Who Your True Friends Are

Riding in the hot air balloon was nothing short exhilarating for me. Neither I, nor Source Code had ever ridden one before, in real life or otherwise. I could feel the breeze brushing against my head, the nice, cool open air, and it made me feel powerful to rise up and see Ponyville appear to be so small. If this is what pegasi feel whenever they take flight, I really envy them. After about 10 minutes of riding, I came to the clouds, and saw what Sabre had done with them. This gauntlet he designed almost looked like a deathtrap. Buzzsaws, pendulums, even laser beams, among many other obstacles. I swear, I wanted to give it a try, but then I remembered that I can't fly, so I calmed myself down and looked to see if Sabre was around. Suddenly, I saw a blue streak flying through the sky randomly. It almost punctured a hole in the hot air balloon, but missed by a few inches, luckily. I could hear a voice saying,

"Hel... can... op... ying..." That was definitely Sabre's voice. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but I assumed that if he was flying around randomly, then something might be wrong with his mech wings. My TATTHoW then said to me,

"Source Code, I should inform you that I do have an EMP wave function. I can allow his mech wings to temporarily disable." I never wrote in that my TATTHoW could do that, so this must mean there's more to it than even I know about. I asked it,

"How do I activate it?"

"See this latch above the time counter?" I saw a latch on the north side of it. "Open it and press the red button. It shoots out a wave that cancels out any electrical or mechanical activity within 10 miles. However, using it requires all of my energy, so I'll have to be recharged before I can be used again." I knew this was risky, and if I went through with it, I'd only have one shot. However, it was to help Sabre out, so I opened the latch, waited for him to appear overhead, and right when he came above me, I pressed the red button. In less than a second, a wave was emitted, and Sabre came falling down. He landed right next to the balloon. I wanted to step out and check to see if he was alright, but then I remembered that only winged ponies can walk on clouds, and I wasn't about to risk my life. I was fortunate that he was able to get right back up. I looked at him, and asked,

"Are you alright, Sabre?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Not sure about my wings, though."

"What happened to them?"

"Well, I was training with my gauntlet, as you can see over there, and one of the pendulums struck my wings, and must have damaged them, because after that I couldn't control my flight." I easily figured out what went wrong.

"Your wings' processors must have been struck. If those get damaged, you can lose control of them. Hop into the balloon, and I'll see if I can fix them." Sabre nodded and came in.

I finally got to put my special talent to use. I looked around his wings, and found a latch on either one. I opened them up, and there was the problem. Both circuits were blown. I would have used my TATTHoW to repair them, but that EMP wave used up all its power. I checked my vest pockets to see if they might have something I could use, and fortunately, I found a spare battery in one of them. I had no clue how that got there, but it did. I took it out, removed my watch, opened its back cover, replaced the battery, and it was back to full power.

"Hello, Source Code." it said, powering on. "What can I do for you?"

"Can you repair blown circuits?"

"I certainly can. Just let me do the work." My mind was blown. Not only was my TATTHoW similar to a TARDIS, but also a Sonic Screwdriver? How did I not write this before? Soon enough, the circuits were perfectly repaired, and Sabre was back in control of his wings.

"Thanks a lot, Source!" Sabre exclaimed. "I owe you one." Suddenly, that same voice beckoned to me again.

"Loyalty." I knew this meant it was time for Sabre to awaken.

"Oh, wait a minute, Sabre. I got the sword ready for you." Sabre looked at me, and saw the sheathed sword. He took the strap off of my vest, and pulled the sword out of its sheath. As it had for me, it felt absolutely perfect to him. Visual Spectrum must have done a great job with it.

"So, you ready to keep the time?"

"I sure am." I set my TATTHoW to its stopwatch feature (one of the things my watch could do back home). As I yelled for him to go, he passed through the gauntlet with the greatest of ease, using the sword to perfectly attack all the mannequins he had set up. The blue blur that he had become started emitting a red aura. As Sabre touched down, his eyes gave off a rainbow glow.

"How did I do?"

"Ten seconds flat!"

"Yeah! Personal record!" Sabre suddenly passed out. I knew this meant Sabre had awakened as our element of loyalty. About 5 minutes later, he came to, and asked,

"What...? Source Code, what just happened?"

"Well, you just defeated the gauntlet in ten seconds flat. You said it was a new personal record." Sabre jumped up, and looked excited.

"Awesome! Well, that'll do for today. Thanks for your help. I guess you should be going now. I wouldn't want you stranded in the clouds all day." I chuckled, and realized that I haven't gotten back to Visual or Krystal yet.

"Yeah, I should be on my way."

"I have an idea. Get on my back. I can fly you down."

"You think you can carry me?"

"Sure. I've carried heavier things." I wasn't sure how much I weighed as a pony, so I didn't know how to respond to that. Regardless, I had to leave, so I got on his back, and he took off. He didn't go as fast as his gauntlet run, probably so I could hold on. When he touched down, I got off of him, and thanked him for the ride, as he shot back up. I was back on the road, and decided to visit Visual, since I could see his studio from here.