Chapter 8
“Yes, Twilight, I got it already. Next time I see her I'll ask her to speak with you. I wouldn't get your hopes up though, since it's been a few weeks now and she hasn't contacted me at all. I'm pretty sure she only chose me before because of some enemy of my enemy thing.” Spike rolled his eyes as Twilight kept pacing back and forth in front of him. Ever since the unicorn had found out through the newspaper that he had met with her biggest rival she had been pestering him constantly to arrange a meeting. He hadn't even been able to go out much either as the news industries had been after him as well, trying to get an interview as well. Even his time as Humdrum wasn't all that relaxing either as the Masked Matterhorn kept glaring at him whenever they were around each other, causing the rest of the Power Ponies to be confused about what had happened between the duo.
“I just want to be sure, Spike. I'd rather not come back to any surprises this time. Do you have the checklist I left you?” The young dragon rolled his eyes as he held up the small stack of paper.
“Yes, Twilight, I have the checklists of what you want to be done while you are gone right here, all four of them. If I can manage to keep you alive through Celestia's school with you forgetting to eat all the time then I can handle all of this. You're going to be late if you keep stalling, and the Masked Matterhorn is never late.” He grinned at the look on the unicorn's face as she turned a bright red.
“Spike!” Her cry of indignation brought a small chuckle out of the younger of the duo, causing the elder to roll her eyes and rub a hoof over his spines. Stepping back from him she closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic.
“Gone, Gone, the form you were born. Rise the majestic alicorn!” As she intoned the verbal component of the spell a light began to rise up her body from her hooves. As soon as her entire body was glowing the light shattered in a rain of sparkles revealing her new wings and costume that came with the form of the Masked Matterhorn. Twilight had been amazed when she had first found the spell buried in her family's ancestral home and it had led her to her secret life as a vigilante.
“That is still amazing every time I see it. I still can't believe those wings actually work.” The mare blushed for a moment before putting on her game face again. Fluttering her wings to get a feel for them again she stepped over to the teleporter leading to the Power Ponies headquarters.
“Right, I'm off to meet with the others. I'd rather not have to go to this interview, but certain expectations need to be met after being gifted the new base by the city. I'm sorry that Humdrum can't come along, but they forgot to provide a ticket for you.” The dragon just waved a hand at her.
“Nah, it's fine. I really need to do some more training anyways and I can do that after finishing these lists. With the training room you helped set up it'll be even easier to do that now.” He also planned to check with a certain mouse he knew that was living in the castle that was the new Power Pony headquarters. He had actually looked into the agreement given to the superhero group and discovered that the tree wasn't actually part of the deal when the property was given to them. In fact, everything under the boughs of the tree was owned by, interestingly enough, the Hackwrench family which was confirmed by Gadget herself. Yet neither had found anything on who owned the building as a whole, though they had their suspicions.
“Well, if you say so. I'll see you when I get back then.” The mare was a bit suspicious of his calm acceptance, but she was also grateful enough to not have to argue with him about wanting to come that she let it slide. With a quick hug and a wave, she hopped into the teleporter to join the rest of the Power Ponies at the headquarters before leaving. This left Spike to go through the checklists once more, this time making notes on them to chart out the fastest path to complete them. After only a couple of hours he managed to finish off a majority of the lists, and he decided to take a break to check out the Power Pony Headquarters to make sure that it was clear, after switching to his Humdrum costume.
A couple of the chores left for him were inside the castle where the headquarters were housed, but luckily for him, they were relatively easy, unlike when the location was first gifted to them and required repairs from the centuries of neglect before it was brought out of the Everfree Preserve and settled on top of the towering building. He briefly paused to wonder just how strong Principal Celestia was if her sister could commit such a feat herself, even if she was possessed by an evil being. Still, after having seen her on a near-daily basis for much of his life he found it hard to fear her, especially with her tendency to face-dive into cakes. He managed to clear up everything in the castle that was on the list before he found himself in front of the tree in the courtyard of it.
