Techorse Short Stories

by Spirals95

#44 - A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part II

Author's Note:

In this story:

Spanners Buildsbetter has managed to shame Techorse into leaving him to his work of improving Ponyville's homes. But Discord still has plans to help Techorse get back at the architect.

A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part II

Techorse Series: #44

By Spirals95

Spanners couldn't have done any better introducing himself to Ponyville. He had the townsponies wrapped around his hooves like putty after promising them valuable additions to their homes and public buildings, and as a bonus, had sent their scientist Techorse home with a humbling experience. With him out the way, there were not going to be any more questions as to his construction abilities, and he could build up his fame just like his father before him with simple feats of architecture that would easily sway Ponyville. Yet he had wasted much of the mid day goofing off and continuing to talk to the residents about his plans, and Applejack who had become his barely willing assistant for the next few days, was beginning to suspect something.

Currently they were relaxing at the Ponyville spa, nearly packed to the brim with customers who were continuing to follow the Buildsbetter son in hopes of free labor done on their properties. Aloe and Lotus sat Spanners down in a hot refreshing tub bubbling with therapeutic oils and pink rose petals that floated on the surface. The two spa mares rubbed his front legs with their hooves, preparing his limbs for his work ahead.

“Ah, that feels great,” he said to them, closing his eyes and leaning back, “make sure you get deep in the tissues there, need to be fully relaxed for later today.”

Applejack rolled her eyes at Lotus and her sister's giggles, although she believed they were happier about the money than getting to touch the stallion's only somewhat muscular limbs.

“Say, Spanners,” she said, walking up to the edge of the tub, “this is nice and all, but don't ya think ya ought to start work?”

“Applejack, don't rush Mr. Buildsbetter!” urged the Mayor, stepping up from her lawn chair, her face covered in light-blue acne preventative, “He is choosing to use our town's services.”

“I ain't rushing him!” stated Applejack, noticing how many distressed looks she was getting, as if her words would ruin their chances, “It's just that usually, building stuff involves getting up and doing something.”

“Relax AJ,” interrupted Spanners, waving a hoof, “I'm just getting what I paid for here, and then I promise we'll get to work. We'll go look at town hall and plan things out.”

The mayor nearly lost her leadership-based composure and could be heard faintly squeeing at the idea of having her office upgraded.

But Applejack wouldn't have it, “Look mister, only my friends can call me that!”

“And by the time we're done here, we'll be friends. Maybe even more,” he answered, winking at her while swishing his hoof through the hot water.

Applejack felt her orange coat crawl at the possible implication and said, “Anyways, Ah've had enough here. I'm going to go start piling up some wood for you, Spanners. See ya outside.”

The disgruntled mare left the other ponies in the spa to fawn over Spanners and his “greatness”, which made him shake his head.

“Oh ignore Applejack,” said Lotus.

“Yes, don't let her bug you. She doesn't trust famous or successful ponies very much,” added Aloe.

“Well she's a hard worker,” Spanners laughed, knowing they were making things up to try and please him, “and I'm going to have to prove my worth, clearly. Make daddy proud!”

Shadow Breeze snuck into the building after dodging Applejack, carefully closing the door behind him with his wing. Since there were a dozen or so spa patrons paying attention to Spanners and only Spanners, he was easily able to get past the front desk without ordering a spa treatment. He found the stallion and sat down on a comfy red throw pillow near the edge of the pool.

“Spanners?” he asked.

“Hey, what's up?”

The pegasus beat back his fear of other figuring out what he was up to and said quietly, “I've been wondering, it's going to take some time for you to build stuff here in Ponyville. Do you have a place to stay?”

“Everything's taken care of buddy, thanks,” answered the haughty earth pony, “got myself a free stay in a room by Upkeep, that apartment owner down the road.”

“Oh, well, cool,” said Shadow Breeze softly, trying to extend the conversation, “I live there too. So do you do any landscaping, I have a good hoof with plants.”

“Pffft, you good with plants?” snickered Spanners, “Please.”

“But it's true!” protested the pegasus, “If you take a look at them, maybe you'd change your mind.”

Spanners wasn't aware Techorse and Shadow Breeze were close friends, and decided it would be a good idea to add a plant-savvy pony to his team.

“Well all right, I'll give you a chance... uh...”

The pegasus finished for him, “Shadow. Shadow Breeze.”

Spanners couldn't believe his luck in roping in folks,“Ok Shadow Breeze, just give me a moment here and we'll go see those sprouts of yours. I'll meet you back at the apartments.”

“Sounds great, see you there!” answered the graphite colored pegasus, standing up and heading for the door while wiping a droplet of sweat from his blue striped hair.

Shadow knew he had just used his skills as a diplomat to manipulate Spanners into giving up the location of where he was staying. It didn't feel very good inside, but it sure felt better than having Discord turn him into his next source of entertainment! He left the spa to go report his finding to the draconequus. The pegasus spread his wings and took off into the skies of Ponyville to the rendezvous point he had agreed to.

---

Shadow Breeze reached the large empty field on the east side of town, and saw from the skies that the Lord of Chaos was busy fiddling with what appeared to be a stack of red cloth, folded over several times. His new pegasus lackey was rather confused by the appearance of the ordinary fabric, and really wasn't sure why he was messing with it out in the open with nothing in sight, but decided not to ask about it and instead just give his report.

“Discord, I've got some news,” he said, landing next to him and folding his wings at his side.

“Just one moment Shadow, I'm about to unveil the centerpiece of our little event today!” he chuckled, grabbing a hold of the top segment of the red cloth with his mismatched arms.

