“Whaaaaaaat are you working on?” Pinkie asked, a grin that crackled with Mania plastered on her face.
“A pair of mechanical claws, to make it easier to work on even more inventions.”
“Ooh, neat! Why can’t you just use your hoof-grip though?”
Sprocket chimed in while he checked that the bolts on the gadget were all properly tightened. “Because ‘using your crazy hoof voodoo for fine manipulation is like trying to use a spoon to mine diamonds.’”
Pinkie pondered that for a moment before responding. “But what if you had a really big spoon? Ooh! Sharpen the edges to make it easier to dig with! Maybe coat it with something stronger than normal rock!” Pinkie darted into the hall outside Twilight’s laboratory, Inspiration swirling around her.
Mason faintly heard her yelling “Twilight! I need your biggest spoon!” as she ran off to find her friend.
It had been like this for a few days now. Mason would feverishly work using Twilight’s laboratory (which she had graciously offered to let him use while he stayed in Equestria), Sprocket would assist him, then Pinkie would show up to remind him that his welcome party was going to be coming up. Although by now, “coming up” had turned into “tonight.” Thankfully, the first thing he had developed was a pill to prevent the headaches being in Pinkie’s unmada field gave him. Really, besides the constant unease Pinkie gave him, he couldn't have asked for a better setup. Working as a “temporary diplomat,” getting free room and board with royal accommodations, access to an absolutely stunningly spacious (albeit poorly equipped) lab, and an eager lab assistant that Twilight was graciously also offering a room to. Besides, plenty of people back home were unmada too. They just weren't as powerful. And most unmada weren't constantly getting Mania from somewhere. Pinkie must have had a really strong generator somewhere.
Mason’s musings were cut short as she burst back into the room. With a spoon wrapped in the curls of her mane. “Twilight said I could have one of her spoons! Check it out!”
She handed the newly made contraption over to Mason. It had clearly at some point been some kind of fine silver, as he could just barely make out the color underneath the layer of pink crystal surrounding it. No doubt sourced from the very walls of the castle. The edges were sharp as a razor, and the whole thing crackled with Mania. When he tested it by poking his workbench, he noticed the spoon seemed to almost guide the movement towards a tiny crack in the wood. She had somehow made an Epikrato-based digging tool. The study of manipulation, from the physical to the mind, all the way up to laws of reality. To dig holes. That just… wasn't what you were supposed to use that branch of Inspired technology for.
“Pinkie,” Mason began.
“Yeeeeees?”
“When I said something was ‘like trying to use a spoon to mine diamonds,’ that was supposed to be a joke,” he said as he searched for some fault in the design. Most inventions had one somewhere.
Pinkie pouted at him, which was really just unfair. How did ponies expand their eyes like that when they were upset? “Well, why can't it be funny and a real thing? I mean, that's what we do, right? Turn whatever fun idea we have into something ponies can share?”[1]
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[1]Oh, she actually believes that, doesn’t she? That’s just heartbreaking.
Mason put the spoon down on the workbench and turned his full attention to the mare next to him. “Pinkie, you've never had anypony else to talk to about this kind of thing before, have you?”
She giggled back at him before responding. “Sure I have, silly! I have my friend Cheese Sandwich, and now I've got you!” She leaned over one of the claws he'd been working on, examining them as thoroughly as Mason had the spoon. “By the way, if you add some fabric to the outside and double the number of bendy bits in the grabby parts and then tinker with the foldy parts and make the ends of the grabbers wider,[2] you could make it so these turn into a pair of shoes when you don't need them. Would make them way more convenient to use.”
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[2]No, nothing wrong with my translation here. These are the actual words she's using. Sounds like she knows what she's talking about, but not the words to say it.
Mason took a moment to try and parse Pinkie’s words into a more coherent thought. “Okay, I think I understand what you mean, but why the fabric?”
“Oh, so they'll look nice instead of all spindly and scary,” Pinkie said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Fair enough. I think I've got a working model here, but I'll need help to get your ideas to work on it. Can I get a[3] hoof?”
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[3]Hoof.
Pinkie positively lit up. “Of course!”
