The Iron Horse

Chapters

Chapter 1-Innocence
Chapter 2-Drifter
Chapter 3-Gift Of Flight
Chapter 4-Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 5-Corruption
Chapter 6- Suspicion
Chapter 7- Transformation
Chapter 8- Revenge

Chapter 1-Innocence

One afternoon in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie trots around town trying to find her friends. She sees Rainbow Dash flying at top speed through the clouds. "Hey Rainbow Dash! Whats the rush?" says Pinkie Pie joyfully. "No time Pinkie! I have work to do!" says Rainbow Dash while speeding off to clear the clouds. "Okey Dokey Lokey!" Pinkie then trots away to the rest of her friends. While walking away, a large wagon speeds toward Pinkie. Pinkie Pie screams as the wagon is about to hit her. In a split second, Rainbow Dash swoops down and saves Pinkie from the wagon. "Wow thanks Rainbow Dash!" said Pinkie in relief. "No problem!" She then dashs into the sky out of sight. "Wow Rainbow Dash's wings are very useful! If it were not for them I would be a goner!" says Pinkie with a smile on her face.

It was off to Twilight's house. Opening the door, she looked in and saw Twilight organizing her books. "No No, that won't do! Its 3 centimeters off!" says Twilight angrily pushing a book back into place. "Hello Twilight!" says Pinkie startling Twilight. In shock, Twilight turns around and hits Pinkie in the face with a book. "Ow!" says Pinkie rubbing her cheek. "Oh sorry Pinkie I'm just really busy lately" turning around to wipe off the book. The hit on Pinkie's face caused a big bruise making the right side of her face swell. Twilight turns around to her and is surprised at her face. Pinkie then tries to tell her that she cant talk due to her mouth but only came out as a long spitty sentence. Twilight then apologizes again and looks around for a book on healing spells. "Ah! Here we are!" Twilight says as reading the book. She slams the book shut and then makes a yellow glow come her horn. Her spell hits Pinkie's face and Pinkie watches as her swollen face goes back to normal in an instant. "Cool!" says Pinkie while looking in a mirror. "Is there anything I could help you with?" says the eager pink pony. Twilight then nods no and pushes Pinkie outside. "Now back to my studies!" says Twilight walking back into her house. The pink pony looks at her cheek and says "Twilight is really good with magic! No wonder why she can do so many cool things!" She then trots away into town.

Looking around, looks at all the wonderful things Equestria has to offer. In the sky, she saw lots of pegasi flying around to different destinations and clearing the skies. "I bet that sure is fun flying about up there" says Pinkie Pie in a saddened tone. She turns around and sees a couple of Unicorns repairing a building with their magic. "I bet it would be fun to use magic" says Pinkie as she sobs. Seeing all the amazing things Pegesi and Unicorns makes her think how plain she is and she bursts in tears. "All these ponies can do so many cool things that I can't!" Sad and full of pitty, Pinkie Pie walks out to Ponyville's outskirts.

Chapter 2-Drifter

Teary eyed and wimpering, Pinkie Pie walks as far as she could out of town. She then stops and stares down the road leading out of Ponyville. There is a hooded merchant walking along with a wagon full of gears, steel plates and wiring. As he walked closer, the wind blew stronger and the trees swayed. Pinkie Pie was getting a sense of uncomfort from the hooded colt. Walking closer, the metal clanged together on the cart. It was soon enough that the merchant was right in front of Pinkie Pie, staring her in the face underneath his brown cloth hood. "Who are you?" says Pinkie Pie. The merchant stood there for a moment then opened his mouth and said "Oh thats not important. Whats important is what I can do for you." says the merchant. "What can you do for me?" says Pinkie Pie with slight suspicion. "I am a drifter from far away and I make inventions to benefit Equestria" says the merchant tossing a gear up in the air and catching it. "I also overheard you and your dilemma." he says while smirking. "You did?" says Pinkie Pie now shocked. "Oh yes I did, I heard quiet enough. I hear you see yourself as useless compared to the pegasi and unicorns have you?" says the merchant laughing. "Well lucky for you, I have an invention that could you even better than the Pegasi!" he says as he unrolls a blueprint.

Pinkie Pie stares at the blueprint and is amazed as she finds it is a pair of mechanical wings. "And the best part is they work fully functional! You could soar through the skies at faster speeds than even the fastest flyer!" says the merchant rolling the blueprint back up and putting it back into the wagon. Pinkie Pie thinks for a moment about how much she would be at everything with a pair of wings. She starts to daydream and imagines herself speeding through the clouds. "With wings I would be able to go wherever I want much faster than walking!" thinks Pinkie. She then snaps out of her daydream and quickly spurts out "How much?" The colt chuckles at her question and replies "Why free of course! You are the first pony I am making them for!" says the merchant. "But there is a catch..." he says while walking over to Pinkie's side. He then wraps his arm over her back and says "I will provide you a pair of mechanical wings but you must do something for me. Once I give you the wings, you must spread the word of my business around town. I need money if I'm going to be out here by myself" he says as he walks back to his cart. Pinkie Pie then rubs her chin and says "Ok its a deal!"

