It was a dark day to which the stallion awoke to, no birds singing, no rustle of the trees. It was eerily silent.
Several booms could be heard in the distance as if a great battle was taking place and the world was waiting for the outcome of it. The chocolate brown earth pony stallion with a mint green mane, and a golden gear as a cutie mark steps out of his wooden caravan and into the early morning air with a sense of trepidation of what may be happening.
‘Why do I feel like I have been drained of every ounce of joy?’ He asks of himself, ‘ It’s like something has sucked my very soul out with a straw, then replaced it with sand.’
As he contemplates this event a nearly world shattering explosion is heard in the sky. Looking up he sees the most spectacular event he has ever seen. A massive wave of rainbow colored energy sweeping across the land with him in it’s path. He does what any self respecting sapient creature would do and dashes back into his caravan.
As the energy washes over the caravan he is overcome with a joyful sensation like a part of himself has been restored, but not just restored enhanced to absolute maximum potential.
He walks over to a mirror and is astonished to what he sees. Gone is the chocolate brown coat, replaced with one of a dark copper, his mane is changed to a light silver color, and his cutie mark, the one thing that should be literally unchangeable, has been changed to be a silhouette of a pony with a gear in the center.
“What, what is this? What was that energy? And why am I talking to myself?” he chuckles, which turns into a gale of laughter at this impossible turn of events. ‘I don’t know why this has happened but there must be a reason behind it all.’ A feeling flows through him, one which he is well accustomed to, the need to build the toys he makes.
He follows this feeling, lets it guide him as his hooves fly to parts sitting in the shelves. He creates what appears to be small ponies though with gears and metal. Wind up toys which he creates for fillies and colts in the towns he visits. The sounds of their laughter seem to fill his ears as he continues to create throughout the day, and well into the night.
As he finally lays down to sleep one word seems to bounce in his mind, Ponyville…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Five months have past since that day and the copper colored stallion heads to the west, his once woden caravan now made of mostly metal, with a merchant's stall attached to the side.
His pace is easy even though his load is heavy and he makes good time down the road. he passes a few others heading some place or another, one family catches his eye and he approaches them.
“Well fancy meeting you all out here.” he says jovially as he approaches a aqua colored Unicorn stallion with a light orange mane.
The unicorn looks up and studies the earth pony for a minute then realization hits him, “By the maker! Is that you Mechanas?”
“Yeah dad, it’s me.” He smiles at the Unicorn his light blue eyes glittering with mirth. “How’s the rest of the family doing?”
“They’re doing well colt, Though your mother is going to flip her lid at what seems to have happened to you.” The unicorn says as he walks around the slightly larger earth pony.
“What do you mea…” Mechanas starts to ask as he is slammed into the ground by a bright white blur.
“Oooo, My little Mechy!!” A white pegasus, with a golden colored mane and bright magenta eyes, her cutie mark is that of a smiling yellow sun. she sits upon the stallions barrel smiling brightly down at him.
Mechanas coughs a bit from getting basically gut punched into the ground by the mare, but smiles a bit anyhow. “Heya mom, how’d ya know it was me?”
The pegasus mare just giggles “A mother always knows her little wittle colt, no matter how he has changed...or been changed.” she says as she gets a good look at him, getting to her hooves at the same time.
“Sunshine, please don’t injure the colt. I mean we just got back together after all.” The unicorn stallion says with a smirk
The pegasus mare just giggles a bit while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof “Sorry Clocky, I just got carried away. It has been a rather long time since we have seen our little, hmmm, make that our big colt.” She says as she looks up at Mechanas.
“It’s fine mom, I’m used to your hugs anyhow.” he chuckles a bit, “Anyhow where are the others at anyhow. I figured they whole herd would be along for the ride?”
“Ah, they're in Manehatten right now, we were just headed there to see them actually.” His father says.
“Oh, well I’m heading to Ponyville actually.” Mechanas says “For some reason it just feels like I need to be there.”
“Like you're being called?” His mother asks
“Yeah, just like that, why has that happened to you guys as well?” The copper earth pony replies.
His father just nods, “Just before I met your mother actually. It felt like I needed to be in Hoofington. Than I met her and everything just seemed to click into place.” The unicorn smiles at the white pegasus.
“I see, so would that mean I’m supposed to meet my one true love there than?” Mechanas asks of his father.
The unicorn just shrugs, “Either that, or you have gas.” He chuckles at the joke.
Mechanas just face-hooves at the horrible joke and just shakes his head. “Well give my love to the rest of the family. I’m off to Ponyville.” he says as he begins to move off away from the other two.
His father and mother just wave and head on their way as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two days pass as Mechanas finally arrives in Ponyville.
‘Ponyville huh? I’ve been here before with my dad. I think it’s been fifteen years or so, if I’m remembering correctly. Well I’m back and maybe i can get some answers to some of the rumors that I’ve been hearing about this place. As well as answers to my own changes, after all The Elements of Harmony are supposed to live here after all.’ He nods to himself as he heads into the town in the rather early morning.
