Eyesore
Techorse #14
By Spirals95
Techorse's laboratory was littered with the leftovers from this morning's experimentation. Servos, colored wires, and pipes of various sizes were scattered all over the tile floor and the construction tables in the large square room. Inspiration had struck the young inventor late last night, and he had stayed awake working on his new idea through the morning up until breakfast. The colt swished his brown tail furiously, as if by nervous habit, as he struggled to place the last few bolts in the device he was working on. His saddle's robotic arms held a screwdriver and a socket wrench, and Techorse attempted to multitask with the tools in order to hurry along the completion of his new gadget. After finally finishing the machine, he stepped back, dropped the tools carelessly on the floor, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead before retracting his robot arms back into his saddle with a slight click. The finished machine was a small, rather odd looking pump system, with two retracting nozzles that pointed forward on each side, and a set of plastic tubes and cylinders on top that clearly connected internally to those nozzles.
"There, it's finally done." said Techorse proudly, "Now it's time for a break, I've been working on this thing for hours!"
The green-coated earth pony headed for the simple steel door that led to the rest of his castle's basement, and pushed it open gently. Heading down the stone hallway lit only by the occasional electric light, he tried to clear his mind of inventing and focus on getting to his bed before collapsing of sleep loss. Pulling all-nighters was not his specialty, despite every joke ever told about him being a mad scientist, Techorse preferred to keep his mental state intact. But as he walked down the long and boring hallway to get to the staircase, he began to doze off. Not paying attention to where he was going, Techorse banged his head painfully into a metal leg that blocked his path.
"Master, are you ok?" asked PAL with concern, watching as Techorse fell backwards onto the ground.
The pony got back up, and rubbed the injured spot on his head with a hoof.
"I'm fine PAL, just very tired." he answered, continuing to massage the lump on his head.
Techorse took his mind off of his slight bruise when he noticed a shadow behind PAL, and knew someone was here to see him.
"Who did you bring to see me?" asked Techorse as he tried to look around his robot servant.
PAL moved out of the way, revealing Derpy Hooves, who was sitting gently on the floor, one eye looking directly at him, the other off to the side as usual.
"Hi Tech." she said with her happy tone of voice, "I need to talk to you about your appliance deliveries."
Techorse knew that recently, the sale of his own brand of home appliances had gone up. Since Derpy was responsible for shipping the packages once the order was filled, her workload from Techorse had nearly doubled since last week. It took a lot of work for just one Pegasus pony to haul all those toasters, vegetable peelers, and soft serve machines out of the castle and into the back of a delivery truck.
Techorse smiled and said, "Sure Derpy Hooves, just tell me what's wrong."
"Oh nothing's wrong with the packages." She said, standing up from the floor, "I was just wonderin' with all the extra boxes I have to move…"
"Yes?" said Techorse plainly, wishing for her to finish her sentence. He hoped secretly that the pony before him would be able to complete her request without forgetting what she was going to say.
"I was wonderin' if I could have a few extra bits a day." she finished.
"Oh, you want a raise!" Sighed Techorse, trying to keep eye contact with Derpy's good one, "Let's talk about it back in my laboratory, there's one thing I need to give you to ship out."
Turning around, Techorse walked back to the laboratory with Derpy following him close behind with a skip in her step. She had no sense of personal body space, but her carefree nature and innocence excused her inability to follow every last social rule. As they entered the laboratory, Techorse held the door open with his left leg for her. Derpy bounded into the room a little too quickly, and ended up crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the laboratory. Techorse couldn't help but snicker a bit at the happening, and watched as the gray mare quickly recovered from her accident and walked back towards him. They met halfway in the room, and Techorse pointed towards an appliance in the corner.
"I recently fixed that ice cream maker after a customer returned it saying it didn't work. I need you to ship it back to her the first chance you get." he ordered, making sure to be thorough in his explanation.
He didn't want Derpy to forget lest his customer get angry wondering where her machine was.
"All right, will do Techie!" Derpy said happily, moving over to get the device.
She spread her wings just a little bit as she moved, and accidentally brushed the pump Techorse had just finished off the table. It hit the ground with a crash, and a few plastic tubes disconnected from the top. The Pegasus pony looked at the device mournfully, then back at Techorse before nearly bursting into tears.
"I'm sorry Tech, I broke it!" she whimpered.
The inventor walked over to his broken machine, and took out his robotic arms once more before shaking his head softly. He began to work on the pump again, reattaching the severed parts.
Tech said to her, "You only knocked the plastic tubes loose, Derpy. It's not broken."
Derpy's ears drooped as she beat herself up verbally, "Still, I feel bad. I'm so clumsy."
"It's not so bad. You're a bit uncoordinated, but you don't mean to break things.", Techorse finished connected the tubes to the openings in the small black pump, and then looked up with a smile, “See, good as new!”
His happy expression faded away when he realized Derpy had snuck out the door with the ice cream maker.
Leaving the lab again, Techorse found PAL and told him,
"PAL, Derpy does such a good job shipping these out for me twice a week. I don't want her to feel like she's lost my trust by damaging my new invention, so I'm going to give her that raise, and a bit more."
"Shall I write down the new amount now?" asked PAL, taking out a small PDA to record the new salary.
Techorse nodded, "Make sure she sees it later, I want her to feel better about all of this."
PAL looked up from the small touchscreen device in his hands and asked, "Do you suppose Mrs. Hooves will be all right? She seemed like she was about to cry when she left the castle. You didn't yell at her did you?"
Techorse walked by the robot and said reassuringly, "Of course I didn't, I know how klutzy she gets sometimes. I just hope one day she realizes that ponies still love her despite all the mistakes she makes."
"Me too master… me too." agreed PAL dolefully.
