"A bomb?" Scootaloo shrieked. "But... This isn't supposed to happen..." She sat down in front of her friends, just hearing the news of the attack at the library.
Scootaloo was still convinced that it was her fault that a war was being waged in Equestria. Twilight and her friends, especially her honorary sister Rainbow Dash reassured her of her doubts. But how is it not my fault she mused. It was my idea to sneak off, I blew our cover, and I even gave that stallion a bloody nose! Scootaloo knew she had changed, but she was unsure of what she had become. She quickly dismissed the thought and returned her thoughts and attention to her two friends in front of her.
"That's right, ah' cant believe it either Scoots." Apple Bloom was saying.
"Well I don't think we can just sit here and talk about it in a tree house! I mean come on, we're the reason this is happening! We belong in the fight! We owe this to Equestria!" Scootaloo puffed her chest out and raised her voice, mustering as much confidence as she could find.
"I s'pose yer' right... But how?"
"Yeah, we're not exactly warriors trained for combat." Sweetie Belle chimed.
"We'll find something. Maybe Twilight has some answers."
"Maybe, but we left our wagon on tha' platform in the city!"Apple Bloom said concerned.
"I guess our only choice is to walk this one. Again." Sweetie declared.
"Oh yeah. Right. No wagon." Scootaloo forgot about the situation in the city. "Whatever, we'll make it! Sitting isn't doing us any good!"
The orange filly hopped on all four hooves and began to trot down the walkway of the Cutie Mark Crusader's tree house with her friends behind.
Before leaving Sweet Apple Acres, the bunch of Crusaders took notice of the camps set up in the apple orchards. There were husbands and wives, friends aglow by their early morning campfire polishing their weapons and chatting, and there were even fillies playing in the field.
All seemed happy, but Scootaloo knew that inside of each pony's heart, the longing to be in their homes remained. Scootaloo knew that they must feel sad, but she felt that she could help bring some cheer into into the life of each soul. The clementine pony decided that she would do something to brighten the day of those ponies. After all, she and her friends had won an award in the school's talent show.
The walk to the library was definitely an unusual one to say the least for the girls. They had never see the streets so crowded before. The same ponies at the market selling food were being swarmed, long lines stretching out from their kiosk. There were new vendors, too. Some sold produce and some regular appliances, but some ponies sold items that would never be marketed this way in Ponyville. There were ponies that looked grimy, grease smudges and stains on their leather aprons. What they sold was building material.
The industrial stands had huge sheets of brass, copper, and other metals. Some sold rods, wires, and glass works.
Scootaloo was estranged by the wares of the business ponies, not taking notice to the purple mare and her dragon at one of the stands.
Thankfully, her friends did. "Hey look, it's Twilight!" Sweetie shouted over the bustling and chatter of other ponies.
Somehow, Twilight heard Sweetie's yell and turned around, signaling for them to come over to her with her hoof.
"Hey girls, I was hoping to run in to you at some point today." She said once they had reached her.
"Hey Twilight! We were looking for you, too." Scootaloo said with an exasperated smile. "We were wondering if you had any jobs for us to do. This mess is all my fault, and I owe it to you to help as much as possible."
"Nonsense! This was bound to happen sooner or later, so don't be sorry." Twilight comforted with a motherly smile. "Although, there is a job that I could use some help with. The Doctor and I are taking entries for inventions, and we aren't sure of how we'll organize it. How about you girls be our secretaries?"
Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle all exchanged looks, grins growing on each of their faces.
"Cutie mark secretaries!" They shouted in unison.
"Great! Come with me then, we've already got some ideas coming from quite a few ponies." Twilight gestured as she lifted her sheets of metal she purchased with her magic.
"Boy I sure am glad that there are some metal vendors here now. I used to have to wait on deliveries all the way from Canterlot!" Twilight was leading her secretaries back to the library as she rambled on about shipping prices in Equestria's capital.
Spike turned around on his lavender friend's back so he could speak with the fillies.
"We're having quite a few guests now..." He started. "Not like it's a bad thing or anything! It's kind of fun, too. Doctor, or uh, Time Turner is really funny and nice! You guys are really gonna like him!"
"So his actual name is Time Turner, huh." Apple Bloom fussed. "Does anypony else find this ah' little strange?" The only answer she it was blank, awkward stares.
"Well, maybe. But what's he really like, besides being nice?" Scootaloo asked.
"He really knows what he's talking about! Maybe even more than Twilight!"
"I can hear you," A voice from behind Spike's head came, slightly annoyed, but giggling all the same.
"We'll just have to meet him when we get to the library". Scootaloo said, poking her Apple friend in the shoulder at every other word she said.
"Yeah, sure."
Before they knew it, the four ponies and a dragon had arrived at the library. The only difference with it was that giant mobs didn't stand outside of the front door. Usually, that is.
Twilight calmed the mass of not angry, but mostly impatient ponies outside and began wading through the mob.
Once inside, there were fewer ponies standing at the entrance, with the Doctor trying desperately to maintain order.
"Okay, if you could just, oh, tone down some? Please, it would really hel- Twilight! Glad you're back, and nice to see our new secretaries!"
