//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Twin Technomancers // by Phantomdust //------------------------------// “Whoa!” Pixel looked around at the inside of the castle. Gerhardt was silent and was barely paying any attention whatsoever. Alexander was obviously blind and couldn’t see at all so he wasn’t looking around. Rather he was listening so he could know which direction he was supposed to be walking in. If they still had hands either Pixel or Gerhardt would have been leading him by the hand. Unfortunately they didn’t so he was forced to rely on his sense of hearing. As such he accidentally made a few wrong turns a couple of times but the others would always catch him before he wandered too far. Princess Celestia was currently giving them a tour of the castle by herself as Princess Luna had gone to bed. Pixel was paying very close attention to the tour and everything Celestia said, very interested in the castle. Alexander was also being polite and listening to everything Celestia explained to them. Gerhardt, on the other hand, was not. He honestly didn’t even want to be there. He would have much preferred to be back in their workshop building weapons or some other machine of war. This tour lasted for a few hours until Celestia eventually brought the three of them to what was to be their rooms. She had originally offered to let the Pixel and Gerhardt stay in two separate rooms but neither of them had been open to this idea. Pixel refused because she was just so used to staying with Gerhardt and simply didn’t feel comfortable being separated from him if she didn’t have to. Gerhardt on the other hand had refused partially for the same reason but mainly out of sheer paranoia. He was worried that either the princesses had some ulterior motive for trying to separate them and might try to kill them in their sleep or failing that he was absolutely terrified that Viridios would find them again and attack Pixel while neither he nor Alexander were around to help her. Alexander’s room was directly next to theirs so that they could help guide him through the castle whenever necessary. “Dinner will be in about an hour. Do you think you can remember the way to the dining hall or should we send a servant to come retrieve you?” Celestia inquired. “Mhm! I’ve created a three dimensional map of the interior of the castle, or at least the parts of it that we’ve seen. I know exactly where the dining hall is!” Pixel stated happily. “Alright, well I’ll see the three of you in about an hour then.” Celestia said before turning and walking away. “Well, I suppose I’ll be spending the next hour trying to memorize the layout of my room. If you two would please come get me when dinner is ready it would be much appreciated.” Alexander requested. “Of course, big brother! You know we wouldn’t just leave you behind.” Pixel said with a large smile on her face. Alexander chuckled and nodded. “I know. You two are such good children. Much better than a couple of our siblings that I raised… Well, regardless, I’ll talk to you both a bit later.” He then opened the door to his room and walked inside before closing the door behind him. Gerhardt and Pixel then proceeded into their own room. Gerhardt then peaked out the door and looked to make sure no one was around. He then looked out the window and did the same. Finally he looked back at Pixel and said, “Well I suppose this is as alone as we’re going to get. There’s actually something I’ve been meaning to ask you ever since I first woke up in the hospital but I couldn’t since I was worried that someone might hear us.” “Oh? What’s that?” Pixel inquired. “Why did you attack Viridios? I thought you were a pacifist.” Gerhardt inquired. “Oh… I am… I wasn’t actually trying to hurt him. I was just trying to knock him out of the way to interrupt his spell… I… Seeing him again, I just couldn’t help but remember watching him kill our father and… Gerhardt, I’m just really scared of losing you or Alexander like we lost daddy…” Pixel explained sadly. “Oh…” Gerhardt muttered. Walking over to Pixel he sat down and wrapped his forelegs around her. “I’m not going anywhere and neither are you or our big brother. I promise.” “That’s what daddy said too…” Pixel muttered, hugging him back. Gerhardt didn’t say anything in response to that. What could he say? She was right, their father had told them that just before Viridios murdered him. They continued hugging each other in silence for several minutes before finally releasing each other. “Um… I know we have some left in our workshop but we don’t have the Church of Science and Technology to provide materials for us any more. So, how are we going to get more materials to build our machines and continue our experiments with technomancy?” Pixel inquired, trying to change the subject. She wanted to get her mind off the depressing topic of their father’s murder. She didn’t like to think about it. “I… don’t know. Our dad used to have a way of