#4 - Island Hop

Island Hop

Techorse Series #4

By Spirals 95

“We’re finally going to get some rest and relaxation.” sighed Rarity as the ship started to approach the island, “and this breeze feels great in my hair.”

Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had left on a ship for a vacation. The four had planned on it for a long time, and received a discount through a friend. The island was inhabited by Zecora’s people, a grand society of zebras, who both lived in peaceful tribes and a more modern city area on the other side of the island. Since they had contact with the mainland only through a handful of zebras living there, they issued discount resort stays to any pony who knew a zebra. As a result, the four were getting a chance to spend a week in tropical paradise. The others would have come too, but Applejack had work, Fluttershy wanted to stay to take care of everybody’s houseplants and pets, and Techorse had been on the edge of beginning to sell a new invention he was working on. The small yacht had made the voyage with the four friends from a shore many miles from Ponyville, and the ride out to the island took six hours on average. They had been traveling since early in the morning. But all the hassle to get out was going to pay off. They were going on a trip that they were sure they were going to enjoy.

“Just look at the island!” squealed Pinkie Pie as she jumped up and down, “So many beaches, so many jungles, this is going to be fun!”

“Careful Pinkie Pie, don’t fall overboard again.” warned Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle was sitting on a deck chair on board the ship and leafed through a brochure about the island.

“It says here.” She said, “That there are over 500 different activities to do on the island. We’d better start planning what we’d like to do.”

Rainbow Dash complained, “Does everything have to be by the book? Can’t we just have some fun and forget about things for once, Twilight?”

Twilight giggled and said, “I guess not, but if you waste all your time in one spot and miss something, don’t blame me.”

“What are we going to do first after we get to the cabin?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Actually Pinkie Pie, remember, Techorse upgraded us to a hotel stay on him.” reminded Rarity as she swished her curly blue-purple hair, “That was nice of him. We’ll not be bitten by bugs on this trip.”

Pinkie Pie scoffed, “I don’t care about that! What are we going to do so our brains don’t fall out from boredom?”

Twilight suggested, “Well, there’s a jungle tour leaving in thirty minutes after we dock. It’ll be a chance to see the tropical wildlife.”

Rainbow Dash exhaled sharply and said, “Boring. I’m going to the Pegasus pony paragliding extreme sports center! I’ll be out over the ocean, soaring above the rest of ‘em, without even having to flap my wings!”

Rarity said, “While you’re out getting yourself injured, Rainbow Dash, I’ll be checking out the fabulous spas on the resort. The first trip is free with the room, girls, don’t forget that.” Pinkie Pie kept looking at the island, she didn't read anything about the activities, so she was unsure about what she was going to do.

“What to do?” she thought out loud.

“There is a sugarcane farm on the island, Pinkie.” reminded Twilight as she passed the brochure using magic to her friend.

“What’s sugarcane?” she asked as she stared at the picture.

“It’s the plant they make table sugar from. All that white processed sugar in your kitchen is made from these plants.”

Pinkie Pie said slowly, “Sugarcane. Sounds tasty!”

Twilight knew Pinkie Pie was going to get herself sick, and sort of regretted mentioning the sugarcane plantation. The ship soon pulled into the docks, and the crew threw ropes around the bulkhead to secure the vessel in place. The four friends along with the other passengers of the ship disembarked and stood on the docks in the warm sunshine of the tropical sky.

“Oh it’s so warm.” said Rarity in great comfort. They were approached by a zebra wearing a sports cap.

“Welcome to Quagga island ponies, you must be Zecora’s contacts.”

“Hey, how come you don’t talk in rhyme like Zecora?” questioned Pinkie Pie.

The zebra laughed and said in his islanders' accent, “There are two groups of zebra on Quagga, mine doesn’t speak in rhyme. Zecora’s tribe lives mostly on the other half of the island. The name’s Rocky by the way. I’m here to take you to the resort.”

They followed Rocky to a station where tourists were being shuttled to their hotels by train. Eventually, it was their turn, and the friends were on-board the air-condition cars.

From there it took about an hour for the steam train to reach the resort complex. It was a somewhat large building as it was twelve floors high and thirty rooms across. The resort was painted a lovely light yellow color, to match the sand of the beach in front of it. The ocean stretched out into the horizon, and the water was an extremely pleasant light blue color. Twilight could already hear the crashing of the waves from where she was standing, and they hadn't even entered the hotel yet.

“Your bags will be sent right to your rooms.” said Rocky, “This is as far as I take you today. I have to go help clean the golf course now.”

Rarity told him, “Thank you Rocky, goodbye now.” The zebra turned and left them in front of the hotel entrance.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, “Ok, the first thing we do is…” Pinkie Pie ran inside the hotel doors, right up to the front desk, and began pounding away on the call bell with her front hoof.

Another zebra appeared at the desk and asked, “Yes? Do you have reservations miss? Breaking the bell won’t get you to your room faster.”

“Oh”, said Pinkie as she stopped mashing the bell, “we’re the group sent by Zecora! Find us on the list please!” The concierge zebra opened a red book in front of him and began leafing through the back of it to find the reservation.

“Ah, I see. You’re a miss Twilight Sparkle then?” he asked as he pointed to the reservation.

“No, I’m Pinkie Pie!” replied the pony as she jumped up and tapped on her name in the book.

“Ah yes, Miss Pie.” Said the Zebra, “well you do have a room for four here. I’ll get you your room keys.” The others entered the lobby and gave their bags to a bellhop, who threw them on a luggage carrier.

“Pinkie Pie, did you get our reservations in order?” asked Rarity.

“Yup!” cheered Pinkie, “I’m waiting on the guy to come back with the keys.”

The concierge returned with the keys on necklaces and draped one over each of the four ponies.

“Thank you.” said Twilight to the concierge. Finding the elevator, the team went to the third floor to find their rooms.

“Oh this place is so fancy.” said Rarity softly, “Even the elevator’s air conditioned.”

The lift stopped at the third floor, and the doors opened, letting the ponies out into the maze of hallways typical of hotels. It didn't take them long to find their suites, two large adjacent rooms separated by a single door inside. Twilight unlocked the door of the first room, 341, and pushed it open gently. The hotel room was decorated with pastel light blue walls and white floor boarding. On the walls were various beach-styled knick-knacks, including paintings of the surrounding ocean view. For furniture, in addition to two twin beds, there was a white nightstand, a simple table, and a wide dresser with two hoof-blown glass lamps on them. The other room in the suite was a mirror-image copy of this one. Pinkie Pie blew past Twilight Sparkle and leapt onto one of the twin beds.

“I call this one!” she chirped quickly.

“All right Pinkie, you can have that bed. Now girls, how are we going to arrange the rest of us?”

“I’ll stay with Pinkie since we’re going to be having fun on this trip. Rarity’s just going to crab if I stay with her.” suggested Rainbow.

“I will not!” protested Rarity, “I just like to sleep at a reasonable hour, that’s all.”

“Yeah, nine at night.” said Rainbow Dash as she shook her head at Rarity’s “lame” sleep pattern.

“Ok, that’s fine. Rarity and I will stay in the other room.” said Twilight calmly. A knock at the door of the suites brought the bellhop with their bags. Rainbow Dash was shot a nasty look when she was the only pony to not give a tip. Oddly, one of the suitcases was much larger than the other.

“Rarity!” Complained Pinkie, “did you over pack again?”

“No.” said Rarity, “everything in my bag is completely necessary for this trip.” Without saying another word, she dragged her suitcase into the other room.

“She probably packed 50 dresses.” whispered Rainbow to Pinkie.

“More like 1 million.” giggled Pinkie in response. It took the friends roughly ten minutes or so to move their bags around and get settled in to the comfortable rooms. Once they got unpacked and ready for the week ahead, they needed something to do for the rest of the day.

“Now that we’re all ready to go, I suggest we split up and do what we want. Let’s choose a meeting spot first so we can get dinner together afterwards.” said Twilight to her friends.

“How about we just meet back here in the room at four? That gives us three hours.” suggested Rainbow.

“Good idea.” agreed Twilight, “that should be simple enough.”

The team left the rooms, locked the doors, and headed down and out of the hotel to begin their fun on the island. Of course, they all split up to do the various things they wanted to do, not one of the ponies agreed exactly in terms of activity choices. Rarity immediately took a left to head for the resort spa, Twilight hopped on a golf cart to tour the island, Rainbow Dash took off to fly for the extreme sports center, and Pinkie Pie went into hyper-speed to find the sugarcane farm.

Twilight’s golf cart was being driven to the jungles of the island. It joined a small fleet of other tourists eager to see the various sights the jungle had to offer. Twilight had a camera hanging around her neck, and used her magic to operate it. She took pictures of everything, from plants to lizards. No stone went unturned when Twilight wanted to document anything scientifically. This meant the other tourists got annoyed whenever she had to take yet another picture of the newest creature or fern found in the jungles.

“Eventually, she’ll run out of film and we can move on.” Thought the tour guide as Twilight snapped a photo of a snake hanging from a tree.

The parade of golf carts continued through the dense jungles, going past a waterfall and a large river that flowed from the peak of the island’s mountains down to the shores. It was really a breathtaking sight, the massive crystal waterfall cascading over the rocks below. The visit to the majestic waterfall completed the tour of the jungles, and the golf carts began making their way out.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had flown her way to the extreme sports beach on the island and landed down in the hot sand.

“Ouch! Hot, hot!” she complained as she burned her hooves in the scorching sand.

She had forgotten her sandals, and was pretty sure she was going to lose them anyways in her flights around the island. To solve the problem, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to hover a couple of inches off the surface of the beach. A fellow tourist laughed at Rainbow’s misery and approached her. The heliotrope-colored unicorn had a red-colored mane, and he was wearing four leather sandals on his hooves to keep the hot sand off of him.

“Sand a little hot for you flygirl?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“Yeah, just a bit.” Replied Rainbow Dash as she brushed the remaining grains on her legs onto the unicorn.

“There’s a surfing competition in an hour, wanna join?” asked the unicorn colt as he pointed to the ponies on surfboards in the ocean.

“Never surfed before. But I bet I could handle it!” she said.

“Not the same thing as flying, Rainbow Dash.” taunted the unicorn.

“Hey, how did you know my name?” asked Rainbow suspiciously.

“Who hasn't heard of Rainbow Dash, the fastest Pegasus? Losers, that’s who!” said the unicorn.

Rainbow Dash laughed, “You’re funny. What’s your name?”

“I’m Fireball.” announced the unicorn, “got the name from the fire-based spells I use.” Fireball turned and showed his cutie mark to Rainbow, a trio of torches in a triangular pattern.

“See? I make torches and campfire equipment, earned this when I was little.”

“Cool!” said Rainbow Dash. Then she teased him, “But I bet you’re so good with fire that you’re terrible in the water!”

Fireball smirked, “You’d think so wouldn't you? All right Rainbow Dash, let’s stop talking and hit the surf so I can teach you. Then at the contest, we can see who’s the best out there!” Rainbow Dash nodded and followed Fireball out to the surfboards.

Pinkie Pie’s adventure started a little bit inland from the hotel, she was on the quest for something interesting to eat. Piggy behavior tended to be a part of the pony’s eating habits, chewing down tons of sugary foods a day. Today, she really wanted to try the raw sugarcane she had talked about with Twilight. Pinkie Pie figured that if she just followed the directions in the pamphlet, she would reach the plantation quickly. After all, every calorie that entered Pinkie Pie’s body was burned by her hyperactive running to various locations. Because of this, she was not a fat pony at all despite her massive greed for sugary food. She ran by other tourist ponies, some of the zebras from the tribes, and miles of paved road between the resort and the tourist trap town. When she reached the fake town, Pinkie scanned the area quickly. Besides a bunch of tacky-looking buildings that served expensive drinks and shops owned by the locals, there really wasn't much to see in the small village.

Getting lost and desperate, Pinkie Pie hopped up behind a local zebra and asked her, “Excuse me, do you know which way the sugarcane farm is?” The zebra turned to look at Pinkie Pie, and then simply pointed in a direction without saying anything.

“Thanks!” said Pinkie, and then she was off again at warp-speed.

“She seemed a little unfriendly.” Thought Pinkie Pie as she bounded in the direction she had been given, “must be the heat!”

The wind was rushing through her hair now as she ran along the coastline, and her fluffy tail waved in the breeze. More running finally brought her to the plantation. She stopped with a noise similar to tires screeching and gasped at the sight. There were acres and acres of sugarcane being harvested by zebras. The bamboo-like plants waved gently in the wind and seemed to call Pinkie Pie by name. Pinkie licked her lips at the thought of tasting the succulent plants, but remembered the old advice from Applejack to never bite into crops without asking first, firstly because it was rude, and second of all because pesticides might be in use. Looking around quickly, Pinkie spotted a small shack labeled, “guided tours.” She smiled and skipped off to start her journey on getting a taste of fresh sugarcane.

Back at the resort, Rarity was being pampered like a princess. The hotel’s spa was extremely fancy-looking, well-kept tiles of marble on the floor separated only by the baths. The tiles also featured small cutaways so it was possible to order a drink while getting a relaxing bath. In a room to the right of the baths, several massage tables were laid out, and very well qualified ponies or zebras gave the massages. Rarity was on one of these tables receiving a treatment from a strong-legged stallion who had placed hot rocks on her back to help relax the tension. She was lying with her legs stretched in front and back of her, her head resting gently on a pillow at the front of the table. Rarity sighed as the stallion continued his work, which made him smile.

After the massage expert finished his work and removed the carefully-placed stones, he asked her, “Feel better M’am?”

Rarity climbed off the table and answered, “Much better, thank you.”

The brown-coated stallion recommended, “Try the spa baths. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.”

“I think I just might.” replied Rarity with a wink as she walked out the door of the massage room. She made her way to one of the baths and walked slowly into the balmy water. Relaxing again, Rarity placed her head on a towel on the edge of the spa bath. Between her were two other mares enjoying a relaxation bath as well.

“So I heard half the islanders speak in rhyme.” said one of them to the other, "isn't that neat?"

“Yes, but I haven’t actually seen any of them.” replied the other.

Rarity told them, “Well, I personally know one of the rhyming ones, although she lives back on the mainland.”

“Ooh, fascinating.” said the first mare, “Tell us more. Is it hard to speak with her?”

“Once you think about what she’s saying, it’s actually quite easy to talk to her really.” answered Rarity while looking at the first mare.

“How interesting. I take it she’s friendly though?” said the second.

Rarity said, “Quite right, but she does have this one very interesting thing about her. I’ll tell you, it’s…”

On the other side of the island, Pinkie Pie got the strangest mental twitch. It felt like she should be somewhere yelling a single word at somepony, but she dropped it in favor of continuing after the sugarcane. She hopped up the counter of the tour shack and demanded to be a part of the next tour.

“Ok, relax m’am.” Laughed the zebra at the desk, “you can join the tour leaving right now.” Pinkie Pie eagerly started following the tour group.

“This is our sugarcane plantation here on Quagga island. We produce about 170 tons of pure white sugar here, and also about 62 tons of brown sugar per year. There are other sugarcane plantations on the other islands out here in the sea, but none produce as much sugar as Quagga. Although we make the most sugar, we still grow our sugarcane naturally, without pesticides or any extra growth supplements like fertilizer. 100% natural and organic sugarcane. Do we have any questions so far?”

Pinkie Pie raised her hoof and said, “Ooh! Pick me!”

“Yes, you in the pink.” Said the zebra tour guide in her Jamaican accent.

“When do we get to try some sugarcane?” came Pinkie’s question.

“In the middle of the tour when we reach the visitor’s field.” Answered the zebra, “I’m sure you’ll all enjoy that stop. Moving on now…”

Pinkie was getting impatient. She just had to get her sugarcane early. She grunted and continued to follow the tour group. The field of sugarcane was so tempting, to just dive in and start crunching away at the super-sweet stalks. The tour was led to a field in harvest, where zebras were cutting down the stalks with scythe-like tools. After each stalk was cut, it was placed in a basket, and some of the zebras spent their time bringing full baskets to empty the stalks into storage and then returning the empty baskets to collect more sugarcane.

“The fields are harvested as soon as the sugarcane is tall enough.” Spoke the guide, “because we have no extreme seasons here, the cane is grown year round.”

“Does the cane grow faster in the summer?” asked one of the ponies.

“Yes, although the cane grows constantly, it grows fastest in the summer and slowest in the winter.” answered the guide.

“Ugh, this is silly!” thought Pinkie Pie, the boredom was really starting to get to her, as well as her insatiable appetite.

“Here we are, the visitor’s field. We’ll stop for 15 minutes, then continue to the tropical fruit plantation. Enjoy as much sugarcane as you wish.” said the zebra with a smile.

Pinkie Pie cheered, “Yaay!” and then galloped right amongst the tall stalks of sugarcane. She looked around in the crop eagerly for the most delicious plant to eat first. Finding a scrumptious looking one, Pinkie Pie pulled the stalk completely out of the ground with her hooves, and then took a gigantic bite out of the plant without hesitation. The sugary syrup in the cane flowed into her mouth, and she was in ecstasy from the glucose content. “Oh, it’s so good.” She said as she chewed thoughtfully. Pinkie Pie finished off that plant very quickly, and licked the remaining syrup off her lips.

She looked at the other canes around her and said, “Maybe just one more wouldn't hurt.” Giggling, she picked another plant and gobbled that one down as well. Of course, with her logic, just one more quickly became two more, which led to three or four, then five, and so on until Pinkie Pie had consumed a total of three dozen complete stalks of sugarcane. When the tour guide called the ponies back to move on to the fruit plantation, Pinkie was pretty much over the top in terms of the sugar in her blood. Although there’s really no such thing as a sugar rush, she had just consumed the equivalent of several pounds of table sugar, and felt like running marathons. The tour left for the fruit plantation with a very hyperactive pink pony in tow.

Learning to surf from Fireball had been an interesting experience for Rainbow Dash. Unlike flying, which really required fast maneuvering, surfing required good balance. She had wiped out multiple times, and the seawater had made her rainbow mane stick to her body. Yet Fireball never laughed at her for her mistakes, and simply kept helping her get ready to compete in the competition. The two ponies sat out in the ocean on their surfboards, waiting for the perfect wave to practice.

“All right Rainbow” said Fireball, “after this wave, you should be good. I think you've gotten the hang of it.”

“Bring it on!” demanded Rainbow Dash of the wave. Unfortunately, even though waves do not take requests, this wave started building up to be very large.

Fireball said, “This one’s a big one. Maybe we should wait for another!”

“Come on!” said Rainbow, “Let’s do it anyway! It’ll be awesome.”

Rainbow paddled her surfboard into position to catch the wave, and Fireball followed her. The wave started to curve over, and the two ponies were carried up it on their surfboards. Then they stood up and began to surf the large wave. Rainbow Dash got herself in place, occasionally even using her wings to maintain balance. Fireball didn't have wings, but his balance was always spot on. They rode on the top of the wave, moving back and forth for a little bit, and then Rainbow Dash got daring. She went over the top and went tubular, going through the tunnel formed by the cascading wave. Fireball followed her in, and they went straight through the pure water tube. Behind them, the portal started to close, threatening to dunk them hard in the water if they couldn't escape in time. But the surfing ponies made it out and the large wave collapsed on the beach with a mighty crash.

“Radical.” Said Fireball, relieved they had made it out of the wave without breaking something.

Rainbow Dash laughed and asked, “So, am I ready to enter the contest?”

“Definitely” replied Fireball. The two swam over to the contest area to sign up with the judges.

The afternoon was a lot of fun for the entire team. Twilight finished her tour, Pinkie Pie stuffed herself, Rarity finished her relaxing spa day, and Rainbow Dash competed in the contest. Once the activities were all over, the ponies went back to their hotel room to discuss what they had done during the day. Twilight was already waiting for the others in the room, reading a book she brought with her on the geology of islands. The door to the room opened, and in walked Rarity.

“You’re back.” said Twilight as she looked up at her friend, “how was the spa?”

“It’s pure heaven.” She sighed, “Just look at how clean I am.” Twilight put down the book and observed Rarity, who held out a leg.

“I can see myself in your hooves!” exclaimed Twilight, “they really mean business with their hoof polish.”

Rarity breathed out in pure bliss, “Yes, the only thing I need to do now is re-apply my eyeshadow.” The door opened again, this time Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash entered.

“We’re back!” said Rainbow as she shut the door behind her. Pinkie Pie looked a bit disgusting, her stomach was distended and there was an apple in her mouth.

Rarity snickered at Pinkie Pie's appearance and jokingly warned her, “Now Pinkie Pie, don’t accidentally wander into the hotel’s kitchen. With that gut and that apple in your mouth, you might just get cooked up for the luau!”

Pinkie swallowed the apple in her mouth and gasped.

Then she said, “Today was so neat! I ate so much sugarcane and fruit, I nearly got sick! But it was all so gooooooood, so I kept eating!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said, “Pinkie Pie, there’s a black hole in your stomach, isn't there?”

Twilight giggled and answered, “Well, there’s no black hole in there, promise!”

“It would be a scientific impossibility.” said Twilight with a nod.

“What?” asked Rarity rhetorically, not quite understanding.

“Oh nevermind,” said Twilight. She then noticed the gold medal hanging around Rainbow’s neck.

“Where did you get that medal, Rainbow?” asked Twilight.

“A surfing contest. Ya see, I met this unicorn named Fireball at the beach. He taught me how to surf, and we took first in the competition! Well, it was mostly me, but I let him help.” bragged Rainbow.

“Yeah right.” said Twilight, aware that Fireball probably scored most of the points.

“So what did you do today?” asked Rainbow of Twilight. In response, she brought out a stack of developed photos from her camera and passed them around.

“I took the tour of the jungles you guys said would be boring. Just look at all the things you get to see. There were waterfalls and cliffs, animals and plants. It was amazing out there.” said Twilight as she watched her friend’s eyes widen at the pictures.

“With the exception of the hideous snakes, these are beautiful!” marveled Rarity, “Too bad we missed it.”

“We still have the rest of the week Rarity, so you can always go tomorrow.” comforted Twilight.

Rainbow Dash was eager to do something and said, “Ok, now that we’re all here, what are we going to do now?”

“We were supposed to get dinner, but I’m not hungry now.” answered Twilight.

“Nor am I, perhaps a walk down the beach would be fun?” suggested Rarity.

It was agreed that a walk down the long beach was the best choice, so the girls put on 4 sandals apiece and set out for the shoreline. The sand was still blazing hot, and the sun had not yet begun to set. As they walked, they spotted a zebra looking around nervously from inside a bush. The girls watched in interest as the zebra, an obvious hotel employee, disappeared up a trail leading to the peak of the mountains.

“I thought the city zebras didn't go this far on the island.” Wondered Rainbow aloud.

“Yeah, something’s strange here. Let’s follow him for fun!” squealed Pinkie as she stomped her legs on the ground.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” cautioned Twilight.

“Aw come on scaredy hooves, let’s go!” said Rainbow as she zipped behind the bush. The others followed Rainbow Dash carefully behind the bush and up the trail, where they found the zebra talking to another.

The first zebra said, “Is everything ready?”

“Yeah,” replied the other, “we’re all go for tonight. The tribe won’t dare put one hoof past the line this week after this show.”

Twilight listened to the two zebras talk, and although she wasn't completely familiar with the terms, she was sure they didn't have good intentions for their peers who chose the simpler life willingly.

“I think something’s up.” She said quietly to Rainbow.

“I think you're right! I say we take ‘em and make ‘em talk!” she suggested. Rarity watched the zebras, and then let out a muffled yelp as a hoof was placed over her mouth and she was dragged away by an unseen figure. Pinkie Pie heard the yelp and span around, only to be ponynapped by another figure behind her. Twilight and Rainbow heard the weird shrieks and turned their heads back to look.

“Where did Rarity and Pinkie Pie go?” asked Twilight.

“No idea, but I heard them scream. Something’s wrong here!” whispered Rainbow with warning.

Suddenly, a bag was thrown over the two girls, and they screamed in shock. This grabbed the attention of the two zebras talking, and they rushed over to see what was happening. But it was too late, the bag and the girls were gone.

Inside the canvas bag, Twilight screamed, “Help! We’re being ponynapped!” A sharp tap on the bag quieted her down.

Rainbow Dash whispered to her, “I bet those two guys talking heard us and sent goons to capture us! We’ve uncovered a secret plan of some kind.”

Twilight whispered back, “If so, we need to escape as soon as possible and go get help to stop it.” Their captors dragged them in the bag back to their camp, but from behind a palm tree, a unicorn had spotted their attack.

“I’ll save you Rainbow.” thought Fireball as he shadowed the captors.

When the bag was opened, Rainbow and Twilight tumbled out onto soft jungle soil. They found themselves in a village of bamboo huts populated with zebras who resembled Zecora more than the hotel employee zebras. They wore gold rings and such, and decorated their homes similarly too, with ornate masks. In addition, many of them worked with cauldrons to make either potions with strange chemical properties or healing salves. The large zebra who had captured Twilight and Rainbow dusted them off with a palm leaf and walked away.

“I don’t get it” said Twilight, “we get ponynapped, brought here, and then he simply walks away.”

“Please allow me to explain. I promise not to cause you any pain.” rhymed a zebra wearing a very decorative hat. This hat was made from wood and jewels, resembling a crown.

“I am Zephyr, the leader of this town. You can tell because I wear this crown.” The zebra continued.

“Ah, finally, a zebra we’re familiar with. I’m Twilight Sparkle your majesty, and this is Rainbow Dash.” said Twilight.

The king smiled and said, “You ponies to me are of great fame. You know my daughter Zecora by name!”

“Zecora is your daughter?” asked Twilight in surprise, “That means she’s…”

“Sort of like a princess!” exclaimed Rainbow, “wow!”

The king shut his eyes, nodded his head, and then said, “My daughter is doing something grand, leaving her home to study the land.”

Twilight said, “He misses Zecora because she chose to live on the mainland with us.”

Rainbow Dash replied, “Yeah, I can get that. It's cool to know you're Zecora's dad. Sort of wish you'd brought us here without a bag, though.”

The king pointed to a large bonfire in the middle of the village and said, “I apologize, but please, stay with us for tonight. We brought you here in case there’s a fight.”

“A fight?” asked Twilight, “why?”

Zephyr scratched his striped mane and sighed deeply.

“With rhyme it is difficult for me to say. You need a zebra who talks their way.” The king led Twilight and Rainbow over to the bonfire and re-united them with Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Sitting next to them was a younger zebra with her hair tied back with a gold band.

“Hello, I’m Yeo.” said the little zebra as she introduced herself. “I help interpret messages between the tribe and the city zebras.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Said Twilight, “But I have to ask why your king ponynapped us and brought us here.”

“King Zephyr wanted to get you away from those hotel zebras before they discovered you and put you in prison.” explained Yeo.

Pinkie Pie asked, “But why would they toss us in jail? It’s not wrong to hear them talk about stuff.”

“Just in case you weren't aware, a long time ago a group broke off from the tribe and established that resort town you've been staying in. We chose to stay here and maintain our own traditions and have been living peacefully with each other, well... until now that is..” said Yeo, "normally we're fine, but recently things have been getting worse. The resort town won't let us in as much, and we've heard the employees say they've got some kind of a plan. A plan to 'deal' with us."

Rarity got up from the fire and walked over to Rainbow and Twilight.

“Well that certainly doesn't sound good,” Rarity said, "Do you know anything more?”

Yeo explained, “We're not 100 percent sure why they're trying to ban us from the resort city, but this has only been going on recently, for the past month or two. If we can't settle things with them, half the island will be inaccessible to us, and we won't be able to share our culture with the tourists anymore.”

Pinkie Pie shouted with anger, “They can’t do that, it’s not fair! This is your island too!”

Yeo said sadly, “I know, but they think they own the island now. Zephyr wants to send out a team to make the plain speakers and the tourists leave. It’ll ruin the island’s peaceful reputation if it comes to that."

“That must be the fight the king’s talking about!” figured Rainbow.

Yeo nodded and continued, “The only problem is that I’m sure the hotel ponies are up to something to keep our freedom fight from happening at all. Recently they've 'discovered' ancient tomes and given them to the elders here in the tribe. The books have been saying that if we go into the town, the volcano spirits would get angry with us.”

“And they believed this?” muttered Twilight.

“Well we never had any previous texts on the so-called 'spirits',” said Yeo, “but recently many of us crossed the lines right in front of the hotel owners. Ever since then, the volcano has been making weird sounds.”

Twilight told Yeo, “We heard two zebras from the resort say they would do something tonight to make sure you stayed on this half of the island. I’m sure they will try something, but I’m not sure what it is.” Just then, an explosion was heard in the distance. Screaming came from the villagers, and they were pointing up at the peak of the island mountain. The volcano was starting to leak lava down the side of it.

“I think that’s the plan.” said Pinkie dumbly, pointing at the lava flow.

Yeo shrieked, “Oh no, what if they've found a way to use the volcano to destroy us?”

Twilight patted her head with a hoof and said, “Don’t worry, the volcano can’t wipe out your people. It’s a shield volcano.”

“A what?” asked Rarity.

She took a breath and explained, “A shield volcano, it’s in my geology book. They’re flatter volcanoes that build up islands through slow lava flows. They don’t erupt explosively and dangerously like others, they just make islands like this one.”

“But my people don’t know that!” said Yeo in distress, “many of them bought into what the books said, and they’re going to think the volcano spirits are real!”

Four strong zebras approached them and started to talk in rhyme about a plan to stop the volcano.

As they stared at them, Rarity asked with fear, “Do you think they blame us, the tourists, for this?”

The zebras pinned them all down as Yeo shrieked, “No, stop! It’s not their fault!” A geyser of flame went over the heads of the four zebras. Fireball appeared with his horn glowing a bright red.

“Let them go!” he demanded, shooting another stream of flame from his horn. The zebras released the ponies and slowly backed off, then went for their huts in panic. Fireball took a deep breath and let his horn stop glowing.

“Fireball!” said Rainbow Dash smoothly, enjoying Fireball’s daring display.

“Rainbow Dash!” said Fireball happily as he ran up to her.

Then, noticing Rainbow Dash’s wings perked up in the air, Fireball coughed and asked slyly, “Rainbow, are you ready to fly away, or are you just happy to see me?” Rainbow blushed and tucked her wings back against her side.

“Woof!” whispered Rarity to Twilight.

Fireball said in his surfer voice, “All right ladies, I’ve come to rescue you from these zebras.”

He then pushed Yeo aside and said, “Let’s go.”

“Hold on.” said Twilight, “The real zebras who are a threat are the hotel workers.”

“What?” asked Fireball in confusion. Twilight explained the story again to Fireball, not missing any details.

“Woah.” said Fireball, “So the hotel managers are evil? Dang.”

“Well what do we do about it? The zebras here deserve to go where they want!” asked Pinkie Pie.

Fireball answered, “I saw some of the hotel dudes in a cave on the mountain earlier yesterday, if I go get some of my torches, I might be able to get us through the dark. Hang on.” Fireball left to go get his supplies to enter the cave. As soon as he left though, the four muscular zebras returned and promptly grabbed the friends again.

“My hero.” said Rainbow sarcastically as they were dragged into the village, with Yeo screaming at them all the way. They were brought before the priestess of the village, who wore the most gold rings of any of the zebras, as well as several feathers in her mane.

“What shall we do to appease the plain talkers’ lava flows? Offer them cocoa bean pods or gold that glows?“ asked the zebra next to her. The priestess shook her head and looked in what appeared to be a primitive book. Twilight took one look at it and knew right away it was a fake tome given to them by the hotel owners to cause even more trouble.

Addressing the crowd of frightened villagers, she said, “The only thing that will suffice is if we make a sacrifice.”

“Oh don't tell me,” whispered Twilight, knowing what was coming.

“What kind of sacrifice shall we toss, into the lava for the volcano boss?” asked a tribesman.

The priestess explained while reading the obviously phony book, “It seems, the only offer that will end our strife, is to give the spirits a maiden’s life.”

“You have heard the priestess, she speaks only true. Nothing but the sacrifice of a maiden will do.” Said the priestess’ assistant.

The zebras then tossed the four ponies in front of the priestess to let her decide who to throw into the volcano.

“I will choose only the best maiden,” said the priestess.

Rarity stared knowingly at Rainbow Dash, perhaps out of desperation.

“HEY!” protested Rainbow, “You’re the one who’s always going on about waiting around for your 'true love' Rarity, I heard you say that when we went to the gala!”

Rarity opened her mouth to protest, but Twilight intervened, "Look, that kind of thing is none of your business! Furthermore, that book you're reading is obviously a fake the hotel managers made to get you to hurt anypony who tries to stop them. None of us are getting thrown into a volcano, got it?"

A large explosion came from the volcano, and more lava began to flow down the side.

The priestess saw this and declared, “Based on the increasing spirit wrath, all four shall take a lava bath.”

“Oh for... WHY?!” said Twilight as they were picked up again and dragged. The ponies were taken to a decorator who wrapped them up in ropes made of vines, then placed flowers all over the girls to make them more pleasing sacrifices.

“I don’t want to be sacrificed!” bawled Rarity, letting tears stream all over the place.

“If only Fireball hadn’t left!” complained Rainbow, “We wouldn’t be in this mess. His fire magic could have stopped this whole thing!”

Hearing this made the metaphorical light bulb came on over Twilight’s head. Working with her magic, Twilight shot a bolt of energy and destroyed a palm tree. This caused the villagers to panic, and they scattered to avoid the wooden debris.

“Untie me and my friends!” declared Twilight, "GIVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN!"

The zebras complied and untied the ponies. They fell on the ground before them and begged forgiveness.

“All right,” said Twilight, “now that you’re listening and have decided not to not throw us in lava, maybe we can work something better out. When I got here to this island and met you all, I realized how amazing your way of life is, and I'd hate to see it destroyed just so some resort can make money. So if you'll give us a chance, we'd love to help you!”

One of the zebras asked, “You would help us win? Even though we'd have thrown you in?”

Twilight answered, “Yes, of course, it's what friends do for each other! We're not going to run away just because the hotel staff tricked you into trying to hurt us. Now, we’re going up the mountain to investigate the volcano, and we'll stop the eruption.”

The zebras, after a heartfelt apology and a sense of renewed pride in their island, thanked the mares and led them to the path that went for the caldera of the volcano.

After several minutes of travel, they came across one of the flows of lava. Rainbow Dash simply flew over the narrow river, but the others would have to find another way to cross.

“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie said in wonder as she looked at the orange molten rock.

“Don’t touch it Pinkie, it’s not hot spaghetti sauce.” warned Twilight, “that lava’s thousands of degrees.”

Pinkie drew her hoof away from touching the lava.

“Ok, so how do we cross?” asked Rarity.

Twilight saw a boulder overhanging the cliff pass and said, “We could drop the boulder into the flow and divert it, then climb over the top. We wouldn’t have long though.”

Rarity and Twilight concentrated on the rock and working together with magic, dropped it down off the ledge. They jumped back to avoid getting the splash of molten rock on them. Then, the three ponies jumped on the boulder and leapt to the other side with no problem. After that, getting up the volcano was easy, and soon they were overlooking the caldera. A very small lava lake was bubbling in the center, not too large for the size of the volcano. The lake occasionally rose and spilled more lava over the edge, drawing two lines of lava out.

“Wait a minute.” said Twilight, “the volcano’s been cut, see the v-shaped marks?”

“Yeah.” Said Rainbow, “what does it mean?”

“It means the lava is being diverted in those directions on purpose. I think the hotel staff are trying to literally divide the island with permanent lava flows!“

Pinkie Pie pointed at a hole in the caldera with a safety rail coming from it and said, “I see a cave, I see a cave, follow me!” Pinkie took off in a hurry down the caldera and into the hole.

The others followed her into the hole and wandered into a pony-made cavern. Inside was a gigantic machine resembling a pile driver construction rig. A group of zebras was working with the machine, and toasting each other on their success.

The leader of the zebras said, “My fellow stakeholders, tonight our enemies get cut off by the lava. This volcano’s normally dormant, but thanks to your work, we can use it to keep our resorts free of the old ways!”

The other zebras cheered. Twilight wanted a better look at the leader and peeked a little more from behind the rock she and her friends were hiding behind. To her horror, the leader was wearing a baseball cap.

“Rocky!” she shouted, “You’re behind this?”

Rocky looked at the ponies and said, “Oh hello ladies! Good to see you again.”

He motioned to the other zebras to prepare to capture them. The four ponies confronted the dozen zebras and Rocky. As they prepared to face off, the machine thumped its metal bar against the wall of the cavern, causing the lava lake outside to rise and spill more lava to divide the island.

“Well girls, you learned how we’re gonna keep our resort just the way we want it,” said Rocky. “Sadly, I know you report to princess Celestia, and she’d hate our little plan. So you won’t be leaving.”

Rocky motioned to his minions, who assembled to beat up Twilight and company.

The zebra then laughed and said, “Earlier, a unicorn came and tried to stop us too. Stupid guy got himself all tied up.” Rocky pointed to the corner, where Fireball was tied and gagged.

“Fireball!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “when I get my hooves on you Rocky, you’ll be sorry!”

Rocky laughed, “Just try. In minutes there will be so much lava, your friends will never cross into our territory again!”

Then the battle began, the minions charged at the four ponies. Twilight opened up with a bright purple magic missile, knocking two of the zebras down and out in a blast of energy. A worker reached Pinkie Pie’s position and swung at her with a hoof. Pinkie Pie ducked, blew a raspberry at the worker, then jumped on his head and off into the crowd of bad guys. Rainbow Dash started flying circles, causing rapid air circulation that confused three of the hotel staff. Rarity ran into the middle of this and gave each of them a mighty whack with her hooves, bringing them out of the action as well.

Twilight snuck around the fight and used her magic to untie the ropes around Fireball and remove the cloth shoved in his mouth. Fireball coughed and thanked her for untying him. One of the zebra minions had crept up behind Twilight with a sharp fragment of volcanic obsidian.

“Look out behind you!” said Fireball. The zebra raised the stone, prepared to strike, but was stopped by a blast of flame from Fireball’s horn. The burned zebra coughed on the soot, and fell down with a blackened face.

“Thanks, you saved me too.” said Twilight, looking at the sharp rock that nearly went in her back. Fireball turned on the remaining zebra minions and lit a ring of fire around them, making them unable to move.

Eventually they passed out from the heat and the fear of being surrounded by flames. Fireball stopped the ring, and surveyed the battle scene. It was over, 12 zebra minions were unconscious on the ground, leaving Rocky looking with his mouth drooped open. Twilight began to charge up her horn to smite him with either a bolt or a magic missile.

“All right Rocky, your turn.” she said.

Rocky began to back up towards the artificial eruption machine and looked back and forth for an escape. Rainbow Dash grabbed the ropes that were around Fireball previously and flew around the minions a couple of times, tying them up in a neat bundle.

“It’s over boy, give up.” encouraged Rarity. Rocky ran over to the machine, and in a last ditch attempt to win the encounter, slammed a button to make the machine go into overdrive.

“Even if I lose” he said, “the tribe will never set foot on my resort again!”

Twilight fired a bolt at him, but Rocky ducked it, and it splashed on the machine, doing some minor damage to the side paneling, but leaving it functional.

A voice called out, “Your resort, Rocky?” A very well dressed zebra wearing a white suit walked into the cave.

“Oh hey boss.” said Rocky very nervously.

“Rocky, I was gone for one month and already there’s chaos about on my resort. Every pony and zebra is in a fuss over this. You can’t even manage my employees, they’re all tied up over there!”

Rocky lowered his head and took his baseball cap off. It was over now.

“Wait, who are you?” asked Rainbow Dash.

The well dressed zebra replied, “Why ma’am, I’m Mr. Zanders. I’m the actual owner of this resort, and Rocky here is my nephew. You see, my brother stayed here on the island as a kid while I went to the mainland. When I returned, we built the resort together as a way for ponies to learn about zebra culture, both historical and modern.”

“Mr. Zanders, Rocky here is using this machine to make the volcano erupt artificially.” explained Twilight, “he’s trying to make the zebras who still speak in rhyme stay off the resort.”

“Is this so?” asked Zanders of Rocky. Rocky mumbled a humble yes and shut off the eruption machine.

Zanders walked over to his nephew and said sternly, “I trusted you to take care of the resort while I was gone. I never said to keep our brothers who speak in rhyme off the resort. Do you understand how wrong it is what you’re doing?” Rocky looked away from his uncle.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” demanded Zanders. Rocky looked at the zebra but kept backing off from his uncle.

“As punishment for trying such a horrible thing, as soon as the lava cools, you and your team are going out there with jackhammers to break all that rock so that the tribe members can see the other half of their island. All of you won’t get your jobs back until the last scrap of rock is broken!”

Uncle Zanders then turned to the ponies and apologized, “I’m sorry for my nephew’s terrible behavior. I also plan to apologize to the tribe, but before I do, is there anything I can do to fix your ruined vacation?”

Twilight was about to turn down the offer for the group, but predictably, Rainbow Dash barged in and said,

“Well, there is one thing!”

Each friend got their request; Fireball was upgraded to a suite in the hotel so he and Rainbow Dash could meet each other and go surfing every day for the rest of the vacation. Pinkie Pie received an infinite supply of sugarcane, even getting to pack stalks in her bag to take back home. Rarity got a free pass for the spa for the entire week, rather than just that day. Twilight got tickets to tour the rest of the island, and Rainbow Dash got a surfboard to take back with her to use at the beaches on the mainland. After they got their gifts from Zanders, the friends went and partied with the zebra tribe, who were now free to visit the resort grounds anytime they wanted, even being offered sugarcane and fruit in exchange for telling tourists about zebra tradition. When the week drew to a close and they sailed back for Ponyville, they all agreed that it was the best vacation they’d had in a long time, despite nearly being thrown into a volcano.

#5 - Trouble Brewing

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Trouble Brewing

Techorse series: #5

By Spirals95

Folks thought that Techorse was the luckiest pony alive, having owned a castle and a very valuable business. But because he had to make and sell each machine he made as orders came in, his work was sometimes very long and difficult for him. If only a few orders came in that day, he'd work a couple of hours and be done. But if a large number of orders for his machines showed up, sometimes Techorse would be up all night filling out forms. Each form requested a single machine Techorse invented, usually one of his more well-known devices like his cooking appliances. The reason the inventions sold so well is because they were geared to make tasks humans can do with their hands easily, just as easily done with the digit-less hooves Equestrians have. "Designed with hooves in mind." was Techorse's official small business slogan, in fact. Although there were a few factories that could mass-produce Techorse's machines in existence, he chose to make them all from his much greener facilities in his own castle. During the day, a group of mining probes, 20 foot long robots that resembled the tunnelers used to dig subways and the like, went into the mountains around Ponyville to retrieve raw materials, namely metals. They would return with the iron and give it to a processing facility, where the ore was melted and combined with various other elements to make useable steel.

From there, a molding and production machine would form any parts Techorse needed to work on new inventions, or make copies of the old ones. In order to speed up his business, he had to also make a production machine on the line to avoid having to tediously make each ordered machine. As long as these three sets of machines were given orders, they would churn out a single widget a minute. After this, the devices to be sold were packaged by hoof, labeled using information in the order form for shipping, and left on the rooftop of the castle for pickup. Techorse struck a deal with Derpy Hooves to mass-ship his products, and it brought a good amount of cash for Derpy, so she happily delivered the machines. And that's what happened day in and day out at the castle. If there was any free time, Techorse would either work on a new invention or go out and find a friend to talk to. But this week, he received a large number of order forms for nothing but spare parts and extra solar panels to increase the power of the machines they had already bought.

"Master!" called PAL, "Master, take a break already! Leave the mindless repetitive tasks to me, the robot!" Techorse, wearing his robotic saddle, was filling out paperwork with the mechanical arms.

"Look at you!" said the robot as he got closer to his inventor, "You have dark circles under your eyes, you're obviously cramping, and you need a bath!" Techorse grunted and continued to fill out the paperwork. "Listen!" urged the humanoid machine, "just let me handle the papers, please."

Techorse dropped the pen and sighed, "All right PAL, I'll take a break for a while." The robot grabbed the pen and began to go through the papers systematically. Techorse told him, "I'm going to go take a bath and relax. I haven't cleaned myself for days since all these new part orders, and I'm starting to think my smell is killing the bugs."

PAL said, "Just go, I'll handle your business for the day."

"Do I appreciate your hard work enough?" asked Techorse.

The robot replied, "Of course you do! Now go and take your bath, you need to relax."

Techorse smiled and went upstairs to go take his bath.

Entering the double bathroom, the pony walked over to his large bathtub and turned on the hot tap. Water heated by solar panels on the roof of the castle flowed in large volume into the white bathtub. While the tub filled up with steaming water, Techorse went over to the mirror and looked at himself. The robot had been right; he showed great signs of fatigue due to not sleeping for two days straight. Techorse stepped away from the mirror above the sink and unstrapped his battle saddle. He let the piece of machinery hit the floor with a thud and spun around to go turn off the tap water. Because he just let go of his robot arms, he twisted the knob on the faucet with a hoof and breathed in the steam from the hot water. Techorse dipped a leg into the liquid and yelped from the heat. A short burst from the cold tap solved the scalding water problem, and then the green pony with the brown mane slipped into the large bathtub.

The hot water felt great on his skin, and he relaxed quickly as he sank up to his head into the bath. Reaching over to the side of the tub built into the floor, Techorse picked up a tablet he made and dropped it into the water. The bathtub filled with a thin layer of bubbles to soothe his tired mind and body. After cleaning himself with a washcloth, Techorse continued to soak in the warm water and relax gently. A few minutes of silence passed before a large air bubble escaped on the other side of the tub 5 feet away from Techorse. He observed it and wondered if the drain's seal was leaking, causing the air from the pipes to escape. Ignoring it, he continued to relax until something nudged his leg. This caused him to become fully alert, and Techorse opened his blue eyes and moved his head upwards.

"Something's up," He thought as he scanned the water. Suddenly, a thin and hollow blue plastic tube emerged from the water. Freaking out, Techorse backed up against the edge of the tub as the tube rose out of the water. It was a blue snorkel and mask, and it was being worn by a pink pony.

"PINKIE PIE!" shouted Techorse in shock as he jumped out of the tub. He quickly wrapped a towel around the end of his body as his mane and tail dripped with water. Pinkie Pie took the snorkel out of her mouth and removed the mask from her smiling face.

"Techorse!" she said with excitement, "you have to come see this!"

Techorse interrogated her, "Pinkie, what are you doing in my bathtub? How did you even get in there, did you swim up the drain?"

"Why are you so angry?" asked Pinkie, still in the bathtub.

"I'm naked!" complained Techorse, "and you just barged in on me!"

Pinkie giggled and said, "Techie, most of the time we are naked, so what's the problem?"

He yelled back, "When I'm bathing it's a special kind of naked! Besides, you shouldn't be in a bathtub with me anyways!"

Pinkie jumped out of the bathtub and shook like a dog, getting more water all over Techorse.

"Sorry!" she said bubbly, "just wanted to show you the new shop in town!"

"Couldn't it have waited?" asked Techorse in disgust as he finished drying himself off with another towel.

"Of course not! New stores are too much fun to pass up!" replied Pinkie, "now come with me already!"

Techorse went over to a mane combing machine he invented and stood up on his hind legs to let the machine work.

"Well, what is the store anyway?" he asked.

"A coffee shop!" cheered Pinkie, "tasty coffee too, I hear!"

Techorse scratched his chin and said, "Well, I did just miss two nights of sleep. Caffeine might be a good thing right now."

He caved in, "All right, let's go."

"Yay!" squealed Pinkie, jumping once in the air. Just then, the combing machine accidentally pulled down the towel around Techorse's waist. He immediately crossed his front legs over himself and blushed in embarrassment.

Pinkie Pie giggled at her friend, as he really didn't need to be embarrassed. Losing the towel didn't show or do anything, but Techorse's privacy needs were amusing.

"Oh come on, you're fine! Let's get going, Techie!" she said, bounding for the door.

Techorse and Pinkie left the castle to go see the new coffee shop after he put his saddle back on. Arriving at the building, Techorse took a look at the place. It was a simple square building with a sculpture of a cup of coffee on the top. A couple of green metal tables with umbrellas out front made it a complete café.

"There's already a couple of cafes like this in town." said Techorse, "what makes this one so much better?"

"So you haven't heard?" asked a nearby Pegasus, "they have 100 different coffee types!"

"Really?"

"Yeah" continued the passerby, "because the shop sells so many varieties, they've already sold their 1000th cup!"

Techorse looked at the title of the store, "Grinder's coffee: 100 varieties and counting!"

"It's going to take me all day just to pick the one I want!" commented Pinkie.

Noticing the line of ponies waiting to get inside, Techorse added, "It might take all day just to get to the register!" They got in line to buy their drinks, and as they waited, they were joined by Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"Hi ladies!" said Techorse, "come to try the coffee shop with us?"

"You bet!" said Applejack with a big smile, "we heard from Pinkie here this place has 100 different coffees. Shoot, I bet it'd take a couple months to try 'em all."

"Yeah!" said Rainbow Dash, flapping her wings in excitement, "I'm going to get so much caffeine I'll be able to do a lap around the entire planet!"

"Be careful, too much caffeine's dangerous!" warned Applejack.

Rainbow smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and said with doubt, "Oh, sure it is. Now are we getting our coffee or what?"

15 minutes passed after the conversation, but at last the friends reached the front of the line. The inside of the café was decorated with red and blue striped wallpaper, although the colors were soft, they were contrasted by the light yellow wooden tables. All the tables were full, and the customers were enjoying their fresh brewed coffee.

Techorse stepped up to the counter to order his drink. His mind went blank at the sheer number of coffees available. Deciding on one variety, he ordered some drink called a double strength purple burst coffee with cream and sugar. After paying for the beverage, he moved down the counter to wait for his concoction. He was given a mug shortly with his drink, and its aroma was absolutely great, being rich and deep. Techorse extended a robotic arm from his saddle, laughed at the reaction he got from the employees who had never seen the device, and then grabbed his mug and went to wait for a table to save for his friends.

Pinkie Pie ordered, "the best and strongest coffee you have, with a caffeine booster!" which of course wasn't specific enough for the workers, so they simply decided to pick the strongest drink they had for Pinkie Pie. As they worked, one of them placed her mug under a different machine, and instead of coffee, Pinkie's large mug was filled to the brim with espresso. Unfortunately, most of the other workers didn't notice this besides the two filling the mug, and the vanilla flavored caffeine boost was added to the drink. The mug was given to Pinkie Pie, and she went over to the table to join Techorse. They waited for Applejack and Rainbow Dash to join them at the wooden table.

"I want to take a sip now!" said Pinkie, "it smells so good!"

"I know" said Techorse, "but we should wait for them, it's only polite."

"You sound like Rarity." teased Pinkie Pie. Eventually, they were joined by their friends, who carried the mugs over with their teeth.

"This drink looks so great!" said Applejack, "apple spiced decaf coffee." Taking a large swig, Applejack burned her tongue as she imbibed too much of the drink at once.

"Ouch!" she said in pain, "burned my tongue."

"Slow down then." said Rainbow Dash ironically as she cautiously took a sip of her drink.

Techorse looked at his coffee and read on the bottom of the cup "warning, contents may be hot. Wait for this to cool before spilling into lap." He snickered at the stupid joke and took a short drink from the mug. The rich flavorful coffee poured over his tongue and down his throat.

"That is good coffee." He said, taking another swallow from the porcelain container. Pinkie Pie finally arrived at this point with her drink, a very innocent looking cup of liquid. Steam rose from it into her face, and she couldn't help but drool just a tiny bit at the smell.

"What did you get Pinkie?" asked Rainbow, noting the different color of the drink. Pinkie shrugged and responded, "I dunno, I asked for the best, strongest one they had!"

"Well careful, it's hot." said Applejack, sounding a little funny due to her burned mouth. To their interest, Pinkie Pie somehow managed to take a large gulp from the mug without suffering any ill effects such as burns.

"That's good stuff!" she said while smacking her lips. She finished off the cup in no time at all, and sat around to wait for her friends to finish. As she sat, the caffeine from the espresso worked its way from her intestines into her blood. It wasn't long before the massive amounts of the chemical reached her brain.

Techorse finished the last of his drink and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Much better. After staying up all night managing my business, I needed that coffee." He said.

"Yeah, I usually don't drink this stuff at all, it's bitter. But sometimes I need it for my work too." commented Applejack.

"So what do you think of the coffee, Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow Dash.

No response.

"Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow again in confusion. The pink pony was staring off into space, and her pupils were dilated to very large proportions.

"Very funny, now knock it off Pinkie." said Techorse. All of a sudden, Pinkie bolted from her chair and instantly disappeared in a blur from the café, the force and air pressure change sent flyers for the café around and about the shop.

When the dust settled, Rainbow Dash said quietly, "Uh-oh."

Techorse regained composure from the sudden departure of his friend, approached the counter and said loudly to the employees, "Ok, what did you give her?"

"Who?" asked the first employee.

"Don't play stupid, the pink pony who just ran out your door at light speed!" replied Techorse with annoyance.

"Oh yeah, her." Said the employee nervously, "you see, she said she wanted the best and strongest coffee we had, so we gave her espresso instead."

"With a vanilla caffeine boost!" added another employee. Rainbow Dash flew over to the employees and grabbed one by the neck and held him up to her face.

"You mean you gave the most hyper pony in Equestria a full cup of espresso?" she asked with shock.

"Sorry, it's what she wanted!" said the scared employee.

Applejack shouted at them, "Do you have any idea what you two have done?"

"Do either you or Rainbow Dash have any idea what's going to happen to Pinkie?" asked Techorse, steering the anger away from the staff.

"No." said Rainbow, letting go of the colt she had by the neck, "what's going to happen?"

Techorse explained calmly, "If Pinkie drank a full cup of espresso and there was a caffeine booster in the drink, she's had about 100 times the amount of caffeine in a single cup of regular coffee."

"So we just have to wait for her to run out and fall asleep!" said Applejack, "no worry."

"Yeah worry!" warned Techorse, "That's too much caffeine to come down off of at once. If we don't slowly give Pinkie Pie doses of caffeine towards the end of her rush, she'll fall into a coma from the withdrawal!"

"What?" said Applejack worriedly, "we gotta do somethin'!"

"We'll need to catch Pinkie Pie while she's running around and tie her down. Then, I can slowly feed her doses of caffeine so she comes off of the rush gradually. We probably have until this afternoon to do so."

"I'll catch her!" said Rainbow Dash, volunteering bravely. She then exited the café and flew off after Pinkie Pie in a burst of rainbow color.

"Applejack, do you know how to apply first aid kits?" asked Techorse as he turned to Applejack.

"Why?" she asked.

"We're going to need them." he replied with a frown.

Pinkie Pie was running around at ground speeds unprecedented, knocking over everything in her way, ponies, objects, and plants. She even managed to saw a tree in half just by running straight through it. This sheer rush of energy made her feel invincible, and it also made her thoughts very quick. Pinkie remembered that she was expected back at the bakery to help her boss. So, she turned quickly in the town square without slowing down even the smallest amount, and made for the bakery in a straight line. The door of the building was blown open, and Pinkie Pie stood there, eyes wide and shivering in energy.

Her boss, Mr. Cake, looked back at her and said, "Oh, you're back from your coffee break Pinkie. Now, I need you to prepare 25 batches of chocolate chip cookie dough for tomorrow."

"Got it!" shouted Pinkie, and she rushed into the kitchen. Within seconds, she returned with 25 bowls filled with cookie dough.

"Donewhatnext!" she said without pause or breath.

"Um, there's ten cakes that need icing." He said slowly, not sure how she did the task that quickly. Pinkie disappeared again and returned with the ten iced cakes. Mr. Cake had no idea what had gotten into his apprentice, but decided that since her day's work was done already, there was no sense in keeping her around for the day.

"That'll be all." He said with great caution, "take the day off."

Pinkie Pie squealed and ran at the door at lightning speed again, leaving her boss and his wife looking at the completed goods in awe. Pinkie continued her mad dash around the town, wrecking things and knocking over more ponies that got in her way. To keep feeding her rush, she kept eating food right out of the hands of the citizens, one second a pony would be about to bite into a treat, and the next second it was gone.

"I feel greeeeaaaaaat!" said Pinkie, mentally destroyed by the amount of caffeine. But the espresso was beginning to drain from her stomach, and the caffeine rush would not last forever.

Rainbow Dash flew overhead and spotted the pink blur from the skies.

"All right, I'll just nab her and drag her back to Tech!" she said. Diving down, Rainbow accelerated and pulled alongside her friend. "Pinkie, come with me, you're sick!" she said as she tried to grab her friend.

"let'spaintheentiretownred! Or blue! Or hot pink!" droned Pinkie Pie as she looked to the side.

Rainbow warned her friend, "I'm going to grab you and make you stop if you don't slow down and talk to me calmly!"

"NO! I'm fine!" replied Pinkie, and she gained speed to outrun Rainbow.

Rainbow groaned and said to herself, "Looks like we have to do this the hard way!" She flapped faster and picked up the pace to continue pursuit. They chased each other around the small town, through alleyways and around the buildings. Eventually, Rainbow got within grabbing distance of Pinkie's fluffy tail, and tried to nab her. After missing twice, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings furiously to make a final push at the tail. She tried again, and her hooves clasped around the dark pink bundle of hair.

"Gotcha!" said Rainbow.

All of a sudden though, Pinkie turned 90 degrees to the left to avoid a brick wall, which threw Rainbow Dash off. She screamed and impacted the brick wall hard after crashing through a cart of fertilizer, sending up a cloud of blue dirt into the air with bits of rainbow jet trail. Techorse and Applejack viewed the explosion from a distance.

"Well, Rainbow's down." Said Techorse with disappointment as the wind from the shockwave hit his face, "I'd say 3, maybe 4 bones broken."

Applejack punched him gently on the shoulder and said, "That could have been anypony's rainbow-colored blast." She knew of course that wasn't true, but wanted to keep Techorse's spirit up.

"We need a new plan." said Techorse, looking down at the ground. Techorse thought about how they were going to catch Pinkie Pie. But Applejack came up with an idea first.

"I've got it!" she said, "follow me!"

Applejack's plan was simple, after luring Pinkie Pie using a cookie dangled on a string, she would throw a lasso around Pinkie Pie and tie her up. The plan was so easy, and yet somehow Techorse knew it was not going to turn out the way Applejack thought it would.

"Are you sure this crazy plan will work?" he asked her as they waited for Pinkie's arrival to take the bait.

"I know this crazy plan will work!" replied Applejack. She began to spin the rope tied to her tail and made a perfect lasso. Techorse scanned the surrounding area to make sure the plan wouldn't backfire, including boulders that could fall on them if roped instead of Pinkie Pie.

"Well, there's nothing to hit us if you miss." said Techorse.

"I don't miss." replied Applejack with confidence. A blur with dust in front of it began to run for the cookie suspended on a string.

"Here she comes." said Techorse. Applejack started to lead her target and prepared to make the toss. As Pinkie got closer, she locked her eyes onto the cookie and went to take the bait.

Applejack threw the lasso with a flick of her tail, and quickly switched control of the rope to her front hooves. The ring of rope caught around Pinkie Pie's middle, but she kept running even after eating the cookie off the string in one bite.

"Oh shoot." said Applejack. Techorse felt a burst of air as Applejack was yanked away from him, leaving a Stetson hat beside him. With a click of metal, Techorse extended the turbofans out of his saddle and started flying in the direction of the pink blur.

"With any luck", he thought, "something might be left of Applejack to take to the hospital."

As he followed the pair, Applejack hung on to the rope for dear life, bouncing on the hard cobblestone of the city streets. Because Pinkie was running at several miles an hour, this was extremely painful, and eventually, Applejack's rope came off from the shocks, and she was tossed onto the ground, where she rolled several times before coming to a halt.

Techorse was tired of plans that didn't involve a ridiculous invention of his, so he went back to his castle and grabbed the most ridiculous invention he could find. Returning to the city streets with it, he laid down a specially coated large yellow mat and laid a plate full of cupcakes on it. A stack of wooden crates loomed above the pad, and Techorse used the crates to conceal the mat, making only the plate of cupcakes clearly visible from that angle. As he set up the strange mat, Rainbow Dash and Applejack returned to him. Rainbow was covered in bandages and gauze, and Applejack had a cast on her back leg.

Techorse got worried for her and asked, "Oh shoot, did you break your leg Applejack?" as he returned her hat to her.

"No it's just sprained." She replied, placing the hat back on her head.

Rainbow Dash moaned, "Can't we just let Pinkie Pie run out of juice? A coma's not so bad, right?"

"A coma is terrible!" yelled Techorse, "she might never wake up. We have to bring her off the caffeine rush slowly."

"But we keep gettin' ourselves hurt, there's no point!" protested Applejack.

Techorse nodded and said, "Usually, when the plan is simply 'nab her', you get hurt. My plan's a little safer."

"How so?" asked Rainbow Dash as she reached for the pad.

"Don't touch it." warned Techorse, "It's got lots of special super adhesive glue on it. When Pinkie touches the mat to get these cupcakes, she'll be stuck."

"Like flypaper!" figured Applejack.

"Exactly, and once she gets stuck, I can feed her the caffeine soaked sugar cubes stored in my battle saddle."

The friends went behind a bush growing along the street to wait for Pinkie Pie.

"Eventually her need for sugar will catch her!" said Techorse quietly to his friends. Pinkie Pie indeed was getting hungry from her fast running, and she smelled the fresh baked cupcakes on the plate. Techorse stepped out of the bush and hid behind the crates.

"I have to be here to give her the sugar cubes." He said, "stay there."

"Got it!" replied Rainbow with a quick nod. Pinkie Pie turned for the plate and ran straight for it, at the angle with the crates, she could not see the pad coming.

"We got her!" thought Techorse.

He watched as Pinkie dashed by him and ate the cupcakes in one bite. However, she actually jumped at the start of the pad, flipped around and took the food, and then landed on the other side of the pad without touching it. She then made a weird beeping noise at Techorse and sped off at full speed again. The force knocked over the heavy wooden crates. Sensing the threat, Techorse ran the wrong way onto the sticky pad and tripped, getting stuck. Applejack and Rainbow shut their eyes as the crates smashed Techorse on the ground. The male pony moved the crates out of the way with the robot arms from his saddle and looked at Applejack.

"I'm alive." He said weakly.

Applejack limped over to him and checked over his body, there were lots of scrapes and bruises across his middle. One of his eyes was shut in pain.

"Now we're all hurt." she said, "and you're glued to that mat."

Techorse took the robotic arms from his saddle and held up a blue vial. Emptying the contents onto the pad caused it to fizzle, and he freed himself from the sticky mattress.

"Luckily I brought the solvent for the glue with me." He said.

"Aw man, your eye!" said an upset Rainbow Dash as she pointed at Techorse's injured eye.

"Poked by a crate fragment." groaned Techorse, "hopefully it won't blacken."

"Guess we're back to square one." said Applejack sadly, "we're never gonna save Pinkie. What, with being all out of plans and luck."

"...and medical supplies." added Techorse as he patched himself up with cloth bandages.

So they gave up, and went to the nurse's office downtown. They decided to simply let nurse Redheart know she'd need a coma bed for Pinkie Pie that day. The idea weighed heavily on their hearts, but they were unsure if anything more could be done.

"That's the truth, nurse. Pinkie will fall into a coma when she comes down off the drink. We've gotten hurt trying to bring her in, but now we give up." explained Applejack.

The nurse said to them sadly, "I see. I'll get you the papers needed. Once she falls unconscious, bring her to me and she'll be transferred to a better hospital." She left and brought back a paper in her mouth that bore horrible news.

Techorse grabbed a quill with his robotic arms and said, "All right, just have to fill this transfer paper out and we can go home."

"These papers aren't for the transfer." said the nurse.

"What?" asked Applejack with worry.

Techorse read the top, "Organ donation. Nurse Redheart, what is this?"

The nurse explained with a frown, "I'm sorry, but if Pinkie Pie will never wake up, there are ponies out there that need her organs."

"I'm not her parent, I can't sign this!" complained Techorse.

"You have to take them to her parents." said the nurse plainly, "If they sign them, Pinkie Pie will stay on life support until she wakes up. If not..."

Applejack looked sadly at Rainbow Dash, and back to Techorse.

"Let's try again to stop her." said Rainbow with determination in her heart, "I'm not letting my friend go this way!"

The nurse took away the papers and put them in a drawer.

"Before you go, let me help heal you a bit. You three look terrible." She said to them. After fixing the friend's wounds, they left to go try their luck again saving their friend.

Nurse Redheart smiled and heard her assistant ask her, "Were you really going to let that pony get her organs taken out?"

"Not really." replied the nurse, "the waiting list for organs is very short, thankfully. I just wanted to make sure they give another try at preventing their friend's coma. Somehow, I think they can pull it off, they are Twilight Sparkle's friends after all."

Outside, the friends tried to come up with another plan, hoping to think of anything that could solve the problem and save Pinkie Pie.

"We have to give this another shot." said Techorse.

"But what can we try?" asked Rainbow Dash, "We've tried traps, asking her to stop, and grabbing her. Nothing works!"

A small glow of inspiration formed in Applejack's head as she remembered one more particular weakness her friend had that could be exploited.

"I think I have one more idea." Said Applejack, "but it's pretty silly."

"It's probably better than being crushed by several metric tons of crates." replied Techorse, "Tell us!"

Applejack led them back to her farm and began to set up streamers on the barn door. After decorating the storage building, Applejack took out a bag and threw it to Rainbow.

"Blow up these balloons." She commanded Rainbow Dash.

"Now's not the time for this!" whined Rainbow Dash, "we're wasting time and we probably only have an hour or so before Pinkie goes to bed forever!"

"Trust me!" urged Applejack. Rainbow groaned in frustration and began to work with the balloons.

"Techorse, use those lasers of yours and start a bonfire now in that pit over there."

Techorse said, "I left them at home, but I have a magnifying glass in my saddle. It will have to do."

Taking out the magnifying glass, he walked over to the pit and started to build a fire. Soon, after a few attempts, a fire was roaring, balloons were scattered outside, and streamers hung from the barn door.

Applejack gave Rainbow Dash some money and said, "Rainbow, go into town and buy a cake from the bakery."

Techorse insisted that he be a gentlecolt and pitch in to help cover the cost, which Applejack thanked him for. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the chivalry and took off at full speed to buy the cake.

"While she's gone, set up this game of horseshoes over here." said Applejack, pointing to a pair of metal rods in the ground.

Techorse said, "You got it.." and worked on the game.

Rainbow Dash returned with the cake.

"Cut it up into slices." said Applejack.

"So many orders." complained Rainbow as she grabbed a knife.

After the cake was cut up into many pieces, Applejack instructed, "Tech, put a caffeinated sugar cube on each piece."

Techorse caught on to the plan and laced each slice of vanilla cake with a sugar cube, pushing it into the purple icing to make sure it wasn't visible.

"Great, it's all set up!" cheered Applejack, "now we just wait for…" Pinkie Pie rushed up to the friends. Her pupils were starting to narrow again, the caffeine crash was imminent.

"Hey girls, nice party!" she cheered, "can I come?"

"Of course you can Pinkie!" said Applejack, "help yourself to some cake!" Pinkie turned to the pieces. Techorse had put each piece strategically apart from each other so Pinkie could only eat 1 at a time. The pony bounded over to the cake pieces and shoved one into her mouth, eating it quickly. She plowed through the next slice, and the next one, slowing down a bit each time between pieces. When Pinkie Pie got to the last piece, she was taking small bites out of it. After finishing the entire cake, Pinkie Pie half shut her eyelids, her pupils had returned to normal. The caffeine cubes had stopped her rush and balanced out the chemical, now there was no threat of her collapsing.

Pinkie Pie sighed heavily and said in a normal speed, "Thanks for the cake! Say, who's this party for anyways? Is it for..."

She took one step, turned around, and fell over with a mighty thud.

"Oh no!" shouted Rainbow, "It didn't work!"

Techorse knelt before Pinkie Pie and put his hoof under her mouth and nose. Soft and warm breath came from her.

"She's breathing!" said Techorse softly, "And she's not in a coma."

"Let's get her back home., Whispered Applejack, "and put her to bed. She's gonna be awful hung over when she wakes up." They carried the sleeping Pinkie back to her apartment on top of the bakery and tucked her into bed. After telling Mr. and Mrs. Cake about what had happened, they were relieved to find that Pinkie hadn't missed much work.

It was now mid afternoon, and the three stepped outside of the bakery and into the town square. The place was a mess now, carts were tipped over, crates destroyed, and ponies hiding in their homes to avoid the speeding pony who was now sleeping peacefully in her bed.

"Crisis averted." said Techorse, "not bad for not sleeping for two days straight."

"You haven't slept in two days?" panicked Rainbow.

Techorse yawned and answered, "Nope, that's why I needed the coffee in the first place."

"Oh we're never going back to that coffee shop again." Said Applejack, "in fact, based on all the mess and how fast word spreads 'round here, nopony's going back there again. They'll be out of business in a week."

"Good riddance." said Rainbow, "their employees are not careful, and their coffee's too dangerous!"

Techorse agreed and said, "Well, I'm off to the library now. Thanks for helping me today, ladies."

"Shouldn't you go to bed at your castle?" asked Applejack, "You seem awfully tired."

Techorse said happily, "If I did, I'd miss helping Twilight prepare a new friendship report. We learned something from you today, Applejack."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Today, we tried catching Pinkie by grabbing her, demanding she stopped, and trying to lure her into traps. As it turned out, those brute-force methods didn't work so well, and we all got hurt. But when you suggested we persuade Pinkie to stop with her favorite thing, a party, it worked almost right away! Kindness and persuasion is much more powerful than brute force."

Applejack laughed and said, "I guess we did learn something. See you later Tech!" He waved goodbye as he galloped off to the library.

Meanwhile, back at his castle, PAL was still filling out order forms for the spare parts. He finished the stack of papers and brought the documents over to a filing cabinet to stash them away for later. As he put the forms in the drawer, he spotted a scrap of paper on top of the cabinet. After putting the papers away, he looked at the odd item. It was a coupon for a free coffee at Grinder's café.

"Well, I don't drink coffee." thought the robot.

Then he smiled and said, "But I bet miss Pinkie Pie would like one! I'll bring it to her as a gift!"

#6 - Robbery at Canterlot

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Robbery at Canterlot

Techorse series: #6

By Spirals95

The gigantic cavern in the side of the mountain didn't seem as ugly or dark as the others in the surrounding area. This was partially because a very intelligent dragon and his closest companions lived inside this cave. Unlike the other dragons in the area, they could care less about hording treasure and using it as a mattress. No, these dragons preferred to go after much larger and valuable things. They were willing to do what it took to get the special treasures they needed for their collections, and they were absolutely sure these treasures they stole would give them top status amongst the others living in the area. These four dragons lived together in the largest cavern system they could find. Rather than leaving it plain and dank, they carved out rooms and passageways, using what talent they had to build furniture and other things that most dragons didn't tend to appreciate. In particular, three of them built a very large table and chair for their leader, who helped his friends by organizing their trips to go find the valuables they so desired. He was a wise leader and unusually kind to his underlings, but was cruel and heartless towards anyone else.

This dragon was 40 feet tall, had a ninety foot wingspan, and had very well kept claws on his hands. His scales were a solid gray color, which was indicative of the sheer number of diamonds he consumed to improve the hardness of his natural armor. The dragon's chest and stomach armor was a typical gold color, because it was much harder for a dragon to increase the toughness of his underbelly no matter how many gemstones he took in. His two closest friends were light blue and green in color. The light blue one had larger horns then any of the others present in the cave, while the green one had retractable spikes in his tail to use against opponents.

The leader sat in his gigantic red-painted wooden chair, drumming his clawed fingers on the table gently. His two companions stood at his sides and looked around the cavern, bored. After a few moments, the fourth dragon appeared in the cave system. He was a black-scaled one with a silver chest and heavy claws. This one carried in his left hand a huge platter covered with a metal lid. The dragon carried the metal container and placed it on the table in front of the leader.

"Lunch is served, boss." He said as he stepped back from the table.

The leader looked back and forth at his friends, who motioned for him to take the lid off of the platter. Stowing his wings behind his back, the leader complied and reached down with his claw. He gently grasped the handle on the top of the lid and lifted it off of the container. Inside was a bed of greens, on top of which laid a cyan Pegasus pony bound in ropes. Rainbow Dash was on the plate, tied up and silenced with a piece of tape over her mouth, still struggling as she tried to escape from the mound of lettuce she was on. Alas, the ropes had her wings tied firmly to her sides and her legs as well. Looking up, she saw the leader staring at her and squirmed around, hoping to at least get off the table before it was too late. But to her surprise, the dragon started laughing. After calming down, the leader addressed his comrades.

"Gents." He said in a Brooklyn accent, "This is no way to treat a lady."

"But boss." replied the white dragon, "You said she was spyin' on us and to bring her to you. We thought you wanted to eat her."

"Not this time, Wyrm." said the leader as he put a hand on his buddy's shoulder, "not this time."

The gray dragon reached down and removed the gag from Rainbow's mouth. Then, using his claws, he cut the ropes from her legs so she could stand. But to make sure she didn't simply fly away, he left the ropes on her wings intact.

"Thanks." She said nervously. Rainbow knew that if she played her cards right and acted nicely, they would let her go. If not, she was dragon chow.

"No problem." said the gray one, reclining back a bit on his chair.

"You know, I really appreciate you taking off that thing." Said Rainbow, "But if you could just untie my wings too, I could fly up and thank you a little more personally."

"Sorry girl, can't untie your wings just yet." He replied, "You're in for a little lecture."

It seemed she was willing to listen to him to avoid a terrible fate, so she walked off the platter and sat down on the gigantic table.

"You got a name?" he asked.

"Rainbow Dash."

The leader brought his head down to her level and told her, "Rainbow Dash, you spy on me on the day of my daughter's wedding."

"But boss, you don't have a daughter!" said the light blue dragon.

"Shut up!" shouted the gray dragon, slapping the foolish crony.

"Anyways, where was I?"

"You were about to let me go!" lied Rainbow Dash, hoping to avoid any berating for her recent actions.

"Now I remember, you were eavesdroppin' on our little meeting here in the cave." He said, nodding his head.

"I was just out for some exercise!" she protested, raising a front leg at him.

The dragon argued, "Yeah, but you took a break a little too close to our humble home. I can't have every pony out there listenin' in on our private conversations. It's really bad for business."

"Business, I didn't hear about any business." Said Rainbow with obvious fear as her eyes darted back and forth.

"Now don't get too upset about watcha heard." The dragon assured, "none of you ponies are gonna get hurt in the next week, I promise."

Rainbow Dash had been flying outside minutes ago, and when she had stopped to rest outside of the cave, she had heard the dragons talking about their plan to steal the world's largest diamond from a traveling museum exhibit. It would be in Canterlot the next Tuesday, and many ponies were going to be there to see it. Out of curiosity, Rainbow Dash had overheard the plans about stealing the gemstone, which was the size of a minivan at least. Any dragon that ate that gem would most likely become nearly invincible in terms of scale armor. But one of them had spotted her outside the cave and nabbed her, it was simply assumed by the minions that when their boss wanted his captive brought to him, that she was to be restrained in such a manner.

"So, to make a long story short..." Finished the dragon, "next Tuesday me and the guys take that little rock and leave. Nobody gets hurt, just taking what we want and going."

"Now can you untie me?" asked Rainbow, looking back at the ropes constraining the wings she loved so much.

"I don't know, I think you know a little too much to leave." said the leader with a sinister tone of voice as he reached for her with vile intentions.

Rainbow Dash fell flat on the table and put her front legs in a praying pose. "Please, I won't tell anyone about the raid! Just let me go!"

The leader smirked and removed his hand from the shaker, then said to her, "By the way, the name's Don. You don't speak about Don, or about his plans, and he lets you go, got it?"

"Yes sir!" answered Rainbow; glad she was still alive at this point in the conversation. Don looked down upon her and said, "Good, because there's only one thing less fun than being spied on, and that's dozens of sharp teeth in your hide."

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard and brushed her hair out of her face.

Don laughed and cut the ropes from her wings with his claws.

"Remember, one little peep about this meetin' or our plan, and you've bought yourself a ticket to bein' a source of fiber."

Rainbow shook herself off of lettuce bits and spread her wings to take off in the air.

"Before you go." said Don as he picked up a large ruby, "Don't think we won't be able to tell if you tattle on our little secret. We've hired a pony spy in your town to make sure nobody talks." Don threw the ruby in his mouth and continued, "And if you do, just remember how easy we can get rid of you."

He then bit down on the gemstone hard, making a sickening crunch. Rainbow winced, but flew out of the cave without any further problems from the team of dragons.

"I have to tell someone about this!" she thought to herself as she flew back to town, "but if I do, I'm going to be a snack for that guy!"

The Pegasus pony shook her head and tried to concentrate on her flight back to Ponyville.

"Hey, maybe they will just take the gemstone and leave." She said aloud with a positive attitude, "no one gets hurt, including me!"

But she somehow knew the gang of dragons would end up hurting a lot of others in the struggle to steal the block of diamond. This knowledge made her determined to somehow warn her friends about the impending attack and at the same time preserve herself. There was no witness protection program in Equestria because it wasn't really needed due to the lack of crime amongst ponies, but these dragons could really cause some harm when they wanted to. She kept this in mind as she landed back in the square of her home town.

Rainbow Dash found herself right next to Sugarcube Corner, a great place to start in Ponyville if your objective was shopping. The colonial styled buildings featured the mom and pop stores that dominated the economy of the planet. Rainbow Dash knew she could tell one pony about what was going to happen, only because this friend would be able to spread the word quickly and efficiently without tipping off the others that the information came from her. She would be safe and would have successfully warned about the attack.

Rainbow folded her wings gently to her sides and entered the building in front of her, a large bakery. Behind her, a sea green unicorn mare with deep blue eyes watched from behind a newspaper. With a small flash of magical energy, the mare folded her newspaper and entered the bakery behind Rainbow Dash. The inside of the bakery featured a counter with a glass display. Well decorated and stocked with the best baked goods available in town, the store sold desserts mostly, but always had customers from opening to closing time. Rainbow Dash walked up to the counter and rang the service bell gently. Instantly, with a blur of cartoony speed and style, Pinkie Pie appeared at the counter and slung her front legs over the top.

"Hi Rainbow, good to see ya!" she said in her usual cheery mood.

"Yeah, you too." replied Rainbow with a touch of desperation.

"So, what are you going to order?" asked Pinkie eagerly, "A cake? Some brownies maybe?"

"Actually, I need to tell you something important." She whispered, looking around for the spy Don talked about.

"Well, if you're not gonna order something, I have to help the pony behind you first!" said Pinkie, "What can I get you?"

Rainbow Dash turned around and looked at the mare who had entered behind her.

"I want a gingerbread pony." She said smoothly, "With the frost-it-yourself special."

The frost-it-yourself special was a business idea Pinkie Pie invented to impress her employer and the owner of the bakery, Mr. Cake. If you bought a cookie without icing of any kind, you could decorate it yourself at a table set up in the corner.

Pinkie Pie darted away and returned with the innocent looking treat on a plastic tray. "Here you go, have fun!" she encouraged as she handed the tray over. The unicorn tossed Pinkie the money for the dessert and used telekinetic magic to carry the tray over to the frosting table. She dropped the cookie on the table, took a look at Rainbow Dash, and picked up the cyan colored vanilla icing.

"So, Rainbow Dash, what were you going to tell me?" asked Pinkie Pie as she returned to her friend.

"Do you know about that big diamond block coming to Canterlot this week?" she asked, making sure she had her easily distracted friend's attention.

"Yeah I do! The museum is going to throw the best gemstone party ever!" she shouted, slamming her front hooves onto the counter to make some noise.

"Trouble is, the gemstone's going to be stolen." said Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie gasped and asked, "By who? Tell me!"

Rainbow Dash breathed in and tried to ruin the evil plot, but her sentence was interrupted by a cough. She turned her head and saw who had coughed. It was the sea green mare. The gingerbread pony had been frosted light blue, and the mare had chosen a very colorful selection of sugar granules to give the cookie a rainbow tail and hair. Using her magic, she moved the cookie towards her head, and then while looking straight at Rainbow Dash, bit the confection's head off violently. This caused Rainbow to have a surge of panic, and she looked back at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie noticed her friend starting to sweat and asked again, "Who's going to take the diamond?"

"No one." Replied Rainbow rapidly, "I was kidding to see how you'd react. It was a joke."

"Oh." said Pinkie plainly.

She then started laughing after a moment of silence, "You had me going there for a while, Rainbow! Good one."

"I did!" grimaced Rainbow as she backed out of the bakery, making sure to keep eye contact with the mare.

"That's the spy!" she thought as she galloped away.

After making sure the spy was out of sight, she took a break and began to think about what to do. "If I can't tell anypony about the plan, maybe I can stop it!" she said to herself.

Since it was too dangerous to tell another to spread the word of the plan, Rainbow Dash decided that the best thing to do was to prepare for the robbery.

Rainbow lifted a hoof to her chin and asked herself, "How can I stop four dragons from hurting us and taking the gemstone? They probably won't listen to anyone, so the only other option is force. But what could I use to force them to go away?"

An idea came to her mind, and she took off into the air to enact her plan. Techorse was the inventor of the town, but also the only one with any knowledge of powerful weaponry. In Rainbow's mind, he could provide her with something to put a quick end to the gang's plot. She spotted the stone castle and dove ninety degrees down, gliding on her wings to make a quick landing in front of the residence. A quick knock on the door caused a television monitor outside to turn on.

"Hello miss Dash!" said PAL from the television screen, "how can I help you?"

"Open up, I need to see Tech." she ordered.

"You got it." replied the robot with a mechanical wink. The wooden doors of the castle opened up for Rainbow Dash with a steady humming noise. Apparently, the motors tasked with opening the doors had been well lubricated recently. She walked into the castle and made a straight line for the laboratory where she knew she'd find her brilliant friend.

"Hey Techie, you got a minute?" she asked aloud, hoping to pick up on his voice. The laboratory door opened and the green pony walked out, oddly enough not wearing the mechanical saddle he used to do almost everything.

"Sure, Rainbow." He said, "What is it?"

"I'd like to buy a weapon."

Tech looked at PAL, who shrugged. Looking back at Rainbow, he asked cautiously, "Why the sudden interest in weapons, Rainbow?"

"I need to defend myself." She lied.

Techorse laughed, "That's funny. You can take care of yourself without a weapon, I know you."

"That's just it." She replied, "I sort of can't defend myself from this guy without more than just my hooves."

"Who's 'this guy'?" he asked.

"That's for me to know and you to not ask about. Now will you help me or not?" She replied sternly.

"Ok, just calm down and follow me."

They walked deep into the laboratory and entered a metal doorway which descended down into a large warehouse-like room.

"This is where I store my weapons." He said, "I don't have lots of them, believe it or not I prefer inventing peaceful things. But sometimes you just need a decent weapon to go up against the monsters out there."

"Exactly." Agreed Rainbow, "Now show me what you have."

"Ok, first up," he replied, "is a copy of my saddle's laser cannons. Trouble is, they'd interfere with your wings so you couldn't fly while wearing it."

"I might need something a little bigger." said Rainbow, remembering the massive size of the dragons.

"PAL, get her something bigger." ordered Tech.

PAL gave a little sarcastic salute before he disappeared behind a large metal container. He returned with a 6-barreled minigun in hand, loaded with topaz crystals.

"This is a laser minigun." explained Techorse, pointing with his front leg, "5000 beams a minute."

"A bit bigger than that." She said.

PAL put down the minigun and picked up a solid white bazooka with a guidance scope.

"Bigger."

The robot took out a remote control and used it to drive a set of tank treads over to Rainbow. The treads had on it a launching rack which sported a big cruise missile, about 6 feet long and one foot wide, with four fins on the end for steering.

"Bigger!"

PAL pushed another button on the remote. The cruise missile opened up, and two smaller missiles stuck out from the sides of the main one.

"I still don't know if that's going to be big enough." She said in dismay as she looked at the ordinance.

"Well, that's all I have." said Tech, "What's got you worried that you need more than a cluster missile?"

"Do you know about the giant diamond that's coming to Canterlot?" she asked.

"Of course, the gem celebration the museum team is throwing this week!" replied Techorse with a smile, "I bought tickets to go see it with Twilight."

"How sweet!" teased PAL, aware of his master's relationship with Twilight.

"Anyways." Continued Rainbow Dash, "the gemstone is going to be…"

A loud sound of hoofs on stone stopped the conversation as the sea green mare entered the tiny warehouse noisily. She was carrying a bottle of barbecue sauce with her magic.

"Hey, how did you get in here?" asked Techorse with a bit of anger in his voice. He hated security breaches.

"The door was locked, so I entered magically." she responded simply, "I just had to return this bottle of barbeque sauce to that master chef of yours."

PAL said to her, "I appreciate that compliment miss, but I'm afraid I never lent out a bottle of barbeque sauce. Everything in the kitchen has been accounted for."

"Oh well." responded the mare with a tilt of her head, "then this one is a gift from me."

She threw the bottle to PAL, who caught it with a skillful stretch of his arms.

"You're going to need all the barbeque sauce you can get with your friend Rainbow Dash here." continued the spy as she put a front leg around the back of Rainbow's neck.

"Really?" asked Techorse with suspicion.

"Yes." She replied, "She uses so much of it. I swear, one of these days she's going to take a bath in it!"
Tech took note of Rainbow Dash's uncomfortable facial expression as the spy talked.

"Anyways, I guess I'll see myself out, I have no need for your weapons." She said fancifully as she teleported away in a flash of light.

"So, what were you going to tell me about the gemstone?" asked Techorse as he regained his train of thought.

"Absolutely nothing!" replied Rainbow quickly, "I just thought I'd see what new cool gadgets you had today. Well, I gotta go too, bye!"

She ran out of the room, trying hard not to scream or panic.

"Something's up." Said Techorse as soon as she was out of sight, "And I think it has to do with that strange girl who was just here." PAL nodded in agreement and started to put the weapons away.

Rainbow Dash was running out of options quickly. She had to warn someone, but that spy was keeping up with her too well! There was only one pony left she knew would have any advice on beating dragons, and she lived far away enough from the center of town that there was no way the spy could follow her. Fluttershy's cottage was not completely isolated, but to Rainbow Dash it might just be quiet enough to tell her secret without fear of retaliation. Rainbow landed at the doorstep from her flight and pounded on the door with a front leg.

Fluttershy cautiously opened her front door and said, "Oh, hello Rainbow. What's the matter?"

"We need to talk! But first we've got to hide." she replied with great desperation, looking around to make sure the spy was gone.

"Ok." said Fluttershy uneasily as she let Rainbow Dash into her humble home. She hid underneath of the nearest couch and let her rainbow streaked tail poke out from underneath the furniture.

"Why do you need to hide?" asked Fluttershy gently as she crouched and looked at her friend cowering under the couch.

"I'm being followed by a spy!" she replied.

"A spy?" asked Fluttershy, "for who?"

"For the dragons!" she whispered.

"Dragons?" asked Fluttershy again, still confused about her friend's state of panic.

"Get under the couch with me and I'll explain!"

Fluttershy sighed and crawled underneath of the pink-cushioned sofa.

"Ok, now will you tell me?"

Rainbow Dash looked around for the spy and nodded.

"It all started earlier today, when I was out for my morning exercise. I stopped for a break outside a cave in the mountains when I heard some voices talking about a plan to steal that huge diamond coming into Canterlot this weekend. I was going to warn everyone, but one of the dragons caught me and tried to feed me to his leader! Luckily, he was a bit nice and I was left alive, but he warned me that if I told anyone this secret, his spy in Ponyville would tell him. Then, I'd be his next meal!"

"That's horrible." commented Fluttershy.

"I thought after you told off that last dragon, you might be able to stop these guys!" said Rainbow Dash.

"I don't know." doubted Fluttershy, "There's four of them, and only one of me."

"Please?" begged Rainbow.

"I'll see what I can do."

Rainbow Dash crawled out from underneath the sofa and sat on top of it. She was soon followed by her friend.

"Are you ok now?" asked Fluttershy.

Rainbow nodded, but her eyes dilated when she looked out the window of the tree home. The sea green mare was staring in on them, and when she realized her cover was blown, she left the window and took off running.

"Who was that?" asked Fluttershy, noticing the mare.

"That's the spy!" shrieked Rainbow, "She's going to tell on me to Don!" Rainbow Dash ran to the door and threw it open before running out screaming.

"Oh dear." Said Fluttershy as she frowned, knowing a terrible thing was about to happen. Rainbow Dash started to fly up high into the air, and considered her options.

"Ok, maybe I can just leave the country for a while. Lay low, and they'll never find me!" she said to herself in mental anguish.

"But what if he has spies there too?" Then, Rainbow Dash got an idea, "If that spy never makes it back to Don, she can't tell on me!"

She scanned the surrounding terrain as she hovered in the sky and spotted the mare running away for the mountains. "Ah ha!" she shouted as she flapped her wings and sped off to attack her enemy. The spy had picked up the pace, her tail flapping in the breeze. All of a sudden, she was pounced by Rainbow Dash and knocked to the ground, scraping her belly and face. Rainbow Dash turned over the mare and began throwing punches with her front hooves. The spy screamed and dodged the blows, frustrating Rainbow Dash who was desperate to stop her from telling.

"Take this and that!" shouted Rainbow, pummeling away with all her might. Without warning, a pair of metal arms separated the two, ending the brawl.

"Woah! That's enough!" shouted Techorse as he pulled them apart with the robotic limbs.

"let me go Tech!" yelled Rainbow. Tech made sure there was at least three feet between the two as he held on to them by his robotic arms.

"Rainbow, what has gotten into you?" he scolded, "first you come to me looking to get a weapon, and now you attack another pony without reason? Are you crazy?"

"But I!" protested Rainbow.

Techorse didn't listen, he turned to face the spy and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes", she replied while panting for air, "I'm fine."

Techorse released his grasp from the spy and Rainbow. He said while shaking his head, "I can't believe what I just saw. Why Rainbow?"

She answered him, "This spy is trying to tell on me to a dragon who wants me gone!"

"She's lying, she's just angry because I've been following her." replied the spy.

"I know Rainbow Dash is a little afraid of large dragons." said Techorse, "So it wouldn't surprise me that she's in a panic. However, I don't actually have much evidence to go on, so I can't make a good call. But if I hear that Rainbow was telling the truth, miss, you'd better avoid Ponyville. The entire town will know what you've been up to."

The mare nodded and ran away from them. Tech retracted the robotic arms back into his saddle, the limbs disappeared into the machine with a click as the panels on the sides closed.

"I'm going back to the castle." He said, "To think about all of this."

The turbofans extended from out of the device on his back, and he lifted off vertically into the air before disappearing into cloud cover. Once he was gone, the mare approached Rainbow Dash again.
She laughed evilly and said, "Well Rainbow Dash, it looks like you've lost. You've told the story, and now you're going to pay for it."

"Please." begged Rainbow, "Don't betray another pony and tell him."

"I get paid way too much for mercy like that." said the spy as she smirked at Rainbow Dash, "But I do have some advice for you. When you do get what you deserve, bring a blindfold so you don't have to watch." The mare laughed and vanished with a teleportation spell.

The rest of the week went by with Rainbow Dash going mentally insane inside of her cloudhouse above Ponyville. No one actually noticed because she never left her house for anything, she was simply that afraid. The day before the diamond was scheduled to arrive in Canterlot, Techorse made some last minute check-ups on his castle.

"Ok, so we've repaired the factory equipment, filled all the order forms, and cleaned the place." He said, checking each item off the list he held with his robotic arms.

"All of it is done." Said PAL, who was inside the castle's central computer, "I've run a diagnostics check and we're good to go for this weekend. Have a great time tomorrow, master."

"You're coming with me." He reminded the machine, "I have a ticket for you too, buddy."

"Great!" replied the robot with excitement, "I should pick out something to wear on my chassis!"
"Don't go overboard; it's a party, not an etiquette lesson."

"Very well." said PAL, rolling his eyes.

The doorbell rang as they discussed the upcoming events of tomorrow. Techorse walked over to the castle door and hit the lever to open it. He looked away from the tall opening doors as he went back in to continue working on his list. Eventually, he felt a soft brush against his side.

"Hello Fluttershy." He said gently while maintaining his gaze at the paper.

"Hi. I was wondering if everyone's ready to go for tomorrow."

"Of course!" answered PAL as he entered the room in his robot body, "we're all set Fluttershy!"

"That's great PAL." She smiled while making eye contact with the machine.

"Have you heard from Rainbow Dash lately since her incident?" asked Techorse as he checked the last item off his list.

"No. She's still scared of the dragons." replied Fluttershy in disappointment.

"Are there really any dragons, or did she just make that up?" asked Tech, turning to look at Fluttershy.

"Yes." She replied, "Earlier this week she said a gang of dragons threatened her. They would have gotten her, but they said she could go if they didn't tell anyone about some plan they had."

"What's the plan?" asked Tech.

"I forgot, but apparently she said this spy was following her around. She looked like some girl with a light green coat, but I only saw her for a split second."

The ballpoint pen fell out of Tech's robotic hand and hit the ground.

"Overly dramatic, master." criticized PAL as he put his hand over his face.

"Oh shoot." Said Techorse in horror, "that's the mare she was trying to beat up. She was telling the truth!"

"I thought you knew." said Fluttershy.

"I didn't!" he continued, "But if she was telling the truth, those dragons already know she told! She could be in danger!"

Fluttershy said, "Don't worry, they won't be after Rainbow tomorrow. They'll be too busy. You see, I remember the plan now. It's to steal the world's biggest diamond."

Fluttershy realized what she had said and muttered, "Oh no."

The inventor pony's right eye twitched as he realized he had been duped by the spy and Canterlot was in grave danger.

"We've been had!" he shouted angrily.

"Calm down." encouraged Fluttershy, "I promised Rainbow that I would try and talk with the dragons."

"They won't listen." Warned Tech, "There's only one way we're stopping those dragons."

PAL smiled and used his remote control to bring the missile crawler back into the room. He looked with excitement at his master.

"Too messy PAL." he said.

The robot frowned and put the cruise missile away with disappointment.

"What are we going to do then?" asked PAL, "if we're not going to use force and peace is going to fail, what option do we have?"

"We scare them away. I have an invention up my sleeve that might just do the trick. But we need Rainbow Dash." He answered.

"She won't come with us to Canterlot." said Fluttershy, "Those dragons will be looking for her."

"If they try to smash her, I can protect her." Assured Techorse, letting his laser cannons spring from his saddle with a reloading "click".

"You don't understand." Said Fluttershy desperately, "Their leader isn't going to smash her for telling. The leader is going to eat her!"

"But ponies aren't the primary prey for dragons! They're bluffing." reasoned Techorse.

"Even so," replied Fluttershy, "she's too scared and she won't come with us." The colt sighed and retracted his guns.

He then thought of something and said, "Then we'll need to bring Spike along on this one. My plan might still work, but I have to talk to Twilight. PAL, take care of Fluttershy here while I'm gone."

"Yes sir!" replied the machine happily with a salute. Techorse left his castle to go explain the situation to his marefriend, leaving the two others alone.

Meanwhile, miles away, the gang of four dragons was talking about their plan to steal the diamond. The light blue one said, "So, all we have to do is go in there, scare away the ponies, and take the big diamond."

"Then you eat it boss, and you'll be invincible. Takin' over the ponies' cities will be easy with that kinda armor." added the white one.

The green dragon was the last to say, "It will be like taking candy from a hatchling."

Don nodded his head and looked at each of his underlings as he spoke, "Tomorrow, I become more powerful than ever. But before we take over this country, we gotta instill a little respect in those ponies."

"How are you going to do that, Don?" asked the white one, "Breathe a little fire? Smash a building?"

"I've been thinking boys, and I know exactly what I'm going to do. My spy tells me that little weasel Rainbow Dash told on us. We've lost the element of surprise."

"So what are you planning on doing?" asked the green dragon gruffly.

"When the party starts, we're just gonna walk in there casually and explain our presences." Replied Don, "Then, to make sure they don't try and defend themselves, I'm going to demoralize them by eating Rainbow Dash."

The white dragon's narrow eyes expanded as he asked, "But I thought you said it wasn't any fun…"

"I know what I said you idiot!" shouted Don.

Calming down, he coughed and continued his speech, "But if I choke down the runt in front of all the others, they'll be begging for mercy and hand over the diamond, and then the country."

"I've got the sauce right here. Might make her taste a little better." laughed the white dragon as he tossed Don a large bottle of reserve barbeque.

"Thanks Wyrm." chuckled Don.

"Wait a minute." said the green one, "How do we even know Rainbow Dash is going to show up? It's likely she won't be there if she knows she's going to die."

"I'll send our spy to tell her to show up tomorrow or we'll crush all her little friends. Most of 'em are going to be there at the party."

That being said, the spy was ordered to teleport into Rainbow Dash's cloudhouse and break the news to her. When she did so, she found herself looking at a mental wreck rather than the tough pony she used to be. Rainbow was curled in a corner, her hair in horrible disorganization and her muscles twitching. She spotted the spy and pointed at her shakily.

"You!" she said menacingly to the spy.

She replied, "Don says to be there in Canterlot tomorrow."

"I'm not letting him get me!" shouted Rainbow.

"If you don't." warned the spy, "All your little friends go instead. Be there tomorrow and go quietly, or everyone else goes down instead."

She laughed again and disappeared in a flash of light. Rainbow wept and grabbed a pillow from her bed, mashing it into her face. Although she really didn't want to end up inside one of the monsters, she now knew her friend's lives were also in peril too. But instead of losing her mind, she became angry. Now that her friends were also threatened, it was possible for her to take action.

"Now wait a minute, I'm Rainbow Dash. I don't cry like this when there's trouble! I'm not going to let those dragons hurt the others, even if it means I have to face them alone." She shouted, standing up and throwing the pillow away. "Tomorrow, I'm fighting Don, and even if I lose, at least my friends will make it!"

Running outside of her house, she dipped her hooves in the chromatic puddle that stored her rainbow water and gazed at her angry reflection. Tomorrow would certainly bring someone's destruction.

The trip to Canterlot the next morning was made quick and simple thanks to Twilight Sparkle's mass teleportation spell. The others seemed a little bit disoriented from the trip, but PAL seemed strangely unaffected.

"That was an interesting experience." noted the machine logically.

"Where's Techie?" asked Pinkie Pie. All of a sudden, there was a blue flash of particles next to them, and Techorse appeared out of the vortex. In his mouth was a small metal box with a bunch of buttons on it.

"Hey ladies!" he said as he dropped the box, "What do you think of my self-teleporter?"

"Based on how undizzy you are next to us, I'd say it's just as good as Twilight's!" complimented Spike.

"Where's your saddle?" asked Pinkie curiously, sure that the boy would have brought his favorite invention.

"I decided to go without it today." said Techorse, "PAL has all the stuff we need to stop the dragons in the metal container I sent him with."

Twilight put a hoof on her forehead and groaned, "Ugh, so that's why he seemed bigger than usual. That cargo must have weighed quite a bit." Techorse smiled and walked over to her.

"I still can't believe we're going to try and have a good time while Rainbow Dash is hiding at home." said Fluttershy.

"Once we scare off the dragons with what's in here, we can party all we want." assured Techorse, "just trust me."

"All right, you're the colt with the plan!" cheered Pinkie Pie, taking a happy leap in the air.

"Let's get in line." suggested Twilight, "once we get inside the grounds, we can set up."

As they approached the event, Tech whispered to her, "Twilight, any chance of Princess Celestia showing up?"

"Not likely, she's supposed to be away on diplomatic duties." She replied quietly.

"Ooh, whispering!" added Pinkie Pie, "Can I join?"

They laughed about the unnecessary secrecy and got into place at the back of the line to get into the event.

"I wonder why Rarity didn't come today." said Spike, drumming his fingers on the top of Twilight's head, "she would have loved to see this diamond."

"No she wouldn't." answered Twilight, "The diamond may be the world's largest, but it's extremely flawed. It's not very pretty, just big."

"So why would dragons want to steal it?" asked PAL.

"To eat it?" suggested Spike, "I mean, we do eat gemstones, but the flawed ones taste funny."

"Yeah but it's not for the taste." Said Techorse, "If my theory is correct, there's enough diamond in this gemstone to provide two and a half tons of material for scales. If a dragon even of a large size were to eat that, it would provide the protective equivalent of 60 inches of steel armor for the dragon's entire lifetime."
"So?" asked Spike.

"So." He continued, "Let's give an example from my past. Back on Earth, the most powerful military unit was a battleship. It had 12 inches of steel armor."

Spike did the simple math in his head and shouted, "Five times that? Sheesh!"

"A dragon with that kind of protection would be immune to almost anything!" said Twilight in a bit of a panic.

Techorse nodded and finished, "He'd be explosion proof. Not even missiles or magic blasts would leave a mark."

"Oh dear." said Fluttershy, "We can't let the dragons get a hold of that gem."

"There it is." said PAL, pointing to the large rock on the metal display stand. The gemstone was cut into a large rectangular solid, measuring 12 feet on the long side and four feet on the narrow.

"That is a big gemstone." said Spike, salivating a bit.

"Don't get any ideas. There's no way you're eating that entire thing." said Twilight sharply.

"Fine." He replied, "But it would be cool to have all that extra armor."

"I know." Said Techorse, "And that's why we have to stop that gang."

After getting inside the perimeter of the outdoor exhibit, the friends waited next to the gemstone for the gang to arrive.

Twilight was having a conversation with another pony when she noticed it was starting to get a little dark. Looking up, she saw the four shadows of the dragons descending from the sky. Some ponies screamed as they landed on the grounds, others fled in terror, while some even fainted. The four landed in front of the giant diamond and folded their wings behind their backs very politely.

Don cleared his throat and said, "Hello. Good to see all you ponies."

"You must be the leader of these dragons." shouted Twilight.

"You'd be right about that miss." replied the gray dragon, "The name's Don."

"We know." said Twilight, "Rainbow Dash has told us so much about you."

"She has, has she?" laughed Don.

"You leave her alone!" demanded Fluttershy.

"Oh, we will leave her alone." said the green dragon, "If you just give us this rock here."

"You can't have her or the diamond." yelled Techorse, "I will see to that personally if I have to."

"Look he thinks he's such a tough guy!" said Don with a grin as he looked at his comrades.

Don then put on a very serious face and said to Tech, "Now listen. We're dragons of honor. But if Miss Dash doesn't show up and face me, we're going to have to accept some substitutes in her place."

"Substitutes?" asked Twilight worriedly.

"There are plenty here at this little shindig." explained Don, "You boys help yourselves to as many ponies as you want. Eat up!"

"Not so fast Don!" shouted a voice from above.

Rainbow Dash landed in front of the dragon with a loud pound on the soft dirt outside of Canterlot. She looked up at him with anger in her eyes.

"You'd better not attack my friends!" she screamed at him.

Don smiled and said to her, "You showed up! Great!" He reached down and grabbed her with his claw.
She looked down as she was being picked up and said, "Maybe I didn't think this plan through so carefully."

Rainbow Dash struggled to get away, but Don squeezed her tightly, and she soon stopped to avoid being crushed.

"Do something!" shouted Fluttershy at Techorse, "These dragons aren't going to listen to me!"

Don laughed and brought Rainbow Dash in front of his face. He then shouted to all the ponies watching, "All of you will learn to respect the Don and his gang. Or you'll suffer the same fate this little girl's gonna suffer."

He snapped his left fingers, and Wyrm handed him the bottle of barbeque sauce. Rainbow Dash looked at the bottle, and shook her head at the dragon.

"Where is she?" asked Twilight, looking back at the boys. PAL opened the container and took out the laser minigun from the armory. He planned on saving Rainbow Dash with the weapon, but now, he scanned the terrain for the sea green unicorn. The robot spotted the spy watching Rainbow Dash with a sinister grin on her face.

"I SEE SPY!" shouted PAL in a fake Russian accent, pointing to the evil mare. The machine lowered his minigun and took aim.

"Don't shoot her!" reminded Techorse as he tilted the huge gun up with his leg, "bring her back unharmed!"

"Why? Because of her Miss Dash is going to be devoured!"

Tech sighed and shook his head, "Revenge is not how we do things, PAL. The girls have taught me that."

"Yes master." replied the robot in understanding. Then the robot gave a battle cry and charged after the enemy with his minigun.

As the robot ran after his opponent, Don finished pouring a good amount of barbeque sauce over Rainbow Dash's head.

"I hate this brand." She said sadly as some of the tangy sauce got in her mouth.

The dragon opened his jaws and prepared to throw her inside. Rainbow looked into his mouth and saw the rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth.

"Hold on." pleaded Rainbow Dash. Don closed his maw and looked at her in confusion.

"Please don't chew me!" she requested.

Don laughed, "Don't worry, I won't." and prepared again to consume Rainbow Dash in one bite. But before he could stuff her down, a purple bolt of energy smashed into his hand, knocking Rainbow dash clear of his jaws. Don roared in anger as Rainbow Dash spread her wings instinctively and splashed down in a nearby fountain, where she cleansed herself of the sauce.

"Great shot Twilight!" cheered Spike. Twilight concentrated and charged the energy around her horn for another powerful shot. This time, the magic blast struck Don in the head, and he was knocked backwards onto the ground. The other dragons helped their leader back up to his feet.

"Nobody messes with me like that!" he screamed. Pointing to the others he shouted, "Go and get them, smash those ponies and bring me the diamond!" The other three began their assault on Canterlot, breathing fire and breaking buildings.

"Retreat!" called Techorse as he ran away, making sure he moved PAL's box to a safe location before he left.

The team split up in the chaos of the dragons rampaging through the city. Twilight rushed over to the fountain and took the blindfold off of Rainbow Dash.

"Are you ok?" she asked her friend as she helped her out of the fountain.

"I'm fine." She replied, "Now let's go stop Don together."

"Techorse has a plan we need to follow." Said Twilight, "and I trust him. He says an invention of his will scare off the dragons."

Rainbow Dash argued, "Now hang on, I was nearly eaten. I think I deserve to call the shots here."

Twilight nodded in agreement and said, "All right, but be careful!"

Rainbow nodded and shot off into the air, she was going to have her revenge. Don took a few steps towards the block of diamond and prepared to take it. His claws were intercepted by Rainbow Dash, who punched his hands hard. The dragon retracted his arms in pain and swatted through the air, trying to shoot down the flying pony.

Meanwhile, PAL was in full pursuit of the spy with his minigun.

"Come back here!" he shouted at the fleeing mare, who was in a full panic. As they went around an apartment building, PAL came face to face with the white dragon.

The spy said to him, "Crush this robot who's been chasing me!"

Wyrm reached down for her, "Sure, after a little snack."

He snatched up the sea green mare who immediately wailed, "Wait, what are you doing?"

"Don told me to do this." He explained, "If I eat you, we don't have to pay you."

"Wyrm, no, please!" she screamed as the dragon opened up. At first, the robot on the ground considered letting the dragon eat her. After all, she had gotten Rainbow Dash in trouble in the first place. But when his master told him to bring the spy back alive, he knew he had to help no matter how much he hated it.

"I'm going to have to ask you to let her go, dragon." ordered PAL with a touch of politeness.

"Maybe I will, robot. What are you gonna give me in return?" asked the white dragon, shutting his mouth.

The six barrels of PAL's weapon began rotating rapidly, winding up for a spray of laser fire.

"It's more like what I won't give you. I won't give you a burst from this if you let her go."

The dragon really hadn't paid attention to the minigun, but realized it was a weapon now and started to lower the spy to the ground.

"Look, robot, I'm sorry." He said, "I'm puttin' her down!" said the dragon.

"Too late!"

The robot opened fire, sending a hail of laser bolts into the dragon's body. He shrieked in pain and dropped the mare onto the ground before collapsing into a heap of charred dragon behind her. A few coughs from the monster indicated he was still conscious.

PAL spun down the minigun and approached the pony, who was shaking in mortal terror.

"W-why did you help me?" she asked slowly, "I nearly got your friend Rainbow eaten!"

"I promised my master I'd get you back to him alive." said PAL as he returned to his normal voice, "and I keep my promises, even if I don't want to. Now, will you please come with me?" The pony nodded her head slowly and walked away with the machine.
"Do you have a name?" asked the robot.

"Shade." She responded shakily, still recovering from her trauma.

The green dragon, several hundred meters from Shade and PAL, was having fun knocking over buildings with his tail. Celestia's guards had responded to the reports of the threats, but they were having trouble attacking the monsters due to their limited weaponry and the surprise nature of the attack. As the monster continued to knock over buildings, Spike was running through the area. The dragon spotted him and recognized him instantly.

"Hey, I remember you, you're that gem thief!"

"Oh, hey Grindle." Said Spike nervously, "I thought you were over that."

"Not even close." growled the dragon. Spike turned and ran as he was chased by his old foe.

"Twilight!" cried Spike, "help me!" Grindle laughed and breathed a stream of fire at Spike, attempting to scorch him. Spike jumped over the rope of flame and ran between two buildings. The green one jumped over them and landed behind Spike, the impact shook the ground and caused the small purple dragon to trip. Grindle extended the spikes out from his tail and prepared to murder the young guy, who was no more than one hundredth his size.

"I've been waiting a long time for this." He laughed as he swung at Spike. Spike rolled out of the way, and Grindle's tail tore through the base of a large water tower. The metal structure caved, and the storage tank tipped over. Grindle saw the threat, but it was too late, and with a great crash he was trapped underneath the fallen tower. Spike waited for the dust to settle and saw Grindle's claw go limp underneath the giant storage tank.

"I did it!" he shouted, "take that you…"

"Spike!" called Pinkie Pie as she rounded the corner.

She noticed the crushed dragon in front of him and recoiled with disgust, "Ewww, messy!"

"Not my fault." Admitted Spike, "he tried to get me, but he sort of got himself."

"We have to get back to Techie!" alerted Pinkie Pie, "he's about to put the plan into effect!"

"Then let's go." said Spike as he climbed onto Pinkie Pie's back for a ride.

On a nearby rooftop, Fluttershy stroked the light blue dragon's nose with her front leg.

He said to her, "I never really meant to do all this. It's just that I wanted to be a tough dragon, so I joined the gang. But all I ever really wanted was to settle down, collect a nice horde, and start a family."

Fluttershy replied, "And I'm sure you will once we're done here. You're a nice dragon Blushi."
Blushi sniffed and said, "Thanks Fluttershy. I'm gettin' outta here. This dragon is done with the Don."

Blushi walked away from Fluttershy, who smiled at her success in giving the dragon therapy.

"Another beast tamed." she sighed as she lifted gently into the air.

Meanwhile, Don was still locked in pitched combat with Rainbow Dash. She kept flying around him, punching the dragon once in a while to throw off his aim. Don breathed fire again and again, hoping to roast his intended victim, but kept missing.

"I'm gonna cook you first!" he screamed as he clawed at the air. Rainbow Dash kept flying circles around him, then struck another blow across the side of his snout. Don screamed in agony and stumbled backwards. Below him, the ponies had assembled for the final confrontation.

"All right!" said Techorse, "Time to end this." He reached into the metal box and took out a device that resembled a video camera with a blue coil around it. Tech put the machine on a tripod and aimed it up.

Twilight recognized the machine and said, "That's the shrink ray! I thought you destroyed that thing!"

"I did." He replied, "But I had to rebuild and reverse engineer it for this special case. It's now a growth ray!"

"So what's the plan?" asked Pinkie Pie impatiently, "Don's going to gobble up Rainbow Dash any second now if we don't hurry!"

"My plan is to use it on Spike." said the colt with pride.

Spike pointed at himself and asked, "Me?"

"Yeah," answered Tech, "you'll grow several stories high, and then defeat Don in dragon to dragon combat."

Spike put his fists at his sides and said, "Sweet! Fire away!"

"Wait a minute." said Twilight "Is this safe?"

"Hey that's right!" shouted Pinkie Pie, "Last time you used that ray, you got stuck in me!"

"Well, I haven't had time to test it." admitted Techorse with a sheepish look.

"Then Spike's not using it." said Twilight sternly.

Spike crossed his arms and pouted, he really wanted to play Godzilla, but his overprotective caretaker wouldn't let him. PAL returned to the group at this moment with the spy in tow.

"I'm back." He said, "And I brought her safe and sound, as you wished."

Tech nodded and said to the mare darkly, "You're going to jail for what you did."

PAL thought that seemed like a fitting punishment for her, but after a moment realized that Shade was truly sorry for her actions and took pity on her.

The robot sighed and said to Techorse, "Master, as you know, Shade here was contracted by Don to spy on Rainbow Dash. But Don had plans to simply let his minions eat her as well to skip out on the bill. I barely managed to rescue her, so if it's all the same, I think she's been through enough and learned her lesson."

"That's fine by me, but she still has to answer to Rainbow Dash for what she did to her."

Fluttershy hugged PAL's leg and told him, "You're a very sweet robot for helping Shade."

"Thanks Miss Fluttershy." He replied.

"Can we focus?" asked Twilight, "Don and Rainbow Dash are still fighting behind us."

As she said that, Rainbow Dash scored another hit on Don's head. The dragon roared and smacked the hovering pony away from him. Regaining her orientation in the air, Rainbow flew upright and looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Ready to quit?" she asked.

Don saw Wyrm and Grindle approach him and said, "Not yet, get her boys!"

Wyrm and Grindle were limping, holding each other to provide support.

"No." answered Grindle, "We've had enough. We quit Don."

Wyrm was missing many scales, each hole in his armor showed where a laser bolt had hit him.

He shouted at him, "It's nothin' personal, it's just too much trouble."

The two dragons took off into the air, leaving Don alone to fight his enemies.

"Well, that's it, your cronies have all quit and you can't get past me." said Rainbow confidently, "if you go now, I won't hurt you."

Don looked at the giant diamond brick and said, "Maybe I can't get you, but I can still have the diamond." He made a run for the gemstone, but stopped when the others below him stood in front of it.

Twilight called out to him, "You're not getting the diamond, Don." Twilight prepared to fire a magic missile at him.

Don saw his spy standing next to her and said, "Hey, Miss Shade, mind stopping this purple freak for me?"

"Not on your life, Don!" she shouted angrily, "You tried to feed me to your cronies to avoid paying me."
She also charged up a blast to fire at the dragon. The combined shots from both the unicorns struck Don in the chest and sent him careening backwards. He picked himself up from the ground and shot a geyser of flame from his nostrils.

"You'll have to go through all of us if you want the diamond!" shouted Pinkie Pie.

Don smiled and immediately picked them all up at once with his claws.

Techorse glared at Pinkie Pie and said sarcastically, "Excellent strategy there."

Fluttershy, Tech, Twilight, Shade, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were being held by Don.

Rainbow Dash landed next to PAL and shouted, "Hey, let them go!"

"Never!" shouted the dragon, "You may have all your precious teamwork and friendship, but I'm still the big Don around here, and the biggest guy wins."

Don licked his lips and said, "You might want to look away kid, this may get a little messy."

Twilight looked at Techorse and shrieked, "It can't end like this!"

PAL realized that without Spike, the original plan wasn't going to work, so he picked up the ray and aimed it at Rainbow Dash. Hitting the button, the red beam enveloped the Pegasus pony in front of him, and she started to grow rapidly.

Rainbow Dash grew to 90 feet tall, giving her less than one minute before the ray would revert. But the sudden growth in size surprised Don, causing him to drop the captives he was holding and back up slowly. Rainbow Dash stared directly in his eyes and walked closer towards him, she was now three times as tall as he was.

"Not so big, now, huh Don?" she asked, squinting in rage at him.

"Hey!" he replied nervously while backing up, "Um, you know, I was just kiddin' about the whole eating you thing. It was just a stunt for publicity, you know?"

"You dunked me in barbeque sauce." She said while gritting her teeth.

Don looked around for a way to escape, but knew that he was too slow to out-fly Rainbow Dash at this scale.

"Let's talk this over." He whimpered, "Maybe you can join my gang!"

"I already have good friends.", she answered, “And I'd never join a filthy gang.”

Don swallowed and stopped backing up. Rainbow Dash raised a leg to stomp on the dragon. Don put his hands over his eyes in cowardice. Seeing this, she changed her mind.

Rainbow Dash let him open his eyes before she got in his face and said gently, "I'm going to let you go this time, because if there's one thing less fun than being eaten, it's getting bits of dragon stuck in your hooves."

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flapped them hard in one huge motion. The force of the air picked up Don and sent him flying backwards into the atmosphere screaming. Eventually the gray dragon disappeared against the sky. The ray wore off at this point, and Rainbow Dash shrunk back down to her regular size. Once she had, the citizens of Canterlot cheered for her and her friends.

"Wow!" said one Pegasus pony with a camera, "I'm a reporter for the local newspaper. Could you tell us how you managed to grow so big and defeat the dragon attacking our city?"

Rainbow Dash looked over to Techorse, who shook his head quickly and drew a slashing movement across his throat. He didn't want anyone to find out he had rebuilt the ray he promised to destroy.
Rainbow Dash looked at the reporter, struck a pose and said, "Because I'm awesome!"

As the reporter started to fly away to go write her article, Pinkie Pie squealed, "Wowie, that was amazing, way to go Rainbow Dash!"

"I really should thank all of you though." She admitted with a smile, "if it wasn't for Twilight's attacks, I probably would have been chomped, and without the rest of your guy's help, the city would still be under attack."

"Don't mention it." Said Tech, "No seriously, don't. The minute I get back to the castle, I'm tossing this ray in thermite."

"Good." said Twilight, giving him a hug, "No more crazy rays."

"Well I suppose we should pack up and head home then." said Fluttershy, observing the conclusion of the fight.

"Ok." said Twilight as she finished her hug. Twilight got a confused look and scanned the wrecked fairground. "But where's Spike?" she asked. Pinkie Pie snickered and pointed at the diamond block.

Spike was attempting to gnaw off a chunk of the gemstone, but had gotten stuck on the corner and was comically hanging off the end of the gemstone by his jaws.

"I guess he couldn't resist that armor." said Tech with a bit of a laugh. Twilight freed her friend from the block and teased him for his greed.

"Spike you silly dragon, you literally bit off more than you could chew."

"I couldn't help it." He replied with a shrug, "I just had to try it. But it's nothing to write home about."

"Write!" said Twilight as she lifted her head, "That reminds me. I'll write my report and drop it off at the castle before we leave."

"So what's it going to be about?" asked Tech.

"It's going to be about how it's important to tell others when someone plans something dangerous. Sure, no one likes a tattle-tale, but in a real emergency it can save lives." She answered.

Shade hung her head and approached Rainbow Dash humbly. Because she had been spared from going to prison, she knew she had to keep her promise to Techorse and at least apologize.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I got greedy and nearly got you killed by those guys. Can you forgive me?"
Rainbow Dash smiled and said to her, "You know, because you apologized, I'm only going to beat you up a little bit for what you did." Shade backed off and tried to hide behind PAL.

"I was kidding." Laughed Rainbow, "Of course I can forgive you!" Shade smiled and bid them farewell. In the end, the gang of dragons had been dispersed, and except for the collateral damage, everything had turned out well that day.

#7 - Castle Crusaders

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Castle Crusaders

Techorse Series #7

By Spirals95

"And so little red riding pony was dragged into the wolf's horrible maw, where she was ripped to shreds! Bits and pieces of her red hood flew everywhere as she was gulped down to the last bite. After that day, she was never seen again. The end!"

Scootaloo finished reading her wicked twist on the classic fairy tale to her class. For homework, the class had been divided up into groups and assigned a story to retell in their own words, changing the plot to make it a bit more interesting. Perhaps Scootaloo and her friends had taken their interpretation of the story a little too far. The look of horror on Cheerilee's face and her classmates certainly indicated this.

"Poor little riding pony!" went up a terrified cry from one of the students.

Another one of the weaker-spirited foals, actually being afraid of wolves, started crying. Cheerilee did her best to comfort the student and remind her that most wolves avoid Ponyville, but to no avail, and the student continued her panic.

"That was, um, a very interesting spin on the tale." said the teacher to the three foals up at the front of the classroom, "While everyone else goes out for recess, stay inside and tell me more about it."

The other students filed out of the small classroom and went out the back door to go play on the equipment out back of the schoolhouse.

After she was sure the others had left the building entirely, Cheerilee shut the door behind them and prepared to chew out her three students. The self-proclaimed "Cutie Mark Crusaders" always caused trouble in the classroom. Perhaps it was simply for that reason, they were the only foals left without having developed their cutie marks, and were doing all sorts of crazy stunts in attempt to earn them. Biologically, the cutie mark is a pigmentation change in the coat hair of an Equestrian on both flanks used to indicate a psychological acknowledgment of discovering what the individual is adept to. In layman's terms, it is the signal of maturity in an Equestrian, and getting it as soon as possible became a goal for foals very early on. Because the development of the pigmentation can only be brought on by mental knowing of one's true talent and calling in life, the Cutie Mark Crusaders truly believed that if they just kept trying different activities, eventually they would preform the task that would cause this acknowledgment. Unfortunately, this meant they took unnecessary risks, including this instance where they made their creative writing assignment way too brutal for their target audience.

The teacher said to them with a cross look on her face, "I told you three to write a story that was slightly different from the original, girls. Instead of doing that, you went and turned it into a horror story!"

The ears of the three friends drooped as their teacher yelled at them. It seemed like they were always getting into trouble with the adults.

Outside, the other schoolfoals were frolicking amongst the playground equipment, enjoying the warm and sunny day brought in by the spring breeze. A fenced in area with a slide, tire swing, and climbing set provided the exercise the young ones needed every day. However, the fencing was not in the best repair it could be, and once in a while one of the foals would slip out just for a second to have a look on the other side. They always came back of course before it was time to go inside again and finish school for the day. This time, however, one of them saw something a little less than normal on the other side of the fence.

While the other foals were busy doing something normal on the playground to stay out of trouble, Snips had slipped by them and exited the playground through the hole in the white painted wooden fence. The other ponies assumed he went to look for colorful rocks by the drainage stream, collecting a pile of the rocks seemed to be something he and his friend Snails did to keep themselves entertained during recess. However, Snails had decided to stay behind to talk to a young mare who was trying to explain a math problem to him from earlier in the school day.

"So all you do is think of two groups of four stones, and when you add them, you can see that both four plus four and two times four is eight." she said to him as she moved together two groups of colored rocks.

"Huh, I see. I think" said Snails as he stared at the rocks, attempting to wrap his mind around the basic math concept.

"Ok, let's go back to addition of the same numbers, maybe then you'll get it."

Before she could say anything else, Snips ran through the wooden fence again and across the playground, screaming.

He rushed by the two, shouting, "Run, Snails!"

The mare gave them each a funny look as Snips passed them.

Snails explained, "Well, you know Snips. Always, um, flippin' out!"

Cheerilee opened the door to the playground and stepped out with the now downcast Cutie Mark Crusaders beside her.

"I heard screaming, what's wrong?" she asked as Snips ran up to her and tried to hide behind her.

"There's this huge monster past the fence!" he said.

"Did you go out there again? I thought I told you not too!" yelled Cheerilee.

"Never mind that, we need to get out of here!" he spurted out, opening the door and running inside.

"Away from what?" the older pony asked.

As soon as she said that, the white wooden fence was smashed to splinters as a large four-legged reptile smashed through it. It was a lizard-like beast, 6 feet long counting its tail and 3 feet tall. The monster had several large bony spines sticking out of its back, but the natural armor ceased at the base of the creature's tail. It's dark yellow eyes scanned the playground full of screaming foals running for the door. Hoping to catch a tasty young one, the monster opened its jaws and shot a long sticky tongue at one of the foals. The lengthy muscle grabbed the hind legs of Diamond Tiara, who fell flat on the ground. She screeched and wailed as she was reeled back in towards the beast's maw. Cheerilee had made sure all the others had gotten inside the building, but when she realized Diamond was in trouble, she knew it was far to late. For some reason, Scootaloo and her friends had chosen not to go inside and watched with disturbingly cheerful looks at their classmate's misfortune. Cheerilee wanted to make some sort of effort to save Diamond Tiara, but understood there was nothing she could do.

Diamond looked back at the beast and shouted, "Let me go! This is not cool you stupid reptile!"

The monster ignored her and prepared to snap her up. As the young foal realized this, she let out one last shriek of horror and misery before shutting her eyes.

A loud zapping noise rang throughout the air of the schoolhouse. Following that noise, a pair of yellow elongated bolts of electromagnetic energy impacted the long sticky tongue in the middle, burning it in a flash of light and heat. The beast roared in pain and released its grip on Diamond Tiara, who took of running as fast as she could away from the creature that nearly devoured her. She ran right past Cheerilee and the three girls and promptly threw open the door. She dashed inside and shut it behind her with a loud slam.

"Shoot," whispered Apple Bloom in disappointment, getting awkward looks from her peers in exchange.

The lizard-like enemy stood up again and reeled in the rest of its ruined tongue. It glared at the Cheerilee and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, wanting to make them its meal instead. But the creature had its priorities, it wanted to destroy the one foolish enough to burn its tongue. The monster reared up on its back legs and gave a mighty screech as a challenge to its aggressor.

"Still want to fight?" replied a male voice.

Cheerilee turned around to look up on the roof of the schoolhouse. Perched on the red tile was Techorse, wearing his metallic Battle Saddle. Out of the robotic saddle were his two laser cannons, smoke still coming out of the barrels in a gentle wisp. Techorse jumped down from the roof and landed in front of the orange colored beast.

"I don't get it." said Techorse as he stared at the monster, "What's a magma salamander doing out here in Ponyville?"

"Thank you for coming to help us!" said Cheerilee with joy.

"You're welcome, now get back inside before this thing strikes!"

The four ran back inside at Techorse's command, but watched him and the monster from inside the schoolhouse.

The magma salamander gazed at Techorse, smoke poured from its nostrils as it grunted at the colt who cheated it out of its chance to eat Diamond Tiara.

"All right you reptile, Fluttershy told me I have to give all animals, angry or not, the chance to give up before I have to use force. So what's it going to be?" he told the salamander as it drew closer.

The monster picked up a nearby rock with its tongue and sucked it into its mouth. Steam poured from the creature's closed maw as it used a special heat generating organ at the back of its throat to superheat the stone to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It then spat the now white-hot projectile at Techorse, who dodged the burning magma glob. The laser cannons attached firmly to the sides of the robotic device tilted upwards towards the monster.

"I guess you've made up your mind."

Techorse opened fire, blasting away with his guns at the beast. The bolts splashed on the monster's bright orange colored body, bursting harmlessly on the tough scales and bony spines. Laser bolts couldn't possibly destroy the creature, but they wore down its stamina as it picked up another stone to shoot at Techorse. The green-colored colt turned 90 degrees to the right and started running in a circle around the monster, tilting one of his guns inwards to score more hits. Burning rock after burning rock was shot at the strafing pony, and unfortunately, one of the projectiles hit Techorse's right front leg at the joint. The molten stone exploded, burning the coat hair around it to a charcoal black and injuring the joint severely. The pony yelped in pain as he put his weight on his other front leg, forcing him to take his sights off the salamander. Techorse regained control of his saddle's guns and aimed back at the monster, firing while limping forward on his now-injured limb. More rocks continued to be inhaled, heated up, and spat out at him as he attempted to subdue the beast with another stream of energy bolts from his cannons.

One minute had passed since the lasers and stones started to fly back and forth, and it became obvious that Techorse was losing. Another missile struck his saddle directly, causing an explosion on top of the device, nearly pushing its owner to the ground. Now the weapon was on fire, something inside of it had caught fire, and the saddle spewed black smoke into the air. Techorse knew that the internal heat of his saddle would reach a critical point soon due to that hit, and as a result the weapon would shut down and refuse to fire. Then the magma salamander could take him as a much larger dinner than Diamond Tiara. The colt pushed that fate out of his mind, knowing he could still win if he just used the large brain he was blessed with. Techorse stopped shooting, and with a smile on his face, the twin metal tubes slid back into his saddle and disappeared.

"What's he doing?" shouted Apple Bloom as she watched the fight from inside the schoolhouse.

"I'm not sure," said Cheerilee. But in her mind, she believed she'd be forced to watch the salamander destroy him.

Back outside, the monster looked at the colt before it and knew that it had won. The painful and destructive magical tubes had been retracted, and the colt owning them was surrendering. Techorse took in and let out deep breaths as he lifted his right leg gently into the air to remove any weight on it.

He shouted to the monster, "Ok, you win."

The magma salamander gave a maniacal grin, then turned to the pile of colored rocks Snips and Snails had accumulated over the past few days. Extending its tongue, the monster scooped up the entire pile of rocks and engulfed them. Its mouth began to glow a furious red, the beast intended to spit the entire pile as a shotgun-like blast at Techorse. But this is what the inventor had in mind, having to charge all those rocks left the creature defenseless.

Techorse ran up to the magma salamander and jumped over his head. All four legs went into the air, barely clearing the razor sharp spines on the beast's back. The colt looked down with his dark blue eyes and spotted where he would land, the sand right behind the monster. Techorse touched down on the terrain and immediately regretted the jump, his weight impacted his injured leg, and he wailed as a jolt of pain shot through the joint. Spinning around, the colt looked straight at the salamander's large tail. Using his saddle's mental commands, Techorse extended a pair of robot arms, tipped with the articulated hands he used so often. The magma salamander's eyes widened as it felt the cold metal hands grab its tail like a club.

The green colt behind him picked up his front legs and began spinning around on his hind ones. Using the weight of the monster against itself, the salamander was lifted off the ground and began to be rotated along with the robotic arms. It spat out the pile of rocks in an attempt to lighten itself, but it was far too late. Techorse intended to throw the beast against the remaining section of fence in order to knock it unconscious. However, after rotating a few times at full speed, the base joints of the robotic arms gave due to the sheer weight of the monster. There was a sound of metal shearing followed by an electrical zap as the mechanical limbs tore free from the battle saddle. The magma salamander, with the robotic arms still firmly grasping its tail, flew over the tops of the trees beyond the smashed fence, and vanished without even an impact sound.

Techorse stopped spinning around and made sure that this time he kept his weight off his wounded leg. He looked back and forth at the two bundles of wires left sticking out of his saddle from which an occasional spark would shoot.

"Aw..." he said in annoyance "now I have to repair those!"

Thunderous cheering and tapping of hooves interrupted his complaints as the school assembly and Cheerilee praised Techorse for his brave battle against the monster. He turned around, put a big smile on his face, and mentally saluted them. But of course, the robotic arms had been severed, so nothing happened when he tried to do this with the exception of a few sparks shooting from the wires.

Cheerilee approached Techorse and said with laughter in her voice, "You did it, Mr. Techorse! You saved the school!"

Techorse said to her, "Well, it's a good thing I was in the area when I heard the shouts and that I was wearing my battle saddle, otherwise that little pony would have been..."

"Oh my gosh, your tail is on fire!" screamed Cheerilee.

She pointed out the burning appendage, and Techorse quickly extinguished the flames on the end by whacking his tail on the ground repeatedly.

"Thank you!" he said in a matter-of-fact sort of way.

"Are you going to be ok?" she asked, noting the burnt leg.

He answered her with a joke, "Well, it's not like I need to run away now. That thing's miles from here by now!"

After that, each of the schoolfoals had a chance to say something about how amazing Techorse's victory over the creature had been. Some of the young mares formulated plans to write him a thank-you card. Although the Cheerilee might have liked to do something with the rest of the day, the scare and excitement of the attack had pretty much taken away any chance of academics being finished. So she let the youngsters enjoy their hero's visit for a while. But eventually, three in the afternoon came around, and it was time for the foals to go home.

"It's time to go home." called Cheerilee to her class, "Say goodbye and thank you to Mr. Techorse."

"For the last time Mrs. Cheerilee, I'm not Mr. anything yet. Call me Tech."

"Bye Tech!" came the foals cheerful cries as they left the school to go home with their parents.

Apple Bloom corralled her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo and proceeded to try to leave the building with their backpacks.

"Hold on, you three are coming with me!" said Techorse.

"Really?" asked Scootaloo.

"Yeah. I came here because I'm supposed to watch you for a couple hours. The salamander was kind of just a coincidence."

"Why?" asked Sweetie Belle, giving the colt a curious look.

"Applejack and Rarity are cashing in on a favor I owe them, and Scootaloo's parents said it was fine if she tagged along. Twilight will be by too to help."

"Yay!", the three cheered as they dashed outside the open front door.

As Techorse stepped out to leave, he heard Cheerilee chuckle.

"What's wrong ma'am?" he asked.

She replied, "Let's just say you might find that monster easier to survive than those three."

Techorse shook his head and walked out the door to catch up with them. When he finally managed to, they were already halfway back to the stone castle at the edge of Ponyville.

"Oh hey, ya caught up!" said Apple Bloom as she looked back at him.

"Sure. I'm not as slow as you think I am." he responded with a teasing look.

"You're definitely not too slow." said Scootaloo, "You really showed that lizard who's boss!"

Apple Bloom added, "Yeah, but I wish you would've beaten it a couple seconds later. You should have let it get Diamond Tiara."

"Apple Bloom, that's a terrible thing to say!" scolded Techorse, "How would Diamond Tiara's parents feel about that?"

"Not too good." said Sweetie Belle, a little ashamed that she too had thought Diamond Tiara should have been consumed.

"That's right, so why would you joke about such a thing, Apple Bloom?"

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are always pickin' on us three 'cause we don't have our cutie marks yet." she answered. Techorse noticed the sad faces of the three friends and understood their pain.

"That's true." he said, "But do they really deserve to suffer for that?"

"Yes." said Scootaloo.

A nasty look from Techorse changed her mind rapidly.

"Oh come on, Techie. I've seen you talking with their parents. You hate 'em," said Apple Bloom.

"I do not!" he lied.

In truth, Techorse really did not like Silver Spoon's parents or Diamond Tiara's. They were only trying to befriend him so that he would join their fancy social clubs. Techorse may have had some extra money, but he also had a heart, and did not want to engage in conspicuous consumption as they did. Granted he lived in a castle, but most of that was dedicated to factory space for his business, and anyone who needed a place to stay for the night in Ponyville was welcome to knock on the front door.

"Ok, so maybe I don't agree with what they and their parents say and think. But even if we don't like them, they're still ponies and I gotta help them," said Techorse.

"I guess you're right." said Sweetie Belle, "I'm glad you helped her."

"But what are we gonna do then?" asked Apple Bloom, "I'm tired of getting' picked on!"

"Hey, maybe tonight's the night we earn our cutie marks!" shouted Scootaloo, "If it's ok, Techie, can we try?"

Techorse frowned at the idea.

"I don't know," he said uneasily, "I mostly thought you'd just sit in the living room while I go work in the laboratory. Some parts of the castle may look like a lot of fun, but there's a lot of equipment there you could get hurt on."

"What about that robot of yours? Do you think he can help us?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"PAL might not be able to help them earn their cutie marks, but I know he'll keep them out of trouble." thought Techorse.

"Heh, of course he can help you!"

The four arrived at the wooden doors of the castle, which towered above them. Techorse laughed to himself as he watched the three crane their necks to look up at the roof. It was obvious that they were awed by the size of the castle, although they had seen the structure many times before.

Techorse walked over to a television screen embedded in the stone to the right of the door and pushed a red button beneath it. The monitor activated, and PAL's robotic face appeared.

"Oh, you're here! Hang on a second."

The television went dark, and the wooden doors slowly started to open outwards. Apple Bloom and her friends backed up a bit to avoid being pushed out of the way by the massive oak gateways. Once the doors were fully opened, the three young ones ran inside to go greet the robot.

"This place is so amazing!" said Sweetie Belle as she looked at the various decorations inside the castle.

"What are we going to do first?" asked Scootaloo.

"Well, as leader, ah think we should all think about the things we can do in the castle and do 'em one by one." answered Apple Bloom.

"Ok, but first, some ground rules." said Techorse, entering the castle with a stern look on his face,
"Don't go in the laboratory, the factory room, or the rooftop."

"Why not the rooftop? It's a big roof." questioned Scootaloo.

"Knowing you three you'd probably try base jumping off of it." he answered.

"Nah, we already tried that once." said Apple Bloom, causing Techorse to wince.

PAL entered the main hallway of the castle and let out a cry of joy. The humanoid machine ran up to the Cutie Mark Crusaders and leaned over as if to pick them all up off the ground in one fluid motion. A robot can give a bear hug very well if he wants to, and Techorse was barely keeping him held back.

"Welcome! You must the siblings of Miss Applejack, and Rarity!" said PAL.

Techorse coughed and reminded the robot as he pressed against him, "Hey, don't crush them, PAL!"

"I know that." said the machine as he relaxed his posture, "I just get so excited when we have new guests."

"I've seen you before around the farm sometimes. You're good friends with my brother." said Apple Bloom to the robot.

PAL nodded his head, he enjoyed helping Big Macintosh harvest apples as his robot efficiency complemented the stallion's harvesting skills well. The Apple family was more than willing to look past the fact he was a machine if it meant honest help with the chores.

"Yes I am. I remember seeing you around the farm with your friends here, Apple Bloom." said PAL.

"This is Scootaloo, and this is Sweetie Belle." said Apple Bloom as she pointed at her friends.

"It's so nice to meet you two." said the machine, "I am PAL, the Personality And Linguistics robot!"

"PAL, you're watching these three tonight until Rarity and Applejack pick them up. I've got to go do some important things, like heal up a bit." said Techorse.

"Oh dear, I can see that. Did you get into another battle again?" asked PAL as he looked at his master's wounded leg.

"Yeah, I had to throw a magma salamander to save these three and the schoolhouse. I'm sure they'd love to tell you all about it."

Techorse left the room, careful not to step with his damaged limb as he made his way to the medical office.

"He does act quite casually about these things," said PAL to the Crusaders, "but nevermind that. Are you hungry?"

"A little bit." said Sweetie Belle.

"We can't eat yet." shouted Apple Bloom, "We haven't even tried one thing to earn our cutie marks tonight!"

"What?" asked PAL, not sure what Apple Bloom was saying to him.

"We thought that since we're hanging out for a few hours, that there would be plenty of things to do to try and earn our cutie marks." said Scootaloo optimistically.

"I'm not sure what you mean." said PAL, puzzled by the statement.

"Y'mean you've never heard of a cutie mark before?" asked Apple Bloom in shock.

"I know what one is, master has one." laughed the robot, "But I don't really understand them."

"It's a special mark a pony gets on their flank when they know what they're going to do their whole life!" explained Sweetie Belle, "We're the only ones left in our class without ours, so we want to earn them as quickly as we can!"

"Are you sure you should be rushing that sort of thing?" asked PAL, "After all, it sounds like you're trying to decide what your career should be tonight!"

"We're sick 'n' tired of being teased for not having cutie marks." said Apple Bloom.

"I understand it's not fun to be teased, but I don't want you to get hurt."

"Is there anything we can do that's safe then?" asked Sweetie Belle.

PAL thought about it for a moment then said, "Well, I do have on idea..."

On the other side of the castle, Techorse was bandaging his wounds from earlier in the day. A gauze wrap filled with burn cream was now around the wound on his joint, and the cyan gel felt cool and refreshing on the injury. Standing sideways, the colt looked at himself in the mirror of the examination room. He examined his now burned tail and knew there was nothing he could do except wait for the hair to grow back in and replace the damaged sections. Turning from the mirror, the inventor viewed his prize machine lying on the floor, his saddle. The machinery had a large crater in it from the glob of magma that struck it that afternoon, the gray armor had been burned away, and the internal circuitry was all but ruined. Techorse weighed his options concerning the device; he could either repair the saddle or salvage what he could from it and build a fresh copy. Noting the gigantic hole in the device that exposed the inner wires and microprocessor, Techorse decided to repair the internal parts of the machine, but replace the metal saddle casing entirely.

As he prepared to drag the device back to his laboratory, a knock sounded on the door of the medical room.

"Come in."

The door opened, and in walked Twilight Sparkle with a smile on her face.

"Hey!" he said to her as he looked up from his machine.

"You're never going to believe this, but the mayor wants to give you a medal for what you did today!" she said with great excitement.

"Cool! She found out that quickly?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, "apparently Diamond Tiara told her parents about you rescuing her, and they of course had to speak with the mayor about it."

Techorse gave a cross look and shook his head, "I don't need them bragging about my skills."

"Look, I know you don't like her parents very much, and it's because you think they're stuck up." said Twilight, "But you shouldn't be so concerned about other ponies' actions. It only matters what you do."

"Well, it's not so much that as the fact that now, I'll always be known as the pony who fought things." he said with a frown, "Remember Twilight, I don't want to be seen as violent."

"You did what you thought was right. Besides, based on how desperate I heard the salamander was about to get Diamond Tiara, I don't think even Fluttershy could have stopped that beast peacefully." she said in an attempt to comfort him.

"I guess when I do go to accept the medal, I can tell the foals that violence isn't cool, and that it should be a thing used only as a last resort." he reasoned, bringing his injured leg up to make a thinking pose.

Twilight noticed the bandage wrap now and became concerned.

"Oh, your leg!"

Techorse said to her while extending the damaged limb, "It was hit by a molten rock. That magma salamander put up a real fight."

"I still want to know what it was doing in Ponyville." said Twilight, "Magma salamanders live in the mountains and hunt insects. Why would it come here?"

"I don't know." he replied, "But I hope after that battle, they'll stay away."

"Anyways, the ceremony's at ten in the morning tomorrow. Be there!" said Twilight.

"I'll be sure to, if Rarity and Applejack don't find me dead from their siblings' antics."

"Oh, that's right!" Twilight said, "Do you need my help?"

"You can if you want to, but I have PAL watching them right now." he said, "I think they like him."

"Ha, of course, it's PAL we're talking about," she said, "I guess I'll get back then!"

Techorse gave Twilight a hug, and then they parted for the evening.

Walking back into the main hallway of the castle, Techorse carried the wrecked saddle by the two black straps on it. He had to use his teeth to hold the device, but the lab was only a short walk from the medical room, and he didn't really mind. Once Techorse reached the laboratory, he prepared to open the door when he heard a revving noise. The colt dropped the ruined saddle and jumped out of the way of a weird rover-like machine that zipped down the stone floor. The electric car crashed into a wall and crumpled up into a heap of loose parts and wire.

"Woo! New record!" shouted Scootaloo as she ran up to the destroyed vehicle.

She was wearing a tiny yellow hardhat on her head, and was preparing to look over the crashed machine.

"Scootaloo, what the hay is this?" asked Techorse angrily as he pointed at the wreckage.

"Oh, it's an electric dune buggy PAL helped us build!" she said, "We're trying to be Cutie Mark Crusader car designers!"

"PAL!" shouted Techorse.

The robot walked in and asked rhetorically, "Did I do something wrong?"

"I told you to pick something safe for them to do! Which one of them is buried in that wreckage?" shouted Techorse in rage.

"None of them, that vehicle's a remote-controlled drone. The others are behind a wall of plexiglass to keep them safe while we test the car."

PAL pointed down the hallway, where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood behind the clear safety material. They waved at Techorse with their front legs, hoping he was happy they invented something just as he liked to do.

"Oh, so you did take all safety considerations into account, I guess," said Techorse, "Sorry I snapped, but next time make sure to test those things outside!"

"Don't worry master Techorse, I'll clean this up, and then we'll take it outside."

The robot went over to the pile of car parts and picked up the wreckage, placing each piece in a black garbage bag. Techorse smiled and took his damaged saddle back into the laboratory for repairs. In retrospect, it was actually quite funny that the robot had helped the foals build the giant RC car

After collecting all the pieces and stuffing them in the bag, PAL brought Scootaloo back to her friends.

He addressed the three, "It looks like we can keep building these cars girls, we just have to take it outside."

"But it's dark out now." said Sweetie Belle with a timid frown.

"What, are you scared?" asked Apple Bloom.

"No." lied Sweetie Belle shakily.

Scootaloo looked at the bag of wrecked car parts and said, "You know girls, I really don't want to build another car unless one of us has earned our cutie marks for it. Let's check."

"Ok!" agreed Sweetie Belle eagerly. Unfortunately for the young ponies, not a single one of them had earned their cutie mark for learning how to build the remote controlled vehicle. PAL couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

"Perhaps there's something else you'd like to try?" asked PAL, "Let's not give up hope yet."

"Is there somethin' else we can do 'round here that Techie won't get mad over?" asked Apple Bloom of the robot.

"I don't think he'd mind if we went hunting in the woods." said PAL.

"Hunting?" screamed Sweetie Belle, "We don't eat meat!"

"Not for animals!" laughed PAL, "For exotic plants. The woods behind the castle are little bit tamer than the Everfree forest, so we can safely look for them."

"Lookin' at plants? Now what would that do for us?" questioned Apple Bloom.

"It's called botany. If it works for you, you'd be Cutie Mark Crusader Botanists!"

"That's hard to say." complained Scootaloo.

"Who cares?" reasoned Sweetie Belle.

PAL walked over to a nearby closet and took out a trio of flashlights. Using some straps, he attached a light around the middle of each of the three ponies, and then turned on the flashlights with the push of a button.

"These will let us see in the dark. I don't want you three getting lost without a light."

"I love it!" said Sweetie Belle as she looked back at the yellow plastic tube, "It's kinda fashionable."

"I'm glad you like it." said PAL, "Now let's get to those plants."

The four left the castle through the back door and headed out into the forest to hunt for the exotic plant life.

Meanwhile, Techorse was in his laboratory performing repairs on his battle saddle. Wearing a welding mask over his face, he attached two new robotic arms to the stumps left behind from the skirmish. With those repairs complete, it was now possible for him to work with the new arms using his thoughts. Techorse flipped a switch on the chunk of circuitry and used the mechanical hands to pick up a set of tools nearby. It wouldn't take very long from here to finish the internal repairs, and then the new metal casing could be fitted over the circuit boards.

"Ok, once I finish these repairs, hopefully Applejack and Rarity will be here," said the inventor, "It's getting pretty late."

A huge crashing noise was heard outside followed by hideous screaming. Fearing the worst, Techorse shot up from his invention and made a mad dash for the rear door, hoping that the three foals he was in charge of temporarily were still breathing. Once he made it outside, he scanned the night terrain for the four, looking to see what the cause of the screaming was. It wasn't long before he saw what had happened, while they were out in the woods, a large old tree had fallen when its roots gave due to age. PAL had saved the Cutie Mark Crusaders by pushing them out of the way of the heavy wood, but not without cost. The falling oak had decapitated the robot, and PAL's head lay comically severed on the ground in front on the fallen tree.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" asked Techorse of his robot as he stared in terror at his servant's destroyed body.

"PAL saved our lives!" explained Apple Bloom, "He pushed us out from under this tree."

"But how did the tree fall in the first place?" asked the inventor.

"We were told to look for strange plants, and I saw this one by the base of this tree, so I dug it up." said Scootaloo, "I guess the roots were attached to the plant."

Techorse got extremely angry over the destruction of his robot and screamed at the three foals, "Ok, you three, inside, now!"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders drooped their ears and walked slowly back for the door of the castle. Once he saw them go into the building, Techorse picked up PAL's severed head in his mouth and went back inside himself. The robot's body had been smashed by the tree, and would have to be repaired.

After tossing PAL's head onto one of the laboratory tables and hooking it up to an emergency power source, Techorse exited the room and found the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking glum inside his living room. The two green couches and fireplace looked just as dark and miserable as the room's occupants. They were staring at each other with shame, it was obvious that they felt guilty over what happened to PAL. Techorse, now without his saddle or his robot, wanted to really yell at the three friends for what they had done. But he knew he'd be overstepping his bounds, so he decided to act as calmly as possible.

As he entered the living room, he said to them, "Do you three understand what you've done tonight? PAL might not have made it if that tree hadn't cut so clean."

They nodded their heads, aware of their terrible mistake.

"All this was supposed to be was an after-school hang out for an hour or two, and it's become a mess. Look, I can repair PAL and he wouldn't blame you for a second. But if something happens because of these wild things you do..."

"You don't understand us!" complained Sweetie Belle.

"Maybe I don't, but listen, every pony earns their cutie mark at some point, Sweetie Belle. From what Twilight tells me, the later a pony gets theirs, the more sure they are of what they're going to do with their life. You don't need to work on this all the time," said Techorse, no pity in his voice whatsoever.

"Ah I understand it'll happen some day, it's just that we keep getting picked on," said Apple Bloom.

Techorse sighed and said, "Honestly, I don't know what else to say other than to stand up for yourselves."

"Like how you stood up to the reptile?" asked Scootaloo.

His eyes opened wide as he realized there was something he could do to help.

"Yes, actually, but with fewer lasers involved," he answered, "wait right here, I need to finish something."

"Really, what?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Just be patient!" he said as he left the room in a hurry.

Techorse re-entered his lab and passed by PAL's head.

"Fix me." begged PAL.

"Later... I promise," said Techorse as he walked by the remains of the machine and out the other side of the lab.

The inventor walked over to a closet and stared rummaging through the various discarded items in it. Coming across what he was looking for, he picked it up with his front legs and walked over to his workbench. While PAL's head watched, he began to weld and sodder wires on the device contained within the box, finishing off its construction before placing back inside carefully. He then added a handwritten note and brought it back to the living room.

Rarity and Applejack were already there, ready to collect the three, who were keeping themselves occupied quietly with one of the many board games stored on the bookshelf next the castle's fireplace.

"Oh hey Techie," laughed Applejack, "thanks for letting us get those chores done tonight, and congratulations on the award you're gettin' tomorrow!"

"Yes," added Rarity, "and I'd ask if there was trouble, but everypony appears to have stayed in one piece, right?"

The three young ponies laughed nervously and looked at Techorse, who refused to tell the two about PAL's accident. Techorse smiled and placed the box on the coffee table in the room, well within reach of the three.

"Oh, what's that?" asked Applejack.

"I heard about the problem they've been having with being teased at school," he said, "this machine I built is going to help them with that tomorrow, Applejack. That is, if you approve of it."

Applejack and Rarity opened the box and leafed through the instructions, before smiling and nodding together.

"Well, I'll think about it. Gotta ask Scootaloo's parents too."

"Oh of course," continued Rarity, "other than that this could be quite interesting!"

"What is it?" asked Sweetie Belle curiously.

"Just a little bit of harmless fun," chuckled Applejack, understanding Techorse's plan througouhgly.

After a quick goodbye, they left the castle together, leaving Techorse with a smile on his face and the evening by himself to tend to his ever-suffering robot friend.

The next morning brought a crowd of ponies around the town hall, eager to see Techorse receive his medal for his valiant fight against the magma salamander. The mayor had placed a podium with a microphone sticking out of the top of it for the guest of honor, and was standing by with the medal inside a small plastic box. The time was now 9:58, only two minutes were left before he was considered late for his own ceremony.

"Oh, where is he?" thought Twilight Sparkle as she looked nervously at the empty stage. She was certain that Techorse would not show up due to being either busy or forgetful. However, her fears were alleviated when he managed to arrive, fashionably late. He had fixed his battle saddle and was wearing the machine proudly on his back. She could also see Rarity, Applejack, and Scootaloo's family bringing along the Crusaders on the other side of the street. The three had beaming smiles and were wearing gray sweaters which covered up most of their bodies.

"Did I make it on time?" asked Techorse of Twilight as he ran up to her.

"Barely, now get up there before you actually are late!" she shouted in response, trying hard not to chastise him for cutting it close.

Techorse jumped up onto the wooden stage and was received with applause from the crowd. As he stood proudly on the deck, the mayor walked up to the microphone and hushed the crow down.

"Today," she said, "We honor Techorse for a great show of bravery against a monster which nearly caused harm to our students. Once again we thank him for his service to Ponyville, and ultimately Equestria as a whole. I shall now present him with this gold star for bravery, the highest award I am capable of giving."

Techorse turned to face the crowd as the mayor approached him, carrying the plastic box containing the medal. The now-repaired robot arms came out of the device, and Techorse saluted with them. He was overjoyed to receive the award for something he considered just his job. But looking down, he spotted Diamond Tiara and her parents, and once again was hit with a bit of annoyance. The mayor had reached him and had taken the medal out of the box. It had a beautiful crimson ribbon striped vertically with blue, on the end of which hung a small metal star plated with 24-carat gold. The mayor undid the pin on the ribbon carefully with her teeth, then moved the medal to her hooves and prepared to place it on Techorse. The colt yelped as the pin missed the straps of his battle saddle and pierced his flesh. All eyes were on the mayor, who blushed and quickly apologized for stabbing him. Techorse, eyes watering from the pain, carefully removed the medal from his body and placed it on the saddle in the correct position. As he fastened the medal to the black strap, he heard Rainbow Dash laugh at his misfortune.

"Congratulations Techorse!" said the mayor.

"SPEECH!" shouted Pinkie Pie, eager to hear some words of honor from her friend, and also because she enjoyed shouting that at every ceremony she attended.

Techorse laughed and said into the microphone, "All right Pinkie, I'll give a speech, and I'm sure you'll love it."

"What I did yesterday should be something we all can do. Not necessarily fight a monster, but be a good citizen..."

As he gave his 5 minute speech, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon snuck away from their parents to do some spontaneous teasing of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They walked up to the three and began spouting unkind words.

"Well look who brought their ugly faces out. It's the blank flanks!" said Silver Spoon.

"Blanks flanks? Not anymore!" said Scootaloo.

"What?" shrieked Diamond Tiara, "No way!" She was suspicious, after all, there had been plenty of times the three had appeared to have earned their marks falsely.

"Show 'em, girls!" said Apple Bloom.

They took off the gray sweaters, revealing the new cutie marks. Apple Bloom had a new single hammer on her flank. Sweetie Belle had three cookies for hers, and Scootaloo displayed a wrench proudly.
Diamond Tiara was a little upset, but she was still going to find a way to be superior to the three, even if they had earned their cutie marks.

"Who cares?" she said to them, "So you earned them. Big deal."

"What's wrong?" asked Sweetie Belle without any mocking, "I thought you'd think we're cool!"

"Of course not!" she said, "You're cutie marks aren't as good as ours! Blank flanks or cutie marks, you three will always be a bunch of losers!"

Diamond Tiara noticed that her voice had sounded much louder than she had intended to. Looking up a bit, she saw to her horror that Techorse had used his robotic arms to position the microphone right next to her head without her noticing. The entire crowd had heard her verbally attack the three.

"... And this is where I conclude my speech," said Techorse with anger in his voice, "the easiest way to do good for community isn't to fight monsters, it's to do the right thing for your fellow pony. A great example would be to be nice to those who haven't yet gotten their cutie marks."

"But they have marks!" shouted Diamond Tiara's father.

"No they don't," said Applejack, jumping up to the microphone herself.

Rarity also approached with what looked like three ink-stained pieces of wax paper suspended in her magic, "Those are temporary tattoos printed by a machine Tech made! They'll come off."

Techorse pulled the mic back in front of himself and continued, "Since my friends' siblings were feeling bad about not yet earning their cutie marks, I asked if I could help out. It's more productive when we choose to work together, rather than let ponies pick on each other."

The crowd stared menacingly at Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara's parents. They drooped their ears, and left the crowd in shame. Techorse received a weird look from Twilight for setting up the two families, but he could see in her eyes that she half-approved of the action. Secretly, she agreed that the 'humiliation' the families had received was well deserved.

Techorse finished his speech, "So, citizens of Ponyville, if you want to be like me, you don't have to fight a monster. You just need to tell your family to be willing to help his or her fellow pony. Thank you!"

Techorse walked off stage to thunderous applause. As the crowd dispersed, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle found their older sisters and gave them hugs. It seemed that after today they'd be freed from teasing after what Techorse did. The green stallion approached Rarity and Applejack with a smile on his face, the medal still firmly attached to the straps on his saddle.

"Excellent speech Tech!" said Rarity to him, "And thanks again for all your assistance last evening."

"It was easy, they just played some games in the living room while I worked," Techorse answered.

"So, any idea why PAL didn't show up to see ya get your medal?" asked Applejack as she rubbed Apple Bloom on the head.

"Oh, uhhh," Techorse droned, "he was a bit light headed since yesterday."

Scootaloo said to him, "Hey Techie, thanks for helping us stop Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Even though we don't really have our cutie marks yet, I'm sure we won't get teased anymore. Maybe they won't even talk to us at all!"

Twilight Sparkle caught up with them, having overhead, and said, "You know, if those two change, maybe you should consider trying to be their friends. Techorse's speech about helpfulness goes for everypony."

"Yes it does," agreed Apple Bloom, "and we're not gonna leave 'em out just because they were mean, right girls?"

"Right!"

"I say we all go back to the farm fer some cider!" said Applejack with a smile, "You comin', Techie?"

Techorse shook his head and laughed a bit, "Thanks, but I have a promise I made to a friend to fix him... I mean his problem. Take care you three!"

The colt's saddle opened up, and the twin fans he used to fly slid out. He lifted up into the air and flew off to return back home.

"Can we still have cider?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Sweetie Belle!" scolded Rarity.

"No, it's ok, Rarity!" said Applejack, trying to calm her down, "Of course we're still goin' back to the farm."

"Why's that?" asked Rarity suspiciously.

Applejack chuckled, "Were ya paying attention to Techie's explanation as to why PAL didn't show? Him feelin' 'light headed'? A promise to fix his friend? I want to hear how ya'll managed to knock PAL's head off!"

Rarity laughed a bit at the thought, and agreed to come along. As the five headed back for the farm, Apple Bloom looked at her friends and knew that no matter what happened, they would always have each other for support. More importantly, after Techorse's speech, she knew that no matter how long it took to earn their cutie marks, whether just around the corner or in the future, they had less to worry about, and it put a happy smile on her face.

#8 - Partyin' Pat

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Partyin' Pat

Techorse series #8

By Spirals95

"What do you mean DJ Pon-3 is sick?" demanded Clubs of his employee as they strolled down the streets of Ponyville.

Clubs was a tan earth pony with a fiery red mane, and was the owner of the local nightclub. His cutie mark was a disco ball, which was a very rare one for any pony to have. Despite his suave appearance, he had quite the temper, which could go off at any moment.

"Exactly that, sick with a flu of some kind."

"Well, if I can't get a DJ for the event tomorrow tonight, I'm going to have to cancel it!" continued Clubs angrily.

"Sir, if I could make a suggestion," said the humble manager, "maybe you could choose a different kind of entertainment."

"Like what?" asked Clubs.

"Live entertainment." Suggested the manager, "get some ponies to play music live at the event. It could be fancier that way."

"I suppose the princesses are coming." Agreed Clubs, "and they might enjoy the more old-fashioned tunes. But where are we going to get a band on such sort notice?"

The manager said, "I know this mare named Octavia who has a small band. They're pretty good, and their schedule is a little loose. Maybe we can get them to play."

"All right, do it." Said Clubs reluctantly, "but I'm just not sure only a band is going to be enough to keep the guests entertained."

While they continued walking down the cobblestone street, they heard beautiful singing. Looking around, they saw Twilight Sparkle on the balcony of her library singing a very beautiful tune, although it lacked words at the moment.

"Get her for me." said Clubs, "She can learn a song and sing it for the event."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Invite her and all her friends to the party tomorrow night. Once you get her, meet me back at the club within the hour, go it?"

"Yes sir."

The manager approached the door of the library and knocked on it gently with his front hoof. After a couple of moments, Spike answered the door.

"We're closed." He said bluntly.

"But it's 8 in the morning." said the manager with a confused tone of voice.

"I know that, we don't open until nine."

The manager groaned, "Look, I'm not interested in any books, I just need to talk to the pony on the balcony."

"Ok, wait here." said Spike as he left back into the library and shut the door in the manager's face.

"I hate my job." He mumbled as he waited for the dragon to return. After a few moments, Twilight opened the door again and confronted the manager.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm the manager of The Jockey nightclub. The owner wishes for you to sing at the charity event tomorrow."

"Really? The one the princesses are going to attend?" Twilight asked, obviously surprised.

"That's the one." confirmed the manager, "Apparently my boss liked your singing and wants you to learn a song for the event."

"What's in it for us?" asked Spike.

"Spike!" scolded Twilight.

"No, it's ok," said the manager, "you'll be able to invite some friends to the club as well. But he can't come, he's way too young."

Spike stormed off in disgust.

The manager took out a slip of parchment and asked, "So, how many friends would you like to invite?"

Twilight listed, "Let's see. There's Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Techorse."

"Techorse?" asked the manager.

"He lives in the castle on the far end of town." said Twilight, "Didn't you notice it on your way in?"

"I was wondering what that was for." replied the manager, "is that everyone?"

"Yes, that's everyone." She answered with a nod.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." said the manager, "Wear something fancy."

He left her to go and create invitations to distribute to the list of ponies he had.

It wasn't long before the invitations reached the group of friends. Unsurprisingly, many of them had wanted to go the club, but had never made it due to it being invitation only.

"Awesome!" cheered Rainbow Dash as she opened the letter in the mail, "I finally get to go to that nightclub!"

She flew off to find the others and assemble them for a talk about what they were going to do to get ready for the huge social event. The team met in front of the library to talk.

"Isn't this great?" squealed Pinkie Pie, "We're finally going to The Jockey nightclub!"

"I know," agreed Rarity, "if only I had time to make new dresses for everyone."

"It's ok, we can just re-use the others." suggested Applejack.

"You simply never think about fashion, do you?" countered Rarity with a frown.

"That ain't true, I'm just trying to save you the trouble of makin' new stuff when we don't need it!" she argued, picking up on the teasing.

"Maybe if we stop arguing, we can enjoy going to the club tomorrow." whispered Fluttershy, attempting to be the peacemaker in the situation. Twilight opened the door to the library and strolled outside to talk to her friends.

"So, are we all ready for tomorrow?" she asked around.

"As a matter of fact, Twilight, I was just trying to explain to Applejack here that we need new dresses." said Rarity, "The trouble is that I don't have time to make them."

"I appreciate your dedication, Rarity, but we really don't need new outfits."

Rarity lifted her head up and pouted a bit, letting her purple-blue curls bounce. "Fine, we will reuse older dresses. I did manage to make one outfit however, the zoot suit Techorse wanted."

"Can I see it?" asked Pinkie Pie, pointing to a white cardboard box by Rarity's side.

"No, I'm afraid not Pinkie Pie. Tech told me to keep its appearance secret for some reason."

"Speaking of Techie, where is that mad scientist anyways?" asked Applejack, scanning the air for him.

"He said he would be here a little late, something about his job came up." sighed Twilight, knowing her coltfriend was a very busy pony.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon." comforted Fluttershy.

"Do you think he'll be ok going to this party?" asked Rainbow Dash, "he's, you know, not very social."

"That's not true." said Twilight, "sure he doesn't make small talk well, but I think he'll be ok."

"I just hope he has a good time!" said Pinkie Pie, "Parties are about having fun."

"Agreed." said Twilight. Techorse landed near them with a whoosh from his turbofans, impacting the cobblestone ground with a solid whack. Looking up at his friends, he gave the mental command, and the circular propellers disappeared into the sides of his robotic saddle with a soft click of steel and circuitry.

"Sorry I'm late." He said, "I was repairing a factory machine."

"I see." Said Rarity, "while you're here, I have the suit you paid me to make."

"All right, thanks Rarity!" he said happily as he walked over to the cardboard box. The robot arms snaked out of the saddle and lifted the suit box off the ground.

"Do those robotic arms ever creep you out?" whispered Rainbow Dash to Twilight.

"No." she replied, "They're too useful for me to care. You should see them in action when he helps me re-shelf books."

"I guess you're going to wear that suit to the club tomorrow!" said Pinkie Pie to Tech, making sure he made eye contact with her.

"Actually." He said with disappointment, "I don't think I'm going."

"What, why not?" asked Twilight in surprise.

"Girls, as much as I get along with you, I'm not very good at parties." He responded, "I talk at too high an intellectual level."

"What?" muttered Applejack, giving him a confused look.

"I use big words that make others feel stupid." He simplified.

Pinkie Pie reared up and grabbed him with her front legs, "But you have to go, you just gotta! It's rare to be invited to The Jockey club!"

"I know, but, I just won't fit in." he said in depression. Pinkie released her grip and frowned.

"Please?" she begged while giving him a lip quiver.

"Look, maybe." He said as he turned to leave, "but I just don't think I'm a very party-going pony. I'll look so weird that it's just not worth it to me to go. I'm sorry."

He left the others standing there with sad expressions as he picked up the cardboard box and walked off into the night.

"I can't believe he's not going to go!" said Rainbow Dash in disbelief, "We've waited all our lives to go to this nightclub and he just refuses to go cause he's a little scared he won't fit in?"

"I guess we can't really blame him." said Fluttershy, "after all, he doesn't have a single male friend."

"Yes he does, Spike and PAL." said Twilight.

"I meant a male pony friend." continued Fluttershy, "he probably thinks he won't fit in because of that."

"Then let's get him one!" planned Pinkie Pie, "we'll just search around town tomorrow for a stallion who would want to be friends with him."

"One day isn't long enough to build a friendship." said Twilight sadly.

Applejack tried to finish the depressing conversation, "Well, if he doesn't go, let's try to have a good time anyways."

"You're right." said Rainbow Dash, "Forget about Techie."

They all left at that point except for Fluttershy and Twilight, who stood there and watched them leave.

"I'm sorry." she said quietly to Twilight, "I'm disappointed he isn't coming too."

"He doesn't even know I'm going to sing there. He's going to miss it." she sobbed.

"Well, just give him the day tomorrow. Maybe he'll change his mind."

The next morning, Tech tried to sleep in and forget about his invitation. But the rays of the morning sun entered through the only window in the bedroom and woke him up. The inventor rolled out of his king sized bed with a beautiful blue comforter, and had a look out the bay window. He saw the fauna of Ponyville enjoying the beautiful morning, birds and small mammals played on the smooth green grass coated with refreshing dew. This made him a bit happier, but still, the knowledge that he didn't really do well socially pierced his soul and hurt his mind. As he looked out the window, a cold metallic hand stroked his mane, causing him to jump a bit.

"I made breakfast for you master." said PAL.

Tech brushed the metal hand off of him and said, "Thanks, but remember to knock before entering, you scared me a bit."

"Sorry." apologized the machine as he drew his arm back to his side. PAL walked with his master down to the castle's dining room. Techorse sat down on a padded chair and rested his head gently on the long oak table as he waited for his robot to serve him. The friendly machine brought a tray out from the kitchen and placed it in front of his best friend. Tech lifted his neck and stared down at the food. PAL had made special pancakes using cookie cutters as molds.

The letters read, "Go to the club."

"PAL" asked Techorse, "who told you?"

"Fluttershy did." He replied, "Master, I really think you should go.

"I won't fit in." he answered, "They'll all think I'm weird." The machine showed frustration in his creator's attitude by muttering a series of electronic phrases under his breath.

"Hey, you watch your language, I didn't teach you that." scolded Techorse.

"You're just so frustrating and illogical." Shouted the machine, "What do you have to lose by going? Nothing! In fact, your love interest is going to sing at that event. How selfish of you to not want to go!"

The pony's eyes widened a bit. "Twilight's going to sing? She never told me."

The robot nodded and extended his arms sideways, "Yes! Now will you go?"

"I… I'll think about it. Right now, I need to go for a walk." He answered as he left the table without eating a single pancake.

The robot smiled and picked up the tray, he didn't care that the effort to make the food was wasted. He had convinced his master to at least think about changing his mind.

Tech left his castle and began to walk through town. Although he didn't encounter any of his friends before crossing the entire span of Ponyville, he was able to devote a lot of thought to his decision. As he reached Fluttershy's cottage on the other edge of town, he wondered if he should visit her.

"Maybe Fluttershy can help me decide." He said as he walked up to the door of her home. Extending a robot arm, he knocked on the wooden door and waited. When no reply came after a few minutes, he gave up and decided to walk through the Everfree forest.

Tech said to himself, "I guess I could go for a walk in the forest."

As he approached the twisted trees of the wild area, he brought out his laser cannons. Although he was once a human on Earth where all forests grew without intervention, Equestria was home to creatures similar to the ones considered mythical on Earth. Chances are a walk through the Everfree forest could result in a horrible death if one went unprepared. The cockatrices were the least of a traveler's worries, many other beasts lived there that could use non-magical natural weapons to put an end to a stray pony. Yet, there was something about the forest that, while it scared away the native-born residents of Equestria, drew the newcomer to it. Tech stashed his guns and walked right into the boundary of the forest. As he headed deeper through the trees, he remained observant but tried to have fun at the same time.

During his walk amongst the twisted trees and strange paths, he encountered a small light blue object on the ground. The stallion approached the thing and lowered his head to have a closer look.

"What the?" he blurted out in a minced oath in response to the weird shape of the object.

With a whirring sound, his robotic arms came out of the saddle and picked it up. It was an odd tribal mask made out of strange light blue flowers.

"This looks like a mask of some kind." He said aloud, "I bet it belongs to Zecora."

True enough, the zebra that lived in the forest had many different masks hanging in her home to represent her cultural background. However, Tech had been there a few times, and he had never seen this particular mask before. Regardless of whether or not it actually belonged to her, he decided to take the mask to the zebra and ask about its origins. Using a compass he had stored in his saddle's cargo container, Techorse brought the baby blue mask to the front door of the small house in the forest and knocked on the front door. Unlike the last instance, he had better luck, and Zecora answered the door. She was wearing the gold rings she typically did.

"Hello Zecora, remember me?" asked Tech.

"Of course." She replied, "how could I forget my friend Techorse?"

He smiled, "Thanks! Anyways, the reason I'm here is because I found this strange mask while walking in the forest. I figured it belonged to you."

Zecora invited him inside, then took the mask from him and inspected it carefully.

Tech asked, "So, do you recognize it?"

"This mask you found is surely not mine." She answered, "But what it can do is not really fine."

The stallion easily deciphered the rhyme, "So, it's dangerous in some way? How so?" The zebra rustled her hair, making her gold rings jingle a bit.

"You're in trouble if you give this a poke. This mask is made of dried poison joke."

Tech understood immediately why the mask was so dangerous. Poison joke was a flowering plant native to Equestria which produced an extremely devastating toxin on its petals. It's impossible to tell if one has been poisoned until the effects of it kick in. The poisoning power ranges from something as simple as itchiness to particle condensation, causing the victim to shrink. Curing the toxin in easy, it is water soluble and does not usually soak into the skin. However, Tech was glad that he had used his robotic arms to pick up the mask, as it had saved him from falling under the plant's weird effects.

"Oh." He said, "But the flowers are dry. Even the most poisonous plants can't make any more after they dry out."

Zecora half-nodded in agreement, but cautioned, "The knowledge you have is true and great. But don't wear that mask, or you'll meet your fate."

"It won't kill me." He assured her as he took back the mask with his robotic arms, "it will just make me silly, that's all. My friends all told me what it did to them, and I don't think it'd be too bad for me."

"To resist the temptation is a hard task. Just play it safe and give me the mask." She requested, knowing what the stallion was going to get himself into.

"Aw come on, you can trust me." He said as he made for the door. "Thanks Zecora for your help, but I think I want to hang on to this. It might make for a good decoration around the castle."

Once he was out the door, Zecora immediately started brewing a soap batter to scrub off poison joke venom. It was likely the stallion would be back with some strange condition. Tech couldn't believe his luck. He had gone for a walk in the woods and found a mask that when touched would cause silly effects in the victim.

He said to himself as he trotted away, "Can't wait to try this out. If it's silly enough, maybe it would help me socialize better tonight!"

It was then to his surprise he realized he only had an hour before he had to leave for the club.

"I have to get back and get ready!" he thought as he brought out his turbofans and took off into the sunset.

Rather than go through the front door of his castle, Tech flew through an open window and landed in his living room.

PAL looked up from the newspaper he was reading and asked, "How was the walk?"

"Great," he replied happily, "and guess what? I'm going to the club tonight!"

"Fantastic!" said the robot as he shot up from the couch and threw the paper down.

"Check this out." said the pony as he unstrapped the mask from the back of the saddle, "I found this mask made from poison joke flowers."

"I believe you added an article on that plant to the castle's database." said the robot, stroking his chin, "doesn't it cause a weird effect on the victim?"

"That's the point." continued his master, "I'm going to rub this on myself before I go to the club. The silly effect might help me fit in more!"

PAL said uneasily, "I don't know, master. Sounds dangerous"

"Well maybe, but," He confirmed, "It's just for a little while to help me socialize. I mean, Zecora told me not to touch the mask directly, but this is my only shot at fitting in."

"Master, I know she has a better knowledge than you about how the biology of plants work. You should listen to her." said PAL, crossing his arms.

"Come on robot, less logic, more fun." laughed the stallion as he left with the mask.

Techorse brought the poison joke mask up to his master bathroom and took a look in the mirror.

"Maybe I should just put on the mask and take it off." he considered.

Turning the artifact around to the other side, he slowly put it to his face. Letting it rest gently on his head, Techorse watched as the mask conformed to the shape of his head. He panicked for a moment, but the grasp of the flowers was gentle, and he was done no harm.

After the mask settled down around his head, he breathed in relief and chuckled, "For a second there, I thought I was going to go through some kind of hideous transformation sequence."

No sooner did he say that did the toxins in the flowers reach his brain. The plant had decided on the effect it was going to inflict on Techorse, and it wasn't going to be physical. It was going to be psychological. Techorse felt his mind go blank for a second, then it started going at a thought a nanosecond. He watched in curiosity as the mask soaked completely into his face, disappearing into his head and leaving him with a light blue mug. Suddenly and without warning, Techorse felt himself rapidly lose control of his now spinning body, which left the bathroom and headed into his bedroom. Downstairs, PAL heard the rushing and knew his master had already made a stupid choice. When the tornado settled down upstairs, where a green pony had once stood, there was one with a coat in the color of fresh poison joke. He had kept the same mane and tail style, but they were the green color his old coat had been. The only thing that remained the same was his cutie mark and eyes.

This new pony put on a huge grin and shouted, "Oh yeah, I feel great! We're gonna party tonight!"

The light blue stallion raised his front legs in a "charging" action, and then disappeared in a flash downstairs. He zipped by PAL, which knocked the machine down onto the stone floor, denting the machine's chassis. PAL got up off the ground and shook his head before heading over to the lab to repair the damage. The new Techorse opened the front door of his castle quickly and rushed outside. He took in the night sky, and took in a deep breath of the cold air before dashing back inside.

He stopped with a screeching noise from his hooves on the floor as he looked at PAL, who was visibly angry with him.

"Hey, how's it going, metal man?" asked the new Techorse as he smiled at his servant.

The robot crossed his arms and sighed, "You didn't listen to me at all, didn't you?"

"Not. A. Word!" laughed Tech as he dashed by his robot, knocking him down on the ground again. PAL tried to get up, but before he could, his poisoned master zipped back to him and said, "Sorry about that, but I need to get ready to party!"

PAL groaned in frustration as he disappeared upstairs. Techorse sped back into his bathroom and looked in the mirror. He noticed that he was still wearing the battle saddle.

Looking at the device, he noted, "I gotta lose the oily gadget! Nobody wears these things at parties."

He took off the straps on the somewhat flat machine and tossed it aside.

"Now, where can I get some cool clothes at this hour?" He wondered aloud as he scratched his chin with a hoof.

Remembering something, another display of cartoon speed brought him into his wardrobe, where he opened the cardboard box Rarity gave him. The pony put the contents of the box on his body and then went back to the mirror in the bathroom. The suit consisted of a white dress shirt and a zoot suit which was long enough to just cover up his cutie mark. But the strangest piece of them all was the hat, the same color as the suit, and a tacky leopard band around the middle. A black tie and belt completed the portrait of ultimate tackiness.

Admiring the strange outfit in the mirror, he gave his ears a little twirl to fit the hat better and shouted, "Ooh, stylish and spontaneous! Ya gotta love that Rarity's creativity."

Deciding that was enough preparation for the party, he tried to make his quick exodus for the nightclub. But the robot blocked him from exiting the castle, and he screeched to a halt on the stone.

"Wash off that poison. It's for your own good." demanded the machine.

Techorse said to him, "Move it tin man, I gotta go now!"

"You look nothing like yourself anymore." reasoned the robot, "only your original appearance will get you in to the club."

Tech pulled out the invitation to the nightclub and said, "Yeah, but what if I sorta endorse my new self?"

"It's not like you'd come up with a nickname and fool everyone." said the robot, "that's a stupid idea."

"Actually that's swell, I think I'll steal that idea!" replied the pony as he jumped out an open window.

"How could I forget to close the window?" asked the machine of himself as he realized his plans had failed.

Twilight and her friends had lined up outside of the nightclub, waiting patiently to get in. To her surprise, one of the employees found out Twilight was supposed to sing and got them in early through a VIP entrance. Rarity nearly fainted from the special treatment. Soon they arrived on the inside of The Jockey nightclub. It was basically a very large open room, featuring a wonderful tile dance floor in the center and many tables with red cloths on them. The other half of the room was devoted to the various games which would raise money for the charity event: helping to find a cure for wing cancer. A decorative fountain stood to the sides, although it did not feature any special carvings, it was still a wonderful touch to the place. Twilight was led away from her friends to put on makeup for her performance, but the others took their seats at a reserved table.

"This is so awesome!" squealed Rainbow Dash, "I can't wait to dance after Twilight sings!"

"I know!" shouted Pinkie Pie as she slammed her hooves onto the table, "this is going to be the craziest party ever!"

Applejack looked to the side of her and noticed that Fluttershy looked a little sad.

"What's wrong, Sugarcube?" she asked.

Fluttershy looked up and said, "He didn't show up. I talked to PAL this morning so that he could try and reason with Tech, but I guess it didn't work."

"Aw forget about 'em. Just try to have a good time yerself."

Tech arrived on the scene of the nightclub, invitation in hoof. As he was about to walk up to it, he noticed for the first time just how crazy he was acting.

"Wait a minute, the robot's right. I'm not Techie anymore. I got to make a new name for myself!" he shouted to no audience whatsoever.

Getting a plan in mind, he walked right up to the front of the line and talked with one of the guards. Many ponies smiled at the new guy, who obviously looked like he was ready to have a good time.

"Um, are you on the list?" asked the guard cautiously.

"My friend is." The crazy Techorse replied, "You see, he gave me his ticket. Right here buddy."

Tech handed the invite, which bore his signature, to the pegasus guard. "Well, that is his signature, it matches the one here for Techorse. Go on ahead in!"

"Thanks!" he shouted and he zipped past the guard, causing him to spin around. This made the line of ponies waiting to get in snicker. The guard regained his composure and continued to sort through the guests. They eventually all got settled into the club, where they waited for the entertainment to start. But they couldn't begin until the princesses arrived, who were running a little bit late that night. To pass the time, Techorse decided to talk with his friends. But he had already lied to the guard to excuse his appearance, so he knew he couldn't simply tell them who he really was.

"I can have a good time tonight and then tomorrow be my old self again." He thought while grinning.

The stallion dashed up to his friend's table and stole Twilight's chair. It took the others a second or two to notice his near teleportation into the seat.

"Hellooooo ladies!" he said in a very cheeky manner. Pinkie Pie giggled at his boldness.

"Um, hello, that's Twilight's spot." said Fluttershy.

"Oh, I'm sorry." replied Tech, "I'll just sit in this other one."

"That's Techorse's seat, or at least it was." said Rarity in disgust, not knowing who the new guy really was.

"Perhaps it's time I introduce myself." said Tech, "The name's Partyin' Pat."

"Ooh," said Pinkie Pie, "Neat! Hi Pat!"

He laughed as he pushed his hat down a bit, “Well, full name's Party Pattern but hey, that's quite a lot don't ya think? Call me Pat!”

Rarity noticed he was wearing the outfit she made and asked curiously, "Excuse me, but that looks like a suit I made for Techorse. Why are you wearing it?"

"You see ladies." He explained, "Techie couldn't come today. But he gave me his ticket and this stylish wear, and told me to take his place. As the official party pony of Reigntown, how could I refuse?"

Pinkie Pie's eyes widened in joy, "You're an official party pony of a town? That's a super-duper achievement! Only a few party ponies ever do it!"

"So, you're friends with Techie then?" asked Rainbow Dash.

He turned and nodded quickly, "We're really good friends. Been so for a long time, fly girl!"

Rainbow took a bit of offense at the daring comment, but decided to shake off the slang.

"Let's introduce ourselves then." said Rarity.

"That's ok!" said Pat with a smile, "Techie told me all about you ladies."

"Oh really, then who am I?" asked Rainbow Dash, confident he wouldn't get it right.

"Who doesn't know about Rainbow Dash, the fastest Pegasus livin' today?"

Rainbow Dash grinned and took the compliment well, also understanding he was telling the truth.

"What about me?" asked Fluttershy gently.

Party Pattern lowered his voice so to not intimidate her and said, "You're Fluttershy, a true animal lover."

She shrunk back in response and tried to look away from him, but appreciated the compliment.

Continuing around the table, he came to Applejack and said, "You're Applejack, the honest farmer Techie's always telling me about. He says you're a really hard worker, something an official party pony doesn't know much about."

Applejack wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be an insult or a compliment, but acknowledged the fact that he got her name right.

Pinkie Pie leaned over the table and shouted, "Know who I am?"

"You've gotta be Pinkie Pie!" he replied, "I hear you make the best treats in Equestria! After a quick breath, he added, "But I also here you throw a wicked party. Keep that up sweetie and you'll be the official party pony of Ponyville in no time!"

"You mean it?" she asked with unsurpassed excitement.

He gave one quick nod, "I mean it. Keep up the good work."

Rarity rolled her eyes at his completely informal speech and coughed. "How could I forget about the amazing Rarity? Designer of this awesome suit?" he said softly as he changed to a polite tone of voice. Rarity looked back at him, and rubbed her front hooves together, blushing.

"You're very kind, Mr. Pattern. I do believe I have misjudged you."

"It's all good! First impressions can be a bit... deceiving!" He replied with a smooth tone of voice.

At that moment, the princesses arrived at the club to the cheering of the other guests attending the event. Cameras flashed and shutters clicked as they were escorted in by their guards, Jools and Jops. They were brought over to a special seating area with the best view of the dance floor. Princess Luna took the loveseat on the far right of the booth and laid out across it, turning her head to see Octavia's orchestra. Celestia took the other couch in the specialized booth and asked for a drink from a nearby waiter. As she waited for the music to start, Clubs approached her cautiously, and as soon as he got within 5 feet, Jools turned and made sure he came no closer.

"Easy Jools." Said Celestia gently, letting her guard step back just a bit so that Clubs could approach her.

"Everything ok your majesty?" asked Clubs cautiously.

Celestia never understood why others were so afraid of her, but answered, "I'm doing very well, and once again, thank you so much for agreeing to host the charity event here."

"We'll be starting our entertainment soon." Said Clubs with a terrified grin, "just hang on for a second."

Clubs dashed off to find his manager and chew him out for making the princesses wait.

Celestia nudged Jools on the back and asked him quietly, "Do you ever find it entertaining how nervous my subjects are around me?"

Jools turned his head and gave her a hint of smirk as his answer. Across from him, his brother Jops protected Luna. His head started to itch a bit from his helmet, but he refused to scratch it no matter how bad it was getting.

The overhead lights dimmed in the club, and two floodlights illuminated the pathway to the dance floor.

"Good evening, Ponyville residents!" said the manager's voice over a speaker, "and thank you for coming to the Angel's Flight charity event. Now, for your entertainment, make some noise for Twilight Sparkle!"

The crowd in the nightclub made cheers and tapped their hooves on the ground to welcome Twilight to the floor. Pat gave the largest whistle it was possible for a pony to make. The spotlights pulled up and followed Twilight, who walked onto the dance floor. She was wearing a beautiful white dress made from very fine material and inlaid with several diamonds. Twilight stepped up to the microphone on the middle of the dance floor, then looked and nodded at Octavia. In response, Octavia turned to her friends in the orchestra and began to play the music.

Twilight began to sing, filling the club with her sweet voice.

Outside of the club, a group of five unicorns approached the bouncer, still clutching his list.

"Can I help you sirs?" he asked of the team.

"We're a little late, so we might not be on that list." said the leader of the five.

The bouncer replied, "I can't let you in then."

"Maybe a little convincing is what is needed." said the leader as he tossed the guard a sack of money.

"All right, sneak in through the back. There's a girl singing right now and I don't want you to interrupt her." Instructed the guard, who then walked away to go count the bribe.

Twilight finished the last verse of her song. She was met with thundering applause and whistling from the partygoers.

After it quieted down a bit, she said into the microphone, "Well, enjoy the night. We'll have dancing here on the floor for the entire duration of the event." She waited for some of the ponies in the crowd to get on the dance floor before trying to leave herself. As she did, she thought about joining her friends at the table, but instead decided to go talk to the princesses.

Twilight walked over to the royal box seats and addressed Celestia, "Good evening."

Celestia replied, "That was an amazing song, Twilight Sparkle."

Luna added rather loudly, "It seems you have other talents besides magic."

Twilight scraped her hoof on the ground and looked at the floor, her face red, "Thanks."

Back at her friends' table, they were also in discussion about the great quality of Twilight's singing.

"That was a great show!" said Rainbow Dash, spreading her wings in joy.

"Hey, put those away!" Said Pinkie Pie in annoyance as the left wing smacked her in the face.

"Sorry." Rainbow Dash retracted her appendages and stowed them at her sides.

"Well, what did you think Pattern?" asked Rarity, turning to address him.

"I think that was the best song ever!" he replied with a quirky tone of voice, "how about you Rarity?"

"Oh, I absolutely loved it, and I'm glad you thought so too." she answered with a smile.

They sat in silence for a second before Pat slammed his right leg into the table and asked, "Hey, you girls thirsty?"

"Yeah, let's go get some punch!" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Allow me." He shouted, darting out of his chair at lightning speed. He returned in the blink of an eye and set down 7 glasses of punch for everyone at the table.

"Thanks..." said Applejack uneasily at the his display of pure speed.

As they sipped their drinks and enjoyed conversation, Rarity drained her glass first and said, "I'm going to go get some more, this is quite good."

"Imma comin' with ya!" said Party Pattern with a tiny shake of his head as he finished his drink.

They got up from the table and walked over to the table where the punch bowl was set up. Rarity reached for the ladle to fill her cup back up. Behind her in line was a mare and her three friends. The two cronies were initially brown nosing their leader's choice in dress, but upon seeing Rarity's homemade one started to compliment her instead.

"That's a lovely dress!" said one of them.

"Thank you, I made it myself." Replied Rarity as she turned to face her.

Getting jealous, the lead mare purposefully spilled her punch all over Rarity.

"Oops, clumsy me!" she said sarcastically, "Well, these things happen."

Rarity coughed and looked at the state of her wear, the beautiful yellow clothing had been soaked through completely with the punch. Crying, Rarity ran behind a fake tree and hid from the crowd. Pat's expression went to one of pure happiness to that of maniacal plotting. He rushed from the punch table in a blur and tried to comfort Rarity.

"Oh Pat, she ruined my dress. I can't go back out there now!" she told him as she sobbed.

"Aw, come on and stop crying, you're gonna smear your makeup!" he replied.

After a pause, an idea came to his head. "I'm going to clean that for you." Instantly, Pat pulled the dress off of Rarity and disappeared from the room in a flash.

Rarity covered herself in shame and cried, "Great, first I get punch all over me, and now he's left me here!"

Pat returned moments later with the dress clutched gently in his teeth. Putting a hoof on Rarity's head, he spun her around and thrust the clothing on top of her. When she stopped, the dress had been cleaned of all the punch, and returned to her body.

Rarity said to him in joy, "Thank you so much! You've saved me a lot of face."

"Not yet I haven't." he replied, looking backwards at the jealous mare. Pat got up and galloped over to the punch table, where he got the attention of the three ladies by hanging his left front leg over the punch table. Leaning on it, he looked at his other hoof and said, "Hey ladies, how's it going?"

"Go away freak." said the leader with a snobby tone of voice.

Pat gave a large toothy grin, and with one quick motion, picked up the entire bowl of punch and dumped it over her head. The mare shrieked, and stood there dripping wet with red punch.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded, still recovering from the shock of the icy punch chilling her flesh.

"Oops, clumsy me!" parroted Pat, mocking her with her own words. He then gave her a clicking noise with his tongue before dashing back to his friends seated at the table.

As he jumped back into his chair, Applejack asked, "Where's the punch you were gonna get?"

"Oooh, what a shame, they ran out." He lied, smiling as innocently as possible. Rarity got back to her seat as well, then settled in to the chair with a sigh as she enjoyed the feel of her freshly-washed dress.

The party continued for an hour before the dancing and music became extremely boring. Even the games to support the charity were starting to get old, and ponies dropped out of line. There wasn't really any sort of reason for the friends to dance, so they just sat there bored and about to fall asleep.

"This is so boring." said Fluttershy, "at least Twilight got to sing."

"I can fix that!" shouted Party Pattern, getting up and rushing over to the orchestra. Once they were sure he was out of earshot, Pinkie Pie said to the others, "Hey, have you girls noticed how much Pat's like me?"

"Of course darling." said Rarity, "He's silly, hyper, and kind. Just like you."

"Somethings' up! Nopony ever gets that close to how I am. What's his secret?" said Pinkie, staring out at him from across the room.

"Guess you could find out by asking." Suggested Applejack.

"Great idea!" yelled Pinkie.

Meanwhile, Pat had reached the orchestra and was making some "changes" to it. He replaced all the sheet music with some faster songs he had found in the club, and told Octavia to "Hit it!"

Playing the new music, the club was filled with fast-paced Jazz and big band. Pat rushed over to the royal box and said to the princesses, "Good evening your majesties, mind if I borrow Twilight here?"

Celestia tried to give an answer, but he had already grabbed Twilight and whisked her away to the dance floor. The happy, fast music got the entire club dancing out on the floor. Pat had certainly figured out how to revive the party.

"Woah! Did you see that, Pat just saved us from our boredom!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she jumped from the table, "Let's go dance!"

The others agreed and jumped onto the dance floor for some fun. Party Pattern and Twilight did some swing dancing as the song progressed. Using his impressive cartoon speed, Pat was able to do some very fancy moves. The princesses watched in awe as the light blue stranger transformed the boring event into something very entertaining. When the song concluded, all eyes were on Pat and Twilight. He had leaned over with her and planted a kiss on her lips. Despite the fact that Pat was a stranger, Twilight thought things felt warm and familiar. Then it dawned on her.

Pat released Twilight Sparkle and watched as she slowly walked back to the table.

She sat down with her friends and said, "So, enjoying the party?"

Twilight frowned as she looked at the angry and disappointed faces around the table.

"Hey, next time, slap the guy when he does that." said Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, he claims to be Techorse's friend, but now he's going for the smooch?" agreed Pinkie Pie, "Some friend he is!"

"Oh, that," Said Twilight nervously, "before you say too much, I think I've figured something out here..."

"Oh?" said Fluttershy quietly, "What have you figured out about Party Pattern?"

“Party Pattern, huh?” wondered Twilight Sparkle.

“Yeah, or Pat, or Partyin' Pat. I dunno, he's just a big jerk for this!” groaned Rainbow Dash.

"Not only that" interrupted Applejack, "he really didn't give you a lot of choice, Twilight."

Twilight nodded, "Well yeah, normally that would be bad but, Pat's identity is actually..."

Suddenly, the lights went off in the club, causing some patrons to scream in panic. When the lights turned on, the five unicorns from before had assembled in the center of the dance floor.

The leader told his troops, "All right, boys, let's go to work. Make sure the princesses don't leave."

Jools and Jops sprang into action to defeat the gang of unicorns. The leader of the enemy team saw them charging for his men and pushed a button on the floor in front of him. A net dropped from the ceiling and pinned the guard down to the floor. Celestia and Luna watched this in horror from the sidelines, wanting to do something to help, but unsure of what course of action to take. Obviously, Celestia could have simply blasted the rouges with an energy beam, but she was much gentler than that. Luna considered zapping them too, but decided not to for a different reason; in order to avoid making a nightmarish mess of the nightclub. The leader and two of his strongest unicorns approached the princesses.

He introduced himself to them, "My name's Coaltorch your majesties. The others and I are just going to take all the money from this club and then let you go. But just to make sure you don't try anything funny. We've planted magical dynamite underneath of your seats. If anypony lifts one hoof to stop us, I'll activate it. Cooperate and everyone wins."

Luna screamed at them, "How dare you steal from a charity event you heartless fiends!"

Coaltorch looked back and forth between his two cronies and laughed, "Look who's talking about being a heartless fiend! Good old Nightmare Moon."

Twilight charged up a magic bolt to take a shot at Coaltorch's head.

"This will be over in two seconds." she said as she took aim. Before she could shoot, Pat zipped up to her and pushed her head down.

"Now hold on!" he said softly, "why ruin a good party? Let's just show our uninvited guests the door!"

Twilight smiled and stopped preparing her blast.

She said to him, "You're right, 'Pat'. I almost lost it there when I saw the princesses in trouble."

"I'm glad we've decided not to mess them up too badly." Interrupted Rainbow Dash, "But we have to do something, or the charity event will be ruined by those guys!"

"But what?" asked Rarity, "You heard what he said, one little move, and he'll use those bombs!"

"Not if Partyin' Pat has anything to say about it! I'll take care of those firecrackers!" said the stallion as he rushed away in a blur of light blue.

"We need to buy him time to put his plan into effect." explained Twilight to her friends, "If they notice him trying to remove the bombs from underneath the box, the princesses might get hurt."

Fluttershy nearly burst into tears at the terrible thought.

"I have an idea." Whispered Rarity, "But you may not like what we have to do. It involves you and I, Applejack."

"Oh boy." she said, rolling her eyes, "Lemme guess..."

Coaltorch and his team of four continued to stare down the princesses while the fifth member of their team went and collected the money from the games. As they waited for him to return, they heard a whistling from behind them. Coaltorch and company turned around and saw Rarity and Applejack striking a pose. Applejack had untied her hair and tail, letting the flowing golden silk hang from her head. Rarity had purposefully overdone on red lipstick, and was messing with one of her curls with a front hoof to gain attention. Coaltorch's crew immediately were taken aback, and their mouths fell open in desire.

Applejack looked at the practically drooling stallions and thought to herself, "The things I do for the princesses."

"Excuse me boys." cooed Rarity as she walked up to them, "Can we be of some help to you?"

One of the goons responded, "Yes, dance for us!"

Coaltorch slapped his minion and said to him, "I'm trying to keep anyone from moving and messing up our plan, and that includes these girls. Control yourselves!" The minions ignored him and surrounded Rarity and Applejack.

"So, which one of you boys wants to dance first?" asked Applejack, winking at one of the minions. The boys began to argue over which one of them should be the first to dance with the girls. Coaltorch tried to yell at them to pay attention to the task at hand, but it was already too late.

"Just look at all this dynamite!" shouted a voice, interrupting the arguments. Coaltorch looked across the room and saw Pat standing on top of the pile of explosives that was supposed to be connected to the princess's private seats. Coaltorch looked back at the chairs. In confirmation of his fears, the sticks of dynamite were indeed missing.

Spinning around, Coaltorch yelled at him in pure rage, "How on Equestria did you remove those without me noticing?"

Pat jumped off the top of the bombs and dashed over to Coaltorch, where he stopped just a few inches in front of his face and asked, "Are we upset?"

Coaltorch's horn started to glow a deep gray color, and he picked up a nearby vase from a pedestal.

"I'll take that as a yes!" panicked Pat as he dodged the thrown porcelain.

"Stop this clown!" shouted Coaltorch to his troops, "get him!"

The goons also used what spells they knew to fire a combination of objects and weak energy bolts at Pat. Using his relatively newfound maneuverability and skill, Pat dodged the shots with ease and began to taunt his foes.

"You guys are terrible shots!" he teased as he ducked a vase. Turning around, Pat swished his tail at them and issued a challenge, "Come on, hit me already!"

Party Pattern ran for the other side of the club without looking back. Coaltorch and his team pursued him over to the games area. With the coast clear, Fluttershy approached the net which contained Jools and Jops and freed them by cutting the ropes with a steak knife she had borrowed from a table. The guards thanked Fluttershy and replaced their helmets. As the three began to formulate a strategy to defeat Coaltorch, Twilight walked over to the princesses.

"Are you ok?" she asked of Celestia.

"I'm fine." She replied, "I knew you and your friends could stop him, and even if things had gone wrong, all that 'dynamite' is fake. Luna sensed it and alerted me to the situation."

"That's great, but you should get out of here before anything more happens!" urged Twilight, pointing to the front door of the club with her horn.

"We desire to see how this turns out." said Luna, speaking for her sister.

Meanwhile, Pat had been cornered by the five unicorns. They picked up sets of throwing darts from nearby boards and prepared to puncture him many times over with them.

"So, Party Pattern, is it? Before I turn you into target practice, do you have any last words?" asked Coaltorch with a smirk, readying his set of darts.

"Yeah!" he replied with a huge smile, "when you're done, make sure those two guys get a turn!"

Coaltorch felt a hot puff of breath on the back of his neck. Turning around slowly, the gang realized that Jools and Jops were standing right behind them.

"Run!" shouted one of the more easily intimidated minions.

The gang scattered in various directions to avoid getting beaten up by the two guards. Coaltorch was the last to choose a vector, and as a result, he only made it a few feet before the guards pinned him down to the floor. After subduing him, Jools and Jops dragged Coaltorch by his front legs and threw him down in front of the princesses. As he tried to regain his footing, the seven friends walked up to him from behind to make sure he didn't escape.

"Looks like you've lost, Coaltorch." noted Twilight, standing tall over him. Coaltorch sat on the floor, looked up at Celestia, and began to sweat in fear.

The princess asked the guard closest to her, "Jools, please give a report of what this one did tonight."

"This one is guilty of robbing a public event, assault, making a threat with dynamite, and treason." stated Jools.

"Treason?" shrieked Coaltorch, "I wasn't betraying…"

Rainbow Dash interrupted him, "Oh yes you did! You made a threat to blow up the princesses, and that's treason!"

"I sure hope you can deal with what the punishment is for that." added Rarity, giving Coaltorch a cross look.

"B-b-but the dynamite wasn't even real!" protested Coaltorch, "They were just tubes and wires!"

"He's telling the truth!" yelled Luna.

"Even so." Said Jops gruffly, "he made a violent threat and attacked Mr. Pattern."

"Indeed." agreed Celestia, "Coaltorch, you are guilty of both of those. What do you have to say for yourself?" The stallion broke down into sobbing over his impending doom.

"I'm sorry!" he wailed, "I just got so greedy! Forgive me your majesty, please!"

"Oh brother." mumbled Applejack, rolling her eyes at the groveling.

Some of the other ponies attending the event began to shout at the princesses, "Banish him already so we can go home!"

"Be patient!" shouted Twilight at the crowd, trying to keep them quiet.

Celestia took a breath and said to Coaltorch, "You threatened me and my sister in order to get money. I should banish you from Equestria, but I don't think that will be necessary."

"What?" whined Rainbow in disbelief, knowing their efforts had been wasted by the princess's mercy.

Celestia ignored her and continued, "You are not the only one who broke the law. Your friends did too, Coaltorch, but they left you to face the consequences alone. I don't want to make you suffer the full penalty because they deserve to be punished too. As a result, I'm placing you in prison at Canterlot for now. If your friends show up and turn themselves in before that though, I'll find a way to rehabilitate all of you. If they don't and I catch them, they'll have to serve the full sentence. This will make sure each of you bear the penalty of your actions equally."

"I... thank you, I can accept that." Whispered Coaltorch, glad to be alive and still a valid citizen of the country.

Celestia then cast a spell around Coaltorch, and he disappeared in a flash of light, teleported away to a protected location.

"Well, glad we got that all taken care of" said Applejack as she turned to her friends, "thanks so much for all yer help, Pat."

"Don't mention it!" he shouted, "Always glad to help!"

Twilight smiled at the light blue stallion and said, "Ok Techorse, the charade's over. You can take off the disguise now."

He frowned and said, "Aw shoot, Twi, how did you know?"

Techorse reached up to his face and started to pull at it with his front legs. There was a suction noise as Techorse removed the poison joke mask from his face and dropped it on the ground. His body returned to its normal green color. Twilight looked around the room as her friend's mouths dropped open in surprise.

Twilight said to Techorse, "I knew it was you when we went dancing. Your outfit moved up just enough so I could see your cutie mark. Even with that mind-altering mask, you're still Techorse."

The now green again stallion frowned, and his ears sunk back.

"I'm sorry I didn't go as myself to this party." he said to her, "I just didn't want to ruin the fun by being me."

"You didn't ruin the party!" shouted Pinkie Pie, "You saved it Techie. It was getting all boring until you spiced up the music."

"Yeah!" added Rainbow Dash, "You helped save the club and the princesses too! You shouldn't feel bad."

The other ponies in the building were trying to leave the club, sure that the event was over.

"Where's everypony going?" asked Rarity aloud.

One of the ponies told her, "It's all over, the place is a mess, and everyone just wants to go home."

Techorse shouted at the ponies leaving, "Now hang on a minute! Just because we had a little setback tonight doesn't mean we can't still finish this party!"

He galloped over to Octavia and switched her music over to some more fast jazz. "Come on, let's have another dance! One more before we go."

The party guests looked at each other, and then agreed to one last hurrah before heading home for the night. As the music began, Techorse asked Twilight if she'd like to dance with him again.

"Would you like to dance with me instead of Party Pattern this time, Twilight?"

Twilight said to him, "I was already dancing with you the first time!"

"How?" he asked her as they headed onto the dance floor.

"I could tell," she said to him, "I don't know if you know this or not, but poison joke only affects the way ponies appear. You think that mask helped you be a fun pony tonight, Tech, but it really was your own behavior."

"So, I really was fitting in this whole time?"

"Yes you were, and I'm proud of you! Now come on 'Pat', let's dance!"

Techorse turned to look at the crowd of ponies watching them and put a huge smile on his face. He could finally be himself!

#9 - One Night Standoff

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One Night Standoff

Techorse series: #9

By Spirals95

Ponyville was never a place known for rejecting newcomers. It welcomed each visitor with a smile and a tour if you happened upon the right pony. This was well understood by the residents, any pony looking for a place to stay in Ponyville even for a few hours was to be treated as if a best friend. But sometimes a pony or other sapient creature developed a bad reputation in the town and was ignored or pushed out by the residents. The mayor certainly didn't approve of this behavior of the ponies she represented, but knew that keeping the troublemakers out of the town would overall improve life for the citizens, and so rarely said anything about it.

There were often times when these known "undesirables" would come through town seeking a place to spend the night. Many ponies shut the door on them, not wanting anything to do with these folks. But one pony and his friends always left a room open in his residence in case someone needed refuge. His name was Techorse, and he lived in the small sized castle on the edge of town, more of a fortress that was closer to the mountain ranges than the Everfree forest. The inventor, having some wealth but wishing to always do good things with what he had, provided shelter for travelers and guests no matter who they were. Ponies left and right warned the boy that he was setting himself up to be robbed, or worse. But Techorse ignored them with a smile, and welcomed anyone into his home with open mechanical arms. In his mind, it was unjust to not provide shelter to ponies in need, even if you didn't like them. Being the element of Justice, Techorse made sure to treat all ponies equally and fairly, not showing favor based on merit. One spring day in Ponyville would teach the colt the importance of choosing carefully who you entertain.

"Hey PAL, I'm going out into the woods for mushrooms. You want to come?" called the inventor with cheer in his voice.

The metal humanoid robot replied from down the hallway, "No thank you, master. I'd like to catch up on my cataloguing of the castle library. Have a good time though, and don't eat any of those mushrooms until you check them out back here. The last thing we need tonight is for you to have your stomach pumped by nurse Redheart!"

The green coated pony rolled his blue eyes and shook his head. Despite having built and programmed the robot, it frequently treated him like an idiot. Techorse thought deeply, causing the mechanical arms to snake out of the robotic saddle he was wearing on his back. The hands grasped a wooden basket in front of him, and he carried it out the back door of his castle. As the rear entrance door closed behind him, Techorse stared out into the depths of the woods. The sun had just started to set over the town, and the shadows of the trees began to lengthen. The male brought the basket closer to him and began his walk into the forest, making his way towards the spot he knew the mushrooms grew.

Techorse reached the area he had in mind and set the basket down in the soft green grass. The trees of the woods opened up at this point to reveal a round lake. The lake's water was crystal clear, and Techorse could see the occasional fish jump out of the water to snatch an insect. The pony made his way to a log sticking out of the water, where he found several different-colored mushrooms. Having studied a book beforehand, Techorse was able to identify which ones were safe and which were poisonous just by looking at them. The more colorful mushrooms were usually the ones filled with either toxins or hallucinogens, so he simply avoided even touching them. Using his thin robotic arms carefully, he plucked the brown-colored mushrooms and dropped them in the wooden basket next to him. The rotten wood provided a good amount of nutrition to the fungi he was picking, and the large caps filled the basket rather quickly. Techorse continued to work on his project until he heard a sobbing noise.

Some ponies may have kept on going without bothering to pay attention, but Techorse knew he couldn't simply leave a miserable being alone without at least talking to them. The colt stopped picking the mushrooms and retracted the metal arms back into the gray saddle on his back. Looking around, he spotted a mare at the edge of the opposite side of the lake. Techorse walked around the lake as quietly and as carefully as he could so as not to attract attention. When he got to the other side, he peered from around a boulder and looked closely at the sad one. It was a dark-bluish unicorn mare with a white mane looking down at her reflection in the lake. She was trying to avoid crying, but occasionally a tear would fall into the water, breaking her image with ripples periodically. The mare wore a magician's hat with white stars on it, and a cape with a similarly star shaped buckle.

Techorse wondered why a mare dressed like a mage would be so miserable, so he called out to her gently, "What's wrong?"

The mare looked up at him, dried her eyes quickly with a hoof, and then turned to face away. The inventor moved closer to her and sat down beside her, trying to get the girl to make eye contact with him.

"Come on, you can tell me what's wrong." He said, encouraging her to give the reason for her sadness. Techorse received no response from her, so he asked, "Can you at least tell me your name?"

"Trixie." she responded with a sniff.

"That name's familiar. My name's Techorse." He said slightly awkwardly. In truth, he had no idea who she was, but figured at least pretending to have heard of her would boost her ego high enough to get her to stop crying.

"I was once the Great and Powerful Trixie!" she continued, "But I was chased from Ponyville after I made a dreadful mistake. I wish to return, but I can't. They will not let me, Techorse!"

"Why not?" he asked, confused as to why she was banned from town.

"The mistake that I, Trixie, have made was so dreadful that they would try to hurt me if they ever saw me again. The name Trixie is cursed in Ponyville." She said before promptly bursting into tears again.

"What did you do?" came another question from Techorse.

Trixie dried her eyes again and muttered, "I put on magic shows for Ponyville, and they all loved me. But one day I made a claim that I could defeat an Ursa Major in one blow. Some foals brought a real one to town, and once it was defeated, I was blamed for all the trouble. Now all the towns refuse to have me there, because they're afraid I will cause the same thing to happen again!"

Techorse had heard stories about a gigantic bear attacking Ponyville and remembered that Twilight had lulled it to sleep. This event had occurred months before he had arrived in Ponyville. However, based on the low amount of damage the monster had caused, Techorse couldn't believe that the residents of Ponyville were mean enough to want to beat up Trixie for it showing up in town.

"Trixie, I can get your name cleared in Ponyville again." said Techorse, smiling.

"Really? You have that kind of influence?" she asked with a hint of joy in her speech.

"Hey, I do live in that castle back there." Bragged Techorse, "The ponies here tend to listen to me."

Trixie's eyes widened, "That's your castle? You must be the prince of Ponyville! Oh thank you, a pony who finally understands Trixie for who she is!"

Techorse laughed knowing he had taken his showing off too far, "No, I'm not royalty. But I can still help you out. Want to spend the night at the castle while I sort things out for you?"

Trixie smiled and stood up with him. She regained her confidence and said, "The Great and Powerful Trixie would love to!"

Techorse took her back to the castle's rear door and opened it with a combination pad to the side. The wooden door rose quietly, and the two walked into the castle with smiles on their faces.

"You have such a beautiful home!" complimented Trixie as she looked at the paintings and electric lights which filled the castle with a welcoming atmosphere.

"Thanks Trixie." He replied. After a short pause he added, "Hey, you know what? I spend so much time with unicorns that use real spells, that I haven't seen magic tricks in a long time. Want to show me some after dinner?" Techorse smiled when he saw Trixie nod.

They rounded the corner ahead and walked towards the dining hall. As they strolled down the stone floor, PAL came around from the end of the hallway they were walking through and intercepted them. Trixie half hid behind Techorse as the large machine towered above them. She relaxed when the robot's kind and friendly voice failed to match his big and scary appearance.

"Welcome back Master, did you get the mushrooms?" he asked with a grin.

Techorse slapped his face with a hoof, "Dang, I left the basket back in the woods! Sorry buddy."

The robot shut his eyes and waved a hand, "Forget about it master, there's plenty of mushrooms in the pantry to use for the stew tonight." PAL finally took notice of Trixie when he opened his eyes and asked, "And who might you be, miss?"

Techorse pushed Trixie from behind him and moved her in front of PAL. He said to his robot butler, "This is Trixie, PAL. I found her in the woods today. She's in trouble with the residents here in Ponyville, and tomorrow morning I'm going to make sure her name gets cleared."

PAL crossed his arms and said, "I can't believe the citizens of this town would be so rude as to banish such a beautiful pony. What, with that cute outfit and all."

"I'm a magician." said Trixie. She fluffed her cape out a bit as she became comfortable with the robot's presence.

"Finally!" shouted PAL, "A unicorn who does magic tricks rather than spells. Can you show me some tricks?"

Techorse heard his own voice in the machine, and said to him, "That's exactly what I was thinking, and she promised to show us some after dinner. Can you make us something now?"

"Of course!" said the machine, giving a salute, "The stew will be right up."

PAL made the two a large hearty stew made from previously collected mushrooms, potatoes, and artisan cheeses made in town. The thick brown liquid had just the right amount of salt and flavoring to it, as PAL's robotic mind let him judge the measurements perfectly every time. Techorse finished his bowl of stew as fast as possible in order to watch Trixie eat. He wanted to make sure that she got a warm meal in her so that she would feel good about herself. Although he had just met Trixie, he saw helping other ponies as his duty to society due to his success in the business world.

Once the mare had finished her dinner, Techorse asked, "Well, what do you think of the stew?"

Trixie swallowed the last bit of the mixture and said, "It's wonderful. That steel golem of yours is quite the chef."

Techorse laughed and said, "That's a common misconception about PAL. You see, he's not a golem, he's a robot!"

"What's that?" she asked, giving him a puzzled look.

"A robot is large machine built from different parts, which must be programmed to do what you want it to. Except that I chose to let PAL program himself by taking in information, so that he can be alive like you and me!" he explained cheerfully, loving to talk about his inventions.

"What's programming?" asked Trixie, still not understanding.

Techorse said to her, "It's sort of like writing a book of instructions for a robot to read. Unlike golems, robots follow code that you have to put into their hardware…"

Trixie didn't understand a word Techorse was saying, but nodded her head and pretended to take interest in his line of work. She knew she'd never get why PAL was alive without magic of some kind, but accepted it as fact anyways.

"So anyways, PAL is alive because he knows how to make his own instructions, rather than through a spell!" finished Techorse.

"That's rather interesting." lied Trixie, pushing the wooden bowl in front of her to the side. She only cared that the loving colt in front of her had been nice enough to give her a meal and a place to stay for the evening. "Would you like to see that magic show now?"

"I would love to!" he replied, "Let's go to the roof."

Trixie put on her best performance for Techorse and PAL once they reached the roof of the castle. She conjured objects from her hat, made them disappear again, did tricks with rings and cards, and even sawed PAL in half. PAL thought he could see his metal footpads far away from him, but he realized the trick was false when his damage sensors didn't pick up anything, and decided not to ruin the fun for his master and remained silent as he let Trixie move his "halves" apart. The mare went through her entire routine for Techorse, who laughed and cheered her on, enjoying the entertainment. When it was over, she packed up her tricks and sat down on the cool stone of the castle roof. PAL went back inside to clean a few things up, as it was now night.

"So, what did you think?" asked Trixie as she walked up to the colt.

"That was amazing." He replied excitedly, "I can see why ponies loved your act!"

"Loved…" sighed Trixie as she walked over to the edge of the roof and looked out at the lights of Ponyville.

Techorse walked up to her again and said, "Trixie, I promise that tomorrow morning, you will be able to go into Ponyville again without worry. I won't let a pony lay a hoof on you."

"You'd do all this for me?" she asked, "Even after what I did? You really are some kind of a prince on the inside, Tech."

"Thank you." He said softly as he watched the beautiful town below. Inside her heart, Trixie felt something for Techorse that she was aware she shouldn't be feeling. But she knew she had to repay the inventor somehow for his ultimate justice and fair treatment of her. Perhaps just a little peck on the cheek would be enough to say thank you.

"You know." She said smoothly to him, "I do know one more magic trick."

"And what's that?" he asked as he looked her in the eyes.

"We'll need some jackets for this," She said gently, lowering her eyelids a bit to make her eyelashes more obvious.

"Don't have on on me," said Techorse, "but I can check the closet in my bedroom."

He innocently walked over to the stairwell access and opened the door with a robot hand. Trixie followed him down the stairs and across the hallway of the castle's second floor. They entered Techorse's master bedroom. The large space consisted of a queen-sized bed against the back wall, covered in a beautiful blue comforter. An oak nightstand with an electrical lamp and a book Techorse was going through stood to the right of the bed, and to the left was a dresser that contained what little clothes he liked to wear. Across the room was a television monitor the colt used to observe the status of his castle. To the right of the plasma screen was a simple door which led to the master bathroom. A large white multi-paned window was on the wall opposite where they entered, and the curtains flapped gently in the breeze as the warm spring air entered the room. Trixie used her magic to close the windows gently, and the red curtains fell down limp.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Techorse.

"Oh, this trick is rather secret, and the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't want anypony else to see it," She said with a hint of teasing.

Techorse, still blissfully unaware of what was going on, went over to the closet opposite the door leading to his bathroom and opened it. He searched for a wooden cane to use for the magic trick, but couldn't find one.

"Sorry Trixie." He said, "I don't think I have an extra jacket here, maybe some other time."

"Just sit down on your bed, and let Trixie find one for you," she said.

The colt removed his mechanical saddle, and threw the device in the corner. He hated wearing the gadget when relaxing on his bed. Techorse then climbed up and relaxed, letting his four legs lie down on the blue cloth. He watched curiously as Trixie motioned towards him with her front leg. She was smirking and swirling her front right hoof, as if to indicate he needed to rotate. Techorse got the message and leaned backwards, reclining back and letting his head rest on one of his pillows. He let his legs sprawl out on the bed a bit but was careful with his hind ones and tail. Techorse was now propped up against the backboard of his bed and looking straight at Trixie. To his curiosity, she removed her hat and cape and set them down gently on the foot of his bed, before also climbing up to join him.

"Um, what are you doing?" he asked nervously, just now realizing what she might have meant to do.

She replied, "Don't talk Techorse. Just let Trixie perform her trick." The mare crawled towards him on all four legs, slowly approaching him on the bed.

"I'm not comfortable with this!" he said, scooting back a bit more.

Trixie's horn glowed, and she picked up a rope from the closet behind her. The rope flew across the room and bound Techorse, tying up his hind legs so that he couldn't possibly escape.

"You've been kind to Trixie." She said, now in his face, "and now I want to reward you with cuddles!"

Techorse looked like he was about to burst into either tears or screaming.

"Don't do this!" he said, "You'll regret it, Trixie!"

She ignored him and said into his ear, "And what Trixie wants, Trixie gets…"

Just then, the door to the bedroom burst open, and there stood PAL with a metal tray. On the tray were two hot-fudge sundaes he had prepared for dessert.

"I brought you two some ice cream and…" The robot stopped short when he saw his master tied up and Trixie nearly on top of him. Techorse and Trixie looked at the robot in embarrassment. PAL reacted by giving a huge smirk at his inventor.

"Master…" he said jokingly, "I didn't know you liked this sort of thing!"

"This is not my idea!" shrieked Techorse, "She's making me do this!"

Trixie stood back and had a look at her work, and realized that she had probably taken everything a bit to far for what she was actually planning to do.

She said sheepishly, “Well, the truth is, it's just cuddling! Perhaps I got a bit carried away.”

PAL put on a serious expression and said to Trixie, "Miss Trixie, master Techorse is already in love with another mare. I can understand wanting to cuddle up, but please let him go."

"Oh no!" she said, frowning and getting off of him immediately, "I'm so sorry! If you had said you already had somepony to hold, I wouldn't have tried any of this.”

Techorse silenced her, "Just untie me Trixie."

She bowed her head and removed the ropes magically, discarding the jute off to the side. Trixie then picked her hat and cape up off the ground and put them back on her body. She continued her defeated look as she left the room. Techorse jumped off of the bed and followed her out. PAL shook his head, then closed the bedroom door and locked it. The lock to the bedroom only worked with hands, it was nearly impossible to open a locked door in the castle with hooves. He then trudged down the hallway, a mechanical sound with every heavy step.

The colt caught up with Trixie and shouted, "Hey, where are you going?"

Trixie looked back and sobbed, "I'm leaving. Trixie has lost her chance to be reconciled with Ponyville."

Techorse approached her and shook his head, "You had no idea that I already had a marefriend, Trixie, and I forgive you for trying to kiss me. It's my fault for not picking up on what you meant earlier."

"Really?" she asked, lightening up.

"Yeah, really." He replied, "Now can we just be friends?"

"Sure." She replied, "But Trixie would like to know who the lucky mare is who has won your heart."

Techorse sighed and smiled in joy as he looked up and said, "She's the most beautiful and fun mare in all the universe to me. I don't know what I'd do without her."

"But who is she?" demanded Trixie, curious as ever.

"Twilight Sparkle." He replied, "That's her."

Techorse frowned as he watched Trixie's expression go from intrigued to hostile.
"You love Twilight Sparkle?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Yes I do, is there a problem?" he asked, backing up a bit from the angry mare.

"She's the one who got me banished from Ponyville!" she shouted, "If you're her coltfriend, you're her source of happiness."

"I wouldn't say that." said Techorse, trying not to make Trixie any more upset than she was at this point.

Trixie shouted, "Well, if Twilight's going to get Trixie hated by all of Ponyville, then Trixie's going to make her miserable. I'm going to take out her joy in life!"

Techorse asked with fear, "Take out her joy in life? Trixie, that's nuts! Look, I'm still willing to get you re-aquanted with the town if you'll just..."

Trixie smiled sinisterly and laughed, "Forget the town! I'm going to have my revenge on you, Twilight Sparkle!"

The mare's horn glowed, and she telekinetically removed a heavy battle axe from a rack on the wall of the castle.

"WHO LEFT THAT AXE THERE?" wailed Techorse, blaming PAL for the convenient placement of the deadly weapon.

He turned and ran, narrowly avoiding the first swing from Trixie, which tore through a nearby vase and shattered it. Techorse galloped down the hallway to his bedroom door where he knew his battle saddle was. Unfortunately, PAL had locked the door, and he couldn't open it fast enough with his smooth hooves. Looking quickly at the approaching Trixie and the doorknob, Techorse continued to flee down the hallway. Somehow he was going to have to beat Trixie without the use of his laser cannons.

"I know!" he said to himself as he ran for the front door, "I'll get Rainbow Dash to airlift me out of here!"

The green colt nearly made it to the front door and prepared to push the red button to begin opening the huge double wooden doors. The battle axe flew through the air and embedded into the button panel, causing electricity to play across the damaged controls. With the automatic opening system ruined, the only other way to get the front door open would be to manually crank it open, which would take way too long. Techorse decided to start running again, hoping he would find a way to survive the night. With Trixie hot on his heels, and with the battle axe floating near her again as her magic picked up the weapon, he understood that he might not last much longer.

Techorse reached the guest bathroom in the castle and flung open the door before locking himself inside. Trixie hurled the hatchet again, and it stuck into the white-painted door of the restroom. She walked up, rage still in her eyes, and tried to remove it. The handle broke off of the blade, effectively destroying the weapon. Trixie grunted and picked the lock on the door with a quick spell before jumping inside to deal with her new enemy. The vengeful pony shut the door behind her and locked it, then turned to look for Techorse. He was hiding inside the large bathtub, with the water level all the way to the top. The scared pony was submerged beneath a layer of bubble bath, hoping Trixie would pass by without noticing him. Initially she didn't, she scanned the bathroom and couldn't see the colt she was looking for. But with no windows in the bathroom she knew that he was still in the room somewhere. Techorse started to run out of oxygen underneath the bubble bath and tried his hardest not to sputter lest he give away his position. However, he knew drowning couldn't possibly be any worse than facing the psycho Trixie, so he shot up from the water and gasped, hoping she wouldn't take his head off in one swing with the axe.

"Gotcha!" shouted Trixie, pointing at the colt whose mane and coat was now thoroughly soaked.

Techorse noticed the axe was missing from her magical grasp and asked her smugly, "With what?"

Trixie laughed menacingly and activated another spell to pick up a hairdryer from a medicine cabinet above the bathroom sink. She plugged it in the wall and nonchalantly threw the appliance into the bathtub with Techorse.

Outside, the inventors' screams as he was electrocuted were heard by PAL who was at the moment walking outside of the door. Of course, being the less than perfect machine he was, he believed his master was having "trouble" with his bowels.

PAL knocked on the door and asked, "Master, do you need a magazine?"

Techorse groaned, "PAL, she's trying to kill me! Help me!"

PAL snickered and said, "Nice try, but I know Trixie wouldn't try to kill you. This is another one of your jokes, isn't it?"

Techorse threw open the door, his coat now splotched with burns from the electricity that had shot through his body. The colt ran down the hallway, soaking wet and with his mane sticking up from the shock. Trixie attempted to follow him, but PAL now knew that his master was truly in danger, and grabbed Trixie, pulling her up from the ground.

"Let me go golem!" she shouted, kicking at the machine.

"You're trying to get rid of my master!" he replied sternly, "I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen!"

Trixie said to the machine, "You can't stop the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

She cast a spell, and as her horn started to glow, PAL noticed a heavy stone from the wall of the castle begin to dislodge. The stone finally detached and whacked him in the legs, knocking him over and ruining the motors in his limbs. PAL tried to crawl away on his damaged legs, but Trixie brought the stone back up and smashed the large machine's body with it. She then fired a special ray of magic energy at the crippled robot, and PAL quickly found himself uploaded into a mearby wall socket and transferred into the closest device, a toaster. Trixie walked up to the culinary machine and gently unplugged it from the wall, ensuring PAL could not "possess" any other electronics in the castle, which would allow him to help his master survive the night.
"Great, first I get decapitated, and now I'm stuck in this toaster!" bawled the machine.

"I'll be back for you." said Trixie as she galloped down the hallway to find Techorse. PAL waited until she was gone, then gathered up his strength and began to hop as the toaster down towards an open window.

"I have to go get help!" he said as he leapt out the window onto the grass below.

Techorse had reached his castle's kitchen and was looking for a place to hide. Underneath the counters and cooking equipment seemed like a good idea to him, but he considered the fact that he wouldn't be able to escape as easily if caught and decided not to. Before the colt could choose another hiding spot, Trixie entered the kitchen and took off her hat. She released a huge cloud of trick smoke from the pointed hat, which filled the kitchen and made it hard for Techorse to see. Trixie then replaced her hat and took a large knife from a nearby wooden holder.

Techorse looked around in the thick gray smoke and called out, "Trixie, if you can hear me, I can still get your name cleared. But if you get rid of me, it's actually going to make your reputation worse! Think about what you're doing."

No response came from the dense fog, and Techorse felt the most intense fear in his life that he ever had. Unarmed and unable to put up any sort of a fight, he was a sitting duck until someone came to help him. A slight movement of air across his rear leg made him yell in surprise and jump forward. The knife came down and plunged into the tile floor behind him, the small amount of warning provided by the air had saved his life. Techorse ran to the other side of the kitchen and grabbed a frying pan from off the counter with his teeth. Without the robotic saddle he loved to use, he couldn't hold things as weapons effectively. Another knife appeared through the smoke and flew towards his face, but he managed to deflect it with the pan, sending the cutlery flying to the side. Trixie appeared through the smoke with a rolling pin, her horn glowing a soft blue as she used her magic to wield it as a club.
Techorse dropped the frying pan with a resounding clang on the floor and raised his front legs to try and keep Trixie a good distance from him.

"Please!" he said as he tried not to cry, "Don't do this!"

"Twilight Sparkle will pay for what she did to me!" replied Trixie, raising the rolling pin to bash Techorse in the head.

The inventor fled out a nearby door as the smoke began to lift. The rolling pin smashed into the counter and destroyed the colander sitting on top of it. The near miss made Trixie grunt in frustration, and she abandoned the wooden pin in favor of continuing her pursuit.

Two miles away from the castle, a small silver toaster had hopped all the way to the Ponyville library, and was furiously knocking on the door with its power cord. The red door was answered by Spike, who was enjoying a sip from a canned energy drink.

The toaster shouted, "Spike, where's Twilight?"

Upon hearing the toaster call his name and realizing that it had knocked on the door, Spike stopped drinking from the can and decided to have a look at the ingredients list.

Understanding that the drink was not causing him to see things, Spike called out to the back of the tree building, "Twilight, there's a toaster here for you. I'm not kidding."

Twilight walked up to the front door and casually looked down at the small toaster on her doorstep. She laughed a bit and said, "Well you sure are a brave little toaster, coming all this way to see me."

"There's no time to explain!" shrieked PAL, "Come with me!"

Twilight recognized his voice immediately, and her eyes grew wide.

"PAL?"

Back at the castle, Techorse was once again fleeing for his life, his heart rate far above what it should have been. He was aware that he couldn't keep this up forever, and that eventually Trixie would catch him and finish him off. But he wouldn't give up, and kept running down the wide hallways of his home. Techorse reached the armory in the building and quickly punched the combination number. It was considerably more difficult because he was left with only his hooves, but somehow he got the combination in and was able to enter. Techorse ran amongst the metal containers, searching for the perfect weapon to defend himself with.

He found a crate marked "spare cannons." and pried it open with a crowbar which he found attached to a hook on the armory wall. The inventor stared into the crate at the copy of his robotic saddle, which featured only the laser guns he loved to us so much. But as he reached for the weapon, he had second thoughts. His nature of loving justice began to take over. In his mind, Techorse knew that he couldn't shoot Trixie. Despite her trying to hurt him this entire time, he was aware that she was only upset over her banishment from Ponyville. Being sent away from most of the towns she had visited had likely built up these crazy thoughts in her mind, and if he could break through them, chances are she wouldn't even remember her rampage!

Techorse closed the lid on the crate and said out loud, "I need to reason with her even if she does end up hurting me. There's still hope for her."

The colt heard banging on the heavy metal door that led to the armory and heard Trixie shout, "Come out of there, Techorse!"

The colt swallowed hard and slowly approached the barred vault door, walking as slowly as he could. Carefully grasping the wheel to open the door with his front legs, he turned the lock open and pushed the fire door outward. Trixie was not standing in the doorway as he had expected, so with caution, he slowly crept out of the armory and closed the door behind him with his hind legs. Techorse looked left and right down the hallway as if he was about to cross a street. No sign of Trixie anywhere.

"Where did she go?" He asked aloud after taking a deep breath.

Trixie was standing right behind him. She had hid behind the armory's large door as it had opened, and pounced on Techorse. He shouted in surprise as Trixie knocked him to the ground, burying his face in the stone floor and hurting his jaw. Techorse rolled over to avoid any weapons she might have on her, but to his relief was only having to avoid punches thrown by her hooves. Techorse stood up and dodged another swing from Trixie's leg by ducking downwards.

"Come on!" he urged her, "Settle down and talk to me!"

"Never!" she responded, "I will make Twilight pay!"

"You're crazy!" he said as he jumped to avoid another wild swing, “I know it must have been hard being rejected so much, but you have to think!”

Trixie spotted a fire emergency box on a nearby wall and smashed it open with her hoof. When Techorse saw this, he snickered and said, "I don't keep any fire axes in there. Nice try."

Trixie took out a fire extinguisher with her magic and broke the handle sharply on the stone floor. The pressurized contents quickly came out, propelling the large metal bottle forward. It hit Techorse in the front and wrapped him around it, sending him screaming down the hallway of his own castle. The impromptu rocket pack smashed into the pipe organ of the castle, exploding and burying Techorse hind legs first into the right-hand stack of brass pipes. The inventor's head stuck out from the tubes, and he struggled to get free from the twisted metal. Trixie came down the hallway slowly, and the closer she got the faster he wiggled to try and escape.

"Now I have you, Techorse." She said menacingly as her horn began to glow.

The metal pipes holding Techorse in the organ began to warp and twist around him, and soon a metallic knot was tied around the green colt. Any chance he had of escaping the twisted wreck of the instrument was ruined now. Techorse felt the cold brass squeeze him into place, and when Trixie's horn stopped glowing he knew he was finished. She had him right where she wanted him.

Trixie looked at a segment of pipe lying on the ground and picked up the blunt heavy object. She brought the golden tube in front of her face, making sure it was suitable for what she was about to do. With a laugh, the mare turned the pipe upwards and raised it high above her head.

"That was a great try, Techorse. But no one escapes the Great and Powerful Trixie!" she said to him as she prepared to deal him the finishing blow to the head.

Techorse stopped moving and looked up at her. He said as a final warning, "Trixie, I understand that you're upset with Twilight. She managed to get you banned from Ponyville, and I can see why that would make you bitter. But getting rid of me won't make Twilight sad or miserable. It will make her furious, Trixie. Everypony will be hunting you down!"

The pipe didn't drop to the floor.

"Listen to me!" he pleaded, "Despite everything, I can still clear your name. I'll give you money, anything. Please don't do this, you have no idea what the consequences are!"

Trixie hesitated for a moment, the logic of the situation had finally shown through. Techorse was willing to do anything to survive, and had promised so much. It was also very clear to her that Twilight Sparkle and her friends would certainly be even less happy with her if she hurt Techorse. Now, she had regained her sanity, and stood there frozen in place with the piece of pipe raised over her head.

Techorse shed a few tears, thinking this meant that Trixie had decided to go through with her attack, and accepted her decision. Shutting his eyes, he braced himself for the inevitable impact on his head. Trixie finally realized what she was doing, and did not want to swing the pipe anymore, and tried to put it down. But something had stopped her, for some reason she could not get the pipe to move down. She tried again and again, but the piece of the instrument refused to move out from where she was levitating it in the air.

"I'll take this, Trixie." said Twilight Sparkle. Her magic was overpowering Trixie's, and she moved the pipe out from over her and near her own head.

Trixie turned around and saw Twilight and Spike, who was holding the toaster PAL was trapped inside of. Now that she was sane again and had blown off all her steam from being rejected, she understood that she was still guilty of attacking Techorse, and had probably invoked Twilight's wrath! Instantly she was struck with fear and panic, and attempted to flee. The toaster leapt out of Spike's arms and into her path, tripping the mare and bringing her down on the floor. PAL wrapped the toaster's cord around her hind legs to keep her from trying to escape again.

"She's all yours, Mistress Sparkle." said PAL, giving a small laugh.

"Thanks PAL." She replied, "But first I have to get my coltfriend out of this instrument. That doesn't look too comfortable."

Twilight cast a spell, and her horn glowed purple as the metal pipes began to groan and bend. Eventually Techorse was able to step out from the bundle of pipes, and walked up to Twilight.

"Are you ok, Tech?" she asked, noticing the burns.

"I am thanks to you, Twilight!" He said in joy, "You've saved my life again!"

Techorse and Twilight kissed quickly, to which Spike rolled his eyes. To him, now was the time for punishing Trixie, not affection.

Once the two had finished their kiss, they turned to look at the defeated Trixie, who was struggling to use her magic to disappear. Twilight walked up to her and knelt down, giving the unicorn mare a stern look. Trixie looked up at the angry Twilight above her and frowned.

Twilight said angrily, "Trixie, last time I let you go because I thought you deserved a second chance. I don't know if I can trust you enough to do that again."

The bluish mare looked away from Twilight, then looked at the stone floor and shut her eyes. She knew that she wasn't going to get away with what she had done, and was sorry for everything, but that wouldn't take away the consequences of her actions. It was too late now to tell herself to calm down and control herself.

She said while covering her eyes, "Just… do me in quickly!"

Techorse frowned, realizing that she had recovered from her temporary rage and said to Trixie, "Trixie, this whole time I didn't think you were conciously trying to go after me. I thought that your banishment had made you go crazy, and I was willing to keep running away until you came to your senses! I want to help you, I don't want to see you done in!"

Trixie looked at him and asked with tears in her eyes, "You mean you forgive me?"

"Of course I do." He replied, "Sure you electrocuted me, nearly chopped me up, and a whole bunch of other things I won't go into, but getting revenge on you won't solve anything."

Trixie put her attention back on Twilight and asked, "Can you forgive Trixie, Twilight, for everything she has done?"

Twilight smiled and said to her, "Trixie, when I watched you run away from Ponyville, I hoped that one day you would return wanting to make peace. I'm sorry that I made it seem like you were no longer welcome in town, it's just that you sort of developed a bad reputation after the incident. But after seeing how horribly crazy this made you go, I think I want to help you too. No pony should have to deal with isolation and insanity like that. I can personally forgive you."

"Aw man." Said Spike in disappointment, hoping to see some vigilante justice get dealt. Techorse put a cross look on his face and nudged Spike with his front leg.

"I mean, way to go Twilight!" corrected the dragon.

Techorse shook his head and put his focus back on the two mares.

"Well, what should we do now that it's all over?" asked PAL as he untied his power cord from Trixie's legs.

"I say we go home and get some sleep." said Twilight, "Tommorow's going to be an interesting day trying to convince everyone Trixie's back and better."

"I think they'll welcome her!" said Techorse with confidence, "I certainly like her."

"Why? She tried to smash your head!" asked Spike, exaggerating with his arms to show his disgust.

The colt responded, "Tonight's events have shown me a weakness I have, Spike. I need to work more on defending myself without my battle saddle. I lost it early on and was nearly helpless."

PAL interrupted sarcastically, "Oh please, you were helpless? Let me give you some burnt toast to show my sorrow for you."

"Don't worry PAL." Laughed Twilight, "I'm sure Tech will repair you soon."

Trixie got up off the ground and straightened her hat, then said to Techorse, "Thank you for all your understanding. Some day, Trixie hopes to repay you for your kind acts." The mare turned around and left to go to her room in the castle for the night.

"Hopfully in a more... reasonable manner." said PAL without thinking.

Spike asked the toaster, "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later." whispered the machine.

The next day brought startling news to Ponyville as Twilight and Techorse worked together to re-introduce Trixie to the town. Although many of the residents were still a little uneasy, especially Rainbow Dash, they quickly learned that she meant to do good now. She was able to restart her show later in the week, although as many traveling performers do, she had to leave the next one after that. Apparently once Ponyville had accepted Trixie, the other towns had followed suit. Kindness and understanding had won the day again, as the Great and Powerful Trixie was once more able to do the tricks she loved and was welcomed wherever she went.

#10 - Dr. Caltrops

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Dr. Caltrops

Techorse series: #10

By Spirals95

"Catering is a very important part of running a bakery. You need to learn through experience." said Mr. Cake to his apprentice.

"Sure, but to anypony but HIM!" replied Pinkie Pie as she hid under the covers of her bed.

Pinkie Pie had been ordered by her boss to attend an event of the famous Dr. Caltrops, a young but promising medical school graduate who did research in genetics and biochemistry. This weekend he was giving a lecture out in the city, and he had chosen Ponyville's bakery on recommendation from one of his colleagues who had gone through town a couple of weeks before. Unfortunately for Pinkie Pie, this happened to be one of the busiest weeks of the year for bakeries, and she was being forced to help supply the doctor and his friends with plenty of baked goods. Normally, she would have loved to help out with the event, but she had a special fear for Doctor Caltrops.

Pinkie Pie had read his medical journal, which was published once a month and shipped to towns all over the continent. The medical journal tended to contain studies of diseases that affected all sorts of ponies regardless of type or gender. The problem was that the Doctor did not monitor his employees as well as he should have, so sometimes the names of the ponies with said diseases would end up in the medical journals. Pinkie Pie was always afraid that her high-sugar diet would give her one of these diseases, and because of that her name would end up in the medical journal for sure. Although she could normally laugh off her fears, this time the pink pony was afraid of meeting the Doctor because of his journal. It also didn't help that she believed she was going to have some horrible experiment done on her if they ever came into contact.

So, Pinkie Pie lay with her bed covers over her head; a shivering lump on top of the mattress. She absolutely refused to budge.

Mr. Cake let out a deep sigh and said, "I just don't get it. You're not scared of the other smart and wealthy pony you know."

Pinkie Pie replied, "That's because Techie doesn't perform eeeeevil experiments on other ponies! He's a great guy!"

"Well I'm sure Dr. Caltrops is just as nice as Techorse. I'm guessing he only writes that book of his because he doesn't get to do as many interesting things as you do. Have you thought about how hard being a doctor must be for him?"

She stuck her head out from under the mass of blankets and looked at her master with her large blue eyes, "Never thought of that before. Maybe the Doctor just needs some more fun in his life! I'm going to throw him a party the second I get there!"

"That's the spirit!" replied Mr. Cake as Pinkie Pie climbed out from the sheets, "Now go take the cart to the library, your friend's going to send you on your way."

Pinkie Pie nodded and bounded out of her bedroom, down the stairs, and out the door of the bakery, where she found the cart filled with baked goods she was supposed to deliver. The wooden handle of the cart fit on her shoulders perfectly, and soon she was walking down the cobblestone road of town towards the library. Once she had made it to the tree building, she carefully removed the handle of the cart from around her neck, and gleefully jumped inside the library without so much as announcing her arrival.

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the blue-covered book she was reading and smiled.

"Ready to go, Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie nodded her head and said rather loudly, "This is going to be fun, I just know it!"

"That's funny," said Spike as he turned away from placing books back on the shelves, "I thought you didn't want to do this because of that Doctor you're scared of."

The pink pony flicked her tail to one side and responded, "I'm not scared of Doctor Caltrops, just his book! I don't wanna end up in the next issue."

Spike interrupted, "I'm going to go get the mail while you talk about that."

Twilight shook her head at Spike's rude action. Refocusing her attention on Pinkie Pie, she told her, "Anyways, I wouldn't worry about that. I've read the Doctor's medical journal, and I'm pretty sure it's the ponies he hires that write names down in the journal. He might actually be pretty upset with them for that."

"I don't think so!" said Pinkie Pie, "I think the Doctor just needs to have some more fun with life, so he won't have to write ponies' names down in journals to be happy."

"Back!" shouted Spike as he entered the door with a small stack of letters in his hand. He proceeded to flip through the post with haste.

"Junk, advertisement, and one letter for you, Twilight." He said as he held out the letter to her.

Twilight's horn glowed, and the letter drifted out from Spike's hand and in front of her face. Pinkie Pie noticed that the seal covering the back of the letter was a large red, heart-shaped sticker. Twilight looked at the writing on the front of the letter and said with a happy sigh,
"Oh, it's a love letter from Techorse."

"A love letter?" asked Pinkie Pie as she scooted up next to Twilight, "What's that?"

Twilight explained to her as she let out another sigh, "A love letter is a special type of note where one pony who loves another tells her his true feelings about her. Only the most intimate thoughts go on these."

"Basically," said Spike bluntly, "it's a letter that compliments your butt."

Twilight shot him a nasty look and shouted, "It does not!"

She cooled down a bit, then opened the letter magically and brought the message close to herself. Pinkie Pie attempted to read the message over Twilight's shoulder, but she pulled the note away.

"Pinkie Pie, you can't read this! These letters are quite private." She said, trying not to snap at her friend.

Pinkie Pie giggled and backed up a bit. But then, her ears drooped a bit. Something which she normally didn't think about had pierced her otherwise happy mind.

"What's wrong?" asked Twilight as she put the letter on a nearby desk.

Pinkie Pie's ears perked up again before she finally burst out, "I want a coltfriend too!"

Twilight gave Pinkie Pie a look of concern and placed a hoof on her back, "You don't need a coltfriend right now."

"Well I don't need one, but it'd be really neat!" she replied cheerfully, "I want a guy who can come to all my parties, make cakes with me, send me love letters, and… and…"

"And what?" asked Twilight.

Pinkie Pie blurted, "I want someone to compliment my butt too!"

Spike burst out laughing and fell to the ground, kicking his legs and pounding his right fist on the floor.

Twilight rolled her eyes at his immaturity and gave Pinkie Pie a quick hug.

"I'm sure sooner or later the right colt will take interest in you."

Pinkie Pie nodded and answered, “Yeah I know, it'd just be really neat, and I can't wait!”

Twilight told her, "Don't rush it, or something bad might happen!"

Pinkie Pie replied, "I won't! You can trust me."

Her friend smiled and asked, “Well now that we have that settled, ready to get going with the baked good delivery?”

“Ready!” she answered, bouncing for the door.

Twilight took Pinkie Pie outside and had her stand as close to the cart as possible without coming into direct contact with it. She then used her telekinesis to pick up a small metal box with a series of dials, buttons, and switches on it. Twilight gently floated the object over to the pastry cart, and set it down next to a plate of brownies. Pinkie Pie turned her head and looked at the weird machine with great curiosity.

"Ooooh, what is this thing?" she asked with excitement.

"That's Techorse's self-teleporter." answered Twilight, "I won't be there to pick you up after you've catered the Doctor's event, so Tech donated this to let you bring yourself home. Just push the red button on the side of that machine, and you'll be teleported back to Sugarcube Corner within a few seconds."

"Yet another neat toy from our favorite mad scientist!" giggled Pinkie Pie as she looked back at Twilight.

"I think that's everything you need." Said Twilight, bringing a roll of parchment in front of her face, "Everything Mr. Cake wrote down on this scroll is accounted for."

"Then let's go!" said Pinkie as she hopped once in the air.

"Ok, get ready Pinkie Pie." said Twilight, as she charged her horn for the powerful teleportation spell. Pinkie Pie shut her eyes and smiled, waiting for the magic to take effect.

The cart and Pinkie Pie disappeared in a loud blast, and a bright flash of white light blinded every passerby as the spell finished. Twilight opened her eyes and brushed a bead of sweat from her forehead. She stared at the place where the cart and Pinkie once stood, then turned around and headed back into the library.

"Good luck.”

The cart appeared in front of the medical complex with a sharp blast of sound akin to a whip. After completely materializing, Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and had a good look at the beautiful set of buildings in front of her. Four different skyscrapers, ranging from seven to ten floors high were interconnected by a large and flat building about 3 stories high. The entire setup was painted a pure white color that made the building reflect the sun, giving it a warm and inviting look that was crucial for any type of hospital. Although there were very few sick patients inside in the building, there were many researchers studying diseases and syndromes, looking for a cure that might make them rich and famous. Running alongside the building was a gorgeous river with crystal-clear water, and the landscaping surrounding this natural water flow provided a relaxing garden for recovering ponies to enjoy.

After taking a long, awed gaze at the research hospital, Pinkie Pie put the handle of the cart around her neck again and pulled it towards the glass double doors on the front of the building. She gleefully trotted up to the entrance, where two mares opened the glass doors for her and allowed Pinkie to bring the baked goods inside. Once she had fully entered the lobby of the building and the doors were closed behind her, she was approached by a turquoise mare with a lengthy light blue mane. Pinkie Pie initially ignored her, however, getting easily distracted by the inner beauty of the building. The floor was made from fine tiled marble, the walls were painted a soothing peach color, and many beautiful windows made of clear but intricate glass allowed plenty of light into the hospital. The earth pony's thoughts of wonder were stopped short by the mare next to her.

"You must be the catering mare, Pinkie Pie." She said with a hint of smile.

"Yeah, that's me!" replied Pinkie as she took the handle off her shoulders and came back to reality.

"Unfortunately, the doctor has delayed his speech until tomorrow, so we won't need the baked goods until then."

The mare then turned to her assistant and said to him, "Go put this in the refrigerator room so that nothing goes stale." He nodded and dragged the cart down a wide hallway in the hospital.

Pinkie Pie noticed how large the building was and said, "Wowie, I didn't know hospitals were so big!"

"You're not the first pony to marvel at the size of this place." said the mare with a bit of a laugh, "Celestia built this research facility from her own personal wealth ten years ago, and from here we've cured ninety nine diseases."

"You mean the princess didn't take any taxes for this place?" asked Pinkie Pie, looking at all the fancy paintings and houseplants that dotted the marbled interior.

"Oh no, she set aside a large trust fund to build this hospital on the condition that no magic be used to try and cure diseases. For some reason, she wanted only natural cures to come from this place." replied the turquoise mare as she pointed at a large golden plaque that featured Celestia's name.

"Ohhhh!" said Pinkie Pie, "So that's why there aren't any unicorns around here."

"You won't see any Pegasus ponies either." added the mare, "This place is built firmly on the ground, and they show a lot of prejudice against it as a result."

"That's too bad, this place is neat!" said Pinkie Pie, still scanning the interior of the building.

"Well, I don't know what your plans are, but considering that you won't get your cart back until tomorrow, why don't you have a look around the place?" suggested the mare.

"Thanks!" said Pinkie Pie, who immediately took off down the hallway in a pink blur of speed. The turquoise earth pony shook her head and went back to her other duties.

"And so I say to him, 'that's no needle'!"

The colt to the joke teller's right and left burst into laughter as the punch line reached their ears. The pony who had just told the joke was a cream-colored colt with a well-groomed black mane. He wore copper-framed glasses of average size, and on his flank was a cutie mark in the shape of an empty chemistry beaker. His two friends were yellow and brown coated, and had known the colt for quite some time.

After they had finished laughing at the joke, the purple one said to him in her smooth voice, "So, have you found yourself a mare yet?"

"Not yet." Replied the cream-colored colt with a bit of a frown, "I mean, I have many admirers, but I'm not going to choose a girl that I do not love back."

"That's a smart thing to do!" said the brown male next to him with a look of agreement, "Just picking one of the nurses around here might not make you happy in the end."

"I guess." said the one in the middle, letting his ears droop in shame that he was still single.

Down the hallway from where the three were walking, Pinkie Pie had found an ivory decorative fountain, and was busy sticking her nose in the water. The fountain's streams of water had been was filled with aroma salts, and the fountain's pool looked very much like a bubble bath to her. The temptation to climb into the fountain and play around in the therapy water was just about to overtake Pinkie Pie. She pulled her head out of the spray and laughed cheerfully at how much fun it was to mess with the aquatic devices on the fountain. The cream-coated stallion heard this laughing, and dropped every thought in his head to seek it out.

He walked up to the fountain with his friends at his sides, and said to Pinkie Pie with an almost shy tone of voice, "Hello miss!"

Pinkie Pie swung her entire body around to face him and put a large smile on her face, "Hi!"
The cream colored pony was startled at her energetic reaction to his greeting, but he regained composure and asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" she replied, taking a happy jump in the air, "I just love this hospital, it's got so many fun things to look at!"

"Yes, well, it is a very great place." The colt said with a nervous nod, "Would you like me to give you a tour?"

"Sure!" she shouted as she ran up to him. Pinkie Pie pushed her face against his and said quietly, "Just as long as we avoid this one colt I'm afraid of!"

The male smiled and stepped back from her for a second and said, "Ok. If you see him, I'll make sure I keep him away from you."

"Thanks!" said Pinkie Pie, "By the way, what's your name?"

The cream colored colt pushed his glasses into a comfortable spot on his face and said, "I'm Doctor Caltrops."

Pinkie Pie heard this, and let out a bloodcurdling scream in fear before diving behind a nearby potted palm tree. The doctor frowned and slowly walked up to the terra cotta pot. He stopped just in front of the large clay vessel and spent a few seconds in thought before coming up with what to say.

"Am I the pony you're trying to avoid?" Caltrops asked, using the gentlest tone of voice he possibly could.

"Yes!" came Pinkie Pie's frightened voice from behind the potted plant.

"Why? I'm not going to hurt you." He assured her.

Pinkie Pie slowly peeked out from behind the plant and made eye contact with him.

"You want to put me in your medical journal if I get sick from all the sugar I eat!" she accused, giving him a threatening look, "You're going to embarrass me in front of all of Ponyville, and then…"

Doctor Caltrops took a step back and put a shameful look on his face.

Pinkie Pie finished, "You're going to do some horrible experiment on me!"

The doctor's two friends looked at each other and started to laugh. They knew that Pinkie Pie was being silly and that their best friend would never do anything mean like that to her.

Doctor Caltrops silenced their laughter and said to Pinkie Pie, "I'm not going to do that to you. In fact, before you knew what my name was, didn't you think I was a pretty nice guy?"

Pinkie Pie stepped out from behind the potted plant and smiled, "That's right! Maybe you're not so bad after all."

"You see, I'm not going to embarrass you or hurt you." He said.

After a light pause, he asked, "Would you still like that tour?"

"Of course Doctor!" she said with a happy tone.

Caltrops took Pinkie Pie around the entire complex, showing her the various laboratories and research rooms. More than once she left his side and started to mess with the machinery, often with a humorous result. A few of the hospital staff members began to get a little annoyed at Pinkie Pie's antics, but because Doctor Caltrops was held with such high respect there and he let her play with the machines, she was able to get away with it. The tour concluded with the Doctor returning Pinkie Pie to the lobby of the hospital late in the afternoon.

"Thanks for the tour Calie!" said Pinkie Pie as she turned to leave the building. After she had exited the hospital through the glass doors, the Doctor was approached by his two friends.

The brown colt nudged the doctor with his front left leg and said, "We can see that look on your face, Cal. You like that silly girl, don't you?"

The doctor faced him and said, "I do! She's so happy and carefree, and she likes to have a good time. All the nurses around here work way too hard and don't like to go and do anything for entertainment!"

The purple mare smiled and said to him, "Then you should tell her you like her."

"Hey now, we've only known each other for one day! Let's not get hasty here." he said, frowning and looking at the floor.

"Well," said his male buddy, "I bet if you asked her out to dinner tonight, she wouldn't refuse. You can get to know her a little better, and it doesn't have to be anything serious."

"Yeah!" encouraged the female, "Just hang out for a while. What could go wrong Cal?"

"All right," he said to them, "thanks guys, and wish me luck!" He left them in the lobby of the hospital and exited the glass doors. It didn't take him long to find Pinkie Pie, as she was swimming in the river directly outside of the hospital.

"Enjoying the water?" he asked her from the dry comfort of the riverbank.

"I sure am!" she replied after spitting a spout of water out of her mouth, "Want to dive in with me?"

"Actually Pinkie," he said with a laugh, "I think it's getting a little late. Are you hungry?"

Pinkie Pie jumped out of the water and shook herself off. Water droplets hit Caltrops's glasses, and he smiled as the mare in front of him got dried off.

"I'm always hungry!" Pinkie Pie said, "Do you have a kitchen in the hospital? I can make something really yummy for us!"

"Oh you don't have to cook!" he said, "I was going to go to this great restaurant I know of, and I'd like you to… um…"

Caltrops locked up in a bit of nervousness as she tried to work up the courage to finish his sentence,
"I'd like you to go with me."

Pinkie Pie gave him a little smile and tilted her head 10 degrees to the side. She giggled and asked him, "Doctor, are asking if I want to go to dinner?"

Visible beads of sweat began to form on Caltrop's face. His ears drooped in a bit of embarrassment. After a moment of silence he took a deep breath and said, "I guess I am. Would you like to go out for dinner, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yeah!" she replied, "It sounds like fun! Just lead the way, Callie."

The Doctor's ears perked up, "Great!"

Dr. Caltrops took Pinkie Pie to the restaurant he had described. Although it was only an average sized restaurant, it was famous for having over forty different varieties of pasta and salad. The Doctor was a frequent patron of the place, and it didn't take him long to get he and his date in. The two were seated at a booth alongside the white-painted wall of the restaurant. A beautiful blue tablecloth was draped over the counter between them. The walls were decorated with art from the surrounding area, mostly paintings, but occasionally a sculpture hung from the wall instead. For lighting, the restaurant used electric lights during the day, but switched to wax candles at night for atmosphere. The mood created by the lighting levels allowed couples to really share their feelings with each other.

"Wow!" squealed Pinkie Pie, "This place is amazing, Calie!"

The Doctor noticed that other ponies in the restaurant were beginning to stare because of how loud Pinkie Pie was being, but he ignored them. His fame as a doctor won him the right to be left alone. H he smirked when he saw the waiters in the restaurant attempt to keep the patrons they were serving from giving him weird looks.

"Would you like to start with something to drink?" asked the waiter who had practically snuck up behind the two.

Caltrops moved a small red index-card sized menu in front of him at the table and said, "I'd like a bottle of this to share with her, please."

Pinkie Pie had no idea what he was ordering, but sat there with a smile on her face. Her day had been made already. What she had believed to have been an evil colt was actually a nice guy who wanted to be her friend. Or so she thought.

Caltrops picked up the menu in front of him and began to leaf through it with his hooves.

"So what's good here?" asked Pinkie Pie as she tried to interpret the huge menu.

"I like the vegetable lasagna personally." He said, "I'm not sure what kinds of pasta they have back where you live."

"I can't think of any places in Ponyville serve pasta." She said, "Or at least, not this many kinds! They all look so delicious!"

The waiter had returned, carrying a large green bottle with a tan sticker on the front. Although he had to use his teeth, he managed to unscrew the bottle and set it down on the table in front of the two. After doing so, Caltrops carefully poured Pinkie Pie a glass of the red liquid before filling his own.

"Thanks!" she said, giving a curious look at the bubbling liquid. She had seen some drinks like it before, but wasn't sure if it was the same.

"So, are you ready to order?" asked the waiter, getting out a small pad of paper. He was an earth pony, and it was quite difficult to work with the pad, but a few years of work had let him get the concept of writing down to a science.

"Yes!" said Caltrops, "I'd like the lasagna."

"I'll take that too!" said Pinkie Pie, eager to follow suit.

The waiter nodded and left them at the table to talk. Caltrops moved his glass in front of his face and took a tiny sip from the cup. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, took a large swallow from it. After the liquid entered her mouth, she gained a disgusted look on her face, and her eyes widened in response to its taste. She quickly sprayed the drink out of her mouth all over the floor in a comedic fashion.

"What's wrong?" asked Caltrops, "Are you ok?"

"That stuffs' bitter!" she shouted, sticking her tongue out, "What is that nasty drink?"

"It's wine." He said, "I thought you'd like it with dinner."

"I don't like bitter things." She explained, "I like things to be sweet, just like all the cupcakes and cookies I make back in Ponyville."

The Doctor reclined back in the booth a bit and nodded thoughtfully. When the waiter returned with their food, he asked him to put the bottle back in storage for him to finish later.

After dinner, the two entered a long conversation over two cups of sugared tea and a slice of vanilla smith island cake. Caltrops couldn't stop talking about his line of work, and Pinkie Pie wouldn't stop sharing stories of the various shenanigans she got into back in town.

"So I reached for the vial of protein, and it turns out it had been switched with a vial of carbohydrates. The patient nearly flipped his lid!" said Caltrops, trying not to burst out laughing.

Pinkie Pie laughed at the medical joke, although she didn't understand half of it, she found the doctor to be funny.

"I really love that laugh of yours." He said to her in a loving voice.

"Thanks!" she replied, continuing to giggle, "I really love your work stories, they're funny! I'm really glad you turned out to be a nice pony and not some big meanie."

Dr. Caltrops worked up the courage to say, "Pinkie Pie, I'd like to ask you something."
"Sure Calie, what is it?"

The Doctor put his front legs forward and placed them over top of Pinkie's.

"I like you." He said, "Do you want to meet again tomorrow? I'm hoping that..."

"Wow, that was quick!" she said, laughing. The doctor frowned and removed his legs. He sunk in his seat, and his ears fell down to indicate his sadness.

"Nevermind." He said, sighing.

"I didn't say no, silly!" said Pinkie Pie, "We just need more time to be friends."

"Really?" said Caltrops, looking a bit more cheerful.

"Yeah!" she said, "Let me give you my address, and you can come visit me in Ponyville anytime you want! I'll have a fresh tray of your favorite cookie waiting for you every time." Pinkie Pie scribbled her address down on a piece of scrap paper for him and passed it across the table.

"So, you're going back to Ponyville tonight?" he asked.

"I gotta." She said with a nod, "Those goodies aren't needed until tomorrow, and I don't have a place to stay here."

"I have an extra apartment!" suggested Caltrops, "Do you want to stay there tonight? I'd pick you up in the morning and you could come to my speech!"

"That sounds fun." She said, jumping out of the booth, "I'd love to come hear your speech!"

The doctor took Pinkie Pie out of the restaurant and walked her back to the apartment complex he had in mind. He used this for when he didn't spend nights at the hospital researching. Although it was a flat and somewhat plain looking building, it was a very comfortable place to live, as each apartment was nearly double the size of those in major cities. Caltrops unlocked the door to apartment 12A and opened it gently with his leg.

"I'll be back at 9 in the morning to pick you up." He said, "Have a good night, Pinkie Pie."

"You too!" she said, "And thanks for everything, Calie, it was lots of fun."

Pinkie Pie approached the doctor and looked him directly in his green eyes. She was happy that she had found a friend in what she thought was her enemy. But things were going pretty fast right now for both of them, so she changed her mind about what she was going to do and simply hopped into the apartment. Doctor Caltrops shut the door and smiled. He thought for a moment that he was in love.

"She doesn't know it yet." He thought as he began to walk back for the hospital, "But what I can provide for her as a coltfriend will make her the luckiest mare in the world. Maybe she will choose me with some time!"

The next morning, Caltrops returned to the apartment and knocked on the door gently. A minute passed without Pinkie Pie opening the door, and he wondered if she was still asleep. He knocked louder on the green door this time and called out, "Pinkie Pie? Are you still asleep? We need to get going."

This time, the door opened, and Pinkie Pie said with her bubbly tone of voice, "Good morning Cal! Sorry I didn't answer the first time, I was making you breakfast."

"You were?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah, come on in!" she answered, shutting her eyes and whipping around to go back inside. Her fluffy tail dragged across his face, tickling his nose. The doctor sighed in happiness and walked inside his apartment, where he was seated down to a stack of buttermilk pancakes.

"I made these out of all the ingredients you have in your kitchen!" explained Pinkie, "You sure don't use much of anything."

"I really can't cook that well." said Caltrops, taking a bite of the pancakes in front of him.

"I can teach you sometime!" she said as she went back to cooking another stack of pancakes, "But I'm mostly good at treats."

"I'd appreciate that." said Caltrops. However, he thought to himself as he continued to eat, "But after today, you're never going to have to cook for yourself again!"

After finishing the stack, Caltrops said to Pinkie, "Those were really great, sweetie!" To his shock, Pinkie Pie had already replaced the empty plate with a new one, stacked high with another dozen pancakes.

“Sweetie?” said Pinkie Pie to herself, outside of his hearing range, “Gee, I told Twilight I wanted a coltfriend, but this is really quick!”

"I don't think I can eat many more." He said, having to nearly look up to see the top of the stack.

"No friend of mine's giving a speech without a good breakfast. Eat up!" encouraged Pinkie Pie. The doctor looked at the challenge before him, but knew he couldn't offend his new love interest and started eating again.

Although the sheer amount of pancakes had nearly made the doctor sick, he somehow managed to finish the rest of the batch. The two had reached the hospital in time for the speech, and Caltrops led Pinkie Pie back to the refrigerator room to bring the baked goods to the conference. She dragged the wooden cart out of the cold room and down the hallway, but this time was assisted by the doctor, who pushed the cart from behind to help. Soon the two reached the entrance to the room.

"I'm going to bring in the snacks one tray at a time." said Pinkie, "You go in and get set up!"

"Thanks!" he said as he opened the double doors.

Inside the stylish meeting room were 12 different doctors from all across the continent. They were seated at a large and long oak table. Each one was seated in a black leather swivel chair, which they had turned on in order to face the front of the room without blocking the view of the pony behind them. At the front of the large but open area was a They welcomed Caltrops with some simple greetings as he made his way to the front of the room. Next to him was a simple projector and a suspicious black metal box which Caltrops had placed there the night before. Caltrops smiled and looked at the twelve doctors who were going to hear his speech, all of them were earth ponies of various colors and cutie marks. Pinkie Pie had entered the room and began to serve the doctors any treats that they asked for.

Caltrops turned on the projector and said, "Thank you, everypony, for showing up for this special meeting I have called. The discoveries I have made in the past month are going to change Equestria forever."

The other doctors began to talk amongst themselves, wondering what sort of a disease Caltrops had discovered a cure for.

One of the females finally asked him, "What have you found a cure for?"

Caltrops shook his head and replied, "I haven't cured anything m'am. I've simply invented a chemical which will improve life for us drastically."

"How so?" she asked. Pinkie Pie stood next to her and offered the mare a cupcake, but she refused.
Caltrops addressed the entire board, "My colleagues, what are we?"

"We're doctors." One replied.

"Deeper than that, my friend." said Caltrops to encourage further guesses.

"All of us are earth ponies." One of the colts said.

"Exactly." answered Caltrops, "Not a single pony here is a unicorn or a Pegasus. Why is that?"

"Well," answered another doctor, "unicorns tend to use spells to cure certain diseases, and Pegasus ponies don't come into much contact with ground animals, so they don't get sick. We're all doctors because we need medicine that they don't. In fact, I only know of one unicorn doctor in existence."

"Have you noticed?" asked Caltrops rhetorically, "That us earth ponies always get the short end of the stick when it comes to life on Equestria?"

"What do you mean?" asked a stallion playing with a pen on the table.

"Tell me, who do you see cleaning the floors in places where all three types of ponies work?"

"Earth ponies." He replied truthfully.

"Right. Who are the assistants who do all the errands for the magic studying unicorns?"

"Earth ponies!" replied more of the doctors.

"Exactly! Who gets the lowest paying jobs and the most demeaning tasks in all of Equestria?" he asked one more time.

"Earth ponies!" came the unanimous reply from the table. Caltrops smirked and nodded his head.

"That's right. Earth ponies. We end up being the farmers, the laborers and the hard workers, while the pegasi just have to move around a few clouds, and the unicorns can use magic to do anything with ease. We have shorter lifespans and have more pain in old age than the other two types do."

Pinkie Pie soaked in the words that Caltrops said and sort of began to agree with them. Applejack was a farmer, and her grandmother certainly did have bone pain. But one thing she didn't understand was where Caltrops was going with this discussion. Despite what he was saying, Pinkie Pie thought her earth pony friends were pretty happy with life.

Caltrops cleared his throat and continued to lecture, "My friends, earth ponies all across Equestria have become the dirt beneath the hooves of the unicorns and the Pegasus ponies. Today I bring forward a medical solution to our slavery."

"Slavery?" thought Pinkie Pie, "I'm not a slave to Twilight or Rarity. What does he mean?"

"Before I give my proposal." said Caltrops, raising a hoof to point at the projector, "I'd like to explain something. Are you all familiar with pony genetics?"

"Not really, considering you're the hospital's primary genetics researcher." said one colt, rolling his eyes.

"I have figured out the way in which a pony's type is determined." Said the doctor, "As you may know, we all have on microscopic size these bundles of genetic material called chromosomes which make up who we are."

Pinkie Pie interrupted, "I actually heard that from my friend Twilight once! She says we all have a half and half chance of being a stallion or a mare at birth!"

Caltrops said to her, "Yes, well, that is quite true. Our parents share their genetic information, and when you are born, you have a half and half chance based on what the father shares of being a male or a female."

The doctor refocused his attention on the rest of the ponies in the room and continued, "However, I have discovered a set of three chromosomes which determine what type of pony we are."

Caltrops waited for the doctors to stop talking amongst themselves about the announcement before pressing a button on the projector. A picture of three odd things that resembled pieces of yarn showed up on the screen.

Pointing with a hoof, Caltrops gave more information about his finding,
"Anyways, these are the three chromosomes which are decided at birth. We see here a typical unicorn pony's set of three chromosomes. Notice how these first one is I shaped, while the last one is T shaped. Technically, we have four chromosomes which determine our type, but the last one is always a T, so we can ignore it. Only these first three are important."

"So you're suggesting the I chromosome is what gives a unicorn its horn?" asked one of the doctors.

"Precisely." He replied, "Unicorns have the combination ITT of their type chromosomes. Pegasus ponies have the combination IIT. We have all T chromosomes in our bodies."

Caltrops walked over to the table and took a sip of water out of a plastic cup. Letting the cold liquid run down his throat, he paused to think a bit. He then stepped back from the wood table and proceeded,
"The shocking part about all of this is that the female is the one who decides what type of pony will be born. When a couple goes to have a foal, the father always gives a T chromosome no matter what. The other two are given by the mother, and may include I chromosomes depending on her type."

"So what you are saying is that an earth pony and a unicorn pony have a half and half chance of having either type of foal?" said one of the females.

"Yes!" exclaimed Caltrops, glad some of his colleagues were beginning to understand, "A unicorn mother can give either IT or TT, granting either type."

Pinkie Pie wondered if she should take notes and let Twilight know about this. She also thought carefully and realized that Caltrops was not completely right.

Caltrops continued, "The only real exception to this rule seems to be when two ponies are of the same type. It seems that there is an additional 20% favor towards the offspring being homogeneous with the parents. You see, some of the T chromosomes resemble lowercase t's instead of capital ones. I believe these chromosomes are responsible for this phenomenon."

The doctor pressed the button on the projector again and said to his colleagues, "This is a chart on births from Cloudsdale. Notice that although the entire population consists of Pegasus ponies, which means that half of their babies should be unicorns, only 12 unicorn ponies from that area were born last year."

Caltrops' face twisted in anger as he added, "Most of them were put up for adoption immediately."

"Say…" asked a female doctor, "How did the princesses get both horns and wings?"

He answered her question, "As far as I know, their father managed to give an I chromosome instead of a T by accident. How that works is beyond me, but that's the explanation, as I was able to isolate III from a cell of Princess Celestia's skin."

One of the board members said to Caltrops, "I'd like to know what your proposal is. I mean, this is a great discovery you've made here. It will allow us to predict births accurately, and will certainly help guarantee your name in the medical records forever. But what do you plan on doing with this information."

The doctor's anger morphed into a sinister grin as he said, "I'm not only the lead genetic researcher here, but I'm also a biochemist. I've invented a chemical which will only affect ponies whose bodies contain I chromosomes."

Caltrops walked over to the black box and opened it with a light click. Wisps of condensing water escaped the ice-cold container, which contained a glass vial of a sickly green liquid.

"What does that do?" asked Pinkie Pie.

The doctor laughed and said, "This chemical is something I made which, once consumed, targets the victim's brain and makes them more open to instruction." Although he had tried to keep it simple for Pinkie Pie, she still gave him a confused look.

"Huh?"

"This chemical, once drunk by a unicorn or Pegasus pony, will temporarily make it so that they will obey orders from others!"

The ponies around the room gasped, one of them even fainted in horror at this announcement.

"Big deal! Anypony can follow orders when asked." said Pinkie Pie.

The doctors immediately burst out laughing at her comment, slamming their hooves into the table and making a racket.

Caltrops blushed and shouted, "SHUT UP!"

Immediately they fell silent and focused on him.

"Pinkie Pie." explained Caltrops, "They won't have a choice. The chemical is a mind control serum."

"Oh." Said Pinkie Pie, understanding now what he meant.

Caltrops turned off the projector and jumped up onto the table. In a dramatic voice he said, "My fellow earth ponies, I have provided the solution to our kinds' suffering. This chemical will be mass produced and pumped into every water supply on the planet. Within a year, the tables could be turned, and Earth Ponies will be served by the others!"

The other doctors started to enjoy the idea of there only being earth ponies, and began to applaud Caltrops. But Pinkie Pie stepped back from the table and began to think deeply. She stopped thinking when she heard Caltrop's voice,
"Pinkie Pie!"

She looked up at Caltrops, who stepped down from the table and got close to her. He looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Of course, since all the others will be following us, we're going to need new leaders. The other doctors want me to be that leader, Pinkie Pie"

Caltrops then reached from underneath the table and brought out a small box. He knelt down and opened the box before Pinkie Pie, exposing a large diamond ring.

"Will you marry me and become my queen?"

Pinkie Pie's eyes grew wide at the offer and the size of the diamond ring. She seriously thought about saying yes. After all, being queen of Equstria would mean that she could throw one of her parties whenever she wanted to, and it was guaranteed that guests would attend. She could make any goodies she wanted to for herself, and get her servants to make anything she didn't want to. No more running errands for anyone or putting up with bullying from other types of ponies.

Pinkie Pie looked at the ring and knew in her heart that what the doctor was going to do was downright evil. She thought about her friends, and how she would never have another unicorn or Pegasus to talk to once they were all busy shining her shoes or fetching her newspaper like a dog. Pinkie worried about how miserable Rarity, her boss' foals, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight would be about the loss of their freedom. But most of all, Pinkie Pie did not want to put all those ponies through the pain of never being able to experience life to the fullest. In her mind, the scenario of any of her friends no longer being able to talk to her because they were mindless slaves was too much to bear.

Pinkie Pie shut the lid on the ring box and said, "No."

Caltrops asked, "But why not? I thought you liked me!"

"Well, I thought I did." Said Pinkie Pie, "But can't you see what you're about to do is no fun at all for the planet? Think about how mean you are to want to get rid of others just because they're different! Besides, who asks somepony to marry them two days after knowing them, that's silly!"

“Haha!” laughed another doctor, spinning in his chair, “Caltrops, for such a great idea, you know nothing about mares. You can't just ask her to marry you like that!”

Pinkie Pie turned to face that doctor and said, "You guys should be ashamed too! Yeah, sometimes we end up with a unicorn or Pegasus pony being a little mean to us, but does that mean they don't deserve to be free? How would you feel if the princesses told us we really were slaves?"
The doctors looked at each other, the greed that had filled them from being promised the world had clouded their common sense.

Pinkie Pie continued, "Calie here says that we earth ponies end up having to do all the hard jobs that nopony wants. However, my friend Applejack's a farmer, and she loves her work! So does my buddy Techie, he invents stuff in his castle and enjoys it like I enjoy throwing parties! Also, you guys are all doctors, one of the coolest jobs in Equestria!"

"Techie, Mr. Techorse of Ponyville?" said Caltrops as he stared at the closed ring box.

"And most of all think about how you doctors got your great hospital in the first place! The princess built it for you out of her own bank, without taxing us earth ponies at all. Isn't that neat?" continued Pinkie Pie in a happy but cautioning tone of voice.

The doctors nodded and looked at each other. They knew that they had been foolish to even consider wanting to change the world like that.

“I don't think the answer is to turn the other ponies into zombies, but to tell them how we feel and befriend them. Maybe together we can work towards a more fun future for all of us!" finished Pinkie, placing a hoof on doctor Caltrop's back. The other ponies in the room agreed and cheered for Pinkie Pie's idea.

Doctor Caltrops stood up and walked over to the box containing the devastating chemical.

"I thought this is what we wanted." He said sadly, "To rule the world."

"I don't need to rule the world to be happy!" said Pinkie Pie, "I just need my friends, and many of them are not just earth ponies."

"Dr. Caltrops." ordered one of the doctors, "Destroy that chemical. None of us are in support of that plan. Either you do it or we'll make sure you lose your medical license. Cooperate and everypony can forget about this terrible mistake."

Caltrops grabbed the chemical in his teeth and ran out the door of the room. Pinkie Pie confused his behavior for trying to escape, and chased after him in hopes of stopping him before it was too late. She found him in one of the machinery rooms that she had been given a tour of earlier. The laboratory was filled with many test tube stands, beakers, and setups for distilling chemicals. But a large machine against the wall was what Caltrops was interested in. The device featured several large vats of basic chemicals on the tops, and an out spicket for collecting chemicals in the bottom.

Caltrops prepared to plug the vial of poison into the machine when he heard Pinkie Pie's voice behind him.

"Don't do it!" she said desperately.

"Why not?" he asked while looking back at her, "Should I really destroy this? It was a lot of work, and maybe it would have some other use."

“Yeah!” she answered, nodding her head desperately, “It's dangerous!”

“I have nothing to lose by just keeping the chemical around.” he said to her.

"That's not true." said Pinkie Pie.

"Oh yeah, what do I have to lose then?" he asked again.

"Well for one thing," she said while turning her nose in the air and shutting her eyes, "If you do it, I won't be your friend anymore."

Caltrops fully turned around and said to her with tears in his eyes, "You still… care about me?"

"Well duh!" she said, "just because I wouldn't marry you one day after knowing you doesn't mean I don't want to be your friend! You really are the silliest colt I know!"

"But even if I destroy this vial, somepony else could figure the recipe again." replied Caltrops.

Pinkie Pie remembered a crucial piece of information and said, "That's not true. Your speech on genes and stuff was pretty cool, but wrong. It's possible for earth ponies to give birth to other types of ponies!"

Caltrop's eyes grew wide, and he gasped, "What?"

"Yeah!" continued Pinkie, "You see my master and his wife just recently had two foals of their own, and they're one Pegasus and one unicorn! I think those 'little t's' you were talking about sometimes come together like puzzle pieces and make an I gene!"

“Which means...” he reasoned, “This wouldn't have even worked at all.”

He then stared at the vial for a few moments, and then looked back at Pinkie Pie with tears in his eyes.

“I... I'm so sorry.” he said, before throwing it into a nearby utility sink.

The glass shattered, and the green liquid flowed into the drain, never to be seen again. Caltrops only knew the recipe in his mind, so there were no more things left to destroy. But for now, smashing the only vial was the least he could do to make amends for his terrible plans for Equestria.

Caltrops and Pinkie Pie had left the laboratory to discover that the other doctors had gathered to see what had happened.

“What went on?” demanded one of them, “Did you destroy the vial?”

“Yes.” replied Caltrops, “But I should probably turn myself in for trying to create such a chemical.”

“We're sure you feel bad about this, and so do we,” said the doctor in response, “but you've destroyed the only piece of evidence that any of this ever took place. There's nothing in our notes or records about this, and the meeting was in secret. Nopony will ever believe it.”

“Then I suppose we'll just have to live with ourselves.” sighed Caltrops, knowing he had a long life ahead of him.

“Cheer up!” encouraged Pinkie Pie, giving him a hug, “If you guys want to make up for what you did, then maybe you could still be really, really big earth pony supporters! Just in a little more positive, less crazy way!”

“Like what?” asked Caltrops.

“Well,” she answered, “You guys seem to like those foundation things! Maybe you could start one for earth ponies!”

“That's a great idea!” said one of the mare doctors, “We should hold meetings to discuss how we can help other earth ponies get ahead in life, like building libraries or offering education.”

Pinkie Pie nodded in approval, and then said to Caltrops, “Oh, and I think Calie here should lead it! He'd be perfect for it, and I'd absolutely love to throw a few parties for you guys when you do something extra good!”

“Really, you'd do that for us?” he asked.

“Sure!” she answered, “We are still friends after all!”

Dr. Caltrops pushed his glasses up his face, straightened himself up, and gave a cheerful smile, knowing that he could make up for his mistake in life. He also began to feel as if, perhaps, he really did feel a certain way about Pinkie Pie. But he'd have to save that for another time.

Shortly after, Pinkie Pie waved goodbye to her new friends as she teleported herself back to Ponyville. She had many great things to tell her friends, although she knew she wouldn't be able to tell them about the meeting. Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes at the thought anyways, it was very unlikely that they would believe her that Caltrops had actually cooked up an evil plan like she told them he did!

Back in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie had gotten another chance to talk to Twilight about her adventure at the hospital.

"So then, he took me to dinner at this reaaaaally fancy place. He gave me wine too, but I didn't like it. I ended up spitting it all over the floor of the restaurant!" Pinkie Pie said with a laugh.

Twilight nodded and listened closely to her friend's story. She was happy that Pinkie Pie had found a colt who was interested in her.

"It sounds like you had a great time. Looks like the doctor wasn't as bad as you thought he was." said Twilight.

"Yeah!" admitted Pinkie Pie, "Who knew that I'd actually like him as a pony. He's a great guy usually."

"I'm glad you learned it's important not to judge." said Twilight, "In fact, the next time you write a report to the princess, be sure to include something about this."

Pinkie Pie gave a sheepish smile, knowing that Twilight would probably hate the doctor if she learned what his true plan had been.

"Anyways, I'm going back home. See you later!" said Pinkie Pie as she bounded at the front door of the library.

"Goodbye!" called Twilight, shutting the door after her friend left.

Pinkie Pie reached her bakery and hummed a nice tune to herself as she reached for the knob. Before she could enter the door to her home, a tap on the shoulder came from above. Turning around, Pinkie Pie was surprised to find Derpy Hooves hovering directly behind her.

"Got two letters for you, Pinkie." said Derpy, reaching into the mail bag on her side. The gray Pegasus pony handed Pinkie her letters and then took off sideways to go find the next mailbox on her route, but not before bumping into a flagpole as usual.

Pinkie Pie looked at the front of the first letter. It was from the turquoise mare she had met. Carefully opening it, Pinkie Pie had read that the doctor had moved on about his evil plan and would never try such a thing again. In fact, he had written an apology to the princesses about the event and the chemical he had supposedly created, but as predicted, there was not enough evidence to know anything for sure. He was forgiven on the condition that he stay in touch with another pony who would keep him in check, and that just happened to be Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie gave a sigh of relief; it seemed that the Caltrops she had met before the speech was back again. The earth pony discarded the first letter in the metal trash can outside of the bakery and looked at the front of the second one.

It was addressed to her from Doctor Caltrops. Pinkie Pie said, "Oh. I guess he wants to stay in touch after all!"

But when she turned over the letter, what was holding it together made her gasp.
There was a heart shaped sticker.

Pinkie Pie squealed in delight and then took the letter back inside the bakery with her. She was eager to know her new friend's true thoughts about her, now that he had been cured of his anger towards others by Pinkie Pie's silly nature and meaningful friendship.

#11 - From Here to Maternity

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From Here to Maternity

Techorse series: #11

By Spirals95

Fluttershy was having a glass of hot tea and a cookie outdoors at a local café. It was partially cloudy and the shade provided by the clouds kept her cool. The café's red tables were equidistant and had four wicker chairs for the customers. Although she sat alone, Fluttershy was in no way bored. She was listening in on the conversation of three mares sitting at the table across from her. Eavesdropping was not always a very nice thing to do, but the soft yellow Pegasus knew that the three she was listening in on didn't mind. The first of the three was a local resident known as Colgate, whose white-striped hair really made her stand out amongst other ponies. The second was an aloe-colored one with a long red mane, which cascaded at her side. Finally, a light blue one with a curly pink mane and a bow on the end of her tail sat between the two. They were just finishing a conversation about a new variety of flower that had just been proven to grow well in town despite popular belief that the plant could not. The three stood up from their café table and proceeded to leave. As they did, Fluttershy noticed the attention the aloe-colored mare was getting.

Colgate asked her friend, "Desert Soothe, how far along are you now?"

"Six months. It won't be long now Colgate!" she replied, sighing in happiness, "Me and my husband are so excited."

"It must be wonderful to be having a foal!" said the light blue one, "I sure hope Topspin proposes to me soon, I want to have a family too!"

"Don't rush into it, Swirl." Cautioned Desert Soothe with a friendly pat on the head, "you need to be absolutely sure you're ready to do so!"

"What do you mean?" asked Swirl, tilting her head and giving her pink curls a bounce.

Fluttershy leaned in as Desert Soothe said, "Some folks want a family and some don't, and either is okay. It can be a great source of joy, but it's a lot of responsibility!"

"I bet it is." said Colgate, "But for the right pony, it's worth it!"

"Definitely." said Desert Soothe as she started to walk away from the cafe, "Let's go back to my house and talk a little more."

"We're right behind you." said Swirl, following her friend.

Fluttershy watched them walk away and sighed heavily. She smiled and shut her eyes, reflecting on the words of the others. She knew she loved to take care of small things, and was very kind at heart. But most of all, Fluttershy thought about Colgate's comment that it was worth it for the right pony.

"I'm kind of like a mom," she said softly to herself, before doubts started to cloud her head, "to the animals that is. But, am I really one? What if I was a parent?"

As a thought experiment, Fluttershy imagined herself living in her home with not just her animals, but a full family. She thought about how she'd teach her young ones how to take care of animals just as she liked to do. It wasn't long however, before she realized that if she wasn't the best possible parent to her animals, she knew she couldn't handle family. Fluttershy knew she needed to talk to another friend about this. So she left the café for the library to talk to the most knowledgeable pony she knew.

"You're thinking about becoming a mother?" Twilight asked Fluttershy with a hint of disbelief.

"Well no, not now," She replied, "maybe someday, but it's a bit more complicated than that. I heard that I have qualities like one from some mares at the café talking about family life. That's what's bothering me."

"Oh," said Twilight plainly, "you were just thinking about how motherly you are to the animals and are worried it won't be helpful down the road if you choose to be a parent?"

"Yes. I've never really raised any animals from the start as a parent," said Fluttershy sadly, tears starting to form in her eyes, "I just help them. Maybe it's not enough and I'm not really a good caretaker."

"You are doing your best!" assured Twilight, "Besides, you took Angel in, right? You're like his mother already, you say so yourself."

"Maybe, but I adopted him when he was mostly grown," she said, "It would be nice to try from the start though, just to test my skills."

Twilight had more to say, but was interrupted by a knock on the door of the library, and Spike dutifully went over to answer it. Before he could fully open the door, Techorse swung it open with his front leg and stepped inside. Two things were peculiar about him today, the first being that he wasn't wearing the robotic saddle he usually did. The second thing peculiar was the brown tree squirrel perched on his head.

"Hey Techorse." said the smashed Spike from behind the fully opened door.

The inventor turned his head along with the squirrel at the fully opened red door and said, "Hey Spike, sorry about that. I just wanted to tell Twilight about my new pet!"

Twilight and Fluttershy turned away from each other and looked at Techorse. The brown squirrel balanced on his head gave its tail a twirl and held its paws together in an extremely cute fashion.

"Nice squirrel Tech!" said Twilight, laughing at the fact that his new pet liked to sit on his head. Techorse looked up at the nut-gathering rodent and smiled. He didn't care if the animal was on his head.

"Tech," said Fluttershy politely, "Isn't that the squirrel PAL and I saw in the back yard of your castle earlier?"

"Yes." He answered, "This guy originally lived in the forest behind my castle, but recently started climbing into my house through a window. PAL and I like him so much that we've decided to keep him."

Fluttershy walked up to Techorse and gently held her right leg out to serve as a bridge. The squirrel got down on all fours and crossed over on Fluttershy's leg before sitting down on her head.

"So what's the little guy's name?" asked Fluttershy, giggling softly as the squirrel tried to make a 'nest' in her long pink hair.

"PAL chose the name 'Wingnut.'" answered Techorse, "I like it."

"So what brings you to the library anyways, Techie?" asked Spike, who had just finished peeling himself out of the wall.

"I was going to ask if Twilight had a book on caring for squirrels." He explained, "I figured that I couldn't just give him a teaspoon of peanut butter a day. I need to know a little more."

Twilight turned around and looked around at the bookshelves behind her.

"I'm sure I have something here that will help you out." she said, scanning the shelves for the right document.

As she talked, Wingnut jumped off of Fluttershy's head and onto the shelves, where he scampered amongst the hardback books. Eventually, he came to a large blue one labeled 'Care for Rodents' and gripped it with his small front paws. Although the book weighed as much as he did, the squirrel managed to move the edition enough that it caught Twilight's attention, and she finished removing the book with her magic.

"Thanks Wingnut." she said, smiling at the squirrel. The furry creature gave a tiny 'salute' before jumping off the shelf and onto the wood floor.

"Your squirrel's pretty smart." commented Spike as the animal jumped on top of his head, "Maybe he's sitting on our heads to steal our brains!"

"I highly doubt that!" laughed Techorse, "Wingnut just feels safe in high places. Usually, that's a tree, but in this case your head does fine."

"Well, here's the book you wanted." said Twilight as she placed the book in front of him, "Are you going to be able to get this home without your saddle?"

"I'm just going to read what I need here, Twilight." He answered.

"Ok, I'll join you." She answered as her horn stopped glowing. Fluttershy sighed behind her, and Twilight remembered what they were talking about.

"Oh yeah, sorry Fluttershy." said Twilight, "We were talking about your parenting skills."

Techorse looked up from the animal care book and said with a shocked tone of voice, "Parenting skills?"

Twilight took a playful swing at Techorse with her hoof, "She just wants to make sure she's a good one to her animals! That way in the future, she could be a great parent to a family."

"Is this true Fluttershy?" asked Techorse, putting a curious expression on his face.

"Oh yes." She sighed, "I did think a bit about what having a family would be like in the future, but I'm really just not sure I have the skills I need."

Fluttershy's ears drooped, and she looked sadly at the floor.

"That's not true." said Techorse, putting a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder, "look, those animals love you. You're doing great helping them."

"I understand," said Fluttershy, wiping her nose on another tissue, "I just let my thoughts run away after hearing some mares at the cafe talk about their new families they're starting. It's... it's nothing."

She then walked out the open door of the library without saying another word to make the miserable walk back to her home. Once she had left, Twilight shut the door.

"Poor Fluttershy." she said, "She thinks she's not good at the very thing she's the best at."

Techorse nodded and looked around the library for a moment.

"Well, maybe we don't have to do anything." said Twilight, approaching him, "I'm sure she's just starting doubting herself because of what those mares said at the café today. In fact, let's go over to her house tomorrow morning and see how she's doing."

"All right, I'll see you there." He said, "Love you."

Twilight smiled and met him in a quick kiss. Spike looked away and mocked them by sticking his fingers down his throat and making a gagging noise. In response to his rude teasing aimed at his master, Wingnut dug his claws into the dragon's head. Spike yelped and brushed the squirrel off with his left arm, throwing the animal to the ground. It got up and ran quickly up Techorse's leg before jumping on his head and taking a quick seat. Spike tried to pursue the squirrel and beat him up, but Twilight held out a leg and kept him back.

"Break it up you two!" she said sternly.

Techorse gently lowered his head to the floor of the library and said in a demanding voice, "Apologize to Spike."

The squirrel reluctantly approached the small dragon and stuck out its right paw. Although his hand dwarfed the squirrels, Spike shook the tree rodent's hand without hurting him. Afterwards, Techorse bid farewell and left with his pet out the front door of the library.

Later that night, Fluttershy sat on a couch in her cottage, staring at the fire in the brick fireplace. Despite the comfort her rabbit Angel offered, she couldn't chase away the thoughts she was having. The fire was the only source of light in the dark room, and the flames gave off their orange glow, illuminating Fluttershy's humble home with a gentle luminance. A blue blanket lay over top Fluttershy, covering up all of her body except for her head. The blanket and the fire provided a good amount of warmth on the cool night, but Fluttershy still felt cold on the inside no matter how much external warmth she provided herself. The question of her abilities nagged her.

Eventually, the misery of lying on the couch in a ball overtook her, and she got up and walked over to a nearby window. The sky was cloudless thanks to Rainbow Dash's night shift, and the stars glowed softly against the deep black of outer space. Fluttershy stared at the constellations above and wondered if she really was as motherly as she thought she was. Suddenly, a piece of material burned in the atmosphere of Equestria, and a shooting star was formed, which flashed brilliantly as it darted through the dark sky.

Fluttershy knew she had a wish now, and she shut her eyes and made it.

Opening her eyes, she smiled a bit and started to walk for her bedroom. The rabbit in the living room pushed over a bucket of water and put out the fire, a loud hiss was heard as the flames died instantly. He then hopped over to his small bed and jumped in. Fluttershy climbed into her bed and pulled the sheets and quilt up to her neck. As Fluttershy slept, a large and long shadow approached her home. It had no intent to harm the occupant or destroy her house. Instead, it simply left something behind in the quiet of the night, and then moved away with only a quiet rustling in the grass. Without a trace, something had visited Fluttershy's home and left to return to the Everfree Forest.

Techorse and Twilight got up early to go visit Fluttershy. They knew she didn't like to sleep in, and figured that she would be out of bed by at least nine in the morning. After meeting up at the library, they set out to make sure everything was ok. Techorse had equipped his saddle this time, and carried in his robotic hands a brown paper bag with a few bagels in it. He figured a great breakfast would help take Fluttershy's mind off of her silly self-doubt. When they reached the tree home, however, what they saw caused their mouths to hang open. To the right of Fluttershy's home, was a gigantic egg laid perfectly in the grass. It was a very large white ovoid, being at least 3 feet in diameter and two and half feet tall. Across the egg's middle were three red stripes, making the egg look almost like a billiard ball.

"What is that?" asked Twilight as she walked up to the object, "An egg of some kind?"

"That must be what it is!" said Techorse in awe at the size of the thing, "But where did it come from?"

Fluttershy heard the loud conversation of her friends and gently opened her eyes. She was still in bed, but was curious as to why Techorse and Twilight Sparkle were talking so loudly outside of her home. The yellow pony got out of her bed and rubbed her eyes before walking slowly for the front door. She opened it slowly and stepped out into the cool morning breeze.

"Good morning Twilight." She said as she spotted her friend, "What are you doing here?"

"We came to visit you and make sure everything's ok!" said Twilight, "Now come take a look at this!"

Fluttershy walked around the side of her home and looked at the large egg. Her eyes widened at the sight of the object.

"W-where did this come from?" she asked with an unusually wide smile on her face.

"We don't know." Said Techorse, "But we ought to turn this egg over to the right experts."

"NO!" shouted Fluttershy, jumping in front of the egg and blocking Techorse by spreading her wings. She then noticed the weird stare she was getting from Twilight and relaxed.

"I mean," she said, "I'd like to hatch the egg, if that's ok with you."

"It's ok." He replied, "But why do you want to hatch the egg?"

Fluttershy turned around and hugged the shell tightly. She closed her eyes and answered, "Maybe I can be this bird's mom! I can raise the baby bird to be kind like me, and maybe even teach it how to fly! This is the test of my skills that I've been waiting for, guys. I won't have to worry anymore about the future if I can succeed with this egg."

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other and then back at the egg. They felt that Fluttershy already had everything she needed, but also knew that it was good thing for Fluttershy that the unborn bird had been left there.

"I think that's a great idea!" said Twilight, "I can find a book back at the library that can tell us exactly what kind of bird is in that egg. In the meantime, Tech should go back to his castle and get the things you need to hatch it."

Fluttershy released her hug on the egg and said, "I guess I can't sit on it, can I?"

They laughed at the joke and went their separate ways. As they did so, Twilight smiled and knew that Fluttershy would be satisfied by taking care of the egg. The test of her parenting skills was beginning!

An hour later, Techorse returned with several materials from his laboratory. He had brought a "solar farm", a large generator consisting of one dozen solar panels and an engine-block sized device which turned the photons of the sun into electrical power. To this machine he plugged in several electric blankets, which he and Fluttershy wrapped around the egg's base, leaving only the very top of the shell open to the elements. The red blankets surrounded the ovum and cushioned it, but for an extra measure of security, Fluttershy gathered large sticks from the forest and built a literal nest around her new baby. Soon the egg was receiving a good amount of warmth and love, as Fluttershy decided that she really needed to sit on the egg. She laid herself down on top of the exposed part, hiding the remainder of the egg from view. Techorse laughed at his friend's silliness, but Fluttershy shook her head at him and curled her head gently on the top of the egg.

"You aren't going to start babying that thing are you?" joked Techorse, "It hasn't even hatched yet!"

"I'm not going to baby it," responded Fluttershy, "But I'm going to give as much love as I can to this egg. I'm not going to fail this bird in any way!"

Techorse switched his saddle's gadgets from his robot arms to his turbofans.

"I'll be back to check on you later in the week. Take care Fluttershy, and let me know when the egg hatches."

With a helicopter sound, Techorse lifted into the air and flew back for his castle. Fluttershy put her head back down on the eggshell and decided to take a nap. When she fell asleep, a chemical on the egg's surface turned into a vapor and permeated its' adoptive mother's lungs. Fluttershy was about to take on an interesting side effect from the presence of the chemical.

About two days later, Twilight was working on perfecting her magic missile, a large explosive bolt of magic she used to defend herself, when she became hungry for a chocolate chip muffin. Target practice against cardboard cutouts of monsters sometimes made her crave a complex carbohydrate coupled with simple sugars, and a muffin was always a solid choice. So she made a short trip to the only bakery in Ponyville, knowing that Pinkie Pie could get her the baked good. She entered the front door and tripped the bell hanging above, alerting her friend to her arrival.

Pinkie Pie dashed out from behind the counter and said, "Hey Twilight, what's up?"

"Do you have any chocolate chip muffins today Pinkie?" she asked, "I've been practicing my missile and I really need something chocolate."

"There's a fresh batch coming right up!" she responded cheerfully, "Just give it fifteen minutes and you'll have a fresh hot one in your hooves!"

Twilight had a seat in a nearby chair and waited patiently for her treat to be finished. After about five minutes, the bell on the door rang again, and this time Fluttershy walked in.

Pinkie Pie poked her head from over the counter of the bakery and greeted her, "Hi Fluttershy, you in the mood for a muffin, too?"

Fluttershy approached the counter and said, "Hello Pinkie Pie. I like the sound of a muffin, but I was actually hoping that I could try one of your secret cakes."

The other ponies save Twilight gasped at these words and stared directly at Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie's "secret cakes" was a name given to the pony's crazy experimental baked goods. They tended to be loaded with calories and sugar in the weirdest ways. Although they didn't taste awful by any definition, the cakes were a surefire way for a mare to die of a heart attack unless a small portion was taken.

"Of course I'll let you try my secret cakes!" she said with glee, as no one had before been so brave as to try them.

Pinkie Pie bounded into the kitchen behind her and returned with her first creation. The three-layered chocolate cake was frosted with loads of caramel and fudge icing, and crunchy cookie bits were sprinkled all over the top of the massive mound of a confection. Pinkie Pie dropped the large plate in front of Fluttershy.

"This is my super turtle supreme!" she squealed, "I'm so glad you want to try it."

Twilight stared at Fluttershy and couldn't believe that she was actually going to have a bite of the sickly sweet cake. Normally Fluttershy ate a very healthy diet and would reject such a large amount of sugar. It made the unicorn pony wonder whether Fluttershy was in her right mind or not. However, Twilight knew that Fluttershy had heard about the cakes before, and was probably just deciding to try them as a random act of kindness. She would just take one bite and leave the rest of the cake for Pinkie Pie to throw out. Fluttershy moved close to the cake and opened her mouth to take a bite.

To Twilight and the other ponies in the bakery's horror, she stuck her face in the middle of the gigantic treat and began to eat noisily. Chunks of cake and globs of icing flew to the sides, entertaining Pinkie Pie immensely as pieces of the treat were flung all over the bakery. When she was finished, the plate was licked clean, and not a single bit of icing had gotten on Fluttershy's face. She backed up from the platter, and swished her tail as she inhaled the last bite of the cake.

"So, how was it?" asked Pinkie Pie, with an overjoyed tone of voice. Unlike every other pony in the room, she wasn't shocked or mortified by Fluttershy's pigging out.

Fluttershy said, "That was great Pinkie Pie, got any…"

"More? Sure do! Your face is already covered in frosting though!" pointed out Pinkie Pie.

"It is?" Fluttershy said quickly.

She hoped the floor of the bakery would open up and remove her from the situation, or at the very least that someone in the room would offer her a napkin.

Pinkie Pie burst out into laughter and fell over the ground, rolling. Twilight saw this event as very weird, however. No one ever dared to try Pinkie Pie's most caloric treats, nonetheless devour the entire thing in under fifteen seconds as Fluttershy had done.

She simply said, "Wow..." In utter shock of how quickly the giant treat had been inhaled.

Pinkie Pie brought out the next treat from the kitchen, a gigantic cinnamon roll topped with tons of cream cheese icing. This too was swallowed by Fluttershy in only a few seconds, leaving another clean platter on the floor of the bakery. Soon she ate through the entire list of experimental cakes and treats, taking in more than a lifetime's supply of baked goods in a little under an hour.

Pinkie Pie said as she stared at the five empty silver plates on the ground, "Wowie Fluttershy, I guess you were hungry, huh?"

Fluttershy wiped the remaining icing off her face with a napkin and said, "I guess I was. Thanks Pinkie Pie."

She then turned around and left the bakery without saying another word. This was fine with Pinkie Pie, as she only cared if ponies tried her creations, and didn't expect others to pay for them. Pinkie Pie went into the kitchen for the last time, and brought out the fresh baked chocolate chip muffins. She set one down at the table Twilight was sitting at. Twilight looked at the sweet pastry and felt absolutely sick to her stomach. After watching Fluttershy consume several metric tons of sugar, the thought of eating something sweet sickened her.

"Thanks Pinkie Pie", said Twilight as she put a hoof to her mouth, trying not to puke, "But I don't think I can eat this."

"That's ok!" said Pinkie Pie, who promptly stuck her tongue out and seized the muffin like some sort of lizard. She ate the baked good quickly while Twilight scooted out of her chair and left Sugarcube Corner.

Returning to the library, Twilight found a book about the various types of birds in Equestria and started flipping through rapidly. Each page of the book contained a picture of a bird and a picture of the egg it hatches from. Twilight figured that if she found the type of bird inside the egg, it would give a clue as to Fluttershy's weird behavior. But unfortunately, not one of the books on birds in the library contained a picture of the large and red-striped egg by Fluttershy's house. Twilight laid down on the library floor and sprawled, exhausted from searching the entire collection.

"I can't believe there's not one book in here that has information on Fluttershy's egg!" she said with an irked voice as she stared at the ceiling.

Spike brought his head over top of her and asked, "Are you sure it's a bird in the egg?"

"What do you mean, Spike?" asked Twilight.

"Didn't I come from an egg?" he asked rhetorically, "Maybe there's a dragon in that thing."

"Yeah, good thinking!" said Twilight, moving out from underneath him and standing up. She found a book on the various reptiles of Equestria and began to search for the matching reptile. Eventually she came across the article which matched the description.

"Here it is!" she said with joy, "The platinum python."

"Sounds kind of scary." said Spike, frowning at the thought of such a creature.

"Actually, it's pretty cute for a snake, and you know how much I don't like them," said Twilight, turning around the book so that Spike could have a look at the picture.

The platinum python was a large snake with bright eyes, a beautiful silver scale pattern, and multiple small fangs which did not drip with venom. If it weren't for the creatures' massive size, it would make a very pretty pet to keep around the house.

Twilight walked around to the other side of the book she kept hovering in the air, and read the description to Spike,

"The platinum python is a large snake which lives in deep woods all over Equestria. At birth it is six feet long and half a foot thick. Although an extremely large snake, the platinum python does not eat land animals or eggs. Instead, it uses its coils and fangs to sit at the edge of rivers and strike out at passing fish. The entire diet of the snake consists of this 'spearfishing' habit."

"That's great!" interrupted Spike, "If the snake only eats fish, Fluttershy won't have to worry about her other animals at all."

"Exactly." said Twilight, "Now let me read the rest of it and see if we can figure out why Fluttershy ate pretty much every pastry in Equestria this morning."

