“Just one more pull and... Got it!” With a sharp crack, Gadget managed to finally pry the melted lock off of the front door. As the lock clanged to the ground, the mouse jumped down onto the handle, opening the front door.
“Welcome to Rescue Rangers Headquarters, mind the mess please.” Humdrum's eyes were wide as he watched the door open, a door that wasn't there a moment ago. Walking into the tree, he looked around before giving his verdict.
“Wow, what a dump. And how did you hide the door like that.” Gadget gave the dragon a deadpan stare before sighing as she looked around in the light of the door. The furniture that she remembered only a day ago, to her, were all masses of broken wood and splinters. She couldn't tell the cause of the destruction as time had worn away at everything, leaving only faint stains on the walls and floor, though the wreckage was remarkably preserved still. She frowned as she noticed this and realized that there must have still been some power running through the enchantments around the building.
“I think I have an idea, just give me a moment.” Spike looked confused as the mouse ran off into the darkness while pulling her goggles down and activating the light on them. Moments later after she vanished into the dark interior of the building lights began to start flickering on, illuminating the room and showing the full extent of the damage.
“I was right. I thought it strange that some of the enchantments around the tree were working but not the lights. Whatever happened back then must have knocked loose the crystals that managed those areas. Though, it's odd that the door was still camouflaged while you were able to find the window. Something must have happened to the crystal network I placed around the branches over the years.” When Spike heard her mention something about crystals he blushed lightly and started twiddling his thumbs.
“Um, I may know what happened with that. Not long before I found that window I happened to find a crystal on the ground. I thought one of the girls dropped it while they were berating Zapp for crashing into the tree and I... may have eaten it after finding it.” Gadget brought a hand up to her face and shook her head.
“Of course she would be the one to break it. Guess her frequently crashing is something that hasn't changed from what I know. I'll just have to add it to the list of things I need to fix and look into. That can all wait until after this is all cleaned up.” Looking around the room, Gadget reached down and pulled the wrench off of her side before it transformed into a broom, causing Spike to boggle at it.
“Now let's see if I can get this to work. When... When... Hmm, one second.” Gadget cleared her throat before tapping her foot on the ground three times. When music started playing from nowhere Spike's head darted around in surprise as the mouse nodded and started singing.
“~When you find yourself in a mess, don't give in to distress. Just grab yourself a broom, and spin around the room. You have to sweep, sweep, sweep, if you want to perform upkeep, and clean yourself up a home...” The dragon's jaw dropped as he watched the mouse steadily clean up the interior of the tree at a rate he would have thought impossible for one without magic. In the span of an hour, the entire room had been cleaned up and anything that could be salvaged had been set on the shelves inset into the walls.
“~...and if you want a home to keep you just got to sweep, sweep, sweep! And done. Phew, that was a bit harder than I expected but-” Gadget stopped speaking when she heard the sound of clapping that was obviously not from the dragon.
“Brrravo! The storrries passed down about you do not do you justice, darrrling.” While she didn't recognize the voice, the accent was a dead giveaway as to what the intruder was. Spinning around the mouse thrust out her foot and hit a section of the nearby wall causing it to revolve around, revealing a secret room hidden behind it. In seconds she had reached inside and hefted a crossbow to her should which she pointed towards a darkened corner that the voice had come from.
“All right, come out cat! What are you doing here?!” Humdrum looked around in confusion, looking for whatever the mouse was yelling at. He hadn't heard anything so to hear her yell had put him on guard.
“And so fast as well as intelligent. It seems that therrre may have been some trrruth to the tales afterrr all.” Gadget watched carefully as the cat slowly padded her way out from the shadows. She was surprised to find that she actually recognized the white form and tilted her head, though not aiming away from her as a precaution.
“Wait, why are you getting all upset about a cat being in here. Huh, funny, I think I recognize it, too.” Spike reached out to poke at the cat, but with a swipe of her claws, he jerked his hand back with a yelp of pain.
“Ow! It scratched me!” Gadget's eyes narrowed at the cat as she noticed something major had just happened. It didn't take her long to realize just what was going on which caused her to frown.
“What are you doing here, Opalescence? And since when did animals have superpowers?” The fancy cat's eyes narrowed as she looked at the mouse and slowly licked at a drop of blood on her claws.
“Well, now this trrruly is surrrprrrising. You may be morrre dangerrrous than I thought if you already know who I am. Of courrrse, that would be assuming that a thousand yearrr old weapon still worrrks.” Gadget narrowed her eyes at the cat, glancing at the heavily frayed string on her crossbow before she pulled out the payload of her weapon and brandished it at her target.
“It may not work, but that doesn't mean this won't. What effects do you think thousand-year-old catnip will have on you?” Spike's eyes bounced between the two figures wondering what was going on as he could only understand half the conversation. Opal stared at the mouse for a moment longer before she started to chuckle.
“Oh, you rrreally arrre as quick as the storrries say. Not only can you put togetherrr the smallest of clues to find an answerrr, you also arrre prrreparrred forrr anything. It seems following the maid today was the corrrrect choice to make.” Gadget didn't move as she continued to glare at the feline, causing her to sigh.
“Don't worrrry, darrrling. The last thing I wish to do is fight you. Tales frrrom the prrrevious fat cats have shown how poorrrly that will end. Instead, I will take my leave forrr now, but I will leave you with a message. Things have changed since you disappearrred even if the factions arrre the same. Do not expect the sides to be the same orrr even those of the same faction to be allies. And if you do find any suspicious grrroups that you believe worrrk forrr me I would apprrreciate it if you let me know of them beforrre doing anything.” With that the feline walked towards the exit of the tree, pausing only to swipe at the dragon as she passed him with a smirk. Gadget's eyes didn't leave her form the entire time until she was out of the building which was when she sighed in relief. Spike walked over to the door and looked out before closing it when he saw that the cat was gone.