He then smiles and says to the pink pony "Well it looks like I got work to do! I'll be done with your wings in 3 days". Off to work, the merchant walks off into Ponyville in search of a place to work. Happy and satisfied, Pinkie Pie hops back into town.
As the merchant arrives in Ponyville, the town is bustiling with ponies. The wind has calmed down now and the sky opens up with a giant rainbow. As the ponies are in awe of the rainbow, the merchant sneaks through town and finds an old, abandoned factory down the road from Sugarcube Corner. He walks in to find that every machine is still intact. The merchant then looks around at the factory imagining all the possibilities saying "Well time to get to work!" as he unloads his wagon and tools.

Chapter 3-Gift Of Flight

Hurrying to get to work, the merchant shoves his hoof into the cart and pulls out the parts one by one. Half of the day was wasted due to his persistent need for organization. He looks outside and sees the sun going down nearly at the horizon. It was getting dark and he still had not started building the wings. The merchant then walks back in and slams the door shut with brute force assuring there were no cracks in the door. Looking at the pile of scrap, he grabs his wrench and says "Lets do this". His hooves moved in a flurry sway of motion. While working on the wings, he started to write a journal of his daily research. Day by day would go by and the wings would become more and more impressive and complex. Due to the flames of his welder, his journal started to show scorch marks and slowly but surely burning the insides of the cover. He continued to work on no sleep and not stopping for a break. By day 3, his body was weak and his hooves were close to numb. Covering up the bruises and burns he had suffered from his work, he had made his hooves good as new. Wiping the sweat from his face, he put the finishing touches on the wings with a shiny coat of polish and writing a number underneath the wings. He held the wings above his face creating a shadow on his face to assure the full span of the wing length. Setting down the wings on the table, he took a large paintbrush and wrote the word "Pinkie" in big pink letters on the top of the right wing. The wings shined a radiant black chrome color from the reflection of the light overhead. Under his hood he produced a large grin, proud of his work and carefully put the wings into a velvet bag.

Outside of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie stood awaiting the mysterious merchant with her wings. Over the hill, Pinkie Pie saw the merchant carrying his bag atop his shoulder. Seeing the bag made Pinkie excited and she started bouncing up and down. "Hello Pinkie! Miss me?" says the Merchant. The only thing she was worried about was her wings. "Well....are they ready?" says Pinkie smiling at him creepily. "Yes they are! I have them right here!" says the merchant while gently tugging out the wings from the sack. Pinkie was amazed at his fine work. Everything about them were perfect, the color, the look and her name wrote in big letters. She squeed in happiness and wanted to put them on. "So Mr Merchant, how do I put them on?" she says as she pulls the wings out of his hooves. "Not so fast Pinkie, I'm the only one who can put them on you." says the merchant as he takes back the wings. "Now I need you to turn around so I can put them on." Pinkie Pie turns around nervously scared but excited about her wings. "This isn't going to hurt is it?" she says as the Merchant carefully puts the short ends of the wings on her back ever so gently. "Oh don't worry, you will only feel a slight pinch" he says as he pokes the wings into her skin. Pinkie Pie yells out a scream of pain while the wires of the wings intertwines with her nerves and Spinal Cord. The wires pierced little holes into her spinal cord and granted her the gift of flight. "You said it would only be a little pinch!" says Pinkie looking at the merchant with a tear dripping down her face. "Oh come on! It wasn't that bad!" he says wiping off the little amount of blood he had on his hooves.

Pinkie Pie concentrated really hard and was able to slowly expand her wings. Pain still coursed through her body so she quickly closed them and fell on the ground. "You'll feel better tomorrow, now go home and rest." says the Merchant pulling her up from the ground and brushing her off. "Ok....well thanks Mr Merchant" says Pinkie slowly limping back to her house under tremendous pain. "And thank you Pinkie" says the Merchant with an evil grin slowly seeing her limp back home.
The Merchant's plan was slowly being pushed into motion.

...If Pinkie Pie only knew what she had just done would cause the fall of Pony kind itself, this tragedy would of never happened...

Chapter 4-Practice Makes Perfect

After a night of tossing and turning in bed, Pinkie Pie woke up with her back feeling as good as new. "Huh, I wonder how you work these things?" says Pinkie Pie staring at her wings. She slowly opened her wings and then they shot open to full wingspan. "Cool!" says Pinkie Pie dazzled by her spread out wings. She then concentrated and started to lift off the ground like a feather. After she began to float, she decided to try and fly down the stairs. Flapping her wings as fast as possible, she flew through her bedroom door frame and into the hallway wall. Her head was now stuck in Pound and Pumpkin Cake's wall. They laughed at Pinkie as she struggled to pull her head out of the wall. After a minute of struggling, he finally freed her head from the wall but flew back and knocked her head with a big forceful impact on the wall parallel to the other one. She then stood up dizzy with a small bump on her head. "Ouch, flying hurts!" says Pinkie Pie as stretches out her wings and tries again. Pushing up off the ground, Pinkie Pie flew downstairs only to slam her head right through a chocolate cake. She licked her face and stepped out of the cake. "Pinkie? What are you doing?" says Mr Cake as he walks into the room. "I'm practicing my flying!" she says as she expands her new wings to show off to Mr Cake. "Um, I thought you didn't have wings?" says Mr Cake cleaning up the mess on the floor. Pinkie Pie laughs at Mr Cake. "Yeah I didn't but I just got them made yesterday by this weird merchant I met the other day!" Mr Cake rolls his eyes and sighs. "Ok fine, I don't care. Just please don't get hurt please?" he says opening the back door. "Will do! Now stand back!" Pinkie Pie pushes off the ground and soars out the backdoor. "Oh Pinkie, you are so random" says Mr Cake as he closes the door and chuckles.

