Inventor walked the halls of the castle in some strange stupor, his eyes glazed over and his mind far away. His steps were long and hurried, but despite this sense of urgency there was no final destination for the trip. He merely paced the castle, the same steps on repeat over and over again. The day dragging on to the night and Derpy always a few feet behind. He hadn’t spoken to her since his return to the castle, he had barely even acknowledged her existence. But, as bad as it made Derpy feel, she knew he hadn’t really spoken to anyone. And it put a lot of ponies on edge, Luna and Derpy chief among them. They’d teamed up to try and get some words from him, but after a week of failure they decided instead to simply be there for him. Inventor appeared quite set on never speaking another word again, but if he did then there would be someone there to listen.
During his frantic pace his hands were clasped tightly behind his back as he walked, the fingers of his gloves intertwining like a basket weave. His head was down constantly, his entire demeanor unattentive. He seemed preoccupied, like he did when he had a puzzle or problem he couldn't quite solve. As much as Derpy wanted to ask him what his troubles were, she knew she’d only get silence in response. She didn’t know what had happened, only that something had, and she hadn’t gotten an answer from any of the princesses.
Suddenly, without any warning, Inventor changed his course. He spun on his heel and backtracked a few feet before turning down an intersection of halls, moving towards the entrance to the castle. Derpy followed silently as they passed the threshold and entered Canterlot proper. And she was only a few steps as they went through the roads of the capital, she was riding his coat tails as they swerved through the bustling streets.. The distance between them grew, however, when Inventor absentmindedly pushed aside the door to a building a strode inside. Derpy looked around, unsure about entering the building, but found just as few answers on the street as there were in her head. So, somewhat reluctantly, she followed Inventor into the hospital.
She watched the reactions of ponies as Inventor passed them by: frightened and scared by the single mindedness of his step, about the fact that something was… wrong with him, though they knew not what it was. He reached the counter at the front quickly enough with his long pace, and the pony behind it looked at him with a soft smile. “I wasn’t expecting you for a few more hours, Mr. Inventor. Decided you couldn’t wait for your assistant to get off this time? Whatever will you do now that she knows your secret?”
“How is she?” he asked lowly, his voice barely above a whisper. Derpy looked at the faces of the two for answers, but only came up empty handed as to who this ‘she’ was. The mare behind the counter smiled sadly, as if she never really expected him to answer her question in the first place.
“She’s recovering, just as she was at sundown yesterday when you last checked in on her. Just like I said she would be.”
Inventor then turned around and left without any further a word. Derpy gave one helpless glance to the mare behind the counter, hoping for some kind of answer, but when she realized none was forthcoming she hurried to catch up to her employer before she lost track of him.
They slowly trekked back to the castle, back to Inventor’s room, back to the uncomfortable silence that haunted the biped. Back to how things had been for the past few days. Back and back again. History repeating itself in an anxious frightening pattern, but so stuck in its rut that not a soul dare try to remove it.
Then, without explanation, Inventor tore it from it’s rut. Speaking his first words to Derpy since his return from the junkyard. He had taken his pet bird from its cage and sat down at his workshop to look at it. He didn’t bother winding it, however, and simply watched it sit perfectly still, little besides a collection of metal on his counter. He gingerly lifted the wing and let go, watching it fold neatly back against the body of the bird, his eyes blank and unreadable.
“Do you ever think that maybe things would be better if I weren’t here?” He said, turning slowly to face his assistant for her answer.
And an answer he got. Inventor was brought to complete attention as Derpy smacked him across the face, a loud echoing sound that filled the workshop and scared away the silence that had clung to the room for the past several days undisturbed. He looked at her for explanation, but saw only tears and anger in her eyes. She seemed ready to hit him again, and he flinched away, rubbing his jaw with his good arm. It had hurt a lot more than he thought it would, and more than just his jaw ached.
Eventually, Derpy answered his question, the words fighting their way past the emotions that swirled inside her soul. “No. Never. No one has. Only you. And you’re wrong; you just can’t see it.”
“I’m wrong?” His voice held a sort of sarcastic laugh in its tone. “Do you have any proof of that claim?”
“You’re looking at your proof right now. You just can’t see it, can you? You’re so blinded by your self-pity that you can’t see how much happiness you bring. So enraptured in your sadness, you can’t see past the fog that you’ve endured these past few days. We all have a right to being sad, and to prevent sadness. But if you think for a minute that we’d be better off without you, you’re wrong.”
“I haven’t done anything! None of my inventions have helped, none of my work is unique or special. Anyone would come to my conclusions given a week or two. Heck, they’d probably come to better ones in that time. I haven’t changed anything in the long run!”
