//------------------------------//
// Chapter Nine 
// Story: Pistons and Ponies 
// by LucidTech 
//------------------------------//

	Luna landed, scrap scattering hither and thither as her hooves connected with the ground and the down swing of her wings created a clear circle at her feet. She glanced around, looking for something specific, before setting off. Eyewitnesses stated he had disappeared into the junkyard after the event at the castle those few days prior. And yet, she was hopelessly lost. 

Inventor had made trips to the junkyard before, but had always been back before he was needed, never requiring her to go after him herself. Because of this, she had absolutely no idea where to start looking for him amongst the haphazard walls of the maze-like garbage. 

Though her determination and stubbornness grounded her in the location, it didn’t stop her from feeling the annoyance pooling away beneath her stoic face. What Inventor had done was something that could only be described as stupid, Not only had he made a very powerful judgement of a high ranking pony, but he had then fled, never talking, never waiting. And he was in all the worse of a position for it.

A brief flash of metal caught her eye and Luna turned to head after it, thanking all the powers that be she was close to clearing up the whole mess and getting her body guard back. Then, she could return to the castle and meet with her sister again. Maybe they could have a nice cup of tea to cool the situation.

When she approached the dancing illumination, she became aware that whatever its source, it couldn’t be Inventor; the size of it just didn’t fit. She moved the left slightly and looked in awe at the source of the false beacon. A mechanical hummingbird beat its steel wings against the air, darting from pile to pile of scrap and retrieving any metal it could lift.

As it was pulling a thin strip of metal from a pile, its wings suddenly slowed, then stopped. The bird dropped to the ground, motionless. Luna moved and stood next to it, looking down at the odd creature. A movement blurred past her peripheral vision, causing Luna to quickly jump backward. Inventor looked back at her with tired eyes for a moment before he lifted the bird from the ground and placed a key in a hole on its side.

After a few turns, the bird began flapping again and Inventor released it into the air. He looked back to the motionless Luna and left, walking slowly so she could follow if she wished. She did, indeed, follow, and before too long, they had arrived at a small metal shack. He entered immediately, but Luna remained outside a moment, taking a look at the impromptu home Inventor had created.

The door was mostly wood, but had several holes in it that had been sealed by scraps of iron. All except one, anyway, which served as the means of opening the door for the man. The hinges were strings of wire that had been shoved through the wood and then wrapped around a pole, giving it the ability to open both ways. 

The rest of the building was composed of any and all flat surfaces turned on their side and bolted together. All in all, after seeing the bird and mechanical arm the man had, Luna was unimpressed. As if called by her thoughts, the humming bird arrived and entered through the hole in the door.

Deciding she was done looking at the scrap building, she entered. Inventor sat at a table, taking the thin wires from the bird and weaving them into a small nest. Even when he looked up to see her enter, his hands didn’t stop working. 

“Oye, I thought you said there weren’t goin’ to be any visitors today,” a rough, gravelly voice said from a corner. A stallion stood from a thread thin blanket and looked towards Luna with his one good eye, his other marked white with blindness. “Well, bless the stars; it’s Princess Luna. Maybe she’ll drag you out of ‘ere, finally.”

“Can it, Hardy,” Inventor replied, throwing a bowl towards him with one hand while his other placed the nest in front of the bird, which it rested in readily. Hardy ducked, the bowl shattering against the wall behind. With a laugh, he approached the counter and retrieved a bowl that wasn’t in pieces. 

“So,” Hardy began, placing wilted lettuce in the bowl, “I suppose you’ve come to get that sad sack of steel and bones back, eh?” 

“Yes, I—”

“Well, why in the ‘eavens would you want to do that?” Hardy asked with a chuckle to himself. “He’s loyal, I’ll give ‘im that. I ‘aven’t been able to get rid of him yet. Or is that stubbornness? Same thing, I suppose.” He placed some half-rotted vegetables on the lettuce. Placing the bowl on the table, he started to eat the food within, smiling as the princess cringed.

“That cannot be healthy,” Luna said, holding back rising bile.

“He has the immune system of a super being. He can’t get sick from anything he eats,” Inventor said idly. The bird began to wind down as it pointed its head up, but no noise came from it. When gears ground to a stop, its head fell to rest against its neck.

“Aww, you flatter me, Rusty. I did get sick that one time.”

“Yes, rolling in feces with open wounds will do that to you.” Luna threw up a little in her mouth. “Still got over it in one day though, didn’t you?”

“I suppose you got me on that, Bolts.”

“You do raise a valid point, though.” Inventor looked to Luna, his tired eyes staring into hers. “Why did you come to get me?”

Luna was silent for a moment before she spoke. “You are acting childish, so I came to bring you back to your senses so you can return to being my bodyguard.”

“Ah yes, makin’ a ‘ouse in a junkyard. I can see ‘ow that might be construed as childish.” Hardy was silenced by a glare from both Luna and Inventor. 

“Surely, that’s my decision, not yours? I thought my resignation had been clear.” Inventor walked over to a scrap iron fridge and pulled an odd machine out of it, cold air visible as it tumbled to the floor and dispersed. “I realized I am not the body guarding type. If you need an executioner though, I have a lot of experience in that.” 

“So you’re just going to drop my gift, just like that?” 

“Yes, I am, in the same way you would dispose of a gifted bear trap that had clamped around your leg.” The machine on the table began to whir softly. Inventor then proceeded to beat the steel until the noise stopped. Hardy paid no attention and continued to eat the food in front of him. “Not to mention, you don’t need a bodyguard. Not unless that councillor has plans far greater than removing me.”

“You still believe he has something out for you?” Luna asked, an exasperated tone in her voice.

“I still have the freedom to keep my own beliefs, don’t I?” Inventor retorted angrily. 