acquiring more materials despite not being part of the Church but I don’t know how he did it. Maybe we should ask Alexander?” Gerhardt suggested. Pixel nodded. “Yeah that’s probably a good idea. I’m sure he’ll know what to do. He’s been around for thousands of years so he has to, right?” The two of them then spent the rest of the time while they were waiting discussing technology and forming theories to experiment with at a later date. Eventually an hour passed and the two of them went and retrieved Alexander before all three of them headed to the dining hall for dinner. As they walked inside they saw the princesses already waiting for them. “There you three are. Please, come take a seat.” Princess Celestia said with a friendly smile. As soon as they sat down Princess Luna said, “Prince Blueblood, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza or just Cadance for short, and her fiancé Captain Shining Armor should all be joining us shortly. They’re all quite eager to meet the two of you! We decided to have a small celebration to welcome the two of you so I’m afraid the food is still being prepared.” “How many princes and princesses are there?” Gerhardt inquired. “Seven. Me, my sister, Cadance, Blueblood, and the three of you assuming you three accept our offer. Though if you’re asking how many alicorns there are, there’s only six counting you three. Blueblood is just a normal unicorn.” Celestia explained. “Well, I’m quite eager to meet them myself. Though I do have somewhat of an unrelated question if you don’t mind.” Alexander said. “It’s fine. What is your question?” Luna asked. “Well, you see with our mother being the goddess of technology we are what you would call ‘technomancers’. Mages or in our case demigods who combine magic and technology to achieve things that would be otherwise impossible with one or the other on their own. However, to continue working as technomancers we require materials, and no I’m not asking you to provide those materials for us. We actually have enough materials in our workshop to last at least a few weeks. Besides which we have a few things built already. So, rather than that, might you be able or willing to help us get in contact with the various hospitals around Equestria and perhaps whoever manages your kingdom’s military? We could sell augmentations similar to those my younger brother and I have to the hospitals. And my brother has told me your soldiers are still using spears and platemail, so we could upgrade their equipment significantly. Both lethally and non-lethally.” Alexander explained. “Oh, so you want to start a business? Yes we could most definitely help you with that, especially if you’re going to be selling augmentations like those you have. Such technology could save hundreds if not thousands of lives. Though I’m not so sure about military technology. We're at peace. We don’t exactly have any need for anything more advanced than what we currently have.” Celestia stated. Alexander smiled at her. “Thank you. That is much appreciated.” Celestia smiled back at him. “Of course.” It was then that the door of the dining hall opened up and a white unicorn with a blond mane and tail walked in. “Ah Blueblood. Punctual as always.” Celestia stated. “Of course, aunt Celestia. I wouldn’t dream of being late to meet the newest princes and princess.” Blueblood stated. Continuing into the dining hall he walked around the table and sat in the seat directly opposite of Alexander. Looking at him, Pixel, and Gerhardt Prince Blueblood's eyes widened. “Oh my… What in the world are you three wearing?” “Robes… They’re good for working on machines since they can’t be stained by oil.” Gerhardt stated in a blunt tone. Prince Blueblood relaxed slightly. “Ah, I see. Then they aren’t meant as formal wear. What a relief… They are just so… common. Completely unbecoming of royalty. If you plan on wearing clothing often then we really must get you some proper attire so you can be seen in public. Though is that what the three of you did to become alicorns? Build machines?” Gerhardt raised an eyebrow at that and Pixel tilted her head in confusion while Alexander’s reaction was a bit more muted though he was still surprised by the question. “What do you mean ‘become’ alicorns? We were born this way. Our mother was the g— er… alicorn of technology. How could anyone possibly ‘become’ an alicorn if they weren’t born that way to begin with?” Pixel asked. “Actually that’s how every alicorn up until this point was made. My sister and I used to be unicorns but due to our affinity for raising and lowering the sun and moon we became alicorns. That’s a bit of an over simplified version of the story but still. Cadance is much the same as she was originally a pegasus. You three are actually the first recorded cases of ponies being born as alicorns.” Princess Luna explained. All three of the siblings were confused about the part where Luna mentioned that she and Celestia controlled the sun