Ponyville, Sugercube Corner, 2128(11:28)
Specter had really enjoying the party that was thrown for him. He had learned the names of several ponys he had seen in the backround of the show, but he knew most of there names already. Several had asked him about the explosion that he was found near a little more than a week prior, to which he gave the answer he gave the elements, that he didnt have a clue at all about what caused it.
To name a few names he had learnd, there was Dizzy Twister, Golden Grape, Golden Harvest, Noteworthy, Twinkleshine, Derpy, and Time Turner. He also learnd that Bon Bon was actualy called Sweetie Drops. All of the mane six was there aswell, and he had gotten to learn abit about them aswell, seeing as how this party was all about having fun, and letting Specter make a few freinds.
As it got darker, the party began to dwinde down, till it was just him and the mane six. he had just been having some idle chat with Rainbow Dash, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye, a set of pure teal eye's were watching him fom the darkness.he decided he would check it out later, and put his attention back to Rainbow Dash, who was going on and on about how awsome the wonder bolts are, though she wouldn't have noticed anywase since his eye was the same color all around.
Eventually, the mane six decided that now was the about the time they should be heading home. Rainbow Dash had offerd him a place to stay at her place, which is when Specter had relised a huge roadblock for him. He couldn't fly! He stood still as a stone, wondering what he was going to say,"Well, you wanna or not?" Dash said, wishing he would hurry up and answer."Um, well ,uh, you see....." Specter began," I,um,I,cant, fly.."he said, embaresed to the point he wished he could vanish.
"youuu, what?" Dash asked,since she didnt hear him. She got a bit closer to him and turned her head so her left ear was pointed towards him. Deciding to just spill the beans, specter said" I, I cant fly...." there was a very short silence, which was broken by Rainbow Dash laghing like crazy.
Specter was to embaresd to say a word."HAhaha! What pegeses your age dosn't know how to fly? Bwahahaha!" Dash said.While she was laghing, Specter just said," I'll just, go sleep in a tree." and wanderd in the direction of the library. "HAHA, hey were you going? I was just kidding!" Dash said to Specter, as she got up and dusted herself off. Specter just continued glumly,"No no, its fine, besides, i coudn't accept your offer anywase, I dont even know how to fly, heck i dont even remember how to read." he said, shocking everypony, Twilight most of all.
"Um,well,"Twilight said,"I, do have some space in my basement, but you dont have to stay if you dont want to." she said with a sheepish smile, knowing how awkwardc that sounded." No, I think a tree sounds nice. Shady and leafy. Welp, good night everypony." Specter said to them, as he contiued down the road, before making a left so that he was headed to the area near the school.
After finding nice tree to sleep on, he climbed the branches, and layed down on a rather leafy branch, and began slowly falling asleep. But before he could reat for more than ten minutes, he heard something snap a brantch. He was up aster than a whip. He serched below him, and saw a familier pair of eyes watching him from a bush, pure, teal, eyes. he had began to think, and had come down to a few conclusions, but none were anything he needed to worry about." you know i can see you, and you dont have to hide." He said to the stalker, but made sure that he was quiet to prevent anypony else hearing.
The figure than come closer, but still to far away for him to make out any features. He urged them to came closer, and got down from the tree.when the figure was close enough, the moon, which was hidden behind some clouds, was reveild, letting enough moon light down for Specter to see who the figure infront of him was.
When he saw them, it was rather obviouse. Black skin, check; Pure color'd eyes, check; swiss cheese for legs,check, yup, it was a changling, and a very weak looking changling at that. He saw that the changling was hurt, a few cuts and bruises, and looked malnurished. When he took a step towards it, the changling took a step back," dont worry, i wont hurt you, i want to help." Specter said to it, taking another step forward
This time, the changling just stood there as he walked up to it. He took out his sonic screw driver, and scanned her,"Hasn't ate in days and has an infection, atleast i can fix her up" he thought, as he inspected her for all of the wounds."Were does it hurt the most?" he asked the changeling."...Why are you helping me, i thought ponies hated changelings." the changling said in a feminine voice, similer to that of Rainbow Dash.