Derpy Hooves flew away from Techorse's castle with a heavy heart. She didn't mean to damage his brand new invention, but she felt guilty despite him not being too angry about the incident. As she flew slowly away from the stone fortress on the edge of town, the Pegasus pony thought carefully about what she'd like to do next. Her mail route was already done for the day, so there was literally nothing else for her to do, and keeping her easily distracted mind entertained was a very difficult task. Seeing Rainbow Dash working with a small number of clouds up ahead, Derpy decided to see if she could offer help in any way.
"Hey Rainbow Dash!" she shouted, landing on top of one of the clouds Rainbow was busy moving around.
"Be careful Derpy, these clouds need to be in exactly the right spot for tonight's rain shower." Rainbow warned sternly, "If even one is out of place the rain won't be even, and somepony's lawn will dry up."
"Maybe I can help you a bit!" chirped Derpy Hooves, getting behind one of the clouds.
Flapping her wings, she started to push the accumulation of water particles through the air.
"Just tell me where you need this one."
Rainbow Dash had a bad feeling about letting her eager friend help out, but she didn't want to hurt Derpy's feelings.
"That cloud needs to go right over the windmill." Rainbow said slowly, making sure Derpy heard her instructions clearly.
"You got it!" she replied cheerfully, getting behind the cloud and flapping her wings quickly to push it towards the city's sole windmill, responsible for generation of roughly one quarter of the town's electric power supply.
The large, dutch-styled tower rotated slowly in the gentle wind flowing across the town that day. Derpy pushed the cloud, which was at least twice as large as she was, right through the large rotating blades, nearly getting hit by the massive wooden meshes. Suddenly, she lost her grip on the cloud, and it sailed right into the axis of the windmill, getting chopped up and sending a huge discharge of lightning down the shaft. The electric lights around Ponyville glowed furiously for several seconds due to the sudden power surge, and a handful of street lamps exploded from the extra electrons which surged through the power lines. Glass lay littered from the exploded bulbs, and Rainbow cringed as she heard a few of the ponies walking through the streets at the time shriek in fear of the flying shards.
Derpy looked down and watched the mayhem below, and after a few minutes, the power returned to normal. She suddenly felt a rush of guilt and fear from what she had accidentally done, and turned around in the air to fly away. But there was Rainbow Dash, her front legs crossed, giving Derpy an extremely angry look. Derpy Hooves turned around quickly to avoid the confrontation and flew in a straight line to get away, right into the windmill. Stunned by the impact, she fell backwards and landed on the ground below, leaving a huge indent in the pavement. Rainbow Dash groaned after rubbing her face in disgust, and then flew down to her friend's new crater. Derpy's light yellow tail was sticking out of the hole, a perfect handle for getting her out. Using her teeth to grip the long yellow hair, Rainbow pulled the dirt-covered pony out of the road and propped her up against the side of the windmill.
"What were you thinking Derpy?" she shouted, "You just shorted out half the street lamps in Ponyville!"
"I didn't mean too!" defended her friend, sobbing.
Rainbow Dash pushed her face right into the cross-eyed one's and said sternly, "Don't you dare cry! You knew this would happen if you tried to help. So why did you even bother trying to be useful?"
Derpy's right eye remained focused on Rainbow Dash, but both of them filled with tears as she replied, "It wasn't my fault! I tried my best, but an accident happened."
"Oh and accident happened all right." said Rainbow very sarcastically as she backed off, "You were born. Now go away before you cause even more trouble!"
With that, Rainbow spread her wings and shot into the sky vertically, to start her work over again. Her mean words had already finished their work, however, and Derpy felt absolutely miserable about herself.
She stood up from leaning against the windmill and slowly walked away from the building with her head hung and her ears drooping. Because of what Rainbow Dash had said to her, all she could think in her mind was:
"I'm an accident."
And so, she walked gently through the streets of town, avoiding the upset looks of the other citizens, who seemed to know right away who was responsible for the power spike. Derpy tried to avoid saying anything to anypony while she headed back for her apartment in town, but she desperately wanted to hear some kind words from a friend soon. Once she had made it about halfway through town, she came across the Carousel Boutique, and heard Rarity inside, busy at work on her latest outfit.
When the white unicorn pony saw Derpy walking outside, she called gently to her,
"Oh Derpy, can you come here for a minute darling? I need to talk to you!"
Derpy's ears perked up when she heard Rarity's sweet voice. She didn't sound angry about the incident at all, despite the fact that Rarity's home drew power directly from the windmill. This gave her hope that someone still cared about her despite all the mistakes she made on a regular basis. Eagerly, Derpy galloped for the front door of the building, and went inside the dress shop to talk to Rarity.
"Yeah Rarity?" she called out with her happy voice.
Rarity emerged from a back room, carrying a sketch for a dress on paper with her magic. The design on the sheet had a very odd look to it. While most of the dress was normal, one section of it had an odd-looking scribble which was partially covered in tape. It looked like it had been revised several times, as evident by erase marks all over the paper.
Rarity smiled and explained the paper, "I was drawing a new design in my back room, and spending hours and hours trying to finish the last piece of the dress. I simply couldn't think of what to fill in the gap with. But when you hit the windmill, the power went out suddenly, and I accidentally scribbled in a brand new section on the paper."
Derpy frowned, "I'm really sorry about that. Are you mad at me?"
"Why not at all!" beamed Rarity, "When the lights came back on, I realized that the scribble completed the design! All I had to do was erase this tiny bit of the line you helped to create that didn't make any sense. Now I can finally start working on this dress idea."
Rarity's horn glowed pure white as she rolled the parchment and put it away in a nearby drawer for safekeeping.
"Well, at least something good came out of me being an accident." sniffled the Pegasus, who let a single tear hit the floor of the studio.
