Bronze stumbled about in her fathers’ workshop, hobbling upon the crude prosthetics that were given to her at the hospital, while she tried what little she can to take the pain off her mind. It all happened so fast, the last thing she saw was the wagon coming towards her. After that, it all went black.

The young filly woke up in the hospital, with the pounding in her head from where the bottom of the cart hit her skull. At first she had tried to sit up, but that’s when Bronze realized that she couldn’t move her fore hooves any more… or feel them for that matter, they were gone.

As Aurora explained to her after coming to, and suffering a panic attack from the shock of seeing her stumps. When the wagon hit her head, she fell forward and blacked out, keeping her unconscious as the wheels of the fully loaded cart rolled over her front legs.

It didn’t cut them off out right, but for her age, it mangled them enough to the point that any sort of repair would have led to surgeries throughout her life. Even then, the possibility that she would have gained full control of them once more was slim to nil. While the pain Bronze would have suffered throughout the years, of her body trying to grow on distorted limbs, only would have increased as the years passed.

For now, all Bronze could do was gimp along on the ridged limbs that were bestowed upon her. Having no use of her own hooves to grasp even the simplest objects, she took for granted, now with the ability completely gone to her. She would have given anything to have even the mangled legs back on her.

Or so she thought…

“…I would give my hind legs, just to have you back,” she said to herself. Looking at the empty shop that remained, without any newer projects from her because of her injury.

Looking over to the tool chest on the floor, the only thing that stuck out in her eye, was the handle of her old friend. After her incident, and she calmed down, her mother told her what had happened to her dad. In the small scuffle that wasn’t expected to happen, he was struck down in the battle by the gryphons just as the fight started to turn in their favor.

‘He made sure that you would get this back…’ Aurora told her a month ago while she lied in the hospital bed. “And now I have it back,” she smiled for the first time in a long time, but it quickly died once more with the weight of her life story coming back to haunt her, “but all I want is you…”

Her father would have known how to fix her up, he would have known how to give her some legs that she could actually have a life on, Anvil would know how to make it all right once more. Aurora was trying her best to take the burden off her daughter, but she could only do so much.

The pension that they got from Anvils’ parting helped more than they could have ever hoped for, but it could only go so far for them. Having to work overtime at a few of the small businesses to help with the house hold, Aurora found herself picking up extra shifts even when she didn’t need the money. If anything it was just to get keep her mind off how much had changed in such a short time. Regardless of what she would do though, Aurora made it a point to meet her daughter at school so she could fly her home.

Even after the incident, Bronze insisted on going back to school the moment she had a chance, having only been there for a week now. She noticed the change in a lot of the ponies that she learned beside. They all still ignored her, and they also didn’t pay her any heed… but at least they weren’t picking on her any more. With her mom taking a shift or two on the weekends, it left Bronze at the house to do as she may.

Alone… to her own thoughts, and her own devices.

“But what do I do?” she asked herself, while sitting amongst the many discarded projects that she tore apart when it all came crashing down around her, “where am I to go now, that I have nothing I can go with?”

Struggling to get up in the stool, the filly slumped her head down on the counter, before eying one of her fathers’ old books that he kept around. ‘Magical theory of the ancients’ she read to herself. With little to no drive to do much else, Bronze hoped that a good read in a textbook would satisfy her craving for something more.

If only for a moment.

Cracking open the first page of many. The dust between sheets told her that Anvil hadn’t opened this one in quite a while, which made sense to her, after all he was already good at his own craft with his horn. What more could he need to know? As she sat there and started to read, the subtle ticking of the clock on the wall left her ear, as she became enveloped in the words on the page.

Bronze hadn’t really tried to dabble in magic, seeing as she wouldn’t have had the ability to get any of the projects to work on her own. Though the more she read about the relation to magic in unicorns, and a similar magic found in all ponies, the more the filly found herself drooling. As the gears in her head turned, the spark in her mind set off in motion, while Bronze started to formulate how she could use this to her advantage…

“Sweetie…” she heard called over her shoulder. Turning around, there stood her mom. The bags under her eyes from the long day, grew closer and closer to the ground with every passing hour. “It’s almost dinner time you know… is there anything, special? You’d like?”