He found it hard to believe that this tree was the same one he saw when he first came to this castle. While Gadget had fixed the concealment effect that was damaged, as well as upgrading it to prevent a similar thing from happening, he had been registered to it so he could now see the various windows in it as well as the door large enough to fit an alicorn. Even then its size seemed to be an illusion as the inside was larger than what the outside suggested. It wasn't by much, but it was enough to be noticeable. Shaking his head out of his thoughts he pushed open the door, glancing at it trying to find the invisible seams for the other doors as it opened to his size leaving most of the door still closed. The door was only one of the weird things about the treehouse and he had yet to find all the secrets that it held.
Looking through the tree, he first checked upstairs but found all the rooms to be empty or sealed except for the one given to him. Gadget had told him that the rooms belonging to her old friends were still sealed, each room being protected by something within the tree, something that even Gadget couldn't override even though she built it. The main floor was empty as well, from the main room to the kitchen. The basement was an oddity as a side room had been added by someone strangely enough and contained a teleporter linked to the rest of the building, Gadget being the only one that could use it strangely enough. She had told him that she had suspicions of who added it but told him not to worry about it. He paused as he entered the bottom floor and tilted his head to listen for the resident mouse before heading towards the faint sound he heard. He paused outside the open door of the room she found Gadget in as he heard singing from inside.
“~No matter where you look, on every site or book, it's information...” Humdrum found Gadget typing away at her minuscule keyboard, though she had a larger one attached to it, staring at the various computer screens in front of her. While he couldn't read the words from where he was, he could see the various pictures on all the screens.
“Whoa! That's a lot of heroes!” Gadget's ears twitched at his exclamation, causing her to glance back to see him standing in the door.
“Oh, hey Spike, though I guess I should call you Humdrum when you are in costume just to be safe, huh?” At the acknowledgment of his presence, the dragon entered the room, shaking his head at her greeting.
“I still don't get how you can just see through my costume like that. It just seems... wrong somehow.” This caused Gadget to pause for a moment with a frown before she tapped a few keys, bringing something up on one of the screens.
“I've been looking into that actually. I didn't notice it at first, but I may have a theory about how everyone can't seem to identify people when they are wearing a mask, especially with how familiar the effect is. It has to do with a rather unique being I knew from a thousand years ago and one of the greatest villains I had to face.” With a few more taps the screen shifted a bit revealing a figure that Humdrum knew of, but only because Twilight wouldn't shut up about him when he was mentioned.
“Wait, you knew Starswirl the Bearded!? And what do you mean he was a villain? Twilight would have a fit if she heard you say that.” The mouse grimaced at him as her mind drifted back to the past.
“It's a bit complicated. While his research has done a lot to help ponies, it was how he went about it that was monstrous. How he did his experiments? He basically tortured animals until he got the result he was trying for. The Rescue Rangers of the time spent a lot of time keeping an eye on him and freeing the animals he captured.” Humdrum turned a little green at this but quickly swallowed the reaction back.
“So what does he have to do with your theory?” With a couple more taps the mouse changed the screen to show... He wasn't sure what, it was rather blurry to him for some reason. Gadget watched him struggle to look at it before nodding.
“I'm thinking I might be close what with your reaction. This is who I was talking about, and possibly the source of the concealment effect, Boo, a giant chicken. And one of the earliest rescuees from Starswirl.” The dragon clutched at his head a moment, an intense migraine striking him before it faded. When he opened his eyes again he could clearly see the picture now.
“Whoa, I can see it clearly now, but how?” Gadget rubbed at her chin with a hand as she considered his question.
“That I'm still working on. It does seem to be related, but it's also different from how his own ability worked. You see, nobody would ever notice what he was when he was disguised, except for a rare one or two that nobody would believe. His entire costume had to be removed before anyone would actually notice that he really was a giant chicken. It makes me wonder if my extreme resistance to mind magic is what lets me see through the costumes, or something similar to how his power works.” She paused in thought for a moment, giving the dragon a chance to look at the other screens. On every one of them was a different hero, as well as a small profile of them, many of which he recognized. There were even a couple of villains as well.