“Okay, just what was all of that about? Even when you saw me you weren't that tense. Actually, before then I thought that something as small as you or that cat could hurt me. How did you do that anyways? And what is with that wrench you have there?” The mouse looked over at the door once more before she sighed and took a seat against the wall and explained just what Opalescence had told him. When she finished she brought a hand up to rub at her temple.
“If she was right about all of that then things may be very complicated now, especially if the old factions are still around with new leadership. From her words, I am sure that she is the leader, or at least a leader, of the Fat Cat faction who used to be one of the bigger threats I had faced in the past. If she is really telling the truth then she may be an ally, though she could be trying to trick me. I'll have to be careful when dealing with her at the very least since she seems really crafty. As for your other questions...” Gadget reached down for her wrench and twirled it around in her hand.
“This is Janine, the best mechanics assistant you will ever find.” Suddenly the wrench grew to be larger than her while she hefted it effortlessly before turning into a screwdriver, followed by a crowbar and a blowtorch before returning to its former size and shape.
“This is the wrench that somehow brought me to this world and I still don't know what I did to cause it to do what it does. Its material is something I can't identify though it seems to completely ignore magic when brought into contact with it, which is why it actually could hurt you since your draconic magic wouldn't protect you at all. All I really know is that it can copy any tool it comes into contact with, meaning I have to find or make it first, and if I use any of them as a weapon it loses the ability to change into them, barring the wrench form. Of course, that doesn't help at all when I need more than one tool at the same time, but it is handy to have since it can be whatever size I need.” Spike had tensed up at it being called the best assistant, but he quickly calmed down as he listened to the explanation. At the end, he frowned and looked thoughtful.
“That sound really handy, but are you sure that it's safe to be using it? I mean it did drag you here and you admit that you have no idea everything that it can do.” Gadget answered with a shrug as she slipped the wrench back into its holder.
“Nothing has happened yet, but so far it has only helped. Still, there are times I have to wonder about it.” Her gaze settled on the wrench as she thought back to all the times she had to use it, toning out the world around her. Spike, having seen that look on Twilight's face before, decided to look around the now clean room at some of the objects that were put on the shelves. Eventually, he came across a picture that caught his interest in more ways than one.
“Hey, Gadget, who are all these... beings in this picture?” Gadget's head snapped up and looked over to the dragon to see him holding a picture. She had remembered setting it aside but it was only now that what it represented hit her, causing her to look down in sadness as she walked over.
“Those are my friends from before I was trapped in time. Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, Eyebright, the mole, Marshmallow, the albino breezie, Philomena, the phoenix, and Gerald Brightfeather, the griffon. Together we were known as the Rescue Rangers and they were the best friends I ever had. There wasn't much we all couldn't do together, well, except agree on what songs to sing.” The dragon looked thoughtful as he tried to remember something, though there was another question that came to mind.
“That reminds me, how did you do that thing with the music earlier?” Gadget paused before looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What? You've never seen a Heartsong before? Ponies do it all the time and they perform miraculous deeds when it happens.” Spike shook his head as he looked back at the picture again.
“No, never. I don't even remember Twilight mentioning it during her history lessons either.” His eyes widened as he remembered what he was trying to remember.
“Wait, did you say this phoenix was Philomena? Principal Celestia's pet Philomena?” The mouse frowned as she brought a hoof up to her chin.
“Huh, that's odd. What happened to cause them to stop using Heartsongs? Something else to look into, I guess. And yeah, that is that Philomena and...” Her eyes narrowed as a realization came to her.
“Hold on, if she's still around then she should know what happened here. Yet, there is no indication of her leaving a message here at all. But, could that mean...” Her eyes widened in panic as something she didn't want to think about came to mind. Looking up sharply, she quickly darted out of the room towards her lab.
“Whoa! Hey, what's up Gadget?” Spike quickly followed after the mouse as she started scanning her lab.
“You said Philomena was still Celestia's pet, yet if she is still alive then why was I trapped for so long? I may not have liked the others entering my lab, but they knew that if something went wrong that they could come and find me and even knew the basics of how to shut down my experiments. Even then there should have been signs of her still living here yet there was nothing which can only mean one thing.” Her eyes settled on something sticking out from under a large piece of debris from her last experiment.
“You see the enchantments around this tree work in two different ways. First, it prevents those that don't know of this place from being able to locate the entrances or anything odd about it. Second...” She grunts as she shoves that chunk of metal to the size and slowly lifts the object in her hand, revealing a red feather.
“Secondly, it prevents those with hostile intentions from being able to find and enter it as well. While the first wouldn't do anything, the second would stop her as these were not here before making it possible that she is the one that sabotaged my experiment.” The two stared at the feather silently as they tried to process this information, one of them hoping that it wasn't true. The lab was virtually untouched except for the feathers and damaged part of the machine as well as if that was the only target of the saboteur as well.
“Ugh, I can't believe that I am talking to a feathering rock of all things. But mother said that if I did all of this stuff it would let me talk with the boss, whoever that is. I just hope that she was right though I've never heard of it working before because I am really, really desperate right now. So please, if you really are there, please help me. I don't want to be the one to destroy everything my family has done all these years, so please, help me.” Spike's eyes widened as he recognized the voice coming from the ruby attached to a small machine in an alcove at the back of the lab. Hearing it also shook Gadget out of her thoughts as a much more important issue now became a priority. It seems the Rescue Rangers had their first case in the new millennia.