Sometimes, some crimes go slipping through the cracks. Well not anymore with her on the job.
Sometimes, some crimes, go slipping through the cracks. But while there may not be any gumshoes around, she will have to pick up the slack. While some of her cases may be too small for the Power Ponies, they are just right for her so if you need help just call for the Hackwrench.
The city of Maretropolis. The shining jewel of Equestria and the largest city in all of the world. Home to millions, and more recently, target of the attack of one of the former rulers of the country. If not for the efforts of six brave heroes, the country would be underneath her steel hoof, and the entire world engulfed in darkness. As reward for their efforts they were given the castle, brought there by the former-princess as testament to her power, atop the tallest building in the city, Unity Tower. Thus, the headquarters of the Power Ponies was created, and where an argument was currently in progress.
“But Twilight! Why can't I come with you all out to Manehattan? What's the point of me even having this costume if I can't even join you and the others when you go out to help ponies?” The young dragon flared his cape as the mare he was speaking to rolled her eyes.
“Because it is going to be dangerous. We have information that something with superpowers is on a crime spree out there and they are asking for help. And I thought I told you to call me Masked Matterhorn when I was wearing my costume!” The Masked Matterhorn fluffed her wings in annoyance at her young assistant as he sulked and poked at them.
“Yeah, yeah. I would have though that you would have at least told the other Power Ponies who you are. I thought you were supposed to be friends after facing down Nightmare Moon together. I still can't believe that horn cover of yours actually makes you looks like an alicorn. I'm surprised the other three haven't asked you about them, yet.” The faux-alicorn sighed before running a hoof over the dragon's head-fins.
“I don't know why it does this either, all I know is that it is a very old family heirloom. Now be sure to take care of the place while we are gone. I'll try to pick up something for you out there and-” She was interrupted by a loud crash, and looking outside into the castle courtyard she found the source of the disturbance and face-hoofed.
“Zapp! How many times have I told you to be careful! This place is old and is still very fragile until we fix it all up. So can you please try not to cause any more damage than there already is?!” She paused as she listened to the response from outside before shaking her head.
“I don't care if it's just the tree! For all we know that thing is the only thing keeping the castle stable!” She sighed before shaking her head once again and turned back to Spike, or Humdrum as he is called while in costume.
“Ugh, Zapp is just so impatient. I'd better head out before she knock the entire castle down. Take care of the place while we are gone, Humdrum.” The dragon nodded sullenly as the mare flew out the door to join with the others before they took off for the city on the coast. Once she was out of view, the dragon sighed before heading out into the courtyard to see the damage he would probably have to clean up.
Surprisingly, especially with how much damage the weather controlling pegasus has caused in the short amount of time he had known her, there was almost nothing to clean up. All that had been knocked down was a bunch of leaves from the large oak tree, as well as some strange piece of crystal which he glanced at before shrugging and biting into. As he snacked on the crystal, he walked around the tree looking up at the oddity as it was now probably the tallest tree in Equestria. As he was about half-way around it he paused with a frown as he looked up at an oddity.
“Huh, was that hole always there? Please tell me that Zapp didn't cause that.” Slowly, the dragon climbed up to the hole in the tree, but as he neared he was able to see that it wasn't a recent opening. Once he reached it it stuck his head in and was surprised to find that it was much larger inside than he had expected.
“Whoa, it's bigger on the inside. How in the world did Twilight not find this place.” He couldn't see much as his head was blocking the only light source, but he could get a small sense of the size, though the little he could make out from the small amount of lighting looked oddly regular. Suddenly he heard a sound from inside and turned his ear more into the opening to try and listen better.
“Golly, that didn't work as well as I hoped. It should have worked perfectly, not drain the power from the whole base. Maybe I inverted the temporal projectors causing them to overload the arcano-transfusers? It's strange though, the emergency lights should have activated as soon as the main systems went down.” Spike's eyebrow rose as he made out the voice in the distance. If it wasn't for it being higher pitched, and having seen her leave already, he would have sworn it was Twilight speaking due to the overly technical terms.
“Ow! What is all this cluttering up the floor here? I don't remember leaving anything out before testing the chrono-lock chamber. How am I going to get over to the emergency panel to check the power if I can't even see.” Deep in the tree the being rubbed at her head before she touched something on her head before she slapped her forehead.
“Oh, right.” From Spike's angle he saw a red glow shine from one of the room which steadily brightened as he moved in his direction.
“What happened to my lab?! Everything in here has been torn apart! Why didn't the others stop this from happening?” Soon the glow came into the dragon's view, revealing it to be some sort of red spotlight as it scanned around the room. He couldn't quite make out the figure due to the light blocking the view, but he could barely make out a pair of large round ears on a body much smaller than him.
“Even out here?! What happened to this place?! This all couldn't have happened in the five minutes the test should have taken!” As the light swept across the room, it steadily rose higher and higher until it settled on the window with the masked head of Spike. The figure on the ground looked at him in confusion until the dragon raised a claw and waved.
“Um, hi?” His voice snapped her out of her daze and sent her into a state of high alert.
“Rangers! Alert Level Alpha! The base has been breached! Regroup at Backup Station Alpha!” The dragon didn't have any time to react before the creature leapt at his face, pulling a wrench from out of nowhere. Soon his face was a field of pain as he went falling to the ground from the tree's window. In his daze he only saw a flash of purple clothing and blond hair fleeing into the castle.
“Ugh, 'It's too dangerous to go with, you'll be safe here.' Yeah, I'm not seeing it Twilight.” With a grunt, the dragon pulled himself to his feet, while clutching at his injured face, before trying to follow after the fleeing figure.
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“What is going on? Where is everyone, and why did that dragon look so familiar, especially since I've never met one before?” The mouse ran through the halls of the castle as she fled from said dragon towards one of the few hideouts that her team had made outside of the castle. As she ran she kept an eye out for anyone that could spot her, yet there seemed to be nobody around, in fact it looked as if the entire place hadn't been inhabited in years.
“Something is wrong here, where are all the ponies? This is supposed to be the home of the princesses, yet other than that dragon I haven't seen anyone else. Just what is going on here?” She soon discovered the problem as soon as she climbed up to one of the windows that led to the exterior of the castle. Once she was able to get eyes on the exterior of the building she froze up in shock.
“Wh-what is going on here?! This isn't right, where did this all come from?!” Gadget Hackwrench stared in horror at the city arrayed in front of her the covered a large portion of the area below. At the very edge, near the horizon, she could see a few trees of some variety, but her eyes were focused on the giant skyscrapers, the vehicles moving along below without ponies pulling them, and the fact that the castle was now thousands of feet into the air when it should have been firmly on the ground.
Spike, or Humdrum as he was known in costume, was not a very happy dragon at the moment. First, he was left behind by Twilight and the power Ponies again; then when he went to survey the damage that they left behind for him to clean up, he was attacked by some unknown creature with a wrench which he had lost in the castle. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't much that could make the day much worse.
“No, no, no, no, no, no!” He was soon proven wrong as his legs, tiny as they were, were swept out from under him as a purple blur ran past him. As he was trying to regain his bearings, he looked up back the way he came to see the figure just before it disappeared around a corner.
“Was that a mouse? Seriously? Ugh, maybe Twilight was right about me not coming along if something like that can take me down. But why was it wearing a purple jumpsuit? Wait, how was it even talking in the first place?” His annoyance at being beaten by something that could easily ride around on his shoulder like a puppet, was quickly replaced by curiosity at the oddities he noticed. Rising to his feet once more, he took off after the creature, this time trying to be a bit more stealthy.
He found the mouse once again back at the tree, making a large commotion inside of it. Glancing through the window, while staying out of view as much as possible, he found that the mouse was tearing the place apart, searching for something.
“Where is it, where is it?! I'm sure I put it right around here!” Suddenly in front of Gadget, a piece of the wall fell inwards, allowing her to find what she was looking for. Spike watched as she went into the open cupboard, and saw her leave with a large ruby. Glancing around the mouse frowned at the mess around her.
“Shoot, my lab is in too much of a mess for this, but maybe...” She trailed off before dashing towards the main door of the base and exiting into the courtyard. Spike looked down and saw a concealed doorway in the tree open up, and the figure he had been following dash out into the castle. Following her, he was only partially surprised to see her go into Twilight's lab and start digging around in the spare parts.
“Now what is she doing in here?” Peeking into the room, he finally gets the time to examine the mouse as she digs through the pile of scraps. While he had seen some animals with hair before, it was still rare so seeing her blonde locks was a bit of a surprise. The mouse also was rather slender, which was easily seen with her simple lavender jumpsuit that was reminiscent of what would be seen in a vehicle repair shop. Atop her head was also a pair of goggles of the same color as her suit, with a small contraption along the side of it from which he spied a small gem sticking out of it. With only the sound of her rummaging around, he was easily able to hear the mouse speak to herself.
“No, that won't work. This one? No, not quite. Ooh, I can use that for... No, none of that. Stay focused Gadget. Wait, that one is perfect! Now I just need...” After pulling out a copper mounting coil, she looked around the room until her eyes settled on one of the screens in the room. Rushing over she opened a panel on the side of it and reached inside to the wiring. While she was distracted, the dragon slowly moved over to get a view of what she was doing inside of it. He didn't see where she pulled it from, but she noticed that she was attaching the coil to the wiring inside, with the gem she had taken from the tree mounted inside of that.
“Now, all I need is a thaumic converter and something to use to translate magical impulses.” As she went back into the scrap pile again, Spike looked over the mouse's shoulder, before moving over to a nearby desk and began digging through the drawers. He was curious about what she was putting together, and with his experience helping Twilight he could easily guess what she was looking for. Finding the items she mentioned, he slowly crept over to her before holding them out to the mouse and tapping her on the shoulder with them.
“Huh? Wait, those are perfect! Thanks!” Spike raised an eye-ridge as the mouse grabbed the offered objects and run towards the monitor she was messing with. This level of obliviousness was something he had come to expect from Twilight, but to see a mouse doing it? If it wasn't for the fact that she hadn't started anything in the new lab yet, he would have said that this situation had Twilight's hoofprints all over it.
After a quick bit of tweaking of the innards, Gadget hopped out of the panel and closed it up before running around to the front of it and switching it on. At first nothing but a random rainbow of colors appeared, but after meddling with he knobs on it a picture began to appear and flicker by as she spun a second one.
“No. Not that one. Not that either. Wait! There!” Suddenly she stops and hits a third knob, sending the picture into motion all on it's own. Spike's jaw drops as Celestia crashes into the room on the screen, followed soon by another figure that he recognized as Nightmare Moon. He watched in awe as the scene played out of the incident known to many now as the moment when the alicorn was forced to banish her sister, but not only as a video recording but one with audio as well. Soon the alicorn of the moon was banished into the object she was charged with controlling, leaving the alicorn of the sun alone in the room. Yet it did not stop there as the moments after were shown as well, moments that few really knew about as the history books could never agree on it.
“Huzzah! The foul beast has been defeated! All hail the Princess of Equestria! No! The Queen of Equestria! Prepare the coronation festival!” Princess Celestia's eye twitched at every word from the noble and the sounds of agreement of the ones around him. She had no words for their reaction until she felt something inside of her snap and two words slipped out.
“I'm sorry, your majesty? What was that you said?” Prince Blueblood the Third was too busy congratulating himself on his idea to react to the tiara that was thrown at him, knocking him out. The other nobles in the room gasped at the attack before turning fearful eyes on the solar princess as she glared at them in anger.
“I said, I QUIT!” Manes were blown back from her voice as she projected her anger through it. As she began to stomp away, one of the noble mares unsteadily spoke up.
“B-b-but why? Isn't this what you fought for? We thought you would be happy now that the threat is gone.” The alicorn froze in place before she turned her glare back on the group of ponies again.
“Happy? HAPPY!? That I just banished mine own sister to the moon!? That I may never see her again and you think that makes me happy!? Well if that is the way you feel, then you can deal with having no princess at all!” Flaring her wings the alicorn flapped once and took off out of the hole leaving the ponies to stare after her in horror.
Gadget and Spike watched all this with shocked expressions as the scene continued on, but neither were paying attention. The mouse just sat there on her knees, looking at the screen in shock, as Spike began to look thoughtful.
“Huh, is that what happened back then? That's nothing like what the history books said happened.” The smaller rodent let out a small yelp of shock as the dragon's voice finally made her realize that she wasn't alone in the room. Spinning around she reached for her tool-belt before brandishing a wrench as big as her between her and the other creature in the room.
“Ack! Not the face! Not the face!” Seeing the aggressive movement, the dragon flinched away and brought his arms up in front of his face, expecting more pain once again. Gadget looked at him as her panic slowly settled down before she tilted her head to the side as she realized that he seemed familiar. Her eyes widened as she remembered just where she had seen the purple and green dragon before.
“Wait, Spike!?” The dragon flinched again at her words before his eyes opened and he peeked out from behind his arms in confusion. Looking down on the mouse, he saw her frozen in shock before he tilted his head questioningly.
“How did you know my name? Wait... I mean... The name is Humdrum. Who is this Spike you speak of? He sounds like a handsome fellow, though.” Gadget wasn't fooled, but her attention wasn't on his attempt to divert attention away from his slip-up as she realized just how badly her experiment went wrong.
“No. Not again. I lost all of them again. Not only did I lose my family and old friends, but my new friends, too? How could I lose everything again?” Dropping her wrench, which shrank down to a smaller size, the mouse fell to her knees as the shock overwhelmed her. Soon tears were pouring from her eyes as the fact that she had been frozen for over a thousand years hit her, forcing the fact that she had nothing left once again.
Spike wasn't sure how to react to having the being that had attacked him earlier breaking down like she was now. He was actually starting to get flashbacks to some of Twilight's episodes when she was younger so he did the only thing that he could think of while patting her on the head.
“Um, there there? It'll be all right?” His actions did something though, as his leg became the victim of a death-grip by the mouse as she started bawling into him. With a sigh he tried to make himself comfortable as he did what he could to reassure the mouse until he could figure out what was going on with the situation.
