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Prologue1,684 words
Chapter One4,111 words
Chapter Two8,547 words
Chapter Three4,101 words
Chapter Four Part I4,421 words
Chapter Four Part II7,509 words
Chapter Five Part I5,271 words
Chapter Five Part II8,479 words
Montepluma Part I1,342 words
Montepluma Part II1,211 words
Chapter Six1,573 words
Chapter Seven5,490 words
Chapter Eight3,341 words
Chapter Nine4,755 words
Montepluma III1,964 words
Mac and Feather go Fishing5,164 words
Chapter Ten4,402 words
Chapter Eleven4,454 words
Montepluma Part IV2,662 words
Chapter Twelve4,991 words
Chapter Thirteen4,371 words

Chapter Four Part II

Diamond Tiara shook her head as she, Scootaloo, and Feather ran through town. “I can not believe you did that, Feather!” she hissed as they rounded a corner behind a shop and stopped in an alley. “Your name should be Feather-brain, you idiot!”

The colt ignored her insults as he checked around the corner to make sure they weren’t followed. “I only did what I had to do. I don’t see why you’re getting so worked up about it.”

Scootaloo pounced on Feather, forcing him to the ground. “You broke into the schoolhouse! Of course we’re going to get worked up about something like that!”

Feather struggled helplessly against the pegasus filly. “I had to learn the layout of the place! What if I have to escape on Monday?”

Tiara sat down in front of him and shoved her hoof in his face. “That doesn’t excuse picking the lock on Cheerilee's desk!”

Feather pulled his head away from the dusty pink hoof. “It worked out, didn’t it? You got that paper you needed, didn’t you?”

Diamond Tiara glared down at the colt. “You’re lucky about that much, at least.” The earth filly motioned for Scootaloo to let Feather up. “But, what if Cheerilee had been there? She prepares her lessons on the weekend, and I doubt she would take kindly to her newest student rummaging around without permission.”

Scootaloo sighed loudly, and shifted her weight off of the colt. “Hey, little prissy princess, you mind keeping an eye on him for a while?” She glanced back at her wing, and the folded piece of paper tucked between her feathers. “I wanna go fill out this form and stick it in a mailbox.”

“What?” Tiara stomped over to the pegasus. “First off, don’t call me that. Second, you’re not touching that paper without me. Your wings may be clean, but your hooves are all covered in sap. What if you mess something up?” The earth pony brushed at her shoulders and turned to Feather. “Hey, do you have something you can go do while we work on this?”

“Uh-uh.” Scootaloo shook her head wildly. “We are not leaving him alone, I don’t care how long. The way things have been going this morning, he’ll probably end up stealing the Elements of Harmony without even trying!”

Feather just shrugged. He hadn’t even bothered getting up. “Is there some sort of reason why I can’t be around while you fill out my entrance form?”

“All right Feather,” Tiara challenged. She walked over to him and lowered her head, bringing them snout to snout. “If you can answer three of my questions, you can help us.” She leaned back and cleared her throat. “Question one: why did your family move to Ponyville?”

Feather picked himself up and dusted himself off. “It’s just me and my dad, and he’s here because of work.”

Tiara nodded thoughtfully. “Is that so? What kind of work?”

Feather thought about that a little bit. “Construction and stuff. He’s an engineer.”

“Really?” The earth pony filly smiled a confident smile. “Where?”

“Shoot!” The colt brought a hoof to his face. “I didn’t even think about that. I’ve never stayed in a small town this long. In a city, if you mention construction, no one ever thinks twice about it, because there are too many construction companies to keep track of.”

“See? You need to let Scooter-girl and me handle this, because we know the town.” She glanced out of the alley and started walking, forcing the other two to follow her. “And, while we’re busy concentrating, we need to find something productive for you to do.” The earth pony glanced over at the paper that Scootaloo carried. “Preferably, something supervised.”

“Like what?” The orange pegasus pulled up alongside her and scoffed. “I don’t want him anywhere near my friends, and he freaks out around adults.”

“Hmm... We’ll find something.” Diamond Tiara looked back at Feather. “Hey, what were you planning on doing today?”

The colt turned to Diamond Tiara with a serious and determined look on his face. “The same thing I do every day, Tiara; try to fix the machine.”

She nodded. “Makes sense. So why doesn't your thing work yet, anyway?”

Feather blinked. “Parts, mostly. Sometimes I need to replace parts that wear out over time from failed repairs, and other times I need something more specialized and… expensive to make modifications. Other than that, it’s probably just that I don’t understand everything that’s written in my dad’s journal. Not yet, anyway.”

