//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Parallels I 
// Story: Ungrounded 
// by Lucien Chance 
//------------------------------//

	Betcha' think shit's gonna go down now, huh? Well, sort of.

Lucien reached across the counter and slammed down his fist. "70 bits for a crappy sofa?! That's outrageous!" he barked at the sofa store owner's face.

"70 bits is where it's at, 70 bits is where it stays!" the shopkeeper yelled back, slightly leaning toward Lucien's face.

"It's a rip-off! I demand a lower price!" Lucien said angrily, leaning toward the shopkeeper.

"Well you're not getting anything lower! Deal with it!" he leaned closer.

"Maybe I won't!" Lucien leaned closer.

"Then get out of my shop!" screamed the store owner. By now both of their heads were touching and they were snorting in anger.

It was then that Twilight decided she'd seen enough. "Mares, mares, you're both pretty. Can we just get a sofa and go?" she said forcefully.

The two looked at her in surprise, their anger towards each other forgotten momentarily. "Fine. Fork over the bits."

Twilight opened her saddlebag and pulled out a coin bag. "65 bits." she stated.

The shopkeeper's eyes widened. "Oh, no. That's not happening," he said firmly.

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Oh? Then I suppose we'll take our business elsewhere." She turned to Lucien. "Let's go."

He was stunned, but then realized what she was up to. He put a look of anger back on and said, "thought you'd never say so." He began to follow her out the door.

"5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1," Twilight counted under her breath.

"Wait!" the shopkeeper called out.

"Works every time."





They left the shop with a large sofa in Lucien's magical grasp. It was brand-new, sporting a dark red-velvet cushion with a gray finish. The arms were made of wood and covered on the top by the velvet. Rarity would be jealous.

Lucien started to spin it around aimlessly, bored and tired of walking. He began to inspect it for any damages, and to make sure that nasty storekeeper didn't piss on it or something. He had just finished scanning the top when Twilight spoke.

"We're here," she said, startling Lucien.

"Whoa!" his grip faltered, and the sofa started to fall. "Nope!" he said before catching it just before it hit the ground. He put it securely back in his magical grasp and turned to Twilight. "Heh heh heh," he laughed off his excess adrenaline.

"That needs to go in the back car, it won't fit with everything else," she said.

"Alright, I'll go put it in." He started to walk to the back. "This whole thing seems a little familiar," he thought before reflecting on a similar moment.





Draco, the man he had eventually come to think of as his dad, was leaving. The two were at a train station on the outskirts of Venice. He had grown old during the time they spent together, now sporting a clean cut white beard and matching white hair. His face was now covered in wrinkles, mostly concentrated around the corners of his eyes and mouth from so much smiling.

Lucien was 21 by then, and he had really grown up. Gone was the scared little boy entering a brave new world with a strange man. In his place stood a young adult, ready to start his adventure as a journeyman mage. The years that had led up to that moment were grueling, and filled with hard work and failure. Many times he had performed clean-up duties to fix experiments that had gone bad. He was proud to call himself a learned practitioner.

Steam blew out from the train's sides, causing a few loose papers to swarm up and flutter back down. People passed by the two, but none of them paid the pair any attention. To them, Lucien and Draco were just a father and son saying goodbye.

"Lucien," Draco began, "the train's leaving in a few minutes."

"Well," Lucien said, clapping a hand on his mentor's shoulder, "I guess that this is goodbye then.

"I suppose it is." Draco sighed. "Before I go, I just want you to know that I'm proud of who you are now, and that you've stuck with me for so long. There are few people in this world that have such dedication to this trade, and it's even more of an accomplishment because of how young you sill are. These last few years have been some of the best in my life, and I know that it's time for us to part ways, but please come and visit me sometime, eh?" he finished with a smile.

Tears began to form in Lucien's eyes. "I promise I will. I won't ever forget you or what you did for me. I get how hard it must have been to take me in when I was so small. And you had no idea what would happen either."

Draco laughed, a deep booming noise that caused a slight pause in the crowd shuffling around them. "That is true, and just look how you turned out, huh? No worse for the wear!"

The conversation paused at this point to allow both magicians to gather their thoughts and push back their tears.

Draco broke the silence. "I know that what comes next won't be easy, but we both know that it's necessary. You have to go through with it all, even if it means leaving me behind. Are you prepared for this?"

Lucien nodded, tears silently streaming down his face. "I am. I'll make you proud."

The two embraced warmly, saying their last goodbye. It lasted for a few moments, but was broken by the train's whistle. Draco broke the hug and pulled back, holding him at arm's length.