Gadget yawned and slowly stretched out her arms as she slowly woke up. Sitting up she blearily looked around to find herself in an unfamiliar location with a large red blanket draped over her. Noticing a large purple form nearby she groaned as she realized that she hadn't been dreaming and what she thought was a blanket was, in fact, a cape. Spike, now that he had taken his costume off, looked over and noticed the stirring mouse and spoke up.
“Oh, hey. You're awake. Are you feeling better now?” The blonde mouse sighed as she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, setting her head on top.
“A little, but it's going to take a while to get over it fully. I mean, it was just yesterday that I was talking to Scrat and Eyebright about our last mission while Marshmallow was making dinner for us. I don't even know what Philomena was doing that day, she loved to disappear for days at a time. But now I'm a thousand years away from them in the future.” The mouse snorted as she looked down at her hand-like paws.
“Golly, if you had asked me if I wanted to speak with you or Twilight back then I would have jumped at the chance. But after years with my friends? I would have said it wouldn't have been worth it.” The sadness she had been feeling started to return, though Spike just looked at her strangely as he rubbed his chin.
“Wait, that reminds me. How did you even know my name when you saw me? Not only was I wearing my hero disguise, but you are over a thousand years out of date. There's no way that you should have known about me.” Gadget looked up at him for a moment before sighing.
“Of course you would pick up on that. Your friends really don't give you enough credit for how smart you are, what with Twilight overshadowing you.” The young dragon glared at her for trying to divert his attention away from his question but inwardly preened at the praise.
“Well, there's no reason not to tell you. It's not like there's a point to keeping this information from you since almost all of it is irrelevant now. What do you know about the multi-verse theory?” Spike frowned at her before taking a thinking pose for a moment.
“Isn't that like how in comic books they have the heroes travel to a dimension that is like their but the opposite? Like when Flash Haydan overcast his haste spell and sent him into a universe terrorized by his opposite, Zoom Zoom?” The miniature mechanic raised an eyebrow at that and looked towards a nearby bookshelf full of comic books. But instead of them being full of superheroes, they were instead full of fantasy characters, one wearing a red tank top with a yellow lightning bolt on it. She shook her head and chuckled.
“Different universe, yet the same Spike.” The dragon looked confused at the comment, causing her to clear her throat and continue.
“Still, that is somewhat right though there is a lot more to it, but I don't feel up to going too deep into it. The short answer is that this world isn't the one I was born on. And-” She was cut off when the purple drake raised a claw in question.
“Wait, you mean you're an alien!?” Gadget looked at him for a moment before slapping a hand to her face.
“Aaaand of course that's the thing you focus on first.” Spike chuckled bashfully as he ran a clawed hand through the spines on his head.
“Eheh, well it's just that most aliens immediately tried to takeover the planet or abduct ponies. You just don't seem like the type to do that, or even be able to do that.” The diminutive being looked up at him for a moment, wondering if he was joking, before shaking her head in annoyance.
“Right, another thing to look into. Anyways, this world is actually part of a story back in my old world, or really a story within that story. In fact, this world was only a comic book in that world, which only appeared once but showed very little beyond you and the main six power ponies along with the villain Mane-iac. It just happens that those six are the main characters of the story that I know, but they lived in Ponyville while Maretropolis didn't exist from what I know. So anything that I know that matches up with the Power Ponies, like their names, will only be coincidental and knowledge of future events might as well be worthless.” Spike was silent after a moment before he asked something that came to mind that had come up earlier.
“Wait, does that mean that you know the identities of the other Power Ponies? Twilight and I are the only ones that have really started moving into the castle, which is now Power Pony HQ, but I don't think any of us know who the others are yet.” With a thoughtful frown, the blonde female scratched her head in confusion.
“Huh, I would have thought that they would have revealed their identities to each other, what with Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony bit. Unless that never happened or hasn't yet. Speaking of, how did this castle get up on top of a skyscraper? Last I knew, it was in where the Everfree forest should be, not sure if even that is around, and my tree was a good walk away from it, and especially not on top of a building.” The dragon's jaw dropped before he shook his head in wonder.
“You even know about the state secret that is the Elements!? Probably best I don't say more on that, but when Nightmare Moon returned she moved the castle up here, thinking it was where the country was ruled from. That tree was already here I think. Twilight was going on about how its root are part of the building's support structure.” The mouse blinked for a moment before looking around her at the castle walls before shaking her head.
“Yet another thing to catch up on then. It's going to take me weeks if not months to catch up. But you probably want to know how I got here, don't you?” Spike nodded causing the mouse to sigh. It had been a long time since she had thought of the event, but she still remembered what happened like it was yesterday.
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“Oh, that is so cute!” The young teenager let out a squee of enjoyment as she looked over the displays at the convention. This was the first time coming to one, yet she made an attempt to dress up as one of her favorite characters of all time. It was relatively simple to do as she only needed a wig and purple mechanics suit, as well as borrowing a pair of welding goggles from a friend. At the moment she was gushing over a Reepicheep plush, one of the few mice-based items for sale that she had been able to find. She always loved how cute mice were and how it was almost impossible for there to ever be one that she wasn't a fan of.
“Aww, but it's eighty dollars, but I only have fifty left.” The girl pouted as she slowly turned away from the object, a hand slowly trailing away from it as she moved. She was disappointed at not having enough for it, but she soon found something that made her forget all about it a few stalls down.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Those are perfect! I need to get those, please! How much are they?!” Her eyes were locked on a set of fluffy mouse ears of the exact color of her costume character's fur. She was so focused that she didn't even look at the man who began to chuckle at her enthusiasm.
“Ah, someone with an eye for quality. Yet, that is a part of a set, and it would go perfectly with it, I think. Forty for both sounds about fair.” His hand entered her view and gestured towards a nearby utility belt with a wrench hanging off of it. She had to admit that it would complete the mechanic look that she was trying for, yet the price was a tad high for what was basically a hairband and belt. She sighed and was about to turn away when her eyes caught sight of a book nearby. A familiar large-headed mouse on the cover caught her eye, but the title settled it for her.
“Um, how about fifty for them and that book of “Everything To Know About Brain” next to them?” The man looked down and chuckled at her offer.
“You drive a hard bargain, young lady. It's a deal.” She let out a squeal of joy as she quickly dug out the cash and handed it over. She quickly donned the ears and belt before hugging the book to her chest in glee. As she was bouncing around with her new purchases the salesman waved to her back.
“Have fun with your purchases. Try not to get stepped on by any hooves.” The girl paused in her bouncing in confusion before starting to turn back to him.
“What do you-” She was cut off as the ground fell out from her and the only thing that she saw before darkness took her was the man's brown trench-coat.
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“I was so focused on having fun back then that I never saw who that guy was. After that, I found myself in Equestria looking like this. At first, I thought it was all fun and games, but after a couple years alone it finally hit me that I would never see my family or friends again, especially when I realized I couldn't remember my real name.” Gadget sighed as she fingered the wrench at her hip.
“So after breaking down I joined a suicide cult, was saved by another cult, then was finally saved from there by my friends. They were inspired by what I had been doing and after I vanished, they decided to take up after what I was doing and attempted to find me. They were with me until something went wrong with my device and I was frozen in time until today.” Spike stared at her with his jaw dropped before he closed it and rubbed his chin. Looking over at the mouse he wondered just what exactly she had done to inspire them so much to try and find her.
“Well I got to say, that is a rather unique back-story. Heh, you should hear some of what got the others into the superhero business. But, what are you going to do now?” The question he asked was one that had been going through her head since she woke up. She had an idea, but one thing stuck out to her that was bothering her.
“First, I need to go back and find out just went wrong. It may have been an experimental attempt at time manipulation, but it was fully isolated from any kind of power system that would allow it to trap me for this long. It should only have been a week tops, and I triple checked those figures. That hints at something that I'd rather not think about.” Climbing to her feet she quickly began to sprint out of the room in search of her tree. She was brought up short at the door by the voice of the dragon.
“Hey, what's your name anyways? You never mentioned it throughout your entire story.” The mouse paused before straightening the goggles on her head.
“It's Gadget. Gadget Hackwrench, and I guess the last of the Rescue Rangers.” The purple biped made to follow her but was brought up short as the name fully registered.
“Nah, it couldn't be.” Shaking his head he began to chase after her once more, not noticing the figure hidden in the shadows beneath his bed.
“Well now. This is an interrrresting development. And here I thought that I was going to be borrred following the maid today.” The figure silently padded through the shadows, following after the two retreating figures.
“Just one more pull and... Got it!” With a sharp crack, Gadget managed to finally pry the melted lock off of the front door. As the lock clanged to the ground, the mouse jumped down onto the handle, opening the front door.
“Welcome to Rescue Rangers Headquarters, mind the mess please.” Humdrum's eyes were wide as he watched the door open, a door that wasn't there a moment ago. Walking into the tree, he looked around before giving his verdict.
“Wow, what a dump. And how did you hide the door like that.” Gadget gave the dragon a deadpan stare before sighing as she looked around in the light of the door. The furniture that she remembered only a day ago, to her, were all masses of broken wood and splinters. She couldn't tell the cause of the destruction as time had worn away at everything, leaving only faint stains on the walls and floor, though the wreckage was remarkably preserved still. She frowned as she noticed this and realized that there must have still been some power running through the enchantments around the building.
“I think I have an idea, just give me a moment.” Spike looked confused as the mouse ran off into the darkness while pulling her goggles down and activating the light on them. Moments later after she vanished into the dark interior of the building lights began to start flickering on, illuminating the room and showing the full extent of the damage.
“I was right. I thought it strange that some of the enchantments around the tree were working but not the lights. Whatever happened back then must have knocked loose the crystals that managed those areas. Though, it's odd that the door was still camouflaged while you were able to find the window. Something must have happened to the crystal network I placed around the branches over the years.” When Spike heard her mention something about crystals he blushed lightly and started twiddling his thumbs.
“Um, I may know what happened with that. Not long before I found that window I happened to find a crystal on the ground. I thought one of the girls dropped it while they were berating Zapp for crashing into the tree and I... may have eaten it after finding it.” Gadget brought a hand up to her face and shook her head.
“Of course she would be the one to break it. Guess her frequently crashing is something that hasn't changed from what I know. I'll just have to add it to the list of things I need to fix and look into. That can all wait until after this is all cleaned up.” Looking around the room, Gadget reached down and pulled the wrench off of her side before it transformed into a broom, causing Spike to boggle at it.
“Now let's see if I can get this to work. When... When... Hmm, one second.” Gadget cleared her throat before tapping her foot on the ground three times. When music started playing from nowhere Spike's head darted around in surprise as the mouse nodded and started singing.
“~When you find yourself in a mess, don't give in to distress. Just grab yourself a broom, and spin around the room. You have to sweep, sweep, sweep, if you want to perform upkeep, and clean yourself up a home...” The dragon's jaw dropped as he watched the mouse steadily clean up the interior of the tree at a rate he would have thought impossible for one without magic. In the span of an hour, the entire room had been cleaned up and anything that could be salvaged had been set on the shelves inset into the walls.
“~...and if you want a home to keep you just got to sweep, sweep, sweep! And done. Phew, that was a bit harder than I expected but-” Gadget stopped speaking when she heard the sound of clapping that was obviously not from the dragon.
“Brrravo! The storrries passed down about you do not do you justice, darrrling.” While she didn't recognize the voice, the accent was a dead giveaway as to what the intruder was. Spinning around the mouse thrust out her foot and hit a section of the nearby wall causing it to revolve around, revealing a secret room hidden behind it. In seconds she had reached inside and hefted a crossbow to her should which she pointed towards a darkened corner that the voice had come from.
“All right, come out cat! What are you doing here?!” Humdrum looked around in confusion, looking for whatever the mouse was yelling at. He hadn't heard anything so to hear her yell had put him on guard.
“And so fast as well as intelligent. It seems that therrre may have been some trrruth to the tales afterrr all.” Gadget watched carefully as the cat slowly padded her way out from the shadows. She was surprised to find that she actually recognized the white form and tilted her head, though not aiming away from her as a precaution.
“Wait, why are you getting all upset about a cat being in here. Huh, funny, I think I recognize it, too.” Spike reached out to poke at the cat, but with a swipe of her claws, he jerked his hand back with a yelp of pain.
“Ow! It scratched me!” Gadget's eyes narrowed at the cat as she noticed something major had just happened. It didn't take her long to realize just what was going on which caused her to frown.
“What are you doing here, Opalescence? And since when did animals have superpowers?” The fancy cat's eyes narrowed as she looked at the mouse and slowly licked at a drop of blood on her claws.
“Well, now this trrruly is surrrprrrising. You may be morrre dangerrrous than I thought if you already know who I am. Of courrrse, that would be assuming that a thousand yearrr old weapon still worrrks.” Gadget narrowed her eyes at the cat, glancing at the heavily frayed string on her crossbow before she pulled out the payload of her weapon and brandished it at her target.
“It may not work, but that doesn't mean this won't. What effects do you think thousand-year-old catnip will have on you?” Spike's eyes bounced between the two figures wondering what was going on as he could only understand half the conversation. Opal stared at the mouse for a moment longer before she started to chuckle.
“Oh, you rrreally arrre as quick as the storrries say. Not only can you put togetherrr the smallest of clues to find an answerrr, you also arrre prrreparrred forrr anything. It seems following the maid today was the corrrrect choice to make.” Gadget didn't move as she continued to glare at the feline, causing her to sigh.
“Don't worrrry, darrrling. The last thing I wish to do is fight you. Tales frrrom the prrrevious fat cats have shown how poorrrly that will end. Instead, I will take my leave forrr now, but I will leave you with a message. Things have changed since you disappearrred even if the factions arrre the same. Do not expect the sides to be the same orrr even those of the same faction to be allies. And if you do find any suspicious grrroups that you believe worrrk forrr me I would apprrreciate it if you let me know of them beforrre doing anything.” With that the feline walked towards the exit of the tree, pausing only to swipe at the dragon as she passed him with a smirk. Gadget's eyes didn't leave her form the entire time until she was out of the building which was when she sighed in relief. Spike walked over to the door and looked out before closing it when he saw that the cat was gone.
