A friend of Cheerilee from detrot comes to Ponyville with a new invention that unfortunately goes haywire. Lunaverse story
Its winter in Ponyville and for the most part everything seems to be going well. That changes when Grinding Gears, a friend of Cheerilee's from Detrot with more engineering skill than common sense, comes to town hoping to get endorsement for his latest invention.
The Automaton, a fully mechanical creation powered by magic.
He's researched extensively, planned out thoroughly and has brought his first working prototype for inspection.
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."
My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies
How'd I ever make so many true friends?
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?"
Lumos placed the massive crate on the ground as he rechecked the map to make sure he was at the right place.
"Let's see: rocks, occasional trees, about a half a mile from that river." He looked up and gazed at the Everfree Forest. "And in front a great big unnatural forest full of things that would probably try to kill me." He then rolled up the map. "Yep, this is the place. Better get things ready."
He then opened the crate and pulled out a record player he had stowed away.
"But first..."
"How can you not remember where you told your lackey to set up the golem?!" Trixie demanded.
"Lumos isn't my 'lackey'," Grinding Gears argued. "And I can't help that I'm not that familiar with Ponyville geography. That's why I marked the test site out on a map."
"Which you then gave to Lumos."
"Well, you know what they say about hindsight being 20-20."
Cheerilee stepped between the two. "Could we focus on finding Lumos and the Automaton?"
Trixie let out a huff of frustration as she looked at her surroundings; for the last hour the three ponies had been running round the woods trying to find Gears' assistant and stop him from powering up the Automaton. Though it turns out that finding a unicorn transporting a metal death machine isn't as easy as you'd think. She then noticed four rams huddled together in the distance.
"Come on," The representative said as she pointed towards the rams, "let's see if they've seen anything."
Said rams seemed to have separated themselves from the rest of the flock, seeming to be quite content to being just the four of them.
"Baaaaaaa. Baaaaaaa."
One of the rams let out a frustrated groan.
"For goodness sake Baartholomew! We've been over this! The 'Ba's need to be short and sharp."
"Sorry Woolliam." Baartholomew replied. "It just doesn't feel natural."
"Look, an attitude like that is not going to get us a place in the Longest Night Celebration." Woolliam scolded. "Last thing we want is a rehash of last year." Woolliam then took a deep breath. "Let's try this again. A One...A Two...A Three...A Four...."
Ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann Ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann
ba ba Barbara AnnOh Barbara Ann, take my hand ba ba Barbara AnnBarbara Ann You got me rockin and a-rollin Rockin and a-reelin Barbara Ann ba ba Ba Barbara Ann
"Much better though the harmony still needs a little work." Woolliam then noticed one of the other rams had a raised hoof. "Shawn, did you have a question?"
"What's a hand?"
Before the head ram could reply he noticed Trixie approaching. "Ah... Representative Lulamoon. So good to see you."
"We've been over this Woolly, call me Trixie."
"And we've been over the fact that my name is Woolliam!" The ram shot back. "Not Woolly!"
"They know each other?" Gears asked Cheerilee.
"Those four had tried to get a gig at last year's Longest Night Celebration." The teacher explained. "When they found out Trixie had overlooked them as replacements when the main act backed out, they staged a week long singing protest at the Residency."
"You mean they spent a week belting out a capella music?" Gears clarified. "That must have driven Trixie insane."
"Actually..."
The four rams were in Trixie's bathroom. The shower could be heard in the background as the rams starting singing.
Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!I can't stop this feeling Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!Deep inside of me. Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!Girl, you just don't realise Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!What you do to me. Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!When you hold me Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!In your limbs so tight, Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!You let me know, Ouga Chaka Ouga! Ouga!Everything's alright.
The five then harmonised.
Ahahaha, I'm hooked on a feeling, I'm high on believing, That you're in love with me.
"We're looking for a male unicorn transporting something that could cause great harm," Trixie explained. "Have you seen anypony like that around here?"
"Can you give us a description of the unicorn?" Woolliam asked.
Gears paused for a moment, trying think of the best way to describe his assistant. "Hard working though a bit facetious at times, isn't extremely social but still has few close friends. Has a love of rhythm and blues music that I can't fathom."
"I mean a physical description." Woolliam clarified.
"Well he tries to maintain an active lifestyle but his doctor thinks he needs to watch his sodium intake."
"Have you seen any unicorn transporting a big crate?!" Trixie interjected, clearly getting frustrated.
"No," Woolliam replied. "You're the first unicorn we've seen all day."
"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK FOR A DESCRIPTION?!"
"So that we'd know what to look for." Woolliam replied.
Trixie suddenly looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel. Before she could say anything further she found herself enveloped in some pink limbs. The representative let out a sigh. "So I guess this makes it 35-14, huh?"
"No," Pinkie replied, "You just looked like you needed it."
Trixie pouted slightly before replying. "Thanks Pinkie." Realisation then struck as she disengaged from the hug. "Wait! Have you seen a unicorn with a big crate?"
"Sure." Pinkie replied. "He was just getting off the train."
Feeling cautiously enthusiastic, Trixie asked. "Did you happen to see which way he was going?"
"No," Pinkie admitted. "Though he did ask me to help him find his map. Turns out he had lost it in his hooves. Hope he doesn't feel too bad about that cause I lose stuff in my hooves all the time." Pinkie then noticed that one of her hooves was suddenly holding a cupcake. "So that's where you were." She promptly ate the cupcake.
"Focus Pinkie." Trixie said earnestly. "Did you happen to see any particular place on the map marked out?"
"Sure. It had a circle around the rock field by the Everfree forest."
"Thank you!" Trixie said before she started to run off in the direction of said rock field with Cheerilee and Gears running behind.
"YOU'RE WELCOME!" Pinkie shouted back. She then stopped and thought for moment. "I wonder what's so important about a big crate? Maybe there's something fun inside!" At that thought she started bouncing after them.
Lumos had finished preparing everything for the demonstration and was now just listening to his music as loud as he could.
"STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
He turned and saw Grinding Gears and three mares off in the distance running towards him. The blue mare in the lead seemed to be the one shouting but between the distance and the music, Lumos had trouble making out what she was saying.
"WHAT?"
"DON'T TURN IT ON!!" Trixie shouted back.
"Turn it on?" Lumos repeated then shrugged as he charged up his horn. "Ok."
Trixie and company made it in time to see the Automaton light up as it was encased in yellow energy. Lumos suddenly noticed the looks he was getting.
"Let me guess, you were actually telling me not to turn it on."
"Yeah."
"Oh well, no harm done." Gears said nonchalantly. "As you can see, everything is perfectly fine."
Despite wanting to throttle both the inventor and his assistant, Trixie's curiosity got the better of her as she decided to inspect the Automaton. Though she wouldn't admit it, the Automaton was actually pretty impressive to see in real life. It was maybe a hoof or so larger than an actual minotaur and aside from the legs being bulkier (obviously to offer better stability) and the hands being slightly bigger, it was a pretty good likeness.
From the greyish tone, Trixie assumed it was mainly made of iron. When the energy subsided, all that remained was a pair of glowing yellow eyes and the word "Live" glowing in yellow on its forehead.
