//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: The Discovery of The Elements. // Story: The 7th Element. Season 1: The Magi-Tech Pony // by Rojack79 //------------------------------// Jan, 1st, The 1000th Year of the Celestial Era. Ponyville, Equestria. 6:05, A.M. Twilight's Library. Twilight was in her library looking through her books for anything she could to find out were the elements of harmony were. But she wasn't alone. Her five acquaintances were with her also looking. She couldn't stop them either. Their home town was under attack from a mad god hay bent on taking over the world. As they all skimmed through a book they were jolted from there research by a huge explosion in the distance. The shock wave passed through the tree house shaking book's from there shelve's and even toppling a few shelve's in the process. "Come on! Come on! Were are they!" Twilight shouted as she went through book after book. The other's were also frantically looking now for any mention of the elements of harmony. "So just what are the elements of harmony?" Rainbow asked as she flipped through page after page of a book that turned out to be a book on stallion anatomy. Her cheeks burned as she tossed the book over her shoulder and grabbed a different one. "That's kind of hard to explain." Twilight answered going through a book on thermodynamics and discarding it. She was suddenly pulled from grabbing another book by a hoof on her shoulder. She was flipped around coming face to face with an irritated rainbow dash. "Listen you better start explaining." A loud Boom! Shook the library again. "Because right now there is a power mad pony destroying our town!" Twilight was shocked at how rainbow was acting right now. She wasn't the only one. Apple Jack came up and rested a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "Simmer down there rainbow." AJ Said fixing the mare with astern look. That look was then directed at Twilight. "So care to explain why our town is be'en attacked by a creature from an old mare's tale? An were here looking for some trinkets?" Twilight shook her head. "Ok." She looked out the window at the destruction unfolding. "The Element's of Harmony are more than 'just trinket's'." She looked at the group. "There supposed to be powerful object's from a bygone era. And there the only thing's that can stop nightmare moon." "Well then what are we waiting for lets go!" Pinky said as she bounced up and down. "It's not that simple Pinky." Twilight said her ear's laying flat. "While i know of the elements of harmony i don't know where they are." Twilight sat on her hunches, shame etched onto her face. "Well don't you fret none." "Ya we'll help you out." Rainbow said. "Right girl's?" She asked the rest of the group. They all gave there conformation's. "Of course darling." "Uh..uh..um..yes." "Yeperuny!" Twilight looked at the group with great admiration and surprise. She never suspected this small group of pony's would grow on her but they did. Just then her brain clicked. Somepony was missing from there little group. Her gasp brought all the attention of the mare's to her once more. "OH CRAP!" "Darling whats wrong?" Rarity asked. "We forgot Gadget at the town hall!" "But i thought he was trying to distract Nightmare?" Fluttershy said her voice full of worry. Now that she mentioned it Twilight did remember him winking at her. Did he really want them all to escape while he distracted Nightmare? He was ether really brave or really stupid. "Yes i suppose your right." Twilight said a sad look on her face. "From what little i know of him he does strike me as the pony that would do that." Her face went from sad to mad. "OK then. Lets not squander the time he gave us. Lets find something in this library that can point us to the elements of harmony." "Found it!" "WHAT!!" Five mare's screamed. Pinky was face deep into a red leather back book. Twilight ran over, shoved pinky out of the way and began to read the book out loud. "The Elements of Harmony. A Reference Guide?" Twilight gawked at the audacity of the title, as if it was mocking her. "Pinky were did you find this?" "It was under EEE!" Twilight gave her a deadpan look. Really! She shrugged off her bad temper and continued to read the book out loud. "OK according to the book there are six elements of harmony." She look off into the distance for a sec. That's...Convenient. "But, of the six only five are known. The first is Kindness. Next is Laughter. Then there's generosity. After that comes Honesty. And lastly Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery even to this day." Unbeknownst to the group of pony's Nightmare moon was outside listening to there every word. After delving through her sister's memory's Nightmare discovered that Celestia was telling the truth. She really had no idea were the elements of harmony where because she had wiped her mind of there location to keep them safe. "It is said that the last known location of the elements of harmony was the ancient castle of the royal pony sister's." Sister you sentimental old fool! "Which is located in what is now known as the everfree forest!" Twilight dropped the book at that part her eye's wide with shock. Meanwhile Nightmare zoomed to her and her sister's old castle. The group of mare's all looked from one to another. Ponyville, Equestria. 6:15, A.M. Ponyville Park. Gadget was dazed and confused. He awoke to absolute silence. His eye's couldn't focus on anything because the world was spinning. He closed them and tried to focus on his breathing. However that proved fruitless as each breath he took felt like he was having a nail driven into his chest. Great i must have broken a rib or two. Gadget barely got to his feet, the amount of pain he was going through would have knocked out a normal pony, but thanks to his power's of emotion he was able to mask the pain. He extended his senses to feel what emotions were out there. He found fear, lots and lots of fear. It wasn't the best emotion but he would take it. He slowed down his breathing to match his heart rate. Then all at once he let the emotion's flood over his body. Fear instantly gripped him like a vice. Thankfully he had had year's of practice separating his emotions from everypony else. Soon he was siphoning up all of the fear around him, replacing it with calm. At least someponys will get to sleep better tonight. With his body brimming with all the emotion he could take Gadget transformed all of the fear into love. He thought of a few things that genuinely made him happy. His parents, spending time with dash, working on his inventions. His wounds began to heal themselves and he was feeling much better than before. He managed to stop shaking and finally inspected were he was. He looked around to find himself in a crater, in the park. "Wow. She wasn't kidding about being powerful." He inspected his armor, or rather what