“Okay, just what was all of that about? Even when you saw me you weren't that tense. Actually, before then I thought that something as small as you or that cat could hurt me. How did you do that anyways? And what is with that wrench you have there?” The mouse looked over at the door once more before she sighed and took a seat against the wall and explained just what Opalescence had told him. When she finished she brought a hand up to rub at her temple.
“If she was right about all of that then things may be very complicated now, especially if the old factions are still around with new leadership. From her words, I am sure that she is the leader, or at least a leader, of the Fat Cat faction who used to be one of the bigger threats I had faced in the past. If she is really telling the truth then she may be an ally, though she could be trying to trick me. I'll have to be careful when dealing with her at the very least since she seems really crafty. As for your other questions...” Gadget reached down for her wrench and twirled it around in her hand.
“This is Janine, the best mechanics assistant you will ever find.” Suddenly the wrench grew to be larger than her while she hefted it effortlessly before turning into a screwdriver, followed by a crowbar and a blowtorch before returning to its former size and shape.
“This is the wrench that somehow brought me to this world and I still don't know what I did to cause it to do what it does. Its material is something I can't identify though it seems to completely ignore magic when brought into contact with it, which is why it actually could hurt you since your draconic magic wouldn't protect you at all. All I really know is that it can copy any tool it comes into contact with, meaning I have to find or make it first, and if I use any of them as a weapon it loses the ability to change into them, barring the wrench form. Of course, that doesn't help at all when I need more than one tool at the same time, but it is handy to have since it can be whatever size I need.” Spike had tensed up at it being called the best assistant, but he quickly calmed down as he listened to the explanation. At the end, he frowned and looked thoughtful.
“That sound really handy, but are you sure that it's safe to be using it? I mean it did drag you here and you admit that you have no idea everything that it can do.” Gadget answered with a shrug as she slipped the wrench back into its holder.
“Nothing has happened yet, but so far it has only helped. Still, there are times I have to wonder about it.” Her gaze settled on the wrench as she thought back to all the times she had to use it, toning out the world around her. Spike, having seen that look on Twilight's face before, decided to look around the now clean room at some of the objects that were put on the shelves. Eventually, he came across a picture that caught his interest in more ways than one.
“Hey, Gadget, who are all these... beings in this picture?” Gadget's head snapped up and looked over to the dragon to see him holding a picture. She had remembered setting it aside but it was only now that what it represented hit her, causing her to look down in sadness as she walked over.
“Those are my friends from before I was trapped in time. Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, Eyebright, the mole, Marshmallow, the albino breezie, Philomena, the phoenix, and Gerald Brightfeather, the griffon. Together we were known as the Rescue Rangers and they were the best friends I ever had. There wasn't much we all couldn't do together, well, except agree on what songs to sing.” The dragon looked thoughtful as he tried to remember something, though there was another question that came to mind.
“That reminds me, how did you do that thing with the music earlier?” Gadget paused before looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What? You've never seen a Heartsong before? Ponies do it all the time and they perform miraculous deeds when it happens.” Spike shook his head as he looked back at the picture again.
“No, never. I don't even remember Twilight mentioning it during her history lessons either.” His eyes widened as he remembered what he was trying to remember.
“Wait, did you say this phoenix was Philomena? Principal Celestia's pet Philomena?” The mouse frowned as she brought a hoof up to her chin.
“Huh, that's odd. What happened to cause them to stop using Heartsongs? Something else to look into, I guess. And yeah, that is that Philomena and...” Her eyes narrowed as a realization came to her.
“Hold on, if she's still around then she should know what happened here. Yet, there is no indication of her leaving a message here at all. But, could that mean...” Her eyes widened in panic as something she didn't want to think about came to mind. Looking up sharply, she quickly darted out of the room towards her lab.
“Whoa! Hey, what's up Gadget?” Spike quickly followed after the mouse as she started scanning her lab.
“You said Philomena was still Celestia's pet, yet if she is still alive then why was I trapped for so long? I may not have liked the others entering my lab, but they knew that if something went wrong that they could come and find me and even knew the basics of how to shut down my experiments. Even then there should have been signs of her still living here yet there was nothing which can only mean one thing.” Her eyes settled on something sticking out from under a large piece of debris from her last experiment.
“You see the enchantments around this tree work in two different ways. First, it prevents those that don't know of this place from being able to locate the entrances or anything odd about it. Second...” She grunts as she shoves that chunk of metal to the size and slowly lifts the object in her hand, revealing a red feather.
“Secondly, it prevents those with hostile intentions from being able to find and enter it as well. While the first wouldn't do anything, the second would stop her as these were not here before making it possible that she is the one that sabotaged my experiment.” The two stared at the feather silently as they tried to process this information, one of them hoping that it wasn't true. The lab was virtually untouched except for the feathers and damaged part of the machine as well as if that was the only target of the saboteur as well.
“Ugh, I can't believe that I am talking to a feathering rock of all things. But mother said that if I did all of this stuff it would let me talk with the boss, whoever that is. I just hope that she was right though I've never heard of it working before because I am really, really desperate right now. So please, if you really are there, please help me. I don't want to be the one to destroy everything my family has done all these years, so please, help me.” Spike's eyes widened as he recognized the voice coming from the ruby attached to a small machine in an alcove at the back of the lab. Hearing it also shook Gadget out of her thoughts as a much more important issue now became a priority. It seems the Rescue Rangers had their first case in the new millennia.
“No way! I know that voice. But that means...” Spike turned to look at the mouse as she looked over the gemstone the voice had come from and the objects around it. She was surprised to find that it was still working, as well as the fact that nothing seemed to have been done to disable it. The dragon cared little for that as his mind tried to compute his realizations.
“You're THAT Lady Hackwrench!? One of the Big Ten!? Owner of Gadget, Co.!? One of the largest and oldest companies in Maretropolis!?” Gadget glanced over at the costumed dragon with a raised eyebrow before shrugging and turning back to examine the gem.
“Maybe? I mean I did start a toy company by that name with help from Gerald, but everything should have all gone to Gerald and his family after I disappeared. It is still run by the Brightfeather family, right?” She got a nod in response which caused her to rub at her chin before shaking her head in annoyance.
“Good old stubborn griffon loyalty. I guess it would have been too much to expect him to actually listen to me for once when I wasn't there, let alone when I am. Still, if they still claim that I own it, then that might make things easier depending on what all has changed over the years.” The mouse looked thoughtful while looking around at her lab and everything that was cobbled together for it. While she was distracted the voice on the other end continued.
“I guess that this was all pointless, just like I thought. It's not like some stupid rock is going to help me save the company.” The sound of an object impacting something at high speed came through the gem before a thumping sound followed it. Spike looked worried at the sounds before he turned to the mouse.
“Um, Gadget? Shouldn't you say something to her?” Hearing his voice, the mouse looked up in confusion before a look of understanding came over her.
“Oh right, that would probably be a good thing to do, wouldn't it.” She took a moment to compose her thoughts before she realized that she needed more information, and had the perfect way to get it. With a nod, she reached over to the gem and touched a mark engraved on a side facet before speaking.
“Ms. Brightfeather, please bring The Doll and all documents to the base of...” She glanced up at Spike for directions to where they were.
“Oh, right. We're at the top of the Harmony Tower.” With a nod, Gadget turned back to the gem.
“Bring it all to the base of the Harmony Tower, my associate and I will meet you there. Be sure to bring a vehicle so that we have privacy to speak.” There was only silence from the other side of the gem at first, but soon the two heard the sound of claws scrabbling over a wooden surface. Moments later the voice from the other side was back once again.
“Is that you, boss!? Oh, please tell me that this isn't a joke of some kind! You know what, screw it. I'm desperate enough to go, but if this turns out to be a joke then you dweebs are going to regret it!” The mouse blinked as the connection cut out as what she just heard sounded familiar for some reason. Shaking her head she turned towards Humdrum and raised an eyebrow when she found him staring at her in shock.
“Well? Aren't you going to go get changed? I don't think that you'd want to be going around in disguise for something like this.” Spike blinked a couple of times before he ran a claw over the back of his head.
“Um, are you sure that it's a good idea for me to come with you? I'm probably not going to be very welcome there since I'm seen with Twilight all the time.” Gadget nodded, before looking thoughtful.
“It should be fine, and I could use the help since I don't know the area very well. Also, you might want to grab a big hat or something to hide me with. It would probably be strange for you to be seen carrying me around.” The dragon opened his mouth to respond before looking down at his outfit. With a sigh, he shrugged as he ran off towards his room before pausing.
“Actually, you'd better come with since I have an exit in my room. All of the Power Ponies do so that we can come and go without our disguises being spoiled. It's even part of why Harmony Tower is so well known in Maretropolis. Whoever owns the place went through a lot of effort to make sure that nobody knows who comes and goes here, and there are even spells to hide the identity of anyone coming and going from here. The castle wasn't even here for a week before it was connected to the transfer spells.” The mouse raised an eyebrow at this and was somewhat impressed, though had to wonder about the spells being used. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't notice that she was following the dragon and had entered his room until he tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to look up.
“So, do you think that this will be good enough to hide you?” She looked at the dragon, now divested of his hero costume, as he brandished a black top hat with a silver band.
“Hmm, that should be perfect. How long do you think it should take for her to get here?” Spike twirled the hat on a claw as he tried to imagine a map of the city.
“Well, if she started at your company and took a car it would take maybe fifteen minutes? So maybe twice that considering the time of day. It's still probably best to wait out there for her since she won't be able to enter the building unless she is escorted in or has a room here.” With a nod, Gadget scampered up his body to settle onto his head before he placed the hat over her. He tilted it back slightly which allowed her to peer under it if she bent down.
Watching through the gap between the dragon and his hat, she saw him walk towards a runic circle inscribed onto a metal plate. As soon as he stepped onto it, there was a flash of light and the two were no longer inside of the castle, but in a room full of metal plates on the ground floor. One of Gadget's eyebrows rose as she looked out from under Spike's hat as a transport system like this was not in use when she had vanished and wasn't on the show either. As she pondered the ramifications of such magi-tech, a disturbing thought came to mind.
“Um, Spike? If this place has an enchantment that makes it where you can't recognize others while here, how will we know when she gets here? In fact, how did I even recognize you up in the castle if it is there?” The dragon glances up at the brim of his hat before finding a bench outside of the building to take a seat on.
“I'm actually not sure about your second question. The castle probably isn't included in it, maybe? As for how we will recognize her, from what Twilight tells me there are a few different ways around it. She was getting a bit long-winded about it though so I mostly tuned her out, but I remember something about names and territory that can cancel it out.” The mouse frowned as she considered this as cars came and went, picking up and leaving passengers. She observed that there obviously was something to what he said as the blurred figures around them effortlessly traveled around with little hesitation. The mouse sighed as yet another thing was added to her list of things to research. She was starting to think that it was going to take months for her to catch up with what she had missed over the last thousand years. She was deep in thought when a black limo pulled up and a blurry figure stepped out. There was nothing special about either, yet unlike all the other figures, its voice rang out clearly across the area.
“Transportation for Lady Hackwrench!” With those words, the license plates on the vehicle became visible and the blurriness around the figure faded away revealing a female griffin that was familiar to the mouse. Tapping the dragon on the head, she called down to him quietly.
“Our ride is here, the black limo there on the left.” With a slight nod, Spike made his way over to the vehicle before opening the back door and climbing in. The griffoness noticed the figure move towards her vehicle and, after looking around to make sure nobody else was heading towards her ride, made her way around to the driver's side once again. Climbing in she prepared to leave with a sigh before glancing into the rear-view mirror and let out a squawk of surprise.
“You!? What are you doing here you little twerp!? What, trying and failing to buy her way into the company wasn't enough that she has to try and send her servant as a spy now!?” Spike just glared at her for the servant comment as he noticed her eyes in the mirror before grunting.
“Hey, it's not like I wanted to be here, Gilda. Twilight isn't even in Maretropolis right now. I'm here because of her.” The dragon pointed a claw to the side to another figure that was in the car, one he only now noticed, and the smaller one crawling all over it. The avian-hybrid with the purple-tipped feathers looked over and her jaw dropped at what she was seeing.
“Um, Gadget? Should you really be crawling all over that mare?” While the griffoness was distracted by the dragon, Gadget had scurried over and was examining the earth pony sitting in a seat in the corner opposite Spike. The mare's mane and fur just happened to match Gadget's, and Spike had to admit that she almost looked like the mouse in pony form somehow. Yet, through it all the tiny furry femme ignored the others as she examined the mare.
“Yes. Yes, this is perfect. Just like how I designed it, I think. Now, where did they hide the access trigger.” As she poked around the motionless pony, Gilda stared in shock between the two in the back seat before pointing a talon at the mouse.
“I'm really seeing that right? Please tell me you were lying and that your annoying mistress is hiding somewhere nearby?” Her words earned another glare from the purple dragon until he shook his head.
“Nope, she's not here and there really is a talking mouse there.” His response caused the griffoness to run her claws through her purple-tipped feathers before she slammed her head onto the steering wheel of the limo. The noise broke the mouse out of her fixation causing her to look between the two others in the vehicle.
“Um, did I miss something?” Gilda groaned at the sound of her voice as she threw her head and body back into her seat.
“Oh, nothing much. Just the fact that you being here just proves that my mother was right and she is probably laughing at me from wherever she is now. Ugh, she even had old blurry pictures with what I thought was a purple smudge on them but actually could have been you. She just wouldn't stop talking about those or the secret messages she kept finding in some dusty old journals which were marked by the secret maker's mark that are in all the Hackwrench designs. I never believed her since I never could find anything like the mouse symbol we found on all of the plans.” The mouse smiled as she heard that her little trick had only been partially discovered.