After crashing into buildings, ponies and carts, she finally arrives at the Merchants building. Flying out of control she yells "Watch out!" as Pinkie Pie spirals into the merchant. The force of her impact knocked the colt's hood back and he quickly flipped it back before she could notice. He gets up and brushes himself off "I see that you can fly now, not very good though!" Pinkie Pie then chuckles agreeing with him. "Well there is always room for improvement, but here let me show you something" the merchant says as he opens a large steel door in the back of his factory. The door opens to a large dusty, and old turbine room. "Since I see that you can't fly very well, I decided to set up this room into a training room for you" he says as he waves his arm and hits a switch. The turbines turn on and a large wind gust of dust blows out of them. "The turbines will help you with resistance training to make you fly better in high speeds winds". Pushing another switch opened a large gate at the back of the room. Stepping outside, Pinkie Pie looked around and saw that it was a completely abandoned airplane runway. The runway sat right in the middle of a huge field enclosed by electrical wiring. Everything about the runway was still intact, even the Tower lights still worked spinning its radar round and round. Pinkie Pie was amazed that this whole place looked as if it was the day it was built. "Its a real shame that factory was abandoned, this place used to be a airplane factory but due to low success rate of the planes, the factory was closed and was totally forgotten." says the Merchant as he opens one of the hangars revealing a large jet inside. "I'm going to let you use this area for practice" He then explained to Pinkie all of the instructions on how to use the machines throughout the building. After informing her for her safety, he walked off back into the factory.

Day after day, week after week, Pinkie Pie kept returning to train her wings to learn to fly gracefully. All the while, the merchant was watching her from his workshop within the factory. Over time, Pinkie Pie significantly improved. Her improvement inspired the colt to write a journal section about her. It read:

"Starting out barely being able to fly in a straight line to being able to fly through a hurricane is extraordinary! She put her all into every day she trained in the factory and it showed in the end. I see now that Pinkie Pie is starting to make up tricks and make up her own obstacle courses for her to fly through. All the tests I have put the wings through have been a giant success. Pinkie has proven to me that she can fly perfectly now without my help so today I'm going to let her go and show the joy of flight off to the whole town of Ponyville. If all goes well, my business will be booming"

One day after Pinkie's training in the field, the merchant came outside to congratulate her on her improvement. "Ah Pinkie Pie! You are flying better than ever!" says the colt smiling brightly. "I never knew flying could be so much fun!" says Pinkie letting out a big Woohoo after a loopty loop. "Thats why I'm letting you go! You don't need my help anymore!" yells the merchant. "Oh! So can I leave now?" says Pinkie as she screeches down on the ground as she lands. "Yes, you are free to go". Pinkie Pie then gives him a big hug and says "Thank you so much" then she flies off into the sky out of sight back to her house. The merchant stands there for a minute and stares in the direction of where she left "Crazy pony" chuckles the merchant as he walks back into the factory and begins to work on other inventions.

Chapter 5-Corruption

Soaring away from the merchant's factory, Pinkie flew through the clouds feeling like the happiest pony in the world. The speed of Pinkie's flight left a large vibrant black and pink trail behind her. Carelessly not knowing what was ahead of her she slammed right into Rainbow Dash, tumbling the two ponies into the ground. "Pinkie! Be more careful!" yelled Rainbow Dash picking herself off the ground and massaging her wing. Anger turned into surprise as she noticed Pinkie had wings. "Pinkie that is amazing! You have wings!" Pinkie Pie lifted her self up in a daze as she noticed her friends astonishment. "Yeah you like really like them?" she said with a smile.

