//------------------------------//
// The Underbelly 
// Story: Twilight's Kingdom of Steam 
// by Darthvalgaav 
//------------------------------//

Shredder had come to the conclusion that Equestrians were an odd sort, which was saying something given everything he had been through. He had fought against rebellions where the streets were exploding all around him. He’d flown through forests where snipers could have been resting on every branch. Once, he was forced to evacuate from a zeppelin before it exploded. The tests and practical examinations during military training hadn’t been a cakewalk either. Even back when he was a colt, he’d grown up next door to a house where explosions were a daily occurrence. Not because of poor house maintenance, but because the two fillies who lived there liked to build things…that just happened to blow up a lot. So given all that, he had thought that nothing could surprise him. 

 
Yet, standing at attention at the flap of the General’s tent, was something Shredder had to admit was a new one for him. This tent's primary purpose was to serve as sort of a makeshift office for General Steel Trap. Across from the flap entrance, where he stood, there was a wooden table that had been brought in to be used as a desk, along with a few chairs, one behind the desk, two in front of it. Outside of the tent was a large furnace engine which was being used to power up a few items on the bare desk, like a slowly spinning fan, as well as a two-way radio. There was a bed off to the side, yet it was so perfectly made that Shredder wondered if the General had ever slept in it at all.

 
Sitting in the seats in front of the desk were two of the three Equestrians they had arrested on the suspicion of a possible infiltration or terrorist attack on Thunder Valley. The two seated were the stallions who had been carrying the large luggage which was now in another tent across the base, being examined carefully. While neither of them looked like they were still in pain, they were still sweating as they looked around. Shredder remembered how they had cringed and cried out in fear as the soldiers of Thunder Valley floated down before them, weapons in wing. By the Storm, Shredder had half expected the two to wet themselves as they cried out in horror, the color draining from their fur as they did so. Hardly the actions of a trained soldier. But, then again, Shredder had no idea what kind of training the Equestrians’ gave. For all he knew they were acting this way in hopes that those from Thunder Valley would lower their guard. Not that that was likely to happen.

 
In truth, what made all of this odd was what the mare of the group was doing. When they had first arrested her, the mare had scoffed…until they fired a warning shot at the ground in front of her to show her that they meant business. Her reaction afterwards was fairly predictable, complying to their demands with little resistance. There was a small amount of whining from her as they walked back to camp, but when the blunderbusses were pointed in her direction again she quickly quieted down. From there they were then placed within the General’s tent as per Steel Trap’s orders with both himself and Star standing guard at the flap of the tent. Now, Shredder had dealt with several female prisoners. Most of them would either be shaking, sobbing messes or trying to seduce their way out of trouble. Or he would be dealing with Overkill, who would be laughing at all the destruction she had caused on base as he led her to a holding cell. But this mare, well, it was a new experience. She was standing in front of him with slightly narrowed eyes, examining his uniform closely. Very, very closely.

 
“I must say that the material is an interesting choice,” she commented while running a hoof over the outer jacket. “The last time I got to see these uniforms was in Ponyville, but never had a chance to really examine them for myself. Now that I take a closer look it feels tougher than most fabrics. Hmm, and I can tell that it’s still flexible. Probably more so than the armor used by the Canterlot Royal Guards but less than a Wonderbolt’s flightsuit. Not so sure about the red color. Or all the dirt and grime in it. Somepony should take more care in washing it.” Slowly she began to walk around Shredder, examining and feeling his uniform bit by bit until she came to his helmet. She scowled at it, twisting her head from side to side as if trying to look at it from different angles before finally throwing up a hoof into the air. “Oh my, this is worse than I thought from those pictures Twilight sent me. These outfits are positively dreadful darling, simply dreadful. Trotting around the streets in these is more than likely to intimidate in the worst possible way.”

 
“Ah, that’s sort of the point,” replied Shredder as Star shook her head. With her face so close to his mask, Shredder had to admit that she was gorgeous, for a non-thestral. This mare had a white coat, the rarest and most exotic in all the land! What’s more he could tell that there was not a soot spot or blemish on it despite being completely naked. Then there was that mane, which appeared luxurious. If only she didn’t have that horn at the top of her head and had wings, then she would be so much closer to perfection.