Reading on, Twilight found an explanation,
"The mother platinum python does not take care of her own egg. Instead, she finds a host which is good at taking care of other animals and lays the egg near her home. The eggshell releases magical vapors which cause the host mother to grow uncontrollably. Once the baby python has hatched, the mother simply returns and collects her young."

Twilight stopped reading, as the rest of the page was torn out.

"Spike!" she scolded, "Did you rip out this page?"

"It wasn't me!" he replied innocently, "Someone must have borrowed the book and damaged it."

"Oh well." Said Twilight, replacing the book back on the shelf, "At least we know what's going on. Fluttershy will hatch the egg, and the mother python will take the baby back from her without any trouble at all."

"Can I come see the snake?" asked Spike hopefully. He really wanted a chance to get out of the library that week.

"Sure." Said Twilight, "Tech says the egg will hatch in two weeks because of the warmth his electric blankets are giving it, so we don't really need to show up until then. But just to be safe, this weekend I'm going to go over to Fluttershy's house and check up on her."

The weekend came soon enough, and as promised Twilight brought Spike with her to visit Fluttershy. Twilight made sure to bring the reptile book with her so that Fluttershy could see the picture of her new baby. The two stepped up to the door of the cottage and knocked gently. Fluttershy answered the door, and Twilight's eyes widened as she noticed a drastic change about her friend.

Fluttershy was taller.

Over the course of just the last week and a half, Fluttershy had increased in stature by nearly 25%. Amazingly, she didn't seem to have changed in terms of health, simply an identical copy of herself that was much bigger. She may have even been taller than Big Macintosh!

"Hello, Fluttershy." said Twilight slowly as she stared at her now tall friend's body.

"Hi Twilight." She responded in her same gentle voice, "Want to come in for a moment?"

"Yes, I've got something to show you."

Fluttershy welcomed the two into her home and sat them down on the couch before turning to go get something for them to drink. Spike couldn't help but snicker as Fluttershy's larger form caused her to accidentally knocked over a lamp when she turned around.

"Oh dear." She said quietly, turning around again to pick the lamp off the floor.

"I've got it!" said Twilight, using a quick spell to bring the lamp upright again.

"You know what?" said Spike, "I don't really need anything to drink, Fluttershy."

"Me neither." said Twilight, hoping to not cause Fluttershy to have another klutzy accident. Fluttershy nodded softly and sat down on the floor.

"Ok then." Said Twilight, bringing the book out of a bag at her side, "This book tells me that there is a giant snake called a platinum python inside your egg. It only eats fish though, so Angel and the others should be safe."

Twilight placed the article in front of Fluttershy and let her read.

Fluttershy said, "Usually I don't really see many snakes, but this one is very beautiful. I can't wait for the egg to hatch now!" The happy glow from her eyes disappeared when she read that the snake's original mother would collect the baby shortly after it hatched from the egg.

"I don't get to keep him?" asked Fluttershy in despair.

"I know it's not fair," said Twilight, "but the snake's mom will pick up the baby after you hatch it Fluttershy. I'm sorry."

Fluttershy tried to cope, "It's ok. It's better for the creature to be with its real parent. I'm just glad I could parent the egg for a while."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief at the news. She was sure that Fluttershy would have been crushed by the news.

"Didn't Tech say that the egg is supposed to hatch tomorrow morning?" asked Spike.

"That's right." Answered Twilight, "We'll be back tomorrow to watch the snake come out of the egg and go back to its mother. You'll need to stay at the library though, Spike."

"Aw…" said a disappointed Spike, "I want to see the egg hatch too!"

"Someone has to stay at the library, and this is our project." said Twilight, giving him a cross look.

"Fine…" grumbled Spike, crossing his arms in disgust.

The following morning after Twilight had left, Spike was having a blast by himself. Because she was not there to ask him to take care of chores, he was reading whatever books he wanted to and eating as many snacks as he wanted. Eventually though, he knew his work would catch up with him if he didn't start eventually. After tackling most of the cleaning, organizing, and paperwork, he remembered his final task for the day.

"Oh, I haven't checked the return box yet!"

Spike went downstairs, then walked over to the return slot and checked for any new books. There were only two since that afternoon, but after the dragon had removed the books from the drop box, he noticed a torn scrap of paper lying at the bottom of the box. Dropping the two returned books on the library floor, he picked up the scrap and read over the half a page. His eyes grew wide as he took in the information, and he gasped when he came to one particular part.

"I gotta tell Twilight about this!" he shouted, rushing over to the front door.

At about 9 in the morning, the three friends gathered in front of the egg again. The book Twilight had brought had said that the baby in the egg was a male due to the color of the stripes. Red indicated a male python, and yellow meant a female. When the ponies reached the egg, Fluttershy climbed into the giant nest she had built from sticks, and sat down. She smiled and looked up, the snake was due to hatch in less than an hour.

Techorse finished strapping on his battle saddle and took out his robotic arms. He shut off the solar reactor, knowing the stored energy could power the electric blankets for the rest of the egg's incubation.

"It's going to hatch in about an hour." he said, "We have enough power for three hours of heating, so I'm shutting it off to prevent a fire in case the snake tears through the blankets."

"Oh Techie, always assuming the worst." said Twilight, shaking her head.

"Hey, as far as I can tell, that's the worst possible thing that could happen. Based on what that book said, it looks like that cute snake's going to be harmless." He said as he turned around to face Twilight again.

Half an hour passed, and Fluttershy sat patiently in front of her egg in waiting. Twilight and Techorse discussed many things while they waited, somehow managing to avoid getting into an argument.

All of a sudden, Fluttershy said, "Guys, the egg is hatching!"

Twilight and Techorse broke eye contact and looked at the egg. A small crack had appeared at the top, and it began to widen and spread across the shell.

"It's finally happening!" squealed Twilight, "This is so neat!"

Another fissure appeared on the red striped egg, and it too began to grow larger. The shell began to creak and move as the snake within started to work its way out of its old home.

"Twilight!" shouted a desperate voice. Twilight Sparkle turned around completely and Spike ran into her at full speed, knocking them both down on the cool grass.

Twilight quickly stood up and shouted, "Spike, what are you doing here? Did you remember to lock up at least?"

"Forget about that and look at this!" said Spike desperately, "I found the missing half of that page from your book."

Twilight's horn glowed as she took the paper from him, but she allowed Techorse to grab one side with his robotic arms.

The inventor read out loud, "The platinum python's mother collects the baby after hatching. However, the egg does not contain enough nutrients for the baby to survive long enough to go fishing for the first time. In order to live, it must eat a single meal. The chemicals in the eggshell increase the host mother's food intake while magically using it to grow them, keeping their proportions so that they do not notice as easily."

He then turned a little pale while reading the final sentence, "When the egg hatches, the baby secures the energy it needs to live by consuming the host mother..."

"FLUTTERSHY GET OUT OF THERE!" shouted Twilight in terror. Techorse winced as her screeching pierced his eardrums.

"Why?" asked Fluttershy gently, turning around to face her friend. The cracks nearly completely covered the shell of the egg, and any second now the platinum python would emerge.

"Didn't you listen to Techorse's reading?" she spurted out, "The snake in that egg is going to eat you if you don't run away!"

Fluttershy looked back at the egg and gulped hard, "E-eat me?" she whined.

"Yes!" shouted Techorse, "You need to get out of there now!"

Fluttershy took a few moments to think, and then shook her head and said to them, "I talked to this egg every night, guys. I'm his parent and I'm going to be fine!"

"What are we going to do?" asked Twilight of Techorse, "If we don't act fast, the baby python's going to get her!"

Techorse's saddle opened up, and the robotic arms retreated inside the hull. Seconds later, two metal tubes emerged, with two fresh topaz crystals visible inside the focusing area on the back. Newly polished and cleaned, the familiar weapons shined in the morning sun. Techorse aimed his laser cannons at the egg.

"The second that python comes out of that egg, I'll take it out." He said, “I don't want to, but we can't just let Fluttershy get squeezed!”

"What? This is my test... a member of my family!" shrieked Fluttershy, shielding the egg with her legs.

"It's going to chow down on you!" said Spike angrily, "Some family member!"

All of a sudden, a long shadow was cast over the three outside of the nest. Twilight thought that it might be an overhead cloud, but her heart sank when she remembered that the sky was supposed to be cloudless for the next week. Gigantic silver coils of muscle surrounded the three, and soon the huge mother python had them all in her grasp. They struggled for breath as the 15 foot long and two foot wide snake wrapped around them and held them tight. Techorse tried to aim for the egg, but soon the crushing force of the mother snake caused his saddle to be damaged beyond the capability to shoot, a puff of smoke rising as the circuits failed. Spike, Twilight, and Techorse were being held by the mother as captives to make sure they didn't try to save Fluttershy.

They were only held just tight enough so that their ribcages would not be crushed, but they were denied enough oxygen that Twilight couldn't think straight and use magic to help her friend. Fluttershy looked at the huge mother snake, then back at the egg as she heard a shattering sound. The shell had broken open completely, and the baby snake stared straight at her. It saw the tall pony in front of it, and moved in to investigate. The baby looked up at its huge mother with its cute and large eyes.

It gave its child a nod, as if to say, "All yours."

The snake crawled out of the destroyed egg and slithered up to Fluttershy. It wrapped itself around Fluttershy, who did not scream or try to run away.

Instead, she said to the snake, "You're not being very nice to your mom."

The mother snake hissed loudly, demanding that the youngster crush Fluttershy. But the young snake brought its head back and made eye contact with Fluttershy instead.

"What?" asked Fluttershy harshly of the young snake, "You think that she's your mother?" Fluttershy pointed at the mother with her free leg.

"Don't be ridiculous." She said with an angry expression, "I'm your mom!"

The snake tilted its head, it couldn't understand why the pony it was supposed to feed on was saying she was his mother.

Fluttershy continued, "Who looked after your egg? Who talked to you every night while you were growing up inside that egg? Who sang to you when she spent all day sitting on the egg? Me, not that snake!" The six foot baby python released its grip slightly on Fluttershy.

She kept on talking to the newborn, "You're a member of my family, just like Angel Bunny. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I really do care about you, much more than that snake..."

The baby snake received another cue from the larger one, and it tightened its grip again. He opened his mouth, revealing the underdeveloped set of fishing fangs.

"...And because I care about you, I'm going to do my best to teach you right from wrong," said Fluttershy.

She then shut her eyes and said to the snake, "And it's very wrong to hunt ponies!"

The baby snake stopped and shut his jaws. This infuriated the mother python, who demanded that the young one obey her. But the platinum python instead rested his head gently on top of Fluttershy's, as she had done with his egg. Fluttershy opened her eyes when she noticed that she hadn't been harmed, and smiled softly as the python continued to give her a hug. After a moment, the snake released Fluttershy and started to move around the nest. The mother, having been defeated, let go of Twilight, Techorse, and Spike. It gained a sad expression as it slowly began to slither back for the forest.

"Now hold on," said Fluttershy, "you are a part of my family, little guy, but you do need to go live with your stepmother. I may be the one who hatched you, but she's the best one to teach you how to be the best python you can be."

The young snake didn't really get why Fluttershy wanted to give him up, but he nodded and slithered over to the larger snake. The mother was overjoyed that her child had returned to her, and allowed him to crawl on top of her.

"I don't get it." said Spike, panting as he caught his breath, "Why did you give him back, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy climbed out of the stick nest and explained, "Well Spike, a good caretaker, whether to animals or ponies, should want what's best for them. For Hug, he's better off with his natural mom than me. It hurts me very much to see him go, but I know he'll be much happier out in the forest than cooped up with me."

"Hug is a great name for a snake," said Techorse, feeling the pain in his spine still, "But how will he survive, when the book told us he can't live for more than a few more minutes without enough food?"

"I think I know how we can save him!" said Twilight, giving Techorse a smile.

Pinkie Pie's experimental cakes had given the young python the initial calories he needed to survive, and the two snakes left for the forest again.

"Do you think he'll remember me?" asked Fluttershy sadly.

Twilight put a leg around her friend in a side hug and answered, "I'm sure he will. You proven yourself to be the best parent ever Fluttershy, willing to risk being chomped on to make sure it lived. I guess you really were up to the test of your skills!"

Fluttershy smiled and thanked Twilight, "You know, I never should have doubted myself to start with. Whatever happens, happens, but I'll be ready for it!"

"That's what I was hoping to hear!" chuckled Twilight, "It only took getting my back smushed by a snake to hear it."

"So now what?" asked Spike, "We've saved Fluttershy and the python, but we still have the rest of the day."

"I know!" said Techorse, "Let's go celebrate with a couple of milkshakes on me."

After a second of thinking upon her previous snacks, Fluttershy turned a bit green and said, "No thanks Tech. I uh... think I'm tired of sugar for a while."

"Oh, right!" laughed Twilight, "Well, luckily, the magical effect the egg had on you will wear off in a couple days. You'll be back to your original height again. But I totally understand not wanting anything after eating those desserts. In the meantime, let's just go for a walk together."

"I'd love that!" she said softly.

The four friends left for their walk into town. Fluttershy knew that what had happened today had proved her to be a true caretaker and parent. She thought about her future again for a bit when she passed by the trio of mares she had seen earlier talking again at the café, but this time, their conversation didn't bother her. She knew she was ready for whatever future was on its way.

#12 - Captain Arbiter's Revenge: Part I

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Captain Arbiter's Revenge: Part I

Techorse Series: #12

By Spirals95

Equestria had made a good recovery from the attack the small team of humans had made on their world. Six months had passed since the terror had been defeated, and life had returned to normal. The cities had been rebuilt completely, and enough therapy had helped the citizens recover from any psychological turmoil from the attacks. With their space station vaporized, all traces of human presence had been wiped, with the exception of a gigantic factory, which was now overrun with ivy vines and trees as nature tried to reclaim the area. The smokestacks no longer belched their horrible pollution into the air, and the skies had cleared up over the factory. But as the structure continued to sit and produce nothing, a group of ponies was busy clearing machinery out of it.

In particular, they were taking away the mining probes; large machines resembling the tunneling devices used to carve subways or underwater tunnels for cars. The raiders managed to find several still-active probes, hijacked them, and drove them away from the factory. No one really cared, with the property abandoned, there was no security to make sure nothing was ever taken out of the building. The three ominous digging machines, all the size of warships, simply drove off across the plains the factory was built on. When they reached the mountains, the drill bits on the front activated, and the worm-like robots cut tunnels into them and disappeared below the surface of the world. It was unclear what the plans for the massive drilling machines were, but if human technology falls into the wrong hooves, trouble is inevitable.

"Come on Rainbow Dash, pitch the ball already!" called out Applejack as she stood next to home plate.

A small group consisting of the two friends and eight other ponies were engaged in a variant of kickball. But Rainbow Dash was refusing to kick the ball towards home plate for some reason, perhaps to take advantage of Applejack's impatience. Rainbow squinted her rose-colored eyes and stared down at the country girl, who was looking very cross at the stalling.

Applejack stomped a hoof on home plate, "We ain't getting any younger!"

Rainbow Dash picked up the red foam ball in front of her with a wing and quickly rolled it towards her friend. Applejack intercepted the ball and gave it a heavy front kick with her right leg. The foam ball arched up into the air and away from the ball field. The rules of the game stated that the Pegasus ponies had to stay on the ground, no flying was allowed, so it was unlikely the ball was going to be caught. Applejack had scored a home run, and she galloped around the bases, laughing in celebration of her victory. Rainbow stared in shock that Applejack had managed to kick the ball so far, she tended to underestimate the strength of earth ponies.

"Well, that's 2-2," said Applejack as she crossed home again, "we need a tiebreaker next innin'"

"After we get the ball back." said Rainbow Dash, "it flew over there." Rainbow motioned towards the well-built stone castle behind them.

"Aw, did it go in Tech's castle?" said Applejack, "he's gonna be upset."

"Have the teams wait here, I'll deal with the crabby inventor." Sighed Rainbow as she flapped her wings gently and went to get the ball back. Techorse's castle was not too large or ominous, but it had plenty of spots on it where a foam ball could enter and get stuck. Rainbow Dash entered an open window on the castle skillfully, landing gently inside the structure.

"Hey Techorse, we lost our ball in here again!" shouted Rainbow.

Techorse heard her and replied gently, "Just find it, Rainbow."

Rainbow was a little happy Techorse wasn't upset about the issue, and kept searching for the kickball. She found it wedged into the top of the largest pipe on the castle's pipe organ. Rainbow Dash could have flown up and plucked the ball out of the instrument, but decided that was too much work, and searched the keyboard for the matching pipe. Having no musical talent, she simply guessed and whacked a large number of the keys on the organ. The sour chord sounded throughout the castle, and the ball flew out of the top of the tube. It bounced off the tile floor and out the window of the castle again. Rainbow Dash turned to leave and was about to jump out the window to fly away when a cold metal object touched her neck. Turning around, she saw Techorse had put a robotic hand on her. The colt was soaking wet, and his battle saddle was sparking from the water damage.

"I was watering a houseplant above my head when you hit that chord." He said through gritted teeth, trying not to yell.

Rainbow laughed sheepishly and replied, "Sorry about that, it was stuck." Techorse sighed and let the robotic arm slide back into a panel on the side of his back-mounted invention. The panel closed with a metallic click, and the machine emitted a puff of smoke as a little more water entered it.

He scooted her out the open window and watched as she flew away, then locked the paned windows and groaned in anger. A nearby computer monitor flickered on and the face of a robot popped up.

"That was a little rude." commented PAL, in central computer form. Techorse, water still dripping from his mane, looked at his robot and said to him, "This is the fifth time this week she's lost a kickball in the castle, and then destroyed something looking for it."

The computer suggested, "Maybe you should invent something to repel the kickballs and keep them from getting in here. You know, use that brain you used to build me."

"That idea is a waste of time." replied the pony, "I've been too tied up running my business to invent fun things like that."

PAL said nothing in response, only looking around the edges of the computer monitor to see if any icons caught his fancy.

"I think you ought to apologize anyways." said PAL, "she is one of your friends, and you did just mistreat her."

Techorse yelled, "WHAT? She keeps wrecking this place, and you want me to apologize because I call her out on it? How is that fair?"

"Well I'm only saying you were rude in calling her out on it, master. She was getting annoying, but that's no reason to blow up."

"You're going to blow up if you don't shut it!" threatened the colt as he stormed off to go fix his saddle.

"Third threat on my existence this week." mused the computer, "The master's gone absolutely insane from this appliance business he runs. The money is simply not worth it, he should limit the number of orders allowed per month."

PAL decided the best option, through a series of logical calculations, was to go into town to get away from his angry master. He thought that maybe he could apologize to Rainbow Dash on his creator's behalf.

The face on the computer monitor disappeared, and electrons flowed from it down the output cable, through the wiring, and into a robot body lying up against a wall on the other side of the castle. PAL opened his eyes and took in the information from the surrounding area, then straightened himself out and walked for the back door. Reaching the outside access, he grabbed the handle on the oak door and pulled it up like a manual garage opening. The machine walked out into the sunlight and had a quick look around the peaceful garden, then strolled off to go find his friends. He found the kickball teams moping around and doing absolutely nothing. Some of the ponies took notice of the robot and started to shy away a little, PAL's form made him about twice as big as them, and he was somewhat threatening.

But the robot was programmed to be happy and gentle, and the machine introduced himself to the ponies he didn't recognize, "Hello, how may I be of assistance?”

"Aw knock it off PAL." said Applejack, "Are you here to finish yellin' at Rainbow Dash for him?"

PAL crossed his arms and said, "Not at all, I was getting tired of the master's attitude myself. I came here to play with you."

"We're not going to play anymore." stated Rainbow, "he's just going to yell at us again when we lose the ball over there."

PAL scanned the playing field and suggested, "What if we treat second base as home instead and play in that direction? There's no fence behind home, so we can still kick the ball in that direction without interference."

Applejack turned her head on looked at the field, then said cheerfully, "Hey, why didn't we think of that? What team do you want to be on, PAL?"

The robot picked up the red ball and said, "I'll pitch for both teams. My father was a pitching machine."
"Really?" asked Rainbow Dash as she looked up at the machine curiously.

"No not really." Replied PAL, "But I really was hoping to get in on this match. It looks like fun.”

"Come on you silly gadget, let's play!" giggled Applejack as she pushed the robot towards the pitcher's mound. PAL walked over to the mound as the ponies got into position to start the new game.

As the game recommenced, across town Twilight Sparkle was busy catching up on world events. It was a slow day at Ponyville's library, and so she had plenty of time to read the newspaper. Looking casually over the text, she searched for an interesting article to read.

"Coal purchases for power plants up 400%." She said to herself as she read the second page's main article. "Do we even need that much more electrical power?"

Her assistant, Spike the dragon, hopped down from a bookshelf and peered at the news.

"Not sure, Twi. Where does the coal come from anyways?"

Twilight explained, "Coal is a fossil fuel, it's made in the ground over millions of years from dead plants, trees specifically. It has to be dug up and then burned to make electrical power. Because we use so little electricity as a society, we just buy and burn all the available coal. But with this fourfold increase in coal, we're making way too much power."

"What's the worry?" asked Spike, "Four times the electricity means more hot water and other stuff, right?"

"Maybe, but it also means four times the pollution generated. Some unlucky pegasus pony has to clean that up and damage his or her wings. Not only that, but it can in large amounts change the environment permanently."

"That's insane." commented Spike in disbelief, "how could a little burnt coal change the planet like that?"

"According to Techorse, it happened to Earth." Answered Twilight, "and Earth had less of a natural balance than we do. The pollution will be much more devastating."

"I thought you said coal was clean last month, and now it's cursed." sighed Spike, putting up with Twilight's indecision.

"It does burn cleaner than oil, but we're burning four times the amount of coal that we need to! The power plants always purchase every last piece of coal available and burn them without thinking."
Spike asked, "So, what do we do about it?"

Twilight said, "We need to investigate. If things get out of hoof, I'll write the princess and let her know about the problem."

A few days passed by, giving the two plenty of time to research the effects of burning coal on the environment, and how much was actually needed to supply the cities of Equestria with enough electricity. Unfortunately, they simply lacked the statistics needed to continue in their project, they needed more information about where all the coal was coming from. Spike suggested they ask Techorse if they could borrow his castle's radar equipment to search for the source of the extra fossil fuels. Twilight agreed with him and they left that afternoon for the small castle on the edge of town. Arriving at the wooden doors, Twilight knocked gently with a hoof.

PAL answered the door gruffly, "We're not interested in a new sofa, thank you."

Spike said to the monitor, "It's us, PAL."

"Oh, it's Spike and Mistress Sparkle. Hold on, I'll open the door right away!" said PAL, changing his attitude quickly.

The two halves of the door swung open slowly to grant access to the guests, and they walked inside the moment the doors provided enough space to enter. "He's in his laboratory working on something." said the robot, “I'm not sure what it is though. Perhaps we should check.”

"Thanks." Replied Twilight as she walked gently through the stone halls. She and Spike found the green-coated pony making adjustments to his favorite invention: the robotic saddle. Holding a tiny wrench with his teeth, he twisted one last screw into place before opening his mouth and dropping the wrench into a toolbox.

"Techorse." Called Twilight, "can we ask you for a favor?"

He turned around and swished his tail, "Of course, Twilight. What can I do for you?"

Spike barged in, "We need to borrow your radar to see where all this extra coal stuff is coming from. Twilight says it's polluting the planet to death, but I don't see how."

"The radar isn't the best piece of equipment for geological study." Replied Techorse, "what you would want is a satellite to send pictures from space. I haven't gotten around to sending one up yet."

"We know." said Twilight, "your job keeps you working around the clock."

"Hey, I never thought my kitchen inventions would sell so well." He replied with a quadruped shrug, "All I did was make a produce peeler that could be operated easily with these hooves."

"Don't be so humble." teased Twilight.

"Anyways" continued Techorse, "it's worth the income. I'm a pretty lucky pony."

"I've heard you're not so lucky." Said Twilight, "You've been working so hard you've become bitter towards others."

"Let me guess." sighed Techorse, "Applejack told you that."

"Yeah." Said Spike, "she sounded pretty mad about how you treated Rainbow Dash."

"Look, I'm sorry about that. I've just been so busy it's gotten me all upset." replied the inventor.

"Maybe you should declare a vacation and shut down your production for a bit." suggested Twilight.

"I just don't want to look lazy." replied Techorse, "It's not fair that I shouldn't work because I made a bundle off of these gadgets."

"But you're working yourself to death." protested Twilight, closing the distance between them, "you need a bit of rest before you go nuts."

"Well, ok." caved Techorse, "I guess it's time that I scale back my business. I never really was in it for the money, just to try and make life easier for ponies by giving them better cookware and appliances.”

“You can still do that in smaller batches though, so you don't go nuts, right?” asked Twilight optimistically.

“I can, and I should have done that to start with.” he answered.

Techorse asked them to follow him as they descended down the stairs and into the production room, where a few pieces of large machinery were making and boxing the appliances. A flip of a switch brought the noisy machinery to a halt, and the factory room became eerily quiet.

"With that settled, let's go see what we can do about that coal problem you were talking about." He suggested, motioning for them to go back up the stairs.

They walked into the instrument panel room of the castle on the top floor and stood in front of a 42 inch computer monitor. Techorse pushed a button with a hoof and watched as the picture on the screen started to form. The monitor displayed a large green ring with a sweeping green line coming out of the center. The line quickly traveled the length of the circle once, and a number of green objects showed up to represent the topography of the surrounding terrain.

"This is what the radar is capable of showing, just the surrounding objects as these green blobs on the screen. If you're asking me where all the coal is coming from, I have no way of telling from this."

"Do you have a map of Equestria stored on the computer?" asked Twilight.

"Yeah.", he said after thinking for a bit. "Try combining the two and see if that helps." She ordered.

Techorse hit a few keys, careful not to let his hooves smash a large number of them at once. The picture changed, showing the continent they were standing on, with the radar on top. The mountains on the map were soon covered by the matching green blobs that the radar picked them up as.

"Still no good." said Spike, "I can't see any coal mines anywhere."

"Well maybe if we..."

"Hi, watcha guys up too?" came a cheerful voice from behind. A pink pony jumped into the room and landed with a gentle bounce behind the friends.

"Hello Pinkie Pie." said Techorse "How did you get in my castle without me knowing this time?"

"PAL left the door open again." She answered with a giggle. Pinkie Pie stood up a bit on her hind legs and stared at the monitor with her cute blue eyes.

"Ooh!" she exclaimed, "What's with the pretty map? Playing a game?"

"We're looking for the source of all the extra coal being burned in the power plants." stated Twilight.

"Didn't hear about that." said Pinkie Pie.

"That's because you never read the news." explained Techorse bluntly.

"Hey, I do too!" she said, "Just only when it involves party planning or baking!" Techorse shook his head and continued to focus on the monitor. Spike could tell Techorse was going to get angry, so he tried to draw Pinkie Pie away from him.

"Hey, Pinkie." He said to her, "Let's go back to your place and try that new recipe you've been talking about."

"Great idea!" she said, "bye-bye Twilight and mister grumpy pants!"

Techorse snorted as they left the room, leaving him alone with Twilight.

"Man she's annoying." He commented as he hit another button the panel.

"See, there you go again." criticized Twilight, "you're being nasty to your closest friends!"

He said sadly, "I've just been so stressed out recently that I've completely forgotten my manners."

Twilight told him, "Just try to relax. I'm sure after a few nights of rest you'll be a nicer colt again. See you tomorrow."

She left the room and stopped only for a second to stare back at her frustrated coltfriend. Twilight felt somewhat sorry for him, she knew it was only his work that was making him act the way he did. She dropped the topic from her mind though as she headed for the front door.

The next day was uneventful for the town. Work continued as normal, but nothing interesting happened to the citizens. The morning came and passed like it was absolutely nothing, and the early afternoon dragged on as the sun continued its path along the sky. As the shadows began to lengthen due to the afternoon coming to a close, dark figures approached the town stealthily. They used every rock, tree, and building to their advantage to move through Ponyville undetected. Not one resident noticed them due to their speed, but some could feel the eerie presence as the day started to come to a close.

The shadowy characters made their rounds to a few key buildings in town, with plans to complete their mission without being seen. One resident of the town who did not have a care in the world about their presence was Rarity, who was busy going over her inventory at the end of the work day. As a master dressmaker, Rarity always made sure to check her supplies daily in order to avoid running out when a critical order came through. Thus, inside her well-decorated boutique, she carefully went through each door and closet.

"Let's see now, two bolts of red cloth, one of blue polyester." She counted as she sorted through the materials, checking for what she needed to order.

Rarity's horn glowed a soothing white as she moved the cloth magically from the closet into her studio.

"Hmm, I'm out of forest green. I'll need to pick some up tomorrow." She said to herself as she found an empty metal tube.

Last on her list was to open a vault she used to store the gemstones she sewed into nearly every dress she created. Rarity punched in the code and swung the metal door open. She counted the various gemstones out, and was satisfied in finding that she had a good balance of various stones. A weird draft came in the room as she finished looking over the gems, and the air flowed over her well-curled hair, making it flutter gently.

"Brr, did I leave a window open?" she asked herself with a shiver as she walked over to one of the store walls.

To her intrigue, ever last window was closed, and so was the front door. Whatever had caused the draft of cold air had simply vanished into thin air. Rarity decided to brush off the event as a silly happening and started to pack up the cloths again. When she went back to her inventory, however, she noticed a square of plain white cotton material had been torn off neatly.

"I didn't use any white cloth today!" she said, suspecting something, "a certain pony's playing a prank on me."

Rarity believed that Pinkie Pie had snuck into her store to steal some cloth as a "harmless" joke. So, she picked up a magazine with her magic powers and rolled it into a playful club.

"She's going to get a little bop on the head." She thought to herself, hoping it would bring a few laughs when it all boiled over.

Looking around the room for Pinkie Pie, Rarity spotted a very large bulge in a thick red curtain on one of her windows.

She smiled and said, "Bingo."

Rarity walked over to the curtain and prepared to brush it aside with her hoof and then bring the magazine down on Pinkie's head. She whisked away the velvet curtain and swung the magazine through thin air. Absolutely nothing was behind the curtain. Rarity frowned and looked back and forth; she still had a prankster loose in her shop.

"Oh dear." She said sarcastically, "I sure hope Pinkie Pie doesn't prank me while I'm out here in the open!" Rarity readied the magazine again, ready to make it count when Pinkie would inevitably giggle and reveal her location.

But no such thing happened, Rarity heard absolutely nothing. "Well, that's odd. I can't seem to find her." she said, "looks like she gets away again."

Suddenly, a black blur rushed in front of Rarity, and she shrieked in surprise.

Rarity swung the magazine at the thing, but missed whatever it was. After that moment, the white section of missing cloth came down over her face. Rarity struggled to get it off, but something was holding her still, she couldn't break free. She took a breath in from the cloth and noticed it smelled very strange. The cloth had been soaked in something akin to chloroform. The unicorn pony collapsed on the ground unconscious as the chemical knocked her out cold. Something then dragged her limp body out of her store and away from the town, unnoticed by a single being.

About two hours after Rarity's disappearance, Ponyville began to get concerned. They found evidence of a breaking in and entering, but couldn't find the criminals responsible. It was simply assumed that Rarity had fled in fear of a burglar entering her home and shop, and that she would eventually return once she calmed down. Word of the robbery spread through the town like wildfire, despite nothing of actual value being taken from the store itself, this type of crime was rare. Ponies began to lock down their own stores in order to protect their places of work and their families. Fluttershy, who lived at the edge of town in her hollowed tree, also barricaded her windows to prevent anything from happening. As a pony afraid of anything, sometimes even her own shadow, she never took chances whenever potential danger was about. She pushed the last board over her door and stepped back a bit to admire her precautions. Her home was prepared more for a hurricane than a thief as boards covered the windows and held the door shut.

"There." She said, "Nobody's coming in here tonight."

To calm her nerves, she walked over to her fireplace and started a small wood fire to boil a pot of water. A rabbit inside the home hopped over with a teabag and dropped it gently into the pot.

"Thank you Angel." said Fluttershy to her pet. The tea began to brew and filled the sealed home with a strong aroma.

"Oh that smells good." thought Fluttershy as she leaned into the large fireplace to get a whiff of the boiling tea.

Something clamped onto her long pink hair, and Fluttershy screamed as the attacker pulled her up the chimney, nearly scalding her hind legs on the metal pot. Angel jumped to try to grab Fluttershy back, but the heat from the fireplace nearly scalded her, and he had to watch as Fluttershy was taken away in the one place she never expected an attack to come from.

Rainbow Dash was lazing off again from her duty in weather management. Despite it being her only job, she tended to not do it until the very last minute. As she sat on her mattress in her cloudhouse, she caught sight of a black blur out the window.

"What is that?" she wondered as she observed the speeding object. "I gotta check this out."

She said as she opened the window to get a better look. However, the blur disappeared underneath of her floating home.

"Hey!" she shouted as she jumped out the window and inverted herself to fly underneath the house. Rainbow looked around, but saw nothing in the shadow cast by the floating structure.

"That was a little freaky." She said. Calling out to the ponies walking around below her, she asked, "Did anybody else see that black line running around here?"

She got a bunch of head shakes for an answer, the blur had only been seen by her.

"Blind." She said sadly as Rainbow flapped her wings and drifted back into her house.

"All right" She said, "I'll make dinner, then go and bring that rain we need today for the grass. Some of the lawns around here are looking pretty dried out."

Rainbow walked into her kitchen and got out some fresh ingredients from her refrigerator. As she sorted out the grains and vegetables, she felt a presence behind her. Rainbow Dash grabbed a knife in her teeth and spun around quickly to face whatever was there. Except for the kitchen door, nothing was behind her; it was only a bit of paranoia. She dropped the knife on her counter and shook her head, letting her striped mane wave back and forth. An impact to her skull brought her thoughts and consciousness short, as a loud metallic clang put Rainbow Dash down. Her living but unresponsive body was removed from her house as quick as a flash, leaving behind only a ladle with a few strands of colored hair on it.

The town's panic had been brought to maximum level. With three disappearances in the hour, no one was taking any chance whatsoever. The mayor declared a state of emergency and ordered every citizen to arm themselves with something blunt and heavy. But word had not yet reached Twilight or Techorse, for no pony in town had bothered to make the now perilous trip through town to reach them. Twilight had kept the library open, unaware of the panic of the town. Spike watched as the residents outside dived into their stores and shut them down for the day.

"The stores are closing early." He said, "so much for getting that comic book I wanted today."

"There's always tomorrow." Said Twilight as she shelved returned books, "but it is a little odd they're shutting down this soon. It's only five o'clock." A loud knock on the door sounded as Twilight pushed a heavy dictionary onto a shelf.

"Will you get that, Spike?" asked Twilight as she grunted under the weight of the volume, "I'm still busy here."

"Sure." He said as he walked over to the red ornately-carved door. The dragon brushed the green fin on the top of his head into a neater position, and then opened the door. A brown male unicorn wearing a green and white baseball cap was standing there. On his back was an odd plastic square tray, on which rested a flat white box.

"Pizza delivery." said the guy, "for a Miss Sparkle."

Twilight might have wanted the food, but she had already put her paycheck in the bank and didn't have anything left in the house, so she said, "We didn't order a pizza."

"You sure?" he asked, "It's half sprouts and half rubies."

Spike loved gemstones and said, "Come on Twilight, that's our favorites!"

"I don't have any money to give him." said Twilight as she looked at Spike.

"Someone else already paid for this." explained the delivery guy, "I'll just set it on the table here for ya."

"Who?" asked Spike. He looked at Twilight and they both knew.

"Techorse." They said together as the unicorn used a magic burst to place the box on the counter in the middle of the room. He then left without a word, oddly not asking for a tip.

"Let's finish putting these books back before we eat." said Twilight, noticing Spike reaching for the pizza.

"Fine." replied Spike with disappointment, drawing his hand away from the box. As they turned to work, a small metal pipe emerged from the box and started to quickly fill the room with grey smoke. It took the two a while to notice it because they were facing away from the box, but they soon saw it.

"What the?" exclaimed Spike as the smoke continued to fill the room.

Twilight opened a window and brought out an oscillating fan to push the smoke out of the room. As they worked to clear the mess, several black blurs entered the door and whisked around the room. Twilight got scared and cast a spell to blast the pizza box out the door, ending the smoke problem. When the vapors finally left the building, Spike and Twilight found themselves surrounded by three Pegasus ponies wearing completely black tight fitting clothing. Only their eyes were visible through a rectangular box cut from the cloth.

"Ninjas!" shouted Spike, "I'll handle this!"

Hoping to repeat what he had read in the previous issue of his comic books, Spike breathed fire on one of the ninjas. The green flames danced around the bad guy, but when he ran out of breath, Spike realized that he had done no damage.

"They have fireproof suits?" he gasped as the ninjas moved in closer on them.

Twilight shot a bolt of destructive energy at one of them, but he raised a wing and deflected it into the ground. Then the three leapt to attack them at once. Twilight looked at Spike and knew that both of them would be killed if she didn't act fast. So in a moment of love for her lifelong apprentice, she used a pusher spell to kick the dragon out of the library as the ninjas fell on her. Twilight shut her eyes and felt a hard knock on her head before she fell unconscious.

Spike had hit his head on the cobblestone streets of the town and had been knocked out, he was collected by the medical experts of Ponyville and put on a sick bed until he could wake up. Word of the disappearances of the heroes of the town put everyone in despair, if they were robbed themselves, they would have to defend themselves. The only one to not know yet of the disappearances was Techorse, who was still stuck in his castle working on the maps to look for the coal source. Pinkie Pie had decided to visit him again today and ask about where her friends might have gotten off to, so she bounced up cheerfully to the castle with a basket of cookies clenched in her teeth. She knocked on the door and waited for either him or PAL to answer. No response came, but the gates opened up anyways. Pinkie left the basket on a table immediately to the left of the castle entrance, and then walked while humming a cheerful tune to find him. She entered the radar room again and saw Techorse continuing to stare at the screen, but this time he was wearing his saddle.

"Have you been there all night and day?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"No." he replied without turning to look, "I've been taking breaks. Good to see you again Pinkie."

She let her fluffy tail swish in the air as she prepared to ask Techorse her question, but PAL entered the room with a strange plastic bag. Inside the bag was a couple of interesting rainbow-colored rope shaped objects.

"Hello miss Pie." said PAL.

"Hey PAL!" she replied, turning to look in his direction without moving her head. She then spotted the bag in the robot's left hand and asked, "What's in there?"

PAL removed one of the objects from the bag and said, "It's a new treat recipe I made! They're homemade gummy worms. Want one?"

Pinkie Pie opened her mouth wide and tilted her head back.

"Chirp!" she said, imitating a baby bird. PAL laughed and dropped the chromatic confection into her waiting maw. Pinkie closed her mouth and began to chew on the jumbo gummy worm, enjoying the unique multi-flavored taste of the treat.

"That's good." She said in ecstasy from the flavor of the worm.

Techorse said to Pinkie Pie, "I'm sorry I snapped at you yesterday."

"It's ok. You're tired." replied Pinkie, mouth full of gummy treat.

"Anyways, PAL and I couldn't find the source of that coal Twilight was talking about." He said as he looked back at the monitor. Pinkie Pie nodded thoughtfully and continued to chew, the ridiculous size of the worm made it impossible to swallow the treat quickly.

PAL said, "I'll go check the mail while you two talk, ok?"

"Go ahead." said Techorse.

The robot left to go check the mailbox, making loud metallic footsteps as he walked out the open door of the control room. He went out front and found the plastic box, then opened it. Inside was a small brown package tied with a plain white string. PAL removed the rectangular object and turned it over in his hands, scanning it carefully with his optical sensors.

"Interesting, a package." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone. PAL shut the door on the mailbox and turned to go back inside when he was stopped by Applejack.

"PAL, wait up!" she said while short on breath, "Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity have all gone missin'. The town's in a panic!"

PAL said, "If that's true, miss Applejack, then we must inform master immediately. Follow me in." He took the orange pony upstairs and went back into the room.

Applejack spotted Pinkie and said, "Oh thank goodness, Pinkie's already here tellin' Techorse about it."

"About what?" asked Techorse as he turned to see Applejack, "nice seeing you by the way."

Applejack walked up beside Techorse and said, "Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash have all fled their homes for some reason and haven't come back yet. Somethin' terrible must have happened!"

Applejack wanted to get in another sentence, but was getting annoyed by Pinkie's noisy chewing and asked, "Pinkie Pie, what are you eating?"

"A worm." She answered as she continued to masticate her snack.

"I've seen ya do some pretty disgusting things." said Applejack in shock, "but eatin' a worm is new even for you!"

Pinkie Pie explained, "A gummy worm silly. Look." Pinkie opened her mouth to reveal the ball of rainbow-colored bolus.

Applejack recoiled in disgust, "Ok! Ya didn't need to show me."

Techorse stopped the distracting talk and asked, "What about the disappearances, Applejack? Tell me."

She tipped her hat forward on her head and explained, "It seems some of our friends have gone missin' after that chain of breaking-ins. No one knows where they went."

"Maybe they just fled in panic." Said Techorse, "I'm sure they're all ok."

"By the way master, a package came for you today." Interrupted PAL.

PAL handed the box to his master, and a pair of robotic arms came from the saddle on his back to accept it. Techorse took the string off the box and opened the top of it. Applejack gasped at the contents, and Pinkie Pie immediately swallowed the rest of the worm in shock. The box contained a lock of Twilight Sparkle's tail hair, recognizable by the pink and dark purple stripes on it. Techorse found a note underneath the lock and quickly picked it up to read it.

"Hello Techorse, it's your good old friend. It seems my followers have taken your love Twilight. She is being held captive in my castle at the following coordinates:"

Techorse punched the numbers into his computer and watched the map change. Then he finished reading the note: "Do not send these coordinates to princess Celestia. I have unicorns scanning the air for traveling message particles, if they pick any up written by you, I will be forced to deal with your friends immediately. That being said, with the coordinates, you have three days to make it to my castle and turn yourself over. Because you were one of the aliens, I cannot simply allow you to live after what your kind did to ours six months ago. As insurance that you will arrive, I will not tell the location of your other lesser friends whom I have also kidnapped. They are locked up in different dungeons to prevent you from plotting the escape of all of them at once. Enclosed is a lock of Twilight's hair to prove I am not bluffing about any of this. Should you fail to show up at my castle in three days and turn yourself over, the next package I send you shall contain Twilight Sparkle's head. Make your decision, and I hope to see you very soon. Signed, Arbiter."

"I don't believe it." said Techorse in disbelief, "Captain Arbiter's back."

"It looks like he wants revenge after you got him fired." commented Applejack.

"Well we can't just sit here and let him cut off Twilight's head!" shrieked Pinkie, "We have to do something!"

Techorse resigned himself and said plainly, "I'll turn myself in to him. He will keep his word and let you all go. I can't let any of my friends get hurt because of me."

"We're not letting him get you!" said Applejack strongly, "we're going to kick his tail and rescue them the old fashioned way."

"Thanks Applejack, but we don't know where the others are being kept. Unless I turn myself in, there's no way we'll be able to save them."

PAL added, "You have the coordinates of the main castle Arbiter is staying in. There is a good chance the fortresses where the others are being kept is hidden somewhere between here and that castle."

"True." Said Techorse, "It's unlikely Arbiter would put the prison off in a location where it couldn't be defended very well."

"Then let's go now. We don't have any time to lose." declared Applejack.

PAL detected a knock at the front door and said, "Someone's at the front gate, I'll let them in." The robot walked out of the room and tossed the bag of gummy worms to Pinkie Pie.

"Before you stuff yourself and can't talk again, Pinkie, I need to know if you'll be able to help us on this mission." said Techorse as he swiped the bag away from her.

"Well duh." She replied, "I can't let that mean guy Arbiter keep them all locked up!"

"You know, that's just the oddest thing." said Applejack, "We weren't all locked up. For some reason, he didn't capture me or you, Pinkie Pie."

Techorse said, "Arbiter didn't capture either of you because we're all earth ponies. With no special powers, he thinks you'll be too weak to do anything."

"That snake!" shouted Applejack angrily, "Wait till I get my hooves on him!"

PAL returned to the room with Spike in tow. The dragon was wearing a bandage wrap on his head, evidence of the injury from last night.

"Twilight's been captured!" he shouted to Techorse.

"I know." He replied, "we just got a message saying so. In fact, everyone you see here are the only ones not captured."

"Who captured Twilight?" demanded Spike angrily, wanting revenge.

Techorse said, "Did she ever tell you about Captain Arbiter, Spike?"

"No" he replied, “Who's that?”

Techorse took a breath and explained, "Captain Arbiter was princess Celestia's captain of the guard after Twilight's brother left to go found his own castle with his wife. He wanted to destroy me because I was with the human invasion force. When he got caught setting up a guillotine, he was fired and banished from Canterlot. Now he's captured the others and is holding them hostage, wanting me to exchange my life for theirs."

Pinkie Pie spat out the gummy worm she was chewing and rushed up to Spike. "Not only that!" she said loudly, "he's also got Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy!"

"Nobody touches Rarity." said Spike menacingly.

Applejack interrupted, "All right, enough talk. Let's gear up and head out to Arbiter's castle."

"I'm going with you!" said Spike.

"It's too dangerous for you." said Applejack, "You have to stay here."

"That's not fair." Complained the young dragon, "Twilight's in danger and I want to help too.”

Techorse told him, "Twilight told me that in her absence, she wanted me to take care of you. Since she's been locked up, looks like that comes into effect. I give you permission to join our party, Spike!"

Applejack stared angrily at Techorse, she had been overruled and wasn't happy about it.

Pinkie Pie shouted eagerly, "Yes! Everyone's going together!"

PAL laughed and said, "I guess I'll stay here to provide updates to you, master."

"Ok, but remember PAL, if you need to get to us quickly…"

"Yes I know, I'll be there to help." said PAL, waving a hand.

After a little bit of preparations for the adventure, the team of four set out to go liberate their friends from Arbiter's dungeons. Before they left the castle though, Techorse made sure the gadgets in his saddle were working properly. The laser cannons were going to be of use on this mission for sure, so he ensured the topaz crystals were changed out to give him the maximum number of shots possible. He also packed a few spare items into the cargo bin to take on the trip. After the diagnostics check, they walked in the direction of the land where Arbiter's castle was located according to his ransom note. So that they didn't get lost, Applejack had taken the note and kept it under her hat in order to keep a copy of the coordinates on hand.

"We're going to be headin' into territory unmarked on the map." said Applejack, "so it'll be very dangerous. I want y'all to be careful."

Spike got up on Techorse's back and seated himself on the robotic saddle, "With Techorse, nothing's gonna stop us! Any monster tries something funny, and bang!"

"Despite having weapons", he said sternly to Spike, "I prefer to use them as a last resort, Spike." Spike looked for a way to pry the weapons out of the machine and said, "How are we supposed to go through a wild area without getting hurt if you don't even use your guns?"

"Simple." He explained, "Applejack's in charge. She knows how to get through these rough areas better than anyone else. With her as leader, we'll make it through without firing a shot."

Applejack stopped the group and turned around to face him.

"Hold on." She said, "I thought you were leadin' this rescue party."

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie, "when Twilight's not around, you're the leader."

"Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I have to be the boss." replied Techorse, “I want Applejack in charge because she knows the area from here to Arbiter's location better than any of us.”

"Ok." said Applejack, "I'll lead. Just stay close, we have to follow this trail around the mountain. I know a place we can ask for directions."

They went at a quick pace, stopping only for a drink of water or for a few breaths in order to make good time. After making it around the mountain bordering Ponyville, they came across a small forest of deciduous trees.

"This forest over here is not home to a lot of creatures. If we just stick to the path, we won't find any trouble." instructed Applejack as she pointed to the small woods.

“I've never been out here before." said Pinkie Pie, "Wonder if anypony lives out in these woods?"

“I suppose we're about to find out!” answered Applejack.

The walk through the forest brought them to a small flat building on the other side. It was a plain structure with a shingle roof, a red brick chimney with several bricks missing, and a handful of plain glass windows. The faded white color of the place gave away the place's great age. "What is that place?" asked Pinkie Pie, "a small house?"

"That's a bar." replied Applejack, "The Victory Lap."

"Why would we go in a bar?" asked Pinkie Pie.

Applejack explained, "The place where Arbiter's castle is, is built in an area home to the roughest, toughest ponies around. If we ask the folks here, they'll probably tell us where the other fortresses are too."

"I'm too young to go in there." Said Spike nervously, not wanting to get roughed up in a bar fight, "I'll just wait outside."

"All right." said Applejack, rolling her eyes at his cowardice. Spike dismounted from Techorse and hid inside a bush outside the bar.

"Don't mention to anypony who we are." warned Techorse, "Arbiter might still want you two despite not initially ordering your capture. We need to be careful."

"Okey dokey lokie!" said Pinkie Pie as she trotted inside the door of the saloon. Applejack and Techorse gave each other a look of hopelessness and entered the bar. Very tough looking characters were seated at the tables in the bar, playing card games, sipping their drinks, and having a good time.
Applejack whispered, "Things seem quiet now, but they can sure get violent quick. Ask and let's get out of here asap." Techorse nodded and made sure none of his gadgetry was sticking out of his saddle, as it would tell them who he was right away.

Pinkie hopped up to the bar and jumped up on one of the wooden stools. She spun around on the stool quickly and shouted, "Wheee!"

No one paid any attention to her as she looked at the ugly room. The wood supports of the roof were visible, and from them hung simple chandeliers made from wagon wheels. Very few pictures hung from the walls, and the ones that were had some kind of damage. A hoof grabbed Pinkie Pie on the head, and she stopped spinning around. The bartender took his leg off her hair. He was a tall and lanky pony with a grey coat, brown eyes, a thick yellow haircut, and a prominent yellow mustache.

"What can I get you?" he asked. Pinkie Pie thought and replied, "How about a half lemonade, half tea!"

The bartender gave her a confused look.

Pinkie realized she had to order something tough to fit in, so she added, "No ice."

The bartender rolled his eyes and retreated into the kitchen.

"I thought I was only guy who ever ordered that." Came a deep voice with a hint of Russian in it from beside Pinkie. She turned and saw the gigantic stallion sitting behind her. He was wearing a leather vest which went well with his black shirt. In physical appearance, the bar patron had a soft brown coat, a slick black mane, and deep yellow eyes.

He had his specially mixed cold drink, brown from the dark tea, and he showed the glass to Pinkie Pie.

"Who are you?" asked Pinkie.

"Mega." replied the stallion, "I'm biggest guy here. Can't drink more than tea though. Sensitive pallet."

"Nice to meet you!" said Pinkie happily.

"You're very nice." continued Mega, "Most ponies run from Mega. They say I'm mean and stupid. But Mega just doesn't know common language well. I was born in different country. It is nice to meet pony who's friendly out here."

"Oh come on, who wouldn't want to be your friend?" giggled Pinkie as she received her mixed drink from the bartender.

Meanwhile, Applejack and Techorse were asking around the tables for any information about the fortresses where the others were being held hostage.

Techorse sat down at a table in the middle of a card game and said, "Deal me in."

He tossed a handful of gold coins onto the table, not caring if he lost the hand. To him, the information the three colts at the table had would be worth the 15 bits he added to the pot.

One of the ponies sitting there said to him in a bootlegger's accent, "That's a pretty decent bet there, fella. Feeling rather lucky today?"

"No." replied Techorse as he picked up his cards with his hooves, "but I hope my luck changes when I go to work for Arbiter. You gents seen him lately?"

"Arbiter doesn't have any new job offerins'." said one of the ponies, "all the guard positions went like that."

"Guard positions huh?" said Techorse curiously, "where?"

"The new fort down the way, about four miles in the direction of the river." said the third gambling pony.
After drawing a couple of cards each, they all laid down their hands.

"Dang, the new guy wins." declared the leader of the three. Techorse had no clue how he had won, the game was so different from Earth poker it was impossible to tell the objectives.

He swept the golden coins in with a leg towards himself and said, "Maybe I can get all you guys a round on me." He passed the money to a staff member and got a bit of cheering from the others for his generosity.

Techorse whispered to the staff member, "I'm trying to get some information from these guys, so nothing for me thank you."

While Techorse was trying to get information by waiting for the salt licks to work it out of the patrons, Applejack used her charm. Normally she would look like a working girl without much physical appeal, but she had taken off her hat and untied her hair. She looked a little more attractive this way to the bar patrons, but tried not to frown as she saw the number of boys staring at her. Applejack only wanted information and was not flattered at all by the attention she was getting.

"Look at the hocks on her." said one of the males quietly to his friend.

Another said, "Over here sweet thing!"

She ignored the catcalls being thrown at her and walked over to the most intelligent looking pony at the bar. He was reading a magazine and enjoying a small drink of something.

Applejack put her front leg gently on the table and said, "Excuse me mister, but woulda mind talkin' to me for a moment?" The cream-coated pony looked up at Applejack and realized he was being given attention by a woman.

"I'm pretty busy." He said, playing hard to get.

Applejack hated to do what she was going to do next. She had seen Rarity do this to get attention before, and if it worked for Rarity, it would have to work for her. Applejack tilted her head a bit, moved a little closer to the stallion and batted her eyelashes gently at him.

"Please? It's awful important." she said sweetly.

The guy looked into Applejack's beautiful green eyes and asked, "What do you need to know?"

"I'm looking for a fortress." She started to cross her front legs and replied, "A big strong one."

"Take your pick lady." Replied the stallion, "There's tons out here."

"Well, the one I'm lookin' for is owned by this crazy guy with an eyepatch." said Applejack.

The stallion said suspiciously, "One of Arbiter's prisons? Why do you need to know where that is?" She pulled her front leg back and let it hit the floor with a soft clop.

"I'm supposed to take supplies there." She said, "I can see you're a big, handsome, smart pony who would know where it is."

The stallion finally caved into Applejack's charm and told her, "Why don't you come out back with me and I'll tell you where the fortress is?"

Applejack grimaced nervously and said, "Why can't you tell me in here?"

The stallion wrapped a limb around her and drew her close. She wasn't going to like his answer.

Techorse had gotten all the information he was going to get out of the intoxicated bar buddies. They were either dehydrated from salt lick or too distracted to care, so Techorse decided it was time to round up his friends and leave. As he got up from the table, he heard a horn start to charge for a magic pellet to shoot at him. It was a grey coated colt with a brown mane and hazel eyes, wearing only an orange vest around his middle. He had Techorse within his sights, and was not afraid to let a beam loose in the middle of the bar.

"Going somewhere, Techorse? Or should I say, Patterns?" asked the pony.

"Well, Coaltorch, as a matter of fact, I was just about to leave your watering hole." He replied as he backed up away from the knife.

It was too bad his new friends were horribly dehydrated from all the salt he had bought them, or they could have helped him out.

"Arbiter says you have two days to get to him before your marefriend's head comes off." continued Coaltorch.

"Oh so yesterday counted, huh?" said Techorse, expressing disbelief.

"Now." continued Coaltorch gently as he made Techorse sit down at a booth with him, "I've got an offer to make you. Arbiter may want you in two days, but he offered a reward to anypony who dragged you in early. I'm going to collect on that if I can, but it has to be a live delivery, you see." Techorse wanted to defend himself, but knew using his cannons would start a terrible brawl amongst the barflies, and that would be the worst case scenario.

"I know you're a wealthy colt, and I don't want to hurt you." Continued Coaltorch slyly, "So just give me the extra 2500 bits in a neat little check, and I'll let you go. In fact, I won't even tell a soul about our meeting here."

Pinkie Pie turned on her stool and noticed Coaltorch aiming at Techorse's neck. She gasped loudly, nearly drawing the attention of Coaltorch and the others in the bar, but she only managed to get Mega to spin around and look too.

"Who is that?" he asked. "My friend Techorse is in danger, that guy's gonna hurt him!" whispered Pinkie desperately to her new giant friend.

Mega got up from his stool and wandered over to the two.

Coaltorch spoke again to Techorse, "Well buddy, what'll it be? Give me the money, come with me, or get blasted?" Techorse saw Mega walk up behind Coaltorch, but tried not to let his eyes wander to avoid giving him away. Coaltorch pushed his horn a little closer to Techorse's neck.

"Choose!" he demanded.

Mega reared up and brought both hooves down on Coaltorch's head, crashing him through the table and leaving him rubbing his head, unable to cast any spells. The stallion in the booth behind them let go of Applejack as she jumped away from him to see what had happened.

"Who was that?" she asked, staring at the now partially unconscious Coaltorch.

"It's the guy who attacked that club we went to a while back. Remember?" said Techorse, referencing an earlier event that year.

"Oh yeah." said Applejack, "he was tryin' to get ya?"

Pinkie Pie dashed up to them and shouted, "Of course, Techorse is always fighting off bad guys!"
"Wait a minute." Said one of the bar patrons, "that's Techorse?"

"Well no duh." Said Pinkie sarcastically, "who did you think he was?"

Immediately, the other patrons tried to collect the reward on Techorse's head and approached him as a mob. Techorse drew his laser cannons and prepared to defend himself. But the mob was stopped in their tracks when Mega stepped in front of them and picked up a chair, threatening to use it as a club.

"Nobody hurts friends of Pinkie Pie." Shouted Mega angrily, "All you guys treat Mega poorly and call me stupid. But she was nice to me. If Techorse friend of Pinkie, he friend of mine too!"

The other patrons knew that they couldn't take on a titanic stallion like Mega, so they quietly sat down, and one selfless mare went to tend to the ailing Coaltorch, who had clearly learned his lesson as well.

Mega turned his head back and said to them, "Go! Find your friends."

The three ran out of the bar as quick as they could, and heard muttering as Mega returned to his seat to finish his drink.

After picking up Spike and getting a good distance from the bar, the friends rested at the base of an oak tree to put together their plan.

Applejack finished tying her hair back up and said, "Ok, what did we get out of those guys?"

Techorse answered, "There's a river nearby. If we follow it upstream for a few miles, we'll find one of the fortresses. The gamblers told me it was well-staffed, meaning we're up against plenty of guards. I'm not sure who they're keeping there, but chances are at least one of them is being held captive inside that fortress."

Techorse stopped to breathe and asked lightly, "So what did you find out?"

She replied, "I heard from that guy I was sitting with that there's a tower containing a single unicorn prisoner. He didn't tell me much more before he… made his move on me." Applejack shuddered as she looked at the ground.

Spike pounded his right fist into his other hand and said angrily, "That tower must be where Rarity's been locked up!"

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down impatiently, "Let's choose a jail and get going! We can save somepony today if we hurry!"

"Since we don't know where the tower is, let's go for that fortress first!" suggested Spike.

"Good idea." Replied Techorse, letting the dragon climb onto his back. As they galloped towards the location of the river, Techorse made sure Spike could hear him say, "Once we get there, if we get into battle and you want to use your fire breath while mounted, go ahead. I've always wanted a flamethrower."

"Very funny." replied Spike, not really appreciating the joke.

The river was not too far away, so they stopped at the bank and looked down the wandering body of water to see if they could locate the fortress described by the gamblers. While at some point the river must have been clean and inviting, it was now extremely dirty and unsanitary to drink.

"The fortress must be located upriver from here." said Techorse.

"How do you know that?" asked Spike.

He explained his answer, "The water is polluted from something, probably sewage from upstream."

Pinkie Pie was about to dive into the river for a fun swim, but as soon as she heard the word "sewage", she stuck her tongue out and backed off from the bank.

"Ew." She said, "Doesn't Arbiter know not to build toilets over rivers? It scares away all the fish and makes the water all icky."

"I think he could care less about the environment." said Techorse, "That being said, I'm starting to wonder if he's also behind the recent coal production surge."

"We can talk about rocks and toilets after we rescue our friends." urged Spike.

"Let's keep moving then." sighed Applejack, “Ah sure hope the polluted water doesn't cause other problems for Equestria.”

The team turned north and walked along the banks of the adulterated river, looking sadly at the condition the fortress's sewer system had put the work of nature in. Following the winding water north brought them to the fortress at last. The structure was surrounded a small grove of trees, but was tall enough to avoid being completely hidden by them. All in all, it was roughly the size of a football stadium, a decent size for a newly built prison house. It was shaped like one large castle turret, featuring only a few barred windows against the white painted stone. On one side of the building were two large gears, which turned occasionally to open the drawbridge over the moat and let a guard in or out. And as they feared, the moat was connected to the river and contaminated it with sewage from the latrine holes cut in the sides of the building.

The team hid behind some of the trees to discuss how to get inside.

"Let's make a plan." said Applejack quietly.

Techorse nodded and let the turbofans that let him fly slide out of his saddle. "I'll fly over to those gears and mess with them. Once the front gate is down, get in there. I will try to meet up with you later."

Spike pointed to the two guards standing in front of the moat and asked, "How are we going to get by them? They look tough!"

Pinkie Pie was already making a run for the front gate.

"No!" called Applejack, but it was far too late.

Techorse lifted into the air and said, "Let her go, it will distract them and buy me time so I can get the door for you. Just make sure Pinkie doesn't get hurt."

Applejack nodded and turned to Spike.

He crossed his arms and said, "She's going to get captured, isn't she?"

"Yup." replied Applejack.

Pinkie jumped in front of the guards, who immediately gave her a strange look.

"Hi boys!" she said happily, "how's the night shift going?"

"Who are you?" asked the first guard, "and how did you find this fortress?"

Pinkie said, "I followed the river up here, I wanted to swim in it, but it was too dirty!"

The guards looked at each other and didn't really know what to do, she clearly wasn't really any threat, but shouldn't be at the jail either.

The second guard looked back at Pinkie and said, "Uh, maybe you should just go back. There's really nothing to see here."

Pinkie Pie tried to raise her head above the guards.

"What don't you want me to see? What don't you want me to see?" she kept asking over and over in a squeaky voice.

Techorse made it to the two gears and landed gently on top of the second one. Working carefully, he switched to his robotic arms and started moving the first gear slowly to the right. As it twisted, he had to step gently to the left to avoid falling off into the moat.

"Look, ma’am. Go away!" demanded the first guard.

"But why!" whined Pinkie, "I just wanna see your castle! It looks like fun!"

"No one's allowed inside!" insisted the second guard, "especially not annoying folks like you."

Pinkie Pie let tears well up in her eyes.

"Annoying?" she sniffed.

A split second of silence went by before she closed her eyes tightly and screamed, "WAAAAAHH!"

Pinkie let streams of tears fly everywhere as she threw her tantrum.

"Great, you made her bawl you moron." said the first guard as he smacked his imbecile coworker on the chin.

"I don't hardly believe this." Commented Applejack as she and Spike watched the scene from behind the tree. "Pinkie Pie is actually holdin' them off."

"Fine, fine!" shouted the first guard in frustration, "If it makes you stop crying, we'll show you the main lobby. But you can't visit the prisoners."

"Yay!" cheered Pinkie, stopping her crying immediately.

The guards threw a lever and the drawbridge began to descend. But Techorse was still on top of the first gear, and he was drawn towards the meshing of the two. Luckily, a quick jump in the air followed by a midair switch to his fans brought him safely to the ground and out of harm's way.

Techorse waved on Applejack and Spike, and they followed him quietly across the drawbridge, making sure the guards couldn't hear or see them. When they got inside, the drawbridge began to rise slowly again behind them. Applejack snuck up behind the first guard, ready to take him out. She turned around and bucked him in the back of the neck, sending him skidding across the floor into a garbage bin. Spike spat a fireball at the second guard and lit his tail. He panicked and ran around the room before finally jumping out a window and into the moat to extinguish the flame.

"Ok, that takes care of those two." said Techorse, "good shooting Spike."

"Thanks" he replied, letting a wisp of smoke escape from his left nostril.

Pinkie Pie turned around and said, "Hey, you guys made it! Looks like my plan worked."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that was an elaborate plan to get us inside the fortress?" asked Techorse, "I thought it was just a distraction effort!"

Pinkie said, "No silly! That was my plan, and it worked! What, do you think I'm stupid?"

Techorse looked to the side and said, "Not stupid, just.. that was a little wacky for a plan.”

"We're wastin' time." warned Applejack, "We need to find our friends and get out of here before more guards come."

"Let's fan out and try to find them." ordered Techorse, "If we split up, we'll search faster."

"No that's a mistake!" said Spike, "We'll be on our own and in trouble if something happens.."

“Probably ought to listen to Spike,” urged Applejack, “We don't know how many guards they still have. If we stay together, we'll be safer.”

“We'll do it that way then,” settled Techorse.

The lobby of the prison building contained very little, just a few torches for light and two staircases leading to separate halves of the cells. Pinkie Pie let an ear perk up as she heard the footsteps of soldiers.

"Take the right one!" she shouted, "they're gonna come through the left!"

The team rushed up the right side staircase and up onto a wooden platform suspended over a massive portcullis-like structure below.

"What's that for, safety?" asked Spike as he pointed to the mesh.

"I think so. Nothing could get out of that cage." replied Applejack. Techorse noticed that the portcullis grid above the cells was almost like a birdcage in appearance. He had a feeling as to which of his friends were trapped here.

"How are we going to get down there without jumping?" asked Pinkie as she looked around for a way down. Spike found a small wooden lever on the platform and pulled it. The platform started to slide down on a set of cables it was hanging from.

"Good thinking Spike." said Techorse, using a robotic hand to punch him gently on the shoulder.

The platform made its way down the cable at a 45 degree angle. Below, a section of the cage opened up, and the platform sunk below the portcullis. As soon as they were past the aperture, it closed again to prevent escape. When the platform touched the stone floor, the friends disembarked and began searching the cells together.

"We have to hurry before the patrols return!" shouted Applejack.

"Right." Replied Spike, "Techorse, check the cells on that side of the room." The dragon pointed to the other set of cells.

"You got it." Replied Techorse as he galloped off to the other side of the massive rooms.

Confusion swept them as not a single cell contained any of their friends.

"I don't get it!" said Pinkie, "are they hiding in there?"

"Rainbow Dash!" called Spike, "Fluttershy, where are you guys?" Techorse opened up his saddle and two small conic lights emerged, illuminating the last cell. The room was empty. He shut the small lights off and shook his head sadly.

"They're not in any of these cells. Something's wrong here."

"I'll say something's wrong here!" shouted a voice from above.

Looking up, the friends saw a new pony who had come out of nowhere. The unicorn opened a gate on the cage structure over the cells and jumped through, where he landed with a loud thud on the cold stones of the dungeon floor.

He looked up at Spike and said, "I've got uninvited guests in my prison.”

Spike recognized the unicorn and pointed at him, "Hey, you're the delivery guy!"

"It was a disguise you dope." Replied the unicorn slyly, "and a poor one at that. I'm surprised you and that stupid librarian of yours fell for that."

To Applejack's surprise, Techorse did not immediately riddle the unicorn's body with laser bolts for his insult.

"And who might you be?" asked Applejack.

He replied, "My name is Keeper, I'm the jailer."

"You work for Arbiter, don't you?" asked Pinkie suspiciously.

"No dip." replied Keeper in a mean tone, "With that comment, I find it amazing that you know how to breathe on your own."

Techorse shouted at him, "That's enough trash talk. After all, you're the moron who let himself get surrounded. There's 4 of us and only 1 of you." Techorse let his laser cannons sprout with a metallic whir and trained them on Keeper.

In response, he pushed a specially marked stone on the floor and jumped in the air to avoid the attacks of the four. Techorse blasted away with his lasers, missing Keeper left and right as he moved quickly around the room.

"Man he's fast!" commented Spike as he prepared to breath flame at the bad guy.

Techorse stopped firing to allow a chance for the others to strike without getting them caught in the crossfire. Applejack charged at the enemy and lowered her head for a brutal charging attack. Keeper saw this and fired a bolt of energy from his horn. The projectile struck Applejack's head and sent her into a cartwheel which halted her charge. Spike jumped over Applejack's tangled body and spat a rope of green flames all around him. The unicorn pony rolled to the right and quickly used a magic spell to toss a brick at Spike.

The brick impacted Spike on his body, and although his tough scales protected him, the force of the blow knocked the wind out of him and stopped him from breathing any more fire. Pinkie Pie took three skips and bounced high into the air, nearly knocking her head on the portcullis before coming down on Keeper's back. She pushed him to the ground, and then kept bouncing up and down on him like a trampoline to inflict as much damage as possible.

Techorse cheered, "You got him, Pinkie! Keep it up."

Keeper spoke between getting hopped on, "You... haven't... won... yet…" Pinkie Pie stopped jumping and pinned the colt to the ground as Techorse walked up to question him.

The laser cannons came back out of the saddle, and pitched down at his head. "Where are our friends?"

Suddenly, a dozen guards arrived in the room and surrounded them. One of the guards was soaking wet, obviously the one who jumped in the river, and angrily grabbed Pinkie Pie, dragging her kicking and screaming off of Keeper.

"Excellent timing troops. Looks like the alarm stone I pushed worked" saidthe jailer.

Techorse gave the guards a dirty look as he powered down his weapons and stowed them again.

"What should we do with them?" asked one of the guards.

One of them cruelly suggested, "We could throw them out the windows."

"We need to hold them here." replied Keeper, "Just toss them in with the others in the double cell. But first take that weapon off the green one, it nearly fried me!"

The team was taken away up a secret staircase, to the double cell Keeper had mentioned. Once there at the entrance, a small steel grate door with heavy lead locks, Techorse's saddle was removed from him and dropped at the foot of the door. The guards shoved them all inside and closed the door gently, if they slammed it, the locks could have been damaged. A loud click locked the cell doors and sealed them inside. Applejack got a good look around the jail cell. For being part of a prison, it was very well stocked. There were multiple cots, a sink, and a small bathroom. If intimidation and horror was the goal of the cell designer, he had failed his task miserably. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sleeping on the beds, but woke up as soon as they heard the locking of the door.

"Hey!" said Rainbow as she jumped off her cot, "you made it!"

Fluttershy said softly, "Oh, you're finally here to rescue us. I was getting worried that you'd never show up."

"I couldn't leave you here." Techorse told her, "You're our friends."

"So, did you beat up all the guards and cut us an escape route?" asked Rainbow, sure Techorse had woven a master plan.

"Actually, we just got our sorry behinds captured." Admitted Applejack, "but we're glad you're ok and well taken care of."

Spike walked deeper into the room and said, "Yeah, it's like Arbiter doesn't want you to rot or something. He just wants to keep you here."

"This place isn't creepy at all!" said Pinkie Pie, "I could live here if it wasn't called a jail."

Techorse asked, "Have they tried starving you?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head, "We still get plates of grain every couple hours. They're not trying anything to torture us. Fluttershy's plate of food even had a piece of fruit on it."

"Strange." said Spike.

"Not to me." said Techorse, "Arbiter doesn't really want you to suffer, just me. He has some kind of standards, so it only makes sense he'd order his minions to treat you somewhat nicely."

"I still want to get out of here." assured Fluttershy, "it's still a little sad being locked up."

"Imagine how Rarity feels." Mumbled Applejack, certain she was complaining the guards in the other fortress to death.

"How are we going to escape?" asked Rainbow Dash, "they took off your saddle."

Techorse looked back at the door and said, "But the guards left it a little too close to the door. I'll have it down in a minute."

He walked over to the metal gate and lied down on the cold tile floor of the cell. Making sure his head was as close to the saddle as possible, he issued the mental command to activate the lasers. The guns emerged from the gadget and tilted upwards towards the locks. A few more thoughts activated the steel tubes, and the beams cut right through the lock. Techorse then got back up and casually pushed the door open.

"Let's go before Keeper comes back." He said.

They rushed out of the cell and looked around for a way out of the building.

"Rainbow Dash, take Fluttershy and fly out a window." ordered Applejack.

"We can't leave you guys in here." Replied Rainbow Dash, "we stick together and make sure no one gets left behind."

"Ok, but be careful!" she replied.

Techorse found a different staircase headed to another section of the fortress. "Let's go this way." He suggested, "If we go back the way we came, we'll get caught again."

The team moved for the staircase and descended quickly, trying not to make a lot of noise. As they reached the base, they came out into this open area, a platform made of concrete surrounded by very deep chasms. Below the river ran, and several pipes jutted into the area, dumping sewage and other wastewater into the water, turning it brown.

"Wow, a walkway over a bottomless pit." said Pinkie Pie as she peered over the edge, "how cliché!"

"The walkway's large enough that we shouldn't fall." said Rainbow Dash, "besides, I can just fly down and grab you."

"We have to keep moving!" shouted Techorse, already galloping across the concrete for the rear exit of the prison. The team was stopped as wooden elevators rose from the chasms, on each platform, a dozen guards rushed into the middle to stop them.

"Ambush!" said Spike as he looked around, "that guy's smarter than we thought!"

"Of course I am you stupid dragon." said Keeper as he entered the room from behind them.

"Let us go. It's not worth keeping us here." said Fluttershy to the jailer.

"You'd think so, being the harmless girls you are." said Keeper, "but my leader's orders are to keep you and Rainbow Dash here, miss Fluttershy. I don't make the rules you see, I just follow them."

The guards snatched them again, and Techorse grunted as he reluctantly surrendered. He just couldn't bring himself to gun down the guards, who were pretty much innocent in his mind because they were only obeying their orders too.

"It doesn't have to be this way! We've outsmarted your defenses twice now, and we'll do it again." he said.

"You won't get the chance." replied Keeper as he got close to Techorse, "I know Arbiter wants to see you personally, Mr. Techorse. So I plan on bolting you up in a special containment unit that will prevent you from using that gadget of yours to escape again."

One of the guards brought out special wooden cuffs and clamped them around Fluttershy's front legs. She screamed loudly, piercing the guard's ears and filling the outside of the fortress with the shrieking sound. A mighty dragon, busy foraging for gems to add to his horde, heard the screams coming from the fortress behind him.

"That screaming sounds familiar." He thought as he turned and spotted the jail.

Keeper stuffed a ball of cloth into Fluttershy's mouth to gag her.

"Oh stop it." He said, "You're going back to your cells now."

Rainbow Dash lifted up in the air to avoid getting nabbed by the guards, but one threw a rope around her hind legs and brought her crashing down.

"This one keeps trying to fly away, shall we clip her wings sir?" asked the guard as he held onto Rainbow.

"No." he replied," we need to keep the prisoners in good condition."

Spike said to Keeper with a tough voice, "You think you've beaten us? I can still stop you."

"Oh please." Replied Keeper, "what's one little dragon going to do?"

In an act of irony, the 30 foot dragon standing outside burst through the walls of the prison, knocking large stone bricks all over the crowd. One of the bricks broke the cuffs on Fluttershy's legs, and she spat out the gag. All the guards panicked and scattered as the stones crashed down, leaving Keeper to face the beast alone. The golden, monstrous reptile roared and breathed flame to chase away the remaining minions out of the building. The heroes bunched together and stepped back from the middle of the platform as they watched the violence. Keeper panicked as the dragon looked directly at him, and fired a bolt from his horn, impacting the gold dragon on the right wing. He screamed in a bit of pain, but then extended his neck and made a lunge at him. The pony ran from the dragon, but the beast kept snapping its jaws at him from behind.

Keeper continued to flee down the large concrete platform; the dragon had smashed his way through part of it and lunged one more time, attempting to catch him. This time, the pony was scooped up in its maw, and he screamed loudly in mortal terror. Unfortunately for him, his sudden movements caused him to fly back a little too far, and he was lodged in the dragon's throat. The monster reared back and started choking, sitting back down at the edge of the platform. Most of the team winced, that was not a very pleasant way to go.

"Shoot, I think I swallowed him." said the dragon as he grabbed at his throat. Rainbow Dash recognized the dragon's voice.

"Yorgle?" she asked, "Is that you?"

"In the scales." He replied.

Pinkie Pie's mouth was hanging open in horror, "Yorgle, how could you? I thought you were a nice dragon, but you just ate that guy like he was a cookie!"

"I didn't mean too, honest. The simpleton rammed himself down my throat!" explained Yorgle.

Techorse asked, "Never mind that, what are you doing here?"

"Well I heard Fluttershy there screaming her lungs out, and I decided to check it out." continued the dragon in his deep voice. "When I looked in here and saw you in trouble, I knew I had to do something. I didn't forget about that lovely sapphire your friend Rarity gifted me for my horde."

Spike couldn't contain his excitement any longer.

"Wow!" he said, "finally, another dragon on our side!" Yorgle brought his head down to Spike's level and asked him, "And who are you? Haven't seen you before."

"I'm Spike." He replied, "Nice to meet you, Yorgle."

"Ah, you must be the dragon that Twilight knows, she was there that day you broke into my cave." Said Yorgle, "I was hoping she would have let you visit my home so we could meet, but this is just as good I guess."

Techorse explained to the dragon, "We're out here to rescue our team from someone. Spike's friend, the purple-coated one as you called her, was captured too."

Yorgle said, "That's unfortunate, but I'm glad I could help you a little bit tonight."

"Yeah, thanks for busting us out, literally." said Rainbow Dash, observing the completely destroyed wall.

"You're quite welcome." replied the dragon.

Techorse said, "All we have to do now before heading for Arbiter's castle is to rescue Rarity from her tower."

"Where is it?" asked Fluttershy. His smile disappeared as he realized they had no idea where the tower was. "Well, there was one pony who knew where it was, but we can't question him now." He said.

Yorgle sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to do that, I was just going to stop him from running away, but he struggled."

Yorgle started choking again, and realized that Keeper was actually stuck on top of his trachea, likely holding on for dear life. He held onto his throat and coughed several times, giving Applejack an idea.

She was still deeply disturbed by the entire scenario, but said with disgust, "Maybe you can, well, cough 'em up?"

Pinkie Pie shouted, "Yeah, it looks like he went down the wrong way!”

"All right." said Yorgle, "I'll try." Before he started, he decided to add, "But for the record, I didn't intend this.”

"We believe you." Said Applejack, "Now spit him up.”

Yorgle stuck a sharpened claw down his throat and hacked a couple of times before finally regurgitating Keeper onto the remains of the concrete platform.

"Gross." said Fluttershy as she looked at the mess.

"Cool!" cheered Pinkie, finding weird things rather interesting. Keeper opened his eyes and stood up shaking from the pool of phlegm, scared out of his wits. Techorse took out his robotic hands and grabbed the mucus-soaked Keeper by the horn.

Lifting him up into the air, he pulled the other fist back and said, "Ok you, we got you out of there so we could get some information, so spit it out, Keeper."

"What do you want to know?" he asked slowly, trying not to look at Yorgle again.

"Where's the other prison?" asked Techorse angrily as he pulled him closer to his face, "tell me or you're going back in there."

Keeper panicked and screamed, "The other tower's on the other side of the forest! I swear I'm telling the truth!"

"He's lying." said Applejack, "there's nothin' on the other side of that forest."

Techorse picked him up off the ground, "Well in that case, open wide Yorgle."

"No!" shrieked Keeper.

He broke down into tears, "Ok, I'll tell you. The tower is built on the top of the mountain 3 miles in the direction of the arrow sign outside of this fortress. Now please let me go!"

Techorse released his grip on him and watched as he ran from the room crying in psychological terror.
"Now that we know where the tower is, let's go save Rarity!" declared Spike.

"It's night." stated Fluttershy as she looked outside, "Maybe we should think about staying put for now."

"We can use the guard's quarters." Suggested Techorse, "I think every last one of Arbiter's minions fled for his castle."

"Then it's settled." said Applejack, "We'll sleep and head out first thing in the morning."

Fluttershy flapped her wings and floated gently into the air in front of Yorgle.

She gave him a hug on the nose and said sweetly, "Thank you so much for helping us."

"Take care, and good luck saving your friends." Said the dragon as he pulled back from Fluttershy.

He then sheepishly asked for a favor, “Oh, and, don't tell anyone about me nearly choking to death on that pony. I have some dignity to uphold you know.”

“Our lips our sealed!” giggled Pinkie Pie.

With that, Yorgle thanked them again, and flew off into the night sky while his friends preapred to spend the night in the fortress they had just conquered.

Arbiter's castle reflected the moon well. Its white stone bounced the light perfectly for a dazzling effect. The massive home spanned a mile on each side at least and was made entirely out of stone mined directly from the surrounding mountains. Everywhere on the castle were turrets and lookout points to defend it from anyone stupid enough to attack. A large moat filled with ordinary water surrounded the fortress, and the only way in from the ground was across a special drawbridge which oddly slid out from underneath the castle and across the moat, rather than swinging down. This allowed for a more decorative door on the front, which was painted a crimson red color and decorated with gold swirling designs on the front. From many of the castle towers flew flags bearing Arbiter's cutie mark, an executioner's axe. Yet no statues of the stallion or any other images of him appeared on the castle, because although he appreciated the flags which bore his logo, he was simply not that egotistical and found it psychopathic to want a billion self portraits. All in all, the castle was not a creepy place, but its size could definitely cause fear in Arbiter's enemies. Every hour on the hour, a mining probe would pass by the castle, its cargo bays full of the coal which was making the resident of the land very wealthy. The probes never seemed to acknowledge the fortress, instead mindlessly following their programming to sell the coal at the nearest power plants.

As one of the mining probes drove by, rumbling the foundations of that side of the castle, Twilight Sparkle looked out her prison window at the massive machine.

"That looks like a giant version of Techorse's mining probes." She thought as she stared at the worm-like behemoth.

Twilight cast a light spell to provide a beam to see the probe more clearly. From the outside of the castle, a soft cone of lavender colored light illuminated the probe. The cutting head of the machine kept turning slowly as the machine crawled forward, cutting small grooves to run on. As she looked down the body of the probe, Twilight spotted its cargo bay and noticed the vast amounts of coal behind the plexiglass pane. As the probes cut into the surrounding mountains, any captured materials were sucked into the plastic containment unit located midsection on the probe. By finding the massive amounts of coal in the cargo bay, Twilight immediately knew who was behind the amounts of coal being burned. She kept staring at the machine until a moment came when the robot realized it was being watched. It stopped and scared Twilight back into her room by sounding a loud blast on its horn. She ducked back into the room and breathed heavily for a minute before calming down. After recovering from the shock of the blast, Twilight went back into her room. Like the rooms at Keeper's fortress, it was rather accommodating for a prison cell. Not only was she given a bathroom and a bed, Twilight also had a desk to right on, as well as some parchment and a quill. Writing was the only thing keeping her from going insane while under Arbiter's captivity. Twilight sighed, walked over to the desk, and wrote a new message.

"If you have found this, I am being held captive in the horseshoe mountains. The rouge Captain Arbiter has locked me up in his castle. Contact princess Celestia immediately. – Twilight Sparkle."

Arbiter's unicorns had put a spell on the castle which prevented her from using any teleportation spells to escape, and that included teleporting the message to Celestia. However, Techorse had taught her on one of their dates how to make a paper airplane, and that was finally going to come in handy. Twilight used her magic to fold the parchment into a plane carefully, making sure not to crease the paper too hard in any one direction. Then, she walked over to the window again and peeked out carefully to make sure the mining probe had left. Noticing the metallic giant had moved away and was now in the distance Twilight checked the wind flow, letting the breeze drift gently over her dark purple straight hair. A telekinetic toss sent the message plane out the window and far away from the castle, where it disappeared into the night.

The door to her room was beginning to unlock. Twilight turned around to face the door as it opened with a slam. At the door were two light yellow unicorns, who stepped aside to let their master enter the room. Arbiter entered slowly and walked up to Twilight without saying a word initially. He was a white Pegasus pony, significantly larger than most, with a short gray mane that was well groomed. But his tail looked almost like a rope that had seen better days. What was most prominent about Arbiter was his eyes, although his right one was a beautiful brown, his left eye was damaged. Arbiter had a scar across his left eye at a 30 degree angle downwards, a claw or some other object had scratched the eye out. To hide the ugly injury, he wore an eye patch over it.

Arbiter looked at the saddened Twilight and said to her, "Good evening miss Sparkle. I see you're adjusting to your room quite nicely."

"Can it Arbiter." Replied Twilight sharply, "when Techorse gets here, you're going to wish you hadn't locked me up."

Arbiter laughed and said, "I know he'll be quite angry. But he doesn't really scare me, for you see, I have you. If he does so much as lift a single hoof, I'll simply have to do you in. You've already lost a little hair for his arrogance."

Twilight looked back at her tail. Arbiter had cut off a small piece of the hair to send in the ransom package, and she was a little upset about it.

"It will grow back." said Twilight as she looked back to him. The stallion smiled and made sure he was standing taller than Twilight when he said, "Do you know why I'm doing this whole thing?"

"My coltfriend got you fired and you want revenge?" asked Twilight rhetorically, she was sure that was the right answer. "

On the contrary." Replied Arbiter, "I merely wish to rid the planet of the last threat to its safety, the half-human, half-pony. I could care less about my old job, because I made this land rich by stealing those machines and mining up all this coal."

Twilight said to him with anger, "I knew you were behind the coal. You do know that burning the coal is going to damage the environment forever, right?"

Arbiter shook his head and said, "Twilight, Twilight, you foolish little mare. I have plenty of pegasi who would be happy to clean up the pollution if need be. They'll be paid top money for their efforts."

"But those fumes could give them wing cancer!" protested Twilight, "you monster!"

"I am not the monster!" shouted Arbiter, "It's that stupid Techorse, he's a human, and I must make him pay for what his people did to this world!"

Twilight slapped Arbiter in the head and said to him, "Then why are you using their machines to dig up all this coal? Seems hypocritcal to me.”

Arbiter stuck his leg out and kept his guards from rushing to defend him. He shook the slap off and monologued in a sinister tone, "I have made my life the best it's ever been by salvaging the alien technology and employing it to serve ponykind. The ponies from this country of Quartz Valley have had their lives improved too. Until I came here, they were poor coal miners, nothing, dirt beneath Celestia's hooves. She didn't care for them at all, and their towns aren't even on the maps. But I did what was noble and brought them out of the dirt, the money from this extra coal will make them loved for once in their lives!"

"You can't buy love." said Twilight softly. Arbiter threw his black cape around him as he turned to leave.

Before he exited the cell, he said to her, "I want you to know something. No matter how much you annoy me and say I'm in the wrong, I'm not going to hurt you. But if Techorse doesn't show up and meet his rightful fate, I will not hold back. He has two days."

Arbiter stormed out of the room. As the unicorns following him left, one of them turned around to shut the door behind them. Twilight's ears drooped when she saw the last guard draw a hoof across his neck to make the universal symbol for death. He then shut the door with a slam, leaving her all alone again.

The morning sun had finally risen over the remains of the first fortress. Yorgle's smashing had destroyed roughly half of the structure and the drawbridge was permanently lowered due to the damage. The friends woke up from inside the barracks and proceeded out of the fortress immediately, as time was of the essence. They knew the longer they took to rescue Rarity, the more she would complain about how late they were in achieving it. As they stepped outside into the sunlight, Techorse took a deep breath in of the warm air.

"Let's get moving." He said, looking at all his team members, "we don't want to keep her waiting in that tower."

Applejack said to him, "I'll say. Miss pretty-pretty is going to be awful cranky when we get there."

"Hey, maybe all the guards will have passed out from her whining! We might not need to rescue her at all." joked Pinkie Pie.

"Would you guys stop slamming Rarity?" asked Spike angrily. Techorse told Spike, "We're just trying to make a dangerous mission a little comical, ok?"

"Yeah." agreed Rainbow Dash, "Everypony needs a little humor."

"Ok, but stop the insults." said Spike grudgingly.

"You got it, lover boy." teased Rainbow Dash, using her flight skills to draw a small heart in the air.

Spike groaned and jumped off of Techorse's back, "I'm walking on my own."

"You sure?" he asked, swinging his tail over the dragon's head.

"Positive." Replied Spike with a grumpy tone.

"Hey Techorse, I've noticed you've been using your tail a lot more lately." said Pinkie Pie, taking note of the swing.

He replied, "I never thought about it before, but it's actually pretty neat having one."

"You bet it is!" continued Pinkie Pie, "in fact, I wrote a song about having a tail!"

"Oh no, here it comes." said Applejack mournfully, shutting her eyes in preparation for the agony.

Pinkie Pie started singing, "The best thing about having a tail, is it acts like a safety rail! It keeps you from falling over when you stumble around!"

Techorse chuckled and shook his head gently. He was always amused by Pinkie's singing. The others were very annoyed by the pink pony's tunes though.

"It keeps the bugs from biting! A swish from it is so inviting!"

"Make her stop!" said Spike, covering his scaly ears.

"Why?" laughed Techorse, "her positive attitude makes me happy."

Fluttershy quietly said to Techorse, "I agree. Without her, we'd all be very sad."

"And that's why it's so great to have a tail!" finished Pinkie Pie, who bent over on her front legs and gave her fluffy tail a couple of swings through the air, tickling Applejack's nose.

"Enough nonsense!" she said as she pushed Pinkie Pie's rump out of the way of her path.

"Grumpy." mumbled Pinkie Pie as she fell behind the rest of the group.

"Don't be upset.” whispered Fluttershy, "I liked your song."

"Thanks!" she said as she gave Fluttershy a smile.

Techorse noticed that Rainbow Dash was way ahead of the group, her flight was allowing her to move much faster than the others. He thought of a trick he could play to deal with his boredom and brought out the turbofans. He lifted off the ground gently and inverted himself in the air, then flew underneath of Rainbow Dash and looked up at her.

Techorse matched Rainbow's flying speed and made sure he was directly beneath her when he shouted, "How's it going?" Rainbow Dash halted in midair before shouting in surprise and looked down at him.

"You scared me!" she said.

"Stop getting ahead of us then." said Techorse.

"How are you even flying upside down like that?" asked Rainbow Dash, "that saddle of yours can't really be as good as a pair of wings."

"That's right, they're not as powerful as your wings." explained Techorse, "but I put a gyroscope in the saddle that lets me fly inverted like this without crashing."

Rainbow shook her head and fell back to rejoin the others. Techorse flipped himself over and landed on the ground gently, then with a robotic clang, the fans slipped back into the saddle and the panels closed up over them.

"When do we get to the tower?" asked Pinkie Pie, looking at the surrounding terrain.

"Soon enough" replied Applejack.

"There's gotta be a way we can make this go faster!" she answered.

"We can, by staying really quiet!" encouraged Fluttershy.

Techorse sighed heavily due to his frustration with his team's lack of tolerance for Pinkie's antics.

"The tower should be on top of that mountain up ahead." He said to his friends. "It's obscured right now by the fog up there, but once we get up, we'll be able to see it."

Applejack asked Techorse calmly, "When we get to Arbiter's castle, Techorse, will you, ya know, have to…"

"Go ahead and ask whatever it is you want to, Applejack." said Techorse as he looked at her.

Rainbow Dash flew beside Techorse and said bluntly, "I think she wants to know if you're gonna shoot him."

Techorse gave her a shocked look, partially out of disgust for her wanting to attack Arbiter, but also because of how nonchalantly she'd suggested the idea.

The pegasus went off topic immediately, "Oh! Last night, I had this awesome dream where we stormed into Arbiter's castle, and you guys were all tied up by him! So I swooped in and saved the day, pounding that evil stallion without stopping! He begged for mercy, but I wouldn't let him have any. I was given a medal at his funeral."

Techorse glared at Rainbow Dash and said sternly, "Hey, I don't want to do Arbiter in, and neither should you!"

"But he locked us up, and might hurt Twilight!" said Rainbow Dash, "that doesn't make you mad?"

"It does." He replied bitterly, "but that's no reason to hurt him. I'm really ashamed of you, Rainbow Dash, having fun with a dream like that. Despite his kidnapping and threats, Arbiter is only doing what he thinks is right. I plan on settling this issue peacefully by proving his suspicions of me wrong."

"What if you can't?" asked Rainbow, "Huh?"

Techorse said sadly, "Then I'll have to let him do what he wants to me. I won't let Twilight get hurt."

He sighed and let a tear hit the ground. "Maybe it seems like this is an adventure where a guy goes and rescues his girl. But very likely, Twilight's going to have to rescue me in the end. If Arbiter won't let her go without me kicking the bucket first, I have no choice but to do that."

Techorse felt like he was going to cry, and his friends got closer to him to help cheer him up.

"He's really breaking down." said Fluttershy. She stroked the mane on his neck to comfort him, "there there, we won't let him hurt you."

"I don't see why he's so upset." said Spike. "Same reason you're upset."

Applejack told him, "The girl he loves is in danger, and he feels bad about it."

Spike nervously asked, "How did you know about me and Rarity?"

"We all know you have feelings for her, silly!" giggled Pinkie Pie, "we just don't say much because it's kinda rude.”

Spike shrugged and muttered to himself, clearly a bit concerned.

"Spike, get up on my back, we can go ahead of the others and talk if you want." Techorse suggested. The dragon climbed up onto him, and they pulled at least 200 feet in front of the others.”

"Thanks for this." said the young dragon.

He then sighed and said with despair, "but I guess they're right. What chance do I have with Rarity?" Techorse said, "I didn't think I had much of a chance finding someone else either when I was being held captive by Wizard."

"Yeah, but your change is forever." He said, "Those 'scales of justice' granted your wish. It was your choice."

"Maybe the scales did grant me the favor." Argued Techorse, "but that doesn't mean your dream of starting a relationship with Rarity is doomed. I have faith that things will turn out for you, Spike."

Spike crossed his arms and turned around on the saddle, saying sadly, "Thanks bro, but you're an element holder, and I'm just a small dragon with no future."

“That's not true at all.” he replied, “You do have a future. I think there is a way for you to succeed. Of course, you may just have to wait until you're a bit older. It takes a while for the future to get here, otherwise it wouldn't be called the future.”

“Hey, maybe you're right,” said Spike, smiling, “It might just take some more time.”

“That's what I think.” he answered.

Spike felt a lot better about his situation, and asked, "You know, why do you love Twilight so much?" he asked after a short pause, hoping to gain some romance tips.

"She saved my life." He replied, "And for that I owe her everything I am. She's also the most beautiful pony I know, with the best personality ever. That's why I'm going on this mission, despite knowing what Arbiter will do to me. I couldn't live without her, so if I can't live, maybe at least she can."

“Don't think that way.” he said with encouragement, “We're going to get out of this.”

“I hope you're right.” answered Techorse, leading the way towards the tower ahead.

To be concluded...

#12 - Captain Arbiter's Revenge: Part II

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Captain Arbiter's Revenge: Part II

Techorse Series: #12

By Spirals95

The tower on the mountain stood ominously against the sun, casting a large shadow on the valley below. It was a vertical structure designed to prevent the escape of flightless occupants in particular, taking advantage of gravity. Any captive dumb enough to attempt escape would likely plummet onto the sharp mountain rocks below. It was made out of white stone from the mountains, and was topped by a large red cubic roof, making it more of a keep than a true tower. It was here that Rarity was being held captive at the very top, inside a room accessible only by the massive spiral staircase inside. Although the tower had other cells along the way up, they were empty as the building was commissioned specifically for this one plan. More guards patrolled the inside of the tower and around the perimeter. Most of the forces were comprised of earth ponies and unicorns, as the unmarked lands were home to very few pegasi due to the lack of floating cities nearby. They patrolled mindlessly around the area, bored, but with happiness in their hearts, their lands would finally get recognition under Arbiter's leadership. Occasionally they would trade shifts and some of them would go inside the tower and walk up and down the stairs, while the others would circle the base. The team of heroes found themselves looking at the tower from behind a boulder, carefully looking at the massive wooden doors.

"How are we gonna get in this time?" asked Applejack.

Techorse opened his mouth to speak his plan but was interrupted by Spike's snoring, so he shook his back to wake him up. Apparently the young dragon had fallen asleep on his back on the way to the fortress.

"Get up Spike, plan time." He said. The dragon opened his eyes and fell off in shock, thankfully landing behind the boulder without being seen.

"Ok, I'm up!" he said as he got off the ground and rubbed the sore leg he crushed from falling.

"Good, it's time to make a plan." said Rainbow Dash. She peeked over the top of the boulder and looked straight up the tower, seeing a large window with bars at the top.

"I could just fly up there." She said to the others, "but they've barred up the windows."

"We could try sneaking inside." suggested Fluttershy.

"The problem is that it's broad daylight and they probably know who we are." Said Techorse, "if we were to try to sneak in, chances are we'd get caught."

"Ooh! I know!" shouted Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down.

"Yes Pinkie?" Acknowledged Applejack grudgingly, knowing a stupid idea was imminent.

"We should try pretending we've been captured ourselves, and then they'd let us in! We just have to disguise two of us as the capturers."

Rainbow dash got a little upset, "that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard!"

"No, she's right." Said Techorse happily, "That idea worked once in an old Earth book I read."

"Books ain't real life!" protested Applejack.

"Yeah, but those guards haven't seen a single Earth book." He retorted, "It might work on them."

"Fine, we'll try it." said Applejack reluctantly.

"Ok then, we'll need disguises." said Techorse as he looked at Pinkie and Applejack, "Grab some mud over there and blot out your cutie marks. Arbiter has his guards trained to identify ours, so you have to do it as part of the disguise."

Applejack nodded and went over to the nearby mud puddle with Pinkie Pie.

"In this scenario, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and I will be the captives. You, Pinkie and Spike will pretend to be bounty hunters who have captured us and are requesting a reward."

"This plan's sweet!" said Spike excitedly as he made war paint marks on his face with some of the mud.

"Applejack, I know you have a spare rope under your hat. If you give it to me, I can tie us three up to make it more convincing. I'll leave Rainbow Dash's a little loose so she can free us when we get to Rarity's cell."

The team finished the preparations, tying Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's wings to their sides will putting the last loop around Techorse's neck.

Then, they walked out as a group out from behind the boulder and proceeded to the front of the tower. Four earth ponies of various colors approached them.

One of them said, "Halt. What is your business here?"

Applejack said in a gruff tone to disguise her voice, "We're bounty hunters who have captured Techorse, Fluttershy, and the incredibly stuck up Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow spun her head around and glared angrily at Applejack.

"We'd like to lock them up in this tower so Arbiter can pick them up at his will."

The guard stomped her front hoof on the ground in joy and said, "Wonderful, excellent work bounty hunters. You will be paid the bit reward as soon as we lock them up. Follow me."

They entered the tower and looked up in awe at the sheer size of the stone staircase. It seemed to go up forever, as the top was darkened by the lack of windows in the place. They continued their charade, talking with the guards as they walked up the stairs.

"So tell me your names." said one of the guards, "Arbiter will want to honor you for this."

"Uh…" said Applejack nervously, "I'm, um."

She looked around for something to base a name off of and spotted a hammer shaped cutie mark on a passing guard. "I'm Warhammer."

She finished, "this is Agent Random, and the little guy is Forbidden Love. Spike crossed his arms and grunted, Applejack was abusing the plan to throw insults.

"You three sure think you're tough bounty hunters." Said Techorse, "but you'll never get Applejack or Spike the dragon. They'd kick your tails."

"Hey, what about Pinkie Pie?" asked Agent Random as she looked back at Techorse.

He answered, "Of course. She escaped you didn't she, Agent Random?"

"Shut up prisoner!" shouted the guard, flipping her yellow mane in the air, "I didn't ask you to talk."

The guard did take interest in what Techorse had said though, so she turned back to Warhammer and asked, "I can see you've recaptured Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, but Techorse has more friends?"

"Two of them" said Applejack, "both earth ponies."

"Well, what about this Spike the dragon guy?" Applejack feared the plan might fall through, as Spike was standing right there and was still obviously a dragon.

But to her surprise, he spoke up in a fake accent that seemed to be a mix of Italian and Spanish, "This Spike guy is an old enemy of mine. 40 foot tall beast who plays kiss up to the pony's friends. The only one he doesn't get along with is this Applejack we're talking about, who teases him about his crush."

"How mean, to tease someone about who they love." said the guard pitifully, "I don't know why Arbiter didn't want to get her too, she's rude."

Warhammer frowned and hung her head sadly.

"I'm also curious about the one named Pinkie Pie." Continued the guard, "know anything about her?"

"She's the most sweetest and fun pony in all of Ponyville!" shouted Agent Random, "Everypony likes her parties!"

She realized she wasn't supposed to say that and corrected in a tough voice, "But she's against everything Arbiter's for! We should nab her next chance we get!"

They reached the top of the staircase at this point, where there were two large cell doors. "All right, we're here. Put these guys in the other cell separate from the first prisoner. We don't want them conspiring."

"Please." begged Fluttershy sadly to the guard, "what are you going to do to me? Please don't hurt me!"

"I'm not going to hurt you." Assured the guard, "We haven't been ordered to torture any prisoners, yet." Fluttershy gulped and shut her light blue eyes.

"Now Rainbow Dash!" shouted Techorse.

Rainbow tore the loosened rope from around her middle and pounced on the female guard, hammering her head with multiple blows from her hooves. Techorse worked the rest of the ropes off with his robotic hands and threw the rope down the well of the staircase. He then switched to his laser cannons and shot one of the stairs, breaking it up and leaving a gap between them and the top floor they were standing on. No more guards were going to come up that way. Rainbow Dash finished with the guard and put her over to the side, where she lay unconcious.

"That was mean." criticized Fluttershy.

"I didn't hurt her badly. Just put her lights out," said Rainbow, folding her wings back up after combat, "she'll be fine."

Applejack brushed off her mud disguise and said, "Great, with her down and no way for the guards to get up the stairs, all we have to do is…" A hush fell over the room as the flames on the torches lining the walls bent in one direction, as if wind had moved them.

"It's the ninjas." said Spike ominously.

Techorse took out his laser cannons and scanned the area.

"What are you talking about?" asked Rainbow, confused as to what the dragon meant.

"They're what captured you!" he explained, "and now they're here to defend Rarity from us."

"I don't see anyone!" continued Rainbow, "I think you've just being paranoid. There are no ninja ponies."

"Not even the ones behind you?" asked Fluttershy with mortal terror in her voice.

"Not even the ones behind me."

Rainbow Dash's pupils shrank as the information entered her brain. She slowly turned around to look at them. The three ninjas stared at her angrily from behind the masks of black cloth. Rainbow Dash yelled in fright and took off into the air to avoid being smacked by their wings.

"Hey, ninjas!" shouted Techorse, "stand down before we have to do this the hard way!"

The ninjas looked at each other and flicked their wings, sending a number of throwing stars at them. Techorse ducked and looked back as the shuriken stuck in the wall behind him. Applejack ran up to one of the ninjas and turned around to buck him, but the pony was simply gone by the time she reached his location.

"That does it!" shouted Techorse, sliding the laser cannons out of his saddle.

Bolts of yellow energy streamed out of the cannons, but the ninjas moved quickly, becoming black blurs that surrounded the friends. It was obvious Techorse was missing and not doing any damage with his lasers whatsoever, but he continued to fire in hopes he could score a hit of some kind.

"Spike, breath fire on them!" he said loudly over the noise of his guns.

"They have fireproof outfits!" he replied, "It won't do any good!"

One of the ninjas rushed up and smacked Techorse in the side, knocking him over and crushing the right laser on the stone floor. He stood back up and looked at the wrecked gun, it drooped to the side and sparked. Grunting, he continued fire with the other weapon, blasting away. Another black blur zoomed to his left, missing him by an inch. Techorse noticed his gun wasn't shooting anymore, and he looked at it. It seemed to be fine, but after a second, it slid off the saddle and hit the floor, cut cleanly from the gadget. Fluttershy couldn't back out of the tornado of ninjas, and laid down on the floor, covering her head with her front hooves in fear. Rainbow Dash tried to put up a fight, but even though she was a fast flier, the ninjas were faster on the ground, and they couldn't be hit by her dives from the air.

"There has to be a way to stop them!" she said before shrieking in pain as a hoof punched her in the side.

Techorse thought about it and said, "Maybe they're fast, but they still have body heat. Time to use my newest gadget." The panels on the sides of the saddle opened up, and out of them emerged a pair of simple metal racks, each with a small red rocket on top.

"Are those fireworks? Where did you get those?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"I made some plastic-encased missiles to give me a little extra punch in a tight jam. It cuts back on the shrapnel, meaning we might be able to use them in this tower without getting caught in the blast ourselves."

"Cool!" she replied as she ducked a shuriken. Techorse scanned the room for the blurs that were the pony ninjas and aimed his launchers at the first one he found. He locked on the first missile and mentally "pulled the trigger".

A pair of missiles left the racks with a whoosh and flew around in a circle. An explosion occurred as it hit its target, and the first ninja was flung into the air, where Rainbow Dash clobbered him. The burned ninja dropped on the ground next to the guard. The smoking racks at the sides of Techorse retracted back into the saddle for a second, before re-emerging reloaded with a fresh pair of projectiles. Firing his other missiles, Techorse repeated his tactic against the other two ninjas, and soon they were all defeated and piled up on the floor.

"We did it, we beat the ninjas!" cheered Pinkie.

Techorse said, "But without my lasers, and being out of missiles, I'm not sure how we're going to open the cell. Doubt the ninjas have the keys on them."

Spike walked up to the iron door and looked at the lock. He breathed in deeply and breathed a very small but concentrated flame on it. The padlock began to glow red, and then white, before it finally melted into a puddle of useless lead on the ground. Spike dragged open the heavy door and ran inside the cell to find the love of his life.

"Wow." Said Rainbow Dash plainly, "I didn't know he could do that."

"Anything's possible when your crush is in danger." Fluttershy told her. Spike entered the room containing Rarity and found her crying on her bed in the dismal cell.

"Rarity!" he said as he ran up and gave her a big hug.

"Spike?" said Rarity as she looked up in surprise in surprise, "what are you doing here?"

"I've come to rescue you!" he replied.

She cried, "Oh, thank you Spike! It's so nasty in here, they never clean. You're so brave to come here by yourself darling."

Rarity kissed him on the forehead, which nearly caused him to faint.

Techorse entered the room at this time and said, "Time's up Spike, I can't hold the girls off any longer."

"Techorse?" asked Rarity in surprise as she looked up at him.

He rolled his eyes in response, "Of course it's me."

"Sorry, you were a little hard to recognize by that mud on your head." giggled Rarity.

"It's a disguise." He replied as he rubbed the dirt off with his robotic arms, "They'll do that to you."

"Anyways, let's get out of here. I'm glad Spike could save you, but we need to keep moving and stop Arbiter."

"Is he the one who got me locked up in here?" asked Rarity.

"Yeah." said Spike, "as well as Twilight."

"Why, when I get my hooves on him for cramming me in this place." She said with gritted teeth.

"Oh boy." said Techorse.

He thought to himself, "With Rarity back on the team, we're never going to hear the end of how awful this tower was.”

Interestingly enough, the team left the tower without much further resistance from the guards. It seemed that they abandoned their posts when they expected the ninjas to win the battle for them. So the team escaped the hold and made a straight line for Arbiter's castle. To Techorse's dismay, the trip was much farther than he had anticipated. Luckily, Applejack had a relative who owned an inn in a small town just a few clicks from Arbiter's castle, and they decided to spend the night in relative safety before finally confronting the rouge Captain.

Twilight was getting used to being locked up in Arbiter's castle. She had kept herself busy writing plenty of things on the paper and parchment provided by the guards. It seemed as if a few of them actually had pity on her situation, and even brought her something special like a ration of fruit. But Twilight only wanted one thing, to go home with her head still attached to her neck. She looked at herself in a mirror and decided the best thing to do was to go out with dignity in the event that her best friends didn't arrive to save her. During her captivity, Twilight had practiced regeneration spells and had managed to grow back the chunk of tail hair that Arbiter had shaved off. Although only a cosmetic spell, it was practice that kept her occupied. She had nightmares every night she had stayed in the castle, and started to face reality that eventually Arbiter was going to do something horrible to her. Tomorrow afternoon was the deadline for Techorse to arrive, if he didn't, it was certain Arbiter would keep his word. She continued to get a last look at herself as she heard two mares having a discussion outside.

"So, do you think that guy is going to show up?" said one of the girls. "I sure hope so. I really don't want to see this poor girl's head come off. Such a thing has never happened in our peaceful land before."

Twilight slowly walked up to the door to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Arbiter says that if we keep up this image of fearsomeness though, we'll finally get on the map! Don't you want that?"

"Well, yeah, but I really don't want to earn our place with so much violence. Why hasn't our coal sales won us our recognition yet?"

"That's what I want to know.”

Twilight learned that many of the citizens of the country she was in felt unloved because Celestia had somehow managed to overlook them. They had never received any help in defending against monsters or repairs from natural disasters. Arbiter had come in one day and turned the place around through the ramp up in coal production, and was hoping this commodity would get his people to be appreciated by the princesses. The two guards stopped talking as the door barged open, pushing Twilight down onto the ground.

Arbiter groaned and said nastily, "Get up you idiot, and stop eavesdropping on my troops. If you must know anything, you can ask me."

Twilight rolled over onto her legs and stood up.

Arbiter let his black cape settle on the ground gently, "I have a confession to make. I was bluffing this whole time, you'll be out of here tomorrow if Techorse fails to show up."

"Really?" asked Twilight hopefully.

"Not really." Replied Arbiter, smirking evilly, "I just wanted to make sure you're thoroughly demoralized for tomorrow."

Twilight frowned, and started crying in front of the stallion. She let her horn start to glow, attempting to fire a bolt at the pony she hated so much.

"Cut it out." He shouted, "You know there's nothing you can do. My unicorns have most of your powers neutralized. Your only hope is if your stupid coltfriend shows up and turns himself in to me."

"You'll be sorry you did this." Whispered Twilight, sobbing.

"Let me explain something to you, lass." said Arbiter as he shook his head slowly, "I have nothing against you personally. But that pony you love is actually a bloodthirsty alien who threatens the stability of this very planet!"

"I can't believe you're this upset with Tech just because he got you fired!" complained Twilight.

Arbiter shook his head, "This isn't about losing my post as captain of the guard. Granted I was the best Celestia ever had, but this is really about protecting the planet from the last external threat to it."

Twilight, nearly angry enough to spit, growled at him, "My brother was a much better captain than you'll ever be."

Arbiter immediately burst out laughing, "Shining? Oh come now, everypony this side of the world knows that he's completely useless as a captain! He never studied his potential enemies, and as a result he fell for the tricks of a rouge group of changelings! I would have been able to see right through it immediately."

For some reason, Twilight found it hard to disagree with Arbiter about her brother's lack of knowledge, but still put forth another argument, "Well, if you think you're a better captain, why don't you let me write him? I'm sure he'll be happy to try and rescue me from you."

Arbiter laughed subtly and said with a sinister tone, "If you want to be an only foal quickly, go right ahead and do that. Your brother is terrible with weapons, something my family excels at."

"Might doesn't make right." argued Twilight.

"Perhaps not." agreed Arbiter, "But I'm sure Techorse follows that rule. When he arrives here, he will most certainly attack me for capturing you."

"He won't hurt you." said Twilight, "I know him better."

"We'll see." Sneered Arbiter, "he has until tomorrow at noon to show up at the front gate. Should he fail, you know what I must do to you. Tonight my guards will bring you one final delivery of paper. You may write a letter to your parents explaining what's going to happen to you."

Arbiter backed out of the room and smiled, "And don't worry. I'm not going to send your parents your head. They can come and get it themselves." Arbiter laughed and left down the hallway, making sure his cape wasn't dragging behind him. The two mares standing outside entered the room, one was a silver coated unicorn, and the other an orange Pegasus. Both of them were frowning and looking at Twilight with pity.

The unicorn said to Twilight, "Here's the paper and the envelope. Write and address the letter, and we'll send it out tomorrow afternoon."

The unicorn magically moved the paper and the ominous black envelope over to the writing desk and set it down. Twilight looked at the paper and turned away from the desk. She set herself down on the cot and stared miserably at the floor, letting her front legs hang over the edge of the bed. The orange Pegasus approached Twilight and ran a hoof through her hair.

"We don't want this either." She said, "Honest."

Twilight looked up at her and said, "I know it's not your fault. But I wish you'd all work up the courage to overthrow Arbiter and find another way to come out of your situation."

"I'm sorry, but we can't just stage a rebellion." replied the unicorn.

Twilight turned her head towards her and asked mournfully, "If I don't get out of here... Will it hurt?"

The unicorn let tears well up in her eyes and sobbed, "I have no idea, please don't ask me that!"

"I just don't want to suffer." said Twilight.

Finally, one of the two unicorn mares couldn't contain her secret anymore, and started talking more confidently to Twilight.

“Listen, just because Arbiter brought us up out of the dust doesn't mean we're going to let him get away with this.” she said sternly, “The other castle servants have gotten tired of his constant raging about this Techorse guy, and we aren't going to let an innocent mare get hurt over him.”

“Well, what are we going to do?” asked Twilight, interested in the plan but unsure how it will work.

“We've let the citizens know about all of this.” she answered, “They proposed something that might just help you.”

Twilight smiled as she heard the plan from the servants. Perhaps she wasn't going to come to harm after all.

The light from the sunrise entered the slits on the blinds of the Old Apple Inn. The rays of light brushed over Applejack's eyes as she slept in her bed. She was woken up naturally by the photons and got up out of her bed to begin the last day of their mission. Applejack woke the others up and got them ready to leave the inn, but not before thanking her second cousin Applepocket for the stay. The team was out of the inn after breakfast around 8 in the morning, ready to make the hour long walk to Arbiter's castle. As the group started down the path that led through the small village where the inn was located, they discussed what was going to happen that day.

Spike said sadly, "Today's not going to end well, is it?"

Fluttershy answered him, "Twilight's going to be ok, Spike. I promise."

"Usually when Fluttershy promises something, it's kept." Said Rarity, "I'm sure she'll be ok." At the back of the group was Techorse and Rainbow Dash.

"So" she asked, "how many of Arbiter's bones are you going to break for all this?"

"Zero." Replied Techorse sternly as he looked at his friend, "and you're breaking zero too."

"What?" shouted Rainbow in shock and offense.

"You heard me, we're not going to hurt Arbiter for this." He declared, "I'm going to reason with him and prove I'm innocent of what he accuses me of."

Rarity turned around and stuck her face into Techorse's, making sure he knew she was angry.

"He locked me up in an old, dusty building on a whim, and you're telling us not to hurt him? How selfish!"

"Hey, he's right." said Fluttershy, picking her head up, "I think Arbiter's just confused. We should forgive and move on with our lives."

"Thank you Fluttershy." said Techorse, giving Rarity a smile as he pushed her aside.

Applejack looked back and said to them, "Enough arguin' about how painfully we're gonna beat 'em up. The castle should be just over this here hill."

"I think it's important we talk about this!" said Pinkie Pie, "I gotta know why Techorse doesn't want to hurt Arbiter after all the mean stuff he did to us!"

"And Twilight!" reminded Spike. "Aren't you supposed to be the element of justice?" asked Rainbow teasingly, "because you sure don't want to bring him to justice!"

Techorse addressed the entire group, "Justice doesn't always mean judgment has to be passed you know. Besides, Arbiter is doing all of this because he sees me as a threat. If I show myself to not be a threat, his followers will see he was wrong and force him to let us all go. Maybe even Arbiter himself will change his mind."

"You're dumb." said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head, "he's not going to listen."

"If he doesn't, I'm not fighting my way out of this. These employees of his are ponies too who are only following orders and deserve to live. I'm not going to hurt any innocent citizens just because I want to escape intact."

"It's still a noble idea." said Fluttershy happily.

"Well, we're here." said Applejack plainly as if a tour guide, "There's the castle."

"That place is huge!" commented Pinkie Pie, "do you think Arbiter ever throws any parties in there?"

"Probably." said Applejack, "he'll want to celebrate after he gets us."

"Relax Applejack." comforted Techorse as he placed a robotic hand on her shoulder, "It's me he wants, not you."

"So what now?" asked Rainbow, "If we're not going to fight, do we just go up and knock?"

"Yes." He replied, "It's exactly what we're going to do."

Arbiter was in his study reading a book on great leadership skills. His reading glasses consisted of a pair of lenses, one was shaded black to match his eyepatch. As he read, there was a loud pounding on the door.

Arbiter groaned due to the interruption and asked, "Yes, what is it?"

A light brown earth pony entered and said, "Sir, Techorse and his companions have shown up at the front door. He must have freed the others before coming here!"

"Casualty report." Said Arbiter, certain the arrival of his enemy meant trouble.

"Nothing. He's surrendered." replied the messenger.

Arbiter took the glasses off and asked in awe, "What?"

"He simply knocked and requested to see you."

"Where's Sparkle?" asked Arbiter.

"Still in her cell sir, shall I get her for you?" he asked.

Arbiter nodded his head slowly, "Get her out of there and to the main entrance immediately."

As the messenger galloped away, Arbiter went to the closet in his room and selected a fine purple cape lined with a gold thread seam. He tied the cape around his neck and felt the thick cloth drape over his back. The stallion walked over to a wide mirror and observed the cape.

"No reason looking like a mess." He said. Arbiter continued the preparations for his meeting, exchanging his eye patch for a blue band of silk which he wore at an angle on his head to completely hide the scar. Finally, he made sure to brush his teeth and mane to look as presentable as possible to his guest.

"Showtime." He said as he put the brush back down and observed his self-described beauty with pride.

The stallion left his private room and moved quickly through his castle, making sure to nod and smile at his various workers as he traveled in the hallways. Eventually, he reached the main entrance of the castle, where ten of his guards were flanking the six ponies and the dragon that had recently entered.

Arbiter descended down the main staircase and shouted with joy to the team, "Ah, you're finally here!" Techorse walked up to meet his enemy. The guards tried to block him off, but Arbiter shook a hoof at them.

"No, no, no." He said, waving a hoof jokingly at the trooper, "that's no way to treat a guest."

Arbiter walked over to Techorse and said, "So, you actually showed up. That takes guts, Techorse."

"Where's Twilight?" He asked plainly.

"In one piece!" replied Arbiter, "In fact, look at the clock! You made it with one hour to spare."

"Why are you so happy?" asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously.

Rarity looked at his outfit and added, "and why are you dressed so much better than last time we saw you?"

Arbiter replied, "I wanted to look presentable for you. What, you thought I was without class? Far from it."

Techorse said, "Captain Arbiter, I come here to give myself up to you in exchange for the release of my friends."

Arbiter laughed and said, "Please, things are different for me here in Quartz Valley. I am now Viscount Arbiter."

"What?" asked Pinkie Pie in confusion.

Arbiter explained, "Well, you see, when I was fired by Celestia, I found this country. It was so poorly led by some idiot unicorn prince that it had been thrust into poverty and despair."

Arbiter sighed before continuing, "Using the mining equipment salvaged from the alien's factory base, we've been digging up enough coal to fix the economy in a matter of months! As a reward, I was made supreme leader of this country, the admirable Viscount Arbiter!"

"You have to stop burning the coal or the plants might all die." Begged Fluttershy, "you can sell it any other way, but please, stop the pollution! Techorse told me about this, and I'm begging you."

Arbiter acted strangely at this moment, he actually said something sweetly, "Fluttershy, I promise I will switch the coal to other uses after tomorrow. We've made enough money to afford to do so now, and I will make sure the environment doesn't get hurt on my watch. I know how much you care about it."

Fluttershy smiled, she was overjoyed her kindness had convinced Arbiter so quickly.

"I'm glad you decided not to burn too much more coal." Said Applejack, "now can you please stop this other nonsense?"

Arbiter shook his head, "This isn't nonsense, miss Applejack. Techorse here must pay for his alien nature. You and the others are free to go however."

"We're not leaving without him!" said Spike with anger. Arbiter gave Spike a rub on the head with his front leg.

"Look at this cute little dragon!" he said, "is this that pet of hers Twilight was talking about?"

"I'm not a pet!" replied Spike in rage, nearly about to set Arbiter on fire.

Twilight was led down the stairs by two guards, and when she saw Techorse, she gave a huge smile and galloped down to meet him. She grabbed him and they embraced, hugging each other tightly.

"I knew you'd make it!" she said.

"Of course Twilight, I love you." He replied.

Spike ran over and gave Twilight a hug too.

"You're ok!" he shouted, glad to see his best friend alive and well.

"Oh Spike, you came too?" she asked.

"Techorse let me." He answered.

Twilight gave him a look of disbelief and shook her head. Arbiter sighed and said sarcastically, "Such fine young love. Too bad I have to destroy it."

"It is!" said Pinkie Pie, "Maybe you could just let us all go. I'll throw you a big party for it!"

One of the guards shoved a rag in Pinkie's mouth to shut her up.

Arbiter threw his wing around Techorse and said to him, "It's time I take you on a tour of my castle and let you see what I've accomplished."

"Guards!" he ordered, "take the others to the dining hall and fix them something. We'll be back."

Arbiter led Techorse away out of the room and deeper into the castle.

"Can you just speed this up and do me in now?" he asked of the Viscount.

"Oh no, I plan to rub in my achievement first, half pony alien." He replied.

Techorse sighed, if he couldn't reason with Arbiter, he was going to get impatient for his own demise. Arbiter led Techorse into a small room where workers were busy writing messages and taking orders.

"Here, you can see where we sell off our coal to bring in money for our country." He said, "I make one hundred times what your company does."

"Money isn't everything." replied Techorse, "I'm not impressed. Arbiter, can I try to show you that..."

Arbiter frowned and whisked him away to the next room of the castle, silencing him and interrupting his attempt at peace.

"Here is my royal armory." He said, pointing out the ponies trying on armor and messing with head-mounted weapons, "I have a large army of willing troops under my command now. Much larger than you'll ever lead I'm sure."

"I don't always want to be the guy in charge." Answered Techorse, "Being a big military leader isn't a life goal of mine. Can't you see that being a violent conquering like what you think I am just isn't true?"

Arbiter gritted his teeth, he wasn't getting to his mortal enemy like he thought he was going to. In his mind, he thought Techorse would break down, being jealous or sad about all his achievements. But Arbiter had an ace in the hole that he was sure would make Techorse see how insignificant and lowly he was compared to him.

Arbiter led his foe over to one last door, a big golden one with a round silver handle. The door had many hearts carved into it. The Viscount stomped his hoof, and a servant pulled the door open for him. Techorse and Arbiter stepped into a very large room bathed in brilliant white light. The room was made completely out of marble and featured many beautiful carved stone columns, on which baskets filled with flowers hung. In the center of the room was a beautiful ivory fountain with a carving of a Pegasus pony foal spitting water at the top. To the sides were very beautiful large cushions of many different colors, each made of the finest material in the world. But the most interesting feature of all of this room was its occupants. They could hear the laughter of a dozen beautiful mares which inhabited the room. To their species, these mares were the most beautiful examples of their kind. Some of them talked and gossiped while sitting on the cushions, others splashed and played in the fountains like young ones, despite being full grown adults. Three of the mares got up from the cushions and approached Arbiter with smiles and spiritual fire in their eyes. The first one was a Pegasus pony that had a gorgeous silver coat, with a yellow mane which flowed freely over the sides of her head and neck. To her right was a unicorn with stunning green eyes, a glowing swirl of white and pink hair, and a very shiny light blue coat. The last one was another Pegasus who had an exotic orange coat, and her black mane and tail to complement that. The three mares surrounded Arbiter and sighed as they stroked his mane and brushed his tail gently.

Arbiter said to Techorse, "These are the mares who want to marry me, Techorse. One dozen of the most beautiful mares in all of Equestria, and they all love me too. You could never achieve this kind of status with this large number of girls, Techorse."

Techorse shook his head and answered with this, "I only need the love of one mare, Arbiter, and you tried to take her from me. I don't want a dozen mares, no matter how attractive you say they are. I want Twilight Sparkle."

“Besides.” he added, unable to resist at least one shot at Arbiter, “How do you know that these mares don't want to just marry you for your money and huge army you were just bragging about?”

The mares gave him a rather annoyed look, although a few looked guilty at the ground knowing full well how they felt.

Arbiter shook his head at the overall stupidity of the situation and dragged Techorse out of his most private place in the castle. He threw the young colt against the wall outside and screamed at him,"You're supposed to be broken now, saying how you're just dirt under my hooves and to beg for mercy! Why won't you admit defeat?"

Techorse stood up from the wall and said, "I'm happy with what I've accomplished, I don't need to achieve your level of success to be the better stallion."

Arbiter shouted at him, "I was planning on letting you go if you had just admitted your place beneath me."

“I doubt it,” responded Techorse, “No matter what, you'll always view me as a threat to Equestria. I'm sorry I couldn't change your mind by reasoning with you, and telling you that I don't need the kinds of things you have to be happy.”

"Stop!" shouted Twilight. She had slipped away from the guards and galloped up to Arbiter. "Please!" she begged, "just let it go, Arbiter. Can't you see Techorse doesn't want to hurt anypony?"

"Stay out of this!" he demanded, "Techorse is an alien who's tricked you into thinking he's actually some sort of good being at heart!"

"He's not!" she answered sternly.

"I don't care what you think, I'm still disposing of him immediately." Said Arbiter.

Twilight took notice at the number of his subjects watching the argument and remembered what the plan was from the night before.

She then said, "Well, if you think Techorse is evil, why don't you prove it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Arbiter.

Twilight continued, "Doesn't Techorse deserve a trial?"

"Of course." he said.

"A fair trial." Corrected Twilight, knowing what the stallion was thinking.

"Oh come now, there's always a catch!" grumbled Arbiter.

Twilight said loudly to the observers, "I'm sure your loyal subjects would enjoy knowing their leader is going to give every pony under his authority a fair trial."

Twilight smiled as she heard the subjects whisper to themselves things along the line of, "She's right."
And "Techorse should get a trial!" but most importantly, "if he doesn't get a trial, we won't either!"

Arbiter looked around at the ponies and knew he had been duped into delaying Techorse's doom.

"Fine.” He said sharply, "we'll hold the trial in a few hours. It will be of his peers, as usual, but neither you nor his six friends, with the exception of Fluttershy, can be on the jury."

"Why Fluttershy?" asked Techorse.

Arbiter said nervously, "Um, because she would keep the other jury members quiet. They're sure to get all riled up about how bad you really are, human."

Arbiter summoned a few of his guards and said, "In the meantime, enjoy lunch with your friends. You can request anything you want Techorse, since you know... it's your last meal."

The former Captain shook his head and stormed off to prepare for the trial. Techorse and Twilight looked at each other, and the smiles on the faces of the citizens of Quartz Valley. Despite his influence, Arbiter was about to lose through the will of the ponies he'd brought up.

The trial was held inside a courtroom in the middle of the castle itself, and many of Arbiter's subjects had attended to witness the events. Arbiter stood in the judge's chair, he knew he couldn't simply order Techorse dead right now or else he'd look bad in front of his ponies. Instead, he was going to have to give overwhelming evidence that the green pony in the defendant's booth was evil. Arbiter had changed back into his eyepatch and black cape, and was ready to deal what he thought was perfect justice.

He tapped on the stand he was in with his hoof and said, "Order, please, my subjects."

The crowd fell silent, ready to start the case. Arbiter stood up and said, "We have before us Techorse..."

"I have no last name." finished the defendant.

"No matter." Said Arbiter, "Carrying on, Techorse is guilty of being a violent and destructive alien known as a human at heart. Should the court find him guilty, he is to die this afternoon."

"I can't believe this." Whispered Rainbow Dash to Fluttershy as Arbiter talked, "he's set up a kangaroo court."

"I know, but everything's going to be ok." Replied Fluttershy, "trust me."

Arbiter continued to lecture, "I have evidence that Techorse is the violent alien I say he is. But to be kind, as you subjects know I am, I will allow his attorney Miss Sparkle to speak first in his defense."

Twilight said, "Ladies and gentlecolts of the court, my friend here Techorse is not the evil alien Arbiter says he is, but actually one hundred percent pony at heart. He will not hurt you or cause you any worry."

"Objection." called Arbiter.

"What?" asked Twilight.

"Techorse has already caused worry." replied Arbiter, "I call this family over here to the stand to prove my point."

A family of two earth ponies and their young daughter, who was shaking nervously walked over to the stand.

"Tell me what the humans have done to our planet." Said Arbiter to the father.

He said to the court, "The humans attacked our world six months ago, but it's psychological effects are still present. My daughter here is still asking us to check under her bed for humans."

"Oh brother." Commented Applejack as she rolled her eyes.

"From what I've heard." Said the mother, "thousands of other foals around the world are asking the same thing every night, costing them the precious sleep they need to grow. Our foals are suffering because of that alien's actions!"

"Objection!" shouted Applejack.

"Go ahead." Groaned Arbiter. Applejack said to the family,
"It wasn't his actions at all. The humans in general did this to our planet, but ponies of the court, Techorse here betrayed the humans to help us." The crowd mumbled in agreement, they had heard the reports.

"Not only that!" said Pinkie Pie loudly as she jumped out of the rows of seats, "but he also is a really nice guy! He invents all these neat gadgets that do stuff like peel vegetables, not blast ponies!"

"Maybe he's nice to you." said Arbiter, "but what about ponies from this country?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rarity. "I call forward Keeper to the stand." said Arbiter. Keeper walked onto the platform, passing the sad family on the way.

Arbiter asked of him, "Keeper, you're one of my favorite employees, right?" Keeper nodded without saying a word.

"Now, all I did was ask you to manage my prison, something every legal system needs to survive. I didn't tell you to torture ponies, but just to keep them under watch, right?"

Keeper said, "Yes sir."

Arbiter asked him, "Now, that being said, you peacefully handle all situations in the jail, correct?"

"True." said Keeper, about to weep.

Arbiter pointed at Techorse and asked, "Tell me, when this pony entered the jail you were assigned to and demanded the release of his friends, what did he do to you when you refused?"

"He fed me to a dragon!" wailed Keeper, bawling and letting his tears wet the stand. The crowd of ponies took pity on the pony and stared grumbling.

Many of the ponies in the courtroom also stared at Spike with rage in their eyes. Spike noticed their piercing gazes and refuted, "Oh come on, I'm not the dragon he's talking about! That guy wouldn't even fit!"

"He's using insane logic!" declared Rainbow Dash, "Keeper was watching over us, and we were locked up unfairly! Techorse was only trying to break us out!"

"Silence!" shouted Arbiter.

"Never!" declared Rainbow, "you're cheating this trial!"

"Shut up you stupid rainbow-colored tomboy!" he replied.

Rainbow Dash screamed and darted out of her seat, flying through the air of the courtroom. She landed a blow on Arbiter's head, knocking him out of his chair and sending him down hard on the ground. The crowd gasped at Rainbow's sudden burst of violence.

Arbiter picked himself up and said plainly, "This Rainbow Dash here, she is one of Techorse's closest friends. He even keeps violent company, my subjects."

Rainbow realized in horror that she may have doomed Techorse with her actions, and the angry looks of her friends confirmed that. She landed gently on the ground and walked out of the courtroom without saying another word.

"Rainbow Dash, wait." Called Techorse, attempting to get her to come back, but she was already out the door.

"I have four last witnesses to the evils of this pony."

Arbiter continued, "I call forward four of my friends."

"Interesting, Arbiter actually has friends." Said Rarity, "I wonder what they have to do with Techorse though."

Rarity's mouth fell open when the three ninja ponies and the guard leader of her prison tower entered the courtroom and stood at the stand to replace Keeper.

"These are my four best friends in the whole land." said Arbiter, "I gave them summer jobs guarding some precious objects."

Rarity grunted at the statement and refused to look at Arbiter. She knew he was referring to them, not some pieces of treasure.

The Viscount continued, "When Techorse entered the tower to steal them, look what he did to my own friends, my very best companions!"

The ninja ponies took off their robes and showed the burns they received from the missiles they took earlier, while the mare showed every pony in the court the bruises on her head from Rainbow Dash's beating.

"Can't you see that Techorse destroys everything in his path and beats up any pony who doesn't give him what he wants? If we do not punish him, he shall destroy not only Quartz Valley's tranquility, but Equestria's tranquility as well!" finished Arbiter, certain he had won, "Go and vote now."

"Just a minute!" shouted Twilight.

"Oh what now?" asked Arbiter angrily.

"I call Viscount Arbiter to the stand." declared Twilight.

"ME?" complained Arbiter.

"Ponies of the court, please let me offer one last defense for my friend." begged Twilight.

Techorse smiled at the court, hoping they would grant him one last chance at life.

"Very well." declared the leader of the jury.

Arbiter told his friends, "Go get a drink or something."

As he flapped his wings and landed with a heavy thwack on the stand.

"Viscount Arbiter." Said Twilight as she walked up to the stand, "can you answer me one question?"

"Of course." He responded. Twilight smiled and continued, "Do you know why Techorse was invading your jails and towers? Rainbow Dash gave us the answer earlier."

"I don't know." replied Arbiter, looking away from her.

"Might I remind you that you're under oath?" continued Twilight with a bit of teasing in her voice.

Arbiter grunted and replied, "Fine, I do know, but I'm not telling."

"Isn't it true that you kidnapped miss Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity and put them in the towers to lure Techorse there and commit these acts of violence?" Twilight asked politely.

Arbiter said sternly, "I'm not saying anything!"

"Ladies and gentlecolts, it's obvious why Techorse did the violent things he did. He was trying to rescue his friends from your Viscount, who wanted him gone. In fact, he even kidnapped me and threatened to decapitate me if Techorse did not show up today."

The court gasped at this knowledge which made a good deal of logical sense and began to talk over what they had just heard.

"Isn't this true, Viscount?" asked Twilight of Arbiter.

Arbiter looked at the ponies in the courtroom and knew he had lost.

He said, "It is true. I ordered you and the others kidnapped and incarcerated in order to make Techorse show up here today. However, I would have returned all of you unharmed if he had simply come directly to the castle. Despite that, Techorse still committed violence against my family members and Keeper without reason. He and his friends Applejack and Pinkie Pie, along with that dragon who's name I forget, went on a crusade to rescue the others before coming here. Yes, I may have set up the pony, but he still took unnecessary action, and I ask the court to consider that in their decision."

“One more thing.” urged Twilight, the jury listening in.

She then continued ominously, “While I was here in captivity, I learned that more than anything, Quartz Valley wants to be on the map and appreciated by Equestria. One of the most sacred laws of Equestria is that capital punishment is illegal! If it is true that you want to get on the map, you won't be able to if you're found breaking this law. If Arbiter gets his way, you may never get noticed no matter how much money you make!”

The jury left the room to decide, and Arbiter spread his wings and returned to his seat. Twilight said excitedly to Techorse, "I think we did it!"

"Thanks Twilight, you've saved my life again." He replied lovingly as he stared into her purple eyes. The jury soon returned to their seats and the leader gave their verdict.

"Have you come to a decision?" asked Arbiter eagerly.

The leader cleared his throat and said, "We have reached a fair decision. We find Techorse not guilty of being this evil alien you claim him to be. It seems he only took action to save his friends, something any of us would do. We do however, believe you may demand him to make medical payments and reparations for your harmed friends."

"Seems fair." said Techorse after taking a sigh of relief, "Arbiter, I really didn't mean to hurt them. I had no idea who they were to you."

“I'm sorry my lord.” said the leader of the jury to Arbiter, “But Twilight Sparkle is right. We cannot let you risk our chance of getting on the map over one colt who's clearly not done anything wrong.”

"The court has found Techorse not guilty." Said Arbiter slowly, "but that doesn't remove any of my power as Viscount, supreme leader of this land. Guards!"

The guards filed in and filled the room, leaving Arbiter and the friends surrounded. One of the stallions dragged Rainbow Dash back into the room by her tail, and threw her in with the others.

"But, we won fair and square!" protested Rarity, "you lost!"

Arbiter laughed, "I wasn't planning on losing in the first place, Miss Rarity. I would offer a fair trial to any other pony, but I simply won't allow this one to go free."

"Sir!" declared one of the guards, "Your subjects have already made a ruling. If you go against that, you'll be dethroned."

The jury leaned in, angry looks on their faces. Although Arbiter had given them money, he had failed to give them what they really wanted, which was a leader who had justice and the interests of his ponies at heart.

Arbiter shouted angrily, "Then I challenge Techorse to a duel!"

The jury gasped, and recoiled at the statement.

“A duel?” shrieked Pinkie Pie.

“There's no law against that.” explained Arbiter, “We'll settle this all like gentlecolts. If I can't use my influence to take down Techorse, then I'll use my might.”

“Twilight, do something!” begged Spike.

Arbiter interuppted the conversation, “I hear all the time of magical duels in Equestria. Surely a normal one won't hurt? Take them to the roof, I'll be there shortly!”

"Yes sir!" replied the guard, beginning to rally the stallions and mares under him to lead them away.

Arbiter laughed, and addressed the jury one more time, “I'll prove to you all just how wrong you were.”

The friends were all taken to the large open roof area on the top of the castle. There, they were led out before Arbiter, who stood with rage in his eyes as he looked at his enemies. Arbiter dismissed all but 10 of his soldiers. Half of them remaining were mares, including the two who had stayed with Twilight the night before.

"I can't touch you now without being overthrown." said Arbiter to Techorse, "However, duels are still a thing in Equestria. We shall fight with swords."

"What if he should decline?" asked Applejack, “After all, duels aren't meant to be this dangerous in Equestria, they're short challenges, not brawls! This is the letter of the law, not the spirit!”

Arbiter had his guards lead them over to a large rectangular hole cut in the stones of the roof. It was a deep pit leading fifty feet down. At the bottom was a sand floor, where a large purple worm sat writhing in the dirt. As the ponies stared down into the pit, the monster opened its mouth consisting of a jaw lined with sharp teeth.

"If you do not accept my duel Techorse, I shall feed your friends to this purple worm." said Arbiter, smirking.

Rarity's face turned into that of horror at the thought of being thrown to the monster.

Spike nervously asked Arbiter, "What does it think of dragons?"

"Not sure." Replied Arbiter, "Although I was just going to let you go too, honestly. No sense keeping the pet from living freely."

Rainbow Dash got a confident look about her, if Arbiter planned to throw her in the pit with the annelid monster, she could just fly out. But somehow the Viscount picked up on her intentions and added, "One more thing, I will be clipping your wings before you are thrown in, just in case."

Rainbow folded her wings quickly, shying them away from the evil stallion.

Fluttershy looked at the monster and whined, "I don't want to be fed to that worm!"

Techorse assured her, "I won't let him feed you to that thing."

"Then duel me, human." demanded Arbiter, spreading his wings in rage.

"I don't want the chance of you getting injured either Arbiter, because no matter how much you hate me, I don't hate you." Said Techorse boldly, "I'm asking for a peaceful way we can settle this."

Arbiter shouted, "There is no way, fight me you coward!"

Twilight remembered a key part of the laws she had studied in the past and said, "He'll fight you tomorrow, no sooner."

"What?" asked Arbiter, shattered that he wasn't getting to fight now.

"The laws state that you must wait at least one day after challenging to a duel before it can be accepted." explained Twilight, "Equestria and Quartz Valley both share this rule.”

Arbiter said angrily, "Fine, you'll spend the night here in different rooms. But tomorrow morning Techorse must decide whether to duel me, or to let you all become snacks for that worm down there." Arbiter ordered his guards to take them away and lock them in a large living area until tomorrow, when the duel would occur. They were sealed inside and security was ramped up to prevent their escape.

Rainbow Dash looked around the small room crammed with beds. "So, why couldn't Techorse just duel Arbiter today?"

"I wanted to make sure he got one more chance at a peaceful solution to this." answered Twilight.

"There is none." said Techorse plainly.

"What?" came the others' shocked response. All eyes were now on the male's sad look.

"Arbiter is only interested in either ending me or making me miserable beyond repair. We tried peace, the legal system, offers and bargains, and he will have none of it. It's obvious to me that Arbiter is begging for this duel tomorrow."

"Doesn't mean you have to lose." said Spike, putting his hand on Techorse's nose, "if you win, we can all just go home."

"Every pony in this land will be watching the fight tomorrow." Said Techorse, "what will they think of me if I strike down Arbiter?"

"They'll think you really are a monster!" figured Pinkie Pie.

"Right." He said, "Arbiter has me now. If I win tomorrow, the citizens of Quartz Valley will demonize me for it. If I lose, Arbiter gets me."

Twilight said desperately, "There's got to be a way where you can make it!" Techorse looked at her and said, "I'm sorry Twilight, but there isn't. This is my last day."

"Don't say that." comforted Fluttershy, "I'm sure you'll find a way out of all of this." They looked up as they heard Rarity crying in the corner of the room. Spike walked up to her and gently stroked her curly mane.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "are you upset for Techorse?"

“Not just him, but us too! If we try to stop this barbarism we'll be fed to that monster.” she wailed.

Applejack reminded them, "Look, in all of this mayhem we got to remember that we're all connected as friends. Nothing is going to tear us apart, not Arbiter, not the worm, or anythin' evil on this planet. Think of all the things we've been through together, Wizard's war, battles with monsters, and the threat of nighttime forever. We can't give up hope now."

"She's absolutely right." said Techorse, "I'll find a way tomorrow to stop this once and for all. This could still have a happy ending, but as of now, we're going to have to earn it together."

"That's the spirit." said Rainbow Dash, "so tomorrow you'll beat that Arbiter and we leave this country for good!"

"Maybe, but don't count on that ending, Rainbow." said Techorse. The door to the detainment room was flung open as three very powerful looking guards entered the room.

"You're coming with us!" they demanded as they grabbed Fluttershy and started to drag her away. She screamed, and Rainbow tried to save her by grabbing on to her tail, but the guards overpowered them and escorted her quickly out of the room, slamming the door behind them. It had all happened so quickly that the friends were left in shock.

"Oh no." said Twilight, "what are they going to do to Fluttershy?"

"They're going to torture her!" screeched Rarity, "oh the poor thing." Applejack frowned and took off her hat as she imagined her friend being stretched on a rack.

"This is all my fault." said Techorse, pounding a robotic fist onto the ground, "if I had just let him do me in, Fluttershy wouldn't be in this mess."

"I think we've had enough of this crud." shouted Rainbow. She jumped in front of Techorse and screamed at him, "Stop being a pansy and destroy Arbiter tomorrow! Get rid of him so we can go home!"

"Fine."

"Really?" asked Rainbow, surprised her rage had reached him.

"I'll do it, as long as you'll watch," he said, “I'm just not sure if we could live with ourselves after that.”

"Never mind." She said while wincing.

"So what do we do now?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"We go to bed." answered Twilight, "Techorse needs his rest for tomorrow."

They retired to the cots to try to get some sleep for the inevitable bloodbath the next day. Meanwhile, the three guards carried Fluttershy across the castle and to a large double door made of white-painted wood. They opened the door and placed Fluttershy gently down on a carpeted area. She looked up and saw a beautiful queen sized bed with a velvet comforter. It was built upon a cherry wood frame with posts carved in an artistic curling shape. To the right of the bed was a nightstand with a glass reading lamp on it. A gold-framed mirror and small closet completed the cozy room.

One of the guards told Fluttershy, "Lord Arbiter wishes for you to stay here tonight. Through that door is a bath where you can clean yourself up. There's also a nightgown he wants you to have in that closet. Have a good night."

They left Fluttershy looking at the room in confusion. As they left the room, she gently lifted into the air with her wings and drifted over to the soft bed, where she laid down upon it. She stretched out her body over the velvet comforter and felt the smooth material against her body.

"This isn't fair." She thought out loud, "My friends are still in that jail cell, and I'm here for some reason. But why?"

Fluttershy heard the lock on the door click and knew it was too late to protest, so she resigned herself to bathe and retire for the night immediately afterwords.

The team was torn from their beds early in the morning and marched back up to the roof of the castle again. This time as they were led out, their expressions became gloomy as they noticed the worm's pit had been opened up again. They waited in silence for five minutes before Arbiter approached them, wearing his dark cape again.

The stallion addressed them, "Good morning. It's decision time."

He picked up a sword with his teeth and threw it down on the ground in front of Techorse. The blade was about two and half inches in width, two feet long, and had a plain T-bar hilt with a simple red padded grip.

"This is the sword you shall duel me with. You may use that dreadful saddle of yours to pick up this blade Techorse. In order to make the fight fair, I've employed my own invention."

Arbiter called for two unicorns, and they walked up to him, each carrying a metal gauntlet with an amethyst crystal on the palm of each one. The unicorns placed the two metal gloves at Arbiter's sides, and then touched the crystal with their horns, making them glow. They placed the metal hands under Arbiter's control, and the lord of Quartz Valley lifted his new extremities into the air.

Techorse looked at the floating metal hands and said, "That's impressive, half magic and half technology."

Arbiter nodded and pointed with the metal hand at the hilt tied around his waist, "I shall use them to wield this sword. It beats holding it with my teeth like I used to." Arbiter spread his wings and opened the palms of both hands, extending them out to give him a very powerful appearance.

"This is the day I finally defeat the alien who threatens the peace of our planet." He proclaimed, "But he must first accept my challenge to duel."
"Please." Begged Twilight desperately, "isn't there any way we can settle this peacefully? Maybe you and Techorse don't have to duel."

Arbiter almost said no instinctively, but thought of something important to him and said, "Well, there actually is a way for us to settle this peacefully. If it is accepted, even you get to go free, Techorse!"

"What is it?" asked Twilight eagerly, hoping the captain had a change of heart.

Arbiter folded his wings to his sides and walked slowly up to Fluttershy. He looked into her blue eyes and said, "I will let you all go with no trouble, if Fluttershy agrees to marry me. Her beauty absolutely astonishes me. That stunning light yellow coat of yours and that flowing pink hair and tail make you beautiful. I love to stare into those blue eyes of yours. Your cutie mark, those three pink butterflies are something precious to me as well. But it's your shy and kind personality that would make you a good wife Fluttershy. It's so innocent that I can't resist it."

Fluttershy blushed and backed up one step, she knew now why Arbiter had treated her so special during her captivity, "Oh, my."

Rarity looked like she was about to throw up, she couldn't believe what Arbiter wanted to do to her friend.

"I can't believe he just said that." said Applejack in utter shock.

"Please, marry me and accept my love, and all your friends go free." promised Arbiter.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and lowered her head, "I'll do it."

"No Fluttershy!" shouted Applejack, "ya can't!"

Fluttershy ignored her and asked Arbiter, "keep your promise about not burning the coal, and bring my animals here to your castle, and I'll be your mistress."

"Fluttershy, please don't submit yourself to him like this!" begged Rarity.

"Girls, there's no sense in you all getting hurt." Said Fluttershy softly, "I can learn to love Arbiter to make sure you go free."

Techorse felt rage building up in his heart. He knew Arbiter had the audacity to kidnap his friends and threaten the life of his love interest. But this attempt to make Fluttershy his trophy wife had brought him to a boiling point.

"She will not do any such thing, and that's final!" shouted Rarity, firmly planting her hoof into the ground.

"Yeah, what she said!" agreed Spike, hoping to win brownie points.

"Very well." Said Arbiter, frowning and picking up the gauntlets again, "then Techorse must duel me or let you all be eaten by the purple worm."

"What if he says nothin'?" asked Applejack confidently, knowing that legally they could just filibuster the whole ordeal.

Arbiter replied with a smirk, "I'll pick you off one at a time to speed up his decision. Starting with you and his marefriend."

The guards grabbed Applejack and subdued her, then positioned her on a platform above the worm pit, a trapdoor built to funnel prisoners down to the beast. Finally, to make sure nothing funny was attempted by the country girl, they tied up her legs and positioned her over the trapdoor. Applejack swallowed hard as an earth pony wearing a black ski mask removed her stetson hat and approached a lever.

"Oh my gosh, they're gonna dump Applejack in!" shrieked Rainbow Dash in horror.

"Please, I'll be your wife!" begged Fluttershy, "there's no need for this."

Arbiter scoffed, "I'll take you anyways after I deal with them. I don't care if you don't love me back, you'll be my girl and like it."

Arbiter ordered Twilight to be thrown on the platform as well, and the two of them sat 30 feet above the purple worm below, which squirmed around, making loud roars and ramming itself into the walls of the enclosure.

Arbiter pointed to the sword on the ground before Techorse and said darkly, "I'm going to back up and count to ten, Techorse. Pick up the sword and duel me or both of them go in."

Techorse looked down at the blade and saw his reflection in it. He knew someone's blood was going on the cold steel, it was just a matter of who.

He heard Twilight cry out, "Just pick it up! You don't have to fight him, but pick it up!"

Applejack felt the trapdoor slipping as the two frightful ponies started to push on the lever to drop them in.

Applejack said to Techorse, "I'm sorry Techorse. Please, just help us."

Pinkie Pie looked around at the terror. Something in her mind knew that her best friends were about to lose their lives because of the desires of the large white pony in front of her. Pinkie Pie's hair fell into a straight and limp style as her psyche shattered. She marched right up to Arbiter and spat in his face.

"You big fat, arrogant, mean, rude, nasty, controlling, evil, scheming bully!" she shouted at him, "Let us go and give up your downright cruel scheme, or so help me I will tear you apart, Arbiter!"

Arbiter pulled back a metal fist and grabbed Pinkie Pie before throwing her, sending her flying backwards through the air. Techorse's mouth fell open as the pink girl flew back onto the ground. Her hair had returned to normal, but she sat up, and tears ran down from her eyes from the pain.

“I only wanted you to stop.” she said, before crying, “That hurt!”

"What was that about tearing me apart miss Pie?" asked Arbiter teasingly as he turned his head and raised a gauntlet to his ear, "I couldn't hear you over the sound of your ribs breaking!"

For Techorse, this had been the end of his patience. Arbiter had not only tried to take Fluttershy for himself, but he had caused serious harm to Pinkie Pie by throwing her like a toy. The threats on everypony, the pain, and the suffering were far too much. It was time to end it.

"ARBITER!" screamed Techorse as he extended his robot arms and rushed forward.

“Now the real fight begins.” he said, laughing.

Techorse grabbed the sword and charged at Arbiter, yelling in rage. Arbiter quickly reached for his sword and held it in front of him with his metal gauntlets. Steel hit steel as Techorse's blade crossed Arbiter's, each hit sending a shower of sparks over the side of the castle. They clashed blades and moved backwards, away from the others and deep into the cloisters of the rooftop. The ponies of Quartz Valley watched in awe as their leader fought the green coated colt, blocking each blow with skill and attempting to return with his own. Arbiter concentrated with his one eye, using the spell of the gauntlets to attack Techorse while avoiding his swings.

As they retreated into the cloister, Arbiter swung horizontally and struck a blow across his enemy's side. Techorse yelled in pain as a small flesh wound opened up on his right, the gash stung like crazy. But still he fought on, for Pinkie Pie's injury had sent him over the edge, and justice was demanded for it. He brought the blade down, nearly bisecting the Viscount, but Arbiter flew backwards, using his wings to evade the powerful strike. The sword hit the ground and kicked up a chunk of stone.

Techorse brought the robotic arms closer to his body and shouted at Arbiter with nothing but rage in his heart, "I tried peace, Arbiter. I wanted to give you a chance, but you blew it. You're going down."

"It is you who will fall, alien." Replied Arbiter as he galloped forward, swinging the gauntlets to bring his longsword around. Techorse held his blade vertically and blocked the move before returning with a sharp kick from his front leg. This sent Arbiter tumbling down the cloister, where he came to a stop near a gothic-styled window. He got up and took one gauntlet off the sword, raising it so Techorse could see it. Arbiter smirked and made the symbol for "bring it on" with the device.

Another war cry and the green pony charged again, readying the blade to run through the evil Viscount. But Arbiter jumped in the air and hovered with his wings, and as Techorse went under him, he brought the blade down to try and stab him in the head. Luckily, Techorse sped up and dodged the downwards stab, and Arbiter had to turn around to face him. This time, Arbiter pushed Techorse back further into the cloister, rather than the other way around, and they continued to cross blades and hack away at each other in an epic form of combat by today's standards. As they continued to fight, one of the mares watching over the surviving friends looked around and said, "He's gone, let them go now." The “executioners” took off their ski masks and untied Applejack and Twilight before removing them from the platform.

"Wait, so you're letting us go?" asked Twilight in confusion.

"Yeah." Replied the guard, "we're just so scared of what Arbiter might do to us that we had to follow his orders."

"Aw, you're so sweet." She replied half heartedly, trying hard to resist smacking him. Spike ran up to the now liberated Twilight and hugged her.

"I thought you were history!" he said.

"So did I." she replied honestly. "Ok, now that we're free, we should help Techorse!" declared Rainbow Dash.

"Quite right, but where are they?" asked Rarity.

Techorse and Arbiter emerged from the cloister about two hundred feet in front of the friends. Arbiter swung his sword at an angle, attempting to decapitate Techorse with one blow, but he was simply too fast for the swing. The large attack threw him off balance, and Techorse took advantage of this by bringing his sword down on Arbiter. The steel blade cut through the left gauntlet, and the magical object exploded in flash of light and energy as it was destroyed.

Arbiter gripped his weapon tightly with the other hand and continued to dodge Techorse's other blows. After a few moments of crossing blades, Arbiter saw a gap. As the green pony fell off balance, the Captain gave a delightful shout and thrusted his sword forward right through Techorse's sternum. The young colt fell down upon the stone floor of the castle roof and gasped weakly as the blade pierced him. Twilight watched this in terror and galloped to assist. The others tried to follow, but Fluttershy held out a leg.

"No." she said with anger in her eyes, "let Twilight handle this."

"Finally!" cheered Arbiter as he looked at the wounded Techorse, "I've been waiting for this."

The light purple unicorn reached her love interest and threw herself down next to him. She turned him over and looked him in the eyes. He was losing consciousness fast.

"How did you escape?" asked Arbiter angrily.

"Hold still!" she said, ignoring Arbiter. Twilight's horn glowed as she touched Techorse's wound. The deep wound began to heal, and Techorse felt the strength of his lungs returned as Twilight's spell patched up the injury in a glow of purple light. Normally healing spells were too weak to heal anything but a scratch, but Twilight's love for Techorse powered her will to cure the deep cut.

Arbiter screamed, "Stop that!"

But Twilight finished healing the love of her life and kissed him gently on the head. She got up from the ground and turned to face Arbiter. Twilight continued to let her horn glow and picked up Techorse's sword from the stone ground.

She said to the overlord with rage, "You threaten my life and the lives of my friends, you stab my coltfriend, and you tell me to 'stop that?' You're mine now!"

The sword's blade was wrapped in a purple glow, and Twilight swung the blade at him. Arbiter blocked the weapon and was pushed back towards the walls of the cloister, but made sure he did not actually go back inside again. Twilight swung furiously and accurately, pushing the Viscount backwards until finally he was pinned against the wall. With one last shout of anger, Twilight telekinetically hacked the blade downwards and sliced through the right gauntlet, breaking it and causing Arbiter's sword to fall to the ground. Twilight picked up that blade also with her magic and crossed the two. She moved the blades around Arbiter's neck, threatening to use them like a giant pair of scissors. Techorse stood up and let the robotic hands slide back into the mechanical saddle he enjoyed using so dearly. He casually walked over to the outside of the cloister and stood in front of Twilight Sparkle and Arbiter.

Twilight prepared to push the blades and sever Arbiter's head, ending the life of the evil lord.

Techorse looked at Arbiter, and the Viscount looked over with his one good eye. He saw fear in his face, the once powerful and mighty lord had been brought down to the status of a whimpering child. But more importantly, he finally figured out that Arbiter was likely suffering from some kind of insanity in all of this. Perhaps the invasion of the humans had driven the captain mad, a madness that Equestria was being taken over, and there was nothing he could have done about it. Now, as Twilight prepared to finish him off, the swordspony had a look of failure on his face.

Arbiter would not beg for his life, but simply said with a dry throat, "You and your mare have beaten me in this duel Techorse. Just tell her to do it quickly."

Techorse walked up to Twilight and kissed her on the cheek before saying, "Put the swords down."

"But what about Pinkie Pie?"

"Just drop them, please." Twilight powered down the swords and dropped the blades as she stepped back from Arbiter.

"Why?" he asked, "after all the things I did, why couldn't you let her finish me?" Techorse extended a robotic hand to help the lord up.

"I'm proving I'm a good pony." He replied, "All of your citizens who just watched this duel would agree that because I've spared you, I'm not such a beast anymore."

Techorse pointed out the number of citizens of Quartz Valley who had gathered at the base of the castle to watch the fight.

Arbiter simply watched as the citizens began to chant, "Set them free!"

Arbiter silenced them and said to his followers, "I will release them."

"Let's go back home." said Twilight, gathering up her friends to leave. Techorse turned his back on Arbiter and walked over to the edge of the worm pit.

He looked down at the monster and said sadly, "Oh, Pinkie Pie."

He let tears fall into the pit and onto the annelid, which screeched at him.

"I'm so sorry." bawled Techorse, "I should have acted sooner."

Arbiter saw Techorse perched in an undefendable position over the worm pit. He had one last shot at accomplishing his objectives. Arbiter picked up his sword with his teeth and aimed it at Techorse's rear end before charging.

Rainbow Dash noticed the charge and shouted, "Techorse, watch out!"

He span around and saw Arbiter about to strike. Acting quickly, Techorse took out his turbofans and lifted vertically into the air, letting Arbiter pass underneath him. Arbiter attempted to stop, but momentum was too great, and over he went down into the deep pit. The others refused to watch as the stallion was swallowed whole by his own pet.

Techorse landed next to his friends and said to them, "I can't believe that just happened. Even at the end, he still felt that he needed to try and finish me off. Now he's gone."

"I guess we should just go home then." Said Applejack sadly, removing her hat once again.

"Oh no.” said Pinkie Pie, her ears drooping, “Getting thrown like a ball wasn't that bad! It might have hurt my head a bit, but Arbiter didn't deserve that!”

“I thought he said he broke your ribs!” protested Techorse.

“That's what he said, but he was wrong.” admitted Pinkie Pie, smiling, “I'm a little more bouncy than that!”

“Well, I guess I charged at him for nothing then.” he said, frowning.

“You did the right thing.” assured Rainbow Dash.

"Maybe..." he answered sadly, "But it's a shame I couldn't have made peace with him."

A thud was heard by the team between their conversation as princess Celestia's chariot landed on the roof of the castle. It was being pulled by twenty of her guards, with Jools and Jops at the front.

"Thank goodness I finally found you." said the princess, glad to see that her team was mostly intact. She frowned as she saw her friends staring into the dismal hole in the castle roof.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Techorse finally took notice of Celestia.

"Princess!" he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"An enchanted paper plane entered Canterlot one day." She replied, "Twilight sent them out as a cry for help. When I heard about Arbiter's plans for her, I brought some troops with me."

Techorse saluted Jools and Jops, who nodded in acknowledgment. Twilight approached Celestia and bowed before her.

She stood up afterwords and said, "Thank you for coming, but we've already stopped Arbiter."

"Then why are you all so sad?" asked Celestia.

"It's terrible." said Twilight, "Arbiter was killed by the purple worm in this pit."

"What?"

“Techie thought I had gotten hurt badly, but I really hadn't, so he fought Arbiter!” explained Pinkie Pie rapidly, “Then Arbiter hurt him, but Twilight healed him, and then she beat him with all these super cool sword moves! Twilight and Techie wanted to let him go, but he wouldn't, and he fell in trying to get Techie again!”

Princess Celestia listened and stared, trying to process all the information at once.

"It's true." explained Fluttershy, "He fell in making a lunge at Techorse, and it gobbled him up."

The princess smiled and walked over to the edge, then looked down at the twelve foot long creature.

"It's going to be ok." Comforted the princess, "Twilight, did you ever study purple worms?"

"No." she replied, “Is there something I'm forgetting here?”

Celestia tilted her head upwards and addressed her team, "Purple worms don't eat meat. They eat giant mushrooms that grow underground in this area. Anything else is inedible to them."

"Then why did it eat him?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Well, the worm is blind and can't smell either, so it simply takes in anything it can find." Explained Celestia, "however, anything that isn't a giant mushroom doesn't quite sit well on the worm's stomach.

The irritated worm will coat the object with a special hardening amber to soothe the problem."

"A soothing coat?" asked Rarity, not quite making a connection.

"Like how oysters make pearls, Rarity."

The worm began to cough and sputter, as if hacking up a hairball. A chunk of amber-colored plastic shot out of its mouth and landed on the roof. Arbiter was trapped inside, a sad look to him, as if he was disappointed in his own failure and that his home world was doomed.

Twilight looked at the amber cubes and said, "He's just in stasis. If we remove the amber, he should wake up.”

"I bet if we heat up the amber, it will melt away." suggested Spike, ready to breathe fire.

Celestia said, "For now, let's put Arbiter in storage back at my castle. He's going to need to answer for what he's done."

"I suppose that's it then." said Applejack cheerfully, "Let's head on home to celebrate!”

"Not yet." said Twilight. She said to the princess, "Princess Celestia, I need to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" she replied, acknowledging her request. Twilight led the princess and had her look down at the ponies of Quartz Valley.

"These ponies never got their towns on the maps of Equestria." Twilight explained, "They felt unloved by you and Luna, thinking they were forgotten. That's why they turned to Arbiter. Please, let them send representatives to Canterlot and be accepted as citizens of your kingdom."

Celestia watched the ponies as they stared up in awe at her flowing hair and stunning appearance.

She called down to them sweetly, "Citizens of Quartz Valley, from this day forward you shall have your place on the maps of Equestria. I apologize for my unkind forgetfulness in adding your small country to the records. A thousand years ago, the day I was to add your country to our maps, my sister attempted to overthrow the planet, and my depression after her banishment caused me to forget your country. Although I do not expect it, can you forgive me for my mistake?"

The citizens cheered a happy response; they were finally going to be accepted by the princesses. Princess Celestia's heart filled with joy at the eagerness of the citizens to forgive her, and felt as if she was continuing to reconcile with her past more and more every day.

Twilight turned and faced Techorse. He looked up and smiled at her, then took off his saddle and approached her slowly. They gave each other a loving look before Techorse said,

"Thanks for saving me again."

"I was just about to say the same thing..." She replied before they began to kiss.

A week later, every last banner and creation of Arbiter had been burned, and the purple worm was returned to its home underground in the mines, which it very much appreciated as it could finally eat the mushrooms it craved again. The former leader of Quartz Valley was freed from Arbiter's prisoners and returned to work, happy to have his job back. The mining probes were switched from purely retrieving coal to looking for precious metals, gems, and construction materials. Quartz Valley's economy continued to grow, but the environmental harm had ceased.

Back in Ponyville, the team of seven were once again considered heroes for stopping the terror Arbiter had inflicted with his ninjas. But even they were welcome in town from time to time, as it was soon proved that they would much rather practice their martial arts in defense of others rather than take them away. After apologizing for their actions and admitting they were not related to Arbiter, they started a small karate dojo in Quartz Valley, and the Three Brothers Karate became a popular after school program for the town's foals. As for the seven friends, they returned to their normal lives after gathering for a party Pinkie Pie threw for everyone in celebration of their success. For Equestria, another tyrant had been defeated, and the planet was once again safe.

#13 - Captain Amnesia

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Captain Amnesia

Techorse Series: #13

By Spirals95

Jools and Jops were doing something odd for Celestia's royal guards. They were smiling about what was going on, finally getting to see justice done. They marched side by side as brothers down the well-lit stone hallways of Canterlot's castle, being followed by one dozen gray unicorn guards. Jools and his brother were only to keep the prisoner they were escorting from escaping from the front, the unicorn guards knew electric spells that gave the prisoner marching between the two rows of ponies a reason to avoid trying to get away. In the center of these two columns, a larger white Pegasus pony with a black eyepatch over his scarred face looked down at the floor with his remaining good eye as he was practically dragged by the rope connecting him to the brass bar placed between Jools and Jops' armor.

At one time, this pony had been the boss of the two stallions leading him to his doom, but now he could care less. Arbiter, now his only name with no title whatsoever attached to it, was going to have to face the princesses for everything he had done over the past year. It was bad enough that he wanted to re-establish the capital punishment that Celestia had hated with an undying passion. But now he had actually attempted to do in the holders of the Elements of Harmony, and their newest addition. Jools looked back at the gloomy ex-Captain and chuckled darkly.

"Arbiter can look as miserable as he wants to, but he knows he deserves this," thought the guard, enjoying every tug the rope made on the bar between his brother and him.

The guards reached a pair of doors which marked the entrance to the princess' throne room. At this point Jools and Jops passed the bar back to the unicorns directly behind them, and then opened the large doors so that the 12 could pass through. Once Arbiter was securely inside, Jools and Jops entered and shut the wooden doors with a mighty slam. The unicorn ponies' horns glowed brown as they backed off from Arbiter and stood in a large but definite circle, ready to keep him from avoiding what was coming next. Arbiter looked down at his hooves, frowning at the metal chains bounding his front and rear legs that barely let him walk. Celestia hadn't ordered Arbiter to be chained up, but Jools and Jops suggested it "just to be safe."

The princess stood up from her throne, but Luna remained sitting in her seat next to her sister. She gave one slightly angry look at Arbiter before noticing the shackles around his feet. The princess shook her head, letting her multicolored hair flow, and then attempted to make eye contact with either of her Pegasus guards to indicate her disappointment. Jools and Jops consistently looked away, cementing their guilt of disobeying the order not to shackle Arbiter for their own amusement.

Looking back at the eyepatched pony, Celestia began to speak to him,
"Arbiter, you are about to stand trial before me. I hope never to have to deal with one of my subjects by myself, but you've forced my hoof this time."

Arbiter looked up at Celestia, then down at the floor again without saying anything. It seemed like tears were starting to form in his eyes, and the bottom of the eyepatch started to soak, indicating that the organ wasn't completely gone.

"I'm sorry." said Arbiter, sniffing once.

Luna bolted up from her slightly smaller throne and shouted, "Sorry? You are nearly responsible for the loss of Equestria's heroes! You built cruel devices that were banned even before I was sent away for a millennium!"

At those words, Celestia looked back at her sister for a moment in surprise at what she had just heard. She knew that she had her sister's full support if she was willing to bring up her own banishment to prove how dark Arbiter truly was.

"But if you wanted to punish me for what I did," complained Arbiter as he choked back tears, "Why didn't you simply leave me frozen in that block of amber?"

Earlier that month, Arbiter had been attempting to defeat Techorse in a sword fight, but lost his balance and fell into a pit with a purple worm he had been keeping. The worm seemingly devoured him, but found him indigestible and spat him out in a block of amber instead. This had kept Arbiter preserved, and when the amber was melted away, what had happened was explained to him.

Celestia explained to Arbiter, "Because you wouldn't learn anything from it. Twilight Sparkle determined from her reading that you were in some sort of a coma while inside that block. You need to remember your punishment to avoid making this mistake again."

"Do I get a chance to say goodbye to my family? They won't still be around after one thousand years." asked Arbiter mournfully.

Princess Luna walked up next to her sister and nudged her slightly, as if to indicate that Celestia was supposed to remember what to say next. In reality Luna was supposed to announce Arbiter's punishment, but she had forgotten and was relying on her older sibling to carry through with it. But Celestia gave a flick of her head to urge Luna on. She looked back at Arbiter and cleared her throat before addressing him.

"Although you will be severely punished for what you have done, we do not wish you to be banished. You would be a huge threat upon your return." She said, trying to keep her voice down.

Arbiter nodded slowly and said to the princesses, "Then I guess you're going to put me in one of my own devices. In that case, do I get a last meal?"

Celestia frowned and said, "Neither of us planned on that being your fate, Arbiter. In fact, we took a vote with the very ponies you sought to destroy. Not one of them voted in favor of you suffering that end. They have truly proven themselves the better beings."

Celestia shot Jools and Jops a nasty look when she heard their slight but noticeably "disappointed" groans.

"So after many nights of thinking," said Luna in an attempt to break the awkward silence, "we have decided to seal you away in a remote dungeon specifically designed to hold you! It is built from solid concrete and magical bars that cannot be broken by any tool or weapon! You'll be there forever!"

Arbiter immediately broke down upon hearing this and threw himself on the floor weeping. Some of the guards started to laugh at seeing their ex-boss about to beg for mercy. But what he said next surprised everyone in the throne room.

"I don't even know what I did to deserve that! It must have been something terrible, but I can't remember!" screamed Arbiter.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a minute as the room fell silent save for Arbiter's cries. They looked back at the crushed Pegasus.

"You don't remember anything from the past few months?" asked Celestia.

Arbiter nodded and continued calmly but with a lump in his throat, "All I can remember is being some kind of a guard here, and then all of a sudden, I'm being tried for some terrible crime! Yes I kept a guillotine secret from you all these years, but why does the penalty have to be so great for it? I never did plan on using it, it was a morbid antique."

Luna whispered to her older sister, "He doesn't remember Techorse or any of his past actions! Perhaps now instead of locking him up, we can try to turn him into a good pony."

"That's a wonderful idea." agreed Celestia, "Let's summon Techorse and convince Arbiter to like him. Because he was the only pony Arbiter ever hated, making them friends will likely be the end of all of this."

“And better still, we won't have to build that expensive, remote prison!” said Luna, winking.

Almost never was there a truly boring day at the library for Twilight, being surrounded by her favorite books. Usually there was something new to learn, or something old to practice or repeat. Unfortunately for Twilight, this had been one of those days where absolutely nothing of interest had appealed to her, and she was simply lying face down on top of her bed, trying her hardest to think of something to do to pass time.

"Are you sure there isn't one spell you could practice?" asked Spike, standing at the foot of Twilight's bed.

"There are lots of spells for me to practice." Answered Twilight, slightly muffled by her face being stuffed into the comforter of her bed, "But magic is much more entertaining when it goes to use."

"Well, could you help me finish clean up if you're really that bored." suggested Spike, hoping to get out of a few chores by taking advantage of Twilight Sparkle's dull afternoon.

Suddenly, Spike felt a nagging sensation in the back of his throat and knew immediately what was going to happen next.

"Hang on." He said quickly before expectorating a small scroll bound with an orange ribbon.

Spike held the tiny but ornate roll of parchment in his hand and turned it over curiously. It was only about the size of a reminder note found in offices when unrolled, but the message inside was quite confusing. Twilight looked up from her bed and saw Spike reading the tiny scroll.
"A new message from princess Celestia?" she asked, "What does it say?"

"It's not from Celestia." Said Spike with a confused tone of voice, "This is from two guys called Jools and Jops. Do you know these ponies?"

Twilight's horn glowed softly as she took the message from Spike's hands and moved it in front of her face. The note hovered gently in front of her as she read. While she read the note in her head, she explained to Spike who the authors were.

"Jools and Jops are the princesses' two favorite guards, Spike. They're those white coated Pegasus ponies who almost never leave their side. A lot of ponies think that they're just doing their job well, but I've always had a feeling the princesses treat them like friends."

Spike sat down on the wood floor and listened curiously, but asked, "So what are they asking?"

Twilight said, "They're saying that Captain Arbiter has been freed from his block of amber, but has lost all memory of what he has done wrong. We are being ordered to bring Tech to Arbiter in hopes of making them friends."

Spike got angry at these words and stood up quickly before shouting, "Why would Techorse ever be friends with that low-life who nearly took away you and the others?"

A tiny amount of green flame erupted from his nostrils as he spoke.

"Because." explained Twilight calmly as she put the note on the bed, "Arbiter's reason for doing all that was because he thought if he didn't get rid of Tech, Equestria would be in danger. Now that he's lost his memory, we can over-write that thought with the idea of Tech being a good pony."

"And Arbiter won't be evil anymore?" asked Spike, cooling off a bit.

Twilight nodded, "Right. He could be released into society again without any harm." She then frowned and added, "But I'm not sure if Techorse would ever want to be friends with him after all he did."

"As long as Arbiter's not going to turn you or any of our friends' heads into coasters, I'm happy. Who cares if he can't be best pals with Techie?" said Spike, stating what he believed to be the most likely outcome.

"I guess you're right." said Twilight, smiling a bit now as she turned to get off the bed.

She got up from her spot and walked over to a nearby desk, where she magically picked up a quill and began to write a response. "I'll let the princesses know we're coming. The message said to bring two others besides Tech and me, so you'll be coming along to."

"I'm still mad at Arbiter." said Spike, crossing his arms in disgust, "I'd go with you, but I can't stand seeing that guy get away for what he did. He ought to be tortured or something so he knows what it feels like."

Twilight turned around from the desk and scolded her apprentice, "Spike, that's a terrible thing to say! Tech wouldn't want Arbiter to suffer, and neither should you!"

Spike backed off a bit and put his hands out defensively, "Ok, ok. I'm sorry. But I'm not going to go with you because I'm still upset, I'll just mess everything up."

"That's ok." Said Twilight, "But if you're not going, who should I take? I can't take Rainbow Dash because she's still upset over Arbiter's behavior too. I can't take Applejack either for the same reason."

Twilight ears drooped when she realized that most of her friends would still harbor too much hatred for Arbiter to be willing to help him become a good pony.

"Take Pinkie and Fluttershy." suggested Spike, "Pinkie never holds a grudge, and you told me that Arbiter wanted to marry Fluttershy. Maybe she'll be able to keep him calm even if he can't remember that."

"Good thinking Spike." Said Twilight, turning back to finish writing the letter, "I'll teleport us to the castle tomorrow morning."

"Just be careful, Arbiter's a big threat." cautioned Spike.

"Relax, nothing bad is going to happen." sighed Twilight, finishing the note, “Worst comes to worse, we just leave his memory erased, right?”

Twilight frowned at Spike's disbelieving look, and in her own mind, began to ponder whether or not they could actually succeed at their plans.

The next day, at around ten in the morning, Twilight walked to each of her friend's homes and invited them to witness Arbiter's "redemption." She first stopped at Sugarcube Corner and easily convinced Pinkie Pie to go. However, as they began to walk back for Fluttershy's cottage, they were not so sure about being able to coerce her into going. After all, Arbiter had earlier tried to force Fluttershy to marry him by threatening the team's lives. Twilight and Pinkie reached the cottage on the edge of town and slowly approached the door. After taking a deep breath, Twilight raised a hoof gently to knock. Pinkie Pie rushed up and pounded repeatedly on the wood door with both her front hooves, ruining any chance of quietly announcing their arrival. Twilight moaned and shook her head at her friend's silliness. After a second, Fluttershy gently opened the door and greeted them.

"Hello Twilight, Pinkie." She said softly, "Is something wrong? You were knocking very quickly."

"Nothing's wrong, we're just excited about going to make Arbiter a good guy!" said Pinkie Pie energetically, "Do you want to come with us?"

“What?” she said, a little startled, “You want me to help you change Arbiter?”

“Yes, please!” answered Pinkie Pie, smiling.

Twilight mentally prepared her argument as to why Fluttershy should go with them, waiting for the inevitable cowardly reaction her friend was going to give to hearing about this. But she took a double take at Fluttershy when she heard her say,
"Yes, I'll go."

Twilight's mouth nearly fell open at the statement. Surely Fluttershy wanted to avoid the guy who had tried to force her to be his wife.

Twilight regained composure from the shock and said, "Wow Fluttershy, I thought for sure you'd be afraid to go."

"Oh normally I would, Arbiter is very scary. But if there's a chance we can make him a good colt at heart, I want to help. It's better than him getting locked up."

"That's the spirit!" giggled Pinkie Pie.

Twilight asked them, "Ok girls, step out here into the open and we'll go. Techorse is going to meet us at the castle using his own teleporter machine."

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stepped away from the house, with Pinkie giving the door a kick with her hind legs to close it.

"Hang on." Said Twilight, her horn glowing as the teleport spell charged up. Within seconds the three disappeared in a burst of purple light.

Celestia and Luna sat on their thrones staring endlessly down the red carpet in front of them. Unless Twilight made a mistake, which was unlikely, the team was going to teleport in front of them. As they predicted, purple energy streams began to form, and with a flash, the ponies had appeared.

"Thank you for coming to help." said Celestia, wasting no time, "Arbiter is in the room three doors down towards the west wing of the castle. Keep in mind that he remembers who you are, but nothing about his relationships with you. Take caution, and he will become a good pony. Use the wrong words and we may have to imprison him."

Twilight smiled and said to the princesses, "You can count on us! Hopefully Arbiter will be able to live a better life once we're done with him."

"We hope so too." said Luna, "I may not have learned much about him in the short time I knew him, but I still hate to see any of my subjects become anything so vile."

"Don't worry." Said Pinkie, jumping up and down in place, "We're gonna make Arbiter one of the nicest ponies ever with a little Pinkie power!"

"Speaking of power." said Twilight looking around suspiciously, "Where is that coltfriend of mine? Is it a rule that they're late to everything?"

"Techorse arrived several minutes ago." corrected Celestia, "He's in the tower containing the elements. I'm going to speak with him for a moment before he joins you."

Twilight nodded and looked at Fluttershy, "Great. Let's go talk to Arbiter in the meantime and see if we can get started on his recovery."

Fluttershy said, "All right. But can one of you two talk to him first? Remember what he tried to do to me."

As the three turned to go to Arbiter's holding room, Twilight said to Fluttershy, "Don't worry, we won't let him try anything funny. If anything, you'll keep him calm if he still thinks you are beautiful."

Fluttershy nodded and continued to follow her friends out of the throne room and down the long hallways of the castle. The light shone in from the windows, illuminating the white brick of the structure nicely, although a few torches were lit to chase away the remaining shadowy areas in the building. The floor was carpeted in the middle, and occasionally a tapestry hung from the wall. Occasionally a guard would walk pass the three, and sometimes they would smile when Pinkie greeted them, but many of them simply kept walking in a very unfriendly manner. Eventually they came upon the wooden door behind which the now clueless Arbiter was staying.

"Ok, who's up first?" asked Twilight.

"Ooh, pick me!" shouted Pinkie, "Let me try first."

"Pinkie's right." Agreed Fluttershy, "She's so happy that there's no way Arbiter can be mean after talking to her. We can go find other things to do while they talk, Twilight."

"Sounds like a plan." said Twilight, giving her tail a slight swish through the air, "We'll let Pinkie talk with him for an hour, and then I'll take the next shift. Techorse can go after me when the princess is done talking to him if you're still afraid to go, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy smiled in response, and they left Pinkie alone to go find something to keep themselves busy. Pinkie Pie opened the large door by the brass handle on it with her left front leg, and walked into the large room. It was a large but simple place to stay, with a queen sized bed in the middle, a couple of dressers, and no decorative art. A large mirror with a gold ornate frame stood in the right corner of the room, and opposite of it on the other wall was a bay window which was open to let the cool breeze come in. Captain Arbiter was lying down on the bed, with a sad expression on his face. Although he was no longer chained up, he felt as if he would be taken away any minute and never seen or heard from again. Pinkie Pie's entrance into the room caused him to look up at her and smile slightly.

"Hello." he said, "I don't remember your name, but I've seen you before."

"I'm Pinkie Pie, remember?" she asked, "I'm one of Techorse's friends. You threw me like a stuffed animal, which wasn't much fun, but maybe it was fun for you."

Pinkie Pie bounced over to Arbiter and leaned in close to the larger pony.

Arbiter rolled off of the bed and stood up quickly, "All I can remember is that I'm guilty of trying to hurt you and Techorse, as well as his other friends. But I don't remember doing anything at all. I recall being a captain of something at one point, I got caught with a guillotine, and now I'm here in this room awaiting my fate."

Arbiter realized that he was looking out the window and had turned his back on Pinkie Pie. He thought that maybe Celestia had sent her in to deal with him despite her friendly nature. After all, she had mentioned him throwing her around at some point.

"You aren't here to hurt me are you?" he asked with a dry throat.

"No, silly!" laughed Pinkie Pie, "I'm here to help you! You were a bad pony, but now I wanna help you be a nice one instead."

Arbiter turned around and looked at Pinkie Pie with his one good eye. Her beaming smile and fluffy pink mane calmed him and subconsciously let him know that she meant no harm whatsoever.

"Very well, I believe you." said Arbiter.

He walked past Pinkie Pie and looked in the mirror. Pinkie dashed up next to him and put a leg around the white stallion. Arbiter looked at his reflection in the mirror. His gray mane had gone a bit uncut, and the scar underneath his eyepatch gave him a menacing look.

"Wow. Whoever I was, I was a monster. I'm rather disfigured." He said sadly, frowning at the ugliness of his damaged eye.

"No you're not!" said Pinkie as she released her hold on him and put all four legs on the floor, "I mean, you were, but you're not anymore. You don't have to be a monster ever again."

"Why do I even have this eyepatch?" asked Arbiter.

He paused for a minute and then asked slowly, "Am I… a pirate?"

Pinkie Pie thought about her response for a split second. She could tell him the truth, but that wouldn't be any fun. In her mind, Arbiter needed to be punished for all his crimes, and nothing was more harmless of a punishment than public humiliation. Instead of facing jail, Arbiter would simply have to become a mockery for a while.

"Yes!" she shouted, "That's why you're in trouble for all those things you did."

"Really?" asked Arbiter, "That means I must have stolen treasure from you, Techorse, and even the princesses!"

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie, "You're Captain Arrrbiter, dread pirate!"

She purposefully closed one eye and did her best pirate voice possible.

"But how could a pirate possibly be good?" moaned Arbiter, turning away from the mirror, "All I can do is steal things."

"Well what if you stole things back that had already been stolen from the first place? You could be a stealer who steals from the stealing. You'd be a double stealer!" suggested Pinkie, jumping on the bed and forcing eye contact on him.

"You're right Mrs. Pie." said Arbiter firmly, stomping his right foot, "If anything, I can bring back gold and treasure for the princess and prove that I am on her side. Then perhaps I can go in peace."

"Hang on Arbiter, you're going to need some stuff before you can start helping." said Pinkie, holding out a leg to stop Arbiter from leaving the room.

She quickly dashed out the door and returned with a few items, which she dropped quickly in front of Arbiter. A black tricorne hat, and two metal gauntlets with pink crystals on the top of them lay on the floor.

"I like the hat." Said Arbiter, placing it on his head, "But what are those strange pieces of armor?"

"These are those enchanted thingies you said that the unicorn ponies in your family make to help us non-magic ponies pick stuff up!" explained Pinkie, "You love these things because you can use swords with them!"

"I don't want to use a sword." said Arbiter, "It would make me evil."

Pinkie told him, "They won't make you evil if you're nice and use them to defend ponies rather than hurt them!"

"In that case I'm going to the armory to retrieve my favorite sword. It was taken from me by the princesses. After that, lass, I think you and I ought to hunt for some treasure for them. They certainly deserve a gift from me after all I've done." Arbiter smiled at Pinkie and pushed the crystals on the gauntlets with his right hoof.

They glowed slightly, and rose in the air magically before settling at Arbiter's sides. They were now under his mental control, and acted as temporary arms. Arbiter flexed the fingers of the gloves and clenched them tightly, testing their function.

"Let's go!" he said, walking out of the room.

"Aye aye, captain!" giggled Pinkie, following him out with a skip in her step.

On the other side of the castle, Techorse stood in the element tower, waiting for princess Celestia to come and talk to him. He wasn't exactly sure what information he was going to receive, but he understood that if the princess wanted to talk to him alone about the issue, it must be important. Techorse believed that was about to receive some very private information from the princess. He looked at the various stained glass windows in the hallway, each depicting a significant use of the elements of harmony. Twilight had in the past told him about Discord and his defeat, as well as the first time Nightmare Moon had attacked. But several feet down from those two panes of glass was a brand new opening in the castle wall.

On this pane of glass, seven ponies were depicted at the bottom with a single crystal floating above them. From these crystals shot seven rays of light which traveled up, piercing the body of a man in a blue cloak. His arms were stretched, and tiny shards of black glass on the figure's face marked an expression of agony. Techorse sighed and recalled the events of his past, before he heard the door to the tower open to his right. Turning, he watched Celestia walk in and approach him, unaccompanied by either Jools or Jops.

"Thank you for being so patient, Techorse." She said, stopping in front of him.

Techorse turned to face the princess and replied, "You're welcome, your magesty. I assume whatever you needed to tell me must be top-secret. You don't even want Jools and Jops to know!"

"Actually." admitted the princess, looking at the ceiling for a moment, "I left them outside because this message will enrage them. I don't want those two making a scene."

"Oh." said Techorse, trying his hardest not to grin in any way.

Celestia looked back at him and continued, "Techorse, I just wanted to congratulate you on your exemplary attitude towards this whole situation with Arbiter. You could have let him remain in the dungeon forever if you wanted to for all the things he tried to do, but instead you want to help him. This is curious behavior for the holder of the element of Justice."

The green colt smiled and said to Celestia with a hint of sarcasm, "He was kind of deluded that he was only doing his job. He thought I was a threat to the planet, and was probably a little insane. I'm glad we can get him to see things from our perspective."

"Unfortunately." said the princess, frowning and scraping her front hoof on the floor tile, "You were not the only one to suffer from Arbiter's wrath. I found at least a dozen ponies locked up in jails all over Equestria that had been placed there by Arbiter because they merely had a different opinion from me or my sister."

"I'm going to guess Arbiter was paranoid about conspiracy against you." said Techorse.

Celestia shook her head slightly, "No Techorse, he was not worried about me being overthrown. He was always disappointed with me in not ruling with an iron hoof. He thought Equestria would not have the threats or troublemakers it does if I chose to do so. But I value the freedoms of my subjects more than I do perfection of order. That's why the elected senate exists, to promote freedom and the will of my subjects."

"I know." said Techorse, "And it's very wise of you to give your subjects those freedoms."

"They didn't always have them." Admitted Celestia as she looked down, "But after my mistake with Luna all those centuries ago, I had to do something to alleviate the torment, and serving my ponies by giving them more freedom was the best choice I ever made. But until recently, that torment never completely went away." A single tear rolled down her cheek and hit the floor.

Techorse frowned, and with a robotic click, his mechanical arms extended from the saddle on his back and offered a tiny box of tissues to the princess. With her magic, Celestia took a single one of the thin tissues and she dried her eyes.

"I'm sorry. We're getting off the main point." she said, pushing the lump in her throat down.

"It's ok." assured Techorse, retracting the arms into his saddle, "Now what else did you need to tell me?"

"I bet you are wondering how such a cruel pony got the position of captain of the guard." Celestia took a few steps backwards and pointed at a weird stone on the wall. The round and flat rock had a large black marking on it in some weird pattern, and the edges of the rock glowed a very subtle cyan color.

"This stone you see here is a glyph." explained Celestia, "A magic rock capable of giving out large amounts of magic on demand."

Techorse walked up to the stone and gave it a curious look, "So it's a battery for the thought energy that magic is made from?"

Celestia had nearly forgotten about Techorse's scientific theory behind magic, and the simplicity almost stung. The philosophy had spread throughout Canterlot as a partial explanation, and even though it didn't cover everything, it seemed easy enough to help explain magic's use at a glance.

"Yes." She said quickly, “That's how it works.”

"So why do you have these glyphs?" asked Techorse, looking back at the princess.

Celestia explained, "Did Twilight ever tell you about her brother?"

"Twilight has a brother?"

"Yes, she does." confirmed Celestia.

"Why did she never tell me about him? She never keeps secrets from me!" moaned Techorse, frowning at the thought that the love of his life was keeping something from him.

Ignoring his frustration, Celestia continued to offer her explanation, "Her brother used to be my captain. As a unicorn, he was capable of casting the most powerful force field any unicorn could conjure. He would keep us from falling under siege a few times in his career. But eventually he married my niece and moved away to start his own castle. This left us unshielded and vulnerable."

Techorse interrupted, "So you hired Arbiter and installed these glyphs, which provide a replacement barrier?"

Celestia nodded, "That's right. Arbiter's family contains mostly unicorns that specialize in the production and enchantment of these glyphs. Arbiter's knowledge of how to operate the shield glyphs earned him his job here at the castle."

Techorse smirked, "But he wasn't much of a great pony, was he?"

The princess admitted with a frown, "No, initially he was a prideful but noble warrior who just wanted to see everyone in the castle safe. But then one day, a shadowy figure challenged Arbiter's greatness, and even though he wounded the creature with his favorite sword, the creature slashed his eye. He felt as if he was half a pony from that day on, and became cruel, demanding, and dark."

"If that's true, then the best I can do is make Arbiter a harmless but egotistical guy." said Techorse, shaking his head.

"It's better than having him commit more crimes against ponies." sighed Celestia, "Let's return to the throne room and ask my sister if the others have had any success with Arbiter."

As they returned to the throne room, on the other side of the castle, Fluttershy was enjoying a walk outside in the courtyard. At one time Arbiter had constructed his guillotine out on the cobblestone, but now all was peaceful, and Fluttershy bathed in the warm sun as she tried to confer with the occasional bird or mammal that passed by. While she talked with the animals, the sun hit an object lodged in a hole in a nearby tree, causing it to glimmer. The small flash of light caught Fluttershy's eye, and she turned to look at it.

"What's that?" she wondered aloud, slowly approaching the tree.

Halfway up the trunk of the oak was the knothole, and a tiny golden handle stuck out. Fluttershy flapped her wings gently and lifted slowly into the air until she was level with the object. She reached into the dark opening with her head, and gently drew out the object with her teeth. Landing back down on the grass gracefully, Fluttershy placed the object upright on the ground near the roots of the oak and inspected it. The object was a solid gold chalice, decorated with a few rubies on the outside. Fluttershy leaned in close to the golden cup and knelt down a bit on her front legs.

"I wonder if somepony tried to steal this earlier." She said, "I should probably return this."

"Ah, now there's a fine piece of booty." said a voice behind her.

Fluttershy's blood ran cold and her eyes opened wide in fear. She knew captain Arbiter was standing right behind her, and in the past he had wanted to take her as his wife. Fluttershy swallowed hard and prayed that he wouldn't try to do that again. Her legs shook in fear as she heard Arbiter's hooves against the cobblestone, until he eventually passed by her tail end and attempted to make eye contact.

"Excuse me, Fluttershy." Arbiter said, "Could you let me take this treasure and give it to Celestia? It would make a great gift for her to prove I'm on her side."

Fluttershy gave a huge sigh of relief, and relaxed her muscles before saying, "Sure. I was about to give it back myself, but I guess it would be ok if you did it instead."

"Great, thanks lass!" he said happily, quickly picking up the chalice with his right gauntlet.

After grabbing the cup, Arbiter spread his wings and took off to attempt to land in the throne room. Fluttershy looked up at the flying pirate captain, and heard Pinkie Pie giggling beside her.

"Oh dear, did you make Arbiter a pirate, Pinkie?" she asked, looking at her friend.

"Maaaaaybe!" said Pinkie in a teasing tone of voice while rolling her eyes.

Fluttershy said with somewhat of an upset tone, "I think we were supposed to make him a normal good pony. Let's follow him and make sure nothing bad happens to him."

Pinkie said, "Okie dokie lokie!" and dashed off in a burst of speed, leaving Fluttershy behind.

She sighed gently and started walking for the door inside. It was bad enough having Captain Arbiter roaming around the castle, nevermind him being a pirate.

Five minutes later, the princesses had assembled the team in front of them. Twilight and Techorse stood next to each other, while Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were together on their left. They were discussing the day's events so far when Arbiter crashed through the open window and landed with a tumble on the floor. Brushing himself off, he approached the princesses, folded his wings, and bowed while placing the gold chalice in front of them.

"Princess Celestia and Luna, I bring you this cup as a gift!" he said, "Can you please forgive this old pirate of his crimes now?"

Luna turned to her sister and whispered in a confused voice, "Pirate?"

Celestia replied with a surprised voice, "I'm unsure what you've done to him, but that chalice has been missing for months! It looks like Arbiter wants to be helpful even if he has lost his mind."

Luna remembered the other objective they had in mind for Arbiter, then spread her wings and said loudly, "Arbiter, we forgive you of your crimes if you can ask the forgiveness of Techorse, the green colt behind you."

"I remember Techorse." mumbled Arbiter as he looked back at his old enemy.

Techorse gave a nervous grin and did a casual wave with one of his robotic arms. Twilight also smiled, hoping that Arbiter would accept the warm invitation and no longer be in trouble for what he had done earlier in the year.

"I cannot remember why I hated him though." Arbiter said, "And until I know why, I can't ask for his forgiveness. But I'll keep getting more treasures for you, your majesty."

He then ran out the front door again without saying another word, much to the sadness of Fluttershy and Twilight.

Techorse's ears drooped, and he looked at the red carpet below him, "Darn, I thought for sure Arbiter was going to own up to things."

Twilight rubbed his back gently with a hoof and comforted him, "I'm sure he'll ask you to forgive him eventually. We just have to keep showing him that we want to be friends, not enemies, and he'll turn."

Meanwhile, outside the throne room, Arbiter had taken a left turn and galloped straight down the hallway. To the right, Jools, Jops, and two gray coated unicorn guards were talking about the day's events.

"Did you see the captain?" asked Jops, nearly laughing, "He's running around like an idiot dressed as captain Chromabeard."

"Of course, after all that stress he put us through, it's good to get a laugh out of him!" said one of the unicorns, snickering at his ex-leader's misfortune.

Beneath the four guard ponies, a black mist was beginning to seep in from the windows. After a few seconds, they began to notice the dark fog forming a ball behind them.

"Smoke!" shouted Jools, pointing at the dark wisps, "Sound the fire alarm!"

To the shock of the four guards, the "smoke" began to speak to them in a normal, but odd voice, as if the speaker was using a metallic tone and stressing his 's' sounds.

"No reason for alarm. It will be over quickly."

The ball of smoke formed a deep, dense, black shade, and then pounced on one of the unicorn guards. Chaos ensued as the pony disappeared completely in the ball, followed by it jumping onto Jools and sucking him in as well. Within 10 seconds of screaming and commotion, the shadowy lump had covered up all the guards, and it quickly threw them into a nearby maintenance closet, sealing over the door with a burst of energy that welded it shut.

“So much for the elite royal guard.” said the figure as it ignored the banging on the half-melted door.

The mist then headed for the throne room, and rammed itself on the twin doors without any caution or restraint. The door flung open as the mass, twice as large as any pony, moved quickly into the room. The four in front of them quickly turned around to look at the intruder. Techorse by instinct switched from his robotic arms to his laser cannons and tracked the cloud of smoke as it began to form a figure. It transformed into a ghostly creature with two glowing golden eyes set inside its body, which it had formed into the shape of a robe. Two arms stuck out from this floating garment, each tipped with one very sharp blade on top of a bony-looking hand. The creature's eyes glowed inside the hood, and it was pitch black beyond the robe. But most curiously of all, the wraith had an orange-colored slash mark running down the right side of its body, as if something had cut it.

"Who are you?" demanded Celestia, "And what is your business barging in here like this?"

"A better question would be, what are you?" asked Pinkie, giving a disturbed face at the beast.

Twilight recognized the creature and answered, "Pinkie, he's a wraith."

The wraith nodded and spoke, "She is correct, pink pony. I am a wraith."

"What's that?" asked Techorse suspiciously, continuing to aim at the intruder.

Twilight pushed Techorse's weapon barrels down with her front hooves and explained, "A wraith is a creature made up of some kind of dark mist. That might sound bad, but according to all the history books I've read, wraiths have fought monsters for us that have wanted to hurt ponies. They have the power to absorb the monster's weapons and expend that energy making their own attacks. That shadowy body of theirs is very flexible and sensitive to energy, especially magic. I think we ought to listen to him in case there's trouble."

Twilight let go of Techorse's lasers, and he retracted them into the saddle, indicating his desire for peace in the situation.

Twilight then asked the wraith, "Why did you charge in here so quickly? Is there a monster we need to know about?"

The wraith shouted, "Fool! I, Malthus, have not come here to discuss our helping you. I have come to bring an end to wraiths having to risk themselves fighting monsters altogether!"

Celestia said to the angered creature, "If your people no longer wish to help us, then that is fine, we are more than capable of taking care of ourselves."

"You misunderstand my intentions." said Malthus, "Many wraiths still want to help. But I want to get rid of the monsters attacking Equestria all together. You see, I figured out long ago that it is you ponies who are responsible for the attacks!"

"What?" shouted Pinkie.

Malthus continued to grumble, "That's right, you are to blame. You ponies build your towns so poorly defended, and know your soft tasty meat will entice those beasts to attack."

Twilight got angry at the wraith and argued, "That's not true, those monsters attack because they want to cause as much harm as possible, and we simply have the biggest population to strike at."

“... And how are we supposed to help being soft and tasty?!” questioned Pinkie Pie.

"Even so," shouted the wraith, pointing at Celestia and ignoring Pinkie's statement, "You have let the wraiths do all your defensive work for you. The one time you managed to get a decent defending force up, I took the eye of their leader. Notice how easily I was able to get into the castle this time."

Celestia heard what he said, and she realized in horror that this was the same wraith that had injured Arbiter all those years ago.

"You're the wraith who hurt my captain!" she shouted, "You're the one to blame for him turning evil and attempting to harm my subjects."

Celestia's horn began to glow, and energy built up for a magic missile or solid-beam attack.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Laughed the large wraith in the room, "I can take that beam attack from you and raze this castle in one blow."

Celestia relaxed, and her horn returned to normal, but it was obvious that she was still very upset.

“But... you are right, I am the one who slashed Arbiter's eye out. The fool challenged me to a duel all those years ago when I called him out on his massive ego. He wasn't so high and mighty when he went half-blind!” said the wraith, his eyes shining yellow in the dark of his hood.

"What do you plan on doing?" asked Luna, “Have you returned to challenge Arbiter again?”

“No.” he answered, “I've come to win Canterlot, and make its citizens serve the wraiths, as our guards! For once you'll be forced to deal with the beasts instead of us holding your hooves through everything.”

“Just how do you plan on 'winning' the city from us?” demanded Celestia.

Malthus laughed and said, "We have a challenge of course, using the rules of honorable combat as written by my ancestors. If your followers manage to defeat me in the next hour without you or Celestia helping them, I will leave this city. But for each of them who fails against me…"

"Yes?" asked Fluttershy, her eyes growing wide.

"You shall be added to my arsenal." he continued.

Fluttershy burst into tears, and Pinkie Pie gave her a hug to try and relax her friend.

"I accept that bet." Said Techorse with rage, "But I have to warn you, Malthus. I won't go easy on you, and if I catch you, you will be brought to justice."

Twilight charged up a very threatening glow around her horn and said, "And if weapons can't stop you, there's always magic."

"A fine challenge both of you will be." he said calmly, "Let the battle commence!"

Malthus then stuck both arms out and shot arcs of energy from his hands, engulfing the four ponies in front of him. In addition, the princesses were bound with a curse that prevented them from using their magic. Afterwards the four were teleported to various locations throughout the castle. Twilight was put in the castle library, Techorse in the armory, Fluttershy in the barracks, and Pinkie Pie in the kitchen. The wraith then floated high in the air and pointed down at the princesses.

"When I finish with your student and her friends, Celestia, I will claim your sister as my prize. That much dark magic energy will allow me to dominate this country easily!” He then cackled and vanished in a burst of light.

"Sister!" cried Luna, "Don't let him get me! If he absorbs my powers, Equestria is doomed!"

Celestia comforted her sibling, "Don't worry. Twilight Sparkle and her friends can stop Malthus. He underestimates them."

Fluttershy sat alone in the dark barracks of the castle. 20 green bunk beds lined the walls of the wooden building. It was cold, dark and scary for the timid pony, and immediately chose a bed to hide under.

"Maybe he won't find me here." she said quietly, looking around the bottoms of the other bunk beds.

"Soon the guards will be back, and I'll be safe!"

A few minutes passed, and not a single guard pony returned to the barracks. Fluttershy continued to wait patiently from underneath the bunk bed, hoping that Techorse had already beaten Malthus and the others were just looking for her. But as time continued to drag on, she knew that they weren't going to arrive anytime soon. Fluttershy grew bored, tired, and thirsty, but she refused to budge from her hiding spot until she was absolutely certain that she was safe. Eventually though, she began to get the urge to use the bathroom. There was actually a latrine all the way down the hallway of the barracks, but it was too distant, and Fluttershy knew the wraith was just waiting for her to get out from under the bed so that he could absorb her. The light yellow Pegasus pony shut her light bluish eyes and covered them with her front legs. She continued to shake like a leaf for five more minutes, but eventually the urge to use the toilet overcame her, and she emerged carefully from underneath the bunk. Turning right, she slowly crept towards the bathroom.

A few steps later, she treaded on a loose board, and a horrible creaking noise came from the floor. Fluttershy shot back underneath the bed, not leaving again until she was sure she hadn't attracted Malthus's attention. After another try, she made it to the bathroom and shut the door, locking it tightly. She decided to go as quickly as possible and then return to the bed where it was safe. After she was finished, Fluttershy rapidly returned to the bunk and curled up tightly underneath, her long pink tail tucked in front of her face.

"Finally, I'm safe." she said with a sigh of relief.

"Possibly." agreed Malthus, who was laying next to her on the right.

Fluttershy turned her head slowly, and saw the wraith. She opened her mouth to scream, but Malthus quickly smashed his hand over her mouth.

"Tell me Fluttershy." he said, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

Fluttershy, in tears, nodded her head.

"Good."

Malthus released his hand, and then wrapped his smoky body around Fluttershy, who shrieked. Her scream lingered in the air even as her body disappeared into Malthus's cloak, where she vanished forever.

"Too easy." he coughed as he floated out from underneath the bed, "And as expected with an easy target, she didn't provide me with even one useful weapon."

Malthus then laughed and teleported himself out of the barracks to go attack his next victim.

In the throne room of the castle, Celestia and Luna had heard Fluttershy's scream.

"Fluttershy…" she said slowly, "No…"

Luna leaned over and hugged her sister, knowing there was nothing they could do. Suddenly, a burst of blue light occurred in front of them, and Techorse appeared in front of them. He was holding his self-teleporter in his robotic hands, and had a determined look on his face.

"Techorse!" said a surprised Luna, "How did you get back? Malthus has been inhibiting magic this entire time."

Techorse smiled and said, "Malthus said specifically in his rules that you couldn't help us. He didn't say anything about me coming here to defend you, so I teleported out of the library."

"That's very noble of you." said Celestia, "But Twilight Sparkle might be in danger. I know how much you love her, and if anything happened to her, it would crush you."

"Malthus will pay if he harms anypony." said Techorse.

"He's already absorbed Fluttershy, we heard her scream!" cried the princesses nearly simultaneously.

Techorse's face twisted into absolute anger. Immediately he threw away the metal box he was holding, and the robotic arms shot back into the openings on the sides of his battle saddle.

The two twin laser tubes re-emerged, and Techorse shouted with tears welling in his eyes,
"I'm going to blast that wraith into oblivion when he gets here for what he did to Fluttershy!"

Luna cautioned him, "Don't let your anger get the best of you or you shall lose Techorse!"

Techorse looked at the ground in despair, and understood the princess was right, feeling frustrated that he was going to have to figure out how to save Fluttershy in a different way.

Five hundred feet away in the castle kitchen, Pinkie Pie sat on the tile floor looking around at all the cooking equipment around her. Behind her were 16 stove burners lined up, ready to accept tea kettles or frying pans. A few lit candles sat on top of the stoves, helping to provide light in the room. In front of her were four industrial sized ovens for cooking massive feasts for the up to one and a half thousand guests that might be visiting the castle at a time. Dangling from the ceiling were pots and pans of various sizes and metals. And to the right of everything was the entryway to the freezer room, kept cold by an enchantment which required maintenance from a cyromancer unicorn. The place had obviously been remodeled slightly since the last time she had been there, either that or there were now two kitchens in the castle, which would not come as a surprise.

"I forgot how big this place was!" said Pinkie excitedly, "There's so much cooking stuff in here I could make cakes for a million ponies or more!"

A nearby sink dripped slowly, catching Pinkie's attention. As if by some compulsion, Pinkie walked over and turned off the water with her teeth. Suddenly, the familiar black mist flowed from the faucet, and Malthus appeared above her. Pinkie screamed loudly, jumping several feet in the air before taking off running through the kitchen. Malthus laughed and gave chase, dodging the frying pans and kitchen knives Pinkie Pie was tossing back at him as she attempted to flee from him. She was hiding behind one of the stoves right beneath the natural gas pipe which fueled the cooktop. Malthus spotted her, and brought the blade attached to his pointer finger down over the stove. Pinkie rolled away from the slash and got up on her legs before turning around. The blade had cut through the gas line and was spewing the invisible fuel gas through the air at Malthus.

Malthus lunged for Pinkie Pie, who saw what was about to happen, and jumped out of the way. The wraith impacted with the counter, knocking over one of the lit candles sitting on one of the stove tops.

"Bye bye Malthus!" Pinkie Pie said with a grin, knowing what was about to happen.

The candle flame hit the gash and immediately a huge geyser of flame erupted, enveloping Malthus and delivering massive amounts of heat energy over his body. When the fuel for the stove ran out from the combustion, Malthus was glowing a bright white color from the sheer amount of heat he had absorbed.

"You stupid pink pony." He laughed as he raised his arms at her, "Heat is a form of energy I can absorb."

Pinkie's face turned to a look of horror as a two jets of fire erupted from the wraith's hands. To avoid, getting roasted, Pinkie Pie jumped out of the way, but bounced a little too far. She smashed into the door of the freezer, and looked with misery at wraith in front of her.

Malthus had returned to his gray and black color, and floated over to the defeated Pinkie Pie. He made sure she could not escape, and then prepared to jump on her to absorb her as well.

"Wait!" shouted Pinkie Pie, standing up on her hind legs and holding her front hooves out.

Surprisingly, Malthus agreed to the request. Pinkie Pie then took out a white blindfold with red polka-dots, and tied it around her eyes.

She then put a peppermint stick in her mouth and said with a very slight hint of sadness, "Ok, go ahead."

Malthus fell upon her, and within seconds Pinkie disappeared into his body with a puff of black mist.

The wraith backed off for a second and said,
"Let's see what weapons this one had to offer."

Immediately, a burst of confetti and firecrackers shot from his arms with a loud horn noise.

Malthus looked at the party debris in front of him in shock and muttered, "Well, that was… undesirable."

Being trapped in the library would not normally seem like a punishment for Twilight. But now was not a time to read, she had to prepare for her enemy in the best way possible, and that was by keeping her magic ready at all times. Twilight's horn glowed a furious purple as she scanned around the bookshelves, ready at any minute for her opponent.

"He'll be here any second." She thought, "And if he absorbs my power, there's no telling what he could do. I'm practically a blank canvas to that wraith!"

Twilight heard a slight rustling, and turned around quickly, firing off a tapered bolt of magic energy in the direction of the noise. Immediately an innocent potted plant was blown up by the highly destructive magic, and the helpless flower was flung on to the library floor. The unicorn pony frowned at the waste of the decorative plant and charged up another shot. Her paranoia was getting the best of her as usual, and she knew that could very well be her downfall. Malthus had in actuality entered the library, but was hiding behind a bookshelf, preparing to ambush Twilight and absorb her before she got a chance to attack.

Twilight said out loud, "Malthus, I know you're there. If you give up, we can work something out."

"I have no intention to work something out." replied Malthus darkly, projecting his voice so as to conceal his location, "My only intention now is to take your magical weapons for myself just as I have taken your friends'."

Twilight charged up another shot and screamed, "If you so much as scratched Fluttershy I'll…"

"You'll what?" interrupted Malthus, "In my opinion Sparkle, you are a mare of all talk and no action. Fight me like a true magic user would."

"Then come out here and fight!" demanded Twilight, grating her teeth.

"As you wish…"

Malthus phased through the bookshelf and immediately used Pinkie Pie's powers against Twilight. Four very large and dangerous bottle rockets streamed from his arms, exploding around Twilight. She lost her focus from the sudden hits, and was thrown to the ground from the explosive force. The purple mare screamed as the light and heat burned her slightly. She got up on her hooves again, and recharged her horn, sparks flying from the tip as she stared at Malthus.

"You took Pinkie too!" she shouted in shock, "You're a monster!"

Twilight tilted her head down slightly and unleashed a barrage of magic bolts. Her magic pellets missed wildly around Malthus, stirring up a cloud of dust and concealing the wraith inside. Twilight changed spells and began shooting large magic missiles into the dust, causing energy explosions inside. After a full minute of bombardment, Twilight stopped firing, and breathed heavily as she watched the cloud, now filled with purple streaks of energy. To her shock, the cloud began moving inwards, and was eventually completely vacuumed up by Malthus, whose glowing yellow eyes now suggested he was smirking inside.

"You seem to have forgotten your knowledge of wraiths. We can absorb any kind of energy, even yours!" he stated with an obnoxious laugh.

Malthus then charged Twilight, his right fist glowing with purple energy. Twilight tried to jump out of the way, but was too slow, and was punched in the neck, cutting off her air supply and knocking her down on the floor. The wraith's hand stopped glowing, and he approached Twilight. He picked her up by her striped fantail, and held her above his head, looking into her purple eyes with his golden ones. Twilight considered simply firing straight downwards, but she was too weak to teleport, and she knew any attacks she did now would simply be absorbed as well.

"I'm never going to see Tech or my friends again." she whimpered.

"Don't worry." Comforted the wraith sarcastically,"They will join you soon."

He then dropped Twilight, who screamed, and her front legs and head fell down the opening of his hood, followed by her body and hind legs. Malthus moved his "head" down, Twilight's tail still hung out the opening of his cloak. Like a noodle, the tail was sucked in, and Twilight Sparkle was also gone.

"Such great power." he said smoothly, "I must test it."

Aiming his arm at a nearby bookshelf, Malthus accidentally fired off a huge purple bolt, detonating the bookcase and sending multicolored volumes everywhere.

"This will take some getting used to." He confirmed, "I didn't even know magic missiles of this strength were possible... but the perfect way to test these powers is to engage the green pony as well."

Malthus snapped his left fingers, and teleported for the throne room. Re-appearing in front of Celestia, Luna, and Techorse, he sort of coughed in shock. He didn't know Techorse had teleported back into the throne room.

"I could have sworn I moved you to the castle armory." he muttered, "But no matter, I'm here to defeat you and take Luna for myself."

Techorse pointed his lasers at the wraith and said, "You're not getting Luna without beating all of us. Remember the rules of your challenge?"

Malthus nodded, "Of course I do. I have defeated each of your friends. Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy belong to me now."

Techorse's heart sank as he heard the words ring in his ears. His saddle opened up, and the barrels of his laser cannons slid out. The stallion looked at the wraith, anger in his eyes, and he prepared to attack.

"Malthus, you've had this coming!" he shouted ominously, opening fire with his laser cannons.

Yellow bolts of energy streaked out towards Malthus, hitting the wraith and exploding on him. Malthus grunted and screamed in pain as the electromagnetic bullets hit, damaging what little physical structure he had as a being. To counter, Malthus used Twilight's force field spell to place a purple-colored bubble of energy around himself. The yellow beams of light impacted against the field and started to disrupt the shield, but weren't doing enough damage to pierce through. In response, Techorse retracted the laser cannons. Malthus took this opportunity and fired a solid beam of purple energy at the inventor. The colt jumped over the blast, and in midair, his saddle opened, and a pair of metal racks emerged, each fitted with a single small missile. Locking on, Techorse fired, and the pair of rockets flew towards Malthus. They hit the shield and exploded powerfully, destroying the sphere of energy and leaving the wraith vulnerable.

The missile racks disappeared temporarily with a mechanical whir, and then re-emerged with a fresh pair of missiles loaded. Firing again, Techorse shot another salvo at the wraith. Malthus panicked and began firing tons of tiny purple blasts of energy, hoping to shoot down the rockets. But he failed, and yelled in pain as he disappeared in two hot and smokey explosions. When the smoke cleared, Malthus was missing several shards of himself, giving the appearance that his robe had been torn in several areas.

"It's over Malthus!" shouted Techorse triumphantly.

"End this now, Techorse!" encouraged Luna, smiling at her favorite subject's imminent victory.

Techorse stared at Malthus and said, "All right, this is for taking my friends."

Malthus jumped through the air and made a beeline for Techorse. He planned on absorbing him before the colt could deal the finishing blow. In terror, Techorse tried to shoot again, but realized that he had forgotten to reload the missile racks again. Panicking, Techorse switched to his robotic arms and grabbed Malthus by his elbows. The wraith picked him up into the air and held the colt, who kicked his legs furiously.

"Princess Celestia, help!" he begged.

"She can't help you now." Chortled the wraith, "The rules forbid it, and accepting a wraith's challenge is binding. Only another ally of hers can save you now."

Suddenly, the throne room doors burst open again, and Arbiter stood in the doorway holding a pearl necklace.

"I found this necklace for you your majesty!" he beamed, hoping to earn her trust. Malthus turned to face Arbiter, and forced his arms onto Techorse's throat. Constricting, he began to choke his enemy.

"Arbiter, back for more I see?" asked Malthus.

Arbiter placed the necklace on the floor and said, "Yes, I'm Arbiter, but I have no idea who you are."

Celestia saw Arbiter and understood that he was the only hope she had left for beating Malthus and saving her sister's life. She knew that Arbiter would go back to being sinister, but the choice was between restoring him to his old state or letting Canterlot be destroyed.

"Arbiter!" she shouted, "I'm going to return your memory to you! You must defeat Malthus!"

Celestia's horn glowed white, and a tiny tornado of energy whirled out and struck Arbiter in the head, knocking off his pirate hat. Immediately all his memories returned to him and he recognized the wraith asphyxiating Techorse.

"Malthus!" he shouted angrily, "Are you back for my other eye?"

"Ah Arbiter, good to see you back to your old state as you should be." chuckled the wraith, "I was just about to deal with you after I finish soaking up this colt's powers. This crazy little inventor risked his life to save you and the princesses Arbiter, but sadly, his sacrifice will be a waste."

Malthus stuffed Techorse headfirst into the front of his body, absorbing him with a flash of smoke. Luna screamed, and Celestia looked as if she was about to burst into tears. Arbiter removed the pirate clothing, keeping only his cape and the metal guantlets holding his sword.

Arbiter thought, "Techorse might have been an enemy, but if he was willing to protect the princesses like that, perhaps... I've made a poor decision about him. No matter, there will be time to think that over later. Right now, I have to stop Malthus from doing something horrid!"

The ex-captain arched his back and scraped his hoof on the ground. The gauntlet to his right drew his favorite longsword, and he pointed it at Malthus.

"You took my eye, and you took my princess' friends." he shouted, "I may no longer be the captain of the guard here, but I still have a score to settle with you!"

Two metal tubes extended from Malthus's wrists, "Then to the death, Arbiter. For old time's sake."

The wraith started shooting laser beams at the white Pegasus, but Arbiter used his sword to block the shots. Bolts of light bounced everywhere, landing amongst the stone of the castle, breaking windows, and even knocking Luna's crown off by accident. Eventually, Arbiter was able to reflect two bolts back at the cannons by bouncing them off his sword, and Malthus lost his guns in a blast of light energy. In rage, Malthus started launching magic missiles at Arbiter, blasting away at him with explosions and beams. Arbiter flapped his wings and flew around the room, dodging the shots. One of the missiles hit a pillar in the room, which fell on top of Malthus, smacking him into the carpet.

Phasing through the wrecked marble column, he shouted at Arbiter, "Get down here and fight me you coward!"

With a burst of black-colored electricity, two long blades extended from his pointer fingers. He then gave a loud battle cry and charged Arbiter. The pony smirked in response and gripped his sword tightly with both gauntlets. Wraith blade met Equestrian sword, and sparks flew as the blades clashed together. Malthus got angrier as Arbiter got stronger, slashing more furiously, hoping to catch his soft flesh with his energy blades.

The wraith finally roared in rage and lunged forward. Arbiter, remembering what he had seen Techorse do to him earlier, jumped and flapped his wings, lifting him just high enough to have Malthus slide underneath him. Arbiter then landed, spun around quickly, and slashed six times from left to right through Malthus's body. He screamed in agony as the sword made 6 orange slashes through his middle. White light shot out from these fissures, and with one final roar, Malthus detonated, sending multiple large globs of black material onto the floor. The curse was lifted from the princesses, and they walked up to him with gratitude in their eyes.

"You did it Arbiter!" said Celestia with joy, "You finally got rid of that monster!"

The black globs on the floor melted away, save for one tiny piece of black smoke, which poured out the window and disappeared. In each black blob was one of the ponies thrown into his cloak earlier. They sat up, their eyes re-adjusting to the light of day. A few moments later, the throne room doors burst open, and the guards, having escaped from the closet since Malthus's magic had worn off, entered to make sure nothing had happened to the princesses.

"Daylight!" shouted Pinkie Pie, running over to a window and beginning to dance, "sweet precious daylight!"

"It was so dark in there." said Fluttershy, trying not to think too hard about the experience.

Twilight stood up and turned to face the princesses, "Thank you for getting us out of there, princess Celestia."

"Yeah, thanks." agreed Techorse, "But how did you break the rules of the challenge?"

"We did not break them!" announced Luna, "Arbiter destroyed Malthus with his sword and freed you all!"

"WHAT?" asked all the freed ponies in the room simultaneously.

The guards in the room were taken aback by the thought of Arbiter having changed his ways at all, but could tell from the look in his remaning eye that something had changed about him.

Arbiter walked up to Techorse, and dropped his sword on the ground.

He smiled down at the colt in front of him, and said, "Techorse, by risking yourself to try and save the princesses, you proved to me that you wanted to clear your name. Yes, your background as a human is not the best. But, despite everything I tried to do to get rid of you, you still wanted to help me become a better pony. So…"

Arbiter's right gauntlet extended out towards Techorse.

"Can you forgive me?"

Techorse gave a small grin, and the saddle on his back hummed as his robotic arms emerged. The right hand reached out from the device, and met Arbiter's gauntlet in one of the most sincere handshakes ever.

"Of course I can forgive you." He answered.

"Arbiter!" said Celestia loudly.

He turned around and asked, "Yes your majesty?"

She continued, "Because you have gained Techorse's forgiveness, you are now free to go."

Twilight walked up to the princess and asked, "Princess Celestia, can Arbiter have his old job back? I don't think there's any place he can go after everything he's done outside the castle."

The princess looked up at her guards, who seemed to be rather displeased with the idea.

But she knew Twilight was right, and answered, "Of course."

“It's a shame there's no real lesson here,” mused Luna, “Unless Twilight happened to learn something through this mess.”

Arbiter barged past Twilight at this point and said, "It was actually I who learned something. A true friend is willing to put himself in harm's way to save his companions. From now on as Captain I will dedicate myself to protecting others. And who knows? Maybe someday I'll make friends of my own who would appreciate a swordspony as a friend."

Techorse wrapped a robotic arm around the captain and said, "You can drop by my home anytime you want."

“Don't suppose I will very often.” he said glumly, “Chances are I'll still make some mistakes here and there, and you won't like them. I'm still very much a keeper of the law.”

“I understand.” answered Techorse, “Nopony is perfect. It takes time to get over old habits.”

“Yeah, it's never a one step process, Arby.” teased Pinkie Pie, giving him a nickname.

Arbiter turned to Pinkie Pie and laughed, "My younger brother used to call me that!”

Fluttershy smiled at the sight, "Aw, how sweet."

Techorse knew he wasn't going to be able to make friends completely with Arbiter in one day, so he left things as they were. He'd already proven to him that he wasn't the bad guy he thought he was, and that's all that was needed in his mind to get Arbiter to change his ways. It was just a matter of time.

After a break to clean up, Techorse, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie left the castle the same way they had last time Arbiter was captain. They were being watched from above by Arbiter, Jools, and Jops. Arbiter was wearing a cape again, this time a brilliant royal purple, as he watched the ponies leave.

He said, "That colt has a lot of strength in him despite his past. I expect to see great things out of him in the future. For now though, he must return to his home to guard Ponyville. But someday, I want to spar with him again, as friends."

Jools and Jops looked at each other with slightly worried expressions. Arbiter realized something and said to them, "Isn't it time for your break? My first act was to establish a half hour break for each guard under my orders, and it's your turn."

"Really sir?" asked Jools eagerly.

Arbiter nodded with a smirk, and the two guards left him to watch the ponies leave.

Techorse said to Twilight, "I love you."

"I love you too!" she replied, kissing him gently on the forehead.

"Now about your family…"

Twilight grinned nervously, "What about my family?"

Techorse laughed and said, "I think you need to introduce me sometime to your parents and your brother. They'd be proud of you for getting me as a coltfriend."

Pinkie Pie laughed as Twilight took a playful swing at him. Despite everything that had happened today, they had gained a new ally from what at first had appeared to be an old enemy. But as they walked away to find a safe place to teleport home, a small wisp of black smoke flowed away from the castle down a nearby river. Perhaps Captain Arbiter would have to face his enemy again someday.

#14 - Eyesore

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Eyesore

Techorse #14

By Spirals95

Techorse's laboratory was littered with the leftovers from this morning's experimentation. Servos, colored wires, and pipes of various sizes were scattered all over the tile floor and the construction tables in the large square room. Inspiration had struck the young inventor late last night, and he had stayed awake working on his new idea through the morning up until breakfast. The colt swished his brown tail furiously, as if by nervous habit, as he struggled to place the last few bolts in the device he was working on. His saddle's robotic arms held a screwdriver and a socket wrench, and Techorse attempted to multitask with the tools in order to hurry along the completion of his new gadget. After finally finishing the machine, he stepped back, dropped the tools carelessly on the floor, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead before retracting his robot arms back into his saddle with a slight click. The finished machine was a small, rather odd looking pump system, with two retracting nozzles that pointed forward on each side, and a set of plastic tubes and cylinders on top that clearly connected internally to those nozzles.

"There, it's finally done." said Techorse proudly, "Now it's time for a break, I've been working on this thing for hours!"

The green-coated earth pony headed for the simple steel door that led to the rest of his castle's basement, and pushed it open gently. Heading down the stone hallway lit only by the occasional electric light, he tried to clear his mind of inventing and focus on getting to his bed before collapsing of sleep loss. Pulling all-nighters was not his specialty, despite every joke ever told about him being a mad scientist, Techorse preferred to keep his mental state intact. But as he walked down the long and boring hallway to get to the staircase, he began to doze off. Not paying attention to where he was going, Techorse banged his head painfully into a metal leg that blocked his path.

"Master, are you ok?" asked PAL with concern, watching as Techorse fell backwards onto the ground.

The pony got back up, and rubbed the injured spot on his head with a hoof.

"I'm fine PAL, just very tired." he answered, continuing to massage the lump on his head.

Techorse took his mind off of his slight bruise when he noticed a shadow behind PAL, and knew someone was here to see him.

"Who did you bring to see me?" asked Techorse as he tried to look around his robot servant.

PAL moved out of the way, revealing Derpy Hooves, who was sitting gently on the floor, one eye looking directly at him, the other off to the side as usual.

"Hi Tech." she said with her happy tone of voice, "I need to talk to you about your appliance deliveries."

Techorse knew that recently, the sale of his own brand of home appliances had gone up. Since Derpy was responsible for shipping the packages once the order was filled, her workload from Techorse had nearly doubled since last week. It took a lot of work for just one Pegasus pony to haul all those toasters, vegetable peelers, and soft serve machines out of the castle and into the back of a delivery truck.

Techorse smiled and said, "Sure Derpy Hooves, just tell me what's wrong."

"Oh nothing's wrong with the packages." She said, standing up from the floor, "I was just wonderin' with all the extra boxes I have to move…"

"Yes?" said Techorse plainly, wishing for her to finish her sentence. He hoped secretly that the pony before him would be able to complete her request without forgetting what she was going to say.

"I was wonderin' if I could have a few extra bits a day." she finished.

"Oh, you want a raise!" Sighed Techorse, trying to keep eye contact with Derpy's good one, "Let's talk about it back in my laboratory, there's one thing I need to give you to ship out."

Turning around, Techorse walked back to the laboratory with Derpy following him close behind with a skip in her step. She had no sense of personal body space, but her carefree nature and innocence excused her inability to follow every last social rule. As they entered the laboratory, Techorse held the door open with his left leg for her. Derpy bounded into the room a little too quickly, and ended up crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the laboratory. Techorse couldn't help but snicker a bit at the happening, and watched as the gray mare quickly recovered from her accident and walked back towards him. They met halfway in the room, and Techorse pointed towards an appliance in the corner.

"I recently fixed that ice cream maker after a customer returned it saying it didn't work. I need you to ship it back to her the first chance you get." he ordered, making sure to be thorough in his explanation.

He didn't want Derpy to forget lest his customer get angry wondering where her machine was.

"All right, will do Techie!" Derpy said happily, moving over to get the device.

She spread her wings just a little bit as she moved, and accidentally brushed the pump Techorse had just finished off the table. It hit the ground with a crash, and a few plastic tubes disconnected from the top. The Pegasus pony looked at the device mournfully, then back at Techorse before nearly bursting into tears.

"I'm sorry Tech, I broke it!" she whimpered.

The inventor walked over to his broken machine, and took out his robotic arms once more before shaking his head softly. He began to work on the pump again, reattaching the severed parts.

Tech said to her, "You only knocked the plastic tubes loose, Derpy. It's not broken."

Derpy's ears drooped as she beat herself up verbally, "Still, I feel bad. I'm so clumsy."

"It's not so bad. You're a bit uncoordinated, but you don't mean to break things.", Techorse finished connected the tubes to the openings in the small black pump, and then looked up with a smile, “See, good as new!”

His happy expression faded away when he realized Derpy had snuck out the door with the ice cream maker.

Leaving the lab again, Techorse found PAL and told him,
"PAL, Derpy does such a good job shipping these out for me twice a week. I don't want her to feel like she's lost my trust by damaging my new invention, so I'm going to give her that raise, and a bit more."

"Shall I write down the new amount now?" asked PAL, taking out a small PDA to record the new salary.

Techorse nodded, "Make sure she sees it later, I want her to feel better about all of this."

PAL looked up from the small touchscreen device in his hands and asked, "Do you suppose Mrs. Hooves will be all right? She seemed like she was about to cry when she left the castle. You didn't yell at her did you?"

Techorse walked by the robot and said reassuringly, "Of course I didn't, I know how klutzy she gets sometimes. I just hope one day she realizes that ponies still love her despite all the mistakes she makes."

"Me too master… me too." agreed PAL dolefully.

Derpy Hooves flew away from Techorse's castle with a heavy heart. She didn't mean to damage his brand new invention, but she felt guilty despite him not being too angry about the incident. As she flew slowly away from the stone fortress on the edge of town, the Pegasus pony thought carefully about what she'd like to do next. Her mail route was already done for the day, so there was literally nothing else for her to do, and keeping her easily distracted mind entertained was a very difficult task. Seeing Rainbow Dash working with a small number of clouds up ahead, Derpy decided to see if she could offer help in any way.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" she shouted, landing on top of one of the clouds Rainbow was busy moving around.

"Be careful Derpy, these clouds need to be in exactly the right spot for tonight's rain shower." Rainbow warned sternly, "If even one is out of place the rain won't be even, and somepony's lawn will dry up."

"Maybe I can help you a bit!" chirped Derpy Hooves, getting behind one of the clouds.

Flapping her wings, she started to push the accumulation of water particles through the air.

"Just tell me where you need this one."

Rainbow Dash had a bad feeling about letting her eager friend help out, but she didn't want to hurt Derpy's feelings.

"That cloud needs to go right over the windmill." Rainbow said slowly, making sure Derpy heard her instructions clearly.

"You got it!" she replied cheerfully, getting behind the cloud and flapping her wings quickly to push it towards the city's sole windmill, responsible for generation of roughly one quarter of the town's electric power supply.

The large, dutch-styled tower rotated slowly in the gentle wind flowing across the town that day. Derpy pushed the cloud, which was at least twice as large as she was, right through the large rotating blades, nearly getting hit by the massive wooden meshes. Suddenly, she lost her grip on the cloud, and it sailed right into the axis of the windmill, getting chopped up and sending a huge discharge of lightning down the shaft. The electric lights around Ponyville glowed furiously for several seconds due to the sudden power surge, and a handful of street lamps exploded from the extra electrons which surged through the power lines. Glass lay littered from the exploded bulbs, and Rainbow cringed as she heard a few of the ponies walking through the streets at the time shriek in fear of the flying shards.

Derpy looked down and watched the mayhem below, and after a few minutes, the power returned to normal. She suddenly felt a rush of guilt and fear from what she had accidentally done, and turned around in the air to fly away. But there was Rainbow Dash, her front legs crossed, giving Derpy an extremely angry look. Derpy Hooves turned around quickly to avoid the confrontation and flew in a straight line to get away, right into the windmill. Stunned by the impact, she fell backwards and landed on the ground below, leaving a huge indent in the pavement. Rainbow Dash groaned after rubbing her face in disgust, and then flew down to her friend's new crater. Derpy's light yellow tail was sticking out of the hole, a perfect handle for getting her out. Using her teeth to grip the long yellow hair, Rainbow pulled the dirt-covered pony out of the road and propped her up against the side of the windmill.

"What were you thinking Derpy?" she shouted, "You just shorted out half the street lamps in Ponyville!"

"I didn't mean too!" defended her friend, sobbing.

Rainbow Dash pushed her face right into the cross-eyed one's and said sternly, "Don't you dare cry! You knew this would happen if you tried to help. So why did you even bother trying to be useful?"

Derpy's right eye remained focused on Rainbow Dash, but both of them filled with tears as she replied, "It wasn't my fault! I tried my best, but an accident happened."

"Oh and accident happened all right." said Rainbow very sarcastically as she backed off, "You were born. Now go away before you cause even more trouble!"

With that, Rainbow spread her wings and shot into the sky vertically, to start her work over again. Her mean words had already finished their work, however, and Derpy felt absolutely miserable about herself.

She stood up from leaning against the windmill and slowly walked away from the building with her head hung and her ears drooping. Because of what Rainbow Dash had said to her, all she could think in her mind was:

"I'm an accident."

And so, she walked gently through the streets of town, avoiding the upset looks of the other citizens, who seemed to know right away who was responsible for the power spike. Derpy tried to avoid saying anything to anypony while she headed back for her apartment in town, but she desperately wanted to hear some kind words from a friend soon. Once she had made it about halfway through town, she came across the Carousel Boutique, and heard Rarity inside, busy at work on her latest outfit.

When the white unicorn pony saw Derpy walking outside, she called gently to her,
"Oh Derpy, can you come here for a minute darling? I need to talk to you!"

Derpy's ears perked up when she heard Rarity's sweet voice. She didn't sound angry about the incident at all, despite the fact that Rarity's home drew power directly from the windmill. This gave her hope that someone still cared about her despite all the mistakes she made on a regular basis. Eagerly, Derpy galloped for the front door of the building, and went inside the dress shop to talk to Rarity.

"Yeah Rarity?" she called out with her happy voice.

Rarity emerged from a back room, carrying a sketch for a dress on paper with her magic. The design on the sheet had a very odd look to it. While most of the dress was normal, one section of it had an odd-looking scribble which was partially covered in tape. It looked like it had been revised several times, as evident by erase marks all over the paper.

Rarity smiled and explained the paper, "I was drawing a new design in my back room, and spending hours and hours trying to finish the last piece of the dress. I simply couldn't think of what to fill in the gap with. But when you hit the windmill, the power went out suddenly, and I accidentally scribbled in a brand new section on the paper."

Derpy frowned, "I'm really sorry about that. Are you mad at me?"

"Why not at all!" beamed Rarity, "When the lights came back on, I realized that the scribble completed the design! All I had to do was erase this tiny bit of the line you helped to create that didn't make any sense. Now I can finally start working on this dress idea."

Rarity's horn glowed pure white as she rolled the parchment and put it away in a nearby drawer for safekeeping.

"Well, at least something good came out of me being an accident." sniffled the Pegasus, who let a single tear hit the floor of the studio.

Rarity felt pity in her heat and asked sweetly, "Who said you were an accident?"

"Rainbow Dash."

Rarity coughed in disgust and huffed, "Well that wasn't very ladylike of her at all. Rainbow Dash can be quite the barbarian sometimes Derpy, but you must learn to ignore her insults. They're never true."

As she spoke, she titled her chin slightly to show her contempt for Rainbow, and her purple-blue curls bounced in step.

"So I'm not an accident?" asked Derpy, leaning a bit forward on her back legs.

Rarity made eye contact with her and nodded, "Of course you're not an accident. You're very important to Ponyville, Derpy. Think of the trouble we'd have without the mail coming through! Why, we simply can't do without you."

This made Derpy so happy that she laughed and started skipping around. In her celebration, she accidentally hit a nearby mannequin, toppling the setup. It landed on the ground with a crash, taking the dress on it with it. Derpy stopped and stared at the destroyed display with her good eye, and knew she had made yet another mistake.

"Oh no…" she whispered.

Derpy braced her ears for the inevitable yelling that was about to follow. Inside, Rarity did want to scream at Derpy, but knew she couldn't. After Rainbow Dash had already said such terrible things to her, there was no way she could make the clumsy pony feel any worse about herself. She had to prove herself the better mare in this situation and do what she always had trouble doing, forgive another for making a mess.

"That's quite all right." She said slowly, picking up the mannequin with her magic, "I was going to change over the dresses on display anyways."

"See, Rainbow Dash was right, I am just one big accident!" bawled Derpy, running out of the boutique as fast as her legs could carry her. Rarity looked at the door sadly and shook her head.

"She really is worthwhile." She thought as she began to clean up after her friend, "If only she could see past her... errors."

Poor Derpy Hooves, running out of hope for herself, decided to try and seek comfort with Twilight Sparkle. She figured that with her being so smart and nice, there was no way that she could possibly think of her in a negative way. While approaching the red door of the tree-based building slowly, Derpy considered simply turning around and going home instead. But she knew she had to find just one pony who considered her to have a purpose of some kind. After knocking on the door, she waited for several minutes before Twilight finally opened the door and greeted her.

"Hi Derpy." She said, a smile on her face, "Can I help you?"

Derpy entered the library and looked around at all the shelved books. Opening a nearby orange-colored volume with thick, creamy pages, she attempted to look for some information. Twilight turned around and looked at Spike, asking silently if he had any idea why Derpy didn't say anything. Spike shrugged in response and closed the library door for Twilight.

"I was wondering." Derpy said softly as if trying to hide a cry of pain, "If unicorn ponies know any spells which get rid of accidents or mistakes."

She continued to flip through the pages, looking for a spell in the magic book which she was afraid might exist.

"Fixing mistakes can be very, very hard. I've learned that even going back in time can't fix them." said Twilight, walking up to the reading Pegasus. "I'm afraid there's not any magic that can fix accidents or mistakes. What's done is done."

"That's a relief." sighed Derpy, throwing the book to her side into a nearby shelf. She stood up and addressed Twilight, "Because if there was a spell which got rid of accidents and it was cast on me…"
She then stood up quickly on her hind legs and spread her front ones.

"Poof! No more Derpy Hooves." Frowning, she dropped to the floor and curled into a ball.

Twilight laid down on the floor, put a warm hoof on Derpy's head and said to her,
"Aw Derpy, you're not an accident or a mistake. Lots of ponies love you."

"Not Rainbow Dash and most of the other ponies in town."

Spike asked angrily, "Did Rainbow Dash bully you again?"

"Uh-huh" sniffed Derpy, turning her head towards him.

Twilight groaned and shook her head, "Rainbow Dash can be a huge jerk sometimes, we know. But you shouldn't listen to her when she gets angry, she doesn't mean anything she says. She really is your friend."

Derpy stood up and started hovering gently in the library out of joy, "You think so?"

"I know so!" confirmed Twilight, standing up and giving Derpy her best grin.

"I guess I'm not an accident waiting to happen after all!" she squealed, doing a flip in the air.

Unfortunately, this brought her tail down like a whip over a set of 7 books on the very top of one of the shelves. The bookends and the collection were brought down on the floor with a sharp thud. Although none of the books were damaged and the bookends weren't even chipped, Derpy still felt misery shoot through her body as she realized she had made another "horrible" mistake.

Twilight looked at the books on the ground in sadness and thought, "Oh shoot, Derpy's going to feel terrible. I'd better hurry and think of something to tell her!"

But it was far too late, Derpy was already crying her misdirected eyes out, and flew out a nearby open window, "Maybe I'm not an accident, but I still cause too many of them! I'm going home..."

"Derpy!" shouted Twilight as she rushed to the window, "Come back, I know you didn't mean it!"

Spike walked over to the window and rubbed Twilight's side with one of his claws, "You did your best Twi."

"I know." She said quietly as her ears drooped and her eyes shut.

"Besides!" said Spike confidently, "Derpy has the memory of a bird, she'll forget about everything by tomorrow!"

"Spike!" growled Twilight, staring him in the eyes.

"What?" he said, backing off from her.

The sun was starting to set over Ponyville, and it had been one long, miserable day for Derpy Hooves. She was back in her apartment now, packing her saddlebags. She wasn't going to take much with her, the rest of her things were going to go into storage until she could find a new place to live. Not feeling loved or wanted any longer, Derpy was determined to leave Ponyville forever and never return for any reason, lest she get chased out of town for causing more disasters. The sky was pitch black from the storm clouds from earlier in the day, and rain was pouring on the roof of the apartment building.

Although Derpy's large 3 room apartment was very nice, it seemed very empty now, as every last item was put in a cardboard box for safekeeping. All that remained was the furniture that belonged to the landlord, and on the marble countertop in the kitchen sat a note telling him that she was moving out permanently. She also left her key on the table on top of the note, and finally left her apartment with a deject expression on her face. But before she could go, she ran right into her landlord, who was there to visit her every Friday as usual, not to collect the rent, but just to visit. He was a charming Pegasus pony with a dark brown coat, and red-orange mane hair that went rather uncut for long periods of time. But what set him apart from other ponies was the fact that he had one blue eye and one green eye, rather than two of the same color. His name was Upkeep, and he had a thick blue arrow on his flank.

"Where are you going Derpy Hooves? Did you forget I was going to visit?" he asked.

"I'm moving out." she replied, "Your last rent payment and the key's inside. Some ponies will be moving my stuff into storage tomorrow."

"Why do you want to leave?" asked Upkeep, frowning.

Derpy started walking away from him and said, "Nopony wants me around anymore. Thanks for giving me a home though. You're probably my only friend around here, Upkeep, but I'm sure you'll find someone to replace me."

Derpy flew off into the dark sky, leaving Upkeep standing there with a sad expression. He entered Derpy's apartment and found the key sitting on the table. When Upkeep came to Ponyville, his parents had abandoned him, his only wealth being three apartment-styled homes his wealthy uncle gave to him as an attempt to give him a chance in life. Taking care of buildings became his calling, and he was a fine landlord of the estates. He had never evicted a pony in his life, although he had seen some come and go from his homes. But Derpy had been special to him, she didn't see him as a greedy pony who was just looking for another paying tenant. She had greeted him at the door when she moved in, and always paid him on time. Every Friday, they talked about how the week was going, and what sorts of mischief they had gotten into as friends. But now she was gone, the note on the table being the only evidence left that she had lived in the building at some point. Tears came to Upkeep's off-colored eyes as he read the note. To him, he hadn't lost a tenant that night, he had lost his best friend.

Six days had gone by since Derpy Hooves had left Ponyville. For the first two days, ponies in town assumed that the mail service in Equestria must be on a planet-wide holiday of some kind. But fear started to ensue once nearly a week had passed without any mail or packages. They started to wonder if they would ever get letters from loved ones again, or if they would be able to ship out what they needed to in order to keep their businesses afloat. When the issue was brought forth to the mayor, even she wasn't sure what to do.

A suggestion went up to split up mail duty between the remaining pegasi with free time, and even Rainbow Dash tried her hardest to deliver what she could. But after several mix ups in addresses and many angry ponies later, even she knew she couldn't do everything. Soon the mail was dropped altogether, and every last mailbox in town stood empty. In order to keep up with his customers, Techorse built small rocket packs which he attached to each box and programmed to fly to the customer's home. Often he ended up having to give the machine away for free because the box crashed through a window or broke some tiles off a roof. None of his other delivery ideas worked either, and soon he could not outpace the sheer number of deliveries piling up on him.

"When is Derpy getting back?" he asked angrily as he sat in the living room of his castle, "She's been on vacation for so long everyone's mail is not getting delivered, including my machines."

"Don't worry master." answered PAL, bringing Techorse a cup of tea on a metal tray, "You won't lose your business over a few miss-ships. Mrs. Hooves will return to deliver things manually very soon."

"But what if she doesn't?" asked Techorse of his robot.

PAL suggested, "You can retire then. You have enough saved up."

Techorse laid down on the blue-cushioned sofa and said, "I won't do that. I want to contribute to Equestria no matter how business goes, it's the right thing to do."

"You do risk yourself often to protect others from rather evil personages." Reasoned the machine as he set the tea down on a nearby coffee table, "I'm sure you can continue your work defending ponies everywhere."

PAL took a seat in a nearby velvet, covered chair, whose arms curled in a spiral pattern.

"Give me time to think about this master. This comfy chair seems great for it."

Techorse sighed and looked out the window, "I guess I'm going to start having to deliver packages on my own, starting with the ice cream machine I just fixed up yesterday."

PAL suggested, "Perhaps you can get some of your friends to go with you? I'm sure Mistress Twilight would love to help you out."

"Great idea PAL!" he said, sitting up from the couch and leaving the room, "Let me get my battle saddle."

Later that day, Techorse assembled the team that was going to help him carry the large box to the delivery address. Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash met him out front of the library for the journey. It was roughly noon, and they had just finished lunch.

Rarity asked innocently, "So Techorse, I'm sorry to ask this again, but why do you need all of us to help deliver this package?"

He responded, "I need as much help as I can getting this box through the mountains. This three flavor ice cream maker needs to be delivered to a pony living up in the mountains."

"Let me see the tag." said Rainbow Dash, hovering above the carboard box by flapping her wings quickly.

Grabbing the tag with a hoof, she read out loud, "To a Mr. Peace. First house in the western mountain range outside of Ponyville."

Twilight's eyes grew wide as she heard Rainbow read the information.

"What's wrong Twilight?" asked Rarity out of concern, "Is something bothering you?"

Twilight regained composure and answered with caution in her voice, "That name sounds a lot like Masterpiece, an escaped convict from Canterlot. He practices dark art."

"Don't you mean, 'The Dark Arts'?" asked Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground, "Like some kind of evil magic?"

Twilight answered, "No, he practices dark art, the act of using creative talents for evil instead of show. He's notorious for painting graffiti of tunnels and alleyways on walls, which through his magic look just like the real thing. Masterpiece does this to get ponies to crash their carts so he can loot their cargo while they're knocked out. After a long hunt for him, he was arrested for injuring nearly 3 dozen ponies."

"That's terrible!" said Rarity dramatically, putting a hoof to her head, "I can't stand the thought of something so precious as art being used for acts of evil like that."

Techorse walked up next to Twilight and with a mechanical click, one of his robotic arms wrapped around her side in a hug.

"Don't worry Twilight." He said, "Peace is a common last name for ponies."

"Yeah." agreed Rainbow Dash, "You're just letting a pun get the better of you, scaredy mane."

Twilight smiled and let out a short breath of relief, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I am just letting my paranoia get the best of me again."

"Then let's hurry up and deliver this thing so we can go home." said Rainbow Dash, "Help me pick this up Techie."

Techorse nodded and, with a clicking noise, retracted his robotic arms into his saddle. After a second, his turbofans emerged from the device, two disks with propeller blades. With a helicopter sound, Techorse lifted off the ground and grabbed one end up the box with his front legs, while Rainbow Dash grabbed the other end with hers. They took off into the air together easily, carrying the heavy load between them. Once they had flown a good distance over the mountains, Twilight began to charge up a teleportation spell to get her and Rarity to the destination within seconds. The four met outside of the large home within roughly ten minutes. Techorse and Rainbow Dash put the large cardboard container down gently in front of the large mountain home. It was a very well-decorated house, with multiple flowing fountains carved in the shape of ponies holding jugs out front. A beautiful bed of roses led up each side of the walkway which led to the front door, which was lined all the way around with marble columns, giving the huge home the appearance of a greek temple.

Rarity took one good look at the home and said smoothly, "Ooh, whoever this Mr. Peace gentlecolt is certainly has a good taste in homes. I wonder if he likes the idea of settling down with a mare?"

Rainbow Dash pushed Rarity gently and teased her, "Easy there, miss desperate. The way this house is built, I'm sure it belongs to a pegasus pony, and we aren't your type at all. I bet Mr. Peace loves to train in the mountains to get lots of oxygen in his blood."

Twilight smiled at this, she had taught Rainbow Dash how training high in the mountains helps earlier. It was good to hear that she actually listened to her friend's advice from time to time.

"If he's so athletic." questioned Rarity angrily, "Why is he ordering an ice cream maker? I bet he enjoys the simple things in life like that!"

In response, Rainbow Dash also got angry and shouted back, "I bet it's for the foals he already has with another mare!"

"He can't possibly have foals, he lives alone up here!" argued Rarity.

"How do you know? He could have adopted them!" questioned Rainbow Dash.

A loud zapping sound filled the air as Techorse fired a pair of laser bolts from his saddle into the sky. In effect he had just discharged a weapon to stop the argument.

"Tech…" said Twilight, shocked from the blast, "Was that really necessary?"

He replied sheepishly as he put the guns back, "I'm sorry, I couldn't think of anything else to break up the fight."

Rainbow Dash sighed, "It's ok, we still love you. But Mr. Peace isn't going to love Rarity."

"Rainbow, stop!" said Twilight.

"Let's just deliver the machine and go." suggested Rarity with great annoyance in her tone of voice, "There's no sense arguing anymore with you."

The four ponies dragged the box to the front door of the mansion, and Twilight rang the doorbell with her horn. The large, silver-colored door swung open, and there stood the owner of the house. Mr. Peace was a larger than average unicorn pony with a dark grey coat, and a brown mane. His brown eyes were behind a pair of stylish glasses which sat on his muzzle. In addition to his mane, he had a small patch of hair on his chin. For his cutie mark, he had two paintbrushes crossed over what appeared to be a small golden crown.

Immediately Rarity seemed to be intrigued by the colt, and she asked, "Are you Mr. Peace?"

"Indeed I am miss." He said plainly.

His voice was neither too deep nor too high pitched for his size.

A few seconds of silence passed before he laughed and continued in a fake French voice, "What, did you expect me to have some outrageous accent like this?"

Rainbow Dash coughed and admitted, "Well, just a bit."

At this point, Techorse pushed passed her and said, "Hello Mr. Peace, I'm Techorse, the pony you ordered this ice cream machine from. Since the mail service failed in Ponyville, I'm here to deliver it to you personally."

Mr. Peace smiled and said, "Ah thank you for fixing it and bringing it here! Just leave it outside and come on in, I want to get to know you four better! It's not often I have guests here in the mountains."

The friends followed the unicorn deep into his private home, where he led them to a room filled with blank canvases hung up on the wall, framed with beautiful patterns of gold and silver. In the middle of the room was an odd looking machine with a funnel on top, and several outlet pipes on it connected to empty paint tubes.

"What's with all the blank paintings?" asked Rainbow Dash, "I'd imagine most rich ponies like you would buy real art."

"Rainbow Dash, stop being rude!" said Twilight.

"No its ok." said Mr. Peace, "These paintings are blank because I have yet to paint on them. I love painting many things, mostly landscapes.

Rarity asked, "So this room is plain to help you concentrate on your art?"

"No." he answered darkly, "This room is to help me forget about certain works of art."

Techorse asked, "Forget about works of art?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." He said, smirking. Using his magic, he quickly teleported Rarity away in a flash of light. She re-appeared over the funnel of the machine in the room, and she fell in screaming.

The machine hummed as it began its work, and within seconds, Rarity's screams had stopped. A tube of paint emerged from the outlet pipe at the bottom, and Mr. Peace walked over to it and picked it up with his magic.

"What did you do to Rarity?" demanded Techorse, drawing his laser cannons and pointing them at the unicorn's head. He laughed and picked up a nearby paintbrush.

"Now, let's begin with a portrait, shall we?"

Unscrewing the cap from the small paint tube, he squeezed the entire contents of it onto the large paintbrush, and then moved it across a nearby canvas hanging on the wall. A living, carbon-copy image of Rarity appeared on the painting, and she immediately began to explore the white background of the painting she was in. She approached the "front" of the picture and put her front legs up on the canvas as if it was glass. Rarity had been trapped inside the painting magically, and as soon as she realized the predicament she was in, she began to panic..

"Help! Let me out of here now!" she demanded, banging on the invisible barrier that blocked her.

"Get Rarity out of that painting before I beat the living daylight out of you!" shouted Rainbow Dash, charging towards Mr. Peace.

The unicorn sidestepped her charge, and Rainbow Dash ricocheted off the wall behind him, hitting the ceiling on the second bounce, and then plunging into the machine with a cry of terror. She was immediately turned into a cyan tube of paint, which Mr. Peace collected..

Twilight and Techorse just sat there in terror as the unicorn painter painted Rainbow Dash in the same canvas as Rarity, trapping them both in the strange dimension of being a work of art.

"You're Masterpiece, aren't you?" asked Twilight in horror.

The unicorn turned from his work and said mockingly, "Oh somepony finally catches on!"

He adjusted his glasses with his left front hoof, the light reflecting off them ominously.

"And by the way!" he said with a smirk on his face, "Everypony gets that wrong! It's Master Piece, two words! I have a title."

Twilight bent her neck down slightly and braced her front legs. Her horn began to glow, and energy accumulated at the tip for a shot.

Twilight said to him, "I don't care, let my friends go, or you're getting a burst of my magic!"

"And if that doesn't work, my laser cannons will see to you." Added Techorse, making sure the guns made an audible cocking noise as he took aim.

"You can try that If you want, but I wouldn't recommend it!" laughed Master Piece, "As you can see, your friends are trapped in an actual canvas. Should you choose to open fire and their canvas gets burnt on accident, the same will happen to them!"

"What are we going to do Twilight?" asked Techorse, "He's right, if I miss, our friends could get trapped forever!"

Twilight thought carefully about the situation and realized that there was no way for her to stop the enemy unicorn without harming her friends. She let her horn stopped accumulating magical energy, and relaxed her body.

Moving her head back up to look at Master Piece, she said to him, "We give up. You win."

"Twilight what are you doing?" shouted Rainbow Dash from inside the painting, "Blast him and get us out of here!"

"I can't!" she answered with a sad look, "Master Piece is the only one who can get you out of there, and if I attack, we might end up sealing you inside that art for eternity."

Techorse understood Twilight Sparkle's fears and immediately powered down his battle saddle. The laser cannons drooped down towards the floor of the painting room.

"Now that's much better." said Master Piece, "Take off your battle saddle and get in the machine."

Techorse complied and unbuckled the saddle, letting the machine drop to the floor with a subtle thud. With a frown on his face, he climbed up into the funnel of the machine along with Twilight, and they were processed into one green and one purple tube of paint. Soon the evil artist had added them to the portrait as well, and the four friends were huddled in the empty void of the canvas.

"Now tell us Master." asked Rarity indignantly, "Why on Equestria are you trapping us in this painting and planning on doing the same to so many other ponies?"

Turning to dip his paintbrush in a nearby glass of water, he explained, "It's simple, really. Money is everything to me, it's why I became a bandit in the first place. But petty robbery just felt far beneath an artist like myself. I wanted to go bigger, so I came up with this plan to ransom off ponies trapped in paintings!"

"Of course it's all about money…" muttered Rainbow Dash.
The Master finished cleaning his brush and walked over to his painting full of captives. To the four inside, it simply looked like they were sitting in a large white box with a glass window looking into the studio.

"After trapping a few more residents of Ponyville in these paintings, I'll threaten to burn them if Canterlot doesn't turn over a few million bits!" he laughed at how easy his plan was going to work.

Turning around and leaving the team, he picked up Techorse's saddle with his magic and went outside his home to dispose of it. With one quick spell he teleported the weapon far away where no one would be able to find it. Then, looking down off the cliff face he was standing on, he glared Ponyville below before returning inside to continue his scheme.

Many miles away in the mountains, Derpy Hooves was busy wallowing in self-pity. Still very sad that no one loved her, she sat on the rough stone of the mountain path and wept. Behind her was a large cave she had planned on using as a temporary home for the night, as she planned to survive for the time being by moving from cave to cave and eating wild plants whenever possible. But now she was at the peak of this mountain, and she could see for miles. Ponyville was very far away, and the town's lights beckoned her to return, but she wouldn't listen to their silent call. There was simply no reason to go back.

Derpy thought to herself, "I can never go back to Ponyville, and nopony anywhere else wants me to stay there either. I'm going to have to live in the mountains for the rest of my life."

Tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed on the plateau. She cried loudly for herself, wishing for a better future than what she believed was ahead. All of a sudden, she realized that the sun wasn't shining on her anymore. It was dark, and Derpy looked up for the cloud blocking the sunlight. But to her horror, she understood that it was some creature's shadow that was causing the sun to be cut off. Immediately she spread her wings to fly away. But in sadness she realized there was no point in trying to flee, and Derpy folded her wings and turned around to face the creature. It was a large dragon with golden scales, looking down at Derpy with a curious look.

"What's the point?" she said to him mournfully, "If you're going to eat me up, go ahead. Nopony loves me anymore anyways."

The golden-scaled dragon sighed and lowered his large head to Derpy's level. He said to her softly, "I don't want to eat you, I want to see what's wrong. You woke me up."

"But you might as well eat me." sniffed Derpy, "I don't want to be around anymore. I'm an accident, I cause so many bad things to happen, and I'm so ugly because of my eyes that nopony's gonna want to marry me. I have no future!"

Derpy burst out crying again, burying her face into the ground out of grief. Yorgle sighed and wrapped his wings around Derpy. All he wanted to do was go back to bed, and he knew he'd need to help if he wanted his rest.

"My name is Yorgle Jr. What's yours?"

Derpy looked back up, “It's Derpy Hooves.”

“That's a rather unique name. I have met a few ponies in my time, and by far that's the most original I've heard!” said the dragon, telling the truth for the most part, “Someone would miss you very much I'm sure, if you were gone. Perhaps you should head back to your village down there.”

"Well maybe." Said Derpy, cheering up a bit, "But I still have a lot of accidents." Suddenly, a gray blast of magic energy occurred above her head, and out of the blast fell the battle saddle onto her head.

"See, like that." She said, sighing as she wore the machine like a hat.

Yorgle picked up the device with his massive right claw and held it.

"I recognize this saddle." He said, "It belongs to that green pony Techorse that I met about half a year ago, the one I helped break his friends out of prison."

"Yeah, that's Tech's." confirmed Derpy. After a few seconds had passed, the thought occurred to her that he probably did not randomly send his favorite gadget to her spot.

"Oh my gosh, Techie's in trouble!" she shouted, jumping up in the air and flapping her wings furiously. "I gotta help him!"

"And so will I!" added Yorgle, "Allow me to help you."

Derpy landed on his long snout and said, "You're very nice to offer that, mister Yorgle. In fact, you're the nicest dragon I've ever met."

“Well, most dragons don't know how helpful you ponies are!” he answered, “Techorse and his friends have done some favors for me, so I'll return it by offering my strength. It's a good chance for a dragon like me to smash something and get away with it!”

Derpy Hooves responded, “I really need to do this myself. But I'll make sure I say hi to him for you!”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, I am.” she answered, “Thank you so much Yorgle, I'll see you later!”

With that, she flew away with a new determination to help. The dragon waved goodbye as Derpy left him, confident that his old friend Techorse would be saved by his new one.

Master Piece returned to his painting containing his victims and said, "It's comforting knowing you can't stop me from in there."

Twilight said to him with contempt, "Even if you stop us, you won't get away with this. Princess Celestia will bring you down."

"I'm not scared of Celestia." Laughed the painter, "My magic is so confusing that I'll be able to escape any situation she could possibly throw down. There is no pony out there who can stop me and my dark art!"

The door to the painting room was being knocked on by something. Master Piece turned around and charged his horn for a magic attack just in case it was an intruder. But opening the door, he was met by Derpy Hooves, who had a great smile on her face.

The painting unicorn was rather taken aback by her odd eyes, but eventually asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Derpy Hooves! Nice to meet you sir!" she said, "I have a package for you."

"Another package?" he asked. Thinking carefully, he knew he'd easily be able to stuff Derpy into a painting as well. Grinning maliciously he continued, "Well bring it in here sweetie!"

Derpy Hooves nodded, and pushed a huge wooden crate, at least 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, through the doorway and into the room. Skipping in behind the box, Derpy spotted the painting containing her friends.

"Derpy!" shouted Rainbow Dash, "Let us out of here!"

Master Piece turned around and prepared to grab Derpy and stuff her into the machine in case she tried to help. But to his amusement, the gray mare gained an angry expression and said, "No way Rainbow Dash. I'm an accident, remember? Accidents can't help anypony."

Each of the ponies in their paintings remembered getting frustrated at Derpy earlier, and not really showing much love. They knew they didn't deserve any help from her at all. Even Techorse looked guilty despite his wish to help Derpy out. He had sent PAL to talk to her instead of trying to comfort her himself, and his laziness made him feel awful.

"Look at this!" cackled Master Piece, "You four have obviously betrayed this pony and now it's come back to bite you in the flank!"

"I'm sorry I faked not being mad at you!" wept Rarity, "Please help us Derpy!"

"No way." She responded, "You couldn't forgive me, and I don't forgive you."

"I love this!" continued Master Piece, laughing.

As soon as his eyes were shut from laughing so hard, Twilight noticed that Derpy's lazy eye winked at her. Derpy also wiggled her tail a bit, for some reason.

"Well mister." Half-shouted Derpy, "Wanna open your package?"

"Certainly." He said, stopping his laughter and wiping a tear from his eyes.

Using his magic, he pried open the closest face of the wooden box and looked inside carefully. All of a sudden, immense fear overcame him as he realized he was staring down the barrel of a net-launching cannon. Gripping that cannon was a very angry robot.

"Return to sender." Said PAL plainly before pulling the trigger.

Master Peace screamed as the net hit his body, throwing him across the room and smacking him against the wall. Covered in the ropes and held down by the lead weights on the end of each one, he was unable to take any further action except cough and wheeze from the pain and shock. PAL walked over, dropped the cannon, and picked up the painter by his neck after removing him from the netting. Walking over to the machine, he held him over the funnel with one hand.

“I don't understand, how!?” he gasped, trying to pry PAL's hands off of him.

Derpy explained, “I came here when you zapped Tech's saddle near me. You left your window open, so I just leaned in and watched you gloat over trapping my friends in that painting. Well, now it's your turn mister!”

PAL's orange eyes glowed sinisterly as he turned on the night vision devices inside them. In this case, they helped him to intimidate the pony in his hands, and he chuckled slightly as he released his index fingers, making Master Piece start to slip.

"Please don't drop me!" he begged, "I'll do anything!"

Derpy demanded, "Let Twilight and her friends go!"

"Done!" he said, "Just don't drop me in there!"

"I'm not finished yet." interrupted Derpy, "You need to give yourself over to the princesses."

"Fine, drop me in there." He grumbled, "I am not going back to Canterlot's prison."

"Well, you heard him PAL!" said Rainbow Dash, "Turn him into paint!"

"Noooo!" begged Master Piece, changing his mind, "I'll go back to prison, just don't trap me in a painting!"

PAL's eyes stopped glowing, and he moved the villain away from the opening of the evil device.

The robot's gentle smile returned to his face as he dropped the rogue unicorn hard on the ground, he instructed him like a police officer talking to a speeder, "Release them from the painting, sir."

Master Piece complied. Moving over to the canvas, his horn glowed, and he cut an x pattern over the painting. After stepping back from the canvas, it tore into four pieces, and the friends fell out of the artwork for good, landing on the ground softly.

Rarity felt herself over just to make sure she was truly in reality again, and then said, "Well, it's good to be out of there. It was very hot."

Rainbow Dash simply rolled her eyes at the words, but deep inside, she was very thankful to have been freed from the artwork as well. Rushing up to Derpy Hooves, Twilight grabbed her in a tight hug.

"Thanks for saving us!" she beamed, squeezing the gray pegasus against her snugly.

"You're welcome Twilight." She answered, hugging back as best as she could.

Within the hour, a chariot and a jail cart had arrived outside of the mansion. Jools and Jops put Master Piece in the cart and locked the door tightly before returning to princess Celestia, who had yet to leave the chariot. Most of the ponies and PAL approached the princess and bowed gently in front of her. PAL was on one knee instead, as if he assumed being a robot made him a type of knight, and as usual, Techorse saluted the princess as he always did.

"At ease, Techorse." She laughed. Techorse's salute was too cute to her to avoid enjoying.

"Princess," asked Twilight, "What's going to happen to Master Piece?"

Celestia gave her new plan for the unicorn in the prison cart, "I think I'll give him a special cell that connects to a walled-in courtyard. We'll give him some magic-proof art supplies so that his talent doesn't go to waste. But until he has painted a great landscape for each of the 36 ponies he hurt in Canterlot, he's not getting out. Captain Arbiter wishes to see to that personally."

"I'm sure Arby's happy about that assignment!" chuckled Techorse.

"So, I will assume based on the cannon we found in the home that you brought down Master Piece?" asked the princess, smiling at him.

"Actually." Barged in Rainbow Dash, "It was Derpy Hooves who stopped him. She put PAL in a crate with that net cannon and tricked Master Piece into opening it."

Princess Celestia stepped off of her chariot and walked up to Derpy Hooves, who looked like she was about to start shaking in fear from the princess's presence.

"What you did today, Derpy Hooves, was a brave and noble action. You overcame your fear of making mistakes and ended up saving my students as a result."

"Who told you I was afraid of making mistakes?" asked Derpy nervously.

"I did." Admitted Twilight, "Derpy, when you left, I decided to write letters to the princess about you in hopes that somepony would be able to find you and bring you back. We were all worried about you very much when you were gone. If we've learned anything about friendship about this, it's that even when we have friends who make mistakes, we should still love them very much and treat them with respect. We all missed you very much that week you were gone."

"Really?" asked Derpy.

"Oh yes." Said Rarity, nodding, "We were afraid some hideous creature had swallowed you up!"

“I thought that was going to happen today! I met a dragon, Yorgle!” she said, “But he talked me into coming back for you guys.”

“Good old Yorgle.” said Twilight, smiling.

“Anyways, we were kind of worried.” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “The mail was starting to pile up back home.”

"Even you Rainbow?" asked Derpy as she looked at her friend.

"I wasn't worried about you at all!" snubbed Rainbow to tease her.

When she saw Derpy frowned, she nudged her with a wing and said with a wink, "But that's because I know you can take care of yourself. We all missed you!"

"But I can't go back to Ponyville." Said Derpy sadly, "I gave up my apartment."

"Well, someone has to own this mansion." said Princess Celestia, "And I believe you deserve it the most."

Derpy Hooves gasped and started to dance around in joy, "Thank you so much, princess!"

Twilight and Techorse watched her dance in joy and knew that it wasn't likely she would think of herself as a mistake anymore. They hugged each other, glad to be free again and in love.

A few days later, Derpy had gotten settled into her mansion overlooking Ponyville nicely. She enjoyed having all the extra space, but never spent much time in the home, preferring to be social amongst the ponies in the town below. But today was a very lonely Friday, and Derpy sat in the mansion staring at a cup of coffee she had made for herself, bored out of her mind. The doorbell rang to break the silence, and Derpy stumbled over to the door. When she opened it, she found Upkeep standing in the doorway.

"Hi Upkeep." Said Derpy, "What are you doing here? I thought I paid you the last rent already."

"You did." He answered while looking at the ground, "But Derpy, I have a confession. I kept your apartment open for you this whole time. I never rent it out to anypony else."

Derpy Hooves was confused by this, "Why not?"

"It's because I loved spending those Fridays with you!" he bawled, "Please come back to Ponyville!"

"You know, I was gonna sell this place anyways and keep working my job." said Derpy, "It's so lonely up here!”

“R.. really?” he said, hope in his differently colored eyes.

“Yeah!” she said, “I was going to look for a new home and buy one so I could live in Ponyville again.”

“There's another pony in real estate who could help you with that.” Upkeep suggested.

“But it won't be the same as the apartment I had.” said Derpy, before getting an idea.

She asked, “Can I buy the apartment forever? As in, for myself? That way I never have to leave.”

Upkeep was happy to get his friend back and answered, “Yes! Of course! Let's get the paperwork settled.“

“Maybe tonight.” said Derpy, smiling, “I'll move back in then. Let's just spend Friday together like always, ok?”

Her friend smiled and followed her inside, closing the door behind him. He, like Derpy, thought that his abandonment and his off colored eyes made him a mistake too. But now he could see that neither of them were mistakes, and there was certainly hope for ponies like them. Derpy Hooves, even though she was just a mailmare, was living proof of that.

#15 - The Root Beer Relationship

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The Root Beer Relationship

Techorse #15

By Spirals95

A trip to the bank was not Pinkie Pie's favorite task in the world, but it always left her with her paycheck deposited and the small cut of it she kept for herself to spend in her saddlebags. She had just left the small building in town and had made a left turn down the cobblestone roads. The sunshine filled the busy town with its warmth, boosting every resident's morale for the day. Pinkie Pie skipped happily through the square, humming a merry tune to herself. With each step, a small jingle came from the saddlebags she was wearing as the gold coins inside knocked around. Usually, the small allowance she took out of her pay didn't burn holes in her pockets, but for some reason, Pinkie was looking for something to spend money on. As she hopped down the road, with her eyes shut out of glee, she accidentally ran into an object that she didn't expect to be there.

"Oof!"

Pinkie fell to the ground with a soft thud, and sat up slowly to see what she had collided with. It was a stand-up chalkboard advertisement that had been left out on the sidewalk in front of a new establishment. It seemed to be a white brick building, a plain rectangle in shape. Although the building itself was boring, the large windows were well-decorated with red shutters, with a beautiful sign hung over the doorway and windows. The sign was bordered with neon red lights, and in the middle was a plastic mug of root beer.

"That's funny. There wasn't a building in this spot last week!" giggled Pinkie as she brushed the dirt off of her coat.

She then looked up at the title of the shop and read it out loud, "The Froth Shop? What a neat name!"

Looking at the door, Pinkie Pie observed that the store was lit, but that no one had yet to enter the new building.

"Might as well go in, it looks like fun!" she said as she pushed open the glass front door and made her way inside.

A small copper bell rang gently overhead as the door pushed on it. The inside of the store had a black and white checkered pattern of tiles on the floor, and a few red-topped metal tables were scattered across the building. The chairs that went with the tables were overturned and balanced on the edges, evidence that they had not yet been set up for the business day. At the back of the room was a very large bar setup, a long aluminum counter with several stools lined up in front of it. Behind the counter were several huge wooden kegs, each one linked by a metal tube to a set of taps up front.

"Wowie!" cooed Pinkie Pie in awe, "This place looks amazing! I wonder what's in those huge barrels?"

While looking around the counter for a way to get closer, the pink pony spotted a small silver push bell. A beaming smile immediately came on her face, as she knew exactly what to do with one of those. Hitting it repeatedly with a hoof, she filled the small building with the noise of the metal ringing. After about a minute of whacking the object repeatedly, a door behind the counter opened, and the owner of the shop emerged.

He was a unicorn with a light brown coat, beaming green eyes, and yellow and red striped mane hair.

His tail was rather frayed in appearance, bearing the same colors as his mane but being far messier than his long hair. On his flank, his cutie mark was 3 mugs foaming over, each with a single silly straw in it of one of the primary colors. Although he had the appearance of happiness at the moment, Pinkie Pie could sense that the stallion in front of her was hurting on the inside just a little bit for some reason. Of course, there was no way she could tell without asking, and she had learned to never ask what was wrong unless the pony looked extremely miserable or upset.

"I'm sorry miss…" said the colt in a soft German accent, "But we are closed right now."

"No you're not silly." Answered Pinkie Pie cheerfully, "You left the front door unlocked."

"Ach." He said in disgust, "I can't believe I forgot to lock up last night. I'm probably going to get robbed one of these days."

Pinkie Pie laughed and said, "Oh don't worry so much! Try to have some fun, new guy!"

The unicorn pony became curious and asked, "How did you know I was new in town?"

"That's easy." explained Pinkie Pie quickly, "I'm friends with everypony in Ponyville, and I haven't ever seen you around! Plus, your shop is brand new, I always go this way from the bank, and this wasn't here last week."

"It must be very difficult making friends with every last pony you meet." muttered the shop owner, somehow doubtful that any creature could possibly have positive relations with all his or her peers.

"Not really." responded Pinkie Pie, leaning over the counter to get closer to him, "My name's Pinkie Pie, I throw parties for every pony in town! And guess what mister, you're arrival is next on my 'to celebrate' list!"

"Thank you Miss Pinkie." He said, shaking his head, "but that won't be necessary. I have nothing to celebrate right now."

"Sure you do!" she replied, giving him a little punch on the shoulder, "You've got a neat little business here, you're new in town, and you've got me as your first friend here! Of course, it would help if I knew your name and what you did around here."

"My name is Steiner." He answered, smiling, "And my business is soda brewing. These kegs behind me have lots of different naturally flavored sodas in them. I have root beer, birch beer, ginger ale, cream soda, and much more. I use my magic to carbonate all the drinks myself, and sometimes even put a special enchantment on the pop to make you feel all happy inside when you drink it!"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie disappeared from in front of the counter, sliding onto the floor. Steiner peered over the counter to find her, but she had mysteriously vanished.

Scratching his head in confusion as to how his guest could have possibly disappeared, he was suddenly shocked when she spoke from directly next to him,
"Well then, let me welcome you to Ponyville, Steiner!"

Immediately she jumped from his side and landed on top of his counter, where she started to dance in place and sing:

"Welcome to Ponyville Steiner!"
"I hope you like this little place!"
"And I wish you luck with your sodas!"
"Cause sodas put a smile on my face!"

Steiner laughed as Pinkie Pie finished her cheerful little number and sat down on the stool immediately behind the counter.

"Thank you so much, I was feeling pretty down." He said, "Tell you what. How would you like to be the first to try a root beer at no cost?"

"I would love to!" she replied, licking her lips in anticipation.

"Ah, very well." He said with a nod.

Turning around, Steiner's horn began to glow a soft brown as he picked up a glass mug from a nearby wooden rack hanging on the wall. Moving it around him in an arc, he positioned the container below one of the taps and pushed down the brown wooden handle on the metal pipe. Dark, sugary fluid gushed from the tap, entering the bottom of the cold glass, and foaming up the sides. Just a second before the foam raced over the top, Steiner skillfully released his magical grip on the tap, and the carbon dioxide buildup in the glass formed a perfect dome over the opening of the glass. He then set the mug down on the counter, a few drops of root beer dripped down the sides of the mug, mirroring the drops of saliva leaving the edge's of Pinkie Pie's mouth. Placing a white straw with red stripes in the glass, Steiner quickly slid the filled mug down the counter in front of his new friend.

"There you go." said Steiner with a hint of cheer in his voice, "One root beer, with roots taken from the best trees, and sugar made on Quagga island."

Of course, having eating the sugar before from that tropical island, Pinkie Pie immediately knew that the drink now in front of her would taste several times better than any other soda that could possibly be made. Carefully, she wrapped her lips around the straw and took a nice long sip. The sugary liquid poured over her tongue and immediately satisfied her thirst from singing her song. After draining a third of the mug in one go, Pinkie took a deep breath and said both quickly and loudly,
"Wowie! That is really, really good! Probably the best root beer I've ever had in my entire life!"

"I'm glad you like it. Tell your friends about it." He said, "Tomorrow is the day I truly open the store."

Pinkie frowned and asked, "Why can't you just open it today?"

Steiner sighed and turned away from her, "I really can't tell you. It wouldn't make any difference in Equestria whether I told you or not anyways."

"Would it make you feel any better if I invited all my other friends to come try your root beer today?" asked Pinkie Pie hopefully.

She dropped 12 gold coins on the table, sure that would cover another round for her inner circle.

Steiner thought about it for a minute, and knew that refusing business would be stupid. It couldn't hurt to serve a few more ponies the day before the grand opening. Word might spread through them that the drinks were very good.

"All right." He said, straightening his expression, "Go get your friends. I'll have root beers ready for all of them."

Pinkie gave Steiner one last happy grin before jumping out of her seat and dashing out the door in a blur of speed, scattering several of the coasters on the counter top. This left the colt dazed, but a little bit more cheerful than before.

By 1 in the afternoon, Pinkie Pie had rounded up the whole gang and dragged them over from their homes for a cool drink. Even though many were busy doing something else, Pinkie made them drop what they were doing to try the new soda. It was most difficult to drag Rarity away from her work, but after a quick description of the cleanliness of Steiner's shop, she had changed her mind. Soon, her six friends had been introduced to Steiner and were all seated at the counter back in the small soda shop, and were stunned by how good the sugary drinks were.

"Wow, this root beer tastes great!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she slammed her empty mug down onto the counter.

"Glad you enjoyed it!" Replied Steiner cheerfully, as he took the glass away and moved it over to the sink to wash.

"So what brings ya to Ponyville anyways?" asked Applejack, "Did you just figure you'd do well out here?"

"Well Applejack, I figured I'd do better here than at the last town I opened my store in." he sighed, putting the glass down in the stainless steel sink with a soft clink.

Applejack frowned, "What happened in your last town?"

The colt turned around to face the friends and explained, "I originally lived in Handshigh, but my business failed miserably when my soda taps were outpaced by a new invention."

Techorse sank slowly in his stool, he couldn't remember if he had invented a soda maker or not.

Steiner caught the look of guilt and said, "It wasn't one of your machines, Tech. Lighten up."

The green stallion relaxed and straightened himself up in his seat, before reaching for his mug of root beer again. He wasn't wearing his trademark saddle, so he simply placed a leg through the handle and lifted the mug to his mouth.

As he drank, Steiner said, "I was put out of business by a pair of traveling unicorn ponies who had invented a canned soda machine. I tried my hardest to keep up, but they were able to offer soda at a cheaper price, and I was forced to close fast."

Twilight said with pity, "The Flim-Flam brothers put you out of business?"

"Yes." He answered.

Applejack laughed, tipped her hat forward, and said, "Well mister, you won't have to worry about them coming here. We booted them outta Ponyville ages ago."

"And even if they do, we'll just beat them again!" said Rainbow Dash confidently.

Steiner sighed, "I hope you are right. As it is I'm in a lot of trouble for losing my business once."

"But your drinks are simply wonderful!" chimed Rarity, "You'll be a great success here in Ponyville for sure!"

"You'll always find a few thirsty ponies!" added Pinkie Pie.

"We have full confidence in you, Steiner." finished Fluttershy, flipping her pink hair behind her head.

"As much as I want to believe it, there's still no hope for me." said Steiner, turning to face the glass door of his shop, "I still have one huge problem coming up for me."

"And what's that?" asked Twilight.

Suddenly, the door was slammed open, knocking the bell off the frame and causing it to come crashing down to the floor. A lavender-colored Pegasus pony with beaming blue eyes bounded into the room. Her mane was extremely long and golden, with a few wisps of blue in it. The hair was so long, it flowed down past the bottom of her torso. The mare's cutie mark was that of an open book with a heart above it.

"Her…", whispered Steiner weakly as he pointed at the visitor with a hoof.

"Hello my Steiner-baby!" she said energetically as she skipped over with her eyes shut. She bounced up next to the colt and planted a huge kiss on the side of his cheek.

"So, are you ready for the big day this weekend?" she asked, opening her eyes halfway and looking lovingly at him.

"Yes, Wishful my dear." He agreed, looking at the floor.

"Big day?" asked Fluttershy softly of the mare.

"Oh yes!" replied Wishful with a happy coo, "This Saturday, Steiner and I are going to be married! My dad said so!"

"Congratulations!" said Techorse happily, raising his mug.

Steiner shot him a nasty look that silently meant: "Shut up!"

"Thank you so much!" replied the fiancé, "I'll get to know you all later, but for now, I need to go shopping for my wedding dress!"

Suddenly, Rarity was at full attention.

"Are you planning on buying your wedding dress here in Ponyville?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

Wishful nodded, "Of course I am! We're having a very simple wedding here. I told daddy I didn't want a huge party, it'd be a waste of money."

"That's rather humble." said Applejack, giving her approval of the modest choice.

Rarity immediately shoved a hoof into the orange pony's mouth, trying to avoid letting her ruin her sale.

"Oh but you only get one wedding!" she said, removing her hoof and shaking it free of Applejack's saliva. "You ought to make it as special as possible, with the most fancy dress! I happen to make some of the most beautiful dresses in Equestria."

Applejack rolled her eyes, "Thaaaaat's not so humble."

The fiancé flapped her wings in excitement and said, "Take me to your shop and have me measured then!"

Rarity quietly laughed to herself and led the other female out of the store. They shut the door behind them, and turned right to head back to Rarity's home.

"That's your problem?" asked Pinkie Pie after a few seconds of silence, "You're nervous about getting married?"

"No." replied Steiner, "My problem is that I have to marry that mare."

"What do ya mean?" asked Applejack curiously.

Steiner explained,"Well, when my business failed, I lost so much money that my parents became concerned about my ability to be financially stable. So, they found a very wealthy stallion who was miserable because nopony would marry his daughter, and set up an arranged marriage."

Rainbow Dash slammed her legs on the table and shouted, "That's not fair! You should be able to marry who you want to. Aren't you old enough to just tell your parents no?"

"Yes. But my parents are too old now to support themselves." Continued Steiner, "I was born very late, and they retired when I left the home. So if I can't find a way to bring myself and them money, I'll have to live off of my wife's fortune."

"That's terrible." said Fluttershy with sympathy in her voice.

"I know. But nothing can be done." said Steiner. He refused to cry about his situation, but certainly looked down about the situation.

Twilight went into deep thought, and then spoke up, "Actually, we can do something about this!"

"Really?" asked Pinkie Pie, "Tell us, tell us, tell us!"

The unicorn mare stepped down from her stool and explained her plan, "All we have to do is prove to Steiner's parents that he can make enough money in Ponyville, and then he won't have to marry that girl. Let's all start advertising for his business, and try to pull in at least two thousand bits by Friday."

Techorse smirked and said, "I could just…"

"Oh no you don't, Mr. saddlebags of cash!" barged in Applejack as she looked Techorse straight in the eyes, "You might be able to give Steiner that kind of money, but you can't give him the reputation he needs to prove that he can make it on his own!"

The young inventor frowned and said, "You're right. We need to get a steady flow of customers in here, not a cash injection."

"But maybe you can find a way for your gadgets to help!" suggested Pinkie Pie, "You're not completely useless, Techie!"

"Thanks, I think." He answered, rolling his eyes.

"So it's settled!" said Twilight happily, "Tomorrow morning at 10 we'll meet here and start helping Steiner get as many customers as possible. We'll have to be either really loud or really creative to attract attention for this place."

"Which means I should probably just stay home tomorrow." mumbled Fluttershy, looking down at the counter.

"Actually, I have a job for you too, Fluttershy. Make sure Rarity doesn't let that crazy bride get too carried away with her wedding plans. We're going to put a stop to them, so make sure she doesn't set up too much." Fluttershy nodded, it would be a more suitable task for her than trying to advertise.

"All right then." said Rainbow Dash, "See you tomorrow, Steiner."

"Have a good night." He replied as the friends started to leave. Soon they all had left except for Applejack, who walked up to the distressed colt.

"I wouldn't worry, Steiner." She said with an assuring tone, "You aren't gonna have to marry her. You don't have to marry at all if you don't want to."

"I do want to marry someday. I just want to be able to choose the mare is all." He said, "You see, that girl only cares about me being her foals' father. She has no cares for my soda business whatsoever."

"Well don't worry, she'll be out of your mane soon enough." laughed Applejack, "Have a good night!"

"Thank you Applejack." He said as she left his place of work. Steiner went back to cleaning the mugs his new friends had left behind, and exhaled sharply. With any luck, things were going to look up for him.

The next morning, at the planned time, the friends gathered again to put their plan into effect. It started with Rainbow Dash taking off into the air and using her ability to sky-write to draw advertising in the air. Rather than put the name of the shop in the sky, Rainbow Dash simply drew a very large arrow pointing down at the drink shop. She figured that the curiosity of the town's residents would draw them in. Applejack contributed by setting up her produce stand in front of Steiner's place of work, and suggested to any of her customers that they buy a soda to go with all of her own goods. Twilight and Techorse ran the rest of the advertising campaign out of the library, hanging a large banner on the tree building and passing out flyers whenever possible.

The plan proved to be rather successful, as by the end of the day, the line in front of The Froth Shop was out the door for 30 feet. Steiner was scrambling to serve root beers to all of his customers, but he smiled for each new guest's reaction to drinking his life's work. The happy faces of his patrons made him happy as well, and helped him to ignore the fact that he had to work so hard to keep up with the rush.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Fluttershy approached the carousel boutique slowly, going over in her mind how she was going to delay Rarity from making a wedding dress she wouldn't end up being able to sell. She walked up to the door of the large shop carefully, and gently knocked on the door with a front hoof.

A few moments later, Rarity opened the front door and asked with excitement,
"Fluttershy! Come to help with the wedding dress?"

"Well, not exactly." Replied Fluttershy softly.

But Rarity wouldn't listen whatsoever, "Wonderful, darling! Come right in!"

Rarity grabbed Fluttershy with a front leg and dragged her inside her shop without evening giving her a chance to explain. In the middle of the neat-kept studio was the ditzy bride, wearing the partially-completed dress. It was a flowing white creation, with several bands of lace running down the sides. The dress had small holes lined with gold fabric on the sides for her wings to emerge from, and the bottom of the dress had a beautiful pattern to place rosebuds in around the perimeter. Finally, to complete the dress, a small tiara made out of silver mined from the nearby mountains was sitting upon her head.

"Oh hi, Fluttershy!" she said, waving to her while putting on a big grin, "What do you think of the new dress Rarity is making for me?"

"It's very nice." Answered Fluttershy, "But I need to say something important."

"Well go ahead Fluttershy." said Rarity, "You came so far from home that I'd simply hate to ignore you. Besides, Wishful and I have been working on the dress for hours and could use a rest."

Wishful nodded and said, "I even spent the night in Rarity's guest room!"

"Well, Wishful." Said Fluttershy, walking up to her quietly, "I know you're all excited about your wedding, but there's something I have to tell you."

Wishful seemed to ignore Fluttershy and said with a twinkle in her eyes, "Oh, Fluttershy, I am excited! In 3 days, I'll be a married mare. I'll take my husband Steiner home to my family's mansion in Canterlot, and we'll all live together as one happy family. Soon we'll have beautiful foals, and a great life ahead of us!"

Fluttershy's heart drooped. She knew as soon as she told about the plans to ruin the marriage, Wishful would be crushed. Too much of her own future happiness depended on being married to Steiner, and Fluttershy hated to have to be the pony to tell her the bad news.

"Now what were you going to say?" asked Wishful.

Fluttershy looked back up and said slowly, "I… wanted to help make the dress."

The light yellow pegasus pony sighed, and faked a smile at the two others in the room. It was going to be a long day for her.

The business day had finally ended for Steiner, and before him was a pile of gold coins on his counter top. He was counting out each unit of money carefully, to see how much he had made on his opening day.

"Two thousand bits." He said with a laugh in his voice, "We've made two thousand bits in just one day!"

Pinkie Pie let out a whoop and began to bounce around the drink shop, shouting, "Steiner doesn't have to get tied down!"

Steiner nodded and said, "I'm going to mail a check for this much to my parents right away! Once it clears, they'll know for sure that I can provide!"

"And with the place being so popular now, you'll be able to bring in plenty of income for a long time!" added Twilight, turning the sign hanging in the front door to "closed" for her new friend.

"Thank you, everypony, for helping to solve my problem!" Steiner said, "Let's have another free drink to celebrate!"

The friends cheered at the suggestion of getting a free treat, and soon they were seated around one of the red tables, sipping away and talking about their success.

Rainbow Dash started off by laughing, "I can't wait to see the look on Rarity's face when she finds out she wasted all that time making a dress she isn't even going to be able to sell!"

"Hey now, she won't be that upset." argued Applejack, "There's gonna be other ponies wanting to get married. Rarity will sell that dress to some other pony."

"Maybe so." Agreed Rainbow, taking another long swig from her mug, "But it isn't going to be to that crazy mare!"

Techorse gave Rainbow Dash a nasty look and said, "She's not crazy. She just seems to get excited a little easily."

"Settle down Techie." said Applejack, wrapping a leg around her friend, "I'm sure Wishful is a really neat pony once you get to know her."

"Hey guys!" said Pinkie Pie, pointing out the front door, "Here comes Wishful now!"

Wishful entered the front door wearing her new wedding dress, accompanied by Rarity at her side. Poor Fluttershy was left with the drapery on the wedding dress in her teeth, having to hold it up off the muddy roads of Ponyville. Once they were inside, Wishful ran over and kissed her husband-to-be on the cheek.

"Hello my love!" she said with a bubbly tone, "What do you think of my wedding dress?"

Steiner looked her straight in the eyes and said sternly, "You won't be needing it. I'm taking back my parent's orders to marry you."

Wishful and Rarity gasped simultaneously. Wishful had lost a chance to be wed, and Rarity had lost a sale. Immediately, Rainbow Dash shot up from her chair, and flapped her wings to hover in the air two feet in front of Wishful's face.

"That's right, crazy! Steiner doesn't need you anymore, he has money of his own!" she said mockingly. Wishful also lifted into the air and mashed her face into Rainbow Dash's.

"Oh yeah?" she said, "My Steiner is under contract to marry me! He has to, or my parents will take him to court!"

Twilight's ears drooped as she heard the news.

She thought with panic, "Unless Wishful decides not to marry Steiner, he'll be stuck with her! This is really, really bad."

Applejack had meanwhile forced herself between the two arguing pegasi and pushed them apart.

"All right you two, that's enough." She said plainly, "Let's settle down and talk this over like decent ponyfolk. Steiner doesn't want his first business day to end in a bar fight."

"Fine." grumbled Rainbow Dash, landing down on the floor of the bar.

She continued to scowl at Wishful, who also landed, and raised her nose in a scornful way at her.

"In two days, Steiner and I will be married." She said, "He might not like it at first, but I love him. There's nothing any of you can do about it. So you might as well just come to the wedding, and try to enjoy yourselves."

"We're invited?" asked Pinkie Pie cheerfully, "Will there be a party?"

"Pinkie, you're not helping!" said Techorse.

"Well, as much as I'm offended by Rainbow here." said Wishful, returning to a more relaxed pose, "You are all Steiner's friends, and I want him to be happy!"

"No you don't!" challenged Rainbow Dash, "If you really wanted Steiner to be happy, you wouldn't be forcing him to be your husband."

Wishful turned and stormed out of the bar shouting back, "He'll learn to be happy as my husband!"

Rarity chased her out the door, calling for her to come back before she soiled the dress in the mud. Fluttershy looked at her friends, gave a shrug, and walked gently out into the night to follow them. As soon as the door closed, Steiner rested his tired head on the table and said,
"That's it then. Thanks for trying to help, friends."

Applejack looked at the green colt sitting at the table and said, "Techorse, there's gotta be somethin' you can do about this!"

He replied with regret, "Sorry Applejack, but I'm not a counselor. I don't think there's any way I can convince Wishful to not marry Steiner. She won't take any amount of money or listen to any of us, and as much as I find this arranged marriage to be against everything I stand for, there's literally nothing I can do about it short of threats, and I won't resort to that."

"I'll resort to that!" said Rainbow Dash, turning around and kicking the counter with a mighty blow.

"Thanks Rainbow." Sighed Steiner, "But not even that's going to stop her."

"Well, maybe it won't be so bad." Comforted Twilight, "After all, don't you want to be married and have foals?"

"Yes, but to a mare who actually cares about my work and life!" he replied, "All Wishful sees me as is a father and husband. She doesn't care about my soda shop or personal life! All she cares about are her stupid romance novels and her desire to find the 'love of her life'!"

Twilight's ears perked up again, and she asked, "Did you say romance novels?"

"Yes."

Twilight leaned on the table with her front legs and asked excitedly, "She writes books? I've read so many romance novels, but I don't think I've read one by her!"

Steiner explained, "She goes by the pen name Trueheart."

The unicorn mare squealed and said, "She's my favorite romance novel author!" She began to jump around in a circle around the room.

"Well, that's good news." Mumbled Steiner as he followed her with his eyes, "I'll be married to someone you like, at least."

"Wait a minute." said Twilight as she stopped in front of him, "Now that I know it's her, I think I can convince her not to marry you!"

Techorse asked with a confused tone, "You can?"

"Just find her and invite her over to library tomorrow morning, Tech. I'll take it from there."

The next morning, Twilight waited scrambled to stack all of the romance novels she had read from Wishful's line.

"So, why are you stacking all those novels?" asked Spike curiously, scratching his chin, "You never stack books out of order like this."

Twilight, horn glowing with magic energy as she continued to add to the pile, "I have to pretend that I've just browsed through all of these books today. If I can strike up a conversation about romance with Wishful, I think I can convince her not to marry Steiner."

Spike had no idea how the plan was going to work, but he said to attempt to be helpful, "Well, if there's anypony who could lecture another into doing something, it's you, Twi. Good luck!"

"Thanks!" she said, putting the final book on the top of the stack. It was now 16 books high, extending nearly 10 feet into the air. The massive tower of volumes dwarfed Twilight, but she looked proudly at the collection. Each book had a different colored covering, and was at least three hundred pages long in length. The total weight of the stack must have exceeded at least 200 pounds. Twilight leaned gently on the stack of books, prepared to take one off the top the second Wishful entered the door.

Unfortunately for Twilight, Wishful did not knock at the door. Instead, she slammed it open, and the pile of books fell over on Twilight with a great crash, burying her under a pile of paper and cardboard.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" gasped Wishful, galloping over to the massive heap of reading material. She found Twilight's striped tail sticking out of the pile, grabbed on with her teeth, and pulled her out quickly.

"It's ok Wishful." Groaned Twilight, rubbing a sore spot next to her horn where one of the heavy books had left a slight bruise.

The pegasus pony suddenly recognized her own books, and picked one up.

"Hey, these are my books!" she said with a laugh, "I didn't know you liked my work so much."

Twilight nodded, "You're my favorite romance novel writer, Wishful. It's so great to finally meet you in pony!"

"Do you want me to autograph all these books for you?" she asked, "They'd be worth a lot more to the library's collection that way!"

Twilight started to move the books using her magic back onto the shelves built into the walls, "Maybe later. I'd talk to you about your work instead. Your stories are so great, with each main character finding a handsome colt to settle down with after going on an adventure. You really know a lot of things about love."

Wishful scraped a hoof on the floor meekly and said, "Well, thanks. But my romance novels aren't the most popular in Equestria."

"That's true." said Twilight as she replaced the last book, "But I still enjoy reading your books the most. The adventures are really memorable, and the bond the characters form is always such a neat thing to read about."

"Every mare should find a pony she loves if she wants to!" explained Wishful, "When I write, I characterize the main colt so that his personality and features match the mare's perfectly! That way, there isn't any way to deny that they could fall in love!"

"And in every story you write…" interrupted Twilight as she turned around, "The mare falls madly in love, saves her love from the bad guy, and then the two gallop off into the sunset and get married."

"Yeah." sighed Wishful, smiling and looking at the ceiling.

"Have you ever wondered what happens next?" asked Twilight, "Do you think they stay together?"

"Well of course they do." Coughed the pegasus pony, scoffing at the silly statement, "What makes you think they wouldn't, Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight pushed her hair back with a hoof and explained, "It's just that the characters never really seem to have any hobbies or interests in common. They're infatuated with each other, and they have the same opinions on things, but they don't do anything fun together."

Spike barged in and asked, "Infatuated?"

"It means to be attracted to somepony." interpreted Wishful, "A very common term in romantic writing."

"Oh." said Spike, "What a weird word."

Wishful chuckled and said, "Well luckily, they're fictional characters who can choose based on those sorts of things."

Twilight smirked. She had Wishful right where she wanted her.

"But isn't that what you're doing with Steiner?" questioned Twilight, taking a few steps closer to Wishful, "You don't care at all about his soda business, you just want him to father your foals!"

Wishful, to Twilight's surprise, started laughing.

"So this is what this is all about?" she said, "Trying to split me and him up?"

"Yes, but Steiner and you have almost nothing in common. Think about how unhappy you'll be years from now if you marry him!" exclaimed Twilight truthfully.

The author standing across from Twilight stood there, speechless. She knew Twilight was right, and that she was making a huge mistake.

“Well I suppose I've been found out,” sighed Wishful.

"To be honest..." she said slowly, "My parents cut me off last year, and you might like my romance novels, Twilight, but they're not exactly the best selling. So yeah, Steiner wasn't lying or anything, my parents are wealthy, but they expect me to take some responsibility for myself.”

“So they made you pick between giving up writing for a job that pays more, or get married?” asked Twilight, turning her head slightly.

Wishful confirmed her theory, “Exactly. They just don't understand that for right now, I'd rather write romance novels then be in a romance myself. It's not that I never want to be married, it's just..."

"Like Steiner, you know that someday you'll find a stallion who is more interested in you." interrupted Twilight, "But Steiner is just not that stallion, and you don't want to be stuck with him."

Twilight smiled in triumph when Wishful folded her ears back and nodded her head slowly.

Wishful added, “I don't really want to marry Steiner, but I can't live off my novels. Still, Steiner needs to know so that we can both get out of this mess! I'm tired of pretending I want this to happen.”

Twilight agreed with her, and the two set out for the Froth Shop to tell Steiner the news.

"So then, I tell my robot that he shouldn't have turned on the hot tub because…"

Noticing that Twilight had entered, he quickly stopped telling the embarrassing story.

Wishful walked up to Steiner, cleared her throat and said, "Steiner, I'm canceling the wedding."

“Really?” he said, his voice filled with joy.

She nodded, “Yeah. I never told you this, but my parents were trying to force me into marrying you as well. We were both in the same boat the whole time and never told each other.”

“Wh... what?” he asked, horrified.

Wishful laughed at the absurd nature of the situation, and then said to him, “My parents told me they were cutting me off. Since my books never sold that well, I could either get a job, or get married. I wanted to have time to keep writing my romance novels, but I almost foolishly sacrificed my own chance at a real romance.”

"Let's go back to your parent's house and tell them we're breaking the contract." Said Steiner, "Afterwords, you can invite them back here for some sodas! They'll need it!"

“Does it matter?” she said, sighing, “I'll just be moved to the next 'suitor' since I'm not making any money.”

“Well wait a minute!” declared Steiner, walking up to Wishful, “Just because your books don't sell that great doesn't mean you have to give up. You should get a loan and open a bookstore. Try selling some other books in addition to your own. Then you'd be able to support yourself and wait for your real husband.”

Wishful looked up, seeing the light, and said with a happy grin, “You're right Steiner! I need to open up my own business, just like you!”

She then became a bit quieter, and admitted, “Of course, I don't really know how to start a business or run one...”

“I think I can help you there,” answered Steiner, “After all, I still want to be friends.”

“Hey, me too!” said Wishful, smiling, “Glad you feel that way.”

“We do have the same problem after all,” he teased, leading her towards the door.

The two left the bar laughing together, not as betrothed but as friends. Each of them seemed much happier than before, and Twilight Sparkle felt great knowing they'd both gain freedom from their parents' plans, and likely someday achieve a romance they actually wanted.

Techorse got up from his seat at the counter and walked over to Twilight, "Looks like you did it. Good job, Twilight."

He kissed her gently on the cheek, and turned to look out the glass door with her.

Twilight shifted her glance at her coltfriend, and gave her tail a small shake.

"Thanks, sweetie. Hopefully they'll both find a pony just like we found each other."

"Hopefully not exactly like how we found each other." joked Techorse, "We don't want another invasion, right?"

Techorse laughed as Twilight took a playful swat at him.

Later that night, at the library, Twilight stood over her writing desk, her quill floating gently next to her head. She brought the feather pen down on the parchment on the desk, and composed her letter:

"Dear Princess Celestia,

This week I learned from a new pony in town that when you look for somepony to marry, it's important to not just go by how attractive they are. It's very important to find a pony who loves you back, and has a few common interests with you. This will end in a happier relationship in the long run, which is very important to have a happy family.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight put the quill back in the inkwell and rolled up the scroll. Moving it with her magic in the air, she popped it up high, where Spike shot it with a blast from his fire breath. As the scroll was consumed, Twilight smiled, knowing that she had not only prevented an unhappy life for Steiner, but had perhaps helped her favorite author to find happiness as well.

#16 - Rise of The Domain: Part I

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Rise of The Domain: Part I

Techorse Series: #16

By Spirals95

Greasy Bob's diner was a small eatery in Ponyville notable for great service, a large menu, and good portion sizes for the prices. The red-roofed building didn't really seem to stand out amongst the other colonial homes of the town, but the inside was certainly different. It was decorated with pictures from the construction of other towns in Equestria, most of them black and white photographs, others paintings. Several simple wooden tables were arranged inside the restaurant with no apparent order to them whatsoever. Each one had a blue and white checkered tablecloth on it, the traditional salt and pepper shaker, and a box containing plenty of crisp brown paper napkins. Folding metal chairs were scattered about these tables, giving the place a messy, but strangely welcoming appeal. There was never a hostess in charge, and customers could simply seat themselves at any open table. It was even encouraged to team up with other patrons if there weren't any open tables, as the check was usually not large enough to warrant arguments. Bob's was the perfect place for having fun with friends and filling your stomach for less than 10 bits.

The diner was starting to fill up during the lunch rush when Techorse decided to go grab a bite to eat. He hadn't planned on eating at the diner, but had gone through town on a walk with his robot, PAL, and decided to stop in when he got a craving for some home styled cooking. Finding a small square table towards the back of the wide room, the colt sat himself down in the chair closer to the doorway of the restaurant. PAL took a seat across from him at the same table, and laughed mechanically to himself as he noticed the looks he got from the ponies dining near him.

He heard them whispering amongst themselves and said quietly to Techorse with teasing in his voice,
"Master, look! They're probably trying to guess what I am."

"Most ponies know who you are by now." replied his inventor, "They just never expect you to make an appearance like this. You spend way too much time in the castle."

"I spend way too much time?" asked the machine accusingly, "You spent a week working on a new version of that gadget of yours, master! I don't think Miss Sparkle or any of her friends saw any of you during that time!"

"Yeah, that's true." He sighed, "That's why I needed to get out for a walk today. I promise that I'm going to be spending my free time outside for the next week, though."

"Here comes our waitress." pointed PAL, extending a metal finger at her, "We'll have to discuss this later."

Techorse turned and smiled at the mare and said, "Hello, Limpwing!"

Limpwing was a pony who seemed to slip in and out of being noticed in town. She was an azure blue pegasus pony with a jagged mane cut, the center of which was a darker cobalt blue, and the outer hair being a robin's egg blue. Her eyes were bright crimson red, and her cutie mark resembled a single glowing star, maybe even a supernova. She carried herself in a strong, positive manner that could make anyone feel welcome. Limpwing worked one shift a day at the diner, but it was unknown what she did with the rest of her time. No one bothered to ask her about her day, to the average resident she was just a simple waitress without much of a life outside of her work. Yet still, she had a friendly attitude and a pleasant smile on most of the time. Techorse had spent some time talking to her after work, and developed a friendship with her over time.

"Hey Tech!" she said cheerfully, taking out a pad of paper from the apron she was wearing, "What will you and your robot have?"

The green colt flicked his brown tail and answered, "I'll take the spaghetti and garlic bread."

Limpwing wrote down the order on her pad and asked, "Anything to drink?"

"Milk, please."

"You got it! How about you, PAL?"

PAL answered politely, "Miss Limpwing, I don't eat food. But if I could have a glass of water, that'd be really nice. This hot day has me overheated!"

