//------------------------------//
// Act III Chapter 1: Fall Weather Brings Pony's Together Part 1. 
// Story: The 7th Element. Season 1: The Magi-Tech Pony 
// by Rojack79 
//------------------------------//

4, 2, 1000, C.E.
Ponyville, 7:00 A.M.

A week after his discharge from the hospital Gadget was up and moving around, not as much as he used to but it was better than staying in bed all day having his parents look after him like a foal.

"Son are you ok?" Ruby asked as he came down the stair's slowly. He chuckled.

"Yes mom. I'm fine. Just a little sore." He said as he gingerly put one hoof in front of the other. He heard somepony laughing behind him and looked back to see Midnight with a grin on her face suppressing a giggle with her hoof. 

"Oh don't mind me." She said as she waited for him to descend the stair's. He chuckled and continued his slow walk down the step's. Midnight meanwhile just went back up the stairs to the second floor and went up to the railing and jumped over it. She soared threw the big open space between the first and second floors making tight circles in the air until she landed on the ground floor. Gadget had gotten to the ground floor and watched as Midnight spun around in the air. He couldn't wait to get back in his suit again and join her in the sky. His happy thought's were interrupted by his mother coming to the living room from the kitchen. 

"Breakfast is ready." She announced. Gadget looked over to Midnight a grin plastered on his face. 

"Last one there?" Midnight raised an eyebrow at him. Then she smiled her devious smile. 

"What's at stake?" Gadget thought about it.

"How about a whole evening doing what the other one one want's?" He said with a smirk. Midnight grinned even wider. 

"Your challenge is accepted." 

"Ok. Three. Two. One. Go!" Gadget sprinted full force to the door way but soon he realized he wasn't moving. He looked around to see Midnight calmly walking to the kitchen a smile on her face. He looked closer and saw a dark blue obstruct his vision. He then noticed that he was in a stasis field. 

"Lady's first." Midnight said as she trotted into the kitchen. 

"Hey no fare." He heard a chuckle from behind him. When he was finally released from the field he turned around to see his dad come into the living room. He was shaking his head.

"My dear son have i taught you nothing?" He said in a dramatic accent swooning as he did so. Gadget face hoofed at his dad's antic's. Sky simply embraced his son a hug and spun him around the room.

"All is fare in love and war. And sometimes you have to go through both at the same time." He said putting his son down in front of the kitchen doorway. Gadget had to wait for the house to stop spinning before he was able to make it to the kitchen table. He wobbled into the dinning area and took a seat next to Midnight, left open by his father no doubt. He looked to his dad across the table and Sky winked at his son. He just grumbled to himself and began to eat his breakfast.



Ponyville, 8:00 A.M. 

After there family breakfast and a quick scrubbing courtesy of his mom, Gadget and crew were out and about taking a day off to go the nearby park. They had got there with out a hitch but as soon as they got over the bridge they knew something was up. The little field they had planned on using for there picnic was taken up by a huge makeshift obstacle course. Gadget scanned the crowd for anypony familiar and saw both Apple Bloom and Bic Mac in a huge bleacher set up. They both spotted him and his family and waved enthusiastically. The group made there way to the back of the bleacher's and found a way into what ever this event was. They all got into a line and funneled up the step's to Bic Mac and Apple Bloom. 

"Well howdy there folk's." Big Mac said as he scooted him self and Apple Bloom over a few seat lengths to allow the family to sit down. 

"Hey there Bic Mac/" Gadget said as he shook the stallion's hand. After the two stallions exchanged pleasantry's Bic Mac went down the line giving everypony a warm welcome. Gadget spotted Apple Bloom in the seat next to Big Mac's and went and got down to her height and smiled at her. 

"Hey there Apple Bloom." He said nuzzling her cheek. She giggled at him and gave him a hug.

"i'm glad your ok Gadget." He accepted her hug but stopped when he felt her crying. 

"Hey what's wrong?" He asked as he held her in his lap. 

"I'-i'm s-s-so -s-s-s-sorry!" She said. Gadget frowned. Gadget's family and even few pony's in the crowd had heard Apple Bloom's little out burst and was now looking at the group. 

"What for?" He asked looking concerned. Apple Bloom lowered her head. 

"It's all my fault. If i hadn't ran off like i did you wouldn't have gotten hurt like you were." She said. Gadget looked at Apple Bloom with sadness. He could feel her hurt and anger at herself. 

"I'm so sorry Gadget. C-ca--can you forgive me?" She asked panic in her voice.

"No." He said. Apple Bloom looked at him in confusion and horror.

"I can't accept your apology Apple Bloom because you have nothing to apologize for." He said giving her a warm smile. She was shocked to say the least.

"B-b-b-but -i-i-i-i was--" she was cut off by a hoof. 

"No but's Apple Bloom. What happened wasn't your fault. Plain and simple. It was a bad thing that happened to me but it was not your fault." He said reassuring her with an even bigger smile. 

"What happen's to us happen's to us. We have no control over that sometime's. Other time's we have the power and ability to change thing's but that isn't always an option." He said starring at the event taking place in the park. He squinted a little bit to see who was participating in the obstacle course. He was surprised to Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack competing in a series of sport's contest's. Then he continued his explanation to Apple Bloom.

"So do me a favor will you Apple Bloom?" He said giving the filly an encouraging smile. She looked up at him still confused by his lack of anger towards her. 

"What can i do?" He smiled even wider. 

"Just be yourself. Don't let anypony blame you for what happened and don't blame yourself. IT wasn't your fault and you had no way of knowing what would happen. So go and live your life with all of the happiness it had before the accident. Can you do that for me?" He said rubbing her head. She giggled as he continued to rub her head then her back then hr neck and soon he was tickling her all over, her cry's now ones of laughter rather than sorrow. When she had finally gotten a hold of her self she gave him a smile and a hug. 