All was quiet for a moment.
groan
Everypony jumped at the sound of creaking metal as the Automaton tilted its head down to look at the ponies. A moment later, using its legs for the first time, it took a few cautionary steps towards its creator.
"I think it recognises me." Gears said in awe.
Cheerilee grabbed Gears by the tail and managed to pull him away just in time to avoid the incoming metal fist. Instead the fist hit the ground where the inventor had been with enough force to make the nearby record player stop. When it looked up from the ground, its eyes and the writing had turned green.
What followed next was Cheerilee having to move Gears out of the way of several incoming punches. Finally she pushed Gears to the side, sidestepped an incoming punch and delivered a brutal uppercut to the Automaton's jaw. While the blow was hard enough to knock its head back, the teacher was stuck trying to shake the pain out of her now throbbing hoof.
"Oh right," she muttered, "fully metallic." She then did a military roll to get out of the way.
The Automaton tried to chase after the teacher but was stopped by Trixie levitating a wash cloth in its face. She then tried to furiously rub the words off the forehead in hopes of turning the creation off but to no avail.
"The word isn't coming off!" Trixie said in dismay. "What type of ink did you use?"
"Well you see," Gears said sheepishly, "My studies found that carving the word into the metal instead of merely writing it on the metal increased the synchronisation between the magic and metal by at least 15%."
"WHAT?!"
Trixie then jumped to the side to avoid a fist of her own.
"OH! OH!" Pinkie said excitedly. "MY TURN! MY TURN!"
The Automaton started trying to squash the pink mare but every time Pinkie would just bounce happily out of the way, laughing the whole time.
"PINKIE!!" Trixie shouted. "Stop playing with it and go get help."
PInkie stopped mid bounce and said "Okie-dokie-lokie." then ran off before the Automaton could stop her.
The metallic creation was then encased in a two tone bubble as Trixie and Lumos tried to use their combined magic to contain the Automaton.
"I don't understand it." Gears in dismay. "I specifically did the construction myself so that any personality that gets imprinted on it would be my own. Where did it get this aggression?"
"Did you remember to stay calm during all of its creation?" Trixie asked.
"Of course I..." Gears paused as recollection paid him a visit. "Oooooh."
"What?" Cheerilee asked.
"Well you see I might have gotten a little frustrated while I was working on a particularly stubborn shoulder joint."
"A little?" Lumos scoffed. "You were swearing at that thing in seven languages, possibly eight. I couldn't tell if you speaking eastern hippogriff or screeching incoherently."
"That's not important." Trixie said. "What is important is finding a way to shut it down before it hurts somepony."
"Fair call, though we probably should change tactics soon." Lumos commented.
"Why." Trixie asked.
"Well the thing is powered by unicorn magic, so there's a good chance that this force field will make it...." Lumos was silenced by the Automaton smashing through the bubble.
Both unicorns stumbled slightly from experiencing a sensation similar to a gong being banged in their heads. As the Automaton tried to close the distance between it and the dazed unicorns, Cheerilee ran in and delivered a powerful kick to the Automaton’s knee joint. It was enough to make the Automaton lose balance, fall down to one knee and use a hand to stabilise itself. Cheerilee's victory was short lived as the Automaton backhanded her, hitting the teacher in the side of her barrel and knocking her off her hooves.
Finally having enough, Gears picked up a rock and threw it at the Automaton's head. There was a hollow clang as it bounced harmlessly off the creations' head but it still managed to get its attention.
"Now look here." Gears scolded. "I created you and I will not have you hurting my friends."
When it stood back up, the Automaton replied by picking up an almost pony sized rock and throwing it back, narrowly missing Gears.
"Okay." Trixie said after getting her bearings again. "Plan B."
She then filled the area with a blinding light. When all cleared, the ponies had vanished, leaving the Automaton standing by itself.
"Could you remember to warn ponies when you use that blinding spell?" Cheerilee scolded.
"Well it worked." Trixie retorted before risking a glance from their hiding place behind some nearby rocks to see what the Automaton was up to. "It bought us some time."
"So what's the plan?" Lumos asked. "Catch our breaths and go back out for round two?"
Trixie shook her head. "I doubt we'd survive."
"What if we distracted it long enough to use up its energy?" Cheerilee suggested.
"That could take a while." Gears admitted. "As a way to increase the length of time between needing to recharge it, I designed a way for it syphon passive magic from its surroundings."
Trixie gaped at Gears. "Why is it that even when you impress me you make me want to throttle you?"
Gears' ears perked up. "You mean you're impressed?"
The representative decided to reply with a question. "Do you know what the Everfree forest is?"
The Detrot inventor paused before pulling out a book. "The Everfree forest is a forest situated near the town of Ponyville. Considered by many to be an anomaly of nature, the strange creatures and unusual weather patterns found within have often been attributed to its high levels of chaos magic." Gears paused. "Oooooh."
"What?" Cheerilee asked.
"Pure chaos magic is unpredictable, unstable and has been known to have a corrupting effect on most things that try to harness it." Trixie explained. "So now, not only are we dealing with something that's aggressive and uncontrollable, it’s also harnessing the same power that brought us uncontrollable weather, poison joke and timber wolves!"
"Well look at the bright side." Gears said in attempted levity. "At least it can't..." He was silenced by Trixie sticking her hoof in his mouth.
"No!" The representative said firmly. "You've tempted fate enough as it is."
"So are we playing hide and seek with it now?" Everypony jumped when they saw that Pinkie Pie had appeared out of nowhere. "Because if we are, it doesn't really work if we all hide in the same place."
"Pinkie?!" Trixie didn't even try to hide her dismay. "You were supposed to get help."
"Oh I did," Pinkie replied. "He's on his way now, I just got here first."
"He?! You mean you got just one stallion to help us?" Trixie almost wanted to shake the party mare. "How is that possibly going to be enough?"
Instead of replying, Pinkie forcibly turned Trixie's head towards the horizon. It was then that the representative noticed a red earth pony stallion, wearing a yoke, that was galloping towards them at full speed. He didn't show any signs of slowing as he headed straight for the Automaton. Said metallic creation turned to face the newcomer. The stallion ran in and, at the last moment, spun on the spot, putting all his strength and the momentum of the sprint into his hind legs as he bucked the Automaton full force. When the crimson hooves collided with its metal torso, the Automaton was made airborne, right into a nearby stack of rocks.
Mac! a-aaah Savior of the Universe Mac! a-aaah He'll save every one of us
Big Mac turned to see four rams standing nearby. Woolliam stepped forward and handed Big Mac a business card.
"Theme songs for all occasions." The ram explained. "You'll find our rates very reasonable."
Big Mac put the card away as he looked to the other ponies. "You alright?" He called.
"Yeah, we're fine." Cheerilee replied before turning to Pinkie. "How'd you get him to come here so fast?"
"Told him there was a massive metal monster with mashing and mayhem in mind." Pinkie replied. She then noticed the teacher staring at her. "What? This situation isn't that hard to explain."
"Hey Woolly." Trixie called. "Got a copy of your rates?"
"Woolliam." The ram corrected as he walked over to Trixie and handed her a piece of paper outlining their prices.
"Wow, they are reasonable." Trixie said as she looked them over. "Make me a demo and we'll talk."
