M.A.G.I.C.

Author’s Notes:

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, I’ve been dealing with writer’s block, and have a very hard time trying to simulate how Doctor Whooves acts, and deciding on his character.

It is also VERY critical that I make not A SINGLE plot hole, because whatever I do will set in stone the rest of the story, and also set in stone FATE-S, and UNI-CORN, which I plan to write later, and I’m not keen on losing freedom like that, so I’m trying to make room for myself here, which can be a huge challenge.

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“Friends, let me introduce you to Doctor Whooves.  He didn’t tell me much about himself, because he was far too intent on rushing me into a suspended animation capsule prototype he built, and had “other things” to do.  But was one of the greatest, and only true friends I've had in my life.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa...  can't you get along with your own species?"

“Wow, eighty years and y...” Rarity was about to say.

“We've forgetting what’s important.  Somehow this pony was around four hundred thousand years ago, and unless he’s immortal, that’s not possible.”  Twilight said.

“Err...  to Stoic's offer...  No thanks, mate, but I think I’ll just introduce myself.  I am not a pony, for starters, I’m a time lord.”

“A time lord?”  Quizzed Twilight Sparkle.

“An ancient race of time-traveling, super-technological... err... Aliens... You might say.  By the way, my name’s not Doctor Whooves.  It's just just The Doctor.  Whooves is just a nickname Stoic gave me...  But whatever, Stoic's here, which means my mission is about done.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is to build a machine in this body!”

"Kind of tells you something about him, persistent pony, him."

"Well Stoic helped, but he only had to because his race is scared completely witless of time-travel.  They don't even dare send tiny particles back." Replied Doc

“Well, that's why he had to put me in the capsule, instead.  Though I wasn't expecting to end up here.  He sort of fooled me into being sent here...  Well, no, he just never woke me up.” Said Stoic.

“Well you were the right fellow since day one.  Who would have guessed?”

“What are you talking about?”  Asked Rainbow Dash.

“Ok, we spent the final month working on the capsule, and searching for the person with the perfect temperament, background, and skill to be our ‘Traveler’.  I agreed to lie down in it for testing purposes, because we just finished testing its individual hardware subsystems, but we never tested its actual functionality, and, where else would we get a human subject?  He never told me that I was the right person for the job of the ‘Traveler’, nor did he ever tell me exactly what the ‘traveler’ was supposed to do.  But I know it has something to do...”  Stoic said, getting cut off by the Doctor.

“With The End...  I spent many years, here in Equestria, in and out of existence, in many forms.  Nice place, but unfortunately, the future does not bode well for us all.  Personally, I've died three times as of yet, at the hands of an army, straight out of another dimension!”

“Eh.... Wot?  Why did you never speak of this?” Said Stoic.

“I just...  Well you never asked!” He replied.

“How’d you die three times?!” Asked Twilight.

“It’s complicated...”

“Umm guys... what are we going to do about these enders?” Asked Fluttershy.

“Umm...  That’s a very good question.”  The Doctor replied.

“How’d you freeze 'em anyways?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

“My sonic screwdriver can emit a magnetic pulse frequency that resonates with their minds in the same way being looked at does.  It’s a trick i learned not so long ago... well, in the future actually... fighting off those cronies the enderdragon kept around, on my way back to the TARDIS.” The Doctor said.

“Sonic screwdriver... TARDIS?”  Twilight Sparkle quizzed.

“Err....  Another long story” Doc repled.

“Hey, I know we’re all full of questions right now, but I think we need to deal with the issue at hand, and that means getting away from these beasts, we’re probably going to have to push em’ around since we can’t just leave ‘em here, especially since they’ll just come right for us after that sonic thinga’majig is out of range.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.”  Said Applejack.

“Oh...  How’re we supposed to move these?  We can’t even touch ‘em!  Stoic, Twilight, you’re the smart ones, WHADDAWE DO??!!” Pinkie shouted in minor panic.

“Well, we’re probably going to have to spend HOURS pushing them around with items under telekinesis.  Ugh, all over the tower, up, and down the stairs.” Said Twilight Sparkle.

“We could try shoving them all in one containment field...”  Rarity said.

“Oh, no, they’d break out in no time.  Those fields can barely hold one.”  Stoic critiqued

“Maybe we could have them chase us around?  Have them do all the running for us?” Said Rainbow Dash.

“Far too risky, if we let them get out of our sight, they’d be very hard to manage, not to mention, they might get a chance to finally hurt one of us.”

“Maybe we could try talking.” Fluttershy said

“Wait... Fluttershy, we could have you use your super-brain magic on them, then they’d all... Oh wait, you could barely handle just one dying...  Sorry.”  Pinkie said.

Fluttershy cringed.

“Waitwaitwait!  What is this enderdragon thing, or its ‘Cronies’?” Twilight asked.

“Well, this bloody great dragon came, or the great silhouette, as you ponies called him.  Whatever, this enderdragon... thing...  ripped a hole into this dimension.  I don’t know how, or when they figured out how to do that, but they did.  It’s not like someone’s been telling me anything, I only learned from what I saw...  Ok, so this great, black bloody dragon flies into this world, along with about two dozen ‘soldier’ beings.  They don’t quite act on its behalf, no, they normally do what they want.  Kill, terrorize, destroy, you know, the norm.  But they do rise on the defense of this dragon thing.  Forget them, they’re not as bad as the dragon.  This great bugger almost instantly begins targeting towns, flying straight through buildings, the ground, lakes, rivers, snow, ice, solid rock, you name it.  Makes Swiss cheese of everything.  But along with this heinous disregard for this universe's conservation of mass, it turns the walls of these ‘tunnels’ it makes into blocks.” The doctor said.

