• Published 29th Nov 2013
  • 520 Views, 36 Comments

Shining Gears - Space Wizard Novablast



The story of the inventor Gearhead, his troubles in Trottingham, his love in Trottingham, and his departure from Trottingham.

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Chapter three: bullies in a state of E

"This can't seriously be mashed potatoes?"

Gear had been astonished by the poor state of the cafeteria food when he had been shown around by Sun Springs. She had assured him that I was even worse when you actually tasted it, of course he hadn't believed her, nothing could be that bad.

But at the moment tears were welling up in his eyes because of the taste, it didn't taste like mashed potatoes, more like low quality whiskey in lumps. Which in itself was an uncomfortable thought.

"I'm afraid it is," Sun Springs answered, she had been so kind as to join him at his table, something he quickly found out only meant that he was much more awkward than usually.

"Never mind," Gear said, pushing his plate away while shaking his head. "I'd much rather ask some question."

"Oh really?" Sun said pushing her plate away as well, although much more relaxed than Gear, "what questions exactly?"

Gear placed his hat in his lap, placing his hooves on it and biting his lower lip, he had been thinking about this ever since he had gotten out of his classroom.

"Why did you warn me about my class?" He asked, eyebrows now raised as he simultaneously tapped the flat top of his hat.

"You mean you didn't notice him?" She said as she almost spit out some of her carrot juice, "a unicorn with and orange coat and fiery red mane?"

"Now, I think I would've noticed if Flare, mayor of the damn town, had been in my class." He said, now frowning, growing concerned for his colleague and friend's sanity.

"He must not have arrived yet," she said, letting to of her breath, before noticing something that made her gasp and hold in just like before, "crap, he's here, try not to make eye contact unless he tells you to."

Gear however, was in need of getting his curiosity sated, he looked around.

And found a group of purely unicorns standing by the entrance of the cafeteria, with a younger version of
Flare standing in the front

"Hey there bitches!" He yelled in an incredibly high pitched voice, "Firetail is here!"

Gear, unfortunately, was always pretty straight forward with everyone, be it mare, stallion, colt, filly, he had no problem stating whatever crossed his mind at the time, and at this point it was:

"My Celestia, your voice is like sandpaper to the ears you brat."

Everyone turned to look at him as if he had just insulted god him self, although how he acted made him seem more like the devil, Sun Springs had her mouth agape, before she turned to look at the table.

The unicorn, whom was apparently named Firetail, looked as if he was one the edge of popping Gears head off with his bare hooves.

"Excuse me?" The orange colt said, obviously angered, "but what did you just say?"

Gear raised a mock eyebrow as he prepared to retort. "So that's why you sound like a bat pony foal, you can't hear."

The unicorn was by now shaking with anger, his muscles had visibly tensed and foam started to fleck his lips.

"You filthy earth pony, do you even know who I am? I'm Firetail, son of Flare, the mayor, so you'd do well to pay me some respect." The goons around him nodded quickly, trying their best to please their leader.

"Look, it doesn't matter to me, you could be the son of Blueblood, and I still wouldn't give a shit. You're an arrogant brat, and right now you're offending a teacher. And if I've understood this correctly, I'm YOUR teacher, so if you truly wish not to fail my class, you will pay me some Lunda damned respect. Gears voice rose in a steady pace, he was getting more and more worked up because of this entitled little shit.

Suddenly a small smile crossed the unicorns lips, a gesture far removed from what Gear had thought would happen.

"Oh my, so you're a teacher huh? I have to ask you guys," he said, turning to his small army of goons, "has this filth gone through the initiation process?"

All the goons hastily shook their heads, anticipating what was to come.

"He hasn't?" He said with mock surprise, "my my, then we'll have to fix that, won't we?" He said, his smile growing into something similar to madness.

Two of the goons moved up next to him.

"Trix, sleeze, grab him!" He yelled at the goons standing by his sides

The two unicorns grabbed him by his shoulders, forcing him from the chair, Firetails horn started flaring, making the tip shine brightly.

"You ever got a burn mark because of magic teach?" Firetail said, his eyes now gleaming madly, "it's said that the pain never recedes."

The horn touched right on the sensitive skin between the shoulder and the chest, Gear was practically screaming his lungs off as the burning in his shoulder continued for a few agonising seconds. Once the pain stopped he was dropped limply to the floor. He looked up at the fiery unicorn, whose smiled had gone from madness to pure unbridled insanity.

"Never again, shall you disrespect me."

And then Gears world went black.


"Is he gonna be okay?"

Gear could hear voices, who was it?

"I'm not sure mi'lady, I've never seen the master in such a poor condition."

Was that jasper?

"He has to be alive, he needs to be."

Was that Sun?

The sunlight blinded him as his eyelids slit open, at first he thought he was still in the cafeteria, but the surface which he was lying on was much too soft to be linoleum.

His eyes finally adjusted to the intense light levels and he was greeted with the comforting sight of his own ceiling, he sighed lightly, knowing it must've been a bad dream.

Until a searing pain shot through his shoulder.

