//------------------------------//
// A Gem Set In Steel, Part 2 
// Story: Mare Do Well: Rebirth 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

It wasn’t the first time Loopy had been tied up, but it was definitely the most amateurish job anypony had ever done of it. Brass Mainspring had seemed almost afraid to actually touch her, like she was disgusting or dangerous. The latter was true of Loopy, but not of the pony she was disguised as - Jasmine Jewel was a pop star, and the most dangerous thing about her was the appearance fee her manager demanded.
The worst part was, because he was so bad at tying ponies up, Loopy couldn’t even get comfortable.
“We can’t send anypony up while he’s got that bomb,” Bon-Bon’s voice whispered over the radio earpiece. “You need to try talking him down. He was obsessed with Jasmine for some reason, so if there’s anypony that he might listen to in that room, it’s you.”
“Sometimes I wonder why I ever wanted to be famous,” Loopy muttered.
The griffon tied back-to-back with her laughed softly, obviously also trying to avoid the attention of Brass Mainspring as he circled the room, making sure his hostages were secure. The unhinged pony was prone to pointing his boltcaster at anything that caught him off-guard, and since he’d already shot a mirror for looking at him wrong, that wasn’t particularly difficult.
“Your ex-boyfriend is a real piece of work,” Gwen said. “I can’t imagine why you’d ever dump a charming guy like him.”
“I told you, he’s not mine. If you really think he’s that charming, you’re welcome to have him,” Loopy retorted.
“He’s not my type. I prefer someone a little softer, with nicer hips. And a better dresser. The bomb he’s got around his chest just doesn’t go with the tie he’s wearing.”
Loopy snorted. The blinking mess of wires and clockwork looked hideously dangerous, but had so many knobs and buttons that she couldn’t tell where it began or ended. Was it really a bomb, or just spare parts and Hearth’s Warming lights strung together by a mad stallion?
“Stop talking so much!” Brass shouted. “You’ve had all this time to come up with your plans to take over the world from the shadows and I won’t give you one more minute! This is going to go down in history as the moment real ponies started fighting back against the machines!”
“What machines?” Loopy sighed, speaking up. “Mister Mainspring, you’re the only one here with devices that pose any kind of threat to other ponies. You’ve got a weapon and a bomb, you’ve got every advantage. Why don’t you calm down so we can talk?”
Loopy would’ve rather punched him out, but unfortunately, that wasn’t something that would fit Jasmine’s image. Ruining the pop star’s reputation wasn’t in the cards.
“Machines like you!” Brass pointed at her accusingly. “I know exactly what you are! You’re not a real pony! You’re a synthetic copy made out of circuits and steel! I’ve seen the evidence! I’ve seen what’s inside so-called ponies like you!”
“...You think I’m a machine,” Loopy said slowly. “What, like a wind-up ballerina that prances around on stage? Most of them couldn’t get record deals.”
“Stop making fun of me!” Brass screamed. “That’s why I was driven to this, because nopony would listen unless I did something myself to stop it!”
His hoof twitched, and the boltcaster went off, a streak of yellow light going wild. The guests at the penthouse party screamed as one of the half-melted ice sculptures shattered, showering them with frozen shrapnel.
“Maybe if we listen really closely we can hear the clockwork parts that make you sarcastic even when somepony is waving a deadly weapon in your face,” Gwen muttered. “Please don’t get me shot just because you want to be clever.”
“You!” Brass pointed to the photographer, stepping over to the ponies with the press passes. “I saw you doing interviews. You’re going to listen to what I have to say, and you’ll broadcast it live!”
“I’ll have to talk to my boss--”
“He isn’t going to say no,” Brass sneered. “He’ll love having an exclusive with the pony who’s holding the most important ponies in Seasaddle hostage!”
“If he’s still talking that’s good, right?” Gwen whispered.
“I’m not an expert,” Loopy admitted. “Maybe if we’re lucky all he really wants is for ponies to listen to him, no matter how crazy he sounds.”
“And if we’re unlucky?”
