//------------------------------//
// Chapter two: work in a state of ? 
// Story: Shining Gears 
// by Space Wizard Novablast 
//------------------------------//

"How come your aren't suffering from a hangover?"

The question startled Gearhead slightly, he had been walking with sun springs through the cafeteria. Having been explained not to touch the food right after he had touched it. The question had come out of nowhere.

"Uhh, pills." He uncomfortably stammered, looking at her with his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"That's total horseapples Gear, I'm a biology teacher, so I would probably know if there was pills capable of curing Luna damned hangovers." She said, chuckling slightly.

"Gear, huh?" He said, smiling a pushing his hat a little back, "interesting nickname, although not the first time I've heard it."
He said, returning her kind smile.

"I'm glad you at the least like it. But please, when I met you yesterday you were drunk as all Tartarus, there is no way you shouldn't be suffering from a severe migraine. So either you're really good at hiding it...... Or you're really good at hiding it, so whats your secret?"

"I told you already," he said, dragging out the glass of pills from earlier, "pills."

Her horn, how did I not notice she was a unicorn? started flaring and the pills were covered in a golden aura, not much unlike that of Celestias, but less glowy.

"Anti migraine," she read, her eyes scanning the marker, seemingly looking for something specific, when she didn't find it she turned to Gear. "There is no marker of security on this, it's not authorised. In other words it's illegal, who did you buy it from?" Her tone suddenly turning serious, her eyes steel like.

"Yeah, I haven't gotten them authorised yet. I only tested them this morning, evidently they worked." He said, his smile now turning from warm affection to smarmy smugness.

"You..... Made these?" She asked, her voice going from seriousness to confusion in a matter of heartbeats, she stared at him for the longest time, "you're a chemist?"

"No, not exactly, I'm an inventor, previously full time job, but now that I'm here it's gonna become a hobby more so than anything else." He said, calmly shrugging.

"And you've made pills that cure hangovers?" She said, her mouth staying open in between sentences. "And they actually work?"

He nodded casually. "It's not a big deal."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" She yelled, drawing the attention of the cafeteria ladies who were currently stirring what smelled like mashed potatoes. "You have made pills that cure hangovers and harsh migraines! You're saying that's not a big deal, so you've probably made even cooler stuff."

He had been taken aback by the sudden outburst, his hat was currently lying on the floor gathering dust, but he was quite scared by his new friend, at least he thought they were now friends, so for now he did nothing more than nod.

"So why are you here?" She asked, exasperated by her colleagues lack of understanding, "you've probably got more money than Celestia herself. So I ask again, why are you here?"

He looked up at her, trying his best to smile, "I, really just needed to do something, lately I've grown into a state of depression, I was guided by my best friend to this place. And I think I understand why now."

"And what exactly would said reason be?" She said, raising a mock eyebrow.

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" He said, imitating her mock eyebrow, and for good measure adding on a mock smile. 

"You're terrible," she said, sighing and looking up at him with those damned cute eyes

"Oh you don't even know." He said, getting both happy and horrid memories because of his own words.

"But anyways, your classroom is in here. You'll probably notice that things seem different from standard university classes." She said, indicating at a door marked 'classroom 113'.

"We'll  it's the same number as my house, can't be all bad then." He said, being slightly annoyed that the mare didn't find it funny in the slightest.

"Don't get your hopes high." She said, she sighed and put a hoof on his shoulder. "I have to go, I have a class of my own to attend to. See you around Gear." She handed him his hat before walking away

He put the hat on his head as the mare turned away, being slightly hypnotized by her swaying. He finally shook his head, and raised a hoof to open the door.





It was certainly not like any university classroom.

In truth it seemed like it was 3rd grade.

There were colts currently in the middle of harrassing a filly by throwing pencils at her, someone was blasting music from their horn so loudly that the vibrations were making the wall shake, and a couple was making out in the corner of the class.

He walked up to the desk, acting quite nonchalant even though he felt the urge to slap every single one of these ponies. He drew out the supplies he had brought with him and placed them carefully on the table, this included three pencils, an eraser, a notebook, and his 'boomwave'.

When finally he had gotten enough, he grabbed the boom wave, it was only slightly smaller than a pencil, it had a small microphone at the tip, he brought this to his mouth, knowing the effect it would have on the students.

"Greetings class," he said as all the noise immediately stopped, the fillies and colts started looking around for the source of the voice in their heads.

"I am your new teacher," he said, and all heads were immediately turned to his desk, everyone seemed to focus on the boom wave rather than him, which was slightly annoying.