Discord flicked his wrists, and the stack of red cloth extended out, forming a huge tarp that covered the size of a field, blotting out the sun for poor Shadow Breeze and blowing air across the grass for several meters. The cloth came to a natural rest over something that obviously was not there, a large shape of some kind was now holding up the cloth where there was previously nothing. After a few moments, Discord smiled and yanked the cloth away, which returned to the size of a small handkerchief. In the place of the cloth was a modest yet interesting stadium. Two sets of bleachers two stories high flanked a dirt and clay arena floor, with high stone walls connecting the bleachers into an arena, and a set of iron gates that opened up to allow guests to enter.

“Woah!” gasped Shadow Breeze, nearly falling over, “Discord, didn't you just decide today to help Techorse? Where'd you find the time to make this?”

“Oh I've always had this lying around for just such an occasion,” mused the chaotic being, wiggling his fingers, “I used to use this for my own amusement back in the day...”

“You mean when you tortured folks with chaos for fun? You put them in an arena and exposed them to chaos?” cried Shadow Breeze, his pupils growing large.

Discord shot him a nasty look, which made Shadow's ears droop out of fear.

“H..hey, I didn't mean it that way,” he said nervously, “I just...”

“Didn't you mean to tell me something about Spanners?” muttered Discord, clearly no longer in a cheerful mood, “Stay focused, Shadow.”

“Y..yes I did,” answered the pegasus, nearly about to scream, “Spanners is living in my apartment complex. Probably the empty one across from mine.”

Discord smiled, and flicked the red handkerchief again, this time a piece of paper ejected from behind the cloth, and Shadow Breeze caught it with his right wing, curling the paper at his side like he would his morning newspaper.

“Excellent!” beamed Discord, returning to a more positive attitude, “Oh you are good at being diplomatic. I'll go have a look for some clues as to how we can help Techorse take care of his... rival.”

“Ok, now what's this paper for?” asked Shadow Breeze.

He chuckled menacingly and tugged at his goatee with his free hand, “You see, since I was able to get the arena here on such short notice, four o'clock will be too long too wait like I originally planned for. You'll need to get Techorse to challenge Spanners to this competition using those instructions. If it goes according to plan, everypony will be there to watch Spanners take a fall.”

“Everypony?” asked Shadow bluntly.

Discord nodded and gave a toothy grin in anticipation of the blow to Spanners, “Everypony!”

Shadow Breeze nodded in subtle agreement, and then spread his wings, flying away for Techorse's home.

Once the pegasus had flown off into the distance to carry out his instructions, Discord snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of seam of purple energy that carried him through space instantly for the apartment complex. He reappeared next to the set of buildings, a ground floor row of homes styled after Ponyville's cottages, each with two rooms.

“Now, which one of these lovely one bedroom, one bath homes belongs to our beloved Spanners?” asked the draconequus to himself, as if he didn't already know the answer.

One of the apartments clearly had streamers of various colors strung up over the frame, and balloons weighed down by a small rock. It was if as Pinkie Pie had visited and worked her ways on the humble apartment. A large purple wicker gift basket with a pink bow sat by the door, filled to the brim with candy, soaps, and other things made by the residents of Ponyville.

“So easy!” laughed Discord, “Techorse's rival is so full of himself he leaves himself wide open for some trouble. Just need to invite myself in.”

Discord walked up to the plain wooden door of the home and chuckled, pushing the door open vertically as if it were a pet door. The structure slammed behind him as he dropped it, swatting him on the tail. He jumped a bit in surprise at the smack, and grabbed his appendage, rubbing it.

“Ah! Should of thought of that,” he said, rubbing his sore red tail with his lion paw, “no matter! Time to rake up some muck.”

He searched the apartment, which was strangely full as its occupant had not even been there for a full day. It was highly likely that Upkeep had given Spanners the demonstration room used to show new tenants what their new home could look like. The stallion's personal belongings were scattered about the living room, and Discord nearly cringed at how much of a slob the architect was, as well as how many additional gift baskets were piled up on the couch.

After a thorough hunt through the living room without finding anything he could use to give Techorse an edge over Spanners, Discord went through a doorway in the back of the living room and entered the bedroom area. Besides the bed which was neatly turned down with fresh white sheets, Discord noticed Spanner's tool belt hanging off the side of a writing desk in the corner, near the large curtained window that let light into the room. It was a simple desk, but featured a large mirror framed in ornate carved wood, likely to double as a vanity. He slithered over to the desk, and found a small black book with a carpentry pencil next to it.

The draconequus picked up the personal item, only a few inches across, and opened it up, “Ah, what's this?”

Discord spawned a pair of reading glasses and set them on his face before starting to flip through the pages. He immediately realized what the book was, and laughed as he desummoned the reading glasses and shut the pages closed.

“Ha! Looks like Spanners Buildsbetter keeps a diary like a schoolmare! Why this alone would be enough to shame him into leaving Techorse alone. But why stop there?”

“What are you doing, mister?” said Fluttershy's voice sternly.

Discord looked into the mirror and saw that Fluttershy was clearly in it instead of his own reflection.

“Do you think I'm happy with you reading somepony's diary?” she asked, still quite mad.

The draconequus's conscience had finally kicked in, despite all the plotting and planning. Now his own chaos was making him stop and consider his actions.

“But Fluttershy!” protested Discord, putting a hand over his heart somewhere in his midsection, “I'm only doing this to help Techorse as my project! I would never think of violating another's most intimate secrets unless it was helpful. I'm trying to use chaos to help Techorse, and this is the only way.”

“Oh,” said Mirrorshy, looking down at the diary, “well, it's not an easy choice is it? It's wrong to read the diary, and it's wrong to let Techorse down.”

“So I must read it!” he sighed, looking the projection in its light blue eyes, “Besides, it's all right. Spanners was rather unkind to Techorse! He deserves to be knocked down a few pegs after he told him he wasn't a real earth pony!”