“Oye!” Hardy shouted as he swung his hoof onto the table with a smash, no longer keeping his peace. “If you two are goin’ to argue, get out of the ‘ouse! It’s annoying enough ‘earing Tinky ‘ere working with ‘is crap.” Inventor looked about to talk, but was cut off. “Lookie ‘ere,  you twat, the princess cares about you, but she doesn’t want to encourage you actin’ like a whiny brat.”

“Yeah,” Luna replied, glad the stallion was on her side. 

“And you!” Hardy continued, looking at Luna. “You should know the twat actually ‘as a reason for ‘is actions; ‘e thinks somebody’s after ‘im, so ‘e’s tryin’ to save you like the good bodyguard ‘e is. ‘e doesn’t want to tell you though, ‘cause ‘e’s worried you’ll worry for ‘im ‘cause you’re a sorry sod.” Hardy stopped for a moment and chuckled. “If you don’ mind me sayin’ anyway, Your ‘ighness.”

Silence hung for a moment, then Inventor sighed. “To be clear, I do not think you are a ‘sorry sod.’ ” Luna didn’t answer. “Whatever. I can’t go back to being your bodyguard, primarily because you don’t need me. Just keep an eye on the head councillor and make sure Derpy always has a job. I’m headed to the Everfree; maybe I can make a living there, out of the way of everyone.” 

Inventor walked over and picked up the nest and bird from the other table before exiting the shack, leaving Luna and Hardy. Lacking anything else to do, Luna decided to ask the question that had been bugging her about the stallion. “Why are you living in this dump?” 

“Oh, me? I like quiet places. Which, up until yesterday, this dump had in spades.” He grinned crookedly and went back to eating his decaying food. Luna returned an unsure grin of her own and backed out of the house. To her surprise, Inventor was just outside the door, waiting for her.
“Hit me,” he said, his tone deadpan and serious.

“What?” 

“Hit me,” he announced again, louder.

“If you don’t want to, Princess, I would be happy to!” Hardy shouted from within, the ramshackle walls blocking almost none of the words.

“If you’re sure...” Luna said hesitantly, ignoring the disgusting stallion. Inventor nodded resolutely and Luna reared back, hitting the man with all the force she could muster, knowing he could handle it, but mostly because she just really wanted to hit him.

Inventor went tumbling backwards from the hit, but stood from the ground soon enough, the bird and nest remaining intact in his hand. “Thanks,” he replied, sincere in his words. “I really needed that.”

“Want to tell me why you suddenly decided me hitting you was necessary?”

“I needed to stop moping. As a bonus, I found out you hit really hard when you want to.” Inventor started rubbing his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’ve been acting foolishly. I get like that sometimes.”

“So... you’re still my body guard?” A slight smile was on her face; she hadn’t realized how relieved she would be to hear that news.

“Yea, sure. Don’t know why you need one. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.” Inventor motioned with his hand toward the train station in the distance and the two started walking. Luna would have teleported them, but she had something she wanted to talk about with the biped.

“So, what caused all that, anyway?”

“In case you didn’t notice, I’m not exactly the most mentally stable of people. I was like that even before my world ended. And then, the apocalypse didn’t really help.”

“You say that, but I can’t imagine someone acting like you just did would survive very long, alone.” At the word ‘alone’, Inventor glanced to Luna for a brief second. He said nothing as they walked on, arriving at the train station quickly. The duo stood on the walkway for a long while, neither of them checking when the next train would arrive.

“Amy,” Inventor said, gazing down the railway. 

“Hmm?” Luna looked toward him curiously.

“That was her name: Amy.”

“Oh.” Luna teetered on what to say next, but eventually asked, “What happened to her?”

Inventor turned and glared at Luna, the fires of rage burning brightly. They were quickly put out, however, by the drowning tides of sadness. “I screwed up. I fell asleep when I was supposed to be running guard duty. She offered to take over for me a few moments before hand, but I was too prideful to realize how tired I really was.”

“Oh...”

 “I woke up to the sight of her being torn apart by the monsters the apocalypse had created. The only other human who had survived the end, and I killed her with my pride.”

Silence hung in the air, choking the duo, until at last Luna could no longer handle it and teleported them both back to the castle. Having not specified a location within the castle, it was slightly confusing for the alicorn when she found herself inside of a room cluttered with gears and half-built machines.

Inventor approached the work bench at the far side of the room and pulled a small piece from a pile. Reaching over to the bird’s throat, he placed it securely within the machine and placed his key in the side of it. A few winds of the clockwork later, the bird stirred. It pointed its head skyward and, unlike last time, light and airy music began to twist its way into the air. 

Though it was mechanical in tone, it still held an odd sound to it, like a funeral march mixed with a serenade.

Luna looked to Inventor who sat with his hand on the nest, his gaze locked on the bird. “Thanks,” he said, his eyes never leaving the avian machine. “For coming to get me.”

Luna nodded astutely and left the room, the door swinging open easily from the inside. As she left, Derpy ran towards her. “Is he back?” she asked eagerly.

“Yes, he’s back.” Luna was slightly surprised as Derpy flung her front hooves around her neck.

“Thanks for bringing him back, Princess; he’s a good guy. Sometimes, he just forgets that.” Derpy let go and hurried into the room before the door closed, knowing, without the key, entry would be nigh impossible without explosives.

Luna remained motionless for a beat longer, her mind running over what had been said, before Derpy’s voice broke her from her thoughts. “INVENTOR!” she shouted, all the following words being blocked out as the door closed. Luna smiled and left, glad she had taken the time to go and bring him back.





Just so you know, that paragraph full of e’s, ‘e’s, and ‘es makes me want to choke Enfan. So. Much.  -StapleCactus