The early morning silence of Ponyville is broken by the creaking of turning wheels, and the rattle of an odd sight. A patchwork caravan, mostly made of metal, rolling along at a decent clip. Attached to the side looks to be a market stall of some kind. Pulling the caravan is a, bit larger than normal, dark copper earth pony stallion with dark blue eyes and a light silver mane and tail. His cutie mark is that of a pony silhouette with a gear inside. He smiles a bit as he enters the town.
'It's been awhile since I was last here, wonder what has changed in all these years.' He thinks to himself as he pulls up to the mayoral office. He unhitched himself from his caravan and takes a good look around himself.
‘ Well now looks like a lot has changed over the past years it would seem. Lets see, quite a few new businesses, is that a gingerbread house?’ he stares at the edible looking building with a smirk. ‘I wonder how many ponies have tried to munch on that over the years.’ He chuckles to himself a bit. To him Ponyville had grown quite a bit in fifteen years, it was amazing all the things that he had heard on his travels were real.
‘If all those rumors were true then the last one should be as well.’ Leaving his caravan behind he looks over to the east side of Ponyville toward where the sun was just starting to cast its first rays of light. There it stood the one building that towers over the rest, the castle of one Princess Twilight Sparkle.
‘Well now, It really is as beautiful as some ponies have said.’ He trots over toward the great building finding it surprisingly without guards of any kind near the entrance. Giving it a once over he smiles at the sight, ‘No guards? Does that mean that this place is meant for all to enter? I’ll have to come back here later after I see the Mayor about that merchants permit.’
He nods to himself once and heads back to his home. Appon arriving he finds a surprising situation, a bright pink pony with a slightly darker poofy mane and tail, sitting in front of the caravan. He raises an eyebrow and heads over.
“Can I help you miss?” he asks, looking the smallish mare over.
Her ears instantly perk up as she turns towards him with a bright smile, after taking a deep inhale of breath that sounded like a massive gasp she smiles and brings out a cart from seemingly out of nowhere. The cart itself is an interesting contraption looking like a cross between a pipe organ and a mobile bakery, though in miniature. As it winds up the cart begins to play a rather catchy and bright melody, to which the pink pony begins to sing.
‘ Welcome, welcome, welcome
A fine welcome to you.
Welcome, welcome, welcome
I say how do you do
My name is Pinkie Pie
And I’m here to greet you
So welcome to Ponyville today.
Welcome, welcome, welcome
I hope you enjoy your stay
We have fun things to do
They differ day to day
You can get sweet treats
at Sugarcube Corner
So welcome to Ponyville today.
Or maybe you need some cloths
Just go to Carousel Boutique
My friend Rarity will make you look magnifique
There is also a joke shop
In which you can clown a~round
Oh look the cake is done
So welcome to Ponyville today~
With the final note two things happen in quick succession, the small tubes on the back side of the cart go off spraying confetti over a small area, and the oven door opens popping out a small cake right into the stallions hooves.
“ Well, that was a very nice welcome miss Pie, Thank you.” He says looking at the cake. a few blinks later he looks at Pinkie Pie with a smile, and a chuckle. “That has had to have been the most entertaining welcome ever in my travels.”
Pinkie giggles with a grin on her face “Your welcome, so what’s your name?”
“Oh right,” he face hooves “My manners must be slipping a bit. My name is Mechanas.” He extends a hoof to Pinkie. “Its nice to meet you miss Pie.”
“Silly stallion, just call me Pinkie, All my friends do.” She says as she bumps his hoof with hers.
Mechanas smirks, then nods “Ok Pinkie, well since you seem so knowledgeable about Ponyville, do you know if I can get my merchants permit here at the Town Hall, or do I need to go to the castle now?”
“A merchants permit?” she asks tilting her head to the side in slight confusion “I don’t think you need one here in Ponyville.” She taps her chin a bit in thought. “Best thing to do would be to ask the Mayor in about three hours or so when the Town Hall opens up.” She grins and looks up slightly at him. “Hmmm, for some reason I get the feeling I’ve seen you before.”
He cocks his head to the side with a shrug “It could be possible, I was last here about fifteen years ago with my father.” He grins sheepishly, “I’m not the best at remembering those kinds of things though, so if we have met I’m sorry if I forgot.”
Pinkie just giggles, “It’s ok. I forget a lot of things sometimes, though I have never forgotten a pony before.” she just shrugs “Oh well, even if we haven’t met before we have now.” She smiles at him, “and that’s the best part.”
“The best part?” He asks slightly curious at her meaning.
“Yep, it’s the best part of my day. Meeting and greeting new ponies, it means that I have new friends.” she bounces around him as she talks, looking at him from a few different angles. “And new friends means new smiles, I love smiles!” She laughs as she continues to bounce around.