and moon. However neither of them decided to bring it up for the moment. Pixel didn’t want to be rude and Gerhardt just didn’t care enough to bother asking. The door opened again and two more individuals walked in. One was a pink alicorn that was a bit smaller than Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. The other was a white unicorn with a blue mane and tail. Presumably Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor. “Hello aunties! Hello, Blueblood.” Princess Cadance greeted as she entered. “Hello Cadance, Shining Armor.” Celestia replied. Cadance sat down opposite to Pixel and Shining Armor sat down next to Cadance and directly opposite to Gerhardt. “Hello, I’m Princess Cadance and this is my fiance Shining Armor. It’s nice to meet all of you! What are your names?” “I’m Pixel Scientia Mechanica and this is my twin brother Gerhardt Scientia Mechanica and our older half brother Alexander Scientia Calculo. It’s nice to meet you too!” Pixel said with a friendly smile. “Well, continuing where we left off… You were born alicorns? Interesting. You say your mother is the ‘alicorn of technology’. A slightly odd way of phrasing it but I suppose I understand. May I ask her name? And where is she at the moment? I would very much like to meet her as well.” Prince Blueblood inquired. “Her name is Scientia. She’s… far away and we rarely see her. She only ever shows up for about a week every year around my and my sister’s birthday. And before you ask, our father was a mortal and he is dead. He was murdered by another alicorn by the name of Viridios, who wants to kill us because his father, Silvanus, is enemies with our mother. So we’re being raised by our big brother.” Gerhardt explained in a slightly bitter tone. Not that he had anything against Blueblood specifically and he most certainly didn’t have anything against Alexander, he just didn’t like talking about Viridios or the fact he murdered their father. Yet he knew it would come up eventually and decided to just get it out of the way so he wouldn’t have to talk about it later. Shining Armor and Cadance appeared quite surprised and horrified by this information. Blueblood winced. “O-oh… My condolences… Well, rest assured that this Viridios character won't be able to harm you while you’re here. The Royal Guard are quite good at their duties and in the highly unlikely event that they should fail, Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna won’t.” Shining Armor nodded. “Agreed. I’ll be sure to inform the rest of the guard to keep an eye out for him. Do you think you could provide a description of what he looks like?” “Mhm.” Pixel hummed in confirmation. She then cast a spell and created a life sized three dimensional illusion of Viridios above the middle of the table. It rotated so everyone could see him properly and memorize his features. “Alicorn… Male… Green fur, dark green mane, similarly green eyes… Slightly larger than Celestia… Yeah that’s pretty distinct. Simple enough. I’ll have posters drawn up and have them passed around the guard. We’ll be on the lookout.” Shining Armor stated. “A word of warning. If you genuinely want to stop him, don’t send your soldiers after him. He’ll kill them all just like he killed my younger siblings’ father. No, numbers most definitely do not matter in this case. He’s more powerful than Princess Luna or Princess Celestia and they can both attest to this. So if you or your Royal Guards see him the best possible thing you could do is warn us so we can either run and hide or set up a trap for him because normal individuals fighting him is suicide.” Alexander informed them. “It’s true. The three of them are significantly more powerful than Luna or I at the moment and this Viridios is at least as powerful as Alexander. Apparently it's at least partially a matter of ‘magical fitness’ as they call it. We never knew that magic needed to be exercised like a muscle or even how to do so, but apparently it does and the three of them and Viridios all know how to maintain magical fitness. Pixel here actually agreed to write out instructions for us but it may take a bit of time before we catch up with them and Viridios. And non-alicorns are going to be significantly weaker than us by default even if they are at the peak of fitness. So, yes. Fighting him is out of the question for the Royal Guard.” Celestia explained. Blueblood, Shining Armor, and Cadance all appeared quite surprised by this. “In that case I’ll tell the guard to keep an eye out for him but to not engage him under any circumstances… Uh, maybe we should have posters passed around all of Equestria warning the general public about him.” Shining Armor suggested. “Agreed, but we should leave out the part about him being more powerful than us. We would rather avoid causing a panic after all.” Luna agreed. “Well, on a brighter note, how have you all been liking the castle so far?” Cadance inquired, trying to change the topic to something a