a little bit of most things,"

"Military academy would probably fit you the best then, leaves enough room for interpretation and fits your description," I filled the education field in and moved to the occupation field. "Would you like me to put "soldier" down as your job?" Rex nodded in response and I obliged with that.

"We are almost done. I presume you have no family to speak of then? Being a clone and all that?" Could one consider the scientists working on him his parents? Would the person whose genome he was based off of be his mother or father? These potential questions excited me somewhat, as nearly all of us had or have parents one way or another. What kind of personal attachment does a person with none develop?

"The Imperial Bioengineering and Genetics Department, probably the closest thing I'd consider to my parents. The scientists there were nice, though I didn't get to stick around for long. Actually, just leave that field blank," Rex frowned a little near the end, but the frown went away as quickly as it came.

"Right-o, last question. Do you have any chronic illnesses? Do you take any medication on a regular basis?" I hoped he didn't, I'd rather not be risking the entirety of Ponyville by letting him out or compromising my research up until this point, though on the other hoof that'd be an interesting condition to study.

"None at all, I'm as healthy as I can be. Though I can't feel my lower arms." He lifted his lower right arm with his metal arm and dropped it on the table with a loud thud. It seemed lifeless and reactionless to say the least, I could see him try to move it but it didn't work. I wrote that down on a separate piece of paper and put my pen away. "My tail isn't in best shape too. Perhaps you could help me with that? I'd greatly appreciate it,"

"Of course, I'll be more than happy to take a look at that," I offered Rex a sincere smile, getting all giddy once again as I moved away from the table, excitement washed over me once more due to moving on. I teleported my tray full of medical equipment onto the table, then picked the stethoscope, some swabs and cups up with my magic as I approached my patient. "Could you open your mouth for a moment please?" I asked him and picked one of the swabs out.

"Aaaaaaah-" Rex opened his mouth wide and I promptly approached him while wielding a swab. Being closer to him allowed me to see that his teeth looked rather sharp, like freshly sharpened edges of a sword. They didn't look any different from average teeth at first glance, yet I'd expect these to belong to a scary monster. I carefully collected a saliva sample with the swab, repeating the process a few more times until I had half a dozen of usable samples in cups. More material for research is better after all.

Rex closed his mouth as I put the last swab away and adjusted his jaw with a hand.

"Sorry for that, I took too long didn't I?" I apologised for probably making his jaw stiff and uncomfortable.

"It's fine. Let's keep going, Doctor," He said with a small smile as his hand left his jaw.

With an additional boost of confidence from him I swiftly brought the blood pressure monitor to the table and strapped it around his functioning right upper arm. His metal frame made it difficult to fit it around his arm properly, but a little magic and some slight adjustments made it possible. "Do you know how this works?" I asked him while checking to see if I properly connected the monitor with the pump.

"Haven't had my pressure checked in a while, but I know how it goes. Can get rather uncomfortable if I recall correctly," Rex gently tapped the monitor with a metal finger, I felt that he may be judging how advanced this device was by his standards. I picked the button for turning the device on up and gently pressed it with a hoof. The pump whirred to life as the strap around Rex's arm was inflated. I watched the arrow of the manometer go up as more and more air was pumped in.

The arrow had already gone past what is considered a healthy value, showing that Rex was at least suffering from hypertension. I brought my notepad to myself along with my pen and wrote my observation down, however I could see that the pump wouldn't stop. The arrow kept going up, the band around Rex's arm became more and more inflated. I tried turning it off, but the button wouldn't work and Rex looked down at me with slight concern. I attempted to unplu-

BOOM

My ears were ringing as if Pinkie had just shot me out of her party cannon. My vision was blurry but I could tell that I was on down on the ground. I heard some faint voice over the ever present ringing, then felt someone picking me up which caused me to audibly groan.

"H-l-o? P-n-c-s? Are y- -ight?" I looked up and saw that it was Rex speaking to me and waving his hand in front of me. I couldn't quite hear him, so I just nodded along. He shook his head and set me down on some chair, on which I laid down and curled up.

"W-what happened?" I rubbed my forehead and got off the chair when I came back to my senses, suffering from a slight headache.

"The monitor exploded," He immediately responded and kneeled in front of me. "Seems that it got overloaded and malfunctioned, then the overinflated strap blew up and its pump followed suit.

I looked at the table where I set down the aforementioned pump and saw a mere pile of useless scrap. I looked down and frowned, feeling down after having failed at one of the simplest procedures. I even managed to put not only myself but also my patient in danger. I don't know what Celestia saw in me when she entrusted me with this task...when I can't even do this without messing things up.