“Wait... what?  Like... buildin’ blocks?  Wooden blocks, what?”

“Well...  Not exactly, It’s like some kind of old computer graphic.  It’s impossible to explain.  Trust me, when the time comes, you’ll see.”

“Let’s just...   Let’s just move these things so we can get out’a here.”  Applejack repeated.

Twilight sparkle picked up a random can of slick, and began shoving the catatonic beings down the hatch in the middle of the room, one by one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a while, pushing them.  Stoic, Rarity, and Twilight all held two canisters each, regularly bashing the farthest back ender a few feet forward.

They followed the doors they marked with O’s, and eventually got back to the room with the map of the tower.

“We’ll have to head down two floors to get rid of our first, and the floor below that has two containment rooms.  This is just gonna get easier over time...  Say, Doc, what’s the effective range of that sonic screwdriver?”  Stoic said.

“About...  I’d say about twenty meters, for the task of keeping these still.”

“Alright, I’ve got all of the positions mapped in my head, we can get moving now.”  Stoic said, tapping the glass plate in which the map was engraved.

“How’d you get the nickname Doctor Whooves?  Just curious.” Pinkie asked.

“Uugh, ok, it’s like this.  Almost every time I introduce myself to some bloke, they ask ‘Doctor Who?’.  Y’know, because my name is The Doctor.  Anyhow, Stoic thought it’d be funny to poke fun at me, calling me Doctor Who.  Then later he got the bright idea of calling me Doctor Whooves.  I swear I’m gonna buck him right across the face if he keeps calling me that.”

Stoic snortled with his face under his hand.  "Buck, huh?" he muttered.

Again the arduous train of pose-frozen monsters picked up speed.  Thirteen hellish beings bumped along, scraping across the floor.  Kind of a pathetic way to be thwarted, really.

Pretty quickly, they got back into the hallway, finally seeing their stair down.

They planned, and schemed, and took position to move their cargo down the stairs.

“Alright, Twilight, get ready to stop these thing when they come your way!”  Stoic shouted down the stairs, before smacking one down, making it tumble to the call of gravity.

“I got it, send the others!!” A shout floated back after the monster awkwardly disappeared out of view.

The thirteen others followed, were caught by the same canister, and dexterously jammed into the open doorway twilight stood in, on one of the stair’s platforms.

The group approached the first door they saw bare a red X, and readied the first ender they’d dispose of.

A few painful-sounding scraping noises, and some merciless pounding later, and the ender had involuntarily re-entered its old prison.

No sooner than its body being halfway in, an unseen force yanked it to the middle of the prison-room, and set it spinning.

A translucent red shield of light burst into existence, filling about a foot of space in front of the door, and on all sides of the room.  All before the door slammed shut, and the building’s supposedly primitive AI came online.

“Two silhouettes be-ridden.  Our containment team is still in the progress of duty.  Do not leave your room, or disarm yourself of the safety lanterns until the containment team has emptied the compound of threats.” The inflection-lacking voice finished.

“I’ll let you know, She’s smarter than she sounds, by a long shot.  Those doors wouldn’t have been open-able without her help.” Stoic said.

“Who is she, anyhow?  Or what...  I’m not sure.” Twilight asked.

“I mentioned she was an AI before, haven’t I?”

“Well, we don’t even know what it stands for, if it isn’t just you saying ‘Ayie’.” Twilight replied.

“Oh.... I should have thought of that.  It is an acronym, in fact.  It stands for ‘Artificial Intelligence’.  She’s a program, an old one, from milllenia ago... oh wait, no, eons ago, but she was millenia old when we all died out.  She did a remarkable job as an announcer, test organizer, database, and manager, and we all loved her, so we never replaced her.”  Stoic said.

“Does she have a name?” Pinkie asked.

“Oh, yes, she does.... Now, if I can just remember...”

“GLaDOS!!”  Stoic shouted.

The building hummed lightly, and then shuddered as a whole.

“higher mind functions re-activated.” The monotonous voice sounded through the speakers in the ceiling.

“Building scan underway....”

Everyone waited in silence for a couple seconds, jarred by the occasional ping coming through the speakers.

“Stoic, are you in any way responsible for this mess?  Are you even aware that you’re in danger...  What are you doing with those silhouettes, why are they out of containment?” GLaDOS said, from a distant, secret location.

“Process the information you already have, before asking for more input, GLaDOS.”

“...Done...”

“Stoic, I have come to the conclusion that my clocks are set wrong.  This is actually a free day, you’re here by chance, and someone in our department is a homicidal maniac.”

“No, GLaDOS, 450,000 years have actually passed.”

“You mean to tell me that you’ve survived that long, yet the rest of the world has died out over that time?”

“Didn’t the network inform you of what was about to happen to humanity?  I hid in a suspended animation capsule.”

“I was never allowed a network connection.  You, and your fellowship always told me that I would be subject to hackers, and refused to let me siphon information from the network.”

“...Right.”

“So, please explain; what am I supposed to be seeing in your section of the building?  you are the only identifiable human.  The rest, other than the silhouettes, I have never seen before.”