Trixie then noticed the look Cheerilee was giving her. "What? I'm entitled to a theme song."
Cheerilee rolled her eyes as she focused her attention back on Big Mac.
The Automaton picked itself out of the stack of rocks and stared at the newcomer.
"Hostile!" Its voice was raspy and unnatural but there was no mistaking that it had come from the Automaton.
"It can talk?" Cheerilee said in amazement.
"How about we focus on the fact that it can kill." Trixie suggested.
The metal minotaur started to pick up rocks from the stack and hurl them at Big Mac. The red stallion dodged the rocks fairly easily but was unable to close the distance. Finally having enough, the farmer decided to return fire. Finding a well positioned rock, Big Mac resorted to a tried and true Apple Family technique; he bucked it full force.
The rock flew like a rocket straight at the Automaton. Having not yet learned the fine art of dodging, the Automaton could only stare as the make-shift missile flew in and took the metal creature's left arm off its shoulder.
"Nooooo!" Gears wailed. "I spent 6 hours on that shoulder joint." He was promptly silenced by a blue hoof to the back of the head.
The Automaton stared at the space where its arm used to be, seemingly trying to process the sudden change in its structure. So much so that it didn't notice Big Mac charging in until he leapt into the air and removed its right arm with a flying punch.
The farmer dusted himself off with a look of satisfaction as the de-limbed Automaton seemed to stand there in a state of shock. Pinkie then appeared beside the farmer.
"Well it looks like you've been disarmed."
Big Mac let out a groan.
"Hey," Pinkie said indignantly. "If you're not gonna make witty one-liners don't complain about mine."
Any non-existent reply Big Mac might have had was interrupted by a bright green light coming out of the two newly-made holes at the sides of the Automaton. The usually stoic stallion then went bug-eyed when the Automaton's arms flew in and snapped back into place.
"You mean it's also self-repairing?" Gears said in amazement. "That's fantastic! Ow!" The inventor’s enthusiasm was cut short by another well-aimed hoof.
Shaking off his initial shock, Big Mac shooed Pinkie away and readied his front hooves as he prepared to settle this the old fashioned way. He closed the distance, dodged a left jab from the Automaton and countered with a right cross. When that proved ineffective Big Mac ducked a hay maker and countered with a left uppercut aimed for its chin. The Automaton caught the incoming hoof with his right hand and tried to punch Big Mac with his left but the earth pony stopped the fist with his other hoof. What followed next was a standoff between the two powerhouses with neither willing to budge.
At least until the Automaton delivered a devastating head butt and then threw the dazed farmer to the ground.
When Big Mac stopped seeing stars he looked up and saw that the Automaton had lifted up an even bigger rock than the ones it had been throwing, obviously with the intent of crushing him. Just as the rock came down, Big Mac was surrounded by magic and pulled out of the way.
When he looked up again he saw Cheerilee and Trixie standing over him.
"Thanks."
When Trixie dissipated her magic Cheerilee held out a hoof and helped Big Mac sit up. "Hope you still have some fight left," the teacher told her old friend. "Cause we need to end this quickly."
The stallion stood up and cracked his neck. "Eeyup." He drawled as he looked at the Automaton, who had rolled the rock to the side and was trying to make sense of the inexplicable lack of squashed stallion. "Ideas?"
Cheerilee checked her surroundings and saw a massive boulder nearby. She turned to Lumos. "Can you lift that?" She asked as she pointed to the boulder.
"I think so." Lumos admitted.
"Do it," the teacher ordered. "And get ready to drop it."
"So what's the plan?" Trixie asked.
"We blind it, we hit it hard and we bury it." The teacher explained.
"Wow, that plan's both simple and crazy." The representative replied. "Let’s do this."
As Lumos tried to lift up the boulder without the Automaton noticing, Trixie, Cheerilee and Big Mac charged at it.
Trixie shot a blinding light into the creature's eyes. She then sidestepped to give Big Mac a chance to crash into it full body. As the Automaton stumbled backwards, Trixie, using her magic, grabbed hold of its legs as Cheerilee spring-boarded off of Big Mac's back and delivered a jump kick to its head before bouncing off it and landing into Big Mac's waiting arms.
Seeing that the Automaton wasn't quite there yet, Trixie levitated a nearby rock and hit the creature in the head with it. That final blow was enough to know the metal minotaur onto its back.
"NOW!" Cheerilee shouted.
Lumos let go of the boulder, causing the ground to shake as it landed on top of the Automaton.
All was silent as the ponies stared at the rock in fear. It was only after a ten count of nothing happening that Trixie allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.
That was the moment the boulder started to move. Then it started to rise. The ponies could only stare in disbelief as the boulder rose higher to reveal the Automaton lifting up the boulder. Everypony present couldn't help but stare on in shock and awe as they watched this amazing feat of strength.
That awe ended when it threw the boulder at Big Mac. Not having a better plan, the red stallion jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding being crushed. When he looked back up the Automaton was gone.
"Huh?"
Big Mac's ears then perked up when he heard something behind him. He quickly turned and came face to face with a big metal torso. "Horseapples."
The next blow from the Automaton connected, sending the farmer flying. When the stallion landed, he came face first to a skidding stop and didn't get back up.
The other ponies raced to Big Macs side, preparing to protect him from further assault. However when they looked back up, it appeared that while they had been focused on Big Mac, the Automaton had left.
"Where did it go?" Trixie asked.
"Right now, I've got bigger things to worry about." Cheerilee replied as she and Pinkie rolled Big Mac onto his back.
As the teacher gave the red stallion a look over, trying to discern what shape he was in, Big Mac let out a groan as he opened his eyes. Cheerilee stuck her fore hooves near the farmers face. "How many hooves do you see?"
Big Mac tried to focus on said hooves. "Tw...t...To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles..." The stallion seemed to go off into his own soliloquy.
Trixie ran her hoof down her face as she took a cleansing breath. "Okay, new plan. Pinkie; you and Lumos get Big Macintosh to the hospital. The rest of us will find that death machine and try to stop it."
"So basically the old plan but now with less ponies than you started with." Lumos backed off when he felt Trixie's piercing glare. "Alright then."
Pinkie was leading the way for Lumos who was levitating the still soliloquying stallion. Trixie started to follow what looked like the Automaton's trail.
"Look, I don't want to be the one to say this," Cheerilee said. "but I'm really not liking our chances right now. Maybe it would be a better idea to retreat and regroup."
"Love to," Trixie replied. "But if we leave that thing out of our sight for too long more ponies could get hurt." Trixie stopped as she deliberated. "You two should go back to town and see if you can get more help. I'll track it down and send out a flare when I find it."
"There's no way I'm leaving you to face that thing by yourself."
"Look, we need help and we need to keep tracking that thing. Last time I checked, you can't send out a signal flair and we can't exactly trust Bump & Grind not to get lost on his way back to town."
"Grinding Gears." The inventor corrected.
"I know what I said."
Cheerilee was about to continue arguing but realised that despite her hating this idea, there really wasn't an alternative. "Alright, just don't do anything crazy," She paused. "Or at least crazier."
Trixie gave a half hearted smile. "No promises."
As Cheerilee and Gears left to head back to town, Trixie took a moment to motivate herself as she started on the trail of the Automaton. "Alright Trixie, time to earn that Knighthood...again."
