I continue on my armless way to Fluttershy’s cottage, just following the road. I’m starting to get the hang of moving without arms, but I don’t think I wanna try going too fast. On a side note, I am insanely glad I no longer seem to need bathroom breaks. Not entirely sure why, but hey, magic. Whatcha gonna do?

I’m passing through the market when I hear, “Hey, Anthony! Catch!” I turn in time to get pegged by an apple to the face, and the lightly acidic juice trickles into my face-cuts from the road.

“Thanks.” I say sarcastically, fighting off the urge to yell from the noticeable amount of pain.

“Sorry, sugarcube.” Applejack calls out from her market stall looking sheepish. “Why didn’tcha catch- wait, what happened to yer arms?”

“Twilight removed them because she thinks that I can’t get along any better than she could without magic. I’ve so far spent most of the day proving her wrong.”

“Uh... huh...” Applejack looks at me intently. “Y’know... y’all should prolly just apologize. Unicorns c’n get pretty prissy ‘bout their magic. Same way y’ don’t mess with an earth pony’s plot.”

“Sure I could apologize, but she’s prissy enough with her magic. I just see this as my way of proving humans are just as able as ponies when they’re disabled.”

“Yeah, but... y’ aren’t disabled, partner. Yer just hobbled.” Applejack sighs and shakes her head. “But, seein’ as how I know you, an’ I know Rainbow Dash, an’ I know how similar the two of y’are, I doubt ah c’n change yer mind on this.” Applejack chuckles. “Try not to git yerself killed, Handy.”

“Ha! Yeah, like anything is gonna attack while I’m like this. My bad karma has already caught up with me until I do something mean again.”

“Like try to get around...” I don’t quite hear her.

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Nothin’ partner. You have a nice time. Oh, Fluttershy was lookin’ fer you earlier, y’ might wanna go see what she needed.”

“Funny, seeing her was next on my list of things to do today. Anyhow, I’ll cya later. And don’t worry, I still have decent balance.” As if to punish me for mocking it, Murphy’s Law tripped me as I turned, my feet skidding out from under me, the juices from the apple on the ground -along with a copious amount of dust- got into my eyes.

I proceed to get up as I did earlier, chewing lightly on the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling in pain. “I alsho... veh-hy reshourshfu.”

I hear Applejack chuckle, a sound mimicked by some of the less timid vendors in the marketplace. After I get myself back to my feet, I attempt to saunter off, the seemingly-unconcerned action only marred by the apple bits falling from or stuck to my face.

Finally, I make it to the path in front-ish of Fluttershy’s house, and I begin walking down the little road. t may be winding, but it’s a nice walk, with the musical tweeting of the birds and the gentle humming of the bees...

I feel a bee land on my chest. It’s an adorable little bumblebee, with exceptionally cartoony-looking features. It’s almost impossible looking, except for the fact that it is a pretty normal bee, other than the larger-than-normal proportions and the fact that it would be the size of my thumb if I still had one.

I gently swivel my torso back and forth and shake the bee off. I get an idea for a prank. I could find some sort of red liquid, get it onto the stubs of my shoulders and say they got bit off by something.

It’d look pretty believable... but I probably shouldn’t do anything like that to Fluttershy. Maybe Rainbow Dash... I’ll wait for later though. For the moment, my goal is to get inside before more bees come for the sugary applejuice on my face.

As if on cue, a pair of bees fly up, and I swear one begins gesturing to the other with its forelegs. I must’ve been out in the sun too long... or they’re magic bees. I hope they’re not magic bees.

Anyhow, they probably get a surprise when I Spark up and go intangible. No arms doesn’t mean no powers. Can’t land on stuff that isn’t solid! Unless you’re a water-strider or... any number of things... none of them are bees though.

The two bees fly towards me, and I look at them. One phases through my eyes, which is easily the weirdest, most disturbing thing I’ve ever felt. shaking my head, I then watch as the bees fly off. A few feet towards Fluttershy’s house, and a large number of bees have shown up, all of them watching as the bee that I assume is the one from before demonstrates flying through my shoulder. The bees make little applauding motions.

Great, I’m a circus act. For sentient bees. Unfortunately, these insect are also abnormally fuzzy. And fuzz is flammable. I enter my heat form and use the resulting flames to scare off the bees.

Instead, the little insects begin applauding more, keeping pace with me but moving back a bit. At least they aren’t dive-bombing through me any- wait, they’re holding up judging panels? And I only got a six from the third of the judges? I did better than that.

“How do you like this, then?” I proceed to turn myself from ‘walking bonfire’ to ‘living bug-zapper’.

This gets a pair of tens again, and only a pitiful increase to seven from the third judge. Who does this bee think he is? Simon Combmell... damnit now I’m making the puns! The bees depart before I reach Fluttershy’s house, and I realize I didn’t so much as stumble once while walking distracted by the bees. Huh.