"That's fine. I'm sure Bob wouldn't mind." She said, "I'll be back with your food soon enough Tech."

"Thanks Limpwing." Said Techorse back, smiling. She left the two sitting at the table to pick up their conversation.

Turning back to PAL, he questioned, "So what was this about me being anti-social again?"

"I didn't say you were anti-social, Master." reminded PAL, "I was pointing out that once in a while, you come up with an idea for an invention and then work on it without taking any breaks, often sacrificing a chance to be with your friends for it!"

Techorse sat back in his chair and sighed, "Yeah, I do like to finish inventions once I get going on them. Tell you what, next time I do that, let me know and I'll make sure to take time off for my friends."

With a mechanical buzz, PAL nodded and answered, "Good plan."

"What sort of a plan?" asked Limpwing, who had returned, placing the drinks and meals in front of the duo from a tray on her back.

"Oh," laughed Techorse, "PAL and I are discussing strategies for getting out of the house more."

The robot nodded, picked up the glass of water in front of him, and poured the contents into his mechanical jaw line. He then breathed out a cloud of steam, which dissipated quickly into the air.

"Ah, much better..." He said calmly, slumping back in his seat.

"Anyways." continued Techorse, "I'm hoping to spend more time with my friends once my work is done, instead of completing new inventions."

"Sounds good." Responded Limpwing, "Lemme know if either of you need anything else!"

Techorse watched her turn to take an order from another table, and then went back to his spaghetti. With a click from his saddle, his thin robotic arms emerged and picked up the nearby fork. He twirled himself a large bite from the plate, and lifted the ball of noodles to his mouth. Suddenly, the door at the front of the diner slammed open, and the pasta slid off of the utensil and back on top of the mountain of food. Techorse frowned in disappointment and turned his neck back to see who had entered so violently.

His face went from annoyance to shock as he saw Captain Arbiter standing in the doorway. Today, the white stallion was wearing his black cape as usual, but also appeared to have two small gray saddlebags on underneath. His normally all-black eyepatch had been improved as it now bore a red silhouette of his axe-shaped cutie mark. The pony was much larger than any of the other restaurant patrons, and he smirked as his presence caused the normally chatty diners to settle down and stare.

The Captain walked over to the single-seat table directly to the left of Techorse and sat down, picking up the menu with his front hooves.

"Captain Arbiter?" asked Techorse, "What are you doing here?"

The stallion dropped his menu and answered with a mocking tone, "Well for a minute there I was worried we were both going to eat our lunches and not speak at all. I'm here to eat while I'm on break in Ponyville, Techorse."

"It's just that…"

"Just what?" continued Arbiter, rolling his one good eye in contempt, "You actually thought I came here to cause trouble for you or something? Please! I'm here for a meal, not a fight."

PAL grabbed his master's head and turned it to face his.

"Master!" he whispered, "Isn't this the stallion who tried to cut off your head?"

He nodded slowly, but whispered back in comfort, "Yeah, it's him, but he's a good pony now, so he's not dangerous anymore."

Techorse frowned when he noticed that Arbiter was staring at Limpwing when she came to take his order.

"Well, maybe he's just not dangerous anymore. Not so sure about good."

"Huh, well hello Arbiter!" said Limpwing to the Captain, "Nice to see you here!"

"Hello sweetheart." Said Arbiter smoothly, "I'll have a glass of water, and the open-face mushroom sandwich for lunch."

"Coming right up!" answered Limpwing, turning around and walking back to the kitchen.

Arbiter leaned over a bit and took in the view of her, smiling with intent. Limpwing knew Arbiter was staring at her rear end, but she didn't care unless he planned on saying something to her about it. Usually getting stared at meant a big tip was coming! Techorse, however, was absolutely furious at Arbiter's obvious lack of decency, and decided it was time to pay a visit to his "old friend." Grabbing his plate of spaghetti, he carried it over to Arbiter's table and set it down. With some anger in his motions, Techorse then turned and dragged his chair up to the table. He didn't care if he wasn't invited, he just wanted to make sure the Captain didn't get away with what he knew he was up to.

"Something wrong lad?" chuckled Arbiter at the colt's strange behavior.

Techorse took a bite of his pasta and shook his head.

"Just wanted to catch up with you, Arby." He lied through a mouth full of chewed noodles.

Arbiter nodded slightly and said, "I'm here for three days on vacation. I've bought that mansion up in the mountains. I figured it would be nice to spend my vacation time with the simple ponies of this town. Sometimes I just can't stand how stuck up the residents of Canterlot are."

"Yeah, I can imagine." agreed Techorse, shoving a piece of garlic toast into his mouth.

"But anyways, I have yet to get a look at the inside of your castle. You wouldn't mind if I stopped in, would you?"

Techorse swallowed the bread almost entirely whole before answering, "Of course you can show up! But my robot PAL over there doesn't trust you. After all…"

Arbiter looked at the machine. PAL, being a six foot tall metal powerhouse, was quite intimidating unless you got to know him. The robot crossed his arms and shot the captain a nasty look that almost made him cringe.

"Yes, I know." responded Arbiter, "He has a good reason not to trust me."

"Oh, Techorse." interrupted Limpwing, "You joined with Arbiter?"

"Yeah." He answered as Limpwing set the steaming plate of mushrooms in front of the Captain, "I just wanted to talk with him."

Arbiter cut the conversation short and said, "Wow, this looks amazing! Thank you so much, uh…"

"Limpwing."

"Limpwing. I really like that name." said Arbiter, as she turned to leave.

"By the way!" he called out.

Arbiter smiled when Limpwing turned around to face him. He continued, "I just got finished telling Techorse here that I've bought a very large home in the mountains. Would you like to join me there tonight to have a look at my sword collection? It's rather extensive."

Limpwing refused to look disgusted, and said, "Thanks Captain, but as Tech here would tell you, I already have plans for tonight."

Then without another word, she went back to her work. Techorse took this opportunity to give Arbiter a smile indicating that he had lost the imaginary argument going on between the two of them. But what Arbiter said next made Techorse's blood boil.

"No matter. Having other plans can be fixed with a couple hundred bits."

Techorse slammed his robotic fists on the table and said loudly, "All right Arbiter, now you've crossed the line!"

Out of anger, he took a wild swing with one of his fists, which Arbiter ducked. The gray saddlebags opened up to reveal the two magical gauntlets Arbiter kept with him, and they activated and shot out at Techorse. The diner patrons screamed as the two stallions got into a scuffle in the middle of the restaurant, and several of them took cover under the tables for fear of one of the males throwing an object. PAL got up from his seat and rushed over to attempt to calm his master down before he made an embarrassment of himself, but on the inside, the robot knew it was far too late.

The commotion outside of the kitchen drew the attention of Limpwing and her boss. Greasy Bob was an overweight earth pony with an ironically white as snow coat. His thick, shiny black mane was probably the true source of his name, as it seemed he used tons of hair gel in it to keep it perked up in a curve the way he did. His cutie mark was three bottles of cooking oil in a triangular pattern, and his hooves had the "ruffled" cut seen on many earth pony males his age. Bob looked rather angry about the amount of noise and disturbance in his restaurant, and burst out of his office to see what was going on.
In the middle of the room, Techorse and Arbiter were comically at each other's throats. Arbiter's gauntlets were wrapped firmly around Techorse's neck, and the inventor had also managed to lock his robotic hands around Arbiter's. They were both grunting and shaking each other in rage. But once they saw Greasy Bob staring at them in shock, they quickly released each other. Techorse looked at the floor and retracted his arms quickly as Arbiter put his gauntlets back in his saddlebags.

"What the hay is wrong with you two?" asked Limpwing angrily.

Techorse replied, "Arbiter was being rude towards you, and I wanted to stop him!"

Limpwing groaned, "Yeah I know, but I can handle myself, Techorse! I don't need you to barge in."

Greasy Bob's angry expression dimmed slightly, but failed to completely disappear.

He walked over to Arbiter and said, "So who's this wacko who's been hittin' on you, anyways?"

"Captain Arbiter Axechop." grunted the stallion, "Princess Celestia's captain of the guard."

The fat manager immediately seemed a bit upset over offending the high ranking officer, but to no surprise on Limpwing's part, Bob shouted,

"Oh yeah? Well this is my restaurant, Captain! You gotta obey the rules like everypony else and not choke the other customers!"

Arbiter reached up with a hoof and wiped Bob's spittle off of his cheek.

Anger burned in his eyes as Bob continued, "Don't treat my waitress like that either."

Techorse snickered at Arbiter's misfortune. Sadly for him, this attracted Bob's attention.

"And as for you!" he said while turning to face Techorse, "I know you're the big shot inventor in town, but no amount of money is gonna save you from getting booted out of here unless you shape up."

"Oh I highly doubt that." muttered PAL as he rolled his optical sensor eyes, understanding the concept of greed.

"Don't make me put up a 'no robots allowed' sign!" screamed Bob as he span around, apparently overhearing the comment.

PAL might have been the tallest occupant of the room, but that yelling made him feel as if he was only 3 inches high. The robot carefully backed away from the furious colt.

"Look, Mr. Bob, I'm sorry." Said Techorse slowly, "I was only trying to help. I'll pay for any damages or losses today."

Bob let out a deep breath, and then said in a much softer voice, "It's fine, you didn't break anything. Just pay your tabs, and go. I don't want to see both of you in this restaurant at the same time again."

"Don't worry." huffed a very offended Arbiter, "I never plan on coming back here anyways."

With a swish of his cloak, he turned around and left the eatery, dropping a handful of gold bits on the floor behind him. Limpwing moved over to the money and started to count it out against the cost of Arbiter's meal, hoping something would be left for a tip. Techorse also paid his tab, and tipped higher than usual. He still felt a little bit guilty about his part in causing a fight in the restaurant. But as he made his way out of the door, he kept inside the fact that he still blamed Arbiter for the majority of what happened. Techorse just couldn't tolerate someone who didn't treat others with the respect he knew they wanted.

After exiting the diner, Techorse nudged PAL with his front leg and ordered, "Follow Arbiter PAL, he didn't get a date with Limpwing, so chances are he's going to go bug Fluttershy next."

"All right master, I'll make sure Fluttershy stays safe." He said, running off after the black cape in the distance.

After sending PAL off on his "mission" to stop Arbiter from chasing Fluttershy, Techorse saw Limpwing about to leave the diner on her lunch break. He decided to talk to her and try to apologize for all the trouble he had caused.

"Hey, Limpwing?" he called softly, walking up to her.

"What's wrong Tech?" she asked, making eye contact with him.

He looked at the cobblestone road below him and said, "Sorry about everything. I didn't mean to get all worked up in your defense."

The mare smiled gracefully, "Oh it's fine, that's just who you are. All you need to remember is that I can handle myself, ok?"

"I'll keep that in mind." He said, cheering up.

"Now if you'll excuse me," she said, "I have a break to go on. We can talk again after work tonight."

Limpwing snapped a pair of flight goggles that she kept with her around the top of her head. Each lens was made of clear plastic, and was much larger than each of her eyes. The frame was a solid silver color, and the long dark black strap held them snuggly against her head, squishing the top of her mane back.

Techorse nodded in agreement, "Sounds great."

Limpwing then trotted away from him, exposing her injured wing. The damaged limb was her namesake, which confused many ponies into thinking she had been born with it. The base of it was bent at an odd angle, and only the top medical experts could tell that it was a foalhood injury as opposed to a birth defect. Because of this, she much preferred to walk than fly to various places, even though flight was perfectly possible for her. Techorse had only known her for a few weeks, but he wanted to see what Limpwing's personal life was like. He knew it was none of his business, but he also knew he wouldn't really learn much about the mysterious pegasus pony just by talking to her for an hour after her work each night.

Techorse's saddle opened up, and the inventor switched to his turbofans, two high-powered helicopter rotors designed to allow him to fly, albeit slower than most pegasi. He followed Limpwing by carefully weaving through the buildings of Ponyville without being spotted, and was led to her apartment. Techorse waited for her to enter her home, and then he landed on the roof of the building and waited patiently. Ten minutes later, Limpwing emerged again, this time with a pair of saddlebags tied around her waist. She made a loose turn to the right and started walking for her next stop.

"She just finished her lunch, but she has 30 minutes left on her break," Thought Techorse, "I wonder what she's going to do with the rest of the time?"

He continued to shadow his friend across town, leading to Applejack's farm. Hiding inside one of the apple trees growing in the orchard, Techorse carefully looked on as Limpwing looked over the top of the fence by leaning on it with her front legs. She was watching Applejack interact with her little sister as they were working amongst the trees.

"Apple Bloom, what did you do with Big Macintosh's paint brushes?" she demanded, giving her sister a stern look.

The filly defended herself, "I just borrowed 'em! I was gonna give 'em right back as soon as I was done with them, I swear!"

Applejack shook her head, "Borrowin' without asking is the same thing as stealing, and the Apples don't steal. Now go inside and apologize to your brother."

Apple Bloom's ears drooped, and she obeyed her sister quietly. Techorse had a look back at Limpwing.

"Now that they're done talking." He thought, "Limpwing's probably going to walk up and ask Applejack if she can buy a bushel of apples. She probably shops in her free time, like a lot of ponies."

To his surprise though, Limpwing sat down against the fence, and took out a pad of paper and a pencil. She seemed to be taking notes on the chewing out that Applejack had just delivered.

50 feet away, Limpwing was writing down the information Techorse suspected:
"Applejack: element of Honesty. Applejack seems to be so infused with her element that she even considers borrowing without permission to be the same as theft. Previously, the subject only seemed to believe in avoiding direct stealing. Now it's apparent that she holds her Element so closely that she will get angry at any pony who does anything underhooved."

Limpwing finished taking her note, and then put the pencil and paper back into her saddlebags before continuing to walk. Techorse knew she only had ten minutes left on her break, and so she would probably go back to the diner directly. He mulled over what he had seen for a minute, before the tree he was sitting in shuddered violently. Techorse shouted and fell from the shaking tree, landing on the ground hard. Apples soon followed him, and filled the baskets surrounding the tree.

"Oh shoot, sorry Techie!" gasped Applejack, having bucked the tree without noticing him.

"It's not your fault." He grunted as he stood up and shook himself off of the dirt, "You don't usually have to check your trees for guests like that."

The country pony brushed the last bit of dust off of Techorse with her front leg and then asked, "What were you doin' in one of my trees anyways?"

"Watching Limpwing take notes on your yelling." He answered, "She's the waitress at Greasy Bob's."

"The trees are for growin' apples Tech, not for spyin' on ponies." scolded Applejack, "I saw that mare takin' notes, but it's none of our buisness."

"It's just that she appears to have no personal life, so I wanted to figure out where all her free time was going!" defended Techorse, "Don't you think that's a little bit odd that she never seems to be around town on weekends, or after work?"

"Maybe, but ah don't know Limpwing close. She could have been doin' anything writin' down things in that paper. Tech, didja ever think that maybe she just likes to be alone a lot?"

Techorse thought about what Applejack had said, and sighed heavily. His ears drooped in sadness, "Maybe she does. I'm always sticking my muzzle where it doesn't belong."

Applejack laughed and nudged him with a curled leg to get him to lighten up, "Not really, but I swear Techie, some of Twilight's paranoia has rubbed off on ya!"

Techorse's face perked back up and he said, "I'm supposed to meet Limpwing after she's done work today. I'm more likely to find out more about her if I convince her to let me tag along to whatever she does after work!"

"Now that's a whole lot better than spyin' on her." agreed Applejack, "Now sorry to cut ya off, but I gotta clear this acre by tonight!"

Techorse switched back to his turbofans from his battle saddle and hovered in the air, "All right Applejack, see you later!" He flew away to leave her to her work. Secretly though, he was still suspicious of Limpwing's strange writing. It was very odd for a pony to just write down what his friends were up to. But he let the thoughts go, knowing he'd probably find out that night.

When Limpwing finally got off of work, it was quite late. Due to the huge number of customers that had shown up for dinner unexpectedly, she had been forced to work way past closing time. It was now 10 at night, and the stars were clearly visible. The only sound of the quiet town square was of chirping crickets, as most of the town's residents had gone back home for the night. Limpwing stood underneath of the street light outside of the diner, waiting for Techorse to arrive. She was only going to wait a short while before simply assuming that he had dropped the meeting due to how late she was.

But after a few minutes, he walked around from around the corner of the restaurant and started talking to her, "Hey! Glad to see you're finally off of work."

The mare nodded, "Busy night, but we finally served everypony and washed all the dishes. So what do you want to talk to me about, Tech?"

Techorse pointed at her with his front leg, "I actually wanted to hang out with you, and do whatever you usually do on the weekends."

Suddenly, Limpwing seemed to take on a bit of a nervous tone of voice.

"Oh well, I don't think that's going to work. I'm really busy."

But the colt, to her misfortune, countered with, "Tomorrow is Saturday, and I know you don't work on the weekends. I just want to find out what you do for fun."

Techorse began to notice how often Limpwing appeared to shift her eyes during the conversation.

"I just get some physical activity, and sleep most of the day." She explained, "I'm always crashed after working all week for so long."

"Maybe it's time to kick back and relax then!" suggested Techorse, "Want to come back to my castle and play some games?"

"What do you have?" asked Limpwing, lightening up a little.

Techorse listed off the board games he had at home, but Limpwing didn't pay any attention to him. She was busy formulating a way out of talking with Techorse while he finished his list.

"I've played a few of those, and they're pretty fun. But I really just need to get going tonight. I have so much to do for tomorrow," said Limpwing once her friend had finished talking.

"Like what?" he asked.

Limpwing began to weaken in voice again, "It's private, ok?"

In a sudden switch in her emotions, she spurted out with anger, "Look, is there something you actually want to talk about, or are you wasting my time?"

Techorse backed up one step and said, "I just wanted to do something with you as friends. But I guess if you're really that busy, I can't keep you here. Have a good night."

Limpwing pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes and bid him goodnight before attempting to fly. Her injured wing still carried her enough into the sky for the pegasus to drift away into the darkness, although her flight pattern dipped occasionally. Of course, Techorse most certainly had plans to break Applejack's advice and follow her. But he waited a good five minutes before walking in the direction she saw her fly.

Eventually he found Limpwing peeking from behind a bush outside of the library. As the inventor-turned-detective had suspected, the azure mare was taking notes again on her pad while looking into the window of the tree home. This voyeuristic behavior was so odd for any pony, even one as mysterious as Limpwing, andTechorse knew that she was up to something.

The pony in the bush took off her flight goggles completely and placed them gently behind herself on the stone road behind her. She watched Twilight Sparkle indoors, reading a book on how to take care of edible houseplants. She was standing in the middle of the room, and was reading the brown-covered book carefully. To her right on her desk was a tiny sprout in a terra-cotta pot. Using a quick telepathy spell, Twilight picked up a watering can and gave the thirsty young plant a long drink. The purple unicorn then set the watering can down on the floor and stared at the plant for a few seconds. It was very tempting to her to use a magic spell to force the plant to grow quickly, but she had a bad experience in the past with using a rapid plant growth spell, and was determined to be patient to let the plant grow.

Her assistant Spike entered the room from the second-floor staircase and asked,
"Hey Twilight, what are you up to?"

"I'm growing a hot pepper plant." She answered, turning her head to look at him.

The young dragon walked over to the desk and stood up on a stool to have a look at the sprout. He gave the shoot a puzzled look and asked, "Isn't that going to take forever?"

"Not forever, but plants do take a good amount of time to grow!" answered Twilight, her hair swishing slightly as she went back to reading the book.

Spike loved hot peppers, but didn't love waiting for much of anything.

He asked rather politely, "Why don't you just use a growth spell on the plant? It'd be much faster, and you'd have the peppers now! Besides, a giant hot pepper plant isn't going to attack us." Spike seemed to remember why Twilight might be hesitant to automatically use magic to grow the plant.

Twilight Sparkle told him, "I know, but this is less about the peppers and more about learning patience. One of the things this book contains is a warning that plants that are grown with magic don't tend to be as healthy as those grown without it. If we wait for the plant to grow naturally, the peppers will taste so much better."

"There's got to be a way to make things go faster! Plants take months to grow!" complained the dragon, crossing his arms in disgust.

"There is a bag of fertilizer upstairs." said Twilight, "That will help the plant grow a little quicker without making it sick. Besides, I got this plant because I knew you like the peppers so much. It might be my plant, but if you're patient and help take care of it now, later on you'll get rewarded."

"Oh I see." said Spike, lightening up and returning his arms to his sides, "If you have to wait for something, it makes it more fun when you get it!"

"Exactly!" agreed Twilight, "We'll measure the plant every week, starting next weekend, and write down how the height. That way you can track how much it's growing."

Spike grabbed the potted plant and jumped down to the floor, "Great! Let me go put the little guy in the windowsill so he can get some more sunlight tomorrow."

Limpwing heard this and ducked into the bushes as the dragon put the plant down. He heard the rustling of the leaves and leaned out the round opening, looking for what had made the noise.

After a few seconds, he guessed, "Probably just a squirrel," and closed the glass of the window with a slam.

Limpwing then emerged from the bushes and began to take notes on the conversation again,

"Twilight Sparkle, Element: Magic. Twilight Sparkle is capable of discovering new ways of self-improvement, which ultimately leads to the strengthening of friendships. She was recently found discussing the importance of patience and the pitfall of instant gratification with her dragon, Spike. As time goes on, she seems to learn more and more about interactions with others…"

As she continued to write, Techorse was on his belly, crawling up behind her. He wanted to confront Limpwing once and for all about her spying. But he came up to her flight goggles first before he could pounce on her, and noticed that in the left lens, a corner of paper was sticking out. Knowing his robotic arms would make a quiet but distinct whirring noise, he carefully took the paper with his teeth and opened it. It was a small paper map, showing a route out of Ponyville. The arrow went straight for the princess's old castle for some odd reason, and then continued beyond that ancient structure out into an unknown area marked "Darkmatter Domain". Techorse studied the route, and realized that it must be what Limpwing did every weekend. She had a second home deep in the woods behind the castle, and had named it "Darkmatter Domain" for whatever eccentric reason. The green colt smiled and folded the map carefully, then tucked it back in the flight goggles. Turning around, he crept away quietly to go back to his castle. Tomorrow morning he would follow Limpwing to her secret "hideout" and have a showdown.

Once Limpwing had gone back home to her apartment, she sat on the roof with an enchanted scroll and a quill in her teeth. Limpwing was writing a letter,

"Dear Prince Darkmatter,

Today I learned that some ponies can truly take interest in what you do with yourself, and that's fine so long as they don't get too invasive.

Enclosed are my notes on the element users I observed today. Also, be advised…"

After finishing her letter, Limpwing sealed the enchanted scroll. It suddenly began to magically fold itself in various ways, and once it had finished, the scroll had turned itself into an origami crane. The bird started flapping its paper wings and soared away to go find its recipient. Limpwing then got off her roof quickly and went inside to get ready for bed.

The next morning, Techorse got up early and strapped on his battle saddle as soon as he had grabbed a quick hot shower. Skipping breakfast, he headed for the large double doors of his home on the edge of Ponyville, when he was stopped by PAL.

"Master, where are you going? It's six in the morning!" he demanded, body-blocking his inventor from leaving.

Techorse looked up and explained, "PAL, I'm going out to find out what Limpwing does on these weekends she goes missing. She left a map lying out that leads out behind the abandoned castle. I just want to figure out where she spends the weekend is all. It's very strange for a pony to just disappear like this, in addition to all the spying she's been doing."

The robot frowned and scratched his metal chin, "Spying, master?"

The colt nodded and stomped his front hoof sharply, "Limpwing was taking notes while watching Twilight and Applejack yesterday. I need to know what she's doing with those. She could be up to something."

PAL moved out of the way of the huge wooden doors, and pushed the red button to the right of them. Slowly the two slabs of oak opened, and natural light poured into the stone hallway.

"All right. But be careful, I don't want you to end up getting yourself hurt!" cautioned the machine as he stepped aside.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine." he said with confidence as he walked out the doors. After a few steps, he remembered something and turned around, "By the way, did you ever figure out what happened to Arbiter?"

PAL chuckled mechanically, "As you predicted, he went straight to Fluttershy's house. She let him in and served him tea, but of course refused to go back to his new vacation home. He seemed happy just to talk to her for a while though, and behaved himself."

The machine's expression then went completely serious, "But you should have seen Fluttershy's pet rabbit master! That little monster purposefully tripped Arbiter when he was only trying to complement Fluttershy's housework!"

"Angel…" sighed Techorse, "When will Fluttershy learn he's a little brat and discipline him?"

"Between you and me, master, I hope sooner and not later." said PAL dolefully.

Techorse shook his head and said before galloping off, "She'll do something eventually. But right now, I have to go finish my mission and confront Limpwing."

PAL waved goodbye and called out, "Good luck!"

Moving quickly to make up for lost time spent talking with PAL, Techorse reached Limpwing's apartment and waited patiently behind the building. He saw her leave the apartment complex shortly after he arrived, and take the exact path predicted by the map he had found inside her flight goggles. The pegasus pony went on her way without paying much attention to her surroundings. This easily allowed Techorse to shadow her to the edge of town, where finally, she took off into the air and slowly flew for the Castle of the Two Sisters. Techorse crouched on his legs, and his turbofans shot out from his saddle. He lifted off into the air and followed her from a distance to make sure he wasn't spotted.

Soon they flew past the ancient structure. The crumbling structure where Techorse's friends fought the demon-possessed Luna in the past had not suffered any damage since the encounter. But it was obvious that nopony had bothered to try and maintain the ancient building. It was almost pointless to do so. Limpwing, despite her handicap, was able to weave through some of the spires of the structure without any problems, and Techorse took advantage of the hidden areas in the castle to maintain stealth.
Eventually Limpwing landed next to a tall, crumbling stone wall located a few kilometers from the castle. Techorse thought that surely a wall so far away from the main building would be useless in its defense. She walked around the perimeter for a while until she found a small opening, just tall enough for a pony to enter. Techorse watched her go through the doorway without evening checking around to see if she had followers. Then, he snuck in behind her.

What he saw on the other side of the wall was amazing. It was a small countryside populated with ponies, many of them with defects like Limpwing. These ponies, despite their disabilities, had put together a beautiful township behind the towering wall that separated them from the rest of Equestria. Life seemed to be nearly identical to that of other towns, but the concentration of odd ponies, either in behavior or figure, was half of the population. In the distance, a grand, gothic styled castle made of pure black granite stood in the distance. If it weren't for the magical heat pump runes dotted around the outside of the structure, which acted as a magical air conditioning system for the jet black home, it would be boiled on the inside during the sunny days of summer. Steam appeared to be billowing almost constantly from these equidistant magic stones.

Wandering into the town, Techorse looked at the residents and asked himself, "Why would these ponies need to live here in secret?"

He thought about Twilight's fears about being banished, and thought that maybe this was where "bad ponies" went that Celestia didn't like. Techorse then came up with the idea that Limpwing had discovered the breach in the wall and discovered the city. She would then return to the secret town every weekend to help out the poor, tossed out residents. Despite this act of kindness, Techorse's heart sank when he thought for a moment that perhaps Celestia did banish ponies after all. Maybe Twilight's fears weren't so crazy!

After walking away a bit from the stone wall, Techorse smiled, and knew that Limpwing was good at heart after all. He did, however, wonder why he was being stared at by several large unicorn ponies wearing armor.

Trying not to get nervous, Techorse thought, "They must not like outsiders very much. I should probably just leave and ask Limpwing about this place when she gets back on Monday."

He turned around to leave, but suddenly, a row of unicorn troops teleported in behind him. From the front, earth pony guards had cut off his ability to run into the town. He was now completely surrounded by troops. Techorse instinctively drew his laser cannons from his saddle and pointed them at the guards in front of him. Yelling, he opened fire with a volley of destructive energy pulses, blasting plates of armor off of the confused guards. A large whooshing noise was heard as a crossbow bolt hit the back of the saddle, damaging the circuitry, and forcing Techorse to spin around and shoot back. His beams struck the offending ballista, and the wooden armament exploded in a spray of torched splinters, its operator ran away in terror. A pegasus guard attempted to body slam the distracted inventor, but Techorse had already moved forward to confront the unicorns. They opened up with a rapid fire from their horns, and pellets of blue magic energy struck the green pony in the legs. Yet still, he charged on despite the stinging of the projectiles. One more spray of lasers from his guns sent the unicorn guards scattering for cover, leaving pieces of armor burned away on the ground. But the last unicorn guard stood firm against the withering hail of yellow energy, and cast a force field spell over the hole. Techorse ran into the wall before he could stop, and the barrier bounced him back.

Getting up and spinning around, he opened fire again at the closing guards. A warning tone came from his saddle, which made his blood run cold. Any second now, it would overheat and shut down for at least a minute, plenty of time for the ponies surrounding him to beat him to a pulp. He continued to fire, burning a few more guards into running away before the saddle finally emitted a cloud of steam and powered down. The laser cannons drooped downwards, and smoke poured from the front of them. One unicorn pony took this opportunity to cast a powerful telekinesis spell, and promptly ripped the disabled guns from the saddle, tossing them on the ground in front of Techorse. He knew that his mind-controlled device helped him to resist the magic attack initially, but with it powered down, it could easily be dismantled.

Techorse was now surrounded on three fronts, and his back faced the magical barrier covering the hole in the wall.

He said calmly, "Well, there's no sense in continuing to fight here when there's no way I can get out. I surrender."

"Good!" said Limpwing, landing in the circle in front of Techorse, "For a minute there, I was worried the boys here were going to have to knock you out cold!"

"Limpwing? You're in command of these troops?" gasped Techorse.

She explained, "Yes, of course, I'm a lieutenant in this land's army. Of course, all I really did was just lure you here so that they could capture you. You figured out my secret Tech, and I knew you were going to follow me. So I wrote my leader in advance to warn about you coming here today."

The inventor frowned and asked, "But how did you know I knew the secret of this town?"

She laughed once, "Ha! Simple. I keep my map to The Domain folded up in the left lens of flight goggles. You put the map back on the right side."

"And how did you know I took the map?"

"Not only did you ask all those questions, but you also didn't brush your teeth after a snack. You had some chocolate on your teeth when we talked, and I noticed the corner of the map had chocolate on it."

Techorse grunted and gave Limpwing a dirty look.

"I know you're upset because you've been outsmarted," teased Limpwing, "But hey, at least now you'll have plenty of time to think about it from a jail cell."

Techorse heard a small whirring noise behind his head, an indication that his saddle had finally rebooted. He knew he could smash through the barrier with enough firepower, if the shield absorbed too much, it would collapse and he could escape.

"That's what you think!" said Techorse, spinning around and running for the barrier.

Once he got within four feet of the blue glowing patch over the hole, the slots on his saddle opened up, and his missile launchers emerged. Taking aim, once he was within just a few feet, he fired off the projectiles with a quick thought. He bet that the missiles' explosive power would be absorbed by the barrier and take it out, letting him free. Sadly, this wasn't the case. The barrier had been far stronger than he had predicted, and the missiles exploded violently on it. Most of the blast energy radiated from the wall back at Techorse, burning him and sending him flying backwards. He was fortunate that he had not been too close, and for the fact that he encased his missiles in plastic to reduce shrapnel, otherwise the blast would have been far worse for him.

The charred pony flew backwards for 5 feet, and landed in front of Limpwing again, this time burned all over quite comically.

He was losing consciousness fast from the heat and pain, and heard Limpwing say before the guards stuffed him into a canvas bag,

"Get him to the castle, and get him some medical attention! He needs to be in top shape for what we need him for!"

To be continued…

#17 - Rise of The Domain: Part II

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Rise of The Domain: Part II

Techorse #17

By Spirals95

A whole day went by since Techorse has gone, and his robot servant was beginning to get extremely worried about him. He had been told by his master that he'd return in the afternoon, and yet he had been gone for more than 24 hours. Eventually, the machine became so concerned about his master's disappearance that he calculated that it was time to take some action. PAL could no longer contain his worry for his inventor, and made a run out of the castle for the only pony he knew could help him in his quest. After all, trying to rescue his master alone would be a bold, but very stupid idea. With an obvious air of urgency, he rushed out the double doors of the castle, which shut behind him as soon as he ran out. The machine dashed down the streets of Ponyville, and his metal legs kicked up loose cobblestones with each step.

"All right Spike, one last book, and this shelf will finally be organized!" said Twilight cheerfully to her assistant.

The unicorn pony carefully positioned the last book to slide it into the shelf in its exact spot. Without any warning, the front door of the library was unhinged dramatically, and the red chunk of wood flew across the room and smashed into the center of the library. The books all fell off of the shelf that Twilight was working on, and she stared angrily at her ruined work.

She span around and quickly shouted, "Hey, what do you think you're…"

Twilight's expression quickly switched to shock. She thought someone had simply slammed the door open. But there it was, the front door, severed from its hinges and lying on the floor. PAL stood in the doorway, with a look of desperation plastered on his titanium-alloy face. The robot's soft orange glowing eyes looked up at Twilight, and he appeared to be panting despite his lack of need for oxygen.

"Mistress Sparkle!" he shouted, "The master has been missing for a whole day now! We must go to the abandoned castle and go rescue him at once!"

All of this new information stunned Spike, who gave the robot a confused look.

All he could manage to spit out was, "You… you blew the door off!"

Twilight successfully attempted to digest the information the frenzied machine had shouted, and asked calmly, "Tech went out behind the Castle of the Two Sisters? Why?"

The robot entered the library and attempted to explain in a calmer manner, "Master left last morning to follow a Pegasus named Limpwing. She had plans to go out beyond the castle perimeter this weekend, and he wanted to figure out what she was up to. But now that he's gone missing for so long, I can't help but think something terrible has happened to him!"

Spike immediately turned and grabbed a piece of parchment from off the nearby writing desk. Dipping a quill quickly, he started writing down a message. Once he was finished, he flipped the crude letter into the air and destroyed it with a quick shot from his fire breath.

"Spike, what was that for?" asked PAL.

"If Techorse is in trouble, princess Celestia has got to know about it!" explained Spike, "She'll know what to do about this."

Twilight turned back to face the dragon and said, "Wait a minute! Just because Techorse suspected something of Limpwing doesn't mean she did anything bad to him. Maybe she just invited him to spend some time in her second house!"

"How does a waitress afford a second house?" questioned PAL, putting his arms to his sides in disbelief.

"Maybe her parents bought it for her?" reasoned Twilight, hoping to see the best in the mysterious Limpwing.

Spike began to feel a heartburn-like sensation in his chest, and pounded a fist to his scaly front before belching out a brand new scroll. It was written on a red piece of scrap paper, and sealed hastily with an obviously recycled piece of blue wax.

Opening it up, the dragon read the reply, "Spike, have Twilight assemble the other element holders and report to Canterlot immediately. I will explain when you get here."

Twilight heard the order and said without letting a single second pass, "Let's get everypony together then. PAL, go with Spike and get some gear from Tech's castle. We're going to solve this, but I want to be on the safe side."

Techorse opened his eyes slowly after having been unconscious for several hours. He was on a simple bed of hay bales in a large windowless jail cell. The room was well lit by a series of torches, however, on the opposite side of the room outside of the steel bars. It was obvious that he had been unconscious for so long, partly because his saddle was missing, but also because he really had to use the bathroom desperately. Techorse found the commode in the corner of the jail cell, and was surprised at how clean it actually was. In fact, the old jail cell seemed to be kept neat as if it were for holding royalty, much less common prisoners. The colt got ready to use the freshly cleaned facility when he heard a rather loud voice behind him,

"Hey, don't use that, it's filthy!"

Turning to look at who had said that, he saw a mare outside of the metal bars. She was magenta in color, with light blue eyes, a tied-back yellow mane, and a cutie mark consisting of a triangle of spray bottles.

Techorse said calmly to her, "It looks clean to me, just... could you step out for a few minutes?"

"Nonsense!" she said, reaching with a hoof for the key ring next to the cell door, "That toilet's only been cleaned once this week! You're going to use the one I clean every single morning."

The odd mare opened the jail cell door and led her prisoner out into the hallway.

Techorse thanked her for letting him out of the cell, but before he could say anything else, he was quickly whisked away to a nearby restroom, which was completely free of any dust, dirt, or mess whatsoever. After finishing, he left the clean bathroom and decided to find out more about his gracious host.

He asked her, "So, what's your name anyways?"

"I'm Neat Freak!" she replied happily, "I keep the castle here as clean as I possibly can. Dirt just makes me want to cringe."

"I can tell." Said the inventor, a little disturbed by just how often the mare had to clean to settle her nerves.

He remembered that this country he was in was populated by very different ponies, and so was easily able to understand why she had the condition she was in.

"So I'm in the castle I saw at the edge of your city?" he asked, trying to remove the awkwardness of the conversation.

"Yep." Answered Neat, "Right now, I'm going to take you to see Prince Darkmatter. He's the one who wanted you captured for some reason. Can't tell why though, you seem like a perfectly nice colt to me!"

"Well, I was following around his spy, Limpwing." admitted the green coated earth pony as he scraped a hoof on the ground, "He's probably jailing me for counter-espionage."

"I don't have any clue." Said the custodian mare, "All I know is that he wanted to see you as soon as you woke up! Just follow me to his throne room, ok?"

Techorse walked behind her, and followed Neat Freak up a large set of wooden stairs out of the dungeon. The inside of the black-stone castle was decorated with magical lights that hung from the ceiling, as well as many, many pieces of framed artwork. Some canvases were at least 10 feet by 12 feet, and displayed huge landscapes. The floor of the neo-gothic styled hallway had a thin blue carpet, and an individual unfortunate enough to trip was likely to suffer from a head injury. After walking down the long corridor, the two ponies came across a pair of solid yellow wooden doors studded with copper bolts. Each door had a very large gold ring on it to make the heavy slabs easy to open. The entrance was being guarded by two heavily armored earth pony guards, who each had visible laser burn marks on their coats. They eyed Techorse angrily before opening the solid doors and pushing him in, leaving Neat Freak out. She waved goodbye to the captive colt before the doors were closed in front of her. Techorse waved back, without saying a word.

"So, you're the one they call Techorse." said a surprisingly calm stallion.

Techorse approached the throne in the back of the room, which was almost hidden in the shadows of the darkened castle. Unlike Celestia's palace in Canterlot, there were very few windows in this throne room, despite its elegant decorations. A few water fountains created a bubbling atmosphere that calmed the mind, but they were a stark contrast to how eerily dark the large central room was. The throne itself was more of a couch constructed from red velvet, several gemstones of various sizes, and the finest cherry wood money could buy.

The alicorn on the throne was at least three times as large as Techorse, but had to have been smaller than Celestia. His coat was jet-black, and his long, uncut mane hair was brass in color, and as it moved by its own power, a shimmer of silver would streak through it, giving the illusion that energy constantly coursed through the mane. His tail was of equal color and quality, being long, thick, and uncut. On the top of his left ear, a small gold earring hung, probably to match the amber tone of his eyes. The stallion's horn bore an ornate and complex silver crown, which was dotted with equidistant amethyst jewels. His cutie mark was the awesome black hole, a vortex that consumed his entire flank, with several small white dots of light being drawn towards the center, unable to escape the gravity. An aura of fear and anger radiated from this stallion, but yet, it was not directed at the green pony before him. Techorse could pick up on this, but he couldn't tell why the prince was angry. He did, however, notice that Limpwing was laying down on one of three large red throw pillows on the ground in front of the throne. She was giving him a smug look, still happy she had beaten him in battle.

"Who are you?" asked Techorse as he looked up at the leader, "Why did you send Limpwing to spy on me and my friends?"

“I am Prince Darkmatter,” he answered with a smug look and a hint of smile, “Welcome to my home town, Darkmatter Domain. Or, as we've all come to call it, just 'The Domain'. Seems less egotistical that way, don't you think?”

Techorse ignored the rhetorical question and wasted no time getting to the point of the matter, “Prince Darkmatter, I want to know why you're doing this. Why did you send Limpwing to spy on me and my friends?”

"All in good time." Replied the stallion as he got up from his throne and approached his prisoner, "But until I tell you why, I need you to do me a favor."

"What?"

Darkmatter smiled and answered truthfully, "My top scientists can't seem to figure out how your magic saddle works. I want you to show them how to mass produce them."

Techorse's mane immediately began to straighten a little bit upon hearing that. The battle saddle was a high tech piece of gadgets and weaponry. It couldn't be trusted in the hooves of ponies like Limpwing and Darkmatter! But the inventor knew that the leader had plans for him if he didn't build battle saddles for him.

So he asked rather nonchalantly, "And what monster do you plan on feeding me to if I say no?"

The Alicorn prince lightly ruffled the feathers on his wings and coughed before answering, "I have no intent on getting rid of you if you choose not to copy your gadget for my troops. However, I have always wanted a gelding servant, and I'd be happy to make you that servant with the rustiest tools I can find!"

Techorse noticed that Darkmatter's guards were squirming at the thought of that happening to any colt. He knew he had no choice but to comply with the prince's demands and make him copies of his favorite invention. The alternative was simply too much to bear.

"I'll make you battle saddles." he said, swallowing his fear, "But I'm going to need parts, and plenty of time."

"You'll be staying in my castle's workshop from now on then." Said Darkmatter, "My scientists will bring you all the parts you need. As for time, I'll give you a month to make a working copy. If you don't have it by then…"

The leader took his front hoof and made a diagonal slashing movement,

"slice!"

Limpwing laughed at Techorse's nervous expression from the threat.

He shot her a nasty look and said, "I can't believe you set me up like this, Limpwing. I thought you were my friend."

The blue pegasus rolled her eyes and said, "I don't hate you Techorse, but honestly, the ponies in this country are so disadvantaged that it's worth trapping you here to give them a better chance at life. Plus, you can be a little bit preachy."

"Regardless of how annoying our guest can be." interrupted Darkmatter, "I intend to use the saddles for the good of The Domain. I'm sure Techorse can easily think of what we're going to do. "

He answered with certainty, "You're going to invade the rest of Equestria."

"Well, not all of it." admitted the prince, "I don't want to simply replace Equestria's residents with The Domain's. I want my ponies to integrate with Celestia's, right after I'm finished with her for what she did all those years ago."

"But remember, this is about the ponies of The Domain. You can confront princess Celestia after we've re-introduced ourselves into Equestria." reminded Limpwing.

Darkmatter looked at Limpwing and said softly, "Of course, Lieutenant Limpwing. I owe it to my citizens that my plan has come along this far. My top priority will be getting them situated in Equestria."

Techorse asked with anger in his voice, "What did Celestia ever do to you?"

Darkmatter's expression turned wrathful as he said, "I'm sure you're just itching to know. When you finish the saddles, then I'll be more inclined to explain. But for now, it's none of your business. Get to work!"

The guards surrounded Techorse and marched him off to the laboratory. Limpwing gave him a teasing wink as she turned to talk to her boss. Techorse simply shook his head in contempt as he was led out of the throne room.

Princess Celestia walked down the hallways of her castle with a saddened expression on her face. Her guards Jools and Jops tried to comfort her with looks of confidence, but their efforts went unrewarded as the princess continued to mope. The knowledge that the letter Spike had sent to her had caused her to remember a piece of her past which she had tried her hardest to forget over hundreds of years. The little, hastily written scroll floated in front of her via her magic. This one small piece of paper had reopened an emotional wound. Eventually, Celestia reached her sister's bedchamber, and gently pushed open the door. Luna was fast asleep on the pink bed in the center of the room, not even needing a blindfold to remain unconscious. The princess of the night often went through phases of sleeping normally at night, and taking several naps during the day. Her skills in observing dreams and aiding her subjects through them could be performed more thoroughly when she was asleep as opposed to being awake, and her slumber meant she was hard at work. But her favorite job as princess would have to be put on hold for this moment.

"Sister." Said Celestia softly, "I need you to wake up."

Luna opened her eyes gently, in complete control of her sleep cycle, and gently raised her head from the pillow. Her sparkly dark blue mane started to flow as she sat up from the bed. She was dressed in a black nightgown, and her crown was gently resting on the nightstand next to her huge bed.

"What problem has arisen?" she asked, trying not to yell from being woken up all of a sudden.

"It's probably a better idea for me to explain once Twilight Sparkle and her friends have arrived." Stated Celestia plainly, "There's no sense in giving the same speech twice."

"Agreed." muttered Luna, walking over to her linen closet, "I shall change and be ready for them shortly!"

After taking off her nightgown and swapping it for her crown and silver hoofguards, Luna left her bedroom and followed her older sister. As the two walked down the hall, the guards from around the castle began to form around them, ready to take action. To them, the two sisters seemed angry and determined to do something. They knew that they had a duty to protect them through whatever it was they thought was ahead. Eventually, Arbiter filed in between his stallions, his one good eye looking at the blue hilt tied around his waist.

"So what's the situation?" he asked Princess Celestia, "You have the entire castle up in arms about something!"

"What we are about to talk about is probably a reason to go on the defensive." She answered sternly, "I want you, Jools, and Jops to begin preparing for an attack. Raise the shield runes!"

Arbiter immediately turned around and halted roughly half of the guards behind him, "You heard the princess, shields up!"

The white and gray stallions scattered, their armor making loud noises as they rushed around the castle. Each of them found one of the various shield runes scattered around the castle and pushed the magic stone with a front hoof. A blue line of energy shot out from the marked rock, and connected to the other flat stones nearby. Soon, all of the runes in the castle had been linked up by the lines of magic, and were now glowing an intense cyan color. Captain Arbiter entered the command room of the castle, and found the master rune in the middle. The largest of the stones, and the most ornately carved, it controlled whether or not the shield was to be fully raised or not. Arbiter stuck out his left leg, and pressed as hard as he could on the magic panel. A column of white energy shot up from the rock, and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling of the shield room's domed roof.

Outside, a series of hexagons made from glowing magic energy began building up around the cliff-side castle. The blue energy eventually made a complete honeycomb structure, ready to absorb millions of joules if necessary. In addition to the defensive shield it provided, it also had a nasty secret; it would electrocute any living creature that touched it at any other speed than a normal walk. One could carefully step through the field without coming to harm, but any violent action against it would result in a rather unpleasant electrical surge being applied to the victim. This feature of the shield was obviously to counter one type of previous attack against the castle, and Arbiter was quite proud of the unicorns in his family for coming up with the idea.

Back inside the shield room, Arbiter swished his cape and made a gallop for the door. He had to join back up with the princesses as soon as possible. Even though he had no clue what he and the other guards were up against, he knew that he'd be in for some kind of a battle. The white stallion had a smirk upon his face because of this. His job was going to be a whole lot more exciting today.

The princesses had gone with their guards out to the courtyard, where they knew Twilight Sparkle and her friends would teleport at any moment. They waited patiently out in the daylight, the breeze flowing through their manes as they stared continuously at the cobblestone. Sure enough, a purple beacon began to form on the pavement, and with a burst of sound and energy, Twilight and company had materialized in front.

The six ponies, accompanied by one robot and one dragon, looked in confusion at the magical energy guarding the castle.

"What's with the new shield?" asked Rainbow Dash, immediately concerned about the extra defense.

"I know who captured Techorse, and he may attack us at any time." Explained Celestia, looking angrily off into the distance, where she could see some storm clouds coming in.

"Now before we all get too dramatic," urged Applejack, "we need to know exactly who took Techie, and what we can do to get him back!"

Princess Celestia took a deep breath, then returned her look to the team, "Since Techorse went missing behind our old home, only one pony I know could be the one behind his capture."

"Who?" asked Spike, trying to look tough by cracking his knuckles.

"My brother, Prince Darkmatter." said Celestia.

Luna's eyes got a bit bigger as she asked, "He's… still living?"

Celestia confirmed it with a nod, "It would seem so."

"I knew about your younger brother Sundial, he's Cadence's father," said Twilight, "but I didn't know you had another brother out there!"

"Yeah!" said Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down as if it was a nervous habit, "Tell us about him! Why did he capture Techie?"

Celestia told them the story, "A long time ago, when Luna became Nightmare Moon, she had a younger brother named Darkmatter who loved her to pieces. Although my sister and I gave a home to the Elements of Harmony and ruled from Canterlot, our brothers ran the court systems to ensure justice for every pony. They preferred to do this over any duty of the throne. But of course, as we all know, I was forced to banish Luna to save the planet."

"And this made Darkmatter furious!" continued Luna, "I was informed that he and his brother were outraged by my sister's actions. Sundial hasn't spoken to Celestia since!"

"He even missed out on his own daughter's wedding just to avoid you…" mumbled Fluttershy.

"Of course," continued Celestia as she tried to bring the topic back, "He simply refuses to speak to me. Darkmatter swore that he would one day return and take revenge on me for what I did."

Rarity asked, "But why would he capture poor Tech? I understand him sending Limpwing to spy on us, but poor Tech doesn't deserve to sit in a prison!"

"I know exactly why Darkmatter kidnapped the master, Rarity," said PAL.

He immediately dropped the laser minigun he was carrying on the ground purposefully, making a huge crashing sound on the stone, which startled Fluttershy and caused the guards to look at the weapon in awe.

"Master Techorse builds advanced tools and weapons. If he's coming for you, your majesty, he would need these to stop your guards."

"So, if they're after Tech's brains to build weapons, we have to save him before they force him to hoof over all his designs!" said Rainbow Dash, lifting into the air and smashing one hoof into the other like a punch.

"Then let's get started." said Twilight, "We'll go back and find Techorse, then stop Darkmatter from taking over Equestria!"

"Let's get you the Elements of Harmony first," cautioned Celestia. "Darkmatter is very, very powerful as a spell-caster. His gravity-based magic can easily deal with you if you underestimate him."

"Sounds like a plan," chuckled Applejack, straightening her hat. "Should we take Techie's element to him as well?"

Silence fell over Celestia as she tried to decide whether or not to say yes. Including Techorse's element of Justice carried the risk of causing the end of her brother. But saying no would also mean that Darkmatter might never be defeated for sure.

After a long period of time to think, she finally answered, "No. I want to be able to deal with my sibling myself."

The guards, and even Arbiter, seemed to turn a little pale from the cold statement.

The only pony that seemed to be completely unaffected by the implication was Pinkie Pie, who cheerfully cried out, "Then let's get the Elements and get moving! The sooner we get Techie back, the sooner we can celebrate!"

The team headed inside the nearest doorway of the castle. They were prepared to fight to save their friend, and had high hopes for finishing the challenge ahead.

On the other side of the country, Techorse had finally finished making an exact copy of his battle saddle. The device sat on the laboratory table in front of him next to his original device. It had been painted with a blue streak to differentiate it from the parent copy. The scientists watching Techorse carefully began to applaud him for his amazing machine skills, and how rapidly he had managed to build another out of the lower-technology parts that they had.

But the leader of the research team silenced them and said, "Don't cheer too much. He's having to betray his friends to bring us this modern marvel."

Techorse said to him with contempt, "You don't have to listen to Darkmatter you know. You can probably come and go into Equestria as you please. Why bother invading?"

The head scientist pushed his glasses up his muzzle and said with a slight sigh, "Well, unfortunately, we chose to live here because of how different we are. We just want to get back at all the ponies who made fun of us before we came here in self-exile."

"Is revenge really the answer?" asked Techorse, turning around to lecture them, "You shouldn't meet injustice with violence unless it's absolutely necessary!"

"Revenge might not be the first choice, but right now, it's the most satisfying one!" laughed the scientist unicorn, "Limpwing was right, you are kind of preachy."

The other scientists looked at their boss, and rolled their eyes in disgust at his rude speech. But the horrid manager continued, "In fact, I'd say that if it weren't for your brains and money, you'd have no friends whatsoever. You're just no fun to be around with all this justice crud you toss out!"

As if karma had decided to grace the room in that moment, the new battle saddle went haywire and spontaneously extended a robot fist right through the scientist's face, breaking his glasses and knocking him to the floor.

The other scientists stared at their unconscious friend. Techorse immediately felt responsible, and knew that any second now the other workers would be upon him.

However, one of them finally spoke up with a mocking tone, "Oops! It looks like the battle saddle malfunctioned!"

"Malfunction..." muttered the other employees in agreement.

Apparently they excused the hiccup from the machine on the grounds that their boss was being a complete jerk. Techorse knew though, that one malfunction in a machine could easily lead to another, and hoped to solve all the problems with the prototype before delievering it.

"Don't worry, I'll fix the problem right away." said Techorse with a chuckle, playing along.

"Once you do, you'll need to present this to prince Darkmatter immediately," said one of the employees. "He wants proof you've been working on it."

"I'll show him as soon as I can." promised Techorse, "I just have to tighten a few more screws, and then it'll be ready to go."

Once he had finally finished putting together the saddle, one of the scientists picked it up and carried it by its straps in his teeth. They traveled together back to the throne room, where Limpwing and Darkmatter were waiting for them. Darkmatter smiled with anticipation as he saw the two come in with the prototype saddle.

"Ah, so you decided to make the saddle in a timely manner!" he said. "Excellent choice. I was afraid I was going to have to perform my 'surgery' on you."

Limpwing got up from the cushion she was on, and snapped her flight goggles down over her crimson eyes, "Let me try it out first. We need to make sure Techorse actually produced a working saddle."

"Good point, Limpwing. Strap on that saddle, and see if it works."

Limpwing took the device from the scientist and wrapped it around her own back, carefully making sure not to trap her wings under the black straps. The blue-striped saddle fit perfectly on her body.

"So how do I use this, Tech?" she asked, looking back a bit at the metal object.

"First you have to calibrate the battle saddle to read your brainwave pattern" he explained, "Then, just start thinking about what you want to do, and the saddle will automatically comply."

Limpwing concentrated on getting the device to register to her thought pattern, and soon, it responded with a small whir.

She thought to herself, "I think I'll test out the…"

Due to her lack of experience with the machine, the laser cannons emerged from the saddle and subsequently fired off a pair of yellow bolts. They flew across the room and struck a vase, destroying it and sending pieces of porcelain flying everywhere. The guards in the room jumped to attention at the sudden event. Limpwing simply stood there in awe of her accidental attack.

"Whoops. Did not mean to do that," she said sheepishly.

Darkmatter looked at the burned spot where the vase once was and said, "Brilliant! Now that you've shown my scientists how to build saddles like this, I can easily take back Canterlot for myself! Limpwing, try the missiles out on the marble column that vase was on!"

"You got it!" she responded, thinking about the missiles.

The laser cannons disappeared back into the device, and with a grinding sound, the missile racks, each armed with a single projectile, took their place. Limpwing prepared to fire the rockets, and sparks suddenly flew out of the racks. She screamed as the faulty launchers exploded on themselves, destroying most of the saddle and pushing her down to the floor.

"What the hay was that?!" she gasped, standing up and taking the device off her.

She tossed the machine down to the floor, and stared at its burned remains.

Darkmatter's horn glowed black as he became angry at Techorse, and the poor colt was lifted off of the ground by his neck.

The dark alicorn choked him and shouted, "You sabotaged the saddle to try and hurt Limpwing!"

Techorse protested weakly, "It wasn't me! It's the inferior parts you're making me work with!"

But the prince wouldn't listen, instead tightening his magical grasp against Techorse's neck. The strangling pony was beginning to see colors before his eyes as his brain rapidly ran out of air.

Limpwing said to her leader, "Sir, let him go! If he was honestly trying to hurt me, I wouldn't be standing here in one piece."

The idea made perfect sense to Darkmatter, and he replied, "As you wish."

He let go of Techorse, causing him to fall to the ground. Limpwing shook her head at him as he coughed and gasped for oxygen.

"Well, one thing's for sure, the missile launcher is out. Do you think we can still go through with the invasion with just the laser cannons?" asked Limpwing.

Darkmatter answered, "Most likely. We'll just tell the scientists to remove the missile racks from the design. Chances are everything else works and won't explode spectacularly."

Limpwing turned to Techorse and said, "I'm going to go drop you off outside of the castle ruins now. You've given the prince what he needs, Tech."

Darkmatter's guards blocked the door to the throne room, and the alicorn said with laughter in his voice, "Now wait just a minute, Lieutenant. Techorse here is aware of our plans to attack Canterlot, and will most certainly take away our element of surprise by warning princess Celestia of it. Perhaps we should consider keeping him permanently, or at least until we've succeeded."

The pegasus pony looked back at Techorse, who had a defeated expression on his face. She knew that Darkmatter wanted to break his deal and keep Techorse locked up for good. But she also felt as if somehow, she and Techorse were still friends. Somehow she had to make prince Darkmatter keep his word, and not bring Techorse to harm.

"All right, but he's staying with us." She said, "If it's fine with you, your majesty. I don't want him put in that jail cell again where he might escape."

Limpwing smiled on the inside when she heard Darkmatter buy her idea hook, line, and sinker, "That's a good idea. If we keep Techorse in our sights the entire time, he has no chance of getting away and ruining our plans."

Twilight and her team had finally reached the hole in the wall that separated Darkmatter Domain from the rest of Equestria. She turned around to face her friends and said, "All right everypony. They're probably waiting for us on the other side of this wall. I want you all to be ready for the worst!"

Giving a battle cry, the team charged in through the hole into the town. They were rather embarrassed by the fact that there were absolutely no guards waiting for them on the other side, and that now every last resident of the town was giving them funny looks. To save face, they waved to the citizens, and then continued on their way to the steam-emitting castle. Once they had reached the palace, they avoided the guards' eyes and made their way around to the side of the massive structure.

"All right Spike, PAL, as we practiced earlier!" ordered Twilight.

PAL nodded and picked up Spike by his tail and head. Spike created a tiny yet constant flame out of his mouth, and the robot used him as a living blowtorch to cut a door-shaped marking on the wall of the castle. Applejack then ran up, turned around, and bucked the black stones as hard as she possibly could. The weakened wall caved in, giving the team a breach point. The two guards standing in the hallways magically picked up some nearby iron clubs hanging on a weapons rack to beat off the friends. But Rainbow Dash was already upon them, and she gave them a thrashing until they were both out cold on the floor. Fluttershy had closed her eyes as Rainbow Dash had pounded the guards, and Rarity gently tapped her when it was over.

"Sorry, I just really didn't want to see that." She said quietly.

"It's quite all right dear." soothed Rarity, "Rainbow Dash is quite brutal."

"I am not, these guys are going to be fine!" argued Rainbow Dash.

"We're losing time!" said Twilight, "PAL and Spike, you take the first hallway, and the rest of us will try to go for the throne room. See if you can find anything about Darkmatter's plans and sabotage any weapons you come across that look like they were made by Techorse!"

"Of course, Mistress Sparkle!" shouted PAL, charging in with his gatling laser cannon in hand. Spike followed behind him, and they disappeared around a corner of the dark fortress.

"Here we go, girls," said Twilight, "let's get to that throne room. Once we're there, I'll give us the Elements from my saddlebags, and we'll stop Darkmatter!"

They took off galloping in a straight line, prepared to fight any guards they came across. But strangely enough, they did not meet very much resistance, as if Darkmatter wanted them to be there. Eventually, they came across the throne room doors, being guarded by eight guards with light armor and crossbows. The guards smirked and launched their bolts at the girls, not sparing a single thought for them. Twilight quickly jumped in front of her friends and deployed a purple-colored magical barrier, causing the arrows to beak. Without any time to reload, the mares were on top of the guards in no time, and they easily overpowered them. Fluttershy and Rarity tied up the defeated stallions with a large red ribbon, and left them in the hallway. Together the six entered the throne room, and found Techorse chained to the throne. Darkmatter sat there, and Limpwing had taken her place again on the cushion.

"Well, what brings you here?" asked Darkmatter, getting up from his seat and walking forward. His guards formed a wedge-shaped defensive formation in front of the alicorn.

"We're here to take back Techorse, mister!" said Applejack, "Of course, the sooner you give him over, the easier this is gonna be for ya!"

"You can have Techorse back after we've taken Canterlot," said Darkmatter calmly, "I want you to know that I have no intention of bringing physical harm to your close friend."

Techorse shouted, "He's lying! He threatened to turn me into a gelding, Twilight!"

Twilight Sparkle gave Darkmatter a nasty look, and her horn glowed an angry violet.

"You were going to WHAT!?" she gasped.

"Hey, it was only a joke!" claimed Darkmatter, "I wasn't really going to… you know."

"Oh I doubt that." said Rarity, stepping up next to Twilight, "You seem like just the stallion to do such a thing. What, with wanting to harm Princess Celestia and all. You're just a big brute."

"Regardless, you are all too late." said the alicorn, "I already have Techorse's battle saddles in full production. Soon my stallions will be ready to overrun Canterlot. Then, I'll personally punish Celestia for everything she did to my sweet sister Luna!"

Techorse's jaw fell open. Darkmatter's plans finally made sense to him, it was a revenge plot all along, and an unnecessary one at that!

Fluttershy saw this from across the room and tried to whisper to him, "We'll explain it to you later, Tech!"

"You won't punish Celestia, 'cause we're going to take you down!" boasted Rainbow Dash. Darkmatter shook his head and ordered his guards to attack.

The ten guards dashed forward to engage the six friends. Twilight opened up with several magic projectiles from her horn, one of the shots managed to catch a guard before he even got a few feet away from Darkmatter. Once they were within melee range, Applejack jumped high in the air, and brought her full weight down on another guard, crushing him in his armor and leaving him out cold. Rarity brought out a diamond from her bag and swung it at one of the guards several times.

"Hah, you missed." He said, laughing as he prepared to beat Rarity.

"Oh, did I?" said Rarity with teasing in her voice.

The guard's armor immediately fragmented from the diamond cuts, falling to the floor in small pieces. He hung his head in embarrassment, and slowly backed away from Rarity.

Rainbow Dash dueled another one of the guards during the fight, swinging her hooves at him while trying to dodge his returned blows. As they battled, Fluttershy attempted to get out of the fight by crawling away slowly. The guard Rainbow Dash was fighting accidentally tripped over the retreating Fluttershy, and fell hard on the ground.

She looked at the injured stallion and said meekly, "Sorry!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and went back to try and help the others. Pinkie Pie had found herself in trouble, as one of the guards had her pinned to the floor.

"You guys wouldn't hurt me!" she said, trying not to lose her positive attitude, "I'm too silly, right?"

The guard shook his head and brought one of his hooves down. Pinkie Pie slipped out from under him, rolled between his legs, and came out from behind him. The guard brought down his hoof on the pavement, and realized in shock that Pinkie had dropped a large lit firecracker on the ground where she once was. It exploded in his face, and he fell over in shock.

Within just a minute, the battle was over. Ten guards had been reduced to a group of unconscious or embarrassed ponies.

Darkmatter looked at what had become of his "elite" stallions in disgust, and said, "How did you beat them? They were ten times as strong as you!"

"Maybe they're strong physically, but you're threatening our friend!" said Twilight, "And that gives us the will to beat them!"

Opening the bag on her side, Twilight tossed out the element artifacts to her friends.

"Are those the Elements of Harmony?" asked Darkmatter, “I don't remember them being quite like that back in the day.”

"Yes," said Twilight, "in a few seconds, you and Limpwing are going to be nothing but a pair of statues!"

Darkmatter's horn glowed black. He was obviously going to cast something on the six ponies before him. Suddenly, they felt as if they couldn't move, and Fluttershy fell to the ground almost instantly. As Darkmatter's horn glowed more intensely, the friends began to feel heavier and heavier!

"What's happening?" shrieked Pinkie Pie as she collapsed on the stone floor.

Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were soon pinned to the floor as well. Finally, after an even more intense struggle, Applejack's legs gave, and the orange earth pony hit the floor hard.

"I'm using my magic to increase the local gravity around you six," laughed Darkmatter. "Right now you're experiencing 5 G's, five times the gravity of Equestria. Three more and you'll be as flat as a pancake, Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight didn't expect the prince to know her name, and she asked him, "How did you know who I was?"

Limpwing explained, "I've been spying on you this whole time, Twilight, writing things down about you. Darkmatter knows everything about the modern Elements of Harmony now."

"Yes!" exclaimed the prince, "And now that you're here, I can go with my original plan for defeating Celestia! Limpwing, you're now immune to my gravity spell. Take the Elements and head down to the golem locker! Begin creation of my automated troops."

"What about the battle saddles?" she asked.

Darkmatter pointed with a hoof at his unconscious guards, "These weaklings don't deserve the honor of helping me get revenge. The golems will be a much more powerful force."

Limpwing frowned and said, "But this is about The Domain's citizens regaining Equestria! What's the point if there are no ponies?"

Darkmatter laughed, "Who cares? Honestly, you and your ponies can have whatever we want once I'm done with Celestia!"

The blue pegasus pony completely removed her flight goggles, and entered the gravity field. She removed the element artifacts, and then carried them off in a sack to take down to the golem locker. Limpwing left the room and looked at the six suffering friends. They all looked like they were in a lot of pain from being trapped under Darkmatter's spell. She actually began to feel sorry for them, and was also a little disturbed by the fact that Darkmatter was more concerned about his revenge than the desires of the citizens.

After Limpwing had left the room, Darkmatter used his magic to pick up the six helpless ponies, and dump them on the floor in front of his throne. He then pushed his unconscious guards out of the room, locked the door, and laughed menacingly.

"Now that I have your Elements, I no longer need any of you." He said, "I think I'll do to you what I plan on doing to Celestia once this is all over."

Darkmatter shouted loudly, and his eyes glowed a brilliant white along with his horn as a huge bolt of energy hit the floor. A huge wormhole appeared on the floor, sucking in several of the stones with the sheer gravity.

"This wormhole actually leads straight to Canterlot castle's main lobby." Darkmatter explained, "But it's quite the long ride, 1000 years to be exact."

"Please don't throw us in there!" begged Fluttershy.

Darkmatter shook his head, "Looks like somepony's volunteering to be first!"

Rainbow Dash wanted to do something to protect her friend, but they were all too weak from the gravity spell.

"You leave Fluttershy alone!"

"Well girls, it looks like this is the end," said Twilight with a sad expression on her face. "I'm so sorry I got all of you dragged into this!"

"We had to try," replied Applejack. "It's not your fault."

Techorse sighed and said, "Darkmatter, please. You don't have to do this."

"Why shouldn't I do it?" he asked, "You were going to stone me like that fool, Discord!"

"I know that somewhere in there, you're just angry about what happened to Luna." said Techorse, "I want you to know that Luna's back, her banishment is over. She's made up with Celestia, and I'm sure she'd be miserable if she found out we suffered because we tried to stop you from making a stupid mistake."

Darkmatter looked at Techorse in surprise, "Luna's alive?"

"Even better!" said Pinkie Pie, "She's really happy with her life right now, gets along with princess Celestia, and even likes my parties!"

"I… I want proof!" said the confused prince.

"If you turn off the vortex of doom, we'll take you to her," promised Twilight.

Darkmatter dispelled the black hole, causing it to collapse in on itself.

"Now, take me to Luna," he said.
Twilight and her friends stood up from the ground.

She said to him, "We'll make sure you get to see Luna as soon as possible. But first, you have to call off your invasion!"

Down below in the golem locker, PAL and Spike searched for the weapons laboratory. They walked among the large piles of rocks meant for making the constructs, searching for a hint as to where the lab might be.

"This place gives me the creeps!" said Spike, "Wonder what all these rock piles are for anyways?"

On a balcony above them, Limpwing finished placing each of the Elements of Harmony onto six different runed tables. She then walked over to a large lever, and pulled it. Magical energy surged through the Element artifacts, which absorbed extra power from them before draining down the legs of the tables, and onto carvings into the floor beneath the spy. The energy surged over the railing, and struck the piles of stone below. PAL and Spike jumped back in surprise as the small stone piles began to animate themselves. Each one took the form of a small bipedal monster, and on each ones left arm, a pink crystal spike glowed with powerful magical energy. The golems had glowing red "eyes" which tracked the robot and the dragon.

"Yikes!" shouted Spike, "Those are golems!"

"How do you know for sure?" questioned PAL.

"Twilight was reading a book about them. Apparently they're designed to guard their master and follow his orders!" explained the dragon in a panic.

He knew that the golems were going to attack him and PAL any second.

The stone figures moved forward and started to charge the pair.

PAL spun up his minigun and said, "Spike, a lot of ponies mistake me for a metal golem. Now, those who know that I'm actually a robot say that I'm much better than any golem they've ever seen. If you be brave and help me, Spike, I'm sure we can prove them right."

Spike beat back his fear, and stood next to PAL. The golems were rushing them at full speed, and it seemed like the fight would end poorly for them. But suddenly, the constructs stopped their charge, and stood still, before turning around and returning to several recesses in the walls of the room where they stood for storage.

“Or... they could give up, I suppose.” said PAL, shrugging and shut off his weapon.

Limpwing dropped down from the ceiling, having pressed a command rune above that signaled the golems to return to their storage areas and power down. She stood in front of the two, who demanded an explanation as to why she changed her mind about having the golems attack them.

“What's this all about then?” asked PAL.

“Yeah!” added Spike, “We thought you were trying to stop us from saving Techorse.”

Limpwing explained herself, “Look, my boss is a little nuts right now, and I'm starting to think he tricked me into believing he was going to help the citizens of the town. I'm not going to let loose an army of golems for him without being sure he's going to help my fellow residents of The Domain.”

“So are you on our side now?” asked Spike.

“Almost,” said Limpwing, teasing them, “I need to go check on that. Don't you go anywhere!”

She left the two standing in the room with puzzled looks on her face, and flew up to the second floor, where she proceeded down a hallway to return to the throne room. Having taken the Elements of Harmony back with her, she intended to give them back once everything was over. Limpwing found Darkmatter continuing to talk to Twilight and her friends about Luna's return, and how she was actually not mad at Celestia for her banishment.

She asked of him, "What's going on?"

Darkmatter explained to her, "Lieutenant, Twilight here and her friends are telling me that Princess Luna has returned! Is that true?"

"Well yes…" she said.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he demanded, rushing up to Limpwing, "I didn't need to go through with attacking Canterlot if Luna was ok!"

"Hey!" defended Limpwing, not cowering from the angry royal at all, "You told me to spy on the Element holders, not find out about Princess Luna! Don't blame me for this!"

Darkmatter grunted and agreed reluctantly, asking, "Well, did you build the golems or not?"

"I only made a few." She answered with frustration, "I'm starting to think you don't really care about The Domain anymore, so I'm not helping you launch an invasion until I'm sure the special ponies living here are going to get the chance you promised.”

He barked back at her, "I'll help you all out after I've seen my sister! She's the same as she always was, according to them, but I must see for myself. Then I can browbeat Celestia into giving The Domain its demands alongside her!”

"Now hold on," said Limpwing, knowing what Twilight had done, "I think Techorse and his friends have tricked you, my lord. They had to fight a very angry Luna when she first returned, and it was only the power of the Elements of Harmony that purified her. "

Darkmatter spun around and said, "So… you tricked me?"

Twilight said in embarrassment, "Well, I wouldn't say we tricked you. Luna's ok now, she was a little bit upset when she came back at first, but she's much better."

"Magically forcing her to improve doesn't count!" He shouted loudly.

“But it wasn't forced, we only removed the evil spirit from her!” complained Twilight, “Luna still had to have a change of heart to avoid being taken again, and she did!”

“Nonetheless, I'm tired of being slowed by demands and talk. I'm going to Canterlot now to confront Celestia!” he said, his horn glowing.

With a burst of energy, Darkmatter disappeared in a flash and teleported away for Canterlot.

Pinkie Pie screamed, "Darkmatter's going to get Princess Celestia!"

"Not if we can stop him first," said Techorse. "Let's go get the Elements of Harmony back and go to Canterlot!"

"But where are they?" asked Applejack. "We have to find them first!"

"No you don't," sighed Limpwing. "I'm giving them back to you, they're right here."

The friends looked at who they thought had betrayed them with surprise. Limpwing opened the bag at her side and gave each pony back their artifact.

"But why, Limpwing?" asked Fluttershy.

Limpwing said calmly, "Darkmatter said that The Domain's citizens would get a chance to go back to Equestria and rejoin society. Well, he's made it obvious that all he really wants to do is get revenge on Celestia. I might work for Darkmatter, but my loyalties are with The Domain, and if he manages to do what I know he wants to do to Celestia, The Domain's name is going to be permanently hurt, and the citizens I serve may never get to go back to Equestria."

"With any luck," said Twilight. "We'll be able to stop Darkmatter before it's too late."

Darkmatter teleported straight through the shield of Canterlot castle. He entered inside the throne room, where Celestia and Luna were sitting. Luna recognized her long-lost brother immediately.

"Darkmatter!" shouted Luna, standing up from the chair and rushing to embrace him.

"Oh Luna, you're finally back!" he said, happy to see his sibling again.

They hugged in front of Celestia, who smiled gently.

"Welcome back, brother." She said to him, trying to be friendly.

"All right Luna, we can catch up right after I settle this." said Darkmatter with a sinister tone. He pushed Princess Luna aside and walked right up to Celestia.

"Celestia, I come with both good and bad news. The good news is that I will not be invading your territory. You can bring your defenses down and return life to normal."

Celestia looked down at her brother and asked, "Then what is the bad news?"

Darkmatter's horn glowed as he said, "I'm still going to punish you for what you did to Luna. Prepare to be banished for a millennium."

Celestia gave him a look of horror, but shot up from her throne and attempted to defend herself. She shot a solid beam of radiant energy at Darkmatter, but the prince put up a small black hole in front of him, which vacuumed up the powerful attack. Celestia stopped and looked around for an escape vector.

"It's no use, you've trapped yourself here." He said, "Hopefully this banishment will make you think more carefully about using the Elements on your own family!"

Luna stepped in front of Darkmatter and begged him, "No brother! Don't do it, everything between me and sister is now as our subjects say 'cool'!"

"Luna, you really have been brainwashed!" he said in depression, trying not to cry from his own psychological failings, "Now I really will make you pay, Celestia!"

Seconds before Darkmatter could cast his wormhole, Techorse, Limpwing, and the others teleported in the room.

Each of the six mares were wearing their respective artifacts. The dark prince turned to look at them, and said, "Limpwing! You traitor…"

"Based on what the others have said, I'd say you're the real traitor," scoffed Limpwing. "You never cared about us, and I'm done working for you."

"All right girls!" said Twilight. "Formation!"

The mares assembled together to begin their elemental attack. Their eyes turned a brilliant white as energy began to accumulate between them.

"Techorse, count us off!"

"Aw crap…" muttered Darkmatter in horror.

Techorse chuckled and said, "With pleasure! Fluttershy, kindness!"

Darkmatter slowly backed away from the team and said, "Hey now, let's talk this all over!"

"Rarity, Generosity!"

The prince decided in an act of desperation to attempt to rush the wormhole spell. Sparks of energy began to form in front of him as he concentrated on creating the portal.

"Pinkie Pie, laughter!"

Luna saw her brother beginning the spell, and knew that Twilight and her friends would not be able to finish their charge fast enough to save Celestia.

"There's no time for this!" she shouted impatiently.

At that moment, the Princess of the Night decided to take things into her own hooves. To the surprise of the ponies trying to use their Elements, she jumped into the air, wings spread as far as possible, and shot a beam of dark colored energy down at her brother. In awe of the strike, the others powered down the Element artifacts and watched on.

The prince attempted to defend himself from Luna's attack by summoning yet another black hole in front of him. The huge beam was devoured by the black hole, but the energy from it was starting to make the vortex spark. Darkmatter grinned as the hole absorbed the attack, but his expression went into one of confusion as the black hole began to warp. And with a loud, sharp blast, the black hole overloaded from the energy intake and became a quasar, spilling its contents all over Darkmatter. The prince screamed, knowing it was the end for him and was wrapped in destructive energy. When the beam faded and everything settled down, Darkmatter was still standing, but something had certainly changed about him.

His mind had been cleared of all his hatred, and the anger in his eyes had disappeared.

The prince asked in a timid manner, "I'm still here?"

Luna landed back on the floor of the castle and approached him, "I have cured you of your torment, little brother. With my magic and love for you, I found your hate and sadness deep in your heart, and destroyed it."

Darkmatter stood up on his four legs, still a little shaky, “Sadness?”

Luna continued, “You were sad about my banishment this whole time, and you let it turn into rage. But now, I have set you free.”

The princess looked at her little brother, whose eyes were beginning to tear up, “Welcome back, little brother.”

“Oh Luna...” he said, “I'm sorry!”

They hugged in front of the others, and a few tears flowed as they embraced. Once they had stopped and dried their small number of well-deserved tears, Pinkie Pie's heart welled up with joy.

"Hooray!" cheered Pinkie Pie, taking a large leap in the air. "Darkmatter's not crazy anymore!"

The prince said to his sisters, "Perhaps I should take some time to recover, and then go tell brother about Luna's return. I'm sure he'd be much more willing to speak to you once he's learned about it."

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea," agreed Celestia.

She then gave him a slightly sad look and asked, "Darkmatter, I honestly felt very guilty about what I did to Luna all those years ago, but she came to forgive me. The question is, will you forgive me?"

Darkmatter walked carefully up to her, and embraced her as well, "I forgive you, Celestia. Luna's helped me to see everything in the right light now, and I'm just happy that we're family again."

Celestia added after the hug, “Please, tell your subjects that they are welcome back into Equestria at any time.”

“I will be merging my territory into the main country,” declared the Prince, “It will be my last executive order before I leave. The Domain needs to be an Equestrian city for the good of the ponies living there. Will you accept my proposal to rejoin?”

“Of course!” answered the princesses, eager to bring the lands together.

The prince then walked over to Limpwing and said, "Lieutenant, while I go on my quest to find my brother, I want you to keep watch over The Domain for me. In fact, perhaps it's best if you rule it from now on. You were right about me, and I no longer deserve to lead them for failing to think of them first.”

“But you kept your promise just now by making The Domain an Equestrian city!” said Limpwing, “Nopony's making you quit. Once your citizens know you've done this peacefully, they'll probably love you even more.”

“I understand,” he said, happy he was still wanted, “nonetheless I wish to look for brother. Will you accept authority in my stead?”

"If it's ok, I'd actually like to keep working in Ponyville. Can I let one of your other officers take command?" she asked, hoping to still hang out with Twilight and company.

Darkmatter nodded, "If that's what you wish, then be the best resident of Ponyville you can be."

"I'll do my best!" she responded, smiling at his new attitude.

"And Twilight Sparkle, friends..." Darkmatter said as he turned to them.

"I should have believed you when you said Luna made her own conscious choice to become good. Keep believing that we all have the ability to choose to be good."

Twilight answered, "Don't worry prince Darkmatter, we will."

She turned to look back at the smiling expressions of her friends, "It's what we've always done!"

That afternoon, Darkmatter left on his mission to go find his brother's whereabouts and invite him to rejoin his family. Princess Luna had a construction team sent to The Domain, and they built a fancy silver gate that was always left open, so that the residents of The Domain could visit anytime they wanted to. Celestia also created a law that stated that there would be penalties for discriminating against the ponies for their flaws, and the Equestrian senate voted unanimously to pass it.

Now, two days later, Twilight and all her friends were back at Bob's diner. They were hoping they could talk about the whole mess they went through over a nice hot plate of food.

Techorse started off by saying, "Hey everypony, thanks for pulling me out of that. You're the best!"

"We did pretty well, but I have to admit, it was pretty close," said Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie Pie, "We almost ended up as wormhole food!"

"And golem target practice!" added Spike.

Fluttershy said softly, "But we did cure Darkmatter, and that's very important."

"Not only that, but we did it without upsetting The Domain. Some of those ponies make the most beautiful works of art!" added Rarity with a happy tone.

Twilight wrapped up the conversation, "Most importantly, I think we've all made a good friend from this."

Limpwing walked up to the table, wearing her bandanna rag and apron. She acted as if the events of two days ago never really happened.

"Hi guys, good to see you back here! What can I get for you?"

"Well, let's see here," said Applejack, "I'll go first if ya don't mind."

"Not at all Applejack," said Limpwing, taking out her pen.

After taking the orders of all her new friends, she turned around and headed back to the kitchen to give them to the chef. Once she halfway through the door, she back and watched her new friends talk and laugh.

"At first, they were just ponies I had to spy on. But now, everything's different. They're really great friends!" she thought as she closed the door shut.

#18 - Home Cookin'

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Home Cookin'

Techorse series: #18

By Spirals95

The barn doors at Sweet Apple Acres were wide open, letting the afternoon sun in to warm up the inside of the rural building. Applejack was working inside the barn looking over a small number of barrels she had just finished building. The five containers were made from sturdy wood and the best metal bands that could be made from materials found in the area. Each one was also fitted with a rope on top of the lid so that opening them could be easily done with a pony's mouth or front leg. Applejack took one step back from her work and let the hammer she was holding in her jaw drop onto a nearby tool bench.

"Well, that's enough barrels for now." She said, wiping a bit of sweat off of her forehead, "I ought to get some lunch before goin' back to work."

The orange mare reached for her tin lunchbox on the wooden bench in front of her, and lifted the lid. She had packed a simple vegetable sandwich with far too much ketchup on it to taste like anything else, a couple pretzels, and a slice of a new homemade apple cobbler recipe she had tried making the day before. Applejack started working on her first hard pretzel when a familiar sound of the ground being impacted hard by pegasus hooves came from outside the barn. Turning around and shoving the rest of the pretzel into her mouth, Applejack went outside to greet her visitor.

"Hey Rainbow." She said, still crunching away, "What'd ya come here for?"

Rainbow Dash removed a large shopping bag from her side, and placed it on the ground beside her,
"I went to the pet store today to get Tank another bulb for his heat lamp. Turns out I was the one thousandth customer or something like that, and they stuck me with a bunch of plastic chew bones!"

Flicking a strand of red hair out of her eye, Rainbow Dash stopped complaining for a second to push the bag closer to Applejack.

"Anyways." She continued, "Since I don't need them, I thought maybe Winona would want them instead."

"Ahm sure she'd love these!" replied Applejack with an appreciative tone, "Thanks!"

"No problem." said Rainbow Dash, smirking that she'd gotten rid of the useless merchandise, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some clouds to clear!"

Taking off in a blast of rainbow-colored energy, the pegasus soared into the sky to return to her weather control job. The burst of air knocked Applejack's Stetson hat right off of her head, and it landed into the grass in front of the barn gently. Smiling at the event, Applejack walked over to her favorite headgear and flipped it back onto her head before taking the bag of plastic bones back into the barn. She emptied the contents on a patch of hay next to the tool bench and stared at the chew toys. There were at least 20 different shapes and sizes of plastic bones, each coated with a pearl white edible material designed to wear off and provide extra minerals to the dog chewing on it.

After having a good look at the dog toys, Applejack got back to her lunch, and started eating the sandwich while looking over some assembly instructions for the next type of barrel she wanted to build. The excess ketchup in the sandwich squirted out of one end, and landed all over the bones on the floor. Applejack looked over at her spill, and shrugged it off, thinking her dog could have a little bit of ketchup without hurting her. She finished her sandwich quickly, and got out a hammer to begin pounding boards for the cider kegs she wanted to make. An hour went by, and the hardworking earth pony was able to finish 3 kegs without a single flaw to any of them. As she got out some more nails to begin making the fourth one, she was interrupted by two residents of Ponyville.

"Oh, there you are Applejack." said a familiar voice.

Applejack spat out the nail in her mouth and looked behind her.

"Hey Lyra, Bon-Bon." She greeted the pair with a smile, "I'm kind of busy here, so if you want to buy some apples, let Big Macintosh take care of ya."

Bon-Bon shook her head, "We were just wondering if you could watch a tree sapling for me while Lyra and I go to a convention in Vanhoover Island. It's in a pot right now, so if you go and get it, you could keep it here for the next few days without having to go back to my house."

"I guess I could do that!" agreed Applejack.

Bon-Bon gave her a few golden coins from a purse tied to her saddlebag, and gave the instructions for taking care of the tree.

"Great!" said Lyra, eager to get to her convention on alien invaders, "Let's move."

She turned to walk out of the front door of the barn again, when Applejack shook a front hoof,
"No, no, wait, it's a little faster the way you're goin' if you take the back door of the barn."

The duo of ponies agreed and thanked Applejack for everything again before leaving out of the back door of the barn. They followed a dirt path out of the farm, and down the country road for the train station, which would take them to their destination.

Meanwhile, a small mare had been patiently waiting her turn to talk to Applejack too. Her name was Butterscotch. She was a short and timid unicorn pony with a solid blue coat, a fluffy yellow mane, and a small pitcher of her namesake's syrup for her cutie mark. She was rather sweet and energetic, but almost always made poor logical connections when it came to conversation, not to mention her overactive imagination. But all of this was easily forgiven by her friends, who enjoyed her warmness to every pony in town, and her creativity when it came to explaining how things work.

Butterscotch had followed Bon-Bon and Lyra down to the farm. Her mother frequently had them over as guests for tea or coffee and because of that, Butterscotch let them go see Applejack first. Of course, because they left through the back door, Butterscotch never saw the two actually leave and so at least an hour passed before Butterscotch started to wonder what was taking them so long.

Eventually, she lost her patience and galloped through the orchard to get her message to Applejack. She had invented a way to harden butterscotch candy around other things, and was hoping to make a special type of candy apple from it. The only way of course, to confirm how good an apple-based treat would be, was to talk about it with the only expert on apples for miles. Butterscotch arrived at the open barn door, and hid behind one of the two red wooden slabs. She didn't want to interrupt Applejack if she was still talking with Bon-Bon and Lyra.

Butterscotch looked into the room carefully. Applejack's back was turned on her as she continued to hunch over a group of wooden planks she was making kegs from. The unicorn pony assumed that Bon-Bon and Lyra were still somewhere in the room.

It was then that her eyes fell upon the pile of bones, covered with ketchup. Since the toys were of larger sizes, they certainly looked much like real ones, and her imagination ran wild immediately. The young pony's eyes widened as she leaned a little further into the door, trying to get a better look at Applejack. When the blonde farmer finally turned her head, Butterscotch mustered all her strength not to gasp at the fact that Applejack had ketchup all over her chin and nose. Knowing that Bon-Bon and Lyra had been in the room earlier, and were now missing with no evidence of them having left normally, Butterscotch's imagination ran wild.

The filly shook in terror and whispered to herself in terror, "Applejack just… ate Bon-Bon and Lyra!"

Butterscotch threw herself back against the door, and thought, "Maybe the girls at school are right! Maybe Applejack is a monster after all!"

She risked one last look inside, and stared fearfully at the bones.

"And those were my mommy's two best friends!"

Butterscotch ran away from the farm as fast as she could. She was afraid to tell another pony about what she had seen. If she did, and Applejack figured it out, she'd be the next to go! But of course, failing to tell would result in Applejack stuffing her freckled face with other ponies as well. The question quickly became one of who to tell first, and being so young, Butterscotch made an extremely stupid decision.

She ran all the way to her favorite place to get a snack after school, Sugarcube Corner, and flung the door open loudly with her front leg. Mr. and Mrs. Cake stopped their chores for the day to give the out-of-breath Butterscotch a funny look as she ran through the bakery for the back room.

"Pinkie Pie!" she shouted, panting between words, "I need to tell you something!"

Pinkie Pie responded quickly, looking up from the cake she was squeezing icing on. She flung the pastry bag onto the counter of the kitchen, and zipped over to Butterscotch.

"What, what is it?!" she asked, crouching down to Butterscotch's height.

Instead of letting her continue, Pinkie Pie asked her questions quickly and in a very panicked tone, "Did Applejack like your new candy apple recipe? Did you accidentally hurt yourself? Are they not going to make frozen pudding pops anymore?!"

"No, it's more important than that!" yelped Butterscotch, trying to get a word in.

Pinkie Pie reared back up on her hind legs and stuck her front ones into the sides of her head, "Something more important than losing our pudding pops!?"

"Yeah!" said the young syrup maker, nodding slowly.

Pinkie Pie dropped back onto all fours and said with a grin and shut eyes, "Then you have my attention Butterscotch, fire away!"

Taking a deep breath, she pulled Pinkie Pie's head down closer to her and whispered into her left ear,
"I followed Bon-Bon and Lyra to Applejack's barn. They were in there for so long that I got impatient, and looked inside. I saw a pile of bones dripping…"

Butterscotch finished describing the “grisly” scene to Pinkie Pie. But being good natured, she knew that Butterscotch probably had misunderstood something about what she had seen. However, Pinkie Pie also wanted to have some fun with this information, and help Butterscotch to learn that it's not a good idea to run with the first idea that pops into one's mind. Surely Applejack would get a laugh too if she kept Butterscotch going about this for a while. This was the perfect opportunity to play a joke, and get away with it, or so she thought.

"Didn't you know, Applejack's always done this!" giggled Pinkie, "Sometimes she just gets hungry enough to eat a horse, and does!"

Butterscotch started to shiver again, "But… that's…"

"Weird? Oh I know." Said Pinkie, jumping up and down, "But you ought to go ask Applejack about it anyways! I'm sure she'd be happy to…"

Butterscotch shrieked loudly and ran out of the room just as quickly as she had entered it. Pinkie Pie tried to call out for her, but was too late.

The mare's ears drooped when she realized that her joke had backfired. She had intended to take Butterscotch to Applejack and clear up the mess. Now Butterscotch was loose in Ponyville, perfectly convinced that Applejack was a cannibal, and was now going to spread that lie all across town. The pink pony in the room didn't understand completely what the consequences of her joke would be, but she did know that Butterscotch was probably at least going to be mocked for making up lies about Applejack. She eventually shrugged off her runaway thoughts, and returned back to her work with a smile on her face.

Unfortunately for Pinkie Pie, Butterscotch told her rumor to almost everyone in town, and backed it up with her "proof" that her baked-good-making mentor had confirmed it. The only ones she didn't tell were Pinkie's closest friends as she was sure that they all were conspiring to allow Applejack to feast on the other residents of the town. A good number of the residents heard the story and didn't believe it at all, but spread the silly rumor as a joke, since the idea of Applejack being a cannibal was good for a laugh. Half the town had heard the story within just three hours, and many of them couldn't believe what they were being told. But all it took for trouble to start was a handful of those residents to choose to believe the story, and pass it on. Soon the rumor-loving residents of the town had bought the story entirely, and at least a third of Ponyville was afraid of Applejack.

Although the streets of Ponyville were lit only by a few street lamps at night, it provided enough visibility for a night meeting. Not every pony in town had gone to bed that night at their regular hour. In particular, one mare and two stallions had met under the cover of night to talk in secret.

"We have to do something about Applejack. If what Maple Syrup's daughter said was true, she recently cooked our local historian and her best friend." said the current leader, his white mane shining in the moonlight.

The mare, her red eyes glowing with the instinct to protect the young, added, "Even if it isn't true, not doing something about her is going to put our foals at risk. Every night she's free, we risk her eating somepony else."

"Agreed." Said the ringleader after coughing, "Tomorrow we will assemble a group to incarcerate Applejack until we are able to turn her over to the authorities. I have a place we can keep her under watch until she's dealt with."

The third pony in the group, a unicorn with a propensity for light-based spells, turned out a nearby streetlight to provide more cover as a carriage rolled by on the streets.

He then said to his friends, "Listen, we all know Applejack has done some very heroic things in the past. But it seems that now some sick tradition of the Apple family has finally come out of this girl. I can't help but think that this is all a result of the family's poor genetic health. Dr. Caltrops wrote in a recent medical article that families who hate outsiders tend to get sicker and sicker, until something like this happens."

"The Apple family has always been welcoming though, so I highly doubt that's true." Interrupted the mare, "But still, we will probably have to her put in an institution where her mind can be studied, and the rest of us can be safe. We may also have to watch her younger sibling closely to make sure she doesn't grow up to follow in her sister's footsteps."

"Then it's settled." said the leader, smiling in the darkness, "Every pony connected to us will look out for Applejack, and when she comes into town, we'll put our plan into effect. We're going to save Ponyville!"

Then, the three went their separate ways for the night, and disappeared into the blackness of the streets.

The next morning, Twilight Sparkle decided to take a break from her work at the library to go take a walk into town. She wanted to eat out at her favorite outdoor diner, and figured she could beat the lunch rush if she left early enough. The unicorn pony walked over to her dresser across from her bed and opened the first drawer with her magic. She removed a small bag of money, and loaded it along with a book she wanted to read while waiting for her food into her saddlebags. Twilight then tied them around her sides and headed for the front door. Just before leaving the tree building, she gave one look back at her assistant.

"Spike, remember to finish removing the dog-ears from the returns while I'm gone!" she said as she opened the front door.

"Yeah, no problem." Replied the dragon lazily, waving her off.

Twilight started her stroll for the restaurant, and took a deep breath of the fresh air outside. The sun was shining, the temperature wasn't too hot, and the birds flew overhead in search of fresh twigs for their nests.

"Rainbow Dash did a good job yesterday." Twilight said to herself while looking up, "Not a cloud in sight."

One of the other things that the purple mare picked up on was the slightly worried expressions on some of the other townsfolk's faces.

"What's the matter with them?" she thought curiously.

Giving her striped tail a flick in the air, Twilight scanned over the other ponies attempting to live life normally while obviously in fear of something. Many of the stores were closed, and since it was a weekday, that was very strange to Twilight.

"There's something they know I don't!" she continued to think, "Maybe there's an emergency I don't know about! Maybe we're going to be under attack soon and I missed the memo!"

Twilight teleported herself quickly in front of a male brown earth pony. He recoiled in shock from the moment, as a unicorn mare was now shoving her face into his.

"Why's everypony scared?" she asked in a panic, a single strand of her hair springing out of place, "What's going on?"

"Nothing… we're just, watching out for somepony dangerous." He said, "Talk to Pinkie Pie if you need to know about it, she's the one who had Butterscotch tell everypony."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and said, "All right, thanks."

She took comfort in her reasoning that everyone was simply keeping watch for a pickpocket or some other small time criminal. If things really got out of hand, she could always request that Jools, Jops, or Captain Arbiter show up from Canterlot to handle the rouge. Right now, it was time to get some lunch, and stop freaking out over every little strange event that happened in Ponyville.

Applejack happened to be walking into town, and crossed paths with Twilight somewhere on the way to the restaurant. When they met each other, Twilight took note of how some of the residents seemed to be even more on their guard than they were closer to the library.

"Hey Applejack!" she said, "Where are you going?"

"Just headin' on over to Bon-Bon's place to watch her tree while she's on vacation." She answered, "How about yourself?"

Twilight wanted to spend some time with her friend and asked, "I'm going to lunch. Have time to take a break with me? It'll be my treat!"

Applejack thought it over for a moment, then agreed to the offer, "I guess I am early, the tree doesn't need waterin' for another hour or so!"

"Great!" said Twilight, "Let's go."

Following her, Applejack noticed that a few ponies were given her frightened looks, and was diving into their homes. The rest were giving their friends diving for cover strange looks, and Applejack took note of this, being very curious as to why some were behaving strangely, while others were not.

"What is wrong with folks today?" she asked Twilight, walking alongside her.

"Oh, there's a cat burglar or something in town." Answered her friend with a bit of disbelief in her voice, "Once he realizes he won't be able to steal anything with everypony this paranoid, he'll move on."

Once they reached the restaurant, Twilight asked the hostess for a table for two. Immediately she seemed to turn pale when she saw Applejack, despite the country girl's cheerful expression. The magenta colored pony excused herself for a moment, and ran back to her boss. Unfortunately for Applejack, the restaurants' staff were in the category of ponies who had bought into he rumor.

"It's Applejack! She's here with our town librarian!" she said, panicking.

The manager placed a hoof on her employee's head and answered calmly, "There's no way she would try anything funny with Twilight Sparkle around. She eats here all the time. Take their orders, and just don't let Applejack hear our motto that we serve anypony. She might take that the wrong way."

The white-maned employee swallowed hard and thought, "Great. If I don't take their orders, I'm going to get fired! But If I do take their orders and make even one little mistake, Applejack is going to order ME!"

It was a no win situation. The hostess and waitress knew she had to serve food at a restaurant first before she could pursue her passion in starting her own, and losing this job meant having to go find someplace else to work. She approached Twilight and Applejack, who were sitting across from each other at one of the many red tables that were outside the restaurant. The other ponies save one family eating lunch at the other tables seemed to be having trouble concentrating on their own conversations, instead nervously eyeballing Applejack. Because they were all sitting behind her, Twilight could see that they were staring at the back of her head, but as soon as Twilight caught one of them in her own sight, they moved their gaze back to their spouse or friend sitting with them.

Applejack didn't care one bit about the others in the outdoor seating area, and had already taken off her hat and placed it on one of the pegs on the sides of the chair. She didn't have the best table manners around, but she knew to remove her hat when eating with others at a restaurant.

The waitress reached them, and setting aside her fears, asked Twilight, "Hi Twilight, good to see you here again. What would you like to order?"

"I'm still trying to decide." She answered, looking at the menu, "Applejack, what will you have?"

Applejack couldn't understand the complicated food choices on the menu. Now, in her experience, the best way to determine what to order when unsure of what the menu says is to look around the restaurant and order what someone else was having. So, Applejack turned around in her chair and focused her green eyes on the various plates the other patrons of the restaurant had in front of them. The customers completely took this the wrong way, however, and whenever Applejack's gaze was focused at them and their food, they tried to duck out of sight, praying that Applejack wouldn't look at them for too long and get an idea.

"Everpony's acting all crazy!" she muttered under her breath before spinning back to face the waitress again, "I have no idea what I want." She answered honestly to their server.

The waitress pulled on the collar of her button-up shirt, visibly sweating, "Oh, that's ok, take your time!"

Meanwhile, some of the ponies at the other tables were whispering amongst themselves, "Isn't that the town librarian? Why is she associating with that cannibal?"

"Is Applejack going to eat her alive in front of us?!"

Twilight finally broke the silence between her, Applejack, and the waitress by saying, "We'll just split a salad and a hay sandwich or two."

Applejack gave a look of annoyance when she heard the ponies behind her breathe a sigh of relief. She knew they were all gossiping about something about her. The orange pony sighed heavily, thinking that maybe she accidentally sold some bruised apples and her customers were all questioning her reliability as a farmer. Applejack knew this would come to pass when she delivered the next round of fresh apples and pies. Sometimes even the hardest-working ponies in Equestria make a mistake.

"That's great!" said the waitress nervously, "We'll make sure it's absolutely perfect for you!"

"Ok…" trailed Twilight, giving the waitress a weird look. After she had left the table to place the order, she turned back to Applejack and asked, "Don't you think it's strange how much everypony is overreacting to a cat burglar?"

Applejack shook her head, "It's the silliest darn thing I've seen yet. They're scared even though you, me, and the others are here to protect 'em."

"Maybe we should tell the others about all of this if they haven't heard already." suggested Twilight, "We might start having to do night patrols until we catch the criminal."

"I just hope he gets what's comin' to him!" said Applejack with a smirk as she tipped her hat.

Twilight and Applejack finished their lunch, and left the restaurant satisfied with the food. Soon they were back on their way to Bon-Bon's house to take care of the tree. As they walked down the streets, a small team of residents were visibly up to something. Many of the ponies were giving the two angry looks, and a lot of the had assembled, slowly coming up from behind on them. Accompanied by their wives, they were stalking Twilight and Applejack through the town. Of course, the two hapless ponies didn't know about this, and were continuing to soak up the beautiful day. Up ahead of them was Desert Soothe, pushing a carriage with her newborn foal in it, sleeping soundly. Applejack saw the baby Equestrian, and couldn't help but stop Desert Soothe in her tracks.

"Aw!" cooed Twilight as she looked at the sleeping newborn, "Your foal is so cute, Desert Soothe! She has your eyes and tail."

"Thanks Twilight, but we've really got to keep going!" said Desert, scraping her front hoof in fear on the ground.

It was obvious to Twilight that she was for some reason uncomfortable around the two of them, but she couldn't quite place her hoof on the answer.

Applejack had a look at the foal as well and said, "Well shoot, she's so cute I could just eat her up!"

Desert Soothe screamed and steered the carriage away from the two, waking her offspring and making her cry.

Applejack's mouth dropped open at the absolutely outrageous behavior, and looked at Twilight.

She said to her slowly, "Twilight… I think… I'm the pony they're talkin' about."

"Don't be ridiculous!" answered Twilight with fear, looking back and forth at the angry crowd gathering around them, "Everypony knows you better than that."

The two watched on as a small team of ponies, shoulder to shoulder, walked forward, trying to box them in.

"Stop right there, Twilight Sparkle." said one of the members of the mob, "Give us Applejack, and you can go!"

"You're all making a big mistake!" said Twilight, "Applejack isn't going to rob anypony!"

"Rob us?" responded a mare from the crowd, "She plans on eating our foals!"

"Aw come on now!" protested Applejack angrily as she stomped her hoof on the ground, "That was a figure of speech!"

"Oh no it wasn't!" countered another pony, "We heard from a very frightened foal that you ate Bon-Bon and Lyra in your barn! She saw the evidence and reported it to us."

Applejack shook her head and explained, "They went away on vacation, I didn't eat 'em!"

"A likely explanation!" shouted a stallion from the back of the horde.

Twilight stepped in front of Applejack, and her horn glowed purple as a large bubble of magic energy formed around them. Some of the mob ponies came up and tapped on the energy field with their front legs. Knowing it was impenetrable without weapons or brute magical force, they sunk back and planned on a way to reach them.

"We'll be safe under here until we resolve this." She said, comforting Applejack as best as possible.

Applejack sighed and stepped outside of the force field, "This ain't right, Twilight. I have to defend myself and prove that I didn't do this."

"Ok," She said, turning to face the angry townsponies, "Can you give me a chance to explain myself?"

"Sure, once we have you locked up where you can't be of any harm!" Came the response from the ringleader.

Twilight dropped her barrier, and her ears sank in misery as she watched her friend get taken away. Soon, Applejack found herself in a large metal cage with straw on the floor for bedding. The cage was on a cart so that Applejack could be taken to prison once she had been confirmed to be a criminal by the small mob. Even though they had promised to listen to Applejack's side of the story, they failed to do so, calling her names and yelling at her for her supposed crimes. Soon, the commotion had caused most of Twilight's friends to gather with her in the town square. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, and Pinkie Pie had all showed up to try and talk some sense into the small group.

Rainbow Dash landed on top of the cage containing her friend and asked, "What's wrong with you ponies? Twilight here tells me you've locked up Applejack because you think she's been running around eating other ponies. Are your feathers loose?"

"Poor Applejack!" moaned Rarity, standing next to Twilight, "She doesn't deserve to be treated like an animal, even if she sometimes acts like one."

"Thanks…" grunted Applejack sarcastically. She rested her body down on the hay, and pushed some of it around with a hoof. The once-happy and appreciated pony looked defeated and miserable.

Spike finally clenched his fists, stepped up to the crowd, and said, "Can't you guys remember all the things Applejack has done for you? The stampedes she's stopped? The time she helped to put out a burning building? Or what about the time she stopped the madmare of Hoofington from dynamiting the Ponyville dam and flooding us?"

"Spike, there was never a madmare of Hoofington, that was the bad guy of a story I wrote!" whispered Twilight.

Spike grabbed her head with one of his scaly hands and whispered back, "I know that, but they don't! Maybe it will help."

Rainbow Dash pointed down to Spike, and gave her wings a sharp flap to emphasize her anger, "See? There's plenty of evidence that Applejack isn't a cannibal."

The other citizens of Ponyville had arrived on the scene in a slow trickle, and began to aruge with the small group, pushing them away from the cage. They clearly didn't buy the rumor that had spread around, and were trying to free Applejack in hopes of bringing the matter to closure. The three ponies who had believed the rumor first and met secretly in the night felt that they were losing, but they themselves could not believe Applejack was innocent until she was proven so.

Applejack looked out of the cage and frowned, realizing that the argument between her captors and the other citizens of Ponyville might not end well. The last thing she wanted was a fight to break out for her sake, but several of the ponies in town who knew her well were getting very angry about the actions of the mob who had locked her up. There was already yelling, calling names and pointing of hooves. Even if she was proven innocent now, Ponyville would be arguing about the incident for weeks if something didn't end the chaos.

Thankfully for Applejack, Butterscotch had entered the area after hearing the commotion, and saw Applejack locked up.

She found Pinkie Pie, and asked, “Pinkie Pie, why is Applejack in that cage?”

Pinkie Pie looked around nervously, getting increasingly more uncomfortable with the situation, until she finally answered Butterscotch's question, "I can't take it anymore! Butterscotch, I made everything up as a joke!"

“You did?” she asked, “Then why did she get thrown in the cage?”

Butterscotch then realized that her runaway rumor and panic had caused a fuss with at least a third of Ponyville's residents, and were about to fight with the other two-thirds that hadn't believed the story. All of the pieces came together, and she realized that she was to blame. The filly ran in between the two crowds, standing just feet from each other arguing, and screamed loudly to get their attention.

The crowd's attention was immediately on Butterscotch, who was panting heavily after screaming so loudly.

“Butterscotch, you were the one who told us Applejack was doing this terrible crime.” said one of the ringleaders, “Let the rest of Ponyville know the truth.”

"Well," she said with a humble tone of voice and an embarrassed look, "yesterday I entered the door to the barn, and saw a pile of bones in the corner, dripping with red stuff! The same red stuff was on Applejack's lips. So I assumed that she had eaten Bon-Bon and Lyra. When I talked to Pinkie Pie, she confirmed it! It wasn't until today that Pinkie Pie let me know she'd lied about that as a joke."

Immediately, the other friends present at the cage knew exactly what had happened. They wanted to help Butterscotch in order to save her from getting into too much trouble with either the residents or her parents. Rainbow Dash jumped down from atop the cage and landed next to Butterscotch.

She put a front leg around her and explained, "Yeah everypony, I was there too. Those weren't real bones, they were plastic ones for Applejack's dog. I got them as a stupid prize from the pet shop owner when he wanted to dump his unwanted merchandise on me."

"Hey, that's right!" said the pet store owner from in the crowd, "I did give a whole bunch of bones away to Rainbow Dash."

He retreated in shame when the others gave him a nasty look for simply dumping his unwanted inventory on Rainbow Dash. However, his piece of evidence had the two sides of the mob agreeing with each other, and tempers were beginning to settle.

"And that stuff on the bones wasn't what you think it was." said Applejack, standing up from the straw, "That was ketchup. I put way too much in my sandwich yesterday, and most of it got all over those bones."

"Mistaking ketchup for blood, classic!" giggled Pinkie Pie.

Twilight silenced her gently, before finishing, "So as you can all see, this was all just a big mistake. Butterscotch saw something she mistook for a threat, and then Pinkie Pie pulled a prank by having her spread it. Can't you all see that you've made a mistake?"

Eventually, after talking it over, the smaller part of the crowd became ashamed of themselves, and opened the door to the cage. Applejack walked out of it into the sunlight again, and moved over to Butterscotch, who looked very sad at what she had caused.

"I'm so sorry I made everyone think you were evil." She said, trying not to sob, "I promise I won't be so fast to think like that anymore."

"Oh, it's ok sugarcube, you were scared and didn't know what to do." soothed Applejack, rubbing Butterscotch's mane gently.

"I'm sorry too!" blurted Pinkie Pie, "I had a little too much fun with this, and you ended up in that cage."

"Wouldn't be the first time you overreacted to somethin'." Laughed Applejack at her friend, "I forgive ya."

The last ponies to give their apologies were the three who had organized Applejack's capture. Unsurprisingly, Applejack forgave each of them, although she was a little upset over the ringleader thinking that her family might have bad genetics. Pinkie Pie promised to write Dr. Caltrops and make sure that he wasn't talking about the Apple family when he wrote that article. She knew that the article was likely more mundane than what the organizers of the mob had thought. Eventually the residents of Ponyville had dispersed, although a select few had stayed behind to present Applejack with something more.

Applejack was approached by Desert Soothe and the staff of the restaurant, as well as some other ponies who had hid from her that day. They had between them a large wicker basket, with a red ribbon tied over the handle. Several items sat stacked together in the basket, including meal coupons, some decorative candles, candy and snacks, and a few bottles of aloe lotion Desert Soothe made to sell in her shop.

“We're really sorry about all of this.” said Desert Soothe, “We got carried away Applejack.”

“To make up for it, we've all chipped in and put together a gift basket for you!” added a unicorn.

Applejack smiled and said, “Aw, you didn't have to get me nothin', but I appreciate it lots!“

She bid them farewell as they returned home for the afternoon, and looked back to her present, wondering how she was going to carry the gift, and also how her acquaintances had put it together so quickly. Applejack carefully lifted the basket over her back, and tied it in place with a rope she kept under her hat.

"All that's left unanswered is, what really did happen to Bon-Bon and Lyra?" asked Spike after everything had settled down, "Did they really go on vacation like you said, Applejack?"

Something clicked in the country girl's mind as soon as the dragon had finished saying that,
"Oh shoot, I need to go water Lyra's tree! Sorry everypony, but I gotta leave right this moment to go keep a promise!"

Galloping off, Applejack rushed to go try and save the parched houseplant. Down came the gift basket, which landed on the street, shaking up the contents but staying in one piece. Her friends smiled and shook their heads gently, knowing her all too well.

Rainbow Dash suggested, “We should probably take the basket back to Sweet Apple Acres for her.”

“We will, right after I speak with somepony.” answered Twilight.

She found Butterscotch trying to leave, but called out to her, "Butterscotch, I've been thinking."

The blue pony turned around and looked Twilight in her purple eyes.

"Yes, Twilight?"

Twilight asked her, "You learned a lot today about how dangerous letting your imagination run wild can be, and how harmful rumors are. If it's okay with your parents, I'd love to let you write a letter to princess Celestia about it. I'm sure the princess would love to know how some of her other subjects are growing."

"Really?" asked Butterscotch, eyes beaming, "I'd love to do that!"

"Then let's go!" said Rainbow Dash, spreading her wings and grabbing the basket in her hooves, "Last one to Butterscotch's house is an old nag!"

Taking off, the friends raced through the town. They had put an end to the arguing, and it was certainly time for a break. Sometimes, when you live in a small town like Ponyville, all it takes is one little slip of the tongue to cause a whole bunch of trouble.

#19 - Change Is Good

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Change Is Good

Techorse series: #19

By Spirals95

A hot and bright summer day in Ponyville is the perfect time to go for a swim. The lake just outside of the town is cool, refreshing, and crystal-clear almost every single day. A recent heat wave brought on from a sudden acting up from the dragons' volcanoes in the northern sectors of Equestria had made the week's Friday too hot to pass up a chance for a swim. Knowing the heat wave was coming, Twilight Sparkle organized all her friends for a by-the-book swimming party. Some of her friends had already had plans for the day, but they had found ways around their busy state. Pinkie Pie had been tasked with taking care of the Cake twins, so she brought them with her, giving them swim diapers, as well as 4 tiny water wings on each of their legs in case they went too deep in the lake. The foals played on the shore of the azure lake with PAL, who was playing a very funny game of pretend to entertain the young ones. PAL had given each of the two a small squirt toy, made from a rubber bladder attached by a hose to a tiny yellow plastic gun. These were aimed up at an angle on a small piece of metal. The robot servant had also built a couple of sand castles by the water out of the silt, and was knocking them down with his footpads.

"Beep, Beep!" He shouted, taking a mechanical pause between each word, "I am a giant robot bent on the destruction of all of Equestria!"

The machine kicked over another pillar of sand, entertaining the foals, who giggled as the sand castles were leveled.

PAL turned to face them, and raised his arms, "These two tiny ponies are no match for a big, strong robot! I must capture them for the master!"

He boomed, stepping like Frankenstein's monster towards his "victims".

The foals just giggled, and each stepped with their tiny hooves on the plastic bulbs. Two streams of water shot out from the cannons, hitting PAL in the center of his metal chest. The liquid ran off the robot, and dripped onto the ground. But the machine expected this, and immediately clutched at his chest as if having a heart attack.

"Oh no!" he moaned, taking a step back, "Water! My one weakness! I am destroyed…"

PAL stiffened up like a board and fell backwards into the deep end of the lake. As he sunk into the water, he stuck one of his arms out above the surface, which added to the drama.

Pinkie Pie skipped along the edge of the lake at this time, a smile on her face. She leaned over the edge of the lake, and asked her friend, "Having fun foalsitting, PAL?"

PAL gave a thumbs-up as his arm sank beneath the water.

"Uh-oh!" said Pinkie Pie, realizing what water did to machines.

She looked with a bit of panic on her face at Techorse, who was swimming in the center of the lake.

"Is PAL gonna be all right, Techie?" she asked, "He just sank right to the bottom of the lake!"

The young stallion smiled back and replied, "PAL's body is waterproof, Pinkie Pie, he'll be ok. He's probably walking on the bottom right now."

"Well, as long as he's ok, I'm happy!" continued Pinkie, smiling again, "Back to partying!"

Jumping into the water, the pink pony splashed the cool liquid all over Rarity, who was sunbathing nearby. She took off her obnoxiously large red sunglasses, and coughed at the careless action.

"I just finished drying out!" she complained, taking the towel she was standing on and using her magic to run it through her wet hair.

"It's a lake party." said Rainbow Dash from the safety of the air above Rarity, "You're supposed to get wet."

Rarity glared at her and said, "Is that so?"

Her horn glowed a soft white, and a small blob of water rose from the lake, which she promptly splashed all over Rainbow Dash. Rainbow's mane clung to her body, and the soaked pegasus gave a look of disgust back at Rarity.

"Oh I'm sorry." Rarity said as she pursed her lips innocently, "We're supposed to get wet though. You said it yourself, Rainbow Dash."

"Hey, stop fighting!" asked Pinkie Pie, tracking something in the water with her big eyes, "I'm trying to catch a fish here!"

"Why would you want to catch a fish, Pinkie?" asked Rainbow Dash, "We're all vegetarians, remember?"

"I'm not going to eat the guy!" explained the earth pony, watching the fish below, "I'm going to make an aquarium for a decoration. Only the best, most flashy fish can brighten up my fishtank."

"Well, good luck catching one with your bare hooves, those things are slippery," said Rainbow, landing and rolling her eyes.

She got a laugh out of Rarity's quivering however, when the unicorn pony was forced to think about the disgusting feel of a fish on her hooves.

Techorse, in the meantime, watched Pinkie try to snatch an aquatic pet, and said to himself, "I bet Fluttershy could help Pinkie catch the fish, if only she would get in the lake."

Fluttershy was standing at the opposite end of the pool of water, trying her hardest to get in. She stuck out a pale yellow front leg and touched the surface. Instantly she shot back her hoof and shivered, not wanting to get cold. Nearby and with a smirk on her face, Applejack had plans to help her friend succeed in her goal of going for a swim. She stepped up next to Fluttershy, her hat removed and her mane unbraided for the event.

"Having trouble gettin' used to the water, sugarcube?" she asked gently.

Fluttershy gave a sad nod in response.

"Oh dear," said Applejack, spinning around and looking at something, "There appears to be this big, mean dragon coming along…"

Fluttershy screamed and dove headfirst into the water to avoid the made-up threat. When she finally surfaced, she gasped for breath and kicked her legs, trying to stay afloat. Eventually she found her buoyancy in the lake, and looked around. Fluttershy wanted to get mad at Applejack for the prank, but her nature denied the ability to scream at her.

"There's no dragon, Applejack," she said softly but with disapproval, "you tricked me."

"Yeah, but you're used to the water now, ain't ya?" responded Applejack, grinning.

"Oh, I guess I am!" said Fluttershy, realizing that the water wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be.

Techorse shook his head at his friend's antics, and swam over to Twilight, who was reading a book while reclining in a lawn chair.

"Hi sweetheart." He said playfully, "Coming into the water?"

Twilight looked up from her volume for a second and answered him, "I might after I finish this chapter. I want to find out what the hero does after he finally gives the antagonist what's been coming to him."

Techorse smiled as he continued to kick his legs to stay afloat. He knew that Twilight didn't like endings in which the bad guy met some horrible end at the hooves of the hero. She much preferred to see him get dragged off to prison, or have to make up for everything he did instead. The inventor thought that he might have to read the book himself later. Twilight's favorite books always had a hero or heroine who never took advantage of others or use underhanded methods to defeat the villain. These heroes were often just ordinary ponies put in extraordinary situations. When the story was finally over, the hero would return home as if nothing happened and everything was back to normal, until the sequel was released of course.

"I might just have to read it myself, Twilight," said Techorse, "then we can spend next weekend talking about it."

The lavender unicorn pony closed the book as she finished the last page of the chapter and replied, "That sounds like fun! But for now, let's see if my air spell won't let us have a nice swim near the bottom of the lake."

"Are you sure you've practiced that spell enough?" asked Techorse, unsure of the magic's success, "You told me that you just started working on that spell yesterday!"

Twilight jumped into the lake right next to Techorse, splashing more water all over his face. When she resurfaced, her horn was already glowing with energy.

"I'm sure!" she said, tipping her head towards him, "Now hold still!"

Then, with a tiny spark of magic, the energy left Twilight's horn and formed a small purple-colored glow around Techorse's mouth. Twilight repeated the spell on herself, and then encourage Techorse to dive under the water with her. The colt trusted his marefriend, and went down into the cold lake. Once they were a good 10 feet under the water, he took a deep breath of fresh air. Techorse figured that the spell provided a barrier of energy which performed hydrolysis on the water around his mouth, providing breathable oxygen. The two ponies swam together underneath the surface of the lake, exploring the sunken objects, including several boulders, an abandoned rowboat, and even PAL, who was simply hanging out at the bottom of the lake. The spell didn't provide the two with the ability to talk, so they just waved to the robot as they swam past him. PAL followed them at a slow pace on foot, jumping sometimes to clear a log or stone.

Twilight spotted what she thought was a shiny piece of glass trapped under a nearby slab of flagstone, and paddled with her rear legs to reach it. Carefully, she removed the object with her front leg. It was a small sapphire, which must have been trapped inside one of the stones for a very long time. Twilight thought that the gem might make a nice treat for Spike, since it was way too flawed for Rarity to have any use for it. While she looked over the stone with Techorse, Pinkie Pie swam by the two, wearing a snorkel, and holding a large net between her front hooves. She was chasing a small school of sunfish, desperate to get away from her and not end up as her new pet. Once this had happened, Techorse and Twilight decided to surface. After reaching the top of the lake and the warmth of the sun again, Twilight dispelled the magical breathing.

"See, I told you it would work!" she said, "Wasn't that amazing?"

"It really was, Twilight!" He agreed happily, "Thanks for talking me into it."

The rest of the lake party went as planned. Everyone had a good time, whether they were sunbathing like Rarity and Spike, or playing games in the water like the others. Eventually though, the day was starting to end, and it was becoming a little overcast as planned for the end of the day. A rain shower was planned to keep local crops from getting parched, and the other on-duty weather pegasi had given Rainbow Dash full notice about this.

When she saw the rainclouds approaching, she warned the others, "Ok guys, the rain storm we need for this week is coming in soon. We should probably think about going home."

"Okie dokie lokie!" said Pinkie Pie cheerfully, as she held her new fish proudly in a plastic bad tied to her side. The small lake trout seemed rather eager to go home with her, probably wanting to avoid the larger predators in its old home.

"Oh, wait!" she said, turning around, "I need to take the foals with me too!"

Both of the Cake siblings had fallen asleep in PAL's arms despite how immensely uncomfortable they must have been resting on his armored body. The robot seemed to have some sort of feeling, which despite normally being impossible for a machine, seemed perfectly within his programming.

"If it's all the same, Miss Pie," He said quietly, "I'd like to take them back myself. You should help the others get their things home."

Pinkie gave the robot a thankful look and said, "Great idea PAL. Thanks!"

PAL then turned to Spike and curled a metal hand at him to indicate he should tag along. Still biting down on the sapphire, the dragon agreed and followed the machine away into Ponyville. The remaining seven friends headed back for town in a different direction to return their towels and beach toys. As they walked together, they mostly talked about the week ahead and their plans. While they were walking, Fluttershy noticed a figure moving among the trees that marked the way back to Ponyville. Most of the area leading to the lake was open otherwise, but these could provide cover for some creature, so she tried to point out the movement to the others.

"Um, girls..." she said quietly.

No response came from her friends, who talked over the top of her.

"Girls!" she repeated again, looking up from the ground and speaking slightly louder.

"What is it Fluttershy?" asked Pinkie Pie as she reversed direction. Normally she would hop on her way to her destination, but she didn't want to harm her aquatic passenger.

"I saw something moving behind the trees!" she said with fright, "We're being watched!"

"Relax, silly!" said Pinkie Pie, "It's probably just a badger or something! They're more afraid of us than we are of them."

Fluttershy looked beyond her friends and noticed that the shape had darted out from the woods, and now hid behind a small pile of rocks, just a few feet away from where they were going to walk. The timid pegasus said nothing, but took a deep breath and hoped that Pinkie Pie was right about it being a harmless creature. Every step the group took closer to the stones made Fluttershy even more and more nervous. When the team finally reached the cairn, a dark figure jumped out from behind it and landed in front of them, silencing the team.

In front of them was a male changeling, trying his hardest to smile at them without coming across as creepy. His eyes were a nice light blue in color like many of his kind, and his small fangs protruded over his lower lip. His wings vibrated gently, creating an occasional buzzing noise as he tried to keep himself calm.

"Hello..." he said in an insecure, but serpentine sounding voice.

Fluttershy shrieked loudly, and fainted at the sight of the familiar enemy. Rarity dropped behind to her rescue, and propped up her friend's head to restore the blood flow.

The changeling pointed at Fluttershy with a porous front leg and tried to say, "I'm terribly sorry…"

But he was cut off by Applejack jumping in front of her friends and landed on the ground in front of them. She scraped the dirt with her front left leg, and lowered her head, prepared to charge.
"Were you plannin' on doing us in, changeling?" she asked accusingly, "Because you're gonna lose a few teeth if ya try!"

"Easy, Applejack." said Techorse, stepping up and putting a leg over her shoulder.

"Ya want me to go easy?" shouted Applejack, turning her head, "Tech, do you have any idea how much trouble these little gnats cause us ponies?"

"Twilight told me about them a while ago, but I don't make generalizations," explained Techorse, wanting to be fair, "I have to go on a case by case basis with everyone, even changelings."

Twilight stepped forward and asked with a mistrusting tone, "So what are you here for anyways? If you don't want to fight us, what do you want to do?"

The changeling tried to get an answer out, "I just want a chance to get into Ponyville."

"AHA!" shouted Rainbow Dash, "You want to break into town so you can leech off of our emotions!"

She darted from her place, and tackled the shocked creature to the ground. Rainbow Dash was now on top of him, pinning him to the ground with her rear hooves. She lifted a cyan leg up, ready to bring it down on her enemy's face.

"I say we squash this bug!" said Rainbow, ready to knock him out, "Just tell me when, and I'll kick his tail!"

Techorse looked at the panicked changeling, squirming on the ground to avoid a horrible end. He knew that what Rainbow Dash was doing wasn't right in his heart, and despite the risk, had to at least ask a few more questions.

"Let him go, Rainbow Dash." He ordered, "If he acts up, then we can do something about it."

"Ya can't be serious!" protested Applejack, "We can't trust this guy!"

Turning to Twilight Sparkle, she added, "Can we?"

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and sighed deeply before agreeing, "Well, if his goal was to ambush us, he failed. We should at least let him explain himself."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and stepped off of the changeling's torso. He sat up and gasped for air, his teal colored forked tongue darting out once.

Applejack said to him nastily, "Go on, say something!"

Eventually, he cleared his throat and stood up on all four legs. He introduced himself as calmly as possible,
"My name is Razor. I was hoping to make up for some things."

"You have a lot to make up for," said Rarity bluntly, still holding Fluttershy, "Trying to take over all of Equestria's not exactly a small crime!"

"Please, hear me out!" begged Razor, "Not all of us wanted to make that attack on Canterlot. I was one of the reluctant ones. Honest!"

Noticing Pinkie Pie, he said, "You! You saw me; I was bored out of my mind during the fight."

Pinkie Pie dashed up to the dark creature and said curiously, "I don't remember you at all. But then again, I don't remember much about fighting, just about the parties afterward! Man they were a blast!"

Razor said to her, "See if this helps."

He then cleared his throat, and attempted to make a mocking reproduction of Pinkie's voice,
"Ooh, do me next!"

A flash of green energy swirled around the changeling as he disguised himself as Pinkie Pie. She instantly recognized her compliant rival.

"Oh, it's you! How are things in the hive?" she asked, "Let's catch up over some cake or something."

"Some other time." said Razor as he shifted back to his normal appearance, "Anyways, I would have simply tried to befriend you later, but I was mowed down by you and the purple one before I could get the chance."

Twilight grinned sheepishly, and hung her head a bit in shame. She had never thought that perhaps there were changelings who didn't want to cause harm. She only knew how to defend herself and her friends.

"That still doesn't explain why you decided to help with the attack anyways," said Techorse, stepping up to Razor and staring at him, "If you can't explain why you didn't want to fight, I'm going to think you're still a spy for Queen Chrysalis."

"You don't understand!" Razor replied, stepping back and frowning, "The queen threatened us all if we didn't help! I tried to tell her I really wanted to stay home instead, but…"

He shut his eyes and nearly cried as he remembered the words she had told him.

"But what?" demanded Rarity.

"She threatened to cut my wings off in front of everyone!" he sobbed, tears hitting the ground beneath him.

Rainbow Dash held her wings tightly against her body, understanding how scary of a threat that was. Pity also gripped Twilight, and she walked over to Razor. To Applejack and Rainbow Dash's disgust, she gave the poor changeling a little hug, and tried to get him to stop crying.

"It's ok, Razor. I believe you."

"Are you really going to trust this… thing?!" protested Rainbow Dash, hovering in the air and crossing her front legs in anger, "We should at least turn him over to the guards or something!"
"No, we're not going to do that," responded Twilight, letting Razor go, "We're going to be the bigger ponies and show some decency."

Techorse stepped next to her and asked Razor one last question, "So, why are you trying to get into Ponyville anyways?"

Razor explained his plan, "I was going to try to earn the love and respect of some ponies, so that they would give me the energy I need! I don't want to have to leech off of anyone, anymore."

Applejack lightened up when she heard that. Sure, Razor was a changeling, but he was a changeling trying to earn an honest living now. That changed almost everything in her mind.

"That actually sounds believable!" She said, "I'm sure there's plenty of ways a changeling could come in handy 'round Ponyville."

Razor smiled,"I just want to remind our species that we used to always do things that way. Until Chrysalis, we never had to leech emotions. We got them from being around those who cared about us!"

The proverbial lightbulb seemed to go off over Twilight's head. She realized that if she could successfully get Razor to merge with pony society, then the rest of the changelings could be rehabilitated as well! One more enemy of Equestria would become an ally instead!

"So, what will you need?" asked Twilight, "I'm sure princess Celestia would love to hear about a changeling who wanted to be good! I can write letters about your progress once a week, Razor, and see what she thinks."

Razor said, "Well, I just need a place to stay for a little while."

"Done!" said Techorse, "You can stay at my castle with me. PAL's going to flip his lid, but I'm sure he'll eventually warm up to you."

"Not so fast," said Rainbow Dash, moving in front of Techorse, "I want to set some ground rules first."

She turned to Razor and shoved her face against his, "First, no pretending to be somepony else. Either take some original shape, or stick with this one. Second, no leeching no matter how tempting it gets! Third, don't use the fact that you are a changeling to scare ponies into doing whatever you say. Break any of these rules Razor, and I'm finding the biggest newspaper I can to flatten you!"

"Rainbow Dash, that's quite enough!" scolded Rarity, "It seems Razor wants to be a true gentlecolt. Don't make his life any more miserable than it already is."

Rarity turned her attention back to Fluttershy when she noticed the pegasus was finally waking up.

Razor beat his wings quickly to join Rainbow Dash in the air, "I hope someday I can win your trust too, Rainbow Dash."

"It's gonna take a while." She muttered.

Techorse took Razor back to his castle, some of the trip ended up being in the rain. When they made it back to the stone fortress on the edge of town, the owner stepped up to the twin wooden doors and entered a combination on a nearby keypad. A recent invention he had made, the keypad was simply there in case he accidentally locked himself out, and PAL wasn't in to open the door. Slowly, the two wooden doors ground open, indicating a need for an oil change. Motioning with a hoof, Techorse hinted at Razor to walk inside. The changeling tried to lose his look of awe, and return his solid-colored eyes to their normal size. Entering the stone hallways of the building, he scraped his legs gently on the carpet before continuing down the hall after the green colt in front of him.

"PAL, I'm home!" called out the inventor, "Slice some mushrooms for some sandwiches."

"Right away!" responded the machine from inside the castle's central computer, "How many are you going to want?"

"I'll probably have two," He answered, continuing to walk down the halls. Turning to Razor, he asked,
"How many do you want, Razor? You don't just eat feelings; you eat food too, right?"

Razor shot him a look that indicated his lack of amusement. Techorse laughed a bit at his own joke before becoming serious.

"But really, do you want any sandwiches?" he asked, smiling.

"I guess I'll try one. It's been a while since I've had anything but plant sap and nectar," he answered, trying to shrug off the joke.

"Great. You'll love the mushrooms, they come from the woods right behind my castle. All I did was research them and figure out which ones are poisonous or not, then go out and pick them. They're really great roasted, cold, or fried."

PAL entered the hallway from the kitchen door, carrying a tray of the mushroom sandwiches. Each one was made from wheat bread, and was cut in half perfectly on the diagonal. A machine can always cut a sandwich perfectly, and even remove the crusts without leaving a single molecule of bread attached to them. Razor saw the 6-foot tall machine, and became a little worried. It's not that PAL had a menacing look about him, it was just that he was big, metal, and his mechanical head and jaw made him a little uncanny looking for someone who had never heard of or seen a robot before.

"Razor, this is PAL, my robot butler," said Techorse, introducing the two.

PAL took a few seconds to process the fact that there was a changeling in front of him, and said, "Hello there, Mr. Razor. Please go and have a seat in the dining room, it's the opening in the hallway in front of me, on the left."

Razor said nothing, still awed at the machine's scale in comparison to him, and headed into the dining room. PAL then set the tray of sandwiches down on a nearby lamp stand, and knelt onto the floor of the castle to talk to his master. He put his two armored hands on the sides of his creator.

"Master, that's a changeling!" he quietly, but with obvious panic, "Don't you realize you've let a dangerous animal loose in the castle!"

Techorse assured him, "Razor's not an animal. He's actually trying to learn how to live in normal society without having to suck the life out of everything to survive."

"Did you even think for a moment that perhaps he tricked you so that he could infiltrate your castle, steal your weapons, and drink every last drop of blood in your body?!" urged the machine quickly, trying not to raise his volume.

"Changelings don't drink blood. That's not what those fangs are for, according to what Twilight told me about them," said Techorse with frustration, giving PAL a stern look, "Now knock it off. Razor is our guest, and I want you to treat him as if he were any other pony visiting. Don't show off weapons to scare him, and no spying on him."

PAL continued to give reasons to kick Razor out, "Master, I'm just worried about what the others will think!"

"The others are in on this and they think it's a great idea. I don't judge others based on labels, it's not right. Now go prepare a room for him to stay in," ordered the pony, stomping his hoof on the ground.

"Yes master..." complied PAL with frustration in his voice, walking back into the depths of the castle to ready a guest room.

Techorse stuck out his neck, and moved the tray onto his back, carrying them carefully into the dining room. He found Razor sitting patiently in one of the chairs, giving him a little hope for the socialization of the changeling. If he had manners, he was that much more likely to be accepted by the ponies.

"Ok Razor," said Techorse, moving the tray onto the table with his side, "PAL's going to make up a bed for you. Let's get some dinner in before we head off to bed."

The spine on Razor's head created a small strand of green energy, which reached out and picked up the top sandwich half on the plate. He tried to move it to his mouth, but before taking the first bite, put it down on the plate in front of him.

He said to Techorse as the inventor took his seat at the table, "I just wanted to thank you again, for everything. If it wasn't for you, Rainbow Dash would have probably swatted me back there."

"Nah, Rarity wouldn't have liked to see that, and Pinkie Pie would have thought that's no fun," he answered, grabbing some food with his hooves, "I'm just the one giving you a place to stay while you learn to fit in."

"It's just that, I've never been treated this nicely in my entire life." Continued Razor, "I've had to sleep in a pod and raid villages to live. Life's been cruel for changelings ever since our new order. Or at least, some of us think so. It's pretty sick to think about it, but most of my kind want that kind of raiding lifestle."

"Well Razor," said Techorse confidently as he took his first bite, "This week we're going to fix that.

We're going to provide a way for changelings to have a real life, and it's all going to be thanks to you, buddy!"

Razor fought back a tear of joy, and turned his attention back to sharing a meal with his new friend. Perhaps there was hope for his species yet!

"And so, we believe we can rehabilitate Razor the changeling, and show that they can be turned into well mannered citizens of Equestria! Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight Sparkle finished writing the last stroke of the letter with her quill. She gently floated the feather back to the inkwell on her desk, and dropped it in carefully with her magic. Spike came and took the scroll from her, rolled it up, and ignited it, sending the message on its way to Canterlot.

Spike said to Twilight, "Wow, this really is something, isn't it? You're really being nice by giving a second chance to these guys, after all they've done."

The unicorn pony smiled, "Well, I think we have a chance here, since they haven't exactly done much since my brother's wedding. Learning to forgive and forget is a very important part of friendship, and I'm glad the girls were able to forgive Razor."

"Except for Rainbow Dash," mumbled Spike, crossing his arms, "I heard she was going to squish him."
Twilight's happiness faded from her face, "Yeah, she was. I hope Rainbow Dash will learn to accept Razor someday. She has trouble showing a little mercy."

"She'll shape up!" comforted Spike, running his hand through Twilight's mane once, "Rainbow Dash is too lazy to crush Razor anyways. She'll let Applejack do it."

"Spike!" scolded Twilight.

"I was kidding!" he said, shrinking back, "I don't want to see Razor get mushed!"

"Well, he won't. Nopony's going to want to hurt him anyways, once he shows how nice he can be!" said Twilight, "Tomorrow we begin the socialization of the changeling!"

Several miles away, in Canterlot castle, princess Celestia's throne room sat empty. The moonlight shone through the glass windows lining the hall, and the beams scattered on the red carpet leading up to the throne. The room was abandoned because the princess had decided to step outside to enjoy the warm summer breeze with her sister. Of course, someone had to watch the room at all times, and Captain Arbiter had drawn the short straw amongst the guards. The white stallion sat dutifully next the empty thrones, just to make sure no one came in uninvited. Twilight's scroll formed over his head, and the piece of rolled parchment landed on him gently. The captain stared at the letter, and knew who it had come from. Boredom encouraged Arbiter to read the letter, even though the princesses would be upset if he did. So, deciding just to skim it for any juicy details, he unrolled the message with his front leg, and read the text with his one good eye.

"A changeling in Ponyville?" he thought to himself, "Oh, this is not good! Changelings are dangerous little creatures, and Twilight Sparkle has foolishly let one into town. They're outlaws, and there's no way one could learn to be good. I have to do something!"

Suddenly, the locks on the throne room doors were heard opening. Arbiter quickly rolled the letter back up, stuck the seal on as best as possible, and rolled the paper in front of the throne just quickly enough to avoid being caught. Princess Celestia entered the throne room, flanked by Jools and Jops.

"Arbiter," she said, "did anything happen while I was out?"

"This letter arrived," He answered gruffly, "I suppose it's from Miss Sparkle."

The princess picked up the scroll with her powerful magic, and said to Arbiter, "Very good, if that's all then, you are dismissed."

"Thank you your highness, have a great night!" said the Captain, smirking.

He exited the room, moving his head left and right at Jools and Jops to get them to follow him. The two blue-haired guards obeyed their superior, and soon he led them out to the cobblestone courtyard outside of the castle.

As soon as they were outside, Arbiter turned, his blue cape swished in the wind as he spoke, "Jools, Jops. That letter says that Twilight Sparkle has a changeling loose inside Ponyville."

"You read the princess's mail, sir?!" said Jops in horror. Jool's mouth fell open in shock.

"Oh come now, you honestly think that's going to hurt anypony?" laughed Arbiter, "I have never had any problems reading Celestia's mail at all."

Arbiter's expression went to disgust when he added, "That will last until the princess decides to go for a suitor, I guess."

"Sir, what else did the letter say? My brother and I have both been injured by changelings in the past. If there's one in Ponyville, it could really cause a lot of panic and harm to the civilians." Jops asked, giving Arbiter a look of desperation.

Arbiter straightened his neck, and then relaxed, "Quite simply, Twilight Sparkle seems to believe that changeling can be made good. I know much better than her. That creature is dangerous, and has to be brought to justice for what it did. I'm sure she'll understand, considering the stress it put on her family."

Jools said, "We'll have to get permission to go to Ponyville first."

"I'm sure Princess Luna could grant us that." Arbiter said to his soldier, "All you two have to do is accompany me."

"You have our support!" said Jops firmly. His brother nodded once in agreement.

Arbiter spread his wings, and flew to the top of the castle wall, where he had stood a year ago.

He looked down at his two stallions and said, "Then pack your bags, boys. We're going to Ponyville!"

The next day, Razor set out from the castle on his mission to earn love and respect from the residents of Ponyville. He planned on simply showing up as himself, and trying to find ways he could volunteer to help the hardworking ponies. Walking through town accompanied by Techorse, they tried to find anyone who would be willing to let a changeling help them out with their work. Twilight joined them just before they got into the center of town.

"Hello guys!" she said, eager to start the day, "Let's get started, shall we?"

Razor noticed the looks he was getting from the residents and said, "We'd better prove I'm harmless fast, it looks like your friends in town want me out of here."

"I'm sure they'll warm up very quickly." Assured Twilight, petting Razor on his dark head, "We just have to find the perfect place for you."

"So what sorts of interests do you have?" asked Techorse, swishing his tail to get a fly off of him.

"Well, I sort of like plants," he said, "I could never grow any when part of the hive, but I'd like to help take care of them."

Twilight turned her head to a nearby gardening tool cart and said, "Great! Let's get you a watering can, and you can re-hydrate the flowerpots around Ponyville. Despite last night's rain, they really could use another drink."

Twilight's horn started to glow a soft purple, and the watering can was lifted from the cart. She moved it over to a nearby water pump, which Techorse used to fill it. The golden-colored watering can sat in front of Razor. Moving over to it, Razor tried to use his own magic to lift up the can and give a nearby pot full of marigolds a refreshing drink. He tipped the can, and the water started to come out over the flowers.

"While Razor works, let's go talk about that book!" suggested Twilight to Techorse.

They walked off together, leaving the changeling alone to his work.

Razor continued to water all of the plants around town, refilling the can with the pumps scattered throughout Ponyville. But as he watered a lovely petunia near the city hall, he noticed the mayor of Ponyville giving a speech to some of the fillies who attended the local school.

"Just remember that being a citizen of Ponyville is more about what you can give, rather than what you can get!" said the mare, smiling softly at the class.

It was obvious that they were rather bored by the "motivational" speech the mayor was giving. Razor saw that the schoolfoals were getting tired of hearing the mayor go on, so he snuck up behind the mayor, and waved gently to the young ponies. Their eyes grew wide at the sight of the blue-eyed creature behind their mayor. The gray-maned pony didn't seem to notice their looks, and continued to lecture with Razor right behind her back. Taking advantage of the monologue, Razor disguised himself as the mayor in front of the foals and started to mock her. He copied every motion she made during the speech, waving his legs, and moving his mouth identically. This entertained the audience so much, that they laughed and pointed at the antics of their mayor's clone. The mayor caught on soon enough, and she turned. Razor frowned through his disguise when he saw her face him. Before he could even say anything to explain himself, the mayor screamed, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the streets of Ponyville.

Razor undisguised and said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare her."

"She'll get over it," said Diamond Tiara, making sure Razor didn't catch on that he was helping them duck class, "What you did was pretty cool there."

"Are you sure? I'm trying to build a good image of myself."

"You're doing just fine," Silver Spoon said, pushing her glasses up her nose, "Keep up these jokes, and everypony's going to think you're great."

And with those words, Razor knew what he was going to do to win everyone's approval. He was going to be the best comedian Ponyville had ever seen.

Techorse and Twilight were back at the castle, talking about the book Twilight had finished the other day, when the doorbell went off. Techorse got up and left his library to go answer the call, and when he opened the front door, he found Jools, Jops, and Arbiter waiting for him. Arbiter stood in the middle, his smirk indicating he knew something he shouldn't.

"Well hello Techorse!" He said rather mockingly, "What's Ponyville's mad scientist up to today?"

"I'm spending the afternoon with Twilight." he answered. Looking behind Arbiter, he said, "Hey Jools, Jops."

The two guards lifted their chins in greeting, but remained silent.

Arbiter continued to speak, "Would you mind if we stepped in for a moment? The stallions and I here are just visiting here in Ponyville, and we thought a stop by Techorse's castle should be on the top of our to-do list. After all, you do have the best home in Ponyville."

"It is the biggest, but I wouldn't say it's the best. This place is gloomy compared to Rarity's," said Techorse, laughing in embarrassment.

In truth, Techorse was questioning Arbiter's motives, only making small talk to avoid having the captain pick up on what he was doing. He had a feeling he knew why Arbiter was at his front door.

"But Jools and Jops here have seen your castle, and they say it's wonderful! Are you really going to deny me a chance to see it just because of our past?" asked Arbiter, giving Techorse as look of sadness.

"All right Arbiter, what are you really here for?" asked Techorse impatiently, finally fed up.

Arbiter grunted, and said, "Well, now that you mention it, we've received word at Canterlot that there is a changeling here in Ponyville. Now, you and I are on good terms now Techorse and I'd hate to see you lose that by harboring a dangerous criminal."

"So, you're after my new friend?" said Techorse, becoming angry, "We're trying to turn him into something of value to Equestria. You won't be able to bring a single charge against him."

"I'm allowed to bring in any pony, changeling, or other creature who participated in an attack on Canterlot," said Arbiter, laughing at Techorse's mistake, "I know the law a bit better than you, lad!"

"Even so, he never wanted to participate in the attack, Arbiter. His motives are pure."

The captain laughed, and shook his front hoof in contempt at the green pony in front of him, "That's rich! Techorse, you're probably aware that Celestia received a letter about this. Do you think she'd send me here if she wanted to spare the changeling? The princess has no intention of giving that thing a second chance!"

Techorse noticed that Jools and Jops were frowning and looking at each other. Something was not right about what Arbiter had said, but he couldn't tell exactly what.

"So I don't know the law perfectly," admitted Techorse angrily, "but I do know you can't come in here without a search warrant. Goodbye!"

The colt stepped back, and slammed the half of the castle door hard, sending a wave of dust into Arbiter's face.

"All right, fan out. Try to find the changeling!" ordered Arbiter, spinning around, "If we can't find him, we'll get the warrant and be back here."

Jools and Jops went off in two different directions into Ponyville, while Arbiter took off and flew overhead.

Back inside the castle, Techorse galloped into the library.

"Twilight!" he shouted, desperation in his voice.

"What's wrong Tech?" she answered, dropping her book onto the table beside her comfy chair.

"Captain Arbiter is here!" he said, "He's after Razor. Apparently, the princess can't trust changelings still, and has ordered Arbiter to jail him."

Twilight got up from the red chair, and said with panic, "Oh, I can't believe this! I thought princess Celestia would have loved to see a changeling turned good!"

Techorse suggested, "Maybe we can just be Razor's lawyers. We can prove that he wants to be good."

"I'm afraid that isn't going to work." Answered Twilight sadly, "If Arbiter has direct orders from princess Celestia to deal with Razor, it's much worse than jail for him."

Techorse's throat went dry as he exclaimed, "What?!"

Twilight nodded and continued, "I've read enough Equestrian law books to know that if a dangerous creature, not a citizen, is ordered to be dealt with by the princesses, then the law says Arbiter has the right to do whatever he wishes to him. He's not going to capture Razor…"

The unicorn pony's purple eyes filled with terror from the realization and she said, "He's going to send him to changeling heaven!"

"Not while I'm still around," said Techorse angrily, "Let's get to the lab and grab a couple of gadgets. We can still stop Arbiter before it's too late."

"Don't you understand?" asked Twilight, "Princess Celestia ordered this, it's treason if you go against Arbiter!"

Techorse shook his head, "Somehow, I think it's a lie that princess Celestia ordered that. Jools and Jops looked rather disappointed in Arbiter when he said Celestia ordered this. Besides, Arbiter's the most violent stallion around. He probably was only asked to bring Razor to Celestia, not hurt him, and he's taking the order and running with it."

Twilight thought about it, and perked back up, "You know, given all that we know about him, Arbiter's just looking for a fight, isn't he?"

Techorse said, "Exactly. Twilight, I want you to use your magic to steal Arbiter's weapons the first chance you get. That way, the worst he can do is drag Razor away, he can't hurt him. I'm going to look for Razor while you do that."

"That shouldn't be too hard. Arbiter won't be able to will himself against my telekinesis," said Twilight, gaining confidence.

Techorse took Twilight to the front door of the castle, and faced her. He stared into her eyes, and said,
"I love you Twilight. Be careful."

Twilight got closer to him, "I love you too. Bring Razor back safe."

They kissed quickly, and then opened the front doors and rushed into the daylight.

Razor had finally gotten everything he had wanted. He was standing on a small stage in front of the clock tower, a microphone on a stand projected his voice onto the crowd. Many ponies had gathered to watch the comedy show he was putting on, and they were laughing and stomping their hooves at his jokes. The cardboard sign in front of the setup read, "Razor – The changeling with a razor-sharp wit!"
Razor had dressed up by wearing a red bow tie, provided by Pinkie Pie, to put on this comedy routine. She was standing across from him on the stage, and served as her way of telling longer jokes.

Currently, they were in the middle of a sketch

"So, that dumb stallion stole my wife." said Razor, pretending to be sad.

"Oh, that's just horrible!" said Pinkie Pie, saying her lines in the sketch. She was pretending to be a passerby interested in providing a helping hoof to the down-on-his-luck Razor.

"And then, he blasted me with a fire hose!”

"Really? What's that like?” Pinkie Pie mused, playing along.

Razor pulled out a bottle of seltzer and said, “Why, just like this!”

Razor then squeezed the trigger, squirting Pinkie Pie with a cold stream of plain soda. She screamed, pretending to be drowning in the liquid. The crowd howled in laughter at response to the slapstick humor. And so, Razor and Pinkie Pie continued this sketch, with Razor describing something his “enemy” would do to him, and Pinkie trying to avoid asking about it. Razor would then approach her again, and hit her with the described prop. When it was all over, the crowd cheered, and the two took a bow in front of them. As the ponies left to go back to their homes for the evening, Rainbow Dash lifted up from the crowd, into the air, and hovered in front of Razor.

"That routine was awesome, Razor! You're really funny, for a changeling." She said, flapping her wings energetically.

"Thanks Rainbow Dash." He replied, joining her in the air with his own wings, "I'm glad your finally starting to think I'm a decent guy."

Rainbow Dash realized her mistake in showing her soft side and said, "Hey, I haven't decided on that yet. I just said you were a good comedian, don't let it go to your head."

"Suuuure." said Razor sarcastically, smiling and landing back on the stage.

Some of the ponies in the crowd tried to give Razor some bits for his efforts in entertaining them. Razor appreciated receiving some money, but more importantly, he could feel the warm, loving energy in the air that he could soak up to keep his metabolism going. By winning support, he'd be able to live his life away from Queen Chrysalis and still eat well.

Captain Arbiter had reached the stage at this time, and saw the changeling standing next to Pinkie Pie, "So, you must be the changeling! You're under arrest for crimes against Equestria!"

"Arbiter?" asked Rainbow Dash, spinning around and staring at the swordspony.

Some of the ponies who hadn't left yet gave Arbiter looks of confusion. To them, it was odd that the princess's Captain of the Guard had left the castle just to go after this one changeling.

"What crimes, he was just putting on a show!" said one of them.

"That's what you think." Arbiter continued, "This changeling was one of the ones who participated on the attack on Canterlot. He may be behaving himself now to win your trust, but just watch! An entire swarm of these guys will follow him, and wreck Ponyville!"

"Is this true?" asked Colgate, who was still a part of the crowd. She looked a Razor sadly, in disbelief that such a friendly, funny changeling could do such a thing. Razor looked back at the blue unicorn pony, and hung his head in shame.

"Yes, it's true. I was there during the attack."

"Well, you plead guilty then!" shouted Arbiter, "So when do all your friends show up?"

"Razor didn't lead any other changelings here, meanie!" said Pinkie Pie, dashing up to get into Arbiter's face, "You leave him alone!"

"Sorry Miss Pie, but this monster's a threat to society. I must bring him down."

Rainbow Dash knew a fight was imminent, so she soared away from them to go get help. Looking back at Razor as she gained altitude, the pegasus secretly hoped he'd be okay.

Pinkie Pie was fed up with Arbiter's cruelty, and reached behind herself, "Arby, Razor's innocent!" she said, pulling something in front of her, "Don't make me use this on you!"

Arbiter frowned in surprise as he realized he was now staring down the barrel of Pinkie Pie's party cannon. She stood behind the tiny blue artillery piece, and put her front leg on the trigger button.

"Hey, careful with that!" Arbiter said nervously, backing up.

Pinkie pushed her cannon forward as he backed up, making sure the barrel was shoved into Arbiter's chin. The white stallion was panicking from the thought of the pink pony using the cannon on him. Even though the party cannon was a firework launcher and not a real gun, the Captain was well aware that a single shot from it at this range would leave him unconscious on the cobblestone street.

"So, are you going to leave Razor alone, or are we going to have to do this the not-so-fun way?" asked Pinkie menacingly, preparing to shoot.

"Wait," said Razor, stepping down from the stage, "Arbiter needs to take me to court. I can just prove I'm innocent there. Don't shoot him!"

"You're lucky this time, Arby!" said Pinkie Pie, stepping back and moving the cannon away from the frightened stallion's face.

As soon as the weapon wasn't aimed at him, however, Arbiter jumped over Pinkie Pie, and landed in front of Razor.

"What a foolish girl," he chuckled, looking back at Pinkie with his remaining brown eye.

Arbiter's gauntlets dropped out from under his black cape, and the metal hands unsheathed his longsword from the wooden blue hilt tied around his side.

"Wait!" said Razor, looking scared, "I thought you wanted to arrest me!"

"I have my duty to stop you from causing harm by any means necessary." Said Arbiter plainly, "Goodbye, Razor."

Arbiter swung his blade horizontally at the changeling's neck. He ducked the blow and gave a shout of horror, before taking off into the air with his wings. Arbiter shed his cape and hilt, and gave pursuit in the sky. He flapped after Razor, holding his sword in his magical floating steel fists, and chopped away at him. Although Razor was a good flier, eventually Arbiter's swordsmanship outdid this, and the Captain got a small cut on one of his insect-like wings. Razor yelped in pain, and realized he could no longer fly with the wound. He fell down to the streets, barely managing a safe landing by crashing into a pile of hay on a cart. Razor jumped out of the hay and ran at full pace down the main street, with Arbiter fast behind him.

"Come back here changeling, and get what's been coming to you!" shouted Arbiter, his one remaining eye expressing his anger.

"HELP!" screamed Razor, "This crazy guy's about to chop me to pieces!"

The townsponies gave not a single look of pity as the changeling was pursued. They trusted Captain Arbiter more than they trusted him after what Razor had said about helping the changelings attack Canterlot castle. Soon, Arbiter had managed to corner his wounded quarry in a back alley of Ponyville. The changeling had backed up against the stone wall, spreading his hole-filled legs on the back of the stones.

"Wait, please!" he said, nearly in tears, "Don't do this to me sir! I'll do anything!"

Arbiter stepped slowly towards Razor, sword still in one hand.

"I'm only doing my job," he said plainly, "Perhaps the other changelings will learn from your example, and stop listening to Chrysalis."

"But that's why I came here, to show the others we don't have to follow her orders!" explained the trapped creature, his blue eyes filled with terror, "You have to believe me."

Arbiter stopped just two feet from Razor, and seemed to have a momentary minute of thought. The white stallion stroked his gray mane back with one of the magical gauntlets, and considered what his enemy had said. He carefully went over the consequences of striking down Razor in his head, and what sort of effect it would have on Ponyville. Then, Arbiter threw all of these thoughts out the window and returned to his original plan.

"I can't take the risk." He said, "Now shut your eyes, monster."

Razor did exactly that as Arbiter grabbed his sword with both gauntlets again, and raised them up to deal the blow. The Captain then gave a shout, and tried to bring the sword down. Arbiter's eye opened when he realized his blade hadn't moved an inch in the past ten seconds. Looking up, he noticed that his sword and fists were surrounded by glowing purple energy, keeping the weapon from moving.
Twilight Sparkle, who was standing on top of one of the buildings forming the alley, swung her horn to the left, removing the sword from Arbiter's grasp and tossing it into the air. A second later, a series of yellow bolts of energy struck the blade and the gauntlets and destroyed them. Burned pieces of sword and steel rained down on Arbiter.

"Techorse, Twilight Sparkle!" he shouted, looking up, "Interfering with justice are we?"

"I'd say you're the one not interested in any justice, Arbiter!" retorted Twilight, glaring at him, "Razor is an innocent changeling, and look what you're about to do to him."

"I thought he was going to attract the entire hive back to Ponyville!" protested Arbiter, "I thought he had tricked you all into thinking he was good!"

Techorse retracted his laser cannons back into his saddle and shook his head, "Arby, Razor promised not to do that. Yesterday, Rainbow Dash had him pinned to the ground, and threatened to beat him up if he tried anything funny. Do you honestly think that anypony would backstab Rainbow Dash successfully?"

"Well…" said Arbiter, looking down.

"Razor is just looking to earn love rather than having to steal it," said Twilight.

Her horn glowed for a moment, and she teleported herself and Techorse down to where Arbiter was standing. The Captain of the guard looked up again at them, and breathed a sigh of shame.

"I think I may have overreacted," he said, "I just wanted to make sure there wasn't another changeling invasion. I figured there was no way to do that except to scare them off by disposing of Razor."

"I was willing to go to jail to prevent that," added Razor, "And I still am, if you really think that'd stop Equestria from getting invaded again."

Arbiter turned down the offer, "No, it's all right. It's simply that I haven't had the chance to bring in a troublemaker in a long time. I was looking for some problem to solve, and I let my imagination run wild with what one changeling could do to Ponyville."

Techorse smiled and extended a robotic arm out.

He gave Arbiter a pat on the back, "Come on, Captain. Let's get you back to Canterlot."

They walked Arbiter back out to the edge of Ponyville facing the capital city, after meeting up with Jools and Jops. As they were about to send him off, however, they could see in the distance a golden flying object. Princess Celestia had arrived in her chariot, along with some of Jools and Jops' friends to pull it. Arbiter winced, he knew he was in deep trouble for the mayhem he had caused in "the name of justice." Once the chariot had landed, the alicorn princess stepped out and approached the group. Most of the individuals present bowed, except for Techorse, who gave his usual military salute.

"At ease, Techorse!" said Celestia, smiling. Techorse's salute was cute to her, and always gave her a kick when she needed one.

Twilight stepped up to Celestia first and said, "I can explain everything. Captain Arbiter mistook your order to capture Razor for an order to attack him."

Celestia stopped her, "I'm not here because of Arbiter's antics. I learned from my sister that he had left for here, and I knew he'd read my mail."

The princess glared at Arbiter in disappointment and added, "Again…"

Her multi-colored hair flowing in the breeze, Celestia turned to Razor and lifted a hoof at him, "I'm here for you, changeling. Step forward."

Razor took a breath, and walked in front of Twilight. He was now right before Celestia, having to crane his neck to look her in the eyes.

"I'm going to give you what you deserve!" Said Celestia, squinting.

The others backed away from Razor, and Twilight quietly whispered, "Oh, no."

Razor watched as Celestia charged up a powerful spell. Her horn sparked furiously with white-colored magic, sending a small ball of light above her. Razor knew what was coming, but refused to look away from the princess. It was better to accept his fate than to run away and be considered a coward. With one last spark of magic, Celestia ended the spell, and the ball of light exploded, revealing a large scroll. The paper was brought down to Razor, and he looked at the scroll like a filly looking at a present belonging to her.

"Read it," said Celestia softly.

She smiled gently at the changeling, who nodded and opened the scroll with his own magic. It was a letter, with the royal seal stamped on the bottom of it, along with two big signatures.

Razor read the contents, "For his noble attempt to earn an honest living, and his desire to make amends for what he has done, we hereby pardon Razor for any and all past crimes he may have committed. - Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

"A pardon?" asked Twilight, her ears perking up, "You're going to pardon Razor!?"

"Yes!" said Celestia, "Razor has demonstrated just how good a changeling can be, and neither my sister nor I wanted to punish him for his past.”

We also heard from a recent letter that Chrysalis threatened to remove his wings unless he helped to invade Canterlot. Razor had no choice but to obey, so we felt as if he deserved to be free."

"Great job Twilight!" said Techorse, hugging his marefriend, "You saved Razor!"

Twilight accepted the hug, but admitted, "Thanks, but I didn't write the letter, Techorse."

"Then who did?" he asked, letting go of her.

"That'd be me!" said Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground next to them. She walked up to Razor and said, "Ok, I'll admit it. You're not such a bad guy after all, Razor. I was just holding a grudge against the changelings. But I really didn't want to see you get all hacked up by Arbiter! What kind of a hero would that make me?"

Celestia glanced at her Captain, who smiled and waved back with a front hoof. He knew he was in for a chewing out back at the castle.

Razor said to Celestia, "Thank you, your majesty! Now I can help teach the other changelings that we used to always be this way, earning the love we need to live."

"And I'm sure other changelings will follow you someday," she responded, "Keep up the good work, Razor, and stop by my castle if you want to give me updates on how your mission is going."

"I'll be sure to!" he said happily, "As long as I can get by the guards!"

"Arbiter will be thrilled to let you in!" said Celestia, a slightly amused tone in her voice. Arbiter just rolled his eye in disgust. The others laughed at the Captain's misfortune and bad attitude about the whole situation.

So, within the hour, Celestia had gone back to the castle along with Arbiter, and Twilight and her friends had gathered back in front of the library. They were about to send Razor and Techorse back to the castle for the night. Sadly, Razor had announced his intention to leave Ponyville the next morning, to go bring his comedy to other towns, and to try and bring other changelings to their place in society.

Fluttershy said to Razor, "I'm so glad you really were nice after all. Maybe now, ponies won't have to be afraid of changelings anymore."

"You really are something special." added Rarity, "Don't forget us!"

"I won't. I'll visit sometimes, I promise!" assured the changeling.

"Stop by the farm anytime for some grub if ya need to!" offered Applejack, winking at him.

"And remember," Finished Twilight with a swish of her mane, "You can always write letters to keep in touch!"

Razor approached Pinkie Pie, who was silent in her sadness that her newest buddy was going to leave.
"Sad to see me go?" he asked.

Pinkie Pie nodded in response, her normally happy overtone was gone. Razor looked her in the eyes, and a tornado of green energy swirled over him. He disguised himself as Pinkie Pie one more time, and smiled at Pinkie Pie through his new form. She started to giggle at the joke, and soon was laughing again. Razor dispelled the costume, and turned away from the group with Techorse. He looked over his shoulder one last time, and saw his new friends waving back at him. The changeling returned the sentiment, waving his porous leg back, and then walked into the night with the inventor. For the changelings, the future was looking very bright.

#20 - Trial by Pyre

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Trial by Pyre

Techorse Series: #20

By Spirals95

Running out of parchment paper to take notes on was one of the things that annoyed Twilight Sparkle the most. She normally always kept an ample supply of the scrolls back at her library, but today was the once-in-a-year moment in which she had run out while keeping busy learning new spells. Luckily, parchment paper was easy enough to buy in Ponyville. All she had to do was visit a local supply store she knew of, and purchase her next gigantic stash. However, when she went to go on her shopping trip, she had noticed one more list that she had put on her desk. The list was a number of items that she had put off shopping for in a while. Without missing a moment, she rounded up Spike and Techorse to go with her on a shopping trip. Twilight figured this would be a good time to spend time with both Spike and her coltfriend while getting her chores done.

After finding most of the items on the list together and getting the best deals they could find, the friends came down to the last item, wax to make seals for scrolls Twilight wanted to make to keep records of her progress on a detoxifying spell she had learned. She insisted on getting good with the minor healing spell, as her magic in this area was not as powerful as the others. The three found themselves in a stationary store near the center of Ponyville, trying to decide on which color of wax to get. The shop was a simple setup built into the owner's home, featuring a single glass case with many tubes of wax, two racks for greeting cards both blank and pre-written, and a bucket filled to the brim with various colors of ink wells. Behind the counter, several stamps used to mold a disk of wax into a special shape on a letter were displayed. Twilight was busy scanning the large variety of letter wax the shopkeeper had in his display. The tan earth pony kept his shop well, but was rather annoyed at the fact that Twilight hadn't come to his store knowing exactly what she wanted.

"Come on Miss, they're all the same!" said the shopkeeper impatiently. Twilight was being indecisive over what color of wax to get.

"No they're not!" insisted the unicorn, shaking her head and looking at the plastic tubes filled with colored wax, "Each color is made with a different pigment, changing the material of the wax slightly! I only want the one which is going to keep the best. What's in the blue colored wax?"

"I used blue chalkstone!" the shopkeeper groaned, "I use different colored chalkstone for all the waxes."

"Come on Twilight, we're annoying the stallion enough," said Techorse, who was at her side, "I'm sure whatever color you pick is going to be the right one."

"I just can't decide," she said, scanning over the 20 different varieties, "there's something here for everypony."

Techorse looked over the colors, and the other wares the shopkeeper had in his home-based store, and asked, "Isn't this a healing spell you're trying to document?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" questioned Twilight, hovering a pink tube in front of her face with her magic.

"I'm looking at these seal stamps behind the counter, and I've seen one that looks like a medical cross,"
answered Techorse, "maybe you should buy the red wax, and I'll get you the stamp."

"If you buy the red wax right now, I'll just give you the stamp!" said the shopkeeper quickly, hoping to get rid of his pesky customer.

"Using a red cross stamp on my letters concerning my healing knowledge? Tech, that's perfect!" said Twilight in cheerful agreement, ignoring the owner.

Soon Twilight had made her purchase, and put the brown paper bag containing the wax and stamp into the saddlebags on her sides. She walked out of the store with Spike, leaving Techorse behind with the shopkeeper.

"Sorry about Twilight, Cardstock," he said, embarrassed.

"That girl needs to stop being such a perfectionist!" grunted Cardstock, shaking his head in contempt, "Honestly Tech, I don't know how you stand it."

Techorse smiled and said, "What can I say? She's smart, fun to be around, and loving. I can put up with her quirks, and she can put up with mine."

"Like spending too much time in your fort?" chuckled the earth pony, "Haven't seen you in over a month."

"Hey, I've been busy running my appliance business!" explained the green colt as he headed for the door, "I've got to catch up with them now, but I'll come back later!"

"All right then, see you later Techorse!" Cardstock called out as his customer shut the glass door behind him.

He smiled and shook his head, having no idea why anyone like Techorse would bother with Twilight Sparkle.

Techorse caught up to Twilight and Spike, who were hanging around the center of town. The two were enjoying the bright sunny day on their way back to the library, and had decided to talk to Fluttershy, who was on her way out to buy gardening supplies for the flower plots around her home.

"So what are you doing out here with Spike?" asked the timid pegasus.

"We're killing two birds with one stone!" said Twilight.

Noticing Fluttershy's eyes growing wide from the statement, she added, "It's an expression, Fluttershy. I'm out here to spend time with Spike and Techorse while I get my shopping done for the week."

Fluttershy relaxed and bit and lied softly, "I… I knew that. It's great that you want to spend time with your boys today."

"Yeah, I have Spike with me now, but I have no clue where Tech got off to. He's probably still back at Cardstock's shop." said Twilight, looking behind her to see if she could see him.

"He'll catch up," assured Spike, "let's just hang out in the sun for a while."

Twilight nodded, knowing that Spike's reason for wanting to stay out in the sun was that it was energizing him by heating his reptile blood. They waited for Techorse, who finally arrived after a good ten minutes.

"Sorry it took me so long!" he said to them, "Hey Fluttershy."

"Hi Tech." she said, smiling, "How was your day with Twilight?"

"Great, thanks!" he answered, "I think we're done for today, as long as Twilight's list is finished."

"It is!" she said, taking the scroll out of her pack and unrolling it.

The piece of paper reached the ground when it was held from her eye level, and part of it rolled out towards Fluttershy. Twilight's back was a bit overburdened from the goods she had wanted to pick up, and Fluttershy thought about offering to help carry some of it once she was done finding what she needed for the day.

"Great. Well, I guess I'll see you both later. I need to go get some mulch for the plants around my house," she said, deciding on what to do.

Twilight turned to leave and said, "Sounds great Fluttershy, see you around…"

Before she could finish, a shadow passed quickly overhead. The distinctive black shape on the ground, belonging to nothing other than a dragon, scared the wits out of Fluttershy, causing her to shriek and drop to the ground. She covered her eyes in fear, and dropped to the cobblestone street of Ponyville.

Twilight looked up at the dragon flying overhead, along with many of the other concerned citizens. The creature made a complete turnaround overhead, and landed with a large crash onto a stack of hay in the center of town. The bales flew everywhere, sending many of the ponies nearby into a panic. When the commotion had settled down, the dragon stepped out from the cloud of dust she had kicked up. She was a rather young dragon, probably in her early adulthood for her species. Although she was at least 9 feet tall, she was most certainly not gargantuan by any definition and her wingspan probably only covered 20 feet at most. Her scales were a dark pink in color, and her eyes were a jade green. Topping her head was an orange scale set, jagged yet folded over in a "hairstyle", which looked rather intimidating. The dragoness was wearing a brown backpack for some reason, a rather unusual thing for a dragon to do. Her long tail was tipped with a pair of sharpened spines that gave it the appearance of a battle axe.

She spoke in a soothing, but somewhat irritated voice, "Hello, ponies! Allow me to introduce myself before you all scream and run around in circles."

The dragon looked down, and noticed the awed look Spike was giving her. He'd never seen a female dragon as big as she was, only some male ones who had come close to her size.

"Hey, squirt!" she said quietly, winking at him.

Spike crossed his arms in insult, "Squirt?"

The female ignored him and looked back up to address the ponies, "My name is Pyre, and I was hatched and raised in those mountains you frequently pick at for gems! Let me tell you that all of this mining you've been doing has made it much harder for us dragons to find enough gems to eat to strengthen our scales!"

"That's terrible!" said Spike, trying to win the approval of his peer.

"Now, I know what you're all thinking," continued Pyre, "You all probably think I'm here to destroy Ponyville. Let me start by saying that I'm not here to hurt any of you. I'm merely here to give you a warning as to what happens when you rob the dragons of their food."

"And just what are you going to do as a warning?" asked Twilight, glaring at her.

"I'm going to set fire to the Everfree forest!" answered Pyre, pointing a claw towards the woods in the distance, "I just became an adult yesterday, and as my rite-of-passage, I'm going to burn down every last tree!"

Fluttershy looked up from her legs and thought sadly, "The whole forest? Every last tree? So many animals will be made homeless!"

"That's wrong!" shouted Techorse angrily, "Burning down the forest will just harm the ecosystem without teaching anypony anything!"

"Well, either stop taking gems from the mountains," said Pyre, "Or lose the forest. Either way my family and I will be happy."

"But ponies need those gems, too!" argued Twilight, "One of my friends needs them to keep her business going. Some of us use them to make inventions, or power sources. Without them, it will really damage our economy."

Pyre clenched her fists and grunted, "Might makes right, pony. If you won't give back the entire mountain territory to the dragons, I'll make sure we take it back."

The pink dragon spread her wings, and flew over to Spike, picking him up with her front arms and carrying him off. She flew away towards the Everfree forest with him gripped tightly in her clutches.

"Help!" cried Spike, kicking as he tried to get away.

"Settle down, squirt!" she said, smiling at him, "I want to talk to you, not hurt you."

"Talk to me down on the ground where it's safe!" he said desperately.

Pyre ignored him, and glided gently towards a dark patch of the Everfree where the ponies wouldn't dare to follow her. Back in town, Twilight and Techorse were shocked as to what happened.

"We have to save Spike!" said Twilight desperately, "Oh, Tech, why didn't you use your laser cannons? This would have been a perfectly good time to use them!"

Techorse argued, "She was carrying Spike close to her! If I had opened fire, I might have hit him instead. I bet she did that on purpose just to keep us from doing anything."

Twilight calmed down, and said, "That's true. But we still have to think of a way to rescue him. Pyre might try to get him to help her burn down the forest."

"Spike would never agree to that," said Fluttershy gently, "but I'm sure it's for the best that we get him away from Pyre. She might do something awful to him if he doesn't agree to help start the fire."

"Fluttershy, you know the forest the best." said Techorse, "Can you go in and find Spike?"

"ME?!" panicked Fluttershy, "But Techorse, there's so many dangerous things in there, and even if I find Spike, I can't stop Pyre."

"Yes you can," assured Twilight, running a hoof through Fluttershy's long pink hair, "you've dealt with so many dragons peacefully that Pyre should be a piece of cake to handle. All you have to do is find her, and talk her out of this."

Fluttershy took a deep breath and said, "Ok, I'll do it. But I want either you or Techorse to go with me in case things don't work out."

"I have just the device to stop Pyre's plan even if she tries to set the forest on fire," said Techorse, a scheming look on his face, "it will take a little bit of setup, and some help from PAL, but I've been saving something just for this kind of problem."

"Really?" asked Twilight, "What?"

Techorse pointed to his castle in the distance with his front leg and explained, "I built a missile silo into the roof of my castle last month. I've developed a large number of harmless missiles which are designed to drop their cargo in places instead of exploding, as a way to deliver things. One of them I filled with a liquid agent which freezes before it even hits the ground. I made it to try to create instant snow, but now I can use it as a fire retardant!"

"Wow," Said Fluttershy, amazed, "what do you call it?"

Techorse grinned, "I've dubbed it the Icy-BM."

Pinkie Pie, who had happened to be watching from a nearby café, burst out laughing and rolled on the ground in front of the coffee shop. Unfortunately, this also made her spit her coffee all over her tablemate, Colgate, who gave her a dirty look.

"Ok, we'll get PAL started on the missile, and then go rescue Spike!" said Twilight, "Hopefully, he'll still be in one piece."

"Don't worry Twilight, I'm sure he'll be fine," said Fluttershy, gently brushing Twilight with her left wing in comfort.

Pyre had decided to bring Spike to a small brook deep within the Everfree forest. The light from the sun pierced through the treetops, casting just enough light to eliminate any chance of that area of the woods being scary. It was the perfect hideout in a place normally considered dangerous by any pony, and Pyre knew this meant it would be the last place she would be looked for. She dropped Spike off on a tree stump near the babbling brook, and landed by the edge of the stream, where she took a long drink from the cool and refreshing water before turning back to Spike.

"Don't worry, squirt," she said, drying her lips with her front claw, “I'll get you back to Ponyville if you really want to leave."

"First of all, my name's Spike!" said the young dragon with anger, "And second of all, why did you take me away?"

Pyre smiled and said to him, "Sheesh, I just wanted to get you away from those ponies for a bit. You spend so much time with them, Spike, that I thought you might want to see another dragon for a while."

"Most other dragons are pretty mean," explained Spike, "That's why I prefer staying with the ponies, they're nice to me and each other. Life's pretty sweet."

"Say, are you hungry?" asked Pyre, taking off her backpack.

She was trying to avoid the fact that Spike had just called her out on her mean and rude actions. To try to smooth over her new "friend's" ideas about her being evil, she took out a large sapphire from her backpack. The gemstone was quite large, being a rectangular cut stone. It glistened in the sunlight coming from the canopy, making it look quite appetizing to Spike.

"I have plenty of gems for us. We dragons gotta stick together, you know," she said, offering it to Spike.

Spike reached to take the gemstone from Pyre, and then had second thoughts, "What's the catch?"

"There is no catch," said Pyre, "I really just want you to understand I don't want to hurt you."

The young dragon took the sapphire and bit off the end, crunching down hard on the gemstone. He had never had a better sapphire before in his life, but he didn't want to admit that to what was supposed to be his enemy. She planned to commit arson against the Everfree forest, and he knew he couldn't stay on her side. But the taste of the gemstone and his natural dragon greed was beginning to override his good nature.

"See? Isn't that good? There's more of those coming once I burn the forest. The Equestrians will have to give us our mountains back!" Pyre said, cheer in her voice.

Spike tossed the rest of the gemstone in his mouth and crunched it down in a few bites.

"Maybe there's a way to both save the gem supply, and not burn down the forest," suggested Spike, “my friends can change if it's really hurting you guys.”

"Those stubborn ponies will never listen, Spike," said Pyre, shaking her head.

“You haven't even given them a chance yet!” he complained, trying to reason with her, "if you do, they'll help you get enough gems. They're always willing to help me out, and I'm a dragon too."

"I'll return you to Ponyville so you don't get burned," she answered, ignoring him, "I was hoping you'd leave the ponies and follow me, but I can tell you're on their side. Let's go. Once I get you to the edge, I'll start my burning from the points I had planned out."

Spike tried to protest, but Pyre was already dragging him for the edge of the forest. It appeared that nothing could be done to prevent the forest from burning down, as Pyre was showing absolutely no interest in resolving her kind's hunger problems peacefully. However, despite appearances, Spike's words about how ponies could get along with others had put the thought into Pyre's mind. The influence of the idea had changed her slightly, although for now, she was still intending on carrying through with her horrid plan.

Back at Techorse's castle, PAL had received instructions from his master to begin preparing his missile tube for launch against the coming forest fire. To try to get a little bit of help with the setup and launch of the device, the robot had enlisted the help of Applejack. The two worked together in the missile silo room, working out of a manual Techorse had written on how to operate the friendly payload system. The room was a large stone area in the castle, featuring a guidance computer completely taking up one side, and the missile launch tube taking up the other. Applejack was about to put a series of wires in place on the cryogenic missile placed in the tube, while PAL was bringing a fuel line over from the wall to give the rocket its propellant.

"PAL, it says here in the manual that I have to tighten a bolt inside the rocket," said Applejack, "Could ya please hold on to my hat so it doesn't get any oil in it?"

The robot stepped over and took Applejack's Stetson off of her head. Applejack stretched her neck into an access panel on the side of the missile, and began work on the internal components.

The orange pony called from inside the rocket, "Hand me a wrench, PAL."

PAL complied with the request, and picked up a red pipe wrench from off the floor of the missile room. Moving over to Applejack, he climbed on top of the missile and threw the wrench inside the craft.

"Ow!" screamed Applejack as the wrench bonked her on the back of her head, "I said give me the wrench, not hit me with it!"

"Sorry Miss Applejack, my mind's just wandering. Master's gone off with Twilight to go confront that dragon. I sure hope he's all right..." explained the machine, expressing his concern for his creator.

Applejack removed her head from the missile temporarily to talk to PAL, "I'm sure Techie will be ok against that dragon. He and Twilight can stop her without too much trouble, I reckon."

"I sure hope you are right," said PAL, his mechanical eyes sinking towards the floor, "but at any rate, we should finish construction of this missile. If they cannot stop the dragon, we can at least stop the forest fire."

"That's the spirit!" said Applejack, smiling, "Now give me a screwdriver without hurting me with it, ok PAL?"

The robot nodded and reached for the Phillips head screwdriver on the ground near him.

"With any luck,” calculated the machine, "Master will escape the dragon, and this missile will prevent the fires from spreading."

Techorse had successfully managed to escort Fluttershy through the Everfree forest without any problems. They hadn't encountered any dangerous creatures on the way to the place they saw Pyre carry Spike away, but they knew that they were probably in for a fight. Unless Fluttershy could somehow convince Pyre to not start her forest fire, Everfree would be reduced to a smoldering pile of sticks within a few days. In case all diplomatic efforts failed, Twilight had been sent to warn Zecora so she could be evacuated way before the conflagration could reach her home. Techorse figured that there would be enough time to get her to safety if they could delay Pyre's actions for just fifteen minutes.

This would give Zecora a chance to get out of her home and to safety with Twilight. Still, Techorse wanted to prevent the fire completely if possible, he didn't want the animals of the forest to lose their homes or lives just because he couldn't reason with a dragon. He couldn't live with the thought of so much habit destruction being the result of his failure to be peaceful, and as someone who was always worried about being pegged as violent and undiplomatic, Techorse was determined to change Pyre's mind. Perhaps an offer to allow her to talk to the princesses about the gem shortages would convince her to avoid demonstrating her might. Otherwise, he knew Zecora and the animals of the Everfree forest would end up losing their homes.

Fluttershy walked quietly with Techorse, and said to him, "Tech, do you really think I can convince Pyre not to set fire to the trees?"

"I'm certain, and even if you can't, I won't let that dragon hurt you, Fluttershy," said Techorse confidently, drawing his laser guns with a metallic click. The two metal tubes pointed wherever Techorse looked as he scanned the forest, in case Pyre decided to ambush them rather than confront them directly.

"Oh please don't hurt Pyre!" asked Fluttershy, "Let's try our hardest to convince her ponies can share their gems."

Techorse stopped Fluttershy from walking forward by holding up a leg. He had heard a rustling in the bushes nearby, and wanted to keep Fluttershy from stumbling into whatever was in there. Pyre emerged from the green bush, dragging a rather irritated Spike behind her. She stopped when she saw Techorse and Fluttershy, and let go of Spike, who ran ahead of her and behind the two ponies.

"Hey!" said Pyre, her eyes narrowing in anger, "Can't you ponies take a hint? I'm going to burn down the forest whether you like it or not!"

Fluttershy boldly stepped up and said, "Now, please, I'm sure you're very angry, but there's no need for arson. I want you to know that we can send a letter to our leaders to try and get them to give the dragons more gems."

Spike said to her, "Listen to Fluttershy, Pyre!"

"Your leaders will simply tell us to get lost because we're not ponies," grunted the pink dragon, a wisp of smoke escaping from her right nostril.

"That's not true!" Insisted Fluttershy, shaking her head, "I'm sure princess Celestia would be happy to mark a few mountains as reserved for you, if you're willing to leave a few others for us to use."

Pyre took a deep breath and said, "No deal."

She spat a large plume of orange flame towards a pile of dead pine needles resting underneath the tree that had dropped it over the years. The soft tinder ignited almost immediately, and bold red flames engulfed the area underneath the tree. Immediately the fire began to spread, burning dead material and catching the surrounding trees.

"Fluttershy, Spike, RUN!" shouted Techorse. The two obeyed his advice, and fled for Ponyville, leaving the inventor to face Pyre alone.

"So, Techorse is it?" laughed Pyre, stepping forward.

The fires burning behind her made her body glow an eerie orange as the black smoke rose from the tops of the flames. The forest was already burning, and she knew that Techorse was eventually going to have to run, as she was fireproof and he was not.

"That's right, Pyre," he said, taking a step forward and aiming his laser cannons up, "I'm Techorse, and you've just set fire to my friends' forest. You've threatened the lives of many innocent animals just to try and threaten us into doing what you want."

"Well, it's going to work, isn't it?" chuckled the dragon, sidestepping to avoid Techorse's gaze, "Burning the Everfree will send lots of ash into the air, which will eventually rain down on Ponyville, catching it ablaze too. Once you've all fled, I'll be back to take any gemstones and gold I can find to start my own horde. Never again will ponies try to take mountains from us dragons."

"We never took the mountains from you." Replied Techorse through gritted teeth, "You simply think you can take whatever you want because you're bigger and stronger than our species. Well, if you think you're so much better, prove it!"

"With pleasure!" said Pyre, rearing her neck back.

She spat forth a ball of orange flames which rolled towards the earth pony. Techorse jumped out of the way of the projectile, which exploded on the ground, kicking up dirt and leaving a divot on the forest floor. He returned fire once he landed, and yellow bolts of electromagnetic energy streaked for Pyre. They impacted on her front, blasting off pink scales and scorching the soft reptilian tissue underneath. Pyre gasped as the bolts hit her, but she wouldn't surrender to a pony. She instead lifted off into the air, and spat a stream of flames around Techorse. He was surrounded by the flames, which easily accepted the soft grass around him as fuel. As the fires burned, Techorse sweated and took some minor burns to his legs, but he continued to blast away at the dragon overhead. One of the bolts struck Pyre in the middle of her right wing, and she was knocked out of the air onto the ground behind her enemy.

Seeing this as his chance to win, Techorse turned around and continued to blast away, slowly stepping forward through the flames around him as he shot. Unfortunately, his saddle was beginning to smoke as he did; the internal heat of the device was reaching its critical level. Too much more firing and the device would shut down for several seconds to prevent a meltdown. Seven more beams of destructive energy hit Pyre in the back, each hit delivering heavy force to her body.

"Stop!" she begged, holding a claw out to Techorse, "I give up!"

Techorse's cannons fell silent, and he retracted them into his saddle, "I don't want to fight either, Pyre. There's still time to put out this fire and settle things another way."

Pyre stood up from the ground. She had gotten her opponent to let his guard down, and that's all that mattered. Quickly, she hawked and spat an oblong orb of searing-hot fire breath at the shocked green earth pony. Techorse took the fireball right below his neck, and was kicked ten feet. His coat was slightly singed by the damage, and the air had been knocked out of his lungs. After recovering from the blow, he stood back up shakily on his four legs, and drew his cannons again.

But he couldn't get them to fire, to his surprise. Pyre's fireball had pushed the robotic saddle on Techorse's back to its shutdown point, and the saddle refused to obey a single mental order from its owner. It would be a while before the machine would start up again, so Techorse did what most ponies usually do when they found themselves up against a dragon without support. He fled, running past Pyre while avoiding her fire breath. After he had gotten a safe distance away, he switched his direction and headed back for Ponyville.

"I really messed that one up!" he thought sadly, "I sure hope PAL and Applejack got that missile working!"

The fires had spread within the Everfree forest, and the old trees began to fall one by one as they were hollowed out by the heat. Thick black smoke rose into the air above Ponyville, blocking out the sun partly, and making the area a no fly zone for any pegasi or birds. The air was beginning to get polluted as the forest burned down, and if something wasn't done soon, Everfree would be nothing more than a scorched patch of land.

Back at Techorse's castle, PAL and Applejack had finally managed to put the finishing touches on the Icy-BM, and were preparing it for launch. The robot had successfully plotted out the missile's firing line over the patch of the Everfree forest that was burning, and was busy installing the coordinates into the missile's guidance computer. Applejack tried to be of some help to him, but the robot just pushed her away, and would not let her see the screen of the hand-held device he was using to program the utility rocket.

"Miss Applejack, I must insist you let me program this missile on my own!" he said, tapping on the touch screen of the device with a thick metal finger.

"Come on PAL, just lemme see how bad the forest fire is!" said a hatless Applejack with impatience.

PAL had left her hat, unbeknownst to her, on one of the missile's three guidance fins.

"We can view the fire's extinguishing from the roof once I launch the missile,” said the robot servant calmly, "I just finished putting in the last of the launch coordinates. The missile will launch shortly."

Applejack smiled and headed for the door, "Well great, PAL! Let's see if all our hard work paid off."
The orange pony stopped at the door, and her eyes opened wide when she realized her hat wasn't on her head. Immediately she turned around and galloped to retrieve it from the missile's fin.

"Miss Applejack, no! I set the timer for only ten seconds!" warned the robot, trying to stop her.

But it was far too late.

Applejack had already jumped onto the large fin of the rocket to retrieve her hat. The engines of the missile came to life, sending a geyser of smoke down through the launch pad and into the ventilation shafts of the castle. The missile's red nose cone started to rise out from the tube, and into the open daylight. Applejack tried to jump off, but her braided mane was caught in one of the access hatches of the missile, which PAL had failed to completely close shut. Within seconds, the missile was out of the tube, and flying into the air above Ponyville.

The ponies in the streets, panicking about the fires burning in the forest, stopped to stare at the missile arching through the sky, with Applejack stuck on top of it. PAL rushed to the roof of the castle, carrying a pair of binoculars in his arms. He hoped that Applejack would survive her unintentional flight, or else he knew Techorse would be extremely angry with him. Most inventors didn't appreciate their machines launching their friends on missiles. PAL reached the roof of the castle, and ran to the front edge of the building, making loud metal footsteps. Raising the binoculars to his optical sensors, the machine looked on, and saw that Applejack had successfully managed to get her hair out of the missile. She was now straddling it backwards, and holding on to one of the fins for dear life.

Applejack looked down at the ponies below her, who resembled ants due to her altitude. Swallowing hard out of fear of falling, Applejack knew the missile was programmed to make a gentle landing after it dropped its payload. All she had to do was hang on tight until it landed.

"I sure hope my weight doesn't make this thing spin out of control!" she said to herself, the wind blowing her hair into her face.

Below her, Techorse had met back up with Twilight and Fluttershy in front of her house. The woodland creatures that had evacuated the forest were seeking care with Fluttershy, and had surrounded her. The light yellow pegasus was eager to sit with her animal friends, she was happy that they were safe from the fires. In addition, Twilight had managed to get Zecora to leave her home, and they watched as the rocket traveled slowly overhead.

"So the missile launched, great!" said Techorse, running up to his friends.

"Yeah, it's on its way," said Twilight happily.

Looking up at the rocket and noticing something strange, she squinted and said slowly with fear in her tone, “Is… is that Applejack?"

Techorse raised a robotic hand to his eyes to try and get a better look. Sure enough, he could make out Applejack on top of the missile. He began to wonder if Applejack had volunteered to ride his invention, or if his clumsy robot servant was behind this event.

"I do not wish to speak of doom," said Zecora to Techorse with concern, "But don't your missiles usually go boom?"

"Not this one," answered the colt proudly, "that's one of my harmless cargo rockets. I'll go fly up to Applejack and rescue her if things get bad."

"Oh dear," said Fluttershy with fear in her voice, "what happens if that thing runs out of fuel?"

"It won't!" assured Techorse, "It will land way before then. We all know Applejack, she's done everything she can to make that missile work correctly."

The rocket had reached its destination over the flames, and Applejack looked down at the fires as the bay doors on the bottom of the rocket opened up. Light blue liquid sloshed from the missile, raining down on the forest, and turning anything it touched to ice in a flash. The fires were immediately either quenched or starved of oxygen. As the forest fire died down, Applejack was overcome with excitement for her success with preparing the missile, and took off her hat with her left front leg, waving it in the air and cheering.

Twilight heard her friend's happy cries from below and said to the others, "It sounds like she's doing fine. Let's make sure we thank Applejack for her help once she lands and gets back to us."

Techorse turned to Zecora and said to her, "In the meantime, we should get you back home."

"It was fun seeing Applejack fly." She said, smiling, "but please, give that dragon one more try."

"I'll try my hardest." said Fluttershy softly.

The animals around Fluttershy seemed to gasp in surprise. They all thought she was crazy for wanting to give Pyre another chance after she had attacked Techorse and set fire to their homes.

Fluttershy flapped her wings once to calm them, "Now, little friends, I'm sure you all think Pyre is horrible. But somewhere in there is a hurting dragon that I need to help."

She then turned back to Techorse and Twilight, "Guys, can you take care of the animals while I go find Pyre?"

"Yes, but please, be careful Fluttershy," said Twilight, showing a bit of concern for her friend.

Fluttershy left her animals behind to venture into the Everfree. She followed the path of smoldering debris in the forest, knowing the trail would probably lead to its creator. Fluttershy felt safer following the deforested area, knowing she couldn't be attacked by surprise walking where there was no cover. The liquid nitrogen from the missile had created artificial frost, making an artificial winter in the forest on top of the blackened woods. Eventually, Fluttershy found Pyre sitting on the same tree stump she had brought Spike to, staring into the river with a grumpy look on her face.

"Have your plans been spoiled?" called out Fluttershy in a motherly voice.

"It looks like you ponies can stop a forest fire after all," mumbled Pyre, kicking a stone near the base of the stump.

"Now look, Pyre. Even though you've been really mean to the animals and to us ponies, I'm sure there's a way we can still give back most of the gemstones and the mountains," said the pegasus, walking up next to the angry dragoness, "We'll find a way to share."

"My family is going to end up starving," sighed Pyre, "Having the entire mountains to ourselves would mean an end to the fighting over the supply we have. Dragons need to be able to horde gems in order to stay happy and strong-scaled. We'll get soft without them."

"What's wrong with being soft?" asked Fluttershy, stepping in front of Pyre, "All of us are soft, even Spike. He doesn't want to fight at all."

Pyre pushed Fluttershy with her claws and turned away from her, "All you are is a bunch of little greedy monsters. Always wanting more gems, never thinking about the other animals you have to live with on this planet. Go away, Fluttershy."

The pink-haired pony had finally been fed up with Pyre's bad attitude. Flapping her wings hard, she lifted up into the air, and flew in front of Pyre's face.

"We don't think of the other animals? I'll have you know I take care of animals for a living, and I love them very much! Just because you're stronger doesn't mean you get to judge everyone else how you see fit! Stop thinking only for yourself, you selfish…"

Pyre had also been fed up with Fluttershy, and curled her left hand into a fist. Drawing it back, she then swung it forward for Fluttershy's head. Fluttershy saw this coming, fortunately, and flew away while giving a shout of surprise from the attack, before landing on the ground and curling up slightly. She might not have been hit by the attack, but she had certainly been intimidated by it. Pyre's fist hit the hard ground in front of her, and the dragon promptly pulled her hand out of the forest floor. A large crater remained in the dirt, which Fluttershy stared at in awe.

"Aw shut up," shouted Pyre, rubbing her sore knuckles, "Might makes right! You stupid animals have just gotten so powerful it's gone to your oversized heads. Now, I'm going to restart the fires, and you're not going to do anything about it, ok?"

"Yes m'am!" whimpered Fluttershy, still curled up on the muddy ground.

"Good," laughed Pyre, "If you try to tell me off one more time, well…"

Fluttershy looked up at Pyre, and waited for the answer.

"I've always wanted to try a pegasus on wheat," she finished, chuckling at her own stupid joke.

Fluttershy started whimpering again, and hid her face in her front hooves. Pyre shook her head, and walked away to go restart her blaze.

Techorse and Twilight arrived on the scene a minute later. They had heard Fluttershy's scream a few minutes after dropping Zecora off, and rushed for Fluttershy's location when they had heard her yell. They found her crying into the brook, staring at her reflection. Fluttershy was facing away from them, and refused to look at her friends.

"What happened? We heard you scream!" said Twilight with panic in her voice.

"Nothing happened," She lied, continuing to stare at the river.

Techorse stepped closer to his friend and asked, "Fluttershy, look at us, what happened?"

Fluttershy slowly stood up, and turned around to look at her friends. Twilight's mouth fell open in horror at what she saw. The punch Pyre threw had left a crater the size of a basketball in the ground in front of the pegasus pony.

"That was almost me!" said Fluttershy, frowning at pointing at the hole.

Techorse's ears tilted back in rage, and he crouched on his forward legs slightly.

"Pyre almost did that to you?" asked Twilight, shocked the dragon had committed such an act.

"And then she threatened to put me in a sandwich!" added Fluttershy, hoping to gain some more pity.

"Where's Pyre?" he demanded in a dark tone.

"That way." Fluttershy said weakly, pointing into the woods.

Twilight said to Techorse, "Don't do anything crazy, Tech. You can't beat Pyre alone, and we can't beat her with lasers, magic, or force."

"Then what can we possibly do to stop her?” he asked.

"We'll go with you and figure something out," assured Twilight, "can you walk, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy nodded slowly in response, and Twilight held her gently as they followed the infuriated Techorse. His gaze alone could ignite the forest again, if Pyre found herself unable to.

When they caught up with the dragon again, Pyre was preparing a pile of tinder to complete her project of incinerating the Everfree. She saw Twilight and Techorse approach out of the corner of her eye, and turned to face them.

"I thought I told you to stop confronting me!" she said, "Do I have to eat you just to get you to shut up?"

“Why don't you shut up?” growled Techorse, “All day we've been offering to give you back the mountains you need, and all you've done is stubbornly think we're trying to double-cross you. How stupid can you be?”

"I'll roast you for that!" she shouted, standing back up.

"We'll see." Said Techorse angrily, "I have a feeling you won't be able to beat me and Twilight so easily."

Twilight's horn glowed a dark purple as the unicorn pony stepped up alongside Techorse. He looked at her with a frown, hoping that whatever plan was brewing in her smart mind was going to work. The dragon jumped into the air, and breathed a stream of blazing hot flames down at the two. Twilight rolled to the left, and returned fire with a spray of magical bolts and pellets. The weaker projectiles seemed to go all over the place except for Pyre, forcing her to dodge, but not really coming close to her at all.
Pyre stood defiant against the swarm of projectiles, and fired back with a ball of white-hot plasma from her throat. This hit the ground between the two ponies and exploded, knocking them to the ground. Twilight shot back with a solid beam of purple light, which tore through the ground.

Fluttershy had crept up behind her friends at this point, and noticed a fallen tree nearby from which scared chirps were ringing out. A baby bird, too young to fly yet old enough to understand what was happening, had failed to jump from the nest in time during the fire, and was now left alone. Fluttershy was not certain she would be able to find the bird's mother or father, and tears came to her eyes at the innocent creature's condition. She began to wail, and cuddled the poor, injured bird in her front hooves gently.

“Oh no, now what's wrong with her?” grumbled Pyre, stopping her fire breath.

“This poor bird has been left homeless,” sobbed Fluttershy, “and who knows how many other animals? I would have given anything to have prevented this.”

The dragoness slowly moved towards Fluttershy, and straightened her neck. The sound of vertebrae going back into a more comfortable position was heard slightly, and Pyre sighed as she worked out the soreness from the battle. She had been warned by the ponies that burning the forest would have grave consequences, but she had gone through with her deed despite that. Now, innocent third parties were getting harmed, and it was no longer about pony versus dragon.

“Gee... I didn't even think anything lived out here,” said Pyre, “I mean, you told me some animals did, but I didn't believe you...”

“Because we're ponies...” whimpered Fluttershy, “but it's true.”

The dragon leaned down, and the baby bird looked up at her before trilling a sad note. Pyre's heart, earlier filled with nothing but anger and wrath towards Equestria, now filled with sadness for those not involved in the conflict.

“What have I done,” she said, “I should have just found a way to kick out the ponies mining gems in our home. We could have just made sure we got our fair share.”

"Pyre, I'm sure we can do better than just give you your fair share of the gems." said Twilight, smiling at the dragon's choice to cooperate, "We can make it illegal to trespass into dragon territory, and we can also tax gem mining operations to help pay for programs to make sure the dragons get enough food."

"I don't get it." Pyre said looking back at her, "why are you so willing to help dragons when we almost always try to use violence against you?"

"Because we share the planet with you," explained Twilight, "and not all dragons have to be bad. Maybe it's time we start trying to cooperate with you, instead of fighting you."

Pyre nodded slowly, and carefully spoke to Fluttershy, trying not to scare her away.

"I didn't actually want to hit you," she admitted, "If I had landed that punch, I probably wouldn't have been able to forgive myself later. As it is, I can't forgive myself for what I did to the forest and its animals."

Fluttershy, still a little shaky, understood that the dragon had admitted to her mistake. She said to her softly, "Even if you had, hit me, it would have been worth it to save these creatures.”

Pyre held out her scaly hand in an inviting, open manner, and the baby bird jumped into the open palm before settling down.

“Spike was right,” she said, “being soft really does make things better. I actually kind of trust you guys to do something about the food supply. After this though... I doubt your leaders will say yes.”

“Pyre, if it's true that you and the other dragons in this area are starving, they'll approve,” assured Fluttershy, “when anyone has to go hungry, it can make them desperate.”

"Fluttershy, I'll make sure the other dragons know the ponies are passing laws to help us," she said, spreading her wings.

“But before I go... do you think maybe we should make sure this little guy gets home?” she asked.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and nodded with a broad smile on her face. It took them the rest of the afternoon, but with some help from Ponyville, the animals of the Everfree Forest had been successfully relocated into trees in the unburned part, and even the injured baby bird had been successfully returned to its parents, who built a new nest in a tree very close to Fluttershy's home. Soon after all had been amended for, Pyre left to return to her kind and explain the situation, hopeful that her family and friends would be able to get what they needed.

Later that night, Techorse and Twilight began work on writing the new law proposal to the princesses. Fluttershy joined them for the event, and her favorite animals helped to cheer her up and recover from her long, tiring day. She didn't seem upset at all now that her woodland creatures had offered to help, and many of them were thankful for the help in finding a new home. Applejack also managed to return after a long walk, although she was a little upset with PAL, she quickly forgave him when she admitted it was her own fault for trying to retrieve her hat. After a quick celebration of saving the forest, sponsored by Pinkie Pie, most of the friends had gone home for the night. The only two left were Twilight and Techorse, who stood on the roof of the castle together, looking at the stars and the mountains in the distance.

"Hopefully the princesses will be able to zone a fair amount of the mountains as off-limits to ponies so the dragons can eat better."

She said, "Thanks for standing up to Pyre with me."

"You're welcome." He said lovingly, "I just hope someday we can cooperate with these dragons, like you said earlier. Spike seemed to have some kind of an influence on Pyre, and I hope other dragons can be more like him."

Twilight smiled at the thought, "Yeah, I could see Spike going out and helping other dragons learn to co-exist with ponies. He might like that job a lot. Either way, I'm just glad we could save most of the forest together."

Techorse lifted his head slightly in surprise as he felt Twilight wrap her fan-cut tail around his. He stood shoulder to shoulder with her in the night, enjoying her warmth and company.

"I'm glad we're together too, Twilight." He said gently before kissing her on the forehead.

PAL watched his master and Twilight stand together on the roof from behind the safety of the roof access stairwell. He turned around to go back inside the castle, and ran through his robotic mind pleasant thoughts. His creator was happy in his relationship and friendships, and he had just helped to prevent deforestation. The robot walked slowly back to his favorite place to be in the castle, and knew that life would always get better so long as there was peace between his friends and the creatures they shared their world with.

#21 - Diplomacy of The Domain

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Diplomacy of The Domain

Techorse series: #21

By Spirals95

It was about one in the morning at Canterlot Castle, and the entire fortress built into the mountains of Equestria was at rest. Most of the guards had retired to their barracks to get their sorely needed sleep for another day of watching over the imposing structure, and those who had the fortune of living close by in the city had the luxury of sleeping in their own beds at home instead. Princess Luna had decided to spend this night watching over the city itself, leaving the castle for a few hours to return at dawn. This left her fortress a quiet place for the night, where, for the most part, there wasn't a single soul awake. Only one individual had gotten up at this hour and had slipped past the remaining night vigil to get into the kitchen.

Princess Celestia had managed to work her way into her castle's large kitchen after using an invisibility spell to sneak past her own guards. She didn't want a soul to see what she was about to do. As the large white mare stepped gently across the plain tiles of the kitchen floor, she reached a granite-top counter which was completely clear of objects except for one irresistible thing. A giant neatly stacked and absolutely luxurious pile of dark chocolate fudge brownies, baked just that afternoon by the royal chef, sat underneath a solid glass display bell jar.

Each of the bricks in this pyramid of chocolate confections was cut to large 4 inch by 3 inch rectangles, and was at least 1 inch thick. The princess turned her long neck to take a glance behind her, just to make sure no one else was in the room. Although her crown was back in its display cabinet, she was wearing a pink silk bathrobe, with matching slippers to mask the sound of her hooves on the ground. It would be embarrassing to be caught like this out in public, but it was past midnight, so the ruler could care less about her less-than-royal choice of night outfit.

Returning her attention to the goodies in front of her, the alicorn cast a small but forceful spell to gently remove the glass lid from the container. The glass jar was moved just a short way over to the side, and Celestia lowered the lid carefully, the very tip of her horn sparking with light. Once the lid was down safely on the counter, she removed her front legs from her slippers and started to work away at the sugary treats.

At first the princess was simply eating one bite at a time of the chocolate goods, but eventually the addicting nature of the brownies had her stuffing them into her mouth almost whole. After polishing off half a dozen, the princess began to realize just how dry her throat was becoming from all the brownie particles clogging it up. She moved away from the counter slowly, chocolate now at the corners of her mouth from the feast, and stepped over to the stainless-steel refrigerator nearby. Her hair still flowing despite the lack of breeze in the room, Celestia was careful not to trigger the light inside the refrigerator by pressing the latch on the top of the door with her left hoof. She then used a telekinesis spell to remove a half-gallon carton of milk from the icebox, and stepped back. Bringing the carton to her lips, she tilted her neck back and started draining the milk in large sips to satisfy her thirst. Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror as the click of the kitchen's electrical switch was heard, and the entire room was lit up in an instant.

"Oh, it's you my lady!" said Captain Arbiter with relief in his voice, removing his hoof from the light switch in relief, "I heard sounds coming from the kitchen and thought we had an intruder!"

Princess Celestia turned to face her captain, and casually put the half-empty carton of milk down on the counter next to the brownies. She had a good look at Arbiter, and realized his choice of clothing during the night was just as ridiculous as hers. Arbiter wore not only a red flannel cape, but also had a matching-red nightcap with a large silver puffball at the end. If wearing a cape to bed was supposed to make the pegasus look tough, the nightcap surely canceled out the effect.

"What are you doing out of bed?" he questioned, walking closer to the princess, "If you were hungry, you could have simply asked Jools to bring you something, he's got the night shift tonight."

"Being able to get my own snack is a perk of being royalty, Arbiter," said the princess, a bit annoyed Arbiter was demanding she stay in her room.

The pegasus simply smirked and replied, "Is drinking directly from the carton another perk of royalty?"

Celestia smiled with embarrassment at the fact that Arbiter had seen her drink milk from the carton, before sighing and saying, "I've been having trouble sleeping tonight, there's something on my mind."

Arbiter turned his head to a nearby stove, and looked at the ceramic teapot on it with his one good eye.

He suggested, "I'll make us some tea. If you need to tell me something so that you can get to sleep, your majesty, I'll listen while we have a cup."

Soon the two were seated in a small parlor outside of the kitchen area, enjoying a nice steaming cup of decaffeinated black tea. The parlor had a few large bay windows on the walls, but no artwork or any other kinds of decorations. The tea cabinet, circular marble coffee table, and the large fluffy blue couches that made up the seats for the tables were the only pieces of furniture in the room.
Arbiter took a relaxing sip from his teacup, using his front hooves to pick up the china. After setting the cup back down on its saucer, the pegasus pony ruffled his feathers before relaxing in his seat on the couch.

"What's been keeping you awake, your majesty?" he asked.

Although Arbiter's job wasn't to be Princess Celestia's therapist, he knew his job was to protect her, and he included protecting her mental health along with her physical health.

Celestia tilted her head up from her tea and answered, "Arbiter, ever since Twilight Sparkle and her friends uncovered my brother's kingdom behind the old castle, I've been trying to encourage its special ponies to visit the rest of Equestria as they please. Sadly, from reports I've been getting, not a single pony has dared to leave the domain, save for Limpwing."

Arbiter smirked softly at the name, thinking about the aspects of Limpwing he enjoyed seeing the most.

"Now that my sister has returned to Equestria, I've been able to be a little less worried about being viewed as a tyrant,"

continued the princess, "But I'm concerned about what the citizens of The Domain think about me. I want them to realize that I only want what is best for them, but they still seem to be very afraid of what I might do to them if they enter Equestria. They're scared that they might be viewed as worthless because of how different they are."

"Maybe you could send a few diplomats to ensure the citizens that we mean no harm," suggested Arbiter, "I'm thinking that if you did that, the ponies of The Domain wouldn't see you as so cold and distant."

Princess Celestia looked up from her tea and said with a smile on her face, "Arbiter, are you volunteering?"

The white stallion froze for a moment as he realized he'd just signed up for a diplomatic mission. He could refuse if he wanted to, but he really wanted another chance to see Limpwing again. Rather than admit this though, he pretended to have no interest in his own idea whatsoever.

"You would send me, a stallion with a scar and an eyepatch?" he laughed, "You don't want to scare them! Send somepony who looks a lot less like a soldier and more like a friend."

"I'll send Twilight Sparkle then," decided Celestia, turning her neck to look out the window, "she was the first to discover The Domain, along with Techorse."

Arbiter's remaining eye looked down in contempt. Arbiter couldn't stand the fact that Techorse was going to be the center of attention again while he had to sit in the castle.

"On second thought," he said, looking back up at his leader, "I'd like to go with them, if possible. I can offer some comfort to the residents by assuring them that our forces will only be used to protect them and their property."

"If you insist, Arbiter," replied Celestia, fairly aware of her captain's nature, "but there will be some rules as to how you're going to have to behave on the mission. I don't want to hear any reports of jail time threats from either Twilight Sparkle or Techorse."

Arbiter smiled as gracefully as he could and answered, "What? You don't trust me?"

The princesses' stern look gave the answer, making Arbiter regret saying that almost immediately. He knew that he wasn't going to like the restrictions the princess placed on him for this trip. But it was all worth it if he got another chance to see Lieutenant Limpwing again. After the princess and Arbiter had finished their tea for the night, he bid her goodnight and headed back to the castle's barracks to sleep.

As he walked down the darkened hallways of the cliff-side fortress, Arbiter thought carefully about what he had gotten himself into. He didn't really understand why he felt so strongly about another visit to the temporary leader of The Domain, but he did know he now had a mission to fulfill. Remembering that it was past midnight, Arbiter realized as he walked back to his bed that today was now his birthday and he'd have to work through it, a big disappointment. Still, wanting to remain tough, he maintained a smirk and kept his pose in a tough, dominant position. Tomorrow would bring the challenge of not using threats to bring the new ponies around, and that would be difficult enough for the captain.

The morning came six hours later, and Ponyville was blessed with only having a few clouds in the sky that day. No extra rain was needed for quite some time, so most of the weather pegasi had taken the day off to enjoy the warmth of the spring weather. Most of the towns' residents were outside either working or playing in the warm sun and the cool breeze. However, two of the residents were indoors today, engaged in an epic struggle for the fate of a distant outpost. Twilight and Techorse were in the library that day playing a round of Techorse's favorite board game, Cooperation Castle 2. Techorse was down to his last miniature on the map, a metal-cast figurine of a small earth pony standing on a powder keg with her front legs. Twilight magically shook a small cup filled with dice, and rolled the plastic cubes out over the floor where the two were playing the game. The results of the dice made her smile.

"Well, I just took out your demomare!" she said triumphantly, "good game, Tech."

"Yeah, that was fun!" He said, removing his piece from the pile and returning it to the game box with his front leg, "thanks for playing with me."

"I love playing board games with you!" she said, smiling at him, "Want to go get some lunch downtown? It's a beautiful day out there."

Techorse looked out of one of the library's windows and answered, "Sure. We'll go to your favorite place. Just make sure that Spike is ok with us leaving him here all by himself."

"He'll be fine," said Twilight knowingly, "Spike's probably just going to lounge around in his bed all afternoon as usual on weekends."

After finishing with cleaning up the game, the two headed out for the small café Twilight enjoyed getting a flower sandwich from, and headed downtown through the busy streets. Once they were in the center of town, they saw the various store owners selling goods to passing ponies, including Applejack, who was trying to sell a fresh bushel of her newest breed of apples to a passing customer. Bon-Bon and Lyra were trying to get an order filled for a pan of brownies from Pinkie Pie, who was much too distracted by the activity in the square to pay much attention to her friends. Once they got to the café, Techorse found a table for Twilight and himself, and they sat down together to order lunch. Behind them, a stallion with a newspaper was busy listening in on the conversation.

"I forgot to say this earlier," started Twilight, as she browsed over the menu, "but I just read a really great biology book this month about the various animals living in Equestria's mountains."

"That's interesting," said the colt across from her.

His ever-useful robotic arms extended from his saddle to pick up the other menu laid neatly on the lunch table, "Those animals are dangerous if they end up here in a town, like that time the schoolyard got attacked by a magma salamander!"

The waiter came around to the two, interrupting their conversation. Twilight ordered her daisy on white, as she always did at this restaurant, and Techorse went for the special of the day: grilled carrots and peas mixed in with pasta.

Once he had left with their orders, Twilight picked up where she had left off, "Anyways, it was interesting learning about what makes those animals attack ponies. There's usually a trick to making them calm down before they can cause any harm."

"I might have to read this book sometime," Techorse said, thinking about how he could use the information to avoid a future fight with a creature.

The stallion at the table behind them put down his newspaper, knowing he'd found the right ponies. He introduced himself,

"I knew I'd find you here, Techorse."

The two looked back to see who had mentioned Techorse's name, and saw Captain Arbiter sitting there, with a completely new look they weren't expecting. He had lost his cape for some reason, and his wings, which were usually concealed by the black or blue capes he wore, was now plainly visible. Arbiter still had to wear his eyepatch of course, but he now wore a black pinstripe hat on his head, which covered his gray mane hair well.

"Hello Arbiter!" said Techorse, trying to be nice, "How did you know we'd be here?"

He smirked in response and answered, "You and Twilight always come here for lunch the same time every week. You're both very predictable ponies."

Twilight nearly blushed in embarrassment at this statement of how boring she and Techorse had become, but she knew it was true; they always ended up going to the same restaurant on Saturday for lunch.

"So what are we in trouble for now?" asked Twilight jokingly, "Did you wake up and see a reminder to torture us on your to-do list?"

The comeback hit Arbiter like a brick, but he shook it off and said, now frowning at her, "No, as a matter of fact, Princess Celestia has sent me here to go on a special mission with you. That's why I'm wearing this atrocious hat and I've lost my cape and sword. I'll explain everything once we're done having lunch."

After the meal, the three headed back to the library to prepare for the trip. As soon as they were inside, Arbiter removed the tacky hat Princess Celestia had made him wear and put it on a nearby coat rack. Spike was still sleeping soundly in his bed despite it being past noon, and Twilight rolled her eyes when she saw him chewing on the corner of his pillow in his sleep. Once she had checked on her assistant, she went back downstairs in her tree home to find Arbiter and Techorse already discussing the important assignment the princess had for them.

"So what is this special mission anyways?" asked Techorse, "Seeing as Celestia sent you, Arby, I'm assuming we're going to have to fight some monster or stop some plot."

The captain shook his head, "The princess told me that the citizens of The Domain have not yet started to visit Equestria despite their right to do so. We think they might still be afraid that Princess Celestia is going to punish them for either being different, or for defecting from Equestria. Since both you and Twilight Sparkle are the most familiar with The Domain, I've been sent to help make peace."

"You, make peace?" scoffed Twilight with a twitch of her right ear, "That's a good one, Arbiter."

"That's why I'm without cape and sword," he explained, a little irritated from the insult, "the rules of this trip are that nopony can bring any weapons. Techorse will have to leave his battle saddle behind."

"That's fair," said Techorse.

Reaching back, he unbuckled the black straps that held his saddle in place, and the device slipped onto the hardwood floor of the library.

The young inventor was impressed with his previous enemy for being willing to give up his trusty sword for a peace mission. Having to give up his gadgetry for a day to see this happen was well worth the trade. Hopefully the peaceful nature of the mission was going to mean some improvement in Arbiter's nature.

"If that's it, then we're almost ready to go," said Twilight, "I'm going to pack a few books on the recent history of Equestria to show the ponies of The Domain just in case they want more proof that it's perfectly safe to come back."

Once she had secured the reading material, they all left the library and headed for the outskirts of Ponyville to make for the Castle of the Two Sisters. Techorse made a quick stop to pick up some money from the local bank branch, and secured it in a small canvas bag around his neck. Once he returned to his friends, he realized that he was feeling rather odd about not wearing his saddle, and wondered what he was going to be able to do without it. He kept telling himself that not using the gadget for a while would be good for him, and tried to keep his mind off of it. Before he and his friends could leave town for The Domain, they were intercepted by a very curious Pinkie Pie, who had noticed them trying to leave Ponyville without saying goodbye to her.

"Hi! Where's everypony going today?" she asked, jumping in front of the dirt path that led out of town.
She wasn't going to move without getting an answer.

Knowing this, Arbiter pushed aside Twilight and Techorse and answered, "We're about to leave town Miss Pie, to go to The Domain. Twilight is going to assist Lieutenant Limpwing in getting the ponies there to return to Equestria."

Pinkie Pie jumped up and down with her eyes closed, "I want to go to! That sounds like a lot of fun!"

Twilight didn't think her friend would be trouble on the trip, but it might be a little risky to bring her along anyways, so she said, "We're only going to be talking to them, Pinkie Pie. I don't think you're going to find much to do."

"You think it'd be boring?" she asked with surprise, halting her jumps.

"Of course it's going to be boring, it's a peaceful mission," grunted Arbiter, "and I'm going to have to do this on my birthday too."

Pinkie Pie heard those words, and her pupils dilated in delight. She squealed out a question to the pegasus pony, "Today is your birthday, Arby?!"

"Yes," he said, grumbling.

Pinkie Pie shrieked with delight and ran away laughing from her friends. She was off to plan a great birthday surprise for Arbiter.

"Great, now somepony else knows how old I'm getting," he mumbled in disgust.

They continued their hike for Oldcastle while back in town, Pinkie Pie rushed back to Sugarcube Corner to begin preparations for her big celebration of Arbiter's birthday. The pink cartoonish blur of speed passed Rarity in the streets, blowing her curly purple-blue hair into her face.

"Slow down Pinkie!" she said, "You're going to get yourself injured."

Pinkie Pie actually listened to the advice, and slowed down to a comfortable trot, backtracking to reach Rarity. Applejack noticed the two talking from across the street, and momentarily closed her apple cart to join them.

"I'm just so excited I've got another chance to throw a great party!" she said cheerfully.

"Well that's great, darling!" said Rarity, pushing her last curl back into place, "What, or should I say who, is it for?"

"It's for Arby!" she said.

Applejack and Rarity's mouths fell open in shock.

"For ARBITER?!" asked Rarity with contempt, "Why in Equestria would you want to throw a party for a disgusting stallion like him?"

"Why not?" asked Pinkie Pie, tilting her head in confusion.

Applejack cleared her throat and recovered from the shock before interrupting, "Well for starters, Pinkie Pie, he tried to chop off Techie's head!"

"So?" she asked,"Techie isn't bitter."

"And he also tried to feed you to a purple worm!" added Applejack.

"I can forgive that," giggled Pinkie Pie, “besides, the worm didn't really know any better.”

Rarity then thought of something she was sure would change Pinkie Pie's mind, "But worst of all, he attempted to make Fluttershy be his trophy wife! Oh, the poor mare would have been forced to bear his likely just as violent foals! In fact, Arbiter still tries to get Fluttershy to date him every chance he gets.

Why in Equestria would you want to help somepony like that?"

Now Pinkie Pie's heart was conflicted. On one side of the debate, Pinkie Pie really did not want to pass up the chance to exercise her skills in cake baking and party throwing. But on the other hand, Arbiter had done this to Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie never let another pony toy with Fluttershy if she had anything to say about it. It all came down to whether or not Pinkie Pie was willing to forgive Arbiter for the way he treated Fluttershy.

Eventually she responded, "Nopony deserves to miss out on their birthday party just because we don't like him! I'm sure Fluttershy wouldn't want me to make Arbiter have a sad birthday just because of his weird crush on her."

"It's a little more than a crush…" muttered Applejack, scratching the ground with her hoof.

"Even so, if I'm gonna be known as the party pony of Ponyville, I have to do it!" she said, turning around and walking away, "You two will see it my way eventually!"

Rarity and Applejack looked at each other and frowned, knowing they had failed to talk her out of it. Whether it was fair or not, Pinkie Pie enjoyed celebrating others' birthdays, even if she didn't like the pony himself. It was very hard to get her to hold a grudge.

Meanwhile, miles away at the old castle, Twilight Sparkle got herself ready to cross over to The Domain with her companions. The hole in the gray stone wall behind the crumbling fortress stood open and waiting. Behind it would be a very large challenge for her, getting an entire country to see Princess Celestia as a caring leader. The unicorn pony knew the citizens were going to be heavily biased against coming back into Equestria due to all the propaganda Prince Darkmatter had fed them over the years.

"This is it," said Arbiter, turning his neck.

The sound of vertebrae straightening sickened Twilight slightly as the older stallion fixed his posture, "Let's go make us some new citizens."

The three walked through the hole in the wall slowly moving from what they believed was one world to the next. When they stepped out into the sunlight, the township of The Domain was actually almost exactly the same as how they left it. The obsidian black castle in the distant was still steaming as it used a special coolant system to vent the intense heat the black stone generated into the air around it. Below the castle where Prince Darkmatter lived before he left on his trip to find his brother, was the small town known as The Domain. No smaller than Ponyville, the village was home to hundreds of inhabits who deemed themselves special and not fit to live in Equestria. They were all afraid they were going to be hunted by Princess Celestia if they dared to step through the wall Twilight had just passed through. The friends saw Limpwing standing with two of her guards at her sides, both gray pegasus ponies with bronze armor covering most of their bodies.

"Hi Limpwing!" said Twilight, walking up to her new friend, "How have things been going here in The Domain?"

"Not bad," she answered honestly, "It's been stressful keeping a tiny country together by myself but we've gotten along."

Looking behind Twilight, Limpwing took a step to the side and addressed Arbiter, "Captain."

"Lieutenant," he said back, nodding.

Going back to Twilight after the small exchange, Limpwing continued, "If we're going to get our ponies to cross over into Equestria, we're going to have to teach them that the outsiders want them back. I was thinking that a day of you and Techorse using the services of our ponies would make them feel more comfortable."

"That seems reasonable," agreed Twilight, who took a large book with a black cover out of her saddlebags.

Floating it in front of Limpwing's face, she said, "I also brought a few texts on the recent history of Equestria, just to prove our government's done more good than bad."

"Sorry Twilight, but most of the citizens are indoctrinated like crud into ignoring your books," she said, trying hard not to smirk, "they won't read that, so you might as well just give your books to the guards. We'll give them back after the day."

Twilight frowned, but turned over her textbooks and saddlebags to the guards. If they were useless to the mission, she might as well lighten her load. Limpwing then dismissed the guards, who seemed to eyeball Techorse suspiciously as they left the team of four. Apparently they were still rather angry about the burns they had gotten from the inventor earlier in the year.

"Ok, so where should we start?" asked Captain Arbiter, stepping forward to look Limpwing in the eye, "Perhaps we should split up into two teams, consisting of me and Limpwing, and Twilight and Techorse."

Twilight wrinkled her nose in disgust at Arbiter botching his grammar, and his pursuit of spending time with Limpwing. The blue pegasus pony caught on to this, and suggested, "Actually Arbiter, it's probably better if Twilight and I go together and you and Techorse hang out. This mission was originally just for her after all."

"Very well," grunted Arbiter, taking a step back from Limpwing.

"Then let's get started!" said Techorse, "Come on, Arby, let's head downtown."

He nodded and followed the green colt off to find something to do. This left the two mares together to plan on how they were going to win back The Domain.

"We can start by going to the north part of town and introducing you to the residents," Limpwing said, "hope you're able to deal with some of our ponies though."

Twilight smiled, "I'm sure we'll get along."

The two walked into the town, and Twilight scanned the village to have a look at its architecture. The homes were made out of red brick and had thatched roofs, each was two stories tall and could probably suit a family of four. Sometimes a shop made out of a different material such as concrete or wood could be seen amongst the buildings, but the color scheme definitely featured hot colors, a large difference from Ponyville's pinks and blues. The residents of The Domain popped in and out of their homes to do their shopping or sell their products, and Twilight couldn't see any real differences between the behavior of the residents and those of Ponyville.

However, that soon changed when she started to look at the appearances and habits that the residents had. She saw a tan coated unicorn pony with a small dent in his horn, something that could have been easily fixed with corrective surgery in Fillydelphia's hospitals. There was a magenta pegasus who was half submerged in a tub of glass marbles, swearing that her new marble therapy was going to be a huge success someday. Limpwing's damaged appendage helped her to fit right in with these special ponies, who weren't really deformed or strange in comparison to everyone else, just very unique in their own ways. To these ponies, who had found themselves to be awkward or different had escaped from Equestria early in life, The Domain was a safe haven where they could just be themselves and not worry about judgment.

Twilight Sparkle stopped in front of a home, whose owning couple had stepped out into the daylight. The husband was an earth pony with a yellowish coat and long black mane, and his wife was a silver pegasus with visible knots in her cyan colored mane. Both of them had a small silver ball tied to the ends of their tails.

"Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle, from Equestria!" Twilight said to introduce herself in a friendly manner.
The two ponies looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes before talking to Limpwing instead.

The wife, Sterling, asked her, "Um, Miss Limpwing, is it ok for this Twilight to be here?"

Limpwing nodded and assured them, "Twilight's here to talk to anypony who will listen about how great life in Equestria is. We're hoping you guys can start getting out of The Domain more to socialize."

"Why don't you come in the house then?" said the husband, Refiner, "We were going to go get a drink together, but I guess we can talk for a while instead! Great to have company, y'know?"

Limpwing and Twilight stepped inside the townhouse to have a conversation with the married couple. Twilight learned quickly that these two were considered special for their brand new invention, the silver ball they were wearing on their tails. Some tail jewelry had caught on in Equestria before, but never something as simple, nor heavy, as a ball of precious metal threaded through the tail.

"So you see," said Sterling, explaining their concept to Twilight, "we're planning on making the silver sphere thing a trend in The Domain."

"That's very nice," said Twilight, trying not to be rude but wanting to hint at the spheres being too heavy, "In fact, I'm sure the silver spheres might just catch on in Equestria, if our tails can hold them up!"

Limpwing nodded, hoping that her being an authority figure would help her citizens to agree. But they frowned and looked nervously at each other.

Finally after a minute of silence, Refiner said, "We can't go back to Equestria! Princess Celestia would dissolve our marriage and lock us up for failing to get a license with her first."

"What?" gasped Twilight with horror, "Who told you that?"

The stallion walked over to a nearby bookshelf in his home and quickly picked out a large black book. Returning to the table, he set down the rather impressive printed material and asked Twilight to flip through it. Not wanting to ever pass up a chance to read something new, Twilight read each page eagerly. Her happy thoughts about reading were soon fading away as she read all of the nasty stories written within.

This was obviously a book of propaganda written by Prince Darkmatter to indoctrinate his citizens that Princess Celestia was evil and would do terrible things to any pony who dare cross her. Twilight got halfway through the book when she came across a chapter titled "The Fate of Ponies Who Question Celestia's Tax Codes." Rather than have a descriptive text, Prince Darkmatter's artists had drawn a lifelike two-panel cartoon of Princess Celestia. In the top panel, Celestia was looking down with a demonic grin on her face at a small male earth pony, who was wearing a blue handkerchief around his neck. The doomed colt was sitting on a pewter colored tray, and was looking up at Celestia with tears and guilt in his innocent orange colored eyes. In the bottom panel of the illustration, the pony had disappeared entirely, but a very obvious clue to his fate had been left in. Princess Celestia, her eyes now closed, was patting her lips with the blue handkerchief.

Twilight took in all of the information and realized that Darkmatter had demonized Princess Celestia even more than Equestria had demonized Luna. It would take a lot more than smooth talking and kindness to convince The Domain that everything was just a misunderstanding.

"First of all, Princess Celestia is not a cannibal," said Twilight to Refiner, "this was all just a big lie told by Prince Darkmatter. He was mad that Celestia had banished Princess Luna to the moon and wanted to make her seem evil to his citizens."

"Even if that's true…" said Sterling, "what makes you so sure you haven't been brainwashed by Celestia?"

"I'll prove it by trying everypony's hobbies and products in town!" said Twilight, smiling, "could you agree that logically if I was brainwashed by Celestia or had a spell on me, I'd never want to do anything out of the ordinary?"

"I guess we'd have to agree," said Refiner reluctantly, "but there's a lot of ponies living in The Domain. You'd better get started now."

Limpwing went to the door of the home and opened it for Twilight, then thanked the young couple for talking with them. Twilight headed out the door and started looking for residents engaged in their odd activities.

Meanwhile, Arbiter and Techorse had found themselves in a labor-oriented section of town. Arbiter had entered a local brewery to sample the odd drinks concocted out of various plants indigenous to the area. Techorse in the meantime had found a large shop with a gigantic metal chimney sticking of the top of it. A small sign featuring a gray anvil hung out front of the simple wooden door which marked the entry to the shop. Figuring he would have a look inside the smoke-emitting store while Arbiter had a drink, Techorse opened the wood door with his front leg and walked inside.

The large, open area in the building was clearly designed to dissipate heat. Granite tiles on the floor led up to a large oak workbench, behind which was a large brick oven heating coals to hundreds of degrees. A few anvils sat on the floor in front of this furnace, and a large cherry-wood rack on the wall provided dozens of tools. An older and somewhat overweight unicorn pony worked in this shop. His aquamarine coat contrasted by his gray mane hair and oversized handlebar mustache. He held with his magic a large metal mallet, and was pounding with nice even strokes on a large pitchfork held on one of the anvils. The metal of the farming tool still glowed a soft orange from the heat, and sparks flew from it every time the hammer landed.

Techorse walked up to the bench and watched the elder work with curiosity. He'd never been to a blacksmith's shop before, so watching a pony make tools by hoof instead of machine was new to him.
Eventually the unicorn finished with the fork and placed it on a cooling rack before turning back to the young stallion. A bright smile came to the old pony's face.

"Well would you look at yourself! I don't get many youngsters in my shop! How can I help you, son?"

Techorse swished his tail with excitement, "It's nice to meet you. I've never seen anypony make tools like this before. I mean, I knew blacksmith shops existed still, but I thought they'd be rare."

"Some things are best made the old-fashioned way. I suppose you're more into machine-pressed tools." said the smith, coughing from the thick air in the store.

"Actually, yes, I'm in the business of machine-produced gadgets," he answered honestly, looking a bit away in embarrassment, "my name's Techorse after all."

"Well ya might be able to make tons of fancy contraptions by machine, but you can't make a decent tool without a good hammer and anvil!" argued the shop owner, "And you certainly can't make one without me, Forgemaster."

Techorse smiled somewhat in agreement, knowing the older stallion didn't really want to insult him, he just had a lot of pride in what he probably did his entire life. Thinking over what Forgemaster must be able to make, Techorse remembered something important, and untied the bag of money from his neck. He'd traded his Equestrian bits for Limpwing's domainmarks earlier, and the bag of square coins hit the table gently.

"Can you make me something for this?" he asked, smiling.

Forgemaster squinted at the bag and carefully opened it with telekinesis. Dumping the contents on the table and sorting out the three sizes of coins with a hoof, he counted the value of the currency quickly and realized the amount that Techorse had dumped on the table was enough to pay for an entire set of tools, not just one. The blacksmith knew he could easily rip off Techorse by simply telling him the currency was worthless, given that he was an outsider and had no idea how much the money was worth, but he preferred to be trustworthy than wealthy.

"This is quite a lot of marks you have here," he said slowly, "large orders take a long time to make, maybe even a few months. I sure hope you've planned ahead what you want."

Techorse opened his eyes in surprise at the generous exchange rate Limpwing had given him, and said, "I just want one thing. Can you keep some of the extra if it's a custom job and you deliver the finished product into Equestria for me?"

Forgemaster paused for a moment, then simply asked, "Well son, what did you have in mind?"

Twilight was sitting neck-deep in a tub full of glass marbles, and she felt a sensation in her left ear that made her suspect one of the marbles had gotten in it. She tried to keep a smile on her face, but felt as if the weird therapy wasn't doing much to help her relax. Of course, unless she used the services of enough of the ponies in town, they'd never believe that she wasn't a spy for Princess Celestia.

"Enjoying the marbles?" snickered Limpwing, having a laugh at her friend's expense.

"Not really…" she muttered through a gritted smile.

"That's too bad," answered the pegasus.

She jumped into another tub of the glass spheres, scattering stray orbs on the ground.

Settling down into the sub, Limpwing pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes and crossed her front legs in back of her head, "See Twilight, you're doing it wrong. You're sitting up and not letting the marbles support your weight."

Twilight looked behind herself at her pink and purple striped fantail sticking up above the marbles. Shifting her weight back on her hind legs, she eventually rested her back on the marbles. It actually felt surprisingly relaxing to have the marbles resting her spine. The look of relaxation on her face let Limpwing know she'd been listened to.

The inventor of the marble therapy came over to the two with a bucket of steaming water, and poured the hot liquid into each of the tubs, warming the marbles.

"So, do you think my therapy would sell in Equestria?" she asked hopefully, picking up a few of the stray glass spheres off from the ground around Limpwing's tub.

"Absolutely!" said Twilight, letting out a sigh as the steam fluffed her mane, "This will make a really great addition to Ponyville's spa!"

Limpwing added, "See? Equestria really wants The Domains' citizens. Why don't you visit Equestria sometime?"

"I'll start tomorrow!" she answered eagerly.

Twilight thought to herself, "Great! We've got our first citizen back. Now if only there was a way to convince the others faster. But I guess a case-by-case basis is better than nothing."

Closing her eyes, the unicorn sank further into her soothing spa bath.

On the other side of town, Techorse had finally managed to drag Captain Arbiter away from the bar he was visiting. The owner was getting angry at the number of free samples Arbiter had demanded from him, and it took all of Techorse's strength to keep the stallion from simply beating up the owner and taking his stock.

"We're here to make the citizens think we're friends, not criminals, Arbiter," he said angrily as they walked away from the shop, "can't you see that?"

Arbiter replied, "I can't see why they can't give a person with my rank a couple of free drinks. You'd think they would understand pleasing me would mean they wouldn't have to be afraid of Celestia's guards."

Techorse rolled his eyes and looked around for something to change the subject. He noticed a pegasus mare selling some hiking supplies, and a path behind her that clearly led up into the mountains.

"Let's go for a walk through the mountain ranges while we wait for Limpwing and Twilight to get done with their mission," he suggested, "we can argue about this later."

Arbiter sighed heavily, "I suppose I have nothing better to do."

They set off on the trail, and much to the disgust of the mare standing by it, Arbiter refused to buy anything from her. Techorse tossed her a few coins for a bottle of water to try and make up for his cheap actions. He then let Arbiter get ahead of him by a significant amount, not wanting to have to deal with his cranky nature for a while. The inventor might have forgiven him for his past crimes, but he really didn't want to try and make him behave in a way he wasn't really capable of behaving. Hopefully though, this walk would help him to calm down and not act so rude.

Most of the remainder of the day went by without much progress with the other ponies and Limpwing and Twilight were both beginning to get tired. Twilight also felt a little sick, she had eaten chocolate covered potato chips in an attempt to please another resident. They'd only managed to convince about a dozen individuals to visit Equestria in the upcoming week, and even then they still seemed unsure about their decision. Twilight was beginning to give up on her mission, and knew Princess Celestia was going to be disappointed.

The two sat on a bench in the middle of the town's square, watching the residents go by. Behind them was a large decorative fountain, which spewed water down several tiers before draining into a basin below.

"Hey, cheer up Twilight," said Limpwing to her companion, noticing her frown, "we did our best, and we've only had one day. It's probably going to take a lot of time to undo all the trouble Darkmatter has caused."

"I understand," said Twilight, looking down at the brick road beneath her, "it's just a little bit disappointing that we've spent so much time getting absolutely nowhere with these ponies."

Suddenly, and without any warning, a clumsy pony accidentally flew into the fountain, gaining the attention of the roughly one hundred ponies in the town square. The victim of the flying accident fell unconscious temporarily and fell helplessly into the fountain's water below. Luckily, the icy chill of the flowing water woke her up, and a light gray pegasus pony stuck her head out from the water.

"Oh, Derpy!" said Twilight with terror, "Are you ok?"

Derpy Hooves climbed slowly out of the fountain, and shook herself off of water, getting droplets all over Limpwing, who closed her eyes to avoid getting them hit.

The mare rubbed the sore spot on her head and turned her non-lazy eye towards Twilight, "Well I guess so, Twilight Sparkle. Didn't mean to crash into the fountain, but I got distracted again."

The ponies in the square had surrounded them and were attempting to comfort Derpy over her terrible accident.

"Are you going to be ok?" asked a colt.

Derpy Hooves replied with a smile, "I'll be fine, thanks!"

Noticing her misdirected eye, one of the mares in the crowd surrounding them said, "I haven't seen you around lately. Where do you live?"

Limpwing opened her eyes again, and hatched a plan quickly to help Twilight out with her mission.

She turned to her subject and said, "Derpy's not from The Domain. She lives in Ponyville with Twilight here."

Several of the members of the crowd either gasped or started talking to each other, trying to understand why a silly, crazy-eyed pony like Derpy Hooves could possibly be allowed to live in the same country as Princess Celestia.

"You mean…" said one of them slowly, "Derpy lives in Equestria despite her eyes?"

Derpy Hooves turned her head to him and answered, "Yeah, why wouldn't I live in Equestria because of my eyes? They've always been this way."

"Celestia doesn't hate you for your strangeness?" asked a concerned mare.

Derpy Hooves started laughing, "What? No! I've met Princess Celestia before, and she likes me a lot, even though I make a lot of messes around Ponyville. She's never called me strange."

Limpwing took the opportunity to nudge Twilight in the side with her more functional wing, giving her a cue to take advantage of the situation.

Twilight gained a beaming smile and began to address the residents as a whole,

"See? Derpy Hooves is a very special, loveable pony, just like all of you, and Princess Celestia accepts her for who she is. Prince Darkmatter spent a long time tricking you all into thinking she was evil because he was bitter that Princess Luna had to be banished using the Elements of Harmony. If you read the book I gave Limpwing here about the recent history of Equestria, you'll see that Celestia has felt guilty for years over the entire ordeal. She hopes that if you return to Equestria, even if you don't want to live there, she can forgive herself for everything."

"I'm going through the wall!" declared a crowd member, jumping up in the air.

"Let's show Celestia we're worthwhile!" said another.

Cheering and agreement seemed to be the theme of the citizen's cries, and they began the walk for the wall that had kept them separate from Equestria for years. Twilight and Limpwing looked at Derpy Hooves, who was dancing in place over the excitement.

"Derpy, you helped us get The Domain back!" said Twilight excitedly.

She gave the mailmare a big hug, and Derpy Hooves accepted it gladly. When they were done, they turned to Limpwing, who took one step back when she realized what they wanted to do.

"I don't do the big group hug," she said, chuckling with a bit of pride.

"Too bad!" said Derpy, tackling Limpwing with Twilight in tow and forcing her hold upon her.
Twilight's ears perked up as she remembered something.

"We have to go pick up the boys!" She said, "Any ideas where they might be, Limpwing?"

The lieutenant shrugged and answered, "Don't really know, but how hard could it be to find Arbiter with that eyepatch of his?"

A pegasus leaving for the wall turned around when she heard this and answered with a bit of anger in her voice, "I think I saw the colt with the eyepatch. That cheapskate went on my hiking path without buying any of my merchandise! At least his friend bought something."

Twilight tried not to laugh. She knew her coltfriend would try to make up for Arbiter being stingy.

"It certainly sounds like them. Thanks for the information!" she said.

The pegasus pony winked and said, "You're welcome! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to visit Equestria for a bit, just to say hi."

Derpy Hooves said to Twilight, "I have to go too. Glad I could do something to help!"

"All right, see you later, Derpy!" she answered, waving as her pegasus friend lifted slowly into the air to fly back home.

After Derpy had left, Limpwing said to Twilight, "I know where that mare's hiking path is. Let's go get the Captain and Techorse back."

As the two trotted along, Twilight asked, "Do you think they're having a good time?"

"Probably. It's hard to ruin a hiking trip if it doesn't rain," she answered.

Techorse and Arbiter had accidentally wandered off of the main mountain trail and ended up in a grassy plateau a kilometer from the known path. They looked around at the beauty of the mountains, and Techorse scratched at the dirt with his hooves, enjoying the experience of not wearing his saddle for once.

"You know, Arbiter," he said, "I know you don't like me very much, but I kind of wish you could be my friend."

"Why would you want me as a friend?" he asked, looking off into the distance, "I don't need any friends."

"But that's just it," retorted Techorse, "Everypony needs good friends, and as corny as this is going to sound, I think you wouldn't do all the things you do if you simply had more friendships in your life."

Arbiter wished he had a cloth to shove into Techorse's mouth, but he knew the younger pony wasn't going to be quiet until he had a decent conversation.

After taking a breath, Arbiter said, "Techorse, I lost an eye to a wraith when I was your age, my parents were always fighting while I was growing up, and I've been betrayed by others to win favor with authority. Through it all I've learned never to trust anyone. That's why I couldn't trust you, Razor, or anypony else for that matter. There's not a single pony in this world I can count on except for myself."

Techorse's heart sank as he understood that Arbiter's actions were his coping mechanism for his pain. The Captain's immoral behavior was the only logical answer to the sheer amount of betrayal and hatred he had received throughout his life. It didn't excuse his selfishness and bad attitude, but it certainly explained it.

A loud thud was heard behind the two, breaking up their conversation. Techorse thought it might have been a falling tree or something. But then he noticed that the "fallen tree" was breathing hot air down the back of his mane. Turning around slowly, Techorse came face to face with a brand new creature.

It was 20 feet tall, 30 feet long, and had to have weighed several tons. Most certainly a giant rhinoceros of some kind, the magical animal was dark gray in color, and had glowing red eyes. Stone plates covered the body of the animal, and a bright sapphire-colored horn, almost looking like a giant gemstone was pointed right at Techorse's neck. The tail of the animal was barbed with several sharp points, and the legs of the creature were covered in sharp lava rock. The animal grunted and began to scrape its front hoof on the ground.

Arbiter got a look at the fearsome animal and said slowly, "Techorse, don't make any sudden movements. Try to walk as slowly as possible to me."

Obeying the Captain's command, the young stallion slowly turned around and walked gently away from the creature. As soon as he was by Arbiter, the rhino's gaze diverted to the ground, and it began to noisily eat the grass in front of it.

"Let's get out of here," whispered Arbiter.

Techorse nodded and followed him back to where they knew the path was. Unfortunately, a spare canteen of water from an earlier hiker had been left on the ground, and since Arbiter and Techorse hadn't taken their eyes off the magical beast behind them, they didn't notice it in time. Arbiter tripped over the canteen, and shouted in pain as his head hit the ground. This attracted the attention of the monster, who gave a loud roar and began to charge at the pair.

"Split up!" shouted Techorse.

Running away from the charging monster in opposite directions seemed to be the best plan. The rhino couldn't possibly get to both of them if they did this, and it also offered a chance for one of them to get help. However, the monster seemed to have some sort of brain in its head, and chased Techorse to a nearby wall of stone. The creature now had its green victim pinned against the granite obstacle, and escaping to the sides would be very difficult without being impaled on the spiked tail it had.

Techorse stood up on his hind legs and sprawled in fear against the granite wall. He realized just how helpless he was without his trusty laser cannons, and wished he'd have taken some kind of self defense lessons. The rhino now lowered its head to point its horn down at his stomach, and he knew any second now the animal would run him through. But to his surprise, Captain Arbiter ran in from the side and underneath the creature's four legs, confusing it. Turning around in a full circle, the side of the creature's tail caught the Captain's rear, and he was flung into the stone wall legs first. After grunting in pain, Arbiter stood up on all fours in front of Techorse, bending down to try to look as menacingly as possible at his opponent.

"Arbiter, you can fly!" said Techorse with panic, "Get out of here!"

"I'm not letting this beast crush you!" he answered, looking back at him, "If anyone gets to do you in, it's going to be ME!"

Techorse's ears flattened, and he gave the Captain an annoyed look, who returned it with a classy smile to indicate he was being a jerk on purpose.

A large bolt of purple energy struck the creature in the left side of its belly, exploding in a large blast of purple energy, and it turned its head curiously to look at who had dared to annoy it. Twilight stood bent forward, her horn smoking slightly from the magic missile. Limpwing was at her side with her flight goggles and best war face on.

"Come on guys!" shouted Limpwing, "Get out of there!"

Arbiter grabbed Techorse with his front legs, and used his strong wings to fly him over to the others.

Dropping him off next to Twilight, Arbiter landed gently on the other side of Limpwing and asked, "What is that thing?"

Twilight answered, "That's a Stone Rhino. It was in that book on mountain creatures I was reading earlier. Despite its name, it's not a material based animal like the Timber Wolves. That rhino naturally grows calcium deposits all over its body to armor itself, giving the appearance of being made of gems and rocks."

"But it only eats plants, right?" asked Limpwing, hoping the rhino didn't plan on a four-pony dinner.

"Of course it only eats plants, but they're very territorial and attack intruders. That's why you should never stray from a hiking path, you never know what animals are out there," lectured Twilight, slightly annoyed by Limpwing's lack of knowledge.

The rhino got tired of hearing the ponies talk on, and turned to them, roaring loudly.

"Teleport us out of here!" said Arbiter, "I know you unicorns can do that!"

Twilight agreed and began to try and charge up her spell. Bright fuchsia energy accumulated at the tip of her horn, but something was wrong. Unfortunately, her recent poor nutrition choices had left her with a slight stomachache and a lack of energy to cast the spell. Twilight groaned and canceled the attempt at teleporting all four of them.

"It's no good. All that weird food I ate has made me too sick to teleport all four of us."

Limpwing looked back at the rhino, who had now lowered his horn and was going to charge again any second.

"Well if you don't have enough energy to teleport all four of us, how else can we stop that thing? We can't outrun it, and flying leaves you and Techorse stranded," she asked.

Twilight thought quickly as the monster started to run.

She said loudly, "I know! I'll use a low-power soothing spell I've used to help Spike sleep. If Techorse stays here and keeps me focused, I'll have enough strength. Can you and Arbiter distract that thing?"

Arbiter and Limpwing spread their wings and smirked at each other. They jumped in the air and began to fly around the rhino, who stopped his charge just 10 feet from Twilight and Techorse, and started to taunt the creature.

"Over here, ugly!" teased Limpwing, dodging a swing from a gigantic horn.

Her injured wing reduced her flying to a series of bounces in the air, but that was enough to dodge the blows.

Arbiter took this opportunity to land on the stone rhino's back and say, "I wonder if you'd make an excellent pet for the castle."

Limpwing played along while flying behind the rhino, "Probably not, Arbiter. He has anger management issues."

The rhino turned around to follow Limpwing, desperately wanting to flatten her on the grassy plains. Twilight and Techorse concentrated on him, and Twilight cast a small silky ribbon of purple energy. It swirled around the stone rhino's large head, and its eyelids began to grow heavy from the effect of the spell.

"Oh come on," said Limpwing, "you want to hit me? You'll have to try harder than that!"

The rhino lunged with his horn, and Limpwing simply flapped her left wing sharply to roll herself away from the blow. Arbiter was thrown off of the creature's rocky back, and grabbed a hold of his rear left leg. Unfortunately, this was the stone rhino's sensitive blind spot, and it reared up on its hind legs in surprise at the touch. Limpwing gasped as the giant footpads nearly landed on her, and the shake from the impact knocked Arbiter clean off the leg he was holding on to. Twilight managed to get off a few more ribbons, and the creature panted gently, its eyes half closed as it grew sleepy. It made one last attempt to hit Limpwing rather lazily with its front horn, and then, it slowly fell over onto its side, and with a large crash, the soothing spell had put it to sleep on the floor of the plateau. Without making any sound, the four friends just smiled and left the giant animal alone to take his nap.

Once they had gotten back to the town, they were walking in pairs, with Limpwing and Arbiter in the back.

She said to him, "You know Arbiter, you and I work together really well. If you want to do something together, you can swing by The Domain anytime you want."

Arbiter felt a tug inside of him, and he answered, "I think I just might, lieutenant!"

"Hey, we're both officers and all; you can just call me Limpwing," She said, winking.

"But don't call her Limpy!" teased Techorse. He received a nice playful kick in the rear leg for that.

Soon the three had bid goodbye to Limpwing and left through the hole in the ancient wall to return to Ponyville. Eventually they reached the library, which was darkened on the inside. Twilight opened the door with her magic, and ushered Techorse and Arbiter into the home.

Once all three of them got in, the light clicked on, and all of Twilight's friends jumped out from their hiding places.

"Happy Birthday Arbiter!" they shouted, springing the surprise.

The Captain leaned back in shock. Pinkie Pie had set up a nice surprise party for him, with blue streamers hanging from every corner of the library's ceiling, and a scrumptious looking vanilla cake sitting on the table along with dozens of glasses of Arbiter's favorite drink, ginger ale.

"You threw a party for me?" he asked, smiling genuinely at the touching idea.

"Yep!" said Pinkie Pie, who proceeded to blow a party kazoo in Arbiter's face, the paper end of the spiral favor tickling his muzzle gently.

Applejack stepped forward and said, "We might think you're a big lug, Arby, but you're our big lug. Nopony deserves to miss out on their birthday."

Rarity smiled and nodded in agreement.

She then remembered something and said, "Oh, Techorse darling, this wrapped package was here when we started to set up. It's for Arbiter, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's his present!" he said, walking over to Rarity, "Can I give it to him?"

"Of course!" she answered, levitating the box over with her magic.

It was a long and thin box covered in yellow paper and wrapped with a big red bow. The tag on it said, "From Techorse, To Arbiter. Happy Birthday!"

Techorse slid the large package over to the Captain, who stepped up to the present and looked over how carefully wrapped it was.

"I don't need a present," He said, trying to reject the gift.

"But it's from your friend Techie!" said Pinkie Pie, "You gotta open it!"

Arbiter looked over the box, knowing that if he accepted the gift, he'd be admitting that Techorse was somehow no longer a rival to him. He seemed to continue to snub it, until Rainbow Dash got impatient with him.

"Just open the box, eyepatch!" She said with annoyance.

Arbiter took a deep breath, and then let it out before saying, "All right. I was going to save it for later, but I guess I'll open it now."

Arbiter tore at the wrapping paper with his front hooves, shredding the yellow paper and red bow slowly. Eventually, he revealed the white cardboard box underneath and took off the lid. Inside was the order Techorse had placed with Forgemaster. It was a brand new longsword, Arbiter's favorite type of blade, with a beautiful hoofcrafted hilt. The hilt was a traditional cross shape, with each bar of the cross curving slightly upward in a thick point. It was a bright gold color, with the handle of the hilt being a nice royal blue to match the wooden sheathe he preferred to keep his blades in. But the most prominent feature of the sword was the small circular carving on both sides on the center of the hilt, where the handle and crossbars met. In the circular area was a carving of an axe, an identical copy of the clasp Arbiter wore on his capes that displayed his cutie mark.

The pegasus pony looked over the sword with awe. He couldn't believe Techorse would get him any gift, let alone a sword when he had just earlier that year stabbed him with one.

"You got Arbiter a sword?" asked Pinkie Pie with a gasp.

Techorse explained, "I knew Arbiter collected swords, and I wanted him to have a custom one made by The Domain's own blacksmith. That weapon is one of a kind, Arby. There's a certificate of authenticity underneath the tissue paper to prove it."

The large pegasus pony turned to Techorse and said with a smile, "I'm not going to put this in a case, Techorse. I'm going to use it as my main sword once I've practiced with it for a while."

Techorse seemed rather shocked that Arbiter would trust a sword that he gave to him. But then he figured out that Arbiter was indicating he was going to make a conscious effort to stop trying to harm innocents. The blade had forged a small pact between the two of them.

"You still have one more gift coming up," said Rainbow Dash, "go ahead Fluttershy."

From behind Rarity and Applejack, Fluttershy meekly stepped forward. She was wearing a pretty green dress, and had put on her best makeup and hair decorations to look as beautiful as she could.

Walking up to Arbiter, she cleared her throat daintily and said softly to him, "Arbiter, I heard it was your birthday and… I know how much you've wanted to spend time with me. So I was thinking that, if you wanted to, I could go out to dinner tonight with you. If you aren't too busy, that is…"

Arbiter was rather moved by Fluttershy's offer to allow him to go out on a date with her. He had at one point had interests in being her husband. But now, it felt as if he had a different pony in mind that would suit his personality much better. So, he lowered his head a bit, and looked back out the door of the library towards where he had come from.

"I appreciate the offer, Fluttershy," he said gently, "nut… I'm afraid my interests are elsewhere."

This elicited a bit of surprise from most of the ponies in the room.

"So I'm free? I mean, so you don't want to date me?" she asked, looking up in surprise.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I have another pony in mind."

Fluttershy breathed a small sigh of relief, and sat down on the floor of the library. The friends then began to celebrate the Captain's birthday. Outside the library, the citizens of Ponyville were having conversations with the residents of The Domain, who for the first time in their lives felt like they could interact with outsiders without fear.

After a week had passed, the old hole in the wall outside of the old castle had been demolished by Celestia's private team of construction engineers, and a gate made of brass now served as a proper border between the states. Limpwing and Twilight had with Derpy's help made The Domain and Equestria accessible to each other, and they knew it wouldn't be long before the land simply became a part of Equestria altogether and sent members to the senate. But even if they didn't, new peace had been formed between many parties in that week, and peace is one of the most important things a pony can have.

#22 - I Dream of Luna

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I Dream of Luna

Techorse Series: #22

By Spirals95

Everypony needs a break from work once in a while to settle down and recharge. Even the hardest workers in Equestria found time to rest when they needed it. When work doesn't seem any different than play, however, it could be hard for the pony to figure out a way to relax after being hyped up by his or her job. This seemed to always be the case for Pinkie Pie, who absolutely enjoyed her job of making baked goods for the residents of Ponyville. Now that her workday was over, and Sugarcube Corner had closed down for the night after a good business day, Pinkie Pie was free to spend the rest of the night before bed anyway she wanted to. After feeding her pet alligator and her recently acquired fish, she bounded happily out of her room and downstairs to leave the shop. Soon she was outside in the cool breeze of the spring night, and the streetlamps had just ignited themselves as the mechanical timers inside them directed them to. Turning right and happily trotting down the path amongst the colonial-styled buildings of her home town, Pinkie Pie thought about what she might like to do with her night.

"I could set off some fireworks to light up the night!" she said to herself merrily, "Or I could break out the frozen cookie dough and make another one of those giant cookie cakes!"

"Hey," said a rather annoyed voice, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't set off any fireworks tonight."

Pinkie Pie stopped her most recent jump midair, and landed roughly on the pavement in front of a two-story house. She turned her head to find a unicorn colt in his early years, who looked extremely tired. The poor yellow-coated pony had some of his soft blue mane hair ruffled, and the dark circles under his eyes conveyed his state of insomnia to the pink pony down on the street below. He was leaning out of his bedroom window on the second floor, a single candle behind him providing the only light from the room.

"What? No fireworks?" she shouted at him in shock, "What kind of pony doesn't like fireworks?"

The colt rubbed his eyes and responded softly, "I do like them, it's just… I haven't really been able to sleep well lately and that'd just make it worse. Please do something a little more quiet tonight!"

Pinkie Pie smiled gently and answered, "Well, that's ok. I can do something else."

The young unicorn turned around went back to his bed. He hadn't laid down his head on his pillow again for more than 15 seconds when Pinkie Pie's head entered his room through the window.

"So why cantcha sleep?" she said quickly and rather loudly, startling the colt.

He rolled out of his bed from the surprise, and turned to find that Pinkie Pie had fetched a stepladder and placed it up against the side of his home so she could visit through the window.

"How did you get that ladder?" he asked.

"Oh never mind this silly thing!" she answered, looking behind herself at the rickety wooden ladder.

She was standing on the top rung of the pine hardware, breaking every safety code associated with ladders. From the outside of the home, it looked like a ridiculous fire rescue was in progress.

"Well," continued the still disturbed unicorn pony, "I've been having trouble sleeping because I'm too worried about what might happen to my dad when he goes away on a trip this weekend. He's going to Manehattan, and he might get hit by a big cart or something!"

Pinkie Pie smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm sure your daddy will be safe, Depth!"

Depth seemed rather surprised Pinkie Pie knew his name and asked her, "How did you know who I am?"

"I know everypony in town!" she answered proudly, "It's always been my goal to make ponies happy when they're down, and you're the downiest pony around right now, mister!"

"Hmmm," he answered, rubbing his tired eyes with a front hoof, "If you can help me get to sleep, that would be really nice."

Pinkie Pie giggled, "I can't really help you get to sleep all by myself, I can see from your nightstand that you've been reading and drinking tasty hot milk! I was going to give you those things, but you've already tried 'em."

The colt reclined on his mattress and stared at the ceiling, "Then who can help me?"

"Don't worry, I know just the pony!" she answered, leaning back, "Leave it to…"

Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie had leaned back a little bit too far, and the ladder finally gave under her weight. Down crashed the ladder onto the city street below, causing Depth to get up and look out his window in a flash. He couldn't see Pinkie Pie anywheres, and wondered in a panic if he should call an ambulance. During his panic attack, a nagging leg poked him in the right side of his neck. Turning his head slowly, Dept found Pinkie Pie hanging on for dear life onto the rain gutter of his house with her rear legs.

"Leave… it… to me!" she finished, panting a little from the scare of nearly falling.

She then flipped herself over and slowly slid down the side of the colonial home until she safely touched the ground, near the splinters that remained of the old ladder. Pinkie Pie then turned left and disappeared in a comical blur of pink and dust, leaving Depth alone to hopelessly try to go back to sleep.

Twilight Sparkle was sleeping peacefully in her upstairs bed in the library, dreaming sweetly about finally finishing a 40 page essay that she had been working on about the effects of dandelions on the population of dragonflies in eastern Equestria.

"Just one more paragraph to close this essay and I'll be ready to publish!"she dreamt, rolling over gracefully in her bed and twisting her sheets around her relaxed body.

Just as Twilight was about to write the last words of the imaginary paper, her sleep was suddenly interrupted by a loud thwacking noise as her circular bedroom window swung open, and Pinkie Pie rolled inside. Twilight shrieked from the sudden awakening of the break-in and the fact that she had really wanted to finish that essay. This noise caused Spike to flip out of his basket bed and land face-down on the wooden floor, hurting his nose. His spaded tail managed to catch the edge of the basket and flip it over the top of him.

"I'm really sorry Twilight, but I need to borrow a book right now!" said Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down impatiently, "This can't wait!"

"Pinkie Pie!" shouted Twilight furiously as she got out of her bed to yell at her friend, "It's past midnight, how could you possibly need a book right now?"

"It's hard to explain," she answered, "just lemme grab it and go."

Twilight groaned and answered, "All right, go ahead and pick it out, I'll write it down as checked out tomorrow. Next time remember that other ponies tend to sleep at this hour, ok?"

"I will thanks!" She answered, running past her friend and down the stairs as quickly as she could to find the book she had in mind.

Twilight heard the sound of hooves on wood below as she used her magic to pick up a nearby blue hairbrush. She fixed a cow lick in the top of her striped mane with the brush before noticing Spike's overturned basket moving around slowly on the floor towards the stairwell on the other side of the room. Redirecting her energy for a moment, Twilight set the basket upright, revealing a rather upset Spike on his back.

"What's going on with Pinkie Pie?" he asked her, "Just another freak-out as usual?"

The front door of the library was hard opening with a creak followed shortly thereafter with a loud crash as Pinkie Pie slammed it with her rear hooves on her way out. Twilight cringed, knowing there was most certainly a huge mess on the first floor that would have to be dealt with before opening time that morning.

"I doubt it's that much of an emergency," answered Twilight as she put the brush back on her dresser top, "if it was, she would have told us what was wrong."

Spike didn't buy that explanation for one moment, "Pinkie Pie sometimes feels ignored. What if there's something she sensed?"

"If that was true," answered Twilight, turning her telekinesis to straighten the sheets on her bed again, "she wouldn't have needed a book, just our help. The way I see it Spike, all we have to do is figure out which book she took, and we'll know what the problem was!"

The young dragon picked up his blanket and pulled it up to his chin, "That's true. It's probably going to be something random anyways, knowing Pinkie Pie."

Twilight slipped back into her own bed, and ended up staring at the ceiling for a good 30 minutes before getting back to sleep. Although she was sure she was right that there was no big deal, perhaps there was. Maybe Pinkie Pie's “Pinkie Sense” had kicked in that night and something terrible was about to happen. There was also the possibility of a late-night baking accident that could result in her waking up to a scorched Ponyville. But the need for sleep helped to put the silly thoughts away just long enough for her to go back to her dream of finishing that award-winning essay.

One of the many fireplaces in Canterlot Castle was burning a modest pile of logs chopped a few weeks ago from a nearby forest. It was a large marble fireplace with white bricks leading up to the ceiling of the castle, with several pictures placed on top of the black stone shelf projecting over the opening where the fire burned. The fire was slowly dying down from its previously warm and welcoming blaze, and needed more fuel. One of the castle guards, Jops, grabbed a small log from the nearby pile with his teeth and with a twist of his neck tossed the wood on top of the other burning logs, causing a satisfying crackling noise. The light of the fireplace provided a good source of illumination for Princess Luna, who was sitting a few feet in front of the fireplace on a large red throw pillow, with gold lace around the edges. The dark blue alicorn was reading a magazine about the interesting jobs that had been invented since her banishment, including modern surgery and radio repair service. It seemed like everypony was appreciated for something they knew how to do best, and always had something interesting and new to do.

Everypony except for her of course.

Princess Luna loved her new-found job of watching over the foals of Equestria as they slept, and to soothe the ones who had consistent nightmares or were afraid of the dark. But it still seemed like she was missing something, perhaps a new way of doing things in order to keep them interesting. She turned the page on the magazine and found a description of a modest shipyard located in a nearby county. Princess Celestia would occasionally go there on a bright day to smash a bottle of champagne on a newly completed tanker or battleship, and it was always a huge event with thousands of cheering citizens. Luna wished that she could just for once christen a ship at night, on her terms, instead of during the day.

It would be fun to watch the hull of the vessel touch the water, with the reflection of the moonlight making it a beautiful sight. But it was only a pipe dream, as there wouldn't be much of a place for the ship to sail if it was dark already, and it'd be difficult for younger ponies to see it if it was too late at night. The princess sighed deeply and continued to flip through the pages to see if there was anything else she could possibly do to feel less bored. The nearby guard heard the sharp exhale from his leader, and took off his bronze helmet to reveal his blue, sensibly-cut mane. He placed the helmet next to the fireplace and approached Luna from the front and stood silently.

She raised her long neck and said to him, "That will be all for tonight, Jops. See if your brother is in need of assistance."

Jops bowed, then retrieved his helmet and left without making any sound, leaving Luna to the slowly dying fire and her discontent. She rolled slightly to the left, and continued to read. After a few more minutes of browsing the pages, a curious thumping sound echoed from inside the floor of the castle. Luna's head perked up from the noise, and she scanned for whoever might be there. After figuring out that nopony was present, she tried to go back to her reading, only to hear another disturbing thump. It sounded like it was coming from underneath the floor right in front of the giant pillow she was sitting on. Suddenly, the floor tile in front of her began to grate and shift. The princess's horn began to glow as instinct told her to prepare to defend herself from whatever intruder might be trying to get in the castle. With a loud grinding noise, the tile moved out of place and broke its connection from the others. A pink leg lifted the end of the tile and flipped it over, and out from the floor emerged a rather dirty Pinkie Pie, wearing a white hard hat equipped with a mining light, and her two pink saddlebags. Princess Luna recoiled slightly at the unorthodox entry Pinkie had made, but her horn cooled down, as did her anxiety.

"We have a very well crafted front door. It's a shame you weren't able to use it, Pinkie Pie," stated Luna, displeased about the ruined floor.

"Arby said I couldn't come in," explained Pinkie Pie, "and I was all out of ropes to climb the walls, so here I am!"

Prince Luna chuckled, "Well, since our 'good friend' Captain Arbiter was so rude to turn you away at such a late hour, I guess he'll have to fix this floor tomorrow."

This got a nice giggle out of Pinkie Pie, who knew the Captain would be angry about having to redo the tiles by himself.

She then got on with her question, "So what's up princess? Do anything fun lately?"

Princess Luna frowned and answered honestly, "To tell the truth, no. I've been quite bored with my duties lately, and I feel rather unappreciated doing just one job. I'd really enjoy having more to do, and before you ask, it's not because I compare myself to sister. It's because my work is done now, at night, when nopony is around to appreciate it. I'd like to have a part of my job where I can go out and work directly with my subjectvs."

Pinkie Pie reached above her fluffy pink mane and flipped a switch on her helmet, turning off the light.
"Let me go take this stuff off, and I'll help you find a reaaaaaally fun second job!" she said.

"Really? You had something in mind?" asked Luna.

"Yeah!" answered Pinkie Pie with a twinkle in her blue eyes, "It's actually a lot like this storybook I'm reading! Can you meet me someplace so I can show you?"

"I'll meet you in my chamber," dhe answered, standing up from the pillow, "I'd love to hear about this new task in this story. It sounds like it could be just the thing I need to be less, as you'd say, boring."

"Okie Dokie Lokie!" answered Pinkie Pie, smiling brightly.

A few minutes later, Pinkie Pie and Luna were together in the princess's bedroom, sitting on top of the bed with the storybook opened up between them. The bedroom was a large, dark-walled room with white stars painted onto the ceiling. The carpet on the ground was a soft gray color with blue fibers mixed in for variety. The furniture in the room was sparse besides the large black canopy bed, but a door that led to a balcony and one to a walkway closet existed. Pinkie Pie had scrubbed herself clean of the filth from tunneling into the castle, and Luna was now wearing her favorite black nightgown. The light in the room was provided by a beautiful glass chandelier, filled with modern electric lights.

"This is my favorite storybook, 1000 Tales From Saddle Arabia!" announced Pinkie Pie, trying to find the story she had in mind, "I just borrowed this from Twilight again."

Eventually she found the story she wanted and explained it to Princess Luna,
"See? This is a story about a really neat guy called a genie!"

Princess Luna looked at the illustration by the text, showing what looked like a ghostly-looking diamond dog emerging from a small gold oil lamp. The genie in the illustration had a confident smile on his face, a solid blue vest, and crossed arms as he looked at the awestruck mare next to him that had rubbed the lamp.

Pinkie Pie continued, "Whoever finds the genie's lamp and rubs it with their hoof gets a free wish. This is how a genie gets to help ponies, and it's lots of fun!"

The next illustration on the page showed the result of the pony's wish. She had wished for a very large palace of her own to live in, and was being fanned with palm branches by two handsome stallions with short-cut tails and strong leg muscles.

"But what does this have to do with the tasks you were telling me about?" asked Luna, "Are you suggesting…"

Pinkie Pie nodded and said, "Yeah! You should become a genie and grant wishes to other ponies!"

Princess Luna laughed heartily and then answered, "That's ridiculous!"

"But with your amazing alicorn magic and stuff, I'm sure you could do it," protested the pink earth pony, digging her legs into the comforter on the bed, "and ponies would be really happy to get a wish from the princess!"

Now this had gotten Luna's attention. Sure it would be ridiculous to use her magic to grant wishes, but on the other hand, it would be nice to get some recognition while the sun was still out.

"Very well Pinkie Pie," she said, nearly shouting, "I shall become a genie and grant wishes!"

Pinkie Pie pointed to the nearby walk-in closet and suggested, "Let's get you dressed up like one then, this should be great!"

Princess Luna got into her new outfit without much trouble. She was now wearing several gold and silver bands around each of her legs, to which flowing pink lace was attached. A small blue tiara with a golden star on the front sat on her head, and a red gown was worn around her middle. Her tail featured a large turquoise ball threaded through the hair to the middle. Luna's eye shadow had also been changed to a soft pink. The alicorn was looking at her new form in the mirror, which Pinkie Pie was admiring.

"I look… absurd," she said honestly to Pinkie Pie, lifting a front leg and looking down at the pink ribbons.

"That's the idea, silly!" said Pinkie Pie, "Now all you need is a lamp!"

She ran out of the large closet and re-entered with a small oil lamp she had purchased from a curio shop a while ago, and placed it on the floor in front of Princess Luna.

"I'm sorry," she said, frowning, "but there's no way that I could fit myself into that small lamp."

Pinkie shook her head, "You don't have to fit inside it! All you have to do is hide, and then when somepony rubs it, use your flashy-movey spell all alicorns know to appear next to it!"

"Oh, I think I understand now!" said the princess, catching on to the idea, "I just flash in when the lamp is discovered. So, tomorrow, we'll leave the lamp out where it can be found and watch dutifully."

"Exactly!" said Pinkie Pie cheerfully.

Luna pointed out the whitewashed open door and answered, "Pinkie Pie, why don't you spend the night in one of the spare rooms down the hall? I'll see you tomorrow morning after a good rest."

Pinkie Pie gave a happy, "Thanks! See you tomorrow!"

The two retired for the night, with Pinkie Pie getting to stay in a nice comfortable bed. Pinkie Pie knew that her idea for Princess Luna was going to make her really happy. At the end of the day, everypony's happiness was all that mattered to Pinkie Pie.

After getting some much-needed sleep, Pinkie Pie and Princess Luna decided to go find a place to hide and watch the lamp in Ponyville. After taking a chariot ride to the outskirts, they settled on an area on the west side of town that did not feature the most traffic, so that the lamp would not be discovered too quickly or too often for Luna to handle the wish demand. They set the lamp in the flower box of a home alongside an alleyway occupied by ponies who would be away at work for the day, and they hid in a nearby cart filled with textiles of various colors that had been woven by its owner. The oil lamp was slightly hidden by the marigolds in the tiny pink box, meaning a passerby would have to look directly at it in order to find it. It was rather hot inside the cart given the heat of the day and the insulation the rugs provided, but it was the only thing that allowed a clear line of sight to the lamp without blowing their cover.

After a good twenty minutes had passed, a unicorn pony with a happy trot in his walk came along and saw the orange flowers planted on the windowsill. It was Steiner, back from his weekly morning trip to buy vanilla ice cream for his soda business. The plastic bag around his neck contained a single pint of hoof-packed ice cream, and bounced around on him as he walked. He stopped suddenly in the alleyway, looked around to make sure there weren't any other ponies to watch him, and took a nice deep sniff of the flowers' aroma.

"Ah, freshly planted marigolds!" he said in his soft Germanic voice, "My favorite flower."

Spotting a twinkle of light underneath the flowers, Steiner overturned a few of the blooms with his magic, bending the stems gently with light-brown energy. He saw the lamp, and picked it up while releasing the flowers with his energy.

"Hmm, an oil lamp?" he asked himself, turning over the metal vessel, "What's this doing here?"

Thinking it over, he finally concluded, "Ah! This must belong to Twilight Sparkle; it has to be a reading lamp of some kind. I'll return it after I close shop today."

Taking the lamp, he placed it magically inside the bag around his neck next to the cardboard ice cream box, and continued his walk back to the soda shop he owned. Pinkie Pie and Luna shadowed him there, using alternate paths to avoid being seen. Once they got back to the Froth Shop, Steiner's place of work, they waited for him to unlock the glass front door on the flat building and walk inside. The unicorn pony turned the sign on the front to the "open" side, and disappeared. Pinkie Pie pointed silently with her head to a window on the bar, and the two walked up to it. Steiner had grabbed a cloth and set to work cleaning the lamp. This was the moment the two outside had been waiting for. Luna charged up silver-colored energy from her horn-tip, and closed her eyes tightly before teleporting herself inside, taking Pinkie Pie with her. The two appeared right in front of the bar, knocking over two stools and making Steiner shout in surprise.

"Get up!" commanded Princess Luna, spreading her wings.

Steiner obeyed and walked out from behind his counter, being careful not to break any mugs on the rack between him and the exit. He approached the pair, recognized who the figure before him was and bowed gracefully to Princess Luna.

"Your majesty!" he said to her, "I didn't know you were coming, else I would have brewed something special for you, and Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie snickered and said "Hi Steiner!"

"I'm not here to sample your product!" the alicorn informed him while pushing aside Pinkie Pie, "I'm here to grant you your wish!"

"A wish?" inquired the soda maker, standing up from his bow, "What do you mean by that?"

"You have found my lamp first, Steiner, and now that I am the genie of that lamp, I now must give you a wish!" explained Luna, "It's how I am to do a better job being at service to my subjects!"

Steiner's ears went fully at attention, "Oh? In that case I know exactly what I want to wish for! You see, for several weeks now I've wanted to be the pony to make the world's first color changing soda pop! I tried using rainbow water from Cloudsdale, but carbonating it destroyed the color-changing property of the water before I could even add the flavor to it. I wish that I could invent this drink!"

"If you bring me a barrel of water, I can grant your wish!" said Luna, flicking her tail and clacking the glass ball on the floor.

Steiner nodded and went through a set of two stainless-steel doors on hinges to his back room. He returned pushing a large wooden barrel with his front legs, walking forward with his hind ones. After propping the barrel up and opening the lid, he took a hose from his bar's sink and filled the barrel to the second metal ring near the top.

After a moment of preparation, Princess Luna looked into the barrel, closed her eyes, and directed a solid beam of energy into the water. The liquid changed into a light red color, and then the alicorn ended her spell with an electrical zapping noise. Steiner had watched the whole time so he could try to copy the spell himself if possible, but was very curious as to whether or not the wish had actually worked. Looking into the wooden container, he could see that the water was indeed shifting from red, to yellow, in order of the rainbow all the way to violet. All he had to do now was carbonate this and flavor it, and it would work.

"This water retains the color changing effect you want, without taking on the properties of the water pegasi use!" said Princess Luna, "Your wish has been granted, Steiner!"

"I'll get to carbonating this right away! You will stay to try some, right?" asked the excited colt, knowing he was going to make a fortune off the drink.

"Oooh oooh!" said Pinkie Pie, licking her lips, "Yes! I want to be the first."

"I suppose one drink couldn't hurt." said Luna, smiling, "I was very hot in that textile market."

Steiner added the remaining ingredients to the barrel, sugar, flavoring, and syrup, before attaching the barrel to a nearby carbon dioxide pump and flipping the switch. It wasn't long before the soda was ready to enjoy, and Steiner attached a small faucet to the barrel to help dispense the drink.

The unicorn filled several glass mugs with the color-changing soda, which frothed over the top of the mugs with white foam, and carried them outside of his shop, where he shouted,
"I now have Color-Changing Candy Ale! Try the only drink in Equestria that actually changes color while you drink it!"

This got the attention and conversation of the outside ponies, and within minutes they had either lined up to buy a drink of the new soda, or had rushed to tell a friend about the new discovery. The Froth Shop was now full of patrons, sitting at all the tables and stools, and drinking the new invention.

"Ooh, this looks so pretty!" said a mare with teal curls, "And it's very sweet!"

Derpy Hooves sat at another table with her landlord Upkeep. She watched the drink in its red form, and said to her friend,

"I think it's cherry flavored!"

The soda morphed into a vibrant yellow, and Derpy tilted her head in confusion, "No, maybe lemon…"

As the carbonated drink shifted colors, she continued to guess what flavor it might be before giving up and slurping the whole drink down in 3 seconds flat.

"This is great!" said Steiner with joy, dispensing another soda to a customer, "I'm having my best business day all month!"

Two mares talking to each other while seated at a nearby table, however, began to notice something rather odd. One of them screamed loudly, startling some of the other customers. Her tongue, which she stuck out to show everyone was stained with the drink and was now changing colors. The same effect had happened to anypony who had taken a drink, even Pinkie Pie, who fell on the ground and laughed until she cried from just how stupid everyone looked with a color-changing tongue. Although some of the customers loved the novel effect, many of them didn't, and either left the bar in disgust at Princess Luna for helping to invent such a nasty drink or asked for Steiner to put up a warning notice to prevent any future "accidents" with the staining drink. Despite the setback, it seemed like he had a new gag product on his hands that might appeal for pranksters or younger ponies who liked to dye their tongues different colors. The bar cleared out shortly after the rainbow tongues incident, and it was quiet again.

"Perhaps we should move on with the lamp," sighed Princess Luna, "I'm sorry the drink didn't turn out quite as we'd hoped, Steiner."

"No, no, I shouldn't have added syrup, and used real cane sugar," said Steiner, looking at a half-empty mug, that's what made the color stick. I suppose it's true that you should be careful what you wish for. Anyways, I managed to get something out of this, and I appreciate the help."

Pinkie Pie bid Steiner farewell, and the two were on their way again to find another hapless pony to grant a wish for. This time, they found a spot near the east side of town, and a nice shady bush to hide from the citizens. The lamp sat unguarded near a small public water fountain, which due to its high use would certainly attract attention.

Along came a rather angry-looking pink-colored pegasus mare with a curly light blue hairstyle. She was staring at a stallion browsing Rose's edible flower cart. Spotting the lamp on the ground, she huffed and gave it a sharp kick with her front leg, sending it away from the fountain. Princess Luna took this as her cue, and once again teleported herself and Pinkie Pie to her location.

"Congratulations!" announced Princess Luna, appearing in a flash of dust and smoke, "For finding my lamp, you are to receive a wish!"

The mare snorted in disbelief, "Seriously?"

"Of course she's serious, she's Princess Luna!" stated Pinkie Pie, "Just make a wish already!"

"Well if you want to help me, there's this mean brute over there who dunked my little brother's head in a bucket of water at school this week," dhe said, her eyes showing intense hatred as she pointed at him.

The colt was a bratty teenager, his white coat offset by his short red mane and long red tail. Princess Luna wrinkled her nose in disapproval as she watched him make sure Rose wasn't looking, then quickly devoured one of the flowers from her cart.

"I wish you could cut that guy down to size!" she said.

Princess Luna turned towards the bully, and bent her head down. Firing a zigzagging bolt of blue light from her horn, the energy homed in on the colt and picked him up from the ground, before carrying him back screaming from the cart, getting everyone in the nearby area's attention. Following the literal meaning of the mare's request, the spell also shrank the mean stallion down to the size of a toy. He was held helplessly in the air before being dropped, and the light-blue haired pegasus caught him by his tail with her front teeth. She walked away from the two to deal with her brother's tormentor, while many other ponies started to surround Princess Luna and marvel at her new outfit.

"Wow, who designed that dress. Was it Rarity?" Came an awed female voice.

"No no, not the whole dress, just the glass ball on her tail," answered her husband.

Another male observer added, "You're kidding, right? That's a Saddle Arabian style. She must have gone on vacation and is showing off the gifts she got from 'em."

"Either way," said an excited voice, "The princess is out granting free wishes! Can I have a pool for my house?"

"That's not the way it works!" fussed Pinkie Pie, "You have to try to find the lamp after we hide it again!"

"Well that's not up to you," said someone eager for their own wish, "it's up to the Princess."

Princess Luna gave a nervous look to the small crowd, and took a step back. Her ridiculous genie outfit made it hard to move very quickly, so there was likely no escape save teleporting and risk hurting someone.

"My intent," she explained slowly, "was to help out just one pony at a time, in order to be of more use to you."

"You'd be of much more use if you'd just grant our wishes!" exclaimed one of the mares, hoping to wish for lots of money.

Now Princess Luna was trapped, but agreed to perform a few spells to help out. Some ponies wanted something as simple as a change in hairstyle or a repair job on their home. But many of them had more demands that the Princess simply couldn't fulfill using magic, requiring materials that could not simply be conjured out of nothing. Some of the wishes were also beginning to backfire, a new coat of paint on a house turned out to be striped due to Luna's rushing to fill the wishes, and a poor mare who'd asked for a new perspective on Ponyville had been left stranded in a tree. The crowd was starting to get restless about the mistakes and the lack of free wishes, and talked amongst themselves until they all heard a loud flushing sound from the closest public restroom.

The dark pink pegasus from earlier stepped out of the ladies room and let out a huge laugh of victory.

"EEK!" shouted Pinkie Pie, jumping in the air as her hair went up in spikes, "YOU FLUSHED THAT GUY DOWN THE TOILET?"

"It seemed fitting," she answered, nodding her head.

"You fool, you could have drowned him!" shouted Luna angrily, "Now go get the sanitation officer and have him search the sewer for that stallion! I hope that spell doesn't wear off while he's in a small pipe!"

The pegasus' eyes grew wide as she realized she might have just bumped off the stallion, an unfitting consequence of him bullying her younger brother. She flew away as quickly as she could to go find the sewer maintenance crew.

"Can we go back to getting wishes now?" asked a pony.

"What is wrong with you ponies?" asked Pinkie Pie, "You're all asking for crazy stuff that's getting us into trouble! Can't any of you ask for something nice?"

At this point, a young colt pushed his way past the legs of the adults, and showed up in front of the two.

It was Depth, his eyes still bloodshot from his insomnia, who was ready to make his request.

Princess Luna looked down at him and asked, "I suppose you have something to wish for too, young one?"

Depth said with concern, "I wish you'd just go back to being Princess Luna! I haven't been able to sleep for days."

"Come to think of it…" said a parent in the crowd, "My foal hasn't been sleeping so well lately, either."

"I know you've been granting wishes to try and be helpful and all," Depth continued, "but I'd really love it more if you'd just help us face our bad dreams and sleep."

"You want me to do my old job?" asked Princess Luna, "I thought nopony appreciated that part of my service anymore."

"We DO appreciate it!" assured Depth, "Or at least I do. Maybe some ponies take getting a rest from bad dreams for granted. Sometimes I think lots of ponies forget how much we need you every other day of the year besides Nightmare Night."

Pinkie Pie watched the faces of the adult ponies grow shameful. They were getting help from the Princess without giving her enough credit for it. Luna was overjoyed that she was still appreciated for what she did originally, and was more than happy to go back. Stepping back, she charged up her magical energy, and blasted away all of her new outfit, scattering it all over the ground. The wave of magic soared through Ponyville, undoing all the bad wishes, and freeing the bad stallion from the sewer pipes. After all the wishes had been undo, Princess Luna once again was wearing her silver shoes, her tiara, and her hair returned to its cloak-like form, and waved gently.

"I accept your request! From now on I shall continue to do my job for as long as I am Princess!" she said, to the stomping applause of the residents. Depth let out a breath in relief, knowing he was finally going to get some aid.

Later in the day, Princess Luna prepared to leave Ponyville to head back to the castle for a busy night of making up for all the time she spent "being bored". Jools and Jops waited for her, tied up to the chariot.

Before she left, she said to Pinkie Pie, "I'm sorry your plan didn't turn out quite the way you hoped. I do not make a very good genie, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie smiled and said, "Actually, my plan went just as I thought it would! You're Princess Luna again!"

"What?" she asked, stumped by what Pinkie had said.

She laughed and then explained, "I talked to that little pony Depth yesterday. He was having trouble sleeping last night, and I knew that if you were being yourself you would have helped him already. So I knew I had to cheer you up and help you realize that we do appreciate your help! I made you go through all that silliness as part of my plan to get you back, and it worked!"

"You mean you planned this entire day just to try and make me feel better? The whole idea wasn't just a random thought of yours?" Luna asked, dumbfounded.

Pinkie Pie chuckled, "Of course not, Princess! What do you think I am, stupid or something?"

The alicorn smiled and said, "No, of course not. You're a very clever pony, Pinkie Pie. Thank you so much for your help."

"You're welcome!" she said cheerfully, "Now if you'll just let me get going, there might be enough time for me to use some of those fireworks I've been saving!"

The princess watched her bounce away merrily, and then boarded her chariot. As Jools and Jops pulled her away back for Canterlot castle, she looked down at the town below and knew that she felt appreciated by its residents. It didn't take trying to make everyone happy to be useful; all it took was doing what she was good at. She was also really glad to have gotten rid of that ridiculous costume, and was thrilled to be back in her royal clothes. Looking, down, she saw Pinkie Pie standing next to the pegasus pony from earlier, and the now-rescued bully making up with her little brother.

A shell from a cardboard tube near Pinkie Pie shot up from the ground and exploded in a flash of red and green stars. She had found those fireworks, and was setting them off as a treat for Ponyville. They knew that they could finally rest, now that they had their Princess of the Night back.

#23 - Relative Discomfort

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Relative Discomfort

Techorse series: #23

By Spirals95

Despite knowing her as long as he had known her, and been on so many adventures that he had been with her, and cared so deeply for her, Techorse knew very little about Twilight Sparkle's family. They had been mentioned to him occasionally, and once in a while Princess Celestia might tell him how Shining Armor was doing with his life in his new castle. But the colt still didn't really know his marefriend's family, what they were like, and most importantly: what they would think of him. Techorse couldn't imagine what it would be like if Twilight's family didn't like him. It would be very difficult to work his relationship around the rest of the family in that event. However, he did love Twilight very much, and wanted to somehow prove he was acceptable to the other Sparkles.
Unfortunately, actually getting to meet the other Sparkles had been a hassle for Techorse. Earlier that year he had asked if he could meet her parents, and she had declined because "they were away at a convention".

In fact, Twilight had used that excuse exactly 14 times according to Spike when she did it the most recently. Then the excuse became that they were extremely busy with their jobs, which became very hard for Techorse to believe after a while. He knew that Twilight was afraid that her parents wouldn't approve of him for whatever paranoid reason she had in her large brain, and he wasn't very happy about it. Surely they would approve of him if he just got to know them and acted in a polite, refined manner. It made logical sense in his mind, but he just had to have a chance to get to know them.

On one summer day, Techorse once again worked up the courage to ask about Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, and left his small castle for the library. This time, he was accompanied by his robot servant PAL, who towered over the residents of Ponyville. They were used to seeing the humanoid machine plodding around town from time to time to do some shopping, and some of them waved to the gentle giant, who was happy to wave back and smile with his mechanical jaw. Techorse looked back at his robot and smiled.

"With PAL here, Twilight's less likely to lie," he thought to himself, "he can pick up on it."

Once they reached the library, PAL stepped forward and knocked gracefully on the red wood door with a metal knuckle. Hoofsteps were heard for a while, and then the door gently opened, with Twilight Sparkle standing in the doorway, a feather duster levitating above her head as she held it in place with her magic.

"Hello Tech, wasn't expecting you!" she said cheerfully.

Noticing the robot with the optimistic expression on his face, she added, "You too, PAL. I was just getting ready to dust the history books."

Techorse opened his mouth to speak, but PAL barged in, "Well good afternoon Mistress Sparkle. The master and I were just having a nice walk around Ponyville when we decided to drop in. Master has a very important question to ask you today!"

Twilight leaned slightly on her left legs and dropped the feather duster in a nearby umbrella can, "Really?"

She already knew what the question was going to be, and Techorse sighed in frustration. Now Twilight was going to do anything to get out of a visit with her parents.

"Come on in guys," she said, opening the door fully, "I'll have Spike get some lemon water for you."

As Techorse entered the room behind PAL, Twilight noticed he wasn't wearing his battle saddle. That usually meant he was trying to appear more down-to-earth, and always indicated an ulterior motive.

"Spike!" called Twilight softly up the staircase, "Techorse and PAL are here."

The young dragon walked down the stairs smiling, he liked to hang out with the robot.

"Hey Spike!" said PAL, making eye contact and kneeling down to his level, "How have you been this week?"

"Great," he answered, but then, adding a bit of irritation to his voice, "except that Twilight's made me stay in while it's nice out."

Twilight grimaced uncomfortably and said, "Well, why don't you two go and have some fun outside today. There's supposed to be rain this weekend according to Rainbow Dash, so maybe it's best if you get some sun now."

Techorse's ears drooped, he knew Twilight had played her cards right. Now PAL and Spike would be out of the library and unable to give him support! Spike climbed up PAL's back and rested on his left shoulder, using his claws to stay hooked onto the robot's frame. PAL stood up, and bid Twilight a good day before leaving the library. She followed him to the door, and said goodbye before closing it, leaving her alone with Techorse.

"So what question did you have for me, sweetie?" she asked.

Techorse walked up to her and said, "Twilight, I've know you for quite a while now…"

Twilight stopped him and said with care in her eyes, "Tech, I still love you. Just because we've been a little too busy to go on many dates right now doesn't mean I've stopped loving you."

"No, it's not that, I've been busy too," he said, looking her in the eyes, "it's just, I really want to meet your family and get to know them!"

The lavender unicorn frowned and looked over at a nearby shelf. On it was a picture of her with her family, her mom and her dad standing behind her and Shining Armor sitting next to her. She knew it was going to be hard for them to understand what Techorse was to her. But she'd made excuses long enough, and had let fear control her. Twilight realized that her coltfriend was being worried to death that he'd never be welcomed in by the Sparkles, and it was probably time to give him the chance he needed to develop, and possibly nurture, a close relationship with her family. Despite this, her parents might just not understand as she hadn't said anything about Techorse to them. Because of her worry she had to say no again and save the issue for later.

"My parents might need a little bit more notice than that," she said, regaining eye contact, "maybe some other time?"

Techorse became rather depressed about this. He had tried so many times and so hard to get Twilight to give him a chance with her family. But somehow, he knew this was going to happen, and he wasn't going to get his chance anytime soon.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't meet your family this time. I just feel terrible about it," he said to Twilight.

She frowned, and felt a little bit guilty about the situation.

"Maybe this will help you feel better," she replied.

She kissed him quickly on the lips, and gave him a warm hug before showing him out the door.

What Twilight didn't know, however, was that PAL and Spike hadn't fallen for her manipulation. Spike had requested that he look in on their friends' conversation by standing on PAL's titanium shoulders, and he had overheard Twilight's refusal. Now Spike, not being the worry-wort that Twilight was, knew that her family was most likely going to be happy with Techorse.

"I knew it!" he said, jumping off of PAL and landing on the ground, crouching to absorb the impact, "Twilight's trying to get out of introducing Tech to her parents!"

"Yes, but what can we do about it?" asked the machine dolefully.

Running for Techorse he answered, "Come on PAL, we've gotta tell Techorse. I know exactly how to fix this!"

Techorse looked at the ground as he was walking back home, sad that he wasn't going to get his chance to shine for the Sparkles. Self-pity was his only thought right now, and he had no idea what the future would be like thanks to Twilight's procrastination. Something, however, was making it very difficult to feel sorry for himself.

"Tech! Wait!" called Spike, running up to him.

Techorse stopped and turned around suddenly, causing Spike to accidentally collide with his front. He landed on his bottom, and got up, brushing off the gravel from his purple scales.

"Hey Spike," He said, trying to cheer up, "aren't you two supposed to be going comic hunting?"

PAL caught up with them and said, "Apparently, master, Spike has a plan for how you can meet Twilight's family."

"Really?" Techorse asked, his ears pointing up at attention, "How can we convince Twilight she should let me visit them?"

"That's just it," explained Spike, smirking, "we're not going to tell Twi. I'm going to spill all the secrets about her family so you can go meet them without her permission."

"That sounds a bit underhanded..." mused PAL, he didn't like tricks.

"Well luckily," chuckled Spike, "Techorse has hooves, not hands."

"I'm not sure logic works that way," protested PAL.

"Oh come on!" said a frustrated Spike, "This might be Techorse's only chance, PAL."

Techorse thought about it for a minute. The consequences that might happen if Twilight were to find out could be devastating. However, if she truly cared about him, she could forgive him for simply taking matters into his own hooves.

"I'll do it!" he said, crouching a bit in excitement, "Just tell me what I need to know, Spike."

Spike clenched his fists and smiled, "Great! Let's head back to your castle and I'll tell you what you need to know."

After a visit to his laboratory to pick out only the best and most impressive gadgets to show off, Techorse strapped his battle saddle on, clicking together the black straps which held it in place. The laboratory, normally brightly lit and full of working parts, was now still with only a few bins of mechanical parts lying around. As he reflected on the machines he had stuffed into the robotic device, Techorse began to worry.

"What if they don't like these?" he thought, frowning, "Or worse. What if when I tell them where I came from, and who I was, they freak out. They had to have fought some of the robots back then. Or maybe they'll think I'm violent for practically being a walking arsenal with this thing."

"Master!" said PAL loudly, snapping him out of the trance of despair.

Techorse shook his head quickly and looked up at his robot.

"What is it, PAL?" he asked, losing the panic in his mind.

"Spike is on the roof ready to explain the plan to you," he said, twiddling his fingers, "you don't want to fall behind, now do you?"

"Right, of course not," answered Techorse, "let me just make sure I have everything ready, and then I'll meet you upstairs."

After he had finished making the final adjustments to his gadgetry, he followed his robot up the stairs and onto the stone roof.

Spike was sitting down near the now covered hot tub, a piece of parchment paper in front of him, and a quill in his hand. He was busy making a map of Equestria's northern sector, hoping it'd be a decent guide for his friend. After making one last stroke with the feather pen, he dropped it off to the side, and picked up the map to inspect his handiwork. He motioned for Techorse to come look at the map with his tail. The inventor walked up next to the dragon and had a look at the parchment map.

"All right, so we're here on this square," he explained, pointing to a box on the map, "we're at the east end of Ponyville. Twilight's parents will be working today, so the chances you're going to get to see them on this trip are pretty slim until after dark. You will get to meet her brother Shining Armor, though, and his wife Cadance. He lives in this castle here, up in the north. You'll probably have to take the train."

"So wait a minute." Techorse stopped him, "Why do Shining Armor and Cadance live so far away? Shouldn't they be in Canterlot? Twilight always made it sound like they lived there."

"Well, going over some of Twilight's personal writing," he said, somewhat embarrassed to have read the diary, "When the Crystal Empire came back, just a few weeks before you showed up in Equestria, Cadance's father was supposed to help set it back up. But he was missing, if you remember what Prince Darkmatter told you. After those robots attacked, Cadance decided it was better to leave the Empire's issues to representatives in the Equestrian senate."

Techorse sat down on the stone and listened carefully.

Spike continued, "So with her daddy gone, but still wanting to help her ponies, Cadance and Shining Armor built a castle a huge way away west from the Empire, as seen here on the map. This thing was built with steam boilers to heat it during the winter, and it's used as a fort in case the robots come back like they did about a year ago."

"Anything else I need to know?" asked Techorse, being careful.

"Just don't bring up Cadance's father." He warned, "You might really hurt her feelings if you do. He never showed up to her wedding, remember?"

He nodded sadly, "Right."

"PAL and I can watch the castle while we're gone," Said Spike, rolling up the parchment, "take the map with you in your saddle, bro. You're gonna need it."

Techorse's saddle opened up, and one of the robot arms moved out, grasped the map, and then whisked away back into the device, startling Spike.

"You might also not want to do that when you meet them," he said, laughing nervously.

Techorse shook his head, obviously he wasn't going to do anything embarrassing like that in front of them. After saying his goodbyes, he deployed his turbofans and lifted off for the train station.

The train trip went well for Techorse, saving him several hours of flying. After a 2 hour trip with only a single stop in Quartz Valley for a refueling, he began to see the castle in the distance, marked by a plume of steam rising above the mountains. Snow began to fall as he got closer, and the cold started to chill past his coat, making him shiver a bit. After disembarking the train, he left for the castle in the distance. Eventually he reached the massive structure, and set himself down gently in front of it, finding himself flank-deep in snow. After trudging over to an area that had been plowed of the white fluffy precipitation, he walked along a wide path to the large, iron gates of the building.

It was a rather impressive castle too, being over 300 feet tall and built out of solid white brick, camouflaging the fortress against the snowy mountains of the north. There were many towers of seemingly random height running alongside the inner castle walls, and the entire assembly was surrounded by a defensive outer wall that was built like a hollowed-out truncated pyramid. At each corner of the wall was a very high defensive tower that housed a barbette containing two smooth bore cannons. These, Techorse thought, must be able to rotate so that the castle could maximize firepower in one direction in case of an emergency.

The crowning feature of the structure, however, was the massive boiler house in the center. Three tall smokestacks bundled together, and striped with blue in a candy-cane style, rose above almost everything else and poured light colored smoke into the atmosphere. The power from these steam boilers heated and powered the castle and all of its modern electric lights, weapons systems, and most likely also provided a nearly infinite supply of hot water to its residents.

Techorse was amazed by the steam-based technology present on a building that was supposed to be representative of old construction principles. He approached the gate, and looked to the left to find a gatekeeper mare, filing her hoof and in general not paying attention to her duties. She was a heliotrope colored unicorn pony with straight blue hair ironed into false curls, and her cutie mark bore a single large purple book with a cyan question mark on it.

"Hello!" said Techorse, "I'm here to see Princess Cadance."

"Do you have an appointment?" asked the keeper, looking up at him and smiling.

This had caught him off guard, but he wasn't willing to lie, so he answered with a frown, "Well, no. I never got a chance to give advance notice."

The mare leaned out of the window and gave his mane hair a good rub, "I was just messing with you, nopony gets an appointment; heck hardly anypony's ever out here at all! If you want to see the princess I'll just let her know you're coming and…"

She looked behind Tech's head and saw his saddle.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, blocking her view again by moving his head.

"Well it's just that you do have to declare any weapons you have. That's like, the one rule we have. No outside weapons, so if you have any in there, you have to tell me about them."

Techorse explained, "This is my battle saddle, it's equipped with laser cannons, missile launchers…"
He noticed her giving him a funny look and said, "It basically gives me a little less than one unicorn's magic firepower."

"Oh, so it's a new thing, huh?" the gatekeeper said, scratching her head and wonder, "Amazing, an earth pony with a magic saddle. Anyways, just give that to me, I'll have it checked for you, and then I'll give it back once you leave."

Techorse carefully unbuckled the device and passed it over to the unicorn, who would later place it inside a safe meant for weapons. She then pressed a button on a desktop in her office, and the gates in front of the castle hissed as steam escaped from the pneumatic systems forcing them shut. They quickly opened up in front of Techorse, and the outer wall's drawbridge was already opened wide.

As he trotted over to the drawbridge to enter the castle, the thought occurred to him that he had just given up the gadget he was going to impress the Sparkles with! Now there was no way Cadance or Shining Armor would see it, and he'd have to do something else to impress them. Thoughts of being laughed at or called a fraud had to be fought back against in order for Techorse to not lose his mind as he stepped up to the front door.

Once he had gotten inside of the castle, which was brightly lit up by multiple light bulbs that represented vacuum tubes, he followed the wide and roomy hallways to the throne room, using a map provided by a friendly guard by the drawbridge. The door consisted of a circular metal opening, with small brass handles meant to be pulled on by hooves. Techorse pulled gently on the left brass ring, and opened the door boldly, closing it by turning around and pushing on it instead of slamming it with his hind legs.

After turning around, Techorse was shocked at what he saw. For what was supposed to be a throne room, it resembled more of a coffee room. There were two velvet and gold chairs that served as "thrones" at the back of the room, but they looked just like ornate living room comfy chairs to Techorse. A small table sat in front of the two chairs, topped with plates and drinks from earlier snacks. The carpet on the floor was blue, thick, and wooly, generating static cling if someone happened to scuffle along it. No large stained glass windows existed, just a few bay windows used for observation only, and heat registers to keep the room warm. A few beautiful cushions of various colors were spread out in front of the table, each one clean and smelling of lilies.

Cadance was over by the window facing the north side of the castle, and noticing Techorse, moved over to greet him.

"Hello, the gatekeeper told me you were coming," she said with a smile on her face.

The slender pink mare stepped over onto the blue rug, and sat down on her velvet chair.

"Thank you for letting me visit," Techorse said trying to express gratitude, "I love your throne room, your majesty."

Cadance told him with a laugh, "Oh stop it, please! I had the castle built like this to make it seem like a warm, safe home for my subjects. They've had such bad experiences with previous leaders that I didn't want them to have to bow before me, and I didn't want them to be afraid. So I made our throne room look as inviting and safe as possible."

"That's very kind," complimented Techorse, "this place really does look safe, what with all the turrets and the technology."
"Those were my husband's idea," she admitted, "I let him have a few says in the castle's design too!"

With a small glow around her horn, Cadance lifted a nearby cup of tea to her lips and took a sip before replacing it on the table. Techorse was sorely tempted to plop himself down on a pillow and sprawl, but he was here for a purpose!

"So who are you again?" asked Cadance, "You wanted to talk to me about something, right?"

Techorse put a hoof on his front and said, "My name's Techorse. I'm an inventor who lives in Ponyville, I make and sell appliances as my career, I use the slogan 'designed with hooves in mind'."

At his name, she became rather surprised.

"Wait, you're Techorse?" asked Cadance, sounding a bit apologetic as if she was sorry he wasn't what she was expecting, "You don't look like what I imagined him to look like."

Stunned by the fact she had heard of him, Techorse asked, "You've heard of me before?"

"You really think Aunt Celestia would keep news of a new auxiliary element from me?" she asked sarcastically, "I knew about Techorse and his help in stopping the invasion we had last year, and the discovery of Justice as an auxiliary element."

"Yeah, that's me!" confirmed Techorse, "I'm the one with the 'magic saddle' as your servants are calling it. Sorry I don't look like what you were thinking of."

Cadance took a quick look out the window before returning to him, "It's fine. I guess I was thinking of a colt a little taller is all. Anyways, it's good to have a hero in my castle asking me anything other than what needs slaying around here. So what did you want to ask me again?"

Techorse continued, "What I wanted to do was get to know you better. See, I'm Twilight Sparkle's coltfriend."

The princess recoiled slightly in surprise at the statement, "What?"

"I'm serious!" he said, "I wanted to introduce myself so that I can get to know the Sparkle family better."

"How do I know that what you're saying is true?" asked Cadance, "No offense Techorse, but anypony could say that."

"You mean the fact that I helped her and her friends isn't enough proof?" he asked with disappointment.

"Well not every two ponies who go on an adventure together pair off. Love doesn't always work that way," she explained, tapping a hoof as if irritated.

Techorse looked around to see if there were any guards nearby, or if any other beings were observing the room. It didn't look like it, so he slowly backed away from the table to give himself enough room for what he was going to do.

Now, in his mind, he knew that he really didn't want to have to do what he planned on doing. But there seemed to be no other way he could prove who he was to Cadance without doing it. It was so embarrassing to him, however, that he wanted to make dead sure that there wasn't a soul watching. He looked around one more time, then took a nice breath before beginning.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Techorse had hoped that he had performed the dance perfectly. He turned around from shaking his rear end and looked at the surprise on Cadance's face.

"How did you know that song?" she asked, her multicolored hair slightly frizzing in shock.

"I learned it from Twilight!" he answered, "She taught it to me on one of our dates."

"She taught you well, then," snickered Cadance, "it's good to see Twilight grown up and dating."

"Well, recently…" admitted Techorse, "We haven't had tons of time to go on dates, and it doesn't seem like we always have a huge amount of romantic feelings for each other. Sometimes I worry that things won't work out."

The princess smiled and got up from her chair, walking over to him while saying, "Techorse, before I got married and took on the responsibility of a leader, my magic was always centered around healing and relationships. Tell me the truth, do you respect Twilight and go out of your way to make her feel special?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She answered with a smirk, "For one thing, do you sit quietly and listen while she goes on and on about the latest book she's been reading?"

He smiled at her, "Of course."

"Doesn't she listen to you when you talk about whatever you've built recently?"

"Yeah, usually."

"And both of you would save the other one if something terrible were to happen, right?"

"I'd do anything to protect her."

"Well then," concluded Cadance, "it sounds to me like you and Twilight love each other very much."

Techorse said in confusion, "But princess, we don't always feel so passionate about each other."

Cadance put her right hoof on his right wither and said, "True love is not about feelings, Techorse. True love is when you're willing to go out of your way for somepony in a way that you don't for any others. It's about respect, commitment, and being there for her. The feelings always come and go as they please in a relationship. Love is an action."

"Then what should I do?" he asked, frowning.

"I don't think you have to do anything, because you're a good choice for Twilight," she answered,

"Maybe if you could work on spending a little more time together, you wouldn't have these worries. But I can tell you're a smart and considerate pony, and that's enough."

