Cheerilee waited anxiously at the station as the conductor gave the all clear. Ponies started pouring out of the train. The teacher scanned through the crowd when she saw an earth stallion with two interlocking gears as a cutie mark, carrying bulging saddlebags.

"Grinding Gears!” The teacher shouted happily as she raced up to meet him. "You made it."

"Cheerilee! It's good to see you." Grinding Gears replied.

What followed next was the usual friendly chatter of two ponies reacquainting themselves. Finally Cheerilee decided to move the conversation to somewhere other than the platform.

"So, did you want to go get a bite to eat?"

"Actually, I'm kinda anxious to present my idea." Grinding Gears replied, patting a hoof on his bags. "Is it alright if we do that first?"

Cheerilee quickly fought to hide her disappointment. "Of course, you came a long way for this. Let’s go."

As the two earth ponies walked off, a unicorn stallion finally managed to shift a massive, obviously heavy, crate off the train. He paused for a moment to send a glare in their direction. "Oh sure, leave me to shift this forsaken thing to location." As he returned to his task he pulled out a map, indicating where he was meant to set up. Realising he wasn't sure where the location was he decided to ask for directions.

"Excuse me!" He called out to a pink mare nearby. When she approached him he held up his map and pointed to a part that was marked out. "Could you tell me where this is?"

"Well duh," Pinkie replied, "It's in your hooves silly."

Cheerilee and Grinding Gears were let in by Pokey, who before returning to his work simply warned them that the representative was in one of her moods.

"Should we come back later?" The earth stallion asked.

"Don't worry about Trixie." Cheerilee said assuredly. "She has her quirks but is deep down a good pony no matter what mood she's in.”

Cheerilee opened the door to Trixie's office and jumped back when she saw Trixie standing right in front of her as if lying in wait.

"You know the kind of week I've been having?" Trixie asked, when she only got the shaking of heads as a reply she continued. "It's been a week of nothing going wrong. No monsters causing havoc, no ancient evil rising up, no politics, no Zebra stealing my bourbon, there hasn't even been any weather pony related incidents. You know what sort of week that it's been?"

"A boring one?" Cheerilee offered.

"Unbelievably so." Trixie answered, "Not only have I actually been doing my own work, in a desperate bid not lose my remaining shreds of sanity to boredom I actually agreed to a winter long game of stealth hug with Pinkie Pie." As she spoke those words a pair pink hooves wrapped around her and squeezed lightly.

"That's 34-14." Pinkie said happily as she disengaged and started to bounce off, "You'd better catch up."

"DAMMIT POKEY!!" Trixie shouted. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WATCH THE PERIMETER!!”

"Sorry boss," Pokey called. "She bought my silence with cupcakes."

"Well you better have saved me one this time!" Trixie scolded before returning her attention to Cheerilee. "What you just witnessed was the highpoint of my day so far, please tell me there is something potentially catastrophic you needed my help with stopping. Diamond Dogs taking hostages? Hydras reining destruction? Abominable snow pony sightings? Anything?!"

Almost feeling sad that she didn't have anything more threatening to offer her friend, Cheerilee decided to just go ahead with introductions. "This is my friend, Grinding Gears."

"You can call me Gears for short if you like." The stallion offered. "A lot of ponies do."

"He's come from Detrot with a proposition regarding one of his inventions that he'd like for you to consider."

"So...no abominable snow ponies."

"No sorry."

Trixie gave defeated shrug. "Oh well, let's get it over with."

As Trixie went back to her desk Gears whispered to Cheerilee. "She doesn't seem very enthusiastic."

"Don't worry, she's like that."

"Is she pouring herself a drink?"

Cheerilee turned to see that a bottle of bourbon and a glass had appeared on Trixie's desk. Realising she had been caught out, the representative shrugged. "It's how I deal with being propositioned."

The teacher could only give Gears an encouraging smile but promptly face hoofed when his back was turned.

To his credit, the Detrot inventor readied some of his papers.

"Historically magic has been viewed as just something that can be utilised by the unicorns."

Trixie was about to argue but was silenced by a look from Cheerilee.