Tiara looked at his bag as they walked. “Well, what do you need now?”

He sighed, stopped, and rummaged through his bag for a while until he found a rather simple metal piece, smooth and round. He showed it to them both, but they simply shrugged, looking clueless. “This is a carrier shaft. It’s responsible for the movement of all the other gears in my machine, but this one’s just a blank.” At their similarly blank looks, he explained, “It doesn’t have any teeth cut in it. As far as I know, there are only two ponies in town that can make this part. One of them is Pinkie Pie, but I had a run-in with her at the parts shop, and don’t want to take the chance that she’ll figure out what I’m doing. The other one is that unicorn librarian, I forgot her name, but-”

“Twilight Sparkle.” Scootaloo finished. She sighed loudly. “But she may be onto us, or rather, me.”

Tiara scratched the back of her head for bit. “Perfect! You said that she’s onto you, right, Scootaloo?” The pegasus filly nodded. “Then just send him. We can fill out the form, and he can get his part made.” Tiara smiled proudly. “It’s the perfect plan.”

Scootaloo gave the other filly an odd look, but said nothing.

Feather, on the other hoof, was a little more vocal with his disdain for the plan. “You want to send me in there with her, alone? Are you two crazy?!”

Scootaloo turned to him and grunted. “Leave me out of it, it’s her plan.” She glanced over at the pink filly and rolled her eyes, not liking what she was about to say. “But, she does have a point. Eventually, you're going to need Twilight or Pinkie to fix that machine of yours. If you ask Twilight to do it, then me being there would just complicate things.” She lifted her head and eyed her surroundings, spying a large tree among the town’s buildings. She nodded her head towards it. “Well, we aren’t that far from the library, let’s head there now.”

Diamond Tiara put a hoof on Feather’s shoulder as Scootaloo walked away. “Just remain calm, and say that your dad needs that part. If you say it with plenty of confidence, she’ll buy it. ‘Kay?”

He shifted nervously, but nodded in agreement. Without a word, they started following Scootaloo towards the library, stopping only when they stood before the library door.

“What if she wants to be paid?” Tiara asked bluntly. “How many bits will it cost?”

Feather looked over at her. “What are you asking me for? I don’t even know if she’ll do it.”

“Look who came prepared,” Diamond said snarkily, shoving a rather large bag filled to the brim with shiny bits in his face. “Here, thirty five bits. It’s all I have with me, so make sure it doesn’t cost more than that.” Feather gingerly took the bag, and Diamond Tiara threw a hoof around Scootaloo’s neck. “We’ll be back, just, um, stay calm like Scootaloo said.”

“Uh.” The pegasus pushed the other filly’s hoof away. “What are you doing?”

The earth pony filly leaned in close to the pegasus. “We need to go,” she whispered, “before Feather loses his nerve.”

Scootaloo leaned over. “And leave him with all the bits you have?” She sighed. “Have you forgotten, oh, I don’t know, all the stuff he already stole from you?”

Tiara leaned in a little closer. “Aren’t you getting a little hung up on mallow puffs and salt crackers?”

Scootaloo leaned in a bit more. “I don’t care if it was bobby pins and bottle caps.” The two filly’s butted their heads together. “It’s the principle of it.”

“The principle of what?”

Both fillies let out a shrill yelp, grabbing each other and jumping towards the library door in an effort to get away from the new voice behind them. They looked back to see a small purple dragon, a little smaller than they were, carrying a stack of books piled higher than his head, blocking his view of the world in front of him. Synchronous sighs escaped their lips, and they quickly shoved each other away.

“Nothing, Spike.” Scootaloo cleared her throat and to the Spike’s side, letting the dragon see her despite his wordy cargo. “We’re just dropping Feather off at the library.”

“Feather? He’s that new colt Pinkie threw the party for, right?” Spike started walking, slowly and carefully to keep the books balanced. “Cool, I fell asleep at the party, and didn’t get to meet him.”

Diamond Tiara moved out of Spike’s way as walked towards the library door. Feather, meanwhile, sat and stared while the dragon moved towards him. All he could see was a pair of purple legs propelling the books forwards. “What is that?!” he asked.

“Uh, it’s all the over-due library books from everypony in town. What’s it look like?” Spike leaned his head to peer past his cargo. “Are you Feather? Cool, good to meet ya.” He looked past the colt for a moment. “Um, could you get the door? My claws are kinda full.”

Feather just stared. He had never seen a dragon before, but he had heard of them, and he couldn’t think of anything else Spike could be. His reptilian appearance, scales, claws, and spines certainly matched every story the young colt had heard about dragons. There was just one thing that didn’t: his size.