Rex's fingers snapped in front of my snout and pulled me out of my thoughts. "Are you alright, Princess? Would you like me to bring you something?" I heard his tone turn protective and concerned, reminding me of some royal guards.

"I'm...sorry," I said quietly.

"For what? It's just a little accident and nobody got actually hurt. In fact, I'd be willing to continue this now or at some other point," He stated almost immediately after I apologised to him, returning some of my confidence to me. I cracked a small smile at Rex in return. He was right, it was just a little accident...but it involved someone who entrusted their safety to me. I couldn't stop now if I wanted to satisfy my thirst for knowledge, so I took a few deep breaths and came back to Rex.

Object C-04 "Rex"
Medical lab after accident

Twilight cast aside her now cracked goggles and shook the dust off herself like a cat or dog might have done. I felt her eyes stare at where the blood pressure monitor's strap was and I could feel that she was surprised that I had gotten out of this unscathed. Well, not completely. The spot on my arm closest to where the air exploded was a bit sore and the skin there was red.

"Let's just continue...I'll have to rework that machine," She looked towards the pile of scrap and made it all disappear in an instant by enveloping it in her magic and literally poofing it away. "You won't mind if I take a few more samples, will you? I'll need a blood and maybe a tissue sample if possible," She continued and took a syringe out of her assortment of tools.

I just nodded and stretched my left arm out for her on the table, squeezing my fist a few times to make the veins under my skin a bit more visible. She got more excited and aimed her syringe at a nice spot on my arm, then took a breath and pushed forward. Except she couldn't get through my skin, the needle did poke me but it didn't penetrate deep enough. Twilight seemed surprised, but I didn't react and calmly sat with my arm out. She tried it again with more force, but the needle just snapped and fell to the ground.

"For Celestia's sake....I'm sure those are new needles I got from the hospital," She looked at her broken syringe and put it away, then took a new one and touched the tip. "Ouch!" She yelped and sucked on her hoof for a moment after hurting herself. I couldn't help but get a little chuckle out of this.

"Allow me to help you, doc," I took the syringe out of her hoof and forcefully jammed it right into my arm immediately afterwards, pushing deep into my arm and veins. She looked at me with wide eyes as I filled the syringe with a generous helping of my vitae. I slowly pulled the needle out and placed it on her tray. I saw a piece of cloth in front of my face when I turned back to her, which I used to wipe away what little blood escaped my body. "Now for that tissue sample, would you like my help with that too?"

"Y-yes, of course! Thank you very much!" She hovered a small scalpel over to me. I repeated the process in a similar manner, but now putting a small square of my skin in one of her petri dishes.

"That should be enough, I'll put those away to be processed in my laboratory and I'll get back to you when I analyse the results..." She gently swirled the bloody content of the syringe and then the whole tray and everything on it disappeared. Everything except some sort of green, glowing crystal. "There is one last thing I'd like to try," Twilight turned towards the table and carefully picked the crystal up with her hooves. "This is a brand new spell I want to try out, it's supposed to be able to scan a whole pony and show their skeletal structure, along a few other things,"

Oh, she's just going to x-ray scan me. I guess they don't have those kinds of machines in here, so that might be the next best thing I'll be getting here to check what's wrong with my body. "Sounds really useful," I spoke and nodded as I looked down at the crystal, a part of me wondered if it was strong enough to actually do the job. "Now is the best time to try it out, no?"

She nodded and put it back where it was. "I'll need you to lay down for me though or it won't be able to get a clear imagine," She walked away from me and towards something that was covered with a white blanket. The blanket was pulled off, revealing a simple metal table or rather a bed if I were to lay down on it. I stood up without saying much and walked up to Twilight. "Just make yourself comfortable, close your eyes if you'd like to and I'll take care of the rest," She said with a big, confident grin and a sparkle in her eye.

I sat down then carefully laid down on its cold, hard surface. It was just a bit too small for me as I felt my feet dangle without anything underneath them. Too small like pretty much everything... it's going to be the one thing constantly reminding me that I don't belong in here, is it? I sighed in my thoughts then wiggled on the table to shift myself to the middle as much as I could to spread my arms out somewhat. In the meantime the Princess had pushed a stand on wheels in front of the table, one that I'd expect to be used for holding flasks with mysterious substances. She carefully adjusted the stand using both her hooves and magic, extending or retracting it, loosening or that tightening, all of that with a determined face. A few more adjustments later and she carefully set down the glowing crystal.