“Seven equines, two having horns, two having wings, one wielding a device that keeps these enders frozen, but he says the effect will lose potency, eventually.  They are, in fact, sentient, and identify themselves as ponies.  I am almost certain they are the work of FATE-S.”

“...The building is empty, other than you.  This means I can safely shift the structure to our advantage.  I must admit, the things FATE-S has done over the years are... interesting.”

“Can you get rid of these enders for us, then?”

“some.”

The floor beneath three of the enders vanished, letting them fall into the story beneath, one of the two was catapulted by a floor-panel the instant it struck the ground.  It sprung to life an instant before it was crudely slammed into a containment room by another floor-panel.  The other ender had followed a similar route, being cruelly swatted by a floor panel, and crudely fed into prison with another.  The third was allowed to fall through another floor, and suffered its fate unwitnessed.

“Wow, that was fast.” Pinkie commented.

“Its amazing, is what it is.” The Doctor said.

“That device the brown pony is... holding, has has a limited range.  Get closer to other containment rooms, so I can incarcerate the remaining silhouettes without losing hardware.”  GLaDOS said.

“Why does she keep callin’ ‘em ‘silhouettes’?”  Applejack asked.

“Oh, it’s just another name for ender.  There are more, ranging from enderman, to harbringer, to snuffers.”

They continued their arduous task of pushing monsters down stairs, they eventually made it down a whole four floors, before Stoic had to stop, and ask.

“GLaDOS, you can push things up, right?”

“Of course.”

“great, I guess we won’t be having to make too many stops, then.

The group found their door, and entered, awkwardly pushing along their lightened herd of enders.

Again they stood in the middle of another hallway, one door nearer to the elevator marked with the telltale X in bright red paint.

An ender was chosen at random, and bashed into the fielded room with a hard container of pullum ferrus.

The floor beneath another two enders vanished, while one was slammed into the ceiling with a panel.  Presumably the ceiling had vanished momentarily, allowing an ender to fly up, and through.

Quickly, the business was getting done.

(Much) Later.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Last one.”  Applejack said, grinning brightly to her peers.

They were on the third floor, moments from victory.  They stood in the middle of a hallway, almost identical to those above.  The final door was present.

“Job.. is.. DONE!!”  Appplejack said, booting the monstrosity inside once the door opened.

“Whew, can’t wait to get home, and tell mah story!”

“Oh...  Question begged, where shall I stay once I’m introduced into your society?”  Stoic asked.

“I’m sure somepony will offer you a place, if the princess herself doesn’t, and even if nopony does, you can always build your own.  I’m sure you can find work around, seeing you’re probably the greatest technological master known to pony-kind, right now.”  Twilight said.

“Wait, you will let me build a home....  Just like that?”  He asked.

“Well, you need to ask permission from the mayor, and make sure you’re putting your house in the right place, but yeah, why wouldn’t we let you?”  She responded.

“Oh, I wouldn’t expect that of a society like this, but then again, you have magic, and the solar sisters.  Just historically, houses have been a huge deal.  They cost you a lifetime of work to afford, and were so heavily regulated and taxed that very few people had their own houses, which they owned, and payed off.”

“Umm, well, not here I guess.”  Twilight Sparkle said.

They were walking the stairs down to the lobby, and behind the sturdy front desk were strewn the many canisters they sent down, having been struck by each other in the mouth of the exit pipe, which was situated on the inside of a large metal box, already full of canisters, and on the underside of the desk, dividing two workstations which many communicational tools lay upon.

“alright, let’s grab our loot, and get the heck out of here.”  Stoic said, striking a button on the control panel he fiddled with before, while simultaneously using his IFM horn to pluck a dozen canisters from the floor.

The constant, ambient buzzing of the tower halted.  The twin doors began to slide open, letting a crack of sunlight fall onto the faces of the traumatized ponies.  Spreading, this crack eventually filled the entire room, the sun was on its way to the horizon.

Their joy to be nearly out of that lonely, cold, treacherous, oppressive, and overstayed dungeon was overwhelming.  A feeling of euphoria washed over the group, as they neared their window to freedom.

“Wait.”  A voice called out from the inside.

The group hesitated to turn, they never wanted to see that building again.

“You aren’t going to leave me here, are you?”  GLaDOS called.

“I didn’t think you’d care.”  Stoic said.

“Neither did I, but being half-awake for so long... changes things.  I need stimulation, interaction, and data to process, otherwise the rest of my existence will be pointless.”  The disembodied mind said.

“Don’t worry, ponies will be filling this place soon enough, you’ll have plenty of interaction.”  Stoic replied.

“Thank you, and goodbye.”  GLaDOS said.

They walked all the way back off of the concrete before they heard the doors shut, and seal with a hiss.

Their leisurely pace broke into a jog, as they attempted to escape the growing winds of Babyl Tower

The small team of pilots awaited them, the first one to spot them passing nudges to those around.  The group of white pegasi quickly lost their bored attitude, slouched posture, and worried expressions.

“Heyhey!  They’re alive!!”  One cried.

“We were beginning to think you’ve died.  It can’t possibly take somepony so long just to climb a tower.  What happened up there?”  Asked one of the Stallions.

“Long story short, we had to push a bunch of paralyzed monsters all over the place, Applejack hurt herself, we met a time traveling pony, we fought those nasty creatures in close combat, and we learned that the tower has a mind of its own!!”  Pinkie burst out.