I knock on the door with the side of my heel. It’s not hard, but it’s a little hard to keep balance for a few moments. The door opens after a moment, and Fluttershy peeks out from under the bottom half of the dutch door. “O- oh! Anthony, come on in.” She opens the door top and bottom.

I oblige as she opens the door. Once I’m inside, Fluttershy gets another look at my armless body, this time she seems to notice what’s missing. A huge gasp rocks her body, and her eyes roll up into her head. She falls over sideways in a dead faint.

I sigh. “Of course...” I should move her to the couch, but that’s rather hard at the moment, so I just kneel down and get into a cross-legged sit and I wait for the pegasus to come around.

Before she does, Anne steps into view, moving like an ostrich or crane, her wings slightly spread for balance. Thankfully for me, she’s wearing a shirt, though the white material isn’t quite opaque enough to not make it awkward. Still, she looks almost as shocked as Fluttershy. Almost, because she doesn’t faint.

“It’s temporary. I get them back at midnight. Twilight thinks I can’t manage without arms, so she took ‘em away to spite me. I’m actually doing rather well.”

Anne blinks a couple of times, before the shock erases itself from her visage. “Oh, alright. Well, uhm... I can still kinda lift with my wings, I’ll get miss Fluttershy onto the couch.”

The harpy holds out her bronze wings, feathers interlacing into something like a hammock as she lifts Fluttershy. The pony is deposited onto the couch, and Anne’s feathers slide apart with a whisper of metal on metal. She steps onto a large branch on a stand, perching on it like a bird of prey. Which, I guess, she kinda is. I honestly didn’t notice the talon feet until now... don’t know why... odd.

“So yeah, Twi thinks I’m just as useless without arms as she is without magic. Getting around is annoying at worst, and that’s my only real problem.”

Anne looks down at her wings. “But your arms come back at midnight... right? Just poof and they’re back?”

“I have no idea. I suppose so. Anyway, yeah, no real complaints about it. Twilight clearly has no idea how adaptable I can be. Sure I had a few accidents on the way here, but I’m still just fine.”

Anne looks up at me, her eyes solid orbs of bronze, a vaguely molten look to them. “But what if they were never coming back, or didn’t know if they ever would? If there was the chance you’d never have them again?”

“Well, the thought crossed my mind, and I decided that if that did happen... hey, I could get used to it in time. Plenty of cripples live pretty normal lives without arms, so why can’t I learn how?”

Pensively, the harpy crosses her wings in front of her, then puts them at her sides. “Yeah. I suppose.” She sounds pretty melancholy.

“So what’s been happening with you?”

“I’m learning how to use my wings, since I’ll never have arms again.”

Oh. Yeah, I guess I didn’t pick up on what her questions meant. “Well, hey, if you can fly, that’s one you got over me, even with arms.”

Anne chuckled in a hollow, sad-sounding way. “Yeah... Fluttershy offered to help me learn what the parts of the wings are called, at least. My wings, that is.”

“Hey, if she can get an injured bird flying in under a week, she can certainly help you. Come on, I’m sure that even without real arms, you can do tons of stuff! I’ve seen crows do some impressive stuff, and I’m willing to bet a billion dollars I don’t have that you’re smarter than a crow.” I give her a smile.

Anne smiles, and I see a blueish blush spread on her cheeks, surrounded by a slight bronze ‘haze’ on her skin. “Heh, thanks... My parents say, uh, said I’m pretty smart.” her smile turns brittle at the mention of her parents, and I see a tear begin to trail down her cheek.

“Hey, it’s alright you miss your folks, I certainly do, but... you don’t have to be sad. We’re your friends and family now.” I pause. “In some cases, too much like a family.”

Anne’s smile returns to its previous luster, though she’s still blushing. Her eyes have turned back to normal, and she’s got very pretty eyes. The color keeps changing, though, through a whole plethora of metallic shades. “Ah, uhm... so, Fluttershy needed help figuring out what I needed around here, but I think she’s too shy to ask.” she giggles, her smile a little shy herself.

“What do you mean? Like, to eat, to sleep, to do all day?”

“Uhm, yeah... and things like, uhm... clothes. There’s no bras here, and these’re so heavy... it’s kinda painful when they move, they weren’t anywhere near this big on earth.”

“Yeah.... ponies don’t even really have underwear, either. They consider it to be used for.... intimate appearance.” Anne blushes a lightly shaded cyan as she realizes the implications. She’s also leaning more towards me than before.

“Yeah... but Rarity is great with clothing. Just uh, explain the general shape and purpose and she can make just about anything. She also has practice with human girls... the reason for this I’d rather explain later.”

Anne nods, and opens her mouth the say something. Before she can, we both jump a little as we hear a cooing noise. In unison, we turn to see fluttershy looking utterly delighted and holding her hooves to her face.

“Oooh, you two look so cute together!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 88 Estimated time remaining: 22 Hours, 38 Minutes