> A Gizmonk in Rainbow Rocks
>  by Moheart7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue - A Gizmonk in Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville, as peaceful as it is beautiful, at least that’s how it is half the time, the other half it’s a town known for its load of crazy antics and events. Everyone in this town has experienced these occurrences at some point in time, after all one can’t live in Ponyville without experiencing or at least hearing about the crazy stuff that happens here. And one particular crazy event was what happened the winter just passed, and all because the town gained a new resident 6 months earlier in the form of a very rare and very bizarre creature, this resident was of course Goggles the Gizmonk. 

Needless to say, everyone was intrigued by him when Apple Bloom brought the strange little monkey-like creature home, but after a while he became one of the town’s most loved residents, he helped Silver Spoon gain confidence in herself to reveal the truth about her false Cutie Mark and in turn become friends with Apple Bloom and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Gizmonk also set up an Inventing business with Silver Spoon’s father, which allowed him to spread his scientific genius all over town, he even became good friends with the Diamond Dogs, Princess Luna and former Showpony, the Great and Powerful Trixie, who now remains his faithful assistant even to this day. However 5 months after arriving in town, it was revealed that Goggles was in fact a fugitive who escaped from his own country of Kappan after it’s Queen falsely accused him of stealing, thankfully after a hectic escape attempt and a final showdown against the Queen herself, Goggles was soon free and welcomed as an official resident of Equestria by Princess Celestia after he crashed his own funeral. What’s more, after giving his new lab a much-needed rebuild with his friends, Princess Celestia organised to have Goggles officially certified as a Professor of Science, granted a lot of ponies at the Equestrian Ministry of Science were very sceptical about the whole idea, but since it was Celestia herself who wanted to have it done, Goggles became certified within a single week. 

Now with his new family, job and home Goggles had never have been happier, every day since then he would always be building some new gizmo, sharing social events with his friends and loving every minute of it. However one day, a new chapter in the Gizmonk’s life had begun in the form of another new Arrival at Sweet Apple Acres

> Chapter 1 - The Pony-Droid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Tape always was a sceptical sort of stallion, after all as an inspector for the Ministry of Science he had to remain serious in every situation, and the fact that he was asked to come to one of the most rustic parts of Equestria to make his inspection didn’t help his opinion on the new inventor he was set to meet with that morning. He was a middle-aged, red Unicorn stallion with a grey mane and tail with a small goatee and wire glasses, he also wore a green tie and carried a personal clipboard to make notes for his inspection. As he walked up the dirt road up to Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville, he wore a stuck-up look upon his face as he observed his surroundings, after looking from the farm-house to the strange red barn, he then noticed a blue Unicorn mare stacking up crates with her magic just outside the barn. Confident that this was who he was looking for, Red Tape walked up to her.

“Excuse me?” he said, grabbing the Unicorn’s attention. “Professor Goggles, I assume?”

However the Unicorn only chuckled at that.

“I’m afraid you assume wrong,” she said with a smile. “I am actually the Great and Powerful Trixie, Professor Goggles’ humble assistant.”

At those words Red Tape raised an eyebrow, so far his opinion on this Professor Goggles was not very good, especially if he keeps this kind of pony as an assistant, obviously this mare had no sense of humility nor even the slightest bit of knowledge about science in any manner, he could tell just by looking at her.

“I see,” he said, taking a quill and writing something on his clipboard. “Well, may I ask where the Professor is? My name is Red Tape and I have an appointment.”

Trixie widened her eyes at that.

“Oh you must be the inspector from the Ministry of Science right?” she said, remembering reading about the upcoming inspection from Goggles’ itinerary.  “Well I don’t know where Goggles is exactly, all I know is that he is… airborne at the moment.”

Once again Red Tape raised an eyebrow.

“Airborne?” he said questionably.

Suddenly as if on cue, the two unicorn’s suddenly heard a noise from above them, looking towards the sky, Red Tape was met with an astounding sight. Bursting out of the clouds with speed that matches even rainbow Dash, a large metallic vehicle soared through the sky above Sweet Apple Acres, a vehicle with a spinning propeller at its front, two long metal wings at its side, and a certain blue Gizmonk sitting in its driver’s seat. Red Tape may not have known what this strange device was, but Trixie certainly did, after all, the P.L.A.N.E. was one of Goggles’ greatest achievements, so much so that the Gizmonk felt the need to rebuild and upgrade it after the Cutie Mark Crusaders crashed the first one through the front wall of Baltimare Prison. After circling the area few a few minutes the P.L.A.N.E. finally swooped downward, skidded across the group and slowed down to a stop just outside the Laboratory, leaving Red Tape with a baffled look upon his face as he dropped his quill and clipboard. Soon Red Tape became even more surprised when he witnessed just who, or rather WHAT jumped out of the vehicle, raised his goggles onto his forehead and stretched himself out.

“Ah nothing like a great flight across the country to start off the work-day,” the Gizmonk sighed as he stretched out his tail, not taking notice of the new arrival yet.

“THAT’S Professor Goggles?” he gasped, looking at the 13-inch Gizmonk that had just stepped onto Sweet Apple Acres. “He looks…different from what I expected.”

Trixie rolled her eyes at that.

“The Ministry didn’t tell you much about him before they sent you, did they?” she asked with a small smirk, before walking away from the inspector and towards her employer.

“Only his name and Address.” Red Tape admitted, not really being listened to anymore.

Now that he was back on the ground of his home, Goggles couldn’t help but smile as his lovely assistant walked up to him with a smile on her face.

“Welcome back boss,” she said, crouching down to allow the Gizmonk to hop onto her back. “I hope you had a pleasant flight.”

“Thank you Trixie,” Goggles chuckled in response. “Anything happen while I was gone?”

“Not much,” Trixie answered, trying to recall the events that happened during the Gizmonk’s absence. “Two new orders came in from the Cakes to repair some of their kitchen gadgets, Fluttershy dropped by to see if we were still on for tea this afternoon. Oh, and you got a postcard from Jinx, she seems to be settling into her new home in Mexicolt quite well.”

Goggles couldn’t help but smile upon hearing that, after all Jinx was his friend long before he ever came to Ponyville, in fact it was thanks to her that he was able to come here in the first place. However after the whole fiasco at Baltimare Prison she didn’t stay long in Ponyville, granted she was offered a job and a place of residence by Princess Luna herself, but being a Sphinx she needed a more suitable environment to recuperate after spending 5 months in a prison cell. So a couple of weeks before, Jinx took the train the Mexicolt, a part of Equestria further west from where Goggles now lived with a much warmer climate that was suitable for Sphinxes. Goggles may have been saddened at first, but he was glad to know that he and Jinx would still be able to stay in touch.

“Smashing,” the Gizmonk sighed. “I’m glad to hear she’s doing okay… who’s this?”

It was then that Goggles had finally noticed the red Unicorn stallion, staring at him with a gaping jaw, still astounded at what he was seeing.

“A Mr Red Tape from the Ministry of Science,” Trixie announced, still wearing her smirk.

“Ah yes,” Goggles responded, scratching his head with thought. “You must be the inspector right?”

At those words, Red Tape shook his head and regained his composure, after all he had a job to do, even though it was a little odd for him today. Picking up his quill and clipboard, he then address the Gizmonk on Trixie’s back.

“Uh yes,” he replied, clearing his throat. “As your assistant has just declared, my name is Red Tape, and as you know, the Ministry has sent me to inspect your laboratory along with any of your newest creations. Now normally we wouldn’t go through such bureaucracies with fellow inventors but as of late you have been requesting some unusual materials to be brought to your place of residence.”

As he listened to every word, Goggles nodded his head with understanding and as Trixie had come to expect, he had an answer for Red Tape’s concerns.

“Well that can be easily explained,” he said, crossing his arms. “You see, I have always tried to experiment with new materials and methods, such as potion making, gem-powered gizmos, etc. And ever since I received my certification, it allowed me access to many of the ministry’s highly rare resources, as such I wished to see if I could use them into my own devices and hopefully create something spectacular.”

At those words, Red Tape once again began to write on his clipboard, making note of what the Gizmonk was saying to him.

“I see,” he said in response, scratching his chin with thought. “Would you be so kind as to show me some of these new creations? As I’m sure you can guess, the Ministry would like to know if their resources are being put to good use.”

Goggles smiled at that.

“Of course,” he said cheerfully. “I have nothing to hide, follow us.”

On that note, Trixie then carried Goggles towards the doors of the barn, pushed them open and led Red Tape inside, once within the place of work of the Gizmonk, Red Tape’s jaw once again dropped. What was once nothing more than a wooden structure filled with hay and other farm equipment, was now a metallic looking laboratory with every feature a Gizmonk could need. In place of an earthy floor was now a mass of metal-tiled flooring with panels in certain areas that allowed anyone to be lifted to the second level, along the walls were several machines connected to automated conveyer belts that were used to carry either metal parts for new gizmos or any other piece of material that Goggles would use, in the far corner was a large iron forge that Goggles used to melt down the metals he needed into the appropriate shapes as well as encrust them with gems if needed, and finally there was a massive worktable in the centre of the room for Goggles and Trixie to mix potions or assemble the newest Gizmo pieces together, upon this table were several pieces of metal and cables along with a few unfinished projects, all of which were covered in dust sheets. However while the ground level was the main workspace, the second level served more as a residential environment, the main reason being that Trixie’s caravan was completely wrecked when the front of the last barn was blown apart and Goggles felt it was wise to move out of the makeshift hammock he made in Apple Bloom’s room when he first arrived in Ponyville. So both of them, along with several of their friends, decided to make the second level of the lab a suitable home environment for the both of them whilst they were rebuilding, complete with a sitting area, two bedrooms, a working kitchen, bathroom, and internal heating for cold nights. However it wasn’t the residential area that Red Tape was interested in seeing.

“I’d offer you something to eat but unfortunately I can’t cook to safe my life,” Goggles chuckled as he jumped off Trixie’s back and onto the worktable. “Perhaps you would like a cup of tea? I make an excellent brew of Cammomile.”

“Uh… no thank you,” Red Tape answered, once again regaining his composure and readjusting his glasses. “Perhaps we can begin this inspection with a few small questions, please tell me about this laboratory.”

Both Trixie and Goggles nodded at that.

“Well, believe it or not, this place started out as a regular barn,” Goggles explained, earning a sceptical look from Red Tape in response as he continued to write upon his clipboard. “However after the proper modifications, me along with many of my friends have managed to turn this into a fully operational, partially automated laboratory.”

As Goggles spoke, Red Tape made sure to keep note of every detail as he looked over his surroundings, all things considered it did seem like a good place to set up shop, even if some parts of it were a little rustic.

“An interesting accomplishment I must say,” Red Tape admitted. “And what sort of devises do you create in such a location, I understand you are the mind behind the Laser-Cutter?”

Once again Goggles chuckled.

“Indeed I am,” he replied, remembering the time he first met the Diamond Dogs, an event that soon led him to create the said device. “Although I never really needed the ministry’s recourses for that.”

At those words Red Tape nodded with understanding.

“Then perhaps you would be so kind as to show me what you HAVE created with those resources,” he said. “After all that is exactly why I’m here.”

Trixie couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, clearly this inspector knew how to make his point, but regardless he could be a little more patient about it.

“Oh I assure you, Goggles has been using those resources to the very best of his efforts,” she said. 

“Indeed I have,” Goggles said in agreement, “In fact, why don’t I show you my very latest, and I dare say, greatest creation yet.”