“A lot of ponies leave notes right before they do something really stupid,” Loopy said. She wiggled a bit, loosening the ropes around her hooves without making too much noise or moving around much.
“Having some trouble?” Gwen asked.
“I’m pretty sure I can get myself untied,” Loopy whispered. “Once I do, I think I can get you free too.”
“I’ve been loose this whole time,” Gwen said. “I have talons, remember? Snip-snip. I just didn’t want our charming host to know.”
“I don’t suppose you could--”
Gwen glanced back at her with a smile. Loopy felt something sharp work its way under her bonds and slice through, the tension instantly releasing. She wiggled a little completely freeing herself but staying in more or less the same position to keep it from being obvious at a glance.
“Do you have a plan for actually getting out of here?” Gwen asked.
“I was kind of hoping he’d let everypony else go and just focus on me,” Loopy admitted.
“That’s noble of you.”
“You’re live,” the reporter across the room said, handing a microphone to Brass Mainspring. “Everypony in Seasaddle can hear you, sir. Can you tell us what was so important that you decided it was worth taking an entire room full of ponies hostage?”
“I have a speech prepared,” Brass Mainspring said, fishing out a pair of reading glasses and a piece of paper that had obviously been folded and refolded dozens of times.
“Get ready, he’s distracted,” Loopy whispered, hoping Bon-Bon and Lyra were still listening in.
Bon-Bon’s voice came over the line. “We’re getting into position. He barricaded the stairs and the elevators have been shut off. Five minutes.”
“Ready for what?” Gwen asked.
“Ponies of Seasaddle, wake up!” Brass started. “I lived my life watching ponies get replaced by machines. The first ones didn't have a face, just presses and stamps in factories that could churn out a thousand identical crude parts. They didn't seem threatening, and we were promised they'd bring prosperity. Then the machines got smarter and more complicated, making the delicate gears and springs that craftsponies used to create. Ponies just became slaves to the machines, feeding their furnaces and doing what the steel commanded. Ponies can't do anything for themselves anymore, and that's just what they want! The ponies who make the machines stand hidden behind the controls and watch us dance like we're all cogs! And soon they won't even need us, because they're replacing us from the top down with ponies like her! Ponies pushed by the media and the rich into every household, ponies made entirely out of circuits, ponies that are machines they can control! And through her, they control all of us!
“I have here a device that will reveal what Jasmine Jewel really is!” Brass pulled something like a tuning fork wrapped in batteries and copper wire out of his trenchcoat. “This device creates an electromagnetic surge that can instantly destroy a synth!”
He stalked towards Loopy, holding it up. A spark jumped between the tines of the fork. The radio in Loopy’s ear blared with static and squealed before going completely dead. The way she winced only encouraged him.
Brass stepped closer, holding the device high. “I’ll reveal her for what she really is!”
Behind Loopy, Gwen groaned and slumped, making Brass hesitate.
“What’s wrong?” Brass asked.
“I just feel sick--” Gwen started, before groaning again. Brass ran closer to try and help, despite himself. He reached down to her, and the griffon snapped forward, slamming her forehead into his snout. Brass cried out in pain and backed off, clutching his nose and dropping his boltcaster.
Gwen grabbed Loopy’s hoof and got up, running for the door.
“What are you doing?!” Loopy demanded.
“He’s after you, obviously!” Gwen said. “I don’t know if it’s because of the way you swing your hips or just the fact that you actually work for a living unlike the rest of the ponies in there, but I’m trying to save you!”
“You can’t just save me! He’s got a bomb! All the ponies in there are in danger!”
Gwen shoved open the door, and they ran into the hallway, Gwen dragging Loopy behind her.
“Jasmine it’s cute that you want to be a hero but it’s just not your style,” Gwen said. “Besides, once you’re out of here, he might just decide to give up.”
She grabbed the door for the stairs and pulled on the handle. There was a loud, rattling clank. Gwen looked down at it and squawked in surprise. A chain had been wrapped around the door handle and a pipe running along the wall, a thick padlock holding it securely closed.
