Out of the Sky

by ThatGirl2147

Part 14

The whistle from the Engineer’s Car sounded loudly, alerting everypony in the near vicinity that the train had arrived. “Well,” remarked Twilight Sparkle, “that was certainly an entertaining and informative four-hour train ride.”

“Four hours?” questioned Tech Specs, glancing at the large clock outside on the platform, which revealed eight and a quarter hours past Midday. “Hmm,” said she, “it has been four hours. Felt like a lot less time than that, if I’m honest.”

Applejack grinned and said, “it’s prob’ly ‘cause you been talkin’ more than Twilight on a rainy day.” With that remark, everypony burst into laughter, even Twilight managing a nervous giggle.

“Oh, lighten up, Twilight,” beamed Pinkie Pie, “we’ve all got to laugh at ourselves once in a while!”

Twilight nodded slightly and agreed, “yeah. You’re right, Pinkie.” She then happily joined in on the group’s laughter.

As the seven mares and two dragons exited the train, they happily trotted through the train station, waving kindly to everypony they passed. Outside of the station, the lush city of Canterlot shone brightly despite the late hour; the city’s buildings reflected every ounce of light that touched them, illuminating the city well.

“Beautiful,” remarked the purple unicorn, “isn’t it?” Everypony nodded and agreed, save Tech Specs, who silently stared at the bright city. “Umm, are you alright, Tech?”

This snapped Tech out of her trance. “Huh?” said she, shaking her head. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“‘Bout what, Sug?” asked Applejack.

“Too many things to name, Mate,” replied Tech nonchalantly. “Shall we be going, then?”

“Oh, right,” said Twilight, knocking her forehead with her hoof. “It slipped my mind; we’re going to see the Princess.” Her expression brightened as she mentioned her mentor.

At the mention of the princess, the blue unicorn became lost in thought again. After a few seconds, she came back to reality, took a deep breath, and exhaled, saying, “right, then.”

Rarity looked to Tech, noticing her expression change slightly. Reacting to it, she said, “if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to, Tech.”

“No,” retorted Tech flatly, “I DO have to do this; I told myself I would, and I’m no liar.” Rarity nodded, and the mares set off for Canterlot Castle. They didn’t see many ponies on the street, save some locking up their stores or ready to enjoy the nightlife that the capital city had to offer.

With only about twenty minutes of casual strolling, the group finally came to the main gates to Canterlot Castle. Much like the city, the castle walls glowed in the night just as they do during the day. At the gate, the group was met by a duo of Royal Unicorn Guards, each one in gleaming, golden armour, which contrasted greatly with their dark brown coats. “Miss Twilight Sparkle,” said one of the guards, “are you and your friends here on business or for personal reasons?”

“Business, Sir,” answered the purple mare confidently, “we need to speak with the Princesses about the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said the guard as though he were sounding off. He and his comrade then focused their attention to the massive stone gate as it began to glow with the same gold colour as their horns. As they focused, the gates slid open ever so slowly. Both guards maintained their professional composure as they moved the massive blocks of stone. When they were open enough for two ponies to fit through, the glow ceased. “You may enter now,” informed one of the guards.

“Thank you, Sirs,” said Twilight kindly to the armoured stallions, who merely nodded with respect.

As the group entered the castle grounds, its regality and importance became apparent quickly, with Royal Guards doing routine Physical Training and patrolling the grounds. Past a unit of Royal Unicorns doing Drill was the unmistakable entrance to the main palace, their destination.

They passed the drilling guards without so much as a glance from them; the stallions were the finest trained soldiers Equestria had to offer, and weren’t going to be distracted by a few mares, most of whom they were told to pay little mind to, for they visited quite often.

Past the guards, the group ascended the massive set of white stone steps to the palace doors. Twilight Sparkle opened them, engulfing them in her purple magic and unlocking them effortlessly.

The interior of the palace was just as elegant and gorgeous as the rest of the city and then some. Expertly painted portraits of previous rulers of Equestria, as well as the current, Princesses Celestia and Luna, adorned the seemingly mile-long corridor. At the very end of the corridor was a three-way fork, the one dead ahead leading to the throne room. The seven mares looked to one another, as if to exchange thoughts silently. Finally, somepony spoke.

“Should the two of us do this alone, Tech?” asked Twilight. “I’m sorry, Girls. But, what could you do that we don’t already have taken care of?” The five mares nodded in agreement, prompting for the purple mare to look to the blue unicorn. “What do you say?”

