Princess Celestia let out a tired sigh as she relaxed her body in the hot bath. Granted, Barsley's statement had been... somewhat brash. But it had been an honest mistake on his behalf, and it had in no way warranted captain Bluefire's reaction. The guard captain, for a lack of better words, had flipped the table. For a moment Celestia wondered if that was the correct term these days, but it did not matter.
What mattered was the fact that captain Bluefire had thrown a fit of rage, shouting at an completely unimpressed Barsley at the top of his lungs and fuming about his complete lack of morals, his reckless endangerment of her own life... and dungeons... there had been a lot of dungeon threats. Had any other humans other than the amused professors, or even royals been in the vicinity... it could have caused a serious diplomatic scandal.
Celestia had known that the captain was skeptical of the humans, his reaction to the human capitol had been the reason she decided not to take him on another trip there. But she had never expected him to be a borderline racist. It saddened her that his mistrust of the humans ran so deeply, because it also meant that he distrusted her own decisions even more.
The princess had decided then and there that something had to be done to bring the captain to a closer understanding of the human nature and dissuade the distrust he harbored. Though at this point, Celestia couldn't help but wonder if the measure she had taken wasn't a bit brash in itself...
She could only hope that captain Bluefire would hold her orders higher than his own grudges... and that professor Barsley would refrain from giving him any more causes for further outbursts.
---
"Hand me the five-torque clamp..." Barsley held out a hand, the rest of his form hidden under the new engine he was assembling.
"The what now?" Bluefire replied with an irritated face.
"The five-torque clamp!" Barsley pointed over to the table with a frantic motion, "It's lying right on top, just hand it to me... Wait. Do you guys say hoof it over instead?"
"No." Bluefire raised an eyebrow, "We don't."
Barsley poked his head out from the maze of pipes and exhausts, "So why would you say hand it over?"
"I..." Bluefire started, but quickly realized that he did not know the answer, "This is ridiculous."
"Well of course it is, why else would I ask of it?" Barsley chuckled as Bluefire floated the tool to him, "Man, the things I could do with some magic of my own..."
"I don't even dare to imagine it." Bluefire mumbled to himself with a frown, "Why are you setting that thing up outside anyway?"
After princess Celestia had ordered captain Bluefire to be professor Barsley's temporary assistant, Barsley had set up a large tent in the courtyard of the university and both him and Bluefire had carried countless parts out of the basement storage and into the tent. It had taken hours and nearly pushed the captain to his limits... he briefly wondered where the human took the energy from to work so energetically, he hadn't made a break for hours now.
"Why would I set this up inside?" Barsley poked his head out with a raised eyebrow, "I can't drive this around my lab now, can I?"
"Drive?"
"See those?" Barsley pointed to the far end of the tent, "Those are wheels."
"I know what wheels are..." Bluefire grumbled, even though the concept of rubber tires was something new to him, "What about them?"
"Well, since the engine is working..." a grin spread over Barsley's features, "I thought I could take it for a spin."
"You're going to put wheels on that monster?!" Bluefire eyed the huge engine with a sudden feeling of dread, "It nearly killed the princess the last time!"
"Only a minor setback, my little pony friend." Barsley chuckled as he saw Bluefire scowl, "I got it all figured out! Don't worry, in about half an hour, this is going to be pure awesome!"
Captain Bluefire gave Barsley a look of contempt, "We're probably going to be dead in about half an hour if that thing works as well as the last one."
---
Princess Celestia had finished her bath. She felt refreshed, revived and most importantly, she felt clean again. The events of the morning seemed far away now. The roar of the machine, the explosion... Bluefire screaming profanities loud enough for all of Canterlot to hear and to make even her blush.
She shook her head with a tired sigh, still wondering if her decision had been wise. She almost feared that if she were to look after the human, she would find the captain on top of him... or she would find the human stuffed into one of the dungeons. Celestia quickened her steps, she would just check on them... a simple hello, an inquiry of how Barsley's work was doing... just to assure herself that captain Bluefire had not killed the human yet.
As Celestia reached the main gate of her castle though, she was greeted by a deafening roar from the courtyard below. A mixture of countless little explosions repeating themselves over and over again filled the air and overpowered any other sounds.
Over the sounds of explosions and the metallic roar that accompanied them, Celestia could hear captain Bluefire's screams.
She was about to storm towards the university, but then she noticed that the sound was drawing nearer... the windows of her castle started to tremble... Something shot through the main gate and into the courtyard below, guards jumping to the side for safety.
For a brief moment Celestia wondered what the humans called the strange machines... cars? Was that it? Carts that pulled themselves, a fascinating concept. This one didn't look like any of the others she had seen before though; for one thing it had no chassis... and the enormous engine bolted to the front and screaming at the world had a worrying similarity to the one she had witnessed explode before.
As the carriage shot over the ground in a roaring ball of dust and smoke, moving at speeds that were likely to be anything but safe, Celestia spotted professor Barsley behind the wheel of the thundering machine... with a pair of huge goggles over an even bigger grin. And on the seat next to him...
Celestia blinked her eyes to be sure, but there was no mistake... captain Bluefire was standing on the seat next to Barsley, front legs on the armature as the machine rocketed over the ground sideways... and with an even bigger grin than Barsley's.
Barsley turned the wheel of the car and the vehicle changed its direction, the hind wheels ripping through the ground as it spun and shooting dirt and earth over the facades of the castle as they shot by the princess.
Even as she was covered by an explosion of dirt and dust... and even as the machine roared out of the gates again with fire blazing from the exhausts, Celestia could hear captain Bluefire scream, "THIS IS AWESOME!"