 
“But darling!” cried the mare as she placed a hoof over her heart in a dramatic fashion. “Such a thing is surely a crime. A protector of the realm should look the part. Heroic, dashing, dignified, and elegant. With armor that shines with the light of day and allows the citizens to see your reassuring faces. But this…Oh no, darling. This outfit covers everything. Nopony will be able to see the real you underneath! Not your charming face, mane, or even tail. Just imagine if there were a group of you trotting down the street: a number of faceless figures who all look the same. How is anypony supposed to feel safe with something like that?”

 
“Again, that’s the point,” said Star, a slight irritation in her voice. “We act like a single cog to protect our country. This uniform was designed to assist with that function.”

 
Shredder found himself nodding while finding it odd that this Equestrian would focus so much on appearance rather than function. She was correct in her assumption that the jacket provided them more flexibility when flying while being fairly light. They did, after all, have to carry their saddle furnaces with them in order to fire their blunderbusses so having armament that was too heavy or bulky was not feasible. Unless you had a death wish. No light reflected off their uniform, nothing that might help catch the enemy’s attention. Along with that, their uniforms helped them carry additional ammo without it exploding on them as well as some minor protection. Sure, it could do nothing against a shot from a blunderbuss, but it did keep them warm in the winter as well as in the high sky, cool in the summer, and protection from the heat from their saddle furnaces. Not to mention the fact that both the auto-lungs and goggles were built into their masks, allowing them one less worry during combat.

 
But, their function went beyond that. This Equestrian was right, they all looked the same. No thestral stood out from the rest of them save for the upper brass. When an enemy faced them, they faced a sea of faceless soldiers without any trace of thestralism to pin down. Like an army of monsters. Kill one in a rebellion, and another that looked just like the fallen would take its place. Shredder had heard stories going back to his youth, horror stories of the soldiers and the fear they invoked. More than one was about a rebel who had slain a guard, his curiosity getting the better of him and pulling off the mask of the thestral he had slain…only to find that they were faceless. Just a smooth area where their face should have been. That was what they wanted them to think. You never knew if the soldier had noticed you until his or her blunderbuss was pointing in your direction. Everything about them was supposed to inspire fear. To make their opponents tremble slightly as they fought. The longer the battle raged the more that fear sunk in.

 
Honestly, what was this mare thinking? That they were like old fashioned knights or something?

 
“Attention!” came a cry as the flap of the tent was opened. Not even a half second later, General Steel Trap entered while Shredder and Star stiffened. Through his yellow goggles, Shredder could see the other two stallions give the usual reaction when seeing the General for the first time. Their jaws opened slightly, eyes fixed on that lower metal jaw. No doubt they also noted his uniform, with all the power and authority it gave him. The two Equestrian stallions cowered in their seats looking like they were really going to wet themselves. As for the white mare she stood there with her pupils shrinking at the sight of the stallion before…a wide smile appeared on her face?

 
“Amazing darling,” said the mare as she moved closer to the General whose eyes widened a tad. His hoof reached for a small pistol where it rested while the mare began to examine his lower jaw, like how a jeweler would examine a rare gem. “Such exquisite hoof craft with sublime attention to details. Why, it must have taken weeks to craft something so unique. And, what’s this? It looks like it was polished recently. So good to meet a stallion with such refined tastes.” She then pulled herself back to examine his uniform. “As for the rest of your uniform, I dare say that is a little drab. More so than what Shining Armor wears from time to time. Still far superior than those other two behind you.”

 
“Ma’am,” began the General, his hoof slowly pulling out the pistol.

 
“Rarity,” said the mare calmly, interrupting Steel Trap while closing her eyes and holding out her hoof. Shredder watched as the General stared at her hoof before looking up at her face. Or, rather, her horn. Why he would do that, Shredder had no idea. But he did see that the General was releasing his hold on his pistol.

 
“Miss Rarity then,” said the General as he walked past her. Rarity opened her eyes in surprise, looking shocking and indignant as she turned to watch Steel Trap take a seat behind his desk. “I am General Steel Trap, commander of this campsite and head of the entire military of Thunder Valley. Are you aware as to why you have been detained?”

 
“Honestly no, darling,” replied Rarity as the other two stallions shook their heads. “All I was told was that I was under arrest and that I was to follow those garishly dressed ponies.”

 
Seeing that she understood this, Steel Trap gave her a slight nod as his eyes moved from her to the two seated stallions. Both continued to shake causing his attention to return to her. Clearly she was the one in charge of the three. “Do you understand why?”