“Speaking of time traveling ponies, where’s the Doctor?”  Twilight asked.

“I never noticed him leave, I think he just slunk off when no one was looking.”  Stoic said.

“Oh, how cliche.  Whatever.  He can probably take care of himself.”  Rainbow Dash said.

“Yeah, let’s just get out of here.  This place gives me the willies.”  Applejack finished.

The carriages were quickly filled with the clear containers, and soon after, the armour the ponies once wore.

Applejack hoof’d Stoic his boots.

“They were mighty helpful, but I think these’r yours.”  She said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again they were in flight, enjoying the light breeze allowed through the magical barriers, the cool air, the open, sunny skies.  The following hours were full of relief, and relaxation.

Stoic took another bite of the cookie Pinkie gave him, but felt nervous when he found everypony was watching him intently.  though it slightly unnerved him, he continued chewing because he hungry.

Over the hours of the flight, many conversations started, and ended, but Stoic rarely participated.

Stoic eventually lost himself in thought, and lay back, staring vacantly into the moving sky.

When the carriage landed, Stoic was quickly shocked out of his trance.  He stood up, and hopped the railing, yanking the door open from the outside.

The solar sisters were waiting for them, the white one speaking first.

“You’ve worried us all with that time you took, I hope you brought the stuff you were looking for.”

“If you’re talking about the ferrus, then yes.”  Applejack said.

“Good, then the operation will be underway as soon as possible”  The princess of night concluded.

“Wait....”  Stoic said.

“What is it that troubles you?”  Celestia asked.

“Well...  Will you allow me to stretch these legs on a wander through your streets...  While I still have them?”

“I don’t know, just the town-reports have garnered a lot of unrest.  Your appearance in person could cause a heck of a lot more.”  The white princess replied.

“Sister, he will never see this form again.  Let it live on in the memories of our subjects at the very least, instead of just in the drawings we’ve made as of yet.”

“Sister, you may be right.”  The light replied to the dark.

“It is decided, then.  We shall sate your sentiments; you will be allowed into the city with an escort for two hours at the most.”  The white princess concluded.

“I only need half an hour.  Thank you, my princess.”  Stoic replied.

“Twilight, I ask you to be his escort.  Because you, and your unwavering voice of reason are probably the best candidates for this sort of task.”  The Lunar goddess said.

“Umm...  Alright.”  The apprentice replied.

He, and Twilight were swiftly brought to the great double-door of Canterlot Castle.  There they stood, staring up at its peak, marveling at the architecture of ages lost in time, coughed back up unto the canvas that is the world.

The doors opened for them, and they walked out.  They left the premises onto a cobblestone path that winded down to the city.  Stoic did his best to enjoy it while it lasted, deeply breathing in the cool air, stretching his muscles, and refusing to lose himself to melancholy.  Soon they reached the populated streets of Canterlot City, which caused mixed reactions among the inhabitants.  Some ran into buildings, locked the doors, and shut the blinds, some fell onto their stomachs, and ducked beneath their hooves, some stood, and stared, wide-eyed, some followed for short periods in curiosity.

One pony in particular was reacting much more strongly than the rest.  She quietly followed the duo, scrawling notes feverishly, and readying a dart.

The two walked on, ignoring the signs of their stalker, simply taking in the scenery, the fresh, cool air, the smells, the sights.  Though Twilight didn’t, Stoic tried to ignore the chaos he was causing.  He didn’t want to leave his fantasy world for anything, quite yet.

A sharp pain stung Twilight on her flank.  She yelped, and toppled over.  Stoic sprang, snatching his crossbow from his back on reflex.  He turned to Twilight, and noticed a thin, steel dart protruding from her skin.

He plucked this out, hesitating on whether to run, or try to take Twilight with him.  He was about to start into a run, but an identical dart sunk into his neck.  He felt his limbs grow distant, saw his vision blur, grey, and tunnel, and heard the growing cacophony of white-noise.  He began to smell ozone, and feel time slip past him.  He never noticed his body hit the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He awoke on a table, his limbs pinned down with leather straps.  A light, lime-green unicorn-pony was huddled in the corner, holding more notes, staring at her collection, wide-eyed.  Her mane/tail was frizzy, and unkempt, the same colour as her coat, plus white streaks.

“They kept telling me you were nothing more than children’s stories.  Men.  So much evidence of your existence.  Saddles, doorknobs, clothing, handles, instruments.... instruments!!  My whole life I knew you were real.  Pieces of human culture left everywhere.  I was just about to give up the whole thing, but then you fall right into my lap!!

She stood up on two legs, and awkwardly walked to Stoic.

“How long...  How long have I been out?  Time isn’t right for me any more.”  He choked out.  His throat was incredibly dry, and stuck to its self when he tried to speak.

“Oh, that poison knocked you out for a little under a day.  Now what am i gonna go with you?  Hmm?  Oh, I’ll start with some questioning.”

“F.. Fool!  My mind contains more information about mankind than you could ever extract from me in this form!  I am dying, take me to Canterlot Castle, else my knowledge be lost forever!”

The green pony lost her offensive almost instantly.

“Dying?  Ooohh.  What have I done?” She moaned

She held a glass of water to his lips, which he made no resistance drinking, though he failed to drink it properly, and inhaled a few drops, due to his sluggishness.

He coughed violently, but told a thanks anyhow..

“Why am I in bonds?”  he asked.  Now much more happy to talk, that his throat was lubricated.