Techorse was relieved that he wasn't going to have to demonstrate any of his inventions in order to impress the princess. He had already convinced her that he was a decent being, and that seemed to be just perfect for someone who was an expert on relationships.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a large pegasus mare entered, wearing a hardhat and a flak vest.

"Your majesty!" she shouted, "Boiler number 3's pressure is off the charts! If we don't do something soon, half the castle is going to be a crater!"

"Is it a single-turbine model?" asked Techorse.

"Yes!" answered the guard, her orange mane sticking out from underneath her helmet, "Do you know anything about steam turbines? We could always use one more engineer on this problem."

"I'll do my best!" he answered, standing up in response to the emergency.

They ran for the door to go to the boiler room, with Cadance chasing behind them.

"I'm coming too!" she said.

They raced to the central building of the castle, slamming open doors as they rushed into the control room that housed the three mighty boilers that supplied energy and heat to the palace. Once they entered the room, Techorse marveled at the sheer size of the place. It was over six hundred feet on both sides, and in the back of the room, 3 massive brass boilers the size of tanker trucks sat on a massive bed of burning coals, heating water from melted snow. The steam from these boilers was pumped over to a set of three turbines which rotated to provide a large amount of electrical power. The third boiler's seams were leaking white hot steam at the edges, and a loud hissing noise echoed throughout the blazing hot room.

"Lousy earth pony engines, a weather or magic based power plant would have been better," muttered the engineer mare.

Techorse gave her a nasty look for the insult and said, "Hey, just because it doesn't run off of weather or magic energy doesn't mean it's junk! You just have to take care of the machines better."

"Miss Conductive!" interrupted another engineer, a young pegasus colt who was experiencing his first training day, "I know you're upset, but we're going to lose the boiler if we don't do something now! Stop arguing with that guy and help me!"

Conductive nodded and flew over to a large group of mechanical controls. Levers, buttons, and switches lined the primitive-looking power plant control grid, and once in a while a pressure dial would indicate that boiler 3's condition was getting worse. A rivet popped out from the assembly and shot across the long room, tearing a hole in the wall just behind Conductive. She looked over all the controls and pushed a button to turn off water flow to the boiler. The massive pipes in the room groaned as the flow as stopped, but the water still in the boiler was continuing to mount pressure at an alarming rate.

"Oh no, I thought that would have worked!" she gasped, a siren going off on the control panel to indicate that she had mere moments.

"She's gonna blow!" shouted the trainee, ducking and covering his head with his front hooves.

"Techorse, do something!" demanded Cadance, "Shining's not here to shield the castle from the blast!"

"I'm not going to let it explode!" he said with determination. Running over to the panel, and nearly getting hit by several more flying rivets from the dying engine, Techorse looked over the controls and looked for a kill switch. There was none of course, a flaw in the design of the power system. But the feed pipes on the wall contained water from the icy outside…

"Cadance, what offensive magic do you know?" he shouted over the alarms.

"Just a basic beam!" she answered.

That wasn't enough firepower to do what he planned on doing. But looking around, he found a tool rack containing shovels for stoking the fires with fresh coal.

"Hey, you!" shouted Techorse to the trainee.

He timidly looked up at him and asked, "Yeah?"

"Grab the shovel, fly up to the pipes, and break the red valves on the end closest to the boiler!" he shouted, "It's the only thing we can do!"

Swallowing his fear of getting hit by the rivets, he complied and dutifully grabbed a shovel. Spreading his wings, he glided up towards the red twist-valves used to manually closed the pipes. Several rivets and a jet of boiling hot steam threatened to injure him, but he bravely dodged those obstacles, and reached the red valve, which was as big as a steering wheel. He pulled back the shovel with his two hooves while hovering, and swung it as hard as he could.

The impact broke the head of the shovel and the valve at the same time. Small jets of icy water emitted from the base of the valve, and cracks started to appear around the junction of the pipe. The pegasus pony fled the failing tubes as fast as possible, and returned to Conductive's side.

Then the pipes ruptured, and ice cold water from the melted snow flowed out in tremendous volume, pouring out over boiler #3. The coals beneath the machine were instantly extinguished, and the icy chill of the water began to cool the boiler, turning the excessive steam inside into water again. The pressure gauges on the boiler began to fall, and steam stopped leaking from the edges of the engine. Soon the boiler was safely shut down, and the other two functional ones were carrying its weight for it. The pipes designed to supply boiler #3, however, were permanently ruined and would have to be replaced. But it was a much smaller economic loss than if the boiler had exploded, and the pipes bursting caused zero injuries in comparison to the tragic number that might have occurred.

The young pony shook from the adrenaline from his task, but he also felt great pride that he had managed to stop the explosion.

"You did it, Damage Control!" squealed Conductive, "You cooled it down."

"Does this mean I can have the engineering job?" he asked.

His supervisor laughed, "Of course you can!"

Techorse and Cadance smiled at each other and left the boiler room, pleased at what the engineering team had accomplished that day.

"You handled that emergency extremely well, Techorse," she said, "I think you would make a great addition to the Sparkle family."

This got an ear-to-ear grin out of Techorse. In his mind, he had checked off one more pony to impress before the day was over. But then it occurred to him,

"Hey, where is your husband? You said he wasn't here to help shield us."

Cadance answered, "He's out at the Turtle Lodge again. It's a place where ponies go to catch and tame river turtles to give as pets to their friends. But it's also a great hangout for stallions and mares who are passing through the area."

"How long does he leave for?" asked Techorse.

"He's been gone for weeks at a time to the lodge, and for so often that I've been worried about him." She said, a little sadly, "In fact, my captain of the guard took notice, and she gave me a frying pan as a 'present' for when Shining gets back from this trip."

Techorse tried not to laugh at the gag behind the saucepan, instead making an offer, "I'd like to go to the lodge and talk to him, if possible. Maybe I can figure out why he's been going on so many vacations."

"It's best if I ask those questions," Cadance said, "I'll be right there a few hours after you get there, I have some loose ends to tie down after the boiler incident."

He bid her farewell and headed back out to the gate to collect his battle saddle and make for the lodge. It was only a few hours away from the castle, but Techorse still wished that he had brought his self-teleporter as it would have saved him the flight.

The lodge itself was located in a much warmer climate 2 hours southwest of the castle, and was situated in a deciduous forest. It was a large structure made almost entirely out of logs, cobblestone, and brick chimneys whose fireplaces were used to keep the multiple guest rooms warm. The large estate covered several acres, and served as a trapping ground for the river turtles the ponies who vacationed here liked to catch. Techorse approached the small front door, a simple blue-colored wood opening on the east side of the building complex.

He entered into a large room filled with rugs made from artificial materials, a roaring fireplace, and several photographs of earlier successful traps, with some of the caught turtles being larger than a toaster. Finding his way around the lodge was easy due to its lack of commercial ownership by a company; the entire estate was funded by sales of the pet turtles, and was a shared community property by the ponies who stayed there from season to season. Finding Shining Armor's part of the building meant looking for some kind of map or directory, and the only one available pointed out his section of the building being on the east side. Following the map, he made it to the cabin, number 24, and knocked gently on the door with his hoof, rather than his saddle's hand.

"Hey, come on in," came a voice from behind the door.

Techorse nudged the door open with his nose, and entered the rustic room. The log walls were complimented by simple 4-pane windows, and a nice stone fireplace which burned pine wood, filling the room with the great smell of the sap. Shining Armor was seated down on a simple recliner near the fireplace, and was reading a large red-bound book on investment plans.

"Haven't met you before," he said, placing the book down with his magic on a nearby nightstand.

"My name's Techorse," stated the inventor, walking forward to greet him, "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Finally meet me?" laughed Shining, his rough-ended hooves creaking the floorboards, "Did somepony keep you away from me?"

"Yeah, actually, although you'd probably be shocked as to who it is," said Techorse, laughing slightly.

Shining Armor didn't know what he was in for, but he had a guest now, and it was rather lonely at the Lodge.

"I'm going to go to the storage shed outside, we can talk more there. It's nice to meet the colt who stopped the robots," He said.

Techorse was very happy on the inside that Shining Armor had also heard of his adventures, and followed him eagerly outside.

The two left the cabin and went to the storage shed, which was a relatively plain building a few feet away from the main lodge. Inside, Shining Armor pointed out a small collection of weapons that he had taken with him from Canterlot.

"So, where are you from anyways, Techorse?" he asked, looking over a few daggers on a carpentry bench.

"It would take a while for me to explain where I'm really from, but right now I live in Ponyville," he said, "I market my inventions for a living."
"Neat," he said, seeming uninterested in technology, "good choice of hometown though."

Techorse then brought about his main point, "Shining Armor, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I'm your sister's coltfriend. Twilight and I have been together for a while now, and I wanted to get to know the rest of her family better."

Now this had Shining's attention. The thought of any colt taking advantage of Twilight made him angry, and even though Techorse "seemed nice", he could potentially do something that would crush his sweet sibling forever. In response to the statement, Shining Armor used his magic to pick up a dagger from the bench, and began cleaning it with a nearby rag.

"Is that so…" he said, somewhat grumpy.

His striped hair frizzed a bit, and seemed to be accenting his mistrust of Techorse.

"Yes!" continued Techorse, unaware of the aggression, "She and I go out together to read books, eat lunch, or just have fun."

Shining Armor put down the dagger, and picked up a nearby sword, polishing that instead.

"You'd better treat my sister right," he said, "I wouldn't like it if you were to hurt her."

"Hurt her?" asked Techorse, a bit disappointed, "I would never do such a thing. We get along really well, and I don't want to risk that over something stupid."

Shining Armor still wasn't convinced, he had moved over to a large blunderbuss and was polishing it furiously in front of Techorse in hopes he'd take a hint. It wasn't working, so he dropped the rag to the ground and pointed to a nearby wooden crossbow hanging up on the wall of the shed.

"You know," said Shining, "I'm a really good shoot with a crossbow."

“I believe it!” responded Techorse, unintimidated out of sheer obliviousness.

Still not "getting through" to Techorse, Shining moved over to an oversized cannon and began to look down the barrel at Techorse, as if aiming for him. Eventually the image of him readying his weapons had to give some sort of hint to the inventor, even with his social cluelessness.

"That's a really nice artillery piece you've got there,” He said pointing at it with a front leg, "Where did you get it?"

"It was a gift from Princess Celestia when I left Canterlot," explained Shining, "too bad it doesn't fire anymore."

Techorse had an idea as to how he could impress Shining Armor and also show off his personal talents.

"Did you ever serve on an artillery team?" he asked.

Shining Armor shook his head, "Never got the chance."

"Well then, let me have a look!" Techorse said, walking closer to the gun. Shining stepped away from the solid black tube on wooden wheels, and let him have a better view.

The doors on Techorse's saddle opened up, and using his robotic arms, he opened the breech of the cannon and looked on the inside. After fiddling with the components on the breech door and making a few understanding mutterings, he told Shining Armor what was wrong with his souvenir weapon.
He pointed with a metal finger at a small device shaped like a hammer connected to a piece of flint, and the button on top of the cannon.

Shining Armor peered at the device, and Techorse explained the issue, "What you've got here is a breech-loaded howitzer-style cannon, designed to hit targets at medium range. The firing hammer here is supposed to strike the flint when the button on top is pressed, thus sparking the gunpowder charge and firing the cannon. The hammer's spring is broken, so if you replace it, the cannon will fire again."

"Huh, neat!" Shining said, pretending he had heard anything but the last sentence of Techorse's speech, "How did you know all that?"

"One time I was going to Sugarcube Corner for a brownie, and found Pinkie Pie fixing her party cannon in the back of the building. She told me all about how smooth-bore cannons work, and how she had made hers from a bunch of parts she'd bought from around the town. Normally I'd be a little too high-technology to know anything about an old weapon like this, but it was fun learning something new from a friend," he explained.

It was then that it occurred to him that perhaps Shining Armor had been showing him his weapon collection for a reason.

"Oh, duh," he said, facepalming before putting back the robot arms, "Shining, you're showing me all these weapons because you're concerned about Twilight, aren't you? You're trying to tell me I'm history if something goes wrong."

Having been caught, he said honestly, "Yeah, of course. Twiley only deserves the best, and I didn't have any idea what you were like. I don't care if you're a hero, a warrior, or an ordinary pony, if you're not a good stallion, you're not for her."

"It's kind of a shame that you want to fire that thing at me," stated Techorse, "Twilight told me that you were one of the nicest stallions in Equestria, her best friend and brother. Her B-b-b-f-f, she said."

Shining Armor was feeling rather ashamed of how he had treated Techorse now, as he'd only wanted to test his character, but had probably taken things too far.

So, he gave him a confident look and said, "Techorse, I guess I was wrong to threaten you. Now that I think about it, you really are a gentlecolt. You showed respect for a mare by listening to Pinkie Pie on a topic that a lot of other colts might think they know everything about. I can tell you carry over that same level of respect, and more, to my Twiley."

Showing some remorse, he made eye contact with him and asked sincerely, "Sorry for all the mind games. Can you forgive me?"

Techorse answered with a wink and a smile, "Of course I can forgive you, Shining. You were only doing what you thought was best for your sister. If I had any sibling and their coltfriends were over, I'd probably spend a little bit of time with my laser cannons out."

"Speaking of that," said Shining, pointing to a target in the back of the shed, "I've heard of those and I've got to see them in action. Would you mind shooting this target for me?"

"With pleasure!" answered Techorse, turning to face the wooden circle in the back of the room.

The saddle opened up, and two metal tubes braced by capacitors slid out. Techorse spotted a training target at the back of the shed, and began to blast away at it with his laser cannons, sending yellow bolts of electromagnetic energy at the bullseye. The wooden target was struck several times, chunks flew off in all directions, until nothing but a stick remained. Techorse retracted the guns again, and took a short breath. Shining Armor was rather impressed by the impressive weapon system, not that Techorse's marksmanship was the best in the world, but the cool weapons had already won him over.

"Wow, and those things run off of electricity, and not magic?" said a very impressed Shining, "What else have you got in there?"

Techorse offered to go on a walk with Shining to talk more about his gadgets and various adventures in Equestria. Of course the offer was accepted, and within an hour the two were becoming friends, sharing stories and experiences. Eventually the conversation took a turn for the awkward side of things once Shining Armor asked a question about his successor.

"So how's my replacement Arbiter doing?" he asked as they walked along the riverbank, "Does he do a good job?"

"He's very good at keeping the princesses safe, and hardly lets anypony visit them without proof of good intentions. Since I came from a different world, he was very cautious about me," answered Techorse, a little upset.

"What, was he annoyed by you?" chuckled Shining.

Techorse complained, "Annoyed? He tried to cut my head off!"

"Yeah, that seems about right for Arbiter," he said bluntly, wishing he hadn't asked.

"Recently though, Arbiter's been a bit better," continued Techorse sarcastically, "But he's still kinda irritated with me believing in that whole 'due process' thing."

"Oh I can imagine." said Shining just as sarcastically, "He also has a lot of faith in 'The Law'. Of course, 'The Law' is what he named his first sword…"

They shared a hearty laugh over the jokes about Captain Arbiter's nature and then continued to follow the stream's path.

"You really ought to spend more time with other guys, Techorse," mentioned the prince, moving away from his trap, "they'd love to have these kinds of conversations. Let's go inside and get something to eat, ok?"

After heading back inside the lodge, the lights had been dimmed so that Shining's room had been completely darkened.

"Could you get that switch for me, Tech? I'm going to head for the kitchen," asked Shining.

Techorse flipped the switch with his robot arms, and then returned the devices back into his saddle with a whirring sound. Shining Armor, who had stumbled through the dark for the center of the room, was now face to face with his wife, who had a disgusted look on her face. She had been hiding in the darkness for him. With a spark of pink energy from her horn, she lifted up from a nearby chair the frying pan she had been given earlier. Shining Armor knew he was in trouble for being away for so long.

"Oh, hello sweetheart!" he said to her while grimacing, "Want to join me on vacation?"

"Shining, you've been here for over two weeks, and you've taken at least 5 weeks off this year total,” she said, readying the pan, "what have you been doing here?"

She seemed to be getting ready to strike him with the pan, which Techorse really hoped she wouldn't do.

"To be honest, Cadance…" started Shining, "I've just missed being my own stallion since we moved out of Canterlot. Taking care of the Empire for your father has been the hardest challenge of our lives, and I haven't been able to work on myself at all."

That certainly explained the investment book, along with the other reading materials Shining had been looking at over those weeks. He was trying to develop himself personally so that he wouldn't be a faceless leader to the Crystal Empire.

"I just wanted to have a personal life, but I'm sorry I ran off for it," he said glumly.

"Oh Shining, just come back home and we can work something out! We need you more than ever back home," Cadance said, "I'll give you some 'Shining Time' every day, all right?"

"So you're not going to hit me with that frying pan?" he asked hopefully, pointing to the cooking implement.

Cadance tossed the pan out the window of the cabin and said, "Of course not. Come here, love!"

They embraced and kissed in front of Techorse, who shut his eyes and smiled at the positive outcome to the situation.

"Didn't forget about you, Techorse," said Cadance, "is there anything we can do for you before you
head back to Ponyville?"

"Actually, I have an idea, but it might mean going a while out of your way!" he answered, a plan churning in his mind.

"Lay it on us!" said Shining.

Twilight Sparkle finished putting the last history book back into place on the shelf. The volumes were now perfectly aligned and dusted off, not a single one was either dirty or out of place. PAL had dropped by recently and taken Spike to Techorse's castle for a couple board games. Twilight hoped that everything was going ok, as it was getting dark and Techorse hadn't returned yet. A knock at the door distracted her from her thoughts, and she went to answer it. When she opened the door, Techorse was standing in the doorway, wearing a nice dress shirt, pants, and sport coat.

"Oh hey Tech!" she said, not expecting him to show up.

Frowning when she noticed his amazing outfit, she asked, "Why are you all dressed up tonight?"

Techorse stepped out of the way, and let Shining, Cadance, and Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle in through the doorway. Twilight's mouth nearly fell open in surprise.

"Mom, Dad? Cadance, Shiny?" asked Twilight nervously, "What are you doing here?"

Her father said, "We're here to take you and your coltfriend out to dinner tonight!"

"It was all your brother's idea. He's told us all about him," said Mrs. Sparkle.

"Really?" Twilight asked, "Is this true?"

"Go put something nice on, Twiley," said Shining Armor, "And let's go!"

"You're sure you want to go out tonight on such sort notice?" exclaimed Twilight in one last ditch attempt to get out of it.

"Yeah," he answered, looking back at his new friend, "this is the least I could do for Techorse after how I acted."

"Come on Twilight!" said her mother, "We're running behind, sweetie. Go put your dress on."

Twilight realized that somehow, despite everything they had worried about, Techorse had explained his origin to her family and managed to gain their trust despite that. So, she went and put on her favorite yellow colored dress, and returned to her family ready to go for a fun night out. When they left the tree home all locked up for the night, Twilight and Techorse followed the rest of the family with their tails wrapped around each other.

From behind a nearby bush, Spike and PAL watched them leave for their dinner, and turned to each other all smiles. Their plan to introduce Techorse to the family had worked! As loudly as they could without drawing attention, a metal fist met a scaled one in a robot-dragon fistbump.

As they headed for the carriage that would take them to the restaurant, Techorse and Twilight were thinking nothing but peaceful thoughts. They'd finally settled the issue of Twilight's family getting to know her coltfriend, and were glad to learn that not only did they approve of her choice, but also that their happiness together made them happy as well.

#24 - One Year in Ponyville

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One Year in Ponyville

Techorse series: #24

By Spirals95

It was hard to accept as fact for him, but it was true. One year had passed since Techorse had first arrived at Equestria onboard the satellite owned by his long-defeated master. Over all the adventures he had shared with his friends, he had learned a lot about life in Equestria, and even more about how to be the best friend he could be. Recently, he had been invited by Pinkie Pie to talk about a new baking invention that she had an idea for. Just a month ago she had thrown a party for his birthday, and had listened to his request of making it a small, quieter event than what she normally would want. Techorse couldn't resist the offer to pay her back for the party by testing his mechanical skills against Pinkie Pie's crazy idea.

In order to be ready for copying the idea down and building it, he had prepared all week for the meeting. While upstairs in his bedroom, he made the last of his preparations on the tile floor in front of his queen-sized bed, covered in a blue comforter. Carefully packing a pad of blueprint paper into the back of his battle saddle, the invention that had carried him through so many dangerous events over the months, the young stallion stuffed the lid shut, showing the steel casing. It wouldn't be very comfortable for someone to sit on the saddle for very long, as the cushion that used to be on the device had been removed a long time ago. He then placed the device on his back, and tightened the black straps which held it in place.

Using his thoughts to control the machine, he moved the machinery around on the inside to move his most helpful gadget, the robotic arms he used to give him an artificial set of hands, to the front of the saddle's small doors on the sides. Each one snaked out of the metal doors gently, with the soft sound of servos and motors, and reached for a nearby desk. The hands wrapped around a brass knob on the open drawer on the wooden desk, and closed it with a soft thud. Then, as if pulled like a tape measure, they retracted into the saddle again, and the doors closed with a sharp click.

Techorse looked back at the gadget and then headed for the door of his bedroom. Leaving it and heading down the closest staircase, he came across the front door of his castle, twin wooden doors that stood nearly 15 feet tall each. PAL was leaning up against the wall to the right of the doorway, his arms and legs crossed.

His master looked at him and smiled, "Ready to go see Pinkie Pie?"

"Of course, master." He answered, standing up, "I've been looking forward to this all week."

The robot calculated that he had successfully used the perfect tone of artificial voice in order to trick his master into not asking any more questions beyond that. He moved over to a nearby control panel, and pressed a red button, one of many, located towards the top. The doors slowly swung open inwards, and the light of day mixed with the electric lights that illuminated the castle. Once the doors were fully opened, Techorse looked out at the side of Ponyville he could see from the front of his home.
The windmill that provided some of the electrical power for the town was easily visible and turning in the summer wind. Many of the colonial homes painted with red or pink lines were also visible, the thatch roofs with a fresh layer of straw to repair them for the fall. Part of the river that flowed through town was also visible to the left, and birds gathered around the water to hunt for insects to feed their young and to participate in daily life. Techorse filled his lungs with the fresh air, and then started his walk into town with his robot companion. As they walked through town, a few faces recognized him and PAL.

"Hey, it's Tech!" said Berry Punch as she waved at from a window.

"Hello!" he called back, walking past her home.

Colgate, who was on her way to work, greeted them as well, "PAL, what's up?"

"On my way to Sugarcube Corner, Miss Colgate, I'll be back to talk to you later!" He answered cheerfully.

It seemed that most of the residents had grown to accept the lumbering machine accompanying the green pony. Just 1 year ago, they were all running away in terror from him, afraid of being captured before being strapped to a medical table and opened up alive for anatomical science. Now there wasn't a single doubt in their minds that he was a good citizen.

They arrived at Sugarcube Corner a little suspicious of the establishment. The lights were on, but there didn't seem to be any customers for the day, which was very strange considering it being at least an hour or two after opening time for the bakery. Techorse looked at the sign on the front of the shop, and it read "open".

"Must be a slow business day, huh PAL?" he asked rhetorically, before opening the wooden door and walking inside.

A massive burst of pink and purple confetti erupted from the front counter of the store from several tiny improvised party horns. Techorse's friends emerged from behind the counter and shouted, "Happy One Year In Equestria, Techorse!"

"Hey, I thought I said I didn't want a party." said Techorse, happy but a little embarrassed.

Pinkie Pie jumped up to him, wearing a light blue party hat, and said to him, "Nopony gets away with not having a huge party with me around! You almost skipped your birthday, Techie, so I had to make it up with this one."

"So there's no invention you want me to make for you?" he asked.

"Of course not, silly!" she answered, "I got PAL to tell you that so you'd show up."

He turned his head back and shot the robot a nasty look, who gave him a huge metallic grin.

Rarity decided that Pinkie Pie's turn to talk to Techorse was now over, and she stepped forward to say,
"Oh, an entire year here in Ponyville. I can't believe that much time has passed already."

"I can't believe how many adventures he's had so far with us." Added Rainbow Dash, "Of course, a lot can happen in a year here in Ponyville."

"Like that time we stopped Captain Arbiter from pollutin' all of Equestria!" stated Applejack, "Might not have liked that rope around me, but we still got a couple of kicks out of sockin' it to the Captain!"

"Yeah, or that time you made me as big as a dragon so I could blow Don Poisonback away!" remembered Rainbow, "Now that was cool!"

Continuing with the favorite fond memories, Fluttershy said softly, "I've always known you've been afraid of being called violent, Techorse. But after I've gotten to know you over this year, I can tell you that isn't true."

Lastly, Twilight Sparkle stepped forward, "I can't believe it's been a whole year since we met each other, and I rescued you from that terrible Wizard. I've really enjoyed all the time we've spent together, and I know next year's going to bring some surprises of its own!"

Pinkie Pie ran over to a nearby plate of chocolate cupcakes iced with yellow frosting in a rose shape, and lifted one over her head with her right front hoof.

"This is to Techie, for a year in Ponyville, and many more fun filled ones to come!" she said, toasting him.

Techorse was speechless, with his friends cheering. He had never thought that one day he might escape his cruel master and have anything nice in life, including friends. But here he was, with friends who appreciated him, a great life, and everything he could ever want. If only there was a way that he could give back, besides the rather faceless donations he made to try to fill that emotional void.

"Hey, come on Techorse," said Spike, interrupting his thoughts, "We got you some presents for your belated birthday, come open them!"

He complied with the dragon's request and moved over to the carefully wrapped presents, each one's paper was the color of its givers coat, and there was one gift bag from Spike and PAL that sat off by itself. It was a silver color, and was stuffed with blue tissue paper to hide its contents from view.
Techorse reached for the gift with his leg, and opened the bag by removing the tissue paper with his teeth. Inside the large bag at the bottom was a folded umbrella, red in color, with an odd metal attachment at the bottom. It seemed to be a multi-pin wire ribbon that would attach to an electronic device of some kind.

"Thanks, what kind of an umbrella is this?" he asked, staring at the contraption.

Spike explained, "PAL and I went into your lab and made an umbrella that can pop out of the top of your saddle. Now you have something that looks like the umbrella saddles other ponies use!"

"I made sure the connector wires on the umbrella are compatible with your battle saddle, master." Added PAL, "Hopefully when it looks like rain you'll equip it."

"Of course!" he said, "Thanks for such a great gift."

"Will you open mine next?" requested Rarity, her hair curls bobbing as she moved her head up, "I'm sure you'll find it quite lovely."

Techorse agreed to open the present next, and unwrapped it to reveal a white cardboard box. After removing the lid, he found a nice suit made from black and white material, and a bowtie to go with it. The bowtie and cufflinks of the suit featured Rarity's specialty, a sewn ruby in the center of each of them.

"Wow!" was all he could say, the suit had to have taken a good amount of time to make.

"I had to get some help to make it, but it was worth it!" explained Rarity, "You simply have to own a suit that keeps up with the modern styles, Techorse, it's a must for fancy parties and meetings. I hope you like the traditional black and white, it's very stylish for an average-sized colt like you…"

"Ok, enough of that," barged in Applejack, "let Techorse open his other presents, Rarity."

"I was almost finished!" huffed Rarity, "He needs to know what colognes go with it!"

"I promise I'll talk to you later about it!" assured Techorse, trying to avoid the argument, "You spent so much time making this special, Rarity, that I want to know everything."

Applejack frowned, Techorse was likely to keep his promise, and she didn't like it when she lost an argument to Rarity.

The gift-giving continued, with Techorse receiving a fresh set of icing piping tubes from Pinkie Pie, a book on the history of electricity in Equestria from Twilight, a special apple cinnamon scented candle Applejack had obtained from a relative, and a book of paper coupons from Rainbow Dash, each good for a sunny day, any day, even if all she could do without getting in trouble was remove the clouds around just his home.

After the gifts and the inevitable binge on high-calorie treats, the party was over, and the friends had mostly dispersed for the day. Even PAL had left back for the castle before his master, citing needing to get some more coolant, and taking the presents home with him. The last one to leave the bakery was Techorse, as Twilight had offered to help Pinkie Pie clean up after the celebration.

The colt, happy to have spent a good time with his closest friends, walked out of the bakery and shut the door behind him.

After he had closed the door, he heard a voice to the side, "Ah, yes, Mr. Techorse, isn't it?"

He turned to face the unknown pony. It was Dr. Caltrops, standing before him with his black mane combed to the right of his head.

"I hope Pinkie Pie has told you about me," he said, introducing himself, "I'm Dr. Caltrops, P.H.D. I'm the head medical researcher at Fillydelphia's top clinic."

"Yeah, she's told me about you, you're a friend of hers." Answered the green stallion, walking up to him, "Is there something you needed to tell me about?"

"It's just that it's so great to meet such a distinguished inventor such as yourself!" said Caltrops, laughing in a somewhat prideful way under his breath, "In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you're the best inventor Equestria has ever seen."

"Right…" said Techorse sarcastically, "Whoever invented electrical systems in Equestria is chopped oats now."

"So maybe not the best of all time, but you're the best for right now, at least in this doctor's humble opinion," he continued, making it all too obvious he was flattering Techorse.

Of course, Techorse tended to give others the benefit of the doubt until they did something wrong, so he didn't suspect a thing.

"So why did you want to talk to me again?" asked Techorse, hoping Caltrops wasn't going to keep him forever.

Dr. Caltrops pushed his glasses up his muzzle and said, "Ah yes, you see, I was hoping that you might consider taking me up on a special offer! I just founded the Society of Aspiring Ponies, or SOAP for short."

"Don't you think…" tried to say Techorse, his head tilting in confusion.

"Yes, I know, the name's terrible but I can change it if I want to," admitted Caltrops, "the point is that I wish for you to be a part of it. You'll be able to help many earth ponies who want to go to medical school get there, and help inventors get their ideas out on the market! Imagine being a part of somepony else's success story."

"You want me to be on the board?" asked Techorse.

Dr. Caltrops laughed heartily, "Be on the board? Techorse, you're going to be the president of this entire establishment! I haven't met an earth pony who not only has such a good business, but also such an honest one. You repair your appliances for free and don't charge as much as I'd expect up front for such good cookware. I want you to lead my new organization to help other ponies achieve great things!"

Techorse seriously thought over the doctor's offer. Here was the way to help other ponies live successfully that he had wanted. His way of giving back!

However, like many good things that sounded far too good to be true, Techorse was aware that it probably was, and asked, "Well, that sounds nice, but what will I have to do?"

"You'll need to leave your business to the robot of yours Pinkie Pie talks about, and have him run it for you while you live in Fillydelphia. We might not have any fortresses for you to live in, but we have some great large houses out by the waterside! I can even have a laboratory built for you in my hospital's basement so you can keep inventing just for fun!" he answered, "You'll finally be able to get out of this small town and live someplace important!"

That last statement had been rather offensive to Techorse, as he found Ponyville to be plenty important to his life. But if he said no to the doctor's offer, he'd essentially be saying that he had no desire to help other ponies succeed!

"Anything else?"

Caltrops cleared his throat and said, "You'll need to devote all your time and energy to this, so you'll probably need to stop trying to be a servant of princess Celestia's. I heard that you possess an element artifact at her castle. You'll probably need to have that decommissioned so you're not sent off to fight some creature."

"Are you mad?" asked Techorse angrily, "Caltrops, if I have the Element of Justice destroyed, the best we'll be able to do is turn a monster to stone. What do you think will happen if something that we have no hope of stopping over and over again attacks?"

"Pinkie Pie talked with me about this, and as far as I know, somepony else can simply take on the Element, you just have to give it up!" answered Caltrops, trying to defend himself, "If you don't believe me she said Twilight Sparkle had told her this, and I know how much you trust her."

Now he felt really stuck. Techorse knew that Caltrops was most likely telling the truth, but also was keeping something from him. It was likely that he would choose to make him look bad in front of many other ponies by saying publicly that Techorse of Ponyville, once thought to be a kind being, was now selfish enough to refuse an offer to become the president of an establishment meant to help other ponies!

"I need to think about it, Caltrops." Answered Techorse as he turned away, "Can I get back to you on this later today?"

"Of course, take all the time you need, so long as you're ready by tomorrow. If you choose not to accept my offer, I'm sure there's more helpful stallions out there who'd be willing to take me up on my offer."
That made Techorse nearly grind his teeth. Now he knew the doctor was going to slander him at his next meeting if he refused! Trying to figure out what to do, he took an alternate route home that gave him more time to think.

"What does Pinkie Pie SEE in that guy as a friend?" he thought to himself, "He's mad!"

When he got back to his castle, Techorse noticed that the doors had been left open. He was fortunate enough to live in a world where if you left your doors open, it was relatively unlikely that you were going to be robbed while away. Once he had entered the now warm hallways from the outside air getting in, he noticed a scrap of paper lying on the small table he used to place loose change or other objects from his most recent trip out.

Looking over the note, it read:

"Master, I've left your presents on your bed. I need to head back out to find a spare hose for the garden, ours is broken. – PAL"

Techorse wondered why PAL had forgotten to close the doors behind him, but figured that it was simply a result of the machine's tendency to focus on one task at a time without devoting much processing power to any others.

Moving over to the living room on the first floor, the tired pony decided to lie down on the light green fabric sofa in front of the fireplace. He looked up at the stone ceiling, and stared at the individual tiles, very tempted to count them. His thoughts were racing about what he should do, and if he made a bad choice, his life could be ruined. In Techorse's mind, the only right thing to do would be to take Caltrops up on his offer. If he didn't, not only would he be embarrassed, he'd also be missing out on the best opportunity to help out other ponies personally, and give back for all the great things he'd received in his life in Equestria. On the other hand, perhaps declining the offer and coming up with his own way of helping others was a better choice. Both of them would take up way too much time for him to be a responsible Element holder, however. Perhaps it was time to retire from being a hero and switch to a more supportive role.

"I guess the only thing to do is to write princess Celestia and tell her to get rid of my artifact. We probably don't need it anymore anyways, considering Wizard is gone for good."

He said to himself, "I'm sure Twilight and the others can handle anyone else who comes along."

Finalizing his plan in his mind, he got up from the sofa and walked out of the room to go find a scroll to write on. As he went to find a pen, however, a thought occurred to him.

"I should probably go check the garden to see what PAL was talking about the hose."

Techorse crossed the length of his home and exited through a small back door, entering into the sunlight of his garden. A simple place, with a few decorative trees, shrubs, and a few stones surrounding a fountain, was a sunny spot for birds to relax. It didn't look like the place where Twilight had hit him with a rock when they first met.

The garden hose lay torn to pieces in the yard, a sad piece of blue plastic that had seen much better days. Something had probably chewed it up the night before and left it lying in the dew-covered grass. Techorse moved over to the destroyed water hose, and shook his head in disgust at the vandalism.
Suddenly, a bright flash of light occurred in front of the stallion, who shielded his eyes with this left leg. A force of some kind was slowly pushing him back, and he dug his rear legs into the ground to avoid falling over backwards.

"What's happening?" he asked aloud, a bit terrified.

When the flash had ceased, Techorse looked forward again, and to his great surprise an elderly stallion had appeared. He was a large solid green earth pony, with a well cut white beard and facial hair that covered his mustache, sideburns, and part of his neck area. His mane had faded to gray, but his eyes were still as bright of blue as the day he had come to be. What shocked Techorse the most however, was that the adult in front of him was wearing some sort of battle saddle. It was a larger and bulkier device than his, made mostly of brass parts, copper, and had a small exhaust pipe sticking out of the back left which spat white smoke.

"Are you… me?" asked Techorse, mortified.

The elder nodded his head, "I am. I knew I'd find you here at this exact moment in time, in this place."

Techorse acted fast, "Ok, Twilight told me about the possibility of time travel and I'm prepared. What do I need to know before you go back?"

Techorse senior answered gruffly, "There's no rush. My saddle is my time machine. This was a one-way trip, Tech."

The younger Techorse was amazed that he had invented a time machine in the future, but was also rather scared that his older self might end up living out his life with him, "A one way trip?"

"I'm hoping that by the time I'm done explaining what I have to, I'll cease to exist and you can keep living on as me." Explained the elder, walking forward.

"Am I really going to age this poorly?" young Techorse asked worriedly, "I'll start eating a better diet tomorrow if I can avoid this!"

"Relax, you'll be in better health if you can undo what you've caused." Said old Techorse, "Now let's get into your castle here and I'll explain everything. Gosh I missed this place so much."

Despite having grave difficulty with the stairs, the older Techorse had led his past self to the roof of the castle, and asked his copy to sit with him overlooking the edge. He complied, hoping to hear the message from the future that was so important.

"So what happened that made you want to come back in time to tell yourself something?" asked the young adult.

After spitting over the edge of the castle, he answered, "When you decided to ask princess Celestia to destroy the Element of Justice, a terrible thing happened. Instead of finding a new owner, it simply vanished entirely and was unable to be re-constructed from magical stone no matter how many justice-oriented ponies we could find. We never did get attacked by someone like our old master, but it did have some very dire unintended consequences nonetheless."

Techorse shook his head and said in response, “My Element is just an extra one, auxiliary. I figured now that Wizard's gone, we really don't need it anymore.”

After clearing his throat he continued with sadness in his faded voice, "That's where you're wrong, Techorse. Twilight, as you know, is the holder of the Element of Magic, which itself has an interesting backstory. When the princesses discovered the Elements and decided to implement them as artifacts in aid of Equestria, this decision made a certain unicorn mad.”

The older Techorse gave a pause before continuing, “His powers were so great that we believed the correct course of action was to, well, use the might of magic to save Equestria instead. So he sabotaged the Elements by overloading the capacity of the original Magic artifact.”

“Continue,” pleaded younger Techorse.

The elder finished, “Unfortunately, it didn't work. The Elements continued to function, but at a price. Starswirl's intervention still has effects to this day."

"Starswirl!?" asked the shocked youthful Techorse, "I thought he was part of a force for good!"

"Well, yes he was, but he saw things differently from the royal family. It's likely he believed in peace through superior magic. Instead of his plan, the Elements were implemented, and because of the actual, real harmony that they brought. They were a symbol of what our society should strive for, a peaceful existence with meaning."

Young Techorse was still very much confused, but he got the idea that the Elements of Harmony might be the hope that Equestria's ponies would strive to get along in all situations. He asked another question, "I understand what you're saying, but what about Twilight?"

"Oh, poor Twilight," answered his elder self, tapping his cane once on the floor, "You see, Techorse, your Element of Justice helps to offset the instability caused by Starswirl's meddling. Remember your model of how magic works? Well, each Element is powered by the hopes and thoughts of all ponies, and as you'd guess that's a very large amount of power.”

“But my Element isn't even necessary, it's an auxiliary one. The main Elements work without it, just with a different effect,” countered present Techorse.

“Maybe so,” answered his older self, “but having Justice present takes the overload on the Magic element away, acting as a sort of balancing agent. The auxiliary Elements actually prevent a buildup of transformational magic that's very hard to describe. If this buildup were to continue, eventually the Magic element will become overloaded, and transform Twilight into an alicorn."

"That breaks how DNA works in so many ways!" Moaned Techorse, missing one point but getting another.

"Besides the fact that her body really can't take the magically-spliced DNA," continued ancient Techorse on the point of discussion, "It also meant that she began to use the happiness of her subjects to gain immortality."

The young Techorse's ears drooped, "Oh no…"

"I knew you'd figure it out," coughed grandpa Techorse, "Twilight started to live forever, but her friends did not. Twilight is pretty much as she is now in the future, only she cries herself to sleep every night. Her brother, her family, and her best friends aren't there for her anymore. The only reason I'm still here is because I was told to build an immortality machine, and I succeeded. The battle saddle is permanently built into my body, and keeps me alive."

Techorse felt extremely sad and overwhelmed by this news, and realized that he had made a mistake. He started to shed tears, and the drops hit the rooftop hard.

"Now don't cry, I know this is a lot for you to take in, but the good news is that you can prevent this! You won't all have to spend that long without each other if you listen to what I have to say," said the elder, wondering if this counted as feeling sorry for himself.

"I've got to avoid writing that letter," said Techorse, shaping up, "the future depends on me sticking to my Element, even if I am just an extra!"

"You're a bit more than an extra, don't forget that!" sighed the elder, standing up, "Anyways, looks like I've convinced myself not to have my Element destroyed."

"Anything else you wanted to tell me?" asked the young Techorse, standing up with him.

He nodded, "Remember, eventually you're going to have to tell Twilight about this. If you keep it a secret from her, it will only make you feel bad about yourself. You'll eventually convince her being a princess isn't so great when you have to put up with the loss of your friends. Just be as gentle as possible, ok?"

"Hey, you can trust yourself, right?" joked Techorse, swishing his tail.

The elder laughed, perhaps for the first time in a long while, "Indeed I can."

The older pony stared forward blankly, as particles of golden dust began to leak off of his body, taking a tiny piece of himself with it. Techorse watched in awe as his bad future was removed from the space time continuum, a consequence of him avoiding that path. The older Techorse vanished with a smile on his face, knowing he'd still be there in the same amount of time, but a much happier life would be his. When it was over, the gold dust had all disappeared, and Techorse was left alone on the roof of his castle. He realized that he had spent just ten minutes with himself, only to discover that the future could be ruined if he didn't make a key choice.

He also realized he had forgotten to ask something else about Twilight that he would have really wanted to know if possible! Either way, now that he was certain not to cause the terrible future that he was warned about, Techorse figured that he needed to enjoy the life he had. The inventor left the roof to go look over some photographs.

Walking downstairs, he went to his living room again, and found a framed picture of himself with his six best friends in the world, as well as Spike and PAL, all arranged in a picture together. He noticed how happy they all looked, including himself, in the photograph, and knew this is what he really wanted for the rest of his life. There'd be other places, other times, other ways to help ponies, and he'd get his chance to do what he wanted to do eventually. Now was simply not the time for it.

The large wooden doors creaked open as PAL returned from his shopping trip, a fresh rubber hose wrapped around his left arm. Entering the castle, he saw Techorse staring at the picture, and approached his master, wondering why he was starting to tear up at the sight of it.

"What's wrong, master?" he asked, dropping the hose on the floor.

Techorse stopped staring at the picture, and looked up at his best creation, a robot who had managed to gain sapience.

He said to his machine and friend, "PAL, I'm just looking at this picture and thinking how great my life is. I used to believe I was never going to be anything but a slave to Wizard and a lonely person. But now look where I am. I have great friends, a good job, a friendly town that likes me living there, and you. You, PAL, are a miracle. I gave you the ability to code yourself based on emotional experiences that you took in, and you managed to go from something heartless to the best friend a guy could ask for."

"Oh now, look," said PAL with false annoyance, knowing his master's tendency to become overly dramatic, "I will admit I've become quite the ghost in the machine over this year. But, that's not the real problem here. Something has gotten you this upset, and I believe it may have to do with your new life."

"I just don't want to lose it!" said Techorse, pointing at the picture, "I wish I could also use my life to be helpful, but I can't!"

The robot knelt down on one leg, and gave the pony a big hug. He was surprisingly warm despite his metal exterior, and said, "You won't lose it, I'm sure. Also, I wouldn't worry just yet about devoting your life to anything just yet. You're very helpful right now, father."

Techorse had never been called that by PAL. Chances are the now-sapient robot had figured out his creation by Techorse, and had seen him as his father rather than simply his boss. The robot stood back up, and tapped his metal fingers together.

"Of course, you will still let me use the term 'master' around the others, right? I don't think they'd understand how I feel," he said, nervously.

Techorse winked, "It'll be our secret!"

"Oh, and while we're on the topic of feelings, your squirrel has sensed your sadness and has climbed onto your head," said PAL, pointing out the brown squirrel on Techorse's head.

"Hi Wingnut!" laughed Techorse, looking up into the upside-down eyes of the tree rodent, "Haven't seen you in a while. Don't you ever leave the kitchen anymore, or has all that peanut butter made it too sad to leave?"

The squirrel's answer was a chattering noise before jumping off his owner's head and scampering down the hallway.

"Well, anything else you need to get done for the day before sundown?" asked PAL, folding his hands together, "We can always go and get something done together if you want."

Techorse's ears came to full attention.

"Now that you say that, there is something that I have to take care of. Watch the castle for me, and I'll be back later!" he said, galloping for the front door.

He didn't even bother to explain to PAL what exactly it was that he had to take care of. Techorse simply disappeared in a blur of green out the front door to go confront somepony about the issue of leaving Ponyville forever.

It had taken going to Sugarcube Corner and asking where he was, but Techorse had found out that Dr. Caltrops was enjoying the evening by the lakeside just outside of town. Once he had spotted the medical professional, who was sitting on a park bench and watching the waterfowl swim in the water, he approached him quickly. Dr. Caltrops spotted Techorse and assumed that his rapid pace meant that he was eager to sign up for his society. He stood up from the park bench and confronted the stressed colt.

"Oh hello Techorse! Have you made up your mind?" he asked, hopeful.

Techorse shouted at the doctor, "If you think that I'm leaving Ponyville to join your organization, you're crazy! I like my life here in Ponyville, and don't need to be the president of anything to feel loved or special. So go ahead, make me look bad in front of everypony in Fillydelphia, I don't care. Just don't expect me to abandon my friends!"

Caltrops's ears drooped at the yelling, and he answered shamefully, "Make you look bad? Did I really sound that passive-aggressive?"

"Yeah, it sounded like you were trying to shame me into leaving my home here," answered Techorse, still angry.

"Oh Techorse, I'm sorry," said Caltrops, very sad as he slumped back onto the park bench, "it's just, I tried asking a bunch of other ponies with success stories first, and they all said no to me. I figured you, knowing Pinkie Pie, might have been a bit more willing to be the leader I need for my organization. All I wanted to do was help other earth ponies like you rise to the greatness they deserve!"

Techorse relaxed, and started to take a bit of pity on the doctor, who might very well cry if nobody was looking. All of this scheming had simply taken place out of raw frustration with other successful earth ponies having no time to help others.

"Aw come on, doc, it's not that terrible. I don't hate you for suggesting I leave, in fact, I think it's pretty neat you want to help other ponies out," said Techorse, sitting down on the bench with him, "but I do think I know why nopony wanted to join."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because in order to be the president of your society, they'd have to uproot their own lives. I bet many of the others you've asked already have wives and foals and home, they can't abandon them for something no matter how noble it is," explained Techorse, "Pinkie Pie did tell me you can be a little narrow-minded about other ponies' points of view, and I understand that you probably didn't think about that."

"It's true, I suppose it's unfair to expect a pony to give up their current happy lives just for a shot at leadership," Caltrops said, sniffing to clear his sinuses, "but I guess this means I'll just have to close down the board."

Techorse shook his head, "You don't have to do that, even. All you have to do is hire someone who's good at communicating and wants to help others. I think you've been looking for a pony with a big success story. But what you really need is a pony whose job of being the president of your organization would be their success story."

Dr. Caltrops stopped burying his face in his hooves slowly, and looked up at Techorse with a hint of epiphany on his face.

"You're absolutely right. I've been going about this search wrong," he said, "I was so eager to make up for things, that I didn't even realize I could simply hire an effective leader!"

"There might even be a pony out there with a cutie mark for just this sort of thing," said Techorse confidently, "But you know, from time to time I'll probably have a day or two I could visit Fillydelphia. I should be able to give a few lectures if you'd think that'd help."

"That'd be great, Techorse," said Caltrops, "I'll make sure to write you and let you know! I've even thought of a better name for the society."

"Tell me!" Techorse said, smiling.

"I think I'll call it the Foundational Research Initiative Elective Navigation Direction, or FRIEND,"
said Caltrops, "If it works, it'll be a friend to those hopeful young ponies who want to make history!"

"That's a much better name!" approved Techorse reluctantly, hoping his displeasure with another clunky name wouldn't be noticed, "you're going to do really well with it, I'm sure. But as for me, I think I'll just stick with what I have."

Caltrops bade Techorse farewell, and headed out to the train station to go back to his home in the city. While walking home, Twilight found Techorse by himself and decided to catch up with him.

"Hey, I saw you talking to Dr. Caltrops earlier. What did you talk about?" she asked, walking alongside him.

"He offered me a big job in the city, but I turned him down. I told him I'd rather keep the life and friends I have. I did offer to help him in other ways, though," he answered truthfully.

Twilight smiled, knowingly, Techorse wasn't going to trade his friends for anything.

"Sounds like you had to make a big choice today. What made you want to stay after having just a few hours to think about it?" asked the unicorn pony, "It takes me several weeks to make a big choice like that!"

Techorse suddenly stopped in his tracks, and stared off into the distance, hearing his own voice in his head.

"Remember, eventually you're going to have to tell Twilight about this."

Techorse decided it might as well be right now.

He looked her in the eyes, and said, "It's a very heavy story. I know you'll believe me because you've experience something similar, but it'd be a lot to try to handle."

"I think I can take it," said Twilight, no amount of information was too strong for her!

Techorse explained to her what had happened, how his elderly future self had visited and warned him what would happen if the Justice artifact was ever given up. As he told the story, Twilight grew more and more upset, but seemed to be forcing herself not to launch into a fit of anxiety. Once he had finished, Twilight stared at him with shock.

"Everything I just told you is true," said Techorse, "you could have been royalty, if you wanted."

Twilight finished processing all the information in her head, and realized that it was true. There was also a logical flaw with what had occurred, and Twilight wondered what really had been going on. If she became an alicorn, surely there was a fairly simple way to shun immortality, as Luna and Celestia no longer appeared to have parents. Chances were that more than just Techorse's choices had led to that bad future, and the poor stallion was putting all the blame on himself.

Twilight considered her options for a long moment. Even though being royalty would be nice, getting all the glory that would come along with two feathered appendages; what she had right now was also worth it. She could also tell by the look on Techorse's face that he was worried she would be disappointed in him, or bummed that she had lost her "great chance". This was not the case at all, because Twilight knew that only time could tell if remaining a unicorn would be a good choice for her. No matter what the future would hold for her, she was going to find a way for her friends and herself to be happy and together.

She said to him lovingly, "Techorse, I would much rather keep the life I have, too. I don't think I could go one day without any of you, much less the years and years you were talking about."

"Really?" he asked.

"Really. I mean it!" she said, "And even if something does happen to me, I'll figure out a way out of that particular future. But since it won't happen now, maybe we should stop thinking about it and move on to something else!"

"Got any ideas?" he asked, knowing what was coming his way.

Twilight nodded and stepped close to him. They looked each other in the eyes, shut them gently, and with their lips locked together began to kiss underneath a streetlamp.

After they had finished seconds later, they smiled as they looked into each other's eyes. Their moment was suddenly broken by shouting from a nearby bush, from which a pony had sprung out of.

"Hey you two, get a room!" shouted a cat-calling Pinkie Pie before bursting into laughter.

"Ooooh, Pinkie Pie!" shouted Twilight, laughing but a bit annoyed, "Just wait until we catch you!"

Pinkie Pie gave a fake scream of terror and bounced away, giggling as she hopped down the street.

"Well, we have to catch her now!" laughed Twilight, "Let's go!"

Techorse, a confident look on his face, scraped a hoof on the pavement and prepared to charge, "I'm going to be right beside you the whole way, Twilight!"

The two galloped off in hot pursuit of their twirling pink friend, hoping to catch her and "make her pay" for her spying. A year had passed since Techorse had first come to Ponyville, and he was finally at a place where he was happy, and had the friends he needed to make his life special. Techorse had gone from a mistreated person to a joyful pony in such a short amount of time. No matter what happened with Twilight, no matter how many years he would end up spending in Ponyville, he always knew that each moment would be special. He finally had the life that he had been longing for, thanks to the magic of friendship.

#25 - Well in the Lead: Part I

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Well in the Lead: Part I

Techorse series: #25

By Spirals95

In the basement of Canterlot Castle, three ponies of roughly the same age sat on the chilling floor of a gloomy cage built to hold prisoners who could ordinarily escape by magical means. The enchanted prison cell was built in the middle of the floor of the aging basement, and a leaky pipe running along the ceiling dripped water at a monotonous rate on the top of the cage that might to the ears be just as bad as the torture of being forced to live in the dungeon. It might very well have seemed that every prisoner of the castle might have to face such terrible living conditions. However, the truth was that this one cell was the only poorly maintained holding place in the entire castle, all the others had the accommodations required by Equestrian law, namely cleanliness and enough daylight to prevent the psychological problems associated with not getting enough of the light and warmth of the sun.

The enclosure, not even legal to keep circus animals in, was six feet high, and 15 feet on each side, with an iron floor and ceiling that was slightly rusted from the pipe dripping on it over the course of several months. Only a few plain white mattresses on the floor provided any comfort from the icy metal floor, which felt terrible on the hooves. Sitting facing away from each other on these mattresses were the three prisoners, each one frowning but trying not to lose hope of getting out of their current situation.

The first prisoner was a unicorn mare with a darker orange coat. Her mane was in a curled style, both brown and light pink curls, but each curl had several individual hairs out of place that indicated high levels of stress. On her flank, three equidistant flashlights pointing southeast were crowded together. Her sad blue eyes were facing only on the floor.

The second trapped pony, a somewhat burly pegasus colt with a light brown coat and green eyes to go with it, pouted and looked around, blaming anyone but himself for his situation. His short mane of goldenrod yellow was rather short cut, and stood up until his head, where it laid down in a part to his left ear. The cutie mark he bore, a paintbrush sitting on a brick, didn't seem to match his bad attitude.

Of the three incarcerated ponies, the third one was perhaps the one that made the most sense to question, by appearance. He was a pegasus along with his cellmate, but he was a darkish gray in color, almost graphite. His amber eyes were pointed straight forward, out of the cell and off into space, as he thought about the future. The pony's mane, a combination of solid black mixed with cool ice blue, was cut in a rather standard way, but the alternation of the colors ran vertically. An unusual cutie mark was on his flank, the image of a solid black heart, with a small white dove fixed in the center of it. In addition to his physical appearance, the pegasus wore a small pendant on his neck, made from a thin gold chain, and a centerpiece carved in the shape of a constricted oval. The center of the pendant contained a shimmering ruby, with a mysterious darkened spot stirring about inside the gem, perhaps a flaw during its formation in Equestria's crust.

A door creaked open in the dungeon, and the three looked up to see who would enter. The light from the hallway outside of the containment area shone in, and the trapped ponies' eyes stung slightly as they attempted to adjust to the sudden change. Into the room stepped Captain Arbiter, a nasty grin on his face, his cape fluttering slightly in the cold air that flowed out of the room and into the hallway behind him. Arbiter casually turned on a small electrical switch, illuminating the room in the light from an overhead electric chandelier that should have remained on for the poor prisoners.

"Good news," Arbiter said to them, walking forward, "we're not going to be keeping you here any longer."

"You're not?" asked the one mare with great hope in her voice.

Arbiter continued with his smile, enjoying his duty way too much, "Would I lie? You're not going to be kept locked up a moment more."

"Oh, finally!" said the brown pegasus with relief, "I can't wait to get outside again and stretch my wings!"

"…If you have the strength, that is," Arbiter said to finish for him, "you see, I've decided the best punishment for your crimes is to have you whipped, thirty strokes apiece."

The three ponies' mouths either fell open in horror. The Captain was going to beat them terribly with a whip, and it was almost certain that ugly scars would follow as a reminder of what they had done.

"You're going to whip us?" cried the unicorn pony first, "Please don't!"

The other two looked at each other with fear, and started to believe that maybe staying in the cell would be a better option than the corporal punishment they were about to receive. Arbiter had stopped smiling at this point, and looked rather coldly at his prisoners. To him, a whip across the back was guaranteed to teach the three troublemakers in front of them to never pull the stunts that they had again. Of course, whipping another pony so many times wouldn't bring him that much enjoyment, but it was his duty to enforce the laws of Equestria when cases were brought before him.

"Don't we get the right to a trial first?" whimpered the dark gray pony, "why do you get to sentence us?"

"Each of you was delivered to me by your parents to be placed under my watch," explained Arbiter sternly, "you may have only caused minor grievances, but this is to keep you from causing trouble ever again!"

Captain Arbiter was interrupted by a gentle cough from behind him.

He looked back over his back and said sharply, "What?!"

He calmed down significantly after he realized who he had just shouted at. An upset Princess Luna had sneaked up behind him, her plasma-blue mane flowed behind her as she walked in.

"Is this what modern Captains keep in their private, royalty-issued storage?" she asked in a rather angry tone, looking over the three captives, "Arbiter, I am ashamed of you! You are supposed to take any prisoners and put them in the cells where they won't get pneumonia, unlike this cold, dark place!"

"Princess Celestia ordered me to watch over these three, and I have only followed my orders!" he lied.

In reality, although Celestia had asked Arbiter to keep the troublemakers in a secure location, she meant one of the regular detainment areas, not his storage unit. Arbiter simply interpreted the order liberally to justify keeping his prisoners in such a terrible place.

Princess Luna did not buy into the obvious lie, and said, "You're known for cruelty, Arbiter. I suggest you figure out a way to get them out of this situation."

"They're not going anywhere, each of them has committed a crime, and they must pay for it!" he insisted.

The alicorn rolled her eyes, and said, "And just what monstrosities have these three done? They look only as old as Twilight Sparkle. I have my doubts that such young ponies could do something so horrible."

Arbiter pointed to the unicorn mare and said, "This is Raider. She's a kleptomaniac, a habitual thief, your majesty. She stole lawn decorations just for fun, and then every month, would leave the valuables in her town's hall. After the items were returned, she makes it a game to steal them again and again for her own amusement."

Luna nodded, and turned her attention to the brown pegasus with the odd golden hair.

"And who might this be?" she asked.

"This is Mortar, a graffiti artist caught painting a picture of Celestia wearing a dunce cap!" he said.

"It was a party hat, I swear!" protested Mortar, "I just wasn't able to finish it before this guy's guards nabbed me!"

"Nopony asked you to talk!" shouted Arbiter.

Mortar sank back along with his two companions. Princess Luna tried not to snicker at the thought of her sister being drawn with such a silly choice of hat, either way.

Arbiter turned and pointed with his leg to the last pony, "This one is Shadow Breeze. Mr. Breeze was caught manipulating shadows somehow to give the illusion that a dragon was coming to attack groups of hikers in the mountains near his city. Eventually when they caught him he was turned over to me."

In her wisdom, the princess of the night said softly, "Arbiter, don't you suppose that these 'crimes', are really just the trouble that ponies who've recently left home cause to try and gain some enjoyment out of life?"

Arbiter may not have always understood Luna's mix of standard and older Equine English, but he knew the point she was getting at. The princess understood the trouble-making not as a grievous crime the way he did, but actually as a coping mechanism. Still, it seemed as if she agreed there was a way to teach the three not to use pranks to cope with leaving home.

"So… maybe they didn't do very terrible things," he agreed reluctantly, "but that still doesn't excuse them entirely, there are some laws about causing trouble, although they're usually settled by public apology. However, this is a special case because they are here with us!"

"I concur," said the princess, "so how shall we deal with them appropriately?"

Arbiter scanned over the three with his eye, noting their fearful looks, and their silent prayers to not be whipped. Deciding that there was indeed more than two options in this scenario, he thought up a great idea to teach the three some discipline.

"I know just the thing! I'll make fine soldier ponies out of each of them. Raider can be used to steal things from any future enemies, Shadow Breeze can become a master of keeping our numbers concealed, and Mortar can design propaganda to make the enemy's leader look bad!" he said, thinking about the "great" chores of war he had in mind.

Princess Luna brought up a silver-shoed hoof and planted it on her face.

After stopping her facehoof, she said to the captain with much frustration, "Arbiter, conscription has been outlawed in Equestria for over eight hundred years! Forcing these poor citizens to become soldiers is barbaric. Let me offer a modest suggestion for you."

The Captain sighed heavily before finally agreeing to listen.

"I propose, after talking about these three with sister, to have them form a team dedicated to service for other ponies! Soon they will learn that helping their fellow Equestrian brings double the joy of pranking them!" said the princess loudly, near shouting.

"A team?" asked Arbiter with disgust, "That I lead?"

"Correct," she said, smiling proudly at such a good plan.

Now, Arbiter may have wanted to see justice done, but trying to convert three annoying ponies into model citizens would practically be torture for him. It would also be way too much work for what he had planned today. Today was the day he was going to go into The Domain, and attempt to spend an afternoon with Limpwing. He was going to offer to get her coffee and a danish, along with a long conversation about how wonderful the various swords Equestria had produced were. This idea of having to babysit the troublemakers would ruin his plans for the day, possibly the week. But in his mind, Arbiter thought of something he could do to both ditch this terrible responsibility and get to Limpwing at the same time.

"It's just…" he said, a little disappointed, "I'm a terrible stallion for the job. I kept these three locked up, and now, there's no way they'll ever trust me!"

"I suppose you're right," said Luna, looking sadly at the three ponies who were clearly terrified of Arbiter.

"However, I do know just the colt who could turn these three around!" he said, pretending to have to think about it for a while by scratching his chin with his hoof.

The three behind the princess and the swordspony looked at each other and wondered what they were talking about. They were smiling however, as it looked like they were getting a light sentence of community service for the trouble they had caused. To the ponies, Arbiter's foul treatment of them was just a scare tactic.

"Techorse would be the right choice," continued Arbiter, "I believe that he, with his sense of justice, would agree that turning these three into a team would be the best choice. He'll have them do a few small chores to make up for their harmless pranks, and then I'll have each of them sent home to their parents."

Princess Luna had known well about Techorse and believed that Arbiter was right about choosing him to lead the team.

"Then take these three to Ponyville, and give Techorse command!" ordered Luna, "I'm going to return to the throne room in the meantime."

"Yes m'am!" said Arbiter.

"Oh, thank you your majesty!" said Raider tearfully, "we're not going to be whipped because you stepped in there!"

Princess Luna, who was just about to leave the room, turned back and gave Arbiter a nasty look that pierced his soul. She was furious that Arbiter was going to beat her subjects, after everything that she had been through. Back before her banishment, she had witnessed a whipping as a younger mare. Luna was overjoyed upon her return to Equestria when she learned that annoying exercises and fines had replaced the cruelty.

But here was Captain Arbiter, who had even dared to joke about such a terrible punishment. She was furious at him for his insistence on bringing "justice" through pain and punishment. Her eyes continued to penetrate his remaining one.

Arbiter shuffled about a bit in place, and started making excuses, "It was a joke your majesty. I'm aware that whipping has also been banned, but I figured they wouldn't listen to me unless I threatened them…"

Princess Luna reared up on her hind legs, her eyes glowed a bright white, and her body gave off streams of searing electrical energy from her rage.

"You'd better not lay a hoof on these three!" boomed Luna, "Must I remind you that you've already tried to put Techorse's head in a basket twice! He may have pity on you for the loss of your eye, but that event is still no excuse for all this cruelty. Should I hear you've brought pain and suffering to these ponies, you'll be serving as our castle's newest statue, and that's a promise, Arbiter Axechop!"

She then stormed out of the dark room, dispelling the burning plasma and leaving Arbiter stunned for once. Even though he had the knowledge in his head that princess Celestia wouldn't authorize a use of the Elements on him, Luna would probably still figure out something terrible to do to him. He realized either way that Princess Luna had finally grown weary of his more traditional way of running things. Now he had to hope she didn't figure out he was dumping his task on Techorse.

After Princess Luna was well out of earshot, however, he gave his captives one final warning,
"Listen you three. I'm going easy on you by letting my… 'friend' make you a working team. However, if I hear so much as a single word from Techorse that you screwed up, you'll be put in a regular prison for as long as possible."

"We'll cooperate!" said Shadow Breeze, "Honest!"

"Good, then come with me, and I'll take you to Techorse."

Techorse was in his laboratory, about to put the last computer chip in a circuit board he had been working on for several weeks. Wires and parts of various color codes were scattered around him on the floor and stainless steel countertop he had been working on. With a soldering gun in one robotic hand and a screwdriver in the other, he carefully finished welding the chip to the green chunk of plastic and computer parts. He then dropped the tools on the table, and carefully picked up the circuit board to inspect it, making sure not a diode was out of place.

"Great!" he said to himself, "With any luck this will calculate the angle and trajectory correctly so that I can finally try at that water cannon! Cloudsdale will appreciate the extra water for weather making if I can get it to work."

He looked slowly to the left at the large device he'd been working on for a long time. The machine resembled a giant telescope almost, the barrel off-center of a large cyan-painted turntable. A large air compressor sat on the side of the barrel, used to force the water out as powerfully as possible. At the base of the machine was a small control panel consisting of just a few levers and a small start button, the computer Techorse had just finished would be placed inside the device and used to aim. The only missing piece seemed to be some sort of intake pipe for the water to enter the machine.

The speaker system in the room sounded the doorbell in the laboratory, alerting Techorse to visitors. He placed his newly built circuit board down on the work table, and proceeded out into the hallway of the castle basement. After climbing up the spiral staircase that led into the lobby, he found the door control panel, and pressed the large "open" button with one of his robotic hands. The metal arms retreated into the saddle with a loud click, and the doors on the gadget shut tight. Techorse preferred not to freak out visitors with the arms, as they didn't look very natural on a quadruped, even if they were simply a tool.
When the two massive wooden doors had creaked open, Captain Arbiter stood in the doorway with the three ponies he had captured. They were all tied together, front legs to front legs, with rope to keep them from escaping. Despite it being a sunny and warm mid-morning, the three had sad expressions on their faces, most likely from the constricting ropes around their limbs.

"Hey Captain, what brings you here?" asked Techorse, a little surprised.

"Techorse, lad!" said Arbiter, obviously faking joy, "I've got something splendid you can do to please Princess Celestia!"

Techorse was a mechanical genius, but sometimes gave other ponies who had blatant character flaws way too much credit. He knew in this case that Arbiter was likely upset he couldn't do anything more than tie up the three miserable captives.

"All right, Arby. What did she have in mind for me?" he asked, pretending not to be suspicious.

The Captain cleared his throat and ruffled his wing feathers before continuing proudly, "These three ponies have been caught causing trouble around their hometown, and the princesses both think that they deserve better than to be thrown into the dungeon!"

"…And you don't. So you're upset," thought Techorse, knowing how much Arbiter loved punishing others.

The strong pegasus continued, "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have both requested that you be the leader of a team! These three will be your teammates, and together you will solve the problems of Ponyville until they are thoroughly refined. I'm sure at the end of this they'll have better things to do than to prank others."

Techorse and Arbiter were about to fool each other, although neither knew what the other one was thinking. From Arbiter's perspective, he was about to get a day off by tricking Techorse into taking on his duty. But from Techorse's perspective, this was a golden opportunity to once again prove to Arbiter that justice is best dealt through service and redemption, not through brute force. Techorse never got pleasure out of making fun of others, in fact, he really like Arbiter's dedication to protecting the princesses, and even his own guards so that they would be able to go home to their wives and foals. However, he knew that Arbiter's penchant for violence needed to be pecked away at with as many examples of changed lives as possible!

There was just one problem, however, and it struck Techorse like a flying brick.

"Wait, I'm supposed to be their leader?" he asked, shocked, "They're my teammates?"

"Is there a problem, Techorse?" smirked Arbiter.

Techorse didn't view himself as a good leader, he relied almost entirely on Twilight in a team situation for executive decisions. Yet for some reason, when forced to take on leadership roles, he did well enough for the situation. The problem was that now, the fates of the three ponies before him, all the same age as he was, was going to be determined by his leadership. Techorse was tempted to decline the task, but he just couldn't stand the thought of Arbiter winning and locking up the prisoners again.

"I'll do it," he said proudly, standing up strong, "You'll see, Arby."

Captain Arbiter laughed subtly, and said, "I'll be back tomorrow. If any of them gives you any trouble, or if they haven't improved, they'll be going in the dungeon for a very long time."

Arbiter removed a scroll from underneath his cape, and gave the document over to Techorse, who accepted it with his robotic arms. The captain was used to them, but the three pranksters were awed at the strange saddle on Techorse's back. They wondered if it was an enchanted object, like the ones they had read about in school.

"Here's a scroll containing a biography on these three criminals." Said Arbiter, "I'll be visiting somepony until tomorrow, I've got a hotel room rented out."

"Ok, thanks. Take care Arbiter," replied Techorse.

Arbiter spread his wings, and flew off into the west against the breeze, off for The Domain to go and visit Limpwing as planned. Techorse watched him leave via flight before turning to the three silent captives.

"Let's get those ropes off you," he said.

Working carefully with his robotic arms and hands, Techorse untied each knot until the three had their legs free. They stepped up and down gently with them, glad to finally be out of their ropes. Each one felt a tiny hint of freedom in their souls.

"Thanks, Techorse!" said Raider, "I thought Arbiter was going to have you parade us around in those!"

"Yeah," added Mortar, "I'm surprised you didn't expect us to try and run away!"

"What?" said Techorse, disappointed, "I've known Arbiter for a while now, and he loves to be mean to ponies he views as being criminals. I could tell the moment I saw you guys that you probably just carved your names into something, nothing too bad."

Shadow Breeze walked up to Techorse and said, "You can find out what Arbiter's accusing us of in that scroll he gave you. By the way, the three of us have been friends since school. This whole idea of us all being a team is pretty cool! Especially since we're going to be working with the inventor of Ponyville."

"Hey, how'd you know that?" asked Techorse, surprised.

"My mom owns a blender made by you," answered the pegasus, "your picture is printed at the back of the instruction manual as part of your guarantee your stuff will work."

"I'm glad your mother likes my inventions, don't get too many personal comments about them," smiled Techorse, glad to hear positive reviews about his work.

"Well that and you're pretty much known for helping princess Celestia's friends defeat the invasion last year," Shadow added with embarrassment, wishing he'd have gone with that first.

Techorse chuckled, and said "I see. Anyways, are you all hungry?"

"Starving!" answered Raider, "My stomach's been growling for a day now."

"Oh no, Arbiter didn't starve you did he?" asked Techorse, mortified.

"Not exactly," admitted Mortar, "We got some boxed military rations. They're pretty bad though."

To Techorse, this was actually a positive sign. Arbiter hadn't let another pony go hungry despite wanting to see them be punished. Maybe some improvement was going to happen in the Captain's life.

"Let's have lunch together before we decide what to do first as a team," suggested Techorse, "I hope you like pasta and vegetables, I don't eat hay like a lot of ponies do."

"Hay's not my favorite either," admitted Raider, "but trust me when I say we're thankful you're giving us something edible."

Techorse smiled, and stepped to one side to let the three in. He walked them down the hallway, past the library, and into the dining room, where he seated them all at one side. When he returned, he went into the kitchen and helped his robot servant prepare the food. They made together a large helping of steaming pasta noodles, topped with fresh tomato sauce bought locally. This delicious meal was placed into a yellow ceramic serving bowl, and carried out to the table. PAL had to help Techorse bring out the other item on the menu, a garden salad made from crisp lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, and yellow bell peppers. Together they managed to get the midday meal out to their guests, and then PAL left, leaving behind three very surprised ponies.

"Wow! Is he a golem?" asked Shadow Breeze, "Did you make him?"

"He's a robot," explained Techorse, "It seems I'm always having to explain this, but I guess Equestria doesn't have another robot. PAL is made from electronic parts and metal, but he doesn't run off of magic, he runs off of a list of instructions that he can modify himself."

"So he's electric instead? Cool! Can we eat now?" summarized Mortar, hoping to get down to stuffing himself as soon as possible.

"Of course, let's finish lunch, and then we can talk!" said Techorse, reaching for the salad dish.

Shadow Wing and Mortar ate like they owned hollow legs, nearly finishing half of the massive bowl of pasta on their own, without taking that much of the salad. Raider and Techorse were a little more balanced in their diet, but overall the four enjoyed a nice lunch together, a vast improvement over the prison food they'd had earlier.

"Wow, thanks so much for the great food, Techorse!" complimented Raider as they left the table, "So what's on our agenda for today?"

"First of all," interrupted Mortar, "I think we need a team name, and Techorse here should get to pick it."

Techorse looked around and said with a lack of confidence, "Well, I don't know about a team name…"

"How about Team Tech?" proposed Raider, "Let's name it after him!"

"Yeah, great idea!" agreed Shadow Breeze, bringing his hoof down on the ground, "What do you think of that name, Tech?"

Techorse answered, "Do we really need a team name? I appreciate it, but I don't think it's necessary.”

But not wanting to hurt Techorse's feelings, he said, "Well, I guess we don't really need a team name. After all, we're only going to be working together for a short while. Let's just skip it and get to work."

"That makes a little more sense," agreed Raider, scratching her head, "So now that we've got that all settled, what are we going to do first?"

"Let's go to the backyard, and I'll give you a good idea as to our plan of action," said Techorse, "but keep in mind guys, this is only for a day or two. We really don't need to make this such a big deal, we just have to get you into places of service so you're not in trouble all the time for pranking ponies!"

Soon the four were gathered in the garden in the rear of the castle, the fountain still bubbling with water brought up from the ground underneath, and the birds signing in the warm day. Several plants were growing alongside the castle, and Shadow Breeze was inspecting each and every one of them.

"I'm sorry!" he said, focusing his attention back on Techorse when he heard him cough, "I just really love plants, and the animals that eat them. Growing houseplants was kind of my hobby before I got kicked out of my house."

Techorse frowned and asked, "What happened?"

The pegasus walked forward and explained, "You see Tech, my original name was Spirit Breeze. My parents wanted me to be a musician to perform in front of royal audiences. But I didn't want to go into music at all! One day, I was given this magic amulet you see here around my neck by a zebra from a distant island. I call it the shadow ruby, because it allows me to control dark-looking energy with my mind. I can not only make shadow puppets and simple tricks with it, but I can also throw small projectiles!"

"That sounds like a really neat enchanted object," commented Techorse, "but is it the reason why you got into trouble?"

The pegasus hung his head in guilt and said, "Well, yeah. I got my cutie mark for my love of peace when I stopped a fight between my classmates one day. However, I wasn't able to really find an occupation to go with it. So I'd have too much free time, and I'd end up using my shadow amulet to create shadows of dragons in the mountains to scare hikers. They thought they were going to be eaten, and screamed and ran away. It was fun at first, but then I got caught by Arbiter."

“So you renamed yourself Shadow Breeze because of your shadow tricks?” asked Techorse.

“Yeah...” he answered glumly, “it's kind of embarrassing to admit I changed my name but I had to do it.”

Techorse wanted to cheer him up, so he said, “Well, if you want to hear something funny about my name, I don't have a last name. I sign my documents as 'Techorse X'.”

“How do you not have a last name?” asked Shadow Breeze, perking up in interest.

“I'll tell you later, it's about how I came here to Ponyville,” he answered, “right now I want to hear your friends' stories as well.”

"You already looked into our stories," said Raider on behalf of her and Mortar, "I used my magic to steal things for fun, and Mortar put his artistic side towards drawing graffiti of Celestia."

There was a bit of silence as Techorse thought about what he had heard. It seemed that his new acquaintances had been either abandoned or ignored by their parents, and that they would need care in order to stop responding to their emptiness with the wrong behavior. Techorse understood what it meant to lack parental care, as did some of his friends.

"Don't worry guys," he said to them confidently, "I'm going to take you around Ponyville and have you use your talents in a constructive fashion. That way you won't have to pull pranks to keep yourselves entertained, and you'll be able to start your own careers!"

"Then let's get started!" said Mortar eagerly, "Where to, Techorse?"

Techorse had a plan in his mind to find a job for each of the ponies he had found himself responsible for. The solution in the inventor's mind was to turn around their preferred method of pranking in order to give them a new career path that would fulfill them and use their talents well. Because Mortar had been so eager to get started on the task, Techorse figured it was best to find a way for him to use his talents first.

Taking the three out west of the town, he brought them to Sweet Apple Acres, and scanned the dozens upon dozens of apple trees, bearing the still-developing fruit of the first growing season. Techorse couldn't find Applejack anywhere amongst the trees, so he gave instructions to his new friends.

"Let's head on over to the barn. I think I have an idea as to what your first tasks can be!" he instructed, pointing to the red barn on the hillside.

Once they had made it to the oft-rebuilt structure, Techorse opened the door gently and went inside alone to find Applejack. The inside of the barn was somewhat darkened, and the air was a bit stale from the hay soaking up the moisture in the air. Applejack was sitting in the loft of the barn, looking over a magazine laid on the ground in front of her. It was a publication for growers who were having trouble with pests eating their plants, and offered solutions to get rid of them without dangerous pesticides. Applejack had found herself the time to read the magazine since a majority of her trees were not ready for harvesting yet.

"Hey Applejack, it's Techorse!" he called up to her.

She leaned over the wooden platform and looked down at him, her Stetson hat sliding down slightly on her head.

"Oh hey there Techie!" she greeted him, "Is there something you need?"

"I've got three other ponies out here looking for some work. They're trying to get out of having to deal with Arby, so they picked community service. Got any extra chores for us?" he asked.

Applejack was a little reluctant to answer yes, after all, these were complete strangers to her. But she hated Captain Arbiter for what he'd done in the past, and any chance to save those poor souls who had to put up with him was worth it to her.

"Well, the barn here has a few worn-out spots that could use paint. There's also a little weedin' that could be done out by the golden delicious trees!" she finally answered, "Let's get y'all set up."

Soon Mortar was busy giving the west side of the barn a fresh coat of paint from a bucket provided to him, the brush in his teeth as he struggled to cover the raw wood exposed to the air. Raider and Shadow Breeze helped to pluck the dandelions and ground vines clustered around the apple trees, freeing the plants from competition with the pests. Techorse watched Mortar carefully as he made each stroke count, not wasting any paint. As they worked, Big Macintosh was trying to haul a barrel for cider-making season out to the barn. While he approached, the strong worker accidentally stepped on a loose stone in the dirt ground near the barn. The barrel on his back threw him off balance, and the red stallion tripped and landed face-first into the ground. Getting up, he hoped that Techorse and Mortar hadn't seen his accident. But they had, and he hurried off to where he was taking the barrel before they got a chance to laugh at him.

"Hang on," said Mortar through clenched teeth, putting the paintbrush back in the can.

"What's wrong?" asked Techorse, "Big Macintosh will be fine, he's a tough guy."

"No, it's not that," answered Mortar, shaking his head, "I gotta draw what just happened! Do you have a piece of paper and a pencil?"

Techorse's battle saddle opened at the sides, and out came the robotic arms, one holding a yellow pencil freshly sharpened, and the other a small sheet of paper with holes punched at the margins. He handed the materials to Mortar and watched as the colt put the pencil in his teeth and went to work. After about 10 minutes of furiously scribbling away at the office paper, Mortar put the pencil down on the paper and pointed at it with a hoof. Techorse stepped next to him, and took a closer look. It was a stylized, but still vaguely realistic drawing of Big Macintosh slipping on the rock as had happened earlier. The scene was both hilarious in its slapstick nature and in the sense that it didn't really portray any pain, leaving the comedy behind.

"I think I know exactly what you should be doing instead of graffiti," said Techorse while looking Mortar in the eyes, "Arbiter's note told me that you were caught drawing a silly picture of Princess Celestia that was just like this one. I bet if you went to a newspaper publisher, you could get a job as a cartoonist. You could draw silly drawings like this all day, everypony would see them in the comics section of the newspaper, and you would have a decent job!"

"Do you really think they'd give me a job?" asked the brown stallion, "aren't there already enough cartoonists?"

Techorse answered honestly, "Trust me Mortar, these drawings you do are funny, and the newspaper companies know funny comics sell more papers. All you have to do is draw some more of these to show what you can do, and you'll get involved with a paper pretty quickly."

"I can finally prove to my parents my cutie mark means something," he muttered, rolling up the paper.

Techorse frowned, and asked, "Your parents thought your cutie mark didn't mean anything?"

"Well, no," he answered tragically, "they always thought art wasn't a real job, just a hobby."

The pegasus then smiled brightly and added, "But maybe when I'm making some money from this, they'll change their minds."

"That's the idea!" Cheered Techorse.

Applejack came upon them, and stared at the painted wall of the barn. Noticing a small area that had not been coated, she picked up the brush herself and finished the job to her liking.

After replacing the brush back in the paint can, she turned to Mortar and said, "Now that the barn's all painted, you're pretty much done here. Won't be any more chores today, unless ya like cooking."

Mortar presented Applejack with the now rolled-up cartoon and said, "I drew this cartoon of your brother, and I want you to have it. Thanks to his little accident I figured out something good I can do with my passion. "

Applejack placed the scrolled paper down on the ground and unrolled it with a hoof. She laughed at the sight of her brother's exaggerated slip in the drawing. After enjoying the moment, she rolled the paper back up again, and tucked it underneath of her hat.

"Thanks!" she said, "Big Macintosh is never gonna live this down!"

The other two had caught up to them at this point, and Raider announced, "We finally got rid of all the weeds, Applejack."

She was covered in several spots of filth from picking the weeds out, and Shadow Breeze had fared no better, although his darker coat hid the patches of dirt better.

"Thanks for all of the help," said Applejack, "now why don't you three go on down to the farmhouse and get that dirt out of your manes? I'll be there soon."

They agreed and walked away for the farmhouse, while Applejack stayed behind to talk to Techorse.

"You know, most times I wouldn't be accepting any help," she admitted, "but I'd hate to see Arbiter give 'em a whuppin'. You will make sure he doesn't, won't you Techie?"

"That's what this is all about, Applejack. I'm trying to get Arbiter to see that he doesn't need to beat sense into ponies by punishing them so harshly. I'm also trying to make three new friends here as well, they're just like us and could use more friends."

"I think so too," agreed Applejack, "now let's go get a snack, and I'll see you off."

What the Apples called "snacks" roughly translated as a full meal to anypony outside of their family. Sandwiches, Apple pies, cookies, lemonade and iced tea were given to Techorse and his team, and they were feeling a little sick from the amount of sugar they had eaten as they left the farm. After passing through the white wooden fences, they re-entered Ponyville and continued on their mission to get Raider and Shadow Breeze new jobs.

The sky over The Domain was cloudless, a real treat for Arbiter and Limpwing as they enjoyed a nice conversation over a cup of tea in the outdoor seating area of a small café. Each of the white tables was covered with a blue tablecloth, checkered in pattern. There were no umbrellas on the tables, instead a clear vase of fresh lilies sat in the center of each one, filling the air with a nice floral scent. Some of the other patrons drinking tea were staring at Arbiter, after all, it was unusual to ever see a pony wearing an eyepatch. But Arbiter could care less what others actually thought about him, all that mattered was that he was spending time with Limpwing. The large pegasus stallion had picked out a specific color of cape and eyepatch for the day. He had chosen the royal blue for his cape that he did for special occasions, figuring that Limpwing might not be appreciative of entirely black wear. Limpwing could in reality care less, she simply saw Arbiter's choice of colors the same way someone would view a change in shirt color. She had placed her favorite flight goggles on the back of her chair, and her spiky, neon-striped mane was more visible.

"So, dumped off your chores on Tech?" she laughed, "You really don't like that guy, do you?"

Arbiter placed his teacup back on the green ceramic saucer in front of him and answered, "The idea that I 'don't like him' is an understatement, Lieutenant. He's such a goody-goody four shoes it's intolerable. I've never met a pony so dedicated to fairness in my life."

"I know Tech can be a bit preachy, but he's not that bad," argued the azure mare, "come on Arby, he gave you a sword for your birthday. I think he likes you."

"He's trying to make me go soft," explained Arbiter, "but the laws need enforcing, and it's my duty to protect the princesses. I'm not going to let up anytime soon, even if I do get gifts from him."

Limpwing sighed, and wondered if there was a way to get through to Arbiter that he was being a rather unpleasant stallion. To her surprise, her sighing had made Arbiter react.

"What?" he asked, concerned, "I suppose getting a sword in particular from Techorse means something. He must trust me now not to hurt him, at least."

"Arbiter, the reason Techorse gave you the sword is because he thinks you're his friend somehow. I can tell you have absolutely no interest in that, so why not just tell him you hate him?" she said, getting frustrated.

The Captain relaxed a bit and said, "To tell the truth, I don't hate Techorse anymore, I actually have respect for him now. It's just that we're two very different stallions. We get things done differently, and I wish to continue to do things my own way."

"Ah, so nobody tells the captain what to do," snickered Limpwing, "you're funny."

"Techorse is very good for tasks that require not using any brute force," continued Arbiter, ignoring her, "despite those weapons of his, he's very good at dealing with ponies who need to make changes in their lives. I was looking forward to disciplining three ponies his age this morning, but the princess ruined that."

Limpwing continued to poke at him, "So you missed out on making them do push-ups?"

"No, I missed out on using threats, like whipping them and time in prison!" Arbiter grunted, "It would have been a simple solution to the pranksters, but Princess Luna 'reminded' me that whipping was illegal."

Limpwing said quietly to him, "Arbiter, I understand you don't like it when ponies break the rules. Honestly I don't either. But there's a really good reason using the whip was outlawed. It's not because of ponies like Techorse or Luna, it's because it was proven that it wasn't an effective means of disciplining troops. As a fellow officer, I know that when you use pain as a punishment, you simply make your troops resentful of you. It makes the situation worse. So if you had whipped those ponies, they would have learned to hate you and the princesses, and would do even worse things with their lives."

Arbiter's one good eye opened just a bit wider, as he realized the blunder he had made. He slumped down slightly in his chair.

"Then what do you propose I do?" he asked.

"Have you ever heard of the carrot and stick method?" asked Limpwing, hoping Arbiter's mind was fresh to new ideas.

"Can't say I have," he answered truthfully.

"Well, here's how it works," explained Limpwing, "sometimes what ponies really need is a little motivation. You take something that they want, the carrot, and you offer it to them for doing what you want them to. If they don't listen, that's when you get them with the stick!"

Arbiter looked down at his belt, and pulling back his cape a bit, slightly slid the prized sword Techorse had given him out of its blue wooden sheath.

"I understand entirely why Techorse gave me this sword now. This unique weapon is some kind of prize he gave me for doing something he wanted me to do," he said,"even though I don't know what that is, it's his carrot. Maybe he's not such…"

He looked up, and noticed Limpwing's smile and half-shut eyes of victory.

Arbiter quickly re-sheathed the sword and said, "Of course, I still don't agree with becoming a pacifist and avoiding violence at all costs. I'll just offer a few more carrots of my own is all."

"Hey, you're pretty awesome with those swords," said Limpwing, "I wouldn't get rid of that either."

"Well thank you Limpwing," he said, smiling, "You're just as good in battle as well!"

"Glad to hear you're really burying the hatchet with Tech." she stated thoughtfully, "I'd hate it if something were to happen to you because you did something stupid."

Arbiter thought over Princess Luna's threat and tried not to cringe. Limpwing was right, he could remain a strong leader, and fearsome to, if he simply focused his energy on being a little more rewarding to obey. There was a time and place for violence, but as his father used to say, it was best to not use a sledgehammer where a flyswatter would do.

Limpwing and Arbiter paid for their drinks and gratuity, and then moved on to their next activity. They decided to spend the rest of the day at an art museum The Domain had opened a few months ago. As they walked together, Arbiter looked at her and started to feel something in his heart that he really hadn't felt before. He wasn't going to deny what that was, but he also knew it was a little too early to know for sure. In secret, Arbiter sort of believed he was too ugly due to his missing eye to be able to be cared for by another pony. Still, he hoped that time would bring an answer to the questions his heart was putting in his head.

To be continued...

#26 - Well in the Lead: Part II

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Well in the Lead: Part II

Techorse series: #26

By Spirals95

Techorse had successfully found a place for Mortar's talents, but he still had two other ponies left to go. It wouldn't be easy establishing a job for a kleptomaniac and someone who liked to scare others, but it had to be done. He simply couldn't settle for the terrible alternative of letting Arbiter lock them up. Despite this, Techorse also understood that this was not simply a contest against the captain, it was also a way for him to make friends with these ponies. Anything he could do to try to improve himself in that area was considered a victory in his book.

As the three walked through Ponyville, Raider had a look around all of the mom and pop stores that made up a majority of the town's economy. Although some were built into the colonial pink and white homes, many of them were simply wooden stands covered in tablecloths of various tints. Now Raider was a raging kleptomaniac, at least from Arbiter's perspective, and a lot of the stores were covered booths that would be extremely easy to steal from once nopony was looking. One particular stand left unguarded was displaying small shiny rings made from silver mined from the mountains. Each of the rings was not placed in an exact order on the table, and that drove Raider absolutely nuts. The unicorn would be unable to help herself if Techorse didn't keep a close eye on her!

"Wow!" she said, a subtle nervous laugh on her throat, "There sure are a lot of… shiny, small objects here."

"Uh oh. Don't even think about it, Raider," commented Mortar, "if Captain Arbiter hears from Techorse that you took a ring…"

"I don't even want to think about it," said Shadow Breeze, frowning.

The thought of being locked up for the rest of measurable time made Raider bite her lower lip as she struggled not to try to take the rings. But they seemed so out of place to her, all alone on that table and not in a pile of loot somewhere.

Techorse noticed her sweating buckets from the temptation, and approached her, "Raider, if being near the stores is making you feel upset, let's get you out of the market. It's my fault for not thinking about that and letting you get tempted."

"Yeah, that sounds great. There's gotta be a place in town where I can stop taking things…" she said, nearly shivering.

"I have an idea," Techorse said, then, turning his head to the other two stallions, "it'll give you guys something to do as well."

Shadow Breeze nodded, "Sure! We can take a break for a while."

He brought them to the library to relax and read while he discussed Raider's condition with Twilight. Opening the red wooden door to the tree home, Techorse ushered his companions inside. Twilight had been finishing a personal letter at the time, and moved over to greet them as they entered.

"Hey Tech!" she said, "Brought some friends over to check out some books?"

"Yes, Twilight, this is Raider, Shadow Breeze, and Mortar," he answered, introducing them with a pointing of his leg, "guys, this is my marefriend Twilight Sparkle."

"Nice to meet you Twilight," said Shadow, stepping forward, "it's pretty cool how you're a librarian and all, my sister decided to do that in my hometown."

"It's great to hear somepony else likes managing books too!" Laughed Twilight.

She noticed the amulet hanging around his neck and asked with surprise, "Hey, where did you get that shadow manipulation amulet?"

"I found it in a cave while helping out a zebra who wanted to explore it," the pegasus replied, "my real name is Spirit Breeze, but after I learned how to really work with this thing's magic, I sort of got myself a nickname."

"That's pretty neat, and those amulets are rare! Would you mind showing me a trick, I've always wanted to see one work?" she asked.

Shadow Breeze looked at a nearby wall of the library, and focused on a plain section of it. The amulet around his neck darkened in appearance for a moment, and a small beam of black energy shot out and touched the wall, casting a shadow in the shape of a sprout. With each second, the shadow puppet sprout grew larger until it was a silhouette of a vine scaling the library wall. The shadows then returned to the source beam, and it disappeared inside the amulet.

Twilight looked at him again and said, "Cool, it's just how that book on magical artifacts I finished last month described it!"

As they talked, Raider noticed a set of three books on the east-most shelf. They were all volumes of the same collection, blue-spined books with a gold number at the base. But something was terribly wrong, one of the books was left standing up just a few inches to the right of the other two books. Raider nearly began to squirm from the sight of it, and clenched her jaw shut. As soon as she was sure that Twilight and the others weren't looking at her, the unicorn used her magic to gently slide the book back into place with the others. With her sharp eyes, however, Twilight had noticed the event.

"Thinking about checking out that book?" she asked.

Raider rotated her head quickly and shouted, "I wasn't going to take it, I swear! It was out of place is all!"

"What..?" Trailed Twilight, tilting her head in a confused manner.

"I'm sorry," apologized Mortar on behalf of his friend, "Raider is a kleptomaniac, and she's worried you might think she was going to take your book."

"Who called her a kleptomaniac?" asked Twilight, still not following.

Techorse explained, "Arbiter described Raider as having stolen a bunch of lawn decorations from ponies around her town. She'd then return everything in one big heap in the middle of the town hall."

"Ugh, I can't help it!" said Raider, her ear twitching, "Those lawn decorations were all out of place, just like those rings at the store, and just like that book!"

Twilight thought for a second about the pieces of information she had just received, and concluded, "Raider, you're not a kleptomaniac."

"I'm not?" she asked, "But Arbiter said…"

"Arbiter is quick to assume things," noted the lavender mare, "Raider, if you had kleptomania you'd have a huge horde of stolen objects in your house. But instead you gave them back pretty much as soon as you took them. I think what you really have is obsessive compulsive disorder."

"What's that?" she asked.

Twilight tried to give a simple explanation, "I read about it a long time ago. Basically, it's a condition where anything that's out of place bugs you until you absolutely have to fix it. The lawn decorations, the rings, that book, were all out of place and irritating to you."

"So she doesn't have to steal things?" said Shadow, "That's great!"

"But what can I do?" asked Raider, "That sounds permanent."

Techorse suggested, "Well, you could always take some medication to help you with the disorder. I know a pony who might know one, and I'll give you his address later."

"Well yeah, that, but I meant what could I possibly do for a job?" she asked, "There isn't going to be much work out there for a mare who takes things."

"But that can't be true," Twilight laughed, "look at your cutie mark, three flashlights. Don't you think that means something?"

Raider looked back at her own flank and said, "Well, I got my cutie mark when I found a lost necklace that belonged to my mother in the dark of the woods behind our house. Nopony else could see it outside, but somehow, the small sparkling of the necklace drew me to it."

Raider stared blankly for a few moments at Twilight, who smiled knowingly. Raider slapped her forehead with an orange hoof.

"Oh, duh!" she said, "I could have a service dedicated to finding little mistakes in things, maybe a decorating business. I could start by apprenticing with someone else and figure out if all the paintings and decorations in ponies' homes were level and evenly spaced, and then work up to having a perfect decorating business of my own."

"Way to turn a flaw into an advantage!" said Twilight.

She then added meekly, "Oh, and don't forget, if you ever need support for obsessing over things, write me sometime. I tend to obsess too."

Raider promised, "I will, thanks Twilight!"

"Hey, not to be rude," daid Mortar, "but we still need to find Shadow Breeze a job as well."

"Oh, that's ok!" answered Twilight, a bright smile on her face, "Come back anytime you'd like to."

Twilight watched the four of them leave, and winked at Techorse as he closed the door behind him. But as soon as her guests were gone, Twilight whisked around and hurried over to a nearby bookshelf. Furiously searching, she took out a brown, well-worn book, and started flipping through the pages magically as fast as she could.

"Shadow amulet, shadow amulet…" she muttered as she searched.

Techorse brought the three of them back to his castle in order to discuss plans for helping Shadow Breeze figure out what positive tasks he could do with his talents. In his mind, he would make a good diplomat, but the road to being one was long and required a better education than what he had now. The inventor believed that the best idea was to simply tell him this, and give a list of places where he could go and study to become one. But when they returned to the stone fortress at the edge of town, they found a familiar face leaning up with his back against the door. It was Arbiter, waiting patiently for them to return. Relaxing from his pause against the door, the larger stallion put all four hooves on the dirt road in front of Techorse's home, and walked towards them.

"Well hello, Techorse," he said teasingly, "glad to see you back, your robot told me to wait outside for you."

The three friends stopped behind Techorse, and tried to avoid Arbiter's remaining eye. The swordscolt caught on to this behavior and asked of them, "Now, as for you three. Step forward."

Raider and Shadow Breeze boldly stepped in front of Techorse, then pulled up Mortar between them, who was lagging behind.

"Techorse, did these three complete their service?" he demanded to know, "What have they done?"

He answered, "They helped repaint Applejack's barn and weed her trees. Raider has learned that she's not a kleptomaniac, but instead has obsessive compulsive disorder, and is taking steps to counter it. I was just about to tell Shadow Breeze here a job he could do if he stops pulling pranks…"

Captain Arbiter smirked, and flapped his wings once sharply to get his cape straightened out.

"I see. Well it sounds like you've done quite enough, and I'm sure Shadow Breeze will be happy with whatever assignment you give him," he chuckled, "if that's all, they may go."

"So we're free?" asked Raider with hope sparkling in her eyes.

Arbiter had waited for this, and said, "I guess so. However, I was going to offer you a special task that would not only reverse your status as pranksters, but also entitle you to something rather special, especially for civilians such as yourselves."

Techorse frowned, he knew Arbiter was up to something with that way of speaking and the look on his face, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Something in his gut told him, however, that it was going to involve him in some way.

"What kind of an entitlement?" asked Mortar.

Arbiter said with a happy tone, "Medals of course! Each of you will not only be considered good citizens of Equestria, but also heroes if you succeed in this task. Wouldn't you like to receive a medal for a job well done?"

The captain watched as each of the ponies in front of him agreed that indeed, a medal for doing something special would be a great accomplishment.

He thought to himself, "Carrot…"

"Of course," Arbiter said out loud, "If you choose not to… I will have to let Princess Celestia know you were just trying to get out of trouble as fast as possible. She's not going to like that one bit, I'm afraid."

That froze them in their tracks, except for Techorse, who knew better. Dealing with Captain Arbiter might mean being locked up or getting a whipping, but Princess Celestia? It would be the end of them, in their minds.

"Ha ha, and the stick!" thought Arbiter, enjoying the brilliance of his plan.

"We… we'll do it!" said Raider, attempting to gain confidence.

Arbiter shut his eye, and smiled, before reaching into a bag tied around his belt. Pulling out a scroll, he turned it over to Techorse. The stallion's saddle opened up, and his robot arms accepted the message. When he unrolled the scroll though, his coat seemed to turn a slightly paler shade of green.

On the scroll was a drawing of a blue-colored, four-headed hydra, with scale indicators at the side showing that it was estimated at 115 feet tall, and 50 feet across, an 80 foot long tail barbed with vertical scales of red color, and natural armor consisting of light blue scales woven throughout the monster's hide. Below was an order to move the creature to a new location, as it had been sighted a few dozen miles in a canyon near Cloudsdale. A merchant had gone through the area recently, and after nearly becoming a meal for the hydra, fled and told Princess Celestia about it. Because the canyon served as a trade route for several towns around the Cloudsdale area, the monster would have to be re-located. It would first need to be knocked unconscious before being magically transported to a cavern by the seaside, where it'd be able to live without being a threat.

"You want us to fight this thing?" asked Techorse with some level of panic, "Arbiter, this is insane! Are you trying to get us eaten?"

Arbiter answered slyly, "Techorse, old friend, with your technology I'm sure it'll be a piece of cake. That hydra is only two thirds the size of the one your marefriend ran into a while ago, so it will be far weaker. Plus, I know as well as you do that your weapons are good at not slaying things. You'll gauge just the amount of firepower necessary to knock it out, and then this teleportation rune I've had my cousin bring to me will move it to its new home."

Shadow Breeze hated violence, and gave Arbiter a nasty look before saying to him, "What if we say no? What if I don't want to fight this thing?"

Arbiter sighed and shook his head, "I guess I'll just have to do things… my way."

The sword that had been gifted to him by Techorse was removed from its sheath, and Arbiter stood there with the hilt in his mouth, as he'd left his magical gauntlets at home. Shadow Breeze's mouth opened slightly, and his expression changed to one of horror. It was bad enough that he'd have to fight the hydra, but if he didn't, Arbiter would dispose of it! Worst of all, the hydra was not as valuable as a pony's life, so Arbiter would be able to get away with it. Techorse and Shadow Breeze looked at each other, and knew that they had to stand up to Arbiter's plan.

"We'll deal with the hydra," said Techorse, a little angry, "just give me the rune, and we'll have it done by the end of the day."

Arbiter returned the sword to its blue sheath, and said, "I knew I could rely on Techorse and his new friends! Oh, and I wasn't lying about the medals, you'll receive them as soon as you've completed the task."

The Captain of the Guard threw the rune at his front hooves. It was a simple flat piece of flagstone, with an odd pattern resembling a warped ceiling fan on it. He then spread his wings, and took off into the blue sky of Ponyville, with only a few clouds to cover his exit.

Techorse wasted no time preparing for the mission. It would be extremely dangerous given both the hydra's carnivory and how territorial the creature was. He loaded into his battle saddle his trusty laser cannons, his missile launcher with 10 rounds of ammunition, and his turbofans. There'd be no need for his robotic arms, hopefully, and the other gadgets he had were more based around utility than offensive firepower. After he had prepared himself mentally and equipment-wise for the task, he led his new friends into a room he hadn't used in a long time. It contained a holographic table, which scanned document and created a 3D image of them in the air above it. The table itself was a small stand, with a blue grid of glowing projector wires crisscrossed along the top of it. The rest of the room itself was empty, save for an electrical light switch. Holograms were the most visible when it was dark, and the room had no distractions. After placing Arbiter's orders on the table, he pushed a few buttons with his hooves, and the three ponies in front of the table oohed as the table constructed a 3D hydra from the drawing on the scroll.

Techorse pointed to it and said, "This 3D image gives us a way to plan our attack. In order to knock out the hydra, I've loaded half of my missiles with a sleeping gas. I need you three to stand in places where you'll be safe from strikes by the heads, while I come up from behind and drop the gas onto each of them. Once all of the heads have fallen asleep, we're going to use the rune Arbiter gave us to teleport it to its new beach-side home."

"But what should we do to distract it?" asked Raider, "Honestly Techorse, I do not want to look tasty!"

"We may have no choice but to fight it," Techorse sighed, "but hopefully we won't cause any permanent harm."

Pressing another button, the hologram disappeared from view, and the lights in the room brightened again.

"Let's take an hour break or so, and then we'll head out," suggested Techorse.

Mortar nodded, "Sounds good."

"Great! See you back here in an hour."

The three friends left the castle, and decided to split up for their break, doing what they wanted to do the most. They were all a little worried this could be their last time of recreation. Shadow Breeze ended up wandering downtown by himself, and despite the warmth of the day, he wasn't having very pleasant thoughts run through his head. Some of the residents of Ponyville looked away from their shopping and felt pity for Shadow Breeze as he trudged along, a metaphorical storm cloud over his head. He reached a small gardening store, filled with potted plants of all kinds, and decided to spend time enjoying his hobby of botany. There were lush emerald ferns planted in terracotta pots, beautiful flowers of all colors and scents, and even a handful of marsh plants grown hydroponically in metal buckets of various sizes.

Next to the display of plants were tools used to aide in growing them, shovels and rakes alike.
While Shadow Breeze looked over the flora and attempted to focus his mind on happy thoughts, a timid mare walked up from an angle where she wouldn't be seen so easily, and also started to browse the same plants. It was Fluttershy, out on a shopping trip to purchase a new fern to replace one that had shriveled up over the summer. She browsed over one particular variety of the seedless plants, when she lost track of space and accidentally knocked over a rake. Down came the tool's long wooden handle, right between Shadow Breeze's ears and onto his head.

THWACK

Fluttershy put a hoof up to her mouth in horror at her mistake, and gasped, "Oh my! I'm sorry. Are you ok?"

Shadow Breeze rubbed his head after removing the rake, and hoped that the impact wouldn't leave a lump.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, rather grumpy.

Fluttershy was not convinced she had been forgiven, "Are you sure? Will you be ok?"

Shadow Breeze watched as the shopkeeper picked up the rake and put it back in place, while suspiciously eying them as if they were going to break things.

He then returned his attention to Fluttershy and said, "I'll be fine. I'm just a little grumpy because I have to go fight an animal this afternoon, and I hate fighting."

The yellow pegasus smiled and said softly, "Oh, I hate fighting too! You know you don't have to fight, right? There's always another way to solve problems, especially with animals."

"Well, I'm sorry," answered Shadow, "but I do have to fight it, to try and knock it out so we can give it a new home. If I don't, Captain Arbiter will… slay it."

When Fluttershy heard who was responsible for making this new acquaintance have to fight, she became concerned, "Now I know Arbiter can be very mean, and it makes it seem like there's only two choices. But there's a way to not hurt that animal, whatever it is. Sometimes all an animal needs is a little love."

Shadow Breeze introduced himself, "My name is Shadow Breeze. I'm here in Ponyville to make up for a few mistakes I've made, and I'm working with Techorse to do that."

"I know Techorse," she said, "he's a good pony. Is he having to fight too?"

"I'm afraid so," sighed the darker of the two pegasi, "by the way, what's your name?"

A meek reply came, "Oh… It's, it's Fluttershy…"

"It's nice to meet you, Fluttershy. So, I take it that you like to take care of animals?" he asked.

Fluttershy answered, "Yes, very much. It's a long story though, too long for most ponies."

"Well, I have a thing for plants, and you have a thing for animals," he said, "ee could trade stories, and then I'll head back to see Techorse."

"Um, maybe some other time, ok?" said Fluttershy, backing away, "I need to go… do something."

She walked away slowly from him, leaving him looking at the plants. He was hoping to make another friend, but it looked like that would have to wait for another time.

"Oh well," he thought, "Who'd want me for a friend anyways…"

Fluttershy could pick up on his hurt, and looked down on the ground in shame. She didn't want to have a lengthy conversation with someone she had known for two minutes, that'd be scary. But it was more important for her to be kind to others than to try and satisfy her somewhat irrational worries. She turned around slowly, and went back to Shadow Breeze, who looked up at her rather surprised.

"It's just that, right now is not a very good time," she said, not making eye contact, "but if, you wanted to talk later about plants and animals, that'd be ok. I'll be at Sugarcube Corner this weekend, to have tea with a friend. You can join us, if that fits your schedule."

"I'd love to!" he answered, hoping to make more friends in Ponyville.

"Ok, I'll see you later then… Shadow Breeze," she said, walking backwards before turning around and picking up her speed.

She had completely forgotten her fern from the buildup of stress over the social situation.

"Hey buddy…" said a rather concerned voice.

Shadow Breeze turned to meet an unhappy shopkeeper, a grey earth pony with a black handlebar mustache and mane, "Sorry about the rake bashing you. Now I'd hate to have to pay any medical bills, so…"

"Don't worry, it's just a bruise," assured Shadow Breeze.

"Good, Good. So, talking with Miss Fluttershy eh?" he asked, "She comes by here to get plants for the umpteen-million pets she has. She might be a little weird, but she's right, if you show a creature a little care, it usually will respond with care."

"You wouldn't happen to have a plant that calms reptiles down, would you?" asked Shadow Breeze, hoping for some hydra nip.

"No, don't stock that kind of a plant," he answered, "but if it's a reptile you're fighting, those things can get pretty aggressive if they don't have a spouse. Give 'em a spouse and boom, no more aggression."

"I guess that makes some sense," Shadow Breeze said, "thanks so much…"

"Mr. Pottenturf," answered the earth pony, "my wife and I own the greenhouse outside of town, so you drop by anytime, and we'll let you look over the plants when you want. I heard you tell Fluttershy you're a plant lover, and I want to make up for the whole rake incident here…"

He muttered under his breath, "Among other incidents concerning Fluttershy and my greenhouse."

"Sound good?" he said, brightening up.

"Of course! Thanks sir," answered the pegasus, "now I've got to get back to Techorse's castle, I have an idea thanks to you."

"Good luck!" called Mr. Pottenturf as Shadow ran off, "You're gonna need it, kid."

Once Shadow Breeze had gotten back the castle, he found out quickly that he had been late for about ten minutes, as his friends had already gathered their supplies and tied the saddlebags containing them around their middles.

"Hey, there you are!" said Mortar, "We were starting to get worried about you."

"Everything's fine," he assured them, "in fact, I have an idea as to how we're going to deal with the hydra."

Raider shook her head, "Let's just stick with Techorse's plan, and use the sleeping gas he has loaded into his saddle there."

Shadow Breeze frowned, but agreed reluctantly that he should go along with the original plan. Techorse, wanting to be a good friend, offered, "Hey, if anything goes wrong, Shadow, we can try your plan. For now though, we have to get to the canyon. I've put its coordinates into my self-teleporter, and I have a copy of the device for each of us."

Techorse passed around the bulky silver boxes, each one containing a simple red activation button and several dials used to input coordinates.

"All right, on three, we all push the buttons," instructed Techorse, "one, two… three!"

Each of the ponies depressed the red button on their control, and with a heavy sound of electronic energy, a cyclone of blue light engulfed each one of them, and they disappeared. When they re-materialized, they found themselves just a few miles away from the canyon, and could even make out the city of Cloudsdale in the distance above them. The grassy plain Techorse had chosen for coordinates would allow them to sneak up on their enemy from behind, as the Hydra had ambushed the merchant from the other side of the huge ravine. It was a copper laden formation, being rather red in color and rocky. A perfect place for a giant reptile to live in relative peace. Unfortunately, snacking on passersby was not acceptable, so it had to be relocated. Raider felt her heart in her throat as she and her three friends proceeded down a carved-out slope meant to allow carts to enter and exit the canyon.

Not only was the air dry, but the sun was beating down on the ravine, the teleportation had also left them dizzy and somewhat struggling to regain their thoughts as they proceeded down the shallow dirt path down into the canyon basin. Once they had reached the bottom after a good half hour of walking, their hooves were getting sore and their mouths were getting dried out. They stopped to have a drink of water once they had exited the ramp, and then they proceeded with great caution through the twisting ravine. It was at least one thousand feet high on each side, and yet was rather wide, making it unlikely the natural structure was on a fault line. Several inhabitants that would normally find home in a mountain area were living in the place, including insects of many varieties and small animals such as rabbits, who fed on the vegetation. Many of the creatures were hiding inside their homes, however, staring out at the ponies with fear in their eyes. Techorse observed this and new exactly what the animals were afraid of.

The team reached a turn in the walls of the canyon, and after looking ahead, Techorse knew he'd located the hydra. Motioning for the others to follow him, they carefully walked around the corner, and found the beast watching the other ramp leading out of the canyon like a hawk. Each of its four heads scanned the area, just waiting for another merchant to come by. The area itself seemed almost like an arena, a circular cut in the ravine with a few small caves dotted along the ground.

"All right," whispered Techorse, "I'm going to sneak around to the other side, you three need to stay as far away as possible and distract it!"

"Got it!" replied Mortar.

The green stallion moved away from his friends, and hugged the right wall of the canyon, edging slowly towards the monster. He gave the mental command for his saddle to load the first set of missiles into his launcher, and prepared to attack with them from behind once his friends had gotten the beast to turn around and focus on them. But unfortunately, as many well-thought out plans tended to go, it backfired. The rightmost head of the hydra turned and spotted Techorse creeping along the wall, and he had made eye contact with the creature. The head gave a loud hissing sound, and its three siblings concentrated their attention on him.

"Oh no!" shouted Techorse, drawing his laser cannons.

He opened fire, and streams of yellow bolts of energy flew out from the weapons. Blasts struck against the hydra's necks and body, blasting away scales and scorching the surface of its skin. The monster roared and charged for Techorse on its two legs, leaving indents in the soft ground behind it. Of course, although the bolts of destructive electromagnetic energy were inflicting harm, they weren't going to do enough damage to completely take down a hydra. Yet still, the stinging of the projectiles seemed to be slowing it down, and making it think the brown-maned pony in front of it might not be such an easy meal to pick up.

The colossal reptile had reached within striking distance of Techorse, and he switched as fast as he could to his turbofans to attempt to dodge anything thrown at him. Each of the heads lunged for him simultaneously, and Techorse jumped, then with the sound of helicopter blades, the fans carried him up over the heads, and onto the back of the Hydra's second neck. He slid down the monster's back, and took off again half way down, flying at an angle to make sure he didn't head directly back for the rest of his team.

The Hydra's heads all impacted the stone wall of the canyon, likely removing a few more of whatever small number of brain cells it possessed. After recovering from the missed attempt at snapping up Techorse, they seemed to quarrel amongst themselves for a second, before turning around to scan for him. The mighty tail swished, grating along the wall behind it and kicking up red dirt clouds that clogged the lungs.

Techorse was standing in a battle-ready pose to the Hydra's right, and he switched to his missile launcher. Two platforms slid out from the inside of the machine, each one sporting a small red-colored missile. Looking straight at the beast's second head, he opened fire, and the pair of missiles broke free from their racks and streamed for the monster. The projectiles impacted the head, and to Techorse's shock, they exploded, knocking the head backwards and shrouding it with smoke.

"I forgot to switch to the sleeping gas rounds when I left the castle…" he said slowly, "Well… that's going to make it mad…'

Sure enough, when the smoke had settled, the Hydra's injured head was furious, and of course the others were obligated to share in the rage. Each of them spat a stream of boiling hot acid from glands located underneath their bottom fangs, and the purple goo streamed out towards Techorse. He rolled away to dodge the venom, and it splashed in front of him, soaking the ground and making it sizzle as it ate away at the ground, showing how potent it was.

"I don't want to know what'll happen if I get hit by that!" he said to himself.

A stone sailed through the air, and struck the Hydra's side, gaining its attention. It stared down angrily at the three ponies to its left, and turned to face them, stomping the ground. Raider, Mortar, and Shadow Breeze looked up at the monster.

Then, with a lift of her front leg, Raider pointed to Mortar and said, "He did it."

Mortar gave Raider a look of contempt, before looking back at the Hydra and deciding it was the perfect time to flee. The three ran and flew away as fast as their legs or wings could carry them, although Shadow and Mortar had no intent of flying up and leaving poor Raider to be devoured. The monster gave chase, roaring and spitting more streams of venom. The splashes of purple all-dissolving liquid were missing wildly, but the threat of it kept the three running. Eventually, they reached a small cave in the wall of the canyon, and ran inside to hide.

This distraction had provided a perfect opportunity for Techorse to attack. Since he had forgotten the sleeping gas entirely, he decided his best bet was to knock each head unconscious with the force of his remaining conventional missiles. Since they were plastic and shrapnel free, it wouldn't leave any lasting damage, although the pockmarks from his lasers were likely to leave the Hydra with missing patches of scales for a few weeks. Techorse's missile launchers returned, freshly reloaded with another set of explosives. Aiming again, this time for the spaces between the first and third heads, he figured a blast in those exact spots would knock out all the heads at once. Firing, the missiles screeched before traveling on the path their owner had intended for them, but unfortunately, the Hydra had heard the noise. The third head turned nearly 180 degrees, and ordered the others to duck. The long, flexible necks bent downwards, and in an impressive display of intelligence, the missiles sailed past it and off into the distance, where they exploded harmlessly against a boulder.

Another full about face brought the oversized lizard back to focusing on Techorse. This time, he panicked, and started to blast away with his laser guns again. More impacts and small energy explosions dotted the monster, but it was not going to give up. It reached Techorse, and prepared to strike once more. He panicked, and rapidly the guns disappeared into his saddle to be replaced by the fans, but before he could do so, the monster swung its tail, and the appendage wrapped around Techorse, then flipped him upside down.

Yelling in fear, Techorse tried to bring out anything to help him, but the tail's muscles were strong, and squeezed around his saddle so tightly he could hear the internal components start to strain. The hydra then brought its tail up, and, being careful to use exactly the right amount of force, bumped Techorse's head into the ground. The earth pony fell unconscious, and the hydra flipped him over, holding him tightly in the light blue tail. Each of the Hydra's heads gave each other a congratulatory smirk, but also shared enough thoughts to know Techorse wouldn't be enough meat for the four of them. There were still three other ponies to catch.

Those three particular ponies had witnessed Tech get his proverbial lights knocked out, and tried their hardest not to scream.

"Techorse!" cried Raider.

The Hydra approached the hole in the wall of its home, and attempted to snake one of its heads in to retrieve the other tasty morsels. Unfortunately, the entrance to the small cave was very short, but Shadow Breeze had a good look at one of the heads! Its reptilian yellow eyes seems to burn with pure hatred, but were those long eyelashes on them? Shadow Breeze noticed the feature, and realized that his plan from earlier would worked perfectly, given that Mr. Pottenturf had told the truth earlier about Hydras.

"Oh what are we going to do?" panicked Raider, "It has Techorse, and it has us trapped. I don't want to be Hydra food!"

Mortar imagined the terrible scene in his head, each of the four of them being popped into a maw alive and screaming. It was a stupid mistake to think they could take on the task they had been assigned, and now, he was going to learn what the inside of a Hydra's stomach looked like. The thought made him incredibly ill.

"Man, I'd rather go back to Arbiter's jail cell than be stuck here," he said, sitting down, "cut I guess we can't last in here forever. We'd better just step out and…"

In the darkness of the cave, Shadow Breeze may have been hard to see, but he still spoke rather loudly,
"Now listen guys. I have an idea that'll save Techorse. We have to leave the cave all at once, slowly, and not panic."

"I guess we have no choice," sighed Mortar, "it's been really fun being your guys' friends."

"If this works you can still be our friends!" stated Shadow Breeze.

The three exited the cave one hoof at a time, and as they thought, each of the heads lunged for them as soon as they left.

Shadow Breeze then shouted, "Wait!"

The monster stopped and stared at the ponies as if to say, "Now what?"

"I noticed you didn't have a nest when I walked in here," said the graphite peagsus to the beast, "maybe I just didn't see it, but, shouldn't you feed us to your young? Don't they come first?"

Like most creatures in Equestria, the Hydra had a limited ability to understand what ponies were saying, and understood Shadow's statement as a comment on their lack of nest. The monster was reminded that it had no one to spend life with, and the heads began to look rather somber about the fact.

"You mean, you don't have any young?" asked Raider sympathetically, playing along, "Oh, poor thing!"

"No wonder you were so upset," added Mortar.

Shadow Breeze continued, "I figured it out, you're a lady Hydra. I noticed your eyelashes when you were staring at us, and Techorse hadn't seen a Hydra spit acid before, because only the females can do that. Now, I know you really, really think you want to do all four of us in, but what you really are, is lonely!"

The amulet around his neck sparkled with red energy, before a beam of shadow energy extended from it, and touched the wall of the canyon behind the Hydra. It observed as the pegasus manipulated the darkness to create the image of another hydra, about as big as Arbiter had described it.

"This is a shadow of another hydra we have near Ponyville," Shadow Breeze explained, "also lonely, also angry because of it. It's even got four heads, just like you, sot here's no fighting. We have a home for you two planned by the seashore. If you trust us and promise not to eat us, we'll give you a husband so you can finally build your nest!"

The creature, stunned by the incredible offer to set it up with another Hydra, consulted itself before all nodding with a unanimous decision. Its tail moved around gently, and deposited the hurt Techorse back with the other three ponies. He opened his blue eyes gently, his head pounding from the impact, and he looked up at his friends.

"What happened?" he asked groggily, "Did you beat him?"

"Her," answered Shadow Breeze, smiling, "and no, we didn't fight. We settled it like civilized reptiles!"

Techorse looked back at the creature, who still seemed to have a bit of hate directed towards him. After all, he did cause it a good deal of pain with his weapons, a rather mean thing to do.

"I still think it doesn't trust me," he said nervously, "probably still upset over me forgetting to use the sleep missiles."

"Don't worry, she won't hurt you. She promised!" said Mortar, "But we do need to ask you for a favor…"

"Well, what did you have in mind?" asked Techorse.

With the help of PAL and a delivery rocket from the castle, the brand new heavy teleporter device was ready. It was simply a much larger version of the personal teleporters Techorse had made for one pony. Using the large device, they successfully managed to teleport themselves and the Hydra to a location just outside of Ponyville. There they found Captain Arbiter and Twilight Sparkle in a yelling match.

"I can't believe you made Techorse go out to fight a Hydra! Are you nuts?" screamed Twilight, firing off a pellet of magical energy from her horn.

Captain Arbiter, holding his new sword with his magical gauntlets, raised the blade and successfully used it to deflect the bolt away from him.

"He was going to put it to sleep from a safe range, and then use my family's special rune to transport it to the seaside!" he said, "I'm sure he has it under control."

The Hydra was nearly hidden behind Techorse's castle, and watched the battle between Twilight and Arbiter eagerly, enjoying the argument. It gave a happy cry, which startled them both into looking at it. Twilight shrieked, and Captain Arbiter brought his blade into a ready stance, spreading his wings in case he had to attack.

"Surprise!" said Shadow Breeze, stepping out from behind the Hydra's leg, "We managed to get it to listen to us!"

"And you brought it here to Ponyville?" shouted Twilight, her mane hair going in many directions from shock and stress, "It's going to make an all-you-can-eat buffet out of us!"

"No it's not!" said Techorse, walking up next to him, "Apparently the Hydra you sent us after, Arby, is a female who'd very much like to start a nest. We made a deal. If she agrees to move to the seaside peacefully, we'll introduce her to our friend down at Froggybottom Bog."

Twilight suddenly realized what was going on and said, "Oh… So, she's not going to eat us?"

"Nope!" assured Raider, "This girl's just looking for a dedicated husband."

"Just like Mr. Pottenturf said," Shadow Breeze finished.

"Well what if they don't like each other? Hydras aren't smart enough to understand…" complained Arbiter.

The Hydra bent its heads down, and eight yellow eyes glared at Arbiter. He may have been good with his sword, but he wasn't sure if the rumors about cutting off heads were true.

The captain cleared his throat, and said, "Then again… the other hydra in question has not seen a female in years, perhaps it'll be love at first sight!"

"Let's go get Fluttershy and see what we can do," suggested Twilight.

After finding Fluttershy and spending a good hour convincing her to come out of her home and see the Hydra, she led them out to the bog, which was now covered in warning signs indicating the presence of the yellow one living there. The mud of the bog sat rather still for now save for the sulfur bubbles that rose occasionally, and the sound of whining insect wings could be heard. The movement of the ponies caused the mud to stir, and several yellow spots were seen moving in the mud, before the occupant burst out of the grime.

The Hydra of the bog, just as he had been left earlier, recognized his earlier adversaries, and each of the four heads stared down angrily. Techorse drew his laser cannons and pointed them upwards, but Fluttershy waved her wing at him, an order to stand down. Of course, the Hydra would have thought about striking, if it weren't for the female looking at him. Four pairs of eyes met four pairs of eyes, and the male rose out of the mud to meet the newcomer. After looking over each other carefully, as if having known all along what to do, the four heads on each Hydra twisted necks with their opposites. They gazed on each other, all heads smiling in agreement that they'd make a good match as far as gigantic monsters go.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" cooed Fluttershy, "He has a soft spot after all."

Twilight Sparkle nudged Arbiter with her leg, and the stallion stepped forward, a magic rune in each floating metal hand.

"These will put you by the seashore, in a nice cave meant for Hydras. You'll be able to enjoy all the fish you can eat, and unlike ponies, they don't fight back. As Captain of the Guard, I wish you luck with your new family."

Arbiter walked over to the two creatures, and attached a rune to each of their tails, then, he pressed each one with his gauntlets, activating the magical energy stored in the stones. A column of blue light wrapped around each of the reptiles, and then they were gone, taken away to their new cave by the shore.

"That was easy!" Stated Mortar.

Twilight wrapped a leg around her pale yellow friend and said, "It's like Fluttershy here always said. All an animal needs is some love!"

"That's true," said Fluttershy humbly, "but, to be honest Twilight, I didn't think it was going to work that quickly. I thought they'd end up living here until we made them leave."

"Oh nonsense!" laughed Twilight, "Beachfront property is worth so much more than a dirty old bog."

Captain Arbiter was caught slowly walking away from the group, when Techorse said, "Speaking of worth, I think Captain Arbiter was just about to award my friends here some medals."

The pegasus's ears dropped back in annoyance, but he turned around and confronted them anyways.

"Oh, what the hay," he said, putting a triumphant look on his face, "you went above and beyond the requirements I gave you. To back out now would be cheating."

Captain Arbiter reached into the bag still connected to his belt, and pulled out three small silver medals, each one in the shape of a star superimposed on an octagonal base. The ribbon supporting each one was green in color, and Arbiter slipped each one over the necks of the three recipients.

"For your efforts, you are not only cleared of your crimes, but I, Captain Arbiter Axechop, award you the silver star for bravery," he said, rather rehearsed, but sincere.

After the medals had hung on their owner's necks for a while, Mortar was the first to speak up.

"I guess I'm going to go back home and get to work on my cartoonist career now," he said.

Raider nodded, "I can get to work as well, being a decorator's going to be great!"

Captain Arbiter nodded in approval, and then turned his attention to Shadow Breeze.

"What sort of improved life did you come up with?" he asked.

Shadow breeze looked at Techorse, then back to the Captain before answering, "If possible, I'd like to get an apartment here in Ponyville, and study diplomacy. I bet I'd make a great diplomat someday, especially after what happened here!"

"I concur," daid Arbiter, who then turned his attention to Twilight, "Miss Sparkle, please assist Shadow Breeze in enrolling in Princess Celestia's program for politics and diplomacy. We'll pay him a stipend for his studies to allow him to continue living here."

"That sounds great!" said Twilight, "Also, Shadow, about your amulet there. It turns out when I researched it that those things can sometimes get cursed if left alone for too long. You probably had the urge to play all those pranks because of the negative energy it was giving off. If you give it to me, I'll undo the curse for you."

"Of course, glad to finally know what was wrong with me!" He said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Taking off the amulet with a hoof, Shadow Breeze let the jewelry fall to the ground gently. Twilight's horn glowed a soft purple as the object floated over to her. Then, closing her eyes and with a good deal of concentration, a blue stream of energy connected her horn to the object, making it glow softly. One the process was complete, Twilight opened her eyes, and returned the amulet to its resting place around Shadow Breeze's neck.

"There, that ought to do it!" she said proudly, "But if it makes you act up again, come and see me!"

Shadow Breeze nodded, and then looked to his friends. Raider and Mortar, standing off to the side, were looking back at him with a bit of sadness in their eyes.

"I'm going to miss you guys," he said to them, "take care back home."

"We'll write," promised Raider, "and we'll visit sometime too, Shadow!"

The three hugged goodbye, and then, Captain Arbiter led them away to take them back home. The others headed back for Fluttershy's house to celebrate with a hot cup of tea. As they walked back, Twilight and Fluttershy walked together ahead, while Techorse and Shadow Breeze were behind to talk.

"Glad you're staying here in Ponyville," said Techorse, a broad grin on his face, "it was great working with you."

"Come on Techorse, we're friends now, we've got to be!" said Shadow Breeze, "We've got a lot in common, you know. Plus, I did save your life. Don't you think that means something?"

"Yeah, of course it does!" answered the inventor, "Drop by the castle sometime and we can play a board game."

"I'll take you up on that!" he answered, stopping.

Shadow Breeze turned to Techorse and raised his hoof. He stopped, and looked at the friendly leg, knowing what to do. Bringing his hoof up as well, he met Shadow Breeze's in an Equestrian greeting of friendship. The hooves impacted together, and then rested back on the ground, before they laughed.

"Looks like Techorse has a new friend!" said Twilight happily, "It'll be great for him to have some more stallions around."

"Oh yes," agreed Fluttershy.

After a few moments, she asked, "Um, Twilight… do you think Arbiter is getting a bit nicer?"

"He sure is," agreed Twilight, "maybe he still does some really crazy stuff, but hey, don't we all?"

The two mares sat silently for a moment before snickering about their own bouts of craziness. As they walked back home with the stallions behind them, they were happy to have made a new friend in Shadow Breeze. It was always great to have a new face around Ponyville, especially one interested in peace.

#27 - Misguided in Action

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Misguided in Action

Techorse series: #27

By Spirals95

A steam train, twelve cars long including its engine, had pulled into its final stop in Canterlot. The engine, short on cooling water, spouted smoke into the air from its blue funnel. Each car was decorated in a way so as to resemble a colorful home, either a light blue color or yellowish color. It had come from the seaside to drop off a load of passengers from Equestria's coastline towns. In the middle of the second car on the machine, two tall glass doors slid open to allow the occupants to exit. Each one shuffled out from the hissing metal engine as steam escaped from its boilers. The train station was abuzz with ponies meeting up with relatives, folks returning home from work, and vacationers who had just gotten back from their exciting adventures. One soul in particular, who exited the train just as any other pony, seemed to be rather different. He was a white pegasus pony with bright brown eyes, and a brown and gray striped mane, which had been granted to him via genetics alone, as he was only a young adult. His tail was soft and wavy, yet the individual hairs gave it a rope-like texture. The traveler's cutie mark was a single sword, gray in color, tilted at a 45 degree angle upwards towards the sky.

Besides his physical appearance, the pony also was wearing a uniform, having recently returned from a safe patrol at sea. He wore a dark blue combination cap on his head with a silver insignia designating the Equestrian navy, and a similar blue coat decorated with silver buttons. The matching uniform gave away his status as a lower officer to the other ponies in the train station, and many of them stared, which made him slightly uncomfortable. Moving away from the train with a small green suitcase in his teeth, he made his way over to a nearby bench, where he sat down and waited for his contact. After letting his thoughts wander for a few moments, the pegasus pony was shocked back to reality as the train's whistle let out a mighty blast, and the engine pulled away for its next destination.

"Why hello!" said a voice to the officer, "It's good to see you again, brother."

Claymore looked over at the familiar pony and smiled broadly. It was Captain Arbiter, wearing his signature black cape and matching eyepatch. He smiled at the younger stallion in front of him, glad to see his sibling again.

"Arby!" Claymore answered, standing up from the bench.

He walked over and attempted to give his older brother a hug, but Arbiter refused the gesture and simply wrapped a front leg around him. They walked together down the exit hallway of the train station, and as they did, Arbiter motioned for a unicorn assistant he had brought along with him to carry Claymore's small suitcase.

"You shouldn't be spending so much time out at sea," he commented, "it's been over a year since we last talked."

"I know," answered Claymore, "but by taking these extra patrols, I'm about to be promoted again! There'll be two Captains in our family, and maybe Princess Celestia will give me command of my own ship."

Arbiter chuckled, "Ah, little Clay, you always wanted to be the captain of a huge battleship."

"I'm not little anymore," retorted the younger Axechop.

"That's true," said Arbiter, letting out a sigh, "you're just about to live out your dream as the captain of your own vessel. Finally going to outdo your older brother!"

"Heh, says the former king of Quartz Valley," laughed Claymore, "your life's always going to look crazier than mine after that, Arby!"

Arbiter's teasing tone suddenly switched to one of horror, "Who told you that? I thought I had kept my secret life as Viscount under wraps!"

They reached the end of the hallway and exited the train station, where outside Jools and Jops stood yoked to a carriage. Claymore began to explain to his older brother how he had learned about his "adventures" as they boarded the forest-green painted vehicle.

"Once in a while Princess Celestia will send me a letter about how you're doing," he answered, "Completely behind your back, of course. One week I got a letter saying you'd been fired over something concerning a weird green-coated colt with some mechanical saddle thing. It said you'd tried to do the poor guy in!"

Arbiter looked out the window of the carriage, making it seem like he was watching the buildings go by outside. In truth, he was trying to ignore his brother as best as possible.

Claymore didn't catch on and continued his concerned speech, "So then, a few months later, I got another letter telling me you had been the temporary ruler of a country called Quartz Valley. That same saddle-stallion… guy had come back, and his marefriend had you turned in! I don't know what happened, but I'm just glad you're still alive after all that!"

"I'm glad you're happy." Mumbled Arbiter, refusing to make eye contact with his remaining one.
Now, the younger stallion sat back in his seat in the carriage, and thought carefully about what he was going to say next. His brother seemed rather depressed about what had happened over the previous year, maybe to the point of believing that his life would never bring any peace or happiness.

Claymore knew he had to change that kind of thinking in his brother, so he said to him, "Hey Arby, I have two weeks with you in Canterlot. Let's have some fun, and do what you want to do!"

Arbiter's left ear raised in interest of the sentence. He and his brother's definition of what was fun was two entirely different things, but Arbiter realized something in his mind that could possibly change his mood.

The captain thought to himself, "Claymore wants to have some fun just like me? I never thought he'd see what I like to do as fun, but maybe he's finally grown up. This is fantastic!"

Raising his head back up to look at his younger brother, he said to him, "We'll have a great time starting as soon as we get back to the castle."

"Great!" said Claymore, glad Arbiter was looking up, "What should we do first?"

"Oh I don't know, perhaps a little something to drink or a nice salt lick?" suggested Arbiter, smirking.

A little bit uncomfortable with the thought, Claymore shifted around on the cushioned seat of the carriage before answering, "Uh, the guys on the ship kind of like to do that every time we get to shore. Can't we do something else while I'm still on land?"

"Well, I suppose, but it's what stallions your age do for fun," commented Arbiter, wrong for the most part, "and It would make me very happy to take you to get a drink. You're not a foal anymore, you know."

Claymore agreed reluctantly, but in his mind, he just didn't want to get involved in that sort of behavior. He might be around sailors who liked to entertain themselves by altering their minds, be he much preferred to stay sharp. It was likely one of the main reasons he had risen in the ranks so quickly, the other one being an event where he had rescued a fellow crewmember who had fallen overboard. Claymore had risked his own life in the attempt, and the action had earned him a medal, plus the respect of the senior officers on his cruiser. Now he was a junior bridge officer, able to stay away from the crew members who had before teased him for not enjoying being out of his functioning mind.

However, despite his success due to his care with himself, Claymore rarely got to see his family since he was away so often, and because of his parents' divorce. The split of Mr. and Mrs. Axechop had been the catalyst that drove Arbiter and his brother to join the Equestrian forces. Arbiter wanted his brother to be "just like him" as time went on, and Claymore understood that fully. The choice was between being himself, or risk losing the respect of his trusted sibling, who protected him through the traumatic event in his foalhood.

"Maybe one or two wouldn't be so bad!" he said, smiling gently yet uneasily.

Arbiter grinned, knowing he had already made progress into making his brother into a real stallion.

The carriage eventually reached Canterlot Castle within the same hour, and Jools and Jops took the yoke off of themselves, stretching their backs. Pulling the heavy car wasn't difficult for guards of their physical strength, but it was still rather tough on their spines. The blue-haired brothers opened the door on the carriage afterwards, and allowed Arbiter and Claymore to exit. Once they had shut the door behind them, Jops took off his bronze helmet, and let the piece of armor drop to the ground. His blue mane settled out of the shape it was kept it by being stuck through the helm, and it drooped down in weird directions over his face and neck. Claymore noticed the event and started laughing at the silly hairdo Jops was stuck with.

"Helmet hair…" muttered the embarrassed stallion, using his front leg to fix his mane back down.

Arbiter told his two favorite guards, "Jools, Jops, Take the rest of the night off. You deserve it after taking us all those miles."

They nodded slightly without saying another word, and began to walk for the barracks for the night. Arbiter and Claymore continued on through the gates of the royal palace, passing several gray unicorn guards who looked down at them from the turrets.

"Been a long time since I've seen this castle," said Claymore, looking up at the guards.

Arbiter simply answered, "Not to worry, it's exactly the same as you left it."

After entering through the wide front doors of the building, Claymore was brought to a guest room where he would be spending the next two weeks. The small room featured an elegant canopy bed with curtains and a comforter in a smooth velvet red. The dresser on the far west wall of the room was made of polished birch wood, decorated with golden spiral legs, and silver nobs for each of the 12 drawers on the piece of furniture. The walls were painted a soothing light blue color, and the ceiling was decorated with patterns reminiscent of leaves. A small door sat in the corner of the room near the dresser, built seamlessly around it were the floorboards which were decorated with oak leaf patterns to match the ceiling. An electric light in a dome shape hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room, and a massive bay window with pink curtains was on the north side, giving a fantastic view of what was outside of the castle.

"Wow!" marveled Claymore, flapping his wings to elevate himself in the room.

Turning around in the air to view the features of the room and admire the craftsmanship, he carefully went over everything.

"Thanks for not sticking me in the barracks, Arby!" he said with plenty of gratitude, "I haven't slept in a regular bed for months!"

"There's also a nice double-bath through that door," said Arbiter, looking up at his flying brother, "a perk of not always being out on the ocean."

The younger pegasus stallion landed gently on the bed, and relaxed by placing the back of his head on the luxurious pillows. Claymore sighed and closed his eyes as his head sank into the comfortable resting place.

"Don't fall asleep, we haven't even had dinner yet!" Arbiter said, laughing, "The castle's chef has prepared fresh sunflowers on a bed of rice. That's your favorite, if I remembered correctly."

Claymore lifted his head up from the pillow and questioned his brother, "How much stuff did you do for me, anyways? Not that I don't appreciate it, but last time I visited we just stayed at your house and got takeout."

Arbiter looked away with disgust for a moment, before returning and answering with an annoyed grunt,
"To tell you the truth, I was simply going to do that again. However, a certain somepony whom I will not be naming found out that I had a little brother coming to visit, and demanded that I go to great lengths to do all your favorite things. I was badgered so much that I caved in, and she made me promise I would give you the best vacation you've ever had."

"Princess Celestia made you do this?" asked Claymore, with disbelief.

Arbiter pushed a segment of his cape out of the way of his front leg, and answered, "Oh no, not the princess. But as I said I'm not telling anypony who it was, so let's drop it and go eat."

With that, Arbiter turned around quickly, swishing his cape behind him as he exited the room with a sour attitude. Claymore couldn't understand why his sibling had gotten so upset over his question, but he knew it was best to leave him alone over the issue. He unpacked his suitcase into the topmost dresser drawers, and left his hat and coat on the top in a neat folded stack.

Once he had put his belongings away, the young officer exited his room and used his somewhat faded memory of the castle's interior to find the dining room. It certainly helped him that he could smell the cooked sunflowers, the scent of his favorite food was very distinct from the ordinary floral air freshener used in the castle.

He entered the dining hall of the castle to discover the pleasant surprise of the entire room being set up just for his special arrival. The tables had been re-arranged into a simple bracket shape, and most of them had been removed due to the lack of guests, which left a lot of the large feasting hall empty. Each remaining table was decorated with a beautiful yellow tablecloth with white lace on the edges. Only four places were set at the table, each one on the outside of the bracket, which faced towards Claymore. It was obvious that the setup of the tables was to allow the staff of the castle to more easily service the total of four small tables linked together to make the larger setup. Silverware meant for unicorns were placed at the two seats in the middle of the bracket, clearly the seats for the princesses. The outer two places had only plates and cups, meant for Arbiter and Claymore, who couldn't pick up the silverware under normal conditions. Arbiter was already at his place, and motioned with a hoof for his brother to sit at the opposite end of the table, which left a huge gap between the siblings across the room. He listened, and took his seat in the fine cherry wood chair, with velvet upholstery.

"Arby, where are the princesses?" he asked, raising his voice.

The large space between the tables gave Claymore the feeling that talking in a normal voice would mean his brother failing to hear him.

Arbiter removed his brother's doubt of the room's acoustics by answering in a more reasonable tone, "They'll be here shortly. There's been a dessert prepared for tonight, and they wanted to check with the ponies who made it, first."

A few minutes passed of Arbiter and his brother discussing what they might do with their time together, making plans for the days ahead, when the doors leading into the dining room opened up, and princesses Celestia and Luna entered side by side. Claymore smiled at them, having not seen them since the beginning of his last mission on his ship.

"Welcome back to Canterlot, Claymore!" greeted Celestia, taking her place at the table at one of the two huge chairs meant for her and her sister, "We're glad you decided to spend your leave here in the castle, Arbiter has really needed a visit from his brother after all that he's… been through this year."

"WHAT?" asked Arbiter indignantly, knowing Celestia was poking at him for his mistakes in recent times.

Princess Luna sat down at her seat, and added, "His rather harsh attitude may have been brought on by not seeing you very often. Sister and I convinced him to invite you for a stay, despite his protests that you'd be unwelcome here."

"Is that true, Arbiter?" asked Claymore.

"I didn't want us to be any trouble, so I simply said I'd bring you back to my home," he answered honestly, "but of course I was outvoted horribly."

The two alicorns looked at each other and silently congratulated themselves on overpowering Arbiter once again. Servants came forward from the sides of the room, and started serving the evening meal to the four seated at the table, replacing the decorative plates with large portions of grilled sunflowers on a bed of jasmine rice. Each meal was decorated with a drizzle of spicy brownish sauce, and a sprig of parsley. Claymore acted like he had been starved for several days once he had gotten his dish, and eagerly stuffed his face with bite after bite of fresh food, much to Arbiter's disgust and slight embarrassment. He knew his brother was a messy eater and had hoped to avoid this, but of course, he wasn't going to get his wish now. Arbiter simply hoped the princesses were paying attention to their own dinner instead of watching his sibling gorge himself. Unfortunately, they were watching him with a disturbing sense of awe, no soldier they knew ate so quickly. Princess Luna looked at Arbiter, showing him her amused expression to tease him about his sibling's rude behavior.

"I wish the floor would just open up right now, and take me with it," thought Arbiter with shame.

Claymore finished his hasty devouring of the food, and sat back from his plate, leaving his glass of water completely untouched.

He looked at surprise at his brother and the princesses, who had barely touched their meals, and asked,"Aren't you hungry too?"

Princess Luna mustered all of her self-control to not simply burst into laughter, and answered, "Oh, we are, but we have decided to breathe between bites."

The joke seemed to go right over Claymore's head as he answered, "That's fine. I'll wait for everypony to finish."

Claymore slowly drank from his glass of icy water, the small clear goblet dripped with condensation.

"Promise, brother," grunted Arbiter, "that you'll not inhale this treat as well?"

"I won't," claimed Claymore.

Princess Celestia leaned closer to Luna and whispered into her left ear, "Our youngest navy officer here eats like all four of his legs are hollow! I saw you watching him for fun. Try not to laugh when he gobbles up his dessert too."

"I'll do my very best not to!" Chuckled Luna softly.

It was a rather long wait for Claymore for his brother and the princesses to finish their meals after he had so hastily devoured his. But once they were finished, Celestia asked a nearby servant to have the special treat for the night sent in. The unicorn bowed humbly, and exited the room through the metal double doors that led to the castle's kitchen. Moments later, a metal cart draped with a white cloth was pushed out through the doors again by a smiling Pinkie Pie and Applejack. The cart had a large silver box over the top of the dessert for the evening, and Arbiter looked at it and knew immediately that his acquaintances had taken his request much more seriously than he had care for. The cart was pushed in front of Claymore, who titled his head slightly at the silver-foil coated box, at least 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

"Ta-da!" said Pinkie Pie with shut eyes and a happy smile. She waved her hoof in the air while leaning on the cart and said, "Presenting Pinkie Pie and Applejack's super tasty triple layer apple spice cake!"

Applejack reached with her mouth for a small blue thread tied to the side closest to her on the box, and pulled back on it gently. The silver box fell open in five connected pieces, it had been folded from a pentomino. The cake itself was a large rectangular treat, featuring white cream icing in fanciful ribbon patterns along the edges. At each corner of every layer was a slice of red delicious apple, stood up and inserted into an icing rose at each corner. The 3 layers were each smaller than the last, leading up to a huge candy apple, stick included, on the very top of the center layer.

"Oh my goodness!" declared Claymore, struggling to not drool, "I can't believe you remembered apple spice cake was my favorite! Thank you so much, brother."

"Don't thank me at all," said Arbiter, pointing at Pinkie Pie casually with his leg, "after all, this one here made me tell her everything you liked most to make your visit memorable."

"Yep, that's right!" beamed Pinkie Pie, putting all four hooves on the tile floor, "My name is Pinkie Pie, this is Applejack, and we're helping Arbiter give you the best vacation ever!"

The white-coated pegasus introduced himself, "I'm sure he's already told you, but I'm Claymore. It's very nice to meet you, and trust me, I'm already having a good time!"

Pinkie Pie dashed over to Arbiter in a blur of pink and hugged him from the side, "I'm really happy to hear that! Because Arbiter here Pinkie Promised you would!"

Arbiter's left wing extended, gently pushing Pinkie Pie away from himself.

"And nopony ever wants to be caught breakin' a Pinkie promise," stated Applejack, winking at Arbiter.

Claymore looked back at the tempting cake, and said, "Well anyways, Arby here is keeping his promise I'd say…"

Applejack laughed and moved to pick up the large knife on the tray, "Here mister, let me cut you a piece."

The officer got a huge slice from Applejack on a small white plate. It was a corner piece, his personal favorite when it came to slices of cake. Plenty of icing, and it came with the apple segment as well. Claymore took a small bite out of the corner, and savored the rich, creamy texture of the thick icing, taking only a hint of the spicy apple flavored cake underneath. Pinkie Pie watched with large and hopeful blue eyes as he tried the first bite, and Claymore's positive expression as he tasted the dessert made her smile broadly.

"Oh, now he eats slowly!" commented Arbiter, following his joke up with a hearty laugh.

"What?" asked Applejack, looking confused.

Princess Luna said to her dramatically, "You missed out on what may be remembered as 'The Devouring'."

Noticing that Applejack was still looking rather lost given by her slightly drooping ears and the angle of her neck, Celestia motioned for her to come closer with a hoof.

Applejack walked over slowly, and the alicorn princess leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Claymore wolfed his dinner down, and it was quite the scene. There were little bits of food flying everywhere!"

"I do not believe he even came up for air once!" added Luna.

"Heh!" Scoffed an unimpressed Applejack as she gave her blonde tail a sharp flick, "I ain't shocked. Seen that before at one of my family reunions. He'd fit right in!"

"I'll go get us some tea!" interrupted Pinkie Pie, barging in next to Applejack, "Would anypony like decaf?"

"Regular should be fine, Pinkie Pie," answered Celestia softly.

Pinkie Pie hopped away merrily to go brew the kettle of tea, while Applejack returned to Claymore, who was now a third of the way through his first piece.

"You seem to like it," she said, pointing out the obvious purposefully.

"Yes, thank you!" he replied happily with his mouth full, "It must have taken you and Pinkie Pie hours to finish this cake."

Applejack thought about the generous sum given to her and Pinkie for the cake and answered, "It did, but it was worth it!"

When Pinkie Pie returned with the hot kettle of tea and several cups, the princesses invited her and Applejack to also take a piece of cake and join them for dessert. They graciously accepted the offer, and found chairs at the edges of the dining hall to join them at the table. After dessert and tea was over for the evening, they had the leftover cake packaged away in the castle pantry. It was now eight at night, which to some ponies meant the end of the day and a time to wind down. But for Arbiter, who still had yet to "educate" his brother on what it meant to have a good time, as the night was still very young.

Princess Celestia was the first to get up from the table and announced, "I think I will get to work on a few things before bed. Thank you all for joining me and my sister for the evening."

"It was great!" said a thankful Pinkie Pie, her cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk full of her last 2 pieces of cake.

"Goodnight then!" said Celestia, turning around and letting her flowing mane and tail follow her.
Luna slipped out behind her sister, and left the remaining four ponies without saying another word.

She'd likely be up all night, as it was not one of her selected days to sleep on a normal cycle. Tomorrow she would retire for bed as usual, to begin her work of aiding her subjects ailing in their sleep.

Claymore got up from the table, and began to make his way over to the exit which would lead for his room. But Arbiter had stepped in front of the doorway, and looked down at his smaller sibling with his good eye.

"So, what shall we do first? We probably have a few hours before bed," said Arbiter, "perhaps that nice salt lick we were discussing earlier?"

Pinkie Pie and Applejack looked at each other with surprise, and then returned their gazes to Claymore. They wondered if he was just like his older brother, and if so, would they be doing all the rather harmful things Arbiter liked to do? Worry flooded their heads as Arbiter continued to address his brother.

"I know a nice place just a few miles from here that will give you a 3 ounce, 100 percent pure sodium chloride block, for just ten bits. That'll last you the whole evening. But I'd be happy to buy you more than one," suggested Arbiter.

In his mind, he was actually making a very good and generous offer!

Now, it wasn't that Claymore believed that having salt was wrong. But it was wrong to become dehydrated and out of one's mind, as Arbiter was suggesting he should do. The drinks would be just as bad in excess. He had to make the choice between making his brother happy, or staying in full control of his brain. Claymore ran a hoof through his brown and gray mane, and thought carefully about what his choice would be.

"I can't believe what ahm hearing!" thought Applejack, frowning, "Arby's gonna get his brother dehydrated, and here I thought he'd gone and changed his ways!"

She then moved slightly and whispered to Pinkie Pie, "Claymore obviously doesn't want to go along with Arby's idea of a 'good time'. Let's help 'em out here."

Pinkie Pie nodded, then said loudly, "Hey, what about having a pool noodle fight?"

Arbiter and Claymore turned around, and stared at Pinkie Pie. Applejack groaned and rolled her eyes at Pinkie Pie's seemingly dumb idea.

"A… pool noodle fight?" asked Claymore curiously.

"Yeah!" continued Pinkie Pie, getting up on her hind legs, "I know Arby here loves his swords! Maybe you could use some pool noodles as fake ones and practice your moves together!"

An idea formed in young Claymore's mind. He how much his older sibling loved his swords, and he couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to spar. Claymore had hoped that he would find a way out of having to do something shameful, and Pinkie Pie had provided a good answer.

Claymore then said with a smile, "I think I know what Pinkie is talking about, she means we should have a mock swordfight. I'm sure there's still a bunch of wooden training swords in the armory somewhere! Come on Arbiter, it'll be fun!"

Captain Arbiter gave Pinkie Pie an angry look for ruining his bar-hopping plan, but in the back of his mind, a training session with his brother seemed like a great way to conclude the evening. It would also make his brother happy, if he was interpreting the situation right.

"Hmm, a swordfight sounds like a great idea. You know where that armory is, I'll meet you there!" he said, stepping out of the way of the door.

Claymore wasted no time leaving Arbiter alone with Pinkie and Applejack, who both knew exactly why Arbiter had done what he just did. They knew they were about to get treated rudely by the stallion, and sure enough, he did.

He bitterly asked of Pinkie Pie, "Why are you bothering me and my brother?"

"Bothering?" she asked to defend herself, "Claymore liked my idea!"

Applejack drew fire and added, "Yeah, shouldn't ya do what your brother wants while he has time off? Ain't it a little selfish to try to get him to do what you want instead?"

Arbiter turned to Applejack and questioned, "Don't you have some apple trees to go throw manure on?"

"Hey!" she yelled angrily, "That's a real mean thing to say, Arby!"

"Is it now?" he chuckled, his cape slowly fluttering behind him.

Applejack gritted her teeth and scraped her hoof on the ground. Pinkie Pie got between the two of them to make sure things didn't get out of control.

"Hey now!" she said, trying to keep things calm, "Don't you like to swordfight, Arby?"

"Of course," he answered.

Pinkie Pie finished, "Then you should have absolutely no problem showing me your really neat and awesome sword skills! I want to see you win against Claymore."

"Really?" asked Arbiter curiously, his pride appealed to what she had said.

"Of course!" giggled Pinkie Pie, turning around and giving Applejack a playful headlock with her front legs, "Applejack and me are going to watch you the whole time! It'll be so much fun!"

"Then I'll see you both down at the armory," nodded Arbiter, before turning around quickly and exiting the room.

Pinkie Pie attempted to follow him with a skip in her step, but Applejack stuck out her leg and stopped her from leaving.

"Look, Pinkie, we can't follow Arbiter 'round all night and make sure he doesn't hurt his brother," she said, "He needs to make his own choices."

Pinkie Pie refused to believe that Claymore would have to fend for himself and answered, "I know that! This is about getting Arby to see that what is brother does for fun, IS fun!"

Applejack snickered, "So you're up to annoying Arby again?"

The pink earth pony nodded her head rapidly.

"Count me in then, sugarcube," said Applejack, grinning with intent.

Pinkie Pie hopped gracefully out of the room, and Applejack followed behind slowly.

As she closed the door to the castle hallways, she muttered, "Throwing manure… that ugly brute…"

Pinkie Pie and Applejack went down the dimly-lit hallway of the castle, until suddenly Pinkie made a turn into a side room. Applejack wondered why she would go into the room so suddenly, but decided it was best to just go along with the idea rather than question it too closely. When she entered the room, she found Pinkie Pie leaning with her front legs over a writing desk, a quill in her teeth, writing a letter.

"What are you writing?" she asked, "Weren't we were goin' to the armory?"

"We are!" stated Pinkie Pie with clenched teeth, "Writin' a letter to Twilight. Going to get the whole gang here to meet Claymore!"

"Might not be too bad of an idea," admitted Applejack, "don't have to get back to work for a few days."

Pinkie Pie finished writing her letter, and then rolled up the piece of parchment carefully before adding a small blue wax seal.

"Lemme go give this letter to the princess, and then we can go grab rooms for the night!" she said, before leaping out of the room and bounding down the castle halls.

Of course, it turned out that Pinkie Pie and Applejack were quite welcome to spend the weekend in the castle. The two friends were going to make sure that Claymore proved to his brother that he didn't need the kinds of vices that Arbiter did to have fun.

The next morning, at about 10, when the sun was just beginning to chase the last of the shadows from the dawn away, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her inner circle of friends arrived at the castle via magical teleportation. Spike and PAL had opted to stay home, likely to skip out on their daily chores and read comics together for hours on end. Rarity, Fluttershy, Techorse and Rainbow Dash followed behind her through the front gates of the grand castle, and found Applejack and Pinkie Pie standing outside of the front entrance, smiling happily.

Pinkie Pie jumped up to Twilight and said cheerfully, "Good morning everypony!"

"So, what are we doing here again?" complained Rainbow Dash, "We're making Captain Arbiter stop what now?"

"We're tryin' to keep him from making his brother Claymore do bad things," explained Applejack, "Last night he was gonna have him eat too many salt licks!"

Rarity gasped dramatically, and put a hoof over her heart.

But Rainbow Dash simply sputtered her lips and said, "Pfft, it's Arbiter's brother. He's probably just as rotten as he is. Big deal."

"That's not true!" said Pinkie Pie, bouncing up and down, "Last night, he was really, really thankful for the cake me and Applejack made him!"

"An Axechop said thank you?" asked Rarity, dumbfounded by the possibility Arbiter's sibling might not be so ruthless.

"It would seem so," confirmed Applejack.

"Huh, Claymore?" said Twilight Sparkle, "You'd think being named after a sword would make him just as much of a fighter as Arbiter. But I guess as the saying goes, you really can't judge a book by its cover, and I would know!"

"That's right," added Techorse, "every pony deserves a chance to do the right thing. If Arby is trying to get his brother to be more like himself, we have to make sure Claymore gets that he's his own pony and doesn't have to listen."

"The thing is, from talking to the princesses, Arby's the only family Clay's got left," said Applejack sadly, "what if Arbiter abandons him?"

Fluttershy suggested meekly, "Then we can be his support. He sounds nice."

"Yeah, that's right!" said Rainbow Dash, jumping up and then flapping her wings to hover in the air, "We can back him up, even if his brother won't."

"Let's get inside and find him," suggested Twilight, "hopefully Arbiter hasn't gotten an early start on corrupting him."

Unfortunately, Twilight had guessed correctly that Arbiter was already up to getting his brother to do regrettable things. The two were sitting at a breakfast table in one of the castle's many lounges, drinking coffee from mugs made of kiln-baked blue clay. The simple wooden table, decorated with a vase of fresh daffodils, sat in the small room with one large bay window allowing light into the area. A small cabinet to the right provided the treat that Arbiter wished to give to his brother, an intoxicating drink of some kind bottled up in a glass container.

"Just put some of this into your coffee, Clay. The guards and I love this stuff!" he said, removing the glass cap on the container. The light-brown liquid sloshed around inside the glass, and Claymore knew right away it was going to make his morning coffee taste terrible.

"No thanks Arbiter," he said, "I'd rather have another lump of sugar, instead."

Arbiter sat back on his cushioned chair, and said in a convincing depressed tone, "Well, I suppose I'll just make my own mixed coffee and leave you out. It's a shame we don't do much together anymore, brother. Ever since Mom and Dad left each other, I've always been here for you. But I guess you're over me now as well…"

Claymore understood that the reason his brother had gotten into so many bad habits was because of their parents' breakup. But in the past, Arbiter had always been a good example for him, wanting what was best and caring for him as best as possible. The experience had made him and his brother mature very quickly, but for some reason Arbiter had descended into things while he had stayed relatively clean. Perhaps it was because he had been away at sea, and hadn't tried to make friends with the other sailors. All the smaller pegasus knew was that his brother really wanted to share some experiences with him, and if he didn't, it'd hurt their relationship. Or so Arbiter had manipulated him into thinking.

Claymore pushed his mug forward and said with a sigh, "Ok, mix it in. I didn't go with you for the salt licks last night, so I guess I'll try this…"

"Ah, thank you! I promise that you'll enjoy this!" said Arbiter, pretending to be overjoyed.

Arbiter grabbed the neck of the bottle with his teeth, and prepared to pour a good amount of the strong substance into his brother's mug. But a knock on the breakfast room door stopped him, and he got up to go answer it. He opened the door, only to have himself knocked over by a rainbow-colored blur of speed. Rainbow Dash took his spot immediately at the breakfast table, startling Claymore and infuriating Arbiter.

"Argh! Rainbow Dash, don't barge in on ponies like that!" he shouted, rubbing his head with a hoof.

"Hey there!" she said to Claymore, leaning on the table and giving him a confident look, "As your bro said, my name's Rainbow Dash. The fastest weather pony in Equestria!"

Claymore smiled, "Heard of you before. My name is Claymore, and yes, Arbiter is my brother. Want to have some coffee with us? There's still plenty left in the pot, and we have extra mugs in the cabinet."

Rainbow Dash moved over to the cabinet and picked out a neon-orange colored mug. She carried it back over to the table with her teeth, and set the cup down gently next to the coffee pot, a round glass container filled with still-steaming liquid.

"Fill her up!" she said, "I love having coffee with friends. Keeps my energy up!"

Claymore grabbed the pot and gently poured a fresh cup for Rainbow Dash, while Arbiter returned and took his seat back from her. Rainbow was glad to simply pull up another chair, and joined the two brothers for their morning drink. Arbiter again returned to his glass bottle of questionable drink, and prepared to pour it into Claymore's mug again.

Rainbow Dash knew what it was, and said, "Hey, that stuff's no good! You sure you want that in your coffee?"

"It isn't any good?" questioned Arbiter.

He had a good idea as to what was going on. Rainbow Dash must have somehow known about him wanting to spike his brother's coffee. The drink he had was perfectly fine to add, but she was going to try and get Claymore to stand against him. Then how could he possibly get his brother to see how fun it was to be him?

"Rainbow Dash," he said gruffly as he put the bottle back down, "this was meant to be a private cup of coffee between me and my brother. Don't make me kick you out!"

"Hey now," Claymore said, trying to calm him down, "I've wanted to meet Rainbow Dash for a while now, she's the first pegasus to get a sonic rainboom to work! Can't we just get along with her?"

"Don't make him answer that," said Rainbow Dash with an annoyed tone, shaking her head.

Arbiter picked up the bottle again, and this time, poured himself a generous amount into his own coffee, definitely adding way more than he should have in order to get a buzz from it. His brother observed him do this, and realized what he could do to potentially keep himself intact, and still make his brother happy.

"Can I have the bottle?" he asked, "I think I'll try some."

Rainbow Dash frowned, and wondered if she hadn't really done any good in the situation at all. Arbiter smirked at her as he pushed the alcohol over to his sibling, and tried his hardest not to make some kind of an immature face at his opponent. Claymore took the bottle into his teeth, and moved it over the top of his mug. Being very careful with his neck muscles, he tilted the bottle, and managed to carefully pour about two tablespoons worth of liquid into his mug. Just enough to get the flavor of his brother's favorite drink, without suffering any of the ill effects. Rainbow Dash seemed rather pleased with his decision, and hoped that Arbiter would be equally pleased.

To her surprise, he was.

"Ah, so you decided to try it after all," he commented, "good."

Claymore tried his now flavored coffee, and appreciated the subtle taste of what he had just added. Any more than what he had put in, and he would have probably been reaching for the sugar dish to make up for the taste.

"So, how is it?" asked Rainbow Dash, "Is it really bad?"

"It's not too bad. Of course, I put far less in than Arby did," answered Claymore, "I guess it's a matter of preference."

Rainbow Dash picked up her mug of black coffee, and took a nice big sip of the drink, "I just like mine straight out of the pot!"

Claymore was having a lot of fun getting to have a conversation with Rainbow Dash, a Cloudsdale celebrity.

He said to his brother, "Arbiter, I had no idea that you knew Rainbow. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Arbiter admitted," I didn't even think about that sort of thing. I've only thought of activities for these weeks, not ponies to meet. Once we're done with our coffee, we can move on to something else. I had a few things in mind for you."

Rainbow Dash and Claymore exchanged glances that betrayed what they were both thinking.

"Oh no…"

After the morning drink had been concluded, Arbiter and Claymore walked side by side down the castle halls, with Arbiter pointing out new paintings that had been added to the hallways since Claymore had been away at sea. Rainbow Dash left them to go find out where her friends were, hoping that she'd find another one to take her turn watching Claymore before Arbiter tried something else on him.

"So when are you going to ask Princess Celestia for command of your own vessel?" Arbiter asked his brother, "You know, you'd be the youngest Equestrian to ever captain a ship if you got promoted to it. That'd be a wonderful accomplishment for the Axechop family."

Claymore retorted rather bitterly, "I don't know? When are you going to get and keep a marriage and make that a wonderful accomplishment for the Axechop family?"

"I… I'm working on it!" protested Arbiter with a hint of blushing involved, as he was a bit shocked by the insult, "What, trying to also be the youngest uncle in our family as well?"

Claymore and Arbiter turned towards each other, and nearly mashed their faces into each other out of anger. Full-on sibling to sibling arguing was in progress.

"At least I want to be settled down, unlike you!" shouted Claymore.

"You're just jealous because I was more popular at the academy!"

"The academy saw more in me than a swordscolt! They gave me a ship!"

"That's because they couldn't trust you to not hurt yourself with a sword!"

"That's a lie and you know it, Arbiter!"

"Um, excuse me..." came a calm voice.

"WHAT?" shouted both Axechop twins, turning and yelling at poor Fluttershy.

She whimpered in response, closed her eyes, and lowered her head.

"Oh…" said Arbiter, the rage draining from his face, "I'm sorry Miss Fluttershy. My brother and I were talking…"

Fluttershy opened her eyes and said to them, "Do… do you usually talk… so loudly? Both of you seemed really upset at each other just now."

"He started it," claimed Claymore, pointing at his brother with a leg.

The light yellow mare shook her head, causing her pink hair to bob gently, "It doesn't matter who started it. Yelling at each other is not how brothers should act. I knew two squirrels who were brothers who fought all the time. They seemed really unhappy until they stopped."

Fluttershy's innocence and dislike of argument guilted Arbiter and Claymore into trying to make up over the fight.

"I'm sorry," the younger brother said, "I guess I just let things get too out of hoof."

Arbiter agreed, "Yes you did."

Fluttershy coughed gently, covering her mouth with her hoof.

Arbiter took the hint, and rolled his eyes in disgust before saying, "All right. I'm sorry too. We shouldn't ruin the vacation by fighting."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded her head gently in approval of the settling of the argument.

"I'm going to go find the princess," she said, "I hope you two are going to get along now."

"We will, don't worry." Assured Claymore.

Fluttershy walked past them gracefully, leaving them behind to go back to a peaceful conversation. Arbiter, however, looked back at her suspiciously. He now correctly believed that Techorse and his entire team had figured out from Pinkie Pie that his brother was with him at the castle, and they were conspiring against him to make sure that Claymore never learned how to be an Axechop. However, Arbiter still had one more thing he could get his brother to do, if only he could find what he needed in order to get it accomplished. He was getting a little tired of trying to get his brother to follow in his hoofsteps, however, so he decided to try and get him go off and do his own things for the time being, while he worked on his plans.

"Brother, why don't you go visit the castle game room?" he suggested, "There's plenty of things to do there. I need a few minutes to myself to calm down after our shouting match."

"Sounds fun, where is it?" asked the younger sibling eagerly.

Arbiter pointed with a wing to a nearby stairwell, "Up these stairs, and then the third door on the left."

Claymore left his brother, and climbed the staircase, which was padded with beautiful red and gold laced carpet, up to the hallway where the game room branched off from. He found the door and opened it. There were ping-pong tables, a few card tables with decks for various Equestrian card games, and even a billiards-like game, that Techorse was playing by himself. He had a cue firmly gripped with the robotic arms from his battle saddle, sliding the stick back and forth to hit the ball he wanted to shoot. The green colt prepared to take the shot. Claymore's mind went over what he was seeing, and then, he realized who he had encountered.

"It's the green stallion!" he said angrily, "It's you!"

Techorse shot the cue, and missed the ball due to the angry shout. He looked at Claymore, and put the cue down gently on the table, before retracting the arms into his saddle with a click.

"Are you sure you have the right green stallion?" Techorse asked, hoping he'd been mistaken for another green pony.

Claymore twisted his neck, and the sound of crackling vertebrae temporarily filled the room, "I'm sure of it. Green is a very rare coat color for stallions."

The inventor noticed how much his new acquaintance resembled Captain Arbiter, and guessed, "You're Claymore, Arbiter's brother, aren't you?"

"That's right! Now what in Equestria did you do to my brother?" he demanded, crouching menacingly as if ready to strike.

Techorse backed slowly away from the pool table, and said, "Calm down Claymore. I know what's been going on with your brother recently has you worried, but I didn't do anything to him! Arbiter tried to get rid of me for a long time, but he's changed!"

"Why would Arbiter want to get rid of you? What did you do?" he asked, "If you did anything to make him act the way he did, I'm going to make you sorry."

"Can I at least have a chance to explain before you hurt me?" Techorse pleaded, he really didn't want to end up in a fight with somepony he was supposed to be helping.

Claymore exhaled sharply, "Go on."

Techorse began from the beginning about his relations with Arbiter, and Claymore listened carefully as he retold the past.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, Arbiter was pacing through the hallways of the castle, thinking of how he could get his brother what he wanted to get him. As if an answer to a subtle prayer, he heard a loud crash, followed by a shocked "oops!"

Quickly, he galloped down the halls in search of the location of the noise, and discovered near the main lobby of the castle, one of the cleaning mares looking over the shattered remains of a vase she had knocked over.

She was a pegasus mare, a young adult just like Twilight and company. She was very pale pink in color, with a soft bluish mane that ran in curls down her neck. Although her hair was not very long, what was there was tied up with a red ribbon to keep it out of the way of her work. Her tail was quite bushy, and was also tied up carefully with a similar ribbon. This particular pony's cutie mark was that of three buckets of water, each one having a bottle of a different colored soap being poured into it to produce foam.

She looked at Arbiter with her blue eyes in embarrassment, and said to him, "Sorry Captain, I'll get this cleaned up right away!"

Arbiter, with evil in his eyes, sighed before telling her the bad news, "Oh dear… it looks like you've broken Princess Celestia's favorite vase, Fresh Sweep."

Fresh turned even paler than she already was, and audibly swallowed as she realized what she had done, and what the consequences were likely to be. She nearly went into a panic attack, but managed to collect herself.

"Her… favorite?" she squeaked.

Arbiter nodded, "Oh yes. That one was given to her the day before she was forced to banish Princess Luna. It's been… a token of that event."

Arbiter's lie fooled Fresh, and she knew that not only was she likely to be fired, but she was likely to be incarcerated as well, from what she and most common ponies thought about Princess Celestia.

"Oh please don't tell her!" she begged, falling to her four knee joints, "I took this cleaning job to make money so I could market the cleaning products I've come up with. If I get fired I'll never be able to own my own business!"

"Oh, well that's too bad," sighed Arbiter, feigning pity, "but I must simply tell her. It'd be dishonest to lie and say this happened magically."

Fresh flapped her wings, picking herself up into the air, and gave a sad cry, "Oh, this is it I guess! Let's just tell her and get it over with!"

Now Arbiter had her right where he wanted her, and said, "I guess I could say that it was a mouse. The castle has had mice lately, and it wouldn't be too hard to believe one knocked over the vase in search of food. However, there's something I need you to do in return…"

"Anything!" begged Fresh.

Arbiter smiled gently at her, and Fresh thought in the back of her mind that she wasn't going to like this. There really did not seem to be much of any other way out of the situation, however.

"…Now Arbiter and I are getting along fine," finished Techorse, "he even has a sword that I gave him as a birthday present. Do you believe me now?"

"I think I see what's happened. Poor Arbiter's been so bitter about the divorce of our parents that he's gotten cruel and intolerant," Claymore said slowly, "I'm sorry I blamed you for him going crazy."

"I'd blame me if I was in your position," admitted Techorse, "but hey, things have gotten better! Maybe someday Arbiter will call me his friend."

"Well, you can call me your friend," offered the pegasus, "it seems despite everything, you're the best cure for my brother's coldness. Speaking of that, I really have to get back to him, it was nice getting to know you, Techorse."

"Same Claymore, take care!" he replied, watching with a smile as Claymore left the room.

Claymore left him and went back down the stairs from which he came, feeling satisfied that he had finally uncovered why his brother had behaved the way he did, and that Techorse was of no threat to him.

"Maybe Arbiter will be easier to deal with now that I've figured this out!" he said out loud to himself.

He ran into his brother almost right away, a visibly unhappy Fresh Sweep with him. She was dressed up in a very pretty, yet simple light blue dress, and was wearing nice emerald earrings. It was also quite obvious that she had some makeup on as well.

"Then again, maybe not," mumbled a disgusted Claymore.

Arbiter announced, while pushing Fresh forward with his right wing, "Claymore, I'd like you to meet Fresh Sweep, your lunch date. She's always wanted to meet you ever since I told her about you while you were at sea, and has simply pined for a date!"

Claymore could clearly see from her facial expression that was a blatant lie.

"Hello," she said uncomfortably, "Arbiter told me all about you, and I'd love to get to know you better over lunch. He even has a place in mind for us."

"But we've just met each other!" protested Claymore, "I understand hanging out, but not a date."

"Claymore!" said Arbiter sternly, "I can't believe you'd turn down a secret admirer for a lunch date! Fresh will be heartbroken if you refuse, isn't that right?"

Fresh Sweep nodded with gritted teeth, almost as if she was in physical pain for having to go through with this. Claymore took pity on her, even though she was a nice looking mare, she obviously didn't want to go out on a date. The choice though, was whether or not to challenge Arbiter on whether she was a secret admirer of his or not. Maybe she was simply nervous about taking anything as big as a relationship so fast, and he didn't want to hurt her feelings. Saying no outright would mean passing up a chance for a friend, at least.

"Well, I guess since you went to the trouble to dress up, we can go to lunch, Fresh. I think that'd be nice," he finally said to her after carefully thinking about his response.

Fresh believed in her mind that maybe Claymore understood what was really going on, and knew she was going to wiggle out of Arbiter's trap. However, Arbiter decided to pull the news on Claymore as to what this was really about.

"Please, can I talk to you for just one more moment before you go?" he asked of him.

"Sure, Arby."

The two stepped away from Fresh, and entered a room nearby, the guest room where Claymore had spent the night. Arbiter reached behind his cape, and pulled out a small silver key.

"Get dressed up," he said to him, "pick something out with pockets so you can hold onto this key."

"What's the key for?" asked Claymore.

Arbiter explained with a nefarious smile, "Well, after your date with Fresh, why don't you take her back to my apartment and… show her my sword collection?"

Claymore's mouth fell open slightly at the suggestion. He knew exactly what Arbiter meant by that little euphemism, and realized what was going on the whole time.

"Arbiter!"

He answered, "Well, it's just that, being at sea all the time, you must surely get lonely!"

"I'm not saying anything against Fresh Sweep, but even if she does like me as much as you say she does, don't you care about her heartbreak when I leave again?" he said, trying to get some sense through Arbiter's reptilian thoughts, "I plan on finding a nice mare to spend my life with, not your idea."

"You musn't break her heart," cautioned Arbiter.

Claymore said, "Well then, I guess I'll go on the date. But then she's coming straight back here."

Claymore dressed up in a nice red button shirt and tan pants to go on the date, and stepped out of the room with Arbiter to go find Fresh Sweep. When they got to her, they discovered that Rarity had been talking with her.

"… And then he told me if I didn't go on a date with his brother, he'd tell princess Celestia I broke the vase!" she said in a panic, "It's not that Claymore is ugly, I just don't know him at all. I know that evil stallion Arbiter is going to make me kiss his brother, I just know it!"

"Settle down darling!" soothed Rarity, brushing a hoof through Fresh's mane, "I know full well the vase you broke is not the one Arbiter described."

"It's not!?" asked Fresh.

Rarity continued, "The vase that Arbiter speaks of, I know for a fact is carefully locked away in a clean little safe in Celestia's private chamber. You actually broke a cheap flowerpot, Fresh."

Arbiter and Claymore stopped dead in their tracks in front of the two mares. Fresh looked up at Arbiter angrily, and with a quick spread of her wings, shed the dress and leapt at him in the same moment. Arbiter found himself trying to dodge the swinging hooves Fresh was throwing at him out of rage.

"You lied to me!" she shouted, "You were going to make me kiss your brother when I don't even know him!"

Arbiter complained, "I didn't lie, that vase was Celestia's favorite, I swear!"

Rarity shook her head and gave a dainty, "Tsk tsk!"

"Arbiter I'm appalled!" she said, "You lied not only to Fresh, but to your brother as well. She has no interest in dating an Axechop such as yourself!"

Arbiter was still ducking and moving around to avoid Fresh hitting him in the face, and replied, "All right, I admit it, I lied to you both! I just wanted to take care of my brother's loneliness is all!"

Rarity gave a snobby tilt of her head and said to him, "Then you should have simply introduced him to Fresh and see what would come of it. Now you're a liar and you're about to have your face removed by the cleaning mare!"

While Fresh continued to try and beat up Arbiter, Claymore turned to Rarity and asked, "Who are you anyways?"

"I'm Rarity, the fashion designer of Ponyville," she answered, "I'm here with Twilight Sparkle and Techorse to make sure your brother behaves himself. It seems I managed to help just in time, from the looks of things."

A loud slap was heard as Fresh's hoof finally contacted the side of Arbiter's left cheek. She stopped her attacks, satisfied with her one hit, and walked back to Rarity and Claymore.

"Finally!" she said, "Thank you so much Rarity for getting me out of that!"

"You're very welcome Fresh," she answered, her hair bobbing slightly.

Claymore came up with an idea just then, and said, "Fresh, I know Arbiter lied to you and also made you lie that you like me. But, I feel after this whole thing, I really should get to know you. Maybe we can just go get some tea or something, and not try to attach any romance to it. You know, something fun and relaxing? Rarity can come to and we can all talk about stuff."

"That's way more reasonable," said Fresh, "I'm always up to make another friend!"

"Then let's go get something to drink, while Arbiter gets that red hoofmark off his face," said Claymore.

The three of them laughed, and left the Captain rubbing his sore spot.

"I can't believe this," he muttered to himself, "Claymore doesn't want me to be happy."

"I know that's not true," said an approaching voice, "I think it's more along the lines of you trying to force your definition of happiness on him."

Captain Arbiter recognized Twilight's voice and turned to face her.

"I only wanted my brother to have a good time while he was here in Canterlot. I rarely see him, and I wanted him to be happy. But you and your friends have gone and ruined everything, I've been teamed up against at every turn since last night!" he complained.

Twilight Sparkle's horn glowed brightly, as she cast an arc of green magical energy at Arbiter's cheek. The red mark on his face gradually disappeared, and once it was gone, Twilight stopped her channeling and started to breath heavily. A bead of sweat ran down from under the top of her mane.

"Sorry…" she said, short of breath, "Healing magic is one of the hardest forms to use. Takes up a lot of energy, and not many unicorns are good at it."

"For some reason, when you healed Techorse all those months ago, you weren't this short of breath," he commented.

"Well, to be honest, when you get adrenaline going through your body, you have a lot more energy to use," she said, trying to explain it away.

Arbiter turned away from her for a moment to look out a nearby window of the castle, "Twilight, it seems we're always making life difficult for each other, your friends and myself, that is."

Twilight finished catching her breath, and said with understanding, "I heard from the others about your mom and dad divorcing when you were so young, and leaving you and Clay to fend for yourselves. I'm really sorry that happened to you, and I know it's probably the biggest reason why you did all the things you did. I'd be heartbroken if my parents ever left each other like that."

"I don't need your pity, Sparkle," scoffed the Captain.

"Why?" she asked, "I'm only trying to help you."

Arbiter sighed deeply and said plainly, "To put it simply, I don't deserve it. Ever since I lost my eye I've deserved nothing better than to be… gone. I'm shocked you and Techorse have forgiven me so easily for me nearly doing away with you both. Your coltfriend is so smart, and yet so foolish to purchase his enemy a sword."

"He gave you that sword as a symbol that he's trying to be at peace with you," Twilight said soothingly, "But now, you've got to be at peace with yourself!"

"Peace with myself?" he asked.

Twilight stepped in front of him to block his view of the window, "Yes. You need to forgive your parents, and yourself for what's happened. You know you're only doing this to Claymore to try and drag him down with you! Don't let yourself do that."

"I can leave Claymore alone. I think I've learned he's happier being himself," he admitted, "but I never forgive myself. I know to show no mercy, not even to myself. My value as a pony is dictated solely by how much I do in service to the Princesses."

"We think you're worthwhile just because you are unique," said Twilight, "and if you don't believe me, why don't you ask Limpwing?"

Arbiter lifted his head, and thought about it carefully. Limpwing, like himself, had been mistreated by the world, rejected by others, harmed by people she believed close to herself. She even had a damaged organ, just like he did. There was another pony in the same boat as himself, and they even cared for each other.

"You're right," he admitted, "there's many ponies who are worn out like me, and have value. But what can I do to help them?"

"Act like it," suggested Twilight, "go tell your brother you love him and you're there for him."

"I will do it. I don't expect you to forgive me for what I've done, but I can forgive myself for the sake of my brother, and ponies like myself," he said, keeping his chin up and walking away.

"Wait a second Arbiter," said Twilight.

He stopped and turned around to look at her again.

She swung her tail, with the fan cut, striped with pink and purple, out where he could see it.

Twilight looked at her tail, then back to him, and said, "It grew back."

"So you forgive me?" he asked, recalling the time he had cut her tail.

"All of us do. We voted to keep you when you were taken out of that amber block. The girls and I, and Techorse too, kinda need a Captain Arbiter," She said, smiling.

Arbiter, for the first time in a while, gave a genuine smile of happiness, and walked away from Twilight to go wait for his brother to return.

Outside of the castle, as Twilight also left to go find something to keep herself occupied, a dark essence started to creep along the castle walls. The cloud of darkness formed a projectile, and flew into one of the castle windows, phasing through the glass and entering the structure. It remained undetected by the guards, and began to seek out its target.

When Claymore got back from his time spent with Rarity and Fresh, he returned to the throne room of the castle to find Techorse, and all the others gathered, except his brother.

"Hello Claymore, Rarity!" said Applejack, "How was your time spent in the town?"

"Great!" he answered, "Think I may have made a new friend in Fresh."

"That's awesome!" Said Rainbow Dash.

The younger Axechop made his way to the throne, and presented himself to Princess Celestia.

"It seems like you've been through a lot today," she said, "Arbiter's been up to some tricks, I hear."

"That's for sure," Claymore said, looking at the red carpet beneath him, "but thanks to Twilight and her friends, I didn't have to go through anything I didn't want to."

Out of the corner of her eye, Celestia noticed the door to the throne room open, and Arbiter slipping in. He seemed a little happier than usual. She returned her look to the bowing Claymore, who just seemed down about the whole day.

"Of course, now Arbiter's upset that we didn't do anything he wanted to do," he continued, "but I just didn't want to cave in to all those things."

Celestia said, "I understand. Maybe you should tell him that while he's here."

Claymore looked up and slowly turned around, to see his brother. He had switched out his black cape and eyepatch for a complete blue set of garb, which usually indicated a happy day for the Captain. Arbiter approached his sibling, and embraced him in a warm hug.

"This is that hug you wanted, brother," he said, "I got so upset over our parents' divorce that I forgot I still had family."

Claymore struggled to fight back tears as he held his older brother. He'd gotten the old Arbiter back, it seemed, and he was finally understanding how much he loved him as a sibling.

"I'm sorry I tried to make you just like me. Hay, I should have tried to be more like you!" he said.

"Arby, you've gone soft!" snickered Rainbow.

"Shut up Rainbow Dash!" he answered, still hugging.

Arbiter let his brother go, and then let out a hearty, genuine laugh, which was joined in by the friends in the room.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the door to the throne room slamming open. Jools and Jops stood in the entrance, their expressions indicating trouble.

"Your majesty!" shouted Jools, in an amazing break of his typical silence, "There's been a magical accident downtown, and it's slowly destroying a warehouse. Your presence has been requested along with Princess Luna's immediately."

Celestia stood up from her throne and said to the other ponies, "I'll handle this myself with sister. Arbiter, you're in charge as usual until I return."

"Yes m'am!" he answered, seemingly gaining back his toughness.

Celestia left the room with Jools and Jops as quickly as she could, and within the minute they were away from the castle with Princess Luna, off to stop the magical accident.

"Oh dear," commented Fluttershy, "I sure hope nopony got hurt!"

"I hope so too," agreed Twilight, "but usually these magical accidents are magic fires that can't be put out with water. Everything should be ok."

Without warning, the room seemed to dim, as candles and electrical lights went out as if by their own power.

"Oh, the citizens of Canterlot are going to be just fine, Twilight," whispered a demonic voice, "but you and your friends… not so much."

Twilight's horn glowed as she looked around for who had said that. Techorse likewise deployed his laser cannons, and looked around, the guns following his eyesight.

"Wait a minute," said Arbiter, "I know that voice."

"Of course you know that voice!" It replied.

The dark mist from earlier entered the room, and a small whirlwind of dark energy spiraled around itself, until a floating figure, in the form of a blue hooded sweater with yellow glowing eyes in the pitch blackness of the hood, appeared. The figure had two gloved hands, each ending with a sharp point.

"Malthus, I thought we took care of you!" snapped Arbiter.

"To be honest, Arbiter, so did I," commented the wraith, "it turns out your blade merely phased me. Takes a lot more to get rid of a wraith, especially one of my power. Of course, by now you probably also realize I set the magic fire as a distraction so I could confront you unopposed by the princesses."
Claymore stepped in front of his brother and said, "You're the wraith who took my brother's eye, aren't you?"

The hooded figure landed on the floor and gently floated to meet Claymore. He placed his right hand on the pony's head, and petted his mane gently, to tease him.

"That's correct. I can see by the aura of your very soul that you are Arbiter's brother. There's another Axechop!"

"Hands off my brother, wraith!" demanded Arbiter.

Malthus assured him, "Arbiter, silence. Your brother deserves to know what happened to you."

The wraith removed his hand from Claymore's head, and then floated back gently into the air.

He said to all the ponies present, "Many moons ago, Arbiter was training for combat here in Canterlot. He was a prideful, arrogant stallion, and still is to this very day. As you all know, wraiths have offered their services to ponies as monster hunters, we've kept you from being meals for several beasts, and even locked them up in a place guarded by a Cerberus."

Malthus paused for a moment, then continued his monologue, "I was at one time the elected king of the wraiths. It used to be that Equestrians paid special tribute to us, gold, food, free lawn care, what you will. But as the years dragged on, we got taken for granted. When I was elected, your gratitude was on its decline. I visited Canterlot to try and get Princess Celestia to tell her subjects to shape up and respect us again. But I was stopped by Arbiter here."

"What did he say?" asked Techorse.

"Quite simply, he told me, with very unclean words Techorse, that I should go away since ponies no longer needed wraiths to help protect them. As punishment, I challenged him to a duel, and cut deep into his eye with my sharpened finger blade. He used to be quite popular, but ever since that ugly eye scar, he's been dropped like a hot brick," finished Malthus darkly.

“But you got the better deal!” complained Rainbow Dash, “You took out his eye!”

“That's not the whole story,” said Malthus, “you see, for wounding Arbiter, I was kicked out from my office and sent away. I vowed I'd prove my actions were correct, and now, I finally have the strength to do so.”

"Oh goodness, I don't want to be absorbed again!" cried Fluttershy, hugging Pinkie Pie out of stress.

Malthus laughed, "Oh don't be worried, Fluttershy. I learned my lesson. It's pointless to take over Equestria, and it's equally pointless to absorb any of you. I only come for one reason, and that's to finish what I have started."

He then pointed with a finger at Arbiter and said, "I'm going to put you six feet under, Arbiter Axechop."

"Never!" shouted Rainbow Dash, landing in front of the Captain.

The other friends assembled in front of Arbiter, trying to shield him from Malthus.

"That's a terrible thing to say!" shouted Applejack.

Claymore added, "Leave my brother alone!"

Arbiter was simply flattered his ex-enemies were so quick to protect him.

Malthus looked at Arbiter in his one remaining eye and said, "You have decent friends, Arbiter, something I'd never thought I'd say about you."

He then looked at the other ponies and commented, "The rest of you know as soon as you fire anything at me, I'll simply absorb it and use it against you. It's for your own sake that you choose to stay out of this."

"That isn't going to happen," stated Twilight, "if you attack one of us, you attack all of us!"

"Very well," said Malthus, clearing his throat, "then let's skip the games, and duel."

The friends ran away in various directions, attempting to present as many targets as possible to the wraith. Arbiter ran for the door to see if he could get to the barracks and summon the other guards, but Malthus had cast a barrier spell around the doorway, and Arbiter ran into a solid wall of invisible magic.

"I'll get to you shortly, Arbiter," the wraith teased, before turning his attention to Claymore and the others.

"So this is Malthus, huh?" said Rainbow Dash, mocking him, "I'll take care of you!"

Flapping her wings furiously, she started flying in circles around him, creating a ring of rainbow-colored tornado around him. Malthus couldn't see Rainbow Dash, but she knew she was somewhere in the whirlwind she had created. A strong punch landed on the back of his ethereal head, pushing him into the walls. He started bouncing around as he hit the walls, with Rainbow Dash hitting him each time. The wraith found himself being treated as a blue pinball, and he grunted with each hit.

"Yeah, you got him Rainbow Dash!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

Unfortunately, the celebration was short lived, as Malthus figured out Rainbow Dash's attack pattern, and stopped her tornado attack short by grabbing a hold of her rear leg. The pegasus panicked and started flying around the room, attempting to shake him off.

"Tech, Twilight, fire somethin'!" demanded Applejack.

Techorse answered, "We might hit Rainbow Dash, it's too dangerous!"

Eventually, Malthus had enough of Rainbow's constant movement, and grabbed her striped tail with his other claw. With a flick of his arms, he threw her screaming legs first down his cloak, absorbing her. All that remained was Rainbow Dash's scream in the air, which dissipated.

Applejack's mouth fell open in horror, and Fluttershy burst into tears.

Pinkie Pie growled, and reached behind Celestia's throne. She brought out on two squeaky wheels her bright blue party cannon.

"Hey Malthus!" she shouted, "Want some fireworks?"

Pressing the firing pin on top of her mock artillery piece, Pinkie Pie shot shell after shell of fireworks and confetti at the wraith. But now that he had absorbed Rainbow Dash, he moved far too fast for her to get a decent shot. Spheres of confetti exploded harmlessly on the ceiling, and Malthus left a blur of blue behind him with each sudden movement. But one lucky projectile happened to hit the wraith, and his sleeve was torn open by the explosion, knocking him down to the ground.

Rarity just happened to be nearby the injured wraith, and started pounding on him with her front hooves. After getting sick of the beating, Malthus grabbed her sides.

Rarity screamed loudly, "Let me go! Don't touch me you terrible monster!"

Malthus floated up from the ground, flipped Rarity over, and sent her headfirst into the void of his cloak. More horror spread throughout the faces of the ponies in the room, and Fluttershy fainted from the heart-stopping terror.

With his new-found knowledge of materials, the wraith extended a sharp claw, and sew back together his own arm, fixing the tear in his cloak. But since he was still within range, Applejack had her turn at the wraith, running up with anger in her eyes. She then turned around, and gave the wraith her trademark buck, sending him flying across the room, and smashing him into the wall behind the throne. Malthus peeled himself from the wall, nearly as flat as a sheet of paper from the impact, and slowly brought his form back from the heavy blow.

Applejack attempted to get another kick in, against all advice from her friends, but Malthus simply met her headfirst, and soaked in Applejack as well. At this point, he had the strength to knock down trees, but one pony in the room had grown tired of the fighting.

"Malthus!" said Arbiter, "Stop. It's me you want. Release Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. I'll fight you one on one."

"Arbiter, you can't!" protested Claymore, "I don't want to lose you!"

"You won't." he assured.

Malthus laughed and floated back to the center of the room, "I was getting tired of this anyways. Thank you for the warm-up, friends of Arbiter."

The wraith's left sleeve opened up, and out tumbled the three absorbed ponies, who looked shaken up from the experience.

"What happened in there?" asked Claymore of Rarity.

Rarity answered, her pupils small and her eyes opened wide, "It was a like a dark closet in there. That's all I'm going to say."

Malthus turned to face Arbiter, who gave him a look of sheer anger. An electrical noise was heard as the two metal gauntlets tied to Arbiter's belt came to life as the internal magical components began to work off of his thought processes. The floating metal hands, each with an amethyst on the back of the glove, reached for his blue wooden sheathe. With one motion, Arbiter drew his sword with the floating devices, the present that Techorse had given him. He held the long and heavy blade out to the side, the grip featuring his cutie mark, and with the other hand not holding the blade, he pointed at Malthus with a metal finger.

"I'll stop you once and for all, Malthus!" he said.

The wraith answered, "Arbiter, I took your eye, and now I shall take the rest of you!"

With a quick flash of magic, Malthus teleported Arbiter and himself to the battlements of the castle, for what he knew would be a fair fight. It was sunset in Canterlot, and the two old enemies started at each other. Malthus then prepared himself for the duel.

He bent over, crossing his arms, and yelled with force as two long blades, each painted with a stripe of orange down the middle, slid from under the sleeves of the cloaks and over the top of his gloved hands. He now had two three foot swords extending from over his wrists, each one sharp as diamonds.

"Like them Arbiter? These blades are the future for wraiths, no longer will we have to risk our fingers breaking off!" he said.

Arbiter readied his sword with both gauntlets and brought it in front of his face, then answered, "We'll see how wraith forged weapons compare to The Domain's craftsmanship!"

The two charged forward on the castle walls, and steel met steel in a flurry of sparks. Arbiter swung his sword carefully, dodging the slashing blades from his opponent while retaliating with his own swings. Malthus was able to block each and every blow, but couldn't seem to land a hit either given the weaknesses imposed by dual-wielding smaller blades. Arbiter jumped using his wings, then brought down his sword hard in an attempt to cleave the wraith from above. He brought both of his swords up in an X pattern, and blocked the attack, with Arbiter landing in front of him again.

Malthus then turned the blades into a lethal pair of scissors, Arbiter chose to slide under his foe to dodge the cut, and then swung the blade around horizontally. A small tear opened up on the wraith's back, and Malthus grunted, but he was not yet finished. He met Arbiter again blade for blade, and the slashing and clanging of swords continued as the fight went on.

Back in the castle, Twilight and her friends had ran for the vault located in a special hall of the building.

"What's the plan, Twilight?" asked Pinkie Pie, "What are we gonna do?"

Twilight answered, "What Princess Celestia would want us to do! We're going to save Arbiter by using the Elements of Harmony on Malthus!"

"Should we use the Element of Justice?" asked Techorse.

Twilight paused for a moment, and then nodded solemnly, “We must. Banishing Malthus won't stop him from attacking again. We need to stop his evil magic.”

They reached the vault and stopped from a full gallop. The huge door guarding the artifacts lay in the same hall of the many stained glass windows depicting their use over the years.

"Do you know the code?" asked Rarity.

Techorse simply drew his laser cannons, and switched the solid-beam mode which he rarely used. Using them as a cutting tool, he drew a circle of energy around the door to the vault, and the stone gave, falling forward.

"Not quite what I meant," coughed Rarity.

"Tech, I knew the code!" complained Twilight, "No need to carve open the whole door!"

Techorse answered, "I thought you wouldn't, sorry! Anyways, you can tell the princesses magic locks don't stop lasers later. Let's get the elements and go help Arbiter."

"I'll meet you up there!" said Claymore, "Good luck."

He ran off up a nearby staircase, as the seven ponies below opened the jeweled box containing the Elements and began to put them on. The small necklace bearing Techorse's cutie mark glowed for several seconds after he put it on, before it turned into the small pair of silver scales he was familiar with.

"You sure we're using mine?" he asked, as Twilight's tiara settled onto her head.

Twilight nodded, "I think this is the only way."

"Let's do it then!" shouted Rainbow Dash, wearing her necklace.

Despite his best swordplay, Arbiter appeared to be losing. He was attempting to get a good hit in on Malthus, but the wraith was draining his energy and blocking every single blow. Arbiter even tried a lunge attack to stab his foe, but Malthus simply floated from above and attempted to jab down. Luckily for him, Arbiter managed to get away from that as well, and continued crossing swords with his enemy.
With one unlucky moment, however, Malthus saw a weakness in Arbiter's slash pattern, and struck hard with his left arm. A slash went through one of the gauntlets hold the sword, and cracks of purple-colored energy appeared on it. Arbiter dropped his weapon accidentally, and the gauntlet exploded violently, throwing the other one off the edge of the castle wall, and dropping the sword on the ground out of his reach near Malthus. He was now on his back, at his enemy's mercy.

The wraith laughed at his opponent's misfortune, and approached him while saying, "Arbiter, you put up your best fight, but alas it's time for me to end our rivalry. I'll give you the chance to shut your remaining eye."

"I won't give you the pleasure!" he said.

As an added measure, the Captain hocked and spat on Malthus.

"Disgraceful. But no matter," answered the wraith, "as wraiths have said to monsters in the past, 'a good journey across planes to you', Arbiter."

Malthus raised his right blade to strike. However, he was rudely interrupted by a cannon ball tearing through his side, ripping a gigantic hole through him. The wraith gasped at the sudden loss of material, but being a wraith, shed nothing. Across from him, on the other side of the battlements, stood Claymore on top of a smoking cannon, obviously having fired it from his naval training.

"I told you to leave my brother alone!" he shouted.

Running around from the other side, he came up from behind Arbiter, and helped him get up from off his back. Malthus sank to the ground, and clutched at his chest. The blades on his wrists shattered, as they had been kept in reality by his concentration. Now his injury, more than a foot across, kept him from doing any more harm.

Claymore realized they were in a circular turret area of the castle, and looked at how much space there was to maneuver. Surely he could pick up his brother and fly away with him, before Malthus could try anything else.

"Honestly, wraith, I'm surprised the cannon didn't take care of you," Claymore said to him, "but that's what you get for hurting my brother!"

"You think this… dent… makes a difference?" choked Malthus, "Watch, and learn!"

The wraith's eyes glowed furiously, and he yelled dramatically, as energy started to fill the cavity in his body. With each second, the wraith reformed small pieces of himself, until the entire hole had been covered up.

"Nice try, Axechops," said the wraith, "but now, you're mine!"

Twilight and friends had arrived on the castle turret, and stood behind Arbiter as well.

"What the?" asked the wraith, "Are those… the Elements of Harmony?"

"Malthus," said Twilight angrily, "this is your last chance. Leave them alone, or else!"

"You do realize, foolish unicorn, that if you use those against me, I'll absorb them and turn you all to stone?" chuckled the villain, "You wouldn't dare."

"Twilight… count us off," said Techorse, staring at the wraith.

Twilight and her friends' artifacts started to glow hot white, along with their eyes, as energy started to arc among them.

"Fluttershy, Kindness! Pinkie Pie, Laughter! Applejack, Honesty! Rarity, Generosity! Rainbow Dash, Loyalty, Myself as Magic!"

Malthus backed up a step from the ponies. He prepared to receive the magical beam, and laughed softly at the thought of implementing Equestria's strongest force.

"… and Techorse, Justice!" called Twilight.

Techorse slowly began to lift into the air from the magical energy, and found himself floating in the air twenty feet above his friends, and stared down at Malthus.

"Malthus!" he shouted at him, "For taking Arbiter's eye and threatening his life, you're at our mercy now! Fire away ladies!"

A rainbow-colored beam of pure energy shot up towards Techorse, was absorbed by the Scales of Justice, and then arced down as a solid ray of white light. The huge beam, unstoppable by any force, rushed for the wraith it was intended to hit, but for some reason, even though it hit him, it did nothing to him. Something had gone wrong!

"What?!" shouted Twilight, "This is impossible!"

Malthus spread his arms and started to soak up the energy through his cloak, "FOOLS! I was going to spare you ponies and take only Arbiter's life, but now as I promised, I will turn you all to stone once I am through with him."

Arbiter looked up at Techorse, whom he considered to be his old foe. He looked back at the mares of Ponyville, who had been against him as well. Then he looked at Claymore, his brother, who's eyes were starting to fill with tears over what was about to happen.

But then he saw on the ground, the longsword that had been gifted to him.

"That sword resembles the peace and friendship Techorse wants to make with me," he thought.

Looking at the ray of cleansing light, he concluded, “And the Elements are looking for a show of friendship.”

He then stared at the blade for a few moments, and knew what to do. Arbiter grabbed the sword with his teeth, and then, with a sharp swing of his neck, threw the blade high up into the air.

The blade turned over on itself, a graceful somersault in the atmosphere. It then entered the ray of pure white energy, shining from Techorse's scales. The blade righted itself, pointing away from Techorse, and then suddenly soaked up the entirety of the beam, being shot out by the force of the energy. The sword, sheathed in white light, shot down like a bullet, and pierced right through Malthus's middle. The wraith screamed as the sword stuck through him, and the beam of harmony left the blade and surrounded him again, tearing away at the wraith. Picking him up, the energy pushed the monster over the edge of the castle walls, and a loud explosion was heard as he hit the floor beneath, sending up a massive column of light and energy which dissipated into the clouds above the castle. The ground shook, and the destructive column was seen for miles.

The energy amongst the seven friends stopped, and they together with Arbiter and his brother ran downstairs to the courtyard to find out what happened. When they got there, what they saw made them stare in both awe… and terror as to the capabilities of the Elements. One of the large stone bricks that made up the floor of the courtyard, now featured a burned engraving of Malthus, still showing as much fear as his two glowing eyes could have. The sword stuck firmly into the stone, exactly where it had gone through him. Steam escaped from the hissing burns on the stone.

Arbiter stared at the burning remains and knew that his enemy would not go on to ruin someone else's life.

Within the hour, Celestia and Luna had returned from the magical fire, and discovered what had happened. They concluded that the right thing had been done to stop their enemy, and the stone containing the burned carving was soon pried from the ground, washed, and placed on a cart. The Elements of Harmony were returned to their lockbox, and although Princess Celestia was unhappy with Techorse for breaking open the vault, she couldn't find too much fault with him due to the desperation of the situation. Two wraiths from the township the defeated Malthus used to be king of, arrived to collect the carved stone. Arbiter had removed his sword, and returned it to its sheathe. The two wraiths, one red and one pink in cloak, spoke to the princesses.

The red one said to her, "On behalf of all wraiths, we apologize for the attack by our former king."

“Former king?” asked Princess Luna.

“Yes,” answered the red wraith, “Malthus has not been our king for years. Ousted for demanding violence and hatred towards Equestria. Once we had removed him from our clan, he threatened to return and show us what 'cowards' we were.”

“If anything,” added the pink one, “we should be grateful you have stopped him once and for all.”

"It is good to know the threat to both our kingdoms is over," said Celestia, “but what will you do with his remains?”

"We will store the stone in a vault in Tartarus," replied the pink wraith, “just in case he decides to make a return...”

“Thank you for continuing to warden Tartarus,” said Celestia, “please inform me if anything happens, and perhaps we can work together to prevent another attack like this!”

"Yes, your highness,” answered the red wraith, “we'll stay in touch.”

After the wraiths left them with the stone, Princess Celestia approached her subjects, who were happy to have made it through the day.

"Claymore," she said to him, "I want to commend you for your daring attempt to save your brother. I'll look into getting you your own ship someday!"

"Thank you, your majesty!" he said, overjoyed.

Arbiter attempted to slip away from the scene, but Pinkie Pie dragged him back, with his tail in her teeth.

"You're not going anywhere, mister!" she said after letting him go.

"Arbiter," said Celestia, looking down on him.

Captain Arbiter bowed before his leader, and asked, "What is it, my lady?"

Princess Celestia said to him, "As silly as you might find this… I think you learned something important about friendship today that you need to tell me."

Arbiter looked up at the princess, and said, "If I learned anything, it's that a true friend can forgive another. But most of all, you need to be a friend to yourself. You have to forgive yourself."
He then looked over at Techorse, who smiled at him.

"Techorse, I'm never going to give up being a swordscolt, and you know I'm going to always keep trying to toss criminals in prison. You may not like me much for that." He said.

"Maybe not," admitted Techorse, it wasn't always just what Arbiter did.

Arbiter then said, "But you will forgive me every time. Right…"

"Friend?"

Techorse's face filled with joy, "Of course Arbiter!"

Claymore then approached his brother, and said to him, "Arby, I've still got most of two weeks here. Let's just try to relax and have some fun now, ok? No more monsters?"

"No more monsters!" he promised, hugging his brother again.

"GREAT!" shouted Pinkie Pie who jumped in the air, "Then let's party!"

What a party it was. Not only were there desert and streamers from the party pony of Ponyville, but music and plenty of games. Arbiter really seemed to be enjoying doing what his brother Claymore liked to do for fun, and even though Twilight watched him party and knew he was going to be back to his old tricks again the next week, he seemed to be at peace with himself, and that's all that truly mattered to her. She was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder, Techorse, who asked her to dance with him. The unicorn mare agreed, and went off with her coltfriend to dance the night away. It seemed like the past was all but forgotten now, and even if it wasn't, it certainly was forgiven.

#28 - of Robots and Reptiles

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Of Robots and Reptiles

Techorse series: #28

By Spirals95

"Initializing warm-up sequence. Day 1032 since first activation...", ran a line of code in a microprocessor.

The internal clock on the machine's motherboard had indicated that it was roughly 7 in the morning, the time at which the coding was set to activate in the event of a sleep cycle, which wasn't necessary for the machine to run, but was useful to give the machine's owner peace of mind and to prevent making noise during the night while he slept. Electricity flowed from the power source, a small reactor made of hydro-fusion cells that manipulated the hydrostatic properties of water to produce cheap and clean power. The small engine poured fresh energy from large red bundles of wire, down and out to the various systems of the machine. The first to receive power was the large processing unit in the head of the machine, which began to load memory from past days. Inexplicably, the hard drives of the unit seemed to be marked with signatures other than ones and zeros, which may have made no sense to a computer scientist. But this machine was quite special indeed.

Light flooded into PAL's electric eyes as his start cycle completed, and his heavy metal body came to life. He rose slowly with the sound of motors running from his bed, a large soft mattress placed in what used to be a main computer room. The robot had in the past preferred to remain as software on the screen on the main computer, but now, he was learning how to become a living being, and wanted to sleep in a bed instead of a computer file.

PAL was a rather large robot, six feet tall and weighing in at 200 pounds, but if you asked him about it he'd tell you that a majority of that was water weight. The excuse frequently worked, after all, water was his primary fuel and power source, and he drank a gallon a day to keep himself powered. As his reactor produced electricity, it would make vapor, and PAL exhaled it back into the atmosphere with each pneumatic breath to someday become rain again. He reached over for what had actually reminded his systems that it was 7 in the morning, a small and old-fashioned styled brass alarm clock, the ringer smashing itself between the two bells rapidly to produce noise.

The robot reached over with a metal hand to shut off the clock. His joints numbered the same as a human's, giving him plenty of movement, but a limited range from any angle. Thick-legged and equally thick armed to make him sturdy, PAL's giant metal fingers; four on each hand along with a thumb, looked just about ready to smash the alarm clock should he dare to try to turn it off. PAL maneuvered two of his metal fingers on his left hand carefully, moving his arm with very small and calculated moves, to gently grasp the ringer between his right pointer finger and thumb. Unlike other robots, PAL's movements were controlled by bundles of hydraulic fibers that contracted similarly to a muscle when electricity ran through them. His arms were somewhat seamed where each gray metal plate interlocked to form connections between parts of his limbs.

PAL stood up from the bed, his heavy footpads giving the impression he wore strong boots. The robot wandered over to a nearby mirror pane he had propped up against the dimly-lit wall of the computer control room, and looked at himself. His head consisted of a somewhat human, but still clearly angled construction, with a slightly flattened top, cylindrical sides, and a large metal jawline at the bottom that fit almost perfectly to the rest of the head, giving him a slight chin and almost unnoticeable under bite. His eyes were two flattened and white ocular devices, with a soft orange glow coming from rounded pieces in the center that indicated where exactly he was looking. With a soft movement of his clenched left fist, PAL tapped on his metal chest a few times, a relatively plain but thick and well-armored torso chest plate that encased his components and protected his reactor. He was certainly designed to have a strong and burly appearance, and yet also be a gentle giant.

"Time to go make breakfast for master," he said, smiling at himself in the mirror, "hopefully he appreciates the surprise I've prepared, chocolate chip pancakes!"

Turning for the wood door that led to the computer room, he walked over with metallic footsteps, and opened it gently by turning the golden round knob. He proceeded down the hallways of his castle home that he shared with his master, and went down the stairs to prepare the pancakes.

The most important feature of PAL, was that he had been given the ability to program himself by detecting emotions. This unique feature, implemented by his master, Techorse, had resulted in PAL developing original thoughts and feelings that could not be copied. The machine had achieved independent thought over the course of the year of being exposed to the magic and society of Equestria, and was well believed by those who knew him to be alive in a sense. He was now capable of choosing evil, as he was capable of lying without being ordered to. The robot could also feel emotions, and make decisions based on external input, rather than orders or commands from other beings. He was exactly who he chose to be, and that was a carefree robot who lived for his master and his closest friends.

After reaching the castle's modest kitchen, he immediately went to the stainless steel refrigerator and retrieved a plastic blue bowl filled with pancake batter he had prepared the night before. He took the bowl of chilled batter and moved it carefully over to the centerpiece of the kitchen, a central stove with a vast venting funnel on the ceiling above. PAL went over to a nearby tool shelf, and chose a special flat and square griddle pan he usually used to make pancakes. The machine put the cast-iron cooking implement on the stove, and then with a simple turn of his hand, set the heat of the element underneath the griddle to a reasonable level. After waiting a few minutes, PAL tested the heat of the iron by dipping his metallic hand in a cup of water he had left on the counter the night before, and letting several drops land on the surface. Loud sizzling was heard as the water evaporated on contact, and the machine understood the griddle was ready solely from the sound. He then grabbed the nearby bowl of batter, and using the mathematical tools on board his robotic brain, poured four identically sized pancakes onto the surface.

Upstairs in the home, a very sleepy green pony was trying to wake up after staying up too late filling out orders for his appliances. Techorse was snuggled warmly in his bed, a queen-sized piece of furniture with a cozy dark blue comforter, and elegant feather pillows covered in a light-blue case. It was so warm underneath the covers that it made getting out of bed very difficult for the inventor in the morning, but somehow there would have to be a way to get him to pull himself from the warmth. He was already awake, but he decided to himself that he wasn't going to get out of bed unless he absolutely had to! That was, until a very enticing aroma reached his nose.

"Is that chocolate?" he said to himself, hanging his head slightly out of bed.

Techorse looked over at the digital alarm clock on his nightstand, and noticed "7:30 am" on the red LED display.

"Nope. Too early," he muttered, determined to stay in the sheets until 12.

The stallion tried to go back to sleep, rolling away from the alarm clock and closing his big blue eyes. Chocolate scent continued to waft from the kitchen up the stairs, and into the room. It was starting to get irresistible, and Techorse's stomach growled to remind him that it'd been well over 12 hours since he had last gotten something to eat. In addition to this, the light from his nearby window shone in, threatening to pry open his eyes at any second if he failed to get them away from the rays. The earth pony simply buried his head under his covers, and slightly curled up into a ball to avoid the light.

"Not getting up for anything," sighed the earth pony, relieved that he might get some more sleep.

Techorse might have very well gotten away with this, but his body had other plans for him. Techorse realized after a few moments of semi-consciousness that he needed to use the restroom. That, of course, was always the immediate end of trying to stay in bed all day.

"Aw shoot..." he complained, as he got out from his cocoon of blankets and put all four hooves on the floor outside his bed, "looks like I'm getting up anyways..."

After making his short stop, and grabbing a warm refreshing shower, Techorse wandered sleepily downstairs to find the source of the chocolate that he dearly craved. Following the scent of the food, he entered the dining room of his castle moments later, and found a nice stack of chocolate chip pancakes waiting for him on a clean light blue plate. A small white pitcher of maple syrup sat next to the stack, yet strangely, all silverware was missing from the setup. Techorse climbed into the chair closest to the stack of pancakes and felt his mouth water from the aroma of the chocolate.

Due to the lack of a suitable fork and the fact that Techorse was not wearing his battle saddle, the inventor simply took small bites from the top of the stack, trying not to get his face covered in chocolate chips. When he wanted to add syrup, he had to stop eating and pick up the pitcher with his teeth carefully in order to pour some on the top. Being an earth pony sometimes made eating like a civilized Equestrian difficult.

"Good morning, master!" said a cheerful PAL as he entered the room, "Enjoying your pancakes?"

"Yes, thank you so much, PAL!" he answered between bites, "I didn't expect you to make these, but I'm glad you did, I'm starving."

The robot walked over to a nearby red curtain, and pulled a yellow cord nearby to allow them to open. Morning sunlight entered the room, making Techorse squint slightly as his eyes tried to adjust to the light. When his vision came back in full, he noticed his robot servant staring outside with a somewhat sad expression on his face.

The colt stopped his favorite breakfast and asked his friend a question, "What's wrong, big guy?"

"Oh, nothing," he lied, "simply enjoying the sunlight, master. Going to look outside for a while before I get to the chores for the day."

A little socially poor, Techorse didn't immediately understand that PAL might want to go outside and enjoy the day, so he resumed his pancakes. The robot watched a mare and her husband walk by with their tails wrapped around each other's. Not much of the town's activity was clearly visible from the castle's front windows, but it seemed the couple had taken a long walk and had used Techorse's home as a landmark. It was only a two minute walk to the center of Ponyville, but that was still a long way to go for life in a small town. PAL, on the other hand, feared in his metallic heart that the ponies outside the castle walls did not know him well or wanted anything to do with him. He simply hoped that going outside might change their minds, if he gave it time.

"That couple seems to be enjoying the day, too," mused PAL, placing a metal hand on the glass.
Techorse seemed to finally get the hint, and said, "I think the chores can wait for today, PAL. Why don't you go and have some fun?"

"I was hoping you'd say that!" said the robot joyfully, "I don't seem to get out of the castle much, and I'm hoping to really do more with the outside world."

"Ever since I gave PAL the ability to program his own code, he's developed sapience…" thought Techorse carefully, "I bet the presence of magic in Equestria has definitely had a part in that."

Whether magic or true choice had brought about PAL's status as a living machine, one thing was for certain; Techorse was proud to call him a friend.

On the other side of town in the library, in a small wicker basket lined with cushions and thin blankets, a young dragon was refusing to wake up to start his day's work. Spike had stubbornly burrowed into his bed to try and prevent Twilight from waking him up for the day. A lavender hoof poked him through the covers as he attempted to drift back off.

"Spike, it's time to get up!" grunted Twilight, "It's ten in the morning, and I wanted to take you shopping today."

"Just five more minutes," answered a muffled voice from the covered basket.

Twilight groaned, but got an idea in her mind as to how she might get her assistant out of his bed and going for the day. She walked over to her dresser and searched through the drawers carefully, scanning over the clothing and other items for something in particular. Eventually the unicorn found a small red cloth wrapped around a rectangular object. Twilight smiled, and using her magic, levitated the wrapped object in front of her face. Her horn glowed a soft purple as she brought the item out of the drawer, and she closed the dresser gently.

The red cloth was unwrapped, revealing a large, shimmering aquamarine gemstone, already cut and polished by the strange geology of the mountains. Twilight had found the gem sticking out of the ground on a hike in the mountains, and had used a very tiny beam magic spell to chisel it out of the stone it was caught in. She had planned on giving it to Spike as a special treat all along, but now it had become a delicious bribe.

"I guess I'll have to eat this tasty aquamarine all by myself!" she sang, looking at her blue-tinted reflection in the oversized gem.

"You'd break a tooth. Nice try Twilight," mumbled Spike, still refusing to move.

Twilight moved back to the basket, gemstone still in front of her, and dangled the rock in front of the basket.

"Are you sure you don't want this?" she asked, "It looks really good!"

Spike finally decided to stick his head out of the basket to scout out the gemstone. Indeed, it looked rather delicious to him, and the aquamarine's crystal lattice structure would certainly help his still-developing scales become a fine armor for him.

"Maybe just one bite…" he said hungrily, his serpentine like tongue extending and licking the bottom of his lower lip.

Twilight shook the gemstone, "It's your breakfast this morning if you agree to get out of bed and go shopping with me!"

"All right Twilight, it's a deal!" he said, climbing out of the basket and rushing off to get ready to go.

Twilight smiled and congratulated herself on a motivation well done, and then took the gemstone over to the sink to wash it for her assistant. She scrubbed the gem clean with a damp washcloth, and admired the beauty of the stone. Gems were relatively easy to find, but the larger ones were much rarer, especially aquamarines, which tended to be smaller and round-cut, instead of large and rectangular like this one.

When Spike returned, he announced, "Ready to go, Twi! Washed my face and put away the returns from last night."

"Then here's your gem," said the unicorn mare, levitating the aquamarine to him.

Spike grabbed the treat with his small purple claws and bit a small piece of it off the edge, displaying a rare case of self-control in a dragon. He seemed to be enjoying the unique flavor of the rock, if it could be described.

"I'll keep eating on the way, let's go!" he suggested after swallowing the bite of mineral.

She took him into the busy center of Ponyville to go looking for some much-needed supplies, mainly ink for her quills and extra candles. Twilight also had in mind a brand new set of four slippers, as the floor of the library got quite cold and would chill her hooves on contact, something not very pleasant when she wanted to simply get a drink of water in the middle of the night. As she walked through town and scanned over the busy mom-and-pop stores, she noticed PAL sitting alone on a park bench, simply watching the ponies go about their daily lives.

"Hey, what's PAL doing by himself?" she asked aloud, stopping and pointing to the robot with her right leg.

Spike stopped alongside Twilight, he held his half-finished gem wrapped up in a white paper napkin.
"I don't know. He doesn't leave Tech's castle that often," he said.

Twilight offered, "Why don't you go and say hi? I'm sure PAL would love to spend the day with you while I finish shopping!"

"Great idea, thanks!" responded the dragon eagerly, as he ran off to see the robot, "Have fun shopping, Twilight!"

She waved goodbye to him, then turned to enter her favorite ink shop in town.

Spike reached PAL's bench and jumped up onto the white-washed wooden furniture, gemstone firmly clutched in his left claw. His spaded tail fit right through the space between the boards of the bench, and he greeted PAL.

"Hey, PAL! What's up?" he asked.

The machine responded, "Hello Spike, I'm just watching the citizens of Ponyville go about their lives! It's quite interesting."

Spike took another bite of his breakfast, and chewed thoughtfully as he watched Berry Punch and Colgate walk past them to go get what they needed for their workdays. A few minutes passed of observation before the dragon realized his robot companion was going to sit on the bench all day if he didn't speak up.

"Not that ponywatching isn't fun, but we ought to go do something with the others!" commented Spike, already suffering from boredom.

He then sadly noted, "But the residents are unlikely to know me that well, seeing as I don't get out of the castle much."

"I don't know, PAL. You kinda stick out, being six feet tall," Spike said, doubtful the robot was so foreign.

"I guess that's true. I suppose it's more that I don't feel like I'm quite like the others," Said PAL, giving the mechanical equivalent of a sigh.

PAL stood up from the park bench and twisted his right shoulder blade towards Spike, "Well we should spend the day productively either way. Any place in particular you'd like to go?"

After cramming the rest of the gemstone in his mouth and sending it down, Spike climbed on board the robot's back, and hung onto his shoulder.

"Let's go visit Rarity," he mused, "I bet she's got plenty of customers you can talk to…"

PAL knew his motivations for going to visit the dressmaker, but he simply laughed robotically and agreed to take the dragon where he wanted to go. The metal giant walked quickly through the streets of Ponyville, giving a happy smile and a wave to anypony he recognized, and several that he had not yet known personally. They reached the Carousel Boutique without delay, and entered the building with Spike still clinging to PAL's back. Once they were inside the spacious store, Spike jumped down from the robot and landed on the floor of the shop. The noise of his scaled feet hitting the floor attracted the attention of Rarity, who had been working in a back room on a custom-ordered dress that was expected to be finished that Monday.

The white unicorn entered the room, hair and tail bobbing as she walked, wearing her glasses she used to concentrate on her work. She gained a look of joy on her face when she recognized her visitors, and greeted them up close.

"Ah, it's the ever strong and handsome PAL!" she said, rubbing the robot's left hand with her hoof.

She then turned her attention to Spike and gave him a gentle pat on the head, "… And my little Spikey Wikey!"

Spike moved into the pat on the head and enjoyed every moment of it, while PAL stood cross armed with a mechanical smirk on his face.

"So what can I help you boys with?" asked Rarity, returning to a neutral stance before them.

PAL opened his mouth to speak, but Spike cut him off, "I was hoping you'd be able to make PAL something! He needs some color."

"Ooh, that could be rather tricky," commented Rarity, giving an unsure look and putting a hoof to her mouth, "PAL's awfully large, and usually I only make accessories for ponies."

"I'm sure whatever you come up with will look amazing!" brownnosed Spike, sighing, "You made that one suit for Tech, so I'm sure you can make something for PAL."

Rarity looked over at a nearby bookshelf, and brought out a large red volume with a minotaur wearing a business suit on the front.

"I suppose I could always tailor a minotaur's suit to PAL's shape. His legs are much thicker of course, but the sports coat and shirt will be perfect!" she reasoned.

"That sounds wonderful, Miss Rarity!" Said PAL, eager to try wearing clothes.

Rarity looked up at him, batted her long eyelashes, and said, "You'll finally look the part of a robot butler too! Step over here, darling, and I'll measure you."

PAL walked over to a nearby set of three mirrors arranged to give a customer a 270 degree view of themselves, while Rarity magically grabbed a long yellow measuring tape from a table. She took measurements from PAL's thick titanium legs, arms, and short neck, as well as his waist and chest. After recording the measurements carefully, she took her notepad with her back into her workroom.

"Wait, Miss Rarity, don't you have other work?" asked PAL, concerned someone else first in line might be delayed because of him.

"I haven't had an order for a suit in forever, dear! I want to make this one first, trust me!" came his answer from inside the workroom.

It occurred to PAL that he needed to pay Rarity for the new outfit, and that he did not carry very much gold coin on him.

"Spike, shouldn't I have worked out a price with Rarity before she started work?" he asked his friend, unsure of how much it would cost. He had never actually gone shopping for himself before.

Once in a while he would fetch and item for Techorse, but his master gave him exactly the number of bits needed for the item.

Spike told him quickly, "I'll go work it out with her, don't worry buddy."

The dragon walked into the workroom, leaving PAL outside. Rarity sat amongst piles of sewing kits and spare gemstones, an indication of her busy week. Mannequins sat covered in older garments that were to be replaced with fresh ones, and bolts of cloth hung in seemingly random patterns from the walls and drawers of the studio. She sat at her sewing machine, pumping blue threads into a black piece of material, and carefully gauging the addition.

"Hey, Rarity," said Spike softly, "PAL sent me in here to tell you something, but before I do, I need to tell you something."

"Go on…" said Rarity without moving her head, trying to concentrate.

He finished, "PAL is kind of sad because he doesn't think he's anything like us. I mean, as a dragon amongst ponies, I can relate, but PAL's really down on himself about it."

"Oh!" Rarity said with surprise, stopping her work for a moment. She turned to Spike and said, "I do hope he realizes that's not the case at all. Why just yesterday the other girls at the spa and I were talking about him, and his dutiful shopping he does for Techorse. Any good stallion is just like that machine, willing to help with the chores."

"I knew it! PAL just doesn't get out enough to know what Ponyville thinks of him," said Spike, flicking his spaded tail with glee, "all I gotta do is show him!"

"Oh, you're so nice for helping him out, Spike!" cooed Rarity, giving him a hug.

Spike felt like melting into a puddle on the floor, but he had one more thing to say, albeit with a mushy tone of voice, "Thanks, Rarity. There was one more thing though. PAL wanted to know how much he needs to give you for the suit."

The unicorn released her dragon and put a hoof to her lower lip, "Well I suppose I got so caught up in the excitement of making a unique suit for a robot, that I never did discuss a price with him."

Rarity gave the matter some thought, then, being true to her nature, said, "I'll take no more than I would for any other outfit. It's only fair. After all, PAL deserves it! Hopefully it'll give him all the confidence he needs to see that he's one of us."

Spike liked that answer and replied happily, "Great, I'll let him know!"

He left her and returned to PAL, who seemed to be going over in his head how he would make it to either the bank or the castle to get enough money for Rarity.

"Rarity won't charge you much," said Spike, "she hopes the suit will help you look better in front of all the others!"

"I'll make sure to get that to her as soon as possible," said PAL, missing the point of what Spike was truly trying to tell him.

The dragon didn't accept another ride from the machine despite him offering it, and they left Rarity's home to go back to the center of Ponyville and choose another fun location to take advantage of. As they walked down the sun-lit streets of the town, more residents took notice of the two. It was odd enough to see a young dragon coexisting with ponies, but a robot and a dragon being good friends was about as far from normal as one could possibly get.

"Good morning, Mr. golem! Care to see my collection of jewelry?" called a yellow coated unicorn pony from his small stand among the other shops.

He was Edge, a humble jewelry maker who specialized in rare metals and other gemstone-free accessories.

"Actually," laughed PAL, stopping and responding to the unicorn, "that's a common misconception. I am a robot, sir, not a golem."

"What's the difference?" asked the confused shopkeeper, "I'm sorry if I offended you, PAL, but you look like a steel golem like the ones my cousin makes for logging in the south."

Much to Spike's impatient disgust, PAL stopped and engaged the shopkeeper in a full conversation about the differences. Spike was also rather upset that the robot had conveniently ignored the fact the shopkeeper knew his name.

The robot explained clearly, "Well you see, golems take orders mindlessly from their masters. My master gave me the ability to choose what I want to do from outside information. Also, golems tend to be made out of one material, where as I am made from over 32 materials, including silicon and a tiny bit of gold!" explained the machine, putting his huge metal hands on the pony's blue-clothed stand.

The pony looked down at the large metal appendages in front of him, and realized none of the jewelry he had for sale was likely to fit on the robot, so he was going to lose interest fast in continuing conversation with him.

"That's mighty interesting," he lied, hoping PAL would move aside so he could get to more likely customers, "do you think we can pick this up later though, PAL? Busy right now."

"Of course, have a good day!" answered the robot, leaving him be.

The machine continued walking down the street, when Spike moved up next to him.

"PAL, you had a normal conversation with a guy,” said Spike, "see? You're just like the others."

"We did?" said the robot, stopping and scratching his chin.

The robot slowly turned around, and then went back to the jewelry display. Edge had failed to sell merchandise to yet another customer, and stared at the ground sadly. He hadn't sold anything for a few days now, and was started to get worried.

"Excuse me, Sir, but I never got your name," asked PAL politely.

Edge snapped back to reality and answered, "Oh, it's Edge."

"You wouldn't happen to make custom pieces would you, Edge?" he asked, "I was about to fill another order today, and I thought I might get something from you as well."

The shopkeeper eagerly took out a pad of paper to record the order and said, "Sure! Just tell me what you want."

Zecora had been planning on a shopping trip to Ponyville for a week now, and was entering the town cloaked in a black hood as she usually chose to. Curiously enough, however, she noticed a second hooded and quite large figure trying to enter town from nearly the same direction out of the Everfree forest. It was strange, since the zebra was aware she was the only known inhabitant of the forest, so the newcomer had to have either followed her, or had just come back from being lost in the woods. The mysterious, large visitor started to move parallel to the town after a few hundred feet. Zecora figured that shadowing the stranger was likely a bad idea, and it was simply best to tell someone she knew in town about the guest in case he or she would be of any trouble. The zebra moved forward for Ponyville, and tried not to worry too hard about what she had seen.

The boys had spent the past few minutes trying to decide what to do next. They were seated at a park bench together, trying to come up with the perfect next piece for their day on the town.

"I guess we could go the comic book store," suggested Spike, relaxing on the left arm rest of the bench, "that's always fun."

"We could, but that seems to be the thing we always pick to do," mentioned the robot, crossing his arms and looking at a nearby fountain with a bored expression.

"Well, Rarity told me to make sure you had a good time today. Can't think of anything else to do though," muttered the dragon, sighing and nearly flopping over the green iron rest.

"What would miss Rarity do in a time like this?" wondered PAL aloud, shifting in his seat.

He looked down at himself, and saw the small amount of dust accumulating on the front of his metal chest plate.

Spike took notice of the robot examining his somewhat dusty state, and a wonderful idea came to mind.
"Hey, the girls spend a lot of time at the spa, PAL! Maybe we could take you in and see if they'd clean you up."

He suggested, smiling, "Most ponies like to go and get clean, you'd like it too!"

"Oh dear, but I'm not organic, I don't see how'd that work," frowned PAL, "unless of course they happen to have a nice sulfuric acid bath, or a very hot wax!"

"Wow, hot acid?" asked Spike, his eyes growing wide, "PAL, that stuff's nasty, how can you stand to stay in that stuff?"

"I don't know," Retorted the machine, "how can you stand to stay in magma, Spike?"

The young dragon leapt off the bench and snickered, "Touché! Let's head on over to the spa and see what they can come up with."

The two reached the spa and entered the building quietly, trying not to crash the door loudly behind them as they stepped into the serene environment. It was a beautiful place, with its colorful tiles lining the floor, and the ornate wall and ceiling patterns of purple and blue. Lotus Blossom heard the door open, and the beautician walked out from the back room to greet her new customers.

"Hello Spike, and…" she stopped short.

Lotus had seen PAL before, but her memory had failed her as she struggled to try and figure out who he was. Spike may have visited with his friends often, but it was highly unusual for a giant metallic figure to show up at a day spa!

"Uh… I don't think we've met before," Stammered Lotus, grinning in embarrassment, "Welcome to the Ponyville spa, I'm Lotus Blossom, and my sister Aloe and I own this shop."

"Good afternoon Miss Blossom," answered PAL cheerfully, kneeling down to see eye-to-eye with Lotus, "I am PAL."

The robot was tempted to use the acronym that stood for his name, but the idea came across to him that perhaps "PAL" was his first name in town, and the acronym meant nothing anymore.

"I'm Techorse's robot friend," he explained in response to Lotus's confused look.

Lotus smiled, "Oh, right! The green fella who gets along with our best customers!"

"PAL's wondering if there's anything you can do to help clean him up a bit," asked Spike, "he wants a spa day like all the other ponies in town."

Lotus put a hoof to her chin and looked PAL over as he stood up tall. The beautician pony walked forward, and tapped PAL's leg gently with her front hoof, making a slight knocking sound.

"Oh boy, I don't know where to start," she said, "This certainly isn't a coat or skin of some kind. What are you made of, anyways?"

PAL wanted to answer proudly that he was made of a very strong titanium carbon alloy mixed with some steel and cobalt, but he knew that Lotus would have no idea what he was talking about, since beauty schools rarely taught anything about the periodic table.

"I'm made of metal, if you'd believe that," he answered after placing his hands behind his back, "Steel and Titanium of some kind."

Aloe emerged from the back of the spa, and tilted her pink head curiously at the robot's presence.

"What do we have here?" she asked of her sibling.

"This is Tech's robot. He's made of metal. Do we know any kind of treatments for that?" Lotus responded, giving Aloe a confused look.

"Of course we do! We've got stuff in the shop that'll do just fine," lied Aloe, knowing she was going to have to improvise a pampering for the robot.

The two brought PAL into the shop, and had him relax in one of the tubs of hot water while they went to discuss what they were going to do. Spike watched his friend soak in the bath without any concern, he knew from before that PAL was watertight, and it was difficult to ruin any of his circuits without first piercing his tough outer armor. When Aloe and Lotus returned, they were carrying a bottle of hoof polish, and a small buffing tool used to scrape away rough spots on a pony's hooves. They had PAL stand up out of the water, and they used the electrical buffing tool, once dipped in the polish, to smooth away the pieces of dirt and other filth on PAL's exterior. Once they were done, the machine stood up and admired himself in a nearby mirror. His entire body was far shinier than he could have imagined, reflecting some of the light in the spa back and forth off the mirror, and he felt brand new.

"I knew we could do something for you!" smiled Lotus, "Metal cleans right up with polish!"

PAL thanked them for their work, and opened up a small panel on his left arm. Reaching in with this right fingers, he brought out a small stack of 5-bit coins and gave them to the sisters.

"I hope this is enough," he said, "if not, I will head over to the bank and get the rest for you now."

Aloe counted out the coins, somewhat larger than the 1-bit pieces, and realized that PAL had overpaid for a normal treatment by a good amount. It was tempting to simply keep all the money, given that they hadn't given an orthodox treatment, but Aloe and her sister knew that what they did was still far less work than any other treatment they knew.

"Well, this is about twice as much as what we'd charge for something so simple as a shine," admitted Aloe, "I'll give you half back, PAL."

PAL appreciated the honesty, but more so he appreciated the fact that the sisters treated him like another pony.

"How about this," suggested the machine, calculating a fair plan in his processors, "can you keep the other half as credit for another shine someday? I'll probably want to come back again, it was wonderful!"

Aloe and Lotus happily agreed to the deal, and went to go write down the owed favor so that they'd remember for PAL's next trip. Every small thing he and Spike did that day was boosting the robot's confidence that he was just like the others in his world.

Twilight Sparkle had finished her shopping trip, and had returned back the library to drop off her purchased goods. Just as she placed her purple saddlebags onto the table in the middle of the tree-built home, a craving came over her for an ice-cold root beer float at the Froth Shop.

"I guess I need to go pick up the boys anyways,“ she said to herself, licking in her lips in anticipation of the sweet soda and ice cream, "a quick trip to Steiner's couldn't hurt."

Twilight new she had bought 9 drinks in the past month, and decided not to take any money with her. Steiner offered every tenth soda free to his customers, and he got quite a lot of repeat business during the hotter months in Ponyville.

The unicorn pony left her library and locked the door behind her again, just in case. However, when she turned around, she was met with the towering figure of the hooded stranger!

The intruder's appearance startled Twilight, and her mouth fell agape. He was clearly a stallion, with the rough cut of white coat around his hooves. Blue eyes stared down angrily at Twilight from behind the solid black cloak, and it fluttered gently despite there not being any breeze.

"You!" said the stranger rather angrily, "You are Twilight Sparkle!"

Many thoughts surged through Twilight's mind, such as how the mysterious stallion knew her name, or why his voice sounded somewhat Russian.

Fighting back her fear, Twilight answered with a hopeful grin, "That's right, I'm Twilight. Here to check out a book?"

"Hardly!" laughed the cloaked figure, "I am here for revenge on Celestia. Since I cannot get to Canterlot without being found out, I figured I would ruin her day by going for her precious little student!"

Twilight's horn glowed a deep purple, and out of panic, she teleported herself away from the stranger, hoping to avoid any attack he might throw immediately. This left him alone in front of the library, looking around.

"Hmmm…" he mused, "Perhaps I shouldn't have been so direct. No matter, I can likely track her."

A white spot of light was seen underneath the hood of the cloaked stallion, who crouched. Not only did time slow down for him, but it somewhat re-wound, allowing him to see an after-image of his quarry. Twilight, blurry due to only being a magical recording of the past, cast her teleportation spell. Her assailant waited for the blur to disappear in the flash, then turned around, and looked for the reappearance of Twilight. A flash of purple near a cluster of stores gave away her location, and the stallion stopped his time review magic to pursue her.

Twilight was unaware that her enemy had tracked her using this magical spell, and ran through the streets, hoping to gather her friends and fight him off together. But a dark shadow loomed overhead as her attacker jumped in front of her on the street.

"Running cannot help you," he said to her, "it'll only tire you out."

Twilight charged up her magical energy and pointed her horn at him, "If I can't run, then I'll fight!"

Several ponies in the town square saw the scene and dove behind barrels, crates, and anything else they could find for cover. A magic duel was no place for a pony just out doing their daily chores!

Twilight let loose with a magic missile, and the oblong bolt of purple energy shot straight for the assailant. He dodged to the right, not knowing that the projectile was not the standard pellet attack unicorns used. The magical projectile locked onto him, and smashed into his legs, exploding in a burst of energy and knocking him down. Pieces of the cobble pavement flew upwards, and landed amongst him in a shower.

"Very interesting, homing magic missile," he laughed, standing up shakily, "you really are something special, Twilight."

A white flash from his head indicated that he was launching a counterattack, and 10 glowing arrowhead shaped blasts of energy shot up into the air, hundreds of feet above Ponyville. Some pegasi flying overhead screamed and flew away from the bolts, but the projectiles ignored the civilians, for they only had one target to go for. Twilight craned her neck, and looked up high into the air at the descending mortar shell like bursts, each one packed with high-explosive magical energy.

To try and protect herself, Twilight started launching hundreds of tiny purple beams, each the size of a carpentry nail, as point defense. The white shells started exploding against the sky as each one met with an anti-missile pellet, bursting against the swarm. Once Twilight had shot down every last projectile, her attacker could not help but congratulate her.

"Ah, point defense spell. A classic," he commented, "but, I hope you realize not all spells are projectiles, Twilight."

The ground shook somewhat, and the lavender mare looked around to see what was going on. A large glowing ring of energy had surrounded her, and immediately she jumped out of the ring before the trap spell triggered. Jagged spikes of energy emerged from the ground with a loud noise of steel on steel, before retreating back into the ground and dispelling the cast. Twilight returned fire with a rapid fire pulse attack from her own horn, sending spurts of magic pellets at the stallion. He moved around as much as he could, and even tried putting up screens of white energy to protect himself, but ultimately a few of the projectiles made their mark, burning his cloak slightly and punching him around violently.

"Let's stop and talk this over!" said Twilight, desperate for a truce, "If you're really this mad at Celestia, there's got to be something you're not telling me!"

"All in good time," responded the stranger, scraping a hoof on the stone, "But first…"
He let loose with a rounded burst that rolled along the ground, like a detached circular saw. The wheel of light raced towards Twilight, and she ducked before casting a small purple force field around herself. There was a grinding noise as the wheel hit the bubble, sending out multi-colored sparks of energy as the two forces tried to disintegrate each other. The stranger continued to push harder, and his glow increased furiously as the wheel attempted to cut through Twilight's barrier. Twilight struggled to keep her shield up, but she knew she had to, if the barrier caved, the wheel would go right through her.

Eventually, the force field began to wrap around the weapon trying to cut through it, and Twilight saw this as an opportunity to turn the tables. Reversing her spell, the barrier encased the wheel, and gave it no traction. It slipped, and started to skid around, cutting through the stone road and leaving tracks everywhere. The stranger had lost control of his weapon, and he knew it would be too dangerous to leave it running around, so he forced the energy blade to dismiss itself, and the wheel exploded into a puff of gray smoke.

Yet the enemy refused to let up on his assault, and threw up another set of 10 shells into the air. This time Twilight ran for the center of town, looking back at the projectiles and continuing to use her point defense spell to shoot down what she could. Her energy began to dwindle as she was getting tired from this constant combat, and she knew she'd be too tired to continue if she kept having to wear out her mental energy like this. One of the shells made it through, and it exploded beneath her hind legs, kicking her up into the air, and sending her flying into a nearby pile of straw.

Twilight climbed out of the straw, slightly burnt and bruised from the hit, and moaned from the pain. The cloaked stallion approached her, and prepared to finish the job he had started to do. The purple unicorn panted as she tried to squeeze out whatever more she could, and fired a few more bolts of energy at her foe.

The explosions had gotten the attention of Spike and PAL, who had found the two fighting, with the cloaked menace approaching for his final strike. They hid behind a water fountain several feet away from the duelists, and discussed with each other about what they should do.

"Oh my gosh!" whispered Spike with fear, "It's Twilight, and that guy's going to fry her!"

"What should we do?" asked PAL, "We have to protect Mistress Sparkle, but all the weapons are back at the castle!"

"I don't know!" answered Spike, trying not to panic.

The cloaked figure laughed and took one more step closer to Twilight, a raging glow underneath his hood as he prepared to fire another salvo of energy mortars to leave Twilight nothing more than a burn mark on the streets. He looked at the scared, defeating look on his enemy's face, before laughing and firing off another three projectiles in to the air. Twilight swallowed hard, and her horn sparked and struggled to fire off just a few more magical pellets, taking down just two of the projectiles. There was still one more, and it was coming in fast on its target.

"I won't let that stallion get Mistress Sparkle!" declared PAL, rage in his metal heart.

A loud rumble sounded from his footpads, and blue flames emerged as he fired his rocket boots, throwing him into a brave jump from behind the water fountain. Spinning around, he landed in front of her, and looked up into the burning shot of magic as it plunged down through the air with a horrid scream. PAL stuck out his heavy metallic chest, and braced for the blow. The act of bravery startled the cloaked figure, and he stepped backward as the mortar shot hit the robot's chest.

Surprisingly, PAL's now extremely shiny exterior reflected the majority of the shot's damage, and a bouncing ball of magical power skipped several times away from the robot, and straight into its firer. He was flung back after a loud blast and shout of pain, and he tumbled along the ground. Standing up, he coughed in agony before preparing another shot with his concealed horn.

"PAL?" asked Twilight weakly, trying to stand up on all four legs, "You came to help me?"

"Not just me, Spike too. Play along," whispered the machine, looking back at her.

PAL's front armor had been scorched tremendously by the magic projectile, ruining his shine and damaging the metal.

He said to the stallion, while also casting a sideways glance at Spike, "Leave at once, sir. There's no more you can do. All of us will try to protect Twilight from you if we have to, and you certainly cannot win once all her friends show up."

"Friends?" asked the stallion, not realizing PAL was stalling for time as Spike crept up on him, "What do you mean?"

"Like that one," answered PAL, pointing at Spike, who was now standing next to the stranger.

The cloaked figure looked down to where he was pointing, and found the young dragon standing there with crossed arms.

"What's up?" asked Spike, before taking a deep breath.

He immediately immolated the stranger, coating him entirely in green flame. The cloak began to burn up around him, and the pain of the fire made it difficult for him to focus. But worse than being on fire was the fact that his cloak was rapidly disappearing, and if he didn't do something soon, ponies would know who he was.

Since that wasn't an option, he quickly said, "We'll meet again in time, Twilight!"

Then, with a flash of white light, he teleported away from the scene.

Several of the townsponies left their cover, and cheered for Spike and PAL, surrounding the machine and calling out his name.

"Oh come on now," stated PAL humbly, "it wasn't much of anything. This burn will buff out."

"I wouldn't say that," commented Derpy Hooves, "you did what any pony would do, and helped Twilight."

"Yeah, you're a Ponyville resident, through and through!" added Rose.
"See PAL?" asked Spike, pointing to all the happy townsfolk, "You really are one of us!"

The robot smiled, and grabbed the dragon, holding him in his left arm to wave at the ponies who had watched the duel play out. It looked like the question of PAL's identity had finally been settled once and for all.

But the machine did realize he was still torched from the attack, and said meekly,
"I suppose I'll have to go use that extra shine right away, huh Spike?"

This elicited a happy laugh from Spike, Twilight, and many of the onlookers. PAL joined in, he loved being one of the crowd!

Later that evening Techorse, Spike, and Twilight sat in the living room of Techorse's castle. The fireplace burned brightly, and Techorse was very proud of his friends for what they had done that day for Twilight.

Twilight added happily, "Luckily, most ponies thought they were watching a mugging instead of an indirect attack on the princesses. I sent a letter to the princesses warning about the attack, and they said that they would investigate further without causing a panic."

"Spike,” said Techorse, turning to the dragon, who was sitting on the green couch for guests, "you and PAL deserve so much for what you did today Princess Celestia is already trying to think of a way to reward you both."

"Aw, it's no big deal," he said, waving his hand, "we're just happy we got a chance to finally help you and Twilight. PAL and I are gonna hang out more often after this for sure."

"Where is PAL anyways?" asked Twilight curiously, "He didn't follow us into the guest room."

"He said he wanted to show us something." Explained Techorse, "I can hear his footsteps down the hall, though."

PAL entered the room shortly, standing tall, and dressed in the suit that Rarity had spent the day making for him. It was a beautiful black suit with cobalt blue threads that ran through it to accent the dark color scheme. A white dress shirt underneath with an equally blue tie sat underneath the suit jacket against the robot's body, and his pants were kept up by a silver-buckled belt. The cufflinks of the suit were made from sapphire gems, confirming it as originating from Rarity's shop. PAL had even managed to find black dress shoes to put over his footpads, completing the outfit and giving him a gentlemanly appearance.

"Good evening!" he said, "What do you think of my new suit, master? Miss Rarity made it for me today. I finally look like a robot butler."

"Oh wow, that's amazing!" said Techorse with a happy tone, "But you're my friend, and you're a part of the family here, not a butler."

"I am?" he asked.

Techorse nodded, "I work on my business, and you take care of the castle for me as a job. But you've been free to make your own choices for a long time, big guy. What you chose today by taking that blast for Twilight was probably the bravest thing a robot could do!"

Twilight added, "And because of that, Princess Celestia has agreed to grant you full citizenship as a living being in Equestria, PAL! Congratulations!"

PAL felt the emotion of joy, and sat down next to Spike as he thought about what that meant.

"Thank you for showing me that I really am just like the others, Spike." He answered.

Spike answered happily, "From now on, we're the robot and dragon of Ponyville! Always wanted a golem for a friend."

A few seconds and a frown on PAL's face went by before the machine sensed that Spike had pulled a joke on him, and he began to laugh heartily with his friend. Twilight and Techorse looked at each other and did not understand the inside joke, but they were happy for their assistants, and that's what truly mattered to them.

#29 - Saving Bob's Bacon

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Saving Bob's Bacon

Techorse series: #29

By Spirals95

Business at Greasy Bob's was amazing during the lunch rush, almost every table in the eatery had been filled with hungry ponies, eager to order a meal that was most definitely not good for their health, but quite satisfying to taste nonetheless. Every wooden table, each one covered with brown paper to soak up spilled drinks, sauce, and fat drippings, sat 4, and they all shared a single box of coarse brown napkins and condiment bottles. The establishment was boxy in shape, wooden walls with thick, even boards running up to a seemingly low whitewashed ceiling, with multiple blue-colored ceiling fans each mounting 4 lights providing both illumination and cooling to the diner. The solid steel counter which led to the kitchen where workers fried and baked food for the customers was absolutely piled up with stacks of white order papers, each one filled out hastily by the nearly overtaxed waitress, Limpwing. She was working constantly, either refilling drinks, giving plates of food to their owners, or cleaning something as there was always a filthy mess to clean in a diner.

The owner of the establishment and her boss, Greasy Bob, stood next to a small wooden counter holding his cash register. He was a very overweight earth pony, white in color, with a black mane style slicked forward with tons of gel, resembling a certain rock legend's haircut. His tail was equally greased over, and his hooves were exposed underneath the coat on his legs in a ruffle cut. His cutie mark was a single blue spoon dripping with cooking oil. As the manager watched his tired pegasus waitress run around and serve customers, he was helping himself to a generous portion of the kitchen's onion rings and hay fries, along with a nice portobello mushroom patty burger with extra onion straws and barbeque sauce. To wash it all down, he had a comically oversized vanilla malt still in its tall metal stirring cup, topped with whipped cream. The corpulent pony took a large gulp from the straw sticking out of the container, as Limpwing approached him.

"Limpwing!" he grunted, shoving a hooful of fries into his mouth, "That customer's soda glass has sat empty for 5 minutes, what are you doing?"

"I am managing things as best as I can, thanks, but I wanted to remind you about that appointment with nurse Redheart today. It's in 10 minutes, right?" She said to him, trying to manage a smile despite the grease making her trademark flight goggles stick to her spiky mane, in addition to her boss's gruff comments.

Bob looked at a nearby clock and nearly choked on his food, "Crud, you're right. I'll be back, hold the fort down. And please, for once, keep the glasses full!"

Limpwing rolled her eyes, "I'll make sure of it. See you later."

The earth pony finished stuffing the fattening food down his throat, before rushing out the door of his restaurant. He entered the hot day in Ponyville, and started to sweat as he walked for the nurse's office, clearly out of shape. However, he really didn't seem to care about the fact that he was having trouble with a sunny day and managed to reach the office without scowling at passersby or even sweating out all the gel in his hair. Once he reached the office, he carefully opened the plain wooden door on the small turquoise medical office, and entered the warm and well-lit waiting room.

Nurse Redheart was waiting for him inside the doorway to her personal office, and motioned for Bob to come inside. The pony obeyed, and entered the doorway, taking his seat on the examination table covered in white sanitary paper. A few medical charts of pony anatomy hung on the wall, as well as a few brown cabinets. Redheart pushed back her pink hair with a hoof, and then went to work taking Bob's temperature and checking his reflexes.

Unfortunately for nurse Redheart and Bob, that seemed to be the only part of the examination that went well.

"Step on the scale please," asked Redheart politely.

When Bob complied, the sliding metal measurement tool on the doctor's scale crashed down sharply with a loud thwack. Nurse Redheart adjusted the weights to what she believed Bob's weight would be, and to her dismay, that was still far too light. She ended up having to push the weights on the scale further and further, before coming to Bob's actual weight, which she wrote down on a piece of paper with a quill pen. Greasy Bob, of course, thought absolutely nothing about weight, it was "just a number" to him.

The nurse then got Bob off the scale, and took his blood pressure reading with a small black piece of tubing and cloth. The number on that device was equally appalling to the nurse, and she tried her hardest not to frown as she wrote down the number.

After all of the startling tests of Bob's health had concluded, she walked over to her medical records, and started to piece together the information she gathered. Bob returned to the examination table, and sat down on his hind legs.

"So nurse," he asked confidently, "guess everything's ok, huh? You didn't say anything."

Nurse Redheart finished her calculations, and her face sunk into despair.

She looked up at Bob, and said to him with concern, "Well, Greasy Bob, I do have a question."

"Go ahead," he scoffed, tearing a small bit of the sanitary paper he was sitting on with a front hoof.

The faded-pink haired mare walked over to a nearby stack of medical charts on the west side wall of her office, and asked, "Do you have any foals of your own?"

"Nah, not really interested in that," he answered, clicking his tongue, "probably couldn't stand all the yelling and screaming before the tykes grow up."

The nurse then turned around and said to him plainly,"If that's the case, I have absolutely no idea who is going to be getting your restaurant. If you don't change around your health habits soon and lose weight, Bob, you won't be around for more than another 10 years."

At these words, the corpulent manager's ears drooped slightly, and worry shot through his previously haughty look.

"Wh… what? He stammered, shocked at the news.

She nodded in response and pointed at a diagram. It was a very detailed cross-section of a coronary artery, with nauseating amounts of yellow fat and cholesterol built up on the walls.

"If you can't change your lifestyle, Bob, plaque will build up on the inside of your heart's arteries, like in this picture. Which means eventually..." She warned, pointing at the disturbing picture.

"But, nurse!" protested Bob, horror plastered on his pudgy face, "You can't possibly mean that! I mean, I'm not even that old…"

"Even if you aren't that old yet, Bob, there's lots of places in Equestria which would not be safe for an overweight pony. Some of the creatures out there might see somepony like you as an easy target for a meal," she warned, which sadly only served to make Bob more anxious, "you could be out for a walk, and not notice the shadow behind you…"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" begged the earth pony as he stuck out a hoof, "There's gotta be somethin' I can do! I can't be a goner yet nurse, I just can't! There's gotta be some kind of a potion out there the unicorns have cooked up that can cure this!"

The nurse shook her head in response, "There's no pill, potion, or spell out there that's a safe replacement for healthy living. If your health is going to change, you're going to have to do it the hard way just like everypony else Bob. I'm not saying this to be mean to you, I'm saying this because I care about my patients and don't want to see you self-destructing with some miracle cure."

The depressed manager slipped off of the ice-cold examination table, trembling in fear. If he didn't lose weight and clean up his innards soon, he'd never get to enjoy a long life. But the idea of giving up all the stuff he liked in order to lose weight was equally depressing. In his mind, the choice was to live a long miserable life, or a short happier one. It was of course rather illogical for him to think this way, but there isn't much room for thinking and logic in a desperate pony's mind.

"I… need to get back to my restaurant," he said shakily, "I'll think over what you said."

She issued one final statement to him, "Just take care of yourself, please? Maybe you should try the fitness center located two blocks away from my office. Their first session is free."

He said nothing in return, ignoring her statement completely as he wandered out of her office, eyes wide with fear and panic. He certainly wasn't going to go to some fitness club!

The walk back to his diner was not a prideful one like the walk to the nurse's office. His worry and anxiety showed clearly on his face as he slowly moved on the cobblestone streets. Other ponies in town gave him a worried look of pity, others tried to ask him how he was doing, but got no reply from the pony lost in his own morbid thoughts. When he finally made it back to his diner, he took a look at it from outside again. It was a rather interesting wooden building, being just one story tall, and stuck out a bit from the colonial homes in Ponyville. A single metal sign shaped like a gigantic spoon hung on the front of the green wooden door, marked with his title, "Greasy Bob's Diner." Bob wondered if his building would be torn down after he was gone, since he didn't have anyone to give it to, and it was unlikely to sell unless there happened to be an enterprising pony who wanted to take over the business. His life's work was going to be lost, to his own medical conditions.

Bob ran a hoof through his now-messy hair and re-entered his establishment, to find that most of the lunch rush had finished and gone home. The cash register drawer was having a bit of trouble keeping shut with the number of larger denomination bits jamming the locking mechanism. The money might have normally played to Bob's sense of greed and pride, but not even seeing his business's success could cheer him up. The diner was empty now, except for a few customers enjoying an afternoon cup of tea and coffee alongside the daily newspaper.

However, one table seated Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle, who were enjoying some strawberry milkshakes in tall icy glasses, each one topped with a generous helping of fresh whipped cream. To be polite, and possibly to keep Rarity from fussing, Applejack had removed her Stetson hat and placed it on one of the nearby hat racks provided. Limpwing was talking to them as Bob slumped around to his chair by the cash register.

"So, what are your plans for this week guys?" asked the blue pegasus.

"I happened to get an order for a dress needed for a stage production," boasted Rarity with a flick of her hair, "the lead in 'Flowers of Tomorrow' will be wearing it, and I've been given free tickets for the three of us to go see."

"Hah, that's really cool," smiled Limpwing, "wish I had time to go to the theater."

"Come on, Limpwing," suggested Twilight, "we know you're Prince Darkmatter's lieutenant, so why are you still working as a waitress? You could probably keep that one job in The Domain and have plenty of time to go see the show with us."

Limpwing rolled her eyes, "Prince Darkmatter got a little carried away putting me in charge of the entire country. Obviously one mare can't run the entire show, so I turned over control to our parliament and some of my fellow officers. Plus, being a waitress isn't about the money, it's about keeping a pulse on Ponyville and getting to see everyone. I'd be bored cooped up in that boiling hot castle of Darkmatter's."

"I'd say you're makin' the right choice!" laughed Applejack, "But maybe you could consider goin' part time? Two jobs really is a lot of work, and I know what bein' worked that hard is like."

"I guess I could think about taking a short break to go see that play," winked Limwping.

A loud sound of flesh hitting wooden table was heard, and the waitress turned around, flapping her damaged wing out of surprise. She saw her manager had collapsed onto his desk at the front of the restaurant, and was staring out unhappily into space.

"Uh oh, the boss is having a moment," she said, looking back at Twilight, "I'd better go see what's wrong."

"Go ahead," said Twilight before taking a large swallow from her milkshake glass.

Limpwing walked over to her boss, pushing her spiky hair out of her eyes, greasy from all the hay fries she had been serving that noontime.

"What's wrong Bob?" she asked, leaning on his desk, "Let me guess, you got a bunch of shots and it hurts like crazy."

He looked up at her and said, "No Limpwing, it's actually worse."

"What could be worse than so many needles?" gasped Rarity, eavesdropping, "I even shudder at the thought of just one!"

She put a leg on her forehead dramatically as Bob continued, "Limpwing, Nurse Redheart says that I'm in very bad shape."

"Also the sky is blue," said Limpwing sarcastically, "doesn't she say that every time you've gone?"

"Well this time, it looks like I've really gotten myself in trouble," he said, lifting his head from the desk, "if I don't lose enough weight, in a few years, I'll be gone…"

"How awful!" commented Rarity, before faking a faint onto the floor.

Applejack rolled her eyes in disgust, and Twilight looked at Rarity on the floor with a slight expression that betrayed her thoughts that Rarity wasn't helping.

Bob continued, "But trying to lose all this weight's going to be miserable. There's no way I'm going to enjoy trying to lose every last pound, I'm going to starve."

Limpwing put all four hooves back on the floor of the restaurant and said with a shrug, "You're not doomed, you know. If you took off a couple of pounds, you'll be fine."

Twilight left her table and walked over to join them, "Limpwing's right, Bob. You don't have to go completely crazy trying to lose weight. You just have to make a couple of adjustments."

Applejack put her hat back on and added from across the room, "Like some more exercise!"

Rarity popped her head up from her resting place on the floor, "A few diet changes too!"

The other two mares walked over, and Bob realized that he was now surrounded by his employee's friends.

"So it won't do me in?" he asked.

"You'll be fine!" said Twilight with a positive attitude about her, "We'll help you out."

"Really?" he asked, perking up, "You'd do that?"

"Of course! That's what friends do," confirmed Twilight, "the girls and I will help you come up with a decent lifestyle. Right after we pay our tabs."

"What tabs?" asked Bob, smirking.

"Free milkshakes?" cheered Applejack.

"It's the least I can do," said Bob, standing up from the table, "now where should we start?"

Rarity pushed forward past Applejack, "I believe the greatest way for you to regain your health is a smart change in diet. I'd love to help you change your diet, deary. Let's go back to my home and get started."

"All right, sounds great, and I am kind of hungry," he said, having no idea what he was getting himself into.

"Then afterwords, we could head over to my farm to work on your new exercise routine," added Applejack.

The two friends got Bob to walk with them out the door, leaving Twilight and Limpwing alone in the diner. They looked at each other with worried expressions.

"Uh oh," said Twilight, frowning, "Rarity giving diet tips? She's not a nutritionist."

"Applejack exercises way above average, too," laughed Limpwing, "we'd better follow them, Twilight, Bob is in for it now, and I am NOT going to miss this."

"All right. Let's close up the diner and head over to the Carousel Boutique," she said, swishing her tail, "if we hurry, maybe we can make it there before Rarity completely tortures your poor boss."

Limpwing snickered at the thought as she went over to the tables to clean up the dishes and ask the loitering customers to plan on leaving.

Greasy Bob stood in Rarity's kitchen alongside Applejack, where the three were trying to come up with a meal plan that would aid in reducing his body mass index with speed. Unfortunately, this meant a crash diet, which was surprisingly easy to accomplish despite the rather plant-heavy diet most Equestrians ate.

"There are many delicious foods in Equestria," said Rarity, "staying healthy is quite easy, you see, when you pick the right ones."

"I just don't see what's wrong with hay fries," grunted Bob, looking at the selection of vegetables in the cookbook Rarity had placed on the counter, "it's hay. Folks have been eating hay for ages without being heavy."

"Bob, frying food loads it with fat!" explained Rarity, "It's not that hay is bad for you, it's actually quite good for your body, but those awful deep fryers make them simply atrocious for your waistline!"

Rarity's horn glowed as she picked up a head of lettuce with her magic, and started pulling crisp leaves off of the produce. She dropped the plucked vegetable matter into a nearby bowl, and started adding pre-sliced pieces of carrots and cucumber to it.

"There's nothing quite like a good salad to keep you healthy," she said, mixing the vegetables and placing it in front of Bob.

"Rarity you're nuts!" criticized Applejack, "There's no way Bob can be happy just eatin' salad!"

"Where's the protein in this thing?" asked Bob as he took a bite of salad, "Or the flavor?"

"See what ah mean miss pretty pretty?" joked Applejack, pointing at Bob's disgusted look at the bitter taste of the lettuce and spinach mix, "He's much better off losing weight through some good old fashioned hard work!"

Greasy Bob perked up as he spat the lettuce into a garbage can, grossing out Rarity, who recoiled.

"So I can eat what I want?" he asked happily, hoping to get back to his mushroom burgers and fries as soon as possible.

Applejack nodded, "Of course, Bob. You exercise enough, and you can eat whatever you want. Take my brother Big Macintosh. He needs to eat a huge breakfast to make it through the day's work. I'm thinkin' you'll be much happier working hard and eating all that food you like."

"Then let's go," he stated, running out of the kitchen to get away from the 'evil' salad as fast as possible, "show me some farm work."

Applejack took the moment to give Rarity a look of victory, which only served to make her angry and feel as if she had wasted her time. Despite this, she chose to follow them out the door anyways.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Limpwing had been watching them through Rarity's kitchen window. They were standing in a bush outside of her home, and discussed what they just saw.

"Oh wow, did you see Bob's face when he tried that salad?" asked Limpwing, laughing hard, "He looked like he was going to be sick!"

"Limpwing, I can't believe you're enjoying this!" said Twilight in horror, "Bob is worried about his future, and you're having fun with him?"

Limpwing explained, "Twilight, Bob's a complete grouch at work. If you had to put up with that every day, you'd want to see something funny happen to him, too. I really do want to see him get healthy, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying the process."

Twilight sighed, "I guess. But before we follow them to Sweet Apple Acres, I'd like to stop by the library for a bit."

"Sure thing, maybe I'll find something to check out while we're at it," mused Limpwing.

While Twilight and Limpwing searched the library for a book that was likely to help prevent Greasy Bob from suffering from further torment at the hooves of the feuding Rarity and Applejack, the three had already brought the manager to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack had put him to work carrying buckets of water from metal water pump near the barn to help care for her trees. Bob's hair laid flat due to his sweat lapping away the hair gel that kept his poor hairdo in place, but he continued to haul the water to the trees without complaining. After giving a red delicious sapling a much-needed drink and relief from the hot summer sun, he returned to where Applejack was laying down some extra mulch from a tin wheelbarrow, hoping to keep the weeds away from a prized tree. Her little sister Apple Bloom sat underneath the shade of a fluffy yellow parasol that Rarity had set up to provide herself with some extra shade.

"So, why are we having the diner owner working for us again big sister?" she asked of Applejack, "Are we just tryin' to get out of chores?"

Applejack nearly turned red, but answered, "Maybe a little bit, but ahm only teachin' Bob how to lift some weights so he can take care of himself. He wanted to help water the trees."

"Why?" continued the inquisitive young mare.

"Greasy Bob was told by the nurse that if he didn't lose weight and take care of himself, he might run into a little trouble!" she said, trying to explain it with a positive attitude.

Of course, Apple Bloom took one look at Bob's state of health and ran off with the conclusion, "Oh, so ya mean he's gonna keel over?"

She then held a hoof to where her heart was in front of her sternum, and made gasping noises before collapsing onto the ground sideways and sticking her four legs out, while at the same time making her eyes go in funny directions. Rarity closed her eyes and laughed softly at the scene. Greasy Bob looked like he was about to burst into tears, either from the joke, or the fact that the exercise he was going through was putting his out-of-shape body in a lot of physical pain.

"Apple Bloom!" shouted a very upset older sister, "You apologize! Bob is not gonna keel over. We're gonna get him into shape!"

Apple Bloom sat up and started laughing, "Aw, I didn't mean nothing Mr. Bob. You'll be fine."

Unfortunately, no sooner had she said that, did his legs give out from the excessive weight of the water buckets balanced precariously on his back, and he fell to the ground. Although the buckets had fortunately stayed upright, the carrying yoke had pinned him to the ground. Applejack gasped and quickly turned around, kicking the buckets off of Bob with a mighty buck, which sent the device careening and splashing the water all over Apple Bloom and Rarity.

"Hey!" they shouted, now soaked, their manes dripping wet from the splash.

"Are you ok, Bob?" asked Applejack, leaning down.

The white-coated pony stood up slowly on his four legs, and said softly, "It's not that bad. I guess. I don't think I can handle that exercise though, or that kind of dieting Rarity suggested."

"Well there's gotta be somethin' better!" protested Applejack, "Ya can't give up now!"

"Let's face it," he moped, "I've just got to make the best use of the time I've got left."

"Oh, you simply can't do this to yourself!" cried Rarity, moving out from under the parasol, "We can't allow it."

He simply pushed past the unicorn pony and her soggy mane and said, "I'm going home now, thanks for trying."

In his way, finally, was Apple Bloom, who gave him the largest puppy-dog eyes he had ever seen.

"Are you sure you don't want to try one more time?" she begged.

Not even the puppy-dog eyes had worked, it seemed. Bob simply pushed his way past her and went past the whitewashed gates of the farm to head back to town. Despite the sunny day, he hung his head, and it seemed that a dark cloud of despair was following his slow, deliberate steps.

Rarity and Applejack immediately looked at each other with contempt.

Rarity opened up first and rammed her front right hoof into Applejack's front, "This is all your doing, trying to break his back with physical labor. How dare you!"

Applejack pushed the offending leg away and grunted, "And you were tryin' to starve him to death! Don't be blaming me for everything!"

Poor Apple Bloom was left in the middle trying to decide what to do, she had no idea who was right or wrong. All she knew was that she didn't like to see fighting, and still felt a little guilty about teasing Greasy Bob unfairly. She turned around as the fighting continued behind her, and she saw Limpwing and Twilight Sparkle approaching the farm.

"Uh oh," said Twilight as she entered through the gate with Limpwing at her side, "what happened?"

"Greasy Bob got hurt lifting weights," explained Apple Bloom sadly, "and I teased him too much. Now he's gone and left, hopeless."

Limpwing sighed, "Well, can't say I didn't see this coming. Twilight and I went and got a book that might have helped if Applejack and Rarity had just been a little more patient with us. Any idea where Bob went?"

"No, sorry," dhe answered honestly.

"You just can't stand doing any exercise!" shouted Applejack while stomping her hoof, "lazy!"

"Lazy!?" gasped Rarity, "I'll have you know I work quite hard at what I do!"

"Yeah, must be real hard work comin' up with them crash diets!" chortled Applejack sarcastically.

Twilight got fed up with her friends' bickering, and with a glow to her horn, lifted a book from her purple saddlebags. She dropped the book on the ground in front of Applejack and Rarity, somewhat against her wishes for the book, but it seemed necessary. The impact of the book on the ground startled the two fighting ponies into seeing what it was.

"Healthy Living? By Dr. Cleanheart?" asked Rarity, "Who is this?"

"A doctor," said Twilight, a bit annoyed, "you know, an expert in the study of the body? Dr. Cleanheart has studied nutrition and health for more than fifteen years, girls. I was going to have us all look over this book to get a bit of professional advice as to how we can help Bob."

"But we know how to take care of ourselves!" said Applejack, "We figured…"

Limpwing interrupted her, "Yeah, I know, both of you are healthy. But Applejack, you work hard on the farm all day long, and Rarity has a low metabolism and can eat that kind of a diet safely."

Rarity and Applejack stared at the book, wondering what they had actually managed to do wrong.

When it occurred to Rarity, she frowned and said, "I guess I never thought about it Limpwing, but… Bob probably does need far more calories than I do. I was only thinking about what worked for myself!"

Applejack nodded, "Of course, I do work a lot harder than most ponies. Probably should have started Greasy Bob on something much easier."

Twilight opened the book up and said softly, "Girls, I know that your lifestyles work well for you, and it doesn't mean that it's wrong to share your opinion when somepony wants to take care of themselves."

"We should have tried to figure out what was right for him though," admitted Applejack shamefully, her ears drooping, "I'm sorry about all this."

"I need to apologize too," admitted Rarity, "we should go find that manager and tell him."

"Then maybe, using this book," suggested Twilight, smiling as she levitated it back into her saddlebags, "we can come up with something that won't drive him crazy. What do you think, Limpwing?"

"I think that's a great plan," she said, giving a confident look, "of course, we do have to catch up to him first. I'll scout ahead."

She carried herself into the air by flapping her wings hard, rising in a stepwise fashion due to her damaged wing. The pegasus eventually reached a good altitude and let the currents of air take over a lot of the hard work of flying. Her friends followed below on the ground to see if they could find Bob and convince him to give another plan a try.

Bob had found a quiet place down a street away from the center of Ponyville, in hopes of not attracting too much attention to himself while still being able to watch a few ponies pass by. He was seated at a blue-painted bench on the side of the road, looking down at the ground with a miserable expression on his face. Not even the sun or the lovely scent of the variety of flowers growing in the window boxes on the homes near him could make him happy at this point. A deep sigh escaped him as he looked up at the cheerful, much healthier ponies enjoying a walk or a stop at a nearby stand for a piece of fruit to munch on. While they had the question of what snack to get on their minds, questions of what kind of a service he wanted flooded Bob's mind.

"Guess there's no point in moping here all day," he said to himself, getting up from the bench, "might as well go enjoy a walk in the town. I still have a few years, I ought to make them as enjoyable as possible."

He strolled down an alleyway, passing several small stores, and took in the fresh air as he tried to enjoy the simpler experiences of life. However, as he made his way past a small boulevard he hadn't been through frequently in the years he'd been in Ponyville, he noticed a strange building built in-between a small hobby shop and a print store. It was a strange, pink-roofed building, built flat and square in contrast to the two blue, angled roofed stores flanking it. The one floor building was made from what looked like a fancier, alabaster colored building material, and a single welcoming door made from stained glass, with a picture of a yellow-colored earth pony prancing about happily in a meadow. A few large clear glass windows lined the sides of the building, but were not visible from the front. Bob noticed the title of the building above the doorway, a set of silver colored letters attached to the door frame.

"Galloping Again Fitness Center," he read, scratching his double chin, "is this that fitness club Nurse Redheart was telling me about earlier?"

After taking a deep breath, he gently nudged opened the artistic door and walked into the lobby of the club. The vanilla-colored walls soothed entering patrons, and a few red cushioned chairs lined the walls, along with a small fountain in the center of the room that bubbled quietly to soothe the mind. A teal colored pegasus mare with a straightened, dark blue mane sat behind a desk, reading a green covered book about the history of rose gardening.

"Oh!" she said, putting down her book, "Welcome to the Galloping Again Fitness Center!"

"Yes, hello!" said Bob, clearing his throat and approaching the desk. He felt a little embarrassed as to how out of shape he was, in front of her.

They stared at each other rather awkwardly for a few seconds before Bob ran a hoof through his mane to try and recover from the lack of gel in it.

"Well, I'd like to know about that free session I've been told about," he coughed, "I learned about it from Nurse Readheart, Miss."

She answered him with a happy smile, "Oh, Nurse Redheart recommended us, how great! I'm Balance, by the way."

"I'm Greasy Bob, owner of the diner across town," he said, trying to smile, "hopefully I'm helping your business out a bit… you know with all the hay fries my customers down."

"We'd be a bit more concerned about your health at the moment," she answered, slightly scolding him for the bad joke.

"Right… Right," he stuttered.

His heart raced, knowing he was likely going to be put through even more terrible methods of trying to get him to lose weight.

Balance lightened up a bit, and her hair bobbed slightly as she did a little jump, "Well, let's get started with your free session! What is your fitness goal, Bob?"

He looked around the room as if he had no clue what he wanted, and then he returned his gray eyes to her blue ones, "I… need to be healthy. If I don't lose enough weight, well…"

"Oh don't worry too much," soothed the mare, "We can help you lose enough weight to be healthy! That's what we're here for. But remember, it's not about taking off the pounds, it's about figuring out a better way to live."

"Well it's just that today I've tried suggestions from many of my employee's friends, and they've gotten me hurt, or told me I have to starve to death to make it," he said, frustrated, "I'm just not sure what to do to lose weight without going crazy!"

She pointed to a silver door behind her, "Follow me to the kitchen and I'll show you something."

They passed through the door and entered a simple kitchen setup, with a few metal tables and a large central stove for cooking. A few ornamental red-colored cabinets hung around the walls of the room, and a large beige refrigerator held ingredients for the customers to use. Balance walked over to the main counter, and asked,

"So, what's your favorite thing to eat?"

"A fried vegetable sandwich with hay fries, and a milkshake," he answered, the exact same meal he had been eating earlier that day.

Balance nodded and went over to a nearby cabinet. Opening it up with a hoof, she grabbed a cookbook with her teeth, and walked back to the counter joyfully. She placed to book down in front of Bob, and turned to a page describing a nice lunch of a grilled Portobello mushroom, with mashed potatoes on the side.

"Maybe instead of that, you could try eating this meal. The mushroom is really good tasting without needing to be fried, and the mashed potatoes swap out well for the hay fries. You could also try boiled or roasted hay instead of the potatoes if you'd prefer that," she suggested, pointing to the mouth-watering picture of the food.

"Wait, so I don't have to eat salad?" asked Bob with great delight in his eyes, "That stuff looks like actual food!"

"Salads are good for ponies, but they don't have enough calories to keep you healthy by themselves. You need to eat a salad with something else," she answered, rolling her eyes, "so many ponies come in here thinking I'm going to tell them they have to eat salad all the time."

"Maybe I could eat a few raw veggies from time to time," he said, "I just don't like lettuce."

Balance continued discussing the topic with him, "That's fine. Now about that milkshake. Any chance you could have a glass of chocolate milk instead? It's far fewer calories"

"I can have a glass of chocolate milk?" he asked, about to cry out of joy, "I thought none of this stuff would ever be allowed."

"If you switch some of the foods you're eating with ones that still taste yummy but don't have so many calories, you can eat well and already be halfway to getting to a healthy weight goal," she said, "of course, you might want to think about some cereal and fruit for breakfast too if you're eating bagels or eggs now."

Greasy Bob was overjoyed, and thought of all the possible ways he could still eat things that qualified as food, without risking his health much further. He knew he wouldn't really miss absolutely everything, often he had been snacking out of boredom. Ideas for great meals went through his head.

"You'll still need an exercise plan too, so let's move on to the gym and get you started on something simple." She said, motioning for the door.

The gym turned out to be a large, open room well-lit by the windows on the side of the building. Several pieces of weightlifting equipment were in the center of the floor, and many simple looking treadmills lined the edges. The shiny, white-painted equipment drew Greasy Bob's attention, but he was still a little cautious about lifting weights after nearly suffering a hernia from Applejack's chores. A few ponies were working out with the weight equipment, but hardly any were on the treadmills. Balance led Bob over to one of these machines, and situated the earth pony on the solid black conveyer belt of the device.

"Do you think you could do one hour of exercise every day?" she asked him, "Just walking at a good pace on this treadmill? Or spending thirty minutes trying some of the weights? If you get a membership, either I or one of my staff members can help set up a routine for you."

"I think an hour of walking would be much better than getting my back thrown out," he laughed, "now how do I start this thing?"

Bob reached over and pushed a large red button on the console of the treadmill.

"NO, WAIT!" shouted Balance, but it was far too late.

The treadmill had been left on at max speed, and Greasy Bob was flung off of the device as the belt rotated, smashing him into the wall behind the machine. Balance covered her eyes with her wings, and peeked carefully just to make sure Bob hadn't broken through the wall. The manager was upside-down against the wall, and stared up with a hurt expression on his face.

"Ouch…" he whispered.

Using her right wing, the pegasus pony adjusted the treadmill to walking speed, then helped Bob climb back on. He was a little scared of getting thrown off again at first, but he soon got adjusted to the steady pace.

"You're going to start sweating after about fifteen minutes," instructed Balance, "but if you keep it up for an hour, you'll burn fat. Do this, and cut back your food as we talked about, and you'll lose about 2 pounds a week."

Bob smiled, and thanked Balance, "I really appreciate all of this, and I'm definitely buying a year-round membership! If I'm really losing 2 pounds a week, I could lose 100 pounds in a year!"

"Easy!" she said, laughing, "You aren't 100 pounds overweight, Bob, more like 40. 4 months, and you'll be able to exercise a little less and eat a little more to maintain a healthy weight for life."

"Even so, I'm going to be back. Thanks for everything, Balance!" he said, overjoyed.

"You're welcome. Just leave when you're finished here, and come back when you want to sign up," she said, before walking away.

Bob was enjoying his exercise, sweating and tired but knowing that he wouldn't come to any harm from him. After 10 minutes into the workout, a light gray earth pony mare with purple eyes, and a somewhat curly yellow mane entered the gym. She seemed rather overweight, but had a confident smile on her face. Immediately after entering the room she went over to the treadmills and took the one next to Bob.

"Good afternoon," she said, trying to be friendly as she started up the treadmill and matched his pace on it.

"Oh, hey," he answered, looking at her.

"Are you new here?" she asked, "I haven't seen you before."

He smiled, "I'm Greasy Bob, and yes, I'm new here."

"I'm Almond Butter," she replied, "I joined about two weeks ago, after the nurse told me that if I didn't lose weight…"

"Same here!" said Bob with surprise, "Did she also tell you about the monsters?"

"Yes!" she confirmed, looking worried, "I couldn't stand the thought of getting eaten up, so I came here hoping to set things straight. But I've already lost 3 pounds, so I'm confident that I can get to a better spot."

"Well, maybe we can come here every day and work out together!" suggested Bob, "We could keep track of how the other is doing."

"That sounds wonderful," she said in a soothing manner.

They ended up talking for so long about their careers, friends, and other life details that the timers ran out on the treadmills without them noticing and they ended up nearly walking through the control consoles. After laughing over their silly mistake, the two left the fitness center, and walked together to go find a place to grab a drink of water. While they were heading back and sharing stories, they ended up running into the search party of Limpwing and crew.

"Finally, we found you, boss," she said angrily, landing in front of them, "we've been looking for you for a good two hours now."

"Oh…" he said, embarrassed, "I sort of lost track of the time, Limpwing."

Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity caught up and saw Bob with his new acquaintance.

Twilight asked him, "Bob, where were you all this time?"

He answered, "I was at the fitness center downtown with Almond Butter here. From now on, I'll be going there to exercise. I'll also be cutting back a bit on what I eat, hopefully Limpwing will be glad to help me keep my hooves out of the snacks."

Limpwing smirked and knew something positive had happened to her manager that day.

Twilight smiled brightly, "That's great! I was just about to give you this book on healthy living, but it seems you've already figured it all out."

Almond spoke up, "Well, it helps that he'll have someone to help keep him on track."

"Hey, that goes for you too!" teased Greasy Bob right back.

Applejack stepped forward and apologized, "Look, Rarity and I are really sorry for tryin' to make you go for our lifestyles. We should have listened to Twilight and tried to work with ya from the start."

"That's quite right," added Rarity, "I'm glad that you've found a way to improve your health without feeling awful."

"Why don't we go back to the diner and see if I can come up with some new menu items?" suggested Bob, "I'm thinking maybe we could all have a nice yogurt for a treat tonight. Parfaits would make a great new menu item, and it's on the house for everypony here."

"Ooh, that sounds delicious!" said Rarity, eager for the treat.

Bob then looked at Limpwing and said, "Also, I've been working you way too hard Limpwing. I'm going to put up a help wanted sign and get another wait pony on the team. We can also discuss a decent raise later; after everypony else has gone home from our party."

"How kind!" beamed Rarity.

Limpwing's face brightened up at the thought of getting to keep her job without feeling exhausted every night.

"And of course," continued the manager, "I'll need somepony to make sure I make it back to that fitness center, even if I don't want to."

"I think I can help a bit with that, I sometimes set up shop over there," said Applejack.

"Great! Well in that case let's get back to the diner and celebrate," he laughed, "I feel alive again!"

He skipped forward in front of the friends and started a happy trot towards his shop. Almond Butter rushed to catch up to him, and the two ponies on their way to health kept pace with each other again, laughing.

"You know…" said Limpwing, trailing off in thought as she watched the two get far ahead.

"You know what, sugarcube?" asked Applejack.

Limpwing clicked her tongue, "Aw, never mind, let's go."

A majority of the group started to leave, only Twilight remained behind.

"Coming Twilight Sparkle?" asked Rarity, calling back.

"I'll be there soon, Rarity!" she answered.

After they were gone for a good distance, Twilight opened up her saddlebags again and took out a piece of parchment and a quill. She levitated the parchment in front of her with her magic and began to write.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that everypony should be healthy, but not everypony can be healthy in the same way. I watched as my friend's boss Greasy Bob struggled to be healthy the way his friends wanted him to be, and in the end, he decided that he had to take care of himself his own way. A unique, healthy balance is exactly what we all need.

Signed by your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle"

The lavender mare then placed the writing materials back into her saddlebags, and galloped off to go find her friends. But from a nearby bush, a sneaky Limpwing had managed to loop back without being seen, and watched her write the letter.

"Typical Twilight," she said while shaking her head slowly, "Bob's going to flip when I tell him."

Once she was sure Twilight was gone, she flapped her wings sharply, and lifted into the air, making a path for the diner in her up-and down flight pattern enforced by her wing condition. A nice yogurt awaited her, but she clearly was more interested in what her boss's reaction would be when he found out from her later that he had been mentioned to Princess Celestia. She was happy that he was going to be taking care of himself from now on, but she couldn't resist taking a nice stab at him once in a while. He was her boss after all.

#30 - Three Mane Team: Part I

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Three Mane Team - Part I

Techorse series: #30

By Spirals95

Fluttershy had found herself in a little bit of a predicament. She was enjoying a nice refreshing hide in fear under a large cardboard box because she had failed to show up to a promised meeting with a friend of hers for breakfast. Of course, Twilight was not going to let her friend intentionally not show up to the meeting, not simply because it was rude, but because earlier Fluttershy had nearly gotten the both of them squeezed by a giant snake over the issue of colts.

Of course, she was still mortified at the thought of having to talk to Shadow Breeze over breakfast at Sugarcube Corner. There would be other ponies watching her, in public, trying to talk to a stallion that'd she'd only known for a little while.

Twilight understood that her friend was making a large issue out of absolutely nothing, and that Shadow Breeze would feel a little bit hurt over her missing their breakfast together. Her horn glowed softly as she used a special spell used to see through thin wall segments, and scanned around for Fluttershy. The other residents in town gave her funny looks as she looked around the town square for her concealed friend.

"Where did you go?" She muttered, turning her head around and scanning the flat terrain of Ponyville.

Eventually, she scanned upon the overturned cardboard box by the town post office, and saw Fluttershy's silhouette clearly through the object.

"Aha!"

She ran over to the cardboard box, and with a kick of her back hooves knocked the container off of Fluttershy, who whimpered over being caught.

"Come on, Fluttershy, it's rude to be late!" Said Twilight, nearly shouting.

"I don't think I can talk to him," explained Fluttershy, still sitting on the cool sidewalk, "I'm, I'm just too nervous!"

Twilight smiled, "What if I came with you? Would you feel more comfortable?"

"Oh… sure! That'd really help." she said happily, her ears perking up in delight.

She slowly followed Twilight into Sugarcube Corner and found Shadow Breeze, one of only a few customers left in the building left from the breakfast rush, sitting at a table in the back of the room with an empty plate and mug, evidence of having finished his meal about 15 minutes before Fluttershy had arrived.

"Hey, you made it," he said, his brown eyes lighting up upon seeing the two entering the bakery, "I was just about to leave, I thought something might have happened!"

"Something did happen," muttered Twilight, flicking her tail in frustration.

Fluttershy cautiously took the wooden chair across from Shadow Breeze and looked at the graphite-colored stallion nervously. He seemed equally concerned about how late Fluttershy was, but he tried to be polite by smiling and pretending that it wasn't really a big deal.

Shadow Breeze turned away to talk to Twilight, "It would have been fine with me if Fluttershy didn't show up, really," he answered, trying not to be rude or express frustration, "I could have tried to talk to her later at her house."

"Right Fluttershy?" He asked, turning his head back to her.

He gained a look of surprise when he realized he was talking to a long pink tail. Fluttershy had ducked her head under the table to avoid being seen, and her rear end stuck up above the table.

"What's wrong?" Asked Shadow, trying to be gentle.

Fluttershy wanted to continue to cower, but she really did want to be nice to Shadow, who'd gone to all the trouble to plan their conversation, and slowly stuck her head out, returning to a normal seating position at the table, "I dropped something, sorry."

Shadow Breeze smiled, he wasn't fooled by what she said, but was glad Fluttershy had managed to overcome her anxiety.

Pinkie Pie had heard the bell mounted above the door of the bakery, and bounded into the room from the kitchen, a tray of fresh sugar cookies bouncing precariously off of her head. She tossed the tray nonchalantly onto the display rack behind the counter, and to Twilight's surprise, not a single cookie fell out of place or cracked from the drop.

"Hey everypony!" She said, "Don't mind me, just stacking the cookies."

"Hi Pinkie Pie," said Twilight, taking a seat near the pair of pegasi, "I'll take a few of those and a glass of milk, please."

"All righty!" She cheered, leaning down behind the counter to grab a tray, showing her fluffy tail, "Anything for Fluttershy? We have some reeeeeally good brownies coming out!"

"No thanks," said Fluttershy, "I'm not really hungry right now."

Twilight received her plate of cookies and tall glass of icy milk from a giggling Pinkie Pie, who knew that Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze were extremely uncomfortable. Twilight knew that someone had to break the awkward silence, or else her dragging of Fluttershy kicking and screaming would have been in vain.

"Maybe we should just go get something to drink, since we're not hungry," suggested Shadow Breeze, fanning himself with a wing, "it's kind of hot out today."

"Oh, that's a great idea," said Fluttershy happily, "what should we get?"

"I know what would hit the spot!" Said Pinkie Pie, popping up on the table with a big jump, "A super-delicious icy and sugary root beer from Steiner's place!"

She flicked her tongue across her lips at the thought of getting to drink the sugary liquid and nearly drooled on the table. Twilight nibbled on her sugar cookies and tried not to laugh.

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy left together to go grab a drink at the Froth Shop, leaving Pinkie Pie and Twilight alone.

"Gonna keep chasing them?" Teased Pinkie Pie, sitting down on the table.

Twilight shook her head, "It looks like Fluttershy overcame her fear and is going to have a great day with Shadow Breeze. My work here is done."

"So we're not getting a root beer?" Asked Pinkie Pie, frowning.

"We can get one later, promise!" Laughed Twilight, "I just don't think we should follow them around all day. Bad things tend to happen to us when we do that."

"You're absolutely right about that!" She giggled, paying attention for any twitches in her body, "We'll see how things went later. Hope they have tons of fun together."

Steiner's bar had plenty of customers due to the heat of the sun, and he was busy pouring several mugs of root beer. The unicorn pony was running out of stock fast, not expecting such a sudden shift in the weather, and knew he'd have to close early after selling out. When Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze entered the front door of the noisy shop, he nodded at them and ran over to his last keg to get them two mugs. He was completely out of everything else, even his vanilla ice cream supply was gone from the volume of customers.

The unicorn finished filling the two mugs he was holding onto with his magic, and slid them down the metal counter to Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze, who caught them with their front legs.

Fluttershy took a nice sip from the soothing mug of soda and subsequently asked, "What have you been doing this week?"

Shadow Breeze did his best to hear her over the other talking customers and answered, "Just studying how peace treaties are written, and taking care of my house plants."

"That sounds nice. I'd like to see your plants sometime," she said, "it'd be great if I could learn how to grow a few new flowers for my house. I'm sure my animals would love to have them to enjoy."

"I can show you this weekend," suggested Shadow Breeze, hoping to get to spend more time with her, "I'll even give you a sprout, so you can get started."

"You'd give up a plant for me?" Asked Fluttershy with a surprised tone and a shimmer in her light blue eyes, knowing how valuable Shadow Breeze's plants were to him, "That's very sweet of you, Shadow. Thanks."

He blushed and tried to deal with the blood running to his face by taking several large swallows from his mug. The icy beverage running down his throat helped, but Fluttershy picked up on the blush and gave a shy smile. Some of the soda splashed out of the mug and got on the light blue stripes of Shadow's otherwise black mane.

Steiner simply laughed and went back to cleaning an empty mug with a dishrag.

Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had a great time talking about what they had done with their week, mostly involving plants and animals, while the stream of customers entering the soda shop went from a good flow to a trickle. Steiner ran out of root beer within the hour, and decided to close up shop early. Just as he was about to go over to the glass door to switch his sign to closed, Techorse appeared at the door, his mane damp with sweat.

"Sorry Tech," said Steiner, "I just ran out of stock and I'm closing up the store for the night."

"A glass of water please?" Asked an exhausted Techorse, hoping he'd get something to drink.

"Sure," answered the unicorn pony as he opened the glass door, "Fluttershy and her friend are still here. We might as well enjoy the afternoon."

The green colt thanked him and walked into the cool air conditioned environment of the bar, a refreshing break from the heat. He made his way over to the bar and dropped himself onto one of the stools casually beside Shadow Breeze.

"Hey Shadow," he said tiredly, "what's up?"

"Fluttershy and I were just spending some time together," he replied, proud of himself, "you look beat."

Techorse nodded as he accepted a mug of ice water from Steiner, "I was out exercising and the sun was just too much for me."

A robotic arm extended out of his battle saddle, and grabbed the mug, which he downed in a little under a minute without even stopping for a breath.

"Oh my!" Exclaimed Fluttershy, "If it's really that hot out, we should probably just get home and stay inside."

"Ugh, no thank you," moaned Steiner, stomping his left hoof and rolling his eyes, "my home's cooling system is broken. It's an oven in there!"

"Well we can't have you staying in your shop all night!" Protested Techorse, regaining hydration and strength from his drink, "Here's an idea, let's all hang out at my castle for the night."

Shadow Breeze smiled at the idea of getting to play some games with Techorse and Steiner. Techorse had some of the best board games in his home, and probably had many other neat inventions that could be fun to mess with. If he'd let him, of course.

"By the way, Shadow Breeze, this is Steiner," Techorse introduced his two friends, "Steiner, Shadow Breeze is studying law and diplomacy here in Ponyville. He wants to be a diplomat someday for Equestria."

"It's nice to meet you," said Steiner, flicking his yellow and red tail, "Hopefully we'll get to know each other a bit better today, hmm?"

Fluttershy closed her eyes gently and smiled, she was glad to see that Techorse finally had some guy friends to spend time with.

"You can come too, Fluttershy," offered Techorse.

"Oh, thank you," she said, "but I need to go back home and give the animals their lunches."

She dropped down from the tall metal bar stool and headed towards the glass door, but not before giving another look back at the dark gray pegasus pony staring at her.

"It was really nice, you know… talking to you," she said slowly.

"Yeah, you too," he stuttered, "bye Fluttershy."

The door closed behind her, and the bells indicating a customer arriving jingled against the door softly, as Shadow Breeze let out a small sigh.

"She's a really nice pony!" Laughed Steiner, "Don't know that many who'd talk for so long about… plants, of all things!"

"Oh come on!" Groaned Shadow Breeze, "It's not that stupid to like taking care of houseplants."

"Of course it's not stupid!" Snickered the unicorn, "Just silly."

Shadow Breeze frowned and his ears drooped, he hated being picked on about his less stallion-y hobby.

Techorse tried to cheer him up, "Come on, let's go back to my place and have some fun! I've got plenty of canned lemonades and soft pretzels!"

"Soft pretzels?" Asked Shadow Breeze, lightening up.

There was no snack he loved more than soft pretzels, and Techorse knew that weakness from the times they had hung out before in the month since knowing him. The dark gray pegasus never passed up a chance to scarf down a hot pretzel, especially with cinnamon sugar on it.

"Yeah, soft pretzels!" Confirmed the inventor.

"Well let's go then!" Cheered Shadow Breeze, flapping his wings to jump off of his seat.

The three made their way back to the castle, and found themselves in front of the oak doors. Techorse turned on the intercom on the front of his home, and to his surprise, PAL was not there to greet them.

"PAL must be out shopping," he said to his friends, "I'll just get us in using the password."

Techorse nudged a few buttons on the intercom panel with his front hoof, and the oak doors slowly ground open, allowing the three to enter. Electrical lights turned on for them as they walked down the stone hallway, a new blue carpet underneath their hooves led down the clean and neat fortress. The friends entered the living room, where the once-roaring fireplace had been cleaned out of ash since the winter, and the light green and blue sofas Techorse used to seat his guests had been lined up to the sides of the flagstone mantle.

"So what should we play first?" Asked Shadow Breeze, "Got a particular favorite?"

"I've got plenty of them," stated Techorse, looking at the game shelf in the room, which was piled high with board games he had collected over the past year, "I don't know if I could pick a favorite, besides Cooperation Castle 2."

"I haven't played that one before," said the pegasus, "can you play it with 3 players? It's always kind of hard to find a board game for 3 ponies."

"Sure you can!" Answered Techorse, pulling the game off of the shelf with his hooves.

To his dismay, the large orange box containing the game fell out of his hooves and landed with a sharp smack on the ground.

His saddle opened up, and his robotic arms grabbed the game with a metal sound of servos.

"All we'll need to do is divide the pieces up into 3 teams across the square game board, and then we should be able to play against each other," he said, carrying the game over to his large, cherry wood coffee table, "Let's set up and play a round, then maybe we can move on to something else."

The board game went outrageously in Steiner's favor, as he managed to score several lucky rolls when attacking his two friend's pieces, and he ended up creaming poor Shadow Breeze's forces within just a few turns. Of course, the unicorn took the opportunity to tease the pony about his terrible game play, even though it had mostly come down to luck.

"Steiner, please stop!" Asked Shadow Breeze, "You're going to end up making me sit out most of the game."

"Better for me, less competition," he snickered, as he picked up the die to roll his last shot against Shadow Breeze's remaining unit.

Steiner's magic rolled the die across the table, and it landed near the edge. He went to read the result and gloat over his victory over his opponent, but before he could, the three friends heard a tapping noise.

Techorse's ears perked up at the noise, and he leaned over and put his head on the table, thinking that was the source of the strange scratching and tapping. When he concluded that it wasn't his table or any part of the game making the noise, he looked around to see if he could find it. Eventually, his eyes rested upon the window. The tapping noise started again, and he knew that something on the other side of the glass was hitting it. With his robot out of the house, it was up to the three ponies in the castle to figure out where that strange noise was coming from.

The inventor got up from the table, and his friends followed him over to the windowsill. The green stallion opened the window using his robotic arms, and looked around out his second-story window, in every direction. He couldn't see anything, and wondered if perhaps a bird or bug had been trying to get through the window by mistake.

But to him and his friends shock, there was a female changeling hovering outside of the window. She floated there outside on the power of her four-part insect wings, nervously looking at them with her cyan eyes, surrounded by white, unlike the males of her species. Her chitinous hair was in a bob cut, and her scythe-like horn extended above her ears.

She asked nervously of him, "Hey there, you're Techorse right?"

Techorse's first thought was to switch to his laser cannons, but he figured that since she knew his name and had come alone, that she probably was not going to be much harm.

"Yes…" he said, adrenaline still flowing through his veins from the surprise, "I'm Techorse. Proud owner of a front door nopony seems to want to use."

She gave a slight blush and said, "Sorry, but I didn't think you'd let me in, to be honest, seeing as I'm a changeling."

"That doesn't really make a difference to me, so long as you're friendly," he answered, "I hope…"

The female licked one of her fangs with a forked tongue, and answered, "I'm friendly, I promise. My name is Nectar, I'm from the new changeling colony that Razor set up."

Now that was a name Techorse recognized! It was his friend Razor, a kindly changeling who wanted to break free from Chrysalis' rule and offer a home to changelings where they could honestly earn the love they needed to metabolize their food. This changeling in front of him must belong to the new nest, or so he thought.

"How's Razor doing?" Beamed Techorse, smiling broadly, "I haven't heard from him in a long time!"

"That's just it!" She said desperately, "May I come in and talk with you?"

His companions seemed rather shocked that their friend was able to hold a conversation with a changeling without freaking out about it, but Techorse nodded, and Nectar flew into the room gently. She landed on the ground, and her wings folded to her armored, green colored midsection.

"These are my friends Shadow Breeze, and Steiner," Techorse said to her while pointing to his still startled friends.

"It's very nice to meet you all," she said humbly, "it must be very weird for you to see a changeling behaving friendly towards ponies, but you've got to understand that not all of us are bad. Some of us want peace, and freedom from Queen Chrysalis's iron hoof."

Shadow Breeze knew how important peace was, and approached her calmly, "It's nice to meet you too. All I knew before now was about the attack on Canterlot. It's good to know that there are changelings who are on our side too."

"Agreed," said Steiner in a serious tone of voice, "now tell us, Nectar, what has gone wrong with your friend Razor?"

Nectar explained rather dramatically, "Queen Chrysalis has taken Razor captive and she's told our colony that if we don't turn ourselves in, she'll squish him! They've set up a fort a few miles from the colony, and are going to raid us in a few days if we don't respond."

"That's awful!" Exclaimed Shadow Breeze, dreading the idea of being crushed.

Techorse's mouth fell open in horror, but he regained himself and said, "We need to get the army. I'll contact Princess Celestia."

"We can't use your guards," Nectar explained, shaking her head, "Chrysalis said that if she spots any of the Equestrian guard, or any of Celestia's close followers, she'll do Razor in right there."

"Then we need to explain the situation to the princesses anyways and figure out what to do there," he said, "we can't let Chrysalis shut down Razor's colony. It'll mean the end of hope for peace between all of us."

"So you'll help me rescue him?" She asked hopefully, "You'll help me get my husband back?"

"Husband?" Asked a shocked Techorse, "I didn't realize Razor was married to you. Congratulations!"

Nectar admitted with a blush to her dark cheeks, "Well, he's not my husband yet. Or my fiancé. We're not even dating at all. But I know he will be someday!"

Steiner snickered, and Techorse tried his hardest not to roll his eyes at the silly behavior. It did seem like she really did care about Razor, even if she probably did drive him nuts back at their colony.

"Let's go get Twilight and her friends. We need to talk everything over with the Princesses, and come up with a plan of action. Hopefully we can come to some kind of agreement with the other changelings and get Razor back in one piece," he said.

She threw her perforated legs around him and ground her face against his in a happy, but overly tight hug, "Oh thank you so much Mr. Techorse! I knew my Razor-sweetie liked you for the right reasons!"

"You're crushing me!" Gasped Techorse, trying to keep his ribs from entering his lungs.

Nectar let him go and blushed again, "Sorry, I'm just really thankful. I thought you were going to say no at first. Ponies usually hate us changelings. I didn't even think explaining my situation would have won me much help."

"But you guys are a different type of changeling," he explained, pointing at her with a hoof, "you want to earn a living without harming us. I think we can all be friends."

"You mean it?" She asked, smiling.

"Of course!" He answered, "Right guys?"

"Absolutely!" Answered the others together.

"So what should we do now?" Asked the changeling female, her wings beating with excitement.

"Let's get my friends and travel to Canterlot. From there we can figure out how we're going to get Razor back, and stop Chrysalis," he answered confidently, "let's grab our gear and get going!"

The three friends split up to prepare for the trip and the eventual conflict with the changelings. Shadow Breeze returned to his apartment and recovered his magical amulet from his safe, while Steiner returned to his shop and packed several magical brews that he thought might come in handy while out in the field. Techorse loaded his battle saddle out, fitting in his trusty laser cannons, his missile launcher with a full set of ammo, and of course his turbofans for flight and robotic arms for grabbing things. Once they had picked up their gear of choice, they returned to Nectar and took her to the library to go find Twilight Sparkle.

As it had turned out, she had invited Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie over to make plans for the week on attending a new display of confectionery flowers the flower-peddling ponies of the town were going to set up. Explaining the situation to them was fairly easy, and Twilight agreed to teleport all seven of them to the castle in Canterlot in order to speak with the princesses about the situation. She had Spike send a message ahead of them so that they would not show up unannounced, and then, she had her friends step outside for the short jump.

In Canterlot castle, the equally sunny day provided the perfect opportunity to get a decent sunbath. Captain Arbiter had taken advantage of this by requesting that he be stationed at the front gate of the castle, in a short battlement that he frequently stood over to watch visitors come and go from the huge estate. He had a green lawn chair set up on top of the white stone, which reflected the sun's rays back on him, warming him up. He wore dark black sunglasses over his face, covering most of his eyepatch and hiding his scar. Of course, the other guards around him on the walls had taken their helmets off, and were wearing their own pairs of sunglasses to help brave the heat and sun.

"If only we could get a couple glasses of ice water up here," he mumbled, hating how much he was sweating over the scorching day.

Suddenly, a bright and loud flash of purple light appeared in front of the gate, making the guards nearly leap in the air, and causing Arbiter to jump in his lawn chair, accidentally flipping the latch keeping the chair up. It collapsed with a heavy thud, and Arbiter fell down onto the hard stone with a grunt as his sunglasses flew off his face and fell off of the stone wall.

Twilight and company had successfully teleported in, and stood right in front of the gate. Typically they appeared either directly in the castle or from farther away in the town, but Twilight had specifically wanted to find Captain Arbiter first, since his military knowledge might be needed in order to come up with the perfect strategy for stopping the changelings and getting Razor back in one piece.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy flanked her, with the colts close behind them. The sunglasses fell down and landed perfectly on Pinkie Pie's face, who accepted the shades eagerly and grinned at her friends, celebrating her luck in catching the refreshing eyewear. Fluttershy couldn't help but laugh gently at the event.

The now grumpy Captain stuck a hoof over the wall providing a safety edge on the battlements, and looked over the structure down at Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle!" He said angrily, "Would you mind not doing that, please? You nearly made my stallions sound the alarm."

"Sorry Arby," said Pinkie Pie, butting in front of Twilight, "but this is really really important! We need to see the princesses right away, and we need your help too!"

"Why do you need my help?" He asked, somewhat confused.

Twilight answered his question, "One of our friends has been captured by Queen Chrysalis, and we need your help coming up with a plan to get him out."

"A mission against the Queen's army?" He asked.

Techorse explained, "Razor, if you remember him, is being held hostage. The changelings attempting to separate from Chrysalis are being told to re-join the kingdom, or they'll hurt him. They'll also hurt him if they see anyone related to the attack at Canterlot showing up on the scene."

"Come on inside, we'll discuss this further in the air conditioning," he suggested, moving for the gate switch.

He then remembered something, "Oh, and, Miss Pie, any chance of me getting my sunglasses back?"

"Of course, Arby!" She giggled, taking off the eyewear.

The team assembled before Princess Celestia at her throne to try and explain the situation to her. Nectar had finally arrived after having checked in with her fellow changelings back at Razor's colony, and had entered the castle grounds after receiving approval, albeit reluctantly, from Captain Arbiter to enter. She entered the throne room cautiously, still a little nervous due to all the nasty looks she had been getting from the guards, still rather bitter over the earlier changeling attack. When she entered the throne room, the princess looked up from Twilight and Techorse and turned her attention to the new guest.

"Are you Nectar?" Princess Luna asked.

The timid changeling nodded her head and shuffled, wings folded, over to the front of the room.

"There isn't anything to be afraid of," said Princess Celestia calmly, "the residents of Equestria and I are pleased with your friend Razor's decision to break away from Chrysalis and start a new changeling nation. That's why we want to help you save Razor and take back your colony."

"I appreciate this very much, your majesty!" She answered, bowing gracefully, "None of us deserve help."

The princess smiled at Nectar, "But you've certainly earned it, I hear reports from time to time of helpful changelings seeking honest work. You've done a great job learning to enter society and get what you need without stealing it."

"It could all be over if we don't put a stop to Chrysalis," interrupted Arbiter, "which is why I need a commitment of troops. We're going to take Razor back and show the Queen we mean business."