"Now with the vast potential that unicorn magic possesses. I feel that Equestria as a nation has for the most part ignored one of its most fundamental possibilities as a power source to help take technology to the next level."

"No don't get me wrong, our current sources of energy have been effective." Gears explained. "Steam technology relies on us being able to get enough coal and I believe that within our lifetime we will reach the limit of what it is able to do. There have been attempts made to use magic to power machinery, it has nearly always been done by unicorns and could be at best likened to a foal's pinwheel, only working so long as a unicorn was there to continuously pump magic into it."

"Huh," Trixie replied, not really having anything to say to that.

"I believe the problem isn't the magic." Gears explained. "I think that the problem was the machines that were built. I mean when you have a leaky bucket you don't try to change the water you put into it.”

"And you think you have the solution to this leaky bucket pandemic?" Trixie asked.

"No but do I think I have the creation that will lead us in the right direction." Gears placed a detailed diagram in front of Trixie. "I give you, the Automaton."

The representative looked at the picture of what appeared to be a type of machine in the shape of a Minotaur. While she didn't understand all of the technical notes, she recognised a few things, namely the writing on its forehead.

"It's a golem." Trixie said flatly.

"Automaton." Gears insisted.

"You can call it George for all I care, it doesn't make it any less of a golem."

"It's not a golem!" Gears argued. "Golems are overgrown dolls made of rock or clay brought to life by scribbling a word on its forehead. What I'm proposing is a fully mechanical construction of metallic brilliance!"

"Which is powered by...?"

"Magic." The inventor admitted.

Trixie stared at Grinding Gears for a moment before she mouthed the word 'golem'.

"Alright so maybe it has a few..." Gears corrected himself when he saw Trixie raise an eyebrow. "...a lot of similarities to what is traditionally known as a golem."

"Look I don't know what Cheerilee has told you about my experiments, but I am not going to help you build a golem."

"Oh no this has nothing to do with constructing it."

"Really? Then why are you here?"

"Alright, I'll be frank." Gears explained. "I am an engineer and, in all modesty, a good one. My qualifications are excellent and I have some highly successful projects in my portfolio. If I were to propose a new design for a train or a clock tower, my credentials are enough to get my idea looked at."

"Trains and clock towers don't usually run on magic."

"Exactly!" Gears continued. "If my design is going to even be considered by the right circles it is going need to have some credibility. Like an endorsement by the Element of Magic herself."

Trixie almost did a spit-take but quickly stopped herself when she realised that would be wasting good bourbon. "You want me to put my seal of approval on this?"

"Well, a seal wouldn't be necessary. A letter of recommendation or a testimonial on the potential this project has would be enough."

"I don't really know how to say this." Trixie answered. "Oh wait, actually, I think I do: No!"

Gears would not be deterred. "Look, I know there is a stigma about golems due to the difficulty in creating them."

"Difficulty?" Trixie let out a chuckle despite herself. "They're not difficult at all. In fact, part of their danger lies in the mind numbing simplicity of creating one. They're so easy to conjure up an earth pony can do it." The representative then paused when she remember her company. "No offence."

"Some taken." Cheerilee replied.

"The problem is that once you've made one you have no way of controlling it." Trixie explained. "Do you know what the phrase 'Substitutiary Locomotion' is?"

"Yes of course, came across it quite a few times in my studies." Gears replied. "Poetically known as 'giving life to those without'. It is the blanket term used describe any process that enables pony made objects to move and behave by their own volition."

"Exactly, 'their own volition'." Trixie paraphrased. "Once a golem is up and running it soon develops a mind of its own, interpreting its purpose in its own way. Also seeing as it isn't actually alive, it isn't hampered by things like morals, emotions or even basic reasoning. It will just keep on chugging along until it stops working or until someone is able to stop it."

Trixie took a book from the bookshelf. "Even if a unicorn uses further magic to enforce control over it, it’s at best like holding a untrained dog back with a leash. But don't take my word for it, let's look at history."

She opened a page started to paraphrase a story from the book. "800 years ago, a somewhat bigoted stallion built a golem to remove a group of griffins that had made a home for themselves near his town. When the golem was finished getting rid of the griffins, it started attacking anything with wings, ponies included."