Spike glanced back at Scootaloo as she slapped a hoof to her face. He then looked back at Feather. “Um, door’s unlocked, dude.”

“Huh?” Feather blinked, slowly coming back to his senses. “Oh, right!” He nearly tripped over himself to get to the door, silently admonishing himself for being taken so off guard. He opened the large wooden door and let Spike walk past him. He glanced back at the two fillies behind him. They smiled, waved, and ran off, leaving the colt alone on the library’s front step. With a heavy sigh, he walked through the still open door, following Spike as he deposited his books on a table in the center of the main room. The colt recognized the table from the party, though it seemed to have been moved since then. It wasn’t the only thing, either. As he looked around, Feather noticed a lot of things that had been rearranged from yesterday’s party.

Spike chuckled, picking up a piece of paper and a quill from a nearby shelf as he watched the colt’s head pivot around. “It looks different doesn’t it? Pinkie goes a little overboard with her parties, but that’s what makes ’em so great.” He nodded to himself, briefly reliving the festivities. “That, and the food.”

“Oh, um, yeah.” Feather winced. It didn’t seem like Twilight was there, and now he was stuck making small talk. He looked over at the creature standing by the table. “Um, it was Spike, right?”

Spike looked over. “Yep.” He started taking notes on the paper, referring to the books every so often. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“Ah.” Feather nodded awkwardly. If there was any one thing he was bad at, any one thing he hated, it would be small talk. He forced his mouth to say something, anything. “You’re a dragon, right?”

Yep. Reasons he hated small talk, exhibit A.

Spike didn’t look up from his notes, but a smirk definitely crossed his face. “Did the scales give it away?” He finished up his notes with a flourish and rolled up the paper. He looked over at Feather with a smile. “I’m just messin’ with ya, dude. You’ve never seen a dragon before, have you?”

Feather shook his head slowly. “No.” He wasn’t sure how dragons aged, but Spike seemed to be about his age, maybe a little younger. “So, what do you do here?”

“I’m Twilight’s assistant. She’s the librarian, but she’s usually too busy to actually do anything in the library.” He tied a deep blue ribbon around the note and held it up for Feather to see. “What do you think? We ran out of red, and the price went up, so I went with the blue. It still looks ok, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Feather forced a smile. “It looks fine.” He had no clue why the dragon was asking him, and he had no idea why he even wrapped the scroll up like that in the first place. “I guess?”

The dragon’s shoulders slumped. “You don’t like it.” He closed an empty claw into a fist and hit his empty palm in frustration. “I knew I should have gone with gold.”

“What?! No!” Feather waved a hoof in front of him. “It’s not that!” He scratched at his mane. The dragon seemed a bit overly concerned about his ribbon choice. “It’s, uh, just that, um… Why did you roll it up like that anyway?”

Spike looked down at the paper and shrugged. “It makes it easier to send.”

Feather’s head tilted to the side. “Send? Wouldn’t an envelope be a better-”

Before the colt could finish, Spike took a deep breath and lifted the paper high above him. He blew out a small puff of green flame, incinerating the paper before Feather’s eyes. Spike watched as the ashes scattered in the air. “Twilight will tell me if blue’s ok.”

Feather’s mouth hung open as he stared at the dragon’s now empty claw. “Why did you just-”

A sound like thunder shook the library, rattling the windows and sending Feather darting under the table to hide. The sound was immediately followed by a harsh yell.

“SPIIIIIIIIIKE!”

From his hiding spot, Feather could see tendrils of dark smoke flowing from around one of the doors along a far wall.

The colt heard a whispered, “oops,” from the dragon, and the door burst open, revealing a purple unicorn covered in patches of soot. Spike lifted a claw in greeting. “Hey, Twilight! How’s it going?”

“It’s not!” The unicorn stomped over to the table. “It’s going exactly nowhere, because somepony decided to send a piece of paper, and a whole bunch of dragon magic, straight into the middle of a very delicate experiment.”

The young dragon scratched at his spines. “I thought that wasn’t scheduled until this afternoon.”

With a loud groan, Twilight smacked a hoof to her forehead. “I forgot to tell you, Rainbow Dash had to cancel the book club meeting to get ready for tomorrow.”

“Oh, so you moved the experiment to this morning, and I just ruined it.” Spike looked at the ground. “Sorry.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, Spike, I should be the one to apologize, for yelling at you, for my own mistake. But, what was that paper you sent me?”

Spike pointed at the books on the table. “It was a list of those, the over-due books from around town. Didn’t you read it?”