bit more light hearted. “It’s absolutely beautiful! It's a lot different from the Grand Cathedral of Technology in Copper City.” Pixel chirped happily. “I prefer our workshop…” Gerhardt muttered. Alexander chuckled and said in a slightly amused tone, “I honestly have no idea. I haven’t seen it.” “Hm? What do you mean by that?” Cadance asked in confusion. Alexander smiled in her general direction. “Well, what do you think? After all, there’s a reason I haven’t been looking at any of you this entire time and it’s most definitely not because I’m trying to be rude or that I think any of you are ugly. The occipital lobe of my brain was damaged while I was protecting these two from Viridios just yesterday. I’m completely blind.” “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” Cadance said in an apologetic tone. “Bah, it’s fine. No harm done. One absolutely must have something of a sense of humor about such things as being overly sensitive about it only causes further unnecessary issues. Besides, I’m sure our mother will be able to help me with this little issue once she comes to visit us again.” Alexander said. “What do you mean by that? Didn’t you say your brain was damaged? How could your mother possibly fix that?” Blueblood inquired. Alexander raised a forehoof in front of him and spread his metallic wings. “The same way she helped me with these. She can replace my occipital lobe with an artificial equivalent. My siblings and I are quite skilled in technomancy ourselves and are more than capable of making standard augmentations like the ones you see before you so I would have the two of them build the replacement for me but brain augmentations are, unfortunately, beyond us. However, our skills and knowledge pale in comparison to that of our mother and she has made brain augmentations in the past thus she should be able to assist me. Though until then I’m afraid I shall just have to get used to being blind and needing others to help lead me around. It’s not that bad so far. A bit inconvenient certainly, but I’m already starting to get used to it... Sort of at least. It will take a while to fully adapt to it but I have at least come to terms with it.” “Well that’s good to hear! When do you think your mother might be coming to visit? I would like to meet her.” Cadance inquired. “Well Gerhardt told you just a few minutes ago. She should be coming to visit for about a week during these two’s birthday. Their birthday should be in approximately… six weeks and three days or more accurately exactly forty five days if I remember the date correctly. Pixel, is that correct?” Alexander inquired. Pixel nodded. “Mhm.” “Really? That soon? That’s… just a few days after Hearth’s Warming Eve.” Celestia stated. “Oh, but what about you?” “Oh, my birthday? I honestly have no idea. It’s been so long I honestly can’t remember.” He left the fact that he was born long before the invention of a standardized calendar system unsaid. At that point servants began coming in carrying trays of food before setting them down on the table in front of everyone. Celestia frowned slightly and said, “That’s unfortunate… Well, I suppose it's time we discussed what you three will be doing during your time here.” “Oh? And what would you have us do?” Alexander inquired. “Well, in your case in particular, Alexander, I suppose you should become familiar with Equestria and the political sphere. You’re going to need to know how to deal with ambassadors from other countries if you three agree to become Equestrian royalty. As for Pixel and Gerhardt, here in Equestria foals are legally required to go to school so we’ll be enrolling them in the School for Gifted Unicorns, here in Canterlot. I technically own and run the school so I can guarantee they will receive the best possible education.” Celestia informed them. Alexander frowned at that. “You do realize that the memory centers of both of their brains are artificial, thus they can completely memorize the entirety of the contents of a book, word for word, after reading it a single time. And the storage capacity of the memory centers of their brains is infinite meaning there is no limit to their memory. Just let them read the books they would be studying in your school and they could completely memorize the entire curriculum in just a few days. They would be wasted on traditional schooling. There’s a reason I never sent them to school back in the City of Copper beyond the fact that they’re alicorns.” “Be that as it may, the laws are the laws. Even royalty is not exempt from the law.” Celestia told him. “Fine. Then I’ll personally homeschool them. Just give me the necessary forms and I’ll fill out whatever I need to. Blind or not I can still sign my own name.” Alexander stated. “What? But…” Celestia said, very clearly caught off guard by this. “But, what? If the issue is strictly education then they’ll receive just as good of an education being homeschooled by me as they would if they