Second Chance

Silence… an eerie silence has fallen in the library, all the 3 mares and myself looking at the letter as if Discord himself would pop up at any moment and tell us that this piece of parchment was a joke, however, before any of us articulate another word, another huge belch was heard, and a little green faced Spike reappears from behind the couch with a huge… and I mean HUGE bag of bits, the thing easily as tall as he is, and full to the brim with the golden coins.

“Twilight, next time, tell the Princess to send that with a courier, you know that I hate the taste of gold on my tongue” the purple assistant says.

“Uh” was the answer from the catatonic mare, then all three mares again stare at me, and I found myself almost flattened against the floor when a pink blur tackle me.

“OHOHOHTHISISSOEXITING,YOUWOULDACCEPTTHECHALLENGERIGHT,IKNOWITTHATWOULDBETHEBESTFIGHTEVERAND…”

I actually put a hoof in Pinkies mouth, damn that girl could give me a headache, anyhow I also get pulled (again) by a magenta glow, and I was seeing Twilight upside down, a frantic look on her eyes.

“Please tell me that those monsters couldn’t harm anyone, and how do you plan to do the demonstration, any idea if you want a house or a big hall, we could ask Madame Mayor…” Twilight began, at the same time, Rarity also add her two cents in the conversation.

“Oh darling this is such a great opportunity, I need to make you something, and also I want to ask you about the fashion in your home, and…”

“PLEASE LADIES, BE QUIET” I yelled to them, “Sorry, I need to understand correctly, Twilight, your mentor, who happens to be the ruler of this country wants a duel monster’s demonstration with me as his opponent. “she nods, taking a deep breath, I continue, “Ok, ok, This is happening, so I will need a way to design and build a Duel Disk, need to focus on that first, can you tell me please how much money this 'stipend' is?” I asked, pointing with my hoof to the bag of coins, only for it to be enveloped in an icy blue aura, then all the coins leapt out of the bag to be alligned neatly at the table, a beaming Rarity mumbling something to herself while focusing on the bits, after a while, with an audible ding, she smiles and, turning around she exclaims.

“There are 250.000 bits in there.”

I stared, openmouthed, the same as Twilight. 'oh holy crap... I think my mind just blew up' I thought

“She gives him THAT much” the purple mare burst out, “but that is my total stipend…” she began to say, looking a little miffled

“Wow… wait a second, but that isn’t much” I retorted, interrupting her, however, she continues

“For 5 years” she states, giving me a deadpan look.

At this point, in the conversation, I do the most reasonable thing...

I fainted.

When I wake up, Rarity and Pinkie Pie already have left, I was on my bed, and an aspirin and a glass of water are at my bedside, after remembering all the chain of events that lend me to this point, I simply roll out of the bed, then I went to the common room, to find a little black filly playing with the window, trying to see outside without being seen.

“Yo’ there little one, what's up” I greeted her, only to see her jumping, startled, and she practically vanishes behind the furniture, chuckling I went behind the sofa only to find the little one curled up, her eyes shut tight and mumbling something by the lines “don’t find me, don’t find me” with her glass harmonica little voice. I swear, this is going to kill me because the adorkable factor

“Sorry Nyx I don’t do it again”  I tell her, extending a white hoof to help her to get up, after realizing that I am the one who greeted her, she uncurled and hesitantly takes my hoof, pulling her out from the floor, I noticed that she still has that look on her eyes.

“Sorry Second Chance, you scared me” she says meekly, “but I was seeing all the ponies out and…” she squeaked the last part of that sentence.

“Sorry, honey, I didn’t really catch up that last part” I told her, serenely.

“I want to go out.”

Hgnnnn... ok, now I know that IT is possible to die of cuteness

Resisting the curse of the big puppy eyes, I could only look at the wall, trying not to look downways, “Ok, tell you what sweetie, why you don’t speak with Twilight and tell her that, I need to go out to see if here they sell electronic appliances, or electronic parts, I need to do many things before my duel with Princess Celestia.”

Another fact that I could see about this Equestria compared from the one in the show and in the majority of the fandom, is that they have a lot of technology, if I need to put a comparison, I could say that they have the technology that we possessed in the late eighty’s, or early ninety’s, with some exceptions, for example they still use a gramophone for music or a manual oven for baking, despite the fact that they know about the microwave technology, the computers here also are still too damn big, like the first or second generation of computers from our world, in a personal note, I actually fell backwards laughing when Twilight shows me her computer on the lab in the basement, that being like all those old computers that need a big floor only for the main body of the computer, all of them still running with transistors and vacuum tubes, then, I proclaim that my own computer could outdo Twilight's by an ample margin, a bet that I was sure that I could win, that is, when I could hook up my own devices to the electrical inlay crystal network, or EICN, for short, that is the main source of electricity for all the homes in the towns and cities in Equestria.

Taking into account all the knowledge that I have, and the tech at my disposal in this moment, I was almost sure that I could build some of the things that I have the knowledge for, like a Momentum Generator and a Solid Vision Generator, trading the most advanced tech shown in the series (like the D-weels, and some of the most advanced types of technology) for magic conductors and formulas.

Or so I was hoping

At the end of the day, Twilight went out with Nyx to Carrousel Boutique, telling me that they need a disguise for Nyx before we could do anything, then I asked Spike to writte a letter to Celestia, telling her that I need at least two weeks to organize something for our duel, because the main tech suppliers were cities like Las Pegasus, Baltimare, Manehattan or Neigh York, so I need to go there, (Manehattan being my first option, because the city was like eight or nine hours by train) in order to get all the supplies I need to try and build the duel disk for the exhibition, after sending that, I asked Twilight to help me gather all the things I would need to build a duel disk for Celestia.

In the meanwhile, I finally could get my hooves on one of the local suppliers of the EICN to hook up all my things, the burly stallion known as Short Fuse telling me that he would need at least one day to try and adapt some of the sockets of my things to work with the network without siphoning all the electricity in the town, I didn't believe him at first, but when he explained to me that only my computer, that has a power supply of 860 watts, would syphoon all the energy in the neighborhood, because at the most, the main electronic appliances consumes like 60 watts at its peak, I relented, that meaning that in one day I could be able to check my computer to see what else I have get in it, while I was finishing my discussion with the electrician, Twilight and Nyx were waiting for me in the entrance of the library, after a little talk, we both decided that we should need to take Nyx with us, mainly because Twilight hasn't introduced to the other mane six to the little black filly, The purple mare was wearing a white skirt and a deep violet vest, and some shoes that were very similar to Celestia’s, only that they were in some kind of leather or polymeric compound, Nyx, similar to Twilight has a little, light green skirt, her vest was black and purple, and a headband with the same hue as her skirt, but the big change was her eyes, thanks to the magical glasses, as Twilight explain to me, she now has normal, turquoise eyes.

“Well ladies, shall we?” I ask both of them signaling the train station, also getting my cape and exiting the library. hefting the little filly on my back, which caused a little "eep" from her, and trying to accomodate her in my back without hurting my wings, finally I found her holstered between the white appendages, hidden in my cloak. after a while, the little alicorn suddenly asks.

“What about Spike?” Nyx ask to Twilight, only to see Twilight begin tochuckle.

“He is going to spend the time we get out of Ponyville with Rarity, when I told him, he was beaming, and thanking me, anyhow, Second Chance, we need to go now.” She says, looking at me with a very determined look on her face.

Manehattan, here we come!