With a simple exchange of nods, Goggles silently gave Trixie the okay to bring out his new gizmo, who effortlessly understood the request and walked over to one of the far corners of the lab, only to come back carrying another sheet-covered contraption with her magic. However this particular contraption was a lot bigger than the other ones on the worktable, in fact it was just about the same size as Trixie herself. After Trixie set down the device in front of Red Tape, Goggles then jumped off the worktable with another wide smile on his face and grabbed the edge of the sheet.

“Allow me to introduce, the world’s first… Pony-Droid!” Goggles announced, quickly yanking on the sheet, unveiling the creation beneath. 

Upon seeing the miraculous invention, Red Tape once again dropped his jaw and his clipboard as his eyes widened with shock. What Goggles had dubbed the Pony-Droid was in fact a life-sized, metal pony with a silver body, rubber joints and bronze shoes and kneecaps, it also had a small chest piece embedded just below its neck, a black visor where the eyes would be, no mouth, and a green metallic mesh that served as the mane and tail. Needless to say Red Tape couldn’t help but stare in awe at the contraption.

“Pony… Droid?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Goggles chuckled at that, amused by red Tape’s bewilderment.

“Yes,” he answered. “The ultimate result of fusing Science and Magic, a body forged with Equestrian Steel, a metal stronger and lighter than most, and with many wonderful features to offer.”

“Such as?” Red Tape asked inquisitively.

“Such as a voice replication module in order to mimic other ponies,” Goggles explained, listing off everything he could remember about his newest creation. “The ability to learn new information by the basic senses and a built-in assimilation unit, a built-in Music player in the chest, and a camouflage unit created by studying Changeling Prisoners in Canterlot.”

Needless to say, Red Tape was intrigued by the Gizmonk’s description of the Droid, and he wasted no time in detailing every single bit of it on his clipboard.

“Impressive,” he said. “But how exactly is this thing supposed to function? Do you have some kind of fuel to energise it?”

Trixie couldn’t help but giggle at that, noticing this Red Tape looked at her with a confused stare, obviously missing the joke.

“Oh, he has something much better than that,” Trixie informed him.

In order to further prove the answer his assistant had given him, Goggles them pressed the chest piece of the Pony-Droid, instantly opening up the torso like a two-door cupboard, allowing everyone to look within. Inside the body of the Pony-Droid were five gems, one large sapphire in the middle, with four other smaller gems surrounding it, all of which seem to be emanating a faint glow, as if something were living inside them.

“Behold, the five internal gems that make the Pony-Droid what it is,” Goggles announced, gently stroking the gems with delight. “While the body itself is a scientific breakthrough, these gems are what give her the magical input she needs to function. I spent ages trying to find the right ones to use, but luckily for me I happen to have a few Gem Experts as friends, who were more than happy to help me pick.”

Red Tape raised an eyebrow at that.

“Gem Experts?” he asked.

“Diamond Dogs,” Trixie answered casually, much to Red Tape’s surprise.

“You can’t get better experts than that,” Goggles added. “After finding the right gems down in their mines I had them enchanted by my lovely assistant here.”

At those words, Trixie couldn’t help but blush.

“Oh stop it, you flirt,” she said playfully.

Rolling his eyes with a smile on his face, Goggles then proceeded to explain about the gems in further detail.

“Each gem will have its own function once operational,” he said. “In the centre we have the main Power Gem, the main source that powers the body, along with the other four gems. Next we have the ruby AKA the Memory Gem, which allows the Pony-Droid to hold a memory capacity of 5000 organic ponies. Then there’s the Amethyst, which acts as the Emotion Gem, name speaks for itself. The Emerald is the Personality Gem, and finally the Topaz here is the Sensory Gem, which allows the droid to have the same 5 basic senses of an organic pony.”

As the Gizmonk explained the purpose of the gems, Red Tape couldn’t help but wonder about the exact details of how they worked, the way the Gizmonk described them, it was as though he was trying to pinpoint the exact characteristics of a living mind.

“So you’re saying that you are trying to create… life?” he asked nervously.

Goggles smiled at that.

“Yep,” he answered casually 

“Why?” Red Tape inquired, hoping that this explanation would be somewhat easier to take.

“Why not?” Goggles said in response. “After all that’s the whole purpose of science is it not? To see whether or not something can be done? Besides, if these gems work and the Pony-Droid becomes operational, then what’s to say we can’t use the same method on other things?”

While Red Tape may have been a sceptical sort of pony, he had to admit that Goggles did in fact have a point. With that in mind, he felt a bit more comfortable in asking his next question.

“So how are you planning on activating these gems?” he queried.

“Well, the gems are in a dormant magical state at the moment,” Goggles replied, closing up the Pony-Droid’s chest. “So I will need a large amount of electrical power to get them going.”

Red Tape raised an eyebrow at that.

“How large?” he asked.

“Oh about… 1.21 Jiggawatts,” Goggles answered.

At those words, Red Tape’s jaw dropped in terror.

“1.21 JIGGAWATTS!?!” he snapped, completely astounded by what he had just heard. “You can’t be serious!”

However both Trixie and Goggles merely chuckled at the Unicorn’s response.

“Trust me old-timer,” Trixie giggled. “He’s serious.”

Shaking his head, Red Tape once again tried to regain his composure and said his piece.

“But the only power-source capable of generating THAT amount of electricity is a huge bolt of lightning,” he said sceptically.

“Exactly,” Goggles said simply, a large grin.

Suddenly, as if reacting on cue to Goggles’ word, the sun suddenly became blocked by the biggest and blackest of storm clouds Ponyville had ever seen. However instead of surrounding all of Ponyville, the Pegasi controlling it seem to be pushing it directly over Goggles’ laboratory, as the thunder began to rumble and the wind began to blow hard against the wooden frames of the former barn, Goggles’ and Trixie’s face lit up with glee as red Tape only looked on with confusion and more than a little tension. With another exchange of nods, both Goggles and Trixie began to work, clearly whatever was happening, they already planned for it.

“You picked a good time to come to my lab, Mr Red Tape,” Goggles said as Trixie levitated the Pony-Droid onto a nearby lifting panel. “I had the Ponyville Weather Team create the biggest electrical storm clouds for this very event. Generally I would use Artificial Lightning but after using it on my first P.L.A.N.E. I found that particular power source to be too weak to last for long, so by combining the magical energy of the gems with the 1.21 jiggawatts of electrical power from the lightning, I should be able to create a power-source so mighty that it will power the Pony-Droid for at least 10,000 years.”

At those words, Goggles then began taking a few cables from the worktable and began attaching them to the Pony-Droid, while Trixie strapped it down to the panel it was placed on, so that is wouldn’t fall off. After attaching all of the cables to the Pony-Droid’s body, Goggles then grabbed a long metal pole from the worktable and stood it up on the panel, tying it down to the Pony-Droid with the cables.

“You sir, are about to bear witness to the birth of one of my greatest creations yet,” Goggles announced to Red Tape, who only stood and watched in awe as the Gizmonk and his assistant made the final preparations. “Ready Trixie?”

“As always boss!” Trixie replied confidently as she stood at the ready next to a nearby lever on the wall.

At those words, Goggles nodded with approval and pulled a key out of his vest pocket, after which he then walked under the worktable and pulled out a large, metallic chest, a chest which was heavily locked and wrapped in chains.

“Just need to add the body fluid,” Goggles mumbled to himself as he inserted the key into the lock.

Upon opening the chest, Goggles couldn’t help but sigh upon seeing what was inside. As he peeked over the Gizmonk’s shoulder, Red Tape saw that the object Goggles had just taken out of the chest was in fact a very large syringe that was at least as large as he was, filled with a strange luminous blue liquid.

“What is that stuff?” he asked curiously.

“Just little cocktail of my own design to help the magical energy conduct through the metal body a lot easier,” Goggles answered as he carried the syringe towards the Pony-Droid and injected its entire contents directly into the Droid’s rubber neck. “A fusion of Liquidated Sapphires, Lunos Noctane and a few drops of my own sweat and blood for that organic touch.”

Red Tape didn’t know whether or not Goggles was being literal of figurative with that last part, but either way everything that was happening, he knew for sure was going to make an interesting report.

“Okay, she’s good to go,” Goggles announced, removing the syringe and tossing it aside. “Raise her up!”

Instantly obeying the Gizmonk’s command, Trixie then pulled the lever and the panel, along with the Pony-Droid and metal pole upon it, began to rise up towards the ceiling, which in turn opened up a sliding door, allowing the Pony-Droid to raise up through the roof of the lab.

“Here, you might want to put these on,” Goggles instructed, tossing a pair of safety goggles towards Trixie and Red Tape, before pulling down his own over his eyes.

Following the Gizmonk’s example, both Trixie and Red Tape quickly put on their goggles and readied themselves for what was to happen. As the storm continued to rage outside, Goggles and Trixie knew that the time would soon be upon them, instantly reacting to the urgency, the two then proceeded to run towards another set of levers on the wall, all the while Red Tape could only sit on the side-lines and watch.

“Throw the switch!” Goggles screamed, pulling his lever.

“Yes Master! Trixie screamed in a raspy voice, as she pulled her own.

Needless to say Trixie received a pair of deadpanned looks after doing her Igor impression.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I couldn’t resist.”

Goggles couldn’t help but face-palm at that, however now wasn’t the time to dwell into Trixie’s dramatics right now, because now that he and his assistant had pulled their switches, the main event had now begun. As it turns out, the switches Goggles and Trixie had activated, were the controls to the electrical magnets that were set up underneath the panel that the Pony-Droid was on, and now that they magnets were switched on, it made attracting the lightning a whole lot easier. With one loud blast, a huge bolt of lightning burst out of the storm clouds and shot directly towards the metal pole, instantly sending the massive amounts of electricity through the cables, directly into the Pony-Droid’s metallic body. 

> Chapter 2 - Another Invention, Another Disaster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, Goggles couldn’t help but follow in Trixie’s example and laugh maniacally like a mad scientist, instantly blushing with embarrassment when Trixie looked at him with a smirk on her face because of the sheer irony. After about a minute, the lightning stopped, allowing Trixie and Goggles to turn off the magnet and started to lower the panel back towards the ground, enabling all three individuals on the ground to see the result of the experiment. While it was interesting to see that the green mesh that served as the Pony-Droid’s mane and tail now had blue streaks in it like real pony hair, the most noticeable change within the metal body was the fact that even now there was still smoke coming out of it.

“What happened?” Red Tape asked, hoping to receive a positive answer as he removed his goggles.

However the only response Red Tape got, was a look of disappointment from Trixie as she removed her own.

“The only thing that DID happen was the fact that we only managed to cook it,” she said regretfully, she had hoped that there would be a better result than this.

However Goggles always had faith in his creations, as the smoke began to fade away the Gizmonk couldn’t help but prod the Pony-Droid with his finger just to see what happens, as soon as the Gizmonk touched the metal body a small spark of static shot between them and something amazing transpired. Within a matter of seconds, the Pony-Droid’s chest piece lit up with a blue light and body began to twitch as though something were only just beginning to wake up from the inside, but the best result of all came from the small, yet clear feminine voice emanating from within the Pony-Droid itself.

“Where… am I?” it said, clearly not having any idea what was going on.

Upon hearing the Pony-Droid speak for the first time, everyone had a different reaction, Red Tape stumbled backward from fear and astonishment, Trixie simply smiled with delight, relieved and excited that Goggles’ creation is actually working, and Goggles himself was so filled with so much happiness that he was literally bouncing with joy.

“It’s alive!” he screamed cheerfully. “IT’S ALIVE!!!”