was left of it. His helmet was busted beyond repair but it did its job. The crystal horn was a complete lost cause. The spinal column for the armor was severed in several area's. No fixing that without a torch and some electrical wire. He was missing an entire piece of leg armor. Man i have to get home and get this off. I won't be of any help to anypony with this junk hanging onto me. Gadget got his bearing's and headed towards the clock tower. He caught the faint sound of jingling and looked down to see his Amulet. It was glowing softly. He shrugged it off and headed home. 6:20 A.M. Gadget hobbled up to his home, barged through the door and fell out on the floor. Come on almost there. He forced himself to his hooves and walked to the basement door. He wrenched open the door and rapidly descended the stairs via falling down them. He picked himself up once more. OK maybe i'm not as healed up as i thought. He caught his breath, and looked around his basement. His workshop was more or less intact. Only a few things were out of place. He used his horn to turn on a light but the effort left him woozy. With the light on he found what he was looking for a box simply marked MK 6. "Well Rainbow looks like i'll have to cancel our race." He said as he trotted over to the box. He grabbed a crowbar from a desk nearby and jammed it into the lid. He jumped up and put all of his weight onto the bar. The lid flew off the box and Gadget threw the crowbar over his shoulder. He looked inside the box for the first time in year's. "Wow. Still look's as good as ever." 6:30 A.M. Deep Within The Everfree Forest. "Come on girl's!" Twilight shouted to the other's. "I can see the castle from here! WOW!!!" Twilight was not watching were she was going and slipped off a cliff. She scrambled to get her footing back, but a strong force managed to pull her back just in time. She heaved out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She looked back to see dash spit out her tail. "You know you should avoid cliff's from now on." She joked. Twilight managed a weak smile but then she looked ahead and saw why she nearly fell to her death. "The bridge is out? Now what are we going to do?" "Ah hum." Twilight looked back to see Rainbow posing like a star. Twilight looked at Dash-- Oh right her wing's. Without further ado Rainbow jumped into the air and sailed down into the misty canyon separating the group from there goal. After a little while of searching for the end of the bridge Rainbow came back up with it and tied it off at the other side. "OK girls come on over!" She shouted back. 6:30 A.M. "OK." Gadget said as he twisted the last nut into place on the MK 6. He tossed the wrench behind him and looked back on his work. Took him 10 minutes to get it all together but he finally got it completed. "Now to take this baby for the test drive of its life." He slipped the exoskeleton over his frame and pushed the start button. His world went dark for a second, the only light came from his amulet which was glowing brighter now. Soon the exo-suit encased his body first in a layer of soft rubber like substance then in a layer of chrome colored metal. His H.U.D sprang to life illuminating his surroundings. He felt the soft mono-molecular mesh covering his whole body give a soft shutter as the suit calibrated itself to his body. It tightened up in loose area's and depressed other's to better fit the wearer. The metal plates shifted into the proper place's encasing his mesh under skin in hard metal. Magic channeling vain's flared to life pulsating throughout the suits surface giving off a blue glow. "Ok Systems check initiate." The voice command brought up a list on Gadgets H.U.D. Five swift beep's sounded. "OK All systems green." With his new suit on he galloped up the stairs and ran out the door. "OK Now the final test." Gadget gave the mental command to start up his suits engine's. His metal wing's flared out with a metallic shink! "Awesome!" He exclaimed. His rocket began to fire up and he braced himself again the ground. He reared back tinting forward. His engine light registered as green. He was good to go. All at one he diverted a little power to his legs and arched his body forward while pushing off with his front hooves, allowing him leap high into the air with his back hooves. Then a second later he diverted all power to his engine's blasting off into the night sky. When he was a good few hundred feet above the ground he began to scan for Nightmare Moon. He got a ping from deep within the Everfree Forest. He set a way point on his H.U.D.s map and followed the projected path. The six mare's entered the old decrepit castle, cautious as ever of what might lurk in the old ruin's. As the group entered the atrium they saw something that made there heart's soar with joy. Right there in front of them on a swiveling solar system podium was the elements of harmony. "I-is t-that t-them?" Fluttershy whispered to the group. Twilight took out her book and studied the drawings of the elements. She compared the ones in the book with the ones she was looking at in front of her. "Yes girl's. I-i think this is it! We found them!" She said letting out a deep breath. "AHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Yes, yes you did my little subject's." Nightmare's voice rang throughout the castle, shaking it to its very foundation's. "No!" Twilight screamed as Nightmare materialized in front of the group, standing between them and the elements. Nightmare began to laugh in triumph as her victory was close at hand. But then she stopped. Every pony's ear's perked as they all heard a high pitched whining noise. It started off very faint at first, but then it got louder and louder. Then the group all heard somepony screaming. "AHHHHHHH!!!" The whining noise rose to a crescendo and then it was cut off by the sound of shattering glass as a flying metal object came crashing through a window above the girls. The object continued its path and plowed right into Nightmare Moon, sending her flying through the castle and crashing through a wall. She did not get back up. The chrome object then tuned towards the girl's who were stunned at what just happened. "Are you all just going to stand there or are you going to tell me why you all are here in the first place?" The voice said in an electronically distorted voice. It startled the girls out of there stupor and they all looked at the new pony with suspicion. "That depend's?" Twilight said stepping forward to confront the new comer. "Who's asking?" "Girl's it's me." The voice said. This just confused the girl's. The metal pony cut off its engine's and landed on the ground. All of the girls came to Twilights aid now. Then the metal covering up the pony's face began to peel away revealing a surprise. "Gadget!?" They all screamed at once. "Hey girl's. I'm back." He said giving them an encouraging smile.