When he thought about it, he had wonderd that to, but was not all that worried, atleast there was hope with someponys."I cant just let somepony walk by injured, changling or not." he said to her. he then extended the sonic and began to use a different pulse, one which contained energy.
When the pulse made contact with the changeling, the electricity began to stimulate the cells around the cuts on the changelings body, causing the rate of which they multiplied increase, alowing the cuts and bruises to heal within a matter of seconds," Why are you in ponyville?" Specter asked her.
The changeling just stood there for a moment. Specter moved infront of her and just waited."I was heading back to the Bad Lands, the place were the changeling hive is located. I got hurt by a mob of angry villagers who figured out i was a changeling, that was when i last had something to eat." She said, hanging her head low, which is when her head was raised, and stairing into the one good eye of Specter, who's eye had a blue aura in the center, that seamed to be like a portal, but she couldnt move, nopony could when they were being mind probed.
Specter had looked into the depth's of the changeling's memories, her name was Mirage, she was one of the queens scouts, and the most suprising thing, was that she had a nimph. She was also one of the changeling that took part in the siege of Canterlot, and was one of the changlings who were unlucky enough to be aimed away from the badlands, rather than toward it.
He looked into the recent memories, such as when she woke from being sent so far away, how she passed through Tall Tale, and how she wanderd near the train tracks, coated in cuts and bruises that she had gotten from tall tail. Then he looked to when she arived in ponyville, how she waited till nightfall to enter. She had seen him during the party, she was the set of teal eyes in the darkness, all the way to now, to the point where he was seeing what she saw.
He finnaly broke the link, and looked at the changeling, who was shocked that he just did that."Wha-what did you just do?" she asked, still stuned." I looked in you memories. Im sorry, i just wanted to know what you've been through." Specter said. Mirage had noiced something, When Specter had finishe'd using his mind probe, she had felt much fuller, like he was giving her the love that she needed to live.
Specter was rather exausted though. him being awake this late, and using the mindprobe, was rather tiring. Specter took a few steps back, his head aching from the probe, which gave him so much information in one time, and he was still learning how to use it." Well, you best be on your way, you need to get bak to your nimph, dont you?" he said with a smile. Mirage gave him a quick hug," thank you, what's your name?" she asked him, leting go of him." My name is Specter. Tell your queen if you want, i dont hate changelings." He said.
" Well thats good, dont want to hate on one of your own do you?" she said to him , whch left him puzzled,what does she mean by that? "What do you mean? why would hating a changeling be hating one of my own?" He asked her."You dont know? I thought you would know if you were part changling." she said to him. He just stood there, compleatly stiff, he wasnt sure if she wa telling the truth," How am i part changeling? And do you know?" he asked." How do you think us changelings can tell each other apart from the ponys we mimic?" she said in responce.
She then began to walk off," Dont worry, hybrids are the best to be, but dont let everypony know, the'll hate you more then they hate reguler changelings." she said as a word of advice.
Specter was rather suprised that she said that, and was wondering if she was right, or if she should be trusted. He decide to sleep over it, and climbed back ito the tree, falling asleep much quicker now that he was so tired. The calm embrace of sleep over took him in minutes.
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Ponyville, outside of the school house, 0942(9:42)
Miss Cheerly had been in a sour mood. First off, she had to miss Pinkies party ecause she had to grade a bunch of tests and homework in one day, and she had put it off untill the evening. Second, somepony decided it would be funny if they wrote a bunch of nonsence on the walls of the school house at recess yesterday. And finnaly, she was as tired as tartarus.
When she got to the school house she heard somepony snoring, and saw somepony sleeping in a tree. She went over to the tree and knocked on the trunk of the tree to wake the pony up. To her suprise, the pony woke up before he could hit the tree a second time, and on the ground just as quick.