"Well it was built with violent intent," Gears argued. "Of course it would end badly."

Undeterred Trixie switched to a new page. "500 years ago a young mare built a golem to protect her village. They say that for the next fifty years nothing living was able to set hoof with in the village and to this day nopony has tried to rebuild on the site."

"Again, while the mare's intentions were good, it was still built with violent intent."

"700 years ago an ageing farmer built a Golem to help plow his fields. It ended up plowing through a hundred acres of land, sixteen houses and seven ponies before it was stopped."

"Well obviously proper parameters weren't set."

"85 years ago, a pony created a Golem to help sort red marbles from blue ones. It ended up destroying half the town trying to find more marbles to sort."

Gears tilted his head slightly. "Why go through all the effort of creating a Golem just to sort marbles?"

"How about I save us some time and just give the short version?" Trixie asked rhetorically. "Death," She flipped a page. "Maiming." She flipped another page. "Death and Maiming." Another "Death and Destruction." Another. "Destruction and Maiming." Another. "Destruction, Maiming Deathstravaganza!"

The two earth ponies sat there and stared at Trixie, who in turn seemed to not be done with her little rant. "You want more proof, look at the cover, 'Golem related tragedies of history, second edition'." She paused for a moment before waving the book in Gear's face. "SECOND EDITION!!"

Gears stared at Trixie for a moment. "Is this about me being an earth pony?"

The engineer promptly got smacked in the face by the second edition book. Before Trixie could get in another shot Cheerilee stepped in between them.

"Ok, Trixie, a word please?"

Giving Gears one last glare, Trixie placed the book back on the shelf and stepped out of the office.

"I'm not winning her over, am I?" Gears quietly asked Cheerilee.

"Just give me a few minutes with her," Cheerilee assured him. "Though, accusing her of being a tribalist probably wasn't the best idea."

"I didn't accuse her of being a tribalist." Gears argued. "I simply asked if her objection to this idea was based on the fact that I was an earth pony." Realisation dawned on him. "Ooooooh."

Cheerilee stepped out of the office and closed the door behind her before focusing her whole attention on the representative.

"I'm not apologising." Trixie said stubbornly.

The teacher closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten before replying.

"Trixie, remember how we talked about you being a little more tactful in how you deal with people you don't agree with?"

"Cheerilee, this isn't Bon Bon's mother trying to get me to start my shows with a segment on healthy eating, this is a legitimate threat to public safety." The magician paused, "besides, how do you not already know about the threats of creating a golem? You're a school teacher, isn't it part of the curriculum?"

"Well no," Cheerilee admitted. "After the whole Love Poison debacle in Hoofington the school board sought to remove any easily replicated magic or dangerous practices from the curriculum."

Trixie stopped and stared at the teacher. "Then how did Scootaloo know what 'waterboarding' is?"

"That's not important, what is important is that Grinding Gears has obviously put a lot of effort into this and you're just shutting him down without giving him a chance."

"He's put a lot of effort into designing the mechanics but that doesn't change the fact that he's using magic to give something big and metallic autonomy then just hoping for the best. Doesn't that send alarm bells through your head?"

"Trixie, I'm not an idiot, I know about golems and the less than stellar track record in creating them." Cheerilee countered. "But great progress relied on ponies moving on from past mistakes and not dwelling on them."

"Exactly, they moved on from past mistakes, they didn't repeat them." Trixie shot back. "I don't get it, I have heard you shot down less crazy ideas than this, why would you be considering this just because some stallion...suggested..." At that moment the pieces fell into place for Trixie. "Cheerilee, please tell me this isn't some elaborate scheme to get a date."

Cheerilee stared Trixie for a moment. "Okay, firstly I'm not interested in him that way." Trixie raised an eyebrow. "I'm not! And even if I was it would never work out with him being Detrot and me being here."

"Uh huh."

"Secondly, do you honestly think that I would risk endangering my friend or my students, not to mention the entire town just to get a date?" Cheerilee then noticed a rather poignant silence fill the air. "Choose your next words carefully."

"No I don't." Trixie replied. "But just so we're clear, why would you go along with something if you know it’s potentially dangerous?"