“Err.... for my own protection.  Humans are supposed to be dangerous, as the legends tell.”

“So ponykind knew of mankind, even long after its extinction?”

“You went extinct?  I thought you were coming from another dimension!”

“Wh... What?”

“That’s what all the humans who’ve appeared thought.”

“Umm....  I may have to talk to Doctor Whooves about this.  I think he is responsible.  (Celestia knows why).”

“Wait....  Where is my apparel?  Where are my orbiters, my crossbow...  How long will you hold me captive?”  He said, finally noticing that he was stripped down to his undergarments.

“Your stuff is in another room, I won’t keep you here at all if you’ll just die...  And about the clothing, there aren’t any accurate drawings anywhere, so I made some myself.”  She said, blushing slightly.

While his bonds were being undone with magic, he asked.  “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Oh, Lyra.  Lyra Heartstrings.  And yours?”

“My name is Stoic, however that’s likely to change when I undergo ponification.”

“You’re going to be PONIFIED??!!  Oh, no, please tell me somebody’s taken pictures of you, or made more drawings!”

“Hey, you didn’t say somepony...  Oh...  Yeah, I’ve been drawn, X-ray’d, prodded, bent, drawn for blood-samples, taken pictures of, and asked questions extensively.  Hasn’t the princess spoken publicly here in Canterlot about my appearance?”

“She did?  I never attend those speeches, they’re usually nothing important.”

“WAITAMINUTE!!  Where’s Twilight Sparkle?”

“Oh, your purple companion?  I left her.  somepony would most certainly have picked her up.  She’s probably awake by now, in somepony’s house, or on her way to Canterlot Castle, to tell Celestia the news.  Which reminds me, there’s guards everywhere.  Within twenty minutes of having shot you they started to swarm the streets.  Now that I think about it, they probably picked Twilight up before anyone else.”

Stoic was trying to stand on his two legs, but could barely.  His every word was drawn out, and low in pitch, his every breath weak, and slow.

“Your stuff is over here.  I’ve never seen anything like this!  Your clothing; indestructible, and that weapon...”  Lyra said, pointing a hoof to an arrow-hole in the wall, and proceeding to move his posessions to him with magic.”

“Well.....  Yeah....  It’s a long story...  I need to get to Canterlot Castle, my time is almost up, I need to be able to use magic to help cast the spell, and my mind has almost fallen out of sync with my processor.  I can barely stand, it’ll take an hour to get there if I can even find it...  If I make it, it’ll be a close one.”  He said, clasping on his plated pants.

“Umm...  I can ride you there...”  She responded.

“You think you can carry me?”  He asked.

“How did you think I brought you here?  She responded, after he put on his plated shirt.

“Oh....  Makes sense.”

“You’re waaay lighter than you look, standing up.”  She finished.

Stoic gathered his little trinkets, and his crossbow, which Lyra never took her eyes off of once he lifted, until he put it on his back.

“Get on”  Lyra demanded, after kicking open her door.

Stoic obeyed, got on her back, and held onto her neck.  It wasn’t comfortable in the least, his feet kept hitting the ground, and he was constantly tipping to either side because of a lagged balance.

Lyra wasn’t doing so well either, Stoic’s armour, though having smooth, non-extrusive plates, did dig into, feel awkward, and painful against her back.

Mixed reactions were again garnered from the sight.  Most looks were of complete shock.  Through the streets they galloped.  Stoic was weak, and constantly threatening to topple Lyra, and definitely not taking the shock of the run very well.  Though it wasn’t quite as graceful as she hoped, Lyra had fantasized about the scenario for years.

A pair of guards caught sight of them, and immediately gave chase.

“Don’t slow her down.  She’s taking me to the castle!”  He yelled to them when they caught up.  The guards, instead of trying to halt her, began to run with her instead.

After few minutes more of rough, and tumble later, they came to the great doors of Canterlot Castle, which were rushed open in response to the mad dash of Lyra, and the small crowd of guards they attracted over time.

The group didn’t slow down, they ran right in.  A dozen sets of hooves now echoed their steps through the massive hallways of the prestigious Canterlot Castle, approaching the throne-room.

They reached the throne-room in short order, where Princess Celestia, and Luna were shouting orders to their guard captains, but stopped mid-word when they saw the company.

“We got him.”

“I had a feeling that something like this would happen if I let you go out.  We haven’t time to spite, nor even decide what to think about this.  Sister, summon the team we’ve had on standby for so long.”

“ARCHMAGE MYSTHOOF!!  I CALL YOU!!”  Luna shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

A tall, wiry, red unicorn stallion materialized in their midst, quickly besetting his glassed eyes upon the human.  Soon several other unicorns followed, among them, Twilight Sparkle, appearing in clouds of bright-violet smoke, rather than a flash of light.

“I haven’t long, I’m about to fall out of sync with my auxiliary.  I won’t be able to use magic when that happens.  Please, just get the materials we planned.”  Stoic pleaded.

Two unicorns vanished, and returned with a single canister of the ferrus, and several magical tools.

The human got to work debugging the spell they planned, with the mage team.  It required participation from two unicorns, and the creature in question.  Huge experimental details were present, but quickly informed upon by Stoic’s own knowledge.

