//------------------------------//
// Reboot Sequence 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Valey cantered up to a platform where a mare was working, back to her and laying on her side, gripping a power tool in her teeth and servicing the insides of a terminal. She had an orange reflective vest, a hard hat covering a short-cropped shock of dirty pink mane, and a pair of safety goggles pushed up above her eyes, and was clearly doing her best to ignore the intrusion.

Unscrupulously, Valey leaned over her shoulder. "What'cha doooin'?"

"Replacing a burnt-out flux capacitor," the mare grunted, not looking away from her work.

"Huh. That's cool." Valey kept watching, showing off her complete lack of regard for personal space as Maple breathlessly caught up. "Sounds like some kind of candy. Do they taste good?"

The mare's jaw tightened. "This really isn't the best day for this, Valey," she muttered into the terminal's glowing guts. "Shouldn't you be on duty right now?"

"Why? What happened?" Valey backed away, leafy ears folding. It was clear to Maple that she was feigning, but she really had no idea how well the maintenance mare would be able to tell.

Sighing, the mare set down her tool and stood up, eyeing her up and down with a side glance at Maple. "Power failure," she sighed. "Came in a little after noon. It happened in Copsewood, according to the reports of the effected areas. Didn't last long, but enough to knock out some equipment." She shot the terminal a dirty look. "Probably sabotage by the Spirit bandits. Everyone knows they live there, and have apparently been rattling sticks all across the Earth District today. That's not usually my business, but when they break our equipment, it is. We need to do a full system reboot to get everything back online, and it's the delicate control equipment we use to do that that mostly got fried. At this rate, we'll just leave it off for a day or two until your Defense Force has dealt with everything, since otherwise it'll just happen again the moment we get everything up and running." Her eyes glinted dangerously at Valey. "Which is why I hope your flank has a good reason for being down here instead of dealing with the economic saboteurs you're supposed to keep us safe from."

Valey preened, completely nonchalant. "Yeah, it does."

The mare waited a few moments, eventually comprehending that Valey wasn't going to say what her reason was. Instead, she looked at Maple. "Oh. I get it. You're giving some overworld mare who's never seen this place a tour to impress her. Aren't you?" A slight smirk played across her muzzle, as if the situation was just funny enough to overcome its inconvenience.

Maple looked to Valey, uncomfortably wondering if she should play along.

"Hang on," the maintenance mare said, moving a few steps along the metal wall the terminal was affixed to and prying open a slightly heat-warped storage cabinet. She pulled out a hard hat in her teeth, tossing it by the strap to Maple. "Use that. Things fall from above all the time in this place, and that's enchanted to keep you safe." She shot Valey a disapproving glare. "Safety beats making someone feel above the rules. Unless you want to see your crush get crushed, use a little common sense. We like to keep a low accident rating around here." She slammed the door shut. "And for that, no hard hat for you."

As they argued, Maple focused on putting the hat on. Looking inside it, a comfortable mesh padding that smelled deeply of sweat and smoke covered a magical glow from beneath... a powered gemstone. The thing fit perfectly, clearly sized for a mare, her ears forced back snugly against her head. She was about to complain that it made it hard to hear when she realized how much nicer the Flame District was with the industrial cacophony muted, and a smile spread across her face.

Two straps magically attracted themselves together beneath her chin, fastening tightly with a clasp she could press with a hoof to undo. Whoever engineered the hats really had put a lot of work into them, she reflected. Now she just needed not to get hit on her unprotected back.

"So," Valey was saying, "the elevators are working, right? 'Cuz it sounds like now might not be the best time to wander around..."

"They were briefly offline," the maintenance mare replied. "Came back on by themselves. We did a safety check first thing, and they've been in service ever since. They're perfectly good to use."

"Cool, cool." Valey fanned herself with a wing. "I guess we'll get out of your mane, then. Come on, Ironflanks! Don't be slow!"





Eventually, they were well out of earshot of the maintenance mare, which wouldn't have taken long due to the din even if she hadn't been wearing the same kind of helmet as Maple. "Who was she?" Maple asked, trying to ignore the helmet's itching against her sweaty head.

"Buttermarsh?" Valey shrugged. "The grand champion of making dirty and hard-working look good. I might have pushed my luck a bit too far with her in the past, though. But still, by Ironridge standards, she's practically my biggest fan!"

Eventually, she added, "Sounds like your stunt to bust me out did a number on this place. Honestly, I've been too busy lurking and watching you in the flame barracks to check. Really, you'd think they'd be better equipped to deal with a two-second outage... It's probably because a lot of this place was designed like, if it works, don't question it and build something else on top of it. At least, that's my impression. Still, congratulations on bringing an entire district's economy to a daylong halt!"

If Maple's ears hadn't already been folded, they would have gone back. "All I wanted was..."

"Yeah, yeah. To save my rump." Valey blinked. "Actually, knowing you, you were probably more concerned about the rest of me, but still. The elevator's right there. Want to see if your friends were smart and patient and waited there for us?"

Maple sighed. "I sure hope they did..."





When the elevator doors slid open after a long ascent, Maple and Valey were met by Gerardo's very anxious face, Starlight close beside him and Howe tending to a host of bruises in the background. Neon Nova stood to the side, doing absolutely nothing.

"Friends!" Gerardo chirped, relief spreading across his expression. "I saw you fall and assumed Valey had everything under control, so I hurried Starlight to the elevator and rushed back as quickly as I could. Howe was still there, but I couldn't find any trace of you two, even with a lengthy search, and..." His headcrest drooped. "Well, let's just say I was considering our options for being without you."

"We're, uhh..." Valey blinked at all of them, turning so that her injured wing was in clear view, even though it looked completely normal. "Yeah, we're fine. I totally busted my wing, though. I can still use it, but..." She flexed it, wincing. "Might be better if I stayed off it as much as possible, so no more flight shenanigans. Fortunately, the way we're going now is down. Ready?"

"Ready," the three males echoed. Starlight had already slipped into the elevator and was pressed against Maple.

As Howe, Gerardo and Neon Nova filed in, Maple looked curiously at Valey. She had been far more open about her wing than Maple expected - she thought she would try to hide it, or play it off. Sighing, she sat down, feeling herself grow lighter as the elevator began to descend. Clearly, she had a lot more work to do to get to know Valey than merely trusting her if she wanted to be her friend.