At those words, it was Trixie’s turn to stare with a deadpanned look on her face.

“What!?!” Goggles said defensively. “I always wanted to say that!”

As Goggles marvelled at the birth of his latest creation, Red Tape’s mind became completely baffled, never mind the report, he would have to write an entire essay to describe what he was feeling at this point. Suddenly he noticed something about the Pony-Droid that didn’t seem right.

“I… I cannot see,” it said in a nervous tone. “Where am I?”

“It’s… blind?” Red Tape said, raising an eyebrow.

At those words Goggles stopped bouncing and inspected the Pony-Droid, while the chest piece may be glowing, there should also be a pair of lights on the visor too, however the screen still remained black.

“Her Sensory Gem must still be trying to jump-start itself,” Goggles deduced, rubbing the visor clean with his paw.

“I thought that once it was powered, this machine would be fully operational,” Red Tape questioned.

Goggles rolled his eyes at that.

“It’s not like putting a fresh battery into something Mr Red Tape,” he pointed out. “This is a thinking, self-sustaining being, she will most likely need time for all her gems to activate. Now that her main Power Gem is completely operational, the other four gems should follow in their own time.”

To prove his point, Goggles once again pressed the chest piece of the Pony-Droid, instantly opening up the torso again, however the view was somewhat different from the last time.

“You see?” Goggles said, pointing towards the gems inside. “The Power Gem and Memory Gem are both in full effect, the Emotion gem and the Personality gem are still dark and the Sensory Gem is still trying to flicker to life.”

Indeed this was true, while the sapphire and the ruby were now glowing more brightly than ever before, the amethyst and the emerald were still in their dormant state and the topaz was shifting between the two. Satisfied with the results, Goggles once again closed up the Pony-Droid’s chest. 

“Astounding,” Red Tape exclaimed in awe. “So what happens now?”

Goggles smiled at that.

“Now we need to give her a name?” he said.

Upon hearing that red Tape once again raised an eyebrow.

“A name?” he asked confusingly.

“Of course,” Goggles answered simply. “When creating life, one must always give their creation a name, it’s only proper.”

Red Tape may not have known for sure whether that was a fair argument in this particular case, but regardless he felt no need to stop the Gizmonk and he proceeded to walk up to the Pony-Droid and place his paw upon it’s chest.

“Can you hear me?” he asked the metal pony.

“I… can.” The Pony-Droid answered.

So far, so good.

“Good,” Goggles replied. “My name is Goggles, I am your maker.”

As Trixie and Red Tape looked with admiration at the Gizmonk and his creation, they could both already sense a small connection between the two as Goggles continued to speak.

“From this day forth, your name shall be…” he said, looking over every feature of the Pony-Droid, from the blue light in her chest to the blue streaks that have now become part of her hair. “…Blue Lightning.”

“Blue Lightning?” Red Tape questioned curiously.

However Goggles simply ignored the stallion and continued to focus on the Pony-Droid.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

“My name is… Blue Lightning,” The Pony-Droid responded, causing Trixie and Goggles to smile with delight and a small symbol of blue light to shape itself into a bolt of lightning on the other black screen on the Pony-Droid’s flank.

“Excellent!” Goggles exclaimed cheerfully. “This is great, this is Fantastic! Okay, now the first thing I want you to do is just go to sleep for about 24 hours, okay? Your sight should come to you after a short reboot, do you understand?”

At first Blue Lightning didn’t respond, however after a few seconds of silence she spoke again.

“I… understand,” she said. “Powering down now.”

On that final note, Blue Lighting hung her head and the light in her chest piece began to fade, but not completely since everyone could still see the faint flicker of blue if they looked very close.

“She’ll be alright,” Goggles said reassuringly, stroking Blue Lighting gently. “She just needs to reserve her power for a bit so that her eyes can fully activate.”

Turning his attention back towards Red Tape, Goggles could see that Red Tape was now looking at him with a look upon his face that clearly made it seem like a burst of excitement was welling up inside him.

“Incredible, he gasped. “And this Pony-Droid is only your latest creation?”

Goggles nodded at that, causing the largest smile Red Tape had ever put on to appear on his face.

“Show me more!!!”


#


By the time the inspection was over it was already the start of the afternoon, Red Tape had become so infatuated with the stuff that Goggles had come up with, that he wanted to stick around longer than expected just to be in the same room as them for as long as he could. Finally Red Tape was gone and Goggles and Trixie could go back to their daily lives, after removing Blue Lightning from her panel, Trixie set her safely into a comfortable corner of the lab where she would awake the next day, ready for her first real day in Ponyville. Needless to say, Fluttershy and Applejack couldn’t help but laugh when Goggles and Trixie told them about what happened during their tea-party that afternoon.

“Wait, so he actually went all ‘fan-boy’ on you once he saw the Pony-Droid come to life?” Applejack chuckled.

“Like a nerd at comic-con,” Trixie replied with a smirk.

At those words, the entire residential area of the lab erupted with the sound of laughter, normally Tea with Fluttershy would usually occur at her cottage, however since the Pegasus was passing by Sweet Apple Acres anyway and the inspection took longer than expected, both she and Goggles thought it best to have tea at the lab, that way Applejack could join them on her afternoon break from working in the orchard.

“I still can’t believe that you two were able to create a living creature,” Fluttershy said in awe as she looked over the banister towards the lab below. “You must be very proud.”

“I’m always proud of my inventions,” Goggles chuckled smugly. “Although I have to admit, Blue Lightning down there has got to be my very best. Just imagine what she’ll be able to do in Ponyville, she can find her own purpose in life just like any other Pony and then some.”

That was indeed something to think about, now that the Pony-Droid was now up and running, or more accurately, alive, then next step would be to find a way to fit her into society. But both Fluttershy and Applejack had complete confidence that Goggles and Trixie would be able to accomplish that, after all the Gizmonk WAS one of the most brilliant minds in all of Ponyville, even Twilight and Doctor Whooves had to admit that they didn’t compare to him in terms of most scientific knowledge.

“So what else did you show him?” Applejack asked curiously. “After all the fella did stick around a while.”

“Oh a few things,” Goggles answered, taking a sip of his Camomile as he thought back to the inspection. “There was the Sleep Inducer, the Gem-Powered Engines, the Animal Translator, oh and my personal favourite, the Dimensional Capacitor.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow at that.

“You mean that big archway-thing we keep stashed at the back of the lab?” she asked, earning a nod from Goggles in response.

The Dimensional Capacitor, one of Goggles’ greatest achievements, a large archway made of Equestrian Steel and embedded with at least twenty Moonstones infused with magic from Princess Luna herself, undoubtedly something the Gizmonk acquired due to their close friendship. Ever since he began constructing it over two months ago, Goggles has never been able to get it out of his mind, even after the Cutie Mark Crusaders blew up the front half of the lab to take his first P.L.A.N.E. he still believed that the Dimensional Capacitor was one of his most brilliant of ideas and instantly reconstructed what was left of it after the lab was rebuilt. And yet there is stood at the very back of the lab, unfinished and untested, but none the less still one of Goggles’ working progresses. 

“What exactly does that thing do anyway?” Trixie asked curiously, not really understanding much about it since Goggles always preferred to work on it by himself.

“At the moment, nothing,” Goggles replied with a slight shrug. “But theoretically, it’s meant to be a gateway to other worlds.”

Everyone raised an eyebrow upon hearing that.

“Excuse me?” Applejack exclaimed.

Upon seeing their confusion, Goggles couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s funny really, I actually got the idea from Twilight,” he explained. “She told me that she once travelled to another world via a Magic Mirror some time ago and she said that everyone there was an almost exact counterpart to someone in this world expect for the fact that they were a totally different species. Needless to say I was fascinated by the story, so I did a little research on the matter and studied the mirror after flying to the Crystal Empire a few days ago. Since the mirror only works every 30 moons, I decided to create an alternate method that will not only allow us to travel to that world, but whatever other world is out there.”

“And you believe that device down there has the potential to do that?” Fluttershy asked inquisitively. 

“Possibly,” Goggles replied. “But unfortunately I haven’t been able to come up with the proper variables in order to provide safe travel yet, it’s gonna take me at least month just to figure out the right stabilising agent that will make sure a portal opens without collapsing in on itself while sucking up everything in the process. I wouldn’t even know if it can even send anyone to other worlds just yet, at least not without some kind of link anyway, for all I know it could turn into a black hole and whoever goes in would never come back out again.”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but whimper at that, the way Goggles described the danger of all portal was indeed unsettling. However Applejack and Trixie simply looked back at the Gizmonk with awe, there just seemed to be no end to his inventive talents.

“Ah have to admit Goggles, ah’m impressed,” Applejack said with a small smile on her face. “How is it that y’all were able to create such things in such a short period of time anyway?”

At those words, Goggles couldn’t help but chuckle again.

“Well I’ve been doing a lot of studying ever since I first came to Ponyville,” he answered. “And not to brag or anything, but Gizmonks have one of the best memories in the world. Granted during infancy we’re just as clueless as anyone else but as we grow older, our memories begin to develop into something spectacular. You give me a 1000 page book, and I can recite it for you cover-to-cover after only 3 days of reading it.”

“It’s true,” Trixie said in agreement. “I once saw him read a music book while visiting Octavia and play the Piano perfectly after the first hour.”

Needless to say both Applejack and Fluttershy were awe-stricken at this.

“Wow,” Fluttershy exclaimed. “That IS impressive.”

“Indeed,” Goggles said smugly, resting his head in his arms. “It’ll take something pretty big in order to knock THIS head clueless.”

Hearing this everyone once again couldn’t help but chuckle, Goggles’ ego may not have been as big as Trixie’s once was, but it was still big enough to get a few cheap laughs every time he opened his mouth.

“Hang on,” Applejack said, interrupting the laughter. “Is THAT why you borrowed my banjo last week?”

At those words, Goggles merely shrugged.

“What can I say?” he said. “I wanted to see if I could play it just as well as you do.”

On that sentence laughter erupted again, only this time even louder. However after a few moments, the laughter was interrupted again, only this time by a loud knock on the front door of the laboratory.

“Now who can that be?” Goggles asked curiously, obviously not expecting anyone.

“Ah’ll get it,” Applejack said, rising up from her seat.

Applejack then walked a few paces away from the seating area and tapped her hoof three times against the floor, upon which then the panel she was standing on began to slowly drop, thus lowing her down to the ground floor like a miniature elevator. Upon opening the door, Applejack was met with a trio of Earth Pony stallions, led by a white Unicorn with a greasy black mane, dark blue eyes and wore a dark blue suit and a smug look on his face that would have made Diamond Tiara look humble.

“Howdy,” Applejack said politely, being as hospitable as she could be. “You here to see the Professor?”

At those words, the Unicorn then pulled a small badge from his jacket pocket and flashed it in Applejack’s face.

“Counsellor Forge from the Ministry of Science,” he announced with a deep, yet harsh voice. “Please step aside Miss.”

But before Applejack could even respond, Forge and his three followers rudely pushed their way past Applejack like they didn’t even care that she was there, needless to say Applejack was both shock and insulted by the stallions’ discourtesy.

“Hey!” she snapped angrily. “Y’all can’t just…”

“What’s going on down there?” Goggles called out from the second floor, cutting Applejack off before she could even finish her sentence.

Instantly responding to the sound of the Gizmonk’s voice, everyone on the ground floor instantly looked up. Since the residential area of the lab needed to only take up a small section of the entire building, it only made sense that Goggles had it close to the back of the barn and had a railing installed so that he and Trixie could look over the entire ground floor from above. As such, Applejack, Forge, and his three followers we’re able to see the Gizmonk as well as Fluttershy and Trixie standing above them as they looked over the railing to see what was causing all the commotion.