“So you never found the double-R that I hid in everything I created as well? The mouse was really just an accident that my friends told me to keep using. I think Gerald was the only one to even notice the one I intentionally used, but then he was obsessed with secret codes and spy games.” Gilda looked thoughtful as she remembered an oddity she had seen in the old family journals. While she had never been able to find a mouse of any sort in it, she did remember seeing typos in it, almost all of them being extra 'r's. At the moment, Gadget leaned against the mare and felt the flesh give a little under her shoulder. Looking back she noticed the indent with a smile.
“Ahh, there it is.” Turning around, the mouse placed both hands on the depression and began to push on it. While Gilda knew the secret, Spike was curious about what was going on with the mare and when her chest started to pop open his jaw dropped. Folding outwards from the top, just below the neck, a set of stairs was revealed leading up to a small chamber full of gears, levers, and wheels.
“What in the world?! Is that a robot?!” Glancing over as she ascended the stairs, Gadget pulled herself into the chamber and began to strap herself into the seat inside of it.
“Well you could call it that, but it is closer to a clockwork doll than anything, hence why I asked for Gilda to bring the doll with her. From what I can see here, everything is just like I designed it. I just hope it is as easy to pilot as I hoped it was.” Pulling on a lever the mouse set the entrance to close up, leaving her inside of the mechanical pony and the other two in the car to themselves as the body slowly started to twitch and slowly move around. While she was getting used to moving in it, Gilda glanced at the young dragon before she sighed and started to drive the vehicle off towards their destination.
“Well once you are done with that, everything else you asked for is in the briefcase on the floor. I still can't believe that that thing is almost a thousand years old. The family always called him Crazy Gerald for building that, but I always thought that it was some prototype of a giant mech or something. It's kind of scary how close I actually am, just only for a smaller creature.” The griffoness glanced up at her rear-view mirror at her boss before focusing back on the road. Spike was busy gaping at the pony before he shook his head and looked between the driver and the other passenger.
“Soooo. Just what is it that you need help with, anyways? I mean, Twilight has always been trying to get something on your company but I've never heard anything about you having any sort of problems.” He leaned back in his seat when he heard Gilda begin to growl before she slammed one of her claws onto the steering wheel.
“It's those feathering pluckers that make up the current board of directors. Ever since I took over the company those jerks have been undercutting every order I've given but it wasn't until recently that they started to actively work against me. It was only a couple days ago that I was informed that I was being removed from my position as head of the company despite it being against everything the company was built around. They claim that because the Hackwrench's have not contacted the company in decades that their control of the company means nothing. None of this would have happened if mom was still around.” Spike frowns as he hears this and looks out the window, his thoughts drifting back in time.
“Right, I read about that incident a couple years back and how you managed to find who did it. Better than being responsible for killing your parents.” He hadn't meant to say the last part too loudly, but it was still high enough for the griffin to hear.
“What do you mean by that, huh? I don't remember hearing anything like that and I've had some of the best look into you and your handlers past.” He winced at the question before glancing over to the disguised mouse, who had managed to control the doll enough to start going through the briefcase, before sighing.
“You wouldn't have found anything since everything about the incident was sealed. It was a few years back when we were all on a camping trip out in the mountains. They never told me what exactly happened after I blacked out, but when I came to Twilight was holding me and both of our parents were dead with our older brother was heavily injured. Whatever happened though, I know it was all my fault as I could still smell the blood on my hands. They tell me it wasn't my fault, but I could tell that I was the one to kill them from how they looked at me ever since then.” Gilda was speechless at hearing this as she didn't know how to respond to something like that. Sure she had gotten justice for her own parents, but to hear someone actually killing their own and not knowing how? It was nearly unthinkable.
“I would guess that Celestia had something to do with why nothing about that had gotten out.” The voice surprised the dragon as he looked over towards the mechanical pony as it sounded just like Gadget, just from the large body.
“Um, yeah. But how did you know that?” The pony form imitated a shrug, after a few attempts to get it right, as she flipped over a page.
“Mostly a guess, but it makes sense. She may not be a princess anymore, but she still has been around for a long time so who knows what all she has control of or who she has contacts with. Still not sure what all is going on in this timeline, but there seem to be at least a few things that match up and I'd bet that Twilight being one of Celestia's students would be one of them.” Spike stared at her for a moment before he slowly shook his head in exasperation.
“You know, for someone that has been gone for over a thousand years you sure do know a lot about the personal lives of others. It's actually kind of creepy.” While they couldn't see it, Gadget blushed out of embarrassment and made a note to try and not make note of what she knew until she had more of a grasp on what the current history really was.
“Creepy or not, do you think that any of that knowledge will help out with those ponies trying to steal your company? There's a profile on each of them in those documents but any little secrets you know about them could help.” Gadget paused for a moment before she shuffled through the papers until she found the list of all the members of the company. Running a hoof down the page she scanned through it all carefully with a frown.
“Hmm, unfortunately none of the names are familiar for the board members. Though the head of the accounting department is one I recognize.” Her hoof had stopped on the name which only happened to appear in one episode that she could remember, yet was a decently important character for the time.
“What? You mean Silver Shill? Not sure why you would know that dweeb. I would say he was completely harmless after meeting him. If I didn't know that he had been convicted of a bunch of crimes in the past and was chosen specifically by one of the board members. Not sure how he even did all those crimes with how timid he is.” Inside her doll, the mouse smiled in thought as a small plan began to form in her mind.
“In the timeline I remember, he was just a pawn for a pair of con-artists before they were caught. I'd be willing to bet it was much the same here, or at least be worth taking a look at. It's hard to say what transfers over and what doesn't really. For example, I knew of Gilda, but not much beyond her going to school with Rainbow Dash, and most likely Fluttershy, before something caused them to split up for a long while.” At hearing the names, the griffoness jerked and swerved the vehicle a bit before regaining control once more. She glanced back at her boss in the mirror with a quirked eyebrow once she was back on course.
“You know, the little dweeb is right about that being creepy. I haven't seen Dash for a few years now, not since her accident at the plant that paralyzed her. After that, she didn't really want to see anyone, not even her friends. As for Fluttershy, I wish I didn't see her as often as I did. She's one of the biggest pains that your company has to deal with.” Spike snorts as he crosses his arms in front of him.
“What, you too? You wouldn't believe all the projects Twilight had to shut down because of her, not that that was always a bad thing. I still think the whole shy routine she puts on most of the time is an act, nobody that shy would go of like she does.” As the two began swapping stories about the problems that crop up within the respective company they work for, Gadget started to organize the documents before her while coming up with a plan to deal with the problems she heard of and was seeing. Soon the limo pulled into an underground garage of a large building before stopping in a wide space meant for the vehicle they were in. Once it stopped, and the griffon had turned off the engine, she turned back to her passengers.
“Well, here we are. I honestly didn't think you were going to answer as fast as you did, or at all really, so we still have a couple hours until those leeches gather for the meeting. So, what's the plan?” Gadget finished organizing everything and put all of the paperwork back into the briefcase before looking up at Gilda with a smile.
“That's perfect then. I'll fill you in as we go up but there is one last thing I need to do once we're inside before everything is ready.” She may have been out of action for a thousand years, and much of her knowledge was now out of date, but there was one thing that didn't change. When the Rescue Rangers were called, Gadget would be there to find a way, no matter what.
The trio stood next to the limo in the office's garage, waiting for the mechanical pony to steady herself. They had been there for almost half an hour and the still had yet to move into the building. Luckily for them, there was nobody to ask them any questions about what they were doing as they were in the private side of the complex and anyone that would be there was either already inside working, or away on their day off.
“So, how much longer are we going to be out here? I thought you said that you designed that thing.” Gadget, looking through the view-port linking her cockpit to the eyes of the doll, slowly turned the body's head towards Spike.
“Actually, there are a few things that are different from what was in my original designs. More of this body is supposed to be controlled by gears, but instead, there is a different control set-up being used. Sill, these wires really are a lot smoother, but I still need to get used to it.” Gilda cocked her head to the side for a moment as she processed her boss' words before she brought a claw up to cover her face.
“Oh right, that was a thing that happened. That changed when my great-grandfather was younger and decided to help out with building Appleloosa. While he was up there there was a bit of an issue with the native buffalo population. Well, it was fixed easily enough, but he became enthralled with these wire puppets that they made. As soon as he got back he really riled up the family by modifying the doll without telling anyone.” Gadget brought a hand up in thought, a hoof following suit on the outside, as she thought back.
“Well, it's not like I said it had to be exactly like I designed, and far be it from me to complain about improvements. Still, I think I've gotten the hang of moving around well enough right now. I can fine-tune any other problems as we head on up.” With a nod, Gilda picks up the briefcase of information and sets it on her back before leading the way towards the underground entrance to the building. Gadget slowly moved to follow her, getting used to the driving function of the suit, followed by Spike a moment later.
While the underground parking area wasn't much to look at, the entryway that connected to it was vastly different. Unlike what Gadget had been expecting from an office building, a sterile-looking environment of stone and ceramic, the floors and walls appeared to be made of a rich red oak giving it a cozy feeling. It was well furnished like she would have expected, but it also had models of some of the things she had designed before her disappearance.
“Golly, this is much more impressive than I was imagining.” Gilda, hearing the praise for her family's work, stuck her chest out a little further as she led the group towards the front desk. Her mood immediately flipped though as she spotted who was currently running the front desk, as well as the security guard with her.
“Oh, it's you again. I thought you were told not to bother coming in today as the board was about to vote on your replacement. What, can't take a hint that a dumb griffon has no place running a company? Butch, please remove her from the premises.” The aptly named butch diamond dog nodded to the pony in charge of the entry desk, also aptly name for her brown nose on her pure white coat and tail. Gadget looked her over as Gilda bristled next to her, before face-palming internally as she saw the mare's name. Shaking her head, she decided to step in before the griffon and dog came to blows.
“Excuse me Ms. Brown, but on what authority does the Board of Advisers have to take such an action? If I recall there are provisions in the company charter that prevents them from taking actions of that caliber.” The secretary looked over at Gadget as if only now noticing that there were others in the room and promptly ignored her as her gaze lowered to Spike, her eyebrow rising a little as she recognizes him. The guard though, froze in place as his nose started twitching as he smelled something wrong but was unsure what exactly while heeding his instincts.
“Well ma'am, I don't know where you got that information but I don't see how any of this would be your business. And with your companion being from our biggest competitor I see even less reason for you being here. The board is comprised of a group chosen by a majority of shareholders that have been in contact with the company so their decisions will stand.” She waved a hoof to the guard once again, but before he could move he was frozen once again by the sound of Gilda laughing. This confused the two as the disguised mouse rolled her eyes, her suit following suit.
“Golly, I suppose that I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?” Using a hoof to reach to behind her head and under her mane, the disguised mouse pulled out an object she had hidden there earlier and presented it to the guard and secretary. Gilda managed to stop her laughing as she took a step forward with a smirk on her beak.
“May I present to you, Lady Gadget Hackwrench. Owner of eighty percent of the company and last of one of the few families that can rightfully claim a noble title in Equestria.” Both of the employees reacted the same at first as their eyes widened in terror, but from there, their similarities of reactions ended. The diamond dog guard recovered quickly enough as he quickly backed up to the door by the desk and proceeded to hold it open for the group. The mare though, her eyes promptly rolled back up into her head as she fainted dead away.
“Overreacting much?” The griffon only smirks at the dragons as she moves ahead of the group and heads through the door, briefcase on her back. The other two follow along with Gadget shaking her head at the reaction to the reveal as she puts her identification away and looks around as they enter the next part of the building. Unlike the outer area, there wasn't as much to see as it was a control hallway with scanners along it to check for anything going in or out that shouldn't. It didn't take them long though as the guard could be seen yelling to those in the booth which had them opening the door on the other end within seconds. Soon the trio were in an elevator but before Gilda could hit any of the buttons Gadget spoke up.
“Where is the Board meeting right now? I'd like to stop by the Accounting Department first if there is time.” The griffon looked over at her questioningly before moving her claw down to hit a different button.
“Well, it's still just before lunch so there are still a couple of hours. Those lazy jerks don't even bother showing up until really late just before everyone else is leaving. I've had too many late nights because of them. But why do you want to head there first? Did you see something wrong in here?” She gestures towards the briefcase while Gadget shakes her head.
“It's mostly a hunch after I read one of the names. What can you tell me about Silver Shill?” While Gilda had been in a good mood after seeing the reaction of the secretary, it immediately went on a downward spiral at hearing that name. Even Spike had a frown on his face when he heard it mentioned.
“Isn't that the pony from that huge embezzlement case a few years back? The one where they couldn't find any of the stolen money afterwards?” Gadget's eyebrow rose at this information and looked over towards Gilda questioningly. The griffoness shivered a little as she saw the look being sent over to her.
“You are scarily good at moving that thing. If I didn't know better I would think you were a real pony. But yeah, that's the same pony. His hiring was another decision made by the board not long after my parents died.” The owner of the company frowned in thought as she rubbed her chin.
“Was there a pair of ponies by the name of Flim and Flam involved during that incident?” The other two looked a bit surprised at her question but slowly nodded.
“How would you even know them if you've been gone for as long as you've said?” Gadget considered Gilda's question for a moment before she shrugged.
“It's just one of the things from the parallel line that seems to match up. In fact, this might just make things easier than I thought.” The dragon and griffon looked at each other in confusion as the elevator came to a stop. Before they could say anything else the pony stepped out towards their destination. The two rushed to catch up with the disguised mouse and managed to reach her just as she was walking into one of the offices. Inside was multiple rows of cubicles, though all of them were empty except for one hidden away in a back corner.
“I'm sorry, but I am currently busy. You'll have to come back later when the others get back from lunch.” The grey bespectacled stallion didn't even bother looking up from his work while being surrounded by piles of paperwork. The trio ignored his words and came to a stop before his desk, causing him to let out a large sigh of frustration.