When criminals in this world appear And break the laws that they should fear And frighten all who see or hear The cry goes up both far and near For Lulamoon! Lulamoon! Lulamoon! Lulamoon!
Trixie saw the ram quartet standing nearby.
"Like the tune but lose the Lulamoon bit." The representative replied. "Keep trying."
Snails was busy exploring the forest as usual, looking to see if there were any bugs that needed a warm place to stay for the winter. Feeling a chilling breeze, he tightened the red scarf his mum had bought for him before directing his attention to a promising looking log.
Thump! Thump!
Snails turned from the log and saw a giant metal minotaur staring down at him.
"Hi there." The colt replied cheerfully. "I'm Snails. What's your name?"
"Hostile!"
"Hostile? That's a funny name."
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Cheerilee stopped in her tracks. "That's Snails!"
"Who?" Gears asked.
"He's one of my students." The teacher explained. "Come on."
Snails ran for dear life as the Automaton gave chase. "Sorry I said your name was funny!" He wailed.
As he ran, his scarf started to loosen. He accidentally stepped on it and came crashing face first into the ground. When he dug his face out of the snow and rolled onto his back, he saw the Automaton standing over him.
"Hostile!" The metallic monster repeated as it raised its fist.
As the fist came down, Snails closed his eyes and braced for impact. Hearing a thump but not feeling any pain, the colt opened his eyes and saw that standing between him and the Automaton, blocking the fist with her front hooves, was his sister.
And she did not look happy.
"You want to see hostile?" Raindrops asked. "You just found it."
In hindsight, Raindrops would rank picking a fight with a big metal minotaur only slightly above the time she licked a thundercloud for a bet.
As badass as stopping an incoming fist is, it stops being quite as impressive when you remember that the monster has a second fist. A fact that the pegasus only remembered in time to barely dodge that second fist.
Picking herself back up, Raindrops entered one of her well practised attack stances. "Alright ugly, get ready for a taste of Iron Hoof."
The Automaton, neither knowing nor caring what the pegasus was talking about, came in with another punch. Raindrops deflected the blow slightly, twisting as she rolled along the outstretched arm before delivering a vicious elbow to the 'gut' of the creature. Swallowing the pain, Raindrops ducked down to avoid being grabbed by the monster before trying to leg sweep it. The Automaton actually seemed to wobble for moment as it was put off balance. It then righted itself, causing the weather pony to roll out of the way as the Automaton tried to stomp her.
Once out of the way, Raindrops took to the air in a combination of jumping and flying. She leapt over the Automaton and, using her wings to slow her descent, started to spin as she delivered a series of devastating roundhouse kicks Clang! to the back of the head Clang! to the back of the neck Clang! between where the shoulder blades would be Clang! to the small of the back Clang! finishing with a kick to where the tail joined the body.
After completing her furious barrage she jumped back to assess the damage. She was justifiably shocked when she realised her attacks hadn't even phased it.
Raindrops stared at the minotaur, then down at her own hooves in dismay. "Why call the style 'Iron Hoof' if it doesn't work on iron?"
"Maybe it's supposed to be a metaphor." Snails offered. He then shrugged when Raindrops stared at him. "We're learning about 'literary devices' in school."
"Snails." Raindrops said in dismay. "I told you to run."
"No you didn't." Snails argued.
Raindrops was about to argue when realisation struck. "You're right I didn’t." She was about to tell her brother to run but then noticed that while she had been distracted the Automaton had turned around and was facing her. The pegasus growled as she entered another fighting stance.
"Alright tin can. You may be bigger than me, stronger than me, impervious to all my attacks and surprisingly agile for a giant metal monster...." Raindrops paused. "I'm not sure where I was going with this."
"No-one messes with your brother?" Snails suggested.
"Yeah, what he said." Raindrops then dodged an incoming fist.
What followed next was a series of hit and run tactics from Raindrops as she tried to avoid being pummelled while trying to miraculously find some weak point.
It was this scene that Cheerilee, Gears and Trixie simultaneously ran in on. Despite the seriousness of the situation they still did a double take when they saw each other.
"What happened to going back to town and getting help?" Trixie demanded.
"What happened to finding that thing before it hurt somepony else." Cheerilee shot back.
"Point taken." Trixie conceded as she pulled out a bottle of bourbon that she had hidden in her cape with her magic. After moment of concentration the contents of the bottle developed a strange greenish glow. "Get Raindrops clear and be ready to run."
"What are you..."
"JUST DO IT!!"
Deciding not to argue, Cheerilee leapt to action, literally tackling Raindrops to get her out of the way. Before the Automaton could respond the bottle of bourbon collided with the side of its head, covering the creature in the faintly glowing liquid.
The Automaton turned to the source of the bottle. As it noticed Trixie, the mare hit it with a spark of magic. The metallic creation then burst into flames.
Trixie took a brief moment to look on smugly at her handy work. "Speed of lightning, roar of thunder."
She then used her magic to pick up Snails. "And now we run. AAAHHHHHH!"
She let out a scream as she ran for her life with Snails in tow. Her friends took the hint and followed as they left the Automaton to process the newly discovered sensation of being on fire.
The ponies kept on running until they were satisfied with the amount of distance they had put between them and the flaming monster.
"Wow, how'd you set that thing on fire?" Snails asked in amazement when Trixie finally let go of him.
"Two part... ignition spell." Trixie explained between gasping for breath. "First part hyper charges the flammability of the alcohol. The second part makes the boom."
"And you waited until now to try that because...?" Cheerilee asked.
Trixie glared briefly at the school teacher. "That move cost me an almost full bottle of bourbon. And it's not going to stop it." She explained. "Even hyper charged, alcohol doesn't burn hot enough to melt metal. At best I've bought us a little time before the fire burns out."
The representative turned her attention towards Raindrops. "So why were you fighting that thing?"
"It called Snails 'hostile' and tried to crush him." Raindrops explained. "I think that more or less explains it."
At that moment Gears finally caught up to them, gasping for breath. "Must... exercise... more..."
Gears' ear was suddenly wrapped in magic and twisted painfully. He then noticed Trixie's glare and glowing horn.
"Your creation just deemed my friend's younger brother 'hostile." The blue mare said before pointing to Snails. "Care to explain why it would deem Snails, a colt that quite literally wouldn't hurt a fly, 'hostile'?"
In hopes of alleviating the pain, Gears scrambled to find an answer. "Well he's wearing a red scarf. Maybe that fight with the stallion earlier has meant that it now associates the colour red with hostility."
"Wait," Raindrops said. "You mean you built the thing that tried to squash my brother."
Not knowing the danger he was putting himself in, Gears decided to take credit for his creation. "I certainly didn't intend for it to squash anypony, but yes I did build it."
Raindrops let out a growl as she started to close the distance, only to have Cheerilee put herself between Gears and the seething pegasus.
"Raindrops, Snails is watching." The teacher reminded Raindrops. "I know you're mad but take a breath and count to ten."
The pegasus, still angry but not wanting to be a bad influence, followed Cheerilee's advice, took a deep breath and started the ten count.
Having visibly calmed down, Raindrops then seem to notice something nearby. "Hey look, a snow beetle."