There's something I wanted you to have," he said, before reaching for his suitcases that sat to the side of the walkway. The crowds had thinned out considerably, now that the travelers were all on-board, and the loved ones had said their final farewells. Draco grabbed a backpack. One that seemed to be completely ordinary.

"This here is my final gift to you. Inside the pack lies a journal with some practice spells written in, along with many empty pages for you to record your findings. There is also an athame. ready to be imbued with an elemental focus. We both know how much you like your elements." He handed off the pack.

"This feels empty," Lucien said, unzipping it.

"The bag has a few more uses." Draco said, reaching out to stop Lucien from unzipping it fully. "Those you can find out for yourself. Farewell." he said, clapping his hand. The old man grabbed the rest of his luggage and started to roll it onto the train. It started to move, and Draco raised out his hand in one final wave goodbye. Lucien returned the gesture, managing to hold a bitter-sweet smile on his face.

When the train had departed, Lucien turned to go back to the empty house they had shared. His mentor's parting words echoed in his mind. He passed through the station's waiting room, full of dust, litter, and old, dried-up gum. He strode through the doorway leading out to the blinding sun.

"I'll make you proud."





Lucien didn't realize he was crying until he reached a hand up to scratch at his cheek. "Those last few moments were pretty heavy. Have I made him proud yet?" he thought. "That was decades ago. What have I accomplished since then?"

He jumped as the train whistled again, breaking him out of his thoughts. He levitated the sofa into the back car and started to walk back to the passenger car he and Twilight shared.





Bronze Gear walked out of the marketplace with a chill down her spine. She got what she had wanted from Sandcroft, but she still felt unnerved that it was so easy. She turned her head around to take one last look at the place before turning around the corner of the library. "Just so weird . . ."

What Bronze didn't notice was that a certain human, and a certain lavender unicorn walked out of the library just as Bronze rounded the corner.

She looked at the sky, the sun was just beginning to set. With a quick glance at the watch on her wrist, she decided to get home for the night. She had gotten what she had needed, after all. Bronze set out at a fast pace.

When she arrived home, she immediately turned off all the lights and went down to her basement. It was there that she lit a candle on the wall and looked over her work. It was all nearing completion.





It was all nearing completion. Bronze Gear had been working with her team on this project since the first day. Heck, she had been there when the idea was first conceived. It had been a total of 2 months since then.

By now, she was able to call everypony on her team family, and she was proud to do so. They had all been so compliant with every demand, every angry rant from her, every failure of the project; none of them ever left her side.

They were all still fillies and colts. Sitting in a classroom. Arguing over who got the last gluestick from the teacher.

The class was ready to present. Each group had their own project, yet all of them were very similar. In the end, Bronze knew that her team would be facing some heavy competition.

The first group was called up to present. They had successfully crafted a battery out of a lemon. There was a poster board that listed the procedure. "Amateur." she scoffed at it mentally.

The process continued. "Cliche." "Hackneyed." "Boring." "Overdone." "Amateur." her reaction was the same each time.

At last, it was time for her group to present. She teacher called them, and one-by-one they stood up and walked over to the front of the classroom. Bronze's best friend, a filly by the name of Oil Slick, had a nervous expression, and her legs were shaking. Bronze put a hoof on her shoulder and offered up a smile. "We'll do fine." her eyes communicated.

They opened up the board and set up the completed experiment. The class gave a gasp at what they saw. Sitting in front of the poster board was a potato battery. But, the battery just happened to be powering a small mechanism that was swirling around on a plate.

The revolutions on the mechanism sped up, going faster, and faster, until the top piece flew off. The class immediately broke out into laughter, and the teacher tried to shush them. Bronze's team was unfazed. Their gazes held steady, and the class settled down quickly, puzzled at why they weren't embarrassed.

Still smiling, Bronze lifted a hoof and pointed up. The eyes upon her slowly followed it upward, and it was close to the ceiling that they saw the top of the mechanism spinning, slowly descending. Their youthful eyes followed its progress until it touched the floor and continued to spin flawlessly.

It was an automatic top-spinning machine, built out of the base for a fan, the top, and a potato. To say they were impressed would be an understatement.

The whole class watched as the top slowed down, then fell over as it came to a stop. There was a brief moment of silence before they all broke out into applause. Hooves stomped the ground enthusiastically, and colts in the back were cheering loudly.

Now Bronze's team was embarrassed. Muzzles red, they turned to face the teacher. "Now, who's idea was this?" she asked them all.

Beaming, the members of the team all pointed at Bronze, who was pointing at Oil guiltily. Oil slapped the hoof down playfully, and said, "You know this was all you, right?"

Bronze's muzzle turned a brighter shade of red, and she couldn't help but smile at the praise she was receiving.