“So what's with all the hero and villain stuff you are reading about?” He gestures a claw towards the Maneiac and the rather slim profile describing what little is known of her and her origins. Gadget looked over at what he was pointing at and tilted her head to the side.
“Just a little bit of research that I was going over. I've been doing that since... Um, what day is it again?” Gadget looks around, hoping to find a calendar or clock but she hadn't set one out yet. Spike looks confused for a moment before he remembered his comparison of her to Twilight and groans.
“Please don't tell me you've been doing this ever since you got these computers delivered.” He was answered by a roaring sound from the mouse's stomach, making him to face-palm and her to blush.
“How are you even still moving after that long?” Gadget slowly rose to her feet and started towards a nearby fridge and quickly pulled out a small brick of cheese, the last that it contained.
“Call it one of the drawbacks of Heart Songs. Time has so little meaning that you lose track of it really easily... I don't even remember eating all the other things I had stored in here.” She quickly started chowing down on the cheese, though made a note to get a real meal as soon as she was done.
“Anyways, as to clarify your question, I've been looking into the various heroes and villains out there, mostly to see how many I could recognize. Though this was after looking more into the history that I had missed, found out that a couple of old friend actually are around still. But I've learned a few odd things regarding a few of interest.” She taps at her keyboard and a big red figure garbed in the colors of Equestria popped up on screen.
“Wait, does this mean you know who Captain Equestria is?! He's one of the highest-ranked heroes out there! Hardly anyone knows a thing about him!” Gadget looked at the screen showing that was obviously, to her, Big Macintosh. Humdrum was right though about not much being known as the list of superpowers for him was mostly blank, just speculation over his accuracy with his round shield showing the Equestrian flag as well as its toughness. He had no location listed as his home ground and not even any rivals, he just showed up at random and said very little as he trounced any villain in his path. She considered what she should tell him, but settled on only one small fact.
“Well out of respect to the Appleoosa Accords I won't say much about him, but I do know his family at the very least. In fact, you even know at least one of his sisters, though not sure if you've met the other yet or not.” Humdrum looked confused for a moment before he made a joking comment.
“What, are you saying that one of the other Power Ponies are related to him?” He started laughing but soon noticed the mouse looking at him with a raised eyebrow causing his laughter to slowly peter out.
“Wait, you're serious? One of them is related to him? Huh, I wonder who.” He brought a hand up to rub at his chin in thought and quickly ruled out Twilight as the was no way Shining Armor would be a superhero what with his time being taken up helping rule the Crystal Empire after its return. He was quickly disabused of this thought as the next two profiles were brought up.
“Then there are these two who you also personally know. Considering you are technically related to them I guess I can tell you this one secret. Meet Cadance and Shining Armor.” She was met by a blank stare from the dragon as he looked at the picture of the two mares on screen.
“You're kidding, right? Love Beat and Gleaming Shield are Empress Cadance and Consort Shining Armor? But that, that's...” He paused as a migraine pierced into his head causing him to clutch at it momentarily. When it passed he looked up again at the pictures once again. His eyes passed over Love Beat, easily identifying the alicorn Cadance in her pink sailor uniform, and settled on Gleaming Shield. He stared blankly at the image on the screen for a moment before his cheeks puffed out. Soon he was rolling around laughing on the ground, pointing at it.
“AHAHAHAHA! How did she convince Shiny to wear something like that! He totally looks like a mare in that thing!” He just couldn't get over the fact that his older brother was wearing an outfit exactly like his wife's, just in a blue color. Gadget also had a small smile on her face as she continued her talk.