“You don’t need to!” Derpy shouted back, her voice even louder than the man’s. “You don’t need to be special or unique or powerful or important! No one does! You have friends who would miss you if you were gone. They don’t care about what you’ve accomplished or how fantastic you are. They like you because you’re you, not because of what you’ve done. I’m happy to be your assistant because of your generosity and humor, not for your intelligence and grandeur!”
Inventor looked back at her from the corner of his eye, rubbing his jaw once again. “Yea?”
“Of course!”
He looked down at the ground. Equal parts shame and thought.
Derpy gazed on silently, the tears fading away slowly and her rage dying down. She sat down on a nearby chair. “You didn’t act like it was a big deal when you hired me, Inventor. You just gave wanted to help a pony who was down on her luck. For no reason other than the fact that I told you my troubles. You didn’t do it because you trusted I was telling the truth. You didn’t do it because you knew me as a friend in need. To this day, I don’t know why you did it, just that you saved me from a lot of problems.”
“I didn’t have anything better to do with it.”
“You laughed off my mistakes and helped me through my fumbles. You kept your patience and held your temper when I set things askew.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’d hired you, after all. I didn’t want to have to fire you.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Inventor.”
“I’ve seen what happens to people who give themselves too much.”
“So you starve, instead of gorge. It’s still not healthy.”
A sad smile touched Inventor’s face as he gazed at the ground. His robotic arm flexed slightly as if out of reflex. “You’re a lot smarter than you let on, Derpy.” He lunged forward immediately, and Derpy tried to shove herself back in surprise, but was too slow. She felt the man wrap his metal arm around her neck until he had the inside of his elbow directly to the right of her neck... and then he let it rest there. She relaxed and returned the gesture with a smile, overcoming the tears and sadness that were still whirling in her heart.
“Don’t ever change, Derpy.”
“I don’t plan to, Inventor,” Derpy replied with a smile, petting his head like he was a colt. “Don’t you change, ever, either.”
His hug tightened a little bit, squeezing her ribs lightly. Obviously showing great care not to hurt her. “I won’t.”
They hugged for a minute longer, then Inventor broke it. He stood up taller and straightened his clothes. “Now, then, I believe it’s time for you to get off, and it’s about time I escort Luna from her room.”
“Are you sure—?”
“I’ll be fine, Derpy.” Inventor smiled back, a glimmer in his eyes that Derpy hadn’t seen in far too long. “I promise.”
She smiled in return and moved towards the window. “See you tomorrow, then.”
“Of course Derpy. Always.” He said with a smile.
He watched as Derpy left, waiting until she vanished from sight, then straightened his clothes once again. He looked at the bird resting on his counter, looking more sleepy than dead in the light of the sunset peeking through the window. He glanced to the window where Derpy had vanished from sight and back to the bird again.
“You would love her, Amy, if you were here. You’d get along so well. Share all those times you helped me out of the ruins of my shattered psyche and salvaged my soul from all the scrap heaps I throw it into.” He lifted the bird carefully and placed it in the cage once again. “I can practically hear you chat with her some days, when the wind is just right.”
He left his room and moved through the halls, the old swing in his step making itself known. The kind, sly smile was on his face once again, always planning something, working out problems and troubles. Solving the math that haunted his head, putting it at ease until it wormed its way back up again. A guard noticed and elbowed his partner, pointing out the old friendly Inventor. The two guards were smiling as well, soon enough. It was shortly thereafter that Inventor reached Luna’s door and knocked on it lightly, waiting for the proper response before he swung it open.
His arms were clasped behind his back as he waited, and as he stood there, an unexpected guest passed his gaze, her wings and horn of pink identifying her almost faster than her face. She looked at him with curious, doubting eyes, to which Inventor responded with a half-hearted grin. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything, moving past him without a halt in her step.
Out of the sight of the alicorn, his hands had begun to fidget behind his back and he softly rocked back and forth on his heels. When Cadance at last moved beyond the corner, he let himself relax, calming his mind and his body with a few breaths, collecting his thoughts once again.
He heard the door to Luna’s chamber begin to slide open and turned to watch her come out. She bore herself as a princess, and he stood taller in her presence. Her crown and necklace sparkled faintly in the fading sunlight, only adding to her shining appearance. Luna looked around the hall before she turned her attention to Inventor fully.
“You look better today.” Luna said with a small, almost imperceptible, smile. “Am I to suppose you had a talk with Derpy?” Her tone was regal and imposing, but her face was smiling and caring. Causing Inventor’s own smile to widen slightly.
“Yes, I did. It was a rather nice discussion.” Luna’s smile’s widened a bit as she heard him speak, that familiar ringing happy tone she’d grown used to. He waited patiently for a moment before he began to act again. Inventor glanced around the hall with strange overly-jerky movements, his sly grin prominent on his face as he did so. “Well, it seems that this stretch of the path is entirely devoid of threats, doesn’t it? We should probably be headed for your court.”
“Yes,” Luna said with a joking tone. “I suppose we should.”