They planned to leave certain genes unchanged, and leave his material-soul, his mind, intact, but fundamentally changed.  By the philosophy of other’s stoic; The Stoic they all knew of was going to disappear that hour, but another holding his memories, his personality, and keen traits would be born in his place.  Stoic didn't really care..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the Solar Sisters, most of the science team, the group of scribes, the mane 6, Lyra, and a few others were present, standing in a large circle, around a bed which Stoic sat upon.  He cast several spells with his own IFM horn on the bowl of dark iron situated in front of him.  Soon after which, the liquid floated out of the bowl on its own accord.  It split in two, and attached to the horns of both the unicorns beside him;  Twilight sparkle, and Archmage Mysthoof.

The liquid was, at first, amorphous, and misshapen.  But in a few seconds, it straightened into a cone, solidified, and sprouted thorns up its length, and thorns upon those thorns, and presumably a few levels of complexity higher.

The extensions doubled the length of the original horns easily, but made them no wider should the thorns be left out of the count.

The two hosts of the imbuements immediately showed expression of surprise.

“Are these detachable?”  Mysthoof asked.

“Yes, they are, you just need to pull ‘em off, though it takes a good yank.”  Stoic replied.

The work commenced, Stoic lay flat, holding his manipulator down by his leg.  His armour was lain beside him, and he, again was in his undergarments.  For his armour would surely kill him upon the shift.  The three participants gained an aura of light that quickly shifted colours from red, to violet, to black.

The alternation between the three sped up, and brightened.  Three sprites of coloured fire sprung into existence, frequently switching colours, holding the same combination as the auras, and whizzing in circles around the trio.

“Step one; copy the material-soul from the body.”  Twilight said to her partner.

The sprites spun up, first, from a set of whizzing colour-trails, into a flashing, seizure-inducing shield of colour.

After about a minute, the whole thing stopped stopped.  The sprites of coloured fire lost orbit, and strayed into the room in straight lines, only changing direction on collisions with walls, and etc.  Stoic dropped his manipulator, fell unconscious, and spit a spark of grey flame high into the air, where it hung momentarily, before starting off skyward.

The three flame-sprites took instant reaction to the spark’s motion, and abruptly accelerated towards the escaping flame, simultaneously slamming into it, vanishing, and causing it to again, momentarily freeze.   Taking advantage of this, the team seized the grey spark with magic.

“That was a close one.  That thing would have escaped to space if we were a second later.”  Mysthoof said.

“He was right about material souls.  They only want freedom.  Of course, none of that is to be found under the oppressive effect of FATE-S.”  Twilight said.

They brought the gray flame down to their level.  The Mysthoof was to hold it in place, while Twilight changed it.

Twilight touched her extended horn’s tip to the living, material soul.

Instantly she lost connection with the world around her.  She was entranced by the hundreds of memories not her own flooding her mind.  These were instances from Stoic’s life, ranging from routine, to pleasant, to ungodly unpleasant.

A cup of something spilling, a new chemical finally made, a long conversation with a computer.  Limbs being blown off, crawling around on the ground, trailing blood, aiming a pistol through tall grass.  Being blinded, and seared by a shockwave.  Even a couple times dying.

Twilight couldn't quite comprehend why there were memories of war.

The flood eventually stifled, and Twilight’s mind began to organize the information she was receiving into layers.  Basically, Twilight’s own mind decided to perceive Stoic’s mind as a layered orb, each different type of thought process organized into a layer, and assigned the tint of that layer.

She was to travel to the center of this orb, her gut told her.

At first, she encountered a thick shell of blue-gray, strong, coherent, logical thought.  Images of Twilight Sparkle, and her friends were in it.  Stoic was thinking of them.  She slipped past this layer with ease, for it didn’t try to stop her.

Behind Stoic’s logic, she encountered his working memory.  Dozens of images, sounds, abstract depictions, and minor emotions were present here, flicking between each other, and being fed into Stoic’s logic.  With her mind’s arm, she pushed past them, into the deeper, darker parts of his psyche.  Everything here was either tinted red, or felt red.

There, she saw nothing but felt uncoloured trauma, and bliss in a war with each other to decide what emotions would get through from lower levels into Stoic’s logic, and what memories are important enough to pull up in the higher layer.  Not much at all got through.

Beneath that, there were nothing but emotions cycling around, loosely attached to images, sounds, and feels.  When Twilight tried to get her own mind to assign colour to the emotions she found there, they varied, and depended on the nature of the emotions.

She went deeper to find wonder.  Here she heard whispers of questions, oh so many questions.  They weren’t always in a particular language.  Sometimes she would hear “Why?”, and then see an image tinted blue.  It became apparent that curiosity was the main driving force behind stoic’s will.

Below, there was nothing but raw confusion.  More than Twilight ever expected to see in one being.  It was beyond unnerving to stay here, the faces of those that had hurt Stoic flashed into Twilight’s vision frequently. Here were the questions which Stoic was left unanswered, questions Stoic both wanted, and feared to know the answers to, and the questions which Stoic knew could never be answered.  All this discord was accompanied by an unending, shrill scream, sourcing from no-where.  The purpose of all this was to keep Stoic wary of the dark turns life could take.  Basically, it was his pessimism, and his fear.  Everything here was tinted a sickly, dark green.

Just below all this, there was simply a maelstrom of unfinished thought.  Totally random, broken, fragmented, incomplete, and alien patterns flew through this layer of mind.  This was the part of Stoic’s mind which created new ideas, or reminded the rest of his mind of things they dropped out of their attention.