"Where?" Snails asked excitedly.
As soon the young colt turned to look where Raindrops had been looking, the pegasus promptly socked the inventor in the face, Trixie barely letting go of his ear in time to avoid it being ripped off.
Raindrops dusted her hooves off as she turned back to the teacher. "Now I'm good."
Cheerilee was about to scold Raindrops when noticed Snails still staring in the direction he had been directed towards. On closer inspection she realised that there was in fact a blue and white beetle using its hind legs to push a snowball.
The teacher gaped at Raindrops who simply raised an eyebrow. "What? I wouldn't lie to him about a snow beetle. He's been waiting most of the year to see one."
"Whoa that is cool."
The three elements then noticed Pinkie Pie had joined Snails in admiring the snow beetle. "Why is it pushing that snowball?"
"Pinkie?" Cheerilee asked in dismay. "What are you doing here? No way you managed to get Big Mac to the hospital so fast."
"No need." Lumos explained as he approached the group. "On the way there we ran across some rescue pegasi that were on their way back from a false alarm..."
"For the last time, lady, that puddle's barely fetlock deep." the pegasus said in frustration. "You don't need rescuing."
"But it’s soooo icky!"
"...as soon as we left them with the crimson wonder, Pinkie picked up your trail and lead us here."
"It's a gift." Pinkie said with a shrug.
"Alright fun time is over." Trixie said. "I'm officially declaring this a state of emergency. We need to evacuate the town and send a request for military support."
"Military support?" Gears asked in dismay as he picked himself up. "Isn't that a little drastic?"
Trixie stopped and stared at Gears. All was quiet for moment but then Trixie seemed to finally snap.
When she started speaking again, she was a lot calmer, almost disturbingly so. "Drastic was using a full bottle of bourbon as a stalling tactic. We've officially left drastic behind us and have moved into full blown crisis. The fact that you have to ask that shows just how out of touch with this situation you really are."
"Okay," Gears said. "I will admit that things might have gotten a bit out of hoof but I..." he was silenced by Trixie sticking her hoof in his mouth.
"No talking, let me paint you a picture." Trixie said. "You have built and unleashed a machine capable of mass destruction upon a civilian populace. And what's worse is that you haven't done a thing to help stop it. The last time a pony unintentionally let loose a threat like this on the town she at least had the decency to help fix the problem. So far Pinkie has done more to help than you and she has no reason for being here!"
"True," the party pony admitted. "It's still fun though."
"Trixie," Cheerilee began. "I think he gets the point."
Trixie seemed to ignore the teacher. "Now we need to evacuate a town, call in the military, explain to my mentor why, yet again, Ponyville is in unspeakable danger and then pray that nopony gets hurt. All because you didn't take the time to ask yourself 'did the world actually need a metallic minotaur?'"
Trixie, seemingly frustrated at the mere sight of Gears, turned away slightly.
"You know, I'm not going to call you the worst thing that train has brought to town, because frankly that's like asking fate to send something worse. But you've definitely up there, somewhere between the Manehatten mobsters and that mare from Hoofington who was convinced she was carrying Raindrops' baby!"
Genuinely confused by that, Pinkie turned the weather pony, who simply replied with a "Don't ask."
"Whoa whoa hold up." Lumos, really not liking where this conversation was going, decided to speak up in his defence. "Look I know this isn't a great turn of events but if we get branded as enemies of the state, our wives are gonna kill us."
Cheerilee looked at Gears in shock. "YOU'RE MARRIED?!"
"NO!" Trixie interjected. "No more shock reveals, no more wacky hijinks, no more goofy distractions and definitely no wah wah waaaaah!"
Pinkie let out a huff as she put away her trombone. "Well excuse me for wanting to lighten the mood."
"The point is that this has stopped being some silly experiment that has gone comically awry. This is now a situation where soon we could have a death on our hooves. We probably would already have one if the Apple family didn't build their stallions big. I am not letting Ponyville get a chapter in the third edition of 'Golem related tragedies of history'."
Despite Trixie having removed her hoof, Gears seemed to be at a loss for words. "I can... we can... fix this." He finally managed out.
"And how do we do that?" Trixie asked. "Magic? That just makes it stronger. Brute force? It shrugged off Cheerilee, Raindrops, Big Mac and a boulder. I don't think throwing more ponies at it is going to help matters."
"Wait," Cheerilee interjected. "Wouldn't requesting military aid technically count as 'throwing more ponies at it'?"
"The point being that we are out of our depth and we need help."
"But you're The Great and Powerful Trixie."
Trixie turned and saw Snails looking up at her in confusion. Trixie sighed, she hated to disappoint her fan but she felt an obligation to be honest with him. "I'm also the Representative of Ponyville. I have a duty to protect the town and its residents. Part of that duty is knowing when a problem is too big for us to handle and to ask for help before anypony gets seriously hurt."
"Wait hold up." Raindrops interjected. "As much as I don't like inflating that ego of yours, since you moved to Ponyville and helped form the band of merry mares we have dealt with threats including, but not limited to, centuries old evil, corrupt nobles, dragons, salamanders, a phoenix, a magic wielding Zebra, an Ursa Minor and a world conquering Alicorn. And yet this is where you throw in the towel? Sorry but I gotta call hog wash."
"Those times were different." Trixie countered. "We had no choice but to handle them ourselves and even then we were sometimes lucky just to get out with our lives."
"And yet despite that, when the chips were down you still managed to pull a win out of your hat." Cheerilee said. "With a lot of help from the rest of us of course but it was still a win."
Trixie stared at her two friends.
"Okay, what's going on here?" Trixie asked in dismay. "I'm trying to do the responsible thing as representative and you two are trying to talk me out of it. What happened to avoiding unnecessary conflict and protecting students?"
"It could take hours for the military to get here." The teacher replied. "Meaning that even if we got the town evacuated the Automaton would still be free to cause major damage. And, in case you've forgotten, the school is a big RED building."
"I just want to see that thing destroyed. I don't really care who does it." Raindrops explained with a shrug. "I'm just amazed you'd give up the chance to once again save the day."
Trixie paused, her friends had delivered some very compelling arguments, causing her desire to act like a responsible representative to do battle with her desire to personally help take the Automaton down.Adding to this was the hope filled expression Snails was giving her.
Trixie forced herself to keep an even tone. "Even if we were to try taking it on again, we would need some weakness that we could exploit."
"We aim for the head or the heart." Everypony turned back to Gears, who seemed to have regained his voice. "The word on its forehead is the source the source of its autonomy. The key to the mechanism that gives it its ability to siphon and retain magic is a hoof sized crystal inside the upper body. If we remove that crystal it will run out of power before anypony else gets hurt."
Trixie, somewhat taken aback by Gears actually offering suggestions, was rather tame in her reply. "I like the input but I doubt it will stand still long enough for us to tear its chest open."
"What about when Big Mac tore its limbs off?" Cheerilee suggested. "It just stood there and focused entirely on repairing itself. If we can separate one of its arms again and keep it separated maybe it will buy us enough time. "
"It would also give us access to the weakest point of the upper body." Gears explained. "I built the front and the back separately and then combined them around the internal components so the sides are the least enforced."