Her wings spread far and blocked out the sun making the pink lettering glisten in the sunlight. "I just got them! Custom-made too!" said Pinkie with pride. Rainbow Dash whipped up an idea to see how good Pinkie's new wings were, and she decided to have a race. "How about we have a race, from here to Sugarcube Corner?" The pink pony stared into the sky for a moment and agreed to the challenge. Then the two of them stood side to side, the wind whistled past there faces as they shot out their wings. Stretching their back hooves back, they readied themselves to fly. "Go!" said Rainbow Dash as they pushed off the ground. Trees blew by as the ponies flew at top speed. Nearing Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash got closer and closer to Pinkie Pie. "You're not going to win that easily Pinkie!" said Rainbow Dash as she zoomed by. "Oh yeah well watch what these wings can do!" yelled Pinkie Pie as she trusted her wings back. Pushing back her wings, Pinkie blasted out like a slingshot leaving a giant wave of wind knocking Rainbow Dash to the grass. The speed of Pinkie Pie knocked off all the apples from the trees of Applejack's Farm. As town drew closer, Pinkie slowed herself down and screeched in the middle of Sugarcube Corner with a wide bright smile on her face. The ponies were in awe as they saw her come down for a landing. "That was amazing!" said Carrot Top. "No that was astounding! said Bon Bon. "Where'd you get those wings?" said the ponies as a crowd flocked around Pinkie Pie. Before soon all of the square was packed with ponies waiting to know of these fantastic wings. "I got my wings from my friend Mr Merchant, he builds stuff! said Pinkie as she showed off to the crowd.

The next day, the streets were bustling, the birds were chirping and Twilight Sparkle went off to visit her friend Pinkie for the day. Walking along the road, she carried a small box on her back. The doors to Mr and Mrs Cake's shop swung open as Twilight came in. "Hey Pinkie, just wanted to stop by give you something" she said cheerfully as Spike took the gift down from her back. "Oh hi Twilight! I just got back from making deliveries" said Pinkie as she gave Mrs Cake the bits for the delivery. "We heard you got wings! Congratulations!" said Twilight Sparkle. "So we decided to make you a gift" said Spike handing Pinkie Pie the silver ribboned box. Pinkie opened the box to find a Purple Scarf with fine pink black stitching. "Wow thanks guys! You're the best friends a pony can have!" says Pinkie Pie as she hugs Twilight and Spike. "We made it for when you're flying, it can get chilly up there" said Twilight. Pinkie put on the scarf and thanked her friend once again. Suddenly there was a noise outside sounding like a bunch of babbling and cheering. The three opened the door to the shop to see the Merchant was standing in the middle of the crowd with a cart full of metal.

"Calm down everypony, you'll all get your turn" said the Merchant. He then pulled out a sign from under the metal saying "Become part of the future, buy wings today!" Twilight stared at the sign then asked her friend "Is this the colt that made you those wings?" Pinkie nodded and said "Yes why?" The Merchant looked up and saw Pinkie from the back of the crowd. "Pinkie Pie my loyal customer come up here!" he said as he made a line through the crowd and brought her to the middle. "You see everypony, this is the wonderful result of my wings" he said as he waved his arm and queued Pinkie to start doing tricks. The crowd gazed at her as she flew through the air doing loopty loops and corkscrews. "This is what you can get if you buy wings from me and experience the future of pony kind" said the Merchant as Pinkie landed down on his platform. The crowd went crazy then assembled a line waiting to get their new promised wings. Pinkie smiled, she was finally special. Meanwhile at the back of the crowd, Twilight and Spike stood looking at their friend. "I got a bad feeling about this Spike" said Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 6- Suspicion

After her stunning show in the middle of the crowd, Pinkie Pie trotted back to her friend Twilight Sparkle. "So Twilight what did you think, pretty cool huh? Now everyone wants wings just like me!" she says with a large smile on her face. "Pinkie that was great but something doesn't seem right about that merchant" says Twilight with a look of doubt. "Yeah I'm not sure about that guy" says Spike worriedly. "Oh sillies, you worry to much! Mr Merchant wouldn't hurt anyone!" Pinkie says as she giggles at her friends. She then pushes off the ground and flies away. "So what are we going to do now Twilight?" A slight pause occurred before Twilight Sparkle noticed the Merchant was done selling for the day and was heading back to his factory. "I'm gonna find out more about this so called Merchant" says Twilight with a more serious tone. Spike and Twilight then sneaked off to follow him.

Clouds formed in the sky, blocking out the sun from upon Ponyville. Cowering in dark alleyways, Twilight silently followed the Merchant. Further and further from town, the scenery became duller and gloomy. Near the outskirts of town, Twilight finally saw down the road a large rusty, and worn down factory. Closing in on the building, the cloaked merchant and his cart entered then the door sealed with only a slight crack. "This place gives me the creeps Twilight" Spike said in an undertone as they approached the factory. "Me too Spike but we need to investigate this." Quietly creaking open the enormous metal door, the two slipped in unnoticed. The room was dimly lit, and faint sounds of rats could be heard in the distance. Twilight and Spike crept through the corridor full of broken machinery when they finally heard a loud noise from the room upstairs. They walked up the stairs and approached the room from where they heard the noise. Twilight looked through the door and saw the Merchant in his workshop. *Clang!* A hammer was driven down against a sheet of steel. "We need to get a closer look at this" said Twilight as she snook inside. She started to climb the pipes on the wall to reach the balcony above. After reaching the top, Twilight and Spike looked over the railing at the workshop floor. When the merchant was done welding the object he was working on, he sighed in relief, took his invention and sealed it in a glass case. He then retired to his office, slamming the door shut. Twilight still in curiosity began to slide down the pipe once more but all of the support of the pipe snapped off the ceiling and the pipe along with her and Spike hit the ground hard. Twilight slowly managed to push her self off the ground only to find out Spike had been knocked out on impact. "Oh Spike what have I have gotten you into" said Twilight with concern. She then rested him on her back and walked slowly over to the glass case. Looking through the glass she saw something very peculiar but somewhat familiar, taking a minute to process she found out what it was. "Oh my..." Twilight said in a state of shock as she realized that the object she was looking at was none other than a Mechanical Horn.