"Thank you Gadget." She said. He smiled.

"Anytime Apple Bloom." He said as he hoisted her up and put her on his shoulder's so she could get a better view. The whole crowd began to aww at this spectacle of joy. Gadget's face lit up like a Christmas tree but he kept a strait face now paying attention to the sport's that RD and AJ where participating in. He got a nudge from his right and looked over to see Big Mac nod at him. He nodded back. Then he saw his parents looking at him with a smug smirk on his face. His dad then leaned towards Midnight who was eating some popcorn. Were'd she get that from? He scanned the crowd for a sales pony but was brought back to the present when he heard somepony choking. He looked over to see Midnight holding her throat as her face went from blue to red then blue again from lack of oxygen. Then she fell over. 

"Oh no!" Gadget screamed as he rushed over to her side. He got to her and felt for a pulse. She was still alive and breathing now. 

"What happened?" He asked. His dad was laughing his flank off in his seat like a madpony.

"Oh ho ho ho ho that was to rich!" He said still laughing. 

"All's i did was say how good you were with kid's and how i could't wait for you to have some." Then he pointed to Midnight. 

"She went from chewing her food to stuttering and then her face was bright red!" He continued to laugh as everything began to sink in. Wow. That is actually pretty funny. He giggled to himself then he stopped. Why did she---. He soon stopped when he found the answer to his question. His own face lit up once again. He carefully gripped Midnight in his magic and propped her up in her seat. He then sat next to her to make sure she was ok for the rest of the show. He felt a nudge on his head. He looked up to see Apple Bloom starring at him. 

"Yes?" He asked. 

"Is she your marefriend?" Gadget blinked.

"No?" He stated feeling confused and uncomfortable. Apple Bloom looked at him for a while before returning her attention to her sister and there friend. 



Ponyville, 9:00 A.M. 

After the two mare's got done with there show of who was the most athletic pony ever, they discovered that they were tied for first place. So in one last ditch effort to see who was the best they decided to participate in the annual running of the leave's. Gadget was excited. He had participated in the running of the leave's before so he was really wanting to participate now that he had two friend's to go up against. 

"So what exactly is this running of the leave's?" Midnight asked as they made there way home. Gadget looked at her with fake shock. 

"How could you not know?" He asked using his hooves to emphasize his astonishment. Midnight just rolled her eye's and muttered,

"Like father like son." Gadget giggled and then began to explain the annual running of the leave's. 

"Well it go's like this." He explained the jist of it to Midnight. 

"So this running of the leave's is a yearly ritual to shake all of the leave's off of the tree?"

"Yup."

"And it takes place next week?" Midnight said as she thought about it. 

"Yup and it's open to anypony in ponyville." Gadget thought about it.

"Hey Midnight?" He said. He was going to go for it.

"Yes?" She said looking at him. 

"Would you like to---" 

"Hello there Ms Eclipse."

Damn it!

Only to be interrupted by the last pony he wanted to see. He turned around to see Hot Shot Standing on a cloud above them looking smug. 

"Sorry to interrupt." He said as he jumped off the cloud and landed gracefully on the ground. He gave Gadget a scowl as he walked past. Gadget just returned a neutral face not betraying his annoyance. Hot Shot gave Eclipse a smug grin to which she just stared at him with a bored look in her eye. His confidence faltered but picked up as he approached the target of his next conquest. 

"So Ms Eclipse i hear that there is going to be a race this weekend." He stated as he turned on his charm. He swaggered over to Midnight who was looking at Hot Shot with disdain. He however continued to pursue his lust.

"So how about we ditch the dork," 

"HEY!" If looks could kill then Hot Shot would be dust in the wind.

"And go for a brisk jog in the wood's? Just the two of us?" Now Gadget had had enough. This pompous ass hat was going down. Before he could so much as charge up his horn tho Midnight spoke her mind.

"No." Then she walked off to go back to Gadget's house with the rest of his family who was waiting at the end of the road out of town. Gadget just looked at Hot Shot's face. It made him want to cry tears of joy. Hot Shot looked like he had just had poop shoved down his throat. And Gadget was loving every second of it. He trotted off down the road laughing at the top of his lung's.

"Hey Dork!" Gadget looked around to see Hot Shot back on his cloud a smug grin upon his face. 

"Don't think this is over." Gadget was stumped. What are you talking about? What this? are you referring to? He just shook his head and continued walking back to his house. When he got in the door his dad met him.

"So son what was that all about?" He asked looking over Gadget's shoulder at Hot Shot who had zoomed away disintegrating the cloud he was on in the process. 

"Just some nut job trying to get to know Midnight bit better. So far he's 0-2." Sky looked at Gadget. He could see that he was bothered by this pegasus. 

"So what are you going to do about him?" Gadget thought about it. 

"Honestly i don't know." He looked to his dad.

"Midnight's been able to deal with him so far but i don't want to overstep my bound's with her." His dad was puzzled. 

"What about that last time you protected her? What's the difference between then and now?" 

"Then somepony was trying to rape her. Now she's just caught the eye of a trumped up douche bag with his ego so far up his ass he could be halfway to the moon by now with it's length." He said as he huffed in annoyance. Sky looked at his son and couldn't resist. 

"Well someone sound's just a teansy bit jealous." He said with a soft smirk. Gadget just looked at his dad.

"Pff as if. I could fly circle's around that tool any day of the week." With that said and done Gadget went down to his basement and locked the door. He had a suit of armor to repair. His dad just chuckled to himself. 

"Boy i remember being his age and in love."