The Fluttershy image gasped and said, “Well, you let that meanie have it! Go ahead and read that diary, and make him pay!”

She stopped for a moment, eyes wide, and said, “Um, Discord, I don't think the real Fluttershy would say that...”

Discord answered sadly, “I... know she wouldn't. But she'll be hurt when she sees Techorse depressed, and I have a duty to her friends!”

“I hope you'll do the right thing,” sighed the apparition, smiling as it faded away.

He picked up the book decisively and said, “I am doing the right thing! I must do this for Techorse. Of course, there's no time to read all of this, so...”

Discord quickly flicked the book into his mouth and gave it a good chew before swallowing the mass. After literally digesting the information for a few moments, he wretched over as if sick, grabbing his mouth and puffing out his cheeks before regurgitating the book good as new and mess free on the table. He gasped for air, and coughed so violently his antlers fell off, which he quickly picked up and re-attached to his head.

“Goodness, what a history!” he said, gagging and clutching his gray throat.

Once he was done recovering from the disgusting information, he then laughed heartily, “But I learned exactly what I needed from that one entry he wrote before he came here, his darkest secret! I can use that to finally wreak total chaos on Spanner's life!”

Discord left the apartment just as he had found it, and got a running start before grabbing his own legs and rolling into a tire shape, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he headed back for his arena. Things were about to get very ugly for Spanners now that the Lord of Chaos had decided to ignore his very recently discovered good side.

---

Spanners was still being followed by a large crowd as he walked his way back down the main roads of Ponyville, confidently strutting with poor Applejack at his side, who was hauling several planks of wood on her back. She was looking at the ground, a cross look on her face over how she was having to do all of his work for him, and the fact that there was no chance he was really going to start much of any work on Ponyville's properties. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had finally taken notice of the events in town that day, and had brought Fluttershy with them to help Applejack carry more hardware supplies.

“Once we get to town hall, we'll start work on the interior,” he said, turning around and backpedaling in front of the crowd, “what would be the best thing for it?”

The mayor spoke up joyfully, “We need new shelves for the tax paperwork, and I could use a brand new office!”

“Absolutely, I'll just need to see the place,” he said, “I'll also need some blueprint paper too, and a white marker.”

Applejack couldn't take him anymore, and dropped the wood on the ground in front of her, startling the crowd, “Would ya just admit you're stalling?”

“Stalling? I'm not stalling!”

Applejack poked him in the chest with a hoof, “Yes, ya are! You're talkin' all this talk about buildin' up our homes, but it's already three in the afternoon and you haven't hammered a nail yet!”

“Applejack is clearly tired from carrying the wood, maybe it's my turn to do so,” laughed the mayor nervously as she went to pick up a piece.

Rainbow Dash dived down, her saddlebags loaded with washers and nuts for construction, and landed in front of the mayor, shaking her head. The gray-maned mare took a step back, knowing she wasn't going to convince Spanners to keep going.

“Oh, no, she's right,” sighed Spanners, running a hoof through his mane and shaking his head, “I've overworked poor Applejack without doing anything myself. Let's go straight to town hall and get started.”

Now Applejack was thoroughly confused. Why would Spanners suddenly change his behavior when before he was perfectly content to make her haul all the hardware? Her question was answered in a manner that nearly made her sick to her stomach.

“Maybe I can make it up to you by getting you a nice haysteak dinner after work?”

“Oh, my...” said Fluttershy, nearly blushing.

“Awww!” came a few voices from the crowd, making Applejack give them all a nasty look back.

“Spanners, can ya be professional?” she said plainly, “I ain't interested.”

He was thoroughly confused, surely no one could turn him down,“But... I thought, with us being hard working earth ponies and all...”

Applejack rolled her eyes, “Ahm havin' trouble tolerating ya after how you treated Techie, honestly. It isn't so much your attitude or your style of work, it's that. You really hurt the poor fella's feelings, and it's awful hard to forgive you for it.”

“Yeah,” butted in Rainbow Dash, flying in front of Spanners and pushing a hoof into his muzzle, “the only reason we're helping your sorry tail is because it's going to help Ponyville. We don't care about you!”

“Rainbow Dash, please!” said Applejack, pushing her aside, “Spanners, you gotta do your thing and go.”

“Yeah! I thought you'd be more fun, but not only did you hurt Techie, you turned down my great idea of building a new party house in town!” agreed Pinkie Pie.

Spanners stood there, looking at the mares in front of him, and the nervous crowd behind them. They were all worried he wasn't going to help raise the values of their properties, and he could easily shut down Twilight's friends by getting the crowd to make them take a back seat.

“Well, I guess you're right. If you think I was unfair to Techorse and you think I'm a big jerk, I'll just go choose another town to start in,” he said, turning around and flicking his tail.

“I'll help you pack,” said Techorse, entering the scene from the other side of the street.

Spanners opened his eyes, and saw the inventor standing in the middle of the road, just as he was. It was the two of them in front of the crowd, just four feet in front of each other. Pinkie Pie seized the opportunity to take out a ball of twine from her share of the construction materials, and rolled it between the stallions for dramatic effect. It bounced past them, and stopped on the other side of the road where she collected it again.

“Well, Techorse, back for more?” Spanners laughed, ignoring Pinkie's antics, “I thought you'd given up on trying to help out.”

Shadow Breeze, now wearing his shadow amulet around his neck, landed next to Fluttershy. He was waiting for Techorse to carry out Discord's instructions. PAL had gone to retrieve Spike from the library, and was spotted walking through an alleyway until he reached Twilight's friends and stopped. Techorse's battle saddle was now firmly attached to his back, and the girls watched as the doors opened.