Twilight brought the books towards her with her magic. “No, it was vaporized, just like the rest of my experiment.” She studied the titles on the spines. “There seem to be a few missing. Unless I’m mistaken, the missing books are the ones Thunderlane borrowed.”

“Yeah.” Spike scratched at his neck. “I couldn’t find him, and I don’t know where he lives.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to ask the next weather pegasus I see about that.” Twilight floated the books over to the shelves, and started putting them away. “Was that it, Spike?”

“No, I wanted to ask you if the new ribbon color was ok.” Spike took the quill off the table and put it back on the shelf. “Oh, and Feather came by to visit.”

The last of the books fell to the ground as Twilight’s attention snapped to the dragon. “Feather? Really?” Her head swiveled back and forth, searching the library for any sign of the young colt. “Aw, I must have missed him. What did he want?”

Spike walked over to the fallen book and picked it up. “Ask him yourself, he’s under the table.” The dragon turned the book over in his claws, studying the cover. “A cookbook! Hey, that reminds me, It’s almost lunch and I haven’t cleaned up the mess from breakfast.” He stuffed the book on the nearest shelf and ran for the kitchen, looking back without slowing down. “It was nice meeting you, Feather. Drop by again when I have some free time, we can hang out!”

Feather watched him go from under the table. “Uh, sure,” he lied, “that sounds great.” The colt had no intention of ever coming back, but he wasn’t about to say so.

Twilight stared after Spike for a moment, then slowly craned her neck to look under the table. Much to her surprise, the young colt from the party was there, saddlebags and all. “Feather, what are you doing under there?”

The colt looked over at her with a serious expression on his face. “Maybe you forgot, but there was an explosion.”

“Oh, that.” Twilight laughed nervously, glancing back and forth as she scratched at her mane, knocking out loose clumps of soot. “You kind of get used to it after a while.”

Feather blinked. “I hope not.”

Twilight stopped scratching. “Anyway,” she said slowly, stepping away from the table, “why don’t you come on out and make yourself comfortable? I promise there won’t be any more...” She stopped for a moment, shook the soot off her coat, and walked over to a nearby couch. “There shouldn’t be any more explosions.” She sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. “Why don’t you tell me what brings you here?” Feather crawled out from under the table, but stayed beside it, making no move to act on Twilight’s gesture of sitting next to her. “I see,” she muttered quietly. She cleared her throat and straightened up on the couch, forcing a smile to her face. “You know, I never got a chance to say good night after the party. You just sort of disappeared.”

“Yeah, I tend to do that.” He chuckled nervously. Something about the librarian put him on edge, but he couldn’t quite place it. It was something more than the fact that she was a grown-up, and more than just the questions she was asking. Speaking of which, he had to steer the conversation away from himself. “I am pretty good at disappearing, maybe I should become a magician. But, I’m sure you know more about it than I do.”

“Well, uh…” She shrugged, then disappeared in a flash of green light. She materialized next to feather, just out of the colt’s sight. “I‘m pretty good at it as well.”

“Gaah!” Feather dove away from her voice, clutching his hat tightly to his head, almost as if was expecting a bomb to fall on his head. He didn’t hold on to his saddlebags, though, and inertia sent them flying farther than he went. Mechanical parts and party leftovers scattered across the floor, accompanied by a loud pop and several small crunches as something heavy flattened a bag of chips.

“Oh! Feather, I’m so sorry.” Twilight went to help the colt up. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

He shrunk away from the unicorn’s touch, quickly jumping away from her. He didn’t say anything, he just stared at her, breathing heavily.

“Feather?” She took a step forward, and he stepped back without thinking. She stopped for a moment, seeing the fear in the young pony’s reaction. He was way too scared for it to be because of her. “Feather, are you ok?”

His breathing started to slow down, and his eye glanced around the room. “Y-yeah.” He stared blankly at the mess of salt, sugar, and steel that now covered the library floor. “Heh. I made a mess didn’t I?” He sheepishly looked up at Twilight. “I’ll just clean it up and get going.”

“You don’t have to.” The unicorn took a step towards the colt. Her hoof squished something that could have been either cake or cookies and cheese. She lifted her hoof to get a better look at it, eventually taking a tentative sniff. “Feather, are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m sure.” Feather nodded. “Really, I’m...”

She held out her food-covered hoof to stop him. “Feather, this-” She stopped herself and pulled her hoof back. “Feather, why do you have all this?”

“The parts?” The colt fidgeted. “Uh, they’re my dad’s, he’s an engineer, and these are... um-“

“I meant the food.” Twilight wiped her hoof on the floor and walked over to Feather. “These are leftovers from the party. Why are you carrying them around?”