He looked first to his right, where the pain had initially come from. A black hole had covered his entire right shoulder, and it ached whenever he tried to move it.

But to his right sat Sun Springs.

Had she carried him here? Why did she help him? And in his current mindset the important question was: how did she get past jasper?

She had been looking at the floor, sobbing slightly when he first saw her, but apparently she caught the motion and she immediately looked at him.

Her eyes were swollen and red, there were marks of tears running down her cheeks, her mane was messy and uncoordinated, a stark contrast from her usual style. But her eyes at that point shun with glee only rivalled by a mother seeing her newborn foal for the first time.

"Thank Celestia you're okay." She said, lunging at him and hugging him tightly.

"Yaeow!" He yelped when she touched the burn mark, it didn't hurt nearly as much as he had expected, and he new why.

These were third grade burns.

He had gotten them countless times, as well as first and second grade burns. In first grade, your skin will turn red, like if you were in the sun for too long. In second grade, the skin would peel off, quite literally dying because of the intense heat. All of them hurt immensely.

Except grade three.

In grade three your flesh got burned away, searing nerve endings, making sure that whatever pain you felt upon getting the burn, would not harm you anymore. In truth the wound would never heal completely, it would continue to look like you got burned by an iron.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She said, jumping back and shaking when she realised what had happened, it took her a few seconds to get her breathing under control, but afterwards she seemed okay.

"Not your fault," Gear stammered. "Where's James?"

"I'm right here sir." The small robot dropping down from the ceiling, awaiting orders.

"Get me the salve for 3rd grade burns please." Gear said, the pain slowly starting to creep in again.

"Of course master." James said, mechanical voice sounding unnaturally neutral.

A mere second later a small bottle dropped onto the bed, it had a weird white liquid in it, and a mark on it saying 'burns'.

"Could you smear this onto the wound?" He said, holding the bottle up at her with a pleading look, "James did it last time when I was incapable, and it caused more harm than it fixed."

"Please do restrain from smothering my good reputation sir." Said the robot, now hidden above the ceiling, awaiting further orders.

"Of course," she said, her horn started to flare.

"Nononono." He said, waving his good leg at her with an almost terrified look in his eyes. "It has to be applied by hoof, it evaporates if it comes into contact with magic."

"Really?" She asked, looking suspiciously at the bottle. "That seems mighty contrived."

He sighed, dreading what he was about to say. "The person who sells the junk I make is INCREDIBLY anti-unicorn, he won't sell it if unicorns can use it. Don't ask me why, he's just a real dick." He said, finishing the explanation.

She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, "alright then, but if I found out it was some cruel scheme to get a beautiful mare to touch you, then I'm gonna kick your flank."

"Good to know," he said before biting his lower lip, knowing what was about to happen.

He started smearing on the liquid, and suddenly pulled her hoof away when Gear started screaming wildly.

"What is happening?" She said, almost screaming, "did I do something wrong?"

Once gear finally started screaming he was able to get her an answer. "No," he said through fast breaths, "it's a natural part of this."

"How can this be natural?" She said, her voice now as high pitched as Firetails.

"I removes the seared flesh and allows it to regenerate, the pain is caused because of the removal." He said, his breathing now finally under control.

"So, should I smear more of it on?" She said, her voice going from high pitched to questioning.

"If you'd like for me to lose my foreleg, then by all means keep going." He said, smiling tiredly at her.

"Master, continue the standard procedure?" Came the robotic voice of Jasper.

"Yes Jasper, please. Chamber fourteen should be all that's needed." He said, the liquid starting to recede, revealing a hole in his shoulder the size of Sun's hoof.

A metal pod came dropping down from the ceiling, it had pipes running along the edges, weird wires running from the ceiling and into it.

"Sun, I'm just going to request this, you don't have to do it if you don't want to." He said, being carefully lifted by Jasper and carried towards the pod.

"What is it Gear?" She said, looking at the pod with growing curiosity.

"I'm in need of someone to watch for me, when I come out I'm going to be in a seriously drowsy state. Normally I would call Samuel, but I don't know if he'll be available." Ending his request.

"What about Jasper?"

"Jasper has been known as many things, carful is not one of them." Gear was now in the pod, lying carefully on a soft mattress like surface.

"As I said previously master, please don't sully my good name." The robotic voice still carried no emotion, making it sound all the more weird.

Sun smiled at the currently crippled Gearhead, he was pretty far removed from his cocky and distracted self.

"Of course, I'll stay and watch."

"Great," he said as the door to the pod closed, "there's food in the cabinet and money in the bedside drawer." He wanted to say more, but he was muffled by the sound tight door of the pod.

A mask dropped down and landed in front of Gear, the same hand that had given him the pills earlier today came down and placed the mask on his face, allowing him to breathe.

Afterwards, the tank started filling with liquid similar to the first, although this one wasn't white, rather it was a deep purple colour. So deep in fact, that after a while Sun couldn't even see Gear.

"Sleep tight doc." She said, and patted the pod.

"See ya later."