Returning Survivor

by Itchy

Judge For a Day

Mecha was in his backyard, looking over his two apprentices, processing the request they had just given him. Overall, it wasn't that big a request, he was just trying to decide if it was in their abilities to follow through with it. “Just to be clear,” Mecha started, “you two plan on rapidly forging something for the school's talent show, and want to use the metals I have stored here?”

Nodding their heads, Snips spoke up, saying, “It's perfect! A talent that requires precision, magic, and speed!”

Snails added his two bits, saying, “Not to mention the fact that we get to show our parents what we've learned from you!”

Thinking deeply, Mecha went over the facts to himself. The two had gotten extremely good at forging whatever he threw at them, but those projects tended to have blueprints to go with them. However, that meant that this would be a great learning experience for them, provided they didn't hurt themselves in the process that is. Besides, they'd most likely forge two or three swords real quick, and be done, so what harm could they do?

So, nodding his head, Mecha gave them the all clear, saying, “The materials will be coming out of your paychecks, so just write down what you use and I'll work it out later, okay?”

Nodding their heads rapidly, the two ran off to plan out what they wanted to forge, leaving Mecha alone in the backyard. Shaking his head, Mecha was about to start forging some equipment for the Gala demonstration, when Cheerilee walked up and asked, “Can I talk to you for a minute Mecha?”

Mecha's eyes went wide at this request, as previous experience had taught him that this usually came before bad news. Trying to act calmly, he replied, “Sure, what do you need?”

Quirking an eye at the not so hidden nervousness that Mecha had, Cheerilee told him, “I need a favor from you.”

Relaxing near instantly, as a favor wasn't that big a deal, Mecha replied, “Sure, whatcha need?”

Confused at his shift from nervous to calm, Cheerilee just responded with, “I need a third judge for the school's talent show, Colgate came down with something, and so we're short hoofed.”

Blinking, Mecha said, “No problem, after all, you did judge Equestrian Idol for me and my friends. I'm curious though, who's the other judge?”

Relieved that he was willing to do her this favor, Cheerilee said, “Doctor Whooves said he'd be willing to judge as well.”

Nodding his head, Mecha said, “That makes sense. After all, he did always find talent shows and the like fascinating. So, did you need anything else?”

Shaking her head, Cheerilee replied, “No. I actually have to get going, Rarity is taking my measurements to start designing my dress. How did you manage to get her do design me one anyways, she seems too busy to just do it as a request.”

Chuckling, Mecha told her, “If you're generous to her, she ends up being generous to you, especially if you help her with a major work load like I did.”

Nodding her head, Cheerilee said, “That makes sense,” before walking away, heading towards Rarity's shop.

Mecha merely smiled, before walking into the forge, which he'd prepped before Snips and Snails arrived, and picked up his hammer. Reaching into the forge with his mechanical hoof, he pulled out a bar of white hot metal, and slammed the hammer onto it, all whilst humming.

LINEBREAKER

Mecha put the last of his pieces for the day into a barrel of water, leaving his mechanical leg in as well to cool it off. “Mental note,” he said to himself, “next time, go back for the tongs, forging for more than ten minutes leads to the whole leg getting hot enough to burn shoulder.” At this point, he heard rustling behind him, leading to him pulling his leg out of the barrel with one of the knives he'd forged, throwing it directly above... Apple Bloom's head.

Seeing their suddenly stilled forms and wide eyes, Mecha rubbed his head with his hoof, saying, “Oops...?”

After five minutes of holding still, Mecha got a little fed up and asked, “Would one of you explain what you're doing in my forge please?”

Scootaloo snapped out of her trance, and told him, “We came here to see if we could borrow a hammer and some nails.”

Nodding his head, Mecha looked around, before grabbing a box of a random shelf, and tossed it at them, before walking out and saying, “The kind of hammer you three need is inside my house, so if you'd wait here for a moment.”

This knocked Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom out of their shock, with Apple Bloom looking up at the knife that missed her head. “Do you reckon that we shoulda knocked?”

Sweetie Bell looked at the knife lodged in the wall and said, “Probably.”

Mecha returned at this moment, throwing a hammer onto the box that he'd thrown at them earlier. “There you go,” he said. “Although, I must ask, why do you need nails and a hammer?”

Apple Bloom's eyes lit up, as she said, “So we can make a background for our performance in the school talent show!”

“And then we can earn our Cutie Marks!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed.

Blinking, Mecha just shook his head, watching as Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom got into a wagon that Scootaloo pulled with her scooter. “I wonder when they'll realize that their talents are right in front of them. Oh well, maybe they'll get it while working on this performance, should be fun to watch the final product either way.”