“Ah’m sorry Goggles,” Applejack called up to him. “They just barged in.”

However it wasn’t applejack that Goggles was giving a scornful glare to, in fact his heated gaze was fixated on a more deserving target.

“Hello Forge,” he growled through gritted teeth.

“You know this guy?” Trixie asked, with a raised eyebrow, having never even heard of this particular pony before.

“He was one of the guys at the Ministry who was against having me certified,” Goggles explained. “A complete racist if I ever seen one.”

That may have been what Goggles said, but in all honesty that was only putting it mildly, Forge wasn’t just some guy at the Ministry of Science, he was one of its top Councillors. When Goggles first applied for his certification, this particular stallion was visibly offended that something other than a pony would even dare to try to become certified in scientific discovery. No one knows where this racism originated from, but from what Goggles heard, he rejected certifications to a Griffin and a Donkey a few years back just because they weren’t ponies. Luckily for Goggles, he had Celestia backing him up all the way so Forge had no choice but to allow him his certification, much to his dismay. Undoubtedly, he was the one who sent Red Tape to inspect the lab this morning, hoping to have something that would allow him to fix that little error.

“Seize all the equipment,” he ordered, turning his head towards the three Earth Ponies behind him.

“Hey, you can’t just come in here and take what you like!” Applejack protested, instantly stepping in front of the group before they could move.

“Oh I believe we can,” Forge retorted, shoving something else from his pocket into her face.

What Forge had just presented to the confused Earth Pony was a signed document, which was in fact a warrant to seize any equipment the Ministry had declared unsafe for Equestrian Society, which according to the document was everything Goggles had built with the Ministry’s resources. Needless to say Goggles was ticked off when he and the others came down from the residential area and read to warrant, in fact he was so angry that Applejack thought that he was going to lose his cool like he did while fighting a whole group of Gem Foxes a while back.

“You may THINK that you have the right to just barge in here and do what you like, Forge!” he snapped angrily. “But you have no idea who you’re dealing with!”

However Forge only sneered at those words.

“What we’re dealing with sir, is an animal who has obviously bitten off more than he can chew,” he retorted. “Your inventions are a danger to society, particularly THAT thing.”

Looking towards where Forge was pointing, everyone soon comprehended that he was taking about a certain Pony-Droid in her corner, a fact which only pushed Goggles’ anger even further,

“We’ve read Red Tape’s report,” Forge continued, eyeing the Gizmonk with a hateful glare. “And you are in violation of section 3, paragraph 42 of the Scientific Offences Act by creating such a dangerous device.”

At those words Goggles’ felt like he was going to burst, even the orb at the end of his tail was glowing red with how much hate he felt for this particular stallion, not even Diamond Tiara drove him this insane in such a short period of time. Before the stallion could even blink, Goggles then snatched the document from Forge and tore it up right in front of him.

“That’s a load of pigswill and you know it!” he growled, throwing the torn pieces of paper in his face. “No document can be written up in such a short period of time, and certainly not without the proper certification to make it official, not even you can make that possible.”

“You tell him boss!” Trixie declared, standing by her best friend 100%.

“Darn tootin!” Applejack added.

“That’s right,” Fluttershy concluded, though shrinking back a little from Forge’s stern gaze.

“So you are NOT taking my inventions,” Goggles announced, fiercely pointing a finger directly towards Forge’s nose like he was just a colt being scolded at.

However Forge only scoffed upon hearing that.

“Oh?” he said. “And what makes you think you can stop us?”

With a nod of his head Forge then gave the signal for the other stallions to make their move, trying to shove their way past the small group, they once again attempted to seize Goggles’ equipment, however this time it was the Gizmonk himself to put a stop to them. With one quick flash of movement, Goggles pulled something out of his pocket, opened it up to reveal it as his compactible Bo-staff and delivered three powerful strikes across the heads of all three Earth Ponies, knocking them senseless. Needless to say Forge was taken aback by this display of aggression.

“I’ve been practising a LOT of martial arts ever since I came to this town,” Goggles announced, gripping his Bo-staff tightly as he remembered all the training sessions he had with Rainbow Dash over the last few months. “And I am not letting you have my creations without a fight.”

Knowing Goggles for a while now, all three ponies standing next to him, knew for a fact that he meant every word, after all, all his inventions were like his children, and there was no way he was going to just let someone steal them.

“Now are you going to get out of my laboratory, or am I gonna have to beat some sense into you first?” the Gizmonk growled angrily, pointing the end of his staff towards the confused Unicorn.

However Forge soon regained himself long enough to look back down at the Gizmonk and growl with fury, there was no way that he was going to let some filthy animal treat him with such disrespect.

“Do you really want to do that Gizmonk?” he sneered. “After all I do have the power to take your certification away if I wished.”

“Oh I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Trixie said smugly. “After all, we ARE close friends with three of Equestria’s princesses.”

“And how do y’all think either of them would react when they realise that y’all were abusing your power like this eh?” Applejack added, sharing in Trixie’s haughtiness.

Even Fluttershy felt a little braver with the whole situation now that the odds are now more into Goggles’ favour, however Forge wasn’t one to give up so easily.

“I am completely within my rights!” he snapped, before once again turning his attention to Goggles. “You however, shouldn’t have such a privilege. BOYS!”

As it turned out, Forge had a lot more Earth Ponies backing him up than the three he had brought inside with him, as soon as he had made the call at least a dozen more ponies began to flood the lab.

“Take everything!” he ordered, “And arrest anyone who tries to interfere!”

Nodding their heads with understanding, Forge’s goons began to spread all over the laboratory and try to take all that they could get they’re hooves on. However neither Goggles, Trixie, nor Applejack was having any of it, they didn’t care if they did get arrested for trying to interfere, they were not going to let some stuck-up Unicorn or his goons ransack the lab without just cause. While Goggles fought off two ponies with his Bo-staff, Trixie was knocking three more back with her magic while Applejack bucked another two in the face. Fluttershy on the other hand, felt that she would be more useful by trying to hide a few of the smaller inventions while everyone else was distracted, however before she could do anything one of Forge’s goons blocked her path.

“Going somewhere?” he growled.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but whimper as she fell beneath the Earth Pony’s cruel glare, soon enough she found herself backing away from him as he took a few steps towards her. However while Fluttershy may have been too scared and preoccupied with the stallion in front of her to look where she was going, Goggles was able to take his attention off Forge’s goons long enough to see the large red button on the wall she was about to back into.

“NO!” he screamed. “DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!”

But it was too late, as soon as Fluttershy’s flank pushed against the button the whole lab was soon in a state of emergency, in a matter of moments a red flashing light emanated from the ceiling and an alarm as loud as a dragon’s roar echoed throughout the entire laboratory.

“WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME HAVE YOU DONE!?!” Forge screamed fearfully.

That was a question only Goggles knew the answer to at first, but soon enough everyone got the idea of what was going on at that moment. As it turned out, the button the Fluttershy had just backed into was none other than a power grid connected to a long cable that lead directly towards the Dimensional Capacitor, and unfortunately because it was unfinished and more than likely unstable, turning on the power grid had to have been the worst possible thing any pony could have done at this point.

“HANG ONTO SOMETHING!” Goggles screamed as he rushed towards Fluttershy and tackled her to the ground, instantly wrapping his tail around her leg as he plunged his Bo-staff into one of the gaps in between the floor panels.

Thankfully every pony obeyed the Gizmonk’s command without question, and just in the nick of time too as all of a sudden the back of the laboratory lit up with an electrifying green light, meaning that Goggles’ Dimensional Capacitor had now been activated. As the large swirling vortex burst out of the centre of the steel archway, everyone had to tighten their grip on whatever they were holding onto at the powerful pull of air tugged at the entire room, instantly sucking up anything that wasn’t nailed down like a large vacuum. As they all flung about in the powerful air current, desperately trying to hold onto dear life to whatever was holding them down, everyone also had to avoid getting hit by whatever else the vortex was sucking up, as one point Trixie had to duck her head in order to narrowly avoid getting bludgeoned by one of Goggles’ hammers. In a matter of minutes the portal itself began to double in size, soon breaching the steel barrios and becoming at least half the size of the barn wall, as such the suction became even more powerful just as quickly, making it even harder for everyone to hold on and heavier objects to start flying towards the swirling vortex. Realising that his tail could only hold onto Fluttershy’s leg for so much longer, Goggles tried his best to pull the screaming Pegasus closer towards his Bo-Staff so that she may get into a more secure position, after all there was no telling how long it would take for the portal to collapse in in itself. However while his efforts were noble, Goggles’ attempt at helping Fluttershy out cost him dearly, as soon as his tail had let go of Fluttershy’s leg his paws quickly began to slip off the Bo-staff and he was soon pulled away into the gushing wind.

“Goggles!!!” Fluttershy screamed.

Luckily, Goggles had managed to grab onto one of the cables that was still attached to the wall just as he was only a few inches away from the swirling vortex, however he was far from letting out any sigh of relief due to the masses of heavy objects narrowly missing him by inches as they too were sucked into the portal. Soon enough the portal finally reached its critical point, as the swirling vortex finally grew to the exact size of the barn wall the power of the suction finally became so strong that it started lifting the really heavy objects, including the worktable and a certain Pony-Droid, which quickly began making its way towards the helpless Gizmonk

“Oh Scrap-bun…”

However Goggles didn’t even get to finish his sentence, while the worktable was only dragged towards him at a slower speed, the Equestria Steel Blue Lightning was made of was much lighter and flew directly at him with the speed of a bullet and hit him directly in the head, forcing the poor Gizmonk to lose consciousness and let go of the cable.

“GOGGLES!!!” Applejack, Trixie and Fluttershy screamed simultaneously.

But Goggles could never be able to answer them now, now that the portal had reached critical levels of electrical instability, it quickly began to shrink back down again. The last anyone saw of Goggles the Gizmonk or Blue Lightning the Pony-Droid, they were flopping about like ragdolls into the swirling vortex of the portal just before it closed in a loud explosion of light. Finally being able to let go of their anchors, everyone soon began coughing up the dust left behind by the now destroyed Dimensional Capacitor

“What just happened?” Forge asked muzzily, only to receive a furious buck to the head from Applejack in response, knocking him out in an instant.

However, Applejack’s fury aside, Forge did bring up an excellent question, what did just happen? And more importantly, what in Equestria happened to Goggles?

> Chapter 3 - Strange New World, No Old Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goggles’ Log: 

It has been over a month now since I awoke in that garbage dump and things still had not gotten any better for me. After waking up without any memories of who I was nor about anything else, I found myself lying next to a strange girl made almost entirely out of metal. Needless to say I was freaked out by it, especially once the visor on its head lit up and it began speaking to me.

After I was finally able to calm down, I soon came to realise that this strange robot had no intension of hurting me, in fact after we started talking I realised that she could in fact help me, especially due to the fact that she knew who I was, or at least the basic details anyway. She said that her name was Blue Lightning and that my name was Goggles, and that I was the one who made her using a fusion of Science and Magic, and while I was sceptical at first, I found myself believing her upon seeing the 5 gems that acted as her power source when she opened up her chest to prove her point.