"Let me tell you something, Bronze Gear." the teacher lowered her head down look Bronze in the eye. "You have a very bright future."





Bronze took off her saddlebags and placed them on the ground. She was done reflecting on that period of her life. "A potato battery. Hmmph." she thought. "I still can't believe that worked." 

She had gotten the idea from her father. He had always been there to support her, and to bounce around ideas with. She looked back on another meeting with him.





"So you just put this here, put that there, and this thing gets screwed in right . . . here," Bronze's father said to his teenage daughter.

Bronze carefully followed her father's instructions, and the thing they were making suddenly coughed to life. "It works! Thanks for letting me help, dad!" she said, hugging him around the neck.

"No problem, my little inventor," he said into her ear, hugging her back.

They had been working on an internal combustion engine, one to power a large fan with. It was necessary for his job to have a large understanding of mechanical things. He was the prop-master for play production in the Canterlot Theatres. And so, that would usually entail making his own props instead of finding them around town. It was often that he came home toting pieces of mechanical items in his saddlebags.

"What's this for, anyway?" Bronze asked.

"A small-budget play. They're calling it 'The Warlock of Zo". In the opening scene, there's supposed to be a huge tornado that strikes a farm, and whisks away a little filly from her life," he responded.

"A tornado? Well, I suppose that makes sense, given the fact that we just made a giant fan," she said, getting her mane pushed around violently by the fan in question. "Can we turn this off now?"

"Sure!" her dad laughed at Bronze's blown-back mane. He walked over to her and brushed the hair back into its normal position.

"Keep up this kind of work, and you'll go places in life, Bronze."





And what a place it had gotten her to now! Locked up in her basement, stuck working a project that Celestia herself had started, then cut off. Bronze remembered the fateful day when she was assigned the accursed thing.





It was 5 years ago. Before the Nightmare returned, before Discord, before nopony remembered the Elements of Harmony. Equestria had just had her eyes opened to the world of industry, thanks to the Griffin Kingdom's rude intrusion and propositions of trade. They had brought weaponry and armor that would never compare to Equestria's, so Celestia had an emissary acquire both weapons and armor. Celestia immediately set out to discover how they were made, and how Equestria's smiths could improve them.

There were no wars going on, or anything violent on Eqqus, it was just a time for caution.

So, Celestia called a meeting for the brightest mechanical and magical minds that she could find. Attending that meeting, as Head Supervisor of Engineering, was Bronze Gear. She had held the position for 3 years, and had come to know the Princess very well in that time. She was certain that she could unlock the mysteries of this new armor immediately.

"Everypony here? All accounted for?" Princess Celestia called out. When there were no objections, she continued. "Excellent. Would everypony please take a seat at the table?" her horn lit up and the dozen or so chairs around the table scooted out.

The various innovators in the room took their seats around the table. Once all were seated, Celestia's horn glowed again, and the chairs scooted in. "Let's begin," she said, levitating an odd-looking suit of bronze armor to the table.

Everypony leaned in closer, unconsciously, to get a better look at the curious item. Bronze immediately noticed a few things. First was that the metal used on it was pure copper, giving it a dull sort of shine. The armor was done in an intricate design, mostly swooping lines that would intersect in certain places. Upon a second look, Bronze noticed that there was a pattern to the lines, repeated four times to take up the entirety of the plate. The neck line was very thick, leaving room for any clothing underneath. A set of two gauges were on the shoulder of the chest plate; Bronze couldn't make out what they were for.

The neck area had a thicker lip to in, giving her the impression that something was meant to be secured there. There were two separate lengths on the sides of the chest plate, probably for the griffin's arms. They had gears inlaid at every joint, all connected by various wires. They were there most likely to aid or speed up movement.

All of these things were noted in Bronze's mind within the minute that followed Princess Celestia placing them on the table.

"I will pass it around the table so everypony can get a closer look at it," Celestia said while beginning to start it around. "Now, it is my professional view that neither of these objects have any enchantments on them, so we don't have to worry about any magical traps and such.

Each professional took a quick view of it, then passed it on to the next in line. The pony to the left of Bronze, a midnight-blue unicorn, and he placed it on the table. He stood up and examined it with his hooves. While he was searching for something, Bronze noticed a small latch, just under the right arm hole. She reached over and undid the clasp by pressing on it with her hoof.

The unicorn noticed her movement, but before he could say anything, the chest plate sprang open, revealing an intricate array of mechanics. He stood open mouthed at the work on the inside of the armor.

Bronze noticed something else. While it opened, a wire moved. While this would probably not be odd for something so mechanical, it was how it moved that caught her eye. The wire was set to stretch along the part of the inside where the clasp was, and as soon as it opened, the wire was pulled. It got yanked out of its socket and then broke.