"Oh, hello. I never saw you at Pinkie's party. My name's Specter, Specter Atomis, pleased to meat you." Specter said with a smile, while shaking Miss cheerly's hoof like Applejack. Cheerly was rather curious as to why he was so peppy, and why he had bandages around his head and left eye."um, hello, im Miss Cheerly, nice to meet you specter." she said as she struggled to get out of his viper like grip on her hoof." Um, Why are you so peppy, and whats with the bandages?" she said, finnaly escaping his grip, but with her arm stll moving.
"Im peppy because i got a realy good nights sleep, and the bandages are from me loseing my eye and geting a huge cut on my head." He said. "i'm gunna guess your the village teacher, am i right?" he continued."um, yes. but you mind telling me why you were sleeping in a tree?" she asked him." Because i dont have a home, and a tree is good enough." he said."Now excuse me, but i gotta go, bye!" he said, before zooming off towards the Ponyville library.
When he got to the library, he stoped at the door and knocked. When the door opened, he saw Twilight, who still looked like she needed a cup of coffee."Specter, what are you doing here? The library Hardly opened a few minutes ago." Twilight said."Well, remember how last night i said i, um, i dont know how to read, i decided to come here and see if you were willing to teach me!" He said, hoping to learn it before his lack of knowledge would come to bite him in the ass.
Twilight just sighed, she was tired, yes, but she was also willing to help," Fine, i guess, i dont really have much planned today. Go to the basement and wait there, i'll be down in a second." She said, knowing how ackward that sounded. Specter went down to the basement, which was rather well lit for a cluterd basement.
He began to look at all the machines, all of them resembiling old human compters and such. These machines were all relics to him, but they were still machines he could have fun with, all he would need is some silicon. He went up to a machine that resembled one of the first ever computers, and turned it on.
Twilight had just gotten her cup of coffee and some books and such, along with some flash cards for helping Specter learn to read. She thought of how a pony with a cutie mark like his dosn't even know how to read. When she was about to open the door to the basement, she hurd what sounded like a sisle of sparks, and Specter swearing like a sailer."How did he hurt himself in the minute that it took me to get this stuff?" she wondered.
When she opened the door, she saw Specter in a pile of wires and a bit of metal, trying to get free of the wires." Can i get a little help here?" he asked, " How the hay did you do that to my computer!?" she asked him, as she put the stuff she was holding on the floor, and began to untange Specter fron the wires with her magic.
"I was just turning it on, then the screan blew up in my face into a shower of sparks!" he said, as he was getting free from one of the last peices of wiring. When helooked inside of the computer, hesaw that it was dusty, filled with cobwebs, and the metal was rusted.
He just looked at it with an unamused expresion, then he simply face hoofed,"She dosnt even maintain the dam thing!' he thought. Specter looked at Twilight," You mind explainong to me why this thing is in such a stste of disrepair?" he asked her.
Twilight just stood there for a moment and was thinking of a way to tell him." Umm,i, haven't botherd to get around to cleaning it up.." she said, though she was obviosley embaresed that one of her best machines was in disrepair.
"Well than, i guess im gunna have to fix it." Specter said in a sad voice, though he was faking it."Um, we still have leasons planed for today." Twilight said." Oh, um, right, well i guess i'll fix it tomarow." Specter said, and was a little disopointed. He knew he would be here for a while, so he took a seat near the computer, and waited till Twilight was ready setting up."Note to self, get sand and see if spike can help me make some silicon.
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Ponyville library, basement, 1721(5:21)
Specter had been down in the library basement for around five hours, and he was begining to think of how much he felt like chewing his own wing off. He had gone over all the leasons three times, wrote an essay three times, and wrote down notes for each and every letter, with a cypher showing the human alphabet and equestrian alphabet, just to help him memorize it.
When he had been told he could leave, he zoomed off like a bullet. He was walking to Sugercube Corner, hopeing to do some work to earn a few bits, when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He could see Rainbow Dash doing her tricks and flips around Ponyville, flipping, twirling, barrel-rolling, and was doing it so fast, he could hardly keep track of her. He took a second and just watched her as she flew for a few seconds, thinking about how it must feel to be able fly.