Rarity felt pity in her heat and asked sweetly, "Who said you were an accident?"
"Rainbow Dash."
Rarity coughed in disgust and huffed, "Well that wasn't very ladylike of her at all. Rainbow Dash can be quite the barbarian sometimes Derpy, but you must learn to ignore her insults. They're never true."
As she spoke, she titled her chin slightly to show her contempt for Rainbow, and her purple-blue curls bounced in step.
"So I'm not an accident?" asked Derpy, leaning a bit forward on her back legs.
Rarity made eye contact with her and nodded, "Of course you're not an accident. You're very important to Ponyville, Derpy. Think of the trouble we'd have without the mail coming through! Why, we simply can't do without you."
This made Derpy so happy that she laughed and started skipping around. In her celebration, she accidentally hit a nearby mannequin, toppling the setup. It landed on the ground with a crash, taking the dress on it with it. Derpy stopped and stared at the destroyed display with her good eye, and knew she had made yet another mistake.
"Oh no…" she whispered.
Derpy braced her ears for the inevitable yelling that was about to follow. Inside, Rarity did want to scream at Derpy, but knew she couldn't. After Rainbow Dash had already said such terrible things to her, there was no way she could make the clumsy pony feel any worse about herself. She had to prove herself the better mare in this situation and do what she always had trouble doing, forgive another for making a mess.
"That's quite all right." She said slowly, picking up the mannequin with her magic, "I was going to change over the dresses on display anyways."
"See, Rainbow Dash was right, I am just one big accident!" bawled Derpy, running out of the boutique as fast as her legs could carry her. Rarity looked at the door sadly and shook her head.
"She really is worthwhile." She thought as she began to clean up after her friend, "If only she could see past her... errors."
Poor Derpy Hooves, running out of hope for herself, decided to try and seek comfort with Twilight Sparkle. She figured that with her being so smart and nice, there was no way that she could possibly think of her in a negative way. While approaching the red door of the tree-based building slowly, Derpy considered simply turning around and going home instead. But she knew she had to find just one pony who considered her to have a purpose of some kind. After knocking on the door, she waited for several minutes before Twilight finally opened the door and greeted her.
"Hi Derpy." She said, a smile on her face, "Can I help you?"
Derpy entered the library and looked around at all the shelved books. Opening a nearby orange-colored volume with thick, creamy pages, she attempted to look for some information. Twilight turned around and looked at Spike, asking silently if he had any idea why Derpy didn't say anything. Spike shrugged in response and closed the library door for Twilight.
"I was wondering." Derpy said softly as if trying to hide a cry of pain, "If unicorn ponies know any spells which get rid of accidents or mistakes."
She continued to flip through the pages, looking for a spell in the magic book which she was afraid might exist.
"Fixing mistakes can be very, very hard. I've learned that even going back in time can't fix them." said Twilight, walking up to the reading Pegasus. "I'm afraid there's not any magic that can fix accidents or mistakes. What's done is done."
"That's a relief." sighed Derpy, throwing the book to her side into a nearby shelf. She stood up and addressed Twilight, "Because if there was a spell which got rid of accidents and it was cast on me…"
She then stood up quickly on her hind legs and spread her front ones.
"Poof! No more Derpy Hooves." Frowning, she dropped to the floor and curled into a ball.
Twilight laid down on the floor, put a warm hoof on Derpy's head and said to her,
"Aw Derpy, you're not an accident or a mistake. Lots of ponies love you."
"Not Rainbow Dash and most of the other ponies in town."
Spike asked angrily, "Did Rainbow Dash bully you again?"
"Uh-huh" sniffed Derpy, turning her head towards him.
Twilight groaned and shook her head, "Rainbow Dash can be a huge jerk sometimes, we know. But you shouldn't listen to her when she gets angry, she doesn't mean anything she says. She really is your friend."
Derpy stood up and started hovering gently in the library out of joy, "You think so?"
"I know so!" confirmed Twilight, standing up and giving Derpy her best grin.
"I guess I'm not an accident waiting to happen after all!" she squealed, doing a flip in the air.
Unfortunately, this brought her tail down like a whip over a set of 7 books on the very top of one of the shelves. The bookends and the collection were brought down on the floor with a sharp thud. Although none of the books were damaged and the bookends weren't even chipped, Derpy still felt misery shoot through her body as she realized she had made another "horrible" mistake.
Twilight looked at the books on the ground in sadness and thought, "Oh shoot, Derpy's going to feel terrible. I'd better hurry and think of something to tell her!"
But it was far too late, Derpy was already crying her misdirected eyes out, and flew out a nearby open window, "Maybe I'm not an accident, but I still cause too many of them! I'm going home..."
"Derpy!" shouted Twilight as she rushed to the window, "Come back, I know you didn't mean it!"
Spike walked over to the window and rubbed Twilight's side with one of his claws, "You did your best Twi."
"I know." She said quietly as her ears drooped and her eyes shut.
"Besides!" said Spike confidently, "Derpy has the memory of a bird, she'll forget about everything by tomorrow!"
"Spike!" growled Twilight, staring him in the eyes.
"What?" he said, backing off from her.
The sun was starting to set over Ponyville, and it had been one long, miserable day for Derpy Hooves. She was back in her apartment now, packing her saddlebags. She wasn't going to take much with her, the rest of her things were going to go into storage until she could find a new place to live. Not feeling loved or wanted any longer, Derpy was determined to leave Ponyville forever and never return for any reason, lest she get chased out of town for causing more disasters. The sky was pitch black from the storm clouds from earlier in the day, and rain was pouring on the roof of the apartment building.