“Actually, I think whatever he does to look like that actually turns him into a mare. Probably some transformation magic of some kind. Not sure if he found it himself or if his wife gave it to him though. Won't be able to tell without asking him since, well, you know what happened with your family.” Humdrum's laughter completely shut down at this and he stared at her in horror, tears starting to form in his eyes. Gadget sighed sadly as she hit a few more keys, changing multiple screens at once, one of them showing a newspaper article he was way too familiar with.
“This came up in my history search when I started looking over certain ponies of note from the other timeline. The results weren't good, almost like someone was targeting them with how consistent the results were.” Humdrum's claw had by this point moved to the computer screen showing the airship explosion that had taken the lives of his adoptive parents, Twilight Velvet and Nightlight. As his words registered, his eyes quickly shot over to her.
“Wait, are you saying that they weren't supposed to die?! That someone was targeting them?!” Gadget only shook her head as she looked over the various screens she had brought up. The Apple Clan, almost wiped out after a shampoo factory explosion. Fluttershy's parents, killed in a freak weather accident along with Rainbow Dash's. Rarity's were part of the same airship explosion as Twilight's. She couldn't find anything on Pinkie's family, though she did find info on the area they lived in and how technology was shunned there so they were probably safe. She did find mention of Maud, though, in the form of the hero The Rock. Even some of the side characters were targeted as she looked at one story of an orphan from a wealthy family. One story really stood out to her as it seemed impossible considering what she knew. That of a pegasus that had been completely paralyzed from the neck down in a freak weather factory accident. Turning back to Humdrum she just shook her head.
“I really don't know. There are so many questions that I still have with no way to find the answers to yet.” The dragon looked downcast as he slowly turned away from the newspaper article, Gadget soon switching them away to the pages they were originally on. She started setting things on standby as she prepared to search for a real meal.
“I do have some ideas as to where to find some answers though. Unfortunately, my old friends are away from the country right now, but I do still have one potential lead that I can test, though it won't be a fast source as I still need to be careful.” The young hero perked up at this and he looked at her with a bit of hope at finally getting some answers.
“Really, where would that be?” She smiled sadly as she walked over to a nearby table that was holding her mail that was starting to be delivered to her and dug around until she found one particular envelope. Quickly opening it up again she pulled out a sole golden ticket. Humdrum's eyes widen when he saw it as he recognized it as something he also saw in Twilight's mail.
“Is that an invitation to one of Celestia's parties? How did you get something like that?” The mouse only quirked an eyebrow at him as she glanced at the figure standing in a nearby corner. Following her gaze, the dragon brought a claw up to his face as he recognized her puppet pony body.
“Oh right, that. Twilight has one of those as well and she also wants to meet you. You know that I'm going to have to tell her about this, right?” Gadget only shrugged as she put the ticket away.
“She's welcome to try, but I already planned to make a public announcement. I've been hearing some disturbing things from some of my employees and plan to also use it to try and draw out some problems with my company. So I hope she doesn't mind being interrupted by assassins.” Humdrum looked at her with a blank look on his face at her declaration.
“What?”
Bet nobody expected this to update today. The next chapter will have a bit of action, as well as a couple of new inventions that she made as well. 
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What is this a crossover of?
pulled
10850154
MLP x Rescue Rangers.
10850154 MLP - Rescue Rangers.
Said rival also owns parts of Twilight's company
Hmm, an Etrigan reference
Celly? Probably Celly
Nope, not complaining though
Looking forward to it
I was lost for a second justt looking at the discription. I was thinking...Ranger?...Lone Ranger? Then I heard Hackwrench and I was like, Oh My God. He is doing Gadget!.
64.media.tumblr.com/13015449416b3cb7cfad43385f027b92/tumblr_inline_nq3t5kM12u1sck418_400.jpg
Oh, I have got to see this!
Monk
“Come into my parlor, Ted. I have cookies!” -Reykan
You know, I only just realized how much more relaxing Celestia's life must have been in this world when she didn't have to have to be "Princess Celestia" all the time