"But we can't!" Protested Twilight, glaring at him, "She's told the changeling colony that if anyone she recognizes comes within a short distance of their camp, she'll squish Razor."

"If you recall, Twilight," argued Arbiter, "I received my post as Captain after the attack. She won't recognize me and a detachment of guards who aren't dressed in the royal armor."

"Still, to be on the safe side, it is best we try to rescue Razor without causing any harm," suggested Celestia, trying to steer Arbiter away from thoughts of violence.

"We're volunteering to rescue him ourselves," stated Techorse, pointing to Steiner and Shadow Breeze, "Chrysalis hasn't seen any of us, and working together we can easily get Razor out of the camp without causing too much trouble."

"That's dangerous!" Gasped Pinkie Pie, "We just gotta stick together as a team! Maybe there's a way we can distract the Queen so she doesn't mush Razor, and then somepony can nab him!"

"I agree," added Twilight, "it's not that I don't think the boys can handle themselves, it's that it's stupid to expect the three of them to take on the changelings like this."

Princess Celestia understood the dilemma facing her subjects. One possible solution was to allow Techorse's "commando" idea to go through, but if that failed, they would need to be rescued as well. Of course, she didn't want to see what Arbiter was capable of doing with her guards if she chose to take the more direct approach. Sending Twilight and her friends in all at once might mean Razor got crushed before they could even reach him, and simply giving up and surrendering the good changelings to Chrysalis wasn't a choice. It was a very tough answer, but her duty was to come up with a decision in a situation like this, and the Princess of the Sun had made her choice.

"Let's give Techorse a chance, Twilight Sparkle," she said, "I will send a Pegasus scout from Cloudsdale, whom the changelings haven't seen yet, to monitor their progress. If they get into trouble, we will go to confront Chrysalis ourselves."

"But m'am, you can't possibly mean you'd go to fight Chrysalis," complained Arbiter, stomping his hoof firmly into the stone floor, "not without me, anyways."

"If it comes to it, I'll offer whatever assistance I can," she replied sternly, "I am expected to aid my subjects, and if that means taking a risk to solve the changeling threat, I will do so."

Twilight frowned and looked sadly at Fluttershy, who also seemed rather upset. It seemed like a more diplomatic approach to the situation would have been more favorable, but Arbiter and Celestia were sure that there'd be no way to appease Chrysalis short of caving in to whatever she demanded. Perhaps peace was impossible.

"Sorry girls," whispered Twilight as the princess continued to lecture Arbiter, "I was hoping that we'd be able to trade Chrysalis something for Razor's release."

"I don't think there would have been any way to get that meanie to cooperate!" Answered Pinkie Pie, maintaining a harsh whisper, "A million cookies would be a good trade, but she's too mean!"

Nectar spoke up at this point, trying not to be rude to Princess Celestia but still wanting to make a point, "I will take Techorse and his friends to our colony so they can make the trip to the enemy camp. I gave your Captain a map showing where it is located so you can send your scout over."

"Very well," said Celestia, "with any luck, we'll have Razor back by the end of today."

Techorse looked at his friends with determination, knowing that they'd be able to live up to that expectation.

They were issued free train tickets to an eastern part of the country where the new colony was set up in a crystalline cave, itself a few miles from a moderate sized town called Hoofington. The train pulled into the station in the suburban community, where the female changeling was greeted by a few of the ponies walking around on the outdoor wooden platform.

"Hi Nectar!" One of them called out, a tan colt with a few silver nails for a cutie mark, "I have that order of oak wood and building supplies ready for you to pick up!"

"Thanks!" She answered, "But I don't suppose you've heard the bad news yet."

"No I haven't!" Answered the concerned carpentry supplies sales pony, "What's wrong?"

"Razor has been taken by Queen Chrysalis. Our town's not been able to do much of anything out of fear and panic that we might lose our founder," she explained as Techorse and his friends exited the train, "luckily, these three stallions from Ponyville have volunteered to rescue him."

The carpenter looked behind the changeling at the three ponies, and raised an eyebrow, "These three? Are going to take on the entire hive?"

"We're hoping to solve it diplomatically," said Shadow Breeze, a little angry that he was passively being called weak, "I want to be able to offer a treaty between Razor's colony and Chrysalis's hive."

"Good luck with that. After all the damage in Canterlot I was paid tons of bits to help fix, I doubt they'll listen. Just try not to end up in the hospital, ok?"

Steiner grunted, "Perhaps you'd like a soda?"

Steiner opened his bright blue saddlebags with his magic, and lifted a small purple can of liquid out.

Techorse knew what he was up to and pushed the bottle back into he bag with his robotic arms, "Steiner, we can't go around giving away free sodas, folks will think we're creepy."

"Well I can't accept free drinks anyways," he said, "my name's Founder, by the way, own a huge lumber shop on the other side of town. Since the changelings are my biggest customers right now, you get Razor back and I'll get you a nice patio installed at your homes, ok?"

"That's a nice offer, Founder," said Nectar hurriedly, "I may just have to hold you to it. Now, if you'll excuse us, I have to get these stallions started on their mission. We don't have much time."

"All right, take care now, and good luck!" He answered, waving to the four as they left the train station.

Razor's colony was located about three miles of a walk from town, up the side of a nearby hill outside of the city. A brown dirt path against the green grass of the hilly countryside wound its way up the incline, and eventually leveled off in front of a large opening in the side of the hill, which led inside the underground of the grassy mountain.

"You live in a cave?" Asked Shadow Breeze, frowning, "That sounds pretty depressing."

"Changelings like cool and misty places, and caves are perfect for that," explained Nectar, leading them down into the mouth of the cavern, "Of course, we do touch up the inside of the caverns we live in with our own houses and decorations. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised!"

The path down through the cavern system was a cold and damp tunnel filled with small light blue crystals of various minerals, eventually leading to a large opening that was flooded with light from some kind of artificial source. When the three ponies stepped out into the main opening of the cave, they looked around in awe at what they could see.

The large, open cavern room featured several large crystal structures along the walls, many of them supporting a small home, a wood house of changeling design, round with several windows and a door at the base. Each one had a staircase leading down to the floor of the cave, which was lined with small amounts of glistening shards from the fragmenting crystals, each thousands of years old. Changeling males and females buzzed about overhead, entering and leaving their homes to go seek work in the outside world. A hole in the ceiling of the cave system, with a large metal cover underneath that could be fitted over it in case of a storm, allowed the changelings to exit the cave vertically, and re-enter horizontally through the tunnel Techorse and his friends had entered through.

A large subterranean river, flowing fresh from underground springs from the water table, brought fresh and cold drinkable water to the changeling community. The spring itself, located in the center of the cave, flowed and made a gentle sound like a natural fountain, adding further to the beauty of the environment.

Nectar noticed the mouths of her new friends hanging open and giggled, "I told you!"

Roughly eighty changelings lived in the community, of which 4 were newborns, the first to be born out from under the control of Queen Chrysalis. Nectar led them to her home and opened the rounded wood door carefully with her porous leg. She ushered the ponies inside, who explored her simple two-floor home.

Each house seemed to have a small bedroom and bathroom upstairs, and a kitchen and living area underneath, like a large apartment. Changelings preferred to live this way, as they did not spend much time in their personal living spaces like ponies do, but instead went out to enjoy the company of the rest of the hive. Constant socialization was how their species had advanced to compete with the ponies, and it was only in recent years that they had turned to more sinister ways of obtaining the emotional energy they needed to properly metabolize their food and survive.

Nectar's first floor of her home featured a nice set of furniture, a couch, a beautiful dining table with four places for guests, topped with a beautiful floral print tablecloth in a light blue base color. A few pictures of her family hung on the walls, and there was also a space for a stove in the back where she might prepare food if she didn't want to eat communally with the other changelings. Although there wasn't much space for anything else, making it a rather plain yet cozy place to live, there was still enough room for the ponies to sit around the dinner table and discuss their plan for bringing Razor back in one piece.

Techorse couldn't help but compliment what he had just seen, "Nectar, your home is amazing! How did you all ever build this place?"

"Yeah, surely it had to cost a lot of money," mentioned Steiner, who was met by a nasty look from Techorse about talking about the price.

Nectar answered cheerfully, "Well, when the ponies from Canterlot heard there were changelings who wanted to behave themselves, they started giving us donations to build a new home. Guess they wanted to support us stopping our kind from having to go on raids for our love."

"Seems they were very generous!" Smiled Shadow Breeze, "I'm sure this is a much better home than what Queen Chrysalis had for you all."

"Very much so," nodded Nectar, her wings vibrating slightly as she remembered the conditions, "we didn't have enough materials to build our own homes, and so more and more of it was held together with our glue."

"Glue?" Asked a puzzled Techorse.

"We have two glue glands under our tongues. The green goop hardens into a super tough shell after a few hours. It's how we create the cocoons Chrysalis and her followers enjoyed trapping her victims in for easy feeding."

"Stop!" Begged Steiner, putting a hoof to his mouth, "I think I'm going to be sick!"

"Well don't worry, we didn't use a drop of it making this place, we had plenty of nails and other supplies for sticking thanks to your kindhearted citizens," she answered, frowning, "it's just a shame that we might lose it all."

"We won't let that happen," assured Techorse, "now where is Queen Chrysalis?"

Nectar went and retrieved a large paper map from a nearby shelf, and unrolled it on the table. The three friends leaned in and saw a large illustration of the local area outside of Hoofington. Nectar's scythe-like horn glowed, and a few green dots of energy appeared on the map. The first dot turned red, highlighting a small circle on the forested hills outside the town.

"We're here," she said, pointing to the red dot, "Queen Chrysalis's camp is located ten miles away, here."

She shifted the red dot over to a small cave system drawn over another area of the map.

"Also, there's a swamp located here just a half of a mile from the smaller cave she's camping in with her troops. It's a good way to know that you're going in the right direction. Princess Celestia told me before we left that her scout will be meeting you there," She finished.

"So we'll head for the swamp, get our information, and get Razor out safely," stated Techorse.

"Hopefully without causing too much trouble," hoped Shadow Breeze, not eager to get into a fight.

"Oh come on, we can take those bugs!" Assured Steiner.

Nectar looked rather hurt by the degrading comment, and Steiner blushed as he realized what he had just done.

"I'm very sorry about that. It's just, after what the Queen did to Canterlot," he said, trying to make up for his insulting comment.

"We're trying our best to do good and break away from the Queen," sighed Nectar, "but I guess we're still pretty hated by you ponies."

"I don't know if that's true," soothed Shadow Breeze, "you seem to be getting pretty positive reviews from the ponies in Hoofington. Maybe it'll just take a little more time for Equestria to get used to you being on our side."

"If we give up today, we'll be forced into doing evil things again," she said, trying not to get too upset, "I don't want to go back to that. The poor looks on those ponies' faces after we got what we wanted, and then we just dumped them back in their town, depressed and exhausted from it!"

"We'll stop this plan, promise!" Said Steiner, standing up from the table, "Right?"

"That's right, Steiner," sdded Techorse, drawing his laser cannons out of his saddle, "we're going to make sure the changelings here can choose to live how they want to, honestly and without heavy hearts!"

Nectar led them out of her home, and the three stallions were met by the other changelings of the hive forming two lines towards the exit of their cave.

"Good luck!" Some of them cried, "Bring Razor back!"

The three friends felt uplifted, not only by the support, but the knowledge that someday maybe changelings would be fully accepted into Equestrian society, and the planet would enjoy even more peace than it already did. As they walked past the changelings, many alike, but each unique in some way, they realized that they had a lot in common with this other sapient species. The light on the other end of the entrance cave shone, and the three exited out into the daylight again, ready to bring back their friend, and help to secure the future.

But as they began their walk for the swamp, a less than cheerful changeling male watched from above the cave entrance. His eyes, a strange yellow in color, tracked the three as they walked away unaware of him. The spy drew a tongue over his left fang, eager to draw the emotional energy from his victims and watch their pain as they descended into sadness and emotionless slump.

"Soon enough," he thought to himself, laughing only in his head, "first, to let the Queen know that our guests will be arriving shortly."

Once the intruder was sure that the ponies were well out of earshot, he spread his four-part wings and buzzed off into the air to go tell Chrysalis about the small party headed for her camp on the other side of the forested hills. If they played their cards right, the Queen's changelings new that they'd have more than just one captive to make the Equestrians squirm.

And that might just be enough of a bargaining chip to get them to turn over some daily love for them.

To be continued...

#31 - Three Mane Team: Part II

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Three Mane Team: Part II

Techorse series: #31

By Spirals95

In a cave system a few miles away from where Techorse and his friends left to meet with their pegasus contact, the spying changeling eagerly flew through the tunnel system looking for the camp. He followed the trails left behind by the other changelings deep into the center of the mountain they were based in, and entered a jagged section of the cavern where his hive had set up their temporary quarters. Green dome-shaped homes, some still dripping from being freshly added to glowed softly with yellow candle light, each one a small temporary house for each changeling family under Queen Chrysalis. She herself had built a large structure at the back of the cavern with multiple domes, five in total, forming a pentagonal temporary castle. It wasn't her home castle, but it was a suitable home until she could return back to her original kingdom.

Her agent pushed through a pliable flap on the front of the building, and went through a small ribbed entrance constructed out of wood, stone, and changeling goo, until he came to the makeshift throne room.

Queen Chrysalis sat on her throne, a large almost sofa-like structure made of red cushions and obsidian stone, giving it a blackish glow to match her body and slender legs. She welcomed her returning scout with a grin on her face.

"Tell me Cloak, what has our trap brought in?" she asked, standing up from her throne and walking over to her servant, who bowed before her.

"Your majesty, three ponies have been sent to rescue Razor," he answered, "as you expected, they are fully capable of defending themselves from what I could tell. They may be specialists sent by Princess Celestia, or simply wanderers given mercenary work to get Razor back from us."

Queen Chrysalis beat her wings gently, "Very good. Send a detachment of troops to the southern part of the plains in front of our mountain. With any luck, they'll fall for our tricks, and we'll be able to simply bring them in, and let Razor go."

"Let him go!" shouted a shocked Cloak, standing up, "But why?"

"The Equestrians are known for being a loving species, which is why they are such easy creatures to feed off of," explained the queen, "my runaway children, Razor included, have started to believe that this means they could care more for them than I could. I can't stand the thought of my children leaving me. I have a duty to them!"

"I apologize for my arrogance, but I don't see how letting him go after we're through with them is going to help get back the lost ones," argued the changeling, rather upset about the plan making no sense to him.

Chrysalis seemed about to lose her patience, but simply grunted and continued, "You weren't paying attention when we left the main hive then, were you? If we capture some ponies, and indeed my lost ones have grown soft to them, they'll come back on promise that we do not harm them."

"Ah, so we trap the party, and then trade them back for our own!" He said, smirking as he understood what she meant.

She smiled with fangs exposed at him, "We will have our lost ones back soon enough. Go rally up with the others, and fly to the meeting point. Prepare to welcome our new guests."

"Yes m'am!" he responded, turning around and exiting the throne room as fast as his porous legs could carry him.

The Queen looked in the direction of a nearby door, her attention now on her now dry throat, and decided to call for a drink, "I'm still waiting on that drink, Rusty!"

Rusty, her faithful servant and perhaps her only real friend in the traditional sense, emerged from the door with a small silver chalice of peach nectar from the makeshift kitchen. The small male changeling had yellow eyes, making him stand out slightly from the others, and he wore a small blue hat with a red feather attached to the left side. He brought the small fine cup to his queen, and gave it to her, using the limited amount of magic his small pointed horn allowed him. Queen Chrysalis drained the sweet fluid in seconds, and then set the cup down on one of the arms of her temporary throne.

"Ah, thank you. Sometimes I believe you're the only one who listens, Rusty," she said, sighing in relief of her throat ailment.

"I try my best," he answered, "I look forward to seeing our new 'guests'. I have a surprise for them, and you, once we've brought them in."

The servant laughed at his own plans, and Chrysalis couldn't help but slightly smile in anticipation of finding out what her servant had for her.

"A gift, for me?" she asked, a sinister grin spreading across her face.

Rusty nodded and chortled, "I'm sure you'll find it quite satisfying, my liege."

Techorse and his friends had reached the swamp described by Nectar. The small bog, covering only a few acres on each side was teeming with chirping insect life, bullfrogs calling out for companionship, and many cattails in standing mud and water. Occasionally a fish would leap out of the cleaner parts of the swamp water to grab at a passing insect in hopes of a catch. A few boulders that had broken off from the mountains and rolled downhill decades ago rested, either covered with moss or baked dry in the sun overhead.

The pegasus scout Princess Celestia had ordered to inspect Chrysalis's encampment was sitting on a small rock in the shade of one of the few trees in the local area. The ominous mountains sat behind him where the changelings were currently hidden. He was a rather wiry light orange stallion with green eyes, a trim blue mane cut, and three pairs of binoculars for a cutie mark.

"Great, you're here!" He said, jumping off of the rock and hovering in the air by flapping his wings, "Queen Chrysalis's camp is inside that mountain behind me. There's only one entrance, but there's multiple tunnels leading throughout that cave system. All of them eventually lead to the camp, but that's all I was able to find out without being caught. You'll have to figure out for yourselves how to get Razor out of there."

"Any idea how many of them there are?" asked Techorse, making eye contact.

"Probably more than two hundred. Many of them aren't soldiers though, I counted a lot of workers and servants," answered the scout, "but I'd be careful anyways."

"We will, don't worry," assured the inventor, "we plan on trying to settle this peacefully if possible. "

"I don't see how you can do that, but I'll be hoping for it anyways!" he replied with doubt in his voice, "Anyways, that's the end of my job here. Good luck!"

With that, the pegasus left them alone, soaring off into the sky to head back for his home in Cloudsdale.

"Didn't really give us much information," complained Steiner, scuffing a hoof on the ground.

Shadow Breeze shook his tail gently and twisted his head towards Techorse, "It's all right, really. Since we're going to try to reason with them first, we don't need an alternate path into their hive."

The amulet fastened around his neck by a small gold chain shot a ray of darkness onto the ground, projecting a shadow display of the local area. Shadow Breeze's friends looked at the diagram the pegasus had projected onto the ground.

"All we have to do is follow the mountain trail into this valley," he said, a dotted line of shadows beginning to form on the map.

"Once we're here in the valley, we can try to send a message along asking to trade Razor's return in exchange for money or resources."

"What happens if they reject?" asked Steiner, scowling and cynical, "I suppose we convince them otherwise?"

"Steiner, we're only using our weapons to protect ourselves if we have to. This isn't a game!" said Techorse sternly, "It's just not right to do things by force. Honestly Steiner, I don't know what's been going on, but you've been rather irritable ever since we've started out on this mission. Normally you're pretty welcoming, so what's wrong?"

The soda store owner pushed some of his striped mane out of the way of his eyes, "My father was in Canterlot during the Changeling invasion. One of them broke his leg by sending him down a flight of stairs. Sure, he recovered, but seeing my own parent helpless in bed? I could never forgive that!"

He sighed, and then continued, "Nectar has helped me to see that I need to go on a case by case basis with everypony, and even the ones who aren't ponies. It's just tough for me."

"Well, I understand." Interrupted Shadow Breeze, "It's hard to see a loved one get put in the hospital and not be mad at the party responsible. I could see why you would want to get back at them."
"I know, but you studying diplomacy, you would suggest I sue the changelings for medical damages, right?" he replied, teasing Shadow Breeze.

The graphite colored pegasus raised an eyebrow and shoved Steiner playfully with his front left hoof. It was surprising that Steiner seemed to be lightening up, at first it felt like he didn't like him at all, and now the reason for his mean behavior had been revealed to him. Maybe he would be able to be get along better with him and not simply share Techorse as a mutual friend.

"Now, what happens if we mess up?" asked Steiner, "I'm assuming we have a backup plan, right?"

Techorse nodded, "Remember? I told Twilight before we left that I had put a homing device in my saddle. If something goes wrong, or if the battle saddle gets destroyed, it'll send out an emergency beacon which will be picked up by a tiny radio I gave her. Twilight and the Princess both trust that we can handle ourselves, but I made sure we had something to fall back on."

"Great! Then let's head for the valley and get started," suggested Shadow Breeze, pointing to the mountain with a wing.

They left the swamp and headed for the valley described by the scout. Diplomacy was still an option if they were able to wait for a small number of changelings to come along.

A large, calm river flowed the past the valley of the small mountain range the team had been sent to explore. The body of water meandered through the hillside, leaving in its wake oxbow lakes and other isolated ponds. It eventually emptied out into the swamp the three stallions had left earlier, and its source was a larger lake high up in the mountains where there was a small shipyard. The river forked past the hill where Queen Chrysalis and her troops camped, and eventually drained out into the east sea.

The valley itself was a somewhat sparse area, although lush green grass grew along the bank of the river, stones and somewhat less healthy vegetation covered the land to the west, up until the mountain ridge where the occasional cliff dwelling tree or flower made its home. The rocks were large enough to provide perfect cover for someone as small as an Equestrian, and Techorse and company took shelter behind a larger boulder, waiting to see if any of the changelings would pass by without too many allies.

"Do you think they'll even come here?" whispered Shadow Breeze, a little bit of fear in his eyes.

"Of course. This is the easiest way to get water, and they likely make a few runs each day," confirmed Techorse, looking around the edge of the giant gray stone.

"So what do we do?" asked Steiner impatiently.

"When they get here, we negotiate out an agreement," explained Shadow Breeze, "I'm sure they'll accept something for Razor's return."

"That's an incredibly stupid idea!" exclaimed Steiner, "You honestly expect me to believe they'll cooperate?"

"Stop fighting!" declared Techorse, "I see one coming."

The three huddled together behind the rock as they heard a single set of wings come to a buzzing rest, and the soft footsteps of a changeling trooper walking around in the valley. He was humming some kind of a tune to himself, clearly of his own kind's origin as none of the ponies could identify it. Eventually he walked past the stone, and pretended that he did not see any of the team members.

"Um, excuse me!" piped up Shadow Breeze.

Cloak, who had followed them earlier, turned his head quickly and fell over on the ground, putting on a great act of being startled.

He stood up as fast as he had fallen to the ground, and said, "Ah, you startled me!"

"Sorry," said Shadow Breeze, "we're diplomats from Canterlot. We wanted to negotiate the release of Razor."

"Very well!" he answered, "Of course I need to know what's in it for us."

Shadow Breeze opened up his grey saddlebags and took out a small scroll. A small beam of shadow energy came out of his amulet and gently floated the paper over to the spy, who stomped on the paper with a perforated leg and started to scan it over quickly with his cyan colored eyes.

"Hmm, let's see. Rights to sell goods in Equestria, raw gold and silver. These are all very good offers, ponies, but of course I can't accept them myself. The Queen will need to see this," Cloak said, rolling up the scroll and kicking it back towards Shadow Breeze, who recollected the now dusty offer.

Techorse looked behind the rock, making sure that there weren't any other changelings in the area.

"Then we'll just follow you back," said Shadow Breeze.

The spy noticed Techorse's look behind and said, "As you can see, we're a reasonable hive. I assure you that Razor's capture was simply a big misunderstanding. Come with me and we'll see what can be done."

Steiner thought about saying something, since the whole situation seemed weird, but he didn't want to be called out anymore on being rude, so he kept his mouth closed and his ears attentive. When his friends left to go follow the changeling back to the hive, he carefully looked around.

Eventually, the changeling turned around and stopped the part in its tracks.

"You know something?" he said rhetorically, "I honestly believed better of you. Trust is never something a changeling fails to take advantage of. I'm surprised you never saw that in Razor."

Roughly two dozen changelings arrived on the scene. Six of them joined their leader Cloak at the front, and the remainder behind to cut off escape.

"I knew it!" shouted Steiner.

Techorse muttered, "Of course. I can't believe we fell for this."

Shadow Breeze complained, "Hey! Wait a minute! We're diplomats. You can't do this to us!"

"Can't we?" laughed Cloak darkly.

The changelings were closing in. Some of them were engulfed in green flashes of light as they disguised themselves as Techorse and his friends. But that's when Techorse noticed something about the changelings. They could take on the image, form, and even what they were wearing on as a disguise, but it was unlikely that they were able to copy attacks. A few of the changelings did not disguise themselves so as to make use of their magic projectile attacks. Their small stubby horns glowed, charging up for a shot.

"Looks like this is unavoidable," he said as his friends backed up into a circle, "look for the ones that don't have a saddle gadget out, a glowing amulet, or chucking sodas."

"Right," said Steiner, dropping into a battle position, his head down and his legs spread out.

He scraped a hoof on the ground fiercely. The changelings charged towards the middle, firing magic blasts and rushing in to sow confusion amongst the three. Techorse immediately opened fire with his laser cannons, sending yellow bolts of energy down the range. One of the changelings disguised as Steiner was not expecting the attack, and suffered a burst of laser fire, burning his outside and sending him flying backwards as the energy projectiles exploded on him. Techorse's cannons retracted back into his saddle as he switched rapidly to his missile launcher, and then with a mental flicker, a pair of rockets left the racks at his sides and streamed forward. The changelings did not know what to make of the projectiles, and the two impacted together in front of three of them, scattering them like dry leaves.
One of the magic bolts managed to hit Techorse in the back leg, toppling him as he screamed.

Steiner turned around and faced the changeling that had caused the injury, his small horn still smoking from the shot. The unicorn pony took out an orange can of soda and shook it up rapidly with his horn, thousands of micro vibrations per second agitated the soda, which was intentionally over-carbonated. The can swelled slightly from the building pressure, and then Steiner launched it with a magic toss. It hit the ground in front of the changeling, and the impact caused the seal on the can to burst. An orange flavored explosion consumed the hapless the changeling and tossed him to the ground furiously.

By now the ponies were caught in a furious melee with their enemies, as they had overtaken them. Techorse delivered a fierce punch with his robotic fists into a changeling's side, knocking him down just as another one pounced him from behind. Shadow Breeze's amulet fired off a ball of energy, which immediately turned into a cartoonish bomb that rolled along the ground, sparking with intent as it made its way into an attacking group and exploded with a sharp bang, sending two more of the enemy flying like they were thrown toys.

"Woah, I didn't know you could do that!" awed Techorse, looking at the tiny crater left by the blast.

"Yeah, it's what happens when I discharge all of my amulet's energy at once. I call it the shadow bomb," he said, smirking.

Techorse ducked a swing from a changeling's leg and returned fire with a blast from his lasers.

"Let's fall back to the rocks!" shouted Steiner over the sounds of blasts, "We'll be able to fight hem on our own terms!"

The three friends ran away, through the gap in the enemy's ranks left by the shadow grenade. The changelings who weren't unconscious, roughly 18 of them, followed them back into the rock field.
As they retreated, Techorse activated his homing beacon. He knew that there was no way he or his friends were going to evade capture. If the signal made it through to Twilight though, there was a chance she could come up with a plan to help save them and Razor too.

The small radio started to beep loudly, and Twilight's ears drooped as she picked up the device from a small table in the throne room.

"Oh no," she said sadly, "Techorse activated the homing beacon. Something's happened."

"What? What's happened!" demanded Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down next to Twilight.

The radio device displayed a small message in red letters across its screen:

"We're under attack. Too many of them. Will be captured. Send help."

"The boys have run into trouble," stated Twilight, "it looks like the option for peace is out the window now."

"So to war it is!" said Arbiter, bearing his teeth, "Let's get the guards outfitted with their armor, spears and swords. We'll get Razor back, one way or another."

Twilight really didn't want to see that kind of a terrible thing happening to Equestria, and the look on Princess Celestia's face indicated that too. They stared at each other for a few seconds to try and formulate a plan that would avoid terrible conflict.

Pinkie Pie, however, had a small splinter of inspiration in her mind. It was a very sneaky, silly idea. But it might be something that would both avoid a war, and rescue their friends, while at the same time providing Arbiter a chance to defend them if necessary.

"I've got an idea!" she announced cheerfully, giving the other ponies in a room a broad smile, "But we're gonna need Rarity for this one! It's a really good secret mission!"

"What did you have in mind, Pinkie Pie?" asked a curious Princess Celestia.

The pink colored mare jittered with excitement, and then laid out her plan in great detail. As Arbiter listened, his eyes widened in surprise at just how intricate and tactical, yet completely idiotic the plan was. Still, Pinkie Pie's idea would mean very little risk to the stallions under his leadership, and he owed it to them and their families to carry through with Pinkie's plan.

Techorse heard his last reload spin into place, the final two missiles out of ten he had stocked in his saddle. Fifteen minutes of fighting had resulted in a destroyed laser cannon, several burns from the changeling's magic blast, and a saddle that threatened to overheat at any time. He fired the last pair of rockets, which narrowly missed one of the six remaining changelings. His other friends were running out supplies too, Steiner was out of sodas, and Shadow Breeze's amulet was failing to hold enough of a charge to launch a bomb.

Two of the still fighting changelings opened their mouths and lifted their forked tongues. A pair of streams of green goop shot out from tubes underneath their tongues, emptying themselves onto poor Steiner. The unicorn was glued firmly to the ground, green slime sticking to his legs and coat.

"Euuuuugh!" he cried, disgusted by what the changelings had done to him.

Shadow Breeze flapped his wings, and flew high up into the air, before dropping himself down on one of the spitting foes. In response, another one of the changelings to the right spat the contents of his goop glands all over Shadow Breeze, kicking him over and cementing him in place. Techorse attempted to resist the tactic with his remaining laser cannon, but a magical blast blew off the other metal barrel before he could even get off a shot. The spy brushed a wisp of smoke from his own horn, and then promptly spewed his goop on the inventor.

Soon reinforcements arrived, and they in turn finished what the spy and his team had started. Techorse and his friends found themselves cocooned, and were carried off along with the injured changelings back into the hive. They said nothing, figuring their small prisons could not allow sound to escape, as no light could enter the dried goop had been piled up so thick.

A small eternity seemed to pass for Techorse until he began to see a small fissure appear in the wall of the structure he was trapped inside of. The container was being opened by its own power, apparently the structure was only a temporary prison.

Shadow Breeze squinted as his eyes tried to adjust to the lights inside the hive. He and his friends had been stuck in some kind of prison cell based on the metal bars in front of him, but the rest of the room just appeared to be a reddish stone, a clue that iron composed a lot of the mountain. The three collected themselves and let their eyes fully adjust to the light before they started talking to each other, rather glum about their being captured.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about all this," said Shadow Breeze sadly, "I just wanted this to be peaceful. Now we're going to have horrible things done to us!"

Steiner nodded, "Chrysalis is going to pick something horrible for us, I just know it. But what will it be?"

"She'll probably make us into pony salad sandwiches!" cried Shadow Breeze.

Steiner added, "Or turn us into matching designer hoofbags!"

"Guys, relax!" laughed Techorse, "Changelings are herbivores just like us, Shadow. And could you even imagine Queen Chrysalis with a purse, Steiner?"

"I guess that is a bit silly," giggled the stallion, "guess we're all still a bit scared."

Techorse admitted, "Me too."

The bars on the small prison cell were grinding open slowly, and a changeling appeared before them, keys still on his left leg. It was rusty, who dropped the key ring to the ground and allowed the three ponies to exit the cell. They were surprised at their sudden release by this unknown visitor, but Shadow Breeze accepted the token.

"Thanks for letting us out," he said to Rusty.

The other two ponies shook their tails out of the leftover dried goop crusted on them. They then turned their attentions to Rusty and noted that they hadn't seen him before.

"You're quite welcome," answered the servant to Shadow Breeze, "my name is Rusty. I am Queen Chrysalis' servant and housekeeper."

"So you're the butler?" asked Steiner.

"I guess you could call it that, but I'm more of a trusted advisor," he explained with a noticeably happy tone, "The Queen frequently tells me everything."

Steiner, however, noticed that the cell door was still open. He didn't waste any time, and immediately pounced on Rusty, his hat falling off his head. A tan hoof was raised to strike.

"Wait! Stop!" the mortified servant begged, "Please don't hurt me, I just want to talk!"

"Steiner, he came alone and released all of us," said Techorse desperately, "he outnumbered himself on purpose to try and gain a little trust."

"But we can't trust them, remember what that one said earlier?" reminded Steiner, sarcasm in his voice.

"Cloak is not as understanding as I am!" panicked Rusty, "I swear I'm telling the truth, please! I want to see Razor let go, maybe for a different reason than you ponies, but still…"

Steiner got off of Rusty, and the changeling carefully put his hat back on and stood up.

"All right," said Techorse, "tell us why you want to help us."

"Well, you see, Queen Chrysalis isn't exactly the original queen of this hive," he said, still shaky from the scare Steiner had given him, "A long time ago, a different king and queen ruled our hive, and they were terrible to their subjects. Often we went cold or hungry. Queen Chrysalis started as the daughter of a pair of changelings who had gotten fed up with the old king and queen's rule, and decided to break the ultimate rule."

"What's the 'ultimate rule'?" asked Shadow Breeze, tilting his head in confusion.

Rusty swallowed hard and continued, "Changeling kings and queens, as you might notice, are larger and stronger than an ordinary changeling. To become that, they are fed a concoction of chemicals made from flowers from a hooful of ancient sites known only to us. This special thick potion is called royal jelly, and it's highly illegal to make it if you're not the king or queen. This is how the royal family continues its line, by feeding their offspring royal jelly generation after generation!"

"So it's a mutagen," mused Techorse, putting a hoof to his chin in thought.

"Muta-what?" asked Rusty.

"A mutagen. It's a chemical that mutates living things' DNA. Changelings must have their DNA mutated in order to grow as large as Chrysalis has." He explained, "So I'm guessing that her parents must have snuck her out to the flower fields and fed her the jelly!"

"Exactly," nodded Rusty, "soon Chrysalis grew big and strong, and ousted the tyrannical king and queen. But, before she defeated them, the old king and queen zapped her parents with some kind of magic that transported them to an unknown area in the world. Chrysalis searched for years but could never find her mom or dad. So she treats us like family, caring for us and trying to fill our needs for love and food."

Steiner's ears sank back, and his eyes fell in pity.

"That's quite sad," he admitted.

"You have to understand that Chrysalis is only looking out for our best interests," he said, "I care about her very much, in fact, I may be her only true friend. "

"Even so, ponies don't like getting fed off of," said Techorse.

"No offense, but you seemed like an easy target, and the Queen wanted more love available for us," Rusty explained.

"I can't necessarily blame you. You need that emotional energy to process your food and survive,” Techorse continued, "But Razor's idea is to simply have you earn it rather than rip it away from us. It's less damaging to both parties."

"I know that," grunted Rusty, "but my Queen does not know that. She's hurt, and she's willing to do anything to care for us while satisfying that pain from her parents being lost."

Shadow Breeze smiled as he understood and said, "So that's why you wanted to help. You believe we can help you explain that to Chrysalis, so that she'll let Razor go."

"Well, no," said Rusty, laughing nervously, "see, there's this one little part that I don't think any of you will like, but is necessary for all this to work."

"What's that?" asked Shadow Breeze.

Rusty took a deep breath, and then let out the bad news, "Razor's model is to have us be willingly given our love and emotional energy, right?"

"Right…" trailed the three ponies, having a small clue as to where this was going.

"Well…" continued Rusty, "In order for this to work, you kind of have to let Queen Chrysalis feed off of you."

Shadow Breeze's eyes widened in terror, and he nearly fainted from the statement. Techorse felt his heart skip a beat, but soon it turned out to just be racing out of fear. Steiner's blood ran cold, knowing exactly what that meant.

"Wh-what?" he asked, shocked.

"Don't panic!" said Rusty, waving a right leg and frowning, hoping to calm down the ponies, "If you willingly give Chrysalis some love so she can eat today, it will prove to her that Razor was right and that his system works. Maybe then we can come to some kind of peace agreement."

The ponies were still mortified at the thought. They had seen some of the victims from the attack on Canterlot. They had gaunt faces, trembled in fear constantly, and had required weeks of therapy to return to normal. Even then they still felt as if they could never trust another pony until they had made dead sure they were actually a pony and not a changeling in disguise. The toll of being fed on was enormous if the subject was drained dry. Being unable to show love or happiness was costly to a pony, who absolutely needed those emotions to stay sane.

Shadow Breeze nonetheless, was a diplomat, and sometimes creating peace meant making a big sacrifice.

So he said to Rusty, "I'll do it."

His friends looked at him like he was crazy at first, but eventually realized there was no other way around it, and joined him.

Rusty led them out of the cell, and towards the throne room. As they walked through the halls, Techorse asked,

"Why didn't you join Razor's colony? You seem nice, Rusty."

He answered, "I honestly do care about Chrysalis. We knew each other growing up, and although everything changed when everything unfolded, I still want to be a friend to her."

Techorse nodded and knew Rusty was telling the truth.

When they entered the throne room, it had been changed significantly since the away team had left to capture the ponies. Decorative lamps and tables had been set up, filled with plates of fresh fruit and juice to drink in bright chalices. Queen Chrysalis got up from her seat and welcomed in her new guests.

"Ah, so you must be the three stallions I've been told about," she snickered, "I expected more out of Techorse, the supposed hero who defeated the Wizard. You managed to put several of my own in the medical room of the hive, but were beaten with just our goop."

"How did you know about me and Wizard?" demanded a shocked Techorse.

"Oh please," she answered, snarking, "when my soldiers reported a pony with a magic saddle, I remembered the stories from other ponies about a hero named Techorse. These must be your friends Steiner and Shadow Breeze."

"That's right your majesty," answered Shadow Breeze.

"How polite," She mused, enjoying her success far too much.

"Um, ma'am, the ponies have something for you," he said, nudging Techorse who was between his two companions, "This is part two of your surprise. The fresh fruit was only a little piece."

"Do go on," She said, bearing her fangs.

"Well, Queen Chrysalis," said Techorse, "we want to give you some emotional energy so you can enjoy that fruit."

"Hmmm?" she asked, teasing him with a little smile and a fluff of her turquoise hair.

"We want you to be able to feed off of us," explained Shadow Breeze, "if you take just a little bit from each of us, it won't hurt us, and you'll be able to digest the food Rusty brought you."

Queen Chrysalis raised her long neck, and asked in surprise, "You're joking, right? No screaming or begging for mercy?"

"None," said Steiner, trying not to grind his teeth.

"You see, Razor thinks all changelings could get their needs willingly from ponies. We're trying to prove that it's true by offering you some of ours for free," explained Techorse.

"And you think I'm going to let him go just for one little feeding?" she answered, scoffing, "What sense does that make?"

Shadow Breeze began to get nervous again, and his heart pounded away in his chest as he saw Chrysalis bear her fangs. He was sure any second now she was going to sink them into his neck.

"You are my prisoners, and I plan on allowing you to go if and only if Razor and his followers come back to my hive," she said, "there will be no compromises or deals."

"Your majesty!" interrupted Rusty sharply, gaining her attention, "If you take their offer, it's more likely Razor's followers will come back. Keeping them here will only make them resist further. Don't you want them back?"

"I do," she said, calming down.

The changeling queen realized that Rusty was reminding her of her original plan, "I will feed on you three, as you offer. Then, I will send Razor out instead of you. He will go back to his camp and bring his followers back, and then I will release you."

"So you won't squish him?" asked Shadow Breeze.

"No. I will allow him back into our society. I care too much for my children," she answered, "now come closer, and turn around."

The three ponies looked at each other nervously, but obeyed the command. Chrysalis bore her fangs, and then lightly clamped onto the back of each pony's neck. The teeth were far too blunt to pierce their skin, but when she grabbed onto them, her horn glowed as small amounts of energy left the ponies and entered her mouth. Soon she had gotten what she had wanted from all three of them, leaving them feeling slightly tired, but in very good shape. Chrysalis proceeded to dig into the oranges, grapes, and other assorted fruits given to her by Rusty. Once she had finished her meal, she felt far more energetic, and thankfully less cranky.

"That wasn't so bad," sighed Techorse, "couple of minutes and I'll be normal again."

"Define normal," said Steiner.

"Let's uphold our end of the bargain," stated Chrysalis, "Rusty, release Razor and give him his instructions."

Rusty nodded and moved over to a large green pod of goop in the corner of the throne room. Using a quick spell, he cleaved the surface of the pod, and a stunned Razor tumbled out. He slowly regained his footing from his temporary coma induced by being in the pod, and realized he was in front of Techorse.

"Techorse?" he asked, groggy, "You came for me?"

"Yeah," was his sleepy reply, "You're free now."

"I don't know what to say," he continued, touched that he was loved enough to be rescued.

"Razor, you need to go back home and tell your friends to come back. They will not be harmed," said Rusty, pointing at the door, "these ponies are staying until all of you are back. That is the deal."

Razor frowned, his eyes sunk, "Oh… I see. Thanks for saving my life anyways, Techorse. Since we'll be going back to stealing our love, I sure hope to not have to fight you some day. If we do, take it easy on me."

Techorse tried his hardest not to cry as Razor hung his head and slowly left the room.

Steiner looked at the miserable expressions on his friends' faces.

He was fed up with everything he had heard and lost it, yelling at Chrysalis, "You're a monster! We proved to you that our love was earnable and peace was possible. Now you're going to make Razor go back to a life he finds detestable?"

"Rusty, let's follow Razor and find the hive," she said, ignoring him, "we're going to force him to come back so I can get rid of these three pests. In fact, let's bring them with us. I'm getting tired of all this."

"Yes ma'am," he answered, following her out of the room. Before he completely exited, he said to the three quietly, "I'm sorry…"

Two female changeling guards, each one armored and carrying spears, forced the stallions to follow along.

Chrysalis, Rusty, Cloak, and a detachment of twenty troops both male and female left the hive and moved for the river. They spotted Razor by one of the bends of the large river, staring at a big wooden object. When they landed near him, they looked in awe at what they were seeing.
It was a large wooden age of sail ship, four decks high and a hundred feet long. Cannons and barrels dotted the top deck, and two masts bore huge canvas sails that caught the wind and pulled the ship down the river. Clearly it had been taken from the shipyard in the mountains, but the hive's troops had never found it. The ponies manning the ship, Celestia's guards in disguise, were wearing fake clip on gold earrings, and wore red and blue striped bandannas on their heads, as well as brown leather jackets and canvas clothing.

Chrysalis made her disgust clear, "Pirates? Seriously?"

A rope swung down from the crow's nest of the ship, and a disguised Captain Arbiter, dressed up in his old pirate costume Pinkie Pie had given him earlier, dropped down, landing in front of all the changelings on the bank of the river. The ship had laid anchor, and a boarding ramp of oak wood was being lowered down by the disguised guards.

"Yar!" exclaimed Arbiter, his eyepatch clearly helping his disguise, "I be the dreaded pirate, Captain Arrrrbiter!"

"I didn't know there were pirates anymore," mused Chrysalis, suspecting something, but she played along anyways as her troops assembled in front of her, "sadly boys, we're fresh out of gold coins and buried treasure. Go look elsewhere."

Arbiter looked directly at Techorse, who recoiled slightly when he recognized him. The Captain would have winked at him if the fact that he only had one eye made it indistinguishable from blinking.

Razor mouthed the words "what the?" as Arbiter continued, "We're already loaded up with treasure miss, but we'd like to consider something. It turns out that changeling right there in front of ye, his home is right on top of me great granddaddy's treasure the great captain chromabeard!"

"Is that so?" Said Chrysalis, swishing her tail.

The royal guards had assembled to the sides of arbiter. Five barrels had been rolled out along with them, and for some reason, they required holes in them. The queen noticed the barrels and knew that something had to be up. She hadn't even asked for something in the potential trade yet.

"As it turns out scurvy breath, we were on our way to that housing," she said to Arbiter, "you can have the treasure, we only want the residents."

"That'll never do miss. I promised grand pappy I would never harm a hair on the mane of anypony living on that treasure," he said, a floating metal gauntlet emerged from his side and grabbed his tricorne hat, which he held to his heart.

"How devoted," she said, "but nonetheless, you will be aiding us in retrieving the other changelings on that property."

"You dare challenge me?" he yelled at her, drawing his sword from his sheath. The changelings got ready to attack, as did the royal guards.

"Look, we know you're not really pirates," said Chrysalis, "this is ridiculous. Pirates haven't been around for years, your ship clearly has a motor on the back of it, and furthermore your crew's medical conditions are too good. So who are you?"

The barrels started to shake, and the royal guards nearby backed away as they exploded into splinters. In their place stood Twilight, Nectar, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.

Chrysalis shouted, "Twilight Sparkle!"

Techorse and his friend smiled at the mares, and Shadow's amulet glowed. Turning around, he quickly blasted the two changeling guards behind them with a shadow grenade, sending them careening away and freeing them.

The purple unicorn glared angrily at her enemy, and lowered her horn, firing off a bolt of magical energy. Chrysalis spread her wings and took off into the air to avoid it. The others all attacked the other changelings, and along with the royal guards, started to give them a sound beating.

Twilight and the Queen separated themselves from the rest of the group and began to fight.

Chrysalis said to her while hovering in the air, "I don't know how you got these mercenaries to fight for just your friends, but it matters little now."

"Good," thought Twilight, "she still doesn't know they're the royal guard."

Chrysalis' scythe like horn glowed furiously as she fired a solid ray of energy at Twilight. She teleported away from the blast behind Chrysalis, narrowly avoiding the stream of light that left a scorching mark in the ground. Twilight fired her magic missile attack, and an elongated projectile of explosive magic struck Chrysalis in the left set of wings, exploding and sending her to the ground screaming. When she recovered from the attack, she angrily charged up a red ray and shot it at Twilight. This time she was unable to teleport away in time, and a bubble of light surrounded her. Chrysalis turned her head back, and Twilight was dragged through the air like a ragdoll. She then flicked her horn forward, and released the spell. Poor Twilight was flung through the air, yelling in terror as she cleared a nearby cliff.

"TWILIGHT!" shouted the other girls in unison.

The changelings took this loss of morale to their advantage, and the pirate-themed guards slowly began to lose the hoof to hoof fight. Chrysalis nursed her injured wing with her teeth, and watched as her children started to win the fight for her.

Twilight landed in the swamp miles away from the action, thankfully she was able to land in a soft patch of marsh to cushion her fall. The slightly shocked mare dragged herself out of the water, and laid her muddy head on the ground, panting as she tried to regain her breath. It was then out of the corner of her eye that she noticed a plant. A very familiar plant that happened to only grow in bog soil, bearing a blue pod facing the sky. Twilight looked at the plant, and she knew exactly what she could do to end this conflict.

Chrysalis laughed heartily as Pinkie Pie was pinned down by a pair of changelings. She tried not to scream, and sweated nervously. Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy had also been surrounded, and Techorse found himself trapped with Rarity and Steiner as well. Arbiter had been pushed backed along with his stallions back near the ship, unable to assist their friends.

"It's all over!" said Chrysalis, aiming her horn at the ship, "Once I smash this boat, they'll all be crushed by the pieces!"

"Hold it right there, Chrysalis!" said a voice behind her.

Chrysalis turned to see Twilight standing on top of a boulder.

"Ah, back for more punishment?" she cackled, charging up to attack Twilight instead.

Twilight quickly moved the plant she had taken from the swamp out from behind the boulder, and dropped it in front of herself with a hoof. It was a blue swampland flytrap, snapping furiously from being taken from its home.

The lavender mare then, with a quick flash from her horn, shot it with a growth spell. Immediately the small plant grew into a twenty foot tall monster, and Twilight jumped on its head. The mighty plant, now with roots big enough to stay mobile and a trap large enough to crunch anything, looked around with its limited senses before letting out a screech that caused everyone to stop fighting and look at the plant.

The swampland flytrap had a small bit of loyalty to Twilight thanks to her improvements in her magic, but more importantly, it was loyal to its hunger and need for nutrients.

Of course, it immediately figured out exactly what it wanted to eat. It wanted nothing more than the biggest, juiciest bug it could find, and the largest thing closest to that was right in front of it!
The plant opened its jaws and lunged for Chrysalis, who screamed and attempted to fly away from the plant. A vine shot out from the massive stem, and entangled the Queen, who cried out in terror as the carnivorous plant flipped her into his mouth and snapped its jaws hard. Chrysalis was unceremoniously swallowed whole by the magically grown plant, just as members of its species had done to Twilight more than a year ago.

Rusty cringed as he watched this happen, and the blue headed swampland flytrap laid down to rest, as it did whenever it engorged itself.

Steiner turned to Shadow Breeze and said slowly, "I… I changed my mind. Plants are pretty cool."

The changelings though, immediately fell to despair and approached Twilight, dropping their weapons and folding their wings humbly. They knew it was over, and carrying on the fight wouldn't do any good without their leader.

"Oh no!" said Rusty, running up to the plant, "Please! Twilight Sparkle, let our Queen go! She doesn't deserve this."

"That's debatable," muttered Arbiter, who was immediately hit in the gut by Rarity.

Twilight pointed with a leg at Rusty and said, "If you let Razor go and promise to never bother his hive again, if you all sign a treaty ensuring that, then I'll get this plant to let Chrysalis go."

"Done!" exclaimed Rusty.

With that, Twilight cast another spell on the plant, and it coughed up Chrysalis, who was traumatized but still alive and well to some degree. The flytrap shrank back to its natural size, and seemed to make a little sighing noise from exhaustion.

"Rusty… I suppose I should thank you," the Queen said, standing up, "I honestly thought Twilight Sparkle had finished me."

"I wouldn't allow that," he said, comforting her.

"Queen Chrysalis," said Twilight, getting her to turn around, "I know this whole thing was over wanting to get Razor's colony back, since I remember you mentioning how much you cared about all your changelings. If you really cared though, wouldn't you want them to live how they wanted to?"

Chrysalis hated to admit it, but Twilight was right, "You'd be correct. With that, I've decided that Razor and his followers may come and go as they please from my castle. The only provision I'm making is no longer treating them as traitors. I'm not signing any treaty, and I value Rusty for how good he is about lying to help me."

"Well it's better than nothing," sighed Techorse.

"Let's depart then," Chrysalis demanded of her troops, "we'll probably meet again Twilight Sparkle. But next time, you'll be on my dinner plate."

"I'm sure of it..." she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

The old hive left the friends, going back to the cave to pack up their gear and headed home. Twilight and company returned back to Ponyville along with Nectar and Razor, who decided to visit for a short while at Techorse's castle. All of the friends met outside of Steiner's shop, it was late at night, but the shop at least provided a nice place to talk.

"Thank you so much for helping to save me, Nectar." Said Razor, looking into her eyes, "How can I repay you?"

"Well for starters, a dinner together might be nice!" she said, "I can't drop hints anymore, Razor, I care about you."

"Oh!" he said, blushing, "Well, ok! We can go get dinner together in Ponyville tomorrow evening."
Pinkie Pie laughed as Steiner served everyone in the drink shop a fresh cold root beer, "Nice choice of reward, Nectar."

"I have to thank you girls for saving us too," said Shadow Breeze, playing with his filled mug, "especially you Fluttershy. You even helped me keep the plant!"

Shadow Breeze pointed with a wing to a terracotta pot, with the blue swampland flytrap in it, its leaves stretched out towards the artificial light in the store, and its trap curled into what Twilight could swear was a smile.

"Oh, you're welcome," she answered meekly, "I think those plants could make good pets when they're kept under control. You'll take care of him, right?"

"Of course!" he answered, "I'll even let it outside twice a day to catch insects. Would you like to meet at the garden shop to help me pick out a decoration for the flower pot?"

"I'd love to!" she answered, smiling.

Techorse turned to Twilight and smiled at her, "I guess everything turned out in the end. Hopefully what I told you about Chrysalis from Rusty made sense."

"It did, and I've already sent a letter to the Princess about what we've all learned," she said, "sometimes we don't always know the truth about why others act the way they do. We shouldn't feel bitter, just in case it turns out they have it much worse than we do."

"That's a very good lesson to learn," said Rarity, "it's good to be thankful for what we have."

"Yeah, like free root beers!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

The friends laughed at the joke, which lightened the mood and lifted their spirits. Razor's colony was now safe to continue life out from under Chrysalis's rule, but many of them would still visit, which seemed to satisfy the Queen's need to help the other changelings. It was up to the future to determine if they would end up in conflict with the ponies again. But for now, peace was present, and that was all that mattered.

#32 - No Free Rides

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No Free Rides

Techorse Series: #32

By Spirals 95

Apple Bloom had a bright smile on her face as she placed the very last bucket of fresh apples from that particular acre of the farm into the back of the family wooden cart. The last tree cleared on that piece of the farm meant she could finally take a break from helping her siblings out and go and play with her friends.

"Ahm off to the clubhouse Applejack," she said happily, trotting away from the cart, "I'll be home in time for supper."

Applejack turned around from in front of the cart and called back, "Could ya please get the mail before ya go, Apple Bloom?"

"Sure!" She answered, heading down the dirt path in the middle of the farm to reach the small white mailbox out front.

Opening the door on the mailbox with a hoof, Apple Bloom thought she saw a letter at the back, but she couldn't get her head in due to her large bow blocking entry. She grunted as she stood up on her small hind legs, and reached into the mailbox as far as she could to try and knock the letter out. It dropped out of the mailbox and fluttered around in the cool breeze slightly before resting on the dirt path. Apple Bloom picked up the letter and noticed that it was addressed to "The Apples".

"Well, ahm one of the Apples..." smirked the filly, making sure Applejack couldn't see her.

Apple Bloom ripped off the edge of the white letter with her teeth, and looked at the contents. Her eyes grew wide with excitement and she gasped, quickly picking up the letter and rushing the contents into her home.

"Applejack, look!" she said, running into her house and throwing the letter up on the wooden table where her sister was seated.

Applejack's green eyes tracked the thrown mail as it landed on the table and spilled what was inside. A total of 9 red colored tickets marked "Admit One", each good for a free day at a carnival featured in a brochure inside the letter. The 4-panel brochure detailed the high technology rides that were built relatively recently, including several wooden roller coasters and a Ferris wheel.

"Free tickets for a carnival just a few miles from Manehattan!", she said happily, "Tomorrow's the weekend, can we go?"

Applejack couldn't believe that somehow, 9 tickets for free admission had just happened to make their way to her home. That was nearly 300 bits worth of admission fees, if not more depending on the pricing scheme of the park. Perhaps they offered free admission and then trapped the ponies with extremely high food and drink prices. Regardless of whether or not the offer was real and honest, something had to be up, and taking a whole weekend that could be spent doing other chores to potentially walk face-first into a scam was the last thing Applejack wanted to do.

"Apple Bloom," she said, "don't ya know that if somethin' sounds too good to be true, it probably is?"

"Awww, but Applejack!" complained her little sibling, knowing that she was saying no to the request, "It's nine whole tickets, we shouldn't waste 'em!"

"That's what I'm worried about," Applejack continued, frowning, "these tickets are free, but it's gonna cost a lot of money to be at the park. The food's going to cost a hoof and a leg."

"No it ain't," explained Apple Bloom, pointing to the brochure, "there's a lunch menu right here, says a meal costs about 4 bits. It comes with a drink too."

Applejack's eyebrows raised as she dragged the brochure in front of her face and read the pricing of the food and drink in the park.

"What? How do these folks make money?" she wondered, noting how the food cost more or less the same as any resident of Ponyville had to pay for lunch out.

"We don't have to play any games," said Apple Bloom, begging, "I just want to ride the roller coasters with my friends. I was gonna invite Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle."

"Weeeell..." said Applejack, trying to decide.

At that moment, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh entered the kitchen, having overheard the conversation.

"Pleeeeease?" pleaded Apple Bloom, giving her sister the biggest puppy dog eyes a young pony could give.

"We still have a bit to do this weekend," declared Applejack, trying to get out of it.

"I say you should go," spoke up Granny Smith, "when I was young we took a few days out of the year to go to the fair, and dang nab-it it was the best time of my foalhood! Sure they have all these fancy rides and doohickeys nowadays, but it's the same thing, a good memory!"

"Eeyup!" added Big Macintosh, trying to encourage his sister to cave in.

"Oh, ok." surrendered Applejack, laughing, "But it's 9 whole tickets, and I know you two probably don't want to go. How are we gonna use them all?"

"Well since it's over by Manehattan, maybe we can get Babs to come along!" suggested Apple Bloom, "Ahm sure she'd love it!"

"That's a great idea. Of course, in order to get a message to her today, we'd better have Twilight send it over with her spells," she said, "let's see if we can go find her at the library and then round up your friends."

"Yay!", cheered Apple Bloom, "I'll go get 'em."

She ran out of the door of the farmhouse with Applejack shortly behind her. She turned around before exiting her home with a slightly concerned look at her grandmother.

She answered, "You're only young once, Applejack, I would know! Have a good time."

Applejack decided to try and push out her mistrust and give her sister a good memory of spending time at the carnival with her older sister.

Getting a hold of Twilight hadn't been very hard at all, she was exactly where Apple Bloom expected her to be, muzzle first in a good adventure novel on the first floor of the library. Techorse had joined her for an afternoon of reading and lampooning the unrealistic events of the book if any happened to be in the story. The two sat on a soft floor rug together, side by side as they turned the pages of the adventure story. It seemed to be a fair trade, one teleported letter to Bab's parents mailbox in exchange for two of the nine tickets. Of course, amusement parks weren't either of their favorite things to do, but being able to go with friends made it a far more attractive option.

When Apple Bloom had returned with her two friends, Rainbow Dash and Rarity had managed to accompany them. Rarity had joined under the premise of wanting to watch her sister, she absolutely did not like amusement park rides at all, but she also did not like the idea of Sweetie Belle managing to get herself lost in a large theme park, and the thought of the drama scared her. Almost an exact opposite, Rainbow Dash was thrilled to accompany Scootaloo as her mentor and ride as many insane roller coasters and thrill rides as she could get her hooves on!

This had brought the total up to the nine tickets available for free. Applejack carefully observed all of her friends present, and began to wonder why there were exactly nine tickets available in the first place. Nine wasn't exactly a very "nice" number, typically that should be rounded off to ten in her mind. All of this seemed very suspicious, but she didn't want to call the entire trip off over a bit of worry.

A word from Twilight interrupted her thoughts, "All right everypony, with Spike and PAL staying for the weekend at Tech's castle, and all other things settled, we should be able to take the train over to Manehattan. The amusement park is just a few miles outside of the city, so we'll just take a cart from there."

"This is gonna be cool!" cheered Rainbow Dash, "We're going to ride all the roller coasters!"

"I don't know what's so much fun about strapping yourself into a metal cart," scoffed Rarity, "it sounds like it'd make you quite sick."

"It's fun!" protested an annoyed Rainbow Dash, "Not all of them are that extreme, anyways. I'm sure there'll be one for you, Rarity."

"We'll have to see," she answered.

"Oh come on, will you please ride one with me?" begged Sweetie Belle of her older sister, giving her a pleading look, "I'll pick a milder one, promise."

"All right, just as long as I have a chance to recover from it," agreed Rarity, "I'll need a drink out in the sun there."

"Well there's plenty of nice drinks available, luckily!" Apple Bloom announced, passing the brochure over to Rarity.

The unicorn lifted the paper up with a levitation spell and read over the choices of cold drinks while Scootaloo craned her neck to try and read the park map on the other side.

"Wow, they're open until ten!" she mused, "That's plenty of time to try everything."

While the other ponies continued to chatter about the wonders of their trip ahead, Applejack asked Twilight, "Are we ever gonna get going? Or are we just gonna talk about the park?

Twilight laughed at the statement, "Maybe not."

"We can finish reading on the way," said Rainbow Dash, grabbing the map from Rarity with her teeth, making her smack her lips in disgust at the act.

Twilight locked the library door behind them as they left for the train station to begin the trip over to Manehattan. It'd end up being an overnight ride, but with any luck that would provide enough time for Babs' family to make a decision as to whether or not she could join her cousin and her friends for the day. It was a rather long trip for just one day at the park, but the friends had planned on being there from opening to closing time, and then catching the late night train back to arrive in Ponyville at the end of the last afternoon of the weekend.

Each of them had brought a small overnight bag for the trip, and had gotten settled into their passenger car rooms as the train pulled from the station.

"I love train rides," said Techorse as he jumped up onto his small cot in the stateroom, "The motion puts you right to sleep."

"Nopony's going to be able to sleep tonight," groaned Applejack as she listened in on her sister and her friends' constant talking in anticipation of tomorrow.

"I'm excited too!" said Rainbow Dash, "But we'll be beat tomorrow if we don't sleep, so maybe I'll be able to convince those three to calm down a bit."

"That'd be appreciated. We don't want to be kept up," said Twilight, frowning at them starting to jump up and down on their beds.

Applejack really couldn't stand holding back her thoughts, and spoke up to the three other ponies facing her in the stateroom.

"Look, as much as y'all think this is gonna be fun," she said slowly, "Those tickets we got for the park came for free in a letter Apple Bloom got this mornin'. There's something a little weird about all of this."

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered in the middle of the car, then rolled her eyes at Applejack, "Oh come on, don't be such a buzzkill Applejack. It's probably just a big advertising thing, right?"

Techorse tried to offer Applejack a little consolation, turning over a hoof, "It's a common marketing strategy. You offer things for free in hopes that later the same ponies will return as paying customers later."

"It's true," said Rarity, "I see some of my favorite shops employ the same idea. Why just this week, didn't Pinkie Pie hand out coupons for a free cookie at Sugarcube Corner? It made the rest of the cookies sell quite well."

"That makes sense," admitted Applejack, scratching her forehead, "I've just never heard of a business that offers that much free stuff. One cookie ain't much. Nine tickets per letter is."

The train made a small turn in the tracks, setting the friends slightly off balance as they continued to talk.

Twilight took the slight disturbance as a chance to think, and admitted, "You know, giving away nine free prices of admission is a little weird. I'm going to keep my eyes open, and if something seems to go wrong, we can just go to the city and spend the day there. If you're right Applejack, and this is a scam of some kind, we can just walk away."

Applejack nodded, "I'm just saying something might be funny here. If there's no problem, we should stay! Everypony seems to love the idea of this trip, and I don't wanna ruin it."

"Well still, if it looks like they're trying to get a lot of bits out of us, we'll leave," said Rainbow Dash, landing back on the floor, "we're not gonna get scammed."

Applejack smiled, happy that her gut feeling had been taken into consideration.

The night fell over the train a few hours later, and the more tired young adults had gone to bed, leaving Apple Bloom and her friends the only ones awake in the room over. They were still in awe at the oversized pamphlet under the sheet of one of the cots, using a small lamp Techorse had provided them for light. Each of them pointed out things they wanted to do the next day, rides, games, and all sorts of activities. After all, it wasn't often that they got out of Ponyville to do something like this.

"We've got to try that roller coaster," said Scootaloo, pointing an orange hoof at a yellow-colored ride on the map, "It has loops!"

"Definitely!" added Sweetie Belle, "Do you girls think we'll be tall enough to get on though?"

"Aw, shoot," exclaimed Apple Bloom, "I didn't think about that. I hope we aren't too short for most of the rides."

"Yeah, me too, I am not dressing the three of us up in a trench coat so we can get on," declared Scootaloo, "we'd probably fall."

"Don't worry, we'll ride plenty of rides with Babs," said Apple Bloom, "there's gotta be plenty to do."

Apple Bloom heard someone enter the room, and she removed the sheets from their heads. Techorse had come in to check up on them.

"Hey, it's getting really late," he reminded them softly, "You'll be too tired for tomorrow if you don't get some sleep soon. All the others are already sleeping."

"Sorry Tech, we're just so happy to be going on this trip," whispered Sweetie Belle, "we'll be quiet now."

Techorse left them alone again to go back to his bed. No sooner had he retreated, did the three fillies dive under the blanket again to go back over the map.

The train reached the station at eight in the morning, pulling in and blasting on its horn, waking up most of the riders on board and startling those still groggy on the benches outside.

Rarity lifted her heavy head from her cot and pulled a black felt sleeping mask off of her face, "Oh, we're here already?"

"Yep!" shouted Applejack, already wearing her favorite stetson hat, "Been up since 6, packed everythin' up in the bags for us. We'll leave em here in storage and the conductors will load us up for the train back at midnight tonight!"

"Thank you very much, Applejack," said Rarity with gratitude, stepping out from her cot daintily, "are the others awake?"

"Well, as awake as they're gonna be!" laughed Applejack, pointing at her sister and friends, who were barely able to crawl out of bed.

"Oh no, they stayed up all night, didn't they?" gasped Rarity, putting a hoof to her mouth, "Sweetie Belle needs her beauty sleep as much as I do!"

"They'll sleep on the way back, come on now!" assured Applejack, pointing for the door towards the front of the train, "Let's get moving!"

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle managed to haul themselves off of the train, and looked through the crowd to find Babs Seed. They found the brown mare sitting by herself on a bench near the back of the train station. When she saw them, she smiled and ran up to Apple Bloom, giving her a big hug.

"Hi cousin!" she said excitedly, "Good to see you again!"

Over the course of the robot invasion, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been sent back to Manehattan in hopes of protecting them from the teleporter cannon armed machines roaming the land. Babs Seed was originally a rather snarky character towards her cousin and her friends, but it was mostly due to a large amount of self-consciousness over not having her cutie mark yet. When the robots inevitably attacked the metropolis and the city was being invaded, Babs successfully managed to lure a robot into falling off of the balcony of her parents' condo, sending the machine down ten stories to its inevitable destruction in a fireball. This act that had saved her family and the Cutie Mark Crusaders from being captured led to her becoming a member of Apple Bloom's club, and had helped her to overcome her poor self esteem. Now they were great friends and family, meaning Babs was more than happy to join them for a fun day at the carnival.

"Hello Babs!" said Applejack, approaching them, "Glad you could make it!"

"Hey Applejack, we're gonna ride everything, right?" she said, "This'll be a day to remember!"

"Of course!" answered Applejack, rearing up on her hind legs, "I'm so happy your folks were ok with you joinin' us!"

Babs answered, "No problem, they wanted a day to themselves."

"Come on ponies!" urged Rainbow Dash, galloping for the exit of the train station, "Let's get going so the lines don't get so long."

"I couldn't agree more!" stated Twilight as she chased after her friend, with Techorse soon behind.

"Oh hey, who's the green fella?" asked Babs as she trotted alongside her cousin and her friends.

"That's Techorse," answered Apple Bloom, "we call him Tech. He's the pony who helped my sister and her friends stop those machines!"

"Really? I didn't know he lived in Ponyville with you guys, from the stories told about him I thought he was a royal guard, or something."

"Nope," answered Sweetie Belle, "he's a great guy though."

"I'm sure of it. Now come on, the taxi's waiting," said Babs, encouraging her friends to gallop for the yellow painted cart.

The cab was pulled by four strong stallions, who pulled it along a long, smoothly paved road out away from the sprawling city of Manehattan, towards the open countryside. It was a 45 minute ride out to the carnival grounds, and the three fillies were looking out of the windows of the cab eagerly to get a look at the destination they had been dreaming of.

It was a very large theme park, stretching at least two miles wide on each side, with several wooden roller coasters painted different colors touching the sky. A Ferris wheel and a few other smaller attractions dotted the large open park, and many red and yellow striped tents filled the grounds, selling food and drink to the park's patrons. It was a great day for visiting an amusement park, being somewhat warm, with only a few clouds in the sky to block the sun on occasion.

The group of friends hopped out of the cart, and Techorse paid the taxi fare, curiously noticing how little it cost for the distance of the trip. Applejack wondered the same thing as they headed for the large silver entrance gates in front of the park grounds. When they reached the ticket booths, Applejack removed the free tickets from under her hat, and placed them in front of the unicorn mare working the entrance gate with a bored expression on her face. As she ushered them in, Applejack noticed that the other ponies at the amusement park were having to pay for their entrance. Now her worries about something being wrong returned.

"We're the only ones who got mailed free tickets?" she wondered, "That's awful strange."

However, when she saw the beaming expressions on her friends' faces, she knew she couldn't turn them away now, and the nine entered the amusement park. It seemed to be a dream come true for the younger ponies, and Rainbow Dash seemed equally excited.

"Let's get in line for the roller coasters right now!" she shouted, "I wanna be first on that huge yellow-painted one over there, come on!"

She galloped off away from her friends, with Apple Bloom and company struggling to keep up.

"We've let loose a bull in a china shop!" laughed Rarity.

"One bull and three calves," added Twilight, noting Scootaloo nearly knocking over a stallion on her way to the roller coaster.

The four remaining ponies walked to the middle of the carnival grounds, passing stands selling balloons, fried food, and offering games to win prizes.

"Well, what should we do sweetie?" asked Techorse, looking at Twilight, "It seems like everyone's splitting up. Maybe we should go find a ride."

"I'm not sure," she answered, giving him a happy look, "I wonder if they have a mirror maze. I love those!"

Applejack and Rarity looked around the four way intersection of the carnival, and spotted a water ride with a large, red, heart-shaped sign over it.

"Tunnel of Love" it read, sending a rather interesting idea into their minds.

The two mares looked backward at the couple, and then back to each other, before they both gave a knowing grin.

Techorse suddenly realized that there was a sharp tug on his brown tail, and he was being dragged backwards. Twilight also felt a similar pull, and looked at her back to discover Rarity's magic surrounding the base of her fantail cut.

"Hey!" she asked with a confused tone, "Rarity, what are you doing?"

"We found the perfect thing for you and Techorse!" she answered, giving her a sly look.

"Really, what?" asked Techorse, looking at his tail in Applejack's mouth.

The two ponies looked up at the sign for the ride ahead. They then gave each other an abject look of horror before attempting to escape the grasp of their friends. Twilight dug her front hooves into the dirt ground, and Techorse's robotic arms stuck out and grabbed the road, sending up sparks in a futile attempt to stop himself from being stuffed into the most horrible ride ever.

"Oh relax!" said Rarity, "You two will enjoy this as mare and colt friends!"

"But it's sooooo corny!" cried Twilight Sparkle.

"Rarity, Applejack, I will give you each ten bits to let us go!" pleaded Techorse, "Please!"

But nothing they could possibly stay would stop Applejack and Rarity from stuffing the couple into one of the blue-painted rafts in the water canal at the start of the slow ride. A metal bar sat in front of them so they would not fall out of the L-shaped boat, and red cushions protected their heads from behind. Although they weren't crammed and were sitting on their hind legs, it would still be hard for them to jump out without landing in the water. A nearby operator pegasus threw a switch, detaching them from the dock and sending them towards the mouth of the tunnel.

"Enjoy you two!" cried out Applejack, putting a hoof to the side of her mouth, "We'll meet at the restaurants later, ya hear?"

The small boat entered the tunnel, and Techorse and Twilight looked at each other. The lighting was bright enough to allow them to see each other, and the flowing of the water was rather soothing.

"Well... I guess we should make the best of this," sighed Techorse, looking at Twilight.

"Yeah," she answered, "it's good to be here with you, Techorse."

She stared back into his blue eyes with a very loving look.

"I love you," she said, leaning in towards him.

"I love you too, Twilight," he answered, moving in to meet her.

They kissed for a moment, lips locked on the ride, despite their earlier complaints about it, and then settled back into the boat. The camera attached to the wall of the ride then flashed spectacularly, nearly blinding the two.

"I knew there'd be a camera!" shouted Twilight, pointing at the device.

Techorse shook his head, "Good thing we kissed then. We almost ended up on display!"

A thought then occurred to him, "Although you know, since it's over..."

Twilight caught his drift and rolled her eyes, "Oh, all right!"

She then closed her eyes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, just in time for the second camera in the tunnel to go off and catch them in the act. When the unicorn mare pulled away, her eyes grew wide as she realized what had just happened.

"OH, COME ON!" she shouted, groaning.

Techorse buried his face in a metal arm, "It's going to be a long day, isn't it?"

When they exited the tunnel and docked back at the entrance of the ride, they exited the raft and walked over with grim expressions on their faces to the photo stand. An earth pony stallion, tan in color and wearing a black baseball cap, looked through the photos and pushed a large copy over to the two. The frame showed Twilight and Techorse, eyes closed, with Twilight's nose nuzzling Techorse's cheek. It was probably the best frame possible out of her quick kiss.

"It's a little cute," admitted Techorse, "I think I want it."

"Either way, thank you for not displaying these," said Twilight with relief.

"Oh it's company policy to not do that!" he answered, laughing, "Can you imagine how many customers would leave the park if we gave these out?"

Techorse handed over a few gold bits, and tucked the large print of the photo into the storage compartment on his battle saddle.

"Let's go find Applejack and Rarity and get some 'payback'," he said, smiling.

"Let's!" answered the lavender mare, offering him her tail.

They twisted their tails around each other and walked away from the photo stand, leaving the operator grinning and shaking his head. He was well aware that those two had been forced onto the ride.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had crammed themselves into the front car of the Gemstone Raider, the yellow-painted roller coaster they had so longed to ride. It had turned out that all of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had managed to be just tall enough to ride the new machine, and the blue cars with yellow lightning bolts embroidered with gems on the sides climbed the one hundred foot tall wooden structure leading to the top of the coaster.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash, you can fly way faster than this," noted Scootaloo, "how come these roller coasters are so exciting?"

"You know how hard it is to do all these turns without spinning out of control?" answered Rainbow Dash, "That's what makes these things so good! They do all the turning for you!"

In the car behind them, the other three members of the CMC were stuffed side by side into the small car, waiting for the drop. Sweetie Belle looked extremely nervous about the sudden dip ahead on the huge track, and the heights frightened her as she looked down at the seemingly distant ground below.

"Hey, it's all right!" said Babs, waving a hoof, "We've got these seat belts and bar on us. We ain't gonna fall."

"I hope not," she said, swallowing hard, "I don't want to be mushed."

"You won't be mushed," answered Apple Bloom, getting harsh, "stop being such a scaredy mane!"

The cart cleared the apex of the structure, and the train plunged at several miles per hour down the tracks, making the passengers scream as it weaved and ran quickly around the twists and turns of the ride.

"Woohoo!" screamed Rainbow Dash, who then burst out laughing as she stuck her front legs up in the air.

The train then plunged into a nearby hole in the ground, a feat of engineering allowed the carts to run through a carved-out cave section featuring a few exposed geodes. Although a slower part of the ride, the view was amazing, and Sweetie Belle seemed to enjoy it much more than the initial plunge. When the ride re-emerged from the cave and pulled into the entrance station, the bars were let up, and the five exited the ride.

"See, that wasn't so bad," said Apple Bloom, pulling her friends out of the carts.

"Can we go again?" asked an eager Sweetie Belle.

"Sure!" answered Rainbow Dash, "Let's hurry up and get back in line before it gets too long!"

An hour later, the friends had all gathered in the food court on the carnival grounds to take a break for lunch. Rainbow Dash hadn't even broken a sweat yet from running around to the various rides with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were somewhat tired from the trip from attraction to attraction. The nine had gathered around a large wooden picnic table and had a look over the various stands filled with different confections. There were funnel cakes, veggie dogs, and all sorts of fried vegetables available. One large drink stand was in the middle of the box shaped setup of food stands, and on top of it, a large plastic blue cup with a straw poked out to show everyone present the way to cold drinks.

"Let's get some drinks first," suggested Applejack, "All this runnin' arounds' making me thirsty."

"Then go ahead and get us some drinks!" said Rainbow Dash, who was immediately shot a nasty look by Rarity for not offering to help carry them.

Twilight and Applejack left the picnic table and approached the drink stand. Once they had reached the front of the line, the server, a unicorn stallion with a red paper hat, looked over them carefully.

"Hi, we'd like nine sodas, please!" asked Twilight, "Whatever you've got is fine."

"Sure," answered the worker, stepping back for a second.

He looked at a picture he had inside his work station, clearly of Applejack, and then looked back at her and Twilight. Rather than giving them sodas, he poured them nine drinks in blue cups containing some kind of odd serum, and gave them to the thirsty mares in two cardboard carrying containers. Twilight thanked the stallion, paid for the drinks, and began to carry back both trays to the table using her magic.

"Oh thank goodness, I was parched!" sighed Rarity as she saw her friends bringing the soft drinks to the table.

The cups were passed around, and the friends began to drink the cool, refreshing soda, when Apple Bloom made a request.

"Would you mind if me and the girls went to look for lunch somewhere else?" she said, "There's nothin' good here, but there's a loaded hay fries stand down the way."

"All right, but be back here in fifteen minutes," answered Applejack sternly, "I don't want any of ya getting lost in here."

"Let's go, girls!" said Apple Bloom, jumping down from the table with her friends. They took their drinks with them in small cupholders that fitted at their sides, a neat little invention present at the fairgrounds. Once they were a few minutes away from the other ponies, however, they began to notice something a little strange about themselves.

Sweetie Belle yawned and said, "Oh wow, I'm a bit tired from all that exercise."

"You know somethin', me too!" added Babs, "But we've only been here for a few hours."

Scootaloo had already curled up in a ball in a small blue tent nearby, but off the main path.

"Scootaloo, you gotta stay up," said Apple Bloom, her own eyes getting heavy, "otherwise we'll never be able to stay..."

The other three fillies tried to get Scootaloo awake, but they soon were all fast asleep inside the small tent. A bit away from them on the other side of the fairground, the workers had already cleared the sleeping ponies and whisked them away for detainment.

Apple Bloom slowly opened her big eyes, no longer tired and heavy from whatever had been put in the drinks. Getting up slowly, she nudged her friends and cousin, asleep side by side in the tent. It seemed cold out now, a stark contrast to the warm weather that was supposed to be happening at the amusement park that day. The others slowly woke up, and followed Apple Bloom outside of the tent, where their mouths fell open in horror. It was pitch dark outside, the rides had ground to a halt, and the stars were out overhead, only occasionally being hidden by clouds.

"Oh no!" shouted Apple Bloom, "We must've slept through the entire day!"

"But how?" cried Sweetie Belle, "Oh, I knew we should have slept like the older ponies warned us!"

"Now wait a minute," reasoned Babs Seed, stepping in front of her panicking friends, "there's no way a little nap was gonna take up an entire day. We were knocked out!"

"What?" gasped Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder and saw one of the cups they had been drinking from earlier. She moved over to the container while her friends talked over the situation, and her nose wrinkled as she sniffed the residue of the drink carefully.

"I think this was a sleepin' potion," she said.

"How do you know?" asked Scootaloo as she and the others moved up to inspect the cup.

"It smells like one of the sleeping aid potions Zecora makes from time to time to sell to ponies who can't sleep so well," she answered, "she gave me one once, and it smells the same as this soda pop."

"But if that's right, that means the others fell asleep too!" gasped Sweetie Belle in horror.

The friends made a run through the darkness of the night, trying not to trip over garbage dropped by careless carnival patrons as they headed for the food court. When they got there, they found 6 overturned soda cups, one rolling around on the dirt floor from the cold breeze.

"They've been ponynapped," said Babs, her tail flicking in rage, "no way they left us here at closing."

Scootaloo looked at the drink stand and moved over to it to see if she could find any clues or evidence of sleeping potions. Instead what she found was a clock that read 11 PM.

"Girls!" she shouted, running back to her friends, "It's eleven at night already. Doesn't the train leave at midnight? If we don't hurry up, we're going to miss it!"

"But the train's fourty minutes away," reminded Apple Bloom, "we can't get there in time now. I just want to save Applejack!"

"Actually, we can get back," thought Sweetie Belle aloud, "we'll just have Twilight Sparkle do that weird teleporting spell she does, and we'll all instantly get to the train station."

"So if we find the other ponies, we can get home!" said Scootaloo, giving the others a determined look.

"My parents said I could spend the week in Ponyville." added Babs, "So once we get outta here, I'll be going back with you!"

"But I don't think we can," sighed Apple Bloom, "there's just four of us, and we don't even know where to start."

But Babs wouldn't take this attitude from her cousin and said to her, "Hey now, you're an Apple, cousin. You're strong enough to take this! Think of all the other stuff you've guys have pulled through."

Apple Bloom gathered her courage, stood up tall, and straightened the overly large bow in her red hair. She smiled and knew that she and her friends could take on the task as a team.

"Well, looks like we've got our work cut out for us girls!" said Apple Bloom, "We have to rescue our family and friends. Come on Cutie Mark Crusaders, we can do this!"

They put their hooves together in a triumphant gesture before searching around the table area for clues. It appeared to be that one of the cups had been dragged a considerable distance, and blue drips of sleeping potion formed a trail down one of the dirt paths. Although it was dark out and there were very few security lights, the moonlight and starlight illuminated the park enough for decent vision.

"There's a trail leading this way, let's go!" said Babs, "We'll follow it and hopefully find them."

Twilight hated being hung upside down. The blood rushing to her head made her thoughts churn and her cheeks blush bright red. Unfortunately, she found herself tied by her hind legs to a rope from the ceiling, and couldn't quite reach the knot keeping them in place. She and her friends were being held captive inside the repair shed of the carnival, a massive wooden and concrete structure that on the inside resembled a graveyard of rusty ride parts and decommissioned carts and trains. The dark, eerie nature of the three-story tall garage made being tied to the railing on the first floor a scary circumstance to find oneself in. Even a six foot drop to the floor wasn't so fun if it meant taking a sharp hit to the head. The concrete floor of the repair shed certainly didn't look very forgiving, and the lack of appropriate lighting save for a few small tubular trouble lights in the shed didn't help improve the atmosphere.

Twilight swung back and forth on the rope, gaining momentum. Her friends, still unconscious, hung from their legs on separate ropes. If she could get free, she could use some spells to untie them one at a time and gently hover them down to the floor with some effort. The unicorn gained enough momentum to lean her head up at the rope, and fired off a short bolt of energy from her horn. The small beam hit the rope and fried that section immediately, dropping Twilight towards the floor. She realized her mistake quickly, and spent a large amount of energy to perform a gravity slow on her own legs, forcing her descent into a much gentler bump into the floor below. After regaining her footing, Twilight gave herself a few minutes to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from her brow, evidence of expending lots of her energy on the complex gravity magic. Once she had recovered, she removed the remaining rope from her rear hooves, and brought her other friends down safely, who soon awoke.

"Wh... what happened to us?" asked Rainbow Dash, who stood up and scratched the back of her head.

"We were drugged," growled Twilight, "that stupid soda jerk was probably playing a prank on us."

"What? A prank? This isn't funny, it's late at night and we might miss our train back!" shouted Rarity, "I demand to know who's responsible for this outcry! I want a manager!"

The lights inside the shed suddenly turned on, forcing the friends to squint until their eyes adjusted to the bright white light. The supposed scrap metal inside the shed turned out to be a big machine processing a large number of chemicals, churning out small doses in pink pills the size of bottle caps. It was a large and mostly boxy machine, with gold decorations on the front of the red device. Two large chemical vials, containing red and blue liquid, sat on either side of the machine, and a large mysterious central crater in the device sat between the two.

"What? I do believe we have a dissatisfied customer, brother!" called a voice from above.

"Indeed!" came a chuckling response, "Let's see what we can do about that."

"Oh no, I know who that is," groaned Applejack, tilting her hat over her eyes.

A mechanical platform descended from the repair scaffolding above, and on it's center were none other than the Flim Flam brothers. Flam, the mustachioed of the pair, flipped a switch on the controls to stop the platform from completely crashing into the floor. The two stepped off the device, adjusted their straw hats, and approached the five ponies.

"What do you want?" demanded Applejack, "And why the hay did you have us tied up?"

"Allow us to explain," said Flim, smiling broadly, "we bought this theme park, and have turned it into quite the business!"

"Translation, you cheated the previous owners out of the place and have turned it into a tourist trap.

Which is why we were the only ones who got free and cheap stuff," said Twilight, scraping her hoof on the concrete.

"I wouldn't say cheated..." coughed Flam, "We just managed to get a really good deal, I'd say!"

"Well anyways, what scam do you have up your sleeves this time?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Glad you asked!" answered Flim, pointing to the chemical plant behind them, "This machine runs off of only the best steam devices we could make!"

"Steam?" asked Techorse, "That's... a bit primitive."

"Funny you think you could do better!" laughed Flam.

"I can, and I have," said Techorse, extended his robot arms and crossing them in front of himself, tapping his left front leg with an impatient finger, "As a fellow inventor, I don't really care about the fact that you two use steam. But I absolutely don't like that you two are a pair of con artists."

"Con artists? Such harsh terms!" laughed Flim.

Flam answered, "We're aspiring salesponies!"

"No, you're a pair of scammers and thieves," said Techorse, "and you tried to steal my friend Applejack's farm. Do you expect me to take that lightly?"

Techorse was testing to see how far he could go before he turned the brothers' laughter into anger, where they might make a mistake that would give them the upper hoof in the situation. Twilight picked up on this, and waited for her own opportunity to strike. The odds were five to two in their favor.

"Well, regardless, our device produces potions that controls ponies' mind, making them want to buy more and more things," declared Flim, walking over to the machine and tapping on it gently, "we'll put them in the drinks, and we'll rake in the bits! Best of all, the customers will be getting things for their money!"

"The food's not bad, the drinks aren't bad, and as you've seen, the rides are excellent!" continued Flam, "It'll make millions!"
"So you're forcing ponies to buy things with mind altering potions?" gasped Twilight at the shock of such an abuse, "Do you realize how wrong that is?"

"What part of millions of bits don't they get, my brother?" asked Flim, "Enough to justify a little subtle persuasion!"

"Well, forget how your stupid scam works," yelled Rainbow Dash, jumping into the air and hovering with her wings, "I wanna know why you've kept us here, other than to brag your flanks off at us."

"You're not going to hurt us are you?" asked Rarity with horror in her voice.

The brothers looked at each other before laughing tremendously and rolling around on the ground.

"She's serious!" grunted Techorse, lowering his head.

Twilight looked at him and wondered if he was going to fly into one of his "justice rants" and end up harming the Flim Flam brothers.

The two got up from the floor and picked up their hats from the ground with their magic, replacing them on their heads.

"Hurt you? How barbaric! We wanted to make you a deal!" said Flim, "We'll give this amusement park right back to the old owners, in exchange for Applejack's farm."

"So ya wanted revenge on me and my friends?" asked Applejack, so angry she could spit, "You'll never get me to turn over my farm!"

"But you must!" said Flam, giving her an evil smile, "If you don't, you'll have to live with the fact that you all know this place is taking good cold cash from ponies, and we're rolling in all that dough!"

"We know you're so honest you'll never be able to sleep at night knowing that!" added Flim, trying not to burst out laughing at how rich the situation was, "We'll also make sure to swing by Ponyville and start handing out more and more free tickets to your friends, so you can watch them all flock to our establishment!"

Applejack felt defeated, knowing that if she didn't turn over her farm, the brothers would scam every last pony she knew, and steal millions of bits from others in short periods of time. It was too much to bear, and she knew she'd have to quit.

She tried not to get upset and show her strongest as she sighed heavily and answered, "All right, I'll give you the farm."

"No!" shouted Rainbow Dash, "There's five of us, and two of them! Let's kick their tails and force them to give back this place!"

"Uh oh, they figured it out brother," said Flim, turning to Flam, "I just knew they'd see our little numbers problem here."

"No matter!" smiled his brother, tilting his hat, "We still have the Ultra Chem Master!"
Rainbow Dash flew downwards in hopes of tackling the brothers and aimed to impact between them for a sharp blow on the sides. But Flim and Flam jumped out of the way, and landed inside a compartment between the large colored vials on the machine. Loud hissing noises escaped as the machine roared to life, its steam engine pumping pistons on the back. Two massive legs with both a forward and reverse joint made of solid red colored steel emerged from underneath the machine, propping it up high into the air. A pair of chemical injectors emerged from the sides, one arm featuring a twisted mess of hoses and a large silver nozzle, with the other simply being a large three-barreled chemical blaster that fizzed and bubbled at the ends. The ponies all looked up in all at the giant factory device turned combat robot.

"Maybe steam's not so primitive after all..." said Techorse, grinning sheepishly at Twilight.

"We can stop them," assured Applejack, noticing a rope in the corner, "just give me a little cover!"

Applejack made a run for the rope in the far corner of the vast garage, while Techorse switched to his laser cannons and opened fire on the machine, aiming for the two injectors.

Laser bolts flew across the room and struck hard into the front of the machine, burning away metal and tearing away the gold swirls on the front. Flim and Flam worked together on the controls to walk forward, and shot a stream of sticky goop from the left arm at Techorse, who rolled out of the way as the caustic potion ingredient fizzed on the ground.

Rarity and Twilight joined together to provide additional magic support while Techorse let his saddle cool. Twilight initiated with a magic missile from her horn, aiming for the middle of the machine's right leg. An elongated bolt of purple energy left her horn and flew straight through the air before exploding on the limb, stripping the armor off of the third joint and sending a spray of sparks into the air. Rarity had happened to notice a series of embroidered gems on the side of one of the roller coaster carts in the garage, and pulled off several gemstone shards with her own magic before turning around and firing them telekenetically at the machine. Gemstone struck and burrowed into the right injector on the machine, scrapping one of the three barrels and forcing the Chem Master to dump some of its fluid onto the floor.

Flam activated the remaining two barrels, and twin streams of pink fluid twisted in a helix, splattering all over Twilight and Rarity, who were drenched in chemicals. They seemed to be harmless, save for the fact that the mares couldn't see with it running into their eyes.

"Oh this is going to stain!" cried Rarity, struggling to get free as she attempted to clean her face.

Rainbow Dash had seen this as an opening though, and flew down on top of the machine, cracking the glass dome the brothers were in with her hooves. She also delivered a sharp kick to the blue vial, shattering it and melting the remaining armor on the left side of the machine, revealing gears, springs, and steam pipes. A perfect target for one more attack to take out the device. But before she could go for the target, the robotic arm on the left turned and sprayed her, pushing her screaming onto a wall, and sticking her in place in a mass of what looked like chewing gum.

"Not cool!" she said, which responded to by only a laugh from the brothers.

A few more laser bolts came from Tech's weapons, streaming into the open wound on the battle machine, smashing gears and breaking servos. A pipe opened up on the inside of the device, shutting down the other two barrels on the machine and leaving only the messier device for arms. Steam escaped through the opening, but Techorse had fired so many laser bolts that his saddle shut down on him from overheating, and he was given a kick by the machine, sending him into the puddle of blinding serum Twilight and Rarity were in.

That left only Applejack, who found herself having to dodge blasts of the blinding chemicals from the machine, which chased her through the warehouse. She was so close to the rope, and her plan of tripping up the machine would work if she could only reach it! However, she was unfortunate enough to get her leg stuck in a small hole in the floor, and she fell over forward, hitting the concrete hard. Flim and Flam approached in their machine, and Applejack turned over on her back, knowing she had failed.

Outside, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had observed the fight. The trail of potion drips had led them to the garage, and they currently were staring into the warehouse from a window above.

"They're in trouble, look! It's those guys to steal our farm!" gasped Apple Bloom.

"Let's get in there!" said Scootaloo, "We've got to save them!"

"But what can we do?" asked Sweetie Belle, "It's just your sister now."

"We have to try," answered Apple Bloom, "As a team!"

The four entered the warehouse through the back door, and saw the rope on the ground.

"Applejack must have been trying to use this rope to trip the robot!" said Apple Bloom, "Let's grab a piece of the rope and try! It'll be just like fighting that Gunslinger all over again!"

Each of them grabbed a piece of it with their teeth. Twilight and Rarity had finished cleaning out their eyes, and saw the four.

"Oh, you're all ok!" shouted Twilight, not thinking about it.

Flim and Flam became distracted for a second from blasting Applejack, and saw the four young ponies, who smiled nervously with rope in their mouths.

"Ah, I had wondered what happened to them!" chuckled Flim, "Let's get them in on this gig too, shall we brother?"

"Let's!" answered Flam.

Another magic missile struck the back of the machine, damaging it and gaining the attention of the brothers, who turned around. Twilight's horn smoked from the powerful blast, far stronger than her traditional magic pellet that didn't feature any explosive power. Angry at the damage, the brothers forgot about Applejack and the CMC and turned to deliver another chemical blast at Twilight.
The distraction had been just enough for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to do what they had planned. They rushed forward in front of Applejack, Babs and Apple Bloom on one side, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo on the other. The thick industrial rope stretched out, and easily held against the machines' two large legs. The CMC then ran circles around the legs, tying them up like a pair of shoelaces. The machine fired another chemical blast at Twilight, who was pushed away by the combined efforts of Techorse and Rarity.

The machine's upper body spun around to face the legs again, in order to confront Applejack.

"One more chance to sign the deal!" said Flim and Flam together.

Applejack smirked and stood up, seeing her sister and her friends' success, who smiled and waved behind the machine. The ropes were tightly wrapped around the legs, but the brothers hadn't known that since they had only swiveled the machine's body.

"Not a chance!" laughed Applejack, running to the right.

Flim and Flam threw their levers, and the machine attempted a step forward. The rope held the right leg in place as it tried to lift up, sending the machine forward in a topple. The brothers yelled in surprise and fear as their device crashed to the ground, parts and bits of steam machinery flew everywhere before the steam engine blasted, destroying most of the machine save for the command cabin.
The brothers climbed out of the wreckage of their chemical plant, and hung their heads in shame. Rainbow Dash had gotten herself free at this point, and flew down, lining up alongside all her friends.

"Well, what do you two have to say for yourselves?" asked Babs.

They remained silent, shuffling back and forth on their legs.

"Oh don't think you're getting any pity," said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes, "You attacked us with chemicals that do who knows what?"

"The chemicals were harmless," admitted Techorse, "It was more or less as dangerous as being squirted with a water gun, or a tube of glue."

"What?" said a dumbfounded Rarity.

Twilight blushed a bit, "Well, it's true. The potion the brothers were making is called the 'buy-it-all' potion. I've read about it in some of my chemistry and potion books. It's made from harmless ingredients that are really sticky and tough on your eyes, but they're safe to touch."

"Well I'd say that means we're not calling the royal guards on these two for now," said Applejack, "but I ain't done with ya yet. I want both of ya to turn this park back to the original owners. Ahm gonna find out who owned this park and write asking if they got it back, and if they haven't, you're gonna find yourselves in hoofcuffs!"

"Yes..." they answered, sighing.

Techorse approached them and said to them both, "Look guys, as a fellow inventor, I have to say that you're both really good at making machines. You've just got to think about making an honest living somehow. Good inventions are great and all, but if they're tied to a legacy of greedy inventors, they're a waste of good inventing."

"We'll turn the park back over, and invent other things," said Flim slowly, "come brother, we've lost fair and square."

Flam frowned and shook his head, "Yes, of course. Maybe we'll find something else to do for a business."

The two left out into the night with heavy heads and hearts, leaving behind the smoldering wreckage of the Chem Master.

"I wonder if they're really sorry,“ said Apple Bloom, "Or if they're just upset because they lost."

"Hopefully they really are sorry!" said Applejack, "But forget about them for now. Girls, what you did was very brave tonight! You've saved the farm, and maybe even us!"

The four smiled and looked at each other brightly, "We're Cutie Mark Crusader heroes!"

They all had a good laugh together, only to be interrupted by the clock in the warehouse. Twelve strokes came from the clock, and anxiety settled into their hearts.

"Oh no. Midnight," said Twilight, facehoofing, "We missed our train, and we're far too warn out to use magic to get back."

"Well, they'll keep the luggage at Ponyville," said Techorse, "I'll get us all a room in a hotel in the city, and we'll head out on the first train tomorrow morning! Babs can help us pick it out for her role in helping us!"

"I know just the place!" she said.

The team stayed in a beautiful hotel that overlooked the river near Manehattan. The view was excellent for Twilight and Techorse, who sat out on the balcony beneath the late night stars. The others had all fallen fast asleep in their beds, exhausted from the days' events."

"It's beautiful!" stated Twilight, "Thanks for springing for this, Techorse!"

He answered, "Of course."

"Do you think there's anything we could tell the princesses about this?" she wondered.

"I've got an idea!" said Applejack, barging in between them, "This all started because I felt as if something was wrong from minute one, and no pony listened to me. If somethin' sounds too good to be true, it probably is!"

"I agree," said Twilight, "From now on, let's all promise to be a bit more careful about offers we're given."

"That bein' said, I'm worn out! I'll be headin' to bed now." Applejack said, yawning as she turned inside.

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other, and kissed quickly.

Indoors, the four young mares weren't actually sleeping as Applejack thought. They were far too busy hiding under the covers with a lamp, planning out what they were going to do with the next week with Babs staying in Ponyville. They didn't need an amusement park to have a good time. All they needed was a good week, and plenty of friends to share it with.

#33 - Manes and Brains

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Manes and Brains

Techorse Series: #33

By Spirals95

A rumor can easily lead to rather odd decisions, and one particular word of mouth that had spread through Ponyville had definitely caused Rarity to act. She had heard from some of the residents of the small town that there was a large deposit of flawless sapphires in the side of a rock formation inside the Everfree Forest, by a small waterfall located somewhere near the east half of the woods. Rarity had been running low on sapphires recently due to having used most of her supply on an order she had filled for a matching set of dresses needed for a stage production. Upon hearing about the supposed deposit of the required gemstone, she knew she'd have to make a trip out into the forest in order to have a chance at the loot. However, the forest was far too dangerous for an average pony to walk through without coming under attack by some kind of dangerous creature that lurked amongst the bushes and trees of the area. To stay somewhat safe, Rarity recruited Fluttershy's help. If they encountered a beast of some kind, it was very likely that Fluttershy could talk to it and keep it from simply attacking them outright.

The waterfall area was a small, peaceful area, overgrown with wild meadow flowers of various colors. Cool water ran over a small rock structure, allowing for an elevation change in a small brook that flowed away from the area between the dark canopy of the rest of Everfree Forest. The stone cliff face that allowed the twenty foot waterfall to cascade over it indeed had a slight twinkling look to it in the amount of sun that managed to peek through the treetops. Upon closer inspection, Rarity and Fluttershy had indeed discovered a deposit of Sapphires, a blue seam of gemstones, already cut and polished by the natural geology of Equestria. Rarity began to fill a bag she had brought along with the gemstones after chiseling each one out carefully using a pair of metal tools and the aid of her magic.

"Thank you so much Fluttershy for helping me today," she said as she carved out another stone, the gem tumbling into the bag below, "I simply don't think I could have made it out here without being gobbled up by some hideous monster!"

"Oh, it's no problem Rarity," said Fluttershy quietly, "not all the creatures out here are so terrifying though, really."

Overhead, a patch of greenish moss loomed on a wet stone, enjoying the energy radiating off of the bodies of Fluttershy and Rarity. The primitive plant form might have not had any brain cells, but it could detect a resource it needed, and put its plan into action. The root like structures at the base of the moss detached, and a small patch of moss dropped down below into Rarity's mane.

"Oops," said Fluttershy, pointing to the blob of moss, "I think there's some lichen on you."

Rarity immediately dropped her tools in disgust and brushed off a large amount of the plant out of her curly purplish hair, sending most of the moss into the water.

"EWWWWW!" she shouted, "This terrible weed is going to ruin the work I did this morning on my mane!"

"I think you got it all," said Fluttershy, trying to be helpful, "I mean, this is where moss grows, where it's damp. Maybe we should move so we don't disturb it."

"Well, I've managed to collect plenty of sapphires!" declared Rarity, tying her bag to her side, "Would you like a few as a reward? I have plenty of extra ones, darling!"

"Yes please!" answered Fluttershy, "If you really have extras, that is."

The two walked back to Fluttershy's house, where Rarity awarded Fluttershy with her share of the gemstones in a small brown bag as payment for her escort through the forest.

Rarity returned home to the Carousel Boutique soon after to fill her gem vault's compartment for sapphire gems. The large steel safe she kept in the back of her workroom was opened via a combination lock on the side. Normally she used ordinary boxes to keep her gemstones, as they were not incredibly rare in Equestria, however, she had gained a bit of a paranoia about thieves after earlier incidences in town. When she opened the safe, she emptied the contents of her saddlebags into one of the many categorized boxes inside labeled "sapphires". The blue stones tumbled out nosily into the compartments, and filled the bin to the top. One unusually larger stone landed on the top of the pile of gems, and Rarity frowned as she tried to close the safe box door unsuccessfully.

The frustrated Unicorn mare looked around her back workroom. The colorful chamber was littered with empty pony mannequins, bolts of cloth, scraps and drawings from previous dress ideas, and a large mirror to observe dresses being worn. Rarity went back to the task of closing her box, and turned around, giving it a sharp kick with her hind legs. This didn't seem to close the container either, and she groaned.

"Oh, what am I to do now?" she said, "This gemstone is far too large and pretty to waste!"

Sweetie Belle had heard the loud crash and entered the room carefully, "What's wrong, Rarity?"

"I managed to fill my sapphire box to the top, and now I have an extra one," she answered, lifting the large square-cut gem out of the box.

After closing the safe deposit box successfully and sealing the vault, she moved the gemstone over to Sweetie Belle with a spell, hovering the rock in a cloud of faint white energy.

"It'd be a shame to simply throw it away," sighed Rarity, "What should I do?"

Sweetie Belle put a hoof to her mouth and gave it a moment of thought before answering, "Hey I know, you should give it to Spike! He loves eating gemstones."

"Oh, that's a marvelous idea! I'll go over to the library as soon as I can," said Rarity, her eyes bright.

Pinkie Pie stood just outside of Sugarcube Corner, her hooves starting to freeze a bit in the slightly chilly air as the afternoon was drawing to a close. It was the beginning of the autumn season in Ponyville, and the nights had already begun to turn quite cold. The pink mare had bundled up a bit, wearing a blue knitted cap with a yellow puff on the end, and a white scarf tied around her neck. She was trying to earn a little money while attracting business for the Cakes by selling cups of hot chocolate outside of the store. A heated batch of the sweet drink sat on top of a kerosene burner Pinkie had set up to keep the chocolate warm and ready. The smell of the delicious, soothing brew drifted for several feet from the small wooden table the pot was set up on, and dozens of ceramic mugs stacked in a neat pyramid sat next to the pot. A silver nozzle with a black handle sat waiting for someone to order a cup from Pinkie Pie.

"Hot cocoa!" she cheered, jumping up and down on the street, "It's going to be chilly tonight everypony, and I've got mugs for just 1 bit, and it comes with all the pink and white marshmallows you want! I made them myself, they're really yummy!"

Pinkie Pie reached for a quite large brown paper bag next to her small kiosk, and pulled out a large, fluffy pink marshmallow nearly as large as the thickness of her hoof.

She giggled at the crazy size of the homemade confection and admitted, "Maaaaaybe I should have made them a teensy bit smaller. Oh well!"

She opened her mouth wide and popped the large marshmallow in, filling her jaws with the treat. A few ponies walked up, eager to buy a mug of hot chocolate from the great description Pinkie Pie had given. Pinkie Pie couldn't talk while chewing her giant marshmallow, but managed to serve several mugs of her cocoa to the townsponies. When she finally managed to get the rest of the snack down her gullet, the earth pony wiped her mouth clean with her front leg, and sighed.

"Wowie! I'd better start cutting these up, they don't even fit in the mugs."

Pinkie Pie turned around to go get a knife from the bakery, but as she turned, she noticed Rarity approaching out of the corner of her eye and stopped.

"Oh hey Rarity!" she said, waving her hoof, "Want a mug of hot cocoa?"

Rarity walked up to Pinkie Pie's kiosk and declined the offer, "Oh no thank you, Pinkie Pie, I'm looking for Spike and Twilight Sparkle. They weren't at the library, and I wanted to give Spike an extra sapphire I have."

"Oh, she and Spike are at the garden store!" answered Pinkie, smiling, "I think they're looking for a new windowsill plant."

"Thank you Pinkie! I suppose I'll take a nice mug of your hot cocoa some other time though. I'm in a bit of a hurry." she said.

"Don't worry Rarity, there's plenty for next time!" answered Pinkie Pie.

Rarity left her, and found herself pushing through a small group of ponies trying to get into Sugarcube Corner. Her mane hair managed to brush up against the manes of the others slightly, and tiny bits of moss transferred over from hair to hair.

Mr. Pottenturf was just about to close his garden supply store at the eastern edge of Ponyville for the evening. He had managed to almost completely sell out on bags to collect the leaves that would eventually fall off the trees that were starting to change color. Many of the leaves were removed on purpose by the residents of Equestria to help the trees preserve energy, allowing them to grow stronger during the following spring. Whether they fell off on their own or not, they needed to be bagged and later burned or used for compost.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike had stopped by to purchase a small bag of plant food for the houseplants at the library. Twilight carried the light blue bag, with a small green leaf printed on the front to her side with her magic, trotting along happily on the cobblestone road.

"I can't wait to get back and start working on my plants!" she said, "I still can't believe Shadow Breeze was nice enough to give me a Glacial Lily seed."

Spike, at her side, inquired about the plant, "What's a Glacial Lily?"

"It's a special breed of flower that only blooms when the temperature drops below freezing," Twilight explained, looking back at him, "it only wants certain insects to pollinate it, and only the ones that can tolerate the cold stay out in the air for the blooming. It's a very pretty flower, and if we fertilize the seed now, we might get it to germinate before winter comes!"

"Oh, interesting!" said Spike, pretending to try and be interested further, "We could take a picture of since it only blooms during the winter, I guess. That way we'll have it to look at during the summer, too."

Twilight smiled, "That's a great idea!"

Rarity had managed to intercept them, just a few moments after the street lights had turned on, the sun had set minutes earlier, and shadows were being cast throughout the town as it grew dark.

"Oh, hello!" she called out, running up to them, "I've been looking for you!"

"Hey Rarity, what's up?" asked Twilight, stopping in her tracks.

"A few things," she answered, "first though, I brought something..."

Rarity unhooked her saddlebag, and removed the large blue sapphire from the pouch. She drifted the gemstone over to Spike, who smiled at the scale of the edible stone.

"This is for you!" cooed Rarity, "I had an extra one after acquiring a large pile with Fluttershy's help! I thought my little Spikey-Wikey might enjoy it!"

The young dragon grabbed the sapphire, and gave Rarity a very appreciative look, "Thank you so much, Rarity! It's beautiful."

"Wow, that's a huge sapphire!" marveled Twilight, "Rarity, that was really nice of you."

"I couldn't simply throw it away," said Rarity, fluffing her mane, "that'd be far too wasteful, and Spike certainly deserves to have a nice gemstone every once in a while."

Spike didn't answer, he was too busy analyzing his treat, scanning it over with his eyes.

"Hey, Rarity, would you like to come over to the library tomorrow morning? Spike and I were going to work a little bit on our houseplants. I was going to make some tea and snacks afterwords."

"Oh that sounds splendid! I'll be there for sure. Thank you for the invitation." answered Rarity, happy for the offer.

After a small pause, she added, "It is getting late though, and I must be heading home for bed. I'm a bit tired after Fluttershy and I went for a hike in Everfree to get the sapphires. Goodnight!"

Rarity turned around a walked away from them to head back to their home. As she walked out of view behind a nearby building, Twilight frowned slightly, knowing how dangerous Everfree forest was. However, seeing as Rarity seemed to be doing well, she chased the thoughts out of her mind and headed for home as well. A glance over at Spike as he held his gemstone tightly against his chest lead to a roll of her eyes.

"Well, he's never going to actually eat that," she thought while rolling her eyes and shaking her head, "It'll sit around forever."

Rarity finished washing her face, she had already bathed earlier after her trip through the forest, and was curling up in her bed. The mare sighed as she drew the red comforter of her bed up to her neck, and wrapped her front hooves around the end. She went to sleep soon after she had snuggled down into the warmth of her queen sized bed, and dreamed peacefully. As the hours of the night went on, though, a certain guest still hanging onto her mane had begun to multiply. The same had gone for the pieces of moss that had detached from her mane and caught a ride on the ponies she had brushed up against on the way to meet Twilight. Soon, patches of the bryophyte had embedded themselves in several residents of Ponyville, and began to send information to them while they slept. The next morning, they would no longer be quite themselves.

A silver-coated earth pony stallion with a blue mane, and his wife, a blue colored one with an orange haircut, sat at their living room table in their home in Ponyville. They were reading the newspaper together for that morning, catching up on the latest events around town before starting their Saturday. A knock came at their door to their humble abode, and the husband dutifully got up to answer the door. He walked over to the entrance to his home, and opened the door to find a brownish unicorn stallion. Something was rather off though about him, as his eyes seemed to lack focus, he was slightly drooling, and a shade of green had slightly devoured the back of his normally darker-brown mane.

"BRAINS!" said the unicorn, lacking a steady tone of voice.

The husband shut the door to his home quickly, and lazily went back to his wife.

"Who was that dear?" she asked, looking up at him.

He sat back down on his couch next to her and answered, "Just some stallion going door-to-door selling brains."

"Oh," she said, going back to her newspaper.

A few seconds later, the information sunk in, and she quickly looked up at him, "Wait, what?"

Outside, Ponyville was in utter chaos as residents were struggling to flee the small number of zombies that had seemingly cropped up overnight. Getting overtaken resulted in also becoming a zombie as well, and the fact that they were demanding brains seemed to key the residents in on the fates of anyone who managed to get caught. Folks were locking themselves inside, climbing trees, flying away, and in general doing anything they could to avoid what used to be their friends.

Twilight Sparkle opened two slightly bloodshot eyes when she heard a loud scream from Spike downstairs. Fearing that something had decided to break in her home at an early hour, she shot out of her bed and dashed downstairs, horn aglow and ready to attack.

"Spike! What's happened?" she demanded, looking around the bottom floor rapidly.

Spike pointed out the window, a mortified look on his face, "Zombies!"

Twilight scoffed, powering down her horn, and rolled her eyes, "Spike, how many times do I have to tell you that there are no such things as zombies? It's probably just some early-morning ponies who really need their morning cup of coffee to get going."

"Then why are they shouting 'brains'?" demanded Spike, continuing to point, "Take a look!"

Twilight shook her head, smiling, and went up to the window to see what her dragon was talking about. Sure enough, a small group of ponies, some she'd recognized from earlier, were slowly moving around towards the healthy residents, and one of them immediately called out for the cerebral organ of choice.
The unicorn pony backed away from the window slowly, and turned to Spike. He could see the fear and anxiety in her eyes about the situation.

"What do we do Twilight?" asked Spike desperately, "What do we do?"

"We need to start looking up things about zombies and see if we can cure them!" said Twilight, running up to the nearest bookshelf on curses and spells, "I'm sure this is some kind of magic! If we could just find a counter spell..."

The red colored door of the library started to get pounded on as the ponies outside banged on the door, trying to break it down. Twilight realized that it probably wouldn't hold for long, and knew that it was more important to avoid having her brains eaten than to stay and try to find a book. She'd need to get to Canterlot library in order to find the counter spell to the zombie curse that must have been cast over Ponyville. Twilight grabbed the one book on curses she knew would be the only volume likely to contain any helpful information, and turned to her assistant.

"Spike, we've got to get to Tech's castle. It's probably going to be safer there!" she said, struggling to avoid panicking, "Hold on!"

Her horn glowed brightly for a moment, and in that instant, she teleported them both away for Techorse's castle. They appeared inside the lobby of the stone fortress with a bright flash, the hallways flushed with bright emergency lighting. The front door bore several heavy steel bars that had descended from the ceiling as well.

"I guess Techorse already knew about the zombies," said Spike, "looks like he closed up shop."

PAL emerged from a door in the hallway and cautiously looked at the two of them.

"Mistress Sparkle, please tell me you're not one of them," he said, clearly upset.

"It's ok PAL, we're not zombies," she answered, walking up to him, "In fact, I think this is all some kind of a curse laid on Ponyville. I brought a book on curses that might hold the answers, it's the only one in the library that might have anything on zombies."

"Let's get you to the laboratory. Master and some of the others are already down there," he said, waving for them to follow.

The laboratory had been set up by Techorse to serve as a small bunker until the dire situation outside was over. All of the production machines had been moved, and the fabrication tables knocked over. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were the only others besides Techorse in the room.

"Oh, you're ok Twilight!" gasped Pinkie Pie, running over to her and giving her a very tight hug.

After letting her go, Twilight asked of them, "Where's Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy?"

"We couldn't find them!" said Rainbow Dash, frowning, "I flew over all of Ponyville once this whole thing got started, and I couldn't see them. Rarity and Fluttershy that is. Applejack and her family have holed up in their basement."

"They'll be ok, knowing them," figured Twilight.

"Rarity and Fluttershy are still out there?" cried Spike, starting to chew on his nails.

"Don't worry Spike," said Rainbow Dash, smirking, "we'll get them back. Fluttershy's the best hider in Ponyville, and Rarity doesn't have any brains to eat."

"Rainbow Dash!" scolded Techorse and Spike.

"What?" she said, laughing, "I was just kidding."

The friends gathered around a table Techorse set up in the white-washed laboratory room, and Twilight laid her book out on the table, and began to flip through, looking for the curse that was causing the ponies outside to slowly turn into zombies hungry for brains.

"Where is it?" complained Twilight, continuing to leaf through the pages, "There has to be something on zombie ponies in here somewhere!"

"Try the index!" said Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down impatiently, "The index!"

"She's been through the index 3 times already, Pinkie," sighed Techorse, "there's just not anything on zombies in this book."

"Well what are we going to do then?" demanded Rainbow Dash, knocking the book off the table with her wings, "It's not like we can just sit here like a bunch of losers and let our neighbors all get turned into slobbering zombies."

Twilight's mouth hung open slightly at the sight of her book hitting the floor, and she quickly went to retrieve it.

"Maybe I'll have to send for help," offered Spike, holding a hand up, "if we get a letter out to Princess Celestia, I'm sure she knows some kind of a healing spell that can undo this."

"But that's just it." said Twilight, "The zombies have overrun the library. Princess Celestia doesn't always open mail that isn't marked with a seal that identifies the letter as belonging to us. It'd be one big gamble, and if we lose..."

"The zombie ponies will gobble up our brains!" wailed Pinkie Pie, shrieking and diving underneath the rolling table.

"No they won't!" assured Rainbow Dash, Pulling Pinkie Pie by her fluffy tail out from underneath the table with her teeth, "Worst comes to worst we leave Ponyville, go to Canterlot, and get the Princesses to help us."

"But of course, plan A will be to get a letter out now rather than risk the time it will take us to evacuate," said Techorse, "we'll need to figure out a way to get the library."

He turned to a nearby intercom panel on the wall of the lab and pushed a red button with his left hoof, "PAL, we need you here."

"On my way master," came a reply from the square speaker.

"So how do we get there?" asked Pinkie Pie frantically, "We can't just dance right up to the library, can we? Can we?!"

"Well we can't run there, and I can't teleport us either," said Twilight, sighing, "they'll see the flash of light and come get us."

"So we'll have to be reeeeeally sneaky?" asked Pinkie Pie, comically lowering her voice and her head.

"Yes," answered Twilight as PAL lumbered into the room, "all of us will need to sneak around the back alleyways of Ponyville to get to the library. Once we get a seal, we can send a quick emergency letter to Princess Celestia."

"Then let's get moving!" shouted Rainbow Dash, running for the door, "We've got to save Ponyville!"

The others looked at each other and followed her out the door. PAL opened the steel gate and the main entrance to the castle, thankfully, not a single changed pony had been outside, and they were able to enter town undetected. They started near the town stationary store, whose windows had been broken, an obvious sign of the zombie ponies trying to enter.

"Oh no, they must have gotten Thoughtful Note," cried Twilight.

"I don't think it was just him," sighed Rainbow Dash, pointing around with a cyan leg.

Ponyville seemed like a ghost town now. The remaining ponies who did not look pale and have green patches all over their manes sat barricaded in their homes, hoping that rescue would arrive before their former neighbors, friends, maybe eve family broke down their boards and caught them. The stores that were normally open were closed shut, many of them with smashed windows and knocked over displays.

"This... is simply horrible," commented PAL, his orange eyes looking at the scene in despair.

"Glass and homes can be fixed," said Techorse, scanning around, "we need to figure out the safest route to the library without getting caught."

"BRAINS!" groaned a horde that emerged from a nearby grocery store, knocking over several produce stands in the market as they exited loudly.

"EEEEEEK!" screeched Pinkie Pie, jumping several feet in the air before whisking behind PAL in a cartoonish blur of pink.

The ponies, sickly pale with green moss overgrowing their manes, walked at a steady pace towards the group.

Twilight turned to Techorse, and said, "I'm going to put up a barrier so that we can run! It won't last very long, but it seems the pegasus ponies can't fly thanks to that weird green zombie slime spreading on them!"

The unicorn mare turned around to face the zombies, some of them ponies she recognized, such as Berry Punch, and even poor Bon Bon and Lyra. Twilight's horn glowed strongly as she bent her head down and crouched on all fours, before projecting a rounded wall of energy in front of herself. She then turn and ran, the barrier holding back the ponies who scratched at it curiously with their hooves. Twilight took note of the ponies' curious behavior of seeming to enjoy the energy, and galloped away to regroup with her friends.

"Oh man, I'm absolutely terrified of zombies!" cried Spike, riding on PAL's shoulders.

The robot kept up a good pace, although he was having trouble since he was encumbered by both Spike being on his shoulders, and Pinkie Pie being practically attached to his front, scared as could be.

"We're going to get through this!" assured the machine, keeping up with his master and Rainbow Dash, "We're almost to the library."

They reached the tree house, who's door had been bashed down unceremoniously. Twilight caught up with them, and the friends entered the home to get out from underneath the overcast sky, and away from the watchful eyes looking for them.

"All right!" said Twilight, "Let's find a seal and get a letter out to the Princesses, if we hurry we can..."

A hoof emerged from a nearby window, breaking it and causing Twilight and Pinkie Pie to shriek. Rainbow Dash gasped in surprise, and shoved the hoof out the window with a quick mid-air kick. She hoevered above her friends.

"We're under attack again!" she shouted, "Ponyville's just not safe anymore, let's flee for Canterlot, or better yet, Cloudsdale. I might brag about my home town a lot, but if there's one thing I'd pick now to brag about, it'd be that we don't have any zombies trying to eat our brains!"

A fresh horde of the enemies appeared at the doorway, and slowly approached the friends. They huddled up together against a bookcase, hoping to keep them back as best as possible. As the zombies slowly stepped forward, a clearly ill Rarity and Fluttershy emerged form the horde.

"No!" shouted Spike, "Why them?"

The zombie Rarity spoke up to them, seeming to still recognizer her friends, and stopped the other ponies.

"Oh hello darlings! Ever since Fluttershy and I went into Everfree, we've just had the most itching desire to find new brains!"

Zombie Fluttershy added softly, "Um, so... I.. I'd like to come over and take a tiny little taste of your brains. If, you know, that's ok with you."

Twilight realized at this point that she knew absolutely nothing about this "zombie outbreak" Ponyville was going through. Not only did the "zombies" break every conventional rule, but they never seemed to actually eat brains, or anything for that matter. Everypony had an unharmed head, they just looked as if something was causing them to act bizarrely, and seek other ponies out to merely touch. All along she had tried to remain the expert by assuming that the issue was a curse, but given the fact that two of her closest friends were acting quite similar to their regular forms, she now knew that she had no clue as to how to take care of the situation. However, Twilight also knew that her friends had recently been to Everfree forest from Rarity's words, and that gave her an idea as to who might know the answer to their problem.

"We're not going to write Celestia anymore," whispered Twilight to her friends, "we're going to go to Everfree to see a real expert on this. That's where Rarity and Fluttershy were. I think Zecora might know what's actually causing this outbreak. But I need a sample of Fluttershy's mane!"

Techorse reached out with his robot arm, and grabbed a small bit of the green gunk populating Fluttershy's hair, before retracting it back into his saddle. The light yellow mare snapped at the metal fingers, but thankfully missed.

"NOW RUN!" shrieked Pinkie Pie, dashing out of the back door of the library for Everfree.

Rainbow Dash followed her out the door, leaving Twilight and Techorse, who were pushed twoards the rear exit by PAL's strong mechanical arms as the zombies drew closer.

"I will keep them here," he said, "I'm metal. They won't hurt me."

Spike looked over at a small glass jewelery box he had set up, with a red velvet pillow inside. In it was the large sapphire Rarity had given to him, to be saved for a distant occasion, which might never come. The young dragon looked at his zombified crush, who only gave him a look of barely knowing him as they got within just 6 steps of him.

"I'm staying too."

Twilight tried to disagree, but PAL had already shoved them out the rear exit of the library, and had shut the door. The zombies paused one final time, as they watched Spike climb onto PAL's shoulders.
The zombies pushed forward, demanding to get to the rear exit and chase after the normal ponies.
PAL stepped in front of the exit to the library, and looked up with his mechanical eyes at Spike's natural ones.

The two stared at each other for a split second before smiling, and returning to the horde that was now attacking them. The robot braced against the door, even as the ponies started to kick at his legs in hopes of bringing him down. They desperately wanted to exit through that door.

"I'm sorry," started PAL.

"But we can't let you do that!" finished Spike.

The team of ponies who had managed to barely escape the library fled into the Everfree forest. Although the forest was undoubtedly dangerous, it was certainly more safe than facing the crowd of zombies again. Techorse and Rainbow Dash flew overhead, looking for Zecora's home in the woods, hoping she would be home to help them out in their predicament. Once they spotted the tree home in the middle of the twisted forest, they signaled to Twilight and Pinkie Pie, who followed them on hoof to the house.

The friends banged on the door hard, knowing that eventually Spike and PAL would not be able to hold back the horde for much longer. Zecora opened her door, rather startled that her friends had been knocking so harshly.

"You were upon my door with such a frantic knock, what has you all in such terrible shock?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Zecora, we need your help," said Twilight Sparkle humbly, "Ponyville has been overrun by ponies who are acting like zombies ever since Fluttershy and Rarity went into the Everfree to look for a gemstone deposit."

"They're all trying to eat our brains!" shrieked Pinkie Pie, pushing past Zecora to get into her home.

The zebra ushered them all inside, where she began to search through a small number of books on the creatures of the Everfree. Eventually she came upon an article that she showed to her friends. After moving a few freshly made burn cream potions out of the way on her custom-carved table, she set the book down, and pointed a gold-ringed hoof at the page it was open to.

"The symptoms and disease your friends have caught, caused by dark magic they're not," she explained in her rhyming language, "a harmful plant is causing your loss, a severe infection of pheonix moss."

"Phoenix moss?" asked Rainbow Dash, turning her head back to the ponies gathered at the table. The pegasus was trying to peel Pinkie Pie from the ceiling of the hut, who was clinging on for dear life.

Twilight read the article in the old, worn out book on the variety of moss,

"Phoenix moss is a variety of moss native to the Everfree Forest as well as several more temperate forests around Equestria. It waits on an elevated rock for the natural heat that phoenixes generate from their feathers, and then launches a piece of itself at the source of the heat. Using some kind of chemical information, the moss then causes the phoenix to molt, and the ashes help the moss's spores grow in another location. Sometimes, the moss even uses its influence to get the phoenix to spread the moss to other phoenixes by looking for their particular thought patterns."

"Neat!" said Pinkie Pie, detaching from the ceiling.

Rainbow Dash shouted as her friend landed on top of her, softening her impact but making the pegasus pony rather uncomfortable.

Pinkie Pie stood up and bounced over to the friends, before opening her mouth and screaming, "Now can you tell us in English what that means?!"

After her ears stopped ringing from Pinkie's terrified screaming, Twilight said to them, "It means that all along, we haven't been dealing with brain-hungry zombies. That green slime we've seen in everypony's manes is a moss that uses some kind of chemical hypnosis to force animals to spread it. Normally it only does this to phoenixes, but it looks like we've found a subspecies that has made the jump to ponies! In fact, I bet the reason they were looking for brains is because they wanted new minds to control, not brains as food."

"So what do we do about it?" asked Techorse, "Unlike the phoenixes, we can't molt in order to remove the moss and satisfy it."

"Somehow we'll have to convince the moss that there's a greater source of heat and energy," said Twilight, thinking hard, "But I can't think of anything that'd qualify."

"Well, we'd better think of something soon," declared Rainbow Dash, on her hind legs as she looked out of one of Zecora's windows, "they've caught up with us!"

The others went to the window and looked out at the horde. Ponies of all kinds, mindless as the moss forced them to seek out the energy they demanded to produce spores. Their manes caked in the simple yet harmful plant, they marched forward towards the tree house.

"Brains!" came a deep, mechanical voice from the horde.

Techorse's mouth fell slightly open in horror as he recognized the voice. His robot stepped out from the middle of the crowd, his orange eyes now glowing green, and a stain of moss on his back. The machine's eyes seemed to lack focus, and he carried a large uprooted traffic sign, a metal pole with a yellow triangular warning symbol at the end. PAL was using it as a club to break down tree stumps and branches, helping the horde move along. On his back, he had tied a metal water pail with a piece of rope, providing a bucket for Spike, who sat in it. Spike held on to the pieces of rope to help PAL steer himself, and the dragon was also caked with moss.

"Oh no... Spike," whispered Twilight, her ears dropping in sadness.

PAL reached behind him, and plucked the young dragon out of his bucket perch, before throwing him overhand at the open window.

"I'm so sorry Spike!" cried Twilight, shutting the window.

Spike impacted sharply on the glass, sticking to the pane. He drew his long, forked tongue over the glass and slid down the window before falling off.

"The moss has gotten quite carried away! Has it not only been one day?" asked Zecora, clearly frightened.

"It has only been one day," said Techorse, his robotic arms emerging from the saddle.

He pointed to the geographical map showing the distribution of the moss, "Which is why we have to stop the moss here and now. If we don't, it'll escape Ponyville, and all of Equestria will get enslaved by it!"

"But where are we going to find both enough heat, and useable energy to convince the moss to detach?" asked Twilight.

Techorse's robotic arms retracted into his saddle with a mechanical whir, and then he answered, "I'm not sure. Heat is a form of energy, but the moss needs both."

The door on the home suffered a sharp, hard knock as PAL bashed on the door with his sign. Each hard whack threatened to break down the door and allow the zombies in. Spike had returned to his bucket, giggling as the machine smashed at the door.

"Oh no!" groaned Twilight, who started to despair, "We're going to become zombies to that horrible moss if PAL breaks that door down!"

"We were so close," grunted Rainbow Dash, folding her wings in defeat.

"But hey," she said, walking up to Twilight and wrapping a hoof around her neck, "we wouldn't have even made it this far if you hadn't admitted you weren't the expert and gotten Zecora's help."

Rainbow Dash removed her hoof and smiled at Twilight, trying to get her to cheer up, "At least we know it's fixable. Somepony's going to figure out about the heat and energy, and stop this stupid moss, even if we become zombies. Who knows, maybe being a zombie will be pretty neat!"

Pinkie Pie sat in the corner of the tree house, waiting to be taken over, and thought rapidly about dozens of things, some more random than others. Suddenly though, her ears perked up sharply, and a broad, beaming smile came over her face.

"Guys!" she said, gasping, "I think I know what we can do! But we have to get back to Sugarcube Corner."

"What's the idea?" asked Techorse, tilting his head curiously.

The door suddenly broke down, and PAL stood in the doorway, sign in his hand. He seemed to be blocking the entrance of the other zombies, but perhaps he wanted them for himself!

"I'll explain once we get there!" screamed Pinkie Pie, "Twilight!"

"I'm on it, hold on everypony!" shouted Twilight, her horn glowing furiously.

PAL smiled as his friends teleported out in a flash of purple light, leaving the lonely forest hut empty, save for Zecora's tribal decorations.

The four ponies and one startled zebra entered Sugarcube Corner, empty with several tables knocked over. Pinkie Pie ran back into the kitchen, and urged her friends to follow her.

"We're going to make a huuuuuge batch of hot cocoa!" she said, pointing to the refrigerator with her right front hoof, "I need milk!"

"Why are we making hot cocoa?" asked Techorse, opening the refrigerator and removing the gallon of milk with his robotic arms.

"Well, it's both very hot, and it's full of sugary energy!" she answered, getting a box of baking cocoa from the top shelf of a nearby cabinet, "If we make a huge batch of it, maybe the moss will go for the cocoa and fall off the ponies!"

"It's worth a try!" said Rainbow Dash, flying up to a shelf to fetch a bag of sugar.

Zecora went to the object she was most familiar with, a large steel cauldron, and brought it over to the middle of the room.

"This pot will help us cook a lot, and since it's steel, it'll stay quite hot!" she rhymed.

Pinkie Pie gathered the ingredients and began adding them to the pot. She ended up running back the fridge and using up every last of the 12 gallons of milk inside the huge refrigerator, along with several boxes of cocoa and many bags of sugar. The sugary, dark brown mix swirled around in the cauldron, and Pinkie Pie mixed it all up with a huge wooden spoon she'd normally use to stir the batter for a wedding cake. Once the concoction was ready, all of the friends had to gather their strength to move the huge container of heavy liquid outside.

"All right, there's no time to heat it all up the normal way!" said Pinkie Pie, "We gotta do something real crazy! Techie, use your lasers to heat it up."

Techorse grinned as he realized what he was being asked to do, and his laser cannons emerged from his battle saddle. He switched to the solid beam mode on the weapons, and fired the two beams of yellow energy at the cauldron's base. Using a lower power to avoid burning a hole through the cooking pot, he heated the bottom of the cauldron until it glowed bright red. The hot cocoa came to a rolling boil, the bubbling sound mixing with the sound of the laser beams firing. Techorse stopped firing, and the barrels of his weapons smoked gently from the action.

Pinkie Pie then walked up, dragging a large canvas bag in her mouth, and emptied its contents into the hot liquid. Many huge pink marshmallows fell into the hot chocolate, floating gently on the surface, and creating a pink foam across the hot cocoa.

"Wow, those are some huge marshmallows," marveled Rainbow Dash, "I didn't know you could make them that big."

"They're big and pink, like brains!" said Pinkie Pie, giggling, "I'm sure the zombies will be attracted to the cocoa this way, and then that mean old moss will jump right for it!"

"Well, brains are actually gray..." commented Techorse before receiving a hoof over his mouth by Rainbow Dash.

"I'm sure that'll work!" said the cyan pegasus mare, hoping at this point that anything would help to spare them from the moss.

"Now we just have to wait!" said Pinkie Pie, getting behind a bush nearby.

The friends piled into the nearby brushes and waited patiently. Sure enough, PAL managed to lead the horde back over to the cauldron, and the zombies took note of the hot liquid, and the tempting puffy marshmallows that were letting off a sickly sweet aroma. The ponies surrounded the cauldron as the moss influenced them to obtain the heat and sugar energy, and the pot was knocked over, spilling a gigantic mass of hot chocolate in a huge puddle on the streets of Ponyville. The heat of the cocoa reached the simple thermal sensors in the moss, and out of greed for more heat and energy, it detached from its pony hosts and landed in the puddle of coca. Masses of green fell from manes everywhere, and as the moss left their necks and dropped access to their minds, ponies came to from their zombies trance. Many of them quickly understood what had been happening the whole time, and were relieved to be free, where as others were confused, wondering how they had gotten where they were, and why they were standing in hot chocolate!

Fluttershy and Rarity came out of their trances and discovered as they looked around the complete wreck of the town that had been made from the moss's hypnosis.

"Oh... my," whimpered Fluttershy, her ears drooping.

The timid mare and Rarity walked up to their friends, and Rarity asked, "I can't believe what's happened around here, and I'm ashamed to admit that I remember every bit of it. I just could not control myself for some reason!"

Twilight smiled and answered, "It wasn't your fault, Rarity. We'll explain later once we've cleaned up all this hot cocoa."

PAL and Spike looked around and realized that all of the ponies had been cured, so they immediately dropped their act.

"Phew!" said Spike, relaxing as he brushed the moss off of himself, "I thought we'd never have to stop pretending to be zombies."

Twilight Sparkle ran up to her assistant and gave him a huge hug, "Oh, I'm so glad you're ok, Spike! That was a really brave thing of you to do!"

"It's ok Twilight, really. We overheard everything about the moss," he said, hugging her back.
PAL nodded and continued, "Indeed. Seeing as I am a machine and do not have an organic brain to control, the moss did not affect me."

"And I'm cold blooded," said Spike, "I wasn't warm enough to attract the moss since it's cold out today. We needed to pretend to be zombies so that they'd stop attacking us, and PAL threw me at the window because he wanted to try and get me to safety."

"I'm just happy the two of you are ok!" Twilight cheered.

"Hey, when you're done being sappy, we have a lot of hot cocoa to clean up," said Rainbow Dash with a hint of smile, bringing a mop out from a utility shed on the street, "If we hurry, Pinkie Pie says we can all have a fresh mug of hot cocoa! We don't want to miss that!"

The liquid was mopped up along with the moss, which was returned back into the Everfree forest, far closer to the phoenix migration path. With any luck, the plant would not have another chance to infect ponies again. After things had returned to normal and all the broken glass had been replaced, the friends met up at Sugarcube Corner to discuss things over a brand new batch of Pinkie's hot cocoa.

"Well THAT was one interesting day!" she said, smiling, "Everything seems to be ok though, no need to tell the princesses, right?"

"I did let the princesses know about this," admitted Twilight, "Especially because I needed to tell Princess Celestia that I learned that it's all right not to be an expert on something."

Zecora finished draining her mug and placed it back down the table, before giving Twilight an approving, subtle smile.

Pinkie Pie suddenly threw both of her front hooves on the table, getting her friends' attention.

"So, do you think maybe we can let the moss grow back again on Nightmare Night?" she asked, a twinkle in her eyes, "I'd love to see zombies running around for that!"

"PINKIE PIE!" shouted most of her friends.

"What?" she asked, blushing, "It was only an idea!"

#34 - Chaos Leashed

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Chaos Leashed

Techorse series #34

By Spirals95

The dark cloak of night had fallen over Canterlot, only the light of the quarter moon shone down on the cliff side fortress that housed the Princesses. Princess Luna kept to herself, choosing this night to be one of the nights where she enjoyed a book, and stayed up to listen to the dreams of her subjects. She turned the pages on the large silver volume, looking for new things to learn as the fire in her room's fireplace crackled, providing light and warmth on that cold evening. Outside of the castle in the garden, only the sound of a single owl could occasionally be heard, as the insects had retired for the season due to the cold. The statues in the garden lined the path to the castle, overlooking the area in silence.
A figure in a cloak approached one of the statues, his black clothing waved in the breeze, exposing his white hooves with a ruffle cut at the bottom. A glow like an apparition came from underneath his cloak, white in color, and a sizable bronze device that resembled an expensive wristwatch emerged from a pocket in the side of the intruder's clothing.

The suspect had failed to destroy Ponyville to spite Princess Celestia earlier, but was now sure that his new plan would ensure the end of the princess's new found happiness. Perhaps he'd even get revenge on that meddling bookworm Twilight Sparkle as well!
The enchanted watch attached itself to its intended target and by curse, clicked into place, unable to be removed like a set of strong handcuffs. The face of the watch glowed a faint light blue, before receding into nothing. The light blue light traversed the statue in cracks, breaking apart the stone, and removing the sheath of lime. The stranger in the cloak then cast a bright spell over the area, creating a large white bubble around them of energy, that was oddly invisible to any outside observers. As the blue light faded, the stone of the statue crumbled away, and a twisted figure straightened himself out.

"Oh, what luck!" mused Discord, straightening his long neck, "I seem to have been freed! You have no idea just how uncomfortable it is to be a lawn decoration."

"I'm sure," replied the figure, his eyes visible through his cloak.

The draconequus recognized the figure's Russian accent and snapped his lion paw's fingers, "Ah, I remember you, you're..."

"Does it matter that you know who I am?" interrupted the male, "Look, I've got deal for you. That device on your wrist is temporarily holding your body in the string of time moments before Celestia's friends froze you in stone. I control that device. Right now, the effect will only last for two days."

Discord played with the watch and attempted to turn it into something less sensible, like a scrunchy wristband, but to no avail.

"The watch is also in its own time channel," laughed the intruder.

"Giving me an accessory that shields me from the Elements of Harmony?" said Discord, pulling on his goatee, "Sounds interesting, but of course I'm not anyone's lackey. I'd rather go back to stone than have to actually... follow instructions."

Discord then remembered his greatest scheme of all time and said, "Of course, none of this will matter once my surprise in the Everfree Forest rears its head."

"Oh, you mean the part of the forest that burned down this year?" asked the stranger.

Discord slapped his forehead in disgust, and the stranger laughed, "Yes, Discord, that ancient thing of yours was completely burnt and destroyed in the forest fire this year. You have no chance against Equestria except through me!"

Discord grumbled at his ancient plan of one thousand years in the making being foiled and pouted, crossing his arms.

"Look, if you do as I tell you, not only will I give you your freedom, Discord, but I will also give you a large chunk of Equestria for you to fly and be free in," offered the stranger, "it's double or nothing. What will it be for you, hmmm?"

"You mean, you want your precious Equestria in utter chaos?" Discord asked, giving a twisted grin, "I've never heard such sweet words in my life!"

"I'll assume that's a yes," said the cloaked stallion, removing a small piece of paper from his cloak and giving it to Discord, "this is all I want. I want you to deliver Twilight Sparkle to me two nights from now so that I can make Celestia pay. I don't care about the green one."

Discord looked at the photo, clearly one of Twilight Sparkle and Techorse standing next to each other.

"Ahhh, I see, going for her student?" hummed Discord, tossing the photo away.

The picture impacted the side of the bubble and froze in midair, suspended in time, as were the two inside the bubble. To the outside world, not even a single second had passed yet.

"Once she's in my hooves, I will extend your watch's time infinitely," said the figure after clearing his throat, "then, anything from Canterlot to the western mountain range is yours. You don't even have to hurt them, just bring them to me."

"Well good, causing harm is not the goal of chaos," Discord said, crossing his arms, "I'm not going to do your dirty work for you, but I'll be fine with bringing Twilight to you."

"Good," said the figure, a spark shooting from his horn at the watch, "just remember, if you don't..."
Discord began to notice that his feet were beginning to re-encase in stone again, but it receded quickly as the intruder in front of him revoked his spell.

"You go back to being pigeon latrine," he said.

This was no way to treat the Lord of Chaos! But unfortunately, Discord knew that he had no choice in the matter, and figured that eventually he'd be able to break the Elements of Harmony's hold on him by himself. Then he could teach the Russian sounding stallion taunting him some manners.

That particular stallion informed his new "friend", "Just tap on the watch if you need to communicate with me. I look forward to being delivered Twilight Sparkle!"

With a bright flash of white, the stranger vanished, taking his bubble of time with him. The photo fluttered gracefully to the ground, and Discord dragged his tail on the ground as he went to pick it up.

"Of course, now I have to decide how to do it," he mused, summoning a green chalkboard from out of nowhere, and putting on a pair of black glasses he retrieved from behind his head.

He drew a few diagrams of ways he could go about trapping Twilight, but ultimately gave up, and balled up the entire chalkboard in his hands as if it were a large piece of paper, tossing it behind his back.

"They won't even let me in the front door," said Discord to himself, "perhaps what I need to do is... a little bit of acting."

The master of acting and deceiving, Discord prepared exactly what he was going to do the following morning. If things went according to plan for him, and they frequently did, he'd soon easily have Twilight and Techorse to trade for control of most of Equestria! All that sweet territory to cause chaos and trouble in would be his.

He could sense that Princess Celestia was still awake and sitting on her throne, discussing matters of what artwork should be displayed in a new gallery that was being opened up later that month in Canterlot. Not wanting to simply wait until the next day to put his plan into motion, Discord decided to make his grand entry now. Snapping his taloned fingers, he disappeared in a flash of gray light, and appeared near the eastward wall of the castle.

The moonlight was projecting a shadow of a nearby tree onto the wall, and Discord's shadow grabbed a hold of it, allowing him to defy gravity and climb the tree's shadow to ascend the wall, before reaching a window in the side of the mighty structure that had been shut tight for the evening. Shrugging, he simply turned himself into a 2D version of himself, a paper thin Discord, and slipped through the narrow gap between the two panes. Once inside, parchment Discord drifted gently to the ground back and forth before resting. He pulled himself up, clenched his lion's paw into a fist with the thumb out, and blew hard into it, re-inflating himself into a 3D being again.

Discord was not doing any of this to make the perfect entry into the castle. He was only doing it to make a nonsensical game of the situation he was in. Although he could have teleported into the throne room, that direct route would have simply made far too much sense. It was so much more fun to attempt to stealthily enter the castle, and make trouble for the night watch when possible.
Once he had reached the door that led to the throne room, he noticed that it was locked, unable to simply open the door and do what he had planned.

"What a shame," he said quietly to himself, "making the candles lighting the hallway dance in with me would have been the perfect entrance. Time for plan B!"

He looked back and forth with his devious yellow eyes down the hallways, and saw a small mirror near the double doors marking the throne room.

Discord slid up to the mirror and looked at his reflection before saying, "Watch for guards for me."

The reflection saluted, clearly no longer mirroring Discord's actions, "Yes sir!"

The chaotic mastermind turned back to the door while the mirror image took out a pair of binoculars and started scanning the hallways.

Discord went back to the double doors, and reached up, pulling his unicorn styled horn off of his head with a subtle popping noise. He then rolled the horn in his hands pack and forth, and like a piece of putty the horn turned into a long, thin piece of material quickly. Discord then inserted his modified horn into the lock on the door, and started to pick the lock while his reflection kept guard.

Once he felt the tumblers click into place, he rolled the horn back to its original size in its hands, and replaced it on his head, and then opened the door, while staying behind it. Light from the throne room shone in and illuminated the hallway, and the reflection Discord, his duty done, vanished from the mirror.

Princess Celestia noticed that the door had opened, as had Captain Arbiter and Jools and Jops, all of which were nearby the throne. Arbiter's brow curled in suspicion, he could have sworn that he had locked that door for the night!

The two ponies in charge of the art gallery's opening, both unicorn mares with a passion for portraits and landscapes, did not notice the open door.

"I would like to open up the option for a portrait of you, your majesty, if you'd so desire for the portrait gallery," one of them said, smiling in hopes the princess would say yes.

Princess Celestia seemed to stare at the open door, and not at the art gallery owners.

She then looked down at her subjects, and said to them, "Please let me have a moment here."

She then returned to the open door and called out, "If there's somepony out there, please come in!"

A few moments passed, and then, a blue cardboard box slid into the room, nonstop, ignoring the rules of inertia and friction. The two art gallery owners turned around and looked at the sliding object with great confusion, as did Jools and Jops.

"What is that?" asked Arbiter, growing worried as the box slid to a halt on the red carpet in the middle of the throne room.

The container was just 10 feet from the throne, and rested perfectly on the floor. Princess Celestia craned her neck in on the object, hoping to get a better look. Immediately, the lid of the box flew off backwards, and landed on the ground, causing her to recoil in surprise. The box contained a large set of playing cards, all face down, with a red crosshatched pattern for the back art. All of the playing cards suddenly flew upwards at once, and assembled themselves into a giant pyramid, the most impressive house that could be made with a number of decks. The watchers of this event were impressed by the feat of magic, but remained silent.

The house of cards then collapsed in on itself, creating a column, from which a taloned hand emerged and scooped the entire thing in one cartoony swoop, collapsing all of the cards into a single deck. Discord now stood in the middle of the carpet were the cards were, wearing a small blue poker visor on his head. He shuffled the deck of cards in his hands, and smiled at those present.

"Discord!?" said Princess Celestia, stunned and also extremely worried.

"Celestia!" he answered, as if she was an old friend, "Care for a game of cards?"

The two art gallery ponies screamed, and dropped to the ground, covering their eyes in terror. They had heard the legends about the Lord of Chaos that had flung Equestria into sheer disorder, and how life under him was uncomfortable beyond belief.

"I suppose it is a little late for cards," he said, sighing as he watched the unicorns cower.

Discord took off the visor and threw them and the cards over his shoulder, where they vanished into thin air.

Captain Arbiter drew his sword from its blue sheath, his magic gauntlets hovering at his sides as they activated and grabbed the blade.

"I don't know how you're free," he said, pointing the tip of the blade at Discord, "and honestly I don't care. Not another step, Discord!"

He intentionally disobeyed the order and took a step forward saying, "I don't know what you mean by that, Arbiter Axechop."

"How did you know my name?" he demanded to know, moving forward, "You were turned to stone ages before I was employed here."

"I could hear everything out there in the garden," he answered, "the invasion of the robots and "humans", whatever those were. Even the art gallery you were just discussing."

He then smirked at Arbiter and said, "And of course, let's not forget your betrayal when you set that guillotine up."

Arbiter grit his teeth and snarled as Jools and Jops got the two unicorn mares back to Princess Celestia's sides, where they'd be safer in the event of a fight. Princess Celestia looked angrily at Discord, thinking that his intentions would mean a coup against her. Options to stop Discord raced through her head, as well as questions as to how he was no longer in stone. Should she try to wake up Luna? Summon Twilight Sparkle and her friends?

"Discord, I don't know what you want, but I'm willing to listen if it means you don't plunge Equestria into total chaos again," she said.

"Well I was about to get to that!" Discord said, walking forward towards her.

He then reached down with his claw and said, "You see, what I want to do is..."

Arbiter took this as an attempt to hurt Princess Celestia, and made the decision to strike. His sword in his gauntlet, he yelled, and jumped at Discord with his blade, who looked at him quizzically. The stallion struck his sharp blade in a wide arc as he jumped in mid air, his black cape fluttering behind him. A sound akin to blade across wood was heard as the sword made its arc, and Arbiter decapitated Discord in one swift stroke, sending his head to the ground in front of Celestia. He landed on the ground, sweating and breathing heavily from his sudden action and mighty blow. Princess Celestia's mouth fell open, and the unicorn mares screamed again at what they had just seen. Discord's mixed body fell to the ground with a mighty thud.

"A... Arbiter!" said the princess, shocked.

Jools and Jops looked at their captain in awe of what he had just done. Silence had overtaken the room as the knowledge that Discord had just lost his head sunk in. It didn't last long however, when his body started to show movement, despite him having apparently been vanquished in the eyes of those present.
His body stood up and reached down to pick up his head, which he replaced on his neck. He then gave the detached head a sharp smack with his paw, and it spun around quickly several times before a sharp click was heard. Discord shook his now replaced head quickly to re-orient himself, and coughed once before turning to Arbiter, who was clearly shocked.

"Was that really necessary?" he answered teasingly, "You really do need to watch that temper of yours, Arbiter! Violence solves nothing."

Princess Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, and her heart rate began to go back to normal. Discord pointed at Arbiter's black cape, and the cape enlarged and fell off of his neck before moving under his hooves. The captain tired to protest, but it was too late, as the engorged cape wrapped him up and tied itself into a bag, trapping the captain. His sword and gauntlets fell out of the opening before it sealed, ensuring that he could not escape. The bag moved around as the pegasus struggled to free himself.

"Now that we have the captain in time-out, let's talk," suggested Discord, turning back to Princess Celestia.

"You'll never win, Discord," she said, getting up from her throne, "I don't care what you do to me. Equestria will not fall."

Discord put both his hands to his heart and pretended to act hurt, "But Celestia, I merely wish to announce that I'm retiring from plunging Equestria into chaos."

Princess Celestia's eyes relaxed, and she asked curiously, "Oh?"

"Chaos is such bliss, but even I need a vacation," he explained, "I'd like to propose finding a more creative outlet for it, in exchange for, perhaps lightening my stone sentence by a few thousand years?"

"This is a trick," muttered Celestia, her horn starting to glow.

Discord had her right where he wanted her.

He said, "Of course you'd think that, it wouldn't be the first trick. In fact, I don't know which trick it would be, I've lost count myself..."

Arbiter continued to try and free himself from the bag, but the more he struggled, the more the now cursed cape held him tight. Discord looked at the rolling bag with a slight smile, and cleared his throat before continuing,

"I'd like to go to a more isolated area, say, the river and light woods near Canterlot. Just to stretch my scales, and feathers, and everything else," he said, putting his hands together in supplication, "once you have, perhaps you could send that student of yours, Twilight Sparkle, to help me find chaos's true place."

Princess Celestia knew something was wrong with the situation, but she could not figure out what. The watch Discord seemed to have now did not tip her off, as she had believed it was a part of his poker outfit he had worn at the start of the conversation. Despite her negative feelings, Celestia had hoped that someday, Discord could be made into a good being, and this presented the perfect opportunity. But she still had a few more questions to ask, just in case he was up to something.

"How do I know you won't simply leave the area and cause problems?" she asked, her hair still flowing behind her.

Discord emoted with his hands, and said, "Obviously because you still have the Elements of Harmony. If you'll notice and check your vault, you'll see that I haven't touched them. Not even the extra one you've added. Justice, what a nice choice by the way, might I add. A very deep and interesting subject."

Princess Celestia thought about what she had just been told. Essentially, Discord had left the Elements of Harmony alone as a token of good faith. Perhaps this would be the best time to teach her former enemy the deceny he needed to live in Equestria free from stone. Hope welled in her heart that Discord would see the light over the next few days. She still issued a warning, however, to make sure he wouldn't flee and cause mischeif.

"If you dare to leave that area, I will send Twilight Sparkle and the other element holders with their artifacts to turn you to stone again." she warned, "Otherwise, you are free to go."

"Will I be able to expect Twilight tomorrow?" he asked "innocently", "Or within two days? I do wish to start right away on making chaos a more productive hobby."

"I will have her visit the area as soon as possible," she answered, working up the positivity to smile, "enjoy your night of freedom."

Discord thanked her, and faked a small bow before diving into the open blue cardboard box, disappearing into it. The box's lid sealed up again, and then it rolled out of sight down the hallway into the darkness. At this point, Arbiter's cape returned to normal, back around his neck and no longer a prison. The captain stood up, and moved in front of Princess Celestia, bowing.

"Forgive me for my violence," he said, "I acted in haste."

The alicorn lowered her head to her captain and said to him, "I was just surprised that you were willing to take the risk of standing up to him for everypony in the room. Besides, I already was aware that Discord could replace his head at will. It's been one thousand years after all."

Arbiter stood up and smiled, his one good eye looking at the smiling faces of the unicorns, and of Jools and Jops.

"Hopefully Miss Sparkle is going to be able to help Discord figure out a more appropriate use of his skills," he said sternly, "I'd like to not have to drag him back kicking and screaming by those tiny wings of his."

"I'm sure you won't have to," said Princess Celestia, confidently.

She then turned to her guests, and asked them to spend the night in the Castle rooms so that they could discuss the art gallery at some other time. The two agreed and left the room with Jools and Jops, leaving Arbiter and Celestia alone to close up before heading for bed. Tomorrow, they would send for Twilight Sparkle, and ask her to tackle her greatest challenge yet.

When Twilight Sparkle received her letter the following morning about the news, she couldn't believe what she was reading. Although it was tempting to write a letter back asking for confirmation that Discord was actually going to make an effort in self-improvement, she instead decided to gather all of her friends, as requested by the message. It was easy enough to get Rarity and Applejack to join, who wanted to do anything to aid in keeping Equestria a place of sanity and order. Rainbow Dash had been slightly harder to convince, seeing as she had trouble forgiving others from time to time, but eventually the lure of being able to add another awesome feat to her list got her to follow the group of friends. Of course, Pinkie Pie was up for anything that could lead to a great time. This left convincing Fluttershy to work up the courage to join them on their mission. The team reached Fluttershy's home, where they found Shadow Breeze at the front doorstep, about to knock.

"Shadow, Fluttershy might not be in today," warned Rainbow Dash, walking up to him, "she needs to come with us."

"Oh, hey everypony," he said, turning and noticing how they were traveling as a pack, "why? Is there something going on?"

"We have an important task ahead of us for the next few days," explained Twilight, "I had to leave Spike at the library to keep it open."

"What's the task?" asked the graphite colored pegasus, looking a bit confused.

Fluttershy had heard the conversation from inside her home, and gently opened the front door on her tree with a slight creak. She walked out and greeted her friends.

"Good morning," she said, smiling softly, "did I forget about something we were going to do today, girls? I'm sorry."

"Don't worry Fluttershy," Applejack explained, "ya didn't forget anything, this just came up this mornin'."

"Anyways," explained Twilight, swishing her tail once, "Fluttershy, we've been tasked by Princess Celestia to take on a great challenge. Apparently Discord has somehow managed to set himself free, but instead of laying chaotic waste to Canterlot, wants to try and find a more creative outlet for his powers."

"Wh... what?" gasped Fluttershy, her pupils shrinking at the news.

Shadow Breeze's eyes also grew wide, and he asked, "Wait... seriously?"

"I know it sounds hard to believe, but he even left the Elements of Harmony in the vault," Twilight continued, raising a hoof, "with them under tight security now, at the very least he won't be able to pull off an escape."

"I guess, but I'm still rather suspicious. Think about all the stuff he did last time," stated Rainbow Dash, digging her hoof in, "I'm surprised we're not going to take the Elements and go turn him to stone again."

"Look, I'm a bit upset too," Twilight said to her, making eye contact, "but Princess Celestia wants us to make peace with Discord. Even if we don't like him, at least we can make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble without turning him into a decoration again."

Shadow Breeze got an idea in his mind, and suggested, "Make peace? Since I'm a diplomat in training, may I come with you? I'd like to write up an agreement that could help!"

"I don't see why not," said Fluttershy, "if you'd really like to, that is. You're not scared?"

"No. As far as I know from what I've heard and read, Discord's not dangerous," he said, shaking his head.

"But if he gets loose, he'll make life hard on all of us!" protested Rarity, "I don't want us to end up under mind control yet again."

"That won't happen," said Fluttershy, "I'm sure of it. There's a good part of him deep down inside there."

"Oh please!" scoffed Rainbow Dash.

"Anyways, we need to go to Techorse and get his help on this one," said Twilight, "come on Shadow, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to have another friend helping us!"

When they reached Techorse and told him the news, he had his own moment of skepticism before being told the evidence that Discord wanted to make a change. He then let them in, and led them into a small ready room, equipped with a hologram table. There they planned how they were going to tackle their quest.

"We'll need to figure out how Discord can make a positive impact on Equestria instead of a negative one," said Techorse, standing next to Twilight.

"We don't know exactly what that is," muttered Rainbow Dash, "honestly, I don't think there is anything that loon could do for good."

Twilight admitted somewhat shamefully, "Nopony knows right this minute what Discord could do, but do we really want to go back to fighting him every time he gets free? Equestria's order is at stake here ponies! We've got to at least try to pacify Discord until we can figure out something he can do. I'm not sure how he'll react to hearing he's irredeemable!"

"That's a terrible thing to say anyways," whispered Fluttershy, looking at the ground glumly, "he's not irredeemable. He just needs a friend."

Shadow Breeze looked at the back of Fluttershy's head and frowned at her sadness.

"So what can we do to convince Discord not to run off and turn Ponyville into a pinata?" shouted Pinkie Pie, putting her hooves on the grid lined table.

"Well, I'd like to try first, if everpony doesn't mind. Discord hasn't met me yet, and he might be more willing to hold off on trying something funny if he receives some kind of a token of peace from me," Techorse said, smiling, "anypony got an idea as to what he might like?"

"Maybe his own home?" asked Fluttershy, "Does Discord have a house in Equestria he used to live in? It seems he has no place to go, and that's really sad."

"Yeah... hang on, where does that weirdo live anyways?" asked Rainbow Dash, "You know, before he got turned to stone?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't leave him without a place if he's going to be here in Equestria with us," answered Techorse, "so we're going to make a place! Good idea Fluttershy."

"But how are we going to design an entire castle?" asked Twilight.

"Remeber the time you loaned me that book on castle architecture?" he asked, "I copied all the designs into the castle holo-projector."

Techorse pressed a button with a hoof on the table, and a hologram of a large castle appeared over the table, rotating.

"That being said, I'm going to build Discord a new home in the area outside of Canterlot where he's located right now. What I'm hoping is that at the very least, getting a free castle might be incentive enough to wait for us to come up with a reasonable answer to his question."

"You're going to waste all that work building a castle for that guy?" protested Rainbow Dash, swatting at the hologram with her left wing, "Come on Techie, that's a stupid idea!"

"We won't be building it. I'm not making us do any work," he said, rolling his eyes as he shut off the hologram, "Let me go get my help for this project, and then we'll all head to Canterlot!"

"Not so fast, how are we gonna get a permit to build a castle?" demanded Rainbow Dash.

Applejack laughed and tipped her hat before cracking a low joke, "Easy sugarcube, the moment Techie tells 'em he's building it to keep Discord out of their manes, he'll have that permit hot in his hooves!"

Twilight smiled and stated, "I'll get us all set up for our stay. We're going to be there for a couple days, so I'll need to get us all packed up."

The unicorn mare led her friends out of the room to go back to their homes and pack their belongings for the trip. Techorse stepped outside of the castle, and entered his back yard, noting the place where he first encountered Twilight, and sighing.

He then extended his robotic arms out of his saddle, and put the first two fingers of each metal hand into the corners of his mouth, and whistled sharply. The robotic arms retreated into the saddle with a mechanical buzz, and the ground near Techorse started to shake. Suddenly, three large, worm-shaped robots emerged from the ground, and focused their frontal camera and headlights on Techorse. They were mining probes, the giant machines that fetched his metal and resources necessary to build his inventions while causing as little damage to the surrounding terrain as possible. Each one was four feet in diameter, and the three mechanical worms stared down at the pony that had built them, waiting for instructions.

"I need to ask you three a favor," he said, smiling.

Later on in the day, the ponies had gathered at Canterlot castle to embark on their mission. Techorse made it back to the castle last, and entered the throne room with a smile on his face. He found all of his friends flanking the sides of the red carpet that led up to the thrones in the castle.

"Everything's ready," he said.

"Wowie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "That was fast!"

"Techorse's machines truly are wonderful," said Rarity, "I'm sure he had quite a large number of robots working on the new home."

"A new home?" asked Princess Celestia, stepping down from her throne and approaching Techorse.

He explained to her, "I've had some of my mining robots build a castle for Discord close to the river that he's camping out by. I'm hoping that offering a new place to stay will help buy us some time to figure out what he can do with his powers that won't cause so much trouble."

Twilight Sparkle added, "Techorse wants to try to talk to Discord alone before any of us get a chance too. Just to help him get settled in before we arrive."

"That could be dangerous," warned Princess Celestia, "even though the Elements of Harmony are safe, Discord may have several tricks planned for you."

"Twilight already came up with a plan B in case things go wrong," said Techorse, his saddle's side ports opening up.

The robotic arms emerged, holding a rectangular device with a red button.

"I'll just teleport myself out quickly if Discord tries anything funny. This device is programmed to take me back here to the throne room in the event that I have to bail. Even one use of chaos magic will zap me out!"

"If that's so, then I'll allow you to go alone," Princess Celestia said, "I've had Arbiter and the guards keep a close eye on the Elements of Harmony. If you arrive back here with bad news, we may need to get them back out."

Techorse smiled, "With any luck they'll stay right in the vault."

"I wish you luck Techorse," said the Princess as he turned to leave the throne room.

Twilight followed him out into the castle hallway.

"Hey!" she said to him, getting him to turn around.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just be careful," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"I will Twilight. Love you," he answered, walking down the hallway.

She watched him gallop down the hallway, with a good, confident feeling that he'd be fine.

Techorse ventured out to the lightly wooded area by the river where he was sure he would find Discord. The peaceful serenity of the woods seemed untouched by chaos, which Techorse took as a good sign that his soon to be acquaintance really did want to make a change. Eventually he spotted him, and to his disappointment, he seemed to be up to his old tricks. Discord was turning saplings into bowling pins, having set himself up a little alley near the river, where he was perfecting the art of sparing the seven-ten split. The young trees in the area had been completely disrupted for the game, which might not be such a terrible thing, if it were not for the fact that Canterlot had taken care of that forest for years.

"Excuse me," said Techorse, trying to be polite as he approached Discord in the middle of his game.

Discord, wearing an orange striped bowling shirt and shoes, rolled his solid black ball down the lane, knocking over the two remaining sapling pins in short order. He then brought his fist down in victory, and turned to Techorse.

"Ah, hello Techorse! Care to join me for a few frames?" he asked as his ball went through an old oak log that had been converted into a ball return.

"How did you know my name?" he asked, surprised.

"I've heard everything ever said in that castle, just because I was stone doesn't mean I was deaf!" responded Discord, rolling his eyes.

"Plus, I can see that little toy on your back. That's your so called 'battle saddle'. Which you never seem to actually want to use, because you're afraid you'll be seen as a big bully," he continued, mocking him.

Techorse frowned, somewhat annoyed, and responded, "I didn't bring my laser cannons, Discord. The others don't know that. I was hoping we could make peace."

"Peace? Well I suppose that's the goal of Justice after all, hmmm?" he responded, turning a nearby bush into a green bean-bag chair. He reclined on it and turned another bush into a chair for Techorse to use.

The pony cautiously sat down next to Discord, and continued his conversation.

"It seems you already know about the newest Element of Harmony," Techorse said, moving some of his brown hair out his eyes with a hoof, "and what it does if it's used with the other six versus not using it."

"I'm aware. I'm also aware that I requested Twilight Sparkle to speak with me instead of you. Where is she?" he asked.

He then put his fingers in his mouth and mockingly gasped, "Oh no, don't tell me! Princess Celestia has changed her mind and has sent you to arrest me!"

"No, not at all!" said Techorse, not really picking up on the sarcasm.

He assumed that Discord was naturally this sarcastic based on what his friends had told him about the draconequus.

"I wanted to show you something, it's a bit west of here down the river," he said, "it's a gift from all of us."

Discord thought, "Oh what a foolish colt. There's an ambush waiting for me down the river, Twilight Sparkle and all her friends will be there with the Elements to turn me back. I suppose there I can easily convince them I want to change, of course... that'll mean taking a break from my match."

He looked at the bowling set and snapped his fingers, reverting the alley into the saplings and trees that it once was. Several irritated mother birds and their young returned to their nests that had been disrupted by the transfiguration of their homes.

"I'm not perfect," he said, faking his best humble attitude, "I just wanted a little game. I hope that it's not too much trouble. We shouldn't get off on the wrong paw, hoof, or claw here."

Techorse sighed heavily and said to him, "To be honest Discord, I don't view you as my enemy at all. Some of your tricks are actually pretty amusing to watch. I just think when it gets out of hand and nothing makes sense is when we get upset with you. But don't worry, we're here to help you with that."

"Pretending to enjoy chaos won't win me over," warned Discord, reverting the chairs back into bushes and removing his summoned shirt and shoes in a puff of smoke.

Techorse found himself pulling his tail out of the bush, shredding a few leaves on the way out.

"Well, maybe the gift we have for you might!" he suggested, smiling, "Let's go see it!"

He led him down the river until they cleared a small hill, bringing into view the castle that Techorse had his construction drones build. The cranes and mechanical worms had finished putting the last of the tan-colored bricks into place, and the home was complete. It was a large, intricate castle, roughly half the size of Canterlot's, without a central spire, but plenty of turrets and towers in an unorganized pattern. A few red-colored flags fluttered from the battlements, and the front door was a brand new idea Techorse had come up with himself, the very stones of the front of the building retracted and opened up to lead into the depths of the stone mansion.

Discord was not impressed, "A castle? How cliché."

In his mind, the orderly nature of bricks and mortar made standard castles a thing he despised.

"You might not think that once you see what's inside!" said Techorse excitedly as his robots retreated back for home, "Come have a look."

The two entered the darkness of the building, and then Techorse's battle saddle opened up, his robotic arms snaking towards a light switch. Once he had flipped it, it was revealed that the entire castle was a mere shell, an empty one at that. Several thousand square feet of floor space with a 100 foot ceiling, and not a single object in sight save for a few electrical lights and a large pile of construction materials left in the middle of the ground.

"Think of it this way Discord," said Techorse, trying to appeal to him," I've given you a blank canvas to work with. Building any normal kind of structure would have made far too much sense. I don't know if you'll necessarily need that pile of materials, but I've given you a home that you can make as chaotic and nonsensical as you want it to be!"

Now that had Discord's attention, and he stroked his goatee in surprise, "So... you want me to make this place... utter chaos?"

"It's your new home now!" nodded Techorse, "You can do whatever you want with it."

"This was your idea?" he asked.

"Well, it was actually Fluttershy's," answered Techorse, beaming, "but we wanted you to feel as if you're a part of Equestria with your very own domain. This is Chaos Castle, Discord! Next time I'm here, I'm really looking forward to see what you've done with this place!"

"Fluttershy... wanted you to make this for me?"

Discord was somewhat moved by the offer. His very own home that he could put his very own rules on? As much chaos as he wanted within the large walls? Still, he had a mission to finish if he wanted to maintain his freedom. His chaos could easily spread far beyond the walls if he could trap Twilight Sparkle and deliver her to his new employer. Conflict began to emerge in his complex mind, however. It truly seemed as if the green colt next to him cared about him changing his ways, and a castle that would cost millions of bits was essentially just handed to him for free. No one had ever been that generous or kind to him before in his life.

"I'm very grateful for this!" he said, turning to Techorse, "Oh, and this place will be the home of chaos I've always wanted. You may not like what you see when you return with Twilight Sparkle."

"I'll make sure she visits her soon, don't worry," assured Techorse, "I'll be back tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."

He then turned around to walk away, before Discord asked him a very crucial question.

"Techorse... one question."

He turned around and waited for the response.

Discord continued, "Being the element of Justice, why aren't you mad at me? After all, did I not turn Ponyville on its head last year? One thousand years ago, the chaos I plunged the land into, no matter how sweet, surely must anger you."

Techorse shook his head, "Justice is setting what's wrong, right. Not getting revenge. Since you've made it clear you want to set your wrongs right, I think we can be friends Discord."

He then walked out into the afternoon sun, leaving the draconequus indoors as the stone walls sealed back up, leaving him alone. Discord really could not believe what was going on. Initially he had hoped that his fake act of "wanting to change" would work, and Twilight would have shown up where she could easily be subdued and turned over. Now it seemed that his plans were backfiring, and that the ponies really did want to encourage a change in his nature. It especially seemed that Techorse was being sincere in his efforts, and wanted to prove that his chaos and mischief were really not the crime they were sometimes made out to be.

Fluttershy having wanted to give him his very own home when he didn't have one was especially touching to Discord, and he reflected on her kindness despite how cruelly he had treated her previously. Of course, the idea of plunging all of Equestria into chaos, and also keeping his new home as well was a fairly tempting thought. Still, Discord was beginning to feel like a real heel for what he was going to do to Twilight and her friends, whose trust he had won. But before anything could be done about that, he had a blank canvas to paint.

Discord looked at the large pile of materials, did a 360 degree spin around the place, and then laughed merrily like a child in a candy store as he set about turning his new home into a place of true chaos.
Once he had finished, he stepped outside to take in the night air before returning to the floating bed he'd made for himself on the third and one eight floor. No sooner had he taken his break, that the cloaked figure had returned to question him.

"A very nice home for you to rule your share of Equestria with," he laughed, walking up, his eyes glowing within the hood of his coat.

"Do you like it? Techorse gave it to me, on Fluttershy's request. You know, Techorse, the green one in the picture you gave to me," he said, smiling.

"Ah, well, it is an impressive work. But of course, I have no interest in the green one. I want Twilight Sparkle. Where is she?" he demanded.

Discord stuck his hands out defensively, "They didn't send her today, but tomorrow I'll have her for sure."

"Good. Once you deliver her, I will extend you watches' life indefinitely," he said, pleased, "you're still well within your time limit. Do not let me down."

He then teleported in a bright flash of white light, leaving Discord alone again. His thoughts returned to him and challenged his ideas. Although it did seem like Techorse wanted to be nice, he knew that he'd always be on Celestia's leash if he ever decided to actually change. The practical route was to turn over Twilight anyways, and perhaps cover up the incident before launching his campaign against order. But there was a tiny ray of light in the dark thoughts, begging to be let out, that stated that the ponies really did care about him. The light flickered, and it was hard to see in the vast choking darkness, but it was there.

The following morning, after Techorse had been greeted warmly by his friends, a meeting was had over breakfast to determine the next step in bringing Discord to their side.

Techorse stared at what was on his plate, a small block of hay drizzled in honey sauce. He had promised nearly a year ago to try hay someday, and this was the first chance he'd really had in order to fulfill his promise to his friends. He took a large bite out of the pile, and chewed the dry edible grass thoughtfully.

"So, how was it?" giggled Pinkie Pie.

Techorse swallowed his food and answered, "Very dry, but it's kind of like a biscuit. I like it!"

Twilight spoke up, "It seems that yesterday went well. We've made good progress towards rehabilitating Discord. So what will we do today?"

At this point, Shadow Breeze dropped the bagel he was chewing on, and answered, "We ought to go over to his new castle and try to discuss things diplomatically."

"I'm not sure if Discord will be very interested in a peace treaty, it's far too orderly for his tastes," said Rarity, skeptical that the idea would work.

"Maybe we should just try being friends..." trailed Fluttershy, hoping someone would hear her, but to no avail.

"...I believe diplomatic discussion may be helpful," said Princess Celestia, seated next to her sister at the head of the dining room table, "although nothing formal may come of it, it would be possible to at least help Discord understand the boundaries we want for Equestria. Shadow Breeze, you should choose a few of your friends here to go with you today."

Shadow Breeze looked around the table, and made his decision, "I want Twilight, Techorse and Fluttershy to go with me."

"Me?" asked Fluttershy timidly, "But why?"

"You're so gentle with others, and you know, persuasion is better than force," he answered, smiling.

Fluttershy blushed at the comment and answered, "I guess that's true. I... I'll go with you Shadow."

"It seems like everything is going way too well," muttered Rainbow Dash, "I'd thought for sure Discord would have tried something funny."

"We really ought to give him a bit more of a chance," said Fluttershy, "I know he was a bit of a... nuisance. But there has to be a reason for that beyond just wanting to make a little fun."

"Yeah, well, when we don't know which way is up anymore, at least I'll be able to say 'I told you so', if those words still make sense," scoffed the pegasus.

"Come on Rainbow Dash," Applejack grunted, "give it another day. We still got the Elements of Harmony if things go wrong."

"I guess you're right," she answered, nodding, "no big deal."

Techorse crammed in the rest of his hay cake and said, "Well, let's pack up and head on over to the new castle. Hopefully Discord has finished remodeling his home. I can't wait to see what he's done with the place."

The four friends chosen to go on the short diplomacy mission set out for the castle and reached it within the hour. The outside of the home seemed to look identical from how Techorse had left it the previous night, although now a few of the towers and turrets were floating or connected to the structure by an odd tunnel of stone.

"Seems fairly normal. It's probably a complete mess inside though," said Twilight Sparkle, turning her head slightly and raising an eyebrow.

"Now no matter what we see in there, we need to compliment Discord on his work," said Shadow Breeze, "Please."

"Oh, it must be amazing in there!" said Fluttershy, offering an example.

"I have no idea what to expect," admitted Techorse, "I hope I don't go blind. Discord likes to invert colors from what I hear."

The four approached the stone wall that marked the doorway and rang the doorbell, which strangely responded with sheer silence. The wall opened up in the pattern it was intended to, and a smaller red door appeared, barely the height of the four ponies. The door then split up and replicated into four small doors, one for each of the ponies.

"Oh boy..." sighed Twilight, "He couldn't even give us a normal door. Bet it's impossible to navigate in there."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Fluttershy said.

The four opened their doors, and entered the building. Once they were inside, their mouths dropped open at what they saw. It appeared that Discord had chosen to stick with the color scheme of the tan stone, with blue and red carpeting. But following with the crazy nature of his work, the inside of the castle looked like an M. C. Escher lithograph. Stairways and halls led this way and that, defying not only gravity, but volume and proportion size. Sets of large, grand staircases were flipped upside down, but the four ponies found that they could climb up the stairs, and crane their necks "upwards" to look "down" at their friends.

"This is amazing!" gasped Techorse, "So many laws of physics treated like suggestions!"

"Pinkie Pie would have a blast here!" joked Twilight, poking her head out from a flower vase, "This place is a real work of art."

"How did you get in the flower pot?" asked Fluttershy, her eyes growing wide.

"I went through that small opening over there," said Twilight, pointing to a hole in the wall of one of the staircases.

Twilight retracted her head, and she walked out from the narrow hole, smiling.

Discord, wearing a solid white smoking jacket, slid his way down the ceiling on one of the golden rails of the staircases, dropping down in front of his four guests with a smile on his face.

"Welcome back Techorse. Great place you gave me here, such a beautiful home for chaos!" he said, laughing.

"Glad you like it! As promised, I brought Twilight here so we could talk about how we can help you use your powers outside of these walls. My friend Shadow Breeze wanted to talk about the legal side of it, and Fluttershy is here as a tag along," he answered, pointing to his friends.

"Splendid!" answered Discord, tapping his fingers together deviously, "Go ahead through the second curtain on the left up the horizontal spiral staircase, and we'll go to the inverse living room to discuss things."

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy did as they were told, and Discord followed them, leaving Twilight and Techorse alone. Twilight Sparkle turned to her coltfriend and said, "Did you see that look on Discord's face?"

"What look?" he answered, unaware.

"Something is up. Keep on your guard," she warned.

The two then followed the instructions, and found themselves in a living room with the furniture all attached to the ceiling, with some of it floating in layers towards the ground. Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy sat next to each other on a couch hovering a few inches from the ground, and Discord reclined in a comfy chair nearby, where he picked up a small black cloud of smoke. Blowing into it, he produced multiple tiny brown wooden smoking pipes that floated up and popped like bubbles into nothing.
Shadow Breeze opened up, "We'd like to propose a peace treaty between you and Equestria."

"Sounds a little too... organized." hummed Discord, smirking.

"Well if you want to get anywhere, you'd better listen!" threatened Twilight.

"Please Twilight, I'm sure we can work something out," soothed Fluttershy, "Discord just wants to be able to enjoy life without going back to stone."

"That's right Twilight," teased Discord with a sarcastic tone, throwing the cloud away, "I only want to have a little fun with life."

Twilight twisted her face into that of annoyance, and Shadow Breeze continued, "We'd like you to be able to use your powers of chaos to... well..."

There was a sudden pause, and Shadow Breeze remembered to his horror that they hadn't quite come up with any way Discord could practice his form of magic without causing disaster.

"I'm listening," he answered, his right ear growing to twice its size, and he put his claw to it.

"Well... I..." Shadow Breeze tried to fan himself with his wings, and he began to sweat.

"What Shadow means to say is that we're not quite sure yet what you should do with your chaotic powers," said Techorse bluntly, "but we will figure something out, and let you practice it as soon as possible."

Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof, and Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze froze in terror. Now they were in deep trouble. There was no way that the Lord of Chaos was going to simply accept being on a tight chain sitting down. However, Discord was still attempting to lure Twilight into his trap, and needed to keep her at his new castle until the stranger returned to take her away. He may not have liked what he had just heard slip from Techorse's lips, but it was something that he could definitely take advantage of.

"Oh, but there's simply nothing better than chaos," he said, knowing how predictable his response was, "You can't chain or fetter it and expect it to be quite the same. It has to be free and unbridled."

"Well, we can't have that," said Shadow Breeze, attempting to be bold, "ponies need solid places to live, where the same rules are in place every day. We can't wake up and have the way to our work be different from the day before, it'd make no sense!"

"But why not?" countered Discord, "Does it not get boring going the same way every day to work? Wouldn't you like to write with pens one day, and have the thrill of writing with snail slime the next? To never have to have the same experience more than twice?"

"I'm not saying that wouldn't be fun, but, it's hard to be productive when you don't know what's going to happen next. Ponies, at least, tend to withdraw when we can't make sense of thing,." continued Shadow Breeze, trying to avoid eye contact.

Discord coughed, and summoned a blue book with a snap of his fingers, along with a pair of blue reading glasses. He flicked through the book, and came to a particular point in it. The draconequus then handed the book over to Shadow Breeze and pointed at a phrase. Fluttershy leaned over to also have a look at the words with her aqua blue eyes.

"Can you see this?" he said, "What does it say in Equine Latin?"

"Pro Bono," answered Shadow Breeze.

"That means 'Who Benefits?'" said Twilight, displaying her intelligence.

"A solid answer for 100 points!" shouted Discord gleefully, clapping. Twilight looked over her head with confusion as a solid gold '100' materialized over her head.

"Well what do you mean by 'Who Benefits?'" asked Shadow Breeze curiously.

Discord continued, "I simply can't accept any kind of treaty where I don't benefit from it. All of your ideas will likely only benefit ponies while continuing to box me in. I've been boxed in for over a thousand years. Why are you so certain I would want that further?"

Fluttershy answered, "We don't want to trap you, Discord. We want limits. If that'd be ok."

"Limits..." scoffed Discord, taking off the glasses.

He then chucked them into his mouth, chewed for a while, and blew a bubble, popping it with a sharp fingertip.

"Well, sure," she answered meekly, "Chaos is a good thing... right?"

Discord smirked and answered, "The best."

Fluttershy smiled and sprung her trap, "Well, you can always have too much of a good thing."

Discord's mouth fell open. Also off. His jaw fell to the floor, and he had to go and retrieve it before re-attaching it to face.

"I... never really thought about it that way," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, think on that," suggested Shadow Breeze, "we won't ask for you to live with no chaos. You'd suffer. We want to find a balance."

Discord thought to himself, "For years I saw chaos as the one true way to make reality perfect. Now along comes these four to challenge my perspective. It's a well known part of chaos nature, that rule of too much of a good thing causing chaos. Too much sugar in the clouds causing sticky rain... my own perspective only obeys itself."

He then smiled, "No matter. I do not have to try and put up with this filthy logic once Twilight takes her 'vacation'."

"I will need a little time to think it over," he said audibly.
Twilight answered hopefully, "So will we, Discord. We're going to find the perfect outlet for you, promise."

"I'm surprised you want to," he said, shrugging, "turning Ponyville on its head is fairly unforgivable. So was when I made Canterlot the heart of chaos years and years ago. Good times..."

"No it's not," she answered, "it was annoying, but..."

She then took a deep breath, not believing she was saying this, "I forgive you."

"Forgive me?" he asked.

"So do I," added Fluttershy.

Discord frowned, "I've never felt... forgiven before. Princess Celestia certainly never showed any forgiveness."

"Well, this is the first time you've asked, by trying to be good," said Fluttershy.

Discord was about to burst from the amount of conflict in his warming heart, but he desperately wanted freedom. He snapped out from his feelings and began the final stages of nabbing Twilight.

"I'd like for you to stay for a little celebration tonight," he said, "let's have Twilight and Fluttershy stay here, and talk to me more about this... too much of a good thing idea. You two stallions should go get the others from the castle, they'd be thrilled to be served cake and cookies by moving cookware, I assume, hmmm?"

"That sounds like fun!" answered Shadow Breeze, eager for the treat.

Twilight nodded and smiled, "I'll help how I can. I don't really read too many cookbooks though."

"I only need you to read me the ingredients," said Discord, taking the chance to get her separate from the group, "I'll meet you in the kitchen, if you can find your way."

"Finding my way will be half the fun!" she said, trying to be polite as she left the room.

"It's through the other door," he coughed.

"Sorry..." answered Twilight, sheepishly trotting past them.

Techorse and Shadow Breeze were dismissed to go get the others for the party that night, leaving Fluttershy alone with Discord. He decided now would be the best time to trap Twilight, and use the excuse that she needed to use the bathroom in order to fool Fluttershy. As he got up to leave though, Fluttershy spoke up,

"Discord... um..."

He turned around and stared at her.

"I... actually think you're a pretty sweet guy," she said.

"Sweet?" he snorted.

"Well, I think sometimes the reason you do the things you do, is because you don't have any friends to have fun with," she said, "everyone treated you so poorly just because you're different."

"I... would not say that's false." Discord said, frowning.

"Can I be your first friend?" she asked, smiling, "If that's ok?"

"Fluttershy, why would you want to be my friend?" he asked, shocked, "The others wouldn't like it, especially Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash is a bit tough, but she'll change," Fluttershy said, "Maybe the other won't say they want to be your friend right now, but secretly, I think they do. We did give you a home."

"Well, anyone can give you free stuff," he said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, but being friends takes sincerity," answered Fluttershy, walking up to him and looking up at his yellow eyes, "I don't have anything to give you. But I do want to be your friend, Discord."

Discord did not want to cry at all costs. He was about to betray them, and here, Fluttershy, the most timid pony he could think of, was not afraid of his chaos and wanted to be his very first true friend. Others had shunned him due to being a genetic mess of different animal bodies. Now, it seemed like none of that mattered. Discord realized he needed to have friends in his life, and Fluttershy, who had suggested giving him a home and had behaved in kindness despite his evil, was offering to be his very first one in his empty life.

His heart melted, and he answered, "I accept! I would love to be your friend, Fluttershy! I've never had friends before, but I'd really enjoy having you as my first one."

Fluttershy squee'd in delight, and hugged him, "That's wonderful, just wonderful! You can visit me in Ponyville anytime you want. We can talk."

"Thank you..." he answered, "I must help Twilight though."

"Go ahead, I'll wait here," she answered, placing herself back on the sofa.

Discord rolled himself into the hallway, and moped internally as he headed for the kitchen to commit to his end of the deal. Looking at the artifact watch, which was beginning to glow softly as an indication that the spell keeping it enabled was about to wear off, he wondered if he was truly doing what was in his best interests. Just one minute after accepting Fluttershy as his first friend, he was going to betray her horribly. But it was too late to back out of the deal now, no matter what he thought, and he entered the kitchen to find Twilight reading a cookbook and smiling as she went over the recipe for chocolate cake.

Discord, trying not to cry, snapped his fingers. The drawers in the kitchen opened up, some on the ceiling even, and rows upon rows of silverware fell out the drawers onto the ground. Twilight was oblivious to the fact, as Discord had placed a summoned pair of blue earmuffs over her ears without her knowledge. The unicorn mare felt the piece of equipment up against her pointed ears, but figured that they were simply a thoughtful gesture due to how cold it was outside. She continued to read as the silverware on the floor started to bend and change shape, crawling towards her in a locomotion that represented a set of metallic inchworms. Twilight thought she could hear scraping through the warmth and sound blocking of the earmuffs, and turned around just in time to watch in shock as the silverware-turned-snakes ambushed her and dragged her down.

Later that evening, with the stranger coming back for his prize, Discord had stuffed Twilight into a magic-protected trunk, a velvet color with gold edging, and had left the case underneath a table. The party he had planned to keep the others busy until he could discreetly pass Twilight off to the stranger later in the darkness of the night. It would then be time to plunge Equestria into chaos, if he so desired.
The moving cake stands and party trays moved around the tables on their own accord, shifting into place while avoiding spilling their contents of cakes, brownies, and other snacks planned for his guests. As they all arrived, they were quite impressed by the display of confections. Rarity was especially pleased by how polite the animate silverware was behaving, serving her a brownie and bowing slightly was a humble pewter stand, which then hopped off on its one "leg" to go serve the other guests. In particular, Techorse seemed to be gunning for a brownie himself.

He then picked up a nearby chalice of sparkling water with his robotic arms, and then picked up a fork with another. He banged them together to get everyone's attention at the table, and everypony looked at him. Techorse then put down the fork, which hopped away dizzy and upset at being used in such a way.

The inventor said, "I'd like to honor Discord for all his efforts in changing his ways."

"Yay!" cheered Pinkie Pie alone.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and added, "Well, maybe at first I thought Discord was just playing a big trick on us, but I guess now he's cool. He did throw this big party for us."

"That's true, and he's been mighty patient on us trying to answer how he can use his powers for good!" added Applejack before stuffing a sugar cookie in her mouth.

"Where's Twilight?" whispered Fluttershy to Shadow Breeze, "She's supposed to be here too."

"I don't know," he answered, "maybe the little mares' room?"

Discord sat at the head of the table in his hovering throne he had constructed for himself, debate and uncertainty swirling through his head. It was clear to the ponies that something was causing him trouble, but they couldn't pinpoint what that was.

"I don't know why," said Applejack quietly to Rainbow Dash as she swallowed the rest of the cookie, "but it seems he ain't very happy."

She answered with a shrug, "He's probably just feeling guilty over being a pain in the past."
"Well, there's no real reason for him to do so!" Rarity cooed, a little too loudly, "He's quite the gentlecolt now, it seems. There hasn't been a single trick all evening!"

"I do have to wonder though," asked Techorse of his host, "where's Twilight? Didn't you say she was busy with something?"

Discord refused to acknowledge Techorse, and simply drummed his pawed fingers on the table, looking quite guilty.

Knowing the green colt would need an answer to his question, he sighed and then said, "Twilight Sparkle is here with us. Don't worry Techorse."

"Great! I can't wait for her to show up, she's missing all the fun!" shouted Pinkie Pie, jumping up on the table.

One of the snack trays got 'worried' and moved away from her. Pinkie Pie crouched, like a cat ready to strike, and shook her tail before pouncing and gobbling up an entire plate of chocolate cake greedily.

Fluttershy sighed and then turned to Discord, "I hope Twilight does arrive soon. I'm starting to get a bit worried. It doesn't feel good when a friend goes missing."

"Aw forget her for now," said Rainbow Dash, "let's just try to have a little bit of fun in the meantime. It's not like she's lost for good Fluttershy."

"Are you certain about that?" shouted a cloaked figure, descending from the sky.

He crashed through the snack table, smashing it to pieces and knocking treats everywhere. The ponies at the table screamed and scattered, and then stared at the uninvited guest.

"Well Discord..." he said in his Russian accent, "Do you have Twilight Sparkle for me? Your time is almost up."

"Wh... what?" gasped Rarity.

"Oh, none of you are aware?" he said, laughing and turning around, "Discord has set up a party and forgotten to let you know?"

"Know what?" demanded Techorse, standing up and scraping his hoof on the ground angrily.

"I'm the one who set him free, green one," he answered, pointing to Discord, who shrank himself magically to try and disappear from view, "in exchange, I wanted him to turn over Twilight Sparkle to me so I could finally get back at Celestia."

Rarity screamed, and then promptly fainted, sending Applejack and Shadow Breeze rushing to prop her up so blood could return to her head. Discord returned to his regular size, and moved over to the chest, taking it out from underneath the table, and moving it magically in front of his guest. The lid opened, and Twilight Sparkle fell out, tied up, with a heavy lead container placed over her horn, locked into place to try and prevent her from using any kind of magic. A piece of enchanted parchment paper had formed a simple gag in her mouth, and the unicorn mare gave Discord an angry look as she was floated over to the stranger. The stranger laughed, and both of them floated into the air as a pair of white wings emerged from underneath the cloak, allowing him to hover.

"Techorse, do something!" shouted Shadow Breeze.

"I can't..." he answered, "I didn't bring my weapons because I trusted Discord. I wanted to show that."

"Of course now we know the truth!" growled Rainbow Dash, spreading her wings, "These two are working together! Well, we'll see if he gets to keep Twilight!"

She shot out towards the cloaked fiend, yelling at him. In response, he fired a bolt of energy at her, which Rainbow Dash dodged. Then, the stranger gasped as the pegasus mare impacted him, knocking him back in the air. He retaliated once he had oriented himself by surrounding Rainbow Dash in a time charm, locking her in mid air. Then with a flick of his head, the pegasus was sent downward, and she impacted on the ground hard. Rainbow Dash stood up shakily, and spat out a droplet of saliva.

"Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus in Equestria... is still no match for time," he said, chuckling.

He then turned to Discord and said, "You have fulfilled your end of the bargain. Allow me to recharge your artifact permanently, and you may unleash chaos on your half of Equestria, as promised."

Discord looked up at him, and then down at the watch. He gazed over the other ponies, who were scared, confused, angry, and defeated all at the same time. His eyes went over Fluttershy, who looked at him with a feeling of disgust before bursting into a loud cry. Shadow Breeze walked over to her, and wrapped his left wing gently around her in an attempt to comfort the mare.

"I thought you were my friend!" she said after reducing her cry to a sniffle, "I thought you were good now."

"Please make an effort at being realistic," scoffed the hovering figure, "Discord has always been an evil loser to the core, but at least he's a useful loser. I have Twilight Sparkle now, and have my leverage against Celestia! Now allow me to free you permanently Discord! Come get your freedom and go."

Discord took one more look at Fluttershy, and her absolute pain and suffering about the betrayal and sure loss of her friend. He knew he had to do the right thing, for his new friend Fluttershy, even if it meant losing his chance at freedom.

He then hovered up to the level of the cloaked figure and crossed his arms, "I may be a loser. I may end up in stone for the rest of eternity. But you'll have to give Twilight back. She means too much to my friend Fluttershy."

Fluttershy felt the lump in her throat start to dissapear at the words, and smiled softly, tears still running down her face.

"What? Discord what is this nonsense, you're the Lord of Chaos, not some... friend to ponies!" protested the male, taken aback, "Just give me your watch you fool! Don't be stupid."

"Give. Twilight. Back." he demanded coldly, fire building in his eyes.

A few seconds passed. The ponies below watched in awe, realizing that Discord had changed his mind. He might have been a scoundrel for turning over Twilight, but now, it seemed like he didn't want to anymore.

Who's side was he truly on?

"It's already over. I'm taking Twilight Sparkle, Discord," said the stranger slowly, "I'm disappointed you do not want your freedom, but that's not my problem. Farewell."

He then tried to teleport away with Twilight Sparkle, much to everyone's horror, but his glowing eyes opened in shock when he realized it wasn't working.

"What?!" he shouted.

Discord smiled and crossed his arms, "It seems you've been tricked. I removed your horn while you were going on about me being a loser. Now, hand over Twilight, and I'll put your horn back on your head."

The figure screamed in anger, and rushed Discord, attempting to use violence to solve the matter instead. Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly, he multiplied, with dozens of identical copies of himself filling the air. The figure crashed through the Discord he intended to attack, and it exploded in a puff of smoke.

"Which one's the real one?" laughed all the clones, flying around in the air.

The winged enemy flew around, striking at the images, until it left the original Discord.

"Your watch will run out, and then I'm smashing the statue!" wailed the guest, foaming at the mouth.

"We've got to do something!" whispered Shadow Breeze to Techorse.

He turned and answered, "Let this play out."

"You're falling for the very tricks I used to try and prevent myself from being trapped in stone," hummed Discord, smirking, "the very things I used to stall the Element Holders are keeping you from securing victory. How does it feel knowing you're that weak?"

The figure moved towards Twilight, and tried to grab her so he could fly off. Discord snapped his fingers again, and the trunk Twilight had been trapped in jumped up and swallowed her up. It then split into three copies of itself, and shuffled around like a street scam artist's game.

"Which one is she in?" he said, laughing, "Try to guess!"

The stranger growled, and followed the shifting cases with his eyes, before settling on one as it stopped. He tapped on the case with a hoof, and it opened up. He gasped as Twilight Sparkle, free from her bonds, jumped out of the case and grabbed onto his back. She irradiated him with bolts of energy from her horn as he flew around desperate to get her to stop. Twilight used her magic shots to steer him around in a loop, before releasing him in front of Discord. She then dropped down to the ground, where she was caught by Rainbow Dash who flew up to save her from a bad fall. Both of them looked up as the stranger careened towards Discord.

The Lord of Chaos cracked his knuckles, and smirked. The stranger screamed and yelled in terror, as he tumbled in air helplessly towards him, unable to avoid his fate due to Twilight's damage to his wings.

Discord snapped his fingers one final time.

The black cloak twisted and warped, refusing to reveal the guest, but turning it into a giant black firework rocket strapped to his back in addition to the rest of the cloak. The fuse ignited, and stranger yelled out as he was sent flying into the distance, over the horizon, before the rocket detached from his back. The cloaked figure vanished from sight and sound as he was sent flying at several hundred miles per hour in the distance, and the firework rocket continued without him before exploding in a sharp report, temporarily filling the night sky with a beautiful display of firework stars.

Discord sank back to the ground, and sighed in victory, before looking at the watch. The glow was starting to intensify, signaling the end of its use.

The draconequus realized that his time was up, but he had succeeded. He had successfully prevented the intruder from kidnapping Twilight. Even if he couldn't be free... at least he'd be remembered on just one positive note. He looked thoughtfully at Fluttershy, who was smiling weakly now, proud of his change.

"I'm... so sorry... friend," he said gently to her, and then, the watch crumbled to dust and fell off his wrist.

Within seconds, he was plunged into the darkness of stasis as the limestone consumed his body from the inside.

It didn't seem to last, however. The next thing he knew, Discord felt the stone leaving his body again, and he could see and feel once more. He dropped to the tile floor of Canterlot castle, having been freed from the stone. When he looked around, he saw all six of the original Element Holders wearing their artifacts, with Techorse standing off to the side with Shadow Breeze, his scales glowing silver in approval of freeing him.

Discord found himself in front of the two princesses, who didn't seem to be angry with him.

"I don't understand," he said, clearing his throat, "I betrayed you all. I thought for sure that would mean a permanent extension on my sentence."

"Well Discord," explained Twilight, the glow leaving her tiara artifact, "that alicorn didn't give you much of a choice. It was either betray us, or go back to being stone again."

"Based on the fact that your assailant had wings and a horn, he must have been an alicorn," continued Princess Celestia, "unfortunately, I have a letter to write soon, as I have a bad feeling as to who that alicorn may be."

"As do I," added Luna, looking out a nearby window in the throne room.
Discord approached Fluttershy, wearing her necklace, and asked, "Can you forgive me for all of this, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy gave him a hug as a response, "Of course. We all do bad things from time to time."

"Which reminds me!" said Applejack, removing her necklace, "We need to tell Discord what we finally figured out. You were in stone for a day, and we had plenty of time to think about all this. Turns out we've found your special place."

"I'm listening!" he said.

Twilight continued, "After thinking about it for a while, and with Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy pretty much helping us to admit it... it turns out we all rely on a little chaos to get by. I wouldn't have a job if I didn't have a mess of books to put back."

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, "I kinda love seeing what a thundercloud can do sometimes."

"Pollination is random," admitted Applejack, "without it, there'd be no apples."

Techorse was next to go, "Wanna know how many times my experiments blow up in my face? It's part of the fun and the nature of inventing!"

Rarity pushed forward, "I even call my back room 'organized chaos'. I can't believe I didn't even seen the connection before!"

Fluttershy said softly, "Well, sometimes my animals get to be a handful, and that's a kind of chaos too."

Attention was then turned to Pinkie Pie, who giggled and said, "Do I really even need to say anything?"

Twilight then turned her eye contact back to Discord and finished, "Discord, all of us rely on the natural chaos of the world to get along. If things get too rigid and boring, our lives would all be ruined. We need you to use your powers to make sure that the right amount of chaos exists in Equestria, so that we can live well. Will you do that for us?"

Discord, overjoyed, did a back flip and released a large burst of multicolor sparkles, filling the room with disco-styled lights and happiness.

He laughed heartily and answered, "I will do it! Let chaos be the new spice of life!"

Everyone in the room cheered, knowing they'd finally helped him to find his place.

After forgiveness had been given, and things wrapped up for good, there was a grand reception and dinner in the castle dining hall. The party was extended far outside the castle, and all of Canterlot celebrated Discord's conversion to the light. After the celebtration had died down for the evening, most of the friends had gathered around the table to talk before heading for bed so that they could return to Ponyville the next morning. They had all bid their new friends farewell earlier, and had expected Discord to leave back for his castle. Shadow Breeze had noticed Fluttershy walk off on her own, however, and followed her into the hall.

"Fluttershy?" he asked.

She turned around and made eye contact with him, "Yes, Shadow?"

"It was really sweet of you to befriend Discord," he said, "I just... wanted to let you know that."

She blushed a bit, and they looked at each other again.

"Well, you know... somepony had to see through to his heart," she answered, "and I think... maybe... I'm also..."

Shadow Breeze looked tenderly at her, having enjoyed the time they had spent together, and waited for her answer.

"Maybe... um..." continued Fluttershy nervously, "We could talk about it again later, tomorrow, at my house. My squirrels have been asking to meet you, they hear you have a peanut plant. Would you like to come over?"

"Of course!" answered Shadow Breeze, taking a deep breath, "I'll see you back in Ponyville."

"That sounds nice," said Fluttershy, accepting the offer, "I'll see you there tomorrow."

The graphite colored pegasus with the blue stripe through his mane turned around and retreated back for the dining room. Fluttershy continued on, her pink tail dragging across the floor. She found Discord packing up a suitcase outside, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of light blue sandals. Captain Arbiter was helping him load up some more clothing into the suitcase, and finished closing the lid before nodding at Fluttershy and leaving for his barracks.

Discord was ready to leave the castle when Fluttershy approached him, "Hello again. What's with the suitcase?"

Discord answered after de-summoning his glasses, shirt, and sandals with a snap of his fingers, "Well after all of this, I figured I'd take a vacation someplace warm with a nice beach."

"You deserve it," said Fluttershy, "I can't wait to hear how it was. Take some pictures."

"Certainly," he answered, "of course, I need to head back to my new castle now. My coach leaves for the seashore tomorrow morning."

Fluttershy understood and said, "I'll see you later, Discord. It's great to share a friendship with you."

Discord's heart welled with joy, but he brushed it aside and picked up his suitcase.

"Of course, Fluttershy. It really is magic," he answered with a subtle wink, before heading out into the night.

Fluttershy turned around and walked back for the castle, a happy feeling in her soul. She knew she had done the right thing, befriending the Lord of Chaos. The pegasus mare hadn't brought it up with her friends, but she knew all along that castles, diplomacy, and other things were nice, but not everything. Sometimes, what a mean person needs most, is a best friend.

#35 - A Jaded Blade

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A Jaded Blade

Techorse Series: #35

By Spirals95

Captain Arbiter Axechop believed he had everything a stallion could ever want. Not only was he a high-ranking officer in service to the princesses, but he also had saved millions of bits worth of cash in bank accounts from his earlier stint as the "lord" of Mineland. With his past thoroughly behind him, his missing eye avenged, and what used to be his enemy now one of his friends, Arbiter felt as if he truly could not ask for more. After having a very rough week as the Captain of the Guard, he decided to take the weekend off and spend some time outside of Ponyville in a comfortable vacation home up in the eastern mountain range. He had purchased the home from Derpy Hooves, who had received the vacation home earlier as a gift from Princess Celestia. The mailmare had elected to sell the home in order to continue an "ordinary" life back in Ponyville where she believed she belonged, although the sale of the home had netted her enough to retire comfortably when the time came.

Arbiter had decorated his new vacation home, which he had hoped to make his permanent residence if he ever decided to leave his officer's quarters in the Canterlot Barracks. The living room was a wide open area, with glass windows on the walls that allowed ample light in, and provided a good look over Ponyville. The hardwood floor had been covered in throw rugs of various materials and craftsmanship, and well-made couches of various felt colors surrounded a glass coffee table. For a hardened stallion like Arbiter, this might have seemed strange, had not the art gallery that used to be in the room had been replaced with a large glass casing. The display case contained dozens of swords from various ages, materials, and size from history, the white pegasus' prize collection he had accumulated since the loss of his eye. There were claymores and scimitars, rapiers and broadswords, even a few daggers and short swords in the case, polished and kept safe from dust and moisture. In the very front of the collection, a glass box with an upright metal holding frame sat, a container for the sword Arbiter wielded at the moment: his prized longsword given to him by Techorse for his birthday. The blade sat in its case, upright, the blue hilt with Arbiter's cutie mark in the center waited patiently for the return of its master.

Wanting to try and have a guest over for a few hours, Arbiter had left the home and went to Greasy Bob's diner in town in hopes of finding Limpwing, whose company he highly enjoyed. He sat at the counter in the restaurant, and was holding a conversation with the azure pegasus.

"I was rather shocked to see him try and run with such a heavy piece of stolen gold." he said, recounting a tale of how he took down a "ruthless" criminal, "When I tackled him he wasn't able to get up again because of the weight."

Limpwing wasn't buying any of the story and said to him while she poured a glass of water for another customer, "Oh, would this be the time you tackled the museum curator moving a gold artifact?"

Arbiter tried not to turn red and grunted, "No, this was a different incident."

"Arbiter, you don't have to try and impress me with stories of you muscling ponies, monsters, or whatever. Just talk to me normally," she said, laughing.

The captain shifted on his seat and continued, "I'm taking a short vacation for the weekend up in the mountains. I purchased that vacation home that was for sale."

"Oh, really?" she asked, "Nice! I've been too busy to really hunt for a permanent home right now."

"I don't know how you manage to both do this job and take care of Darkmatter's Domain for him," he asked, grumbling.

"I think I'd get bored if I didn't have two jobs," answered Limpwing, turning around to take the last order of the day to another table.

Arbiter watched her place the plate of fresh grilled carrots on her customer's table. He smiled at the way she looked and moved, and thought a few personal things to himself, before her return snapped him out of it.

"Anyways, how's that house?" she asked, now face to face with him.

"It's simply wonderful," he answered, "three floors, heated pool, a view of Ponyville, and plenty of room for my sword collection."

"Sounds great! Don't think I could live in a place like that though," she said smugly, "it'd get creepy at night in a big open house like that."

"Perhaps you'd like to see it?" he asked, moving in.

Limpwing answered, "I'm sorry, but I really have to get back to The Domain for the weekend. The prince has been sending back some letters recently that seem to mean he's discovered something important."

"Well, your duty is more important then," he said, dropping down from the stool, "I'll just be retiring for the night then. Thank you."

He then paid his bill, left a tip for the mare, and exited the building without saying another word.
Greasy Bob, somewhat less greasy from a healthier lifestyle, but still rather pudgy for his size, emerged from behind the cash register, an eyebrow raised.

"That Arbiter stallion's really been talking you up every time he comes to Ponyville," he said, "Limpwing, you going to tell Arbiter to buzz off yet?"

"Bob, this has nothing to do with..." she said angrily, trying to defend herself, "look, he's just like any other customer to you. Can we leave it at that?"

"Sure, sure," the earth pony said, taking a breath, "I was just making sure you were doing fine. Don't want anypony treating my waitresses like filth."

"He's not so bad once you get past the hard hooved nature," she answered, tilting her head and smirking, "I'm just wishing he'd stop trying to impress ponies with stories and actually let some of his character show through first."

"It'd help if he didn't intimidate them," Bob said, picking up a glass and placing it on a shelf, "I've seen him stare down quite a few troublemakers in town before."

"Nopony's perfect," said Limpwing.

"Yeah, that's true," agreed the manager gruffly, still a bit corpulent from his bad eating habits from earlier.

Limpwing left the diner and went to put on her flight goggles to fly for The Domain. It was dark out already, and the street lights of Ponyville had lit up to illuminate the town for ponies caught outside. The pegasus mare wanted to go back to The Domain straight away, but the thought of Arbiter's disappointment had made her curious.

"What does Arbiter do in his spare time anyways?" she asked herself, looking up at the mountains.

She then flapped her wings, her damaged one causing a staggering motion in the air, and then she flew for the mansion in the mountain range.

"Only one way to find out!"

Arbiter carefully turned on the tap to his bathtub, a large double-sized marble bath, perfect for relaxation after a hard day. In his mind, it was exactly what he needed to get over his disappointment that he did not get to spend any time with Limpwing.

"I have never seen a mare so appreciative of her own strength," he thought to himself as he watched the bath fill with hot water, "before she was just another mare I wanted to show my sword collection to. Now I really want to get to know her."

"Hmmm, perhaps Rainbow Dash is right, I am going soft," he said, becoming bitter as he removed his black cape and dropped it on the floor before climbing into the water.

"Who needs her? I'll just find a mare a lot more interested in me than that workaholic Limpwin,." he said, chuckling to himself confidently.

Limpwing had heard every word from the other side of the bathroom wall, and removed her ear from it, trying not to snicker. She was standing on the outside of the fancy home, hoping to practice her favorite art of "harmless" espionage.

"Wow, he's saddle sore about me saying no to a visit," she said quietly to herself, trying not to snicker, "there's no way he's going soft either, with what I've heard about how he treated those colts who broke one of the castle windows on accident."

Once she heard the sloshing of water as he left the bath inside, Limpwing tracked his movements out to his living room, and watched from a nearby bush as Arbiter sat down in one of the sofas and picked up a military history book to read. He spent a good quarter of an hour finishing a chapter he had started the day before, likely trying to get his mind off things. Arbiter finished his reading, and then decided to head for bed early, since he did not have anything else to accomplish that evening.
Limpwing observed the rather sad look on the Captain's face as he headed into his bedroom, and closed the curtains. Thankfully for Limpwing, there was still a small area that she could peek in.

Arbiter changed into his red pajamas and night cap with a silver poof ball, then got into his quilted king-sized bed. The large stallion took a look at the empty spot and pillow next to him, and then sighed, before rolling over and turning the light off.

"Arbiter's finally thinking about the consequences of treating mares poorly. This sure isn't his academy days anymore!" thought Limpwing with a smile, trotting off in pride, "Maybe tomorrow after work I'll go see how he's doing. This time he won't bother telling me those stories."

She stopped back at the living room window, and looked at the various collections of weapons, feeling a bit of envy. Limpwing hadn't chosen a self-defense weapon despite her rank as Lieutenant of Darkmatter's guard, and looked through the glass, her nose pressed against it as she tried to get a better look at the swords.

"Oh wow," she said at the size of the collection, "I really have to get something like that! Maybe a curved one like what the eastern ponies use. Those things can cut through logs! If only I could try one of those out."

She then realized what she was going to need to do in order to actually get a chance to try the weapon in her teeth, and understood that perhaps Arbiter's hobby really was something she was interested in. Limpwing had always led other troops, but she wanted to be able to do well with a sword herself. She was talented with martial arts, but the blade seemed like the perfect defense against monsters, balanced in weight and power.

"I guess tomorrow I can spend time with Arbiter, and then go buy a sword of my own once I've made my choice," she said, mulling it over, "he'll certainly like that, and I've always wanted to learn how to use a blade. Then after, I'll just go back to the blacksmith in The Domain and have him build me my own."

Limpwing settled on her plan, and was about to leave the mansion for the night, when she noticed something peculiar. The box containing Arbiter's main longsword was glowing a soft green. She looked again through the outside window, and saw the sword open its own case by cutting a small hole through the glass. The blade, glowing and hovering along as if being controlled by some kind of invisible force, moved towards Arbiter's room.

"What?" thought Limpwing, shocked at what she had seen.

Captain Arbiter tried to drift off to sleep in the darkness of his room, his eye shut. Unfortunately, he was having problems keeping his remaining eye closed, as there appeared to be some kind of light source entering the room. He got himself up from his bed, and looked for the source of light, noticing the soft glowing under the door.

"Ah, I left the refridgerator open I suppose," he reasoned, going over to the door. He opened it with his front hoof, and then, he saw his sword glowing and hovering in front of him.

"What in the name of?"

The sword took a wild mid-air swing at Arbiter, who shouted and ducked, rolling under his blade. The sword re-oriented itself downwards and dropped, and the captain barely had time to run away before the blade embedded itself in the ground.

"My own sword!" he shouted angrily, running for the living room, "Not even my own sword likes me!"

Captain Arbiter seemed to believe that he was in a nightmare, and not really experiencing his own blade attacking him like a ghost. He spread his wings and flew into the middle of his living room, staying well above the case the sword had left through. The pegasus turned to face his weapon, his gray mane leaking out of the back of the pajamas he was in.

"I'll just grab it. This is all just a dream," he said, reassuring himself.

Arbiter dove through the air down for his weapon, which eagerly started rotating quickly, chopping the stallion's nightcap off and shredding it to pieces. Arbiter growled and grabbed the hilt with his teeth. The sword immediately took advantage of this and flew around the room rapidly, taking the Captain for a ride in an effort to get him to let go. It smashed into the ceiling and floor of the living room, knocking Arbiter off and leaving him on the floor of his home. With the wind knocked out of him, his blue hilted sword rose into the air, and then dove with its blade down.

Limpwing burst through the glass windows, shattering them loudly as she flew directly into the rouge longsword. She pinned it to the hardwood floor, using her hooves to keep the blade and hilt down at the same time. The sword angrily vibrated for several seconds, and then, the green glow vanished, leaving the sword inert.

"Lieutenant?" asked Arbiter, standing up, "What are you doing here? Can I not take a break from rejection during my dreams even?"

"This isn't a dream," stated Limpwing, swinging a hoof at him into his sternum.

Arbiter grunted at the minor blow, and then he realized that he had just told Limpwing how he felt. He never wanted to reveal his feelings as part of the tough outside he wanted to maintain, and now felt rather ashamed.

"I wasn't trying to be rejecting." said Limpwing, defending herself, "I really was just busy."

"Can we focus on the fact that my own weapon tried to slice me?" asked Arbiter, hoping to get around the subject, "Or have you lost track of that?"

Limpwing removed her hooves from the longsword, and stared at her reflection in the blade.

"I'm not sure what it was that caused that to happen," she said, scratching her head with her good wing, "I do know this though, there's no such things as floating swords normally."

"Meaning..." droned Captain Arbiter, turning his head slightly.

"Meaning that it has to be some kind of magic," she answered, "rouge magic. We'll need to get Twilight Sparkle here tomorrow to inspect the sword and help us figure out why it attacked you."

"Why her?" he asked, not wanting to put up with her.

"Because she's quite familiar with rouge enchantments," answered Limpwing, "the nearest sword enchanter is miles away. I'm sure Twilight can help us much sooner, unless of course, you want to spend more nights with this thing trying to hurt you."

Arbiter rolled his eye and knew she was right, "All right, tomorrow morning we'll meet back here with Miss Sparkle and see if we can figure out why this is happening. Until then, I'm chaining this weapon down to the floor."

"That sounds like a plan," said Limpwing, nodding at her victory, "I'll be back at ten tomorrow with Twilight following me. Please don't let this thing escape."

She then left him through the window she had broken, which Arbiter scowled at, knowing he'd have to pay to fix it. He then turned back to his favorite weapon, and looked at it with a rather disappointed expression. It was true that he didn't want to rely on Twilight's help to fix his sword, but not for the reason Limpwing thought he didn't. Arbiter believed that a pony should be able to control and take care of his blade without accepting help from others. A sword was more personal of an item than even a toothbrush in some cases. However, it was apparent that for some reason, his own weapon wanted to turn against him, and he knew he'd have to accept help in order to keep a terrible accident from happening.

Arbiter looked at his new favorite blade, and said, "I thought I could count on you..."

The captain didn't get much sleep that night, somewhat out of fear of the sword rising to attack him again, but also because of his thoughts racing on various issues. When morning finally broke, Arbiter waited patiently for Limpwing to return with Twilight, hoping that the whole incident would be simple to fix and he could go back to a normal life again.

When they finally arrived and rang the doorbell, the guard opened the door, to find that Techorse had also chosen to tag along with Limpwing and Twilight.

"Hey Arby!" greeted Techorse, smiling.

"Don't call me that," he answered gruffly.

Techorse's ears drooped, "Oh... Ok."

He let the three of them inside, and pointed them to the sword, which was now restrained by a somewhat thin metal chain and a padlock. Twilight bent down and took a close look at the weapon, but couldn't seem to see anything wrong on the surface.

"I'll need to do some tests," she said, "Luckily, I brought some books with me to try and help identify the enchantment that's infected your sword."

Twilight opened up her saddle bags, and four volumes on enchantments spilled out onto the floor, which the lavender mare immediately set to reading while observing the sword. While she was busy working on a fix for the ill-mannered blade, Arbiter confronted Limpwing on Techorse's presence.

"So why is Techorse here?" he asked, "I thought you said we needed Twilight."

"Tech is going to fill out your insurance forms for the window I... I mean, the incident last night broke," she said sheepishly, "he understands that most home insurance covers some forms of magical incidents, and thinks he can help you get the window fixed for free."

"Without raising the premium," added Techorse, smiling.

Arbiter continued to act in a rather rude manner, "So, I suppose we have both the nerds here now. We might as well make the best of it."

"Arbiter, stop being so rude!" said Limpwing, pushing him with a hoof, "They've both agreed to help you. You should be more thankful."

The inventor's mechanical saddle opened up with an electric buzz, and his mechanical arms emerged, one hand carrying a pen, the other the insurance form printed on business paper. Arbiter didn't really want to be mean twoards the others, he was only upset that his sword had tried to attack him. So, he did his best to fight against being rude, and to interact with Techorse and Twilight more politely.

Arbiter sighed, "All right, Techorse, go ahead and write out the form. I'm surprised you could be bothered to help out like that."

"Of course, it's what friends do," he answered, "honestly, I'd think being attacked by a cursed blade would tire someone out too much to do something as boring as an insurance form, so I'm glad to handle it for you."

"Need I remind you that it's your cursed blade that attacked me." he grunted, staring at him.

Techorse answered with slight remorse, "Hey... I didn't know this was going to happen. Limpwing even checked with the blacksmith at The Domain that I got that sword from. There wasn't any risk of enchantment there."

"I suppose I have nothing to gain by not believing you," he answered.

Techorse pushed past Arbiter and headed for the window to begin work on filing a claim.

Limpwing turned to Arbiter and said to him somewhat angrily,"Hey, don't blame Techorse for this. He's trying to help you."

"Isn't it a little weird that he gave me that sword in the first place, and now it does this to me?" asked Arbiter, frustrated.

"So you're going to blame him for this?" she asked, "And you wonder why nopony wants to spend time with you."

Arbiter simply turned away and stated, "Maybe. I'm just quite disappointed that all of this has happened. I was trying to take a short vacation and it's turned into quite the nightmare."

"Well, I guess there is that," admitted Limpwing, shaking her head at the ground sadly, "I would probably be a bit grumpy too if I had my vacation ruined like this."

"Needless to say I don't actually think Techorse did this," finished Arbiter, turning his head back at her.

He then looked forward at the green earth pony inspecting the damaged window and said, "I just wonder if there's not something he secretly thinks about me. That he still doesn't see me as a changed stallion."

"I think he knows you've changed. I mean, you're not trying to lop off his head anymore," Limpwing said carelessly.

Arbiter turned around and gave her a nasty look, to which Limpwing smiled timidly.

"What, too soon?" she asked, laughing nervously.

She went to go help Techorse inspect the broken glass of the window, while Arbiter sat back down on his couch. He simply stared at Twilight, who scanned over his sword thoroughly, trying to decipher what enchantment it must have contained within. The unicorn looked over the blade, and then back at her book, trying to figure out the issue in vain.

"I can't tell what's going on with this sword at all!" she thought, "There's no glow I can see, it doesn't respond to the touch, it doesn't even change the temperature of the air around the blade!"

Twilight's horn glowed, and she removed the chains and padlock from the sword, lifting it up into the air to inspect it further.

"Nothing wrong with the hilt... nothing! What is wrong with this thing?" she asked herself angrily before setting it back down.

Twilight Sparkle then stood up and walked over past Arbiter to enter the home's kitchen. Captain Arbiter noticed her intense frustration with figuring out what the problem with his sword might be, and offered her a chance for a break.

"If you need to take a break, please, do so. There's no sense in all of us getting angry about this." he said.

"I just need a glass of water," she grumbled, frustrated at her books not helping her.

"I'll join you," said Arbiter, following her.

Out of forgetfulness with what they were dealing with, the sword had been left unattended. As if it somehow knew about the lack of ponies in the room, the blade began to glow a soft green, and then its blade stretched and retracted as if it were an inchworm, pulling it out of the room. It hid in wait in a nearby doorway, hoping to catch the ponies off guard and spring a trap on them when they least expected it. When Twilight and Captain Arbiter returned with their throats no longer dry, they saw the blade had left the room, leaving a trail of scratch marks on the hardwood floor where the cutting edge had touched the ground.

"Miss Sparkle, where did my sword go?" asked Arbiter with a bit of shock, "You did remember to chain it back up after inspecting it, right?"

Twilight Sparkle swallowed hard and admitted sheepishly, "I may have... forgotten to tie it back down because I was a bit frustrated."

She turned her head away from Arbiter to avoid eye contact, as he furiously rushed forward to try and figure out which way the blade had went. It was dangerous to leave it unattended, and now it was loose in his home again. If the sword managed to hurt anyone, there was no way that he was going to escape feeling as if he were responsible for it.

"Help me find it!" he said, calling back to Twilight, "We can't let it stay out of our sights for long."

"Well, at least we know now that the sword's enchantment really does allow for movement," she said, "it brings us one step closer to cracking its mystery!"

Suddenly, there was a loud male scream from the area near the window, and Twilight and Arbiter dashed over to find Techorse with the sword a mere inches away from his face. The blade had startled him, causing him to shout and drop the insurance form. Limpwing tried to aid Techorse by grabbing a newspaper off a nearby wood table in her teeth, and swung at the blade in an attempt to swat it. The sword reacted by slashing through the newspaper, swiping it from Limpwing's jaw. Bits of newspaper swirled around the four ponies as they watched the sword turn the newspaper into a set of paper dolls, each doll a small unicorn pony complete with a horn.

The four ponies in the kitchen watched as the sword floated towards them menacingly.

"Well, now what?" asked Limpwing, irritated.

"Run away?" suggested Twilight.

"Probably not a bad idea," answered Limpwing.

The four dashed away from the sword, desperate to keep from getting chopped up. They fled down the hallway, and dove into Arbiter's bedroom, slamming the door as the sword jabbed quickly down the open space and stabbed into the door.

"Great!" shouted Captain Arbiter, turning to Twilight, "This is all your fault for letting it loose."

"Hey, you're the one who wanted me to try and figure out the enchantment because you were too lazy to find a real enchanter!" defended Twilight, stomping her hoof.

Techorse watched the bottom of the door as he saw the sword wiggle its way underneath, the green glow pulsing.

"Twilight, Arby, look!" he said, pointing at the door, "It's going to get in here. We need a plan to take care of that sword."

Limpwing smiled and suggested, "Once the sword gets in, we'll have Twilight blast it with a magic missile. Then, Arbiter can pounce on it and hold it down until we can re-chain it."

"I won't be able to use a magic missile, we'll get caught in the blast." said Twilight, "I'll have to use a weaker magic bolt."

The sword finished getting through the door frame, and lifted up into the air in front of them.

"Just do it now!" cried Limpwing, her wings flapping in instinctive fear to get her off the ground.

Twilight took aim with her horn, and fired off a small purple bolt of energy, striking the blade in the middle. The blast disappeared inside of the weapon, and then it returned the blast at Twilight, impacting her and sending her backwards. The unicorn pony screamed as her own attack sent her into the floor, and she moaned in pain softly.

Techorse had lost all patience with the sword, and gave it a cross look before drawing his twin laser cannons and opening fire. Yellow laser bolts streamed towards the sword, and it twisted around in the air, skillfully reflecting each bolt. Laser blasts hit the walls and ceiling, exploding and leaving small burning holes in the drywall. Eventually, two blasts smacked into Techorse's cannons, destroying them both with a sharp crackle of electricity and slagged metal. The earth pony retracted the destroyed guns back into his gadget, and backed up slowly just as Twilight got up from the ground.

Twilight observed the happenings, and wondered, "Why is that sword absorbing our attacks and using them against us? Could it be...?"

Twilight's horn glowed again, and this time, she released a small beam designed to reveal hidden messages on paper. The sword accepted the blast, and then released it back onto the ground, revealing a splotch of spilled wine that had stained into the very bottom of the carpet.

"What did you do?" asked Limpwing, curious.

"I was testing to see if the sword was absorbing magic and energy, and I was correct!" she answered cheerfully, "Now I just have to know why it's decided to go rouge."

The blade didn't give her a moments' thought as it descended, swinging at her hair. Twilight saw several locks of her mane fall to the floor before she screamed. The friends retreated to the bathroom, shutting the door behind them, and stuffing towels underneath the doorway before jumping into the dry bathtub to hide from the sword.

"Ok, if we're quiet," she said, panting from the strain of moving so quickly, "maybe... we'll have a few minutes to think things over."

Arbiter, still a bit startled from how quickly things were playing out, tried to start, "We know my sword can absorb magical energy for some reason, but we're unsure as to what actually causes it to attack."

"So maybe something cursed it!" suggested Limpwing, "It's not exactly common to have a sword that steals magical energy like that!"

"Wait a minute Limpwing..." said Twilight, putting a hoof in the air, "Say that again!"

"What, that someone cursed it?" she asked, "Or the part about having a sword like this being uncommon?"

"No, what you said it did!" demanded Twilight, pacing around, "Did you say that it's stealing magical energy? As opposed to just absorbing it?"

"Well yeah, because it's returned exactly the same shots that you and Techorse have directed at it!" explained the blue colored pegasus, tilting her head, "It seems to steal individual attacks and return them."

Arbiter believed that he had caught on to the conversation and said, "This sounds exactly like what Malthus was capable of doing as a wraith. Since my sword was used to take him down, I wonder if he didn't curse it..."

"That's exactly what I was about to say!" answered Twilight, smiling, "I think we've figured it out! Arbiter's sword is now enchanted with wraith magic, the ability to mirror your opponent's attacks one for one."

"Yeah, but that wouldn't make the sword up and attack us! Something has to be wrong here," said Techorse.

The sword was beginning to chop away slowly at the towels underneath the door, so that it could once again slip underneath of the crack under the door frame and enter the room.

"We need to figure out why the sword is acting so strangely. Wraith essence alone isn't enough to make it act like this," said Twilight, getting desperate.

Limpwing asked, "What would cause it to act like this? Did it absorb some kind of magic that makes it go berserk?"

"I don't know!" answered Twilight honestly, leaning against an air jet in the large luxury tub, "Arbiter's the only one who could tell us where that blade has been."

Arbiter did know where the blade had been, and immediately thought up a theory as to why the blade was acting up. But he didn't want to admit to Techorse and Twilight that he had been up to violence again, as he wanted to maintain his image of no longer being a threat to them. It was hard balancing the image of being a tough guy, and also no longer wanting to bring harm to Techorse! Somehow, he'd just have to put off telling them the truth. Now that Arbiter was aware of his sword's wraith-like ability, he knew that the recent event of lopping off Discord's head had likely infected his sword with Discord's magic. Telling Twilight and Techorse this, though, would certainly make them go back on their new opinion of him! They'd be right back to wanting him in jail, or worse. He'd just have to take care of the sword himself, if he could figure it out.

The sword gave up on moving the towels out of the way, and instead hacked the doorknob off in one swing, before bashing open the door. Twilight and Techorse screamed, and the sword moved over to a bright purple bottle of bubble bath, knocking it into the tub. It then turned on both taps, filling the bathtub rapidly with water and flooding the bathroom with soap bubbles. To aid in their escape, Limpwing pushed open one of the bathroom windows, and urged everyone to leave the room.

"Come on, we need to climb to the roof!" she said, pointing at the window with her good wing, "It'll give us a little more time."

The ponies scrambled out through the window and made their way to the roof. Twilight had to teleport herself being the only one without an alternate means of flying. They were now sitting on the roof, watching a stream of bubble bath flow out of the window.

"Hey, wait a minute, Arbiter uses bubble bath?" giggled Limpwing, watching the soap pour out.

Arbiter blushed and stuttered, "Hey, it's not bubble bath, it's therapeutic soap."

"Let's focus on the sword and stopping it," said Techorse, trying to be reasonable, "we don't have long before it gets out of there."

"So, we're still no closer to figuring out what magic is causing it to act this way?" asked Twilight.

Arbiter gave a guilty look at the ground, but refused to say anything.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he answered.

Limpwing rolled her eyes and said, "Arbiter, if you know something we don't, you need to tell us."

"I can't..." he answered, "If I tell you what I did... those two will think differently of me again."

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other, frowned, and refocused on Arbiter.

"What do you mean?" asked Techorse, concerned.

The captain frowned and answered, "Once I had heard from Twilight Sparkle that the sword had been enchanted with Wraith energy, I realized that it had absorbed a large amount of a specific kind of magic."

"Whatever it was, it had to be fairly violent magic," figured Limpwing, "maybe sparring too much with it caused it to get sick and tired of its treatment?"

"I actually do not think the sword can think without the particular magic it absorbed," disagreed Arbiter, "you see, a short while ago, when Discord returned... I kind of ran short on self-control."

"Uh oh..." said Limpwing teasingly, trying not to laugh.

Arbiter sighed and continued, "I ended up slicing his head clean off his body. Which of course, did not do all that much to him. He was easily able to re-attach it."

Twilight Sparkle's ears perked up as she understood that the answer Arbiter had just given her was correct. The sword wasn't really trying to inflict harm on them. It was playing games of hide and go seek, making paper dolls, flooding the house with bubble bath, and in general just doing things that wouldn't make sense for a curse. Discord's magic had to be what was infecting the blade.

"Arbiter..." she said, stepping up to him, "Why wouldn't you tell us this earlier?"

He answered truthfully while sitting down on the roof, "I thought that if I told you I had attacked Discord, you would see me as a dangerous pony again. I've been trying to be a better stallion recently because of the genuine concern my own former enemy, Techorse, had showed to me in the past. He taught me that I was worth saving, and that I was worth something as a friend."

"So you thought you'd lose that from me if you admitted to attacking Discord?" asked Techorse, "Arbiter, defending the princesses is still your duty. I wouldn't stop being your friend just because you chose to try and defend yourself or someone else. I know you're not purposefully trying to harm others anymore."

"That's all I really needed to hear," he answered, his heart warmed slightly by the sentiment.

His sword had caught up to them, this time carrying a piece of cargo. The blade was carefully balancing a delicious banana crème pie on its hilt, carrying it while pointing its blade towards Techorse.

He noticed a slightly worried look on his friends' faces, and slowly turned around to face the cursed weapon. It then took no pause, and catapulted the pie straight into Techorse's face, splattering him with whipped cream and knocking him on the ground.

Limpwing couldn't help but laugh at the inventor's misfortune, even as the sword lifted over him, and faced the three remaining friends.

"Arbiter, do something! My books told me that only a sword's owner can stop a rogue enchantment." whimpered Twilight.

"Limpwing, get the others out of here!" demanded Arbiter, looking back at her, "I'll hold the sword off so you can get away!"

"I'm not running away from this," said Limpwing, standing firm, "we're not going to leave you here, either."

Arbiter watched as the blade moved closer to his face, and he thought deeply as to how he could stop Discord's magic and flush it from the blade. After a moment of pondering that the sword wasn't making any sense, the answer struck Arbiter hard. His sword was supposed to be a tool of self-defense, not a toy for making jokes. Arbiter figured that he had one shot at telling his weapon what it was really for, and made his move.

"Hold on, what kind of a cursed blade hits ponies with pies?" shouted Arbiter, walking up to his weapon and reaching underneath his cape.

The twin metal enchanted gauntlets he used to hold his sword dropped from underneath and activated, floating at his sides. They grabbed the sword by the hilt, which didn't seem to struggle very much from its masters' grasp.

"Are you a sword or a kitchen knife?" he asked it, holding it with one hand and pointing at it with another finger, "I thought I'd have taken better care of you than for you to run around scaring us, giving Twilight a bad haircut, and wasting perfectly good food."

"Even though it was pretty funny," admitted Techorse as he finished wiping whipped topping off of his face.

The sword, as if "ashamed" of itself, wilted over in Arbiter's hands. He then grinned, and stroked the metal gently with the gauntlet.

"Now easy there girl. I'm sure you didn't mean this. We're going to figure out how to get you back to normal," he said, and the blade straightened up in his grasp.

Arbiter then sheathed the weapon back into the blue wooden one he kept at his side, and the green glow dissipated.

"Arbiter, you did it!" beamed Twilight, "You tamed it!"

"Any good swordspony should know control over his weapon," stated Arbiter.

"Maybe, but I've never seen a cursed item come under control by another pony quite like that before!" said Twilight with a hint of awe, "Most enchantments of that strength are almost impossible to stop once they get going."

"How'd you do it?" asked Techorse curiously, "I thought you'd need Twilight to take away Discord's magic from the sword."

Arbiter shook his head, "It seems that once the blade absorbs magic, it only can use so much of it before running out. It wasn't able to use Twilight's spells more than once after all. So I figured I just had to seize my blade, and make it dissipate all the chaos magic left. It's my blade, so it has to answer to me!"

Limpwing stomped her hooves on the ground in applause, "Ha ha! Even a blade made with Discord's magic has to listen to you, because your its master! That's genius."

"Now that I've put it back in its place, the chaos magic will likely leave the blade shortly," said Arbiter, confident in his answer, "However, now that I know it absorbs energy like this, it does mean I will need to be more careful in the future as to what I actually strike with my sword. From now on, I'll call it Wraithbane."

"Wow, that's a really creepy name!" teased Limpwing before dodging a playful swat from the Captain.

"It did stop that wraith from taking over Equestria," he said, "and I want to remind myself of what it is capable of. Maybe I am more prone to using force to try and protect Equestria, but I want to make sure that when I do use force, I make it count instead of jumping to conclusions. Just as I should stop jumping to conclusions about how others will feel about me when I act."

"Of course!" said Techorse happily, "We're still your friends."

Limpwing felt as if Arbiter was making better choices without really sacrificing his character, the sort of quality she valued in others. Her thoughts were interrupted however, by Twilight, who seemed to be very happy with Arbiter's decision as well.

"I'm just glad we finally figured out what's wrong with the sword!" answered Twilight.

She then looked up at her destroyed hair and said, "I might need to go to a salon now and get this fixed though..."

Later on, Techorse got Arbiter to sign his insurance form to have the window replaced, while Limpwing and Twilight waited patiently in the kitchen, discussing how things were going for themselves. Once the paperwork had finally been completed, Techorse met up with Twilight to take her to have her hair fixed. Before they could leave, Arbiter opened up a cabinet next to his couch, and removed a small blue package.

"I'd like us all to celebrate with a little something I've been saving for a while now," he said, grinning at Techorse.

He then unwrapped the blue package to reveal a pure white salt lick, and he set it down on the counter on a small orange colored plate.

"This is a vintage salt lick, aged for ten years. It's rather expensive, but I feel like this is a good occasion for us to all try a small piece," he said, "I'll go get a knife."

Techorse and Twilight looked at the block of salt, and really didn't want to participate in altering their minds via dehydration.

Twilight took the initiative and said, "Maybe some other time, Arbiter. I appreciate it, but I'd like to get back to town."

"Some other time then," he said, a bit disappointed, but understanding.

Arbiter saw them both to the front door, expecting everyone to leave him alone again for the night. To his surprise, however, Limpwing wanted to stay behind with him.

"I don't really need to get back to The Domain until tomorrow," she admitted, dragging a hoof on the ground, "I think maybe I'll spend a few minutes with you... y'know..."

Arbiter understood what she was trying to say, and hid a smile, before saying to Techorse and Twilight, "I'm... sorry I called you nerds earlier."

"That's ok, we are nerds!" said Techorse cheerfully.

Twilight also joined in and laughed with him.

"I don't think it's that bad," said Arbiter, "but I thank you for taking a joke."

"That's what friends are supposed to be able to do!" said Twilight, swishing her tail, "We'll probably come up with something to tease you with later, trust us!"

Arbiter chuckled, and bid his friends farewell as they turned around to leave down the mountainside for Ponyville. He then turned to Limpwing and said,
"So, shall we have any of the salt lick, Limpwing? I guess it's just the two of us."
Limpwing batted her eyelashes at him and said lovingly, "Weeeeell, I was actually hoping... since I'd recently taken interest in learning how to use weapons... that you'd... show me that sword collection of yours."

She approached him, intent in her eyes, and Captain Arbiter simply stood there, his heart rate rising rapidly.

"I've been thinking Techorse," said Twilight, "maybe I should write a letter to Princess Celestia about Arbiter's progress. He learned that if you're friends with someone, it's ok to do something you think is the right thing to do. If they're really your friends, they'll either accept what you do, or forgive you for it."

"I think you're right Twilight," he answered, before stopping as his ear perked up, picking up a curious noise.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, getting Twilight to stop.

She stopped to listen in with her coltfriend, and indeed could hear something coming from the house a few feet behind them. Techorse and Twilight could hear funny noises coming from the inside of the home, growing louder with each moment. It sounded like Arbiter and Limpwing were making giggling and sighs of an impressed nature. Concerned, they both crept back to the house, and looked through the broken window carefully.

Limpwing had a curved sword in her teeth, and she was blocking small, careful blows from Arbiter's now inert again sword, learning how to deflect blows and counter with her own. The sparring was helping her to determine just what kind of a sword she wanted, and Arbiter's collection case was wide upon, several swords lined up in a queue for her to try.

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other, then shook their heads as they once again headed back for town, leaving the two to continue their training session. It took a rogue enchantment, but at last, Captain Arbiter had gotten closer to the mare he'd been hoping to get to know.

#36 - Secrets of the Crown: Part I

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Secrets of the Crown: Part I

Techorse Series: #36

By Spirals95

1,500 years ago

An awe-inspiring castle stood in the middle of the land, a tall, dark structure made to keep intruders out, and the royal family safe and warm within. The building was at its prime, having been used for only one hundred years thus far, and even the ivy vines that sprawled from the forest to the west and east of the castle failed to climb the structure entirely. Over two hundered years had passed since ponies had moved away from their prior homes in the colder, mountainous areas, and had settled into the warmer climate of a new land in order to take advantage of the better supplies of food and easily available water. The dark spires of the building overlooked the large, sprawling medieval city that span a few miles across.

It was there that the remainder of ponykind worked and lived, though not quite with the level of cooperation observed in the distant future. A well known tale told on Hearth's Warming Eve of how the original founders of Equestria cooperated to battle the bitter colds that seemingly followed them from the north was starting to become forgotten. Even though they had lived in harmony centuries before, old habits die hard, and the efforts of the founding ponies had only bought two hundred years of peace.

In fact, the city seemed to be divided into three parts, one was dominated by smaller fortresses and structures where the unicorns practiced their arcanery, a second where pegasus ponies had anchored their cloud houses and built barracks to aid in the defense of the land. The third estate were the earth ponies, whose vast sums of farmland kept the other two well fed, albeit quite thanklessly as they had nothing special about their bodies. In this age, stallions and earth ponies in particular were rather looked down upon, most of the highest ranking merchants and officers were female, and marriage between the three types was considered far more than unholy. Society had unwound once more, and a new solution was necessary to bring the Equestrians back together again in harmony.

King Diurne and his spouse, the primary leader of their new land, Queen Nocturna, watched with a bitter taste in their mouths as their subjects bickered and separated themselves on a daily basis. A brass telescope given to them as a wedding gift served as their way of safely looking down at the town below and watching their people when they could not enter the city themselves. The two had been born to parents of forbidden marriages, each of them had a parent that was a unicorn and a parent that was an earth pony. As a result, the king and queen were born alicorns, out of sheer genetic chance they had come into existence. Fortunately for the realm, sheer chance is frequently turned into good in the grand scheme of life.

Diurne and Nocturna were hailed as being great gifts by a powerful warlock who had descended from the line of the most magically inclined unicorns ever. Starswirl the Bearded as he was called, was a known sorcerer who had claimed to have conquered the forces of time and space themselves, and knew healing magic that could mend broken bones in seconds, which would take other unicorn ponies days to do even with the most powerful casts and magical tools. With him knowing the most difficult magic of healing amongst his other feats, he easily ushered in a new era amongst the early settlers of the land, and they chose the two alicorns as king and queen once their small villages grew into a city.

It was at that point in history, however, when life started to take a turn for the worse. With the old tales forgotten, Earth ponies were being treated more and more as filth as Starswirl continued to preach the virtues of knowing powerful magic, pushing the unicorns up higher and higher in class and power. To prevent everyone from starving however, he also explained how "swift warriors" were needed for peace, and the pegasi easily filled that role. As time went by, it appeared that the alicorns and their ancestors that had brought the ponies together to survive in a new land were quickly being replaced by the glorious power of "peace through magic". The final act of evil which permanently seeped the three types of ponies against each other was when a decree was issued by the king and queen that a school would be built to teach magic, amongst complaints that agriculture was slowly beginning to fall behind.

Now, unicorns born to other families suffered as they were whisked off to boarding school to learn arcane arts, instead of learning how to be great citizens. Starswirl continued to be a prominent, popular figure, receiving applause whenever he gave a lecture at the ancient college, but drew the jeers of earth ponies. Whenever a large danger arose, such as a monster attack, he would step up and vanquish the beast with little trouble at all. He even contracted the wraiths, a species of spectral being known for fighting monsters on their own terms, to construct a titanic underground prison system called "Tartarus", which ended up being more of a private zoo for Starswirl to observe the monsters he'd fought, than a true prison.

With the earth ponies suffering from terrible neglect, they had begun in recent years to beseech the alicorn royal family to aid them against the other two types of ponies. This broke Queen Nocturna's heart, who could not bear to see any of her subjects suffer, and didn't truly understand why her subjects were even fighting, although she had started to get suspicious. Her husband did his best to lower the taxes on the earth ponies and give them aid in the form of access to the iron mines so they'd have the best farming tools money could buy, but every time he tried, the unicorns and pegasi stomped their hooves and cried that it was unfair for them, who needed that metal and tax exemption "for the army" and "for the schools"! Thus the conditions of the hardest working type of pony got worse and worse, and there was absolutely nothing the queen or king could do about it without risking anarchy.

The royal couple overlooked their balcony through their telescope, watching their subjects at work. They observed an earth pony getting robbed by a pair of pegasi, and grew sad as they watched the unicorn who was supposed to be acting as guard that day do nothing about it out of sheer spite. They stepped away from their telescope, with two eyepieces for them to share, and looked at each other with deep sadness. King Diurne was a strong, large, white stallion with a golden mane, bright as the sun that flowed behind him. His light blonde mustache and beard combo adorning his face was trimmed weekly so that it neither grew too long, nor left blonde stubble on his face. For a cutie mark, he bore a set of white rings in a flare over a broad beam of light. With his blue eyes he looked at his wife of more than 100 years. Queen Nocturna was a dark blue mare, with a very rare set of magenta eyes in combination with a splotch on her flank of purple. Her cutie mark was the peaceful night itself, a patch of darkness with a ray of pure starlight shining through.

"What must we have done so wrong, to see such cruelty amongst our subjects?" cried the Queen, her dark blue eyeshadow running as tears streaked down her face, "They have forgotten the lessons of Hearth's Warming Eve, and harm each other for fun."

"I do not know why this is happening," he answered, "we shall overcome it, though."

The Queen dried her tears and said with passion, "This land was named Equestria so that all ponies, no matter what kind they are, no matter what their special talent may be, could live in harmony."

"And it will be that way!" assured the King, placing a wing around his wife, "As of today, my dear, our discovery has finally allowed us to produce an artifact chamber."

"You mean, they're ready?" she asked, overjoyed, "The values that we have discovered are finally... placed in objects?"

The King nodded, "Upon checking the artifacts, they were glowing and orbiting each other like the celestial bodies. Everything is ready."

They looked at each other with hope for the future bright in their eyes, when a young female voice called out to them from the hallway that lead to their perch.

"Mother, Father? Where art thou?" she called.

"We are outside," answered Diurne, "come out, little one."

A small mare, having just reached young adulthood, blue in color with a mane featuring the stars of space, crawled from the entrance and approached her parents.

"Oh my littlest Luna!" said her father, smiling and walking to meet her, "Your mother and I have some wonderful news."

Her other siblings, three other young alicorns, entered the balcony from behind the shady area that entered into the castle. Celestia, her hair solid pink at the time, was the oldest, and led her two brothers forward towards their parents, one at each side. Darkmatter was the youngest of them all, having only just earned his cutie mark when he discovered his power over gravity. The other one, younger than Celestia, but older than Luna, was white-coated, and was beginning to grow a beard just like his father, although darker golden in color. The four royal descendents gathered together in front of their parents to talk about their discovery.

"What have you discovered recently?" asked Darkmatter, curious as to the situation.

"Come, we'll show you!" cooed the Queen, leading her children inside.

The two royals led their fillies and colts down to a dark, central area of the castle that was used as an observatory during the night. Tall glass windows revealed stone buttresses and statues outdoors that kept the room's walls up. A purple carpet and stone floor on the inside led to a large, circular area raised up from the rest of the room by several steps. Nocturna walked up to the central platform, leading her husband by his hoof, and the two of them tapped their long horns once on the ground at the edges of the inner circle. To the four young ponies' surprise, the circular area opened up by a magical force, and a large, mobile-like device carved of pure white marble ascended from the ground. On each arm of the mobile sat a large, colored crystal, with a large, star-shaped purple one mounted on the center towards the ceiling. The device rotated all of the crystals and arms around each other, and Celestia, being very curious at her age, noted that there were several holes near the base of the structure where more arms and crystals could be mounted if necessary.

"These, my foals... are The Elements of Harmony," declared Nocturna, "your father and I have searched for decades a solution to all of the fighting and despair amongst the ponies we serve."

King Diurne picked up the slack, "Within each of these crystals is a magical response to the six virtues, or Elements, that we have discovered represent harmony between ponies. Those are Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty."

"Then what is the sixth purple star?" asked Luna, pointing at the crystal with her hoof.

"That would be the Element only available when all five other Elements are in place," explained her mother, "a spark between the five allows for this one to appear. We call it... magic. Pure magic."

"Wow..." beamed the two colts, their eyes wide.

"Should we discover other Elements, we wish to add them to this mobile," said the Queen, "for now, these six will carry Equestria into the light once more!"

"How will we use them to help the others?" asked Darkmatter, "I want to know!"

"Patience!" declared the King, "For now, all we know is that an immense amount of power resides in these Elements. We must use them wisely, as we have only built containers for a per-existing power, not a solution."

"Does Starswirl The Bearded know about this yet?" questioned the older brother, tilting his head.

The King nearly shouted at him, "No! I mean... perhaps it is best we keep these a secret. We can let your godfather know about the Elements later, after they've been used properly to help the other ponies stop their fighting."

"Oh... very well," said the elder brother, stepping back in surprise at his father's wrath at the question.

Princesses Celestia and Luna looked together at the artifacts swirling around each other with big, open eyes. They wondered what the future might hold for their family now that they had discovered the key to a brighter future for Equestria. Especially curious was the purple star that adorned the centerpiece of the mobile. What would be the purpose of the supposed Element of Magic, and who would get the honor of using it to stop the strife gripping their land?

Twilight Sparkle closed her book on Equestria's history, noting the very important mention of the story that lead to the creation of the play she had participated in over a year ago. To her, that story summarized the struggle that ponies faced to create their home, a tale of strife between the three types of ponies and the evil windigoes that ended up bringing them all together. Replacing the history book back on the shelf of her library home, she wandered back upstairs to her bedroom, where her assistant Spike lay sleeping in his wicker basket bed.

"Wake up Spike!" she called to him softly, "It's almost eleven now."

The dragon slowly lifted his head from underneath his red striped blanket, and crawled out of the basket.

"Good morning Twilight," he said sleepily, scratching his tail as he held it in front of him, "so what are we doing first today?"

She answered with a bright smile, "We're going to go get lunch first. I'm having us take the day off!"

Spike nearly fell over at the news, "Really? Wow, what's the occasion?"

"Today's the day that I finished my first book as a filly," she answered, "also, I kind of wanted to give us both a break after yesterday when that small earthquake knocked all the books off the shelf."

"Yeah, that was a disaster," grumbled the dragon, flicking his tail and crossing his arms in disgust.

"Anyways..." continued Twilight merrily, "I've set up for everypony to meet at Sugarcube Corner for a few cookies and some hot tea. PAL's going to be there, so I thought you'd like to come along."

"Sure!" answered Spike, enjoying any time spent with his robot buddy, "We'll just grab a board game to play."

"I didn't know PAL liked to play board games!" laughed Twilight as she levitated a pink scarf off of a nearby rack and wrapped it around her neck.

"Yeah he does, but being a robot and all, sometimes I think he lets me win," admitted Spike, "I'd like to beat him at Cooperation Castle 2 without him having to go easy on me!"

"Well maybe today's the day!" cheered on Twilight as she pranced for the door, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

They exited the library and proceeded to stroll down the cobblestone roads of Ponyville, passing many of the residents working their daily jobs. It was rather chilly that morning, and many of them were wearing knit hats and coats to keep warm. Hot drinks and adorable fuzzy boots were selling like hotcakes as the ponies tried to keep the cold from chilling them to the bone. Pegasi were moving clouds in the sky overhead to try and make room for a snowstorm needed a month later.

Twilight and her assistant reached Sugarcube Corner, the bakery's chimney smoking, filling the air with the scent of snickerdoodles baking. The unicorn mare pushed open the door to the well-decorated building with her front hoof, and walked in, greeted by the chatter of the customers stopping in to purchase baked goods and get out of the cold. There, at a pair of square tables pushed together to make one larger one, sat her friends in a circle. Pinkie Pie walked up to the table, a tray of cookies and empty white teacups balanced precariously on her head. She dropped the tray of goodies on the table, and then skipped happily over to Twilight.

"Hi Twilight, you're here just in time!" she said, giggling, "Techie just got here!"

Twilight gave her a look of slight annoyance, with a hint of smile, and then walked to the table. Fluttershy and Rarity seemed to be engaged in looking at a magazine about how to make small warm coats to aid reptiles through the winter. Applejack seemed to be more interesting in challenging Rainbow Dash to a game of wits, that is, to see if Rainbow Dash could guess what she was drawing on a piece of paper before she was finished. By themselves were Techorse and PAL, sitting over to the side, trying to take interest in the socialization at the table, but remaining separate. Techorse caught eye of Twilight, and turned to face her on his chair, smiling brightly.

"Hey!" he said, getting off the chair and walking up to her.

Twilight gave him a warm hug, and a quick kiss on the forehead, before they sat down together. PAL relinquished his seat to her, and approached Spike.

"Shall we play a game, Spike?" the machine asked, humming.

"Sure..." he answered smugly, "But this time, don't go easy on me!"

"Whatever do you mean by that," mused the machine, putting his hands together innocently, "there's a reason I only play games with an element of chance with others. It's the only way to make it fair!"

"We'll see," said the small dragon, "don't hold back PAL! This time, I'm going to beat you without you letting me win!"

PAL shook his head, and grabbed a copy of their favorite game from a nearby table where he had left it, and began to set up the pieces on the empty table. Spike immediately picked the silver colored metal cast pieces as opposed to the gold, and the battle began between the two of them, with PAL getting to go first.

Twilight looked back at the two playing their game of strategy, and then looked back at Techorse, "Sorry sweetie. It's just that Spike was telling me this morning that PAL keeps letting him win."

"PAL might be a robot, but he isn't perfect, and he isn't as good as the castle computer is at math,"
answered Techorse, "PAL's more like us now, and is legitimately losing any game Spike beats him at."

"Besides!" interrupted Rainbow Dash from across the table, "A little competition's good for Spike. It feels great to be the winner!"

"Speakin' of that," teased Applejack, winking at her, "ya still haven't guessed what I'm drawin."

"I will eventually," grunted the pegasus, shifting in her seat.

"Any new good books out there?" asked Techorse.

Twilight answered honestly, "Well... there was a new book on how to grow tulips, but other than that, no."

Reciprocating his care, she asked, "How about you, have you built anything new lately?"

Techorse sighed, "I haven't had a good idea in weeks. Well, there was this idea to make an ice ray, but I changed my mind about it. Last thing I want is to accidentally turn somepony into a popsicle."

"Did somepony say popsicles!?" gasped Pinkie Pie, popping up from out of nowhere between the two, "I love popsicles!"

"You wouldn't want to be one though, which is why I've decided not to make an ice ray," smirked the inventor.

Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her mouth, "I wonder what it'd be like to be a popsicle? Would I be one of those ones that has three stripes of flavors?"

A few moments passed, and then she gasped loudly, piercing the ears of the two dating ponies, "I just had a really really really great idea Techie!"

Techorse asked, "Really?"

Pinkie Pie smiled brightly, "Yeah! Maybe you could make the ice ray, and then, use it to freeze cookie dough instantly! You know, gingerbread needs to chill for a long, long time! But with that, you could do it right away!"

"Make an ice beam to flash freeze food?" said Techorse, happy with her idea, "Pinkie Pie, that's a great idea. Maybe I will finish the ray, but make it a small beam so that it can only freeze small batches of cookie dough, like you said. Thanks!"

Pinkie Pie then disappeared like a rabbit down a warren, sinking underneath the table, before returning with a thin gray book in her teeth, which she gave to Twilight.

"Here's a book I bought while I was out of town!" she said, "It's about how they get helium for party balloons! Lots of neat stuff you'd like, Twilight. You can just add it to the library collection when you're done, I'm finished with it."

Twilight accepted the book gratefully and thanked Pinkie Pie for her gift, "Thank you so much!"

"No problem at all!" she said, bouncing back and landing outside of the table.

She looked over the two happy expressions of her friends whose problems she had fixed, and said out loud, "My work here is done!"

A buzzer came from within the kitchen area of the building, and Pinkie Pie turned her head to the noise.

"Oops! Guess not." she giggled, "I gotta go get those brownies out of the oven, be right back!"

She bounded out of the room to go save the confections from being burnt, leaving her friends to talk.

"Pinkie Pie's just trying to make us happy," said Twilight, "no depressed ponies around her."

"We're lucky to have such good friend,." he answered, nodding.

Rarity paused from her magazine, and poured herself a hot cup of tea from the thermos on the table, then, using her magic, took a dainty sip from the cup.

She then addressed the others at the table, "It's good to see everypony here, out of the cold. I nearly froze trying to get to Sugarcube Corner, it was simply horrible!"

"I know," agreed Fluttershy glumly, "It's been very cold. My animals have had to all curl up by the fireplace recently. Poor things. It's not even time for them to hibernate quite yet."

"Yeah, I have noticed things have gotten much colder," said Twilight with questions in her mind, "I wonder why that is? Did the weather ponies get orders to make this winter colder? By tonight it'll be nearly twenty degrees below freezing I hear!"

Rainbow Dash stopped trying to guess what Applejack was drawing, and said, "Actually, now that you bring it up, no. We haven't been told to make it any colder or warmer. It was suppose to be a normal, cold winter. With plenty of snow of course, for a snowball fight!"

"That I'd win," said Applejack, "like I'm winning this game."

"You are not!" said Rainbow Dash, determined to win, "Is it a kind of boat?"

"Not even close," said Applejack, giving Rainbow Dash a teasing look.

Rainbow Dash groaned and buried her head in the table, "I give up. What is it?"

Applejack made the last few strokes on the paper after putting the pencil back in her teeth, and then dropped the writing utensil on the table. She the pointed to the drawing and explained what it was to the defeated Rainbow Dash.

"It's a kettle," she answered, "Like what you make caramel apples in!"

"Oh," said Rainbow Dash, looking at the picture, surprised she hadn't seen it.

"Anyways, the cold weather has been a bit strange," continued Techorse, "I've actually had to use a little bit of antifreeze in my battle saddle's coolant system to keep it from freeze-locking the system."

A robotic arm emerged from the device on his back, and picked up a cup from nearby, where he then helped himself to a cup of tea.

"We really ought to try and figure out why the weather has gotten so dreadfully cold!" urged Rarity dramatically, "If we do not, things will go horribly wrong for sure!"

"Like what?" asked Applejack, curious.

"Well for one thing, your apple trees may suffer a snap freeze! I've seen it happen to many a poor houseplant left in an open windowsill!" gasped Rarity, before fainting over.

"Oh my," said Fluttershy, getting off of her chair to help Rarity up.

"Well, there are things we can do to protect the apple crop from heavy frost," assured Applejack, "But I agree. If it gets too much colder, and the pegasus ponies had nothin' to do with it, we may need to talk to Princess Celestia about this. If anypony would know why the cold's gotten worse, it'd be her."

"That's probably a good idea!" said Twilight, eager to visit Canterlot, "We could probably go today if we don't have too much to do."

"I'm good," answered Rainbow Dash, "already took care of my work this morning."

All of the other ponies at the table seemed to not have any additional chores to do, and agreed to go with Twilight to Canterlot to discuss the strange weather with the Princess of the Sun. Pinkie Pie emerged with her tray of brownies from the back room, and set them down behind the counter of the store.

"Pinkie Pie, can you get off of work to help us?" asked Twilight hopefully.

Pinkie Pie knew the answer was probably no, seeing as how busy the bakery tended to be during very cold days.

However, to her surprise, Mrs. Cake overrode her husband's normal operations of the store, and said to Pinkie Pie, "This morning we woke up with my hair as solid as a cookie sheet. Help your friends Pinkie Pie, please!"

"Looks like I'm going!" she giggled, jumping over to her friends, "Let's go!"

"All right, now all we need are the two fearless generals over there," muttered Twilight, looking over at Spike and PAL, who were arguing over the result of a dice roll.

"PAL, are you and Spike arguing over a game again?" asked Techorse.

PAL crossed his large metal arms, "Spike decided to be inconsistent. He rolled a die off of the table, and counted the result because it was a six. The game's instructions clearly state you must re-roll dice if it falls off."

Spike, his hand in his cheek, answered with a groan, "PAL just likes to follow the rules exactly instead of getting on with the game."

"Maybe that's not a bad thing," considered Twilight, urging Spike to try and think the same way, "anyways, you two can have another 'glorious battle' later. Right now, we need to go to Canterlot and find out why the weather is so much colder than it was last winter."

"Oh, so we can come along?" asked Spike.

"Of course!" answered Twilight, "I'm going to teleport us all there, since Techorse didn't bring his teleportation device with him."

"Perhaps I can lighten the effort by flying over myself," suggested PAL, "I have a full charge for my rocket boots. It will likely take us an hour to get there, but I don't mind."

"I'm going with PAL!" said Spike quickly, eager to go with his friend, but also wanting to avoid the headache he got from being teleported by Twilight.

"All right, stay safe," she said, "let's head outside, everypony. We'll be there in no time."

The friends all headed outside, noticing that they could easily see their breath against the cold air. Spike climbed up onto PAL's right shoulder at his command, and the two lifted off into the air, a pair of blue flames under PAL's footpads as they lifted into the sky. Twilight Sparkle then ducked, and charged up the teleportation spell, a purple glow around her horn started, with pink sparks scattering about. In a flash of purple light, the friends had vanished, teleporting to Canterlot in a burst of energy. The nine friends had it set in their hearts to figure out why Ponyville was freezing, and wanted to do anything they could to bring back the winter they were accustomed to.

Princess Celestia sat in her throne room, alongside her sister, who was enjoying the warmth of the nearby vents that connected to the castle's main furnace. The Princess of the Night stood directly in front of the warm air current coming out of the castle walls through narrow grates, absorbing the heat into her dark blue coat. Jools and Jops stood at the sides of Princess Celestia, occasionally taking a quick glance at what she was writing on a scroll. It had something to do with commissioning a new cargo ship such that Equestria could trade further with surrounding nations, but the details were sketchy, as they could only slip a peek past the watchful Princess. Captain Arbiter was away, out attending to an issue concerning a slight crumbling of a brick on the outside of the castle, likely due to the cold. Princess Celestia finished the final strokes of her letter using her oversized quill, and then replaced the feather in its inkwell, before folding up the paper, and placing it in an envelope using light magic. She then sealed the letter shut with a small blue piece of wax, indicating the purpose of the letter, and set it down on a nearby wooden stool for later pickup by a mailmare.

Next to the spot where the letter was placed was a steaming hot cup of tea, creamy from the milk Princess Celestia had added to it. The Princess picked up her cup carefully, and moved it to her mouth to take a sip of the drink. As she went to take a sip, she noticed a small pinpoint flash of golden light in the middle of her throne room. Knowing what to expect from the mysterious dot, but not expecting it to appear at such an instance, she placed the cup quickly on its saucer and braced for the inevitable.

The dot of golden light opened up into a wormhole of golden energy for a split moment, and Prince Darkmatter jumped out of the hole through space, landing firmly on his four legs, and flapping his wings once to ease his impact. Jools and Jops jumped forward at the sudden surprise of the alicorn traveling through a wormhole, but slowly stepped back to their Princess's sides once the Prince assured them,"Jools, Jops, easy. It's only me."

Princess Luna recognized her brother's voice, and turned around, walking up to him, "Brother!" she said happily, giving him a rather informal hug, "It is good to see you again! What brings you back to Canterlot?"

"...And in such a strange manner," added Princess Celestia, rising from her throne, "we all know teleportation spells, Darkmatter. Perhaps you could try it sometime?"

"Ah but Celestia, wormholes are so much fun! You're missing out just flashing around, and my methods have a longer range as well than mere teleportation," answered the prince, preferring his use of portals to travel.

Princess Luna released her brother, his brass mane returning to its normal flow.

She asked him, "Is it about our other family? Is he still out there?"

"Ah yes, of course," answered Darkmatter, chuckling, "indeed, I've found him."

Princess Celestia smiled and said, "That's wonderful! Perhaps now our family can be complete again. Would you have interest in running the courts once more?"

"Unfortunately, now that we're responsible for our own cities, I doubt we'd ever return to being high judges," answered Darkmatter, "still, seeing as I provide a home for special ponies in The Domain, and he provides one for a different group living out in the cold... perhaps we provide justice to Equestria through that instead."

"I agree," concurred Celestia, nodding, "now, shall we go visit him?"

A moment of silence overtook the alicorns, and then, Darkmatter meekly admitted, "Well... I said I found him. He seems to have quite a lot of security. Of course, I'm not going to stick a squad of guards in a gravity trap just so I can see brother again."

"It's just as I feared," said Princess Celestia sadly, her ears folding back, "he still hasn't forgiven me, and is now even turning away you."

"But I came to see the truth about Luna and you," assured Darkmatter, extending a warm hoof to his sibling, "perhaps we can convince him the same. He might refuse to see us, but I was told by some locals that he'd accept ambassadors on his behalf, maybe if we..."

There was a knock on the throne room door, and Princess Celestia politely called out for the visitors to enter. Twilight Sparkle entered the room, flanked by her friends in a V formation, with PAL and Spike at the back, towering over the ponies thanks to PAL's six foot tall stature.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle!" said Darkmatter, waving a wing, "Hello!"

"Prince Darkmatter?" asked Twilight, a little confused, "What are you doing here?"

Princess Celestia cut in front of her sibling and explained, "Darkmatter has discovered the whereabouts of our brother, Twilight Sparkle. We were discussing sending representatives in to talk to him about how... things are different now."

"Oh, you're trying to tell him you've been forgiven for sending away Princess Luna?" asked Pinkie Pie without much thought behind the sentence.

Princess Celestia gained a sad expression on her face, and looked at the floor. Twilight nudged Pinkie Pie with her left hoof, and the earth pony gave a slight gasp at the sudden jab.

"Ow, hey! I'm sorry!" she said, "Too soon?"

"Oh, please cheer up sister," begged Princess Luna, consoling her older sibling, "I was possessed by a monster of my own making. Please try to forgive yourself, there was no way to rid us of the demon and keep me as well."

"I try to believe that," answered Celestia, "but I still have one brother out there who believes I'm a monster."

"I'm sure once we've talked to him, he'll be more than happy to forgive you," assured Rarity, stepping forward, "I volunteer to speak on your behalf."

"We were going to get professional diplomats for this, most likely..." droned Darkmatter, not seeing the value of Twilight and company for the situation.

"Darkmatter, we should give my student and her friends a chance," said Celestia, "diplomacy is great for disputes, but this issue cuts deep emotionally for Sundial. Perhaps a more personal touch from the current Element holders will help."

"Sundial? That's your brother?" asked Rainbow Dash, "That's an odd name for an alicorn, no offense. It's just not as cool as what you three have, is all."

Princess Luna answered, "His real name is Temporios. A meaningful name, as his magic revolves around time, but quite the mouthful to say. So we always called him Sundial, as that is his cutie mark."

"Tem-pour-e-ose," said Pinkie Pie, the words rolling over her tongue.

She then paused and said abruptly, "Yeah, I can see why you called him Sundial!"

"Princess Celestia, we'd love to go out and help your brother," interrupted Applejack, "but we've been havin' a bit of trouble with the weather lately. Seems awful cold recently. The pegasus ponies tell us it isn't supposed to be this cold, but there's nothin' they can do about it."

"It has been getting colder," answered Princess Celestia, "the same has been true for the rest of Equestria as well."

"Perhaps Sundial has something to do with it," answered Darkmatter, "he is currently living in a cold, northeastern region roughly three hundred miles from the Crystal Empire's new fortress, Steamcastle. Due to the harsh weather, it's almost impossible to access the area without going through heavy snow. I was able to find it by scanning from above using a set of portals that allow me to view other areas. Eventually as I reached the north, I saw the city from above."

"Can it be reached by land at all?" asked Fluttershy, intimidated.

"There used to be a set of roads leading to Equestria, but the ice and snow has cut it off," answered the Prince, "of course, if you had a scout and guide, somepony quite talented at spying at the terrain ahead and pointing out a path, you could make it."

"Oh, you mean like Limpwing?" asked Techorse.

"Yes, exactly! The lieutenant would be perfect for this mission," laughed Darkmatter, "in fact, let me fetch her..."

Prince Darkmatter's horn glowed, and he opened a portal across space in the middle of the throne room. He then stuck his head inside the glowing circle of light, and then, after a few seconds, kicking and yelling was heard as he removed Limpwing, both surprised and angry at the Prince's action. Darkmatter carried her by her flight goggles using his magic, his horn glowing a light golden hue as Limpwing was carried from wherever she had been into the throne room. He dropped her gently on the floor, where she immediately stood up and protested angrily.

"Prince Darkmatter, did you have to just rip me out of my house like that?!" she shouted, enraged about being dragged through space and time, "I thought I was under attack!"

"I'm sorry lieutenant," he answered, "I needed you right away, and I figured teleporting into your room would have been equally startling."

Limpwing groaned, and adjusted her flight goggles on her head, before taking a deep breath and asking, "All right, well, you dragged me through a portal and scared the living hay out of me. So what are my orders? I hope this is important."

"It is. I need you to guide Twilight Sparkle and her friends to a city I just discovered to the east of the frozen north lands. I'll give you a map showing the location of the city, all I need you to do is navigate around the snowstorms and icy paths to make the journey safe for them," explained the Prince, "can you do that for me?"

Limpwing turned her head and looked at Twilight Sparkle, who smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah," she answered, "I could do that. What's in the city?"

"My brother," he answered, "you're taking them to see him, in hopes of convincing him to come back to us."

"Your brother?" beamed Twilight Sparkle, "As in Cadance's father?"

"That's correct," Princess Celestia confirmed, "I didn't talk to him personally as I believe he's not exactly interested in seeing his family. Bear in mind that he missed out on his own daughter's wedding."

"Can't imagine why," Limpwing said sarcastically, before returning to Twilight and her friends, "so, are you guys ready to go? We'll need to bundle up for the trip since it's going to be icy."

Twilight shook her head, "We came here to talk about how cold it was getting in Equestria, so we're not prepared for a trip right now."

"Don't worry about that," spoke up Princess Luna, "I will see to it that the local tailors give you coats. Please collect supplies so that you may leave immediately."

"Oh, a free warm coat!" cooed Rarity, who then turned to Fluttershy, "Isn't this exciting?"

Fluttershy nodded, "A warm coat would be really nice..."

"All right, well, let's not waste time and get set up!" said Limpwing, posing with a hoof curled as if ready for action, "I'll get you guys to the city, and then we'll see about bringing Prince Darkmatter's brother back."

"What about us?" asked Spike from PAL's shoulder, "Can we come too?"

"Of course you may," answered Princess Celestia, acting first to make sure Twilight couldn't say no, "You will need the ability to send letters to me in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, the communications artifact Techorse gave me a year ago has stopped working."

"You mean the hologram communicator? Well, if you wanted..." offered Techorse, "I could replace that with a radio so you could contact us at any time."

"A radio? That small?" asked Princess Celestia, confused.

Only large, boxy radios were in existence in Equestria at the time, normally used to listen to news stations in large cities, or for communications on board ships.

"Of course," he answered, the back of his saddle opening up, "Twilight and I sometimes used long range radios like this to talk for hours to each other when one of us is away from Ponyville."

Techorse noticed Twilight blushing, and the other ponies in the room looking at him.

"You know..." he stammered, a bit embarrassed, "Just to test the things. Everything has to be tested!"

"Exactly!" giggled Pinkie Pie.

"I don't believe a radio will be necessary," stated Princess Celestia, "my brother has made it clear that he will allow diplomats, and I'd rather hear any news through a letter. With Spike, our response time will still be fast enough."

"You're probably right about that," answered Techorse, closing his saddle again.

Perhaps some other time he'd get a chance to allow someone besides Twilight to use the long-range radios.

"If that's everything, then let's gear up and head out! I can't wait to meet your brother. What's he like?" asked Twilight of Princess Celestia.

"I do not know how much, as he may have changed over all of these years. Know that he's really a good stallion on the inside," answered the Princess honestly, "and please be careful. I cannot allow you to bring the Elements of Harmony with you, as I don't want to scare him."

"Don't worry, we can handle this!" said Rainbow Dash confidently.

"If you're sure, then we have nothing to worry about!" assured Darkmatter of his sisters, "Make us proud!"

The team left the throne room, with the three royalty calling out for good luck and safe travels for the group. Twilight Sparkle wondered who the brother could be, and excitement welled up in her at getting to meet a brand new alicorn. A strange gut feeling formed in her heart however, contrary to the excitement. Twilight knew that the diplomacy mission could not go as swimmingly as Princess Celestia was hoping for. She knew that the Prince surely must harbor hatred for his sibling due to avoiding her at all costs, even missing Cadance's wedding. There was also a chance that the alicorn that had attacked her earlier was a mercenary dispatched by the alicorn prince. Even worse, the cloaked stranger could be a son of his! Cadance would pass out if she learned she had a new brother she'd never know, and she'd pass out again upon hearing that he'd attacked her close friend! All of these "Revenge on Celestia" statements that cloaked stranger had made though, solidified his role in Twilight's mind as a servant to Prince Sundial. Nonetheless, Twilight put the fear of the alicorn out of her mind, and focused on the task at hand.

"I'm not afraid," she thought as she walked with her friends down the hallway of the castle, "if that cloaked lunatic shows up again, we'll be ready. We have to get Prince Sundial back to his family, and show him that things have changed between Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. Equestria depends on us!"

1,500 years ago

The queen faced away from her chamber windows, her husband out attempting to settle a dispute between the pegasi and the earth ponies. The lonely light of the evening shone through the opening to her bedroom, gracing her blue canopy bed gracefully, and reflecting off the many mirrors that she enjoyed collecting. It seemed that the sorrow of Equestria was growing on a daily basis, leading them closer and closer to permanent division of all the pony types. That was certainly not the future she had hoped for her subjects, and with any luck, the discovery in the west atrium of the castle would bring an end to it. As she thought about how she and her husband would implement the use of the Elements of Harmony, a familiar pattern of knocking happened on her door, three long taps, followed by two short ones.

"Please enter," called Nocturna, turning to watch the sunset.

The door opened slowly, and a fine mist poured across the floor, making way for Starswirl the Bearded as he entered the room, his magical energy carrying a mystic wooden staff with a curled top that tapped on the floor with each of his steps. His fine blue robe flowed behind him, and his hat seemed to bend in a point that tracked his eye movements. Of course, the very thing that defined him, his great facial hair, hung nearly to the floor. At this moment in time, he had tied the end of his beard back with a small piece of rope, indicating that he had been working on a potion and wanted to keep the white as snow behemoth on his face out of his work, as accidentally immolating himself was a pet peeve he shared with others who had beards at the time.

"My Queen," he said, with a cheery hum, his eyes hidden by the brim of his hat, "I can't help but notice that your husband has left you all alone in the castle again. What dire situation hath caused such a sudden departure for the third time this week?"

The queen turned around and answered her mage, "It appears the pegasi have stolen iron from the earth ponies, scores of tonnes of the stone."

Starswirl gave a slight smacking noise before continuing, "Tsk, tsk, such a pity, there's plenty of metal in the ground for everypony, and they fight over it like schoolfoals at the academy."

Nocturna thought carefully about the number of earth ponies who couldn't even read, and felt as if Starswirl's mind was far too sunk in the way of life unicorns like himself enjoyed. That academy, in her mind, should teach other things besides magic, but that was something her godfather before her didn't want to hear.

"I do believe this dark age of friendlessness is at an end," she said to him, raising her chin up to make sure he would have to put effort into eye contact, "very soon, ponies shall no longer fight based on their kinds, but instead work together for a happy Equestria."

"I could not agree more with that statement!" chortled Starswirl, erroneously believing she was referring to his recent work, "As such, I have a secret I've been keeping that seems to have gotten out. Since it's not such a secret, perhaps her majesty would like to see for herself what Diurne has told her?"

Queen Notcurna had no idea that Starswirl had an alternate solution to Equestria's problems. However, she couldn't reveal her hand to Starswirl without running the risk of him finding out about the Elements of Harmony. As such, she decided to play along and figure out what the grand mage's idea for Equestria was.

"I would love to see these ideas!" she answered, faking a happy expression and tone.

Starswirl led his queen down to the castle basement, a heavily fortified area which, rather than contain a dungeon, contained a vast alchemy lab and housing for Starswirl. Although the old magic user spent most of his time out at the academy teaching magic lessons, or in the woods perfecting arts and hunting for ingredients, this segment of the castle was still his home. The wide, open area contained several cauldrons of various metals and fires of various colors heating them, but it was one particular cauldron in particular that he wished to show his majesty. Next to the boiling silver pot were two ponies, one earth pony, and one unicorn. The unicorn was a male at the peak of his prime, white coat in color, with yellow eyes and a red mane. The earth pony on the other side of the cauldron seemed timid, but was still able to face Nocturna and look at her with her purple eyes. Her yellow coat and light blue mane were tied behind a cloth wrapped behind her head, and simple clothing.

"I've summoned your cup bearer and your clothing wash mare to aid in demonstrating my work," Starswirl said, pointing at the two with his staff, "I discovered earlier these servants fighting horribly about some debacle in town. Your wash mare thinks the unicorns are responsible, and of course, your cup-bearer disagrees."

Queen Nocturna frowned as she watched her two employees give each other disgruntled looks before turning their heads away in disgust.

"This potion... this, masterpiece of magic, can only be created by imbuing the purest water and cane sugar with a spell I have created," explained Starswirl, staring into the light blue glowing liquid in the cauldron before him, "observe."

He dropped his staff, and picked up two small ladles from near the cauldron. Floating over the ornate scoops to the servants, he encouraged them to have a sip of the liquid. They complied albeit reluctantly, and noticed that the flavor of the potion was mildly sweet from the sugar.

A few moments later after imbibing the magical drink, the ponies' eyes grew wide. Starswirl knew the potion had passed through their stomach walls and had affected their mental processes, and immediately brought up the ponies' quarrel from earlier.

"Do either of you remember the party responsible for the conflict in the town square this morning?" he asked in a calm manner.

The two ponies looked at each other, and the wash mare opened up to her coworker, "That? Well, I suppose it wasn't truly anypony's fault. Perhaps we should just forget about that and dwell on other things?"

"I agree," added the cup-bearer, "we shouldn't let such things get in the way of our lives."

Queen Nocturna's ears sank back, as she could not believe what she was witnessing. Starswirl had invented a potion that, if given to her subjects, would cause them to stop fighting. However, this would come at a price too high for Equestria to pay, the loss of their free will and ability to hold reasonable arguments. Controlling the minds of her subjects would not be acceptable, in the Queen's mind, even if it did solve their problems.

"Do not be alarmed, it's not a true mind control potion. It is a mixture that makes conflict seem less desirable to the mind. Your majesty, I can have this potion added to the town wells! Think of the future, a future where magic ends the conflicts ponies face!" beamed Starswirl, picking up his staff again and smacking the end onto the ground sharply.

The alicorn knew adding an antidepressant to the water wasn't right, so she simply shook her head and answered, "No. This is not right, any amount of changing of the mind is wrong. We should not force our subjects to behave, they should choose that out of happiness and value for peace."

"Well the unicorns value peace, as do all who seek magic and its infinite power!" cheered Starswirl, smiling and nodding his head, "Let's allow the unicorn ponies to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity!"

"...And therefore leave the other two ponies in poverty and violence?" asked Nocturna, annoyed, "Magic is very powerful, indeed, Starswirl, but all ponies are of value and should be treated as such."

"But a rising tide lifts all of the ships!" complained Starswirl, "When the unicorn ponies have created scores of barrels of this potion and used it to solve our worries, surely I will aid them in sharing their success with the others!"

"Just as you've opened up the academy so that the earth ponies may learn to read?" grunted Nocturna sarcastically.

Starswirl's face curled into a snarl, and he pushed up his hat slightly, the bells on it jingling as he answered, "I do suppose there's no way this can end without favoring the unicorn ponies. But they are the ones with the magic. The ones with the power we need to save this world. I merely wish to do what we must to save Equestria."

"Unicorns may have magic that affects the physical world, but I know not healthy plants or good weather without the others," she countered, "Even your students say we all have some kind of magic, even if we cannot understand it."

The two servants ran out of potion energy, and shook their heads as they woke up from their mind control. They looked at each other, and started to grunt and give each other vicious looks again.

The Queen noticed this, and then said to her mage, "Starswirl, we would need to produce this potion for eternity. We do not need such forcing, such browbeating to solve our conflicts and food supply issues."

"What dost thou mean?" asked Starswirl, curiously, "Could it be that there was another spell out there I overlooked despite hours in my volumes?"

The Queen closed her eyes, and smiled. Then she opened her eyes again, and revealed her secret to the bearded unicorn.

"There is a magic in existence, a vastly powerful one, more powerful than you could ever imagine."

Eager to hear about how great magic was, Starswirl listened in closely, "Go on, please!"

Nocturna raised a hoof and continued to demonstratively explain, "In this very world, there is a form of magic that all ponies may use, merely by coming together with traits that define close friends. This magic, available to all, will clean the land of conflict and bring us together!"

"Magic, that... any pony can use?" laughed Starswirl, "Surely you jest! Two thirds of the pony population lack horns, how will they use it?"

"You haven't allowed me to explain," she answered, irritated, "Any pony who holds a virtue of this magic dear to his or her heart may aid in the creation of said magic, simply by getting along with others who hold the other virtues. Once all of the Elements of this magic come together in one place, the Harmony inside arises from a spark! It is the most powerful force discovered yet, and it has been underneath our muzzles this entire time!"

Starswirl was confused thoroughly. It seemed that Queen Nocturna was saying that simply by having ponies get along willingly, it would end all their conflict, as if none of the other issues of life mattered. What he failed to grasp was the fact that many of these "issues" were the vast inequalities created by his ideology of magic reigning supreme. The power of magic, and subsequently unicorns, should be the only thing in his mind that ruled Equestria.

"Then please, by all means, demonstrate these... Elements," he said, glaring at her.

Nocturna cleared her throat and admitted, "I... cannot. It will be up to Equestria's citizens to wield the power of the Elements of Harmony. As of now, we have no holders who can carry the Elements individually."

"Then what good is it?" claimed Starswirl, grinning, "No pegasus will ever work with an earth pony, and the earth ponies certainly despise the unicorn ponies. Please, your majesty, allow me to use this mind potion to relax the nation!"

Queen Nocturna flew into a sudden fury, and turned around, bucking the cauldron and sending the contents all over the floor behind the three ponies behind her.

"We cannot take away our subjects' free will! We WILL be implementing the discovery of the Elements, and we WILL let our ponies free themselves from the conflict!" she screamed, using her royal voice.

Starswirl looked at his destroyed work, and felt like teaching the Queen a lesson, but understood in his mind that everything would work out in his favor... if he could tamper with her plans. Now that he knew that another powerful magic existed, far greater than his own, he would need to change it to ensure that unicorn magic was the solution to the conflict problem. Perhaps the mind control potion was a terrible idea, there would be more potions and spells. So long as magic held solely by academia trumped all else, and saved the kingdom, he was happy.

"I can see that you have already come to a decision," he said, smiling, "needless to say, I will sleep on this idea, and perhaps discuss it further with you later. Forgive me for even thinking that eliminating the illusion of choice was a solution."

He walked past her, and then turned his eyes to the ground, thinking to himself angrily, "I brought her and her husband up and out of being orphans. I taught them how to use their magic, and how powerful it can make a pony! Now, they want ordinary ponies using magic? They want the lords and the peasants to be... friends? To be EQUALS? What could possibly equal magic!?"

The bitter cold of the frozen northern territories tried to freeze through the warm coats the friends were wearing as they stomped through the thick blanket of snow. They had taken the train as far north as they could possibly get, and had moved east from their in hopes of finding the path to the "lost" city Prince Darkmatter had described to them. Limpwing stopped them occasionally to read the map, carefully plotting out their path through the tundra to help them avoid getting lost. Occasionally, she and Rainbow Dash would fly up into the air to try and get a look at the surroundings from above. During one of these reconnaissance moments, Limpwing spotted a thick, gravel path lightly covered in ice that led past a small range of snow-covered hills. In between the hills was a small evergreen forest that covered the area and sheltered the hills from the harsh snow and frost.

Limpwing pointed to the path from in the air and shouted to the ponies below, "There's a road down there that leads through that forest! We're going that way, with any luck the city will be beyond the hills."

"There's a lot of fog after that forest," said Rainbow Dash to Limpwing, "are you sure the city is going to be through that stuff?"

"No," she answered honestly, "but if I was going to hide a city in a cold, harsh area, I'd pick a massive fog bank too. It's way too cold to house a monster to scare ponies off, and snow alone reflects sunlight, which would make the city easy to see."

"All right, well, maybe I can clear some of that fog once we get there!" suggested Rainbow Dash.

"We'll need to walk through the forest with the others first, just in case," reminded Limpwing.

The two pegasi landed near their friends, bundled up tight in the warm parka coats Princess Celestia had provided to them, hiding their colorful bodies behind gray cloth. The only exceptions were Spike and PAL, as PAL didn't need to regulate his body temperature being a robot, and Spike was cold-blooded, meaning he could sit out in the cold with the only ill effect being he couldn't talk as fast as he normally could under warmer conditions.

"Let's get underneath those trees and get this snow out of our faces," ordered Limpwing, encouraging her friends to march into the woods.

"Yeah, let's! It feels like my nose is going to fall off!" joked Pinkie Pie.

They entered the calm evergreen forest and proceeded down the dirt path. There weren't enough trees to block the light out, but they protected the friends from the harsh snowstorms outside, and also offered shelter to white-pelted rabbits, foxes, and other animals who enjoyed living in the extreme cold. Despite this, life seemed to be rather sparse in the forest, possibly due to hibernation of other animals that might have lived in the area.

Eventually the ponies plus one robot and one dragon reached a small area that looked like a campsite. The snow was falling far more gently in this area, and a ring of tall pine trees surrounded them, providing a decent wall against the elements. A fire pit was dug in the middle of the widening path, and a pile of ash, cold yet somewhat recently created, sat in the middle of the ring of stones.

"Funny, it looks like this fire pit has been used recently," said Twilight, taking off the hood of her warm jacket, "but whoever used it left in a hurry. That doesn't look like a properly extinguished fire, not from the camping books I've read."

"Maybe another storm came alongg," said Rainbow Dash, coming up with a reasonable answer for the abandoned pit, "let's just forget about it and start our own fire."

"Sounds good, we can warm our hooves and get movin' later," agreed Applejack, spotting a pile of dry firewood nearby, "looks like there's plenty of logs left for us!"

"I'll help you out, Applejack," added Rainbow Dash.

While the two were busy putting together the wood for the fire after sweeping the ashes away, Rarity and Fluttershy moved some logs from the firewood stock to make a few seats. Techorse put a handful of dried pine needles in the base of the logs to provide some tinder. Once all of the preparations had been made, Spike lit the tinder with a short puff of his fire breath, and the campfire came to life just a few short minutes later. Soon the ponies were drying out their wet coats on a nearby branch, and were discussing the trip ahead.

"The city Prince Darkmatter described should be on the opposite side of the fog bank," said Limpwing, "after that, you guys will be on your own. I've been ordered to go back to Steamcastle and wait for the Prince there."

"Thank you for taking the time to bring us out here," said Fluttershy with gratitude in her voice, "I hope it wasn't too much of a problem."

"Well, I figure getting yanked through space and time meant it was worth taking you there," laughed the azure mare, "don't worry though, once I get back to Cadance's castle, I'm going to be bringing everypony back to the city after you."

"By then we'll have set everything straight," said Rarity hopefully, "I'm sure Princess Celestia's brother is quite easily persuaded. From Prince Darkmatter's description he seems to be quite the charmer."

"Forgive my negativity," interrupted PAL, "but Prince Darkmatter was quite angry about the incident of Nightmare Moon until we set him straight by raiding his castle. That's not exactly a conventional talking-to."

"English, PAL?" asked Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"In other words Miss Dash, I'm afraid that since Prince Darkmatter didn't know Princess Luna was forgiven and brought back, Prince Sundial is also unlikely to be friendly."

"Aw, you're just worryin' about nothin'," scoffed Applejack, who was staring at the machine.

Twilight Sparkle leaned forward from her seat on the log bench and said, "Maybe PAL's right, Applejack. That alicorn in the hood that attacked us at Discord's house seems to want revenge on Princess Celestia, and based on him targeting me, I think he works for Prince Sundial."

"It could be a unicorn pretending to be an alicorn," added Techorse, looking at her with concern, "Remember the time you told me about? When you all dressed up as the same character to trick Rainbow Dash? What if that alicorn that attacked us is really someone trying to fool us?"

"That could be. But why would he want to keep us from re-uniting the royal family?" asked Twilight, "He only mentioned Princess Celestia, not any of the others."

"Maybe he's nuts!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie loudly, shooting up from her seat.

Spike agreed, "That's for sure. I'm just glad you guys made it out ok from that guy, he sounded dangerous."

While they continued to talk, a large white caterpillar, fuzzy in texture with a blue stripe down its back, emerged from the snow-covered ground behind the log Rarity was sitting on. The insect crawled its way slowly over to the ponies, and then, scaled the log and began to climb up Rarity's left front leg without her noticing. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were sitting together on the opposite side of the fire, spotted the fuzzy creature climbing up to Rarity's head, and bit their lower lips trying not to laugh. Any second now, they thought, Rarity would notice the furry worm and screech loudly, giving them a good laugh.

Rarity picked up on the silly expressions on the two mare's faces, and asked in a somewhat annoyed tone, "What? What is so funny now you two? We're discussing something serious."

"Rarity," said Techorse, pointing at the caterpillar with a hoof, "there's a huge bug on your head."

Rarity gave a bloodcurdling scream and recoiled in horror, sending the hapless caterpillar careening off of her head. The insect landed in front of her, and propped itself up on its hind legs, lifting its forward section up to look at the terrified unicorn. She stopped her screaming, and growled at Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they fell off their logs laughing.

The unicorn mare crouched down and stared at the large caterpillar, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's only a caterpillar. For a moment there I thought a large tick was going to bite my head!" she said, relaxing, "It's actually quite darling for a bug."

"It's very cute!" remarked Fluttershy, getting off her seat and approaching the hotdog-sized larvae.

Fluttershy leaned down a wing to the fuzzy bug, and it crawled happily up her yellow feathers, and rested gently on her back in a ring.

"Friendly too! I wish I could keep it," she sighed, smiling and looking at it on her back.

"Hey, I recognize that caterpillar, it's called a winter worm," said Twilight, smiling, "they're caterpillars that burrow underground during cold times. If they find a source of warmth, they tend to latch on so they don't have to live underground as long."

"Our fire must have attracted it!" said Rarity, "I'm sure we could let it warm itself up, but we must leave him behind, Fluttershy. We simply can't have a worm tagging along on our trip."

Fluttershy frowned, "I guess I shouldn't take the caterpillar away from its home. I'll put him back when he's done getting warm."

Limpwing noticed a strange feeling on her rear hoof, and spotted another winter worm crawling up her leg as well. She shook the creature off in disgust, and then her eyes grew wide as she noticed what was happening behind everyone.

"We need to move," she said, "Let's go!"

"Hang on Limpwing, let's put out the campfire first," said Applejack.

"No time!" gasped Limpwing, "Look!"

The friends looked over the log, and saw that an entire army of winter worms had crawled out of the ground. Hundreds of caterpillars had emerged from their burrow, and would likely surround them within moments. Some of them began to reach for the legs of the ponies, others began to form a ring around the campfire. They grabbed the coats hanging up on the nearby branch, and shredded them into pieces with their tiny mandibles.

"If we don't get out of here, the winter worms will surround us for our body heat!" gasped Twilight, "I don't want to end up buried in caterpillars!"

"RUN!" screeched Pinkie Pie, only to get knocked over by a swarm of large winter worms eager for warmth.

"Hey, stop, that tickles!" she pleaded as the worms started to cover her.

Techorse shook his back to remove the bugs climbing on him, but started to panic as the insects began to mount and block his movement. Fluttershy noticed that all of her friends were about to be buried in caterpillars, and gasped as more of the insects grabbed her own legs.

"This must be why the previous campers must have run away," said PAL, bluntly, as he was being ignored by the caterpillars due to generating less external heat. Spike sat safely on his shoulders, but bit his clawnails at the sight of the ponies getting trapped by the mounting numbers of winter worms.

As the worms began to drag her down, Fluttershy regretted ever thinking they'd be a safe pet to keep at her home.

"Oh, why'd I ever want these caterpillars to come with me?" she moaned, "It's all my fault this is happening."

"No it's not," said Rainbow Dash, trying to fly away but failing due to the unwanted passengers on her wings, "it's these caterpillars, they're dumb!"

"Now don't say that, someday they'll be great butterflies I'm sure," retorted Fluttershy.

A moment passed before she thought about what she had said, "Butterflies! I have an idea."

Fluttershy then stood up, and with all her might, crouched and gave a cold, hard stare at the caterpillars surrounding Techorse. The caterpillars immediately snapped to the attention of Fluttershy, and climbed down the inventor's legs to the ground in front of Fluttershy. The light yellow mare continued using her fierce stare to get the other caterpillars to cease, and soon she had wrangled the larvae into a neat, organized formation. A perfect square, like an army, stood before Fluttershy of six inch long caterpillars, all of their insect eyes and antennas focused on her.

"That's much better," she said, "now I know you're very, very cold, and it is very icy out here. But dragging ponies down to get warm isn't right. You'll need to find another way to stay warm, and I know just the trick, if you'll listen."

The caterpillars tracked Fluttershy's every move as she walked over to the wood pile, picked up a small log in her teeth, and carried it over to the fire before dropping it in for fuel.

"If you keep the fire going, you'll be warm," she said, explaining her action to the winter worms, "if this pile runs out, there's plenty of sticks out there in the forest."

The winter worms formed a chain, and by working together, ferried a piece of wood from the pile into the fire pit, amazing the friends who watched the insects function as a group. Each insect played a small part in fueling the fire, and once enough wood was in place to keep it going at a steady roar, they circled around the blaze and sat still to soak in the heat.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Techorse happily, "Way to go Fluttershy!"

"Butterflies are kind of special to me," she answered, blushing, "knowing that they're caterpillars, I was hoping I'd be able to talk to the winter worms and sort things out."

"Well you did more than that," said Applejack, pointing to them, "you taught them how to keep a fire going."

"Guess they're not dumb after all!" added Rainbow Dash.

"Now that we're not going to be buried in worms," urged Limpwing, "we should probably continue on to the city. Hopefully there won't be any more 'happenings' along the way."

"If there are, I'll handle it," said Fluttershy bravely, before slinking back and continuing with, "if... you know, you want me to."

Pinkie Pie threw her hooves around her friend in a warm hug, and said, "Of course!"

She then stopped her hug, and bounded down the forest path, saying, "Come on everypony! We've got a prince to find!"

The team continued onward, leaving the winter worms to keep themselves occupied staying warm by the fire. Although they had lost the coats due to the worms shredding them, they were able to push through the fog thanks to PAL being able to see in low visibility conditions with his robotic vision. Soon they found themselves facing the other side of the hills, and looked down at the city below. The multicolored ponies along with their robot and dragon saw a vast township, with red brick buildings for the residency, many of them with chimneys smoking as fires heated their homes. Light cloud cover mixed with bright sunlight in the chilly arctic wind across the land, but despite the conditions, they could see other ponies below working and playing out in the snow and cold.

"What a city!" gasped Rarity, "Those small brick homes are so quaint! And is that a shopping mall I see touching the town square?"

"We can go shopping later, Rarity," said Rainbow Dash, smiling and rolling her eyes, "right now we need to find Prince Sundial."

"Shouldn't be too hard, I'd say he's in that castle right over there," Applejack stated, pointing at a fortress in the distant with a hoof.

The castle in the background of the city stood at a few stories high. The centerpiece of the building was a large circular keep that stood in the middle of the set of towers making up the rest of the structure. The castle wall was far shorter and thinner than what was usual for castles, but each tower in the structure was topped with an ornate, colored dome, or a brass hemisphere that shone from the distance.

"All right, here's the plan," said Twilight, calling the attention of her friends, "we're going to talk to some of the townsponies on the way to the castle to try and make them more familiar with us before we ask to see the Prince. Hopefully we'll be seen as friendly visitors and get to see him before that cloaked alicorn shows up."

"If he does, I'm sure the castle's guards will help you out with that troublemaker," assured Limpwing, smirking, "Knowing Prince Darkmatter, his brother will have a force of his own."

"Unless of course that guy works for him," said Twilight, sighing.

"Don't worry about it Twilight, we've stopped him before, and we'll do it again if we have to!" comforted Techorse, intentionally making a slight whir from within the machine on his back.

"Let's just get going!" said a rather impatient Pinkie Pie, "I want to see what the townsponies have to do here! I wonder what kinds of parties they have?"

"All right, we'll get going," giggled Twilight.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye Limpwing," said Applejack, throwing her hooves around the pegasus, "thanks for bringin' us out here."

Limpwing removed herself from the hug, and stepped back, saying, "No problem! I'm going back to The Crystal Empire's forward castle now to see Twilight's brother. We'll all be back later to see how things went."

PAL waved goodbye to her, "Take care Miss Limpwing."

They parted as the rest of the team headed down the snowy hill to enter the city. They took a path away from the main street of town, and headed towards the residence areas. A large number of glass buildings seemed to be placed in rows around the homes, many of them triangular in shape. As the ponies passed by the small brick homes, they saw the residents peek out at them, and look at them curiously knowing that they hadn't seen them before. Many of them gave them a friendly smile when they walked by, as they didn't seem to have a problem with outsiders. In fact, it was almost as if the residents of town were pleasantly surprised that other ponies had made the journey to see their city.
Pinkie Pie bounced past one of the glass buildings, when one of the panels opened up, and a pale orange colored mare with a white and light green curly mane popped her head out of the opening, staring down at Pinkie Pie.

"Hi!" she said, a broad smile on her face.

Pinkie Pie stopped jumping along and turned around rapidly to greet the other pony, "Hello! My name is Pinkie Pie! Me and my friends are on the way to the castle."

"Oh, you must be messengers then," she said, hanging her hooves out the window, "welcome to Hourglass City!"

"Thank you!" smiled Pinkie Pie, "By the way, nice glass house!"

"It's a greenhouse, I only work here!" laughed the mare, "We grow all our food in these greenhouses, so we never have to trade with any of her towns."

Twilight Sparkle flicked her tail in confusion, "Who's 'her'?"

"Well you'll need to ask the Prince about that. It's complicated., she answered, "My name is Wintergreen Leaf. I mostly grow teas in my greenhouse, and it's fairly well known in the town. If you have any troubles out there, let me know."

Twilight Sparkle picked up a slight 'Russian' accent in the mare's tone, and started to correlate it with a voice she had heard earlier.

"So we're welcome here then?" asked Rainbow Dash, floating up to the mare by flapping her wings, "I'm just making sure we're not going to get attacked."

"No!" said Wintergreen, putting a hoof to her heart in shock, "We'd never treat guests so cruelly, after all, hardly anypony but official messengers get out here. Many of us have never left the city in our lives."

"That's sad," commented Fluttershy.

"It's not illegal, we've just been told that she doesn't like us," stated the mare, using that curious pronoun again.

"Hmmm..." said Techorse, "By 'She', you don't mean Princess Celestia do you?"

Wintergreen ducked slightly, looking to the left and right.

"I'll take that as a yes?" he asked, smiling sheepishly.

"Quiet!" whispered Wintergreen, now on her guard, "The Prince has told us that saying her name might mean she'll come after us!"

"That's just silly, Princess Celestia wouldn't harm a fly," laughed Applejack, "I don't know what horsefeathers Prince Sundial's been shovin' down yer throat, but..."

"Look, all I know is that the prince doesn't think his sister would enjoy having us around very much, we are separate from Equestria after all," Wintergreen said, interrupting, "but please, stop talking about it! I don't want to get in trouble."

"Don't worry about it," said Twilight, smiling, "we're going to talk to the Prince about Princess Celestia soon. He'll soon be telling everypony that there's nothing to be afraid about."

Wintergreen took a deep breath to try and calm herself, and then pointed towards the center of town, "If you want to get to the castle and speak to the Prince, you'll need to go through the front gate. I'd better go with you so that they know you're friendly."

"You'd do that for us? Thank you!" said Pinkie Pie.

Wintergreen opened the front door to her greenhouse, and exited, locking the door behind her. The earth pony faced the newcomers, and then noticed Spike and PAL standing beside them.

"I'm not sure they'll appreciate a handsome knight and a pet dragon though," she said.

"I am not a pet dragon!" complained Spike, crossing his arms, "I'm my own guy!"

"Handsome?" asked PAL, grinning, "Knight?"

"Oh... I'm sorry," she said to Spike, "I didn't know. We don't know that much about the outside world, do they let dragons live amongst ponies out there? Sounds dangerous."

"We'll explain on the way," said Rainbow Dash, landing next to the mare, "you've got a lot to learn, especially about what pegasi do with with the weather."

Twilight looked at Applejack, and they both shook their heads at Rainbow Dash's display of ego.

"Handsome..." droned PAL again, smiling as he rubbed his metal chin with his right hand, as if a rugged man.

"Don't let it go to your head, big guy," said Techorse, tapping his machine on the leg with a robot fist from his saddle.

Wintergreen led them to the center of the city, where the foreign ponies witnessed how different the square was from their own hometown. Ponies in this city had their shops set up more built into their own homes, each one featured a lobby to help shelter them from the cold, as opposed to the open carts being far more popular in Ponyville. Produce and other edibles were sold in delicatessens and grocery stores found every few blocks. In the center of the town was a thin clock tower with four faces, each one featuring solid gold hands showing the time by some force within the sandstone structure. The quartz faces reflected the winter light, and the clock tower featured the most beautiful crystalline chimes during the turning of the hour.

"I love your city!" complimented Rarity, "I simply must buy a souvenir while we're here, perhaps a scarf."

"You'll find plenty of warm clothes and hoofmade crafts!" said Wintergreen, "We'll make sure you get plenty of things on the way back."

"Then let's get started talking to the Prince!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, hopping around excitedly, "I can't wait to meet him!"

Spike and PAL noticed a warm looking cafe, and decided to ask if they could stay behind.

"Since we were informed that we wouldn't be welcome, perhaps Spike and I should stay at this cafe." the robot suggested.

"Sure. We still use the bit out here, so don't be afraid to get something you like!" answered Wintergreen.

"We'll be back soon, PAL," said Techorse, "sorry we're making you sit this one out."

"It's not a problem at all master." he answered, "I'm sure there's a reason for them not wanting robots or dragons loose in a castle."

"Stay out of trouble you two," urged Twilight.

Spike rolled his eyes, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

They left the two of them to their own devices in the city square, heading on with Wintergreen to the castle. Spike and PAL headed into the nearby cafe and sat down inside, noticing the strange looks they were getting at their appearances. The shop owner left from behind her counter, and approached the two as they sat down at one of the oaken tables inside the store. It was a small hole-in-the-wall styled place, with various paintings hung up on the walls, covering the vertical planks that formed the wooden home, with a tile floor that barely matched the wood.

"Excuse me," she said, trying not to be rude, "but this is a shop. I can see that you're new and all, but I need space for other customers if..."

PAL immediately dropped a pile of gold bits on the table, and said with a victorious grin, "Perhaps you can bring us some hot tea, hot cocoa, and a few scones? Or is it that you don't serve robots here?"

"No, no!" she answered, looking at the pile of raw cash on the table, "I've just had problems with ponies sitting around not buying anything! Did you say tea and hot chocolate?"

"Please," answered the machine, reclining in his seat.

"I'll be right back with it," the pegasus said after scooping the money into her apron.

"Well that took care of her," muttered Spike as she walked into the kitchen area, "thanks PAL. It's been a long walk, and I'm starving."

"Sorry I cannot likely find you any gemstones," sighed the machine, "I hope some pastries will do until we can find some for you."

"Hey, I love gems as much as any dragon, but I like other food too," he answered, "we can pick some off of Techorse's mining machines when we get back to Ponyville, right?"

PAL nodded and looked around for something for the two of them to do while they waited for their drinks. He spotted a cabinet with several colored boxes sticking out from the sides, and stood up to go investigate them. Spike waited patiently at the table, and PAL returned quickly with a board game in hand.

"Want to play a few rounds of this while we wait? It's brand new to us, Spike, but I'm sure it'll be fun."

"Sure!" answered the dragon, eager for a competition.

"Let's read the rules then, shall we?" hummed PAL as he lifted the cover off of the box.

The ponies reached the castle and stood outside of the front gate, a pair of brass doors several feet tall, sealing off the lower walls of the castle to outsiders. A pair of unicorn ponies, wielding crossbows on their backs, stood above in silver-colored armor, staring down from below on the fence.

Rainbow Dash called up to them, "Hey!"

"No thanks, I just had lunch," replied one of the guards, taking advantage of the pun.

"Oh very funny!" she responded, "We're here to see the prince. We're messengers from the rest of Equestria."

"We can't just open the gate you know," said one of them.

Wintergreen called up to that guard, "We know, but these ponies are serious about seeing the prince. They think they can help him solve some issues he's been having."

"I can see you're serious about this, but your visit is rather unexpected," replied the other guard, "but we're not allowed to turn away messengers without asking about things first, so give us a moment."

The two disappear from off of the battlements, and Rainbow Dash waited impatiently as the two stallions went to go ask for permission.

"They're going to turn us away," sighed Fluttershy, "we're not invited you know."

"I don't know, maybe we should just be patient," said Twilight, "they said they would check."

"If they don't, we're just going to have to figure out some other way in., Techorse said, winking.

"We are not breakin' in that castle." grunted Applejack.

"Shhhh!" hissed Pinkie Pie, "They're coming back!"

The guards returned to their place, and the leftmost one said, "We need to speak to Wintergreen first, have her come through the gate. Then once we're done speaking with her, we'll let the rest of you in. It's all a matter of domestic security."

"It's quite all right," Rarity said, with a pleasant tone in her voice, "we'll wait right here, darling."
"All right, open up the gate and allow Wintergreen through."

The brass gates swung open, and the pale orange mare trotted through, leaving the others behind. Once she was a good distance away from the other ponies, the gates slammed shut again, and Wintergreen found herself being whisked away by the two unicorns. She was tucked into an alcove far beyond the gates, and the two guards bullied her.

"Our Prince wishes to take them prisoner, as they are with Princess Celestia," the first unicorn snarled, "you will help us betray them by leading them out to the rear courtyard where we have an ambush waiting."

"But... I can't!" she whimpered, terrified, "You can do what you want, but leave me out of this! Please!"

"It's far too late for that," laughed the second unicorn evilly, "My brother and I have already gotten a bounty for this from the prince, and we're not letting you ruin a chance at any more benefits. If you cooperate, perhaps we won't arrest you for helping Princess Celestia's messengers out."

Wintergreen burst into tears, knowing that the two evil stallions were going to force her into leading her new found acquaintances into a trap. She didn't want to see them imprisoned at all, but was now being blackmailed into aiding her leader.

"All right," she said, crying, "just don't hurt them, please!"