Although Derpy's large 3 room apartment was very nice, it seemed very empty now, as every last item was put in a cardboard box for safekeeping. All that remained was the furniture that belonged to the landlord, and on the marble countertop in the kitchen sat a note telling him that she was moving out permanently. She also left her key on the table on top of the note, and finally left her apartment with a deject expression on her face. But before she could go, she ran right into her landlord, who was there to visit her every Friday as usual, not to collect the rent, but just to visit. He was a charming Pegasus pony with a dark brown coat, and red-orange mane hair that went rather uncut for long periods of time. But what set him apart from other ponies was the fact that he had one blue eye and one green eye, rather than two of the same color. His name was Upkeep, and he had a thick blue arrow on his flank.
"Where are you going Derpy Hooves? Did you forget I was going to visit?" he asked.
"I'm moving out." she replied, "Your last rent payment and the key's inside. Some ponies will be moving my stuff into storage tomorrow."
"Why do you want to leave?" asked Upkeep, frowning.
Derpy started walking away from him and said, "Nopony wants me around anymore. Thanks for giving me a home though. You're probably my only friend around here, Upkeep, but I'm sure you'll find someone to replace me."
Derpy flew off into the dark sky, leaving Upkeep standing there with a sad expression. He entered Derpy's apartment and found the key sitting on the table. When Upkeep came to Ponyville, his parents had abandoned him, his only wealth being three apartment-styled homes his wealthy uncle gave to him as an attempt to give him a chance in life. Taking care of buildings became his calling, and he was a fine landlord of the estates. He had never evicted a pony in his life, although he had seen some come and go from his homes. But Derpy had been special to him, she didn't see him as a greedy pony who was just looking for another paying tenant. She had greeted him at the door when she moved in, and always paid him on time. Every Friday, they talked about how the week was going, and what sorts of mischief they had gotten into as friends. But now she was gone, the note on the table being the only evidence left that she had lived in the building at some point. Tears came to Upkeep's off-colored eyes as he read the note. To him, he hadn't lost a tenant that night, he had lost his best friend.
Six days had gone by since Derpy Hooves had left Ponyville. For the first two days, ponies in town assumed that the mail service in Equestria must be on a planet-wide holiday of some kind. But fear started to ensue once nearly a week had passed without any mail or packages. They started to wonder if they would ever get letters from loved ones again, or if they would be able to ship out what they needed to in order to keep their businesses afloat. When the issue was brought forth to the mayor, even she wasn't sure what to do.
A suggestion went up to split up mail duty between the remaining pegasi with free time, and even Rainbow Dash tried her hardest to deliver what she could. But after several mix ups in addresses and many angry ponies later, even she knew she couldn't do everything. Soon the mail was dropped altogether, and every last mailbox in town stood empty. In order to keep up with his customers, Techorse built small rocket packs which he attached to each box and programmed to fly to the customer's home. Often he ended up having to give the machine away for free because the box crashed through a window or broke some tiles off a roof. None of his other delivery ideas worked either, and soon he could not outpace the sheer number of deliveries piling up on him.
"When is Derpy getting back?" he asked angrily as he sat in the living room of his castle, "She's been on vacation for so long everyone's mail is not getting delivered, including my machines."
"Don't worry master." answered PAL, bringing Techorse a cup of tea on a metal tray, "You won't lose your business over a few miss-ships. Mrs. Hooves will return to deliver things manually very soon."
"But what if she doesn't?" asked Techorse of his robot.
PAL suggested, "You can retire then. You have enough saved up."
Techorse laid down on the blue-cushioned sofa and said, "I won't do that. I want to contribute to Equestria no matter how business goes, it's the right thing to do."
"You do risk yourself often to protect others from rather evil personages." Reasoned the machine as he set the tea down on a nearby coffee table, "I'm sure you can continue your work defending ponies everywhere."
PAL took a seat in a nearby velvet, covered chair, whose arms curled in a spiral pattern.
"Give me time to think about this master. This comfy chair seems great for it."
Techorse sighed and looked out the window, "I guess I'm going to start having to deliver packages on my own, starting with the ice cream machine I just fixed up yesterday."
PAL suggested, "Perhaps you can get some of your friends to go with you? I'm sure Mistress Twilight would love to help you out."
"Great idea PAL!" he said, sitting up from the couch and leaving the room, "Let me get my battle saddle."
Later that day, Techorse assembled the team that was going to help him carry the large box to the delivery address. Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash met him out front of the library for the journey. It was roughly noon, and they had just finished lunch.
Rarity asked innocently, "So Techorse, I'm sorry to ask this again, but why do you need all of us to help deliver this package?"
He responded, "I need as much help as I can getting this box through the mountains. This three flavor ice cream maker needs to be delivered to a pony living up in the mountains."
"Let me see the tag." said Rainbow Dash, hovering above the carboard box by flapping her wings quickly.
Grabbing the tag with a hoof, she read out loud, "To a Mr. Peace. First house in the western mountain range outside of Ponyville."
Twilight's eyes grew wide as she heard Rainbow read the information.
"What's wrong Twilight?" asked Rarity out of concern, "Is something bothering you?"
Twilight regained composure and answered with caution in her voice, "That name sounds a lot like Masterpiece, an escaped convict from Canterlot. He practices dark art."
"Don't you mean, 'The Dark Arts'?" asked Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground, "Like some kind of evil magic?"
Twilight answered, "No, he practices dark art, the act of using creative talents for evil instead of show. He's notorious for painting graffiti of tunnels and alleyways on walls, which through his magic look just like the real thing. Masterpiece does this to get ponies to crash their carts so he can loot their cargo while they're knocked out. After a long hunt for him, he was arrested for injuring nearly 3 dozen ponies."
"That's terrible!" said Rarity dramatically, putting a hoof to her head, "I can't stand the thought of something so precious as art being used for acts of evil like that."