He looked at his wings, which were useless for anything but substitute hands. He sighed, and continued on his way, taking a mentel note to learn how to fly someday. When he got to Sugercube Corner, he saw that the cakes were just begining to close up shop."Hello!" he said in a voice just loud enough for Mister Cake to hear.
Mister Cake looked at Specter and waved his hoof in responce. Specter walked up to him, though he had to angle his head up a bit, since Mister Cakes neck was a little longer then most ponys."Mister cake, do you happen to have any work that needs to be done? I've had a bit of a list to do, and i need some bits to do it." Specter said.
" Oh, um, well, me and the misses do need a bit of help, seeing as how pinkie is off doing who knows what." Mister Cake said, though not fully convinced that Specter was realy ok, sanity wise."Dont worry, i'll do my best to avoid making a biger mess." Specter said, hoping to make Mister Cake a bit confident on geting a mad-man to help clean up the bakery. Lets just say, Mister cake was more woried when he said that then he was a few seconds prior, but he did need the help.
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Specter was walking toward the library, and had a small pouch with ten bits in it. He had been a good help in the bakery when it came to cleaning up, and had gained the trust of some of the ponys, but not enough bits for what he planned on doing. when he got to the librry, the sun was just begining to set.
He circled around the tree and found what he was looking for, a way into the basement. Well, it was actually a window, but it was only screwd in, and easy to remove. He got out his sonic and turned it on, and began working on the screws.the sonic fired pulses of kenetic energy that went around the screw, and bursted off the bottom of it, forcing the screw to start to come out.
After about a minute, he jad managed to remove the screws, and snuck inside. It was rather dark, but the sonic was a swiss army knife of a tool. Specter sent a mental pulse into the sonic, as he did whenever he used it, and activated the flashlight. The sonic created light by being exposed to a focused beem of energy, rather than pulses, which was routed into the cartiogragh gem on top, and focused forward by the claws on the four sides of the gem.
He began to look around, but made sure to make as little noise as possible. Soon, he found the computer, and then the thing he came down for,his belt! He slowly crept over to the belt,and began to inspect it, just to make sure it was still fully stocked. Wrench, check; hammer, check; pouches with books,check; white phosphorus, only half check. He saw that two of the five vials of the powder were missing, but what was two vials?
He decided to check with Twilight in the morning to check it out. He snatched the belt and quietly put it around his waist, and buckled it. It was a bit bulky now that he was a pony, but he could ask Rarity for help with it. He then went back to the area below the window, and managed to make a few hoof holds in the wall to let him climb up to the window. When he emerged from the window, he set about getting the screws back into place.After about half a minute, he got the screws as tight as they were when he got there, and headed back to the area near the school.
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After about a five minute walk to the school, he climbed the tree, set his belt on a higher branch, and decided to do a bit of star-gazing. He climbed down the tree, climbed to the top of the school house, and started to locate constellations. He had just sat there, looking at the stars, so still, he looked like a statue from a distence."There's the big dipper, but why is it like a frying pan? Then the ursa is should be there, but its missing. So if the ursa's there, that meens that Orion should be right, about, there." he was muttering to himself," and they all seem to be backwards, odd." he continued. he had benn trying to see if he was somewhere close to his star, his home, but the position of the stars ment that he was anywere but close to home. after about another five minutes, he climbed back into the tree, and went to bed.
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Ponyville, school, 0954(9:54)
Specter had been awoken by what sounded like russling, he layed there with his eyes closed, trying to zone it out, but he was already awake. He opend his eye just a bit, and looked around. He saw that his belt was missing from the highbrabch that it rested on, and the branch was still in one peice. In a panic, he shot up like a bullet, and started to look around.
He heard some whispers from nearby, below him. He climbed down from the tree and looked around, hoping that whoever it was would talk again." Alright, whoever took my belt, give it back!" he said in an angry voice.
He heard whispers, in a bush near the school entrance. He leaped towards the bush, getting three smal, yelps," Yup, its them" he thought," Give, me, my,stuff!" he said, still pissed that they tried to take his belt
The bush rusteld, and out came the CMC, and Scootaloo was dragging his belt out of the bush. "Were sorry mister, we were just realy curious about your belt, it had a lot of weird stuff on it." Applebloom said, in a guilty voice, giveing Specter her best puppy dog eyes.