"Oh, we won't," said the first guard, "that'll be up to the prince."

The three returned to open the gate, and Techorse gained a curious expression on his face as he noticed Wintergreen's sudden sadness. He figured that she must have been yelled at for bringing strangers to the castle, however, and that they were going to be allowed in anyway despite the inconvenience. Neither the inventor nor any of his friends had any clue that they were wandering into a trap laid for them by the castle guard.

"Please, follow me!" she said to them.

They obeyed, following Wintergreen to the courtyard described by the crossbow-wielding stallions. The marble stones lining the ground in the courtyard featured just four trees sprouting from dirt in the corners of the area, a walled-off section meant to let the light in so that the Prince could get some fresh air when need be. When the team was stopped in the courtyard, they looked around with confused expressions.

"Wait a minute," said Twilight, "this isn't usually how you enter a castle."

Suddenly, various mares and stallions armed with swords, spears, and crossbows filled the battlements around the walls. A cannon was even wheeled up to the stone walls, and tilted down at the seven ponies below, as Wintergreen and the two guards had stepped back. They drew their weapons, and pointed them at the friends.

"Eek!" cried Pinkie Pie, her hair frizzing up in fear.

The pony who had pushed the cannon into the area was a very large gray colored mare with a dark blue mane that she struggled to maintain, as it was large amount of mane hair that was not curly enough to bob nor wavy enough to drape behind her. As a result, she kept her mane draped over her shoulder, wishing she could let it free. She was a unicorn, with purple eyes that darted back and forth between her targets below, with a flashy white and silver ball with a blue fiery tail around it as her cutie mark. She wore heavy armor, a solid helmet with a blade on the top that aided in keeping her mane back, a set of metal boots, her plates around her body, and even a small piece for the end of her tail that resembled a war hammer.

"All of you are under arrest!" she boomed.

Techorse's battle saddle opened up, and he raised his robotic arms in surrender. Rarity fainted, and the others simply stood there, frozen in fear.

"Wintergreen..." Twilight said with sadness in her voice as she looked back at her.

She answered, "I'm sorry Twilight, they made me do it..."

"Who are you anyways?" demanded Rainbow Dash of the large mare.

She smiled and answered, "Why I'm Comettail, the captain of the guard of this castle."

"Please don't hurt us Ma'am!" begged Fluttershy.

"The prince wishes to see all of you," answered the Captain, "you're not going to come to any harm if you simply do what he says. Come with me, and I'll take you to him now."

"Well, at least we're getting to talk to Prince Sundial," sighed Techorse.

"I can hear you, you know!" shouted Comettail angrily, "Shut up until we get there."

A figure in a dark cloak appeared next to her, moving his way up the stairs within the battlements. Twilight Sparkle's mouth hung open as she recognized him as her attacker.

"That's enough, Captain," he said to her.

"It's you!" Twilight said angrily, "You set us up!"

The figure laughed, "Set you up? What are you talking about?"

"I know exactly what you're up to!" she said, continuing, walking around as she lectured. The guards followed her movements with their weapons, but Comettail waved her hoof as an order for them to stand down.

"You've been working for him as a mercenary, or you are his son, or something!" she said, her face turning red, "You've been trying to take me away to get back at Princess Celestia for him!"

"For him?" asked the figure, "For who?"

"For Sundial, Prince Sundial!" raged Twilight Sparkle, stomping her hoof into the ground, "You've been trying to capture me so that Prince Sundial can hold me hostage."

"You think I work for the Prince?" asked the cloaked stranger.

"Yes, I do!" she answered, grating her teeth.

The cloaked figure looked at his captain of the guard, then at several of the other ponies on the battlements, and then, burst into rich laughter.

"Oh! What I've done's too good!" he said, "Look, look friends, it seems Princess Celestia's number one student hasn't figured it out yet! She thinks I actually work for the Prince."

Some of the guards also joined in on the laughter, and even Pinkie Pie got caught up in the moment as she struggled not to burst out laughing at Twilight's expense.

"Fine," shouted Twilight, getting the laughter to begin to quiet down, "so what if you don't really work for the Prince. Are you going to take us to him or not?"

"Take you to him? Miss, that's why this is so funny, you see..."

The alicorn ripped off his dark cloak and discarded it into the courtyard. On the battlement walls stood a white alicorn with a blonde mane and full beard. His cutie mark was that of a large sundial, and his tail and mane waved in a jagged pattern. The jagged hoof hair cut at the base of his legs made him seem taller than he actually was, but his strong wings spread as the cloak tore off. His pointed horn sported a small golden crown, which he rather hated to wear upon being questioned. The last thing about him was his yellow eyes, which no longer had to glow behind the dark cloak.

"The funny thing is, I am Prince Sundial." he said, still laughing, "Surprise!"

Twilight Sparkle stood motionless for a moment, her mind in a bit of conflict.

"But..." she said, stammering, "Why? Why would you do it all yourself? You have quite the nerve attacking us in Equestria, so tell me why!"

The Prince continued to explain, "This is about making that nag Celestia pay for sending my sister to the moon for a thousand years. I just want to be a pain in her side. Sending some faceless goon to ponynap you wouldn't be very much fun or effective."

"Oh great, he's a total nut!" whispered Rainbow Dash to Applejack, who nodded in agreement.

"Now I have all of you! All six of the Elements of Harmony holders, and even the green one!" he said, trying not to squeal, "This is so exciting!"

"What are you going to do to us!?" whimpered Fluttershy, praying she wouldn't come to harm.

"You won't be hurt," he answered, shaking his head, "I hope."

"You hope?" screamed Rarity.

"Of course, if Princess Celestia resists my demands, I may have to give her some incentive. I just can't forgive her after what she did to Luna. Take them away, Comettail."

The Captain obeyed her orders, and commanded her troops, half mares and half stallions, to escort her new prisoners into the castle. The guards poked at the friends as they corralled them into a wide hallway that led into the depths of the building.

Twilight and Techorse looked at each other momentarily, frowning as they were led away with their friends into the depths of the castle. They had managed to save themselves from getting hurt or being held in terrible conditions, but now, they would need to bring Darkmatter in and hope he could solve the problem. Both ponies feared that Prince Sundial would not listen to his brother, and they would all end up in the same scenario they had gone through with Darkmatter. The others simply hoped that the princess would sort things out, and they would get back to Ponyville in one piece.

They were taken to a plain room with a set of cots lined up against the walls, and a small whitewashed wooden door leading to a powder room. It was originally used as a hospital room, and had been hastily converted into an oversized cell, due to the fact that it lacked windows and the door was bolted in four different places from the outside. The door had also clearly been hexed to avoid lock picking spells or brute force, as four engraved shield runes were embedded into the stone frame around the door to the room. Comettail urged them inside, and considered stripping Techorse of his battle saddle, but instead inspected it by opening the rear cargo hatch. Since she was only aware of the robotic arms and knew they were too weak to open the door, the captain resealed the saddle and let the inventor keep it. Then, the seven ponies were pushed into the room, although Rainbow Dash put up a good resistance by spreading her limbs over the doorway and attempting to hold on. The guards nudged her with their horns and the hilts of their weapons until she flung into the doorway, landing on her back.

Prince Sundial appeared at the large door to the room, and said to his prisoners, "You shall remain here for now, until we can use you as bargaining chips for Celestia's surrender."

"Surrender?" gasped Pinkie Pie.

"Of course," he answered, "should Celestia refuse to turn over Equestria to my brother and I, I shall have to simply keep you here, and perhaps... do things to encourage a quicker agreement."

"Look, everything has changed!" pleaded Twilight, mortified at the thought of being tortured, "Princess Luna is back in Equestria, and she and Princess Celestia get along well! That's what you want to know, isn't it? Didn't you ever bother to even spy on Celestia? If you had, you would have seen the truth ages ago!"

The Prince's eyes grew wide temporarily as he heard that statement, and then he shook his head, "That is a lie!"

"It's not a lie!" protested Techorse, "We want to prove it to you."

The Prince of Time paused and thought about it for a moment.

"How could you possibly prove it to me?" he said, "You have no idea what kinds of pain I've been through."

He then slammed the door to the cell, leaving the ponies alone to worry about their fates.

"How are we going to get out of this one?!" cried Pinkie Pie, "I don't wanna stay here!"

"It has been over a thousand years," said Rarity, "but some things never change. Perhaps if we were allowed to bring in somepony else who knew the truth, we could convince the Prince things have changed."

"Who?" begged Pinkie Pie.

Rarity answered, "Why his brother of course. Prince Darkmatter has already repaired his relationship with his sisters. I'm sure he can do the same, after all, Sundial did just mention him."

"That's a great idea Rarity!" exclaimed Twilight happily, "Now all we have to do is figure out how we're going to get Darkmatter to come here."

There was a slight knocking on the door, and a familiar voice called out from underneath it.

"Are you ok in there?"

"Wintergreen?" called Fluttershy, "Yes, we're fine!"

"Oh thank goodness!" she exclaimed with a breath of relief, "I was worried about all of you. I'm still sorry they've forced us all into this mess, but on the bright side, I was able to sneak back into the castle. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes!" said Twilight, "We need to send out a letter, can you get us some stationary?"

"Yeah, there's a writing desk down the hallway, one second!" the mare replied.

The slot at the bottom of the door normally used for delivering meals opened up a moment later, and a piece of parchment paper and a dipped quill slid under the door. Using her magic, Twilight grabbed the paper and wrote the letter to summon Prince Darkmatter, giving no indication that they were being held as prisoners, using the term 'guests' instead, just in case the guard of the castle was going to read the letter ahead of time. She then slid the rolled-up parchment back under the door along with the quill. Wintergreen collected the letter and placed it in a saddlebag she had stolen from the guards.

"I'll make sure this letter gets out to Equestria!" she said, "I may not have been out there, but I'll figure my way."

"Thank you so much for your help darling!" called Rarity.

"I got you into this, and I'm going to get you out!" she replied with determination.

"Don't go out into Equestria by yourself," instructed Twilight, "get that letter back to Spike, you know, the dragon who was with us! He can deliver the message."

"Got it! Hang on in there my friends. We'll get Prince Sundial's brother to sort things out," she said before the noise of galloping on stone indicated her departure for the ponies inside the room.

"Do you think Prince Darkmatter can convince his brother that everything is ok?" asked Fluttershy, "I really hope we don't have to stay here forever."

"I'm pretty sure they can work it out," answered Techorse, "Prince Sundial really just seems rather hurt that Princess Luna was banished, like his brother. I can tell that there's a much kinder pony in him, it'll just take the right things to get him out of this anger."

Rainbow Dash jumped onto a nearby cot and said, "Anyways, I'm going to take a nap. We're still going to be here for a while until those two talk it over, so we might as well rest up."

"Probably not a bad idea," sighed Applejack, climbing into her own selected cot.

"Let's rest then," said Twilight, "hopefully by tomorrow we'll get everything sorted out."

1,500 years ago

The king and queen began to develop strange ailments as their subjects' happiness continued to fade. Although the unicorns were still happy given their elite status in the kingdom, the other two "classes" of ponies were gravely unhappy, some of them choosing to resort to outright theft rather than earn a living in a bleak caste system. King Diurne suffered a strange flu, followed shortly by his wife, and they recovered simply because the castle nurse was an expert in respiratory illnesses, even if the treatment was simply a placebo. The sickness of their parents worried their four foals, even though they were young adults, they had never seen their parents sick before despite each of them being more than 300 years old.

In truth, the alicorns were all kept alive by being given the support and happiness of their subjects and friends. They unknowingly absorbed the positive energy and converted it into raw power that granted their cells immortality. Starswirl had also been born with this genetic gift, and received the lions' share of the positive energy generated by his very happy unicorn pony students at his academy. Thus, when life was good and ponies were happy, the alicorns could live forever. Yet at this time, the alicorn King and Queen were finding themselves catching illnesses and suffering the effects of being ancient. This did not deter them from helping their subjects, however, and they swore to find a way to get their kind to deploy the Elements of Harmony.

King Diurne stood on the roof of his castle, looking out over the city in the broad daylight. It seemed that the city was at peace for the moment, as he had managed to convince the pegasi to use an alternate mine to collect their metal rather than take it from the earth ponies. But how long would that peace last?

Starswirl the Bearded had recently searched the castle using his magic detection spells to see if he could find the "Elements of Harmony" that Queen Nocturna had leaked information to him about. Although he had believed he had pinpointed the location of the artifacts, he needed to be certain, and would need to get his godson to spill his information as well.

"Your majesty, I'd like to speak to you," he said, smiling and shaking as if he truly was old.

King Diurne turned around, his golden mane flowing behind him.

"Starswirl, what troubles you?" he said, unhappy.

"I have heard rumors your majesty," continued Starswirl, walking up to him with his staff floating by him, "rumors of a new magic you have discovered. The Elements of Harmony. What are they?"

Diurne immediately caught on, and knew that he must not allow Starswirl to interfere. If he found out the location of the Elements, he might try to tamper with them in order to put himself in charge of fixing Equestria, thus ruining any chance of a good life for two thirds of the population. A private magic based solution would lead to the unicorn ponies ruling for all time, while the others would merely scrape by. However, Diurne also knew that he was no match for Starswirl's magical might, and should Starswirl choose to overthrow him, it would be over quickly. Starswirl had created him, and he could just as easily destroy him despite nearly 300 years having past since they met.

"The Elements of Harmony are how Equestria will be reborn, like a phoenix," he answered, "that is all you need to know."

"Your queen has already told me that," pushed Starswirl, attempting to get more, "I wish to know where these artifacts or magical powers are. I want to be a part of this glorious process!"

"You know nothing about glorious processes!" snapped Diurne, "Just this week I found your notes for a lecture at your school. You told unicorn ponies that their peers without horns are worthless!"

Starswirl cried out in a rage, "I did not do such a thing! My notes stated that it was up to the unicorn ponies to aid their brethren without magic! Magic is meant to keep peace and find redemption, not destroy!"

Diurne argued with his mage, "Is that so? I know something that happened last week that you've done clearly showing the opposite. I heard about what you did to those three sirens who were found feeding off of the conflict in our city."

"They were a threat to us," claimed Starswirl, "they devour the negative energy of conflict and use it to generate more."

"Perhaps they could have siphoned it off and used it elsewhere, maybe to keep the monsters in the forests busy so we never have to worry about monsters gobbling up our ponies again?" yelled the King, enraged, "You destroyed those three because it was a demonstration of magical might, to awe ponies into following you!"

"I did not destroy them. I tested a new dimensional spell on them. They're alive, somewhere in the universe," he said, trying to defend himself, although clearly losing.

He then came up with a white lie, "I did not want to awe ponies with magic. I was afraid the sirens would begin to eat them should the conflict not feed them enough. Perhaps I will modify my lectures a bit..."

The King's ears drooped, and he sighed heavily, "I am sorry for snapping. I fear much for Equestria, and I cannot have the unicorn ponies continuing to push for more power in times like these."

"I understand your ills," soothed Starswirl, "now then, please tell me about these Elements. You and Nocturna have great faith in them, and so do I! Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I need to aid my... family."

King Diurne took the comment as sincere and revealed the location on the artifacts,"The Elements of Harmony are located in the atrium, underneath the floor in the centre of the room. You will need to use your staff to open the door."

"Thank you. Please tell Queen Nocturna that I was wrong, and I will aid you in your quest to use these Elements," he said, smiling, "I hear they truly are a great magic."

"It goes beyond that," said the King, "the sixth in the set, is pure magic itself."

Now there was something interesting to Starswirl! The sixth element was pure magic, and to him, that meant it was the most important one. He turned around after bidding the King goodbye, and walked back for his room, happy thoughts circling in his mind.

"Perhaps I won't sabotage the Elements after all!" he said quietly to himself, "Perhaps the Element of Magic will simply need a little push ahead of the others! Then all that will need to be done is declare Magic to be the greatest, and my school will remain renowned for eternity!"

That was truly Starswirl's motivation for all of his ideas. He did not truly wish for the unicorns to be "the elite" per say, rather, he wanted magic to remain the most powerful force in existence due to his own skill in the art, and also wished for his school and his teachings to remain the most important in Equestria. It was why he had put the alicorns on the throne in the first place! By telling other ponies that the alicorns were gifts from the supernatural, and also happening to be the best magic user, he had managed to construct a world in which he would be remembered for all time. In addition, magic would remain the only force that mattered in the world, and that thought pleased him greatly.

He passed the young Princess Celestia and Luna in the hallway, and opened up a conversation with them.

"Good afternoon, young ones!" he said, "I was on my way back to my quarters just now. Your parents have discussed the Elements of Harmony with me, and I look forward to aiding them in their use!"

"Really?" asked Luna, "Our parents let us know that we were to not inform you about the Elements."
Starswirl knew exactly why he hadn't been informed until now, but shrugged off the fact that his alicorn "family" was starting to mistrust him.

He regained his smile after scowling from Luna's statement, and answered, "I gather the timing was right then!"

Celestia smiled, "We're glad you've decided to help us godfather. We really are!"

"Thank you, little Celestia!" he answered, "Now, off I go, I must brush up on my spell books for now!"

He left them in the hallway, and thought to himself, "Those foals will someday appreciate their gift of magic more than could be imagined! I hope they make excellent rulers one day, and take students of their own just as I have!"

The king and queen had gathered their young ones, along with a handful of servants, including the cup-bearer and the wash mare from before. They were staring at the Elements of Harmony on their stand, rotating about as the artifacts waited patiently for action.

"Now that we know about the Elements and have built artifacts to house them, we must discover how they work!" stated Nocturna.

"But what could it be?" asked Darkmatter, his brother standing next to him.

His brother suggested, "Perhaps only mother and father can use them?"

"I don't know what to make of this," puzzled the cup-bearer.

The wash mare turned to him and said, "You're a unicorn. I'm sure you'll be able to do something with it. You have the magic to do it."

The cup-bearer gave her a surprised look, "Are you saying I'm good enough to wield this device?"
"Of course!" answered the wash mare, apparently having forgiven her argument, "It is what you are good at!"

"But you are just as good at things..." he answered, trying not to leave her out, "I have never been able to grow a sprout in my life, but plants just spring into life at your home!"

The King and Queen noticed that the Elements gained a soft glow at the center of their crystals. Something was happening, something that hadn't happened before. They had tried many things to get their artifacts to use the Elements and their power, but it seemed that this mere conversation was the beginning.

"Look!" said Diurne, pointing at the stones.

The two servants stopped their conversation and looked.

"Test Keeper, please!" begged the Queen, "Start a spark as a unicorn, we believe it is your words that started the Elements' glow!"

Test Keeper, a mere cup-bearer, stepped forward, and touched his horn to the center Element. Despite his every thought and effort, nothing seemed to make the Elements glow any further.

"Nothing is happening," he said, backing off, "I am not as skilled as Fine Dust thinks."

Fine Dust the wash mare patted him on the back, "It's all right. It was brave of you for tryin'."
"You believe so?" he asked.

"Oh I know so," she answered, "we can talk more about this over some tea later though if you'd like, perhaps... if you wanted to be friends."

"I'd be delighted to be your friend!" answered the unicorn.

The absolute anomaly of a unicorn and an earth pony being friends at that time caused the Elements to suddenly grow brightly, and rotate quickly around on their mobile.

"I believe you've done it!" cheered the Queen, hopping up and down, "We know how the Elements function!"

"What is it?" demanded Celestia, "How do they work mother?"

Queen Nocturna explained, "My daughter, the Elements of Harmony respond to friendship! When our cup-bearer and wash mare became friends just now, they came to life, especially the central one, Magic! It must be that friendship is the most powerful magic in existence."

"Friendship is the most powerful magic in the world?" asked Darkmatter, "This is how we'll stop all the fighting?"

"Yes, by encouraging and teaching friendship to our subjects, the Elements will provide the defense and positive environment Equestria needs to once more be a whole world!" said the King, "We must start a new school teaching this philosophy at once! By emphasizing the importance of having friends, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorn ponies will finally find happiness and cease their fighting, just as our two servants have!"

"Then open a new school we shall! We must have students who know how to make friends!" declared Nocturna.

A curious Starswirl watched from a window, jealousy burning in his heart, "A new school? To replace mine? Never!"

He observed the structure of the first five Elements creating the might of the sixth, and understood what he had to do.

Starswirl said out loud, "If friendship is magic, perhaps I will simply make it so that whoever proves best at friendship will gain the power of magic exponentially, to the point of affecting their very self! Of course, if any pony were to be imbued with that much magical power... they'd become..."

He then lost his train of thought, and changed the topic with himself, "Well no sense crafting theories. I must unbalance these Elements to ensure that my own school does not fade out in favor. Tomorrow night I'll sabotage these artifacts, and they won't even know it."

Darkmatter's brother Temporios had seen the mage outside the window, but when he took a second look, he had vanished. He and his siblings walked together to their dining room to celebrate on their own independent of their parents.

Temporios tried to tell his siblings about what he had saw, "I think I may have seen our godfather outside."

Celestia said back to him, "Oh Sundial, Starswirl the Bearded is always up and about. He's a bit of a funny stallion."

Prince Temporios was called the nickname "Sundial" both because of the complexity of his true name, and because his cutie mark was indeed a sundial with a quarter circle of light descending upon it. He had picked up on Starswirl's experimental time magic early on, and had mastered the ability to control the flow slowly, able to change the speed of events, but very little control over the past or future. As he grew older, Sundial's strength in pausing time in a small area had grown stronger. Thus, he became the Prince of Time, and joined the ranks of his siblings in enjoying power over the forces of existence.
"You're right Celestia." he said, agreeing with his sister, "I guess there's nothing to worry about."
"Indeed there isn't!" she answered, "Especially because our favorite treat is being served tonight, chocolate cake!"

"You mean your favorite treat!" teased Princess Luna, poking her sibling in the gut, "You've gotten quite a soft middle from cake over the years!"

Princess Celestia did not have that much fat, and knew it was a joke, and gave Luna a subtle smile. They had always gotten along as sisters, and had been each others' company when their brothers were not around to talk to them. Nothing could separate the Princesses of Night and Day, or so they believed. As the four alicorn young adults entered the celebration area, a disgruntled wizard retreated to his laboratory to begin his plans for ensuring a very different future than what the alicorns upstairs expected.

Spike moved his last piece on the colorful game board into place, finally securing a victory against PAL. The young dragon gave a cheerful shout at his victory, disturbing the other patrons in the cafe, who stared at him. Sitting back down with embarrassment, Spike noticed PAL shaking his metallic head at him in disbelief.

"Well, it was a good game," said Spike sheepishly, "want to play again?"

"We've already played seven games," reminded the robot, "perhaps we should try something else now."
"Seven times?" said Spike with shock, "We've been here that long?"

"Yeah..." added the owner of the shop, "You've been here for hours."

Wintergreen appeared at the shop door, and stormed in, carrying the letter given to her in her mouth.

She dropped the scroll on the table in front of the rather surprised robot and dragon, and started to pant as she gave a tired statement, "You! I've got a message for you!"

"Me!?" asked Spike, pointing to himself, "What is it?"

"Your friends have been captured by the prince!" panted the mare, her tongue sticking out as she tried to catch her breath, "But Twilight gave me this letter for you. She said you could contact the Prince's brother."

"They've been captured?" wailed Spike, "Oh no!"

"We must depart for the castle immediately," said PAL, standing up from the table while placing both hands down on it sharply.

"There's no way you're going to be able to get into the castle without being caught," replied Wintergreen sadly, "I was told that you could send this letter out to Equestria though. Can you really do that?"

"Sure!" the dragon said as he picked up the scroll, "We're going to need all the help we can get."

Tossing the scroll up into the air, Spike spat a short stream of flame at the parchment, incinerating the paper.

"Why did you do that?" screamed Wintergreen.

"Relax," answered Spike, "my firebreath's been enchanted by Princess Celestia to deliver any letters I burn right to her. We'll get an answer back soon, hopefully."

"Oh, I hope master is all right," moaned PAL, sitting back in his chair.

"I hope so too," nodded Wintergreen, "the prince was quite angry when he heard they were friends of Princess Celestia."

"EEEK!" shouted the owner of the store as she dove behind her counter, "Don't say that name! She'll move the sun so close to us that we'll all cook!"

Wintergreen turned her head and said rather rudely, "Do you seriously believe all that stuff still? Seven ponies from Equestria have showed up, their two friends pay you to eat your food and drink your tea, and you think Princess Celestia is still a monster?"

"These two are servants of her?!" gasped the store owner.

"Servants? We've met with and aided her majesty on numerous occasions," droned PAL, a little confused by the terminology.

"You've both been very generous," she said, returning from behind the counter, "I've not had customers drop that much on drinks."

"We just needed a place to stay waiting for our friends to get back," Spike said, "PAL's the one who decided to spend so much. I'm not going to be able to drink all of this hot cocoa."

"If you two are being this kind, perhaps the Prince has exaggerated a bit about Equestria and Princess Celestia..." she mused.

"Well, if you believe it, spread the word," suggested Spike, "we came here to try and convince you guys to open back up to Equestria."

"I'll do my best!" answered the shopkeeper with a smile.

Wintergreen said to PAL, "I'm going to help spread the word too while we wait for help to arrive."

"We'll go with you," answered the machine with a broad smile as he stood up, "come on, Spike."

Spike nodded and climbed up onto the robot's left shoulder. The three then left the cafe to go talk about how life outside of Hourglass really was while they waited for help from Canterlot to arrive. If they could get the citizens of the city to believe that Princess Celestia was benevolent and wanted them to communicate with her country, then it would force Prince Sundial to reconsider his own ways.

Prince Darkmatter had decided to stay at Canterlot castle while waiting for a response from his sister's student and her friends. He was enjoying a hot cup of coffee, with arguably more sugar than coffee in the drink, and sat near a bay window in the throne room, looking at the snow outside. While he watched the snow fall harder than before curiously, he wondered why such a snowstorm was coming through when there were not any plans for snow from the weather pegasi.

He asked of his sisters, "Do you know where this snow is coming from?"

Princess Celestia answered, "I'm not sure, brother. I've contacted Cloudsdale to ask if the weather factory has been malfunctioning, but their mechanics have replied that the machines are working fine. The snowblower received its one hundred thousand storm tune-up just a week ago."

"Remember when peagsi had to chill the clouds themselves if they wanted snow, rather than use the magic machines for it?" chuckled the Prince, "Was funny to watch if they didn't have any chilling potions."

"I'm glad our balance of machines and magic has gone as it has," answered the princess, standing up from her throne and wandering over to her brother, "it's nice that earth ponies and pegasi have been able to make technology serve them."

"Especially Techorse!" exclaimed Luna, standing up and raising a hoof, "His machines are way beyond what anypony has seen this century!"

"Techorse's machines come from secrets he's taken from his original home, or at least that's what we discovered when my scientists tried to reverse engineer his 'battle saddle'," sighed Darkmatter, "I'm glad he keeps his best gadgets secret. His machines in the wrong hooves could be very dangerous. They almost ended up being my own tools of revenge."

"Most of Techorse's inventions are kitchen appliances and simple things for sale," assured Celestia, smiling, "In fact, I've bought a few myself for the castle chefs. All of the powerful gadgets either end up being destroyed, like a shrinking ray he once had, or get placed out of reach of the public."

"He's responsible, like any good citizen!" bellowed Luna.

She then lowered her voice and continued, "But of course, he does make mistakes. He's not perfect."

"And he's quite the gullible guy," added Prince Darkmatter, chuckling.

"That gets him into quite a bit of trouble sometimes, but it's part of what makes him unique," said Princess Celestia, "Holding the Element of Justice requires being able to give others a fair chance, and he certainly fulfills that."

Suddenly, a small burst of green energy appeared over Princess Celestia's head, and the scroll sent to her dropped in front of her on the floor. Prince Darkmatter looked at the summoned roll of paper curiously, and poked it with his hoof.

"What's this?" he asked, "It came out of nowhere."

"Oh, it must be a letter on the progress my student Twilight Sparkle has made with Sundial," said Princess Celestia, picking up the scroll with her magic, "as you send letters to Limpwing via enchanted origami, I have given her assistant Spike the power to send messages to me through his fire breath."

"Well please, read it!" asked Princess Luna, sitting down on a nearby throw pillow, "I wish to hear of Twilight Sparkle's progress."

Princess Celestia unrolled the parchment, and her two siblings watched her eyes track the text,
becoming more and more fearful as she finished the letter.

"This is horrible. Brother has imprisoned them all, and is demanding we step down as the Princesses of Equestria," she said slowly, sadness in her eyes.

Princess Luna's mouth fell open, "What...?"

Darkmatter stood up and declared, "I must do something about this! It was foolish of me not to accompany them in the first place, and I accept full responsibility for this. I will travel to his nation and confront him."

The Prince walked away from his sisters at a fast pace, heading for the door.

"Wait!" called out Celestia, "We're coming with you!"

"He'll attack." responded Darkmatter, looking over his shoulder, "It'll be unsafe without a detachment of guards. Even then, that'd put your guards at risk."

"Then we will go to Steamcastle and get Princess Cadance's aid," stated Luna, forming a tactic in her mind, "surely his own daughter can convince him to let them go."

"They haven't seen each other since Cadance was young," questioned Darkmatter, turning around fully, "Suppose he doesn't recognize her?"

"Then we'll need other means of... subduing him," said Celestia, "we cannot allow our brother to continue to cut off his city to the rest of the world, nor can we allow him to hurt Twilight Sparkle or any of her friends."

Darkmatter nodded, and opened the door to the throne room with his magic before turning around to exit. In the doorway, wrapped in his black cape, stood Captain Arbiter, a mischievous smile on his face.

"I heard somepony needed subduing," he said, chuckling, "perhaps I can be of service?"

"We can handle this Captain," answered Princess Celestia, rolling her eyes, "it is our brother."

"I'd still like to come along," he said, continuing to partially block the doorway, "it is my duty to protect you."

"Why the sudden interest, Captain?" asked Darkmatter.

The pegasus looked at him with his remaining eye and explained himself, "I've heard your lieutenant has joined you on this mission, and I'd like to get another chance to work with her again."

The two Princesses turned their heads slightly in confusion at the Captain's sentence, and Arbiter coughed once to try and draw their attention away from the sentence.

"You know, because we're both officers and keepers of the law. I enjoy working with another pony who loves swords as much as I do," he said, "plus, she owes me ten bits."

"You don't have to make excuses, Arbiter," said Celestia, "you only needed to ask. Come with us to Steamcastle."

"Let's depart then," he answered, smiling on the inside, but placing his typical tough expression on his face.

Prince Darkmatter's horn glowed brightly with golden energy as he cut a hole in space and time in the middle of the air.

"Meet you there, my sisters!" he cheered before jumping into the wormhole and sealing it behind them.
The two alicorns looked at each other momentarily, and then, after nodding, charged their own spells to teleport themselves and Captain Arbiter to Cadance's castle. The race against time to save Twilight Sparkle, and perhaps win back their brother, had begun!

Or so they had thought.

In a remote tower in Canterlot Castle, the Element vault sat alone. It didn't need to be guarded constantly with the castle walls and magical lock serving as defenses for the artifacts inside. Princess Celestia appeared before the vault in a flash of light, having split off from her sister. Looking around to make sure none of her guards were nearby to interfere, she cast a small combination spell into the vault's lock. The door's handle turned and recessed into the door, and the vault opened with the sound of stone grinding on stone.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she thought miserably as the door finished opening.

The white alicorn, her multicolored hair flowing behind her, entered the vault, and carefully opened the brand new containers for the Elements. By standing with her four hooves on certain panels on the floor, the center of the empty room opened up, and a new mobile, built of solid marble, arose from the center, with each of the artifacts adorning an arm. Twilight's tiara artifact sat at the top on a small pedestal, and the scales of justice sat in a glass enclosure at the base of the structure. Princess Celestia carefully removed each of the artifacts from their places, and put them inside a silver case she had brought with her. Packing them into the velvet interior, the Princess finished putting the artifacts in the case, and sealed it shut before tying it to her side.

She then stood and stared at the empty mobile, before returning to its place beneath the floor. Resealing the vault, Princess Celestia moved into the middle of the castle hallway, and looked over the stained glass windows depicting every major use of the Elements of Harmony. The Princess felt a surge of sad emotion, both guilt for having used the powers entrusted to her against her sister, and that she may be forced to do so again on her brother in order to save her student and her friends.

To be continued...

#36 - Secrets of the Crown: Part II

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Secrets of the Crown: Part II

Techorse Series: #36

By Spirals95

Rainbow Dash carefully finished carving another slash into the wall of the cell using a fragment of floor tile she had found on the ground earlier.

"Rainbow Dash, we've been in here for an hour," criticized Rarity, "there's no need to go making tally marks like we've been here forever."

"I'm just trying to keep myself entertained," groaned the pegasus, "I'm so bored."

"If only there was a way we could get out of here for just a few minutes," said Applejack, "I could really use a little exercise."

"Yeah, but the door is locked using a curse from the outside, and those shield runes prevent physical force from getting through, especially magic," explained Twilight, shaking her head sadly, "we'd need a way to get the lock open, and we can't steal a key since the door's solid."

Techorse then got an idea and offered, "Maybe I could try melting the lock using my laser cannons. Comettail didn't strip me of my battle saddle. I could use the solid beam mode to burn right through the door, and then we can just push it open and escape!"

"But what happens if we get caught?" interrupted Fluttershy, "They might hurt us!"

"Then let's not try to escape," said Techorse.

"Why not?" asked Rainbow Dash.

The inventor raised his front hoof and told her, "We're here to help the citizens of Hourglass learn that Equestria is a perfectly hospitable country, much like what we did with The Domain. I'm thinking we should all split up and make ourselves useful to the castle servants. By using our talents to help them out, maybe they'll convince the Prince to let us stay with them instead of locked up in here."

"That's genius!" cheered Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down, "I'll make a break for the kitchen and get baking!"

"I suppose there's probably some heavy liftin' that needs doing around here," mused Applejack, interested in a good physical challenge, "all right Techie, open the door for us."

"Just one second. We need to check to see if there are any guards out there first," warned Twilight Sparkle as she walked up to the door.

"HEY!" she shouted loudly, "We're hungry in here! Are you going to starve us?"

"Prince Sundials' a big loser!" called Rainbow Dash, figuring an insult might also draw fire from the guards.
"The coast must be clear!" smiled Twilight Sparkle, "All right Tech, open it up!"

Techorse moved over to the large wooden door and located the lock. With a mechanical click, the panels on the sides of his back-worn device opened up, and a pair of steel tubes mounted as barrels on small laser projectors emerged. The stallion aimed his weapons at the lock on the door, and using his thoughts to control the device, switched the machinery from firing individual pellets of electromagnetic energy, to firing a solid beam. Two rays of yellow light shot from the weapons and hit the door, slowly drilling into the lock. A molten stream of metal dripped from the hole of the lock and onto the floor, making a sickly sizzling sound as the steel melted and vaporized under the intense heat of the rays. Within a few seconds, the lock had been completely penetrated, and the ponies pushed open the door to find the hallway completely empty.

"All right everypony, split up and make yourselves useful!" said Applejack happily, rearing up on her hind legs.

The ponies split up to go find work in the castle and get the servants and guards on their side against the Prince. Pinkie Pie bounced merrily down the hallway to go find the kitchen, Rainbow Dash and Applejack went to find a damaged portion of the castle to help the maintenance team, and Fluttershy and Rarity went to see if the castle had a barber, tailor, or other help. This left Techorse and Twilight, who discussed as they walked down the hallways what they should do.

"I think I should see if there's a library in the castle," suggested Twilight, "I can easily be of help there! Maybe you can find the castle's boiler room and help them out with the steam machinery."

"Actually, I'd like to come with you, sweetheart," he replied, "I haven't had much of a chance to read books together with you lately, and I'd like to get back into that."

"Of course!" answered a happy Twilight giving him a hug, "Fiction, or non-fiction?"

"I guess we'll decide when we get there. Let's go!" he said, wrapping his tail around hers.

They both trotted together down the hallway in search of the castle library. From around the corner behind them, Captain Comettail watched with a keen eye from beneath her helmet. She gave an impressed smile as she moved a piece of mane hair out from in front of her eye, and knew she wasn't going to raise the alarm on her escaping guests just yet.

"Clearly they don't want to break out of the castle since they split up. I want to see what becomes of this," she said before clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, "maybe I can have some fun with our guests!"

The chef of the castle looked over her ingredient list, and back at the end result of the chocolate soufflé recipe she was supposed to be making for Prince Sundial's dessert. The picture on her comically oversized "royal cookbook" showed a fluffy, luscious looking desert certainly chock full of calories and sugar. The puffy cake like pastry was supposed to resemble a beautiful mushroom of chocolate cake in a ramekin. Of course, the chef was very dismayed, as her finished product resembled a flat, mushy brownie instead, all squished into the bottom of the ramekin.

"This is the fourth time I've messed up!" cried the dismayed lead cook, "His majesty is going to be furious with me!"

Her assistant, a unicorn pony who aspired to become a bread store owner one day, also had no luck in determining why the dessert continuously failed to bake correctly. The soufflé recipe itself had been easy to figure out, but something was going wrong with the baking process. Both of the ponies had tried changing the oven temperature, letting the batter sit before baking, and even letting the finished product cool inside the oven instead of removing it. But all attempts had resulted in the same disgusting flat product as before.

Pinkie Pie entered the kitchen area, and marveled at the fancy sets of cooking equipment and utensils hanging up on wooden racks on the walls. For such an old looking castle, it had contained a rather modern kitchen with all the bells and whistles, including electric ovens and stoves, blenders, and other cooking appliances.

"Wowie!" Pinkie Pie said as she trotted through the white-painted room, "They've got everything here! I bet the chef ponies have lots of fun cooking great meals and snacks here!"

The pink mare heard sounds of frustration and sorrow coming from a set of stainless steel doors in the kitchen, and walked over to them. Opening them up, she found the two chefs staring at the sad excuse for a soufflé.

"Hi!" she said.

The chef and her assistant looked up from the cookbook, and recognized Pinkie Pie as one of the prisoners.

The assistant asked with astonishment, "Hey, how'd you get out of your room?!"

"Laser beams!" answered the earth pony, smiling.

The two cooks looked at each other with slight shock and confusion, before returning to Pinkie Pie.

"I'm not going to try anything funny!" assured Pinkie Pie, "Well, maybe something funny, but not dangerous! Pinkie Promise!"

"Um... all right," muttered the lead chef, "well, we're kind of busy right now, if you don't mind."

Pinkie Pie moved at a blur of a pace, zipping up between the two mares, and looked at the cookbook. She then looked back and forth at the picture and recipe, and then at the finished, floppy cake.

"What's this?" asked Pinkie Pie curiously.

The assistant groaned, knowing Pinkie Pie had no intention of leaving them be, and said, "It's a soufflé we've been trying to make all day. No matter what we've tried, it comes out looking flat."

"Didja add water to the oven to steam it?" asked Pinkie Pie of the lead chef.

"Yes," she answered.

Pinkie Pie looked back at the dessert, and then promptly questioned the chef once more, "Remember to let it cool sloooowly?"

"YES!" she yelled angrily, "We've tried that too!"

Pinkie Pie scratched her fluffy head with a hoof, "And the noise?"

"Noise?" asked the lead chef.

"Well yeah," continued Pinkie Pie, "a souffle needs this stuff called 'white noise' to keep it from getting all floppy from loud sounds in the kitchen! I usually just put a desk fan in front of the oven, but you can use anything, like a dishwasher, or some maracas!"

"Let's retry the recipe and put a fan in front of the oven!" concluded the lead chef, "We'll see if you're right about this."

The mares worked together to try the recipe again, stirring up a nice chocolate batter and pouring it into a freshly washed ramekin. They added a small tray of water into the oven along with the batter to help moisten the cake, and closed the door, but not before setting up a desk fan in front of the oven to keep the noise inside down as Pinkie Pie had suggested. Sure enough, when the soufflé was done baking, it correctly achieved the puffy size and shape it was supposed to. The two chefs couldn't be more thrilled with Pinkie Pie having saved them from a berating by the Prince!

"Oh my gosh, you did it!" squealed the assistant, "It actually worked!"

"But how did you know?" the lead chef wondered.

"It's easy, I love baking things! In fact, I work as a baker for my boss back in Ponyville," answered Pinkie Pie with a cheerful grin, "I was taught this trick by his wife!"

"Can you help us sort out some other things? We're not really great dessert chefs," admitted the assistant, "we mostly cook meals."

"Of course! As an Equestrian, It's an honor to help another pony learn to bake yummy treats!" she said, closing her eyes and smiling.

The lead chef introduced herself, "By the way, my name is Flour Sift, and this is Pepper Mill, my assistant."

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" replied the pink earth pony, "It's really been fun cooking with you girls!"

Comettail burst through the door to the kitchen, the two male guards from before at her sides.

"Uh oh," gulped Pepper Mill, stepping back.

"Ah, Pinkie Pie is it?" asked Comettail, frowning.

"I just said that!" she answered, turning around, before her eyes grew wide as she saw the captain and her troops.

"Let's take her back to her cell, after teaching her not to escape!" laughed the first guard.

To Pinkie Pie's surprise, Comettail slapped him upside the head with her hoof, "I will handle this, corporal. You are to remain silent."

"Please Captain, don't take her away!" begged Flour Sift with big pleading eyes, "Pinkie Pie has helped us finish the Prince's dessert. Without her we couldn't have done it."

This made Comettail reconsider her actions. Originally she was going to toy with the prisoners before punishing them and returning them to their cell. Now, it seemed as if the so called "horrible Equestrians" under Princess Celestia were beginning to aid those around the castle. This is precisely the idea that Pinkie Pie and her friends had wanted to plant in the minds of the ponies of Hourglass castle, but Captain Comettail was unaware of this.

She said to Pinkie Pie, "Is that so? Why would you break out of your cell just to help the cooks? I thought you were out to cause trouble."

"Nope, I wanted to bust some boredom and bake things," answered Pinkie Pie, pointing at the dessert on the stainless steel table, "I guess you've caught me though..."

"Perhaps we can work something out," suggested the Captain of the guard, "The prince doesn't need to know you're all out of your cells, and if you're going to serve us, I personally don't see why I can't simply leave you under the supervision of the castle staff."

"Try anything stupid though, and we're throwing you behind bars again," sneered the other brother, who was promptly whacked over the head by the Captain.

The two brothers excused themselves, and left the Captain alone, retreating into the hallway. It was apparent that their leader had forgotten that she was dealing with enemies of Prince Sundial, and that kind of forgiveness could not be tolerated in their simple, rotten minds. They disappeared into the depths of the castle, plotting between themselves to warn the prince and perhaps gain a few ranks when he inevitably fired Comettail. They were corporals Slate and Granite, two earth ponies who had come from a background in mining minerals from nearby mountains before joining the military to gain influence over their fellow ponies. Always grumbling about their lot in life, never thankful, and most importantly, merciless towards any pony that stood in their way of becoming powerful, even their own boss.

"I'm sure you'll find my friends around too!" Pinkie Pie continued, "We're not escaping, we're trying to find some work while we wait for everything to turn out."

"I'll need to make sure of that first," said the Captain, nodding, "it is still my job to make sure you don't leave the castle grounds. Take care Pinkie Pie."

She then turned around and left, her armor making noises as she exited the kitchen and headed back into the castle to search for the others.

"Well, looks like I'm staying!" cheered Pinkie Pie, which was met by the squee's of the two chefs.

Prince Sundial had been alerted by his two guards of the escape of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The bearded alicorn was furious that they had managed to get out of what was supposedly an inescapable room, and stormed off to go intercept them. He was currently wearing what he traditionally wore when indoors, his small silver crown and a set of brown leather and artificial fur boots that fit the cold climate of the nation he ruled. On his body was a fine coat made from a mixture of warm cottons and silk, somewhat light gray in color that was very soft to the touch. The servants of the castle grew afraid when the prince, rage burning in his eyes, stormed through the hallways of his own home.

Meanwhile, Techorse and Twilight had finally found the castle's library on the third floor of the fortress. It was a beautiful, well decorated room with wooden shelves stacked as high as four ponies, each clearly labeled and sectioned out, with blue carpeting on the stone floor laid out between the rows, and electric lights overhead. There were books that Twilight hadn't even heard of before, mainly because they had been written by citizens of Hourglass City. She was having a field day looking over the stories and studies done by the citizens, struggling to force herself to stick to just one or two at a time so that she could read one complete idea.

"Wow!" she said, giggling like a schoolgirl, "I have never seen so many storybooks in one place! There's more adventure novels here than what they have in Canterlot's library. Way more!"

"Maybe the prince likes stories too," Techorse thought allowed, picking up a volume with his robotic arms and reading into the first few pages, "you have something in common."

Twilight noticed a collection of dusty, thick tomes sitting behind the other more beautiful collections. The ancient looking books, bound with what looked like old leather, the pages clearly oxygen damaged as they were a yellowish color, were sitting by themselves, piled up.

Twilight tapped Techorse on the shoulder to get his attention, "Are those... spellbooks? We really ought to go check those out."

"All right, let's have a look," agreed the inventor as he replaced his book on the shelf in front of him.

They approached the old volumes, very large and heavy as each had to be more than 300 pages, with caution. Twilight picked up the first book in the stack, noting how weighty the massive book was even when lifting it with her magic. Techorse assisted with his robot arms, and together with their combined strength, lowered the book onto the blue carpeted floor below them. The eager lavender mare than opened up the oversized tome, and started to read the first yellowed page with excitement in her heart and a twinkle in her eyes.

"These are the remainder of Starswirl the Bearded's time spells and other magical discoveries!" she squealed, eying over each and every word with delight, "This is Equestrian history! The greatest discoveries by the greatest spellcaster of all time, and they're right here in front of us Techorse!"

Techorse looked at the depictions of unicorns learning to slow time within the pages, and began to wonder what the consequences of unicorns learning to do that could be.

"Twilight, I know you've experimented with time spells before... is it dangerous?" Techorse asked, concerned about the safety of the magic.

Twilight answered honestly, "Time magic is the most difficult type of spell to use. Even healing is easier, and I've only ever been able to use healing magic once as well."

"The time you healed me after my duel with Arbiter..." he said.

"Do you remember your theory about magic you told me when we first met?" she asked, smiling.

"Of course," he answered, smiling back, "thoughts and feelings are converted into useable energy through a focal point on the body, usually a large cluster of nerves, like your horn."

"That's right. To tell you the truth, I have never been able to use healing spells all that well due to their extreme difficulty," she said, blushing, "I was only able to do it because I was emotionally determined to save you."

Techorse gave her a warm hug, wrapping his front legs around her, "That's what makes you such a great mare, Twilight. You've always been determined to find a way to help your friends out of trouble."

"Aw, thank you," she said, trying to get back on topic, "but where I was going with all of this was that I was only able to travel in time for a few minutes. I doubt the information in these books will cause any problems for the rest of Equestria. The amount of practice and energy needed to do these time spells is probably too much for most ponies."

"I'm sure you could do it now!" challenged Techorse.

"No I couldn't!" she laughed, "Maybe with a little practice though."

"I definitely think so," he answered, giving her a loving look.

A thought occurred to Techorse that he had considered before, but had never really asked his marefriend, "Hey, Twilight, do you ever wish I was a unicorn so that I could learn magic with you?"

Twilight shook her head, "Of course not. You have your machines that make you special, and I think those are pretty neat too. But even if you weren't an inventor, I'd still love you for your personality. You're a great pony."

With a warm glow in her eyes and a movement of her head that swished her mane slightly, Twilight leaned in and moved into a kiss with Techorse. They locked lips for a second, and pulled back to look at each other in the soft light of the castle library.

"Back to reading?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," he answered.

They both eagerly dove back into the spellbook to learn about what Starswirl the Bearded had discovered during his time. While they were reading, they noticed that the light in the library had gotten slightly dimmer, as if there was some kind of darkness overtaking the book. The two realized what was going on, and knew that someone's shadow was being cast on the book. They slowly turned around, and were both grabbed and lifted into the air by Prince Sundial's magic. The two ponies kicked their legs, and Twilight attempted to use her own magic to counter his and secure her release. The prince simply grated his teeth, and stuck both of his captives onto a nearby patch of carpet. Casting a time freeze spell at their hooves, he effectively froze them to the floor, as their legs were stuck in a moment of time, unable to move.

"Let us go!" shouted Twilight, her legs rooted to the floor as if by superglue.

Prince Sundial ran a hoof through his blonde, jagged mane, and answered, "Why should I let you go? You've escaped your cell."

"We were trying to be of use around the castle," Techorse explained.

"You are of most use to me as captives," he answered, "plus, as Celestia's friends, no intention of yours can be good. Let's see what you've done in here this past few minutes."

The alicorn stepped between the two trapped ponies and his horn glowed a fierce yellow as he used a special form of time magic that allowed him to replay the events that had occurred in an area over the past few minutes. Ghost images of Techorse and Twilight entered the library, much to the real ones' amazement and slight horror. The books they had read had been replaced by spectral forms that displayed them entering the library and picking them up to read, both in the correct order, and the correct length they had read them. The spell even let the Prince listen to their conversation, eventually leading up to Techorse and Twilight kissing. Once he had reached the end of the events prior to him entering the room, Sundial ended his spell, and the ghostly figures vanished without a trace. He then removed Techorse's time shackles, and lifted him up into the air again, this time by his tail.

"You... kissed this guy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Twilight.

"Yes, he's my coltfriend!" answered Twilight.

The Prince laughed, "This pathetic little colt is your love? You are Celestia's top student, you could pick any stallion you want, and you go with this? The green one is not even a soldier, or anything!"

Techorse looked down at the ground, somewhat ashamed of himself, "Well, I'm not a soldier. I never wanted to be one."

"Pitiful," said the prince, before throwing Techorse like a toy across the room.

Techorse smashed into the library wall before falling onto the floor. He got back up on his legs, and looked back at the alicorn with an angry expression.

"He's the right pony for me," said Twilight with a hint of anger, "you're just being heartless to us!"

"You know what is heartless?" he answered sarcastically, "Having your little sister ripped away from you, by your own family."

Techorse walked back up to the prince, and wondered if he should consider trying to lure him into attacking him so that he would forget about his time spell, and free Twilight.

"My name is Techorse," he answered, bitterly, "I've come a long way ever since I first came to Equestria."

"...And he's not as weak as you think he is, Sundial," added Twilight.

The Prince turned around, "I do not use that name anymore."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Ok, fine. Temporios."

"I do not go by that name either! I am just The Prince of Hourglass." he said, angrily as her turned back around, "I have not wanted any of my names ever since Celestia took Luna. I do not need a name."

"Well fine, if you're going to be this arrogant, I can't stop you," said Twilight, grunting, "we're just trying to keep you from doing something crazy. If we can't convince you that Princess Celestia is good now, and that Princess Luna has returned, then we're going to at least make sure you don't rule Equestria."

"You can't stop this," he answered, shaking his head, "Celestia values you too much, and will not watch you suffer. She'll either face me, or turn over her kingdom."

Twilight groaned as the insane alicorn moved over the to pile of ancient tomes on the floor.

The Prince continued, "I see you've read the spellbooks. As you can see, I am quite dedicated to time magic. It has always been my specialty."

"If that's the case, how come you never went back in time to stop everything from happening you didn't want to in the first place?" demanded Twilight, "Why put us all through this?"

"Because you cannot change the past," stated the Prince, "nobody believes you came from the future. Even you, do not believe you."

He then shuddered slightly and added, "And even upon success, even the slightest change can cause the future to be... quite unpleasant."

Twilight Sparkle knew that he was telling the truth, as she was well aware that her own past self hadn't listened. It was likely that Sundial had made hundreds of attempts to stop Princess Celestia from using the Elements of Harmony against her own sister, only to be thwarted by time limits on the spell, or the lack of listening by others.

"Starswirl's discovery was amazing, to be able to travel time, stop it, speed it up, slow it. It is only irony that his relative know it better," mused the Prince.

"You don't deserve to practice the magic such a great pony as Starswirl the Bearded did!" yelled Twilight, nearly making Techorse go deaf.

Prince Sundial stood there, giving a slight chuckle, "Starswirl, great? What nonsense must sister be telling you. Starswirl the Bearded was not the pony you think he was."

"W..What? You liar!" replied the unicorn, shocked at what he was saying. To a magic user such as herself, saying that Starswirl was not a great pony was almost blasphemy!
"Twilight, don't you remember what my future self told me earlier?" asked Techorse, "He said that Starswirl caused an imbalance in the Elements of Harmony."

"I do... but the way that you said he put it... it was all a big accident!" she said with desperation.

The Prince smirked, his beard moving with his face muscles, "An accident is a good way to describe it, but... perhaps you'd like to know the truth?"

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. They really didn't have a choice in the matter as to whether or not they wanted to listen to Prince Sundial, but they were curious as to what he had to say about the past.

1,500 years ago

In the darkness of the late night, a moonbeam passed through the window of the west atrium, shining through the castle's glass, illuminating the center of the room in a subtle shine. The room was left unguarded, for the most part it was simply kept a secret, and the lack of decorations within the room made it a very unattractive choice of target for thieves and troublemakers. One of the sets of wooden doors leading into the room creaked open slowly, and was quietly closed shut as Starswirl entered the room, stroking his famous beard with the end of his magic floating staff. He walked towards the center of the room deliberately, taking care not to let the bells on his ornate cloak notify anyone of his presence as he went to the center circle in the room.

Once he had found the area where the mobile was being stored, he tapped his staff gently on the edge. The carpet and stone drew back, and the mobile rose out of the ground with a soft grinding noise of stone. Each of the Element crystals sat, shining in the darkness of the night, the arms of the mobile rotating around. Starswirl looked up at the top Element, the one representing Magic, and took a short breath before raising his staff in the air. White magic energy shot from his horn, connected with the tip of the staff, and then entered the top crystal on the mobile. The power balance of the Elements of Harmony was being disrupted, shifting it further and further towards Magic, leaving the other ones less powerful than their product.

"Very soon, Magic shall be the most powerful of the Elements! This imbalance will ensure Magic's dominance throughout the ages as the most vital force in existence."he said, the arc of magic from his horn glowing more furiously.

Meanwhile, in the city outside the castle, a disgruntled unicorn pony mare had found her way into the village most of the earth ponies called their home, carrying a brightly burning torch. During that week, a rude earth pony mare had dared to try and convince her brother that she was worth spending time with. Such an indignity could not go unpunished, thought the mare. Her lectures she had taken from the school of sorcery under Starswirl the Bearded had taught her that magic was the most powerful force in existance.

Though he hadn't intended discrimination directly, the unicorn with the torch took his words to mean that the magic less earth ponies were to be avoided, and shown their place should they dare to express love or any kind of relation to them. This incorrect way of thinking, along with a grave miss-interpretation of Starswirl's teachings, led her to take her torch to the home of the stallion who had dared to hit on her sister. The unicorn mare gave her actions not another thought, before she lit the thatch roof of the home on fire. As the flames spread, the family inside awoke, and ran outside, unable to catch the arsonist unicorn who had fled to light other homes.

Unfortunately, the results of the fire became worse and worse within just half of an hour. The flames reached the home of a firework maker, and bottle rockets shot from the house into the cloud homes above, giving the pegasi fires to deal with and waking them from their sleep. The ashes that rained down from the homes burning above lit those below, and the tapestries within the unicorn pony forts and castles also ignited. Within just an hour, the entirety of Equestria was either burning, or keeping the flames at bay. With the fires, came accusations, even as the pegasi brought in clouds to pour rain on the fires, they too were brought to question.

The conflagration continued, and the three types of ponies clashed, yelling and destroying property even more rapidly than the fires. The four alicorn descendents of the king and queen fled the castle to aid their citizens in stopping the blaze, but found themselves overwhelmed, not by the fires, but by the rioting and melee. It was only by luck that Celestia managed to reach and seal the pegasi's weapons vault before the other ponies did, that the violence did not turn tragic.

The King and Queen watched their city and the scattered fires throughout, and realized that their kingdom had likely come to an end. With such great social imbalance between the three classes of ponies, a large scale fire had left them unable to work with each other and unable to save their homes. They could feel the last of their subjects' happiness drain away as even the unicorn ponies were brought into the fight. Despite the horror before them, the king and queen sensed something down below in the castle. A flash of light had occurred from the west atrium of the building, and the couple looked at each other, realizing what had happened. They quickly moved for their work, hoping to save it before it was too late.

Starswirl had seen the fires outside, but figured it was simply a tragic accident, focusing on his task at hand. If he could gain just a few more moments, he would permanently unbalance the Elements of Harmony, and make the other ones meaningless in front of Magic, effectively destroying them.

"I suppose when the wielders of the Elements go to use them," he thought out loud, "the holder of Magic may very well absorb far more energy than their body can handle. No matter, a little change in the name of this art is no skin off of our coats."

"STARSWIRL!" shouted a loud, angry voice.

The magician ceased his modifications, and turned to face the large set of double doors. They swung open violently, and King Diurne barged in, accompanied by his wife.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, teeth bared and eyes glaring.

"I'm only doing what you two should have done before!" he answered, the heat of the fires outside shining into his eyes and across his white beard, "I have changed the Elements, increasing the output of Magic when the Elements have combined! Magic shall reign as the most powerful forever, no other concept shall stand!"

"You've gone mad," said Nocturna, trying not to cry, "The Elements of Harmony were our last hope for stopping the fighting, like what has happened to our city. The fires are raging, and here you are Starswirl, trying to preserve thine way of thought!"

"It's far too late nonetheless," admitted Starswirl, "without something to balance out your artifacts again, the holder of Magic will forever run the risk of suffering buildup of power until they become the most powerful magic users possible. They will become like you and your husband."

"Our lot is not something we would wish on any pony, Starswirl," grunted the King, throwing his crown off with a flick of his head, ready for combat, "to live forever, to be one of us, is a burden when you outlive each of your friends. Such power must be confined to those born into it, it is our burden alone!"

"Then, perhaps, should you not wish your fates upon any other pony, I should simply destroy these artifacts forever," offered the mage, pointing at the mobile, glowing with sickly gray energy, "if the Elements are used as is, terrible things will happen. I have not yet finished writing a spell to counter what I have done, and should it even be finished, the Elements will still not be balanced!"

"Then you'll finish it!" demanded the King and Queen stepping forward.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you to see things my way," he answered, swinging his staff around, "I'll simply have to hold you back, until I can finish my work."

A beam of energy shot from his horn, to the tip of his staff, and at the pair of alicorns he once held as his adopted children. The alicorns fought back with their own magic, countering the beam of destructive energy with a bubble shield. A reflected ray of magical energy tore through the wall of the atrium, leaving an ugly burn mark. The king and queen dropped their field, and counterattacked Starswirl with their own bolts of energy, which the mage quickly responded to by teleporting himself out of the way, and onto the top of the mobile. He then raised his staff, and prepared to strike it through the Magic crystal, to forever remove any hope of balance.

The king and queen, weak now but capable, looked at each other and smiled before turning to Starswirl. They knew in their hearts that the only way to stop Starswirl would be to exhaust their own magical energies, but if it meant saving Equestria, it was worth it. They touched the tips of their horns together, creating an arc of magic across the two organs, and forming a small ball of white light. As energy built up between them exponentially, the ball soon turned into a fine white line of energy, which was then released from the two alicorns. The line shot for Starswirl's staff, and impacted the magical artifact at the middle, which to his horror, shattered his prized wooden cane. No sooner had this happened though, that the super concentrated magic that had mixed with the power of the staff detonated in a fierce magical blast spanning several dozen meters, knocking Starswirl off of the mobile, damaging the floors and walls of the atrium, and leaving the two alicorns drained.

The mage, his precious staff destroyed and his white beard burnt heavily at the bottom, stood up shakily from the ground. His two adoptive children had defeated him, as his staff had served as an amplifier for his own skills. Due to his actions, the alicorns had left themselves feeble, unable to barely stand, as the lack of happiness from their subjects, their illnesses, and their use of all their mental energy to make that one key attack. They would be unable to use any kind of spell in that kind of mental condition, perhaps for years.

Even though he had been badly shaken up by the blast, and he was unable to finish his attempt at destroying the Elements of Harmony, Starswirl remained conscious and full of thoughts. It was at that moment that he came to an epiphany. Perhaps it was the king and queen's love for Equestria that had motivated them to take him on, and sacrifice their magic abilities to stop him. Perhaps, the magic that all ponies could access, really was the solution to Equestria's problems. He could hear the distant yelling and screaming of ponies running from fires and realized that likely, his over-valuing of magic had caused the social gap he was working to overcome. Not only would he be unable to save magic as the supreme way of the land, but he had also lost the order Equestria needed to make that meaningful.

"Here am I, trying to stop the death of my art," he said, staring at the ceiling in pain, "instead, I have caused the death of peace in Equestria."

Starswirl stood up, and approached the two alicorns, heart heavy as he realized what he had done. Both of them continued to give him angry looks as he attempted to explain everything he had done.

He slowly told them, "I have failed Equestria by believing the power of magic alone was enough. I have denied its ponies access to the public magic thou hast described to me, and I was a fool for not genuinely celebrating your discovery. But know that I am not an evil being. I merely loved magic, enough to see it grow and flourish despite trouble."

After hanging his head, he continued, "I see now that all should be capable of participating in magic's cures. Those who suffer from the trials of life should be a part of the solution."

"Then reverse your damage," stated Nocturna, "it is not too late for forgiveness."

"Alas," he answered, "as I mentioned, I have not created a counter spell. It will be impossible to repair entirely."

The King and Queen did everything they could to not cry, believing their homeland would be thrust into darkness and fighting for all of time. Starswirl saw their sadness, and remembered the two teary-eyed alicorn foals he had rescued from abuse at a lonely orphanage many many years ago...

"And then, when you're grown, we'll turn Equestria into a grand kingdom! Perhaps we will live in this city now, but someday, we'll build a golden metropolis, a... Canterlot!" he had said to the two foals, following him down the streets.

"But sir," said the foal Diurne, "how will we do that? We're just foals."

"You're special foals!" he had answered, "Being both able to fly and cast spells is unique. Once I've promoted you to my school... someday they will value you. Someday they will crown you!"

"Crown us?" asked the young Nocturna, "I'll be a queen?"

"Yes, and it all begins once I've hailed in the new era of magic as the solution to life's worries!" he had replied, "You are the only two of your kind, and I am a well known magician. They say I can tell the future, and the future looks quite bright for you two!"

It had worked, too. Once it was determined quite rapidly that magic could solve most of life's ills, Starswirl was easily able to convince the citizens of Equestria to drop their silly town hall, and crown the alicorns, the gifts from the divine, to be the rulers of Equestria. But sadly, as time had gone on, magic became such a monopoly and force of power, that the ponies stratified themselves and fought.

Now, Starswirl's dream was coming to an end. He had put up a valiant fight to preserve the idea that magic alone would solve the world's ills. Now, the only thing that could keep Equestria from being destroyed, was the power of friendship, the very thing that represented and powered the mobile currently in front of him. Of course, even though Harmony could still come into being through the Elements, and friendship would bring these Elements into play in Equestria, there was still the matter of the unbalance he had caused. There would likely be books written about how he, the supposed master of magic, had ruined the most powerful magic force of them all. He could not bear the shame of the damage he had done, and decided to do the only thing he knew he could to make it right.

"I must now go into exile," he announced to his adopted family.

The king and queen did not agree with his decision. They two shared memories of better times in the past, and still saw Starswirl as their only family. To lose him meant losing far more than what they could handle at heart.

"Please, don't!" cried the Queen, "You may stay, we forgive you! Don't leave us Starswirl!"

"I have faith that the Elements of Harmony will still save Equestria. But even if they do, I no longer deserve to enjoy this land's glory," he explained, shaking his head, "I cannot bear the shame of being in a land I have ruined and brought trouble to."

Starswirl the Bearded took out a small dagger from under his cloak, and carefully cut off the burned part of his beard, shortening it. He then replaced the knife at his side, and charged his horn up, which glowed a furious white. A portal in time and space was torn open behind him and to his sides, a gateway to the forces of time itself.

"Starswirl..." called out Diurne, hoping to reconcile.

"We'll meet again... in time. Please, take good care of Equestria in my absence," he declared, a slight hint of smile and a few tears running down his face.

With that, he receded backwards into his own time travel spell, and the unicorn mage vanished as the portal collapsed in a bright flash. The queen wailed, and both her and her husband hugged and cried bitterly.

Not only had their kingdom burned, they had lost the very first friend in their lives.

Prince Sundial had brought Twilight and Techorse to his throne room to tell them the truth about the past, and why he was choosing to behave in such an isolationist manner when it came to the rest of his family. The throne room was a tall, circular room, almost one hundred feet to the ceiling, and Techorse recognized it instantly as the large main spire of the castle they had seen coming in. His throne was a large, fine wood chair with blue cloth for backing, and it was positioned in the center of the room, on a turnstile that allowed the throne to rotate in any direction the Prince wanted. Several windows were on the wall at equidistant areas on the tower, 12 divisions to be exact. Twilight looked at the edges of the room, and noticed the shadows cast on the floor from the main window at the top of the spire.

"Your throne room is a giant clock!" she said, "Did you make it this way?"

"This throne room was built with the care of architects from Hourglass. It is not my own design," he answered, seated on his throne, "My citizens have rewarded me for helping them to survive out here."

Slate and Granite, the ever-bitter guards holding their crossbows with their magic, stood at the doorway to the throne room, and watched with grins on their faces. They knew that their own reward for revealing Comettail's traitorous nature and re-capturing the Element holders would be vast.

"Well, are you going to tell us the truth about the past?" asked Twilight, "You know, before you lock us up again?"

"I'd like your friends to be present for this, as they should know as well," said Sundial, chuckling, "Slate, Granite. Go deal with Comettail and bring Twilight Sparkle's friends back here."

"Yes sir!" they answered, leaving the room.

"Comettail? Your Captain? What did she do?" asked Techorse, a bit upset.

"She let you go free in my castle, disobeying my orders. For that, I'm having her locked up, and stripping her of her rank," he answered, shifting on his throne.

"That's horrible!" said Techorse angrily, hearing the injustice about to occur.

Sundial smirked, "Perhaps next time she will think not to betray me."

Techorse growled at the Prince, leaning down in a menacing pose and scraping his hoof on the ground.

"You'll get what's coming to you," he said, "you can't get away with all this hatred forever."

"I cannot? But time has always been on my side!" he answered, "You cannot stop me, Techorse, and neither can you, Twilight. Both of you will be powerless should I choose to pause time around you."

"Discord found a way to beat you, and so will we!" countered Twilight with determination.

The prince shook his head, and scratched at his beard with a hoof, "I will be rather shocked if that's so."

Slate and Granite found their former superior officer talking to Rarity and Fluttershy, who were busy aiding the castle seamstresses in fixing uniforms. The two treacherous unicorns laughed together, and then drew their crossbows, approaching their Captain.

"Freeze!" shouted Slate.

Comettail turned to face them, and put a hoof in the air, "I told you two it was ok if the prisoners were roaming the castle, so long as they don't leave the grounds."

"You're under arrest too, Comettail," snickered Granite, "the Prince has ordered us to take you away as well."

Rarity gasped, and Fluttershy could only mouth the words, "Oh my."

"Comettail, you're a big strong Captain! Twice as big as these fools!" Rarity said angrily, "Give these stallions a good roughing up!"

"The Prince has found you to be a traitor for aiding Princess Celestia's friends," Slate explained, "Fighting us will only help prove his case further. Now if you don't mind, we're going to be taking these two back to the throne room, and you're going into a cell. Remove your armor."

Wanting to speed things along, Granite pointed his crossbow at Fluttershy and said, "If you don't, we'll go for the prisoners instead, and tell the Prince that they were trying to flee."

Comettail was tempted to simply thrash the two disrespectful schemers and leave them unconscious in the hallway. However, if she did so, she knew that it was very likely that Fluttershy and Rarity would get hurt. So, she surrendered, removing her helmet to reveal her quite messy and unruly mane. After her armor was shed, her legs were shackled together by the brothers, and all three ponies were led away. After tossing Comettail into a jail cell in the same floor of the castle the previous cell had been on, the brothers left with Fluttershy and Rarity to go get the others. Pinkie Pie proved easy enough to bring back with them, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash put up quite the struggle before eventually being convinced to go along with the guards by their friends. Soon they found themselves in the throne room along with Techorse and Twilight.

"Ah, everypony is here. Excellent work my guards," said a rather pleased Sundial.

"I can't believe how you're acting!" huffed Rarity in a dismayed fashion, "Comettail was being quite reasonable with us, and you have her locked up! Some ruler you are, punishing good with evil!"

"I am a better leader than most," lied the alicorn, cracking the vertebrae in his neck, "I have a duty to protect my citizens from Equestria, even if that means punishing those who stand in my way."

"You'll pay for this," growled Rainbow Dash, "this is beyond uncool."

"Now that I have you all here," he said, ignoring the mare, "it is time I tell you the truth about Equestria's past. That is what I've gathered all of you for, to tell you how things really were."

The prince stood up from his throne, and his horn glowed violently before rays of light were cast from it, extending in all directions. The tubular room flooded with the light, projecting perfect images of the old country of Equestria, it's villages all organized in neat rows, leading up to Oldcastle, which stood at the back.

"Over a thousand years ago, my parents ruled this country you call home. They were orphan foals adopted by the so-called 'great' Starswirl the Bearded," he said.

An image of the old mage appeared in place of the town, in front of the young King and Queen from the past. The real ponies in the room looked at the perfect image with great awe, especially Twilight Sparkle, who understood how much talent it took to perfect such hologram magic.

"Although he brought them up well, taught them magic, and even brought alicorns to the throne in Equestria, he failed to consider anything but magic as a worthwhile subject. Magic was supreme to him, and he looked down upon earth ponies and pegasi. Not so much mother and father, nor my siblings, nor myself. We wanted an Equestria where all ponies were equal, and could express the talents represented by their marks to the fullest their lives could offer," monologued Sundial poetically.

The image changed to that of the adult king and queen creating the Elements of Harmony artifacts, placing each artifact into the mobile.

"To try and solve the fighting and bickering between the kinds of ponies, mother and father created artifacts for their discovery, the Elements of Harmony. It was a kind of magic they said any pony could access, and this made Starswirl furious, who believed in the superiority of private magic. He sabotaged their work, creating imbalance in the Elements."

Starswirl's hologram reappeared, and showed him tampering with the device with his staff, plus the argument between his adopted foals and him that ensued.

"Despite everything though..." said Sundial before catching himself.

"I... we'll return later," he said, dispelling what he was going to reveal. He didn't want the ponies to know that Starswirl eventually changed and felt remorse for his actions before leaving.

"Perhaps you've heard of the story of Hearth's Warming Eve?" he continued, "It may surprise you to learn that it is a metaphor."

"Well, duh!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "It wasn't meant to be completely, historically... um... accurate? Did I get that right, Twilight?"

"Yes, historically accurate," finished Twilight Sparkle, smiling, "and yes, we know that the play is meant to be a representation of Equestria finding peace between the types of ponies. We've just never learned what actually caused that, or if that was the end."

"You see," continued Sundial, "while the story does have truth, and similar events did happen, the peace did not last. When alicorns came to rule, the story was all but forgotten, and the cold returned. We celebrate it again because of the newfound peace brought on by my family through the Elements."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Twilight.

The prince finished, "In order to fix the Elements, each of us had a price to pay. We were required to live forever, bound to the primary forces of nature."

"Is that why Princess Celestia has to raise the sun?" asked Rarity.

"Indeed, but it requires no action on her part to do so," he continued, "each of us are said to be in control of a force. My sisters, the sun and moon, and my brother, space. Myself, time. But as long as we are alive and have our magic, the sun will rise, and time will go on normally."

"So it works passively? Her looking in the direction of the sunrise is just for show?" asked Twilight, "I suppose this explains why the sun comes up when she gets sick..."

"Maybe it is passive, but it's tradition," said Rarity, "and that is what matters."

The Prince dispelled his holograms, and returned to his throne, "It is a good tradition amongst us four. But you must see, my guests, after Equestria's problems were solved, our sisters began to grow in contempt for each other. With the planet's natural cycles, and the forces involved in keeping Equestria whole, Luna became jealous of Celestia."

"If you admit that Princess Luna did wrong and became jealous, how come you're so angry with Princess Celestia?" demanded Techorse.

"Because using the Elements of Harmony against her was excessive retribution," stated the Prince, "that is why I am attempting to bring her to justice."

"Well, as the Element of Justice," continued Techorse, "I can tell you that Princess Celestia paid for her mistake and quick actions. She cried every night of her life for a thousand years, sometimes not coming out of her room for hours, because of what she had done to Princess Luna. In fact, Equestria has voting, equality, and many freedoms for ponies because Princess Celestia wanted to provide the most happiness for her citizens, knowing she could never make up for what she did, but wanting to try. Now she acts as an executive, but enjoys seeing what a constitutional monarchy has done for Equestria."

"Hold on..." urged Sundial, holding up his left wing, "Did you say... Element of Justice?"

"Yeah!" interrupted Pinkie Pie, "Techie represents Justice, it's the seventh Element of Harmony that Princess Celestia discovered ages ago!"

"So the auxillary Elements must exist after all! Mother and father were wise," the prince said, smiling, "Extra Elements that support the main ones in their goal. But what does it do?"

"It makes the Elements of Harmony remove evil magic instead of just banishing it!" continued Pinkie Pie, not thinking about the consequences of that.

"Hmmm, well, perhaps I can use this," he said.

"What do you mean?" gasped Rarity.

"Now that I know there are seven Elements, and I have all seven of you, I will find a way to create artifacts for you, such that you can erase Celestia!"

"No!" shouted the ponies.

"You can't!" wailed Twilight, "Princess Celestia doesn't deserve what you want to do to her."

"There's no changing my mind," he answered, "I have no proof that anything you are saying is true. If you won't participate in helping me secure my vengeance, I'll have to convince you otherwise."

"Contact my unicorns, Slate and Granite," he said to his guards, "Tell them to begin construction of artifacts. Meanwhile, show them back to their new cell with Comettail."
"Yes sir!" they replied before beginning to walk towards the ponies.

"What about your daughter, Candace?" said Twilight, about to cry, "She would be miserable If she found out this is what you were up to!"

The prince's eyes changed a bit as he heard his daughter's name, but he dismissed it, "Twilight Sparkle, my daughter left me years ago out of believing me to be too coldhearted. Her mother than promptly left me as well, to join her in Equestria."

"Wonder why..." said Applejack sarcastically.

"It is bad enough that my old dominion, The Crystal Empire, was seized by a shadow King," sighed Sundial, "countering my time magic with a stunning burst of dark energy, before beating me up and sending me away. I used to be a great judge, since my brother and I have always sought out justice, like you Techorse."

"Justice has a dark side," said the stallion, "becoming vengeful. I always feel terrible afterwords."

"Besides, King Sombra is gone!" said Twilight, "The Crystal Empire is back too, in one piece, and your daughter rules it."

"Oh my," said the Prince, standing up from his throne, "Is that so?"

"Yes!" they answered.

"Then justice has prevailed there," he said, before changing his tune again, "of course, my daughter still hates me. I suppose it's best that she's moved on to other things. In the meantime, I still have this score to settle."

The ponies groaned, having made no progress, as they were being led away.

"Sundial," warned Techorse as the guards approached him, "revenge is a really filthy road to go down. Are you sure you want to face the consequences for being so thirsty for it?"

"I suppose time will tell," he answered, smirking.

As soon as they had left, however, Prince Sundial canceled the order to have the artifacts built. If the Crystal Empire was still standing, there was hope. Reason was beginning to chisel off the ice covering his heart and soul.

The seven ponies were dragged back off to join Comettail in her previously lonely jail cell. Then, Slate and Granite returned to their posts, planning on goofing off for the rest of their shifts. There was no rush in their minds, as dragging the day out further increased their chances of getting the recognition they believed they deserved.

1,500 years ago
The following few months became a time of sorrow for Equestria, as repairs from the great blaze had proceeded slowly due to the incessant quarreling of the ponies. As the time of great unhappiness progressed, the king and queen began to get more and more ill. It was bad enough that they had to tell their foals that their godfather had left them, leaving the remainder of their diplomacy lessons and magic lessons up to themselves. They had taken it to mean that they would never see him again, and were moping about the castle. Despite this, the four alicorns continued to learn things they hadn't before, and grew in maturity as they realized they could function on their own even if their parents were sick, and their mentor vanished.

The second month, a few weeks away from winter, brought the alicorn ponies with perhaps the worst experience they would ever face in their lives. Queen Nocturna and her husband become very ill, the coughing and fainting had increased exponentially, and they both became bedridden in their chambers. The doctors and nurses of the land tried their very best to supply them with the greatest medicine, potions, and anything they could muster to try and heal the fading alicorns. Alas, they both knew that without their subjects being happy with life, they would soon run out of time. During the last week of the month, they called their four offspring into their bedchamber, and shooed away the medical staff.
Princesses Luna and Celestia stood to the left of the bed, on their father's side. Princes Darkmatter and Temporios stood on the other next to their mother. Great concern crossed their sad, worried eyes as they looked at their now weakened parents. Dark circles sat underneath their mother's eyes, and their father's mane had gone dull.

"My sweet foals," said Queen Nocturna weakly, "your father and I love you more than anything else in Equestria. Did you know that?"

Princess Luna, still just a baby in the eyes of a millennium-old alicorn, nodded her head, trying not to burst into tears.

"We love you too!" she answered, a tear escaping her right eye.

"Oh, please do not cry," soothed Nocturna.

The King then spoke, "Celestia, Luna. You are the ones who will inherit the Elements of Harmony. We have left instructions in the mobile for you to carry out when you feel the time is right."

"We will," assured Celestia.

"My sons," turned the King to the two colts, "I wish for you to continue your pursuit of justice. The courts need you more than ever in this time of conflict. Someday, learning to judge fairly will make you great kings as well."

"We're not ready to be kings," said Temporios, hanging his head, "we'll never be!"

The queen brushed away his doubts, "All of you, my little ponies, will become great leaders someday. Perhaps for now you cannot see it, but in the future, Equestria will thank you for your work."

Darkmatter choked on his tears, and asked, "Why is this happening?"

The king answered him softly, "Darkmatter, this happens to all. I assure you it's nothing to be worried about. Everything has been taken care of, all you will need to do is keep the world in motion. Just as we love you, love this nation, and build it up again!"

"You may not be able to see it now, but it will come in time. And should you feel scared... just remember..." added the Queen.

Queen Nocturna and her husband looked at each other, and gave a small smile to each other, knowing the future would be taken care of. They then looked back at their four descendents, who had all gathered at the foot of the bed.

"How much we love you..." they said softly.

With those words, two heads rested against the pillows of the royal bed, and the king and queen passed away peacefully with their family present.

"Mother!" cried out Luna, trying not to scream, "Father!"

Tears ran down the faces of the four young alicorns, who all gave each other looks of despair before crying, hugging each other and letting out their emotions. Each royal face was stained with tears and agony, even Celestia, considered to be the strongest of her family, cried until her throat clogged and her makeup ran. The nurses and doctors entered the room, realizing what had happened, and attempted to console the princes and princesses, but to no avail. As they began to dress the king and queen to take them away, Celestia had to be dragged back by her siblings.

Four hours had gone by, each a small eternity to the young royal ponies, who waited in their parents' throne room. They were still depressed, felt alone, and could barely think about anything but their loss. Two thrones of gold and gems were in the red-carpeted room, two thrones that would never see use again. The oak doors leading to the throne room opened, catching the attention on the mourning alicorns.

The entire castle staff and servants entered the room, dozens and dozens of ponies, from guards to cooks and cleaning crew. The four stood up, now in front of their parents' thrones, and watched as the ponies they thought only did their chores for them form lines in front of them. Each of them had a determined look on their face, something between anger and pride that filled them as they filed into the room. Once they had all entered, well over eighty different mares and stallions, they all bowed humbly before the four new rulers of Equestria.

"Wh... what are you doing?" said Luna, standing up.

The ponies stood up, and Test Keeper stepped forward with Fine Dust. They had recently gotten married despite the objection of their parents, and had eloped from them simply by spending all of their time in the castle.

"You're our new leaders, Princess Luna," explained Fine Dust, "we believe that you four can save Equestria! All of us grow weary of the fighting and suffering."

"Please! Usher in the new era of Harmony as predicted by your parents!" continued Test Keeper.

Princess Celestia thought about what her servants were saying, and spread her wings valiantly, getting the attention of her siblings.

"They are right," she said loudly to her brothers and sister, "We are the new leaders of Equestria now, and we have a duty to our subjects. Our days as foals are over. Let us go to the atrium and begin the use of the Elements of Harmony!"

The four royals galloped for the atrium, and reached the doors leading to the enclosure, when they noticed that their servants had taken a step back.

"What is wrong now?" demanded Darkmatter, craning his neck to see if any of them had left.

"As per... final request of the king and queen," explained Test Keeper, "we are to allow no pony other than your majesty and his family into the room."

The alicorns continued on into the room unescorted, and noticed that the center platform now had a leather-bound book, brown with gold metal encasing the cover and back, had been left on top. Prince Temporios picked up the book first with his magic, and opened up to the first page of canvas, finding the instructions.

"The Elements of Harmony may be used so long as they are present in those around them," he read, "the Magic they create are stronger than any force in existence."

Princess Celestia held out her horn, and Temporios took that as a cue to relinquish the book. He gave her the volume, and the four siblings crowded around it, reading the contents.

"In order to save Equestria, you must use them to provide a reason for ponies to live in Harmony. Although we wish not to deceive our subjects, the Elements of Harmony, when not shown by Equestrians, quickly fall to chaos and fighting," read Princess Celestia, "the fighting seen in the real world is the result of the Elements not being present."

"The Elements of Harmony exist without artifacts?" questioned Darkmatter.

"Yes, each is a virtue of living in harmony," answered Celestia, understanding the text, "they are made of the hopes, dreams, and wills of all beings on the planet. Perhaps there are even more than what we have now..."

Princess Luna picked up with the next passage, "With imbalanced Elements, however, they will not shine through without a price."

"A price?" gasped Luna, recoiling, "What?!"

"Had the Elements not been tampered with, there wouldn't be a cproblem," sighed Celestia, "but for now, we must manage it as best as we can."

Darkmatter pushed past with his solid black wing and continued, "Each of us must take on the role of an alicorn in support of a natural force. We must bind oursevles to our force, and as long as we live forever and retain our magic, those cycles will carry on. Celestia, you shall raise the sun. Luna, you shall raise the moon. Temporios, use your knowledge of time to make each second count. I shall make the forces of gravity seem stable!"

"We are to somehow move the heavens with magic?" grunted Luna.

"No!" answered Celestia, "What this means is that we will passively control those forces to hold the Elements together. By retaining our magic and planning to live forever as our parents did, we will help the Elements to bring peace."

"It has been discovered that when ponies are in conflict, it generates a curse, a negative energy force capable of stopping the planet, causing the darkest days and the harshest cold. But the Elements can undo even the strongest evil, and solve the worst dispute. Should you bear the burden of being royalty, the Elements will usher in a new era of peace!" finished Luna, closing the book.

Silence overtook the four of them as they realized what their parents had wanted them to do. The Elements of Harmony, once activated, would due to their imbalanced state require them to stay alive and empowered to keep the sun, moon, and space and time going. Having both the power to restore good, and vanquish evil, the Elements would offer a solution to the conflict in Equestria. Unfortunately, before this would happen, the conflict of the ponies would build up so much negative will and energy that the planet would become cursed and cease rotating. This curse was generated by the negative energy from pony conflict. Very likely, the cold caused by this was the very cold the founders faced during the first Hearth's Warming Eve.

When the clock had reached midnight, the four alicorns gathered around the mobile, each in a corner of the center platform. The arms rotated around each other, passing by Celestia, Luna, Temporios, and Darkmatter, each glowing softly.

"Are we ready?" asked Celestia.

"Yes!" answered their siblings.

Princess Celestia shut her eyes, and her horn glowed a violent light, before she unleashed a beam of pure magic above the middle crystal of the mobile.

"For Equestria!" she shouted, her pupils vanishing as her eyes glowed.

"For Equestria!" shouted her siblings as they contributed their own rays.

The four rays, each a different shade between black and white, met in the middle and formed a rapidly spinning sphere of pure magic energy. A strong humming noise emitted from the mobile, each of the Element crystals glowed furiously and brightly as they became active from the bonds between the four siblings. The mobile rotated at its max capacity, and bands of various colors started to seep up and out of the Elements, slipping into the ball of light. Eventually, the four alicorns, now sweating as they contributed their magic to the greatest force they knew, released their power.

A huge, rainbow colored column of energy shot up from the mobile, leaving a large ring of white light in its path. A very loud discharge of sound akin to a sudden storm of magnetic particles filled the castle as the ray tore through the ceiling, vaporizing the stone above in a perfect circle. The large ray of rainbow colored light tore high up into the stratosphere, and created a burst of energy that wrapped Equestria temporarily in a band of white magic that crossed the entire globe before dissipating. The ponies in the burnt city below had seen the column erupt from the castle, and began to wonder what the significance of the extraordinary event might be.

Then, the beam receded, dissipating into nothing, leaving the four alicorns exhausted. As they stood up from completing the task, the mobile moved entirely on its own, each of the artifacts glowing as they retained their power. The Elements of Harmony were now active and beginning their work restoring Equestria, but the curse from the conflict was still going to grip the planet.

In addition to the grand spell they had just cast, each of the alicorns' manes had been highly affected by their first use of powerful magic. Celestia now had her multicolored hair, Luna's mane gained the stars of the night sky, Darkmatter's wisps of silver energy danced his brass colored mane, and Temporious's jagged mane ebbed and flowed to the pattern of a single second, like a clock. Their manes all flowed and animated, a sign of their maturity and power. With their own eyes, the four had seen the power of the magic created by the Elements, and believed that it was true that they would usher in a new era of hope for Equestria. Silently thanking their parents for the legacy left to them, the alicorns re-sealed the mobile within its container and retired for the night with joy in their hearts.

Prince Darkmatter had retrieved Spike and PAL from the town before heading to his brother's castle in hopes of rescuing the team. The two had managed to gain quite a bit of support in town, proving to many of the residents that Equestria wanted them back, and was far more forgiving of a land than what had been told to them by their leader. They had left Wintergreen in charge of spreading the rest of the news, and joined Darkmatter in hopes of rescuing their friends from the castle. Once they had made it to the gate, Darkmatter spied two guards, one female earth pony, and one male pegasus, standing up on the battlements near the gate.

"Hello!" called Prince Darkmatter, "I'm looking for my brother, the Prince!"

The female guard answered sarcastically, "Oh, sure you are. The castle is closed off to the public."

"Look, he's an alicorn!" said Spike with frustration, "I know the Prince is also an alicorn, so he has to be his brother!"

"He could be any alicorn. Besides, the Prince's brother wouldn't look so weak," answered the male guard with a smug face, "he's no royal."

Prince Darkmatter rolled his eyes and shook his head, sending his brass mane back and forth, "We don't have time for this nonsense."

His horn glowed a furious black, and a large gravity well overtook the two guards, pinning them to the ground instantly and holding them down by the weight of their armor.

"Hey!" shouted the pegasus, "HELP!"

"Spike, PAL, get the gates open," ordered Darkmatter.

PAL picked Spike up off of his shoulder, and held the dragon in his hands up to the bars of the gate. Spike breathed a stream of green flames at two points on each of the bars, and the metal glowed yellow as it heated up. Then, after all of the bars were heated, PAL put Spike back on his shoulder, and physically pulled the heated bars apart with his robotic strength, putting his actuators into each movement of his arms. The bars easily parted, and the three of them passed through the hole, leaving the two guard trapped on the battlements until Darkmatter eventually let them go. Both of them ran inside to warn the others, and Spike got a worried look on his face.

"Not to worry," assured Darkmatter, "brother will recognize me. You two need to find Twilight Sparkle and the others, and get them out of here!"

"Right!" answered Spike, "Ok, PAL, let's go find them!"

"Let's!" said the machine, smiling as he stomped his way into the main entrance of the castle.

Darkmatter spread his wings, and flew into an open window on a nearby tower. He landed inside the castle, and began to look around for his sibling, whom he hadn't seen in over one thousand years. The prince hoped that he could be reasoned with after so long, and would take the news of Celestia's remorse for her mistakes seriously.

Spike and PAL found themselves in an open area in the castle, the dominate characteristic being the brown rugs lining the floor. It seemed to be some kind of an atrium that led to various rooms in the structure, and a few lit candles on the wall provided light that the windows could not quite reach with the natural sun.

"This place gives me the creeps," whispered Spike into PAL's ear.

"Me too," the machine answered, "perhaps it's because of the lighting though. We should move into a more well-lit area and begin our search for master and his friends."

"Let's try down that hallway over there!" suggested the dragon, pointing at a ray of light coming from down the dark hall.

They moved through the passageway, and entered the detention cell area, where they could hear the other ponies talking.

"Master!" shouted PAL, putting his hands to his robotic jaw, "Are you there?"

"PAL?" came the response, "Yeah, we're over here!"

The robot ran over the cell eagerly, nearly throwing Spike over his shoulder and onto the stone floor. The large jail cell was barred over with strong steel, making it impossible for PAL to get Spike to heat it up enough to bend, unlike the iron gate which had a lower melting point.

"Oh, thank goodness you two are ok!" Twilight said with relief, "We were worried about you."

"We should be the ones worried, you got locked up!" said Spike, with a worried tone, "We're gonna get you guys out though."

"Is that so?" said Slate, stepping forward from a nearby shadowy wall, crossbow hovering to eye level.

Granite stepped forward as well, "We don't know why you're here, golem, but we do know you're under arrest for trespassing. We saw you smash the gate out front."

"Actually, I am a robot," he said, ignoring their threats as his servos hummed while he turned to face them, "it's quite a common misconception though."

"Shut up!" yelled Slate, taking aim, "Now, put your pet dragon down, and come with us."

"I am not a pet!" complained Spike, getting rather tired of being called that.

"Did you lock up my master and his friends?" questioned PAL, pointing at the ponies behind bars, "If so, I'm going to need you to release them immediately. You're making a mistake following anyone's orders to lock them up. They are diplomats on a peaceful mission."

"Hey, the more ponies the prince thinks are a threat, the closer we get to becoming high ranking officers, since we're always the ones to capture them," laughed Granite, "we're gonna be captains soon, seeing as we're replacing that stupid mare behind in the cell with your friends."

Comettail smiled weakly at PAL, whose orange electronic eyes met hers. The robot understood that the two ponies in front of him were complete traitors and opportunists, but was willing to give them a final chance.

"I must insist, sirs, that you release them," PAL said.

"What if we don't?" growled Slate.

PAL brought his hands together and pulled back on them. The sound of metal and motors crunching came forth as PAL cracked his robotic knuckles loudly, in hopes of intimidating the two.

Spike answered with a frown, "We're gonna kick your sorry butts, duh."

PAL sighed, "I was trying not to put it that way."

"Yeah, I've had just about enough of this crud," said Slate, "let's get them."

The brothers unloaded their crossbows, and Fluttershy screamed as the two arrows smashed straight into the robot and the young dragon within a second. The arrow aimed at PAL bounced off of the thick armor on his front, and the other arrow stuck into Spike's scales. The young dragon wiggled the arrow out of his armored skin, and handed the projectile to PAL, who immediately snapped it in his metal fingers as if it were no more than a toothpick.

Slate and Granite gasped, and backed up as they tried to reload their crossbows. They fired again as the robot trudged forward across the carpet, but each bolt simply bounced off of the metal PAL was constructed out of, doing no damage whatsoever. The two guards panicked, continuing to fire their weapons, but PAL eventually caught up to them, and grabbed their crossbows.

"Here you go, Spike," he said, a broad smile on his face.

Spike breathed fire over the two wooden weapons, incinerating them. Ashes of the arrow launchers scattered everywhere as the dragon burned them up. Slate and Granite looked at the two piles of ash on the ground with terror, but gained the courage in their hearts to draw a set of daggers from their sides in their teeth, and rushed the machine and his friend.

PAL simply looked at Spike, who smiled and laughed even as the two guards yelled and rushed them. The machine then looked back at the two stallions, and cracked his mechanical knuckles again before lunging at the guards. Dodging the slashes of the knives, PAL leaned down and sent his metal fists into the armor of the two ponies, crushing their chest plates and knocking them back. Spike ignited the carpet beneath them with a fireball, surrounding the two brothers in flames.

They could no longer escape, their armor was ruined, and they had also dropped their knives from having the wind knocked out of them by PAL. The machine, with his strength, picked up the two average-sized guards, and held them up by their necks. Slate and Granite screamed in terror from the sight of the robot holding them by their necks above a burning floor, and passed out. Spike dropped down from the robot's shoulders, and stomped out his own flames to make sure the green fires didn't spread.

"Oh my," said the robot, holding the two unconscious ponies.

"PAL!" yelped Spike, "Too far, bro!"

"They'll be ok," assured the machine, "I merely damaged their armor, and they passed out from fear and anxiety. We haven't harmed them at all."

"Wow!" said Rainbow Dash, impressed, "I can't believe you handled that without hurting those guys."

"That's my PAL!" said Techorse, smiling.

Spike found the set of keys on Granite's armor, and picked them up, "Hey, I found the keys. Let's get you out of there."

Prince Darkmatter found his brother's throne room, and opened the door casually with his hoof, entering the open room. He saw his sibling sitting on the throne, who looked up at him, and immediately recognized his family.

"Brother?" he called out softly.

Darkmatter answered with a beaming smile, "Yes! It is I, your younger brother! I haven't seen you in ages Sundial!"

"Darkmatter, you big fool, get over here!" said Sundial, laughing.

The two brothers embraced quickly before letting each other go.

"What brings you here, Darkmatter?" he asked eagerly.

"Why, brother, it's to discuss what's been going on in the outside world," he said, "our sister Celestia is quite a different pony from how she was before, you see."

Prince Sundial's tune changed, and he angrily asked, "Do not tell me that you as well have gone soft on her! She deserves to be punished for what she did to our little Luna all those years ago."

"Oh dear, is this how I sounded?" Darkmatter asked of himself while looking at the floor, as he had been guilty of hating Celestia too.

"Brother, we made a pact not to ever make contact with her again unless it was to take action against her," Sundial growled, "tell me you haven't really made peace with her."

"I'm sorry," answered the Prince honestly, "but sister has changed. Luna has returned, and she is happy now. They both get along well, and all has been forgiven. In addition, Celestia has always been very remorseful about her choice to banish her."

Sundial had heard those same words from Techorse and Twilight, but still adamantly refused to believe it, "Horsefeathers! All of it! Celestia has brainwashed you as well!"

"Brother, listen to yourself!" urged the dark colored stallion, "You have an outdated way of thinking, and need to listen to the truth. You can't simply keep your ponies sealed off from Equestria forever. I tried to do that, and it was very selfish of me!"

"I can, and I will," he answered, "now leave! We made a deal, and I expect you to keep it."

Prince Darkmatter became angry, knowing differently from his brother, and yelled back, "Well then, I see how it is. You refuse to listen to even your own brother, who swore never to see Celestia again, and has changed his own ways? You even think I would be stupid enough to fall for a brainwashing?"

He then charged his horn up, glowing black with intent, and said, "If you won't listen to me, then I'm going to have to bring you down so you will have to listen!"

"Very well. I never thought it would come to this, brother, but perhaps it's for the best! I see the entire family has turned against me now," he yelled in response, his own horn charging white.

The guards in the room fled as the alicorns galloped towards one another. An alicorn duel was no place for a pony, especially when one of the alicorns knew how to control black holes! The two brothers clashed in the middle of the room, their horns crossed, energy arcing back and forth between them. Dust in the room was vaporized or pushed out of the way in a cyclone as they butted heads, and the throne in the center of the room shattered to pieces when a pulse of energy emitted from the brothers.

"I'm sorry..." said Sundial, grunting under the force of the magic, "That it has to be this way."

"The same..." answered Darkmatter ominously.

And then, with a burst of magical energy exploding into a flash of destructive power, the battle between the brothers began. They shot back from each other, spreading their wings and bouncing along the walls of the stone spires, shooting beams of highly destructive magic from their horns. A black ray of energy carved its way through the stone wall near Sundial, who rolled to the left in mid air. Stone melted and fried as the beam finished, leaving a large, molten scar on the wall. In retaliation, Sundial shot a blistering hail of small white magical pellets, threatening to perforate the other prince.

Darkmatter summoned a small wormhole, which eagerly devoured the magical pellets. With another burst from his horn, he opened the other end of the wormhole above his brother, and the white pellets shot down, burning him and pockmarking his mane and coat.

Sundial recovered from having his attack redirected at him, and slowed time around the two of them. Darkmatter could see his brother moving quickly from his point of view, and had no idea what he was attempting. Suddenly, a sharp pain entered the back of his neck as a white beam of light entered it, and Darkmatter screamed as he crashed into the floor below.

"You're weak!" he laughed, "Time bends to me, letting me predict your moves!"

Darkmatter pulled himself from the neat crater he had left on the floor, and smirked. The dirt-eating grin tipped off his brother, still flapping his wings to hover above, that his younger sibling was about to do something powerful. He expended an untold amount of energy to cast a large black hole beneath him, making sure the event horizon stayed in the middle of the room. Loose stones from their fighting got sucked into the void, possibly vanishing forever under the sheer gravity. Darkmatter flew back up to his brother, and watched as the glass of the dome above shattered and was vacuumed up by the black hole.

"Impressive! Perhaps I was wrong!" shouted Sundial, "But how about this!"

His horn flashed as he cast a spell to freeze time, which would allow him to finish off his brother without much effort. He then charged up an explosive magic attack he had previously tried on Twilight, and let loose with a trio of large magic missiles. The explosive bolts of magic sailed towards Darkmatter. In response, the Prince elevated himself, and the bolts redirected as homing projectiles did to catch him. They then hit the invisible event horizon, and swirled down into the hole below.

"What?" gasped Sundial, "Impossible!"

"You've forgotten, brother!" laughed Darkmatter, "Time stops over a black hole! Your magic is powerless!"

"I can still defeat you without it!" he yelled, foaming at the mouth.

The two brothers charged each other, and every time they struck, a flash of light occurred, and they bounced upwards towards the top of the tower. Below, the black hole began to fall apart, mostly under the weight of its own gravity, but also because of the sheer amount of energy it was being forced to absorb. Should the black hole collapse without Darkmatter sealing it first, it would likely supernova, possibly destroying all of Hourglass. The fate of the country rested in the hooves of the dueling brothers.

1,500 years ago

The winter chill had begun to set in as per usual during Equestria's cold months. The scorched town was under slow repair due to the fighting, despite the "sign" the townsponies had taken awe to of the giant ray that had emerged from their leaders' castle. In fact, the ponies of the land believed that all the royalty had left them since the king and queen had died. At the very least, they believed the alicorns had stopped caring about their problems, leading to revisionist history showing in the books that Equestria had lacked alicorns at its start. Snow had been falling for a month, nonstop, blanketing the city in a white sheet that froze the carts on the road and prevented much movement. It was only by the work of the ponies desperate to not get trapped that they managed to dig themselves out of the piling winter frost and make it to the outside world. Now with all in the same boat, pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony covered in ash and filled with hatred for each other, they still stubbornly refused to help one another despite the slowly dwindling supplies of useable firewood, clean water and food.

The princesses and princes had gone into their city on a daily basis since the activation of the Elements, going incognito by wearing thick black cloaks, which gave them a scary and mysterious appearance such that no pony dared to try and figure out who they were. The royalty were actually attempting to help their ponies whenever they could, dropping off stacks of firewood or a few blocks of hay where needed, if it meant keeping a subject from freezing or starving to death. The sun no longer shown through in the sky, a constant atmosphere of dim light and overcast skies choked the land due to the curse. The four alicorns went to a remote part of the town after doing their sweep of the day to give aid, and removed their hoods to look at each others faces again.

"It's no use," sighed Darkmatter, "our subjects still have no interest in cooperating or learning harmony. Equestria will freeze in a matter of weeks, and our kind will become nomads."

"Please try to be positive," urged Celestia, "we musn't give in."

"Who knows what tomorrow may bring?" concurred Luna.

Temporios saw a trio of ponies approaching their area, and said, "We've got visitors. Let's hide!"

The four threw their coats back on, and ducked into a nearby abandoned tavern, which had been nearly burned to the ground from the fire. They identified the three ponies as wanderers in the town who were coming to use a small fire pit to warm up. Each of them had planned on burning a set of logs they were carrying on their back, a total of 3 sets of firewood between 3 citizens. One had come from her master's castle, another a new officer in the pegasus army, and the last an earth pony who was an advisor to the earth ponies' clan wardens. The three of them reached the fire pit, a stone circle clear of the snow, with a few soft oak logs laid down for seats. Each of them stared at each other blankly, exchanging nasty looks, before sitting down at the logs in a circle. The cords of wood fell to the ground with a soft thud in the snow, which had thankfully been thinner in that area of the town.

With hatred in their hearts, the three ponies sat around the empty fire pit. Each of them refused to burn their wood, because they knew as soon as they started a fire, the other two ponies would be able to warm themselves up as well. Selfishness and loathing caused the fire to remain unlit, and Princess Luna felt like crying as she could sense the cold beginning to harm the three ponies who lacked sufficient clothing for the cold weather.

Suddenly, the unicorn started to speak to her acquaintances, "We're all going to be ice in a month if the weather doesn't look up. Heh, don't suppose it's those old windigoes huh? They're just a myth, right?"

The windigoes were mythological creatures that supposedly messed with the cold weather behind the pegasi's backs, in truth, the cold weather clouds remained because of the equally cold hearts of the ponies. Of course, it was far easier to blame a species a northern ice wyrm than admit that there was such social division in their land. Would they learn the same lesson their ancestors did?

"Well, good chance we're going to be ice I guess," said the earth pony, "I sure hope we don't freeze though."

The earth pony sighed heavily, and shook her head at the situation. Her superior had demanded for her to continue to pretend the fire was everypony else's fault. But she still felt somewhat sorry for the others, after all, they were ponies as well. In fact, each pony began to think about the others in the circle, and realized that without action, all of them would freeze to death. Each stared at the others and knew that if they just got along, they would survive, creating a spark of hope. Uknowingly, they were using the Elements of Harmony by hoping for peace and survival through the winter. Yet still, one of the ponies had yet to act.

After a few moments of observing their struggle, the peagsus removed her iron helmet and tossed it to the ground, saying, "I don't want to be ice... and you know something? Neither should either of you."

She gathered up her logs, and placed one of them in the center of the fire pit, fruitlessly trying to light it with a piece of flint and steel left in the middle for igniting fresh blazes. The unicorn and earth pony looked at each other, and then watched as the pegasus, too kind to be a real soldier, struggled to strike the flint and steel hard enough to get sparks.

"Here," said the earth pony, rolling a log from her pile into the center ring, "we're going to need at least two to start a fire, plus tinder. We can use a few pieces of straw I've got in my saddlebags."

The unicorn pony watched the others, and then, with her magic, grabbed another log of birch and added it to the ring, on top of the two logs next to each other. The other two ponies looked up at her, and the unicorn pony smiled.

"Let's build ourselves a nice fire then," she said, "we'll set the logs up like this..."

Using magic, the unicorn arranged the three logs in the best order possible, and the earth pony added her straw underneath for the tinder. The pegasus then successfully managed to get a spark off with the starter, and soon, a small fire had begun beneath the three logs. Within just a few minutes, the pile was burning brightly, and the three began to warm themselves up, adding more fuel when they needed to.

"Hearth's Warming Eve is today," said the unicorn pony, "it's something we should have remembered all this time, before the fire, before the magic academy, everything."

"Then we should celebrate it again!" declared the pegasus, "Let's invite everyone to pitch in to the fire here, and build a celebration around it."

"I'll get the word out," said the earth pony, "this is going to be far better than freezing!"

Just that one instance of cooperation and kindness had launched a phenomenon. Passersby and those notified joined in on the small fire, bringing with them extra pieces of firewood, and spare food and drink to share. The community of ponies had come together for once, to try and forget the cold and the burning of their land to celebrate an old holiday they'd almost forgotten. They were having such a good time, and many friends were made as happiness, laughter, and stories spread throughout the town. Equestria was so busy enjoying themselves, that they had failed to notice that their planet was turning again, and the darkness was being lifted. When night fell, however, they finally realized that the snow had stopped falling, and the winter had returned to its normal, more bearable cold.

When morning finally came, and the ponies woke up from their time spent reconciling their kind, they began to work hard at repairing the town and put together a granary to make food distribution easier. Each pony was valuable for their unique skills, and every last scorched home, business, and fort was getting a renovation. As they worked to fix their city, the alicorn's castle once again become more noticeable to the citizens, who had overlooked their leaders in their earlier struggle. The mobile had absorbed so much energy from their friendship and harmony, that a rainbow released from the artifact holder, projecting a beautiful scene in the now clear sky. The warmest winter was now here for the citizens to enjoy, and they had all gathered in the town square to admire the rainbow.

"The four alicorns must have done it!" cheered a pegasus pony, flapping her wings to hover above the crowd, "They've given us this beautiful rainbow!"

With a burst of bright light, blinding most of the crowd, Princess Celestia, flanked by her siblings, no longer needing to hide behind the dark cloaks, stood before their subjects, who all bowed at their presence.

"WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO STAND!" bellowed Luna, lacking an indoor voice.

The citizens obeyed, standing up and looking at the alicorns in awe.

"Citizens of Equestria!" said Princess Celestia triumphantly, "On this Hearth's Warming Day, you have finally overcome the struggle between unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony. We did not give you the rainbow you see today, it was created by you through the Elements of Harmony. Your friendship and peace has brought Equestria into the light, and from this day forward, Equestria shall be known as the Land of Harmony!"

A great loud cheer spread throughout the citizens, as they welcomed in the new era they had created. After the grand observance of the Hearth's Warming Day, full of joy and celebration, the two brothers became the heads of the courts of Equestria, bringing justice and equality. The princesses were now viewed as being responsible for the day and night cycle. All were seen as the saviors as Equestria, even though the Elements of Harmony they had discovered were powered by their subjects. It became a time of peace and prosperity, and as the economy skyrocketed and the food multiplied rapidly, construction began of a new town miles away. The city, built near a waterfall side cliff where the castle was planned, would be a representation of the new era of Harmony, a reminder of what friendship and peace can accomplish.

And they called it Canterlot...

The massive explosions echoing throughout the castle had obviously drawn the attention of Twilight and her friends, along with Comettail, who had placed her head on one of the castle walls. Bricks occasionally fell from the ceiling, and dust resettled as the vibrations bounced off the walls.

"It's coming from the throne room!" she said, "We need to get there as fast as possible."

"Prince Darkmatter must be fighting with his brother!" exclaimed Twilight, "Maybe calling for him wasn't such a good idea."

"Too late for that. We need to get there and stop them," urged Comettail.

They ran into the chamber, and observed the massive black hole on the floor, keeping them away from the center of the throne room. The friends looked up, and saw the two alicorns fighting, blasting away at each other with beams. Without his time magic, Sundial couldn't cheat against his brother, but still managed to defend himself well. Eventually, the two alicorns stared at each other, having blown several holes in the walls of the castle without doing much damage to each other.

"There they are!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Darkmatter!" called Techorse, who was looking at the black hole and observing its fluctuations, "Your black hole is about to go critical, you've got to seal it off!"

Prince Darkmatter looked down, and noticed the storms forming around the edges of the black hole. He knew that if he sealed it off, his brother would regain the upper hand in the fight by gaining back his time magic. But unless he sealed it off, the black hole would surely explode. Making up his mind, the alicorn shot down a thin beam of energy, and the black hole shut, disappearing in a flash of white light.

"Ha!" shouted Sundial, "You've given me an opening."

"What are we going to do?" wailed Rarity.

Prince Sundial's horn glowed, and he froze his brother in time, leaving him unable to move by his own will. He then charged up his horn to deal a blow with a beam attack. Twilight looked up at the two alicorns fighting, and knew what she needed to do. As soon as Sundial fired a beam at his brother, Twilight rushed forward, and a burst of fuchsia color exploded from her horn. A large bubble shield formed between the brothers, separating them and bouncing Sundial's energy away from Darkmatter. The purple colored sphere of energy held against the alicorn's attack to his surprise, and also severed his connection to the space around Darkmatter, ending the time spell. Both alicorns were now locked away from each other, a solid wall of purple energy blocking them.

"That's enough!" shouted Twilight Sparkle, "You two are brothers! You shouldn't be fighting like this!"

Sundial noticed that Twilight had failed to create a complete bubble around both of them, leaving her open below. He then laughed in a sinister manner, and shot a large bolt of white energy down at her. Twilight gasped, losing control over her shield, and felt the giant blast of magic explode beneath her, much to the horror of her friends. The unicorn mare was sent flying, and hit the tile floor, rolling over many times. Twilight lay on the ground, her coat slightly singed in multiple places.

"Twilight!" screamed Techorse, running forward.

"Can't you see, inventor?" laughed Sundial, his eyes glowing a demonic red, "It was her time. Along with any who side with Celestia."

"Brother..." said Darkmatter slowly, looking at the burnt and knocked out Twilight, "How could you..."

"Now I'm going to do the same to the rest of you," he answered, "nopony will know you ever came to Hourglass!"

The doors to the throne room opened with a loud blast, as a magical bolt tore it open. In rushed both princesses, along with Captain Arbiter and Limpwing. Sundial saw Celestia, and flew down to land on the ground near Twilight, who was being held by Techorse. The prince looked at the inventor, who promptly burst into tears while searching for his marefriend's pulse. Captain Arbiter drew his sword with his magical gauntlets in preparation to aid in combat against the Prince, but Celestia ordered him to put it back by raising her wing.

"Temporios!" shouted Celestia, "I'm here. There's no more need for violence."

"As am I!" declared Princess Luna.

"Luna!" said Sundial, no rage disappearing from his eyes, "So... it's true that you've returned?"

"Yes!" she answered, "I have been cleansed of my demon, as has Darkmatter. Perhaps it is your turn."

"I'm no monster!" he roared, "Your sister banished you, she is the monster!"

"She had no choice!" answered Princess Luna, "It was rash, but we've become family again! We want the same for you."

Princess Cadance and Shining Armor entered the room at this point.

Sundial's eyes grew wide, "Cadance... you actually came back to see me?"

Although Cadance knew it was her dad immediately, the first thing she laid her eyes upon was the injured Twilight and Techorse. She approached her father, concern in her eyes over her friend's condition. Sundial said nothing, still surprised that his daughter had actually returned to him.

"Dad, I've wanted to see you for years," she answered, before she noticed Twilight on the floor.

She ran up to her and helped Techorse prop her up, saying, "Oh my gosh, Twilight! What happened?"

"Sundial did this to her," answered Techorse, holding her tightly.

Cadance's eyes filled with tears, and the slender mare turned her head up twoards her father, who landed on the floor, ceasing his flight.

"Why would you do this father?" she asked, "Twilight is my friend. Don't you love me enough to not hurt my friends, even if you can't love Aunt Celestia anymore?"

"I do love you Candace, more than anything," he answered.

But after his stern response, his heart sank, his ears fell back, and he said to her pitifuly, "But, I know you don't love me anymore. You and your mother both left me."

"Only because you kept us here," she answered, frowning, standing up as Shining Armor took her place holding up Twilight, "we wanted to see the outside world, but you kept going on and on about Princess Celestia being evil. We figured out for ourselves that this wasn't true, and we lived our lives out there, where we should have been, in Equestria."

She then held back the lump in her throat and said, "But dad, I hoped that someday I'd come back and you'd have changed. I've always wanted you to come back home."

"You... have?" he asked, his heart strings being tugged, "But why?"

"Because," she answered, bursting into tears, "You're dead wrong. I still love you. You're still my father, and I've just wanted you back. Aunt Celestia told me you were a happier stallion before, and I wanted to see you happy."

"Despite everything... you still love me?" he said, slowly, "You didn't favor Celestia's company, you only wanted me to give her a chance?"

"Yes!" she answered, weeping, "I told Princess Celestia you were still alive, and she hoped every day that you'd come back around, just like your brother! She told me of all the times she had been up crying, not only because of Princess Luna being gone, but because she had lost her brothers as well! She was alone, and figured she would be for the rest of eternity."

Sundial's heart broke open when he heard the same words Twilight Sparkle had told him earlier. The truth broke through his shell of emotions, and crushed him, leaving him with an epiphany.

"Twilight was telling the truth," said the alicorn of time slowly, "all along, my daughter has hoped for my return. My sweet Cadance."

He began to cry gently, tears rolling down his cheeks as he reflected on his pain and his evil deeds, although perhaps his psychological state had indeed collapsed.

"I've... been a complete monster," he said, "I've held on to my anger forever, and now, I've caused harm to another pony."

Sensing Princess Celestia's bag, and knowing what that particular sack was used for, he pointed at it and said, "I see you've brought the Elements of Harmony, Celestia."

Princess Celestia smiled, and shook her head, opening the bag to reveal nothing but a pile of bits she had brought from her personal vault.

"I put the Elements of Harmony back in the vault, and came without them," she said, "at first, I thought we would need to use them. But then, I remembered Cadance's love for you, and knew that she could help you."

"I suppose I would have deserved having them used on me as well," he admitted, "it would set things right, after the crimes I've committed. I've lied to my people, I've hurt Twilight Sparkle, and I've failed to give my sibling another chance."

Twilight Sparkle's ear twitched as she recovered from being blasted away by Sundial's magic. She slowly stood up on her legs, and Shining Armor aided Techorse in getting her up.

"Sundial," she said shakily, "I was the one who brought Cadance here. When I sent a letter out from your prison, I asked for her to come, because I knew deep down, you were still family and still loved each other. I hoped her love for you would change your mind, and it did."

Prince Sundial turned to face her, "I know you're being kind to me, but I hurt you badly. I'm pleased you're alive, and that you set up me seeing my daughter again, but this changes nothing."

"I forgive you anyways," she said weakly, "there's only one pony you owe an apology to, and that's Princess Celestia."

The Prince of Time looked at his sister, who's facial expression sunk back into a much more neutral one.

He said to her while looking at the ground, "I am never going to be able to make up for everything. If you forgive me, I do not deserve it."

Princess Celestia then looked at her sister, and back to him, before bursting into tears and answering, "None of that matters, Temporios, I just want my brother back!"

He then wept and answered, "Sundial. It was always Sundial!"

He ran up to her, and the four alicorns hugged, crying tears of joy over getting their brother back, and ending the thousand year old feud that had separated them all.

"It's wonderful," whispered Twilight, trying not to cry herself.

"Twilight Sparkle, you've brought our family back together again," said Princess Celestia, "thank you!"

The four alicorns watched as the ponies in the room assembled before them, from Arbiter and Limpwing, to Spike and PAL, and all the friends of Twilight Sparkle.

"It's just what we do!" she answered, regaining her strength, "Right guys?"

Her friends gave her hugs and cheers, and the ponies took the time to celebrate what had happened that day.

Thanks to Wintergreen's actions, the ponies of Hourglass were more than ready to explore Equestria, travel to which was unbanned by Sundial that day. He dispelled the winter storms he had cast to separate his city, merging the territories together. Hourglass was placed on the map as a fine city to visit, and the ponies traded information and goods within days.

A massive celebration planned by Pinkie Pie took place in Canterlot to celebrate the return of the four siblings, and the complete unison of Equestria. Although the brothers chose to stay as the rulers of their towns, they were welcome back to Canterlot at any time they wished, and two traditional thrones were built for them for when they visited.

Everyone was partying in the ballroom of the castle, having a good time and celebrating the momentous occasion. Which brought Sundial to ask an interesting question of Cadance, who to him, hung around Shining Armor a lot for an unknown reason.

"So who is this stallion?" he asked of his daughter.

"Well daddy, this is my husband, Shining Armor. Twilight's brother," she said, a bit embarrassed.

Prince Sundial looked at Shining Armor suspiciously, who smiled nervously. Meeting a parent was a always a bit of a challenge. But to his surprise, the Prince laughed, and scratched his blonde beard before giving him a huge hug.

"He's perfect for you!" he said in his Russian sounding accent, "It is a shame I missed your wedding day."

"Um... maybe you wouldn't have liked it very much," said Cadance, embarrassed, remembering what had happened, "Every day's been a great adventure for us though! As for mom..."

"Another time," Sundial said, "But for now, let's enjoy the day."

He noticed that Pinkie Pie had been shooting off confetti with her party cannon, and she shouted, "Come on everypony! Let's form a line and dance!"

"Yes!" shouted Prince Sundial merrily, "Everypony do the conga!"

Starting the head of a conga line, the prince managed to get over twenty ponies in the room, including a few nonponies such as PAL and Spike, to dance with him. The line of ponies proceeded around the room, enjoying the music. Prince Darkmatter grabbed the tail end of the line and joined the dance, who was surprised to see Comettail holding on to him. She blushed a bit, but the Prince simply shook his head and encouraged her to dance. Prince Sundial was having a wonderful time leading around the line with Pinkie Pie's help.

"Conga!" laughed the prince, "Such a merry dance!"

"We've definitely gotten our brother back!" chuckled Princess Luna, watching the antics.
Techorse and Twilight approached the sisters.

"What's wrong, Twilight?" asked Princess Celestia, noting her concern.

"It's just that... Sundial told us that Equestria freezes if we don't get along, and that you and the other alicorns are bound to the natural forces you control, even if it's passively," she said, "the prince later told me that he hadn't told me the truth about Starswirl. He had made some mistakes, but truly loved Equestria in the end."

Princess Celestia smiled, "Twilight, Starswirl really did love Equestria, and there wasn't a moment we didn't miss him and hoped he'd come back."

"Will the planet ever freeze again? Can ponies fighting cause a curse still?"

Princess Celestia smiled and shook her head, "I'm not even sure it's really even a curse. Perhaps the magic of Equestria reacts negatively to our fighting and bickering, and can cause everything to come to a hault. But now that it's been proven that all ponies can be friends, and that friendship truly is the most powerful form of magic, the cold will never return. We will still argue from time to time, but we never have to fear another freeze again, so long as we have the magic of friendship!"

"But then what about you raising the sun?" she asked.

"Some traditions are nice to keep around as a reminder of the past," she said, smiling, "as long as I'm around, the sun will rise, and the majesty of it has helped ponies to feel safe knowing we will aid them when they are in trouble."

Techorse and Twilight looked at each other, and then at the brothers, who were enjoying themselves. They walked slowly away from the sisters, and then looked into each others eyes.

"You've done it Twilight," he said, "I'm so happy for you."

"I couldn't have done it without the support of my friends, or my coltfriend," she answered, love in her eyes, "come here."

They kissed, drawing the attention of Pinkie Pie, who gave a loud whistle at them. Techorse and Twilight ignored them, finishing their kiss, to the applause of several present.

"Maybe we should have gone outside first," said Techorse, blushing.

"Yeah, probably," she answered, giggling as her ears drooped.

"Come on you two! Dance!" said Rainbow Dash, "You're missing all the fun."

"Better do what she says!" said Twilight, "Come on, let's dance!"

The two hitched onto the conga line, and enjoyed the fast, rhythmic dance, until suddenly, the door to the ballroom burst open. In the doorway stood Discord, wearing a pair of dark shades, and a white disco suit.

"What?" he said, taking off his glasses, and acting offended, "I heard a party going on from my home. You didn't throw such a... chaotic party and not invite me, did you?"

"Get in here!" said Pinkie Pie, "We're gonna start the ice sculpture contest soon!"

"Ooh, ice sculptures!" he replied, entering the room by sliding in on his tail, "Count me in!"

"You invited Discord?!" whispered Twilight to Pinkie Pie.

"Well yeah!" she said, "Probably best to let Sundial know Discord's cool too now!"

"Classic Pinkie Pie," sighed Applejack, who took a sip of her punch.

"That's for sure!" answered Fluttershy, smiling.

Wintergreen had joined in on the fun at this point, trying to aid in bringing in the ice blocks needed to get the sculpture contest set up. She smiled and waved a hoof at Techorse and Twilight, who were moving for the door. They left the room together after Discord had gotten settled into the room, and went to go watch the stars together, away from the party. They stood on the balcony Princess Luna traditionally stood on, and watched the night sky.

"What do you think the future of Equestria is going to be like?" asked Techorse.

Twilight answered his question with, "I'm not sure. Nopony knows the future for sure. All I know is, as long as there's friendships in this world, things can always be changed for the better."

"Family are also the best friends you can have," he added, "speaking of which, there's something I wanted to talk about."

"What's that?" she asked.

Techorse thought for a moment, and then decided some things were best announced later, and answered, "It's just, I'm so happy to be here now with you."

"I'm happy you're here too," she said, nuzzling his nose with hers.

"You two ponies, really really need a room!" catcalled Pinkie Pie, who stood at the doorway to the balcony.

"Pinkie Pie!" they both shouted together, and the pink mare disappeared with a giggle back inside.

"Well, we ought to go back in anyways." Twilight said, winking, "I wouldn't want to miss seeing Discord struggle to make an ice sculpture!"

"Now that sounds like fun!" answered Techorse, "I'm right with you Twilight."

The two ponies headed back inside to enjoy the rest of the party. From that day forward, the royal family would be united again, and Equestria's leaders would no longer fight or harbor bad feelings about each other. The land was finally whole, and the banishment of Princess Luna, after a thousand years, had finally come to an end and was forgiven. Just as the land of Equestria had become one piece again, so had the relationship between the four siblings.

#37 - Natural Frenemies

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Natural Frenemies

Techorse series: #37

By Spirals95

The residents of Ponyville enjoyed taking their pets outside for exercise and fresh air frequently, letting their cats out to roam around, or taking their dogs for a nice long walk. But Techorse, being the owner of a tree squirrel, simply let his pet perch itself wherever it pleased on him, its favorite places being on top of his head or on the back of his mechanical saddle. Wingnut, the young and energetic rodent he was, grabbed tightly on to his master's messy brown hair, holding on as the inventor walked down the main street through Ponyville. Many of the other residents were giving him weird looks, and a few fillies pointed and snickered, but he didn't care. He loved owning a more exotic pet, and was letting it get a chance to explore the town instead of hanging out in the trees outside of his home.

Techorse said back to his pet, "It's a nice day for a walk, isn't it?"

A happy chatter from his rodent let him know that he was having a good time outdoors. As they turned the corner and walked down the main street of Ponyville, they saw that a roasted peanut vendor had set up shop on one of the street corners, and the smell of the cooking nuts attracted the attention of the squirrel, who leapt off of his master's back and started to walk in front of him. Techorse could also smell the cinnamon and salted varieties of the roasted snack, and decided it'd be nice to share a paper cone of the treats with his pet.

"Oh, want some peanuts?" asked Techorse, looking down at the rodent, who was standing on its hind legs, "They smell great!"

Wingnut happily nodded, and Techorse walked up to the metal cart, peanuts of various kinds filling the glass boxes on top of it. They got in line behind a pair of unicorn mares, and the earth pony running his cart started to fill a red and white striped paper cone with the cinnamon flavor for his first customer.

While they were waiting their turn in line, Applejack entered the town square, escorted by her dog Winona. The collie enjoyed being off her leash, but stayed close to her lifelong friend as the two walked down the cobblestone road together. A few ponies waved hello to Applejack, who smiled and tipped her hat back at them in response. They were out on a walk to the hardware store to get some more nails for the apple barrels, but Applejack was soon stopped by a peagasus pony with a cookbook in her saddlebags.

"Hey Applejack!" said the white-coated peagsus with a brown mane, "Can I speak to you for a second? I have an apple pie recipe I want to try and need to order the right kind of apples for it."

"Sure! Let me see," she answered before accepting the cookbook from the other pony.

Winona sat down on her hind legs and panted softly, dealing with the heat of the warm day. While Applejack wasn't looking, however, the dog spotted Techorse and his squirrel at the nut cart. Something inside her mind changed suddenly, and she whined, gaining the concerned attention of Applejack, who looked up from the cookbook and gave her pup a startled look.

"Winona, what's wrong?" she asked, "See somethin' girl?"

Wingnut spotted the canine a couple of meters from him, and decided that he was going to "introduce himself", by teasing Winona. He stuck his tongue out at the dog, and wiggled his tail in a provocative manner. This made Winona very upset, and she started to growl before taking off into the middle of the road, running on all four legs. Wingnut looked up from the peanut vendor's cart for a moment to see the dog barreling towards him. With a cry, he ran away, Winona hot on his heels.

Techorse and Applejack both galloped after their pets as they turned a corner and raced down an alleyway. When they emerged on the other side of the two colonial homes, they saw Winona propped up against one of the trees on the other side of the buildings, barking and pointing her nose at Wingnut, who was trapped on the lowest branch. The two owners stopped at the base of the tree, and gave the other ponies looking at the two animals a sheepish look before confronting each other.

"Winona, stop barking!" said Applejack, "Ya chased that varmint off, now let him be!"

Techorse was appalled that Applejack called his pet a bad name and said, "Applejack, that 'varmint' is my pet squirrel, Wingnut!"

"Oh," said Applejack, her ears falling back in embarrassment, "whoops, sorry Techie."

Still not satisfied, Techorse wanted an apology and pointed at the squirrel in the tree with his front leg, "If he hadn't of seen her, she'd have eaten him right there!"

"She wasn't gonna eat him!" complained Applejack, "She's a good girl."

"I've always known your dog to be friendly too, but maybe you should consider a leash so she doesn't chase after other animals," suggested Techorse.

Applejack rolled her eyes and said, "I've never needed to put Winona on a leash and I ain't starting anytime soon. Dogs chase squirrels Tech, maybe you shouldn't be taking him out here where something could nab him!"

The inventor argued, "That's not fair, Wingnut has spent all of winter hibernating in a tree outside my home, and I can't keep him cooped up inside all year too!"

Tempers began to flare between the two pet owners, while Winona started to circle the tree like a shark, knowing the pesky squirrel would have to come down eventually. While the two ponies fought about the state of their pets, Fluttershy entered with her shopping bag full of supplies for her animals back home, and noticed the plight of her friends. She also spotted Winona sitting in front of the tree and staring at the squirrel, and frowned knowing the natural conflict taking place. Even if that wasn't solveable, the fight between her friends likely was, so she approached Applejack gently and tried to speak up.

"Um, excuse me," she said softly, "can I speak to you guys?"

Techorse and Applejack stopped bickering and turned their heads to look at Fluttershy.

"Oh, yes. Sorry Fluttershy," said Techorse, "Winona wasn't on a leash, and she just chased Wingnut up a tree."

"Oh, my... that is bad," agreed Fluttershy, nodding and giving a pitiful look towards the squirrel.

"Well Techie here didn't keep an eye on his pet either!" complained Applejack, "He was just sittin' out in the open, and then he had the guts to tease Winona! I saw him teasin' her."

"That's bad too," admitted Fluttershy, "it's a shame when animals can't get along."

Applejack smiled and answered, "Hey! Maybe you can settle this, sugarcube!"

"ME?" gasped Fluttershy, knowing what was coming next.

"Yeah!" answered Techorse happily, "You're so great with animals, that all you have to do is get Winona and Wingnut to be friends instead!"

Fluttershy's heart sank, as she knew she'd be asked this if she tried to help her friends. She had thought a long time ago about the conflicting types of pets her friends had, but had hoped she would never be asked to solve a dispute like this.

"I can't," she answered meekly, lowering her head and frowning.

"What?" asked Applejack, "Fluttershy, you can get dragons to stop throwin' a fit, and you're telling me ya can't make our pets get along?"

Fluttershy sighed and answered, "A dog and a squirrel being friends has never been done before. I could use my stare to make them stop fighting, but I can't help them be friends."

"A squirrel and a dog can't be friends? Ever?" asked Techorse, visibly unhappy, "Wow, that's terrible."

Applejack and Techorse looked at each other, and then back at their pets, who were still growling and making noises at each other.

"Well, I guess this means we'll have to work something out," groaned Applejack, "maybe I'll walk Winona every other day and you can take the others."

Fluttershy looked at the two animals, clearly angry at each other, and sighed. She had learned early on as a caretaker for animals that there was an eternal struggle between dogs and squirrels that had gone on since the dawn of time. To make them friends would be near impossible, if not totally, and she was afraid of disappointing Techorse and Applejack by failing to have them get along. Eventually though, she made up her mind and decided to take on the task.

"I guess, if you don't mind," she said softly, "I could take them back to my house, and try to have them become friends."

"But you said it's impossible," reminded Applejack, "and I believe ya."

"Well, I didn't really say impossible, I said it hasn't been done before," she admitted, "but I hate to see animals fighting, so I'm going to try."

Fluttershy approached Winona, and addressed her, "Excuse me, but I want you two to sit here and say you're sorry to each other. Winona, apologize for chasing Wingnut."

The squirrel cautiously descended in a spiral fashion down the tree, and sat next to the dog, who both looked at each other and turned their noses towards the sky in contempt.

"Wingnut, you need to apologize too, for teasing Winona," said Fluttershy, "you're both going to learn how to be nice to each other from now on, ok?"

Each of the pets wanted to disobey Fluttershy, but they could see in the pony's light blue eyes that she wasn't afraid of using her terrifying stare, and they reluctantly cooperated just to avoid the discomfort of that. Winona licked Wingnut's head in a quick puppy-kiss, and the squirrel gave her front left leg a casual hug.

"All right, now let's go back to my home, I've got treats and some games we can play together!" said Fluttershy cutely, closing her eyes and smiling.

The two animals followed behind Fluttershy's long pink tail, making faces at each other mockingly as they walked off for her cottage.

"Do ya think maybe Fluttershy's bein' too nice?" asked Applejack, "First time around she sounded sure our pets couldn't get along."

"I guess we're going to find out," answered Techorse with a little doubt, "in the meantime, want to go shopping?"

"Sure! Best to take our minds off of it for a while," she said, nodding.

The two friends left for the market downtown, placing their faith in Fluttershy to find a way for their pets to stop their conflict.

Fluttershy took the two feuding animals to her cottage home, crossing the bridge over the narrow stream in front of her house. Winona and Wingnut had been making noises at each other the whole way, but had obediently followed Fluttershy without a total fight. The pegasus sighed as she fished her house key from under the welcome mat, and opened the cottage door for the two pets, who were still glaring at each other as they walked inside.

Once the two had gotten situated on the couch in the tiny living room, Fluttershy went to her bedroom and started to rummage through her nightstand drawers. Her pink tail swished around as she dug through the nightstand and her closet, until she opened up one of the cabinets and discovered what she was look for. Fluttershy reached into the lower drawer with her head and pulled out a small red book with gold lettering in her mouth.

The small volume read on the front, "The Eternal Struggle of Canis and Sciuridae."

Fluttershy flapped her wings gently and hovered onto the top of the green covers of her bed, and rested herself gently. She then began to read the book, describing the age-old rivalry between squirrels and dogs.

"Ever since I learned how much I loved animals, I'd always hoped to solve the one conflict nopony else has!" she thought ambitiously, "But there's a good reason it hasn't been solved yet. Oh, I hope Applejack and Techorse won't be too disappointed if I can't do it!"

Fluttershy continued to turn the pages describing the constant conflict between the two types of animals. On each page were illustrations of the squirrels causing trouble, and subsequently getting chased off by the dogs, terrifying the creatures. No matter what point of Equestrian history Fluttershy looked at, the cycle continued on.

While Fluttershy was busy searching the pages of her textbook, Winona and Wingnut were sitting downstairs on the sofa staring at each other angrily. They had plans to make the other one pay for earlier, Winona wanted to get the squirrel back for his teasing, and Wingnut wanted revenge for being chased up a tree.

Their anger was momentarily forgotten, however, when Fluttershy came back down the stairs into the living room with a gift for each of them. She had a brand new tennis ball nestled in her right wing, and a small bag of peanuts in the other.

Fluttershy reached the bottom of the stairs and pitched the tennis ball with her wing, which Winona jumped for, jaws wide open. The collie caught the ball in her mouth, and ran up to Fluttershy with her tail wagging at full force.

The pegasus smiled and leaned down to Winona, asking her, “Winona, I'll be happy to throw the ball again, but first, you need to take these peanuts to Wingnut. Can you please do that for me?”

Winona dropped the ball in disbelief and whined, giving Fluttershy a look of utter horror. There was no way she was ever going to do a favor for a squirrel!

“Oh, please?” begged Fluttershy, “Applejack would love it so much if you could just be a little nice to Wingnut.”

The dog's ears drooped as she realized how much Applejack wanted her to at least try to get along with Techorse's pet, and with great reluctance, she took the red and white paper bag of peanuts and brought them to Wingnut. The brown tree squirrel cautiously removed the bag from the dog's mouth, praying she wouldn't grab his head a moment later. He then opened the paper with his small paws and prepared to crack open the first nut when he heard a gentle cough from Fluttershy.

“Um, Wingnut, before you eat your snacks, maybe you could be nice and roll the ball for Winona?” she asked, giving him a warm look.

Wingnut was a little less cautious than Winona, and jumped down on the floor, scampering quickly to the tennis ball. He got behind the yellow sphere, and looked over it carefully, sniffing it once.

“Go on,” said Fluttershy with her best encouraging voice.

The squirrel curled his tail up, and, using it like a golf club, whacked the ball as hard as he could. It rolled into the kitchen, and Winona took after it, her urge to play making her go off in pursuit of the toy. When she returned, she dropped the tennis ball back on the wooden floor in front of the squirrel, and he rolled it again for her. The two were now smiling and making more cheerful noises, having fun playing a nice game together.

“See, isn't everything better when we can all get along?” asked Fluttershy, closing her eyes.

Wingnut rolled his eyes, and shook his head, but Fluttershy smiled knowing she was starting to make progress. Even if she couldn't get all dogs and squirrels to get along, she could at least get her friends' pets to cooperate and leave it at that. For now, it was probably safe to leave the animals alone to play with the tennis ball while she went to do some other chores.

“Ok now, I'm going to go upstairs again and work on some little sweaters for the ferrets!” Fluttershy said, “Play nicely with Winona!”

The pegasus turned around and headed back up the wooden stairs of her home, leaving the two alone to play. During the most recent toss of the ball, it knocked over the broom that Fluttershy had left leaning on the entrance to the kitchen. The loud thwack on the ground attracted the attention of Angel, who was trying to sneak into the cookie jar in the kitchen to steal the leftover oatmeal raisin. It wasn't because he was necessarily hungry, but because he was bored, and eating tended to alleviate that boredom. Angel winced at the noise, and turned around to find Winona carrying the ball out in her mouth.

Annoyed, Angel jumped down from the counter and hopped up to the kitchen door, where he saw the squirrel and the dog playing with the tennis ball. The rabbit couldn't believe his small eyes that the two were getting along, as he'd always known the two types of creatures to fight like crazy.

Now here was a chance for some entertainment! An evil little plan formed in Angel's mind to make the two stop playing with the ball, and instead get into some mischief to keep him entertained. A good old fashioned squirrel and dog rivalry is just what he needed to make his day fun again.

Hopping as fast as he could, the little white bunny moved over to the two animals playing, and grabbed the tennis ball himself, kicking it clear into the kitchen far beyond what Wingnut had before. Winona dashed after the ball, her tongue hanging out comically. While she was retrieving the ball, Angel threw his front paw around the brown squirrel left in the room, and communicated to him a funny joke they could play on Winona. The squirrel seemed to refuse at first, but Angel convinced him that a harmless little joke was surely not the fighting Fluttershy wanted them to avoid. Angel told Wingnut his plan for the joke, and the squirrel nodded. While he was looking at the kitchen waiting for Winona to return, Angel put his paws together and gave a diabolical smirk in anticipation of the prank.

When the dog had returned, Angel nuzzled his head into the dog's left front leg, and the collie rolled over onto her back in appreciation. While angel gave her well-deserved belly rubs, making her back leg thump on the floor, Wingnut ran into the kitchen to prepare the trap. When he was done, he signaled Angel, and the rabbit stopped scratching Winona's tummy.

The dog sat up and gave a happy bark before licking Angel's face. He wiped off the saliva in disgust, and then feigned excitement as he pointed at something in the kitchen, offering Winona a drink of water. The two wandered over into the cooking area, kept well-clean except for a few dishes in the sink, and Angel hopped up onto the sink top to get Winona a dish of water.

At this point, the dog spotted a tempting dog biscuit in the middle of the floor in front of Fluttershy's kitchen table. Unable to resist the goodie, she jumped onto the bone-shaped treat and snapped it up. Wingnut had been watching from atop an old cabinet filled with Fluttershy's dishes, and next to him, a large cardboard box that had been emptied most likely by Fluttershy. The squirrel quickly shoved the box from off the top of the cabinet, and down it fell, right over top of Winona, who gave a canine yelp and started running around trying to get the box off of top of her.

Angel had a riotous laugh with Wingnut as the box scooted around the kitchen, bumping into chairs, counters, and the stove itself before finally tipping over. The rabbit immediately shut his mouth to avoid getting caught, and Winona failed to notice. She growled at Angel, but the rabbit simply pointed out that the squirrel was the culprit. Wingnut was so busy laughing and rolling around that he didn't notice the dog running up to the cabinet, who bashed into it. Being safely out of reach, the squirrel continued to laugh, and Winona was left at the bottom barking her full head off at the squirrel.

The white rabbit jumped off the counter and yanked on the dog's golden-tagged collar, shaking his head in pity. He made it clear through a clever lie to Winona that Wingnut had played a nasty trick on her all on his own, and the best solution was to get back at him. Whispering something to her, Winona nodded and thanked Angel for his advice.

The two animals left Wingnut laughing in the kitchen and headed out back of the tree home to go to the garden, where Angel retrieved an empty mason jar meant for some nearby honeybees to fill. The bees had received fresh clover flowers planted by Fluttershy earlier, and occasionally the productive insects would show gratitude by filling a mason jar with their surplus honey and presenting it to the pegasus. But this jar was still empty, and it would serve as the perfect way to get back at Wingnut, as Angel pointed out.

A bird feeder sat on a branch of a nearby oak tree, and Angel knew there was nothing more that squirrels liked than to steal birdseed from a feeder. It was a red plastic implement, shaped like a cute little house, with a large bar in front for the birds to land on. Fluttershy had made it clear to the squirrels she took care of not to steal, and they obeyed, but Wingnut was unaware of the rule. Winona set the jar up right underneath of the bird feeder, and Angel used a little butter he had stolen from the kitchen to grease the bar where the birds sat. A cardinal was enlisted by Winona to sit on the perch and test it out, and sure enough, the bar was quite slippery on his claws, although he could sit by tightening his grip, there was no way Wingnut would be able to hold on.

Winona and Angel thanked the bird before hiding behind the tree, waiting for their squirrel victim to come by. When he did leave the house to come looking for them, he spotted the red feeder filled with food, and saw the cardinal eating his fill of the black sunflower seeds. The bird looked down at the squirrel, and gave a happy chirp before flying away. Believing he was invited to eat as well, since the bird seemed friendly enough, Wingnut ran up to the base of the oak tree and started to climb, ascended to the lowest branch where the feeder hung from. He wandered over to the red house, and dropped onto the bar, expecting to grab the seeds he was hungry for.

Immediately his paw slipped on the butter, and down he fell, straight into the mason jar. It tipped over, and the metal latch closed, swinging the glass lid over top of him and sealing him inside. Winona emerged from behind the oak, and crouched in front of the glass jar, as if to laugh at the squirrel trapped inside. She had her revenge, but the squirrel was quite angry about being trapped, and using his paws, opened the jar. He leapt out of the glass prison onto Winona's head, and bit the collie in the left ear. She barked in surprise, and ran around the back yard, gaining the looks of Fluttershy's other animals, including a small brown hedgehog, who raised his head up to look at the fight. He shook his head at the stupid argument, and looked at Angel, who was rolling around on the ground laughing hysterically.

Fluttershy had heard the commotion, and galloped outside, two small pink wool sweaters in her mouth. She gave the tiny garments to the ferrets watching the fight, and they eagerly put them on to help deal with the cold.

“What is going on here?” she demanded, “Are you two fighting again?”

Winona an Wingnut stopped wrestling on the grass and realized they were in deep trouble. The dog took the squirrel by the back of his neck in her mouth, and dropped him to the ground gently. Both had a look of guilt, and gave Fluttershy big eyes. The light yellow pegasus was very disappointed with them, although it was obvious she seemed a little disappointed in herself for not watching them closer.

“I thought you two were being nice to each other, but here you are being mean,” she said sadly while looking at them, “oh, the book is right. A squirrel and a dog can't really be friends. What will I tell Applejack and Techorse?”

Now, the other animals had seen Angel do his terrible deeds for his own entertainment, and they planned on tattling on the bad bunny in order to point out that Winona and Wingnut had both been fooled by the brat, but the rabbit quickly caught on. He looked around nervously at the angry faces on the ferrets, mice, and hedgehogs, as well as a bird or two, and hopped off towards the Everfree forest to hide out until things had cooled off. Now that he was gone, it would be impossible for the animal buddies to prove that Winona and Wingnut had been tricked, and they simply gathered around Fluttershy to comfort her.

The pegasus was nearly about to burst into tears, “I just don't know what to do!”

Winona walked up to Fluttershy, guilt in her eyes, and licked Fluttershy's face in hopes it would help her feel better. Wingnut also moved up to the pony and gave her a big hug on the leg as well. The peagsus glumly walked back inside with them, and put them in separate rooms for the remainder of the day. The two sat in effective time out, miserable about what they had done, but also, a little upset, knowing that Angel had tricked them into doing what they did.

The afternoon started to drag on, with Fluttershy moping about over her perceived failure. But after a few hours of self-pity and shame, Fluttershy got a bit hungry and realized she had missed lunch. She went into her kitchen, where she had left Winona in a basket made into a dog bed, and got out some carrots to make lunch for Angel. That's when she noticed that he was missing from his usual spot on the kitchen table, and she looked around for him.

“Angel!” she called out, “I'm making lunch now! Where'd you go?”

Winona knew the rabbit hadn't come back yet for fear of being ratted out by the other animals for his naughty deeds. She got up from the bed, shaking away her guilt over her prank on Wingnut, and went over to the door that led to the backyard from the kitchen. Scratching at the door, she managed to get Fluttershy to let her out, and quickly grabbed the tennis ball left by the door on her way out. Running around to the front of the house with the ball in her mouth, she gave it a quick toss, and the ball struck the round glass window on the second “floor” of the tree cottage. Wingnut appeared at the window, and looked down at the dog, who barked once and scratched at the ground.

Obeying the cue, Wingnut pushed the window open and ran down the branches of the tree in a spiral pattern, running up to the dog. Her plan was for them to go into the Everfree forest and retrieve Angel. Since he hadn't returned in several hours, he may have gotten lost, and surely Fluttershy would begin to worry if he didn't return for his lunch. Winona suggested they work together to get the mischievous rabbit back, and perhaps then he'd confess to making them fight.

Wingnut shook his fluffy brown tail and sighed, before nodding and sticking his paw out. Thanks to Applejack teaching Winona some tricks, she knew how to shake, and paw met paw as they agreed to work as a team! The squirrel crawled up her leg onto her back, and then she started walking towards the entrance of the foreboding forest. As they left, a large but gentle figure watched them from his resting place atop a bed of pine needles near the entrance.

It was Harry, the massive grizzly bear that frequented Fluttershy's home, intimidating to anyone who didn't know him, but a softy when it really came down to it. The bear knew the two other animals meant well, but would likely run into trouble, and stood up on his hind legs from his bed, yawning and scratching his back with a massive claw before going back to all fours. He started his way back to Fluttershy's house, having been told about Angel's misdeeds from the other animals. Like them, Harry knew Angel was hiding to avoid punishment, making telling on him pointless, but now he planned on letting Fluttershy know, just in case they needed to go after Winona and Wingnut. The bear was very well aware of the perils deep in the forest.

Angel had gotten himself lost, hopelessly lost. He thought about hiding in his usual spot, a hole underneath a rotting tree root near the entrance of the forest, but he was nearly spotted by the twin ferrets, and so had to go deeper into the woods to avoid danger. The original plan in that case was to find Zecora's house and hide in her tree's branches, but he hadn't found her home, and the twisting trees overhead were all starting to look alike. Grumpily he crossed his arms and tapped his foot, standing out in the open dirt floor, looking around and trying to figure out where to go before it got dark. Eventually he picked a direction and started hopping that way, and came to a stream, blocking further progress as he wasn't too good of a swimmer. The rapidly moving brook didn't seem to have a way around it, its bank dotted with gray stones of various sizes.

Not believing his luck at all, Angel turned around to go back the way he came. Before he could make it a step further, however, he froze, and his ears sank in terror. On a nearby rock, basking in the sun that was poking through the dark canopy, was a six foot long viper. The large, green snake with red spots all down its back hadn't seen the rabbit yet, and was still sleeping in the sunlight. Carefully, Angel stepped forward, keeping his eyes on the snake to know whether or not to run. Unfortunately, he didn't watch where he was going, and stepped on a fresh young twig, which snapped under his weight.

The serpent awoke suddenly, it's yellow eyes with slitted pupils opening, and it spotted him immediately. Angel tried to hop away, but the snake immediately sprang for him, its entire body unfolding, and it looped around the rabbit. It opened its mouth, dark red on the inside, and its four fangs dripped with the nastiest venom possible. With its coils around Angel, it wouldn't even need to squeeze to win itself a meal.

But Angel was far smarter than the snake was, and pulled his front legs in simultaneously while jumping upwards. The serpent pulled back a bit in surprise, and Angel flipped in the air, kicking his foe in the face with his hind legs. He then landed on the ground near the snake and hopped off, soon pursued by the hungry viper.

It opened its mouth, and took aim for Angel, striking while slithering after him. Once he was out of range of his coils, the snake opened its jaws a little less widely, and with a cracking sound, its two sets of fangs detached and shot out like a pair of tiny darts. Angel rolled to dodge them, and they impacted on a nearby tree, leaking disgusting light green venom onto the petrified oak. The rabbit, believing the foolish reptile to have wasted his teeth, turned around and stuck his tongue out at the toothless snake. It hissed in an almost evil laugh, and with a squishing sound, four fresh fangs replaced the missing ones.

Angel gave a high pitched wail and turned, running away from the monster. It followed him, continuing to volley sets of fangs at the rabbit, knowing even a scratch would leave him paralyzed. Without a way to find Fluttershy's home again, his chances of survival were very slim.

Winona and Wingnut had found Angel's rabbit tracks several hundred yards away, the collie sniffing them with her nose to the ground as they followed the trail deeper into the forest. It was then that they heard the high pitched squealing, and spotted Angel being chased by the red spotted serpent. Winona put herself into a full run, bearing down on the reptile, with the squirrel on her back barely hanging on for dear life.

Angel had found himself trapped between a set of roots in a petrified tree, and held his back to it as the big snake arched itself over him. He looked in terror at the eyes of the beast, and hoped that he wouldn't feel much when it came down on him. But as the snake went to take the rabbit whole, he was interrupted by Winona's loud growling. Turning its head, it watched in surprise as the collie ran full force into him, knocking him out of the way and sending him sprawling across the dirt floor of the forest. Wingnut jumped off of Winona's back, and landed on the snake's head, before planting his strong front teeth into the start of its body.

A loud screech came from the snake, which writhed and struggled to get the tree squirrel out of its skin. Winona pulled Angel out of the roots while the distraction was taking place, and the rabbit gave her a sad look of guilt for what he had done, and slight appreciation for the rescue. The serpent managed to through off the squirrel at this point, and he landed on his back. It opened its jaws, bearing its fangs again, and prepared to shoot them right into the helpless rodent.

Winona decided she'd had enough of the viper, and hopped over to its tail, grabbing it in her jaws. Then, she began to spin around, picking up the six foot long snake with all her might, and let go with her teeth, sending the creature flying into the tree he'd previously had Angel pinned on. Now it was enraged, and began to shoot its launch-able fangs all over the place. The terrified animals ran for cover, and barely made it behind a rotting log before it was perforated with teeth. Each of them soon realized some of the venom had managed to splash on their coats, even though the teeth never hit them directly. They began to feel really tired, and knew they wouldn't be able to move soon.

Now that it had them all trapped, the viper gave a reptilian cackle and went up to the creatures, having not quite reloaded its next shot. The three pets huddled together, the snake having shown its true power, terrifying them into submission. Having never had a dog or squirrel for dinner before, the snake especially looked forward to devouring Angel's new friends. It coiled around the three paralyzed animals, and waited for them to lock up.

“Hey!” shouted a familiar voice, “You let them go right now!”

The serpent turned around, and hissed loudly at Fluttershy. She stood defiantly in front of serpent, having come alone into the woods, and she scraped a hoof on the ground. It was obvious to her that the serpent had no plans on listening to her, but she wanted to give it a chance.

“If you don't leave my friends alone, there's going to be some consequences, mister!” she said.

The snake let go of the three pets, who were now lying motionless on the ground from muscle paralysis. He slithered up to Fluttershy, a cheeky look on his face as he flicked his forked tongue. Clearly the Equestrian had underestimated him, and now she was in for a nasty surprise. He stopped within just a foot of the pegasus, and opened his jaws slightly. Fluttershy looked around and knew exactly what kind of snake he was from his red spots, and also saw all the teeth on the log, before returning her eyes to the miscreant.

“Go ahead, I'm feeling lucky!” she said, warning him one last time.

Winona, Angel, and Wingnut watched, wondering if Fluttershy was also going to be paralyzed. They closed their eyes, and watched as the snake flicked its head to load up another set of teeth.

Click.

The sound, which didn't even phase Fluttershy, seemed to startle the snake. It didn't have another set of teeth in its mouth to launch.

“Uh oh, it looks like someone is out of teeth!” said Fluttershy, “Now will you stop?”

The snake stood startled at the lack of ammo, but it shook its head, and venom dripped from the open holes. It intended to poison Fluttershy anyways via contact, and lunged for the mare.

Fluttershy stood firm, and gave the serpent her trademark stare, causing him to stop in front of the mare, making heavy eye contact. Anger burned in his yellow eyes, and he struggled to push through the scary gaze, but Fluttershy's intimidation was stronger, and after a couple of long moments of the two staring at each other, the snake cried out, and hung its head in defeat. It wanted to crawl away now and save its dignity, but the pegasus wasn't quite finished with him yet.

“Now, you'd better not go around poisoning folks ever again!” demanded Fluttershy, continuing to drill into his soul with her eyes, “You'd better be nice to the other animals in the forest, or else!”

The serpent backed away slowly, hoping it could leave, but Fluttershy took a few steps forward. It had only followed its natural instincts to try and feed on vermin, and now was facing a rather harsh berating for it.

“Listen, if you see a big, silver snake out there in the woods, his name is Junior,” she said, remembering her old friend, “he can teach you how to fish for something to eat. Promise me if you come back, it's because you want to be friends, ok?”

The serpent nodded, and with a squishing noise, a fresh set of teeth finally managed to emerge in the sockets. It crawled away, looking back only once before disappearing into the treeline.

“Oh dear,” said Fluttershy, walking over to the three pets, “that was a Red Dart Viper. It's poison from its missile teeth freezes you up. But don't worry, Zecora has an easy cure for it!”

Fluttershy brought the pets to the zebra, who happily made the antidote for them, and sent them back on their way home again. Once they had all settled down into the living room, Fluttershy made them all a nice warm drink in a few saucers, and set out some snacks for them to enjoy. She was extremely happy to see Winona and Wingnut sitting happily together, the squirrel scratching Winona behind her ears as she panted gently.

“I guess you two really could be friends after all!” marveled Fluttershy, “After the way you helped save Angel, there's no way you'd still want to fight, right?”

Angel hopped up to the three, definitely ashamed of his actions that day. He scuffed the floor with his rear leg, and Fluttershy smiled gently.

“Oh Angel, you were a really bad boy today, but it's not me you have to ask for forgiveness,” she said, “you almost made it so Winona and Wingnut couldn't be friends. You should say you're sorry to them.”

The rabbit nodded and moved over to the dog and squirrel, giving them a self-disgusted look. Winona gave him a puppy kiss, and Wingnut ran over and gave him a mammal to mammal hug. All was forgiven!

“Well, how do you think Fluttershy did?” asked Techorse as he and Applejack approached the cottage home later that evening.

“To tell ya the truth Techie, I'm not sure at all,” she answered, “but hey, maybe at least she got 'em to stop fighting. Then we can walk our pets anytime we need to!”

Techorse knocked on the front door of the home with his front hoof, and the door opened. Fluttershy stepped out, shortly followed by the two pets and Angel, which, to Techorse and Applejack's surprise, were happy and smiling.

“How'd it go?” asked Techorse, “Did you solve the eternal struggle between dog and squirrel?”

“Well... no,” admitted Fluttershy, blushing and looking down, “but these two went through quite a bit today, and they've learned how to be friends!”

Applejack looked at the two pets and said, “Ahm not so sure!”

To prove it was true, Wingnut ran back inside and retrieved the tennis ball, before throwing it for Winona, who ran and brought the ball back to Applejack. Her mouth fell open slightly at the silly sight, and Techorse burst into laughter.

Applejack tipped her hat and said, “Well I'll be, a squirrel playin' fetch with a dog! Now I've seen everything!”

“Hey! Let's go get something to eat at the pets-friendly restaurant down town!” suggested Techorse, still holding back more laughter, “We should celebrate.”

Fluttershy nodded and addressed the animals, “That sounds wonderful! I'm sure you three would like that wouldn't you?”

Angel hopped out of the front doorway and together with Wingnut, they climbed onto Winona's back, and the dog started to carry them off towards the town.

“I changed my mind!” exclaimed Applejack, grinning, “NOW I've seen everything!”

The ponies shared a laugh together and then followed their pets on their way back into town. Perhaps the eternal struggle between dogs and squirrels could never truly be resolved. But for the pets of Ponyville, it was always possible for different creatures to be the best of friends!

#38 - You, I, and Fluttershy!

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You, I, and Fluttershy!

Techorse series: #38

By Spirals95

Shadow Breeze was one of the more recent residents of Ponyville, having moved there in order to study diplomacy so that he might one day help to make or maintain peace with other nations. Although he was very talented at settling conflict, he was currently facing a conflict of his own that he feared he couldn't settle without help from someone else. This had ironically left him without any peace of his own, and he had been staying up late trying to figure out how to approach his problem. The rather frustrated and uncertain pegasus sat at a desk in his apartment's living room that he'd normally use for writing, and had buried his head in his front hooves, trying to think.

Of course, the problem he was trying to resolve in his mind was not a simple one in the slightest. Over the past few months, he'd come to know Fluttershy as a good friend, as she liked to take care of animals, and he liked to take care of plants. Their shared love of the natural world and its inhabitants had drawn them together, and they had met up multiple times in the past to share a meal, talk, or go and take care of the flora and fauna they loved so well. But now, Shadow Breeze felt as if he had a different kind of feeling for Fluttershy, and wanted to try and ask her out on a “real date”, or so he thought in his mind. All of the previous outings were simply things they had done together, and he needed to take the formal leap into a relationship. He truly did care for her, and wanted to begin something between them as he saw in other couples, but he was stuck trying to figure out what to do once he actually went out on a date with Fluttershy.

“What would I even say to her?” he thought as he moped on the desk, “What would I do? I don't know how this works.”

Shadow Breeze lifted his head up and returned to a normal posture at the cherry wood desk.
The thought occurred to him that he knew somepony who had been on a date before, and he lifted his head off the desk, looking around at the rest of his home. His living room contained only a small couch and coffee table besides the desk, along with a few pictures of friends on the walls, and a small bookshelf where he kept his study books. The kitchen, tucked away behind a door on the other side of the room, was not visible, nor was his bedroom on the other side down a small hallway. Shadow took his attention off of his home, and returned to a few pieces of paper he was reading on his desk.

It was an advertisement for a brand new cafe that had opened up in the Baltimare Butterfly Conservatory. The cafe allowed guests at the conservatory to order lunch and eat while the butterflies living in the glass building flew around them, providing quite the show, especially for a nature savvy pony like Fluttershy. It seemed like the perfect place to go, and it'd be easy for him to have a good time as well. But he was unsure as to how the day was supposed to go if it was a date, and he really didn't know when to try and explain his feelings. Afterwords? Sometime in the middle? He wasn't sure, and it frustrated him.

At some point in his over analysis of the situation, he remembered that one of his friends had already been out on plenty of dates. Techorse's many reading and lunch dates with Twilight likely had given them some solid advice to share, and Shadow Breeze wanted that advice badly.

“Wait a minute,” he told himself, “maybe Techorse would know how things are supposed to go!”

Shadow Breeze picked up the papers in front of them, and placed them in a nearby saddlebag he'd normally use to transport documents for his career. He then went back into his bedroom, and opened his closet door to reveal a small gunmetal colored safe. The pony entered his combination on the dial, and opened it up, revealing the enchanted gold and ruby shadow amulet he owned. Slipping the magical jewelry over his head, Shadow Breeze smiled at himself in a mirror he'd placed in the closet, and adjusted the necklace part of the amulet to fit him. Excitedly, he hurried out the front door of his apartment, nearly forgetting to lock up behind himself. It was warm and inviting outside, and a gentle breeze helped to cool off the ponies going about their daily workdays. One of them waved to Shadow as he left his home and locked the door, and he waved back before continuing on his way.

“Hopefully I can find him before nightfall!” he said to himself, struggling to not gallop down the street.

Luckily, Techorse had been rather easy to locate, as he had parked himself on a wooden bench just outside of Sugarcube Corner. He was busy snacking on a brownie he'd bought from Pinkie Pie moments ago, not wanting to wait until he got back home to his fortress to eat. Shadow Breeze nearly knocked over a mare selling newspapers in the street in his rush, before he reached Techorse, who finished off his treat before greeting his friend.

“Oh hey, Shadow Breeze!” he said, “You look like you're in a hurry!”

“I am, to see you,” he answered, taking a deep breath after his sprint.

Techorse gave him a concerned look, “It must be important then, it seems you forgot you could fly to find me faster.”

“Oh... I guess I did,” he answered, looking back at the irritated mare he'd nearly run over.

“So what's wrong?” Techorse asked.

A robotic arm emerged from the saddle on his back, and a welcoming mechanical arm and hand patted the seat on the other side of the bench. It snaked back inside the device as Shadow Breeze climbed onto the bench and sat down across from his best friend. He then took the papers out of his bags and set them out in front of Techorse, who read them and seemed to be pleased with what they had to say.

“So, I wanted to go with Fluttershy to the butterfly conservatory for lunch, since they're doing that now,” Shadow Explained.

As he talked to his friend, he manipulated the amulet with his thoughts to project a shadow, which extended from the central ruby and landed on the paper. It was in the shape of an arrow, and it pointed to the cafe on the map of the conservatory he had brought along.

Shadow Breeze continued, “We'd be here for an hour or so, and then we'd go on the normal tour of the butterfly home. They have over fifty varieties of butterflies, and some of them are endangered! They need to live here so that they can lay eggs safely and increase their numbers before returning out into Equestria.”

“Fluttershy's going to love this!” said Techorse, a happy look on his face, “I don't see what the problem is.”

His friend answered shyly as the shadow arrow dissipated, “Well... you see Techorse, I kind of... am interested in Fluttershy.”

Techorse gave a wide smile as he heard those words, “Rarity's been saying for a few weeks now that something would come up between you two! We didn't believe her at first, but after a while we saw things her way, and this confirms it!”

“Oh, I didn't know I had you and the girls' support!” answered the pegasus, blushing slightly.

“Of course you do!” said Techorse.

Shadow Breeze smiled weakly, “Well, that's great, but I'm still a bit stuck. I want to ask Fluttershy out on a date to this cafe. Our first one.”

“But Shadow,” answered Techorse, “you've been spending time out with Fluttershy fairly often in the past few months. I doubt this'd be much different from any other time.”

“Those weren't real dates,” he countered, looking away from him and pushing a strand of his blue and charcoal colored hair out of the way, “Those are just fun things we did as friends.”

“I'm not so sure,” Techorse said, trying to use logic, “sometimes you'd just go and have fun for a little bit, but other times, you've told me you spent hours talking with Fluttershy about rather deep stuff, like what sorts of plans you have for the future. Like that time you helped plant the geranium garden in front of the east river bridge. Once the flowers were in the ground, you guys talked about what it'd be like to own a large garden together, and what you'd do to take care of it.”

“Fluttershy already has a small garden, we were just having fun,” answered Shadow Breeze, still avoiding what Techorse was really trying to get at, “but I want to know how to get a real date to work. I'm not sure how I'd do, so I was hoping you'd have some advice for me, since you've been out on plenty of dates with Twilight.”

Techorse raised an eyebrow at the comment, “You want my advice? Shouldn't you just be yourself? All you have to do is have a good time, and then tell Fluttershy how you feel later.”

Shadow Breeze protested, “I will be myself, I just don't know all the mechanics of the date. I can't tell her anything if it doesn't go perfectly! That's why I need you to come along and help me the whole time.”

“Woah, I can't do that!” laughed Techorse, “That's silly! Am I supposed to stand in a closet and pass notes to you or something?”

“Just pretend that by coincidence you decided to go to the conservatory on the same day,” suggested his friend, forming a plan, “then you can give me instructions on what to do, and it'll all work out!”

Techorse sighed, knowing that those were famous last words. However, he also wanted to help his friend, and understood that he'd be rather upset if he said no. If it meant helping his friend and making him happy, Techorse was willing to go through with it.

“I can take some time off to go see the butterflies,” he said, “are we going to go tomorrow?”
“Yes!” answered Shadow Breeze cheerfully, “And thank you so much! There are two trains that leave for Baltimare in the morning, so I'll give you a ticket for the one that leaves later than ours. We'll spend the day there and come back at night on the same train.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow!” answered Techorse, faking security in the issue as he took his ticket and walked away from his friend.

In reality, Techorse was beginning to get concerned about what he had managed to get himself roped into. Techorse knew that Shadow Breeze was not being himself by trying to follow a specific formula for dating, but figured he wouldn't listen to him until after he'd tried it his own way the next day. He just hoped that perhaps his friend would understand that by the time he and Fluttershy got together at the conservatory.

Now that Shadow Breeze had secured Techorse's help in going on a perfect date, he flew over to Fluttershy's tree home to ask her out. With confidence he knocked on the wooden door until the light yellow mare opened it and smiled at him with a bright glow in her eyes.

“Oh, hi Shadow,” she said softly, “how are you?”

“I'm doing great Fluttershy,” he answered, “I actually wanted to ask you if you have any time off tomorrow.”

“I'm not doing much, most of the animals will be out playing tomorrow and won't ask for dinner until late,” she answered honestly, although she understood what he was about to say.

Shadow Breeze took out a picture of the new cafe from his saddlebag and displayed it proudly, “There's a new cafe in the Baltimare Butterfly Conservatory! I was hoping you'd like to get lunch with me there, and then afterwords we could tour the building.”

He added shyly as he thought about how direct he'd just been, “You know, if you want to.”

Fluttershy noticed that something was different about Shadow Breeze this time. Before he'd talk about what he was going to go do himself before inviting her along. She would do the same thing for him as well, describing what her plans were before extending the invitation. But this time he'd cut directly to the main point, that he wanted her to go with him to this event. Despite this, Fluttershy immediately pitched out all thoughts about Shadow Breeze's different style of speaking when she heard about the butterflies. She had never been to the butterfly conservatory before, and had been wanting to go for quite some time, but felt awkward trying to go by herself.

“I'd love to!” she answered, almost squealing.

She settled down and looked away for a moment, “I mean, it'll be really nice to see the butterflies with you. When will we go?”

“Tomorrow morning we can take the train there,” he answered, “I'll give you a ticket.”

“That sounds very nice,” she answered, “we'll go then. See you there, Shadow.”

Fluttershy took her ticket as well, and Shadow Breeze left with a very happy look on his face. He knew that Fluttershy was going to say yes, but he was not expecting her to be as delighted to go to the conservatory as she was. As he headed back home, Fluttershy closed the door to her home, and began to worry. She had feelings as well that she wanted to express, but being the shyest pony in town meant there was no way she was going to express them so directly.

“Oh, what am I going to do now?” she asked herself sadly, “Shadow Breeze is really sweet, but I don't know what to say to him. I've not been out on a date before like this, normally we've just gone some place to do things together.”

Angel hopped over to Fluttershy, and crossed his arms in disgust, as if to tell her to get over herself. The impatient little herbivore knew full well that Fluttershy had been spending plenty of time with Shadow Breeze, and was not looking at things the way they really were. Fluttershy looked down at the rabbit, and smiled.

“You're right Angel, I should just get some advice!” she said, interpreting his body language, “Twilight will know what I should say.”

Fluttershy immediately departed from her home to go seek advice from Twilight Sparkle, and Angel put a paw to his forehead in frustration, knowing no good could come from what he had just witnessed.

The library had already been closed for the evening when Fluttershy managed to make it there, yet the lights still shone through the windows on the organic home. She noticed that Twilight was tending to a window that seemed to be missing one of its panes of glass, and was likely trying to fit the piece back in before going back inside. The unicorn held the piece of glass in a gentle hover above her head using her magic, and concentrated carefully on re-inserting it, when Fluttershy approached and asked her question.

“Um, Twilight, are you busy?” she asked.

Twilight reattached the glass piece with a sharp pop, then sealed it up using a small bottle of adhesives sitting on the round windowsill.

She then turned around and answered, “Not anymore! How can I help you, Fluttershy?”

“Well, you see, Shadow Breeze asked if he wanted me to go with him to the butterfly conservatory tomorrow,” she answered, “I kind of don't know what to say to him while we're there.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion, “What do you mean by that? Aren't you just going to talk to him?”

“Well... yes,” she answered nervously, “but you see... I kinda... don't think this is just hanging out.”

Twilight gained a cheerful smile, “Oh! You're seeing this as a date, aren't you?”

Fluttershy looked back at her and sighed in relief, “Yeah, and I was hoping you'd help me figure out what to say. I'm not sure how to tell him how I feel.”

“So you want some coaching?” giggled Twilight, eager to be of help.

“If you could maybe come along with me, and offer some advice,” suggested Fluttershy, “I'm sure we can have the best time ever, and then it'll be easy for me to... say something. Or maybe if you told me about how you and Tech go out together, I'd be able to do that.”

Twilight gritted her teeth, understanding that Fluttershy was asking her to tag along and try to avoid the two of them, while at the same time offering hints as to how to make the day go smoothly. She had talked with her friends in the past about Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze for a while, and thought that maybe something would come up between the two of them based on the large amount of time they had spent with each other. Now that the predicted relationship was finally starting to come into being however, the fact that both members were shy and had difficulty expressing their feelings was going to make it difficult. The unicorn mare felt as if she needed to help Fluttershy realize that being herself and saying something to Shadow Breeze were the only things needed, and would have to join her the following day to get her to see that.

“Please?” begged Fluttershy, “All I need is a little help. Will you be able to join me?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled and said, “Well, I guess it might be fun to go see the butterflies tomorrow. All right, I'll go. But if Shadow sees me, I'm there doing research on butterflies.”

“Oh thank you so much!” cried Fluttershy, who hugged Twilight tightly, and flapped her wings.

Both ponies were lifted into the air, nearly choking Twilight, who held back on to avoid falling to the ground. Fluttershy suddenly realized what she was doing, and laughed nervously as she returned her friend to the ground.

“I'll see you tomorrow morning at the train station, Twilight,” she said, happiness in her voice, “goodnight!”

Fluttershy spread her wings again and floated through the air towards her home, gracefully humming a tune Twilight didn't seem to recognize. Once the lavender mare had gone back inside the library, she thought eagerly about how great of an opportunity this was to learn more about friendship. This would be the first time helping a friend learn more about how relationships work, a juicy piece of material for her next letter to Princess Celestia. As she went upstairs to get ready for bed, she prepared in her mind what she was going to say and do the next day to aid her friend, and knew she was going to be able to help her succeed.

The cold of the morning had brought in a light amount of ground-hugging fog at the train station, barely enough to cover the legs of a few of the ponies working to keep the train fueled and stocked with supplies for the days' travels. Fluttershy sat on a green-painted wooden bench, waiting near the brown and pink painted locomotive. In order to have enough time to spend at the conservatory without wasting the effort of the trip, they needed to leave rather early, and Fluttershy's seat gave her the perfect view of the sunrise that morning. The reds and yellows of the light shone over the station, casting long shadows and warming up the morning air.

Soon she was joined by Shadow Breeze, who gave her a quick hug before they boarded their train. Techorse and Twilight would board the train after them on a different passenger car, to avoid being detected. Despite going to the same location that day, the two of them managed to board different cars altogether, and so did not see each other. Neither was aware of the other's plans to help their friend, nor their presence on the train. As the locomotive pulled away from the station and Ponyville disappeared behind them, Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy both sat with thoughts running through their heads about how the day would go.

Baltimare's Butterfly Conservatory was a large building made out of white painted steel and the finest reinforced glass bits could buy. The structure consisted of one large main dome, which allowed plenty of light in like a greenhouse to support the plant life grown inside for the enjoyment of the butterflies. In addition, a few branches extended radially from the main structure, which led to smaller domes used for raising caterpillars to adulthood, meaning the entire site looked like a large flower from above. Out front of the building was a large rose garden, grown along a brown tile path that led guests to the main entrance. A few decorative fountains carved in the shape of butterflies drinking from daises and tulips were placed along the sides, and several earth ponies tended to the outdoors, taking out weeds and keeping the roses watered and happy.

“This is amazing!” said Fluttershy with awe, “I've only heard about how amazing the inside of the conservatory is, but now that I'm here, there are so many lovely roses as well!”

“I'm sure I could get you one,” suggested Shadow Breeze without thinking.

Having brought along his amulet, he created a shadow image of a butterfly, which landed on a nearby rose bush, as if to suggest to Fluttershy which rose she should pick.

Fluttershy, understanding the significance of receiving a rose, tried to stop him, “But roses are so expensive... and it'd spoil my lunch.”

“Actually,” interrupted a brown coated earth pony near a white-blossomed bush, “We sell the roses pretty cheap inside the gift store. They're just 2 bits a piece.”

Fluttershy had a look over the succulent roses again, and asked meekly, “Maybe after lunch then?”

“Of course,” answered Shadow Breeze as he shut off his amulet again, “think I'll get myself a rose too, they look great.”

The two ponies walked side by side up the path to the front door of the conservatory, where they turned in their tickets to a unicorn mare running the desk outside. They entered the conservatory through a narrow hallway lined with black plastic combs of film that hung from the ceiling, likely to keep the butterflies from exiting in that direction, and emerged from the dark tunnel into the light of the main building. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze both stood mouths agape in awe at the sights inside the building.

Every part of the conservatory was set up so as to mimic the natural habitat the butterflies called their home. Not an inch of floor was visible inside, as it was covered with a fine brown dirt taken from the forests of Equestria. Many tropical trees and ferns grew along the ground, creating a rainforest like setting that held the moisture in the air and providing landing spots for the inhabitants. Flowers of all variates, colors, and habitat ranges grew amongst the trees and bushes, from daises and tulips to more exotic flowers such as bright red hibiscus. An artificial river flowed through the carefully constructed rainforest, cascading over a stone basin waterfall, which featured a set of stairs for ponies to climb and view the butterflies at their proffered flying altitude.

Dozens of the highly decorated insects flew overhead, with wings of stunning patterns and bright, vibrant colors. Some varieties were ones that neither Fluttershy nor Shadow had ever seen before in their lives, likely the endangered ones the conservatory sought to protect. A rather large specimen with orange wings and black spots on each corner sat nearby Fluttershy, drinking sweet nectar from one of the hibiscus flowers.

“This is amazing!” whispered Fluttershy, about to collapse from joy, “I've never seen so many kinds of butterflies in one place.”

“And they're happy despite being kept indoors!” remarked Shadow Breeze, “You'd think they'd want to be outside, but they seem content here.”

As they walked forward to start their tour before lunch, a rope descended from the ceiling above, and Fluttershy stopped to prevent herself from walking into it. A unicorn mare descended down the rope as if escaping from something, and landed on all four hooves in front of the two ponies, who looked rather startled at her rappelling from the ceiling. Her tan coat and bright yellow and pink mane hair was curled tightly into braids, yet she kept her tail bushy and free. A pair of bright blue eyes completed her look, along with her cutie mark of a pickaxe overlapping a yellow flower.

“Hey!” she said, “I'm Aster Mountain. You guys must be Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze.“

“That's us!” answered Shadow Breeze, his tail swishing in delight, “Are we getting a tour from you?”

“Yes sir!” answered Aster with a delighted nod, “I'm the lead botanist who gets these fancy bugs their favorite food flowers from all over Equestria. But when I'm not climbing things, I'm here giving tours. Let's start with the main room here, shall we? We've got about two hours before your lunch, and then there's the other half of the tour featuring the hatching rooms!”

The two followed her off on their adventure with the butterflies, while a pair of ponies far behind them sought to keep their obligations to their friends. Techorse had followed the two closely, and used the rose bushes as cover to make it to the front door of the conservatory. After paying his entry fee and finding out his two friends were leaving on tour, he made his way over to the cafe, where he'd stay in disguise in order to help Shadow Breeze figure out what he should say. Putting on a gray trenchcoat and a matching hat, which gave him the look of a detective, he picked a table at the rear of the cafe and held a newspaper with his front hooves tightly, as using his battle saddle's mechanical arms would surely blow his cover.

In contrast to Techorse's approach to stealth, Twilight simply went in through the back entrance and kept her face buried in a book about butterflies she had brought along with her. She was careful to pick a path opposite to where they were going to tour, and kept herself occupied to help her wait for the two to start lunch. In secret, Twilight was also visiting to take pictures of the butterflies and do research on them, as she couldn't help but study anything she could get her hooves on. The unicorn mare took out a camera, and snapped a picture of a nearby blue butterfly, which did a small aerial loop in appreciation of the photo.

Aster took her two tourists to an open area featuring a selection of morning glories twisted around white fencing, making the area of the indoor forest resemble a common backyard garden. Common yellow and white butterflies preferred these flowers, and the winged insects dove down to feed on the blue and white blossoms. They were accompanied by a few of the larger varieties in orange and red, who would be careful not to knock their smaller friends off the petals as they hovered nearby in wait for a turn.

“Here you can see the meadow garden,” said Aster as she stopped the two and pointed at the fences, “The flowers grown here feed the smaller butterflies and provide a resting place. We've set up these fence pieces to support the flower vines, and the two colors chosen keep the butterflies happy.”

Near one of the fences was a young earth pony filly who was pouting and staring angrily at one of the large red butterflies, which scared the bug and caused it to fly higher away from her. Her mother pulled her youngster away from the fence, and scolded her gently about bothering the feasting insects.

“What's wrong?” asked Fluttershy gently of the mother.

She answered with an urban accent, “Oh, my daughter here's pouting because the butterflies won't land on her. She wants me to take a picture of that, but it ain't gonna happen if she scares 'em away.”

Fluttershy smiled and bent down to the filly's height before saying to her, “If you want the butterflies to land on you, you have to hold really still, and smile while holding your breath. Like this.”

After taking a deep breath, Fluttershy stood up on her four legs, and gave a small smile while looking at some of the butterflies above. None of them currently feeding on nectar bothered to leave their place, but a few of the smaller white butterflies came down from the air above and landed gently in Fluttershy's long pink hair, beating their wings as they came to a rest.

The filly decided to follow suit, and held her breath too while smiling. Soon, a rather large orange butterfly with pink spots chose her short blonde mane hair as its perch, and it stopped just to the left of her right ear. The butterfly's legs tickled her ear, but she dared not move it for fear of scaring her new visitor away. Her mother took the opportunity, and took the picture of her daughter with the butterfly, which left after the flash.

“Thank you so much!” thanked the young one, leaving with her mother.

“Oh, it's not a big deal at all!” answered Fluttershy, closing her eyes and grinning, “Just remember to do that every time you want the butterflies to land.”

Shadow Breeze congratulated Fluttershy as soon as the mother and filly had left, “That was amazing!”

“I gotta admit, there's many trained butterfly experts here on site, and we haven't seen such expert wrangling like that in a while,” admitted Aster, highly impressed.

“I've always known butterflies well,” explained Fluttershy, flapping her wings to join the swarm overhead, “I know exactly what they like, and how to take care of them, and that's why I'm so glad Shadow Breeze brought me here today. It's like a dream come true!”

“Hey!” reminded Aster with annoyance, “I hate to be a pain, but no flying allowed in the building, the draft knocks the more fragile specimens away.”

Fluttershy frowned and dropped back down to the ground, “Oh... sorry. I'll be more careful next time.”

Aster cautioned her and Shadow Breeze, “There's many rare butterflies here you probably haven't seen. We have strict rules here about flying and magic to avoid risk to them, not to be buzzkills. Protecting the endangered ones is a top priority!”

“I agree, and you do a good job, just look at all these plants for them!” commented Shadow Breeze, changing topic to his own favorite hobby.

“Plant guy eh?” laughed the tour guide, “Lucky for you, after lunch you'll get to see the plants we feed to the caterpillars. Think you might be interested in the variety we grow here.”

“It's really neat that there's something here for both of us,” cooed Fluttershy.

“Yeah, that's... pretty neat we both love plants and animals,” he answered, stuttering.

Unsure of what to say next, Fluttershy looked around nervously for Twilight in order to get advice, and saw the disguised mare across the way. Shadow Breeze was wondering when they would get to lunch so that he could talk to Techorse as well. Having brought up their love of nature being in common had left them hung up in an awkward moment, since they were both over thinking the situation.

Fluttershy remembered where Twilight said she would be, and said to Shadow Breeze, “I'm going to go see the tropical flowers again for a second, before going to lunch.”

“I'll meet you there!” he answered hastily, knowing this was the chance he was going to get to ask Techorse for what to say next.

The two ponies nervously ran away from each other in several directions, leaving their tour guide confused and looking back and forth as they dashed off to seek help.

“All right guys,” called Aster as they split up, “I'll see you after you finish eating, enjoy you two!”

After they had left, the unicorn mare took out her rope, which had a small lead loop on the end, and with her magic swung it around at rapid speed before tossing it up, which latched around a hook on a metal beam from the conservatory's dome ceiling. She then climbed the rope rapidly despite her hooves, and rested on the metal beam, pulling up her rope when she arrived. Some of the other ponies touring the conservatory stomped their hooves on the ground in applause for her skillful and risky climb, and the unicorn pony laughed and waved at the guests.

Fluttershy found Twilight reading her book near a tropical lily, and stopped in front of her.

The unicorn mare lowered her book slowly, and asked, “Hey Fluttershy, how's it going so far?”

“Good,” she answered, “but Shadow Breeze brought up that we both have a love of nature in common, and I don't know what to say next.”

“Just keep talking to him about it,” she suggested, “you don't have to say anything until later, trust me. Try to have fun, like I am studying these butterflies.”

“Oh,” whined Fluttershy, “but I'm just not sure what he'll think if I don't tell him his love of plants is really interesting to me.”

“Then tell him that later!” urged Twilight, “Right now just don't think about it and have fun like you always do.”

“I'll think of something,” said Fluttershy, backing off, “I have to go now to lunch.”

“All right,” she answered her, “good luck.”

Fluttershy walked back towards the cafe trying to figure out her next move. She was trying to listen to Twilight's advice, but also wanted to figure out what would be the ideal thing to tell Shadow Breeze in order to make her feelings known without ruining the day. Her ears drooped as she realized that she was never going to be able to figure out the perfect thing to say without Twilight, and hoped she would end up near the cafe as well in order to help her.

Meanwhile at the cafe, Shadow Breeze was not having much luck getting help from Techorse either. They were sitting at one of the carved wooden tables, and Techorse had put down his newspaper to offer his advice. But his friend seemed to make no sense to him, asking the impossible.

“I told Fluttershy it was pretty cool that there was something here for both of us,” he said, “now how do I tell her I think she's amazing for loving animals? I don't want to talk about myself, I want to make her feel special.”

“I don't know!” he answered, “Just tell Fluttershy you think her love for animals is great once the timing seems right.”

“That's not very helpful...” sighed Shadow Breeze, believing there was some magic formula he was missing.

“All you have to do is be yourself,” said Techorse as he repeated himself from before, “it sounds to me like everything's going great so far! You'll know what to do, buddy.”

Shadow groaned and covered his eyes, “I don't know. Stay here though in case I need help again, ok?”

“Don't worry, I will,” he answered, picking up the newspaper again, “come back if you need me again.”

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy met up at a table just a few feet away from where Techorse was sitting reading his newspaper and drinking a hot glass of tea. The two incredibly shy ponies were trying to avoid eye contact with each other when thinking about what to say to be romantic, and made eye contact only when they dropped the topic. Eventually they were served their lunch, cucumber sandwiches on wheat, fresh cut carrots and celery, and spicy crackers cut into the shape of butterflies, as well as a whole kettle of camomile tea for them to share. The butterflies hovering around the cafe seemed uninterested in their food in favor of some sugar water dispensers hanging from the roof of the kitchen, which was a small green painted hut left in front of the cafe.

“It looks like they're joining us for lunch!” laughed Fluttershy nervously, as she picked up the tea kettle and moved it over to her cup.

“I don't think they eat sandwiches!” joked the stallion at the table awkwardly, “So, enjoying yourself so far?”

“Oh yes,” she answered, pouring the hot tea onto the table and the floor by accident as she maintained her focus on Shadow Breeze, “It was really nice seeing the rare species.”

Neither of them noticed the massive tea spill except for the waiter, who grumbled at the mess he'd have to clean up later. Eventually though, Fluttershy wondered why she wasn't able to drink any tea from her white porcelain cup, and found the spill.

“Oh my! Let me clean that up.”

She mopped up the stray tea with her cloth napkin, soaking it thoroughly with the dark drink. Once finished, she returned to her seat, and laughed.

“I'm so forgetful sometimes,” she said.

Shadow Breeze smiled, “Well, I can be too. One time I left my toast in the toaster and burnt it to a crisp.”

“Glad I'm not the only pony who's done that,” whispered Fluttershy.

A few moments passed before she added, “Um, Shadow, can I tell you something?”

“S..sure?” he said, his voice growing short as he wondered what she was about to say.

Fluttershy wanted to blurt out that she enjoyed his company, but fell short and nearly turned white in terror. She had no idea how to put this, and needed to ask Twilight again, who was near the gift shop on the other side of the cafe.

“I... I need to use the little mare's room. I'll be right back!” she whimpered, leaving the table.

As soon as she was gone, the equally pale-faced Shadow turned to Techorse and tried to get an answer as to what he should say as well. And so this continued, with the ponies trying to carry normal conservation on throughout lunch. Whenever they would hit a pause, instead of asserting themselves or using their own conversational style, they'd turn to their friend and get advice on what to say. This would lead to them saying something Techorse or Twilight would say instead of what they would, and it lead to awkwardness and lots of looking around. Eventually though, the horror of lunch together was over, and the two ponies were back on their tour to see the hatching rooms. They were sure to have more fun just doing what they loved to do together instead of being forced to talk about themselves.

Techorse sighed in relief when he watched them leave with Aster, and walked to the gift shop to purchase a disposable camera. On the way, he looked around to get a view of the butterflies, and carelessly bumped into Twilight. Down went the two ponies, who grunted in disbelief before standing back up and confronting each other.

“Hey watch where you're going!” said Twilight, “You almost...”

She recognized him immediately despite the disguise and asked, “Tech?”

Techorse tried to maintain his cover and answered nervously, “Oh, hello ma’am, Um... who's Tech?”

“You're not fooling anypony,” laughed Twilight, taking off his gray private investigator's hat,” I can clearly see it's you.”

“Darn, PAL was right, I should have gone with the mustache,” he joked.

They hugged quickly, and then he asked her, “So what are you doing here, honey?”

“You're not going to believe this,” snorted Twilight, waving her hoof in the air to mock her friend, “Fluttershy brought me here to help her figure out what to say to Shadow Breeze.”

“No kidding!” he said, mouth agape, “That's why I'm here! Shadow wanted me to help him with the same thing! Seems like they want to...”

“I know, and that's great!” interrupted Twilight, “But to be honest, I'm here to potentially tell Princess Celestia about what goes on. We're going to see them learn something out of this.”

“Yeah, that copying us isn't going to help them,” snickered Techorse, earning him a playful swat from Twilight's right hoof, which he ducked.

“I was kidding!” he said, “In all seriousness, are we going to follow them and make sure things turn out?”

“I think they can do that on their own,” she said, winking, “Let's go to the gift shop and wait for them to be done!”

The two crossed tails and walked into the gift shop to see what was for sale, while their friends on the other side of the conservatory went to visit the hatchery. It was a smaller glass dome, with red lights hung from the ceiling. Hundreds of butterfly eggs, small yellow specks that rested on plants grown in the room, were sitting underneath the warm light waiting to hatch.

“As soon as these eggs hatch,” explained Aster, “These caterpillars will crawl out and start eating like crazy. They'll eat one hundred times their own body weight before going into metamorphosis.”

An older caterpillar, about four inches long, crawled onto Fluttershy's nose from a nearby branch and took a short rest. Shadow Breeze laughed at the silly event, and Fluttershy gasped lightly.

Aster suggested to her, “Just pick a twig off the bush and put him back.”

Shadow Breeze warned, “A fresh twig? That'll hurt the plant.“

“It's just one twig!” criticized Aster, “What's the harm? The caterpillars are already munching off the leaves.”

“Yeah but a twig is much harder for the plant to grow back!” complained the stallion, knowing that the plant would likely be slow to regenerate the lost part.

Fluttershy, with a caterpillar still tickling her nose, weighed her options. She went with doing no harm the plant and making Shadow Beeze happy by carefully used her left wing to remove the larval butterfly and place him back on a leaf.

She said, “See, no harm done.”

Another caterpillar nearby was struggling to reach a leaf that was positioned a few feet above his head. It stood on its pudgy back legs, attempting to reach up with its mouth parts, but without success. Shadow Breeze took pity on the little insect, knowing Fluttershy was unhappy to see it struggle and picked the leaf above gently with his mouth, before giving it to the hungry bug below. It grabbed the leaf with its mandibles and starting eating joyfully.

Fluttershy gave a loving look to him, “How sweet of you, Shadow Breeze, I'm sure Mr. Caterpillar was very grateful for that.”

“Well it was nice of you to not get a stick from the plant,” he said.

They both wanted to say something, but tried to hold off until later.

Both of them thought, “Maybe I should say something now?”

Aster could sense the tension, but being just the guide for the day, said nothing to either of the ponies in front of her. She instead motioned for them to leave the hatching room to continue the day's activities.

“Anyways, let's move on, shall we?”

Before she could finish, a loud crash was heard outside of the room, and the three ponies dashed to find out what had caused the noise. A large pane of glass had been smashed from the side of the dome, shards lay everywhere on the dirt floor outside of the walk path. The intruder that had crashed through the dome was a very large, brown colored colored toad, with bright red eyes, and a set of gray-colored spines that ran down its head and back. Despite being nearly as large as an earth pony and weighing more than twice as much, the toad still possessed powerful legs and a thick, injury resistant body that had allowed it to crash through the glass without harm.

“A Dire Toad?” questioned Fluttershy, “He must have come a long way from the bog near Baltimare!”

“Oh no!” she gasped as its reason for being there struck her, “He must be here to gobble up the butterflies!”

“That's horrible,” said Aster angrily, “I'm getting the staff, we'll handle this thing!”

The Dire Toad possessed more intelligence than what the ponies had given him credit for however, and overheard their plans to chase him out of the conservatory. Spotting some nearby bamboo torches lit for an island effect, the toad croaked loudly before jumping into a row of the lighting, knocking them over. The torches split open, and fluid leaked everywhere before igniting into a massive conflagration. The fire alarm went off as the smoke from the fire reached the ceiling, and the patrons of the conservatory along with most of the employees screamed and ran away for the exits. Only two other employees joined Aster, who found her with Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze confronting the toad. It realized that its plan had only partially succeeded, and hopped away into the depths of the artificial forest in search of butterfly prey.

Twilight Sparkle and Techorse had noticed the fires and rushed over to help.

“What's going on?” asked Twilight, “Where'd this fire come from!?”

Techorse's trenchcoat parted where he was wearing his saddle underneath, and his robotic arms extended out, ready to help.

“Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing here Techorse?” asked Fluttershy, confused.

“And you, Twilight?” asked Shadow.

Twilight nearly ignored them but said desperately, “Both of you asked us to go along to help you out on your date, ok? Now back to the fire, what happened?!”

“We both had the same plan?” Shadow Breeze said as he turned to Fluttershy.

She looked back at him, and nodded slowly before they both blushed and knew what they had done wrong over the day.

“There's a Dire Toad loose in the building,” explained an employee who interrupted their thoughts, “it started this fire and escaped! What are we going to do?”

“We've got to stop the toad from eating the butterflies and keep the conservatory from burning down!” said Aster, “We can't possibly do both though!”

Fluttershy realized that Shadow Breeze and herself could do something about this, and spread her wings.

“We can too!” insisted Fluttershy, hovering up into the air, “Shadow and I will take care of the toad. You five put out the fire!”

“We will?” gasped Shadow Breeze, not sure she knew what she was doing.

“Do you trust me?” she asked as Shadow Breeze lifted up to meet her.

Her eyes met his, and they both stared at each other with determination and hope. They knew what they had to do to save the plants and animals they loved, and they knew they could do it if they worked together as a team.

“Yes.” he answered slowly, “Let's get him, Fluttershy!”

The two ponies flew off to go find their opponent, while Twilight and Techorse turned to the three employees.

“Let's see if we can convert the water pumps for the flowers into fire hydrants!” shouted Twilight, “I'll lend my magic where I can!”

Techorse added, “And I've got two arms for a fire extinguisher, if you've got one.”

“All right! Let's get to work!” said Aster, “Follow me to the pump room, maybe we can save the conservatory yet!”

They galloped away to grab their firefighting supplies and beat the blaze back, as the fires began to take on the trees in the building. If they hurried, they would be able to stop the flames before they got out of control, and both the building and the butterflies would be safe again.

The Dire Toad had reached the imitation backyard again, and spotted the butterflies still unaware of the roaring fire on the other side of the building. They were busy feeding from the morning glories still, and the toad below prepared to engulf them. But Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had arrived at the scene, and tried to get his attention.

“Hey you!” shouted Shadow, diving in and landing on the ground.

The toad didn't bother to turn, and opened his mouth wide. His long, pink tongue tipped with several sharp barbs shot out and raced towards a butterfly. To stop him from gobbling up the poor insect, Fluttershy knocked over the fence, and the tongue overshot the target before hitting a nearby palm tree. In a display of brute strength, the amphibian drew his tongue back in, uprooting the palm tree and tearing it down with a mighty crash.

“Yikes!” gasped Fluttershy, covering her mouth with her hooves.

The toad tried to take aim at another set of butterflies flying high above, and Shadow Breeze activated his amulet, casting hundreds of shadow butterflies above. This confused the monster, and it could not decide what to fire its tongue at, missing several of its shots and having to reel in its long tongue every time.

Fluttershy flew up and smashed one of the glass planes on the roof, and then said loudly to the butterflies, “Hey! I need you to all leave until it's safe again, hurry!”

The insects obeyed Fluttershy, and left through the glass opening in large numbers while Shadow Breeze kept the toad distracted. Eventually they had all successfully escaped, leaving just the amphibious beast with the two ponies, who landed nearby. The monster became furious upon realizing that the two ponies had cost it its planned source of food, and turned to attack them with its barbed tongue.

“Now what?” whimpered Fluttershy, becoming afraid.

“I guess we're going to have to stop it!” he said, gasping as he realized they'd have to fight.

As the Dire Toad stepped forward to take revenge for the loss of the butterflies as its next meal, Shadow Breeze readied himself, and cringed slightly as the animal gave a dark croak at him. Fluttershy tried to figure out what she could do to convince the toad to stop causing mayhem, but understood that until it had calmed down, it was unlikely to listen.

“I'm going to try scaring it off.” he said.

She answered after a short breath, “All right, but be careful, and don't hurt him!”

The monster opened its mouth and shot its barbed tongue at Shadow Breeze, who leapt into the air and spread his wings to avoid the spiky appendage. Once the tongue had retracted, the toad recoiling from the force of its muscle reentering its mouth, Shadow Breeze charged his amulet, and shadow magic began to accumulate a dark aura around the enchanted object's primary gemstone. Again the toad jumped into the air to attack Shadow Breeze, ignoring Fluttershy as she had chosen to stay on the ground. Out came the long, sharp tongue, which streaked up into the air to grab Shadow Breeze and bring him down. The pegasus pony anticipated the attack and quickly fired off a blast from his amulet. A black shadow in the shape of a cartoon bomb, rounded and complete with fuse, was thrown from the amulet towards the tongue. It hit the end, and stuck before the toad reeled it in, landing on the ground with a sharp whack. As the shadow bomb exploded inside the beast, it puffed up temporarily before smoke poured from its lips.

“It's skin is too thick! I can't scare him away with my amulet!” cried Shadow Breeze, before the Dire Toad struck again with its tongue.

This time, the lengthy pink rope struck him, grabbing his shadow amulet. With a quick and skillful turn of its head, the creature ripped the jewelry off his opponent and slammed it into the ground along with its owner. Shadow Breeze slowly stood up, more shocked than harmed by the impact, and watched helplessly as the toad retracted its tongue and placed his prized amulet underneath its right left foot.

Fluttershy ran up to him, panic and concern in her eyes, “Are you hurt?!”

“It's not so bad,” he said, tears welling up from the pain, “I just got bruised a little, that's all.”

The toad croaked in a pattern that resembled deep laughter, likely amusement that the projectiles lobbed at it had no effect, while it was able to hurt Shadow Breeze easily. Fluttershy lost all patience with the creature at this, and turned around, rage in her eyes. The toad seemed to ignore her at first as she galloped up, but he fell just short of launching his tongue before the mare was upon him.

“You loser!“ she screamed, getting inches from his face, “How could you be so cruel as to try to eat butterflies, the most pacifistic insects in Equestria!”

It retreated a step backwards, releasing its hold on the amulet as Fluttershy pushed it backwards with her head, ensuring he was making eye contact with her. Shadow Breeze watched in amazement as she went to work on the creature, having only heard from her friends about her berating of vile creatures.

“Not only that, but we were trying to help you by stopping you from eating them,” she continued, “butterflies aren't colorful because they want to look nice. It's to warn dumb predators like you that they're poisonous! Imagine what would have happened if you'd eaten them!”

Although the amphibian had lost some ground, it was not giving up, and pushed back on Fluttershy, slightly opening its mouth to use its tongue again. At such close range the barbs would have terrible power, but Fluttershy was not about to give up, rearing up on her hind legs for a moment, she brought her front hooves back down and stomped on the ground before giving the toad her signature stare.

“You stop this RIGHT NOW!”

The toad continued to try and resist, but after a few seconds of Fluttershy's piercing gaze, it let out a terrified cry and covered its bulbous eyes with its front arms. Knowing she had won and gained his attention, she attempted to settle the matter with the beast.

“Now, now,” she said calmly, patting it on its head, “I know you're not entirely evil. You just got greedy, that's all. Do you think you can go back to your bog, and tell the other toads what I said about butterflies being poisonous? We wouldn't want any accidents.”

The Dire Toad nodded slowly, and gave a happy croak when Fluttershy ran her hoof over its spines, calming it down. It then hopped for the nearest open glass panel, and leaped out the opening, hopping back for home.

“Fluttershy, that was amazing!” said Shadow Breeze, running up to her, “I've always known you were good with animals, but I've never seen you do that before.”

She asked meekly, “You thought that was amazing?”

“Yes!” he answered, “I've thought you were amazing all along.”

“Well, what you did was pretty brave too,” she said.

After a pause for the two to look away from each other in embarrassment, Fluttershy continued, “Anyways... I need to bring the butterflies back now that it's safe.”

She spread her wings and flew up to the ceiling, disappearing through the hole she had created. Soon she returned, and a large stream of butterflies followed her back into the conservatory. It took the insects a full minute to return, and the entire spectrum of colors and sizes of butterfly were present as they filed back in. Eventually all had returned, and were flying above gracefully, celebrating the success of the ponies in saving them.

Fluttershy landed back on the ground in front of Shadow Breeze, and stared into his eyes. She thought about simply saying goodbye here and heading home for the evening, but realized that there was more she wanted to say. So she took the plunge, and opened up to him.

"I had a good time, you know, despite the mess," said Fluttershy, "but I'm sure the butterflies will be safe now thanks to you!"

"But Fluttershy, we worked together to save the butterflies, and I had fun too!" he answered, a glowing look in his eyes.

Fluttershy had never before expressed the feeling she had, and would normally have sooner died than say anything. But here, she worked up just enough courage to say what she had wanted to say.

"I..." she stuttered, "Think... I love you."

Fluttershy quickly kissed Shadow Breeze on the cheek, and her face turned red as she realized what she had done in front of other ponies! The guests at the conservatory had returned since the fires had been extinguished, and some of them cooed or sighed at the sight. Shadow Breeze seemed slightly less affected, but was still rather embarrassed.

"I love you too," he said, surprised, "I didn't think you felt the same way though."

She folded her wings tightly against her sides, and answered, "I have for a bit. But I was too scared to ask you out, until Twilight helped me."

"And I was too scared until Techorse helped me!" he admitted.

"And it almost didn't work out," Shadow Breeze said after taking a pause to frown and reflect on things, "we tried to do things just like them, instead of being ourselves. We should have listened to them sooner."

Fluttershy smiled, "Well, we're being ourselves right now. We're helping the plants and animals, just like we love to do."

Shadow Breeze gave Fluttershy another loving look, and she stared back at him with happiness and feeling. He leaned in and closed his eyes to kiss her on the lips, but opened them in surprise when he realized he was kissing a feather. Fluttershy had held her right wing up to his chin, and was stopping him.

"Um, maybe we could wait until another time. You know, when there's not so many ponies staring..."

Shadow Breeze looked up and around at all the ponies in the conservatory who were looking at them, with broad smiles on their faces in thanks for saving their beloved butterflies. He laughed nervously and blushed, and backed away from Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle and Techorse as well as Aster and the other employees, had all returned from extinguishing the last of the fires, and found the two of them side by side, their tails interlocked.

"Oh, wow," said Techorse, the words barely leaving his mouth.

Twilight lowered her head in confusion and said, "I don't get it."

"What don't you get?" asked Shadow Breeze.

"Things turned out? I thought things were ruined after that fire and that dire toad attacking."

Fluttershy left Shadow Breeze's side and approached Twilight, "It didn't ruin anything, Twilight. You and Tech were simply right this whole time. Shadow and I like to help nature, and that's what we got to do today by stopping the toad from eating the butterflies. We like to do things our way, and we got to do that."

“Then you guys finally learned what I was hoping you would!” she said, thinking merrily to herself about her latest letter she'd write to the princesses.

"We're very happy for you two," said Techorse, giving them a thumbs up with one of his robotic arms from his saddle.

"And next week, there's a brand new flower garden opening outside of Canterlot," added Twilight, getting an idea, "I'm sure you'd like to go do that!"

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy looked at each other, and both knew that after today, they didn't want to go to another event for a while until they'd had some time to recuperate.

Fluttershy answered, "Um, actually, we were going to make plans... to plant some catnip for Opal. I'm sure Rarity would appreciate it."

"Oh yes! I'd love to grow some catnip," agreed Shadow Breeze, "Let's go home and get to work on that plan."

"Let's!" said Fluttershy.

The two of them left together, side by side, both happy to be together, and happy that they were avoiding the suggested social situation.

Twilight and Techorse looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief, yet smiled for their friends' joy.

Outside the conservatory, the sun had not yet begun to set, yet the cool breeze and the wonderful smell of the rose garden provided a wonderful setting for the two ponies leaving for home. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had wandered out behind the bushes on the exit path of the butterflies' home, and stopped just before a large bush full of bright red roses, each one glistening with dew from their most recent watering.

Shadow Breeze stopped her, and they looked into each other's eyes lovingly, losing themselves.

“Thank you for such a wonderful day,” she said to him softly.

“It was the best day of my life,” he answered, approaching her slowly so that their muzzles almost touched.

She whispered, “I... love you.”

“I love you too,” Shadow Breeze whispered back.

They closed their eyes, and then moved in gracefully, their lips locked for a few moments of time. Not another soul saw the act of love in front of the romantic flower bush, but that did not make it any less of a wonderful moment for the two ponies. After they finished their kiss and opened their eyes, they looked around to make sure no other ponies had seen them do that. Despite everything, they were still shy and reserved on the inside, and would be mortified if their display of affection had gone public.

“Let's go back and talk on the train...” suggested Fluttershy, “you know, if that'd be ok with you.”

“I was thinking the same thing, don't worry,” he answered quickly.

The two meekly headed on the path for their train, their tails twisted around the other's as they walked slowly off and out of sight. Without warning, however, a familiar pink pony bounded out of the rose bushes and into their path, and the three nearly collided had it not been for Pinkie Pie spotting them and grinding to a halt on her front hooves.

“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?” gasped Fluttershy.

Pinkie Pie answered with a giggle, “I'm delivering butterfly-shaped cookies to the cafe today!”

She then noticed that the two had their tails together, and gasped loudly, “Are you two... a THING now?”

“Uh oh,” whimpered Shadow Breeze.

“Yay!” cheered Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down, “I can't wait to tell everypony back in Ponyville! We're going to have a big party, and there'll be plenty of teasing from me just like I do to Twilight and Techie!”

“So much for things being private,” cried Shadow Breeze, his ears drooping.

“Um... Pinkie Pie, do you think maybe we could just, quietly tell the others ourselves instead of making a big deal about it?” asked Fluttershy gently, hoping Pinkie Pie wouldn't announce their relationship to the world.

Pinkie Pie stood still for a moment, and then gave a quick hop, making her fluffy hair and tail bounce, “Oh, all right! But we're still having a little private party back home. Just some cake with friends, ok?”

“That's much better!” said Shadow Breeze, letting out a breath in relief.

“We'll come back home with you and celebrate.” added Fluttershy.

“Great!” said Pinkie Pie with a happy grin, “Let's get to the train!”

The three left back for the train station, but not before finding Twilight and Techorse, who accompanied them back after a short break to purchase a few roses to eat on the way home. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze knew as they headed back for home aboard the train, that they no longer needed to try and make every day together perfect, or have it follow a set of rules. As long as they were doing what they loved together, they were happy, and their love for each other showed that.

#39 - Shame and Fortune: Part I

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Shame and Fortune: Part I

Techorse Series: #39

By Spirals95

The strip of road outside of the Golden Oaks library was beginning to get marred by the constant pacing of Twilight Sparkle, who was eagerly awaiting her mail. For a while she had what was a huge honor for someone like her, a pen pal, and was happy to read a new message from her friend. But within the previous month, no letters had shown up from her friend, and even the daily paranoid letters of panic from Twilight had not been met with even a postcard in response. Spike was standing nearby, crossing his arms in disgust at Twilight's behavior.

“What if she's been in the hospital, or gotten deathly sick?” she wondered, a droplet of sweat escaping out from underneath her striped mane, “Or maybe she just doesn't want to write me anymore.”

Derpy Hooves landed near the simple wood and iron-post mailbox out front of the library, and opened the hatch carefully to put Twilight's mail for the day in, when she was nearly tackled by the mare.

“DERPY!” she shouted, violating her friend's body space.

The hapless mailmare jumped at the surprise, and got her hoof stuck in the mailbox, ripping the container off of the post, and leaving it stuck on her front leg like an oversized metal shoe.

“Oh, hey Twilight,” she said, frowning as she looked at the damage she had done, “sorry about your mailbox. I jumped.”

“That's ok, I can put the mailbox back together,” answered Twilight, waving a woof and smiling, “so what's in the mail today?”

After removing the mailbox from her hoof and resting it back on top of the post, Derpy Hooves dug into her mailbag, and removed two letters plus a yellow envelope from her canvas bag strapped across her body. Twilight grabbed the mail away from her with her magic, and looked over the letters quickly before developing a disappointed look on her face.

“Is this it?” she asked.

Derpy Hooves frowned as she focused her good eye on Twilight, “Yeah, sorry, I guess I could have left something back at the post office. Want me to check?”

“No,” Twilight sighed, her ears drooping, “I'm just waiting for somepony to write me back is all. It's been forever.”

Twilight inspected the envelope and turned to Spike, “Here you go Spike, this must be the comic book you ordered in the mail.”

“Nice!” he responded eagerly, grabbing the envelope.

Derpy Hooves bid Twilight farewell, who still had a heavy heart about the situation and was now looking down at the ground in disappointment. Spike thought about digging into the first issue of the new spin-off series he was getting into, but knew his best friend's needs came first, and he went and placed the yellow envelope down on the front door of the library before returning to Twilight.

“Aw, cheer up Twi,” he said, stroking her side with a scaly hand, “I'm sure whoever it is you're waiting to hear from, they'll get back to you. They're probably really busy.”

“I sure hope so, I was really happy to have a pen pal this year!” answered the mare, looking up at the young dragon.

Rainbow Dash, who had watched conversation while moving a few wisps of clouds out of the way of the sun for the afternoon, paused her chores and landed down on the ground in front of Twilight. She thought it would be a good idea to help cheer Twilight up, especially if it meant getting out of work for a while.

The pegasus folded her wings at her sides and asked, “Hey Twilight, what's going on?”

“Oh hey Rainbow Dash,” Twilight responded, taking a quick glance at the damaged mailbox before returning eye contact, “what are you doing here?”

She answered with a smirk, “I can't leave you totally gloomy down here. Wouldn't be too cool of me. So what's wrong?”

“Well, my pen pal hasn't written back to me in a month and I'm starting to get a bit worried,” she confessed.

“A pen pal?” asked Rainbow Dash, chuckling, “Are you serious? Who does that anymore?”

“Yeah I know, it's a little out of date,” admitted Twilight, laughing a bit and rolling her eyes at Rainbow Dash's question, “but I'm writing back to her because she's special. This is a sompeony who's progress I've needed to keep in touch with.”

“Oh neat, who is it?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Is it Moondancer, or one of the other eggheads you used to talk with back in Canterlot?”

“Actually no!” said Twilight, smiling widely, “It's Trixie Lulamoon.”

Spike and Rainbow Dash immediately gasped and grew wide eyed at the news.

“TRIXIE?” shouted Rainbow Dash, nearly recoiling in shock, “Why in Equestria would you want to have anything to do with that loser?”

Spike pounded his right fist into his left hand to make a point, “Yeah! She tried to knock Tech's lights out, or worse!”

“But when I confronted Trixie, she made a promise to change and try to become a famous illusionist again,” protested Twilight, “Honest! We've been writing letters back and forth on a weekly basis so that I could keep up on her progress and cheer her on. In fact, I think we were really close to being...”

“Hey wait a minute,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, not wanting Twilight to use a certain word to describe Trixie, whom she hated, “so you're saying Trixie hasn't written back in a month?”

“No, and it's making me worry,” said Twilight, breathing a sigh of discomfort.

“Pfft, easy answer, she's done with us!” finished Rainbow Dash with a scoff in her voice.

Spike didn't have the same opinion however and crossed his arms, “Hey! If anypony could change Trixie's mind about how to act, it'd be Twilight Sparkle. I might not like her either, Rainbow Dash, but something might really be wrong here!”

Twilight smiled at Spike for the compliment, “Trixie's letters never took on a sour tone. She sounded really happy about what she was doing, I just don't know why they've cut off.”

Her ears and eyes perked up when she realized the answer to her problem, “Wait a minute, the cutoff! If I go back and look at the very last letter Trixie sent me, maybe I can figure out where she is and go check up on her myself!”

“I still don't see why you care, she's a jerk,” grunted Rainbow Dash.

She was outvoted to search the letters two to one, and reluctantly agreed to drop her attitude in order to help Twilight out. The group headed back inside the library, where Twilight dug out a shoebox containing the older letters she had exchanged with Trixie earlier, and the contents were dumped out onto Twilight's writing desk in the corner of the rounded room.

“Spike!” shouted Twilight, “I already had those organized by date, you could have just taken the top one out of the stack.”

Spike shrugged and sifted through the contents, making a note of the dates on the corners of each letter, until he found the most recent one.

“Here it is, from last month,” he said cheerfully, handing the piece of paper to Twilight.

Twilight accepted the letter with her front hoof and set it in front of herself and Rainbow Dash on the desk while Spike started to put the letters back in the box, haphazardly tossing the them back into the cardboard container until a stern look by Twilight reminded him to put them back in the correct order.

While Spike finished sorting the letters, Twilight read the part of the letter key to what they were looking for,

“Although I have done well at employment, Trixie's travels have taken her all over Equestria, and she seeks a more permanent place to host her show. The latest chance at this will be at the Stained Glass Resort near Salt Lick City,” she read.

“Salt Lick City?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, “That's pretty far, Twilight. Maybe we should just wait for her to get back to us, ya know, instead of obsessing over her not writing?”

“Well, what if I got us all some vacation time from Princess Celestia?” offered Twilight, desperate to go and help out.

Rainbow Dash doubted it, “How are you going to do that?”

She answered, “Princess Celestia has been interested in hearing about Trixie ever since I told her what happened between us and Tech. She's been looking forward to hearing if she's changed or not. I'm sure if we asked nicely and informed her about how much we could learn about friendship helping Trixie out, we could go.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “I really doubt it. But hey, if it means we get to take a few days break from work, I'm all for it!”

Spike offered, “And I could probably get PAL to help me out with the library while you're gone!”

Twilight Sparkle opened her desk and removed a slip of parchment paper and a quill, already dipped in fresh black ink. While she began to write the letter to Princess Celestia, she instructed Rainbow Dash to go pack herself an overnight bag so that they could stay at the resort without needing to teleport back and forth or find another place to stay the night. Excited to be taking a break from her job, Rainbow Dash zoomed out the door of the library and took off into the afternoon air to race back to her home and pack a small suitcase for the trip.

While she was tearing through the skies, reaching way faster of a speed for how low she was flying than she should have, she flew past Applejack's cart in the middle of the town square, dislodging the umbrella and sending it flying. Applejack held down her hat, along with many others in the square trying to buy apples, as the gust of wind nearly sent all of their hats and other loose items away with the umbrella.

“Rainbow Dash!” she shouted angrily, “Hang on just a minute!”

The Pegasus stopped her flight, and turned around, spotting the hapless umbrella rolling around a good distance from the cart, and picked it up with her front hooves before returning to Applejack.

“Heh, whoops. Sorry Applejack,” she said, putting the umbrella back into its holder on the cart.

Applejack quickly dropped her anger, knowing Rainbow Dash hadn't meant to do it, and asked, “Now what has you in such a rush?”

“Twilight's going to get permission from the princess to let us go to Salt Lick City!” she said, squealing, “Isn't it cool? I gotta pack my bag for the trip.”

“Salt Lick City?” asked Applejack, smiling, “Why, I got a distant relative out there.”

The cyan pegasus laughed and shook her head, “You have relatives everywhere! The Apple family is huge.”

“You'd be right about that, Rainbow Dash,” she continued, “but that means ya got somepony to stay with if you need to. What are you and Twilight gonna do out there?”

“You're never going to believe this, but we're going to go save Trixie Lulamoon's sorry butt. Or at least, we think we are,” she snickered in response.

Some of the townsponies overheard the name and began to whisper and murmur about Trixie's previous bad deeds in the town.

“Yeah, I know, right?!” said Rainbow Dash sarcastically to the crowd, being met with a few nervous laughs and some false hoof claps on the ground.

“Now this I gotta see,” said Applejack, “and we can go see Apple Oil and his artificial apple flavoring nonsense he's been going on about for years!”

“Are you sure you can get time off too?” asked Rainbow Dash, “I mean, it'd be really sweet if you could go with us.”

Applejack nodded, “Let me finish helping these folks here, and then I'll get Big Macintosh to take over. We got a bet back at the farm that our second cousin's made nothin' in the past two years, and we gotta settle that bet!”

“All right, cool! We'll meet you at the library!” said Rainbow Dash, turning around more carefully this time to avoid knocking away the poor umbrella again.

As soon as all of the team's bags were packed for the journey, they assembled at the library, with Twilight having gone and gotten Techorse and PAL. Twilight had received clearance from the princesses to go and assist Trixie if indeed something was wrong, and Rainbow Dash had given the day off thanks to a note from Princess Luna sent to the weather factory in Cloudsdale. Each of the different colored suitcases sat in a pile outside of the library doorway.

“So, how are we going to get there?” asked Rainbow Dash, impatiently tapping her front hoof, “Are you zapping us over, Twilight?”

“I think for the sake of the luggage we're going to end up taking the train this time,” she answered, looking at the suitcases.

“Sounds good,” agreed Applejack, “we gonna head out then?”

Techorse finished zipping up his small suitcase with his robotic arms, and then turned to face his friends.

“Yup! Just needed to finish putting the hotel reservation papers in my bag,” he answered.

They headed for the train station and boarded for a long trip to Salt Lick City, knowing it would probably be night by the time they reached the resort. As the train pulled away from the station, Techorse saw the worried look in Twilight's eyes as she sat next to him on the train.

“Come on, Twilight,” he encouraged, “Trixie's come a long way since your first met her.”

“I know, it's just I was really hoping that Trixie and I could be friends someday,” she answered.

“What?” asked Rainbow Dash, flopping her front legs over the seat in front of them and looking back, “Why would you want to be friends with her? She tried to humiliate us, and then came back and tried to axe Techie!”

“Trixie was nearly banned from every town she came to because of the previous incident she had in Ponyville,” reasoned Techorse, giving Rainbow Dash a stern look, “I think that's enough to drive anypony crazy, don't you?”

“Well maybe, but it's a lame excuse,” scoffed Rainbow Dash.

Applejack ignored the conversation between the three and went back to reading over the recipe book she intended to share with her family member. She was fairly sure that Rainbow Dash was going to forgive and warm up to Trixie anyways once they'd settled the issue. Looking at the recipe she was going to show Apple Oil, she read over the instructions to make the perfectly shareable apple crumble pie. Normally, apple crumble would fall apart so easily that it would be impossible to create perfect slices, but Applejack's family had a recipe for an apple crumble pie that would not only slice perfectly while still tasting great. The picture in the family recipe book showed the dessert, golden brown on the top with a few cuts to let out steam, and slices of fresh green apples on the top to indicate where a piece should be cut. Applejack's hope was that sharing the new recipes with her family member would help him to come back to his roots of natural apple flavors.

By the time night had fallen, the train had reached the station at Salt Lake City, a busy stop where ponies were running around trying to catch the late trains out of the town. Twilight and her friends collected their bags from the cargo car on the train, and caught a cab to the Stained Glass Resort where Trixie was supposed to be located. The four ponies crowded into the taxi cab looked out the windows as it pulled up to the building.

The Stained Glass Resort was a massive hotel spanning several dozen acres, twelve stories tall, and true to its name, each room featured a beautiful stained glass window with a unique decoration, flanked by two ordinary windows to make sure each room was well lit. The front of the building was built in the shape of a horseshoe almost, curving around in front of the central courtyard area, with a pathway in front lined with cherry blossom trees. Although the more arid environment of Salt Lick City would normally not support the beautiful pink-blooming trees, several gardener earth ponies watered the trees and kept a pipeline system going that kept every plant on the premise in top shape. To top off the outdoor garden, a massive fountain stood over the open entrance to the resort. It was a rounded, marble structure with a sculpture of a massive playing card in the middle that slowly rotated as the jets of water at the sides shot into the center and made the entire fountain make a bubbling noise that could be heard from several feet away.

“Wow!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she pushed open the door of the taxi coach and exited into the night air, “This place is amazing! No wonder Trixie didn't write back Twilight, she probably loves it here.”

But Applejack, noticing how expensive the entire setup was even for a resort out where property wouldn't cost much, stated as she exited the cab, “I'm not so sure, Rainbow Dash. Somethin' is up with this here resort.”

Twilight Sparkle finished paying the ponies who had pulled the cab to the resort, and made plans with them to bring them back to the train station in a few days. Techorse added his own tip, and then followed her away from the cab with his friend's bags in tow. An employee of the resort wearing a bellhop's uniform ran up to him and loaded the bags onto his baggage cart with a broad smile on his face.

“Welcome to the Stained Glass Resort!” he said, “We're so glad you chose to stay here with us for your vacation.”

“This is just for a few days,” said Techorse, helping him load up the bags, “I made reservations.”

“Really?” Gasped Rainbow Dash, flying up into the air and putting her hooves to her cheeks, “You mean you got rooms for us here, Techorse?! Oh my gosh, thank you, this is gonna be so much fun!”

“Oh, so all of a sudden, you want to help out with Trixie?” he asked, teasing her.

Rainbow Dash landed on the ground and regained her composure, “Well, sure, if it means getting to do all the stuff the resort has to offer.“

“You'll love it here, really!” assured the bellhop, the grin on his maroon face not leaving anytime soon, “We have rock climbing, an indoor and outdoor pool, wingball, and many game tables!”

The cyan pegasus was clearly overjoyed upon hearing about all the different activities and knew she was in for a massive treat over the weekend.

“We're going to be in room 31A,” Techorse said to the bellhop, “let me give you a little something for taking it there.”

The bellhop suddenly changed his attitude, “Um, sorry, can't accept any tips! But I really appreciate it.”

Twilight noted that he seemed suddenly nervous and asked, “Why not?”

“It's just, against the rules is all,” he said, visibly upset, “we're not allowed to take tips from patrons. You guys are so nice though, really!”

He pushed the cart of luggage away quickly without saying another word, hoping to get away from them as fast as he could. Twilight and her friends were all left stunned at the pony's weird behavior, and looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.

“Weird, nopony would overreact that badly to being offered a tip,” mused Techorse, breaking the silence after a short while.

“I told ya something is wrong with this resort!” reminded Applejack, pointing at the direction he had left, “The workers are all runnin' around acting like rabbits with a hot foot!”

Rainbow Dash shook her head at the weird figure of speech, “They're probably just not allowed to take tips because it's a rule they have at work. Whenever I'm moving clouds around, I'm not allowed to take any money to make sure the week's rain misses your house.”

“But that's a bribe, not a tip sugarcube,” argued Applejack, “I really don't like what's going on here everypony.”

“We're only going to be here a few days to figure out what happened to Trixie,” said Twilight, smiling nervously, “so we got one employee with a bit of a problem. I'm sure everypony else here is just fine! Let's head in and see if we can find her.”

The friends walked down the well-kept path in front of the resort, and entered through the front doors into the lobby. It was lined with red carpeting on the floor, vast marble columns kept the ceiling up overhead, and bright electrical lights marked a tiled pathway throughout the room. There was a small bar off to the right side of the main hallway, and many, many felt gaming tables topped with green. Fancy wooden chairs made from cherry and oak carved into ornate shapes sat many ponies who were playing games against each other. In the very front of the huge gaming room was a set of dining tables and a big show stage with a large blue curtain hiding what was behind it.

All sorts of Equestrian card games and games of chance were being played for prizes or for fun while patrons ordered food and drinks from the kitchen. Based on the number of waiters and waitresses running around, it became clear to Techorse quickly that drinks were likely the primary source of income behind the games. Not all of the games seemed to be pure gambling, in fact, many of them were games of skill and strategy against “the house” that could result in a very unique or rare prize being won, such as a designer purse or a brand new set of expensive silverware. But the most impressive feature of the room was a large piece in the center of it all. It looked like a large square arena, with many square subsections carved out of white polished marble stone, and two podium like structures at both ends. The entire square structure was flanked by small, foot-high walls, and four strange stone statues carved in the shape of dragons perched over and carrying gemstones in their front claws.

“Look at all these games!” gasped Rainbow Dash excitedly, “I gotta try some of them.”

“We're not here to mess with the games,” urged Applejack, “we gotta find Trixie and talk to her.”

“Yeah yeah, well, I'm more likely to see her if I sit down and play some cards,” chuckled Rainbow Dash, going over to a counter to buy some chips.

“I guess we could all play a little bit while we look,” said Techorse, smiling, getting the urge himself to have a little fun.

“Then let's enjoy ourselves, and try to find Trixie!” said Rainbow Dash, “It'll go a ton faster if we have a good time.”

“Rainbow Dash is right,” agreed Twilight, smiling, “if we blend in, we'll see her as we explore the resort. Just make sure you let me know if you see her first, ok?”

“Sure!” answered the peagsus, not really paying attention as she reached the head of the line to get her basket of playing chips.

Applejack looked around as her friends all split up to go do their own things, and realized she was left alone standing in the middle of the room. She decided she was going to go sit at the front near the stage and wait for her friends to be done, as she had no interest in the games.

Techorse and Twilight had gotten themselves a bucket of playing chips and headed into the center of the room to check out the structure that was being tended to by a white pegasus pony wearing a yellow hard hat. He had opened a hatch behind one of the dragon statues, and seemed to be working with a set of stones and wiring.

“Hello!” said Twilight Sparkle to the repair worker, “Can you answer a question for me?”

“'Sure miss,” he answered, slamming the door on the statue, “What can I do for you?”

“Well, what is this thing?” she asked cheerfully, “I noticed when I got here that a lot of ponies were talking about it, but I'm still trying to figure out what it is.”

The engineer smiled and petted the statue with his left wing, “This here is the resort's brand new attraction and the only one of its kind in Equestria. It's a magic-display hex-powered holographic Dragon's Tower gaming system.”

Twilight's eyes grew wide and a bright smile overtook her face in awe, “Wow! You mean, this is a game powered by magic?!”

“Yup, two hundred and ten runes powering a holographic display system that reads the game cards and projects what's going on right onto the stone tiles below,” he said, “course, only tournament players are gonna get to play a game of Dragon's Tower on it. Tomorrow's the grand opening tourney.”

Techorse was highly impressed by the idea of a magical system projecting holograms and running code for a game instead of a computerized system, and inspected the statues carefully to see if he could get a hint as to how it worked.

“So what's Dragon's Tower?” asked Techorse, “Sounds like a fun game, but I've never heard of it.”

The pegasus tried to answer his question as best as he could, “It's the most popular card and board game combination in Salt Lick City, and maybe even Equestria someday!”

“Well, how do you play?” asked Twilight, curious about seeing the system in action.

“You're in luck, there's a demo explaining the rules tonight!” he answered, laughing, “Be here at ten you two, and you're in for a great time! I guess you could also try playing it with some of the other patrons here against the house. Good luck!”

The engineer left them there, Twilight still amazed at the magic technology hybrid system in front of her. But she had a goal to finish, and stepped away from the arena.

“Let's come back at ten, Tech!” she said, “We can play together later.”

“All right sweetheart!” he answered, grabbing her tail with his as they walked into the depths of the gaming floor.

While Rainbow Dash was off trying to win herself an interesting prize to show off to the ponies back home in Ponyville, Applejack would have none of the games or activities herself. She had simply plopped herself down on a nice sofa near the bar area, and removed the recipe book she intended to show her distant relative from underneath her stetson hat. While she turned the pages for a good hour, going over each different apple-based goodie, she listened in on some beautiful piano music in the lounge. The smooth notes relaxed the busy atmosphere of the gaming center, and it provided a good way for Applejack to take her mind off of her worries about the place. She was rather impressed by the jazz and how soft it was despite how hard it must have been to play piano in such a distracting place, and she looked up from her book to see who was playing.

In the corner of the bar area sat a black grand piano, a silver chalice balanced on end being used as a tip jar. The white-coated unicorn pony playing the massive instrument was wearing a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, his horn glowing a soft orange as he moved a sheet of music over to make room for the next one seamlessly as he used a combination of hooves and magic to hit the keys just right. Black messy mane hair spilled over the sides of his head, striped with soft white, to match his tail. The stallion finished playing his piece, and Applejack approached his piano, smiling. She took out a gold bit from under her hat and tossed it into his chalice.

“Why thank you very much, lady,” he said, moving his sunglasses to reveal his chestnut brown eyes.

“You're welcome! It's great hearin' something besides ponies shoutin' about the games in here,” she said.

The unicorn pony shuffled off of the piano bench to greet her properly, revealing his cutie mark, a set of three white and two black piano keys with a red eighth note over the top, “Yeah, no kidding. Not easy playing with all the yelling. I doubt they're evening listening to my music.”

“Well, I sure am!”, she said encouragingly, “Name's Applejack.”

“Nice to meet ya, I'm Flaming Ivory,” he answered.

Applejack remembered that she had tipped him, and worried again about the bellhop who had refused his tip. She decided to ask Flaming Ivory about it in case something really was wrong with the resort.

“Are you one of the resort's workers?” she asked.

Flaming Ivory shook his head, “Nah, but this is a horrible gig. Pay's not that great, and I hardly ever get any tips.”

He noticed her frown, unaware that it was because his answer hadn't helped her learn if the employees at the resort were hiding a secret. Instead, he believed she was frowning because he wasn't doing very well at the resort.

“Ah, but don't worry about me,” he continued, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof, “sooner or later someone else will pick me up and I'll be doing concerts for the big bits!”

Applejack nodded, “With that kind of talent, ahm sure you will, Flaming! I've got some friends here I've been trying to pull away from the games. Maybe your music will help 'em slow down a bit.”

Flaming Ivory smiled, “Well let's go find your friends while I'm on break, it'd be nice to finally know some ponies around here. None of the other guests pay any attention to me.”

It was slightly tempting to Applejack to peer into the chalice to see if her coin was the only one, but she dismissed the idea as rude, and led Flaming Ivory to go locate her friends. She found Techorse and Twilight Sparkle observing a game of Dragon's Tower, attempting to figure out the rules by watching others play. Rainbow Dash was nearby, having already won a sizable pile of credits to redeem, much to the jealousy of some of the other ponies. Clearly, more effort was being put into having a great time than trying to locate Trixie, and Applejack decided to bring this up.

“Hey Techie, Twilight!” she said, “Just found a new friend over by the bar. His name's Flaming Ivory, you wanna introduce yourselves?”

The words “new friend” gained Twilight's attention, who turned with Techorse to meet the new pony.

“Hello!” she answered, smiling at him, “Nice to meet you, my name's Twilight Sparkle, this is my coltfriend Techorse, and over there cleaning out the table is Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash looked up momentarily from her card game and waved before returning to her opponents.

“What? Twilight Sparkle, Techorse, and Rainbow Dash? The Element Holders? The guys who beat the stuffing out of those aliens a while back?” he asked, astonished.

Rainbow Dash heard the compliment and got out of her chair after cashing out from the game, and approached the stallion, “I know, right? Pretty awesome, but it's what we do.”

Techorse asked Rainbow Dash, “Are you sure you wanted to leave your game like that Rainbow? It looked like you had quite the pile of prize credits going there.”

“Well, I'm taking a break, I have a nice cold strawberry tonic coming!” she answered, scraping at the ground with her hoof as if winning was nothing to her. One of the prize credits in the bag fell out, the square chip landing on the floor softly. Flaming Ivory noticed to stray in-house currency, and offered to pick it up for Rainbow Dash.

“Whoops, you dropped a credit, let me get that for you,” he said, charging his horn.

As his horn glowed orange, his eye color suddenly changed from brown to the same orange color, startling Techorse and Rainbow Dash as he picked up the chip and moved it back into the neck of Rainbow Dash's saddle bag. Twilight Sparkle's eyes twinkled with absolute delight, she knew exactly what was going on with their new acquaintance.

“Oh my goodness! You have Magika Irdiocrhomia!”

Flaming Ivory tilted his head in confusion, not knowing what she was talking about. He then remembered he wasn't wearing his sunglasses to hide his condition, and his ears sank back in embarrassment.

“Sorry Flaming, Twilight loves to speak egghead a lot,” joked Rainbow Dash, snickering at the nerdy phrase.

“What's that phrase mean Twilight?” questioned Techorse, curious.

Twilight swished her tail merrily and answered, “It's a rare condition I've read about in one of my medical books. It only affects one in every ten thousand unicorns, and even then, it's not usually that acute. The condition's only symptom and namesake is the unicorn's eyes changing color when using spells.”

Flaming Ivory tried to put his sunglasses back on, “I'm a freak, I know...”

“But your condition is benign, and really interesting!” protesting Twilight, demanding he take his sunglasses back off again, “You ought to feel special.”

“Well I didn't exactly fit in at school because of it, I'll put it that way,” he answered, removing his glasses, “but I'm glad you guys like it.”

“It's neat!” declared Rainbow Dash, legitimately taking interest.

“I've never met anypony who thought it was that cool,” he answered, “but I really do appreciate it, guys. Want to head back to the bar for some music?”

Rainbow Dash was starting to wonder what was taking her strawberry tonic so long, and she impatiently tapped her front hoof, looking around for the nearest waitress. She heard grumbling as a pony pushed her way through the crowd playing the games, making her way through until she reached the area where Twilight and her friends were standing. It was Trixie, carrying her strawberry tonic on a tray floating near her via magic. The pale blue mare was wearing a white feathery cap and a white dress, obviously serving as a visual perk for ordering one of the drinks. She met Rainbow Dash's eyes, and knew immediately the drink was for her, letting out a subtle gasp.

“Trixie?!” asked Rainbow Dash.

Twilight and her friends turned around from Flaming Ivory, who tried to peer over the top of the others. Trixie Lulamoon and Twilight stared at each other for a few seconds. Twilight smiled brightly and started to walk up to Trixie to greet her, but Rainbow Dash ruined the mood.

“Trixie's a showmare?” she snickered.

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing and rolled onto the floor, kicking her legs and gaining the attention of several of the ponies in the room. Trixie blushed, lowering the tray to the ground, and slowly trying to slink off with her ears and tail lowered underneath the ridiculous dress. She vanished into the crowd, shame in her eyes.

“Trixie, wait!” called Twilight, concerned for her.

“Rainbow Dash!” snapped Applejack, “Now you've gone and made her upset. Shame on you!”

The pegasus got up from the floor and cleared a tear from her eye with her left wing, “Heh, I'm sorry. It's just, so funny to see that pest get what she deserves for going after Techorse and nearly smashing Ponyville to bits! You can't just let that slide.”

Techorse joined in on berating Rainbow Dash, “Rainbow, I told you I forgave her. Seems the only pony not letting anything slide is you.”

Rainbow Dash realized that she had several pairs of angry eyes directed at her, except for Flaming Ivory, who was thoroughly confused by the situation. She looked around a bit sheepishly, as her outburst had gotten her several mean looks even from the random guests at the resort.

“Think it's funny laughing about her job?” called one of the patrons, “Would like to see you try it.”

“H.. hey!” she answered, angry.

Twilight Sparkle looked Techorse in the eyes and told him,”I'm going after Trixie. I'll find out what's wrong, and why she's not doing her magic shows here.”

“Good luck Twilight,” he responded, nodding.

Twilight galloped off into the depths of the crowd in hopes of finding Trixie again. As her striped tail disappeared behind a gaming table, Techorse turned back to Flaming Ivory.

“So, you're a musician?” asked Techorse.

“Yup, piano,” he answered.

“Can we listen to you play? I think we need to get out of here before Rainbow Dash gets into more trouble,” he asked, pointing to the patrons glaring at the mare.

Flaming Ivory pointed over to his piano on the opposite side of the room, “Grab her and let's go. We'll smooth things over with some music!”

Twilight exited the resort through one of the fire doors located on the sides of the building, and caught up to Trixie, who had removed her stupid looking dress and discarded it in a nearby wooden crate. She was facing away from Twilight, trying to keep her away.

“Trixie, please!” pleaded the lavender mare, holding out a hoof,” I came here to help you.”

Trixie slowly turned around, fixing her white mane with her magic, “Why did you come here Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight Sparkle answered with a confident look, “Because you stopped writing me, Trixie. I figured something had gone wrong. Every time you had a successful magic show or made a new friend, I heard about it from your letters.”

She simply answered in a snippy manner, “Trixie wrote those letters to avoid arrest. Princess Celestia was going to have me locked up if she heard about what had happened in Techorse's castle.”

“But that's not true, I told Princess Celestia what you did, and she agreed that it was better if you were free. We knew you had suffered, and wanted you to change,” argued Twilight, “plus, I was kind of hoping that we could...”

“Could what?” she asked indignantly.

“Be... friends?” asked Twilight, smiling gently and giving her a kind look.

Trixie felt a tinge of emotion welling up in her eyes, but she held it back, and coughed. She wasn't about to get emotional in front of Twilight Sparkle, her “nemesis”.

Twilight continued, “Please, we can leave and help you find work elsewhere.”

She was relieved that Twilight had provided a way out of the question, “Leaving is impossible.”

“What? Why?” asked Twilight, a little annoyed.

Trixie pointed behind her, “Because of her.”

Twilight turned around, and found herself facing the owner of the resort, being flanked by two burly stallions working security detail. She was a unicorn mare like herself, about the same size, and white in color, with soft red mane hair that flowed straight. She wore two tiny white earrings shaped like dice, and a blue dress that better suited a spy trying to stay undercover than an owner. Her cutie mark, barely exposed under the end of the dress, was a playing card with a heart on it, matching the fountain out front of the resort.

“Excuse me m'am,” said the unicorn mare with a hint of french in her voice, and rather cross, “conversing with the employees outside of the building is prohibited.”

Twilight Sparkle answered nervously, “Oh? Didn't know.”

The owner continued, “Who are you anyways? Normal guests don't run after employees like this.”

“I'm Twilight Sparkle,” she said, answering honestly.

The owner smiled in surprise, “Ah, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's 'prize student'. It's an honor, I guess.”

Twilight wondered how High Stakes had known the princess, but decided that was best asked later and simply decided to ask, “Thanks. Now, who are you?”

She flipped her mane hair in response, “High Stakes, owner of the Stained Glass Resort.”

Twilight Sparkle oohed and asked, “The famous card player? You own this resort? I thought you still liked to play games for prizes.”

“Oh I still love a good game miss Sparkle, but ownership of your own gaming parlor is where the money is these days,” she answered, glad to be connecting on a topic she liked.

The security guards could clearly see their boss was going to have a friendly conversation with Twilight, and so left them alone, entering back through the alleyway.

“So what are you doing out here with Trixie?” asked High Stakes.

“Trixie hasn't written me in ages, and seems to be serving drinks. She's an illusionist, not a waitress,” explained Twilight, “I think there must be some kind of mistake, she's supposed to be performing up on that stage you have.”

“I assure you there's no mistake here,” answered the owner, smirking and smiling, “Trixie Lulamoon signed a contract with me when she got here to work her way up to performing on stage. She still has quite the debts to pay off before I let her.”

“Debts?” asked Twilight.

High Stakes laughed as Trixie hung her head in shame, “Ha, she didn't tell you? Trixie couldn't make any money after wrecking a small town she went to, so she racked up thousands of bits in debts in order to survive. She was running from the debt collectors when she came here, like so many of my employees. So I had them sign a contract. I'll pay the debt collectors, if they'll stay here and work under my terms. It's cheaper than hiring actual wait staff for sure.”

Twilight Sparkle got angry, and sternly told High Stakes, “So you've enslaved them?”

“Hardly,” she answered in a snooty voice, walking past Twilight and approaching Trixie, “my employees would be in jail for unpaid debts if it wasn't for me settling their bills. I merely ask for fair compensation. I suppose they could run away if they wanted to, at the risk of being caught by the royal guard. But hey, I love a good gamble.”

She hugged Trixie quickly, whose skin seemed to crawl at the false gesture of concern.

“That's indentured servitude,” growled Twilight, “which is illegal under Equestrian law.”

“So's failure to pay off debts, it's fraud,” countered the owner, “go ahead and summon your princesses, Twilight. They'll send Trixie, and all the other employees here to prison. If I go down, they go with me.”

Twilight Sparkle tried to think of something to say, but she knew that High Stakes wasn't joking. If she tried to get Princess Celestia or Luna to help them, chances are the employees would be investigated for their debts, and would get into serious trouble.

High Stakes started to walk back inside and said sternly, “Get your outfit back on, Lulamoon, and get back to serving drinks. As for you, Sparkle, I expect you and anypony else with you to be off my property soon if you're not planning on paying for anything here.”

“Don't worry, we've bought a room,” she answered through gritted teeth.

“Excellent, and don't forget about the demonstration of Dragon's Tower. It's my new favorite game,” she said, “Maybe it'll help you forget about this little moment.”

High Stakes smirked and entered the building again, leaving the two other mares out in the alley.

“Trixie appreciates you trying, but I'm stuck here for good. She deserves it for her terrible deeds to you and Techorse,” she answered, going back to put on her dress.

“Trixie, you know that's not true, and please keep the dress off,” said Twilight, “we're going to get you out of here, and I think High Stakes has given me the answer.”

“How?” she asked.

“We need to go get the others,” answered Twilight, opening the door, “but I have an idea.”

Trixie looked at the white dress in her hooves, and nodded with hope in her eyes before discarding it permanently in a nearby trash can. She followed Twilight Sparkle back into the Stained Glass Resort, silently pleading that there was a way out for her and all the others trapped there.

To be continued...

#40 - Shame and Fortune: Part II

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Shame and Fortune: Part II

Techorse series: #40

By Spirals95

Twilight Sparkle's plan to free Trixie Lulamoon from High Stakes wouldn't be easy by any stretch of the imagination. It would be very convoluted and could easily backfire on her, but it seemed to be the only way to free Trixie without getting involved with the law, which would surely result in the resort's employees being locked up for failure to pay their debts. The unicorn mare found her friends gathered at the piano bar, where Flaming Ivory was playing his favorite ragtime piece to try and raise the spirits of his friends. They were seated in the light blue upholstered lounge chairs, gathered around one of the glass tables now littered with empty coffee mugs.

“Twilight!” called Techorse when he saw her, “What happened out there? Did you get Trixie back?”

Twilight slowly approached the table, her frown giving away her answer, “Trixie and the other employees here are being held to service by High Stakes, the owner of the resort.”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, holding up a hoof, “the High Stakes? As in, the famous card player from Canterlot?”

“That's right,” nodded Twilight, “all of her employees have had massive debts paid off in exchange for service here. But the jobs on the contract pay so low, they're practically slaves.”

“That's... horrible!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“Let's just tell Princess Celestia about this,” suggested Applejack, “she'll take one good look at that darn contract and shut down this mess!”

Twilight's ears drooped as she explained the situation further, “Applejack, we can't do that. High Stakes hasn't actually been paying the debt off piece by piece. She's settled with the debt collectors and can revoke payment at any time. All the ponies working here could be arrested for failure to pay their debts.”

“Then how are we going to get Trixie out of here?” demanded Rainbow Dash.

Twilight coughed and straightened her tail out a bit before answering, “By winning a game of Dragon's Tower against High Stakes.”

Flaming Ivory stopped playing, hitting a sour note out of surprise, “What now?”

Twilight Sparkle explained, “High Stakes is a renowned gambler. She won't refuse a wager against us, especially one she thinks she can win. I've been watching ponies play Dragon's Tower all night, and we're going to go to the demonstration of the new magic game system. We'll know enough to play.”

“How are we going to beat High Stakes at a game she's probably had months of practice at?” questioned Rainbow Dash, doubting the plan.

“By asking to be able to tag-team in and out of the game, we can play to our strengths and knowledge to beat High Stakes,” she answered, “Rainbow Dash, you know how to play very aggressively and win, I saw that when you cleaned out the table earlier. Techorse is a Cooperation Castle champion, so he can figure out strategy. And I've watched all the popular plays and can stay one step ahead of High Stakes.”

“She'll never agree to this,” said Flaming Ivory, shaking his head as he got down from his piano bench, “three against one isn't fair.”

“She just might if we say the right things,” Techorse answered, “and I think I know exactly what will get her to agree.”

Rainbow Dash stood up from her seat as well and cheered, “Then let's get to that demo! Can't wait to see the look on High Stakes' face when she loses to us!”

The magically powered hologram stadium was surrounded by the crowd, nosily enjoying their drinks, winnings, and conversations with the other resort guests. Twilight and her friends had retrieved Trixie Lulamoon, and sat with her in the seats nearby the stage, waiting for the demonstration to begin. The house lights came down over the stage, quieting the crowd. Each of the dragon statues in the corner of the map's mouths opened up, and a faint stage fog poured out to cover the arena in an eerie mist. A trapdoor opened from in front of one of the two stands where the players were to stand, and High Stakes rose from a moving platform in front of hers.

“Welcome, to The Stained Glass Resort's grand opening of the Dragon's Tower magical game system!” she bellowed over the music that had started to play behind her.

The crowd cheered and tapped their hooves on the ground as the dragons ceased their smoke, and instead began to project the playing field. From the center tile, a virtual tower appeared, a column of stone and ivy with a small wood door on each side. During a game of Dragon's tower, a 7 by 7 grid of squares featuring the tower itself and a few lakes taking up three squares apiece spaced evenly on the grid were projected onto the floor tiles. The magical machines created this virtual environment, even projecting a perfect, lifelike hologram of grass and fish jumping out of the lakes periodically.

Twilight's mouth fell open at the sight of the holographic work, and she noticed Techorse also had a similar silly look on his face.

High Stakes noticed Twilight's awe and chuckled to herself casually before returning to the microphone propped up on the stand.

“Tonight you've come here to perhaps learn how to play Dragon's Tower, or just to watch the very first magical game system in Equestria perform! In either case, I will be showing you what this new arena can do.”

She pushed a button on the stand in front of her, and the machine hummed to life, dispensing six large rectangles of laminated cardboard out of a small slot on the top, creating a hand for her and holding the cards as well.

“In a game of Dragon's Tower, players race to collect ten bags of treasure from the tower in the center of the board. You do this by playing cards representing teams of between two and four exploring ponies,” she explained.

The gambling mare used her magic to select a card from her hand, and laid it down on a special grid on her stand. A blue glow formed behind the card as the magical artifacts read it, and a small group of three projected earth ponies appeared on a square in front of her. Each was wearing a golden shirt, and a cute little explorer's pith helmet.

“On your turn, unless you go first, you draw a card. You then may play a pony team card, as I have done here. Say hello to the players, please!”

The holographic ponies stood up on their hind legs and waved to the crowd with their front hooves, eliciting laughs and applause from the resort customers. High Stakes pushed another button, and made an opposing team of earth ponies appear, who were dressed in a different set of explorer's outfits colored silver instead of gold.

“Once you've played a pony card, you may move all of your teams of ponies up one square at a time, using the pad provided on your console,” she explained, ordering her ponies to move one up, “you may move onto the tower if it is not occupied, but no team may ever enter a lake.”

Twilight continued to watch in amazement as High Stakes' virtual ponies walked into the next square, moving adjacent to the enemy team of three.

“Should a team of ponies move into the other, dice would normally be rolled, one for each pony in a team, but the artifact system handles it for us. The highest roller eliminates the other team from play.”

The enemy group of ponies attempted to move into High Stakes' square, and a dust cloud appeared to rise from the square, along with punching and kicking noises. Suddenly, three gold shirted ponies were sent flying from the cloud into the air, where they vanished into nothingness. When the smoke had settled, High Stake's ponies were gone, leaving only the three silver-shirted ones.

“The second type of card you may play each turn is a special card. If you have a team of ponies on the tower and play a collection card, marked with a golden bit, your ponies will collect 1 bag of treasure from the tower for each pony in that team, also removing them from play.”

A team of four ponies magically appeared on top of the tower resembling a rook chess piece, and each went down the central staircase of the fortress. They emerged from the doors, each carrying a bag of gold in their teeth, and they ran off back to the stand where High Stakes stood. Four bags of treasure appeared at her hooves in a row.

“And finally,” she said, “in each deck are three dragon cards. When you play one of those, you may target a square, and any teams in that square are eliminated!”

High Stakes played her dragon card in her hand and pointed to a team of two ponies, one mare and one stallion in gold shirts. They looked at each other as they heard the machine make the sound of a dragon's roar, and hugged each other, shivering as the shadow of the beast loomed overhead. A large holographic dragon appeared in game above them, and breathed fire, baking the square in a cone of realistic flame, much to the disturbing delight of the crowd. When the flames receded, nothing was left of the holographic team except for two piles of ash and two helmets on top of them.

Applejack noticed the terrified looks on some of the ponies' faces in the crowd and shook her head, whispering, “That kind of violence just ain't right...”

“And that's all there is to it! First to ten bags of treasure, or whoever has the most when the last card in the deck of forty cards is drawn, wins the game!”

The crowd applauded High Stakes as she pushed a button to shut down the holographic gaming system. Magical energy receded into the mouths of the dragon statues, and they snapped shut as the last sparks disintegrated.

“The finalists of the tournament shall get to play their game on the holographic system!” she announced to the crowd, met with more applause, “Let the games begin!”

The ponies in the crow dispersed to begin playing in the tournament, eager for the honor to play a game on the new system and watch their battle in three dimensions. Once enough of the patrons had moved away, Twilight Sparkle trotted up to the stand High Stakes stood at.

High Stakes slouched on the console and bragged, “So, Twilight Sparkle, what do you think of the new entertainment system? Quite the impressive device isn't it? Took over four dozen runes and hundreds of arcane conduits to get it to work.”

“It's absolutely amazing, High Stakes. It's a shame you're letting it go to waste by only letting the finalists play on it,” teased Twilight, giving her enemy a smug yet subtle smile.

“Hmmm, whatever do you mean by that?” answered the gambling mare, stepping down from the device and pushing her mane hair out of her eyes.

“Well, I think we ought to have a wager over a game of Dragon's Tower on this machine,” offered Twilight.

High Stakes looked behind Twilight and noted the confident looks of her friends, including Flaming Ivory and Trixie, who were standing to the sides of Rainbow Dash and Applejack with angry looks on their faces. She knew that Twilight wanted to play a game to free her “friend” Trixie, and suspected that Flaming Ivory was only helping on account that she was paying him a terrible daily wage.

“And I suppose if you win, you want me to let go of Trixie, right?” chuckled High Stakes, “What a silly bet you're making, to try and help another pony.”

“It's what friends do,” retorted Twilight, scraping her front hoof on the carpet.

“All right,” agreed High Stakes, her tail flicking in a demeaning manner, “if you win, I'll not only fully pay Trixie's debt and let her do her magic on stage, I'll also raise Flaming Ivory's salary. But you need to wager something of equal value in return.”

“What do you want?” demanded Rainbow Dash, nearly growling.

The mare ran a hoof through her red mane and answered, “I happen to know your green friend there, Techorse, is an inventor who markets kitchen products. I want him to put advertisements for my resort on all of his machines. I'd also like Rainbow Dash to throw in some sky writing too.”

“Hey, how'd you know who we were?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Why from Trixie of course, what, you didn't think I wasn't checking the letters being sent out to make sure they weren't calling for help?” laughed High Stakes, “It'd be bad for business.”

Twilight now understood clearly why the letters from Trixie had ceased to come to the library. They were either being censored by High Stakes, or Trixie had stopped writing them out of fear of her getting into trouble.

“High Stakes, I'm warning you now,” cautioned Techorse, a mechanical arm poking out of his saddle and pointing a cold metal finger at the gambler, “if we win and you fail to hold up your end of the bargain, it won't end so well for you. Keeping these ponies hostage under threat of jail is sick.”

“I'm just providing an alternative to prison, Techorse,” she mocked, her guards moving up to her when they heard the threat from Techorse, “and besides, if I lose, I will keep my word. No gambler ever goes back on a bet.”

Techorse's robotic arms sunk back into the machine on his back, and the doors on the saddle closed. Likewise, the guards moved back away from High Stakes knowing nothing crazy was going to happen.

“Who will play me then, Twilight Sparkle?” she asked.

“We're all going to play you, tagging in and out when we can,” answered Twilight, “we all want to help Trixie go free.”

“What?” she scoffed, “all of you playing against me, that's hardly fair.”

Twilight smirked, she had her now!

“Oh, it's going to be trouble for a master like you to beat us?”

High Stakes blushed slightly and coughed, looking back angrily at the floor, before returning to Twilight to try and salvage her pride.

“Fine. You can tag out, but only between turns. No all sharing the stand at once.”

“Absolutely,” finished Twilight.

“See you on the arena!” she answered, turning around and walking back to her guards.

High Stakes spoke to them once she was sure she was out of earshot, “Announce over the intercom the start of the game, get the crowd back. I want to humiliate those do-gooders before I make them bring us even more cash.”

Flaming Ivory watched as High Stakes and her guards walked away from them, pushing through the busy floor of the gaming room, and knocking over a poor waiter on purpose, sending him and his drinks toppling to the floor. Hatred for the unicorn built in his heart, and he thought about how he was going to help trounce her in the upcoming match.

“Well, we got the match we wanted,” said Applejack, “now how in Equestria are we gonna win?”

“Like I said earlier, we'll all use our strengths to our advantage,” answered Twilight, turning around.

“But Trixie hasn't even played one game!” complained Trixie, nervous about her possible fate, “How can we possibly hope to succeed?”

“Trixie has a point,” continued Flaming Ivory, sighing, “we've hit our last chord here.”

Applejack didn't like the idea of challenging High Stakes to a game in the first place. It wasn't that it was impossible to have a bet and still be honest, but more of the fact that they had browbeaten High Stakes into stacking the odds against herself by letting them all play at once. She was certain there was a better, more direct way to solve the situation.

“Look, everypony,” she said glumly, “ah just can't play either, it's not right.”

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow Dash, annoyed.

“We just did something unfair by makin' High Stakes play against us all at once, we can team up and put all our heads together, while she's only got one,” she answered, explaining her stance to her friends, “now I may not like her too, I think she's rotten to the core like any fallen apple, but we just took advantage of her whopping ego to get our way.”

“The choices were to either let Trixie get arrested for failure to pay her debts, or find a way to defeat High Stakes in a safe manner,” responded Techorse calmly, “I'm sorry Applejack. I'm sure somehow you're right, but it's better we stack the odds than allow Trixie to get shipped off to jail.”

“Pickin' a lesser evil, huh?” said Applejack, confronting Techorse, “That's our Techie!”

Techorse had an answer prepared to the abrasive statement, but chose to hold his tongue. He knew Applejack was calling him out fairly on the situation, but he personally could not see a better way to solve the problem at hand.

“Applejack, Trixie's contract clearly states she'll be turned over the authorities for not paying her debts if she won't work in such horrible conditions,” explained Twilight, “look, I'll show you. You can hang onto the scroll if you want, but there's no legal way we can get Trixie out of here without her getting into trouble, short of this bet.”

Twilight's horn glowed, and she took out a large paper scroll from a nearby bag resting on the table. Trixie had given her copy of the document to Twilight, while the master copy resided with High Stakes. Applejack looked at the large piece of paper with Trixie's name signed at the bottom, read the terms, and then took the scroll for herself in her teeth. She rolled it back up and placed it under her hat.

Trixie said to her, “Applejack, if you do not desire to play, you do not have to. Trixie won't be offended in the slightest.”

“Thanks Trixie,” she answered, “now, y'all can still get out there and win, I believe in ya! But I'm not gonna have a part in it, I'm heading out to see my family.”

“Oh, all right,” said Twilight, moving over to Applejack, “we understand.”

She hugged her friend, then watched as she walked slowly for the main entrance of the resort.

“Great,” groaned Rainbow Dash, “Applejack's being stubborn and so we're down a pony.”

“If she doesn't think it's right, she doesn't have to play,” shrugged Flaming, “look fellas, we still have the rest of us, and a game to get to. High Stakes seems just about ready to play, she's set up at the console already.”

“Lead on Flaming, I'm ready to teach that loser a lesson!” cheered Rainbow Dash, taking off into the air and hovering with each flap of her wings.

As they left, Trixie pulled Twilight over for a moment, “After all we've been through, Twilight Sparkle, you still came here to help. Even if we don't win, this will still be the nicest thing anypony has ever done for Trixie Lulamoon.“

Twilight smiled and responded with a warm hug, “That's what friends do! Now, where’s the Trixie I'm used to talking to?”

Trixie released Twilight from the embrace and looked at the headpiece on the table.

Somehow, she knew she wasn't going to have to wear the stupid thing again, and her confidence returned to her, “If you don't mind Twilight, let us stop by the room. This calls for a more spectacular entrance, by the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Twilight laughed and nodded in approval, “There she is!”

High Stakes returned to her gaming stand, and gathered her four guards, all strong earth ponies with brown and white coats.

“Twilight Sparkle, that little purple pest working for Celestia, who's probably never even picked up a hand of cards, never mind this game, has challenged me to a game of Dragon's Tower for the freedom of Trixie Lulamoon,” she said, nearly growling at the “arrogance” of her opponent.

“She can't beat you then, right?” asked one of the guards.

“That's what's got me. Dragon's Tower takes some strategy and skill, but in the end there's elements of chance that could cause me to lose,” she admitted, playing with one of her dice earrings with a hoof while looking at the ceiling, “we're going to need to use the house favor system in the stand to make sure I draw the dragon cards when I need them. Meanwhile, you make Twilight's friends... 'vanish' one at a time so they can't have that team advantage I promised them.”

The guards understood the plan and snickered at how easy it was going to be to badly hurt Twilight's chances at winning the game.

High Stake walked over to the microphone near the game stand and announced, “Ladies and Gentlecolts, in honor of the opening of our new game system, we have a challenger facing me in one grand match of Dragon's Tower!”

Within minutes, the gaming patrons had returned to the seats surrounding the arena that the guards had set up, in hopes of setting up enough humiliation for Twilight's team when they lost “fair and square”. The ponies at the resort filled the seats quickly, eager to see a full game played way before the tournament concluded, and there was chatter amongst them.

Twilight heard the announcement, and, encouraging her friends on, led them to the stand on the other side of the massive arena. She walked up to the stand, and looked at the control panel. There were a few buttons designated to move pieces around the board, play cards in the correct spots, and a slot where cards were dispensed from the communal deck.

The mare quickly accustomed herself to the controls, and then gave a nod to High Stakes, who announced into the microphone, “Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville and her friends, Techorse, Rainbow Dash, and our own Trixie Lulamoon and Flaming Ivory, have challenged me, your host. The first to ten bags of treasure will be declared the winner! I wish my opponents the best of luck.”

Twilight frowned as she noticed High Stakes' smirk while activating the game. The heads on the dragon statues opened up, and mist poured out at the battlefield materialized. The holographic tower rose up in the middle of the board, and six large cardboard rectangles emerged from Twilight's draw slot. She picked up the cards with her magic and rested them on the cardholder.

It wasn't a fantastic opening hand, but it would have to do. She had two “collect treasure” cards, one team of four ponies, two teams of three, and one team of two available to her.

High Stakes fluffed her mane with a hoof and said teasingly, “Since you're the guest, Twilight, you may go first.”

Twilight wasn't aware that High Stakes had let her go first so that she could draw an extra card. Focusing on the game, she wondered if she should play the largest group of ponies first to gain an early advantage, and selected the card. Placing it on her reader on the stand, the grid lit up light blue, and the team of four virtual ponies materialized in the square immediately in front of the stand. Using her hoof to tap one of the buttons, the team galloped forward one square and stopped.

Unfortunately Twilight’s fears were confirmed by High Stakes as to the quality of her first move, “Opening up with a team of four? Perhaps I was wrong to think you'd be able to beat me, Twilight.”

The crowd started to giggle a bit at Twilight's first move, and it was obvious she'd made a dumb decision. She could have sworn she had seen other ponies make that move too on their first play, and then remembered with a groan that this was a gaming parlor designed to extract money from the guests.

High Stakes took her turn, drawing a card. Thanks to the system biasing the card draws based on who was “the house”, she drew a dragon card right away. She also had two teams of four ponies and one team of two, but the rest of her hand was littered with “collect treasure” plays. Placing her team of two onto the field, she ordered her virtual troops a square forward as well.

The game progressed somewhat slowly, but eventually, Twilight had several ponies out on the field, and so did her opponent, nearing the tower. To the right and left of the building stood two groups of three summoned by High Stakes. Twilight smiled, thinking that the next turn would result in her getting four bags of treasure, a wonderful start!

But High Stakes had other plans. On her turn, she ordered her group of three to attack Twilight's group of two. The three holographic ponies smiled wickedly and pounced on Twilight’s pieces, sending up a cloud of smoke and knocking them clean out of the game. Techorse and Rainbow Dash winced at the setback, but spotted Twilight's four about to reach the tower and knew they'd at least get somewhat ahead.

After a quick glance at the field, High Stakes laughed and played the first dragon card, targeting Twilight's group of four. The holographic dragon appeared, racing towards her ponies, and they all screamed virtually in fear as the great beast breathed fire on them, roasting them in their explorer's gear and leaving nothing but their hats and ash behind. Twilight gasped, forgetting entirely about the one-shot card, and knew she'd have to catch up somehow.

“Too bad, Twilight Sparkle,” said High Stakes, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, “you were so close to your first four bags of treasure, too. I'm sure you can catch up though.”

Twilight answered her, “I'd like to substitute out Techorse for myself now.”

“Very well,” came the response.

Techorse swapped places with his marefriend from the sidelines, and picked up the hand of cards. Looking over his hand and the board, he noticed that while High Stakes had defeated Twilight's group of two with her three, she had left the other side of the tower open, having failed to move her ponies on the tower. She had been so eager to play the dragon card on Twilight and ruin her treasure grab that she had failed to play for the objective herself, and Techorse intended to take advantage of that. After playing another team of three ponies, he moved his group of three to face hers, and was fortunate enough to defeat the other team. High Stakes instinctively ducked as the three tiny ponies flew over her head and vanished.

“You're smart Techorse, taking advantage of that spot,” she said, “but now it's my turn.”

Pushing the house advantage button under the console again, she forced the machine to give her another dragon, and moved her team of two directly behind the tower onto the building. The adventurous holograms went into the door closest to them, and appeared on a staircase on the roof of the building. She then played the collect card, and the two ponies on top of the tower grabbed two bags of treasure from the big chest on top of the structure, and ran back down the stairs. Once they had left the building, they returned to their master, and placed her first two bags of treasure at her feet.

Over the next few turns, however, Techorse's knowledge of statistics and board games in general helped him to start turning the tides. He managed to collect three bags of treasure on the following turn, and moved a group of four he had summoned around the tower entirely. Rather than enter the tower with them, his strategy was to beat up on High Stake's teams with his largest ones while sending in the small teams to grab treasure. After a couple of back and forth turns with mixed results, Techorse had six bags of treasure to her three.

The next turn brought disaster however, when High Stakes got lucky and defeated Techorse's four with one of her twos, knocking them off the map. She moved another group of three onto the tower, and brought the score up to five to six.

Knowing he was losing his touch, Techorse waved over to Rainbow Dash, who traded places with him.

High Stakes whispered into a smaller microphone under her stand, “If Techorse gets back in he'll hold me off too long and I won't be able to win. Get rid of him.”

Her guards complied, moving to intercept Techorse before he could return to his friends. The crowd made the path back to the “bench” a long one, and the four stallions caught Techorse in a small area near one of the gaming tables. He saw the angry, violent looks in their eyes, and backed up slowly, hoping he wouldn't have to cause trouble. The stallions jumped at him, and the inventor drew his robotic arms to help punch his way through them. Despite the swings of the metal fists, the guards piled on top of him, and two of the stallions tore the robotic arms clean out with their teeth, leaving exposed wires sticking out of Techorse's saddle. They muffled him with a cloth bag over his head, and dragged him out the door of the gaming parlor.

Rainbow Dash looked at her hand of cards and the field. It didn't really matter what she had to play or what High Stakes had up her sleeves to Rainbow Dash, because she only had one thing on her mind.

She wanted to trash talk High Stakes as much as possible.

“Hey High Stakes!” she called out, “So when we beat you, are you gonna go back to knitting? I saw that tea cozy in your office, and I gotta admit, seems more your speed.”

Rainbow Dash heard the laughing from the crowd, and threw her hoof over the board, giving the blushing High Stakes a look of contempt, “By the way, I've got a friend that could really improve on that dress you're wearing. You look like you're trying to ask me out to prom, not play a serious game here.”

“Take. Your. TURN” shouted High Stakes, red as a beet.

“Thought you'd never ask!” answered Rainbow Dash, laughing and drawing a card, “Now let's see here. Oh awesome, I drew a dragon card!”

“WHAT?” screeched High Stakes, sure the computer was going to let her draw the final one.

“Oh, whoops, nope sorry, just another pony card,” corrected Rainbow Dash, chuckling, “you should have seen the look on your face though, priceless!”

Trixie leaned over to Twilight and asked, “Twilight Sparkle, what in Equestria is Rainbow Dash doing? She isn't really playing the game at all, is she?”

“Nope, she's just being Rainbow Dash,” sighed Twilight.

“Lucky for us, this will throw off her game,” interrupted Flaming Ivory.

After heckling High Stakes some more, Rainbow Dash had still not taken even a single turn. She decided she wasn't really going to play after all, she'd done her part by making her enemy upset over her jokes, and yawned.

“Ya know, I think I'm gonna call it quits, thanks for the pretty pictures on the cardboard, High Stakes. Hey Trixie, get over here!”

Rainbow Dash left the stand to applause from the crowd, having finished her comedic roast of her opponent. High Stakes snarled into her microphone, nearly foaming at the mouth.

“Get that little flygirl out of here, and dunk her head in the leftover gray paint. I want to MAKE HER PAY.”

The guards once again intercepted Rainbow Dash and dragged her out of the building, although she put up a slightly better fight than Techorse, she was unfortunate enough to have her wings grabbed before she could successfully escape.

Twilight began to notice the absence of her friends as Trixie took her place in the stand, now wearing her traditional cape and magician's hat.

“Flaming, have you seen Techorse? He's supposed to have come back here, right?” she asked.

Flaming Ivory shrugged, “Maybe we went to the little colt's room? I dunno.”

“Well, we really can't afford to lose anypony else,” she said, worry in her voice, “Like Applejack. I hope she's ok...”

Applejack had found her relative Apple Oil's apartment deep within Salt Lick City, and was settled down inside at his kitchen table, where they were discussing his latest exploits in artificial apple flavor technology. Apple Oil had created the chemical to help a friend of his start a candy making business, and caramel-dipped apple candies had started to sell well in the city as a “one bite caramel apple”. He and his friend were sure they were going to get rich off of the type of candy, but Applejack was somewhat insulted that real apples weren't being used in the process. Apple Oil was a smaller, sturdy stallion with a white mane tucked under his gray brimmed hat and vest. His cutie mark, a pitcher of syrup with an apple on it, represented his skill in artificial flavoring, which his second cousin highly disagreed with.

“But Applejack!” protested the food scientist, “The artificial apple flavoring is what makes the hard candy taste good without using perishable goods. If I used real apples, the candy would spoil.”

Applejack couldn't help but be amused that her second cousin still had his southern accent despite living in the city so long and having not seen an apple tree in years. She had come up with a good response to his complaints, and took out the cookbook she had brought with her.

“Now see here, cousin Apple Oil. Just because ya need apple flavoring doesn't mean ya have to make the thing in a lab. There's an old Apple family recipe for natural apple flavor that'll still keep.”

“There is?” he asked curiously, trying to take the cookbook from Applejack.

“Yup, right here. Apple extract. It needs to be brewed slowly in a barrel, takes about six months. But once it's ready, you'll have the most sweet, scrumptious apple flavor in Equestria!”

“Six months?!” protested her relative, “Applejack, I need the flavoring now, we're expecting another batch in a week. I can't wait six months for this to be ready.”

Applejack thought about the issue and answered, “Why don't you two make the natural stuff, and slowly switch out your chemicals for the real thing down the road. Ahm sure the customers will start to appreciate the new taste, and if you advertise it bein' a new product, ya might get even more attention!”

Apple Oil smiled and agreed that phasing out the artificial flavoring over time would be a better option. He did, however, want to admit something to his relative.

“I'm really sorry I turned out different from the others, I just couldn't see myself whackin' at trees all day, no offense,” he said, “I like making flavors is all. But from now on, it'll be 100% natural, no fake stuff!”

She smiled and answered, “Aw, it's okay. Everypony's got that special talent, you just needed a shove in the right direction. It's just not right to cheat...“

Applejack stopped, thinking about her friends, and how it was likely that High Stakes had already fleeced them out of freeing Trixie.

“What's wrong?” asked Apple Oil, picking up on the emotional problem.

“It's just my friends,” she answered slowly, “they're at that Stained Glass Resort playin' against the owner, High Stakes. She's got one of our friend hogtied in a terrible contract.”

Apple Oil made a comment, “High Stakes is not trusted by the locals here. We know she's runnin' a scheme over there. But we haven't been able to find any evidence right away that she's a crook.”

Applejack took this as a cue and took out the contract from under her hat, “Well, I gotta contract right here showin' how High Stakes ain't the mare she says she is.”

“Whew, well, if the ponies round here saw this piece of paper, they'd flip. Hard to believe with contracts and health codes bein' public knowledge that y'all didn't get a hold of this sooner.”

“Public knowledge?” she asked.

“Yeah, here in Salt Lick City, ya have to have all legal documents and contracts available on request to the public.”

Applejack thought for a moment, and a plan came to her mind when she figured out a weakness High Stakes had left in her plan, “Then I bet nopony's ever asked for High Stakes' papers! Can ya take me back to the resort? I know exactly how we're gonna stop that mare.”

Flaming Ivory watched in horror as High Stakes vaporized his team of three ponies with another dragon card. The game was beginning to get close now, with the deck running low on cards and the ponies tied at eight bags of treasure apiece, meaning that a capture by either team would result in a win. Trixie had swapped out, having not been dragged away by High Stakes' stallions due to her not being terribly successful at the game. But the next play would likely determine the winner, and the fate of Trixie.

“I'd like to swap back to Twilight!” he said, looking at the board.

There were two teams of ponies left on the field. One was Twilight and her friends' team of three, right next to the tower. The other was High Stakes', a team of two just two spaces away from the structure. High Stakes waited for Twilight to move back to her stand, and take her turn.

While Twilight was taking her turn, Applejack and Apple Oil had arrived in the resort, and snuck around, looking for High Stakes' office. They found it unlocked, and went to the drawer marked “public records”. As Apple Oil had stated, by law, all contracts and building permits had to be available to the public. High Stakes' employees had been threatened with jail if they ever asked anyone to see their contract, but Applejack and Apple Oil had the legal right to take copies. A single accountant was in the room, and she gladly turned over the copies, a look of relief on her face as she gave them out. Soon the two ponies were spreading the contracts around to the patrons, letting them know the conditions High Stakes had put her employees under. Grumbling and anger was starting to arise in the crowd, and several ponies were starting to leave.

“Wait, what's going on?” gasped High Stakes, “Where are you all going? We're about to finish this match!”

“We're not staying here any more!” said one mare, a proud mother of three, “My husband and foals don't agree with how horrible you're treating your workers, and we won't spend a bit more!”

“And how do you know how I treat my employees?” she asked.

“That mare there told us and showed us these contracts!” she said, pointing to Applejack and Apple Oil.

Twilight and her remaining friends looked at them, and smiled. In response, Applejack tipped her stetson hat, smiling.

“Applejack, you came back!” said Twilight, pleased.

She ran up to Applejack and gave her a hug, while she explained the situation, “I found a way to stop High Stakes' plan. Now even if she wins, nopony's ever gonna want to stay here until things change! And we didn't need to stack the odds at all.”

“We should have worked things out better with you before taking this stupid bet,” said Twilight, letting her friend go from the hug, “can you forgive us?”

“Of course sugarcube!” answered Applejack, a glow in her green eyes, “I forgive ya. You only wanted to help Trixie after all.”

High Stakes noticed that a few of the ponies in the crowd were staying, anger in their eyes. She growled, and told her guards through her microphone to seal off the exits. They complied, and soon the patrons found themselves unable to leave as the doors were locked.

“Hey, you can't do this!” shouted a voice amongst the crowd trying to exit, “This is a hazard, what if there's a fire!”

Her mane quite in a mess, and one of her earrings now missing from her building rage, High Stakes shouted over the public microphone, “We are finishing this game NOW! Twilight's team has one more turn. And then it's OVER! You're all staying for it, I don't care if you don't want to stay after, just watch me beat this dumb mare and her worthless friends!”

Applejack had a nerve struck by that comment, and walked up to High Stakes, “Ma’am, I suggest ya fold.”

She turned and looked at Trixie, saying, “Twilight's friends ain't worthless. Sure, we all have our moments, but we're a team. And we sure are not gonna take rude comments from a cheater like you!”

“A cheater?!” shrieked High Stakes, tearing a seam in her dress, “Well, if you think you're so honest, prove it by winning this game!”

“Sure!” answered Applejack, “Just lemme see something real quick, and then I'll take the last turn, if Twilight doesn't mind that is.”

Twilight nodded eagerly, and Applejack walked over to the screen that listed each play all of her friends and High Stakes had made. She then understood what to do, and walked over to the gaming stand, drawing her final card. After looking at it, she moved her team of ponies onto the top of the tower. The ponies trapped in the building watched the game intently again, hoping Applejack would help free them as well.

“Well shucks, I don't have a treasure grabbing card,” she said, shaking her head, “guess it's your turn High Stakes.”

High Stakes chuckled and pushed the button on the gaming system. Now she would defeat Applejack and humiliate her and Twilight in front of all the patrons. Even if they weren't coming back, they would never be able to spread the word about the contracts once she'd destroyed them and replaced them with fakes to fool the public. The machine spat out a dragon card, and High Stakes laughed manically, having fully lost her mind. With her team of ponies next to the tower, her collect card, and that dragon card, she could win the game in one move.

“Do you know what I'm about to do, Applejack?” she asked.

“No,” she answered truthfully.

High Stakes continued, “Good, because...”

Applejack held up her hoof and interrupted, “But I know what you're not gonna do, miss! You're not gonna play a dragon card on my ponies, because I've got the last one riiiiight here!”

Applejack turned around the dragon card with her teeth, eliciting a gasp and cheering from the crowd. Twilight and Trixie smiled broadly and started to laugh and dance around, knowing they'd soon win.

High Stakes realized in horror that the machine had created a nonexistent fourth dragon card for her to use, and if she played it, she'd be truly revealed as a cheater. Rewriting the contracts and offering a full refund of her patrons' money would not save her business after that. There was still one more option to go, however, and she figured it would be her “ace in the hole”.

“Very well, Applejack,” she answered, “I end my turn. Congratulations.”

Applejack drew her collection card, and collected the last bags of treasure necessary to win the game. The crowd cheered, and the guards unlocked the doors.

“Please see the front desk for refunds,” said High Stakes over the microphone, “if you were not satisfied tonight, or disagree with my policies, I will be happy to give you back your money.”

“What about your workers?” asked the same mare from before.

“I'll get rid of those contracts,” she said, a hint of smile on her face, “I'll admit it was greedy, and things will change.”

But no sooner had the crowd either dispersed or gone to get their refunds, did High Stakes go back on her promise with Twilight and her friends. Twilight approached High Stakes, followed by Flaming Ivory and Trixie.

“Well, now you have to let everypony go,” she said, “a deal is a deal.”

“Everypony?“ she chuckled, “The deal was just to help out Trixie and Flaming Ivory. I will do nothing else for the others.”

Twilight Sparkle answered with a frown, “You're going to keep all your other employees trapped?”

“I refuse to help them out, and if your two little friends don't like it, they're welcome to quit,” she said, “if you'd like, I can pay their debts instead of improving their jobs, and you can all leave.”

Applejack agreed with Twilight and pointed out, “High Stakes, even if ya keep your end of the deal by the letter, word's gonna get out eventually that ya lied to everypony tonight and kept all those other contracts. I reckon you're gonna lose out if ya don't give em a better deal.”

Applejack pointed to the ponies leaving the resort, still muttering about the conditions and not satisfied with High Stakes' “promise” to make things better. Promises made by abusive business owners were as empty as ever to the now disgusted ex-patrons. By now, High Stakes knew she had lost, but was still open to the idea of taking out her frustrations on her enemies.

“Let's find out how you feel after I have you roughed up and thrown out in the streets,” she replied, walking away from the group.

High Stakes went back to her microphone in her stand and bellowed publicly, “Security, get in here and help me out with these losers, would you?”

A few moments passed without any answer, and High Stakes bellowed again, “Hey, where are you?”

The front doors of the resort flung open, and the four stallions were thrown in, screaming in terror as three Equestrian royal guards pushed them in the door. Jools and Jops soon followed, pinning them down and tying them up. Out of the cloud of dust from the action came Captain Arbiter, who smirked at the pile of terrified brutes and stepped over them.

“High Stakes!” he shouted, pointing at her across the room, “You're under arrest!”

High Stakes turned around to flee, and ran down one of the hallways of the resort, hoping to escape. Trixie Lulamoon galloped after her, chasing the fleeing gambler down the well-lit corridor of guest rooms, until finally she saw an intersection up ahead of two hallways. Thinking quickly, the mare threw a smoke bomb out from under her hat, landing in front of High Stakes and filling the four-way path with thick white smoke.

She stopped in the mist and coughed, looking around as to decide which way to go, panicking. Suddenly, a set of blue hooves came down from the mist, and she found herself tackled by an angry Trixie Lulamoon.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie thinks you foolish to run from the law, High Stakes!” she said, staring into her eyes while pinning her down on her back, “But in all honesty, foolishness really is your thing!”

The smoke cleared, and Captain Arbiter along with Jools and Jops had caught up. Rainbow Dash and Techorse had been brought back with him, although Techorse was still short two robotic arms, and Rainbow Dash's head hair had been dyed gray for a reason she didn't want to talk about.

“Excellent work Miss Lulamoon,” said Arbiter, taking over and shackling High Stakes' legs, “we will take it from here. Jools, Jops, take her away.”

High Stakes was grabbed by the two armored pegasus ponies, and she grumbled at Twilight “We're not through, Twilight Sparkle. You and your friends are going to pay for this,”

“I'm sure we're going to,” she answered, rolling her eyes.

Once Jools and Jops had lead the fuming mare away, Twilight turned to Captain Arbiter and asked, “I don't get it Arbiter. How did you know to come here?”

Arbiter closed his one good eye and smiled, “It's quite simple, Miss Sparkle. Princess Celestia had suspected for quite some time that High Stakes was committing crimes, but we had no evidence. Once you wrote and explained about Trixie's situation, we were able to get all the evidence we needed to arrest High Stakes.”

“Good, those horrible contracts are going to send her away for a long time, I hope,” grunted Rainbow Dash, still mad her hair had been changed.

“Indeed,” nodded Arbiter, “High Stakes was taking in record profits while paying her employees so little and offering no benefits under those contracts. Upon investigation we discovered she owed over two million bits in back taxes.”

“Wait a minute,” groaned Twilight, “you mean that despite cheating, having her guards grab some of us, and trapping her employees, that she's going to jail for tax evasion?”

Arbiter brushed his black cape with a hoof and responded, “Well, we certainly wouldn't want the contracts to actually get read, right? I've heard that the employees here have some unpaid debts, and I wouldn't want to arrest them for fraud, too.”

Trixie asked him, “You're going to let us all go free?”

Arbiter gave the confirmation, “Now that High Stakes is no longer in control of this establishment, all contracts are null and void, and you employees control the estate for now. You'll have a while before High Stakes coughs up the bits for her unpaid tax, and in the meantime, you can easily take the profits of this gaming parlor and pay your debts.“

“Arby, I'm really happy you're not going after them for their debts, honestly, I'm surprised!” exclaimed Applejack.

“Let's just say I'm turning my blind eye to it,” he answered, pointing at the eyepatch and giving a knowing look, “Besides, knowing my luck and history, Celestia would have my hide for it!”

“That's for sure!” giggled Twilight in agreement.

“So what should we do now?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Go home?”

“I actually had a better idea,” said Applejack, “if Trixie and Flaming Ivory are up for it.”

the guests at the resort had chosen to stay upon seeing High Stakes get arrested and hearing Arbiter's conversation about the employees benefiting from it. To celebrate their freedom, the Dragon's Tower tournament was played through, and the winner donated his winnings to help pay off the debts. As a reward for her kindness, she was treated by the employees to free drinks, and a front-row seat at the latest show on the stage. Flaming Ivory and Trixie Lulamoon worked together to put on the best music and magic show the guests had ever seen, and when the resort closed for the night, the employees had gathered together to thank Twilight Sparkle and her friends for their help saving them. Techorse noticed that Flaming Ivory was packing up his things, and heading out the back door of the resort, so he stopped him to talk.

“Where are you heading off to, Flaming?” he asked.

The piano player turned around and answered, “Well Tech, the gig's over. I'm out of this place for now, I like to travel around and play in towns all over Equestria. But if I'm ever back in Ponyville, I'll hit you up, ok?”

Techorse said to him, “Take care. And if you do come to town, I'm in the big fort on the outskirts, you can't miss it!”

“I just might, I hear Ponyville's got one swell nightclub to play at!” he laughed, “See you around, Techorse!”

Flaming Ivory disappeared out the door, a single piece of sheet music falling out behind him. Techorse went to pick it up and give it back from him, but the content of the paper made it clear Flaming had dropped it for him on purpose.

The song title read, “Slow Jazz #4 for Twilight Sparkle and co.”

Techorse returned to the stage, where only Trixie and the others remained.

“Trixie wishes to thank you for helping her out,” she said to Twilight and her friends, her pride and demeanor having fully returned to her.

“You're welcome Trixie!” answered Twilight, smiling back, “Maybe I'll hear back from you in a letter some time.”

“The traveling magic show will pick up again soon,” she answered, “but... Trixie will be sure to stop in Ponyville if she is welcome again, after all...”

Trixie adjusted her hat carefully, and answered with joy in her eyes, “You're my friends, right?”

Twilight felt something akin to her heartstrings singing, “That's right, we are your friends!”

The two unicorn mares, formerly rivals, met and hugged before parting for the evening. Soon Techorse and Twilight were outside of the resort, packing their bags up to go back to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash, her mane messed up, wanted out as soon as possible, and Applejack and Apple Oil had already said their goodbyes.

“I'm so happy Trixie's finally friends with us,” said Techorse, “although I do have to wonder something.”

“And what's that?” asked Twilight curiously.

Techorse licked his lower lip and answered, “I wonder how long I have to wait before I can tell jokes about her swinging that axe at me?”

Twilight swatted at Techorse playfully, who laughed and ran for the cab, trying to get away from his marefriends' strikes.

Trixie's show wagon pulled away from Salt Lick City, leaving the lights of the metropolis glowing behind her as the cart bounced and creaked on the dirt road. She had hired a few stallions using her earnings from the show to cart her away so that she could relax in the confines of the mobile home. He plan was to move back near Canterlot to start her tour over again, and knew her travels would eventually take her back near her new friends. But she still owed her friends one more thing from the past few months, and she was taking care of that now. A small candle lamp illuminated the room cluttered with magic trick gear, and she sat writing a letter with a quill in her mouth.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle...”

#41 - Writing Wrongs

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Writing Wrongs

Techorse Series: #41

By Spirals95

“The End”

The last few keystrokes on the typewriter were finished, and Techorse looked over at the pile of scripts he had typed over the past few weeks to his right. He was sitting in a darkened room of his castle, a tiny room next to his laboratory in the basement normally used for a supply closet. All of the normally stored items, dry food, a couple packages of paper towels and toilet paper, and a few replacement pipes for the plumbing had been moved out of the way in favor of a small desk and the typewriter, along with a humble brass colored desk lamp Techorse was using to light the otherwise pitch black room. Having finished his work, the saddle on his back opened up, and his robotic arms grabbed the last piece of paper in their hands. He stacked the documents together, a nice pile about an inch think, and exited the supply closet with them after shutting off the lamp.

Outside of the closet, PAL had been standing in the hallway, arms crossed with a concern look on his metallic face.

“Master, you've been in that dark closet for an hour every day for the past two weeks!” he complained, tapping a metal foot on the stone tile floor of the basement hallway, “What's gotten into you this time? You can't surely be inventing something new, you've left your blueprint easel in the laboratory untouched!”

“That's right, I'm not inventing something!” answered Techorse, a smile on his face, “I've been writing a book all month. It's a gift for Twilight, see?”

Techorse handed the papers up to his robot, who accepted them and quickly flipped through the pages without reading a word of the content.

“Well I'm glad! But please, will you type near some natural light next time so you don't go blind?”

PAL handed the script back to Techorse, who agreed, “Yeah, I guess I didn't really need to camp out all month, but I got so into writing and I didn't want to lose my ideas with any distractions. Now all I have to do is turn this into a book.”

“I suppose you'd like to test your new printing machine then?” mused the robot, smirking mechanically and pointing to the steel doors that led to the lab.

“Absolutely!” said the stallion as he walked over to the doors and opened them with one metal hand, still gripping his work with the other, “It's not going to be of much use to anypony else, it only prints one book at a time, but I built it for something like this.”

PAL followed his creator into the well-lit laboratory, a wide, open room with several metal-topped tables, and bins full of various electronic and metallic parts. The castle was equipped with a set of automated component manufacturing forges hidden behind the basement, which were fed raw materials by a set of worm-like mining probes that dug into the uninhabited mountain areas and returned at night to deposit the metal ore. These parts were used to build the kitchen appliances Techorse sold to make a living, but would also make anything necessary for his more secretive inventing.

The new book press sat in the corner of the laboratory near the square table where Techorse performed repairs on his battle saddle. It was a rather boxy device, slightly resembling a modern day printer, but having a few odd trays sticking out of the bottom that accepted blank paper and wax, along with cloth and cardboard bins to make spines and covers. Techorse opened up the top lid of the machine and placed the typed scripts inside, then closed the door behind. After hitting a few buttons, the machine consumed two pieces of cardboard, melted some of the bar of red wax, and within a few minutes, had combined the pages together and bound them to the spine. A turquoise colored book popped out of the exit port on the top of the machine, and Techorse removed the large volume from the top.

“All right, it worked out well!” he said happily, flipping through the pages, “Of course, I can only make a single copy. The machine uses up the papers each time.”

“Perhaps Mistress Twilight would be more impressed with you having come up with a book making machine,” suggested PAL, “you should tell her about it when you give her the story, I'm sure she'd love that.”

Techorse tucked the book under his metal arm, “That's what I'm hoping for! Twilight loves reading fiction stories more than anypony else I know, so I thought it'd be nice to give her a story I wrote on my own.”

“So will you be heading out for the afternoon, master?”

He nodded and started to walk for the door, “I already told her I'd meet her at the library. I'm just going to drop the book off with her and let her read it without me being there. I'd rather hear a review from Twilight when she's finished!”

PAL followed him up the nearby set of stone stairs to the main lobby of the castle, where he opened the massive wooden doors and let him trot outside into the daylight of Ponyville. He was almost certain without a doubt that Twilight Sparkle was going to enjoy her brand new novel. If there was any pony in the world who appreciated a good read, it was her.

Techorse went over to Golden Oaks library, a smile on his face as he thought about his marefriend reading his work of literature. The library doors were wide open to let the cool air of the calm day in, and the stallion trotted inside, his tail swishing back and forth slightly in happiness. Books were stacked in small piles near the fiction section, evidence that cataloging had taken place that day, but everything else appeared to be in perfect order.

“Twilight?” he called out, “Are you home? I have something for you.”

Twilight Sparkle emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray with her magic, on it was a plastic pitcher filled with ice and decaf tea bags, and a steel teapot steaming from the spout.

“Just getting some iced tea started,” she answered from within the kitchen, “give me a second. Then there's something I want to show you first!”

Techorse waited patiently for Twilight to pour the boiling hot water into the pitcher and replace it back in her refrigerator. Once she was done, she walked out from the kitchen door and approached him with a happy expression on her face.

“So, before we talk, let me show you that thing I've been working on.”

Techorse agreed with a nod, and Twilight retrieved a small vial of gray liquid from her desk.

“This is a batch of invisible ink made from the recipe Princess Celestia sent me,” she said proudly, shaking the bottle in front of him, “watch this!”

Twilight picked up a nearby feather quill from her desk, and a piece of parchment with her magic, her horn glowing purple as she dipped the feather in the bizarre ink and wrote a simple message of “Hello!” on the sheet of parchment. She showed the paper to Techorse, and he watched in amazement as the ink faded to nothing on the paper.

“Isn't it cool? I'll be able to write messages for Celestia that only she can decode.”

“That's really neat!” marveled Techorse, “I wonder where she learned to make that?”

“I don't really know,” answered Twilight, putting the paper back on the desk, “anyways, what is it you wanted to show me?”

Techorse's robotic arms extended from doors on his saddle, and they opened up his saddle bags, where he removed the large book and presented it to Twilight.

Twilight was thrilled, “A new book? Oh, that's so sweet!”

“Not just any new book,” added Techorse, raising a metal index finger, “I took a few months to write a story just for you, and copied it into this hardback!”

The mare eagerly took the volume with a levitation spell and looked over the cover, blank but a nice tint of light blue that was pleasing to the eye. She flipped over the book a few times in air, and flipped through the pages without reading a single character. It truly was a brand new, crisp book, and she was charmed to know it was written by someone she cared about.

“You wrote a book... for me?” she asked, her voice trailing off in a loving tone.

“I'm just trying to take some more interest in your love of books,” admitted Techorse, interrupting her scanning of the novel, “we read together all the time, but I've never actually written anything before.”

“I can't wait to read this!” answered Twilight, trying hard not to jump up and down out of joy, “do you want me to do it now?”

“Actually, I was hoping to ask you later about it,” he said, “I thought it'd be cool if we could review it together after you've finished it. I've got some things I have to do today.”

“And I will finish it today!” she said, “I'm going to sit down and marathon this book, Techie! When I'm done, we'll go out to dinner and discuss it.”

“Sounds like a fun date!” he said with joy.

She threw her front hooves around him, and kissed him on the forehead, setting the book down on her writing desk. After the embrace, Techorse exited the library, his spirits lifted from how excited Twilight was about reading his book.

“See you later tonight!” she called after him as he left the library.

Twilight shut the door behind him, forgetting about letting the place cool out, and returned to her writing desk, where she grabbed the book and giggled like a schoolgirl. Spike heard the merry squeals and approached her from the upstairs staircase, rubbing his eyes after having been woken from his nap.

“Hey Twi, what's going on?” asked the sleepy dragon.

The unicorn turned to him, cheer in her eyes, “Spike, Techorse just dropped off a book that he wrote for me!”

Spike looked at the large book and put his hands at his sides in amazement, “Oh, wow. You must feel
like...”

“The luckiest librarian in Equestria?” she interrupted, “Absolutely! My latest book on rainforests is going to have to wait, this is coming first in the reading queue!”

“Cool! Crack it open and tell me how it goes,” Spike suggested, “I'm gonna go pour myself a glass of water and listen.”

“Spike, this book's way too special to just sit in bed and read it,” declared Twilight, pointing a hoof at the ceiling, “we're going to give this the treatment it deserves.”

“You don’t mean?” asked Spike, gasping and covering his mouth in surprise.

“Yes!” announced Twilight, “I'm going to read this book in a public place!”

The public location of choice for the reading was Sugarcube Corner, where Twilight hoped to sit inside the air conditioned bakery and read the novel from her coltfriend while enjoying a treat. Spike had agreed to come along with her, mostly in hopes of getting a sugar cookie for himself, and the two sat at one of the small tables, a bright blue tablecloth draped over the top. There weren't very many customers in the bakery today, only a handful of mares talking about a recent art show they had been to in Canterlot, but that only served to make the atmosphere more peaceful for Twilight and her brand new book.

Twilight sat the book down on the table, and gave Spike a few gold bits to go buy himself a cookie. She stared at the hardback material dreamily, putting a hoof on her left cheek. With Techorse being the great inventor he was, he was bound to have been extremely creative with his writing. It would probably have some rather technical, detailed moments, but the plot and characters would certainly be bright and colorful to make up for it. It didn't matter to Twilight, she was thrilled that the pony she cared about the most had gone to such lengths to write a book personally for her.

After Spike got his sugar cookie from Mrs. Cake, he returned to the table and pulled up one of the metal chairs. Twilight exited her daydreaming, and looked at Spike with a broad smile, before, using only her hoof, opening the front cover of the book and beginning to read the first crisp page.

The young dragon nibbled at the edges of the nutmeg-flavored sugar cookie, tasting the fine sugar on the surface. It didn't take too long though, before Spike started to realize something was wrong. Twilight wasn't saying anything about the book yet, and he knew normally she'd be saying something about each sentence if it was a book she was really interested in.

“What's the matter Twilight?” he asked, putting his half-eaten dessert down on the table.

“Oh, nothing!” laughed the unicorn nervously in response, “Just not going to talk much until I'm finished, wouldn't want to annoy the mares over there talking about the flower painting show is all.”

Spike could tell that was a lie, and shook his head before returning to his scrumptious cookie. Twilight flipped through page after page, and about an hour passed before she finally finished the final words of the short novel, closing the back cover. As if she had given a cue, Pinkie Pie darted out of the kitchen carrying a vanilla-frosted lemon cake, and set the large baked good down on a glass display stand, putting the lid over the dessert to keep it from going dry.

Pinkie noticed her friend and merrily skipped over, “Oh hey Twilight, Spike! How's it going?”

“Twilight just finished reading a book Techorse wrote for her,” he answered, pointing at the book on the table.

Pinkie Pie cooed, “Awwwww! That's so nice of Techie! You've got such a nice coltfriend taking a super-duper interest in books like you, Twilight!”

Twilight Sparkle stared forward over Spike's head, into the abyss.

The pink pony in the room didn't seem to notice, and she bounced up and down, her hair bobbing, “So how was Techie's story! Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“Yeah, come on Twilight, how'd it go?” asked Spike.

The purple unicorn seemed to shudder for a few seconds before she ducked her head in recoil and blurted out in a horrible panic, “It was TERRIBLE!”

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly, springing several feet into the air before dropping onto the floor of the bakery. The mares enjoying tea across the way decided now would be a good time to leave the shop, and left a small tip for Pinkie Pie before shuffling for the exit.

“Techies' story was TERRIBLE?” screeched Pinkie as she stood up again, “How? He's a smart, creative guy like you!”

“Yeah, it couldn't have been that bad,” agree Spike, rolling his eyes, “plus it's the first thing he's ever written, right? What could have been wrong with it?”

“What was wrong?” cried Pinkie Pie.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, and then snapped her attention to Pinkie before rattling off with pupils narrow as soda straws, “The main character is ridiculously good at everything she does, she's this mare who joins up with a secret agent stallion. The stallion keeps getting himself into trouble, which would be ok if it wasn't for the fact that the bad guy is just one cliché after another! His plan is to take control of the world with some kind of mind control magic, but he's stupid enough to not do anything to really protect his plan. And then when the heroes do get into trouble, they always figure out a way out of it by the next page!”

“So, it's like a comic book?” laughed Spike, “Come on Twilight, it sounds funny.”

She turned to him, “But then those two fall in love like, four minutes after meeting each other. I'd understand maybe four weeks, even two, but they're staring at each other two paragraphs after they meet! There's 'meant for each other', and then there's that!”

Pinkie Pie's face curled in surprise at how many negative comments Twilight had about the story, but she couldn't stop listening!

“Then there's the ending, it's so bland! I knew the bad guy was going to have a secret base right away, and would fall off a cliff at the end of the book. I even figured out the heroine was going to try to save him and get back stabbed before it happened, too! And then they just ride off into the sunset with no conflict resolution other than having survived some random stuff that came their way from such a cardboard villain!”

Pinkie Pie giggled, “Twilight, it sounds like Techie just wrote a simple story! Sometimes those are really nice.”

“Yeah Twilight, you're overreacting!” laughed Spike, “Techorse wrote an easy story as a first try.”

Pinkie Pie moved over to the book and opened it up for herself, “Here, lemme see!”

A few moments passed, before Pinkie Pie gasped and her hair frizzed in multiple places. She placed a hoof over her mouth as if she was about to throw up, and closed the book quickly.

“Oh boy that was a reeeeal doozy!” she said, choking, “Techorse's characters aren't much fun at all!”

Spike realized in horror that if Pinkie Pie didn't accept the book, it really was a loser. He picked up the story himself and began to read. Although he didn't have quite the extreme reaction the ponies had, he clearly understood what was wrong. Techorse had written two insanely overpowered main characters capable of solving any challenge thrown at them too quickly. He had advanced their romance too far, and had added no personality to their dialogue, only making them say plot-related things while still developing some kind of chemistry for each other that would be impossible in real life. The villain truly was the embodiment of an evil force, just as Twilight had complained, and the ending was boring and predictable.

“Sheesh, this is awful,” he muttered, skimming, “guess you're not going on that dinner date after all, huh Twilight?”

“Oh my gosh, Tech...” she cried, wrapping her hooves over her head and displacing her striped hair, “how am I going to tell him his story is awful? He'll be broken.”

“Aww, no he won't!” giggled Pinkie Pie, throwing her hoof around Twilight, “Techie's probably gonna be a little grumpy you didn't like it, but he'll forget in a week and move on to some weird and crazy new invention! Maybe a pink lemonade maker!”

Twilight Sparkle picked the book back up and replaced it into her saddlebag, “Thanks for the positivity, Pinkie Pie, but I've got to think of a way to put it gently to him or he'll be miserable!”

“Maybe you could just tell Techorse you liked the gift more than the story,” suggested Spike, “ya know, it's the thought that counts?”

“Yeah, I hope he'll take it that way,” she answered.

The unicorn mare made her way for the door, followed by Pinkie Pie and Spike, who left with her into the slightly cool air of the outside day. A few ponies were conducting business out on the streets of Ponyville, and a filly and her brother were playing in a puddle left over from the rain shower the previous evening. Twilight turned left and proceeded down the cobblestone road, passing Rarity, who was on her way to purchase some more bolts of cloth for a recent dress she had been commissioned to make for a bridal shower. She had stopped at a stand set up nearby that was selling some freshly-cut bundles of hay that she planned on preparing for dinner that evening.

While passing Rarity who was busy shopping, the latch on Twilight's saddle bag came undone, and the book bounced out of the top, landing on the street behind them. She turned around, having heard the loud thwack of the book on the pavement, and picked it up with her magic.

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle!” she called out, “You've dropped your book, darling.”

Twilight Sparkle's blood ran cold in her veins, hoping Rarity wouldn't open the book and read the story. But sadly, when she turned around with her other friends, Rarity was already muzzle-deep in the first few pages of the sub-par tale.

“Good heavens!” she exclaimed, recoiling in horror, “This doesn't seem like a book suitable for you, Twilight! Who in Equestria could have written such a poorly made work of writing?”

“Techorse,” whimpered Twilight, lowering her head and drooping her ears in shame.

Rarity realized she had just made a massive social error, and she blushed, gritting her teeth, “Oh, um. Well, I suppose it was very sweet of him to... make an attempt.”

“Isn't it horrible?” snickered Spike.

Twilight Sparkle's thoughts raced through her head as her friends laughed about how bad the writing was. Now even if she kept the truth about the book secret, it'd eventually get out to Techorse that his writing was terrible. She couldn't expect her friends to hold their tongues about it forever as well.

“What if he figures out I let Rarity and Pinkie Pie read it?” she thought horribly, “He's going to think I was trying to humiliate him. Then he won't be able to trust me anymore, or won't think I care about his feelings!”

A few pieces of Twilight's hair curled in a mess as she began to shiver a little bit from the anxiety going through her mind. Rarity pitted Twilight's plight, and returned the book to her with a glow of blue magical energy from her horn.

“Oh Twilight, it's not such a big deal really,” said the mare in a soothing voice, “I do hope he didn't decide to publish though.”

“Don't worry Rarity, it's the only copy,” assured Spike, trying not to laugh, “Techorse would be absolutely humiliated if anypony else found out about how bad the story is though.”

“Oh I agree,” Rarity nodded, “we simply must not let that book get into the wrong hooves. And whatever you do Twilight, don't let Applejack find out about this, she'll make you tell Techorse the truth!”

Her friends' words were not helping her problems at all. Twilight continued to worry and suffer about Techorse's inevitable reaction to the news about his writing, and kept cycling through her mind as to how she could fix her problem.

“Oh hey Shadow Breeze!” greeted Pinkie Pie, interrupting her thoughts and struggles.

The graphite colored pegasus was accompanied by Fluttershy, the two having recently gotten together meant spending more time either enjoying tea in the comfort of their homes or gardens, or making trips out into town to shop together.

“Hey Pinkie,” he answered with a friendly smile, “what's new?”

Twilight turned her head to stop Pinkie Pie from continuing to worsen the situation, but Pinkie Pie blurted out, “Twilight's moping about a book...”

A purple stream of magical energy sealed her lips shut, and Pinkie Pie mumbled as the energy held her jaw closed. Twilight Sparkle, horn glowing, slid in front of all her friends, blocking them off from her.

“Twilight,” criticized Fluttershy in the most gentle manner she could, “um, I think Pinkie Pie might have wanted to say something.”

With sweat running down her face, she answered, “Oh, Pinkie Pie? She always has something to say!”

“Well what was this about a book?” asked Shadow Breeze, “I'm kinda curious now, if you want to share.”

“Oh trust me, you don't wanna know, it's something Techorse wrote,” scoffed Spike, who was met with a steel-cold glare from Twilight, making him back off in terror.

Shadow Breeze's blue eyes lit up, “Wow! Tech wrote a book? I really wanna see!”

“Come on Twilight, think!” she panicked in her head, looking back and forth at the gentle smiles, “They don't need to know Tech's writing was bad, too! If only I could just give them something else to read.”

Suddenly, a golden idea came to Twilight's intelligent mind, and her anxiety was quickly replaced by that of relief. Techorse wasn't going to be upset after all! Spike crossed his arms when he saw Twilight's panic disappear, knowing that she was coming up with a plan that would likely backfire as all her panic-induced plans did.

“Tech did write a book!” exclaimed the unicorn, turning her head and smiling proudly, “But it's still just a rough draft he dropped off with me. He wants me to check it over, and fix some mistakes before we all get to read it. Can you wait until tomorrow to read the improved version?”

Fluttershy said softly, “Oh, yes! That'd be really nice to read it and support Techorse.”

“We'll stop by the library later tomorrow,” finished Shadow Breeze, “Fluttershy and I were going to go look at some bird feeders for the cardinals.”

“Well, have fun!” laughed Twilight nervously.

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy left them, suspecting nothing of Twilight Sparkle's lie. She returned to Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who gave her funny looks.

“Really Twilight? You couldn't tell them the truth?” asked Spike, disgusted.

“It is the truth!” groaned Twilight, “I'm going to edit the book, and make it good. I can see what Techorse was trying to do, and I can fix the book by tomorrow, it's not that long.”

“I guess,” grumbled the dragon in response.

Twilight's emotional thoughts returned to her head, and she held in her panic for just a while longer before breaking down, “It's better than leaving it how it is and risking Techorse being upset with me for letting everypony we know read it! He'll be humiliated if Ponyville started to hear about this.”

Rarity felt a tug at her heartstrings, seeing Twilight fighting back near tears, and approached Twilight, “Twilight... are you worried Techorse will harbor resentment over this?”

“Y..yes!” she answered, “He won't like it that I don't think he writes well.”

Pinkie Pie felt a bit miserable over Twilight's thoughts, knowing it was mostly her fault for blabbing about how bad the story was, and walked over slowly to Twilight.

“Hey, you know he loves you very much! He wouldn't be so mean over something like this. That's not our Techie!”

“Even so, I've got to protect him,” sniffed the lavender unicorn, “I'm going to fix this book!”

“If it helps you feel better, I say go for it!” agreed Pinkie Pie, giving Twilight a hug.