“Get back here!” Brass shouted, storming out into the hallway. “I’m not going to let you escape the judgement of the truth!”
Gwen tapped the button for the elevator. “Come on, come on…” she muttered.
“I can’t run away and let other ponies get hurt,” Loopy said, pulling away from Gwen and going after Brass. Out here in the hallway, the only one that would see her was the griffon. Even if she couldn’t go all out she could fight a little.
“Don’t! That thing he’s got--” Gwen warned.
Loopy ran up close to Brass and hit his hoof from below while he tried to bring the awkward, improvised device to bear on Loopy. It went flying up and into the lights, hitting the buzzing halogen lights with a flash like lightning striking that was immediately followed by darkness as every light in the penthouse went out at once.
In the sudden darkness, Loopy spun and kicked, both hooves slamming into Brass’s already sore snout and sending him tumbling down the hallway into a potted plant, knocking him and the ficus over into a groaning mess.
“Huh,” Gwen said. “Nice moves.”
“When you’re famous you need to take a few self-defense classes,” Loopy lied.
“It’s not over,” Brass groaned, shoving leaves away. “Not yet!”
“Give up, Mister Mainspring,” Loopy said. “You need help. If you calm down, we can go to the police and explain to them that you’re just scared and confused. There are professionals you can talk to who can help you get better.”
“I’m not giving anything up,” Mainspring said. “You ruined my plan to expose you in front of the press where everypony could see it, but I’ll make sure you can’t trick any more ponies into whatever you synths are planning!”
He tugged a cord attached to the mess of circuits and boxes on his chest, and the lights started blinking and changing color.
“Woah, that’s my cue to leave,” Gwen said. “Sorry, Jasmine. If you figure out a way out of here, we should do dinner sometime!”
She ran for the other end of the hallway, grabbing a trash bin from next to the elevator and throwing it out ahead of her to smash into the large window there. The griffon tucked her wings in close and dove through the hole she’d made, neatly avoiding touching the broken glass around the edges.
“She really is good,” Loopy muttered. “Now tell me how to disarm this bomb!” She grabbed Brass by his coat lapels, pulling him up to eye level to glare at him.
“You won’t get anything out of me,” he said. “I’m going to show them the kind of monster you really are, synth!”
Loopy tapped the radio earpiece. “Come on… Bon-Bon, are you there? I need somepony from the bomb squad to tell me what to do!”
She didn’t even get the static of an open radio channel from the broken gadget. Loopy spotted a pocketwatch worked into the vest Brass was wearing, wrapped in wires. It was quickly ticking down to zero. There was less than a minute left.
“You were right that I’m a monster, but you’re wrong about one thing,” Loopy growled. She dropped her disguise, green fire washing over her and revealing her black shell. “You only wish I was a machine!”
Brass Mainspring screamed in alarm. Loopy lowered her head, touching her curved horn to his forehead and doing something she hadn’t had to do in a very long time.





Brass Mainspring’s mind was like a finely-made clock that had been wound too tight by life and stress and twisted everything until things started to snap. Beautiful constellations of gears and complications twirled aimlessly, smashing into each other and compounding the damage in a feedback loop.
And now Loopy was going to have to break even more to find what she needed.
She didn’t have the time or expertise to be gentle. She had to smash and grab at every memory in range. Her magic wormed its way between gears, prying them apart and looking at the memories behind them.
Brass screamed.





“Red wire is a trap,” Loopy muttered, as she read the recent memories of his plans for putting the bomb together. “Blue and white striped wire is the detonator.”
She grabbed the wire in her fangs and bit down, snapping it with only seconds to spare. The watch hit zero, and the alarm went off, the bell inside the watch ringing madly and just a little off-key.
“What are you?” Brass whispered. “I thought you were-- you were supposed to be--”
“I’m your worst nightmare,” Loopy rasped, throwing Brass back to the floor.
He looked up at her, sweat pouring down his face, and didn’t manage another word. His eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out, slumping into a heap.