After finally getting out of the dump, I found myself in what seemed to be quite the colourful town, and at first glance it was quite the gorgeous place. However upon seeing it, I soon realised that due to my memory loss, I have no idea where I lived, if I even lived here at all. Worse still, I couldn’t go to the local authorities with my problem due to the severity of my condition, after all, what was I going to say? That I’ve lost my memory and that my only clue is my friend, the robot who’s powered by magic? They’ll more than likely have me committed. But still, between being committed and living on the streets, I think the first option could have at least given me a bed for the night and some decent food. But still, if anyone else saw Blue Lightning as she was, I don’t believe anyone could have been as understanding as I am, in fact judging from a few glances some locals gave me, then they would have taken her apart as soon as look at her, and I couldn’t let that happen. I’m not entirely certain why, but I still a strong connection with her, if I DID make her then I must have put a lot of care and effort into every joint, every bolt, every ounce of magic that powered her. So it was decided that she would remain hidden, while I do my very best to look after her she would do the same whilst keeping herself from the eyes of the public.

Needless to say the first week wasn’t easy, due to the fact that I had absolutely no money, nor any family I could think of, for the first week me and Blue (my nickname for my her robot friend) had been sleeping in abandoned alleyways due to having no knowledge of my home, if I even had one. For 7 whole days I was building up a stink and had countless insects swarming all over me, looking to nestle in my hair or have a snack of blood. And just to make the whole situation even more miserable, I haven’t even been able to get much sleep due to the fact that I was basically homeless and worse still, I was starving. Luckily for me Blue had no need to eat and gave whatever food she could find to me in order for me to survive out here, and better still she was able to locate a somewhat better living situation than an alleyway, so at least now I have a roof over my head, even if it is filled with rust holes. As for the food situation, since I still had no money, I had to make due with whatever what was in the garbage and of course the restaurants I narrowly dined and dashed, I’m not proud of it, but to me it was necessary to stay alive.

As the situation goes, life this past month for me and Blue has definitely been hard, but thankfully we have each other to keep each other safe. Blue Lightning, I have to say she is definitely a good friend even if she is made of metal, she may not know much herself because apparently she was only just recently brought to life by me, but what she did know certainly was fascinating. As we talked, sometimes the subject of the five gems in her chest came up, or more specifically how the magic inside them worked. As far as we know, most of her gems have now been activated save for one, which she calls her Personality Gem, which seemed to be taking a lot longer than the first four did, from what I can tell the Memory gem and the Power Gem came online first, then the Emotion Gem and Sensory the next day, so it’s baffling how much time the last gem is taking, then again everything about this magic stuff seems baffling, I seem to find myself more in tune with machines than magic and yet Blue says I used a combination of the two to build her? Somehow I’m finding it harder to believe.

But still, every time I close my eyes to sleep my dreams are constantly filled with what seem to be blueprints and schematics that just pop up at random across my mind. Eventually I took it upon myself to write this journal and draw any of these schematics in any of its blank pages, I guess it was only lucky for me that some ungrateful kid decided to toss it into the garbage because it was the wrong colour, which meant that it was practically new, but seriously though, who doesn’t like a powder-blue cover? Anyway, not only do I have the schematics drawn up, but I’ve also took on the habit of scavenging all that I can from scrapyards and garbage bins for anything of interest that might be beneficial to me, it occurs to me that while my memories may be gone, I can still think of some interesting, inventive ideas, it could be possible that I was a real expert in whatever field of science I was in before my memory loss. Therefore maybe Blue’s explanation of magic could be the first stepping stone in rediscovering my true self, perhaps if I can find any records of magic, perhaps even study it, I might just be able to discover who I really am. That shall be my quest, to find magic and use whatever methods I can think of on it to finally get my memories back.

Until then I’ll just continue my day-job outside the Happy Pirate, after all I still need money and I can’t Dine and Dash forever, hopefully Mr Silver won’t chase me off again with that dog of his.

Goggles.


#


That was the latest of many journal entries Goggles had been keeping two weeks after awaking in this strange new world. He may not have been able to remember what happened but after being sucked up into the portal with Blue Lightning in Equestria, they both end up in this strange new world, and if he had any of his memories, Goggles would have realised that his whole body had been changed to those of the main populous of this new world. What was once a small, furry Gizmonk now stood a tall gangly human teenager, with yellow skin, messy red hair and an awkward way of standing, the only true way to distinguish Goggles from his old self now was the buck teeth protruding from his top lip, his blue eyes, and the pair of cracked green goggles that he constantly had upon his head. However much to Goggles’ unfortunate luck, no one in this new world had a clue as to who he was since no one has ever met him before, thus there was no one to help him recover from the amnesia he had been suffering from since his arrival in this new world. But luckily for him, he did have Blue Lightning as company, a fact for which he was terribly grateful for, if he didn’t have her he probably would have gone insane by now. However today, Blue had to stay at Goggles’ new place of residence to keep herself hidden from the eyes of the public, meanwhile Goggles himself needed to make some money if he was ever to adapt to his surroundings, and since his inventive side is now somewhat limited due to the lack of decent materials and memory of how to make most of his regular inventions, or at the ones that didn’t lack in comparison to most other forms of technology in this word, Goggles had no other choice but to use the one other skill he knew for sure that he had.

“Alright Ladies and Gentlemen!” he called out to the small crowd around him. “I’d like to present to you this next number, dedicated to all those of you who are feeling down!”

Goggles had been playing the guitar outside the Happy Pirate for about two hours now, it was quite the popular seafood restaurant that drew in such a large crowd, and was thankfully one of the few Goggles hadn’t eaten at and ran off before paying the bill. However while this may have been an ideal place to set up a street performance, the restaurant owner, Jack Silver, was very protective of his business and didn’t appreciate a smelly street performer scaring away his customers, as such Goggles had already been chased off by Slash, Jack Silver’s pet dog, at least three times now. But no matter what world he was in, or how many memories he loses, Goggles was as stubborn as he ever was and kept coming back, and today was no different. As he plucked at the strings of the guitar he had fished out of a music-store dumpster and repaired with the broken pieces of a grand piano at the dump, Goggles did his very best to entertain the ever shrinking crowd with his song:

Well I won't back down, no I won't back down,
You can stand me up at the gates of hell,
But I won't back down.

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around,
And I'll keep this world from dragging me down,
Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down,

Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out,
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down.

However while his efforts were indeed paying off thanks to the buried memory of all his practising on Applejack’s banjo, thus allowing him to portray a beautiful melody, the crowd was still diminishing thanks to the fact that he hadn’t been able to shower for weeks, thus making the cluster of people cringe at his musky smell and tatty appearance. Still Goggles continued to sing:

Well I know what's right, I got just one life,
In a world that keeps on pushing me around,
But I stand my ground and I won't back down.

Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out,
Hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down,
No I won't back down.

As the song end and the last cord was plucked, Goggles disappointedly looked up to find that despite his efforts, the crowd had all but disappeared, save for two girls who were clapping for him despite his smell and appearance, clearly these were the kinder people of this town. Both girls seem to be the exact same age he was, or least that’s what Goggles believed now that he was a teenager without any memories of his previous life, one had pale white skin with a gorgeous flow of violet hair and wore a light blue top and a light purple skirt, and the other girl had butter-yellow skin, a flow of silky pink hair and wore a white vest top along with a light green skirt. Needless to say, Goggles found these two girls very pretty, and better yet he was happy in the knowledge that that at least liked the song.

“That was wonderful,” the pink-haired girl said with a gentle smile.

“Quite the eye-catching display sir,” the white-skinned girl added.

Goggles couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Thank you kindly ladies,” he said, setting down his guitar. “Glad to see SOMEONE is impressed.”

At those words, Goggles glared at the last few people walking away from the restaurant with disgust looks upon their face, he didn’t know whether these girls were just too nice to care or that they had no sense of smell, but none the less Goggles appreciated the fact that someone was willing to stay for the whole performance.

“Well we haven’t go much on us, but here,” the white-skinned girl said as she began rummaging through her purse and put 20 dollars in the tin can in front of Goggles. “For the show.”

Seeing this Goggles couldn’t believe his luck, 20 dollars? That had to have been the most generous donation he had gotten since he had first started playing the guitar for money, quickly holding it up to the sunlight to make sure it was real, the Gizmonk turned human couldn’t help but chuckle.

“By the heavens above, there ARE angels and they’re both standing in front of me,” he said gleefully. “I must give you something in return!”

Upon saying that, Goggles then rose up from the box he was sitting on and began rummaging through the tattered backpack he had been carrying around with him for a week, undoubtedly something else he found at the dump to carry the other various junk he had been collecting. However the white-skinned girl couldn’t help but cringe at the display.

“Oh no really that’ not necessary,” she insisted, not really wanting the smell to come any closer than it already has.

“Nonsense,” Goggles protested. “I must give you something… ah!”

Finally finding what he was looking for, Goggles then pulled out something out and presented it to the two girls. The item was a tambourine, formally broken and one of the many instruments that Goggles had found in the dump, but repaired and cleaned just out of sheer curiosity. 

“To share in the music,” Goggles said, happily giving it to the pink-haired girl.

While the white-skinned girl put on a polite smile, trying desperately not to offend the musician, the pink-haired girl, gladly accepted the tambourine with a genuine look of appreciation.

“Why thank you sir,” she said placing the tambourine into her own backpack. “I hope we see you play again.”

With those words spoken Goggles couldn’t help but smile again as the two girls turned to leave, however there was something about them that seemed… recognisable, almost as though he already knew them.

“Hey wait a moment!” he called out, causing the two girls to look back at him with confused expressions on their faces. “You two look familiar, have we met before?”

However the answer both of them gave was not what Goggles was hoping for.

“No, can’t say we’ve seen you before,” the white-skinned girl answered.

“Sorry,” the pink-haired girl added.

Needless to say Goggles was disappointed to hear that, then again he had been getting used to such disappointment for at least a month now so it didn’t really phase him as much as it first did.

“Oh well,” he sighed. “No worries, it’s been good meeting you.”

The two girls smiled at that.

“Same here,” the pink-haired girl replied.

“Ta-ta,” the white-skinned girl added.

And with that final word, both girls then turned away and left, leaving Goggles to sigh with gratitude.

“Such sweet girls,” he sighed, placing the 20 dollars in his pocket. “Why can’t everyone be like that?”

However that was a question that Goggles would have to find an answer to later, because at that moment, the bell of the Happy Pirate’s front door began to ring, meaning that either someone was heading in, or more than likely a certain someone who Goggles feared was coming out.

“HEY!” Jack Silver screamed, glaring at Goggles with fire in his eyes and pointing at him with an accusing finger. “I told you not to come back here, you bum!”

As part of his restaurant’s theme, that of which being a combination of seafood and pirates, Jack Silver truly kept in the spirit by dressing up as though he were a captain of a ship. He was a muscular, blue skinned man that had silver hair with red streaks, along with a sleek moustache and goatee of the same colour, and he wore a long brown coat and a tri-corner hat with a red feather as part of his restaurant’s décor. However it wasn’t the way the man was dressed that worried Goggles, it was the fact that when he appears then a certain dog is sure to follow.

“Oh Scrap-bunnies!” he squealed in terror, quickly grabbing his guitar and backpack.

“Get him Slash!” Jack Silver barked, opening the dog a little wider to allow his pet outside.

On cue, Slash did in fact rush out of the restaurant and followed his master’s command, he may have been small but he was certainly vicious, and in Goggles opinion completely manic, he was dark purple in colour, with gold coloured fur on his ears and tuff of hair on his head, not only that but he also wore an eyepatch over his right eye, Goggles didn’t know whether it was because it was part of the restaurant’s theme or because he really lost an eye but either way it made him look even scarier. As the small yet terrifying  dog chased Goggles down the street, the Gizmonk turned human soon found himself zooming past the two girls from earlier, screaming like a pansy and Slash began catching up with him.