“I'm not here to try and help you anymore, Spanners,” warned Techorse, “I'm here to ask you to leave. All you've done is insult me, take advantage of Ponyville and my friends, and now I just overheard you hit on Applejack. You're not welcome here anymore.”

Twilight and Rarity reached the scene, and saw Techorse about to prepare to do something with his saddle to Spanners.

“I hope we're not too late!” gasped Rarity, “we should act now before they get hurt!”

Twilight knew her coltfriend wouldn't try and hurt Spanners, so she was curious as to where he was going with open saddle doors, “I think Tech's got this Rarity. Let's check in with the others.”

The two blended into their team in front of the mob of residents, looking on in curiosity of the two stallions who were staring each other down.

Spanners shook his head, “I'm not leaving, and I'm not going to ask again. Stay out of this science boy, let the real earth ponies handle this!”

“Still don't think I'm a real earth pony, huh?” asked Techorse, a mix of anger and righteousness on his face.

His robotic arms extended out of his saddle, and the left hand of the manipulator set was clearly wearing a white leather glove. The inventor pulled off the glove with his right robotic hand, the metal jointed fingers removing the leather in one motion.

“Then I'll prove it to you in a building duel!”

Techorse threw the leather glove, which sailed straight into Spanner's smug face with a loud smack. The crowd gasped, and Rarity fainted dramatically, prompting rescue by Pinkie Pie.

The glove slowly peeled off of Spanner's face, who was clearly shocked.

“A duel?!” said Rarity, recovering from her swoon, “But... that's dangerous!”

Shadow Breeze stepped forward, and his amulet activated, projecting the image of two pony shadows into the air.

He said to the crowd, “Techorse has challenged Spanners Buildsbetter to a nonviolent duel in which they will compete to build three different items.”
As the amulet continued to project shadows, they changed into an image of a light bulb, a wrench, and a cart, “Each round will be about a different category and will have a related item to build. The categories will be creativity, mechanical inclination, and practicality!”

The shadow wisps rearranged themselves, forming a group of ponies raising their hooves in a stand. Shadow Breeze went on to explain the rest of the rules of the contest as Discord had described to him.

“After giving them just fifteen minutes to build each item, each round will be judged by votes from the crowd, and the first to win two rounds will be the winner of the duel!”

Shadow Breeze deactivated his amulet, and the shadow imagery disappeared back into the ruby gem in the centerpiece. The crowd was still talking amongst themselves about the contest.

“Sounds good, but what's the catch?” laughed Spanners, “Are you booting me out of town if I lose?”

“Honestly I don't care if you want to help Ponyville or not,” answered Techorse, “you're welcome to stay anytime you're willing to apologize.”

“To you?” snorted the architect.

“And to my friends, especially Applejack.”

“Well fine, if you win, I'll take back what I said. It's going to be something if you can actually pull it off anyways,” he answered haughtily, “all right Techorse, I accept your challenge! Just let me grab my tool belt.”

“After you grab your belt, we'll go to the arena we built outside of town for this!” suggested Shadow Breeze, pointing off into the distance where the residents of Ponyville could see it.

“Wait a minute, how did that get there?” wondered Twilight Sparkle aloud, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that wasn't there before!” said Pinkie Pie, “But it sure looks cool! Let's go everypony!”

The crowd agreed and started to head for the stadium like structure built on the outskirts of town, and Techorse and Spanners followed them, not leaving eye contact for a second.

“Something's up girls,” said Twilight.

“What do ya mean, Twilight?” asked Applejack curiously.

Once most of the other ponies had left, leaving only Twilight and her friends along with Spike and PAL, she continued, “That arena just showed up today, and Techorse just acted strangely. Shadow Breeze clearly rehearsed that set of rules he just went over, and then says 'we' built that arena. Who's 'we'?”

“Yeah, good point, who takes on a project like that so quickly? Although I gotta say, it's a pretty neat stadium, great place for some sports!” admitted Rainbow Dash, flying up a little to get a better look at the building.

Rarity agreed, “Sure is a strange project.”

At the word 'project', it dawned on Fluttershy what was going on, and her eyes widened. Her ears sank back, and she lowered her head so her mane almost dragged on the ground as she tried to slink away.

“Um, miss Fluttershy,” said PAL, noticing the mare trying to escape, “I've detected some guilty behavior on your part. You wouldn't happen to know the reason why master is behaving so strangely, would you?”

Fluttershy turned around slowly, somewhat embarrassed, “Well, I may have made a teensy little mistake today when talking to a very special friend of ours. See, our special friend, who's very good at heart, wanted advice on how to do good things for Equestria. So I said he should take on a project to help somepony else.”

“All right, and who was that?” asked Spike.

Fluttershy whispered to pointlessly avoid being heard, “Discord.”

PAL put a robotic hand over his metal face, “Oh no...”

“You're not all mad at me, are you?” gulped Fluttershy, reeling back a bit.

“No, of course not,” said Twilight, giving her friend a patient smile, “Fluttershy, if Discord is behind this, he probably took what you said and ran off with it.”

Rarity agreed, “He knows you meant something simple, but when's the last time Discord did anything simple? He probably believes setting up this bizarre challenge is helping the situation.”

“And if Discord is running this show, you can bet there's gonna be shenanigans!” said Applejack, “We gotta get to that arena and stop this before it starts.”

“Right!” said Twilight, “Hang on, I'll get us there quickly!”

Her horn glowed furiously for a few moments, and the friends all vanished in a teleportation spell, except for Spike and PAL, who were left standing there indignant at being left behind.

“Gee thanks Twilight,” groaned Spike, crossing his arms, “Now we have to walk.”

PAL laughed, and reached down with his metal arm, “We're not going to walk Spike, get up on my back!”