Techorse walked up next to Twilight and with a mechanical click, one of his robotic arms wrapped around her side in a hug.
"Don't worry Twilight." He said, "Peace is a common last name for ponies."
"Yeah." agreed Rainbow Dash, "You're just letting a pun get the better of you, scaredy mane."
Twilight smiled and let out a short breath of relief, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I am just letting my paranoia get the best of me again."
"Then let's hurry up and deliver this thing so we can go home." said Rainbow Dash, "Help me pick this up Techie."
Techorse nodded and, with a clicking noise, retracted his robotic arms into his saddle. After a second, his turbofans emerged from the device, two disks with propeller blades. With a helicopter sound, Techorse lifted off the ground and grabbed one end up the box with his front legs, while Rainbow Dash grabbed the other end with hers. They took off into the air together easily, carrying the heavy load between them. Once they had flown a good distance over the mountains, Twilight began to charge up a teleportation spell to get her and Rarity to the destination within seconds. The four met outside of the large home within roughly ten minutes. Techorse and Rainbow Dash put the large cardboard container down gently in front of the large mountain home. It was a very well-decorated house, with multiple flowing fountains carved in the shape of ponies holding jugs out front. A beautiful bed of roses led up each side of the walkway which led to the front door, which was lined all the way around with marble columns, giving the huge home the appearance of a greek temple.
Rarity took one good look at the home and said smoothly, "Ooh, whoever this Mr. Peace gentlecolt is certainly has a good taste in homes. I wonder if he likes the idea of settling down with a mare?"
Rainbow Dash pushed Rarity gently and teased her, "Easy there, miss desperate. The way this house is built, I'm sure it belongs to a pegasus pony, and we aren't your type at all. I bet Mr. Peace loves to train in the mountains to get lots of oxygen in his blood."
Twilight smiled at this, she had taught Rainbow Dash how training high in the mountains helps earlier. It was good to hear that she actually listened to her friend's advice from time to time.
"If he's so athletic." questioned Rarity angrily, "Why is he ordering an ice cream maker? I bet he enjoys the simple things in life like that!"
In response, Rainbow Dash also got angry and shouted back, "I bet it's for the foals he already has with another mare!"
"He can't possibly have foals, he lives alone up here!" argued Rarity.
"How do you know? He could have adopted them!" questioned Rainbow Dash.
A loud zapping sound filled the air as Techorse fired a pair of laser bolts from his saddle into the sky. In effect he had just discharged a weapon to stop the argument.
"Tech…" said Twilight, shocked from the blast, "Was that really necessary?"
He replied sheepishly as he put the guns back, "I'm sorry, I couldn't think of anything else to break up the fight."
Rainbow Dash sighed, "It's ok, we still love you. But Mr. Peace isn't going to love Rarity."
"Rainbow, stop!" said Twilight.
"Let's just deliver the machine and go." suggested Rarity with great annoyance in her tone of voice, "There's no sense arguing anymore with you."
The four ponies dragged the box to the front door of the mansion, and Twilight rang the doorbell with her horn. The large, silver-colored door swung open, and there stood the owner of the house. Mr. Peace was a larger than average unicorn pony with a dark grey coat, and a brown mane. His brown eyes were behind a pair of stylish glasses which sat on his muzzle. In addition to his mane, he had a small patch of hair on his chin. For his cutie mark, he had two paintbrushes crossed over what appeared to be a small golden crown.
Immediately Rarity seemed to be intrigued by the colt, and she asked, "Are you Mr. Peace?"
"Indeed I am miss." He said plainly.
His voice was neither too deep nor too high pitched for his size.
A few seconds of silence passed before he laughed and continued in a fake French voice, "What, did you expect me to have some outrageous accent like this?"
Rainbow Dash coughed and admitted, "Well, just a bit."
At this point, Techorse pushed passed her and said, "Hello Mr. Peace, I'm Techorse, the pony you ordered this ice cream machine from. Since the mail service failed in Ponyville, I'm here to deliver it to you personally."
Mr. Peace smiled and said, "Ah thank you for fixing it and bringing it here! Just leave it outside and come on in, I want to get to know you four better! It's not often I have guests here in the mountains."
The friends followed the unicorn deep into his private home, where he led them to a room filled with blank canvases hung up on the wall, framed with beautiful patterns of gold and silver. In the middle of the room was an odd looking machine with a funnel on top, and several outlet pipes on it connected to empty paint tubes.
"What's with all the blank paintings?" asked Rainbow Dash, "I'd imagine most rich ponies like you would buy real art."
"Rainbow Dash, stop being rude!" said Twilight.
"No its ok." said Mr. Peace, "These paintings are blank because I have yet to paint on them. I love painting many things, mostly landscapes.
Rarity asked, "So this room is plain to help you concentrate on your art?"
"No." he answered darkly, "This room is to help me forget about certain works of art."
Techorse asked, "Forget about works of art?"
"Allow me to demonstrate." He said, smirking. Using his magic, he quickly teleported Rarity away in a flash of light. She re-appeared over the funnel of the machine in the room, and she fell in screaming.
The machine hummed as it began its work, and within seconds, Rarity's screams had stopped. A tube of paint emerged from the outlet pipe at the bottom, and Mr. Peace walked over to it and picked it up with his magic.
"What did you do to Rarity?" demanded Techorse, drawing his laser cannons and pointing them at the unicorn's head. He laughed and picked up a nearby paintbrush.
"Now, let's begin with a portrait, shall we?"
Unscrewing the cap from the small paint tube, he squeezed the entire contents of it onto the large paintbrush, and then moved it across a nearby canvas hanging on the wall. A living, carbon-copy image of Rarity appeared on the painting, and she immediately began to explore the white background of the painting she was in. She approached the "front" of the picture and put her front legs up on the canvas as if it was glass. Rarity had been trapped inside the painting magically, and as soon as she realized the predicament she was in, she began to panic..