“Should we take Spike and Blades?” asked Tech in response. Twilight agreed, and with their respective dragon companions on their backs, they headed toward the massive door, walking in perfect unison. Twilight opened the door as she did the main palace door, revealing the Princess of the Daylight herself, sitting in her throne, resting her head on her hoof.

Upon opening the door, the princess perked up to get a look at who was entering her quarters. Instantly, she recognised the faces of Twilight Sparkle and Spike, and, with that known, she looked to the other unicorn-dragon pair, and she recognised them just as quickly.

“I have nothing to say to you, Emerald comet,” said the Princess flatly as the two mares walked into the room. Twilight’s eyes went wide at what she had just heard. She then looked to her blue friend, who was standing as confidently as ever.

“I thought you may have gotten the memo,” said Tech Specs, “but my name is Tech Specs. I’ve not gone by ’Emerald Comet’ in years.”

The Princess seemed to ignore the unicorn’s statement. Her expression blank, she said, “when I said, ‘leave Canterlot and never return,’ I meant, ‘and never return.’”

“Your Highness,” began Twilight humbly, “I think that you’re overreacting a bit to Tech.”

“Pardon me, Twilight,” excused the Princess, “but, given the circumstances of this mare’s blatant disregard of a direct order from myself, I’d say this is a perfectly reasonable reaction.”

“But Princess,” pleaded the purple mare, “Tech is my friend, and you said yourself that all my friends are welcome here.”

The Princess’ expression changed very little as she retorted, “Emerald Comet is an arrogant, ungrateful traitor.”

Princess Celestia’s words seemed to trigger something in Twilight Sparkle’s brain, for she stood as tall as she could and boldly told her mentor, “I’m sorry, Princess, but Tech has been nothing but civil, grateful, and humble since the moment I met her. She is nothing like you describe her to be. Granted, she did drop out of your school, but look what she’s done with herself since then: she’s an accomplished mechanist with several pending patents for her inventions. This may be a stretch, but I think that Tech’s got it made because of her dropping out, and her determination to do what she sets her mind on.” She was about to speak again when she was interrupted by her blue friend.

“Calm down, Twilight,” said Tech, holding her head low. “I thank you for your efforts, but if Princess Celestia wants me gone, then I’ll be gone.” She then slowly turned towards the throne room door and trotted that way.

Twilight could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she heard the throne room door come to a close. “You see? Civil, grateful, and humble,” repeated she to the Princess, who looked to be gritting her teeth from repressed anger. The purple mare then turned face and left the throne room as well.

In the grand hallway, Tech was confronted by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and the rest of Twilight’s friends. ”Oh my goodness,” said Fluttershy upon seeing Tech, “what happened?”

“All you need to know,” answered Tech, almost in tears, “is that I’m leaving.”

“Leaving?” inquired Rarity. “But wherever will you go, Darling?”

Tech shook her head and replied, “I don’t know; just somewhere that’s not here.”

“But, but,” stammered Rainbow Dash, on the brink of tears as well, “you can’t just go.”

Blades, a look on his face as heavy as on that of Tech, looked to the blue pegasus and said to her, “you didn’t see the Princess; so much anger boiling under a blank face. It’s unnerving.”

Tech began to pick up speed as she trotted faster and faster through the corridor, down to the exit. Rainbow Dash was prepared to fly after her, but was stopped by a purple hoof in front of her. “No, Rainbow,” said Twilight, the owner of said hoof, “don’t go after her yet. let’s just follow her and see where she goes.”

Rainbow had to hold herself back from chasing after the blue unicorn, but her friend’s words kept her where she was. “Fine,” complied she. “Let’s follow her, then.” Everypony nodded, and the mares trotted out of the palace.

The six mares hid themselves from sight whenever Tech would look around in between galloping through the city to the main walls. When they arrived at the gate, the same unicorn guards opened the gate for her, allowing her to leave. They didn’t notice Tech’s pursuers, and thus closed the gate.

“Great!” barked Rainbow Dash, slamming her hoof into the ground. “Now she’s sure to notice us if we go on!”

Applejack cleared her throat to get the pegasus’ attention, which it did. She motioned to her back, and Rainbow Dash looked to hers. “Oh, right,” said the pegasus, embarrassed, “I forgot I can fly over.”

“And the two of us can teleport,” added Rarity, pointing to Twilight Sparkle.

By that point, rain had begun to pour heavily, complimented by copious amounts of lightning and thunder. Tech ran into Whitetail Wood, remembering the cave she had found so many years ago. She dug away a few old branches and found said cave, but it was too small for the unicorn to enter. Instead, she slid blades into the dry cave and lay in front of it, letting the heat from her body keep the cave warm for her dragon. “Are you sure you’ll be alright out there, Tech?” asked Blades, extremely concerned for his friend.