The young dragon climbed up onto the robot's shoulders, and his jet boots activated, lifting them into the air rocket style and leaving quite the vapor trail in Ponyville's square.

---

Discord was watching his stadium begin to fill with Ponyville's residents as he stood in the organ room, a large box overhanging the left bleachers. The ponies were filing into the available seats, filling up the arena quickly. All that was necessary to get the event started was someone to play the stadium organ, and Discord had an idea as to who he wanted to fill in that spot.

He turned around to face his hired entertainer, “Thank you for coming on such short notice, Flaming Ivory.”

“No worries Discord! You told me Techorse needs help, so I'm in!” he answered, walking up to the console, “Just give me a moment to get used to this setup, I'm mostly a piano kind of stallion.”

“Take your time, but just make sure the crowd enjoys the musical interludes and doesn't notice I've rigged this little event,” he said.

Flaming Ivory turned back to him and frowned, “Wait a minute, you told me Techorse was competing against some other builder. We're helping him cheat?”

“We're not directly cheating, nor is Techorse. I've just selected the challenges ahead of time so he is sure to win,” assured Discord, thinking what he was doing didn't count.

But the musician wasn't entirely convinced, and became a bit irritated, “Hey man, I'm not being any part of this. Not worth the pay to be part of some scheme, I can get a gig elsewhere.”

Discord became furious and grabbed Flaming Ivory by his fluffy black and white striped tail.

“Listen skunk boy,” he said, furious at him, “Techorse is down there, having been bullied by that brat Spanners. If you don't take this job, I'll let him know you refused to take his side. You don't want to lose your new friend do you?”

Flaming wasn't really worried Techorse would not want to be friends anymore, but was very much afraid of what Discord was going to do to him given his magical power, and reluctantly agreed to play organ music for the event. The draconequus set him down gently at the seat in front of the organ, and Flaming Ivory took out his sunglasses and placed them over his eyes to block the afternoon sun. He looked down at Techorse and Spanners below him, each with a massive long table of parts behind them, and frowned as he activated the instrument by flipping a switch near the base.

---

A pompous and jazzy song began to play as Discord teleported himself into the middle of the arena, where Spanners and Techorse were standing just a foot in front of the other. He was now wearing a referee's striped shirt and black pants, and a black softcap to match. After smiling at Techorse and winking, Discord pulled down a microphone from the air with seemingly no place for it to be attached.

“Greetings, ladies and gentlecolts!” he said, raising a hand to the crowd, “Are you ready for the engineering duel of the century?”

Several of the ponies in the crowd were startled to see that Discord was running the event, and many were scared. But after a few moments, they agreed to set aside their worries to try and enjoy the “friendly” competition, and cheered. Discord also spotted Steiner up in the bleachers, a box of sodas hanging off of his front that he was trying to sell to the crowd, and waved at the unicorn. He waved back with a grin on his face, thanking him for his business opportunity.

Twilight and her friends had found some seats near the front of the left bleacher, getting as close to the action as possible. PAL landed a little too hard on the bench when he descended with Spike, sending Pinkie Pie, who was standing over the edge of the wall between them and the bench flying into the air. Rainbow Dash moved over quickly and caught her friend, who giggled at the event.

“Wheeeee!” she squealed, “Thanks PAL! I went like, ten feet in the air!”

“Apologies miss Pie,” grunted the machine, taking a seat on the bench, “catapulting you isn't what I intended.”

Pinkie Pie took her seat next to Rainbow Dash and ignored the apology, “Aw don't worry, it was fun!”

“Guys, pay attention, Discord's about to start the match,” urged Rainbow Dash, pointing down below.

Discord shouted into his microphone, “Today we have a great match of the makers, a battle of the builders, a clash of the constructors!”

“Get on with it!” catcalled Spike, which was rewarded with a nasty look from Twilight.

The referee's face twitched at Spike's comment, but he cleared his throat and continued, “Today's champions, Techorse and Spanners Buildsbetter, will compete to see who really is the better builder!'

He then released the microphone, which flew into the air out of existence, and crouched, massaging Techorse and Spanner's necks with his hands.

“Now I want a good clean build-off you two, no copying designs, no hotwiring, and no hitting below the tool belt.”

“Right!” agreed the stallions.

“In that case, Derpy Hooves will tell you what you're building, and at the bell, you have fifteen minutes to build the item in question!” he said, stepping back, “Derpy, tell them what they're making!”

Derpy Hooves was sitting in a small standalone podium near the organ house, and said into a small stand mic, “Your first challenge is to build a water fountain!”

Techorse and Spanners heard the challenge and began to plan out in their heads what they were going to do to win the round. Meanwhile, Discord quickly took his place at the sidelines behind a small stand where another microphone was waiting for him. A tan button nearby was connected to a brass bell and hammer ringer.

He lifted his lion fist up in the air and said into the mic, “It's showtime!”

Slamming the button, the bell rang, and Techorse and Spanners dove to their respective parts tables, the crowd going nuts. Techorse started to search the piles of loose parts and scrap for something he could use as a pump, while Spanners immediately looked for piping and some wires. Stone blocks were already provided for the two, and Spanners quickly jumped in front of them and kicked at them with his front hooves, a few chunks flying off of the marble bricks.

The robotic arms came out of Techorse's saddle wielding a blowtorch, and the inventor began to solder mechanical parts together as he pieced the pump system into place. He wasn't paying attention to Spanners' work at all, only focusing on the schematic he had in his head for the most technologically advanced water fountain he was going to build, if that idea even held any weight.

Fifteen minutes came and went, with the stallions making the final touches on their projects. Discord rang the bell to signal the end of the round. This caused Techorse to step back and admire the piece he had put together. It was a simple fountain with a large rounded basin, and a pyramid-shaped centerpiece with a central pipe that shot water in the air and let it run down the smooth sides.