There was a heavy slam against the stairway door. Loopy glanced back and disguised herself as Jasmine Jewel again just as the first members of the Seasaddle PD burst into the hallway, weapons drawn.
“Everypony freeze!” they shouted.
“You’re a little late,” Loopy said. “Glad you could eventually make it to the party.”





Ambulances had been called, but nopony had been seriously hurt. Physically, at least. A few of the more sensitive ponies had been taken away claiming they felt faint or ill from the stress of it all. The only one that really needed an ambulance was Brass Mainspring, and he wasn’t going to the regular hospital.
“She’s a monster! I was right!” Brass shouted. The orderlies dragging him to the back of the waiting ambulance struggled to keep the thin stallion moving. “She’s a creature with a pony’s face! Don’t arrest me! Somepony else had to see it! Ask them! She’s going to prey on us all!”
“I feel sorry for him,” Loopy said, as he was taken away. He turned, and their eyes locked. Brass screamed, his expression twisting into terrified panic. The orderlies had to pick him up entirely, the pony kicking and screaming about Jasmine as he was taken away. Loopy winced. Even from a distance, she could taste the horror pouring out of him. He’d seen her for what she really was, and that was what it had turned him into.
“Why?” Bon-Bon asked. “He almost got a lot of ponies killed.”
“It’s not like he was entirely wrong,” Loopy pointed out. “I mean, I am a monster with a pony’s face. Just not the kind he thought I was.”
“You’re not a monster,” Lyra said. “I’ve known plenty of changelings. Saying they’re monsters is like saying unicorns are monsters because they can do magic that other ponies can’t.”
“It’s not about what I am, not entirely,” Loopy said. “I had to go into his head to find out how to disarm that bomb. I broke things inside him. That’s not something a good pony would do.”
“A bad pony wouldn’t feel conflicted about it,” Lyra said.
“I was backed into a corner, and I made a snap decision,” Loopy said. “I’m just not sure what it says about me.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Lyra assured her. “I think you’re a good pony.”
“Maybe. Think you can take care of things here?” Loopy asked.





Jasmine twirled on stage, singing softly. It took a few spins for her to notice that a patch of shadows had peeled away from the rest and was standing in front of her small stage and waiting patiently to be noticed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Jasmine said. “I was just going over my latest routine and…”
“At midnight?” Loopy asked. She was still disguised as the pony standing over her, but they weren’t quite identical now. Jasmine still looked fresh and happy, and Loopy looked and felt like she’d been through the ringer.
“The job never really ends,” Jasmine said. “I heard a little about what happened. Thank you so much.” She sat down and sighed. “You saved so many ponies… if I had been there, they would have ended up getting hurt. And you didn’t just save them, you did it without even breaking character!”
“It’s what I do,” Loopy said. She let herself get washed over by green fire, switching her disguise to her usual pony form and stretching her wings. “I’m used to playing a part. Playing yours wasn’t so bad.”
“Maybe you could go on tour with me,” Jasmine joked. “I could use a break once in a while.”
“I’d be fun,” Loopy admitted. “But like you said, the job never really ends.”
“You’re good at yours,” Jasmine said, smiling.
“You know, what Brass Mainspring said bothered me,” Loopy said, starting to turn away. “I could feel how much the idea of someone looking like a pony but being something else disgusted him. It didn’t matter what you were. Machine, changeling, a dragon in a suit. He just couldn’t live with the idea.”
“Was he really wrong? Machine or not, I am just putting on a show. Everything about me is fake, just something made by a corporation to sell merchandise.”
Loopy shrugged. “You’re not a fake.”
Jasmine looked up in surprise.
“Take it from an expert - your feelings are the real thing, and that’s what really separates a person from a machine. I’ve met ponies who were as dead inside as a chunk of wood, but you’re different.”
“Thank you,” Jasmine said, quietly. She wiped at her eyes. She wasn’t quite crying.
“If you ever get a chance to play the kind of music you really want, let me know. I want to hear it.”
Jasmine nodded. Loopy nodded back and waved as she left.
The job never really ended, after all, and both of them had to get back to work.