"Everything is ready," She said while breathing out and wiping her forehead. "Anything you want to say before I start?"

"I can tell you are really dedicated to all of this. Let's not delay," I cracked a small smile and closed my eyes. I heard a faint buzz which intensified over time. I could hear the source of that noise impact the crystal like someone flicking a wine glass loudly a few times then stopping. One of my fingers tapped against the table in anticipation. My eyelids let some of the newly created green light through them, then I felt something warm moving up my limbs, starting at my feet.

The warm feeling slowly moved up, permeating my flesh and penetrating my bones. The green glow grew stronger and harder for my eyelids to block as the warmth moved upwards. However, soon I realised that the heat didn't disappear from where I had already been presumably scanned. It kept building up, slowly yet surely what I felt went from somewhat pleasant to annoying. My finger tapped faster as my discomfort grew, the heat became less and less tolerable as the operation progressed, but I didn't say anything.

"Uh...Rex?" Twilight spoke up in a concerned tone.

"Hmmh?" I acknowledged her and shifted my hands.

"Are you...uhm...meant to be shedding skin?" She asked.

My eyes immediately shot wide open and I propped myself up with my elbows to look at what she was talking about. There I saw my legs and portions of their skin peeling off or straight up being burnt away, exposing the flesh underneath. Then the smell...no, the stench of burning blood filled my nostrils as the exposed flesh slowly burnt. This could mean one thing.

"Radiation sickness..." I muttered out and immediately laid back down, breathing deeply and attempting to remain calm as my body was microwaved from inside out. Radiation and pollution was something I was exposed to once upon a time, but this reaction is far more extreme than I have ever experienced. Even then it should have been blocked or absorbed by my tissue, but not here.

"Dear Celestia...I have to stop this right now!" I heard her trot closer towards the table.

I raised my synthetic arm with the intention of stopping her. "You can't stop halfway through, you gotta go through with this until the end," I spoke and gritted my teeth as the green rays coming from the crystal washed over my torso, turning the skin red just like it had burnt my legs, but worse. The holes grew slightly deeper as they appeared farther up and I felt my blood turn into flaming hot sauce. I now looked like a victim of acute radiation exposure, as if a reactor had blown up in my face.

"I-I...just hold on tight! It's almost done!" She encouraged me, though I could tell it pained her to watch me like this.

I grabbed the sides of the table and gritted my teeth in pain that overwhelmed my usual pain blocking measures. My hands and fingers bent the metal that they held onto and by now the green rays had washed over my hearts and lungs, knocking my breath out of me for a good seconds. The next few seconds passed way faster than I'd like to admit. The crystal's beams very swiftly washed over my head while my breath was still recovering. Next thing I felt was cold water being sprayed over me from a water hose that I spotted within the corners of my vision. Icy water that somehow extinguished the raging flames within my body.

I slowly sat up without saying a word. Head to toe I looked as if someone had just taken me out of the oven, with some skin still peeling off. These burns reminded me of the moment in the forest, when Bulwark and Aegis tried to heal me but much worse. I heard Twilight try to speak to me, but I didn't focus enough on what she was saying to understand. I just looked myself up and down. I wagered that these would last for at least the rest of the day and luckily they hadn't gone all the way through as I didn't feel any burns on the other side of my body.

What could have possibly caused all of this? Perhaps...perhaps she could figure it out for me? Something these ponies have is having an extreme reaction on me... It attacks indiscriminately, ignoring what I consist of...leaving longer lasting wounds. Regular burns, even radiation ones would be regenerating already, but these ones persist for longer and can actually make me feel acute pain.

"G-guuhh..." I felt nauseous and had to hold onto the side of the table to not fall over on my side. The pony princess slowly entered my field of vision, looking worried and shocked at the same time.

"Dear Celestia..." She uttered quietly, but I was able to pick it up with my ears nonetheless. Water dripped down from my body. Most of the droplets landed on the floor, but a few of them ended up finding their place on the princess' fur. Twilight raised her hoof and moved it side to side in front of my face, my eyes following it instinctively but my expression remaining blank otherwise.

A few minutes had passed, during which Twilight carefully looked over my wounds. She had brought some bandages alongside other medical supplies and was covering up the burns I had sustained. "Nnghh..." I groaned and rubbed the side of my head with my synthetic arm. Moving it felt like moving a limb suffering from a muscle cramp, but mechanical. Twilight stepped away from me upon seeing me move more. "Was...your experiment successful?"