The colt unconsciously leaned away from her. Without looking at her, he muttered the best lie he could think of, “M- my dad’s not the best cook.”

Twilight nodded. “I see. Pinkie can be crazy sometimes, but she makes really good food.” She smiled and put a hoof on the colt’s shoulder. Her smile faded almost immediately. “Feather, you’re shaking. Have you eaten anything besides sweets since the party?”

“Maybe I should go.” Feather backed away from her, stepping on a spring. He looked down at the parts littering the floor. No matter how much he wanted to leave, he couldn’t. Not until he picked up his pieces.

Twilight saw his concern with the parts, and picked one up with her magic. It was a pitted bronze-colored gear with worn teeth. She examined it closely. “Feather, what does your dad do with these parts? Most of them are broken, and others aren’t going to last long.” She moved the gear over to him. “This one alone will probably snap if it’s put under any stress.”

“What?” Feather snatched it out of the air with his hoof. He sat down and started examining it, seemingly absorbed by that one piece. He turned it over in his hooves, examining it for cracks. Then, he held it up to his ear and tapped it, listening to the chime of the metal. “Are you sure? How can-“ He stopped and gulped. He looked over at Twilight.

“They’re yours, aren’t they?” Twilight sat down. “I don’t know why you thought you had to hide it. I think it’s great that a young pony like you has an interest in mechanical engineering. How did you get into it?”

Feather gulped again. He was trapped, completely and utterly trapped. “My dad really was- is an engineer. He, uh, lets me use the pieces he doesn’t need anymore.”

“Oh.” Twilight flipped over a piece on the floor in front of her. “Is that why they’re all broken?”

“No.” Feather started gathering the pieces closest to him into a pile. “A few of them were, but it’s mostly my fault that pieces keep breaking.” He stared at the pile for a moment. “How do you know that piece is going to break?”

“Magic,” she lied. The gear she looked at was pretty beat up, but as far as she could tell, it was still structurally sound. It was a lie she had used to draw information out of the colt. “There’s a stress fault in the metal’s crystalline structure. It may not break immediately, but one of these days it will.” She felt bad about tricking him, but he had lied first; and technically, it was true--the part would eventually fail. “So, have you made any friends yet?”

Feather slowly looked up. “Uh, sure. Two of ‘em in fact, Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara. Why?”

“Just curious, I know what it’s like to be the new pony in town and have to make friends.” She smiled at the memory. “It was this town in fact, and I wanted nothing more than to be left alone. But I made friends, even if it was against my will, and they changed my life.” She suddenly shook her head as what he said finally impacted her. “Wait, did you say Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara?”

Feather nodded slowly.

“I see.” Twilight scratched her ear. “Um, I heard those two don’t exactly like each other.”

Feather nodded slowly.

“Oh. Okay.” Twilight went silent for a moment, watching Feather pick at the parts. “Let me get that, Feather. I can clean it up faster with my magic.”

“Oh, um, thanks.” Feather stepped back from the pile. “I guess.”

A purple glow surrounded all the metal pieces on the ground and they lifted into the air and started arranging themselves into various groups, sorting by type of part. “I’ll get the food later. So, you mentioned Scootaloo, I’m guessing you two patched things up? I’m glad to see you aren’t upset at her for what she said at the party.”

Feather just sat there, watching his parts as they danced above him.

Twilight tilted her head to the side. This colt was confusing to say the least. “Feather?” There was no response, so Twilight tried being a bit louder. “Hello? Feather?”

The colt shook himself from whatever thoughts occupied his mind, and looked over.

“You have an interesting pair of friends.” Twilight set the parts on the ground in three neat piles, separating gears, screws, and springs. “How did you end up becoming friends with them? And how did you do it so quickly?”

Feather looked away and grimaced. He couldn’t exactly tell her the entire story, but if he lied, she might ask one of the two fillies, and he would be in a world of hurt if their stories didn’t match up. “I guess we all just, um, had something in common.”

“Oh?” Twilight grabbed Feather’s saddlebags in her magic and brought them over.

The colt cleared his throat. “Well, we’re all grounded. An earth pony, a pegasus that hasn’t learned to fly, and, well…” He extended his one wing and shrugged. He then saw that Twilight wasn’t paying attention to him at all. The unicorn was staring at the pair of saddlebags she held aloft. The look on her face scared Feather. It was one of curiosity.

Feather ran forward to snatch the bags away, but slipped on a patch of smeared frosting from one of the cupcakes scattered along the floor. With friction taking a short vacation, he slid and crashed into an end-table with a large statue on it.