 
“Again, no,” said Rarity as she moved closer to the desk. “Something that I find rather rude of a gentlecolt of your stature. Surely I should at least be informed of my crime before being arrested. Had that happened, I would not have scoffed at the two guarding the exit to this tent.”

 
“Our last experience with somepony entering our borders was less than ideal,” said Steel Trap in an even tone. Yet, while he spoke, Shredder could see Rarity’s ears twitch and her head tilt a little to the side. She remained like that for a moment before her hoof shot upwards to cover her mouth. If Shredder had to guess, Rarity understood that something bad had happened. “I take it from your expression that you understand. Good. I hope you will keep that in mind as well as the fact that my soldiers are a little on guard when it comes to Equestrians and what they can do. None of them wish for a repeat of what happened. As for why you have been arrested, at this moment you are a suspicious individual entering this country. We need to confirm that you bear us no hostile intent before you are allowed to proceed any further.”

 
For a moment there was a slight pause. The mare named Rarity looked a little worried now, turning her head back to look at Shredder and Star as well as eyeing the weapons that they carried. Her eyes slightly widened as the worry within her rightfully grew. Small beads of sweat began to appear on her brow as she took a deep breath. Yet after she exhaled it appeared as thought that fear and worry seemed to subside a bit.

 
“I understand,” she said. “A basic customs check if you will. So, what sort of things will me and my companions be expecting?”

 
“We will begin by inspecting everything in your bags,” began the General in a tone that brokered no arguments. “Any item we are not familiar with will be examined to see if it can be used as a potential threat against us. We will also be questioning you individually for the next several days. Should we find any hint that you have ill intentions towards Thunder Valley and its inhabitants, I shall not hesitate to place all of you in irons and dragged before our courts to receive their judgment.”

 
If that fazed Rarity, she didn’t show it. “And if there is nothing amiss?” she asked politely.

 
“If we find nothing and cannot glean any ill wishes from these interviews,” began Steel Trap as he closed his eyes, looking like he was bracing himself for something unpleasant. “Then you shall be escorted to your destination by one of our zeppelins. There you will remain under our watch until your business here is concluded where you will then be returned to this spot.”

 
“I see,” said Rarity as she looked at the stallions on either side of her. Shredder then watched as she brought her upper body onto the desk, surprising everypony in the room. From where he stood he could see her forelegs moving so that her head rested in her front hooves. She then began to flutter her eyelids at the General who, for the first time since Shredder had known him, seemed taken aback in surprise. “And what would happen if I said I wished to remain here darling?”

 
-x-

 
At the same time, Twilight was looking out of one of the windows within the Underbelly Academy. Not that there was much to look at, seeing that they were in a deep, massive underground cave system that dwarfed anything she had read about in her books back in Canterlot. On the massive ground floor were stone spikes which looked powerful enough to impale a dragon a hundred times the size of Spike. Pipes ran down the sides of the cavern from the surface, dumping various colored liquids onto the floor. Some simply pooled where they landed, creating vapors that Twilight could see even with the lack of light. The rest flowed down the slope of the caverns to where there was no light, deep down where they were no doubt forgotten about.

 
As for the Underbelly Academy, it jutted out of the side of the cave like a peninsular outcrop overlooking everything in this subterranean world. It stood out like a ten-story building made of black metal sheets, welded and riveted together, built into the side of the cavern walls. Twilight also found that each floor was shorter than the one above it, as if to form a gigantic, upside-down stairway. Coming out of the belly of the Academy was a single massive gear which turned slowly, barely scraping the wall of the cave as it did so. She also knew that certain areas of the bottom could open up, allowing more of the discarded liquids to be dumped deep into the earth.

 
Shaking her head at all of this, Twilight pulled herself from the window and turned around. While the floors were made of the same black steel plates, they looked like they had been polished recently. The light fixtures reminded Twilight of crystal wind chimes, hanging on the the walls as wires lit them up. Two long, red sofas were against the walls on either side of Twilight, each one looking like they could seat three or four thestrals. On Twilight’s right sat Wild Theory, looking up at the ceiling with a small grin on his face while he hummed an unfamiliar tune, and Overkill, who stared at the single door leading in and out with a hoof resting on her small blunderbuss. On her left side was Blood Moon, sitting alone by himself as he checked his watch with a growing frown. No doubt upset over how long they had all been waiting. As for Spike, he was standing next to Twilight.