"Help! Let me out of here now!" she demanded, banging on the invisible barrier that blocked her.
"Get Rarity out of that painting before I beat the living daylight out of you!" shouted Rainbow Dash, charging towards Mr. Peace.
The unicorn sidestepped her charge, and Rainbow Dash ricocheted off the wall behind him, hitting the ceiling on the second bounce, and then plunging into the machine with a cry of terror. She was immediately turned into a cyan tube of paint, which Mr. Peace collected..
Twilight and Techorse just sat there in terror as the unicorn painter painted Rainbow Dash in the same canvas as Rarity, trapping them both in the strange dimension of being a work of art.
"You're Masterpiece, aren't you?" asked Twilight in horror.
The unicorn turned from his work and said mockingly, "Oh somepony finally catches on!"
He adjusted his glasses with his left front hoof, the light reflecting off them ominously.
"And by the way!" he said with a smirk on his face, "Everypony gets that wrong! It's Master Piece, two words! I have a title."
Twilight bent her neck down slightly and braced her front legs. Her horn began to glow, and energy accumulated at the tip for a shot.
Twilight said to him, "I don't care, let my friends go, or you're getting a burst of my magic!"
"And if that doesn't work, my laser cannons will see to you." Added Techorse, making sure the guns made an audible cocking noise as he took aim.
"You can try that If you want, but I wouldn't recommend it!" laughed Master Piece, "As you can see, your friends are trapped in an actual canvas. Should you choose to open fire and their canvas gets burnt on accident, the same will happen to them!"
"What are we going to do Twilight?" asked Techorse, "He's right, if I miss, our friends could get trapped forever!"
Twilight thought carefully about the situation and realized that there was no way for her to stop the enemy unicorn without harming her friends. She let her horn stopped accumulating magical energy, and relaxed her body.
Moving her head back up to look at Master Piece, she said to him, "We give up. You win."
"Twilight what are you doing?" shouted Rainbow Dash from inside the painting, "Blast him and get us out of here!"
"I can't!" she answered with a sad look, "Master Piece is the only one who can get you out of there, and if I attack, we might end up sealing you inside that art for eternity."
Techorse understood Twilight Sparkle's fears and immediately powered down his battle saddle. The laser cannons drooped down towards the floor of the painting room.
"Now that's much better." said Master Piece, "Take off your battle saddle and get in the machine."
Techorse complied and unbuckled the saddle, letting the machine drop to the floor with a subtle thud. With a frown on his face, he climbed up into the funnel of the machine along with Twilight, and they were processed into one green and one purple tube of paint. Soon the evil artist had added them to the portrait as well, and the four friends were huddled in the empty void of the canvas.
"Now tell us Master." asked Rarity indignantly, "Why on Equestria are you trapping us in this painting and planning on doing the same to so many other ponies?"
Turning to dip his paintbrush in a nearby glass of water, he explained, "It's simple, really. Money is everything to me, it's why I became a bandit in the first place. But petty robbery just felt far beneath an artist like myself. I wanted to go bigger, so I came up with this plan to ransom off ponies trapped in paintings!"
"Of course it's all about money…" muttered Rainbow Dash.
The Master finished cleaning his brush and walked over to his painting full of captives. To the four inside, it simply looked like they were sitting in a large white box with a glass window looking into the studio.
"After trapping a few more residents of Ponyville in these paintings, I'll threaten to burn them if Canterlot doesn't turn over a few million bits!" he laughed at how easy his plan was going to work.
Turning around and leaving the team, he picked up Techorse's saddle with his magic and went outside his home to dispose of it. With one quick spell he teleported the weapon far away where no one would be able to find it. Then, looking down off the cliff face he was standing on, he glared Ponyville below before returning inside to continue his scheme.
Many miles away in the mountains, Derpy Hooves was busy wallowing in self-pity. Still very sad that no one loved her, she sat on the rough stone of the mountain path and wept. Behind her was a large cave she had planned on using as a temporary home for the night, as she planned to survive for the time being by moving from cave to cave and eating wild plants whenever possible. But now she was at the peak of this mountain, and she could see for miles. Ponyville was very far away, and the town's lights beckoned her to return, but she wouldn't listen to their silent call. There was simply no reason to go back.
Derpy thought to herself, "I can never go back to Ponyville, and nopony anywhere else wants me to stay there either. I'm going to have to live in the mountains for the rest of my life."
Tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed on the plateau. She cried loudly for herself, wishing for a better future than what she believed was ahead. All of a sudden, she realized that the sun wasn't shining on her anymore. It was dark, and Derpy looked up for the cloud blocking the sunlight. But to her horror, she understood that it was some creature's shadow that was causing the sun to be cut off. Immediately she spread her wings to fly away. But in sadness she realized there was no point in trying to flee, and Derpy folded her wings and turned around to face the creature. It was a large dragon with golden scales, looking down at Derpy with a curious look.
"What's the point?" she said to him mournfully, "If you're going to eat me up, go ahead. Nopony loves me anymore anyways."
The golden-scaled dragon sighed and lowered his large head to Derpy's level. He said to her softly, "I don't want to eat you, I want to see what's wrong. You woke me up."
"But you might as well eat me." sniffed Derpy, "I don't want to be around anymore. I'm an accident, I cause so many bad things to happen, and I'm so ugly because of my eyes that nopony's gonna want to marry me. I have no future!"
Derpy burst out crying again, burying her face into the ground out of grief. Yorgle sighed and wrapped his wings around Derpy. All he wanted to do was go back to bed, and he knew he'd need to help if he wanted his rest.