"So we rip its arm off, a feat we may not be able to replicate, keep the arm separated whilst we wrench it open from the side and pull out a crystal. All the while probably using magic which we know makes it stronger." Trixie paraphrased. "This is the sort of plan I'd come up with and those who know me know that isn't necessarily a good thing."
"So you're saying no?" Cheerilee asked.
Despite herself Trixie smirked as she straightened her hat. "Like I said, it's the sort of plan I'd come up with. Besides, there's no guarantee we'd get the town evacuated in time. Plus it's not like I have anything better to do today." She turned to Raindrops. "You in?"
Raindrop paused for moment, seemingly weighing up the alternatives, before speaking. "Well, this plan is crazy, borderline suicidal and Trixie's spearheading it. How can it fail?" Cheerilee couldn't tell if the weatherpony was joking or being serious. "Besides, I have a theme song to live up to."
Cheerilee did a double take. "Theme song?"
At that the four rams appeared out of nowhere.
Raindrops! Raindrops! Raindrops! Raindrops!
She flies across the nation A pegasus of skill She's here to save the day Just bet your flank she will
She loves to buck the bad guys And many fit the bill A tyrant sun, some diamond dogs That hydra from the froggy bog
Raindrops! Raindrops! Raindrops! Raindrops!
The Elements of Harmony Are watching, so beware The villains will feel pain Cause she's a Mighty Mare
So if you're planning evil It's your last mistake we swear
She's fit to win She doesn't stop She is our hero She's Raindrops!
Cheerilee stared at the rams and then back at Raindrops who merely shrugged. "Mom thought my confidence needed a boost so she got me a coupon."
Trixie looked genuinely shocked. She turned to the rams.
"So just explain this to me." Cheerilee said. "You've been married for as long as I've known you?"
"Yes," Gears replied, head first in the crate the Automaton had been in. "It wasn't long after our six month anniversary that you were in Detrot for that teachers conference."
Cheerilee, Gears, Lumos, Trixie and Snails were back in the rock field where the whole mess with the Automaton had begun. Gears was looking through the crate the Automaton had been brought in for something he said would help beat it.
While Cheerilee was well aware of there being more pressing issues she still felt the need to get some closure.
"You never told me you were married."
"It never came up."
"I asked you if you were dating anypony and you told me no."
Gears stuck his head back out of the crate and looked at Cheerilee, appearing to be genuinely confused. "Why would I be dating anypony if I'm already married?"
Gears returned to the crate while Cheerilee just stood there, clearly flabbergasted. Lumos then approached, hoping to offer the teacher some comfort.
"Sorry about him. He's not a bad pony." The unicorn insisted. "He's just a bit out of touch with how the world works."
"Then why do you work for him?" Trixie asked.
"I married his sister." Lumos replied.
"That's... unfortunate." Trixie admitted.
Lumo shrugged. "She's worth it."
"Here we are."
Gears pulled out a strange claw like device and what appeared to be a crowbar.
"This is the tool I use to remove the arms if I need to make adjustments." Gears explained, indicating the crowbar. "We just jam this in the underside of where the arm meets the torso then all I need is a big enough opening to pull out the crystal." He then looked at Lumos smugly. "And you thought packing the tools was a bad idea."
"As I recall, I also thought building the Automaton to begin with was a bad idea." Lumos replied.
The inventor went from looking smug to looking sheepish. "Fair enough."
"Great, so we have a chance at stopping it." Raindrops said. "Now any ideas on where to find the darn thing?"
"Hostile."
Everypony turned to Snails
"He said his name was Hostile." The colt clarified.
The adults look at each other for a moment.
"I actually think it’s appropriate." Trixie admitted.
"So do we know where 'Hostile' is?" Raindrops asked.
"I've got Pinkie in charge of locating it." The representative replied.
A can attached to a long piece of string a landed nearby.
"Speaking of which." Trixie picked up the can and pull the string tight. "This is Cobalt Diva, what's your status?"
"Cobalt Diva, this is Party Popper. Have located target."
"Good work, Party Popper. Return to rendezvous for debriefing and to prepare Bug Master for extraction."
"Roger that Cobalt Diva, over and out."
Trixie then noticed Raindrops looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Really?" The weather pony asked.
"This is Pinkie we're talking about." Trixie shot back. "You either spend an hour trying to tell her to take this seriously or accept that she'll make anything into a game and just go with it."
"Uh-huh."
"You're just jealous that we have cool codenames."
Raindrops rolled her eyes.
"Right, because it’s hard to top names like Cobalt Diva and Party Popper."
"You want a code name too?" Pinkie's voice came out from Trixie's cape. The representative lifted the cape and almost jumped back in fright when she saw Pinkie hiding between her legs, deep in thought. "I've got it! Your codename shall be 'Storm Warning'."
"Pinkie." Trixie said, trying hard to maintain her cool. "Do you know what 'boundaries' are?"
"Sure I do," Pinkie said proudly. "They're those lines you see on maps that show where one pony's property ends and another’s begins..."
Pinkie pulled a map out of her mane and handed it to Trixie. "Speaking of maps, that's where the target is."
Trixie unrolled the map and saw a location marked with a red x.
"Good work. Now it's time to take Snails home."
Snails was actually pouting at this. "I wanted to watch you save the day."
Raindrops focused her attention to her little brother. "Come on Snails, you know we don't want to risk you getting hurt."
The colt sighed. "I know."
"Tell you what." Trixie chimed in. "If it’s still light out when this is all over, the three of us can go see if we can find those blizzard crickets Carrot Top thought she heard by Ferret Creek."
That seemed to lighten Snails' mood and made him more willing to go with Pinkie while Trixie and Raindrops waved them off.
"Is sending Snails away a sign we expect this plan to fail?" Trixie asked Raindrops.
The weather pony shrugged. "I'd like to think of it as hedging our bets. Kinda like how you sent Luna a message requesting military aid be sent to Ponyville if she doesn't hear from you in the next hour."
Trixie paused. "How did you know that?"
"Because if you hadn't, you'd be an idiot." Raindrops replied frankly before asking. "So ready to save the day, Cobalt Diva?"
Trixie smirked. "Only if you are, Storm Warning."
"So I'm clear on most of the plan." Lumos said. "But how exactly are we going to get the Automaton where we want?"
Cheerilee gave a meaningful glance to the place where Big Mac had crash landed.
"By using the one thing we know will get its attention."
The Automaton, having stopped burning, was now idly wandering through the forest. That was until a rock collided with its head with a dull thunk. It turned and saw Cheerilee, now red thanks to one of Trixie's spells, standing nearby.
"Hey, scrap metal." The teacher said as she tauntingly waved her flank at it. "Hostile this!"
Satisfied she had its attention, Cheerilee promptly ran, with the Automaton giving chase. As the two raced through the forest, Cheerilee had to make sure the Automaton didn't lose sight of her but also avoid being caught. Nearing the destination, the teacher did a jump off a nearby tree in order to do a sharp right turn. The Automaton, lacking a pony's manoeuvrability, crashed headlong into said tree. Cheerilee stopped when she heard the crash and dared a look back just in time to see the tree topple. She then started running again when the Automaton righted itself and gave chase.