"I need to tell Pinkie about this." Twilight then dashed out of the room, down the stairs and out the entrance. As fast as she could she galloped back to town, and ran into Sugarcube Corner. The doors forcibly hit the wall as she entered the store. "Oh hi Twilight! Whats the rush?" Mrs Cake responded as she saw Twilight Sparkle come in. "Do you have any idea where Pinkie is?" Mrs Cake pondered for a moment and said she was delivering flour to Applejack. Out the door once again, Twilight ran to Sweet Apple Acres. At the farm, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and Pinkie just delivered Applejack's flour. "Thanks Pinkie! Now I can finally make our famous apple pie!" says Applejack toting the big bag of flour on her back. "Don't mention it, I'm always happy to help a friend!" said Pinkie Pie as she started to turn back around towards the store. Before she could go anywhere, Twilight arrived at the farm exhausted and weak. "Pinkie I have something urgent to tell you" she said out of breath. After telling both Pinkie and Applejack about her news the two ponies were amazed. "Wow! A mechanical horn you say Twilight?" says Applejack with slight confusion. "Oooo I hope I get one of those!" says Pinkie in excitement as she bounces up and down. "No this isn't a happy matter Pinkie. If everyone is the same it will disrupt the balance of life!" Twilight said trying to get through to Pinkie. "You won't be special anymore!" This statement made Pinkie upset. "But I want to be as special as you girls" Pinkie said in a saddened tone. Trying to cheer her up Applejack said to Pinkie "But thats it, you're already special! You don't need wings or a horn to be special, you will always be special to us Pinkie." These words from her friend, made Pinkie think about what she has done. "Lets go home Pinkie, and get some rest." Then the two ponies walked back into town, and they went their separate ways home. As she layed down Spike in his bed passed out, Twilight went up to bed, turned off the light and fell asleep.

The next morning, Spike woke up extra early. "Come on Twilight, lets go see how Pinkie is!" said Spike eagerly trying to wake up Twilight. After multiple tries, he finally woke her up. Out they went, Twilight and Spike arrived at the market where they found Pinkie Pie happy and well skipping around town. "Hey you're looking better today!" said Twilight cheerfully. "Yeah have you looked around?" said Pinkie as she showed her friend around. In every direction, all the ponies on the streets had mechanical wings. Suddenly Twilight saw Rarity looking a little bit more, metallic than usual. As she approached Rarity, she saw that she had wings and a new horn! "Rarity... you look different today!" said Twilight slightly disturbed. "Oh Hi Twilight! How do you like my new wings and horn?" says Rarity as she flaunts around her new attire. "Where did you get that horn?" Rarity then laughs at her friend and replies "I got it from this merchant down by the boutique! He says they are all the rage and I'm all about fashion!" Twilight still disturbed by the missing presence of her friend's old horn asks "But why did you get a new horn?" Pinkie asks the same thing of Rarity extending the confusion. "He said that this horn can out perform my old one in every way so I got it" said Rarity. "But I'm sure you two wouldn't know anything about being special." Rarity then walks off back into the boutique. This saddens Pinkie as she says "I too am special!" As she runs off Twilight yells "Pinkie wait!" but it is no use. Running away from town, she heads to the outskirts of town to meet with the Merchant but she her scarf gets snagged on a dead tree branch and rips a big line in the stitching. She then successfully frees herself and arrives at the factory. "Pinkie what are doing here?" says the Merchant in confusion. Sadness turns to anger and Pinkie outbursts "Give me a horn." This makes the merchant form a giant evil grin. "If you wish..."

Chapter 7- Transformation

Inside of the factory, the lights flickered and the sound of rustling metal echoed in the distance. The restraints of the merchant's work table shook as Pinkie was undergoing her operation. As the merchant set the mechanical horn atop of her head, wires pierced through her skull and intertwined with Pinkie's brain. The pain that she felt in her head made her remember of the pain she had felt when getting her wings. As she lay there on the table despite what was going on, Pinkie couldn't help but think of all the new things she could do with her new horn.