"My name is Yorgle Jr. What's yours?"
Derpy looked back up, “It's Derpy Hooves.”
“That's a rather unique name. I have met a few ponies in my time, and by far that's the most original I've heard!” said the dragon, telling the truth for the most part, “Someone would miss you very much I'm sure, if you were gone. Perhaps you should head back to your village down there.”
"Well maybe." Said Derpy, cheering up a bit, "But I still have a lot of accidents." Suddenly, a gray blast of magic energy occurred above her head, and out of the blast fell the battle saddle onto her head.
"See, like that." She said, sighing as she wore the machine like a hat.
Yorgle picked up the device with his massive right claw and held it.
"I recognize this saddle." He said, "It belongs to that green pony Techorse that I met about half a year ago, the one I helped break his friends out of prison."
"Yeah, that's Tech's." confirmed Derpy. After a few seconds had passed, the thought occurred to her that he probably did not randomly send his favorite gadget to her spot.
"Oh my gosh, Techie's in trouble!" she shouted, jumping up in the air and flapping her wings furiously. "I gotta help him!"
"And so will I!" added Yorgle, "Allow me to help you."
Derpy landed on his long snout and said, "You're very nice to offer that, mister Yorgle. In fact, you're the nicest dragon I've ever met."
“Well, most dragons don't know how helpful you ponies are!” he answered, “Techorse and his friends have done some favors for me, so I'll return it by offering my strength. It's a good chance for a dragon like me to smash something and get away with it!”
Derpy Hooves responded, “I really need to do this myself. But I'll make sure I say hi to him for you!”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, I am.” she answered, “Thank you so much Yorgle, I'll see you later!”
With that, she flew away with a new determination to help. The dragon waved goodbye as Derpy left him, confident that his old friend Techorse would be saved by his new one.
Master Piece returned to his painting containing his victims and said, "It's comforting knowing you can't stop me from in there."
Twilight said to him with contempt, "Even if you stop us, you won't get away with this. Princess Celestia will bring you down."
"I'm not scared of Celestia." Laughed the painter, "My magic is so confusing that I'll be able to escape any situation she could possibly throw down. There is no pony out there who can stop me and my dark art!"
The door to the painting room was being knocked on by something. Master Piece turned around and charged his horn for a magic attack just in case it was an intruder. But opening the door, he was met by Derpy Hooves, who had a great smile on her face.
The painting unicorn was rather taken aback by her odd eyes, but eventually asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Derpy Hooves! Nice to meet you sir!" she said, "I have a package for you."
"Another package?" he asked. Thinking carefully, he knew he'd easily be able to stuff Derpy into a painting as well. Grinning maliciously he continued, "Well bring it in here sweetie!"
Derpy Hooves nodded, and pushed a huge wooden crate, at least 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, through the doorway and into the room. Skipping in behind the box, Derpy spotted the painting containing her friends.
"Derpy!" shouted Rainbow Dash, "Let us out of here!"
Master Piece turned around and prepared to grab Derpy and stuff her into the machine in case she tried to help. But to his amusement, the gray mare gained an angry expression and said, "No way Rainbow Dash. I'm an accident, remember? Accidents can't help anypony."
Each of the ponies in their paintings remembered getting frustrated at Derpy earlier, and not really showing much love. They knew they didn't deserve any help from her at all. Even Techorse looked guilty despite his wish to help Derpy out. He had sent PAL to talk to her instead of trying to comfort her himself, and his laziness made him feel awful.
"Look at this!" cackled Master Piece, "You four have obviously betrayed this pony and now it's come back to bite you in the flank!"
"I'm sorry I faked not being mad at you!" wept Rarity, "Please help us Derpy!"
"No way." She responded, "You couldn't forgive me, and I don't forgive you."
"I love this!" continued Master Piece, laughing.
As soon as his eyes were shut from laughing so hard, Twilight noticed that Derpy's lazy eye winked at her. Derpy also wiggled her tail a bit, for some reason.
"Well mister." Half-shouted Derpy, "Wanna open your package?"
"Certainly." He said, stopping his laughter and wiping a tear from his eyes.
Using his magic, he pried open the closest face of the wooden box and looked inside carefully. All of a sudden, immense fear overcame him as he realized he was staring down the barrel of a net-launching cannon. Gripping that cannon was a very angry robot.
"Return to sender." Said PAL plainly before pulling the trigger.
Master Peace screamed as the net hit his body, throwing him across the room and smacking him against the wall. Covered in the ropes and held down by the lead weights on the end of each one, he was unable to take any further action except cough and wheeze from the pain and shock. PAL walked over, dropped the cannon, and picked up the painter by his neck after removing him from the netting. Walking over to the machine, he held him over the funnel with one hand.
“I don't understand, how!?” he gasped, trying to pry PAL's hands off of him.
Derpy explained, “I came here when you zapped Tech's saddle near me. You left your window open, so I just leaned in and watched you gloat over trapping my friends in that painting. Well, now it's your turn mister!”
PAL's orange eyes glowed sinisterly as he turned on the night vision devices inside them. In this case, they helped him to intimidate the pony in his hands, and he chuckled slightly as he released his index fingers, making Master Piece start to slip.
"Please don't drop me!" he begged, "I'll do anything!"
Derpy demanded, "Let Twilight and her friends go!"
"Done!" he said, "Just don't drop me in there!"
"I'm not finished yet." interrupted Derpy, "You need to give yourself over to the princesses."
"Fine, drop me in there." He grumbled, "I am not going back to Canterlot's prison."
"Well, you heard him PAL!" said Rainbow Dash, "Turn him into paint!"
"Noooo!" begged Master Piece, changing his mind, "I'll go back to prison, just don't trap me in a painting!"