"I...I don't know if I can call this a success-" She swallowed before continuing to speak. "I... obtained an image, but what happened to you-" I raised my other functioning arm to interrupt her.

"N-no, don't trouble yourself with that, Princess..." I cracked a small smile at her. "I knew of the risks..and..ngh..went through this anyway. Don't trouble yourself with...with the outcome, I'll be fine...ghh-"

"I-I looked over the image that the crystal produced..." She said an hovered a black transparent crystal panel with a figure more or less resembling me depicted in green on it. "You told me about your tail and arms...not being quite alright," I nodded to acknowledge as she spoke to me. "Your nervous system isn't connected to your lower arms, thus you aren't able to exercise any motor control over them. Based on the structure of your other biological arm, there are joints that aren't connected either which results in them being...floppy," She was getting very much into her explanation of my conditions while I tried following her to the best of my ability.

"Same can be said about your mechanical tail and those tiny wing-shaped appendages, though the wings have a few nerves connecting them," She pointed with one hoof roughly towards where those were on me. "Additionally, there are some...cracks underneath your skin? In fact, your entire body seems to have a subdermal layer of some solid material. These cracks show signs of healing, especially around areas where you were previously wounded,"

"That...does explain my current condition..." I sighed and straightened myself out on the table. "One more thing, doctor. What caused all of this?" I pointed to my burnt, bandage covered body. "I can hardly believe a procedure like this did all of this on its own..."

"I may have a theory..." She put the crystal plate away and sat down on her hindquarters. "Have you had magic used on you before?" Twilight asked and tilted her head

"Uhhm..yeah, I think. Healing magic was it? Felt similar to this, but not as severe," I told her as I recalled the aftermath of the forest encounter.

Twilight teleported an open book for herself and a pair of glasses onto her snout. "I'll explain something to you. Magic is something that every creature on this planet possesses, it is the one thing that we all have in common. It comes in different forms and every species uses it in different ways. Unicorns can use magic in its pure form, while for example Griffons have mastered the arts of enchantment and magical machinery. Even non-users have magic present in them," She closed the book and put it away. "You, however, are entirely devoid of it," Twilight exclaimed while pointing at me.

"Princess Celestia told me something similar..." I rubbed my chin as I listened. "About how it gave away that I'm not from here,"

"My theory is, your lack of magic is responsible for your severe reactions to it. You seem to be fine around magic, but as soon as its used on you its effects are negatively amplified. Healing spells may not heal as you have...experienced. I don't know how badly you'll react to other types of magic or if you'll ever adapt..."

"So you are trying to say that I should be careful..." I spoke up after she finished her sentence. Twilight nodded in response and stood up.

She took her lab coat off and near instantaneously cleaned up the equipment scattered around the room, having either floated or teleported them away. "You may go get dressed now, I'd like to take you outside to see a bit of Ponyville and its surroundings. Only if you feel well enough to do that, of course,"

"I'd be honoured to have you show me around, Princess," I nodded and slowly waddled out of the room, being mindful of the bandaged burns on my legs. Once outside I entered the small room that Twilight pointed me to previously, where I had left my clothes. I slowly pulled each element on one by one as to not agitate my injuries and made sure to cover up as much of myself as possible using my cloak. I'd rather not show myself to others.. especially not like this. I looked my bandaged body over one last time and stepped out.

"Are you ready? Are you sure you can go out like this?" She asked me in a concerned tone as she saw my covered up form.

"Yeah...just gotta be a bit more careful with myself right now," I shifted in my step a bit and pulled the hood of my cloak out. Twilight nodded and began to lead us out of the castle with me following closely behind her.

"I'll need to pick a few things up from one of my friends, so we will visit her first before I'll show you more of Ponyville. She's a bit shy like you, so you two should get along pretty well," She looked back at me and smiled, then turned into one of the hallways. Through some of the windows I could see that the sun had nearly reached noon, its rays reflecting off some of the crystalline structures and filling the halls with a soft glow. Not too long after we found ourselves in front of the huge doors that Aegis and I used to enter the castle yesterday. Twilight walked up to them, her magic enveloping their knobs and pulling the doors open.

They opened to reveal a town full of vibrant colours, with ponies big and small roaming the streets in far off in the distance. It was a lively picture, as even from here I could see many of them cherishing the day, prancing and dancing around. Twilight smiled and sighed happily, then stepped out of the castle. I followed behind her, but only got the feeling that I would never, ever be able to fit in here....