“Feather!” Twilight dropped the bags and grabbed the statue in a cloud of purple light just as it fell. For a moment, neither pony moved. “Feather, are you ok?”

The colt stared up at the unicorn statue that was about to flatten him, and slowly inched away from it. He rushed over to his bags and picked them up. His machine had fallen out when it fell, and he shoved it back into the bag. He couldn’t tell if Twilight had seen it, but right now, he didn’t care. He was leaving.

Twilight moved the statue to a corner instead of putting it back where it was. “I’m sorry, Feather, I shouldn’t have something dangerous like that in the common areas.” She turned around, only to see Feather tossing mechanical parts into his bags as fast as his hooves could move. “Feather?”

“Huh?” He looked up for a second before returning to his task. “Oh, I, uh, I’ve gotta go. Nice meeting you and all that, but I stayed too long. I’m going to be late.”

“Oh, I hope I didn’t keep you too long.” Twilight used her magic to help the rest of the parts into the bag, and Feather shot for the door after a very quick nod of thanks. “Before you leave, what you said earlier, about Scootaloo not knowing how to fly, don’t her parents teach her?”

Feather slammed to a stop.

“I mean…” Twilight scratched at her mane. “I don’t know how it is for pegasi, but most unicorns first learn to use magic from their parents. Well, controlled magic, at least. This can be difficult if the parents aren’t unicorns.”

Feather turned back slowly.

“The point I’m getting at is, do you know if her parents are pegasi? Of all the young pegasi in town, I think she’s the only one who can’t fly.” Twilight walked over to him. “I should probably talk to them. I have plenty of books on flight and flight training. Do you know where she lives?”

Feather swallowed hard. “Uh, yeah, but I’m sure they’re doing fine.” Sweat started to drip from his forehead. This trip was not going well. “Scootaloo just doesn’t seem like the type of pony that listens to instructions.”

Twilight sighed. “You’re probably right.”

“Yeah.” On the outside, Feather smiled. On the inside, his heart was trying to break free from the colt’s ribcage. That was such a close call.

“Still…” Twilight retrieved Spike’s writing tools and started writing. “I should go talk to them later. I’m just going to make a note so I don’t forget.”

Feather wanted to cry. He was so close to getting out of there. “Actually, uh, I had something I needed to talk to you about.”

“Really?” Twilight set the pen and paper on the table. “I thought you were going to be late for something.”

“That?” The colt shrugged. Every word out of his mouth from this point on could unravel everything, and not just for him. His only hope was to get that paper and pray that the librarian’s memory was really as bad she suggested. “Nah, I just wanted to get to Time Turner’s shop before they closed.”

Twilight blinked. “Time Turner’s shop doesn’t close, ever.”

The colt did a double-take. “Huh?”

Twilight walked away from the table. “I know. It’s odd, but Time Turner lives in his shop. You could stop by there in the dead of the night, and he’d be there to help you.”

“Well,” the colt said with fake enthusiasm, “more time to talk to you then!” He ended his sentence with a nervous laugh.

“Uh, ok.” The colt’s sudden change in demeanor, worried her, but she tried not to focus on it. “What did you want to talk about?” She quietly watched him rummage around in his saddlebag. After a few moments, he pulled out a small piece of metal. Unlike the pieces that had scattered earlier, it was shiny and new, displaying no sign of wear. It also had an odd, blue sheen. “Is that magically-aligned steel?”

“Uh, yeah.” Feather looked at the part he held. Even though he knew what to look for, he could barely make out the blue tint. “Time Turner said you would know what to do with it. I guess he was right.”

Twilight lifted the part with her magic. “It would be better to say that I know how to work with it.” She turned it over several times, examining it closely. “Why did you bring it to me? I don’t have a clue what this is even supposed to be.”

While the librarian was distracted, Feather edged his way towards the table. “It’s part of a planetary gearing system.”

“Planetary gearing… is it… a carrier shaft?” Twilight ran her hoof over the part. “But it looks it’s just a regular shaft, I may not be an engineer, but isn’t it supposed to have some kind of point to hold it from?”

“That’s why my-” Feather caught himself mid-lie. “That’s why I brought it to you.” Twilight had already found out that the other parts were his, and he didn’t need the hassle of keeping any more lies straight. “I need teeth cut into it for something I’m working on.”

“Feather, a planetary gearing system is highly complicated. I would need detailed blueprints just to get started on this.” She tapped the part with a hoof. Examining it further, she caught sight of the series of lines on the endcap, marking the part’s strength, and her eyes widened slightly. “Also, doesn’t this part seem a little over-built? It shows here that it’s grade seven. That’s only used in high stress machinery.”