“I said you'll have to- Oh, it's you. What, you have nothing better to do than spend your last day here harassing me again?” Gilda growled at the stallion's words, though Gadget rubbed her chin as she examined him. While she could tell that he was exasperated, it didn't seem to be at Gilda but at the paperwork.
“Oh you'd like for this to be my last day, wouldn't you you dweeb. Well, I've got news for you bub, I-” Gilda's rant was cut off as a hoof came into contact with her shoulder, causing her to look to the side at her boss. After taking a few breaths to calm down, she stepped back to let Gadget take charge who reached over for the briefcase before setting it on the desk in front of her and opening it. Silver Shill looked on with confusion at the interaction as he had never seen anyone get Gilda to back down so easily.
“Actually, you are exactly the pony I'm looking for. I was hoping that you could explain this to me.” She sets out a few pages of the company's financial details that she had gone through on the way over for his perusal. His initial response was to groan with annoyance at the interruption not taking a hint until he glanced at the papers and froze up at what he was seeing.
“W-where did you get this from? None of this should be available to the public.” The stallion looked at the three in fear as he slowly backed away from the desk. This allowed Spike to sneak around and get a look at the presented forms causing him to let out a whistle.
“Wow, and how did something like that go unnoticed? I mean it's obvious that a large amount of money went missing between here and that department.” The stallions fear spiked even higher as it began to turn to panic as his gaze darted around the room.
“Th-that wasn't me! I had nothing to do with that embezzlement!” Gilda blinked at his wording before she let out a growl and stepped forward.
“This embezzlement? You mean that there was more money stolen that you had a part of!?” The stallion's panic continued to grow as he backed away from the griffon into a corner. Her advance was stopped though as a hoof rose to block her path.
“That's enough, I doubt it was his idea. He's most likely just a pawn that is being set up to take the fall of the real perpetrator, which is likely what happened with Flim and Flam as well.” Silver Shill's jaw dropped open in shock as Gilda looked back at the mare before begrudgingly stepping back to stand by her. His gaze slowly moved back to the least threatening looking of the group, who he was starting to realize may be the worst of the lot.
“J-just who are you? How do you know all of this? WHY do you even care about it at all!?” Gadget rolled her eyes internally and wondered if she should start wearing a name-tag to speed things up if this was the reaction she was going to constantly start off with that day. She raised a hoof to gesture back towards the griffoness before speaking.
“To put it simply, I'm her boss. Gadget Hackwrench.” Silver Shill blinked a few times as he processed her words as they didn't line up with him right away. The group could see when it started to hit him though as his breathing started to quicken and his eyes widened in horror.
“What!? You can't be!? They said that you were just a myth made up by the Brightfeather family! No no no no no...!” Before he could fall into a full-blown panic though it really hit him as a clenched clewed slammed into the side of his muzzle, sending him sprawling. The mare and dragon winced at the action, though they started to shake their head as the stallion lay panting on the floor, eyes wide.
“A bit violent, but effective I guess. Better than the alternative at least. Now before you go and start going into a panic again, Mr. Shill, I have no plans to terminate your services, at least not without a full investigation but I'm already pretty sure you are just a pawn. No, I have other plans for you.” Seeing a way out the stallion leapt to his hooves before standing in front of the mare, nodding rapidly.
“Yes, yes, I'll do anything, anything you want! I won't make any more deals with them or siphon funds for them anymore! I won't use anything I learned from those two again! Just don't turn me in again!” Gadget frowned at his reaction, specifically how desperate the stallion sounded. Shaking her head she stepped forward to set a hoof on his shoulder.
“That won't be completely necessary. Those skills are why you are one of the first I am approaching at the company. You can keep using everything you know, but only now you will answer directly to me, not anyone else. But you won't be stealing anything, but doing everything you can to stop it from happening as well as investigating any company that is linked to it, along with these.” Gadget sets another set of documents on a desk by the stallion which he looks through, with Spike peeking at from the side. Both of their eyes widen as they realize just what they are looking at and look at the mare in shock.
“W-what is all this!? This looks like a list of almost half of the major businesses in Maretropolis! How could you own all of this!?” Silver Shill sounds a bit fearful at what he was finding out about what was apparently his boss. Spike even was a bit stunned by some of the information the documents contained.
“That's nothing. I can't believe that she owns a tenth of Twilight's company. She's been trying to buy her way in here for a couple of years now, but shares for the company are very hard to come by. She would flip if she knew that you were part of the reason why she could start up Sparkletech.” Gadget tilted her head to the side in thought for a moment before she frowned.
“Before you do anything else though, you need to arrange the repurchase of all shares for Gadget, Co. The company was started by my family and a portion was gifted to the Brightfeathers for services to it and it was not intended for any others to have a hold on it. While I doubt you will manage to get them all back, the less out there the better if they think an Advisory Board is going to steal it out from under me. Offer up to triple the market price if you have to, all funds will be made available through either me or Gilda.” The stallion rapidly nodded before grabbing the documents and began getting to work on his new orders. Turning back to the exit of the room, the disguised moused motioned the doll's head, indicating for the others to follow her. Once they were out of the room and away from prying ears the griffon sighed.
“Yeah, I hate to say it but all these problems are my family's fault. Years back, I forget how long exactly, there were problems agreeing with what to do with all of this. A couple of griffons started having money problems and started selling shares here and there until over half what we were given was gone.” She didn't get a reply to this information right away, but eventually Gadget just shrugged it off.
“I really don't know what to say about that since your family was supposed to have full control but decided not to do so because of your honor. Still, it could be worse I guess, and it would be a real pain if things happened differently, especially with everything else. There are so many things to do, but all of that can wait until later. For now, there is something more important to do.” As she hit the elevator call button the other two glanced at each other before turning to her once again.
“You mean doing something about the Board of Advisers?” With a smirk, Gadget glanced back at Spike to answer his question as the elevator opened.
“Of course not, first we need to stop by the company labs. Can't show up to the meeting without undeniable proof of who I am, and what better proof than a new invention?” With a giggle of excitement, the mouse-hiding-as-a-mare pranced into the elevator, leaving the other two to slap a claw over their faces while following her.
“Thank you, now I need a four-thirds hex-tech wrench.”
“How is this ma'am?”
“Hmm, it needs three more thaumaturgic lines along here, here, and here. Otherwise, it will cause an exothaumic reaction which may cause it to explode after extended periods of use.”
“How about this, I've been working hard on this and-”
“Goober! What did I say about working with that gunk?! This is the last straw, report to-!”
“Actually, I may have some ideas for that, report to the weapons research division with all notes you have gathered so far.”
Spike and Gilda could only watch on in awe at what could only be called a seen of perfected organized chaos. The trio had been alone in the R&D Department when they had first arrived, but it didn't take long for the workers to start returning from their lunch period. They had stood confused on seeing the group in their area, and the supervisor had been about to start yelling at them when Gadget had started dragging the others into her work one-by-one. It wasn't even her own invention either that had pulled them in, but the fact that she had pointed out problems with other inventions she had passed by while giving ideas on what to fix, as well as her general exuberance. This left the supervisor sitting on the sidelines in shock as everything fell out of his control until his gaze eventually settled on the griffon.
“You! You are the one behind all this! Who is that mare?! What is she doing here?!” He pauses as he looks at the dragon standing nearby with a glare and a frown.
“And what is that little spy doing here in a secure area?!” The dragon could only roll his eyes in exasperation as he glanced at the griffon who had been taken aback by her boss' actions. Shaking her head she turned her head to look at the stallion.
“Short answer, that would be my boss and pretty much owner of everything here. It was also her decision to bring along the little dweeb.” The supervisor opened his mouth to respond, but froze up as the implication of who the mystery mare was hit him. Shaking their heads, the two turned to watch the organized chaos around the leader of their little group.
“So, does this happen often under little miss perfect at your company?” Spike slowly nodded as he winced at the sound of an explosion from further in the back, stepping to the side to avoid a rolling gear.
“Oh yeah, though there are usually a lot more explosions.” He paused as another project erupted into flames, sending a pegasus flying across the room.
“Though not many more.” He winced as the pegasus collided with a storage cabinet where they were buried in various tools. Gilda just slowly turned to look at her boss and wondered how the young dragon seemed so sane if he had to deal with things like this all the time. She never interacted with him much before, mostly due to him being overshadowed by Twilight Sparkle, but the little guy was growing on her a little, even though she would never admit it.
“Do you have any tips on how to deal with this? My ancestor's journal didn't do her antics any justice.” The two watched as a unicorn flew across the room due to an over-wound spring unexpectedly releasing its tension.
“I'll send you the book I use for Twilight. Though she seems to be on a different level as Twilight hasn't drawn her researchers in like Gadget has.” The two shuddered at the images brought to mind, Gilda at having to deal with situations unknown to the dragon, and Spike with having to deal not only with Twilight but quite likely with another much like her at the Power Ponies headquarters whenever he was left behind. They were spared from their thoughts getting two wild when the mare in their thoughts left the crowd of workers to rejoin them.
“Golly, that worked out pretty well if I do say so myself. I didn't know the full extent of what was being made here, but I'm sure that I've barely seen most of it. I have so many ideas just from today alone, and I haven't even scratched the surface yet of what is available.” The two look at each other for a moment before looking back at the excited figure.
“So, what were we here for again?” Gadget looked at Spike blankly for a moment before she gave a bashful grin.
“Oh right, that. One second.” Turning back, the mechanized mare trotted back to the workbench she was just at to retrieve a block-shaped object from it. She soon returned to the two before handing it over to Spike and gestured towards the door. The young dragon looked it over curiously as the left the lab area for their next destination.
“This is neat, I guess, but what is it? And where are we going now?” Gadget looked over her shoulder at the young dragon before turning to look at Gilda.
“Now, we should be heading to wherever they are holding the board meeting. It should have started by now, right?” Gilda looks thoughtful for a moment and looks around until she finds a nearby clock and nods. Meeting the nod with one of her own the disguised mouse grins as the griffon starts leading them towards that destination.
“Right, as for what that is, you actually gave me the idea earlier when when you mentioned how only unicorns could record things like I showed you.” Spike blinked in confusion for a moment, before he remembered the gems from that morning.
“Wait, you mean this is a video camera?! But it's so small, how did you fit everything in it?” The mouse had to actually smirk to herself at what she created as she tossed her head.
“Well, it's not my best work, but it'll do for a prototype. The front is obviously the part sticking out with the emerald embedded in it, and the back of it flips out to the side.” Following her instructions, the young dragon pulls on the back lightly to find that it does flip out like he was told. Inside of the lid he flipped out was a mirror that showed his face, yet it was what it had covered that caught his attention.
“Whoa, that is a lot of buttons. But which does what? The symbols don't look familiar.” Gadget frowned in thought for a moment before shaking her head.
“Yeah, I guess I should have checked on what is being used right now, but I can easily show you the most important ones until I make a more permanent model.” As they walked along, the disguised mouse showed Spike the important functions of the camera, mostly how to record and replay what was recorded. Soon he was having a blast filming everything around him and watching it on the mirror that was enchanted with a version of a scrying spell that drew the recordings from the gem that was being used as a storage medium.
After another ride on the elevator, the group arrived at the floor of the meeting and were soon in the room that led to the main conference room. The only thing left between them and the door was a stallion behind a desk, one that caused Gilda to frown on seeing. With a shake of her head she walked towards the door guarded by the stallion, Biased Favor.
“I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You've been told that you are no longer welcome here and- Hey! What do you think you are doing?!” Gadget had ignored the stallion and proceeded to just walk right by him towards the door to the conference room. When Gilda saw him reach for his boss aggressively, something in her snapped causing her to shriek out a battle cry before grabbing the stallion by the neck and tossing him to the side. The trio watched as he skidded into a corner where he curled up into a shivering ball before looking at the griffon who was staring at her claw in shock.
“Golly, I had forgotten how aggressive a griffon could be when those they are honor-bound to are threatened. That may be of use though.” With a final glance at the stallion, she waved a hoof at the two to follow and opened the door to the conference room. As soon as the door opened a wave of voices came out of the room, revealing that a sound suppression spell was in place. The voices trailed off when the ponies inside noticed that the door had opened and the three found themselves the center of attention, mostly Gilda as the other two were deemed unimportant.
“Miss Gilda, I believe that you were told that you were unwelcome at the company from today onwards. The board has decided that you and your non-existent boss are no longer needed.” The mare that looked to be in charge of the meeting reached over to press a button on the table activating an intercom.
“Ms. Brown, would you please send up security and contact the police to remove an intruder from the building.” The mare leaned back in her seat and prepared to speak again but was interrupted when the intercom flared to life once again.
“Um, ma'am? The police are already here, should I send them up?” Eyebrows rose at the sound of the door guard's voice instead of the front desk secretary. Looking up at the clock, the mare noticed that it was getting close to closing time and Brown Noser had been known to take off early on occasion. With a shrug she reached forward to press the intercom button once again.
“That's fine, send them up to the conference room along with a member of security. There are some trespassers that need to be removed.” Gilda looked at her boss nervously but she ignored those sitting at the table as she looked around the room at the various displays. She recognized the design of the first flying machine she had put out under the company as well as the spaceship toy she had designed for release many years after she had disappeared. From those, to a submarine, her eyes moved from one to another until her eyes settled on one blueprint that stood out, and not in a good way.
“Hmm, that one's not right.” The board-members turned to look at the mare in confusion, many only just now noticing her as they were all focused on the griffon and dragon. They had ignored her as inconsequential since their former CEO and the assistant of their biggest rival had followed her in so they thought that she was only a servant of some kind, especially when on closer inspection smudges could be seen in her fur.
“And what, pray tell, is so wrong over there that you care nothing about the fact that law enforcement is on their way up?” With a glance, Gadget noticed that it was the apparent leader of the group that spoke to her. Looking at the white on white mare, the mouse had to assume that this was the Precious Posterity mentioned in her files as being the head of the Board. Turning the robot's head back to the blueprint she raised a hoof to point at the lower corner of it.