"Weren't you listening? He is trying to perfect methods in which magic can be used effectively in new ways and not just by unicorns." Cheerilee explained. "Isn't your shtick that all ponies use magic? How can you not get behind this?"

"Alright for starters, my desire to solve my problems with bourbon is my shtick." Trixie corrected. "Believing that all ponies use magic in one way or another is my Philosophy."

"My mistake."

"And more importantly, This is not a matter of him using magic or even that he's trying to combine earth pony and unicorn magic, I admit that's pretty cool, it's about him using it to create a golem!!"

"I get it, golem bad. You've hammered that message in well and truly." Cheerilee said. "But would it kill you to be a little more constructive in your criticisms?"

"That depends," Trixie answered. "Could he be a little less destructive in his ideas?"

"I'm serious." Cheerilee replied. "You spent the whole time just shooting down his idea because it's a golem and yet you haven't actually given his work a real look over. Luna trained you better than that."

"But it's a golem."

"Ignore the golem, check his work on its own merits." Cheerilee insisted. "Treat it like any other idea and find the flaws in his reasoning and give him ideas on how to explore his ideas elsewhere."

Trixie deliberated for a moment. "Fine, you've got a point." She conceded. "But if this turns out badly I'm gonna find the most obnoxious way to say 'I told you so'."

"Like anything could stop you."

The two mares stepped back into the office. At the sight of them Gears opened his mouth to speak but was silenced by Trixie raising a threatening hoof. "Not a word, just put all your notes on the table."

Gears followed Trixie's instruction and laid out the extensive notes on the table. Trixie then sat down and started to sift through the notes. The room was silent as she read and reread some of the notes, with only subtle nods or head shakes to give hints into what was going through her mind. After she was satisfied, the Representative returned her attention to the engineer.

"So how are you getting the magic to power this?"

"I have a unicorn assistant named Lumos." Gears explained. "The construction is all mine but he's the one that brings it to life."

"Did you bring his notes?"

"Oh he didn't make any notes." Gears explained. "He just has to charge it up when the time is right, I've taken care of the rest."

Has he ever done something like this before?"

"Not exactly," Gears admitted. "But he has an above average reserve of magic and more than enough to power this."

Cheerilee could tell that Trixie had a retort she wanted to say but to her credit, the blue mare simply moved onto the next question.

"Have you submitted your idea and designs to the Safe and Ethical Technological Advancement Commission?"

"No."

"Have your materials and equipment been tested to guarantee that they are magically neutral and unlikely to behave unexpectedly when high amounts of energy flow through them?"

"No."

"Have you checked public records for similar endeavours to make sure you're not repeating old mistakes?"

"No."

"Have you had any independent unicorns look over your work?"

"My neighbour's a unicorn and she liked the design."

Trixie gave Cheerilee a meaningful look. The teacher, to her credit, suddenly found the ceiling very interesting. The representative sighed and focused her attention back to Grinding Gears.

"Look, Mr. Gears, I realise I was a little harsh before." Cheerilee let out a snort that was quickly disguised by a cough when Trixie glared at her. Trixie then continued. "Please don't feel that I'm belittling your skills as an engineer. These designs look very expertly made and everything about them says that you have the mechanics of this down pat."

"I am sensing a 'but'." Grinding Gears replied.

"Mechanics is only half of this and frankly I have yet to see signs of you having the understanding of magic necessary for this or anything similar to work." Trixie replied. "If you can show me otherwise, maybe I'll reconsider it."

Instead of appearing to be dissuaded from Trixie's comments, Grinding Gears actually seemed to be more excited by the turn of events.

"That's perfect!"

Both Trixie and Cheerilee were genuinely surprised by his reaction.

"What?"

"Well what better way to show my understanding than a live demonstration?" Gears asked rhetorically. "Lumos is currently preparing our prototype for its first test run outside of town."

"First...test...run." As those words sunk in Trixie lost colour in her face. "You mean he's setting up something potentially dangerous and untested...OUTSIDE PONYVILLE?!"

"Well off course, you wouldn't want us doing the test inside Ponyville, would you?" He then saw Cheerilee and Trixie staring at him. "What?"