Bronze couldn’t help but smile at her mothers’ efforts, “No mom… whatever you feel like making, you know I’ll be happy.”

Aurora beamed at her for a moment, pulling back some of the bags from her eyes, “Okay dearie, I’ll let you know when it’s ready.” She watched with admiration as her mom went back in to the house.

“She tries so hard, to make my heart smile… even if it means putting her own on hold for a minute,” Bronze said to herself, as she went back in to her book.

Using a pencil tucked in her mouth, she started to draw up a simple sketch of a leg. Nothing fancy about it, just a rudimentary leg, one that would get her on her feet… so to speak. Looking around the room, she eyed the various things she could use to make this all a reality. Her father may have been gone, but he did leave her with everything she needed to make her new dream a reality.

Except for one thing.

“A charge,” Bronze said out loud. The gem she would need to make it all work in the end, would need a charge to get it kick started, according to the books. She didn’t know any unicorns, at least on good terms personally. There were many at her school yes, but she didn’t talk to them… would they help her?

“Maybe, if I have something to give in return…” but what could she give that she hadn’t already? She tried to be nice, and they spat in her face, she tried to be mean, and they avoided her at all costs. “Perhaps out of pity I could get them to charge a gem for me. I don’t need much,” Bronze confirmed while looking over the text, “not even enough to make a light…”

Talk to a pony at her school, get them to charge a gem with a little magic, then she could go from there. ‘But where can I start now…’ she thought as she processed all she had to work with. Throwing caution to the wind, the filly jumped off the stool to get started… and promptly landed on her face as her false legs gave out from under her. “Okay… foal steps here.”

Using her mouth to work with was nothing new to Bronze, after all for an earth pony they learn to use their mouth for just about everything. Though not having a pair of stable hooves to hold down what you’re working on can put a damper on things rather quickly. But with the perseverance of the fire lit in her eye. Bronze chugged on with her efforts, cutting out a few blocks of wood here and there. She nailed them together as best she could with the hinges she had available to her.

Would it be crudely fashioned? Yes, but would it get her off her feet? Also yes. From there once she had something to work with, Bronze could improve as she went. The funny thing about hitting rock bottom is, the only place you have to go, is up.
In what seemed like minutes, the filly had taken what she drew down on paper, and had a pair of limp appendages to go off of. Breaking out a file and knife, she began wildling down the sides to give them at least some sort of smoother edge for comfort. The stout wooden legs would give her the stability she would need to carry herself, while the hinges would allow her the flexibility to further her efforts.

Taking a hoof drill in mouth, Bronze sat her stump inside of the holster of the limb to hold it steady. As she slowly started to crank each and every turn with as much effort as she could muster. Fiber by fiber, the grains of the wood started to bend to her will, and gave her the proper seat she would need for what would power her new form.

“There… finished,” she admired her hoof work, or in this case, mouth work. They were uglier than she would have imagined, but so long as they worked, Bronze could care less. “Hideous in every shape of the word,” the articulate young mare spoke to herself, “But they’ll do…”

“I think they look great,” Aurora said to her daughter, as she watched her put the finishing touches on her project, “Anything that gets my little girl to smile again.”

She was smiling, wasn’t she? Bronze had hardly noticed the grin spreading itself across her lips as she worked. Though her mom certainly caught it, ‘moms have a way with that sort of thing,’ Bronze told herself.

“Dinners ready, Bronze,” Aurora said to her as she held the door open for her daughter, “come on inside.”

Although there may have been more that she could have done to her project. Bronze knew that in the end, it would all be for nothing if she couldn’t get the charged gem installed. Though that could wait for another day, she was going to enjoy the comfort of her mother for the night.