//------------------------------// // Greasing the Gears // Story: Son of Invention // by Zman537 //------------------------------// (1500 years ago) A group of guards moved past a large set of open doors. In the room, there were several barrels filled with food supplies and other tools. One barrel in particular, filled with alfalfa, sat closest to the door. The lid of the barrel slowly rose, enough for it’s occupant to see out, but not enough be noticed. “I can’t believe they fell for that.” I stood up, my legs and some Alfalfa going through a pair of holes I had hastily carved/stabbed out of the bottom and started heading towards the entrance. “For guards these guys are idiots.” A pair of guards started to round a corner ahead of me and I quickly crouched down. I peered out of a hole in the side and watched them pass. One guard stopped and looked at me in confusion. Crap. He shook his head and kept walking. “Damned servants. I’ll make note to send the naive who left this to clean it later.” He walked off and I waited till I couldn’t hear their footsteps. Gone? Good. I stood up again and moved further down the halls, this repeated until I reached the main doors of the castle. This is where I had a new dilemma. Crap, how do I pass these guys? I started to go over my options before moving my barrel behind a pillar and whistling. One of the guards looked over before letting his partner know he was checking something. I stepped out of my barrel and set it down before pressing myself to the wall. The guard started to inspect the barrel and looked inside. I raised my blade and snuck up on the unsuspecting guard... And slammed the hilt of my sword into the back of his head. The guard grunted and fell into the barrel, where I quickly put the lid on, tipped it onto its side, and shoved it down the corridor. The other guard looked at the barrel in surprise as his ally rolled down the halls screaming. He looked over in my direction, but I was still hiding behind the pillar with the shadows. “I cometh Sparkle!” He bolted down the hall and I moved to the front doors, looking for a moment at the duo in amusement. I shook my head and wiped some of the sweat that had built up from the stress levels of my escape methods. “Never in my life would I have expected to do that. Ever. Solid Snake makes it look so easy.” I cracked open the door and peered outside. There were fewer guards on the ground, but... it seemed that there were pegasi flying around performing a form of aerial recon. “Gonna have to find a way to avoid being seen.” I saw that there was a large row of bushes going along the main path. “Shouldn’t be too hard.” I moved outside and hid behind some of the trees that were in the area until it was clear. As soon as it was, I pulled out my cutlass and dashed over to the bush. “Snip snip.” I sliced off a good number of branches and bundled them together before pressing myself against the bush. Every time a guard would pass by, I’d stop. As soon as they were gone, I’d move. Didn’t even take me half an hour to reach the gates, where I pushed them open and left without being seen. I walked a good ways down the street and looked back with a smile of both amazement at myself and the architecture of the castle. “Well. I guess it’s time I explored some of where I’ve ended up.” I turned and looked at the buildings as I passed them by. Most were made from cobblestone, and had some form of roofing I couldn’t really identify. It was a strange combination of a french chapel, and Big Ben. They were really far apart too, like... I could fit one or two of them between each other. Most of the large spaces had small markets set up. There were a few less fancy guards around the sides of the town, and roaming the streets. The pedestrians were dressed in rags, reminding me of Medieval Europe. I was so lost in looking at the buildings and architecture that I almost tripped on a smaller pony. “Whoa!” I took a step back and looked down at the frightened pony. “Sorry about that. Didn’t see you down there.” The little pony shook in fear, the brown burlap looking rags held on by a rope. I looked around and started to see the other ponies looking at me in slight fear and some guards pulling out swords. I gulped and looked around before I saw something fall off of my hat. I took it off and saw that some alfalfa had gotten stuck in it, and my pockets turned out to be even worse. I should have seen that coming.  