“Interesting how you mention law enforcement as I am sure they would be interested to know about this being a forgery. This blueprint is not one created by a Hackwrench so it is stolen, either the blueprint itself or the name.” Frowns began to spread across the room at this claim before a stallion at the far end leaped to his hooves.
“How dare you?! This company has a reputation for honesty and good morals in all our dealings. How can you claim that one of our company's products are a fraud?!” That stallion, Fair Weather if Gadget remembered right, shook with rage at the accusation, though the mouse noticed that many members of the Board averted their eyes from him. She made a note of this as she turned back to the blueprint.
“Well, it's easy to make that claim since this one is missing the family mark that is on every other blueprint.” Her claim was met with a snort by one of the board-members, causing her to pause and look over to them.
“Well I'm sorry to tell you, but that was already checked and the weird double R that the family used is clearly on there.” The other members nodded along with the speaker, though Gilda looked confused. Moments later her eyes widened in realization.
“The Mouse!” Eyes turned to the griffoness as she pointed towards the blueprint in question. Gadget nodded as she made her way to another nearby blueprint.
“Yes. While the one you mentioned was rather obvious, there was always another secret hidden in every blueprint only known to a select few.” She drew a hoof around a part of the blueprint, outlining two smaller circles atop a larger one in the gem circuitry. Moving to the next she did the same with each one she passed, some in obvious places, others cleverly hidden. Soon she had made a circuit of the room, pointing out the one thing missing from the blueprint she claimed as a fraud.
“But, that all-purpose brush is one of our best sellers! We have had no complaints about it in the years since it was released! Besides, how would you know anything about the Hackwrench family secrets? Maybe the one that wrote that one decided to do something different this time, or the others could just be a coincidence.” The disguised mouse only smirked as she looked over the blueprint. Calling it an all-purpose brush was somewhat accurate, but it was still a bit inaccurate. It was more that a bunch of brushes were put on a rod with a bunch that could flip out in various locations. On a quick examination she could identify a separate brush for mane, tail, upper coat, belly coat, teeth and a variety for hooves.
“Well it's been a tradition for so long, I don't see why I would change that now.” The board-members looked at her for a moment, confused at her choice of words. A feeling that this strange earth pony might be more than they had thought started to creep into the minds of a few of them and an important question came to mind.
“What do you mean you wouldn't do that? Who are you anyways to say something like that?!” The mare was saved from answering as a bunch of ponies came in through the open door. Judging from the uniforms she had to guess that these were the city's police officers, though she wasn't expecting them to be wearing uniforms that she recognized from her own world. The board members looked smug as they arrived but that soon changed to horror at the mechanical mare's next words.
“Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Gadget, Gadget Hackwrench. Owner of this company and the one who put Gilda Brightfeather in charge and I want you all out of this building for attempting to bypass my decisions and sabotage this company.” The room went silent for a moment before it broke out into an uproar with all of the board members shouting to be heard. The police sergeant rubbed at the side of his head with one of his hooves with a sigh before he called out to the room.
“All right, just what is going on here? We got a call to come out here with no explanation, so let's hear it and not waste any more of our time, all right?” The ponies gathered around the table looked at him for a moment before they started shouting and pointing at the other three in the room, all of whom started rolling their eyes. With a sigh, Gilda reached into the briefcase she was carrying and pulled out a few documents before passing them to the sergeant. He looked them over with a raised eyebrow as the board-members clamored for attention. When he came to the identification papers he inhaled sharply in surprise.
“Lady Hackwrench!?” He looked up from the document to the mare on the other side of the room and back again. Finding that the cutie mark listed matched the one visible on her, a crossed wrench and screwdriver on top of a lightning bolt, he cursed his luck for being the highest-ranking officer to arrive as this was obviously way above his pay-grade. No matter which choice he made there was going to be trouble in his future, he decided on taking the safest course of action.
“Unless one of you can provide evidence of wrongdoing, there isn't much that I can do here.” His claims were met with grumbling while Precious Posterity stood up to get his attention.
“I am sure that we can work this out easily enough. There is no proof that any of those documents are real and- Miss Gilda, I believe that you were told that you were unwelcome at the company from today onwards. The board has decided that you and your non-existent boss are no longer needed.” She was interrupted in her attempt to get rid of the intruders by her own voice, which confused her at first until she realized what was said, causing her eyes to widen in horror. All eyes turned to the young dragon in the room which was where the voice originated.
“Wow, perfect timing there, Spike.” Gilda smirked as the police sergeant walked over to the dragon to look at the object he was holding. Spike pushed a couple buttons on the back before turning it to the officer, replaying what had happened earlier in the room for him to see along with sound. The room was silent as it played through once again from when the trio entered the room until the line that was used to interrupt the board leader.
“Is that a video recorder!? But how!? None of you are unicorns!” The sergeant was wondering the same thing as the video changed things a little with the situation. Gadget smiled though as she flipped her head, swinging her main back.
“That is my latest invention, a prototype camera that doesn't need a unicorn to operate. It's only a proof of concept right now since it still needs one to recharge it, but it is a decent bit of work for the couple hours it took to put it together if I do say so myself.” Hearing that the mare not only brought in a new invention, or at least an innovated one, but that she did it in such a short amount of time began to cast doubts on her not being who she said she was. The lead police stallion shook his head in annoyance and decided to at least play along until he could pass the issue to his superiors.
“Right, no help for it then. I'll have to ask you all to come along until you provide proof that she isn't who she says she is. The current evidence says that she owns this company and it is within her rights to eject you all from the premises considering what is on that video.” The sergeant nodded to his fellow officers and the strode in to begin escorting the board-members out of the building. Said group began shouting at the treatment and tried ordering the building security to do something, but a head shake from Butch, who had escorted the cops up, kept them from interfering. Gadget watched as the group was escorted out, but her eyes quickly settled on one figure that was leaving without complaint, though he still looked disgruntled.
“Actually officer, could I ask that he stays back a moment along with you?” Fair Winds looked surprised to be singled out but still stepped to the side to allow the others to leave first, curious as to what the mare wanted. The sergeant was also wondering why the mare changed her mind about one of the group, but chalked it up to the whims of nobles. Once the room was cleared the two looked at the remaining three in the room.
“What is it that you want? Haven't you done enough to this company's reputation already?” Gadget looked at the pegasus stallion for a moment before glancing at the sergeant's name tag.
“Sgt... Slaughter is it?” The sergeant looked at her for a moment before he looked down at his name-tag and groaned.
“Seriously? The swapped that out on me again? It's actually Sergeant Laughter, Silent Laughter. But after an incident a couple years ago the other officers on the force have taken to calling me that.” The mare tilted her head and glanced at Gilda who nodded as she had heard about that considering how Gadget, Co. supplied them with many of the tools they used.
“Right, Sgt. Laughter. I feel that you should know this as well just to keep an eye out on those you just escorted out, but I have one of my employees going through the the company financial records. I only had a moment to glance at them, but some of the numbers seemed off so expect potential charges against some of them. As for you.” She turned to look at the other stallion who was frowning at her words. She didn't have any evidence about what she was about to suggest, but she had a strong hunch and, combined with some other knowledge she had, she expected that there might be a hint of truth in it.
“You actually care about the company, don't you? And from what I saw many of the others on the Board of Advisers don't speak with you much outside of meetings.” His frown grew even more, but he slowly nodded.
“Of course I care. I was chosen to do a job and I always uphold my family's reputation of fairness in everything we do. Though it is strange that you seem to know that the others avoid me outside of work-related duties.” The mare nodded as she glanced to Gilda once again to see her slowly nodding in agreement. The griffon had noticed that, while he was rather outspoken, it was always for the good of the company even if the others didn't back many of his ideas.
“Well, I may need to double check on how they are chosen, but I'm guessing that the members of the Board of Advisers are chosen by the investors. If I'm right, then I have a hunch as to who one of those investors are, one that I am betting you know her as well.” Fair Weather just stared at the mare for a moment before he glanced at the police officer in the room and chose his words carefully.
“I am not at liberty to disclose the identity of those that I represent. What I can say is that if your claims of who you are are true then I am sure that she will want to meet you.” He may have tried to be careful with his words, but one slipped through that he didn't quite intend and it didn't go unnoticed. He didn't even realize it until the mare responded to him.
“Her, huh? Well, I am sure that we will meet in the future, especially now that I will be personally dealing with the company and my mail. Which reminds me Ms. Brightfeather, be sure to redirect all of it to my current residence.” While Gilda nodded to her, the two stallions looked at her with curiosity in their eyes as nobody knew where the Hackwrench family was living.
“Um, if you don't mind me asking, where is it you happen to be staying in case we need to get ahold of you?” Gadget looked over at Sergeant Laughter for a moment before nodding.
“I am currently at the Harmony Tower, though I am still unsure much of how things are done there so I may need to contact you again with the full information.” Fair Weather's eyes shot open wide when he heard this before scrutinizing the mare once again.
“Wait, you mean the old Golden Oaks building? But it is almost impossible to get a room in that building, the waiting list alone is decades long. So how did you...” His eyes widened in realization as he stared at the mare, beginning to believe that she just may be who she said she was. The mouse wasn't paying any attention to him as she moved to one of the seats so she could sit the robot body down before burying her actual face in her hands, shaking it in annoyance. She stayed like that for a while until she felt her vessel being shaking, causing her to pay attention to the world around her again and she found that she was now alone in the room with Spike.
“Hey, Gadget. Are you all right?” With a sigh, the mouse reached out to grab the various wires controlling the body and turned the head to look at Spike.
“Maybe? I'm just realizing that my small actions in the past have had a huge effect on shaping the modern times. Just another thing to add to the list of things I need to research before deciding on where to go with everything.” The young dragon just looked at her while slowly nodding before bringing a hand up to his chin.
“So, what now then? Things seem to have worked out here, but I doubt those board members are going to give up just like that.” The mouse thought on it for a moment before she smirked, letting it show on her avatar's face.
“Well, I think it is time for a press event. They wouldn't dare try anything with all of Equestria watching them. That will also give Silver Shill time to compile all the finance reports and repurchase stocks so we can see who has been stealing from the company, further weakening any hold that they have. Now, who would you say would be the best pony to contact for a short interview?” Spike frowned in thought for a moment, before a grin slowly spread across his face.
“I think I know just the pony.”
<><><><><><><>
The Masked Matterhorn sighed as she entered her apartment a few floors below the castle that was the new Power Ponies home base. She was exhausted from the trip out to Manehatten with the rest of her team where they managed to stop the crime-spree of a pony calling themselves the Ferret. While they hadn't managed to catch them, they had at least managed to retrieve all of the stolen goods, though she still couldn't figure out how he managed to keep getting out of every place they had locked him up in, including a safe at one point.
Shaking her head, the alicorn's horn lit up for a moment as she released a spell, causing her costume and wings to disappear, leaving Twilight Sparkle behind. Shaking herself to free her of the imaginary dust that she felt the spell left behind, she slowly plodded over to a beanbag chair and flopped down atop it, lazily swatting at a nearby remote to turn on the television in front of it. She really wasn't paying attention to it, only using it as a distraction as she decompressed from her latest mission. It was only when a mention of a familiar name came from it that she focused on it while turning the volume up. On-screen was a familiar Abyssian reporter who was well known for covering high profile stories, often dealing with superheroes or members of the elite.
“This is Ann Gora of Channel 9 News, here in front of the Gadget, Co headquarters. Next to me here is one of Equestria's most enigmatic citizens, owner of this company, and heir to one of the few surviving noble houses, Lady Gadget Hackwrench. And to announce her return she has done that which is unheard of by removing nearly the entirety of her company's shareholder representatives. This has all been witnessed by...” Twilight stopped listening as the camera panned down to a familiar figure. A figure that she had missed seeing on her return and should have been there, yet looked to be going behind her back with a pony she had been trying for years to get ahold of. If it wasn't for the extreme soundproofing of every apartment in the building, her cry could have been heard in all of them.
“Yes, Twilight, I got it already. Next time I see her I'll ask her to speak with you. I wouldn't get your hopes up though, since it's been a few weeks now and she hasn't contacted me at all. I'm pretty sure she only chose me before because of some enemy of my enemy thing.” Spike rolled his eyes as Twilight kept pacing back and forth in front of him. Ever since the unicorn had found out through the newspaper that he had met with her biggest rival she had been pestering him constantly to arrange a meeting. He hadn't even been able to go out much either as the news industries had been after him as well, trying to get an interview as well. Even his time as Humdrum wasn't all that relaxing either as the Masked Matterhorn kept glaring at him whenever they were around each other, causing the rest of the Power Ponies to be confused about what had happened between the duo.
“I just want to be sure, Spike. I'd rather not come back to any surprises this time. Do you have the checklist I left you?” The young dragon rolled his eyes as he held up the small stack of paper.
“Yes, Twilight, I have the checklists of what you want to be done while you are gone right here, all four of them. If I can manage to keep you alive through Celestia's school with you forgetting to eat all the time then I can handle all of this. You're going to be late if you keep stalling, and the Masked Matterhorn is never late.” He grinned at the look on the unicorn's face as she turned a bright red.
“Spike!” Her cry of indignation brought a small chuckle out of the younger of the duo, causing the elder to roll her eyes and rub a hoof over his spines. Stepping back from him she closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic.
“Gone, Gone, the form you were born. Rise the majestic alicorn!” As she intoned the verbal component of the spell a light began to rise up her body from her hooves. As soon as her entire body was glowing the light shattered in a rain of sparkles revealing her new wings and costume that came with the form of the Masked Matterhorn. Twilight had been amazed when she had first found the spell buried in her family's ancestral home and it had led her to her secret life as a vigilante.
“That is still amazing every time I see it. I still can't believe those wings actually work.” The mare blushed for a moment before putting on her game face again. Fluttering her wings to get a feel for them again she stepped over to the teleporter leading to the Power Ponies headquarters.