“Heh, nice,” goaded Spanners, “might look good in a hotel. But check this out.”

Techorse looked up at Spanner's fountain and his mouth fell open slightly. The stallion had carved his stone into a three-tier system, despite the lack of detail in the stone due to time constraints, the water had been pumped through fiber optic cabled pipes, so that the water changed color with each passing second. In addition, a ring of inward-facing jets created a roar over Techorse's subtle fountain.

Discord almost gasped at the sight of Spanners' fountain piece. He had been sure Spanners would have lost that round since he wasn't good at mechanical engineering. The ponies in the stadium were already voting on the results, and Discord knew what was going to happen as Derpy Hooves tallied the votes.

“Spanners wins round one!”

She hit a button with her left wing, and a red light lit up on a scoreboard above her. With two lights to light up, Spanners only needed to win the next round to defeat Techorse.

“Oh no,” moaned Twilight, “Techorse has never been that good with pipes.”

“It's just the bad luck of the challenge chosen,” said Shadow Breeze, “Discord was randomly picking them.”

“Are you sure?” questioned Applejack, “I still reckon Discord's up to something here!”

“Oh, he's not,” lied Shadow Breeze, still hoping Discord would leave him alone after this.

“Let's give him a chance before we go after him,” said Rainbow Dash, “since Techie lost a round, Discord's not obviously cheating. I wanna be sure before we kick his tail!”

Flaming Ivory groaned at the loss of the first round, and switched to an interlude piece as the fountains were dragged away. Discord drummed his fingers nervously on his judge's table, guilty about what he was going to do, but knowing it would be necessary to help Techorse.

“Derpy, please tell our contestants what the next challenge is!”

Derpy Hooves nodded and announced, “Your next item to build is a solar cooker!”

Relief spread on Discord's face when he saw Spanners give a disgusted look to Derpy Hooves.

“He has no idea what that is! Perfect!” he thought with glee as he mashed the starting bell.

Techorse and Spanners went back at it, with Techorse knowing right away what to do. He assembled several panels of black reflective tile into a bowl shape, and stuck a large metal needle he salvaged from the scrap pile. Looking for just the right part, Techorse located a small motor salvaged from a blender, and connected it and its button to the needle while soldering it in place.

Poor Spanners had no idea what to do, reaching into his belt to find a wrench, he tried to go with something that resembled a backyard grill, but didn't understand how he was supposed to use the sun to make it work. He figure he had to somehow reflect the light, but wasn't able to arrange the components like Techorse could to build the solar cooker.

When the bell rang, Techorse showed his invention to the crowd. The dish-shaped device was fully stacked with marshmallows now, slowing rotation and browning as the black reflective material bounced the sun's rays on to the puffy candy, cooking it to a brown crispy perfection. Spanner's machine, or more accurately a cobbled trough of pieces and parts, couldn't even get the marshmallows warm. As was to be expected, the crowd voted heavily in favor of Techorse, and Derpy Hooves lit up a green light for Ponyville's inventor.

“Well that's one apiece, Spanners,” said Techorse, “next round decides this. If you just apologize now, we can end this on a friendly note, I promise.”

“A friendly note? Techorse, I don't want to be friends,” he answered, “I'm trying to get you out of the way so I can make my own fame like my dad did, there isn't room for two famous engineers.”

“I'm just trying to prove to you it doesn't have to be that way by winning this,” he answered, ears dropping rapidly.

“You got lucky,” answered the haughty builder, his orange eyes glaring back, “you're still not the earth pony you think you are.”

Techorse began to look miserable again, and Twilight spotted this, knowing he was trying to throw him off so he could have an easier time winning in the last round. Twilight wasn't going to let that happen, and decided to take action.

“Hey!” shouted Twilight angrily, “Spanners! That's enough about Techorse not being a 'real earth pony'!”

Twilight and her friends jumped over the barricade and ran out onto the field, nearly prompting Discord to stop them, but he decided to allow them to approach.

“We'll take a short time out here!” said Discord happily, ringing the bell once.

“Spanners, Techorse is a real earth pony,” said Twilight sternly, “I can prove it.”

“Oh yeah? And what connection to the earth does this loser have?” he laughed.

Rarity's horn glowed light blue, and the magnetic stone came out, attached to the iron piece.

“This!” said Twilight, pointing to the stone.

“A rock and a piece of scrap metal?” snickered Spanners.

“And where does metal come from?” asked Rarity in a snooty tone.

“The.. the ground,” stammered Spanners.

“Uh oh...” he thought, wincing.

“That's right, every piece of metal comes from the earth below us,” lectured Twilight, stamping her hoof on the ground, “Techorse's magical connection to Equestria's land is his ability to build machines out of the metal and materials in the crust. When we met, he told me that magic is based in our thoughts and feelings expressed as action in the outside world, and while that's a popular theory in higher magic schools, I think this goes beyond that.”

Techorse's composure improved, and he looked up at Twilight, he gave him a loving look back. He understood now that he did have a special connection to the ground like other earth ponies, and even though it had nothing to do with plants or trees, his connection was still meaningful. A warm feeling filled him on the inside, and he smiled gently, returning Twilight's affectionate look.

Spanners realized he was about to lose his greatest weapon against Techorse, “B.. but, yeah, it's true all ponies have magical connections because we all have hopes, dreams, and thoughts but..”

“But you're saying Techorse's dreams aren't as meaningful as yours, that yours are better,” finished Twilight, “and that means you're using your magic for selfish gain.”

Spanners looked at all the mares, the robot, the dragon, and the one stallion pegasus staring at him with stern faces and cold eyes.

“I... I...” he stammered, mouth nearly agape.