“Uh…” Feather lightly bounced from hoof to hoof, trying to think of a plausible explanation. After a few seconds, he realized that the truth, or at least a simplification of it, was the best answer. “I didn’t want it to break like the last one. I can pay you to make it if you want. I brought some bits with me.”

“I see.” Twilight set the part on the table and walked over to Feather. “Well, do you have any sort of plan or blueprint for whatever it is you’re making? I’ll need something to use as a model.”

“Oh, of course.” Feather wasn’t about to show her his father’s notebook. Besides, this was the chance he was waiting for. “Can I have some paper?”

“There’s some on the table, use as much as you need.” Twilight let out a soft sigh. She could only assume he was making up his plan as he went, in the bricoleur fashion of a talented amateur. She had learned the hard way that improvised experiments tend to fail, and it looked like Feather had yet to learn that lesson. Of course, there was always a chance for logic to prevail. “So, Feather, how much thought have you put into this project of yours?”

He picked up the quill. “A lot.” The colt looked over at Twilight. She turned around and walked towards the couch, leaving him to work. He immediately swiped her note from the stack of paper and stuffed it under his wing.

Twilight saw it, but didn’t say anything as she sat down on the couch. She had started to get the feeling that there was something wrong, but she couldn’t quite put a hoof on what it was. Feather’s actions now only served to confuse her further, but told her that Scootaloo was involved somehow. “So, what are you building?”

The colt hesitated as he reached for a blank piece of paper. “A new means of transportation.”

Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “Some sort of vehicle?”

Feather chuckled nervously as he set the quill to work. “Something like that.”

Twilight watched the colt work in silence. She couldn’t figure him out. Something was off, and she had to figure out what. She let him work for a few minutes before interrupting him. “Say, Feather, it’s getting close to lunch, would you care to stay and eat while you finish working?”

The colt glanced back for a moment. “That’s ok, I’m almost done.” He gave a pained look to the food scraps that still covered the floor. “I’ll just go eat at home.”

“Are you sure? It’s no trouble to cook for one extra pony.” Twilight got up and walked over to him. “Besides, it will give Spike a chance to show off his cooking skills.” She held a hoof up to the side of her mouth, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “And, between you and me, he loves to show off.”

“I’m sure.” Feather made a few last marks on the paper and dropped the quill. “Well, here’s what I need.”

“Let me see.” Twilight leaned over the table and inspected the colt’s work. What she saw was unexpected, and she felt her jaw drop. “Feather, this is… well, ‘impressive’ doesn’t quite cut it.” On the page were before and after views of the carrier shaft. There were several different perspectives, top-down, front-view, side-view, and even an axonometric view. The drawing was clean, no smudges or smears of ink. Each view was scaled the same, had a background grid, and had clearly marked units. “You must have a very practiced hoof, these diagrams are perfect.”

“Uh, thanks.” Feather looked at his diagram again. Was it really that good? This was the first time he’d ever received a compliment like that. This was the first time he’d ever had feedback of any kind. A part of him wanted to ask for more of an explanation, but most of him wanted to end the conversation and leave. “Do you think you can make this?”

The librarian scratched her head. “I should be able to, but…”

Feather looked up at her with a small groan. “How much is this going to cost?”

“No, no.” Twilight laughed. She put a hoof on the colt’s shoulder. “It’s not that. I’m not going to take your bits, Feather. You don’t have to pay me to do this.”

“You mean, you’ll do it for free?” He looked at the hoof on his shoulder. “Why would you do that?”

Twilight could feel the suspicion in the colt’s words. “Why wouldn’t I? I’m a librarian, it’s my job to promote learning, and to assist any Ponyville resident in their quest for knowledge.”

“Oh.” Feather looked down. “Can I go then?”

“Oh, not yet.” Twilight gestured to some of the numbers on the diagram. “I need you to change all the units to metric. Feel free to use as much paper as you want to do the math, but I can’t work with the plans in royal standard.”

With a quiet groan, Feather grabbed another sheet of paper and started his calculations.

Twilight stood over his shoulder and watched. “Sorry about this.”

Feather gave the quill a stunted wave. “Yeah, no problem.”

Twilight was impressed by how quickly he was working through the conversions, but with sheer number of measurements, even at the speed he was going, it should take him at least half an hour to finish. “Since you’re going to be here a while, do you think I could change your mind about lunch?”

Feather’s ear twitched. He paused for a moment, lifting his borrowed quill from the paper. It had been a while since breakfast, and he was starting to feel hungry. With a defeated sigh, he replied, “Sure.”