“Right, I'm off to meet with the others. I'd rather not have to go to this interview, but certain expectations need to be met after being gifted the new base by the city. I'm sorry that Humdrum can't come along, but they forgot to provide a ticket for you.” The dragon just waved a hand at her.
“Nah, it's fine. I really need to do some more training anyways and I can do that after finishing these lists. With the training room you helped set up it'll be even easier to do that now.” He also planned to check with a certain mouse he knew that was living in the castle that was the new Power Pony headquarters. He had actually looked into the agreement given to the superhero group and discovered that the tree wasn't actually part of the deal when the property was given to them. In fact, everything under the boughs of the tree was owned by, interestingly enough, the Hackwrench family which was confirmed by Gadget herself. Yet neither had found anything on who owned the building as a whole, though they had their suspicions.
“Well, if you say so. I'll see you when I get back then.” The mare was a bit suspicious of his calm acceptance, but she was also grateful enough to not have to argue with him about wanting to come that she let it slide. With a quick hug and a wave, she hopped into the teleporter to join the rest of the Power Ponies at the headquarters before leaving. This left Spike to go through the checklists once more, this time making notes on them to chart out the fastest path to complete them. After only a couple of hours he managed to finish off a majority of the lists, and he decided to take a break to check out the Power Pony Headquarters to make sure that it was clear, after switching to his Humdrum costume.
A couple of the chores left for him were inside the castle where the headquarters were housed, but luckily for him, they were relatively easy, unlike when the location was first gifted to them and required repairs from the centuries of neglect before it was brought out of the Everfree Preserve and settled on top of the towering building. He briefly paused to wonder just how strong Principal Celestia was if her sister could commit such a feat herself, even if she was possessed by an evil being. Still, after having seen her on a near-daily basis for much of his life he found it hard to fear her, especially with her tendency to face-dive into cakes. He managed to clear up everything in the castle that was on the list before he found himself in front of the tree in the courtyard of it.
He found it hard to believe that this tree was the same one he saw when he first came to this castle. While Gadget had fixed the concealment effect that was damaged, as well as upgrading it to prevent a similar thing from happening, he had been registered to it so he could now see the various windows in it as well as the door large enough to fit an alicorn. Even then its size seemed to be an illusion as the inside was larger than what the outside suggested. It wasn't by much, but it was enough to be noticeable. Shaking his head out of his thoughts he pushed open the door, glancing at it trying to find the invisible seams for the other doors as it opened to his size leaving most of the door still closed. The door was only one of the weird things about the treehouse and he had yet to find all the secrets that it held.
Looking through the tree, he first checked upstairs but found all the rooms to be empty or sealed except for the one given to him. Gadget had told him that the rooms belonging to her old friends were still sealed, each room being protected by something within the tree, something that even Gadget couldn't override even though she built it. The main floor was empty as well, from the main room to the kitchen. The basement was an oddity as a side room had been added by someone strangely enough and contained a teleporter linked to the rest of the building, Gadget being the only one that could use it strangely enough. She had told him that she had suspicions of who added it but told him not to worry about it. He paused as he entered the bottom floor and tilted his head to listen for the resident mouse before heading towards the faint sound he heard. He paused outside the open door of the room she found Gadget in as he heard singing from inside.
“~No matter where you look, on every site or book, it's information...” Humdrum found Gadget typing away at her minuscule keyboard, though she had a larger one attached to it, staring at the various computer screens in front of her. While he couldn't read the words from where he was, he could see the various pictures on all the screens.
“Whoa! That's a lot of heroes!” Gadget's ears twitched at his exclamation, causing her to glance back to see him standing in the door.
“Oh, hey Spike, though I guess I should call you Humdrum when you are in costume just to be safe, huh?” At the acknowledgment of his presence, the dragon entered the room, shaking his head at her greeting.
“I still don't get how you can just see through my costume like that. It just seems... wrong somehow.” This caused Gadget to pause for a moment with a frown before she tapped a few keys, bringing something up on one of the screens.
“I've been looking into that actually. I didn't notice it at first, but I may have a theory about how everyone can't seem to identify people when they are wearing a mask, especially with how familiar the effect is. It has to do with a rather unique being I knew from a thousand years ago and one of the greatest villains I had to face.” With a few more taps the screen shifted a bit revealing a figure that Humdrum knew of, but only because Twilight wouldn't shut up about him when he was mentioned.
“Wait, you knew Starswirl the Bearded!? And what do you mean he was a villain? Twilight would have a fit if she heard you say that.” The mouse grimaced at him as her mind drifted back to the past.
“It's a bit complicated. While his research has done a lot to help ponies, it was how he went about it that was monstrous. How he did his experiments? He basically tortured animals until he got the result he was trying for. The Rescue Rangers of the time spent a lot of time keeping an eye on him and freeing the animals he captured.” Humdrum turned a little green at this but quickly swallowed the reaction back.
“So what does he have to do with your theory?” With a couple more taps the mouse changed the screen to show... He wasn't sure what, it was rather blurry to him for some reason. Gadget watched him struggle to look at it before nodding.
“I'm thinking I might be close what with your reaction. This is who I was talking about, and possibly the source of the concealment effect, Boo, a giant chicken. And one of the earliest rescuees from Starswirl.” The dragon clutched at his head a moment, an intense migraine striking him before it faded. When he opened his eyes again he could clearly see the picture now.
“Whoa, I can see it clearly now, but how?” Gadget rubbed at her chin with a hand as she considered his question.
“That I'm still working on. It does seem to be related, but it's also different from how his own ability worked. You see, nobody would ever notice what he was when he was disguised, except for a rare one or two that nobody would believe. His entire costume had to be removed before anyone would actually notice that he really was a giant chicken. It makes me wonder if my extreme resistance to mind magic is what lets me see through the costumes, or something similar to how his power works.” She paused in thought for a moment, giving the dragon a chance to look at the other screens. On every one of them was a different hero, as well as a small profile of them, many of which he recognized. There were even a couple of villains as well.
“So what's with all the hero and villain stuff you are reading about?” He gestures a claw towards the Maneiac and the rather slim profile describing what little is known of her and her origins. Gadget looked over at what he was pointing at and tilted her head to the side.
“Just a little bit of research that I was going over. I've been doing that since... Um, what day is it again?” Gadget looks around, hoping to find a calendar or clock but she hadn't set one out yet. Spike looks confused for a moment before he remembered his comparison of her to Twilight and groans.
“Please don't tell me you've been doing this ever since you got these computers delivered.” He was answered by a roaring sound from the mouse's stomach, making him to face-palm and her to blush.
“How are you even still moving after that long?” Gadget slowly rose to her feet and started towards a nearby fridge and quickly pulled out a small brick of cheese, the last that it contained.
“Call it one of the drawbacks of Heart Songs. Time has so little meaning that you lose track of it really easily... I don't even remember eating all the other things I had stored in here.” She quickly started chowing down on the cheese, though made a note to get a real meal as soon as she was done.
“Anyways, as to clarify your question, I've been looking into the various heroes and villains out there, mostly to see how many I could recognize. Though this was after looking more into the history that I had missed, found out that a couple of old friend actually are around still. But I've learned a few odd things regarding a few of interest.” She taps at her keyboard and a big red figure garbed in the colors of Equestria popped up on screen.
“Wait, does this mean you know who Captain Equestria is?! He's one of the highest-ranked heroes out there! Hardly anyone knows a thing about him!” Gadget looked at the screen showing that was obviously, to her, Big Macintosh. Humdrum was right though about not much being known as the list of superpowers for him was mostly blank, just speculation over his accuracy with his round shield showing the Equestrian flag as well as its toughness. He had no location listed as his home ground and not even any rivals, he just showed up at random and said very little as he trounced any villain in his path. She considered what she should tell him, but settled on only one small fact.
“Well out of respect to the Appleoosa Accords I won't say much about him, but I do know his family at the very least. In fact, you even know at least one of his sisters, though not sure if you've met the other yet or not.” Humdrum looked confused for a moment before he made a joking comment.
“What, are you saying that one of the other Power Ponies are related to him?” He started laughing but soon noticed the mouse looking at him with a raised eyebrow causing his laughter to slowly peter out.
“Wait, you're serious? One of them is related to him? Huh, I wonder who.” He brought a hand up to rub at his chin in thought and quickly ruled out Twilight as the was no way Shining Armor would be a superhero what with his time being taken up helping rule the Crystal Empire after its return. He was quickly disabused of this thought as the next two profiles were brought up.
“Then there are these two who you also personally know. Considering you are technically related to them I guess I can tell you this one secret. Meet Cadance and Shining Armor.” She was met by a blank stare from the dragon as he looked at the picture of the two mares on screen.
“You're kidding, right? Love Beat and Gleaming Shield are Empress Cadance and Consort Shining Armor? But that, that's...” He paused as a migraine pierced into his head causing him to clutch at it momentarily. When it passed he looked up again at the pictures once again. His eyes passed over Love Beat, easily identifying the alicorn Cadance in her pink sailor uniform, and settled on Gleaming Shield. He stared blankly at the image on the screen for a moment before his cheeks puffed out. Soon he was rolling around laughing on the ground, pointing at it.
“AHAHAHAHA! How did she convince Shiny to wear something like that! He totally looks like a mare in that thing!” He just couldn't get over the fact that his older brother was wearing an outfit exactly like his wife's, just in a blue color. Gadget also had a small smile on her face as she continued her talk.
“Actually, I think whatever he does to look like that actually turns him into a mare. Probably some transformation magic of some kind. Not sure if he found it himself or if his wife gave it to him though. Won't be able to tell without asking him since, well, you know what happened with your family.” Humdrum's laughter completely shut down at this and he stared at her in horror, tears starting to form in his eyes. Gadget sighed sadly as she hit a few more keys, changing multiple screens at once, one of them showing a newspaper article he was way too familiar with.
“This came up in my history search when I started looking over certain ponies of note from the other timeline. The results weren't good, almost like someone was targeting them with how consistent the results were.” Humdrum's claw had by this point moved to the computer screen showing the airship explosion that had taken the lives of his adoptive parents, Twilight Velvet and Nightlight. As his words registered, his eyes quickly shot over to her.
“Wait, are you saying that they weren't supposed to die?! That someone was targeting them?!” Gadget only shook her head as she looked over the various screens she had brought up. The Apple Clan, almost wiped out after a shampoo factory explosion. Fluttershy's parents, killed in a freak weather accident along with Rainbow Dash's. Rarity's were part of the same airship explosion as Twilight's. She couldn't find anything on Pinkie's family, though she did find info on the area they lived in and how technology was shunned there so they were probably safe. She did find mention of Maud, though, in the form of the hero The Rock. Even some of the side characters were targeted as she looked at one story of an orphan from a wealthy family. One story really stood out to her as it seemed impossible considering what she knew. That of a pegasus that had been completely paralyzed from the neck down in a freak weather factory accident. Turning back to Humdrum she just shook her head.
“I really don't know. There are so many questions that I still have with no way to find the answers to yet.” The dragon looked downcast as he slowly turned away from the newspaper article, Gadget soon switching them away to the pages they were originally on. She started setting things on standby as she prepared to search for a real meal.
“I do have some ideas as to where to find some answers though. Unfortunately, my old friends are away from the country right now, but I do still have one potential lead that I can test, though it won't be a fast source as I still need to be careful.” The young hero perked up at this and he looked at her with a bit of hope at finally getting some answers.
“Really, where would that be?” She smiled sadly as she walked over to a nearby table that was holding her mail that was starting to be delivered to her and dug around until she found one particular envelope. Quickly opening it up again she pulled out a sole golden ticket. Humdrum's eyes widen when he saw it as he recognized it as something he also saw in Twilight's mail.
“Is that an invitation to one of Celestia's parties? How did you get something like that?” The mouse only quirked an eyebrow at him as she glanced at the figure standing in a nearby corner. Following her gaze, the dragon brought a claw up to his face as he recognized her puppet pony body.
“Oh right, that. Twilight has one of those as well and she also wants to meet you. You know that I'm going to have to tell her about this, right?” Gadget only shrugged as she put the ticket away.
“She's welcome to try, but I already planned to make a public announcement. I've been hearing some disturbing things from some of my employees and plan to also use it to try and draw out some problems with my company. So I hope she doesn't mind being interrupted by assassins.” Humdrum looked at her with a blank look on his face at her declaration.
Gadget tapped away as she finished up consolidating the last of the information she had spent the last couple of weeks gathering on heroes. Most of the profiles had been closed up into various folders, yet six of them were still active along with a newspaper clipping below each. Glancing up, her eyes passed over the articles one by one as she moved them into their own folder.
“Filly Second. Pinkie Pie. History unknown, yet owns her own party supply and custom cake shop. Information from the other timeline has allowed me to pinpoint the general area of her home which still appears to be there but is in an area listed to have Amish-like tendencies so no information really comes from it. On sister confirmed to exist with Maud Pie, who is also the superhero Rock.” With a look at the stone-looking mare wearing a purple bandana and smock she moves to the next.
“Mistress Mare-velous. Apple Jack. Almost her entire family was killed in the Appleoosa Massacre. Remaining members include Braeburn, still, in the town working with nearby buffalo, Granny Smith, owner of the largest orchard supplying the city and multiple businesses, Big Macintosh, acting as Captain Equestria, and her sister Apple Bloom, heavily injured but to an unknown extent, along with a couple of other distant relations that weren't at the scene.” An image of the red stallion wearing a simple black mask, wielding a round shield painted with the Equestrian Flag, and a one-eyed filly slid by her eyes.
“Masked Matterhorn. Twilight Sparkle. Owner of one of the largest tech firms in the country. Parents lost in a freak airship accident that was suspiciously short on information. Elder brother is married to Empress Cadance, the duo also known as Gleaming Shield and Love Beat.” The picture of the mare duo in matching blue and pink sailor uniform slid by.
“Saddle Rager. Fluttershy. Parents appear to have been lost in the same accident previously mentioned, but no information on if she has other family. Has some connection to Discord who as her first appearance was related to his early release and defeat. He now goes around as the hero Captain Good Guy.” She giggled lightly at the picture of the draconequus in his red tights.