LINEBREAKER

Mecha sat down at his seat in the cafe, relaxing as he waited for Big Macintosh and Doctor Whooves. He didn't have to wait long, as the two showed up within a two minute interval, and sat down. Seeing how loosely Mecha sat in his chair, Doctor Whooves asked, “Long day?”

Nodding his head, Mecha replied, “Very. Snips and Snails stopped by early to get permission to use some of my metal for their show in the talent show. By the way, they keeping up with their exercises Big M?”

Nodding his head, Big Macintosh said, “Eeyup.”

Continuing where he left off, Mecha said, “After they left, Cheerilee came to ask me a favor. So, I agreed to it, and am now judging the talent show with you Doc. After that, I started to forge without tongs, so I ended up burning my shoulder, before the Cutie Mark Crusaders came by. Gave them a scare before giving them what they need for their show, and came here. How did your guys day go?”

Looking at each other, Doctor Whooves signaled for Big Macintosh to sighed before saying, “Spent most of the morning bucking apples, then looked over the finances. Had lunch with Fluttershy, before getting back to work.”

Blinking, Doctor Whooves said, “Well, that's uh... interesting. I spent the morning fixing the clocks and watches in the back of the shop when Ditzy came in... and promptly broke all that I'd just fixed. After that, we went out for a muffin break, before I went home to work on my pet project, which once more blew up in my face. In fact, am I missing an eyebrow?” he asked.

Looking him over, Mecha said, “You're good Doc. Although, they are a bit singed,” before biting into grilled leeks.

Sighing, he said, “Well, at least this explosion didn't launch me out of town again.”

Laughing, Mecha asked, “What are you even trying to do? I mean, between all these explosions, I'm surprised your still in one piece!”

Shaking his head, Doctor Whooves told him, “It's a secret. If I can get it to work though, I'll go down in history!”

“Provided you don't explode yourself first,” Big Macintosh said.

Blinking, Mecha turned towards Big Macintosh, and said, “Doc, I think I'm hearing things. Did Big M just make a scathing remark?”

Nodding his head, wide-eyed, Doctor Whooves said, “Yep.”

Glancing at his leeks, Mecha pushed them away from him, saying, “I think I'll be going then,” putting a bag of bits on the table, as it was his turn to pay.

Looking between his meal and Big Macintosh, Doctor Whooves pushed his meal forward as well, and said, “I think I should get back to work as well.”

Watching his two friends walk a way, Big Macintosh simply shrugged and said to himself, “More for me then.”

LINEBREAKER

Mecha sighed as he sat down at the judge's table. Having arrived a half hour early to supervise the set-up, it turned out that everything had been taken care of by Twilight Sparkle, who'd been elated at the chance to practice some construction magic she'd recently looked up. Looking around, Mecha saw that he wasn't needed anywhere, and so pulled out a rolled up manuscript out of his mechanical leg, as well as a pencil. Opening it up to a half blank page, he quickly re-read the page before nodding his head, and started writing.

After around ten minutes, Cheerilee walked up, curious as to what he was doing. When she saw that he was writing, she said, “I didn't know you where an author.”

“I'm not,” Mecha said. “At least, not yet. I'm still working on the first draft of this thing, and it's taking forever in between work and getting back into fighting form.”

“Still, it is interesting that your writing a book,” she told him. “Might I ask what it's about?”

Shrugging, Mecha put his pencil down, before saying, “It's about the seven lords of sin and their effect on the world, most notably the creatures they created and left here before being banished to Hell.”

Quirking her head, Cheerilee asked, “How do you know what creatures they made?”

Chuckling, Mecha said, “For the most part, it's based on the sin that each creature seems to embody. But, while stuck in Hell, I ended up going through each lord's home at least once, and they always had a banner with their creations on it.”

Nodding her head, Cheerilee asked, “Could you give me an example? It would clear up what you're trying to convey a bit more.”

Smiling at the fact that somepony was interested in his book, Mecha replied, “Sure. The easiest example would be Greed's creation of dragons. After all, they are creatures that can grow rapidly if their greed is filled rapidly. A less obvious example would be Lust's creations, the changelings.”

Caught off guard, Cheerilee said, “That doesn't make sense though, since changelings live off the love for the person they replace.”

Shaking his head, Mecha told her, “That's true, and that is why they're lust. They lust for the feeling of euphoria that comes from feeling love. In fact, they don't actually feed of love, just the euphoria it creates, if that makes sense?”

Nodding her head, Cheerilee replied, “It does actually. How'd you figure that out though?”

Putting the manuscript and pencil away, Mecha said, “I took a look at the meaning of lust. Basically, to indulge in lust is to indulge in an activity that produces pleasure, aka euphoria. Thus, it makes sense that changelings, who thrive by feasting on the euphoria that being in love produce, would have been created by Lust. Now, the one I found the most fascinating was Sloth's creation.”