"Alright! Where do we start?" Scootaloo asked impatiently.
"And why is there a blue, smoking box in front of the library?" Sweetie added.
"You can start by making an organized line aaaaand it's a spaceship!" Time Turner answered gladly.
"A what?" Apple Bloom questioned, her tone full of doubt.
"Alright girls, we've got some crowds to control!" Scootaloo declared. "To start, Twilight, is there a way to get onto your roof?"
"Um, from my bedroom. Why?"
"Just gimme a sec!"
The filly sprinted up the stairs were there was a door leading to the roof of the bedroom. She flipped her wings on and looked down below.
I hope this works she thought right before plunged towards the crowd.
The opened her wings. The force pulled her back, making her parallel to ground ground, which was about twenty feet below her now.
I don't have to fly, just glide she reasoned.
Gliding was exactly what she did. Luckily for Scootaloo, it was a relatively windy day, especially since it was blowing in the direction of Sugarcube Corner.
She had glided over dozens of rooftops before she saw the sweet shop. Only problem was that she wasn't sure of how to land.
Focus. You just need to focus. she hoped as she angled downwards, gaining more speed. Scootaloo extended all four of her legs and began to touch ground with them, beginning only by light skids. Her light skids were slowing her down, except for the fact that she didn't look straight in front of her.
Scootaloo crashed into the side of one of Sugarcube Corner's gingerbread walls. She got up guickly and shock the pain in her head away. She dashed into the shop and ran up the stairs to find Pinkie Pie's room.
"Pinkie are you there?" She said gently knocking on her door. For a moment nothing happened. Until all of a sudden the fluffy-haired mare squeezed out from under her door and right in landed face-to-face with Scootaloo.
"Hey Scootaloo! I was just about to go to the hospital to make sure everything is alright!"
"Hey, Pinkie. Do you still have that megaphone? I could really use it right now back at the library."
"Oh yeah, my Pinkie-phone! So you're Twilight's new secretary! Just hang on for one second!" Pinkie zoomed back into her room and in exactly one second, she was standing with a large megaphone in her mouth.
She handed it over to Scootaloo, who took the strap and slung it over her shoulder.
"Now I just need to get back... There's no way to your roof is there?"
"No, sorry. But I can show you this cool trick that I learned from Shining Armour! Could you open your wings for me?"
"Okay, but what does this have to do-" she was cut off by Pinkie snaking underneath her and hoisted her up, now standing on both hind legs.
"What are you doing?" Scootaloo shouted as Pinkie leapt back into her room and stop at her window. "Oh no. Don't do it Pinkie!"
"Don't be silly, Silly! I've got great aim! Now then. One. Twoooooo." The pink pony angled her arms back. "Cupcakes!"
Pinkie Pie hurled Scootaloo with tremendous force out of her window and back to the library. In about half of the time it took to get to Sugarcube Corner, the orange filly was already landing in the window she came out of to get onto the roof.
She hurried back down the stairs to find her friends. She gathered them and opened the front door.
"You got Pinkie's megaphone?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yeah she just gave it to me! Anyways, just follow my lead."
Scootaloo stepped out of the tree to address the ponies outside.
"Alright everypony, listen up!" The young pony boomed.
The crowd all stopped complaining and yelling at once to hear what the filly had to say.
"Okay, now that I have your attention, lets make sure we're on the same page, okay? If I'm right, you all have ideas for inventions to fight in the upcoming battles, yeah? Well if you're so smart, why don't you make an orderly line so we can figure this out!"
There were grumbles and scoffs, but every pony was somehow able to make a single file line.
"Okay, now my friend here Sweetie Belle will help put in your application!"
At first Sweetie looked confused, but figured out how to act quickly. "Uh, right! I'll send the next pony in when we're ready for you!"
"And my other friend Apple Bloom," Scootaloo continued. "Will hand out handmade snacks from her farm Sweet Apple Acres! So it shouldn't be a terrible wait."
"Snacks?" Apple Bloom leaned over and asked.
"Sorry, it's the only thing I could think of to keep these ponies calm."
"It's fine, I'll just have to run back to mah' house real quick-like!" The youngest Apple started to rub in the direction of her house. "Be right back!" She shouted.
"Okay then. Good. So now whose next?" Scootaloo asked. The pony at the front of the line was a mint green mate with a white and green mane, smiling as wide as a pony besides Pinkie Pie could.
"Alright, you're up." Scootaloo said without her megaphone.
Twilight returned to her basement as soon as she heard the ponies outside calm down. She knew that she and Tine Turner would have to move fast.
She saw the door to the foyer open ad Sweetie Belle ushered in a pony.
"Hello my name is Twili-" The purple mare got a better look at who she was talking to. "Oh hey Lyra! I didn't know you were an inventor.
"We'll, half inventor half revivalist." She said with a wild look in her eye and a crazy grin.
"How so?" The Doctor popped out from Twilight's side. "Oh, and before you ask, I'm the Doctooo- Time Turner! I'm Time Turner."
