//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Inventions and Rainbows. // Story: The 7th Element. Season 1: The Magi-Tech Pony // by Rojack79 //------------------------------// Dec, 30, 999, C.E. Ponyville, Equestria. "Gaah!" Gadget grumbled as he worked away on his latest project. He had been busy in the past 10 years. He scoured practically every book, tome, and old manuscript in equestria. He often went with his parents on there dig's seeing as how they were now a full fledged family of explorers and adventurer's, and along the way he picked up any scrap of information he could on changeling's. Even then he had very little to go on. He found out that they were supposed to have wing's and a horn just like the princess. However it appeared that his wings had gotten burned up in the fiery crash that brought him here. So right now he was hard at work perfecting a device, well more of a suit, that would allow him to eventually fly like his normal brethren. Speaking of which he had absolutely zero luck at tracking down any other changeling's. Some stuff he had read about them stated that they were master's of disguise. If his own ability to shape shift was any indicator then he could see why they would be hard to track down. He set his tool's down and looked at his cutie mark. It brought back lots of memory's. He chuckled as a fond memory crossed his mind. One day on April fool's he and mom had pranked dad by having Gadget shift into another Ruby Rose and entice him into a three way. It did not end well. His dad nearly had a heart attack and the two pranksters were on the floor laughing the flanks off. The look on his face when he found out about me and mom! Oh i wish i had a camera! He remembered the design he had for one. Speaking of technology, he had found out that equestria's tech level was far more advanced than earth's, in some areas. It boggled his mind to comprehend it. Here in ponyville they had a steam powered train. In Canterlot they had magically powered airships and other fancy contraption's. And just a few years ago Gadgets mom and dad had found an ancient civilization in the frozen north that had even more advanced tech than anything elsewhere. The funny thing is that the advanced tech of the frozen north had been popping up all over equestria in some form or another for the last century. It became such a big deal that Princess Celestia had created several schools dedicated exclusively to it's study, manufacturer, and usage in both everyday life and warfare. Gadget himself was a prodigy in its invention and use. As he thought about his cutie mark he began to think about how he got it. He got it in the hospital, this time was do to a head injury he suffered from a rock colliding with his horn at super sonic speed's. June, 10th, 987, The Fields Outside of Canterlot. Gadget was curious. In his spare time between the constant trip's with his parents and his study's he had come to the realization that he liked to build thing's. A little over a year after he came home he had built a little device that resembled a small box with a handle sticking out of the top. The box had a small glass window with a needle to one side. Below the glass was a small L.E.D. screen that would show several different thing's depending on what setting was active at the moment. Right now Gadget had it set to the Search setting. In this setting the L.E.D. screen became a small scale with number's on it. Starting off on the left was the number zero. All the way to the right was a ten. In short he had created a magical detecting Geiger Counter. Right now he was following a signal that was going all over the place. It would spike every few second's then die down. "Is this thing even working?" He hit it with a hoof and it went dead. "Oh pony feather's." He set the device on the ground and pulled out his small tool kit from his saddle bag. "Ha never leave home without it!" He set to work on fixing his Geiger Counter. He sat there in the fields tweaking this or screwing in that stubborn bolt. He finally got it all put back together after fixing a loose screw. OK lets see if this things works. He flipped the switch on the side and it buzzed to life. "YES!" He said trusting a hoof into the air. He waved it around to see if he could get an accurate reading. He spotted cloudsdale off in the distance and pointed it there. He suddenly got a spike as the needle went haywire. He waved it around to get it to stop but it kept on going crazy. He hit it with a hoof, then it stopped. He looked at it and then he set his eye's to cloudsdale to see--BOOM!!!! A giant Rainbow exploding with the power of a nuke. He had could see the shock wave as it came closer and closer. The wave began to appear over the hill's and it was picking up stick's and stone's as it went. You know that old saying about sticks and stone, well whoever came up with it should be shot, stabbed, and quite plainly killed in the most brutal manner possible. The last things he felt out in the fields was the shock wave hitting his body, then he felt an immense amount of pain surge through his head. He awoke in the hospital a few day's later to see that his horn was shattered. The doctor's said that he would never be able to preform magic again with his horn being this badly damaged. He simply didn't take no for an answer. A few year's later he had not only been able to get into Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorn's he had done so with the help of his own invention. It was basically a crystalline sheath that covered up his horn. He had his parent's enchant it so that way he could store magic inside of the crystal's structure and use it for later. Then he got an idea. If he could do this with this simple little piece of crystal why not do it with other's. Pretty soon he was going to a specialized school specifically meant for advancements in the field of Crystal Technology. He met other's prodigy's like him at Celestia's Crystal Technology Center and soon he was making even more complex gadget's and gizmo's. He finally graduated in the field of Crystal Prosthetic's a field dedicated to helping the impaired in any way possible. With his life going pretty well so far he was now focused on getting his magic back. The Crystal Horn helped out but it still had it's limit's. It could only work for as long as he put magic into it which was a slow steady process. So he came up with a blueprint for a suit of armor that would allow him to store enough magical energy to do practically anything he wanted... at least in theory it should. Back in ponyville Gadget was putting the final touch's on his suit's power supply. He had scavenged an old suit of pony armor from a junk yard taken it back to his workshop in ponyville and begun working on turning it into the basis for his other bit's of technology he had in mind. And now here he was just a few day's away from the summer sun celebration. He had something special planned for this celebration. He wanted to surprise the princess. He was going to dawn his suit on the morning of the celebration and when the princess came to ponyville he would make sure to give her a show she would never forget. He had to do something to show his appreciation of her and her school's. If not for them he would never be were he was today. Well that and whatever had caused the rainbow explosion.