"It is done, how do you feel?" asked the Merchant as he wiped the sweat and blood from his hooves. Pinkie rose off the table with her head feeling sore, and her body shaking. "I'm feeling kinda dizzy" she replied. The Merchant thought of a way for her to test out her new powers. Out of the corner of his eye, he found a fallen pipe and despite his curiosity of why it had fallen, he decided to use it as practice. "How about you test out your new horn on this pipe over here?" asked the Merchant. "I'll...I'll try" Pinkie responded trying to while trying to regain her balance. She concentrated all of her energy into her forehead and the metallic horn began to spark as if it were malfunctioning but then turned to a bright purple glow. What was once a heavy metal pipe soon lifted off the ground as if there were no gravity. Pinkie was astonished at what she did but a course of pain shot up to head once again, making her drop the pipe with a loud boom. "Alright you can stop for today, you did a great job" replied the Merchant as he helped Pinkie off of the ground. He applied an ice pack against her aching head and sent her home. His plans were starting to come into line and he smiled menacingly, however the sight of Pinkie limping back home made him reminisce about his past as if he were looking at an image of his former self. He then shut the door and returned to his office.

The next morning Pinkie woke with a smile on her face as she gazed at her horn. Eager to try it out more, she ran down the stairs and out the front door. As she exited the bakery, she was quickly stopped by her friend Twilight who had looked as if she had no sleep whatsoever. "Pinkie why did you run off yesterday? I was awake all last night worrying about you!" yelled Twilight in concern. "Its alright Twilight, my buddy Mr Merchant had something new to show me" replied Pinkie trying to make sense of her outburst the previous day. This had only made Twilight more concerned as she looked up at her friend's head where a horn was sticking out. "Now you have a horn as well Pinkie? Why won't you listen to your friends? We know what is good for you!" Twilight cried out in desperation. "Look at yourself, is this you?" After hearing her friend's concern, Pinkie looked upon her body and saw the metallic artificiality that she was starting to become. Her bright and perky mood turned gloomy. "I just want to be special like you girls" sighed Pinkie convinced of her wrong-doings. Twilight was relieved to hear this and hugged her friend. "You'll always be special to us" said Twilight calmly.

Days went by and Pinkie still conducted shows in front of town as the Merchant asked, showing off her aerial and magical abilities. Pinkie's shows were a huge hit among the other ponies. Thus business was booming, and his inventions were selling out fast. To keep up with supply and demand, the Merchant had created many inventions over time. Metal was the new fashion and every pony was joining the new craze. Advertised to extend lives, improve your appearance and grant fantastic new powers drove even the tiniest filly to buy these new gadgets. Not only were the outside of these ponies were changed but their internal organs as well. Thought to be even better than your own body, every pony lined up to get mechanical versions of their body parts. Society had changed despite Twilight's warnings.

A few weeks later, as Pinkie Pie walked through town, the ponies that she once knew were starting to look like cybernetic atrocities. Even her closest friends were subdued by the craze. Only Twilight Sparkle and Spike were unaffected, still looking like themselves. Looking saddened, Pinkie entered Twilight's tree house. "What happened to every pony, Twilight?" asked Pinkie. Twilight glanced out the window speechless, she couldn't believe that every pony turned into these ....things. "Cheer up guys, we're still okay" said Spike trying to cheer up the two. Twilight snapped back to reality and rubbed Spike's head. "Yep, we are." After spending a fun day together, Pinkie left to go home. Something was different that night as she walked home, no pony was in sight and it made Pinkie feel as if she was being shunned for being different. The wind blew cold and it made Pinkie chilly with the missing presence of the scarf she was given by her friends. As she arrived to the bakery, she looked back upon the barren town that used to be full of life and she came across a conclusion, she didn't like being alone. With a tear dripping from her chin, she went inside and closed the door.

The next morning, the leaves were starting to fall off the trees and there was a slight drizzle of rain. After getting ready, Twilight Sparkle and Spike left their house to visit Pinkie. Upon getting to the bakery, they entered to find the bakery was empty. Twilight beginning to get nervous races upstairs. "Pinkie are you here?" The bakery was silent, and upon entering Pinkie's bedroom, she found out the sad truth.

Pinkie was gone...

Chapter 8- Revenge

Twilight stood there alone in the empty bedroom contemplating where Pinkie could of possibly gone. Only one idea could come to mind, she went to the Merchant. Twilight's suspicion of him was growing each and every day however even after the multiple warnings that she had given Pinkie, she would still visit him. Not only did Pinkie fall victim to these wonderful inventions but the rest of her friends too. It was strange because besides Rarity, the rest of her friends did not have interest in these gadgets and now all of a sudden they're practically machines. Something was twisted and Twilight sought to find out the true purpose behind the Merchant's inventions and to stop him once and for all.

She left the room and proceeded to exit the bakery. Upon her walk back home to gather supplies, something was wrong with all of the ponies. Their eyes were glowing red and the metallic ponies started to walk around town as if they were in hypnosis. They then proceeded to break into stores and houses grabbing all of the valuables they could find. Ponyville was now in pure havoc as these cybernetic monsters ravaged the town. What could of possibly driven all of them to do this? While unsure of the cause, Twilight knew she was running out of time. She galloped home as fast as she could.

Entering her tree house, Twilight then boarded up the doors and windows with anything she could find. She pulled out a satchel from one of her chest and began to fill it with essentials she would need when confronting the mysterious inventor. After gathering a flashlight, and a spell book she was prepared. As soon as she was about to leave, her house was surrounded. The ponies were banging on the front door and some were even trying to break the windows. Spike began to quiver in fear. "Will be alright?" asked Spike nervously. Due to the house being surrounded, Twilight was stuck for now. "We'll be fine Spike. We just have to wait for the right time to leave" said Twilight sternly. They then sat down and waited till nightfall.