“Get away from me, you stupid dog!!!” he screamed, causing the two to cringe with pity.

“Oh my,” the pink-haired girl exclaimed, putting on a worried look as Goggles and Slash disappeared into the distance.
> Chapter 4 - Bad Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Needless to say it wasn’t easy shaking Slash off, but finally after running for at least three blocks and one cowardly dive into a dumpster, Goggles had finally managed to loss the crazy dog before it turned tail and ran back to the Happy Pirate.

“I hate that dog,” he groaned and he clambered out of the dumpster, heaving with disgust at the new stench added to his own.

What made things worse was the fact that he dropped his backpack due to the worn-out strap about two blocks back, meaning that whatever pieces of treasured junk he had were now lost to the streets, thankfully he still had the twenty dollars and his guitar so at least it wasn’t a total loss. Looking over his surroundings, Goggles then noticed that the sun was beginning to set, meaning that now would be a good time to start heading back to where he and Blue had set up their living arrangements, after all the streets can get pretty treacherous at night, especially this part of town.

“Well, here’s to another day,” Goggles mumbled to himself, not really caring if he was heard or not by the non-existent by-standers.

However as he began talking the long walk home, the danger he was worried about walked up to him a little earlier than expected, in the form of three muscular figures jumping out from another alley and scaring him enough to make him fall backwards.

“What the Scrap!?!” Goggles squealed as he looked up at the three figures who jumped out at him.

They were three teenage boys, however while Goggles was basically gangling, these three thugs had defiantly had a bit more bulk than him, one was short with light brown skin and dark brown curly hair, the second was the largest of the three with blue skin and orange hair, and the third, who which Goggles assumed was their leader, was grey skinned with blueish grey hair, the only thing these three had in common was the fact they all wore gem studded collars along with matching vests, save for the leader whose vest was red while the others were black.

“Well, lookie what we have here boys,” the leader chuckled. “A poor sap who walked into the wrong side of town.”

At those words all three of them chuckled amongst themselves, Goggles would have peed himself with fright had he not sensed something familiar about these three, just like the two girls from earlier it was as though he had seen them before, perhaps he knew them before losing his memories.

“Uh… Have we met?” he asked nervously.

Needless to say, the three thugs were instantly confused with the question since they were not the same three Goggles had grown to know back home.

“Um… no,” the larger one said, raising an eyebrow.

Once again another disappointment, but again not anything new to Goggles at this point, the only thing that mattered to him now was to get out of this current situation and back to his abode before dark.

“Well thanks for the scare,” he said casually, picking himself and doing his best to look unphased by the thugs’ appearance. “But I gotta get going.”

However before Goggles could even take a step, the three thugs quickly blocked his path, showing that they meant business.

“Hold up you,” the short one growled. “Didn’t you hear about the rules?”

“This is our turf pal,” the leader added. “And anyone who walks through here must pay a toll.”

Goggles couldn’t help but deadpan at that.

“You’re kidding right?” he said bluntly.

However the three thugs only grinned at Goggles’ statement, suddenly before he could even blink Goggles soon found himself being held upside down by his leg by the largest thug, before being shaken for everything he had and dropped on his face.

“Okay, so you’re not kidding,” Goggles groaned as the short thug and the large thug grabbed his guitar and twenty dollars respectively, thankfully his goggles didn’t slide off his head.

For a brief moment Goggles let out a sigh of relief when the three thugs looked like they were turning to leave, however that was when the leader spoke up again.

“Hey wait a moment,” he said. “My boys each have something, but what about little old me?”

Goggles gulped at that.

“Oh come on dude,” he pleaded. “I don’t even have anything else.”

At first the poor guy thought that the thugs were going to take his goggles, even after coming to a different world and losing his memories, he still had a strong attachment to them so he was hoping that wasn’t the case. Turns out that it wasn’t.

“I like your sneakers,” the leader said with a smug grin.


#


Yet any problem to add to the pile, not only has Goggles lost his backpack, but now his guitar, which was his only means of financial income, the 20 dollars, the most money he had ever made in a single day since waking up without his memories, and to top it all off, now he had to walk back to his abode with bare feet thanks to the theft of his shoes.

“Oh sure, take my sneakers!” Goggles complained sarcastically, once again not really caring who was listening. “It’s not like I need them or anything! Why don’t they just take the shirt of my back while they’re at it!?! Honestly, you’d think someone like that would at least leave the homeless guys alone!”

This was just the latest of angry outbursts that Goggles had been letting out for the past twenty minutes, granted he was grateful that he still had the goggles on his head, but that still didn’t excuse the fact that he was robbed of everything else he had. It had to have been one of the worst days Goggles had since coming to this world. Finally deciding to take a breather from his tantrum, Goggles soon took a seat on a bench whilst taking a shortcut through the local park, at this moment he really needed some time to calm down.

“What am I gonna do now?” he asked himself, a flow of depression just flooding all over him.

However that was when he heard it, it was faint but Goggles could definitely hear it, a voice that was so beautiful that it was as though it were emanating from the heavens themselves. Quickly standing up, Goggles looked over his surroundings to try and find the source of the voice, there was just something about the way it sang that just made him feel slightly better, finally he spotted who the voice belonged to. Just up the hill from where he was, standing next to a taco cart, was another girl, he couldn’t tell what she looked like due to her face being hidden by a purple hoody, but Goggles could definitely tell that she had the most beautiful voice he had ever heard, at least from what he could still remember. Suddenly Goggles found himself being snapped out of his trance by another voice, one that was gruffer and had a lot more urgency.

“LOOK OUT!” the taco vender screamed as he accidently leaned up against his cart, instantly pushing it down the hill.

Thankfully Goggles managed to snap out of his trance just in time, if he had stood where he was for only a second more, then that taco cart would have sent him flying, luckily he managed to avoid it with one quick jump to the side. Unfortunately due to the sudden urgency Goggles didn’t exactly look WHERE he was jumping, he may have avoided getting run over but that still didn’t stop him from getting stuck by several needles from a nettle bush. When he finally managed to crawl out of the bush, Goggles looked back to the hill just to catch a final glimpse of the girl just before she ran off, leaving Goggles to once again grumble with irritated anger.

“Can this day possibly get any worse!?!” he snapped.

And yet just as Goggles finished saying those words, it did. With one quick flash of lightning, a vast amount of rain quickly began to pour all over him and everyone else in the park, it seemed that luck was certainly not on Goggles side today.

“I just had to ask didn’t I?” he sighed, admitting defeat and miserably continuing his way back through the heavy gushes of water.


#


For Goggles, the trip back to his abode was not the easiest, but then again it was never easy. With no money to rent a place, he and Blue had no other choice but to squat in one of the abandoned living arrangements just outside of town, however due to the fact that Blue had to keep herself hidden, it wasn’t like they would be able to share living arrangements with the other homeless people so Goggles had Blue Lightning had to make a few compromises, even if it meant sacrificing their dignity. The abode in question was a rusted over trailer, with both its wheels torn off, sitting on a mud bank right in the centre of a flooded ditch, it wasn’t exactly the best option, in fact it was far from it, but at least no one else went near it, which made it the perfect place for Blue Lightning to hide. After once again unknotting the robe tying down his makeshift tire-raft, Goggles then paddled his way towards the bank using a broken tennis racket taped to a broom handle, upon reaching the other side Goggle then tied off the raft again and pushed open the door of the trailer.

“Honey, I’m home!” He said sarcastically.

As one can expect, the inside of the trailer was almost as bad, if not worse than the outside, rust completely swamped the ceiling, leaving a vast amount of holes which goggles had to fill with umbrellas just to keep the rain out, mould and mildew completely covered both the fabrics and the kitchenette, the only upside was that the stove was still usable, not sanitary enough for cooking but at least there was heat when Goggles and Blue needed it. It may not have been suitable for any sort of decent living but at least Goggles was able to get out of the rain.

“What happened to you sir?” said a gentle feminine voice to Goggles’ right.

Turning his head towards the voice, Goggles couldn’t help but smile as he was greeted by the kind visor of Blue Lightning. Like Goggles, she too was changed by the journey to a different world, in place of a metal pony now stood a robotic teenage girl, mostly silver with bronze hands, kneecaps and shoes, along with black rubber where she moved her joints, and just like Goggles, she also had traits from her previous form that one wouldn’t recognise if they had never seen her in the other world, such as her chest piece, the black visor with no lit up with a pair of blue lights that formed the image of expressional eyes, and of course the green and blue-streaked mesh that served as the hair on top of her head. No matter how many times Goggles looked upon his creation, she always created him with a genuine look of concern, she may not have had a personality yet and always insisted on calling him “sir”, but it was nice to know she cared.

“The result of poor timing and the luck of idiots, that’s what happened,” Goggles complained, taking a seat at the chipped and dented kitchenette tabe. “I was chased for three blocks by Mr Silver’s dog AGAIN, mugged by a trio of brain-dead lunatics, and almost ran over with a taco cart because some bimbo was singing to the vender.”

If Blue had eyebrows she would have raised one at that statement.

“That does sound… unique sir,” she said, taking a seat across the table from Goggles.

“I swear I’m at my wit’s end Blue,” Goggles replied rubbing his temples. “I only have a month’s worth of a life history and that’s AFTER we’ve hit rock-bottom, our food mostly comes from either the garbage or restaurants I ran out on paying at, we’re living in a trailer that not even the hobos would live in because of the constant flooding outside, and my attempts to spark some form of memory are starting to prove futile.”

At those words Blue stared blankly at Goggles, not really knowing the right words to say to comfort her creator.

“Well, on the positive side sir,” she said. “At least the latest flash flood did move the trailer slightly further away from the sewage outflow pipe.”

Not the best choice of uplifting words, but regardless Goggles appreciated the gesture, it was always nice to know that Blue Lightning was there to at least try to cheer him up.

“Great,” he said sarcastically, though still with a slight smile.

Of course Goggles had grown used to such a situation by now, after all one must acclimatise himself to his surroundings if he was going to find some kind of comfort, however that didn’t mean he had to like it, and needless to say Blue shared in his indigence. Normally around this time of day Goggles would usually work on another improvement to the trailer to make it a bit more liveable for him and Blue, however after the day he had just had he was more than willing to call it an early night, but not before taking something out of one of the storage cupboards and placing it upon the table.

“If I may ask, what is that?” Blue asked, inquisitively eyeing the object.

“Well I believe it’s called a laptop,” he said, opening it up and turning it on. “A device that allows the user to access a vast amount of information over a series of strange electrical currents called the Wi-Fi, I managed to find it somewhere in the scrapyard a couple of weeks ago. It’s simply amazing what some folks just throw away due one small technical error, I barely know how it works and I was able to fix it in less than an hour.”

Needless to say Blue was curious about the laptop, by the way it looked it seemed to be at a higher form of technology than she was, at least from a scientific perspective, from what her optics could make out there was no form of magic anywhere within it.

“And what purpose is this laptop supposed to serve to us?” she asked.

Goggles couldn’t help but sigh at that.

“Well since my amnesia has obviously taken away any shred of decent memory of how the world works, we will need a lot more information and I doubt we’ll have enough time to search throughout the local library, especially with my current odour.”

At those words Blue couldn’t help but giggle, in Goggles’ opinion that could only mean that her personality gem is on the brink of finally activating itself.

“I didn’t even notice sir,” Blue said finally.

“That’s because you turned off your sense of smell when it became too unbearable for you,” Goggle replied bluntly.