And so with smiles on their faces and energy in their movements, Mason, Sprocket and Pinkie set to work on the next set of adjustments.
This isn't so bad, hanging out with an unmada, Mason thought. Just going to need way more of those headache pills.
The party was going surprisingly well. The food was delicious. The decor had a certain charm if you were okay with it being childish. There was something delightful about a bakery shaped like a giant cupcake. And Pinkie had kept the guest list mercifully short. Just herself, Mason, Sprocket, Twilight, Spike, and four mares that Pinkie had insisted he just had to meet. They were still waiting on one more arrival. Apparently one of Pinkie's other friends was out of town, but was returning tonight and had been told about the party. And she lived in the castle with Twilight and Spike normally, so she'd be a sort of roommate going forward.
The only problem was the sense of foreboding doom emanating from… somewhere towards the mountains north of this town.[4] It felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Vaguely similar in nature to the field of Mania sparking off of Pinkie constantly, but distinct from it. And it had been getting stronger for hours.
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[4]Ponyville.
It clicked when he heard a distant train whistle signaling arrivals in town. It was a perfect inverse of an Unmada field. A sucking void where the power of Mania went to die. And that meant only one thing.
Mason urgently walked over to where Twilight was having a conversation with the blue one.[5] "Twilight, can I borrow you for a moment?"
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[5]Rainbow Dash. Mason seriously, how can you not remember "Rainbow" for this girl her head is a rainbow.
"- and he actually has a sensible explanation for Pinkie," Twilight said as she turned away from the conversation. "What's up?"
"I'd really like this to be a private discussion. No offense, B-[6] Rainbow. Just need to tell Twilight something kind of awkward."
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[6]Not only did I just tell you what the right answer is, why did you even think it was "Blue Fast?"
Rainbow stepped away with a "no problem," moving over to where the orange one[7] and the white one[8] were talking. Over the music, Mason could just barely hear her. "Ten bits says he's asking her out."
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[7]Applejack.
[8]Rarity. I'm starting to consider administering shocks when you forget their names.
He couldn't quite hear Rarity's response since her voice was quieter. Until her volume spiked for one sentence.
"I'll bet fifty!"
Twilight turned to him once the other girls' conversation didn't seem focused on them. "What's up?"
"I've been sensing something for a while now, getting closer and closer. Wasn't sure what it was until it got closer." Mason began to hyperventilate "Twilight, I think the train that just arrived a minute ago was carrying a Clockstopper, and they're coming for me."
Twilight put a hoof to his shoulder. "Breathe, Mason.[9] Good. Now, what is a Clockstopper?"
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[9]I'll just take over the breathing for a bit.
"Okay, imagine that being a mad scientist is like a being a faucet, but with Mania instead of water. We're not where Mania is created, but we are the point it enters from."
"Okay," Twilight said. "With you so far. Are Clockstoppers just the opposite of that? Like the drain?"
Mason nodded. "Exactly. They're drawn to peo- ponies[10] like me. They hunt ponies like me. They have a strange neutralizing effect on our technology. They're strangely charismatic because they appeal to the basest instincts of ponies, so they can stir up a mob in a couple short sentences. They are natural enemies to my kind, and the reason I'm here at all is because one broke into my home somehow. What if it's the same one? My whole organization couldn't stop him! What chance do I have?"
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[10]Gotta get in the habit even in private, Mason.
Twilight stopped to think about the problem for a moment before speaking. "Can they stop magic?" Mason shook his head. "Then you couldn't be safer here. We have the power of Harmony[11] on our side, and that's the strongest magic there is!"
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[11]Sounds religious, sort of. Or at least reverent. I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever she's on about here.
"I appreciate it, Princess. It feels like they've been getting closer this entire time. They're headed straight for us."
As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Mason's senses were going into overload as Pinkie opened it. A wave of the strange Clockstopper energy followed the mare coming in. He screamed, then bolted for the back door without looking back.
As everypony saw one of the guests of honor flee in a panic, Starlight looked at everypony else around the room. "What's wrong? I know I'm not that ugly," she joked.