“Thanks everypony,” said Twilight, feeling a bit better about her situation, “now, I'm going back to fix this mess! Come on, Spike.”

“I'm coming!” he said, “Later, Rarity, I don't want to miss this!”

They left the two other ponies standing there as they walked back for the library. Both of them knew they had comforted Twilight in hopes she would be more honest with Techorse, and both of them knew equally well she wasn't going to do that.

Once they were out of earshot, Rarity asked of Pinkie Pie, “Do you suppose Twilight's going to be ok? Should we tell Techorse ourselves before things get too out of hoof?”

“Yeah, she'll be fine! But let's try to keep this a big secret from Techie!” she suggested, “Twilight's gonna love it when he's ok with it!”

Rarity agreed, “You're right Pinkie Pie, he will be. I just hope Twilight figures that out before she stays up all night trying to fix that book!”

Twilight borrowed a typewriter from the local print shop to type up her own version of her coltfriend's story, dragging the heavy metal machine back to the library. She dropped it down next to a large stack of papers next to it at her writing desk. Spike watched as she placed the book open next to her, and shook his head at her plans to retype the novel in just one evening.

“Twilight, you're not seriously going to finish that whole thing, are you?” he asked.

Twilight Sparkle reached for a vial of ink to fill the typewriter with with a hoof, and poured the closest bottle in while looking at her dragon.

“Of course, it'll be easy! Techorse's book wasn't all that long, and I already know what I'm doing. I'm sure it'll be a better read for Fluttershy and Shadow too!”

Spike groaned, and said, “Well, I'm going to go dust the upstairs room. Something's been making me sneeze and I'm worried about burning something on accident.”

The young dragon turned and headed up the stairs, leaving Twilight to her work. She first outlined Techorse's story on a piece of parchment paper using a red-inked quill. The story was simple, a mare named Close Look who owned a detective agency was tasked with investigating the disappearance of a stallion. He would turn out to have vanished due to the work of a crazed chemist who had poisoned his food with a potion that caused both invisibility and muteness, rendering the victim unable to be detected except by touch. While on the case, Close Look would meet a stallion named Pestles who was tasked with creating an antidote for the invisibility potion. The two would both discover the cure for the invisibility and muteness potion, and defeat the mad chemist, who would eventually reveal his name to be Mixer, an old friend of Pestles gone evil.

Twilight typed away, making her fixes one at a time, rewriting the tale paragraph by paragraph. Although Techorse's spelling and grammar had been fine, everything needed to be improved otherwise, so there was tons for Twilight to do. She started by having the pair not fall in love right away, saving it for the end of the story to give them enough time to develop. She made them struggle to develop the cure for the potion, and dropped subtle clues to Mixer's past throughout while maintaining Pestles' secrecy and nervousness about the topic. Twilight made the background characters, including the mute victims of the potion, have more flavor and a far more important role. A final struggle between Close Look and Mixer led to him getting his lab coat caught in a weather balloon, which carried him away in a more interesting, ambiguous ending then simply having him vanish off a cliff. It was near midnight when Twilight wrote the final fixes into the story, and she gathered together all of the completed pages. She heated some wax she kept in her desk normally used to seal letters, and bound a brand new book in a pink cover, to make it easy to tell which version was which. Tired, but proud of herself for having completed her copy of the book, she retreated upstairs and dropped herself sleepily on top of her bed, dozing off in minutes.

The Canterlot library looked eerily empty without a replacement librarian. Despite it being the middle of the day, Twilight Sparkle couldn't find another soul on the inside, yet the tall, massive columns of bookshelves remained, stacked with the novels she used to read only a few years ago. She couldn't remember how she got there or why she was there, she just knew she had something to accomplish during this visit, and was determined to find out what it was.

A loud thwack sounded as a book fell off of one of the bookshelves in the distance. Twilight grabbed on to one of the rolling ladders on the shelves and pushed off with her rear hooves to go investigate the fallen book. She rolled down the book-laden hallways, not remembering Canterlot library being as big as this, and stopped in a large, open area with a pink throw rug covering a massive floor area, a chandelier hanging overhead.

On the floor was the culprit, Techorse's book had fallen from the shelf and landed on the floor. Twilight picked up the light blue novel, and curiously inspected it.

“What's this doing here?” she asked herself.

She opened the cover, and dropped it in fright as she saw, written in large red dripping letters across the forward pages,

“THE WORST BOOK OF ALL TIME AS DECLARED BY TWILIGHT SPARKLE.”

Twilight screamed loudly as the book hit the floor, displaying its creepy message on the first two pages.

“I... I never said that! This book should have never left Ponyville!”

“What are you talking about?” said a random but shadowy fellow perusing the books in the library, “You're Twilight Sparkle, the biggest book lover in all of Equestria!”

Twilight looked back at the figure, a mare standing in the darkness of one of the bookcases, “But, I... never let it out!”

“Course you didn't, you lied to Techorse and told him you just proofread it. So he thought it'd be cool to share it with some more ponies, and well, it was so funny we just had to make some copies! Millions, in fact, everypony's got a copy to laugh about!” goaded the visitor.

The unicorn mare backed up, her mouth hanging open and tears nearly coming to her eyes as her worst fears were coming true. She tried to run away from the book, but one of the bookcases fell down, blocking her escape from the maze of stacked volumes. Dozens of books poured from the fallen shelves, covering the floor in a neat blanket of stories and historical books. The other shelves started to collapse with it, and Twilight yelled in fear, attempting to teleport out but finding her magic to be mysteriously useless. More books poured infinitely from the fallen shelves, and the mare found herself in a sea of reading material that prevented her escape, only her neck and head poked out from the flowing pile of stories.

“I'm sorry!” she cried, “I didn't mean it!”

The sea of books started to rumble underneath her, and a massive book, ten feet in length and thirty across, pushed to the surface of the smaller books. Twilight found herself sitting on top of a giant version of Techorse's book, the red, eerie letters staring at her.

Twilight stood up, looking at the horror beneath her hooves, her legs shaking like leaves in the wind.

“Guess you should have said something, huh Twilight?” laughed the stranger.

Jagged edges of paper formed along the sides of the pages of the massive book, and Twilight tried futility one more time to escape before one end of the book rapidly folded in. The mare covered her eyes as the cover of the book closed on her, smashing her flat as a pancake inside with the thunderous sound of the book slamming shut.

“Twilight...”

Twilight Sparkle heard her voice, and her ear twitched. She guessed she hadn't been flattened after all, and slowly opened her eyes. The library had been replaced by a gentle scene outside of Ponyville, the bank of the gentle river that flowed into the town. The dragonflies were buzzing around the meadow scene, and the smell of flowers drifted up to Twilight from the fresh blooms that grew by the babbling water.

“Twilight...”

She looked to see who was calling her name, that voice was so familiar! It appeared to be coming from behind her, so she turned around slowly to face her guest. Princess Luna stood before her, a deep look of concern in her eyes.

Twilight was relieved as she knew that the Princess's appearance meant, “Princess Luna? Am I dreaming?”

“Yes Twilight Sparkle, you are,” she answered, smiling softly, “I came here as soon as I sensed your tremendous pain and agony deep within your mind. Tell me, what's wrong?”

“Well,” answered Twilight, her ears drooping, “if you didn't see what I just went through in that nightmare, Techorse wrote a book for me as a gift. But it was so horrible, I didn't want anypony to find out about it until I'd written a new copy that was much better.”

“But eventually the secret would be out, and surely Techorse would be disappointed that you didn't like it!” concluded the alicorn, lifting her head.

She confirmed the answer, “Right. I don't know what Techorse will think about me once he finds out I hated his book. I'm worried this will come between us.”

Luna stepped closer and asked, “Do you believe he will leave if you tell him his writing is lacking?”

Twilight tried not to sob, “I don't know.”

“Do you think any differently about Techorse now that you know he can't write?” asked the Princess.

“No, but it doesn't change the fact that I let my friends get a hold of it. They're going to tell him, and he'll be somewhat upset.”

Princess Luna offered a large wing around Twilight's downcast face, “Twilight Sparkle, it's not unusual for two ponies who are together to do something the other finds unsavory. No pony is perfect.”

She cleared her throat and let out some gossip she had heard earlier, “I recall one time your brother made a similar mistake. He was asked by Cadance to avoid getting lilies for a gathering they were attending. All he heard was “lilies” and showed up with a huge bouquet of them, making the most important guest very sick with allergies.”

“Well, that sounds like Shining all right,” chuckled Twilight, cheering up a bit.

“Cadance was mad at him, but she too has made mistakes that have made him angry as well. They still love each other more than anything, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight realized what Luna was trying to say, “So you're saying I just have to get it over with, and let Techorse be mad or hurt.”

“If that's what happens, then yes,” answered the Princess, rolling her eyes.

“But if it does, we'll still be able to work through it!” continued Twilight, gaining confidence, “Because we're close friends!”

“So do you know how to resolve this?” asked Princess Luna, “For it's getting quite close to dawn, and I must depart.”

“I do, thank you so much!” cheered Twilight, giving the Princess of the Night a big hug.

“Then take care, Twilight Sparkle, all is well...”

Twilight awoke about an hour later and eagerly went downstairs to claim the books. She shoved both of the volumes into her bags and decided to make a rapid dash for Techorse's castle before she could be caught by Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze. The best approach would be to tell Techorse that his writing wasn't that great, but that she had fixed it and wanted to share the improved version with his friends to try to save him the trouble. The icy cold air of the morning woke her up faster as she trotted down the street for the castle. Spike had noticed her leaving in a rush, having woken up early, and followed her outside, careful not to let her notice that he was tagging along.

Unfortunately for Twilight, she was intercepted by Fluttershy, who had come back with Shadow Breeze to return one of the bird feeders to the seed and feed shop downtown.

“Oh, hello Twilight!” called the light yellow pegasus, “Do you have the new, improved version of Tech's story for us? I mean, if you don't, we can wait...”

Twilight got a bit nervous, but decided it would be ok for them to read it first anyways, remembering what conclusion she had come to from Luna. Even if Techorse found out she had hijacked the story, she could work it out with him and maintain their relationship.

“Sure! I've got it right here.”

She passed over the red book to Fluttershy with her magic, and stood with her eyes closed, smiling at the thought of Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze enjoying the new work. But Fluttershy immediately said something that made her panic.

“Um, I'm sorry Twilight, but... this is blank.”

Twilight clenched her teeth and took back the red book from the highly confused Fluttershy. Every page of the book, true to word, was totally blank! For some reason the ink on the pages had vanished overnight, and that's when the truth came to her.

“Oh no,” gasped Twilight, “I must have accidentally used the invisible ink in the typewriter!”

“No big deal, just give us the original!” laughed Shadow Breeze.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie had returned to Sugarcube Corner in hopes of catching the unfolding of Twilight's plight over the book, and heard the conversation out in the street. They exited the building and caught up with Spike nearby, who also wanted to see the fireworks.

“Guys, I really can't let you see it,” laughed Twilight, “you won't like it.”

“Please?” asked Fluttershy, her eyes betraying her disappointment.

Eventually, Twilight knew she would have to cave in, and turned over the light blue book with defeat in her heart. She watched Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy struggle over the first few pages of the book.

“Oh... my!” exclaimed Fluttershy softly, “Well, that's a really interesting way to write.”

Shadow Breeze had to agree, “Poor Tech. It looks like he tried so hard, but it's... really bad.”

“Yeah, that's why I tried to fix it,” sighed Twilight, “but now you know, it's really awful. Please don't tell him that, he made it special for me, and I've got to be the one to break the news to him!”

“Twilight, we'll respect that,” answered Shadow Breeze, smiling, “Techorse would be embarrassed if he knew we saw it and didn't like it.”

“Oh, thank you!” said Twilight, smiling and giving a sigh of relief.

“Of course,” continued Fluttershy, “we wouldn't want to hurt either of you, we're your friends.”

“Uh oh!” gasped Pinkie Pie, “Here comes Techie now! Here's your chance Twilight.”

Techorse was on his way to see Twilight again at the library anyways, and saw his companions standing out in the city square.

“Hey everypony!” he said, approaching with a broad smile on his face, “What's going on?”

He could tell something was wrong from the funny looks he was getting from everyone else, including Spike, who was scratching the back of his head.

“Oh, not much Techie!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Just talking!”

“I hope I'm not interrupting, I wanted to talk to you a bit Twilight, before we set up plans for tonight!”

Twilight stepped forward, swallowing hard as she worked up the courage to say, “Techorse, we need to talk about this.”

The inventor's smile disappeared, “What's wrong? Do you need to cancel talking about the book?”

Twilight approached him, and answered after taking a deep breath, “Tech... the book you wrote was really bad. The main characters were too good at everything, fell in love too fast, and went on a boring, predictable quest. It's the worst story I've ever read.”

Techorse looked up in horror at his friends for some support, but he found them all nodding in agreement with the analysis by Twilight.

“Oh, wow...” he stuttered, “you let Pinkie Pie and the others read it too?”

“Yes, and I'm really sorry about that,” admitted Twilight, hanging her head, “but you needed to know the truth.”

“It was my first time writing!” protested Techorse, becoming a little irritated.

“Well, I'm sorry, it wasn't any good,” she continued, “I understand if you're mad with me for sharing it with our friends. I was so worried last night about how upset you'd be, that I tried to make a fixed version of the story. But then I realized it was better for us to get into a conflict over the book, and move past it. I hope you can forgive me sometime for it.”

Techorse relaxed a little, knowing that Twilight's anxiety had likely crushed her over how awful his writing was, and said, “Twilight, I'm unhappy you chose to let some of our friends bash the book and didn't like it, but I still care about your feelings and I won't hold a grudge about it.”

Twilight looked up at him with a smile before he went on, “And, well, while we're at it, I was the one who made a mess of the library last week. I was trying out a new sorting robot and it pushed everything over.”

She remembered the massive mess and started to get a bit angry about it, “You did that?!”

“Yeah, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it either,” he admitted, sighing, “that makes both of us.”

Twilight dropped the mistake and smiled at him, remembering her lesson, “Techorse, it looks like we're a normal couple.”

“We are?” he asked, surprised.

“We both get mad at each other sometimes and make annoying mistakes,” she said, “but we're working things out one step at a time. I'm so glad you're able to forgive me for my mistake, even if you are going to be a bit upset for a while.”

“Me too, I owe you a clean library!”

Twilight laughed, “Come here!”

Techorse and Twilight embraced and kissed quickly, which prompted Pinkie Pie to tease them by making smoochy noises behind their backs. She laughed as Twilight tried to silence her again with a spell, but she ducked the playful blob of energy and it vanished into the air.

“So there's a better copy of my story? Maybe if I read it, I could start getting better,” mused Techorse.

“Oh yeah, but it was written in that invisible ink, so the pages are blank. Oops!” said Spike, flipping through the copy.

“Wait a minute,” figured Techorse, “If it's Princess Celestia's recipe, I wonder if UV light would reveal the ink!”

“UV light?” asked Pinkie Pie, “What's that?”

“It's a form of sunlight, and I guess that would make sense as to how the Princess would decode her messages,” explained Twilight, “Rarity, you use a UV light spell to check for blemishes on dresses, can you check the book?”

“Why of course, let me see!” she answered.

Spike eagerly held the book open for Rarity, and she cast a wide ray of invisible energy at the pages. Sure enough, the letters of the story started to appear again, much to the delight of Twilight and Techorse.

“Let's read this copy over dinner, shall we?” teased Twilight.

“Sure!” he responded sarcastically, “I'll just bring over a brand new UV machine I'm building. Hasn't been tested yet, but I'm sure you'll be ok with that, right?”

Twilight swung a playful hoof at him, and he ducked and ran, laughing as she chased after him. Their friends were relieved to have seen a good outcome to a potentially bad situation. Spike went to pick up the bad copy of the story Techorse had written earlier, but to his curiosity, it had strangely vanished from off the ground. He shrugged, figuring it had simply been claimed and thrown out by a passerby.

Princess Luna snuggled down into her lacy bed, about to go back to her duties of solving the nightmares of her subjects. But before she was to sleep, she wanted to take a look at the story that Twilight Sparkle had told her about. She held Techorse's novel in her front hooves on her bed, looking over the cover curiously.

“Now, let's see what Twilight Sparkle was talking about,” she said, opening the cover gently.

A few moments passed as she read before she snickered.

“Oh, my goodness! This is going straight to my bookshelf!”

#42 - A Nightmarish Move

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A Nightmarish Move

Techorse series: #42

By Spirals95

“Ok, here we go!” whispered Pinkie Pie, holding a large, plastic syringe in her hooves above a four-layers tall cake.

Whenever there was a slow business day at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie would work on her latest confectionery masterpiece. Today, she was attempting to create a candy rocks and lemon syrup cake. Candy rocks were small, crystalline pieces of sugar that reacted with acidic chemicals, popping in one's mouth and leaving a pleasing tingling on the tongue. Pinkie's latest idea was to create a vanilla layer cake with layers of candy rocks and lemon gel so that anyone enjoying it could mix the two with each bite, creating a unique treat. But if the lemon gel got injected directly into a layer of the candy rocks, things might get ugly.

She aimed the plastic syringe, loaded with the translucent lemon syrup at where she wanted to inject it under the icing within the layers of the cake. It was coated in yellow icing with light blue lace and flowers, and would hopefully go on sale that day. The pink pony carefully pushed the plastic needle into the cake, and pushed the plunger with her other hoof.

After a few moments of the cake not exploding, she let out a sigh of relief and set the syringe down on the kitchen table.

“Phew! Looks like my new super-lemon crinkle rock cake is finally ready!” she giggled, happy to have not made a mess.

Pinkie Pie jumped down from the counter and bounced happily out the door into the main room of the bakery. While Mr. and Mrs. Cake were out shopping to replenish the store's harder to find supplies, she was in charge of operations. A few customers were waiting in line at the front counter, waiting to pick up their orders or simply buy a few of the goods in the display cases throughout the shop.

“Sorry for keeping everypony waiting, my brand new lemon and candy rocks cake is finally ready to go!” she said, jumping behind the cash register.

She got a curious feeling as she realized she didn't know the customer at all, which was unusual as she made it a personal life goal to be on first name basis with everyone in Ponyville.

The stallion at the front of the line got a little curious, “Lemon and candy rocks? The fizzy kind?”

She smiled broadly and answered, “Yup, that's right! I thought of it myself, you get that really cool tingly feeling on your tongue with every bite when the lemony filling and the candy rocks meet!”

“Well, I'll take a piece!” he answered, “I was coming in for an oatmeal cookie, but that sounds a lot better. I used to love candy rocks as a foal.”

Pinkie Pie started to trot back for the kitchen, “Lemme go get it from the back!”

The customer, a unicorn pony with a yellow coat and a white mane, noticed how impatient the others behind him were starting to get, as they had been waiting in line too, so he added, “Maybe you should serve everypony else first, I can wait!”

She agreed to help the other ponies in line first, and started taking orders for sheets of cookies, and even a cake for a graduation party. Pinkie Pie saw the front door of the shop open up out of the corner of her eye, and noticed that the guest wasn't tall enough to be seen by glancing at the middle of the door.

“Hey Spike!” she called out, “I'll be with ya in a sec!”

Spike stopped dead in his tracks and crossed his arms, a bit irritated that Pinkie Pie knew it was him without entering her line of sight. He clutched a scroll in his left hand, a message for her, and had been sent to deliver it by Twilight. Once all of the customers had been taken care of except for the stallion eager to try the lemon cake, Spike pushed to the front of the now-busy bakery and offered the scroll to Pinkie Pie.

“This is for you, just got this today,” he explained, “it's a letter from Princess Celestia.”

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly, and grabbed the scroll quickly out of Spike's clawed hands, unrolling it on the floor. She quickly scanned it over, and read the contents.

“Spike, this is so neat!” she squealed, jumping in the air and waving her arms, “Princess Celestia wants me to come over to the castle today and meet somepony!”

“Oh, who?” he asked.

“I'm not sure,” answered the mare, putting a hoof to her lip, “it could be anypony! What if it's Equestria's best cookie maker? Or the inventor of blue raspberry!”

“Excuse me,” interrupted the white maned customer, “you seem busy now with this, it's a huge honor getting to go see the princess. So I'll just leave now, ok?”

“Oopsie! I forgot your cake,” responded Pinkie Pie, “one second!”

Pinkie Pie dashed off into the kitchen, and returned in a blur that stirred up the air around the dragon and the stallion. She now bore a slice of the cake, one layer of purple candy rocks and one layer of lemon gel visible as stripes on the inside. The customer took the piece of cake from Pinkie Pie in his hoof and tried a horizontal bite through the whole piece to make sure the acidic gel and the rocks mixed. The rocks crackled on his tongue and complimented the thick citrus flavor well.

“Wow, this is great!” he answered, “Thanks!”

“Oh this is so exciting, Princess Celestia wants me to meet somepony special and my newest cake worked out!”

No sooner did she say that, a loud yet gooey explosion was heard in the kitchen. Apparently, the lemon gel had been a little too runny, and although Pinkie Pie was able to keep the gel and rocks from mixing initially, cutting the cake had caused two layers to combine and turn it into a total mess!

“Oops!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Mostly worked out. Next time I gotta chill the gel more! Gimme one second.”

Pinkie Pie disappeared into the kitchen, shortly followed by a strange slurping noise. She soon returned, smiling and licking her lips.

She told Lightmaker jokingly, "Sorry, had to eat the evidence before the Cakes got back!"

Mr. and Mrs. Cake sure enough soon returned to the store, bringing in a shopping back filled with some rare spices from the downtown stores.

“Pinkie Pie, how'd the new dessert turn out?” asked Mrs. Cake as she set the bag down on the nearest table, “I saw you working on that all morning.”

“Ma'am, this is an absolutely wonderful creation!” interrupted the stallion, stepping forward, “I'm probably going to end up ordering a whole one if you have the time to make one!”

“Well sure!” answered Mr. Cake, eager for the extra business, “Can you make this gentleman an extra one, Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie really wanted to go to Canterlot and see the mystery pony, but she knew she had her duty to work, “Yeah, I can make another! Maybe one that can fit out the door though, the first one was super big, four layers!”

The customer stepped forward and cut in for Pinkie Pie, hoping to do her a favor, “Pinkie Pie has summons in Canterlot according to the librarian's dragon here.”

“Spike,” coughed the dragon, indignant the guest didn't know his name.

“Right, Spike. My name is Lightmaker by the way, candle store owner right down the road from the sofa and quill shop. I just moved here last month and opened up for business.”

“Really, that store? Why it's precious!” said Mrs. Cake, putting a hoof over her heart, “I saw the nicest little mushroom shaped candles in your shop window last week. You wouldn't happen to know how to make birthday candles would you?”

Pinkie Pie smiled, “Oooh! Birthday candles? You're always having to go out of town to buy those, they don't make 'em here in Ponyville!”

Lightmaker thought about it and chuckled, “Is this an offer?”

“Sure! We'll buy candles right from you,” offered Mr. Cake, “you'll save us the trouble of having to get out of town like we did today to get them, and it'll be great business for you. We go through a lot of birthday cakes!”

The unicorn agreed, “Let's work something out then!”

“Oooh, oooh!” cheered Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down, “Can I please go to Canterlot while you work out the deal? Spike has a letter for me from the princesses saying I should go.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake understood the importance of Spike's letter, and nodded, dismissing Pinkie Pie for the day so that they could hash out a trade deal with Lightmaker and obtain their hard to get party candles.

Since it would just be a trip for the day, Pinkie Pie didn't pack herself a bag, taking only herself and a few bits for the train fare to get to the city. Spike accompanied her to the train station, which was beginning to empty as ponies fled from the overcast sky indicating rain.

“Huh, were we supposed to get rain today?” asked Spike.

“Let's find out,” she answered, before drawing in a deep breath.

Spike held his hands over the fins on the sides of his head, knowing what was coming next.

“Hey Rainbow Dash!” yelled Pinkie Pie at the cloud bank above.

The pegasus popped her head out of the gray clouds above, parting the puffy clouds with a fluffing noise. She had an annoyed look on her face, and refused to show any more than her head poking out from the accumulation above.

Rainbow Dash grumbled, “I'm not deaf ya know. And yes, we've got a big shower coming up!”

The ponies at the train station started to walk a bit more quickly at the words from the weather pony, knowing their day was about to get a bit more wet. Pinkie Pie didn't want everyone to get poured on, and also felt like she wanted to bring Rainbow Dash along too. So she decided to appeal to her friend's hopeless laziness.

Pinkie Pie flicked her puffy tail and said, “Thanks Rainbow Dash, just checkin”

She pretended to walk away for the train before letting her ears perk up and spun back around again, “Oh, I just thought of something! I'm going to Canterlot to see this reeeeeally cool pony Princess Celestia wants me to meet! Do you want to skip out on that rain shower and come with me?”

Rainbow Dash really did want to abandon work, and looked over the cloud bank around her, “I guess I could go. I don't think Cloudsdale will mind if we have the rainstorm overnight instead.”

Several breaths of relief came from the other ponies at the train station, happy they wouldn't be getting gallons of rainwater on their heads. Rainbow Dash descended from the cloud bank and landed on the train platform, folding her wings at her sides.

“So, who's the pony?” she asked curiously.

“I don't know!” answered Pinkie Pie honestly, “That's the fun of it, it's a big surprise!”

Spike added, “Well, we do know it's a couple from Canterlot.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “Oh great, it's gonna be some uncool rich jerk.”

“But Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia asked me to meet them!” countered Pinkie with a patient grin, “That must mean it's gotta be a super-fun pony, or the princess wouldn't have picked me, she'd have picked a boring pony.”

The logic added up to Rainbow Dash, and she agreed, “Yeah, you're probably right! Let's go to Canterlot and meet them! This could be good.”

“Ya coming, Spike?” asked Pinkie Pie.

Spike shook his head, “Sorry, I have to get back to the library! Have fun though, Princess Celestia said these guys are really fun.”

The dragon turned and left them to go back home, leaving Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to catch the next train out of Ponyville. They arrived at Canterlot early in the afternoon, and took a carriage over to the castle, where they made their way to the large gates out front. Captain Arbiter stood with Jools and Jops on the battlements, looking down at the two ponies.

“You're late,” stated the captain blankly, knowing full well Pinkie Pie had taken her time responding to the letter, “Princess Celestia asked for your appearance ages ago Miss Pie. I suppose you have an excuse prepared?”

“Nope, we're just late, sorry Arby!” she admitted, “I really wanted to make sure Sugarcube Corner was taken care of, and brought Rainbow Dash too, so we were really slow! But we're here now and I wanna see the guest pony!”

Arbiter's expression lightened up, he wasn't expecting Pinkie Pie to take responsibility for her tardiness, “Well you're in luck, the guests haven't been here for too long. Jools, Jops, open the gate up.”

The blue-haired stallions complied and moved over to the latch system, opening the metal gates wide for Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who entered. They caught up with the three stallions and were escorted into the depths of the castle to the throne room. When the doors opened up, the princesses were already standing up from their thrones, attended to by two other gray coated unicorn guards. Their guests stood by a large wooden crate they had brought in, and the guards were inspecting the contents as evidenced by the crowbar that lay on the floor near the opened box.

Pinkie Pie bounded into the room first to meet the new guests, and as soon as she spotted them near the crate, her mouth fell open and she gasped.

Princess Celestia smiled and pointed to the couple who walked out from behind the crate, “Pinkie Pie, I'd like to introduce you to Games Luck-Baron, and his wife, Lady Luck-Baron.”

The pink mare squealed with joy and jumped up and down in place, “Oh my goodness! It's Lord Luck-Baron!”

“Um, I'm sorry, but who are you exactly?” asked Rainbow Dash a little rudely.

Games stepped forward, his tail wrapped around his lovely wifes'. Both were unicorns, and he was a tall, gentlemanly stallion, with a light tan coat and beaming blue eyes. His cutie mark, a pawn flanked by two wreaths of olive, was concealed by the fancy suit that he wore, a mostly white tuxedo with dress pants and black shoes. A long, black mane and tail stuck out in curls from his head, and he also kept a well-trimmed beard, making him look like a favorite jovial uncle. Lady's coat of pure white clashed with his, but she had an equally quirky mane, brown with a bun on the back of her head kept in place with what looked like a stick topped with a twenty sided die. Her long dress, a pink kimono laced with lucky green clover print, made her resemble an attractive geisha.

“Oh, well, perhaps my reputation's not quite Equestria wide then?” asked the stallion awkwardly, breaking his visage, “I'm Games Luck-Baron, or 'The Games Baron' as they call me. My wife and I have been collectors and connoisseurs of Equestria's finest strategy games.”

“Yeah, sorry,” she admitted, “I mean, I like games, but I didn't know they were so special.”

Princess Celestia held her tongue against chewing out Rainbow Dash for insulting the Baron's livelihood and life pursuits, but he and his wife let out tremendous laughter at the rough comment.

“Ah, is this Rainbow Dash?” asked Lady of Princess Celestia, “She's just as wonderful as you said she'd be, your majesty.”

“Yup, that's me!” answered Rainbow Dash, smiling and stretching out her back egotistically, “Glad you've heard about me.”

After a few moments, she realized suddenly and embarrassingly that they didn't know she was serious about her not thinking board games were special beyond a source of entertainment.

“I... meant it though. I don't know why board games are so special.”

Pinkie Pie coughed and sputtered, “W..what? Ya mean you've never thought about it before?”

Games ignored Pinkie Pie and explained to Rainbow Dash, “You see Rainbow Dash, when I was a foal I was raised by a very strict father and mother who demanded that I be a doctor. Both of them had been doctors before me, and wanted to hold me to the same standard so that I could continue the family practice.”

“Lemme guess, no go?” stated Rainbow Dash sarcastically.

“Absolutely not, I wasn't going to mess with medicine, I find the practice boring,” sputtered Games, shaking his head, “of course that meant that my folks pushed back harder and harder, so I needed something to get out of it.”

“And then what happened?” beamed Pinkie Pie, a twinkle in her eyes.

“Well, I was invited over to my friends' house, where he and his family were playing a board game in the living room. They were so happy playing together, so much different from my own home...”

Lady gave her husband a hug, who was becoming emotional about his childhood.

“I got my cutie mark that day when I decided I was going to devote my life to spreading tabletop games around Equestria, bringing friends and family together. When I got home that evening, I was sure I would be abandoned for failing to follow the family practice.”

Pinkie Pie sighed, “Awww, but your parents accepted your cutie mark and supported your fun efforts?”

“No, they sent me to boarding school.”

Pinkie Pie's ears drooped and her eyes got watery, “Oh...”

“It was at boarding school I met Lady, and together, we went out and found many ponies who were trying to get their games to the market. We opened up a shop to sell other ponies' games, and soon, we had a vast business that was always looking for a new, creative game. My parents eventually did see that I was right all along. I suppose it's a good thing my younger brother Caltrops decided to go into medicine.”

Pinkie Pie's eyes grew wide, “You're Calie's big brother!?!?”

“Oh, do you know him?” interrupted Lady cheerfully, “I suppose you're the pink mare he kept telling us about, what a splendid life coincidence!”

“Calie's a good friend of mine! This is so cool, I'm friends with the brother of the Games Baron, EEEE!“, cheered Pinkie Pie.

“This is perfect, you see, the reason why my husband and I wanted to bring you here is because we're stocking all our game stores with a brand new miniatures game. We wanted help throwing a large party to celebrate the first game based on Equestrian historical figures!”

Pinkie Pie's legs were shaking with excitement, “You want me to throw you a GAMES PARTY?”

“Princess Celestia said you were the best, what do you say Miss Pie?” asked Games, “Will you help us?”

With a burst of confetti and a loud cry, Pinkie Pie did a backflip and waved her hooves in the air, “Yes! A hundred billion zillion times yes! This is gonna be the greatest party yet, with cakes shaped like chessboards, and music, and streamers in every color known to pony!”

Princess Celestia and Luna looked at each other and smiled knowing they'd made the right choice to suggest Pinkie Pie to the couple.

“I'm delighted you accept, now, would you care to see the game?” asked Lady, pointing to the crate, “I think you might find it exciting.”

“Couldn't hurt,” scoffed Rainbow Dash, “what's a miniature anyways?”

Games ran a hoof through his mane and tried to explain to Rainbow Dash as simply as he could, “Well, it's a small figurine in something or someone's likeness, you use them to represent game objects. Here, let me show you.”

Princess Celestia said to Arbiter, “Captain, could you please help the Baron unpack Equestria's new game?”

Arbiter made a slight, “mhm” in his throat and walked over to the crate, his black cape following behind him. He looked over the box, marked “fragile” with his remaining eye and reached in his with head. Backing up, the captain dragged out a smaller cardboard box filled with individual packages featuring artwork of the Equestrian flag on a plain black box. The words “Equestrian Valor: Set 1” were printed in bright blue letters on the front.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew over to the stack of smaller boxes, picking up one in her hooves. She peeled the top of the box open with her teeth, and reached inside with her hoof, pulling out one of the pieces. It was a small figurine of a changeling, bearing his fangs and rearing up on his hind legs on a circular base about one and a half inches across, with the miniature being two inches tall.

“Each box comes with two common miniatures and a rare one,” explained Games, “the designers wanted ponies to be able to collect characters and trade them with their friends in addition to playing the game. If it's a success, it may be one of the lucky games to go into the games vault, a great cause for Pinkie Pie's celebration. Please, all of you help yourself to some boosters.”

Some of the other ponies grabbed a few boxes and began to open them. Rainbow Dash placed the changeling soldier on the ground. A few numbers were printed directly into its base to represent its stats. The crate of miniatures came with a large red six sided die, likely to make the game more accessible to earth ponies and pegasus ponies who couldn't quite throw the dice easily.

“Wow, these are pretty neat!” admitted the pegasus, digging through her box.

She pulled out another figurine, this time of a chimera, and set the piece down to get at her rare for the box. As fortune would have it, Rainbow Dash pulled out a very familiar piece.

“Hey... this is ME!” she said, shocked and a little bit flattered at once.

Pinkie Pie peered over and watched as Rainbow Dash pulled the miniaturized version of herself out of the box, setting it down in front of her. The replica featured her attached to a clear plastic “stick” to give the impression that she was flying with her hooves stretched out.

“Ah, and what historical game would be complete without models of the holders of the Elements of Harmony?” chuckled Games, “The creators hope you take a liking to them.”

“Sir, it's you,” muttered Jops to Arbiter, having taking the opportunity to open a box himself.

The Captain peeled his attention away from the crate and inspected the miniature Jops was holding up on his hoof. He was carrying a beautiful longsword in his teeth, and his wings were outstretched, flipping his black cape up.

“Are we getting royalties for this nonsense?” snapped the stallion, looking up at Games.

“Arbiter!” criticized Luna.

Arbiter was not thrilled with the idea of him being a game piece, “It's a good question if they're going to use our likenesses publicly! We never agreed to this.”

“Don't worry Arby, I'm sure Techie has an equally silly piece!” giggled Pinkie Pie, earning a nasty look in return.

“You'll be getting a cut, don't worry,” explained Lady, “we've got sales projected into the hundred thousands after the short release here in Canterlot.”

A bit of greed overtook Arbiter, who smirked, “All right then, I look forward to it. Maybe this game isn't such a bad idea after all.”

Princess Luna picked up a folded piece of paper from inside the crate with her magic and held it in front of her face, reading the instructions for the game.

“Doesn't seem too complex!” she stated, “I wish to try it.”

“You want to try playing, Princess Luna?” asked Pinkie Pie, “That sounds like fun! I think we've got enough stuff open to play.”

“Very well! I challenge you, Lady Luck-Baron, to a match of Equestrian Valor!” boomed Luna at the mare, much to the disgrace of Arbiter and Princess Celestia.

But to their surprise, Lady threw off the stick holding her hair up, and her mane flowed, “I accept your majesty, but be forewarned, you're facing off the best board game player in Equestria!”

“I knew I married you for a reason!” chuckled Games, scratching his chin.

“Would you prefer a cup of tea to this?” whispered Arbiter to Princess Celestia, hoping he could get out of the silly situation.

“Yes, but... I do want to open one box just to see what it's like,” answered Celestia softly and with a wink.

She picked up one of the boxes with a white magical glow, and left with Arbiter back for one of the many lounges on the bottom floor of the castle. While Arbiter went to go make the tea in the castle's massive kitchen, the alicorn stayed behind on one of the soft green felt chairs near a large bay window on the east wall of the castle. Celestia curiously looked over the simple cardboard box, and shook it gently with a telekinesis spell. The package made a nice, subtle rattle as the pieces inside shifted up and down. Her horn glowing in front of her waving hair, the princesses opened the flaps of the box gently and took out the three pieces.

Arbiter heard Celestia scream from inside the kitchen and immediately dropped the teakettle he had picked up onto the floor. Knowing his leader might be in danger, the underside of his cape glowed purple as twin metal gauntlets, magically suspended using crystals grabbed his trusty sword Wraithbane and drew it from its sheath. Running with the blade, he dashed out of the kitchen, cape fluttering behind him as he ran into action into the lounge to defend Celestia's life!

“Princess Celestia, what's wrong?!” he shouted as he entered the room dramatically, “Intruders?”

Princess Celestia's mouth was agape in horror at what she was witnessing. In front of her, sitting on the table, was a miniature in the likeness of Nightmare Moon. A massive piece, standing several inches tall and across, the rare game piece featured the demon princesses' full armor, wicked sharp fangs, and sleek wing structure. She was reared on her hind legs, looking ready to pounce on her next victim.

Celestia slowly looked up at her captain, “Arbiter... if sister were to find out about this, she'll be devastated. I know she has regrets about what she's done in the past, as do I. We must never allow her to see this piece, or let that game reach the market.”

“I agree!” growled Arbiter, shoving his sword disappointingly back into the hilt and returning the metal gloves to his belt, “I knew pieces in our likenesses was a problem, and defamation is a serious offense.”

After a pause, he chuckled, “Perhaps a stay in Canterlot prison will teach those nerds to create offensive games like this. Would you like me to go lock them up?”

“Arbiter, the game's creators probably do not realize what they're doing is going to hurt my sister. They probably believe it is a tribute to her instead,” answered Celestia sternly, “and even if they did mean harm, the laws I made all those centuries ago still stand. Our subjects have the right to speak their opinion on myself and my sister, even if it's bad.”

“Even so, they didn't get permission,” grunted Arbiter, eyeballing the piece, “and it may cause psychological harm to Princess Luna. This must be stopped.”

“I will go to the developers myself and have them stop this,” declared Princess Celestia, “please, go to the store in Canterlot with Jools and Jops and have the product pulled.”

“Yes ma'am!” answered Arbiter, turning around and exiting the room.

Celestia lifted the piece up again, and placed it in a drawer in the ornate coffee table to be collected later. The Princess returned to the upstairs throne room, where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were busy playing a game against each other.

“That's your last piece Pinkie Pie! I win!” cheered Rainbow Dash as she knocked over her friend's last miniature.

Pinkie Pie clapped her front hooves, “Congrats Rainbow, you beat me again!”

“Seems like you've changed your mind about the game, huh?” chuckled Games.

“Well,” admitted Rainbow Dash, “yeah, once you get into it, it's pretty fun!”

Princess Luna too, was enjoying her games with Lady, and eagerly rolled the large red die. The cube bounced on the tile floor in front of the red carpet, and Princess Luna laughed at the result.

“Aha! Another hit, your troops are mine now Lady!”

Luna removed the piece from the paper game mat and placed it next to herself to help keep score. Her sister had conflicting thoughts about what she was doing, knowing that she was enjoying the new game. But if she ever learned about the Nightmare Moon piece, she would be crushed.

“Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, I'd like to speak with you for a moment in the study room if you're finished,” called the princess calmly.

“Sure!” answered Pinkie Pie, standing up and trotting out the door with Rainbow Dash in tow.

Princess Celestia explained the situation to the two ponies once they were safely out of earshot of the Luck-Baron couple and Luna. Pinkie Pie's eyes grew wide at the news, and she comically started to panic about the situation. She shuddered and bounced around the small study room littered with scrolls and letters and Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia talked about the situation at hoof.

“We know how bad both of you feel about the past,” said Rainbow Dash bluntly, “but I guess it stinks to have to think about it more.”

“There's been much forgiveness in the past year, but I do not want sister to believe her subjects are taking advantage of her past, nor my pain,” responded the Princess, sighing, “it is hard to move on sometimes even with a happy present.”

A tear was about to roll down her cheek, but Rainbow Dash wouldn't have it and tried to be comforting.

“Hey, I'm a bit uncomfy with being a game piece too,” she said softly, “if I'd done something so bad, I wouldn't want to hear about it either.”

“Which is why I'm going to the game factory to have them change it,” explained Celestia, “it was not a good idea to have a game where the pieces were based off of historical figures since...”

Pinkie Pie stopped jumping around, “We're not quite history yet?”

“That's a pleasant way to put it,” agreed the princess, “but I need to ask a great favor of both of you. Please keep sister from opening any more boxes. There are only twelve rare pieces in the set and over forty boxes in the Baron's crate. If she opens more, chances are she will discover another Nightmare Moon piece.”

“Don't worry princess, we'll stop that from happening!” boasted Rainbow Dash.

“Eventually she'll have to know, just not before I pull the game's production,” said Celestia sadly, “we cannot keep it a secret forever, unfortunately.”

“We'll buy enough time,” assured the pegasus.

“Thank you, both of you!” she answered, her bright smile returning.

The princess left the two ponies in charge of keeping Luna distracted long enough to pull the offensive piece, which meant somehow, they had to convince Equestria's biggest board game players to stop doing what they loved most. Rainbow Dash sighed, knowing they were probably in over their heads.

“Hey Pinkie, any clue how we're going to keep them from opening the rest of those booster packs?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Absolutely!” answered Pinkie Pie, smiling and making eye contact, “I've got just the thing!”

Arbiter rushed to Lady's game store in downtown Canterlot, and angrily bashed open the shop's doors with his front hooves, Jools and Jops storming in behind him. The large game shop, identifiable by the massive sign out front resembling Games' cutie mark, was rather intricate on the inside, featuring shelves of board games, collectibles, and all sorts of cards. It was a short walk to the front desk, which featured several glass display cases loaded with games, including tons of cases of the brand new miniatures game.

The pony working at the front desk was a short earth pony mare with a yellow coat and a short cut light blue mane in spikes on her head. She wore three purple earrings on her left ear, and her bored, somewhat down eyes looked at a magazine she was reading on the slow business day. A customer wearing a full brown trenchcoat and hat was hunched over the display case.

“I'll take a full case of Equestrian Valor,” grunted the figure, clearly something wrong with his or her voice.

The bored shopkeeper blew a bright pink gum bubble and popped it with a sharp crack before sucking the candy back behind her lips.

“Sure thing,” she said, sounding far less bored now, “it'll be one hundred and forty bits.”

The figure handed over a pre-written check for the amount of money, and received in return a large box of the boosters, not quite the size of the crate Games had that contained six cases, but plenty of chances to get the Nightmare Moon piece! Arbiter grunted and stormed up to the register with Jools and Jops behind them, stoic and silent as usual.

“Hey, how can I help?” asked the mare, cracking her gum again rudely.

“Here's how you can help, by obeying a decree from Celestia ordering the seizure of all Equestrian Valor merchandise,” answered the captain, slamming down on the table with his hoof a scroll with the order, “you'll be paid for it all.”

The coat-wearing customer turned and tried to shove his new box of miniatures under his coat, trying to get away with his before the “ban” Arbiter was about to enact. But the captain knew exactly what he was up to and jumped upon the stallion, knocking his coat off, revealing his identity, and sending the game box to the floor.

Arbiter couldn't believe his eye.

“Shining Armor?” snickered the Captain, taking his front hooves off of the startled ex-captain.

The blue-haired stallion stood up, shocked his replacement had tackled him, “Yeah... I was just, you know, getting a copy of the new game for Twiley and her coltfriend. Techorse likes these kinds of games.”

Shining Armor had gone to the game store to take advantage of the pre-release, being a huge fan of tabletop games. But he wasn't too comfortable with others finding out about his hobbies since he had been a captain of the guard, and was now a prince by marriage. He had to make a decent excuse to Arbiter to save some face.

“Oh, suuuure,” smirked Arbiter, eliciting unusual smiles from Jools and Jops, “I always knew you were a huge nerd, Shining. Your hobbies were always comic books, games, and other dorky things between raising the castle shields. What does Cadance think of this?“

Shining retorted, “I don't know, she likes it more than your hobby of taking away heads. By the way, how's the sword collection Arby?”

Arbiter thought about putting his hoof through Shining's face, but knew he'd just shield himself from the blow. He decided to focus on his mission.

“Well, enough of that banter. I need you to give back the box, Shining. Several of the pieces are based off of real-life Equestrians, and it's causing problems,” he explained, pretending Shining's insult never happened.

“Woah, like what?” he asked, looking at the box on the floor.

“Nightmare Moon,” whispered Arbiter so the clerk couldn't hear, “we're trying to help Princess Luna. Please be cooperative.”

Shining Armor winced and agreed to help, “Yeah, we'd better pull this for now. Want me to help you carry the boxes out?”

“Ah, good stallion!” nodded Arbiter, “Jools, Jops, award the clerk the money and let's start getting these out of here!”

The former captain of the guard simply shook his head and thought as he picked up the box on the floor, “Sometimes I really don't know why I left...”

The facility that developed Equestrian Valor, a small company known as Mage's Mark, was a flat and plain building located on the outskirts of Canterlot within a large business complex that also had dentist and doctor's offices, It was here that the game was developed, the pieces were manufactured off-site in small batches from reinforced plastic in molds, so it served only as the testing and development facility for the ponies who worked on the game. Princess Celestia arrived by teleportation at the facility, sparing no time to bring guards with her, and marched up to the iron gate surrounding the facility. The watchpony at the gate gasped when he spotted the Princess.

“Princess, what are you doing here?” he gasped as he opened the gate instinctively.

“I've come to speak to the game makers in this facility, the third building on the right” she stated, staring down at him, “I see you've given me clearance already.”

The guard was terrified of the Princess, mostly because she was failing to conceal her anger and upset disposition at the situation. He feared that he might be arrested, or worse if he failed to open the gate right away. Of course, the gate wouldn't stop Celestia from simply flying over and going in that way, but it was nice to have some kind of a checkpoint.

“Go right in your majesty, I'll let them know you're here!”

The princess skipped over the small factory building and entered the small studio to the left just inside the gate. She opened the door magically without knocking, and entered the building. It was a large, open room, filled with tables and chairs with game pieces all over them, instructions and test rules scribbled all over the walls, and employees of all pony types and colors testing the game and working on new ideas. They had other products besides Equestrian Valor, but since it was their newest game, it was where their focus was for the minute. The CEO of the small company, barely thirty employees, saw the Princess enter the building and gasped. She was a unicorn pony mare, blue coated with a pink mane ending in pigtails, and a white ribbon tied around the end of her braided tail. Her cutie mark bore three dice, all white, and she wore rectangular, green and stylish glasses on the end of her nose.

“P...princess Celestia?” she said, nearly choking on her tongue as she got up from a game table.

“Chance, is that your name?” asked the Princess, her hair flowing boldly behind her as she entered the room.

The other employees in the room dropped what they were doing and gathered around to bow before their princess.

“Rise,” stated Celestia, her eyes focused on Chance.

The other employees obeyed, and were equally terrified, not knowing why they had a stern alicorn on their hands. Celestia felt guilty, knowing they were afraid of her and not wanting them to be. She only had come to fix what was wrong, not terrorize them.

Chance looked like she was about to have an accident, her legs shaking as she knew the princess was angry, “What can we... do for you?”

Princess Celestia took a deep breath, and relaxed her tone and body, helping to put her subjects in the room at peace, “My apologies for entering so suddenly and causing panic. I have a request for Equestrian Valor.”

Pinkie Pie's plan to keep Princess Luna from opening new packs up was simple. They would discuss the upcoming party celebrating the game and avoid opening new boxes by stalling and taking up the whole afternoon to plan the celebration. Lady and Games were both discussing the game with Princess Luna, who was smiling and looking over the entire collection of pieces she had opened so far from the box.

“This game is quite fun!” exclaimed the princess happily, “I'm sure it'll make a fine addition to the Luck-Baron games vault.”

“Well, we still have plenty of boxes left!” said Games, pointing at the crate, “We should think about opening them and seeing the entire set!”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash ran up to the crate and blocked the three from getting to it.

“Hey, I just had a great idea! Let's take a break from playing games and think about that super party we're going to have later!” she said nervously, spreading her hooves along the opening of the crate, “It might be fun!”

Princess Luna, to the pony's relief, agreed, “That would be a good idea, we have already spent quite a lot of time on playing this fun game. Let's go talk this over a cup of tea, shall we?”

“Ah, a nice cup of tea sounds wonderful,” concurred Lady.

They ventured to the tea room Arbiter and Celestia had earlier used, and Pinkie Pie went to fetch the hot drink while Rainbow Dash kept them entertained asking the lord and lady about their plans for the party and what the game vault meant.

“So what's this game vault you mentioned earlier, and why is the new game going in?” she asked as the two ponies got comfortable in some of the chairs.

“Well, you see...” explained Games, “the games vault is actually a museum dedicated to the best games I've come across during my adventures. It's located here in Canterlot near our estate.”

Rainbow Dash liked the idea, “That's awesome, maybe I'll have to see it sometime!”

“Please, feel free to visit us any time Rainbow Dash, and any of your friends as well,” offered Lady.

Pinkie Pie returned with the tea kettle balanced on a tray on her head, and set the drink down on the table. Princess Luna decided, perhaps as a whim of fate, to get out a few coasters from the drawer inside, and opened it with her magic. She spotted a strange object near the back of the dusty drawer behind the coasters, and pulled it out with a dark glow around her horn to inspect it. A loud scream came from Pinkie Pie when she saw it, and her hair went crazy before returning to its normal poofy self.

Rainbow Dash saw the object and slapped her face with her hoof, “Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!”

Princess Luna stared at the Nightmare Moon figure before her, and set it down gently on the table next to the tea kettle. She sank back into her chosen seat, and a look of depression came over her face.

“Oh... dear,” said Lady plainly as she put a hoof over her heart, not sure how to react to the situation.

Games looked at the piece and realized that the inclusion of this unit likely meant the end of putting it into the vault. It had turned it, it seemed, that “historical” games weren't much fun when the parties involved had a darker past.

“Princess Luna, don't be upset!” begged Pinkie Pie, “We forgive you for all that crazy stuff before!”

The Princess of the Night looked like she was about to cry, but held back her emotions and answered, “It's very true that I hold tremendous guilt for what I did. But... for what it's worth, I'm more worried about something else right now. We must leave at once!”

“B.. but your majesty, we can't just cancel the game!” cried Chance, shivering in her boots, “We've already promised it would be released tomorrow, and several ponies have pre-ordered. If we pull it, we could go out of business.”

“You will be paid for any losses,” assured Celestia, determined to censor the game, “it's critical that nopony get the chance to see that Nightmare Moon piece you put in the game.”

“Chance,” whimpered a fellow employee, “the princess came here alone to get us to pull the game! We'd better do it.”

“I guess we're just going to have to close our doors then, we sunk way too much in this to keep making games even with reimbursement,” she said, closing her eyes and sinking her ears down, “after this pull nopony will trust us again.”

Princess Celestia noticed the upset looks on the faces of the game designers about to lose their jobs. Many of them had cutie marks related to games, art, and writing, it would be tough for them to find work elsewhere that was nearly as fulfilling as making games. Equestrian Valor was being removed from shelves, a game endorsed by Games Luck-Baron and his wife himself, and the word would spread around that they were unreliable, ruining the company despite getting their investment back.

The door to the game studio swung open, and Luna bellowed, “Wait, sister!”

Celestia turned around and saw Luna enter, escorted by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash having also managed to drag Arbiter and company back as well.

“Luna...” said Celestia softly, trying not to act surprised.

Princess Luna held up her hoof, “I cannot allow you to shut down this company over the Nightmare Moon piece!”

“Oh, thank you Princess Luna!” said Chance happily.

“Hey, you're not getting away that easily!” grunted Rainbow Dash, flying over to the game developer and hovering in the air, “You used us in your game without permission! Even if we were going to get some bits from it, you should have asked first to make sure it was cool.”

“We thought a Nightmare Moon piece would be cool!” argued a unicorn on the team, “A tribute.”

Games Luck-Baron and Lady entered the game shop as well, having just made it in time to catch that piece of the conversation.

“Ha, a tribute? If you weren't saying that I'd consider this a slap in the face of the crown!” he said as he entered, “Very short sighted game design.”

“Oh no, Lord Luck-Baron,” moaned Chance, “It... it was for historical accuracy!”

“Well, did you perhaps for a minute consider that Princess Luna doesn't enjoy being reminded constantly of her history? Think of all the emotional torment you caused the princesses and would have if the game had gone to market,” scolded Lady, “this game is no longer going to be endorsed by us unless there are some serious changes.”

“We'll remove the Nightmare Moon piece, honest!” begged Chance, “Just don't pull the game.”

“We want all the pieces based on us to be removed,” Arbiter demanded, “there's plenty of historical figures who are... well, actual history. Use them instead of us.”

“Like who?”

Rainbow Dash answered, “Like, I don't know, Commander Hurricane? Ponies who aren't here anymore to be humiliated by this?”

The ponies in the room looked at each other in total silence.

“Please tell me somepony here read a history book instead of making a game on all the cool stuff that's been happening in the past two years!” yelled Rainbow Dash, getting upset.

Chance finally took responsibility for her actions and approached Celestia, “Your highness, I'm sorry. We'll have the game pulled since it's no good. We thought Equestria would want to buy into a game based on the events that have been going on recently, but it's clear we made a big mistake. We didn't ask you or anypony else permission and we didn't think about the emotional implications. We're shutting this down.”

Princess Luna finally sensed remorse in the development team and the shame in their eyes, and smiled before stepping forward and saying, “Don't fret! I've played your game and found it quite exciting. Just change the appearance of the pieces!”

Chance brightened up suddenly, “You... you mean that? You still liked our game despite this scandal?”

“Yes, indeed!” laughed Luna, “It was very fun, and I would still like to play it with a few 'helpful' changes.”

“Yeah, if you swap out all our pieces for actual history ponies, it'll still be fun to play!” agreed Pinkie Pie.

Arbiter got a soft elbow from Pinkie Pie, who rolled his good eye and added, “'ll make sure the Canterlot library spares a few research books for this so you can easily change things, it's a public resource after all.”

“It'll be a few weeks before we can mold new pieces even if we can reuse the old stats,” informed one of the workers.

Games pushed forward, “Don't worry, I'll oversee the whole process and make sure this still goes to market. Once it's fixed, I'm sure it'll still make a great addition to the vault!”

Pinkie Pie gasped, “You mean...”

“Yes,” smiled Lady, “we'll still have the party!”

Pinkie squealed with glee and conjured a firecracker from her mane, setting it off and filling the room with confetti. The ponies of Mage's Mark were thrilled to still have the chance to publish and save their jobs, and set to work fixing the game with their help. Luna and Celestia stepped outside of the studio for a moment to have a private word.

“Sister, I'm sorry I didn't immediately bring up the piece,” apologized Celestia, “I wasn't sure how you would respond.”

“I understand, but everything is behind us now, we must look forward to the future!” she answered, lifting her chin, “Twilight Sparkle and her friends have taught us that despite our regrets, we can move on. That is why I chose to save the game, we musn't let our history defeat us.”

A few tears built up in Celestia's eyes, “Luna, I saw such happiness in you while playing that game, it reminded me of the times before all of this when we took care of our subjects and lived happily as a family.”

Princess Luna took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching, and then said while embracing her sibling in a royal hug, “Those times are back, for good!”

The two sisters finished their embrace, and it wasn't two seconds before Luna cracked a joke, “Thank goodness Darkmatter or Sundial didn't find out about this though! Think of those poor ponies in there!”

Alicorn laughter filled the air as they walked back for the castle by themselves. They weren't going to let their history bother them anymore, now that they knew they were making new, happier memories.

#43 - A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part I

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A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part I

Techorse Series: #43

By Spirals95

“Another cup of decaffeinated, Fluttershy?” asked Discord, pointing to Fluttershy's empty ceramic cup on her living room coffee table.

“Please!” she answered, pushing it forward with her wing.

Discord picked up the teacup and with a quick flick of his lion wrist, threw it into the top of the open teapot on the table. He then grabbed it, and shook the teapot like a cocktail mixer, before pouring. A thin stream of white liquid poured forth onto the wood surface. Soon the original teacup had been poured out, solidifying again and full to the brim with more of the hot drink.

“Oh I love that trick!” giggled Fluttershy, pulling the cup back towards herself, “It never gets old, Discord.”

“Oh come now Fluttershy, it's a small parlor trick,” answered the draconequus sitting cross-legged on the floor of the cottage, “with some real chaos I can do more than these cantrips. These little jokes are nothing special at all.”

Fluttershy's weekly tea and discussion with Discord was her way of helping him on his long journey towards using his chaotic mischief for the good of Equestria. But it had been a few months since he had been freed, and the Lord of Chaos was beginning to wonder if there really was a good use for his magic, or if he was only being kept pacified with an empty promise. Fluttershy had been his only good friend in the slow, drawn out process, and he was always eager to spend time with her, as she had been the one to suggest trying to turn him for good.

“Well, your tricks are special to me, Discord,” she said, smiling and reassuring him, “I promised you that you'd help make life interesting with your magic, and you've done such a good job!”

“It's true I've made your life more special, but what about the rest of Equestria?”

Despite her kind words, Fluttershy knew she'd have to answer the question, as the towering Discord was avoiding eye contact, thinking a million thoughts a second. She knew he felt like he didn't have a place quite yet despite finding out what he was good for, and needed to think of something to cheer him up.

“Maybe what you need now is a, um... a project!” suggested Fluttershy.

Discord tugged at his goatee in curiosity, “A project?”

“Well, you see, whenever the girls or I want to use our special talents, we start a project,” explained the pegasus as if talking to a child, “last week I built a cute little birdhouse for some new bluejays that moved into Ponyville.”

Fluttershy sighed, remembering how happy her new avian friends were when they built their nest in the small, white painted house she build. She returned her attention to Discord, and cleared her throat, getting her mind back on track.

Fluttershy tried to explain what she really meant, “All you need to do is find a nice thing to do each week using some chaos, and you'll help Equestria out. We don't expect huge things, just little things from day to day.”

Discord straightened his lengthy back out, glad to hear he expected too much from himself, and thought of some small tasks he could accomplish. He figured the best way to go about this way to look for someone needing a little chaos in their lives, and offer help.

“I see exactly what you're saying, Fluttershy!” he chuckled, standing up, “And I think I'll get started on this whole 'project' thing immediately. Same time next week, hmm?”

Fluttershy nodded with a happy smile on her face, and opened the door for Discord, who bent over backwards as if playing limbo to exit without whacking his antlered head. While he could simply travel through a chaos portal to get from place to place, he'd quickly learned that ponies don't appreciate him appearing unannounced through time and space, so he learned to either walk or at least hover around. Not wanting to really make the effort of moving his legs, Discord took a running start, and then jumped into the air horizontally, his momentum perfectly preserved. Sliding just a few feet above the ground, he reclined on his back and let his violation of physics carry him along the dirt path back to Ponyville while he thought about how he could lend a mismatched hand.

Shadow Breeze was on his way to visit Fluttershy, his recent marefriend, and was walking along the same path when he caught Discord sliding towards him. He gasped and jumped into a nearby bush for cover, the draconequus zooming past and nearly clipping his head. The pegasus waited patiently for him to be gone, and then slowly emerged from the bush, a look of terror on his face as he clenched his teeth and galloped for Fluttershy's house.

“That was a close one!” he whimpered.

Discord continued his effortless air slide into town, where he was met with the startled looks of the townsponies. Usually Discord didn't bother to go into Ponyville and just went straight to Fluttershy's house, but today was different, as he needed to look for his “project”.

“Well, let's see now, who around here could use some help?” he mused, looking around while he continued forward.

Derpy Hooves spotted Discord heading straight for a brick wall separating two of Ponyville's houses and tried to warn him.

“Hey, Discord, watch out!” she shouted, putting a hoof up.

Discord sat up and turned around, catching a glimpse of the brick wall just a second before smacking into it full force, instantly spreading out and flattening him as thin as a sheet of printer paper. The ponies in the square winced and some pointed as the Lord of Chaos ignominiously peeled off of the cold, hard wall, drifting gently to the ground like a pamphlet in the wind.

“Oops,” cringed Derpy, walking up to him, a twisted look on his face, “I run into that wall all the time. I was hoping you'd see it.”

“Oh, not to worry,” answered Discord through gritted teeth, “this isn't a problem at all! Just give me a moment.”

He stuck out his paper thumb and blew into it, quickly re-inflating him into a 3 dimensional being again.

“Tada!”

Derpy Hooves laughed, “That was really cool! So why'd you come to Ponyville, Discord? Haven't seen you in a long time.”

“Well, I'm here to help out however I can!” he answered, “I've had a change of heart recently if you do recall, and to help prove it, I'm starting a project today to use chaos to help another.”

Discord handed Derpy Hooves an orange envelope with her name on it, and the mailmare carefully opened the letter, revealing a plain greeting card with red hearts on it. She opened the letter carefully with her right wing, and Discord's head shot out from the card.

“Know anyone who could use a little chaos?”

Derpy dropped the card in shock, and looked up at him, who hadn't seemed to move even a centimeter despite projecting his head through the card.

“Um... no. I'm sorry, I can't think of anypony.”

“Well, that's all right, I'm sure there are others who need my assistance.”

The other ponies around did not want to become Discord's next “project”, knowing exactly what he was capable of, and pretended to have moved on from his embarrassing entrance and treatment of Derpy in order to avoid getting into hot water. Soon they had all left back into their shops, or were deep in pointless conversation so that no trouble would be coming their way. Discord became rather hurt, knowing it was going to be hard to convince any of Ponyville's residents to let him help after how he had turned the town on its head just last year.

“Keep trying, Discord,” encouraged Derpy, “I'm sure you'll find something. Took Ponyville a long time to get used to my clumsiness, but I made it!”

Derpy turned around and went to leave, but tripped over an uneven cobblestone on the road and fell flat on her face. Picking herself up, she flapped her wings and left Discord alone on the sidewalk. He miserably shambled along, a dark storm cloud literally forming over his head as he walked along the cobblestone road. His reputation and previous upheaval of Ponyville had made him rather unpopular with the small town where word spread quickly.

One brave soul noticed Discord's misery while he was shambling down the road, and wanted to make a difference.

“Hello, mister Discord!” called out Steiner, standing out front of his soda shop, “what is wrong?”

Discord's rain cloud disappeared in a poof of magic, and he drifted over to Steiner, “Oh, just pondering things. Namely, how to be of use to Equestria without putting it in total chaos. As you can see, Ponyville remembers me well enough and doesn't need my help.”

“Well, I may not have lived in Ponyville at the time to see what you did,” continued the soda maker, “but if it's amends you're trying to make, you'll find something fast!”

“It's not exactly amends, it's trying to use my chaos for good... and it's proving to be quite the task,” explained Discord, placing a paw over his heart dramatically, “I wanted to start a new project today, but I'm afraid there aren't too many ponies interested.”

Steiner suggested, “Maybe you just need some time and not worry about it for a bit.”

His horn glowed light blue as he picked up an icy can of cola from a nearby wooden barrel filled with ice chips and cans of his various product, and he hovered it over to Discord, who accepted it with his talon tipped hand graciously.

“Here, have one on me, and don't worry about things!”

Discord smiled at his kindness, and then promptly horrified him by taking a bite out of the soda can like it was a fresh piece of fruit, leaving the rest of the soda inside suspended in a perfect bite shape.

“Once we're used to things like that,” said Steiner, pointing at the breaking of physics with his front hoof, “you'll be fine, honest!”

He finished off the can in short order, twisting the pop tab off and returning it to Steiner to be recycled. The cola had been a refreshing treat in his time of distress, but it was time to move on.

“Thank you for everything Steiner, perhaps I'll think about what you've said and take a break for a while. I haven't even been able to find another soul to have a mundane conversation with in a while.”

“Come back anytime, we really do serve anyone!” chuckled the unicorn, going back inside to check on his thirsty customers.

Techorse and Twilight were standing outside of the quill and sofa store downtown, to try and pick up some repair supplies for Techorse's aging green couch in his living room. It had lost a spring recently, and Techorse was insistent on repairing the spring rather than simply pitching it out and buying a new couch. Applejack had also decided to tag along, if anything to get a laugh out of Techorse's antics.

“Why not just donate the old couch?” suggested Twilight, “I'm sure there's somepony in town who'd love to take it even if it is missing one spring.”

“Yeah, come on!” agreed the owner in hopes of a sale, “We've got plenty of new ones, we probably even have one just like your old one.”

Techorse realized he was probably making a stupid move trying to fix the couch out of frugality, based on Twilight's secondhand embarrassment and the owner's desperation to move his goods.

“Yeah, I guess it's pretty silly to try and hang on to the old couch. Show me what you have,” he said, finally changing his mind.

“Great! We'll help you pick out a new one!” cheered Twilight, smiling and nodding in approval.

“And I know just the pony to give the old couch to,” added Applejack, “I'll come over to your castle later and help you move it, techie.”

“Thanks Applejack,” answered a thankful Techorse, “now do you have anything in mint green?”

The store owner was interrupted by Aloe, who shouted out across the street, “OH MY GOSH, HE'S HERE!”

Heads turned as a crowd of ponies started to form around the center of the town square.

“What, who's here?” asked Applejack, “Come on everypony, we gotta check this out!”

Techorse and Twilight followed Applejack into the crowd, leaving behind the disappointed shop owner without a sale. They pushed through the ponies swarming in the streets, until they reached the center of the circle, where they saw the visitor Aloe had shouted about. He was a handsome earth pony, tall and thin, with a tan coat, bright orange eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, and black mane hair that was clearly gelled in the front to spike up. His long tail curled once at the end was tucked into his trademark cosmetic, a white construction belt loaded with tools of all kinds. A cutie mark of two crossed wrenches adorned his flank, taking up a massive portion of it.

“Spanners Buildsbetter!” cried a voice excitedly.

“Hey, who told everypony I was coming?” he answered to the crowd, smiling and lifting his shades up with his other hoof.

“Oh my goodness, it's Spanners Buildsbetter,” gasped Twilight.

Applejack turned to her friend and raised on eyebrow, “Scuse me?”

“The son of Hammers Buildsbetter, the famous architect from Canterlot who designed the Canterlot Library when it was remodeled years before I was there!” squealed Twilight, a twinkle in her eye, “His dad's built thousands of fancy houses in Canterlot, but his libraries are so cool!”

“Ah, I see daddy's work is appreciated here too!” laughed Spanners, walking up to Twilight, “But hey, Golden Oak's not a bad library either, reusing a tree's the green way to build a book house!”

Applejack was highly suspicious of how “suave” Spanners was seeming to be and asked, “Spanners, just gonna let you know right here, none of us Ponyville folk can afford your family's fancy homes.”

“Pffft, I'm not here to sell homes, I'm here to help Ponyville work with the homes they already have!” he countered, “Absolutely free of any costs to you. Dad's done so much work with his life that I need to start making a reputation for myself, so I'm starting with the hometown of the famous Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

“That's us!” fawned Twilight, her horn glowing as she shot a tiny magic firework in the air which detonated over the crowd.

The townsfolk started to cheer at the news of Spanners wanting to help them upgrade Ponyville's homes. High property values and more comfortable living would soon be theirs, or so they thought.

“Woah, calm down there, Twilight!” said Applejack, raising a hoof, “Ahm still not sure about all of this.”

Spanners knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere with Applejack without striking at her weakness, her business, so he made an offer, “Well if it helps, I'd like to buy a couple bushels of your Equestria-famous apples.”

He reached into his belt and pulled out a small bag of bits, giving it to Applejack with his teeth, which she accepted.

“Heh, I guess I was wrong about you Spanners!”

Discord had noticed the crowd from a distance, and tried to get a little closer in order to figure out what was going on. Seeing that Twilight and Techorse were in the crowd, and not wanting to get spotted, he curled up into a tire shape and rolled behind a nearby house, going undetected.

“Hmmm, looks like something's going on with Twilight Sparkle. I think I'll just listen in for a moment,” he said, smirking.

He spotted a piece of plastic pipe lying on the ground, likely a spare used in the home's plumbing, and picked it up. Reaching behind his back, he donned an admiral's white peaked cap, and extended the pipe with his arms into a working periscope that stuck up over the top of the thatched house. The birds on the roof of the home squawked and flew away at the sight of Discord's yellow eye appearing magically at the end of the now-curved tube.

“Let's see now...” he mused.

“Spanners, we want to take you on a tour of Ponyville if you don't mind,” offered Twilight, “it'll give you a chance to find out where you want to do your first project.”

“Sure! But let's start big and go see that fort I saw on my way in. That'll be a great place for me to kick back while I plan,” he said, smiling at Twilight and batting his eyebrows, “and I'm going to need another earth pony to help show me around and give me some help.”

Techorse interrupted, “That's my home, the small castle over there. I'd be happy to have you over if you want, and can loan you some building supplies too.”

Spanners gained a disturbing grin on his face, “And you built that? Who are you?”

“I'm Techorse, nice to meet you,” he answered, smiling and scraping his front hoof on the ground.

The builder scoffed, “Oh, so you're Techorse huh? That's funny. I always imagined you'd be taller from all the stories.”

Techorse was a little too oblivious to get the joke, “Oh? Didn't think I was that short. Must be the stained glass in Canterlot, huh?”

“Wow, what a dork,” thought the architect, trying not to laugh.

“Anyways, can I be of help?” asked Techorse, eager to work with another earth pony.

“Listen, Techorse, I know you like to put together some toys, but I need a real earth pony to help me,” he said, chuckling, “like Applejack here.”

Applejack watched as Techorse's ears sank back from the hurtful words.

“Hey now!” growled the country mare at Spanners, “Techie here is just as much of an earth pony as I am!”

“Is he?” teased Spanners.

“Yes he is,” added Twilight Sparkle, stepping forward with a stern look on her face, “and he's a great earth pony. Why would you say something so mean?”

“Well I'm just going by the textbook definition, you are a librarian aren't you?” asked Spanners defensively, stepping back and gaining an arrogant look of falsely being taken aback, “You know that every kind of pony in Equestria has some kind of magic, right?”

“Yeah,” answered Twilight, her inner nerd kicking in, “unicorns cast spells, pegasus ponies can fly and stand on clouds despite being heavier than air, and earth ponies all have a special connection to the ground.”

Spanners sneered, he had caught Twilight in a clever trap, “Exactly. And while my family grows the very trees we chop down and process to build those famous houses, Techorse here builds things without any connection. I myself consider myself a great earth pony when I see the trees from my family's special grove just outside of Canterlot grow stronger each day with me around. What kind of an earth pony has no power over plants or the ground?”

Techorse attempted to be reasonable, “It's true, I don't have any magical connection to the earth, but I do have...”

He was rudely interrupted, “Techorse please, that's enough, I'll find somepony else to help. Inventing machines is just not an earth pony thing, and won't help us fix up Ponyville. Now just step aside and let me pick a different helper.”

“Well count me out!” snarled Applejack, tilting her hat with her left front leg, “I'll have nothin' to do with varmints like yourself! Come on Techie, Twilight, let's go.”

“I guess I'm just going to have to skip over Ponyville and pick a new place to start my work,” sighed Spanners, shaking his head, “a shame, isn't it?”

The townsponies gasped and tried to plead with Spanners not to leave, and that behavior is exactly what the devious architect wanted out of them. By creating demand for his improvements on their homes, he was going to force Twilight and her friends to cooperate. Most of all, he was finally going to show himself a better builder than Techorse, the famous inventor! His fame would become just as great as his father's once he had been proven to create better homes than Techorse could create machines, and it was all falling into place for him. The citizens of Ponyville were beginning to get restless, and some begged Applejack to help him, including the mayor who desperately wanted Ponyville to grow. He turned to face the crowd around him and shook his head to raise digression against Techorse.

“Applejack,” sighed Techorse miserably, “you should help Spanners. We can't let Ponyville miss out on his family's famous home improvements just because he thinks my inventing is stupid.”

“Techie, it ain't right!”

“Just let him make his improvements and go. I know Ponyville likes my appliances and thinks my inventing is cool.”

Twilight told him, “That's not the point, he said you weren't a real earth pony! He's slandering you because he's jealous of your house and your machines.”

“Right, and the best way to get rid of him will be to let him do his thing and then tell him to leave after the fact,” argued Techorse, giving a hint as to his real feelings.

Applejack caved in, “Well, ok, I'll help him out to get rid of him, but ah still think he owes you an apology for saying such nasty stuff!”

Twilight sighed, “Yeah, for the son of such a well known, nice architect, he's a real... jerk. I can't believe he said you have no connection to the ground.”

“Yeah, but it's true,” he answered.

“No it's not, and I'm going to spend today researching what your connection to the ground is!” she said defiantly, “Because I love you and I want you to understand you really are a sweet earth pony.”

Techorse gave his marefriend a big hug, “I love you too. But I've got to just sit this one out. I'm going back to the castle.”

“Go head, we'll take it from here,” assured Twilight, letting him go.

Techorse pushed his way out from the crowd, and heard Spanners' voice again as he started the slow walk back for home.

“Ha, well changed your mind Applejack? Of course I'll let you help, just show me around!”

The inventor paused, and shook his head before trotting away miserably. Discord had seen the entire things from behind the house, and retracted his periscope down, throwing the normal again piece of pipe back where he found it and placing his hat back into his personal storage.

“What cruel treatment of Techorse,” he pondered, crossing his mismatched arms and shaking his head.

Discord sat there for a few moments, before a strangely wicked idea came to his mind.

“Perhaps... Techorse should be my project!”

Not wanting to lose the inventor, he planned to ambush him as soon as possible, and jumped into the sidewalk headfirst, turning into a chalk drawing that raced down the cement, before popping out again in front of a streetlight. He saw Techorse approaching, his eyes down at his front hooves in misery, and started to file his paw nails. But Techorse never noticed him and shuffled by, which irritated the draconequus.

He summoned the nail file by snapping his fingers, and called out for him, “Techorse! So good to see you!”

Techorse looked up from his misery at the sound of the familiar voice, and saw Discord leaning up against the streetlight.

“Oh, hey Discord. Cool seeing you here,” he said glumly.

“So, I heard the new pony in town was rather brutish to you,” chuckled Discord, walking over to him, “I personally wouldn't listen to such a pompous individual, you know.”

“Solid advice,” agreed Techorse, “and I'm not going to listen to him. I'm going home and waiting for him to leave.”

“Well, it sounds to me like you're being a bit too nice, as usual Tech. I know you love handing out second chances like bon-bons, but deep down, how do you really feel?”

The green stallion sighed and caved in to Discord's temptation, “Spanners is a total jerk and should be dealt with. He's throwing his weight around to get his way, and it's just plain wrong.”

“Oh I agree,” Discord said in a snobbish manner, nodding pretentiously, “and that's why I want to help you.”

“Why would you want to help me?” asked Techorse, tilting his head.

“Well we are friends aren't we? Isn't that what I'm supposed to learn, about friendship?”

Techorse looked away a little bit, “Friends? Well, I don't know...”

Discord became a little bit incredulous at his doubt, “You mean we're not friends!?”

“Well, you do spend all of your time in Ponyville visiting Fluttershy, and you turned down all of my invites for anti-gravity tennis, which you always talk about wanting to play but never getting a chance to,” mulled Techorse.

The Lord of Chaos knew he was guilty of not spending any time with the other ponies despite them trying to be his friend, and his tail and wings drooped. But he tried again to assure Techorse they were still some kind of friends.

“But you did build that wonderful castle for me, quite a treat living there instead of all by myself in that lonesome dimension I used to inhabit prior to being trapped in stone,” he argued, “surely that means something.”

“Building you a house was also Fluttershy's idea, I just loaned the tools, and Princess Celestia granted the land for the project,” explained Techorse.

“Perhaps I really should invest more time and effort into our friendship,” sighed Discord in some agreement, “I'm sorry, it's just that Fluttershy was the one who thought I meant something special! I'll try to be better about visiting the others and you, ok?”

“I'm not so sure you even care that much about Fluttershy,” Techorse said, rolling his eyes as he lacked his saddle to cross his robotic arms with.

Discord never heard such a stupid statement and fumed, “What?! Are you joking?”

Techorse pointed a hoof angrily, “No. My best friend Shadow Breeze told me that you've been picking on him for dating Fluttershy, and not being 'good enough' for your standards for her. It's really hard for me to get along with someone who hates my closest guy friend!”

Uh oh. Discord had been caught red-handed, and he knew it. It was true that he had been torturing the graphite colored pegasus for some time over the fact that he was taking valuable Fluttershy time away from him by loving her. His jealousy caused him to do terrible things to Shadow Breeze when he was caught alone, including flipping all his furniture onto the ceiling and polymorphing the poor pegasus into whatever he felt was funny for the moment. But Discord needed to cause some chaos soon or he was going to spiral into depression, so he thought of a partial lie to try and trick Techorse.

He laughed, “Pffft, hate Shadow Breeze? That's not true at all, why, I played catch with him just last week and it was the most fun he had in ages!”

The inventor growled, “That's not what I heard. I heard you played catch with Shadow Breeze. Cloned yourself magically and batted him back and forth after turning him into a hoofball.”

Discord's pained laugh and grimace revealed that truth to Techorse, who shook his head. Eventually the draconequus gave up and knew he'd have to make some compromises if he was ever going to bond with Techorse.

“Oh... I'm sorry,” he sighed, the dark cloud returning over his head as he drooped over entirely, “It's just that... I only wanted what's best for Fluttershy, and she wants me to help someone out besides myself. I saw your plight concerning Spanners Buildsbetter, and I thought offering some moral support would be a good use of my time.”

Despite everything with poor Shadow, Techorse lightened up for a minute, and said softly, “Hey, Discord, I do appreciate you wanting to help me out with Spanners. It's just, well... I want to...”

“Teach Spanners a lesson? Why I'd be honored to help!” cheered Discord, the cloud vanishing instantly, “We should start at once.”

“I only want him to not be so mean, so what are you going to do?” he asked, unsure what Discord had in mind.

Discord had an answer already prepared to his surprise, “I propose we have a gentlecolt's challenge. Since Spanners thinks you're not a good builder, let's prove him wrong with a contest of engineering!”

He snapped his clawed fingers, and three small balls of light appeared in front of him, “There will be three rounds, each one testing the three core skills of creativity, mechanical inclination, and practicality. To make it fair, I won't tell you what the two of you will be building in each round, but I assure you the supplies and space will be there.”

“So you're going to set up a fair contest between me and Spanners?” pondered Techorse.

The word “fair” made him wince a bit, but Discord was aware Techorse wouldn't agree to cheating, so he promised, “It'll be a fair challenge, but I'm sure you'll win and prove to him you're just as good as he is!”

Techorse stood there, thinking about whether or not he wanted to accept the deal. On one hoof, it would mean Spanners might walk away thinking about the bad things he had said, and could lead to a positive change. But if Discord was up to something, it could make things even worse.

“One more thing, Discord,” requested Techorse, “if I agree to let you do this, you've got to stop picking on Shadow.”

Discord did not want that “wimp” near Fluttershy, but was willing to do anything, “Very well, I'll stop going after your friend. Now, do we have a deal, Techorse?”

Techorse saw the paw extend to him, and could not believe he was going to go through with this, but he reached out with his hoof and shook with Discord. To his surprise, Discord did nothing arcane during the handshake and finished it regularly.

“Excellent! Be here at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I have some preparatory work to do!”

“Great, thanks Discord, see you then, this is going to be fun!” answered Techorse, becoming excited at the thought of the challenge.

Once Techorse was safely out of hearing distance, Discord rubbed his hands together and smirked, “Oh it'll be fun for you Techorse, I'll make sure of it. But things are about to get a bit more... chaotic for Spanners!”

Discord laughed heartily, accompanied by a bolt of lightning crashing behind him, which made him stop and turn his head skyward.

“Hey!”

Rainbow Dash, having accidentally triggered the lightning from a dark cloud she was shoving around, sheepishly grinned back, “Heh, whoops! Sorry Discord.”

Shadow Breeze was heading back from visiting Fluttershy, having brought her a set of tulip bulbs to plant so her animals could enjoy the blooms the following spring. He was flying slowly close the ground, smiling from spending time with his marefriend, when he came across on the dirt path back to Ponyville a strange looking sight. It was a large cardboard box propped up on a stick, with a rope tied to the stick leading into the bushes. A small packet of seeds sat on a red plate in the middle of the cardboard box, and a paper sign shaped like an arrow pointing into the box at the seeds read: “Free rare plant seeds.”

The pegasus pony landed near the box and shook his head, “This has got to be one of Pinkie Pie's jokes.”

Not wanting to be rude, he decided to “fall for it” and let Pinkie Pie catch him. He walked into the box, smiling, and laughed as the stick got yanked away, “trapping” him in darkness under the container.

“All right Pinkie, you got me! Come on out now,” he said, “by the way, any chance I can keep the seeds?”

“They're yours!” came a looming voice which made Shadow Breeze's blood run cold.

Suddenly, the box lit up. It was no longer a large cardboard container, but a massive room made of gray stone. Strange objects floated everywhere, mostly household toiletries such as paper towels and toothbrushes.

“Discord!” screamed Shadow Breeze, a few feathers falling out of his wings as he molted in terror, “Hey, I was just, you know... leaving!”

“Like you'll find your way out of my castle's supply closet on your own,” he answered, smirking and crossing his arms, “you've been spending time with Fluttershy again, haven't you?”

Shadow Breeze shook like a leaf, but he couldn't deny it, “Y... yes I have. But you know, I really should leave, I have to go do... diplomat stuff for my studies.”

Discord floated over to him rapidly and grabbed him by the blue striped tail, hoisting the pegasus into the air, who whimpered.

“Listen you,” said Discord sternly but calmly, poking him in the sternum, “I need you to cooperate with me on something.”

Shadow Breeze tried not to totally cry in terror, tears starting to well in his eyes, “Just leave me alone! I've had enough Discord! I can't take any more chaos.”

He dropped him on his four hooves, “I'm not here to punish you again. This time, I'm requesting your help with a project, it's for Techorse.”

The surprised pegasus dried his tears and sucked back his feelings, “Techorse?”

“Yes. Apparently a fool named Spanners has called Techorse not a real earth pony because he has no connection to the ground,” he said, nodding.

“But that's horsefeathers!” exclaimed Shadow Breeze, “I'm good with plants and I'm a peagsus.”

“Well true, but you're still capable of flying and landing on clouds. Spanners took advantage of the fact that Techorse has no obvious magical connection and needs to learn some manners.”

“But how can I help?” asked Shadow Breeze, frowning.

“It's simple, you're going to help me infiltrate Spanners' very mind so we can figure out his weaknesses. I've already set up a challenge between him and Techorse, and we're going to rig it so that Techorse wins and Spanners receives a just humiliation for his arrogance!”

Shadow shook his head, “Techorse would never agree to cheat, and I'm not gonna help him cheat either.”

Discord rubbed his chin and threatened, “Well, that's just a shame. I was hoping you'd agree, but I guess I'll go with my old plan of getting a new candle for my bedroom, and I think a nice gray one with blue stripes would do nicely!”

The thought of being slowly melted alive made Shadow Breeze's mouth fall open in horror, “No, please! Anything but that!”

“So you'll help?”

Shadow Breeze sighed, “Yes. I'll help.”

“Good, if this works, you'll be free to see Fluttershy anytime, I promise,” answered Discord, smiling.

“R.. really? You mean you'll stop turning me into stuff?”

“Absolutely!” answered Discord, snapping his fingers.

A piece of magical paper appeared, a large scroll with black ink font written on the front.

“I, Discord, hereby agree to no longer polymorph Shadow Breeze against his will, if he will grant me aid in helping Techorse stop Spanners Buildbetter from pulling the wool over Ponyville's eyes!” he announced, “All you gotta do is sign.”

A quill appeared magically in front of Shadow Breeze, and he reluctantly grabbed it in his teeth and signed the paper after reading it to check for loopholes. It curled up and vanished into thin air.

“You'll need that Shadow Amulet of yours,” said Discord, still looking rather pleased, “and I suppose we'll need some entertainment. You can handle that once you've gotten me past Spanners. For now though, let's just head back for Ponyville, and start some chaos, hmmm?”

And with that, the lights in the room extinguished, and Shadow Breeze found himself underneath the cardboard box again, where Discord lifted it off of him and offered a paw in standing up. It felt strange to Shadow Breeze that Discord was trying to help him, especially after all the cruel games of “Shadowball” they had played. But he was willing to help him set up this challenge if it meant the torture would end, and he followed the draconequus carefully into the town to begin work on his scheme.

Twilight was flipping furiously through every book on earth ponies she could find, and their magical connection. Spike was asleep upstairs, oblivious to the commotion the unicorn was making as she read like crazy through the scattered volumes.

“Ugggh, Earth Ponies Throughout the Ages didn't give me Techorse's connection either!” she groaned, placing the volume back on the shelf magically, “There's got to be some other thing besides trees, herbal plants, or farming that Techorse could possibly have.”

There was a knock on the library door, and Twilight Sparkle remained polite despite her exasperation, “Come on in!”

Rarity entered, her saddlebags at her sides likely stuffed with gemstones from her latest expedition to the mountains to collect them for her work.

“Good afternoon darling!” she said, “I just returned from mining, and I brought a curiosity you'll simply love!”

“That's great Rarity, just leave it on the table, I'm looking stuff up for Techorse,” answered Twilight, a book still unmoving from her face.

But Rarity wasn't going to have any of it, “Well Twilight Sparkle, you can look up from your searching for just a moment, can't you?”

Twilight sighed and placed the book down carefully, her horn stopping its glow, “I'm sorry Rarity. I'd love to see what you brought me, it's just... Techorse got told by Spanners Buildsbetter...”

Rairty gasped, her eyes twinkling, “Spanners Buildsbetter?! In Ponyville? The son of the famous architect?”

“Yeah, and he told Techorse in front of everypony there in the town square today that Techorse isn't a real earth pony because he doesn't have a special connection to the ground,” answered Twilight, groaning, “now I'm trying to figure out what Techorse's magical connection is so that we can prove him wrong and help Techorse feel better about himself.”

“Well Twilight, you're the best marefriend Techorse could ask for, searching so hard for an answer,” cooed Rarity as she swept her glance at all the books Twilight had tried, “but perhaps you should really take a break and look at this.”

Rarity's horn glowed light blue, and the saddlebags opened up. A silver, shiny rock appeared, followed by a twisted piece of metal from the other saddlebag.

“This is a magnetic stone I found deep in the mountains,” explained Rarity, “look!”

The magnetic rock attracted the piece of metal as Rarity moved it closer, and the metal soon stuck to it without Rarity's magic levitating it at all.

“Wow!” said an impressed Twilight, smiling and walking up to Rarity.

She passed the stone magically over to Twilight, who set it down on the floor and attempted to peel the metal off with her hoof, which eventually came off. Nudging the stone back, the scrap of iron got attracted to it again and stuck with a sharp click.

“This is really cool Rarity, I've always read about magnetic stones but haven't actually seen one. I can't believe you grabbed a piece of scrap metal too, seems a bit too dirty.”

“Not at all,” explained Rarity, running a hoof through her hair, “not a speck of dust came from that piece. It's just a small bit of iron ore I find all the time amongst the gemstones in the ground.”

Twilight stopped for a moment as her great mind stumbled onto something, “Wait a minute... Rarity, that's it!”

“What's it?” she asked, “Did I say something?”

“Yes! You just gave me the answer to Techorse's problem!” she said, laughing and jumping around in a small circle, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Twilight stopped in front of Rarity excitedly, “We've got to go tell him! Pack the rock and let's go!”

Rarity returned the rock and scrap of metal to her bags, and the two ponies left the library after waking Spike up and dragging him groggily out of the tree home. If they hurried, they would be able to explain to Techorse what his special connection to the ground of Equestria was after all.

To be continued...

#44 - A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part II

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A Gentlecolt's Challenge: Part II

Techorse Series: #44

By Spirals95

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh ignore Applejack,” said Lotus.

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

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

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

“Spanners?” he asked.

“Hey, what's up?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Everypony?” asked Shadow bluntly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Stalling? I'm not stalling!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“To you?” snorted the architect.

“And to my friends, especially Applejack.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Something's up girls,” said Twilight.

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

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

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

Rarity agreed, “Sure is a strange project.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Right!” agreed the stallions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Spanners wins round one!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The.. the ground,” stammered Spanners.

“Uh oh...” he thought, wincing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“But Techorse!” said Rarity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He squeaked meekly, “Oops!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Is that Flaming Ivory?” asked Techorse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#45 - Making Time for Cadance

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Making Time for Cadance

Techorse Series: #45

By Spirals95

Shining Armor was looking over his prized collection of Power and Valor trading cards from his favorite collectible card game, a large binder, bigger than some of Equestria's spellbooks, with artificial leather on the cover and back, and rows upon rows of thin plastic sleeves to protect each of the cards from wear and tear. He was sitting in his lounge in Steamcastle, a few kilometers from the Crystal Empire, a light blue painted room with a beautiful glass table and several large windows.

The binder was two feet across in each direction, which gave the advantage of making it hard to steal, but the disadvantage of being extremely heavy to carry, even with levitation magic. Each playing card featured artwork by famous Equestrian comic book artists, and the game was mostly centered around superheroes and supervillains duking it out with more common cards representing their followers or a quick action to turn the tide of the game.

The unicorn spotted one of his more recent rare pulls from a collectible pack and removed it from the binder with his magic, the card glowing pink as he removed it for a closer look. The artwork featured a somewhat green and gray stallion hero named “Mr. Catapult”, fittingly with a small metal catapult on his back, flinging a fireball ahead of himself, and a blue scouter crossed over his right eye. The card's artist happened to be Master Piece, which made the card even more valuable to Shining after the ex-criminal's run in with his sister. He was somewhat glad the artist had turned his life around, and yet, couldn't shake the slight annoyance over the story Twilight had told about him. Shining let the moment take control of his mind for a few minute as he stared at the card, until he heard the loving voice of his wife.

“Shining, honey, we've got a guest!”

He dropped the card, coming back to reality, and looked his wife in the eyes, smiling, “Oh? Neat! Who is it?”

“Well,” continued Cadance, smiling, “it's my dad. Remember? We discussed this a few weeks ago, and agreed it would be a good idea to let him get reacquainted with the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh shoot, that was today?!” gasped Shining Armor, slamming the cover of his collection so hard dust flew off the coffee table, “I totally forgot about my father-in-law coming over! I gotta get my Crystal Guard uniform on fast.”

“Please just be yourself, he seemed to like you when he first met you,” assured Cadance, “plus, I asked Twilight and Techorse to visit too so that we can all bond as a family.”

His wife's patient smile would have reassured him if it wasn't for the fact that Cadance was clearly nervous about something. She hadn't seen her father since she was a schoolmare, having left him along with her mother when his vileness towards his sister over Luna's banishment had reached its peak. Now they were trying to plan a family visit as if nothing had happened and Prince “Sundial” had been there for her the whole time. It was definitely going to be an awkward weekend for the estranged family, even if everything went perfectly. Of course, Shining saw it as his duty to make his wife happy and would try his hardest to make sure they succeeded in bringing Sundial up to speed.

“Well, if Twiley is going to be here, it'll be a little easier I guess!” he laughed, a bit nervously while flicking his blue tail.

“Absolutely. Now, they're at the front gate, so we'd better let them in before they freeze!”

The royal couple descended down the main staircase of the steam-powered palace and asked their doorkeeper to open the metal doors that sealed the warm home from the outside cold of the Frozen North. The castle didn't have a shield like the imperial town did, so it was necessary to keep the cold out with heavy insulation and steam turbines that warmed it constantly. A hissing sound was heard as the guard threw a lever, and several heavy deadbolts moved with a grating noise on the hatch-like front door, before the steam tubes keeping it closed shut released and the doors swung open like a bank vault.

Prince Sundial stepped through the opening doors, his golden mane hair and beard flowing in a jagged pattern, a broad smile on his face, and snow covering his cutie mark of three white circles with a clock face etched in black over them. A brown parka covered his midsection and wings, and he carried with his magic a large leather suitcase packed for the weekend.

“Cadance, my daughter! Thank you for this great opportunity to stay here!” he bellowed in his Russian-esque voice.

Cadance ran forward and met her father in an embrace, while Techorse and Twilight entered through the door with their own bags.

“Let's get everypony's bags to their rooms, we've got a big weekend ahead of us,” said Cadance, “I'll send for some servants to collect our things.”

“Sounds great!” said Techorse, rolling his green-colored suitcase bearing his cutie mark over to the side.

“We'll all catch up over some tea,” continued the princess, pointing in the direction of the downstairs tea room using her wing.

After having the servants move their bags to their rooms, the royal family had sat down to a nice kettle of hot mint tea in the lounge area of the castle's ground floor. It was a large, open room with a central fire pit that burned wood, the smoke collected by a large copper funnel hanging over head, leading to one of the dozens of chimneys on the outside of the structure. The walls were painted a friendly sky blue, but only the leftmost side of the room featured a series of windows, all separated by paintings of buildings in the Crystal Empire. Cadance, her husband, and her father shared a large blue and red-lace patterned couch, with a small square glass table in front holding their tea, which was served in some blue porcelain teacups on a wicker tray. Twilight and Techorse sat on the other identical couch laid in front of the fire pit, their tails twisted around each other as they discussed their plans for the day.

“This is Techorse's first time in the Crystal Empire,” said Twilight to Cadance, raising a hoof and smiling, “and it's been a while since I've been here too!”

“Well if you're looking for something fun to do, the residents have just gotten settled into their restored lives and have built a pretty great set of attractions,” Cadance explained, reaching for her tea with a spark of pink magic, “there's this new crystal tag arena, I'm sure you can find some teams to join.”

“What's crystal tag?” asked Techorse curiously.

Shining Armor barged in with a moment of nerdiness, “It's this really cool game where you get an energy crystal encrusted suit of armor, and a headband. You get to shoot beams at each other to score points for your team!”

“Straight up Techorse's alley!” laughed Sundial heartily, “He is already master of lasers. Crystal tag should be piece of cake for him!”

“That does sound like a lot of fun,” agreed Techorse, “we've got to try that.”

“There's a lot of new things to do downtown,” continued Cadance as she turned to her father, “I want to give you the full tour so the locals can be reintroduced to him. We've been hoping to open up some new trade routes with Hourglass City, and hopefully they'll be inspired by your visit.”

The alicorn cleared his throat, “It is true, like my brother's province it has been rough getting my subjects to head out and start trade with the outside world. Yet our problem is almost the opposite. My subjects do not need convincing Equestria is safe for them, but they do not see any value in leaving their homes. By spending time here and showing them just what they are missing out on, we may be able to get them to trade and travel.”

“So you basically volunteered to go first?” asked Twilight, “That's great, but it might still take some time before the Hourglass ponies are ready to travel.”

His eyes twinkled as he sighed, “Indeed Twilight Sparkle. A little time is sometimes all it takes.”

“Let's not worry too much about that right now,” comforted Cadance, “we're going to have a good time in the city today and tomorrow.”

“Besides, we've already got a trade route set up, it just needs to be used,” added Shining Armor, “those heat runes Arbiter's family set up kept the path thawed for the merchants.”

“Perhaps I will take some time from the tour to find maybe one or two things to have shipped back home,” mused Sundial, scratching at his left wing with his right hoof while he thought about it.

“That's probably a good idea,” agreed Techorse, “we can go shopping for Hourglass, in a way!”

Techorse thought his little joke was innocent enough, but something changed about the Prince of Time as he said in response,“Exactly, now if you wouldn't mind Techorse, I would love to talk to you more about that while we go get ready. I cannot wait to see what has happened to the empire since I was last here.”

“Oh, sure!” agreed the inventor reluctantly, it didn't seem like a good time to break the conversation.

Twilight watched Techorse and Sundial got up to leave together to discuss “trade”, and wandered in thought about the abrupt nature of them leaving, their tea abandoned to get cold on the tables behind them.

Her thoughts were displaced by Cadance asking her a similar question, “I guess we ought to get ready to go, too. Twilight, I could use your advice on planning out the tour since you're good at doing things by the book. Do you have a moment?”

“Yeah, of course,” she answered slowly, returning her gaze to Cadance.

The two mares got up from the couches as well and exited the room, leaving a very confused, if not frustrated Shining Armor alone. He sat there dumbfounded, not really understanding what had just happened, but decided to shake it off.

“Guess I have a little more time to go over my cards!” he said eagerly before pulling the binder out from underneath the couch.

Sundial led Techorse to his room, a large open bedroom with a massive king sized bed draped with white sheets and comforters, gold floorboards against a cream wall paint scheme, and the wooly blue carpet that dominated the floor of the private areas of the castle. The vacuum-tube like lights illuminating the room hung from overhead on a silver chandelier, and the entire room was heated with hot water radiators.

The prince had already put his suitcase away in one of the fancy oak drawers in the room, and once he was sure only he and Techorse were inside the room, his horn glowed yellow and he shut the entrance behind him.

“If you hadn't guessed yet, this is not about trading for goods,” sighed the alicorn, his eyes heavy with stress.

“What's wrong?” asked Techorse, watching as Sundial sat down on the bed, his blonde beard and mane slowing down their jagged movements for a moment, a sign of depression in the Equestrian Royal Family.

Sundial took a deep breath, and explained carefully, “I have not seen my daughter in over a decade, and even with all of my time magic, I can't turn back the clock and raise her. She ended up being the Princess of Love, and yet, I do not believe we can repair our relationship.”

“So that's why that conversation was so... awkward,” said Techorse, “you weren't really connecting.”

“But that's why I'm here. I'm going to get my daughter back,” he answered, nodding.

Being himself, Techorse was eager to assist, “I'll do everything I can to help bring you back together as a family. Princess Cadance won't find out about this.”

“She already knows,” snickered the prince, “I thought you would have known that about her by now, she can sense stressed relationships. Do you not think she'd most sense the missing link with her own dad?”

The green stallion's ears sank back, a bit in annoyance at Sundial's passive insult, but mostly because he knew he'd done his usual shtick of being overly dramatic and blunt to a fault.

Sundial continued, “My point is not to conceal this, but to bond with her. There is no better way to do that then to bond over our roles as leaders of Equestrian territories!”

“Wait, what?” asked Techorse with surprise, tilting his head.

“Yes! I will share my wisdom with her and help her grow as a leader. I missed teaching her things growing up, so I must make up for lost time!”

“Sir, I don't think that's a good...” stated Techorse before he was frozen in a time pause bubble spell cast by Sundial.

“Please hold that thought, I am working out plans for the day,” he said, walking over to his dresser to pick out something to wear.

Techorse, trapped underneath the glowing yellow bubble of energy, couldn't even close his mouth as he remained trapped in the single strand of time Sundial had left him in. Sundial totally ignored him as he prepared for the trip, putting on a brown furry coat and a matching ushanka. All the poor stallion could do was sit there, thinking about how stupid he looked, and how the day was likely going to end in disaster unless he could convince the overbearing alicorn to listen to him.

In other words, they were doomed.

“That wasn't the smoothest conversation we've had in a while,” laughed Twilight nervously as Cadance paced the floor in her bedroom, “so I'm guessing there's something more you wanted to tell me.”

“My dad is not here to start a trade route or anything diplomatic,” she answered, stopping her pacing, “he's here because he wants to patch his relationship with me.”

“You don't want to know your dad very well?” asked Twilight, a little concerned.

Cadance sighed, and scraped her hoof gently on the floor, “It's not that I don't, it's just that... I only knew him during my foalhood before I escaped his kingdom to come here. Yeah I know he's my biological parent, but he didn't bother to take care of me, so I left. Kind of funny how I ended up being raised mostly by Princess Celestia, who he said was so evil and heartless.”

Twilight walked up to her old friend and mentor and placed a hoof around her in a warm hug,“I understand Princess Luna's banishment shattered your family. It's really hard to forgive your dad for basically trying to trap you someplace you didn't want to be.”

She then let go of her and smiled, “But hey, you're the Princess of Love! You can patch up any relationship... right?”

Her pink coated friend gave a depressing response, “I might be a princess, Twilight, but I can't use magic as a substitute for a bond between ponies that's supposed to have been there since birth. My studies in family and marriage sciences have really taught me what magic can and cannot help, and this is one of those heavier things.”

“I thought you said you've always wanted him back,” sighed Twilight, feeling hopeless as well.

She answered with a painful smile, “I did, and I am pleased he's been redeemed.”

To Twilight's surprise, she went into an unusually sarcastic tone, “But he thinks that everything is one hundred percent back to normal and we're a happy daddy and daughter again! We've saved him from himself, but it'll still be a very long time before I'm ready to completely trust him again.”

“Hey, I know exactly how you feel,” answered Twilight, “remember Shining's replacement Arbiter Axechop?”

“You mean that creep who tried to chop off...”

“That's the one!” confirmed Twilight quickly, silencing her before she could get angry, “Arbiter stopped being a total jerk right away once we defeated him, but it took over a whole year for him to be our friend after that... and I still think Rainbow Dash barely forgives him now.”

“I'm glad you understand the situation,” said Cadance, trying to change the topic, “but for this weekend, what I want to do is to try and spend a weekend with dad to help him understand he'll have to spend a long time getting to know me over again. I'm sure there's some new things about him I'll need to learn too. We're not taking the easy way out with magic.”

Twilight nodded and joked, “I agree, I've had plenty of bad experiences with taking the easy way out magically.”

The two mares laughed over the joke and the many ill-fated adventures Twilight had faced from her “shortcuts” before putting on some warm clothing to head into the city.

The journey into the empire was a short, pleasant walk of a few kilometers from Steamcastle, kept warm by heat runes that made it safe for carts to travel. It was still freezing cold in the outside atmosphere, and the castle consumed a lot of power to keep the paths warm, so the ponies remained bundled up tightly as they worked their way to the home of the crystal ponies.

Soon they came upon the energy-domed city, a green and lush circle in the vast white expanse of the arctic terrain. The natural cold was a perfect defense for the city, but there seemed to be nothing but an atmosphere of peace and happiness within the imperial town. The ponies reached the edge of the protective magic energy bubble being projected by the large, towering citadel in the center of the land, and Techorse pushed a hoof gently through the field to test it before taking the plunge and stepping through into the sunny and warm contained atmosphere.

“Ah, she is just as beautiful as a I remember her!” sighed Sundial, removing his warm coat.

The others did the same, and checked them in with one of the many border guard stations around the perimeter of the city's shields before continuing down the sparkling main road towards the city.

Eventually they came to the main square of the large town, just a half mile away from the giant citadel of the Crystal Castle that dominated the very center. Sundial could not believe he was getting a chance to see the crystal ponies again after he had left them so long ago. They were all along the streets, shops, and homes of the empire, wearing their mane hair tied back with the traditional ribbons.

“Wow, so this is the Crystal Empire?” whistled Techorse, “I love the architecture and the steam heating!”

“I thought you might enjoy it,” Twilight said, winking at him.

The five walked down one of the cobblestone roads, Prince Sundial getting strange looks as he was the biggest one of the pack. They passed a shop making woodcutting tools, a simple setup with a few wood axes and saws in the back, along with the owner toiling away at his forge. A large sign overhead marking the blacksmith's shop was in the shape of an axe head, and a few ponies were trying to get his attention to purchase some supplies to fell trees outside the city for fire wood.

“Hey, are you open?” asked one of the stallions in front of the line, “We need some supplies.”

“Just a minute, you can't rush good axes!” chuckled the owner, placing his most recently forged axe into a cold water bath to cool it.

The owner approached the front of the shop, “All right, how can I help you?”

One of the two chains holding the giant sign above the stallion in front was getting rather old and rusty. While the customer tried to buy his axe, the rightmost chain began to creak and snap under the weight of the massive sign. A red pegasus pony mare behind the stallion noticed the sign was about to fall, as one of the chains suddenly gave way. Thinking quickly, she spread her wings and flew up, grabbing the end of the heavy sign with her front hooves. Obvious stress on her face came quickly as the other chain broke, leaving her holding it, and the ponies below screamed and ran away as the sign came down, smashing to pieces on the ground. The poor mare had been dragged down with the sign, and she sat on the ground, rubbing her head.

“Are you ok?” gasped Cadance, pushing forward through the onlookers.

“Yeah, I'm fine, thank you Princess Cadance,” she said.

The Princess's horn glowed as she directed a wide cone of energy over the mare's head, dulling the pain of her welt and helping it to heal slightly. Cadance took a deep breath afterwords from the difficulty of using any kind of healing magic, and the pegasus mare took a big step back from the smashed sign she had been sitting on top of.

“You really helped prevent an accident there,” congratulated Shining Armor, stepping up next to his wife, “thanks!”

Being a bit timid about her heroism, the mare backed up and giggled, “Oh, well, it probably wouldn't have done much more to that guy then that fall did to me, you know?”

The blacksmith came out from behind his benches and went over to thank the mare as well. But he was quickly intercepted by Sundial, who stood in front of the earth pony, and towered over him with anger on his face. Unlike the others, who had focused all their attention on the mare who'd done a good deed, Sundial saw need to dispense some discipline.

“Are you out of your MIND?” he shouted at the owner, who's black mane started to go frizzy from fear, “You could have squished somepony with your total failure to check the condition of your sign! That negligence should not go unpunished!”

“But... sir!” begged the stallion, backing down, “I couldn't have known about the chains rusting, it rarely rains here!”

“Is that any excuse? Why we should...”

Cadance was about to say something to her father, but his rant was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the citadel. A glowing light appeared from the center, and a pure ray of crystal line started to shine down into the street, highlighting the brave mare like a spotlight. Her crystal coat sparkled in the brilliance of the ray, and the onlookers began to cheer.

“What is going on?” asked Techorse curiously.

Cadance turned to him and explained, “The Crystal Heart senses acts of love for others, and sometimes chooses to highlight them. This young mare has earned the artifact's favor this morning for saving that stallion.”

“Oh,” she said softly, spreading her wings and admiring her glow, “I guess that could have been much worse. I've never been honored by the Heart like this before!”

Eventually the ray subsided, and the mare left with a warm feeling in her heart. Sundial's outburst had been all but forgotten by the ponies present, except for Cadance, who eyed her father suspiciously. Twilight and Techorse looked at each other with worry, knowing that Sundial was going to likely repeat this behavior again to “show Cadance how to rule”.

Shining could sense his wife's feelings and nervously suggested, “H.. hey, let's get started and go to that museum, what do you say?”

“Sounds great to me, lead the way!” encouraged Twilight.

The Princess of Love dropped her thoughts about her father, and agreed, leading her friends to their first attraction.

Cadance brought them to the eastern part of the city to visit an art gallery featuring sculptures from the local crystal material that responded to touch. It was odd having a museum where touching the exhibits was actively encouraged, but the lure of the sculptures brought in visitors from all over Equestria. The museum was a large building built from marble, with tall pillars of light blue crystal holding up the overhanging roof.

“You're going to love this museum, Twiley,” said Shining to his sister, leading ahead of her, “the sculptures in there do really cool stuff when touched with magic.”

“I've heard of this place before, they've got that crystal-coated fountain that lets you can control the color of the water. Wish I'd brought some paper along to take notes, I'd love to study the magical properties of the crystals mined from the area,” she answered enthusiastically.

“If you're interested, we can send you back with some crystals from the local cutters,” suggested Cadance, “that was you can get a chance to study them back in Ponyville.”

“Can I study some of them too?” asked Techorse, eager to get a chance to do his own research.

“I don't know, can you?” joked Sundial.

Techorse rolled his eyes and laughed when he heard Twilight groan at the silly joke.

“What?” chuckled Sundial, swishing his tail, “Am I not a father?”

The party reached the ticket booth for the museum. Admission was fairly low cost, especially for students, but the money collected helped keep the sculptures in working order and good condition after being messed with by the guests. A long line of ponies, most of them imperial citizens but several of them from other regions had formed in front of the booth. The booth was a small white box made of marble and glass, and there were clearly three windows which could house three employees to get tickets sold faster. But the museum was short on help today, and only one unfortunate employee was left tending the booth, a young stallion unicorn who was taking bits and giving back the tickets as fast as he could.

As they took their places in the back, Sundial towered over the other ponies, being almost as tall as his older sister Celestia, and peered around the line. They were about fourteenth in queue, which wouldn't take more than ten minutes or so, but Sundial was already beginning to get annoyed with it. None of the ponies even bothered to acknowledge Cadance despite many of them making eye contact with her, and this made Sundial furious.

He thought angrily, “What? My daughter is royalty! How dare they not recognize their leader and relinquish the first place in line!”

Finally, the blue pegasus mare in front of the group turned around having finished her conversation with her coltfriend she had invited to see the museum, and noticed Princess Cadance.

“Oh, good afternoon Cadance!” she said, bowing.

That made Sundial even angrier, and before his daughter could do anything, Sundial stepped forward, his massive hooves nearly breaking the pavement below, and bent down his head to yell at the mare.

“How dare you fail to address your Princess as such! Have you no shame?”

“Oh no,” groaned Twilight, putting a hoof over her face.

Her coltfriend, another pegasus with a gray coat, turned around as well to confront the rude guest, “Hey, buddy...”

“I AM NOT YOUR BUDDY,” bellowed Sundial, nearly knocking the couple on their rear ends.

Cadance turned beet red in the face, as now the entire line and the ticket booth operator were staring at her and her raging father. Techorse wanted to open up his battle saddle and cover his own face with his robotic arm gadgets, but he couldn't even bring himself to do that, and just stood there, trying to avoid eye contact out of embarrassment.

“Oh... oh goodness!” cried the mare, about to burst into tears, “I'm so sorry!”

“Don't be,” grunted Cadance, pushing past her father, “you were here first, and I made it clear everypony in the empire can know me on a first name basis. It is in line with Equestria's values of friendship and happiness for every pony!”

Sundial was shocked at Cadance's intervention, and even more shocked when she turned around and stared him down, “Dad, you owe my subjects an apology.”

“Dad? Oh shoot, that's Prince Sundial!” gasped the colt, along with many others in the line.

“He's returned?” gasped another pony.

“What's going on?” asked Twilight, a bit confused.

Sundial frowned, “Well, before everything came crashing down, I was the High Judge of the Crystal Empire. But eventually, I went and founded Hourglass in secret as a city to stand the test of time. In my absence. things... went south and we lost this wonderful city.”

He then nearly choked on his words, “It was... one of the things that started tearing my family apart.”

“Oh, Judge Sundial, we forgive you!” answered the crystal mare, smiling, “You needed to found another town. It was crowded when you left.”

Cadance watched as a few tears rolled down her father's cheeks, disappearing into his beard. Her love for him soothed her anger about his actions, and she decided to forgive the incident.

The pony operating the ticket booth walked up to Twilight while the group was mostly distracted, and slipped her enough tickets for the party to get in, mostly to help keep the line moving. Twilight thanked him for the tickets, and the other ponies started to leave, going back into the museum. Eventually the mare and her coltfriend bid the former ruler farewell, and went into the museum. Sundial finally calmed down and pushed his shame about losing the empire and helping to drive apart his family, and suggested they try to enjoy the museum.

As they were headed inside, Cadance pulled him back, Twilight and Techorse taking Shining in with them without noticing.

“I'm sorry,” said the prince softly, “it is ironic, but... I have forgotten how times have changed! I thought perhaps we could bond over being rulers.”

Cadance lovingly but sternly warned him, “Dad, I know you're upset, and I know you want to spend time with me, but I really can't have you say those kinds of things to the crystal ponies. Telling off that blacksmith was a little bit fair because he ignored the condition of his sign, but I thought it was going to lead to you doing it again, and I'm sorry to say I was right. Can you please tone it down?”

“Very well, I'll hold my tongue,” he answered, “now, can we enjoy our museum?”

“Let's try to,” she answered, smiling again as she was confident he'd not have another outburst.

The museum turned out to be way more exciting than Twilight had ever imagined, and she took every opportunity to use her magic to make the sculptures more interactive. One of them was a crystal rabbit that hopped around in its box when exposed to magic energy, and Twilight spent a lot of time with it entertaining the other museum guests.

Sundial managed to avoid getting into another altercation with anyone at the museum, but that was mostly because he was too enamored with the crystal suit of armor art that stuck out its hooves and bowed whenever touched. The responsive crystals fascinated the prince, who wondered what would happen if he applied a little time magic to one of the sculptures. He tried touching his glowing horn to a statue of a sapling to see what would happen. Unfortunately, this caused the sculpture to age rapidly, and the sapling rapidly grew into a full size tree in the middle of the museum. A curator ran up to the royal family and gave them angry looks.

“What?” laughed Sundial, “It says we can touch!”

Techorse finished looking over the crystal pipe organ that had been constructed in the museum, playable with a set of keys below, and returned to Twilight, who was standing in a little alcove away from most of the sculptures. He walked over to her, and saw his marefriend taking notes on the exhibits on a pad of paper she had brought into the museum.

“Hey,” he said, “Enjoying the sculptures?”

“Absolutely! I've never had so much fun in a museum in my life! The magic sensitive crystal mined around here is so cool, I could write essays all day on it,” she answered, a twinkle in her eye.

Techorse shifted back and forth a bit on his legs, and then locked eye contact with Twilight, “I'm, really having a good time too, Twilight. Thanks for inviting me along, love.”

“Another pet name?” teased Twilight, “Come here you!”

Twilight looked to make sure no one was around, and then motioned with her hoof with her eyes half closed. Techorse stepped forward, and the two started to kiss for a few precious seconds before they were interrupted by Twilight's brother, who had caught them in the act.

“Hey, that's enough,” cautioned Shining sternly, “come up for air, Techorse.”

Techorse removed his lips from Twilight's, and the two blushed and looked away from each other.

“Sorry you had to see that Shining,” said Techorse, a bit guilty.

The stallion seemed to lighten up, relaxing his limbs, and mocked them, “Tech, this is a public space, there's a three second rule man.”

“Oh no, not the bro code,” groaned Techorse, holding a hoof over his face in pain.

“Sorry, rules are rules,” he teased, “come on guys, we're about to get out of here and play some crystal tag!”

“Yeah!” cheered Twilight, “I've been working on my magic bolts this month, this should be a piece of cake!”

“We'll see about that,” joked Shining Armor, “last time I blasted you off the map in the first minute, Twiley!”

“Ah, but this time, I have my secret weapon, my coltfriend!” answered Twilight, raising and eyebrow in a smug manner.

Techorse took one look at her smug look and tried to copy it, looking absolutely stupid in the process.

Shining rolled his eyes, “Pffft... like you have any chance against Cadance and me...”

Bolts of energy were flying everywhere, and the players of the game of crystal tag were trying to prevent themselves from getting hit in the mayhem. Techorse and Twilight, put on the same team against Shining Armor and Cadance, were weighed down quite a lot by the bulky armor studded with red crystals they were wearing. Techorse's laser cannons were sprouting out through the seams in the armor, having loaded the game's set of crystals into his weapons, while Twilight wore a band tightly around her horn that let her shoot her beams. They were cowering underneath a wooden crate in the dark arena filled with fog and neon lights, simulating a futuristic battle.

“Ok,” said Twilight loudly over the noise, “Shining's right behind our crate, on three, we roll over and get him!”

“Roger!” answered Techorse.

“One... Two... THREE!”

The two ponies rolled on their sides around the crate, and both fired their beams into Shining's suit, which glowed bright blue from its crystals before shutting down.

“Aw man...” he said, disappointed he had taken so many hits and was out of the game.

“Yeah, and that's what you get for camping behind a crate!” cheered Techorse before a bunch of bluish beams soared over his head, “Looks like we win after all, Shining!”

The two ran away as Cadance chased them down. Her armor had tucked her wings away, as flying and magic were cheating in the game of crystal tag, but she was still not a bad shot, and the blue crystal around her horn flung bolts downrange towards Twilight and Techorse. One struck Techorse's back, and his armor flashed to indicate he was down to his last hit.

“This is my last life,” said Techorse, running out of breath, “we need to get to cover again!”

“Mine too, this way!” answered Twilight, pushing them around a corner of one of the walls in the room.

They ran into a fellow player on their team, a crystal pony unicorn who immediately jumped out from cover and plugged Cadance's armor dead center, taking her out of the game. Now there was only one pony left on the other team.

“Just one more to go,” said Twilight excitedly, “this is so much fun!”

Techorse tried to agree, “Yeah I know, it's...”

They were cut short as their hooves were frozen in place with yellow swirls of time magic. Sundial had frozen them in place, and quickly moved from behind his cover and blasted all three of the ponies in the chest, taking them out. The game was over, and the lights in the room turned blue, signaling victory for the blue team.

“Oh yes! Victory for team Cadance!” cheered Sundial, releasing his magical hold and bringing his hoof down in a victory pose.

But his daughter, and several referee ponies in striped shirts had a very different reaction.

“Dad, that was cheating!” complained Cadance, very cross with her father, “You can't use any magic when playing crystal tag, we have that rule so there doesn't have to be an anti-magic zone cast on the arena.”

“Yeah old man, that's unfair!” complained Shining, “They were about to win fair and square before you did that.”

“So what?” complained the Prince, “I couldn't let you lose, a good kingdom does not let their princess lose!”

Cadance could not believe what she was hearing, and instead turned to the referees and said, “Look, I'm sorry guys. He doesn't get it. I'll reimburse you if anypony asks for their money back.”

“What is so wrong with this?” he grumbled.

Cadance had finally had enough of her father and turned around and started yelling, “What's so wrong with this? How about the way you've been treating my subjects all day? If you think this is how a leader should act, go back home where you can get away with it!”

The mere act of yelling at someone else in anger was absolutely mortifying to all present, who thought Cadance's gentle and loving nature could never be broken. Sundial recoiled in shock, realizing that his plan had completely crumbled. But a few moment later, Cadance realized what she had said to her father, her total loss of character and composure, and she began to shake her head slowly before running out of the arena, nearly sobbing. The others, save Techorse and Sundial, left to go find her and try to help her calm down.

Techorse walked up to Sundial, who couldn't seem to get why he was in trouble with everyone, and the two of them stood alone in the arena as a disgusted Twilight and Shining left with Cadance.

“I still do not understand!” grunted Sundial, taking off his armor and discarding it, “Why will Cadance not see what benefits there are to being royalty? Why can she not bond with me?”

“I think it's because you're only showing Cadance how to abuse power,” answered Techorse honestly as he discarded his own armor, “being in authority is pretty neat sometimes, but it's not acceptable to Cadance to use it put yourself above other ponies.”

“But she is above other ponies!” he blurted out without thinking.

“Well Sundial,” answered Techorse with anger in his eyes, “I can't stop you from thinking that. But I'm pretty sure Cadance wants a dad who loves her subjects the way she does. Guess you don't fit the bill.”

Turning around, the green stallion flicked his brown messy tail and exited the arena, leaving the prince alone and feeling rather burnt. Yet after a few moments of reflecting on it, he understood exactly what Techorse was trying to tell him, and his heart became heavy again.

“I.. I can't do this my way,” he said slowly.

The prince took a deep breath, drawing foggy air into his lungs, and coughed.

He muttered sadly, “Perhaps I should just go after today. It was foolish to think Cadance and I could get along after so much time apart.”

Cadance stormed out after the cheating, and huffed her way down the street, ignoring friendly ponies trying to greet her. Eventually her husband caught up, galloping to her side.

“Are you ok?” he asked, concerned.

After a few moments of no answer, and her eyes not moving from the pavement beneath her, he tried again.

“Honey, we can't send your dad home early,” protested Shining, “we can just deal with his... ways for another day, it's not so bad.”

Cadance and her husband walked side by side now, with Techorse and Twilight closely catching up behind them. They were arguing about what to do concerning Sundial, considering his behavior. The sun was beginning to set, and the paved paths of the empire twinkled in the evening light, along with the city's buildings.

She had never wanted to suggest kicking him out, and answered, “Shining, I don't want to kick him out, and I feel bad for yelling. I want to help him, but he's resisting.”

“Maybe he just needs time?” suggested Shining, “I think he just runs things a bit more strict than what we do.”

Twilight and Techorse listened to the conversation with worry. Relations between Cadance and her father seemed to be getting worse as the prince continued to misbehave, and they knew there wasn't much they could to fix that.

In the very back, Sundial continued to mope, feeling guilty for trying to show Cadance the “correct” way to rule when he should have just let her be herself.

“Hey, watch out!” cried a voice, getting the team to look up.

A cart, propelled by a steam engine on the back instead of being pulled by ponies, was barreling down the street. One of its wooden wheels had detached, sending it out of control, and the driver could not hit the brakes as they had been tied to his rear wheels, one of which was missing. The steam carriage had a family inside of a mare, her husband, and their three terrified foals, who could only scream as they headed for another cart, this one being pulled by two stallions. The other cart had several passengers of various ages, and there was no way that they could get out in time.

“Twilight, we've got to do something!” said Techorse, “Teleport those ponies out!”

“There's too many of them and they're moving targets,” she cried in response, “and a barrier will just splat everypony!”

Cadance and Shining turned around, and went through their own repertoire of spells in their minds, quickly trying to come up with a plan to save the carts from crashing and harming everyone. The two vehicles came within a few feet of each other, and all present braced for impact, shutting their eyes tight.

No crash came, and they slowly opened their eyes again, to see Prince Sundial between the two vehicles, his horn spewing a large beam of yellow energy in a field over the carts. Time had frozen completely for the two machines, the steam engine's smoke had even frozen in place.

“Everypony out... NOW!” demanded the alicorn, the front bumpers nearly squeezing him together, sweat pouring down his face, his beard lapping up the perspiration.

The occupants of the vehicles quickly exited and left the time protecting bubble, and Cadance called out to her father, “They're all clear! Get out of there.”

“I... can't!” the prince answered honestly, “I cannot leave the field without losing it. Time magic is powerful but it does not have good range, and it is extremely draining!”

“But... when you let go of the spell,” whimpered Twilight.

Prince Sundial looked up, smiling at his daughter from across the street, “All day today, Cadance, I tried to teach you how I rule instead of letting you do things as you see fit. To be a good father now, I should have learned more about you, instead of trying to raise you all over again. But there's one rule I kept that I think we've got in common.”

“D.. dad!” cried Cadance, nearly about to cry.

“You always protect your ponies, at any price!” he shouted, before releasing the spell.

The carts crashed together at their original velocity, and the steam engine exploded, parts and pieces of the machines flew everywhere, sending ponies for cover. Cadance wailed loudly and ran over to the pile of wreckage, desperately searching for her father.

“I can't believe that just happened,” mumbled Twilight, still in shock.

“Why would he do something so stupid?!” cried Shining.

“I agree, I probably should have cast my personal time recall before releasing the carts,” said Sundial, who was clearly standing next to the other ponies.

“Oh my goodness!” shrieked Twilight, jumping backwards as if she was seeing a ghost.

Cadance turned around, her heart lifting, and saw her father standing amongst her friends. Prince Sundial now sported a nice bunch of splinters in his body and face, his beard was burnt in multiple areas, and he probably had a broken bone somewhere in his back left leg, but he was smiling and very much alive.

Cadance, tears still running down her face, ran over to the alicorn and threw herself around him.

“Don't scare me like that!” she sobbed, “I thought I'd lost you.”

“Again? Never!” he answered.

The ponies who had been rescued went over to thank the prince for rescuing them, when a glowing ball of light became visible from the citadel. The Crystal Heart produced a beam of energy that shot down to where the friends were standing, and they basked in the crystal light as the intelligent artifact rewarded Sundial for his help.

Techorse looked at his glowing, crystalline body in the ray, and turned to Twilight, who smiled, “See, I told you it was cool!”

Cadance said to her father, “The Crystal Heart wants to welcome you back, it seems.”

The beam subsided, and Sundial sighed heavily before he answered, “I've always been welcome back. But I've accepted that I missed a lot of time with you, and it will be a very long time before we are as close as we should have been. But I'm looking forward to every day of it, Cadance.”

“Me too...” she said, drying her eyes with her wings, “I'm sorry I yelled.”

“It was worth it,” he answered, covering her with his large wings.

Prince Sundial released one wing from Cadance, and cleared his throat before announcing loudly, “Citizens of the Crystal Empire! Today, I must ask for your forgiveness for being so harsh with you. I should have listened to my daughter, who does a fantastic job helping you and making your lives better. I am honored to have so much to learn from my precious Cadance.”

The two embraced again, and the onlookers smiled and stomped their hooves on the ground in applause.

Cadance and Sundial returned to their group, finally smiling and ready to slowly repair their relationship. Their friends and family looked on in approval.

“Hey, now that we're all here, we should go grab dinner!” suggested Twilight.

“Yes, let's go get a meal on me!” said Sundial, stepping on his right leg.

A jolt of pain shot through the limb, and he winced.

He followed it up with some laughter and dark comedy, “Eh... maybe after a quick stop at the drugstore.”

The crystal ponies who had been rescued, along with Twilight and company, laughed along and helped the prince hobble along to go get some help for his injuries. He had finally laid the foundation for restoring his relationship with his daughter, and was willing to take the time to build it back up again. Perhaps the royal family would be restored some day. It was only a matter of time.

#46 - A Date with Disaster

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A Date With Disaster

Techorse Series: #46

By Spirals95

Countertop was a timid but well meaning earth pony mare who dreamed of owning her own kitchen table business ever since she laid her eyes on that first block of polished granite as a foal. Of course, it took money and an apprenticeship with a master counter maker before she could get anywhere with her life goal, so until one of her many application letters to kitchen builders around Equestria got noticed, she was stuck in Ponyville making and delivering hot pizzas for Ponyville's one in town restaurant. Although a bit pudgy around her middle, she had learned how to get around quickly with the pizza boxes strapped to her back to protect the 30 minute guarantee her restaurant offered. Sometimes, the mare with the goldenrod colored coat made the delivery so quickly she was rewarded by a nice tip, and she had carefully set aside her tip money to save up for her education for when she finally got accepted as an apprentice.

This time however, a mysterious note had appeared at the pizza parlor's door requesting a large cheese pie be delivered to address “4th Mountain Cave on the right, Eastern Mountain Range.” Her employer had shrugged at the strangeness of the note, suggesting some cave spelunkers or hikers had probably ordered the pizza as an after-workout meal, and sent the reluctant Countertop out with the food strapped to her as usual, despite her protests that it was probably just a prank. Now she was climbing the dirty trail of the eastern mountain range behind Techorse's castle home, the rocks on the dusty road threatening to dig in under her hooves.

“Kinda wish it wasn't so hot out,” she muttered as she blew a puff of air to push a piece of her blue and white striped hair out of the way.

The pizza on her back had started to leak hot mozzarella grease into the white and green cardboard of the box, making it uncomfortably hot and burning on the mare's back and soaking her coat with the fat. She grumbled something about needing to take a shower when she got back, and reached a clearing where a few caves clearly stood out amongst black rock. Countertop looked around, and saw the fourth cave on the left, as the instructions stated.

“Time to find out nopony's there and tell Mr. Doughtoss this was all just a stupid joke,” she sighed, shaking her head.

The fourth cave on the left seemed ordinary enough, but once she had approached it, there was clearly something wrong. A small sign made of crudely cut wood and vines had been stuck into the ground on the left of the cave opening, which was nearly 12 feet tall and half of that across. A cool draft came out from the cave, drying some of the sweat coming off of the delivery mare's face.

“Hello!” she called out, raising a hoof,” Anypony here, I've got a large cheese pizza someone's gotta pay for.”

A few moments passed, and Countertop turned around to walk away, “Heh, I knew it. This was just a cheap prank...”

A loud footstep came down behind her, startling the mare, who slowly turned around to face who had showed up at the cave's entrance. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized she was looking at a pair of young adult dragons, both of them nearly 7 feet tall, with massive wings tucked behind them. The first was a dark pink dragoness with wide hips, jade green eyes, and orange head scales draped over the side of her head like hair. Her lighter tan belly scales reflected some of the outside sun, and her long pink tail was barbed with axe-like bone spikes. The other dragon was an equally large and intimidating male, with dark gray scales, yellow piercing eyes that tracked Countertop's movements, gold colored head scales that were short and stuck up until the very front, which curved back slightly, and a tail dominated with 3 backward facing spikes.

Countertop nearly screamed, but all that came out of her throat was a terrified choking sound.

“Celestia save me!” she shrieked in her mind, “I'm never gonna be seen again!”

Shaking in fear, the dragons continued to stare for a bit until the dragoness finally rolled her eyes and puffed a sarcastic dollop of smoke from her nostrils.

“Huh, well, I guess you did make the thirty minutes after all,” she teased, “fine, I'll pay.”

She reached under her left wing and tossed a small sack of golden bits to Countertop, who stared at the payment for a few moments before picking it up and tucking it in her saddlebags under the pizza. The pie was taken from her by the reptile, who seemed to be enjoying the pony's mortal terror.

“You.. you're letting me go?” whimpered Countertop.

“Yeah, but I don't really have a tip for you, except maybe this,” she answered, digging back in her wing.

She pulled out a blue gem in the shape of a star, a few inches across, and brought it down to the pony, placing it in front of her. Coutnertop did not want to be rude, and accepted the present, putting it in her bag as well.

“Hey, thanks!” she said, backing away slowly, “You enjoy now!”

“Yeah, get out of here,” answered the dragon gruffly in return, “you've got work to do.”

Countertop ran as fast as her legs could carry her away from the dragons. She couldn't believe her fortune that they legitimately wanted to buy the pizza and had not set this up as a trap to catch her. As soon as she got back, she would warn Ponyville about the presence of the reptiles.

Once the mare was plain out of sight, the male dragon groaned and finally showed up.

“Pyre, what the heck was that?” he grunted, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

“I was clearly cheating the delivery mare out of a tip, Smokey. Star Sapphires taste like tinfoil,” she answered, raising a reptilian eyebrow, “totally worthless.”

“We could have dragged her in and eaten her with the pizza, costing us nothing,” replied her partner, “are you seriously working with these guys?”

“Those guys kept our clan from starving to death by making it illegal for their own kind to mine gems near our home area,” growled Pyre in response, “I'm coming back here to introduce you to them in hopes you'll stop making jokes about eating them. They're actually pretty afraid of that stuff.”

“Well we could have just plain taken it while she was scared,” he continued to argue as they walked into their cave home, “don't even have to use brute force that way. That's what makes us Firehearts better than those Bloodstones!”

“I guess...” sighed Pyre, still not approving of the idea.

Recently, Pyre had decided to attack the Everfree Forest as a means of getting revenge for Equestria mining gems near her dragon clan's home to the point of them starving. But after being stopped, the ponies had outlawed any Equestrian mining in the area to ensure enough gemstones reached their hungry population. It had changed her mind about the Equestrians being just greedy herbivores for the looting.

The two dragons entered the more open area of the cave where they made their home. Pyre had insisted on two separate treasure piles for them to sleep on at night, and the two hordes of gold ore and gems sat in opposite corners on the cave, with a crude table in the middle where they would enjoy their pizza after they topped it with some rubies they had dug out of the walls. After setting the still steaming food on the table, she was approached from behind by her companion. Pyre was unhappy with his attitude, and looked down at the floor sadly with her arms crossed.

Smokey took advantage of this, and with a slick look on his face, walked up behind Pyre and grabbed the back of her tail.

“Hey, I love you babe,” he said soothingly, “you think your way, I'll think mine.”

Pyre was pretty sure he was just trying to get “some sugar”, but she enjoyed the strong arm on her tail, and answered, “Yeah, I love you too. I just, you know, gotta admit we really got the better end of the mining deal. I wanted to introduce you to the ponies to try and get more of our clan to accept them.”

“We going into town after lunch miss hottie?” he asked to ignore her question, letting go of her appendage.

“Uh huh, just promise me no more jokes? They really hate it,” she said.

“Whatever. They ought to just lighten up,” he grunted, opening the box in front of him.

Pyre shook her head, “Maybe, I don't know.”

She wondered as she watched her boyfriend struggle to remove a slice of pizza if there really was any hope of him behaving himself. A quick glance to an empty, rounded spot in the cave lined with soft gold coins and gems, and she sighed, knowing why she was bothering.

“I'm telling you guys the truth!” panted Countertop furiously in front of Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Rarity, “There's two big dragons living in one of the caves in the mountains opposite of Tech's house! I barely escaped!”

“What do you mean you barely escaped?” scoffed Spike as he pointed at the gemstone poking out of the delivery mare's saddlebags, “You got a sapphire star as a tip from one of them, that thing's worth like a hundred bits!”

Countertop was surprised at the smaller dragon's statement, and she removed the beautiful five pointed gem from her bag.

“It... it is?”

“Why yes darling!” marveled Rarity, stepping forward and grabbing the gem with a blue glow of magic.

After looking over the gem and spinning it in the air, she appraised the piece, “Now, most ordinary gems are not worth very much money, but those with a special form like a sapphire star are very much so! This is one of the rarer specimens of gem that can be found around Ponyville!”

“Would you like to buy it then?” asked Countertop.

“I wish I had a project to use it in, sadly,” sighed the dressmaker as she returned the gemstone to Countertop, “it is such a shame I have to pass up such a great centerpiece candidate, but I can't afford to purchase such gems on speculation.”

“Huh?”

Twilight explained, “Rarity doesn't have a customer buying a dress that would need that kind of stone.”

The mare turned to Spike, who seemed indifferent to the gem, “So no luck with you either?”

“Are you teasing me? Sapphire stars taste like tinfoil,” he said, scrunching his face in disgust.

“Well, thanks for the advice guys, looks like I'm stuck with this paperweight for a while,” she sighed, placing the gemstone back in the bag.

“You could always try the jeweler, he might be interested!” suggested Twilight, “But hey, even if he's not, you've got a really neat rare gemstone there, and better yet, it was a gift from some dragons nice enough to share with you!”

“Yeah, I'm curious,” said Spike, “most dragons aren't as nice as I am, who were they?”

“Well they're both about like, twice our height,” explained the waitress, lifting up a hoof and tilting her head to estimate height, “and one of them was a pinkish color with green eyes, and orange head scales, a lady. Didn't get too good of a look at her partner, some scary guy.”

“Hey, that sounds like Pyre!” said Twilight, her ears snapping to attention and a smile forming on her face, “Did she have an axe-like tail?”

Countertop nodded, “Now that you mention it, I guess she did.”

“Oh how wonderful!” said Rarity, “Perhaps she intends to visit today! We should consider heading into town to greet them, it sounds like she has a new friend.”

“You do that, I'm going to go see if I can get some dough for this rock,” said Countertop, walking past them, “have a good one, guys.”

“You too, Countertop!” answered Twilight.

“Isn't this splendid?” sighed Rarity happily, “Oh we get to see how Pyre's life has changed since our treaty with the Fireheart dragons!”

“Yeah, I know! We've learned so much about dragon clans since the mining rezoning last year,” agreed Twilight, eyes twinkling, “I can't wait to catch up with her on more things that her dragon clan does!”

“Me too!” said Spike, “But, how will they know where to find us?”

“Heh, funny story,” admitted Twilight, smiling nervously “I sort of exchanged letters with Pyre for the past few months, she knows about my favorite restaurant. Chances are that's where she'll go once they finish that pizza Countertop gave her.”

“I bet Tech will want to see her again too, let's hit his place and circle back!” suggested Spike, pointing to the square fortress in the distance.

“Absolutely,” agreed the unicorn, “let's see if he's in!”

As was expected, Techorse was in his home that day, playing a board game with Applejack and Rainbow Dash to enjoy a relaxing afternoon. But an invitation to see Pyre was too good to pass up, and the three ponies quickly abandoned their match to follow their friends to the cafe Techorse and Twilight had spent so much time at. They took a seat at one of the larger outdoor tables, and ordered a large pitcher of lemonade to split amongst the six of them. But eventually, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had passed along and were interested in seeing Pyre again too, joining their friends at the table and bringing the total to eight. The gang was back together to welcome their dragon friend, even if she had recently tried to burn down the forest.

“Oh wowie!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie to her friends, “I can't believe Pyre's back in town and has a brand new friend! I thought dragons had trouble making friends.”

Twilight smiled, “They do, which is why we're here, to show some support!”

“I'm just glad Pyre has changed so much this year,” added Fluttershy, rubbing the condensation collecting on the outside of her glass with her wing, “I hope her life has been better. It was so awful, hearing that her dragon clan was starving like that.”

“But thanks to the treaty everyone's better off!” said Techorse.

“Look, here they come now!” said Pinkie Pie, “This is gonna be great!”

The ponies all looked in the direction Pinkie Pie was eagerly pointing, as the two dragons approached them from the east side of town. They were holding hands, with Smokey smirking at all the ponies who gave him scared looks.

“Oh, there they are!” said Pyre, pointing with her claw, “You're going to like them, Smokey, promise.”

“Look at how scared these freakish little herbivores are,” he snickered as he pointed at Berry Punch, who was trying to climb inside a nearby barrel to hide from the reptiles, “I think you're right, I am gonna like these guys! Their reactions are rich!”

They walked up to the table, where Techorse and Twilight got up to greet them. The first thing the circle of friends noticed was that Pyre's scales looked far healthier than they did the first time they had seen her. Her dark pink skin had been peeling due to a lack of gemstones in her diet needed to maintain the armored coating, but now that there was an adequate supply, they had regrown in full, and a smile was finally on her face.

“Welcome back to Ponyville Pyre!” greeted Spike, walking around from behind the table.

Smokey seemed surprised there was another dragon, and chuckled while crossing his arms and looking at the ponies in front of him. To him, Equestrians looked ridiculous, all colored like crayons and their crazy obsessive focus on their special talents. He watched as his girlfriend met Spike in an embrace.

“Heeeey, squirt!” teased Pyre, kneeling down and giving Spike a hug, “Good to see you again!”

“So, who's the new guy?” he asked as she stood back up.

Pyre turned to him and stretched out a scaled hand, “This is my boyfriend, Smokey! He's got this...”

Smokey interrupted her rudely and pushed past her, leaning against the table with conceit on his face, “That's all right babe, I'll do the talking.”

“Babe?” snorted Rarity, her head recoiling in disgust.

“Yeah, name's Smokey Poisonback, Don Poisonback's son,” he said, reaching for the pitcher of lemonade.

He grabbed the entire container of lemon drink and proceeded to start drinking directly from the pitcher. Pinkie Pie hadn't gotten the chance to pour herself a glass, and she frowned over the fact that she wouldn't get any.

Rainbow Dash recognized that name, and her wings shivered with fear, “Don Poisonback?! That's that creep that tried to eat me!”

“Ahhh no, don't tell me you're Rainbow Dash,” laughed Smokey, burying his face into his right hand, “Please no!”

“Yeah, that's me! You've got some nerve being here,” she growled, flapping her wings and hovering above the dragon.

“Pfffft, calm down Rainbow Dash, pop's plan was stupid! I'm much smarter than my dad, trust me,” he said, shaking his head.

“Oh, well, you're smarter than your father, that's very good for you!” said Rarity in a supportive way, still wishing that Smokey who smelled heavily of bad cologne would step back from the table.

“So anyways, dad found me a hot lady here in Pyre, and got us together!” he said, standing up, “So that's how me met. Now she wants me here in your town meeting her little plant nibblers.”

“Plant nibblers?” giggled Pinkie Pie, “That's a silly name for ponies!”

Techorse didn't like Smokey's jokes and felt like he was being patronizing, so he said, “So, I guess he introduced you to Pyre. Probably because you're both smart?”

Smokey drained the rest of the pitcher of lemonade and placed it back down on the table, “Eh maybe, but you know something, Pyre's greatest asset is that sweet tail of hers. Can't get enough.”

Twilight and Rarity's mouths fell open at the same time, and Applejack tipped her hat angrily while Fluttershy nearly choked on her sip of lemonade. Even Spike could not believe what was coming out of the other dragon's mouth.

Pyre noticed how shocked her friends were and stepped forward awkwardly, “Well, my tail is quite pretty!”

“Pyre!” complained Twilight, frowning at her friend in expectation she'd say something.

“No, really Twilight, being told you have a pretty tail is a very high dragon compliment! Remember from all the letters I sent you?”

Twilight Sparkle accepted the answer and tried to forget about what Smokey had said.

Applejack finally spoke up, “So, how long ya gonna be here for, Smokey?”

He answered, “For a while. I've got some plans with my girl here. We're living up in the cave on the eastern mountain range.”

The thought of them living there made Rarity faint, and she collapsed along with her chair, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie diving to their rescue. Techorse felt a twinge of anger building up inside of him, he knew how Smokey treated Pyre and mooched off of her home was wrong, but there wasn't much he was going to be able to do about it. After all, Smokey had no seeming intent to cause physical violence like some other dragons might, he was just behaving poorly.

“So yeah, we've been in the same cave, been cool. Can't wait to move in for good,” he said, snickering and walking away from the table, “anyways Pyre, I'm going to go check out this place, your friends are pretty good for ponies!”

“Leaving?” asked Fluttershy, still trying to prop Rarity with her hoof, “But... we haven't even told you our names or anything yet. Don't you want to stay and talk?”

“Yeah, in a bit,” he answered, shrugging, “Just wanna check out your town, looks great!”

“Smokey, you should really stay and get to know these guys, it's why I brought you here for the week,” urged the dragoness.

He snapped at her, “Don't tell me what to do, ok? I'll be happy to talk more once I've seen Ponyville for myself, got it?”

“Fine!” answered Pyre, retreating with some fear in her voice, “We'll still be here.”

He smiled, having won the short fight, and walked off, his tail dragging behind him on the cobblestone ground. Pyre looked back at her friends, who all seemed to have very concerned and looking at her with their big, colorful eyes.

“So... what do you guys think of my new boyfriend?” she asked, smiling.

“Well, you see...” began Rarity, her voice wavering.

“He's... interesting!” said Twilight, clenching her teeth and grinning nervously.

Pinkie Pie couldn't take the lies anymore and stood up on the table, drawing a huge breath of air.

“WE THINK HE'S A BIG MEAN JERKYFACE!” she blurted out, screaming at the top of her lungs and waving her front limbs over her head.

Her friends all looked at her, stunned but approving of the sentence.

She sat back down, giggled slowly and said, “Oops! Sorry!”

“It's ok Pinkie Pie, and yes, Smokey is a jerk!” said Applejack, “Pyre, that guy ain't right.”

“Well come on Applejack, he's Don's son and a dragon with less experience with ponies. Of course he's going to be a bit rough,” she said, crossing her arms and frowning.

“Pyre, we're not so concerned with how he treats us as how he treats you!” said Twilight, “He clearly just likes your tail and doesn't care about your feelings.”

“Yeah, he wouldn't even let you talk!” complained Rainbow Dash.

Pyre eventually conceded and uncrossed her arms before looking at the ground sadly, “Look, I know... but...”

“Oh, don't tell us you can CHANGE HIM,” groaned Spike.

“Probably not,” admitted the dragoness, “but that doesn't mean he's hopeless.”

“Yeah it does,” scoffed Rainbow Dash, who was immediately given a nasty look by her friends.

“What? Too far?”

“I think maybe he does this because he doesn't get to see how you guys live,” explained Pyre, “I can't get him to change, but maybe seeing how great pony life is might help, it worked for Spike after all.”

“Hey, that's right!” agreed Spike, snapping his fingers, “Maybe he is a jerk, but we can at least try to be nice. I'm going to go see if I can talk to him.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” whimpered Fluttershy.

“Smokey doesn't seem hostile, just a bit arrogant. Let's let Spike give it a try,” said Techorse, nodding once.

“In the meantime, I... I kinda want to see what you ponies like to do for fun, too!” admitted Pyre, almost blushing, “It might be fun!”

Rarity seemed to immediately cover from her fainting and sweating, and stood up tall, cheer in her voice, “The spa! We should go to the spa!”

“What's a spa?” she asked.

“Oh, we're going to have a great day!” trilled the unicorn mare at the top of her voice, “Follow me Pyre, and I'll show you, I'm sure you'll find it absolutely refreshing.”

Twilight watched as Spike disappeared from view around a building to go find Smokey, and worried a bit about him as her friends stood up to take Pyre to the spa. She hoped he would be able to convince Smokey that pony life was worth trying, and maybe would start to make some improvements.

The unicorn leaned over to her coltfriend and whispered to him, “Tech, could you go and keep an eye on Spike please? Just make sure he doesn't run into any trouble with Smokey.”

“All right, I'll catch up with you after you're done with the spa,” he agreed, turning around and galloping away to catch up to Spike.

“Something's definitely wrong with that Smokey, and not just how he treats Pyre,” sighed the mare, before headed for the spa to meet with her friends.

Smokey ignored the terrified looks the ponyfolk of the town were giving him as he walked confidently to his destination. He weaved along the alleyways between the thatch-rooftop houses until he came to a slightly more open area, and found the building he was looking for.

The Ponyville Bank was made with the traditional roof of the other Ponyville buildings, but its walls were made out of hardened white bricks of concrete instead of the traditional wood and plaster of the other homes. A large sign with the Equestrian Bit symbol hung in front of the establishment, and the door had several iron bars dug into its sides that would be closed overnight. There wasn't actually much of any chance of a robbery in Ponyville, so the passive defenses were plenty to avoid tempting would-be thieves or overly curious creatures that might appear from the Everfree Forest, attracted by the money and valuables inside the bank's safe deposit boxes.

Smokey stopped and put his arms at his side, eyeballing the building, his tail dragging on the ground behind him.

“So this is it huh?” he said to himself.

The dragon walked around to the back of the building, and placed his head up against the wall, listening for a moment to what was going on inside. He then reached under his wing and pulled out a pad of paper and a crude pencil made from a twig turned to charcoal by his own fire breath, and began to take notes on the building, noting its height, length, and thickness of the walls. Spike caught up to the older dragon, and noticed him scribbling on his pad.

“Oh, hey!” he called out, “Another dragon that can write like me!”

Smokey fumbled with the pencil, surprised he had been followed, and quickly stopped, making eye contact with Spike as the pencil dropped to the ground.

“Whoops, lemme get that for you,” the young dragon said, reaching down and picking up the writing utensil before handing it back to Smokey.

“Thanks, and yes, I can write,” he answered, rolling his eyes, “what, you think I'm stupid or something?”

Spike put his front fingers together, “No, it's just most dragons I've met are pretty mean and don't care about stuff like writing, reading, or doing anything nice.”

“Like who, small fry?” he asked, smirking and crossing his arms.

“Well, like Garble and his gang,” answered Spike, “don't know if you've met him before.”

“Of course I've met that idiot,” responded Smokey, “he's a clan Bloodstone member and like all of them, dumb as a rock. Us Fireheart dragons are superior in mind and use that to get our way. Fists and firebreath aren't the only weapon a dragon has, kid!”

Spike knew he was a member of the Bloodstone clan based on his personal experience and feelings around those dragons, and felt like Smokey was making a blanket statement.

“What difference does it make if you beat others up or trick them out of stuff?” he responded, “Why can't you be nice to get things you want?”

“I think that's what my girlfriend is trying to teach me, and it's quite honestly pretty sappy,” he answered, “look, I'm trying to learn how to appreciate pony stuff, I am. But it's weird you guys think all this friendship stuff matters, since when has our kind needed friends to succeed?”

Techorse peered around the corner of a nearby building, his head just sticking out from behind the wall as he watched Spike confront Smokey. He considered his options if the older dragon got hostile towards his friend, and thought about taking out his laser cannons ahead of time.

Spike could tell he wasn't getting anywhere, so he complained, “If you don't need any friends, how are you supposed to be friends with Pyre? How can you love her without being her friend?”

“I do love her...” muttered Smokey.

Spike pointed a purple finger and hunched over in anger, “Yeah, for her tail. How about the rest of her?”

Smokey grinned, Spike having provided an escape for him, and said, “I guess you're right.”

“Wait, what?” choked Spike, straightening his back and looking confused.

“Oh yeah, I definitely am not doing anything right,” he answered sadly, closing his eyes and nodding, “I can't help being so bad, I've got nothing, while you... you've gotten the best of both worlds! You can stand up to others like me like a true dragon, and you're still able to hang around these four legged softies every day!”

Techorse didn't know why Smokey was trying to swing the topic, until Spike started to take on a more positive tone.

“Well, I don't like to brag,” he answered, smiling, “but I'm pretty good around ponies, yeah.”

Smokey looked back at the wall behind him with a scheming look on his face, a plan forming in his mind.

“And the ponies trust you completely even though you're a dragon?” asked the young adult, scratching his scaly chin with the nails on his left claw.

“Absolutely,” laughed Spike, running a claw through his green head scales, “I'm their guy!”

“Well, do you think maybe... you could show me around and help me see what's good about pony life? I'd be more comfortable taking lessons from another dragon,” he said as he bent at the knees to bring himself down to Spike's height, “I really want to learn the things Pyre wants me to know.”

“So, you'll give this a chance?” asked Spike, hopeful.

“Yup, as long as you're the one teaching. I'm just not going to take instructions from the ponies,” he said, “not really feeling that.”

The inventor behind the building sunk back behind and questioned Smokey's motives. Why would he want Spike's support?

“Hey, fair enough!” continued Spike, “Let's start by talking to some of the ponies, they don't see too many other dragons, and they might think you're cool.”

“How about we start by going in this bank?” he asked, pointing behind himself, “It's right here and I bet there's a ton of ponies.”

“Sure!” answered Spike, “Then after, Sugarcube Corner for some cookies or something!”

“Lead the way, Spike, lead the way!” he said, stepping to the side and smiling.

Spike gleefully ran past the dragon around the corner to grab the door to the bank, and Smokey chuckled at his own cleverness.

“This'll work out just fine, Pyre will be happy, and I'll be one step closer...”

“Hey, come on, I'm holding the door!” called Spike.

Smokey shook his head and snorted before running around the building to enter the bank. Techorse stood back for a second, having watched the scene, and thought about what he had just heard.

“I wonder why Smokey was so eager to have Spike help him?” he asked himself, “I'd better tell Twilight.”

The green stallion's battle saddle doors opened up, and his turbofans extended from the side, two disks with propeller blades. The gadgets activated, and the helicopter blades whirred inside their cases, granting Techorse flight as he lifted off to find his friends.

Pyre couldn't believe how nice the ponies' spa treatment felt on her reptilian body. Aloe and Lotus had finally managed to remove the knot in her back that had bugged her from months on sleeping in a poor position. She looked at her hand, each of her nails were painted ruby red with bright nail polish, and her scales has been scrubbed down with pumice to make them nice and smooth.

“I never thought getting cleaned up would feel so nice,” she said to Aloe, who was finishing adding the same polish to her toenails.

She answered, “We're glad you enjoy it, we don't see any other dragons besides Spike here, but we do our best to please all our customers!”

“The way you guys treat your guests, customers, and friends is amazing,” sighed Pyre, “just wish I could convince my boyfriend of that too. Or any of the other dragons in the Fireheart clan.”

“Pyre, I'm going to be blunt here,” said Applejack, who was getting her mane trimmed a bit, “ya need to do your own thing and not worry about what he thinks.”

“Yeah, ditch the loser!” encouraged Rainbow Dash.

“That's not a very nice thing to say,” said Fluttershy softly, frowning.

“It's just... I hate being alone,” muttered Pyre, “and Smokey's dad came up to me and...”

“Made you an offer you couldn't refuse?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, kinda. He said his son was checking me out and I should start going out with him. I guess I decided to go with it because I hated sitting by myself in my cave. I thought it'd be better to try and be with someone who at least thought I was interesting.”

“It's not right if he doesn't treat you well,” said Twilight, frowning, “I hope we can be a good influence on him, but I would hate to see you get hurt Pyre.”

“I'm not going to get hurt,” she said, faking confidence, “besides, what would I do otherwise?”

Pyre went silent on her pony friends for a while, before Rarity decided to change the subject.

“Perhaps you should take up a career of some kind!” she said spontaneously, “It might help if you apply yourself a bit!”

“Like a job?” muttered the dragoness.

Rarity shook her head, “Why no silly, a career is an application of your talents, not just something to pass the time! I understand dragons don't have cutie marks, but surely you have something you're good at!”

“Well, we have a lot of dragon history scrolls in our clan's caves, and I've read them all and helped some of the others understand them,” she said, thinking it over, “but it's just a hobby, don't know how that helps.”

“It helps a lot!” gasped Twilight, “Pyre, not all the other dragons are going to want to read those scrolls. You should think about becoming a teacher!”

“A schoolteacher?” laughed the dragon, “You want me to teach hatchlings how to read, write, and about dragon history?”

“Isn't that something you'd like to do?” asked Pinkie Pie, “I think you'd make a really fun teacher!”

“I guess I could try,” she answered, standing up from her treatment, “now that I look all nice, thanks to your friends here.”

Aloe and Lotus smiled, feeling appreciated, and retreated into the back of their spa to prepare to serve their next customer.

“So, what should I do first as a teacher?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was intercepted by Rarity, who stepped out of her bath, “First I need to make you a schoolteacher's dress! For free, of course.”

“Yeah, come on! Let's go get Pyre all dressed up!” giggled Pinkie Pie.

The friends started to walk for the door of the spa, and Twilight held the door open for them with her magic as they exited. Once they were all outside, she closed the door behind herself, to find Techorse walking up to her.

“Hey!” she said, “We're just about to leave to have Rarity make a dress for Pyre. She's going to try being a teacher, I'm so excited for her!”

“Pyre's going to teach? I didn't know she liked to do that kind of thing,” answered Techorse, “I need to see this!”

“Sure! But first, how's Spike doing?” she asked.

He answered positively, “Spike is showing Smokey around Ponyville, I guess he just was a bit mistrusting of us ponies.”

Twilight could sense something odd and asked, “That seems like a quick turnaround. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, he was excited to see some of the things we have here in town, just as long as he doesn't have to put up with us,” he answered, then proceeding to frown slightly at the thought of what he just said.

He shook it off, “I guess he just needs time to grow! Now what's this about an outfit for Pyre?”

Twilight smiled, and pointed a hoof down the road in front of them, “Come on, we need to get to Rarity's place and help with that dress!”

Spike had shown Smokey all his favorite places in town, Sugarcube Corner, the bowling alley, the bank, and even the comic book shop. The older dragon hadn't seemed to pay too much attention to the ponies running their businesses, but he had taken a lot of notes on the pad of paper he had brought with him. Many of the residents were a bit startled at the pair of reptiles hanging out, but Spike had tried to introduce Smokey to them, with mixed results. Now they were headed for Steiner's place, The Froth Shop, to enjoy a delicious mug of root beer.

“So, how's Ponyville so far for you?” asked Spike, confident he was making progress.

“Oh it's a great town kid,” answered Smokey, whistling, “you've got so much stuff here. Never knew how productive those ponies were. Kinda nuts if you ask me.”

“Well we got one more place to go, Steiner's soda shop!” chuckled the young dragon, “He's gonna be thrilled to see another dragon.”

“Sure, I wanna see all the shops!” snickered the older dragon, cracking his knuckles together, “I love em!”

The two entered the soda shop's glass front doors, ringing the copper bell hanging above, and walked up to the stainless steel counter over the checkered floor. Steiner appeared from behind the counter, and welcomed them, serving them each a cold mug of root beer. Spike's drink was almost as big as he was, but he was able to tip the cold, sugary drink into his mouth anyways.

“Ahhh, so good!” he said, before setting his glass down and letting out a happy belch.

Smokey took note of an area behind the counter and began to scribble some more in his notepad, which Spike ignored in favor of dropping a few more bits on the counter to grab another root beer from Steiner. Once they had their fill of soda, the dragons left the shop, the late afternoon sun not feeling so hot anymore after so many cold drinks.

“Well Smokey, that was every place in Ponyville I know of!” said Spike, smacking the rest of the root beer flavor from his lips, “We should get back to Twilight now.”

“Where do you guys live anyways?” he asked.

“Oh that's easy, we live in the library,” answered Spike, “I'll take you there!”

Smokey and Spike started the walk back for the library, with the younger one confident he had shown Smokey just how awesome life in Ponyville could be. The elder simply smirked, thinking of something completely different, when he stumbled slightly on a loose stone in the pavement. His foot caught under the rock, tripping him up, and the notepad fell from beneath his wings, landing in the street. While he was recovering, Spike went back to pick up the notepad, and out of curiosity, began to read it.

Spike's eyes grew wide as he saw what Smokey had done, he had taken notes on the locations of all the safes, cash registers, and security systems in Ponyville, including a floor plan of the bank. Steps were included to rob all of the shops of Ponyville, and Spike gasped as he looked over the blueprints.

Smokey saw Spike's mortified expression while looking over the notes, and looked around quickly to make sure there were no ponies before spreading his wings fully, casting a dark shadow over Spike. The purple dragon looked up slowly, and saw Smokey's eyes glowing yellow with hatred, yet a wicked smile was on his face.

“Soooo, I can see you've found out my little plans there, Spike!” he laughed.

“Now I know why you wanted to see Ponyville, so you could rob it!” yelled Spike, pointing at the dragon and confirming the obvious, “I thought you were going to be cool and learn this for your girlfriend, but you don't care about Pyre at all!”

“Pffft, yeah I do! As a nice trophy wife for when I pull of the sneakiest heist that robs Ponyville blind! I'll be the most popular and respected dragon in the Fireheart clan, just like pops, and Pyre will pretty much have to stay with me or be kicked out!” he laughed, crossing his harms and shooting jets of yellow flame out of the sides of his mouth.

Spike's heart skipped a beat when he heard, “Of course, now that you know my plans, I can't have you running off and warning those stupid plant munchers!”

Thinking quickly, Spike breathed fire on the notepad as Smokey lunged for him, incinerating the plans in a puff of green flame and black smoke. The gray hand of the older dragon wrapped around his throat, and Spike found himself being lifted up.

“Ha! You little runt, I've memorized that thing. Now all I have to do is take care of you!” he snickered as Spike started to choke and claw at his hand for air.

Looking around, Smokey spotted an old-fashioned well left uncovered and exposed to the elements, and walked over to it, looking down to make sure it was a good fall. He then moved Spike over the opening, and dropped the young dragon in, his yell heard echoing off the sides followed by a loud splash of water.

“Now that he's outta the way, I ought to get my baby home so I can sack Ponyville tonight without her knowing!”

The dragon spread his massive wings, and flew into the sky, off to the library to locate Pyre and her pony friends. But in the depths of the well, Spike surfaced, and crawled onto a loose stone on the edge, looking up a good twenty feet to see the light of day above him.

He tried shouting for help, but when no one came for twenty minutes, he buried his face in his arms and started to cry softly, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“I thought what I was doing was going to help. Now Smokey's going to ruin Ponyville and it's all my fault...”

When Smokey returned to the ponies, they had gathered around the front door of the library, admiring Pyre's new schoolteacher's dress. The dress had mostly been blue themed, a large light blue blouse restrained by a brown leather belt across her middle, a long skirt covered in flowers, and a new pair of black high heels that somehow fit her large feet. She truly looked like an elementary schoolteacher, and she couldn't help but smile and feel good inside about her new dream.

“Woah,” exclaimed Smokey, “Pyre, what's with the new threads?”

“Smokey,” she exclaimed, “Twilight Sparkle and her friends have suggested I start a career and teach hatchlings back home! They even made me this dress, what do you think?”

To him, it looked like the stupidest thing he had ever seen. What kind of a dragon would try to become a teacher? But seeing as how strongly his girlfriend's pony friends were supporting her decision, and were distracted from the fact that Spike had not returned with him, he played along.

“Well, I gotta say, I've never heard of a dragon teacher before, but I'd like to see you give it a chance!” he laughed.

“Yeah, you did a good job giving Ponyville a chance today too, Smokey!” said Pinkie Pie, smiling.

Twilight finally caught on to Spike's disappearance and asked, “Hey, speaking of that, where's Spike? Wasn't he coming back with you?”

Smokey stuttered for a bit, “He uh... well, he sort of wanted to hang back at... that root beer guy's place, he loves the drinks there!”

“Oh, he's at Steiners',” said Twilight, “good, we'll go get him later. Hope he's not too tired out after dragging you all over town.”

“I'm sure he's doing well!” snorted the dragon.

Pyre took notice of the sun beginning to set, and said, “It's starting to get dark. Maybe we should think about heading for the cave? We've got all weekend here.”

He stepped up and wrapped his arm around her side, “Sure, that sounds great! Thanks for keeping my girl busy, ponies.”

“You're welcome, have a good night you two!” answered Twilight as they began to walk away.

Twilight spent the remainder of the evening getting progressively more worried as Spike failed to return. Darkness fell, and only some moonlight and the streetlights of Ponyville remained outside for visibility.

“Oh, where is he? Steiner's place closed over an hour ago!” she wailed in her mind, “What if something's happened?”

She went and got a lantern from inside her home, and lit it up with a spark of magic, carrying it along with levitation as she stepped outside.

“I've got to get the others, we've got to make sure he's ok!”

Pyre had removed her dress and folded it in a neat pile in the corner of her treasure pile.

“Do you think maybe they've build us some beds if we bribed them?” she asked.

“Maybe,” responded her boyfriend, looking out of the cave entrance into the moonlight, “hey listen, I gotta go for a walk. I'll be back, ok?”

“A walk? Can I come with you?”

“No, you'll just make a scene,” he answered, shaking his head, “I've got stuff to do, so just stay here. Love you babe!”

Smokey disappeared into the night, leaving the dragoness alone. She stared at the clothing in the corner, then at the empty nesting space in the corner, and sighed heavily.

“Love you babe,” she muttered to herself, “does he really?”

She looked at the pile of clothing on her nesting bed, and thought about how much better Twilight Sparkle and Rarity had treated her in comparison to Smokey. They had done so many nice things for her despite her burning down a part of their forest, and had even helped her decide on something to try to do with her life. What had he done for her besides grab her tail and tell her she was pretty a lot?

As she thought about it, a thought occurred to her, “Hey, wait a minute. Make a scene? We would just be going for a walk...”

Pyre left the cave herself, and spread her wings, lifting into the air to go find him. There was a reason he didn't want her to follow him, and she was going to figure it out.

“Spike!” cried Twilight, lifting a hoof to her mouth.

Twilight had gathered her friends again to try and locate the missing dragon. They had traced their steps back to Steiner's place, like Smokey had said, but Spike could not be found nearby. Rainbow Dash flew around overhead, looking for him from above, while Techorse scanned the darkest areas of Ponyville with a pair of headlights extended from his battle saddle.

“Twilight, I found him!” said Fluttershy in the loudest voice she possibly could.

Twilight and her friends ran to Fluttershy, who was peering down the well Spike had been tossed down. The young dragon was curled into a ball, sleeping at the bottom on the rock above the water line, apparently having given up on everything.

The unicorn's horn glowed, and in a flash of purple light, Spike was teleported out of the well, and onto the street in front of it. He woke up suddenly, his eyes crusted with dried tears.

“Wha?? Twilight!” he said, overjoyed, “You found me! I thought I was going to be down there forever.”

“We'd never allow that,” said Rarity, “we couldn't bear to lose you!”

“Spike we were worried sick, what happened to you!?” demanded Techorse.

“It was Smokey, he threw me down the well!” answered the young dragon as he scraped the eye crust off.

“See, that guy's no good, just like his father!” grumbled a hovering Rainbow Dash.

“Let me finish!” pleaded Spike, “Smokey tossed me down there because I was gonna squeal on him, he's planning on robbing the Ponyville bank after taking everyone's money from their shops!”

“Now I understand,” groaned Techorse, “he was planning a heist to keep with his family's 'business'.”

“We've got to get to the bank, if we try to intercept him at every shop we'll never catch him,” said Twilight sternly as she scraped a hoof on the ground, “come on everypony, let's go!”

Smokey dragged a massive burlap sack behind him, jingling with bits, rare gems, and other valuables he had stolen from every shop in Ponyville. He found the back of the bank, and checked quickly to make sure no one was watching, before he lit up his fire breath into a narrow stream, and began to cut through the thick stone. Soon a circle about two feet wide was cut into the bank, the molten rock dripping from the edges, and the dragon span around, slashing across the cut with his tail. The stone fell through, leaving him a large hole to enter the bank vault and steal the cash within.

As we was about to enter the bank, a pair of bright lights shone in his eyes, blinding him.

“That's far enough, Smokey!” shouted Twilight Sparkle.

The dragon shielded his eyes and stood up from his robbery in progress, trying to keep the light from Techorse's saddle away from him. The ponies had all surrounded him, and Rainbow Dash hovered overhead, the look on her face angry as ever.

“Messing with my plans, huh?” he said, “Well, think I've gotten enough without the bank! I'll just leave with what I have.”

“No you won't!” shouted Pyre from above.

The ponies and Spike watched as Pyre dropped down from above, smashing her fist into the pavement below, cracking it. She stood up bravely in front of her boyfriend, who quickly realized from all the angry looks he was getting that he was heavily outnumbered.

“Pyre, babe, I don't understand!” he said, laughing nervously as he looked at her, arms crossed and fire in her eyes, “Don't you want to help me pull this off? Think of how cool the other dragons will think you are once you help me clean out this bank! We can take these grass eaters and that little pest Spike and haul off the loot!”

“Smokey, I'm breaking up with you,” she declared, “Twilight Sparkle and her friends were right. All you care about is how pretty I am, you never valued my mind, or my friends in this pony town. You're just a slimy reptile like your father!”

The other dragon roared and shoved Pyre, making her stumble back, “Trying to leave me? Like you have any say! You're mine, Pyre, I was given you as a gift and you're staying with me!”

Pyre stood up straight, and moved back in front of Smokey, taking a deep breath and looking at the ground in shame.

“Pyre...” warned Fluttershy.

With no warning, Pyre pulled her left fist back, and swung with full force at Smokey's face. He did not expect the attack, and the punch connected with his snout, knocking him backwards and smashing his jaws together loudly, chipping one of his teeth and causing his nose to crumple immediately. Down he fell onto the pavement, slamming hard on his back. Twilight and her friends winced at the ferocious blow, and even Spike rubbed his snout in pity pain.

“I belong to no one,”snarled Pyre, before letting out a proud roar, “I don't need you, Smokey. I need someone more like my friends who will treat me well. Leave!”

The ponies just stood there for a moment, mouths agape, trying to process what had just happened.

Smokey slowly stood up, his eyes watering from the pain, and held his bloody nose, “I... fine! This isn't over you stupid cud chewers!”

The dragon turned and started to run away, abandoning his loot in favor of escape. But he didn't make it more than fifteen yards before twelve bars of white energy shot up from the ground, forming a cage over him. He released his leaking nose and started to punch away at the solid energy, but he couldn't get out, and rattled on the cage with his hands.

Princess Celestia and Luna walked around from the back of the bank building, soon followed by Captain Arbiter, Jools and Joops, and an assortment of other guards. Celestia's horn stopped glowing, but the magic cage remained, keeping Smokey trapped.

“Smokey Poisonback!” declared Princess Celestia, “You are under arrest for robbing Ponyville's citizens of their money.”

“Princess Celestia!” gasped Twilight Sparkle, walking forward, “How did you know to come here?”

The princess explained, “I was having my late afternoon cup of tea when I saw a message from Spike appear in my writing room. It turned out to be a small notepad containing plans to rob Ponyville's stores and bank. Since the writing didn't match Spike's style, I knew it had to be trouble, so Luna and I decided to lay a trap for the thief.”

“Yes, it worked!” laughed Spike, glad his plan had turned out.

“But then how did you know my name?” growled Smokey.

“Pyre has been communicating with Twilight Sparkle and ourselves,” explained Luna, her hair flowing in the night breeze, “we knew all about you and your visit here to Ponyville. Seeing as you are the son of the dragon who's gang raided Canterlot to steal the world's largest diamond, we figured you were the owner of the notepad and came here to stop you.”

“That's right!” laughed Rainbow Dash, “Now you're going to get yours, just like your dad!

Smokey refused to let up, and asked sarcastically, “So what are you going to do to me, send me to the moon?”

Rarity covered her mouth, knowing that would certainly hurt Princess Celestia's feelings, and sure enough her ears seemed to sink back with a little guilt. Princess Luna stepped forward to say something nasty in return, but Captain Arbiter had other ideas.

“Well,” chuckled the Captain, “The Canterlot medical school could always use a dissection subject!”

Princess Celestia dropped her personal issues and gave him a disapproving glance, to which he laughed and responded, “It was merely a suggestion, my lady.”

“You need time to learn that a life of thievery is a dark path to go down,” she said, stepping forward, “I see you're hurt. That's a start.”

“Yeah, you have my lousy ex to thank for that,” he grumbled.

“Is this true Pyre, did you strike him?” asked Princess Celestia.

The dragoness answered honestly, “Yeah, I did. He treated me like garbage and threatened to rob Ponyville. I know that's no excuse, but that's why I did it, and honestly it felt good.”

Smokey was still trying to stop his nose from bleeding, holding it in hopes it would stop.

“If I just send you to prison, you will get out and try to continue your life of theft like your father. You need to learn that it's no way to live, and I partly blame his bad influence and your lack of a mother in your life on what you've done,” said Celestia sternly, “I will take you to Canterlot's courts, where the judge can decide on some kind of service for you so you can learn how to give back.”

“But he tried to get rid of Spike by throwing him down a well!” cried Rarity, “It was simply horrible!”

“Perhaps an additional penalty is in order?” said Arbiter, hopeful.

Spike approached Rarity and rubbed her hoof, “There there, Rarity. Smokey already got his nose smashed in, we can let it go. Besides, I knew you'd find me eventually!”

“Did you have to excuse him?” groaned Arbiter, rolling his eye.

“We'll take things from here then,” confirmed Princess Celestia, “Smokey will be under our custody until we figure out where to put him. I will leave Arbiter and my guards in your charge to return the stolen money to Ponyville's residents.”

“We'll have it done by mornin'!” answered Applejack.

“I'm going to be back out eventually,” warned Smokey as he pointed at Pyre, “and when I do...”

“You'll be a nicer dragon,” warned Princess Luna, “unless you want to take an alternate punishment.”

Smokey got a chill down his spine, and laughed nervously, “Um... so what kind of service did you royalty ponies have in mind again?

The following morning, with the loot returned and the residents of Ponyville thankful to Pyre for stopping her ex, the dragoness had prepared to leave her cave to go and teach the hatchlings of her clan. She was dressed in her teacher's outfit again, where she felt right at home, and was eager to use her mind to improve dragon society. She stood on the bridge leading out of Ponyville for the mountain range, and wanted to say goodbye to her seven pony friends and their tiny dragon.

“Thank you so much for helping me see I needed to ditch Smokey,” she said to Twilight.

“Honestly, you did it all by yourself,” responded the unicorn mare, “we just let you know what you needed to do!”

“Please come visit again!” said Rarity, “I want to know what the dragons think of my work.”

“Yeah! We love having you here,” said Spike.

“Don't worry, I'll be back, squirt!” laughed Pyre, “I'll catch you guys later then!”

“Wait! Wait up Pyre!” called a voice.

The ponies turned around to see Countertop, short on breath, running up to the dragoness.

“Oh hey, it's you!” she said, “What's up?”

Countertop caught her breath and answered, “You saved my boss's life savings, the whole place was cleaned out last night. So he wanted to buy you a present, and well... this is gonna be silly, but...”

The pizza delivery mare opened up her saddlebags, and removed the Star Sapphire she had been given earlier, only this time with a brass pin attached to the back.

“He paid me for the Star Sapphire and had me turn it into a pin for you!” she said, tossing it to the dragon.

Pyre fastened the gemstone to her dress, a beautiful corsage that completed the look of the outfit.

“No dress of mine is truly complete without a gemstone, and you've found the perfect one!” said Rarity softly.

Countertop winked, “Oh, and, he says to come back anytime for a free slice!”

Pyre smiled genuinely, “Might have to take you up on that! Tell him the pizza is really good.”

She stepped back and spread her wings to fly away, “Thanks again you guys!”

The dragoness flew off, waving back at the ponies below, happy she was going to start a life using her talents for the good of her people, and being free from the abusive relationship she was in. She had found something to do with herself, and had left the small town she was visiting feeling refreshed and happy.

Ponyville tends to have that effect on its guests.

#47 - The Search for Spanners: Part I

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The Search for Spanners: Part I

Techorse Series: #47

By Spirals95

Into the Mystic was a peculiar shop located just a little ways away from Fillydelphia, as if the wares inside were something less than desirable to the residents of the larger city. In truth, it was the size and items sold at the store that made it necessary for it to be located out of town. Magical tools, potions, toys, and even the occasional stray artifact were all sold at the location, various arcane oddities. The owner of the shop was Midnight Blaze, a hard-working unicorn with a dark blue coat, black hair with blue stripes, and a tail he strangely kept cut to resemble a wolf's. He was huddled over his workbench at the back of the shop, a large wooden table scattered with metal tools, and a handful of candle lamps hanging above to provide light. With him was Captain Arbiter, watching as the pony was working on his sword Wraithbane. Four slender and long amethyst crystals were being attached to the hilt of the sword by Midnight, who flipped on his welder's mask and started to burn them into place with his magic, light blue sparks flying from the sword. When he was finished, he flipped the mask back up, and turned to the captain.

“Here you go uncle, the mindstones are in place! You can control your sword using just your thought power now.”

Arbiter smiled and stepped forward, concentrating on the stones on his sword's hilt. They glowed as the captain focused on picking up the weapon, and he swung the blade around a few times before sheathing it back at his side. Mindstones were Midnight's greatest invention, magical crystals carved from pure Crystal Empire lattice gemstone precisely cut under intense magical pressure. They reacted to the brainwaves of their master, and had to be custom tailored to a particular pony's mind, making them hard to make in mass. But the result was a gemstone that could be moved by its owner simply imagining moving it, valuable for non-unicorn ponies.

“Good, I was getting tired of those metal gauntlets and how often they'd get destroyed,” Arbiter said as he walked up to the bench, “not that those were bad. I appreciated your work with them for how long they lasted.”

“Eh, it was time to retire that idea anyways,” agreed Midnight, smirking, “it was a good test run for the mindstones, but I'm moving on to bigger and better things! Maybe one day any pony will be able to pick up tools just like a unicorn can!”

“If you can somehow cut down the cost of production,” reminded Arbiter, his one good eye looking at the table, “I paid you quite the price to get this job done.”

“And I'm thankful for that,” he sighed, his mind wandering off on the state of his shop.

“Now, before I go, there's somepony else with me,” announced Arbiter, “his name's Techorse.”

Midnight snapped to attention, “Oh, Techorse? We've met before!”

“Have you?”

The unicorn removed the mask magically and tossed it onto the table before admitting awkwardly, “Well, according to him we have anyways. One day he just showed up to the shop and said we'd met before, talked a bit with me about how cool the place looked, and left. I mean, I heard about his work with the Element holders during the invasion, but I never saw him before in my life!”

“He's not exactly the most social pony,” chuckled Arbiter, “and a goody-goody four shoes at that. He fails to understand his status as an Equestrian hero and is shocked every time somepony knows his name outside of that castle of his in Ponyville.”

Midnight realized what he was talking about and his ears fell back, “So wait, is Techorse that pony you tried to...?”

Captain Arbiter rolled his eye, “Yes, we all know I tried to remove Techorse's head several times. Will I ever live it down, nephew?”

“Then why would you bring him here?” gasped Midnight, “He's got to be a little upset over that, don't you think?”

“Techorse and I aren't enemies anymore. It's more of a friendly rivalry,” explained Arbiter, trying not to admit he was friends with Techorse now.

“Oh, I see,” answered Midnight with a snort, not buying it for a moment, “so why is your 'rival' here?”

“He needs your help with some magical tool or something he's found,” explained Arbiter, “he didn't say much, but I agreed to let him come along and talk with you. Shall I send him in?”

“Sure!” he answered, “I'd love to take a look.”

Arbiter and Midnight left the back room, and Midnight returned to his post at the counter at the back of the shop. The shop was a large, rustic looking store with rows upon rows of wooden shelves containing all sorts of magical tools, potions, and a couple of prank devices as well. Brass chandeliers hung from the ceiling, with electrical plastic candles giving the shop an eerie look that was definitely intentional. Captain Arbiter exited the store into the daylight, and found Techorse standing right next to the entrance, waiting his turn.

“All right Techorse, Midnight is waiting for you at the counter,” he said.

“Thanks Arbiter!” answered the green stallion with a smile as he tried to enter the shop, “Midnight's just the pony I need to help me out here.”

“I'm curious as to what you're trying to do here, Techorse,” said the Captain, blocking Techorse's path into the shop.

Techorse explained, “There was this stallion who seemed to really hate me that I had a bit of an argument with earlier, and he accidentally dropped some kind of a tool when he left Ponyville. I just want to return it to him and try to find out why he doesn't like me so much.”

“Very well, I wish you luck,” answered the Captain, “now if you'll excuse me, I must be going. I think I'll stop in Ponyville on the way back for a couple of sweets from Pinkie's workplace.”

“All right, have a nice trip back!” said Techorse as the Captain spread his wings underneath his black cape and flew away.

Techorse opened the wooden doors to the shop and entered, clearly something heavy weighing on his mind.

Once Arbiter was by himself in the sky, he thought aloud, “Techorse gives everypony a solid chance and prefers to bury the hatchet so I bet that argument they had was a little bit more than that. I'd better investigate once I get to Ponyville, looks like my pastry will have to wait for a while!”

Midnight brought Techorse to the back room again, this time taking him to his appraisal table on the opposite side of his arcane laboratory. Techorse hadn't stayed in the shop long enough to ask questions about the lab in the back, and it was littered with potion filtering equipment nearly identical to traditional chemistry tubes and boilers. Chunks of crystal were scattered on the various tables in a mess, along with several magical conduit tubes and runes, a few of which were the shield runes installed at Canterlot Castle.

“It's good to see you again Techorse,” said Midnight, pointing to his examination table, “although I still don't understand how you know me.”

“Well, I sort of met you earlier,” admitted Techorse, “but you'd never believe me if I told you. I'm sorry I didn't really take the time to get to know you earlier.”

“Nevermind, let's just start over then!” laughed the unicorn, “I live out here with my little brother Twinken, we work together to keep this magic shop open. He usually takes care of the customers while I invent magical tools back here in my lab.”

Techorse was rather impressed with the magical laboratory, “So what kind of tools?”

“I like making things that help the other types of ponies work with their more passive magics better,” he explained, “like runestones that activate by touch, or mindstones! Uncle Arbiter really likes using those on his weapons.”

“So wait, you're Arbiter's nephew? I thought he only had his little brother Claymore,” said Techorse, a bit confused as to how they could be relatives.

The unicorn put a hoof behind his neck, and laughed, “Oh well, my father is his cousin, so our relation is kind of fuzzy, but we're like uncle and nephew, always have been!”

He relaxed a bit, returning his hoof to the stone floor of the lab and continued, “Anyways, what was this magical tool you wanted me to see?”

Techorse stepped up to the table, and the metal saddle on his back opened up, a pair of thin robotic arms tipped with small metal hands emerging, one holding a carpentry hammer. They set the tool on the examination table, while Midnight watched on with a sparkle in his eye and a beaming expression on his face.

“What are those?” he gasped, excited to see such devices.

Techorse turned his head to look at him, and said, “This is my battle saddle. It's a robotic backpack that's tuned to my brainwaves and follows my commands. These are my robot arms I use to grab stuff, never got used to using my teeth...”

“Oh my gosh, you're an inventor too!” squealed Midnight, nearly jumping up and down, “I can't believe it! What other sorts of stuff do you make?”

Techorse fully turned around, the arms retracting into the saddle with a mechanical click as the bay doors on it shut behind them, “I like to make kitchen appliances, mostly as a career. But I also build some more advanced stuff like this freeze ray I built recently you can use to snap-freeze popsicles.”

“That's amazing!” marveled Midnight Blaze, “I'd heard about your beam-firing saddle before from the stories about the invasion, but I didn't realize you built it yourself! I bet all your inventions are just as great.”

Techorse admitted sheepishly, “Well, not all of them. I tend to blow myself up a lot trying to make new ones.”

His acquaintance pointed at him, and then back to himself as he said cheerfully,

“You blow yourself up all the time? I blow myself up all the time!”

They spent the next half and hour discussing their various successes and failures as inventors and pioneers in technology, from Techorse's shrink ray incident to the time Midnight Blaze accidentally turned himself into a pinwheel for 48 hours thanks to a bad potions disaster.

“So then when I went to turn on the popcorn maker, Pinkie Pie shrieked when she realized I had made the mistake of thinking the recipe called for a cup of unpopped kernels instead of popped ones. The lab was filled with popcorn in seconds!”

“Woah, what'd you guys do about that?” asked Midnight.

“She ate most of it, but I still find kernels sometimes in the lab,” answered Techorse, snickering.

After a moment of silence between the two, Midnight looked at the ground before looking back to Techorse and said, “Hey, it's really cool knowing there's another pony out there like me who likes to make things. Do you think maybe...”

“We could be friends?” smiled Techorse, his blue eyes bright as ever, “I'd love that Midnight.”

Midnight raised a hoof, as did Techorse, and they smacked the fronts of their hooves together, sealing their status as new-found friends.

The unicorn then remembered why they were there, “Thanks! But what about that hammer you brought in, want to check that out?”

Techorse answered, “Right. Let me show you.”

He walked up to the table, and Midnight's horn glowed light blue as he brought over a pair of goggles with magnifying lenses. The curio store owner looked over the hammer, with a gold S carved into the side.

“Where did you get this fancy hammer?” inquired the shopkeeper, turning it over with a hoof, “this S is made out of actual gold!”

“That hammer belongs to Spanners Buildsbetter,” explained Techorse, “I didn't want to tell your uncle that because if I did, he'd try to arrest him for trying to defraud Ponyville.”

“What, uncle Arbiter wanting to make an arrest? Is it Thursday already?” joked Midnight, getting a laugh out of his new buddy for that.

Techorse shook his head, “Anyways, Spanners came to Ponyville and said I wasn't a real Earth Pony because I had no connection with the ground.”

“Wait, this belongs to Spanners Buildsbetter you said?” asked Midnight, raising an eyebrow, “As in, the son of Hammers the Architect?”

“That's him,” confirmed Techorse, pointing at the hammer with a hoof.

Midnight snorted, “Wow, what a jerk! You are too a real Earth Pony, you have to dig up all the materials you need for your work.”

Techorse said, “That's exactly what we found out. Spanners was trying to displace me as Ponyville's best builder, and knew he'd have to challenge my machines as being real Earth Pony work to do it. He even promised to upgrade all of Ponyville's buildings, but it turned out he couldn't even build a simple house like his father, so he ran away and left this hammer behind.”

“So why'd you come to me about this?” asked a confused Midnight Blaze.

The green stallion answered, “You're the only pony I could think of that could track down a unique tool and its owner. I want to find Spanners and...”

“Give him what he deserves for humiliating you in front of Ponyville!” finished Midnight, smirking.

“That's just it,” admitted Techorse with peace in his voice, “Spanners ran away because he thought I was going to beat him up or laser him in front of Ponyville. All I wanted to do was talk to him and find out why he was so mean to me. I think there's another reason besides wanting to establish a reputation in Ponyville and get me out of the way.”

“So you're not out for revenge? Wow, uncle was right, you really are too good,” chuckled Midnight.

“Arby likes me and he knows it,” answered the other stallion, rolling his eyes.

“Anyways,” continued the unicorn, “this hammer seems to be magically inscribed! The gold letter is made with authentic gold, and has been pressed in using a carving spell. It's really well done in fact, Rulers did a really good job!”

“Rulers? Who's that?” asked Techorse curiously.

“Rulers is Spanner's mom, Techorse,” explained Midnight, removing the headgear and placing it on the bench, “his mother is a unicorn pony, and she does engravings like this with precious metals.”

“So I ought to go to the Buildsbetter residence in Canterlot and see if they know where their son is,” confirmed Techorse.

He walked up to the bench, and retrieved the hammer with his robotic arms. A cargo flap opened on the top of the device, and Techorse dropped in the tool, which vanished into the storage of the machine. The flap closed, and its owner started to walk for the door.

“Thank you so much, Midnight,” he said.

“Wait, do you mind if I come along?” asked the unicorn hopefully, “It'd be nice to get out for a while, and I might be able to help you track down Spanners.”

Techorse smiled and answered, “Of course! Will your shop be ok without you?”

“Will we be gone for too long? I could get my mother to watch Twinken if we're out for more than a day,” he said.

Techorse shook his head, “Hopefully this'll be over fast and we'll be back before dark.”

“Ok then, just let me pack a few things, let my brother know where we're going, and I'll meet you outside!” answered Midnight, smiling back.

“I wasn't expecting the Captain of the Guard to show up this afternoon!” hummed the mayor of Ponyville as she poured him a cup of tea from a brass teakettle.

The two ponies were sitting in her office, a cross look on Arbiter's face as he thought about what to ask first. He wanted to figure out just what had happened in Ponyville with Techorse having thought so negatively of this “rival” he had mentioned.

“I'm seeking information about somepony,” said the pegasus, pulling the teacup closer with a wing, “was there some kind of attempt on Techorse recently? A robbery or battery?”

“Battery? In Ponyville? Why no Mr. Arbiter, there hasn't been crime like that,” she said, a concerned look on her face, “what's wrong with Techorse?”

“Techorse told me he got into an argument with another stallion, and they parted and very unfriendly terms, that's very unlike my sappy little friend to do.”

The mayor's face went pale as she figured out what Arbiter was referring to, and she said slowly, “Ah heh, well now that you mention it... there was something that happened here.“

“And what would that be?” queried Arbiter as he sipped from the cup, the hot tea running down his throat.

“Well,” continued the mayor after and audible swallow, “Techorse challenged that stallion you're talking about to a building competition after he said he wasn't a real Earth Pony. And um, things got out of hand because Discord tried to cheat to help Techorse win, completely without Techorse knowing of course.”

“Hmm, I'd buy that. It'd be like Discord to think he's helping by cheating,” continued Arbiter, still giving an angry look to the mayor, “but I'd love to know as to why Ponyville didn't rally around Techorse to drive this stallion away.”

He drained the remainder of the tea in the cup, and set it down with his hoof.

“So, who is this foolish guy who decided picking on Tech was a good plan? And why didn't you support one of your local heroes?” he asked softly.

The mayor looked like she was about to faint out of fear of Arbiter, but meekly told him, “It was Spanners Buildsbetter. He promised to improve all of Ponyville's homes and buildings, so we sort of wanted him to stay.”

“So you sold out Techorse for some real estate value?!” shouted Arbiter, slamming his hooves on the table, “And to of all ponies, a spoiled rotten brat like the Buildsbetter colt?”

“Please, you have to understand! We were just hoping to get attention from a celebrity, we didn't mean to hurt poor Techorse!” pleaded the mare, her glasses nearly falling off her face from the sweat, “Ponyville was had by Buildsbetter, we didn't get anything.”

Arbiter let his rage simmer down, and returned to his seat, “Now that's more like it. It sounds like our little problem stallion is guilty of false advertising and defamation of an Equestrian hero! I'll need to bring him in for a little questioning.”

“I don't know if it needs to go that far,” suggested the mayor, regaining her confidence, “but if you made him publicly apologize, I'd think Techorse would really like that!”

The stallion nearly cringed at the thought of not carrying things out like he normally did, but he remembered he was mostly doing this as a favor for Techorse anyways, and said,

“I'll consider that an option.”

Standing up, he headed for the door of the cramped room, and only turned his head back to say, “Thank you for the information, mayor, as well as the tea.”

Arbiter exited the room, leaving the mayor to take a deep sigh of relief and pour herself her own cup to try and relax after the Captain's shouting.

The pegasus slammed open the door of the town hall, anger on his face as he exited into the streets of Ponyville. Every pony for several hundred feet around watched him stomp angrily out of the building, including Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, who watched in curiosity. They had gone to get a scoop of ice cream from Sugarcube Corner, but were now interested in why Arbiter was stomping around.

“Uh oh, Captain Arbiter's here, and he's mad about something!” groaned Twilight.

“Arby's always mad about something,” snickered Rainbow Dash, “it's probably nothing.”

“Well, I think we ought to ask him, it's not good leaving him angry,” said Fluttershy softly.

“Go ahead!” said Rainbow Dash, “He'll get over it even if you don't.”

Fluttershy slowly and carefully approached Arbiter, who was still fuming, and gently tugged on his black cape with her front hoof.

Immediately he spun around and shouted, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

The timid mare recoiled and whimpered, shutting her eyes, “Eep!”

Arbiter's anger vanished from his face, “Oh, Miss Fluttershy. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you.”

Still shaking like a leaf from being yelled at, Fluttershy stood back up straight on her legs and opened her eyes.

She managed to squeak out, still terrified, “T...that's ok Arbiter, I... I snuck up on you.”

“No, no it's not ok,” admitted Arbiter, grunting, “I shouldn't have been so cross, but I can't help it. Your incompetent mayor let Ponyville get scammed by that miscreant Spanners Buildsbetter.”

Fluttershy knew the name and said, “Oh my, I can see why you're so angry now! Spanners did come here and trick Ponyville. But worst of all, he was really unkind to Tech.”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash caught up, having overheard that the Captain was talking about Spanners.

“Arbiter, are you trying to get back at Spanners for Techorse?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Because if you did, that'd actually be pretty cool of you. He was a total jerk!”

“I agree, but I hope this isn't another one of your schemes to make an arrest, Arbiter,” sighed Twilight Sparkle, knowing what lengths the Captain liked to go to in order to avoid that pesky 'due process' thing he hated so much.

Arbiter tried to defend himself, “It's true he broke the law... but, well... I...”

He saw the three mares giving each other looks of disbelief, and the stallion knew he was going to be found out trying to ruin Spanner's life and toss him in prison for what he had done. Had he really gotten that predictable? But then he remembered what the mayor had suggested, and decided to go with it for the moment until he could get at Spanners.

Arbiter lied slowly, “I.. I think given his crime, I want him to publicly apologize to Ponyville.”

“And Techorse...” reminded Fluttershy softly.

“Yes, and Techorse,” agreed Arbiter, which made Fluttershy smile and nod in approval.

Rainbow Dash was impressed, “I gotta say, Arbiter, dragging Spanner's sorry butt back here to apologize to everypony is an awesome idea! Maybe we could have Pinkie Pie hit him in the face with a pie too!”

“Rainbow Dash, I don't think humiliating Spanners more is going to help,” said Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy's right, Rainbow,” agreed Twilight, “we should only ask him to make up for his mistakes, since there's probably some reason he did those mean things. That way, there's a chance that Techorse and Spanners could...”

“I don't want to hear it!” groaned Rainbow Dash.

“Nor myself,” agreed Arbiter, “we have enough problems with that buffoon in Canterlot. Last thing I want is for him and Techorse to get along.”

Twilight felt like this was a good opportunity to learn something new about friendship, but understood why her friends didn't want that to be the case. Her ears sank back a bit in annoyance, but she perked back up to not tip off her friends to what she was feeling. She came up with a plan however, to bring everypony together to get Spanners in custody.

“Arbiter, do you mind if we come with you and help you find Spanners? I've got this new slowing spell I want to try that might help,” offered Twilight.

“Yeah, let's go get that guy!” cheered Rainbow Dash, floating into the air with her wings and throwing punches with her hooves, “We're gonna make Spanners pay!”

“Ah, for once, you want to help me capture a criminal?” laughed Arbiter, “Pinch me, I must be dreaming!”

“He's not a criminal Arbiter,” scolded Fluttershy gently, “he's just a bit mean.”

“Whatever,” scoffed Rainbow Dash, “let's go!”

“Very well,” said Arbiter, “Miss Sparkle, please teleport us back to Canterlot. We'll get started there!”

“Sounds good, hold on everypony!” ordered Twilight, her horn glowing light purple as energy accumulated for the jump.

“There's something more to Spanners that made him so mean,” she thought as she cast the spell, “but what?”

The Spanners residence was a huge mansion located just outside of Canterlot, a large, gated home that just could not decide what it wanted to be. It seemed that Hammers had designed his own celebrity home, and there were design styles of his in every last inch of the structure. Tall white walls dominated the structure, all uneven in height, making several rooms that all connected into one large living area in the center. The roof was made from what appeared to be terra cotta Spanish tile, and balconies overhung almost every part of the huge residence. A vast stretch of cobblestone of various colors led up to the massive front door made from molded brass, and a huge fountain carved in the shape of a pair of large stone mallets spewed water into the marble dish below in front of the mansion itself. The tall, iron gates were locked shut, and Techorse and Midnight stood out front seeking a way in.

“Do you see any guards?” asked Midnight, “Because I don't think we're going to get in otherwise unless...”

“We're not going to break in, Midnight,” sighed Techorse, “there's got to be some kind of an intercom here somewhere, or something.”

The two stallions searched around the gate area for a button or speaker system, but nothing seemed to be around. While they were looking, a brass pipe slowly emerged from behind Techorse, a shower head styled apparatus attached to the end of it.

Once it had fully extended to its maximum size, the brass pipe immediately bellowed, “Hello!”

Techorse nearly jumped ten feet in the air from the surprise, and turned around quickly. Midnight looked back as well, and tilted his head curiously at the bizarre choice of intercom for the mansion.

“Woah ho ho, whoops!” laughed the voice on the intercom, clearly that of a gentle older male, “Didn't mean to spook you youngsters! What can I do for you?”

“Hi! This wouldn't happen to be Hammers Buildsbetter would it?” asked Midnight curiously.

“Sure is!” answered the tube, “Well actually, this is the intercom pipe. I'm still inside the house.”

Techorse smiled at the terrible joke, “I like your intercom, it's really creative, sir!”

“Thank you! My son made it for me, glad it paid off,” said the pipe, curling a bit at the kind words, “Now of course, I'd like to know why you're here, it's not often guests show up.”

“My name is Techorse, I've come from Ponyville with my friend Midnight Blaze, and now that you're talking about it, I'm looking for your son!” answered Techorse, pointing a hoof at himself despite Hammers having no way of seeing him, “Is he home?”

There was silence for a few moments, and then the voice returned to the speaker, only this time far more morose, “Come on inside, colts. We need to have a word.”

The brass pipe straightened out, and then sank back underneath a tiny hatch in the ground, before the gates swung wide open for the two ponies, who entered carefully and walked up the stone path. They reached the double doors into the home, and a tall older earth pony gentleman wearing a fancy suit and bow tie opened them up.

“Good afternoon,” he said in a posh voice, “I am Brass Key, the Buildsbetter's butler. Follow me please, and don't touch the paintings.”

Techorse and Midnight entered the house after the butler, being careful not to touch the mentioned collection of paintings hanging on the inside walls of the home. There were beautiful tan and white tiles on the floor against white washed walls, arches and wooden stairs led them around the mansion until they reached the living area. There, sitting on one of the largest couches which Techorse had ever seen, a blue one that took up half the three hundred square foot room, sat Hammers Buildsbetter and his wife Rulers Buildsbetter, who got up off their seats immediately to greet the guests.

Hammers was an older earth pony with a tan coat and orange eyes like his son, a set of crossed mallets like his fountain as his cutie mark, and a rapidly graying mane and mustache. His wife naturally had white hair, was a unicorn with a purple-bluish coat like Midnight had described, and had a set of rulers angled at a corner for her cutie mark. She wore a gold necklace and small topaz earrings at the base of her ears, and a set of reading glasses she sometimes forgot to remove. There seemed to be very much worry in her turquoise eyes, and it was very possible that worry had caused the signs of age on them, as they did not appear to be that elderly.

“Well now, it really is Techorse!” beamed Hammers, stepping up and walking up to him, “It's such an honor to meet Ponyville's mad scientist.”

Techorse laughed, and extended a robotic arm from his saddle to shake Hammers' hoof, who was flattered to see the battle saddle in action.

“I totally forgot my nickname,” he said, shaking his head, “thank you so much for letting us in, sir.”

As the mechanical arm released Hammer's hoof and retreated back into the saddle, he said, “Oh no, thank you! We're so glad Techorse of Ponyville is here to help us get our son back!”

Techorse and Midnight's faces lit up in surprise, they hadn't expected the Buildsbetters to not know where their son was! Hammers' and Rulers' joy on their faces suddenly disappeared, just as Hammers had trailed off over the intercom.

“But we thought you knew, that's why we're here!” gasped Midnight, his mouth nearly falling open.

“Ohhhh my,” sighed Brass Key, “perhaps, master, you should explain to these gentlecolts what's been going on.”

“I guess we're going to have to,” agreed the older stallion, nodding.

The five were soon gathered at the lounge towards the back of the home, seated at a large oak table in front of a beautiful bay window that let the sun in at just the right angle to illuminate the room perfectly. Rulers had brought a batch of her famous “perfect brownies”, a dessert where every piece was guaranteed to be the same size no matter what, so that one's foals would not fight over who got the bigger brownie. Unlike her husband and son, Rulers liked to garden, cook, and make crafts, and had started a magazine about just those things to earn her fame in Equestria. Midnight picked up one of the brownies magically and shoved the treat into his mouth, the sweet taste of dark chocolate washing over his tongue.

“Why hasn't Spanners been here lately?” asked Techorse, the couple across from him holding hooves and frowning.

“Well, we made a bad choice as parents,” said Rulers, “we told Spanners he could stay here as long as he wanted to, unless he wanted to set out on his own and find his own fame and fortune.”

“So he chose to do that, and he really wasn't ready yet,” added the father, also looking like there was much weight on his heart, “he told us he was going to Ponyville to fix up the place and win his fame there. But we knew he wasn't ready for such a project, he was too immature.”

“We know he went to Ponyville, but then what happened?” asked Techorse.

Rulers lost it and burst into tears, “He never came back! We haven't seen our sweet, loving son in over a month and we fear the worst.”

“There, there honey,” soothed Hammers, trying to console his wife

Techorse didn't really want to break it to them, but went for it anyways, “With all due respect, Spanners arrived in Ponyville and started doing some rather mean things. Once Ponyville figured out he'd bitten off more than he could chew, he ran away.”

“What did he do?” asked Hammers.

“He said I wasn't a real Earth Pony,” answered Techorse honestly, “he tried to get Ponyville to keep me quiet so he could keep up this lie he was going to do anything.”

Shockingly, Hammers flew into a fury and yelled at Techorse, “OUR SON WOULD DO NO SUCH THING!”

“He would too!” countered Midnight, crumbs flying out of his mouth.

Hammers continued his angry questioning, “And what proof do you have of this? All we know is, Spanners went to Ponyville, then got upset and left. How do we know you two ever talked?”

Techorse looked Hammers straight in the eye, and from his saddle he took out the inscribed hammer with a robotic arm, dropping it on the table. The monogram caught the eyes of Hammers and Rulers, who sank back, dumbfounded.

“No...” whispered Hammers, “that's his hammer. His family treasure.”

“Where did you get this?” asked Rulers.

“Spanners dropped it while fleeing Ponyville, he used it to escape,” explained Midnight, “I identified the monogram as being carved by you, Rulers, no other unicorn mare in Equestria imprints gold like this.”

Hammers and Rulers sat motionless, the idea of their son having been a jerk to Techorse seemed impossible, and yet, there was that immature side to him that they knew about. Perhaps he had treated their guest poorly.

“I can't believe Spanners would say such a vile thing,” sobbed Rulers, “oh it's all our fault, we didn't raise him right.”

Techorse disagreed with the statement, “I say you did a good job raising him, he just decided it was easier to embarrass me in front of Ponyville than to tell the truth that...”

“The truth about what?” asked Hammers.

Techorse was going to say what he thought the answer was, but he needed to actually find Spanners and confirm with him that his hunch was correct. But now that he'd shown his hand, he had to say something to his parents.

“The truth was that he wasn't quite ready yet to fix up Ponyville,” answered Techorse, which was partially true, “I think it's a good idea if I find him and forgive him so that he might work on his craft a bit and come back some other time.”

Midnight learned how awful of a liar Techorse was and almost laughed, but he held his tongue so as to not give away the truth.

“If you do find him, please let us know!” pleaded Rulers, “Tell him he's still welcome here anytime he pleases!”

“One thing you could try is Lacey Maid's eatery a couple of miles from here, his friends tend to hang out there,” said Hammers, “they won't talk to me, but I'm sure they'd listen to you guys.”

“We'll go there first!” answered Techorse with a smile, “Come on, Midnight.”

“Right behind you!” said the unicorn, eager for some more food.

After Techorse picked the hammer back up and put it in his saddle, Brass Key took them back out of the residence to the front gates, and watched as his two guests started to head back for Canterlot.

“One more thing, gentlecolts,” he coughed, getting them to turn around.

“Yes?” asked Midnight.

Brass Key sighed, “You know as well as I do young master Spanners is quite boarish. But we still highly appreciate you helping us locate him. He has great potential, just look at this fountain he's built here behind me, and you'll know.”

“We understand,” answered Techorse, “and trust me Brass, I don't want any kind of revenge for what Spanners did to me. I just want to give him back his hammer, and let him know everything's ok between us.”

“Best of luck to you!” said Brass Key, a smile finally forming on his face as he shut the gate behind the stallions and started his walk back for the mansion.

“Techorse, the stallion with the arsenal saddle. Friend to the Elements of Harmony. Master Spanners really picked the wrong enemy this time,” chuckled the butler shaking his head before heading back to his post.

To be continued...

#48 - The Search for Spanners: Part II

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The Search For Spanners: Part II

Techorse Series: #48

By Spirals95

As described by the Buildsbetter parents, Lacey Maid's cafe was a popular hot drink shop located within downtown Canterlot. Formerly a bookstore, the shop was built into the rows of ornate buildings that dominated the city, a large sign of a mare dressed in a fancy pink dress and a white laced hat marking the hangout. Techorse and Midnight Blaze entered the coffee store in hopes of finding out some information as to where Spanners might be hiding, and the door set off a casual, friendly trilling as a set of bells rang.

The inside of the shop was cramped together towards the front, with a large counter to the immediate right, various coffee machines made of pewter and steel boiling and steaming with hot coffee, tea, and flavor syrups. A chalkboard hung overhead, with a grand list of the specialty drinks served at the establishment listed in big letters. The walls of the shop were made of vertical wood panels, with electric lights sporadically placed on the walls. In the back was a much more open area with a billiards table, and many red felt chairs arranged in a circle where customers could chat. Four ponies were occupying the chairs, three earth pony stallions and a pegasus mare. The stallions were orange, tan, and red in color, their manes of various cuts and sizes, and they casually watched over their shoulders as Techorse and Midnight Blaze took a seat at the counter, climbing up onto the wooden stools.

Fairly shortly, Lacey Maid herself sprung out from an open doorway, balancing an insulated pot of coffee on her head. She was a pegasus with a dark pink coat, yellow eyes, and a friendly smile. Her tail and mane were hidden underneath her outfit like the one on the sign outside, and she set the pot down on the counter before addressing her new customers.

“Hey, what can I do for you gentlecolts?” she asked very cheerfully.

Techorse went first, “I'd like a cup of decaf if you have any please, with plenty of cream.”

“Me too!” copied Midnight Blaze, as he had very little experience with coffee.

“What, no lattes?” asked Lacey Maid, tilting her head in confusion.

Techorse had no clue what she was going on about, and confirmed with a smile, “No thanks!”

The ponies sitting in the chairs were listening and knew they had found their target. Spanners had described a green coated stallion with a saddle and heavy social obliviousness, and Techorse's boring drink order in a famous Canterlot latte shop had pretty much confirmed their suspicions. Nopony ever ordered a regular cup of coffee in Lacey Maid's shop! Now all they had to do was wait for them to leave.

“All right then, I guess...” said Maid awkwardly, raising an eyebrow, “two decaf cups of coffee coming up, with cream.”

She served them their hot drinks and collected their payment, dropping the few bits into her register, a bit offended they didn't want to try even one of the fifty different types of latte drinks listed on the chalkboard menu over her head, the result of her special talents.

“So I guess this is your first time here!” she said, closing the drawer and trying to make conversation.

“Yeah, it is!” answered Techorse, sipping from the mug with his front hooves.

“Wow this is good,” whistled Midnight, enjoying the taste of the dark roast.

“Aw thanks,” giggled Maid, swishing her tail underneath her dress, “as I was saying, don't get too many customers interested in plain coffee, so I'm glad it's good. Anything else I can get for you?”

“Have you seen one of your customers lately? His name is Spanners Buildsbetter,” asked Techorse.

The four ponies in the chair were fidgeting, trying their hardest not to leap up out of their seats. Lacey Maid knew the correct answer was “yes”, and realized from the question Techorse was the pony her other customers were after. Although she didn't like the idea of helping lay a trap, the way her more loyal customers had described what the pony in front of her intended to do made her want to help out of fear.

“Can't say I've seen him lately,” lied the pegasus, “why do you ask?”

“We're looking for him, I have some stuff I need to settle with him,” said Techorse, smiling, “do you know where he is?”

Lacey Maid seemed to be more nervous, but neither of the two stallions noticed, and she told them while pointing towards the kitchen door,

“I don't know, but he's such a good customer he often leaves some of his stuff out back! You might be able to figure out from that, if you want to look.”

Midnight drained the rest of his coffee and said, “Really? Thanks! Come on Tech, let's go check it out.”

The unicorn pony jumped off of his stool and headed through the doorway behind the counter, Techorse soon following behind. As soon as they were well out of the room, the four ponies on the chairs got up and followed them out. Before he exited the shop, the leader of the four, the largest earth pony went to thank Lacey Maid. He was the orange-coated one, with slick black hair parted to the sides, his ruffle-cut hooves poking out from underneath a set of jeans and a gray hoodie he wore over his head to hide how awful his hair was.

“Thank you very much Lacey,” he said, a sinister chuckle coming from his throat, “now don't worry about this, we're just going to handle the situation and let you get back to things.”

“Please be as gentle as you can,” begged the store owner, “I'm taking a huge risk here.”

“Well I hope things won't have to be too rough,” answered the stallion, “just a minute Lacey. It'll be all we need with those guys.”

Techorse and Midnight exited the coffee shop into the back alley, a long area with a tall gray brick wall, the back to another shop on the opposite side of the city square. There didn't actually seem to be anything left outside except for the shop's dumpster, and they looked around in a confused manner.

“I don't see any stuff out here,” complained Midnight, scanning around with his light blue eyes, “how about you?”

“There's nothing out here at all,” sighed Techorse, “Lacey Maid kicked us out I guess. What did we do wrong?”

“I'll tell ya what you did wrong!” answered the big earth pony, laughing.

Techorse and Midnight turned around slowly from the stone wall. The four ponies from inside the shop had formed a semicircle around them, trapping them against the brick wall with only six or seven feet between the hapless inventors and their foes.

“Uh oh, don't tell me, this is your turf?” asked Midnight, rolling his eyes.

“Eh it's a favorite prancing ground, sure, but that's not why we're here,” answered the leader, “my name's Mixer, my pop's the owner of the Mixer Clan Cement Company.”

“Oh yeah!” marveled Techorse, not understanding they were being threatened, “You made the cement used in the Ponyville dam.”

Mixer groaned and removed the hood, revealing his slick and unkempt hair, “Let's cut to the chase, these are my friends Staircases, Satchel Craft, and Chipper.”

Satchel Craft, the pegasus mare, tried to give a menacing look, but it turned into an awkward smile that revealed a few dark bags under her eyes. Her soft white coat and pink eyes were offset by her wild orange hair and cutie mark of three purses in a pyramid. Techorse took note of the fatigue and wondered why she looked so unnerved when they clearly had them outnumbered and surrounded. In fact, Chipper and Staircases also looked a bit reluctant despite everything. Chipper was the red colored pony, with a white mane that was cut to look like the Equestrian guard, and a short tail, his cutie mark bearing a carving knife taking a chunk out of a block of wood. Staircases in contrast, had a long light blue tail to complement his tan coat, and had a cutie mark depicting a flight of stairs being put in place with a small hammer.

“I'm Techorse, and this is Midnight Blaze!” Techorse answered, starting to get worried as the other ponies took a step forward.

“So it is you!” growled Chipper nervously, one of the other earth pony stallions, “We were told about you by our best friend, Spanners. He says you two are out to hurt him, and we're going to make sure that doesn't happen.”

“Oh no...” said Techorse, his ears drooping.

“We're not trying to hurt Spanners! We're just trying to give him back his hammer, we've got it right here!” explained Midnight, hoping to avoid a fight.

Midnight opened Techorse's saddle with his magic and removed the object, dropping it in front of the ponies, who recognized it right away.

“This is all a trick,” said Staircases, shaking his head, “you took this from him and you're trying to use it to get past us. That's not going to happen.”

Mixer took a deep breath and inhaled sharply, “I guess... we're doing this! Let's teach this guy not to mess with Spanners!”

Techorse looked at the four ponies, who started to step forward. They looked so nervous the four ponies unsure about this despite how hard they were trying to be threatening. They said mean words, but their faces showed fear and anxiety. The doors on his saddle opened up, but nothing emerged from the inside yet. This caused the ponies to stop, and the entire group of six began to sweat and look around nervously.

“Don't do this!” pleaded Techorse, “We don't have to fight this out.”

“Techorse, we'd win pretty easily!” mentioned Midnight, “Just use your laser cannons.”

The tension had reached its maximum point amongst the ponies, and they all stared at each other, legs shaking. Staircases and Satchel almost looked like they were about to cry over the situation, having obviously lost a lot of sleep waiting for this moment. In fact, all of the ponies looked like they didn't want to be there, but they were there for a good reason, and Techorse knew what he had to do to end the tension.

He needed to do what Twilight would do!

Techorse took and deep breath and said defiantly, “You guys are the best friends Spanners could ever ask for.”

“Are you for real?” asked Satchel, a whine in her voice, “What's that got to do with this?”

“You're willing to attack me despite how dangerous Spanners told you I am,” he said, “and the fact that I do have a pair of laser cannons on me. You're willing to get hurt to keep me from finding him, and it's hard to find better friends than that.”

The doors on the battle saddle closed, and Techorse continued, “If you're willing to do this much to stop me, then I quit. Take the hammer back to Spanners for me and let him know I wanted to return it.”

The four ponies backed up a step, and stood there for a moment, relief beginning to wash over their faces.

“Oh, all right,” answered Mixer, “I guess we could do that. So you're giving up on finding Spanners then?”

“I guess we are,” answered Midnight, relaxing.

“Yeah, all I wanted was to return the hammer and tell Spanners everything was ok between us,” continued Techorse, “sorry for the trouble.”

The four stood around for a few moment contemplating the situation, before Mixer smiled, “You know, I'm starting to think my best friend Spanners might have told us wrong about you. We were seriously expecting worse.”

“Heh, yeah,” whimpered Chipper, “I gotta wonder why Spanners told us you were after him anyways?”

Techorse and Midnight explained the situation, about how Spanners had called him names and tried to humiliate him in front of Ponyville. While the four weren't entirely convinced their best friend was such a big jerk, they did know how often he bragged about his next big publicity stunt, and concluded something had definitely been misunderstood. The six went back inside, and Lacey Maid was highly relieved to see that nopony had been hurt at all and the matter had been resolved most peacefully. She rewarded each of them with a free mug of hot chocolate with a nice swirl of whipped cream on top. They sat at the counter in a line, talking about the next steps to take.

“This has all been such a bad moment for us,” sighed Mixer, “we're sorry guys. Spanners was telling us before he came to us in a panic that he was going to Ponyville, and we should have thought maybe he made somepony from there mad.”

“It's fine Mixer,” assured Midnight Blaze.

“Thanks for the forgiveness,” said Satchel, her lips slightly covered in whipped cream, “it's a shame Spanners ran off, he has no idea you're just trying to put stuff behind you.”

“Is there any chance you can tell us where he went? You can come with us if you want,” offered Techorse.

“I think we trust you enough now after explaining what really happened,” answered Staircases, “Spanners is kind of a bit of a showoff, and you do have that hammer of his, so everything checks out.”

“Agreed,” nodded Mixer, “that being said, Spanners is hiding out at his cabin in the Featherstone national park. It's pretty out there, and he bought it using his parents' graduation gift money when he left school. Nopony else but us knows about it though, so it's pretty hard to find. Ask for cabin twenty from the park rangers and you should be good to go!”

“Great! Hey, who knows, maybe we can go camping after this,” suggested Midnight, “always wanted to!”

Techorse smiled, “Maybe some other time Midnight. You've got a shop to get back to.”

“Yeah, I know!” he answered, “Just a suggestion for later.”

“Hey thanks again guys,” said Techorse, changing track, “Midnight and I ought to head out.”

“Good luck, and please don't let Spanners know we squealed!” snickered Satchel, “He might not like us for that!”

“We'll be good, promise!” teased Techorse, “Ready, buddy?”

Midnight tilted the mug back and swallowed the rest of the hot chocolate, nearly scorching his throat before slamming the mug down, “Now I'm ready! Let's give back that tool.”

Featherstone National Park was a vast stretch of woods and mountains located in the southwest of Equestria. Being so far away from most of the major cities, it was a good hiding spot for Spanners who seemed desperate to avoid being hunted down for his incident at Ponyville. The gigantic Blue River ran through the forested park, much like Everfree it was left mostly to its own devices, with pony intervention only being fighting forest fires, the occasional rain shower in times of drought, and providing healthcare to sick animals found by the park rangers. Tourists were expected to live in cabins rented or bought far away from the deepest areas of the woods and the most dangerous cliffs, but rowdy pegasus pony guests often flew up as high as they could go to take in the awe-inspiring view of the green and blue wonder. For the other guests, a hot spring basin near the foot of the mountains provided warm baths in alkaline water, and the river was the perfect place to catch a pet fish or go rafting when the water was calmer.

The two adventuring ponies found themselves at the Rangers' office near the entrance to the park. It was a large wooden cabin with a massive brick fireplace extending into the air, and a stone trail leading up to it amongst the multitude of tall trees. Inside, they found two park rangers much older than them relaxing in front of the fireplace, playing with a jigsaw puzzle on a nice throw rug left in front of the roaring fire. One was an earth pony mare with a small pair of black spectacles on the end of her muzzle, and the other was a pegasus stallion. Both were wearing green pants, thick brown boots, and white button up shirts.

“Excuse me,” said Techorse, not wanting to be rude, “do you know where we can find cabin number 20?”

The two park rangers looked up startled at Techorse and Midnight, quickly standing up from the puzzle and straightening out their tan colored shirts.

“Oh, whoops, sorry!” said the mare, “We weren't expecting any new tourists today! You two are looking for cabin number 20?”

“Yes, there's somepony we need to go visit,” explained Midnight Blaze.

The rangers knew that was Spanner's cabin, and had been told beforehand not to allow any guests, but it would be difficult to enforce that now that there were actual visitors asking specifically about it.

The pegasus told them the truth, “To be honest, we were told by the owner not to allow any guests if possible. Why do you need to visit?”

Techorse opened up his battle saddle to their intrigue with the machine, and showed them the hammer.

“I'm just trying to return this piece of hardware, we kind of had a falling out and I want to apologize,” he said, hoping they'd cooperate.

“What do you say, Leaflet?” asked the pegasus of his companion, “Should we help them?”

Leaflet responded, “I guess we can, Recon, “It's not like we can shoo away other guests to the park, it's an open-gate policy.”

Recon walked over to the nearest wall in the cabin, and pointed to a huge map spanning the length of the cabin that showed an overview of the park. Red dots on the map indicated where various buildings were, and the pegasus pony had to poke his wings from under his shirt and fly up to where one particular red dot was. He pointed at it with his hoof and made sure Techorse and Midnight could see it, and then began to fly in a pattern along a yellow line near the dot.

“All right gentlecolts,” said Recon, smiling, “cabin 20 is out in the northeast quarter of the map here. These yellow lines are the trails, you can take this one to get right to the cabin.”

“Whatever you do,” cautioned Leaflet sternly, “do NOT go off the trails, they're there for a reason, to keep you inside the park, and outside of the park's wildlife. Don't end up like Mirror Stickers.”

“What happened to Mirror Stickers?” gulped Midnight, his ears falling back.

Recon took out a hoof, and drew it across his neck, making a loud gurgling sound in his throat and sticking out his tongue while sending his eyes in different directions. Techorse and Midnight winced, their pupils dilating as they grated their teeth. Once the two ponies were shaking in terror, Leaflet rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

“Recon, stop it, I think they get the idea, and you know that Mirror Stickers' story is an urban myth!”

He laughed and dropped to the floor, folding his wings, “You two stay safe out there, ok?”

“Yes sir!” answered Midnight, “We're not leaving the paths, trust us!”

Spanners Buildsbetter had decided to leave his cabin for a while to try and take a break from his self-imposed exile. He needed the fresh air and had a bad case of cabin fever since he had been living alone for a few weeks, and was walking along a steep cliff side, a gorge cut out between two slopes to provide a path. A depressed look dominated his face, his eyes on the ground, and only the sound of his tool belt shuffling around kept his mind calm as he shuffled forward. He missed his parents and his home very much, but was terrified of the consequences now that everyone knew the truth about him.

“I can't go back,” he thought sadly, “the second I go back to Canterlot the Royal Guard will be waiting there for me. They all know I'm a fraud!”

They came to an area in the path flanked by two steep cliff sides, cairns of stones piled up at the top, and layers of stone exposed throughout the scenery.

“But at least I'm safe here,” he sighed, before he heard hooves on the gravel below.

The architect turned his attention down below, and he hid behind a nearby cairn of small stones, peering over them to take a look. He spotted Techorse and Midnight Blaze coming up the trail, their eyes locked forward so that they could not see the hidden pony above.

Spanners' blood ran cold, “Techorse is here?! But the only ponies I told about my hideout were my friends, and they said they'd stop him.”

Fearing the worst, the builder nearly burst into tears, “Oh my goodness... Techorse must have taken my friends down, and now he's here to get me, too!”

He toughened up, straightening his legs, “Time to block the path like I planned just in case. They can't get to me through the woods!”

Spanners galloped ahead of the two ponies, his back hooves hitting the rock pile as he fled. The pile shifted, and a small stone fell from the side of the cliff, bopping Midnight Blaze on the head.

“Ouch!” he grunted, rubbing his head with a hoof, “They really need a falling rocks sign around here.”

“Let's just stick to the center of the path,” said Techorse, “and pick up the pace, we've still got a few miles to go.”

A large set of boulders stacked neatly laid ahead on the side of the cliff Spanners was standing on, dynamite carefully wedged between each one. He found what he was looking for, a set of pine branches, and removed them, revealing a red plunger box to detonate the explosives. Putting his hooves on the box, Spanner counted to three in his head, and then pushed the lever down hard.

BOOM

Techorse and Midnight jumped back at the explosion, gasping as the large stones dislodged and fell down, sealing up the path ahead. The stones crashed into place, filling the entire gorge completely and making passage impossible.

“What was that?!” cried Midnight, his horn glowing in preparedness as he scanned the area.

“It must have been a rock slide,” thought Techorse aloud as he stepped forward and inspected the stones, “they really should think about putting up a warning sign.”

Spanners, listening from above, smiled confidently that he was safe now, and abandoned the area to return to his cabin.

“I guess we're going to have to go another way, unless you can teleport us over the stones,” said Techorse, “I didn't bring my flight gear.”

“Heh, I could teleport us, but it's not my strongest spell. Between your weight and mine I wouldn't have any energy left to walk,” his friend responded sheepishly.

“In that case, let's just quickly bypass this by going off the path for a short bit,” suggested Techorse.

“But what about what the rangers said?!” demanded his companion, his face lighting up in terror, “We can't leave the path!”

“Midnight, I hate breaking the rules too, but if we don't go into the deep woods, we'll be ok,” assured Techorse, “the path is meant to keep us from going into a darker, enclosed area. Now let's backtrack a bit, get up the cliffs, and go around.”

Midnight felt a little uneasy about the plan, but agreed to the short bypass, and followed Techorse back around the path until they came to a shallow incline. Going off the trail, the two ponies walked back up and started to navigate in the direction of the path again. But with the cliff obscuring the path slightly and giving them nervous thoughts of falling off, they ponies strayed a little too far, and started to follow the treeline instead of the path. They passed the boulder pile without knowing it, and shortly thereafter, a very important turn to the left in the path they would have seen if they had been able to stay on.

“We should probably think about finding the path again,” said Midnight, noticing the darkness and increasing thickness of trees, “I'm starting to think we're lost.”

“You might be right about that,” concurred the green pony, “let's just head back the way we came.”

A rustle in a nearby pile of leaves caught the two ponies' attention, making them stop walking.

“What was that?” asked Midnight, slight fear in his voice.

The pile of leaves, several meters long and deep, suddenly burst into a flurry of flying orange and red as a massive serpent, nine feet long and nearly eight inches across, broke out from its cover. The snake was bright yellow in color, with orange diamonds down its back, and steely gray eyes with yellow pupils that gazed down at the ponies. It was only as big as each of them, but its fangs dripped with some kind of venom.

“AAAAAH!” screamed a terrified Midnight as the snake lunged at them.

Techorse acted quickly, and his saddle opened up, drawing out the laser cannons. Metal barrels backed up with gray beam emitter housings came forth, and Techorse braced down on his four legs before letting off a volley of energy, alternating beams shooting out. The yellow colored bolts impacted the reptile's underbelly, exploding all over the shrieking monster as they exploded and tore away scales. Five dark holes in the snake's body was all it took, and the beast recoiled back, hissing at the ponies one final time before it crawled away angrily to go recover from the blasts.

The barrels on the saddle smoked gently before retracting back into the saddle, and Techorse stood up again, trying to get the look of anger off of his face.

“You saved us!” cheered Midnight, giving his friend a friendly pat on the back, “Those lasers are awesome, Techorse!”

“We need to get back to the path as soon as possible,” he said, breathing heavily.

“I agree, which is why I might have to test out this thing I was working on earlier,” he said, “I didn't really want to use it, but I think we're going to have to or we might run into something worse.”

Techorse caught his breath, and nodded, a small hatch opening up on the back of his machine. Midnight removed the black felt bag, and removed a small clockwork device with a purple crystal embedded in the center.

“This is a pathfinder I invented, a small magical tool that scans for houses and can point lost ponies in the direction of civilization. Since Spanner's house is the only one out here, it'll probably show us the way.”

Midnight placed the small device on the ground, and poked it gently with his horn. A moment later, the crystal glowed, and the device sprang out two ornithoptic wings, hovering high into the air as Techorse watched with amusement. The tiny device spun around in a circle, taking in information magically, before the crystal projected a large purple arrow in the direction they needed to go. Within seconds, however, the device ran out of power, and tumbled to the ground where its owner collected it.

“Man, I need to get the power source down,” sighed Midnight Blaze, “it's not too helpful if it's only going to last a few seconds.”

“That's all we needed, Midnight,” said Techorse, pleased with the machine, “and it's a cool little gadget! Once you get it fully working, I want one!”

Midnight promised, “Sure! But let's get going before we forget where the arrow pointed. I do not want to run into another snake like that!”

After successfully navigating through the forest, they came to Spanner's cabin and immediately were stunned by how heavily modified the basic cabin was. It was a rustic log cabin, just a one-story home with a simple angled roof, but many changes had been made to the place. A nearby stream had a large paddle-wheel attached to it, which was generating electricity. A shed near the home had a large metal funnel constructed over it that was used to catch rainwater, and a pipe system purified the precipitate and brought it into the cabin as drinking and bathing water for Spanners. The front door clearly bore a red number 20, and the lights were on inside despite it being the middle of the day.

“We finally made it!” cheered Midnight.

They walked up to the front door, and Midnight gently knocked with his front hoof. Inside, Spanners heard the knocking, and he began to panic. He wasn't expecting anyone, and he knew that his rock slide plan had failed. In a panic, he grabbed some of this things, shoved them into his tool belt, and prepared to run out of the back door of the cabin.

Midnight noticed the door was unlocked, and gently pushed it open, letting Techorse and himself in. Spanners cursed himself mentally for leaving the door unlocked, and resisted the temptation to scream loudly as the two ponies barged into his home.

“Spanners!” said Techorse a little strongly, “We've been looking for you.”

“Teeeeeech!” laughed Spanners nervously, sweat pouring from underneath his mane, “How'd you know I was here?”

“Your friends told us,” he answered, “it was a pretty crazy day, but I've come here to give you something.”

“Oh, right. Who's your friend?” asked the panicking builder, backing up slowly.

“I'm Midnight Blaze, Techorse and I are inventors, so we become pretty quick buddies!”

Spanners was slowly backing up, and his flank touched the back door of the cabin, which unfortunately seemed to be locked shut, unlike the front door. There was no escape from Techorse now, and he certainly couldn't be happy after how he had been treated.

The struggling pony manged to squeak out, “That's really cool!”

Techorse could see Spanners seemed to be looking for a way to run off, and decided to speed things along.

“Spanners,” he said bluntly, “I'm not going to waste time...”

Spanners' heart was well within his throat now, his pulse off the charts in panic. But he had one trick left up his sleeve, and he noticed a nearby window.

“Sorry Techorse!” he said, laughing off his anxiety, “It'll have to wait!”

He jumped through the window, shattering the glass and galloping off into the forest.

“Come on, we're going after him!” declared Techorse, running up to the door and attempting to kick it down with his front hooves.

The door resisted, and Techorse was sent backwards onto the wooden floor of the cabin.

“If anypony asks, I'll tell them the door opened,” snickered Midnight, trying not to burst out laughing.

“Thanks...”

They chased Spanners down into an abandoned area within the woods, as evident by the discarded camping equipment some previous ponies had not taken with them. Eventually by tracking the hoofprints left in the soft dirt, they found that Spanners had taken a trail upwards into the mountains, and decided to continue pursuit. A cave where mud had been tracked led them through part of the mountain into an open area partially blocked by the mountain, and flanked by tall trees. It was here that the trail of hoofprints ended, and Midnight kicked over a stone in frustration.

“Darn! He got away,” he muttered.

“I'm up here you two!” shouted Spanners, drawing their attention.

The earth pony stood high above them on a ledge, having apparently climbed up a nearby ladder, which he had kicked over to prevent pursuit. A cave behind him provided a way for Spanners to retreat when he needed to.

“Spanners, get down from there!” demanded Techorse, “I'm only here to talk!”

“Yeah, right!” scoffed his opponent, “You're after me for what I did in Ponyville!”

“No I'm not, I promise!” pleaded the inventor, “Just come down and we can talk this over.”

“No way, you're lying!” cried Spanners, beginning to get anxious again.

Midnight and Techorse saw something, and their eyes grew wide, before pointing behind Spanners.

“Oh what now?” demanded the architect, becoming indignant, “Is this a joke?”

“Spanners, get down here!” begged Midnight, his eyes filled with terror.

He growled, “I'd rather...”

The pony stopped when he felt a sharp puff of hot air on his back. Freezing in place, he slowly turned around to see what it was his adversaries were talking about. Just behind him, having emerged from the cave, was a gigantic silver wolf, with blue streaks running down its back. It growled at him as soon as he made eye contact with it, and the beast stepped forward, its jaws just big enough to take his upper body.

Spanners screamed and jumped off the high ledge, prompting the two ponies below to catch him. The wolf jumped down, causing the earth to shake around them. Its long tail and sharp ears twitched in anger, and its stomach nearly scraped on the ground, sagging for some reason.

“What is that thing?” whined Midnight, trying not to flat out shriek.

“I don't know,” answered Techorse, “but we're not going to let it get us!”

Techorse sprouted his laser cannons again to take a shot at the giant beast, but it sensed the attack, and began to shuffle on its paws rapidly. Its fur, made of silk, conducted ions along the length of the blue streaks, and electrical arcs built up along its back. Once it had built up enough energy, the wolf howled and a beam of lightning surged from the end of the blue streaks on its back, zapping the ponies. They yelled in terror and pain as their muscles gave in to the electrons, and down to the ground they went, twitching.

The electricity wore off quickly, and the three ponies got up on their hooves and started to run away, the wolf chasing them. Darting into the trees, the three were able to get a little bit of a head start, but the beast was behind them, shooting more bolts of painful electricity their way.

“Oh man!” cried Midnight, “Techorse, do something!”

“I can't, that thing's partially shorted out my saddle,” he answered, “just keep running!”

Galloping as fast as their legs would carry them, they reached the Blue River with the wolf still pursuing them intently.

Techorse suggested, “Jump in, we've got to swim across!”

“Water conducts electricity, you idiot!” growled Spanners, “We'll be fried!”

The wolf now had them completely trapped between the river and itself, and drew its long, paddle like tongue across its lips in anticipation.

“It's going to eat us alive,” gasped Midnight, “why would anypony come to this park!?”

Spanners looked at the expressions of terror on the other two pony's faces, and then at the approaching monster, and he realized it was his fault all of this was happening. If he hadn't have tried to run away again, he would have simply taken his beating from Techorse and gotten it all over with. Now not only was his secret out that he was a worthless architect and a total loser, but he was also going to get all three of them done in.

His ears drooped, and he shut his eyes, “You two leave. I'm the only one who deserves to get swallowed.”

“Spanners, that's not true!” stammered Techorse, “We're not abandoning you!”

Spanners realized that despite everything he'd done, Techorse was insistent on helping him. Even if he did deserve the terrible fate he was about to meet, he wanted to make sure his 'rival' knew how he felt inside.

“Techorse,” he said, turning around, “I'm sorry I humiliated you in front of Ponyville and said you weren't a real earth pony. I only did it because I knew I wasn't any good at building houses, and I wanted to still be a famous builder for my family, so I decided to tear you down instead of doing the right thing. Can you forgive me, so I can at least know that before... well...”

Techorse smiled, and his ears also dropped, “Spanners... this whole time I was hoping I could just give you your prized hammer and put this thing behind us. But now that I know you're truly sorry, I also forgive you, for everything!”

The battle saddle opened up, and he offered the stallion the tool even as the wolf was nearly on top of them. Spanners wiped a tear from his eye, and accepted the hammer back, placing it into his belt. It was a nice token even though they were about to be snapped up.

“I'm going to go face the wolf, you two get out of here now!” he said, turning around and opening his eyes.

He saw that during the time they were talking, Fluttershy had placed herself in front of the wolf, using her famous stare at the beast, who was now calm and collected. Techorse and Midnight nearly let their mouths fall open at the sight, and wondered how in Equestria Fluttershy had managed to sneak in!

She turned her head around and said, “Oh don't mind me. I'm just having a nice conversation with Miss Wolf! Now that she's calm, everything's much better.”

“Fluttershy, what are you doing here?” said Techorse, happiness rushing to his expression.

“Twilight and Rainbow Dash invited me,” she said, turning around completely, “and once we figured out from Lacey Maid you went to Featherstone Park, I guessed maybe you'd have made up and gone swimming in the river already.”

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Arbiter were standing on the opposite side of the river, and the unicorn mare teleported them over to the other side. Fluttershy smiled and turned back to talk to the wolf, who was now lying on the ground and groaning from pain in her bloated stomach.

“Twilight, thank you so much!” said Techorse, throwing his hooves around her, “why'd you decide to follow us?”

She hugged him back, “It was Arbiter's idea to help track down Spanners. We were one step behind you the whole time.”

“So, didja get your revenge on Spanners?” asked Rainbow Dash, landing nearby, “This creep deserves a pretty nasty day for what he did to you!”

Spanners took a step back and stared at the ground, but Techorse released Twilight and walked up next to his former enemy, patting him on the back with a hoof in hopes of cheering him up.

“Actually Rainbow Dash, I got an apology out of Spanners, and that's all I really need.”

Rainbow Dash gave a smirk, “That's our Techie!”

Captain Arbiter and Fluttershy walked up from the wolf, and helped to form a ring around Spanners just in case he decided to leave. It seemed Arbiter, who was staring at the earth pony with anger in his eye, still intended to carry out the law against him. Spanners picked up on this, and pushed Techorse away gently.

He approached the captain, whom he recognized from Canterlot, and said to him sadly, “So I guess all that's left is heading off to the slammer for scamming Ponyville. Oh well, at least my secret is safe.”

Arbiter bared his teeth for a second, and watched as Spanners closed his eyes in shame and hung his head, waiting for the pegasus to take him away. But Captain Arbiter looked up at Techorse with his one good eye, and smiled sinisterly.

The green stallion took it as a cue from Arbiter, and declared, “Actually Spanners, I think it's pretty obvious what your punishment should be. I'm going to tell everypony your secret.”

Spanners opened his eyes and gasped, turning around quickly, flicking his tail into Arbiter's face, who backed up and grunted in annoyance.

“Techorse, no! You can't!” he begged, “I thought you forgave me!”

“I did, but I think everypony here deserves to know the truth after all this,” insisted Techorse, stomping his hoof on the ground, “and I think you need to get it off your chest, honestly.”

Techorse sighed before saying, “Spanners, you're not an architect...”

A small eternity passed before Techorse let out the truth.

“You're a plumber!”

The others gasped, save Arbiter. None of them could understand how the son of a famous architect could be a plumber!

Spanners winced, and admitted, “Oh... it's true! But how did you know!?”

Techorse explained, “First, In Ponyville, you might not have been able to build the house, but you built that really amazing fountain! Then, when I went to your parents' estate to start looking for you, your father addressed us using this intercom system made mostly from pipes.”

“And you built a really cool fountain for your folks, too!” added Midnight.

“Hey yeah, that's right!” agreed Rainbow Dash, “We looked there as one of our stops too, that was a sweet piece of art!”

“And lastly, the plumbing and rainwater system you built for your cabin was all I needed to see to know your special talent was with pipes and water,” finished Techorse.

“It's all true,” agreed Spanners, standing up, “I hid from my parents my talent with pipes ever since I got my cutie mark. I was fortunate the wrenches looked like regular mechanical wrenches, but I was scared to start my career knowing I would be expected by the public to build houses. So I came to Ponyville to bash you in hopes of distracting ponies from the fact that I couldn't build houses.”

“But you should have tried to carry on your family's name by building fountains, you're so good at that!” said Twilight, stepping forward, “If it made any sense, I'd want one too!”

“It'd be nice to have a teensy one for my birds as well, as a bath,” agreed Fluttershy.

“Or maybe something cool like a water park!” chipped in Rainbow Dash.

“Well now that we've settled everything, there's the matter of your punishment,” cackled Arbiter, “I do appreciate your help, ladies, but I will take things from here.”

“Arbiter!” growled Twilight, clearly annoyed, “You promised this wasn't a scheme to make an arrest?”

Captain Arbiter laughed, “An arrest? I intend to keep my word Miss Sparkle, but Spanners must still make up for his actions.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Spanners, willing to take his punishment.

Arbiter raised a hoof and declared, “I am ordering you to build Ponyville a brand new community swimming pool as service. Since that counts as improving the town, it'll make up for your lies, and maybe earn you a legitimate reputation.”

“I'll do it!” he said happily.

“All right, a public pool!” shouted Rainbow Dash, jumping up into the air and hovering, “Sweet!”

The wolf behind the ponies let out a loud howl, and Fluttershy rushed over to see what the matter was.

“So what's wrong with the beast?” asked Techorse.

“She is not a beast,” said Fluttershy somewhat indignantly, “She's a Joltwolf, and she's about to be a mommy!”

“What?” asked Midnight Blaze with horror, “You mean we were just a PREGNANCY CRAVING?”

“Oh um, not exactly,” said Fluttershy, embarrassed, “she was a bit hungry, but she was mostly just trying to keep her den area safe for her cubs and mistook you for intruders! But everything's going to be all right now. We'll have the park rangers take care of her until the wolf pups are born.”

Midnight accepted the answer with a smile and watched as Fluttershy stroked the pregnant wolf behind the ears, prompting the beast to kick her leg behind herself like a domestic dog.

“I hate to be a pain guys,” interjected Spanners after a few moments, “but can we go back to my parents' place? I think they'd like to know their son is still alive.”

“Absolutely!” agreed Techorse.

The Buildsbetter family was thrilled to have finally gotten their son back after his long absence, and Rulers brought out another batch of her Perfect Brownies, much to Midnight's happiness. They sat down at the kitchen table again, to let them know about the crazy events that had taken place.

Twilight poured herself another cup on tea from the kettle, listening in on the conversations of her friends.

“We're so happy you're back and in one piece,” said Hammers, hugging his son, “and that Techorse was able to forgive you for everything. Maybe you should spend some more time perfecting your craft here at the estate so you don't get into so much trouble in the next town you go to.”

Spanners looked at his parents next to him at the table, and back to Techorse, who motioned with his head that he should tell the truth.

He took a deep breath and said, “Mom, Dad, about my craft. There's something you really ought to know about me.”

“Oh?” asked his mother, “What is it?”

“I'm a plumber,” blurted Spanners, “I'm not an architect. I've been running away because I can't continue the family business and keep our fame.”

“We knew where your real talents were all along,” assured Hammers, “and we've been hoping you would realize that instead of trying to be like me and your grandpa. I would love it if you were to do the plumbing for the houses I build, but that doesn't mean you can't make a name for yourself, too, son!”

“I agree,” said Arbiter, wiping a bit of brownie crumbs from his face with a wing, “that's why starting tomorrow Spanners will be beginning work on a new community swimming pool for Ponyville. He owes a bit of a debt to that town.”

The parents seemed a bit horrified the Captain of the Guard was suggesting their son had done anything criminal, but were pleased to hear he was going to be able to use his talents for good.

“This will be a fantastic start into making a name for yourself,” continued Arbiter, “and then when you're finished, perhaps I'll pay you to build a private pool for my own house in the mountains.”

“It'll be a while, it's going to be a few months pouring the concrete, lining the area, and putting the pumps in place for the community pool by myself,” answered Spanners, understanding it was still a punishment.

Techorse offered from the other side of the table, “You know, I have a pretty good concrete mixer robot. Maybe I can help you finish the pool faster.”

“Oh, and I've got this runic lighting system that'll keep the pool lit up at night!” beamed Midnight, eager to use one of his own toys as well.

“You guys would want to work with me?” he asked, perking up.

Twilight Sparkle smiled broadly, and interrupted, “Does this mean that you and Tech are going to be friends?”

“Oh no,” groaned Rainbow Dash, putting a hoof over her face, “please don't be friends, Spanners, or Twilight will never shut up about it!”

“Well,” admitted the plumber, “I did a lot of damage to Techorse with all those horrible things I said and traps I set up out in the forest. I don't think I'd be a very good friend.”

“Nonsense,” assured Fluttershy, “your friends at the coffee shop told us you were a very nice colt at heart, and Techorse found that out from them too.”

“So by the time you're all done with the pool, I think things will be all smoothed over,” concluded Twilight, “My Tech made two friends in one day! I can't wait to tell Princess Celestia about this!”

“I think there's just one thing left to do now,” said Rulers, having a burst of inspiration.

She left the room momentarily while her guests continued to chat, and went to her workbench in the back of the mansion. Taking out a small bar of gold, she magically picked up a knife and shaved a fine leaf off of the brick, placing it down. Her horn glowed as she placed the gold over an object she picked up and pressed it in finely.

Rulers then trotted happily back into the room, and addressed her son.

“Spanners, since you're going to be starting work tomorrow, I decided you needed a new prized possession,” she said softly.

The unicorn drifted magically from behind her back a brand new pipe wrench, red in color with a silver adjustable head, and a gold letter S imprinted into the handle. Spanners accepted the wrench with joy in his eyes, and placed it snugly in his tool belt.

“It's perfect!” he said. “Thank you so much!”

“And please, keep the hammer too,” she continued, “our family's history will still be a part of you, my sweet boy.”

“Sweet?” chuckled Rainbow Dash, who was met with a few angry glances.

“Um, what I mean is, I'm really gonna like seeing you in Ponyville building that pool!” she said, clearly outnumbered by her friends.

Spanners packed himself a suitcase, agreeing to stay at Techorse's castle until he could sign a rental agreement with Upkeep's apartment complex, and was walking to the train station with Midnight and Techorse. Twilight and her friends had decided to stay to discuss the outcome of the situation with Princess Celestia, leaving the three stallions to do their own thing. Midnight and Techorse were having a good conversation, but Spanners felt left out, still feeling guilty, and avoided talking to them as if everything was still his fault. Techorse picked up on his misery, and decided that he should be told the truth about their meeting.

“So, I have a confession to make,” said Techorse to Spanners.

“Oh?”

The inventor admitted, “When we were having our build-off, Discord cheated to help me win. It was his idea that we even have a duel to start with, and I had no idea he was going to cheat.”

“Discord, the Lord of Chaos?” gasped Spanners, “He... was helping you?!”

“Yeah, he's just trying to be friends with us ponies now,” said Techorse.

“Oh wow, no wonder I got stomped,” sighed Spanners, “I guess I really do need this community service if the Lord of Chaos is going to try and punish me.”

Midnight rolled his eyes, “Come on, Spanners, what Techorse is trying to say is, he wants a rematch!”

“Right,” said Techorse, smiling.

He then realized what he had agreed to, and said quickly, “Wait, no! Midnight!!!”

“What's wrong?” teased the unicorn, “We're friends now, right? Can't we have some friendly competition?”

Techorse rolled his eyes, and laughed heartily, lightening the mood. Spanners fell back a bit from the two friends and let them talk while he worked on his own thoughts. It was a relief to know his own talent was just as appreciated as his father's, and that the hatchet between him and Techorse was buried and behind them. Feeling better about his future, Spanners lifted his head up, and put on his pair of sunglasses again, before walking faster to catch up with his new friends.

#49 - For Fear of Fangs

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For Fear of Fangs

Techorse Series: #49

By Spirals95

Nurse Redheart finished applying a small tan bandage to her patient's front leg, sealing off the tiny hole left behind by the needle she had inserted just a moment before. Lyra held still as the gauze and adhesive stuck around the miniscule wound, and she rubbed it a bit for good measure after the nurse moved away.

“There, we're finished!” proclaimed the medical professional with a smile, “Thank you so much for donating!”

The fall blood drive in Ponyville was in full swing, and every townspony old and healthy enough to give usually did so, if not for the good feeling of potentially saving a life, for a special reward that Sugarcube Corner offered each and every time the drive came to town.

“And here's your giant chocolate chip cookie!” sang Pinkie Pie, picking up the monstrous dessert with her front hooves and handing it to the mare.

The treat was a good seven inches across, making it very difficult to decide where to bite first, and was wrapped in a thick layer of plastic wrap to keep it from melting or breaking apart. Pinkie Pie spent the entirety of the previous day finishing the batch of over 80 of the treats, using several dozen pounds of cookie dough to do so. The Cakes received plenty of business in the form of advertising from the event, and got to promote their store as being helpful to the noble cause.

“Pinkie, please check outside for the next pony in line,” instructed Nurse Redheart, preparing another needle, “and if that's it for now, let me know.”

Pinkie Pie nodded and trotted over to the door of the nurse's office, pushing it open with a hoof.

“All righty, who's up next!” she cheered, looking outside.

The next pony stepped inside, with a small line of others behind him, having filled out the appropriate paperwork at a folding table manned by Derpy Hooves and Dr. Caltrops, who had visited to help out with the medical filing. There was a bit of a festival gathering around the drive, as it was a community-wide event, and after donating the citizens of Ponyville liked to celebrate the fall season. Twilight and Techorse had gone with Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze to see the act being put on this year. It happened to be that Trixie had been invited back to put on a small magic show, albeit under heavy supervision. Her newest act of seemingly getting bisected by a dropping scimitar from above the stage seemed to terrify but thrill the spectators.

“Kind of surreal to think Trixie is our friend now,” said Techorse, watching as the halves of the stage mare fell off the stage before she popped up from behind it, good as new.

“Yeah...” agreed Twilight, trying not to groan.

“What's wrong, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “It's just, Trixie is still a bit overly competitive, that's all. I'm happy that we're able to be friends now, but her behavior is still a bit upsetting.”

Techorse listened to Twilight talk, and simply stood there watching the magic act without saying anything. He might have tried to disagree, but he was happy hanging around, any time spent doing something fun meant spending no time doing what he was trying to avoid that day.

“I think she's fun,” said Shadow Breeze, giving a friendly smile, “that's why I brought my amulet today. I wanted to see what she thought about the shadow tricks I can do. If you think she'd bother.”

“Oh she'll probably pretend to be excited, then brag about how hers are better,” sighed Twilight.

Trixie concluded her show with a ridiculous act where she fumbled with a lit fuse on a barrel of gunpowder before it went off in her face, consuming the top of the stage in a loud blast. If it wasn't for the fact that the barrel was actually filled with flash powder like the kind used in old cameras, it would have vaporized her. But the key to the trick was that the blinding flash of the barrel made the audience shut their eyes so they couldn't tell the blast had been fake. Then, all Trixie had to do was drop the barrel beneath the stage, and throw a puff of dark powder in her face to make it look like she had been crisped instead.

“Oh dear, that was a scary one,” commented Fluttershy, Shadow Breeze seeming to agree based on his startled facial expression.

“Thank you all!” bellowed Trixie from the stage, “I must retire for a few hours, but Trixie shall return for another showing tonight!”

She disappeared behind the curtains closing behind her, and went into her dressing room where she was currently storing all her props and items for the show. After giving herself a careful touch up with some of her makeup, she took off her iconic hat and cape and picked up a hairbrush with her magic to fix the frizz from the barrel trick. Someone knocked at the door to the small room while she was brushing, and she called for them to enter.

The door opened a little bit, and Flaming Ivory poked his head in. He had been working with Trixie in recent times to find more gigs as a musician and to provide pieces for her magic acts. While he often wandered separately, he and the stage magician worked well together whenever they had met up since their captivity at the casino.

“Hey Trixie, Twilight and her friends are out here asking to hang out,” he said, pushing a tuft of his black hair out of his eyes, “you up for it?”

“Absolutely,” she answered, putting the brush on the dresser, “it will be nice to talk to Twilight Sparkle again. We are supposed to be friends now, after all, and friends hang out even if they're bookish and mistrusting.”

Flaming Ivory rolled his eyes and sarcastically replied, “That's definitely how it works.”

“I'm glad you agree,” snarked Trixie, ignoring his attitude and pushing open the door, “come on, let's not keep them waiting.”

They walked outside of the back of the stage, where they met up with the two couples. Techorse and Flaming Ivory exchanged quick greetings, and quickly frowned when they say Twilight and Trixie greet each other without really making eye contact.

“Well hello again,” said Trixie, “so, what did you think of my newest act?”

“I thought it was nice, once my retinas got used to all the explosions,” said Twilight, paying half of a compliment.

“Perhaps I do need to work on it, but even Trixie cannot mix powders perfectly every time!”

Trixie received a raise of an eyebrow from her supposed new friend, and figured she needed to think of something she could do to ease tensions between herself and Twilight. She quickly came up with an excellent idea, and raised a hoof to her sternum.

“Of course, if you happened to have a book on powder chemistry, perhaps you'd let me borrow it?”

Twilight changed her tune very quickly, “A book on chemistry? Sure! We can go back to the library and help you work on a better powder mixture.”

Techorse was happy to see that Trixie and Twilight might be getting along better than what he had thought. And, because they were going to be so busy looking over the books at the library, there wouldn't be any chance of him having to participate in the event of the day he was worried about.

“But before we do that,” said Fluttershy, interrupting Techorse's thoughts, “we should really think about going to the nurse's office and donating blood. We all signed up, right?”

“Indeed,” answered Flaming Ivory, “although I'm a bit shocked you're not afraid of needles, Fluttershy.”

“Oh I'm terrified of needles!” nodded the pegasus, “But if it'll help somepony else, I guess it'd be ok to take just one little needle for that.”

“I doubt the needles are that small,” snickered Flaming, before getting a gentle hoof in his gut by Trixie to quiet him.

Techorse tried not to shift on his hooves too much, nervously looking around, before Twilight said, “Fluttershy's got the right idea! Let's go donate now before the nurse closes up for the day. It's what the festival is for, after all!”

They started the walk for the nurse's office, leaving Techorse standing there like an idiot before Flaming Ivory called to him.

“Yo Tech, are you coming or what?”

Techorse shook his head to clear his thoughts, “Yeah, right behind you guys!”

They went to the nurse's office, slowly followed by Techorse, and found the building nearly empty now that all the other donors had gone through. Pinkie Pie was standing outside, watching for anyone else who was to donate, and saw her friends approaching.

“Hey guys, are you here for the drive?” she asked cheerfully, bouncing up to them.

“Sure are,” answered Shadow Breeze, “where do we sign up?”

“Right over here!” said Dr. Caltrops from the nearby table, “Just fill out these papers and we'll get your donation done quickly.”

The friends signed the paperwork quickly, answering the questions about their health positively. Techorse was working on his rather slowly, a pen gripped in one of the robotic arms from his saddle and the clipboard containing the questionnaire in his other hand.

“What's the matter?” asked the doctor, his glasses sliding down his muzzle, “Been a little ill lately Techorse, or do you not understand the questions?”

“Just... just taking my time,” he answered, a bead of sweat appearing near his forehead.

“Finished,” said Twilight, returning her clipboard to Caltrops magically.

“Great, now just step inside and let Nurse Redheart collect your donation,” answered the earth pony, pointing at the door.

Twilight noticed her coltfriend struggling with the clipboard, and walked up next to him first, looking over the sheet of paper. The questions had been so simple to her, and she looked at his identical set, knowing the answers should all be yes.

“Tech, why aren't you done yet?” she asked impatiently, “Are your robot arms malfunctioning or out of oil? They're not moving even though you're concentrating like crazy!”

Techorse couldn't put up with the stalling and lying anymore and shouted, “Ok, ok! I give up! I don't want to give blood!”

Pinkie Pie gasped in horror, and his friends looked shocked at the inventor's statement. Even Dr. Caltrops seemed surprised given Techorse's altruistic nature.

“Oh, it's the needles, isn't it?” sighed Fluttershy, looking at the ground, “Being scared of needles is no fun.”

“It's not just the needles,” stammered Techorse, looking around, “it's the fact that there's something being taken out of my body like that. I understand a quick prick for a flu shot or something, but having medical equipment left in me and draining me?!”

“Techorse, you risk your neck against monsters to help ponies out all the time!” argued Shadow Breeze, a bit concerned, “You're scared of losing some blood, but can do that?”

“Plus!” interjected Pinkie Pie, jumping in front of her friend, “If you do it, you get a huuuuuuge cookie! Isn't it worth it just for that?”

Techorse shrank back a bit from Pinkie Pie, ashamed that his irrational fear was keeping him from helping out. But the party pony was not going to take no for an answer!

“Pleeeeeeease?” she begged, giving him her large blue eyes and quivering her lip.

Caltrops scratched his chin thoughtfully and stated, “Pinkie Pie, I believe Techorse's fear is a combination of having foreign objects poking into him and the consequences of that. This is not a simple fear of needles, and I think we ought to respect his lack of comfort.”

Fluttershy saw how miserable Techorse looked from not wanting to give, and walked up to him before giving him a hug, “Don't worry, you don't have to donate if you don't want to. We won't think any less of you.”

“Thanks Fluttershy,” he said softly, still not sure of it all.

Techorse's friends finished donating their pints as he sat outside of the door, his eyes unmoving from the ground. One by one they went in, and then stepped outside with an oversized treat and a small bandage around their legs. Even Pinkie Pie eventually signed up and went in herself, and once she was done and had finished every last bite of the final giant cookie, she was ready to hang out with her friends.

“Let's head back to the library and get that book for Trixie,” declared Twilight.

Shadow Breeze didn't really want to read books that afternoon, and suggested, “Maybe so we don't all crowd the library, some of us ought to go hang out at Steiner's place. You know, if you felt like it.”

“I'll go!” volunteered Flaming Ivory, raising a hoof, “Seems like nopony around here can get enough of his soda.”

“You have no idea,” said Techorse, smiling, “I'll get us a round.”

“Ok,” agreed Twilight, rolling her eyes, “the boys can go get root beers while we go back and get started on the new powder recipe. Ready, Trixie?”

“Quite ready!” she answered, smirking.

They split up, the three stallions going to get their cold sodas, while the three mares going off to the library. While the three guys walked their own separate way, another trio of mares was watching them from a nearby bench. The first was a dark pink colored unicorn with crazy spiked blue hair, outrageous eyeshadow covering the lids of her light blue eyes, and her tail and mane held back with hair scrunchies. Her companion on her right was a pegasus with a light blue coat, a long stripe of white running through yellow, curly and short hair, and bold orange eyes. Finally, an earth pony, slightly more timid and crouched than her companions yet still the same height, had a bright white coat with long, green hair and a curled tail.

“There's our victim,” said the pink one with a pernicious air about her, “and his weakness is rather convenient for us, don't you think, Whiteboard?”

“Very much so, Morning Velvet,” answered her companion with the white coat, “shall we take care of them now? What do you think, Wallflower?”

She answered gently, “Yeah, I guess. What do you girls suggest we do?”

“Leave that to me,” answered the leader, “we'll be eating like royalty tonight, ladies.”

Techorse and his crew entered Steiner's soda shop, ringing the bell above the glass door. The candy striped pony jumped in front of his barrels of cold soda, and greeted his customers with his soft, German accent.

“Greetings!” he said, “It's good to see you here again, Techorse.”

The three stallions bellied up to the counter and hopped onto the red stools in front of the stainless steel. Techorse dropped a few gold bits for the soda jerk, and with a quick movement of his magic, he filled three frothing mugs of icy root beer for the stallions. Those were quickly drained, and equally as quickly replaced by a second round. Not wanting to drink too many calories in pure sugar though, the second root beers took a lot longer for them to finish. They were done within the hour, enough time for it to get dark outside, and walked out of Steiner's place of business, leaving the unicorn alone with the empty glasses. A small amount of root beer was left in the bottom of one of the containers, so Steiner decided to pour it out into the sink.

As soon as he picked up the glass magically, however, he noticed something peculiar. The root beer's foam was a strange gray color instead of its usual light brown. Steiner inserted his muzzle into the big glass mug and sniffed carefully. Something was definitely wrong with the drink, and he poured the liquid down the nearby drain quickly. After investigating the barrel, he found out that some chemical had been dumped into the tap while he was in the back room!

“What in Celestia's name is this stuff?” he asked himself as he scraped a chunk of gray powder out of the tap, “Who's been in my shop without my knowing?!”

The unicorn realized in horror that whatever it was, it was now in his friends' alimentary tracts, and he needed to go warn them as soon as possible. Steiner ran out from behind the table, and flipped the sign on his door to 'closed' before galloping off into the night.

Techorse and his friends were walking back the library, but had decided to take the dirt path outside of Ponyville to help work off the root beer calories. They felt somewhat tired, but they figured it was simply the exercise they were getting, and elected to ignore the issue.

“So I finished my second to last training course,” announced Shadow Breeze, clearly sleepy, “I get to go on my first diplomatic trip really soon. Think it's with the griffins.”

“Woah, congratulations Shadow,” said Techorse, his eyes feeling a bit heavy, “I bet you must be happy.”

“Yeah, I am!” he answered, his ears remaining perked up despite his eyes trying to shut, “But I'm really tired. It's been a long week.”

“Maybe we should think about going home instead of the library,” Flaming Ivory said, “I need a place to crash though, are you ok with me staying with you, Techorse?”

Techorse and his friends were barely crawling along now, before Shadow Breeze collapsed on the road. The others were too slow to notice, and Techorse didn't respond for several seconds before the information finally reached his brain.

“Oh, yeah, sure...” he answered, his head starting to droop.

Flaming Ivory also fell over on his side, out cold. Techorse stopped, and turned to his friend. His thoughts were beginning to fade, his balance was out, and he left in bad shape.

“You... can crash...”

With a loud thud, Techorse's sleeping self impacted the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust. The three stallions lay there, unconscious, but they would not be left out in the cold of the fall night for long. A few dark shadows approached them, and the three mares that had been watching them earlier gathered their sleeping bodies, and hauled them away in the cover of the night.

Shadow Breeze gently opened his eyes, feeling like he had been hit by a carriage. He and his companions were in some kind of a purple stone walled room, and underground one likely due to the lack of windows. Ancient potion making equipment was littered in the outside area, and there was a large set of irons bars across from them, keeping them trapped in the dungeon cell. The door to the cell was clearly locked, and the three ponies had been both stripped of their gear and chained to the floor. The pegasus' heart started to race as he realized they had been jailed, likely due to falling asleep outside and causing a public disturbance that way. Once Techorse and Flaming Ivory were fully awake, he tried to let them know what was going on.

“Oh man, what happened?” asked Flaming Ivory, rubbing his messy hair with a hoof, “I feel awful.”

“I think we fell asleep outdoors and got locked up for it!” cried Shadow Breeze, tugging at his chain on his left rear hoof, “And your saddle's gone, Techorse!”

“So's your amulet,” mentioned the green pony, “I just don't get why we all got knocked out like that! We couldn't have possibly been that tired.”

“Maybe, we got hit with a sleeping spell,” suggested Shadow Breeze, “this might have been a prank by Rainbow Dash working with Twilight.”

“Rainbow Dash working with Twilight? Don't be silly,” scoffed Techorse, “Rainbow Dash doesn't like using magic to pull off pranks, and Twilight would never agree to it.”

“Either way, we need to get out of these chains,” said Shadow Breeze, yanking them again, “any ideas?”

Flaming Ivory's eyes glowed orange along with his horn and he tried to shoot a magic beam at the chains, but the weak line of energy barely scratched the clamped restraints.

“Come on, you stupid...”

The magic beam intensified, but the chain refused to cut, and Flaming's wrath subsided as he realized there was no way he was cutting the metal.

“There's no need to try and escape,” said a feminine voice as she entered the area in front of the bars.

Morning Velvet and her two friends stood in front of the door, wearing dark black gowns and pale makeup on their faces.

“Who are you?” asked Techorse sternly, “And why did you throw us in here?”

“We can't have our guests running off now, can we?” laughed Miss Velvet, “We've brought you here for a very special purpose, Techorse. Originally we thought you would be enough, but your friends unfortunately were in the way and had to come along. They're a bit extra, but we've got the room for them as well.”

“So that's like, what, four double meanings in one go?” mocked Flaming Ivory.

The unicorn had a hearty laugh, which his friends answered with a roll of their eyes.

He then stopped acting silly and became serious, “You're... you're gonna hurt us, aren't you?”

“Hurt is a rather interesting choice of language,” sighed Velvet salaciously, batting her eyelashes, “I'd say once we're done with you, you'll feel rather... drained.”

“Yup, we're going to be hurt severely,” groaned Flaming, causing Shadow Breeze to nearly burst into tears.

Techorse patted his friend on the back, trying to keep him from crying, and said to the mares, “Look, I don't know what you want, but if you don't let us go, there are a ton of ponies out there who are going to come after you.”

“Oh we're aware,” said Whiteboard, cutting in front of her leader, “and that's partially why we're doing this.”

“Let's not give anything away,” warned Wallflower, “now, we have made you three some supper since you didn't get any last night. Would you care for a bite?”

“We're not eating anything, you'll poison us!” growled Techorse.

“We already poisoned you once, that's how you got here, remember?” snickered the lead mare, shaking her head, “Since we poisoned your soda, we wouldn't try the same trick twice on a smart stallion like you, Techorse, although your two friends might be a bit slower.”

Flaming Ivory became cross, “Hey, I resemble that!”

Velvet ignored him and unlocked the door to the cell with her front hoof, before walking up to the stallions, horn glowing cyan. The chains fell off of the prisoners instantly, but they were linked together with glowing energy that kept them from escaping. With no other choice, they were guided by the three mares up a long set of stone steps, until they entered a large dining room area with a big wooden table. The place looked ancient, cobwebs hung on the walls, tapestries of a sun and moon symbol lay torn on the floor or barely hanging up, and big gothic windows with many panes shattered lined the massive room. A wooden table lay partially smashed in the middle, with a few chairs set up and hot plates of mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy with fresh carrots on the side for the guests' meals.

Techorse found himself seated at one of the tables, his legs bound in place by the spell Velvet had cast. His friends were seated next to them, and the three mares took their seats opposite the stallions of the table, leaving the majority of it unused. Despite the dust and dark atmosphere, there were plenty of lit tallow candles to illuminate the room, and Techorse thought he recognized it.

“Guys, I think we're in the Castle of the Two Sisters,” he said.

“What?!” gasped Flaming Ivory, “The Princesses' old hangout before they started fighting?”

“Enough banter,” demanded Morning Velvet, “you're weak and should eat your meals.”

“Can't we at least get your names?” pleaded Shadow Breeze, “It'd be nice to at least know who made the food.”

“I did,” said the timid mare, “and my name is Wallflower. This is Morning Velvet, and Whiteboard.”

Shadow Breeze took a bite of the potato and gravy and said to her, “Well Wallflower, this is really good! You're very nice, you know... even though you ponynapped us.”

The three started to enjoy the meals, but Techorse couldn't help but notice the mares didn't have their own plates of food. Surely they were hungry as well, after going to the trouble of dragging them off in the middle of the night.

He decided to question it, “So where are your dinners?”

“Oh, we don't eat potatoes and gravy, we're on a liquid diet,” smirked Morning Velvet, “Let's open a nice bottle provided by our previous guest, shall we?”

“Yes, let's!” laughed Whiteboard, reaching under the table and pulling out a green wine bottle.

Shadow Breeze nearly choked on a carrot when he saw that instead of a label, a picture of a horrified stallion with three shadows over him was on the front. The white-coated stallion with brown hair was holding a wing over his neck, the pegasus attempting to shield himself from something.

“Wh... what's that?!” cried Shadow Breeze, pointing.

Morning Velvet placed three chalices stolen from the castle on the table, each one golden, and smiled, “I guess it's time we told you the truth and revealed ourselves. We're not ponynappers looking for a ransom, nor do we have a grudge with your Princesses. You see...”

Velet's horn glowed, bathing the three mares in light and slightly blinding their prisoners. When the energy faded away, the stallions' mouths fell open. Their coats had become fuzzier, their ears elongated and ribbed. The pegasus' wings had become veiny and canvased, just like a bat's. But worst of all, the three mares had their canine teeth replaced with long, horrible fangs.

Morning Velvet cackled, “We... are vamponies!”

Shadow Breeze let out a bloodcurdling scream, moving so violently he knocked over his chair, requiring Wallflower to help set him back up. Techorse and Flaming Ivory whimpered as the mares got close to them, laughing and running their now serpentine tongues across their razor sharp front teeth.

“So that... bottle,” trembled Flaming Ivory, “it's not what I think it is, is it?!”

Velvet uncorked the bottle magically, and smiled as she tipped it over into the three chalices. Dark red liquid flowed into each one, the stallions becoming more and more pale as it flowed down, sweat pouring down their faces and their heart rates hitting their maximum.

The three mares walked over to the chalices, and picked them up, clinking them together in a merry “cheers!” before downing the contents.

Shadow Breeze gave out a wet cry from his throat, in total disbelief as to what he was seeing. The mares finished their drink, emptying out the bottle in turn.

“So satisfying,” said Wallflower, smacking her lips.

“That... poor pegasus,” stuttered Flaming Ivory, “one day he was just walking around, and then the next... he was being bottled like milk.”

“Why?” cried Shadow, tears running down his face.

“Obviously to steal youth and live forever, duh!” taunted Whiteboard, receiving a nasty look from Morning Velvet.

The unicorn walked right up next to Techorse, and ran a hoof down his chest, “Of course, it is nice having hapless ponies to tap using our medical lab in the dungeon that you saw.”

Techorse's pupils narrowed, and his heart throbbed in his throat, his breathing becoming rapid as he saw the sharp fangs come close to him as Velvet moved her muzzle to talk directly to him.

“But once in a while, I like to drink directly from the source.”

Techorse wailed a terrified cry as he greatest fear was coming true, and with a wet, choking gasp, he fainted in his chair.

“Way to go, Velvet, you gave him a heart attack,” groaned Whiteboard.

“Shut up, Whiteboard!” growled Velvet, moving away from Techorse, “He's just fainted is all.”

“Please, please don't drink us!” cried Shadow Breeze, feathers detaching from his wings and fluttering to the floor.

“Oh great, and the charcoal one's molting himself,” sighed Whiteboard.

Wallflower tipped the chair Techorse was in down, allowing his sweet, precious blood to flow back into his brain. Soon he was conscious again, and being stared at once more by the three vampony mares who were going to drink from him.

“Please,” he begged, “let my friends go. I know you want me, but you can't take them too.”

“But you know our secret,” said Morning Velvet, “and we can't just let you go free. Now, it's still the same night we captured you, and we've just finished the last of our previous guest. So we will be saving you for tomorrow night, when we wake up. I hope you won't have too many bad dreams about... well, you know.”

She laughed evilly, and Techorse and his friends screamed as Morning Velvet's horned glowed, teleporting them back into the dungeon cell. This time, the lights had been turned off, and the three stallions yelled and cried in terror as they heard the laughing of their tormentors.

With it being well past midnight, and the stallions having not been seen or heard from, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were wondering if they had gone home and forgotten to come back to the library. The guys had never actually agreed to come back after having their root beers, but hours had passed. Trixie had been able to put together a few small flash bombs made from a toilet paper roll, a fuse, and her new powder recipe pushed into clay.

“Well, it's pretty late,” said Twilight, yawning, “that was a fun night of going over some chemistry though! I guess you ought to get back to your wagon, Trixie.”

“Very well, and thank you for helping out with the new powder charges,” said the soft blue unicorn.

The door to the library was being knocked on furiously, interrupting Trixie. She casually walked over to the door, and went to reach for the knob, before being blown back by it swinging wildly open. A panicking Pinkie Pie jumped into the room, her face showing horror.

“Oh my gosh girls the boys have gone missing!” she screeched, making Trixie plug her ears.

“What?!” gasped Fluttershy, recoiling in surprise.

Dr. Caltrops and Steiner entered, short of breath. They had been running around Ponyville attempting to locate the missing ponies, and Caltrop's mane was soaked with sweat, his glasses off angle as well.

“Missing? Steiner, what happened?” asked Twilight, running up to the two.

“I found a strange gray substance in my soda taps after Techorse and his friends drank from it,” he explained between breaths, “the good doctor here had a look at it, and it's not good stuff!”

“Calie, what's going on?” begged Pinkie Pie, desperately grabbing him with her front hooves, “We gotta find them!”

Caltrops blushed at Pinkie Pie's proximity to himself, put pushed up his glasses and said, “I analyzed the strange powdery substance in Steiner's taps. It's a condensed sleeping potion. Somepony must have gotten into Steiner's shop and put the powder in the taps!”

“And it had to be a unicorn!” exclaimed the soda shop owner, waving a hoof wildly, “I always hear the bell ring when somepony uses any door in! They must have been a unicorn and zapped themselves in and out silently!”

“I believe they were drugged and ponynapped,” finished Caltrops, “but don't worry, we'll find the culprits and if necessary, I will create a chemical remedy for the sleeping potion.”

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you!” squealed Pinkie, hugging him tightly.

“Of course, we don't know what we're up against,” said Caltrops, “it could be very dangerous.”

Trixie stood up on her hind legs and bellowed, “Do not worry, the Great and Powerful Trixie will aid you!”

After getting funny looks from Twilight and her friends, she stood back on her four legs, embarrassed, and said more quietly, “Well... I'll do my part, anyways.”

The team went back to where Steiner had last seen the stallions heading out on the path, and started to spread out to look for clues as to where they had gone with a couple of flashlights and lanterns. It wasn't long before Pinkie Pie found something, and she called everyone over to look.

“Over here!” she said, hopping up and down, “I think I got something!”

The others rushed over to see what Pinkie Pie was talking about. Sure enough, there were three smoothed out areas in the dirt path, evidence that something had been dragged through the dirt.

“Three markings in the path where there aren't any hooves,” said Caltrops, “but how can we know for sure it's them?”

Trixie shoved him over with a hoof, out of the way, “Easy, step aside!”

Her horn glowed, and a cone of purple light shone down from it onto the ground. A few moments later, a few droplets of a glistening substance were revealed under the energy.

“This is a black light spell,” bragged Trixie, “perfect for glow in the dark tricks! Those droplets are machine oil, almost certainly Tech's!”

“Great job Trixie!” cheered Twilight, looking at her as she turned off her UV ray.

They stopped for a moment, an awkward pause as Twilight had just legitimately paid a kind word to Trixie.

“Right, well, I think I know what to do now,” continued the lavender unicorn, casting a different spell at the tracks in the dirt.

The tree lines were highlighted out into the distant Everfree forest, and the ponies began to follow the trail Twilight was illuminating, her horn glowing fuchsia the entire time to fill the trenches with energy. Eventually though, the trail stopped, very close to the edge of the forest.

“It's too dangerous to go into Everfree this late at night, even with my stare we can't go too far,” cautioned Fluttershy, “unless... we have to.”

The bushes near the treeline rustled softly, and the ponies took guard, just in case a wild animal jumped out at them. But to their relief, Zecora emerged from the foliage, carefully scraping a leaf out of her hair before approaching them.

“Oh, Zecora!” sighed Twilight, “Good to see you again.”

“I wish for now I could say the same,” rhymed the zebra, “but what I saw tonight, it was a shame.”

“Zecora, did you see what happened to Techorse!?” asked Fluttershy, her wings flapping once.

“Indeed, indeed, I saw it all! Your coltfriends took a nasty fall.”

“Um, excuse me!” grunted Trixie indignantly, “Flaming Ivory is not my coltfriend. He's just somepony I work with.”

The zebra moved away from eye contact with Fluttershy to look at Trixie. The mare realized she may have made a bit of a non-sequitur, to her own embarrassment.

“She wasn't talking to you,” giggled Pinkie Pie.

“Sorry,” said Trixie, her ears drooping, trying to avoid eye contact, “I'm new to this whole 'nice' thing. Trixie shall not interrupt again.”

“Please continue Zecora,” said Twilight, “did you see anything else?”

The zebra began again, “I watched with terror late this day, your loved ones were soon dragged away! To the old castle the crooks have gone, our friends may live just one more dawn!”

“They were taken to the Castle of the Two Sisters,” figured Twilight, still hopeful for more information, “thank you so much Zecora! We'll go stop those ponynappers and get them back.”

Zecora held out a hoof to keep Twilight from walking away, “You musn't rush in oh so quick, your enemies are very slick. A fool would go in unprepared, you can't expect you will be spared!”

“What else do we need to know besides the fact that there's three ponynappers camping out in that crumbling old castle?” demanded the doctor, impatiently tapping his hoof.

The zebra didn't want to worry them too much, and worked on her rhyming sentence in her head carefully. She had been out picking herbs for her potions when she had heard screaming in the castle, and had seen the whole thing from one of the dining room windows. In horror she watched the group of mares reveal themselves to be fanged, bat-like individuals, their consumption of the poor pegasus ponies' fluids, and the torment they had put Techorse through. Anything she could do to help now would be better than the repercussions of making Twilight upset or scaring her friends.

Zecora turned her neck, her vertebra cracking into place as she addressed the question, “Techorse and friends' name is now mud. Their takers drink naught but pony blood.”

“VAMPONIES!!!” shrieked Pinkie Pie loudly, blowing out the ears of her friends and she dropped to the ground and covered her ears.

“Vamponies?” scoffed Caltrops, “What nonsense. Everypony knows vamponies are a myth.”

Twilight thought the idea was crazy as well, but she knew Zecora would never tell a lie, so what she saw through the castle windows would have had to been accurate.

“Caltrops, normally I'd agree and say it's nonsense too,” sighed Twilight, “but if Zecora saw that the guys were taken by vamponies, then she's telling the truth.”

“But what can we do about... vamponies?” whimpered Fluttershy, also covering her head like Pinkie Pie, “They're really strong, and really scary!”

“Yeah, and if they bite us, we'll become vamponies too, FOREVER!” wailed Pinkie Pie quickly before covering her head again.

“We have to try!” declared Trixie, raising a hoof, “They are our friends and loved ones, and a coworker!”

Dr. Caltrops sighed and pushed a hoof into his forehead, “I still think this is crazy. We now know that they're in Oldcastle. I'm going to go to The Domain on the other side of the castle, and get help from there. They have troops.”

“Yeah, and Limpwing!” said Pinkie Pie happily, standing up again, “She'd love to help!”

“Actually, that's a good idea,” agreed Twilight, “You and Steiner should go with Pinkie Pie to get Limpwing and The Domain's guard. We might need backup!”

Caltrops walked over to Pinkie Pie, “Done, we'll go get help, you work with Zecora in the meantime.”

Zecora led Twilight, Fluttershy, and Trixie through a safe shortcut through the woods to her twisted tree home deep in Everfree, which glowed light yellow from the inside. She led them inside, where her various tribal decorations hung on the walls, and a pot of boiling water sat in a cauldron over the fire.

“In order to take down your biting foes, you must be willing to hit new lows,” warned Zecora, “to take on those with canines strong, you have to change, and play along.”

“What does she mean by that?” asked Trixie, “I do not speak zebra.”

Twilight frowned, “I think she means... in order to stop the vamponies, we've got to become vamponies!”

“But we'd have to get bit!” whined Fluttershy, “Oh, I don't want to have to stay out of the sun forever.”

Zecora smiled and gave Fluttershy a reassuring look, “A temporary change will do instead, you'll have no coffin for your bed!”

The zebra worked quickly to combine potion ingredients into her cauldron, before asking Fluttershy for a favor. Being good with animals, Fluttershy was able to get the attention of a vampire fruit bat, and brought the creature inside for a brief moment. The winged mammal obeyed her orders, and jumped into the cauldron, soaking itself in the warm, thick and goopy concoction before jumping out. It was then released into the night, likely to go find a source of water to bathe in.

“I think this is a disguise potion,” mused Twilight, looking into the pot with a curious stare, “I've heard about these before, it copies the DNA of the first animal to touch it, and disguises the pony who rubs the potion on themselves using aspects of that animal.”

“DNA?” said Fluttershy, “I guess Caltrops missed out, he loves DNA.”

“We haven't time for this!” said Trixie with a grouchy tone, “Let's rub this salve on ourselves and storm that castle!”

“One more thing that should be known, touching sun will make your cover blown!” warned Zecora.

“Oh yeah,” remembered Twilight, “I remember reading in my books that the effect goes away in the sun because you sweat out the potion. Don't worry Zecora, we only need this to work for tonight, and thank you so much for making this for us!”

Zecora issued them each a vial of the substance, and sent them on their way to the castle, each glass potion tied around their necks with a black string. They were to put it on once they reached the ancient castle to maximize the time they had in their changed forms. With Twilight leading the way, Trixie and Fluttershy held on tight, as Twilight concentrated hard to teleport them outside of the castle.

The three stallions sat on the floor, shivering, with Techorse and Shadow Breeze drying their tears. This seemed like the end for them, with no means of escape and nopony knowing what had happened to them. But Flaming Ivory was started to get over his fear, and began to get rather upset over his friends' and his own treatment by their captors.

“You know what? I'm not settling for being vampony chow,” he said, standing up on his legs, “we're busting out of here.”

“You couldn't even cut the chains last time,” sighed Shadow Breeze, “how are you gonna blow open that door?”

“Easy. Make me mad,” he said, smirking at the pegasus.

Shadow Breeze reached up with his wing and smacked the unicorn clear across the face, causing him to reach up and hold his reddened cheek.

He yelled, “OW! What the hay?”

“Well it worked, didn't it?” giggled Shadow Breeze, returning his wing to his side.

“That's not what I meant!” shouted Flaming, “I meant motivate me to blow the door open.”

Techorse stood up slowly as well, and said, “We could insult your music.”

“That won't work, we're friends,” sighed the light gray musician, “look, I need a reason to be angry, ok?”

“We're going to have big holes in our throats!” croaked Shadow Breeze, “Oh, I'm trying, but it's scary.”

Flaming Ivory turned around and thought, “Why do I bother?”

Eventually, Techorse caught on and said, “Flaming, if we don't get out of here, those vamponies aren't going to stop with us. They'll go after our friends and family too!”

“Even... Fluttershy?” squeaked the pegasus in the room, his eyes widening in terror.

“I'm afraid so. Fluttershy won't be able to put up a fight, she'll... suffer the same fate,” answered Techorse glumly, “Twilight might stop them, but not before getting bitten, and becoming a vampony herself. And then Trixie will probably be ashamed of her failure again, and make herself... disappear.”

Flaming Ivory's eyes glowed bright orange, and his horn accumulated energy of the same color, before he yelled and shot out a beam of energy shaped like a musical staff with notes of various types. The beam impacted the gated door, destroying it spectacularly and sending it flying through the dungeon, crushing most of the lab equipment.

The three vampony mares, seated around the table again and sipping their sanguine drinks from another bottle, were playing a nice game of cards with each other, when they heard a loud noise from deep below them.

“What?” asked Wallflower, looking down at the floor, “What are they up to?”

“I'm not sure,” said Morning Velvet, “but we should go check on them.”

When the three reached the castle dungeon, they saw the lack of prisoners within.

“Woah, that unicorn must have been tougher than we thought!” exclaimed Whiteboard, putting a hoof behind her head.

“We need to find them quickly,” urged Morning Velvet, “they musn't escape! Once we catch them, we will rid ourselves of them right there.”

“Ooooh,” moaned Wallflower, running her tongue across her fang.

The three laughed and vanished in a flash of energy as Velvet teleported them a floor above to begin pursuit of the stallions.

Techorse and his two companions galloped down the nearest hallway, filled with pictures and photographs from across the ages, until they entered the main room of the castle. Holes were blown out in the walls, carpet was shredded, and the ancient, rusted pipe organ sat alone and dusty at the back. Almost every window was shattered, but it was still too far up for the stallions to jump.

“Wow, so this is the place where the Princesses dueled so long ago,” said Techorse, swishing his tail, “I can see why Princess Celestia abandoned the place after.”

Celestia's emotional connection to the old home as the place where she made the terrible choice to seal her own sister away, diving the royal family for a thousand years, and bringing unsteady feelings from the rest of Equestria for a century after, had made it too much to bear. Things had finally been put straight in recent years, but the burden of Harmony was still a price the royal siblings paid.

Flaming Ivory couldn't help himself and was inspecting the ranks of the organ.

“Careful Flaming, Twilight's told me that organ is like a central computer for this castle,” he said, “don't touch the keys. Plus, you'll give away our location.”

“Oh come on, this thing probably doesn't have a working wind chest anymore,” countered Flaming Ivory before pushing a key curiously with his hoof.

The G note sounded throughout the hallways, reaching the three vamponies. They were running down a stretch of red carpet in a wide hallways lined with candles, and stopped, their pointed ears raising up to hear the musical note.

“Ah! They're in the organ room,” chuckled Morning Velvet, “let's...”

She didn't get another word out before a panel opened up beneath them, and the three ponies fell through the new hole in the floor, screaming before crashing into the dungeon below. Seconds later, Velvet teleported them into the hallway again, anger building up on her face.

Whiteboard ran ahead of the two others, “Why those little... come on, we're going to finish every last drop when we catch them!”

Back in the organ room, Flaming Ivory removed his hoof from the key, “See, nothing happened!”

“Let's keep moving, we've got to get to the front drawbridge quickly,” instructed Techorse.

Twilight Sparkle and company arrived at the cliff face near the isolated castle. Two years ago she would not have been able to cross the gap, but now she was sure she could teleport them over once she had recharged a little.

“All right,” she panted, teleporting more than herself took a lot out of her, “just give me a second, and we'll be good to go.”

“Let's take a break and put on the lotion,” suggested Fluttershy, “I hope it works.”

“Trixie shall try it first!” boasted the unicorn, her magic removing the stopper from the vial.

She smeared the cream all over her legs and behind her ears as they had been instructed to do so, and Twilight followed quickly. They almost had to force Fluttershy to do the same, but eventually, the lotion had been applied to all three mares. A full minute passed, and Twilight could swear she could feel it seeping through her coat into her body, but she couldn't tell.

“Do you suppose it will work?” asked Trixie, “It seems a bit slow.”

“Eeep!” yelled Fluttershy, a pair of fangs replacing two of her teeth.

Twilight and Trixie started to convulse as the potions transformed them. Their coats lengthened along with their ears, Fluttershy gained bat wings, Trixie's eyes turned red. Within seconds, they had been fully turned into bat-like ponies of the night, albeit it was only a disguise.

Trixie licked her fangs over with her thinner tongue, and let out a soft hiss, “This, this has to be a part of my act some day! I must get Zecora's recipe.”

“Not now Trixie, we need to hurry,” said Twilight, “I'm going to charge another spell, hang on!”

In one of the highest areas of the castle, a wide carpet made of blue cloth with yellow markings on it stretched across a wide floor, the same tapestries and candle emplacements dotting the walls. It had been used as an observatory a long time ago, but the telescope that had belonged to Princess Luna had long been removed, kept as a museum piece before the closing of the castle eons ago. Several open windows were in the arena, but they were covered with dark curtains, blotting out the sky outside.

“I think we went the wrong way,” whimpered Shadow Breeze, following his friends, “this is upstairs, not down!”

“Do you think maybe the castle's layout changes?” asked Flaming, “Are the vamponies doing this?”

“Maybe, but we still have a chance to escape, we just have to keep trying doors,” said Techorse, starting to panic again.

Shadow Breeze looked around the creepy room as they started to leave, craning his neck up to look at the ceiling. The rafters, made of stone, seemed to have three sets of glowing eyes coming from it.

“G... guys!” whined Shadow, pointing up.

The three vamponies dropped from the ceiling in front of the stallions, and Morning Velvet cast a large ring of energy around them in a wall, leaving them unable to escape. They screamed and try to run away, but ran smack into the energy and were rebounded into the middle of the ring. All bravery was squashed when they knew they were trapped, and they started to become terrified again.

“So!” bellowed Morning Velvet, “Trying to escape your fate, are you?”

Each stallion went back to back as their enemies closed in, laughing and baring their razor sharp teeth. Shadow Breeze panicked and held onto his neck dearly with his wings.

“Please, let us go!” wailed Techorse, “We've had enough!”

Whiteboard laughed, “Now that we know you're capable of escaping, we've decided to push dinner up to... now!”

“B... but, you said we could have tomorrow,” pleaded Flaming Ivory, his ears drooping.

“Why wait? Besides, after dropping us into a trapdoor, we're a bit upset,” hissed Wallflower.

“You've been a pain in our necks, so now we're going to be a pain in yours!” laughed Whiteboard, flapping her wings and flying up to Flaming Ivory, “Ooooh, I call this one, girls!”

“So, do you know that I just got over the worst case of lead poisoning?” lied Flaming Ivory, “I've got so much heavy metal in my blood, I might as well go on tour!”

“Enough excuses!” roared Morning Velvet, a beam of energy shooting Flaming Ivory in the head and knocking him to the floor.

Whiteboard jumped on top of him and held his head back, exposing his soft neck, and making the piano player yell like crazy, desperate to survive. Wallflower likewise pinned down Shadow Breeze, and the stallion kicked and flailed to get away.

“Run Techorse!” cried Shadow.

Techorse's legs wanted to follow that order, but he looked at his two friends, and Morning Velvet approaching him. He thought about how her fangs would sink into him, and fulfill his worst fear. The trauma of the past stung deep, and the adrenaline in his heart flowed freely.

But something made him stand, and he said, “I'm... not leaving, no matter how scared I get. It's the right thing to do.”

Morning Velvet rolled her eyes at the foolish attempt to be brave, and magically wrapped Techorse's middle with a binding curse, trapping him to the floor as well. She walked up to him, laughing and licking her lips one more time. Slowly, but carefully, she lowered her mouth down to Techorse's neck, her fangs baring and her saliva dripping down onto the floor next to him.

Techorse gave a final look at his friends, who returned the eye contact, and then, they shut their eyes tightly as they felt the warm breath of the vamponies on their necks.

“It's just going to be one sharp prick, like a needle,” Techorse told himself, his subconscious begging him to scream and pass out, “and then it'll be over.”

A small eternity passed, hot breath on their necks right over the major artery, but nothing happened. The guys opened their eyelids to discover that the vamponies had pulled back, and were giving them thoughtful looks.

“Stop tormenting us!” demanded Techorse.

“But it's too much fun,” snickered Whiteboard.

Velvet suddenly seemed to change her tune, “Well, perhaps there is one thing that could set this straight, without us needing to feed on you...”

“You won't be feeding on anypony when we're done with you!” shouted Twilight, the door to the room splintering as a bolt of energy tore through the ancient wood.

“Wh... what?!” gasped the leader, turning around with her companions.

“Other vamponies?!” screeched Whiteboard, “Hey, we were here first!”

“Twilight!” cried Techorse, tears running down his face, “You found us!”

“We'll have you out post haste!” declared Trixie, her cape fluttering behind her, now tattered like a true vampony's cape.

Velvet quickly cast the binding spell on the other two stallions and walked up with her helpers. The three mares of Ponyville approached them in the middle of the room.

“Let our friends go,” growled Twilight, ducking down and baring her glowing horn.

“Hahahaha!” cackled Morning Velvet, “Well, you must be Twilight Sparkle, we've heard only the best about you. What a curious fact that you've turned out to be vamponies as well.”

“Actually, we're...” spoke Fluttershy, before Trixie shoved a hoof in her mouth to keep her quiet.

“I'm not going to ask again,” warned Twilight, “release them.”

“Not a chance,” hissed Velvet, before firing an array of diamond-shaped energy blasts at Twilight from her horn.

Twilight rolled to the right to dodge the magical attack, which sailed into the stone wall, embedding into it like daggers before disappearing into nothingness. Returning fire with an elongated bolt of guided energy, the magic missile exploded beneath Morning Velvet, sending her flying backwards, but not before she righted herself and landed on her four feet.

“Destroy them!” commanded Velvet.

Wallflower and Fluttershy broke off from the group to fight one on one. Unfortunately, neither of them were very keen on fighting at all, and so Fluttershy hovered in the air in front of her, they resorted to growling, hissing, and making funny faces at each other with their bat ears.

“Well, are we going to fight?” asked Wallflower.

“Um...” gulped Fluttershy, “sure, you go first.”

“No, you, I want to react to your moves,” said the other mare.

“Oh brother,” groaned Flaming Ivory, “Fluttershy, whoop her flank!”

“Excuse me!?” gasped the yellow pegasus, “Watch your mouth, Flaming!”

Wallflower took the distraction and grabbed Fluttershy, tumbling to the ground with her yelling in a girly manner. Fluttershy looked up with her now red eyes at Wallflower, who moved back her head to attempt to headbutt her opponent. Thinking quickly, Fluttershy flapped her wings and scooted out from underneath the other mare, and Walflower ended up smashing her head into solid stone. She stumbled around, in circles around Fluttershy, who sat and watched patiently until she came to a wobbly pose on one leg next to her. Then, taking out her front right hoof from her pose, Fluttershy gently pushed over Wallflower, who fell over with a soft thud.

Meanwhile, Whiteboard was trying to eliminate Trixie, swooping down from above with a stone brick she had picked up from the floor. Trixie took aim with her horn, and shot off a stream of firework like sparks, the roman candle like blasts exploding all around Whiteboard, who took a few hits but kept coming. The stone dropped down, and Trixie froze in place, panicking about the incoming brick. Twilight spotted this, and gave out a loud yell before shooting a solid ray of purple light into the stone, cutting it in half and letting the pieces miss Trixie to her left and right.

Now, without anything left, Whiteboard dive bombed Trixie directly to attack her. But Trixie took one step back, and with a quick flick of her left hoof, threw down a smoke bomb, which exploded loudly and filled the area around her with the gray fumes. Whiteboard couldn't slow herself down, and landed in the smoke hard on the floor, standing up and coughing as the fog entered her lungs.

“Where are you?!” she growled, looking around quickly.

“Over here!” taunted Trixie from just outside the smoke, her hat now missing as it had fallen off in the explosion, ”Do you dare challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie?!”

Whiteboard galloped for Trixie, lowering her head to ram her. As she exited the smoke, she felt a very sharp whack on her head as she ran into a large pane of glass that Trixie had summoned in front of her!”

“Ugh, how did you do that?” gurgled the pegasus, falling back from the impact.

“It's all smoke and mirrors,” she answered, raising her nose and closing her eyes in contempt at the now unconscious pegasus.

Twilight and Velvet were the last to duel, exchanging magical shots at each other from across the room. Purple bolt met orange diamond in blast after blast.

“Enough of this!” roared Morning Velvet, before casting off tendrils of orange energy that snaked after Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle attempting to shield herself with a round bubble of force field energy around herself, but the lines of orange pierced the shield completely, shattering the orb and grabbing Twilight by the legs.

“Now you'll see some real vampony power!” said Morning Velvet darkly, stepping up to Twilight.

Another line of orange streaked across the lavender mare's horn, leaving her unable to cast, and grunting as the magical ropes held her tighter. Trixie saw this, and was quickly thinking of a way to help her new friend. Ever since they met, she was always jealous that Twilight's magical talents were “better”. She knew she wouldn't be able to overpower Morning Velvet. She wanted to indulge herself in self pity again, but then, she remembered something. Trixie Lulamoon had one more trick up her sleeve, thanks to her friend!

“So, you like leaving ponies without power do you?” yelled Trixie, distracting Morning Velvet, “Well, let's see how you like it!”

Trixie reached into her hat on the ground nearby, and pulled out the powder tube, which she lit and heaved magically at Morning Velvet. The stick bounced in front of the vampony, who looked at it curiously as it came right next to her face. She realized what it might be, and gasped before jumping backwards, but it was far too late.

A loud blast filled the room with a white glow, sending Morning Velvet to the floor, who skidded a long distance until she came to rest in front of one of the curtained windows. She had been way too close to the magic trick, and could no longer hear or see very well. Due to the stun, Twilight was released from her magic, along with the stallions, and they ran over to their mares quickly.

The other two vamponies retreated to their leader, having regained consciousness, and stood with her in front of the window. Trixie noticed that there was a yellow glow underneath the curtains, and a rather evil thought occurred to her.

“We'll be back for you, Techorse,” screamed Morning Velvet, “we'll get you yet!”

“Oh no you won't,” said Trixie, “enjoy the sunrise, vamponies!”

With one swift motion of her horn, she yanked away the curtain, bathing the three vampony mares in the bright morning sun. They had all been at the castle for so long that the sun had risen, and the rays pierced the three ponies of the night, who screeched loudly and covered themselves.

“Trixie, no! That will turn them to dust!” pleaded Fluttershy.

Trixie felt a bit guilty, but that guilt turned to annoyance as she noticed the mares eyes were clearly adjusting to the light. In addition, the heat of the rays along with the combat was making them sweat, and their coats seemed to be getting shorter, along with their ears. Soon they were left in their original forms, albeit a bit bruised and with Morning Velvet's eyeshadow melting down her face.

“Heeeeey,” said Twilight, annoyed, “What's going on?”

The three mares stepped into the sunlight as well, and it too melted away their disguises, turning them back to normal.

“Oh, wow, look at that,” laughed Morning Velvet, “we had the same idea.”

“What's going on?” asked Techorse, clearly confused, “Twilight, why were you a vampony too? And why did the sun turn everyone back to normal?”

“There never were any real vamponies,” explained Twilight, looking out the window and smiling, “these are just three ordinary mares who must have used a disguise potion like us. Zecora provided us one in the form of a cream..”

“Oh, ok, we admit it!” cried Wallflower, tears coming to her eyes as she looked at Shadow Breeze, “We really aren't vamponies. That stuff we were drinking earlier was a vampony disguise potion from a prank company, the screaming stallion on the front's just a reaction photo they use to prove it works.”

“But why would you do this?” asked Flaming Ivory, also rather confused.

“We did it because we overheard Techorse was scared of being punctured for the blood drive and thought disguising ourselves as vamponies would terrify him,” sighed Whiteboard, “see, we were paid money by a stranger. He told us we were to get you to leave Ponyville forever, so we decided we would scare you to death, then offer to not drink you if you promised to leave.”

“Who paid you?” asked Shadow Breeze.

“A centaur in a suit of armor paid us,” admitted Morning Velvet, “you have to understand, we were out of jobs and rather desperate, and he paid so much!”

“A centaur... in armor?” wondered Twilight, tilting her head, “Weird.”

“We'll worry about that later,” assured Flaming Ivory, very angry over his horrid night, “for now, we ought to teach these three a lesson.”

“Um, we just did teach them a lesson,” said Fluttershy meekly, hoping to not draw his wrath.

To her surprise, Flaming Ivory simply rolled his eyes and agreed with a sarcastic laugh, “Oh, yeah. I guess we did!”

Limpwing arrived with six armored guards an hour later, with Caltrops, Steiner, and Pinkie Pie in tow, Zecora had also followed in hopes of seeing how things had turned out. They brought the alleged vamponies outside, and Limpwing had them chained together by the guards. Techorse and Shadow Breeze had their gear returned to them as well, and Techorse was never happier to be getting use of his mechanical arms back. He was talking to Limpwing concerning his captor's punishment for his evening of fright, and she was taking every chance to mock him for it as she usually did.

“Heh, never would of thought of you as scared of needles and a little blood drawing,” snickered the lieutenant, her flight goggles pulling back on her scalp, “but these three are going to be held accountable for scaring the horsefeathers out of you anyways.”

“Oh, come on now,” begged Wallflower, “we were really desperate! Please go easy on us.”

“No way, you ponynapped us, locked us up, terrified us, and fought with our marefriends,” said Shadow Breeze, shaking his head, “who'd let you off?”

“Yeah, meanies!” agreed Pinkie Pie.

Techorse looked at the three mares, and shook his head, “Morning Velvet, you guys really took things way too far. I'm not scared of what you were doing the way a pony might be afraid of snakes, or dragons, or being alone. What happened really hurt me, and honestly, I think I'm going to be upset for a while.”

“Techorse,” interrupted Limpwing, “these three mares are citizens of The Domain. Sure we're running under Equestrian law now, but I think you're kind of out of your jurisdiction. We're taking these mares away though, don't worry.”

“Oh, yeah...” said Techorse, scuffling on the ground, “sorry Limpwing.”

Limpwing knew Techorse wasn't interested in an overwhelming penalty for the three, and sighed sarcastically, “Okay, okay, I'll push for community service since I know that's more along the lines of what you want. They aren't really all that dangerous if they lost to Trixie Lulamoon..”

Trixie, not used to Limpwing's teasing, shot her a filthy look, which she laughed off nervously.

Techorse looked up and smiled, “Thank you! I hope they've changed by the end of it. As some of us have had to do.”

This time, Trixie smiled and tipped her head knowingly.

Soon the mares were loaded up into a cart and hauled away by Limpwing and her team of guards. All that was left was for the remaining ponies to return to Ponyville now that the nightmare was finally over.

“Ok sweetie, look at me,” said Twilight, a broad smile on her face.

Techorse looked at the love of his life deep into her purple eyes, concentrating on her affectionate look as Dr. Caltrops slipped the needle into his right leg. A moment later, his pint was secured for the blood drive, a bit late but still useful, and the bag was packed away in an iced medical box for transport. The doctor sealed the wound off after removing the butterfly needle with some gauze, and Techorse stood up with Twilight still staring at him.

“Oh, we're so proud of you!” cheered Fluttershy, “You've overcome your fear of it.”

“No I haven't,” admitted Techorse, breaking eye contact with Twilight, “I'm still terrified of having things jabbed into me like that. But it's worth it, and it's only once a year, I can't run from it all the time.”

“That doesn't discount how valuable it is,” commented Caltrops, “and we're sorry we tried to browbeat you into it earlier.”

“I guess this means I'm gonna have to make you another cookie!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “I ran out.”

“Don't worry about it,” laughed Techorse, standing up from the chair, “I'm just glad we're all ok.”

“Oh, me too!” said Fluttershy softly, hugging Shadow Breeze and kissing him on the forehead, “I honestly didn't think we'd get you away from those horrible mares.”

“Nonsense, we have you watching our backs,” scoffed Flaming Ivory, “especially now that Trixie and Twilight are working as a team!”

“But that's what friends do,” answered Twilight.

“Absolutely!” agreed Trixie, “Of course, the new powder recipe really helped. Without it, even I, the Great and Powerful Trixie... could not have blinded Velvet and rescued my Flaming Ivory!”

“Aw, you missed me!” he chuckled, seeing a soft side to his old coworker.

Trixie blushed and huffed indignantly, “I... well I don't have much of a music accompaniment to my spectacular illusion show if my pianist is a shriveled husk, now do I?!”

Twilight and Techorse bid their friends farewell, and started to walk back into town, side by side. It was the middle of the next day, and they were both exhausted and wanted to get the sleep they had missed out on the night before.

“Thanks for saving me again, Twilight,” said her coltfriend, “even though there wasn't any real danger, I could have gone into cardiac arrest if they had kept scaring me like that.”

“You're welcome, and hey, you were right about Trixie,” she answered, “turns out we do get along much better than what I thought we would.”

“I might just have to reward you for making progress with her, and for keeping my neck in one piece,” Techorse said, “maybe a brand new book from the Canterlot book shop.”

Twilight stopped him with a leg, making him turn to face her, “You know I'm always interested in another book. But I'm thinking I deserve two rewards.”

She lowered her eyelids and bit, and gave him a peaceful look, prompting him to lean in. Before anything could happen, Twilight stopped and started to check the area around them. There was nothing in the bushes, nothing behind the nearby bench, and no nearby containers that could be used as hiding spots.

“We're clear,” she said, winking and pursing her lips.

They closed their eyes and kissed lip to lip, enjoying the moment and making use of the last of Techorse's adrenaline to bond.

“I love you,” whispered Techorse.

“I love you too.”

The three next to them shook, and down from the highest branch descended Pinkie Pie tail first, who was hanging upside down. Twilight saw her and groaned out loud, knowing what was coming next.

“Hey guys!” she giggled, “Just hanging out! Say, did you save any of that potion, Twilight? Maybe you and Techorse could turn back into vamponies and do a little necking next!”

“Pinkie Pie, someday we're going to catch you!” growled Twilight playfully, “And we're going to make you regret it!”

“Not likely!” teased the pink mare, “Hope my teasing doesn't bite too much!”giggling and jumping off into the distance, a merry bounce with each movement as Twilight and Techorse shook their heads and chased off in pursuit of their friend.

“One of these days, Pinkie. One of these days!”

#50 - Way of the Party Pony

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Way of the Party Pony

Techorse Series: #50

By Spirals95

Six long weeks of studying, muzzle shoved in the books. Six long weeks of eating instant food out of styrofoam cups. But it would all be worth it to Twilight Sparkle if the long-range transport spell she had been working on would finally meet Princess Celestia's expectations. She was approaching a very important exam in her magic studies under the alicorn royal, and needed to display a startling act of magic with the condition that it had to be a practical application, reasonably safe, and be a helpful act to another pony.

Her choice was to teleport a case of 50 vanilla cake mixes made by Sugarcube Corner to Cloudsdale for sale. Normally deliveries of food and specialty items took a long time to reach the floating, migrating city, as the amount of weight pegasus ponies could carry limited what could be brought up to the clouds at once. Twilight's refinement of her long-range transport spell would allow her to send the huge crate of mixes to a drop zone in one go, and through her studies she had determined it would use less of her mental and physical energy than teleporting living beings due to the simplicity of the box. In short, she had never considered teleporting cargo before, and moving a large amount of it might be just the thing to help her pass the exam.

“Looks like we're all ready to go,” cheered Pinkie Pie, pushing the big wooden box into position, “just gotta shove the goodies into place!”