Specter just looked at her with a straight face, then looked over to Scootaloo."Can i have my belt back?" he asked her. Scootaloo just gave him the belt, and remained silent while he put it on."You know, i could tell your parents that you took my stuff without asking, but i'll let you off the hook this time." Specter said, while the CMC were just happy that he wouldn't tell on them."but only this once!" he said, as he got close to them a bit, just to get his point across,"Got it?"
The CMC shook there heasd and ran off to the apple orchard. Specter just sighed,wishing life would be easier, and began to walk to the lake.
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Ponyville Library,1000(10:00)
Spike was rather upset that somebody ate the gems he was going to use in a jewl cake, and was not able to make the conection that he was the one who ate them. Somepony had just knocked on the door, and when he opened it, he was a little suprised to see Fluttershy, with the demon "angle" on her head.
When she saw Spike in his bakers outfit, she thought she had just interupted him in doing something."Oh, oh goodness, i-i hope im not inturupting anything." Fluttershy said, a bit embarrassed thst she inturupted him."Well,i do have this cake to not bake." Spike said in a sarcastic voice, though Fluttershy didnt realy pickup on the sarcasm.
"Ooh, sorry, its a bad time." She said, as she began to tuen away."Uh, inside joke, talk to me." he said, getting her to turn back to him."i-its just that, Princess Cadence needs us to do a great job welcoming the head of the Equestria games when she visits the crystal empire tomorrow-."Flutterdshy said, before being inturupted by Spike.
"Oh i know all about that. As if i wouldnt be any help at welcoming." Spike said, in a rather annoyed voice.and so began the day that spike would help with the invention of Specters favorite "toy"
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Ponyville, local swimming hole, 1032(10:32)
Specter had purchesed two buckets, both were very cheap, and had been filling them with sand. When he was finished with filling the buckets, he was on his way to the library,but decided to admire the sceanery on the way, makin him take longer than needed.
He picked up every possible detail about the area around him at all times.he looked ahead after a few minutes, and saw that the town was not to far now. He picked up the pace, but made sure not to spill any sand. a few ponys gave him some funny looks, but they were used to this kind of weird behavior, seeing as how they all knew Pinkie Pie.
When he was at the town well, he got hit in the head by something he didn't see, knocking him out cold. Nearby, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike had seen the tortise hit Specter head on, and a comicly large bump on his head form."Uh,oh." was all anypony said, before they rushed over to his limp body, and the flipped tortise.
"We need to get him inside. Dash, you mind helping me carry him to the library?" Spike asked, seeing as how he needed to take care of there freind, who seemed to be a magnet for bad luck.
Rarity levitated Tank onto his feet, and the little magic-powered propeller placed onto his back and fixed."I'll carry his buckets, one wouldn't collect sand for no good reason." Rarity said, levitation the sand into the buckets. the trio then hurried off to the library, with the limp form of Specter on dashes back, and tank flying close behind.
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Ponyville library, 1043(10:43), the next day
Specter felt like he was hit in the head by a falling comet, but then again, thats how he felt most of the time. He slowly began to open his eyes." That would be nice. you sure you dont already have your hands full?" he heard a familier voice say.
"Nawh, peshaw, i'll be fine! But uh, just betwean you and me, i got to give priority to the, paying customers." He heard spike say in a cocky tone. Specter decided to be a troll, and hooted just like owlicious."Twilight and the others, thats who." Spike said.
Specter just chuckled quietly enough for them not to hear. He felt wood on his chest, which ment that he was lying on his chest on the floor." You know, you are so easy to fool spike." Specter said in a weak voice as he got up.
Spike rolled his eyes and held out the cup for gems to Twilight, who put a light pink diamand inside of it. the group walked outside, but Twilight stoped just outside of the door way, but Specter didn't pay any attention to them. He got up, put on the belt with all the tools, and grabbed his sonic, seeing as how he was gunna need it soon.