"Good," he said as he placed the tool on the table, "now that I have your attention, let's begin. I am professor Gearhead, I'm going to be taking over now that Samuel has been fired. I hope you are going to be welcoming." He said, ending his short monologue.

A light blue pegasus raised her hoof in the air, she looked at him with a mix of awe and a desperate need for attention.

"Yes miss....?"

"Vinnie," she answered, "is Gearhead your real name?"

"We'll miss Vinnie, it is, although I do quite like the nickname 'Gear', so it's possible to call me that if you wish." He said, smiling warmly at the students attention.

Yet another hoof was raised, this time by an orange earth pony with a couple of apples on her flank.

"Yes miss....?"

"Appleyard, although people call me Ay. I'd like to know what that thing you used was, it seemed a mighty bit interesting."

"What, this old thing," he said, indicating a hoof at the boomwave, "it's something I flicked together to use as a substitute for unicorn magic, but it had some rather unusual results, as you can clearly see."

"Wait, y'all made that yerself?" She said, cocking an eyebrow in disbelief. 

"Yes, I did, albeit by luck, I tried to make something completely different. But in the grand scheme of things, I guess that I did make it." He said, shrugging.

"But that's amazing." She said, smiling with her mouth open in awe, "are you an inventor? Like the guy who made batteries?"

He smiled a little, people always got quite the shock when he told them this, "well, miss Ay, I am the guy who made batteries, albeit they had a different name back then."

Now he had the attention of the entire class, they seemed to eye him like hungry predators, ironic really. But there was still one pony in the back. He was sitting with a magazine and flipping through it, looking even more excited by each page he turned.

Gear was over him immediately, he took his hat off and pulled out a device that looked quite similar to the boomwave, although this one was broader and thinner, it also had a small yellow ball on the tip.

He pointed it directly at the magazine the colt was holding, a beam of glowing white energy encompassed the magazine and lifted it into the air. The colt looked as if he had just seen Cerberus himself. All around him, Gear could hear the either terrified or excited whispers of his students.

"That's magic, but he's an earth pony." He heard someone say.

"That's so cool." He heard another one say.

"I wonder if he can fly as we'll." said a third.

Gear immediately identified the magazine as being one of the new Daring Doo comics they had only just started releasing. He looked at the student whom by now was cowering.

"I dont want anyone reading in my classes. Understood?" He said, almost to the point of yelling the last word.

"Y-yes sir." Replied the colt nervously nodding as he said it.

Gear sighed slightly, this wasn't what he wanted.

"Hey, champ." He said, catching the attention of the frightened colt yet again, "it was not okay of me to react that way, and I'm sorry about that, but remember. No. More. Reading. In . My . Classes." He said, putting extra emphasis on the last word.

"No sir." The colt replied, now less scared by his teacher, which didn't say much.

"Good," he said, handing the magazine back to the colt who was still shaking slightly, "what's your name kid?"

"Fleetfeather," he said, flapping his wings slightly as he did.

"Okay then,"he turned around to face the class, instead of a single pegasus in a corner, "any more question?"

A hoof was raised, this time by the male of the couple he had noticed when walking in.

"Yes mr......?" He said, rotating his hoof around in a sort of hypnotic motion.

"Shadow, sir. I'd like to know, would it be possible for you to demonstrate engineering?" The black colt finished.

"What exactly do you propose?"  Gear asked curiously. 

"We'll, maybe you could make a robot, and it should be centered around our suggestions." Shadow said, looking around the classroom for approval, of which he got a lot.

"That is not a bad idea Shadow. You know what? Let's make a deal, if you are able to solve a riddle made by me by tomorrow, then I will build a robot, with a custom a.i no less, based of the suggestions of the class. How does that sound?" Gear said enthusiastically.

"Okay, I'm down," shadow said, "I'm pretty good with riddles.

"Okay, here it comes." Gear said, pausing for dramatic effect and to catch his breath after the previous monologue.

"I'm a word no one should use, your mothers soul I will bruise, yet everyone uses me all the time, and when you're in distress I'm in my prime." He finished, being quite proud of his ability to rhyme.

Shadow was lightly tapping his chin with his hoof, thinking of what exactly the word could be.

"You have until tomorrow Shadow, so I advice you to think carefully." Gear said, smiling and being incredibly proud of himself. "For now, class dismissed." He said, and every pony started getting up and walked to the door.

And as his class had left, all he could think was:

that wasn't so bad