"You see Time Turner, there are things in this world called humans! They have hands, toes, hair, and especially, fingers!"
The Doctor began to crack up instantly after she finished.
"What's so funny? This is true!" Lyra questioned with an agitated tone.
"No, nothing like that! It's just that the humans thought so too! Except they believe in unicorns and Pegasus! How ironic to see this vice versa!" He continued his fit of giggles as Lyra's expression softened.
"Wait, you believe in humans too?"
"Not only do I believe in them, I'm friends with them!"
"Wow... That's amazing! You're going to have to talk to me more about this later!" The unicorn gabbed.
"Okay aaaaaanyways," Twilight interrupted causing the other two ponies in the room to look at her. "What idea are you here to present?"
"Oh, right! I think we need fingers, or graspers! We'll be able to pick things up and fight! Hold swords in our hooves, grab onto large objects that normally can't, I mean think about it!"
"Good idea, but we can't just grow fingers like that you know." Twilight mentioned.
"But what if we built our own hands?" Lyra grabbed some scrolls that were rolled up in her saddlebags with her magic. She floated them over to the workbench and revealed the drawings inside.
The design was simple. "It's similar to a cat's retractable claws, it folds back into hoof flattened when not in use!"
"Hm, interesting." Twilight thought aloud. "I think we could give this one a go. What do you think Turner?"
"I think it's brilliant! I missed having fingers anyways."
"Okay! We'll be sure to contact you when we have a prototype!"
"Thanks Twilight!" Lyra replied happily.
This process was repeated many more times, with inventions ranging from giant mechanical stilts to miniature wristwatches. Not many ideas were accepted, but the ones that were seemed to be revolutionary.
There was more efficient armor, crossbows, and of course, Lyra's hands. But there was one design that stood out more than the rest.
Somepony had taken the original design of the cannon and elongated the barrel to improve accuracy. There was also an easier way to load the weapon. Instead of packing the weapon each time, small cartridges would fit into a chamber, where a bolt would lock it into place. Since ponies had no fingers, they couldn't fire the cannon single-hoofedly, until Twilight decided to change the plan a bit.
"What if we added a lever onto the mini cannon so that Lyra's claw could switch it to detonate?"
"It could almost be a..." The Doctor was doing a poor job of acting like he was having an epiphany. "Trigger?"
"Ooh, I like that." Twilight replied.
"Good! Now let's get to work! If we want to get these items to your friends before this war begins, we're going to have to be quick!"
"You got it, Doc!"
The two machinists set to work on their new items with the mini-cannon and fingers at top priority.
They worked all night long, perfecting the works just before the break of dawn, both passing out at the lack of sleep.
Scootaloo and her friends all gasped for air as they regained consciousness from the previous night as they heard large crashes coming from outside. Since they had so much paperwork from the ponies at the library, they decided to spend the night in the library.
Sweetie Belle hopped up and opened the the front door. A look of shock was plastered to her face.
"Sweetie, are ya' okay?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I think we overslept."
For battle preparations, Cloudsdale had been mover directly over Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was stationed there for aerial strikes. It hovered around Sweet Apple Acres and could be seen from outside, except that now it was falling. Bombs where being launched at the floating city, detonating in midair so that the explosion would dismember the form of the cloud structures.
"Apple Bloom, get Twilight and the Doctor!" Scootaloo cried.
"On mah' way!" The yellow filly raced down to the basement.
"Oh Celestia. All the pegasi are getting killed. I need Rainbow to make it out. I need her." Scootaloo was breaking down into tears.
"She's fine, she has to be. She is an Element of Harmony after all, she can't just die like that."
"R-right. You're right." The orange pony sniffles. "But what about the other pegasi?"
"Well, they do have wings, so they'll just fly away." Sweetie's comforting voice was able to get her friend to dry her tears.
After a few minutes of watching the former city for pegasi fall, Apple Bloom reappeared from the basement with Twilight and the Doctor.
"Is Rainbow okay? How about the other ponies?" Scootaloo needled.
"She's fine, she wrote to me. As for the other ponies, we can't be for sure until we've figured this mess out now. If they're getting rid of aerial forces, they can attack us on the ground. I've made sure everypony is secured at each of their positions. Pinkie's at the hospital, Fluttershy is in the forest of the Everfree. They have to go through there to get to Ponyville. Applejack and the infantry is ready to defend the borders, and Rainbow is leading the pegasi to high ground."
"What about Rarity?" Sweetie asked, worried for her sister.
"She's in Canterlot, which is where we're going. There are special plans that will help her and her group."
"Okay, so how'll we get there without, you know, dying?" Scootaloo questioned.
"We run!" The Doctor said, almost happily.
"Okay, well we better get a' movin' then." Apple Bloom voiced.
"Alright, it's safer in Canterlot after all, except for the bad news. I parked the car at Applejack's."
"We'll what are we waiting for? Lets move!" Scootaloo said.
"Lemme get the plans and we're out of her!" Twilight ran back down to her workroom.
Nopony was entirely sure of how far they would make it before getting to the car, not even the Doctor for sure. But they could hope, as if hoping had got them anywhere so far.