Upon seeing the frozen lake up ahead, she started running at full speed. When she neared the edge of the lake she leapt and then used her momentum to skid across the ice. When she went as far she could, she grabbed hold of the rope Trixie magicked out to her and held on as she was pulled the rest of the way across. The Automaton, still in pursuit, started to cross the lake.
It made it about a quarter of the way before it heard the sound of ice cracking. Hearing the unfamiliar sound, it looked down and saw that while the ice was quite thick, it was having trouble supporting the weight of the metallic behemoth.
"Hey Hostile." The Automaton looked up and saw Raindrops flying nearby. "This one's for Snails."
She then hit the ice as hard as she could. The ice around the Automaton filled with cracks before finally giving way, causing the metal monster to sink to the bottom of the lake.
Satisfied, Raindrops flew back to side of the lake where the rest were waiting. "You sure this will work?" She asked Trixie.
Trixie shrugged, not taking her eyes off the lake. "Well, trying to get out of the ice water will take a lot out of it. Either it will slow it down enough for us to have a shot at playing doctor or it will run out of power before it manages to get out of the lake."
Cheerilee, catching her breath, was also staring anxiously at the lake. "Remind me again which outcome we're hoping for?"
All was quiet for a moment as everypony stared at the lake. That quiet was soon shattered by a metallic fist smashing through the ice not too far from the edge. This was followed by another fist, even closer to the shore. This was followed by a pair of horns, then a head. More of the Automaton started to appear as it was breaking through the ice and wading to the shore.
As it finally stepped out of the lake Trixie saw that the water had had the intended effect. Water was leaking out of a every crevice; gears and joints creaked and groaned as its movements were now sluggish. Despite this and the fact that it was an expressionless machine, it still managed to appear ticked off as it continued to trudge forward.
"Hos.....stile!"
It raised its arm, intending to do some damage.
"NOW!"
Lumos used his magic to restrain the rest of the Automaton as Raindrops grabbed hold of its outstretched arm and started pulling on it. Trixie levitated the crowbar into the 'armpit' of the Automaton and started applying leverage. Nothing seemed to happen until Cheerilee jumped in with a flying kick to the crowbar. The added force was enough to finally dislocate the arm.
Raindrops, still pulling with all her might, went flying with said arm and came to a crash landing. Though dazed, she still held on to the arm for dear life as it started trying to fly back to the rest of the Automaton. Despite her strength, the weathermare was starting to lose ground and might have lost the arm completely if Cheerilee hadn't joined her in helping restrain the limb.
Lumos was still giving it his all in restraining the monster and Trixie, having dropped the crowbar, was straining as she not only struggled to tear open a big enough hole in the side of the Automaton but also stop it from healing back up. After much effort; the hole was finally big enough to reveal a crystal giving off a green glow. Needing no further cue, Gears raced in with his claw device.
Onto the Automaton and clinging to its side, Gears plunged the claw into the hole. He then started trying to pull the crystal out. Trying being the operative world.
"What are you waiting for?" Trixie demanded.
"It's stuck." Gears replied.
"WELL GET IT UNSTUCK!!!"
"I'm trying!" Gears stuck his back hooves on either side of the opening and wrenched his head back as he pulled with all his might.
Something finally gave way, causing Gears to fall to ground. Having closed his eyes before, he peeked and saw the glowing crystal within the claw's clutches.
Meanwhile, Automaton stopped struggling and started to sag. After giving it a moment to be sure, Trixie and Lumos released their hold on it. The arm that Raindrops and Cheerilee had been restraining became lifeless. The arm still attached to the Automaton fell limply to the side as the green glow in its eyes went out.
All was quiet for moment. Gears, satisfied that it was finished, carried the crystal over to Trixie and Lumos.
"There, that wasn't so..."
groan
They turned and saw that despite its eyes not glowing anymore and still having a gaping hole in its side, the Automaton was slowly starting to move again and was heading towards them.
"Oh come on!" Trixie exclaimed in dismay.
"Hey Hostile! HEADS UP!!"
Raindrops flew in, wielding the Automaton’s dislocated arm. As the Automaton glanced up, Raindrops swung with all her might.
THUNK!!
The arm collided with the metal monster’s head, hitting it with enough force to knock it clean off. The head went flying, and there was a brief pop of magic as it left the remaining body of the Automaton. It then started to crumple as it fell to the ground.
Satisfied that it was finally over, Raindrops dropped the arm and turned away from the monster, only to see saw everypony else gaping at her. "What? You said to either go for the head or the heart."
"So is that it?" Cheerilee asked.
"Should be." Gears replied. "Without the word that was on the forehead to give direction, any left over magic in the metal is useless."
The ponies stared at awe in the mangled scrap metal formerly known as the Automaton. A moment of silence passed over them until Trixie turned to Raindrops. "'Heads up'?"
Before the weather pony could reply Trixie suddenly burst out laughing."Hahahahahaha...heads up....hahahahahaha." the representative soon collapsed onto her back as she continued to laugh. This went on for at least a minute.
"You know, it's not that funny." Cheerilee commented.
"No, it's not that." Trixie replied between laughing spurts. "It’s that now that the threats gone this whole day has caught up to me. Before Gears came to my office, I was praying for something to help stop my boredom and look where that got me....hahahahahaha."
"You seem to be in remarkably good spirits." Gears commented.
"Oh no, I'm still unbelievably angry." Trixie replied. "In fact some part of me is still wondering if there's a way to dump you in Tarturus and let Cerebus use you as a chew toy." She returned to uncontrollable laughter.
The other ponies just stared as Trixie continued roll on the ground, laughing hysterically.
"Is she alright?" Lumos asked.
"Not sure," Raindrops replied. "I read in a book once that laughter is a common coping mechanism for ponies that are placed in a situation where they are unsure of the correct emotional response."
"Should we be concerned?" Gears asked.
"Well if we give her a minute the laughter will probably either calm down or escalate into a violent rage." Raindrops answered. She then draped an arm over Gears, seemingly offering comfort but more likely preventing escape. "Let's see what happens."
"We've collected all the pieces we could find," field supervisor Hazmat explained as he handed over the clipboard to Trixie. "They're ready to be transported and destroyed."
Trixie nodded as she read through the notes, yet again thankful for how quickly a hazardous materials disposal unit was able to get there. After she had recovered from her laughing fit, she had sent Princess Luna an all clear and got to work making sure the remains of Grindings Gears' invention were taken care of responsibly.
She then paused when she noticed something in the report. "You didn't find the head?"
Hazmat shook his head. "We scoured the area but couldn't find a trace of it. We're assuming it fell in the lake but it's too cold to send in divers to check." He explained. "Usual protocol is to bring in a unicorn team to dredge the lake but your report to my superior said to avoid using magic on the metal."
Trixie paused for a moment as she weighed her options. Finally, she signed the clipboard and handed it back. "We'll leave it for now. If there's any life in it, the ice water will keep it dormant. Get the rest destroyed and when spring comes, send a team of divers to check the lake."
"Will do." Hazmat replied as he took back the clipboard. "ALRIGHT TEAM! MOVE OUT!"
As the field supervisor left, Trixie was joined by Cheerilee.
"So that's everything?" The teacher asked.
"Almost everything." Trixie turned to look at Gears, who was watching his hard work being carried away. "I suppose you want me to go easy on him."