This was true, about two weeks after their arrival in this strange new world, Blue had managed to find a way to fiddle around with her Sensory Gem, allowing her to turn off certain senses whenever she needed to in order to make things easier for her, thus she hasn’t turned her sense of smell back on again since she caught a whiff of the outflow pipe outside.

“Okay, I managed to power this up yesterday at the local coffee shop so there should be enough power in it to last the night,” Goggles said as he pulled out a pair of wires and connected them to the USB port of the laptop. “I’m gonna use these cables to connect it into your Memory Gem so you can spend tonight searching through the information you find to see if there is a way we can get out of our current situation.”

Blue nodded at that, with every word her creator spoke she instantly understood, after all that was how she was built even if Goggles didn’t remember how he did it.

“The Wi-Fi wass a little tricky to figure out,” Goggles continued. “But I think I managed to successfully piggyback off someone else’s for the moment, so we should be okay at least for tonight. Once you’re all hooked up, you can absorb all you can.”

“I understand sir,” Blue responded with a nod. “Are there any specifics or key subjects you wish me to research?”

At those words Goggles scratched his chin with thought, he needed to make sure that Blue used the right key words to categorise the information they needed in order to priories what was needed. After all, they more than likely only had tonight to do the research, finally he nodded and gave Blue her new instructions.

“We’ll mainly need information on three key subjects,” he said, listing them out while counting them with his fingers. “First, general basics, with my memories all messed up like it is we still need more information on how things work, how they’re described in the basic language, street slang, anything that may seem trivial to the populace, understand?”

Blue nodded in response, showing that she did in fact understand and allowing Goggles to continue.

“Second subject,” he continued. “Entrepreneurial money-making, I can’t play music on the streets forever and we need a better source of financial income if we’re ever going to get out of this forsaken rust bucket.”

“And the third subject sir?”

Goggles couldn’t help but cringe at that, while the subject may have been important to him, he still felt a little embarrassed bringing it up, even if it is in front of Blue. Finally with a heavy sigh, he spoke.

“Magic,” he finally said.

At first Blue merely blinked her visor in response to that answer, but regardless she knew the right words to reply with this time.

“You still believe that it’s the key to recovering your memories sir?” she asked.

“I do,” Goggles answered simply.

“Then I shall operate to maximum capacity to find whatever information is available,” Blue replied with a gentle look from her visor, if she had a visible mouth she would have smiled too.

Needless to say, Goggles has happy to hear such a thing, he couldn’t have asked for a better friend to share this miserable life with at this point.

“Thank you Blue,” he said gratefully, “I really appreciate it.”

“But if I may be so bold sir,” Blue replied with a hint of concern in her tone of voice. “Should I not look up information regarding you? Surely your talents must have sparked some kind of headline, perhaps there’s a Missing-Person’s report?”

Goggles only sighed at that.

“It’s a good idea Blue, but I’m afraid it won’t do us much good,” he admitted. “We’ve been in this town for a month and I’ve checked every newspaper, and there’s not a single piece of information about me going missing from anywhere, not even from the world news. No, I think the best option is to look up those three subjects I’ve mentioned, besides I’m sure that if I made someone like you then I must have had some kind of secrecy involved so I doubt it was made public knowledge, after all it’s not like there are many other robots walking about.”

“Fair enough sir,” Blue responded, not wishing to argue with her maker’s request. “I shall restrict myself from looking over any other subjects apart from those you had listed. If I may ask, who are we piggybacking the Wi-Fi from?”

Goggles couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“I don’t know,” he casually admitted. “Some rich family up the road I think, I even had to boost up the signal receptor in order to get it, but it doesn’t matter now.  Come on, let’s hook you up.”

With both of them exchanging a nod with understanding, Goggles then proceeded to hook up the other end of the cables to Blue’s Memory Gem, all it took was to open up her chest and to insert the drive into the port just below the gem itself, neither one of them knew whether the magic inside the gems made it possible or not but for some reason Blue’s entire body seem to adapt to every other machine she touches, thus allowing her to become compatible with every cable and thus making the process very easy. As soon as the process was complete, Goggles let out a loud yawn, causing Blue to once again giggle.

“Would you care for anything before you turn in sir?” she asked. “Perhaps a lullaby?”

At those words Goggles couldn’t help but laugh.

“What am I? 3 years old?” he asked playfully.

“Oh come on,” Blue responded. “You know you like it when you hear singing.”

Hearing this, Goggles once again chuckled as he rose from his seat, slowly walking past Blue as he made his way to what served as his bedroom.

“Track 3,” he said, rubbing her shoulder as he passed.

Blue then nodded at that and proceeded to place a finger on her chest piece, pressing down upon it and allowing a small resonance of music to start playing. Meanwhile Goggles simply crawled into his makeshift hammock, another Equestrian trait that Goggles still carried with him after losing his other memories, once comfortable, Goggles proceeded to take the first verse of the song.

GOGGLES:
Robots are better that people, 
Blue, don’t you thinks that’s true?

BLUE:
Yeah, people will beat you and curse you and cheat you,
Every one of them is bad except you,

Goggles couldn’t help but chuckle at that, this was just one of the few songs he and Blue sang together before going to sleep, somehow it always made them feel like nothing was as bad as it was.

GOGGLES:
But people smell better than robots, 
Blue, don’t you think I’m right?

BLUE:
That’s once again true, for all except you,

GOGGLES:
You got me, let’s call it a night,

BLUE:
Goodnight,

GOGGLES:
Don’t let the sewer-rats bite.

And on that final note, Goggles slowly drifted off to sleep, while Blue continued to sit at the kitchenette table, using the Laptop to download information while she turned off her visor and then she too, drifted off into what she considers her time of rest.


> Chapter 5 - A New Situation 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Goggles awoke the next morning, he was glad to hear to drops banging against the roof of the trailer, meaning that the rain had finally stopped after an entire night of downpour. At first Goggles wanted to sleep in a little more, at the moment he felt like it was better than waking up to another day of squalor, however going back to sleep soon wasn’t an option after he heard the loud voice of Blue Lightning.

“Wakey-wakey!” she yelled, scaring Goggles so badly that he fell out of his hammock.

To Blue’s credit she certainly was better than any alarm clock, the only downside was the fact that without a real clock to give her the time, she never woke Goggles up at a time that was convenient, in this case she must have woken him up at 6 in the morning because the sun had barely risen yet. Needless to say, he was cranky as he could ever be when he dragged himself towards the kitchenette.

“How’s your sleep Sugar?” Blue asked, greeting him with a cheerful expression upon her face.

“Blue what are you…?” Goggles started speaking, before suddenly realising what Blue had just said. “Sugar!?!”

However while Goggles may have heard right, he still couldn’t believe it, just what the heck was going on?

“Isn’t this great?” Blue asked happily, quickly answering the question in Goggles’ mind. “My Personality Gem kicked in during the night, now I feel like a real girl, woohoo!”

Needless to say Goggles was speechless upon hearing that, after an entire month of waiting for Blue’s last gem to activate, this was the result she had? He had to admit, he wasn’t expecting anything like this.

“And THIS is your personality?” he finally asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Why?” Blue asked worriedly. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Oh nothing!” Goggles said quickly, not wanting to offend her. “I just didn’t expect you to be so… perky.”

Goggles may have been worried for the moment, but thankfully Blue merely gave him a happy expression on her visor and took it as a compliment.

“Breakfast?” she offered.

“Please,” Goggles answered with a smile, just hearing that offer made his mouth water.

Taking a seat at the table, Goggles waited patiently for Blue to ready his meal, he would have done it himself but yet another trait of himself he still carried from his time in Equestria was the fact that he couldn’t cook to save his life, and he knew that his amnesia had absolutely nothing to do with that fact. Thankfully there were several old cookbooks still inside the trailer when he and Blue moved in and Blue took the liberty of scanning each and every intact page so that she could easily make something somewhat edible, which wasn’t easy given the poor quality of the ingredients she had and the unsanitary condition of the stove. Luckily somehow she was able to use what she called her assimilation unit to modify the palms of her hands into hotplates, thus allowing her to cook without possibly poisoning Goggles at the same time. While Blue fries up a pair of eggs that hadn’t quite gone off yet, Goggles couldn’t help but wonder what other developments occurred during the night.

“So…” he said nervously. “What did you find out?”

At first Blue said nothing and just continued to cook, however after a few brief moments and a heavy sigh, she answered.

“A fair amount,” she said, her visor lighting up with various flashing images as she recalled every detail of what her Memory Gem absorbed. “Mostly about the general basics you requested, the Entrepreneurial money-making was a little trickier to categorise in order of relevance, but I believe I managed to figure out a system that could benefit us.”

At those words, Blue’s visor returned to normal and she returned her focus on the cooking, however there was still one other subject that Goggles wanted to know about.

“And the Magic?” he asked inquisitively.

At those words the pause Blue gave was slightly longer than the last one, but still, she knew she couldn’t just ignore her creator’s request.

“It’s very odd sir,” she finally answered, with a somewhat saddened tone in her voice. “I’ve spent most of the night searching through every source of information I can gather before the laptop’s power went out, but the only facts I could gather on Magic were the reports of Illusionists and folklore. In the eyes of the public sir, real magic doesn’t exist.”

Needless to say, Goggles wasn’t happy to hear that.

“Are you serious!?!” he snapped.

“I know, it doesn’t make any sense,” Blue replied defensively. “I mean we both know I’m powered by Magic right?”

“So you keep saying,” Goggles said, rubbing his temples with aggravation. 

“So maybe you were right about my existence being kept a secret to the public,” Blue pointed out, placing the cooked eggs upon a plate. “I’ll bet that there’s no record of me or my creator anywhere due to the amount of secrecy put into everything.”

However while Blue’s efforts were appreciated, her statement didn’t really make Goggles feel any better, if anything it only made things worse.

“Well that’s just peachy isn’t it!?!” he barked. “Where do we go from here!?!”

Seeing the aggravated state her creator was in, Blue couldn’t help but feel guilty, the last thing she wanted was to disappoint him. However before she could say any words of comfort to him, all of a sudden the trailer began to violently shake.

“Perhaps outside would be a good option!” Blue squealed fearfully, dropping the plate of eggs.

“Good call!” Goggles screamed, sharing in Blue Lightning’s fear.

Luckily for Blue and Goggles, they both managed to dive out of the trailer just in the nick of time, if they had stayed inside for a second longer they would have been carried off with the trailer as it was raised by the huge crane raising it from the mud bank.

“What the Scrap!?!” Goggles exclaimed, pulling on his hair with frenzy.

“Let’s get out of here!” Blue screamed.

Seeing no possible reason to argue, Goggles quickly ran after Blue as they both ran for cover before the crane operator noticed them. After hiding behind the rubble of an already demolished building, Goggles and Blue could only watch in helpless horror as the trailer that served as their home was carried off a dropped into a large pile of scrap metal, obviously this was the result of the local construction crew’s attempt to clean out the area before building, which was easily noticeable upon seeing the other bulldozers and workmen walking in from behind the crane.

“Well great!” Goggles snapped angrily. “Now what do we do!?!”

It certainly was a dire situation for both of them, not only had they lost their home but now Blue was out in the open where she could be seen by just about everyone. However Blue somehow managed to stay calm and spoke to her creator.

“Well I may have a solution that may make things easier,” she offered.

Seeing that there couldn’t possibly be any ideas that could make things worse, Goggles listened to her suggestion without question.

“Do tell,” he sighed.