“I’ll be fine,” replied Tech, shivering from the cold rain. She then lay her head on her forelegs and tried to fall asleep, tears streaming down her face, when she heard something.

“Tech!” called Rainbow Dash’s voice from the sky. “Tech! Where are you?!” The blue pegasus was scanning the ground below her for Tech, and barely noticed the lightning bolting mere metres away from her. Eventually, though, she saw a group of Weather Patrol Ponies frantically fleeing and avoiding lightning strikes. She was rather distracted by the fleeing pegasi, and failed to notice the massive bolt of lightning forming just above her; that is, until it was too late. The bolt exploded with a mighty crash, connecting at the very tips of the blue pegasus’ wings, but running down to their very bases. Rainbow screamed in agony, and began to fall. She tried to flap her wings and regain flight, but to no avail. Terrified, she looked to her back, only to see two charred, shriveled husks of what were her wings, beating desperately to catch air. Rainbow let out another scream as she fell through the canopy of a tree, which softened her landing, barely enough for her to survive.

Tech Specs heard the screams and crashing sound, and instantly scooped up her baby dragon and ran at full gallop toward the location from which the sounds came, and what she saw horrified her. She saw Rainbow Dash, laying in a pile of leaves and branches, with her wings all but destroyed, moaning and groaning from pain.

At that moment, Tech’s expression changed from one of worry to one of dead seriousness, and she rushed into action. “Blades!” said she to the dragon on her back, “I need you to help me get Rainbow Dash onto my back, if you will.” The dragon nodded, and the pair lifted the injured pegasus, gently placing her on the unicorn’s back.

“Tech?! Rainbow?!” called another familiar voice as Rarity and Twilight Sparkle came into view through the rain. The mares approached Tech, saying to her, “are you and rainbow okay?!”

“She’ll be fine,” replied the blue unicorn, “but only if we get her to my shop as quickly as possible.”

“Wait,” said Twilight, “we should take her back to Canterlot; a doctor could treat her.”

“And save her wings?!” barked Tech in a very commanding tone. “I’ve yet to see a doctor who could mend such severe burns and damage, and I will NOT see this happen to anypony I care about again!” She then focused her emerald eyes on those of Twilight and said sternly, “I know how to save Rainbow Dash; so, you can either help me, or stay out of my way!”

Twilight gave a heavy sigh of sorrow as she answered. “Alright,” said she, “we’ll help you. What do you need us to do?”

Without missing a beat, Tech ordered Twilight, “you should carry Blades; we’ll be faster that way.” The purple mare simply nodded and picked Blades up and set him on her back. “Now let’s go!” At that, the three mares took off towards Fillydelphia.

After about half an hour of continuous running, the trio arrived in the city of Fillydelphia. Wasting no time, they wove through street and street until they came to Tech Specs’ shop, which Tech promptly opened with a key tossed to her by Blades. She ran to her desk and, from the bottom drawer, produced a rather old, leather-bound tome, and carried it in her teeth through the steel door into her workshop. The workshop was completely empty of projects, leaving all four tables ready should they be needed, which they were.

Tech gently transferred Rainbow Dash from her back to an empty steel table. The pegasus was still conscious, and twitching from sheer agony. She set the tome on another table and looked to the other two unicorns. “Twilight,” began she as a commander would as he gave out orders to his officers, “I need you to cast some kind of spell to numb Rainbow. And Rarity, I need you to keep Rainbow calm: talk to her, hold her, do whatever you need to do. Just keep her calm.” With the orders given, the two unicorns obeyed.

“What are you going to do?” asked Twilight as she cast a spell of sensory dampening on her blue friend.”

Tech only looked to the purple unicorn and smiled, answering, “I’m going to fix Rainbow’s wings.”

“Doing what?”

”You‘ll find out,” replied the blue mare with urgency. “Just focus on keeping her body numb!” Twilight nodded and went back to work, leaving Tech to do hers. “Blades.” The dragon snapped to attention at the mention of his name. “I’ll need your claws.”

The pair sat at the bench of the table on which Rainbow Dash lay, and immediately got to work. Tech held one of Rainbow Dash’s mangled wings and pulled it tight, motioning for Blades to do something, which he did. Using his claws as both a scalpel and bone saw, he sliced through the wing, as close to the mare’s back as possible. There was very minimal blood, as the lightning strike had cauterised all blood vessels going to her wings.

