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// Gold Rush 
// Story: The Foalish Zone 
// by DuskShadowBrony 
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Gold Rush blinked as orange juice dripped down his yellow mane.  He couldn't help but laugh patting the foal on the head in front of him. "Very funny little guy, but juice is for drinking not for squirting."
                    The foal let out a giggle, babbling something that most likely a thank you.  He grinned as he let the foal drink its snack, and went about his other duties.  The daycare was always abuzz with activity, while not being one of more popular ones in Canterlot, he still managed to make a decent income.  His kind nature never failed to cheer up a sad filly, or help resolve small fights over toys.  Sure it was hard at time, and mane pulling, but he loved it all the same.  All it took was the smiles on their tiny faces to make his day worthwhile.
                    Today was like any other, a few tired foals here, a lot of diaper changes there, and a green haired filly named Mint.  She was quite the rascal always wanting to tail him when he was working, sometimes even tugging on his tail to get his attention.  Innocent enough sure, but hard to work when you're trying not to trip over the foals your foalsitting.  "MInt, I've told you already, go play with the other foals."
                        “But I want to help.”  She says between suckles of her pacifier.
        “I know, but you’re making it hard for me to work.”  he replied carrying  a few blankets to the wash in his magic.
        “Must be something, I like helping.”
Gold stops for a moment to think and spots a few blocks “I know, you can help me by taking those blocks back to the playroom. Can you do that?”
                “Yay! I’m helping.”  She claps her hooves and starts taking them back one block at a time.
                    "So adorable."  He says as stuffing the blankets into the washer.
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                    4pm had soon rolled around as the daycare closed for the day.  As usual Mint wanted to stay to make sure all her friends got sent home safely.  Her mom never seemed to mind the wait, calling Mint her little helper and such.  As the last of foals left, Gold waved Mint goodbye and shut the door.  He took a deep breath and glanced about the mini chaos the foals had left him to clean up.
            It took nearly an hour for Gold to clean up the main room.  Taking one last look about, he peeks beneath the cribs.  "Hello, what do we have here?"  He says to himself as he pulls out a broken toy piano.  A key had popped off revealing the inner workings inside.  Putting the piano in his bag he heads to the second floor and enters his workshop.  He set the piano down on the bench and slopped on a lab coat.  His hobby of tinkering with gadgets had come in handy over the years, though with some limited success.  He had to admit fixing up toys was a fun side project.
                    "Let's see what the damage is."  He mutters as he pops off the plastic backing and gets to work with a magnifying glass.  He soon found the loose crystals, and using some fine magic manipulation got the pieces back into their slots.  Screwing the plate back on he turns it back upright and carefully clicks the key back into place.  He hums as he makes sure the key played the right tune.
            Satisfied with his repair job he sets it aside and heads over to a cupboard. tools hung from hooks attached which clattered together when the door was opened.  Inside was a series of gears, wires, and a various assortment of crystals.  On the backboard sat a diagram detailing his pet project.  Medical spells were hard to pull off unless your special talent was doctor related.  After about 2 months of careful research he had come up with a design for a device to cast healing spells on the fly by storing them inside a crystal matrix.   The idea however was easier said than done.  He lifts a clunky looking device from the bottom shelf and brings it over to the table.  The contraption was a combination of camera parts and a vacuum cleaner.  Best he could come up with having the budget of well a daycare center.
                    As he started to tinker with his invention, he could have sworn he heard the laughter of a young foal.  Setting down his tools he went out into the hall and looked around "Hello", the only response was the same sound of the foal giggling from down the stairs.  "I could have sworn all of them had gone home."  Curious of the mysterious laughter he followed it down the stairs and into the main room.  "Hello" he called out again, yet again no response.  He turns his head as he hears the sound of tiny hooves on the kitchen floor.  Rushing over to the door he pokes his head inside "Hey if this is some kind of game i'm not amused."  He says as he glanced about.  Flipping on the light he spotted a light red foal with grey eyes looking at him.
"Hey where did you come from?"  Gold says as he approaches
                    The foal zips about the room "Hehe, can't catch me."
                    He turns about trying to catch the speed demon "What, where's your mommy, come back here."
                    "Can't catch me!"  The colt says dodging Gold at every turn.
                    "Oh yeah well how's a bit of magic for you speedy."  He says as he grabs the foal in a levitation.
"Cheater" the foal vibrates as he pops out of the field like it was a bubble.  He stick his tongue out and runs for the door.
                    He blinked for several seconds, no foal had ever broken free of his magic before. "Hey get back here!"
                    The foal smiled "Got to catch me first hehe."  He then bolts out the door laughing.
 Gold springs into action "Hey don't run off you could get hurt."  His heart beat sped up and he ran out the door to give chase.  "How are you moving so fast?" he mutters leaping off the porch and tails the speeding foal through the street.  The foal seems to move effortlessly through the ever increasing traffic of ponies going about their day.  "Somepony stop that foal." he shouts as he jumps over a cart and keeps up.
                    The foal keeps his lead constantly taunting Gold with his youthful giggles.  Gold stopped for a few moments to catch his breath determined to catch that ball of energy of a foal.  As he caught his breath he spots the foal smiling at him from just down the road, Canterlot castle in the distance.  He holds out his hoof and the foal runs off once more.  "Oh come on!"  he yells resuming the chase.  He grunts as he pushes himself to run faster now completely bent on catching that road runner.  The castle gets ever closer as the foal keeps running.  Gold chased him into the royal gardens and as he turned a bend in the hedge maze the foal vanished from his sight "What?  Where did he go?"
                            Gold sprinted through the maze desperate to find the foal, turning yet another corner he stops dead in his tracks as he run headlong into something, or rather someone.  He gasped as the figure turned around and looked down at him
                    "Hey watch where you going.  Oh it's you, about time you showed up."  It said
                    Gold looks at him and instantly knew who he was looking at.  The mixture of animals tossed into a blender and spat out was a clear giveaway.  "D-Discord?!"  
                    "Why yes, and you must be Gold Rush, nice to meet you."  He says giving a rather odd smile and offering a paw.
                    Gold back peddles away scared,"Wh-what do you want from me.  Don't hurt me."  He start to get back to his hooves as Discord replied
                    he huffed "My, my how rude.  Really, here I am trying to be nice and you're making assumptions."
        "No, just you're Discord, chaos king.  I'm not going to believe a word you say."  He says backing up and getting ready to run.
    "Flattery will get you nowhere."  Discord smirked "Now come on, I want to show you something."
"No way i'm coming with you pal."  He turns and bolt for the exit panicking now for his life.
                    The sound of a fishing rod and reel being shot out was heard as he kept running.  Before he even had time to figure out what was happening he found himself dropping to the ground tangled in a fishing net.  "I got a nibble."  Discord says as he started reeling Gold back towards him.  Gold never gave up struggling, even as his body was lifted off the ground and flailed in the netting.  
                    Discord laughed "Looks like the catch of the day is gold fish."  He says as he turned and carries the net with him through the maze.
                    "Gah, let me go you demon spawn."  Gold mutters swaying with every step.
                    "Haha, not yet."  he teased as walked up to a tall section of hedge and held Gold over his head.
                    Gold squirmed "Wow what are you doing?"  Discord didn't reply as he leaned back and tossed him over the hedge. He screamed as he hurled through the air towards the ground.  Luckily for him the ground broke his fall, with his face.  He grumbled as he got up spitting out a chunk of dirt.  Shaking his head to clear his vision he glanced at the group of ponies around him "Would anypony care to explain what's going on?"