“Well I’m not entirely sure why,” Blue replied. “But I think now that all five of my gems have been activated, I have enough magical energy to do this…”

At first Goggles merely raised an eyebrow, quickly being confused with Blue’s statement, however as soon as she pressed her chest piece his eyes widened with shock. As soon as her finger left the blue light upon her chest it soon began to spread over Blue’s entire body like a small gush of water, when it finally began to fade, the metal skin soon reappeared as green flesh. In a matter of moments, the robot Goggles had known for the past month had transformed herself as a regular teenage girl with green skin, sapphire blue eyes, and wore a black vest top with an equally black skirt with a blue lightning bolt logo on its side, purple leggings and bronze capped shoes. Needless to say, Goggles was astounded with Blue’s new disguise, the only way that he was even able to recognise her was her green and blue streaked hair, the chest piece that could have easily had been an accessory to her top, and the black circuit lines that covered her skin, though those could easily have been described as tattoos to those who don’t know she’s a robot. As Blue admired her new form, Goggles couldn’t help but let his jaw drop with astonishment.

“Come on,” Blue finally said, starting to walk towards town. “Let’s get out of here.”

At first Goggle merely stood where he was, staring blankly at Blue as she continued to walk away, however quickly snapping out of his trance, he finally managed to let out an infuriated scream. 

“SERIOUSLY!?!”  


#


When Goggles finally managed to catch up with Blue as they both made their way through the streets 20 minutes later, easily offending the small number of bystanders with his foul odour as he passed, he was still extremely ticked off with Blue about her new disguise mode.

“You mean to tell me that you could disguise yourself all this time!?!” he snapped. “Where was this ability when I was trying to hide you from the public!?!”

Blue rolled her eyes at that.

“Hey, you’re the one who built me, remember?” she said in response. “It must have been a flaw in your designs, it’s not my fault I had to wait for all five gems to ignite.”

“No, I DON’T remember!” Goggles retorted. “Why do you think we’ve been living in that craphole of a trailer for the last month!?!”

Goggles would have said more angry words but thankfully he managed to regain some of his composure and took a deep cleansing breath, the last thing he wanted to do was make things worse by getting into a fight.

“Look I’m sorry Blue,” he said calmly. “It’s still early, I haven’t had breakfast yet, and I’m just a little cranky right now, especially after what we’ve just been through. Oh did I forget to mention that I’m not wearing any shoes!?!”

That last part Goggles couldn’t help but blurt out, after all he had been walking around bare footed ever since he was mugged the previous day and he never got the chance to scavenge for new ones yet. Fortunately, Blue’s new personality added to the care she had for him made her very understanding towards Goggles’ frustration.

“It’s okay sir,” she said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We can get through this, there’s no way we’re gonna give… Hey look, 5 dollars!”

Before Goggles could even blink Blue quickly dove in front of his and yanked out a small Five Dollar Bill that was lodged between the grate of a nearby storm drain, undoubtedly something that feel out of someone’s pocket while they were crossing the street. While any form of money was a blessing to him and Blue, Goggles was less enthusiastic about the find.

“Great,” he said sarcastically. “Let’s see how long I can hold onto THIS money,”

Clearly Goggles still hasn’t gotten over being robbed yesterday, then again, who could blame him? However despite that Blue knew that Goggles’ couldn’t keep up this attitude of his if they were going to move forward from their current situation.

“We really need to get some caffeine in you,” she said gently before gazing over their surroundings. “Okay, what can we get for 5 dollars?”

“Mugged?” Goggles suggested sarcastically. 

At those words, Blue groaned and walked ahead.

“Oh would you just come on!” she snapped.

At first Goggles didn’t follow, he merely stood where he was with the same aggravated expression on his face.

“You know, I’m starting to miss the Blue Lightning WITHOUT a personality!” he called out sarcastically, finally shooting off into a run to catch up to her.


#


As luck would have it, there were a few shops that opened this early in the morning even if there were little to no people up and about, which was just as well since Goggles would have probably scared them off with his smell anyway. The particular place he and Blue went to was a small Coffee Shop, undoubtedly a café that most of the builders come to for their morning pick-me-ups, which made sense to why there was only one other person inside other than the cashier and the man in the kitchen when Goggles and Blue walked inside.

“What would you like sir?” Blue asked politely. “Coffee?”

“You kidding me?” Goggles replied raising an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that Blue hadn’t figured this fact out yet. “I can’t drink that bitter swill, I’ll have a tea.”

Blue rolled her eyes at that.

“Any particular brew sir?” she asked, ignoring Goggles’ rudeness.

At first Goggles didn’t know how to respond to that, after all he had been drinking nothing but water and the occasional treat of out-of-date soda, however the more he thought about, the more one particular blend of tea seem to feel right to him.

“Camomile please,” he sighed.

Goggles couldn’t remember why, but somehow that particular brew seemed to be the right choice. Giving him a slight nod, Blue then walked up to the counter to get the tea while Goggles looked for an empty table, which given the circumstances wasn’t that hard. As Blue waited patiently at the counter for the tea to be made, Goggles simply sat at the table closest to the window with a troubled look upon his face, normally around this time of the day he’d still be in the trailer finishing off breakfast and writing down a new entry in his journal, however he left that along with everything else he had inside of it when it was carried off by the crane, meaning that aside from Blue Lightning, the only things Goggles had left were literally the clothes on his back, and even they were coming apart at the seams, so it was no wonder Goggles was feeling depressed. Suddenly Goggles’ depression suddenly began to fade when a new sound reached his ears, only it wasn’t new at all, in fact it sounded… familiar. Quickly turning his head towards the table behind him, Goggles spotted where the voice was coming from, without a single doubt in his mind about it he knew, this was the same hoodie- wearing girl that was singing in the park yesterday. After a few moments to listening to that harmonious voice again, Goggles finally managed to regain himself enough to snap out of his trance and stand up from the table, there was no way he was going to let this girl get away without giving her have a piece of his mind, he was in too foul of a mood to let it slide at this point.

“I recognise that voice anywhere,” he growled, walking up to the girl, her face still hidden under her hood. “You’re the girl who almost ran me over with a taco cart.”

That was when the girl looked up and Goggles was finally able to catch a glimpse of her face, he may have had a massive lecture thought out in his head but at that point Goggles had to admit that he was taken aback by the girl’s good looks. Now that he could see her face Goggles’ couldn’t help but blush, she was a pale blue-skinned teenager with blue hair with navy streaks, captivating violet eyes, and wore a red pendant around her neck that dangled just outside of the neckline of her hoodie. Now that Goggles’ was met with the girl’s face, he suddenly didn’t feel the need to yell at her anymore, he didn’t know why but there was just something about her that made him soften up a bit, however now that he started up the conversation he needed to find a way to turn it into a different direction fast.

“…But you didn’t,” he finally said, allowing the girl to sigh with relief, clearly she had been somewhat nervous when Goggles walked up to her. “So for that I owe you a cup of tea.”

At those words the girl smiled, which was surprising since most people would try to walk away because of Goggles’ odour by now, maybe the girl was just too nice to care like the other two girls from yesterday. When Blue Lightning finally came back with Goggles’ tea, it wasn’t long before all three of them were sat around the other girl’s table having a pleasant talk.

“I am SO sorry for what happened,” the blue-skinned girl said, her hoodie now pulled back to reveal a long ponytail. “I hope you weren’t hurt too badly.”

“Nah,” Goggles responded with a casual shrug, trying to make himself look tough in front of the girl. “In all honesty, that wasn’t the worst thing that happened yesterday.”

“Especially when you compare it to this morning,” Blue added, rolling her eyes.

“Thank you Blue,” Goggles said sarcastically, not really liking how Blue was just stepping on his moment.

Upon that sentence the three simply looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, not really knowing what else to say next, however there was one conversation starter that Goggles knew what was sure to break the silence.

“Uh… might we ask your name Miss?” he asked ineptly, hoping that he didn’t sound too weird. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.”

Thankfully the girl accepted Goggles’ effort and replied.

“Fair enough,” she said with a shy smile. “My name is Sonata Dusk.”

So far, so good.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Goggles said, returning the smile. “I’m Goggles, and this is my… friend, Blue Lightning.”

Blue nodded at that, not really giving Sonata a second thought. Goggles on the other hand, couldn’t help but sigh with relief with what he had just said, had he not corrected himself, he would have accidently called Blue a robot in front of Sonata, either way things were starting to bode well. Which was just as well since the introduction was all Goggles needed to get the conversation going, for the next hour he graciously listened to Sonata as she talked. Goggles didn’t say much to add to the conversation save for a few small questions, he didn’t know why but for some reason he just liked to listen rather than say much himself. Of course Blue had her own questions too, however they were a little fiercer that Goggles’ were, this was more than likely due to the fact that she had become a little protective of Goggles for the past month, and now that she was able to go out in public with her disguise mode she was going to make the most of it, luckily none of Blue’s questions were able to insult Sonata in any way.

“So why were you singing in here anyway?” Blue asked, interrogating Sonata a little further. “Free Hot Chocolate?”

However Sonata merely responded with the same cheerful smile she did with all of Blue’s questions, it was as if she felt like Blue couldn’t phase her in the slightest no matter how personal she tried to get.

“Oh no,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Sometimes I just like to sing to myself every now and then, I take an early morning stroll, come in here for a drink and sing a little song where I’m not disturbed by anyone.”

Goggles couldn’t help but relate to that, sometimes even he needed a little alone time so every now and then he would play his guitar on the roof of the trailer, at least that’s how it was when he actually had the trailer or the guitar.

“You certainly have a rare gift,” he complimented. “That voice of yours can stir even the most haunted of souls.”

Sonata couldn’t help but bush at that.

“You really think so?” she asked.

Goggle merely gave a nod at that question, which was satisfying enough for Sonata. For a moment Goggles felt somewhat normal, at least more than he did for the past month, however that’s when Sonata ruined the mood with one of her questions.

“So… why aren’t you wearing shoes?” she asked, suddenly scrunching up her face as she sniffed the air. And… why do you stick so badly!?!

At those words Goggles’ happy expression dropped, suddenly snapping back into his depressed reality.

“You’re only noticing that NOW!?!” Blue snapped, amazed on how long it took for Sonata to absorb that particular fact.

“Hey don’t be rude!” Goggles retorted, once again regaining his equanimity. 

Hearing this Blue was somewhat surprised, normally Goggles would be just as agitated but for some reason he seemed to be sticking up for Sonata after stupid question, maybe it was just pity due to her idiocy.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Goggle apologised, not really caring about the question itself anymore. “We haven’t had any access to any decent bathrooms for the last month… nor any OTHER form of decent luxury.”

Sonata raised an eyebrow at that.

“Uh… what do you mean?”

Now Blue was sure that this girl was an idiot, anyone else could have figured out the implication by now. Goggles on the other hand simply elaborated.

“Well at the moment we’re kind of… homeless.”

“HOMELESS!?!” Sonata blurted out suddenly, startling Goggles so much that he fell back in his chair.

“Yeah,” Blue replied, rolling her eyes and helping Goggles back up. “And they scrapped our trailer just this morning. As of an hour ago, Goggles and I are now living on the streets.”

At those words Sonata gasped, now that the information had FINALLY sunk in, she instantly felt sorry for Blue and Goggles, no one should have to live on the streets. Suddenly her face lit up.

“Not anymore, you’re not,” she announced, rising from her chair. “Come with me.”

Then out of the blue, before anyone could protest, Sonata then grabbed Goggles by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him away, leaving Blue Lighting to follow them as she pulled him out of the door.