Rarity and Twilight cringed, to which Tech said, “I know; just keep going!” The unicorns obeyed silently. Tech and Blades repeated the process with Rainbow’s other wing, and set the two sets of severed bone and burnt skin aside. Next, Tech grabbed a few hoofs full of steel and aluminum, and approached another table, setting the materials on it.

“Tech?!” shouted Twilight, confused, “what are you doing?!”

“Just keep the spell going, Twilight,” requested more than ordered Tech. She then continued working with the metal. After two agonising minutes, she had forged a pair of metal wings, which looked more like natural wings than Tech’s previous wing experiments: the steel made hollow supports to act as bones, and the aluminum took the place of feathers. Tech tossed the wings to Blades, who caught them with great dexterity. “Hold these on Rainbow’s back, right where her wings went.” The dragon nodded and did so. Tech then flipped open the leather-bound tome she had carried in, read a bit, and then said something under her breath as she stared at Rainbow Dash’s back.

“What are you doing?!” demanded Twilight again, “TELL ME NOW!!!”

Without looking away from the pegasus, she replied, “I’m going to cast a spell.”

Both unicorns and Blades looked to Tech in shock, taken aback by what they had just heard. The blue unicorn’s horn then started to faintly glow Emerald Green, slowly growing larger with time. After a few seconds, the green glow shot from her horn to Rainbow’s back. At that, the wings seemed to fuse themselves with the stumps of bone that connected to the pegasus’ wings.

Tech started breathing heavily, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth from pain. She then looked to the purple mare, who was straining to keep her magic flowing. “Twilight,” said she through clenched teeth, “you can release the numbing spell now.”

Twilight obeyed, and Rainbow Dash came to with a scream of pain. “Shh, shh!” beckoned Rarity, holding Rainbow’s head in her hooves to comfort her, “calm down; it’ll be alright.”

Tech managed to hold back the pain in her skull long enough to give another command. “Get Rainbow to her hooves,” said she. The two unicorns did so. Rainbow stumbled for a bit, but righted herself enough to stay upright.

Immediately, Tech began to talk to the blue pegasus. “Rainbow,” said she in a commanding voice, though it was lighter than before. “I need you to do something for me; I need you to try to spread your wings.”

“How?!” barked the pegasus, tears flowing down her face as she thought about the fact. “I don’t exactly HAVE wings to spread!”

“I know!” retorted Tech, “but I need you to THINK that you do! I need you to picture yourself spreading your wings and taking flight. Think about that repeatedly while I cast another spell.”

“Tech! Be careful!” ordered Rarity.

“Yeah!” agreed Twilight Sparkle. “You’ve not used magic in years! Trying to use too much at one time won’t end well!”

Tech Specs looked to her friends, as if to say, “I know,” but she said nothing. Instead, she focused her energy on Rainbow’s back again. She said something else to herself, and her horn glowed again, this time much brighter than before. At the same time, the green energy engulfed Rainbow Dash’s wings. Rainbow’s eyes were shut tightly as she tried to picture herself taking flight. Suddenly, all throughout the workshop, a loud, stomach-churning shattering noise could be heard, followed by Tech’s voice screaming in agony.

Everypony looked in that direction to see Tech Specs stumble back into a wall. She hit the wall, and slid down to the floor. Upon closer inspection, the ponies noticed that Tech’s horn was broken almost to the base, shards of the ultra-hard bone scattered about the workshop floor, accompanied by small spatters of blood. “OH MY GOODNESS!” exclaimed Rarity as she and Twilight sprinted to the unicorn’s side. “Somepony get a doctor!”

“On it!” shouted Blades as he sprinted out the workshop door and the shop.

“Tech?! Tech?!” pleaded Twilight as she held the blue unicorn’s head, a couple small trails of blood running from the remnant of her horn down her goggles. “Tech?! Speak to me!”

But, Tech said nothing still. Again, she focused on Rainbow Dash, and once again, her horn,or what was left of it by that point, began to glow. Rainbow Dash was still trying to picture herself flying, when, suddenly, she did. Her metal wings spread and flapped once, getting her airborne, and then began flapping consistently to keep her in the air. After a few seconds, though, she let herself down and joined Rarity and Twilight by Tech Specs’ side.

Tech groaned loudly from the pain, but slowly stopped, and began whispering to herself. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity listened, only hearing a few words: “Uhrwerk... it hurts so much... Uhrwerk... I did it... it worked... it worked...”

With her words said, Tech grew silent, the reflections in her eyes disappeared, and she exhaled one final time.