Cheerilee shook her head. "I still consider him a friend so I'm not out for his blood," She stated. "But he built something that hurt one of my other friends and almost hurt one of my students, so I'm not going to defend him."
Despite the situation Trixie gave Cheerilee a smirk. "And the fact he had forgotten to mention that he was married?"
"Irks me to no end," the teacher replied bluntly. "But that is for him and Mrs. Gears to sort out."
Trixie rolled her eyes but didn't press the matter. She approached the Detrot inventor. When he noticed her, he took in a deep breath.
"So there's no more putting this off is there?"
"No there isn't." The representative replied. "We don't need to go over how dangerous and downright stupid this was."
"You're absolutely right, but before you say anything more, please know that I am really sorry about all of this and that I take full responsibility for what happened." Gears interjected. "Lumos would not have done any of this if I hadn't told him to so the blame lies with me."
Trixie blinked a couple of times before speaking.
"That is very noble of you." Trixie remarked. "However, Princess Luna has given me the duty of discerning where the blame for today's events lies, not you."
"I understand." Gears said solemnly.
"And after reviewing all the facts of the matter, it becomes clear that blame lies with the Everfree forest."
For the first time, Gears look genuinely confused. "What?"
"The corrupting of influence of the Everfree forest is well documented." Trixie said matter of factly. "While most accounts focus on the effect it has on weather patterns as well as the local flora and fauna, there have been incidents of it corrupting other forms of magic. While in hindsight there are more precautions you could have taken to prevent this, there is nothing to indicate that your intentions were malicious and we have no way of knowing how the Automaton would have acted had it not been corrupted."
The inventor stared while the representative continued.
"Now there will be a hundred-bit fine for not seeking permission from the local authorities before commencing your little 'test run'. It could have been worse considering how dangerous your project turned out to be but the state has decided to be lenient." Trixie handed over a form outlining the fine and how to pay it. "I have also taken the liberty of speaking to both Raindrops and Big Macintosh. Both have agreed not to press charges, provided you are on the next train back to Detrot."
Gears stood, looking quite dumbfounded.
"So...I'm...not...in trouble?"
"You're being let off with a warning." Trixie stated. "The Automaton is now on record as a potential threat to public safety. You try to build another one and you will deemed an enemy of the state and punished accordingly."
Gears nodded. "I...understand."
"Do you?" Trixie asked. "You know, if you ignore everything wrong with building a golem, I can sum up why this little project of yours failed so spectacularly with one mistake."
Despite himself, Gears felt the need to ask. "And what mistake is that?"
"You were so focused on the potential benefits of using magic that you didn't stop to think of the risks."
"I researched magic extensively before even beginning construction." Gears argued.
"Don't kid yourself." Trixie chastised. "You researched enough to get what you thought was the desired result and ignored basic fundamentals. Your focus was entirely on the end goal, not the path you were taking to get there. I know cause I've been there." The representative stated. "I plunged head long into Zebra magic, focusing on the benefits of understanding the art and as a result turned my friend into a hominan."
"A homi-what?"
"It's this hairless, monkey looking thing." Trixie explained. "Mostly harmless but still kinda freaky looking. Sure part of the cause was the fact I'd been given a shoddy translation, but I had still been the one who put my friend in that situation."
"Why are you telling me this?" Gears asked.
"You're not the first pony to set their sights high and have it blow up in their face." Trixie explained. "And you won't be the last. The only difference between you and most two-bit hacks out of their depths is that you some skill to back it up."
"Um...thanks?"
"It wasn't a compliment, it was a warning." The representative clarified. "When a smart pony does something stupid, they tend to do a lot more damage than a dumb one. And you seem to be a really smart pony that's really good at doing really stupid things."
"So you're saying I should give up experimenting with magic?"
Trixie ran a hoof through her mane as she made sure to phrase the next part carefully.
"I'm saying that when entering new territory it's better to plan twice, build once and have somepony making sure you're not missing something." Trixie took out a piece of paper, "Here's the name and address of a Canterlot professor that's been exploring new ways of using magic to improve machinery. Hasn't got the experience in building things that you do but he knows more about magical empowerment than anypony else in the field. Put your heads together and you might just create something that will change the world."
The representative then handed over a sealed envelope as well as a list. "Here's a letter of introduction, can't say that it will get you a definite yes from him but at the very least he'll hear you out. The list is the names of some nobles I know who might consider investing in this kind of thing if you manage to come up with something useful."
The inventor looked the pieces of paper and then up at the representative. He opened his mouth to speak but Trixie raised her hoof to silence him.
"I haven't completely thrown out the Tarturus idea so how about you avoid saying something that will ruin the moment and go catch your train."
Gears nodded dumbly and, after saying a brief farewell to Cheerilee, scampered off with Lumos.
The teacher turned to her friend. "Not that I'm complaining but you let him off easier than I thought you would."
"Well prosecuting him would probably result in him getting community service and the thought of him staying in town to repay his debt scares me more than the Automaton did."
"Good point." Cheerilee admitted. "Though that was still a nice thing you did for him."
Trixie gave a half shrug. "Well, it's not like I could have talked him out of using magic. This way at least means that we might not have another disaster. I mean I still think he's a few party hats short of a cute-ceañera," she remarked. "But he did build an impressive machine. If he focuses that talent on something a little less golem-ey, who knows."
Cheerilee seemed to be genuinely impressed. "Trixie, you have been amazingly mature about all this."
"Well not entirely." Trixie admitted. "The mature thing probably would have been not telling Applejack who had built the thing that beat up Big Macintosh."
"'Scuse me. Yer Grinding Gears, aintcha?"
Grinding Gears turned to see an orange mare wearing a Stetson hat.
"Why yes I am." The inventor replied. "Sorry I can't chat for long. I've got to be on a train in fifteen minutes."
"Dat's fine." Applejack replied as she cracked her neck. "Ah'll be done in ten."
Satisfied that they were alone, Cheerilee turned back to the Representative. "Okay let's hear it."
Trixie tilted her head slightly. "Hear what."
"You warned me that if this thing with Grinding Gears turned out badly you'd find the most obnoxious way to say 'I told you so'. So let's hear it."
Trixie gave a thoughtful pause. "You know what, I'm not going to say it."
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"You didn't know Gears had already built the Automaton, and rubbing your nose in the fact that I had known this was a bad idea right from the start would be childish. Besides, I've lead you and the others into enough crazy stuff that I can't really act too high and mighty." Trixie placed a foreleg over her friend in companionship. "The day is saved, the crisis is averted and no more bourbon was lost so let's just savour the moment."
The ram quartet suddenly appeared around the two mares.
There was a mare who told you so And Trixie was her name-o Yes she told you so! Yes she told you so! Yes she told you so! Yes Trixie told you so!
As the rams started their second verse, Trixie let out a content sigh.
"Just savour the moment."
With the disposal unit finally gone, a hooded figure quietly stepped out of hiding. Confident she was alone, she took a moment to admire the spoils of what had turned out to be a surprisingly successful reconnaissance mission.
"What a remarkable combination of machine and magic." The hooded figure commented as she ran an appraising hoof over the slightly battered head of the Automaton. "To let such a tool go to waste would certainly be tragic."