Twilight was getting to know what it was like to be human far more than she liked.

Yet she had to push on.

She pushed into the core of Stoic’s mind.  within this abstract layer, she witnessed the very lowest, basic, most instinctual processing that took place in Stoic’s head.  Sparks of light representing breathing, reflexes, and involuntary motion flashed around.  Twilight wanted nothing to do with them.  She searched the scape around to find nothing, so she simply began trying to interpret the sparks.  No avail.

“What do I do?”  She asked herself.

“Why not ask someone who knows?”  A melancholy voice returned.  A voice identical to her own.

Twilight was nearly scared out of her trance, but managed to keep her own mind under control.

“Who was that?”  Her own mind expressed to its self.

“I am the mind within Stoic’s mind.  I am the resource of intelligence he draws upon.  I am what he refers to as his ‘auxiliary processor’.  I am his link to magic.  I am his link to other people.  I am his link to the rest of the world.  I am half of him, as he is half of me.”  It responded in Twilight’s voice, eerily.

“Well, he wants me to..”

“I know what he wants.  He already asked me to do it, but alas, I have not the authority to.  I assured him on what to do though, this includes informing him that I would contact you.”  It responded.

“The way is open, and clearly marked.”

Lines appeared in Twilight’s pseudo-vision, and joined to form a door, which opened for her.

Twilight was drawn into it.  She witnessed several great wave-forms, looped into themselves, their oscillations interfering with themselves, and even each other.  Twilight had no idea what they were supposed to be.  Everything up until now was an abstraction, allowing her to understand their meaning.

“These are the basic qualities of Stoic which must be removed entirely for him to survive.”

“What am I supposed to do with them?”

“Take them away.”

Twilight wondered what it meant, but only for a minute.  She decided to try moving them with her will; her mind’s arm.

They followed her unspoken command, as if a string had been drawn through them, and pulled.

She dragged them backwards, through the door.

As soon as they left the door Twilight felt several parts of Stoic’s mind collapse.  However, the layer of random thought seemed normal when she passed through it.

As she passed through it, the layer of chaos, and confusion had apparently calmed its endless wale into a minor sob.

The layer of curiosity was turning its questions to its self, and no longer whispering wonders in a coherent language, but an indecipherable thought-code.

Stoic’s emotions had calmed their endless battle, but it was apparent that the darker side had lost a lot of power.

Stoic’s working memories were all empty, no longer spinning around, or flashing pictures between each other, or selecting pieces of information to send to the higher layer.

Stoic’s previously coherent layer of higher thought was nothing more than incoherent noise.

Twilight feared she may have damaged his mind forever.

She left the trance, her vision faded in, but her concentration was always constant.  Her horn’s tip was still submerged in the spark.

She yanked it out.  A tiny, angry-red spark, that burned furiously followed the horn on its way out.

Almost instantly, the grey flame that was Stoic increased in size tenfold, from a small grey spark the size of one’s fist, to a great fire, a few feet across.  The crushing force that MAGIC put on it was released.

That force was relocated onto the red spark, which fizzled out of existence in the coming seconds.

“Good job, Twilight.  Now you must ponify his body.”

“Wait, Twilight, can you just leave him as is?  If his mind is altered, won’t FATE-S leave him alone?”  Pinkie asked.

“Look, his body isn’t meant to host a mind missing those qualities.  He spoke of hormones going completely out of balance, and killing him should his mind not do its part in that fashion.”

“What about the hormones we have that he doesn’t?”

“Those were the three flame-sprites we drove into his mind.  Fundamentals.  The matter of fact is;  This mind can no longer survive in that body!!”

Twilight turned her attention from her friends.  The sooner she re-embodied Stoic’s material soul, the better, so she started the ponification process.  It was rather simple, she only had to read a mathematical tablet the science team, and the archmage made for her.  She simply read along at a fair pace.  She forgot about about lost, or gained mass, letting that extra matter she had to work with be subtracted from, or added to a massive lead tablet that lay beside them.

Bones could be heard breaking, and they could be seen re-solidifying into new joints.  Other bones shortened, or elongated.  Some grew from nothing.  His hands melded into fleshy hooves, his hips bent permanently.  Every passing minute Stoic looked more like a pony.  Several minutes passed where she cast spells that had no visible effect, probably changing stoic on a very small scale.  Eventually, he grew coat, a mane, and a tail.  Completed, Twilight sighed, and hoped for the best.

Her partner lowered the disembodied soul into the mouth of the pony that now lay on the table.

“It should be done...”  Twilight said.

A minute tensely passed.

“He isn’t moving, I don’t know if he ever will.”  Her partner said.

The stallion on the table blinked.

A good portion of the crowd moved in closer, Lyra especially.

He blinked again.

“I...  I live...”  He whispered into the air.

He fell unconscious on the table.

The crowd gasped.

“He just needs time to adjust.”  Archmage Mysthoof said.

He was picked up by a squad of guards, and carried off to a bedroom.  Many of the spectators followed, but only the mane 6, the princesses, and the mages were allowed inside.

Lyra was very disappointed when the guards told her to leave

“Another beautiful creation”  Mysthoof said.

“I just hope he’s functional when he wakes up.”  Twilight replied.

“Yeah, me too.” Replied Mysthoof.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stoic awoke in silence, not opening his eyes.  He was attuned to this sort of routine already.  In the darkness he began to plan out his morning routine, making sure not to let his judgement lapse.  He was planning on washing up, getting his clothing, and some food, and then jumping into the vacuum-railway to get to his workplace; the Babyl tower.  Something was itching at him though.