 
“By the Storm, how long will they keep the Princess waiting?” muttered Blood as he closed his pocket watch perhaps a little too hard. “I wired them before we left that Her Grace would be here!”

 
“It’s fine,” said Twilight with a sigh.

 
“But Princess,” began Blood Moon with a start, wings extending rapidly as he spoke. “To be kept waiting like this is surely an insult to one of your station. The proper response would have been to drop everything as to not keep you waiting. Or, at the very least, provide refreshments.”

 
“He’s got a point,” grumbled Overkill without looking away from the door. “It feels like we’ve been waiting here for months, waiting for something to happen. Not even a secretary to tell us the docs will see us in five more minutes. I just-”

 
Overkill’s words were halted by the sudden creaking of the metal door as it opened. While Twilight’s guard became instantly ready for combat, Twilight herself stood at her full height as a single pony entered that caught her attention. The first thing she noticed was the stallion's head. At first, Twilight assumed that it was a metal cap of some sort but that was quickly dismissed when she saw random patches of flesh climbing over it as if it had been pulled up. Where his ears should have been were disks sticking up about an inch with mesh coverings that reminded Twilight of the devices she spoke into around here. Goggles covered his eyes that ticked as he walked forward, changing the lens as he entered from dark to clear. Several thick tubes ran across the metal dome with one that went down the stallions back and into his furnace bag. Thankfully the rest of his appearance wasn’t as unsettling. On both of his forelegs were copper leg guards that went from his shoulder down to his elbow. At the bottom of both were watches while above them were a collection of tools held in place with leather straps. He also wore a dirty brown pin striped vest over his grey coat.

 
“Greetings Princess Twilight,” said the strange new pony in an elderly voice, bowing as he spoke. Despite the warmth of his tone, Spike hid behind Twilight who could feel the little drake shaking a bit. Not that she blamed him. “I am the Grand Tinker of the Underbelly Academy, Dr. Sparks. Please, forgive me for not coming to greet you sooner. When the young Duke contacted me, I was in the middle of an experiment that required my full attention. I just now finished.”

 
“You shou-”

 
“I understand,” said Twilight, interrupting Blood as she, Theory, and Overkill all returned the bow. “No doubt you were working on a time-sensitive subject when we arrived, one that required you to see it through to the end or else you would have had to start all over. I myself know just how…frustrating it can be when you are interrupted right in the middle. Or worse, nearing the end.”

 
“Ah,” cried Dr. Spark as he placed a wing over his chest. “Storm bless my heart. Finally, a member of the nobility who understands just how painful it is to see all your hard work be interrupted at the worst possible time.”

 
“Do I ever!” cried Twilight with a grin. “I remember there was this one time I was studying the reactions of certain chemicals when my friends decided to play a little joke on me. Long story short, my lab blew up and I had to start all over again.”

 
Dr. Spark’s face twisted into something akin to horror before reaching out both of his wings to take one of Twilight’s hooves. At the same time, Overkill pulled out both of her blunderbusses and pointed them at the doctor’s head, ready to fire should he try anything. “Such…Such a travesty!” he exclaimed with a slightly trembling lip. “To lose time in such a way. It…It is simply unthinkable! We only have so much, never knowing when it will run out. To have to waste it redoing an experiment! Hopefully they received a suitable punishment for such an act.”

 
“Well, they did get an earful after Twilight tracked them down,” commented Spike. This earned him an odd look from the doctor.

 
“An earful of what?” he asked. “Hot wax right off the candle?”

 
“Ah, no,” said Twilight as she quickly removed her hoof from his wings, looking a little alarmed. “I just gave them a stern talking to when I found them.”

 
“If that is the Equestrian way,” said Dr. Spark as another figure entered the room. This time it was an auto-pony, but one unlike the ones Twilight had seen in her castle. Unlike those, this one did not have a punch card reader in the back of the neck nor were there any ponies around to control it. Instead it walked in on its own, pulling a cart full of small cakes and coffee. Twilight opened her mouth with excitement, yet the rest of this auto-pony’s design continued to hold her attention. It was slightly bulkier than the ones in the castle and its back wasn’t as flat as those as well. On its sides were several tubes, each one containing a green liquid that seemed to glow. It reminded her of something Zecora would have made, yet it had an eerie feel to it. Temperature and pressure gauges were placed near each of the transparent tubes as circular copper tubes ran up towards its back where a row of pipes allowed steam to escape. Twilight also noted that the face seemed to more closely resemble  a pony than any other auto-pony she had seen, looking as if they had shoved a pony’s head into liquid copper and allowed it to harden. The result was more than a little…unnerving. Then there were the eyes. Instead of the glowing red light, this auto-pony had black lenses covering the eyes with copper bars crossing it in order to keep it in place.