“Great!” Twilight clapped her hooves together. “What do you want?”

The colt looked over at the librarian. “Huh?”

“You heard me, pick anything.” The unicorn smiled proudly. “I bet you a bit Spike can make anything you can think of.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Feather looked down. “Pick a food, huh?”

Twilight nodded. “Yep.”

The colt sighed. It had been a while since he had a good meal, he was having trouble remembering foods that weren’t packaged. After several seconds of thought, he blurted out the last warm meal he had before coming to Ponyville. “Monte Cristo Sandwiches.”

“Really?” The unicorn winced. “Deep-fried cheese sandwiches, isn’t that a bit heavy for lunch?”

Feather waved a hoof in front of him. “I’m fine with anything, really. I just said the first thing that came to mind.”

“It’s just-” Twilight sighed. “I’ll go tell Spike, it shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.” She turned around and headed for the kitchen, muttering under her breath, “Rainbow’s going to kill me for going off my diet again...”

Spike was standing on a stool and drying off freshly washed dishes when the unicorn walked into the kitchen. “Hey, Twi.” The little dragon waved with a plate before setting it with its brethren. “What did Feather want?”

The librarian walked to the refrigerator. “Monte Cristo Sandwiches.”

Spike blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Feather wanted some help with a bit of magic, and I invited him to stay for lunch.” Twilight paused for a moment with her hoof on the fridge handle. “Spike, do you remember the first time we had Monte Cristo sandwiches?”

The dragon laughed as he climbed down from his stool. “How could I forget? That Gryphon ambassador was madder than a manticore when you teleported his food out the window.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “We’ve been through this. That was an accident, Spike. And I heard things got patched up pretty quickly after we left.”

“Ok.” Spike nodded and chuckled. “He was still pretty mad, though.”

The unicorn sighed. “Yes, yes he was.”

The dragon pushed his stool to a different part of the kitchen. “What are you getting at, Twi?”

Twilight pulled the fridge open and dug through it. “How many ponies do you know who know about Monte Cristo sandwiches, besides me?”

Spike tapped a claw against the leg of the stool. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Gilda.” Twilight pulled cheese and butter from the fridge and tossed them on the counter.

Spike climbed the stool and checked a breadbox on the counter. They had just under half a loaf of bread left. “Then, how about Fluttershy?”

Twilight set some eggs on the counter, in a much gentler manner than she handled the other ingredients. “Anypony else? And, don’t you dare say the royal chefs.”

The dragon sat down on the stool and poked at his chin. He would have spun around if the stool allowed it. “I’ve got nothin’.” He kicked his legs idly. “Why? Is this important?”

“I don’t know, Spike.” Twilight gathered a pan and various utensils. “I don’t think it is. At least, it shouldn’t be, but there’s a few things about Feather that don’t seem to add up like they should.”

One of the dragon’s eyebrows lifted skyward. “Do you think he’s a spy?”

Twilight nearly dropped the utensils she was carrying. “What? No!” She set them near the stove. “Why would you even say that, he’s just a colt.”

“Then what’s the big deal?” Spike hopped off his stool and pushed it towards the stove. “Last time you couldn’t understand somepony, you ended up stalking Pinkie Pie.”

Twilight pointed a hoof at Spike. “That wasn’t stalking,” she corrected. “It was research.“

“Ok, ok.” Spike climbed the stool and turned on the stove. “As long as I don’t have to send a letter to Princess Celestia that you were sta- sorry, researching a young colt.”

Twilight groaned. “Spike, this is serious. What if Feather’s in trouble?”

The dragon buttered the pan and picked up a spatula. “What kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know, Spike, that’s what I’m trying to figure out.” She moved the breadbox closer to the stove so Spike could reach it. “He’s nervous, and I’m pretty sure he’s been lying to me about something.” She paused. “A lot of somethings.”

The first slice of bread sizzled as Spike tossed it in the pan. “What are you going to do?”

“I should probably talk to his father.” The librarian sighed quietly. “You know, I think he’s better at math than I was at his age. Even though he’s a pegasus, he would be a shoe-in for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I should probably-” The sound of a slamming door interrupted her. “Feather,” she called out, “was that you?”

There was no response.

“Feather?” She walked out to the library common area. There was no sign of the colt. On the table, the plans were marked with the conversions she had asked for, conversions she didn’t need and could have easily done in her head. She stared at the papers and shook her head. “What’s wrong, Feather?” she asked quietly, knowing he couldn’t hear her. “What are you hiding?”

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Feather Steel - Cold Spike

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