“Radiance. Rarity Belle. Parents dead in the same manner as others. Owner of one of the top ten fashion boutiques in the city. Sister Sweetie Belle is under her care, as well as the guardian of Scootaloo who was an orphan with no information beyond that. Further inquiries reveal the filly's potential family members to have disappeared a few years ago.” Two more pictures went into the folders as her eyes settled on the last one.
“Zapp. Rainbow Dash, maybe? Family also lost to the airship accident, while also being involved in a major accident herself. Information lists her as completely paralyzed from the neck down.” The mouse leaned back as she paused and left the newspaper clipping up on the screen, pondering the huge discrepancy. She was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't hear the warning tone signaling that someone had used the teleporter to get into the Rescue Rangers' base of operations.
“Hey boss, I got the car out front if you are ready and... Whoa, why are you looking up a newspaper article about Dash?” Gadget looked away from the computer screen to see Gilda standing in the doorway behind her. Realizing that it was almost time for the event she finished sorting the document away and started shutting down her computer.
“Just trying to solve a few mysteries between this timeline and the one I knew. There have been too many similarities between what I know and what is actually happening, which makes some of the drastic differences seem suspicious. She was never supposed to have this happen to her, in fact, she was supposed to eventually be a part of the Wonderbolts of that time.” Gilda winced when she heard the name before she looked back at the darkened computer screen sadly.
“Yeah, she used to always brag about being fast enough to join them when she got old enough to join. But then that explosion happened at the weather factory she was working at and ruined everything she had worked for up until then. I tried to cheer her up, even found her a lightning bolt medallion for her, but it was never enough. She still just drove everyone away from her as she wasted away in her home on the edge of the city. I haven't seen her for a couple of years now.” The mouse paused at the bottom of the stairs leading into her pony suit before looking over her shoulder at the griffon. Bringing a hand up to her chin she looked up thoughtfully.
“Huh, that would explain how she got that then. But if so, then...” She shook her head before she climbed her way up and took a seat in the control center of her pony disguise. As the chest compartment closed up Gilda finally registered what she said.
“Wait, is there something special about that thing? Is Dash going to be all right?” The earth pony started stretching out in various ways as Gadget started testing the controls to get a feel of them again. Once she was ready the head turned to look over to the griffin once more as the mouse's voice came from the pony.
“Possibly? It is something that I have to look into but that can wait for now. Now, you said the car is out front, did you manage to pack everything that I asked for?” The griffin frowns at her boss but decides to table the issue for now.
“Yeah, here's the communicator gem that you asked for, the rest of it is back in the car.” Gilda held up an oddly shaped earring before walking forward and adding it to the fake pony. It fit perfectly as it was designed specifically for the puppet, and went from the tip of the ear down the side to the base. While there was still testing being done, the model being a custom job used a sapphire on the top, ruby on the bottom, and a topaz in the center, all connected by mithril wire. The communicator was one of the many designs she had introduced to her company's research and design departments since her return. Many of them, like the communicator, were improvements on currently available technology, magical or otherwise, and this one was an improvement on unicorn-based messaging and the clunky radios currently in use.
“Great, this will be a perfect test of how well it works in a public environment. Did you also remember to let it slip that I was going to this event around the office?” Gilda nodded as the two walked deeper into the base.
“Yeah, but why did you want me to do that? You know we still haven't cleared out all the trash left there by those traitors trying to take over the company. I'm sure there are a few spies still on the payroll.” The puppet pony just nods as they arrive at the lowest floor of the tree, and the building portal that she and Spike had found there. It was a surprise to them when they first returned from their trip to the mouse's company to find themselves within the Rescue Ranger Headquarters. The part of the tree they found it in was not one that had been there before Gadget had been frozen in time, yet there was no indication of anypony having entered the place in all that time. It almost looked like the tree had grown around the portal after being placed atop the building, yet the portal was built in a place for it to grow to without any other connection to it. Gadget had her suspicions as to who had planned out the placement of it, yet she had no proof of it and no access to the building plans either to try and confirm it.
“It's actually rather simple, it's because I wanted them to know. Many of those that are under investigation have been trying to locate me and the locations I frequent. Some of them have been getting a bit reckless about it and I am hoping that this will draw a few of them out. Though they would have to be crazy to attack with Celestia there, but I don't think there are many that truly understand what she can do nowadays.” With a flash, the pony disappeared through the portal leaving Gilda to stare after her with her beak wide open. After a moment she shook her head, wondering just what her boss was thinking before following her through. Nothing was said as the two made their way out to the limo, the griffin deep in thought about what her boss was doing. Soon they were on their way with the windows darkened so that Gadget could wait with the puppet's chest cavity open as she had found it to get a tad stuffy inside of it over long periods.
“So boss, why were you looking up all those heroes anyways? It's not like you have a chance against any of them or the villains that they face.” Gadget looked up to the mirror on the front and into the griffon's eyes as she glanced back at her.
“If only that would be true, but history tells me otherwise. In the past, I have had to deal with some powerful figures, and I doubt that will change, especially with all the money under my name now. And, well... How much do you know much about the power ranking system in use right now?” Gilda thought for a moment and, while she had heard about it, had to admit she didn't know too much about it and shook her head.
“Well to put it simply, it ranks everyone depending on the amount of damage they could conceivably cause before they are stopped, on a scale from Z to A. The average pony is rated at around a Z, and a griffon would be a Y. In fact all the way up to a Q rating would involve any creature without powers, or Talents as I've read of them being called. It's not exact though as law enforcement would involve most of those upper levels, but a rare few with Talents do surpass it. Beyond that is where heroes and villains start to appear, as well as a few of the exceptional beings that I've had to face in the past, even though I had a team with me most of that time.” Gilda cocked her head to the side a bit before bringing her focus back onto the road.
“So where would you fit on that scale then if it was around back then?” The mouse looked thoughtful for a moment before she shrugged.
“I'm not sure, but with the best gear I had, I would maybe reach P alone, and M with the rest of my team. For comparison, the Power Ponies are classified as a D-rank team, but individually are about an M. Granted with them it is more because they actually defeated a world-class threat and not because of their actual abilities. Granted there was no information on anything being at an A-rank, universal threat; B-rank, galactic threat; or C-rank, multi-planetary threat yet. That is also where things get complicated with the rankings as they take into account your actions for it, so you could be rated higher than you deserve because of a fluke or other factor. Such as someone having the power of rubber facing a god of lightning.” Gilda's jaw dropped but quickly recovered as she jerked the wheel around as the vehicle started going out of control in her frozen state. Once she regained it her eyes went back up to the mirror to look at her boss.
“Wait, you think you could have taken on one of the Power Ponies with your group? One of the members of one of the top hero teams in the world?” Gadget looks thoughtful for a moment before she nods.
“While it wouldn't be easy, I am pretty sure we could have just managed it with the proper preparations. Starswirl was easily on their level, and we managed to stop his plans countless times, and that was without the technology available now. I'm pretty sure you've heard some of the stories about what your ancestor saw or helped with.” Gilda thought back a moment before she rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, but half of them sounded made up just to make him look better. I mean, helping fight off an alien invasion?” Gadget raised one of her hands a moment before she applied it to her face, shaking it.
“You mean he never outgrew his habit of enhancing his stories to make himself look better? I mean the only aliens that we dealt with was the time he was abducted by them. Building a rocket during that time was difficult, but I barely managed it. Not having actual fuel and having to cobble together an assortment of enchanted gems was the hard part.” The griffon just stared at her for a moment before her mind drifted back to what she had already seen and had to concede that it just might have been possible if it was her. It also helped that she had seen the designs for the toy rockets and how they had been used as the basis of the real ones used in modern times.
“Back to your original question though, it's not just the major villains and heroes that I'm looking into. I'm also looking into reports and rumours of other things with Talents. Take the hero Rock, she has a sidekick that is an actual rock, yet it seems to have a life of its own. The worrying thing is that there are little to no studies on incidents like that happening and there are only rumours of animals having Talents as well. Just mice alone outnumber those living in Maretropolis by anywhere from ten to a hundred mice for each citizen. Imagine if Talents were as widespread in them as well? Discounting minor ones or those that aren't dangerous, the heroes of the city could be drastically outnumbered. That hasn't happened though but I don't have the information as to why.” Gilda shivered as thoughts of super-powered rodents swarming through the city ran through her mind. It was enough to keep her occupied as they left the city and entered the wooded area surrounding the Canterhorn Mountain and the area owned by the school controlled by the alicorn of the sun.
Gazing out the window Gadget marveled at the differences between the timeline she knew and the current one. Not having Canterlot in the same form had allowed the Whitetail Woods to expand and with the former princess owning the area it had not been harvested for wood as it had in the other time. On the flip side, the Everfree Forest was maybe half the size while being even more dangerous as there was less territory for the creatures that inhabited it, making excursions into the towns and cities around it being much more frequent as well. Yet with the prevalence of heroes, super and not, the increased danger was rather negligible. She had to wonder how much else had changed as she had only casually looked at maps, and they were much more detailed than the ones from what she knew.
“Oh, pluck me, not her again. Um, boss? You should probably suit up. We may have a problem up ahead.” Gadget quirked an eyebrow before she scrambled up to the top of the doll's head to look out ahead of the slowing vehicle. Ahead she saw a gate across the road marking the private section of the estate, along with a large number of animals outside of it. Her gaze quickly settled on a butter-yellow colored figure before she darted down into her doll and closed it up as she took control of it. Flexing the limbs of the oversized toy, she looked around before reaching for a small purse that had been left in the vehicle with the doll and started digging through it as the limo came to a halt in front of the gathered crowd of animals.
The pink-maned mare was obviously the leader of the group, holding the largest of the signs stating 'Animal Rights are Pony Rights.' Most of the other signs had slogans along the same vein, many of which had the mouse shaking her head. Glancing over at Gilda she noticed that the griffon was rather agitated with the protest group blocking the vehicle. The pony, who the mouse easily identified as Fluttershy though a bit less timid, advanced on the vehicle with a frown on her face. It deepened when she noticed who was driving it when the window was rolled down.
“You! How dare you! Do you know what your company has been doing?! When I-” Gadget decided to interrupt the tirade as she could see Gilda getting ready to explode back on the mare and wanted to stay on her good side, especially as she seemed to be bulging a little.
“Ah, Ms. Fluttershy. How fortunate that I was able to meet you so soon.” The mare calmed down at hearing the new voice and looked to the back window as it rolled down revealing the blonde-maned pony. Gilda was about to object as the pegasus moved to that window but was stopped by a raised hoof and shake of Gadget's head.
“W-who are you? Why is that griffon driving you up here to Celestia's party?” Gadget had to wonder how many others this mare had bothered already. She didn't have time to consider this with the mare waiting so slowly drew out a pair of cards from her purse and held it out to her.
“Gadget. Gadget Hackwrench and owner of Hackwrench industries. I'd like to apologize to you for the problems my company has caused before I decided to take back control. As we are currently busy right now, let me just give you these.” Fluttershy cautiously reached in and took the two items before looking them over. One was mostly blank and just had a number on it while the other was a card with her picture on it.
“The first is a number that will directly connect you to Gilda here and if she can't help you with whatever your problem is she can then get you in contact with me. As for the other, it is your access pass to allow you into any part of my company so you can check on the state of the animals involved in it. I've also reinstated all policies that the former board had ended as well as begun looking into any others that may be needed. If you have any suggestions while you are there you can let me know, just know that they have to be within reason so nothing like mini-mansions for all the animal volunteers. Also, this isn't a job offer, I know that you've rejected plenty of those, just think of it as bringing in a reliable third-party consultant.” Fluttershy's mouth dropped open at the name or the mare she was speaking to, not expecting to meet one of the most unknown figures of Maretropolis, and it only widened as she was basically given everything she could have asked for without even needing to do so. She was so shocked that she didn't even try to stop the vehicle from leaving and just waved her animals out of the way as it started to drive forward.
“Bwahaha! Did you see the look on her face!? I don't think I've ever seen that dweeb so confused. It's well worth having to deal with her on a regular basis just to have seen that!” Gilda continued to laugh while Gadget just shook her head to herself inside of the suit.
“Didn't you go to school with her when you were younger? I would have thought you would have been friends with her because of your mutual friendship with Rainbow Dash.” The question caused the laughter to cut off and silence reigned for a few minutes. Eventually the griffon let out a sigh as the school mansion came into view.
“Not really. I mean, we knew each other because of Rainbow but we really never talked much. She was way too shy back then, and it pains me to admit that I wasn't much better. Rainbow, she just had a way about her where she just barged into your life and became part of it no matter what you wanted. When she isolated herself none of those around her really kept up with each other and just ended up splitting apart. I don't even know what half of them are doing now and I only know a little about little miss activist back there as she had been bothering me about the company's actions for years. Funnily enough, one of the charities she raises money for that isn't animal-related is for helping treat those suffering from paralyzing injuries. Shows how good of a friend I was if she is still trying to help out while I just abandoned her.” Gadget considered trying to console the griffon but knew that it would probably hurt her pride even more after what she admitted. As the vehicle pulled up to the entrance of the mansion she reached deep for one final thought.
“You may have left her then, but there is still always time to make up with her. You'll have plenty of time to think about that tonight waiting for me. Unless you want to come inside with me.” Gilda shuddered at the thought of having to hang around at a fancy party, especially with some of the creatures she knew were going to be there.
“No thanks, I'll be just fine out here. Besides, you'll need some backup if what you are expecting to happen does so.” With a nod, Gadget slowly exits the vehicle while a greeter mare unicorn approaches her. As they near she holds out her invitation which is soon grabbed up in the mare's magic. Upon reading it, her eyes widen as she sees the name before darting up again to the mouse-in-earth-pony-body, executes a hasty bow, and quickly rushes into the building behind her. The mouse could only shake her head in amusement.