attended your school. Believe me, I know my siblings better than anyone save for our mother and as such am the best qualified to determine what’s best for them.” Alexander said. “It’s not just about their education. Given what you just told us, I suppose you have a very good point in regards to education alone. However, sending them to school is about more than just learning. It would give the two of them opportunities to make friends that they would not have otherwise. Would you truly deny them the opportunity to form friendships?” Luna inquired. Alexander nodded. “Yes, I would. Absolutely. Do you know why? Friendships with mortals don’t last. We will live forever while mortals will just grow old and die. Thus there is no point in being friends with anyone save for other immortals. It may sound harsh, but this is better for them in the long run.” Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid that I would have to disagree with you on that point. Friendships are more than worth it if for no other reason than to cherish the memories of the time you spent with those you care about.” Luna nodded, “I agree with my sister. I’m actually quite shocked and appalled that you have such a negative view of friendship.” “Ah, I remember when I used to think like that a long long time ago… How naïve I was… Listen, the two of you are still so young. You’ve only lived for a little over a thousand years. You still have so much to learn about what it means to be immortal or ‘alicorns’. Take it from someone much older and more experienced than you, you’re dead wrong.” Alexander said in a patient tone. “They’re young?! H-how old are you?!” Cadance inquired. “Ninety three thousand years old. I have existed since well before the dawn of civilization. And Princess Luna here can confirm that I’m telling the truth if you don’t believe me.” Alexander stated remembering the fact that Luna had some sort of ability to discern the truth from her confirming the validity of what Pixel said back in the hospital. “He’s telling the truth… He really is that old… Regardless, please enlighten us, Alexander. Why do you think that way about friendship?” Luna asked in a slightly annoyed tone. Arthur turned his head in her general direction and said, “Personal experience. At first friendships with mortals will only cause unnecessary pain as everyone around you slowly withers and dies. But eventually you start to be desensitized towards it. You get used to those you know dying around you even as you continue on into eternity. You start to care less and less about the lives and deaths of mortals in general. At that point it becomes like owning a pet. You care for it until it dies then you move on. However eventually you even stop treating them like pets. At that point not only do those so-called ‘friendships’ — if they could even be called ‘friendships’ at that point — become utterly meaningless due to how fleeting they are but you’ll start treating mortals as you would treat insects because you no longer care about them or if they live or if they die. You become cruel towards them not necessarily out of malice but out of the sheer fact that you simply don’t care anymore. After all, what is to care about? They would just die in a few decades anyway and to us a few decades is but a blink of an eye.” He paused for a moment to see if anyone had any comments to make but no one said anything and the room descended into silence. He couldn’t see it but Cadance in particular was by far the most affected by his words and Shining Armor was a close second. Cadance was absolutely terrified. Would she become like that? What about her relationship with Shining Armor? She loved him so much, would she eventually stop caring about him? She didn’t want to… She wanted to cherish her memories with him now and forever. Shining Armor, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly angry. Was he saying that his relationship with Cadance was meaningless? That his fiancé would eventually become some sort of apathetic monster that didn’t care for the lives of others? How dare he? Eventually Celestia broke the silence and said, “Y-you said that you speak from personal experience… Did that happen to somepony you know or…?” “Both. I’ve seen it happen to other ‘alicorns’ and I’m afraid I myself am not immune. It happened to me as well. While I eventually realized how awful my behavior towards and treatment of mortals was and I eventually managed to stop treating them like insects, I still can’t bring myself to care about them. It’s like trying to force yourself to care about a random ant you see crawling across the ground. You simply can’t do it. Not because you don’t want to or that you’re afraid to, but simply because the ant is irrelevant. And unfortunately I am the exception not the rule. Most immortals are unable to treat mortals any better than insects no matter how hard they try. Even I often slip back into treating mortals like insects despite my best efforts. Granted I don’t murder them like insects as the worst of us do. However I tend to speak to them as if they are irrelevant, will generally ignore their very existence, get annoyed if they insist on interrupting or pestering me as one gets annoyed by a fly buzzing around their head and will snap at them, and on an individual basis I honestly couldn’t care less if they live or die even if I have known them since the very day they were born.”  “I obviously don’t want that for Gerhardt or Pixel. I don’t want them to fall into the same trap that I and so many others did. I am ashamed of what I have become. So I want them to grow up to be better people than I am. And the only way to avoid them becoming so uncaring and cruel towards mortals is to not allow them to form such fleeting bonds with mortals to begin with. Otherwise it’s simply an inevitability. In fact, since our mother is Scientia, the ‘alicorn’ of technology, we are even more susceptible to this effect than others and tend to fall into it much earlier than others. And some of our most susceptible siblings suffer an even more extreme version of it where we become completely detached and apathetic towards anything and everything except for technology, their own survival, and occasionally a few members of our family. A few of our siblings are known for their almost mechanical personalities and are often described as like machines in their own right for that very reason. And that means I have to be far more careful with these two than I would if our mother were almost any other alicorn. So, all that being said, can you understand why I don’t want them to be friends with mortals?” Alexander inquired. Celestia nodded grimly. “I do see why you wouldn’t want that… However I simply can’t bring myself to agree with you. Surely there must be some way to be able to have friends without becoming completely apathetic…” Alexander gave her a friendly smile and chuckled. “Oh, there is! Be friends with other immortals and only other immortals. So if you know any other immortals their age feel free to tell me because I’ll gladly introduce Pixel and Gerhardt to them! Otherwise, please don’t tell me how to raise my siblings. I have many millennia worth of experience over you and I know my family better than anyone save perhaps our mother. So I know what I’m doing.” “Does this… condition have a name? Surely it must if it’s as common as you make it out to be.” Prince Blueblood asked curiously. Alexander nodded. “Indeed it does. It’s not very creative but it’s most commonly called ‘Immortal Apathy’ or ‘Mortal Apathy’ depending on who you ask. I tend to call it ‘Mortal Apathy’ as it feels more accurate to me but most mortals tend to call it ‘Immortal Apathy’. ‘Immortal Apathy’ is in reference to this particular form of apathy being exclusive to immortals while ‘Mortal Apathy’ is in reference to us immortals being apathetic towards mortals specifically. Its scientific name is ‘Accidia Immortalium’. There have been efforts to find a treatment for this condition but… Well, obviously none of them have been successful otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place now would we?” “Have you even asked what they want? What if they would rather risk it and have friends?” Luna inquired. “Hm… Let’s do just that shall we? After all, we’ve been talking over their heads this entire time and that’s quite rude. So, Gerhardt, Pixel, what do you two want?” Alexander asked. “I would rather not risk becoming like those of our siblings afflicted by the more extreme form of the condition.” Gerhardt stated. “Um…” Pixel hesitated for a moment. “I… Hm… This is a tough question… I would love to have mortal friends! But… I don’t want to become apathetic towards mortals and stop caring about them… I wish there was a way to do both… But since there isn’t, um… I’m really scared of Immortal Apathy so I would rather not take the risk.” Celestia sighed and said, “That sounds like an extremely lonely life to live. But I suppose we’ll respect your decision. If this is an actual condition then it would be cruel, unethical, and down right irresponsible to force you to be in a position where you would be at greater risk for acquiring it. However, my sister and I will be trying to come up with a way to circumvent these effects as the two of us most certainly don’t want to fall prey to it either. Nor does Cadance, I would assume?” Cadance shook her head. “No, I… I really don’t… That sounds horrible…” “Thank you for understanding and while I sincerely doubt you’ll find results I most certainly wish you luck.” Alexander stated. After that the eight of them continued to make small talk as they ate their dinner and later dessert. Eventually they all finished eating and they said their goodbyes before parting ways for the night. Eventually a servant came by and delivered a fairly large stack of papers and a quill and inkwell. Thus Pixel got started writing down instructions for