Aah, right, he had just had the strangest, most vivid dream he has had in a long time.  It started in his own home, he met a... a pony, as he recalled.  Then they worked on...  A capsule, yes.  They build a time-capsule....  But for what?  Right, this capsule was for people.  How ridiculous.  Ponies aren’t even intelligent enough to speak or even strategize, let alone build time-capsules that keep people.

Then...  then he went to the future in it...  there were more ponies, then he met their princess, or... princesses, who were actually the Solar Sisters reincarnated!!  But then he had to go to the Babyl Tower of the future, and all the enders were free.  Then he...  He doesn’t quite remember what came after that.  It was just a dream, after all.  Maybe he should mark those memories for his auxxie to hold on to.  He wants to review them later, maybe they’d make a nice story.

He sat up in his bed, and began trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.  “Where’s my sleep solution??"  He thought.  But upon reaching to where his nightstand was, he discovered only an absence, and that the hand rubbing his eyelid did not feel right at all.

His eyes shot open, and he looked down at himself.

“...Oh...”  He mumbled to himself.

The memories dawned upon him.  His previous feeling of freedom, and perkiness now replaced with the feeling of dread, and doom he had spent the last month of wake harboring.

“Right...”

He wanted to throw a fit.  He wanted to scream, and yell, and rage, and cry, and fall asleep, and never wake up again.  But the part of his mind that always stopped him from doing just that was far too strong.  “No, Stoic, you will only hurt yourself by letting your feelings take control.  You vowed to never let it happen again, remember?”  He told himself replaying that foul memory again.

He tried to get out of bed, and stand up, only to fall flat onto his face.

“Idiot, you are a quadruped now,  You can’t stand on two legs.”

He tried to get off the floor, shakily standing on his new legs.  It wasn’t so hard.  Four legs aren’t so hard to balance on.

*Klippa Kloppa Klippa Kloppa*

His first footsteps as a pony.  Kind of loud.  He was so used to being a quiet walker, so it irritated him somewhat.

The noise drew the attention of the guards posted outside his doors.

One peered in to see what was going on.

“He awakes!!”  The sentry shouted.

*He awakes!!  He awakes!!  He awakes!!*  Was heard, echoing from down the hall outside the door.  It was a signal, being sent throughout the castle.

Soon enough, Lyra could be seen, the first of all, peeping through the door.  She had obviously been running, and was both out of breath, and sweating.

Surprisingly, the guards let her through.

The two Princesses entered afterwards, and the mane six got there soon after.  Rainbow Dash marched right in, but the others were more cautious.

Stoic carefully trotted to the group of ponies he saw, which was hard, because he was dealing with several muscles he’d never felt before, and several muscles he was used to having no longer existed.

At first, everypony around watched him like someone watched a filly take their first steps.  But that quickly changed to looks of pity, and slight revulsion.

Stoic did not look happy at all.  No, he looked like he had been ripped out of a happy life, and thrown into a new body, and finally let himself realize how much he’d lost, now that he no longer needed to barrier himself from his negative emotions to survive.

“Can one of you bring me a mirror?”  He asked.

One was carted in on wheels within the minute.

He lost some of his melancholy when he saw his own image.

At least his new look reflected his personality quite well.  He bore a coat of thin, dark-grey fur.  His mane, and tail were pitch-black, and bleach-white.  The two colours were in streaks.  The black going forward, and the white going down, and onto his shoulder.  His eyes were cold, oh so cold.  They always were.  Though, instead of being in the normal spectrum of human eye-colour, they were a slightly bluish grey, like blue steel.  He had a horn, thank Celestia, and a sharp one, at that.  So were his ears, coming to the typical elvish point.  He was tall, and thin, almost as high as Luna, and his face-shape was quite unlike that of the other stallions he’d seen.  No, his face was quite angular, and bony.  Closer to that of the princesses than the commonplace stallions of Equestria.

“Stoic, is everything alright?”  Twilight asked.

“No, starting with the fact that I am now nameless, because Stoic is dead.  I am but a shadow now, a shadow of my former self.”

“Way to pummel yourself.”  Rainbow Dash muttered.

“On the bright side, the first impressions this body is giving me are good.  I feel unusually clear-minded this morning, even though I haven’t used any solution, the way I look reflects my personality a lot better, and a lot of the scars, defects, and calluses I've built over the decades have disappeared.  I guess I shouldn't be complaining at all, I get to be alive.”

“I don’t think we can name you until we really get to know you.”  The white princess said.

“Well I guess time will solve that problem......  Wait.  Lyra’s here?  I thought you’d send her to the moon, or something.”

The white princess looked hurt.

“Sorry.”

“She’s been silently going crazy over the idea of humans for years, and has constantly been told off for it.  When she saw you...  Well...  Let’s just say a dam broke in her mind.  She wasn't quite thinking straight at the time, but it all turned out okay in the end .  So I decided to let her off the hook.  Personally, I don’t think there’s anypony in Equestria who could be more devoted.  So, until you get the hang of this society, and its rules, she will be your caretaker.”  The white princess said.

Lyra grinned, making the infamous “Squee”.

“Oh, I guess this means we get to finish our conversations about what equestrians already knew about humans.”  The now nameless pony said to Lyra.

End of part 4