“Spanners, we should call this off,” said Techorse, fully calm, “or maybe we can finish it and part on good terms. I know I'm a real earth pony now, and I'm willing to let you have the spotlight and make Ponyville's homes cool places to live! You can still be just like your dad.”

It was a good offer, but Spanners' heart filled with anger and frustration. Techorse was still a competitor, and he wanted to stop him.

“Techorse, we're finishing this, and I'm going to prove your talent means nothing,” he answered, hanging his head.

Techorse didn't understand, and frowned, “All right. Let's do this.”

“But Techorse!” said Rarity.

“Rarity, we can't reach him, thank you so much for trying girls. Now let's finish this Spanners, Ponyville's watching here.”

The group took their seats again in the bleachers, and Discord stroked his goatee, saying to himself, “Spanners is totally unrepentant. Time to deal the finishing blow.”

Turning to the microphone, he declared, “The final round is about to begin! Derpy, tell them what they're building!”

Derpy opened the final envelope on her table, clearly having been planted there by Discord, and read,

“The final challenge is to build a small single-room house!”

Spanners was visibly seen to have gone pale, along with Techorse at the same time.

“Oh no...” Techorse stated in horror, “that's his thing.”

But Discord smiled and laughed to himself, looking at Spanner's reaction to the announcement. If it hadn't been for Techorse's equal amount of shock, the ruse would have been totally uncovered.

“And... go!” shouted Discord, hitting the bell for the last time.

The two stallions rushed to their stations, knocking over everything and getting at as much lumber as they possibly could. They furiously attempted to build their tiny homes, only needing a room, a door, some windows, and a roof to win. Nails were hammered in, bolts were tightened, and shingles were flying all over the place as they struggled to complete the task. A small eternity seemed to pass before the final bell rang, telling the stallions to drop what they were doing.

When the inventive dust had settled, Techorse was left with a birdhouse. It was a rather large birdhouse with a slanted roof, and lots of trimmings and shutters that normal birdhouses wouldn't get, but it didn't quite meet the requirements of the challenge. Techorse was good at making machines and devices, but building any kind of a structure was not his forte, as evidenced by the fact that his “castle” was a mostly boxy stone fort.

Spanners had appeared to have won, having four walls, a nice tall roof with a brick chimney, and a few windows, along with a cute pink door on the front.

“I... I did it!” he said, laughing, “I..”

No sooner did he pat himself on the back did a few panels come loose on the roof, and the entire home collapsed in on itself with a sickening crunch. He had failed to provide any kind of planning on the structural integrity of the tiny home, causing its roof to implode and smash the rest of the house to splinters. Panic struck his heart, and he quickly looked around at all of the ponies in the crowd, who were gasping and whispering to each other.

Discord's wicked grin spread across his face, “Perfect. Start the voting.”

Techorse looked at Discord's face, and then back to Spanners. It dawned on him why Spanners had offered only to make improvements on Ponyville and not build new houses like his father.

He said slowly with a dumb look on his face, “Spanners' special talent isn't building houses. His cutie mark must mean something else. That's why he wouldn't build any new homes.”

Techorse looked around in the arena, sweat running down his face. All along he wanted to help Spanners improve himself and possibly change him from being such a pain, but now he was about to lose that chance. He saw the ponies talking to each other, getting a bit angry, and talking about a certain individual “being a fake” and how “he never meant to help us”. Techorse knew that Ponyville expected Spanners to have the same skill set his father had after how much he had bragged. It was true to the green stallion that his rival did have some kind of talent for improving existing homes, and Techorse didn't want him to lose or ruin his family's reputation.

The inventor thought, “If I don't do something quick, everypony is going to think Spanners is a fraud.”

Acting quickly, he turned to Discord and declared loudly, “I CONCEDE!”

Discord rolled his eyes, “But Techorse, it's too late, the votes are already being tallied.”

“My house isn't even a real house, just a birdhouse!” he protested in a panic, “Come on Discord, give Spanners the last point! Don't humiliate him, please!”

“Is this not what you're here for?” snickered the draconequus, “You asked me to help you stand up to Spanners, and I did, with a little chaos. Sure you didn't cheat, but I couldn't risk you losing, so I found out about Spanners being unable to build homes and forced building a house to be the last challenge!”

Discord noticed that not only did his voice sound a little bit louder than usual, the crowd had also gone entirely silent, and Flaming Ivory had stopped playing with a sharp, sour chord. It was then that he realized he had put his elbow on the button for the microphone, and broadcasted what he had done to all of Ponyville. The color literally drained from Discord, turning him into a white figure with black stenciled outlines, and his referee uniform vanished.

He squeaked meekly, “Oops!”

Fluttershy left the stands, and flapped her wings, her front legs crossed over as she went down and hovered in front of Discord, who was shaking like a leaf.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself, mister?” she asked like an angry mommy of four.

“I... um, took Techorse on as my project, he was being bullied by Spanners and I wanted to help!” he cried, trying to avoid Fluttershy's “wrath”.

“And you thought causing chaos for poor Spanners was the answer?” she asked, hooves still crossed, “Discord, I'm disappointed in you. Instead of making Techorse do things your way, you should have put yourself in Techorse's horseshoes and tried to help him feel better.”

Discord, still colorless, replied, “I'm sorry!”

“Well, I'm not the one you need to apologize to!”

He swallowed hard, his color replacing itself on his body, and walked out into the center of the arena, resummoning the microphone.

“I.. I did rig this contest so that Techorse would win. I'm sorry Ponyville,” he said.

“Spanners still can't build a house like his dad!” shouted somepony in the crowd, “He's still to blame for all this.”