Upon the closing of the front door, all tartarus broke loose. Opal was tearing some curtains, Gummy was ripping books, Tank was crashing into the walls, knocking books off the shelfs, and angle and Winona were running around like mad men. Specter held up the sonic, and started to pulse high frequency screaches, that only the animals could hear.
The sound was created when the gem on top of the sonic was fed energy from the top, sending the pulses to the rest of the sonic. The sonic had small vents it routed air through, the air was pushed faster and then vibrated by the pulses, causin the high pitch sound. The animals stoped dead in there tracks, and attempted to block thesound from there ears, exept gummy, who just stood in one spot.
Specter quickly turned off the pulse,"All yours Spike, i'll be down in the basement if you need me." Specter said, as he slid the sonic under his wing, and walked downstairs. When he got down, he didn't waste any time. he began to inspect the ruined computer, and wrote down some mesurment and blueprints on some spare paper that was down there, and got to work building replacement parts for the computer.
He started by gathering any scrap metal he could find and started to make a rather large pile of metal. When he was done collecting the metal, he got out his sonic, and began to scan the scap to see what he had to work with, and began to seperate the different metals into different piles. When he had sorted all of the metal, he went upstairs, then outside for some fresh air.
when he got outside, he saw the train that was headed to the Crystal Empire leave the station,and spike with it. Specter began to think of what to do, the girls wont be back for a while, the other townsfolk think hes a bit loco-in-the-coco, and he neaded to make some silicon, but how would he get the crystal seed? He began to think hard, though it hurt from how Tank hit him with the force of a,well, tank.
He had gotten a few ideas, but the most sensible one was to ask Twilight to make one. He knew it was far fetched, but it was worth a try. He stayed out for a bit longer, went back inside, and began to draw the structure of the atoms in the silicon seed, and he decided he would start translating his books on computers and such in his book bag to equestrian after that.
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same place, 1534(3:34)
Specter was working on translating the advanced masonry section of his book into equestrian,which was harder than he though, when he heard talking in the distance, though he couldnt make it out. He soon heard the library door open, and Twilight say to Spike," So what are you thinking, bake 'em into a jewl pie? Oo, six layerd gem cake sounds pretty good!" Twilight said.
Specter turrned around to Twiliht and said" yea, hi to you guys to." in a monotone voice."yea, it does." Spike said, as he droped the big green emerald above the cake batter he was using.
Specter pulled out his sonic and watched as spike stuck out his tounge and cought the gem before it could land in the dough. Specter shot a energised pulse at spikes tounge, making it nomb, and droping the gem into the batter." Dont want to ruin your cake, do you?" Specter said, as he turrned around and continued translating his book.
Spike just gave a slight nervous laugh. Specter was able to feel something breathing on his shoulder, so he looked over with his eye, and saw that Twi was looking at his translating."Can i help you?" he said, as he turrned to face her.
Twilight took a step away, and said," how are you able to translate that, i thought you forgot everything?" "I never said everything, just alot." Specter said in responce."This alphabet is the only one i know, so im translating this from this language to equestrian." he said in a happy tone.
"Oook, i guess that makes sense. By the way, what is this for?" Twilight said, as she levitated the paper with the atomic structure of a silicon crystal seed." Oh, i need you to make something using that atomic structure.Ii need it to fix the computer in the basement. you can make it right?" Specter asked her.
Twilight nodded her head,"I can made it, on one condition." She said to Spec."What is it?" Spec said, not looking forward to it at all." I want the first copy of that book when you finish translating it, just for my studies." Twilight said with a smile.
Spec turrned to her, extended his hoof, and said" You got yourself a deal."Twilight shook his hoof," i'll have it by tomarrow morning." she said.
Specter continued to work the book well into the night, before he decided to leave. He had kept the book in his satchel atatchment in his belt, along with the translation. As usual, he climbed the tree, placed the belt on a sturdy high branch, and went to sleep on the softest branch, letting sleep come to him in a few moments.