Blinking, Cheerilee said, “Actually, that would be interesting. After all, how could you make a creature that embodies the sin of sloth and make it so that it survives.”

“By making it so that it's actions are slothful, but rewarding,” Mecha told her. “For example, staying in one place, guarding a commonly traveled route.”

Thinking for a moment, taking the clues that Mecha had given her in his last sentence, Cheerilee's face brightened up and asked, “Would you happen to be talking about sphinxes?”

“That I am,” Mecha replied. “While they don't truly embody the sin, Sloth was indulging himself in his namesake when he came up with them, and they are one of two creatures he directly made. He decided that since a creature that truly embodied his realm would likely be killed off quickly, he'd give them a trait of his realm, and picked being to lazy to move, and thus prone to blocking paths and eating travelers.”

“Fascinating,” Cheerilee said.

“Quite,” said Doctor Whooves, who'd walked up to the judge's station without the two noticing. “Unfortunately, you'll have to continue this discussion later, the show is about to start.”

Eyes going wide, Cheerilee said, “Thank you, now if you'd excuse me,” before running to the stage in order to open it on time.

Sighing, Mecha got ready to start judging, pulling out a clipboard and pen from under his seat.

LINEBREAKER

Mecha was slightly bored, waiting for the next act. Yes, a lot of these young ponies were talented, just not in anything exciting. Watching Cheerilee walk onto the stage, she complimented the last act, before saying, “And up next, we have Snips and Snails with their talent, rapid forging!”

This perked Mecha up, as he was finally going to see his apprentices' act. Watching the curtains get pulled back, he saw the two standing in the middle of the stage, an anvil in front of them, with two giant piles of iron bars between them. “That... is more iron than what's needed to make two or three swords,” Mecha said.

Blinking, Doctor Whooves turned to Mecha, and asked, “You mean you don't know what they're making?”

Shaking his head, Mecha told Doctor Whooves as Cheerilee sat down, “I thought they'd be making a couple of swords quickly, so I didn't ask.”

Turning back to the stage, Doctor Whooves said, “Then this will be quite interesting.”

At this point, Snips and Snails had finished psyching themselves up, and sprung into action. Horns glowing, Snails took three bars of iron from a nearby stack, and rapidly brought them to white hot temperatures. Snips on the other hand, grabbed several hammers with his magic, which he brought rapidly down onto the metal, quickly flattening the bars. After around five seconds, the iron bars had been beaten into paper thing sheets, which allowed Snail to focus less on keeping them at such high temperatures, so that he lift them off the anvil and allow Snips to shape them into one piece. After an additional ten seconds, the two had forged a good looking breastplate, which Snails dipped into a barrel of water before putting it onto a display, before grabbing several more iron bars, heating them.

The crowd was watching with rapt attention, curious as to what they'd make next, already impressed with the 15 second breastplate. As they watched, the two morphed the iron bars into a decent looking helmet, complete with visor, in 23 seconds, before moving on to make a simple longsword in 7 seconds. The crowd barely breathed as they finished the armor set in another 34 seconds, and then moved onto the grand finale.

Focusing hard, Snails used his magic to grab and heat the remaining iron bars, while Snips focused on lifting the extra hammers on his side. With sweat dripping down their foreheads, the two got to work, Snails holding the metal up in the air whilst Snips hammered the pieces into shape. After nine seconds, the pieces began to make a vague pony shape in the air, as the two pushed their magic to the limits. With intense focus on his work, Snips finished shaping the metal with the hammers, setting them aside as Snails quickly put to the pieces into place, making a large sculpture of an Earth Pony, while Snips used his magic to lift up several riveters, which moved rapidly into place, quickly connecting the pieces together. With everything in place, Snips levitated a barrel of water from off stage, which he poured over the sculpture, cooling it enough that Snails could put it down on the stage without risk of setting it on fire.

Turning to the crowd, the two exhausted colts gave them a bow, to which the audience responded with roaring applause. “That,” Mecha said, “just earned them free time in the forge whenever they need it.”

LINEBREAKER

Mecha chuckled to himself after the show was over, remembering the Cutie Mark Crusaders performance. While he highly doubted that the trio had meant for it to be a comedy act, he had sure enjoyed it as such. Walking up to Snips and Snails, he watched as they talked with their parents, who were extremely proud of their performance. Clearing his throat, Mecha said, “While it was quite the performance, I must ask, what do you intend to do with the items you've created?”

Blinking, the two looked between him and the armor set, sword, and sculpture. After five minutes of this, they turned to him and said, “Dunno.”