I pulled out some of the alfalfa and knelt down, offering it to the small pony. “Here, as an apology for nearly stepping on ya.” All of the ponies stared at me in shock, and the small pony looked at me like I had just given them the Holy Grail. The pony slowly reached out towards the alfalfa and snatched it out of my hand. They looked at me with a big smile as they stuffed their pockets as much as they could before speaking up in a young boyish tone. “Th-thank ye!” The colt ran off, and stopped at a mare who had just turned the corner, pointing at me excitedly and showing her the Alfalfa. She looked shocked and when she turned to me, I tipped my hat and started walking to the edge of the city. Only to turn around and head the other way, because that edge was the edge of a cliff. (Current time) When the chariot landed, Twilight and the rest of the Elements leapt from their seats and ran for the throne room. The guards ignored them for the most part and they reached the throne room quickly. Twilight burst through the door and ran up to the thrones in a panic. “Princess Celestia! What’s going on!?” She skid to a halt as she saw her mentor wearing armor instead of her normal regala. “Twilight, it is good to see you. An old enemy of mine has escaped and we can not find him anywhere.” Princess Celestia looked to the throne and levitated the Elements of Harmony from behind it. “Here are The Elements. We must hunt down this vile creature as soon as possible.” Princess Luna came into the room soon after, and looked at Princess Celestia in worry. “Sister, I am still not convinced that this is the proper course of action. After all, at most he was a thief before his imprisonment. What would call for such-” Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed and the entire room started to heat up. “What he was doing with the materials he stole, were abominations against the laws of nature. His works were growing to the point they threatened the stability of all Equestria.” Rainbow hovered a little over the rest and spoke up. Her confusion clear in her voice. “So what exactly is going on?” Celestia snorted as she moved to a window near the entrance of the throne room. “A being that managed to nearly destroy Equestria entirely, a human that has come to be known as Invention, has broken free of his prison.” The window depicted an image of both sisters blasting a small bipedal figure with magic, and it turning to stone. It wore a top hat, and had a cutlass. “He is a being that threatened us before Discord began his rule, and was a master inventor. He could create tools and weapons to do anything he so desired with nothing but metal. He didn’t even need magic to aid him in doing so.” Twilight’s jaw dropped. “No magic? But how is that possible!?” Celestia continued. “His kind has no use for magic, for they cannot use it naturally. Instead, they focused on their intellect and it grew exponentially.” Celestia looked at her sword and scowled. “Invention used his mind to do as he pleased. Stealing from those deemed evil, and using his thefts to build more and more inventions.” The ponies followed the princesses as they both started walking to the doorway leading out of the castle. “I know not where he is now, but it is clear he is not in the castle anymore. We must find him, and soon.” Twilight and the others all gulped at the look of anger and determination that was painted on Celestia’s face, her mask of calm and grace long gone. Luna’s face was not that of anger, but of concern and conflicting emotions. (“Invention”) I smirked as I looked at the train’s path. “They even used the railways I had marked out. Seriously, how is this fair in the slightest? I design some of the greatest things and get absolutely no credit. Next thing we know, there'll be robots running around.” Boris glowed a light blue, and buzzed. “Oh I’m sure that Steve and Chuck are fine. I made sure that they couldn’t wear away or get stolen when I made their storage pods. Same goes for the body I made for you and Ed.” Boris bounced a little off of my chest and glowed a bright green. “Yeah, I know you want to be able to talk again, but when we got caught and imprisoned, it wasn’t exactly on our to do list.” I saw a familiar looking cave come around the bend and pulled on the train's emergency brake. It screeched to a halt and I moved to the exit as the Conductors came to the car we were on. “Hey! You can’t get off here!” I gave the confused conductors a smile as I tilted my hat. “I’m sorry if this is causing any inconvenience, but this is my stop.” I stepped off of the train and stood at the entrance of the cave. “Good day to you gentlemen.” They stared at me dumbly as I walked further into the cave. Boris glowed a light yellow and I sighed. “I have a feeling we’ll need a new front door Boris.” I shook my head and looked down at him. “But first, let’s see how our house is doing. It shouldn’t be in too bad of shape, being made of metal after all.” Boris glowed purple and felt cold. I smiled down at him and kept walking into the cave. After half an hour of nothing but the sound of stone colliding with boot, I stopped at a large copper door and looked at one of the rocks on the ground. A green moss glowed off of the surface and I gently pushed it off to the side, revealing a handle. I pulled on the handle and the door opened, revealing a staircase leading down. “We’re almost home Boris. We're almost home.”