Later that day, a storm began to roll in with a downpour of rain and loud booms of thunder. It was getting late, and Twilight stared out of the little space that wasn't covered on the window. It was hard to believe, all around them the town was starting to become engulfed in fire. Luckily though they were safe enough of a distance away and as she looked down, for some reason the ponies began to retract away from the house as if they grew bored. This was her perfect opportunity to go to the factory but just as she was about to get ready to leave, Spike was starting to become tired. Spike being a little dragon needed his sleep, so Twilight tucked Spike into bed and said to him "Don't worry about me, I'll be back before you wake up." After Spike fell asleep, Twilight began to pry the wooden planks off of the window. She jumped out the window and began her walk over to the factory.

The wind was strong and cold rain poured on her as she sneaked through town to the outskirts avoiding the other mechanical ponies. Even during the night, they were still pillaging everything in sight. Twilight was determined to undo this tragedy that was brought upon them. Walking along the trail, she found Pinkie Pie's scarf that she gave to her snagged on a branch sitting on the dirt. "Oh Pinkie what happened to you" said Twilight sadly. She stowed the scarf in her satchel and pressed on. After a few minutes she stood in front of the factory, creepy and mysterious as ever but there was no turning back. The large steel door opened and she went inside. As opposed to the last time she had ventured in here, the factory was dead silent besides the soft sound of rain and thunder outside. The lights were incredibly dim, so Twilight pulled out her flashlight. Walking through the front hallway she saw a soft glow of light coming from the upstairs.

As she walked up the stairs she found out the light was coming from the merchant's office. Inside the office were some file cabinets, a desk and a huge window overlooking the factory floor below. As Twilight began to search the office for evidence that the merchant is up to no good, a small breeze blew through the door opposite of where she came in. Upon entering she found that the breeze was coming from a cracked circular window on the far side of the room. The only light source in the room came from the moon's glow through the window. As she shined her flashlight around the room, she found a table in the center with metal chains hanging off of it. "This must be his workshop" said Twilight quietly. Through further inspection of room, she shined her flashlight over a cloth in the dark corner of the room. It was a familiar silhouette that stood out under the cloth and upon pulling it off, Twilight was speechless. It was Pinkie, fully clad in iron from her hooves to her head but she stood still like a statue.

Twilight began to break into tears and yelled "Pinkie, talk to me!" It was no use, she didn't respond. Twilight fell to her knees before her metallic alicorn friend. From out of the shadows, the Merchant stood behind her. "Its a real shame what happened to her. All she ever wanted was to be special and look where that got her" said the Merchant sternly. Sadness turned to rage as Twilight grabbed a wrench off of the workshop floor and swung it at his head. The impact knocked the colt back into the workshop table ripping off the merchant's hood. As the stallion stood up after being knocked down, Twilight was disturbed and shocked at his appearance as he rose. His lower jaw was completely ripped off and replaced with which seemed like an metal one. His right eye was the other ponies, robotic and glowing red and he a horn similar to Pinkie's however it was much more low-tech and it was snapped in half. "Not everyone is perfect you know, don't stare at me like you're better" exclaimed the stallion. "But maybe we had a bad introduction in the past" he said as he adjusted his mouth back into place. "My name is Iron Jaw." He then took the pipe that had fallen down before and swung it against Twilight's head, knocking her out cold on the workshop floor as he maniacally laughed.

When Twilight Sparkle finally came to, she felt woozy as she slowly opened her eyes. She tried to move however she was unable to. Trying to figure out why she can't move, she soon figured out that she was strapped into a machine on the wall with a bunch of wires sticking through her skin and a device wrapped around her horn. Twilight grew frantic and began to shake the machine violently. "Now now, I wouldn't want our little princess getting hurt" said Ironjaw snarkingly. Twilight's anger soon went back to sadness after many attempts of trying to shake loose. "Why, why are you doing this?" she said out of desperation. Ironjaw then proceeded to ponder around and start monologuing. "You see, as a child I was full of happiness and ambition just like you and your friend here" said Ironjaw as he nodded his head over towards Pinkie. "I used to love inventing and I had a dream that my inventions could one day better the world of ponykind. Atleast I thought so until a certain day in my life" said Ironjaw calmly. "Back then my teacher inspired me to pursue my dreams, so I decided I would make her proud. That lead me to make this horn on my head as you can see. However when I showed her the result..." he said while appearing to look as if he were holding back tears. "When I did a test of my new horn to the class, something went terribly wrong as I began to lift one of the desks. My horn went out of control and I ended up impaling her against the wall with the desk." he said with a pause. "I was responsible for doing that to her and while I was breaking down, the other ponies couldn't help but call me a screw-up and neglect me for doing something I did by accident." he said sobbingly. "Ever since that day I took the words of my teacher into mind and I continued doing what I love, inventing so nopony can be an imperfection. However I gave up that long ago, and now I'm purely doing this to get back at those who see me as one. I'll prove to everypony even if you're perfect, everyone has flaws." he pauses. "As you can see from all of these ponies out there. They're all greedy every last one of them, trying to make themselves better than everypony. Also don't you see them pillaging your town? They will never be happy with what they have, so this is why I did this" he stops.