She realized what the wire was for just a second too late. The wire ran quickly through the array of gears, pulled toward an unknown goal. A small sphere in the center of the back of the plate was spinning, pulling the wire around, towards it.

The wire reached its goal, and Bronze threw out her hoof to try to push away the plate.

She was too slow. The sphere exploded in a flash of red, spreading bits of metal outwards. The insides were shredded, along with the face of the unicorn that was hovering over it.

Everypony in the room reacted instantly. Half sprang up to help the poor soul who's face had just been ripped up, and the other half immediately immobilized the chest plate. Princess Celestia rose quickly, and shouted for the guards stationed outside the room. Bronze heard her tell them to get the pony to the infirmary as fast as possible.

The unicorn was carted out in a field of magic. The rest of the present ponies then analyzed the chest plate through-and-through, to make sure that there were no more traps. After a few moments, each glow around the piece of shredded armor faded, with nothing being tripped.

Everypony had checked the thing for traps, save Bronze Gear. She was still sitting there, numb with shock. Her eyes were stuck on the ceiling, where multiple shards of metal were still stuck.

The Princess sat back down, and said with a steely expression, "I believe that's enough excitement for now. Thank you for your help, but you all may go now." With that said, the ponies began to file out of the room.

Bronze kick-started her legs and told them to direct her to the door. She was going to be the last one out, but then she felt a hoof on her shoulder. It was the Princess. The glass-like coating of shock that had settled over Bronze's mind shattered. With a yelp, she fell to the floor, sobbing.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Princess Celestia asked neutrally.

Rubbing her snout, Bronze rose. "Y-yes," she said in a quivering voice.

The Princess sighed. "Alas, it was too late to save him. I did notice you try to push away the chest plate though."

Bronze's eyes floated back to the spot on the ceiling with the shards. Opting to stay quiet, and not trusting her voice, she just nodded.

The Princess followed Bronze's gaze behind her shoulder and noticed the metal stuck to the ceiling. She wrapped the bits of metal in her magical aura, then lowered them down to the floor. "Let's take another look," she said.

The two walked back over to the table, still in the same spot where Bronze shoved it. The Princess brought the shards closer to her face, allowing her to get a closer look at them. "Hmm," she grunted.

"May I have a look?" Bronze asked.

Princess Celestia gave a little start, as if she had forgotten that Bronze was there. "Oh. Certainly."

Bronze took them with her magic. She brought them close and licked one. "Gunpowder, but not like any I know," she said. Then she walked closer to the table, grabbed the chest plate with one hoof, and slid it closer. The bits of metal swirled for a moment in her magical grasp, then arranged themselves in a sort of pattern. When she was satisfied with the way they looked, Bronze lowered the construct back into the mangled piece of armor. The pieces fit perfectly where they used to be.

The Princess looked impressed. She blew on the inside of the chest plate and cleared off all the soot from the explosion. "A perfect fit. Quite impressive, Bronze Gear."

Bronze had forgotten where she was and who she was talking to, and replied, "Yeh." She was still bent over the armor, examining the amazing mechanics that had made up the inside. "It's fascinating. The craftsponyship on the gears is simply amazing. Who would have thought that the griffins-" she suddenly stopped, remembering where she was. "Oh! I'm sorry I talked to you in such familiar language, Princess!" she gave a bow, trying to make up for her slip.

Princess Celestia chuckled. "Do not worry. I understand," and she really did understand.

Bronze rose, looking sheepish. "Right, sorry. Anyway, like I was saying, it's amazing that the griffins could be this far ahead in mechanics. Some of the combinations that went into making this armor are things I would never have considered!" she stopped. "Would it be alright if I took it to my rooms to further examine it?" she asked.

"Of course, but do be careful. I would not like it if anything bad happened to my most faithful student."





Bronze Gear looked down on that same piece of armor. Now, it was a bit rusted, but still the object that had unlocked her full potential with mechanical engineering. "Where did I lose it?" she asked herself. She looked up at an old picture, depicting her with the Princess, in front of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. "When did I fall out of place?"





Lucien and Twilight arrived back in Ponyville without incident. Twilight had noticed that Lucien seemed to be bothered by something, so she left him alone for the ride and settled for a book instead. He had spent the ride gazing out of the window at the landscape rushing by.

Spike had met them at the train station, and Lucien got the large sofa out of the back car. Spike reported to Twilight that they had three visitors, and that they checked out one or two books each. He looked proud that he "held down the fort." by himself.

The trio retreated back to the treehouse and settled in for the night.