maintaining magical fitness. As Gerhardt was getting ready for bed that night he removed his robe, being the only clothes that his current form had. However, as he did he noticed something odd. On his flanks were what appeared to be tattoos of a blood red gear with a pentagram in the middle. The gear with the pentagram was the main religious symbol of his mother representing the combination of magic and technology to achieve feats beyond what either are capable of alone but the fact that it was red made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever. “What…?” He muttered to himself as he looked at the symbol in confusion. “What’s wrong?” Pixel inquired, setting down the stack of paper and the quill and inkwell before turning to look at him. She then saw the symbol and was just as surprised as he was. “I never had a tattoo. How did this get here?” Gerhardt inquired in confusion.. “I don’t know… Wait, I remember that Silvanus had something similar after we ended up here. And everyone we’ve seen so far has had one as well… Hm…” She then proceeded to cast a spell and use telekinesis to lift her own robe and looked to see if she had one as well. Sure enough, she did. Hers looked almost exactly like Gerhardt’s except hers was silver in color. “Oh! I have one too! See?” Gerhardt looked at her symbol then back to his, still completely confused. “I guess that means big brother must have a similar symbol too…” “We should ask him tomorrow.” Pixel said. “I wonder what they are and what they mean…” “I assume that they must be symbolic of family. It makes sense considering this is the holy symbol of our mother.” Gerhardt stated. “But if that’s the case, why are they different colors?” Pixel inquired. “Hm… I don’t know… Uh… Maybe the ponies know?” Gerhardt said uncertainly. “That would make sense considering all of them seem to have one.” Pixel agreed. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and the two of them heard Alexander’s voice say, “Gerhardt, Pixel? Is this the correct room? Er… If you’re in there I just had an idea that I would like your help with.” Both of them then got up and proceeded towards the door before opening it and revealing Alexander. “What is it you need?” Gerhardt inquired. “Ah, so this was the right room. I know it’s right next to mine but I had no way of knowing if I walked too far or not. Regardless, what I want your help with will hopefully help with that. I just thought of a device that might help me get around. It won’t fix my vision, unfortunately but it should still help quite a bit.” Alexander told them. “Oh? We would love to help! What sort of device do you want us to build?” Pixel asked, eager to assist her older brother. “It’s a fairly simple device in concept so either one of you should be able to do it on your own, though if you would like to work together on it that’s fine as well. Anyway, I would like you to build an earpiece connected to a camera on the front of a device vaguely reminiscent of glasses, but solid and without lenses since I obviously couldn’t see through the lenses anyway. The earpiece should play a sound of varying intensity depending on how close or far away whatever the camera is pointed at is. That way I will be able to know how close or far away something is just by looking at it even though I can’t actually see anything. Think of it like… echolocation but based on what a camera sees rather than sound bouncing off of objects. It would also serve to let others know that I am incapable of seeing since they would lack lenses. I would make it myself, but…” Alexander explained. Gerhardt nodded. “Alright. That actually makes a lot of sense. We can definitely do that for you. It should be ready by morning.” “Thank you. I am getting a bit tired of bumping into objects in my room because I can’t see.” Alexander said in a humorous tone. It really was starting to get annoying, but there was no point in taking out his frustrations on his younger siblings, in fact that would be highly counter productive. So for their sake he was trying his best to take it in good humor. “Anyways, I should probably go to bed. I’ll see you both in the morning. Thank you again. I really appreciate it.” With that Alexander placed a forehoof against the wall and began walking back to his room. “Well, no point in standing around here. Let’s go!” Pixel exclaimed excitedly. “Wait, but weren’t you writing instructions for magical fitness for the princesses?” Gerhardt inquired. “Yeah, but that can wait. Big brother needs our help so that takes precedence!” Pixel said. A silver aura then surrounded her horn as she cast a spell and teleported them both to their workshop which was now located in a space behind the castle that used to be empty.. “Alright then. Well, this is going to be more difficult without hands but I suppose we should get to work.” Gerhardt stated before picking up several tools with telekinesis along with the materials they would need for this project.