PAL's eyes stopped glowing, and he moved the villain away from the opening of the evil device.
The robot's gentle smile returned to his face as he dropped the rogue unicorn hard on the ground, he instructed him like a police officer talking to a speeder, "Release them from the painting, sir."
Master Piece complied. Moving over to the canvas, his horn glowed, and he cut an x pattern over the painting. After stepping back from the canvas, it tore into four pieces, and the friends fell out of the artwork for good, landing on the ground softly.
Rarity felt herself over just to make sure she was truly in reality again, and then said, "Well, it's good to be out of there. It was very hot."
Rainbow Dash simply rolled her eyes at the words, but deep inside, she was very thankful to have been freed from the artwork as well. Rushing up to Derpy Hooves, Twilight grabbed her in a tight hug.
"Thanks for saving us!" she beamed, squeezing the gray pegasus against her snugly.
"You're welcome Twilight." She answered, hugging back as best as she could.
Within the hour, a chariot and a jail cart had arrived outside of the mansion. Jools and Jops put Master Piece in the cart and locked the door tightly before returning to princess Celestia, who had yet to leave the chariot. Most of the ponies and PAL approached the princess and bowed gently in front of her. PAL was on one knee instead, as if he assumed being a robot made him a type of knight, and as usual, Techorse saluted the princess as he always did.
"At ease, Techorse." She laughed. Techorse's salute was too cute to her to avoid enjoying.
"Princess," asked Twilight, "What's going to happen to Master Piece?"
Celestia gave her new plan for the unicorn in the prison cart, "I think I'll give him a special cell that connects to a walled-in courtyard. We'll give him some magic-proof art supplies so that his talent doesn't go to waste. But until he has painted a great landscape for each of the 36 ponies he hurt in Canterlot, he's not getting out. Captain Arbiter wishes to see to that personally."
"I'm sure Arby's happy about that assignment!" chuckled Techorse.
"So, I will assume based on the cannon we found in the home that you brought down Master Piece?" asked the princess, smiling at him.
"Actually." Barged in Rainbow Dash, "It was Derpy Hooves who stopped him. She put PAL in a crate with that net cannon and tricked Master Piece into opening it."
Princess Celestia stepped off of her chariot and walked up to Derpy Hooves, who looked like she was about to start shaking in fear from the princess's presence.
"What you did today, Derpy Hooves, was a brave and noble action. You overcame your fear of making mistakes and ended up saving my students as a result."
"Who told you I was afraid of making mistakes?" asked Derpy nervously.
"I did." Admitted Twilight, "Derpy, when you left, I decided to write letters to the princess about you in hopes that somepony would be able to find you and bring you back. We were all worried about you very much when you were gone. If we've learned anything about friendship about this, it's that even when we have friends who make mistakes, we should still love them very much and treat them with respect. We all missed you very much that week you were gone."
"Really?" asked Derpy.
"Oh yes." Said Rarity, nodding, "We were afraid some hideous creature had swallowed you up!"
“I thought that was going to happen today! I met a dragon, Yorgle!” she said, “But he talked me into coming back for you guys.”
“Good old Yorgle.” said Twilight, smiling.
“Anyways, we were kind of worried.” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “The mail was starting to pile up back home.”
"Even you Rainbow?" asked Derpy as she looked at her friend.
"I wasn't worried about you at all!" snubbed Rainbow to tease her.
When she saw Derpy frowned, she nudged her with a wing and said with a wink, "But that's because I know you can take care of yourself. We all missed you!"
"But I can't go back to Ponyville." Said Derpy sadly, "I gave up my apartment."
"Well, someone has to own this mansion." said Princess Celestia, "And I believe you deserve it the most."
Derpy Hooves gasped and started to dance around in joy, "Thank you so much, princess!"
Twilight and Techorse watched her dance in joy and knew that it wasn't likely she would think of herself as a mistake anymore. They hugged each other, glad to be free again and in love.
A few days later, Derpy had gotten settled into her mansion overlooking Ponyville nicely. She enjoyed having all the extra space, but never spent much time in the home, preferring to be social amongst the ponies in the town below. But today was a very lonely Friday, and Derpy sat in the mansion staring at a cup of coffee she had made for herself, bored out of her mind. The doorbell rang to break the silence, and Derpy stumbled over to the door. When she opened it, she found Upkeep standing in the doorway.
"Hi Upkeep." Said Derpy, "What are you doing here? I thought I paid you the last rent already."
"You did." He answered while looking at the ground, "But Derpy, I have a confession. I kept your apartment open for you this whole time. I never rent it out to anypony else."
Derpy Hooves was confused by this, "Why not?"
"It's because I loved spending those Fridays with you!" he bawled, "Please come back to Ponyville!"
"You know, I was gonna sell this place anyways and keep working my job." said Derpy, "It's so lonely up here!”
“R.. really?” he said, hope in his differently colored eyes.
“Yeah!” she said, “I was going to look for a new home and buy one so I could live in Ponyville again.”
“There's another pony in real estate who could help you with that.” Upkeep suggested.
“But it won't be the same as the apartment I had.” said Derpy, before getting an idea.
She asked, “Can I buy the apartment forever? As in, for myself? That way I never have to leave.”
Upkeep was happy to get his friend back and answered, “Yes! Of course! Let's get the paperwork settled.“
“Maybe tonight.” said Derpy, smiling, “I'll move back in then. Let's just spend Friday together like always, ok?”
Her friend smiled and followed her inside, closing the door behind him. He, like Derpy, thought that his abandonment and his off colored eyes made him a mistake too. But now he could see that neither of them were mistakes, and there was certainly hope for ponies like them. Derpy Hooves, even though she was just a mailmare, was living proof of that.