 
“Oh my, my, my,” exclaimed Wild Theory as he moved to examine the auto-pony. “Is this one of the new models you have been working on? Simply incredible!”

 
Dr. Sparks chuckled softly as he walked over to the cart, taking a thermos of coffee before pouring himself a cup. “Still only a prototype I’m afraid. Not ready for mass production as of yet.”

 
“It does seem impressive,” said Twilight as she began to circle the auto-pony, levitating a drink for herself in the process. Slowly, she took a sip before sticking out her tongue. Too bitter, needed some sugar. “I don’t see a punch card reader on this model. How does it know where to go or what to do?”

 
“That would be the new device we installed: the audio-ether reader,” explained Dr. Sparks as the rest of the ponies, and one dragon, began to examine the auto-pony. “To put it simply, the device helps translate verbal orders into codes that it can understand. Nothing too complex mind you. Simple things right now like ‘follow me’ and all that. Just before I entered, I told this auto-pony to wait one minute before entering and then stopping in the middle. The most complex order it has followed thus far. Hopefully soon we will be able to see what its limits are.”

 
“Brilliant, Dr. Sparks!” chimed Blood Moon as he looked at the auto-pony in an almost longing fashion. “Simply brilliant. Wouldn’t you agree Princess?” Yet, Twilight didn’t answer right away. Instead, her focus was on the tubes containing the green liquid.

 
“What powers this auto-pony?” she asked. However, she felt like she had an idea. “I don’t see a furnace bag on it.”

 
“I’m impressed you noticed,” exclaimed Dr. Sparks. His elderly voice became more cheerful now, barely containing the excitement. He moved over next to Twilight with the same speed she herself had used when she was a filly and had heard that the Canterlot Library had new books. As he stood next to Twilight, pointing at the tubes with his wing, she could tell just how pleased he was that she was looking at this. “You are correct to assume that this liquid is what is powering the machine. This…This, my dear Princess, is something I managed to decipher from The First Book.”

 
“The First Book…” whispered Wild Theory. Twilight looked away from the tubes to see the wild stallion bow his head in respect. Not only him, but Overkill had her eyes closed for a moment as if in reverence to what she heard.

 
“What is this First Book?” asked Spike as he walked over to the cart and grabbed one of the mini cakes in his claws. “What’s the big deal?”

 
“The ‘big deal’ as you put it is that it’s the very first book ever written in Thunder Valley,” exclaimed Blood Moon as he placed a wing over his heart. “Before we began to record the passage of time, it was there. Believed to have been written by The Three Guides themselves over a thousand plus years ago. A gift of knowledge beyond our understanding.” As he spoke, Twilight could feel all of her royal decorum slipping away as a dreamy look appeared on her face. She could feel a bit of drool slip out of her mouth as she imagined what it would be like. The historical value alone made it worth reading!

 
“Y-You’ve read it?” she asked in an excited tone. “What does it say? What’s it about?”

 
“Alas, I have not read it,” said a somber Blood Moon while Twilight took on the appearance of somepony who had just seen a kitten murdered. “Naturally, a book of such high importance is not shown to just anypony. Perhaps when I am a fully fledged Duke I will be permitted to look onto its pages, not that I will be able to understand what is written. For you see, Princess, The First Book contains knowledge. The brightest minds have been studying the book since the founding of this country and they have only been able to scratch the merest fraction of its secrets!”

 
“It sounds amazing,” said Twilight as she regained some of her excitement.

 
“Oh, that it is,” said Dr. Sparks. “It is the source of everything we have achieved as a species. From it, our ancestors learned the basics of this world. How to make a canal system, crop rotation, a pulley system, and so on.  But the rest of it, we have spent centuries trying to uncover the meaning behind the formulas and theories the Book presents. Some of it we have an idea as to what The Book is describing, yet our level of understanding can not reach the same results. Instead we have had to cobble together our own crude methods in order to imitate that which is written. With each success, we believe we trot one step closer towards the same level of understanding as those who wrote The Book.”