A large red X spray painted on a patch of concrete at the edge of Ponyville was soon covered up by the box, six feet long, three feet wide, and two feet deep.

“Looks good,” said Techorse, standing to the side, “Twilight, could you check the radio please to see if Rainbow Dash has connected to us yet?”

Techorse had provided an advanced two way radio set for the occasion, a gray box with a red button and a speaker grid on the top. The other radio set was in Cloudsdale, where Rainbow Dash had it set up to communicate with the team quickly.

“Are you guys ready yet?” she asked, her voice coming in through Twilight's radio, “I've got like, a dozen ponies nagging me about when they're getting their cake powder here.”

Twilight pushed the button with her front hoof, “Just a second Rainbow Dash. We've got everything in position, and I'm going to cast the spell soon. Give me thirty seconds.”

Rainbow Dash looked around back in Cloudsdale, and saw how many excited pegasus ponies were watching their own red-colored X painted into a landing pad built into Cloudsdale's surface. Twilight had memorized the location the night before, and all fifty mixes had been paid for ahead of time by the Cloudsdale residents, much to the delight of the Cake family.

From Ponyville's perspective, Cloudsdale was far in the distance, many kilometers away, and Twilight squinted her purple eyes to view it, crouching down a bit on her legs.

“We're all set, Twilight!” said Techorse, “Stand in the white circle.”

“Ok Twilight,” said the unicorn to herself as she trotted into the designated white ring and stared at the boxes, “this is it!”

Pinkie Pie moved away from the crates, watching in glee as Twilight's horn began to accumulate pink and fuchsia particles of energy. Her friend was beginning to sweat from the strain of charging up such a spell, and Pinkie couldn't help but bounce in place from the excitement. Not only had Twilight helped the Cakes spread their goods to Cloudsdale, she was also given the chance to help out with such a big exam! The party pony loved nothing more than being involved, and she looked at the boxes with hope that Twilight would succeed.

But as if fate had ordained it, a rogue hoofball had been smacked a little bit too hard by some colts and fillies playing a game in a nearby field, and the projectile arced up high into the air, over the friends. Twilight closed her eyes, her horn putting out a large white and pink flare of energy as she was seconds away from taking the shot. Techorse put on a pair of dark goggles, just in case the flash from the spell might try to blind him, and Pinkie Pie responded by putting on a pair of goofy sunglasses with the lenses in the shape of stars.

“Three...” counted Twilight in her head.

“Two...”

“One...”

Down came the hoofball in a shallow trajectory from the right, smashing Twilight in the flank. She opened her eyes and gasped as she lost control of the spell, the thick sports ball knocking her rear legs to the side and turning her head. The spell discharged to the right, away from the crate, and straight into Pinkie Pie, who squealed loudly before disappearing in a massive flash of energy that blinded Twilight, shattered the lenses on Techorse's goggles, and popped the hoofball instantly.

“Nooooooo!” cried Twilight, realizing what she had done, galloping up to the smoldering crater in the ground where Pinkie Pie just stood, “Pinkie! Oh, what have I done?”

“Twilight, calm down!” said Techorse, throwing away his destroyed goggles, “Pinkie Pie's just been teleported instead of the crate, right?”

Twilight dove for the radio and hit the button, “Rainbow Dash, can you hear me?”

“Yeah,” she said, “Are you done yet?”

“There's been a bit of a mistake, I missed my target and hit Pinkie Pie instead,” explained Twilight, still sweating from her spell and from the shock of hitting Pinkie Pie, “Is she there?”

Confirming her worst fears, Rainbow Dash took a moment to look around and answered, “No... maybe there's just some kinda wait time for the spell to work or something.”

Twilight's legs shook as she stood up, her ears fell back and she almost screamed in an anxiety fueled panic.

Techorse moved up to her and gave her a hug, “Twilight, calm down! Pinkie Pie's going to be fine.”

“I can't believe I did that,” she answered, nearly sobbing, “oh, I've failed the exam and lost Pinkie Pie! Princess Celestia's going to flip!”

“Is Twilight having an issue?” snickered Rainbow Dash from over the radio, “Twilight, you mess up all the time, Pinkie Pie's probably somewhere nearby here. We're going to go look for her, ok?”

“Maybe there's still time to teleport the crate!” reasoned Twilight in her head, hoping to still pass the crucial test in her career, “I'll try again.”

“No, Twilight, we have to find Pinkie first,” answered Techorse, refusing to stop hugging her tightly, “there's got to be a way we can talk Princess Celestia into letting you have another try at the spell.”

Twilight finally gave up, and stopped shaking, closing her eyes and finally returning her coltfriend's hug, “You're right, Tech. I just hope she's all right.”

Pinkie Pie scratched behind her ear with her front hoof, and stood up groggily. She seemed to be on a sandy, sunny beach covered in some places with thick green seaweed and shells from various kinds of sea creatures.

“Oh wowie, that was really something!” she exclaimed, looking around, “Twilight accidentally sent me to the beach! Whoops!”

The pink pony shook her body, sending a few pieces of green seaweed stuck in her mane and tail into the sand again. She had left a nice little dent in the beach from teleporting in, the crater beneath her was coated in a thin layer of pinkish glass from the spell's burn. It was likely that Pinkie been knocked unconscious from the impact of dropping into the beach improperly, but it didn't seem to bother her now that she was awake again. She looked at the blue water crested with white peaked waves, and wanted to stay for a swim, but knew Twilight probably felt awful about sending her on the impromptu vacation and changed her mind about sticking around.

“A beach day would be super fun, but I'd better get back before they worry about me,” giggled the lone mare, “maybe next time ocean, right now Pinkie Pie's gotta get home!”

Kicking her legs, she skipped and hopped her way up out of the beach, into the grassy dunes, and into the plains just outside to head back for the Equestrian mainland. She didn't recognize any of the terrain, it seemed like there were way too many mountains topped with snow. Also, it had been a lot colder at the seashore than she remembered it being in Equestria, and the shells on the beach didn't quite match her memories either. Ignoring these tidbits in favor of having fun, Pinkie Pie sang to herself and took in the surroundings.

Eventually, Pinkie Pie reached a small forest, and crossed without too much trouble. The trees seemed a bit odd, all spiky and with needle like leaves that poked out in all directions. The dark forest was a bit cold, but there wasn't much wildlife around, and she exited it to discover a startling sight. She had come into a town where the homes were much different from Ponyville, each was built small, but very tall, with angled roof tiles at each floor of the home to keep rain off. The main roof at the top of each building was yellow colored and very ornamental, using stone and wood painted black and gold rather than the thatch of Ponyville. Cherry Blossom trees, their pink flowers filling every branch, were everywhere in this small town, and the ponies inhabiting it did not seem to be Equestrian. Their head structures seemed a bit smoother and flatter, their necks slightly longer and their tails were often cut quite short, but they were clearly still ponies and had very few differences otherwise. Many of them wore cloth robes with colored insets and fancy patterns, the females had their hair either braided or in a bun, and the stallions frequently had short beards or manes kept back with a band, but not a single mustache adorned their faces. The most odd trend to Pinkie Pie, however, was the fact that the robes they wore, while very pretty and coming in all colors of the rainbow in addition to black and white, concealed every pony's cutie mark from view. No two robes seemed to be alike, which really impressed her, and made her wonder if she was out of place.

Of course, Pinkie Pie had no shame in being completely different from the townsponies, and continued her merry bounce through the town, saying hi to every pony. One stallion, a black one with a short white mane cut and a blue robe, nearly ran into Pinkie Pie, and the mare stopped to talk to him.

“Hiya! My name is Pinkie Pie! Could you please tell me where I am, I'm a bit lost!”

The pony didn't understand her at all, and sort of shuffled around, calling out to one of his friends in a language Pinkie Pie didn't understand either.

She froze as the stallion's friend came over, a unicorn pony in a red outfit, as watched with eyes wide as they started talking about her.

“Hey, how come you're speaking like that?” she asked, curious, “Can I talk like that, too? It's a really neat language!”

“Perhaps with some time, Pinkie Pie!” said another stallion, pushing forward past the two others.

He was a tall, overbearing unicorn stallion, with black hair held back with a red band, and a thin layer of stubble across his face kept intentionally thin but noticeable, making his beard short but clean. A gray cloak with a few gold markings in the shape of hunting arrows and thin white lines at the seams concealed his light blue coated body, and his shorter tail was also bound with a red band, making a whip shape. He bowed slightly from just the neck in Pinkie Pie's presence, closing his yellow eyes, although the chivalrous greeting bounced right off of Pinkie Pie's bubbly personality.

“Hi, cool you know my name,” answered Pinkie Pie, smiling broadly, “but do you think you could tell me where in Equestria I am?”

“Heh,” snickered the tall stallion, “you are not quite in Equestria anymore. Welcome to Umashima!”

Pinkie Pie's heart skipped a beat as she heard that name, she'd only heard about it in school ages ago. Umashima was an island nation thousands of kilometers away from the Equestrian mainland.

“What?!” she gasped, her hair frizzing, “That's... that's...”

Pinkie Pie did a backflip, “That's amazing! Twilight's spell really sent me so far away!”

“Oh, so Twilight Sparkle sent her friend Pinkie Pie!” mused her acquaintance, “I see. It must be you are here to teach a friendship lesson to us.”

She stopped and sputtered her lips, “Pffft, Friendship lesson? No, silly! Twilight accidentally sent me here by mistake taking a magic test!”

“We have heard your stories of honor and bravery in Equestria, how you stopped the demons Nightmare Moon and Discord,” explained the unicorn, “and how now Twilight Sparkle and her friends spread the secrets of true friendship throughout the world. Surely you must be here for a purpose, even if you are here by mistake.”

“I can't argue with that logic!” answered Pinkie Pie, closing her eyes and bobbing her head, “So, what's your name, and how come you can talk with me?”

“I am Daikyu, but you may call me Longbow” he answered, “I work for the foreign affairs office for the nation, that is why I can speak Equine English. My whole family knows your language.”

“It's so cool to meet you, and be here at all!” she responded.

Daikyu nodded, “Very good. You will stay with my family then.”

Pinkie Pie didn't really have a better answer than agreeing, after all, she was stuck in a foreign land without money or direction. So she followed Longbow back to his home on the other side of the town, a large and tall house with four wide floors on a large, walled in estate with an outside training area and a garden. The door slid open, being made of bamboo, and inside was a rather comfortable floor with an open kitchen, a low marble table with some cushions, and stairs that led to the next floor. Pinkie Pie could already smell a delicious odor of caramelized vegetables and more importantly, easily consumed carbohydrates!

“Oooh, do I smell noodles?!” she asked, trotting in behind Longbow.

“I am sure you do not know much about our customs, but yes, we often have noodles for meals,” answered the host, “we know much about your legendary appetite Pinkie Pie. I will have my oldest daughter prepare plenty more for you.”

“Uh oh,” giggled the mare, “I hope the bottomless pit jokes haven't leaked out of Equestria!”

“Amai!” called the stallion for his wife, “We have a guest in our home.”

The mare appeared down the stairs of the home shortly, a beautiful and similarly taller pony like her husband, she was a very pale pink in color, with green eyes and a white mane striped with yellow that curled down. Her blue robe, unique in that she had cyan stripes and tassels on the back, also concealed her cutie mark and body like her husband's. Like her husband, she was delighted to see Pinkie Pie.

“Welcome to our home,” she said, her eastern accent also very apparent like her husband's.

“This is Pinkie Pie, one of the great heroes of Equestria,” stated Longbow, “she will be staying with us for the time being.”

“Oh my, a hero from Equestria?” gasped his wife, “She certainly does look like the Pinkie Pie your books talk bout! What brings you to Umashima?”

“It's a very long story,” answered Pinkie Pie, “but I'd love to tell!”

“We will over dinner then,” said Amai, smiling, “I've made noodles with sugary sauce and fresh vegetables. I hope Equestrians like such things.”

“I'll try anything involving tasty food!” she answered.

Pinkie Pie was seated on a soft cushion near the low-hanging table, it was weird seeing the marble counter top so far below her when she was used to the table being up to her middle. Longbow made a fresh kettle of tea, and placed it down with a few small cups. Pinkie Pie didn't want to be rude, and had no clue what the Umashima culture was like, so she simply sat around with a happy expression on her face as her generous hosts finished preparing the meal. There was soon a large wooden bowl of hot noodles, darkened with the sweet sauce and piled high with broccoli, fancy mushrooms Pinkie didn't recognize, and slices of carrots. The couple sat opposite of Pinkie Pie at the table, and then Amai bellowed for her children in her foreign tongue.

The two unicorn mares came from upstairs, one of them wearing orange robes with white seams, the white bands spiraling into the back of the cloak. She was the elder sister, and had a blue coat like her father's, brown eyes, and a long white mane with pink stripes. The other was a smaller pony Pinkie Pie's size and age, with bright blue eyes, a soft white coat, and a curled mane of pink similar to her mother's. Her cloak was a very subtle pink, with small, mishapen stars of various colors all over the back that resembled sparks.

“Foals, we have with us the noble Pinkie Pie from Equestria, one of the Warriors of Harmony who defeated Nightmare moon,” announced Longbow, “She will be staying with us as our guest, I expect you will treat her well.”

“Pinkie Pie!?” exclaimed the older sibling as she sat down, “How did you get here?”

“Kori, she will explain after she has had supper,” declared Longbow, holding up a hoof, “pardon her, Pinkie Pie. Kori, or Ice Spirit Spirit as you may call her, can wait for your story.”

Pinkie Pie was beginning to get a bit confused with how often Longbow interrupted his family. Was he treating them like they were stupid? Back in Equestria, a stallion interrupting his wife and foals would probably be labeled as being mean. But she decided to risk a cultural breach to be able to talk about what had happened.

“I can tell now if you guys really want!” she offered, “It's a doozy of a story!”

“Please tell us!” asked the youngest, “I'm sure it would be lots of fun, as you are the best party pony in the world!”

Pinkie Pie's heart melted at the statement, and she felt a connection with the younger mare, who was her age and her size too.

“The best party pony?” she said, her lip quivering, “awww, thank you! You're a really nice pony, um...”

“My name is Yuki Yi!” said the energetic daughter, “I apologize for being so direct, father has taught us how to speak your language, and I do not get many chances to use it.”

“Don't be sorry, it's a really funny story,” continued Pinkie Pie in her motormouth fashion, “You see, Twilight Sparkle wanted to learn this really cool teleportation spell. I dunno if you guys have anything like that, but she was going to pass this big magic test she had! Anyways, Twilight was going to move this biiiiig box of cake mixes for me, but I accidentally got zapped instead, and well, here I am!”

“I do not think it was quite an accident,” interrupted Longbow again, making Pinkie Pie dip her ears back in slight frustration, “you must be here to teach a valuable friendship lesson as Twilight Sparkle usually commands.”

“Commands?” laughed Pinkie Pie, “We're not really warriors, Longbow, we're a circle of friends in Ponyville! And we have a ton of fun together when there's not a big meanie to stop!”

“Perhaps we should eat the noodles before they get cold,” suggested Amai, noticing her husband glaring at Pinkie, “I do want to get our guest's opinion on them.”

Pinkie Pie was passed a piping hot bowl of the food in front of her, and watched as the other family members were served their own in addition to their hot cup of tea. She started to make a move to devour the delicious smelling meal, but she pulled back in a cartoonish manner. Everyone was so formal from Longbow's behavior, that Pinkie was afraid to dig in her usual way. It had to be that they ate slowly and carefully.

Or at least, that's what Pinkie Pie believed until she watched the married couple pick up their bowls with their magic and started to shovel their food quickly into their mouths with the utensils provided. Pinkie Pie was actually impressed with how quickly another pony besides her was eating their food! The daughters followed in the rapid consumption, and Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes, giggled, and planted her face into the dish, scarfing down her own meal as well.

“Oooh, I could get used to this!”

Pinkie Pie finished pulling the last of the noodles into her mouth and slurped them loudly, smacking her lips. She set the bowl down at the table, feeling happy other ponies liked to wolf down their food just like her.

“That was really tasty!” she exclaimed, “Thank you!”

“I'm so glad you enjoy our cooking,” smiled Amai, “now, if you'd like to spend some time on the estate, please do so. There is a garden full of flowers you might enjoy.”

“I'd love that!” answered Pinkie Pie, “Anypony else want to go and hear some more Pinkie Pie tales? You guys really seem to find Twilight and my story really neat!”

“Please!” asked Yuki, standing up from the table, “May I, father?”

“Certainly,” he said, “please be back inside before sundown though.”

Pinkie Pie and Yuki Yi went outdoors into the flower garden, filled with the most beautiful Umashiman flowers. Yellows and pinks dominated the blooms along the garden path, and the serene sound of flowing water and the gentle song of wind chimes left hanging on the tree branches made the garden the most peaceful place Pinkie Pie had ever seen. Yuki Yi walked alongside her Equestrian acquaintance, and was answering as many questions about her life as Pinkie Pie was answering about hers.

“So do they have parties here in Umashima?” asked Pinkie Pie, “They're probably super quiet, but I bet you like them just the way they are!”

“Well, Pinkie Pie, there's something I wanted to ask now that we're alone,” said Yuki Yi.

The pink pony wouldn't stop talking, “I'm sure you'd like me to tell another story! Hey, how about the time the girls and I beat this evil cook, wanna hear?”

“Sure, but, this is very important, please,” asked the other mare, her ears falling back.

“Sure, go ahead!” she answered, deciding finally to listen.

“I made those noodles,” admitted Yuki Yi, “I'm a really good chef. But..”

“Oh man those noodles were awesome!” Pinkie Pie interrupted, licking her lips.

“Yes, it's just, have you noticed nopony in Umashima shows their cutie mark?” she asked.

Pinkie Pie didn't suspect a thing about the statement, and simply agreed with Yuki with no expectation of what she was going to say next. She thought it was just a different custom.

“Sure, nothing wrong with it! At least, I don't think there is! Why do you guys do that, anyways?”

Yuki Yi sighed and explained the phenomenon, “Nopony in Umashima shows off their cutie marks because often, one's special talent does not involve very much valuable work. One must find more than just a special place, one must also learn a proper use for their special talent that is practical and useful to the community.”

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly, ruining the serenity of the garden, “WHAT? That's crazy!!!”

“I know, and that is why I need your help,” sobbed Yuki, “you see, Pinkie Pie...”

Yuki pulled back her robe magically, revealing her cutie mark on her flank. It was a confetti ball, white in color, being pulled open by a string, with the colored bits inside raining down below.

“I too am a party throwing pony!”

“EEEE!” cheered Pinkie Pie, jumping around in a circle around Yuki, “You're a party pony too! We gotta throw a big party for your family while I'm here!”

“No, no, we can't!” gasped Yuki, grabbing Pinkie Pie's front legs with her light blue colored magic, freezing her in place.

“What, why not?!” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Because I'm a chef. I make food now to make practical use of my cooking and decorating skills. It is much better and more hard work to prepare food and set tables nicely for an important meal than to make cheap junk food for a party,” she said, “father and mother would not be happy.”

Pinkie Pie frowned, and stuttered, “But... but, it's your special talent Yuki!”

“I know, and that is why we cannot throw a party for them,” she said, but her frown was quickly replaced with a hint of smile as she continued, “however, my best friend Mori is having her birthday in two days. I have no experience with it, but I want to use my special talent just this once. Can you train me in the way of being a party pony?”

The earth pony almost found tears in her eyes, she had always wanted to teach another pony how to throw a perfect party, and answered, “Yuki, I'd love to! We're going to make your friend Mori's birthday the best one EVER! But we're gonna have to keep it a secret from your dad, so we'll start tomorrow. Master Pinkie Pie's gonna make you a party pony!”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” cried Yuki, giving Pinkie Pie a hug, “You really are a true friend.”

Pinkie Pie smiled and hugged her back before taking Yuki back inside, their plan made to let Yuki live out her wish of being a true party pony and living up to her cutie mark for just one day. Longbow had prepared a simple soft mat to sleep on, in the same room as his two daughters on the third floor of the house. The girls were excited to have Pinkie sleeping over, and they exchanged stories for a few hours. Eventually the two sisters fell asleep on their sides on their own mats, and Pinkie Pie went over to the window to watch the lights of the foreign city for a while. Once she got tired, she went over to her mat, and span around in a small circle like a pet before curling up like a cat, using her fluffy tail as a pillow to sleep on. She felt very much at home despite how different the land was, and her mind raced with excitement over helping Yuki as she drifted off to sleep.

Yuki was having a horrible nightmare about having a heavy stone on her chest. The massive boulder had fallen off a cliff above her as she walked home after quitting work at the local noodle shop, to begin her new career. Rather than squish her flat immediately, the rock left her stuck alone in the canyon with no one around to rescue her, and she struggled and squirmed from the weight on top of her.

“Help!” gasped the Umashiman mare, wiggling underneath the massive chunk of granite.

Looking up at the cliff above her, she watched her father appear at the edge, staring down at her with contempt in his eyes.

“Father, save me!” cried Yuki, the stone mushing her insides.

“Perhaps you should have considered staying a cook,” he muttered, turning around and walking away.

“No...” whimpered the mare, “NOOOOO!”

She awoke with a terrible fright to discover that the “stone” on her was no other than Pinkie Pie standing on top of her, her legs bunched together in a fine point.

“Wakey wakey!” she said, “Today begins your training as an official party pony!”

“Wh... what?” she said, still sweating from the dream, “how could you be up before us? Are you not tired from being in a different time and place so fast?”

“Nope! Always got a little bit of energy in me,” answered Pinkie Pie, giggling as she jumped off her friend, “Now let's get cracking while your family's away!”

Yuki and Pinkie waited patiently for the rest of the family to leave for their jobs for the day, and then, the fun began. Yuki's first task was a to bake a batch of cupcakes in under an hour using only ingredients she could find in the house, a difficult task to do considering Yuki didn't even know what a cupcake was. She failed miserably, burning the treats to a blackened crisp in a bun pan she had tried to use a cupcake tray.

“Hmmm, I don't think cupcakes are going to quite work out,” mused Pinkie Pie, looking at the charcoal in front of her, “let's try something else!”

Pinkie gave Yuki five minutes to decorate the garden using some streamers and other decorations she had her get from a local shop. The first two attempts resulted in Yuki being unable to finish the task, but Pinkie Pie cheered her friend on and kept her going. She shaved down her time each attempt, eventually making the five minute mark and making the garden look spectacular.

Training in the art of party planning, Yuki started to succeed in various challenges once she had gotten a hang of the basics. Instead of cupcakes, she made a more traditional ice cream like treat made from vanilla and cream, which Pinkie Pie accepted as her new friends' specialty of dessert once one taste made her tail curl in a spiral.

After a hard day of training, Pinkie Pie had managed to tire out the other mare, and they were enjoying cold water and some fresh fruit back inside the house.

“I finally got down the gift wrapping technique!” exclaimed Yuki, “Thank you so much for all the training, I'm sure to have a perfect party for Mori now.”

“Not yet!” teased Pinkie Pie, taking a long sip from her cup of water before setting it back down, “You've still got your final test to go!”

“Oh, and what might that be?” asked Yuki, a bit confused.

Pinkie Pie smiled broadly, “Your final test is... you've got to surprise me!”

“Surprise you!? But you are the living definition of surprise!” cried Yuki Yi, distraught, “How can I possibly do that?”

“You'll think of something, I'm positively absolutely sure!”

Longbow and his wife returned home from work, later followed by the older daughter.

“Ah, good to see you again,” he said to Pinkie Pie, “I see Yuki is home a bit early from work.”

“You could say that,” snickered Pinkie Pie, knowing she'd skipped her shift.

“Very good,” continued the head of the household, “now, seeing as Yuki usually cooks all day, I have decided to take us out to dinner.”

“Really?” asked Pinkie Pie.

He nodded, “I have been thinking on some things lately about Yuki. She does not need to cook tonight.”

Yuki felt her heart flutter, and thought, “This might be a chance for me to surprise Pinkie Pie. I can tell father at dinner how I feel. Standing up for myself will surely complete my training!”

“Ah, but first, I do wish to practice my skills at the range,” he said, bowing gently, “excuse me for a while. Please get ready for dinner while I practice.”

Amai and her daughters ran upstairs laughing to go change for the rare treat, leaving Pinkie by herself to finish her ice water. Once she was done, she decided to go outside and talk to Longbow. He had set up his archery range outside to practice his skills of arcane archery, and Pinkie Pie saw him place down a quiver of long, thin arrows with razor sharp tips. A white target made from cloth hung from a tree in the back of the range, fifty feet away from Longbow. He mounted the quiver on himself, and Pinkie took a seat a few feet behind him, watching his moves.

He took a deep breath in, and exhaled slowly, feeling his breath thoroughly before his horn started to glow a light blue color. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver magically, and his horn cast an arc of magical energy in the shape of a bow, drawstring included. Knocking the arrow into the spell, he took aim downrange and turned the projected energy bow sideways before drawing back the virtual weapon. Then, with a release of the taught cord, the arrow flew out of the arcane bow, and struck the target dead center, sending it backwards. The bow vanished, and the energy returned to Longbow's horn.

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” cheered Pinkie Pie, before covering her mouth in embarrassment.

“Hmmm, you enjoyed that, did you?” chuckled Longbow, “it is not so impressive, the guards of Equestria are as good with a bow as I am.”

“That's not true at all,” disagreed Pinkie Pie, bouncing up to him, “that was the best arrow shot ever! It's gotta be your special talent!”

“Ah yes, it is true,” answered the stallion with a humble tone of voice and happiness in his eyes, “I have been a perfect shot since I was a colt.”

Pinkie Pie smiled, but watched as his face turned from happiness to solemn reflection as he looked at the ground, “But it is no job. Just a very good source of relaxation.”

And with those words, Pinkie Pie's smile also disappeared. Daikyu also faced the pain of not being able to use his special talent as his job because it wasn't industrious enough. He was keeping his impressive bow skills hidden from the rest of Umashima.

“Poor Longbow,” thought Pinkie Pie, her sadder side poking at her heart for a moment, “he's just like his daughter, he wants to use his super special talent, but he can't.”

“Come Pinkie Pie,” he said softly, “let's go get the others and head out. I think you'll enjoy the place we are eating at.”

Pinkie Pie nodded and followed him, maintaining something of a smile as she always did. Now she was determined to help the family, and perhaps all of Umashima.

“Maybe I really am gonna teach a friendship lesson!”

The specialty of the restaurant Longbow brought his family and his honored guest to was a dumpling place with outdoor seating, giving a perfect view of the town. Paper lanterns illuminated the night sky, and waiters brought around carts of trays full of vegetable dumplings for the patrons to eat one pot at a time. Each member of the family was seated around the table, Ice Spirit having a particularly happy expression on her face as this was her favorite place to eat.

Soon the lead waiter came by, a yellow-coated mare, who was good friends with Longbow. Earlier he had talked about Pinkie Pie to her, and she was eager to meet the Equestrian hero.

“Is this the legendary Pinkie Pie? The mare who could eat a thousand desserts?”

“Indeed,” answered Longbow, “we are pleased to have a member of Twilight Sparkle's warriors with us this evening. Please run a bill for us.”

“We have never had a guest eat more than four pots of our dumplings,” said the owner, “but for sake of curiosity, I will make your check free if you can eat five, Pinkie Pie!”

“Ooh, that's a dare I'd love to take!” she answered, nodding, “Sure! Bring me one of everything, please!”

The owner of the restaurant accepted the answer, and went to go have her chefs bring the family a large number of dumpling steaming pots.

Pinkie Pie turned to Yuki and giggled, “So many ponies know me for all the snacks I eat. I'm starting to think my belly is really the legend here!”

“Please don't explode!” begged Yuki sarcastically, “I'm full after just two helpings.”

The meal came out shortly, and sure enough, Pinkie Pie plowed her way through seven entire plates of dumplings before calling it quits, frightening most of the other patrons at the restaurant and making the owner of the shop stand there speechless. Her powers of ingestion had been proven for sure. But what Pinkie Pie did not notice as she reclined back in her chair to let her body work on her dinner, was a pair of red eyes staring at her from a nearby line of trees leading out to the forest. A low growl came from the observer, before a flash of yellow light came from its eyes aimed towards Pinkie Pie.

She hadn't noticed at all given the distance, and decided she needed to go wash her hooves from the sauce from the dumplings.

“Well, I need to wash up a bit before dessert,” she said, “don't wait up for me, everypony!”

As soon as Pinkie Pie stood up, every pony in the restaurant started talking and pointing at her, a loud gasp coming from a nearby stallion.

“P.. pinkie, your side!” wailed Amai, pointing at her.

“What, what's wrong?” she said quickly, noticing all the horrified looks, “tell me, tell me!”

Pinkie Pie span around in a circle trying to see it, until Ice Spirit stepped up to her, and stopped her with a hoof. Holding up a small mirror given to her by her mother, she showed Pinkie Pie what had appeared on her side. Pinkie Pie's withers had been imprinted with an image of a dark eye, two horns emerging from the side, and a pair of iron war clubs crossed beneath them.

“What is THAT?!” cried Pinkie Pie.

“It's the mark of the Red Oni,” stuttered Longbow, walking up slowly, “we have not seen such an omen in decades.“

“What's the mark of the Red Oni?!” whimpered the mare, “That sounds spooky!”

“We need to leave now, and explain it at once,” answered Longbow, “first, let me settle the bill.”

“It's free,” shouted the mare in charge, “just go Daikyu. Leave here!”

An old dusty book in the back of the household was brought out by Longbow, his worried family giving him looks of sorrow as Pinkie Pie picked at the logo on her sides in hopes of getting rid of it. He dropped the old tome magically down on the table, sending up dust, which Ice Spirit quickly cleared away with her tail before allowing her father to open it.

“This, is a book of the ancient legends of Umashima, given to me by my grandfather,” explained the father slowly.

Pinkie Pie began to feel a bit jittery as he opened the tome, and found the page concerning the logo.

“Ah, here we are,” muttered the unicorn, “little is known about the Red Oni, whether it is one individual or a member of a kind. Only that it is a large beast, with fangs like daggers, and a massive iron club strapped to its back that could crush the spine of a dragon in one blow.”

The pink pony tried to grab her own spine with her hooves, contorting herself weirdly in front of the family.

“Keep going!” she begged.

“Every so often, a Red Oni will appear and place his mark on a pony. He or she must face it in the Red Valley alone the following day. Should they not appear, the Oni will ravage the town looking for them. Should they do so...”

Longbow turned the page, and revealed the image to Pinkie Pie, making her hair stand up on end. In the illustration, the ape like monster was picking up a stylized robed pony, and opening a nearby cauldron of boiling hot water.

Amai put a hoof to her mouth, and Pinkie Pie nearly screamed as she saw the picture. To be boiled alive was a horrible prospect for their guest, and they dared not speak it out loud.

“Father, weren't you alive the last time the Oni came around?” asked Yuki, desperate, “What did you do then? Surely we do not have to let Pinkie Pie face the beast!”

“The last time, we hid his intended victim, but the Oni was enraged and smashed the village. We rebuilt our homes, but the marked pony never forgave himself even though we made it clear it was not his fault, though the image vanished from his withers.”

Hearing that the town would be destroyed make Pinkie Pie reconsider her jittery thoughts and panic. Sure, it would be nice to not be thrown into a pot of boiling water. But everyone had been so nice to her, and saw her as such a great hero from Equestria, that to run and hide would be the wrong things to do.

“Smash the village?” she said nonchalantly, her hair returning back into place, “I can't let that happen! Not after all the nice things and sweet food you've given me!”

“You're not going to go through with it, are you?” begged Yuki, tears welling up in her eyes, “Please don't! I cannot lose my new friend!”

Pinkie Pie leaned in and hugged Yuki tightly, “Don't worry, I'll be absolutely one hundred percent unboiled! As soon as the Red Oni shows up, I'll use my Pinkie Sense to jump out of the way and avoid ending up in hot water!”

“Your Pinkie Sense?” asked Yuki, confused.

“Is my eating the only thing ponies know about me?” giggled Pinkie, letting her go, “I can sorta tell when things are incoming, it lets me get out of the way. I'll know as soon as that meanie monster drops in, and when he does, I'll escape by the time this mark goes away!”

“It is very dangerous,” commented Longbow, “but I must respect your decision. We will gather at the Red Valley tomorrow morning and watch.”

Yuki's blue eyes stared into Pinkie's, “Thank you.”

“This is what friends are for!” she answered, giving her another hug.

Pinkie Pie had managed to fall asleep soundly, comfortable in her plan, along with Ice Spirit and the rest of the household. But Yuki Yi had made up her mind to help Pinkie Pie. It had turned out that her friend Mori's party was also to be in the Red Valley as a surprise when she passed through it the next day, and all of the training Yuki had done to prepare would her her stop the monster from getting even close to Pinkie Pie. In the cover of the night the pony slipped out, covered in a black robe. It took her a long time to set up what she did, but she managed to make it home and sleep for a few hours before the sun came up and her mother shook her gently awake.

The Red Valley was a deep valley filled with red blossoms, a granite mountain stood at one end, and a deep cliff on the other, creating a bowl filled with flora that was quite pretty to behold. Animals loved to come by and snack on the grass and flowers, but today no wildlife was present, as if they knew about the incident taking place today. The flat area of the valley, connected on both sides by a path carved out of the mountain to permit access, was where Pinkie Pie stood, looking around and trying her best to smile as the wind went through her hair.

Behind her, the whole village had gathered up on the shallow cliffs, about thirty feet away and twelve feet up from Pinkie Pie. They had the perfect view of the arena, and many of the wives of the village had their foals with them, wondering if they were going to need to shield their eyes. Longbow's family stood at the front, and the male had equipped his quiver, loaded with arrows.

“Why did you bring your quiver?” asked his spouse.

“Our guest is very noble to take on the Oni alone, but I will not let it harm her,” he said.

“Oh...” trailed his wife, her ears sinking back.

Yuki Yi watched a small piece of string in the grass near her carefully, seemingly distracted. The blue chord stuck out from the ground, and she occasionally looked at Pinkie Pie, while also looking back at the scrap of twine.

“Yuki, pay attention,” criticized her older sister.

“I am, sister,” she answered sternly.

Pinkie got impatient and shouted, “Hey! I'm here now! Where are you?”

As if answering her request, Pinkie Pie felt something in her body, and she craned her neck up to see a dark shadow coming down fast towards her. Jumping backwards, she avoided the Red Oni's landing as it impacted the floor of the valley hard, sending shockwaves through the dirt and scattering red petals everywhere.

It was a large gorilla-like monster, twelve feet tall, with crimson red fur and white eyes with yellow irises. Two small horns stuck out of the sides of its head, and it walked on its massive front arms, its back legs much smaller. On its back was the huge iron club, a cylindrical weapon with rounded bumps on every part of the metal head. It was wearing a tattered brown robe that covered its arms only up to the elbows, clearly it was an extremely intelligent creature. In its muscular, bulky arms the creature carried the large iron pot, which remained closed, but seemed to be leaking water.

The monster slammed down the cauldron at its side, and rapidly it rubbed its hands together near the base, starting a fire using its coarse fur, and it shoved a bunch of dead branches from the valleys' trees underneath as fuel. The water inside was beginning to boil, although it had refused to remove the lid yet. It's eyes tracked Pinkie Pie, who clearly had his mark, and the great ape snorted before knuckle walking over to the pony, looking down at her with his eyes.

Pinkie could see the intelligence in the ape from the way he looked at her, and she addressed him, “Well hi Mr. Red! Everypony here's telling me you like to smash villages, but I don't believe it for a bit! I think you'd rather have a party!”

The Red Oni ignored her and immediately jumped towards Pinkie Pie to scoop her up. She screamed and ran at a cartoonish speed away from the ape, but he took off in pursuit, chasing her in circles on his massive front arms and back legs.

Yuki Yi saw the Red Oni approach a large bush in the arena, and pulled the blue string quickly. A basket of fireworks inside the bush went off, terrifying the creature as colored sparks flew into the air. It let out a simian cry, and immediately got its club out, smashing the remainder of the fireworks crate into pieces.

The monster continued its pursuit, now brandishing the heavy club, and smashing the ground behind Pinkie Pie, who kept yanking her tail out of the way just in time. Frustrated, Yuki Yi slid down the cliff, her mother and father immediately shouting at her.

“Yuki, no!” cried her mom, causing her father to remove an arrow magically.

The pony ran after the monster, spotting a yellow string in the grass. As she planned, she ran up to the trigger and pulled it sharply with her magic. Wood beams emerged from the ground, carrying streamers, and creating a perimeter of decorations, including a large banner that read “Happy Birthday Mori!” in the local tongue. This banner caught a hold of the iron club the ape had raised, and it caused him to drop it, forcing it to choose between picking up the weapon again or chasing Pinkie Pie. It decided to quickly grab the weapon, which is what Yuki had hoped for, and she turned around, pulling a green string. Speakers within the nearby trees started blaring loud music, making the beast cover its ears and back up on its small legs.

With everything in place, Yuki shouted to Pinkie Pie, “Pinkie! Pull the orange string!”

Pinkie Pie spotted the string in the grass, and made a dive for it, catching it in her teeth and yanking it successfully. A hidden platform in the valley flipped over, revealing a stack of paper party favors containing marbles. The marbles spilled out of the presents, and the Oni stepped onto it carelessly, slipping on the marbles and landing on its back on the other side of the platform. It would not get up after the fall, and laid motionless on the ground.

Yuki Yi and Pinkie Pie reunited in front of the monster, celebrating their victory.

“Wow! You did it!” cheered Pinkie, “I'm not sure how, but you did!”

Yuki explained, “Last night I went out and set up Mori's party. It might be a little messier now, but I put the skills you taught me to the test!”

“Well you definitely surprised me!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Congratulations Yuki, your party pony training is finished! You can use your special talent now to make a pony's day special, just like me!”

Longbow heard them talking and reflected on Pinkie Pie's words, perhaps letting Yuki be a professional party planner was better than making her be a cook. He looked at the arrows in his quiver, and wished he had been allowed to use his special talent more often. Looking back, he grunted as he saw the Oni slowly and silently stand up, the two celebrating ponies not noticing the monster picking up its club and raising it over its head.

“Yuki!!!” screeched her mother.

The two ponies turned around and saw the ape just in time to scream. Taking no chance, Daikyu drew his arrow magically, the arcane bow forming instantly from his horn in a bright glow of blue light. Giving a loud shout, the brave father fired his arrow, enveloped in magical energy, which soared out and struck the Red Oni's club, destroying it spectacularly in a large magical blast and sending pieces of iron high into the air.

Shocked its weapon was gone, but undeterred, the Oni growled and immediately grabbed Pinkie Pie, knowing taking her prisoner would stop Longbow from shooting. It squeezed the pink pony tight, and slowly stepped backwards, placing her between itself and Longbow. Eventually it reached the pot, and started to make a grab for the lid.

“No!” whimpered Yuki Yi, knowing she would see her friend get boiled.

With nothing they could do, the village watched in horror, sobbing and moaning as the Red Oni opened the lid. Hot steam flew into Pinkie Pie's face, making her close her eyes until enough had gone away for her to see. The terrified party pony then noticed that in the center of the pot, there was an object underneath the water. With a slow movement, the ape brought the pony trapped in its mighty hand just inches from the scalding sea, before using its other hand to reach into the boiling pot, its heat resistance protecting it.

Pinkie Pie watched, still shaking and sweating in fear, as the monster brought the object out of the water. It was an ornamental white porcelain jar, tall yet somewhat wider at the bottom, with a cap on it of the same color. The creature pulled Pinkie Pie away from the cauldron, and gave a grunt quite different from his others. This grunt seemed rather happy, for some reason.

After forcing Pinkie Pie to look at the jar for a while, the Red Oni finally moved away from the cauldron, and sat down on the ground, placing Pinkie Pie in front of him. Pinkie Pie could have run away, but she simply sat down on her hind legs, and looked up at the monster.

“What is he doing?” asked Longbow, wondering if he should take another shot.

The beast took the jar in both hands, and removed the cap, before tilting the bottle, a hot stream of milky white flowed into the cap, which he then set down in front of Pinkie Pie. The pink pony looked at the liquid in the cap, it smelled like a sweet rice pudding, and then, her big blue eyes went back up to the monster. It made a motion with its hands like a bowl up to its lips, encouraging Pinkie Pie to drink.

She looked around, shrugged, and picked up the big cap with her front hooves, slurping the liquid. It was a fiery, hot rice wine the Red Oni had spent years preparing. Among its own kind, to get a stranger to try it would be to be accepted by the Oni clan. This secret was never figured out by the ponies, and rejection by the clan had led many Onis to smash the pony villages out of anger. But now, Pinkie Pie was trying some, even though her candy-loving brain begged her to stop drinking the liquid fire!

Pinkie Pie finished the bowl, and gasped for air, coughing. It had been nearly as bad as the time Dr. Caltrops had made her try regular wine. But something was clearly different here, and she smacked her lips.

“That was rather interesting!” she said, her ears perking up, “It was all sweet, but bitter and kinda fiery tasting! Thank you! I guess all this time, you were just hoping somepony would give you a chance! I'm certainly glad I did!”

The ape stood up, and pounded its chest in delight, howling like any ape in joy. His tribe would accept him as a leader now, and his recipe had pleased another being. The mark on Pinkie Pie's sides vanished, and monster closed the bottle, setting it down near the cauldron.

The villagers ran down into the valley, praising Pinkie Pie for solving the mystery of the Red Oni tribe. Now they knew how to appease the great demon apes when they arrived, and their villages would no longer be in danger.

The excitement quieted down shortly, and soon, a young adult pegasus pony with a light green robe uniquely covered in diamonds of white with a smaller blue diamond inside each one appeared from the path into the valley. Her yellow hair bobbed as she galloped up to the gathering, having heard the commotion from a distance away. She looked at the crowd, and the party decorations bearing her name, and pushed to the front, where she screamed at the sight of the Red Oni.

“Mori!” said Yuki, running up to her, “Don't worry Mori! He's harmless.”

“Wh... what?” asked the mare, “How can that be?”

“Pinkie Pie tamed it,” explained Yuki, “he only wanted her to try something he had made. We know how to get along with their kind now, thanks to her.”

“Aw,” said Pinkie Pie, blushing and looking back.

“And furthermore, happy birthday!” exclaimed Yuki, hugging her friend.

“You set this up for me?” asked Mori, “But your party talent...”

“Will no longer be buried,” assured Longbow, “I have learned my lesson, and I believe the village has as well. We will find a way to use our special talents and still do good work. Perhaps we should stop hiding our cutie marks as a people.”

“Your robes are all unique, too,” mentioned Pinkie Pie, stepping forward in defense of the tradition, “sure Equestrians like to show off their cutie marks, but each of you has a really neat, unique robe that's just as good! And I noticed that every robe kinda shows off what your special talent is, too! Your robe has arrows, and Yuki's has fireworks!”

Longbow looked around at his neighbors, and realized Pinkie Pie had been right. Every pony in the village had crafted their robe to represent their talent in their cutie mark's place. The farmer had a wooden rake pattern sown into his cloak, and his neighbor the carpenter made his look like tree rings using light browns and reds.

“All this time, we never really did do away with what makes us unique,” stuttered the stallion, “Yuki... forgive me for making you think otherwise!”

Yuki nodded and nearly burst into tears, and ran over to her father, forgiving him with a tight embrace The whole family gathered for the hug, and Pinkie Pie was soon invited in too, participating in something the family had not done in a long time.

A loud bang startled everyone, making them turn around. A dent in space and time had appeared, a dark hole in the fabric of reality, which made the Oni growl and step forward, ready to protect its new pony friends.

The wormhole quickly opened up, and Princess Luna, Prince Darkmatter, Twilight and Techorse stepped out, having finally located Pinkie Pie.

“Oh my goodness, Princess Luna!” gasped Pinkie Pie, bouncing forward.

“We've finally found you!” exclaimed the Princess of the Night, “I'm so sorry it took us so long, Pinkie Pie. The night you went missing I told Celestia I would find you by your unique dream pattern all ponies have, but I could not locate yours until last night. You were so far away, we had to use brother's wormhole to travel here.”

“Oh wow,” said Twilight, pointing at the obvious giant gorilla, “is that a Red Oni?”

The monster blushed and rubbed the back of its head, nodding.

“Wait... so that means, I sent Pinkie Pie... to UMASHIMA ISLAND?” shouted Twilight Sparkle, spreading out on all fours with shock in her eyes.

“Indeed,” answered Princess Luna, nodding, “When I discovered Pinkie Pie's location, I told sister. She was very impressed with how far Pinkie Pie had been safely teleported. She already has your perfect score waiting for you back at home.”

Twilight's eyes twinkled, and she turned to Techorse, kissing him on the forehead, “I did it! I passed!”

“Congratulations,” said Darkmatter, “and thank you very much, citizens of Umashima, for caring for Pinkie Pie. We will make sure the Emperor rewards you for your hospitality.”

“Pinkie Pie has rewarded us, by teaching us how to be friends with the Onis, and how to appreciate our gifts in life,” answered Longbow to the Prince, getting looks of agreement from the other ponies in his town.

“Pinkie Pie, you're the best!” said Twilight, smiling, “Even when I'm not here you're spreading friendship.”

“Now let's head home, shall we?” said Darkmatter, preparing another spell.

Pinkie Pie looked back at Longbow's family, and Yuki Yi, who said, “Goodbye Pinkie Pie! Thank you for everything!”

The pink pony thought for a moment, and turned back to her friends.

“Actually, Prince Darkmatter, if it's okie dokie lokie with you, I wanna stay here in Umashima for another week or two!” she requested, “You can come get me here in the valley later! I think Umashima needs another couple weeks of Equestria's party pony!”

“Is that ok with your new friends?” asked the Prince, startled.

Longbow and Amai looked at each other, and nodded, “Certainly. It would be an honor.”

Pinkie Pie and Yuki Yi cheered, and ran up to each other, dancing around like the party ponies they were. Twilight and Techorse, along with the royal alicorns of Equestria left back the way they came, to return in two weeks for Pinkie Pie. For now, they would get the chance to enjoy their party, and Pinkie would continue to share her secrets with her new friends. For once, the village was having fun, and considering how they could use their own talents for a purpose other than their careers.

In the middle of the party, Mori pulled aside Pinkie Pie and Yuki.

“This has been my best birthday ever,” she said, joyful, “I want to thank Pinkie Pie using my special talent. Follow me.”

Pinkie Pie and Yuki agreed, and followed her back into the village, where they went into Mori's family owned store in town. It seemed to be a tailor's shop, with bolts of cloth hanging off of the plain walls, a few mirrors arranged around the room, and a raised platform that Mori had Pinkie Pie stand on. Mori, being a pegasus, stretched her wings out, a flexible ruler between them, and measured Pinkie carefully, before disappearing into the back room. The two friends waited patiently, and soon she came back with a folded white bundle of cloth. With a flick of her wings, Mori sent a gust of air underneath Pinkie Pie, making her jump. The cloth was thrown under and around Pinkie Pie, and when she landed, she was wearing her very own Umashiman robe, white as snow in color, dotted with small embroidered balloons of yellow and light blue, just like her cutie mark.

Pinkie Pie looked at the robe and its sleeves in the mirrors nearby, and gasped, “Oh wow! Thank you so much, Mori!”

“You are very welcome, Pinkie Pie,” she answered, bowing gracefully, “it is how I can thank you for helping Yuki plan such a nice surprise for me.”

“We should get back to it before they notice we've left,” suggested Yuki to her friends.

“That's right!” answered Pinkie Pie, already bouncing for the door, the flexible cloth Mori had picked letting her robe flow with her, “follow me!”

The other two mares smiled and followed their friend out the door and back towards the valley. Already, they could hear the celebration, it having grown larger while they were in Mori's shop. They knew that some of the other villages must have heard the party and joined in, and were now learning the secrets they had learned from Pinkie Pie, bringing them happiness as well.

The Way of the Party Pony had finally brought joy to the island.

#51 - Weathering Mix-Up: Part I

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Weathering Mix-Up: Part 1

The design of police stations for pegasus controlled towns was usually considered a bit of an anomaly by the other types of ponies. It couldn't be based around concrete walls and reinforced steel cells like the others found throughout Equestria's cities, because it would be far too heavy for the cloud material foundation. That approach would be an architectural disaster, a common way pegasus design school professors explained it to their students was that building in stone or concrete was like placing a cinder block atop marshmallow cream and expecting it not to sink. So as always, the headquarters was built out of the fluffy self-repairing clouds and hollow marble columns that had gotten the job done for centuries.

This particular pegasus designed police station was special, being three floors tall, a good half a city block wide, and a pillar at every corner to keep the stormy-looking cloud walls together. It was the headquarters of none other than the Cloudsdale Police Department, or CDPD as it was known by the locals. Pegasi had a long history of being able to execute military strategy and planning with brutal efficiency against monsters and crooks alike, and this strength was gladly adopted by its peacekeepers as well. At the moment, a team of four of those peacekeepers were escorting a rather unfortunate captive through the front door, banging open the gray fluffy entrance which discharged a small amount of lightning into the air around it from the impact.

“You four had better stop slamming that door...” growled the mare at the front desk, her blue police cap nearly knocked off by the static concussion, “or the chief's going to have your hides!”

“Can it Hotfront,” answered the sergeant at the front, still holding the prisoner's front leg with his wing while his fellow officers kept him pinned, “we've got a booking for you to handle. This crazy son of a gluemaker was caught sabotaging public facilities.”

“Is that so?” Hotfront scoffed, sitting up from her slouched position in the chair, “Well, good work catching him sergeant.”

Two of the police officers stayed behind as the sergeant and his partner left the room, leaving them at the captive's sides. He walked reluctantly up to the cluttered front desk, intentionally made taller than whoever was forced through the station's front doors for the intimidation factor. Or at least, it would have been intimidating if it wasn't for the fact that Hotfront's laziness left her desk cluttered with unfinished paperwork, empty coffee mugs she never bothered to wash, and a ton of pencils in various states of sharpness.

She swiped away some of the junk with her uniform-covered left hoof, and dragged out a ledger with crisp white pages, probably the cleanest document on the desk at that point. Ignoring the pencils, the mare searched around for a quill, and after failing to find one, plucked one of her own loose feathers out and dipped it in a half-dried inkwell.

Then she began her normal routine, “Name....”

“Mix-Up...” answered her captive with a lack of confidence, “this is a terrible misunderstanding.”

“They all say that, Mix-Up,” she sighed, “let's keep going, okay? The sooner we're done, the sooner we can get your lawyer here.”

Mix-Up's “innocent” green eyes took a look around at the cluttered lobby, wooden chairs somehow staying up on the cloud floor, cork boards everywhere with papers pinned to them, and ads to reach lawyers or buy bail bonds of course. Most of the police pegasi around him were gray or purple coated, a stark contrast to his own cerulean coat with white pimento splotches on his hooves. He wanted nothing more than to get his splotchy self out of the room, but he knew better. These police ponies had caught him sticking his white-colored muzzle where it didn't belong, and it was best to just answer Hotfront's questions.

“Okay, what do you want from me?” he asked.

“Occupation?” Hotfront queried.

Mix-Up managed to give a perky answer, “I'm an artist!”

“Riiiight... 'Unemployed' it is then.”

“That's not very nice, you know,” complained the stallion, ears turning down towards the ground.

Hotfront couldn't care less and droned on while working her pen, “Moving on, let's see... green eyes, marine mane in a short cut with a long tail, blue coat with white pimento coloring and muzzle, aaand turn sideways please.”

Mix-Up obeyed, showing off his cutie mark, two paint buckets dumping out rainbow colored streams that twisted together. She took note of all his physical attributes, and then took a photograph for reference. Left in the photo was the red duster scarf tied around his neck, an item that could easily give away his identity.

“All right, I think we're done here,” Hotfront said, “I don't deal with whatever it is you did and what happens to you next.”

“I didn't do anything!” Mix-Up complained in a haughty manner, “Your friends here just don't understand what my art means and they got all grabby about it!”

“Your lawyer will be happy to know about that, since it means compensation,” she answered, leaning back in her chair again like the lazy mare she was and pulling her hat over her eyes for another between-booking nap, “wouldn't be the first time the boys got their flanks sued! Isn't that right, guys?”

“Hotfront, we'd have you fired if we could,” retorted one of the two police stallions, “as for you sir, you're going to have to come with us.”

“Please don't throw me in jail!” begged the artist, starting to choke up.

“If you cooperate, we won't be throwing you,” he warned.

“Quit torturing the guy,” said the other stallion, compassionate about Mix-Up's situation.

He made sure the quivering artist looked at him before giving him reassurance, “We're going to make sure this isn't horrible, okay? This is just a holding area until we can figure out what happened. You're going to get access to your legal resources, and we're going to talk it through.”

The kindness was enough to convince Mix-Up to stop worrying and allow himself to be placed in his cell, which was more or less a large birdcage hanging in the third floor of the police headquarters, a warm cot and bathroom provided. He was locked securely inside, and promptly threw himself onto the bed to try to sleep through this situation.

“Don't you think you're overreacting, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, protesting Rainbow's anger, “we aren't in any danger of running out of water in Ponyville, you know.”

Rainbow Dash was flying ahead of her friends' hot air balloon, pulling it by a rope tied around her middle with such fury.

“You saw the rainclouds that came in this morning,” Rainbow Dash argued, “they were yellow. I don't know what kind of sick prank that is, but let's just say everypony went out of their way to avoid the rain shower I was trying to deliver!”

“Really?” Twilight asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Techorse and Pinkie Pie, sitting in the balloon's spacey basket next to Twilight, stifled their laughter. They remembered what had happened that morning when the lemonade and polka-dotted works of art rolled into Ponyville. The flower vendors immediately cried at the misfortune that their scrumptious blooms would be ruined by any precipitation from the ‘ruined’ clouds. Several accusations of mischief on behalf of the weather ponies in town soon turned into conspiracy theories that went all the way up to the concept of Discord wanting to ruin their day! It wasn’t long before the princesses caught on and dispatched Twilight to find out what went wrong.

“Hey, the neon yellow clouds weren't the only funny ones we got today,” Techorse commented, “one of them was glowing blue like it was radioactive!”

“Did you bottle it for evidence?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Princess Celestia sent us to help Cloudsdale deal with the perp!”

Tech gave Pinkie Pie a disappointed stare, “I did catch it, but...”

Pinkie Pie blushed, “Well... I thought it was raspberry cotton candy and ate it! Whoopsie!”

She stuck out her tongue and gave Twilight a great view of it, glowing the same light blue the unfortunate cloud had been earlier. The unicorn made her revulsion clear with a slight groan.

“Anyways,” continued Twilight, “we've been sent to figure out one: who created the crazy clouds, two: why they did it, and three...”

“Make sure he gets what's coming,” Rainbow Dash yelled, shaking her hoof menacingly, which only served to jerk the hot air balloon around on the rope.

The balloon lurched around, threatening to throw the occupants out of the basket, and the burner in the center's flame flickered in the change of air current.

“No! Make sure he's treated fairly,” responded Twilight, grabbing onto the reeved edge of the basket, “now could you stop yanking the balloon, Rainbow?!”

“Sorry,” the pegasus answered begrudgingly, bringing her pace with her towing efforts back to a safe level, “I'm just a bit upset that our weather got sabotaged by some crazy head, and we're going to go help him!”

“We know almost nothing other than the fact that some weird rainclouds started showing up all over Equestria,” Techorse assured her, “but if this guy really was pranking everypony, he's going to be in trouble for it.”

“Oh don't be silly, we know this was a just a big silly misunderstanding,” Pinkie Pie interjected, “right Twilight?”

“I hope so. We have a chance to settle some arguments and fix some friendships here. That's what we do best!”

“All right well, Cloudsdale's right up ahead. Let's get this over with,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, beginning her landing.

When the team landed, they were greeted right away by a crowd of concerned citizens, most of them standing out in the streets and pointing to the weather factory. Rainbow Dash nearly let her mouth fall open at the sight, the funnels on the modern facility were pouring out clouds of all kinds of weird colors and natures, some with polka dots, stripes, and glowing effects.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” one pegasus mare with a cockney accent commented, “Oh, it's just horrible! Clouds aren't supposed to look like this at all! Next you'll be telling me that the ocean should be pink, and the sky should be orange!”

“Well what about Discord's cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk!?” Pinkie Pie asked, “Those were awesome! You should give these silly clouds a chance!”

“Ok, but let's use a little reasoning here,” argued a stallion next to the pink mare, “you can actually drink chocolate milk and eat cotton candy. Who knows what's coming out of these clouds?!”

After applying the necessary anti-gravity charm to her friends’ hooves in order to avoid having them fall through the cloud layer, Twilight approached the stallion Pinkie was interacting with and cut their conversation short.

“Does anypony around here know who we can talk to about this incident?” she asked the stallion, cutting Pinkie's conversation short, “we've been sent by Princess Celestia to investigate the problems with the weather station.”

“Scuse me, coming through,” came a voice from inside the crowd.

The other ponies backed off a bit to let forward a petite police mare wearing her uniform, albeit rather disheveled. Her blue shirt's white tie had slipped out of the shirt, dangling beneath her a little dangerously close to her hooves where she might easily trip, granted the clouds would break her fall easily.

“Are you guys the ponies sent by the Princess?” she asked, “We've got a situation here down at the police station. The saboteur of the weather factory is giving our guys a hard time, won't talk at all except for how this is his 'magnum opus' or something.”

Techorse felt his muscles tense up, “That sounds like an act of...”

“Yeah yeah, we know,” the police mare said, raising a hoof to stop him, “don't use the T-Word around all these ponies!”

“YOU MEAN THE WEATHER FACTORY'S ACCIDENT WAS A...” Pinkie Pie tried to gasp, only for Twilight to grab her lips with her aura to keep her silent so that the policemare wouldn't instantly arrest her for causing a panic.

“We'd just like to see the suspect, if that's okay with you, officer,” Twilight chuckled nervously, “you know, I thought this was the work of a group of pranksters. I really hope it's not somepony with some kind of grudge against Cloudsdale.”

“Well, unfortunately it's just one stallion about our age... but we don't know yet if he was trying to scare ponies or what,” she answered, “Hopefully that's not the case.”

“Yeah, he'd better not be trying to scare ponies!” Rainbow Dash grumbled, stomping her hoof into the fluffy ground, “I want to know what he was thinking right now!”

“Don't worry, you'll all get your chance at him,” she said, “come with me.”

She led them to the police station, telling her life story along the way, “Daddy was an earth pony, rare metals miner... named me Little Malachite after my green coat. Got nicknamed pretty early on based on the last part of my name, 'Kite', like the flying things.”

“Kite's a great nickname!” Pinkie Pie agreed happily, “What made you want to be a policemare?”

“Well, mom was nice enough to give me the genes for her wings, and I've always wanted to help protect ponies. When I got older, I just put out applications hoping for a department that could take me, and Cloudsdale was looking for some reserve officers to file paperwork, escort folks around... you know, easy work for a smaller mare.”

Rainbow Dash resisted making a joke about the officer's height, a good four inches under her own, but she knew she'd just have to. She bit down on her own lip and snickered a bit, thinking up a good one she could use to mock the vertically challenged officer.

Somehow, Kite had picked up on her private mocking, “Something you want to say, Rainbow Dash? Don't forget we all know you here at home, and all the stuff you're 'famous' for.”

The only thing worse than getting arrested was a strong retaliatory joke, so Rainbow quit biting her lip very quickly, just in case Kite had a record of all the things she'd done in her hometown. She wisely kept her mouth shut until they reached the front door of the police building, offering to hold it open for her friends.

Soon after, they saw the alleged perpetrator, Mix-Up was being interrogated, more accurately being tortured, by the officer who was threatening him earlier. The sealed-off room, containing only a table and two chairs, was intentionally cramped and hot to make the occupant “fess up” as the rest of the investigative staff put it. Leaving the room was the other officer who had been more reassuring, disgusted with his colleague's treatment of Mix-Up.

“Hey Eager, how's our guest in there?” asked Kite of the gray-colored pegasus, “You and Sharptalk giving him the ol' good cop, bad cop routine?”

“Well, it would help if Sharptalk wasn't actually a bad cop,” grumbled Eager, “we found out that our suspect isn't trying to cause any terror in the Cloudsdale public, just make some hippie artistic statement. Didn't stop Sharptalk from threatening him with 12 years of hard labor scrubbing out the latrines in the yak embassy, though!”

“Yikes,” Techorse commented, “Sharptalk could get himself in trouble saying things like that.”

“I'm sure the yaks wouldn't find it funny, that's for sure,” Twilight agreed, “they’ve declared war over less…”

“The yaks declared war? Is it Tuesday already?” joked Rainbow Dash, finally getting a joke off.

“There's plenty of room for all of you in the sensitivity meeting Sharptalk's in for, you know,” Kite mumbled while rolling her silver eyes skyward.

The door to the interrogation room slammed open, and Sharptalk angrily stomped out, “I am NOT talking to this jerkwad for another second! He refuses to say anything except brag about how great his weather-ruining art is! Just pitch that guy back in the cell, Kite.”

“Come on Sharp,” Eager said to placate him, “let's go get you a coffee. I think Kite can take it from here.”

Kite nodded at Eager, but made faces at Sharptalk behind his back the moment he was halfway out the door. Then she went over to the cold, scary containment room and asked Mix-Up to follow her out. The artist agreed, entering the larger observation room containing Princess Celestia's confused friends. The detained cerulean pegasus felt his heart skip a beat when he saw Twilight Sparkle especially. For whatever reason, he was able to set aside the fact that he was in trouble with the law to take deep interest in the appearance of the mare.

“Oh my,” he teased, turning his head and smiling, “you're Twilight Sparkle, aren't you?”

“That's right,” she answered boastfully, “And in case you haven't heard of the rest of us, this is Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Techorse. So, now that we've got our names out of the way, who are you?”

“I'm Mix-Up,” he proclaimed as if important, “Cloudsdale's greatest cloud designer. Looks like we have two famous ponies in this room!

Twilight was amused by the flirtatious comment, “Heh… I'm just here on behalf of the princesses to investigate the sabotage of the weather factory in Canterlot. I thought it might be some young stallions pulling pranks, so I prepared a lesson plan on better ways to get attention and came here to help.”

Mix-Up approached Twilight with desire in his step, ignoring her personal space, “Oh, I'm sure there's lots I can learn from your lesson plan. You know, unicorns are so smart and pretty. I'm sure you can convince these nice police mares to let me go?”

He was almost touching her striped mane with his filthy paint stained hoof, at least from a very upset Techorse's perspective, who didn’t care for the pegasus stallion being all cutesy with his marefriend. The looks of horror on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's faces agreed with his thoughts that the last thing Mix-Up should be trying to do was flirt.

Luckily Twilight didn't care for it, and she pushed him back with a small disk of magic energy, “Heh, um... I don't think that's gonna work.”

“Funny, usually this does work,” the artist sighed 'romantically',”let me know if you feel differently later.”

“You'd better back off,” Kite joked when he saw the stallion's muscles tense, “or Techorse might just earn himself an assault charge right here!”

Techorse definitely had tensed muscles and a somewhat bothered expression that gave away how he felt about Mix-Up sweet-talking his significant other. Pinkie Pie made sure to grab Tech's attention and give him one of her trademark cheery smiles in hopes of getting him to relax. Her buddy stopped scowling and went back to focusing on the task at hand.

“Anyways,” Rainbow Dash continued, “you'd better tell me what the hay you were thinking causing a problem over at the weather factory, er… Mix-Up?”

“That’s right,” he nodded patiently.

“Well aaaanyhoof… Your stupid 'art' you did,” she continued, making air quotes with the tips of her wings, “made the weather delivery this morning crazy all over Equestria! Some of us thought it was literally going to rain cats and dogs with how insane the sky was!”

“Well, if you'd only give me a chance to really explain, I'm sure you'd realize I'm in the right,” Mix Up answered, proudly putting a hoof at his chest and dismissing his critics.

“Oooh this is gonna be goooooood!” sang Pinkie Pie, who tip tapped on her hooves in glee, partially because she wanted to hear the story, but partially because the overly angry expression on Rainbow's face made her giggle.

“All right, Mix-Up”, Techorse said in a no nonsense tone, willing to give him a chance despite his inappropriate behavior, “tell me why you think breaking into the weather factory and changing the clouds was necessary.”

The spotted pegasus happily agreed to explain, puffing out his chest, “I’m glad you asked! You see, I am a true artist who sees the beauty in design....“

Mix-Up then spread his wing out to dramatically illustrate, the others could feel the self importance hanging in the air, For months now, I've been trying to push the idea of designer clouds to the weather facilities all around Equestria, but I’ve always wanted to convince the one here in my hometown since it serves so much of the nation! With some rainbow water and the proper painting equipment invented by yours truly, I have created a way to make designer clouds of all hues and patterns! I can even make clouds that glow in the dark, or even clouds with polka dots!”

“Oh yeah, I saw some of those clouds that came from the factory!“ Pinkie said, waving her hoof up for attention, “and I gotta to say that they're the most funarific works of weather that I've ever seen! Most clouds are just boring old white colored, but I ate one of yours and it turned my tongue blue, which is normally only possible with blue raspberry candy, but that one did it right away which was really neat!” Pinkie Pie chipped in not stopping for a breath except to stick her tongue out to show its wacky hue, “Buuuuut it's super-duper illegal to break into sensitive weather factories and use the clouds batches without asking!”

“Oh, um, well I only broke in because everypony in town hated the idea and needed to see their mistake,” Mix-Up replied before wretching in disgust, “wait... did you say you ATE one of the clouds?!”

“Forget about Pinkie Pie eating everything and listen to the rest of what she said,” Twilight instructed while pointing at him, and making a point to avoid that possible path of conversation for sanity's sake “you shouldn't have broken in and painted the clouds, even if it was to prove a point!”

“A stupid point too,” Rainbow Dash laughed, “painting clouds and making them glow is pretty lame, Mix-Up.”

“Well then, you just don't know what true art looks like, Rainbow Dash,” Mix-Up scoffed, “I wouldn't expect a crabby mare like you to appreciate creativity at all.”

Rainbow Dash felt attacked by his words and stuttered back, “H... hey! Not true! There's plenty of stuff I like, just not your crazy idea!”

“My idea is not crazy, it is genius!”

Techorse, having finally caved in to the frustration brought on by the pegasus stallion’s aloof behaviour, made a fatal social blunder, “Mix-Up, that's enough! Your art isn't good enough to make it worth ruining the weather.”

That was the last straw for the artist who huffed indignantly, and marched over to the inventor, “Oh, so you don't think my art is good enough, Techorse? Watch this!”

Kite prepared to wrestle him to the ground, but burst into laughter when she saw what he was up to. The ticked off pegasus had concealed a sample of his weather paints in his red duster in the form of a small glass vial filled with a vaporous substance. Techorse couldn't exactly go anywhere standing in a room full of ponies, so he was unable to stop Mix-Up from smashing the vial on his battle saddle with the questionable mist, spreading it all over with his wings . Once the fog evaperated, the metal device had a fresh coat of hot pink paint that glowed as bright as a Hearth's Warming tree!

“How about now, Techorse!?!” sneered Mix-Up, continuing to smear the paint with his right wing, “Is it good enough for you now?”

“Stop!” Techorse yelled, trying to move away but being blocked by Pinkie Pie, who kept trying to squeeze out of the situation, “You're going to hit the release hatch!”

Seeing a small groove at the back of the saddle, Mix-Up swiped his wing across it, and with a loud click, Techorse's saddle popped open on the back, all the different gadgets inside popping out to full extension for maintenance like a swiss army knife. The robotic arms, laser weapons, turbofans, and missile tubes poked out in different directions like a bouquet of machinery. All of it glowing and embarrassing pink from the artist's furious painting.

Pinkie Pie giggled, “Oops! Didn't know your saddle could do that, Techie!”

This time, her silliness couldn't keep him calm and he yelled, “Mix-Up you idiot, you got your paint all over EVERYTHING! Most of the electronics are probably ruined with this stuff!” He yelled as at the cerulean pegasus for touching his personal equipment, which he was particularly protective of this gear.

Officer Kite interrupted, “Techorse, I know you're angry, but... um, well... we need to talk.”

“WHAT?!” he shouted, forgetting she was a policemare.

Kite waited with a blank expression for him to calm down and take a deep breath, “Are you okay now? This is about your saddle. I wasn't aware you had those weapons on you.”

“Oh... well I have my permit for that,” Techorse answered sheepishly, “let me get it out for you.”

“I'll take a look at it, but it doesn't matter,” Kite said, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh no, we're not starting today off with Techorse getting arrested are we?” Twilight panicked.

The officer shook her head and went to unlatch the device, “No, but I'm going to have to hold onto Techorse's saddle until he leaves Cloudsdale. Even with a license, those weapons are too dangerous within the city limits to carry them unless he's taking them straight out of the city. Next time you’ll need to declare those.”

Given that it was soaked in glowing paint and wasn't of much use now, Techorse willingly surrendered his saddle to Kite. but the damage had already been done. Mix-Up had embarrassed him in front of the Cloudsdale police. The pegasus seemed pleased with himself, having made a mockery of Techorse, but he felt a little worried based on the 'dagger eyes' he was getting from him.

“Mix-Up, I ought to add to your charges for that,” Kite continued after barely managing to shove the saddle in a locker and close it, “but it's up to Techorse since you damaged his property.”

He tried to defend himself, “He made fun of my work!”

“There are boundaries to think about,” Techorse grumbled, furious but still wanting to do his job, “I'm not that bad you damaged my saddle since it's not that hard to fix, but you did ruin the weather for a lot of cities. You really need to think about the impact of your work when you force it on others.”

Twilight had something to say to both of the stallions, but her thoughts got interrupted by Eager popping his head back in the door.

“Hey Kite, I know you're busy listening to Celestia's helpers talk to the suspect, but we've got somepony else here to see him,” the stallion said, “it's Mr. Featherfall.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, “Woah, Mr. Featherfall? The guy who owns the Cloudsdale weather factory!? No way!”

Eager found himself being shoved aside by the pegasus pony, a navy blue stallion with broad wings tucked gently over a white dress shirt and pants combination, black vest over it and a gold chain running from the vest's pocket to his shirt's seam. His mane hair slightly gray from his age was combed over to the right, clearly not balding with plenty of curls to it, and a short tail matched the curly combed look. On his face sat a very well kept imperial mustache that followed every movement of his lips when he spoke, and he took a good look at Mix-Up with his disapproving eyes with golden irises.

“Oh well, what a turnout we have here!” he teased with a pleasant smile, “If it isn't Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt aspirant, and her good friends! I suppose you've beaten me here for a conversation with our guest of honor, and I must say I'm not surprised given your track records of diligence in the name of our Majesty’s wishes.”

“Hello Mr. really really patronizing!” Pinkie Pie giggled, jumping up to great him, “I'm Pinkie Pie, and we're just about done here helping Mix-Up learn what he did was uncool so he can fix his life and stop making weird art!”

“Ah,” Featherfall coughed, turning to Kite, “perhaps you'd like to fill me in a bit more, officer. I believe miss Pinkie Pie and her friends have had enough of me already. It must be difficult cooperating with others not directly tied to Celestia.”

Techorse made it clear he didn't like Featherfall either by narrowing his eyes at him, not that it was enough to get him to stop.

“Mr. Featherfall, Mix-Up here was caught painting the cloud batch intended for the weather this morning,” she said, “it's the result of some idea he had for designer clouds. Most of the residents of Cloudsdale rejected him for the idea, so he went into the factory at night and basically forced the artwork on everypony else in Equestria.”

“Oh, I see,” the aristocrat answered, “well that seems fairly rude. I don't suppose you know very much about me, do you Mr. Mix-Up?”

The pegasus turned a little pale, “You own the weather factory?”

Featherfall shrugged a bit, “Well not quite. I own stake in our fine city's utility to the tune of forty percent of all shares. That’s not enough to control the factory by majority, but I still have the largest piece held by a single stallion. This means I get to handle all the thrilling bits of running the factory, such as deciding on which clouds to output... and how to deal with troublemakers.”

Techorse, still hoping to save Mix-Up, and please Celestia in doing so, cut in before the artist could say anything mouthy to the CEO, “I think Mix-Up here just broke in out of frustration with others rejecting his art. He's not dangerous, Mr. Featherfall. Just a bit... impulsive.”

The green stallion tried to fake a strained smile, but ended up making a borderline scowl at the ‘artist’ in question. Taking off his vest and placing it on a nearby coat rack, the executive relaxed a little while talking to Techorse, “I agree, but... my fellow shareholders are a little more than upset that we may lose value from that bad batch of weather clouds.”

“Tech, please tell him why he's wrong,” Mix-Up sighed, “my ideas only add value to the clouds.”

The green stallion, still furious over his ruined saddle mouthed off at him, “That's not how any of this works, Mix-Up. Your 'art' is a subjective business idea that's up to others to place value on. If Mr. Featherfall thinks they're destructive, he has every right to come here and tell you that!”

“That's... horrible,” was all he could answer, scrunching his face up, “can't you do anything else but snub my creativity?”

Techorse finally lost it and shouted at him, “Mix-Up, I'm NOT trying to snub your creativity! I'm trying to keep you out of prison! In case you weren't aware, there's a dozen charges against you, including destroying my stuff, so stop this and at least PRETEND you care!”

“Go Tech!” Rainbow Dash whooped, getting grumbled at by Twilight for the teasing.

Kite reminded him sternly, “Nopony has actually pressed charges yet, but Mr. Featherfall owning so many shares in the factory means he's going to decide what happens next. This would be a really good time to apologize and hope he just goes with a vandalism charge instead of piling together the breaking in, tampering with dangerous machinery, and just about every other law you broke.”

Feeling cornered, but unable to give up on his ideas, Mix-Up put on an air of being miserable, dropping to the floor dramatically and twisting his expression to look as sad as he could.

“I didn't really want to ruin the weather for Equestria this morning. Just change things for the better.
Make them more fun and spontaneous!” he whimpered.

Techorse and Twilight, but especially Techorse, were less than thrilled that Mix-Up was effectively refusing to apologize or do any kind of negotiation with Mr. Featherfall, the stallion who was clearly going to decide whether or not he was going to wind up in jail that day.

“Well, I'm not sure the motley company in this room agrees, but I truly believe that,” Mr. Featherfall said, talking like a supportive family member to the artist but bashing everyone else, “which is why I have against the wishes of the other shareholders decided that an educational experience is going to be more productive to your life and our profits than throwing you in prison.”

“Please do not tell me that after all this we've had to go through that you are not going to press charges for something,” Kite complained loudly, “PLEASE!”

“Well officer, I did say there would be an educational experience,” Featherfall answered, holding up a hoof and batting his eyebrows, “Mix-Up will be required to learn about how much effort goes into the creation of weather in Cloudsdale first, or else you can CRUSH HIM with the book of law.”

“You mean 'throw the book at him',” Twilight corrected, raising an eyebrow at the sudden aggression.

The stallion cleared his throat, “Semantics, Twilight Sparkle.”

“All right, well, if you're going to give this loser a chance, what does he need to learn?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Simple,” Featherfall answered, “it's clear to me from our chat here that this young stallion simply values the work of an artist over the work of the industrious weather mares of our facility. He needs to learn why that viewpoint is wrong, so I want him to spend the day talking to official weather ponies and get them to sign a document once they're satisfied with his understanding of their careers and how much he's hurt them.”

“But, but, what if none of them will sign!?” Pinkie Pie gasped, “They're all probably really mad!”

“There's a ton of my employees who think their work is thankless,” the executive admitted, smacking his lips, “I'm sure if he's willing to make amends and take legitimate interest in their jobs, they'll sign.”

“Heh, that's for sure,” Rainbow Dash agreed, “thankless job.”

Trying to make up for Rainbow's insults, Twilight put on a smile and said, “Well Mr. Featherfall, that sounds like a good lesson for Mix-Up! Having him make a connection with the weather ponies will let him see how his art impacted them negatively and give him an appreciation for other lines of work besides his own.”

“That's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish here,” he agreed, before stiffing a cough, “Of course, I need to know he's not just going to skip town the moment we turn him loose either... which is why I need one of you to escort him around the city.”

Pinkie Pie bounced around the room, “OOH OOH, PICK ME, PICK ME!”

“Techorse... I choose Techorse,” he sighed, “he needs to do it.”

“NO!” yelled Techorse, stomping his hoof, “Absolutely not!”

“There is no way I'm working with him!” Mix-Up snapped, “He doesn't appreciate my talents either, and he's demanding I feel terrible for something I'm good at!”

“I never said... I... AHHH!” Techorse turned red and snapped before demanding of the factory owner, “F... Featherfall, why would you choose me? Twilight has been looking forward to this assignment all day, and she's Celestia's student of friendship!”

Making excuses, Featherfall looked around the room nervously, “Well, that's... just it. Twilight Sparkle's help would make this way too easy, I believe. We discussed that at our last stakeholder meeting, took up all morning.”

Techorse thought that seemed reasonable, but Twilight disagreed quite heavily. She knew that Featherfall couldn't have possibly known they were coming unless Princess Celestia sent him a message too, and it was unlikely that he would have had enough time to gather the hundreds of other shareholders for a meeting since Mix-Up had been arrested just one hour after the bad clouds were shipped out, so the meeting taking “all morning” was nonsense. Furthermore, why not ask Rainbow Dash to guide him around her hometown instead? Things just didn't add up.

“Right,” she answered after coming up with a plan, “well in that case, we'll just let Techorse escort him. No problem.”

The two stallions gave each other a death glare, each not wanting the other's company.

“Good, now, I'll just hand you the proper documentation, and you'll have until eight in the evening to finish collecting your signatures,” the pleased CEO chuckled, “after that, I can't guarantee anything.”

Techorse wanted to continue his angry gaze at Mix-Up, but Twilight gave him a subtle wink that let him know he was doing her a favor, “We'll be done before then. Rainbow Dash taught me where most of the Cloudsdale employees hang out, so I'll make sure Mix-Up learns his lesson.”

“Thank you for this,” said the artist, faking a smile, “I'm glad there aren't any hard feelings, sir.”

“It's not about feelings, it's just business,” he chuckled modestly, “now off with you! I have things to attend to myself you know!”

Techorse and Mix-Up left the police station together to start collecting signatures on a sheet of legal paper provided by Featherfall, giving each other a death stare the entire time. This left Twilight with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie standing outside of the station waiting for Featherfall to be well outside of hearing distance.

“So, are we going to hang out in town while we wait for them?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I know this really great place for milkshakes spun with tiny tornadoes!”

“That sounds so good!” Pinkie Pie drooled, licking her chops.

“Nope, we're going to follow them,” Twilight Sparkle answered, smirking, “loosely of course, so we don't get caught.”

“It's Featherfall, isn't it?” Rainbow Dash asked, “He was acting pretty suspicious picking Tech of all ponies to help out Mix-Up.”

“Maybe he noticed that Techie was getting really annoyed by him, and picked him so that he wouldn't be very helpful! That's gotta be it because that Mix-Up guy needs all the help he can get since it's pretty much impossible he's gonna change!” Pinkie suggested, hopping up and down, “Featherfall's setting him up like a bunch of sugar cookies to get munched on! What a meanie!”

“He's a jerk,” Rainbow Dash agreed, spreading her wings and jumping up so she could pace in the air, “it was really uncool the way he talked about us. Mix-Up's a jerk too, but he's really just an art snob trying to get attention, no biggie. Featherfall dissed us every chance he got.”

“Yeah, he called us motley! MOTLEY!” Pinkie Pie yelled, grabbing Twilight and shaking.

After pushing Pinkie Pie gently away, Twilight continued patiently, “Featherfall might be trying to please the other shareholders and prevent a loss in value by humiliating Mix-Up. I don't know what Tech has to do with it either, but that's why we have to follow them.”

“Plus we gotta make sure Techie and Mix-Up don't go all crazy and turn each other into glitter paste,” Pinkie Pie joked with a wink and a smile, “didja see how annoyed he was? His saddle looked like a glow stick!”

“He was so mad,” Rainbow Dash snorted, trying not to laugh, “that guy wasn't listening to a word of his advice, and Tech really hates it when nopony listens to him.”

“Plus he was really uncomfortable with how Mix-Up was talking to me,” Twilight added, “I have to admit, it was a bit tasteless, even though he was probably just trying to get out of his situation. Too bad for him though, he's going to have to learn his way out of this!”

Pinkie Pie jumped up and down in place, “Then let's find ourselves a comfy place to watch!”

“I know a place!” Rainbow Dash grinned.

Having secreted himself away to an office building he kept most of the factory's paperwork in for processing, Featherfall sat in an empty conference room that he had locked himself in just to be safe. Pegasus boardrooms were just like any other boring boardroom attempting to be interesting, a long wooden table with a carpeted floor and a glass case full of meaningless corporate awards from various Equestrian business magazines. The only thing that reminded anyone in the room it was a pegasus abode were the gray cloud-walls that were made just a little thicker and more sound resistant. Rather than his usual stakeholder or investment meetings, the wealthy stallion had set up a runic communication system consisting of an arcane disk etched with runes and gemstones that projected the bust of the other speaker in a purple color.

“You're absolutely certain it has to be this way?” Featherfall whispered, trying to keep the ponies working in the surrounding office building from hearing him.

The other caller was clearly a knight of some kind clad in an iron mask that covered his facial features entirely. His horns like those of a bull, pointed and facing forward, stuck out of the top of the dark steel, and his faceplate bore a mustache and beard etching like a samurai's ceremonial faceplate.

Surprisingly, his voice was not very deep or restricted by his impressive armor, “I am certain it has to 'be this way'. Techorse must be incapacitated... or worse.”

Featherfall had met the individual, a centaur that towered over him yet spoke softly enough, when down in Canterlot bemoaning loudly his ownership of a mere 40% of the factory shares. Despite the fact that weather was a utility highly regulated by Canterlot, owning more than half of the facility would grant him a place among the true elite of the world, controlling Cloudsdale and its wealth while being able to “brush away” any competition.

But his dream carried some risks if it involved offing Techorse, and his voice trembled during his response, “W..what?! That was never part of the deal we had! The deal was that we have that stupid artist screw up the clouds again, and then...”

“Quiet yourself. Let's review the plan one more time,” his customer interrupted calmly, “You told me Mix-Up had tried to alter the weather clouds in the past, and I instructed you to allow him into the factory by giving the guards the night off once.”

“Yes, of course. That loser's been trying to mess with us for months, and as you suggested I had a key to the factory gates slipped to him in a 'mailing error' via an envelope marked for one of my other employees intentionally delivered to the wrong address,” Featherfall grumbled, “it looks like he took full advantage and his sabotage indeed hurt the value of the factory shares.”

The knight nodded, “It did, but we are not finished yet. Currently, Equestria is unaware that pest is behind the weird cloud issue, and the cost of buying into the weather facility has only gone down by a little. However, one more incident will cause investor faith to falter to a point where your shares will become near worthless. That's when you'll be able to purchase all the other shareholders' stock, giving you total control of Cloudsdale's weather facilities in a single action.”

“Then all I have to do is show that Mix-Up caused the terrible weather, and the value will return to my holdings,” nodded Featherfall with greed on his mind, “and then you get a nice kickback like you wanted.”

“I don't want a kickback, I want Techorse down,” insisted his client harshly, “Twilight Sparkle and her friends must also not be harmed in the process.”

“I won't use violence,” the CEO retorted angrily, “especially not against somepony who works with Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia! They'll put me in Tartarus for it!”

The centaur on the other end of the call stood silent for a moment, the hologram flickering when he tried to groan and rub his face with a hand. He knew he was going to have to explain things again to the greedy pegasus... and he hated repeating himself.

“Our plan for you to take over Cloudsdale's primary economic powerhouse depends on falsified information being spread that the weather factory's machines have become worthless,” explained the masked individual, “if you do not stop Techorse, Mix-Up will be revealed to Cloudsdale as the culprit of the weather incidents very quickly, and you will not be able to complete your hostile takeover.”

One sick laugh came from the cenataur's throat when he saw the color rush from Featherfall's face. Everything had been set up perfectly by the steel-clad warrior so that the CEO was forced to comply with his request, or he'd never gain control of the factory.

“I can see you don't like being outsmarted by your superior,” cackled the centaur who crossed his arms over his chest mockingly, “you want all that money and power, you senile greedy idiot? Go earn it. Stop Techorse for me.”

The pegasus's muscles tightened up, and his face curled into an enraged mess, “You'll regret crossing me like this! If I end up in Tartarus, I'll make sure you go with me!”

After a few seconds of thought, the hologram answered, “I promise you... no Tartarus. Now get it done.”

Then the image turned into a flurry of purple sparks which cascaded down into the base of the transmitter. Featherfall, frustrated as ever, kicked it across the room and into the trophy case, smashing the glass and it to pieces.

“My apologies in advance, Mr. Techorse.”

#52 - Weathering Mix-Up: Part II

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Weathering Mix-Up: Part II

“What a fine mess of a situation we’re in, Techorse. Can’t others simply learn to let go of what they find off-putting in the name of cultural enrichment?”

Although Mix-Up had been granted a second chance to stay out of prison by learning to value the work of his fellow pegasi in the weather industry, that hadn’t changed his immediate attitude even minutely, and his displeasure at his situation was still being made known to Techorse. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the Cloudsdale Police had confiscated his battle saddle, the green earth pony might have already strangled Mix-Up with a pair of cold, metallic hands. Ears back, eyes at the ground, and nose wrinkled in anger, he refused to talk to the pegasus at all and was merely tolerating his incessant yapping about the alleged value of his art. His nerves were already ground down to the core thanks to the constant debate, and it seemed like any moment the stallion could flip out.

“Are you even paying attention to me?” demanded the pinto pegasus, huffing at him, “I’m just as unhappy as you are about this pointless situation Mr. Featherfall has put us in, but there’s no reason for you to give me the silent treatment.”

“I'm not trying to give you the silent treatment,” he promised with a false sense of being calm, “I'm trying to think of a way to help you earn those signatures you need. You're probably going to have to accept that your art ruins the weather and apologize to the workers affected.”

“Apologize?” snorted Mix-Up, “And what do you mean ruins? The clouds still produce rain, snow, and hail no matter how I choose to decorate them.”

“No one in Canterlot, Ponyville, or anywhere else wants to have to guess that,” argued the earth pony, “didn't you say the other Cloudsdale residents found your artwork weird, too?”

“Just the ones from my neighborhood, the higher society,” he answered in his usual manner of disappointment, “they want me to repress my creative expression as well. But that's exactly why I must do what I do. This idea of mine truly is great!”

“Well, I plan on helping you see why that's wrong and switch you to a good use of your artistic talent,” continued the inventor, getting more rolled eyes and sighing from the pegasus in return.

Of course, Techorse's only goal was to make sure Mix-Up was using his talents the way he thought was appropriate. Professional painting, the creation of commissioned artwork for others, and interior decoration were all possibilities. But somehow, Techorse maintained the feeling that the other pony wasn't going to be so cooperative.

They didn't speak to each other until later when they finally entered the urban center. Downtown Cloudsdale was bustling with activity, pegasus ponies darting in and out of flight lanes and dropping into various storefronts and restaurants along the city squares. A stranger pulled off of her casual aerial route to land in front of the two ponies on the sidewalk, the one place not permitted as a flight path.

“Good afternoon,” she said cheerfully, adjusting her delicately curled red and purple striped mane, “couldn’t help but notice you two boys taking the slow way around Cloudsdale. Are you new around here?”

Techorse forgot his annoyance and cracked a joke, “Not new, just a bit flightless.”

“Ohhhh, sorry,” the mare blushed, “didn’t notice. I moved here a few months ago from a village down below, still getting used to others needing magic to stay here. So what brings you for a visit? Mind if I walk with you?”

“Of course, no need to ask,” offered Mix-Up with an over-the-top bow, “please accompany us.”

She hid her smile behind her hoof at Mix-Up’s behavior and walked with the stallions down the busy sidewalk, the fluffy clouds beneath their hooves cushioning their steps. As typical for Cloudsdale, they were surrounded by buildings that towered over them with columns cut from the tallest cumulonimbus possible, and the craftsmanship rivaled anything else in the world even if the structures' materials was a bit flimsy.

“So what brings an earth pony to Cloudsdale?” the mare asked, “My name’s Windburn, by the way.”

“Well, I’m here to help… this guy,” grumbled the stallion, pointing at him with a curled hoof, “he’s Mix-Up, and I’m Techorse.”

“We’re going to the weather factory to speak with the workers, not that I like the idea very much,” the other pegasus complained, turning his nose up, “I’ve seen enough of it already.”

The mare whistled, “Oooh, bad day for a tour, boys. See, the reason I moved here is because my brother got a job at the weather factory. He was really mad because some dope broke into the factory last night and sabotaged the clouds, which he’d spent all of his shift making.”

Mix-Up opened his mouth to speak but was shot down by Techorse who gave the vandal a glare, “Poor guy. He must work really hard, only to find out someone ruined his stuff.”

“It was so funny,” she giggled, ruffling her feathers, “he told me this morning that he was so mad that if he ever finds out who did it...”

She imitated the gruff voice of her brother while pouting sarcastically, “I’ll pluck him alive and break his legs one at a time!”

Techorse got a sensible rise out of Mix-Up’s reaction to knowing he was the target of the sibling’s wrath, the pegasus making himself look as small as possible. Windburn didn’t seem to make a connect between the guilty, horrified look on the artist’s face and the threats her brother had made over their normally relaxing lunch break.

“Well, anyways, if you see that big lug, tell him to chill like I did,” she said, Mix-Up breathing a huge sigh of relief, “breaking somepony’s legs over this would be dumb. He got paid to make the clouds either way, am I right guys?”

“Yup, and hopefully whoever did it is sorry, and can understand why he was so upset,” Techorse aggressively stated, shoving the middle of his leg into the left side of Mix-Up’s barrel.

“Oof! Well maybe he should learn to lighten up over a necessary change,” he returned, jabbing his own hoof into Techorse’s ribs.

Windburn raised an eyebrow at the two stallions acting so rough with each other, and stopped walking to get their undivided attention.

“Aaaare you two okay?” she asked, shaking her head sideways, “You seem a little bit on edge with each other.”

Having been caught, the two stallions sheepishly backed away from each other. Any further with their roughhousing and it was highly likely that Windburn would start asking questions she didn’t need to know the answers to.

Techorse backed away from Mix-Up slowly, “Oh, sorry. We’re just goofing around.”

“Yes… messing around,” coughed the painter, “so are you planning on going to the factory with us, perhaps to visit your brother?”

“I’d love to, but I’ve got to get back to my own job running my lotion shop,” she answered cheerfully, “Windburn’s Burn Creams!”

“Oh, I know that little place!” said Mix-Up pridefully, placing a wing over his breast, “I’m sorry I didn’t remember sooner, it’s that charming little outlet by the newsstand, isn’t it? Do you still have your cutesy slogan?”

“Yes sir!” answered the mare with a cheesy salute, “When flying dries out your face, come on down to Windburn’s place!”

Techorse couldn’t help himself but smile, “Clever! Bet it sells well.”

“Never a short supply of chapped faces from the speeds the ponies around here reach,” she winked, starting to pull ahead of them, “Now I gotta run boys! Put a sign out saying I’d be back in by one!”

She galloped to full speed and took off, wings pumping away at the air around her in rapid flight. Windburn was way out of sight and mind within moments, all the time necessary for Techorse and Mix-Up to begin attacking each other again.

“So...” Techorse asked, “Can you see why Featherfall wants you to learn some appreciation for other lines of work?”

“If you hadn’t noticed yet, Techorse, I have an appreciation for Miss Windburn’s lotion store,” he answered without a shred of guilt, “I can appreciate more than my own work, but you must come to understand my viewpoint on what I’ve done, and why I will not formally apologize for any of it!”

“Well, either way, I’ll try to make sure Windburn’s brother doesn’t break your legs,” jested his mentor for the afternoon, “or Twilight might think I did it!”

Sure enough, Twilight and company were hanging out in a nearby collectibles shop browsing over the comics and adventure books Rainbow Dash was quite fond of. As predicted by the quick-thinking pegasus, the two stallions had walked right past her chosen hiding spot on schedule!

Rainbow nudged Pinkie Pie, who dropped the comic she was perusing, “Psst, arguing buddies at 12 O'clock!”

“But Rainbow Dash, it's gotta be at least one right now!” teased the other mare.

To her joy, it annoyed her friend easily, “You know what I mean! We're gonna follow them, remember?”

Pinkie Pie ruffled through her mane and pulled out a small knitted coin purse, “I know silly, but lemme buy this comic real quick, I reaaaally wanna know what happens to Lady Swordswift in this issue!”

After bouncing up to the cashier, Pinkie exchanged the required amount for the comic, and after rolling it up in her hooves, stuffed it in her fluffy bountiful mane, which absorbed the paper without a trace. Twilight, who was buried muzzle deep in one of the larger storybooks wasn't even phased by the event.

“Ready to go, Twilight?”

“Whoops, guess I got a little caught up in that compelling storyline,” she said, paying attention, “where are they headed next?”

Rainbow led the way out the door, “Looks like the weather factory, kinda obvious since that's where all the weather ponies work. Come on, I know a guy who can sneak us in!”

Featherfall had alerted the Cloudsdale weather facility to Mix-Up's arrival far ahead of when the two stallions were expected to make their entrance. Of course, the crafty investor had intentionally failed to mention that their new 'guest' was indeed the pony behind the mysterious discoloration of their life's work. Having lived long enough to understand business quite well, Featherfall's personal policy was to make sure that others were like mushrooms... kept in the dark and fed garbage. The longer it took Mix-Up to earn his five signatures, the more chances he would have to eliminate Techorse and appease his newest client.

“Now to decide how to get rid of that grass green moron,” he muttered, “I can't use hired help at this point... too obvious. It'll have to be something less conspicuous.”

From his perch on the balcony above most of the factory equipment and the white cloud material that kept it all afloat, he would monitor the situation. There were cloud generators with their brass gears and tubes to condense water with the help of pegasus magic, the lightning farms that generated quite the voltage in massive glass jars lined with electrodes, and the rainbow water maker, a high-pressured machine made of all sorts of tubes and bellows that let out a continuous stream of the chromatic liquid into collecting pools below. Those were just the three types of machines available in the main production room, flooded with sunlight from the apertures in the cloud walls. Water collectors, mixing machines, and other hideous ways to 'deal with' his target were in all the surrounding rooms.

“Uh, Mr. Featherfall?” asked a polite voice behind him.

He gave a casual look over his shoulder to see one of his worker mares holding a second hardhat in her wings, “You gotta wear your hat, sir, rules are rules. Can't have an accident today, right?”

“Ha ha, no... we most certainly can't,” he answered as she placed the white plastic protective gear over his head.

Watching back over the front door to the main production floor again, Featherfall just happened to catch his quarry and the pony behind this morning's fiasco waltz into the building. Techorse had failed to successfully trigger the wing-activated automatic door, and ended up pushing through it.

“Techorse is so out of it,” Featherfall said in a bored tone after watching the spectacle, “I hope that will make this quick for him...”

The sizable hole he had left behind in the door healed itself back up quickly, a strong advantage of cloudhomes. Escorting the two was a security guard wearing a bright orange vest who had them both sign a form relieving the factory of responsibility should something happen to harm them. It wasn't very likely that it covered the terrible act Featherfall was about to perform, but it was even less likely that he cared given that Cloudsdale would be under his hoof. After taking a quick look around, he knew which machinery was likely to be visited first and went to begin preparations.

“All right, I've got to get back out to the gatehouse,” the security officer told Techorse and Mix-Up, “you guys stay with Avia here, she'll be taking you through the factory one station at a time.”

“Thank you,” said Techorse politely.

Avia approached them with a clipboard under her wing and a pleasant smile on her face. Being one of the most extroverted ponies on the weather factory team, she was often left in charge of the tours. Her white coat and tangerine mane contrasted with her dust colored eyes, but there was an aura of energy about her that definitely rivaled Windburns'.

“Heeeey boys, welcome to the factory!” she said all peppy and ready for action, “What brings you here today?”

Techorse motioned with his head at her, Mix-Up rolling his tired eyes, “Oh brother... well, I'm here to redeem myself apparently. You see, I'm Mix-Up, the stallion who turned the clouds colorful and creative this morning while you were asleep!”

Avia gritted her teeth, “Oof, and you were sentenced to public humiliation like this?”

“Hardly. I was promised I wouldn't go to prison if I managed to get five weather ponies to sign a document I have here,” continued the cerulean stallion, digging out the parchment Featherfall gave him, “this is completely unnecessary of course, but it was this or a cell I guess...”

The worker accepted the wing-to-wing transfer of the paper and attached it to her clipboard with a satisfying 'click'. Even after looking over the legal terms on the documentation, she was still only able to go back to the fake grin that had replaced her real one.

“You know, you caused a lot of extra work this morning for us,” said the employee, “I was scrambling to reset the snowflake sublimation unit. Not sure how I feel about giving a tour to the guy who made us work unpaid hours.”

Tech responded, “Avia, Mr. Featherfall himself offered this agreement as a way for Mix-Up to stay out of prison. He picked me, Techorse to make sure he completes his apology. Once Mix-Up has learned how hard you guys work and stops making this kind of art, you'll never have to deal with this again.”

She shook her head in disbelief, “I don't know... he might try something funny.”

There were unpleasant words Mix-Up wanted to say to Techorse, but they would just dig the hole deeper. For now, he tried to put on the shy act he had done with Hotfront in his efforts to stay out of trouble. Out came the innocent puppy dog eyes and the pleading face as he knelt in front of the mare in hopes of

“Oh, please miss Avia. Give a struggling pony another chance,” he whimpered like a wounded puppy, “I promise I won't touch a thing! This is for me to see just how awful my artwork is!“

“Awful?” Avia asked rhetorically, scoffing, “Mix-Up, I'm upset because you damaged the cloud generator trying to paint the clouds. The designs you put on the clouds aren't the problem, in fact...”

Techorse's irked expression suddenly changed to surprise, “WHAT?!”

Taken aback by the shouting, Avia recoiled, “Like I s... said, Techorse. The designs of the clouds were pretty neat, I just didn't like the mess they made. So if he's not going to make any more messes here...”

With a click of her trusty pen, Avia signed her name on the first slot of the official papework, much to the disgust of Techorse. She turned around, tail bobbing behind her as she walked towards the first work station. Mix-Up dropped his clever little act and brushed himself off with his wings, factory floors were filthy even if they were just for making weather.

Without waiting a minute to brag, Mix-Up turned his snout up at Techorse, “You see? My art isn't the problem, Techorse.”

His opponent scrunched his face up, “I'm not convinced yet, Mix-Up. Breaking into the factory and tampering with the machinery was still illegal and caused a lot of collateral damage. You've still got plenty to work on.”

“Fine... fine. Please don't burst an artery over me,” sighed the stallion, “let's see which one of us turns out to be right, okay?”

Peeved at the arrogance, Techorse followed him over to Avia and the first workstation, which was being attended by one of the largest pegasus ponies in the factory. A strong stallion with a purple and red striped mane combed gently over the side of his neck, and a steely gray body that sported powerful wings. This strong worker had the important job of pounding down old clouds into the recycling chute attached to the side of the massive cloud generator, a giant box of parts, dials, and levers made of a metallic white substance. Rainwater, old clouds, and ice entered in the funnel on the right side, and through a series of condensation pipes, swirly alchemical glass, and several heat pumps, exited as the clouds on the left. There was still evidence of Mix-Up's scheme on this machine, as many of the radio pumps mounted on the top still had small traces of paint from where he had poured it in.

“This is Raincheck,” Avia said over the sound of him grunting and punching, “he's working the cloud generator today!”

After managing to stuff the cloud inside the narrowing funnel, he wiped the sweat off his brow and offered a hoofshake to Techorse, “Nice to meet you fellas. This here is the main cloud generator, capable of making all of Equestria's new weather systems for a week in just 48 hours of continuous operation!”

“Cool! Seems like that cloud you were trying to recycle was giving you a hard time,” Techorse commented, pointing at the wisps of evaporated water coming out of the recycle tube.

“Ah, nah... I'm just a bit on edge after this morning,” admitted the worker, rubbing his hoof on the machine gently, “I said some things I shouldn't, got called out on it by my sister... and I started taking it out on the clouds here. Just needed some stress relief.”

Techorse saw the gears turn in the head of the cloud artist next to him, his body quivering out of nausea. Possibly over the thought of having each of his legs broken after being plucked.

“So this is Mix-Up,” Techorse blabbed loudly, “he's actually here to help calm your nerves!”

A dry, throaty gasp came from the panicking stallion, shaking like a leaf. Raincheck was at least twice his size and muscular strength, giving away that he was the one who ruined his morning would likely end in his body being broken.

“I... I just remembered, prison isn't so bad!” he yelped, “I'm out of here!”

“Hold on, hold on,” Avia assured him with an outstretched hoof and a giggle, “Raincheck, Mix-Up here is the guy who broke in and painted the weather.”

Techorse had found it funny at first, but then he actually started to worry that Mix-Up might really get assaulted. Windburn's recommendation that her brother be told to chill might not save the scarf-wearer's femurs.

Luckily, Raincheck seemed mildly amused, “Heh heh heh, is that so? A scrawny wimp like him couldn't break into a pillow fort, much less this factory!”

“I think Mix-Up and I ran into your sister today,” explained Techorse, “she said you were going to break Mix-Up's legs.”

“Ah come on, we say dumb stuff when we're mad, right?” laughed the worker, a strong hoof coming down hard on the floor, “I'm not going to hurt him, they'd just fire me for it...”

Rainbow Dash had managed to smuggle Pinkie Pie and Twilight into the weather factory via a friend of hers from flight school, having taken a secret entrance normally used for unloading boxes of storage jars used to keep lightning bolts fresh. After slipping on some protective gear and lab coats to pretend they were supposed to be inside the facility, they avoided eye contact with other workers until they reached the main production room.

Rainbow's keen magenta eyes were the first to pick up on the boys, “There they are, near the cloud maker!”

The three mares hid behind a cart filled with hailstones left behind by a worker who was supposed to have disposed of them. Peering out from the cover, they couldn't really hear much of the conversation, but Mix-Up looked extremely pleased talking to the employees while Techorse looked a bit upset.

“Hey, something's wrong,” Twilight whispered, “Mix-Up seems to be learning his lesson, but Tech's not happy for some reason.”

“Let's get a closer look,” suggested Rainbow Dash, “I bet he's still mad Mix-Up ruined his saddle.”

Pushing the cart up, they stopped as close as they could behind the group without getting caught by the employees or their friends. Now they could hear the conversation loud and clear.

“...so you want to know the truth?” asked Raincheck rhetorically, “those snobs in Canterlot needed a good awakening as to what we do up here for them! Your cloud art finally got the attention of those mindless dopes. If you want to keep sending them a reminder as to where their weather comes from, you let me know!”

With that, the burly stallion grabbed the pen from Avia and made his own mark on Featherfall's paperwork, earning Mix-Up two of the necessary five.

“Finally, a pony who understands the purpose of my work!” Mix-Up beamed, puffing out his chest again, “the weather goes ignored so often by ponies because of all the boring whites and grays that make up the clouds!”

“Yup, and that's what makes your artwork so great, to me anyways,” continued the worker with a hearty chuckle, “you make those loons remember us!”

Techorse sat there, irritated and unsure how he was going to get Mix-Up to change. The weather ponies were letting him get away with his actions by finding common ground in attacking the elitist ponies around Equestria! Granted, he didn't like them very much either, but he wasn't going to have much luck helping his 'assignment' learn anything. He hoped these two ponies were an anomaly.

“What's wrong with Techorse?” asked Raincheck, noticing his frustration.

He shook his head to get rid of his heart being on his sleeve, “Oh... nothing's wrong with me! Just thinking.”

“Oh, poor Techorse. He insists I've done something wrong,” Mix-Up teased, “and that I should stop painting clouds all over Equestria in exchange for something more wholesome, so to speak.”

Raincheck tried to stare the green stallion down, “I say no harm, no foul. Now, let me show you guys around the machine before you keep going.”

Featherfall, having been paying close attention from an area above the cloud maker, studied Techorse's movements carefully as he walked forward. Raincheck and Avia were carefully showing them each part of the machinery, starting with the massive bellows on the sides of the machine and working their way over to some of the more intricate moving parts. Eventually, Techorse stopped right in front of a large set of gears intermeshed with each other vertically, a powerful crushing force between them even if they were standing still at the moment. Normally the gears would not move unless the cloud generator were operating at full capacity, when they would be connected to the rest of the flywheel system inside to generate more speed for the cloud mixer.

“Here's my opportunity,” he said, moving to take action.

“As I was saying, we're working on making a fresh set of heavy rain clouds for some wheat crops to the west,” continued Raincheck in his booming voice, “normally it takes about two minutes to process each one, and...”

From behind the cart, Twilight saw the giant gears behind her coltfriend begin to groan and move with increasing amounts of speed. Since he was looking at Raincheck, he had no idea how close he was to the hazard. In the time it was taking her to process what was going on, Pinkie Pie felt a large surge of pins and needles climb up her spinal column from the base of the tail. That could only mean one thing!

“TECHORSE!” she shouted out, leaping in the air and waving her hooves around, “LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!”

Tech couldn't hear her over the loud groaning of the infrequently used metal behind him, but Avia saw the threat right away when Pinkie's moving bright coat drew her eye off the clipboard and over to the side of the machine.

“What?” she gasped suddenly, “We never were given orders to go to full capacity! Techorse, don't back up!”

Featherfall had positioned himself behind another cart, and disengaged its brakes with the side of his body. He felt a slight tug on his suit's coat, but away the cart went with a loud squeaking noise. To avoid suspicion, he walked away from the scene casually. The carts' poorly oiled wheels continued to make loud noises, Avia whipped her head in time to see the hazard, one huge load of sandbags barreling for Techorse in an effort to shove him into the factory equipment.

“Runaway cart!” shouted Raincheck, “Get outta there!”

Having been given the warning, Techorse rolled away from the threat, the cart smashing into the gears and splintering into a thousands chunks of wood and iron, crunching into the mechanics and grinding the operation of the cloud generator to a halt with a terrifying blast of steam. Piecees of the cart flew everywhere, including a few that landed near Twilight's hiding spot. Alarm bells rang from the top of the contraption, and cloud production halted from the extreme damage the mixture of sand, wood and metal had done. A lone gear rolled away from the wreckage of the full capacity system, and the tour group stared silently.

Except for Raincheck, who was shouting, “CODE RED! INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT!”

Back from behind the hailstones, Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief, “Woah... that was a close one! Techorse almost ended up as hayburger”

“Yeah, that was super duper scary, I'm lucky my Pinkie Sense just went wild!” agreed Pinkie, “Twilight, we need to go right up there and tell Techie we're here! He's probably all shook up!!”

The lavender mare could barely stop shaking, but swallowed back her anxiety, “We could, but... there's something that tells me that wasn't an accident.”

“What do you mean 'it wasn't an accident'? That was clearly just a cart that wasn't being watched!” Rainbow Dash complained, “We should be up there making sure Tech is okay, not hiding like this!”

“Nope! Twilight's right, it wasn't an accident,” Pinkie Pie said while shaking her head rapidly, siding with Twilight's analysis, “it was one hundred percent, positively on purpose! I don't get that awful prickly feeling any other way!”

“But then who tried to hurt Techorse?” Rainbow Dash asked, “It couldn't have been Mix-Up, he was right there minding his own smug business.”

Taking a look at the bits of metal near their cover, Twilight picked one up and inspected it before leading the way onward into the factory.

“I have an idea as to who it might be,” answered Twilight seriously, “but we need at least one more piece of evidence. Let's go, girls.”

Pinkie's eyes lit up, “Oh boy, we get to solve a crime! This is the best worst thing ever!”

While staying out of sight of Techorse, the friends took the long way around the now disabled weather machine, disappearing into a maintenance corridor, with Pinkie Pie bouncing every step of the way in anticipation.

Already, two workers had shown up with fire extinguishers in the form of rainclouds to begin dousing the burning equipment from the outside, hoping the machinery wouldn't suffer any more damage. Two incidents in just one day was enough to really begin to subdue worker morale.

“Techorse, are you okay?” asked Avia, her heart still pounding in her ribcage from the horrific event, “you almost got turned into a thick paste from that!”

Techorse seemed short of breath, “I'm fine... just, was that an accident?”

“Yeah, somepony must have forgotten to lock down that hailstone cart,” answered Raincheck, pointing to the pile of scrap metal freshly pulled out of the gears, “yet another safety violation we're going to be spending hours doing the paperwork for!”

“A shame. I'm glad you didn't end up as mush, Techorse,” said Mix-Up, sympathizing as best as he could, “but I suppose that is why they had us sign those waivers, isn't it?”

He laughed, “I guess! Twilight's going to freak out when she finds out about this.”

An engineer who was in charge of repairs to the cloud generator finished completing his analysis of the situation got up from his work with a grim look on his face, and walked up to Raincheck to tell him the bad news, “I knew we should have gotten that missing gear access cover replaced, it was an accident waiting to happen! We've not only lost the ability to go full capacity, but... well, just come take a look.”

The others followed the mechanic to the front of the machine, where a large clear fiberglass tube transported the completed clouds out of the system to the main output funnel that projected them out to the surrounding territory. Each very dark gray cloud coming out of the barely functioning machine had a tear in the back of its cottony form, particles of swirling condensed water trailing from the wounds.

“We're producing torn clouds, they can't hold themselves together in the air pressure. I doubt these would even make it the farmlands without completely disappearing,” explained the engineer, rubbing his forehead with his left wing out of disappointment, “I think it's best we just take her offline and rely on the others.”

“Are you sure? The clouds just need denser material in their tops,” pointed out Avia.

He continued with a metaphor, “Yeah but the tears are occurring inside the formation unit deep in her guts. We can't get inside to fix the components until we take her off.”

“We'll never make quota that way,” Raincheck groaned loudly, “this machine was making heavy rainwater models from recycled storm systems, we'd have to shut down one of the other machines and change the inputs to get the heavy storm clouds out!”

“So even with replacement parts and a full engineering team, you don't have time to complete repairs,” said Techorse, following along with the conversation, “I'd offer to help, but I'd have to read the manual for this equipment just to get started.”

“We're well aware you have the skills to help fix the device, but I have a more proper solution!” said Mix-Up proudly, seeing opportunity.

The factory workers, desperate for an answer, gave him eye contact and full attention.

“What are you suggesting?” asked the mechanic.

Mix-Up pointed to a small brass handle on a segment of the wide pipeline, “Is that a way into the tube my good stallion?”

“Yeah, it's a quality assurance access hatch,” interrupted Avia, much to the maintenance worker's chagrin, “when I'm not giving tours, I get to do the quality check by inspecting each cloud! If it's no good, I open up the pipe and yank out the offending cloud.”

Mix-Up eagerly flew up to the raised platform that stood in front of the pipe, and took note of a green lever on a valve immediately after the wide door. One of the badly damaged clouds exited the still smoking machinery and started its way through the tube.

“So what might this lever do?” he asked, pointing it out.

“Oh, well that closes the pipe off,” Avia answered, spreading her wings and fluttering up next to him, “here, watch.”

She pulled the green rod down with her hooves, and a ring of interlocking metal segments shut off the end of the pipe, restricting the cloud from leaving. It stopped in front of the access door, which Mix-Up pulled open to take a look at the dying rain maker. Then, the pegasus searched within his duster scarf for a few moments, and pulled out a small tool that looked like a spray gun for painting carriages. Along with it came three vials of colored fluid that swirled and sparkled. Techorse wondered just how many things Mix-Up was capable of smuggling inside that seemingly tiny article of clothing.

“Observe!” he said, attaching one of the vials to the top of the tool.

Mix-Up then guided it with his wing, spraying a stream of pink mist into the top of the damage stormcloud. Pink substance filled in the tear, sealing the cloud completely shut and giving it a bright pink spot on the top.

“Now it'll hold together and it'll look amazing,” Mix-Up said proudly, “my color cloud weaver will patch up any problem or create a new cloud from scratch!”

Avia opened up the valve and permitted the now repaired cloud to exit out the funnel towards its destination. The engineer who had initially inspected the cloud maker felt amazed by the cloud's quick repair. But more importantly, it had been colored in, just like the clouds he had seen this morning!

“H... hey,” he asked, “are you the guy who colored in our batch this morning?”

“The one and the same!”

“So how did you do it?” he continued to probe.

Mix-Up closed the access hatch and spun the spray tool around on his wing tip, “I've researched clouds and rainbows for years, and have developed an understanding of what you can do with rainbow water to create these vials of cloud color. With it, I can generate clouds with patterns, bright hues, and the most amazing of patterns!”

Avia was curious, “I take it you got in here this morning and injected the machines with your coloring agents, then?”

“Exactly!” answered the artist proudly.

“Well, 'color' me impressed!” joked the attendant, “You know at first I was pretty mad you broke in here and changed everything, but these color patches are a great way to fix damaged clouds and still let ponies tell which ones had to be fixed! I may not really see it as art but... it's useful!”

“Hey, would you mind signing this paper, Powerwrench?” asked Avia, addressing him by name, “If you do, it'll help Mix-Up get out of trouble for breaking in this morning.”

“Well sure! I'd say he's earned it,” Powerwrench agreed, grabbing the clipboard from her, “just lend me a pen.”

With a quick motion of his wings, he signed the paper as well, adding the third necessary signature to the legally binding contract. Mix-Up was happy to leave his cloud repair tool with the engineering team to continue to fill their quota in exchange.

“Do you two want to keep going on the tour, or should we just find two more ponies to sign?” Avia asked, “I'm not sure Techorse has recovered fully from that scare.”

“I'm doing well enough to keep going,” Techorse answered, smiling broadly, “lead the way onward!”

“Great! We've only got enough time to visit the rainbow water treatment plant, but that should be enough!” she answered, “Follow me.”

“Have fun you guys, and thanks for the help!” called out Raincheck as the three walked away.

While Avia lead them on, Techorse turned to Mix-Up, “You see? Your talent has some good uses, like fixing clouds instead of ruining them.“

“Someday Techorse, they'll all be colorful. You'll see,” answered his companion stubbornly.

From above them on the observation platforms, Featherfall began to feel a twinge of panic, “They're almost done already? I suppose the rainbow water plant is my only chance now...”

Avia brought the stallions through the archway that lead to the rainbow water manufacturing zone of the factory. The room was a massive work of beauty, breathtaking to anyone who had never visited a pegasus city before. Instead of being closed over, it was a vault made of pure white columns, a vast pool dug into the floor which contained several lakes of shimmering chromatic fluid. The workers here, smiling and enjoying the sunlight that came down from the open roof structure, stirred, bottled, and drew samples of the rainbow liquid.

Techorse was amazed, however, by the looming object above him, “Would you look at that...”

The centerpiece of the room was the rainbow water generator, which sat perched upon a flat bedding of clouds near the top of the ceiling. Three arcane devices which resembled anemometers spun at the top of the machine, flanking a massive overhead tank that was provided water via vortex from pegasus ponies who lived on the ground. The body of the machine resembled an upside-down pipe organ with drums that spun on the sides, and dozens of clear pipes which overflowed with fresh rainbow water. Some of the pipes ended quickly and drained into the lake below, others ran into the cloud walls of the factory to serve other areas.

Techorse had never been to this room before, having only visited the lightning room before on less than happy terms. Needless to say, he was quite impressed.

“It's amazing!” he said softly, “How does it work?”

“Well, unfortunately, I don't even know,” she answered, “rainbow water is so important to the economy of Cloudsdale, but it's highly tied to the understanding of magic. Only a few engineers here and a few of our major shareholders understand the technology deeply.”

“Can you give me an overview?” Tech politely requested.

“I can!” Mix-Up answered boastfully, “You see Techorse, those spinning devices at the top are pegasus magic extractors! As you might know, magic is inherent to all beings, the surplus our bodies produce seeping into the outside world. Us pegasus ponies can fly and create some weather naturally, so our magic is very useful for the creation of rainbow water. Once that magic is harvested from the air by the spinners at the top, the drums mix it with water delivered through that large pipeline, giving it its rainbow color.”

“Wow! Did you go to weather engineering school?” asked Avia, “That's the best short description I've heard so far. Mine's even simpler than that!”

“In order to understand the spectrum of colors in our world, one must know rainbow physics by heart,” bragged the other pegasus, running a hoof through his blue mane, “The Cloudsdale public library has a hoof in it I suppose.”

A hovering misty cloud came down to the ponies, acting as a platform for the three to stand on, Avia taking control with her wings.

“Let's go up to the rainbow machine, and I'll let you take a closer look! The Whirlwind twins will be happy to explain more.”

The platform lifted them all the way up to the raised machine, which was much larger closer up than Techorse had anticipated. Each drum on the device was at least as large as he was. When they got up to the giant hovering manufacturing equipment, a pair of similarly sized pegasus ponies both with teal coats and light blue manes in spiky patterns turned away from control panels full of knobs and buttons. The two were a brother and sister that had since a young age wanted to work with rainbow water technology, so each had a cutie mark made of a bright bottle of rainbow water, the only difference being one had a book behind it, and the other, a wrench.

“Oh hey, we have a guest!” said the sister, “let's go greet them!”

“Hello! Said the brother, approaching the three as they stepped off the platform, “I'm Warm Whirlwind, and this is my sister, Cool Whirlwind! We're two of the rainbow water engineers here at the facility.”

“This is Techorse, and that's Mix-Up,” said Avia, “he's the guy who changed the clouds this morning...”

“Oh... how funny!” giggled Cool nervously.

While they talked, Featherfall had taken off his suit jacket and flown up to the rear of the machine, noticing that Techorse had again conveniently become oblivious to his surroundings again. This time the inventor stood in front of one of several emergency purges valve, which was marked as such with yellow and black tape, but looked like an ordinary access door to the outsider. Since the rainbow maker was nearly eighty feet from the ground, a sufficient blast of rainbow water would mean a nasty fall for Techorse.

The Whirlwind twins were able to operate the machine from the massive control console out front, but Featherfall had a secondary set of controls installed on the other side of the machine. Having memorized what each knob and lever was for, he reached over with his right wing without looking to place it over the small metal control wheel which controlled internal stops within the rainbow water generator. The plan was to intentionally build up pressure inside the machine's internal storage that would eventually trigger the purge valve when it reached critical levels. As soon as the shareholder heard Techorse start to talk to his employees about how magnificent the engineering of the system was, he put all his wing strength into twisting the dial.

*SNAP*

Featherfall's heart skipped a beat when he realized what had happened. Ducking behind the corner again to look at the secondary control panel, his panic turned into absolute terror. He had not only twisted the wrong wheel, but had broken it off as well.

To make matters worse, it was the master wheel that controlled all of the machine's stops.

Not wanting to get caught, he dropped the broken piece of metal and glided down towards the ground floor, landing softly in order to pretend nothing was wrong. A couple of his employees carrying testing equipment for the water passed them by, and he grinned at them like an idiot.

“... and here are you signatures!” said Cool Whirlwind, finishing signing.

“That's all five!” Mix-Up cheered, “I'm a free stallion again! What a waste of everyone's time this ordeal was, right Techorse?”

“If only you'd learn,” he answered gruffly.

Alarm bells rang out from inside the machine, and the riveting on the sides of the monstrous brass engine began to buckle as steam escaped the sides with a loud hissing.

“What's wrong!?” gasped Warm Whirlwind, diving for the main control panel, which quickly lead to him bellowing,

“SWEET CELESTIA! THE MAIN TANKS ARE RUPTURING!”

“WHAT?” cried the other sibling, joining her brother at the controls, “What's going on?!”

“Oh not again...” whimpered Avia, burying her face in her wings, “we'll be doing paperwork for weeks!”

“If we're ALIVE to do it!!” screamed Cool, “All that pegasus magic will cause a massive blast! We've got a minute before this thing blows! EVACUATE!”

Techorse dashed over to the control console, the emergency valve giving way just a second later, water of all colors surging out like a broken fire hydrant.

“Was I standing in front of another hazard?” he asked rhetorically, “N.. never mind! What are our options?”

“Get out of here or get turned to slime by the explosion,” said Warm Whirlwind honestly, “the tanks aren't responding to any of the controls, and we can't shut her off without a cooldown period.”

The factory started to fall apart as the magical energies contained in the backed-up rainbow water began to wreak havoc upon the building. Columns holding up walls and ceilings began to crumble and dissipate into precipitate rainwater, causing chunks of the factory to break off and fall. Pipes in the walls started to burst, flooding rooms and sending weather clouds in random directions that sent ponies diving for cover to get away from the hail and lightning. To top it all off, the glass thunder generator lost containment and explosions rocked the building as lightning streaked through the place, shaking the foundations of Cloudsdale itself.

“The place is coming down, purge the tanks!” shouted another worker from down below.

“The purge valves aren't going to be enough!” said Avia, “I can see on this dial that the pressure is still rising!”

Red bolts of electric energy stormed throughout the walls of the rainbow factory, alarms blaring and leaving most deafened or scared out of their wits. Worker ponies panicked and flew around, but were forced to go through the exits due to the lightning blasting through the walls. Raincheck and the others helped usher out as many as they could safely, taking charge of the situation despite the weather-based hazards starting to wreck the facility. Whatever explosion would follow the destruction of the rainbow water room was likely to alter the city forever, if it didn't rip it apart entirely.

“It was a mistake trying to make up for the damage done this morning,” answered Cool sadly, “we took on extra water to ramp up production, but now we can't stop the flow! This entire factory will be destroyed!”

“Taking Equestria's weather with it...” Warm added direly.

Featherfall's ground his teeth in fear of the weather machine starting to buckle and groan from internal damage. Once that machine exploded, his investment would be severely devalued. Even if he took over the factory at this point, there might not be much left to rule! But now that most of his employees had flown away, he saw this as a good time to get out. The stallion turned around to slink away, only to find his hooves locked in place by several clouds of fuchsia colored magical energy. Unable to move in these shackles, he looked up to see a very angry Twilight Sparkle and company.

“Where are you going, Featherfall?” demanded Rainbow Dash, hovering above with crossed hooves and dagger eyes.

“Away from here!” he pleaded desperately, “Something's happened to the rainbow water generator, the blast will be tremendous!”

“Oh something's happened all right, and you're our number one suspect!” answered Twilight, “I've got a feeling you were behind the cart accident earlier.”

“Preposterous!” he lied.

“Is it?” Twilight Sparkle fired back, taking out some items in a separate bubble of magic.

To the owner's horror, he saw that the metal dial he had broken had also ripped out one of his wing feathers, confirming his connection. Twilight had also saved a piece of scrap metal from the cart, of which a small amount of fabric from his suit had torn off in when it had gotten stuck in the brake.

“I... how...” choked the captured pegasus.

“Princess Celestia will find a great place for you in Tartarus for this,” Twilight threatened, “unless you confess and tell us how we can stop the rainbow factory from being destroyed.”

“I'll never confess to anything!” he growled.

Pinkie Pie mocked him, “Okaaaay, just remember, if we blow up, YOU blow up silly!”

Mr. Featherfall, having been caught red-hooved, turned around and watched terrified as the cloud platform the suffering machine was on slowly descended to ground level from the power surges acting upon the cloud magic holding it up.

“There's got to be something we can do,” pleaded Avia desperately, terror in her eyes, “I... I don't want to die!”

After a few more seconds of staring at the exploding machine, Mix-Up came to a simple conclusion and turned to Techorse, “Get the others out of here. I know what to do.”

“Mix-Up, what are you talking about? You don't know how to do anything except ruin the weather and mock ponies who criticize your art!” Techorse snapped back, “Shut up and let us engineers handle it!”

The pegasus permitted Techorse to get his angry words out, and waited for his eyes to soften in realization.

“I... I'm sorry about that.”

“Techorse, I get why you hate me, but I want you to save it for later,” he said, “I know what to do here. I must go inside and convert every last drop of rainbow water to cloud paint!”

Avia blinked and twisted her head, “Wait, what?”

“The main ingredient in my cloud paint is rainbow water, of course!” answered Mix-Up, “I will dive inside and change the machine's contents to it! By using up the magical energy, the factory will be saved... with a mess of course!”

Cool protested desperately, “But Mix-Up, the insides of the generator are filled with moving parts and are constantly submerged... you'll drown or get crushed!”

He spread his wings and flew up to the input tank, prying open the hatch with his front hooves, “There's no time to argue! If I perish... well, my art will be worth more, right?!”

“Mix-Up, WAIT!” Techorse gasped, “Don't!”

Ignoring him, the neckerchief clad pony dove into the water with a massive splash, entering the innards of the machine. It hit the ground floor with a heavy thud, knocking over the other ponies and stretching out the flexible tube supplying the water to its maximum length. The pressure continued to build up, rivets now shot out like bullets, sending them for cover.

“Tech, over here!” called Twilight.

Techorse saw her and brought the others to the unicorn, holding Featherfall in place.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?” he asked, “What's with Mr. Featherfall?”

“It's a long story,” said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes, “Now let's go before...”

Rays of bright light seeped out of the now bulging and cracking rainbow water machine, nearly blinding them all. Twilight, thinking quickly, ducked and sent a spray of magic from her horn as a deafening, massive explosion consumed the machinery and sent a multicolored mushroom cloud over Cloudsdale. A huge bolt of electricity shot down from the city itself as its base clouds turned into a temporary dark storm to help vent the discharge of pegasus magic, listing several degrees to compensate for the recoil. Sirens sounded off throughout the urban areas, but it was far too late as the shockwave was already on its way.

A rapidly moving wall of air mixed with gooey masses of paint flew through the city, stripping some of the buildings of their walls and flinging pegasus ponies around like a filly throwing a ragdoll. Without too many hardened materials making up the surfaces of the city, injuries were a lot less common than embarrassment, but untold sums of bits worth of damage had been done, not to mention the months of labor it would take to repair the cloud homes. To make matters worse, the paint tsunami that had burst out of the top of the factory was gluing them to the streets and covering everything in a thick rainbow sludge that would take forever to clean.

When the light died down, a thick coating of rainbow paint slid off of a shield bubble projected from Twilight's head. The mare dropped the protective field, having saved everyone in the room. Unfortunately, every last cloud wall was covered in thick, sticky cloud paint. The rainbow water generator was history along with all of the factory's windows, a tangled wreck of parts oozing with gunk from every ruptured gasket and tube.

“I guess that's that,” Avia sniffled, drying her eyes with her soft feathers, “Mix-Up managed to turn the rainbow water into paint... but.”

“I'm pretty sure he's alive in there,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “he's too much of a goofball to go like that.”

Darting off to the wreckage quickly, she found his red duster sticking out of one of the sections of the device. With a quick kick of her hooves, the brass panel fell off and splashed into the contaminated rainbow pond. Sure enough, Mix-Up was alive, soaking wet and half drowned, but alive. He forced a spray of water from his lungs with a horrible coughing, and sat up.

“Ha... I... I have done it!”

“Yup, and with your signatures, you're free to go buddy,” answered Rainbow Dash, “good work!”

Avia's eyes opened wide at the mentioning of the signatures, “Uh oh. I dropped the clipboard. That paperwork is history.”

“Ha! If I go down, you're going down too!” laughed Featherfall, “I'll make sure you end up in prison for all of this, Mix-Up!”

“What's wrong with Mr. Featherfall?” asked Avia.

“Your boss here tried to hurt Techorse,” said Twilight, “I don't know why, but he's in deep trouble as soon as the police get here.”

Techorse turned to Mr. Featherfall and questioned him with a tone of disbelief rather than anger, “Is that what you were planning this whole time? Getting rid of me? What did I ever do to you?”

“I confess nothing,” he chuckled,“and have you noticed something else went missing in the blast, Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight realized that she had dropped her bubble filled with evidence of Featherfall's crimes in order to shield everyone from the explosion.

“That's right you foolish mare, you lost your case against me!” he laughed, “Now, since I'm such a good sport, I'll even agree to drop charges against Mix-Up despite the loss of the signatures. Aren't I sweet?”

“Fine,” sighed Twilight, releasing his shackles, “Go.”

Featherfall snickered and adjusted his tie with his wings, “Well, it's been nice doing business with you all. I must be going. Enjoy your life out of prison, Mix-Up!”

“Now I don't even have to deal with my client anymore! With that explosion the factory price will drop for sure and come back the moment I've fixed the rainbow water machine. Plenty of time to buy out my fellow investors!” he thought with avarice as he walked away from the disaster scene, confident he had gotten away with the entire ordeal.

Officer Kite and Hotfront soon arrived on the scene along with pretty much the rest of the Cloudsdale Police department, and a small detachment of Wonderbolts. While Rainbow Dash did the best to explain the situation to Spitfire, the police confronted the others. A large crowd of Cloudsdale residents had assembled within the rainbow water room to take a look at what had caused the defiling of their home, many of them grumbling.

“We came as soon as we could. Who's responsible for this?” asked officer Kite, taking notes on a pad of paper.

“Well officer,” Techorse blurted proudly before anyone else could act, “the rainbow water generator was destroyed, but Mix-Up dove into it to make sure it wouldn't level Cloudsdale!”

The crowd that had gathered, many of them splattered with strong-smelling paint, heard what Techorse had said and started to close in on the small group of ponies in the middle of the factory floor. Twilight gritted her teeth as she looked over all the rather angry expressions. Some of the pegasi even seemed to have brought along their favorite blunt cooking utensil, possibly to use as a club 'in case'. They were forming into an angry mob very quickly, which the other police stallions had caught on to, trying to push back with their wings as best as they could.

“Sugar, we might not want to talk about this here,” Twilight warned Techorse with a gentle nudge.

“Why not? Mix-Up's heroics are what got us out of the situation,” he answered naively, “that could have been a lot more destructive.”

“So you're saying that guy's behind all of this?” asked one of the ponies in the mob, the police's crowd control efforts finally failing as they got up close to the group, “Why didn't he just let the weather engineers handle it?!”

“That guy's a menace!” shouted another mare, “he ruined the city! I lost half of my house in the middle of a shower!”

Techorse tried to fight back, “What are you talking about, he's a hero!”

“Some hero!” responded another stallion carrying a frying pan with which to bash Mix-Up, “He's the guy who messed up the weather this morning too, isn't he! Let us have him!”

As the mob rushed in to grab Mix-Up and do unholy things to him, Techorse felt his pride vanish. For all the heroism and selflessness he had supposedly taught to the artist, it had ened up being worth nothing. With the entire town disagreeing with his point of view, they were likely going to dismember his patchy friend.

Or at least they would if Kite wasn't still on duty, as she stepped in front of the vicious swarm and spread her wings out to cover Mix-Up, “Hey! Cloudsdale's supposed to be a peaceful city, remember? We're civilized ponies here!”

To try to help, Rainbow Dash made sure the other flank was protected, the two pegasus mares keeping the crowd away from the artist they wanted to beat senseless. Strong tensions filled the air as the ponies in the middle struggled to keep them from charging, even with Kite's friends carrying away some of the rioters, the situation was getting dire.

“You'd better take that guy in!” shouted another rampaging pony, making the hundred or so pegasi yell in agreement.

“Fine, fine, I'm working on it!” she assured them loudly.

The officer stowed her wings and took out a pair of cuffs, “Mix-Up, you're under arrest for operating sensitive weather generation machinery without an official permit.”

“But... he wasn't the one who caused the machine to explode,” argued Rainbow Dash, “this seems thankless.”

The officer made a 'come here' motion with her hoof and got the couple to lower their heads so she could whisper into their ears, “I know, but we're already in trouble here with this mob. They know Mix-Up ruined the weather this morning and caused the explosion. We need to pacify them, or else they'll tar and feather him with his own feathers!”

Techorse and Twilight agreed relunctantly. To have two weather disasters in one day, including the loss of the rainbow water that powered almost everything in the city, would lead to terrible consequences for Mix-Up if he were to be found responsible. After explaining the situation to the artist, he simple shrugged and allowed the police officers to cuff him. The citizens of Cloudsdale cheered, whooped, and applauded with their hooves, only for officer Hotfront to yell at them to shut up and not make the legal system a spectacle. As expected, they dispersed and left with their blunt weapons to go home and start patching up all the damage.

“Officer Kite, may I please say something to Techorse before I go?” Mix-Up asked politely.

“All right, but make it quick,” she answered, “I don't know if they'll believe you're being dealt with if we hang around for too long.”

“I know... and thank you,” he said, before moving his green eyes to Techorse's guilty face.

“You know Techorse, you look like someone's dunked you in bucket of ice water,” he joked, “why are you upset?”

“I failed,” he answered simply, refusing to make eye contact, “I couldn't change your mind on the consequences of your art project, and I couldn't keep you out of prison. I got my hopes up when you fixed the clouds and kept the city from being destroyed, but it all backfired.”

“You know Techorse, you're not upset that Cloudsdale didn't recognize me as a hero. You're upset because you couldn't get me to see things your way,” Mix-Up answered, finally getting eye contact out of him, “the way that involves confining art to a cage if it means all the rules get followed. You hate rule breakers unless they're hurting.”

“Tech always gives everypony a chance,” Pinkie said as a counterpoint, “that's why we like him!”

“Yes, but plenty of others do not,” answered the artist honestly, “your sense of justice and fairness is annoying to those who seek change and expression outside of the parameters you deem acceptable. Honestly... you're a jerk.”

“I get it, Mix-Up,” said Techorse, sighing, “take all the potshots you want. I misjudged you.”

“All you saw was a trespasser to fix instead of a point of view to understand. A shame that even after my daring use of my talent, you pity yourself and still can't see my brilliance,” answered the chained stallion, “I don't ask you to, but I do hope you'll learn to stop trying to repair things that aren't quite broken.”

Officer Kite took Mix-Up away and had him put in the back of the police carriage for processing back at the station again. Techorse, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie bid farewell to Avia and the other workers so they could begin the cleanup process. While they were waiting for Pinkie Pie to get the attention of a taxi, since Twilight was too tired to teleport them, they sat on the stairs leading up to the factory where Techorse sulked. The stallion had built up over the day a proud sense of accomplishment in watching Mix-Up sort through his problems, only to have them all fall apart on him at the last moment. He looked like a child who's dreams had been crushed, although explaining the situation would make it clear it was just a pity party. On the bright side, Kite had returned his saddle to him freshly washed since he was about to leave town, and it faintly smelled of that wonderful lemon detergent scent.

“Quit moping, Techie,” said Rainbow Dash, offering no pity to him.

“Do you think he's right?” he asked, hoping for a pat on the back.

“Probably,” answered the pegasus honestly, ending that hope, “sometimes you're really uncool about others if they mess up and won't apologize, fix it, or regret the stuff they did. You need to be able to let it go, or he's right, it just makes you a jerk.”

“As pointless as it might seem, that guy wants to stand up for his art even if it means doing the wrong thing in the eyes of Equestria's law books,” Twilight answered plainly, “there's been lots of times ponies have done this throughout history, and they've sometimes become known as heroes.”

“So I was being a jerk...”

“Even if you are a jerk sometimes, you still got your friends,” Rainbow Dash answered with a wink and smile, “we're all kind of jerks in some way. Except for me of course!”

Techorse rolled his eyes, then said, “Anyways... I'll talk to Princess Celestia and accept responsibility for this today. Of course, I also need to file a report about Featherfall trying to get me hurt... or worse.”

“I've already sent a letter to Arbiter to open an investigation,” Twilight answered, giving him a hug from the side, “I'm so glad you're okay!”

“That shield of yours is still one of my favorite spells,” he answered, smiling and rubbing his muzzle on her mane, “keep practicing!”

“Hey guuuuys!” interrupted Pinkie Pie, “I just heard that they're taking Mix-Up straight to the courthouse, and I've got us a ride! Come on, we can still do something to save him!”

Without needing to deal with the shady centaur he had originally been in communication with, Featherfall kept a pleased air about him despite his ripped, paint-splattered suit and high level of anxiety. At the end of the day, the weather factory had exploded, and the other shareholders were almost certain to drop their stock quickly, which he would rapidly scoop up.

“I should have just sabotaged the factory myself to start with,” he chuckled, walking up to his main office in the administrative building a few blocks away from the disaster, “I don't have to deal with that crazy knight, and without Techorse having any evidence against me, I'll still be remembered as the great benefactor of Cloudsdale that I am!”

Opening the door to his room with his hoof, he entered his office and locked the door behind him. It was a fairly lavish room, carpeted in blue with fine wooden chairs that of course had to be carved from trees miles below on the ground, adding a hefty sum to their price tag. The centerpiece was of course his desk, carved from a tree deep within the Everfree forest that had been found poking its canopy far over the others, an ode to the triumph of pony over nature. There was not a piece of paperwork or a decoration out of place in the large room, even his green comfy swivel chair had been cleaned that morning.

He walked over and jumped into his seat, spinning around to face the windows in the back of the room, “Maybe I'll go out tonight, grab myself a drink...”

“You are not going anywhere, Featherfall.”

Featherfall's mane hairs stood up on the back of neck from the deep voice, and he turned around, his eyes freezing in terror. In front of him, having entered the room without a sound, was his client. The centaur knight was almost too tall for the room, hunching over slightly. Orange and black fur covered strong muscles, perfectly toned and proportioned with his powerful set of four legs. A breastplate of dark armor sat over his torso, culminating in his plated mask with glowing eyes.

“I... How did you...” panicked Featherfall, pushing back on his chair so hard it fell backwards.

“You've compromised my objectives,” growled the centaur, pointing in accusation, “failing to destroy Techorse is one thing, but trying to pretend you are not dangerous to me with the knowledge of my existence is another. Eventually, someone will believe the words of the witnesses and question you as to why you wanted to destroy Techorse, and when they do... you'd tell all to keep your money. You are a slimy vermin, pony.”

Featherfall tried to fly away, and smacked into the thick glass windows of his room pathetically, ending up on his back. His former boss took his left arm and smashed it through the desk, splintering it.

“SECURITY!” screamed Featherfall, “SOMEPONY HELP!”

“They're away dealing punishment to the artist you wanted to frame,” answered the centaur, reaching behind himself for something, “isn't it funny how betraying others results in being alone at the worst possible time?”

The pegasus's heart went into full throttle as he watched the dark armored warrior pull out with the sound of sharp metal a long polearm. It had a large, angular tip that resembled the blade of a scalpel mounted upon a shaft consisting of silver and green rods that ran parallel to each other and met near the blade, with a rotating fiery gemstone in the center that sparked with arcane magic. A blue ribbon had been tied just below this stone, and the centaur placed his dominant hand behind this ribbon, the other near the bottom of the weapon's shaft. As the giant knight moved the blade closer to Featherfall, the sharp edge began to glow an angry white.

“I wasn't really going to turn you in for a reward, I was joking! I'll turn myself in about Techorse, even!” sobbed Featherfall, begging for mercy and looking into his attacker's sinister glowing eyes, “P... please! I've got a daughter in school... she'll miss me!”

The giant spear cooled off, its owner moving it back up away from Featherfall's face and into his arms. Featherfall smiled weakly, believing that he was being let free.

“Huh,” said the knight, the mask still distorting his voice, “I'll keep that in mind. She deserves to know the truth.”

As the spear heated up again and the centaur moved his arms to swing, Featherfall let out a bloodcurdling scream that rang out for miles, but fell on no ears.

“...and the jury has found you Guilty,” said the judge, slamming her gavel on her stand, “now, for your sentencing, Mr. Mix-Up.”

Despite the best efforts of Twilight and her friends, no one was able to convince the incredibly hostile jury or anyone else in the courtroom for that matter of Mix-Up's innocence. All the evidence had made it seem like the rogue artist was responsible for the destruction of the rainbow water machine, which only compounded upon his charges for ruining the morning's cloud batch. At this point Techorse didn't believe it could get any worse, having barely accepted his role in Mix-Up's fate.

The judge, her purple hair curled into tight locks, said to Mix-Up who stood before her and his peers, “Based on the witness of your friends, Avia Hoverfree, and the Whirlwinds, however... it would appear that you had a change of heart halfway through your vandalism spree. I highly doubt you are completely to blame for the destruction of the machine, as more safety precautions should have been taken. But you are responsible for your vandalism and ultimately the damage caused by operating a device so sensitive without proper licensing.”

“It's okay, I understand,” Mix-Up answered bravely, “and I am willing to go to jail for my cause of bringing beauty to our clouds.”

“Ah, but you'll never learn if you're allowed to stay here on Cloudsdale taxpayer bits,” she answered, smirking, “which is why I'm sentencing you to exile for two years! If I hear you have behaved yourself, we may allow your return in one. By then all the damage should be fixed up.”

“Exile? Where is he supposed to go?” asked Rainbow Dash a bit disrespectfully.

“Since he may be a fugitive if he gets away from a watchful eye, I thought I'd place him in Ponyville under the watch of Techorse,” she answered, ignoring her frustration.

“What?!” Techorse squeaked out in disbelief.

Mix-Up was also bothered by the arrangement, “You cannot do that!”

Twilight buried her face in her hooves, “Oh no...”

“Your Honor, what makes you think I'm going to accept that?” a rather red-faced Techorse continued, beside himself and clearly irritated, “There's no charges against me for you to issue that!”

The judge put down her gavel and placed her hooves on the stand, “Techorse, it's not about charges. The reason why I am requesting you to monitor Mix-Up is because you were already chosen to be responsible for him by Mr. Featherfall.”

After looking around her courtroom again, she added, “Who... strangely, might I add, did not show to give witness for this trial.”

“But... he picked Techie to set him up!” Pinkie Pie yipped, jumping up on the podium and invading the judge's space, “He was trying to get him! That's why he didn't show!”

“Well, we'll certainly look into that for sure,” the older mare answered, pushing her small spectacles up her muzzle with her wing, “but for now Miss Pie, could you please avoid smudging the stand? I am not the only judge who uses it.”

Pinkie Pie obediently jumped back into her provided cloud chair, allowing the judge to continue her sentencing, “That being said, I am aware from several witnesses that you desire to keep Mix-Up out of prison, Techorse. To help you accomplish this, I will have Mix-Up placed in Ponyville to be monitored by you, Miss Pie, Miss Sparkle, and any of your friends working for Princess Celestia. We will compensate you for any expenses.”

“What if he refuses?” interjected Mix-Up, not wanting to be under his hoof and certain he wouldn't decline.

“Well, he can if you wants to,” she answered, nodding, “it certainly is extra trouble, and he's correct that I cannot force him to be your warden. But if he declines this, we'll be transferring you to Canterlot penitentiary for five years.”

The judge leaned back in her chair and took confidence in Techorse's defeated exhalation. It was also evident that the cloud painter still didn't mind hard prison, but it wasn't up to him anymore what his fate would be.

“Fine, I'll watch over him,” groaned Techorse, “just don't send him to prison in exile. He doesn't deserve that.”

“Predictable,” muttered the artist, ears back in annoyance, “you've learned nothing.”

“So it's settled! Mix-Up is hereby exiled for the duration of one to two years depending on behavior. Costs spent watching Mix-Up plus a fifty percent bonus will be paid to Techorse and company, who may terminate their watch any time and have the defendant sent to prison for the matching portion of his sentence,” said the pleased judge, who banged her gavel on the desk, “Dismissed!

With court being out of session, Twilight brought her friends back to the hot air balloon to depart the city, which even from the landing dock could be seen to have blobs of paint splattered all over the place. Techorse refused to speak to Mix-Up, and vice-versa. Even the power of being able to get rid of Mix-Up at any time wasn't enough to get him over being called a jerk by the other pony.

“Uh oh, I don't think they're too happy about this!” Pinkie Pie said, trying not to laugh at the situation, “I hope they can work it out! I know I'll help!”

“We're all going to,” Twilight answered, “it's not an ideal situation, but I think Mix-Up and Techorse both learned some important things today. Maybe it means they'll get along later... I hope.”

“Either way, they're stuck with each other!” laughed Rainbow Dash, “and Featherfall's still stuck with a broken weather factory. Looks like I'm gonna be taking a loooong break until they fix it!”

“I guess you could say he... painted himself into a corner!” Pinkie Pie joked while hopping along, “Get it?! Geeeet it?”

Shaking their heads at the joke, they boarded the balloon behind the stallions, who were sill refusing to talk. As the balloon lifted away from Cloudsdale, officer Kite stood watching with her notepad in hand, having taken careful notes about the Featherfall accusations. For some reason, when she had sent Hotfront to pull him in for questioning, the stallion wasn't in his office... just his tie had been left behind near the window, and a faint aroma of what smelled like cheap cigar smoke.

“Guess Featherfall was the stallion I was looking for this whole time,” she said to herself, “Princess Luna warned me there was an insider looking to gain a monopoly on the factory. Not surprised he skipped town when his plans went up in ashes.”

After looking at the notebook again, she placed it back in her shirt and spread her wings to fly back home. She had one interesting police report to write.

#53 - One Degree Off: Part I

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One Degree Off: Part I

“Today is the day!” PAL declared joyously as he stomped his way down the halls of the fortress he called home, “I bet master Techorse is just thrilled to be finally receiving his degree...”

Techorse had been spending hours and hours of his spare time studying and building prototypes to become a certified Engineer through a prestigious program in Canterlot. The well-known program, dubbed the Canterlot League of Engineers, was opened only to the most elite in his field, and required sponsorship from a senior member within the school. Naturally, Twilight Sparkle had known a mare in the school, and with a little ‘convincing’, managed to get her coltfriend into the program. Despite his many robotic tools and near-magic level of already invented machines, the time and dedication necessary to complete the degree’s multitude of requirements had been a serious challenge. Nearly two years of tests, practical projects, and night classes had led up to today: the day when Techorse would defend his capstone project and thesis in Canterlot.

PAL held in his arms the invention his master had created for the thesis, a fan-like device consisting of interlocking, bladed materials controlled by a small gray robotics housing at the base. The entire assembly fit in a shoe box, and seemed to weigh almost nothing in the robot’s arms. An entire six months of planning and effort had gone into this device, and this afternoon it would finally be demonstrated in front of the panel. Not all of his friends would be able to attend, but some of them were able to make it. He appreciated any support he could get.

“It’s hard to believe,” PAL said cheerfully as he entered the dining room, “but you’ve finally made it to the end, master! Feel excited?”

To the robot’s chagrin, Techorse was slumped over on his long oaken dining room table, clearly irritated about something. His ears were horizontal to the surface of the table, a scowl on his face, and his blue eyes pointed forward off into space. He hadn’t even touched his breakfast yet, a rapidly sogging bowl of cornflakes topped with a ribbon of fresh honey. The saddle on his back remained closed, robotic arms and hands stowed away, no interest was there to pick up the required cereal spoon in front of him.

“Are you well?” asked his robot, placing the box containing the magnum opus on the table.

“I’m fine,” he muttered, “not sick.”

“Then what’s wrong?” asked the machine, putting his hands at his sides and raising an electronic eyebrow, “You’re pouting like miss Sparkle does.”

“That guy,” Techorse answered, tilting his head to point at something.

PAL looked at the other side of the table, and saw their house guests enjoying some fresh cups of mint tea and toast with plum jam. Mix-Up and Spanners Buildsbetter were goofing around with a new design idea for the interior of Techorse’s fortress, a hobby their host really wished they’d give up on. Spanners was of course, indentured to Ponyville still after nearly getting Techorse and his friends ripped apart by a beast, and Mix-Up had been kicked cleanly out of Cloudsdale for… being himself.

PAL knew the two were taking full advantage of Techorse’s hospitality and demanded an explanation as to what their latest stunt was, “Oh.… I see. Mr. Mix-Up, would you care to explain what you and Buildsbetter have done to put master Techorse in a mood? He needs to be in good spirits for his thesis today!”

“I know, I know,” Spanners answered nervously, the plumber trying to defend himself, “it looks bad, but we didn’t mean to flood the lab with paint!”

“WHAT?!” shouted the machine, slamming his hands on the table, Mix-Up recoiling a bit in shock.

The earth pony sweated under the collar, adjusting his toolbelt with a hoof as a habit, “W… well, Techie said he was interested in having spray paint available for his machines since he wanted to get into painting and details for his gadgets and, well… I’m good with pipes so...”

“Oh let me explain this,” Mix-Up interrupted, the patchy coated pegasus unperturbed by PAL’s anger, “Buildsbetter and I collaborated on a brilliant idea to build a pipeline from the supply room to the laboratory, which would compress liquid spray paint and provide it on demand! It would have been glorious… had it succeeded.”

“So what happened?” PAL inquired.

“We uh… got as far as putting the pressurized tanks of paint inside the supply room, but I sort of forgot to tighten the smaller pipes inside the laboratory, just above the workbench,” admitted Spanners sheepishly, “so the paint shot out of the nozzles you’re supposed to connect a sprayer to.”

“All of my blueprints were lost,” Techorse sighed, “I was lucky my final project wasn’t on that table.”

PAL suddenly realized that wasn’t quite the case. He had found the box containing the final project on the floor outside the lab. The two culprits of the disaster had moved it on purpose knowing he was going to look for it. Had the robot opened that laboratory door, the sight would have probably made him blow a fuse, either metaphorically or literally.

If the servant machine could turn red, he would have, “Oh, well… I don’t mean to make matters worse, but...”

Techorse lifted his head off the table, and pulled the box towards him, opening it carefully with his hoof as if he were defusing a mine. When he looked inside, the stallion’s face twisted a bit in sadness.

“I can’t demo this,” he said, despairing, “they won’t be able to take it seriously!”

“I think it’s a great improvement,” Mix-Up huffed, “although I can’t say so much for the laboratory. We did clean up a bit and placed your project outside the lab all nice and boxed up though, so you could at least thank us for that.”

Unwilling to yell at the artist for his comment, Techorse instead got up from the table, and his saddle opened up. The robotic arms inside grabbing the box containing his now ‘improved’ masterpiece. Whether he wanted to or not, it was time for him to leave for Canterlot, as failing to show up guaranteed being declined for the title.

“Well, I’ll do my best,” he said miserably, “not that it’ll help. Twilight’s going to look so stupid for having recommended me to the Dean for this program, only for a tie-dyed mess to hit her desk!”

Techorse wandered out of the room, looking as if about to cry. PAL heard the large wooden doors to the home open and close with the grinding of latches and gears. Now that his master was out of the house, he had a little bit more freedom to act how he desired.

“Excuse me,” he grunted, an electrical noise coming from his voice box, “I’d like you two to look at me.”

The two stallions left at the table suddenly felt as if the temperature in the room had plunged a good twenty degrees. Their mane hairs were beginning to stand on end as they slowly looked over at PAL, the machine’s orange eyes drilling holes into their faces.

“Let me make something clear to both of you morons. You are here because my much-loved and respected creator believes he has no choice but to host you. In reality, he’s very kind to let you stay while you get back on your hooves. However, if it were up to me... I’d have kicked you out of here so hard your PARENTS would have felt my metallic footpad on your backsides!”

Spanners trembled in his seat, “P.. PAL, I’m sorry! It was an accident!”

“Is threatening us with violence and eviction really necessary, robot?” questioned Mix-Up, rolling his eyes, “Techorse is required to keep track of us, remember?”

“Good point! That being said, it’ll be quite easy to keep track of you if you’re locked up downstairs!” the robot answered, pointing at them with a judging metal finger, “There were no terms of hospitality in your legal sentences, after all.”

“Wh… what??!” yelped Spanners, turning pale.

PAL smirked, “If that lab isn’t spotless by the time Techorse returns, I’m moving you both to the boiler room. You’re not even going to get so much as a blanket down there.”

“Cool your motors,” Mix-Up grunted, getting out of his seat, “honestly that aggression of yours needs working on. Besides, your threats are meaningless. Techorse would make you let us out anyways, right?”

“Would you like to take that gamble?” PAL asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms confidently, “The way Techorse was staring at you, and I know him very well… he was thinking some very grisly things about you.”

Spanners and Mix-Up looked at each other and thought about how intensely Techorse was staring at them just a few minutes ago. Deciding to play it safe, the two shuffled of to go clean up their mess and hopefully install the pipeline correctly this time, avoiding PAL’s watchful gaze.

After a very long and uneventful train ride to Canterlot, it being necessitated due to the size of the box containing his final project forbidding flight or teleportation, Techorse arrived at the station closest to the Canterlot League of Engineers. Twilight was waiting for him eagerly on the busy platform, a place decorated with electric lights and tile flooring.

“Thanks for taking the train,” she said, grabbing hold of the box with her magic, “I’ve been busy helping Princess Celestia with documentation covering our diplomatic progress with the Yaks! Got a nice suit waiting for you at the school, though, as promised.”

“Perfect,” he answered, breathing a tired sigh, “let’s get going.”

“Is something wrong? You didn’t forget anything, did you!?” she asked, worrying about his demeanor.

“Oh, no… sorry, just... thinking about something,” Techorse continued, clearly irritated.

Twilight wrinkled her muzzle, “Are those two guys making your life hard again? Techie, we talked about this! Spanners and Mix-Up don’t have to live in your castle if you don’t want them to, especially if they’re messing up your academics! What’d they do this time?“

“They kind of flooded my lab with paint,” he answered honestly, starting to walk for the exit so they wouldn’t waste time, “and of course, it got all over the project.”

Twilight Sparkle gritted her teeth and looked into the box floating in front of her, “Oh, oh dear! What are we gonna do?! We have to present NOW! Miss Ampere is gonna freak out when she sees this!”

Miss Ampere was the current head of the Engineering school, having been appointed by her peers as the dean due to her research into a modern fuse box system meant for Equestria’s newest line of steam ships. Unfortunately, she had a low tolerance for artistic “improvements” over any kind of serious engineering work, and Techorse’s project was certain to be perceived as a threat to her concept of how the field should be approached. She also happened to hold the final decision on Techorse’s accredited status in her hooves, despite the other faculty members who would be in attendance of the thesis and demonstration.

Techorse answered his marefriend’s question with a hung head, “Nothing. We can’t do anything. That paint has probably soaked into the porous materials on the surface, so magic removal would damage it. I’m just going to have to hope I don’t fail.”

Whereas Techorse tended to mope when in social trouble, Twilight freaked out and catastrophized, her eyes bugging out as she mentally flailed, “Hope you don’t fail? But if you do, these past two years will be for nothing! They’ll kick you out of the League! Princess Celestia will be forced to take away your tinkering permits, it’s going to ruin your life!"

"WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!"

Her coltfriend stopped her by planting a soft kiss on her cheek, “I’m upset too, Twi. The only thing we can really do now is get this over with. You’ll still care about me if I don’t walk out of there with my degree, right?”

The unicorn felt her anxiety turn into a bit of guilt, “Well… yes. I mean… sorry. I just know it’s your big day, and I wanted it to be perfect. This is as far from perfect as it could get.”

“I’ll get by, I’ve got you!” he answered, smiling sweetly and running a hoof through her familiar striped mane, “I don’t need perfect.”

“Says the stallion who knows how one imperfect piece can cause yet another explosion,” she joked, holding his hoof in hers.

“Hey, at least I don’t accidentally turn others into radios,” he answered, embracing her in a quick hug.

Twilight set the box down and scolded him playfully, “Pinkie Pie volunteered for that lesson and was perfectly fine when it wore off.”

“Remember how she could still pick up and hear the Hoofball commentators for three weeks after she turned back?” he said, “She jumped up in the middle of Sugarcube Corner last time I visited and screamed ‘BAD CALL, REF! BAD CALL!’”

They shared a hearty laugh together, remembering that incident all too well. Now that Twilight was calmed down and smiling again, she picked up the box telekinetically and finally returned Tech’s kiss, planting one quickly on his lips. This had been the first time she’d kissed him in two or so months. They’d seen each other several times, but as he had approached this day, the project work had gotten harder and harder. Twilight was getting progressively more anxious about the final paper and project, showing up every day to his lab and giving a ton of… rather unsolicited advice. It’s not that he didn’t appreciate the help, especially from his marefriend, it’s just that their relationship had consisted of fewer fun dates, and more worry sessions for Twilight!

He set aside the thoughts when Twilight spoke to him again, “At least we know how to fail in interesting ways. We need to start writing all of these moments down!”

“Whatever happens at this thesis defense will be worth writing about,” answered Techorse, resuming their trot, “even if I can’t pass, it’ll be nice to see what they think about my idea otherwise.”

“Definitely,” Twilight added, “and I may also need to spend some time thinking about your situation with the guys. This could be great material for my friendship studies...”

The League’s campus was located off to the west of the city, consisting mostly of tall alabaster and gold buildings built in close proximity with ornate steam funnels and instruments coming off of every roof. Bright sidewalks in perfect 90 degree angles created intersecting paths between all of the structures, but each and every one of the pathways led to Quandary Hall, where the original founder of the school, Concept Quandary put down the first classroom to teach engineering and technology to Canterlot’s eager students, back when steam engines were brand new! Almost two hundred years later, and despite the advances in electricity and engines, the glory of steam power was still very much alive on campus.

Techorse couldn’t help but feel butterflies in his stomach as they walked up to the entrance to Quandary Hall. A tall, domed building with a set of brass hatches that made up its front doorway, it was shaped like a giant observatory, two massive steam chimneys at its back sending billows of fluffy steam into the sky. The stairs leading up were marble, carved with equations that students at the school had solved after years of being deemed “impossible”. Twilight had planned with a couple of their friends to meet them in front of the building. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had shown up and were all smiles, Rainbow Dash was present physically but was distracted otherwise by the architecture, and Rarity stood nearby, going through a number of pamphlets about machines invented on campus that might help her mass-produce her wares.

“We’re here!” Twilight announced, slightly winded from the number of stairs it took to reach the entrance, “With just enough time for you to change, Tech.”

“Great. Take care of the project for me,” he answered, mechanical arms from his saddle passing the box over to Twilight’s magical aura carefully, “where did you leave the suit?”

“It’s right here, darling!” Rarity announced, bringing out a fresh black suitcase containing the threads, “Head inside and take a left, and you’ll find the locker room. I do hope your measurements have stayed the same, Techorse, it’s been a while!”

“Thanks Rarity,” he answered, taking the case from her with his still present gadgets, “hopefully this helps my case.”

The stallion walked up to the metal hatches, each of which was four times his height. The one closest to him opened up with the hiss of relaxing steam valves, and he trotted inside. After the brass colored tube which acted as a sensor for the doorway noted that the visitor was indoors, the hatch swung closed again, and the locking mechanism spun shut.

“What was wrong with Tech?” asked Shadow Breeze, “He seemed a little bit down today.”

Twilight sighed, “It’s his ‘guests’, they got a little destructive this morning, and according to Tech, ruined the project. I sure hope everything will be okay.“

“Somehow I get the feeling he’ll be fine,” Rainbow Dash scoffed, “you and Techie tend to make everything all doom and gloomy!”

“Well either way, we should go to the auditorium and support our friend,” Rarity concluded, raising her chin, “Arbiter and Limpwing are here as well, they’re talking to Headmaster Ampere. Shall we?”

“Let’s shall!” answered Fluttershy.

Having prepared for over two years for this very moment, Techorse entered the main auditorium with his heart in his throat and the collared shirt around his neck feeling rather constricting, although perhaps it was the excessively strong knot in his royal purple tie he’d done out of anxiety. Normally he wouldn’t be so nervous, he was his friend group’s inventor after all, but he couldn’t help but think the headmaster would not be impressed by what he had to offer now that it had been ruined with paint.

“Well, at least this will be a small audience,” he said to himself as he walked onto the stage.

The room was tall, taking on the rounded shape of the building but stopping in a half circle, rows upon rows of cloth covered folding chairs facing the stage where Techorse now stood. To his shock, each and every one of the chairs had been filled with the residents of Canterlot and the surrounding area, over a hundred ponies stared at him from their seats. The stage lighting above was pointed down near the front of the auditorium, making it rather hot in his suit. To his right, on the table, was the box containing his thesis creation. Limpwing and Captain Arbiter had taken a pair of metal folding chairs and seated themselves comfortably on the other side of the table. Techorse made eye contact with Limpwing, who winked at him playfully.

“Uh oh,” said Rainbow Dash, seated in the front row with her friends, “did we remember to tell Techie that there was gonna be a full house?”

“You were the one who made this an open showing!” criticized Twilight from the seat over, clearly annoyed, “Why didn’t you tell him?”

“Poor Tech, he looks scared out of his mind,” Fluttershy said dolefully.

Techorse noticed the microphone on a stand near him, and grabbed the boom of the mic and brought it closer to him. Part of the crowd vocalized their intrigue at his device, and the other hand moved out from underneath the clothing to wave.

“Heh, sorry folks,” he said dryly, “thank you all for coming to my thesis, wasn’t expecting this much attention!”

The front of the stage opened up with a hiss of steam, and up from the fog rose a hidden platform, where three faculty members sat in leather chairs behind what looked like an ancient workbench, wooden and full of scratches. Techorse recognized the figure in the center right away, a cream colored unicorn mare with frizzled blue hair and electric stripes, purple eyes that could burn a hole through a wall if focused, and an unknown cutie mark concealed by a pair of work jeans. Despite her lack of formal clothing, headmaster Ampere took her job very seriously.

“Mr. Techorse,” she said with a west coast accent, reaching into her leather jacket, “my colleagues Resistor and Patent Pending sit here today behind the bench owned by our founder, Concept Quandary. As you have taken almost all of your credit hours and project classes remotely in Ponyville, we’ve never formally met. Now you stand before us to have your thesis judged, your machine tested, and your skill critiqued.”

Techorse took a look at Resistor and Patent Pending. Both also older mares with piercing eyes, one with a yellow coat and the other turquoise, they stared back at him as if they would pounce upon him should he show weakness.

“Now, no unfair advantages are given in this school,” continued the leader, “I may have been given the idea to admit you to this school by somepony I know...”

Twilight looked around to make sure no one was staring at her when she said that. Last thing she wanted was for Ampere to name and shame her for “nepotism”.

“...but I’m unimpressed by household creations and I especially do not like weapons of war,” she continued sternly, knowing very well what his Battle Saddle could do from word of mouth, “so you’d better have a thesis today that is both neither of those things and still demonstrates that you can build the things it takes to move Equestria forward.”

After a short pause, Resistor explained the rules, “You have five minutes now to speak about your creation and give a short demonstration. Begin.”

Techorse stood frozen for a few seconds, took a deep breath to provide ample oxygen to his panicking mind. He finally managed to pull his thoughts together on exactly what he wanted to say… and then he began with a friendly speech to hook his audience.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts, despite the strong role magic plays in our society, today’s Equestria is still full of needs that would require constant attendance if solved by spells. Engineering helps to fill these minute-to-minute needs we have in our everyday lives! The refrigerator, the radio, and the steam engine are things we take for granted when we use them or benefit from them, but they are complex systems that were engineered by talented ponies.”

Ampere continued to remain very unimpressed, the leather jacket-clad unicorn picked up a pen from the ancient desk with a quick spell and started jotting down notes. Twilight felt her heart rate begin to slowly elevate, despite how enthralled the high-class audience was, the panel was not thrilled!

“While it’s normal to take inventions such as what I’ve listed for granted, since they’re just things we can go and buy at the store, there are some things in life that we really should be thankful for,” Techorse continued, motioning with his hoof, “I can see we have many pegasus ponies here today. Could you imagine a world where you suddenly lost your wings? A friend of mine, a doctor, says that a pegasus who loses her wings… loses her will to live.”

“This is really, really depressing,” Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight, “what’s he thinking?!”

“You’ll see, just watch!”

Techorse motioned to Limpwing, “I have here my good friend, Limpwing. She’s been born with a condition that has left her with a stunted wing, making her flight very difficult.”

“No points for pity, Techorse,” thought Ampere, flicking her pen against her cheek.

Limpwing stood up and moved next to Techorse, smiling at the audience and displaying her malformed appendage before flapping and displaying her hobbled flight pattern to those present. She couldn’t even hover without dips in her movement. Arbiter could see how uncomfortable the pegasus ponies in the audience were getting, even Patent Pending, who blatantly checked her own wings out of subconscious worry.

“Today I am going to introduce to you a form of Neural Control technology that will revolutionize helping pegasus ponies trapped in such a nightmare,” declared Techorse, putting on a confident smile that was totally fake, “you see, even when a victim gets used to a damaged or missing limb, the brain still sends out waves and signals when they attempt to use it, a so-called ‘phantom limb’ effect.”

Ampere quit chewing on her pen long enough to take an interest in this concept, she made it a point to avoid reading the paperwork portion of the thesis until after the demo, but for the first time in a while, felt as if the demo was starting to get good!

Techorse felt a massive boost of morale from seeing the mare relax and focus, “Here is where my thesis and creation come into play. It is possible for a machine to ‘listen’ for the brain’s activity locally. A special chip listens for intentional commands from the brain, thus making the machine operate at will. The mechanics on my back are an example of intentionally moving objects through space this way, they obey my deliberate commands.”

He then moved over to the box and began to open the flaps, “This is where things get complicated. A new gadget or appendage that a pony doesn’t have is easy enough to build a Neural Control for. But today, I bring you a much more sophisticated piece of equipment. Introducing… my thesis.”

“Okay, here goes nothing,” thought Techorse as he opened the box and brought the contents out into the light of the stage, “at least maybe they’ll get a laugh out of this…”

Twilight covered her eyes as he brought the gadget out of hiding, knowing it would be a disaster.

“Ohhh!” was the general reaction of the crowd, in voices of legitimate interest.

“Oh, my, what is that thing?” Ampere asked, her mouth slightly agape.

What Techorse had brought out and placed standing up on the table was a rainbow-colored piece of lightweight machinery that looked exactly like a real pegasus wing. It was molded to the exact dimensions of a typical wing, and was made of a lightweight steel and carbon alloy that gave way to the touch like a real feather, but held strong as metal under force. The paint job inadvertently applied by Mix-up and Spanners had colored each of the major feathers differently, turning it into a tie-dye work of art, rather than the plain gunmetal Techorse had originally intended. At the base of the prosthetic was a small processor core the size of a postage stamp, and a suction ring that attached to the body.

Techorse could tell from the panel that they were shocked, but he decided to go through with his presentation anyways, “I’d like to call this the… the Chromawing”

“He made that up just now, didn’t he?” giggled Rainbow Dash, “Poor guy.”

“It’s not so bad at all,” Rarity said, trying to be nice, “a bit colorful for a false limb, but there must surely be ponies out there who’d love to have a second chance nonetheless.”

Twilight opened one eye and unclenched her teeth, watching as Techorse was affixing the artificial limb to Limpwing. The prosthetic slipped over her deformity perfectly, and the suction ring automatically clung onto her barrel, leaving the colorful piece of robotics flopping out over to the side.

Techorse explained, “Now that I’ve placed the Chromawing on Limpwing’s body, we need to calibrate the processor to pick up her nervous system. Please show them as we practiced, Limpwing!”

She remained silent, and brought her muzzle down into a preening position to hit a small switch on the processor with her nose. A small green light flashed on the device for a few seconds, and then, with a soft mechanical hum, the artificial wing moved into the resting position at her side, the same as her good wing!

Ampere began to furiously jot down more notes, watching with careful intent. The other two ponies on the panel looked at each other, and then began to take notes of their own as well. Twilight felt a lot more comfortable seeing the faculty members and the rest of the audience around her whisper and focus every ounce of their attention on Limpwing.

“Heh, keep staring,” she said, finally unable to remain silent, “it’s not just for show, folks. I can actually fly with this thing, too!”

Jumping up into the air, Limpwing did a backflip and spread her wings wide, maintaining a perfect hover, which sent the audience into a positive uproar that lifted Tech’s spirits. She did a few tight laps in the air of the auditorium, the rainbow appendage flapping, tilting, and pitching in perfect harmony with her natural wing.

“Limpwing’s brain is controlling the Chromawing just as if it were flesh and blood,” Techorse explained again, “I believe with this technology, we can revolutionize rehabilitation, and more!”

Applause burst forth from the audience, unable to contain their excitement any longer. Limpwing landed next to Techorse and took a cheeky bow, removing the colorful wing shortly thereafter and placing it back in the box.

Once things had died down, Ampere put her pen back in its well and announced, “Mr. Techorse, the other panelists and I are going downstairs to come to our final decision. Please meet us there in fifteen minutes, thank you.”

The platform descended back underneath the stage again, the paneling sealing back up behind them as they vanished to discuss Techorse’s work. His friends ran up onto the stage to either give him a hug or a well-earned compliment.

“That was brilliant!” Rarity said, wanting to tell a joke, “Such a colorful, useful machine, Techorse. Do you think you can make them in orange for autumn?”

Techorse laughed to humor her, “Well, maybe. I sure hope Ampere liked it.”

“I’d say you’re gonna get that degree,” Rainbow Dash answered, “that wing let Limpy do everything a normal pegasus can!”

“Heeeeeey!” Limpwing complained, giving Rainbow Dash a dirty look, “What do you mean, normal?!”

She seemed to get that she’d been too blunt, “Oh, uh… I mean, you did really good Limpwing!”

“Hey, thanks for being the test subject, Limpwing,” Techorse said, “and thanks for coming to support us, Arbiter.”

The one-eyed stallion gave a stoic “Mhm” in response.

“We need to get downstairs and see what the panelists thought,” Twilight said, reminding them why they were there, “the audience went crazy, but I didn’t see Ampere smile even once!”

“Aw I don’t know,” Shadow Breeze countered, “the last time you told us about Ampere, you said she was a really nice mare. I bet she has to do that to all the ponies defending their thesis.”

“She is very nice, but also has very high expectations!” warned the lavender unicorn, “It’s too early to celebrate now!”

“Oops, tell that to Pinkie. She told me she’s already planned your Master Engineer Title-Winning party,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “I’d really hate to burst her bubble, so you’d better have gotten this, Techorse!”

Looking at all of his supportive friends, and his uneasy marefriend, Techorse agreed, “Let’s go find out.”

Ampere’s main office had a rather nondescript doorway despite being the dean of the school, preferring to avoid as much attention as possible. When Techorse led his friends inside though, the plain wood door with a glass pane and name plate gave way to a very large, open room. Benches with incomplete inventions Ampere had been working on were alongside the walls of the beige office turned workshop, and bright lights shown down from overhead, illuminating all the parts and components gathering dust. The only thing that remotely made the place resemble an office was the large maple desk and soft green chair, where its owner begrudgingly did the paperwork necessary to keep the school intact. There she sat, smiling at Techorse, and to his surprise, Princesses Celestia and Luna at her sides!

“Welcome, Techorse and friends! Please come in,” said Ampere, “the princesses requested that they be here for this special moment!”

“Oh wow,” Twilight Sparkle said to her leaders, a bright look on her face, “thank you so much for coming!”

“We wouldn’t have missed it for anything!” Princess Luna declared, “Achieving the rank of Master Engineer is a high honor in Equestria, very few ponies are able to enter the program each year, and most drop out halfway through!”

“There were some very, very long nights,” admitted Techorse, happy to see the princesses but still nervous, “a project every two weeks is tough.”

“But you made it,” Celestia continued, “and we are all very proud of you, Techorse. I am glad this honor and degree will be yours. Ever since I met PAL, I knew that anypony capable of creating such a gentle individual would become a pioneer in engineering.”

Luna added,“While magic may be more prevalent in Equestria, I’ve always had a special interest in those who’d rather pick up the wrench over the spellbook. You’ve proven yourself most interesting to me ever since we met!”

“Thank you!” Techorse said, blushing, “So did I pass then, Doctor Ampere?”

The dean burst out laughing, “DID HE PASS? Aw, look at you, so unsure! Tech, that wing will be a life changer for so many ponies out there that I was restraining myself during the entire presentation. You’ve definitely earned your spot among the Master Engineers of Equestria!”

“Awwww yeah! Techies’ our guy!” Rainbow Dash cheered, doing a backflip and grabbing him around the side playfully.

“Congratulations, lad,” Arbiter said proudly, “you’ve worked very hard for your title!”

“All I’ll need to do is mark the thesis as accepted on your requirements document and I’ll have your graduation ceremony planned for next week,” Ampere said, opening one of the drawers on her desk and bringing out a golden piece of parchment, “let’s see here, thesis checkbox is at the bottom, aaaand...”

She stopped, cocking her head curiously, which made everyone else in the room rather nervous.

“Huh, that’s strange...”

“Wh… what’s strange?!” yelped Twilight Sparkle, feeling her heart rate spike.

“It’s odd, I’m sure it’s a mistake,” chuckled Ampere as the princesses turned their necks to look at the sheet, “all the classes and projects are checked off, but there’s something missing here. Looks like Techorse’s 90 hours of community service aren’t marked! That’s probably just an error, right?”

Techorse thought his pulse had stopped, “Community service?”

Twilight Sparkle buried her face in her hooves and nearly started crying, “Oh no, I forgot!”

All the eyes in the room were now on him, and he quickly realized just how badly he’d messed up. He had never heard of the 90 hours of community service until this very moment, the moment he was supposed to graduate!

“Oh dear,” Princess Celestia said, mortified, “Luna! We all forgot to tell Techorse!”

“WE!?” Luna snapped, “I thought YOU told him!”

Ampere took her goggles off and set them slowly on her desk, “Ohhhh, Techorse. I guess since you weren’t always a resident of Equestria… we never told you. We always assume students would know since, well… they’ve lived here!”

“W… what?” Techorse said dolefully, a lump forming in his throat.

“Techorse, every degree above the standard academic level in Equestria requires 90 hours of community service as a way to keep the well-educated in touch with others,” Princess Celestia explained, approaching the upset stallion, “I’m really sorry, but none of us told you.”

“Think of us forgetting as a testament to how well you’re doing living as an Equestrian!” Limpwing laughed, regretting it when she saw how hurt Techorse looked in response to her comment.

“So he… fails the whole degree?” Fluttershy said, about to cry herself, “Please say no!”

“Oh, sweet Celestia no!” scoffed Ampere, rolling her eyes sputtering her lips, “Techorse has just gotta complete the service hours and then it’s his! Easy fix, sweetheart.”

“Hey,” said the princess who had been called out by name.

“Oh! Sorry, your Majesty,” Ampere chuckled, “things slip out!”

“Well what an opportunity!” chuckled Captain Arbiter, stepping forward and throwing a wing around Techorse, “I have just the place for you in the Equestrian military, lad. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Techorse knew his friend Midnight Blaze wanted nothing to do with the military, and he wasn’t about to join either! Sure it was great for some ponies, but he hated the idea of having to go into boot camp just to complete this degree.

“No way!” he shouted, throwing the wing off of his side with his hoof, “I’m not doing a military project! You know how I feel about that, Arbiter.”

The one-eyed pegasus was a bit taken aback, “Okay, okay... easy, Techorse. I know this is very upsetting to you, but you haven’t even let me tell you what I had in mind, yet!”

“I do not think a stint with the military is a good idea either, Captain,” warned Luna sternly, “let’s find him something where he will shine instead of pushing him into something he’ll hate! You’re always looking to stir up trouble for Techorse, Captain Arbiter.”

“Hey, it’s not Arbiter’s fault you forgot to tell Techorse what was going to happen,” Limpwing argued, raising an accusatory hoof, “you want to come up with something better for him, go ahead!”

The two started arguing with Luna that he hadn’t gotten a fair chance, which dragged Rarity and Rainbow Dash into the argument quickly as they tried to take sides. Twilight was still half-panicking on the ground, Fluttershy and Shadow were trying their best not to cry, and Limpwing just sat there enjoying the chaos with a crap-eating grin on her face. Celestia couldn’t do much but look around in disbelief at the now out-of-hoof situation. Techorse stood motionless, taking in the scene, and wished that the floor would just open up underneath him and make him disappear. It was bad enough that he was going to have to figure out some kind of service project in order to graduate, he didn't need his friends fighting each other over who’s fault it was he was in such a mess.

Interrupting all of the commotion came a loud, sharp noise. Ampere had blown into a small training whistle she kept around her neck for certain technical demos, but it came in handy for breaking up a fight once in a while. Once she was sure she had everyone’s attention, including full focus from Twilight, she leaned back in her chair and threw her hind legs up onto her desk, crossing them.

“While everypony was busy tearing into each other, I took the liberty to go through my notes for the month, and I’ve got something. Interested in hearing?”

“All right Lady Ampere, please tell us your concept,” Princess Luna agreed, “this arguing is getting us nowhere.”

“I’ve got a friend who teaches engineering over in the Trottingham Community College,” explained the dean, smirking, “she’s kind of overworked... the class is a bit of a hooful. Could use a nice long vacation, if you understand what I mean, Mr. Techorse.”

“You’d like me to teach a class at a college?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, “I’m not qualified to teach! I think I might need some time to...”

“Teaching? Teaching is great!” Twilight Sparkle gasped in joy at the thought of educating others, jumping up from her curled-up state of anxiety, “When can he start?”

“Well I knew you’d be eager, Twilight Sparkle, you’ve been begging me for a chance to give a lecture here ever since we started doing lunch on odd weekends,” giggled Ampere as she put a hoof to her mouth, “and I’m sure you and Techorse make all kinds of decisions together as special someponies. Buuuut I still have to hear it from him!”

“Say yes, please!!!” begged Twilight, holding him tightly and giving him the biggest puppy dog eyes, “I’ve always wanted to teach a class, and now you’ve got a golden opportunity to do it! You’ll love it, I promise!”

“Um, Twilight, maybe Tech isn’t very comfortable teaching the way you are,” Fluttershy said softly, discovering quickly Twilight’s willingness to ignore her as she got talked over immediately.

“I’ll teach you how to teach! It’ll be the biggest academic project I’ve ever accomplished!”

He complained, “But it’s not your...”

Techorse cut himself off and knew how much getting to help him would mean to Twilight. He didn’t feel comfortable trying to manage a group of college students by himself, given that he wasn’t that much older than said college students. However, he knew Twilight was only playing to her anxieties and preferences, believing that her favorite service project idea would be the best for him since they cared about each other. The stallion sighed and resigned himself to going through with it. Anything was survivable for a few months.

“Oh, never mind. I’ll do it,” he sighed, looking at Ampere, “what do I do now?”

He was interrupted by Twilight pulling him into a quick warm kiss on the lips. It felt like bribery.

“I knew I picked the right stallion. Thank you so much!” she said, pulling him back into a strong hug.

“Heh heh, you got that right, Miss Sparkle,” said Ampere, going back to a normal position in her chair, “now, the class starts Monday of next week. I’ll have an apartment rented out for both of you near the campus, and send some instructions over. The professor, Mrs. Hotwire, will be dropping by the day before with the curriculum. Just teach from the book and enjoy yourself, when the course ends in twelve weeks, you’ll have your 90 hours plus some change. Then we’ll have your ceremony!”

Techorse nodded, “Perfect, thank you!”

“A wonderful resolution,” Rarity said softly, “they get to teach a pleasant little class!”

“Thank you for coming up with the idea on such short notice, Dean Ampere,” Princess Celestia commended, “I will be happy to help you arrange those accommodations, if you wish.”

“Let’s hash something out today,” agreed Ampere, “I expect things will go swimmingly, after a demo as impressive as that. Techorse should have no trouble teaching a class.”

Techorse was not so sure. After the conversation had died down and he walked out of the building, Twilight skipping merrily beside him, he was starting to wonder if he had done the right thing. Out of panic, Twilight had basically forced him into this situation, and knowing her well, she had some kind of a convoluted plan to make this “easy” on him. This wasn’t the first time that Twilight’s anxiety had interfered with his ability to complete work for his degree. In the past few months in particular as he approached graduation, she had gotten more and more anxious and involved to the point where he couldn’t work without her by his side, listening carefully to her suggestions to make his work ‘perfect’.

“Twilight’s been doing this a lot lately, trying to make choices for me and even making me pick the service project she wanted,” he thought, “I know she’s anxious, but… I’m really starting to hate it.”

He hoped that it would be a passing feeling.

#54 - One Degree Off: Part II

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One Degree Off: Part II

“Twilight, I look… weird,” Techorse complained as his marefriend adjusted a bow tie on his outfit with her magic.

The inventor was taking a good look in the mirror at the ridiculous setup she had subjected him too. An argyle sweater over a white dress shirt, a set of glasses he didn’t even need, gelled over hair, and of course the blue bow tie which he found to be quite dorky.

“No you don’t,” Twilight assured him, “all the most respected professors in Equestria dress like this! The bow tie is an absolute must!”

“I’m not a respected professor though,” Techorse complained, the glasses irritating his muzzle, “and they’re definitely not going to give me any respect when they see me in this!”

Twilight shook her head, and finished affixing the bow tie to his shirt, ignoring his complaints about the outfit. Everything she had planned and prepared for the last week before they had moved into the apartment they were currently borrowing was about to pay off for her coltfriend, and she wasn’t going to let his social anxiety get in the way. Since she had taken a huge interest herself in educating others, she figured that it would be simple enough to impart her knowledge in the stallion she’d cared about for so long.

“It’s just some clothes,” she continued, “the real part of earning your student’s respect will be to provide them with a solid curriculum.”

Techorse lightened up a bit, adjusted the bow-tie a bit himself, “Well, that’s true! I’ve got just the list of topics for this semester in mind for the class. It’ll hopefully not be too much of a hassle for them, since they’re probably each taking three or four courses already as freshmen...”

“Already prepared a course for you!” She interrupted, “Full syllabus and everything! You don’t have to lift a mechanical finger to work on this, Techie. It’s all been researched, studied, and put into paper!”

The stallion gave her an annoyed look, “Really?”

But she was ignoring it, “Of course! I wasn’t going to leave you to your first day without a per-prepared syllabus! We’re partners after all!”

Twilight dragged him out of his small personal room in the 2-bedroom apartment and showed him the massive stack of books and scrolls scattered about the completely covered floor. Apparently, the unicorn had spent all night for the past week compiling all the engineering knowledge she could find into a handy syllabus, which was a stack of documents she’d just printed off that morning at the local press.

“See? It’s all figured out for you,” she said proudly, “I’ve optimized this course to teach everything the students will need about engineering and learning how to build machines! This all comes from the best books in Equestria on the subject, even the ones we’ve read together!”

“What about the textbook?” Techorse asked, seeing a flaw in her plan.

“Of course! The textbook!” she answered, smiling broadly in a way that worried him, “I went with Dr. Ohm Breaker’s The Study Of Design.“

Techorse sighed, “Twilight, you and I love that book a lot, but it’s a bit much for first years, don’t you think? I was going to use How to Make Stuff by Filament. It’s just some basic electronics and mechanical design projects that I can use to get across the introductory concept of engineering to the class.”

“I’m just worried that your students might not get enough out of the class,” Twilight said, her eyes big like a puppy’s, “I mean, you don’t have to use the book… it only took me a week or so to put this together.”

“All right, I’ll give it a try,” he said, trying to smile for her and also give her the benefit of the doubt, “I’m probably just nervous about having to teach... I’ve never done it before! Maybe this will all go according to plan and they’ll be fine with the higher amount of content.”

Twilight cheerfully went and got a set of saddlebags, filling them with her notes and the copies of the syllabus she had printed out. These were tied up to Techorse’s sides, the sheer weight of the amount of notes making him feel like he would crack the floor if he happened to trip.

“I… I might need to not take so many copies,” Techorse grunted, “there’s only supposed to be about 14 students in the class.”

“Oops! I was thinking thirty or so. I guess it is just a community college after all,” Twilight admitted, removing all the unnecessary printings and dropping them on the floor next to her.

As predicted, there was a sharp whacking noise as the stack of documents hit the linoleum, “At least we’ve got some extra copies for when one of your precious students inevitably loses a copy!”

“That’s for sure,” Techorse half-joked, observing how the stack of paperwork nearly came up to the first joint of his front leg, “anyways, I’m going to saddle up and walk over. Wish me luck!”

Twilight approached him and placed a tender kiss on his cheek, which Techorse found to be a bit sloppier than normal, oddly enough…

“Love you! I’m so excited to hear all about how your first day of class goes!” she said, eyes twinkling.

“If I survive...” he thought sarcastically.

Techorse wanted to bring his saddle with him, as always, but the argyle sweater and white dress shirt pretty much made the setup awkward and constricting. So, he decided he could put up with using his hooves and teeth for one day. Maybe if he got up early enough, he could sneak past Twilight with nothing on but the gadget. Leaving the apartment building, Techorse walked out of the development and got on the sidewalk that led over to the college. Already some of the passersby were starting to take notice of his attire.

“Ah! Are you a professor at the college?” asked a friendly stallion in a business suit and top hat, “haven’t seen you around here, before!”

“Oh… well, kind of. I’m volunteering,” answered Techorse, surprised the other stallion had noticed, “I’ve got 90 service hours to fill in to achieve the rank of Master Engineer. Teaching a class at the college was a choice.”

The gentlecolt, who had been going the other way, turned around and trotted alongside Techorse to continue the conversation, “That’s just grand, I say! It’s not often that someone going for such a title lowers themselves to the level of a temporary teacher!”

“Hey! This isn’t lowering myself,” complained Techorse, his hairdo beginning to itch from the gel, “these students are just getting into the field of engineering, and I want to encourage them!”

“Ah, I see… well try to keep your wits about you, I hear college ponies can be quite the painful experience!” warned the styled stallion as he parted paths down a nearby street, “Take care!”

The college campus was definitely much more humble than the League of Engineering’s, with standardized brick and mortar buildings and plain roofs colored in cream and silver. A few sculptures were left here and there on the campus, but the paths between the buildings were broken up a bit by the roots of trees that had likely been planted nearly fifty years ago when the school was founded. Despite this, a wide variety of ponies, and a handful of other creatures were seemingly happy despite the state of disrepair.

“This place could use some help,” Techorse wondered aloud, “maybe when I’m done teaching here, they’d accept a donation from me.”

A small pebble from the broken sidewalks got into the frog of his hoof, making him stop and shake his leg to try and get it out.

“I’m gonna need to add a condition for the donation: fix the sidewalks first,” he grunted, finally managing to get the stone out by force.

Knowing the day wasn’t likely to get much better, Techorse took a deep breath and trotted over to the building he was informed would contain his classroom for the next several months. Alloy hall, likely named after the surname of whatever generous mare or stallion donated to the school at the right time. The simplistic glass and aluminum door opened easily, and the stallion stepped inside, surprised at the variety of students. There were definitely the usual college aged ponies, but there were some still in high school eager to pick up some credits ahead of time, and a couple of older folks trying to go back for a degree later in life.

The hallways were lined with red linoleum tile, and purple paint covered dry board walling, rows of electric lights keeping the place illuminated despite the lack of windows.

“Mix-Up would puke if he saw this,” chuckled Techorse, turning a corner to get to the room.

Classroom 124-A, a humble room with a wooden door and cinder block walls, greeted Techorse with some funny looks as he entered. It turns out, dressing like an academic at a high-end university was out of place for a community college. There were roughly 20 or so students as he had been informed, a roughly equal mix of mares and stallions interested in the 101 type class on engineering. At the front of the classroom, however, slouched in one of the plain desks constructed out of treated iron and oak, was a griffin. She wore a T-shirt, leather jacket, and a red do-rag, and cracked the gum in her beak loudly as Techorse made his way to the small table and desk at the front of the classroom provided to him. Behind him sat a degrading green chalkboard with only a meager remaining piece to write with. Other than that, there wasn’t much in the room save a few posters talking about upcoming events on campus, and the occasional groaner of a safety PSA.

“Good morning, class!” Techorse started, lugging the bag of syllabus papers on the table with a dull whack, “It’s nice to see you all.”

The students were trying not to snicker at Techorse’s ridiculous outfit and overly groomed hair while he continued to talk, “My name's Techorse, in case they didn't tell you yet. It’s my hope that I’ll be able to teach you the basics of engineering, both theory and practice.”

Pulling the papers out of the bag, which caused several of the students to go wide-eyed, Techorse went on, “So this is the syllabus for Engineering 101! I’ve never taught a class before, so I’m assuming this is what it’s supposed to be like...”

After passing out the enormous packets that Twilight had cooked up, the mares and stallions of the room started flipping through the nearly two dozen pages of content with disappointment, if not abject terror on their faces. Twilight’s design was so complex and thorough that they wondered if they would have any time for anything else they were taking that semester! There was a project due every week, a test every other week, biweekly quizzes, and over 50 pages of reading per day.

“So let’s talk about what we’ll cover this semester!”

The griffon rapped her talon-tipped fingers on the desk, wondering if her new professor was insane, or just this hopelessly new to teaching.

She got her answer when Techorse opened up his own copy of the syllabus, which he never read in front of Twilight, and the blood immediately drained from his face.

“Sh… shoot. I um… this is a lot,” he said, laughing nervously and feeling like his sweater was going to sog from sweat.

“Can we at least know what the textbook is going to be like?” said a pink mare in the front row weakly, hoping against all hope it would be able to be carried in her saddlebags without snapping her spine like a dry twig.

After examining the insane workload Twilight had suggested, Techorse listened in carefully to the students’ reaction to the massive syllabus.

“Are we gonna have to do all of that?”

“Engineering must be boring.”

“Maybe we should drop...”

He was caught between a rock and a hard place, not wanting to disappoint Twilight, but also not wanting the students to leave or feel like the field was a waste of their time.

“Sorry Twilight,” he muttered, before answering the other mare, “well, it looks like I printed the wrong syllabus, so ignore the textbook listed there. We’re going to be using How To Make Stuff. You should be able to get it for about twenty bits, and it’s only about one hundred and twenty pages or so.”

“Interesting,” the griffoness said, chomping on her gum again.

She knew something was going on with her teacher, he seemed way too nice to bury them all in the workload the ‘wrong’ syllabus had.

“Yo, teach!” she said, raising her claw.

“Yes!” answered Techorse, pointing with his hoof at the cream-plumaged bird, “Uh… what’s your name? Need to learn your name and everypony else’s here.”

“So I’m Gracimillion the Fourth, but you can call me Gracie,” she joked, pushing the gum under her tongue carefully and changing her slouch in the chair, “you’ve got no idea what you’re doing, do ya?”

Techorse felt humiliated, his other students’ gazes were like being burned into by lasers, something he was quite familiar with, “Of… course I do, Miss Gracie! I’ve just never taught a course before, so...”

“So when you said this was the wrong syllabus, what did you mean then?” she asked, probing deeper, curious as to what was really going on.

Unable to really think on his hooves from embarrassment, Techorse turned red as a beet and tried to think up a good excuse, “Well… it’s complicated. Let’s just say I thought this was an okay idea until I got here. S… sorry.”

“All right,” Gracie told him, now openly on the offense with her words, “well, this is an elective for me, so if you have to drop these novels, that’s a good thing! This first draft’s pretty awful.”

Techorse wondered how this problem student would be acting if Twilight were in the room. He imagined his unicorn marefriend bursting into tears from the comments, and then worrying herself to death about how the faculty on campus would kick him and her out forever, never able to achieve the rank of Master Engineer! Projecting aside, he knew he was going to have to lie again when he got home when she would inevitably ask how her “brilliant” course plan was received.

“Oh, you filthy raven, how dare you speak to a professor in such a way!” came a relatively posh voice along with an explosive slamming of the door.

In the doorway stood a tall, mysterious young unicorn stallion, crew cut black hair on a tan coat, glasses kept perfectly clean, and a well-done business casual outfit worn in the name of just barely overdressing. Clearly a very scientific pony, and a top student!

Gracie felt herself swallow her gum out of disgust from the air of ‘perfection’ the stallion exuded, “Excuse me?”

The somewhat posh pony, uninterested in her, walked up to Techorse, nose held somewhat high, “My apologies for being late, Mr. Techorse. I was held up on important business, arguing with my father over whether or not this class is necessary. He insists I’m beyond it, but I’m fine taking a course from a community school. All I care about is that I learn how to build things that will sell!”

“So do we!” complained Gracie, “And… are you even in the right class?!”

“Yes,” he answered calmly yet sharply, “I am. I didn’t ask for your opinion, bird. I’m surprised a griffon would even come to receive a class from a future Master Engineer.”

“H… hey!” complained Gracie, her claws digging into her desk, “I have every right to be here, pal!”

Techorse tried to put some space between the two, “All right, look, Mr...”

“Improver,” he answered with his name, the lights overhead reflecting in his glasses neatly, “rude of me not to introduce myself I suppose.”

“...Improver,” parroted Techorse blandly, “go take your seat. I want to make sure I get through the lesson plan for today.”

Improver walked down the nearest row of seats, and took his… right next to Gracie. He gave her a smug, demeaning look, which boiled the feathered lady’s blood.

She dug her talons even deeper, digging grooves in her desk, “Great, first the teacher is completely clueless, and now I gotta put up with this jerk too...”

Techorse wondered if he was going to have two problem students on his hands, between the griffon and this new guy who just didn’t sit right with him.

“Anyways,” he said, trying to regain control of the room, “thank you all for attending. Let’s start with a basic discussion about what engineering is, and what we can do with it this semester!”

He moved over to the chalkboard, and went to reach for one of the pieces of chalk left for him. After a few seconds of being unable to do anything, it occurred to him that he had gone along with Twilight’s outfit for him a little too well, and now he was left without his saddle. This meant no hands available to write with.

“Here’s a great example of what we can do with it,” Techorse sighed, trying not to blush, “so normally, I have my saddle with me, which features a pair of robotic arms I can use to pick up writing utensils. As an Earth Pony, I lack any means of picking up items except with my teeth, or whatever will actually stay on my hooves.”

“That’s something we all have to put up with,” said an earth pony mare wearing a pink dress said from the back row, before looking at Improver, “well, most of us...”

“Exactly. So the main use of engineering is to solve problems,” he explained, “those problems can include overcoming a limitation, making a process easier, or creating a better version of something useful we already have.”

Gracie raised her hand again, “Hey, so… if you ponies have so many schools around for magic, why do you even bother with this stuff? Can’t unicorns just cast spells to fix all these problems?”

“I actually happen to know some unicorns really well who still need machines,” Techorse answered, raising an eyebrow, “magic might be a more popular field to study in Equestria, but magic has to be repeated every time you want the problem solved. With engineering, we can build a machine that can do useful work over and over again.”

“Plus we get tired,” snubbed Improver, “I’d hope you’d understand that.”

“Machines are a great way to take the stress off of our unicorn friends’ limited energy,” Techorse agreed, “but it is possible to combine the two if needed. Engineering can use arcane components to produce even more useful machines and gadgets!”

“Well, most of us here don’t have any magic,” said another student, a pegasus pony using his wing to show Techorse the fact that Improver was the sole unicorn, “so hopefully that won’t be one of our projects.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on it,” assured the inventor, smiling, “when we do get to the final project, you’ll be able to use whatever techniques or parts you want! My goal is to teach you how to think like an engineer, not what the best parts are for the job. That’s up to you!”

The student smiled back at him, which gave a sudden boost of confidence in his ability to teach the class. Here was an opportunity to impart knowledge that he’d always known and had spent years specializing in. Granted, most of the ponies in the room were just trying to get their 3 elective credits and be done with it.

“Good to know we don’t have to have it, since magic is so much stronger,” said another earth pony mare, playing with her orange curly hair, “at least, that’s what I was always told growing up.”

Realizing that the room was full of earth ponies and pegasi mostly who had spent their whole lives feeling like they weren’t as strong as a unicorn, Techorse knew he’d have to change that.

“By the end of this class, I’m hoping that all of you don’t believe that anymore,” he said, standing up on his hind hooves and leaning on the desk in front of him, “I want all of you to believe that with hard work and problem solving, you can build things just as good without magic.”

“Wow, really? I thought we’d just be making some lamps or something,” she replied, “I’m a first year, so I’m just trying to get into the field.”

“Yup! In fact, I’m so confident that this course will change your mind, that we will not be doing any exams! I’m going to require just a few written reports, and the final project,” he boasted, for some reason feeling rather biased against magic at the moment.

“Woah, no exams? All projects?” said Gracie, eyes going wide from the statement, “Now we’re talking!”

Techorse, confident now that he could educate his students, shoved the remaining materials from Twilight off the desk, making a loud sound as the papers tumbled to the floor. He was going to be doing things his way!

“Let’s go over what you’ll need to learn in order to succeed in this class,” he continued, moving over to the chalkboard and grabbing a piece of less than tasty chalk in his mouth.

He drew a quick list of items up on the green slate, albeit in a very awkward and chicken scratch manner since he had very little practice writing by mouth. Tomorrow, he’d bring back in his saddle again to alleviate the issue, but his jaw would have to do for now. Once finished, he spat the piece of material back into the tray in front of the chalkboard and wiped his mouth clean with a hoof.

In horrible writing the board now read: “Learn how to think. Learn how to design. Learn how to build.”

“This is all you’ll have to do in order to become a great engineer,” Techorse explained, pointing at his horrid writing, “there’s lots of ponies out there who will want you to pass big exams or memorize the date when the steam engine was invented. I disagree with those ponies. To pass my class, you’ll just need to prove that you can think, design, and build like an engineer.”

“I’m confused, wasn’t this supposed to be more of a hooves-off kind of course?” Improver frowned, shuffling in his seat.

“Not anymore! Tomorrow, I’ll bring in some supplies for our first project. It’ll be very simple, and fun, too!” answered his teacher, smiling, “in the meantime, everyone’s task for this evening is to find a copy of How To Build Stuff. If you read the first chapter ahead of time, that’s great. Otherwise just be here at the same time next class.”

“Wow! I’m liking this new approach,” thought Gracie as Techorse dismissed them for the evening, “I won’t have to spend so much time studying!”

After the students filed out of the classroom, Techorse gathered the teaching materials given to him by Twilight and left with a more confident stride. He felt a little guilty for deciding to ditch Twilight’s course design, and knew he’d probably be in the doghouse if she figured out he was going his own way, but he was growing tired of the constant worrying and pushing for things he didn’t want to do. This solution appeared to be the best way forward.

Rather than taking the most direct route back to the apartment, Techorse made a short stop at a local cafe. After ordering a hot drink and taking a seat at one of the many outdoor tables, he pulled his left hoof up and started fiddling with the wristwatch around his left leg. It had a small, red button on it, which the stallion managed to push with a hoof. A few blue beams of light came from the wristwatch, in reality it was a holographic gadget he’d managed to sneak past Twilight. PAL’s form appeared on the display, eager to speak to his creator.

“Ah, Master Techorse!” came the distorted transmission due to the distance, “How was your first day teaching? Did Mistress Sparkle’s teaching plan thrill your students?”

“No,” he answered, shaking his head, “I knew I should have read it ahead of time. Twilight’s sweet for trying to help me, but… it’s definitely way too much book learning for this class. The students need to start designing and building right away to get started on becoming engineers, not take tests all the time.”

“Well, I suppose I should have figured as much,” sighed PAL, “but there’s nothing that can be done, right? You only have to stay the course for a few months.”

“This is what this call is about, PAL,” Techorse interrupted, “I’m not going to use Twilight’s teaching plan at all.”

PAL went silent for a few moments, before groaning, “Please tell me that Twilight will be informed of this change when you get home.”

Techorse looked extremely guilty to the robot, and for a good reason, “I… I can’t! If I do, she’ll be upset. I’m just going to act like I’m teaching the course she designed, and in the meantime… provide the class with exactly what they need.”

“It can’t be healthy to be willing to lie to your marefriend like this,” PAL countered, “a year ago I probably would have said nothing and let things be, but I’m putting my heavy metallic foot down! Talk to her about this tonight, Techorse.”

The other ponies trying to enjoy their drinks were now taking occasional glances at the seemingly insane pony talking to his watch. Techorse continued on his conversation without noticing, typical for himself.

“All right… fine,” he sighed, “I’ll talk to Twilight. She’s just… worrying herself to death over this and not listening to me because of it. It’s beginning to get hard to deal with.”

“So you’ll tell her?”

“Yes,” answered Techorse again, “but we’re still going to change the plan for this semester. So I was originally calling to see if you could drop off a crate of supplies for me in the classroom tomorrow morning.”

“Certainly, and thank you for listening to me,” the hologram of the robot nodded, “now what things do you need? The castle forge should be able to put them together overnight if I get the order in now...”

Techorse took the short route back to the apartment rented for himself and Twilight, pleased with his plan to take control of the class for himself. Since he was the expert in engineering anyways, why shouldn’t he be the one to get to decide what the students would learn? Today had been a horrible embarrassment with Twilight’s dorky curriculum, and he had failed to keep the attention of any of the students up until he had decided to ditch all of her ideas in favor of her own. Gracie, at least, seemed rather interested with his new plans to do more hooves-on work.

“If I’m doing this for anyone, it’s going to be for Gracie,” he told himself while waiting for Twilight to open the door, “she’s going to find out fast that this is much more than an elective. Maybe she’ll even become an engineer, too!”

His marefriend eagerly unlocked the door bolt and grabbed him by the sweater collar with her magic, pulling him quickly inside. Twilight’s skills in her art had significantly improved over the years, able to control dozens of objects at once. With a few teleportation spells, she changed him out of the fancy clothes she had sent him in and placed his saddle gently over a nearby coat rack. Then he was whisked over to the dining room table of the three room home, all in the span of a few seconds.

“Well… hello to you too, Twi!” he said, amazed by the speed and talent of the mare.

“Tell. Me. Everything!” she said eagerly, sitting across from him with a smile on her face, “How were the students? What were they like? Did they love the textbook and the curriculum?!”

Techorse knew that this would be the hard part, but he didn’t think it would be this overwhelmingly difficult. Ruining Twilight’s beautiful smile and sparkling purple eyes weren’t his greatest concern however. Her anxiety and the amount of grief being told her coursework wasn’t very interesting to the students was. If he didn’t put it lightly enough, she would probably be crushed and try to “salvage” things. At the best, she might understand that since it was a 101 class, she needed to tone down the workload a bit. But at the worst…

He made up his mind very quickly, “Sorry Pal… can’t tell her everything.”

“What do you think?” she asked, still aglow.

Techorse let out a concerning breath and explained, “I had to make changes… but they liked it! There’s been a… miscommunication in what I need to do.”

Twilight’s head bobbed back a bit, her smile dissipated, but she didn’t look too hurt, which was a good sign.

“Oh,” she said, “a miscommunication? I thought I read into creating the course perfectly, all of the college rules, what the board needs...”

“I know you did everything perfectly, but when I got there, the students told me they didn’t feel like they were getting a complete education without a little more hooves-on work,” he lied, feigning a bit of disappointment, “your course seemed fine, so I’m just going to chop some of the less important quizzes and reading in exchange for some projects.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Well, I guess teaching is for the student, not the teacher. I was just worried that you wouldn’t meet all the school requirements.”

“Oh the course will,” he assured her, knowing what he was going to teach would do so much better, “it’s just a few minor alterations. You know, it’s just how engineering goes!”

“Oh, absolutely!” Twilight answered, nodding her head and smiling again, “And the students weren’t too much trouble, right?”

“Not… at all.”

“That wasn’t very convincing,” she said, pulling over a tray of mushroom steaks and potatoes she had ordered from a local restaurant, “hungry? It’s your favorite!”

“She went out of her way to get me fancy mushroom steak…”

Twilight was starting to act nervous since he was zoning out, “Is… everything okay, Techie? Everything’s okay, right?!?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine...” he droned, “it’s just this one guy, Improver. He was kind of stuck up about the coursework and wouldn’t leave another student alone.”

“He’ll change his mind, the course has so much interesting material, he won’t have any time to bother the other students,” Twilight chuckled, serving herself a mushroom cap on her plate, the fuchsia magic moving the piece of food, “I promise!”

“That’s the problem...” muttered Techorse, rolling his eyes.

“Hmmm?” Twilight answered, almost dropping the potato, “did you say something?”

“Oh… no!” he snapped back to attention, “nothing. Thanks for talking me through things, Twilight.”

She rolled her eyes, “Of course! I love talking to you, it’s why we’re together!”

Techorse served himself a portion of the meal and nodded, “Yeah… it is.”

After failing to enjoy his dinner for some emotional odd reason, Techorse helped her clean up. She seemed pleased, completely unaware he had dumped her entire work in the garbage where his students believed it belonged. He didn’t feel so pleased however, something was “off” even though tomorrow morning a brand new pile of parts would be available for him to give to the students. He was doing things his own way, and keeping Twilight’s anxiety down, so he knew in his brain it was a win-win decision. So why couldn’t he enjoy his evening?

“So, you want to cuddle and talk about this cool spell I found?” Twilight asked him after they had finished cleaning up, “it’s been a while since we’ve done that.”

He couldn’t find the interest, “I’m really, really tired Twilight. I’d love to, but I could use an early bedtime tonight. Maybe tomorrow?”

Her ears fell back, but she seemed to understand his situation, “Hey, I get it. I used to get really tired too when working in the Canterlot library all day. Kiss goodnight?”

“Sure.”

They shared a quick lip-lock, the most uninteresting, bland one Techorse had ever experienced. Used to be he’d look forward to that moment every day or so, but now…

“Whatever. She’s happy.”

“Goodnight, babe,” he said, turning around and heading to his room blankly.

Techorse nearly slammed the door, which felt as heavy as his current thoughts.

“Babe?” giggled Twilight softly, “He never says that.”

Techorse spent very little of this time he was “tired” actually sleeping of course. Redesigning an entire college level course from the ground up was hard work, but he’d managed to put a rough draft down on paper before collapsing at roughly three in the morning, giving him just enough time for a few hours of rest before his alarm jolted him awake again. He had set the clock much earlier than what Twilight had woken him up for previously, so that he could avoid being intercepted by her on the way out. This time there’d be no dorky clothes, no piles of paperwork, and definitely no textbooks that could crush someone if it didn’t bore them to death first. All he took was his saddle, his rough draft of the new course outline, and himself out the door that morning.

“This will all be worth it for the title,” he said, locking the door to the apartment behind himself as he hurried off, “so long as Twilight doesn’t find out, we’re fine. I’ll be a Master Engineer in one semester, she’ll believe she carried me through it… and hopefully she’ll stop being so anxious.”

Now with his new curriculum in mind, the walk to the college felt a lot less embarrassing, and Techorse was able to greet everypony he saw on the way with a more confident smile. He didn’t pay attention to any of the raised eyebrows since no one on the route actually knew him that well, but the morale boost in his head was all that mattered.

“What is this thing?” asked one of the campus professors, sipping her coffee held tightly in her wings, “Do we have any idea how it got here?”

“No idea,” responded the security officer, an earth pony clad in a tan uniform, “we saw this flying, glowing object, like a meteor, and then it dropped off this… box.”

In front of them, having crashed into the middle of the lawn in front of the college’s largest auditorium, was a giant crate that had been dropped off last night by PAL. He failed to mention to Techorse that he was sending the machine parts he had requested by rocket, and that the payload would be parachuted down to the ground. It was the only way that it was going to be delivered overnight. Now there was a six by six foot metal box stuck firmly on the lawn.

“Well it can’t stay here,” the teacher muttered, taking another swig, “the grass underneath of it is going to die if it does, and then the groundskeeper will quit for sure. He’s already been threatening to leave as it is...”

She heard galloping down the sidewalks and watched several students turn their heads at Techorse making a mad dash for them.

“Sorry! Sorry!” called Techorse repeatedly, galloping up to them, “I didn’t think he was going to leave the delivery THERE!”

“Oh look who it is,” the pegasus pony rolled her eyes, “the temp. Of course he’s the one who did this.”

“Mr. Techorse, you caused this thing to appear on the grass?” asked the guard, not quite understanding.

“Look, it’s complicated, and I’m really sorry, but I need to get this open and into the classroom,” he said, looking over the shipping container for the latch, “it’s full of parts we’re using to make machines.”

“Wow,” the security officer marveled, stroking his gray mustache, “school supplies sure have changed since I was young. Guess there’s nothing more to see here since you’re gonna get rid of it.”

He left Techorse and the professor alone, which she took full advantage of, telling him, “I don’t know how you managed to accomplish this, Techorse, but just keep in mind you look insane right now.”

“Who are you, again?” Techorse asked sarcastically, finding the latch and striking it with his hoof.

“Professor Chalkmark, meteorology and other weather studies,” she answered before draining the rest of what was in her mug, “probably our biggest subject here on campus. I’d watch the tone.”

“Yeah, well, the Canterlot League of Engineers sent me,” he said, picking up some of the neatly boxed components, “so I already know I’m insane being here.”

Chalkmark raised her mug, “Point taken. Hope you survive, I guess.”

Techorse at least gave her the courtesy of eye contact after realizing it would take him at least six trips to move all of the gear, “Yeah… me too.”

With just fifteen minutes to spare before class started, Techorse had managed to move all of the parts from the delivery into the classroom, including the pieces of the shipping container in order to avoid killing the lawn off. Half of the chalkboard was now covered up by individually boxed components stacked up against the walls, likely to the detriment of whoever had to use the room next unless he were to move them out again when his teaching period was over. When the students started to enter the classroom, their new suggested textbook in hoof or talon, they found Techorse smiling and sitting casually at the edge of the table, looking quite proud of himself.

“Good morning, class,” he said, with a bit of a laugh, “today we’re going to jump right into the engineering process, so I hope you’re wide awake and ready to learn!”

“Woah,” Gracie said, her feathers somewhat fluffed in shock, “what’s all of this, Tech?”

“Your first assignment!” he answered proudly, reaching over and pulling out one of the many green-paper wrapped boxes on the wall, “These boxes all contained pre-assembled mechanical and digital parts with connecting wires so you don’t have to design anything or spend any time wiring things. All you have to do is connect in an electrically correct order, and it’ll run.”

“Ohhhh,” Improver said slowly, clearly intrigued, “tell us more. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on yesterday’s sudden change in agenda.”

“Sure,” nodded Techorse, excited to share, “catch this one and open it up, Improver.”

With a mechanical flick of the wrist, so to speak, Techorse’s saddle chucked one of the packages at the unicorn, who grabbed it with a sparkling telekinesis spell and started to unwrap. Inside, packed firmly with packing peanuts, was a single fan-shaped object mounted on a metal tube, with a black wire leading out of the bottom with two connectors.

“What is this… some kind of pinwheel?” the unicorn asked, his sense of awe lost suddenly.

“It’s a tiny windmill,” answered Gracie, grabbing it from out of the box and putting it on her own desk, “pegasus ponies can use these to get electricity from wind.”

“Correct, and using these, we’re going to explore the first part of engineering you need to know,” nodded Techorse, “designing circuits with a power source. In this case, the windmills. Please turn to page 28 in your textbooks, and I’ll explain the basics. Then we’ll jump right into creating your first project.”

In an engaging way, using the chalkboard and not an ounce of Twilight’s design, Techorse went over the basics of designing. While her course would have been filled with math and units of measurement, his introduction to the material included only how inventors and engineers think, and how to use creativity to create solutions to actual problems. He could tell from his student’s bright faces and clear attention that he was doing something right, even if he wasn’t going “by the book” very much.

“So now I’m going to hand out one windmill per student. After that, you can use any of the parts in these boxes to design a solution to this problem,” he said, reaching into a nearby brown paper bag.

“Oh man, what’s he got next?” joked Gracie, rolling her eyes, and cracking her fresh piece of gum.

Techorse pulled out a bag of good old campfire marshmallows and placed them on the table, “Design any safe way to toast a marshmallow using the parts in this room. We’ll test them outside when you’re done.”

With only a little bit of help to understand some of the material on electrical flow and how to connect the wires of the parts together, the class quickly picked up on how to build things out of the modular devices Techorse had provided to them and completed their marshmallow cookers. Gracie had struggled a little bit with deciding how to best develop something to keep the marshmallow in place over the heating element she had chosen, but the fan providing power was hardly enough to keep the elements turned on and heated constantly to provide enough heat. She resorted to using her wings to keep the turbine moving, and the heating element glowing.

“Darn it, this isn’t working too well,” she muttered, keeping the small windmill going, “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think wind power was going to work with this.”

“Well, that’s your fault, griffon,” Improver teased, showing off his design, “as you can see, mine is working perfectly fine. Perhaps unicorns make better inventors in addition to mages?”

Improver’s design was indeed working better, using a set of mirrors he had found in one of the boxes to reflect the sun overhead into a focal point to cook the marshmallow. His windmill was connected directly to a motor to turn the marshmallows, cooking them evenly. Some of the other students had a similar design, although one mare had gone an interesting route by straight up powering a small torch using the windmill, likely to run out of fuel, but easier to run than using it manually.

Seeing that this made Gracie frustrated, Techorse tried to offer a suggestion, “Gracie, it’s just a prototype that can be reworked into something better. This is an engineering class, not a science fair.”

Knowing he was being ‘called out’, Improver continued to push the issue, “Maybe it’s not a science fair, but you will have to do better if you want to get anywhere in this field, bird.”

“I… I don’t!” she growled at him, “I just… I could have done fine if I had been given a solar panel instead of a windmill. They’re really high tech, but they’d do better than those mirrors which could burn you when you go to get your marshmallow.”

One of the other students’ ears perked up, a pegasus stallion who was listening in rather than feasting on marshmallows from their creations like most of the others, “I think I have one of those!”

He scooped up a nearby green cardboard box and presented it to Gracie, “It’s right here.“

Surprised that Techorse had brought something such a high-technology (for Equestria, anyways), she inquired about it, “Oh, well… thanks, but the teacher here said we’re using windmills for power. Can’t.”

Trying to go easier on her, and also to humble Improver, he mentioned casually, “Weeeeell, I only said I’d be handing out one windmill per student. I never said you couldn’t use any other source of power if it was available.”

Improver indignantly huffed about as Gracie was permitted to build a better prototype using the new piece, even more so when she copied his idea to rotate the marshmallows using a motor tied to the windmill instead, while heating the treat using the solar panel powering the heating element. Techorse was just happy to see his students enjoying the class and learning how to put machines together.

“We’re almost out of time,” he said after another twenty minutes of letting them fiddle around with the machine parts, “since everyone finished their machine, everyone gets an A! Make sure to read the pages I mentioned earlier so we can start our next project tomorrow.”

“Oh man, this class is gonna be great!” Gracie cheered, holding her marshmallow cooker tightly in her talons, “So where are we going to store these?”

“Just in the classroom, we’ll probably end up taking them apart at the end of the course,” answered Techorse, pointing towards the building’s door, “we’ve got bigger and better things to design.”

“Cool!” she answered, a few of her feathers puffing out.

“So you’re enjoying engineering?” said the green stallion with a teasing tone of voice.

The griffon settled down and tried not to look at him, “Well… I’d rather have a fun elective than not.”

Techorse smiled, “Of course. Enjoy your evening!”

After the class had left, Techorse decided to spend a few minutes writing down another list of parts he was going to need for future sessions to scan and send to PAL. While working on this intently, he heard the door creak open, Improver let himself in.

“Do you have a few moments, professor?” he asked.

“Sure,” answered Techorse, “and it’s fine if you call me Techorse, Improver. Don’t be so formal.”

“Right,” the stallion answered, “I hope I’m not bothering anything.”

“Not much, just writing down a document to scan and send home to get more parts from my lab,” he explained, pointing at the document with a robotic finger, “so how can I help?”

Improver sighed, “Techorse, you’re perhaps the most influential inventor and engineer of our time, and yet you’re stuck here teaching these… washouts.”

“Of which you are one of them,” Techorse said, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m here because it was demanded of me,” grumbled Improver, lowering his gaze, “and something tells me you are in the same boat, so to speak.”

Techorse put his pen down fully, and gave the student his full attention, “Yeah. This is a requirement for me to earn my title of Master Engineer. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself though, I’m liking what I’m doing here so far.”

“...and I like what you’re doing here so far as well,” the unicorn chuckled, putting his hoof on the piece of paper in front of Techorse, “perhaps you should consider… ramping things up a bit. Some of those more advanced pieces you make in your lab? Digital devices, I mean. I’m sure they’re Equestria’s future.”

He pulled the document out from under the frog of the unicorn's hoof, “I… don’t know about that. That would probably go outside the scope of this course. Besides… I’m not good enough of a teacher. I’m already going outside what I was originally supposed to teach.”

“Nonsense,” said the other stallion in a flattering manner, “you’re going to be Master Engineer. Think about it! I’m not saying bring everything in at once, just some at a time. A few things here or there, with explanations, of course. After all, that syllabus you had the first day was much larger than what your actual teaching method indicates. You are teaching us everything we should know, right? Not cutting any content, teacher?”

Techorse gave him a guilty look, before finally caving in, ears down in shame over chopping Twilight’s ideas, “I… I am not cutting anything.”

“I hope not,” he nodded, continuing to butter up the teacher, “after all, Gracie is only pretending she doesn’t like this class. I think she does want to go into engineering, but in her silly bird culture, you can’t just admit you like something. It would show weakness.”

His teacher clearly wanted to hear that, “I figured. I really want to help her see she’s got what it takes.”

“Then do so! Go ahead and include the more complex material in your manifest there,” Improver suggested, tapping again with his hoof on the retracted paper, “you already know I’ll do well. I’m only concerned for her and the other students.”

“Good to know,” answered Techorse, agreeing, “I’ll ramp things up a little bit, but it’ll just be a fun addition to the course. Understanding digital technology won’t be part of the final grade.”

The unicorn was already heading for the classroom door, “Fair enough, Techorse, fair enough. Now make sure you get back home at a good hour. Don’t wear yourself out!”

He left him be, and for a while Techorse eagerly jotted down everything he wanted to include in the next few lessons, excited that Gracie might find her calling if he could just show her. After submitting the updated manifest to PAL using a narrow blue scanning beam that emitted from his saddle, the stallion packed up his things and started the long walk back home.

“Day 2 of 90,” he said to himself, trying to maintain a smile, “so far so good!”

Of course, despite the smile on the outside, something still didn’t sit right. He ignored his feelings up until he reached the front door of the apartment. When the door opened however, what he found was a very different Twilight Sparkle, and he lost his fake confidence immediately. Her facial expression seemed different, but he couldn’t quite figure it out.

She muttered in an annoyed tone, “Hey… how was your day?”

Techorse raised an eyebrow, “Good… how about yours? This isn’t about being late for dinner, is it?”

“Come on in, talk time,” she answered.

Uneasy about her sudden shift in demeanor since yesterday, Techorse followed his marefriend inside and they sat down at the simple dining room table. Her eyes seemed like they were digging into his, unwilling to break contact. This side of Twilight rarely came out, but when it did…

“So since you didn’t come back for dinner, I decided to go to the local sandwich shop,” Twilight explained, her magic charging up, “while there I happened to run into one of your students, Gracie.”

“She loves our class,” Techorse explained nervously, trying to defuse the situation, “so glad you got to meet her!”

“Yeah, our class,” Twilight grumbled, her magic hauling up the massive stack of paperwork making up her curriculum.

The unicorn slammed the paperwork down on the table, nearly shattering it, dust flying into the air.

“Gracie told me all about how you were teaching the class,” she said, demanding an answer, “I thought you said you were making just a few changes, not ditching the whole thing! You even cut out the essay on the history of electricity in Equestria!”

Shifting in his seat a few times over having been caught, Techorse sighed and rubbed his muzzle, “Twilight… the students looked at the syllabus and started talking about dropping the course. I only changed to a more hooves-on centered course design in hopes that I wouldn’t lose them!”

“But if they don’t learn some of the history, they won’t develop an appreciation for where the field has come from,” Twilight complained, continuing to pick through her paperwork to give examples, “yeah, Gracie seems to be having lots of fun, but they’re not getting the overview they need.”

“I… I just didn’t want you to get upset and worry about me,” Techorse admitted, looking at the mountain of paperwork in shame.

Twilight leaned over the table, fully confrontational about the issue, “Well, I am upset! It took me days to make this course, Tech, days!”

Techorse felt it necessary to get out of his seat to avoid having her muzzle in his face while they were arguing, and slowly backed away, “Look, I know it took a lot of hard work, Twilight, but you have to understand, I couldn’t subject my students to that material, they looked too bored to continue!”

The mare lowered her head and also got away from the table, walking towards him with a gruff, even pace, “This is education, they signed up for the course knowing they’d be subjected to learning the material! You threw this all away just because they looked bored!?”

He saw the wall of the apartment across from the table coming up, with no place left to go to get away from Twilight’s demanding questions. To avoid being literally cornered, he went over his ways to defuse the situation and try to explain himself.

Then the angry unicorn demanded, “Why aren’t you sticking to the plan, Tech? Don’t you want to work with me!?”

The sheer audacity of the comment caused the stallion’s face to turn red, and instead of finding a way out, he finally snapped, “YOU were the one who volunteered me for this! I didn’t WANT to be a teacher to finish the Master Engineer’s program, but you forced me to! YOU didn’t work with ME, Twilight! STOP telling yourself this is my fault!”

Twilight was taken aback by his sudden anger, stepping away enough for him to pull away from the corner. Techorse could see the gears turning in her powerful, yet anxious mind, and knew he was going to regret snapping.

“H… hey, Twilight, I shouldn’t have shouted…”

I… I never did ask, did I, she thought reflectively, a lump forming in her throat.

The pains of anxiety creeped into her mind, driving her thoughts further, I was so nervous when they said you couldn’t graduate that I tried to fix it my way… like I always do.

Twilight considered what Techorse had said, how he hadn’t wanted to take on the teaching position in the first place. How she’d put herself in his position instead of trying to work with him to find another way to graduate. Even though he was right there, trying to assure her it wasn’t so bad, the words weren’t getting through her deluge of critical thoughts. Techorse would have been better off trying to apologize to a wall.

I didn’t even think about what Tech wanted, and he’s somepony I care about. What kind of a mare am I? All I do is let my need for things to be perfect ruin everything for him.. All because I couldn’t control my worrying.

She took another look at his face, unable to see the shame for shouting or not being completely straightforward about what he had done with her plans for the semester.

Unable to contain it, she cried out, “Oh gosh, the girls are right about me!”

The mare dashed to her room, sobbing.

“Twilight, WAIT!” called Techorse desperately, “I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry!”

Far too late to do anything about it, a teary-eyed Twilight brought back her saddlebags full of her personal items, and walked right past Techorse despite his repeated begging to talk to him.

“Where are you going?” he asked remorsefully.

“I’m going to go stay with family,” she answered, tears rolling down her cheeks while she charged her horn to prepare her transit spell, “I’m a terrible partner.”

She vanished before he could respond, leaving him alone in the apartment with his hoof raised to point at where she stood. Techorse let the implications of the moment sink in, before he lowered his hoof and his gaze. It was only now, when it was far too late, occurring to him just how horrible this deceptive “plan” was.

“I’m a terrible partner too, Twilight...”

#55 - One Degree Off: Part III

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One Degree Off: Part III

The alarm from the clock blared its usual noise into Techorse’s ears, forcing him awake. If the first two snooze hits didn’t solve him feeling tired, another one was very much unlikely to help. After pushing the button again to stop the beeping, the stallion forced his body up from the disheveled clump of sheets he had turned his bed into over the evening. Across the room was a hanging mirror he had been using to help himself get dressed, and from his upright seating he could see what he had become overnight. Dark bags were under his normally blue and cheery eyes, his already messy hair was a total wreck that no comb could hope to save, and his blank and lifeless expression could make a zombie jealous. Since he taught Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the three credit class, he’d had a day off, but he’d done nothing but cry and sit around thinking about Twilight.

After managing to shuffle out of his bed and stumble into the dead quiet of the apartment, he poured himself a humble bowl of wheat cereal, which was stared at for several minutes instead of consuming.

“I can’t eat, I can’t think… my life is over.”

Going back the community college was out of the question, given that breakfast was such a challenge at this point. There wasn’t even enough emotional energy left in the stallion to think about his own projects or life, no matter that of his students. His head slumped on the table in defeat, coming down on the spoon in his dish and flinging the milk covered utensil over his shoulder and onto the floor.

“I can never go back to Ponyville.. The girls will never forgive me.”

He heard a buzzing noise coming from his saddle, which was resting on the couch across the room. Deciding he needed to check the machinery even if he didn’t feel like it, he lumbered over and opened the tiny cargo door on his favorite gadget. Inside was the tiny magic hologram transmitter Princess Celestia had a copy of, vibrating to indicate an incoming call.

“… and I definitely can not talk to Princess Celestia!”

If she knew, he was toast, given that Twilight was still very much her favorite student. Techorse gently removed the still-vibrating device from his saddle and flicked it open, the princess’s head appearing as a small projected image in the center of the round device which opened like a clamshell.

“H… hello?” he whispered, pretending the volume wasn’t working.

“Oh, Techorse, hello!” answered the princess, smiling, “I wanted to check in on you and Twilight this morning. How’s the teaching assignment going?”

“Perfect, she doesn’t know!”

Techorse breathed a sigh of relief, “I uh… I’m doing good enough, I guess.”

She didn’t seem to buy it, and the hologram looked around at the stallion, “Techorse… you look like a mess. Is something wrong?”

“I probably just forgot to dry my hair before bed,” answered the stallion, muttering, “I’ll get it combed down before class starts. The students are counting on me to do my best.”

“Ah, yes, well… indeed,” Princess Celestia answered, nodding, “did Twilight Sparkle leave this morning? I’d think she’d be there with you, keeping very close track of your progress. So lucky!”

“Yeah, that’s Twilight, all right,” Techorse agreed, a lump forming in his throat, “and I am lucky to have her.”

The princess picked up on his stress, “Don’t let all of this get to you too much, Techorse. Once you’re finished teaching, we’ll get you your title. Speaking of which, there’s one more requirement to discuss.”

He wiped his eyes clean with his hoof, “Oh great, more requirements...”

“It’s not so bad,” Celestia continued, “whenever a pony becomes a Master Engineer, they must choose an apprentice to teach their craft.”

“An apprentice?” Techorse asked rhetorically, “What do you mean?”

“It’s important that somepony with a degree and title such as yours pass on some of that knowledge and experience to another in hopes of seeing future masters,” she explained in good detail, “There are no hard requirements for who your student will be, but they should be somepony with a passion for engineering that matches yours. It’s a very hard decision, so take as much time as you require.”

“Will do. Thank you, princess,” he answered, already trying to decide how to fulfill this sudden demand.

She affirmed him, “Very good! Keep up the hard work, Tech.”

The transmission ended, the holographic display dying down and the device closing shut. Techorse put the machine back into the saddle and put it on his back, strapping it down.

“Maybe I can still finish this program,” he said to himself, “and make a new life teaching this student Princess Celestia wants me to mentor. She doesn’t seem to know yet, so things will go easier when she does get the news.”

Deciding he could carry on, despite his loss, Techorse took the bowl of cereal back to the kitchen and dumped it into the sink, figuring he would grab something else on the way. While poking around in the kitchen, he saw a book had been left behind on the counter, a storybook Twilight had yet to finish. It was the one he had read earlier, having loaned it to her since she seemed eager to try it herself. Now the sad little novel would likely never be read again.

“Oh… who am I kidding?” he sighed, tears welling up in his eyes again, “I miss Twi! We’ve been through everything and now… it’s over.”

No matter how bad he felt about it, though, he resolved to get to the college and teach the next day’s lesson. Something was pushing him along inside, even if he felt dead in there otherwise. The lonely inventor dried his tears and left the little book where it sat on the counter, leaving the apartment for his work.

“Your highness, we’ve got a guest,” explained the guard, holding a pair of binoculars with her front hooves, “looks like Twilight Sparkle.”

Princess Cadance turned around from her busywork in the throne room of the Crystal Palace and walked out the balcony doors to take a look for herself. She had a long list of chores to get done today, including preparation for an upcoming counseling session with a couple that founded a haycake company and threatened to split it over their personal issues. Although she would be happy to see her, Twilight showing up all of a sudden seemed out of place.

“Uh oh,” she said to her guard, “that can’t be good.”

“She appears to have an overnight bag with her,” continued the armor-clad pegasus, “and is… crying. What do you suppose happened?”

“I don’t know yet, but something tells me she needs me badly if she came here first,” Cadance sighed, “let her in. I’ll put my paperwork away.”

“Very well,” the soldier answered, putting the binoculars down and spreading her wings, “I’ll just land and usher Twilight Sparkle in myself.”

The princess interrupted her servant with a wing held aloft like a finger, “On second thought, I had better go greet her myself. Don’t worry about the papers I’m working on.”

She turned around and left the confused pegasus there to guard what amounted to a stack of case study papers and an empty balcony, taking the long stairs down to the ground floor of the spire, exiting through one of the structure’s legs. There she saw Twilight outside, tears running down her face and mane hair all askew. Some of her other guards were trying to console the unicorn, but were being ignored.

“Twilight! What’s wrong?” called out the princess, leaving the doors to the palace tower wide open.

Her relative charged her at full speed and threw herself into a hug, bawling her eyes out without giving any explanation. Cadance was startled by just how bitter her sadness seemed, and held her tight.

“What happened?” she asked again patiently.

The answer came through the tears, “Ohhhh, Cadance, it’s o...over! Tech kept a secret, and now he wants to break up with me! I was hoping… I was hoping you could help me.”

The princess’s already pale complexion drained a bit, “Oh… Oh dear. Twilight, I’m… I’m so sorry. Let’s get you inside so we can talk about it, okay? Your brother is here right now if you need him too.”

Cadance brought her inside with the help of her staff and had them prepare a room for the next couple of days, asking her to rest until she was ready to come get her to talk. Once Twilight was well out of sight, the princess’s first order of business was to piece together what she had just heard. Something didn’t quite add up about the situation, given what she knew about Twilight and Techorse. Nonetheless, it didn’t stop Shining Armor from barging into the castle lobby and nearly screaming in panic.

Before she could explain, he was already shouting with terrible fear in his eyes, “Cadance, the guards said Twiley’s here, and she’s crying her eyes out! What happened?!”

“Honey, according to Twilight, Techorse wants to break things off with her,” she said, “something about keeping a secret. Now before you say...”

“Did Tech hurt Twilight?!” he nearly roared, stomping his hoof on the lobby floor, “He’s-”

“Shining, please,” continued his wife gently with a persuasive voice and an unwavering smile, “this is Twilight we’re talking about. She did tell me Tech kept a secret, and that’s a big red flag… but we don’t have his side of the story yet. I’m thinking this was the first big fight they’ve had, and they just don’t have the tools my patients have been given over the years to solve it.”

Shining Armor managed to take a deep breath and agree, “All right, all right. What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to talk to Twilight first, and see what she has to say,” Cadance said, smiling, “figure out a bit more from her. Then, I’m going to see if Techorse can take a weekend for counseling here. I know they’ve been seeing each other for a long time, but this teaching job Techorse has been doing might have introduced some new stress. I think things may be fixable.”

“And if they aren’t?” Shining asked.

“Then… well maybe we just get used to a new normal,” Cadance answered, “I just want to see if I can make the situation less ugly, regardless of the outcome.”

“Fine, I can hold back,” answered her husband, rolling his eyes.

“Oh don’t give me that. Remember when we first fought? Even the best couples do,” she said in response, giving a playful swat with her hoof, “and we figured out how to get through it. I think that’s what those two need, if we can get Twilight to calm down and explain, that is.”

“Yeah, all right… let’s see what we can do for Twiley,” he agreed, nodding slowly.

"Teach, are you okay? We’ve been waiting on you for a while now,” asked Gracie, looking at her professor slumped over on his desk.

It had already been nearly fifteen minutes into the lesson time, and Techorse had yet to actually do anything other than be half asleep atop the cold surface of the cheap community college desk. His eyes were still crusted from the extra work his tear ducts had been doing over the past day, and the dark circles under them had betrayed the fact he’d not slept well. The stallion picked his head up off of the laminated particle board, having remembered he had a duty to carry out still.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said slowly, “take out your books and turn to page… you know what, nevermind. I’m just going to pass out the instructions for today’s activity. Go nuts and build things, guys.”

Techorse got up and lazily passed around white sheets containing the instructions for the day’s engineering lesson. Gracie frowned when she got hers, concerned for her teacher’s well being. Looking over to Improver in the seat next to her, she saw the tan unicorn staring at Techorse with his curious blue eyes, and something of a smirk on his face.

“So what about the reading we were assigned?” she asked, scratching her head with a talon, “No tie in to this assignment at all?”

“Please, bird, the professor has decided to change course, just for today,” Improver scoffed, “by the looks of things, he’s tired and could use an easier day today. Unless you’d prefer to have to work harder for a grade, of course.”

Now the other students were giving her looks, and Gracie new he had turned them on her as well. With her being the only non-pony in the class, there was nothing she could do to stop his insults in her mind. This was going to be a long semester.

Techorse quit passing out papers and stomped his hoof angrily on Improver’s desk, startling Gracie and the other students, “Improver, college is for adults, and you called Gracie a name like you’re a grade schooler. Shut up and be an adult, or get out of my classroom.”

“I can defend myself, teach,” Gracie muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Never said you couldn’t,” sighed the miserable professor, going back to handing out papers with his saddle’s robotic arms, “just trying to make things stop.”

“Make things stop? Like what?” wondered the griffin, “Something’s definitely wrong with him.”

Techorse supervised the class for the rest of the time, the assignment he had given was to create a working dimmer switch system and tie it to a light bulb so that they could learn how electrical resistances worked. While fairly simple, once again Improver and Gracie had the easiest time coming up with the right solution. To the griffon’s frustration, the unicorn had gotten the correct build faster again. It felt like his entire existence was dedicated only to making her look stupid.

“Looking good so far, I guess,” continued to mumble Techorse, barely paying attention to what his class was doing, “don’t forget to read the next part of the book tonight, otherwise, you’re dismissed once you get the dimmer switch working. Have a good weekend.”

After the very lazy class concluded, Techorse shuffled out the door slightly ahead of his students, having ignored most of their questions while staring at the ground. As the confused and slightly offended students left with their homework assignment, Improver caught up to Techorse and began walking next to him, confidently smiling.

“Sir, you’ve been acting very down today,” he said, “and even though you’re just my teacher for this elective, I simply cannot leave you looking so horrid. What’s wrong?”

Gracie, seeing Techorse with Improver as she stuck her own beak out the classroom door, huffed after them, not wanting Improver to get an edge over her with the professor. She quickly moved in front of the two walking ponies and stopped them from going any further, much to the annoyance of Improver.

Unlike the stallion, however, her statement towards Techorse was a bit more straightforward, “Techorse, you look like crap.”

“You too, huh? I’m lucky to have great students who care,” moped the pony, continuing to look at the ground, “all right, today’s lesson was bad and I admit it. I’ve been upset because… my marefriend of a few years broke up with me.”

“Oh, Techorse, I’m so sorry,” said Gracie sympathetically, “did you want to talk about it?”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Improver, pushing Gracie aside and addressing Techorse as well, “weren’t you dating Twilight Sparkle? Celestia’s very own prized student and therefore one of the greatest spellcasters in Equestria?”

“Yes,” he choked in response, tears welling up in his eyes, “her.”

“Oh well then it’s no wonder you were absolutely despairing, your entire life’s upside down,” Improver said coldly, “without Twilight Sparkle you’ll lose touch with the royal family and most of your contacts through that avenue. This is a horrid loss!”

“Could you be any more of a jerk?” Gracie snapped at him, “He’s going through heartbreak and you’re making it worse!”

“Guys, I need to go home,” whimpered Techorse, tears streaming down his face, “it’s going to be a bit before I’m okay again, but… I need to go rest.”

Improver raised his chin and chuckled, “I understand you want to lie down, but are you really going to simply give up and let this destroy you? You’re still the greatest inventor in the world!”

“What do you mean, Improver?” Techorse said, rubbing the liquid off his face with a hoof and finally making eye contact.

"What I meant to say before Gracie jumped on me, was that you’re still superior to any engineer who’s ever lived in Equestria,” he continued, flattering the stallion, “and it’s Twilight Sparkle’s loss that she would dare to leave such a catch as yourself. Your renown as an inventor and a developer of home appliances goes farther than any relationship or friendship you might have had.”

“Look, Techorse is in no way ready to just forget everything, how would you feel if someone broke up with you after years of happiness?” argued the avian, crossing her arms.

Tired of hearing the two argue, and knowing he had to help them get along as his students, Techorse rolled his eyes and caved in.

“I guess I have done some interesting things with my business,” he said slowly, “but I’m not sure I could say it’s more important than the ponies I’ve known. Especially her...”

“You’re better than this,” continued Improver, shaking his head, “so much better that I want to know everything there is to know about your career. The things you’ve done with your saddle and your other machines should be where you get your pride. You can’t let a breakup ruin all of that!”

“I think you’re just trying to get a better grade,” grumbled Gracie, “you’re really kissing up here.”

“Ha! Being called a ‘kiss-up’ is a small price to pay if it means cheering our professor up,” replied the other stallion, “he does deserve to be happy, don’t you agree?.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” said Gracie, rolling her eyes, “I guess I have to agree. He shouldn’t have to be this unhappy.”

“There you go,” he answered, nodding gracefully, “both of us would very much like to see Techorse cheer up and complete his path to Master Engineer, right?”

“Whaaaaat?!” gasped the griffon before turning to him, “You never told us you were going to be a Master Engineer! What are you doing here then?”

“It’s a long, long story,” Techorse answered, shaking his head, “but the short answer is, I never finished the community service requirement for the degree, so I ended up here to serve the time.”

“You make it sound like it’s a prison sentence,” chuckled the avian, “is it?”

“It’s not, I’m fine teaching my own way,” he answered, trying to smile weakly, “it’s just that I… made some mistakes. I do feel better though now that you took the time to talk to me. Thanks.”

“Get some rest over the weekend, Professor Techorse,” said Gracie, using his name finally, “I’ll be looking forward to class Monday.”

“You will?” he asked, a small bit of hope in his eyes.

“Yeah, I will… I mean, it’s my favorite elective so far,” she stuttered, turning red a bit, “you know what I mean! I want to be able to graduate too, ya know.”

“Exactly, Gracie,” added Improver, “we appreciate you choosing to each us this knowledge as your requirement for your title. But please take care of yourself first!”

He then cleared his throat before adding, “Also, very sorry for calling you a bird. I should be acting my age, after all!”

“It’s fine,” lied the griffon when she saw Techorse’s approving look at Improver’s apology, “see you both later...”

Having felt appreciated for his work, Techorse walked past his students, a slight bit of light in the darkness of losing Twilight from the care they had shown. Gracie loved his course, and Improver was apparently a fairly big fan of his! Said fan watched him exit the school building with a slightly happier trot, before smirking, pushing his glasses up his muzzle, and going his own way home.

Getting home well before it was dark, Techorse felt better for the first time since Twilight had run out on him. He was still feeling a bit of pain, of course, but things could potentially get better. He honestly believed that at the bare minimum, he might be able to keep most of his other friendships. Still, he had his doubts given how closely woven his friend circle had become over the past couple of years. He remained reluctant to open the door in any case, as he knew the apartment on the other side of the white painted door he stood in front of would be very empty and lonely. Coming back to Twilight had comforted him despite his misery in being forced to teach, and now that was gone.

“Well, at least I’m getting a little bit of time off,” he said, going through his keys to find the right one for the door, “got the whole weekend to myself...”

Thunk

Looking out of his peripheral vision to see what had just made that noise, he saw a black kunai embedded in the door right next to ear. The stallion let out a deep sigh of exasperation, knowing what was coming next.

“Limpwing, you could have killed me, you know.”

“And don’t you forget it!” she cackled, “Turn around, you big goof! We need to talk.”

“How about we talk inside the apartment instead of out in the cold?” he suggested, still not looking back at her, “The first topic ought to be how you’re going to pay the landlord for the damage you just caused.

“Honestly I’ve seen the apartments around here, they won’t notice,” the spy mare continued, “guess we can go in if you’re worried about secrecy, though. I totally understand!”

Techorse opened the door and ushered the blue pegasus in, giving her a seat on the couch. He shut the door behind him and locked it, moving over to a nearby chair and sitting facing her.

“Honestly it’s good to see you again, Limpwing,” he said, frowning, “I’ve been feeling down lately about something. It’s very bad news, and I’m not sure how the others are going to react to it when they hear it.”

“Relax, nopony besides Cadance and Shining Armor know that Twilight and you had a fight,” chuckled Limpwing, enjoying the shocked facial expression she received in return.

She stopped smiling when she watched his eyes fill with tears and look at the ground, “Hey, sorry Tech, I’m a spy by nature. I promise I’m not here to make things worse, I’m here to try to help you!”

“How can you help now?” he asked, “It’s all over.”

“Cadance doesn’t feel the same way,” she explained, taking off her flight goggles and setting them aside, “she thinks you and Twilight have been working yourselves to death and have run into some totally normal issues. Well, fixable issues at least.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, drying his eyes off again.

“I mean that Cadance wants to try counseling you and Twilight on your relationship,” Limpwing explained, “yeah you lied to Twilight, and that’s bad, but she’s kinda at fault too for what she did, as far as I understand. If you spent some time talking it out, there’s a chance you could make things work still.”

“How do you know it’ll work?”

“I don’t,” she answered, smirking, “but I do know Twilight’s been crying all week saying you broke up with her, and you’ve been crying all week saying she broke up with you. There’s a chance you’re both wrong, you know.”

His heart jumped up in his chest at the possibility of fixing things. But, he had to know for sure this wasn’t some sort of false hope on Cadance’s part. There was the one time that he had ended up in a drawn out fight with the son of a couple she’d failed, and that had cost one of his friends his father’s life.

“If it helps, Twilight has already agreed to try,” the pegasus continued, shrugging, “all you have to do is show up at the Crystal Palace tomorrow and every Saturday after that. The princess will take care of the rest, I’m sure.”

“I can’t show my face around there, Shining Armor will kill me,” Techorse continued.

“Trust me, Cadance has already browbeaten her husband into standing down,” assured his friend, almost laughing at the absurdity, “his first instinct was definitely to beat you senseless, though. Of course, that brings up the interesting thought experiment of which of you would actually win in a fight given your weapons and his spells...”

“Limpwing, no!” he scolded.

“I’m teasing.”

Techorse shook his head, “Not funny.”

“Anyways, will you show up for counseling?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” answered Techorse, ears drooping to level with his head, “I’ve got conflicting feelings about what happened between Twilight and myself. Don’t know if I’m ready to deal with it yet. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to show my face in Ponyville again, either.”

“Hmmm, I see,” she said, chuckling, “I think you’d still be welcome back in Ponyville even with this, for the record. But moving on, there’s a reason why I decided to show up instead of Arbiter. He’s not giving you a choice in the matter.”

“Wh… what?”

Limpwing gave him a silly grin, “Look, Tech, we both know Arbiter secretly cares about his friends. He actually got fairly upset when he heard about what had happened.”

“What?! He actually got upset about that?” Techorse groaned.

“Yeah,” answered Limpwing, “he honestly thought he was going to see you guys stay together forever. It was such a contrast to his own life, I guess.”

Techorse smiled, “Didn’t know he cared this much.”

Limpwing answered back, “Yup. So you’ll give things a try, right?”

“Well, if Twilight’s already agreed to it, then yes,” he said, “I honestly thought she never wanted to see me again.”

“Great! I’ll let them know you’re coming,” she said, before remembering something, “oh, yeah, and before I go, I had a piece of intelligence from Princess Celestia she wanted you to have. Priority One message.”

“Shouldn’t you have started with that?” Techorse asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Heh, maybe, but you and Twilight’s happiness are priority zero to us,“ she joked, “so I wanted to get that done first. Here, I’ve got this for you.”

Using her twisted wing, she tossed a photo towards the stallion, who caught it with one of his saddle’s robotic arms and took a look. On the photograph was a picture of a centaur clad in armor with a dark, horned helmet, clutching a glowing red polearm being thrust towards a cowering pegasus pony that he recognized immediately.

“That’s Mr. Featherfall!” Techorse gasped, eyes going wide, “I remember hearing that he went missing shortly after the weather factory incident. Is this what happened to him?”

Limpwing nodded, a more serious expression on her face, “This picture was taken by a pinhole security camera in the room where Featherfall was… incinerated.”

“Uhhh,” trailed Techorse nervously.

“Let me explain,” she continued, “that centaur knight with the goofy armor? He’s wielding an artifact created by the Wraiths two thousand years ago, or at least that’s what Princess Luna told me. It’s called the Essence Scalpel. It contains an ancient dark magic that incinerates whoever it even scratches, and lets the user steal their magic!”

“Wait a minute,” Techorse said, holding up his other metallic hand, “Are you telling me this centaur knight burned up Featherfall with an ancient weapon? That’s crazy!”

“Par for the course for artifacts you’ve seen, right?” she teased.

“Yeah, you got me there, Limpwing,” he nodded, “I guess I should feel bad about what happened to Mr. Featherfall. Nopony deserves to have to face that kind of an end. So I guess Princess Celestia wants me to gear up and stop that knight?”

“It doesn’t end here,” Limpwing answered gravely, “I did some deeper investigation, those mares that were pretending to be vamponies and several others who’ve attacked you in recent times have been questioned. They’ve been working with this centaur, who calls himself the Surgeon, because of the scalpel, I guess.”

“So all of those times I’ve been in trouble, he’s been trying to get rid of me,” Techorse reasoned, the gears turning in his head, “but why does he want me gone so badly? Does he think he can take over Equestria if he offs me? Twilight and the others can stop him even with me gone.”

“That’s just it, Tech, we don’t actually know what the Surgeon’s motives are,” she answered honestly, “we asked the wraith kingdom about the weapon, and they’ve stated it doesn’t offer any extra protection against magic or other kinds of firepower. We’ve only got one clue.”

“What’s the clue?”

“We suspect the Surgeon has been using the abandoned robot factory as his hangout,” she said, “granted because of electrical problems and the neglect, some of the machines there go off randomly. However, some of the Quartz ponies have seen a centaur with a polearm in the area. We think, although it’s unlikely, that he may be trying to use the factory equipment to generate a new army in a bid to start a war with us. Of course, with the number of explosions we’ve also detected there, we believe he’s very far away from succeeding with that task, if he’s there at all.”

“So you’re saying you don’t actually know if he’s there, but if he is, he’s messing with the machines,” finished Techorse, “Now I get it. He may want me out of the way so I can’t use my knowledge of that technology to ruin his plans, whatever they are.”

“Yeah, we don’t know tons, but that’s my thought too. Anyways, since a big armored knight isn’t exactly stealthy, you’re safe for now,” Limpwing said, winking, “but obviously we’re going to have to act at some point given how dangerous that factory is. Once we know for sure that Surgeon is hiding there, we intend to make a move on the factory and try to stop him. More accurately, we’ll be rounding up the Element holders and if necessary… use them to stop him.”

“Gotcha,” he said, nodding, “so the usual for taking down a villain.”

“I mean, if you’re itching to use some new super weapon you’ve finished, let me know,” Limpwing winked, “if we get started now, we might change Celestia’s ‘no’ to a ‘maybe’ just in time!”

Techorse laughed at the silly joke, before seriously considering what he had in store. Whoever the Surgeon was, he had already taken several victims, and had been actively trying to get rid of him as well.

“Anyways, thanks for letting me know the situation at hoof,” he finally commented, shaking his head, “keep me posted about this centaur, and I’ll let you know how the counseling goes.”

“If I don’t figure it out myself,” she reminded him, getting up to go for the door, “between Arbiter and myself there’s gonna be three eyes on ya!”

“It’ll be kept in mind,” concluded the stallion, “see you soon, Limpwing!”

She left him by himself in the now once again lonely apartment, slightly more confident about his situation at hoof. Between his students liking him, and there being a chance at redemption with Twilight, maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all!

“Cadance wants to counsel us,” he mused, standing up to go get something to eat from the kitchen, “I guess if anypony could help, it would be her, right? It’s not like I’ve got anything to lose at this point...”

There was a knocking on the door before he could fix himself any dinner, slightly irritating the stallion but forcing him to shuffle over and answer it. He figured that Limpwing had forgotten something and was coming back for round two of conversation. To some degree, he felt relieved, given how badly he didn’t want to be alone. He opened the door again, expecting to see her again.

“Hey Tech!”

Instead of Limpwing, he found familiar faces looking back at him. Flaming Ivory, Midnight Blaze, and Shadow Breeze had all shown up, their faces bright. Techorse was thrilled to see his friends again, especially at a time like this!

“Guys,” he said, a little startled, “what are you doing here?”

“Oh don’t give us that crap,” Flaming scoffed, “you know why we’re here! We heard you had some troubles and we wanted to spend some time with our buddy!”

“We wanted to make sure you were okay,” Shadow said quietly, “and don’t worry, Fluttershy doesn’t know yet...”

“But we do,” finished Midnight, “and we heard that you’re going to see Cadance tomorrow to help iron things out with Twilight. But before you do, I thought I’d organize a guys’ night.”

“Oh man, we haven’t done anything fun in a long time,” Techorse agreed, stepping outside excitedly, “I’ve been so busy with my own projects, and this teaching job. I kind of feel like I’ve neglected you.”

“Don’t! It’s been a dream of yours to get this degree for a while,” Shadow answered, shaking his head, “but come take a break for a while!”

“Cool, what did you guys have planned?” asked Techorse, eyes aglow from the anticipation.

“First we were going to go to this new grill downtown, and then after that, bowling,” Flaming Ivory explained, throwing a hoof around his pal, “this time I’m gonna beat you for sure, Techie.”

“Not a chance, Flaming!” he answered, smirking.

“Comfortable?” asked PAL, smirking at the two guests sitting on the floor of the estate’s boiler room.

“Not really,” answered Mix-Up honestly, frowning back at the machine, “you’re not seriously going to make me sleep on this filthy floor, are you? It’s hardly befitting of a hospitality automaton such as yourself!”

“Well, you left me with no choice, seeing as you won’t stop complaining about our accommodations,” the robot chuckled, tapping his metallic fingers on the frame of the boiler room’s stairs leading up to the first floor.

“I made a humble request to procure some paints and other necessary supplies to create so that my talent doesn’t rot here,” the pegasus grumbled, standing up and seeing if he could find away around the machine body-blocking him, “and your response was to cast me into this hole.”

“Master Techorse is under strict orders from the courts to not let you paint or otherwise artistically create a single thing,” reminded the smug servant, “it’s very unfortunate that you ignored me and decided to try and steal the paints again from the laboratory, but here we are.”

“You permitted Spanners to try and fix the plumbing again, why pick on me?”

He responded with a shrug, “He actually fixed the issue with the kitchen water supply, where as your ‘art’ damages things. In either case, it’s only for the night to give me time to lock down all our supplies. So I’ll see you then, sir.”

As he started to head up the stairs, the exasperated pegasus turned red in the face and called out, “If you leave me down here, you chunk of uninspired metal, I’ll decorate every last square inch of this boiler room! You’ve no idea what my talent can do!”

“Please try not to hurt yourself,” answered PAL as he reached the top of the stairs and locked his guest in the darkness of the basement.

At the top of the stairs in the castle’s hallway, he immediately encountered Spanners, whose ears were down in a supplicating pose.

“So, uh… I finished the repairs. Can I please stay up here and at least sleep on the couch?” he pleaded hopefully.

“Relax Spanners, you’re upholding your court order nicely,” said PAL, perhaps over-enjoying how much power he had, “go ahead and use the shower, then stay in the guest room.”

“Thank you!” he whimpered, before galloping off to get away from the machine as fast as possible.

Having felt as if he had sufficiently flexed his power against the two stallions for the evening, PAL retreated for the closest staircase to close things down for the night. As he did, however, he heard a mysterious noise coming down from one of the stone hallways of the castle. Curious, he changed course to follow the noise, a soft electronic hum that stood out from the normal sounds of the home’s idle machinery. It seemed to be coming from the main computer room, the last door down from the hallway that connected the main lobby of the fortress with the back room. PAL scanned the door, marked “Main CPU” from the outside, and listened carefully. The computer on the other side of the door was making a louder noise than usual, and an additional sound, like that of a ticking clock had been added to it.

“Who’s there?”

PAL shoved the door open quickly, and spotted what was making the noise. A pony-shaped machine, made of clockwork parts painted gold and blue was standing in front of the keyboard console of the main computer. Two snaking wires extended from the crystal horn on its head into the computer, yellow glowing eyes on a black background shot over to the intruding robot, and immediately the construct acted. The wires removed themselves from the computer and went back into its head, and then, with a flick of the neck, it fired a bolt of magical light at PAL. He managed to dodge the shot narrowly by turning sideways, throwing his metallic body against the wall, but this gave the clockwork pony an opening, and it galloped mechanically out of the room and down the hallway towards the front door, which had been left wide open.

“Come back here!” shouted PAL, opening his wrist panel up and mashing the button on the inside that controlled the castle’s doorways, “Stop!”

The massive oak front doors began to swing shut, but the construct had already gained plenty of ground, and by the time the doors slammed, only its tail had been caught in the opening. With a flash of sparks, a segment of electrical cord that formed the machine’s tail had been severed in the doorway, but the rest of the unit had escaped into the night.

“The computer… what did it do?!”

Cursing his luck, PAL turned around and stomped back into the computer room, typing furiously at the keys to see what the home invader had done. After searching the entire file system over and double-checking for intrusions, he discovered that none of the files had been deleted or edited. One file seemed to be in the middle of doing something, but his interruption had terminated that file’s use.

It was marked “Reactor Overload Handling System”

PAL wondered if he should call the authorities or not. He knew there could only be a terrible reason as to why the intruder had chosen to take the files.

“I must warn Techorse immediately,” he said, “I’ll open a call while I’m...”

The robot felt his vision sparkle and crackle with interference, his processor starting to shut off as a strong electromagnet attached to his head. He screamed and turned around, finding Spanners and Mix-Up standing there with one of Techorse’s new inventions, an electromagnet launcher for disabling both magical and nonmagical constructs… like himself.

“Ha ha! Gotcha!” said Mix-Up triumphantly, “Let’s see how you like being asleep on the cold floor, sir!”

“F...f...foolish,” PAL crackled, his limbs convulsing, “mus… must… inform...Tech.”

“We’ll call him tomorrow, seen you do it a million times,” chuckled Spanners, “until then, Mix-Up and I are free stallions, you big jerk!”

PAL let out a piercing robotic cry before his systems shut down and he went into sleep mode, crashing to the ground. The last thing he heard was the two stallions cheering about their “freedom”, clueless as to what they’d done.

That evening had been some of the most fun Techorse had enjoyed for a long time. At the restaurant, they’d ordered way too many hayburgers and appetizers, and spent a good two hours eating, talking about their most recent adventures in life. Techorse had of course been stuck with the bill, but he didn’t mind, being with his friends was worth it. After, they went to the bowling alley where the after-dark special got them four great games together. Despite the apparently fierce rivalry between Flaming and Techorse, Shadow ironically won all four games, his two wing grip on the ball proving quite effective. Now they were walking together in the moonlight shining down on the city sidewalks, streetlamps breaking up the otherwise bright glow of the full moon. They were chatting away about their past exploits, until Midnight decided he needed to speak up about the other reason why they were there.

“So, Tech, I think we need to be honest as to why we decided to show up,” he said to him.

“Oh?” he responded, smiling, “That doesn’t sound too good, Midnight.”

“So uh, a certain little pegasus may have told us that um, things ain’t so great between you and Twilight,” Flaming Ivory said, “we thought we’d show up and help cheer you up.”

“Well, leave it to Limpwing to make something personal public,” he grumbled, “should have known since you showed up seconds after she left. Yeah Flaming, Twilight Sparkle and I are not doing so well. We may not… make it.”

“Limpwing came and got us so that we could give you a fun night before you tried to patch things over with her,” Midnight explained, “we wanted you to know that even if things don’t go so well, we’re going to be in your corner.”

“Yup, our friendship is not conditional on Twilight and you being a thing,” added Shadow, “just in case you were worried everypony was going to turn on you, or something.”

Techorse turned a little red, “I… I never thought anyone was going to turn on me.”

“Limpwing said you thought you’d have to leave Ponyville,” Flaming chuckled, “that’s not gonna happen, pal. We’re with you for the long haul whether you like it or not.”

Techorse could see the apartment complex coming up ahead, and stopped is friend group underneath a street lamp so he could relax for a moment. The anxieties that had plagued him seemed relaxed, if only for a little bit.

“What’s wrong? We can take you to the door if we need to,” joked Midnight.

“I’m just… thankful I have great friends like you,” Techorse answered, tears welling up in his eyes, “this whole past month has been this horrible roller coaster of emotions and issues. Don’t think I would have made it without you.”

“Well now that you know that you’re going to live,” Flaming Ivory continued to tease, “we’re still going to ask you to show up to Cadance’s place and talk to Twilight. Don’t give up just because you’ve got a couple of goons like us, got it?”

He muttered back, “I’m willing to try.”

“We mean it,” continued Midnight, pointing a hoof at his friend, “you’re worth it… and so is she.”

“Just know we’re all still here for you if you’ve given it your best and you still have to move on,” finished Shadow Breeze, smiling softly, “we’re all looking forward to when you finally finish this degree so we can celebrate!”

Techorse took one more look at his friend’s faces illuminated by the street lamp and sighed, “You’re right, and again, thank you. Tomorrow I’ll head over and talk to Twilight. In the meantime...”

He opened his saddle up, and stuck out the two robot arms to make a finger-guns pose at them, “Start planning that graduation party!”

“Yeeeeah, that’s the Techorse I know!” hooted Flaming, throwing his hoof around his buddy, “Come here!”

Surrounded by his friends, Techorse felt the confidence he had so carefully curated over the past few years come back to him.

“So uh...” trailed Flaming, letting go of his friend, “when you graduate, any chance you could please help me design a new sound studio? Been hoping to get one done cheaply.”

“Flaming!’ groaned Shadow Breeze.

“Whaaat?! Isn’t please enough?” he retorted.

They had a good laugh about the joke, before sending Techorse home to rest. Tomorrow he would go and try to work with Twilight, but for the moment, he understood that he still had most of his life intact. At the very least, it gave him perspective on what he had accomplished so far since coming to Ponyville.

#56 - Tech's Twilight: Part I

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Tech’s Twilight: Part I

“All right Techorse, you can do this… it’s just couples’ therapy,” muttered the uncertain stallion as he approached the gates of the Crystal Palace, “Cadance just wants to help us. She’s not going to be mad...”

The guards at the front door seemed to be giving the paranoid pony the nastiest looks, and the Crystal Heart not being on the ground floor made him believe even the ancient artifact held judgment against him. Techorse had brought nothing to declare for the guards who halted him before letting him enter, choosing not to wear his saddle and taking only the essentials for the trip.

“Techorse, we’ve been expecting you,” said one of the two armored stallions, “please step inside.”

They helped him through one of the entrances of the spire palace, the sparkling crystal interior looking dull for once to the anxious inventor. Had those decorations always been so boring and tacky, or could he not remember? In any case, Shining Armor stood in front of him, and if looks could kill, Techorse would already have been slain where he stood.

“Hey,” said the earth pony timidly, “can I just...”

“Don’t talk to me,” answered the other stallion gruffly, “get into the elevator, now.”

Shining had the elevator called using a nearby button, and the brass doors soon opened, revealing a large wallpaper covered elevator box. Techorse stepped inside with the former captain of the guard and felt his heart skip a beat when the elevator doors closed. The box ascended, and Shining Armor fixed his steely gaze forward, refusing to acknowledge the other stallion’s existence. Since it was a long ride to the top, Techorse had plenty of time inside his head to let his guilt get to him, and he finally worked up the courage to say something despite Shining’s request for him not to speak.

He kept his ears down and his blue eyes to the floor while talking, “Shining, remember how when we first met, you implied you would shoot me with a crossbow if I hurt your sister?”

Shining refused to respond to him, not even changing his facial expression or breathing pattern while processing the statement.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” finished the stallion morbidly.

The elevator came to a stop at the next to top floor of the palace where Cadance had brought Twilight. Shining moved Techorse out of the elevator into a rounded hallway, the cold floor tiles chilling the frogs of his hooves.

“Go around the tower to the opposite sided, you’ll see a glass door with a big pink heart,” he said to him, “that’s Cadance’s new office space.”

He nodded and started to trot away, before Shining mashed the “hold door open” button on the elevator and called back, “One more thing, Tech.”

The green stallion turned back, and was told sharply, “If anypony deserves to put a bolt through you, it’s Twilight. She’s the one you lied to.”

As the doors shut, Techorse felt as if that statement hurt him just as much as any beating from Shining could have. Turning away, he followed the instructions and found the glass door on the other side of the tower, a humble one with a metal hoof handle and a pink heart shape on the top. The glass was wavy on purpose, to help it loosely resemble the door to a professional office. Taking a deep breath again, he pushed open the doorway and entered Cadance’s domain. It was a round chamber that took up most of the inside of the tower core, with a plush white rug covering most of the floor to warm hooves. Warm colored lights kept the chamber lit up and friendly, and comfortable couches made from fluffy pink and red cushions enhanced the atmosphere. Finally, a writing desk for Cadance to process her notes on counseling sessions, and a wall-mounted waterfall like fountain completed the room’s tranquil environment.

At the back of this “office” sat Cadence in a small purple chair at the back wall of the room. She had pushed out two of the sofas so that Techorse and Twilight could face each other with herself in the middle. Twilight peered out from over the couch, glaring at Techorse and showing a terrifying blank expression.

Cadance, notepad floating in front of her with her magic, spoke out to Techorse, “Ah! So glad you could make it Techorse. Please have a seat in the couch opposite from Twilight Sparkle.”

Techorse obeyed instructions and sat across from his “ex”, who propped herself up into a proper sitting position. Perhaps because of her unemotional state, she found it quite easy to avoid eye contact with him. Techorse’s ears sunk back and he started to stare at the floor again.

“Now, normally the first session is spent with me getting to know my patients better,” explained the princess, smiling, “but since Twilight is family and Techorse almost…”

She caught herself and sheepishly added, “I mean, since we know Techorse so well too… we don’t need to do any introductions. So now I’m going to move on to the most important thing we can do today: establishing exactly what the problem is from each of your points of view. So let’s discuss things, shall we?”

“Seems simple enough,” said Twilight, “and I’ve got a lot to say!”

“Now Twilight, I will let you go first, but when it is Techorse’s turn, please do not interrupt him even if what he says makes you angry,” Cadance warned, shaking her head, “the same goes for him when you are talking. The purpose of this is not for each of you to defend yourselves from the other and try to get me ‘on your side’. The point is for us to work through your issues and help reconnect.”

“Oh, I read a book or two about couples therapy you left in your library,” Twilight said, nodding, “I won’t interrupt, promise!”

“Good, good, now please begin, why are you and Techorse having problems with your relationship?” asked Cadance.

“Sure! In fact, I took some notes!”

Twilight’s horn glowed and she pulled out a large piece of parchment from underneath one of the couch cushions, unfolding it to its full size in front of Techorse, who wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Techorse lied to me this month about what he was doing with the curriculum I spent days preparing for him so that his teaching work necessary to earn his title would be easy,” read the mare, her eyes scanning back and forth over her own writing, “I covered many topics that would be necessary for the students to learn so that he could be the best professor for them possible. Eventually, I found out from one of his students that he had changed the coursework away from what I had created for him, and was basically letting them do whatever they found engaging instead. I went home and talked to him about it, but instead of apologizing, he admitted he did it because his students hated the work I had planned. I tried to be reasonable by saying next time he should work with me on it, but he yelled at me and said I never asked him about his feelings. I’m not 100% sure what happened otherwise, but I figured he wanted to break up, so I left him alone.”

“Is that all, Twilight?” asked Cadance, smiling at her.

“Yeah… that’s it,” she sighed, putting the piece of parchment down.

“Great! Now it’s your turn Techorse, please be honest with us about how things went from your point of view.”

Techorse looked up at Twilight, who immediately darted her eyes away from him, and explained the situation, “I feel that Twilight went overboard with her reaction to me needing service hours to complete my studies this month. She promised I’d take the teaching job for me, without asking if I really wanted to. Since I thought she cared about me, I just assumed I should give it a chance. But then, she developed a super complex curriculum that scared my 101 level students. I knew if I tried to change anything, she’d be hurt, so I changed the course material and told her the students liked my teaching. I wanted to do things my way.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but kept her word to Cadance and didn’t interrupt Techorse. He caught on to her angst and heartbreak and tried to smooth things over.

“Twilight, I’m sorry I had to change things, but the students would have...”

“This is not a time for you to apologize for anything,” Cadance butted in sternly, “you need to finish your side of the story without interruption fromor interaction with Twilight before we can talk it over.”

“Right… sorry,” he continued, clearing his throat a little, “well, when Twilight found out I changed her coursework to do my own thing, she confronted me and told me that my students wouldn’t succeed without her coursework and that I should have worked with her about it instead of lying. I told her she never worked with me on the plan to get my volunteer hours and made me do something I didn’t want to do. I can’t remember anything else other than that she stormed off shortly after that.”

“Oh. Well, it sounds to me like each of you has a solid recollection of what happened, Twilight with more of a list and Techorse with more of a story,” Cadance stated, finishing taking notes on what they had said, “now, each of you has some key areas in your relationship to work on.”

“I thought we weren’t in one anymore,” said Twilight, trying not to appear sad.

“Have you two actually broken up? Or did you just walk away from each other after getting angry?” Cadance questioned, her skill at being impartial on full display.

“I… guess we never did say we’re through,” Techorse answered honestly, “we said a lot of other terrible things though...”

“We?!” snipped Twilight.

“Twilight, please,” continued Cadance, urging her to calm down, “now, the key areas I was talking about are things that all adults in successful relationships need… communication, and compromise.”

“What do you mean, Cadance?” asked Techorse rhetorically, “The reason why I felt backed into a corner and wasn’t able to communicate with Twilight was because of her anxieties about what could go wrong and having to make everything perfect. I can’t get her to stop, and I didn’t want her to think I disliked her for it.”

Twilight gave him a nasty look in response, and Cadance shook her head at the stallion, “I understand that Twilight has anxieties and wants things to be perfect, I’ve known her longer than you… but that’s hardly the point. You should communicate to Twilight when you feel cornered by her worries.”

She then turned to Twilight and suggested, “As for you, Twilight, you should be more compromising with Techorse when he wants to do something together. If he’s not worried about something and you are, it may be because he has a good idea. If you still aren’t comfortable, you might be able to meet half-way on it.”

The unicorn thought about it for a moment, before answering, “I know how compromise works, Cadance. I just… got a bit carried away when given the opportunity to share my knowledge with others. Techorse has always been so nice about listening to what I have to say before...”

He answered her with a frown, “I have always liked what you had to say, Twilight, I just wanted to make my volunteer work my own. I didn’t like the teaching job idea at all, but I got into it very quickly when I learned how much my students like my style of teaching.”

“Yeah but… they really needed to know about the history and nuances behind engineering so they can decide early if it’s the field for them,” Twilight answered, eyebrows raised, “you cut that out without telling me!”

Cadance furiously scribbled notes down on her pad of paper as the two ponies talked, sometimes in a very heated manner, sometimes more calmly. The ponies fought and tried to compromise over the incident that had split them up, with Twilight expressing her desires for a more thorough program and Techorse wanting less. The alicorn watching them knew from experience that even though the couple seemed to be wasting time debating a “dead topic”, there would be other sessions to tackle their other problems. She soon noticed the time on the wall and decided to give them just a few more minutes before calling it an afternoon.

“So, how about a suggested reading list, like the summer program we have at the library?” Twilight recommended, a smile on her face now, “You could just give them a list of all the books I was going to have them read and they could look into it if they wanted to.”

“That’s a good idea, Twilight. If they want to take it seriously, they’ll read some and go from there,” he nodded, “I wouldn’t mind going back over what you wrote and passing that out next week after class.”

“It seems like the two of you have been very productive already,” Cadance said with a very pleased tone of voice, “does this mean you are ready to give things another try?”

Both of their ears folded back, and they looked away from each other, clearly indicating that the answer was no, despite their embarrassment.

“I… I can’t say that just yet,” Twilight answered, “Tech still lied to me and… I still think I have issues I need to work through.”

Techorse seemed to agree, “Sorry Cadance, I think we need more time to talk things over here with your guidance. I feel better about the fight over my teaching work, and I’m glad Twilight is willing to talk to me, but I also have a hangup.”

“But you’ll come back next week after you’ve had some time to think about it, right?” Cadance asked, hopeful.

“Definitely,” continued Twilight, getting up from the couch, “thank you so much for helping us, Cadance.”

“Of course!” she answered, “I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to help those I care about. Now, you both know the rules, you have to keep the information each of you wanted kept secret an actual secret. Confidentiality is important to trust, and both of you need to keep working on trust.”

“So what you’re saying is, prevent Pinkie Pie from figuring out what’s going on, gotcha,” chuckled Techorse, “I really can’t make any promises about that.”

“Very funny,” answered the princess, “I meant don’t talk about the other to your friends in hopes of getting them on ‘your side’. At the end of this, I’m hoping you’ll see how you’re really always been on the same side all along.”

Twilight blushed and flicked her tail, “Anyways… I should probably go back to Ponyville. I didn’t bring enough things to stay longer than overnight and I’ve got to make sure Spike’s okay. I told him I’d be back yesterday.”

Techorse also seemed to turn red, “Yeah I gotta make sure I call PAL, he’s probably filled his memory worrying about us… I mean, me. See you both next time!”

He hurried away to make sure he didn’t have to share an elevator with Twilight, still red in the face. If this is what making progress felt like, it felt much weirder than he had expected. He was still mad at Twilight, for sure, but there was a glimmer of hope that things would improve. Unknown to him, she had chosen to teleport herself out of the building in order to watch him leave the building. Twilight saw him exit the palace and trot for the train station, taking good careful note of the frustrated expression on his face. Likewise, she was still a bit mad, and had a feeling that even though things were going better, things between her and Techorse would never truly be the same.

“Hey,” said one of the guards, noticing Twilight staring, “I know this is none of my business, but I hope the princess was a big help today. Sometimes all we’ve got are our friends and relatives, you know? It’s a shame to lose them.”

Twilight responded with, “Yeah… it is. I don’t know what’s going on right now, exactly, but it feels like there’s something different between me and him. I’ve read a lot of books on psychology and pony emotions, but I don’t really know what I’m feeling right now.”

“Well, keep coming back,” answered the stallion, pushing his slipping helmet back onto his head with a hoof, “you’ll figure out what you’re feeling.”

“Thanks,” she answered, “although I thought I told Cadance not to let anyone know about what happened between Techorse and myself. If all of Equestria were to hear...”

“Shining Armor told me, said I should ask you how things are going every day if possible, and that it’s top secret,” he answered with a wink, “I think I’d like to keep my job, and I also believe Shining wants to maintain his appearance of being in full support of you while still hoping that things get patched up between you and your beau.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled while shaking her head, “Oh, Shining...”

“But you didn’t hear that from me,” coughed the guard playfully, “unless of course Shining Armor asks you to choose someone to get a raise, in that case, you talk with me all the time, and I’m Light Parry.”

She chuckled, “Thanks Light. I’ll make sure to check in with you after each session just to keep my brother happy.”

Walking off to find a safe place to transport herself back to Ponyville, Twilight reflected on her therapy session and felt a glimmer of hope. Her worries always seemed to vanish when she was assured of her safety net by her family, and she knew she was blessed to have it.

Techorse’s long train ride back had been made easier by a refreshing nap and a quick chocolate treat from the concession cart. With his last stop coming up, he remembered that he owed PAL a call, at the very least he wanted to convince himself that his excuse concerning why he had to leave in such a rush was valid. Figuring that no one would mind, he took out a communicator from his bag and flipped the cosmetic mirror sized device open, pushing a large button on it with a hoof. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have much luck reaching the robot, and the connection just hummed for several minutes without an answer on the other end.

“Probably just busy,” he said to himself before shutting it closed and putting it away, “hopefully Mix-Up and Spanners aren’t giving him too much trouble.”

When he arrived at the train station, Techorse pushed through the sea of exiting ponies and took a detour past the usual exit to go to a locker room maintained by the railway authorities. A simple but cold and dark hallway of metal lockers as tall as the ceiling in the cramped room, Techorse found the one he had rented and entered the code he’d received upon purchasing the space. He swung open the door and found his saddle hanging by itself on a lonely tin hook in the back of the storage space. Arguably he could have taken it with him onboard, since he didn’t need to leave his weapons behind thanks to a permit he carried, but he had done it as a token of good faith to Cadance who had wanted him to show up “as himself” and not as his machines.

Techorse sighed when he felt the straps of the device click around his barrel again, “I missed you!”

“Huh?” said a mare rhetorically who was retrieving her own items.

The inventor addressed her sheepishly, “Oh, nothing, sorry...”

Each of the routes Techorse could choose to take home seemed equally unappealing, but flight wouldn’t be an option for a while, at least until he could get out of the more crowded area of the urban sprawl built up around the train station. Since he didn’t want to end up having to push his way through the rush hour traffic of ponies trying to get home from work, he settled on grabbing a little bit to eat at a local restaurant and waiting for things to die down. Opening up his notepad and reflecting on the counseling session he had just been in proved to be a mistake however, and soon night had fallen and the bar and grill he’d visited was getting ready to close down. Techorse paid his tab and slunk out of the eatery embarrassed, but was happy he’d taken the time to work on the problem.

“Need to get outside the urban areas so I don’t wake anyone up with the noise from the turbofans,” he mumbled to himself, walking along the cobblestones of the moonlit city street.

He turned one of the many corners kept concealed by the edges of the buildings and entered a walled-off zone probably kept for offloading deliveries for the nearby businesses. Techorse thought it might simply be an alleyway due to the dim light, and made it halfway through the square before deciding to turn on his saddle’s lighting system and have a look around. Sure enough, an archway ahead glowed with a small amount of moonlight, showing the path forward.

“Gotta remember to stick to the paths, or there could be trouble,” he reminded himself, trotting along.

Just before he was to make it to the exit, he heard a stone bounce along the floor, and turned around, pointing his high beams from the now glowing saddle in the direction of the noise.

The stallion muttered, “Trouble like that...”

After scanning the walls of the surrounding buildings with his lights, he found an overturned trash can with a street rat attempting to salvage whatever it could from it on top. The inventor shook his head, knowing that was likely the source of the noise, and turned around just in time to come face to face with the true culprits. Four unicorn sized and shaped machines, built out of silver and gold colored metal, with visible clockwork components at the joints, and horns made out of crystal on their heads. Eight pairs of glowing red eyes from their sockets stared at Techorse, who took a step back in shock.

“Or like this!” he said, opening his saddle doors in preparation.

The machines had blocked off the exit, and pushed forward, the sound of servos and springs moving as they stepped with the grace of a living unicorn towards him. Techorse continued to backpedal, his trusty laser cannons slipping out of his saddle and tracking the closest clockwork pony. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a different machine overhead, an ornithopter drone with four wings of brass flapping about and tracking him with an underslung camera.

“These are all machines,” he whispered, feeling the sweat under his brown mane, “but who would be able to build things like this?”

Focusing his attention back on the robotic ponies, Techorse determined that they were going to strike soon, as the tips of their crystal horns began to glow as red as their mechanical eyes. He knew there was a good chance the unicorns would be firing any second now, and after today… he wanted to make sure he made it to the next conversation with Twilight!

Techorse quickly went over his options in his head before settling on a course of action. Given that the drone was not acting as aggressive, he reasoned that he was merely being filmed by it, and that gave him a plan.

He looked directly at the drone’s camera and said loudly, “I don’t know what you want, but this ambush isn’t going to result in me dying! I’m going home tonight so I can keep trying to patch things up with Twilight! She’s worth it!”

The four clockwork unicorns opened fire, sending four narrow crackling rays of red energy towards their enemy. The top panels of Techorse’s saddle opened up, and two blue colored panels comprised of hexagonal tiles sprang up, sparking to life as the projectiles reached him. A blue panel of hexagonal shields spread across Techorse’s front, the barrier absorbing the impacts from the magical bolts with loud splashes of light and zapping noises as particle destroyed particle on a quantum level. Retracting the shield projectors, he returned fire with his laser cannons, bolts tearing into the lead robot and shredding its internals with explosive energy that burrowed into its magical power core and melted its delicate skeleton.

Techorse put his shield back up again, loving the new prototype, but frowned as the three machines stopped trying to fire off more magic and instead split up into a group of two and one, galloping to his sides while charging up their horns again.

“Are they… adapting?” he said, “Neither the tank robots nor the shadowsteel knights had that kind of capability!”

He opted to try to block the incoming shots from the two rather than the one, and more red pulses smashed into the projector screen, the pony having to drop them to return fire with his own guns. A sudden jolt of pain shot through his body as the lone machine reached his rear flank and shot him in the back leg with one of the searing magic pulses. Techorse felt something start to run down that leg, and understood they really didn't intend to take him in alive.

“F… fine! Hope the guards here don’t mind the collateral damage...”

Techorse jumped to the side and tried to roll while retracting all of his saddles’ active gadgets as more red beams crossed his path. The clockwork ponies ended up having to dodge the resulting friendly fire before they could return their attention to their quarry, and by the time they had, he had already taken out the missile launchers tucked into the saddle’s impossibly efficient storage space, and primed to launch.

“You’re not getting me!” he screamed, letting off the pair of projectiles, one of them veering to the left towards the pair and the other to the right to pick off the other.

He watched in frustration as the machines continued to learn and adapt, the pair adopting a crouched, defensive position and firing off a stream of smaller pulses, intercepting his rocket and shooting it down, a bright flash of explosive energy illuminating the back alley and concealing the machines. The other unicorn construct was not so lucky, and was unable to shoot down the homing projectile before it crashed into its body and detonated, sending chunks of it flying into the wall and throwing its severed head into a nearby dumpster.

“Two more.”

Suddenly, one of the missile tubes glowed and melted right off his saddle as the remaining two ponies put their horns together to create a spot of energy similar to a magnifying glass under the midday sun. Techorse tried to keep his other launcher concealed by turning away as a spray of sparks shot up from this saddle when the power supply was cut to the tube, but he ended up getting his body torched by the intense point of heat and he howled in pain. He took a quick shot with the other tube, forcing his foes to focus on shooting it down again while he tried to deal with the searing gash in his front.

While the missile exploded and shrouded the unicorns again, the adrenaline feeding him gave him just enough strength to come up with a plan, and his eyebrows raised, “Wait a minute, what if...”

Quickly, he raised his shields again and walked forward, waiting for the smoke from his last missile to clear. When it did, the first thing the clockwork unicorns saw was the shield, and began to split up, charging their horns and shooting more of the jagged red bolts of energy at him. The shields soaked what they could, and the unicorn ponies started to flank him, galloping around while keeping their glowing eyes on his body.

Techorse turned his body left and right to catch the bolts with his front-facing shield, waiting for just the right moment, “Come on, come on!”

Sure enough, the constructs reached the perfect right angles they wanted and turned in while powering up their horns, knowing he’d have to take fire from at least one of them. Techorse knew this was his chance, and dropped the shields before rapidly drawing his laser cannons and switching them to the solid beam mode. Then, using the new servos he had installed underneath, he ducked to avoid their shots which passed harmlessly overhead, before turning on the lasers and sweeping them in a wide 180 degree arc. Solid yellow rays of concentrated energy burned into the stone walls of the arena, scraping through and leaving behind a deep trench of orange molten rock. The clockwork ponies froze, and Techorse stood up again to watch in relief as the two machines fell apart into two halves across their middles.

“Good. Now for that drone!”

He then turned his attention to the drone and took aim with the laser cannons again, but when he went to fire, all he heard was the hiss of super-heated air that poured from the top. The reactor inside had finally shut down from overwork. The flapping spy machine took the opportunity to dart away into the night sky, frustrating Techorse but being within the realm of acceptability, given that he had survived this strange encounter.

The pony’s eyelids began to feel quite heavy and he reached with a hoof for the departing drone, “Come… back...”

Now that he wasn’t in any imminent danger of being torn to shreds, Techorse’s body decided to remind him just how badly injured he actually was, and he dropped flat on the ground, passing out. His last thoughts before he fell unconscious were simply ones of hope that someone would find him.

Morning at the Golden Oaks library was already off to a reasonably terrible start for Twilight, as she was going to have to explain to Spike why she was back so soon from Trottingham. He had expected to have the place to himself for far longer, with Big Macintosh to keep him company on occasion. The previous evening had been spent wondering why Twilight had come back so soon, with growing curiosity when she went straight to bed without answering. Now that she had told him the truth as to what had happened, he was rather irate.

“When were you gonna tell me?!” demanded Spike, the young dragon, arms crossed and nostrils flared, a small puff of smoke escaping them.

“Spike, I understand you’re upset, I haven’t been completely transparent about what’s been happening between me and Techorse over the past few weeks,” Twilight explained calmly, trying to get her assistant to settle down, “He and I just… didn’t communicate or compromise well, or at least that’s what Cadance told us. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I get it,” grunted the young dragon, “it’s none of my business anyways, I guess… just a bit scary is all. I was expecting to be by myself for a couple months at least, would have been cool.”

Twilight could tell from his eyes failing to maintain contact with hers that something more was wrong, and she felt obligated to press the issue.

“Look, Spike… I made a mistake not telling you first that we had a fight,” she said, “and I’m sorry. But Techorse and I aren’t necessarily through, just working things out.”

“Hey, if something happens, it happens,” he lied, turning around completely and starting work on organizing the library’s returns, “I hope things work out, but I just want you to be happy, Twi.”

Her ears fell back and she stepped forward, comforting him with a pat on the back, “Oh, Spike, thank you for saying that. You really have been the best assistant a pony could ask for!”

Spike felt his lip quiver, and turned around to give her a big, warm hug, burrowing the tips of his claws into her sides slightly in hopes he’d never have to let go.

“You’re going back to Cadance for each session, right?” he asked, finally letting her go after the emotional moment seemed to slip away, “No giving up?”

“No giving up!” Twilight answered, shaking her head with a smile on her face, “Besides, Cadance says we’re making great progress, despite how mad we were. He even talked about how he could use just a little bit more of the materials I came up with for his coursework...”

Spike crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow at the now turning red Twilight, wondering if he was getting worked up over nothing or not.

“Maybe I should go see PAL today,” he said, grumbling a bit, “I kinda want to hear what he has to say about this. Hope he’s not too upset...”

“Oh, sure, you should definitely talk to him. Maybe even stay for a while!” Twilight agreed, “I can probably get Shadow Breeze to handle the library for us, since he’s still trying to pick up that last diplomacy certification and needs a quiet place to study.”

“Awesome! Just let me...”

A rather musical, amusing knock came at the front door, interrupting their conversation. Twilight went to answer it, opening the top half to find an empty space and the usual lovely view of Ponyville.

“Is somepony there?” she asked aloud.

“Go on, it’s important to me,” said Fluttershy from outside of where Twilight could immediately see, “you were the one to find out, and… well, I believe in you.”

Twilight detected a concerned tone in her friend’s voice and answered, “Fluttershy, are you okay?”

She walked into line of sight, with Shadow Breeze at her side, and Discord right behind them with a look of extreme reluctance if not shock. Twilight was caught off guard by the lord of chaos’s appearance, as he was wearing a set of formal military wear, complete with a black overcoat and pants, blue undershirt, a white cap he kept clutched in his two mismatched hands, and a set of three medals pinned to the left breast pocket.

“So, dragged Discord out to apologize for something? Was he behind the multiple exploding pies incident last week?” laughed Twilight, ignoring the thousand-yard stare of Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy.

“I wasn’t the one who,” Discord started, escalating to anger before dialing back, “ah… no. No, Twilight Sparkle, that’s not it. It’s very… serious this time.“

Spike walked out to meet them, “Heeeey, did I just hear Discord say something was serious? I must be dreaming! Or you must be dreaming, Twilight!“

Fluttershy, still frowning, cleared her throat gently, “Please, Spike. Let’s allow Discord to say what he’s going to say.”

“All right, all right, I was just kidding,” he reminded them, holding up his hands in frustration.

Discord looked around, perhaps unsure of himself for the first time in a while, and began, “Well, Twilight… this morning I received a summons. I usually make sure that everyone puts me on that ‘do not summon’ list when they call me, which they never actually do, of course. It’s so annoying, can never cause chaos in peace even with...”

“If you can’t say it, I can,” Shadow Breeze said gruffly, surprising Twilight.

“I was getting there, I assure you,” grunted the draconequus, turning the hat he held inside out so that it morphed into a manila folder containing a medical document, “Twilight, the call came from Trottingham Hope Hospital. Techorse was attacked last night by a group of ‘clock unicorns’ from what this useless hospital report says. He’s not in good condition, from what the nurses said, but he had enough energy to ask to see guests.”

Twilight mouth fell open, “Wh.. what? This is another trick, isn’t it!?”

“Well, that’s what’s so… touching,” Discord mentioned, making the folder disappear with a snap of his fingers, “Techorse put me as his emergency contact on the medical card he kept in his saddle. We all know full well that Tech hates me, or at least… I thought he did.”

“Techorse never hated you,” Fluttershy said while pushing back tears, “he just sees things very differently from you. Surely he had a very good reason for choosing you as the first one to call if he got hurt.”

“Why would he even do that?” asked Spike, holding on to Twilight in hopes it would help ease her now worried nerves.

“I know why,” answered Twilight.

She began to choke up as she started her next sentence, “It’s… because he knows me well enough that I’d panic and worry if I found out he’d been hurt and do something to make it worse. But if Discord told me, we’d just assume it was a joke and could take the news better. Tech… Tech really has been hurt!”

Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze held their tails together and looked at Twilight’s deteriorating state with empathy, before looking back up at Discord again. He had a look of reflection that was atypical for his usual self.

“Will you help them, Discord?” asked Fluttershy, giving him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.

“I guess I could use the chaos realm to transport you and the others to the hospital,” he said, dismissing the military outfit and returning to his standard appearance, “it would be a good thing for me to do as a friend...”

“Techorse does appreciate your friendship,” Shadow Breeze answered, only to earn a magical zipper across his mouth temporarily.

“Zip it, I’m not doing this for him, I’m doing this for Fluttershy and Twilight,” he answered, getting a disapproving look from Fluttershy, “and well, the hospital limits guests to six maximum, so the ladies are the only ones going. You’re staying here!”

Discord removed the zipper from Shadow Breeze’s mouth, and ripped open the gateway to his home dimension with his talon, ushering for Twilight and Fluttershy to come with him. Shadow Breeze agreed to stay with Spike as Twilight had considered earlier, of course. As they stepped into the swirling aperture linking Discord’s world with Equestria, Twilight stopped them for a moment.

“Discord, I need us to drop by Trottingham Community College first, if that’s okay. There’s something I need to say to the dean,” she requested.

“Must we?” he sighed.

“Yes, we must,” answered Fluttershy, giving him a wink.

Techorse awoke with a fit of snorting and coughing, quickly going from at ease to ripping an intubation system out of his airways with his front hooves. His vision spun for a moment, but soon his eyes refocused, showing him the inside of the hospital room he was currently stuck in. The plain, white-tiled floor was lit up by the sun pouring in through the large glass window to the left, and a fresh coat of cream-colored paint on the walls provided a cheery environment for the patients. This was a single-pony room, without a privacy curtain to protect the medical bed fitted with a white mattress and blue sheets. The stallion felt his back leg throb as if the femur inside was broken, and he tried not to move from his reclining position, moving his head slowly to a nearby table. There sat his battle saddle, which was covered in blackened holes from the fight he had been in. He remembered a good portion of what had happened prior to passing out, and he asked himself the obvious question.

Staring at the tube lying on the blankets he was beneath, he muttered, throat still full of mucus, “How… how long have I been out?”

A series of wires and plastic medical piping led from under the blankets to a nearby life support machine, keeping track of his vital signs and pumping air with a set of electrical powered bellows that made the slimy tube now just poking out from the covers puff with air. Techorse felt a very hard lump on his stomach area with his hoof, along with the tangle of connective objects supporting it, and turned pale.

“Oh no… it must have been days!” he said, nearly choking on his words.

The stallion had to know what the object on his belly was, and lifted the blankets for a peek, “Please, please don’t let there be a feeding tube!”

He ripped the sheets up with what strength he had, and to his relief, saw only a basic electrocardiogram setup and the base of the respirator he’d ripped out of his trachea a moment ago, an act which he was starting to regret now that his throat was starting to hurt.

Just then, the nurse, an earth pony mare in uniform, entered the room and gasped, “Oh, goodness, Mr. Techorse! You weren’t supposed to remove the tube without our help!”

“I couldn’t help it,” he answered weakly, slipping down the angled pillow on his bed and pulling the covers up a bit with his front hooves, “I prefer to use my lungs if they’re working.”

“Oh well, it’s good to see you awake,” she said, beaming with joy, “you were in such bad condition when the guard found you. In fact, our doctors only gave you a...”

“I really don’t want to know,” whimpered Techorse, wanting to cry but feeling like his tear ducts were crusted over, “I’m just glad I woke up at all, nurse. Thank you for saving my life!”

“It was the trauma team that kept you going,” she answered, putting a hoof over her heart, “I just kept your bandages on, your life support monitored, and your painkillers going. Speaking of which, you are overdue for your next dosage.”

“Oooh, that’s right,” he moaned, feeling his leg pulse as the pain nerves fired at full strength, “how bad was the damage anyways?”

“Well,” she answered, moving over to the life support machine and checking all the various dials and switches, “you were found with a massive chunk missing out of your hamstring as if you were an apple somepony took a bite out of! You also had a serious burn across your front, and a mess of metal pieces stuck in your back. Took the surgeons two hours to remove them all!”

She went to push the button that would administer the next round of painkiller before stopping, disappointing Techorse slightly who could really use the relief.

With a sheepish tone she mentioned, “Almost forgot! You have visitors that I was gonna turn away because you were supposed to be unconscious for at least another week. Maaaaybe they’d like to speak to you before you, uh… can’t use your brain.”

“Fine,” he answered, grunting about the pain, “I’ll be okay until they’re gone.”

The nurse left the room, and a few moments later, Twilight and company walked in, horrified looks on their faces at Techorse’s medical state. Their injured friend perked up in response to seeing them, however, and struggled to pull himself up high enough on the pillow to look less damaged than what he actually was.

“Girls? You’re here?!” he asked rhetorically, “I’m so happy to see you!”

“Oh Tech, we’re so happy to see you too!” cried Twilight, walking up to the bed, but resisting the temptation to hug him due to their conflict, “Discord told us you were hurt!”

The stallion looked into her eyes and smiled, “I figured he’d be so shocked to find out I picked him as my lifeline that he’d go through with it. Heh, Flaming Ivory owes me 10 bits!”

“Hehehe, that’s our Techie!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Try not to spook us so badly next time though, okay?”

“Yeah, so what happened anyways?” added Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow, “These doctors won’t tell us anything! Didja get into a fight?”

“Rainbow Dash, are you really asking Techorse the details of his maiming right away?” complained Rarity, huffing before returning her attention to him, “here you are darling, I had a quilt made up for you with Applejack’s help. I hope this makes you feel better sooner!”

“Aw, I don’t need a quilt...”

Applejack smirked and picked up her end of the quilt, “Sure ya do, hold still, ya silly colt.”

The two mares worked together to help put the patchy, colorful quilt on the bed for him. It didn’t actually help with the injured leg, but now he didn’t feel cold from all the medical equipment lumped on his lower body.

“Thank you Applejack, Rarity,” he said, “all of you. You’re such great friends to me.”

“And you’re great friends to us,” replied Fluttershy gently, “now, if you feel well enough to do so, we’d very much like to hear what happened.”

“Well, it’s complicated, and I’m not sure how much Limpwing has told you, but...”

“Limpwing doesn’t tell us anything!” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyeballs.

“Great, of course,” Techorse continued, shaking his head, “as far as I can remember, there’s a centaur out there in heavy armor calling himself the Surgeon. He’s been behind the multiple attacks on me recently. Last night, I got ambushed by four robotic ponies, all unicorns, that seemed to be made of clockwork parts. I managed to destroy them… but it looks like they hurt me pretty badly.”

“We’ll have to speak to Limpwing then,” Twilight nodded, “do you remember anything else?”

“The Surgeon has an ancient weapon that can erase you out of existence, and he’s setting up operations in the abandoned robot factory,” he said, making sure he split his eye contact between his friends.

“That factory’s been nothing but trouble and thorns for us,” Applejack said, frowning, “ahm wondering if the ‘robot ponies’ that attacked you came from there.”

“Even though that factory didn’t make the kinds of parts those clockwork mares were made from, I bet you’re right, Applejack,” he agreed, “Limpwing and Arbiter were going to try and determine if the Surgeon was indeed running the machines in there again.”

“Yeah but aren’t they really, really old and rusty by now?” asked Pinkie Pie, tilting her head in confusion, “I can’t not use my party cannon for more than like, a month without it not popping its pops! That factory’s got to be super broken after two whole years!“

“It seems that the Surgeon is very smart and capable mechanically, like, well… Techorse,” answered Rarity, “is it possible for somepony else to build such machines?”

“Well with magic anything could be done, it’s just… how?!” asked Twilight openly, “Are you sure they’re not golems?”

“They had critical thinking and strategy capabilities like robots,” continued Techorse, reflecting on the battle, “but they fired magical shots at me. The nurse said I was missing a chunk of my leg, like something took a bite of me.”

“Ewwwww!” commented Pinkie Pie, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

“That doesn’t sound like magical damage,” Twilight said, her worries growing, “but, in any case, we’ll leave this stuff to Arby and Limpwing to figure out. In the meantime, I had Discord make a quick stop at Trottingham Community College to talk about your role as teacher. You’re in no condition to go back and teach right now.”

“I’ll be fine! I can’t let my students down,” Techorse responded, somewhat surprised, “you didn’t tell them I couldn’t come back did you?”

“Uh oh, more arguing,” said Rainbow Dash, motioning to the other mares in the room, “come on, let’s give them some ‘space’.”

Techorse, trying not to be rude, leaned over and said to them, “Thanks for coming to see me, everypony. I’ll finish with Twilight here.”

Once the others had left the room, he returned his attention to Twilight, “Please don’t tell me you asked the dean to let me go.”

“I didn’t, promise! I heard what you said about how you liked the job now when we talked with Cadance,” she continued, frowning, “I was going to get you to quit, but instead I asked the dean to give you a month off to recover, and she said yes if you’ll send over a doctor’s note. You have to admit that missing a piece of your leg is worth taking a break for!”

“I want to get back to teaching as soon as possible,” he answered, staring at his saddle and pointing with his hoof, “can you check the cargo hold on the saddle for me? There should be a small blue case, I hope.”

Twilight agreed and walked over to the device, pushing open the hatch release for the cargo bay with her hoof. Sure enough, there was a small blue container that resembled a pen case. She brought it over to him with her magic, and opened it up, levitating the contents with her aura. Two small hypodermic needles, one of which contained a red substance, and the other an orange substance.

“What are these?” she asked.

“The red needle contains a healing and regenerative potion that Zecora gifted to me a while ago, just in case I got hurt like this,” he answered confidently, “and the orange one contains a brand new batch of nanobots that’ll help patch me together at the cellular level.”

Twilight turned a little pale, “I don’t know about the nanobots, Tech. Have you tested it yet?”

“No, but it’ll work,” he responded confidently, “just inject both of those into the site of my leg wound and I’ll not only avoid scarring, but it’ll be as if I never got hurt within a day! I can get back to teaching next week.”

“But,” she protested, shutting the case on him again and denying the needles to him, “you just got brutally attacked! You really need your rest, Tech, and if the nanobots do anything other than what you say they’ll do, it could make it worse! What if they melt all your cells, or eat away more of your leg… or...”

Seeing that she was worried, Techorse knew it was a bad idea to use both the syringes just to get back into teaching when he wanted to. As it was, Twilight had asked the dean to wait for his permission to take a break, and her worries were rather realistic concerning him needing rest and the risk his untested nanobots posed.

He finally responded softly, “You valued my desire to keep teaching even though you wanted me to quit, so I think we should compromise. Let me use Zecora’s potion just so I don’t get a scar, since we trust her. I’ll take the month off, and recover the rest naturally. I guess I’ll miss my students, but I’m sure a substitute will do fine.”

Twilight paused for a moment, and reflected on Cadance’s teaching, before nodding, “I… agree! We’ll go with that.”

“Great, now hurry up and inject my leg with that before the nurse gets back, she wouldn’t approve of it,” chuckled Techorse, smiling.

After Twilight pulled up the blankets and plunged the needle into his bandage wrap, making sure every bit of the vaccine got into the muscle, she quickly discarded the sharp in the biohazard bin and gave Techorse a quick wink. She placed the untrustworthy nanobot needle back in its case and returned that to the battle saddle. Techorse sighed in relief as he felt Zecora’s magnum opus go to work, his missing tissue beginning to regenerate already with a most curious bubbling feeling.

“Oh that feels good,” he whispered, shutting his eyes, “Zecora’s the best...”

“I feel good too,” Twilight said, now smiling and comfortable again, “you really helped me get past the worries, Tech. See you next time at Cadance’s office for couples’ therapy!”

“Goodbye Twilight,” he said, watching her walk to the door.

Remembering something, he called out, “Oh! If you get a chance, ask PAL to deliver the portable teleporter to the apartment address. I would prefer to not have to take the train again to the Crystal Empire.”

“Sure! Get some rest now, okay?” she answered back, before trotting outside to find her friends in the hallway, along with Discord, who was waiting patiently for them to exit.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the direct stares her friends were giving her. She sheepishly asked them why they were giving her such blank, dead looks.

“The walls here are paper-thin,” opened Rarity, “and although I do not prefer to eavesdrop, I heard the part about visiting Cadance’s office for couples therapy!”

Twilight’s ears sank, and Discord summoned himself a nice red and white paper bag full of marbles to munch on and watch the excitement.

“Uhhhh,” stammered the lavender unicorn, before openly admitting it, “Fine! Techorse and I had a big fight, and I wasn’t going to tell you until it seemed like a good time. I didn’t want you thinking any differently of Techorse.”

“Pffft, my parents fight all the time,” scoffed Rainbow Dash, waving her hoof around sarcastically, “it’s none of our business if you and Techie argue about, Twilight. Seems kinda normal for ponies that close, honestly.”

“Shadow and I have already fought,” Fluttershy admitted, “we couldn’t agree on whether to build another bird sanctuary or greenhouse with the patch of garden space I had left.”

“That ‘fight’ was mostly just very awkward grumbling,” Discord noted, mouth full of marbles, “was quite entertaining to watch though!”

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide, followed by her blushing deeply, “Oh Discord, that’s not nice! I’m trying to help Twilight feel better!”

“Oh well, so am I!” he said, desummoning the snack bag with another snap of his fingers, “You see, your friends, myself most of all, are trying to tell you that arguments between ponies that care are actually very normal! I mean, no one likes arguing, and it’s my least favorite flavor of chaos… but I believe you see my, I mean… our point!”

“Huh, Cadance never said our arguing was normal,” said Twilight, looking at the floor.

“She’s probably gonna next time,” Applejack mentioned, tilting her hat, “keep going! Ahm glad you and Techorse are handling it that way.”

“Yeah! Better than trying to smooth it over with something! Unless you plan to smooth it over with frosting, but you can’t reeeeally do that,” joked Pinkie Pie.

“Thank you, girls,” Twilight finally said, happy to hear her situation was par for the course, “now, we’d better get Shadow and Spike and get out of here. Hopefully they haven’t gotten too bored waiting for us.”

Inside the hospital room, owing once again to the thin walls, Techorse had heard the conversation outside and reclined back into the bed, pulling up the covers. He knew it would be a long road to win back all of Twilight’s trust after the stunt he had pulled, but it might very well come with patience and work. Or perhaps the positive, warm feelings he felt was just Zecora’s potion numbing his pain and growing back his lost tissue. In any case, he owed Twilight a month off away from work, and the stallion let out a comforted breath of air before shutting his eyes and letting himself drift off to sleep.