Spanners realized the spectators were still very much out to get him, and angry eyes looked down on him. He looked around quickly, his heart racing, and spotted the brass exit gate, which he took off for in a hurry.

“Spanners, wait!” cried Techorse, taking off after him on hoof.

The builder, his tool belt slapping his sides, reached the gates with Techorse on his heels, and with a quick action, drew out a carpentry hammer and tossed it at the top of the gate with his teeth. The hammer struck the hinges, and the gate collapsed, sending up a cloud of sand and dust, which stopped Techorse in a fit of coughing of trying to get the sand out of his eyes. When it was over, Spanners had left, leaving behind the hammer on the ground. Techorse's saddle opened up, and he reached down to pick it up with his robotic arms. It was a fine hammer, made from top quality steel and a cherry wood handle, with a golden letter 'S' engraved on the handle in a monogram. The inventor retracted his arms, storing the hammer in his saddle.

“Aw, let him go,” said Rainbow Dash, flying up to her buddy and throwing a hoof around him, “he was a jerk anyways.”

Techorse walked back to the middle of the arena and looked up at Discord, who was about to open his mouth to apologize again, “Discord, give me the microphone please.”

He obeyed and brought the mic down to Techorses's head height below him, where the inventor addressed the crowd,

“I hear a lot of grumbling, and hey, I understand, but Spanners is not a fraud. He has talent, just not plain building houses like his dad. Can we agree not to shun him if he decides to return? Please?”

“Look, if Techorse forgives 'em, that's good enough for me!” shouted Steiner, “We've taught the guy his lesson already, let's not go any further.”

Flaming Ivory appeared from the organ house and agreed, “It's over ponies, let's go!”

“Is that Flaming Ivory?” asked Techorse.

“You bet it is!” he answered, hooting from the stands, “What, you think I'd miss this?”

The mayor finally stepped down from the stadium and took the mic, “I think we can agree to respect Techorse's wishes and grant Spanners forgiveness. Can we get some applause for this fun event we've had today?”

The stadium erupted into thundering hooves of agreement to not harbor hatred for Spanners, and Techorse smiled, knowing he'd done the right thing. The only thing left to do now was to return the hammer the next time he saw him, and he was content with that.

---

An hour later, everything had settled down again. The arena had been put back in Discord's hyperspace cloth, the ponies had all left to go home for the evening, and Twilight and company had decided to celebrate by spending the evening at the Froth Shop, where Steiner eagerly served them some ice cold root beer. But Discord had been nowhere to be found, he had disappeared after putting the arena away, and it was assumed he'd have gone home for the evening.

“It's so cool we learned how Techie is connected to the ground!” cheered Pinkie Pie, about to chug her third mug of root beer.

“Yeah!” agreed Rainbow Dash, “And that solar thingy you made was awesome too, we gotta try making s'mores with one of those sometime.”

“Thanks guys, but it was Twilight who found it out for me,” he said, smiling at her.

“Well Rarity did help a lot,” she said, blushing.

“Of course, one thing's left unanswered,” Shadow Breeze said, holding his mug with a shadowy hand extending from his amulet, “what do you think happened to Spanners?”

“Does it really matter?” hiccuped a voice that barged into the door.

The friends all looked at the doorway to see Discord stumbling in, clearly off balance. He was wearing a tattered brown coat and hat, and was carrying a bottle of something in his right hand. Unscrewing the cork, he dumped the contents of the bottle onto the ground, and then devoured the glass container hastily before stumbling over to the counter.

“There's no place for chaos in Equestria... I knew it,” he stuttered, “I'm just... a failure. I tortured Fluttershy's coltfriend... and I made a guy's life miserable because I thought... I could help.”

He then smiled in a goofy fashion, still dizzy, “B... but there's the truth Fluttershy, I turned Shadow Breeze into all sorts of stuff...”

Fluttershy sighed, “Discord, I knew you were picking on Shadow Breeze. He didn't have to tell me, I knew it from how he acts when I talk about you.“

She then took a breath and said, “And there still is a place for chaos in Equestria. You just have to lean how to help others the way they want to be helped.”

Discord seemed to immediately regain his sense of balance and full brain functionality, and his bum clothing turned into puffs of brown smoke which vanished.

“You mean that? So you all forgive me?” he asked in a normal tone of voice.

“Of course we do!” answered Techorse, “Now grab a root beer and have a drink with us.”

Steiner nodded and turned to grab a glass mug off of the shelf. He accidentally knocked it over, and the mug shattered on the floor.

“Ach,” he sighed, “there goes another one. Discord, would you like some more glass?”

“Oh I've had enough,” he answered, snickering, “but I have an idea, can you please pass me the shards?”

Steiner's horn glowed a tan color, and the large number of fragments floated over to Discord, who cupped them all in his hands, and squeeze tightly. When he opened his hands, the glass had been molded into three dozen or so beautiful glass marbles, which he placed in a cup on the bar counter.

“Marbles!” he said, “For you, Steiner.”

The soda maker marveled at the gift and helpful recycling of something he would have just thrown out otherwise, and thanked Discord.

“See, that's the kind of chaos Equestria needs!” said Fluttershy.

Discord tried to protest, “But that was merely a parlor trick...”

“It made Steiner happy, and that's what you were trying to do, make Equestria happy, right?” she asked.

The draconequus slowly stood up, and then smiled gently, “It is. I really do have a place here.”

“Of course you do ya big lug!” said Applejack, “Now come on and party with us!”

The Lord of Chaos had finally discovered that he did have a purpose and place, and eagerly joined his friends in a round of sodas. Techorse had been shown how he truly was an earth pony, and Shadow Breeze could rest easy knowing he wasn't going to be turned into any more sports equipment! With the events of that day, Equestria was finally going to see their former enemy using his powers for the benefit of others.

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