Starting to see him in sort of a different light, Twilight asks him "but why do you have me strapped here?" Giving her the benefit of hearing the reason he says "well you're a battery now. Essentially those hearts I made for all of you ponies along with those mechanical brains have sort of a receiver function in them. Whatever I tell them to do, they listen and as an added bonus they have a kill switch. If they don't listen to me or you become unplugged from this machine, the switch will become activated and all of your little friends will be no more. So to be clear, I lied about the whole heart making you eternal thing and now you're the sole thing that's keeping them alive with your magic powering their hearts." This opened Twilight's eyes wide as she figured out his sinister plan. "But hey think of it this way, if you didn't come here right now than your friends would of been gone already." said Ironjaw smirkingly. In a last chance at redemption, Twilight pulled the spellbook out of her bag with her levitation and read out a spell. With the little power she had left, she shot out a small fireball spell that lit Ironjaw's cloak partially on fire. In an effort to get to the water cooling station downstairs, he starts to run out of the workshop. As he is about to leave the room, he trips over one of the tables chains and falls right into a vat of molten iron. The sight of the stallion descending into the metal, made Twilight feel redeemed knowing that he is no more. Although she vanquished the evil that was Ironjaw, she was to be bound to that machine unless she payed the ultimate price.

Later that morning back at the tree house, Spike woke up and Twilight was nowhere to be seen. "Oh Twilight, please don't tell me that something bad happened to you" he said as he left the house. Running to the factory, he looks around and finds that all of the ponies are walking around like normal as if whatever type of hynopsis that was on them weared off. Also after a long storm, the rain has stopped and now a big and beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky like the one before Pinkie Pie got her wings. Spike arrived to the factory and went in the front hallway. "Twilight! Where are you?" yelled Spike. There was no response, however he smelled something weird coming from upstairs. He walked up the stairs and the smell got stronger until he entered the workshop through the office. The scent that he had smelled was of the decomposure coming from the molten iron vat. Looking around the room after he found the source of the smell, he found Twilight strapped to the machine. "Twilight, what happened?" says Spike in concern as he runs up to her. After being hooked up to the machine for so long, Twilight's body began to look like a dried grape. Her body was looked as if it was wearing down and her purple tinted skin now looked sickly and pale, she was all out of energy that even talking was becoming hard for her to do. "Spike....help.....me....." said Twilight lightly. "How do I help you?" asked Spike. With the little amount of energy that she had, she nodded her head over to the workshop table where a saw was. "Cut these.....wires....." said Twilight quietly again.

"Are you sure Twilight?" questioned Spike seeming hesitant. "It hurts...." said Twilight starting to nod off. Spike then got the saw off the table and proceeded to saw the wires keeping Twilight bound to the machine. After cutting the wires, he pressed the safety release button on the side of the controls, releasing Twilight from her prison and she fell to the ground hard. Her body was barely moving and felt weaker by the second but she managed to say a few last words "you're safe now...." After redeeming herself, she passed out and Twilight Sparkle was no more. Spike began to break into tears at the lose of his friend and shortly after the machine was cut, an alarm started going off. "Oh no" said Spike still tearing up as he went to the window overlooking ponyville. He watched as all of the ponies in ponyville had a purple light glow on their metallic chests and one by one he saw them drop dead. "How could this happen?" said Spike crying more than ever. After all of the purple lights stopped in town, the alarm turned off and after turning around, Spike saw a pink light glow on Pinkie's metallic chest in the corner of the room. The statue-like Pinkie fell to the ground limp like all of the others. "Not you too!" yelled Spike.

After running towards Pinkie to check her pulse, he saw a ripped note from Ironjaw's journal on the stand that Pinkie stood. It read:
"After making all of my inventions for the ponies of Ponyville, nobody really felt dear to me except Pinkie Pie. I don't know why, but I could see myself in her. She is cheerful in even the worst of times, something that I wasn't when I was a colt. When it came time to make the mechanical heart for Pinkie, I couldn't put her through the same treatment I gave everyone else, she is pure. After thinking it through, I have decided not to add a kill switch into Pinkie's heart. Instead I shall give her the one thing that all of these ponies sought after all this time. I shall give her eternal life."

After the pink light shut off on Pinkie's chest, she slowly stood up and smiled at Spike as if she didn't know what had happened. Spike wishing to inform his friend about what happened, showed her around the room and the rest of Ponyville. Now saddened after finding out the news through Spike, Pinkie kneeled down besides Twilight's corpse and said "What have I done." All she ever wanted to be was special like her friends, thinking that if she got wings and a horn that she would be able to do all of the wonderous things that her friends could do but in the end it was more of a curse than a gift. She was special all along.

The End