Mechanas for his part chuckles at the mares antics, getting a bit of a kick out of how silly this pony acts. ‘It seems like she just wants to make others enjoy themselves around her.’ He thinks to himself.
“Smiles and laughter brighten up my day. Well that and lots of sweets.” Pinkie says before stopping her bouncy cavorting. “Well, it was nice meeting you Mechanas, but I have to get back to Sugarcube Corner. It’s time to open for the day.” She starts to hop off but turns back just before she does “Stop by sometime, you’ll never regret it.” she says with her back turned to him.
“I will Pinkie, and thanks again for the welcome.” He says as she hops off toward the gingerbread looking bakery. He chuckles to himself as she leaves, ‘Such a happy mare.’ He sighs as he heads into his caravan, ‘Probably has a good stallion as well. Then again, most of the good mares are taken.’
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
A few hours and a bath later finds Mechanas in the office of the towns Mayor.
“So, Mr. Mechanas, you are in need of a merchants permit then. I can do that easily enough, I just need you to fill out these forms for me.” The Mayor, A tan colored Earth pony with a greying mane and tail says to the Stallion sitting in front of her.
She hands him a stack of papers more akin to a novella than most paperwork he’s seen in recent years. His eyes widen a bit at the sight of it.
“Why so much? I’ll do it of course,” He leafs through the stack blinking at a few of the questions. “And why do you need my marital status among other rather personal questions?”
The Mayor just smirks as she explains “Because, my dear, not many stallions come through Ponyville often. If you haven’t noticed most of Ponyville is comprised of mares, with few stallions around. So I have taken it upon myself, with the permission of our resident Princess, to get information of passing stallions such as yourself.” she gives him a rather sly smirk as he just looks on, completely dumbfounded at what she just implied.
“So, lets just say I was an eligible stallion, what would happen with this information I’m giving you?” He asks, nervousness obvious in his voice.
She replies with a bit too much enthusiasm, “Well, it wouldn’t become public knowledge, though it would go into the local royal archives here in Ponyville. Just incase you wanted to set down ‘roots’ as it were. Don’t be alarmed though if during your stay here that more than a few mares might make passes at you.” she leans forward a bit “Like myself, for instance…”
Mechanas draws himself back a bit as the Mayor leans forward and at her remark his ears fold back a bit. “Miss Mayor, this is rather inappropriate for one in your position, not to mention that I’m just here on business for at least a week. I doubt that I will be putting down ‘roots’ anytime soon.”
The Mayor sighs and nods, “I had a feeling that was the case, Well just fill out the paperwork and I’ll see to your permit then. If you’ll excuse me I have a few other items to attend to today.” basically dismissing him.
As Mechanas leaves he can’t help but think, ‘How bad is it here that an elected official would make a rather blatant pass at me?’ he frowns at the thought before heading out of the building and back to his rather mobile home.
An hour and a hoof cramp later he has returned to the Mayors office.
“Here you are Miss Mayor, all done,” He reddens a bit at some of the content of the forms, “in full.”
“In full you say?” her ears perk up a bit from where they were as she was tracking some spending account for the town. “you mean that you completed all the forms, in full? Well than lets see them.”
As he hands them over he watches her eyes, they seem to light up for some reason. He then reddens a bit more as she skims over the ‘official’ documents that detail more than a few things about him personally. Every now and then she would titter and glance up at him, one time down at him, much to his embarrassment. Eventually she had read over all of them and looks up at him.
“Well than, here is your permit that you requested.” she offers him the said document filled out in full with a month of time to use it.
“Um, this is a bit much more than I needed, I have enough for a most two weeks not a month.” he says as he goes to hand the document back to her. She stops him however with a small smile on her face.
“Don’t worry about it, I am the Mayor after all” she says with a smirk. “Just pay for the two weeks and think of the rest as a bonus for filling out the forms in full.”
Mechanas ponders this for a moment, then shakes his head. “I cannot accept that ma’am, not with a clear conscience anyhow.” He pushes the document toward her with payment for two weeks. “Just make it for the two weeks, please.”
The mayor just nods her head with a smile. “Alright then I will. Just remember that my door is always open if you change your mind.”
Mechanas just nods once and waits for a few minutes while the mayor finishes signing the new permit. Afterward he stands and heads out to his caravan thinking to himself. ‘She was definitely trying her hardest to catch my interest. I wonder why though.’
As he gets back to his home he smiles and cracks his neck. He pulls a slightly hidden lever near the booth, Gears turn and clank as the merchants kiosk lowers down to the ground and opens up displaying his wares.
“Well, it time to start this day,” he says to himself as he watches ponies start to filter into the market area. “I wonder what it will bring?”
Author's Note
And here it is, the first chapter. Any commentary or critique is welcome.
I may edit things eventually if anyone wants to help in that regard just message me.