 
“That’s…incredible,” whispered Twilight, her mind racing like never before. Twilight had been examining this tribe of pony since she had first arrived and it was clear that they had no magic to them whatsoever. They could not move the clouds to make it rain nor could they send magic into the ground to produce a bountiful crop. Magic like that of the unicorns or changelings was impossible for them nor could they produce magical potions like the zebra. None of those wonders were available to them, making surviving in this world all the harder. So, in order to survive, they had to use their intelligence. They created machines to help them in the fields, travel through the skies, and to help them make ‘their’ world. But what didn’t make sense was that the point of their beginning was roughly one to two thousand years ago. How could they have covered so much ground in such a short amount of time? It just didn’t make sense!

 
Until now, that is. With this Book, they had a road map on how to build a civilization and proceed. Some might scoff at such a suggestion, but something as simple as a canal system or a dam would have greatly benefited their advancement. It had, Twilight recalled, taken earth ponies thousands of years to come up with such ideas back in the times before the three tribes united. It allowed them to not be completely dependent on pegasi for rainwater and allowed them to place their crops further inland. It took unicorns even longer to come up with spells which would do the same thing, allowing them to bring large amounts of water to their castles to be used as bathwater and for cleaning. Now Twilight imagined how things might be if this information had been provided to them from the beginning. How much time would have been saved by this simple act, allowing them to focus on other pursuits? The alicorn shuddered at the frightening implications. More so the idea that ponies (or something else) just gave them this information.

 
Yet it was also made clear that the thestrals also had to work to understand this information. Just because they had the information it didn’t mean they understood it. Like many of the spells Twilight had learned in her life, just having the spell was meaningless most of the time. There was a need to understand the theory behind it in order to bring out the spell’s full potential. From what she was hearing, the thestrals were still working on that. Perhaps most of the byproducts of their technology were due to not fully understanding what they were working with or just making make-shift workarounds in order to get the desired results.

 
Now she really, really wanted to see that book!

 
“So is this the only thing you guys are working on over here?” asked Spike as he eyed the green chemical, looking unimpressed.

 
The gleeful expression on Dr. Spark’s muzzle faded slightly as he turned his mechanical head over to look at Spike. “Not at all,” he said in a strained, yet polite tone that made Twilight feel a little embarrassed. “While I am the Grand Tinker, my specialty is in auto-limbs and auto-pony research. This model has been my own pet project as it were. One that I could not help but show off if Her Majesty will forgive me.”

 
“It is fine,” said Twilight quickly as she moved a wing to cover Spike. She could feel his claws on her wing, pulling it down to look at Dr. Sparks and Twilight yet didn’t say anything more. “What you have done here is nothing short of remarkable. Hopefully we will be able to see other wonders that your staff and students have created.”

 
“Most certainly,” said Dr. Sparks in a more friendly tone. “This semester, our Tinkers and students have been hard at work on several difficult projects. A few of them are for the military with one ready for a demonstration.” At that, Overkill’s eyes lit up. “I hope we can receive some feedback on its usefulness.”

 
Twilight smirked briefly at Overkill before turning back to look at Dr. Sparks. “I think she can help with that.”

 
“And, of course, there is our auto-limb and biology Tinkers,” continued Dr. Sparks. “Many of them are the pride and joy of all Thunder Valley. Right now they are hard at work trying to create lighter auto-limbs. Something that your Royal Scientific Advisor has been assisting us with.”

 
“My, my, my,” said Wild Theory as he rubbed his mane with a hoof. “It was nothing. Just some notes here and there.”

 
As the mares in the room looked at each other in slight confusion at this, Dr. Sparks barked out a laugh. “You mustn’t be too modest my colt! I know Mad Theory would die before admitting it, but there have been times when we were stuck for months before one of your notes arrived! Of course, now that I said it, I’d better be on my guard as he’s liable to have my neck! Perhaps this time he really will put my brain in a jar!”

 
As Dr. Sparks continued to laugh, Twilight turned to look at Wild Theory whose face was now burning red. “Who’s this Mad Theory?” she asked.

 
“Well, he just happens to be one of the best, best, best Tinkers in Thunder Valley,” said Wild as his eyes refused to meet Twilight’s. “He’s also my older brother. And might hate me just a tad.”